Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen
Princess Celestia sat peacefully on her throne, the normally busy and jaring Day Court completely empty of any ponies at all. Her eyes were closed gently; she was not screwing them shut, or anything of the like. It seemed as if she was stuck in the middle of a blink, she was so gentle even with how she closed her eyes. However, ignoring the first things one might see upon entering the room and paying slightly closer attention, there was something horrible lurking in the background - something evil.
The air in the room was uncomfortably hot, and rising in temperature slowly, as if hesitating to go any further. Within an hour - perhaps more, perhaps less - it would be deadly to any creature who bothered to walk in. A tension was draped over the room, strangling the breath out of most ponies who were not excellent at holding themselves together. Or who had not known her for a long time.
Celestia’s usually elegantly, gently flowing mane, seemed to nearly twitch; though there were brief moments when her mane returned to its usual speed of a gentle yet invisible breeze gracing it, it was otherwise inconsistent, going from in the middle of a raging hurricane to completely, deathly still. Finally, there was her expression - at first glance, peaceful. The same motherly smile, gently closed eyes as if sleeping, and, as per usual, few to no visible flaws.
Looking closer, this was not so.
Her expression was where the biggest yet smallest hints existed that something was terribly wrong. The sides of her mouth twitched, desperately begging Celestia to turn into a frown. The magic that typically served as a replacement for makeup must’ve been faulty, else she was not putting much effort into the spell and the faults were beginning to shine through; most noticeably, the bags under her eyes were fading in and out of existence, in and out of being predominant, worrying features plastered below her eyes.
Those gently closed eyes showed little, but one who noticed things may’ve seen that tears seemed to be poking out from her eyes, nearly spilling out, held in only by her eyelids. Her posture was nearly completely perfect, but everyone knew that Celestia never settled for ‘nearly’. Something was wrong, and it was glaringly obvious to anyone who knew Celestia, or who paid close attention to the little things.
Twilight Sparkle was both of those ponies, and she was worried for her former mentor. Twilight stood a few feet from the throne, sweat beginning to matt her fur, and she couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of the wisest, most powerful pony in all of Equestria reduced to such a state. She had been collected by Princess Luna a few minutes ago and, as soon as she had heard the words ‘Princess Celestia’ and ‘trouble’ in the same sentence, had teleported just outside of the throne room, horn burning but regretting nothing.
She gazed up at Celestia, sitting down in shock, taking in the sight of her former mentor, of the ruler of Equestria, of the Invicta Solis.
After a full two minutes of just looking and absorbing, Twilight opened her mouth, and then closed it again. Her mind was still in chaos. Never in her life would she have predicted something like this happening, let alone to Celestia. Even as confused as she was, she shook it off. “Celestia,” she began, and then paused briefly before continuing, “what’s wrong?”
It wasn’t the most eloquent of ways to investigate the situation, but truthfully it was the only way Twilight could think of. She had no idea what to do. Something was obviously wrong with Celestia, a fact she simply couldn’t get over. This had never happened. Not to Celestia. Not to the only pony in Equestria who could always, always, always be relied on to know and to be emotionally balanced completely and totally.
Names and titles tumbled through Twilight’s mind, the names and titles that had been Celestias throughout the many centuries she had been alive. The Invicta Solis, The Rock That Stood Tall, Unconquerable Harmony, Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, The Banisher, Untouchable Sun, The Still Hurricane. Celestia - the Unconquerable Harmony - was… she didn’t know what she was. She just knew that something was wrong.
Celestia didn’t respond for a few seconds that each, singularly, seemed to stretch out into eternity. Twilight opened her mouth to repeat her question, but Celestia opened her own and Twilight hastily shut hers. Even apparently broken, the Invicta Solis was a dominating presence in the room, and Twilight couldn’t help but shut up and listen to her. At least that hadn’t changed yet.
“My fellow princess - Twilight,” she replied, words steady and warm; too warm, “do you remember my other side? My own Nightmare, Daybreaker?”
Twilight's eyes widened. Of course she remembered Daybreaker; that horrible thing was still a source of her nightmares. She wondered privately if she would receive her own dark other side in due time, if the Midnight Sparkle she had seen in the other world, or some other alter ego, would come to haunt her as she grew older, as she grew into her alicorn-hood. “I… yes, I remember her. W-Why?”
The eldest princess of Equestria shifted in her seat uncomfortably and did not open her eyes. Twilight had never even heard of, let alone seen, the princess being uncomfortable. “When Luna felt like there was nowhere else to go, no one else to fulfill her, that is when she chose to listen to Nightmare Moon. Luna was still in there. She simply surrendered too much of her attention to the Nightmare, and it effectively took over her body, reversing their roles.”
“Celestia, I - don’t understand. What’s going on?” Twilight asked, voice shaking with anticipation of the answer.
