The Lightning In Your Teeth

by Meridian Prime

The Dirt Is Temporary

It had taken some time to find Daybreaker’s prison.

Mind magic was a delicate and difficult art, made trickier the more complex the mind in question. And Princess Celestia of Equestria had a very complex mind. Even the most skilled (and amoral, for to invade somepony’s mind was not a thing done lightly) practitioners would have balked at the task. Celestia’s mind was a maze, as likely to trap any would be attackers as it was to simply repel them.

But Princess Luna wasn’t just talented at mind magic. She had invented most of it. Moreover, dreamwalking was a skill unique to her and her dominion over the night; one that allowed her free reign over the minds of all in Equestria, a weighty responsibility that was easily abused.

There was a reason that Nightmare Moon was remembered and feared, even after a thousand years.

Luna knew such dark thoughts would do her little good, but it was hard not to dwell on mistakes of the past when she might well be repeating them. She frowned, and shook her head. She was doing this for her sister, to prevent Celestia from repeating her own mistakes. It may have been a breach of trust for her to go into her sisters mind without her knowledge or permission, but it was a necessary evil, done with nothing but good intentions. And after careful navigation, Luna had found her prize. Rooted deep in the base of her sister’s mind, lay a heavily guarded, complex partition—built to keep something in. Celestia may not have her sisters skill with dreams, but she had clearly studied the more defensive aspects of mind magic in her long absence, Luna noted.

Thankfully, there was no need to break these defenses, and risk letting Daybreaker free. She could simply pass through them.

Channeling the magic of dreams, her magic, Princess Luna stepped through the wall in her sisters mind, and found herself in an endless desert.

It was difficult to tell if the desert was truly endless, as mental constructs sometimes were, or simply utterly vast. The dry cracked earth, as hard as stone under her dreamselfs hooves, stretched to every horizon. Above, a huge, red sun blotted out half the sky, hidden only by the thick, rust-coloured clouds that swirled slowly through the hot, heavy air. It was, truthfully, a little intimidating—she had not dealt with mindscapes outside of dreams in quite some time, and dreams were rarely this expansive. She frowned, then caught herself. She really needed to break that habit.

Gathering her wits, she reached out with her mind, probing the world for information. It was not a dream, and thus totally under her control, but the mindscape was a far more malleable thing than reality, far easier to read and manipulate. The similarities between her own power and the magic of the mind meant it had always come easily, and there was a certain crossover in techniques. Still, she was once more impressed with her sisters progress. The world was not infinite—rather it was a complete globe, in some ways more impressive. Celestia could barely create a mental shield before Luna fell.

Something was off, however. She created a mental projection of the complete mindscape, scaled down to the size of a watermelon, to hover in front of her, and inspected it.

“Come on, Luna,” she muttered, turning the globe with a gesture of her hoof, “You know there’s something here, you just have to find it.” Realising what she’d done, she grimaced. That was another habit she should probably break—it was harmless here in the dreamworld, but the moment she started talking to herself out there…

Well. Best not to dwell on it. She continued to look over the globe with a critical eye, trying to pinpoint what it was that her instincts were trying to tell her. Despite the fact that it was seemingly entirely a desert, there was something oddly familiar about this world—hell that mountain looked a lot like…

...the Canterhorn.

Her eyes widened. It seemed her sister had not simply conjured a world—she had copied their own, and this is what Daybreaker had done with it. She herself, if she was not mistaken, was standing in what had once been the Oatlantic Ocean. Unwittingly, she shivered slightly. She knew that her sisters power was more direct than her own, but to see the devastation it was capable of laid out before her was more than a little unsettling.

But she was here on a mission. Musings on her sister’s power could wait. Moreover, her target was close by—the meager remains of the ocean seemed to be last remaining body of water on the planet, and the only mental presence she could find was by its current shore, some 200 miles to the east. Normally, such a distance would take time even for an alicorn to cross—but in the mindscape, Luna simply took a step between, and she was there as if she had always been.

She was standing on what might charitably be called a beach, the pitiful remnants of the Oatlantic a few feet in front of her. Facing the sea, front hooves in the water with her back to Luna, stood Daybreaker.

