Tempest Shadow leaned heavily in her shovel, panting and sweating despite the cool weather. She had a full three hours of community service left, and to her, it was the end of a lifetime. Just after being sentenced to two hundred hours, she could barely fathom it. But now she just had three days of community service left--one hour per day--and she felt quite accomplished.
However, it didn't mean it wasn't so hard. She had to go to a community farm by the Appleachians, a far way from Canterlot, and help the harvest for the last fifty days. It was autumn, and leaves littered the ground waiting to be sewn. Tempest first had to rake all those leaves, then set to work readying the rough, uneven ground for crops. She then had to plant those crops, and harvest from others.
Right now she was digging holes so she could plant pumpkin seeds. She had to do the entire garden. That meant ten rows of fifteen pumpkin seed holes. That meant one hundred and fifty holes to be dug. She was only on her thirty-ninth. This was hard work. She was used to hard work as a commander, but not as a farmer. Of course, she had her magic, but the farm's owner would be furious. She had already seen him hit another pony.
Sweat accumulated on her brow. She wiped at it hastily and hurried to resume, not so eager to appear lazy to the angry Mr. Haysworth, the community farm's owner. She turned to finish her current row, and that was when the flicker caught her eye.
It was fire.
Tempest knew the protocol: if there was a problem, report to Mr Haysworth immediately. She wasn't exactly sure about what she saw, though. It was just a flicker, and maybe it wasn't a forest fire. Maybe it was a campfire.
She decided to wait until she saw it again. Working at the base of the Appleachians was dangerous; last year, the weather ponies had quite a few wildfires to deal with. Tempest thought of the flicker and found herself whipping her head to--
There it was. Again.
If this was a disaster and Tempest ignored it, it would be all her fault.
That was what prompted her to investigate. She took a glance around and saw Mr. Haysworth teaching another unicorn, Rosie, how to use a plow with her hooves. Rosie was a newcomer and had a lot of trouble with things, so Tempest knew that Mr. Haysworth would be quite busy.
Tempest gave herself two minutes to find the source of the flame. She stuck the shovel into the ground and trotted towards the trees, careful to avoid crunchy leaves and any other indicators of her abandonment.
Once she made it past the treeline that marked the edge of the woods, about ten yards from where the mountains started their slope, she hid herself behind a large trunk and looked to her left, the general direction of the fire. When she didn't spot it, she decided to go further. She weaved between a couple of trees. The farther in she journeyed, the denser the woods became. At every tree she passed, she looked around. She tried investigating more to her left, but to no avail. Her brow furrowed.
She was not a hoof from the slope when she realized how far she had gotten. It had undoubtedly been two minutes already. She started to turn back. Maybe it was just a firefly; it was almost evening. But that wouldn't make sense. Summer was over, and winter was nearing.
But as she turned back, she saw it again. This time, it was very distinguishable. It was fire, and it was coming from somewhere to her left when she turned back.
Tempest crept closer and closer, and she heard something. A murmuring. Voices! Someone was camping there. She was right!
Now she had to warn them to move.She didn't want them o be under Mr. Haysworth's wrath, or have them start another forest fire. As she stepped closer, she realized that beyond those trees where the voices seemed to come from was a clearing. She caught the fire again.
Something was off. The cool air got to her, and she leaned forward, shivering. Was the fire...floating? It seemed to be almost wavy, like Princess Celestia's mane. And then there was a flash of blue. Water? No--it seemed to be waving in the air as well. Were both Luna and Celestia here? What was this?
If it was the princesses, they were probably checking up on Tempest, wondering why she wasn't in the fields.But the voices sounded different. Harsh...evil. Who were they?
Only one way to find out.
Tempest peeked into the clearing where the voices had originated and stopped in her tracks, eyes wide. Before her were two of the strangest-looking mares ever.
Author's Note
This originated from an idea I had back when I was starting to write. This isn't my main story, so don't expect this to be updated often.
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."