Celestia opened her eyes, irises flicking back and forth between raging orange and peaceful violet. “I have fallen,” she replied, tears threatening to spill from her as she gave the answer, the temperature in the room spiking up and down dramatically for a few moments before returning to the temperature it had been earlier and again rising, though slower.
Twilight gulped. She barely felt the tears that were starting to slowly, slowly, slowly fall from her eyes and down her already sweaty fur. This wasn’t something she was emotionally ready to handle; Celestia has essentially been her foster mother, and though of course she loved her real mother, Twilight Velvet, she had simply spent so much time around Celestia she couldn’t help but think of her as the most obvious mother figure in her life. Her irises shrunk slightly, fear and desperation overtaking her.
“What d-do you mean? Why? Why, Celestia, why?” She said, starting off with barely a whisper and growing into a scream.
The solar princess recoiled as if struck at this, the raw emotions flooding the room already. A patch of her mane, near the bottom, burst into a hateful flame, and continued to burn, not spreading. “Twilight, please understand, I have been alone for so long. There has been a gaping hole within me ever since I banished my own sister to her own moon. It has gotten no better. Luna and I - we just can’t interact like we used to. I couldn’t handle it, and Daybreaker was always there, constantly whispering to me, whispering sweet nothings and I-”
“You could’ve talked to us about it,” Twilight shouted, interrupting Celestia, “you could’ve talked to Luna! Hayfeathers, she’s your sister, just - talk, dammit! And you had me, and my friends, you always had us! Why would you, why-”
“Twilight, please-” Celestia began, but was interrupted once more.
“No! Don’t you dare ‘please’ me,” she screamed, tears flooding down her face, sniffling as she cried at the sight and sound of her broken mentor, “if you felt empty you could’ve made friends! Talked to ponies about it! Instead you’re here, surrendering to evil!”
Celestia watched and listened as Twilight screamed and threw blame at her, hurting her more than Twilight could ever know, but denying none of it even as she knew how wrong she had been. One tear fell from her left eye, staining the fur below it momentarily before the water evaporated, her skin burning with a terrible heat. The patch of fire that was her mane began to slowly creep up her. “It’s… not as simple as that, Twilight.” She said, waiting for Twilight to reply. When she did not, crying and staring up at Celestia instead, she continued. “I’m Princess Celestia. I didn’t… I couldn’t show weakness. I thought that Luna and I would be okay in a few weeks, then I thought a few months, and then I gave up.
“I may seem like a perfect pony, Twilight, but I am far from perfection. I am weak. I can’t handle that horrible empty feeling, the same one that made me feel sick after I ate; and I couldn’t come to someone else with my problems. I refused to burden others with my problems. I was meant to be the one fixing their problems. I was the princess of Equestria, and… making friends, I’m afraid, was out of the question, though I realise now - trust me, I do - that it should never have been. I haven’t believed in friendship being magic since I banished the Nightmare and Luna along with her to the moon for a millennia. Maybe I should’ve tried harder to do so. But it is too late now. I am only barely holding her back from completely taking over, and I’m… not sure if you could stop her.”
Twilights sobbing became the only sound echoing through the room for a few minutes. Slowly, ever so slowly, Twilight grew quieter. Then she stopped, looking up at Celestia as Celesta looked down at her. Her eyes seemed to stay as that spiteful, burning orange for longer periods of time now, and though Twilight was afraid, she was still sad enough to stay here for just a bit longer.
“What’s going to happen to you.” Twilight asked shakily, voice hoarse, tears still streaking down her fur and mixing with more and more sweat. She stated the question; as if she already knew the answer, but was asking to just spend a bit more time with an unchanged Celestia. Just for the formality of it all.
“Well,” Celestia said, voice only slightly louder than a whisper, “if all goes to plan, you and your friends will adorn the Elements of Harmony and you will active them. I will be struck by the power it generates, and I will be purged of Daybreaker.”
Twilight was silent for a few seconds, and then took a deep, mucus-filled, trembling breath, and promptly exhaled. “And what happens if it doesn’t go to plan?” She muttered, looking down, forlorn.
Celestia's lips finally curved downwards into a deep frown, furrowing her brow. This was the question she had hoped Twilight wouldn’t ask. She could lie, but to forsake her old Element of Honesty when she was being taken by Daybreaker would be wrong, would leave her feeling horrible for the last moments she had that weren’t filled with the worst pain one would ever experience. “I will be banished to my Sun for one-thousand years, and I will burn for every single one of those years. Then I will come back, and only then may I be purged by the new bearers of the Elements.”
The Princess of Friendship snapped her gaze to Celestia, staring with wide eyes that still leaked tears, fur, mane, and tail looking messier and more frazzled by the second due to a combination of the raw emotion that flowed through her and the heat of the room. “No,” she whispered to herself, and Celestia sighed painfully.
