That Lit the World Ablaze
Dust and ashes.
That’s all that was left.
Nothing else could survive the Great War between Equestria and the rest of the world.
Dragons and Gryphons, Zebras and Minotaurs, Changelings and all the rest all bound together to fight against the ponies that had taken the world from them.
Even in the best of circumstances, ponies couldn’t have won that battle, but with one alicorn away on vacation with her daughter and husband, another AWOL because of a close friend’s death, along with the most powerful weapon they had being unable to be used, they never stood a chance.
They were burnt and torn, their buildings smashed and torched, everything they were got erased in less than a month.
Hardly a fight, some called it, a squashing of tyranny, others described; however, they all agreed that nopony was left in its wake.
“Well then...”
They were almost correct... though it hardly mattered.
“How’d you manage to accomplish this?” A pony spoke with a voice that used to be boisterous and beautiful, grandiose and overconfident, but was now left dull and bleak, humbled by the flames that she herself had sparked.
A snort from her nostrils broke again the whispering winds that carried dark dust and ashes through the air. “Kindling, all this was,” She said, waving to the wastelands before her. “That’s all this ‘great nation’ ever was.”
A small, darkly humoured smirk graced her lips before she continued, “That’s what happens when you make one foolish creature the linchpin in everything that you can possibly find.”
Starting to walk forward, the tattered black cloak that enveloped the pony swished about her grey-blue hooves that, like their owner’s voice, have once seen days of splendorous vibrancy and admiration in the moonlight.
Hours passed like seconds, for time held no meaning in this lonely void, the one mare amongst it having only light breaths tousle the wind-torn air about her. Her mind, meanwhile, was tracing events of the past and how they all managed to land the future in this dull space.
“Of course I hate it here, Maud! You think a showmare that lives for the spotlight would enjoy back-breaking labour in a dull quarry with barely anypony else?!”
‘What happened to them, do I wonder?’ The pony thought, her head turning upwards just enough for her dulled sapphire horn to pull up the black hood atop her head, letting the ambient light of the Faust-knew-when sky to hit her face. That face held no real expression, the emotions of her past dulled from feeling them, the bags under her eyes showing the exhaustion of the chaos that has become of the world.
But those eyes, those glowing crimson eyes...
“HAHAHAHAH!! That pathetic fool Sparkle shall cry like a little bitch when she gets a load of this power!”
...They lacked the blazing rage that had previously created them.
Trotting up a small mound, the unicorn lowered her gaze back down to the ground, what was once considered filthy and appalling now took up the absolute entirety of the surface of Equestria.
‘It can hardly be described as off-putting now that it has become the normal...’
“T-Trixie?! What are you doing back here?!”
‘...Though the name I have matters no more that that now that nopony else has another...’
Closing her eyes, Trixie flared her magic, its crimson glow picking up some of the dark powder that lay around her, hanging it in the air for her to see when she reopened her eyes. The pulsing of that red aura matched a flaring of heat pushing into her chest, making her look down to see the object adorning it.
“P-please, Tr-Trixie... take off t-the Amulet... y-you still have a heart i-in there... I-I know that, y-you can bring..it...out....”
The metal pony bust with a long horn and wide wings, a blood-red jewel blazing with power in the center; the Alicorn Amulet. It was to grant ungodly power to its wielder, but now...
‘What is power if there’s nothing to do with it?’
Focusing her magic more, the powder in her aura burst into flames, though they remained held there in the air. The flames that, like the crimson jewel around her neck, wreak only destruction and death...
“No rest for the wicked, huh, Celestia?”
...As opposed to the light and warmth that it’s predecessor was meant to bring.
Letting the flames disappear, Trixie turned back to the smog-filled sky and observed its dull consistency; no light blue sky filled with warm orange by the sun and parted by clouds, no dim grey-cyan of dusk with bands of scarlet and purple on the horizon, and no dark indigo night filled with stars and the large ivory Moon.
Soon, hefty flaps broke the air and flung ashes and dust around, a scorching voice that lacked the flare it was born with then asking, “Enjoying the view that you’ve created?”
