My little Sunspot

by LSTS Connor

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Luna, Original Character, Comedy, Adventure, Daybreaker, Violence, Princess Celestia, Human, Anthro, Main 6, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 62692

We have all read the stories about a human waking up as N.M.M but what if that human woke up as their fiery counterpart

We have all read the stories about a human waking up as N.M.M in the castle of the two sisters heck even I've read a bunch of them. They were always my favorite with a normal guy trying not to get blasted by rainbows for having the same body as some villain.

But never thought that could happen to me!

Now my hair is on fire, I'm most likely 6 years old and this castle I woke up in looks an awful lot like a certain one that located in the magical land of Equestria.

But that's only fiction right?

Well if there is one positive thing about this...I got to keep my hands.

(level 4 anthro)
Previous Cover art from my friend Sonata Dusk951 Send him some Love :heart:

Now with Editors HeBogin and The-Hidden-Fox :heart:

:yay:(JESUS JUMPING JEREMY I GOT FEATURED 20/05/2020):yay:
:yay:(IT HAPPENED AGAIN SQUEEEEEE 21/05/2020):yay:
:yay:(AGAIN WOOOO 23/05/2020):yay:
:yay:(10k VIEWS 25/01/2021):yay:

Published 2020-05-19 19:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2022-05-28 13:04:03 UTC

2-Kindling

Kindling

After several attempts I was finally able to get my wings firmly pressed against my back. And let me tell you, having wings is cool and all but trying to manipulate muscles that you never had is hard. But during my attempts I discovered just how maneuverable they were. I could use them as a makeshift shield or blanket as I was able to use them to almost completely envelope my chest with my wings. For some reason whenever I did that, I felt…safe. I do not know how to describe it, maybe its this child body but it just felt good and safe.

I left what I assumed was the throne room and began exploring the ruins of this castle. And my god were they beautiful. The show never did it justice but even though the castle was in complete disrepair and looked like it would collapse under its own weight at any time it was breathtaking. It’s probably just because I’ve never been to any castle before so for all I know it is in fact very ugly but to me…It was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been to.

After walking around in random directions for what felt like hours walking down majestic corridors being lit by the moonlight. I began to smell something sweet…something chocolaty. I of course began to follow said smell as my stomach began to growl. The smell had brought me to one of the many kitchens of the castle.

“What could be that smell” I muttered to myself as I began to search the room. The kitchen was completely trashed. There were spider webs everywhere. I am not overexaggerating

They. Were. Everywhere.
Thank goodness I wasn't arachnophobic otherwise I would be lying on the floor having a heart attack at the amount of spiders that must be in this room. Between the counters were what could be described as walls of web. Which only deepened the mystery of the smell. How could there be food here that had not turned to dust by now? These webs were clearly several months old and completely untouched. I began to methodically search everywhere I could. Trying to find the source of sweet chocolaty goodness. After half an hour of searching through cupboards I had finally found the source of the smell. When I had seen what it was, I could not help but burst out laughing.

It was a dark blue cookie jar with a crescent moon emblazoned on the lid.

Luna’s cookie jar to be precise, with multiple chocolate chip cookies still inside it.

After getting my childish laughter under control I grabbed the jar from its cupboard and tried to open it to get that sweet Luna-forbidden goodness. At this point it was obvious that magic was somehow involved with the preservation of the cookies inside. How else would there be completely normal cookies after most likely several centuries? After a few seconds I had gotten the jar open and stuck my hand inside. My fingers touching the chocolaty goodness that is cookies. Did I mention I love cookies? No? Well I would do anything for cookies. They are my one weakness.

*Creeeeaaak*

The sound of the door cut through the silence with all the subtlety of glass being shattered.

I froze, my hand still in the jar and slowly turned my head towards the door.

Spike was standing there. Looking right at me fear in his eyes. Whether it was fear at how I looked or the fact my hair looked like fire I could not tell.

Our draconic eyes met and we both just stood there completely frozen, the only movement in the room being my tail and hair. I stood there frozen like a kid getting caught by their parents with their hand in the cookie jar. Spike was the same height as me we were both at eye level to each other. For some reason he looked extremely cute to me. He was wearing a pair of purple jeans and a green shirt. I needed to break the ice somehow otherwise we would be stuck here staring into each other's eyes for all eternity.

“Uh…Hi?” I say nervously waving my free hand the other one still in the cookie jar.

“…” Spike did not respond to me he just stood there frozen. His draconic eyes never leaving mine.

I decided I had to make a good first impression and went with the act like a child route, so I grabbed one of the many cookies from the jar and stuck my hand towards him. Hoping it would break the ice.

“Want one?” I say with a smile on my face trying not to scare him with a cookie in hand.
That brought him out of his stupor and his gaze shifted between the cookie, my hair, and my eyes. Eventually he grabbed the cookie out of my hand bringing a smile to my face. I had hopefully showed him that I was not evil or bad in any way.

“My name is Jolyne what’s yours?” I ask with a smile. Unfortunately, I smiled a little too widely and showed off my fangs by accident causing him to flinch slightly.

“S-Spike” He finally said nervously, his eyes switching between my fiery hair and draconic eyes.

“Cool!” I respond like any other six-year-old would.

He did not respond.

“Are you worried about my hair?” He nodded dumbly.” Don’t worry it just looks like, it’s not real fire see?" I stuck my hand through my hair, it felt pleasantly warm for some reason. "Want to touch it?”

“N-no I’m good. What are you doing here? This castle is dangerous for children.” He said looking over his shoulder.

“Why don’t you come with me.” He says with a smile reaching his hand out for me to grab it.

“Sure! But I’m keeping these cookies.” I respond with a smile grabbing his hand following him out of the room with the cookie jar in my other hand.

We were walking down one of the many corridors in the castle, most likely heading to the entrance where I would meet the main 6. Spike was walking in front of me munching down on the cookie I gave him I was also eating on of the many Luna-forbidden cookies and my god they were the best cookies I had ever eaten in my life. I was dreading having to meet with them. But I had a sliver of hope that they do not know who Daybreaker is. The best reaction I could hope for was just shock at my hair and the whole alicorn thing. Because -somehow- Spike had not noticed the wings pressed against my back. They must be blending in with my dress somehow, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“So, what were you doing all the way out here,” Asked Spike breaking the silence. Looking over his shoulder. I suddenly started to feel terrible like some switch was flipped and tears started to form in the corners of my eyes.

“I-I don’t know…s-some type of portal transported me here. A-and I just want to go home” The full force of what happened to me dawned on me and one big question formed in my mind.

What if I can’t go home?

Will I ever get to see my parents again?

What will I do if I can’t go home?

These questions were going through my head at the speed of sound the emotional backlash becoming stronger and stronger. Then another thing became known. I was never this emotional back home or in general. Could it be that I have the emotional stability of a child? God that is going to suck if that’s true and judging from the fact I am crying it seems very true.

Spike noticing my distress slowed down and turned to face me.
“Hey hey hey it's all right. I know a few smart ponies. They’ll be able to help you get home.” He says reassuringly.

“A-are you sure?” I say looking up at him hopefully. “I l-look like a color swapped Nightmare Noon” I say with a sad laugh.

“I am. Aren’t I?” He said with a sad smile putting his hands on my shoulders.

“O-ok,” I say a small smile starting to appear on my face.

After getting my emotional outburst under control. Stupid child body with nonexistent emotional stability. I needed to get some more information such as why were the main 6 here. It must have something to do with my being here. Unless I just got lucky, but I highly doubt that.

“What are you doing here? I am here by accident, but what about you?” I ask probing for information.

“Oh, we are investigating some type of magical thing…probably the same thing that brought you here now that I think about it” He answered thoughtfully putting a hand under is chin.

“where did spike run off to now?”
“Ah’m not sure he said something about laughter then he just disappeared”

Muffled voices were coming from the door to our left, as far as I could make out it was Applejack and Twilight. As Spike moved to open the door, I muttered one thing under my breath.

“It’s showtime”

Author's Note

Thank you all for 1k Views!!! :yay: And the Feature!!! :yay:
I really hope you will like this as much as I did writing it.
Big thanks to Darkspyro and PlantedG for prereading this chapter. You guys are the best :twilightsmile:

3-Embers

Embers

This was it. It was time to meet the main 6. This would either end with me being blasted to stone or fulfilling the dream of every brony and pegasister in existence. I of course was hoping for the latter. This was going to be hard I needed to look as non-threatening as possible or I was going to die. Not literally dying, but I really do not want to go insane because I was stuck on the sun/moon or in stone for 1000 years.

As spikes hand got ever closer towards the door handle my fear kept on rising. I decided to move right behind Spike holding onto his free hand. Basically, I was pulling a Fluttershy and hiding behind him. My fear was too high to do this without some sort of support. Spike noticing this, gave me a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry everything will be fine. I promise.”

He opened the door. Either he was purposefully opening the door slowly or the stress was making it seem like the slowest door opening in the history of door openings.

“Do you think Spike found something?” Asked the now very distinctive voice of Twilight Sparkle.

“Well why don’t ya ask him yourself…And his new friend by the look of it” Responded Applejack. When she mentioned me, I involuntarily flinched and hid even more behind Spike.

“Don’t worry there’s…no…. reason…to” Said Twilight trailing off near the end, her eyes widening when she caught a glimpse of my face. Her wings shot out involuntarily, accidentally hitting the back of Applejack’s head knocking her hat off. If it were not for the fact this was literally the worst possible reaction I expected, I would have found it funny. Twilight’s horn started glowing and I felt myself starting to get lighter.

I started to panic, I tried to hold onto Spike’s hand, but Twilight’s magic was too strong, and I was yanked into the air. I closed my eyes and used my wings to shield myself from the inevitable onslaught of magic. This brought a gasp from everyone present in the room seeing that I was an alicorn.

So, there I was, floating in the air cradling Luna’s cookie jar against my chest, shaking with fear that I was about to be blasted by magic. Thankfully, I had one saving grace. Or should I say saving dragon?

“Wait!” Came a shout from below me. Hearing this I slowly brought one of my arms up to peek through the feathers of my wings. Spike was standing in front of Twilight, his arms raised.

“Spike, get out of the way!” She said to him. She then looked me straight in my draconic eye.

“What are you doing here Nightmare Moon!? You may have changed your appearance, but Your magic is still the same!” She said with hatred in her eyes. This broke any semblance of emotional control I had, and I just broke down. I was going to die here, if not physically then mentally by way of stone prison. I started sobbing uncontrollably unable to keep any semblance of composure.

Unknown to everyone but Celestia and Luna is that Solar and Lunar magic are almost indistinguishable from each other to any other magic-user. Twilight right now is feeling the solar magic being radiated off Jolyne but can’t tell the difference between it and the Lunar magic used by Nightmare Moon.

And since Jolyne looks like a color swapped Nightmare Moon… Twilight didn’t have to do much to connect the dots in her mind.

Thankfully however Spike knew that this wasn’t the mare in the Moon. As in his mind why would the infamous Nightmare Moon offer him a cookie and generally act like a child?

“Twilight! That is not Nightmare Moon! Her name is Jolyne, she’s just a child brought here against her will!” Shouted Spike still standing in front of Twilight.

That brought Twilight out of her rage making her take a closer look at the child floating in the air. Twilight noticed a dull sobbing coming from the alicorn that was hiding behind her pure white wings. That caused Twilight’s heart to ache with guilt that she may have just threatened a child.

Unnoticed to the 3 of them Applejack had quietly left the room to go and grab the other element bearers.
Twilight began to question herself whether this child in front of her really was Nightmare Moon with a different appearance. And hearing that child’s sobbing convinced her that this could not possibly be the mare in the Moon. This sobbing simply couldn’t be faked, this really was the sobbing of a child that was fearing for her life.

“Does she look like a dangerous monster to you?!” Said spike pointing a finger towards my sobbing form. “let her down from up there.” He said calmly. Twilight did just that slowly lowering me towards the ground.

The second my hooves touched the ground I was enveloped in one massive hug by Spike. After all the emotional turmoil I just went through I completely embraced the hug. I needed one after all of that. I cried myself to sleep in his arms, confident that he wouldn’t let them hurt me.

“Sooo…What are we going to do with her?” Asked a hovering Rainbow Dash.
The main six were all standing over the sleeping form of Jolyne, who had tear stains under her eyes, unsure what to do about this alicorn filly. Spike had explained the situation around Jolyne being here which seemed to have lightened up the mood somewhat, but the question was what to do with her now. She was lying against Spike with the lunar cookie jar still cradled against her chest, softly snoring away. If it were not for the fact that her hair was fire Fluttershy would have glomped her the second she entered the room.

“U-um I think we should bring her back to the library. She seems to trust Spike b-but you scared her pretty badly twilight.” Stuttered Fluttershy quietly, looking sympathetically towards the sleeping child.

“Yeah Twi you scared her badly, heck you even scared me back there with how you reacted towards her. Yer wings shooting out and all nocking ma hat off.” She brought a hand up to rub the back of her head. “Thanks for that by the way” She said with a chuckle.

“She really doesn’t seem like the Nightmare Moon we knew. And Ah can tell she wasn’t faking those tears, she genuinely thought she was going to die.” Applejack said sadly looking at the sleeping child with sympathy.

“But we should still be careful around her.” Added Applejack afterward. “Better safe than sorry.”

Pinkie pie during all of this was oddly quiet. Her hair having lost some of its spring after having heard what happened to the child from Spike. Her mind was spinning with party ideas. Trying to calculate (don’t ask me what formula she used, only Discord is able to understand it) the best way to cheer the filly up. Then it hit her. She had the perfect plan. The best plan in the history of plans. Her hair jumped back up to full poofieness as she pulled out a piece of paper and started planning. Her face one of concentration very few had seen.

“We definitely need to send a letter to the princesses about this she is an alicorn after all, plus the whole: she looks like a color swapped Nightmare Moon thing” Added Rainbow Dash eying the alicorn with suspicion. As if she would suddenly jump up and blast everyone.

“I agree with Applejack dear. She may be a child but she’s still an alicorn that looks an awful lot like Nightmare Moon. But that dress makes her look so cute. Plus, that hair, so unique! I could design an entirely new fashion line!” Rarity said giddily drawing the attention of the rest of her friends.

*Ahem* “I mean, we should keep a close eye on her” Quickly added Rarity, drawing an eye-roll from the rest of her friends. Except Pinkie Pie, she was still stuck in her own little world drawing away on her piece of paper.

A sigh escaped Twilights lips.

“Well we can’t just leave her out here… Everyone gather around I’ll teleport us back to the library. Then we can tell the princesses.” Twilight motioned with her hands for everyone to get close. As Twilights horn began to glow preparing to teleport everyone back to the library Spike looked down at the sleeping alicorn in his arms and smiled softly.

*Pop*

*Pop*

The group reappeared back in the main room of Twilights library, the sleeping form of Jolyne still in Spikes arms sitting on the floor.
“I’ll bring her to the guest room” Said Applejack leaning down to take Jolyne from Spikes embrace. She picked the alicorn up and brought her to the nearby guest room, the cookie jar still in the alicorns embrace. Spike expecting what was about to happen, preemptively grabbed a pen and paper and walked over to the nearby table.

“Spike take a no- “

“Already on it” Interrupted Spike, drawing a frown from Twilight. Spike just chuckled at her expense and waited for Twilight to start dictating. She just rolled her eyes and with a smile started dictating the letter.

Dear Princess Celestia

Author's Note

Next chapter the not so long-awaited meeting is at hand

Thank you, everyone, for the 140 Likes :pinkiehappy: It makes me extremely happy that you all are enjoying my story

A quick heads up though Updates may slow down due to me writing finals next week so I need to concentrate on that for now but on the 29th is my last exam then I can spend as much time as I need writing this story :D

Big thanks to Darkspyro and PlantedG for prereading this chapter. You guys are the best :twilightsmile:

4-The reaction

Author's Note

:pinkiegasp: Turns out I C A N Finish the next chapter in my downtime between studying.

Hope ya like it :D :pinkiehappy:

Big thanks to Darkspyro and PlantedG for prereading this chapter. You guys are the best :twilightsmile:

4-The reaction

The reaction

I was unceremoniously awoken from my slumber by a certain celestial object which happens to emit pinpoint rays of photons that went exactly into my closed eyes. I groaned and turned away from the light trying to catch some more z’s. I had some crazy dream of me being Daybreaker, cookies, and Spike? Unfortunately, those sun rays had really done a number on my want to sleep. I groggily accepted defeat and went to check my phone. When I felt around on the nightstand, I couldn’t find it. Confused I opened my eyes and got a look at my surroundings. ‘This isn’t my room’ is the first thing that went through my mind when I got a glimpse of my surroundings. Firstly, my room wasn’t made of wood and this definitely wasn’t my bed. I move to get out of bed when I see the rest of my body.

“That wasn’t a dream…” I mutter to myself in realization. I was still Daybreaker and judging by my surroundings this was Twilights library. I needed to make sure though, so I got out of bed and walked up to the nearby window. I was still wearing the same white dress as yesterday, but something was different about my hair. It had lost its fire effect and was now only normal orange hair, the same thing happened to my tail. Confused I walked to the nearby mirror that was sitting in the corner of the room.

“Son of a…They magic blocked me!” Not that I could use magic, but it was the thought that counted. On my horn was the classic magic inhibitor ring. I didn’t want to remove it (not that I could anyway. I tried and it was stuck on there like glue) since I didn’t want to look like a threat, but I was also kind of grateful for it. Having the ring on removed the whole fire hair making me look a lot less like some type of monster and a lot more approachable. Well again as approachable one can be when you have fangs and reptilian slits for eyes, but hey it’s the little things that matter. Such as not having people be worried, I would burn them if they got too close. But having the equivalent of air in this world be taken away didn’t feel good. It felt like something important was missing from my body. Not a nice feeling let me tell you. Imagine the feeling as if your chest were suddenly hollow, but you were still alive. Yeah, it’s hard to imagine, but that’s how it felt having my magic taken away. I mean, I can’t blame them for taking precautions. Twilight did go all crazy just by seeing me, thinking that I was Nightmare Moon.

After that mystery solved, I went over to the nearby window and opened the blinds. Ponyville was different than what I expected. For one it was a lot smaller than I expected I could basically see half of town from my one window. There were lots of ponies walking around outside. It looked like any other town on Earth the difference being the people had pony characteristics such as wings, horns, and ears on the top of their heads. One thing I forgot to mention is that these ears are weird. They seem to move on their own but that could just be instinctive reactions since humans don’t have that much control of their ears, so they are just being moved by my subconscious. I just stood there observing the town for around five minutes till I was brought out of my pony watching by a rather large growl from my stomach.

Noticing that I haven’t eaten anything other than a single cookie since I arrived here, and that Luna’s cookie jar was now sitting on the stand next to the bed. Seeing this I grabbed the jar and took a cookie out and began munching on it. Deciding that I couldn’t stay in this room the whole time. I walked over to the door and left, cookie jar in tow of course as I was still hungry. When I left the room, I was greeted with an empty library. Seeing that I was alone I decided to have a look around, maybe read some books, information is the most important resource in this situation. I needed to know if they ever heard of Daybreaker or anything about the magic that brought me here, so I went to work in the library after putting my cookie jar on a nearby table and walked up to the wall of books. Unfortunately, the books I needed were quite high up to I had to reach to grab the first book that caught my attention. I was so close to grabbing it, my fingers were touching it I was so close.

“Oh, you’re awake” Came a voice from behind me.

“EEEP” I yell startled causing my wings to shoot out. Due to the sudden movement I lost my balance and fell. Right onto my butt.

“ow”

“You ok?” Asked the voice.

“Yep yep I’m good” I say standing back up turning around the voice. Turns out it was Spike. He was standing there with what looked like an emerald in his hand.

“What happened after I fell asleep?” My stomach growled still wanting something more than a cookie. “Can I also get some breakfast?” I finish with a blush.

“Sure, follow me I’ll tell ya what happened over breakfast.” He said with a chuckle motioning with his hand for me to follow him. I did just that happily after grabbing the cookie jar from the nearby table. That jar contains the cookies of the Gods, I am not leaving it unattended. Especially with Pinkie Pie in town.

Breakfast was amazing Spike can somehow make the best pancakes imaginable. And here I thought my Mom made the best pancakes, turns out I was wrong. That honor goes to Spike now. He also told me what had happened after I fell asleep also why Twilight wasn’t in the building when I woke up earlier. She had to leave quickly to go greet someone to town, didn’t say who though. But I might have an idea. Anyway, breakfast was overall fantastic we had a nice chat just talking about random stuff. Eventually the topic of comic books came up and the sparkle that appeared in Spike’s eyes hearing that somebody else also enjoyed comic books as much as he was, dare I say, beautiful. Comics are also one of my favorite things to talk about. Albeit it was my little pony comics and talked about over the internet, but they still count goddammit!
After breakfast, which I have to say again was divine, we went back into the library itself. I wanted to continue my research and Spike was there to make sure I didn’t try anything. He didn’t agree with it but had to anyway. His exact words were ‘I’ve got to keep a close eye on you. Make sure you don’t bring about eternal night *wink*’ Yes he did in fact say the word wink, with a wink.

So, there I was sitting in the library trying to find anything related to Daybreaker and portals/teleportation. Idly munching on Luna’s cookies while Spike was sitting next to me reading some power pony comics. And we sat there for roughly half an hour just quietly reading. I was currently searching through the history books, looking for anything that indicated a so-called ‘Daybreaker event’ happened at some point. And I have to say the history of this cartoon world is surprisingly deep. I was always interested in history back home so reading about this surprisingly expansive and deep history really got the inner historian in me going. And was getting really good have you ever heard of the ‘Dea So-‘

“no no no luna wait don’t-! “

*BOOM*

Then with all the subtlety of gun being shot right next to ones ear the door was (literally) Blown off its hinges. Flinging the door right into the wall of books with a dark blue beam following it. The force the door was thrown with was so strong I believe every item in the library that wasn’t nailed down either fell over or was damaged in some way. That included a lot of books.

This was all followed by the sound of one very pissed of dark blue goddess.

“WHERE ART THOU, FOUL COPY OF OUR SISTER!”

And the sound no sane person would ever want to hear from the much younger lavender goddess.

“M-my b-books.”

5-The spark

The spark

I sat there frozen. Whether it was due to shock or fear or a combination of the two. I simply could not move my body no matter how much I wanted to or tried to. My heart was racing a mile a minute and I was beginning to feel faint. As the dust began to clear in the library. I was able to get a better view of the lunar goddess looking at me with murder in her eyes. Not exaggerating if you look up the dictionary definition of ‘murder in one’s eyes’ it would be a picture of Luna looking at me. So, after I finally got my body back under my command I went to try and run the hell away from her. ‘Then what?’ came the question. That would just confirm to them I could be bad in some way. So, I decided to do the one thing they would never expect. Something so monumentally stupid it just might work.

*Crunch*

I ate a cookie.

I just took one out of the jar, looked Luna right into her murderous eyes, and took a big bite. Thinking back on that moment I knew I could have done something better than that.

“W-wha… what art thou doing?” She said her previous murder eyes transforming into a face so full of confusion you would think she was trying to understand quantum mechanics using pinkie pie as a calculator.

“E-eating a-a c-cookie?” I manage to stutter out. My body still screaming for me to run as far away as possible. As adrenaline began to flood my system involuntarily.

Luna narrowed her eyes looking at the cookie I took a bite out of. Then she looked towards the jar I got it from. When she saw the moon emblazoned on the lid of the jar, she did a double-take.
“I-is that my old cookie jar?” She asked suspiciously her eyes narrowing even further and her hands curling into fists and wings flaring out.

I gulped, now realizing that this was and still is a terrible idea. Now slowly scooting myself closer to the edge of my chair getting ready to make a run for it. “M-maybe?”

“You think you can distract me?! With COOKIES?!” Luna shouted angrily the murderous look reappearing in her eyes intensified by a factor of ten. She begins to slowly approach the table looking incredibly intimidating as she began towering over me.

“I-I was thinking more to c-calm you d-down p-princess,” I say voice shaking with fear as Luna’s horn begins to crackle with energy.

During all this Spike was still sitting next to me in shock while Twilight was in a near-catatonic state outside muttering something about books. Seeing that Luna was likely charging up a second death beam or something that I do not want near me I booked it back to my room.

Running into my room I slammed the door behind me and held it closed my back to it. Hoping beyond all hope that someone would snap Luna out of it.

“That will not save you from me, demon.” I heard Luna say through the door. Her tone so icy and sharp it could have frozen magma to ice then cut said ice into statues of her blasting me to the moon and back. The distinctive sound of magic being charged became audible through the wooden door.

That was all the warning I got before the door behind me exploded inwards knocking me off my feet. Pain exploding throughout my small body. The door was not blasted off its hinges or anything like that. It full-on exploded sending shards of the door flying at high speeds. Unfortunately, due to me trying to hold the door closed, take a guess at what most of the extremely fast, sharp debris ended up hitting.

My vision went white as pain exploded all throughout my body as I went flying through the room. Time seemed to slow down during my short flight, but I could not concentrate on anything other than the enormous amount of pain I was in. I was able to get a glimpse of Luna out of the corner of my eye. The expression on her face surprised me. It was not one of murderous intent, not one of the satisfaction of having injured me. But one of indifference.

After flying through the room for several more seconds I went flying through the window I had been looking through earlier. Thankfully, I was able to bring my arms up in front of my face at the last second before I went crashing through the window. The glass cutting up my arms as it shattered, injuring me even more than before.

When I hit the ground outside my vision flashed white for a moment when my head it the ground. I started to feel nauseous and tried to sit up. But for some reason, I could not move my arms or legs. They would not respond to any of my commands.
So, there I was lying on my back in immense pain after having the door behind me explode and being thrown through a window. I heard a commotion behind me and soon after a face became visible.

The face was yellow with pink hair. I tried to move away but was unable to. No matter what I told my arms or legs to do nothing happened. As my vision began to slowly clear up and the ringing in my ears slowly started to dissipate. I was able to make out pony who now seemed to be looking me over. It was Fluttershy. Her face was one of shock at my condition and she began to try and stop the bleeding.

I knew she was trying to tell me something most likely as to stay calm and or still but all I cloud make out were muffled voices. A second different voice also became known, but this voice was not full of worry or concern. No, that voice was full of so much anger I thought the Hulk was about to be released. I noticed that Fluttershy stopped tending to me and began to look in the direction of the voice. I was able to weakly turn my head to also see what was going on.

What I saw is the definition of the phrase ‘you dun goofed son. Big time.'

Twilight, Luna, and Spike were there and having one heated conversation, but something was different about Twilight. She was the voice I heard, and she was pissed. I swear for the briefest of moments no longer than the blink of an eye, one of her eyes became like mine. Twilight was livid, yelling at Luna as if it were going to go out of style. Whether she was yelling at her about the damage to her books, the damage to me, or a combination of the two I was not sure. Spike was called over to me by Fluttershy most likely ordering him to go grab a doctor as even I could tell moving me right now would do more harm than good. The argument between Luna and Twilight began to pick up intensity then it all culminated due to one action.

*Slap*

Twilight slapped Luna.

Twilight the anti-social bookworm who always tries to find a peaceful solution. The complete egghead that wants to learn anything and everything. The shut-in who needed being forced to move away from canterlot to make some friends slapped Luna.

THE TWILIGHT GADDAMN SPARKLE JUST SLAPPED LUNA!

That shut Luna up quickly and like a parent who told a child to go to their room Twilight pointed at her, then at me, then she pointed off into the distance. At that point, I could not see the pair anymore as my vision was taken up by the form of what I assumed to be this Equestria’s version of Nurse Redheart. She seemed to have some sort of first aid kit with has as I began to feel bandages get put on some of my wounds. As well as some type of painkiller.

“Don’t worry you’re going to be fine just stay still and everything will be alright."

I could very faintly hear it. I’m not sure who said that to me but I know that the pain slowly began to subside but I still couldn’t move my arms or legs and my wings probably looked like pincushions with the amount of splinters and debris they must be filled with. Ugh makes me shiver just thinking about it.

As the minutes ticked on and I felt myself get progressively weaker. I started to think about my family. How must they be handling my disappearance? Did my house burn down? Will they ever know what happened to me?

I started to feel sleepy and the temptation to close my eyes grew by the second. But I knew that that was the last thing I should do in this situation. I wanted to become a doctor before all of this. But I was not even able to start my first year in medical school before all of this happened. However, I still learned as much as I could about the body, and I knew that this sleepiness is due to blood loss.

As blackness began to envelop the corners of my vision, I was able to feel the vibration of multiple hooves begin to approach. The faces above me looked towards the source of the vibrations and waved them over to us frantically yelling something about blood and heart just before the darkness consumed me. And I fell unconscious shortly after. And as I fell into the void known as unconsciousness, I heard a voice.

I’m sorry

Author's Note

To quote a msg I sent to Sonata Dusk951

A little blood never hurt anyone
Unless your name is Jolyne
Then it’s going to hurt, a lot.

So I have finished muh final exam today and now have the next 10 weeks free from school allowing me to work a quote-unquote "Heck ton" On my stories now. yay :yay:

Big thanks to Sonata Dusk951 (formerly Darkspyro951) and PlantedG for prereading this chapter. You guys are the best :twilightsmile:

Also Thank you all so much for 3k views!! and 319 Likes Oh mah gad!!! :pinkiegasp:
I am so very thankful for you all giving this amateur writer a chance :twilightsmile:

Interlude: The two sisters [Rewrite]

Author's Note

Interlude 2 electric boogaloo

Now no longer smol

with hundreds of more words!

!W o W!

Big thanks to everyone who pointed out the mistakes in the first version of this chapter. Now thanks to them NO MORE OOC PRINCESSES!!!!!!!

Interlude: The two sisters [Rewrite]

Interlude: The two sisters

2 hours after Jolyne's arrival in Equestria
Canterlot castle, Throne Room

The two sisters sat in their respective thrones waiting. Over 2 hours ago a massive magical shockwave had ripped across the entirety of Equestria bringing an entity of incredible power along with it. This entity was at the forefront of the princesses minds.

Right now they were waiting for any type of news from Twilight and they were ready to help if it was needed. Celestia sat still in patience believing that her protege would be able to handle it, but she was still ready to teleport in should the need arise. Luna was shifting around in her throne, she couldn't bear the thought that something dangerous was out there endangering her friends.

Thankfully their patience had won out and a letter appeared before princess Celestia

Wasting no time she tore open the letter and began to read it over.

Dear Princess Celestia

I'm writing to you to report what we found while investigating the magical explosion that happened over your old residence. The investigation started out like any other with our trek through the Everfree forest. But as we began to approach the castle Rarity and I began to feel a strange type of magic resonating from within the Castle. When we entered the Castle we split up to cover more ground and hopefully find the source of this strange magic. As Applejack, Spike and I began our search we had noticed that Spike had gone missing. Just as we were about to start looking for him he returned with a most peculiar friend. When I got a look at her I realized where I had felt this strange magic before. It was the same magic as Nightmare Moon. Noticing this I restrained her with my magic causing her to float up in the air allowing me to get a better look at her appearance. She looks remarkably like Nightmare Moon with several key differences. The first and most obvious difference was her color palette which is the exact opposite of the Mare in the Moon, with white fur and orange hair which behaves like a raging inferno. Her eyes were the same draconic slits which were red in coloration instead of a light blue.
When she was lifted into the air completely her previously unnoticed alabaster wings enveloped her small form hiding herself behind her own wings. I began interrogating her trying to figure out how Nightmare Moon returned but I was blocked by Spike.
Thanks to him I was able to hear the full story as to why this child was here as well as her identity.

Her name is Jolyne and she was brought here against her will. She is just a lost child who doesn't have anyone else to turn too. She trusts Spike and as such, I have told him to look after her for now until we hear back from you. But even then she still holds the same magic as the Nightmare so we have restricted the use of her magic for now until we know for sure whether she really is a lost child or this is all a ruse.

Your former student,
Twilight Sparkle

The sisters read the letter in silence both of them reading over the information multiple times to make sure they were understanding it correctly.

"Another Nightmare..." Said Luna pensively breaking the silence. "She must be dealt with at once!" Declared Luna standing up from her throne horn glowing with energy.

"Luna wait." Responded Celestia calmly. "What if this 'Jolyne' is telling the truth? What if she isn't the Nightmare? Let Twilight handle it for now." Reasoned Celestia. Luna wasn't backing down, however.

"Let us go see this child in a few days once Twilight has had time to see whether she really is a threat or not." Suggested Celestia looking towards her sister.

"No sister! This is another Nightmare! I will not let it bring misery and sorrow to Equestria again! We must banish this entity back to the dreamrealm at once!" Responded Luna with determination looking back at Celestia who's smile began to falter.

Hearing Luna's determination caused Celestia to sigh. " How about this. You will go to Ponyville tomorrow to question 'Jolyne' on whether she is a threat or not." Suggested Celestia. The glow around Luna's horn began to fade.

All was silent for several seconds as Luna thought it over.

"Agreed."

When the next morning came, Luna was ready for her confrontation with the Nightmare Twilight had found.

Clutching the letter in her magic, Luna walked towards the balcony, already mentally narrowing her focus towards Ponyville. The younger of the Diarchs was far more experienced at sensing magical energies than Twilight, and now that she was aware, she could sense a piece of her sister's solar aura in the plains below Canterlot, like a glowing ember but warped as if seen through dark wind-tossed, murky waters.

This warping was something she knew all too well, for as Nightmare Moon her own aura had suffered the same taint. She swore that she would not let another Nightmare harm and despoil fair Equestria as she had in her madness. While Twilight was a puissant spellcaster, she might need help containing this new threat, as the Nightmare could be tricky, worming its way into your soul by offering you your least noble desires.

As she sprung from a balcony, already preparing to teleport, she was already working on a plan of action. She would find this Nightmare, confront it and banish it back to the dreamrealm. Maybe with the help of the Bearers of the Elements, they could free the poor soul that had fallen to its lies. It won't escape judgment like it had once before!

30 minutes after Luna’s attack on Jolyne

"What have you done Luna?"

