Prologue:
A white alicorn mare covered in sweat and tears was laying on the ground, her hooves were trembling. “What have I done?” She said quietly. Six stones laid out around her, all drained of their power, which was apparent in their grayish hue. She got up, and looked to the moon, where what was plain before, now had the face of her little sister.
A bulky stallion had ran into the dark, empty room, “Princess Celestia what has happened!?” He exclaimed in question.
Celestia had attempted to speak in her Royal Canterlot Voice, “MY SISTER, LUNA, IS-” she choked on her words, quickly dropping the voice, “Princess Luna is officially banished from-” She took a moment to take a breath, and continued speaking, “She is banished from Equestria for attempts of regicide against me.” The guard stared at Celestia blankly, then went to her, trying to help her up. “No just let me stay here.” Celestia said, pushing his hoof away. She continued to cry as the night went on.
Part 1:
A few days had passed, Celestia had continued her work, now doing the job of two alicorns to keep Equestria’s balance. The castle of the two sisters was completely destroyed from the battle, and Celestia had to abandon it, and work on a new castle was started in Canterlot. Her eyes are now always baggy, she seemed much more angry all the time, and her benevolence had been dwindling. She tried her best to act the same, but the stress was getting to her, and to make things worse ponies had shown some sadness for Luna, but after only a few days none of them even seemed to care. She also kept hearing this voice in her head, telling her to snap, but she did her best to ignore it.
Celestia walked through Canterlot, she had been staying with a pony she trusted, Starswirl The Bearded, and he was not the most kind pony, but he had always been there for Celestia, as a teacher, and a friend. Ponies took notice that she was much less approachable than before, so they did their best to avoid their once beloved princess, which had only pushed the amount of stress Celestia felt even more. Another issue was The Grand Galloping Gala was approaching fast, and with the castle destroyed Celestia’s planning had just gotten much worse. Celestia had to go to a meeting with some nobles, due to the castle’s destruction she had to go one of their manor’s.
Once inside she was greeted by a young colt, dressed like a butler, he bowed. “Princess, I will go get Money Bags, he’s ecstatic to be speaking with you today.” He said, his voice trembled a little, scared of doing anything to set Celestia off and he then walked off.
“Princess! I’m so glad you made it, i’ve heard you’ve been quite down lately!” A raspy voice had called out, and a pony with a brown coat, and black mane had walked into the entryway.
Celestia replied, generally she would speak in the Royal Canterlot Voice, but she’s started to drop it, just not able to maintain the control required for it, “Where are the others?” She asked.
“Oh, they could not make it today, so it will be just me you’ll be speaking with today, I hope you don’t mind.” He said with a smile.
Celestia sighed, “No, I don’t mind, please let’s start this meeting.” she said.
“Great! First let’s start with the most important matter, because of you and your sister’s recklessness we have quite the issue with The Grand Galloping Gala.” He said, smirking a little, Celestia was visibly annoyed with the mention of “Her and Luna’s recklessness.” but she kept to herself about it. “So how about we speak about terms of you using my manor? Honestly I have a very generous offer dear princess! Only a couple thousand bits!” He exclaimed.
“Yes… quite generous.” Celestia started to speak, “Due to current circumstances, I will agree to your terms, however my terms is you also help me set up the gala.” She continued.
“Fine, but you also pay for everything used to set up the gala.” He retorted. Celestia nodded.
“Now, the other thing I must speak with you about…” He acted like it pained him to talk, but Celestia could see through his act. “Me and the other nobles believe you are becoming unfit to rule, your mental health has been noticeably dropping. We think you either need to take a break, or give up your role altogether.”
Celestia seemed a little taken back, “And who are you to dictate who is, and is not fit to rule?” She asked. “Princess calm down, it was only a suggestion. I only look for what’s best for Equestria, and you.” He said. She seemed to think for a moment, rubbing her eyes with her hoof.
“I will not be taking any break, we have no one who can take over, and the Gala is too close for me to take any breaks. Now, this meeting will be concluded.” After saying this she got up to leave. “Thank you for letting me use your manor, Mr Money Bags.” she said leaving, not giving him much of a chance to speak.
