“I hope you’re happy.”
Luna was.
The rest of the band had returned through the portal, except for Starlight, who still distrusted Daybreaker enough to wait in case any emergency might happen at the final moment. However, she did give the sisters enough space to speak privately.
Daybreaker personally escorted the Nightmare Knights to the portal outside the city after the concert, leaving her guards to clean up the streets afterwards. Most of the villains, petty as they were, simply use the opportunity to rip some extra cash from the audience by picking pockets or, more likely, selling over-priced sweets and confections. At least someone got something out of the event. Luna could not say for sure if her sister felt the same.
“Just trust the process,” she told Daybreaker. “A few songs aren’t going to change their minds overnight. The ball’s in your field now. You just have to keep making them respect you out of love and awe instead of fear and terror. Or else someone like Cosy Glow is going to pop up again.”
“Trust is expensive here, you know.”
“Maybe. But you know what’s not expensive?” Luna unfolded a small ticket she had tucked away inside her mane. “Free tickets to my next concert. We’re playing a week and a half from now.”
“I’m not taking—”
“Are you turning back on your word now?” Luna asked, levitating the laminated ticket up against Daybreaker’s coat so much that it rubbed against her and clung to her by the power of static. “Remember, you asked me to help you take care of Scorpan, Cosy, and Chrysalis. One’s dead and the other two are bound in chains, I think that upholds my side of our deal.”
Daybreaker grumbled, but she said nothing.
“Don’t be so grouchy. Think about how I feel,” Luna continued. “You were backstage the whole time tonight. You were the one pony I wanted to see listening to my music, and you were hiding backstage. Uh-uh, don’t make that face, you were definitely hiding. Did you like it? They were some pretty good songs, right?”
Daybreaker gave her a moody sigh. “They were fine, as long as they served their purpose.”
“Really?” Luna raised a brow. “Jeez, I need to take you out to a club or something one of these days.”
Rather than fire back some retort or remark, Daybreaker just gave her sister a tired look and then pointed to the portal. “Just go. I can’t be a replacement for your own sister. Go home and fix your own problems.”
“I’m not replacing her with you,” Luna said. “You may be her counterpart, but you’re not Celestia. But, since Celestia doesn’t approve of my current life choices, I figured that gives me time to get to know my other, much cooler, sister.”
“Your sister who has a city of thieves and con artists to control,” Daybreaker replied.
“Alright, you’re busy, I get it,” Luna backed off towards the portal. “But just remember, the concert’s in a week and a half. I expect you to be there or I’m coming back. You can’t get rid of me!”
“Wait, no—”
But it was too late for Daybreaker. Luna and Starlight slipped away through the portal as quickly and abruptly as they had appeared.
What had she done?
A week ago, she had guards tearing floorboards out of hotels and casinos, searching for any and all creatures who’d help her enemies. Now it was over, for the moment, replaced by… what? She felt as if she had been dragged into the B-plot of a Shakesponian comedy after living through a tragedy.
Cognitive dissonance. There was a word for it.
As she stood by the empty field where magic warped grass into twisted, unnatural tendrils, one of her unicorn guards approached her, breathing hard from a fierce gallop from the city.
“My lord! You’re needed back at the tower.” And back to her tragedy again.
“What now?” Daybreaker asked. A sudden surge of exhaustion washed over her. She had been freed from the day-to-day struggle of worrying about enemies, and just a taste of that absurd, easy life was enough to make her brutalist tower, with all its machinations, seem more harrowing than ever.
“The prisoners, Cosy Glow and Chrysalis, they’re gone. Scorpan broke them out of the dungeons.”
“Say that again!” she snapped, her mane flaring up into an inferno. “I killed Scorpan, stabbed him through the heart. He is dead.”
The unicorn lowered her head. “H-he was injured. Very badly. But our magic still couldn’t pierce his stone skin. We think he snuck in during the concert, no one found him until we returned to our posts, but by then, he was halfway out of the city.”
Daybreaker wanted to scream. Scorpan was, if nothing else, durable. She thought she had broken the limits of his endurance after lancing his heart, but clearly, she had missed the vital point.
A dozen thoughts ran through her mind. Perhaps Scorpan was aided by some villains in the city. Her guards would have to burn them out in addition to sifting through the forests for Scorpan once again. Would she lose what little respect and loyalty she had just recovered? How many needed to exile? Killed? Interrogated? Imprisoned?
She felt the laminated ticket on her chest roll off, its tentative static cling losing its grip and floating down to the grass.
The hunt for those three villains could take months. Years, even. And she realized that it all sounded far too tedious for her to lead alone. What was the point of having power if she was just grasping for it desperately?
“What would you have us do, My Lord?” the guard asked.
Daybreaker quickly inspected the mare. An impressive specimen. Even after coming from a fight with Scorpan, she looked healthy and strong. The magic aura flowing out of her, while not as strong as that Starlight’s, was still a force to behold. Granted, she was young and short, but the size and strength difference between mares and stallions mattered little in the face of magic.
Yes, this one seemed trustworthy. Trustworthy enough, anyways.
“Let them run, for now,” Daybreaker told her. “I’m going on a trip soon, and hunting them down will take too much time. Right now we must reorganize the city, turn it into something too strong for three battered and broken villains to overthrow in a day. Do you think you can do that?”