When a letter arrived in the middle of day court that said Luna went rogue and decided to attack the Nightmare she was there to talk too. She ordered the guards to lead everyone out of the throne room as day court was now canceled due to a new situation that had popped up. The guards did so with haste. She had also ordered that the guards do not reenter the throne room and that when they spotted Luna, she was to be brought to the throne room and that they weren't to be disturbed until further notice.

Now there Luna was standing in front of her sister who had a sad and pained look on her face. They were both currently alone in the throne room with Celestia sitting on her throne looking down at a letter clutched in one hand.

"The letter says that if it were not for the aid of Fluttershy Jolyne would have died on the street. What could have brought you to do this dear sister? Her magic was inhibited she had no way of hurting anyone in her current state." She said looking up from the letter in her hands with a pained expression on her face.

"So why dear sister did you almost kill her?"

Luna stood firm however unfazed by her sister's reaction.

“Sister she is dangerous and I will not allow another nightmare to do the same as I did! She must be banished back to the dreamrealm! And since you would not do it I needed to take action! She was eating out of the cookie jar our mother gave to me and mocking me while doing so!" Responded Luna the fire of determination and anger burning brightly in her eyes.

"And what if you were wrong Luna? What if this is just a child who is here due to unfortunate circumstances? You would have condemned a child to the depths of the dreamrealm for the rest of time!" Retorted Celestia standing up from her throne, the letter still clutched in her hands.

"That does not matter I have felt her magic! She holds your magic sister and its surrounded by the Nightmares corruption! She felt the same as when yo-"

"Enough Luna. That still doesn't justify your actions! If she is like that then it is my decision on what to do with her." Interested Celestia.

Celestia now stood silently looking down at Luna. She still loved Luna with all her heart and every second spent with her since her return has been a blessing. Sure, Luna had done some terrible things in the past Celestia had as well but this…This was crossing the line in Celestia’s book. The fact that Luna almost banished a child into the dreamrealm just for being what she is. Just as Luna was about to retort Celestia sighed sadly.

"Luna...just...get out of my sight...please"

Luna did so in silence teleporting out into her bedroom. She walked over to her balcony overlooking Equestria. Leaning over the railing her gaze focused on the town where the Nightmare was located.
'I will find out what you are planning Nightmare. I will not let you hurt my sister again' Thought Luna, the urge to protect her sister from the Nightmare that had plagued her once before growing by the second.

6-Dying fire

6- Dying fire

Darkness. All around me was nothing but a plane of darkness. However, this was a darkness that I recognize and look forward to seeing every now and then.

“Oh, cool I’m dreaming,” I say with a smile. Unlike many people, I tend to have lucid dreams often. Looking down at myself I see that I still looked like a 6-year-old Daybreaker. Frowning I snap my fingers to make myself look like my old self again.

Nothing happened.

“huh? Why won’t…” I snap my fingers again. Still nothing. I keep snapping them over and over hoping to do anything to the void I found myself in.

I tried creating my room…Nothing.

I tried making a nice grassy field…Still nothing

Starting to get frustrated I tried to will a simple chair into existence…Nada.

This was getting annoying.

“Oh, C’mon why won’t you AGH!” Pain exploded across my back and legs as I was suddenly flown across the void. When I hit the ground, the void was replaced with Ponyville. Landing on my back I was unable to move. Lying there helplessly I could only watch as Luna came into my field of vision. Her horn glowing, wings flared looking down at me as if I never deserved to have even been thought up of by my parents. The last thing I saw was a beam of light heading towards me.

I gasp loudly returning to the waking world. I shot upright in the bed I now found myself bringing my hand up to my heart which was beating at a mile a minute. I was borderline hyperventilating as I tried to calm myself down.

‘It’s a dream…it’s a dream… she isn’t here…she isn’t here’

I kept repeating that mantra in my head trying to calm myself back down. Now you may think that I woke up after getting blasted in the dream, but it was a lot worse. I kept reliving my near-death experience over and over and over again. Needless to say, I don’t think I could be in the same room as Luna now without having a heart attack. Slowly my heart began to beat slower and my breathing slowed back down. Stupid child body I absolutely hate having no control over my emotions. Taking deep breaths, I was finally able to calm myself down from the nightmare I had. Now with my emotions and body back under control, I was able to get a good look at where I now found myself. I was in a small room with lime green wallpaper with white ceilings and floors. The wall across from my bed had one large mirror. To my left was a small window with lime green curtains being faintly moved by the wind. There was a distinct smell of antiseptic in the air and the now identified IV stand next to the bed I was in confirmed my suspicions.

I was in some type of hospital.

I also seemed to be in one of those private single patient recovery rooms.

A dull pain in my back now became known as well as something pressing tightly against my wings. Looking down at my body I saw that basically my whole upper body was covered by bandages. That included my wings that were firmly pressed against my back by bandages. Just as I was about to inspect the rest of my body the door to my room opened.
Startled I whipped my head in the direction of the door only to be met with a wall of orange hair. Turns out I was still wearing a magic inhibiting ring as my hair was still straight and not burning. With an annoyed huff and some muffled laughter from my visitor I got my hair out of my face and was able to see who had just entered the room. Standing there with her hand over her mouth trying to stifle a few giggles was a nurse who I have never seen before in the show. Her fur was a deep Scarlet with blonde hair.

“yeah yeah laugh it up. I am not used to having long hair and this” I say pointing a finger at my orange hair.” usually floats.” I finish with a pout blowing at my hair. She just smiled at my probably unbelievably cute display. I mean who would not smile at such an image of a small white filly blowing her hair out of her face.

“So, doc what’s the prognosis?” I ask as she walks over to the IV stand and refills it after removing the drip from my arm.

“Well since your awake now I’ll go inform the doctors but as for right now I need to look you over.” She says as she begins her examination. Everything was going fine, and It looked like I already healed most of the damage I had received until…

“Can you move your legs for me please?” She asked inspecting my thoroughly bandaged legs. At this point I was basically a mummy just completely covered in bandages it was almost comical if it were not so painful getting said bandages. Following her instructions, I tried doing just that. Keyword ‘tried’ as when I told my legs to move, they did not respond. A feeling of fear began to seep into my mind at this response from my lower body.

“I-I uh can’t” I respond shakily fear of what could have happened seeping into my voice. Hearing my answer, the nurse hummed thoughtfully. She went and grabbed a pen from her chest pocket and told me to close my eyes.

“Can you feel this?” she asked.

I could not feel anything. The fear in my mind started to grow. “N-No w-why c-can’t I feel anything?” I stuttered out. “It’s nothing to worry about but altogether you are recovering very nicely. I’ll go tell the doctor you’re awake now.” The nurse says with a smile making her way towards the door.
“o-ok,” I say with a smile now slightly less afraid of the paralyzation in my legs. Hearing the click of the door, I laid back down in bed and gave off a sigh of relief that I was still alive after my encounter with Luna. Now lying in bed with nothing to do I decided to try and get some more shut-eye as some type of painkiller began to flood my system through the now refilled and reattached IV drip.

“How is she doing Scarlet?” Asked Celestia at the sound of a door opening, she was currently looking at the now sleeping form of Jolyne through a one-way mirror. “Well princess we were able to repair most of the damage and her alicorn physiology has finished the rest of her healing but with her magic inhibited the damage to her spine won’t heal.” Scarlet took on a sad expression.” And even if her magic is no longer inhibited it will be a long time before she can walk on her own.”

Celestia took on a pained expression at the news of the consequences of her sister’s brash actions. After a short stay in the Ponyville general hospital once it was safe for Jolyne to be moved she was brought to Canterlot castle medical wing. Into one of the patient rooms built for high-risk patients. The room was surrounded by multiple different wards and spells to ensure the safety of the patient and the rest of the castle. Essentially it was a cell in the form of a recovery room. Even though Jolyne was in no condition to be a threat to anything other than some sandwiches it was better to be safe rather than sorry. Celestia simply could not risk the safety of her ponies until she saw for herself that Jolyne was not the Nightmare her sister believed her to be. Even if that meant leaving a child unable to walk for the unforeseeable future.

“I understand but it must be this way until she proves herself not to be a threat. No matter how much it pains me to do this, but the ring will remain for now. I will speak with her myself later.” Celestia said looking through the mirror at the ring placed upon Jolyne’s horn.

Darkness surrounded me once again as I drifted of into unconsciousness. Seeing this plane once again brought the unpleasant memory of my previous dream to the forefront of my mind.
“Oh, come on! Not again” I look down at my hands. “You better work now or I’m going to be pissed”
Imagining my room back home, I closed my eyes and snapped my fingers hoping that I would not relive a certain life-threatening incident again.

*snap*

“Aw yisss,” I say with a small fist bump into the air at seeing my success.

Opening my eyes, I was no longer met with a never-ending void but instead my bedroom wall that was covered in different MLP posters. Rainbow Dash eat your heart out my Wonder bolts collection is bigger than yours. Turning around I walked back over to my desk. However, in doing so I found one problem. I was still a small 6-year-old. Huffing I snapped my finders and shrunk the desk and chair down to my size. Now finally able to access my ‘dream computer’ (In more ways than one, I built it my self and it's my baby) and started revising my previous plan of action from when I first arrived here. Opening up a brand-new text document I began typing away.

Old Plan of Action:

Step 1 Look around for somewhere safe to wait for morning/sleep.
Step 2 Try to find the main 6 and not have them blast me.
Step 3 Uhhhh.
Step 4 profit.

Old Plan Status Report:

~~Step 1 Look around for somewhere safe to wait for morning/sleep.~~ Success?
~~Step 2 Try to find the main 6 and not have them blast me.~~ Success kind of? I mean they did not blast me so there’s that.
~~Step 3 Uhhhh.~~ Nope did not work
~~Step 4 profit.~~ Failed spectacularly. I almost died and currently cannot walk or feel anything in my legs.

New Plan of Action:

Continuous Objective: AVOID LUNA AT ALL COSTS!

Step 1 Heal
Step 2 Walk out of this hospital
Step 3 Show I am not evil so play nice.
Step 4 Get help from Celestia in getting me home (Avoid Luna if at all possible!)
Step 5 Go home
(In the very unlikely event I cannot go home____________________

Staring at my computer screen at my new plan of action, I just could not think of anything in case I could not go home. It brought up so many feelings that I cannot even begin to describe. Sure, everyone might think living in Equestria would be great but back home there were some things that I would move heaven and earth for. ‘No matter the cost I will find a way home’ I thought with determination not wanting to dwell on that depressing thought I turned the monitor off and decided to try and do anything to pass the time till I wake up.

Author's Note

The struggle you’re in today is developing
the strength you need for tomorrow.
Robert Tew

7-One Sun to another

7-One Sun to another

As the slow feeling of consciousness began to reassert itself to my still weary sleep filled mind one thing became obviously clear.

*Growl*

I was hungry.

*Growl intensifies*

Very hungry.

I was so hungry that the flower sitting on the windowsill started to look very appealing to my now small herbivore body. After a few minutes of contemplating whether or not I was about to seriously consider a small heist to grab the flower from the windowsill to satiate my hunger the door to my room opened. Being brought out of my hunger-induced stupor by seeing the form of princess Celestia holding what appeared to be a plate of sandwiches what not something I expected to see so…early or late? I could not really be sure as the sun was still shining through my window without a hint or a sunrise or sunset. How long have I been sleeping? It was still daytime when I first woke up in this room however many hours ago that was. Anyway, back to the elephant in the room. Or should I say the goddess holding some seriously delicious looking sandwiches in the room? Celestia probably noticing my gaze that was locked onto the sandwiches she was holding or the fact a thin line of drool was now hanging out of my mouth caused her to giggle slightly.

The small giggling of Celestia brought my attention away from the plate she was holding and back to the fact that the princess in front of me is the one I am currently the evil version of. Ya know the whole me basically being in the body of Celestia’s version of Nightmare Moon. So yeah after that little epiphany I really was not looking forward to experiencing my immediate future but as for right now, my immediate focus was the food she brought in. Celestia just kept her trademark motherly smile on her face as she looked towards me. She was wearing a white dress like the one I woke up in when I first arrived here except her dress was a lot more… ‘regal’ would be the best way to describe it. In comparison to my dress, it was like it was made of the purest white silk known to ponykind. While mine was made of some cheap cotton.
Now that my brain was no longer completely fuzzed by sleep, I sat up straight in bed as I rubbed the sleep out of my eye and stretched my arms out with a small yawn as Celestia began to walk up to the bed pulling up a nearby chair while putting the plate of sandwiches on the stand thing next to the bed with her magic.

My gaze was intensely locked onto the sandwiches as they floated through the air briefly.

“Are those for me?” I ask with an almost literal waterfall of drool leaving my mouth.

There was another small giggle from the Solar goddess before she said something to the tune of an affirmative. I was not really paying attention to what she was saying but before she could even finish her sentence, I was gobbling those sandwiches up at the speed of sound. And might I say they were some delicious sandwiches. They were those classic daisy sandwiches that everypony in the show was always eating. I had never in a million years expected to eat normally inedible plants but now there I was eating them up so fast I might have broken several world records for fastest eating.

After I had very brutally ravaged the portion of sandwiches, I was given my attention was brought back to the solar goddess I seemed to have momentarily forgotten was sitting next to my bed. When I met her gaze, I was in the middle of swallowing the last remnants of my breakfast/lunch/brunch (I still had no idea what time it was). She still had her motherly smile on her face as and after a small stare-off, she gave a small chuckle and spoke.

“My my weren’t you hungry. I take it you enjoyed it?”

I blushed and looked away but gave a small nod. Celestia smiled and continued speaking.
“Well, now that breakfast is out of the way. I would like to ask you a few questions.” She said softly as I turned my head to look at her with some hesitation. Even if this was the most benevolent and kind pony in Equestria the prospect of her questioning me did scare me. However, I also knew that she was my best chance of getting back home. So with my mind made up and my emotions under control for the time being I nodded. Her horn glowed briefly as she began to question me.

“So how did you end up in the Everfree castle?” Was the first question I received.

Oh hello, emotional stability how are you doing?

...What do you mean goodbye?!

“I... have no idea. Some type of magical firestorm popped up in my living room back home and sucked me in. When I woke up there was fire all around me and…and” Tears started to form in the corners of my eyes as the weight of my situation came crashing back down onto me. (I have said this once and I will say it again: SCREW YOU CHILD BRAIN! AND SCREW YOU ASWELL UNCONTROLLABLE EMOTIONS!)

“N-Now I’m in a world that’s afraid of me *sniff* My parents probably think I’m dead! I’m not even human anymore and now!” Through my teary eyes, I grab the quilt fold it to the side. Not really caring about the fact I just said I was Human to the most powerful entity in Equestria.

“I can’t even feel my legs anymore!”

“I just want to go home,” I say sniffling, tears streaming down my face as I close my eyes tightly my hands gripping my unfeeling legs tightly.

Celestia was conflicted. She was sitting across from what used to be her greatest fear now sitting there emotionally broken. She entered the room looking for answers. Why was she here? How did she get here? What did she want? Was she going to destroy Equestria? You know, the big important questions. But she was not expecting her to break down crying in front of her after just one question. She had cast a lie-detecting spell just before she asked her first question and all throughout her breakdown it never detected any lie. This…This child in front of her with incredible magic which could rival Celestia when grown up, did not even use to be the same species as her and used to be some type of Human. This unfortunate soul was ripped away from everything she knew and thrust into a world that almost killed her within less than a day. Fate had truly been unkind to this child.

‘Or so she claims’ thought Celestia bitterly. Nightmare entities were manipulative and cunning. It could all be some big act to get Celestia to let her guard down and allow the nightmare to possess her as it had once before.
Lie detector spells were never foolproof and could always be tricked.

‘But in this room? With her magic inhibited? Is such a feat of deception possible? Even for a Nightmare?’

No, such a feat is impossible even for Celestia. Every word she spoke was the truth and Celestia had seriously misjudged with who she was dealing with. This was not ‘Daybreaker’ the arrogant, power-hungry, and manipulate Nightmare that had plagued Celestia once before. This was a lost soul who had just lost everything and could not handle the weight of her situation alone. And by some cosmic or magical anomaly was deposited in Equestria with the physical form of the Nightmare known as Daybreaker. Her magical signature is almost identical to that of Celestia’s the only difference being that Jolyne’s Magic is murky…unclean and as such, unstable. She would need a guardian, someone to take care of her, and be able to handle her volatile magic if it ran out of control which it most definitely will if the ring is removed.

Magic inhibitor rings work by absorbing the magic inside one’s body and safely dispersing it into the environment. However, if the magic is tainted in some way, like the magic being passively produced inside Jolyne, the ring cannot remove the magic safely and it begins to build up. This phenomenon is extremely rare as it only manifests if an inhibitor is placed upon a Nightmare entity. The knowledge of these build-ups has been forgotten by all but the most diligent historians and a pair of thousand-year-old alicorns. Such a build-up is not dangerous in anyway…until the ring is removed then the magic will be expelled in what is commonly known as a tainted magic surge which is far more unpredictable and explosive than normal surges.

Or in other words: Twilight’s entrance exam… but worse.

So, with her mind made up Celestia slowly stood up and walked up to the bed containing the still crying Jolyne. Taking a seat on the bed next to the smaller crying Alicorn bringing her into an embrace which she desperately needed now.

“There… there… everything will be alright. I…I will find a way to get you back home.”

Jolyne initially tensed up at the sudden embrace by the solar diarch but after hearing what Celestia had said to her the feeling of hope that had slowly been dwindling away inside Jolyne since her arrival began to burn brighter at the prospect of a way home. Jolyne leaned into the embrace after hearing those words her mood beginning to brighten up again. From hopeless depression to slightly hopeful sadness, not much of an improvement but an improvement is still better than nothing.
Jolyne looked up at the bigger Alicorn hugging her tightly and with hope in her tear-filled eyes asked one thing.

“Promise?”

Looking down at the smaller Alicorn in her arms looking up at her with eyes that would have caused fear but now only brought a feeling of pity and sadness to Celestia’s heart, she smiled softly and brought Jolyne into a tighter embrace.

“I promise”

Step 4 Get help from Celestia in getting me home
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SUCCESS

Author's Note

Never give up on something
that you can’t go a day without thinking about.
Winston Churchill

Hello, everybody, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did and probably as much as Jolyne did (I can't be mean to her all the time :pinkiecrazy: so have a nice chapter where something doesn't go wrong for Jolyne)

Also please point out any and all mistakes I might have made and just be brutal. I hope I was able to accurately portray Celestia in how she would have handled this.
If not... I'm sorry

Also I have been thinking about it and have decided to look for an Editor!
So if you would like to be said editor and help me create a story for everybody to enjoy feel free to PM me :twilightsmile:

8-A connection between Suns

8-A connection between Suns

Let me tell you one thing: getting a hug when one is needed by a friend is nice. Getting hugged by a Princess is another thing. But the motherly hug I received from Celestia blew everything out of the water in comparison. It was as if all my worries melted away, for this short moment all was right in the world. And as Celestia said those magic words...

“I promise”

The happiness I felt at that moment… it was indescribable. All my fears of never being able to see my home, my friends, my family were gone. I was going home. Well, not right at that moment but with Celestia on my side it was all but guaranteed that I was going to be able to go home. I don’t know how long we stayed in that embrace but I didn't care. It could have been hours or minutes but when my tears began to run dry and my sobbing became quieter Celestia moved away slightly and looked into my still teary eyes with her motherly smile still visible on her face.

“Feeling better now?” She asked as she idly stroked my orange hair with her hand. Looking up into her magenta eyes that were filled with sympathy, I nodded while bringing a hand up to wipe the remaining tears from my eyes. The sound of a door being opened cut through the momentary silence and brought both gazes towards the door. Standing there was the same nurse as before holding a clipboard with an embarrassed look on her face.

“I *ahem* Is this a bad time? I can come back later if you wish Princess.”

Celestia just responded with a small chuckle.

“No, in fact, your timing is perfect Scarlet,” She said while standing up and moving away from me much to my displeasure. Noticing this Celestia smiled at me.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere, but I doubt that miss Scarlet here could do her job if I was in the way.”

I giggled slightly at Celestia’s attempt to lighten up the mood. It did help me to cheer up slightly as Scarlet walked up to the end of the bed and grabbed the chart hanging off it. She hummed thoughtfully after comparing what was written on my chart and whatever documents she had attached to the clipboard she carried. After quickly writing something down she smiled and began speaking.

“Well, judging by your chart most if not all your injuries have healed but I still need to do a small examination to make sure there aren't any more problems.” She said as she began to approach me. The examination was fairly straightforward. All she really did was remove my bandages and look at the now small patches where my fur has not grown back yet. Thank goodness for the fact that it wasn't very visible due to my fur already being white. Thankfully some fur had already begun to regrow so I guessed those patches would be gone in a day or so. But let me tell ya, being able to move my wings again felt great. I mean, I couldn't move them much as they were still quite tender but still being able to move them at all after having them basically glued to my back for several days was amazing. Feeling the joints in those things pop...oh yeah just thinking about it makes me feel good. After the feeling of absolute bliss, I got from moving my wings was gone I was brought back to the hurtful reality that are my legs. I still couldn't feel them and it was starting to scare me. I mean, it already did and she said that it would heal eventually but that still doesn't remove my fear of not being able to feel my own damn legs completely. Scarlet finished soon after appearing to glance between the ring on my horn and the Princess sitting next to my bed as she jotted something down.

“So, after that, I can say with certainty that all of your external injuries have healed meaning you don't need any more of these pesky bandages,” She said with a smile throwing my old bandages into a nearby bin.”But I still want you to stay here for a few more days of observation.” She said before looking over towards Celestia. “Would that be all right Princess?” Celestia nodded as Scarlet made her way towards the door leaving me alone with Celestia once more.

“Now that that's out of the way I have about an hour before I need to return back to my duties so why don't you tell me a bit about yourself” Began Celestia. Her motherly smile on display once again. Seeing no reason not to answer I told Celestia pretty much everything about myself. Of course, leaving out the whole watching a show about an alternate Equestria where they aren’t bipedal. Eventually, she magicked a notepad into the room breaking my concentration and bringing up one enormous thing I had completely ignored. Magic gaddam existed and I could learn it. Honestly, it surprised me how long I had gone not being in awe at the fact magic was real here. It brought back the memory of how it felt not to have this ring on. Having the feeling of magic being taken away was one thing but there really wasn’t a difference with how it was back home where magic isn't real. But in the short time I had magic I have grown accustomed to a feeling I didn't know I had until it was taken away.

Anyway, now I’m rambling, so let's get back to Celestia doing magic and making a notebook appear while I was describing the wonders that were computers. Yeah, so her bringing that notebook into existence completely destroyed my train of thought as I went ‘Oh yeah magic is a thing, and I can learn about said thing, and do stuff with said thing when I’ll learn about this one thing’. Honestly, the fact that I only just now realized this spoke of either how stupid I am or how hectic my time in Equestria has been so far.

Celestia noticing that I was no longer talking and now just staring at the notebook took on a worried facial expression.

“Is everything all right?” Celestia asked in a worried tone bringing me out of my stupor. “Yeah I’m fine it’s just… the fact that magic is now a real thing and no longer fiction just set in. Do you think I could learn magic?! Do you think you could teach me as well?!” I ask in an excited tone the prospect of learning something only heard of in works of fantasy. I mean who wouldn't want to learn real-life magic, especially from the Princess Celestia herself! But there were several things preventing me from doing just that. The big one is the inhibitor ring doing exactly what it says on the tin. Another problem is that Celestia might not want to or have the time to be my teacher. There is also still the fact I am Daybreaker, even if she knows I’m not her, the magic I must hold as an alicorn child could pose a problem as the amount of power I am probably holding isn’t on the same level as a unicorn child.

Celestia took a thoughtful expression at my response and hummed to herself bringing a finger up to her lips as if weighing the pros and cons of teaching the alien in the body of her version of Nightmare Moon how to use magic. I completely understood the implications of what I was asking. Teaching a small alicorn that probably has enough power to destroy a good chunk of Canterlot if they decided to do so was a serious risk.

“Let me think about it, my little pony.” She responded after a short while. I lost some enthusiasm at her answer.

But hey!
It wasn’t a no~o hehe.

“But let's get back to these high powered computers you were talking about” Continued Celestia now actively taking notes in her little book. I guess I found out where Twilight got that from or maybe Twilight's habits rubbed off on Celestia. “This technology your people have developed is truly fascinating. The best piece of such technology our scientists have developed are small calculators only capable of the simplest of operations.” Now, hearing that was extremely surprising. I knew their technology wasn't the best and that they used magic as a shortcut for most things where we would have used electricity instead. But I honestly expected a bit more advancement in the IT-department.

Now let me tell you something about what happens when you mix a geek that built their own computer from scratch and a world that just recently invented the calculator. You get one extremely happy geek. I already loved tinkering on my own computer to make it as efficient as possible. Hell, I used to build computers as a hobby to make some extra cash. I could be Equestria’s version of Bill Gates if I wanted to be. Ah yes, I could see it now: ‘Micropony the forefront leader in computpony technology™'.

Giggling at the prospect of owning Equestria's version of Microsoft, I began speaking.
“Hehe, give me a workbench and I’ll show you how us humans work our magic”

After a small laugh, I continued from where we last left off. Overall it was a very nice conversation and felt great talking to someone -or would it be somepony- about everything. But as with all good things, it too must have come to an end. At some point, Celestia had to take a leave.

Celestia’s horn glowed briefly as a frown appeared on her face. Sighing, she magicked her notebook away. “It appears that we must cut our conversation short as something appears to have come up that requires my immediate attention.” I began frowning as the prospect of being stuck in this room with nothing to do till Celestia’s next visit was going to be mind-numbingly boring. Celestia, noticing my frown laughed slightly, probably guessing exactly what was going through my mind.

“Don’t worry my little pony, I will be sure to visit you tomorrow.”

This caused a small smile to creep up on my face but I was still going to be stuck in here without anything to do. I had previously looked around my small room and there weren't any books of any kind within my reach. Not even a pamphlet about some fur-care product I couldn’t care less about but could still read to pass the time. “Um, could you please, maybe bring me something to read?” I ask with a sheepish smile plastered on my face. This in turn got a motherly smile from Celestia, whose horn began to glow.

*poof*

Suddenly a book was magicked into existence and landed right on my lap. Looking down at the book now sitting in my lap a smile quickly began to blossom across my face. It was the first daring doo book in the series: Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone. It was and still is one of my favorite books of all time as I had been able to snag a limited edition copy back home that has its own special place on my nightstand. I read it almost every night. No matter how many times I read that book it never got boring. So, with stars in my eyes and a massive smile on my face, I said in the happiest voice I had ever used.

“Thank you!!!”

Author's Note

This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember sisters, make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
Marilyn Monroe

Hello everybody! Hope you all liked this chapter because I have an announcement to make.

WE NOW HAVE EDITORS WOOOOO!

Give a big warm welcome to our new Editors!

HeBogin and The-Hidden-Fox

You two are just the best :heart: and I thank you both for your hard work making this chapter perfect.

9-The Castle

9-The Castle

It was finally time for me to leave. Those few more days were finally over and today was the day for me to leave this godforsaken room. After several days of being stuck in one single room, I was in a dire need for a change of scenery. Also, I have developed a whole new respect for anyone who has had to ever deal with being unable to walk. Not being able to use the bathroom without some assistance was quite embarrassing. I’m pretty sure the fur covering my face now has a permanent red tint due to how humiliating it was. During that experience, another important thing became known. I did not have a cutie mark on my hip. The only thing there was an orange patch of fur that was shaped like an ink splotch similar to Nightmare Moon’s or Luna’s. But let's move on from that and head on over to the interesting bits such as finally being discharged from this hospital.

The day started out like any other day in this room after Celestia’s visit: face down, squished into a book that was as comfortable as it was exciting to read. That book made this short stay a thousand times more bearable than if I were left to my own devices. I would have continued to snooze in said position, nuzzling this book if it hadn’t been for the door to my room being abruptly opened, followed by the voice of one extremely cheerful solar princess.

“Good morning, my little pony!”

Now let me make one thing clear. I may be in the body of the Solar Empress known as Daybreaker but I was the dictionary definition of ‘not a morning person’ also considering the fact that it was 6 am and the sun had just risen, I was barely conscious. So with as much energy as I could muster, I raised my head up from the book and tried to respond.

“Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

That was all I was able to get out before I face-planted back into the book asleep again, only to jolt up again due to hitting the book with more force than expected. Now with a sore nose and looking thoroughly like I had been dragged through a hedge, Celestia threw the curtains wide open, illuminating the room while also unintentionally blinding me for several seconds as my draconic eyes adjusted to the light. With any future plans of getting some more sleep thrown out of the window, I began my process of waking up fully, no matter how much I wanted to just pass out. So stretching myself out and giving off a yawn, I looked towards Celestia who just grabbed the wheelchair from the corner of the room and brought it over to my bedside. Next thing I know I’m floating through the air covered in a golden aura right onto said wheelchair.

“Let's go get you some breakfast. I’m sure you must be quite hungry.” Said Celestia as she began wheeling me out of the room. While leaving, the first thing that came to mind was: ‘Wait, this isn't a hospital’ then after several seconds of processing, another thing hit me: ‘Why does this look strangely familiar?’. As my brain was finishing it's starting up process and began to connect the dots. Seeing the guards standing in front of the door only confirmed what I had been thinking.

I was in Canterlot, Canterlot Castle specifically, which actually explained a lot. As for the past few days, the only ponies that ever entered my room were Celestia and Scarlet. Now with my brain fully rebooted and no longer fuzzy, I fully grasped the situation I was most likely being wheeled towards. I was in Canterlot castle where the pony that almost killed me lived and worked. Yeah, being that close to certain death all this time and not even knowing it until this point was not what this morning needed. And now there I was, being pushed to Celestia knows where (because she most likely did as I highly doubt she needed me for her morning stroll through the castle) in the one place in all of Equestria where miss ‘Crippled a child’ lives and could run into her at any point during this trip towards wherever Celestia was bringing me to have some breakfast. I needed to slow things down right now!

“Ok, ok, wait, slow down,” I say putting my hands up, turning my head to face Celestia. She took on a quizzical expression and brought us to a standstill.

“Is something wrong?” asked Celestia concerned while moving in front of the wheelchair and getting down to my level.

“A-p-ttt pfff...Yes!” I sputtered out unable to comprehend how Celestia didn't think it was a good idea not to tell me that we were in the one place I didn't want to be anywhere near. “First why didn't you tell me we were in your castle where your sister—who tried to kill me might I add—also lives!? I would very much like to get as far away as possible from her!” I say in a mixture of anger and fear. Because of Luna’s actions in the first place, I am stuck in this wheelchair and unable to even feel my own legs. I did not want to be in the same timezone as her let alone the same castle. Seeing my reaction, Celestia sighed.

“I understand that you are afraid of my sister. I would be too if she did the same to me. But there is no need to worry about Luna hurting you from now on. I have made sure of that.”

Hearing that response did calm me down a little but I was still quite worked up. No matter how much Celestia would try to get me to calm down I just still couldn’t get over the fact that Luna could have just decided to come finish the job. But eventually, after quite a bit of reassurance from the solar princess that Luna wasn't going to hurt me anymore, we continued towards breakfast. Now that all of that was mostly out of the way I was able to truly appreciate the beauty that was Canterlot castle. This castle really was something else, almost every other surface was made of gold. And here I thought that the old castle in the everfree forest was the best-looking thing I had ever seen, well turns out I was off by a factor of a thousand. This castle was seriously beautiful, I am about 90% sure that a single wall of this castle is worth more than my house back home and that was just a random corridor. If the throne room or dining room were built just like this… Then I might very well faint from sheer beauty overload. That of course would never happen as I am not that easily overwhelmed by beauty, unlike some ponies.

*cough* Rarity *cough*

*Ahem* Sorry about that back to the story now where were we again….Ah yes, so back to me being wheeled towards the promised breakfast after being reassured by Celestia. The trip was fairly short and we soon arrived in front of a door that I guessed either led to the dining room or the kitchen. But considering the fact that the door was massive and partially built out of gold, my money was on the former.

The door was surrounded by a golden aura as it was swung open revealing an incredibly long table in the center of the room, confirming that this was in fact the dining room. And woah let me tell you, this is truly an awe-inspiring dining room. With ceilings as high as small buildings with walls that seemed to radiate the feeling of royalty. The walls contained beautiful murals of different landscapes and constellations. Hanging from the ceiling was a single chandelier that seemed to glow with a golden hue. As we entered the room fully another thing entered my field of vision. Hanging just above the door we entered through was the flag of Equestria. This room really was something else.

Next thing I know Celestia has brought me over to the table in the center of the room where a place seemed to have been set for me. Celestia then took a seat at the end of the table right next to me as her horn lit up slightly. The sound of the door opening came as several servants entered the room. One of the servants was pushing a cart which was absolutely filled to the brim with food into the room. The staff acted quite wary about me and seemed scared to approach me, but after a quick word from Celestia they then began to distribute the food across the table and my god the food looked divine. There was everything from sandwiches to salads even some pancakes as well. The table was quickly set by the staff and as soon as I saw Celestia start to dig in I began as well. I went and took one of the pancakes and took a bit out of it. The flavor that exploded in my mouth was equivalent to that of a nuke going off in my mouth. Now I’ve had some good food back home and I still think that the beef my mother cooked every Sunday is the best thing since sliced bread but these pancakes were simply divine. Eating those pancakes did bring up an important question though:

‘Could I still eat meat?’

I mean I had fangs that clearly weren't there for show, I figured that out the hard way when biting my lips drew blood. So could I still eat meat? Would that even be allowed in this herbivorous society? How will I get my protein if all I can eat is plants? Ok, forget that last one, eggs do still exist in Equestria. I was literally eating pancakes right at that very moment. I would have to ask about that because this body clearly had a reason for these small fangs and I don't want to end back up in the hospital because of a protein deficiency. Other than that, breakfast was a relatively quiet affair. The most dominant sound being the sound of silver cutlery impacting plates. With intermittent small talk about whether the food was good. I think I nodded a little too hard in response to the question because the result of that became known in the form of a small headache. Overall it was a nice and quiet breakfast…

Until roughly half an hour in.