“I created this?” Trixie replied with faint surprise, turning her head to see the large white alicorn behind her, the inferno of a mane and tail she once had was now lava that poured down her face and hind legs respectively, the flaming rage in her heart never having cooled to let the mare it was borne of come back to the surface. “You were the one that primed Equestria for this, Daybreaker.”
“It wouldn’t have been a problem it you just followed the law,” The larger pony said, looking at the other with mildly restrained disdain.
A short scoff of a laugh left the dust-covered unicorn’s chapped lips, a spiteful tone taking the declaration; “Your law, you mean. And even then,” A long inhale through her nostrils, taking in the dreary, dry air, “That was only one event. It takes a lot more than that to destroy a civilization.” Turning her body a bit to see the torrid alicorn better, she leered slightly at her as she finished, “And nopony specifically did anything else, so it must have come from the way you built the system.”
An anger took hold on Daybreaker’s face, though it was subdued with somber acceptance. Closing her eyes, she then trotted forward with forced restraint, lightly kicking up the dull powder below with each hefty hoof-fall, the other mare following her with her crimson eyes until the alicorn stopped just left of her and lowered herself to a sitting position.
“Mistakes will always be made, Lulamoon,” She said in her scorching, dry voice as she reopened her eyes to view the barren landscape. “Though... what do you expect when you kill somepony so important?”
“Are you trying to explain your rage, Daybreaker?” Trixie asked with a small snort, then turned back to look before her, ignoring the mild, sidelong glare she was thrown. “Trixie thought you were supposed to be reasonable. After all, how many of your lovers must have died while you did not?”
The molten-maned pony turned her head more fully to look at the cloaked unicorn, her temperament cooling in guilty realization. Many a friend, family, and indeed, lover, had fallen from life, and she had taken them with mourning and respect. But, this one pony dying had made her lose any semblance of calm in an instant.
It seemed foolish from the outside, but that one unicorn was to be far more than just another pony to like or love...
Her guilt parched her throat to what would be expected of someone so torrid, requiring her to gulp with enough noise to get a glance from the smaller mare. “I...” She started, her head turning quickly back to face ahead of her, the foolishness of the decision weighing on her, “I used the term ‘protégé’ for a reason...”
Trixie looked back at her, cocking her head and searching the darkened corneas and glowing irises for an answer, before pursing her lips slightly as she realized. “You wanted her to replace you?” She asked, though it came out more as an accusation than a question.
A hefty inhale came from Daybreaker, pausing for a couple seconds, then letting it go to reply curtly, “That’s right.”
Silence took hold yet again, bewilderment and appalment in one pony and somber destitution in the other.
“Why?” The former questioned, breaking the quiet for a mere moment before it came back for a short while.
“I wanted to...” The ivory alicorn started, hesitating to gather her thoughts while the other mare gained a look of irritation at what was said. “...Break the cycle, I suppose.” Sighing with slight guilt, she continued, “It has been me and my sister for as long as I can remember. Year after year, century after century, era after era, we were at the top and had so much to do constantly. We may have gotten used to the excruciating tedium, but we still wanted something different.”
Letting the other finish, Trixie still held that same look of irate thought. “You wanted it,” She finally stated, the tone of her voice mirroring her expression. “You didn’t need it.”
Looking back towards the smaller pony, Daybreaker asked with mild exasperation seeping into her voice, “Can’t I get a break at some point?”
“No,” The unicorn responded at length. “With your power, you will always have a duty that shall transcend your desires.”
Guilt ripped even further at the burnt heart of the previously-a-princess, the failure of her little ponies because of a selfish desire for a lengthy duration of freedom despite the long while Equestria has been at peace making her feel a disgust for herself.
“Such a fool I was,” She whispered, though the deathly quiet of the empty world guaranteed the other mare would here it, “To go against my most fundamental of principles...”
“Even moreso how you threw them to the wayside to fail your pupils,” Trixie commented, making the alabaster pony beside her jerk her head quickly to glare at her. Glancing slowly towards those burning eyes, the unicorn continued, “The reason Sunset Shimmer fled into the Crystal Mirror was to escape your manipulations.”
