Blond Collie Mansion

When you first think of dastardly villains, you think of an evil scientist rubbing their hands together in wicked glee. That was exactly like Daybreaker, except she had hooves and was in no way smart enough to be a scientist.

She paced in front of her sister, who was currently lying on her side being depressed. Typical, Daybreaker thought.

"Look. I'll even let the sun down for you. How does that sound?"

"Can I leave?" was Nightmare Moon's response.

Daybreaker rolled her razor-blade eyes and continued her rant. "It's a win-win! We show those stupid princesses who's in charge. I'll get Celestia's throne. You get Luna's. I'll finally control the sun, you control the moon. We accomplish our dreams. We become rulers. Do you understand?
This is huge!"

"You might want to tweak your plans a bit."

"What? Is there something wrong? I'll include you! I pro--"

"You forgot the part where I opt out."

Daybreaker's ecstatic mood almost crumbled. Since she was born four minutes before Nightmare Moon, the latter had always been the moodiest. That was number seventeen of the sixty-four Twin Rules (Daybreaker was smart enough to know that the average mare had that many chromosomes. Genetics was the one part of science that she actually paid attention to).Of course, Daybreaker had just come up with them on the spot, but rules were rules. And rulers were rulers. Soon to be.

"Come on, sis."

"I'm not your sister." This recieved another eyeroll. Ever since their fight in Starbright Glitter's--was that it?--dream, Nightmare Moon had been quite depressed, and Daybreaker had been more energetic than ever. She was always the hyper-wicked mare in the family, but now it seemed ultra-magnified. Nightmare Moon, though, hated every single thing now. Even the nighttime.

"We can do it! We can be on top. Imagine!"

"We'll probably die."

Daybreaker understood this; after all, they would have died if they had casted death spells only to have them backfire when Celestia got between them. Instead, Nightmare Moon used a spell to give herself a body, and Daybreaker(who already had a body, but was very weak), used a strengthening spell. They both seemed to know that Celestia would deflect their spells (that was Twin Rule number two: Twins had the same intuition).

"We won't," Daybreaker assured her sister. "You just need to help me plan."

"I'm still out."

"Then how am I supposed to do this?"

"Do it yourself."

"No! I only JUST woke up from that horrible Starbright dream."

"Wait, 'just' means three weeks ago?"

Eyeroll number three. "What I mean is, this is something huge. No way I can pull it off on my own."

Nightmare sat up. "I didn't say you couldn't. I just said I'm not."

Daybreaker huffed, annoyed. "Fine! See if I ever do anything for you. You won't get to see your lovely moon--"

"Instead, you'd rather give sunburns."

Daybreaker was about to retort when a gasp silenced her.

She and Nightmare whirled around towards the general direction. No one had spotted them. No one had better spotted them.

But, alas, someone did--

"WHAT?!" Tempest screamed.

_____
Tempest certainly didn't want to die. She also certainly didn't want to be pushed up against a tree trunk surrounded by two very unfamiliar and frightening mares. Alicorns. Very powerful, too.

She let out a series of cries and whimpers, utterly terrified, while the alicorn with the fiery mane shushed her.

"Shshshshsh!" Daybreaker tried to reassure the scared unicorn, but Tempest was beyond frightened. She was about to scream when--THWACK!

"Nightmare! Are you KIDDING ME?"

"She needed to shut up!" Nightmare protested, having jumped up the moment she saw Tempest open her mouth.

"Uncalled for!" Daybreaker snarled, then turned back to the unicorn. Upon closer look, she noticed something off. This wasn't an ordinary unicorn.

She had a broken horn.

Was it a birth defect? Did she lose it in a battle? Either way, Daybreaker instantly felt sorry for her, imagining what it must be like to be a magical pony with no powers.

Tempest dared to open her eyes again, and her eyes met a pair of teal slitted ones. The darker alicorn had bent down to her eye level. Did she see...did the alicorn know her?
Letting out another shriek, she began to power up her horn.

Daybreaker was wrong. The unicorn did have magic.

She felt herself lifted off of her hooves as a blast of heat overcame her. Of course Daybreaker embraced heat, but the magic kind? Pure torture. It sent electricity soaring through her nerves. Once she landed, she thought she couldn't move. She tried one leg. Still working.

Nightmare Moon, meanwhile, had fallen to Daybreaker's left, and she was furious--but also bewildered. Who was this pony?

Daybreaker sat up and stared at the dark purple unicorn. She began to notice other things: the badarse hairstyle, the green eyes that reminded her of Nightmare Moon's.
Nightmare had gotten to her hooves by the time Daybreaker had settled on her knees. The impact had made her bones ache, so she had some trouble. Nightmare, however, was staring, mouth agape, at the unicorn, who as also standing and looking completely in charge. And, yeah, confused.

Tempest had not meant to burst out of control, but she had. She had broken two of Mr. Haysworth's rules already. Thinking about it now, she had never broken a rule before in the forty-seven days she'd been at the community farm.

Now she was on her hooves, facing the teal-eyed alicorn with shaky confidence.

But the look on the alicorn's face wasn't one of malice. It was one of recognition.

"Day," Nightmare Moon breathed, "it's Tempest."