Return of the Ancient Mage

by Zoshe

Chapter 36: Sins of the Sun

Celestia sat staring at the letter in her magic for a moment before sighing and casting the spell to send it on its way.

"Princess Celestia?" Twilight looked up at her, worried about her. "Are you ok?"

"I don't know Twilight, I really don't know," she said, a distant look on her face. "Clover the Clever being alive after all this time, it's... It's a lot to take in. I'm hearing all these names and events that I thought were long behind me, yet they've gone and resurfaced all at once... So, you've met Whisper then?"

Twilight slowly nodded. It might've just been her imagination, but Celestia seemed vulnerable in a way she hadn't seemed before. Sure she had seen her hurt before, but never to the point that she seemed just like any other pony. "Apparently she's been in Ponyville's library for a long time."

"And before that, she could be seen floating around the Castle of the Two Sisters, especially when Clover was around." Celestia gave another deep sigh, "that is, before everything fell apart and we moved the capital to Canterlot."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Twilight rested a hoof on Celestia's leg and looked up into her eyes.

"I feel like I need to tell you about it. You'll probably find out about it sooner or later anyway, and it's probably best you hear it from me." Celestia looked back at her sorrowfully. "I made a mistake in my youth, Twilight. A mistake that led to a whole series of unfortunate events that ended up driving a wedge between me and Luna."

"You mean when she turned into Nightmare Moon?" Twilight asked her, confused on how this could be related to current events. "You told me about that. How you wish you had noticed how lonely she was feeling and that you had done more to be there for her."

"Yes, but that's not the whole truth, my student," Celestia said. "When we heard that Clover had failed to stop King Sombra, we soon found evidence that he was using the population of the Crystal Empire to build a slave army. He was apparently set on invading Equestria with it. We mobilized our forces and marched on the empire. What ensued was probably the biggest loss of pony life since before the unification of the tribes."

Twilight gave an involuntary gasp as she looked up at her teacher, "I never heard about that before. It wasn't in any of the history books."

"If you recall," she said. "You didn't know there even was a Crystal Empire until I sent you there. The place has become a forgotten piece of history."

Twilight nodded, remembering how she had struggled to learn anything about the Crystal Empire until she went there herself.

"When my sister and I were eventually able to defeat King Sombra, we banished him to the frozen north," said Celestia. "The empire vanished as if it had never existed."

"You told me all this before," Twilight said confused. "What's this have to do with you making a mistake?"

"We searched for any possible survivors," Celestia continued. "And we eventually found Clover unconscious and buried deep in the snow. He was frozen to the bone and barely breathing, but against all odds, he was still alive. We had our best spellcasters and physicians do everything they could to revive him but he didn't once stir from his deep slumber."

Celestia poured herself a fresh cup of tea and downed it all in one gulp, not once seeming to care for how hot it was.

"It was a very different time back then, Twilight," She said. "You think the nobles can be insufferable now. Back then each of them had hundreds of ponies that answered to them and every last one of them were angry. A lot of lives had been lost when we fought against Sombra and his army, and they all wanted someone to blame."

"Princess..." Twilight said under her breath, not sure she liked where this was going.

"I don't know who first started the rumor, but eventually it became the public opinion that Clover had been responsible for the war. Since it was his student that had turned into King Sombra, there was a movement of ponies calling out for Clover to face punishment for the loss of life." Celestia looked down into her empty teacup, regret painting her features, "in my youthful ignorance and desire to end the conflict before it drove the tribes apart again, I agreed with their demands. I've regretted it ever since."

Twilight looked at Celestia in shocked horror, not believing what she was hearing. "What... What did this have to do with Princess Luna turning into Nightmare moon?" She asked.

"How do you think you would react if your only friend, nay, your lover had been sentenced to death without even the chance to defend themselves?" Celestia began to tear up, "if only I had known how she would react and what the consequences would be."