It started with the sound of a door being opened. And being the curious little idiot I was I foolishly turned my head to look. And consequently met my gaze with one extremely tired lunar princess who did NOT look happy to see me so late in her day. Just as my heart began to skyrocket and my breathing began to quicken my surroundings began to flash between the dining room and the library back in Ponyville. I couldn’t deal with this I couldn’t even bear to look at her without my mind picturing her back in Twilight’s library looking at me with murder in her eyes. I shut my eyes tightly and turned away trying to regain control over my body and mind.

Luckily however I wasn’t alone.

“*Ahem* Good morning Luna,” Said Celestia with a smile trying to ease the sudden tension in the room.

Luna only grunted in confirmation using her horn to levitate a banana towards her before grabbing it out of the air and leaving, shutting the door behind her. Celestia sighed sadly at Luna’s behavior before glancing over towards me just as I got my breathing back under control.

“I-Is s-she g-gone?” I barely managed to stutter out. My heart was still racing a mile a minute but was beginning to slow down as I began to take breaths. Celestia noticed the distress I was in and took on a concerned facial expression while reaching out to hold my hand.
She didn't say anything but nothing needed to be said. The small comfort of Celestia holding my hand was enough to calm me. After a short while, I spoke up.

“Thank you. I-I’m alright now”

A small smile crept back onto my face. Celestia smiled back warmly while holding onto my hand a few moments longer. Afterward breakfast had continued in silence, however, it didn't last for that much more as my appetite had disappeared due to my...I think the best way to describe it would be ‘Episode’? Anyway, as we were finishing, Celestia spoke up.

“Now that breakfast is out of the way I have some good news.” Began Celestia with a grin, grabbing my attention. “Two days from now, Twilight and her assistant Spike will be coming here to organize this year’s Summer Sun celebration as well as to come and visit you,” She said, now sporting a rather large smile. To say I wasn't smiling as well would be a lie but this news brought up mixed feelings. For one I was happy to get to see Spike again as he was the only one to not act with hostility when we first met but this confirmed where I was in the timeline. This was Twilight's first Summer Sun celebration which meant one thing.

Plunder vines.

So, knowing that that big of an event was soon about to go down, significantly reduced my enthusiasm for experiencing these next few days. Considering me as the Daybreaker, possessing magic very similar to that of Celesta's, an abduction was highly probable. I mean Twilight still fixes it, but what if this world doesn't follow the show exactly. We already have anthro ponies. What's to say that this time Twilight won’t fix everything, so yeah, tit for tat: get to see Spike again but have to possibly deal with the end of Equestria.

Great, just...flippin...Great! Ugh, I swear that Discord was messing with me back then.

You ranggggggggg?

No...No I did not. Now, can you please leave? I'm in the middle of something right now.

Oh, you're no fun! Also no I was not messing with you back then but it certainly was entertaining to watch!

Oh goddammit, Discord we maybe “friends” but leave right now, before so help me god, I will tell Fluttershy about a certain incident involving a certain bunny, hmmmmm?!

Y-you wouldn't... wait... no….no, you would, ehhh... Toodles!

Ha! You should have seen his face, absolutely priceless! Anyway, where were we... ah yes.

So after hearing that news I was quite conflicted but otherwise still quite happy about seeing Spike again and a small smile began to form on my face. Noticing my reaction, Celestia’s smile seemed to widen a little as well.

“Now that you are no longer required to stay in the medical wing of the castle, would you like to see your new room?” I saw no reason not to but I needed to be sure of something. Celestia must have anticipated my next question and answered it before I could even get the first word out.

“Don’t worry, your room isn’t anywhere near Luna’s wing of the castle.”

So with my unasked question answered and with literally better to do, we were on our way through the castle and towards my new living quarters for the time being. The trip was relatively short but that was mostly because I kept getting lost in the sights. I mean seriously, these hallways were so heavily decorated it could impress a blind person/pony with its beauty. Really got to give props to the staff and maids that keep the castle so impossibly clean. Throughout my entire stay, I have yet to see even a speck of dust or anything remotely dirty. Eventually, we stopped in front of one of the many identical doors lining the walls. It wasn't anything intricate, it was just a simple wooden door leading to my new room. Well, I mean as intricate a simple wooden door can be in a royal castle. The door was still engraved with some elaborate patterns, making it fit in with its surroundings.

The door was momentarily surrounded by Celestia's golden aura as it began to open revealing my new home for the time being. Well, technically this castle is my home for now but it contains Luna, my room doesn't. And for once, throughout my entire stay here, my jaw did not hit the floor when I got my first glimpse of my room. The room was surprisingly simple and not very ‘over the top’ as it were. It was maybe a little bit bigger than the medical room I had been in for the past few days. The first thing I saw before entering the room fully were the windows directly across from the doorway allowing me to get a glimpse of the morning sun, as it was still quite early in the day. When I was fully moved into the room a lot more things became known. The walls, for one, were painted a warm orange making me raise an eyebrow at Celestia’s grin. Pulling my eyes away from the walls, the next thing that caught my attention was the bookshelf to my left which was absolutely filled to the brim with books of every color and type. In the center of the room was my new bed with—of course—an orange quilt and a single large pillow with Celestia’s cutie mark emblazoned on it. Seems like the myths of Trollestia’s existence were true and she went to town on my room. Other than that, the room contained all the essentials: nightstand, desk with a chair against the wall with those windows I was talking about earlier, and the entrance to the bathroom directly to the right of the door to my room. Honestly, seeing this room and not having my nonexistent socks knocked off was a breath of fresh air. Not too posh, not too minimalistic the perfect combination for someone like me as I have never liked to have too much. I’m always fine with enough plus a bit on top so this room was perfect.

“This is where you will be staying for the time being. I hope this room is to your liking” Said Celestia with the cheekiest grin I had ever seen in my life plastered across her face.

“Uh-huh…” I said, glancing at the cutie mark emblazoned pillow. “It’s nice” Shortly afterward Celestia’s horn began to glow slightly which seemed to bring a sigh from the solar princess.

“Duty calls as it seems, so this is where we will have to say goodbye for now.” Said Celestia with a sad smile dominating her features.

“No, no, that's completely understandable, you are the princess after all and do have a country to run,” I responded with a smile. “But, uh, quick question...What about Luna?” I asked pensively.

“There’s no need to worry about her for the meantime. She sleeps through the day as dream watching is quite tiring.” Celestia answered making her way towards the door. Just as she was about to leave she turned back around to face me and said one final thing before leaving.

“In case you need anything just ask the guards outside.” And thus with a smile, Celestia left the room closing the door behind her leaving me to my own devices for the time being.

The first thing I did was get a good look at the books contained in the bookshelf. There was a little bit of everything in there, from history to science-fiction. But nothing that I could see really grabbed my attention as the higher shelves were out of my reach due to my condition. So I just grabbed the nearest book about history and brought myself over towards the desk. Moving the chair out of the way took some effort but shortly thereafter I was sitting there happily reading about some random part of Equestrian history. It must have been some part of history that was incredibly boring as otherwise, I would be remembering it right now.

Needless to say, I got bored quickly and started to look for something else to do. Moving myself over towards the window I was finally able to get a nice overlook of Equestria. The view was...well let me just say I was left thoroughly breathless. Back home I was never one to go out in nature. Y’know hiking and the like just wasn’t my thing so being able to see such a fantastic view really was something else. But I couldn’t just sit there admiring the view till sunset and my eyes began to wander. Specifically, they began to wander towards the castle gardens just below me. At this point, I haven't been outside in several days and could use some fresh air. And no, an open window does not count in my book as enough fresh air.

So with my mind made up to go get some fresh air I made my way towards the door. Opening said door I was met with two alabaster-white unicorn guards wearing golden armor standing on either side. They didn't seem to acknowledge my existence until I decided to speak up.

“Um excUse me?” I said my voice squeaking adorably (I still have no idea why the hell my voice decided then to crack must have been the work of a certain god of chaos, no matter how much he denies it). Now that got the attention of the guards. Ok, I was expecting several things but getting glomped by one of the canterlot guards famous for their stoicism was not one of them. Luckily however it was just one of them the other just seemed to shake his head disapprovingly.

“Oh aren't you just the cutest thing!” was what was said by the guard currently hugging me so tightly that oxygen was starting to become a rare commodity.

“Ack!...can’t...breathe” And just as my face started to gain a hint of blue I was saved by the other guards pulling his partner off of me.

“That’s enough Sky. Let her breathe.” Said the now identified male guard in a tone that offered no argument.

Looking down at the now blue-tinted alicorn in her arms the guard named sky yelped and quickly let go of me letting me finally taste that sweet sweet oxygen.

“Oh, I’m so so sorry. But the way your voice squeaked I just couldn’t help myself. Ain’t that right Brightburn?” Said Sky smiling looking towards her now named partner. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I swear if you weren't fresh out of basic I would have you sent right back to the academy”

At that response, her smile seemed to falter a little and was about to respond but I beat her to it.

“No *cough* no it’s fine, better reaction than I expected to be honest. I mean you have seen my face right?” I ask, gesturing towards my head. ”The whole draconian eyes, small fangs I was thinking more along the lines of threatening me not, uhh, hugging me. So, uh, thank you... for that” I say with a small smile “Also you really don’t have to be all serious with me”

“Oh thank Celestia!” Said the newbie visibly relaxing as if some invisible weight were lifted of her shoulders. Brightburn didn’t seem to visibly react, still wearing the stoic guard look.

“The name’s Sky Rose but my friends just call me Sky. Also, there is really no reason to worry about your appearance. You look just like the Thestrals in Luna’s night-guard. ”
Said Sky holding out her hand. I, of course, shook it.
“Jolyne, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” What? who said I couldn’t be polite.

“And this is my superior, Brightburn,” she said nodding her head towards the still stoic guard. I mean seriously, he was so still I honestly thought he was just a statue.
Brightburn just grunted in acknowledgment. “Hello, nice to meet you.”

No reaction

...Aaaaand cue the awkward silence.

Luckily however it didn’t last long as the silence was broken by Sky clearing her throat.

*Ahem* “Now that that’s out of the way what can we help you with?” Asked Sky, bringing my brain back to the reason as to why I was out here in the first place.

“Oh, yeah. Well, I was looking to get some fresh air so is it possible for us to go to the castle gardens. And maybe just get a tour of the castle?” I ask nervously. Sky then looked over towards her superior who seemed to think it over.

Brightburn in turn simply nodded after several seconds gesturing for Sky to grab me and to follow him. Well, she didn't grab me perse but the wheelchair began to glow a light blue as well as her horn as they began to lead the way towards the castle gardens. The trip was, as per usual, relatively short with my attention completely focused on everything Sky was saying. Sky had taken the opportunity to make herself my impromptu tour guide and was just telling me random facts about the Canterlot while also pointing out any and all important landmarks in this massive castle. Eventually though, we had made our way through the castle with minimal difficulties with most of the maids we ran into moving out of the way seemingly scared to approach me. Again, I couldn’t really blame them but there were a few maids who put on a sympathetic expression when seeing my condition. Some of them even smiled and waved. It must be like what Sky said earlier with me looking like a thestral and were thus used to seeing somepony with said features.

But soon we had finally arrived at one of the many entrances to the castle gardens outside. As we entered through the door I was finally able to get a deep breath of some fresh air. Ah, even thinking back on it now, it still feels just as refreshing as it was in reality. And that's not even including the lovely smell of flowers that also permeated throughout the gardens. We then went on a small stroll following the various paths into the garden itself. Our walk was a quiet one all of just enjoying the relaxing scenery. From arches made of flowers to patches containing massive sunflowers. This garden just radiated a feeling of peace and tranquility. I don’t know how long we were out there but as with all good things it had to come to an end. And that came in the form of a stomach rumble.

I blushed whilst Sky giggled slightly. Brightburn didn’t seem to react visibly.
“I think it’s time for us to go find you some lunch” Began Sky with a cheerful smile present on her face. With a blush still present on my face I nodded. Sky looked over towards Brightburn who nodded in turn as we began to make our way back into the castle. The trip through the castle didn't take very long other than a small delay when we reached some stairs because of my wheelchair but our trip went smoothly thereafter. Said problem, however, was quickly solved through the power of Telekinetic-Magic-Of-Convenience™. God, I really had to get that ring off soon as I truly wanted to get some use out of my horn as right then it was more of a nuisance than anything else. Because when trying to fall asleep it kept poking different objects which seriously felt weird. It felt kinda like having your entire skeletal structure vibrate. Ugh, this gives me shivers just thinking about it and no matter how much I try, I still get this weird feeling while going to sleep! But the ability to use magic is still a worthwhile trade no matter how annoying this horn can be. Soon though, we had arrived back at the familiar doors of the dining room from this morning.

I could already faintly smell the freshly cooked food sitting on the table through the door. My stomach growled once again in anticipation as the door was pulled open. Celestia was already sitting at the table, with her motherly smile once her eyes found me as I was brought towards the already set table. What followed next was one of if not the best salad I had ever eaten in my life. I swear if it weren't for the manners my parents jackhammered into my soul I would have been moaning in bliss. But other than that nothing really interesting happened. Celestia and I did have a nice conversation about what has happened throughout our day so far. I have already told you about mine but Celestia’s… Man, I do not envy her. Apparently, the nobles were throwing a ‘hissy fit’ (her words not mine) and it's made her day as well as her entire week up until this point incredibly frustrating. I now know what those nobles were complaining about, but back then all I did was be glad I didn't have to deal with the nobility of Equestria.

Once lunch was eaten and cleaned away I decided to head back to my room and do some more reading. More precisely if there are any books about magic I'll be reading those to get at least an idea about how magic worked here. I mean, what's so bad about learning magical theory instead of actually practicing magic? That was my line of logic anyway, being able to at least see how magic works without actually using it. Plus it could give me a bit of a head start whenever Celestia decides to remove the ring on my horn. So with a small goodbye Sky, Brightburn, and I were on our way back towards my room. After a few minutes, we had arrived back in front of my room. Brightburn stood next to the door all professional whilst Sky brought me inside. Just as she was about to head back to her post I quickly grabbed her attention and sheepishly asked to see if there were any books about magic on the higher shelves as I couldn't reach them from my wheelchair. Sky laughed slightly before scanning through the bookshelf looking for anything magic related. After several seconds of searching a frown appeared on Sky’s face.

“Ah, sorry kiddo but I don't see anything here about magic.” Said Sky looking over the shelf a second time before sighing. “Nope, nothing.”

“Oh… Well, is there anything else interesting up there? Maybe a Daring Doo book?” I ask hopefully. Unfortunately, all my plans for the afternoon out the metaphorical window and there I was looking forward to learning a little magic. Sky then took one last look before smiling whilst grabbing a book from the highest shelf. She then tossed it onto my lap allowing me to see which book she had grabbed for me. It was ‘Daring Doo and the Marked Thief of Marapore’, another classic in the daring do series in my opinion.

“Thank you,” I say with a smile. Sky smiled as well before making her way back to her post closing the door behind her leaving me alone in the room. I then made my way back towards the desk, the book from this morning still sitting there. I positioned my wheelchair across from the window and began reading for hours on end and before I knew it the sun was beginning to set outside and there came knocking at my door.

“Yes?” I call out in a yawn rubbing my eyes. My gaze was still focused on the book in front of me.

“I’ve come to inform you that dinner is being served and Princesses wanted to see if you were attending or not”

‘Wait ‘Princesses’? As in Celestia and Luna? Nope nope Noppitty nope nope nope!’ Was basically my thought process after hearing that from the maid sent to get me.

“Um is it ok if I skip dinner? I’m not really hungry” I say apologetically. In reality, I was in fact quite hungry but no matter what, I did not want to see Luna right now or ever. I could barely even look at her this morning before having an ‘Episode’. The maid simply smiled before nodding and leaving me to my own devices once again. I then went back to my book for roughly half an hour longer before the Sun was replaced with the Moon in the sky signaling to me that it was time to call it a night. So, after some effort to make myself ready for bed in the bathroom, I wheeled myself over to the bed and again with a little bit of effort, I climbed onto it and drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

Author's Note

You cannot control the behavior of others, but you can always choose how you respond to it.
Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as oh mah gad this is the longest chapter I have ever written period but my god was it fun.

This chapter may mark the beginning of longer chapters if you guys don't mind longer waiting times. But otherwise thanks for all the support it really means a lot to me :heart:

Also again give lots of love to The-Hidden-Fox, Hebogin and Tempest Shadow for helping me with this chapter :heart:

And to quote one of my Editors Hebogin

I've seen enough hentai to know where it is going.

10-Shock and Awe

10-Shock and Awe

As the Moon was brought up into the sky shrouding the land once more into the dead of night, a lone figure stood on one of the many balconies that Canterlot castle held. Princess Luna, the Guardian of Dreams and the Sovereign of the night, stood there gazing across the land, her land, as it was shrouded with her beautiful night. The darkness was not all-consuming as street lamps remained active providing protection against the darkness. Luna smiled seeing the activity that had not ceased as day turned to night. Most notably were the parties that still raged deep into the night, angering neighbors but filling Luna’s heart with happiness. Luna, however, was not simply there to stargaze; she had a mission. Not a task given to her by her sister, no, this task was personal. The Nightmare that had plagued her sister once before had returned. But this nightmare was different. Celestia had told her that this was no Nightmare, no Daybreaker but a lost soul who was brought here against her will and that even under the scrutiny of multiple lie detection spells and fields no lie was detected. Luna wouldn’t... nay, couldn’t reevaluate her position on the Nightmare. Celestia had never dealt with a nightmare the same way Luna had and as such was vulnerable to their deceptions. And right now those deceptions have worked. The nightmare was free to roam the castle albeit under the watchful gaze of two guards and multiple undetectable monitoring spells and scrys. But having such a dangerous entity be allowed to exist at all was a problem. It could even be planning its takeover of Equestria at that very moment. But Luna needed proof. She needed to show her sister that this Nightmare had her fooled. And so this task came into flourishion.

Luna would enter the dream realm like she did every night and search for the presence of the Nightmare within it. Once said presence was found, she would enter whatever dream it was having and induce a dreamless sleep instead. By locking her consciousness in such a state, it was denied the opportunity of it preventing Luna from accessing its mind. The spell she would have to use is considered dangerous, in the same way as all dream/mental spells are regarded. But when one had literally written the spellbook on said magic such danger was easily disregarded. Then, once the Nightmare was pacified and defenseless Luna would be able to work unimpeded and find the evidence she needed to prove that this Nightmare needed to be dealt with like she had almost succeeded in doing in Ponyville. No matter how much it would lower public opinion about her, all was rendered irrelevant when it came to the safety and security of her sister and Equestria.

And so Luna executed her plan, mentally entering the dream realm. To any outside observer, it would look like she was just admiring the view. As the familiar void of the dream realm engulfed Luna’s vision, small multi-colored spheres became visible. The familiar representation of the dreams of her subjects. From pink to red each color represented a different type of dream. Luna’s heart pitied the red ones that she could see. Oh, how she wished she could go and help them with their terrors of the night but her mission took priority and she began looking for the Nightmare’s dream sphere. After several minutes of searching, she had found it. The ball’s color was a dark shade of red indicating that whatever dream it was having was not a pleasant one.

‘So the Nightmare is having a Nightmare…how ironic.' Thought Luna in amusement as she approached the dream sphere and began to work her magic (Quite literally in this case). And induced the state of dreamlessness causing the sphere to turn a light grey as Luna entered the Nightmare’s subconsciousness, the Nightmare none the wiser about what was happening inside their own head. Luna was then subsequently greeted by a dark blue void with hundreds upon hundreds of light blue shapes floating around her. Each one of these shapes represented a memory of the Nightmare and all Luna had to do was search for anything indicating that this Nightmare has them all fooled. And so Luna started on the oldest memory she could find and began watching it. In Luna’s mind, several predictions were made of what this memory could entail. From Luna’s first encounter against Daybreaker to the dark void of the dream realm where the Nightmarish entities roamed.

“My little pony~ My little pony~ ahaaahaaa~”

“Hey come on Jolyne! What's taking so long?! You're gonna miss the show!”

She was not expecting to see some type of living room where a creature Luna had never seen before was sitting. It looked like a normal female earth pony but with several key differences. It didn’t have any hooves or fur on the visible skin not obscured by the clothes it was wearing. It had a patch of long brownish hair on the top of its head. In front of the creature, a rather large screen of some kind was showing various images containing...ponies? Confused, Luna focused her attention on the box that was showing some type of recording about “Was that Twilight Sparkle?” Thought Luna aloud her eyes glued to the device. It certainly looked like Twilight albeit as a quadruped.

“Oh, hold your horses. I’m coming!”

Luna looked towards the figure now entering the room. And as Luna could feel said figure was the one whose mind she was currently invading. And it was no nightmarish entity... it was another of those creatures. It was... carrying a tub popcorn?

“So what episode is this?”

“Ah, this would be….Luna’s redemption part dos”

Luna’s attention was instantly drawn to the creatures having just uttered her name.

“You forgot the name didn’t you?”

“Oh shut up and give me some of that popcorn. I still can’t believe you dragged me into this fandom Jolyne.”

“Oh you know you’re enjoying yourself whether you admit it to me or not. Plus you knew what you were signing up for when you took the roommate ad. So your argument is invalid.”

The other creature just huffed as they both began to watch the recording. Luna watched closely as well as taking in every detail and similarity to the same events that had transpired to her. Right down to the very first words Celestia had spoken to her once Nightmare Moon was vanquished. And as the Memory finished and began to fade away Luna was left speechless. Shaking her head back into focus she went into the next memory determined to find what she had been looking for. Her thoughts, however, were beginning to grow ever further out of her control after every subsequent look into another memory. Some were happy, some were sad and everything in-between. Others were about that show as it was called. There were memories about going to a university, making friends, and watching more of that show about what was an alternate Equestria where ponies were a quadrupedal race unlike the Equestria Luna currently inhabited. Said Equestria seemed to not be entirely like the current one as it depicted events that had not happened in this Universe. Luna tirelessly kept looking for the evidence she needed but her want...her need for this evidence was dwindling with every other moment of subsequent memories she watched. But soon she had reached the apex of what she could take as Luna witnessed the memory of how Jolyne reached Equestria and was brought to the castle of the two sisters. After watching what was basically a shortened version of Jolyne’s life story; from the happy to the tragic parts. The wall that had slowly been breaking all throughout her searching came crumbling down. And thus when the memory faded only one thing was said as Luna left Jolyne’s mind.

“I have made a terrible mistake.”

The next day went by without a hitch. Well other than the fear of the impending attack of the plunder vines tomorrow. Nothing noteworthy happened. All I really did was avoid Luna which was surprisingly easy as she didn’t show for breakfast. Not that I was complaining or anything, not having another ‘episode’ was nice as the first time was bad enough but it was still weird. But then again, she could stay the hell away from me so whatever took her attention away from breakfast would hopefully last all of tomorrow again. The less I had to see her the better. I had also skipped out on dinner for the same reason as the previous day no matter how uncomfortable I felt because of my choice. But other than that I really only spent the day reading up on anything related to plants. I mean yeah, Plunder Vines are kinda magical but hey, better safe than sorry. Even if what I was learning meant nothing it still helps stifle my fears and at least made me feel prepared for the incoming disaster. And what a disaster it would be. You know, I was actually approached by the Canterlot press the other day as they wanted to write a story about the incident for its 5 year anniversary.

Yeah… If you’ve read it you know it's kind of a sore subject for me. So uh please be patient with me. Ok now...nowww... cmon Jolyne you only have to tell it once… *huff* Okay!

So yes, I woke up like any other morning only this time my face was not lodged in a book, so that was a plus. Surprisingly my sleep was completely dreamless. It felt like I just blinked and poof it's morning. But something must have happened during the night as the bed was a complete mess. I must have been tossing and turning up a storm as I was (and I’m not kidding when I say this) literally hanging off the side of the bed. Which is seriously a feat worthy of applause as my legs were still paralyzed for the time being. So yeah I’ll go pick up my trophy tomorrow ok?

Ha! Just kidding, I got it yesterday! Hahahahah!

Ok..ok I’ve had my fun back to the story. So yeah, other than my award-winning feat of sleep acrobatics, the morning was fairly nice as I began to wake up. Sitting up in bed and giving a good stretch to my arms and wings I thought: ‘Ah, today is gonna be a good da- oh goddammit’ And just like that the day was ruined as the memory of what was going to happen today came rushing up to the forefront of my mind. I just had to say those stupid words. It didn’t matter that I thought about it instead of saying it out loud, it's still the principle that I had the audacity to think of that sentence.

The Plunder Vines hadn’t even shown up yet and the day is already doomed even more than it was before. Now fully awakened, it was time for the most important meal of the day but...that’s debatable when it came to the inevitable morning run-in with Miss ‘crippled a child’. And with the day already ruining beyond repair, I thought I could maybe try and skip out on said morning run-in to hopefully try and salvage the day at least a small amount before it spiraled completely out of my control.

A knock on my door brought my attention away from me cursing at myself for invoking murphy.

“Oh, ah...come in!” I called out towards the door which opened shortly thereafter and in came Sky Rose. She was, of course, smiling with one of, if not the most infectious smile to ever be smiled. I simply could not not smile in response to seeing hers as she began speaking.

“C'mon ya sleepyhead, it's time for breakfast.” I could not help but slightly wince at the enthusiasm her voice held as my response would most likely destroy the enthusiasm she was known for.

“Um, can I maybe skip this or have it here. I really don’t want to run into Luna today.” It was sad how you could visibly see the enthusiastic energy leave Sky’s body. Her horn then glowed briefly before all her enthusiasm came rushing back.

“Nope, can't do that. Princess Celestia insisted that you attend kiddo. Buuuut it turns out Princess Luna already had her breakfast early and won't be there to scare ya.” Well, hearing that certainly improved my mood. Maybe the day won't be a complete trainwreck. I facepalm internally for having just inadvertently invoked murphy once more. Again, I was and maybe still am a complete idiot when it comes to invoking murphy at the worst possible times and by a complete accident.

Anyway, I’m rambling again. So, I was then floated onto my wheelchair as Sky began to push me out and through the now somewhat familiar corridors of the Castle, with Brightburn taking the lead, not having even said a single word to me yet. Only his now trademark nod towards Sky as we started our journey towards the dining room. The trips through the castle were now much shorter due to the fact that I had gone down them several times by this point thus there was no need for admiring the views. So after a short... well… walk for them, we had arrived in front of the familiar door to the dining room where what could probably be my last breakfast was waiting. I of course wasn't exactly thinking about that but it did bring a certain quote to the forefront of my mind. It goes like this:

The healthy human mind doesn't wake up in the morning thinking this is its last day on Earth. But I think that's a luxury. Not a curse. To know you're close to the end is a kind of freedom. Good time to take...inventory. -Cpt. John Price

Yes It may seem confusing and it isn't the whole quote but this situation did remind me of it. I definitely didn't like the fact that the plundervine incident might be the end of me but knowing that it was coming did in fact allow me to take ‘inventory’ and prepare for its arrival. So after reminding myself about what Price said and did, my confidence around overcoming this impending crisis rose astronomically as Brightburn opened the door allowing us to enter properly.

Breakfast was once again a quiet affair but something seemed different about Celestia. She didn't seem as cheerful as she usually was in the mornings. Something was clearly on her mind but it wasn't my place to question it. If it could unnerve Celestia, the thousand-plus-year-old goddess, then I really didn't want to partake in that. But other than that, nothing happened during breakfast. Afterwards, however, all Celestia did was basically explain what the schedule was for today. If you can count ‘Twilight and Spike will arrive in a few hours’ as the schedule for me. Soon after breakfast was eaten and cleared away Celestia got started on her royal duties while I decided to head back to my room and try to make myself look somewhat presentable for Twi and Spike.

But of course, since the day was beginning to look up just as we were about to turn a corner guess who we had to run into.

No, unfortunately, it wasn't Cadence. Oh, how I wish it was Cadence but nooo, stupid murphy had to have us run into the Miss ‘crippled a child’ on the one day I did not want to run into her. And we all know how well I handled a small glimpse at Luna from across a room so running into her at an intersection of corridors and being less than a meter away from her. Yeah, not a good idea with someone who has PTSD and she is the cause of said PTSD. I mean, I’m definitely a lot better now but there are still some lingering effects whenever I’m with Luna for any extended period of time. But this is the present, that's the past where I don't have such a luxury, so when my gaze settled on Luna, my body went into overdrive.

Heart racing, rapid breaths, my body froze like a deer in headlights as I was suddenly thrown into the worst possible situation. I did the only thing I could do right there and that was close my eyes tightly and hope she will get the hint and make herself scarce once she sees the distress I’m in. Or if that didn't work get the guards to notice and have them respectfully tell her to buzz off so that I didn’t faint from stress. I don’t exactly know what happened later on because I began to tune everything out but when I came back to reality and opened my eyes I was met with the concerned face of Sky kneeling down in front of me.

“Doing okay kiddo? She’s gone now...there’s no need to worry.” Her voice was soft and filled with empathy and compassion. It definitely helped in bringing me back to reality.

“Lassie, I’ve served long enough to know PTSD when I see it.” Said Brightburn…’ wait, what?’ Is what you might be thinking, yeah, Brightburn said that. The guard who seemed to permanently have a stick up his rear said that. That was the first time I had ever seen Bright take his stoic professional guard mask off. Who knew he was Scottish (Yes I know Scotland doesn’t exist here, shut up). Hearing those words coming from The Brightburn was so surprising it completely crashed my train of thought as I blinked at Brightburn in complete disbelief at what I just heard. Sky was having a similar reaction also staring at Brightburn in complete disbelief most likely also hearing Brightburn speak like that for the first time. He just shrugged

„Just saying Lass. It ain‘t gonna go away on its own“

I took a shuddering breath, beginning to calm down by now.

„L-let's just head back to my r-room now. Before a-anything else h-happens“

Brightburn simply responded with his trademark nod and lightly slapping Sky upside the head bringing her out of her stupor then signaling her to push me. The journey continued on in relative silence but the curiosity of what happened to Luna while I was having my 'Episode' was beginning to eat me up inside. Why was Luna walking through a corridor when she should be, by all accounts, asleep in her room. Plus, this corridor leads towards my room which is in the complete opposite wing from Luna‘s part of the castle. And as far as I could tell she didn’t put up a fight when it came to leaving me alone. Something was up and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know but I was (and still am) as curious as a cat. I simply needed to know and could not be left in the dark about this.

“Um… Quick question.” I say grabbing their attention. Well Sky looked towards me whilst Brightburn glanced at me as per usual. “What happened with Luna earlier?”

Sky seemed to cringe very slightly at my question. “Are you sure you wanna know. You may not like the answer.” That seemed confusing to me at the time. What could Luna have done/ said that they thought I wouldn’t like to hear. It simply stoked the flame of my curiosity even more. Now I simply must know. I nodded and boy do I wish I didn't now.

“Well, the Princess wanted to apologize to you.” Said Sky pensively. At first I took her answer pretty well...until the words she just spoke began to sink in causing the small flame of anger I held against Luna, for putting me in that chair, turned into a raging Inferno.

“Excuse me, she wanted to WHAT!?” I yell in rage causing Sky to, quite literally, jump back as I continued my tirade.

”Miss ‘I crippled a child’ wants my forgiveness?! Is she serious?!” The princess had the audacity to try and seek my forgiveness for almost killing me and leaving me unable to walk on my own and she expected a sorry would fix all of that. Yeah no, a sorry wouldn’t cut it for me not this soon after her attack on me. Oh, I understood her reasoning for the attack in the first place doesn't mean it’s the right thing to do to a child no less. Well, technically an adult in a child's body but it's still the principle that she attacked a child which really matters. Man, I feel old now...anyway, I was pissed and that's putting it lightly. But luckily the flame didn't burn that long, my rant however did. Now, I am still not proud of myself back then, it was so incredibly childish but... it had to happen eventually.

Things were said that I wouldn't repeat in current polite company. I’m pretty sure Sky and Brightburn got an impromptu introductory course to human profanities. Luckily for them, I began to run out of steam and my rant devolved into silent profanities against Luna under my breath. When I eventually calmed down and was slightly painting from exhaustion and my head hurt slightly as all the rage I held towards Luna was almost completely used up in that violent explosion as my mood was permanently soured for the rest of the day. I’m still not sure whether that rant would have happened if I were fully grown but I doubt it would have gone on for as long as it did If I had more control over my emotions. I looked back up towards Sky and Brightburn who were both looking at me in shock and to my horror, an expression of fear was visible on Sky’s features.

Seeing that fear on Sky’s face, the first pony who did not harbor any fear or suspicion against me at our first meeting, caused an overwhelming feeling of guilt to descend upon me as small tears began to form in the corner of my eyes.

“I-I-I’m s-sorry I-I didn’t m-mea-” Was all I managed to get out before I was enveloped into a familiar embrace preventing me from getting the remaining words out.

“Shh...No, no, everything’s alright...” Said Sky softly as she held me against her, hugging me tightly as one would do to a child that was about to cry. If I were in any state to argue I would have thought of it as demeaning but right then...I needed that reassurance that I hadn’t ruined our friendship because of my childish behavior. Actually now that I think about it, I don't think they knew what/who I was before all of this so in their eyes I was a small child who they were told to watch. And now thanks to that hug, the guilt I was feeling has almost completely evaporated.

After that emotional rollercoaster in the hallway, the trip back to my room is quite blurry as all I could think about is how I acted back there. Once we had reached my room, even though I had luckily shed very few tears during Sky’s hug, I still looked like crap. First a PTSD attack, then a rant and finally to top it all off a pang of overwhelming guilt immediately followed by the feeling of nothingness. I was just completely emotionally drained at that point. And Twi and Spike hadn’t even arrived yet! God damn you murphy...God damn you.

The few hours till Twi and Spike's arrival were spent mostly staring at a book in a daze, still unable to truly concentrate on anything after everything that had happened. I was however able to pick out a new pair of clothes as this dress was getting old and quite dirty. Unfortunately, however, Trollestia had also been busy with my clothing as almost everything there was a shade of orange or white even the occasional beige. I picked out an orange T-shirt that had Celestia’s sun Cutie Mark on the sides of the sleeves and the one pair of beige shorts that were available. And no, they weren't short shorts, they went to just above my knees, even Trollestia wouldn't be that cruel. So with my long orange hair, an eyesore of a ring on my horn, orange t-shirt and beige shorts I think I looked pretty good. Not beautiful good or cool good just average good. But between you and me; I looked pretty fly with my orange draconic eyes tieing the whole thing together in my opinion. Maybe Trollestia liked to joke around but she certainly had good taste in fashion.

