Chapter Twenty-One:
Daybreaker had only technically truly existed for a matter of hours, in that time she couldn't help but feel she stumbled a bit in the process. Everything was going so smoothly, from the takeover of the Castle to the brainwashing of the guards with her magic, to throwing her former sister across the throne room and even Celestia reconfirming Luna's deepest fear.
Everything was going well until Luna broke the spell and Daybreaker made a mistake. She wasn't going to kill Luna, she stood by that decision, she wasn't some unthinking maniac like Nightmare Moon was, she had standards. Yes, fireballs rained from the sky down to Canterlot, not nearly destroying the city but certainly creating damage that would give her new solar empire citizens something to focus on as she gained power in the future, not to mention a brilliant example of her strength. A sign for no pony to mess with the Solar Empress.
Where she made the mistake of allowing Luna to teleport. It wasn't as if she exactly allowed it, but she knew she certainly could have stopped it sooner if she, oh, chained her to the floor with her magic before Luna could make her dumb petty arguments.
She gritted her teeth and shoved her annoyance far down, the very deeply buried Celestia part of her could deal with that. She held a steady march, flanked by two guards not thinking of their own will as she slammed open the Castle's front doors and kept marching right into the chaos of Canterlot.
Ponies were screaming, the guards dragged citizens into groups. some escaped only to be tackled to the ground and dragged back into formation. Mothers hugged foals and fillies, Fathers tried to protect their families, and guards did their duty whether they wanted to or not.
As she moved through the main street in Canterlot, the hordes of ponies fighting against the battered guards slowed down as their eyes fell upon the burning alicorn marching towards the center of Canterlot, as she moved forward she briefly ignired her magic to silence the fire raining down on the city.
When Luna first returned to Canterlot, a statue was made in celebration of their reunion, designed by the citizens of Canterlot. A statue featuring both alicorn sisters as the sun and moon rested in both their hooves in a sign of unity. Celestia rather liked that statue, Luna loved it, and Daybreaker despised it. As she looked upon it with a backdrop of a failing city she sneered at what it meant. Why it was even created.
"Round them up. I want them to meet their new ruler." She barked to the guards around her. The message relayed through the magic she used to keep them under control. Soon, the many solar guards shoved as many of the citizens were pushed forward.
"Ponies of Equestria." Daybreaker roared above the distressed crowds, they slowly began to quiet down as their attention, their fear was drawn to an alicorn they had never seen before, and yet seemed so similar. Daybreaker lit up her horn and slammed her blood-red magic into the statue, cracking it before it exploded, sending pieces of rubble all over the stone streets. Ponies screamed and cried for a moment before they settled down again in cowering fear. Daybreaker rolled her eyes at the predictable actions and turned to face the majority of the onlookers held back by guards. "There has been a change in government, your princesses have abandoned you."
"NO!" A familiar voice shouted from the crowd, a voice Daybreaker did not expect to hear. She turned to the side as a unicorn pushed her way through the crowd, she motioned to the guards to allow the unicorn through as she stumbled out to face the mighty fire alicorn.
Raven Inkwell was either very brave or very stupid as she stood tall, staring directly at Daybreaker with a scowl.
Raven Inkwell, Celestia's best assistant was sometimes too good at her job to the point Celestia sometimes worried if she had no life outside of work altogether.
Daybreaker, per usual, didn't share the same fondness that Celestia had for mortals and wasn't happy to be so publicly retorted against during the moment of her rising.
"The Princesses would never abandon us! You are an invader that will be destroyed just as the others were!" The unicorn shouted in defiance. Daybreaker rolled her eyes at her growing annoyance at the games she had to play to get any sort of attention.
"You didn't truly know them at all, Raven Inkwell." Daybreaker snapped before giving her a toothy smile as Raven's confidence faltered and her ears fell back in a growing concern. "You were quite naive. Believing every word Celestia ever spoke as if it was gospel."
"How do you know my n-" Her words died as her eyes fell to Daybreaker's cutie mark, the undeniable mark of the sun, surrounded by orange fire. Raven knew that sun, every pony knew that sun design quite fell. As other had caught onto her stare, gasps and pleas of denial rang out as the realization came to them. Raven stumbled back, shaking her head, unable to believe what she was seeing like many others. "P-Princess Celestia?"
"That name, that pony is dead," Daybreaker stated, having private delight at the fear of the situation. "From this moment forward, there is going to be a change from your mediocre lives. Equestria will no longer be a country that allows others to take from them what is rightfully ours. Your new Empress of the Solar Empire, Daybeaker, will ensure this. I will promise you this."
The crowd didn't cheer, an uneasy silence befell the crowd as perhaps a few whimpered in sorrow.
The Elements of Harmony and Princess Luna galloped through the hallway of Canterlot, she couldn't say she was surprised by the lack of guards, most of them to her knowledge were outside anyway, dealing with a chaos of fire. She briefly looked outside the nearby window, she wanted to have hope as she noticed the fire had stopped raining upon the city but the guards marching the groups of scared ponies towards the middle of the city wasn't helping her overall mood.
"Hurry now." Luna barked in growing anxiety as she picked up her pace again, only briefly looking towards the group of mortals lagging behind her with the elements weighing on them, clearly unhappy to be a part of history.
