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Prelude: Clandestine4,301 words
I: Tea4,860 words
II: Moon’s Insurgence2,616 words

II: Moon’s Insurgence

^{(Credit to CosmicUnicorn@deviantart)}

“Every revolution begins with a spark.”

The sunlight was hard to ignore.

It had been a week since Daybreaker took over the kingdom. There were a whole lot of adjustments being made to the palace, with anything that was related to the night being ripped down and replaced with something more daylike. Luna’s room, while Daybreaker found disgusting, was removed of its precautionary crime scene tape and renovated into a staff room. Nopony wanted to enter it though; the thought of a former murder accounting in that place caused goosebumps.

But what feared the hearts of all was the queen herself. Daybreaker did this much treachery and chaos under everyone’s nose. She prowled and used the hopes of the citizens to her advantage. They let their guard down.

The windows in the bedroom brazenly gleamed on her face. Daybreaker pulled the blankets away to stand up. The servants already asked for her permission to leave breakfast by. No point in staying by the bed any longer; she had duties to take care of.

She stepped out of the chambers only to be greeted with an appetizing smell. A unicorn mare in a maid outfit was strolling a food cart by the hallway. She stopped on her tracks when she saw the queen.

“Is this the food for the occasion?” Daybreaker asked, pointing at the silver lid on top of the cart.

The unicorn said no words; she seemed to have been sweating in a frenzy. Daybreaker cocked an eyebrow.

Finally, she snapped out of her frightened trance. “Oh ...! Um, yes, yes ... this food is meant to be served for the gala today, Y — Your Majesty. It will be recooked an hour before the event.”

The servant mare levitated the lid to let the queen see what was inside the platter. There were batches of sandwiches needing to be toasted. Daybreaker hissed, but not at the food.

“You expect my gala to be served with dreary silver lids? Take these away and get the blacksmith to furnish some gold ones. Now!”

The mare got even more startled at this command. She stumbled on her hooves, and accidentally moved the food cart a bit before she grabbed the whole set with her magic. She ran with the cart, not daring to look back.

Daybreaker sighed. While it was nice to be feared sometimes, it was annoying to have ponies constantly writhe at the sight of her when they can just talk normally. Though, she couldn't blame them; she feared herself with a first glance at the mirror. With the amount of terror she had inflicted, Daybreaker figured no one would try and undermine her.

The halls were already decked with decorations. After her announcement in Ponyville, the queen planned to throw a party in honor of her new reign. She asked the officials to celebrate, but refused to send an invitation to Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her remaining friends. That would be trouble.

She crossed into the corner of the hall to reach the throne room. Ponies were working here and there, preparing for the event. Unicorns fixed the long table with a large tapestry, pegasi draped curtains, and earth ponies scrubbed floors. The walls were painted in vibrant crimson, and the single throne chair was scaled to a bigger size, so much so you could see it from outside. The stained glass windows replicated notorious features of the sun and the queen, ponies worshipping and bowing to her in fear.

The throne room may not have been finished yet, but it bared resemblance to the burning Tartarus; to Daybreaker's eyes, it was perfect.

“See? I told you, it was her all along!” Exclaimed a light pink unicorn, trailing behind her mentor the princess.

“Fine, fine; you were right. You don’t need to remind me for the hundredth time.” Twilight scoffed in irritation. Starlight looked disappointed.

“Well, I kind of expected more from you than that ...”

Twilight sighed, and placed her appendages around the mare’s shoulders. “Look, Starlight ... it’s not that I don’t trust you, but I just couldn’t bring myself to betray Princess Celestia at the time. She was both my friend and teacher, and it’s hard to believe she was secretly under all of this.”

They walked out of the old barn. All of her friends, with the exclusion of Fluttershy, stood by the open fields of Sweet Apple Acres. Granny Smith was more than eager to allow Applejack to host the event here. Rainbow Dash was patrolling the air for any disturbances, Pinkie was securing the back, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were on lookout in their treehouse club. Cadance was there, along with a bunch of other close unicorns like Moondancer. They seemed to be arranging something from above.

“Is it done?” Twilight asked.

“We are just about done, darling,” Rarity replied, and turned the magic off her horn for a while. She pointed a hoof into the sky. “Oh, this will be the most beautiful warning sign to have ever existed in this universe.”

