The Country Comes First
Chapter Twenty-Two:
A little more than a thousand years ago, Princess Luna stood in the Castle deep inside Everfree Forest, the castle of the two royal pony sisters deep into an argument that she was determined to win.
Luna was angry, she had gotten sloppy quite frankly. Her sister, her precious perfect sister was undermining her own power in the government. Her sister didn't care about the night at all, constantly making a scene for herself about the sun, how brilliant the sun was and the public just ate it up. Luna tried to gain some control over the years but it was failing, she attempted to stage a mutiny to reassert control, to have a chance to negotiate with her sister whose ego was growing bigger as the worship of the sun increased day by day.
Celestia found out about her attempt before it even got off the ground from one wrong move of trusting a solar guard for information, who of course told his friend and that started a chain reaction that ended in guards fighting each other and now Luna was in one of the spaces the siblings shared, a nice warm fireplace, comfy seating, beautiful antique furniture, but with a tense standoff that Luna did not want to be in.
They stood, staring at each other what Luna interpreted as hatred for each other. As of that moment, she no longer considered Celestia her sister based on many issues but the cold look her older sister was giving her as she looked down at her like a filly was certainly a contributing factor.
"I can't believe this, my own sister would try to pull a revolution against me." Celestia said slowly. "I have told you, time and time again, you don't understand how the public works. They do not adore me Luna, we are nothing but ponies to be used for their needs, for their wants. If you even tried to see it my way than-"
"No, Celestia, you are a liar." Luna barked, causing Celestia to flinch at the accusation. "You are trying to undermine me, trying to manipulate me into giving up this position. We were born for this. I won't let you take this away from me. We have nothing left but this and you are trying to take the only thing we have left to live for away. I won't allow it!"
"I am not trying to take it away from you, Luna! I am punishing you for your lack of foresight in your own actions. You can't just keep threatening ponies, you have to give them compromises. They won't respect or listen to you if you keep playing into the fear they have made around your name!"
Luna fought back. "They don't respect me just as they don't respect the moon. They don't care about us or my decision to help this country because of you! You publicly ignoring me!"
"I am not listening to this from a pony who just tried to pull the same stunt she is accusing me of. You were trying to undermine my authority! You personally broke into my records to try to give evidence to the press of things you deemed wrong, of secrets that the public should not know! They don't need to know what Starswirl did, they never need to know that the hero they believed he was, did actions that go against the very foundation of this country's existence over the incident with Stygian." Celestia replied, pointing accusingly to her study further in the castle. "You are damn lucky I stopped you before you caused a bigger problem than this."
"I believe in the country we love so much having full knowledge of its government dealings, they deserve to know what has happened! They deserve an explanation as to why Starswirl went missing! There are already conspiracy theories about it!" Luna snapped without a sign of backing down. "Family is more important than this country, we are sisters, you should care more about my option as your equal, as your sister, as your only surviving family, than as you put it, the manipulative public."
Celestia leaned in close, lowering her head to have her eyes meet with Luna's rage-filled ones. Her teeth clenched in rage as the tension got worse between them from the short moment of silence that befell the arguing pair.
"The country of 10 million mortal lives come first, Luna." Celestia said slowly as her eyes grew colder from each word she spoke. Luna could barely believe what she was saying. "I am sorry, but we are not mortal unicorns anymore, we have a country to care for. At a certain point, the lives of the many...outweigh the lives of two immortal alicorns. Their lives are remarkably short, we were not put on this earth to rule over them. We were put here to listen to them, to conform to what they want, to keep them in order so that they and the generations after can flourish. Do not forget that."
Luna never did forget that.
A thousand years later as Luna galloped into Canterlot with the elements, her sister's words from one of many awful fights they had before her banishment rang in her mind as if she heard it yesterday.
"The country of 10 million mortal lives come first, Luna."
Luna was haunted by those words before she became Nightmare Moon since it only justified her fears that her sister cared more about her country than her own sister, but now, Luna was haunted by the justification they gave her. She had to protect the country from the tyrant her sister turned into.
She was sure Celestia used this same line when she banished Nightmare Moon, of course guilt would hit her in large waves, and she would blame herself as her sister always did but when she had to get up and move with life, not sulking in her dark study she was sure Celestia must have thought, the country comes first.
