When the city of Vanhoover rebels against the Crown, threatening to ignite civil war and tear Equestria apart, it is up to the Princess of the Day to step forth and to do what is necessary to ensure that, no matter what, the Sun shines bright upon Equestria.
And she must do it alone.
First Place Winner of the My Little Pony Renaissance Contest!
Featured for Equestria Daily's Celestia Day!
A standalone piece in the Spectrum-verse. TV Tropes page here!
Based off an idea by SockPuppet.
Edited by VoxAdam, proofread by Bicyclette, SockPuppet, Raleigh, skysayl, and TheIdiot. Thanks, everyone 
Cover by Plainoasis.
Featured from 28/06/2021-2/7/2021, reaching #1 three hours after publishing!
Chapters (4)
So glad to see this live! It was such a delight to preread. Celestia doing celestial things is always great.
It lives!
Okay. Once is a coincidence. But when you mention Princess Equinox, as a healer, and in Vanhoover. It's plain as day this is related to the story Luna's Daughters.
That or I'm going crazy 😁.
Wonderfully done. Good work. Best of luck in the contest, as well.
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And thanks for the help, Sock
Glad ya liked it!
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It does!
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Thanks, and to you as well
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Sock and Sledge are good friends :)
I always do love reading a good ol' Sledge story.
Well written and extremely well done. I applaud you, Sledgy boi, thanks for this masterpiece that distracted me from geography class.
I think I would have prefered things without Ironhoof. Tribalist Unicorns are so ubiquitous in the fandom, it's like they're the only ones who can be prejudiced at all, and he was... quite blatant.
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What can I say, he never got his comeuppance, so I'm doing it myself
Truly spectacular... thank you.
Never thought I'd see the Rainbow Crow again
Woah this is a huge recommendation from a lot of people... uhm... I'll read it later
Smug self-serving snake. If he had his own way any non-unicorns could starve for all he cares. As for non-ponies...well now, let's simply say the fewer the better.
While I do wish we could have seen IronHoof getting his comeuppance, I am not so terribly bothered by the concept of tribalist behavior from the Aristocracy. The show canon itself did seem to put a pretty heavy disdain towards aristocrats and unicorns in general (at least the Canterlotian ones). That being said there were to my recollection hints that Eath ponies and Pegasi could be just as snooty.
In any case, this was a nice story and for the record if we can get more story times with Celestia and Flake I would be a happy camper.
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It's no trouble
Glad you enjoyed it!
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That the show did, aye.
And, aw. Glad Flake made an impression
And that one goes straight onto the favourites shelf :)
Thank you for the story :)
Wonderfully written, fantastic characterization and dripping with atmosphere! What more could I ask for. Well done!
T'was a nice read, Sledge. I'd comment more, but tomorrow is probably better for that.
Gonna leave this here for now, though. Again, a lively read, and I look forward to trying to catch the references. Already see many~
That was a nice read, far more enjoyable than I was expecting. Nicely written, and well done.
Damn you, I've been writing a story of my own called Solis Regina.
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Aw, glad to have satisfied!
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By all means, take your time
Glad you liked it, and good eye 
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Huzzah! Thank you
Glad ya enjoyed it
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Figured I'd pop on by and read some stuff, your story popped up and it was a joy to read.
Keep on writing my guy.
What a wonderful story! There is so much passion put into it and the world you have depicted feels very lived in and natural. I could listen to a hundred stories from this world you have crafted and never be satisfied.
Thank you. Your skill is exemplary.
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You're in luck, because most of my stories (save for the first one I wrote) are all set in the same timeline, roughly, or draw from the same headcanon
A very nice look at the post-war years, and a great look at Celestia.
God damn. That was some good writing.
Dude, that’s possibly the best way I’ve seen celestia written - ever. She talks like an old mare, yet she’s flowing with youth and power and grief. Every little thing reminds her of another story.
That’s how I imagine a true immortal would live. Reminiscing upon reminiscing...
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Fancy seeing you here, over from Spectrum
. I'm humbled, truly, that you would consider that - I hope to live up to the expectations when she pops up again in Spectrum since, you know, same Celestia and all.
Glad you enjoyed this little story!
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So does this count as a sequel to that story? Or just using a lot of the lore without being a true sequel? Doesn't hurt this story either way.
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Latter! I adapted part of the lore without making this a sequel. The one primary difference here being that Luna was still around when her daughters passed away, and that said line is cut short instead of flourishing.
Shade bro...shade. Celly is big boned. But...probably... NO! I can not say!
You know has their ever been a story. Where the earty pony has not ever been a servant of somekind? It just struck me as I was reading that even with a storys given message. Their always more often then not earth pony servants? Mind in canterlot? Yes?
I would imagine their are stories that have unicorns or whatever in those roles. But! It is interesting that it is imagined more often that earth ponies are the servants? I just think thats interesting.
Aka unicorns are nobles? I think their some subtle sociological condition there. Their? Hmm...curious.
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Well, I mean - in the story itself you see earthponies, unicorns and pegasi of varying social statuses, like Greyhoof - advisor to Celestia herself (and really, next to her, who can claim to be a true equal other than another diarch?), the working class unicorn child mentioned, and the Baroness herself?
A thousand years later and...presumedly money still rules your equastria?
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I like to ignore or disregard parts of the show that resemble 21st century America so, no, it does not rule Equestria
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Lol I was about to respond. Then I realized you responded to my comment.