The purple alicorn nodded. She cleared her throat, and spoke as loudly as possible.

“Thank you for coming, everypony. It means a lot that you guys are willing to help for the sake of Luna’s and Fluttershy's deaths. As all of you may know, what we’re about to do is not only risky to our own magic, but stands as high treason against the law. We are about to enter a dangerous world, where we fight against the Queen Daybreaker. Fluttershy once told me that in order to be kind, we have to stand up for ourselves sometimes. We cannot let our nation befall, restrained into the clutches of the pony we once considered our friend. We need to help our fellowponies. We will not stand to be tormented by the queen. We will not perish into the light. We will defend ourselves, and protect all that we have left.”

Twilight spread her wings. “So are we ready?!”

A booming mix of cheers and yes filled the air. Apple Bloom shot a signal, only to be piled on top of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Rainbow Dash waved another signal, and so did Pinkie; Rarity was the last to clear her assignment. The purple princess smiled triumphantly.

“Let’s begin.”

Twilight and Cadance made their way to the center, taking the lead. Five other unicorns followed behind, them being Starlight, Sunburst, Trixie, Moondancer and Rarity. Their horns lit, as all seven of them could feel the presence of the sun and moon being wrapped around their magic.

Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, Daybreaker sneered in dismay. She was sitting on her now gigantic-sized throne, with the room practically empty as a ghost town. The gala had started hours ago, and nopony came. They were all too chicken to meet her.

At this point, Daybreaker was going to lose it. She wanted to incinerate the castle into ashes, but restrained the impulse; it wasn't worth it. She was about to write a letter to the officials saying they were denounced of their ranks, only to sense a strange shift in the environment.

The atmosphere took on a colder change. The volatility seemed to have come from the air, seeing how the colors of the sky had changed from golden to dark purple. She felt the powers of the sun and moon being tugged, since both heavenly bodies were attached to her energy. She watched the sun lower down shockingly in turn for the night.

Abruptly, Daybreaker galloped outside to take hold of the orbs. She tried to put the moon down and raise the sun up, asserting as much strength as she could muster. The other side that was also pulling made it more difficult for her.

It was a dangerous tug of war on celestial bodies.

Daybreaker gritted her teeth. She could tell the other side was using some sort of strategy. They were pulling one at a time, steadily enough. The other side was probably hoping the queen would collapse eventually. Daybreaker resented this thought.

The sun and moon wobbly shifted, wrapped in a colorful assortment of magic. The golden aura she placed was blinking in and out. The queen's strength was failing; it would only be a matter of time before she would pass out. If she could just get it right, she might be able to lift the sun all the way and drown the moon while at it.

While stancing her hooves carefully on the ground, Daybreaker suddenly let go, and instead zapped a bare spell into the ball of hot gas. The sun shook violently, becoming unstable with the magic shot on it. The closest conduct of energy it could find was the one holding it, which led the spell to electrocute those who were on the other side.

Sparks from the sun turned into a line of lightning, stretching in the outskirts of the horizon. After the sun and moon were free of grip, Daybreaker took over. She finally managed to drop the moon below and elevate the sun with ease. She smirked to herself for beating the punks that tried to reverse the system.

However, her smug expression was quickly replaced with a frown when she took notice of ... something. In the sky, there was an alignment of stars that seemed to read a text. While sinking the white orb down, the message was read wide and clear:

THE LUNAR REPUBLIC SHALL RISE.

Daybreaker immediately sent a horde of royal guards to find the perpetrators. She realized it must have either been Twilight and her friends, or a random group of unicorns. To her dismay, the wardens reported through quick letter that the purple alicorn princess was not in her diamond castle. Cadance and her citizens had abandoned the crystal empire as well.

Daybreaker rubbed her forehead with her front hooves, suppressing a growing headache. She didn't think she had to deal with this, and would have much preferred to enjoy the power of being queen than being used against said title.

Even though the news was still fresh, ponies were suddenly making a new batch of rumors about it. Almost half of Equestria knew what had happened based on the constellation stars of words. The theory of Luna being alive made Daybreaker chuckle at how stupid it was, at least.

