“Heave ho! Heave ho! Heave ho!” Starswirl, Luna and Tempest said in unison.

They were firmly holding Celestia’s legs, trying to wrestle out the Sun Princess, whose lower body-half was still sticking out undignifiedly from the ground. Unfortunately, the endeavor was similar to retrieving Excalibur.

All the ponies gathered at the scene stepped closer. Even as scared and heartbroken as they were, it was hard for them to ignore what seemed to be a meteorite-impact. Aside from the three figures in the crater desperately trying to pull something from the ground, they noticed what said meteor actually was... to their collective relief. Many cheered and shed tears of joy upon seeing the celestial buttocks (and definitely NOT for depraved reasons, as one who reads this out of context might assume...).

“It’s no use…” Luna said sighing in defeat, her formidable strength all but exerted on the previous attempt to stop Daybreaker.

Tempest’s expression, on the other hoof, grew even fiercer. She pulled the plunger off of her forehead and aimed the cup at the royal ‘snow globes’.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures! Even if they suck!”

Starswirl and Luna both facehooved at the pun. Tempest glared at them.
“Come on! That wasn’t even meant to be funny! I’m totally serious!” she snapped at them. The purple mare turned back to her objective.
“No time for dilly dallying!”

With an excessive amount of force, she slammed the plunger right onto the solar buttocks, causing a muffled whine to come from under the rubble. With all her strength, Tempest pulled at the plunger, using the skills she’d learned in the sanitary-platoon of the Storm King’s Army (her unflattering early years), making sure it stayed firmly attached at all times. To everpony’s relief, the divine plot actually started to slowly emerge from beneath the pieces of rock. With one final, inhumanly… sorry… inequinely strong pull the princess plopped out of the ground. Tempest managed to remove the plunger just before she collapsed to the ground from fatigue (and probably a hefty dose of shame).

Starswirl and Luna lifted Celestia into an upright position.
“SISTER! Art thou hurt?!”

Suddenly, Celestia grabbed Luna by her shoulders, shook her violently and stared frantically into her eyes.
“CALL TWILIGHT!!! CALL HER NOW!!!”

“S-S-Si-i-i-i-i-is-s-s-ste-e-e-er! Sto-o-o-o-o-op!” the shaken Night Princess pleaded.

Celestia stopped, but never ceased to stare at her sister.
“CALL TWILIGHT!!! WE NEED THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!!! THIS IS NOT A TEST FOR TWILIGHT LIKE IN THE PAST!!! I’M NOT THE ‘SAFETY NET’ THIS TIME!!!”

Luna slapped Celestia in the face.
“CALM DOWN, TIA!!! Wouldst thou care to explain how all of this came to be?!”

Celestia blinked, but then snapped out of her dumbfoundedness.
“That thing... Daybreaker... came out of me!”

“SHE WHAT?!” Luna and Starswirl asked simultaneously.

Celestia continued.
“She... She had apparently been preparing a spell for it... feeding on my emotions... for a VERY long time... and then she used my moment of insecurity to break free. And stole all of my power!”

The other two ponies gasped, hopes of Celestia beating their foe up shattered.
“Quite an impressive feat, I must say... if the situation wasn’t so dire, that is.” Starswirl noted.

The Sun Princess suddenly realized she hadn’t asked the most important of questions yet.
“Where is she now?!”

Starswirl pointed upwards.
“Up there, being entertained by Discord. But she'll grow bored soon...”

Celestia stared at Luna again, more frantically than she'd intended.
“LUNA! Send Twilight a message NOW!”

Luna stared back at her.
“Sister... I can't... My magical resources are depleted. And they won't be restored until some time...”

Celestia's eyes, reduced to pinpricks in pure terror.
“B-But... you MUST have something left!”

“No, I don't.”

“Then let Starswirl or some other unicorn replenish it!”

“Starswirl is almost as worn out as I am, but it doesn't matter anyway.”

“What do you mean?!”

“Think straight, Sister! There's no point in calling for Twilight Sparkle! By the time she could reach even one Element, Equestria will have been turned into a scorched desert!”

“But... no... this can't be happening... we cannot give up...”

“And we WON'T, Sister! But using the Elements is not an option right now!”

“BUT THEY'RE THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP HER!!!”

Now it was Luna's turn to grab Celestia by her shoulders.
“SISTER! We'll find a different solution! YOU will find a solution! You ALWAYS do!”

Celestia slowly removed Luna's hooves from herself.
“No... I won't... it's my fault... and I'm incapable of correcting it...”