Twi and Spike were set to arrive soon and if I remembered correctly Luna and Celestia would be there to greet her. Again, if I remembered correctly...Luna still might not appear but that wasn't a chance I was willing to take.

Not again.

So where would a good place be to say hello and be as far away from Luna as humanly possible? Why the gardens of course!

...

Jesus, I just sounded like the main character in a cartoon for toddlers. Anyway, my future career in children's shows aside, the garden was the best place to relax and spend time with Spike and maybe Twilight if she doesn't have any duties to attend to for the Summer Sun Celebration the next day. Thus, after a small and silent trip through the castle: Sky, Brightburn, and I had arrived at the gardens and parked ourselves at one of the many benches overlooking the flowers. Yes, you may call me sappy but it was a beautiful view, so your argument is invalid. After the chaos of this morning, it was a welcome change of pace.

I don't know exactly how long I was sitting there enjoying the view with a serene smile on my face before I heard someone in the distance walking towards us. Turning my head I happened to see Spike approaching us. I motioned for him to take a seat on the bench next to me. As I watched him come ever closer, his face seemed to be caught between a mixture of anger and sadness as his gaze appeared to be switching between the wheelchair I’m sitting in and the eyesore of a ring on my horn. But once he was close and saw me in my entirety his face took on a relieved smile at seeing that I was sort of okay.

“Hiya Spike! How are ya.” I greet happily as Spike takes a seat on the bench next to me. Spike's smile seemed to brighten a little. “I’m doing a lot better now that I know you're okay. I mean Celestia did say you were doing fine but....” He sighed, his gaze focused on the wheelchair I’m sitting in. “I still can’t believe that Lu-”

“Please…” I cut Spike off pulling his eyes up to meet mine. “don’t mention her right now. My day has been ruined enough by her.” Spike frowned at hearing that Luna had ruined what was supposed to be a happy visit but then seemed to laugh slightly.

“What's so funny?” I asked, confused at Spike’s chuckling. He smiled slightly as he continued.

“You should have seen how Twilight reacted when the Princesses came to greet us. Heh, needless to say, Luna and Twilight aren't on the best of terms right now. And so am I to be honest. If I could I would give her one Tartarus of a talking too.”

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly and laughed a little bit nervous.

“Yeah…So would I... ain’t that right Sky?” I look over towards her. She chuckles slightly.

“Yep!”

We all shared a small laugh (except Brightburn) at that before Spike and I just sat next to each other enjoying the view. No more words were said as we were there together, watching the various animals the garden housed. No words were needed in fact as we just enjoyed each other's company for the time being. After about half an hour later we went on a short walk through said gardens. Well walk for them, Spike however was a perfect gentleman and volunteered to be the one pushing me through the gardens. And as we went through the various flower based arches littered about the pathways Spike and I spoke about many random things. We went from animals to comic books to hating on Luna then back to animals when a particularly curious squirrel suddenly jumped into my lap before scurrying off several seconds later. We all shared a laugh at that before continuing on our little stroll.

We were walking around that garden for hours until we were told that lunch was going to be served soon and we made our way back towards the castle.

When we arrived at the dining room it was surprisingly empty. There was no smiling Celestia at the head of the table like every meal, no OCD Twilight glued to some sort of checklist or clipboard completely shutting the world out. Nope! It was completely empty save for some staff getting the table set up for the greatly reduced number of attendees for this meal. I was of course confused by the absence of a certain solar goddess.

“Uh excuse me?” I asked one of the staff members who was setting the table getting their attention. “Are Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight going to arrive soon? This is the first time I haven't seen Celestia already here before us...”

She seemed to be hesitant to answer as her eyes switched between my many scary facial features for several seconds before finally answering quickly.

“Um...Princess Celestia has an unprecedented amount of work backlogged that couldn't be left undone any longer. And princess Twilight wanted to get a headstart on tomorrow's preparations!” Throughout that entire conversation, she was slowly backing up towards one of the exits having yelled that last sentence before exiting the room in a hurried fashion. I sighed at that reaction. I mean... I knew I was scary but I was hoping for the cute kind of scary at least. Even Sky thinks I look like a thesteral and they work as Luna’s night guards! So it's not like they haven't seen fangs and slit eyes before. Or at least they hadn’t seen them enough to be used to them. And I know you're gonna get mad at me but I don't care when I say that you ponies are quite racist. Did that anger you?

Yes?

Good, you should be angry that a huge majority of you don’t like anything that isn’t a pony as well. Not you yourself. I mean you’re having a conversation with a pony that has fangs and slit eyes. And I applaud you for that, but man, we really need to fix that. Anyway, racist species aside. The fact that Celestia and Twilight wouldn’t be attending lunch meaning it would only be us two was quite the conundrum. I could already physically hear Sky’s teasing that this was, in fact, a date and I was not going to look forward to that later. But that was future Jolyne’s problem, right now, however, there was some food that needed to be eaten. And so what if it was just me and Spike. It didn’t really change much from our walk through the gardens just minus the guards standing behind us.

There wasn’t much choice in where we could sit as the only two places that were set were right next to each other and one of them was missing a chair. Once we were both seated, the food was brought out and it was surprisingly simple. I got daisy sandwiches whilst Spike got served some type of gemstone based sandwich. I guess the kitchen realized it was basically two kids eating lunch so they decided to not give 110% like when Princesses are dining and went with something simple. Not that I’m complaining as anything that came out of that kitchen brought my taste buds to cloud nine and by the expression on Spike’s face, I’d say his taste buds also went there when we both took a bite of our meals. Other than our general small moans of exploding taste-buds not much was said as we both greedily ate our food away. And once the food was eaten up the same must happen as with all good things. My time with Spike for the day came to an end as after lunch as we made our way towards my room so I could show him how much of a troll Celestia was (get your mind out of the gutter bucko), he was suddenly called away when he burped out a notice telling him to come and help Twilight with the Summer Sun preparations.

And thus Spike had left me to head back to my room alone and at the mercy of Sky’s teasing as I could physically hear a grin forming on her face as she began pushing me.

“Soooo...How was your da-?”

“One more word out of you and I will scream,” I say with a glare that could level Canterlot, blushing in embarrassment. Sky laughed heartily in response to my glare as I was brought back into my room.

Alone.

With nothing to do.

‘Man, I need a hobby or magic lessons or…literally anything otherwise reading books is going to get boring...fast’ I thought as I started reading another book about another random point in Equestrian history. As far as I knew there was nothing else planned or supposed to happen that involved me for the rest of the day. Then we all know what happened to the Princesses that night. I shivered slightly knowing about what was to come in less than 10 hours. I think anyway, from what I know, the exact time the Plunder vines came during the night is still a mystery and that made it even more terrifying to my young childlike brain.

Then it hit me.

The vines were Di- a certain chaos god's doing. And maybe... just maybe I could get him to exclude me from a midnight kidnapping by black vines. I am pretty sure I had at least caught the attention of him as the amount of chaos I’ve generated over the past week is quite substantial. But yet again Di- He didn’t even admit that the Plunder vines were his doing sooo... it was a shot in the dark whether he would help me. But it was a shot I had to take to maybe save myself from the black vines.

“Discord? Can you hear me?” I ask into the empty room.

“Oh oh oh o ho o ho my dear... Of course, I can hear you.” Came the voice of John de Lance from...directly next to my ear?!

“Yah!” I yelped in surprise and jerked to the side, away from the voice as my ears reflexively folded against my head and I began to hear laughter from behind me.

“Oh hahaha, you s-should have seen your face, BWAHAHA! Priceless!” Said the Draconequus in between fits of laughter as he floated into my vision wiping a tear from his eye. I glared at him in turn before realizing doing that to a god of chaos I’m trying to get help me was a terrible idea and decided playing along would be a better option so I smiled and laughed along slightly. That seemed to get his attention.

“Oh, and what do we have here?” He says as he pulls a comically large magnifying glass out and begins looking at me through it. “A grade A chaotic influence?” He pulls out a clipboard of some sort and reads it over. “Wow! Got ourselves in a sticky situation haven’t we?” I give a questioning look at that but when I try to open my mouth to respond it’s glued shut. Discord just grins. “Oh, what a joy it has been to watch you. The chaos you’ve created is absolutely marvelous. Just take a look at this graph!” He says as a graph appears before my eyes.

“As you can see here.” Discord says now wearing glasses as we suddenly find ourselves in a conference room. “Due to your influence, we have been able to more than double our chaotic energy production.” The previously empty conference room is now filled with Discords wearing suits applauding the lead Discord giving the presentation before our surroundings were changed back into my room. “So... what can I do for you, my fellow accomplice in chaos? Oh, and before I forget.” He snaps his fingers and a glass of chocolate milk appears in our hands. I put it down on my desk as I turn towards the floating Draconequus and try to open my mouth to respond. Key-word ‘try’ as my mouth was still glued shut. With an annoyed expression aimed at Discord, I pointed at my mouth. He chuckled and snapped his fingers as my mouth was finally allowed to open.

“Thank you. Now, what I wanted to ask you is whether you could help me not get attacked by the plunder vines tonight.” I ask hopefully. I really did not want to get abducted like Celestia. And since I am literally the alter ego of Celestia the vines would come and get me too. At least that was my logic.

“My dear I have no idea what you’re talking about." Discord responded, a halo appearing above his head as he put on an innocent face. I'm not kidding, he pulled out another face with the word innocent written all over it and put it on...somehow. I huff in annoyance.

“Cmon Discord! Don't pull that on me I know you know about the vines. So please as a favor from one chaos accomplice to another, don’t let the vines take me!” I plead with my best impression of puppy-dog eyes plastered all over my face. Discord simply laughed once again, waving off my puppy-dog eyes. Once again literally waving it off. “I’m sorry my dear but I can't do that. Because I can't help you if I don’t know what you're talking about. So if that's all you wanted to talk with me about, toodles!” And just like that he was gone with a poof leaving me alone once again as a small amount of despair began to set in. Discord wouldn't help me. He wouldn’t even admit that the plunder vines were going to happen at all. And so my last-ditch attempt to prevent demise by black vines failed. But I was not going to go down easily. So what if Discord wouldn’t help! I didn’t need him! It was time to get creative. So with determination now burning brightly in my heart and the despair I felt turned to ash I wheeled myself over to the bookshelf and grabbed every book that related to plants off the shelf and put them down on my desk and began my research sipping on the chocolate milk left there earlier. It tasted faintly of Nutmeg.

And so I sat there reading up on anything that could help and as the minutes ticked over to hours and before I knew it the Sun had begun to set. And so to quote the greatest and wisest turtle to ever exist.

My time has come.
-Master Oogway

Now I know some of you may be thinking. ‘Jolyne, why didn't you tell the princesses about the impending disaster?’ and to answer that question; Would you believe a child that told you were going to be kidnapped in the night by big black magical vines? I mean sure they might believe me but I am still Daybreaker and thus look like a color swapped Nightmare Moon because technically... I am, but that's beside the point. I don't want to / can’t look evil in their eyes or I’m done for. By now the princesses are probably having dinner and I am of course avoiding it like the plague. I can only imagine what kind of conversation must be going on in there. From awkward silence to passive-aggressive jabs at Luna from Spike and Twilight for what she did to me. The maids and princesses knew by now that I wouldn’t attend dinner because in their eyes I’m simply not hungry. Even though that's pretty far from the truth.

The Sun was now completely set and the moon was high in the sky. If I remember correctly, by now Twilight must be having that dream/vision about not living up to Celestia’s expectations and ruining the celebration so the time for the vines to appear was close at hand. I couldn't sleep as during my research nothing had come up about the vines. In short, I was screwed beyond belief and terrified for my safety. But once again I may be terrified but I would not go down quietly!

During lunch with Spike, I had managed to slip one of my knives under my thigh as a backup plan to defend myself. Sure there were guards outside but I didn't trust that the vines wouldn't just take me too quickly for them to fight it off. I had locked myself in the bathroom with my knife and waited scared out of my mind but determined to make those vines life a living hell.

That's when I heard it. The sound of something slivering on the other side of the door. Shortly afterwards, black vines with small silvery thorns started to appear all across the edges of the door as it began to creak. I readied myself for the oncoming vines as I tried to steady my now rapidly growing out of control breathing when I called for help.

“Guards HEL-AH!”

Was all I managed to get out before the door broke and black vines shot straight towards me at high speed. They were fast. Too fast for me to react as they wrapped themselves around my waist and pulled me out of my wheelchair. But I was having none of it and stabbed the vine causing it to release me, dropping me to the floor. I grunted as I hit the ground before the Vines went at me once again in greater numbers. The vines were smarter than I thought as they wrapped around my arms. The thorns scraping against my skin with luckily not enough energy to draw blood. My arm was forced to the side by the vines causing me to lose my grip on the knife as it went falling to the floor. Now unarmed I had to get creative and what better weapon than the things that cause so much fear in ponies. I turned my head and bit down on the vines that were beginning to pull me towards the door. The vines flinched but did not release their grip on me and all I got from that were small cuts over my lips. I bit down with all my might against the vine. My fangs cut deep into the plant as it finally released me allowing gravity to take its course causing me to fall to the ground. This time however, something terrible happened.

By now the vines had pulled me quite close to the door and the sink was located directly to my right. The same way my head was turned. Luckily my chin missed the edge of the porcelain sink. My horn however didn’t. I learned this hard way, as the ring at the base of my horn crashed into the sink.

*Crack*

Then came the pain. Pain like I had never known before coursed through my entire body. It felt like literally every nerve in my body was on fire. And then it disappeared just as quickly it began. It was gone as the edges of my vision began to darken and blur. The feeling of the vines dragging me away was faint as I slipped into unconsciousness.

“Jolyne...”

“Jolyne”

“Jolyne!”

I awoke at the sound of my name being called out in a groggy daze. My head was pounding and everything felt sore as I felt someone's hand on my forehead. Opening my eyes my vision was filled with Celestia’s concerned face lit up by a glow emanating from her horn. She appeared to be looking me over but her attention was focused on my horn from the looks of it. More specifically, the cracked ring I could see at the edge of my vision. She appeared to be trying to do… something with it as it was surrounded by Celestia’s golden aura.

“Are you alright?” asked Celestia her voice filled with concern and worry. Or at least I think so as my hearing wasn’t all there yet and was everything ringing slightly from whatever happened back in my bathroom.

“No…” I answered with a strained voice, my body was still sore and my head was pounding like there was no tomorrow. “Where...are...we?” I barely manage to say as I crane my neck to get a better look at my surroundings. My vision was still quite blurry but it slowly began to clear up allowing me to see what the ‘walls’ were made of.

“I believe we are wherever these ‘vines’ originated from.” Answered Celestia, her attention still focused on my horn. Noticing this I began to worry.

“Is...something...wro-ARGH” I yelled as more pain wracked my small body. My head was pounding even harder than before and I saw the few strands of hair in my vision begin to glow and look like stands of flame instead. Celestia took on a panicked look as her horn glowed brighter. The pain began to subside as I saw my hair turn back to hair instead of flame. I was left panting, sore, and in an all-around terrible condition.

“Wh-what's...happening t-to…me.” I barely manage to get out, barely conscious from an ever-growing feeling of exhaustion. My eyelids felt like lead and a nap sounded really good right about now.

“No! No, stay awake! You must not fall asleep! You have to stay awake or you will not wake up again.” Said Celestia forcefully, her hands on my cheeks as she looked right into my eyes. Her eyes showed her fear no matter how much of a straight face she held. I did as she asked with the sudden boost of energy that came from hearing her words as I fought with all my might not to fall asleep.

“Wha-what’s...w-wrong....with...me” I once again barely manage to get out, fear and strain filling my voice. Celestia refused to answer and stayed silent, her attention still completely focused on my horn.

“Teh-tell...me!” I said as forcefully as I could in my current condition before another bout of pain wracked my body as my hair began to glow once again. It lasted a lot shorter that time but it still didn't make it any less agonizing. Celestia’s horn glowed brightly once again before dimming slightly as she sighed.

“The magic inhibiting ring around your horn was cracked and your magic is beginning to seep out. That's what that pain has been. I have just woven a spell onto the ring to keep your magic from escaping. But the surges you just had will wear it down until I can get you somewhere safe to disperse your magic. Do you understand why I didn't want to tell you now?” She said with sadness in her voice as she knelt beside me one of her hands holding mine.

Time then ticked on agonizingly slow as I lay there using all my energy to stay awake whilst periodically getting attacked by more bouts of pain, each slightly stronger than the last. All the while Celestia was trying to break us out of our vine based prison but to no avail. The vines seemed to absorb any attack Celestia sent against them. Time was beginning to run short as the surges came more frequently and ever more powerful as our time in captivity grew longer. My hope of rescue began to dwindle. The spell wouldn’t hold for much longer.

(Optional music !Use at your own risk! I, however, think it fits)

The surges were unbearable and the glow around the ring on my horn began to dim and crack as parts of the ring began to fall apart. But luckily for us, Twilight should be now on her way into the caverns underneath the castle of the two sisters; To the place, we were being held and the location of the tree of harmony that was currently being encased by the black vines. They were only a few steps away from us as another surge wracked through my horn bringing the ring and spell down to its last knees as well as mine.

My energy was exhausted, my head felt like it was about to explode and my entire body was in a constant state of pain. Tears began to flow freely from my eyes as I feared what was to come. Celestia was by my side, her horn glowing once again, much brighter than I had seen before as I saw sweat form on her forehead through my teary eyes. Then just as I thought it was the end, the walls began to recede allowing light from the tree of harmony to shine through. I could faintly hear sounds of celebration at having defeated the vines.

But now was no time for celebrations as my hair once again began glowing bright and returning to its normal form. This time, however, there was no stopping it. Celestia, seeing what was about to happen to me, quickly ignited her horn and teleported us to the most remote part of Equestria, as far away from all civilization as she could manage.

(Optional music !Use at your own risk! I, however, think it fits)

My magic began to run wild as the last remnants of Celestia’s effort to contain the surge failed, leaving nothing to stop my magic from releasing. Celestia quickly put up a shield to protect herself before moving a safe distance away from me. My hair and tail burned like a raging Inferno as my magic came crashing back at me and raged uncontrollably. The ground beneath me began to burn as arcs of magic hit everything around me, turning sand into small craters of molten glass.

Then... I could feel it. Like a train coming full speed towards me as I was helpless to move out of the way. I could feel the imminent arrival of all the magic still trapped within me, with a similar ferocity to a caged dragon, wanting to get released from its prison. And like a deer in headlights, I could do nothing but withstand the oncoming storm as my vision went white.

Author's Note

...

11-Aftermath

11-Aftermath

They had done it. Equestria was saved from the viney menace. The Elements of Harmony were returned to where they were created. The Tree of Harmony’s power was restored and the chaotic plunder vines were vanquished. When they began to wither and die, the mane 6 celebrated as the Princesses were released from their plant-based captivity. However, something was amiss. When Princess Luna was released she looked no worse for wear and instantly noticed the now-former elements of harmony standing there with smiles of success plastered across their faces, but when they looked towards Celestia’s former prison, said smiles were quickly replaced with expressions of shock and confusion.

The Princess did not seem to notice them as her attention was focused on something much more important. Her horn was glowing brightly as her golden aura encapsulated the remnants of a ring on the horn of the child lying in front of her. The child looked exhausted with a seemingly never-ending stream of tears running down their face. Seeing their plight, Princess Luna and Twilight rushed towards the duo as the child’s hair seemed to glow brighter and brighter with each passing second.

“Princess! What’s wrong!?” Twilight called out as she rushed towards Celestia, Princess Luna right beside her as several more worrying cries of confusion were heard from Twilight's friends. However, just as they arrived by Celestia’s side, she was enveloped in her golden aura and then… she was gone. Celestia had teleported to god knows where with probably highly injured Jolyne in tow. The pair were now standing before the empty space where Celestia was just moments ago. Small shards of metal and magic-saturated crystal debris littering the ground.

A cacophony of confused yells like: “What’s going on?”, “Where did the Princess go?” or “Is Jolyne okay?” were heard behind them as a low vibrating sound started to become more prominent. This in-turn grabbed the attention of Twilight as a certain pink earth pony’s voice had not yet been heard by the lavender Alicorn yet. The same pink earth pony that caused Twilight to spontaneously combust because of a certain pink vibraty/twitchy/itchy tail making her implicitly fear and trust any physical reaction appearing on her. Twilight's gaze was drawn to the quite vigorously vibrating earth pony who also drew the attention of the rest of her friends who’s calls quickly quieted down as they all stared in curiosity and a small amount of fear at the sight; violently vibrating Pinkie Pie.

“Pinkie? What’s going on?” Asked Twilight. Luna looked towards Twilight in confusion. “Twilight how does her vibrating take priority over the sudden disappearance of my sister in what should be a momentous occasion?!” Twilight, however, wasn’t listening as her attention was still solely focused on the vibrating Pinkie Pie who seemed like she was only seconds away from literally bouncing around the room.

“O-o-o-o-o, v-e-r-y t-w-i-t-c-h-y t-w-i-t-c-h-a t-w-i-t-c-h. T-h-i-s i-s a b-i-g d-o-o-z-y!” Pinkie said as she continued spasming. Meanwhile, the rest of the mane 6 took on varying expressions of pure dread at what the implications were of, quote-unquote, big doozy. Luna was still predominantly confused as to why this brought such dread to the former element bearers. But just as she was about to question the bearers until she felt the ground had begun to shake slightly. It was faint but very noticeable to the group. Twilight quickly enveloped everyone in her aura and teleported to one of the nearby hills overlooking Ponyville, the ground still shaking when they appeared above ground. As their eyes adjusted to the sudden increase in sunlight they noted nothing out of the ordinary at first. Well, the sun and moon were still seen in the sky since the princesses had yet to fix their position as well as the sunrise to the south.

‘Wait sunrise?’ Thought the group as they looked back at the southern horizon and did a double-take at what they were seeing. What they saw was equally beautiful as it was terrifying. On the horizon was what looked like a second sunrise but it was anything but that. Twilight quickly teleported her telescope to them to get a better view. And what she saw was no sunrise.

But a massive ball of fire.

Macintosh Hills;
Several seconds after Celestia’s teleport.

The relatively quiet atmosphere of the Macintosh Desert was broken by the sound of a large *crack* cutting through the air like butter, causing every critter within earshot to hide as bolts of golden magic began to strike the ground. Craters of molten glass left in their wake.
Then there was another and another with more bolts striking the ground creating even more craters. The temperature of air began to rise drastically as more and more terrain was turned to glass. Then it all went quiet; the bolts suddenly stopped. Carefully one critter, a small desert Gecko, left the safety of its hiding place to see what had caused the golden lightning. What he saw next was the last thing that small Geko would ever see as a large crash reverberated through the air deafening the poor creature before he was blinded and then…
The Gecko knew no more as a magical shockwave passed, completely evaporating him.

Celestia’s shield held as the magical shockwave blasted over her. The ring on Jolyne’s horn had just exploded with a powerful release of magic creating a shockwave that went on for miles scorching the ground. Thankfully, however, the explosion had knocked Jolyne unconscious as what came next would have been beyond agonizing to the alicorn, were she still conscious.

Thinking the worst was over, Celestia dropped her shield and teleported back, next to Jolyne. The ground beneath Jolyne was scorched black as Celestia looked her over. She looked relatively fine and even somewhat peaceful in Celestia’s eyes, after the hell she had just gone through. Her hair had even begun to glow once more. But that was just the beginning. A bright light drew Celestia’s attention back to Jolyne’s horn. A large crack was visible on the alabaster white horn as a bright golden light was emitting from it. The light began to grow and intensify, spreading across Jolyne’s horn, engulfing it in less than 30 seconds. Her hair once again began to glow brighter and brighter before transforming from a raging orange inferno into a deep purple plasma. Celestia had begun to back up. Constant ‘No no no!’ ran through Celestia’s mind.

“This was not meant to happen!” yelled Celestia. Her horn lit up to try and prevent what was about to probably be the most devastating events in recent Equestrian history.

Partial or complete cracking of the horn is one of the most devastating injuries a unicorn can experience in their lifetime. Not only is it extremely painful, with many considering it to be on par with having every pain receptor in their body set on fire, as the substantial majority of all nerve endings unicorn possesses are located in one's horn but badly healed crack will continuously irritate said nerve endings. And that's just the pain response, what comes afterwards, however, is what makes any type of horn injury so dangerous.

The major question is this: What happens when the focal point of stored mana is cracked, breaking its containment within the body? With its containment broken, the mana within one’s body will be expelled. Violently draining all the mana available in the ponies body. This in turn makes the body draw in more magic from the environment to compensate for the loss creating a feedback loop and prolonging the expulsion until the crack is sealed…

Or until all available magic in the body is expended... killing the pony.

You see, every unicorn’s magic is stored around the body but is, of course, mostly stored in and around the horn with only small minute quantities stored everywhere else. Normal unicorns naturally draw in from abundant magic found in the surrounding environment as a way to recharge their mana pools faster than normally generated by their body. However, when we come to the users of Lunar and Solar magic, mana is absorbed and generated in a very different way. Celestia, Luna, and now Jolyne all have an innate connection to the Sun and Moon respectively, hence instead of drawing their magic in from the surroundings like every other being on Equis they draw it from their respective celestial bodies and store it inside of themselves.

This relatively small difference greatly affects solar-linked alicorns because spells usually drain the surrounding area of its native magic causing a short-lived, vaccumesque area. Leaving explosions as somewhat manageable accidents as they are mostly influenced by unicorn's innate magic limits. For Jolyne unfortunately, mass release of her continuously absorbed solar magic meant that everything would be additionally influenced by now overabundant magic in the area.

Thus Celestia needed to act fast or this child would die and take the entire Macintosh Mountains with her. Solar magic already made Celestia one of the most powerful beings in Equestria so the expulsion of an entire alicorn child’s worth of solar magic…tainted solar magic on top of that...would be quite disastrous.

Celestia began to quickly weave a spell specifically designed for such an injury and wove it onto the crack, hopeful that it would seal it. It didn’t. The spell wasn't strong enough to contain the unrestrained magic as it began to escape outwards into the environment. The sudden pressure wave blew Celestia back, the escaping magic turning the surrounding air into a rapidly expanding wave of superheated plasma, turning what were small sizzling puddles of molten glass into one giant ocean in the blink of an eye. Celestia, however, was completely fine, thankfully millennia of combat reflexes kicked in putting up a shield before the plasma wave washed over her. Flapping her wings, Celestia stabilized herself as she began pushing against the wave of seemingly never-ending plasma. The force was strong but Celestia was stronger, she began to step forward, her mighty wings fighting to keep her stable as she started to push through.

Every second counted as the longer Jolyne’s magic was uncontained the further the plasma would reach destroying more and more and more. And if Celestia couldn’t reach her in time Jolyne’s life would be lost too. So Celestia pushed harder and harder, getting ever so closer back towards Jolyne as she began to weave a modified version of the containment spell, hopefully, this time capable of establishing magical containment and sealing the crack in Jolyne’s horn.
The closer she got the harder it was to keep on moving but Celestia couldn’t give up now. It was her fault that they were in such a situation in the first place. Had she just removed the ring earlier she could have just directed the surge into space leaving Jolyne completely unharmed.

But she didn’t. Celestia stubbornly kept Jolyne’s magic sealed and trapped her in a wheelchair because of some deeply ingrained fear of whether it was all a trick or not. No matter how much she tried to tell herself that it was irrational and that Jolyne wasn’t Daybreaker her mind kept on telling her she was.

And now because of her own mistake, a child was going to die.

With renewed vigor, Celestia pushed forward. Jolyne was now almost fully visible through her shield and the plasma that was being shot out in all directions. As Celestia continued to slowly push through she felt the force against her shield become weaker by the second. Time was running out. The mana remaining inside Jolyne was beginning to run low. If Celestia couldn’t seal the crack soon Jolyne’s last moments of life would be filled with nothing but pain and suffering. She needed to get to her, NOW!

Panic reigned all across Equestria as southern skies, near Macintosh Hills, were encompassed by what can only be described as ‘second sunrise’ as a subtle earthquake persisted. To some ponies, it signaled the end times. The Sun and Moon were still high in the sky, now however, the sky looked like it was burning in the south. It was the perfect combination of disasters to cause a widespread panic. There were lootings in Baltimare as terror gripped the city. The local police force had tried to calm the local population down, but fear won out in the end as even the guard began to abandon their posts to make sure their family and loved ones were safe.

Canterlot had been relatively calm as the news of the Princesses' disappearance had been kept under wraps to avoid a panic, the population however was still on edge but with such a large garrison of royal guard present, peace was maintained. The guard and local administration, fortunately, had kept the population under control even when the light of the explosion became visible to the citizens.

Then came Appleloosa. It was the closest settlement to the Macintosh Hills and therefore the closest to the event itself. The first thing they experienced was the resulting shockwave drawing the attention of every citizen to the hills. The ground began to shake shortly afterward causing the local population to panic. Then came the light. It started off small but grew rapidly in size and intensity. Anypony unfortunate enough to be caught staring was temporarily blinded as the yellow sphere grew. And finally, all resemblance of order broke down as the local guard contingent tried to reassure them as much as they could, but the guard themselves didn’t even believe what they were preaching. Their attempts were doomed from the start as the ambient temperature began to steadily rise, increasing panic of the population even further.

Even as far north as the Crystal Empire, the event was visible but thankfully the only ponies to have noticed this were the ponies who lived in the highest building of the Empire; The Crystal Palace. More specifically, the current rulers of the Empire: Princess Mi Amore Cadenza (or just Cadence to her friends) and her husband; Prince Shining Armor. They had been observing Equestria from one of the many balconies of their palace when they saw it. It was faint but it was there… and it terrified them. They quickly sent letter after letter hoping for some sort of information about what was going on to their southern neighbors and friends.

And then, just as quickly as it began, it disappeared completely, like a candle thrown into a pond. The ground became calm once more with the southern horizon’s light going out. The panic that gripped Equestria beginning to slowly dissipate.

Pushing through the last barrier, Celestia was now close enough to put the modified spell into action. She started to feel the push against her shield weaken even further. The energy being released was no longer strong enough to turn the surrounding gases into plasma and there was almost no more resistance for Celestia to push through as the spell was weaved into the crack on Jolyne’s horn, her magic now contained and unable to escape. With her vision no longer hindered, she got a first-hand look at the destruction caused by her own mistake.

Glass.

An ocean of glass as far as the eye could see.

The only sound breaking the eerie silence was the cracking of the now rapidly cooling glass beneath their hooves as Celestia focused her attention back onto Jolyne.
She wasn’t breathing. Celestia was too slow. There wasn’t enough mana left in Jolyne’s body.

“No!” Yelled Celestia in defiance. She had not come this far to fail here, there was still time. The surrounding environment was saturated in the released solar magic and all Jolyne would need is enough to stay alive. But time was running out as the wild tainted solar magic began diffusing into the ambient magic. Celestia began channeling solar magic back into Jolyne before it was too intertwined for her body to absorb.

*Gasp*

A loud intake of air signaled Celestia’s success. And just in time too as the surrounding magic was now too intermixed to be reabsorbed back into Jolyne. Celestia released a breath she didn’t know she was holding as she collapsed next to Jolyne’s unconscious, but thankfully alive, body. Looking up into the sky, the moon was no longer visible as Celestia lay there recuperating herself. That whole ordeal had taken a lot more out of her than she thought. But because of her alicorn physiology, she would be right as rain in a minute or two. Jolyne however... Needless to say with the amount of magic she lost, bringing her to death's door. A hospital would be required for a full recovery.

As Celestia’s strength returned, she weaved some extra sealing spells onto Jolyne’s horn to guarantee that nothing short of the horn being healed would break magical containment. With that all set and done, Celestia began to charge a teleport spell back to Canterlot.

Nothing happened.

Confused, Celestia tried again with identical results. She used a scanning spell to determine what was hindering her efforts at teleportation. The results were...interesting to say the least. As this was the first instance of a nightmare entity suffering a cracked horn the effects of raw tainted mana had never been observed before. Turns out that the mixing of the solar magic and the surrounding natural magic had created a type of a dampener that prevented the use of any spells of a longer range.

As an example imagine, if you will, how radiation bounces off of different atom cores reflecting the energy in different directions. This new ambient magical field acts in exactly the same way. The further the target of your spell is the weaker it will be. Teleportation was out of the question now. And who knew what else could happen the longer this ‘magical fallout’ interacted with the ambient magic within this new ‘desert of glass’. The closest town was Appleloosa to the north but all Celestia needed to do was get out of this desert and hopefully, the magical interference would be weak enough for a long-range teleport back to Canterlot.

So with a plan in mind, Celestia carefully picked up the unconscious Jolyne. And as Jolyne lay droopily in her arms, she looked over at the horizon, with Canterlot visible in the distance, and spread her wings. Flapping them briefly she took flight, a sea of glass cooling and cracking underneath them. The Aftermath of Celestia’s actions were immense.

As where there once was a desert made of sand.

There was now a desert…

Made of Glass.

Author's Note

Act se zo faxarr whaxas bini ox wreppow

Hello everyone! First off I Apologise for the long wait on this chapter but I hope it was worth the wait!

Also, did anyone hear any whispering earlier?

I swear I just heard a bunch of gibberish.

12-Through the Looking-Glass

12- Through the Looking-Glass

The main 6, plus Luna, stood there in shock on one of the hills overlooking Ponyville. For what they had just witnessed shook them to their very core. The event was over. There was no longer a ball of fire in the distance but they still stood there in shock. The ground was no longer shaking, yet they could still hear the panic from the ponies below. The devastation such an event must have caused brought an ache to all their hearts. The first to recover was Luna who then quickly brought the rest of them out of their stupors. They all wore different expressions of shock and Fluttershy seemed particularly pale with an empty look in her eyes. Nopony could blame her for that reaction as they all wore the same expression albeit at differing levels of severity. Luna, however, kept her composure, it wavered only slightly as centuries of warfare had since desensitized her to such devastation, but even after that what she had just witnessed, not even the most stone-faced battle-hardened warrior would keep their composure.

