Chapter One Guilt and Reemergence
Rarity pounded a hammer with her magic. Sweat trailed down her usually beautiful head. Her mane was not in its usual style, it was tangled and hadn’t been brushed in days. Her coat was also covered in ash. She had not bothered to clean or keep herself beautiful, for right now she felt like one of the ugliest ponies in Equestria. At least her tail had grown back since she and her friends had used the elements of harmony to save one of their own. But now Rarity had a lot to make up for, along with her other four friends helping her with the repairs around Canterlot.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy all worked various tasks in helping rebuild the homes of Canterlot which had been greatly damaged during the attack. Some of the damage was from the invading Changelings, but most of it came from the battle between the two leaders of each side. Queen Chrysalis, the now dead former queen of the Changelings… and Equestria’s own ruler Princess Celestia… or as she had been for that brief time when fighting the Queen, Daybreaker. The two of them had engaged in a literal firefight with Celestia eventually killing the Queen as Daybreaker, but also burning a good amount of the city in the process.
All of this could have been prevented though, if Rarity and her friends had all been willing to listen to one pony. Twilight Sparkle, the only one of her friends not working in the community service, had seen through Queen Chrysalis’s disguise of Princess Cadence. The Queen, using her shapeshifting powers had imponienated the fiancé of Twilight’s brother Shining Armor. Twilight had noticed something was off about ‘Cadence’, but Rarity and her friends had been too busy with their preparations for the upcoming wedding to notice what should have been rather obvious rude behavior from the imposter. When Twilight had finally lost her patience after they ignored her and she’d seen Chrysalis brainwashing her brother, she’d burst into the rehearsal and accused the imposter of being evil. But Chrysalis had cleverly pretended to be hurt and ran away crying, causing everypony to turn against Twilight.
Rarity thought back to how Twilight had sat down sadly after her own brother had kicked her out of the wedding for making ‘Cadence’ cry. How she and all the others just walked away from Twilight as though she were some bad pony. Then when Twilight had burst into the wedding hall with the real Princess and the truth was revealed, Rarity had felt like the world’s worst friend. She and all the others were lucky that Twilight had been so forgiving, because their actions were not very forgivable at all. They were also lucky Twilight was still alive, their friend had fought the Queen in an attempt to get revenge on her for turning everyone she loved against her. Though Twilight had put on a very good fight, she’d eventually gotten bitten by Chrysalis and poisoned.
Repairing Canterlot caused a major reflection in Rarity as they thought back to how they could be so careless and what it nearly cost them. If they had just listened to Twilight none of this would have happened. So many ponies had lost their homes, a few even their lives, and Twilight had gotten her heartbroken and nearly lost her life. All of it was their fault, Rarity sighed.
“Hey, Rare, you okay sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
Rarity shook her head. “How can I be okay darling? This whole mess is our fault! If we had just listened to Twilight none of this would have happened!”
“I know,” Fluttershy said softly as she flew down from the now repaired roof. “I feel so awful for all those poor ponies who’ve lost their homes and family members. A few foals have been put in an orphanage since their parents were lost in the attack.”
“Can’t believe I put a party before a friend!” Pinkie cried, her usually puffy mane deflated.
“I should have stayed with her!” Rainbow Dash said. “What kind of element of loyalty am I?”
“What kind of friends are we?” Rarity sobbed, letting her tears come out. “Rotten ones!”
“Yep,” Applejack said, letting out tears as well, something she didn’t usually do. “She nearly died because of us not listening to her! We’re lucky she’s still our friend!”
“We really don’t deserve it though,” Fluttershy said. “Not after how unkind we were. I don’t feel like I deserve to wield the element of kindness anymore after being so cruel.”
“Maybe none of us deserve the elements now,” Applejack suggested. “Maybe we should just stop being the bearers.”
The element of honesty’s statement caused the other ponies to look at her.
“We can’t do that Applejack!” Rainbow Dash stated. “It’s not like the elements can just pick new bearers or anypony can use them.”
“Well they should,” Applejack said. “We don’t deserve them after what we did to Twilight… and Canterlot. Princess Celestia oughta lock us up in the dungeon!”
“Oh, come on girls! Don’t lose hope! Twilight’s still our friend!” Pinkie said. “She’s still alive and well, we just need to do this community service and then once we’re done with it and the wedding we’re going to do everything we can to make it up to Twilight fully! I know she says she’s forgiven us but there has to be some more penance for this!”
Rarity sighed. “You’re right Pinkie, I just can’t help feeling so ugly for what I did!”
“Well, you do kind of look ugly right now,” Applejack said.
“Applejack!” Rainbow Dash snapped. “I know you’re the element of honesty but that’s way too blunt. Sure Rarity’s covered in ash right now and hasn’t combed her mane and tail in days but give her a break! We’re all feeling guilty for what we did to Twilight!”
Rarity put up her hoof. “No she’s right, I look horrible. I let myself look horrible because I feel so horrible.”
“We all do Rare,” Applejack said putting a hoof on the fashionista. “But there’s no need for you to make yourself look ugly. We all feel horrible because of this. But we have to make things better just like Pinkie says. We’ll get the community service done, and then when that darn wedding is over we’ll do whatever it takes to make up with Twilight for putting it before her. Even if she says she’s forgiven us we need to do something so that we all feel all better so we can forgive ourselves.”
“I know something that can make us feel better!” Pinkie said, her mane puffing up. “Group hug!”
