Prologue - The Break of Day
“Good evening, Tia.” Luna smiled, adjusting her tiara with her magic. “Art thou ready for our changeover?”
Celestia gave her a smile, but there was something different about it. Something strange about the sparkle in those blossom-pink eyes. Celestia sat on her stack of cushions, all warm yellows and oranges, and her horn illuminated yellow. Not, as Luna was expecting, to lower the sun, but to take the tiara from her head. She stared at it for a long moment, turning it over in front of her, before abruptly cutting off her hold, letting it clatter to the stone floor. “Perhaps.”
“Long day?” Ignoring her own seat, Luna settled down immediately in front of her sister, offering a sympathetic smile. “But last week, we had the most dreadful night. We felt it would never end, and when it finally did, well, we-”
“We have been thinking, Luna.” Celestia said, staring down at her crown where it lay on the ground.
“Oh? Do tell.”
“Aren’t we being unfair to our little ponies?”
Luna frowned - she certainly hadn’t been expecting that. Of course, they couldn’t be fair all the time; every pony in Equestria brought their problems to the duo. They made the best decision they could every time, but they couldn’t possibly know everything, know the perfect way forward, whatever the ponies might think. “Perhaps sometimes. But we both know that we-”
“Not in that way.” She shook her head, her sparkling pink mane flowing about her neck. Celestia looked up to her sister, who met her gaze with the warmest smile she could muster, a gesture to go on. “The night is full of terrors. All the remnants of the Spirit’s reign.”
“We suppose we could have the guard doing more to stamp out these dangers. Umbral has already stepped up patrols in the areas surrounding the palace, after-”
“But the day is safe, isn’t it?” Abruptly, Celestia stood, pacing to the mosaic on the far side of the room, leaving her shoes behind one at a time. This was their preferred meeting room when they changed from night to day and day to night, and it was decorated appropriately. The mosaic she studied divided the room in two, one half depicting the bright blue sky, Celestia watching over it, the other the myriad stars of Luna’s night. “Nobody fears our day. They love our day.”
Luna felt a pang in her chest, one forehoof unconsciously moving to it. She had thought this way, too. Nobody loved her night the way they should, they either slept through it or feared the things in the shadow. Yes, she admitted to herself, she was jealous of Celestia, sometimes. She wished that entire cities would come together to celebrate her, to sing and dance under her perfect moon. “Well, they-”
“Don’t you think it would be better,” Celestia continued, walking to the half of the room decorated in darkness. The mosaic mural depicted a sleepy town, lamplight shining in windows and ponies curled in their sleep. Her horn glowed softly. “If they never had to fear the night again?” A beam of energy emerged from her horn, making Luna flinch. It burned into the mosaic, carving a streak of black through the sleeping town. “If they never had to sleep?” The beam abruptly turned, moving up, halting in place on the moon. As it held there, the beautiful white disc was slowly burned over and obscured. Luna scrambled to her hooves, not knowing what she planned, but wanting to do something to stop her sister. “If the day were to last forever?” The taller alicorn turned to face her, smiling wide. Her eyes were flecked with deep, opalescent orange, and embers licked at the edge of her mane.
“Celestia, stop this!” Luna stomped loudly with one forehoof. “Lower the sun, now, and we will have the physician give you a look over. Thou art clearly not feeling thyself.”
“You’re afraid, aren’t you? Yes, you’re afraid. You don’t want our little ponies to be happy. You fear the sun. Only monsters cower in the dark. Are you a monster?”
“Tia…” The anger had vanished from Luna’s voice, replaced with hurt.
“There’ll be no more monsters under my eternal sun!” She shouted, turning back to the mosaic, horn aglow. “My children will be safe and free!” Her mane was licked with flame at the edges, burning brighter and brighter as she ranted. “They won’t fear the sunset ever again! For the sun will never set!”
As her sister ranted, Luna had been slowly backing away, eyes wide with fear and shock. Her back touched the wooden door of the room, and she whipped it open with her magic, dashing back into the corridor and slamming it behind her.
“Is everything well, Princess Luna?” One of Celestia’s guards, a pegasus stallion in gilded armour, stopped beside her. He cocked his head curiously, bags under his eyes from a long shift and Celestia’s ranting still clearly audible through the door.