Bewilderment and anger took hold in Daybreaker’s face, though she paused to restrain herself to ask, “How do you know about her?”
The cloaked mare shrugged and obliquely replied, “Doesn’t matter.”
Shaking her head with enough force to whip the lava locks on her head about, the alicorn shot back with a tint of vexation, “Why would you think I was manipulating her?”
Grinning, Trixie turned more fully to show the dulled colour of the fur on her face to the taller pony before she said, “That’s what you did to Twilight.”
Daybreaker’s glare only intensified, the lava pouring across her head flowing a bit quicker now, the expression on her own face angrily demanding an explanation.
A small laugh escaped the other mare, amusement lighting up her features as much as irritation as she said, “You sent Twilight Sparkle to Ponyville on the exact day of Nightmare Moon’s return, making her meet the five ponies that just so happen to fully embody the facets of friendship, and letting them wander into the Everfree Forest to defeat Nightmare, all the while you were sitting back doing... what exactly?”
Whispers of wind, flapping of fibers, and irate breaths were the only thing that could be heard in the silence that followed, though the guilt could be felt, no matter how much the so-called princess tried to deny it.
“I was...” She started, eyes twitching about in thought for a few moments, “Attempting to calm the nation about the Nightmare’s return.”
“‘The Nightmare’,” Trixie repeated, disgust and disappointment clear in her tone. “I thought you would have accepted that Nightmare Moon was more than just something that took over your sister by now.”
Even more guilt could be felt in the dry, torrid air, the molten mane and tail cooling back down as the face below dropped in wavering thought.
“I thought you would have accepted that your sister hated you for what you did to Equestria,” The humbled unicorn stated. “I don’t know why I thought that; after all, you just made everything worse after you sent her to the Moon. The Solar Ponies, especially kirins, thrived under the blazing light of your Sun, though the Lunar Ponies, such as myself and thestrals, languished in pain and oppression.”
Looking up slightly to peer into the pained, crimson eyes of the Lulamoon, Daybreaker felt icy regret pour down her spine, cooling her lavalike extremities even more.
“That growth of betrayal seems to be in your character, by the way,” Trixie added, gaining a pointed expression back from the other pony. “You tried to manipulate Sunset, but she figured you out and fled in terror, but at the crossroads between repentance and going yet further, you chose the latter. When you encountered Twilight, a high-class pony who’d limitless obsession made sure she’d always follow your orders, you manipulated her into a weapon that destroyed anything in its path.”
Pausing for but a moment to catch her breath, the jilted mare continued, “Friends that no longer followed the fold, ponies merely working in dangerous circumstances, creatures just trying to live in spite of a linage of torment, they all fell before her.” The flames in the dark pits of the alicorns eyes recognized all of who was implied, despite the obvious self-hatred and denial present in her pose. “And then, you wish to give her ungodly powerful magic and immortality... I wonder how well that would turn out, if her using a mind-control spell after merely missing a deadline is anything to go by.”
Realization quickly started to set in, pain following from her remembrance of ignorant devotion at the expense of caring for the whole world around her. It was clear in her eyes that the foolishness was dawning on her, her mane and tail beginning to crystalize into obsidian, the heat of rage and denial clashing with the self-hatred to keep herself from losing this anarchic form.
“What have I done...” Daybreaker muttered quietly in a tone tinted with confusion while looking down to the ash beneath her. “What has become of the harbinger of light and peace?”
The tall, ivory mare kept in the guilty rapture with mutterings of futile thought, the smaller lunar counterpart watching and thinking herself. Eventually it clicked; “Complacency.”
“Wha-?” The alicorn jerked up to ask.
“You were complacent,” Trixie repeated, taking a hoof to pull off the hood to better reveal her head to the dreary, dry elements. “You had power, not just magically, but politically and socially. In ponies’ minds, you were a god, who’s word must be heeded at all costs. You may have tried to deny that to keep a better relationship with them, but you still accepted it in your heart.”