She collapsed to the ground, wailing in despair. All ponies around watched her sobbing.
“I... *sniffle* I have made so many mistakes... *sniffle* And now everypony will suffer! I was right! Equestria would have been better off without me! I'm a terrible leader! I was just lucky up until now! *sob* OH WHY COULD TWILIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN BORN SOONER?! I'M USELESS!!! Boohoohoooooo!!!”

Luna just stared at her, mouth agape. She had NEVER seen her older sister in such a mess! And most shockingly: Celestia's inferiority-complex was apparently WAY bigger than her own. Before the Night Princess, who was at a loss for words, could say anything, a tiny voice spoke up.
“But that's not true. Why do you say that?”

The princesses both looked at the source, visibly surprised. A tiny foal was standing there, an expression of true bewilderment on its face. And not just that one foal had closed in. In fact, all ponies around had gathered close around their princesses. For some reason looking into the foal's questioning eyes made Celestia's brain switch to teacher-mode.
“Because... I always mess up... I... I wreck what I touch... things only turn out well when I let others handle them.”

The child raised an eyebrow.
“Huh? But you raise the sun every day!”

“Well yes, but all the other...”

“You also established our society, very successfully so if I might add.” a stallion interrupted her.

She looked at him, searching for words.
“Well… yes... but...”

“And you made the economy thrive!” an elder pony said.

“And you kept us all safe for so long!” a young mare added.

Celestia slowly lifted herself up, looking puzzled. All the ponies around were suddenly talking to her, naming reasons why she was far from useless. It was hard to make out individual lines in the cacophony of praises, harder still to disagree with them. A little bit of confidence sparked within Celestia. She lifted her hooves signaling the ponies to quiet down.
“Alright, alright! Let's assume I'm not useless... but isn't Twilight Sparkle more adequate to rule than me?”

Starswirl put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Even IF she was, that's only because you made her competent! Start being sensible again, little Sun!”

Celestia felt touched. All those faces smiling at her... but she still shook her head.
“That doesn't change the fact I doomed us all... If it weren't for my insecurities, this would not have happened. It IS my fault… just like countless other things...”

“Oh, I get it now!” Luna said.

Everypony looked at her in silence. The Night Princess just kept looking at her sister ...with a little smirk on her face.
“So, you think it's your insecurity that made this happen?”

Celestia raised an eyebrow.
“Um... yes?”

“I disagree, Sister! The real problem here is you feeling guilty!”

“For a good reason!”

“TIA, if there's anypony who works their plot off doing good for this world, it's YOU!”

“Language, Luna! There's a foal present!”

“And if there's anypony that does their best to correct mistakes, it's also YOU!”

“You think too highly of me! And it's Twilight who always cleans up the mess!”

“AND YOU THINK DEAR TWILIGHT NEVER MAKES A MESS?!”

“Okay, I admit...”

“AND DOES SHE MOAN AROUND IN SELF-LOATHING?! DOES SHE DROWN IN GUILT?!”

“Well... um... you see... uh… thing is...um… no.”

“Sister, listen to me: You can't feel guilty for your mistakes forever! You must forgive yourself! That's an important lesson I’ve learnt with the Tantabus.”

Celestia blinked.
“Tanta-what?”

Luna gulped.
“Oh...! So you don't... Um... I propose a deal, Sister: Don't ever ask about the Tantabus and I won't ask about the missing piece of the Moon.”

Celestia's eyes went wide. Then she started to sweat, looked away and chuckled nervously.
“O-oh... tee hee... a deal it is then.”

Luna made a stern face again.
“Anyway...
STOP FEELING GUILTY!!! YOU'RE BEING RIDICULOUS!!! GROW SOME… WELL-DESERVED SELF-ESTEEM!!!”
she said in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

Everypony aside from Luna rubbed their ears. Celestia looked around.
“My little ponies... do you think the same? Even though I can't help you?”

“WHAAAAT..?” shouted somepony from further back.

“We could never forget what you already did for us, Princess!” another pony said.

A foal came forth and smiled at the princess.
“You'll help us! You always do!”

A moment of silence. A tear ran down Celestia's cheek and reached her smiling mouth. She stood up for good and flared her giant wings. Her feelings of insecurity and guilt melted in the fire of her newfound confidence.
“Fine, my little ponies. If it was insecurity that brought forth Daybreaker, then it shall be confidence that brings her down! In whatever way it may be!”

Something deep inside her head felt like cracking. And surprisingly, Starswirl felt it too!
“Hold on!”

He came close to Celestia, tipping his horn on her head. With some of the little magic he had left, he still managed to cast a simple scanning spell. After a few seconds he stopped... and a characteristic, wide grin formed on his now cocky face.
“Ahhh... I see!”

Everypony looked at him, puzzled. Especially the Princess of the Sun.
“What? What is it?!”

“Well, my little Sun, I fear we have been deceived!”

“We what?!”

The old sage smugly stroked his beard.
“Ho ho... As a matter of fact, that fiery brute has not taken ALL of your power! Presumably because it would have been too much to take the energy of the whole SUN at once. That also seems to be the reason why she did not dispose of you.”

Celestia was confused.
“B-But... I felt so weak after she'd left! I still do!”

“Only...” he tipped a hoof at her head “...because she put a deception-spell on your brain. It makes you feel weak, even though you're not, and it seems to be fueled by self-doubt. I noticed it because your burst of confidence had damaged the enchantment.”

Luna’s protective instincts kicking in, she gasped in anger.
“Augh! That lousy lying bi-”

“I can easily break the spell!” Starswirl interrupted.
His horn started to glow.
“...And there's no time to waste!”

Starswirl's horn touched Celestia’s head again, but after a moment of hesitation he said with a wry smile.
“Hm… seems like I’ll need some help here.”
He turned to the crowd.
“Everypony! What your princess needs now is more confidence in herself! Praise her! Praise her like there’s no tomorrow! BECAUSE otherwise there indeed WON’T be a tomorrow!”

They did not need to be told twice!

“You are so beautiful! Like, woah momma!”

“Your muzzle is the most shapely in Equestria! I bet you can get all the jam from any jar!”

“And your buttocks are the roundest! I could just-” A sudden slap on the back of the head by a vigilant wife was enough to cool that one down.

“(singing) And then I saw yer face! Now I’m a believer!”

“I once saw you blow away an ursa major just by sneezing!” (Celestia cursed in her thoughts, up till now thinking nopony saw that one)

“When you say ‘have a nice day’ you mean it LITERALLY!”

“I just moved here, but you’re okay, I guess...”

...among many other things.

The princess flushed bright red and covered her face, but aside from the embarrassment, her confidence could not help but rise more and more. When it reached a certain level, Celestia suddenly felt as if glass was shattering within her mind. And following that...

“I... l feel fine again! And...” she dipped into her well of power “...I am sure this will be more than enough to level the field now!”

The crowd was silent for a moment. Then they started cheering.
“Yeah! Go Princess!”, "Kick her flank!", “Show ‘er who’s boss!”, "Avenge the fountain!" were the most popular cries.

The cheering was interrupted by a lengthy, steaming object that fell from the sky and smacked on the ground to their side. It was the Spirit of Chaos, fried crispy brown… like a sausage. He looked miserable and his face expression was empty. If it weren't for his groaning, he would've appeared dead. Celestia gasped, dashed over to him and picked him up in her arms.
“DISCORD!!!”

The scorched draconeequs weakly lifted his eagle claw.
“I don't feel so good...”
He snapped his talons, which crumbled to dust, just like the rest of his body, and was blown away in the wind.

Celestia just stared at her empty hooves, mouth agape and tears welling up in her eyes. Luna came to her side, unimpressed.
“Meh! He can pull himself together! Eventually...”

“Even so, it must be very painful being burnt!” Celestia said.
Her ears flopped.
“This is my fault...”

Luna slapped her on the back of her head, bringing the white alicorn to her senses.
“TIA! What did I just tell you about feeling guilty?!”

Celestia grinned sheepishly and blushed.
“Oh, sorry! You're right!”

She stood up, flared her wings once again and narrowed her eyes.
“Now I'll do something I won't feel guilty about!”

She took off into the air, so fast that she left an after image.
Tempest, who had come round long ago and has been listening to the conversation from the ground, looked at her and smirked.
“Finally fighting back, huh? Kick her flank for me too, will ya!”

Thousands of feet up in the night sky.

Daybreaker hovered in the air looking down with a devilish smirk on her face.
“Was that already too much for you, Dissy? Hm… guess that’s all I can get for now, so… goodbye Canterlot!”

The fiery alicorn’s horn started to glow with unmatched intensity, ready to throw down a solar flare. Then, suddenly, something white flew up with incredible speed and came to a halt abruptly right in front of her. Daybreaker was honestly surprised and deactivated her magic.
“Oh… it’s you!”

Celestia stared into her eyes sternly.
“Yes, me! And you in a way, I guess.”

They kept looking at each other for a while, but then Daybreaker huffed.
“Huh… wouldn’t have thought you’d ever recover.”

“You’ve deceived me! You did not take all of my power!”

“I honestly thought you’d be too occupied with sobbing to notice.”

“Well, if it weren’t for my friends you would have succeeded. As for my power, I still have quite a bit left, and BY ME, am I going to use it to destroy YOU!”

Daybreaker just stared at her, wide eyed.

She couldn’t believe what was happening. A kind of twisted hope emerged in her evil heart.
“Are you…? Are you FINALLY showing some guts…?”
A genuinely warm smile started to form on her lips and a tear of joy was readying itself to travel down her cheek.
“You are going to actually fight me?”

“Unless…” Celestia continued.

Daybreaker went silent for a moment. Then she moaned very loudly in annoyance AND disappointment.

Celestia kept talking, confirming what Daybreaker feared.
“…Unless we talk it out. Nice and friendly!”

Daybreaker’s flaming hair flared violently with her rage.
“NNNYAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHH!!! WHY CAN’T YOU STOP BEING SUCH A TEA-TIME-PRINCESS?!!! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL WHAT’S UNHOLY!!! I’M SO SICK OF BEING CALLED A WEAKLING BECAUSE OF YOU!!!”

Daybreaker’s belly grumbled and she held it with her hoof.
“Ugh… Your disgusting softness gives me constipation!”

Celestia slightly raised her eyebrows.
“Oh? So that’s what this all is about?”
She shook her head.
“For somepony who is so obsessed with strength, it must be painfully ironic to be born out of feelings of inferiority. I honestly thought being called weak and useless doesn’t affect me, but apparently it all trickled down into my subconsciousness… forming you.”

Daybreaker did not care for Celestia’s explanations.
“WILL YOU FIGHT ME PROPERLY OR NOT?!!!”

“No. Not as long we can talk.”

“THEN I’LL MAKE YOU FIGHT ME!!!”

With a swift but immeasurably powerful, scythe-like strike of her hoof, which Celestia could only dodge thanks to accelerating to equally high speed, Daybreaker decapitated a massive mountain range not far away, forever changing part of the landscape around Canterlot. The tops of the mountains crumbled into millions of orange-glowing boulders, which in turn dissipated into sparkling dust and drops of molten slag. The horizon was filled with countless little dots, as if trying to rival Luna’s night sky, but then the glow faded away into darkness. Once Celestia had checked her memory regarding the population of those mountains (zero to her knowledge) she let out a sigh of relief. She turned back to Daybreaker, who was still huffing smoke in anger.

Celestia’s expression was rather soft; ‘Diplomatic’ one might say.
“Please, hear me out! You are part of me! I realized I should not have neglected you. I tried to be perfect for everypony… but I am not made of stone. I too feel anger, pride and other needs that I’m ashamed of. I’ve always felt guilty for giving in to them or using force. I thought that I somehow betrayed my ponies’ trust whenever I was not absolutely perfect for them. But that’s over now… I will work on these issues and indulge more in my basic needs. My wonderful friends have shown me that I will not be hated for being a little… savage sometimes. Listen: If you come back into my mind and stay there, I promise you, I give you my word, that I won’t neglect YOU, my darker side, anymore! Please! I… I… um… might even give Heavy Metal another go!”

Celestia gave Daybreaker a sheepish smile. The fiery alicorn only got angrier.
“YOU HYPOCRITE!!! YOU SAY THAT, YET YOU WON’T FIGHT ME?!!!”

“Um… that’s right.”

“AAAAAAARGH!!!”

Daybreaker threw herself higher up into the sky and then shot her whole body down at Celestia as a brightly glowing projectile with near light speed. The princess was able to dodge by using the same technique. The shining Daybreaker-bullet missed its target and immediately dived into the ground far below. She was so fast and so loaded with energy, that there wasn’t even an explosion. She went right through the earth like a hot needle through butter. In a heartbeat, the highly charged alicorn reached the planet’s core and shortly after the surface on the other side of the globe. She came to a stop in the sky above Sowstralia, gritted her teeth in anger and then shot back in the same manner as she had previously, making another narrow tunnel right through the planet. A moment later, back in Equestria, she halted at Celestia’s side, bearing her pointy teeth.
“Stop. Fleeing. And. FIGHT ME!!! BE A MARE!!!”

Celestia tried to conjure up a calm smile.
“I’ll be a mare when you stop being a foal. C’mon! If you come back to me, I… um… I will start writing mean anonymous comments in the newspapers, just to upset some ponies! How about that?”

