Death followed her.
Princess Celestia, Ruler of the Day, Champion of the Light, and Diarch—no, Monarch, of Equestria, limped across the cold floor of the comparatively meager castle of Lady Golden Fleece of Canterlot. Along either side of the stone corridor, torches flickered and crackled as they belched up long trails of smoke that formed a haze across the ceiling of the hall.
All she could smell was blood.
In her mind's eye, she still envisioned the cackling, the deranged laughing of her sister, or, what was once her sister. Whatever had possessed Luna, it had completely and utterly twisted her into something unrecognizable. Whenever Celestia closed her eyes, she relived their last moments together. When the castle she and Luna had shared was finally breached, Nightmare Moon had been so confident that she could best Celestia, she barely even registered when Celestia had keyed the hidden switch to raise the Elements of Harmony's pedestal from its safekeeping.
"Dost thou believe that thy efforts will succeed?" Nightmare Moon had inquired as Celestia began to float each orb out from its socket. Granted, she had appeared slightly perturbed for a second, but she had recovered with a cocky, "We two had to use the Elements together, yet thou art alone! Betwixt our first battle, didst thy head receive too stark a blow?" She had laughed shrilly, but Celestia had remained silent.
And then the world filled with a brilliant rainbow.
Every window had been shattered, and the roof had collapsed, but when her vision cleared, Nightmare Moon was gone. And so was Luna.
As Celestia shook her head and forced herself away from rumination, she bit her tongue to hold back a couple of deep sobs. Golden Fleece had offered an escort to a safe room, since Canterlot was still an active war zone between Nightmare Moon's loyalists and those who stood by Celestia, but Celestia had refused. She needed to grieve, alone.
She should have been leading her troops, but as she paused to look out a window, all she could do was stare at the moon, its face now blemished by a facsimile of a horse's head on its surface. The glance was only for a second, but as soon as she did, her throat tightened, and she swallowed as hard as she could to keep a wail from escaping. Despite her efforts, tears trickled down her muzzle and sullied her fur, mixing with the oozing rivulets of blood from multiple small gashes she had on her face from shards of stained glass.
Outside, she could catch the sounds of swords clashing against other swords, armor cracking, and blood-curdling screams as soldiers and civilians alike were felled. In the mid-sized town, situated along the incline of the Canterhorn mountain range and specifically Mount Canter, fires raged and shadows darted through the streets. Although, she had been assured, the amount of rebels who fought for Luna were few, there were a number of prominent thestral houses that had resided there, and all had fallen in with her sister.
Most had fled, but sections of their private guards stayed behind. There was no negotiating with them.
Taking a moment to carefully draw a glass shard from the bridge of her nose, Celestia hissed and flattened her ears against her skull as a piercing point pricked her when she yanked it the last inch. A fresh dribble of crimson descended her muzzle and slipped between the crack in her lips. As the unmistakable taste of copper whetted her tongue, she nickered and moved on, the last words of Golden Fleece before she had left to guide her troops ringing in Celestia's ears.
"Verily, Princess, ye needn't blame yourself. Ye could not have known." If Celestia had been shown any more pity in Golden Fleece, she would have lost all her claim to royalty then and there and become like a beggar. It had taken strength enough to teleport the distance between the Eternal Forest and Canterlot; it required far more to not break down entirely upon arriving.
Before Celestia even realized it, she bumped into a door, which was where Fleece had directed her. She winced. Rubbing her nose, she weakly grasped the handle of the door in her magic and shoved. It creaked open without resistance.
As soon as her eyes adjusted to the bright candles that lined the walls, she frowned and staggered inside. Was it purposeful, or was it merely a coincidence that Fleece had given her a room with a balcony? Fleece was loyal, there was no doubt, but the nobility always liked to play their games, and providing her a prime view of the city below the castle was like twisting the knife Luna had plunged even further.
Screams and smoke carried up from the city, forcing her stomach to lurch and her body to break out into a cold sweat. Briefly, she visualized Luna, or Nightmare Moon, happily bursting out of their castle in their initial conflict. The shrieks that had filled the town around their castle in the Eternal Forest sounded much the same, especially as the moon hid the sun.
Never before had Celestia and Luna organized such a coordination in the cosmos, so the mere mortals that inhabited their lands were woefully unprepared for such theoretical—now actual—astronomical phenomena.
Blinking herself out of her reverie, she felt her legs wobble as the adrenaline that had coursed through her in the second confrontation with Luna faded. Every step she took toward the downy mattress and silken covers of the bed in the middle of the room was like walking on nails. Along the way, she tiredly pulled a few more shards of glass from her body, but for the most part ignored them. Their jabbing pricks only served as a further reminder to her failure.
Besides, a few had already fallen out on their own, as the wounds closed and practically forced them from where they had dug themselves in.
In the last couple of strides toward the bed, she stumbled, then used her aching wings to propel her the last couple of feet. She impacted the mattress with a "thwomp" and remained face-down in it for longer than she dared think. All the while, the cacophony of night combat below ebbed and waned, although it stayed relatively steady overall.
From what she could gather, there were more troops for Fleece, but the remaining guard of the thestral houses were actively using the night to their advantage.
As her body slowly relaxed from the comforting embrace of the bed, Celestia mulled. What could she have possibly done differently? Luna's betrayal was just so sudden; it was like she was lied to by somepony, who twisted the love Luna once had for her night into a weapon.
With her mind perplexed, all Celestia could mumble eventually as she spat out the blood that had trickled into her mouth earlier, was, "Why, L-Luna? Why?!"
Unsurprisingly, she received no answer, for nopony else was with her, and the bed couldn't very well speak for itself. Repeating her hopeless question, she sensed her chest tighten, and a burning, furious sensation stir in her heart. She quaked. The longer she dwelt on Luna, the more noticeable it became.
Soon doffing her peytral, she wiped at her brow, but could only mumble Luna's name again as hot tears began to stream down her cheeks. At last, the dam that had been standing against the pressure of her emotions burst, and she grimaced as a few, choking sobs escaped her throat. She punched the bed before burying her head in a pillow, soaking it with both tears and drops of blood. As she moved, she reopened some of the semi-healed gashes, which started to pour crimson ichor from them as she continued to wail.