It always did in a way.
She hated she felt that way. She hated Celestia felt that way even more than one thousand years ago. She hated she now had to use it to do what had to be done. She often used to consider what would her sister do? But, she already knew what Celestia would do in such a situation. Luna experienced it personally.
She looked back to the other ponies who followed her, she slightly slowed her pace for them to keep up as they seemed to be unable to turn their horrified eyes away from the horror around them, from the clear pain and suffering, from the guards unable to function of their own will.
Luna knew this was far from the country they remembered from a matter of hours, from that morning even, it was a lot to process.
"Come, we must hurry if we want this to end." Luna pressed, her tone sharp at first before it softened as their attention was brought back to her with sorrow written all over them. Even the bright Pinkie Pie's mane had deflated slightly, not as curly as before as she dragged her hooves along the cobblestone. They seemed to be doing a death march as they moved along.
It was one thing for those ponies to hear about what was happening, to see it through the protection of the stable castle, it was another to truly experience it as it raged on around them.
Twilight was horrified as she saw what was taking place, she could feel a deep sense of fight kick into her chest as began to pick up speed, moving past each of her friends as tears stung her eyes as she considered her options.
"Bow before your new empress."
Subjects, big and small, surrounded by guards and staring up at the unrecognizable pony who they knew was once the alicorn of the sun, turned into something monstrous and slowly bowed their heads to the ground. They were mortals, weak mortals who didn't dare put up a fight against the sun.
She smirked as the population fell in line.
"Stop this now, sister!"
Daybreaker narrowed her eyes as her subjects immediately rose their heads to turn towards the source of the opposition. She gritted her teeth as the crowd parted, smiles crossing their faces as the Elements of Harmony led by Luna confidently moved closer to the center of the city to fight her, to oppose her, to question her.
"I am not your pathetic sister!" Daybreaker barked, insulted at the title. "Are you here to witness history? The rising of an empire, or perhaps...the fall of harmony."
Luna stood tall as she spread her wings in a sign of authority, giving Twilight a sad glance before she looked back at Daybreaker with growing anger. Twilight couldn't take her eyes off of Daybreaker, seeming to have issues processing that the pastel Princess Celestia could turn into such a burning inferno. Her friends weren't doing much better either, Daybreaker took some delight in the fear playing on their faces.
Twilight moved past Luna, wearing the element of magic, followed closely by her friends as they slowly approached the alicorn.
"Please, just listen to us for a moment." Twilight pleaded. Daybreaker scoffed and stepped down from her self-made podium of the remaining rubble of the once beautiful statue to approach the group, the fire of her mane growing as her emotions swirled. "You are hurting them! You are hurting your subjects, you are hurting ponies you swore to protect when you took the crown. I know you are angry, Princess Luna understands that more than anypony but she is an example, an example of how rage and power don't get you what you want. It leads you to darkness, to causing pain and suffering to those you love the most!"
"I see..." Daybreaker said slowly, before leaning down to the small unicorn with a toothy grin that didn't reflect kindness or the warmth that Celestia once gave. "You are a fool, Twilight Sparkle. I apologize on Celestia's behalf, she made you believe in something so...pathetic."
"You are Celestia!" Twilight barked back. "Somewhere inside of you, you know exactly what you have done! You know you can stop this, Princess!"
"Don't give me that, dear student. If Celestia wanted to hear more useless speeches on mortality she would be here." Daybreaker retorted, narrowing her eyes down to look at the ponies she considered lesser. Twilight took an uncertain step back.
"I am not that annoying unicorn Celestia that history forgot, I am not the weak Celestia who chose to conform to everyone's needs rather than fight. I am the true sun. I am what this country needed, not some fool who would so easily betray herself to seem as something she was not." Daybreaker replied. "It's rather sad actually. You actually thought you knew her...Ridiculous."
"Princess...No, Daybreaker I know you are angry. I know you have pain inside of you. Nightmare Moon felt that same pain and anger, surely you don't want to be banished like she was. Don't you want to have peace?" Twilight pleaded. Daybreaker let out a small chuckle.