---

*Crash* The sound of shattering glass filled the room as a pure white hoof went through a dressing mirror.

"Princess!" Called out Celestia's personal maid as she ran up to examine the offending hoof. "You didn't hurt yourself did you?"

Celestia forcefully brushed away her attendant, not wanting to let her get near her. "Get away from me! Don't act like you care!"

"But your highness," the maid carefully tried to approach the distraught solar princess. "Court will begin soon and I need to get you cleaned up."

"Court this, social function that. Is that all you ponies care about!?" She swept a wing across her dresser, sending brushes and combs scattering across the room. Bits of broken glass cut into her wings, sending scattered feathers into the air, some of it tinged with her blood. "I want my sister back!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Please your highness," the maid pleaded. "Everypony is waiting to celebrate your victory over Nightmare Moon and we must have you presentable for your audience."

Celestia brought her hooves down near the maid, cracking the floor with the impact and forcing the maid to huddle on the ground while appearing small. "Get out..." She said quietly.

"Your highness?" The maid dared to speak.

Celestia reared up, tears streaming from her face as she looked down at the nuisance in anger. "Didn't you hear me!? I said get out!" She began to throw brushes and various pieces of jewelry at her, not once caring for how valuable or significant the pieces were. When her attendant was taking too long to leave, she began to fire small jets of fire from her horn, singing hair off the tail of the smaller pony.

Self-preservation finally kicked in as the servant ran from the room as fast as she could, closing the door behind her just as a large chair smashed into it, breaking into a thousand pieces.

Celestia heaved big lungfuls of air as she stared with bloodshot eyes at the door the nuisance had just left through. How dare these simple ponies act like they know her. She slowly walked back over to what remained of her dresser, looking up at her broken reflection. A white alicorn stared back at her, rainbow colored locks spilling over her face as she tried not to look disgusted at herself.

She grabbed a big bundle of the spectral hairs in her magic and pulled on them will all her might until they tore loose. She didn't care how much it hurt to do so, she hated this hair. It had turned this color when she had used the Elements of Harmony to banish Nightmare Moon, nay, her sister Luna to the moon. Ponies had spilled out from out of nowhere to celebrate her victory and had mistaken her cries of pain and anguish for a shout of victory.

It didn't sink in until then how alone she truly was. Not one of them had checked to see if she was all right. Not one of them shared in her sorrow that her sister was gone. Gone and banished to the moon. Doomed to look down on them from the moon until the end of time. While Celestia was doomed to be reminded of what she had done any time she looked in a mirror. Why couldn't the ponies understand the pain she was feeling right now.

Celestia collapsed to the floor and sobbed, again not caring about the mess she sat in the middle of nor caring about the broken glass that continued to dig into her. She barely recognized the sound of breaking stone and distant screams that could be heard coming from outside her room.

The door burst open and was quickly slammed as one of the castle guards rushed into her room. "Your highness!" The guard called as he held the door closed behind him in a panic.

"What!?" Celestia screamed at him. "What's it going to take for all you little ponies to leave me alone!?"

"It's Clover, your highness!" The guard was sweating as the angry alicorn looked down her nose at him. "He's woken up and he's on a rampage through the castle grounds!"

"Then stop him." She ordered. "He's only one pony. Don't tell me all of you are that incompetent?"

"We're trying, your highness," he bowed, prostrating himself before her. "But he's just too much for us."

Celestia scoffed, "fine!" She roared as she stomped towards the door. "I'll deal with him but then I'm leaving!"

"Your highness?" The guard looked at her with confusion.

"For all I care you can find a different ruler after all of this." She said as she reached up, pulled the crown from her head and threw it at a distant wall.

She slammed the door behind her, leaving a very confused guard looking down at the discarded crown.