Celestia had done the rest of the day’s work then went to Starswirl’s place. “Greetings Celestia, how are you?” Starswirl called out from the kitchen.
“Oh you know… exhausted.” She replied, walking towards the kitchen wobbly.
“Celestia I highly suggest having someone take over for you for a bit, then work out having someone share running Equestria with you, or you’ll end up pushing yourself to death.” He said, obvious concern in his tone.
“I’ll be fine Starswirl I promise.” Celestia started to eat what Starswirl had made: soup, and hay sandwiches. After finishing Celestia walked outside, and her horn started to glow as she moved the sun down, and the moon up. She looked at the moon, and tears had fallen from her eyes. “I can’t keep this up, Luna i’m so sorry, this is my fault, I should have been a better sister, I should have-” She paused, coughing a little, then continued, “I should have done more for you, I should have given you the attention you deserved, you shown your unhappiness to me, but I was too blind to help you.” Celestia finished, then she went inside the house, getting as much sleep as she possibly could.
Part 2:
A month had passed, The Grand Galloping Gala was today, and Celestia had been dreading it. That voice she had been hearing had gotten worse. “If Luna can turn into Nightmare Moon, you can absolutely turn into me — Daybreaker! The better, prettier, and more powerful version of you!” The voice rang in her ears, Daybreaker, Celestia couldn’t tell if she was losing her mind, she couldn’t push the voice out, it was starting to get to be too much.
“A-After today I think I need to get h-help, if only Starswirl was still here I could h-have asked for guidance.” Her voice, and body were shaky. She splashed some water on her face, this was to be the first Gala without Luna, and she needed to do her best to make it just as good as the others for the ponies of Equestria. Celestia left for Money Bags’ manor, and she smiled at passing ponies, while her condition has only worsened, she’s done her best to improve her attitude.
Once there Celestia was greeted by many noble ponies. “Celestia!” A young mare’s voice called out, the mare ran up to Celestia, she had a light blue coat, and a dark blue mane, her eyes were completely white, indicating her blindness.
“Oh, Miss Sparkle, it’s good to see you.” Celestia said, Sky Sparkle was once a student of Celestia, though due to a magic accident that rendered her blind she had to stop studying with Celestia.
“Celestia, I have gotten better at reading pony auras with magic! I can recognize a lot of ponies i’ve just met without ever having seen them!” She was always a very excitable unicorn, even after the accident.
“Listen Sky, I am very busy today, but I would love to catch up with you later, i’m staying at Starswirl’s place, do you remember where that is?” Celestia asked.
Sky Sparkle pondered for a moment, “Hmm…” she then smiled, “Yes, I do! It’s near the outskirts of Canterlot right?”
Celestia nodded, then realized how silly that was, and spoke, “Yes it is.” Celestia, then gave her friend a hug, and continued walking.
“Always surprising that so many ponies gather hours before the Gala starts.” Celestia said to herself, then she held her head in one of her hooves, her eyes squinting.
The voice had begun happening again, she groaned a little. “Celestia! I’m glad to see you!” That voice, Celestia wished she could just stop it altogether! She shook her head, these thoughts were not her own. Looking in the direction of the voice she saw Money Bags with that smirk on his damn face.
“Listen, Money Bags, I just want to make sure all the preparations are complete.” Celestia’s tone was harsh, and she was obviously fed up with Money Bags.
“Oh Princess, do you not trust me enough to get the gala ready? I am a member of the noble council!” He said in a oddly mocking tone. Celestia started walking, not wanting to deal with that at the time. He just followed, “Fine fine, let’s talk while you examine everything shall we?” Celestia wanted to just scream, she can feel her mentally going far past her limits, before she could deal with this, but all the non stop work, and the loss of her beloved sister is not letting her get a break.
“Money Bags leave me the Tartarus alone! Do you hear me? I want you to give me some space, as your princess I command you.” Celestia holds back from snapping, but if she’s going to get through this night, she needs Money Bags out of it, she was practically yelling, which made many other ponies take notice, she just smiled at them all nervously, waved and stormed off to somewhere, anywhere other than Money Bags.
“I’ve been acting like a moody filly this whole month!” Celestia exclaimed out loud while in the mare’s room, splashing water on her face. Luckily it was empty at the time.