"Banished, now why would I be banished?" Daybreaker replied. "Surely you don't want to stunt your academic growth now do you, faithful student? I may not be Celestia, but unlike her, I could show you so much more than her. I could teach you magic she would have never allowed."
Twilight stood still in stunned silence for a moment, all eyes turned to her as she considered her past. Her past life. Her life as a unicorn in Canterlot.
Young student Twilight Sparkle walked along the corridor of Canterlot Castle in shame. She had been caught in the Royal Canterlot Library, specifically the forbidden section where the most important spell books were kept.
She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she had hoped that her clear ambition to learn magic would help the Princess. Princess Celestia hadn't been happy recently, Twilight had only been inside the castle for a matter of months but she found that during the Hearth's Warming holiday season, Celestia always grew more sad according to the staff and even Twilight could see the change in her mentor's mood.
She had read through all the other magic books, she wanted a challenge, she wanted, no...needed to impress the Princess to make her feel better. She was a good teacher, maybe she had just forgotten that fact? So, Twilight went into the restricted section at midnight, losing sleep didn't matter to her. She found the largest selection of new books she had ever seen in her life and couldn't wait to jump in.
Just as she grabbed a large book from one of the lower selves and opened it to start reading, she found herself staring at Princess Celestia down the Library row with two guards glaring at her. Her teacher swiped the book without a word and a disapproving glare, the guards escorted them out before the Princess made a motion of her wings for them to be on their way.
Which is where she found herself now. Feeling shame and embarrassment as she shuffled down the corridor, following slowly behind an Alicorn who had not said a word since she saw Twilight in the Library. She just wanted the Princess to feel better, but based on the tense silence, she had a feeling she did the exact opposite.
"P-Princess?" Twilight said softly, the Alicorn slightly turned her head to look behind her to the young filly with a raised eyebrow. Twilight could feel tears pricking her eyes as she sniffled. "I-I am r-really sorry for breaking into the restricted section of the Library."
"Oh, Twilight." Celestia said before shaking her head and turning to face the unicorn with a sigh. "It's alright, Twilight, it's just...Why? Why did you do that? I warned you multiple times to not go into that section, it is dangerous."
"W-Well..." Twilight struggled to find her words. "You are so sad a-and I thought if I-I learned some new spells, it would make you happy again, also I had read every other spell book in the Library, I wanted t-to learn more!"
"Oh..." Celestia said slowly, her eyes glazed over for a moment as she seemed to have been lost in memory before she looked back down to Twilight, pulling her closer with her large white wing and a sad smile. "Once upon a time, I had a student that was very much like you. She was very talented, she was very intelligent, but she always wanted to know more. She thought all she needed was the knowledge of magic, that pure knowledge and magical skill would get her anything she wanted in life. Much like I have done with you, I encouraged her to find friends, but her attempts had mostly failed. One day, she went a step too far, she disobeyed my direct orders to not investigate...a dangerous form of magic. After that, she went down a path I could not support and I was forced to end my role as her teacher. She went her own way in life, but the point is, sometimes we don't need to know everything my dear student."
Twilight digested her mentor's words, and a million questions formed in her mind that she was hesitant to ask due to the clear pain on her teacher's face at the mention of her former student.
"Isn't magic good? Magic helps ponies!" Was the only thing Twilight could think of as a defence.
"Not all magic is good, Twilight." Celestia admitted. "Even Starswirl the bearded avoided the darker secrets of magic to avoid falling into its pull. The books in that section are filled with dark dangerous magic. You are an incredibly smart pony, Twilight. I couldn't be prouder of you. But...Well...No pony needs to know everything there is in life. Many things are better left alone."
Twilight nodded, not quite sure if she agreed with her mentor at the time as they started to move through the corridor again slowly. She shook her head and tried not to dwell on the Library's dark books, she trusted her mentor. She may not have completely agreed with her then but she hoped to in the future.
After all, she was the Princess of Equestria.
The memory hurt, it hurt her to remember her fillyhood as it clicked on what Twilight had to do. She gulped, shaking her head out of the memory.
"Princess Celestia would never use the lure of power as a bribe." Twilight snapped. She missed her mentor. She missed the leader. She wanted her friend back. Daybreaker groaned in annoyance as if she was tired of the whole ordeal. "I want Princess Celestia back, she is inside of you, somewhere deep inside. I won't allow you to burn Equestria!"