Why had it come to this? What did she miss? How could she have kept her kingdom from falling to pieces? What could she have possibly done differently? Where were the indications Luna was feeling hurt?
These questions and more zoomed through her head as she slowly drained what tears she had. Hiccuping a couple of times, she peeled herself off the pillow, its case drenched, and she glanced once to the balcony. Although the chaos of battle seemed to have died, she could still hear small skirmishes that were playing out across the city.
As clanging metal on metal danced in her ears, her brow furrowed, and she could feel the heat in her chest swell further. What pain she had across her body from the glass shards felt like naught but a zephyr on her as her heart ached, like it had been split in two. Every breath was a battle, and most of her focus was on keeping herself upright.
An orange glow played itself across the bed, and she looked to a standing mirror that was to the right and a few feet back from the end of the bed. She was the one who was radiating light, as there were faint streaks of orange fire that licked up off her mane. For a moment, she merely stared at her reflection, as she tearfully ran a hoof down her cheek. In the process, she knocked loose some other pieces of glass that fell to the bed.
Struggling to take a few deep breaths, she watched as her image in the looking glass slowly lost the smoke and fire that was playing off it. A smidgen of the anger burning in her chest faded, too.
She hopped off the bed. After staggering momentarily, she approached the mirror. Her reflection stared back.
There was an abrupt burst of activity from the city. She whipped her attention to gaze out the balcony. The marble pillars of the exit reflected the glow of the fires and looked like they were carved out of brilliant, living flames. Briefly licking her lips, she sensed the swell of anger rise up in her chest again, clawing at her heart.
Finally, in a voice scratchy from sobbing, she told herself, "Nay, nay. I... shan't. W-Were I to lead, I fear I would know not when to cease fighting." She touched her chest. "This fire, Luna... why didst thou fall? For what reason did I offend thee? Didst thou know thou wouldst tear this kingdom in twain?"
As she stared out the balcony, she whimpered, "Must I choose between peace and more lives lost, or shall I dirty my hooves in thy supporters' blood to save those who would see Harmony reign?"
From the room, a low, rumbling cackle built and soon echoed throughout. Celestia folded her ears against her head as her heart skipped multiple beats. Was somepony in her chambers? Was she being watched? Had Fate seen to it that she would banish her sister, then perish herself by a spurned follower of the night?
Although her head ached from her energy being drained by the Elements, Celestia managed to sputter her horn to life, and she cried, "Who is there?!" She was met with silence. In turn, she poured as much as she could muster into the spell around her horn, which shed further light into the room. Still, there were a few crags, especially around some of the bookcases, where shadows leered against the walls.
She squinted.
"Foul intruder! Ye shall have a taste of the stockade or the noose once I drive ye from the crevice which ye have found!" She took a step or two toward one of the shadowed areas, and projected some of her magic's light toward it. When it revealed enough of the corner, she saw nothing, which only further caused her heart to pound. The low laughter echoed through the room again.
"If only it were so simple to find me, naive Celestia," it mockingly declared. It seemed familiar, which only caused Celestia's discomfort to climb further. A feminine voice, it sounded so condescending and self-righteous, but it had a hint of something she should know.
She simply couldn't place it.
"Continue ye to mock me in mine hour of grief?! Have ye no shame as ye play tricks upon me? Have ye a desire to see me brought low?!" Marching back, she searched a different crevice, and found nothing, which only further exacerbated her nerves. She forced her teeth not to chatter together.
The voice tittered. "Thou needst not seek far, Celestia, for I am here. Thou wert already so near. Verily, I could say that thou wert gazing into mine own soul."
Celestia snarled as her mind rushed to try and place the voice and the location. Since it bounced around the room, and mingled a smidgen with the sound of battle, she couldn't quite pinpoint it. She looked to the ceiling, for it was about as useful as anywhere else, and cried, "Speak ye only in riddles?! Are ye an assassin, a radical of the thestrals blinded by my sister's insanity that ye would mock me and seek my death?!"
In a bored tone, the feminine voice replied, "Nay, I am not. If thou dost perish, so do I." There was a pause. "As would all of Equestria."
"I understand ye not. Comprehend ye that ye are nothing but an enigma? Ye hide, yet act ye familiar. Ye mock, yet wish ye me no ill." Celestia paused and stared back at the mirror. Her reflection watched in return, its mane flowing calmly and serenely, and with the faintest hints of orange in it. Admittedly, Celestia's anger was beginning to flare again at the games that her hidden watcher was playing with her.
She groaned when the mocker was silent and flicked her eyes around the room. "I see only this room, and nothing behind which ye could hide. Reveal yourself, if ye truly are as ye say!"
"But I already have, if thou wouldst simply open thine eyes."
Celestia returned to staring at the mirror, then arched a brow. "Mine eyes are already open. I see nothing." Slowly, a tingle of worry worked its way down her spine. She could sense she was being appraised and studied, but it was like she was staring back at her intruder. That couldn't be correct, though.
Suddenly, the reflection leered closer to the mirror. Without realizing it, Celestia found herself moving in just as close to the reflection. It gazed back at her for a second, and Celestia's blood ran cold. Finally, it revealed fang-filled teeth, and it giggled. "Oh, thy blindness has covered thine eyes for months, foal! Discern thee now? Hast thy mind cleared, if only for a single moment, to see thy reality?"
For all of half a second, Celestia kept her sight on the reflection, and then she scrambled away, falling on her rump and scooting up to the frame of the bed. Her heart thudded rapidly against her chest, and she panted as she kept her eyes locked onto the reflection. It had done the same, but the expression was anything but panicked. If anything, it looked pleased.
Stammering a couple of times, Celestia squeaked, "What black-black magic is t-this?! Did Discord perchance flee his prison?! Doth he pour another hot coal upon my head?!"
The reflection merely gazed back at her, and its face switched rapidly from fear to glee, as if two creatures were in control of her body. "Nay, thou seest no trick. Hello, Celestia." It waved, and she saw her hoof move of its own volition to do the same in reality. "Thou hast already felt me strongly, but I thank thee for taking notice upon me."
"Is this glass merely a reflection of my crumbling mind?" Celestia whispered to herself as she looked in horror at her hoof. As if to test it, she wriggled it a couple of times, and it was fine. Absolutely no resistance.