Daybreaker opened her mouth to deny it, but looking back at everything she did; always keeping a leg’s length away from her subjects, letting others deliver even the most important and critical of messages, never letting anypony help her in a crisis she wished to face herself...
“And furthermore,” The crimson-tainted unicorn resumed, “You kept yourself cooped up in that opulent castle all the time, with everything you could possibly want given to you. And,” She gained a light amount of amusement, “I don’t need you to think on that; the proof’s in your body.” She finished with a glance towards the other pony’s rather sizable flank.
Having received myriads of comments of that nature, the Mare of the Sun knew exactly what was meant, though unlike humour she felt before, she now experienced yet more guilt at the gap between herself and her little ponies.
“I always thought I was optimistic to consistently see the good in everything,” The alicorn begun quietly, “Now I just realize it was ignorance and denial...”
“I guess you’ve gained some humility now that you’ve felt true pain,” Trixie responded with a look of understanding on her face. Looking up in thought for a moment, she scoffed slight and added, “Not, that there wasn’t any good to see, it’s just the main problem with such ignorance is that you never try to change and progress towards a better world because you already think it’s perfect.”
Drooping even more than before, Daybreaker felt tears welling up in her eyes at all the pain she now recognized that she had caused. She always left her dirty work to others, never getting into it herself despite her immense power, eventually leading to the world falling so far that when she did try to do something, it was far too late.
This barren wasteland of ash and dust that she now looked across was her fault above anyone else; no heroics by her manipulated pupil and her friends, no intervening by those she had wronged and exiled, no stopping from the pony before that had started it all...
And beyond that, she never let the one being that had been with her for millennia help her in the slightest to prevent what could have been seen as inevitable.
“Sister...”
Looking back to the passively inquisitive expression of the only pony left to keep accompany her in this abandoned nation, she begun, “If I had only relinquished some of my responsibilities back to Luna, this would have never happened...”
Trixie lightly raised an eyebrow in partial understanding, though left the other mare to continue, “She was always the more clever one, changing directives quickly and able to figure out unorthodox solutions to problems. Meanwhile, I kept steadfast and hardly changed for any reason, and when a wedge was driven between us and I felt forced to banish her, those in her wake were left to suffer because of my ignorance over their domain.”
Nodding slowly, the dulled unicorn noted, “That always how it is between Solar and Lunar ponies.” She grinned coolly and stated, “The former with regimented and rigid mindsets and the latter quick and capricious. Twilight Sparkle was incapable of change and held no grace while I flowed free and loose from any real plans. Even the day and the night; a blazing ball of light in a uniform sky as opposed to the phase-changing Moon amongst a vast universe of stars and galaxies...”
Her calm voice trailed off into the whistling of wind and swirling of powder, the sky the ponies now looked up to holding only dreary trails of sepia-tinted grey instead of the beautiful night that it once may have.
“Poetic,” Daybreaker broke the silence, her lava extremities reduced to cool ribbons of obsidian the flowed down across her head and the ground. “Just like my sister-- in her finer moments...”
A short laugh escaped Trixie before she replied, “I wonder if your students could have ever pulled that off?”
A slight smile of humour fell onto the ivory alicorn’s muzzle as she shook her head slowly. “We were never the best at art...” She said quietly while looking downward, recalling the stubborn magics of Sunset and the extensive checklists of Twilight.
The smaller mare nodded again in humoured understanding before glancing up in thought for a moment, then asking with some concern, “What happened to your sister, anyway?”
“Hm?” Daybreaker mumbled as she jerked back up to look into the crimson eyes of her former pupil’s counterpart. “Oh, she...” A hefty sigh escaped her lips as she recounted what happened, “She tried to calm me down, with... whatever force necessary... She’s alright, but got rather injured and fled with Cadance to the Crystal Empire.”
Trixie became thoughtful once more, looking off into the distance with some confusion in her mien. “You know...” She begun, looking sidelong back to the other mare’s inquisitive eyes, “I thought you would have gone back there after this long, the wading in pain should have cooled you enough to at least speak with the others, so...” A somewhat concerned look arose on her face, “Why haven’t you?”