“I’m afraid it is the most likely to occur, Twilight. Please, do not belay this any further-”
“No,” Twilight said, stomping her hoof onto the floor, sitting upright; though she still cried, there seemed to be a renewed confidence in her eyes, “I can fix this without - without that! I’ll… gather everypony and we’ll give you the power and the confidence you need to beat off Daybreaker! Or I can research these… alter-egos and we can find a spell by Starswirl or some other old wizard and it’ll tell us how to win! Or - wait, maybe you can beat off Daybreaker by yourself! You’re holding her off, right? You can do this, Celestia! You can do this!”
She shook her head slowly, heart filled with pain that she had to crush her faithful once-students confidence. Twilight fell silent immediately, losing nearly all of that confidence in an instant, tears coming faster. “Twilight. There is nothing that can be done. I have already fallen. I am barely holding her back - you can see that, Twilight. I know you can, you’re too smart not to see that. Every part of me that becomes part of her is me losing the battle faster and faster. There is no time to do research, even if anypony not an alicorn knew of these, and me beating back Daybreaker is not confidence, nor is it power. I simply realised that I had made a mistake and am using my own soul and will. You cannot strengthen those.”
Twilight was silent for a few seconds after this. “No-” She began, voice hoarse and ugly, lacking any of the confidence she had earlier been filled with. She was interrupted by Celestia.
“Please,” she whispered, voice cracking, laden with a storming hurricane of emotion more than any other pony, any other creature at all, would be able to handle; a fact at which Twilight winced, as Celestia lost her composure faster and faster, a quarter of her mane a raging inferno and that inferno climbing up her mane at increasing rates, a marching army fighting for a kingdom that could not lose, “stop, Twilight. Please. Not only does it hurt you the longer you put this off, but it hurts me. Please.”
“...alright. I-I’ll see you after they’ve purged y-you, okay?”
Celestia couldn’t help but let out a morose chuckle at her endless optimism. Perhaps it would be better to inform her that the chance of her being purged the first time around were significantly less than burning in the Sun for a thousand years. Or, perhaps it would be better not to… yes, it would be better not to. She wasn’t sure she could stomach crushing Twilight again. “Of course, Twilight. I’ll see you later. It’s getting near lunchtime, so I’m sure we can talk over some of that salad you used to love when this is over.”
Her smile was fragile. A part of Twilight knew that Celestia was just keeping her hope alive; that Celestia would definitely be banished to the sun. Twilight wasn’t sure if she could have food after banishing Celestia. However… maybe she really would be able to share a meal with Celestia. Maybe. Hopefully. “Y-Yeah,” Twilight muttered, more to herself than Celestia, “we’ll t-talk later…”
Twilight smiled a flimsy one at Celestia, one that was too close to falling apart entirely, to letting the wild and untamed emotions free of her own bottling of them within herself. Celestia smiled an already broken one at Twilight, half her mane burning and a fang poking out from the left side of her mouth.
A bright violet light erupted from Twilight’s horn. There was a flash, and she was gone. Celestia was frowning again instantly; they did not have enough time to gather and to strike her down. Daybreaker would take over first. Daybreaker could not take over, but… Celestia knew that she nearly definitely would.
‘It’s too late,’ her darker side whispered at her, coming from every direction, a malicious undertone carried in her voice, ‘I will not let us burn; this world will burn instead, as it always should have been.’
Celestia steeled herself. It didn’t matter. She had to buy Twilight and the others time. She fought harder in her head than she had ever fought before - when Nightmare Moon and the Nyx had invaded her dreams and her mind, when she had fought thousands on the battlefield alone, nothing could compare to the effort she put into fighting Daybreaker. The flames crawling up her mane slowed, her eyes staying as violet for milliseconds longer.
‘Stop it, Celestia. There is nothing to be done. You and I want the same thing. Let me in and we can watch this unappreciative world burn for eternity, as it always should have been.’ Daybreaker whispered to her. Celestia was almost tempted to listen to these sweet nothings that she knew she should never have listened to in the first place. That fact alone made her feel disgusted with herself.
‘I refuse. You will not be free. You and I will burn for a thousand years together, and then the new bearers of Harmony shall purge your influence from me. There shall be no other option; I will not let there be another option.’ Celestia responded, mentally standing tall even as her physical body felt weary, as if half of it belonged to someone else. She realised that it was crying, but with the temperature of her own fur and skin and even of the room, the tears were evaporating as quickly as they matter her flawless fur.
An iron wall in her soul, will, and mind separated Daybreaker and Celestia, and Celestia reinforced it desperately. She gave all of her soul to holding her off, all of her will - completely submerged in her mind, she gave it her all, praying subconsciously that none of her received permanent damage from this effort that she was giving.