It didn't take long for her to figure out where Clover was. As she went through the hallways, she regularly found large holes in the walls from the battle with her sister. The insolent ponies hadn't even bothered to start with repairs. Did she have to tell them to do everything. Some of the guards were even taking naps by the rubble, the nerve of them. She'll be happy to wash her hooves of this place. Nothing good had ever come from ruling other ponies.

Celestia walked over to the sleeping guard and gave him a firm kick, it was then she noticed that he wasn't even breathing. He was dead. She backpedaled away from the corpse, only stopping when the wall exploded behind her. Dust and debris rained down around her as another one of the guard slumped down opposite the new hole, blood from his mouth smearing the wall he lay motionless at. She jumped through the hole, now shocked more than anything that this much damage could be caused by any one individual. Surely this couldn't have been caused by Clover?

She continued to find more destruction and corpses as she made her way to the courtyard. There she found Clover. He currently had Viscount Blueblood firmly pinned against a wall with a hoof pressed up against his throat.
Blueblood kicked against the air as he fought for purchase and foamed at the mouth as he fought to breathe.

"I'm done asking nicely, Blueblood!" Clover growled through sharpened teeth, his pupils narrowed into slits as he looked at the unicorn in his grasp like nothing more than an insect. "Where is Celestia?!"

"I'm right here, Clover!" Celestia called out, shocked with how brutal this unicorn was being. He had torn through the royal guard like they were nothing and now looked like he was about to add one more body to the pile. "Let him go!"

Clover spared a quick glance over his shoulder before slowly lowering Blueblood to the ground. The moment his hoof came free from his neck, the viscount began to cough and sputter as he fought to pull air into his suffocating body. A few breaths was all he was allowed before a hoof came down on the back of his neck and slammed his face into the stone floor, bloodying his nose. Clover leaned over him and spat vitriol in his ear, "if I ever see you again, you'll wish I had finished you off."

Blueblood fled for his life the moment that Clover turned his back on him. As Clover turned to face the solar princess, she could see the manacles and broken chains that were hanging all over his body. The guards had clearly tried to restrain him but were largely unsuccessful.

"Celestia..." He growled as he stalked toward her with tears streaming down his face. "Do you have any idea what you've done!?"

Her eyes shot up to the moon overhead, her disheveled mane blowing in the wind as she stared at the visage of her sister in the lunar surface. "I know all too well what I've done. I wasn't there when my sister needed me and now I've doomed her to a cold prison on the moon." She flinched under his piercing gaze.

A musky smoke rippled down his back as he stood directly in front of her. He had to strain his neck to look up at her and despite her being much taller, she somehow felt small under his gaze. "The mark of your sin is as clear as the hair on your head. I don't care what happens to me, but you had to know how badly Luna would take it if you tried to take me away from her."

Celestia narrowed her eyes. "I did what had to be done!" She shouted as she looked down at him. "You failed to stop King Sombra and the nation went to war. Do you have any idea how many died because of you!?" She buckled over as she felt something impact her chest, knocking the wind out of her and lifting her off the ground. The next thing she knew, she was looking at Clover from across the courtyard, his hoof extended to where she had just been standing as he coughed up blood.

He pushed himself back up as he used one foreleg to wipe the blood from his face, not once caring about staining his golden coat. "You've always been a bit of a brat, Celestia," he said as he started walking towards her again. "The only thing I'm guilty of is not accepting that Starswirl is gone and not taking care of what I still can. Specifically you and your sister."

Celestia fought for breath as she pushed herself out of the rubble. "It's your fault she fell apart the way she did!" She shouted back at him. "If she had never fallen in love with you..."

"So you would deny her the one happiness she found for herself while you sit on your gilded throne and bask in the praise of all your little ponies!?" Tears continued to flow down his face, mixing with his blood and leaving long red streaks in their wake. "How conceited can you be?"

Flames began to lick off of Celestia's coat as she strode forward to meet him, "I don't care anymore. Luna's gone and all the little ponies are celebrating her defeat. They're even talking about making it a national holiday. It makes me sick to my stomach. You know what... No..."