"Oh, enough of this nonsense!" Daybreaker shouted. She raised on her hind legs, building up red magic before blasting it towards the elements. The girls screamed before Twilight blocked it with a shield, breaking apart from the force of the impact, sending her stumbling back with a grunt of pain.
Her friends fell into fighting stances as Luna strang to action. Slamming a blast into Daybreaker's side, Daybreaker cried out in pain before turning her attention to Luna. Daybreaker fired multiple blasts sending Luna into the air to deliver her own with massive flaps of her alicorn wings, Daybreaker raised a shield before sending it slamming into Luna who fell before turning in a circle to recover before using her body to tackle Daybreaker to the ground, flinching as she made contact with the fire of her mane and tail.
Daybreaker conjured a sword of fire, turning it towards Luna's back as they hit the ground. Luna quickly rolled out of the way just as the sword dived down to pierce the ground.
The crowd quickly scattered, the limited guards unable to control a whole city-wide panic as ponies scattered, escaping the fight of immortal alicorns in the buildings still standing in the capital city. Twilight turned to her friends with a defeated look.
"Girls, I don't want to do this." She whispered as the fight continued behind her. Luna conjured her own sword as she and Daybreaker stumbled up, soon swords of magic clashed as each move was made to defeat the other.
"Twilight, I don't think we have a choice anymore, sugarcube." Applejack replied, placing a hoof on Twilight's shoulder as the rest of them shared a mournful look.
"W-We don't know what the elements will do, t-they might banish Daybreaker but...maybe they could bring her back like they did with Princess Luna." Spike suggested with the hope of bringing optimism to the crumbling situation. Twilight sighed, the chances were extremely low of that happening, but there was, as Spike wanted, the hope of such an outcome. Even if her mentor came back, the damage that had been done was awful. They needed to end it before anypony died.
"A-Alright, get into formation."
Meanwhile, Luna cried in pain as Daybreaker suddenly shot flames from her mouth, burning her fur before she deflected it with a shield and knocked the flaming sword with her own made of moonlight to avoid more injury. She shot a giant blast at Daybreaker in the face, sending the larger alicorn to fumble backwards off guard into the open courtyard of the city.
Then there was a flash of light, the pair of alicorns turned to look at the source to find Twilight and the others rising into the air. Luna backed away from Daybreaker, looking towards her with deep sadness as the elements grew brighter as the power increased. Daybreaker stood still, unable to believe that it was actually happening.
"Y-You wouldn't dare..." Daybreaker mumbled as she turned to her doom. "Y-you can't..."
All of the group closed their eyes as they couldn't bear to look as the rainbow shot out of the elements towards Daybreaker. The citizens of Canterlot all looked up as a rainbow tore through the sky to rocket down towards the courtyard in astonishment at its deadly beauty.
Luna stared at Daybreaker, not tearing her eyes off of the mutated form of her sister for a moment as she knew how it would end. She had been through this. She knew how much the elements hurt as they slammed into you. She knew this was the last time she would see her for a very long time.
Daybreaker screamed as she tried to put in one last fight, she used all the magic she could, the very power of the red sun burning as she hit the beam headed for her. Much like Nightmare Moon's own battle, it flattered for a moment, only a moment before it continued its journey, slamming into the alicorn as her scream turned to pure pain.
Daybreaker saw her life flash before her eyes as it seemed as if her complete body had caught fire, she struggled to breathe as all she could see was multiple colours before looking down as she felt her body stiffen without her control. She gagged in pain and shock as she noticed her lower legs began to turn to stone.
She knew she couldn't escape it, it was far too late for that now.
She rose on her hind legs it worked it way up on instinct, as the light faded, she looked to the sky to see her sun, her beautiful sun one last time as the stone consumed the rest of her body. Encased in a prison of stone for the next one thousand years.
What happened next was silence, no pony moved except Luna. She stumbled forward, her body in pain from the battle as the sword vanished from her magical grasp. Luna placed a battered hoof on the statue, not quite believing her sister was banished just like she was. As the shock of the event wore off, she started to sob.