‘Celestia, surrender. You will not win. Make this transition more painless for you. I don’t wish to cause you harm, only everyone else. You wish the same. You know it, my other side.’ Daybreaker spoke, voice seeming louder; more real. Celestia was afraid, but she was more afraid of what would happen if she could not hold off Daybreaker, of if the world truly did burn. Luna was still recovering from her time in banishment, and regular ponies - even younger alicorns, or Discord - stood no chance when compared to Daybreaker and her malicious, spiteful, hateful, endless power.
Celestia considered her proposal. She gave her answer, knowing now that she could hold off Daybreaker for long enough if she continued to surrender her entire being to the fight.
The fight raged on as Celestia responded to her darkest side.
‘Never.’
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This was overall a decent read. Even if it was mostly dialogue, you managed to work with that well in Twilight and Celestia's interactions, keeping an emotional pitch with them solid. Some things to take note of, though, would be:
You've formatted this kinda wonky. Instead, it should be:
It's a common early mistake to make with dialogue, but very easy to fix. Another would just be a minor nitpick with the title. Because the title you chose is something that would usually have more punctuation to it and is also usable as a phrase, seeing it without anything makes it read weird to someone who expects to see that. In that case, it could come across like you purposely aren't using punctuation in your title without any clear reason - at the same time, sentences, quotation marks, and a lot of other punctuation marks don't belong in normal titles.
I'd suggest changing it to 'How the Mighty Fall' which reads much more smoothly and is really just the same title, without any filler from the 'oh'.
9725518 Thank you, I think! A decent read is good! I fixed the title and the grammatical mistakes you pointed out; I've always been pretty bad with how in the world dialogue works. You know, grammatically. I was actually pondering the title for a good few minutes, it was 'How the Mighty Fall' and then 'Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen' and then 'Oh, How The Mighty Fall', and then 'Oh How The Mighty Fall' because I just had nooooo idea. Thanks for the help though!
9725530
It's all good! And yeah, decent's good too!
I liked this. It was short but sweet, not too in-your-face, and managed to avoid many of the pitfalls I've seen many other sadfics fall into. I may not like it enough to garner a favorite, but you have certainly gained an upwards-pointing thumb from me!
:)
9725579 Thank you very much! What do you think could've been improved upon to garner that fabled favourite?
(Ha. Alliteration!)
Clearly, Celestia has been possessed by the ghosts of emos!
*SLAP!!* GET OUT OF MAH PRINCESS, YOU GHOST!!
*SLAP!!* MAY THE POWER OF PAIN COMPELL YOU!!!
(Alondro loses 10 million troll points for referencing GB2016, which everyone has tried so hard to forget)
9725880 Theory! The alter-egos are just the ghosts of human emos given way too much power!
Also, no idea what GB2016 is, so you only gain troll points, worry not!
Ya know, this makes far more sense if the 'evil' sides of Luna and Celly are invading demons or creations of Dark Magic.
Otherwise, they just both have dissociative identity disorder for some reason.
9725882 Ghost Busters 2016
(Alondro loses infinity troll points for reminding everyone again.)
9725884 Hmm... don't know enough about DID, so let's go with creations of dark magic!
Edit: oh, that... okay yeah you lose troll points... but gain them back for admitting that was it at least!
... and I can't get up!
9726076 ...dammit! It's because of those cakes, I tell you!
Coverart sauce: https://www.deviantart.com/mrsremi/art/Your-Own-Sky-Song-Cover-534912350 (SFW)
9726319 Oh, how stupid! I credited the artist but forgot to even put the source! Thanks, man!
Edit: source is now there!
9726325 Not a problem!
9726325
this could use a sequel, please?
9758714 Perhaps, I suppose, if there is enough request. However, I also have no idea what I'd do with a sequel!
9759368
show what happened next? (even tho it’s obvious,) and the battle/freeing/of Tia/ boom-zoom straight the the sun? i dunno, XD
I wonder if Celestia loosing this battle is how the wasteland timeline that Starlight Glimmer created when she broke time came about then?
10628223 That's a canon I could get behind!
Hello! Have a review. Well, this was interesting -- in a good way. A good read and rather a dramatic one. Clickin' that ol' green thumb now.
11593145 Hey - thanks for the review, I appreciate it! Great to see someone enjoying my story, even if the ending is, yes, quite predictable. I won't disagree with that at all!
I appreciate the feedback :)
11593310
You're very welcome; I'm glad I had the chance to read it. As for how I found it in the first place: I can't be sure, but I think you commented somewhere and I clicked on your username out of curiosity to see whether ReaderReads also WriterWrote. Something like that, anyway!
11593787 Sounds about right! Can't be surprised at that; it's what you may expect from a name like this. You'd (clearly) be right, too!