Twilight was slumped, lagging the most out of all of them. Fluttershy followed beside her as Rainbow Dash and Applejack had a hushed argument ahead about the ethics of what they were doing as they moved along. Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Spike were at the head of the group.
"Of course, we should talk to her, we can't just banish a Princess of Equestria!" Rainbow Dash hissed with a harsh angry flap of her wings as she slowly followed the pace of the group in the air. "I don't understand how Luna could even consider this, that's her sister, she has other options!"
"Oh really?" Applejack replied with a raised eyebrow before she turned her head more to look at Rainbow Dash with a slightly annoyed expression. "Are yall forgettin' the fact that Celestia banished Luna to the moon over the same sort of event, Rainbow?"
"I am not!" Rainbow Dash barked too loudly, causing Luna to briefly pause far ahead at the noise before she continued on her warpath. "No, my point is, I am sure they discussed how that affected Equestria, why would she want to live through that?"
"Well, if you got any better options than talking her out of this madness or the elements, then please continue, sugar cube." Applejack challenged. Rainbow Dash was always ready for a challenge but this was one she knew she couldn't win.
"Well...Well..." Rainbow Dash looked around the hallway and out the windows trying to desperately come up with something. She bit her lip and looked back to Applejack, knowing she couldn't think of anything else. "Twilight is will us, if any pony can make her sane again it's Twilight."
"If the Princess is the way Princess Luna said she is...Ah...I don't think it will go well." Applejack mumbled towards the end. Rainbow Dash gulped and looked down to the ground in shame, still trying to come to a solution. Twilight sucked in a deep painful breath as tears grew as she heard each word her friends argued about.
Fluttershy noticed this, and carefully placed a wing around Twilight's back for comfort. Twilight leaned into the touch with a muffled sob.
"S-She is...was my friend, I thought she was...Why didn't she tell anypony about this? Why didn't she...try to get help?" Twilight mumbled quietly, trying not to be heard by the others but desperate for answers.
"Well, she is like you in some ways, Twilight." Fluttershy admitted. "I-I didn't know the Princess as you did, I think no pony here did, even Princess Luna since she hasn't been around her as long as you have been since one thousand years ago. B-But I get the sense that she was very independent, she could get help for government issues but when it came to her personal issues, I suspect, much like you, she would isolate and try to keep it in. After all, no pony knew her well, we only know the image she gave us."
Twilight understood in a way and nodded but that didn't mean she liked the answer she received.
"I don't want to use the Elements, Fluttershy." Twilight insisted. "But I don't know how I can talk a mad pony out of their pain. Luna only became herself again through the elements but she had already been banished for a thousand years before that. I am not sure it's even possible to take a pony who has been transformed by madness and magic to be normal again."
Fluttershy silently nodded, tightening her wing around Twilight as her body briefly shook from the grief she felt as if Celestia was dead.
"H-Hypothetically, even if she did...return to being herself, the damage this event has caused would ruin her image for at least the rest of our lifetimes. She most likely wouldn't be allowed to return to power and the city, mostly led by the Nobels if I know anything about them, would demand she be banished from the country for being a severe danger. They wouldn't forgive her like they did Luna. Nightmare Moon didn't cause as much damage as this in her brief existence in this lifetime."
Fluttershy shuddered at the thoughts of what would happen from either option as they continued on, turning corners and trotting downstairs and down long corridors as they moved closer to the throne room Luna last saw Daybreaker.
"I really don't want to use the elements, Fluttershy," Twilight mumbled again with more pain as tears ran down her cheeks once more. "But, at some point...It might be a mercy. There is always the chance that...the elements might immediately cleanse her."
Twilight allowed that brief hope to give her some brief fake happiness. They didn't know much of anything about the elements, they didn't know how the elements' magic would choose to react to the evil they hit but there was never a case in the history that Twilight read about that led to an evil being immediately cleansed like Luna. It was always banishment in some form, or banishment followed by a cleanse a thousand years later.
"We just have to do our best." Fluttershy tried to reassure her when Luna came to a stop in front of the throne room doors. The group all sulked behind Luna as her blue magic latched onto the door, she gave a passing glance to the points where guards were standing earlier but had since disappeared which was concerning. She flung open the door to reveal the throne room, an empty throne room that was bathed in red light from the burning red inferno of the sun in the sky. Including the towers of fire on either side of the throne itself still burning.
Luna's breathing hitched as her heart began to beat in her chest.
"Oh, of course. That's why they were being marched to the middle of the city. That's why there were no guards in the castle." Luna's voice began softly before turning into a slight shout of rage.
"Ah, beg your pardon, Darling?" Rarity piped up with a raised eyebrow.
"Daybreaker has marched into the city, I assume to the middle since earlier I saw guards moving crowds in that direction through one of the windows. She is making herself known." Luna snapped as if it was obvious before she spun around to face the grand staircase of the castle leading to the main lobby, which would lead to the grand city outside. "Come, we must end this now."
The group watched as Luna leaped into the air, spreading her wings and making a quick trip down the staircase to the lobby, the group followed behind as fast as they could despite their hesitance to do what was becoming clear most likely would be needed, as it might be the only option left.
Luna blasted her magic to fling open the large doors for the castle, Spike jumped onto Twilight's back to keep up from his tired legs as they galloped out of the castle and into the city.