“Celestia, you can be much more powerful, prettier, and happier if you just gave into me.” That voice kept ringing in her head, she looked in the mirror, and for a second her eyes were yellow, and a very dark reddish orange color, causing Celestia to gasp and blink. Her eyes were normal, sighing she walked back out. Celestia saw the amount of ponies grow to gigantic proportions. The gala had started at this point, and as princess Celestia was dutied with mingling with the guest. She already did not have much fun at the gala, as it was quite boring, so this was going to be interesting to her.
Celestia was greeting many guests, some giving condolences for the banishment of Luna, others being very rude about it. She was starting to get too tired to think, ponies were asking her if she was sick, she shook her head, and just kept mingling, and greeting. Then it happened, what finally made Celestia snap. A orange mare with a dress covered in diamonds, her mane was obviously dyed purple as a hint of red was showing, and she had a snobby look to her, was talking to a group of ponies nearby. “Honestly good riddance, Luna was just a waste of space nopony misses her now that she’s gone. However Celestia is a pretty awful ruler as well, letting her sister get out of hand like that, she should have easily seen that her sister was nuts in the first place, that castle could have been sold for a nice amount of bits, but now it’s destroyed. Bah!” The snobby pony did not seem to notice Celestia nearby, but this didn’t matter. Celestia’s eyes had gone back to the color, she started laughing out of nowhere, but this was nothing light hearted, it had a sinister tone to it.
“Celestia! I’m oh so sorry that I was being rude to you earlier, I truly am-!” Money Bags as if queued up came right at this time, Celestia’s maniacal laughter continued, her pink, blue, and green mane started to catch fire. Ponies started to scream at the sight of what seemed like Celestia was being burned, however the fire grew to cover both her mane, and tail, and then stopped flowing like her mane had previously done. Her shoes had turned orange, and changed into a sinister looking shape. Armor had grown on trim of her wings extending out from her now orange chest piece with a sun symbol. Her cutie mark had stayed the same, except now it had orange on the back of it. Ponies started to panic. Money Bags started quivering, and backing away.
Celes- Daybreaker spoke in her Royal Canterlot Voice, “I AM YOUR NEW RULER DAYBREAKER! AND NOW DAY WILL LAST FOREVER!” She laughed maniacally again, and then turned her attention towards Money Bags. “Hello Money Bags, you wanted to speak with me?” She said snarkily, and walked over to him, quickly grabbing him wrapping her hoof around him. “You seem to love throwing your money around a lot, probably because you want to hide your insecurities, am I right? You know without your money you’re nothing.” She snapped at him, and did a giggle as he’s gone speechless. Her attention was now on the moon. “Aw poor Wuna is on there.” She gagged, then her horn glowed, and she moved it in a random direction, bringing the sun up. Ponies had ran, but it didn’t matter, Daybreaker was the ruler of Equestria now, and nopony could stop her.
Part 2.5:
Starswirl was on his way to the land of the yaks, but on his journey he noticed something odd, it felt like a couple days had passed, yet it was still the same day. After a while he became very suspicious. The quickest way of travel would be to use a teleportation spell to return to a place he had recently visited, so he focused, and his horn started to glow, he disliked using this spell because in theory he could be leaving behind the real Starswirl, and the one who makes it through the teleportation is a clone, he does not fully know the workings of this magic, but in emergency situations he takes this chance, if his theory is correct the real Starswirl is long gone anyways.
He appeared at his house, and when he walked outside he could feel the heat, this was unnatural for this time of the year. “I need to find Celestia, whatever is going on she needs to fix this.” With that Starswirl quickly looked around, the streets were empty, no sign of life anywhere. He walked through the streets, he can tell ponies were there, every building had closed shades, tightly locked windows, and doors. He finally found ponies at the new location for the castle, but they all seemed exhausted, their cutie marks had a symbol of a sun marked over them, which all looked very recent, the smell of burnt flesh still in the air. “Celestia what has happened…?” Starswirl walked a little closer, and then he saw the shadow of his student. “When an alicorn has succumbs to evil, examples such as this, and Nightmare Moon happen. I knew Celestia was pushing herself.” He said with sorrow. Unaware of how to stop this other than banish her, he needed to go to the old castle where the elements of harmony were left.