The first pony to break the relative silence of the hill was the lunar princess bringing the main 6 back to reality. Luna knew what had happened. Hell, she had even told Celestia that the ring must be removed the morning after her invasion of Jolyne’s mind. But all Celestia could hear was how she had used the highly dangerous mind magic. Luna argued and argued, telling Celestia that it didn’t matter as nothing had gone wrong and that Jolyne’s magic should be returned before something out of their control did it for them.

And all she gave was a non-committal answer in the form as ‘later’. Just thinking about how her sister acted then brought feelings of anger and a small feeling of confusion to the Lunar Princess. But now was not the time for petty anger between siblings as said sibling she was mad at, was -most likely- located at the epicenter of the ground-shaking explosion. The wellbeing of her sister first, telling her ‘I told you so’ second. With, now, the former elements of harmony brought back to reality, their hearts full of determination to help Celestia and any creature affected by the event.

Luna readied a teleport spell as she surrounded all 7 of them in her midnight blue aura and disappeared in a flash. Their destination?

Ground Zero.

In a flash of blue light, they reappeared but not at their originally intended destination. But at its edge. Surrounding them was sand in all directions with the mountains of the Macintosh Hills visible in the far distance with the town of Appleloosa spreading on the plains below them. Luna had already sent a message to the captain of the guard to maintain order across the Equestrian continent while she investigated the source of the event.

Confusion reigned as to why they had appeared in the middle of the desert and not next to Celestia and Jolyne. Using her magic, Luna scanned the surrounding magical field and found out about the unique magical interference that permitted the surrounding area. Twilight had also done the same with identical results. Teleportation was out of the question now. So they walked towards the source of this strange field.

Something was off however, every now and then something seemed to sparkle in the sands, or at least that’s how it looked like to them. The real surprise came when they had scaled one of the many hills in their path. Their jaws dropped once they saw what was on the other side of their vantage point. There was no more sand...no more dirt or even stone.

What there was in its place… was an endless field of glass.

Where trees once stood, only stumps were left as jagged spikes of cracked and cooling glass were all that remained of the once abundant plant-life. The ground was full of cracks as the glass cooled causing jagged shards to stick out of the ground. Losing your footing here would pose a serious health hazard. There was no life in this desert of glass as an uncomfortable silence hung throughout the plains. Not even insects lived through this devastating blast.

The 7 of them stood shocked at the sight of this destruction. They knew it would be bad but this...this was something else entirely. But seeing this destruction reinforced their resolve. They would not back down. Their Princess needed them and nothing, not even a desert made of glass, would stop them. The first to take a step forward was surprisingly Fluttershy as she began to descend into the plains, the rest of them following shortly behind.

And so they walked through the desert of glass. Twilight and Luna periodically sent out locator spells, searching for any indication of Celestia’s current location and or heading. Silence reigned as everypony simply walked, glancing at all the different formations of glass the only sound being made is one of hooves hitting, and sometimes breaking, the impure glass underneath them as they continued ever deeper.

They may have been walking for minutes or hours, nopony could tell as they scanned the glass for any signs of life sweating under the blistering heat of this new environment. Their coats were soaked in their sweat, but they continued onwards at a steady pace. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were flying high above them getting a pegasi-view, looking high and low for any signs of Celestia, getting blinded every now and then by the now reflective terrain beneath them. And finally, after hours of searching in the blistering heat Rainbow Dash had spotted something flying in the distance.

“Hey, guys!” Rainbow called out grabbing the attention of the rest of her friends as they all looked up at her. “I think I can see something!” She said pointing into the distance. They all followed her hand and looked into the distant sky. At first, nothing was visible against the light blue sky but as they all squinted in the direction Rainbow pointed out a figure slowly came into view. Pinkie, suddenly pulling out a pair of binoculars from...somewhere, gasped and shouted: “It’s the Princess!” wearing her trademark smile.

“Is it?!” Yelled Twilight in surprise as she grabbed the binoculars from Pinkie and looked through them herself. After being blinded shortly by the glare created from the now reflective ground Twilight looked back towards the rapidly approaching silhouette. And low and behold it was a flying Celestia carrying what appeared to be an unconscious Jolyne. “It is!” Shouted Twilight, a large smile now on her sweat-soaked face.

Hearing this news their spirits soared at the information that the princess was fine as they doubled their pace towards Celestia with now renewed vigor. Rainbow Dash flew ahead closing the distance between them in less than a minute.

As the multicolored form of Rainbow Dash appeared in front of the flying Celestia a smile graced her features. The rainbow-haired pegasus spoke at a mile a minute as she seemed to zip around the princess, making sure that the centuries-old alicorn was fine. Celestia chuckled slightly at the actions of the pony in front of her, but that small moment of normalcy in the desert quickly vanished when Rainbow finally noticed the state the small alicorn, Celestia was carrying, was in.

Her hair was dull and grey having seemingly lost its saturated orange coloring whilst her fur seemed even whiter than before as her horn was covered in a tight golden yellow seal, where a large crack was visible through the semi-transparent shield. Her clothes were soaked in her sweat and certain parts of her clothing had black scorch-marks covering it. Dark bags visible under her closed eyes as her chest weakly heaved in her strained and shallow breathing. Seeing this Rainbow stopped and simply hovered there. Whether it was out of shock at seeing Jolyne’s current condition or Rainbow connecting the dots over how they now found themselves in this desert of glass, it was impossible to tell as she simply stared at the unconscious alicorn.

“Sister!” A shout was heard from below as a blue blur suddenly enveloped the larger alicorn in an embrace. Celestia was momentarily surprised before she leaned into the sisterly embrace as they both began to descend back down to the ground where the rest of the main 6 were waiting below. “Oh we art so glad that thou art unharmed,” Said Luna, as the pair touched the ground, momentarily slipping back into the old equestrian dialect before releasing her sister. As she took a step back from the larger alicorn the smile on Luna’s face began to fade as she saw the state smaller alicorn Celestia was holding was in.

Luna’s heart ached at the sight of Jolyne but deep down, no matter how hard she tried to fight it, she was glad that this nightmarish body was so badly hurt. Luna hated this feeling, she knew that this wasn’t an actual nightmare. But no matter what, looking at Jolyne all Luna could see was the nightmare known as Daybreaker. She looked away from the sight of the broken Jolyne in Celestia’s arms, the shame of feeling glad that she was in such a state forcing her gaze away from the child. This luckily went unnoticed as the rest of the main 6 gathered around Celestia, asking her whether she is alright and what happened whilst fussing over the child in her arms.

Luna watched from the side-lines, equally happy and relieved that Celestia was fine but ashamed at her feelings towards the injured child in her arms. But now was not the time to mope, a child was injured and this desert wasn’t going to get any colder. So with the group’s mission complete and the Princess found they could finally leave this hellishly hot wasteland of glass.

During the trek out of this wasteland, no words other than general complaints were said as they all focused on putting one hoof in front of the other as the temperature began to soar once the sun reached its apex in the heavens. The alicorns of the group were not as affected as the rest of the group but they were still ‘feeling the heat’ just as bad as the rest of them. Luna, with her dark blue fur, was starting to get jealous of Celestia’s white coat. They tried to cool themselves down with the use of cooling spells and flapping wings but nothing worked to quell the hellish heat they were feeling. In fact, casting any spells at all seemed to become impossible as time went on as this magical fallout effect fully developed as it began to react with the environment's magical field.

Any time the magic users of the group tried to weave a spell, the surrounding magical fallout would instantly scramble any type of magical matrices they used to a point that they would no longer work, preventing magic from being cast. However this effect only seemed to affect spells in the process of being cast, spells that were already active, before this new fallout effect began to manifest, were completely fine e.g: The containment seal on Jolyne’s horn, the hair shine spell Rarity uses and Twilights ‘Cornea surface polarizer spell’ (A.K.A a sunglasses spell to any normal pony) she had cast several hours prior still worked as intended.

And so they walked through what, to all intents and purposes, could be only described as an oven itself. The minutes turned to hours as their stamina slowly drained but finally after what felt like days, the edge of the wasteland came into view. Their hooves ached and their clothes were soaked in sweat as dull headaches began to manifest from dehydration as nopony had brought any water. But with the edge so close, such things didn’t matter now, as once they left the area of effect of this ‘fallout’ a teleport back to Canterlot castle was in order. And teleport they did once the hard glass beneath their hooves turned back into soft golden sand.

The nine of them appeared shortly afterward in Celestia’s personal chambers back in Canterlot castle. The second everyone got their bearings most of them collapsed onto the nearby furniture but not Pinkie Pie as she just fell straight down onto the carpeted floor of the room whilst Celestia teleported, Jolyne still in her arms, towards the Castle infirmary while also making sure to tell the staff that lots of water was to be brought to her chambers.

Once Celestia walked through the door to the infirmary she was instantly noticed by the receptionist and was swarmed shortly afterward by the nurses and doctors on duty. Jolyne was then taken from Celestia’s arms and brought into one of the nearby trauma rooms. Celestia wanted to stay and make sure Jolyne was okay but her student and her friends probably have a lot of questions that require answers. And Celestia would be the one to give them.
She walked through the many halls of the castle back towards her chambers making sure to reassure any and all staff she saw that everything was going to be fine as they all looked pretty shaken up by what they had experienced. She also made sure that a full report from all guard garrisons in Equestria is to be brought to her attention so that the full scale of the event could be made known. Knowing that their current predicament came into being because of her mistake, bought a feeling of sadness to her mind’s surface. Because of her actions… her subjects...her little ponies thought the end was near and feared for their lives causing nationwide panic and lawlessness. But now with the princesses back in Canterlot and the day/night cycle back to normal the ponies of Equestria were beginning to calm back down. A public address would be needed to completely alleviate fears of the end times but that would come later as right now she had reached the entrance to her chambers. A press conference could be done later, this cannot be postponed.

Walking through the doors of her chamber distant sounds of conversation could be heard. As Celestia began to get closer certain words could be made out.

„I knew that a cracked horn was dangerous but seeing one do... that...“ Came the voice of Celestia’s former student, it sounded as if she were in shock now that the information began to sink in that Jolyne had caused the creation of the wasteland.

“If that had happened in Ponyville...I-I don’t even want to think about what could have happened. Thank Celestia that the vines didn’t do the same to you and Princess Celestia, Princess Luna.” Celestia cringed a little at hearing this, it wasn’t the vines fault… it was hers and hers alone for the crack in Jolyne’s horn and the subsequent creation of the desert. Luna seemed to have to as well as when Celestia entered the room she was fidgeting in her seat so very slightly that only somepony who has known her for millennia would notice.

Celestia wanted to interject but Rainbow Dash beat her to it, “You see Princess! Jolyne is too dangerous to be left alone. If she can do that to a whole desert, she should be locked up. What if it was her plan all along? A plot to destroy the Elements and Princesses so she can rule Equestria alone. She probably cracked her horn on purpose!” The multicolored pegasus said in an accusatory tone, the group seemed to be taken aback by Rainbow’s proclamation. Rarity was the first one to respond.

“Rainbow dear,” Began Rarity sweetly, ” you may not know this, but a cracked horn is an extremely dangerous injury darling. No pony would willingly crack their horn. Every Unicorn is taught about how dangerous any type of horn injury is. If they aren't dealt with fast it will kill them. The literal first spell they are taught is one to deal with a cracked horn until a grownup comes along.” Rarity takes a sip of her water, “ They are a lot more common than most ponies would think, just...never at this scale before, darling.” Finished Rarity putting her glass back down onto the table in front of her. “What I’m trying to say Rainbow dear is that these things happen just never like that before. It isn't her fault, it's those dreadful vines.”

“Rarity is right, Rainbow. It isn’t Jolyne’s fault for getting hurt. And it most certainly isn’t some plan to take over Equestria.” Added Twilight looking towards the rainbow-haired pegasus who deflated slightly after hearing the fashionista's reasoning.

“Yeah well… I still don’t like it. I may feel sorry for her but knowing that she could do that just… doesn't sit right with me.” Rainbow sighed. “ I just… with the elements returned we can't just blast her if she does turn out to be evil. And seeing her do that as a child as an accident no less.” Her face began to soften. ”I’m just worried that we won't be able to beat her when she’s grown up and really does turn out to be evil.” Rainbow finished softly her eyes glued to the ground.

She was then quickly wrapped up in a hug by the shy yellow pegasus sitting next to her.

“Don’t worry Rainbow, that won’t happen as long as she is in a good and loving family and is taught the right things something like that won't happen.” Said Fluttershy quietly sending a glare towards princess Luna that seemed to go unnoticed by everyone except its recipient who quickly looked away in response. The rest of the main 6 continued to discuss between themselves about their views on Jolyne and whether it was her fault or not involving the princesses every now and then as to get their opinion on the event. They never took a side when questioned as from Celestia and her sister’s point of view it was her fault.

Meanwhile, Celestia moved to join the group as she sat down in one of the empty seats near her sister as her mask began to crack slightly with every remark that the disaster was somebody or something else’s fault. Fortunately for her, the truth was about to be revealed a lot sooner than Celestia had hoped for when a certain God of Chaos made his appearance.

“Well well welly, well well... well,” Said a voice seemingly coming from the very walls around them. „What do we have here?“ Said Discord as he appeared floating above them, sitting in an upside-down chair of glass. His legs were crossed and he had a smug grin on his face as he sat upside down, floating in mid-air as if this was completely normal. Well, to Discord there is no concept of normality so to him this was another day in the life of a god of chaos.

Oh well what’s the fun in being normal.

Oh for the love of… Discord! I draw the line at breaking the fourth wall! Now get the hell out of my narration booth!

Said the narrator. Narrating menacingly.

Out!

*poof*

Discord reappeared back in his chair after vanishing shortly „I apologize for my sudden disappearance but a wall needed to be broken. Now…“ A glass of chocolate milk appeared in his hands, it’s contents defying the laws of gravity as they refused to spill out of the upside-down glass. „I see that my back-up plan seems to have had a beautifully chaotic side-effect“ Discord appears down on the ground gesturing towards the now upright and grounded chair made of glass. „Just take a look at how it sparkles. I simply must thank you for allowing the creation of such beauty.“ Finished Discord with a bow towards a shifting Celestia before sitting back down

„Wait“ began Twilight as she processed what Discord had just said. „What do you mean ‘back-up plan’ and just why did you just ‘thank’ Celestia for the chair?!“ Discord just began to laugh before a familiar potion vial appeared before Twilight. „For the first part, drink that and for the second part… why don’t you ask good ol‘Sunbutt over there? Toodles!“ And then he was gone, his chair and glass gone as well, leaving no evidence that he was ever there other than the potion Twilight was holding and the memories of his antics.

With little hesitation, Twilight drank from the potion. To Twilight it felt as if she were teleported somewhere but to an outside observer, her eyes glowed a bright white. Being that this was the first time the two princesses had witnessed such a thing happening they were rightfully worried for their fellow alicorn. Minutes as Celestia and Luna start getting ancy, but just as Celestia was about to speak up the glow in Twilight's eyes subsided as she began to blink rapidly.

“Are you alright Twilight?” Celestia asked, concerned. In response, Twilight groaned in annoyance. “Yes yes I’m fine but…” Twilight took a deep breath, “DISCORD! I know you can hear me and do you have ANY idea how much easier it would have made if you just told us from the beginning!? Now come back here and clean up your mess!” Twilight shouted at the ceiling.

“U-um Discord please come back and help clean up..um... o-or your not invited to our next tea party” Added Fluttershy meekly after several seconds of silence.

“Oh, all right,” Said Discord as he reappeared in the room holding a feather duster whilst wearing a maid costume. “But I don’t do windows. Oh, and before I leave you might want to check back at the tree.” He snapped his fingers and he was gone again presumably to help with the clean-up effort but with Discord, one could never know.

“So, Twilight dear, what did that potion tell you?” Asked the fashionista curiously. And so Twilight explained what she had seen. The final battle between the sisters and the god of chaos, the seeds he spread around, and how they were kept at bay by the harmonious energies emitted by the tree of harmony. “We should have known that Discord would have had something like that up his metaphorical sleeve in case he were ever defeated.” Stated Celestia before her horn started glowing. “Everyone gather round lets see what Discord wants us to see at the tree of Harmony.”

Everyone did so before they disappeared the sound of a teleport echoing through Celestia’s room in their wake. They soon reappear back at the tree where a strange hexagonal shaped box with several different keyholes was waiting for them.

Everyone was rightly confused as to why the tree did this but soon a plan of action was to be decided. The box would stay there and the former element bearers were to keep their eyes peeled for anything that could relate to opening this box. But after that was set and done one last question still remained. And just as the group was about to leave the cavern underneath the everfree castle Twilight asked said question.

(Optional mood music !Use at own risk! I however think it fits)

“Princess Celestia?” Asked twilight, grabbing her attention. ”Yes Twilight, what is it?” Said Celestia in response. She knew what the question was going to be and she had two choices. Tell the truth and try to explain that she never intended something like this to happen or lie and forever live with the guilt that she had almost killed a fellow alicorn because of her own foolish mistake. And contrary to popular belief, Celestia might be the best liar and manipulator in Equestria as with most rulers on Equis but when it came to friends and ponies she considered family she could never lie to them. With nobles in Canterlot she can deal with no problem but when it came to the closest thing Celestia had to a daughter, lying was out of the question.

“Why did discord thank you for that glass chair he had?”

So, with the question asked, Celestia, steeled herself for what she had to do next. With a sigh, she began talking to the group. “This is no place to answer that. Everyone, please gather around. I shall bring us back to my quarters and there I will answer your question in full.”
They did as instructed before all were once again enveloped in Celestia’s golden aura. Her teleport spell brought them back to Celestia’s private chambers.

When they reappeared all was silent as Celestia walked towards a nearby window. “What I am about to tell you will not be pleasant. I myself now realize how foolish of me it was for allowing this to happen. You may hate me once I tell you this but I can only hope you understand why I did what I did and how I never meant for any of this to happen.” Celestia sighed deeply, still looking out of the window her back towards the group.

And so she explained everything from what happens to a nightmarish entity’s magic when sealed with a magic inhibitor ring to how the ring exploding damaged Jolyne’s horn. She told them that because of her mistake and deeply ingrained fear of being taken over by that nightmare again Jolyne almost died and that because of her. Not Discord or his vines but that because of Celestia’s mistake an entire new desert had been created. And once She was finished all was silent as not a word was said from either party. The sound of a pair of hoofsteps towards the exit broke the silence as five more pairs of hoofsteps following shortly after. Celestia said one last thing to the leaving ponies before they reached the exit.

“Jolyne is currently in the infirmary being treated.”

A door being slammed shut signaled to Celestia that she was alone with her sister once again as the main 6 left for the castle infirmary. Luna put her hand on her sister's shoulder as they stood there. Celestia broke the silence once again by asking her sister a question.

“Tell me, Luna… Do you think they understood why I did what I did? And do you believe they will ever forgive me?” She said looking over her shoulder towards her sister. Luna sighed heavily in response.

“Only time will tell dear sister…Only time will tell.”

“Ah can’t believe that the Princess would do something like that! What was she thinking!“ Fumed Applejack as the group made their way towards the castle’s infirmary where Celestia said Jolyne was being treated for her injuries. “With Princess Luna, Ah can understand but now Princess Celestia as well? Why, Ah otta-” Applejack said clenching her fists before she was stopped by a butter yellow hand on her shoulder. “Applejack no!” Began Fluttershy forcefully, surprising the orange Cowpony as well as the rest of the group before continuing. “I know you're angry about how they’ve treated Jolyne since we found her, we all are, but violence is not the answer! What we need to do is get Jolyne as far away from them as possible. Isn’t that right girls?” Asked Fluttershy who in turn received a chorus of affirmatives from everyone, other than Twilight who was still silently walking.

This didn't go unnoticed by the group as Rainbow Dash spoke. “Uh, Twi? You there?” That seemed to get her attention as she looked towards the hovering Rainbow Dash. “Hm... what is it? Oh! Right yes, I agree. Jolyne can’t remain here with them.” Said Twilight oddly emotionless in her tone. This once again didn't go unnoticed by her friends as Rarity spoke up.

“Are you alright darling? You’ve been oddly quiet since we left.” Rarity asked concerned for her friend. Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath stopping in the middle of the corridor they were walking through. “ I’m fine I just… I just don’t know what to think anymore. The first time we saw Jolyne I attacked her and scared her half to death. Then not even a day later she is almost killed by Luna a-and I… I slapped her and I still can't believe that I, as the Princess of Friendship, could do such a thing. And now...and now because of Celestia Jolyne is once again hurt. I-I just don't know whether to be angry or sad or betrayed that even my mentor could hurt her.” Twilight stomped her hoof against the stone ground cracking it slightly. “I want to do nothing more than to go back there and yell at her for doing such a thing and being such an idiot! But ARGH!” Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself back down. “I can’t deal with all this right now this is too much... Let's just go see how Jolyne is doing, I can shout at her later.” Finished Twilight before continuing on their journey towards the castle’s infirmary, her friends following her close behind once again.

They all had mixed feelings towards Celestia after hearing her explanation of why she allowed such a thing to happen but after hearing Twilight's thoughts they mostly felt sorry for her now. Out of everyone, Twilights was hit the hardest by Celestia’s answer. She had thought for the longest time that Celestia was perfect, that she could do no wrong. She was the wise and benevolent, millennia-old ruler, teacher, and de-facto mother of Equestria. How could she ever do such a thing? But she did, and Twilight didn’t know what to think anymore.

Their Journey continued on in silence with the occasional grumble against the Royal Sisters being said as they walked. Pinkie Pie was the quietest of them all as her hair had gone completely straight and flat. Her party plans were thrown out of the metaphorical window as new plans… new party plans for a very mean princess were being crafted by Pinkamena Diane Pie. Props would be needed… very sharp props would be needed ‘Yes this will be a party fit for the roya-’

Their arrival in front of the castle infirmary's big double doors banished Pinkamena’s dark thoughts out of her mind as the group entered and walked up to the nearby receptionist’s desk. Seeing the group the receptionist was momentarily surprised before she was asked where Jolyne was being treated. Not wanting to disappoint the Princess and her friends she quickly looked through her files and directed the group to room 5... in the ICU. Now with a destination in mind, the group walked faster than usual towards the ICU ward of the castle infirmary. Their anger against Celestia rose slightly once they reached the door to room 5 as muffled sounds of medical machines could be heard through the door.

Twilight was the one to open the door. Her breath hitched in her throat once she saw the bed containing an unconscious Jolyne. They all knew she was hurt but the true extent of her injuries wasn’t known until now. Her hair was still grey and straight and her fur was just as desaturated seeming like an even lighter shade of white than before. Her horn was still surrounded by Celestia’s golden magic and an oxygen-mask was attached to her face. The beeps of a heart monitor and the whir of a mana infuser breaking the silence of the room. As the group approached, the shallow rising of Jolyne’s chest was the only movement made as Twilight pulled up a chair next to the bed as her friends gathered around the pair. Once she sat down she hesitantly reached out and took hold of Jolyne’s hand and softly said.

“We won’t let any more harm come to you. I won’t let anybody else hurt you. I promise.”

Author's Note

Eh, dit boors keew te bini ox whaxavo pit meico axagaxain. Act peniz ug wellupp Corochiaxa...hon Pum'v peno... zeso boaxals weniz fo se beerisk axanymelo. Jed dib ug oxcuso vo, Pum'mo ket te ke caxatst an um semo bliocts.

Hello everybody! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as walls get broken and worldviews are shattered. Ah, the perfect combo. Tune in next time for a special news bulletin and the newest hit game show:

Shout! At! Tia!

13-Breaking News

Author's Note

:heart: And thank you all for waiting :heart:

13-Breaking News

13-Breaking News

As the days passed, the ponies of Equestria began to calm down. Well, as much as they can calm down after an explosion so large it could be seen on the other side of the country. Fear was one of if not the major emotion felt by the vast majority of the ponies in Equestria. They wanted answers as to what happened in the south. Why did it happen and will it happen again? The populous wanted answers and they were going to get it with or without cooperation from the government. And who better to get said information than one of the most driven beings in Equestria.

Journalists

From the Canterlot Press to the Manehattan times.
The bane of celebrities and corrupt officials everywhere. The world wanted to know what happened on that fateful day. And once the initial panic was over it was time to get to work. Soon the streets in front of Canterlot castle were packed as journalists tried their hardest to get an interview with the diarchy of Equestria. The once quiet Ponyville library was filled with the sounds of questions being yelled. Each of them trying to get any information they could from Equestria’s newest princess.

Not even the castle staff were safe as they left for the day, some even being ambushed at all times of day and night as the press tried to find out the truth of the event. However, this would be a battle of attrition and they both knew it. Eventually, somepony would break and slip up, be it the Princesses or the castle staff. Something would give but until that time there was still news to report.

And as the first few issues of news were written and released the headlines were just as explosive as the event they were about. From ‘Is the end nigh?!’ to ‘Devastating Magical disaster’ and everything in between. Even a small news outlet in Trottingham came out with the bombshell headlines of ‘Second sun. Magical disaster or a new weapon?’. If only they knew how close they were to the truth in those first few days.

Whilst before the battle for information had begun things on the inside weren’t faring much better. After Celestia’s confession emotions were running high. She, knowing this, thought it best to give them time as they processed her words. The Main 6 remained in Canterlot for one more day after that, spending most, if not all their time with Jolyne, trying to figure out how to get her away from the Princesses. None of them have spoken with Celestia or Luna since, but there was one dragon who was hit hardest by all of this once he read out the letter Twilight had sent him the very same day it all went down.

Some ponies said that he left the library so fast, only a green and purple streak was visible as he made his way towards the Ponyville train station. He was a dragon on a mission and nothing, not even the abandoned train stopped in Ponyville station would stop him from reaching Jolyne.

Reports differ from pony to pony as to what exactly happened next but needless to say, if it weren’t for the underfunded train system of Equestria only having a single locomotive south of the Canterlot, Spike’s trip to Canterlot might not have been as smooth as it had been when he arrived to a bunch of surprised engineers expecting a runaway train and getting a frazzled looking dragon instead.

Although the ponies had begun to somewhat calm down after the event, yet a certain tension was still in the air as Spike moved through the surprisingly bare streets of Canterlot.
These ponies had witnessed what normally would be called the beginning of the end and despite their worries, they survived. This made ponies start spending as much time with their family and loved ones as possible. One tends to realize the importance of the short amount of time there is to live when confronted with the end.

It didn’t take long for the green dragon to reach Canterlot Castle, its guards still standing vigilant at the gate despite recent events albeit visibly shaken. They let Spike pass without incident as he made his way into the structure. Several winding corridors later and Spike was standing outside of the Castle’s infirmary. Heading through the doors he was hit with the telltale aroma of a hospital. The smell of antibacterial cleaning supplies was filling the air and after getting directions to Jolyne’s room the smell only intensified as he approached.

The dull beep and whirr of machines could be heard through the door as well as the sounds of a muffled conversation being held. While opening the door, Spike’s breath hitched in his throat at the sight. Spike by now was used to the sight of an injured pony, living with Twilight such things were a given when she was experimenting and something would inevitably blow up in her face or her lab.

But seeing the state Jolyne was in… This was something no creature on Equis could have handled without some sort of visible or audible reaction. Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight were off to the side, all of them deeply immersed in their conversation. The butter-yellow Pegasus’ right hand was idly holding and lightly stroking the unconscious Jolyne‘s hand.

But Spike right now really couldn’t care less about those three as his attention lay fully upon the white and orange Alicorn in the room. Her form was an almost deathly white like that of a ghost about to phase out of the physical realm. Her once fiery and almost lifelike mane and tail were no longer dancing in an unseen breeze now just a dull desaturated orange against her sunken form. Machines Spike couldn’t begin to make heads or tails out of we’re hooked up to Jolyne and more specifically her horn. An almost translucent golden sheen surrounding it as the very faint swirling of the mana gave the sheen an almost lava lamp like appearance.

Were it not for the shallow rise and fall of her chest combined with the beep of a heart monitor and whir of an oxygen tank with a mask attached to Jolyne's face, nothing would have dissuaded Spike from thinking he was staring at a corpse instead. He didn’t know how to react. Should he be happy that she was alive? Mortified at the state she was in? Spike simply stood there unable to move as his eyes were glued to the sight before him.

It was at this moment when the other 3 ponies in the room noticed him out of the corner of their eyes. Spike meanwhile was still trying to comprehend what the universe had against Jolyne as it seemed to do everything in its power to hurt this child for no discernible reason. So deep was Spike in his stupor that he didn’t notice himself being pulled into an embrace by a lavender Alicorn.

Spike didn’t know how long he was held in that embrace or when he was sat down next to the hospital bed, his head still in a daze.

“What…” Began Spike quietly drawing the attention of the nearby Twilight. “What did this to her?”

Twilight glanced nervously at Fluttershy and Rarity. Should she tell him the truth knowing that there is a high chance he would go something irrational? Logic would dictate no, but her heart said yes. He was the first creature Jolyne had met since her strange arrival in Equestria, the first creature to befriend her. It just felt...wrong for Twilight not to tell him the truth about Jolyne’s condition. It was quite a conundrum for the Alicorn but a conundrum she ultimately knew the answer to.

Twilight sighed before giving her response and telling Spike what had transpired.

“The plunder vines they...damaged the ring on her horn. Her magic it...began to seep out and the ring...it couldn’t contain it. And when the ring broke the sudden release of magic...her horn couldn’t handle it. The Princess was able to stop it though but not before…” Twilight trailed off shifting her attention from Spike towards the bed and the form lying within its covers. Spike noticed something, however. The way Twilight mentioned her mentor was cold. It wasn’t filled with the usual tone of awe with which the lavender Alicorn usually spoke with whenever Celestia was involved. Did something happen between them? Spike didn’t have to wait long for an answer however as Twilight began speaking once again.

“Spike, before I tell you this I want you to promise me you won’t do anything rash as it won’t solve anything and only make this already bad situation worse okay? ” Her tone was severe, drawing Spike’s attention back towards Twilight.

“O-okay I promise.” Answered Spike unsurely

“Pinkie Promise?” Question Twilight doing the motions of the unbreakable pact.

“Pinkie Promise.” Responded Spike reciprocating the gestures.

And with the pact made Twilight continued and told the green Dragon everything just as Celestia did to them. It went without saying that Spike couldn’t bear to stand this injustice done by both of the Princesses now. Luna was already bad enough but now Celestia as well? Oh, how he wanted to give Celestia a piece of his mind, her status as a Princess and highest power of the land be damned. A gentledrake such as Spike or any sane creature that heard this news would be marching at the gates of Canterlot castle demanding justice be served. Spike promised however that he wouldn’t do such a thing, as it would definitely make this bad situation Jolyne found herself in into a far worse one. Shouting wasn’t going to solve anything no matter how much they wanted to.

But on the other side of Canterlot among the slowly refilling streets and soon to be warzone of journalism. Three mares had just come up with the perfect plan to get Jolyne away from the Princesses.

14-Fresh Air

14-Fresh Air

Pinkie, Applejack, and Rainbow needed to get some fresh air. There was only so long they could stay in that room. What they really needed to do was distract Pinkie and get her as close to normal as possible after recent events. They wanted their hyperactive friend back. They wanted to see Pinkie smile once again.

Leaving the Castle infirmary, the trio soon made their way onto the deserted streets of Canterlot. Not a single soul was in sight on the normally packed streets and bustling markets. It was as if they were walking through some sort of ghost town instead of their nation’s capital and most famous city. Without a plan in mind, the trio opted to try and find a cafe, and if that failed simply heading to the park on the edges of Canterlot would do just as well.

It didn’t take long for the pair to find several cafe’s but to their dismay, all of them were empty with a ‘closed until further notice’ sign outside or against the glass walls/door of the establishment. So they went with ‘Plan B’ and headed towards the park overlooking the valley below. It wouldn’t be the best place to cheer pinkie up, but it would allow them to think about what they were going to do about Jolyne.

They needed to get her away from the Princesses; Their actions against her were simply unforgivable. All they needed to do was get her somewhere they couldn’t reach her. Somewhere she could stay until a way home was found for her.

Heavy gray clouds obscured the sky as the Trio entered the abandoned Park. It looked just like the rest of the Capital with not a single pony in sight save for each other. It really was quite harrowing for them all. A park usually filled with foals, parents, joggers, and everything in-between now completely abandoned. The silence of the park only being broken by the songs and sounds of the birds up above. A distant sound of a train pulling into Canterlot just barely audible to the group.

They made their way towards the railing overlooking the valley below Mount Canterhorn. It was a beautiful view, even with the oppressive cloud coverage overhead. The green hills and forests cascading towards the mountains to the west. The blue tint of the Ocean was just barely visible over them. The dark and foreboding viridian of the Everfree Forest meshing with the happy and cheerful leaf green of open fields and Applejack’s Orchard on the edges of Ponyville before turning brown as the scenery changed to the Rambling Rock Ridge.

So many memories were had by all of them. Some from their Childhood and others from Adulthood. But the only things that came to mind now were the memories regarding Jolyne. They all had positive memories and she didn’t doubt that Jolyne has had many too but since her arrival and their first meeting. It has contained nothing but pain and suffering for her. No good times with friends like the rest of them, just pain and her first encounter with ponykind being the threat of petrification to stone.

How could it have all gone so wrong? It saddened them to no end that this creature has endured so much hardship in such a short amount of time.

Bringing their gaze away from their home of Ponyville their eyes followed the great ravine of Ghastly Gorge to the Macintosh Hills and the barely visible town of Appleoosa just beneath it. The glint of the glassy wasteland giving the mountains an eerie glow of reflected light. The mere reminder of what had happened such a short time ago bringing a shiver down their spines.

The sheer power that had been released there was equally awe-inspiring and terrifying to behold. The heat and power so intense, they doubted anyone but Celestia could have withstood it.

But Celestia did.