Excellent and rather love this potrayel of Celestia. One of my favorites. She shows what immortality is to me at least.
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True. I will not contest. I just question in general. A desire to maintain a heichary? Highiarcy? And as much as I like Luna and Celestia. I really wonder often just in real life is their a better way? Thats what really makes me say that.
Because their is injustice. I want question the mores, norms, and culture that shapes societys. Just as well that all earth ponys, pegasus, and unicorns...could have worked together? Braving a new frontier? Each seeking to add and become more? Perhaps they allow using magic and tech to make themselves alicorns?
Ps. Their is even in the best of storys. A element of martyrdom to Celestia and Luna. And makes me wonder if anyone thinks mortals could accomplish anything? Be just as cool and awesome as they are?
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It's an imagination fuelled by the series, I'd say. What little we know of the era around Hearth's Warming from the episode with the same name, unicorns were the ones with royal lineages, whereas earth ponies with their chancellor had at least a rudimentary democracy, but no real nobility that we can see. This paints an image of the unicorn as nobility and the earth ponies as peasantry. The Hearth's Warming episode also very much puts earth ponies at the bottom of the social rung, being forced to give their food to the other tribes portrayed as haughtily demanding it, and wearing the most raggedy clothing of the three.
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That is correct. I like broadly following canon, with tweaks here and there, and the imagery of Hearthswarming, I'd say, summed it all up well enough for the olden days.
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It makes you wonder who the servants were back when the tribes were separate. Surely a noble like Platinum had plenty.
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Agreed. It just occured to me as I was reading that I have read all these storys. Most of them oddly have earth pony as servants in the castle - in modern equastria?
I suppose their could be a story about the servants back then? Hmm? Now I want to read that story. But depending how folks write it? I wonder if it would have a happy ending?
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The only story I can think of where the unicorns are the subservient class is in iisaw's The Skyla Pseudonym.
Edit: also applezombi's Rekindled Embers, but they're not so much slaves as they are relentlessly persecuted.
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Thanks for sharing. Did you care for those storys? I never heard of them myself?
Their does always seem to be hidden gems somewhere on this site.
This is an interesting take on Celestia. Well written, too.
So does this Celestia have off camera moments with Fortunate Foal as a background music?
I love how much you incorporated the comics (Thrace, the Rainbow Crow) into your story. Mind explaining who the Ferrymare was?
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Credit to my editor and writing partner, Vox, for suggesting both mentions. It was a thrill to weave them in.
Ah, a reader of culture I see
As for the Ferrymare, perhaps she's just a ferrymare after all.
or is she? I do like setting most of my stories in one single universe. Except for my first one, that one's not counted.
Glad you enjoyed it
Feh!
Ironhoof seems singularly bad at reading the room, which makes me wonder if within the unicorn supremacist circles he is in, belief that the Princess is secretly completely on their side is taken for granted, and somehow never had any evidence come up against it. It makes sense for them to believe that their beliefs are more widespread than they are, but I wonder if Celestia had just held her tongue during their previous one-on-one encounters, which led to him being more and more open with his beliefs as he failed to get pushback, until this incident happened. It would be interesting to see why Celestia had held off on correcting him for so long, as she did not seem very surprised with what he was saying or doing; just angry.
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I'd imagine it was a combination of various factors; Ironhoof's views are either excused or ignored by some parties and factions within the government. Perhaps he thought himself clever enough to win favour with Celestia by shutting down a so called rebellion or pro Luna rebellion.
Unfortunately for him, he revealed his cards too soon and completely failed to read Celestia's thoughts regarding her sister. He overreached himself.
As for Celestia, the whole story has been a wake up call to her, showing that, no, everything is NOT fine despite what she thinks. She can't just sit in her ivory tower and think everything will be just fine without her doing anything.
It's something she needed to see for herself. Maybe that part of her that thinks the best of people tells her there is no way Ironhoof is as awful as people say he is.
Unfortunately with some people, you really need to put your foot down and make it clear, no, your shit isn't welcome.
As for Celestia, perhaps the sheltered part of her ignored or didn't catch onto Ironhoof's previous antics. Only here and now does she see how rotten he is, and she's as angry as him as she is with herself for ignoring / failing to notice it for as long as she did.
great title
i know i've already said this to you before but this line is good enough to be worth pointing out again how good it is, really makes me feel the setting and culture
i demand pic of gavel-wielding Celestia
pointing out and taking seriously celestia's immortality and actual age against appearances is tight
ah this is giving me ideas for equestrian backstory that's a little darker than i intended pony society to become but also maybe it works with my overarching thesis on celestia's philosophy aaaaaa
oof, love this, that tension and chasm between celestia and luna illustrated in just one line
topical!
meant to be a colon?
a Correct Opinion, good kid
i told you this before but this passage is good enough to be worth pointing out how good it is again, a lovely little tale-within-a-story
i gotta admit royalty titles are fun
Not bad.
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As befitting
the Empress and Autocrat of all the Russiasa great pony, of course!I had debated back and forth just how am I supposed to say outright that he's, you know, a supremacist prick. Then like all good shows, the show provided what was needed.
I lack the cash money to do so
Aye. Honestly, there's so much you can do with these two, but their sibling bond remains the most fascinating, in-depth aspect one could explore.
You know me
Honestly, I wasn't sure if it would land, but I'm glad that it did
Hope it warmed your heart, too!
Indeed they are. It took me a while to figure out that a Baroness is referred to by their barony, but I gotta say it works very well.