“M-My,” she stopped, cleared her throat, tried to keep her voice from trembling. “Our sister is not feeling herself. Please, alert the physician and the guards. We shall try to calm her down.”
“Aye, your majesty.” He trotted off down the echoing corridor, leaving Luna to catch her breath, and stare at the ranting and raving behind the door.
The ranting stopped in the chamber. That scared Luna. Pressing an ear against the door, she could only hear the hum of magic, and the crackling of flame. The guards would be there soon, with the physician. She had to go inside, as much as she dreaded what she might see. So she raised one hoof to push the door open, calling for her sister as she did.
“Tia? Are you alright?”
The pony that looked back was not her sister. Yes, her snow-white coat was the same, but her sparkling, pink mane and tail were entirely consumed by lapping fire. Her jewelry had grown, her tiara becoming a helmet, her necklace a breastplate, and her shoes greaves. The whites of her eyes were coal-black, surrounding slit-pupiled, burning topazes. Even her cutie mark had changed, her flank around it stained orange as though the sun was aflame. She gave a fanged smile, her horn consumed in a fiery aura, and Luna’s half of the mosaic covering the room was burned entirely black.
“Isn’t my sun beautiful?” She grinned, turning back to the window. “And it’ll never have to set again.”
“Tia,” Luna said, forcing her voice not to shake. “We’re worried about you. We just want you to sit down, and breathe, and wait for the physician to come. OK?” Celestia didn’t even acknowledge her, staring out at the blue sky. “Sister, please-”
“I am not your sister!” She boomed, making Luna flinch, spreading her wings and fluttering backwards. “You are a monster! A monster who hides from the sun!” She was even taller, Luna realised as what had been her sister loomed down on her. “Only monsters love the dark!”
“C-Celestia,” Luna said, swallowing hard. “Please calm down. You’re not yourself. We are worried.”
“Worried? Worried?” She bellowed, nose almost touching Luna’s “You should worry! You should fear me! I am the breaker of day, and I will purge all of your monstrous kin in cleansing fire! My little ponies will never fear the monsters in the dark again!” The glow of her horn was brighter, and Luna could feel the panic rising. This was out of control. Celestia was gone. She’d lost control entirely. This wasn’t her.
Behind Luna, she felt the door swing open. “Your majesty?” The physician asked.
The glow of Celestia’s horn was too bright, like looking at the sun, now. Heat was flying off it, making Luna sweat. She turned to the physician, trying to shout at him to run, but she felt a burst of fiery pain in her side before the words could form. Barely conscious, she felt her body slam through walls of stone before consciousness left her entirely.
It was warm. That was the first thing to strike Luna when she woke up. Warm like a midsummer afternoon, when she was up early enough to spend some time with her sister, to sit in the castle gardens and sun herself. She preferred the cold, but she certainly didn’t mind the occasional bit of warmth.
Then the pain hit, and she remembered. Gasping, she opened her eyes. The sun was too big, taking up too much of the sky. And it was too warm, a summer lunchtime when it should’ve been an autumnal evening. As she looked around the castle's gardens, she could see steam rising off the grass. She had carved a furrow into the grass leading up to where she lay, and there was a gaping, crumbling hole in the bricks of the castle. Several of them, through three separate walls.
She tried to stand, gasping in pain. The blast of magic had hit her shoulder, and that part of her body ached as though it had been burned. Her right foreleg was in the most pain, and it couldn’t take her weight at all. So instead she spread her wings and lifted herself off the ground. Rising high, higher than the roof of the palace, she cast her gaze about the castle town. There, before the gardens’ gates, a milling mass of multicoloured ponies, one burning spot in the air above them. Almost closing her eyes to focus, she flew in that direction, conjuring her magic for something desperate and foolish.
“I am Daybreaker, your queen, and I have brought safety and freedom to Equestria!” The thing that had been Celestia bellowed to the crowd. “Join me, and the sun shall never set again!” Her sharp-toothed grin faltered as the light dimmed behind her, and the crowd gaped.