“Hello Starswirl, lovely day isn’t it?” Daybreaker was no longer where she was originally was, flames had sparked in front of Starswirl, and they formed into Daybreaker. Starswirl’s horn started to glow, and he got in a defensive position.
“Celestia what is this!?” He yelled, she just smirked.
“It’s the beauty of power, and by the way the name’s Daybreaker, the better version of Celestia in every way possible!” She then walked closer to Starswirl, who backed up, and attempted to teleport. “That spell is barely perfected, you don’t have enough time to charge it!” Her horn glowed orange, and she shot a beam at him, causing him to react quickly clashing beams of magic.
“Celestia you must stop this!” Starswirl knew he couldn’t outmatch her in raw power, even if he was her teacher, she’s an alicorn, and an alicorn who had given in to evil magic as well. Starswirl had fought as hard as he could, but in the end he was too outclassed, and Daybreaker had captured him.
“You’ll be learning to accept the sun as your ruler, which shouldn’t be hard when i’m so amazing!” Daybreaker exclaimed, and had one of the sun marked ponies take him away.
Part 3:
Many years later, wars had been fought, most species had fallen to Daybreaker’s rule, very few ponies knew what freedom from the sun was, the only species to hold off the Nightmare Star Empire were the changelings, and even then their numbers were dwindling. Sky Sparkle, a unicorn mare now fully grown had been staying with the changelings, like many other ponies who had not fallen to Daybreaker’s rule. The heat also seemed to never go away, it was always hot, leaving soldiers constantly dehydrated in those conditions.
Sky got up, and walked around the hive, pressing her hooves against the walls. She had been studying all the magic she could to be able to almost see again, but due to Daybreaker’s takeover these studies were driven to a complete halt. Sky’s main focus was to read as many books she was able to recover from the royal library as she could, and find a way to stop Daybreaker, which she got the help from some changelings to read. Sky had reached the hive exit pretty easily, at first it had taken her forever to navigate the hive, but she adapted to it over time. “Sky? Were you sent on a scouting mission?” A large changeling asked, he was called Vertebral, his voice always sounded a little aggressive, but he was kind to Sky.
“I just wanted to go outside for a bit.” She replied, she knows they aren’t suppose to leave the hive without a good reason, but she always got anxious when she was cooped up in that place.
“If you’re planning to go back to that library you should stop now, they nearly caught you last time, and now you’re doing it without even having permission from Queen Chrysalis.” He said, showing some concern for Sky.
“Chrysalis is not my queen, and you know that.” She retorted.
“She is as long as you live under the hive, you and all the other ponies made a vow, and you have to keep true to that.” He then nudged her a little towards the hive, “Come on just go back.” he did not want to force Sky to go back.
"I think I may have a lead okay! These things, they’re called the Elements of Harmony, they may have the power to stop Daybreaker, they seem to boost the powers of the user in some way.” She had not been wanting to speak about them too much, as if they had fallen to the wrong pony they could unequivocally be dangerous.” She tried pleading with her eyes, not knowing what that exactly looks like.
“Fine, but i’m going with you.” He then immediately grabbed ahold of her hoof, then walked towards the exit. “But what we bring back better be good, because Chrysalis may exile us for this.” He continued, “If we’re caught.”
Sky groaned at the feeling of the sun, it was extremely hot, and it never would go away. “So these Elements of Harmony… how exactly do they work?” Vertebral asked, curious how these things could somehow boost a pony’s power to take down an alicorn of all ponies.
“No one fully understands how they work, Starswirl had studied their power for centuries, but he could not find out what powered them. However he knows that using the elements is very taxing on the user’s body, it causes some sort of transformation, and it also drains your body of all possible power.” Sky said. They continued towards the library, and on the way they had to stop many time, troops of ponies would pass by, all with suns marked over their cutie marks.
When they got there Sky immediately got to work. “Tell me the names of the books you grab, and the books I grab.” Sky said.
Vertebral confirmed he heard with a “Alright.”. After several hours of searching, Vertebral seemed excited. “I think I found one! ‘The 6 legendary stones, Starswirl’s tome of wisdom’.”