"Mayhap I was dramatic," the reflection declared with a roll of her eyes. "It is challenging to exert beyond this projection." When Celestia stared dumbly at the reflection, it sighed and glared back at her. "Dost thou have nothing which to say? Art thou striving to understand what thou seest?" It clicked its tongue, and Celestia felt her tongue move without thought. "Hast thou already forgotten thy suspicions about our sister's ailment?"
"'Our?'"
The reflection sneered again. "Perceivest thou well. For just as she was of two minds, now, so are we." Baring its teeth again, the projection flashed in a bright orange, and Celestia suddenly felt heat wash over her. Standing in the mirror was a bastardized version of herself, with a mane of pure flame instead of the flowing, tri-color bands that had taken root after her use of the Elements on Luna. "Thou mayest call me Daybreaker. With our sister gone, we have much to discuss."
"Nay, that is not possible," Celestia mumbled as she looked down to her hooves. Indeed, her alabaster white fur had taken on a slightly red hue on the edges, and she could feel the warmth of her mane against her skin. She furrowed her brow. "Verily, I must be dreaming, for this could only be a nightmare."
She suddenly stomped without warning, which cracked the very floor beneath her. "Nay! Thou dost slumber not!" Daybreaker's forehead wrinkled in disgust, and she snarled, "Hast thou no ambition? Seest thou not what our sister has done?" Celestia merely gawked. Cackling, Daybreaker stepped closer to the mirror, dragging Celestia along with her, and she pressed against the edge of the mirror. "Equestria has been revealed as weak, but it is not lost! I shall give thee strength for the days ahead, as we rebuild it better, transformed into a mighty land where we are seen as what we truly are: the goddess of all ponies!" At that, she bellowed in delight, while running a hoof down the surface of the mirror.
"We shall drive every abomination of darkness to whence they came. Our light shall be a beacon around which all ponies shall rally. We shall be their day, and they shall be our servants, driven to right the maladies that these thestrals have wrought." She tapped the mirror a few times, and Celestia saw her hoof move in sync with it. "When they are brought to heel, our sister will receive a fitting punishment: she sought adoration, but she shall be forgotten for eternity!" With another cackle, she pulled back from the mirror, which in turn made Celestia move in kind, and kept her laughter going for close to a minute.
After wiping a tear from her eye, Daybreaker looked out to Celestia. "Thou needst only accept mine offer." She sneered and lowered her eyelids. "What sayest thee?"
As Daybreaker finished, Celestia felt her chest be gripped like a vice with rage. A couple of explosions rocked the castle, shaking some dust from the ceiling and knocking a candle to the floor, where it rolled and touched her hoof. She winced as the flame warmed her fetlock further, and she stamped it out. She plucked another couple of glass shards from her fur and growled.
Locking eyes with Daybreaker, she heaved a couple of times as renewed fighting appeared to break out in the city. Then, she sighed. A couple of tears trickled down her muzzle.
For the first time in over ten minutes, the frustration and anger ebbed away, and she saw her reflection lose most of its fiery glow. Some smoldering wisps of soot rose from her fur, but otherwise she had returned to normal. There was a consternated scowl on her muzzle, although she didn't recall creating it.
"Nay," she flatly stated.
"Thou couldst be followed like a god, and thou—" Daybreaker began, a furious scowl forming on Celestia's face as she did, but Celestia closed her eyes and willed to move her hoof. Although it felt like it was a lead weight, she did manage to do so.
"Nay! I shan't! Ye temptress of evil! Were I to follow your promises, I would bring my ponies to ruin!" She screamed at the reflection, "Nay! Again, I say nay! I shan't repay the villainy of my sister with more villainy!" Thrusting a hoof to the mirror, she snarled, "This glass is clearly a lens of dark magic. Guards!"
Although Celestia's body had returned to normal, Daybreaker still was in partial control. Contorting her face into a furious snarl which revealed her sharp fangs again, Daybreaker hissed, "They shall accomplish nothing, Celestia."
"They shall destroy your vessel, and then I shall be free of ye!" As she finished, Daybreaker only shared her an appraising, condescending look. Within moments, there was a clanking of armor, and she could hear a half-dozen guards galloping down the hallway toward her room. Celestia merely returned Daybreaker's expression with a smug grin.
At last, as the first guard slammed onto the door, Daybreaker stated, "Thou foalish, naive Celestia..."
As Celestia used her magic to open the door, she merely got to her hooves and unsteadily wobbled out. She smiled after she informed the guards to destroy the mirror and they complied by shattering the glass into a thousand shards, yet the smoldering anger she still held for the battle below, for every event that led up to Luna's betrayal, remained. Although there were no words said, she twitched an ear from whence she came when another cackle echoed down the hallway.
***
Whining alarm sirens rose from the streets of Canterlot as billowing clouds of soot and ash ascended into the sky, carried on the mountain breezes for which the city was known. Shrill bleats of emergency chariots laden with tens of gallons of water plus mages adept in casting further aquatic spells echoed through narrow corridors of the capital. Throughout the ornate skyline of Canterlot's finest buildings, large apartment buildings, recently constructed to house hundreds of workers at once, helped to bounce the warnings into a resounding wail. In some of the blocks, ponies poked out their heads to determine what was causing the commotion before ducking back inside when they spotted thick plumes of smoke.
The late afternoon sun beat down upon the metropolis, revealing in one quadrant the scarred remains of a factory, one of the largest that the Industrial Revolution had produced. For several hours, the blaze that had erupted in the building raged dangerously near the Royal Castle without anypony being able to calm it.
Thankfully, since it was so near the center of government, it was responded to incredibly quickly, yet the fire itself had changed little. Ponies of all descriptions watched in awe as firefighters and aqua mages battled the plumes, which licked out from the interior of the brick building while belching out more smoke.
From her vantage on her balcony, Celestia could only watch in fear as the factory, which was probably not more than half a kilometer away, continued to embrace the inferno. Thankfully, although the firefighters weren't advancing on the inferno, they at least kept it at bay well enough that it had yet to spread to any other buildings, but there was no telling when they would properly contain it. Most of the machinery inside was old, utilized some early matrices, and were comprised of many flammable materials.