Another sheepish grin, like a mother trying to calm her angry child. Daybreaker looked at Celestia unamused and suddenly shot a massive bright beam in her direction. Knowing that would probably be the case, the princess was ready and could dodge the attack in time. The beam shot beyond the horizon, coming close to the ocean. It plowed through the massive body of water, evaporating immense amounts of fluid, carving a temporary, thousands of miles long trench, that split the sea. Many unfortunate fish (and some whales) were fried crispy and some islands crumbled due to the beam’s proximity. After it had dissipated, the walls of the water trench came crashing down, closing the ocean once again.

Meanwhile, above Canterlot, the face-off between Princess Celestia and Daybreaker continued. Well, mostly by Celestia attempting to use appeasement-policy.
“If you come back, I… uh… I will buy lots of dirty magazines! Think of it: Many revealing pictures of beefy and naughty stallions!”
She wriggled her eyebrows.

Daybreaker hesitated. That was, in her opinion, the best offer so far…
…but no!
“IT’S STILL NOT WORTH IT! FIGHT ME!!!”

“Oh come on! I see you are at least a little bit intere-”

Before Celestia could finish the sentence, Daybreaker kicked her in the stomach from below. The force throwing Celestia high above Canterlot and into space, created such a sudden Sonic Rainboom that it took physics a moment to catch up before it actually boomed to the fullest. Fortunately, since no culture on the Equestrian continent used electricity to a high extent, the wave of electromagnetic energy now encircling the globe went by mostly unnoticed when it hit the surface. That is, except for the unlucky griffon scientist, who had just decided to build the first electrical machine on Equus. Now it was also the first broken electrical machine on Equus.

Meanwhile, Celestia shot through the empty void of Space until she hit a huge asteroid. Shortly after, Daybreaker reached the large space rock too, grabbed it, and lunged it towards the dark side of the Moon. Celestia managed to climb out of the fissure and hop off of the rock just before it crashed right into the giant trench the Princess had accidentally created during her training. The humongous mass of rock crumbled and more than filled the trench, topping it with a neat little mountain chain. Upon seeing this, Celestia could but smile. Now she wouldn’t have to feel guilty about it anymore and could ask Luna what the ‘Teentabuss’ actually was. She then sidestepped, knowing what was to follow, thus managing to effortlessly dodge Daybreaker’s punch. What she didn’t think through was that said punch would now hit the lunar surface further away …producing a new trench, just as big as the former one (which made Starswirl jump in surprise when Luna suddenly yelped, clinging to her buttocks). Celestia facehoofed.
“AUGH! Just my luck!” she would have said to herself, if sound could travel in the void of Space.

Daybreaker flew towards her foe again, like a snarling combination of a phoenix and a vicious roc. Celestia tried to distance herself from her, but the evil alicorn followed the princess around the Moon, through the empty gap to Equus and back into Canterlot’s airspace.

When they did arrive, the white alicorn suddenly stopped, holding a hoof up, signaling Daybreaker to stop as well. The two hovered in the air with the evil alicorn still huffing in anger.
“What if I introduced spanking as punishment at my school for gifted unicorns…?” asked the princess.

“STOP IT!!! STOP IT!!! STOP IT!!! STOP IT!!! WHY WON’T YOU GET IT?! IT’S EXACTLY THIS APPEASING BEHAVIOR I HATE! YOU ALWAYS WANT TO TALK, BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO MUCH OF A SISSY TO STAND YOUR GROUND! AND WHENEVER YOU ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING, YOU WHINE AROUND AND FEEL GUILTY! THAT’S HOW WE GOT THIS DEMEANING REPUTATION AS A WEAKLING!!!”

Celestia’s expression became more serious again.
“Really? You still haven’t noticed, that nopony sees us that way? At least nopony worthwhile, that is…”

“THEY ARE STILL THINKING IT!”

“Come on, have some faith in them! How about a hug?” Celestia said, smiling motherly and spreading her arms.

Daybreaker almost cried from frustration.
“You know what? Fine! Just keep being a coward! I will make sure no pony will ever think of me as weak again… BECAUSE THERE WON’T BE ANYPONY LEFT TO THINK THAT!!!”

She took off higher into the air and charged herself with all the power she had. She started shining so brightly one might mistake her for a second sun as the night swiftly changed to midday.
“I WILL BLOW UP THE WHOLE PLANET AND THEN LOOK FOR ANOTHER ONE!!!” she roared in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

Celestia just looked up at her, her eyes not blinded due to her familiarity with the Sun. Then she sighed.
“I guess there’s nothing I can do then…”

Daybreaker yanked her body towards the earth, ready to fire her planet-busting doomsday-laser.
“SUNDOWN, MOTHERBUCKERS!!!”

Celestia just lifted her hoof and focused on her foe.
“One confident punch…”