Daybreaker's Reign AU

[Scootaloved]

A "What If?" AU.

 

☼ ABOUT THE AU 

In the Equestria that we are all familiar with, Celestia is a benevolent, loving ruler of her subjects who shared the spotlight best she could with her sister whom she adored, Princess Luna. Despite conflict between the two that brought them to fight and forcing Celestia's hoof in sealing her own sister away, she was all too eager to welcome her back. Equestria knew peace once Luna was accepted back among their ranks.

 

But what if Luna had a point? What if Celestia really was intentionally stealing the spotlight from her sister?

 

This AU examines the idea of a chessmaster Celestia who plans on taking the world underhoof. An alicorn desiring power and with an insatiable greed for dominance, she has led her subjects to believing that she is the benevolent ruler that her canon counterpart proves to be. But this Celestia doesn't have the purest of intentions, indeed - and all attacks on her ponies were really meant to dismantle the tyranny that she sought to keep over them.

 

Before the age of remembrance, the soil of the land of Equestria and beyond wasn't claimed by anyone. It was a simpler time for Celestia and Luna, as the two of them generally had the idea of gathering up the pony races, who at the time were fighting as they attempted to claim land for themselves, and uniting them under one banner. Back then, Celestia did have the purest intentions as she wished to benefit her people, and indeed she had when she proposed towns for the races. As her land grew, so too did neighboring lands as well as her own, and as well did the admiration of her subjects directed toward her.

 

Before then, ponies, changelings, yaks, and other races lived without much intersection, generally peaceful toward each other. Together with the pillars, Celestia developed the Elements of Harmony. But the Elements did not prove to be without corruption. Upon use of them, the deep-seated dark magic that lay within them found its way into Celestia's head, poisoning what was previously a love for her people into a disdain for their freedom, and the freedom of creatures around her. She began to see the potential that she could unlock if she had them all working toward one common goal, and especially if that goal benefited her. And as she used the Elements to defend from legitimate threats, such as Discord, more and more, and drank in their powers to be the strongest ruler she could be... She realized that she could be a goddess among her people.

 

Celestia moved in on other territories surrounding theirs, beginning to wipe countries out and brushing it off in the history books as them attacking the ponies first. As a pony who ruled for centuries without any kind of strife, no one had reason to cast doubt in her. No one, of course, except Luna.

 

Luna expressed her concerns to Celestia, stating that she believed her sister has changed, and not for the better. This progressed and spanned over several conversations, until eventually the two of them fought. Luna tried to call upon the powers of the Elements, but they were drawn instead to her sister, and Celestia banished Luna to the moon - where she has since remained, trapped with her word silenced. But she was not the only one; the Pillars who gave her such power had one among them corrupted by Celestia's magic, and they banished themselves to Limbo in order to stop him, being unaware that it was Celestia's doing that he became corrupted in the first place. 

 

Celestia since made a lot of changes in order to maintain her rule. First, she disowned the Wonderbolts, who were her elite flying team. She planned on replacing them with a true militia that she would develop over time. After that, she came across Twilight Sparkle, who became her star pupil after Sunset Shimmer was banished by Celestia by seeing through her. Celestia has used Twilight's natural leadership skills as well as her utter worship for Celestia to create a new army, this being of ponies who are the best at their particular abilities, and who are able to use the Elements without corruption. The unfortunate part of this corruption is that although it strengthens Celestia, it also can be difficult to control; the ponies she found could control them better than she ever could. As a result, she sent Twilight over to Ponyville, suggesting to her to prepare a festival with the help of those very specific ponies. She has put them up to tasks together to ensure that they make a close-knit bond so as to make her own rule over them that much more poignant, and to allow Twilight to command them in her stead in the case she cannot. Unintentionally, this brought Twilight to beginning to unite with other ponies in Ponyville, but for Celestia, this just made her job so much easier. She also promoted Twilight's brother to the head of her own Royal Guard. She knows they're incompetent, but it keeps Twilight on her good side. She also made sure to supplant the remaining the remaining alicorn's abilities by aiding Sombra in keeping her and her kingdom completely out of the know.

 

She will do anything in order to keep herself the goddess of the world, and everyone to know and bow down to her name. That being said, it may be possible that ponies are catching on to her plan...