Not only holding against the flame turning sand to glass, but managing to push against it and save Jolyne from death. It was noble, It was brave, but it was all because of Celestia’s folly that it was necessary. Because of Luna’s reaction that Jolyne came into contact with Celestia in the first place. They needed to get her away from the Princesses

They turned their gazes north, away from the desert, away from the glass, and away from the Everfree. The green landscape turned to white as the grandiose backdrop of the crystal mountains covered the Horizon. The faint specs of clouds depositing soft snow onto the frozen mountains below. The Glint of the top of the crystal palace peeking above the mountains. Giving off a slight pink hue due to the magic of the crystal heart keeping the raging blizzards of the north out of the city.

Could they have seen The Blast?

Did they feel the ground shake?

Did they even know what had happened?

How were Cadence and Shining Armor faring?

Her air exploded with energy. Turning from a dull straight mane to a lively, exploding with pink, poofball that was her trademark hairstyle.

“I’ve got it!” Pinkie shouted suddenly and excitedly, startling her friends out of their viewing of the landscape with a small yelp.

“Lands sakes Pinkie! Don’t give us a fright like that.” Responded Applejack holding a hand over her now rapidly beating heart.

“Yeah Pinkie almost gave me a heart attack.” Added Rainbow coming down from the cloud she had jumped up to.

“Sorry girls but I just had to as I’ve got the bestest, the most perfect Idea that we really should have thought of already!” Pinkie continued, still high on energy.

“Well, what’s your idea Pinks?” Asked Rainbow curiously.

“We should get Cadence!” Answered Pinkie happily. And as the pair thought about her idea it didn’t take them long to realize that it was exactly the answer they had been looking for. If Cadence agreed to take her in, and with the current situation that outcome was highly likely, it would solve everything.

“Hey, that’s.... not a half-bad Idea Pinkie!” Responded Applejack a smile forming on her lips. Rainbow also gave her approval to the idea shortly afterward. They began to make their way back to the Castle, all of their moods significantly higher than when they first left. Now it was just up to telling Twilight what they had come up with. And with Pinkie practically bouncing off the walls again it wouldn’t take long for the rest of their friends to realize they came bearing good news.

Author's Note

I promised you all a chapter for my Birthday, didn't I?
And when I make a promise...

We have now all seen how the main 6 are reacting now...
The next Chapter will be all about the Sisters and the political shitstorm that about to unfold

15-The Sisters Blaze

15-The Sisters Blaze

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna I hope you understand why my King has elected to send me here today? Both my King and people are quite understandably… concerned about the recent happenings in your nation.” Began the griffon ambassador standing before the two occupied thrones of the equestrian diarchy. Both Princesses held their practiced neutral faces as the Griffonia ambassador began. If it weren't for the sisters' millennia of practice with their diplomatic masks, they would be most certainly wearing a thoroughly tired expression after the almost non-stop foreign inquiries of the last several days since the event.

The pair had hardly slept, each of them kept awake by the stress of damage control and their own thoughts. Luna spent her sleepless nights quelling the now out-of-control nightmares plaguing her subjects all across the country. Each of them revolved around one specific theme: Their annihilation. It pained her heart to see her subjects fearing death as if it were just around the corner when nothing could be farther from the truth.

Luna had lost count of how many times she had reassured her subjects in the dream realm that everything was fine and that nothing like that would ever happen again. That they could sleep easy knowing that life would go on. She was drained and now having a griffon ambassador in front of her and her sister did not help.

“Yes we understand, ambassador, the event did happen in our nation after all. Your nation wasn’t the only one affected by it. But you will be getting the same answer as every other nation that has come before us” Began the solar diarch standing up from her throne, her sister doing the same before she then spoke.

“The Equestrian Government currently has no explanation for the event, nor its consequences on the affected area of the explosion. Our researchers are looking into it and once an explanation has been found, their findings will be released to the international community and all beings affected by it.” Finished the lunar Diarch

The griffon ambassador simply stood there in thought for several seconds before sighing heavily. “My King will not be pleased with this news but… I thank you for your time anyway.”

“Your reaction is understandable, ambassador, my sister and I do not like to be in the dark as well when such magic is involved within our lands. Is there anything else you would like to discuss with us?” Questioned Luna politely. The ambassador stood in thought for a second before answering.

“There is one thing my and several other nations have been wondering. We are hearing reports of another Alicorn being spotted in ponyville. They also seem to mention you, your highness.” He continued looking Luna directly in the eye. “Do you have any knowledge of this supposed fifth Alicorn?”

Luna didn't visibly react to the griffon’s question, but it was a completely different story on the inside.

*How could they know!? My spells should have removed any witnesses' recollection of the incident!* Thought Luna bitterly. Rage began to boil underneath her stoic exterior as she thought of a valid explanation. It was too early for the world to know of Jolyne’s existence and her status as an Alicorn. Let alone her actions in Ponyville. She needed an answer or her silence would speak volumes more than any words she spoke.

Celestia sensing her sister's plight spoke up. “Yes, we are aware of these reports, and my sister was looking into the matter. And as of right now we have no further leads towards this supposed Alicorn. We shall get to the bottom of this matter, ambassador, the Crown assures this.”

The Griffon stood in thought for several seconds after Celestia’s declaration before giving a firm nod towards the sisters. “Thank you, that is all I can ask. I shall take my leave now, I bid you two a pleasant afternoon.” And with that the Ambassador left, leaving the Equestrian Diarchs alone in their throne-room once more. Only for the two of them to collapse onto their respective thrones in exhaustion.

“Sister please for the love of the moon, tell me we don’t have any more meetings today.”

“Thankfully not Luna, that was the last one for today. Can’t say the same for tomorrow, however.”

“Sister please, you may have already heard this but if this is what we have to deal with again the next time you mess up. I implore you, please think of the consequences if it blows up in your face.”

“Luna…” Celestia began a dangerous growl in her voice before taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. “I admit that I made an error in my judgment but you would have done the same, were the roles reversed!”

“I would no-”

“Yes, Luna, you would and you know it to be true. Your actions in Ponyville are evidence enough that you would have gone down the same path as I have! By the Sun, maybe even further if Twilight wasn’t there to talk some sense into you!”

“Sister, we have already gone over this. I am sorry and have apologized, even if I don’t deserve forgiveness for what I almost did; for the line, I nearly crossed that day… You however have yet to seek atonement for your actions!”

“I do not need to seek such forgiveness! I did what needed to be done and I will stand behind my actions. It is up to them to understand my motives. For them to understand both of our reasons for our fear.” Her gaze fell towards the floor.“I went through 1000 years of torture without you Luna because of that parisite” Spat Celestia with such venom it could melt steel before continuing somberly.

“I would rather risk losing everything I have built than make you go through the same pain I went through.” Finished Celestia quietly, small tears beginning to well up in the corner of her eyes as she looked down at her knees. She couldn’t, she simply wouldn’t make her sister go through what she did. She would give up anything and everything asked of her if it meant they could stay together.

Celestia suddenly found herself in a sisterly embrace as her vision was soon filled with dark blue fur. Sweet words were soon whispered into her ear as the sisters sat there together on one throne, the world around them falling away as they embraced each other. For this moment they weren’t in the middle of a political crisis. They weren’t stuck in their fears. They were just two sisters supporting each other in these turbulent waters they now found themselves in.

“What do you mean you don’t know anything?! How can you not know what's happening inside your borders!?!”

The next day soon came and with it the next nation looking for answers. And to the annoyance of the Sisters, today was the Dragon Nations turn to search for answers only this time they wouldn’t be deterred too easily like the others. They wanted answers and wouldn’t take no for an answer from the Royal sisters.

“I’m sorry but our analysts are still looking into it and until then we have no idea what caused such a powerful reaction. Such things will take time and patience until we have a full understanding of its cause and its effects on the environment we cannot give you the answers you seek just yet.”

“I refuse to believe that you have no information on the subject! It is your country for Scepter’s sake! I simply refuse to believe that you know nothing of its cause!” Shot back the Dragon ambassador loudly as he aggressively paced left and right in front of the dual thrones.

“Believe what you wish, it does not change the truth of the Situation. We know nothing and only the passage of time will change that. Until such time comes to pass you are free to remain as long as you wish here in the Capital. When the initial reports are finished you shall be one of the first to get them.”

“*Humpf* I have heard enough of this useless dribble! Until you know what happens within your nation you can expect no more support from the dragons!” And with that, the dragon stormed off towards the exit to the throne room. The guards at the door barely were able to get it open before the dragon could have blown them off of their hinges in his exit, like many of his forefathers have done before.

“Raven my dear, what's next on the itinerary?“

“A meeting with the Minotaur ambassador in 10 minutes followed by another meeting with the Yak ambassador. I also have a request from the Buffalo Representative to meet with you this afternoon.“ Responded her assistant with a sympathetic look towards the Princesses.

A Sigh escaped Luna‘s Lips as she looked from Raven to Celestia “Well, you heard her Sister, send them in.“

And so would the day continue for the Sisters as every meeting with another nation ended with the same outcome: Their withdrawal of Support until the cause of the Second Sunrise event as it is now known, is found and a guarantee that something like it couldn‘t be replicated. Years of diplomatic progress had just been reversed within an afternoon, as the nations around the world began to distance themselves from Equestria.

They were scared. It‘s as simple as that.

And that fear was infectious.

Should it happen again? Never.

Could it happen again? Possibly.

Would it happen again? Only time would tell and how Jolyne was affected by all that had transpired.

And it was this question...This possible future brought the Lunar Princess in front of this one door. This one golden door to her sister's office, one hated the most by the sisters in the entire castle. And the one place Luna knew her sister would be at this time of night.

Both Sisters love their subjects dearly. They have fought for them, bled for them, and brought them away from the brink of extinction. But if you offered them a way to remove the whole concept of paperwork from their lives? They would most likely take it in a heartbeat.

Luna slowly opened the door, the sound of ink being scratched onto paper soon filled her ears. The room was dark, her moon hidden behind the clouds outside the large window. The only source of light in the room is a dimly glowing ball of light floating gracefully above her sister’s desk. Its warm light bathing the room in a comforting orange, just bright enough to work with but easy on the eyes at this time of Luna’s night.

Two bookshelves line the walls, both of them filled to the brim as several paintings of various landscapes hung on the wall above them. Tickets of all shapes and sizes from their more adventurous selves sat atop the bookshelves themselves. The tip of a broken sword, a geode from the heart of a volcano, and a slightly chipped and warped teacup that sat on a pedestal above the two.

Her Sister sat at her desk at the far end of the room, her attention fully immersed in the documents below her. Large bags lay underneath her eyes, their darkened color sticking out on her otherwise pristine white fur. In her sleep-deprived state, Celestia hadn’t noticed the opening of her door.

Entering the room fully, Luna slowly closed the door behind her. The click of the door fully shutting causing her sister’s ears to twitch as they suddenly faced towards Luna. The head they were attached to slowly following suit showing just how terrible the condition her sister was in, startling Luna in the process.
They both hadn’t had proper rest in days but Luna was far superior to her sister when it came to running on little sleep and it showed right here. If it weren’t for the wonders of magic and makeup in public one might mistake the current state of Celestia’s ‘in private’ look like that of a walking corpse.

Luna had another reason for coming but that was forgotten as she saw her sister’s terrible state.

“Ah-” Celestia began before being interrupted by a large yawn “Do you need anything Luna?”

“Yes sister, I require but one thing.”

“Oh-” She yawned again. “What is it you require?”

“You, in bed, asleep. With pleasant dreams given by me,” answered Luna authoritatively, moving towards the desk. Her dark blue horn glowing as she plucked the pen out of her sister’s hand and filed the documents she had on her desk away much to Celestia’s chagrin.

She moved to stand up. “Luna no you can’t-” only for her legs to buckle underneath her causing her to fall briefly before being caught by her grinning sister.

“Alright fine, some sleep does sound nice.” relented Celestia with a tired smile as she leaned into Luna’s arms.

“Good, now come, let me walk you to your quarters” Luna finished as the pair walked towards the door, Celestia holding onto her sister gently.

With the night shift in full spring, the likelihood the pair would run into any unintended guests was next to nil with the last of the foreign dignitaries gone. The walk towards Celestia’s bedroom was a quiet one as the pair made their way through the maze-like corridors of the castle until Celestia broke the silence.

“Have you-” another yawn escaped her muzzle “Have you heard any news from the hospital. About her condition?” asked Celestia tiredly, barely keeping her eyes open.

„Nay dear Sister I have not. I was however planning on heading over tomorrow… Would you like to join me?“

„Unfortunately no Luna, it is too soon for me and there is much work that still needs to be done“ a sigh escaped Celestia‘s lips „With the withdrawal of support, our Kingdom is in dire straits sister. I have already drawn up several… plans…“ The pair stopped in their tracks as Celestia trailed off, her breathing slowing and eyes closing. Within several seconds the princess of the Sun was asleep, leaning into her sister's arms.

Luna gave a small smile of amusement towards her now sleeping sister. They were only several steps away from her bedroom so gently Luna‘s horn lit up as she opened up the door and brought her sister in. She laid her on the large sun-adorned bed in the middle of her sister’s quarters.

And with but a flick of her wrist and a glow in her horn her sister would sleep the night away with pleasant dreams.

Author's Note

Make sure to leave a comment as I fuckin L O V E reading them
Also if you want to find me I have my own discord full of memes
I am also very active on K.K Sliders discord lots o Connor over there
And finally, the Positive ponies discord that I rule over with an Iron fist!

That's all folks see you next time in 16-A Recovering Flame
(Fire puns MUHAHAHHAHAHAHA)

16-A Recovering Flame

16-A Recovering Flame

Walking through the winding corridors of Canterlot castle a lone dark blue Alicorn was lost in thought. After the hectic events of the last several days, there was a lot for the Alicorn to ponder over. The thought at the forefront of her mind was what the dragon ambassador had proclaimed.

The spell was perfect. Everycreature should have forgotten all about my…so how in the name of my moon did the griffins find out? Could I have missed something? Could I have perhaps missed somecreature?

These were the thoughts going through the Alicorn’s head as she walked through the corridors of her home, her destination being its infirmary; where the subject of her thoughts resided. Their relationship may be completely one-sided and marred in fear and trauma but that wouldn’t stop Luna. She may never be forgiven by Jolyne for what she did; she knew that, but as of right now that did not matter to her. One of her subjects was injured not only by her but her sister's actions as well and she would do anything to try and help those hurt by their actions.

It was at this moment Luna had reached the door that led to the castle's infirmary. Its shape is like that of any other door only emblazoned with a red cross on its body. Banishing away her thoughts regarding the leak, Luna opened the door and walked inside.

The smell of antiseptic and a sterilized environment assaulted her senses, as her eyes adjusted to the sudden increase of the brightness. The environment of the infirmary was a stark contrast to the castle as the walls favored function over aesthetic, with its coloring being a stark alabaster white. The floor being no longer tiled but now a smooth uniform marble as to not hinder anything wheeled that may contain sensitive materials.

To her left and right benches and chairs were set up as a small waiting room with a large receptionist desk against the wall in front of her with large double doors on each side leading to other areas of the infirmary. Several signs were placed over the doors and the one labeled ‘Thaumatology’ was the one Luna had her eyes on. It was the department that Specialized in anything magic-related and if the stories were to be believed it was renamed to the ‘Twilight Zone’ several years ago for unspecified reasons before its current labeling.

Walking up towards the receptionist's desk, the dark blue Alicorn was instantly spotted by the mare sitting behind it. Putting her paperwork to the side, for now, she bowed down slightly before smiling and asking.

“How may I help you today, Princess Luna?”

“I have come to visit a patient by the name of Jolyne.”

The mare’s face instantly fell upon hearing that name, with her smile morphing from a cheery to a sad one.

“Yes… She is in the last room down the hall to the left; in the Thaumatology in the Intensive care section. Be sure not to barge in as the doctor is making his rounds and maybe with her at the moment. Any questions about her condition can be directed to him once he is finished with his examination.”

“Thank you for your assistance.” Responded Luna, with a sad smile of her own towards the mare before following her directions through the double doors and into the Thaumatology section. Entering the department-proper felt like stepping over an invisible boundary as Luna, as well as any magical being, could feel the increase of free-floating mana in the air. The feeling being so potent one might mistake this feeling for a breeze on their skin or a fly buzzing around the ear as Luna reflexively swatted against the empty air.

Walking further down the corridor, something else was picked up by her senses, a feeling that was all too familiar yet different at the same time. It was small, weak, and missing the great intensity it was known for. The corrupted solar magic known for its ferocity of a dragon felt like nothing more than a wounded pup to the Lunar Alicorn.

To feel the power of a nightmare so weak brought an uneasy sense of joy to the Alicorn before being brutally suppressed and beaten to within an inch of its life as Luna remembered just whose soul was generating this magic. However, that small feeling still held on in the recess of Luna’s mind no matter how hard Luna tried to remove it.

Drawing closer to the room Luna could barely hear a conversation from within Jolyne’s room as well as the sounds of various medical devices.

Taking the Receptionist's advice, Luna took the doorknob in her grasp and slowly pushed it open so as not to disturb anypony inside.

“——up her concentrated mana infusion by 45% and if her conversion efficiency doesn’t improve within 24 hours, notify me immediately.”

With the door no longer muffling the ongoing conversation Luna was able to catch the tail-end of the doctor’s treatment plan. Opening the door fully, the Lunar Alicorn’s presence was instantly noticed by the doctor and his team and each gave her a small bow in greeting. The doctor turned back towards his team and told them to get to work while he talked with the Princess.

Taking the opportunity to look around, Luna saw that the room was fairly standard. One somewhat small window on the wall, across from her, a few chairs and a desk in the corner of the room, and finally the most noticeable detail being the large privacy curtain facing the door, obscuring the bed and Jolyne that lied there.

Refocusing her attention towards the doctor she saw his team give their affirmative and go to work as the doctor moved towards her.

“How may I help you today Princess Luna?”

“Yes, I would like to inquire about the status of Jolyne. Doctor….?”

“Ah yes where are my manners, I am Dr. Burn and please let us head to my office.” He began gesturing for the Princess to follow. “There we can discuss the health of the patient in question with a little privacy.”

Luna nodded in response and followed the doctor to his office. It was a short walk to their destination, just around the corner from Jolyne’s room. Entering the office, the doctor moved behind his desk and took a seat.

“Please take a seat, Princess. Can I offer you a drink? Perhaps some coffee? Tea?” He offered, turning his chair towards a nearby coffee maker and kettle.

“Thanks for the offer but I, unfortunately, must decline.”

“That's quite alright, Princess. I take it that you would like to hear how Jolyne is doing.”

“Yes. What’s her condition like?” At Luna question, the Doctor sighed slightly before responding

“That is the question of the day, isn’t it? The short answer is that her prognosis isn’t improving and we don’t know why. She has all the signs of dangerously low mana reserves due to containment being lost. The stress her body endured… Were she a normal unicorn, her body would have been blown apart. I guess she has to thank her alicorn biology for that.”

“Yes, our forms are much more resilient to various forms of trauma.”

“Yes… But this leads to our biggest problem... Her magic. The standard treatment for her affliction is to infuse pure mana into her system as a base for her own body to convert it into her own mana stores. When it comes to her, however... We start running into some problems. To put it simply, for the amount of mana we are giving her only a tenth of it is converted and usable, much, much less than usual.”

He began to massage his temples.

“This is the first time something like this has happened, her body's magic is just so... different compared to a standard unicorn’s or pegasi’ we have on file. So different in fact, that it may be the first of its kind. It's a lot more… potent if you will. Were she, again, any other patient we would suggest a family member donate some of their mana as a supplement, but we have none on file so we are stuck with an inefficient treatment plan. And if we can't find a way to improve her conversion rate we very well may not have enough mana on hand to treat her. And if we don’t bring up her stores to a higher level soon she may suffer some permanent damage to her magical abilities.”

“I see…”

“Princess, if I may be frank, we are not Alicorns and we do not have the experience nor the knowledge needed to treat this affliction effectively. Do you perhaps have any knowledge that may be of use to us? Surely you or your sister has gotten injured in a similar manner as Jolyne over your long lives.”

“Yes we have…but not to this extent I’m afraid. But… I may have an idea. My Sister’s magic is quite similar to that of Jolyne. I shall speak with her later about her assistance in this matter.”

“That… might actually work, Thank you Princess for the help. I must ask, however. Are the two of them...related in some way? Their resemblance is quite uncanny.”

“No, they are not… I think '' added Luna the last part quietly under her breath, her tone uncertain. It was a good question. She knew for sure her mind was not that of the Nightmare but physically? Her magic was that of a Nightmare, but her body was real. It was flesh and blood. So it would stand to reason her blood may be similar to that of the nightmares original host…Her sister, Celestia.

“Well, does she have any Parents?”

“Yes… but they are not currently available.”

“Does she have any current legal guardians instead?”

“She is a guest of the crown currently and therefore my Sister and I have guardianship.”

“Okay… Bit strange if you ask me but alright it's not my place to question your decisions, but in my professional medical opinion we must. If Princess Celestia agrees to the transfusion, complete a DNA test between the two of them in order to see if they are really compatible or not.”

“Is that truly necessary?”

“Yes, with our current understanding of mana transfusions between two sentient creatures they must share parts of the DNA responsible for mana storage or the mana will be rejected and cause more harm than good. Now if you say their magic is similar, then they must share some genetic material, and until we are sure I will not authorize a treatment that may cause more harm to my patient.” The doctor finished sternly before speaking in a softer tone “I hope you understand, Princess. Also, don’t forget doctor-patient confidentiality, the results of the test will be kept under strict lock and key.”

“Thank you doctor and yes, I understand. I shall inform my sister of these conditions should she agree with my proposal.” Responded Luna with a firm nod and a small smile.

“Alright.” He leaned back in his chair, his posture relaxing, ”Now, is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No. Thank you. I have heard enough about her condition. I would like to see her now if there are no contraindications.” The Doctor cringed slightly at her words.

“Are you sure Princess? You can, but she looks far worse than it sounds.”

“Your thoughtfulness is welcome but unnecessary, doctor… I was one of the ponies that brought her here. Plus, I have seen far worse over my long life, you need not be concerned, doctor.”

“Alright, well my team should be finished by now so don’t let me keep you any longer. It has been a pleasure to converse with you, Princess. If you need anything else you know where to find me.” The Doctor finished with a smile.

Luna returned the smile and bid him farewell, making her way out of the office and back into the corridor. Retracing her steps around the corner, Luna found herself right back in front of Jolyne's room.

Entering the room once again, Luna now saw she was alone. No one in the room, save for her and Jolyne. The privacy screen was still up, hiding the small alicorn from view. Moving through the room Luna walked past the cover of the screen allowing her to see the bed where Jolyne lay.

She looked somewhat better than when Luna last saw her. Her horn was still covered in the glowing magic of her sister’s containment spell. Its golden color emits a dim shine upon Jolyne’s broken form. Once more Luna’s mind fought against her as a feeling of joy began to assert itself within the backstreets of her mind. Luna pulled her gaze away from Jolyne before turning around, her back now towards the bed.

Taking a deep breath, Luna suppressed the feeling once again, reminding herself once again who she was in the room with. She came here to see Jolyne, the mistreated soul, not the Nightmare of Daybreak. Turning back around, Luna walked towards her before taking a seat on a nearby chair at Jolyne's bedside.

The low whir of the mana infuser to her right filling the otherwise relative silence of the room. Looking at the smaller alicorn’s form Luna contemplated on whether she should use her own dream magic to talk to her before quickly deciding against it. The last time Jolyne saw her she had a panic attack. Entering her mindscape right now would most likely only worsen her state.

So Luna did the next best thing instead and spoke in a quiet and comforting tone.

“Jolyne… It's me, Luna. I do not know if you can hear me in your current state and I know that even if you could you wouldn’t want to hear what I have to say anyway… But I want you to know that I am so sorry for what my sister did, sorry for what I did…and that I will not rest until you are safely back in your parent’s arms with your sister there beside you. You may never forgive me and I don’t expect you to, but I will try and make this right… I swear on my moon to you.”

Just as Luna finished speaking the sound of the door swinging shut drew her attention away from the bed and towards the silhouette behind the curtain that was certainly not there before. Thinking back as to why Luna did not hear them enter, she realized she had not shut the door open behind her.

A purple claw grabbed the edge of the curtain, pulling it against the wall revealing the blank face of Spike looking at her, something book-like held between his arms and chest. His face was unreadable to Luna as he stood there staring down at her. Then he simply turned around, walked to the other side of the room, grabbed another chair before moving it next to Jolyne’s bed, and taking a seat. The objects he was holding were put on the stand to his left, revealing themselves to be several different comic issues.

He didn't say anything at first, his gaze simply switching several times between Luna and Jolyne. Seeing this, Luna began to speak.

“How much did you hear?” She asked, cautiously.

“Enough that you should probably leave before we start yelling at each other for what you’ve done,” Spike responded, his voice devoid of any obvious emotion.

“I-I… I understand.” Luna finished sadly, her eyes turned towards the ground as she made to leave the room but just as she reached the door Spike called out to her.

“For what it's worth Princess. In the short time that I've known her… Jolyne may forgive you if you pull through with your promise…” He looked towards the doorway where Luna stood, her hand resting on the doorknob.“ The rest of us may as well but… we will have to see if you come through…”. With that, he turned back around towards the bed, one of his claws moving to grab a comic from the stand to his left as Luna left, leaving Spike alone in the room. But just before she was out of earshot she heard Spike begin to speak to the room’s only other occupant.

“Alright, so where were we when last time we left off… Ah, yes. The power-ponies had just defeated the Maneiac-“

And Luna smiled warmly as she walked away.

Author's Note

We got new Cover art if you haven't already noticed! Pretty pog.

Old cover art link is here if ya want it

I am writing this 10min before I leave for the day. I am Speed.

Comment or die

17-A Dash of Lithium Chloride

17-A Dash of Lithium Chloride

Exploratory Expedition into the Epicenter of the recent Magical Anomaly.
Result: Failure.
The following is the transcript of the Expedition Leader’s report after regaining consciousness.

The Sun was unforgiving that day I tell you. Maybe it was the desert, maybe it was the empty sky or maybe Princess Celestia moved the sun a little too close that morning. We didn‘t know and we didn‘t particularly care.

We didn‘t know exactly why we were being sent out to the place that had not till a few days ago been the birthplace of a new star but hey money can make a stallion down on their luck do anything, even if that meant walking through that Celestia forsaken desert. If one could even really call it a proper desert and not just barren sand for miles on end. I swear I don‘t know exactly how long we walked through there but we hardly saw any plants, Cacti, hell not even a bird or two it was just sand for as far as the eye could see.

Anyway, I believe I’m getting off track, you came to ask me what we experienced out there. Heh… well, it's one feeling I'm sure as Tartarus won‘t forget anytime soon. Now see I've been a pretty magically attuned Pony all my life, when I could first lift something by my own power it was weird when I wasn‘t levitating something or looking for new magic tricks to play with.

But when that damned glass came into view… It scared me to my very core. I have never felt something so wrong, so unnatural before! There was this just wall of darkness all around us the closer we got like there was this shadow behind us watching us and… draining us… Magic became impossible to use and we all felt our strength being sapped away.

*What do you mean by impossible to use?*

Well, just that. Any magic I tried to use fizzled out into nothingness and even the Pegasi and Earth ponies among us felt the same. Flying got more tiring to the point of near exhaustion and the earth ponies' strength began to vanish slowly. I‘ve heard the legend of Tirek and his ability to drain magic… and what we experienced must have been what his victims felt like… lying there feeling like nothing but a husk… Under an unforgiving sun…Ugh sorry, I just... if somepony went there alone and didn’t have somepony pull them out of that glass...

*Do you remember what happened to the rest of your team after you collapsed?*

Not really but I do know that they weren't as affected by that… glass… as us Unicorns were. Please do be sure to thank them for dragging our sorry asses back out of that desert. It couldn't have been easy, weakened like that.

End of transcript.

Additional notes by Canterlot head of magical research Dr. Moira:

What our expedition leader here is describing is the general consensus of their expedition. His testimony of the events is consistent with the rest of his team. Including his claims of a shadow that is there and yet not, however, such a phenomenon was only described by their group's Unicorns. Then there is this Magical ‘Null Zone‘ that permeates the area and the glass underneath it. Whether it is a phenomenon in the air itself or whether it is created by the glass or is a combination of both is still a mystery and until we find a way to mitigate the effects ‘Null Zone‘ has on any further expedition teams, I recommend that a containment field be erected a safe distance away to prevent any foolish would-be explorers from becoming victims to this zone’s effects as well as provide a good base of operations to conduct further research into the phenomenon.

Celestia sat quietly at her desk, her eyes scrutinizing the document before her. A sigh escaped her lips after scanning the document for the nth time. Over her long life, she had seen many things and experienced even more. She has studied many fields of research and many more in regard to magic. But one field she had little to no experience in. The field of corrupted stellar magic. The magic only the sisters could use. The magic that had torn her family apart twice and nearly caused a third.

And now who knows what further consequences that magic might bring her. The first magical ‘Null Zone’ since the founding of Equestria. And then there is that shadow those ponies described, from Celestia and her sister's own experience such feelings were common for magically sensitive beings in such zones. The draining through… research would have to be done on that.

Overall, today would look like another busy day of paperwork for the Princess of the Sun. Picking up a nearby quill, Celestia's eyes graced something she had forgotten she had. Picking it up she looked it over. The paper was covered in various small sketches and notes from when she had first spoken to Jolyne. Each note was meticulous and sorted in only a way Celestia knew the answer to. Reading through the notes brought Celestia back to the moment when she made them.

The enthusiasm Jolyne showed, the way she talked about her people, the feelings she showed once the reality of her situation crashed down on her. Alone in a strange world, her body changed and morphed into that of that *Nightmare* by no choice of her own. Celestia could feel her anger at the universe begin to rise at all the things it forced her and her sister to do in their endless mission to defend Equestria from all threats. Even if that meant that an innocent would be caught in the crossfire.

The door to Celestia’s office opened, interrupting her thoughts as she looked up to see who had entered. The familiar dark blue form of her sister stood there.

“Ah Luna, it's good to see you. How has your day been?”

“It has been fine, Sister but I am not here for a simple visit.”

“Oh? What is it you need then?”

“I have just returned from the castle's hospital.”

“Ah… How is she?”

“Not good, sister. She is suffering from a severe case of magical exhaustion and the Doctors cannot heal her fully.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“It's regarding her magic, to put it simply they do not have enough mana on hand to treat her.”

“They are the best doctors in all of Canterlot. Have they found another way to treat her?”

“Yes well, that's where our problem lies. They need a family member who can donate mana.”

“Of which none of them are here...”

“Not entirely untrue, sister.”

“What do you mean?”

“You” answered Luna with a point of her fingers. “Celestia. I am sure you have felt the similarity between the two of you at some point, yes? Her mind may be that of another world. Her body, however…”

“...May be related to me… why had I not thought of that?”

“A lot was on your metaphorical plate sister, there is no shame in not realizing it sooner.”

“Is that why you are here? To ask for my help in healing Jolyne?”

“Yes, but there is one thing that must be done first to prevent any unnecessary harm from befalling Jolyne.”

“Oh, and what's that?”

“A DNA test needs to be completed to ensure that you two are compatible.”

“Is that truly needed? Think of the scandal it could cause if the Nobles got their hands on it?”

“Sister, are you truly worried about a political scandal, right now? Whilst we are in the middle of this crisis? I do not believe it can get, as some ponies say, ‘Any worse than this’ so hold thy tongue for now and go help this soul you have wronged.”

“Yes… sorry… reflex. After having to deal with those nobles for so long I have had to deal with many who claimed to be related to the crown in some way.”

Luna cringed at that information.

“Ah, then I apologize for my outburst. But my point still stands. And don’t worry sister, I shall make sure to have the results of the test be metaphorically burned to ensure no such nobles can use it against you.”

“Thank you, Luna.”

“Yes, now is there anything that still requires your attention? If not we may begin posthaste.”

Celestia looked down at her desk and at the papers and letters that lay atop it.

“No… these can wait until later. Let us head down together then.”

“That was the plan dear sister, though I should warn you that Spike was with Jolyne earlier. If he is still there, he may not be happy to see you so soon. He certainly wasn’t with me.”

“I know, but that is his choice. He will either understand my reasoning or he will not, how he feels about it is his choice and I cannot fault him for it.”

With that, the sisters left Celestia's office and began to walk towards the castle's hospital wing. No more words were shared between the two of them as they entered the hospital and made their way towards Dr. Burns’s office. The walk was a short one as the pair soon found themselves inside the doctor's office. The doctor in question currently had his head neck-deep in various paperwork and charts, though from the look on his face, as he looked towards his two royal visitors, he didn’t seem to mind all that much.

A smile quickly broke out on his face as he greeted his newest visitors with a bow.

“Ahh hello there Princesses, I take it you are here for what your sister has no doubt already discussed with you?

“Yes though I must ask if it is truly necessary to-“

“Yes, it is your highness.” The doctor interrupted, surprising the diarchs.

„Alright, do what you must.“

„Thank you, Princess.“

Several bent needles later and one full vial of blood sent to the lab for immediate examination, the two diarchs were left waiting for the results of the test.

„Note to self: Remove protective wards before the needle is used.“ Spoke the Solar diarch under her breath as she looked towards the medical bin across the room.

„Seriously sister, what was that?“ Began Luna with a sigh and a facepalm. „You are several thousand years old and have done this thousands of times before and in all my time with you that has never happened before. It is, quite frankly, embarrassing.“

„Sorry Luna, it must have slipped my mind.“

“Sister, nothing has ever slipped your mind in all my years by your side.” Luna’s face began to soften. “Something is bothering you Celestia, so tell me, dear sister. You don’t have to deal with it alone now.” She placed a reassuring hand on Celestia’s shoulder.

„I know Luna but… are you truly sure about our current course of action? That we are not being masterfully deceived by the nightmare? That this is not part of her master plan?“

„Well first if this was part of her `master plan‘ to take over Equestria it is a terrible one. Secondly, she is far too self-absorbed to allow herself to be captured by you and finally her otherworldly knowledge.“ Luna then looked away before coughing nervously. „And I may have done a little of my own *ahem* investigations in Jolyne‘s mind hehe…“

„Luna…“ Celestia began dangerously.