The five ponies wrapped their hooves around each other, some of the ash on Rarity’s coat spreading to each of them. It brought them a little comfort at least.
“We can’t undo the past,” Applejack said. “But we can better the future. We’ll just have to do that. Let’s make a promise, from now on we’ll never leave Twilight again. We’ll believe in her, and never put anything before her friendship again. We’ll be there when she needs us.”
They put their hooves together. Little did they know, Twilight would need them much sooner than they thought.
*
Princess Celestia looked down at her city. It was being repaired, but the memories of what she herself had done to it only days ago remained. Her heart was heavy with guilt as she recalled all the fire, the burning buildings, and the fate of Queen Chrysalis.
Even though the latter had been necessary perhaps, Celestia still felt a tinge of guilt. Chrysalis had been an evil monster, yet Celestia had killed her. She had shown no mercy at all, even when the Queen had begged for her life. Rage was a monster that could eat a pony up and turn them into something terrible. Celestia’s rage had started when she’d learned that she’d been turned against her faithful student Twilight Sparkle. Then it increased to an extreme point when she’d seen Twilight poisoned. That had caused her to turn into Daybreaker.
It amazed her that she could have transformed into a dark alicorn like her sister could... because she cared about somepony.
Celestia walked back into her room, and gazed into the mirror. For a moment she saw her own reflection. The white alicorn with the flowing multicolored mane. She looked down at a photo nearby, one of her and Twilight Sparkle as a filly. The little Twilight was nuzzled up against Celestia’s enormous foreleg. Like a mother to a daughter.
“You want her don’t you?” a voice said.
Celestia looked away from the photo back into the mirror. Instead of her own reflection she saw a horrid picture. One of a fiery maned pony with red eyes and orange armor.
Celestia shook her head.
“You’re not real! You’re gone!”
Daybreaker laughed. “I’m never fully gone! I’m part of you always! We all have darkness inside of us, sometimes that dark needs a little push. You’ve been alone for so long since Luna was gone. You couldn’t really connect to anyone after that could you? You were alone.”
Celestia was silent at her evil reflection. It had a point. During the years after Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon, Celestia had become withdrawn. Being an alicorn who would live for thousands of years, she could not afford to get too attached to any of her subjects because they would die one day. But Twilight, she meant more to Celestia than anyone had since Luna. She’d had lots of students, but Twilight had just simply had so much raw talent, Celestia had taken her as a personal protégé. She’d known that one day Twilight would become the bearer of the element of magic, and when the time had come, she’d released her sister from the imprisonment in the moon and left the trail for Twilight to follow to the elements of harmony before sending her to Ponyville to meet her friends. Twilight had done so much for the kingdom and for Celestia herself.
“She’s more than just a student to you isn’t she?” Daybreaker asked. “You envy her parents!”
“No!” Celestia denied with her mouth but in her heart knew it wasn’t true. She had felt a resentment toward Twilight Velvet and Night Light when the two of them had come for their daughter. Now Twilight Sparkle was with them and Shining Armor, spending time with her family until the wedding was ready to resume.
“You know its not true. You love her like a daughter, and wish that she were yours. Well she can be! Just let me take her!” Daybreaker cackled.
Celestia looked from her reflection to the picture of Twilight and her. She couldn’t deny that she had often wished for somepony in her life, somepony who she could call family rather than just a subject as she’d been forced to limit herself to for sanities sake. But if she could have Twilight as her daughter… that seemed so perfect… and Twilight’s destiny was to join the same rank as Celestia.
“I want her for myself!”
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1st comment!
Loving it so far, keep up the great work and looking forward to the next chapter!
So Daybreaker wants Twilight as her own daughter. Interesting.
I know how it can be to try to beat deadlines. The thing I do to help avoiding have to rush is to write and edit a few chapters before I submit the story and the first chapter. How many I write before submitting usually depends on how long the story is, or how long I'm projecting it to be.
Interesting... this should be good.
nice work
Wow. The sequel is here now.
I do like this first chapter. Great work Sam. 
Be really funny if in reacting to ”let me take her” Celestia started jealously battling Daybreaker.
The words I highlighted in bold are the ones that need to be inserted. Otherwise, great chapter.
It's Great so far
10123767
Thank you. I will likely get a new chapter done by Saturday I hope. Have to get one done on my Luster Dawn story right now.
10123843
Okay
this Saturday? u making new chapter? u got me confuse
10130273
Yep, working on the new chapter now.
thank you I cant wait to see what happens next!
10130291
Glad you're enjoying it! Hopefully will have it posted tonight. Already got nearly 400 words in.
I'm so excited to see the new chapter I'm dying to know what happened next😍😍😍
10120448
I think with Daybreaker, it can be seen as more of an "obsession."
Twilight isn't somepony to be loved. She is an object to be possessed.
Twilight's friends are so lucky that Twilight is very forgiving, after all that has happened? Ya I wouldn't even be half as forgiving as Twilight, she could have died, sure I can understand Twilight's friends, brother, and mentor for not believing Twilight since she barged in without any proof or evidence, but leaving and abandoning her? Chrysalis actually had the perfect chance to kill Twilight right then and there, and than Chrysalis finally did end up almost killing Twilight.
Although I do find joy in believing how the subjects all over Equestria will think when they learn everything could have been avoided if Celestia listened to Twilight, all the death and destruction that could have been avoided? Ya I'd be pissed. Hopefully the Author will include that later in the story or in the sequel.