Turning back, she saw what the monster had done. She had raised the moon, while the sun was still in the air. It had tried to eclipse the sun entirely, but couldn’t, now that it had been imbued with her power. Instead, it sat over its centre like the pupil of a colossal eye, reducing the perfect light and heat that could be felt below.
“Please, everypony, get away!” Luna shouted as she flew above the crowd. “You are in grave danger! Go north, through the Everfree, to Ponyville!”
The ponies stared in confusion between the two sisters. “Guards!” Daybreaker bellowed, pointing with one hoof. “Seize her!”
The guards in golden armour, similarly bemused, stared upwards. One, their commander, slowly shook his head. “You are not our princess.”
Daybreaker roared in fury, and Luna soared low over the guards’ heads. “Get them to safety. Everypony out of the palace, too.” Before she could make another request, she felt another blast of magic hit her, sending her soaring heavily to the ground on the far side of them. She kept her consciousness and recovered quickly, taking to wing and ignoring the ache in that same leg as the guards and civilians scattered, screaming.
“You hide my perfect sun, you fraternise with monsters, and you turn my own guards against me!” Daybreaker hissed, building up for another blast of magic. “I will reduce you and your monstrous kin to ashes!”
Luna didn’t reply, rolling aside to avoid the blast of energy that instead blew a hole into the castle’s roof behind her. She hoped that none of the servants had been below. Knowing that she couldn’t risk the ponies getting hurt, she flew away as quickly as she could, east over the gnarled trees of the Everfree.
“You flee from me? Coward!” Daybreaker was giving pursuit. Good.
Hearing magic charging, Luna briefly snapped her wings shut and let herself fall, the beam of magic flying high above her. Spreading them again, she caught a thermal and flew upwards, briefly coming behind Daybreaker. Hesitating for a moment, she charged and fired a bolt of magical energy that hit the Daybreaker in the flank. It was weak, barely a fraction of what she could muster with time, but it charred the white fur, and made her roar and turn back on Luna.
Already, Luna was charging a more powerful blast, and Daybreaker responded in kind, horn glowing bright as the sun. They both loosed them as one, and the magic collided in an explosion of pure energy, sending a shockwave that shook the leaves from the trees and sent the birds, already distressed from the strange patterns of daylight, screaming to wing. They both held their beams for another few seconds, before the equilibrium shifted, the collision slipping closer to Luna. She was sweating from exertion, her body hurting, and Celestia had always been the stronger of the two. She couldn’t win a fight like this.
But Luna had always been faster.
She closed her wings again and stopped her own magical attack, letting Celestia’s burn the air above her head. Again she opened her wings to catch a thermal and rise as Daybreaker roared in fury, immediately setting off in pursuit. Luna led her east, in the direction of the Hayseed Swamps, away from any real civilisation. She had to keep the thing that had been her sister away from the people, but she couldn’t do that forever. The sun needed to be lowered, before the world boiled in eternal daylight, and Celestia was in no position to do so.
So she had to stop her. But how? Think, Luna, think!
The Elements. Together, the alicorns had used them to stop the dark spirit, Discord, the only artifact of sufficient power to stop his wicked reign. Could Luna use them alone? Would they even work against Daybreaker? She had to try.
But the Elements were back at the castle, sealed in an elaborate sculpture. She couldn’t risk leading this monster back there before the ponies had all got away. Dodging another blast of energy, Daybreaker’s roars distant as Luna’s powerful wings carried her away, she made the decision. She would keep flying east, put as much distance between the two alicorns as possible, then loop high above Daybreaker and return to the palace. Hopefully, the distance would buy her enough time to activate the Elements.
Gritting her teeth and ducking below scorching magic, she flew on.
The muscles in Luna’s wings and shoulders burned. As alicorns, she and her sister were afforded certain privileges in terms of their magic, and the pegasus magic that powered their flight was stronger than even the strongest fliers among the pegasus population. But, as she was rapidly discovering, it had its limits. Her plan had gone just as she hoped, flying all the way over to the ocean on the far side of the Hayseed Swamps, then climbing high, well above the clouds, to loop back in the castle’s direction.