On top of that, she had a briefing from S.M.I.L.E., which was on her desk in her private quarters and had been delivered by dragon fire naught ten minutes ago. Turning her back on the blaze, she marched inside, her chest feeling tight and her throat scratchy, as some tears threatened to pour out. Whether it was from her emotions or merely the haze that had overcome the city from the burning building, she was unsure.
Stalking around to her desk, she snatched the paper again and scanned through it. If her former aide, Dusty Quill, had still lived, she would have said Celestia's thoughts of "it's bad" would be an understatement.
"July 11th, 932 ALB," it began. "Early reports of the explosion by witnesses indicate a group of workers entered the factory on an unexpected work shift. Approximately twenty-three minutes afterward, a blast centered in the factory shattered windows in a twelve block radius, and the workers were seen fleeing the scene. S.M.I.L.E. agent Green Bond was in the vicinity, and apprehended three of the retreating targets, who have already been taken into interrogation and revealed to be changelings. So far, they have yet to speak. Agent Bond is unsure if she was spotted apprehending the changelings, all of whom reverted to their natural form upon being rendered unconscious.
"Immediate recommendation for a press conference to get ahead of the situation, so that successful negotiations with Queen Pupate of Hive Vesalipolis are not hindered."
As she put the paper down, Celestia's legs knocked together, and she stared back out at the factory that she could see in the distance. Little scared her, but the amount of chaos that the changeling operatives brought with them had set her nerves on edge. If any of her ponies had been hurt in the explosion—
She cut off that train of thought by clenching her teeth together and grimacing. For a moment, she merely listened to the sirens and the shouts of firefighters as they combated the blaze. They would have their hooves full, since a second paper to the report from S.M.I.L.E. indicated that they found some residue of combustible pazzara on the changelings, meaning that they probably had their goopy metabolic byproduct infused with magic for additional flammability.
Realistically, if enchanted with the right spells, the blaze could continue for days without much sign of wavering, since water could only do so much, and if the mages couldn't find the heart of the spell, they couldn't extinguish its long-lasting flame.
She closed her eyes again and pictured the inviting gaze and smile of Queen Pupate, as they sat around a small table in one of the diplomatic rooms in the castle. Although changelings were natural readers of emotions, Pupate had left that at the table, and promised that she came as an equal, and was without any tricks up her chitin. Celestia was truly getting somewhere, since Vesalipolis had agreed to a resource exchange for technology from their lands. It was merely figuring out the minute details.
Everything seemed fine, so what had changed?
Unless...
She shook her head. While the hives in the changeling lands were disunited and occasionally there had been scares when the occasional hive infiltrator or warrior was discovered in the border regions, they had remained mostly insular. Pupate was a rare exception, as she had been in communication and in good standing with Celestia for most of her reign, so it couldn't have been her. Throwing away any chance of a trade deal after years of effort made no sense.
Stepping forward to look out the balcony again, she tried to put two and two together. However, as she heard a couple of screams from the industrial park, her blood pressure spiked, and she instinctively pawed at the ground with a hoof. She flared her nostrils and attempted to breathe evenly. All that flashed through her mind was that her ponies were hurting, and her chest felt as if it was being rent into pieces.
Briefly, her mind flashed back to that first night she even felt that all-consuming fury. So much pain and loss could be heard in her ponies back then, when the castle in the Everfree burned, and the moon slowly moved its way out of the sky, now blotted with that same, mocking form of Luna etched into it.
She blinked away some tears. When was the last time that she could even recall Canterlot being in danger? Not even when the last deer raids fell upon the western coast of Equestria had the capital been threatened. If ponies discovered that they had been infiltrated this deeply by changelings, rogue, acting on Pupate's orders, or otherwise, it would be mass hysteria. Even more ponies could perish in the fear that'd grip them all.
Suddenly, there was a low chuckling in the room, and Celestia flattened her ears against her head. "Oh, does little 'Tia now realize her ponies have gotten soft and fat?" the voice of Daybreaker mocked. Celestia straightened herself as much as she could and continued to gaze out the balcony. In a mix of awe and fear, she watched the smoke soar into the sky, all the while doing her best to ignore the sensation of guilt building in her throat.
"Poor Celestia," she heard Daybreaker croon. "Her hope of making peace with those disgusting creatures looks to be fading fast. Please, somepony alert an ambulance!" She cackled, which sounded earsplitting, and Celestia flinched as some more hot tears trickled down her muzzle.
"Speak with me, Celestia," beckoned Daybreaker, her voice inviting and calm. Something that had been a rarity in times past.
"No," Celestia retorted in a flat tone. Hanging her head as one of the smokestacks of the factory collapsed in a cloud of dust and ash, she quivered her lips as she struggled to contain a couple of sobs. Towering tongues of flame, with a slightly, sickly green hue in their centers, roiled upwards into the sky, and more frightened shrieks filled the air. In the distance, further clanging bells of alarm started to chime, as she surmised that practically every single firefighter in the city was being hailed to assist.
"Ugh, do you need a minute to cry it out? 'Oh, I'm Celestia! I'm so concerned for my ponies! Please don't breathe on them too hard! They'll fall over!'" With a disgusted raspberry, Daybreaker huffed, "Please. Get over here, right now!"
Indignantly furrowing her brow, Celestia stood rigid for a moment, but her mind itched as she could feel herself being watched, and she finally growled before spinning around to march into her quarters. A luxurious bed was placed along the far wall, with curtains draped upon a frame to allow for additional privacy at night. A pair of statues, busts of some of her former staff whom she had befriended, resided on either side of the only entrance to the room, on the far-right side from the balcony.
Small waterfalls gurgled and burped down from twin, tiny holes approximately five feet on either side of her bed, into reflecting pools which caressed the marble island on which it resided. A few lilies here and there dotted the surface of the water, as well as a couple of fountains which gushed more water. Anypony who saw it would describe it as idyllic, especially since it was large enough to serve as a bedroom, office, and study, all in one, but at the moment, she couldn't agree, since her emotions were anything but serene.
A mirror hung on the far-left wall, along with a stand for her regalia, and she slowly inched toward it. As she moved nearer, she didn't see her reflection at all. In fact, Daybreaker's form was already in it, as if looking through a window. She was eyeing Celestia cockily.
