Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

I understand the irony of the situation; I made the first move that Luna would replicate mere hours later. Luna and I always had an agreement when we took over controlling The Sun and Moon, and I broke it. Under the long list we created, my act of blocking out The Moon breaks the rules as follows:

• Do not stop one of the celestial bodies from moving and let it travel freely.
• Do not end the night or day earlier without full permission and supervision from the other.
• Do not cover or obstruct either celestial body.

It’s one thing to break the rules, but it’s another to have to deal with their consequences. I should have realized right away that by raising The Sun I had given Luna full ability to enforce our rules, but the intense strain on my body and mind from exhaustion let it slip. There is one final rule at the bottom of our long list. It was one that I remembered after I let The Sun rest in front of The Moon, and the rule that broke every chance of reconciliation we might have had beforehand.

• Failure to follow any rule without forgiveness is an act of treason, and the other must deal with it accordingly.

Luna had played her hoof well.

Although she had to hurt people, she got me to slip up. I was under her mercy in the eyes of Equestrian Law. What she could do to me, though, was up to her. She could challenge me in battle, evict me from the castle, send me to Tartarus, whatever she deemed fit, and I had a feeling it wasn’t just going to be a slap on the wrist.

The only thing I could do now was wait for Luna to make her move. I spent the next half and hour diligently waiting for The Sun to shift, budge, or show a sign that she was going to fight. Its golden rays basked the forest in a warm glow, and although the intensity of the situation never faltered, a peace seemed to come over me. Chirps of birds replaced the crying out of ponies, and a spring breeze rustled the leaves on the trees.

I took my eyes off of The Sun. There was no point in wasting any more time when I was at a disadvantage already. The campground I was at had been deserted, with nopony around a fire that was recently put out. I opened my ears for any noise that would identify anypony nearby.

The sound of saddlebags being strapped on alerted me to another’s existence. The noise came from behind me, slightly muffled. Whoever was getting ready inside the forest was doing a good job at hiding from me. I stepped through the brush and started looking in between the trees.

It wasn’t that hard to find the pony, as her scarlet coat contrasted with the green of the forest easily. Glowing Sera was sitting on a fallen log next to lifeless clay golem, and she seemed to be packing up the few items she had.

“Glowing?” I called out. She jumped up and turned in my direction, surprise evident on her face. She quickly looked away and sighed.

“Hello, Princess.” I trotted over to her and sat next to her on the log.

“You seem to be in a hurry to go somewhere,” I commented nonchalantly.

“I—I’m leaving, Princess. There’s no point in me staying here.”

I looked at her with worry. “What do you mean?” I asked. “You’ve been a great help.”

Her downcast figure seemed to flinch at my praise. “No, Princess. This is my fault. When I came here I just tried to impress everypony, and in the process harmed so many people with my spells. I realized it when I was trying to find a way to wake everypony up; I wasn’t going to be able to do any good. There’s no point in me staying here if all I do is cause more problems.”

“Glowing, you may have made the spells she used, but you didn’t intend for them to be used that way. Don’t try to shoulder all of the guilt on yourself.”

“But I have to,” she said. “Look at my cutie mark.”

The cutie mark was a sun, similar to mine, except its color was the same as her coat, a bright red. It was also proportionately larger than mine. “It’s a red sun. What’s wrong with that?”

Softly she said, “It’s a red giant star. Do you know what a red giant is, Princess Celestia?”

“It’s a star that grows very large after it runs out of helium in its core. Eventually, my Sun will become one and destroy our world. There’s nothing we can do about it. There’s also nothing wrong with having a star as a cutie mark—trust me.”

“Yes there is. Me being able to extrapolate to create a new spell is only half of my talent,” she admitted. “I’m great at magic. I always have been, and I’m sure I always will be. But any spell I create—no matter how complicated or extrapolated it is—always ends up going wrong. Just like a red giant, they will eventually destroy or harm something. This is my fault for not realizing how bad things were going to get.”

“Not every spell you’ve made is dangerous,” I said. “If you managed to get one of the leaders of the country to bring you to the castle as a spellmaker you must have done something right.”

“I didn’t convince her to bring me to the castle on her trip to Fillydelphia.”

“What?”

“Fillydelphia kicked me out. They said they didn’t want me to cause any problems while The Princess was there and I wasn’t allowed to go back in.”

I was shocked; she gave no hint that she was an outcast. “They—I don’t think that’s allowed or right in any way.”

“I don’t blame them.” She stared deeply into the ground.

“Why not?” I asked, worried.

“I—I created a spell that was too dangerous for the officials and mayor to allow me to get away with. It was made of. . .” She went quiet and didn’t answer.

“What?” I asked quietly. She looked away and silently cursed herself. “Come on,” I said. “With everything you’ve said so far, I won’t be angry at you.” She turned back towards me and I smiled in encouragement.

“It was made of dark magic. I ended up casting it on a rabbit just to see what would happen. It. . . didn’t get far before I had to put the rabbit down.”

“Oh.” I said blankly.

“Either way, after Luna got kicked out of Fillydelphia, she found me sitting outside of the gates. At that point I looked like I had been living homeless all my life. I explained my story to her, and she let me tag along back to the castle with her. I was ecstatic. I had a place to live, she offered me a job, and I gained a friend. It’s a shame I lost all three.”

I was sorry for Glowing Sera. I assumed from the start that she was just a pony with her mind set on success. It turns out she had her fair share of problems as well.

“Glowing, just because you make spells that are dangerous, it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad pony. If you were a bad pony you would still be inside the castle with Luna, instead of helping Equestria succeed tonight. If you think that leaving will do any good, you’re wrong. If you had left earlier, we would have never built the monument, and would probably have already failed. So please, stay!” I smiled at her.

She looked at me with shock. “Th-thank you, Princess. It means a lot that you think like that.”

“As far as I’m concerned,” I said with a grin, “you’re my friend, and friends are welcome at my castle anytime.”

I turned my whole body to face her and gave her a hug. “Thank you.” She murmured over my shoulder.

“You’re welcome, Official Spellmaker of Equestria.”

She removed her head from over my shoulder and gawked at me, flabbergasted.

“S-Spellmaker? I just told you how all of my spells are dangerous!”

“I’d rather have somepony that knows their specialty and cares than somepony who doesn’t. And, having the country’s most expansive spell library could allow you to create spells that aren’t harmful, or point out how they can be exploited for the future. If you’d take the job, that is.”

She went back to hug me and squeezed tighter than before. “Of course! Oh, thank you so much Princess!”

Because Glowing was looking behind me, she didn’t notice a twinkle in air. This time, I caught it before it hit the ground and quickly stashed the pink shard into my saddlebag. The Element of Kindness decided to show, and now there was only one left to appear.

Glowing removed her forelegs around me and sat back down on her log, grinning. “What do we do now?” She asked.

I glanced up at The Sun. It hadn’t moved in the previous time I had spent talking, and I couldn’t feel any forces acting upon it that weren’t my own. It seemed that Luna was still waiting for something to happen. “We wait.”

She looked at me. “How do you look at that without burning your eyes out?”

“Being in control over The Sun allows me to have more connection to it than others. Its effects strengthen me.”

“Ah,” she said, smiling. “It was amazing seeing you raise The Sun so up close, Celestia. I’d like to give it a crack sometime and see how much I can do.”

I looked at her and chuckled. “You’d burn up. I would have put the energy from The Sun into one of the sleeping ponies to try and wake them up, if I was able to. It would be more magic than Luna could hold resist and it would wake the pony up, but it would also be more magic than the body could hold. There’s a reason very few can handle The Sun with magic.”

Glowing smiled mischievously and said, “Well, if you ever need somepony to help you, I’d still give it a shot.”

“Don’t get any rash ideas,” I said, poking her side, “or you’ll have even bigger problems on your hands.” I stood to get up off of the log, but my legs felt weak and I landed back down unsteadily. Glowing rushed to my side and helped balance me again.

“What’s wrong?” She asked worriedly. While she watched me, I was gazing up at The Sun, and saw it started to fall. I reached out with my magic to push it back up, but the second I grabbed a hold my aura shattered.

As darkness started to encompass the land once again, my eyes started to drift shut. It seemed that my tiredness finally caught up, and I wasn’t able to retaliate in any way. Glowing looked up at the now lowering Sun and back at me with panic etched across her face. I lifted a hoof but found it barely responded to my lack of willpower. Whatever was doing this was sudden, surprising, powerful, and—

”Nothing you can prevent.”

Luna’s words echoed through my sleepy mind. She wasn’t warning me about everypony else falling asleep, but myself. I now was under her control, and The Moon held power over the land. As her plan’s pieces fell into shape, what was left of mine fell apart.

How was I supposed to lead my country if I was dreaming?

Out of sheer willpower I opened my eyes, which felt like prying open two strong steel doors. I managed to croak out a few words to Glowing Sera. “Wake me up . . . Soon . . .”

As I started to drift into lethargy I viewed hopelessly as the Sun slid down just below the horizon, peeking out slightly to bask the world in an unnatural evening. I gave up and closed my eyes.

My comatose mind finally let go.

-Princess Celestia

Author's Note

We've only got 3-5 chapters left! Next chapter is going to be a pretty important confrontation, so stay tuned. I plan to be done by the end of the summer, but who knows? Criticism, comments, and likes are always appreciated!