Clover's eyes widened as he realized what was happening, he cast a shield over himself just in time to catch the charging princess. Celestia pressed down against the barrier before her, both magically and physically. She dug her hooves into a small crack that had begun to form in the center of the shield as she brutally forced it apart. The fire in her coat began to burn hotter as it rapidly consumed her mane.

"I was going to leave after dealing with you. You've been nothing but a thorn in my side and your sentence has already been cast." She growled as she pushed further into his space, the white of her eyes turning pitch black as her purple eyes began to turn a burning yellow. "But these ponies don't deserve the world I've made for them," she growled through ever sharpening teeth. "I gave them everything! And that's just what they took! EVERYTHING!"

Clover began to buckle under the assault of the mad alicorn, the fire that was coating her body began to seep down through the hole she had torn in his shield and was presently searing into his flesh. He was just barely able to see past the fire and saw as the sun that made up her cutiemark quickly changed to appear much angrier than before. "So it begins again..." He said under his breath.

In that moment, the shield exploded. Clover was sent hurtling into a pillar at a high velocity. He impacted it with a resounding crack before he slumped to the ground, one of his hind legs bent at an unnatural angle.

Celestia gave a small chuckle as she cantered towards the broken body. "The ponies all worship the ground I walk on as they relax and play under the day that I give them. I think it's time they fear the ground I tread. I think it's time they break in the midday sun, wouldn't you say?" She paused for a moment as she thought over her words. "Daybreaker... I like it. Celestia is no more. She was weak, she served the ponies that took her for granted. But Daybreaker... Daybreaker will be their queen, their god." She looked down at the broken body with a sinister smile, "oh? Did you die? You ponies are so fragile."

Clover sputtered as he pushed himself up on his two good hooves, "I'm not... Nguh... About to give you that satisfaction."

"Good," said Daybreaker. "Because I'm not satisfied yet." She wrapped her magic around the fallen unicorn and levitated him over to herself. "I think a quick death is too good for you," she sat down with him floating in front of her and rested a single hoof against his chest.

Immediately the place she touched began to smolder and burn as he grit his teeth against the pain. "Not going to give me a good scream? It's ok. I can wait." She continued to smile even as he reached forward and wrapped his forelegs around her own. His head rocked back and his mouth hung open as small embers began popping off his skin. "I can't believe this is all Starswirl's pupil had to offer. I would've expected more. But what can you really expect when you're up against perfection like this?" She took a moment to admire herself. Her coat, her wings, her flank, all of her was absolutely stunning, the epitome of beauty and power.

She looked back to the quiet pony in her clutches, wondering if he had died yet. However, he was smiling at her. "I never said I was his pupil," he continued to smile even though she could see where parts of his flesh were starting to burn away. "It's over."

In an instant, the fire left her. She began to feel strange as a stiff cold ran over her her whole body. She threw away the grinning unicorn, hoping to stop whatever it was he was doing. He continued to sizzle as he laid on the ground, however Daybreaker now had new problems to worry about.

She could no longer feel her legs. She tried to move them, but on closer inspection she found they had turned into solid stone. "What is this?!" She panicked. The stone was slowly moving its way up her legs, encasing her in its granite prison.

"You never learned what I know about magic," he said as he wrapped his magic around his own broken leg. He winced a bit as he straightened the limb. A thread of magic unwound from his horn and down to the broken leg. It wove in and out of his flesh until Clover seemed satisfied with the results. He set the previously injured hoof down on the ground and after testing it a couple times, stood up on all fours without any noticeable difficulty.

The stone prison had made its way up to Daybreaker's shoulders by this point. She continued to glare down at Clover as she pointlessly fought against the spell that was keeping her captive. "When I get out of here, Clover, I'll..."