"It's so good to see you again, Celestia," she stated with a small snicker. Puffing out her lips and pouting, she whined, "We never talk much any more. Not since you had that tantrum when you wanted to award Coltlumbus along with that sniveling descendant of Red Bloom with knighthood and ladyship." She gagged. "Ugh, how utterly boring."
"Enough! I am not here to be mocked by you!" Slamming a hoof into the marble, Celestia managed to inflict some faint cracks along its surface. She glared harshly at Daybreaker. In return, Daybreaker threw back her head in laughter and dabbed at one of her eyes in glee.
"What do you think you'll do, Celestia? Break my mirror again? Psychoanalyze me to death? You know, that would require you to admit you're terrified." Startled, Celestia froze momentarily, which made Daybreaker's grin grow all the wider. She tapped on the glass. "Like this trick? Honestly, the whole 'I move your mouth, use some of my energy controlling your body shtick' is so three centuries ago." She flapped her wings. Celestia did not. "It's so much more freeing to simply be in your reflection."
Scratching her chin and humming, she inquired, "So does that mean you're actually seeing me, or am I simply a figment of your pathetic little mind, because it can't handle the oh so scawy thought that one of your little ponies had a boo-boo?"
Celestia ground her teeth together. Between the anger and the despair, she swore that she would file them down to nothing but smooth nubs by the end of the century if the stress kept up. She didn't answer Daybreaker, though. After all, it wasn't like she was required to.
"Oh, but you do want to answer me, don't you?" tittered Daybreaker. Leaning into the glass of the mirror, she pressed her muzzle against it and bore her fangs. "You want to yell at me, scream at me, eradicate me, don't you?" Celestia's silence remained deafening. "But you can't... because that would mean you'd be destroying a part. Of. You." She rapped a hoof against the glass to emphasize the last word.
"Absolutely not!" retorted Celestia, her magic suddenly flaring and swirling around her horn. Blazing crackles of fire licked up from her horn, as she glowered directly into the mirror. Daybreaker merely smiled. "I would be losing nothing of myself, but I would be ridding me of you!"
Looking to what would be the ceiling if she were not inside a mirror, Daybreaker searched for a second or two, and then she focused her gaze back on Celestia. "My my, somepony seems to be losing her temper." She started to pace back and forth in the mirror, disappearing behind one side, and reappearing around the other. "Could say that you have a little... fire in you." She tittered. "Something that needs to break out. See the light of day."
Celestia snarled.
"Cheer up. I'm only here to make your life better."
Swiping a wing as a way to motion for Daybreaker to be silent, Celestia flared her nostrils and snorted. "You only seek to destroy everything that I hold dear."
Stalling for a moment in her nonchalant pace, Daybreaker gawked before she caught her breath and broke into a fit of giggles. Her fiery mane whipped around her head, glinting off the orange armor and blood red ruby in her helmet. She tapped her chest. "You think I want to wipe out all life, is that it?"
With a nod, Celestia kept her gaze fixed on the mirror, her body ready to fling it to the floor and crush it beneath her hooves. Yet remained hesitant. There was a prickly sensation in the back of her mind, some form of resistance, but she couldn't quite get past it.
"Well, I suppose those thestrals could serve to be enlightened," muttered Daybreaker, almost to the point of being undecipherable to Celestia. However, she perked up slightly and proclaimed, "But that's beside the point! They're all 'blah bleh blah! Let me suck your blood' and 'blackness represents my soul' and stuff! Ugh, they can't possibly be ponies!" She blew a raspberry and waved a hoof dismissively. "Their land could just be more living space for actual ponies who actually wish to serve Equestria."
"That's insane! They're my subjects, like, like—"
"They wished to see you perish when our 'sister' attempted to murder us!" Daybreaker interjected, whacking both of her forehooves against the glass of the mirror. In fright, Celestia jumped back when the mirror shook, and faint, spiderweb cracks appeared where Daybreaker had impacted against it. The damage soon faded, though, and Daybreaker went back to pacing.
"Do they deserve to live, when they knowingly tried regicide?" As Celestia mulled on the statement, her mind working over the logic and how to refute it, there was a flash on her desk and a second scroll from S.M.I.L.E. appeared on it. Hastily, she snatched it with her magic and unfurled it.
"And those changelings," Daybreaker mused while Celestia continued to scan the paper. "Does it not strike you as strange that your 'best queenie friend' tried to stab you in the back?" She hummed and fidgeted on her hooves as she pondered. "No matter, they're bugs all the same, and shall be squashed by—" As she turned around, she cut herself off when she saw Celestia reading the scroll.
Unnoticed by Celestia, Daybreaker's image momentarily faded from the mirror, replaced by Celestia's natural reflection. A shiver worked its way down Celestia's spine, as a sensation of somepony watching her tickled its way through her whole body. No, it was like somepony was seeing through her.
The scroll was a follow-up report by S.M.I.L.E., indicating that one of the captured changeling operatives broke, after he was subjected to the same marching band music played on repeat for the past several hours. Apparently they were dispatched through a contact from Vraks, who claimed to be seeking a union between the two hives, and was certain that the treaty with Equestria would hinder it. No name, no indication for whom they worked, although probably from the ease they got into the heart of the nation—a difficulty for most changelings given their need to feed—the mysterious recruiter probably had extensive resources. Like that of one of the hive queens.
Dread building in her stomach, Celestia lowered the report. Although the changelings, in general, kept to themselves, there had been numerous inter-hive wars in the past, a number of which she could remember without issue. All of them had been bloody, since they usually fought for the scarce resources that changelings could subsist off of when they weren't feasting on emotions.
She could only imagine what Pupate would do when she learned of the attempted breakdown of her hive's treaty with Equestria.
"Oh ho, the changelings are having another spat, are they?" Daybreaker chimed in, which made Celestia glance upward and barely miss her reflection being replaced by Daybreaker's image. Smirking as she rubbed both of her forehooves together, Daybreaker exclaimed, "A perfect opportunity." She nodded to the paper. "We have cause, they are going to be busy fighting themselves, we can swoop in and claim we are seeking to stabilize the region." She cackled. "And then take it for ourselves, so our ponies won't have to worry about slime like them ever again!"