The castle was locked, as ordered by the queen, just to keep herself protected. She wasn't going to host parties any time soon. Security was upgraded, with threefold guards forced to watch the kingdom. Daybreaker could fend for her own, but before they can get to her, the pawns needed to be sacrificed.

Twilight and the other unicorns were still passed out on the ground of Sweet Apple Acres, throbbing in pain. The strong, fiery thunder that came from the sun almost killed them.

“Come on sugarcube, wake up! We have ta' move!” said a raspy voice. The purple alicorn could recognize it was of a mare, her blurry eyelids slowly opening up to see an orange pony. Her mouth was dry of anything to say.

The pain was something she had never felt before. It was overwhelming, to the point where she couldn't even bear to feel her nerves and instead came to accept. She couldn't feel her wings or horn. Her head was spinning into a thick haze of bright light from the zap.

Applejack had to yank Twilight's mane just to put her left hoof around her shoulders. Pinkie and the others assisted the fainted unicorns and alicorn, while Dash hustled the group to a direction.

“I just saw the guards investigate Twilight's castle from here. Next thing you know, they'll be ravaging every home in Ponyville.” Dash explained. “We need to go to the refuge camps, fast!”

Everyone walked towards the route of the woods. It would take longer for them to get there with all the electrified ponies slowing them down, not even beginning to add the large numbers they had to hide. Dash continued to lead the way, motioning whether or not it was safe to flee yet. Because most of their magic was drained, none of the unicorns or two alicorns could protect themselves with invisibility. Guards searched and ransacked some of the homes; most of them were empty.

The slightest bit of noise was enough to make everypony shiver. The bridge was the hardest to cross, which they had to crawl through one by one just to avoid the wardens' gazes on the other side. Occasionally someone would trip, but there were plenty of helpers to assist them.

After dodging and keeping quiet for some time, the Everfree was finally amidst. The forest was much more unnerving than usual; daylight shone on their tracks, but bugs and other sorts of creatures were creeping up on them. The trees were hauntingly deformed into scary monsters which fought for whatever nutrients they could find from the unyielding sun. Everypony knew they were close after seeing the blue flowers on their trail. Finally, relief washed over them once the group spotted a black and white-striped figure by the distance.

“Welcome to my humble abode, has the rebellion been exposed?” Zecora chanted, waving past the others. Applejack gently set Twilight on the ground, before being nudged by somepony.

“Shining ... Armor ...” the purple alicorn exclaimed, unable to stand on her hooves. The stallion hugged her by the soil, but was forced to attend the other alicorn as well, who was limping next to him.

“Twily, Cadance, I saw the lightning! Was it bad?” Shining said, sharing the same looks of concern with his little sister and wife.

Cadance coughed. “We got zapped, but other than that we're alright, honey. At least we made it out of there alive.”

“I’ve never even heard of such a spell,” Twilight muttered. She shook her head, reminding herself of the risks they would be taking in having to oppose the queen. This was Daybreaker they were dealing with, a goddess with the knowledge of probably the beginning of time itself. They had to stay strong and keep their heads up.

“Is the barrier working alright?” She asked, though her vision was wary, she recognized the light aura shielding off the base.

“It’s working nicely. I cast two invisible and non-detecting spells on it so the queen wouldn’t be able to locate us.”

The alicorns nodded their head. Their voices sounded ill. “Good. Now is everypony okay??” Twilight did a finishing headcount with the total number of ponies, reassured to know that all of them safely got out. The rest of the girls organized the troops into their places. She breathed a sigh in contentment and entered the biggest tent, one with a gigantic full moon stitched on the fabric. The burning sensation in her ribs was slowly fading; time would heal her and the rest of the unicorns.

Behold, was the resistance camp. Under the care of Zecora and the provision of Shining's barrier, things were careful around here. None of Daybreaker's guards would be caught dead looking in the Everfree Forest, and even if they were, the camps would go unnoticed.

Above the smaller huts were symbols of Princess Luna's cutie mark, as well as a memoir of Fluttershy and Discord. The rebellion was built on their heroism and sacrifices; a Lunar Republic, where Twilight and her friends were preferably appointed to be leaders. Monarchy was not the basis of their philosophy. It was up to the leaders to speak for a punishment if someone blew their cover, in charge of what ponies to send on operations. Being a chief required labor and immense dedication.

All was safe, for now.

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