She searched for the guard’s cutie mark, but there was none. She must’ve been young when she received the operation to become one of her soldiers. It annoyed Daybreaker, she had a hard enough time with names as it was. How was she supposed to promote a guard she couldn’t even recognize?
“M-me?” the guard stammered, flustering and pitter-pattering her hooves about in the grass. “I’m not sure what you mean. I live to serve you, Lord Daybreaker.”
She sighed. A procedure would have to be done to reduce the mindless obedience in this one, just enough to bring back the cleverness chained up in a prison of crystal circuitry.
“What is your name, soldier?”
“Sweetie Belle,” the guard answered.
“Well then, Sweetie Belle, you’re in luck. Some pony just convinced me to try an easier approach to ruling. I think it’ll do my mind some good. And I’ll need to serve as my Secretary-General. Can you do that?”
“Yes! Of course!” The guard saluted. “If that is what you wish, My Lord, it will be done.”
“Good. First order of business, Sweetie Belle: I’ll need a stronger fighting force if those three villains ever come back. See if you can grow our ranks to replace the ones we’ve lost. But try willing volunteers this time. It might be quicker than breaking the minds of our prisoners.”
Luna shook herself off, regaining her balance as the portal abruptly closed behind her and Starlight. The new portal that enveloped the mirror had receded, leaving only the deceptive innocence of one’s reflection in the original device.
A portal to a magicless, non-pony world. She wondered if adventures there would be even stranger than the one she just had.
“Luna, please,” Starlight slumped on the floor, not even willing to crawl a few paces over to a reading chair in the library. “Please tell me we are done.”
Luna giggled.”Yes, I am satisfied.”
“Do you think she’ll show up?”
“Who knows? She’s her own pony, but she’s still as obstinate as Celestia. All I can do is hope.”
“Next time, can your hopes and dreams be a little less convoluted? Some of us want to live to retirement.” Svengallop said. He was still stretching his neck out from the awkward sensation of portal travel.
Starlight shot him a stink-eye as if she was trying to figure out what kind of bodily hard he had to go through in all of this.
“Less convoluted. So more like, I dunno, starting a power metal band just to fulfil my thousand-year-old dream of making Equestria enjoy and love the night and its darkness as much as I do?”
“Yeah, I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable goal.”
Lightning Dust snorted a short laugh. “It’s better than strapping a kid to a rocket for shits and giggles.”
“Oh, by the way,” Starlight said. “While we’re on the topic of hopes and dreams, I have an announcement I need to make.”
“You’re finally tying the knot with Sunburst?” Lightning teased.
“First of all, gross,” Starlight said, pointing at Lightning to quiet down. “He’s just a friend, thank you very much. Secondly, my announcement is that I’d like to quit the Nightmare Knights.” She turned her head towards the mirror portal. “And actually, this adventure gave me an idea for who might be my replacement.”
“Mhm, I see.” Luna blinked, letting her brain catch up with Starlight’s words.
Suddenly, the Princess of the Night threw herself beneath Starlight, her hooves clasped tightly together in desperate prayer and plea.
“I don’t know what I did to upset you but I promise to make it up! Please please please don’t go, this band needs you!”
Okay that felt a little harsh I just hope that Princess Celestia and Luna do talk to each other and settle this problem because this kind of situation kind of Hit me hard..
What but Sweetie Belle and the other world young should this one be young as well how old she is
“You’re finally tying the knot with Sunburst?” Lightning teased.
“First of all, gross,” Starlight said, pointing at Lightning to quiet down. “He’s just a friend, thank you very much. Secondly, my announcement is that I’d like to quit the Nightmare Knights.” She turned her head towards the mirror portal. “And actually, this adventure gave me an idea for who might be my replacement.”
Oh yeah "friend" you say Starlight 😉 ( yeah I ship Starlight and sunburst sue me 😁 ) and wow she finally told them that she can't continue on
“Mhm, I see.” Luna blinked, letting her brain catch up with Starlight’s words.
Suddenly, the Princess of the Night threw herself beneath Starlight, her hooves clasped tightly together in desperate prayer and plea.
“I don’t know what I did to upset you but I promise to make it up! Please please please don’t go, this band needs you!”
Ok wow I did not see that coming how Luna just freaking plea and everything lol
10889493
She's still smaller, though I know she's still referred to as a mare. Keep in mind that Daybreaker was too socially inept to recognize who she was, let alone tell her age. Plus, they're heavily augmented. I want to leave some of the augments up to the imagination, so use whatever explanation you'd like. Growth hormones, magic, magic growth hormones, it doesn't really matter.
So it looks like the concert went pretty well and daybreaker like that at least Luna even considering daybreaker to come around to show up one of her concert even though she said no but you know how Luna can be once they left what are the soldier told the news that Scorpan broke Chrysalis and cozy glow out and apparently he still alive but that means she needs to prepare in case if they ever come back she even put her trust in one of the soldier named Sweetie Belle ( which I'm still kind of confused how old she is ) meanwhile and the other side of the world it looks like Starlight made her announcement that she wants to quit the band but she said she also found somebody that can replace her unfortunately for her Luna didn't share that feeling with Starlight and basically begged her to stay but that is a tough situation for Starlight I wonder what's going to happen next guess we'll find out next time
10889521
Dang 😥 that's something I'm not sure how to feel about that
Is this story complete?
10908259
Not yet. I still have quite a few arcs planned out.