For a moment, Celestia visualized the fire and brimstone that would be wrought if that came to pass. The last inter-hive war was over a century ago, before Pupate or any of the current queens came to power—she believed, anyway—and the imperfect reports at the time indicated that it wiped out approximately fifteen percent of their population in it.
Would it be so horrible to move in while they were unprepared? The attack, now that it was identified, gave reason for invading, and as news would surely spread of the bombing, ponies could possibly be more inclined to at least tolerate some inconvenience for a short while, but would it really save lives?
How could she protect her ponies if they were being shot at by magic and bolt-action rifles?
"Don't tell me that you're hesitating now!" Daybreaker burst in, breaking Celestia from her thoughts and making her look back toward the mirror. Practically wreathed in flame, Daybreaker was pressed as close as she could to the mirror, the opposite side of it, and gazed right into Celestia's soul.
"Do you not sense that anger burning inside of you?!" When Celestia hesitated, looked away, and then swallowed heavily, Daybreaker snickered. Whacking the mirror again, she proclaimed, "You feel it as I do, because I. Am. YOU!" She tittered again, and Celestia's chest felt like a massive, two-ton weight had been placed on it. As she simply stared at Daybreaker, her alter-ego's reflection sneered. "Honestly, you should thank me. I get to bottle up all that rage you get at the slightest thing, and you get to appear all frilly and nice, while I fester inside of you." She bore her fangs. "But come, Princess, it has to be let out at some point."
She held out a hoof, which was nary an inch from the rear of the mirror's surface. "Come. Let me out. I can lead this weak nation, that's grown so decadent and soft, to a new era of glory!" Seeing Celestia's face contort in fear, Daybreaker rolled her eyes and brayed. "Ugh, honestly, you need to stop reacting like that. What? Do I have something stuck in my teeth?" She licked at her mouth.
"B-Bloodthirsty psychopath!" was all Celestia could stutter.
Daybreaker bowed her head. "Guilty as charged." Recoiling in disgust and nausea, Celestia backpedaled until she was at the edge of the reflecting pool. Some of her tail dipped into the water, and slowly soaked to the point where it chilled her rump. Daybreaker merely assessed her.
"I promise, this will protect your little ponies."
"Will it?" For a second, Celestia stared into Daybreaker's eyes. Outside, she heard some more rumbling, followed shortly by another cacophonous blast. Although she wasn't in the perfect position, she could tell it was another one of the smokestacks collapsing. In the aftermath of the minor quake, some more screams could be heard. The scent of smoke finally started to waft into the room.
As she kept her eyes locked on Daybreaker, her heart began to thud against her chest. It had been centuries since she had last led an army. The threats after Luna's banishment had been silenced. Additionally, those times of yore, where everypony was willing to do what it took, including dying, to keep Harmony alive, were gone. What could she say or do, in an age of complacent pacifists, to motivate them to defend themselves? She had solved their problems for so long, was it even possible that she could convince them they must fend for themselves?
If whoever was the mysterious benefactor of the changeling infiltrators managed to succeed, and if they could unite the hives as one, then what? Clearly, they had already shown their distaste for Equestria, and if there was ever a full-scale invasion...
Celestia closed her eyes and whimpered. How could she comfort her own ponies when she was frightened herself?
She jerked her head up as she heard Daybreaker hum and then brush a hoof against the mirror. "Oh, but, of course, a few ponies may have to die, for the greater good." When Celestia laid her attention on Daybreaker, the dark reflection was merely observing her own hoof, like she had scuffed the metal shoe that encased it.
Her blood ran cold. Sweat trickling down her face, she stuttered, "Is that supposed to assure me?!"
"Oh, it should!" Daybreaker powered her horn in a blood-red glow of magic, and she disappeared in a brief blaze. Replacing her was a small scene of a battlefield. Two large armies, one led by a fiery alicorn and the other a tall changeling with a slick, dark cerulean mane, charging into the fray to meet each other. In a single, brilliant explosion of pure flame, the conflict was transformed in an instant, with flames reaching every which way among both sides, and the same changeling fighting the obvious depiction of Daybreaker clasped in the other's magic, which was slowly creeping an inferno up her body.
Celestia merely stared, almost petrified.
Calmly, Daybreaker reappeared in the mirror and stated nonchalantly, "Together, I may harness the sun itself, but I can't shield everypony from its might." She shrugged and tossed her mane aside. It whipped and splashed against the mirror's surface. "Of course, nothing would truly be lost. More cogs can replace those who perish." Yawning and rubbing a hoof against her chest, she inquired while arching a brow, "So, will you embrace me at last? Fulfill what every alicorn was meant to be?!"
Working her jaw a couple of times as it quivered in fear, Celestia stammered a few times, which made Daybreaker groan and shake her head. As she flitted her gaze between Daybreaker and the outside world, Celestia saw a few pegasi, simple citizens, from what she could discern by their dress, fly toward the factory fire. A minute later, a couple of them returned, carrying an injured earth pony in the direction of one of the hospitals near the castle.
Celestia sniffed. Dabbing at her eyes with a fetlock, she finally snarled, "No."
"'No?!'" Daybreaker retorted, her face contorting into a scowl, one that could melt the very stone underneath Celestia. She slammed both her hooves onto the ground, which cracked the marble tiles in the mirror. Although they didn't, Celestia swore that the ones in reality did as well.
"What do you mean, 'no?!'" bellowed Daybreaker, her yellow eyes bursting into flame, and her mane switching from a relatively calm orange to a searingly bright blue. It was enough that the illumination from the mirror cast shadows on the opposite wall.
Gazing again to the balcony, Celestia saw some more of the pegasi leave with more victims, this time being guided by an exhausted-appearing EMS worker. She smiled weakly. "Because my ponies matter."
"They are insignificant compared to the might of the SUN!" Daybreaker shot back with enough force that Celestia felt compelled to return her alter ego's gaze. Spitting and snarling, Daybreaker was bowed low to the ground, like an animal on the hunt. Growling like a rabid dog, she hissed, "What do mortals concern us when we never age?! How will you prepare this nation for our 'sister's' return if you do not whet their appetite on these worthless insects?!"
Celestia broke off momentarily. Her mind raced, and she barely registered when Daybreaker grumbled, "You would even let the thestral abominations survive!"