"I'll be long gone by then," said Clover, cutting her off. "The only reason I was even here in the first place was as a favor to Starswirl. Now that he's gone and you've taken Luna from me, I have no reason to stay. Farewell Celestia, Daybreaker, whoever you think you are now. Don't come looking for me." He waved goodbye over his shoulder without looking back.

His departing backside was the last thing she saw before the stone overtook the last of her and she slipped into oblivion.

---

"It was two weeks before I finally escaped my prison," Celestia said as Twilight stared in rapt attention. "Ironically it was members of house Sparkle that figured out how to undo the spell that Clover cast. Although they'd soon wished they had left me where I was."

Twilight could feel the sadness that radiated from Celestia's very being. She pressed herself into her fur, wrapping her in a hug as best she could. "You don't need to tell me anything more. It must've been really difficult to tell me all this."

Celestia leaned into her student's embrace, not realizing until this moment how much she needed to feel someone else's warmth. "It was easily the lowest point in my life, Twilight. Equestria had two very bad years before Daybreaker's anger was finally extinguished and Celestia returned," she looked up at Twilight. "Even to this day, remnants of what she did still remain in the ponies' racial memory, even if they don't know it."

"What do you mean?" She looked to her mentor with confusion. "I don't understand."

"I've learned to ignore it when it happens or do my best to laugh it off, but have you ever seen others do it or done it yourself. Where you do everything you can to earn my favor because you're afraid I'll punish you?" She asked her.

Twilight didn't have to think about it very long. She had seen a number of ponies do that and she had done it herself on several occasions without any real reason to. Celestia was kind and even-tempered most of the time without anything to suggest that she was even capable of the kind of punishment that they always dreamed up. "Are you saying..."

"Before Daybreaker, not once did anypony act like that around me," Celestia said solemnly. "However even now, a thousand years after Daybreaker is no longer remembered. Ponies are still afraid that their princess will punish them without just cause."

A green wisp of smoke flew in the window and spiraled in front of Celestia for a moment before dropping a parchment in front of her. It was wrapped in a green ribbon and embossed with a seal sporting a four-leaf clover.

Both Twilight and Celestia stared at it for a moment. Celestia feeling hollowed out after pouring out her deepest secrets to her student. That being said, she still felt some trepidation as she removed the seal and unfurled the letter.

"It seems we have something to talk about," she read aloud. "I'll see you girls soon. Signed, Clover the Clever."

Author's Note:

This was a very emotional piece to put together.
I hope you enjoyed it.

Comments

[Witchery]

Aye, very much so enjoyed it.

[Tenebris Lucifer]

Things are gettin spicy

[rikithemonk]

You know, I never trusted Celestia. I always felt that she was evil, or at the very least, sociopathic. Too calm to be healthy.

I just really, really, really, hope that the Author doesn't pull the, "Everything is ok, Were besets friends, lets sing Cumbiyah." Bull shit.

I never liked reading stories where someone is beaten half to death, stoned, banished to the woods, hunted, and abused, just to have that person crawl back like a beaten dog and after a quick apology, everything perfectly fine now. I honestly think, the fact that so many Authors think this is "Normal", that it speaks of serious psychological issues in the fandom.

The Monk
“Puberty was a curse for those inflicted with it, and boundless amusement for others who survived the process.” -Scarheart

[Zoshe]

11066281
none of these characters are perfect, and none with ever be perfect, because perfection is something that you strive for but never really achieve

[Fintushamy]

11066281
You are absolutely not wrong.
Yet this just might be the one rare time when "I'm very sorry for being a backwards murderous bitch, let's sing Cumbiyah." Might actually be enough.

None of the Sunbutt-bashing sequence happened last week in the story. Unless I'm missing something it's been almost a thousand years for Sunbutt and MC both.

If he were Captan Americaed in an ice cube for a millennia then yeah, otherwise she just needs to show or prove that she's a grownup now. Even if it took a thousand years of isolation.

[Luckyfanisaac]

"I was going to leave after dealing deal with you.