He opened the book, and sat with Sky, she nodded, “That’s one i’ve not heard before, and that sounds ike it could be it.” She started to read with him, and they discovered more, and more. “The amount of concentration required to use these stones is important, and the amount of damage that will happen to your body depends on your natural power, as i’ve tested these stones i’ve ended up having to stay in bed for days, or even weeks. This is without tampering with their full power, however my students Celestia, and Luna, two of the last of the alicorns can seem to use these stones a lot without causing too much lasting trauma to their bodies. With this confirmed I also feel they also work best with pure intentions over evil, as when I had intentions of harming anything, they would reject me more, and in the end cause more lasting damage to my body.” Vertebral said. Sky seemed to ponder for a moment, then she got up.
“Okay, the stones are here the old castle. It is paramount to the war that we do this.” She says, pulling Vertebral with her.
“What? Who’s going to use the stones?” he says confused.
“I am.” Sky replied, and she seemed set to the task, which Vertebral knew meant he couldn’t change her opinion now.
As they arrived at the middle grounds of the castle Sky seemed shaken up. “Someone is here, and their aura… it has a lot of power emanating from it. It reminds me of Celestia almost.” Hearing this Vertebral changed his form into a small dragon, and got Sky on his back.
"We need to hurry.” He said, quickly flying around the castle, it felt almost like a maze as they finally reached a room with six stones laying around. Sky walked over to the stones, and her horn flared up navy blue, and the stones started to glow the same color as she lifted them.
"I suspected somepony was here, after all so many books had been disappearing, and my guard stated their last visit they could swear somepony was running.” A familliar voice called out, then in an instant flames appeared, and they formed into Daybreaker. A large amount of magical energy then shot out of Daybreaker’s horn towards Vertebral, causing his body to immediately give out as he’s flinged against the wall, crashing right through it, and he yells out in pain before falling unconscious.
“Vertebral!?” Sky cried out, then Daybreaker laughed. "
Now, unless you want that happening to you, you will drop the stones.” She said, horn still glowing. Sky made a groan of pain as she started pouring her magical power into the Elements of Harmony, and then blue lights connected all the stones together, and they shot a blast at Daybreaker. “What!?” Daybreaker exclaimed as she then jumped out the way flying upwards.
“Celestia… I don’t know why this has happened to you, but I will not let you get away with all the pain and suffering you’ve caused!” Sky announced, and shot another blast through the elements at Daybreaker, this time with even more power than before, and they seemed to home in on her, which caused Daybreaker to react with a energy blast of her own pushing against Sky’s.
“You can’t beat me if you rely on those stones alone, I can feel it, you aren’t giving it your all!” Daybreaker pushes back the energy blast coming from Sky, and the elements.
“I guess I have no choice then.” Sky says, and her eyes started to glow like her horn, and she then stopped her energy blast, letting Daybreaker’s go right at her. “Goodbye, my teacher.” Sky’s eyes fill with some tears.
Daybreaker then got a realization, “No, you wouldn’t! STOP NOW!” She started yelling, and then a flash filled the room, and Daybreaker’s screams could be heard. Then… nothing. Sky had eyes full of tears, Daybreaker was nowhere to be seen, and the sun had the face of a pony on it.
"Celestia... i’m sorry.” Sky had fallen, and the elements fell to the ground with her, her body had been eviscerated, damaged far beyond repair.
End:
While badly hurt Vertebral managed to return Sky, and the stones to the hive. Everyone had rejoiced, however no one knew how they would reverse the damage that had already been done, and with no monarch in power of Equestria things were going to become much more complicated. Fights for power, and even then the sun and moon had raised issue, Starswirl was released from his prison, he never did fall under Daybreaker’s control. After examining Sky he could not tell if she would ever recover from her usage of the elements, and after learning of the banishment of his student, and friend, he did his best to not show his emotion. Starswirl used the elements himself to move the sun and moon, even though it did cause damage to his body. Balance did not come to Equestria, and things may have never gone back to the way things were, but everyone was doing their best to restore Equestria to it’s former peace, the biggest challenge being the brainwashed ponies.
The End, for now.