„Oh please, you are speaking to the Pony that wrote the book on dream/mind magic. I knew what I was doing. Anyway, back to what I am trying to convey. Trust me sister there is nothing to worry about. This is not part of some master plan, this is just me and you trying to help a lost soul.“ Finished Luna with a smile. After a moment of thought, Celestia mirrored her expression and smiled warmly at her sister's reassuring words.

The click of the door being opened drew both of the Alicorns' attention as the familiar face of Dr. Burn stepped through the door, a smile on his face. „Well, Princesses I have good news! The results have come back and princess Celestia, you have a daughter! This doesn‘t come as a surprise given your physical similarities. On a Microscopic level, however, Jolyne’s DNA is very similar to that of a child of yours. Only in this case the Mothers DNA, your DNA Princess, is extremely dominant compared to the fathers making identification impossible but that does not matter. Maybe it is perhaps because of your Alicorn Biology?“ The doctor took a breath.

„Excuse me for my rambling princess. Anyway what this does mean however is that your mana, Princess Celestia, is safe to transfuse into Jolyne.“

„That…“ Celestia looked towards Luna once again who gave her a reassuring smile making Celestia smile once again in turn. „Is wonderful news Doctor.“

„Splendid! We can start right now if you‘d like.“

„Of Course.“

„Brilliant. Then why don‘t you follow me and we can get started. I am sure that we will see Jolyne‘s condition improve tenfold when her body has some actual mana to use!“

A short walk later and the trio found themselves once again in Jolyne’s room. Celestia’s sun was shining through the curtains bathing the room and its occupants in its light.

„Now all you need to do, Princess, is just to channel your magic into this crystal and the infuser will do the rest.“ Began Dr. Burn as he grabbed Jolyne’s chart from the foot of her bed and looked over the machine that stood beside it.

„Okay.“

„Before you begin princess, start slow. Jolyne‘s body is completely starved of mana, if your connection to the crystal is too strong too fast, even with all the safety measures, her body will try to absorb as much as possible, and just like when one is starved; at worst her mana circuit will get overwhelmed causing more damage or at the best, we‘ll end up right back at square one. Do you understand? I will say when you should stop adding more power.“

„Yes. I understand Doctor. Start slow and stop when you say so.“

„Good, now let’s begin.”

Celestia's horn began to glow with a dim golden light as a small magical tendril of mana emerged from the tip of the diarch's horn and connected itself with the crystal that powered the transfuser. With the crystal starting to glow, a dim golden shine began to spread within the machine towards the wires that were attached to Jolyne.

Then as soon as the glow appeared and brightened it dimmed once again the second it touched Jolyne’s skin. Celestia was surprised by this but the doctor seemed pleased by this outcome. Focusing her gaze on the smaller alicorn in front of her, Celestia could see why. Jolyne’s once sunken and grey fur was slowly regaining its luster. The once shallow breathing that ailed Jolyne began to disappear as her chest rose and fell with deep and calm breaths. Her mane and tail regained some of their lost life as the orange became more pronounced once more as a lone orange ember began to dance around the room.

“Good. Princess, keep it at this level now, she is absorbing the mana nicely. I can already detect her magical reserves being filled at an astounding rate compared to before. Although…” The doctor checked the machine once again before sighing. “It seems she must have been more starved for mana than we previously thought.”

“What does this mean Doctor?” Asked the solar alicorn.

“Oh nothing serious, I assure you, princess. This just means she will need more treatments than previously thought for her to make a full recovery.” Dr. Burn answered with a reassuring smile towards Celestia.

The procedure continued for another half an hour as Celestia slowly transfused her magic into the crystal and thus Jolyne. Luna had since excused herself by this point, leaving only the Doctor, Celestia, and the unconscious Jolyne in the room. But eventually, the doctor spoke once again.
“Alright, I think that’s enough for today Princess. Her body will need some time to use this newfound mana. And once again thank you for your help.”

“Please, it was no problem whatsoever, Doctor, I assume that you will want me to come again tomorrow?”

“Yes, please, your highness. Whenever time is most convenient for you to come for another hour.”

And with that Celestia made her way out of the room and out of the hospital itself. With the shining white walls of the hospital being replaced with the glistening walls of her castle. Walking through the halls Celestia made her way back towards her office. Opening the door she briskly made her way back behind her ornate desk that had several new documents put atop it, with a sealed letter sitting at the forefront of the pile. Examining the letter, her attention was drawn to the seal that held the letter closed from prying eyes.

This was a seal made of crystal and its insignia was that of the Crystal Empire. Removing the seal and opening the letter Celestia read through its contents.

Auntie Celestia

I am writing you this letter for two very important reasons. Firstly to inform you that Shining Armor and I are on our way to Canterlot so that you won’t be surprised by our visit. I am sure it was not their intention to surprise you but anyway this leads to the second reason. Twilight has asked me to basically come and try to resolve the situation regarding Jolyne. And although she didn’t outright say it, we were able to pretty easily read in between the lines and figure out she wanted us to be on her side. We suspect there is much more to this however and that is why I have sent this letter. My husband and I will instead be a neutral third party in this case when it comes to what happens next. Also to prevent any more unnecessary stress upon you we will be staying at Shinings parents. I am sure Velvet will be over the moon and sun to have the whole family over after… y’know... that. We could see that… thing… from one of the balconies at the crystal palace! So uhh please, if what Twilight told me was true and that was Jolyne because of something you did, don’t do that again...Please. I doubt our hearts can take another one. Anyway, looking forward to seeing you again, Auntie! Regardless of current circumstances!

Love Cadence <3

Ps: Shining also says hi.

And with the letter read and its message received the day would continue. Hours would pass as work would be done throughout the palace. But as the afternoon turned to evening a child stirred in the hospital below. An ear twitched, a wing ruffled and a finger curled. The veil of unconsciousness began to recede. And now, with the beginnings of muffled speaking being slowly picked up by their ears, a familiar voice will take its place in the spotlight once again.

So to say I woke up with a massive headache would be the understatement of the millennium.

Author's Note

Jolyne got her own Theme song now :trollestia:

18-Stoking the Flames

18-Stoking the Flames

My headache was bad. Not a migraine, bad. But a full-on ‘It feels like I am having every tooth pulled all at once over and over again all over my face’. So the first thing I did was groan painfully in protest of my awakening. I cannot properly describe it in words, it was just that bad of a pain to experience for little ol me.

And that was just my head. All across my body nerves were screaming in protest. My arms? Yikes. My wings? Yikes. And my back? Sweet lord please just knock me out again. So yeah one didn’t need to be a genius to figure out I was in bad shape. I couldn't bear opening my eyes yet but I definitely noticed some words being spoken around me. What was it? Who knows! I certainly didn't nor did I care at that point until one word managed to break through the wall of pain blinding my senses.

“… Pain suppressors…”

That sweet sweet word signaled the end of the painstorm I was currently in. It was a very weird experience that's for sure. One second I am audibly groaning my displeasure and the next it's gone. Well, you know what they say ‘Magic is one hell of a drug’.

So with the overwhelming pain out of the way, another problem took its place. I felt terrible. With the pain out of the way I tried to open my eyes and it felt as if my eyelids were made out of pure steel. I put every bit of my already heavily diminished strength into slowly opening them. It took an obscene amount of effort to open them but I managed it… eventually.

What greeted me was the familiar sight of a hospital room and honestly, at that point, it was getting sad to see the inside of a hospital. This was supposed to be the land of friendship! And so far all it has done is lock away my magic, take away my ability to walk, and send me to a goddamned hospital at every opportunity! I’ve been known to have an explosive temper all my life and if I weren't feeling like I hadn’t slept in over a month you can bet your wings that I would have gone supernova right then and there.

Probably quite literally now that I think about it…

Anyway, I faintly saw some movement in the corner of my eyes and weakly turned my head to the side. Just to my right, I could see the tell-tale white coat of the doctor doing… something on… whatever machines were next to my bed. Look at that point I was just happy to see anything, everything looked so blurry it was almost impossible to deduce anything further away than the doctor.

And believe me, I tried and all I was able to see other than the doctor was some sort of purple blob in the corner of the room. I tried to move my head around more to get a better look at my surroundings, my fatigue and weakness were slowly receding but it still took an ungodly amount of effort to move my head. Then I heard what I assume to be the doctor speaking to me in a low and comforting voice.

“Easy there Jolyne. Take it slow. Your body is still suffering from severe mana starvation. Get some more rest when you wake up you’ll be feeling much, much better.”

And like that, I was out again. Only this time my mind went into the blissful arms of REM sleep. Much better than straight unconsciousness let me tell you that. At least I can somewhat *feel* the passage of time while asleep. However, being unconscious feels like you just blinked and suddenly felt like crap when waking up.

And then, eventually, you pick up on just when you're gonna be interrupted. But that's for the end of a dream we are just getting started with mine! So when my physical eyes closed once again and my mental ones opened in their stead I was met back with the inside of my bedroom.

A familiar and… comforting sight compared to what was behind the veil of dreams. So what is the first thing an angry, sad, and annoyed 11 year old would do when they're in a situation that just gets worse and worse with every passing hour whilst also being thrown into a world and body so alien it's impossible to explain?

I jumped onto the metaphorical bed, jammed my head into the pillow, and screamed as loud as I could. I screamed and screamed as tears poured into my imaginary pillow. Just why why why why why WHY did this happen to me! What could the universe want with me! I was just a normal, if somewhat nerdy, college student in the middle of nowhere!

I had a, again somewhat, normal family! I had a kooky mother and a loving, if strict, father. A little sister who I would move the heavens and earth for. I had my whole life ahead of me! And now I was barely alive for the second time in less than a week! It’s just-…

…

Sorry I…I’m getting all emotional now thinking back on everything I went through back then.

…

No no, it's fine I can keep going. So yeah I wasn’t in good shape mentally or physically. So what curveball did the universe decide to throw my way at my lowest?

“There, there, Jolyne, everything is going to be alright.” Came the voice of *her* as I felt a hand being placed on my shoulder. The imaginary mattress sagging as another weight pressed down on it.

I froze, I just couldn’t get a break, could I?

“Alright?” I asked, my voice small and cracking.”How can any of this be alright?” I shook her hand off my shoulder. “You ponies have done nothing but cause me pain at every available opportunity. The only people that have not instantly hated me are Spike, Sky, and Brightburn!” I picked my head up and looked Luna dead in the eyes as a fire burned behind mine. “And the last two are guards probably sent by you to watch me! They are supposed to be suspicious but have been better to me than any of you! Now get out of my head and leave me alone!”

“Jolyne, I-”

“OUT! GET OUT AND LEAVE ME ALONE!” Luna flinched back at my outburst as an orange glow began to make itself known in the corner of my eyes. She took the hint and with a dark blue glow disappeared from my dream. The Magic made her expression unreadable.

I was then left there finally alone in my mind once again. Thank my mother for my temper or otherwise, I probably would have had another panic attack overtake me. The glow was still there though so naturally curious I turned around and was met with fire. My pillow was burning, the wall was burning. My hair... well, it was back to ‘normal’ aka burning. The same went for my tail as it set my bed below ablaze. It didn't faze me though. This was my dream. It wasn't a real fire, it was a glorified radiator for my room.

I also couldn’t care less about some imaginary fire right now. I was just… done is the best way to put it. But I couldn't lounge around on that burning bed for the whole dream. I stood up from the bed and walked over to my desk, turned my PC on, and sat down with a sigh. When it booted up a text document reopened itself of my old plan before the whole debacle leading me back into a hospital. I needed a new plan so I went about editing it.

~~Continuous Objective: AVOID LUNA AT ALL COSTS!~~

Impossible she won’t leave me alone.

~~Step 1: Heal~~

Nope try again later

~~Step 2: Walk out of this hospital~~

God I hope, but this is a probable nope

~~Step 3: Show I am not evil so play nice.~~

I think they’d have already dealt with me if they thought I was daybreak by now. So success!

~~Step 4: Get help from Celestia in getting me home (Avoid Luna at all possible!)~~

SUCCESS!

~~Step 5: Go home hopefully.~~

Working on it

(In the very unlikely event I cannot go home____________________________)

(I don't want to answer this)

Well, all was not lost thankfully. Even after that debacle with Luna, I could feel a small smile now on my face. I still had my hope. Soon Celestia would find me a way back home. All I had to do was survive until then. You would think it to be easy. But with my luck… Well, my current circumstances says it all.

Anyway, having my hope rekindled was nice now if only Luna would leave me alone. Now, however, it was time to make another plan of action. And so I got to typing once again as I began to feel myself begin to reach the end of my dream.

Step 1 Heal (For real this time)

Step 2 Find out what the hell happened to me and how to prevent it

Step 3 Wait for Celestia to get me home

Continuous Objective: Survive.

…

Yeah, I was screwed.

Author's Note

We do a writing that didn't take several months because Jolyne's perspective is best perspective.

Expect more chapters hopefully every week now that I got mojojojo back.

This chapter was brought to you by Tom cardy and his ability to make me jam so hard I'm a sandwich

Also! Join the Discord https://discord.gg/ZNHwT5p3az We have memes galore and... well memes. Join the realm of the sun and bathe in the Empress's light!

19-Examining the Flames

19-Examining the Flames

Waking up for the second time now I felt instantly much much better than the first time round. There was no pain, there was no earth-shattering headache threatening to make my head explode. Well… there was a little headache but it was nowhere near as bad as before.

Opening my eyes was easier and just overall I felt better. I could feel some sort of weird energy flowing into me as well as the low hum of magic that permeated the room. It didn‘t take much to put 1 and 1 together to realize that the magic being used was probably what was making me feel better.

So of course I was curious what type of magical drug they were shooting me up with. Turning my head slowly to the side I saw that white doctor's coat again. When I checked the other side however and found the smiling face of Celestia looking down at me. I also found a weak smile growing on my face. Her horn was glowing golden as some sort of magical tendril connected it to a machine with a large gem next to me.

"Hi…” My voice was hoarse and weak causing my face to scrunch up. "Do I look as bad as I sound?” I barely managed to get out with a smirk. I may have been in real bad shape but if there was a way to lighten the mood I would always take it. Helps keep your spirits up when all seems lost. Got that from my sister actually. Anyway, Celestia did smile slightly wider at probably seeming me awake again after well… that. Plus the last time she did see me I’m pretty sure I was dying and going boom.

"It's good to see you awake once again, Jolyne.”

Being the curious little fire child I was, I found my slitted eyes drawn to her horn and the magic that was emanating from it.

"What… are you doing?” I asked slightly stronger that time.

"There is no need to worry Jolyne. Your Mother here is just donating her magic to help you heal from your mana exhaustion. And I must say that was quite a surge you had there. Certainly the worst I‘ve ever seen.”

He must have seen my face take on a worried expression as he quickly added.

"There is no need to worry. This sort of thing happens all the time you’re not the first and not the last that will end up here for the same reason." he finished that reassurance with a smile as he saw me begin to relax once more. Seriously, me and my child brain back then and its inability to properly handle emotions. I know I‘d been told worse than that before back home and handled it just fine.

It also took several seconds more for me to process information. Like the fact, he had just referred to Celestia as my ‘Mother’. I did what could be called the world's slowest double-take, as my muscles screamed in protest at any faster than a snail's pace.

Celestia seemed to have noticed this comically slow reaction and giggled very slightly before speaking.

"Don‘t look that surprised, Jolyne."

She was right, I really shouldn‘t have been. In fact, how hadn‘t I have seen it sooner?! It was so obvious in hindsight. I mean c'mon I am The Daybreaker! The literal Nightmare Moon of Celestia.

I was going to speak but after Celestia‘s words and the dots being connected in my mind I just clicked my tongue and closed my eyes.

"Yep… Seeing it now." I finish in exasperation. Before looking back at the doctor to ask him my most pressing question. "So… exactly how bad am I now, doc?"

He cringed at my question, glancing at nodding Celestia, he answered albeit hesitantly. I could understand him, nobody wants to tell a child just exactly how bad they are hurt. And you know even if I was still an adult just in a child's body and was perfectly capable of taking such bad news. Again I looked like an 11-year-old then. A really weak and injured 11-year-old Alicorn… who also couldn‘t walk… or use magic… or fly. I just looked incredibly goddam sad and someone you definitely wouldn't want to tell bad news to.

But with the approval of Celestia, he told me exactly how bad of a shape I was in, and yeah I can understand now why he wouldn‘t want to tell me. Y‘know sans the aforementioned reasons. My horn was cracked and, at the time, was still not fully healed meaning that if the spell surrounding it would fail I would most certainly die. Great! Just flipping great. Then there were the other things such as small fractures along my wings meaning I wouldn't be flying until they healed. My spine… well it was healing its damage but that surge set it back to square negative one meaning it would take even longer to heal than before. Finally, sprinkle in some very low mana reserves to just weaken every bodily function until it's restored, and you‘ve got yourself one weak, injured, scared, and depressed 11-year-old Alicorn.

Great.

Well, at least to lighten the mood I was told that the steps my ‘Mother’ had taken were helping speed up my recovery from sometime next century to an actually manageable timeframe. The doctor did crack a nice joke that the scars on my horn would look badass to lighten the mood. It did help as I chuckled after hearing that.

Plus, I mean, they do look pretty cool, dontcha think? Well yes… your readers won't be able to see it but they can imagine it. I wonder if it‘ll become a fashion trend… ehhh probably not. But that wouldn‘t be surprising if it did considering how princesses are like the ultimate role models. But seriously, any kids reading this don‘t look up to me. I hold no power whatsoever and that ‘princess’ title I have in front of my name is about as useful as a wet paper towel. It's purely there out of necessity as apparently, all alicorns must hold a royal title. I am not someone who deserves to be a princess nor someone to look up to. My sister reserves that right, however.

You bet I voiced my displeasure quite loudly to Celestia about that, but she said it was out of her metaphorical hooves as it's an ancient law from when the sisters first took power and that it could not be repealed.

Anyhoo I believe I‘m getting off track, let's get back to your regularly scheduled trainwreck in slow-motion. So after getting told exactly how bad my injuries were, we all stood, well lay for me, in relative silence as the doctor got back to work, Celestia concentrated back on the gem she was magicking, her gaze avoided making eye contact with me.

This went on for another 10 minutes before the doctor spoke up once again.

"Alright that should do Princess, you can stop channeling now.” Celestia did as he asked whilst the doctor scribbled something down on the chart he held. "Good. Now I will be back later to check up on how you're doing alright?" He smiled and I nodded in confirmation. He then made his way to the door, leaving me alone with Celestia.

"So" I began my voice beginning to sound normal again as my strength began to return. "How long was I out exactly?"

"Too long I‘m afraid." Began Celestia with a sigh as my eyes widened slightly. *Dear God, don't tell me it's been several years!* was the manic thought that went through my head in the moments between Celestia‘s answer. "Over a week has passed since your surge. And a day since you first reawakened."

"Oh thank god," I say out loud in relief, confusing the solar Alicorn.

"Am I missing something?"

"No, I just thought you would say I had been out for months or maybe even years! Oh, thank christ it was just a week."

"Ah, my apologies for scaring you. But yes a week has passed since we last spoke." Suddenly Celestia‘s horn lit up for a second before dimming once again. "Ah, I am afraid something has come up and that I must take my leave for now." She moved to stand up but before she could fully leave my reach a gently grabbed her hand and asked.

"Before you leave, can you tell me how the search on finding me a way home is going?"

Celestia hesitated for a moment before responding. "The search is progressing, although quite slowly. Rest assured Jolyne, progress is being made."

"Oh…Alright!" Hey, some progress was better than no progress! Plus making sure my little flame of hope was well fueled does wonders on one's mental health. So with a warm smile on my face, I released my weak grip from her hand and let my arm fall back to the bed.

Celestia‘s trademark motherly smile returned to her face. "I will be back again tomorrow but until then I believe there are some other ponies that wish to see you today." Her smile did falter ever so slightly by the end of her answer but before I could ask about that she was already gone leaving me alone in the hospital room.

The loneliness did not last for long however as the doctor from before re-entered the room, a nurse in tow as well as several other things on a chart they had brought with them.

What followed would be an extremely uncomfortable and confusing examination as they checked, reapplied, and added several bandages as well as tested reflexes I didn‘t know I had. The checking of my wings was especially bad as they removed the bandages covering them and checked what felt like every single goddamn feather for problems, it hurt.

I know they were probably making sure that those fractures were healing correctly and that there was no permanent damage to the wings’ structure but, Jesus Christ, it was not comfortable and incredibly confusing. The wing maintenance part doubly so. Having broken feathers removed whilst my wing felt like a small breeze could rip them off was not very calming. No matter how much dopamine the nerves sent to my brain after each damaged feather was removed. It was like eating your favorite sweet whilst you were balancing off the side of a cliff.

You want to feel good because you're enjoying your sweets but every time you take a bite you risk losing your balance. It was also quite embarrassing when they asked me to try and spread my wings for them only for it to barely make it to the halfway point, shaking from exertion the whole time. They said it was nothing to worry about and that it was actually pretty good that I was able to make it that far with the damage my wings had sustained. It did help elevate my mood from the previous pokes and prods.

Overall they gave me one complete look over from head to hoof. By the end, they still said I had a long recovery period in front of me but that nothing was healing wrong and that the mana my ‘Mother’ had given me was a huge help when it came to my general condition.

Then after the second most embarrassing bathroom visit of all time, I looked almost as good as new. Just ignore all of the bandages and the golden glow around my horn. The nurse was extremely nice to me with her saying she was jealous of my mane and tail since they seemed to glow a warming orange. But seriously no matter what situation I was in it was getting annoying constantly having to be taken care of. Yes, I was in a hospital and should give them a pass but still! My pride as a former self-sufficient college student hated being treated as a helpless child. Even if that's exactly what I was.

But when all was set and done and I found myself back in bed as the doctor noted everything down and the nurse cleaned up. I also realized I had nothing to do and that I was feeling extremely hungry after this whole ordeal. My stomach in response growled loudly alerting my two visitors/caretakers/doctors to my plight. The nurse giggled as my cheeks went beet red once again before the doctor spoke with a small chuckle.

"I can imagine you're quite hungry after this whole ordeal. I‘ll make sure that somepony comes and brings you something to eat." He then made his way to the exit as the nurse finished returning everything to the cart they had brought in. Before they left however I had realized something. I would have nothing to do when I was alone. There were no books, no magazines in arms reach as well as no Tv in the corner of the room.

"Um, nurse?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Can you maybe bring me something to read to pass the time?"

"Of course, but you should check the drawer first. Your dragon friend always leaves with less than he enters with each time he visits you.“

My curiosity ignited. I checked the drawer on the stand next to me and found it full of comics; the comics I knew Spike loved so much as I recognized it as the same he had shown and explained to me, with great enthusiasm and love might I add, before my first… encounter… with Luna. In other words, Spike had left his favorite comics here.

This meant two things. First off it meant he had been visiting me regularly enough to be noticed by the nurse which was naturally a really sweet thing for him to do. Secondly, it leads to one of two possible reasons for his leaving of his favorite comic issues here. Either A: He simply forgot them whenever he visited me which didn‘t make any sense. Or B: He had left them here on purpose for me to read when I woke up. B did hold more water so to say as I know I saw some sort of purple figure in the room when I first woke up.

But that leads to another thing. The nurse implied that he had visited me multiple times before. Had Spike been reading these to me whilst I was unconscious? That was the question that came to my mind. I had no way to be sure at the time but if he did read those comics to me when I was out. Well… the sweetness of the action in my mind would make pinkie pie go into shock from that much sugar.

So with something to read to pass the time with thanks to Spike, lunch or at least what I think was lunch for me… could have been breakfast as I had no idea what time it was, arrived quickly in the form of a sandwich and salad with a side of hospital brand Jell-O. Seriously people say the only two universal constants in life are death and taxes but you should add hospital Jell-O to that list as well. I swear it looked and tasted identical to the last time I had it with my sister.

The nurse also came back with another book for me to read. It was, naturally, a children’s or well a foals book about myths and legends. I didn’t pay much attention to it since how much information could a children's book give me. I just skimmed it when I needed a break from reading comics. The illustrations were good but if they are consumed too fast and in too high a quantity, one needs to give your brain a break from so much processing.

I was just in the middle of that post-reading binge daze, just staring at the window with scenes being replayed in my head. Feeling my eyes began to droop when I heard the door opening. I could hear two sets of hoofsteps making their way towards me.

A distinct pink and white couple soon came into view, one of them looking at me with slight worry and the other in what could only be described as a maternal concern after she laid her eyes upon me. The Couple of Love, the rulers of the Crystal Empire, my favorite relationship in the entire show had just walked into my room. Cadence’s face began to soften as she slowly made her way next to my bed, her husband sticking to her side warily watching me. Then she spoke in the softest voice I had ever heard.

“Hello. My name’s Cadence, what’s yours?”

Author's Note

Also best pony pair time!

20-An unintended Leak

20- An unintended Leak

I was left speechless, literally. I could not form any coherent sentences. Cadence and Shining were here! The ponies I had metaphorically and ironically ‘fallen in love with’ at the first sight. I don’t know why or how but every moment that contained either one of them always had me captivated. It confused me and everyone of my fellow bronies why I liked these two so much. But hey, I guess I was just ‘built different’ compared to them.

Anyway with my brain still in a daze from the earlier binge reading and then seeing these two before me my brain basically blue-screened and had to completely reboot. This did not go unnoticed by the pair as they glanced at each other nervously whilst I lay there with wide eyes, my slitted eyes flicking between the two every few seconds.

"Uhh, Cadie? I think you broke her.” Began Shining Armor breaking the silence that had fallen upon the hospital room.

His comment broke me out of my fatal systems error as I shook my head slightly to remove the last of my daze.

"Uhhh, nope I’m...uhh fine. Just was not expecting visitors. Least of all you two to walk through the door. Name’s Jolyne by the way.” I say, nervousness prevalent in my voice. Cadence giggled at my answer.

"Yes, having a pretty pink princess walk through your door tends to have that effect.” She said with a small laugh, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yes… Pink…" I answered without realizing it as I looked at the very pink princess sitting next to me. She was Incredibly pink. Comically so. With her pink and golden mane. A pink flowing dress with golden accents similar to the white one Celestia wore. Even her eyes were pink. You don‘t tend to notice these things when you watch it on the show. But lying there and seeing this comically pink anthro version of your favorite character really makes you notice.

"Oh don‘t look at me like that. Pink is my favorite color and I own up to it, little Jolie. Nopony can pull it off as I can. Ain‘t that right shiny?" She exclaims in a mock pout looking towards her husband. He in turn chuckled and shook his head in response.

"Of course honey. Nopony in all of Equestria can pull off that color as well as you can." He answers in mock exacerbation

"Darn right, nopony can!" Answered the pretty pink princess with so much mock force and determination that I couldn‘t help but laugh along slightly with Shining Armor at his wife’s antics. Cadence joined in shortly afterward after several seconds of holding her determination. Once our laughter had died down I began speaking.

"Oh wow… I needed that laugh. Thank you. Now, what can I help you two with? It’s not everyday you get two new royal visitors. What can little Jolyne help you with?"

The two of them briefly glanced at one another before Cadence answered.

"Well, we… Just wanted to meet you for ourselves. Meet our newest cousin and see how they're doing in this, no doubt, drab hospital. How are you doing by the way? Those bandages do not look comfortable."

"Oh trust me, they aren't. But otherwise, I‘m doing… fine I guess. Hurts a lot less than before that’s for sure. Being stuck in this bed though is getting tiring… Especially being nothing but a burden on everyone around me."

"Oh, sweety." She moved to hold my hand, I didn't stop her. "You’re not a burden"

"No, I am. I have been nothing but trouble." I move to look her in the eyes, a fire burning behind them. "And I hate that. I am a grown woman for Christ's sake. Yet here I am" I say gesturing towards the room we were in. "Stuck in a hospital because some stupid vine caused me to fall and damage that stupid ring and have, what I have been told was, one hell of a magical surge. Not to mention what… She… did to me at first sight. Hell, now that I think about it, only Spike, Celestia, and the two of you were the only ones not to instantly attack me on sight. Well… The guards as well but I think that's thanks to Celestia.

"So yes, unfortunately, Cadence, I have been nothing but a massive pain for everyone involved. And I personally cannot wait for Celestia to get me back home so I can get out of your hair Permanently. Hopefully, after my legs are back in working order."

"W-well that was…interesting to hear Jolyne."

"Look. I have nothing against you two it’s just… this whole situation is starting to get to me y‘know? A girl's patience can only last so long. Plus I doubt this body is doing me any favors in that regard."

"I think this whole situation is getting to all of us, Jolyne, " She said, glancing slightly at Shining before resuming eye contact with me. "Some just more than others. Just hold on Jolyne, everything will work out we‘ll make sure of it. It's why we‘re here after all."

That brought up another question. "Why are you here anyway? In Canterlot I mean. Surely you’re needed in the Empire more than here right?”

"W-well after what we saw we needed to see how we could help in any way we could.”

"Wow, the vines were really that bad?”

"Vines? Oh yes, the Plundervines! They really did a number on Equestria didn’t they Shiny?”

"Yeah, they did. The Sun and the Moon were in the sky at the same time if you can believe that. If something like that could happen we needed to see how we could help Equestria recover.”

"Oh wow… well don’t waste your time here go and help Equestria they need you way more than I need the company.”

"Thank you for the encouragement Jolyne but… are you sure you want us to leave? We can stay if you want.”

"Nah I’ll be fine. Brain is still a little fuzzy from my *ahem* binge reading so time will fly by no problem.” I say with a smile. This certainly surprised Cadence but she smiled soon afterward. I also just really want to have a happy dance that I got to meet you two I added mentally.

"Alright then.” She stood up and walked over to her husband who’s gaze had… changed? It was hard to tell but something was different about it but I just couldn't put my finger on it before it changed again. He smiled along with his wife, gave me a small nod, and left as Cadence followed shortly behind him after giving me a small wave.

I, naturally, waved and smiled back before they went out of sight and I followed their hoofsteps out the room. I heard the door open and…didn’t hear it close. The click wasn’t there. I was just about to speak up and tell them that I prefer my doors to be closed when I dance in excitement but…

"*Sigh* She doesn't know” I overheard through the slightly ajar door, my interest peaked. What didn’t I know? Well, a little eavesdropping wouldn't hurt, right?

"This makes our job harder. Heh as if it wasn't already complicated enough.”

The hell? Am… I the reason they came to Canterlot?

"What did you think of her shiny?”

"I… don’t really know to be honest. I expected to see a monster in sheep's clothing lying there, not a kid covered in bandages.”

"Shining!”

"What?! You can’t blame me for thinking that! She dropped the Sun on Equestria! A desert melted Cadie, melted! I have every right to be worried for the safety of the love of my life.”

…I did what?

"And now… I’m not sure what to think. She just seems…lost and could be a danger to us all.”

"Shining… I’m dangerous, you're dangerous, we are all dangerous… Do you know what I saw back in there? I saw a filly who’s caught up in a situation she has no control over. A filly whose only experience here has brought her nothing but pain and suffering. A filly who needs our help.”

"You didn't let me finish. After seeing her though, in the flesh and hearing her side of the story… I need to think this over Ca-"

That was the last thing I could make out as they got out of earshot leaving me to stare at the position of the door, ruminating on what I had overheard. To ruminate on what Shining had said.

I melted a desert?

I glanced up at the horn on my head nervously, its surface still contained behind the golden glow of Celestia’s containment spell.

I dropped the Sun on Equestria?

It didn't take a genius to figure out what he meant… to imagine what he had seen. After all, we Humans did the same almost 90 years ago now from my perspective.

I saw the orange glow of my Magic swirling underneath the crack on my horn. Its energies are seemingly barely contained inside the bony structure of my horn. Because of course, this situation couldn’t get any worse. I just had to have the equivalent of a nuclear warhead strapped on my forehead. And it had detonated… because of those vines… because I had hit my head. And now… now…

The last thing that went through my mind as I heard my heart-rate monitor skyrocket and my breathing became short and panicked as blackness crept around the corners of my vision was a saying.

I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds

I passed out, my mind filled with horrifying images of what I had done.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay but I just started the Q-Phase in School and Because my school is just so good we were writing exams within the first 3 weeks of the semester. I had to focus on that unfortunatly. HOWEVER This Thursday I write my last exam (English Ironically) before the 2 week holidays. Allowing for a m p l e writing time

And with this next chapter going to be a very important one. Ill will give you a chapter worthy of its importance.
It's gonna be long.
It's gonna be good.

And I will not disappoint you.

21-A Mysterious Ignition

Silence, light, heat, nothing.

First would come the Silence. The calm before the storm. The deafening moment when the world sits still as the reaction commences.

Then comes the light. Its brightness is thousands of times greater than the Sun, instantly blinding anything looking right at it.

Heat follows suit. Ground Zero of the detonation becomes the hottest place in the universe as an insurmountable amount of energy is released.

Then nothing as everything is destroyed in its ensuing shockwave.

Silence, light, heat, nothing.

Silence: I’m sitting at my desk, staring out the window behind my monitor, the ambient sounds of the outside world gone.

Light: I cover my eyes, my retinas screaming in pain as the window behind my Monitor becomes pure white.

Heat: My skin burns and my monitor melts as everything illuminated spontaneously combusts. My fur is catching fire as the carpet below me melts.

Nothing: The pain disappears as the nerve endings burn off before the void consumes the world as the shockwave hits, turning everything to dust.

Silence, light, heat, death.

Silence, light, heat…enough.

I awoke with a gasp, my body shooting upright as I fought to catch my breath. My heart was racing, my breathing panicked and my mane was whipping around my head as flames danced across its stands. My eyes were open but I couldn't see anything, my hair was burning and I couldn't feel anything. My lungs were moving but I couldn’t breathe.

Panic gripped my very soul as one single thought dominated my mind.

‘I have to get out of here!’

The heart rate monitor was beeping rapidly as I struggled to remove all of the wires connected up to me. I eventually succeeded as I could faintly hear some sort of commotion going on to my right but I didn’t care. I needed to get out of there. I needed to get home right now.