At that, Celestia whinnied loudly and whirled around on her hooves before galloping up to the mirror. Almost smacking her face into it, she heaved herself directly in front of Daybreaker and bore her teeth. Although with no fangs for additional intimidation factor, she still managed to make Daybreaker jerk back in fright. Pounding one hoof against the mirror, Celestia gnarled, "No! I seek another way! You wish for death, destruction, and oppression, I wish Harmony to continue forever!"
"And where will you have it without order? An order that I—"
"SILENCE!" Celestia boomed.
Daybreaker clamped her mouth shut. For once, and for the first time Celestia could recall from all past appearances in which Daybreaker had visited her, Daybreaker looked afraid. While she didn't hold herself in a cowering position, her pupils had shrunk just enough, and her jaw tightened tangibly, that it was clear she was perturbed.
"I will find a way to save Luna, and I will make sure that all my ponies are kept safe." Celestia straightened. "It's my duty as princess. Harmony will prevail."
"Bah," Daybreaker scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "We can't wield the Elements, so what do you hope for? That they'll magically accept you again?" Tapping her chest, she snickered, "They very well may sense me. Don't expect that to change anytime soon, 'Tia." She stuck out her tongue derisively.
Opening her mouth, Celestia closed it and then thought. No, perhaps her own demons prevented her from utilizing the Elements again, but that didn't mean that nopony else could. They'd simply need a bit of guidance.
Suddenly, an idea sprang to her, and she smiled, a bit too widely. When Daybreaker spotted this, she stepped closer and demanded, "Speak! You are devising something." Her mane flared brightly again. "Do not make a mistake. I am the—"
"You are nothing but a monster, and I will have no part in it. Your 'cogs' are ponies, whose lives matter just as much as mine or Luna's!" Celestia pressed her muzzle against the mirror. "And all of them matter to me."
"Ugh, Celestia, please, you're wasting time and effort on recording the lives of your 'besties.'" Motioning to the busts that were near Celestia's bed, Daybreaker stuck out her tongue in disgust. She worked her nose in thought. "Fine, if I promise to—"
"Go."
Daybreaker blinked. "Excuse me?"
Gritting her teeth, Celestia glowered directly into Daybreaker's soul, if there was one, and she spat, "I. Said. GO!" She whacked both her forehooves on the mirror. Unlike her alter ego, the cracks that formed on the mirror didn't disappear. All that it left instead were hundreds of tiny shards of Daybreaker's image.
With irritation, Daybreaker nickered and grunted, "You believe that Luna can be stopped without me?! You yourself discovered the flaw in the spell you cast via the Elements! It shall not last the rest of this century!" Her mane continued to flap furiously in a non-existent wind inside the glass, and soon glowed as brilliantly as the noonday sun. To Celestia's surprise, it was enough to even make her cover her eyes.
"I have not spent nine hundred years showing you the truth, preparing you for a moment like this, just for you to turn your back on me!" With palpable rage and spitting flecks of saliva onto the interior side of the mirror, Daybreaker demanded, "Have I not been with you since Luna betrayed us?! Have I not given you guidance when you needed it most?!"
"Your 'guidance' was only recommendation for death and destruction, Daybreaker," Celestia snarled as she leaned into one of the smallest reflections. Smugly grinning, she watched as Daybreaker scrambled back, as she must have appeared as a giant from her alter-ego's vantage point. Celestia tapped the glass. "Do not ever speak to me again! I will never give in to you! If I see or hear you once more, I will consort with every mage in the realm to exorcise you!" Abruptly, a wave of exhaustion washed over her, and she could barely keep herself upright as she crashed from an adrenaline high.
Daybreaker merely stared at her for a moment. As her mane began to change from a hot blue, to a smoldering orange, to a dull red, Daybreaker finally snarled, "As you wish." She disappeared in an instant, and Celestia's reflection replaced her.
With a sigh, Celestia collapsed to the floor, and she heaved a couple of deep breaths before she heard a frantic knocking on the door. "Princess! Princess! Are you all right?!" she heard her head servant, Cinnamon Swirl, demand, her voice panicked beyond belief.
For a few more seconds, Celestia let the mare on the other side of the door pound away, but finally she rose and staggered to the entrance. Feeling her mane caked to her body in sweat, Celestia only slightly cracked the door open, and she peered out at the light brown earth pony. Cinnamon Swirl started to nervously twirl one of the ivory-colored streaks in her mane, and she inquired, "I-I heard voices, and thought that—"
"Everything is fine, Cinnamon. I'm okay," Celestia interjected.
Craning her neck to try and get a look past Celestia, Cinnamon asked anxiously, "But I heard two voices. Is somepony else in there?"
Celestia peered back herself at the mirror and caught a small gasp as Cinnamon must have spied it between in the small crack of the doorway. Returning to face her servant, Celestia merely smiled, and she tittered, "Nothing but ghosts and our imagination!"
***
As the last rays of evening sunlight filtered into Celestia's quarters, she sighed and looked at her broken mirror. Even though it had been a couple of weeks, she had kept her room quarantined, despite Cinnamon Swirl's protests, and only spent enough time in it to sleep. Negotiations were over, and, unfortunately, unresolved.
Like S.M.I.L.E.'s director, Rock Candy, thought, the captured changelings were spotted before they could be hidden away by other agents, and word broke out that rogue changelings were in Canterlot. Although there was no concrete evidence presented publicly that tied them to the terrorist attack, it didn't stop the various newspapers from running sensationalist headlines about it being a botched assassination attempt on Celestia.
"I know which one of my changelings did this," Pupate had told Celestia before she departed. While both had striven for a deal, the tension between the other delegates from both governments would have made it impossible, even though both she and Pupate were still on board for a trade deal.
With a sigh, Celestia watched from her balcony as construction crews continued to tear down the blackened skeleton of the factory which had been lit on fire. Scorched soot had baked itself into the bricks of nearby buildings, and the entire industrial park had been leveled, as the magical flames had jumped from one location to the next when some of the water dousing it had run out. It was only by a miracle that S.M.I.L.E. had found a counter to the flammable pazzara in time.
After observing for another minute, Celestia finally let her posture slump, and her wings drooped until they touched the ground. Defeatedly, she whimpered and hung her head before she began to trudge back to her bed. As she did, there was a small tinkle and a burst of magic, and a scroll popped itself onto her desk.