Daybreaker had, of course, realised that she’d turned. She’d learned this when a blast of magical force came at her too suddenly to dodge, and had scorched the edges of her blue mane black. But the distance she’d put between them again was impressive. And now, as she was back over the Everfree forest, she knew that she’d have a little over a minute at the castle before Daybreaker could catch up.
When put like that, it sounded a lot less reassuring.
“Your majesty!” Luna blinked at the little shape rising below her in the strange twilight, and saw it form into the shape of a pony. It was Umbral, the captain of her night guard. She was one of the rare, bat-winged thestrals, with a dusky plum coat and black mane beneath her armour. “Are you hurt?”
“Is everypony away from the castle town?” Luna panted, ignoring the question and dropping any pretense of royal decorum.
“Yes, your majesty!” Luna couldn’t slow but, for a short time, the captain could push her limits to keep pace. “Is she still pursuing you?”
Luna nodded. “I’m… I’m going to get the Elements from the castle, and try to use them to stop her. It’s the only chance I have. I think… I think I have a minute before she reaches it.”
“Is… Is that enough time?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let me distract her, your majesty.”
“What?” Luna asked incredulously, slowing her pace for a fraction of a second to stare at her captain.
“Use your magic to disguise me as you. I’ll lead her away from the castle while you get the Elements.”
“Umbral, that is suicide. She will burn you to nothing. I will not have you die for this.”
“My princess, I swore, when I took this position, that I would live and die to defend you and Equestria. And I meant it.”
They shared a long, hard look. Umbral had tears in her eyes, but her face never faltered, her mouth a thin, determined line. After a few moments, Luna shut her eyes, tears running down her cheeks, and summoned her magic. When she opened her eyes again, Umbral had her coat and mane, a false horn emerging from her forehead. The illusion wasn’t perfect - Umbral was still smaller, and her wings were still those of a bat rather than a bird - but at a distance, it would be convincing enough.
“You are a good friend, Umbral. I will miss you so.”
“Serving you has been the greatest honour imaginable, your majesty. Stop that monster and lower the sun, for all of us.”
Luna dropped low to hide among the Everfree’s canopy, while the disguised Umbral banked off to the right, making no attempt to hide amongst the clouds. Forcing herself to control her breathing, Luna glided the last few hundred metres out of the Everfree with every muscle in her body on fire. Below her, the castle town was silent, hastily abandoned, the dirt roads between the thatched buildings kicked up into choppy mud by the evacuation. And at the centre, the great castle was visibly wounded, a series of craters in the walls from their brief battle earlier.
She banked down into the hole in the wall, at the base of the tallest tower, and came into the grand foyer of the castle. The luxurious purple carpets were marred by fragments of stone and mortar, and the tapestries on the walls fluttered in a breeze they had never seen before. The back-to-back images of Celestia and Luna seemed almost animated below the embroidered skies, and-
No. Don’t think about it.
She alighted beside her target, the stone spheres, five smaller ones surrounding one larger one like a depiction of a solar system in stone. Both of her forelegs collapsed from the strain on her shoulders when she alighted, the right sending a shock of pain down her back from the point where the magical blast had hit her. She let herself lie on the carpet, feeling the grit of the destroyed wall beneath her belly, as she conjured her magic, coaxing those little gemstones from their stone prisons, one by one. So insignificant they looked, but she knew the power that they held.
A shockwave came, shaking dust from the rafters far above, shattering stained glasses into shards, and making the Elements tremble as she laid them in a circle before her. It was accompanied by a flare of orange light from the sun far above. She knew what it meant. And knew that she had so little time, now.
She focused with all the energy left in her body and, one by one, the Elements rose from the ground, and began to circle around her. Slowly, trembling in the air like they would fall. When they banished the spirit, Celestia and Luna had taken three each. Could Luna use the magic of all six at once? Struggling back to her feet and facing the castle’s doors, the hole in the wall far above them, Luna knew that she would have to try.
“You!” A shock of pain, like a club to the cheek, and Luna staggered backwards, forelegs threatening to give out from under her again. Daybreaker hovered in a broken window to her side, a black silhouette against the confused sky. Her horn was aglow, lighting a face that was twisted with hatred. “Was your decoy supposed to distract me? To send me on a wild goose chase across Equestria? Because it didn’t work!” Luna had turned just enough that this second blast of energy caught her in the side, running down the length of her flank like a hot knife. She couldn’t stop herself from crying out.