The alicorn stared into the blood-red eyes that knew so much pain, that look cutting into her emotions and making her pause. She knew exactly why she didn’t want to go back there, and despite how much she wished to keep that to herself, the master of cold reading before her found out anyway.
“You’re afraid,” The former showmare stated, her expression becoming sympathetic. “You’re terrified of bringing more pain to the ones you love because of your rage.”
The utter truth in those words slammed hard into Daybreaker, hot tears again welling in her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall before wiping them away with a foreleg as she nodded her head.
“I know how that feels...” Looking out into the dull world again, Trixie Lulamoon continued, “After causing so much damage with the Ursa Ma-Minor, I was afraid to return to my mother because I thought she would find it painful to be near somepony who had done something so horrible...” A shivery inhale as tears welled in her own eyes, “Even though I knew I wasn’t at any real fault, I still wanted to prove myself by harsh means, leading to...” She glanced down at the cursed artifact around her neck. “And because of that fear, that fear of being seen as a threat and run out, or even worse, actually being a threat and hurting ponies... Well, you can see where that got me.”
The obsidian-maned mare nodded, the situation being laid out in front of her allowed her to truly understand her anguish and rage and start to cope with it. “W-well...” She started unsteadily while looking out into the empty world around her, “What now?”
The greyed unicorn glanced back at her companion for a moment, then replied with light sarcasm, “There’s not too much to do here, is there?” Getting an unamused look from the other pony, she said, “We can’t do much for this place, so there’s no real sense in trying. As for ourselves,” She peered down at the crimson-laden amulet around her neck with a vacant look in her eyes, “...Well, ideally we could go to the Crystal Empire and think things out from there...”
“...But?” Daybreaker asked with her own sorrowful expression.
Crimson eyes looked back to the ivory mare and across the volcanic glass amongst her head and flanks as well as the dark corneas of her own eyes, observing the differences to the Celestia she was before.
“We’re tainted with dark magic,” Trixie eventually said, “And so, I don’t think bringing that back to the others would be the best idea.”
The implications lingered in the dead silence, even the dry wind and powdered ground not braking the air.
“That thought is of fear,” Daybreaker stated, drawing the smaller pony’s attention, “And you did say what comes of such fear.”
A hefty inhale laced with self-doubt and hesitation came from said pony, then she responded in the same tone, “I know. It’s just...” She released the breath and closed her eyes to try to think through the terror she felt at making thinks worse, “I don’t know how I’d make things worse here, whereas previously I was working towards something truly and obviously terrible.”
The alicorn nodded in understanding, though looked up in thought for a few moments before responding, “Well, sitting around here is never going to help, where we may be able to help if we go there... and, we could leave whenever. It’s... the first time we go there that would be the most difficult.”
“Mm,” Trixie grunted, and she looked back into the orange eyes of the former princess. “It’s the uncertainty,” She said, “We don’t know what’s going to happen there, and we are so overwhelmed with the negative possibilities that we fail to see what good can come from it.”
A lightly amused smile rose onto Daybreaker’s face as she suggested, “It seems like you already understand this all.”
A short laugh came from the other mare. “Understanding is one thing. Truly feeling it though... that’s something else.”
Another lapse in conversation, another time for the dreary world to seep into their very minds, instilling a hopelessness for the nation that once existed there.
“Well,” The Solar alicorn said with a grunt as she stood up, “Best we don’t just ruminate on our actions, I think,” She turned to the other mare, “We should probably get going now if we ever are to.”
“No time like the present,” Trixie muttered as she stood up. “Where...” She started, looking out across the horizon.
The transformed Celestia looked to the skies and felt the Sun, finding its trajectory and used it to find north. “That way,” She pointed off into the distance, getting the unicorn’s attention. The taller pony started walking in the direction, the other shortly following with no indication for falsehood, both trotting towards an absence in hopes to leave this desolate landscape so that they may live in peace in the future despite the shortcomings of their past.