She was, it had to be said, a magnificent sight. Nightmare Moon’s appearance had been a pathetically obvious mirror of her sister—black to her white, silver regalia to her gold. Equal, but opposite. Daybreaker, though, was her sister magnified. The regalia was almost the same as Celestia’s, but harsher: warrior’s armour instead of ceremonial splendour, and the spiked, helmed crown of a Queen instead of a Princess’ simple tiara. More impressively, while it was undoubtedly the same gold as Celestia’s raiment, the sheer heat the larger alicorn exuded appeared to be keeping the metal a molten, burning orange. Her burning mane and tail crackled in the quiet over the hum of the waves.

At her sudden appearance, her sister’s doppelganger turned. An arched, flaming eyebrow was all that betrayed her surprise—despite the obvious resemblance, Daybreaker’s catlike, red and yellow eyes held no trace of sister, no familiarity that she could read. No doubt, she thought bitterly, Celestia had thought the same when confronted with Nightmare Moon.

“Well, well. What do we have here?”

Although Luna kept her face impassive, it was a near thing. She had barely paid any attention to Daybreaker’s voice during Starlight’s nightmare, more concerned with the deadly lasers and the emotional conversation with her sister. Now she was, and what she heard threw her more than a little off guard. Nightmare Moon had sounded little like her—slightly embarrassingly, she was reasonably sure that her voice was the same one she had used to characterise villains, long ago when she had been but a filly playing with dolls. Daybreaker, on the other hand, sounded frighteningly like her sister—but her sister did not purr. Celestia’s voice was melodious, calm and controlled at almost all times. Daybreaker’s was molten, proud, and sensual. It was quite unnerving.

Unfortunately, Daybreaker seemed to notice her lapse, mouth snaking into a jeering grin.

“Have I left you speechless, little Luna? It must be so hard, to see the magnificence your sister could attain, to know that your own glory will always be lesser.”

She began to circle the smaller mare, who had dropped her poker face in favour of an outright scowl.

“If your glory is a dead world, I think I’ll pass,” she said shortly. “And it will take more than a few insults to bother me. This may be your world,” she continued, eyes narrowing, “but the mind is my domain, and you hold no power over me here.”

Daybreaker scoffed. “I’m not a fool, Princess,” she sneered, continuing to pace round the wary alicorn of the night, “and even if I were stupid enough to attack the Dreamwalker in her own realm,” she broke off, distancing herself a little to stand a few feet away from Luna, and frowned at her, “I have no quarrel with you.”

This brought the younger alicorn up short. “What?” she asked, baffled.

Daybreaker turned back toward the sea, side-eying her counterpart for a moment. Then, to Luna’s further surprise, the larger pony flopped down ungracefully on to her hindquarters, huffing a little. “I could ask you the same. I must admit, I’m surprised you haven’t attacked yet.”

Luna frowned. It really was a habit she needed to break, but she felt this was a rather frown-worthy situation.

“I distinctly remember you saying something along the lines of ‘I should have killed you when I had the chance’,” she deadpanned at the now considerably less intimidating alicorn.

“Destroyed, Luna, I said destroyed. And I didn’t say it to you.” Luna was grudgingly impressed at the sheer amount of scornful pity that Daybreaker managed to incorporate into such a short sentence—it was uncomfortably reminiscent of her days learning under Starswirl, whenever she missed something that ‘should have been obvious’. Damned old goat. Her eyes narrowed once more.

“Firstly, I hardly see how the wording makes any difference. And if you were not speaking to me, then to whom, exactly? Starlight? It was not exactly a crowded dream.” she said dryly. Luna was more than a little put-off by the direction this first conversation had taken, but she could not deny that she was curious as to what the demon meant. How could it not have quarrel with her? It would not hurt to silence the voice whispering at the back of her mind either, telling her that she was simply capable of more evil—that even at her lowest, Celestia would not stoop to attempted murder.

Daybreaker now looked positively annoyed, a fact that might have worried Luna more had she not developed an even greater resemblance to an exasperated Starswirl—instead, the similarity to her old teacher merely prickled her own annoyance further.