But, she noted when her eyes opened, the Elements were responding. Their orbit had steadied, and they were spinning faster and faster around her body.
“This ends here, monster! This battle is over!” The next beam of white-hot magic should’ve struck Luna in the chest, but it was deflected by the Elements, now spinning so rapidly around her that they were blurring. Whatever hate was coming next died in Daybreaker’s mouth, and her brow furrowed.
“Do you remember what these are?” Luna asked, in a voice barely above a whisper that boomed around the castle.
“The Elements of Harmony.” Daybreaker hissed. “But it requires one with an understanding of harmony to activate them, not a monstrous queen! I have no fear!” Regardless of what she said, there was a slight tremble in her voice as Luna began to rise off the ground with those last words, the powerful magic carrying her up. Roaring, Daybreaker fired off a flurry of bolts of magical energy, one after another. Most were deflected harmlessly aside by the elements, but some found their marks. One struck Luna’s wing. Another, her uninjured cheek. Another found her right foreleg, already in agony, making her cry out.
But it couldn’t stop what had begun. Much like the time she and Celestia had fought the spirit, she did not control the Elements. She was a vessel for their power, and she could feel it flooding through her like liquid gold in her veins. She was visibly imbued with power, her eyes glowing bright through their lids and her mane becoming a flowing, black starscape, the night sky within it. Inhaling deeply, she opened her eyes, knowing that tears were streaming down her cheeks. Daybreaker hovered in place, too stunned to either fight or flee.
“If there is anything of Tia left in there,” Luna said, her voice booming even though she felt it should be trembling. “I love you so, so much.”
Then, the power flowed out of her, a rainbow of pure energy that arced up into the rafters and struck the self-proclaimed queen of Equestria. She screamed, in shock and fear and pain as the energy swirled around her, Luna collapsing into a heap on the floor as the Elements returned to inert gems around her. The night princess pressed her chin to the floor and covered her eyes with her hooves as the screaming echoed, the brilliant lights flashed in the corner of the castle foyer.
Then, all was quiet and dark.
Slowly, Luna pried her eyes open. The sun had set, and she had never been so relieved to see her stars before. Outside of the devastated castle, the world was normal again. The night would go on until the sun rose, and then it would set again. The world was as it should be. Equestria was saved.
Luna lay in the broken castle and wept.
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dis good.
10940386
Thanks a lot!
For some reason I do not understand the reason why Celestia succumbed to her darkness. She was doing well. Why did she start seeing the enemy instead of her sister? Luna had a well-founded reason to overthrow Celestia, since all the glory went to her.
If Celestia had any reason to hate the moon, then there would be no complaints, but this is a mindless battle for the sake of battle.
10940719
From what I got, Celestia probably lost someone really close to her, a lover, siblng, child etc to a monster when it was night. Hence instead of going through stages of grief, because she is a perfect pretty pony princess, she withrew her worries and buried them until she became a vicim of the nightmaes whisper.
I can see her doing this for the greater good when nightmare influenced.
After all, the excuse was to protect them, and she called Luna a monster for doing her job, which came from the left field.
You know someone likes a fic when they start annalizing the characters and working theories.
Very nice
10998049
Thank you!
Either Ponyville is 1,000 years old in your story or Granny Smith is very old
Yeah, sorry if there’s an explanation later, I tend to comment while reading instead of waiting till I’m done
11027211
Yeah, so do I. My first thought when Ponyville was mentioned was that it didn't, or shouldn't, exist until several centuries after this event.
11027211
Granny Smith is a changeling queen, which is why she can live that long
11027211
According to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_common_U.S._place_names there are no less than 91 places in the United States all named "Washington". Similarly for places called such uncreative names as "centerville" (38) or "newport" (25) or "riverside" (25)
Presumably, there may be or have been more than one place in Equestrian history by the name Ponyville besides our Ponyville. "Village where ponies live" is hardly a particularly creative or rare inspiration to become the namesake of a town in a country populated entirely by ponies, y'know?