She paused.
As she was halfway between the desk and her bed, which was beckoning to her to embrace its downy mattress and caressing bosom of pillows, she squinted her eyes shut and shook her head. Some of her last requests before getting back into deep negotiations ran through her mind. And, also, the last few mocking statements from Daybreaker.
When Celestia thought of her alter ego, whose actions seemed to be her own, and her thoughts separate, to an extent, she felt a shiver work down her spine. Still, the almost ever-present anger that boiled deep in her chest seemed to have died, or, if it was still there, been muted by the stress of the last week or two. Still, it felt eerily empty inside her skull.
Skulking to the desk, she grabbed the scroll that had materialized there and unfurled it. It was sealed with Rock Candy's personal seal, and indicated that not even anypony else in S.M.I.L.E. had seen it. Truly, for her eyes only.
She smiled from ear to ear.
Looking back to the mirror, she moved to it and stood in front of it before stating, "Listen to me carefully, Daybreaker. I know you're in there and that you can still hear me." She gently tapped her head. As she did, she expected Daybreaker to appear in the shards of mirror glass, but Daybreaker didn't. Instead, it just remained her reflection. However, that didn't matter.
"You wanted me to believe that ponies aren't anything more than cogs? I almost agreed with you. It certainly would have made things simple, and I could have protected my ponies so much easier if I threw a few away to save the rest." She stood straighter. "But you're wrong. Seeing ponies helping each other in that attack, it reminded me: Friendship is the heart of Equestria. It's what brings ponies together. It gives Harmony its strength. That attack might have almost pushed me over the edge, but that path's journey started all the way back with Luna's banishment, and you took advantage of that."
She pressed a hoof against the mirror and one of the pieces clattered to the floor. Furrowing her brow, she hissed, "But that friendship will always grow stronger. It saved us in the aftermath of the terrorist attack. It'll save us from Luna's return."
At that, she finally saw Daybreaker's apparition appear. Sullen and frustrated, the dark reflection's mane was a deep crimson, and it blew faintly in the ethereal wind. Daybreaker was silent. Instead, she merely crossed her hooves and snorted.
Celestia smirked. "You may speak."
Bearing her teeth, Daybreaker cackled but still said nothing. She shook her head, emphatically.
Celestia huffed. "Speak. Now."
"Oh, you wish to end my punishment so soon?" Daybreaker tittered and her mane whipped around briefly. Getting to her hooves, she walked to the edge of the largest shard and stared, slightly off kilter, given its angle, at Celestia. "I have nothing to say, 'Tia. I'll keep our little agreement." She pouted. "But yours was such a pretty speech. Did you spend the last two weeks on it?"
When Celestia merely nickered and glared back at Daybreaker, Daybreaker quipped, "You do realize that your plan will never work? Ponies have become too soft." She sat back down on the ground of the mirror. "I will enjoy watching the fireworks, though." With a shrug, she added, "And maybe, if you come back to me, I might help."
Unfurling the paper, Celestia cocked a side-eyed grin at Daybreaker, and felt a wave of elation embrace her as Daybreaker choked when she saw the page. "You're wrong, Daybreaker. And these ponies will prove it." She brought it back to skim over the names of charity volunteers, rescue workers, general citizens, all with public records of great deeds they had done for the common pony.
"A friendship student sounds like a brilliant idea, and I thank you for inspiring me to do something more proactive." At Daybreaker's gag, Celestia added, "When Luna is brought back to me—"
"You'll hug it out? Blech." Daybreaker lolled out her tongue in disgust.
Shrugging, Celestia put the scroll away and looked out the balcony. Some pegasus workers were carefully prying off loose bricks from the factory remains. Others were scrubbing off the soot from house walls, and still others were bringing in clouds to wash off more ash elsewhere.
With a smile, she stated, "Perhaps, but Harmony will be upheld. Maybe we can step back after that. Immortals... should not always guide ponies for all of time."
Daybreaker coughed. "Ugh. I'm going to be sick." At that, she got up and turned around. Watching her curiously for a second, Celestia faced Daybreaker again and folded her ears against her head when Daybreaker snarled, "Enjoy your friendship brigade, Celestia. If you believe your new pet will amount to anything without my power, then you're deceiving yourself." With a resounding huff, she shot a final glare at Celestia before flicking her flaming tail and marching away. She began to fade, allowing the missing reflection of Celestia to slowly materialize.
Her voice growing more distant each passing second, Daybreaker declared, "You'll see one day. We are Order! We are Harmony! You will beg for my help, and only then, when your world is crumbling around you, will I deign rescue to you!" There was a final cackle, and then she vanished from the mirror altogether. "Ta!" Her quiet cheer echoed in Celestia's head momentarily.
Her throat catching briefly, Celestia crept closer before she snapped, "Daybreaker! I'm not done with you!" There was silence, and Celestia's heart skipped a beat. Swallowing deeply, forcing back a few tears since she couldn't even sense she was being watched, she demanded, "Answer me! Daybreaker?!"
While realization slithered through her like a constrictor readying itself to entrap its victim, she gulped and whimpered, "Daybreaker?"
Still no response.
Her heart rate skyrocketed.
Panting desperately, Celestia swallowed a lump in her throat whilst her mind darted to one last summon. "Demon?"
Nothing.
As the minutes ticked by, hot, thick tears trickled down her muzzle and pooled at her hooves. She didn't even notice that they sizzled and boiled on the floor. Cracking a hoof on the ground, she wailed desperately, "Answer me!"
"Answer me..."
FIN
Author's Note
And another year, another EaW writing competition entry. This one was a blast to write, and I finally have a published story with Daybreaker, our lovely Solar Empress! Probably not the take that's seen often, especially with how I had her show up, but hopefully the twist was enjoyable! Also, although this was my submission, this was not the first story I wrote for this year's competition, so expect at some point in the future to see what my first idea was, since I want to work on it further before it is published. 
Anyway, thanks again to Everfree Pony for editing, including all the references in comments left on the document. Always enjoy working with you. 
Additionally, the cover art was a commission from December Breeze. Please give her a follow. She does great art!
Until next fic!
T4E
