When The Sun Burns Out

The sound of the enraged crowd grew louder as the blue mare approached the doors. Her magic tinted the doors blue as she threw them open, galloping out them and skidding to a halt beside a frantic Twilight Sparkle.

Luna looked on in pure shock. Nearly the entire population of Canterlot was at their doorstep, a multitude trying to overrun the guards in large waves. Those stallions were strong, but they could only hold the angry mob back for so long. Other ponies stayed back, merely yelling in a frenzied panic and demanding answers. The mare bit her lip and looked around at all the horrified ponies, trying her best to process each question thrown at her.

Twilight stood beside her, raising her voice and shouting reassurances out to the crowd, but it proved useless. Her voice was easily drowned out.

Pegasi who were in the air above them, half of them barely even able to properly fly in their panic, took notice of Luna's presence and began screaming down at her, frantically demanding that the moon princess tell them what was happening. A few were even trying to fly down and over the guard line in attempts to reach, she assumed, her, but were easily knocked back by quickly conjured barriers, courtesy of the unicorn guards. In response to the reflection, unicorns began using their magic to aid the earth ponies in their violent pushing and shoving; some tried to disperse the forcefield via their own magic and others simply charged horn-first at the magical block.

"Everypony, please!" Twilight called out, desperately trying to reach her voice over the crowd. "Everything is fine, I'm sure of it!"

Celestia and Cadence shortly joined the two, the eldest mare panting heavily while Cadence's breathing came in short breaths. She looked between her aunts expectantly, "Wh..Wh-What do we do...?!" She mouthed, her voice completely drowned out.

As expected, Luna didn't hear a word she said. She could barely decipher what Twilight was saying, and she was barely a hoof away from her. She gnawed on her bottom lip and just barely opened her wings, light blue circling her horn as she gently pushed off the ground and into the sky. What she had intended to be reassuring just intimidated the helpless civilians even more. Even in the sky, she could hear them as clear as day.

Thoroughly exhausted, the mare struggled to begin raising her moon, the blue-tinted orb slowly coming up from over the horizon. However, it only made it half way before she called it quits. Surely this was enough to convince them that the cycle still existed? She was partially right at least. Many began to calm at the sight of the moon, but not enough.

"Luna, what are you doing? Raise the moon!" Twilight attempted to call up to her. Barely able to hear her, Luna only looked down at her, grimacing and shaking her head. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't. She didn't have the energy. She slowly fluttered back down, inhaling deeply before speaking out to the crowd in her loud, court-like tone. "Citizens of Equestria! All of you must leave immediately!" Her voice boomed, every pony within the vicinity falling silent. "There will be no moon tonight! If you happen to see another night such as this, do not be alarmed, for I am currently raising and lowering both my moon and 'Tia's sun!"

The mare was cut off, Celestia stumbling over and harshly butting her shoulder to silence her.

Faint murmurs and whispers started up, a few ponies puzzled by the last statement made by the princess.

Princess Luna was raising the sun? That wasn't right...

"My little ponies, please do not fear" Celestia rasped, "everything will be just fine! Luna is merely doing too much! I do not need her help, she just insists on doing so--"

"Don't need my help?" The blue mare interjected, "'Tia, you're sick! You're going to work yourself to death, you do need my help!"

The lavender alicorn stepped forward, "Luna, I really don't think this is the time to be--"

"Silence, Twilight Sparkle! Everypony should know just what is going on!" She turned to face the crowd once more, "Everypony, take a good, long look at her! She's turned pink! Do you know what that means? She's getting weaker! The older she gets, the darker her coat will become!" She snapped, pointing a hoof at her irritable, elder sister, whom quickly smacked it away. "Luna! Knock it off!"

"No, 'Tia! You do not understand what you are doing!"

"...Excuse me, Your Majesties, I do not mean to interrupt but" a young stallion stepped forward, the guards instantly stepping forward to usher him back. He looked no older than sixteen, at the least. "Princess Luna, why are you doing your sister's job? Just because she's aging... that doesn't mean you have to raise the sun..."

The night mare narrowed her eyes, turning and calmly walking down the steps to meet him, the guards stepping aside. "You do not understand. Do not get involved in what you do not know." She hissed, the stallion flattening his ears slightly, "...M..My apologies, Your Highness..."

Celestia growled deeply. "Luna, you are not going to belittle me behind closed doors any longer, and definitely not in front of my kingdom!"

Luna narrowed her eyes, "You can not stop me--"

"Stop it!" Cadence stepped between the two, "This is not a thing to be discussed right now! We don't need to worry everypony! Deal with this later!"

Twilight hesitantly stepped forward, "Everypony... Please go home... Everything will be fine."

One by one, the crowd of ponies began to slowly disperse, each and every one of them wearing a look of doubt on their face, or at least something similar to one. All while the ancient mares glared daggers at each other, teeth bared threateningly.

The mares of Friendship and Love looked on sadly at the two, both with one initial thought;

What were they supposed to do to fix this?

Cadence sat calmly upon Celestia's throne, legs folded comfortably beneath her as she watched Twilight Sparkle pace the throne room back and forth restlessly. "Twilight, you should probably sit for a little while. You don't want to wear yourself out."

"Not an option, Cadence. We have to figure out a way to fix this! We can't have them fighting, it might cause another Nightmare Moon incident! Or maybe something even worse. What if Celestia has her own dark version? She may be weak but if she were to obtain such dark magic, it wouldn't matter! She'd be unstoppable!"

"I think you're getting ahead of yourself..." The pink mare frowned, "Maybe Starlight Glimmer can help us out. I can even write to Flurry Heart! I bet she'd be more than happy to aid us."

"No, the Crystal Empire needs both of you. In fact, you should probably return soon. Starlight and I have things under control."

"It doesn't really seem like it. Perhaps I can cast a bonding spell, to force them to make up and work together."

"I don't think it would work. To an extent maybe, but not fully."

"Why do you say that?"

"Think about it. Both Celestia and Luna are powerful ponies. They have magic way more advanced than ours will be for a long while. Your magic is good, but I don't think it's strong enough to take complete control over them. If anything, it'd work for a day or so before wearing off. They'd be back to fighting in no time."

Cadence grimaced, "I suppose you're right..."

"However... Starlight has her own advanced magic, magic Celestia herself said she had never seen before. Magic that could rip away what made a pony special."

"What? Twilight! You can't have her take away Celestia's cutie mark!"

"No, no, I'd never do that! What I mean is, what if there's some other spell she can cast? One with... similar effects?"

"I'm sorry, I don't follow..."

"If she can manipulate talents, maybe she can also manipulate minds!" Twilight grinned, "Maybe she can convince Celestia to mellow down!"

After giving it some thought, the love mare began to nod, a smile slowly spread across her face. "Yeah.. Yeah. I guess that could work!"

She nodded, her grin growing even wider. "She should be back tomorrow evening, so I'll have plenty of time to discuss it with her!"

"It's worth a try. I'll do whatever you need me to do to help."

"I'm not sure yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I have a plan!" Twilight excitedly shuffled on her hooves, turning and galloping out the door.

This would work! It had to work!