“The wording makes all the difference, Princess. And I was talking to that oaf, Nightmare Moon.” She sniffed. “Ridiculous creature. I have no need of some boring, over-emotional hack.”

For the second time in but a few minutes, the Princess of the Night found herself baffled by this demon’s strange thought process. She found she could do nothing but stare at her sister’s counterpart, struggling to organise her thoughts into coherent questions. Finally, she spoke, each word laid carefully down as she tried to navigate the mental minefield she had been thrown into.

“You claim yourself to be a better version of my sister, and yet you do not see me as the Nightmare? Your logic seems flawed.” As she spoke, she took a couple of cautious steps backward, ready for combat should it come. Perhaps, at last, the demon would fight her.

Instead, Daybreaker scoffed.

“Do I look like Celestia to you?” she scowled as Luna raised an eyebrow, “Don’t answer that,” she interjected irritably, “I am aware of the physical similarities. But I am who Celestia could be—I am not her.” With unsettling swiftness, she closed the gap between her and Luna, the younger alicorn tensing as Daybreaker’s muzzle moved in towards her own, the heat from her mane bathing her face in warmth. “Tell me—do I truly look like your sister to you?”

The other mare filled her vision, and Luna found herself at a loss for words. For, try as she might, she could see no sign of Celestia in those unnatural eyes.

“No.” she whispered, eyes still locked on Daybreaker’s burning gaze. It was not until the larger pony retreated, with that same unnatural swiftness, that the spell broke, and she felt herself start to breathe again.

What was that?

“If I am not Celestia, and she is not I, then it only stands to reason that you and Nightmare Moon are separate beings—and it is Nightmare Moon that I take issue with.”

Luna was still reeling slightly from the other pony’s sudden closeness, but made a valiant effort at regrouping her scattered thoughts as Daybreaker continued. Only now, she could not help but feel the burning alicorn looked strangely sheepish.

“However, I admit I may have been a little…” she paused, considering, “...overzealous, shall we say, in my approach.”

Luna was once more shocked into speechlessness. An apology—or what passed for one, at any rate? From a creature such as this? What is happening?

The larger pony, however, did not care to give Luna time to arrange her thoughts. Her burning gaze honed in on the moon princess once more. “Which is why, as I mentioned before, I am surprised at the lack of violence. I have given you no reason to believe I did not mean you harm—why then have I faced harsh words, and not spells? Once you appeared in my realm, I expected to be forced to defend myself, not to have a little 'chit-chat'.”

Luna barked a surprised laugh, then quickly shook her head, scolding herself for her lack of focus. She was no filly to be led around by this creature—she was the Princess of the Moon, Diarch of Equestria. She could investigate Daybreaker’s strange attitude, and her own response to it, later—she needed to regroup and think on what she had observed here.

Pulling herself together, she made ready to take her leave, but paused. Surely it would not hurt to answer the demon’s question first. It might even throw the corrupted alicorn off guard a little. She cocked her head at Daybreaker, a small smile playing at her lips.

“A ‘ridiculous creature’ she may have been, but Nightmare Moon did terrible things. I cannot say I approve of all this,” she waved vaguely at the desert world around them, “but I am certainly in no position to judge another’s murderous impulses.” She paused. “Particularly when they have not actually harmed anypony.”

Unlike mine went unsaid, but Daybreaker’s thoughtful expression made clear that she understood exactly what Luna was telling her.

“I shall take my leave for now; I have other duties to fulfill—but this conversation is not over, Daybreaker,” Luna stated evenly, before reaching into her powers once more, and vanishing from the desert world.

As she left her sisters mind and went about her nightly duties, Luna tried to focus on her current task; on protecting the dreams and minds of all of Equestria’s ponies. And yet as she flitted from dream to dream she could not help but think of a flaming mare on a silent shore, and the mystery she presented.

And all the while, deep in the recesses of Princess Celestia’s mind, a pale alicorn with a burning gaze hummed thoughtfully and turned her eyes back to the sun.

Comments

[ClockworkMage]

I guess when you have your own world you'll eventually try to "optimize for amount of fire".
Perfectly normal.