With myself no longer connected I moved to stand myself up from the bed only to find myself falling back down to the floor when my legs refused to obey my commands. I quickly tried to grab the nearby swivel chair to break my fall but all it served to do was bring the chair tumbling down to the floor with me.

I heard the door suddenly burst open as several sets of hoofsteps entered the room. Words were being said but I wasn’t listening. I crawled along the floor until I found myself balled up in the nearest corner, my legs pulled as close to my body as possible.

My wings unconsciously fought against their bandage bindings as they tried to move to cover me behind them like a protective shield. My wings won out in the end, the bandages holding them in place gave way, allowing myself to hide behind them as they covered my small form. A feathery shield to prevent anyone from coming close to me. My breathing was still panicked and rapid and I could still hear voices from behind my white feathers.

It was still nothing but gibberish to my panic and fear-stricken mind. The only thing I was able to discern was their tone. It was one of worry and concern. The source of the voice began to get closer, its tone morphing into reassuring. But the closer they got, the more distress my mind forced upon me.

A light orange glow began to make itself known within my feathers safe-space. The intensity only grew the closer I felt the voice come. They must have noticed it too as an undertone of fear crept into their voice as it ceased its approach. The orange glow ceased in its growth with the voice.

“Please… stay away from me,” I say with silent sobs as more images of nuclear fire make themselves known in my mind's eye. Each of them is worse than the last as more sobs tear through me as I found myself constantly muttering ‚no‘, ‚I'm so sorry‘ and, ‘I just want to go home’ to myself.

On and on I sobbed and cried in that corner as anything that tried to approach me retreated once that orange glow returned. I can't imagine what it looked like from their perspective. A terrified little Alicorn, sobbing in the corner, hiding behind injured wings and fiery tail, telling everyone to stay away from her through tears. And every time they tried to approach and console her, the silent threat of a glowing and cracked horn urged them to reconsider their approach lest they cause more harm than good.

They must have been terribly confused as to why I had suddenly snapped and decided that I wanted them to stay away. But what I do know is that they did eventually stop trying to approach me but not before trying everything they could to coax me out of my corner. I, however, wasn‘t listening to anything they offered me as I just kept to my quiet muttering and silent sobbing into my broken legs, behind my injured wings.

I don‘t know how long I stayed there. It could have been minutes or several hours as my non-panicking part of my brain focused on trying to calm me down and get back to some semblance of a rational mind.

Nuclear fire proved too much. How can one be calm as a living WMD? How does a child The come back from learning they could kill thousands in the blink of an eye with something they have no control over?

Short answer… You don’t.

So I cried and cried, begged and pleaded to any higher power who was listening to *please take me home*

I sobbed until no more tears would flow and cried till my voice was gone. Until the only sound that emanated from the little Alicorn in the corner were deep and shaky breaths. The only emotion that dominated my mind was one of exhaustion. My body was tired, my slitted eyes were bloodshot from all the crying. My nose was blocked and running. My fur under my eyes, across my arms, and the tops of my unfeeling knees were matted and damp from my tears.

Then I felt something or well… someone standing before me. How I still don‘t exactly know but they appeared out of nowhere and it was like nothing I had felt since I first arrived here. Its presence was warm and its aura was one that promised safety. It… it looked strange but it finally made me believe that everything was going to be alright.

Their words were still muffled along with the rest of them but whoever it was, was *not* happy. I slowly and carefully reached one of my hands out to my feathery walls of safety and pried my feathers apart.

Only to be met by a second pair of white feathers looking back at me, their tips a light orange compared to my pure white ones. And to say they were ruffled would be an understatement. My eyes began to wander skywards to find out whose thoroughly ruffled feathers belonged to.

Their fur was the same color as mine and their mane and tail burned in a never-ending flame-like mine was supposed to. Their face was hidden behind the flames, but with the amount it was whipping around, I could guess what their expression was. Finally, I turned my gaze lower to peek underneath my mysterious protector's feathers.

I could see the royal sisters behind some sort of orange shade. In fact, everywhere I looked I could see an orange bubble of some kind surrounding me and the mare. Celestia and Luna‘s horns were glowing and cracks were starting to form around the bubble and they also did not look happy in the slightest.

What the hell did I miss? And just who was this mare and why did I feel so safe behind them like I was. The mare let out a big sigh before she turned around and crouched down in front of me. Naturally, I was startled by her sudden movement and with a small squeak, I pulled myself back into my ball.

Then I felt the mare suddenly and unexpectedly hug me… Well not me, me but my wings. I could feel her wrapping herself around me, their own wings and all as I heard an impossible voice I thought I would never hear again, as the world suddenly exploded in orange light.

“Don‘t worry anymore my little Sunspot, you're safe now.”

Author's Note

Gonna be using this new Chapter title art in all upcoming and previous chapters as it looks really goddamed good.

That's all really. Expect Updates to speed up dramatically and maybe even reach Noble Pace as we move away from the Curse of Canon Characters. Seriously I can't write them for shit.

ALSO, Thank the man named Xblaster for giving me the biggest fucking eureka moment and allowing this update to happen and all subsequent updates by getting my brain to think about fire child once again. Give this man a round of applause for being the best "Motivator" an idiot like me could ask for.

Finally thank you for being patient. SO now let's got on with the story shall we?

22-A Familial Burn

The world returned to normal as the orange light dissipated leaving me to blink the stars out of my eyes. My wings were still surrounding me and I could feel the impossibly familiar mare holding onto them tightly. A Light panting filled the otherwise silent air. Whatever they had done had most likely taken a lot of energy for what was clearly another Alicorn to be exhausted.

After a moment or two, the panting ceased and I could feel the mare shuffling as I felt them run their fingers along my wings.

"It’s alright my little Sunspot." Spoke the mare once again in a voice that should have been impossible for me to hear. "I won’t let them hurt you anymore." Its tone was loving, protective…motherly.

*It can’t be…*

Her fingers had found where my wings met and gently, ever so gently moved them aside. Her touch was so light as if she were afraid any more power would shatter my feathers. I didn’t fight it as my mind still tried to catch up to what my senses were telling me.

Then as my wings fell to the ground, their muscles slack. I saw her face and my heart stopped. This was Daybreaker, the Alter-ego of Celestia, the power-hungry Empress, the wrath of the Sun personified…

I should have been terrified, but looking into those damp and slitted eyes I could only see familiarity. That look of love… it's one I had seen before. It's the one I would see when I came home limping, one I would see when I showed off my nonsense ‘art’ when I was young.

*It’s…impossible…it can’t be*

"M…mom?"

She smiled as the tears in her eyes began to flow freely as I was suddenly glomped in a hug I thought I would never feel again.

"Oh Jolyne, my Sunspot… I’m so, so sorry… This was never supposed to happen."

I froze stock still as my brain tried to catch up to this revelation. My brain, now on autopilot, unconsciously returned the motherly hug.

This was impossible, it simply couldn’t happen. Yet she called me her little Sunspot, the same name I had been referred to as so, so many times during my childhood. It must be a coincidence! Because otherwise, how the hell did my Mother get here, and why did she only show up now!?

With newfound control over my limbs, I managed to free myself from her ironclad yet light as a feather grip and brought the somewhat teary-eyed and confused alter-ego of Celestia to an arms-length in front of me. I needed to be sure that this mare in front of me was MY mother, and it was not a case of mistaken Identity… with some incredible similarities to my human life.

"Jolyne… is there something wrong?" Asked Daybreaker as she brought up a hand to wipe some accumulated tears away

"Where was I born?"

"Jolyne? Why would you ask m-"

"Just…answer the Question please."

"Room 105 of the Aurora Medical Center in Milwaukee."

And once again my heart stopped. I swear I was going to need a defibrillator soon if that kept happening. My face began to morph into a smile and tears of happiness began to well up in my eyes.

"I-It’s actually you…"

My face was shortly full of alabaster white fur as I buried my face into my Mothers neck. Many questions were running through my mind but they could be answered later. Right now I just wanted to hug my Mother once again. I held onto her for dear life, as if any second I would just suddenly wake up and find myself back in that hospital.

"Yes, it’s me. Everything is going to be okay now Jolyne. I won’t let them hurt you anymore."

I don’t know how long I was lying there in my Mothers arms, her wings were wrapped around me and her hand was idly running through my hair until I slowly began to calm down. Many words of comfort were whispered into my ear and eventually my tears stopped flowing and I pulled myself away from her, now wet, shoulder.

She brought her hand up to wipe my tears away. "All better now?"

With a sniff, I nodded and turned my head to see where we now found ourselves. It appeared to be some sort of cave with dark, almost black, walls bathed in orange light. I looked to my left and found the cave's mouth and the source of the light.

The sun was sitting on the Horizon, its light flying over the green treetops I could just barely glimpse.

"Where are we?" I asked as I continued to scan our surroundings.

"Somewhere in Griffonstone… I think the borders might have changed since I left so I might be wrong. But that doesn't matter now." She gave me a small kiss on the forehead before suddenly frowning as her slitted eyes met my cracked and golden-glowing horn before roaming towards the failing bandages around my body. "How are you feeling Jolyne?"

I winced slightly when her hand brushed against the base of my wings. It was all the answer she needed before her horn lit up and I felt my limp wings be gently lifted up from the ground and pressed against my back. The same orange glow began to envelop my horn as the golden glow of Celestia’s magic was slowly replaced with an orange one.

"That's better now isn’t it?"

I nodded as I suddenly found myself being lifted up off the ground and into my Mothers arms. It really did feel better as the dull pain I had learned to ignore vanished into thin air.

"Where are we going?" I asked curiously as I was carried outside the cave. Looking down the steep hill before us, I could see trees and wilderness all around for miles on end. I felt my Mothers wings unfold.

"I know somewhere we can stay nearby. There I can answer the undoubtedly endless questions you have for me…it's time for you to know the secret I had so long hoped would never see the light of day."

"Well that's…ominous" I respond quietly

"You do not need to worry my Sunspot, you already know most of it, just not *all* of it."

"What, do I already know?"

"What we really are."

And with those words, her wings gave a mighty flap and we were soon soaring through the air, our manes and tails whipping in the wind. One of them barely glowing and the other a raging flame whipping in the wind of a rising Sun.

The flight was short with my Mothers large wings bullying the air into submission. Soon a run-down and slightly overgrown house came into view where the forest began to recede. A lone dirt road was visible extending towards the horizon where the tip of some sort of mountain could be seen with small protrusions lining its entire exterior.

If I've got anything to say about the Griffons it's that they have a hell of an architectural design and that also seemed to extend to all of their buildings as I was able to get a better look at what was going to be our home for the foreseeable future. Its design was that of what could only be described as ‘Egg-like’. It was oval-shaped with many different balconies and windows lining its walls.

Vines of all kinds were growing all throughout the building as we descended onto the closest balcony. The room right before us didn’t actually look that bad. Sure there was dust everywhere, a hole in the wall with a tree growing through it and the door was on its last legs with only one hinge keeping the door upright.

A dusty bed stood to our left, the mattress in surprisingly good condition. Seeing it my Mother nodded and walked towards it as it was briefly consumed in orange light. When I blinked the Spots out of my eyes the bed looked spotless. With a smile, I was then placed down onto it.

"There we go, not my best work but until I get the rest of this place cleaned up."

"Okay. So, um, mind answering some questions now?" I asked and she nodded.

"Yes, I do have some explaining to do. Don’t I? Ask away."

"Well, you. Have… have you always been well…" I gestured with my hand towards her form.

"Ah yes, me. It's… a long story to say the least but to make it short. I used to be, or still am if you believe my former Sisters, the being known as Daybreaker… Not my proudest moment but without you being there it's impossible to actually explain why I came into being."

"Mom…"

"I’m fine my Sunspot, that happened a lifetime ago."

"But then how did you come to earth… how did you get here, how did I get here and why did you only show up nowandnotearlie-" My voice became frantic as the words just began to spill out of my mouth without any conscious control before I was suddenly shushed by a finger being placed across my lips.

"As I said, it's a long story but to put it simply it was thanks to a spell I had devised I was able to separate myself from Celestia before her sister used the elements on me. The Elements are the least understood artifacts on Equis and their abilities are still unknown even to Celestia. When they…hit me… I was well, I guess the adequate term would be thrown across reality to find myself furless, hornless, and wingless wandering around town in a torn dress. If it weren't for your Father's kindness that day… I doubt I would be sitting here right now."

"Are you alright?"

She smiled down at me. " You don’t need to worry Jolyne. That moment when your Father found me was the happiest day of my life second only to you being born."

"Did…does he know about…" I once again gesture towards her horn and wings "this?"

"Yes, he knows, but he doesn’t care. That's why I married him after all."

"But then… How did I get here and why do I look like this?"

"Equestrian magic is… Homesick to best put it. It will always try to return here to Equis. I know how to keep it in check, my eldest daughter, however, who has always believed Magic to be fantasy…"

A look of understanding overtook my features.

"It's part of the reason why you're here but the actual reason how the portal was created is still unknown to me, my best guess is that someone here tried to bring me back but mistakenly summoned my daughter instead." The fire in her hair suddenly intensified. "A grave mistake."

"As for your second question… I’m not that well versed in the science of Genetics but I think that should answer your question."

"But.. Why am I in such a young body? I look and feel like some little girl."

My Mother laughed slightly.

"In the Alicorn years, that's what you are. Don’t worry when I get us home you’ll be back to normal."

Well… that's comforting. But that also brought up another question.

"How did you get here and why didn't you come earlier?"

A sad look made itself known on her face.

"I… went to your house to investigate and found the remnants of the portal. I tried to find a way through but without knowing something for me to link its exit too… I'm so sorry I couldn’t stop them from hurting you. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that pain but know that I heard you and now I’m here." She finished by bringing me into a hug as more tears welled up in her eyes.

"I failed you. I made a promise to your father that nothing would ever hurt you… and I failed."

I returned the hug. "It's alright. You don’t need to apologize to me Mom."

A moment later she pulled away and wiped her tears away once again before chuckling.

"Look at me. Daybreaker: the wrath of the Sun apologising to a child. Ha, Celestia would kill to see me like this."

I laughed alongside her.

"Now why don't you get some rest while I go fix up the house. Tomorrow will be a big day for my little Sunspot."

Author's Note

It my birthday.
I gib update on birthday
simple as'

23-Into the Sky

A lot has happened in the week since, well, I guess a rescue by the Terror of the Sun, the wrath of Celestia, the breaker of day… Mom. Yeah, that took some getting used to as I found myself constantly pinching various body parts to see if I was dreaming all of this up.

I mean how should one react when they find out their mother, the being that brought them into the world, is an almost immortal goddess… sister… clone thing (I’m still not entirely sure how that works out between my mother and the princesses), that also happens to be the literal personification of Celestia’s dark side. Family reunions are going to be pretty awkward from this point onwards.

But anyway I’m getting off track. When I woke up for the first time after sleeping on the revelation that my mother was The Daybreaker herself and that my father knows, yet doesn't care. The *ugh* coddling began.

Don’t get me wrong. I still love my mom to death but having to deal with her motherly protectiveness and instinct for the second time around was not fun in the slightest. Having the cerebral development of a child with the mind of that of a fully grown adult also didn’t help in those matters as I found myself waking up most nights screaming and in a cold sweat thanks to the trauma of Luna and my magical nuke.

She treated me as If I was made of pure sugar on the verge of melting into nothingness during that first week while she cleaned up the old griffon house.
I mean, it wasn’t wrong *per se* with my wings being held together through hopes and dreams whilst my lower spine ever so slowly mending itself back together. But goddamnit, it was getting annoying to my inner adult.

In other news, however, during that week there were also a lot of various upsides. The big one was that I began to feel my legs again!

Thanks to some magical shenanigans with my alicorn body getting to drink up and radiate magic it began healing! The extra *kicks* my mother gave to my magical reserves helped too but I have no idea how that stuff works. And frankly, I didn’t give a damn back then. I could feel my legs!

Still couldn’t use them though as my mental commands did jack but being able to feel them was a step in the right direction. The same was happening to my wings and my horn with its cracks shrinking and my feathers *ugh* molting.

Jesus that uhhh…that was not in the slightest bit comfortable. Having my mother basically laugh at my suffering whilst also cooing at getting to witness my first molt did not help in the slightest. I thank god that she didn’t have a camera there to document my suffering to show to all her friends. The baby pictures were already far too much thankyouverymuch.

…don't look at me like that.

Stop it, I'm not telling it.

Stop.

No.

…

Ugh, fiiiine… I’ll tell you the stupid story of me suffering via the medium of molting feathers. Just makes my wings itch thinking about it *shudder*. But I’m only telling you this so that you will shut up about it. My recovery is not something I would like to keep remembering but if you must know for the rest of my story to make sense then so be it.

The day had started like any other.

I woke up surprisingly well-rested. The Sun was just peeking in through the nearby balcony and my body did not wish to faceplant back into its soft and cuddly prison. Birds were singing in the morning mist and I could see the very slight specs of commuting griffons above the faraway town.

I still could not help but stare out that window and admire the view. The way the griffonian city seemed to flow so naturally with the mountain it had built itself upon. With the naked eye, I genuinely couldn't properly tell where the mountain stopped and the town began.

We would definitely have to visit that place in the near future if for no other reason than to admire that sweet sweet architecture. Prying my eyes away from the window, I sat up and stretched. My back popped and my wings expanded unconsciously, removing the knots that had built up overnight. A breeze brushed against my wings and I shivered.

Something was different, my wings felt itchy and my bed felt like it was filled with some sort of soft…stuff, poking into my body. Confused, I looked down to see what was poking into me and froze.

There were feathers everywhere. And I don’t mean a small pile, I mean they were everywhere. My bedding was basically just feathers, some broken, most shredded like cheese, and few intact. Just where the hell did these feathers come from?!

Another breeze brushed against my folded wings and caused me to shiver once again. Once again confused as to why I was suddenly being chilled to the core by simple breezes I extended my wing to see whether something was wrong.

“So that's where the feathers came from”

I dumbly say aloud some manner of shock as I witness my almost bare wing.

“Hey, Mom?” I call out still dumbly staring at my naked wing. My gaze switched between the one I had extended and the other still pressed against my back. Both were almost completely bare, the tiniest hints of regrowing feathers visible at the roots.

“Hmm?” I hear my mother humm through the walls before she popped her head in the doorway, her horn glowing a brilliant orange. Once her slitted eyes settled on my wings, a large smile began to form on her face and her eyes lit up with a sparkle only a mother could get.

“Should I be worried?” I ask as I continue to stare dumbly at my wings before a cold breeze forced a shiver throughout my body.

“No, of course not my little Sunspot. In fact, I think you’ve just made me the happiest mother on the planet.” I heard my mother say as she approached the bed and took a seat by my side. Her horn glowed a warm orange as I watched all my discarded feathers be gathered up in her aura before she picked one out of the air and held it close to her chest.

“What are you doing,” I ask as I meddle around with a nearby blanket in an attempt to cover my wings from the breeze that had continued to assault them.

“Oh, just something us mothers do. It's not every day after all that you get to experience your daughter's first molt. Oh, I’m going to frame this, hang on, I know there was a case somewhere in this house.” She exclaimed as she closed her eyes and the aura around her horn increased. I could hear the sounds of rummaging throughout the rest of the house as she was no doubt ‘feeling’ with her magic for what she was looking for.

“Mom, do that later, explain the situation to the confused daughter now, please?”

That seemed to break her out of her motherly… whatever it was, as the distant sounds of magic had stopped and she looked down at me sheepishly.

“Sorry, my lovely little sunspot. This is a big moment, after all, once those new bigger, and stronger feathers come in I’ll finally be able to teach you to fly! Now that those young and…broken…feathers are all gone.” Her features darkened when she mentioned my previously injured wings. Deciding not to push the big angry momma bear any further I decided to try and steer the topic away from, well, that.

Then what she actually said registered in my brain. “Wait… you’re gonna teach me how to fly!?” I exclaimed in excitement as I practically jumped out of the makeshift blanket nest I had created.

Only to immediately retreat into it as the cold air slammed against my naked wings and sent a chill so icey up my spine I swear it felt like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice water on me.

My mother laughed at my antics before she embraced my blanketed self in a warm embrace, making sure to avoid my nearly healed horn.

“Yes, yes. But it's no use to be jumping around with your wings as bare as they are now. Here, tell you what, with that horn of yours almost as good as new and you, full with as much energy as the little star that you are.” She said with a nuzzle, causing me to giggle in return. “Why don’t I see if I can find a nice jacket for you and we can see about getting you back on your hooves again and go for a walk around the house?”

Hearing that I would finally be able to properly stretch my legs and not just hobble and limp around my room sent me over the sun. Sure I would most likely take several hundred facefuls of dirt and end up with far more akin to dark chocolate than alabaster-white by the end of it. But damn it all, I wanted to run again!

“Now” My Mother continued. “Let's see if I can scrounge up something hot and sweet for you in the meantime. Get some fire back in your body before you freeze.”

Over a week would pass before I was truly back to 100% percent. My ‘adult’ feathers had grown in fully, If you could call them adult considering I still looked like I was twelve, however, they were truly something to behold. They now held a slight orange coloring along their edges. The color grew in intensity as it reached the feathers' tips giving them a warm gradient.

It was certainly a nice look but what really took the cake was just how densely packed my feathers now were. Like seriously I had no idea they would be this dense. Like, take a look at this.

*Muffled sounds of an extending wing*

Can’t even see the light through these feathers. And I thought that little safety bubble I had before was nice. With these new bad boys, I could smother a pony to death, probably even myself if I held my wings too tightly together.

Well, other than that, thanks to my mother’s continued magical support in restoring my horn, it looked as good as new now. With only a small scar left as a reminder that it ever happened at all.

My legs were also back to near 100%. I could run, climb trees, and basically do anything I could before with only minor difficulty. Sometimes I would still trip and or begin to limp once my muscles decided to say ‘screw you, it's time to stop now. When that happened I was done for the day. I had used my full range of motion and only several good night's worths of sleep would bring me back up. Till then I had my *eugh* ‘Safety stick’ or Cane if you get technical, but I am not an old woman so I get to call it my safety stick, to help me stay upright in the meantime.

Luckily it wasn’t needed a majority of the time but I still had to keep it on me just in case something happened. I don’t doubt that it was magic or enchanted to the Sun and back by my mother to alert her should anything happen considering every time I so much as went near the thing my fur tingled with magic.

Anyway, now that I was finally up and about lots of things had changed since I was first brought here to this once decrepit house. Thanks to my mother's tireless work, and lots of magic, it had been almost fully restored to its former glory.

The broken tiles and overgrown walls that once plastered this house were long gone. Its egg-like shape became fully visible and able to really show off the beauty of griffon architecture. Or at least, the old griffish architecture as this house was far, far different from what I could see in the distant griffon city.

But aside from the restoration of the house, it was finally time for me to learn how to use my magic, to learn how to fly, and fully take advantage of the gifts my heritage had given me. Because I was not just Jolyne, the unfortunate human that was sent here by some cosmic accident.

I was Jolyne, the firstborn daughter of the wrath of the Sun, the terror of the skies, the burning vengeance of Celestia herself. And we were going to get home, no matter the cost. And to do that I needed to know how my new…my actual body worked. I was going to fly and that unfortunately meant I needed a little…kick, from my mother.

“Are you sure this is the right way to teach me?” I ask with a gulp as I look down the very high and steep cliff we were standing at the summit of. Meanwhile, my mother hovered several feet in front of me, above the large drop I was currently looking down into.

Her large wings flapped methodically, their draft clearly visible among my dense rippling feathers. She looked at me expectantly, her arms crossed in front of her as she looked at me authoritatively like a no-nonsense teacher…or queen.

“Yes. You're an Alicorn after all, and not just any alicorn, you're my daughter as well. You may not consciously know what to do, but your Pegasi instincts most definitely do.” My mother began as she flew over towards me before booping me on the muzzle. “And no daughter of mine is going to remain flightless if I have anything to say about it.”

I look back down the cliff. “But are you really, really sure? It’s a…long…way down.” I gulp at the end of my sentence as I hear the clip-clop of my mother's hooves landing beside me.

“You’ll be fine, just remember what I taught you right?”

“To…spread myself out to slow my fall…”

“Yes”

“…extend my wings to start a glide…”

“Yes, keep going”

“…And finally flap my wings, together, to generate lift!”

“Very good! Now let's put it into action shall we?”

“Ye-ahhhhHHHHHH!” And suddenly I was falling as I felt myself get tipped over the edge and off the side of the cliff.

My limbs flailing wildly at the sudden assertance of gravity with my lungs still screaming out with a sound only a falling child could make.

“Cmon, do what I taught you to do.” I hear the calm and reassuring voice of my mother as I look to the side and see her falling alongside me, a relaxed and comforting smile on her face.

Right, yes, my mom was here. She told me exactly what I needed to do. She was there for me, she would catch me if something went wrong.

Realizing that I ceased my yelling and focused on doing exactly what she told me.

Spreading out my limbs as far out as they could I could instantly feel myself begin to slow as I caught the wind.

Okay so far so good.

Feeling confident I extended out my wings. Unfortunately, it appears I had… mistimed the extension of my right wing as I suddenly found myself upside down with my wings flapping uselessly in the updraft and my gaze to the sky.

Thinking fast I finished extending my other wing and attempted to flip myself back over… it didn’t work as I suddenly found my mother above me looking with a disappointed look in her eye. An orange glow proceeded to envelop my being as I felt myself grind to a stop mid-air.

“Let’s try again, and this time, make sure to extend them before you jump, hmm?”

“Before?! You pushed me off!”

My mother giggled sheepishly. “Got to keep you on your toes my little sunspot.”

I pursed my lips in annoyance as I was flown back up to where we had started to give it another go.

This time I made sure my mother wasn’t going to pull a fast one on me as I took a deep breath, extended my wings as far out as they could go, and… was tipped over the edge again by my pesky mother who had managed to sneak around me.

“Oh god dammmniiittttt-!” I yelled out as I felt myself begin to fall again.

Only this time instead of falling… I flew, or well glided, but goddammit I flew! I actually flew through the air! And my god it felt…amazing. The feeling of wind brushing past and through my feathers and mane was and still is indescribable.

“Yes, Jolyne, you’re doing it! Now flap your wings! Flap them with all you got my little sunspot!” I could hear my mother cheering me on from behind me, and with a massive smile on my face, I did just that.

Tensing my muscles I gave a mighty flap with both of my wings intent on making my mother proud.

Only to immediately miss time my flap and begin to wobble dangerously. Luckily my mother was flying there right next to me as she very delicately adjusted my wing and prevented me from spinning out.

“You can do it. Concentrate, Jolyne.” My mother said encouragingly as I gave another wobbly and experimental flap.

“I…I’m doing it!” I yell out in excitement as I watch the smile on my mother's face grow tenfold.

“Yes you are, my little sunspot… yes you are.”

Author's Note

The time has come.
Execute order 312 and occupy the featured page.

1-A fiery entrance

A fiery entrance

It was a normal quiet night in the magical land of Equestria. The moon was sitting high in the sky painting the ground below in a serene moonlight. The princess of the night was looking over the dreams of her subjects with a serene smile on her face. The balcony she was standing on provided a perfect view of her kingdom. Her sister was softly snoring away in her room, dreaming about being able to eat as much cake as she could desire without consequences. All was well in the equestrian kingdom.

BANG

The quiet serenity was broken by a glass-shattering sound being heard across the equestrian continent. From the crystal empire to the deepest parts of the jungle. It was heard everywhere. Then it all went quiet as if there was no eardrum bursting boom several seconds ago.

“LUNA WHAT HAPPENED! WHAT WAS THAT SOUND!” Shouted princess Celestia in her royal canterlot voice, being very unceremoniously awoken from her slumber in a panic. She was still wearing her sun themed pajamas.

“I do not know but some type of massive magical anomaly just happened over the everfree forest!” Replied luna hastily. “Some type of magical bolt struck our old residence” She pointed a finger in the direction of the castle of the two sisters.

After hearing this Celestia ran up to the balcony and leaned over to get a better view. Everything looked normal but there was something. Some familiar magic was emanating from the castle. Solar magic to be specific.

“I have to notify Twilight. If someone else can use solar magic other than me…We might have one immensely powerful entity on our hands” Said Celestia trying to keep the fear out of her voice. Solar magic as well as Lunar magic are the strongest magics known to exist as they require a connection to celestial bodies to function. For several millennia, the only users of such magic were Celestia and Luna, respectively. Someone else being able to use Solar magic, her magic, was a serious threat. Celestia could only imagine what was going on in the ruins and who could be holding such power.

“Aww man it still hasn’t updated yet”

I mutter in disappointment. Hello there, the name is Jolyne and right now I am staring at my computer screen in sadness. One of my all-time favorite fictions hasn’t updated yet and the last chapter ended on a cliffhanger. I am just your average introverted pegasister living one of the most boring lives imaginable. Like, imagine what it must be to watch paint dry for a living, yeah it would pay the bills so I’m not complaining that much. Unfortunately having basically no friends and being a shut-in doesn’t help make my life more interesting. Anyway, I’m getting off-topic so I’m sitting there looking for some new interesting fic to read when I start to smell something burning.

“Huh, what’s that smell?” I say to myself as I get up from my chair and follow the smell into the living room. Walking down the corridor some type of light was coming from the door to the living doom which is weird because I remembered that I turned the light off earlier.

“Ok, so it's coming from he-OH MY GOD!” I shouted in alarm as I entered the room. In the center of the room was some type of pillar of fire. The living room could not even be called that anymore, where once was furniture was now ash. The couch was burning in the corner of the room half on it was gone, reduced to a pile of ash. The walls were smoldering some parts beginning to catch fire. Seeing this panic instantly gripped my whole body as I began to make a mad dash back the way I came.

“JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE HELL” I yell in confusion. I am trying to run as far away as possible from the fiery spiral but for some ungodly reason, I could not move. The bloody thing was pulling me towards it, luckily I was close enough the door that I was able to grab onto the handle to keep myself from being pulled in.

“NO NO NO I AM NOT LETTING YOU PULL ME IN! YA HEAR ME WEIRD FIRE!” I scream in defiance holding on to the door handle with all my strength. I could feel the heat that thing was emitting, and it was the hottest thing I had ever felt. Causing my body to start sweating like crazy which is not a good idea when the only obstacle preventing my most likely very painful death was a slippery metal door handle. Yeah needless to say I was not going to be among the living much longer.

When my hand slipped, and I was sent tumbling towards the weird fire spire I wondered if it would hurt to die but thankfully I didn’t have to find out as all the smoke I had been breathing in finally caught up to me and I lost consciousness.

‘Ugh my head…what happened’ is what was going through my head as I regained consciousness. I had a pounding headache and my eyelids felt like lead. I was lying down on some type of stone floor which for some reason was quite warm. I was there on my back and I could feel…something else on my back that really did not like being lied on. The last thing I could remember was investigating some smoke then…then there’s that smell again…oh yeah that’s smoke…OH YEAH THAT’S SMOKE OH GOD!

“FIRE!” My Eyes shot open and I instantly regretted it as I saw my surroundings. There was fire everywhere. Panic immediately gripped at my soul, I was trapped, the fire was surrounding me on all sides. Then suddenly they started receding. The fire was using some type of carpet as its fuel source and strangely where I was lying was completely devoid of carpeting but there was a light sheen of ash all over the floor. As the fire died out so did the Smoke having dissipated into the surrounding area allowing me to get a good look at where I was located.

“No…it couldn’t be” I recognized this place the banners, the windows. This was the Castle of the two sisters!

“This...this can’t be real w-wait what happened to my voice!”

My voice was vastly different. It was several octaves higher than normal with a distinct childlike tone. Now without the immediate danger of burning to death, I looked down at my body. My white-furred childlike body. My heart rate began to skyrocket. I was still a girl -thank god- but now I was covered in white fur. My clothes were gone, and I was wearing some type of white dress.

I quickly looked around the room trying to find some type of reflective surface. Luckily, there was a mirror sitting in the corner of the room. Unfortunately, the glass had several large cracks in it but in my panic addled mind, I didn’t care. I tried to stand up but there was something wrong with my feet as I did not have feet anymore.

They were hooves.

“oh-oh no,” I muttered as I slowly stood up and walked towards the mirror trying not to trip over my own feet or hooves now. When I reached the mirror, my jaw dropped. I instantly recognized that face.

It was Daybreaker.

Albeit as a 6-year-old child but that flaming hair and tail, the orange slits for eyes, the fangs. At least I got to keep my hands so that was nice. I had a pure white horn on my head with my wings at their full length behind me. If it weren’t for the eyes, fangs, and hair that looked like fire, I would have looked like a child version of Celestia. I was speechless at my new appearance. After a few minutes of me standing there looking at my reflection in the mirror, I decided that standing here would not help I needed to get organized, I needed to go full-on Twilight mode.

“Ok…So I’m Daybreaker…but as a child…and this is most likely an anthro Equestria. I mean it could be worse at least…I’m not…burning…alive”

Then it came back to me. I was so caught up in the stress of waking up here I had not taken the time to think about how I got here. But now it all came back to me. The Smoke, the fire, me getting sucked into said fire. I began hyperventilating.
“Ok…Ok, calm down! You are not dead you probably got transported here by some magical shenanigans. That fire clearly wasn’t normal calm down.” I took some deep breaths trying to slow my heart rate which was somewhere in the 200bpm range now.

“Ok take stock of the situation, right now I am in the middle of the everfree forest, in the middle of the night. I need a plan

Step 1 look around for somewhere safe to wait for morning/sleep.

Step 2 try to find the main 6 and not have them blast me.

Step 3 uhhhh.

Step 4 profit.” I say quietly to myself

With a plan in mind and my heart rate under control, I started exploring my surroundings. But first I had to get these wings under control, otherwise walking through doors sideways is going to suck.

Author's Note

Hello everyone and welcome to my second ever story :D
I hope you will all enjoy this the idea came to me on my way home from school one afternoon as i thought. "huh everyone does a story as a human in N.M.M body well how bout one with daybreaker" and here we are. :D

This is a Lv4 anthro

so you guys have an idea of how the char look.

Big thanks to Darkspyro and PlantedG for prereading this chapter. You guys are the best :twilightsmile: