Twilight looked up at the final vestiges of the nighttime, then down at the amulet in her hoof. If her predecessor had borne the responsibility of raising the sun without the trinket's assistance, she thought to herself, then why couldn't she?

"Let's try this again," Twilight sighed, putting the amulet away—for now, at least.

Her horn aglow, Twilight reached out to the sun. Even with her immense power, directing the celestial body was still an arduous endeavor. After struggling for some time, the alicorn was ready to consign today's attempt as a failure.

That was when the sun emerged over the horizon.

Meanwhile, far away in Silver Shoals, two sisters watched the new day's dawn.

"...Um, Tia?" the younger of the two inquired. "Is it just us, or does this sunrise seem... different somehow?"

Celestia looked up at the rising star she'd once wielded. Inquisitively, she reached out to it with her magic. Sure enough, something was different; a magic other than her own was guiding the sun along its path.

And she knew exactly whose it was.

"Indeed it does, Luna," Celestia said, a knowing smile upon her muzzle. "Indeed it does."

Author's Note

A slightly extended version of my October 2020 Flashfic submission, based on the prompt "Rising Star" by Astrarian. I had to drop a lot of ideas for this to fit within the word count restrictions (for one, a planned role for Spike had to be removed entirely), so expect to see a fully-fledged standalone adaptation of this somewhere down the line.
;)