 

☼ LIST OF CHANGES / TL;DR

• Princess Celestia is by all means a tyrant. She's a tyrant who plans on taking other countries, destroying homes, and leading under a rule of fear. She has gone mad with power.
• Princess Luna has been banished to the moon and has stayed there since, though there are whispers that she will return someday...
• Twilight Sparkle is not a princess within this AU. She is also not an alicorn.
• The Wonderbolts used to be the elite flight team for Celestia, as well as her airforce, but they have since been disowned by her. They remain as a group of vigilantes now to help keep the peace.
• Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie have met and are friends, but as a result of very slow progression as opposed to Nightmare Moon's return. In addition to that, they are to be the main front line of Celestia's army once she has succeeded in convincing them of her reign. Also, Twilight isn't there to learn 'friendship lessons'; Celestia instead said she's there for some 'out of Canterlot experience', as well as to maintain the library there. Friendship is just a bonus of that.
• The Cutie Mark Crusaders were never established. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle only know each other as classmates.
• Right now, the M6 are not suspicious of Princess Celestia. This may change in the future.
• Princess Cadence and the Crystal Empire are currently under Sombra's rule and completely invisible to anyone who doesn't specifically look for them.
• The changelings and Chrysalis are far away from their original home. Celestia plans on taking them out completely.
• Tirek and Scorpan rule an entirely separate kingdom together. They are unaware of what is going on with Equestria. They will soon find out.
• Celestia currently plans on finding the Alicorn Amulet, which will enhance her magic.

 

☼ EVENTS / IMPORTANT THREADS 

N / A - the AU's just started!

 

☼ RULES 

• ACTIVITY: I don't want this AU to go dead. If you're going to take a canon, you should probably be around at least once a month. I will message you personally about it. If you don't post at least once a month, I may ask for your character to be revoked.
• SOME LITERACY EXPECTED: I don't need thirty paragraphs of detail, but I am expecting writers to have a good grasp of writing. No one-liners for posts!
• CANON CHARACTER LIMIT: You may take up to 3 canons for this AU so as to prevent hoarding.
• ASK BEFORE MAKING IMPORTANT THREADS: Making a thread generally within this AU is completely fine, but if it's going to introduce an element that shakes up the events of the gameplan, be sure to run it by me first.
• OCS WELCOMED! You don't even need to make a new OC. Go ahead and just adapt your OC to it.
• CHARACTER EXPANSION ALLOWED: Feel free to make relationships between characters and explore them. There are differences in friendships because of the lack of friendship lessons on top of everything else, so feel free to figure out what that means!
• TELL ME ABOUT YOUR THREADS HERE!

 

☼ HOW TO APPLY 

IF YOU ARE AN OC: All you need to do is tell me how your OC will adapt to the differing situation. You can change them up any way you'd like. That's it. That's all that's required to apply and participate!

 

FOR CANONS: There has been a lot of leg room about differences between canons left in here. Different aspirations, different places they got in life because of the changes made here, etcetera. You're encouraged to think through those differences.

 

Otherwise, I'm wanting people who know a lot about their canons. Here's a form you can use. Send it here in this thread, and if I give you the go-ahead, feel free to use that application in the main application area:

 

NAME:

AGE:

GENDER:

SUMMARY: This is a summary of their personality, aspirations, changes, etc.

HISTORY: This can be bulleted.

SAMPLE: Must be a sample of you RPing the character. If you already RP a canon here, just link to a post of that character I can read!

 

☼ CHARACTER LIST 

NOTE: This list contains canon characters. OCs are automatically assumed to be tailored for this AU, although you are allowed to tell me specifically what your OC will do in it.

Cast characters that aren't listed here can be applied for! Feel free to ask and suggest a role for them in this AU!

 

PRINCESS CELESTIA

The tyrant herself

Played by Scootaloved

 

PRINCESS LUNA

The sister betrayed

Played by OPEN

 

PRINCESS CADENCE

Struggling with a sinking ship

Played by OPEN

 

TWILIGHT SPARKLE

The loyal student

Played by Scootaloved

 

RAINBOW DASH

The Element of Loyalty

Played by OPEN

 

APPLEJACK

The Element of Honesty

Played by OPEN

 

FLUTTERSHY

The Element of Kindness

Played by OPEN

 

RARITY

The Element of Generosity

Played by OPEN

 

PINKIE PIE

The Element of Laughter

Played by OPEN

 

SCOOTALOO

The lost, flightless pegasus

Played by Scootaloved

 

SWEETIE BELLE

The lost younger sister

Played by OPEN

 

APPLE BLOOM

The youngest Apple

Played by OPEN

[Dusty]

Aww but I want to be Daybraker, I love that mare! Oh well, cool to see someone at all doing someing with the best sunbutt ever. May have to do something with it.