"S-sister, please, I am s-sorry, sorry, sorry-" Luna mumbled over and over as her body shook from grief. Twilight and the others rushed over as their own pain began. Soon the crowd began to form around the courtyard once again as they gazed at the statue of the monster that once was the perfect sun Princess.
"I-I didn't want this to ever happen to her!" Luna cried out to Twilight before burying her face into her own mane as she pressed herself closer to the statue as if that would bring her closer to her sister. As if that would repair what had happened. "W-Why didn't she talk to me?! Why didn't she say something? She is all the family I had left!"
The girls pulled her into a group hug, trying to comfort the Princess of the night and each other from the awful events as the city mourned, as the press rushed to print the story, as the guards tried to reorient themselves, soon finding themselves joining in the misery.
Luna eventually raised her head with bloodshot eyes as she ignited her magic, she could feel the sun fighting her, much like how the moon fought Celestia during her own banishment. Tears slid down her cheeks as she bit her lip from the pain. Forcing the rage-filled sun below the horizon to rest. Allowing it to return to its normal golden yellow, forcing the darkness of night to start.
Giving time for a shattered country to heal.
-THE END-
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Wow. Such an amazing story I have read and it was such ride to follow the events till the very end. Just awesome work!
11782547
Thank you!! Glad u enjoyed it!
Wow. I really didn't expect the commitment to the banishment and Celestia's deterioration, and I'm glad you did. It makes me curious and want to read more into the aftermath, and how the country recovers. Props to you Bean. I really enjoyed the trip to the end.
While I enjoyed the experience the story offered, the end makes no sense to me. No idea why the Elements would encase her in stone. The only creature the Elements did that to was Discord. Needless to say he's quite the different issue than Daybreaker.
While I wouldn't have liked it, I could understand banishing her to the sun or cleansing her like Nightmare Moon. Sorry dude, this ending doesn't work for me.
What I would like to say about this story. Although I criticized it in places earlier, nevertheless this is a good story about Celestia and Daybreaker, the latter, alas, is greatly deprived of the attention of writers. You also have one of the best explanations for the transformation of the Sun Princess into a fiery alicorn that I have seen.
But there are several things that the story lacks, and these are primarily afterwords, which would describe Daybreaker's thoughts, her reasoning about the reasons for her defeat and plans for her return, and, of course, I would really like to see the disclosure of the inner world of the fiery alicorn. It would also be cool to see in the epilogue how Twilight Sparkle and her friends carry flowers to the statue of their princess and talk about whether it was possible otherwise. And, of course, I wanted to see the reflections of Celestia herself and how she finally finds the long-awaited peace.
There is also another point that, in my opinion, is not done very well in the fike, namely, the strength of the Daybreaker itself, she feels too vulnerable in battles with Princess Luna, her terrifying power is not felt. But, as we know from the series, Nightmer is stronger in brute force.
That was a good story.
I for one would greatly enjoy a sequel, if you were to ever write one. This was excellent.
11782552
No problem! ^^ sorry for the late reply. Been busy but I wanted know if there's a possibility of short sequel about the aftermath and perspective from different ponies of they're thoughts and reactions of Celestia.
Not saying you should of course! Unless you feel like it and sorry if I came off rude.
Up until the rather abrupt ending, the slow burn of Celestia gradual fall from grace reminds me of a really good Nightmare Moon fanfiction by the author Obab Scribbler. In both cases, the sisters do not wake up one day and decide on a whim "to become evil." It's a gradual build-up of pain, stresses, anger, etc. And like in a couple of the episodes from the show, the bottled emotions will eventually pop.
Aside from some minor typos and such, you did a great job of showing that gradual transition. Her hurts, her fears, the knowledge that some of the Canterlotian Aristocracy would happily sell their own mothers if they thought they could get a single bit's more influence. But following Starswirl's teachings (I presume) she had to be the pretty princess first and foremost, and much like a certain yellow Pegasus many years later she hid her frustration and sorrow because to snap at the clearly greedy kiss up wouldn't be kind, wouldn't be generous, Yada Yada.
However, after Celestia gives in, the story kind of snowballs to the ending.
11798996
I honestly been trying to find a a story like you just described. Any chance you may know of any?