View source for From Sunlight to Moonlight (Hinoiri Kirara)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2023/10/02
|Location=Dusk zone
|Synopsis=Sunbreaker finds herself at a loss and ruminates over the final time she saw her mentor. When the sunlight in her life had turned its back on her... So why is it that the moonlight hasn't?
|Cast of Characters=131
}}
Sunbreaker slowly walked through the dusk zone, her form wreathed in black flames so thick they were almost solid. Weakness. She’d shown weakness. She’d… she’d lost. She’d come so close to letting her destiny slip through her fingers. She’d won. They’d had to cheat. Come at her, three at a time. But it had only taken three of them to crush her. To make her fear for her life.

She was better than this. She was supposed to be better than this. Why wasn’t she better than this?

Sora. The answer was clear as day. Sora held her back. Sora HID THINGS from her. It was all Sora’s fault. If not for Sora, she’d be back home right now. Learning. Advancing. Not relearning. She was the greatest mage they’d had in centuries… she was ready. But… Sora had betrayed her. Turned her back on her. The last time she’d seen her mentor…

Sora had turned her back on her.

 = Not so long ago =

Hinoiri chuckled, flipping through another page in the spellbook. That spell was going to be useful. Ohhhhhh. She didn’t even think that was possible. Oh. Wow. Okay, nope, definitely going to practice THAT one later. It… oh. Oh wow. It… it all made sense. That was what she saw. That was how she became an alicorn. There truly was a spell that could--

“Hinoiri Kirara!” Sora’s voice radiated through the library, making her drop the spell book. She frantically tried to pick up the works she was looking at, only to have her mentor appear a moment later, a guard on each side.

Hinoiri froze for a moment before glancing back. There was nowhere to run. The bookshelves besides and behind her. Her horn flared up to teleport her away, but the spell fizzled. “An anti-teleport field?”

“What do you think you’re doing in here?” Sora asked, her voice accusatory. “This section is restricted.”

“For normal ponies, yeah,” Hinoiri said, the sarcasm used to deflect her own nervousness. “But I’m not just any pony. I can handle these things. More importantly, I’m learning quite a bit about things I SHOULD have known all along,” she snapped before laying the book down and pointing a hoof at it. “Right here. You can make me an alicorn, like you. Just like I saw. Yet you’ve been hiding it from me.”

“Hinoiri,” Sora said in a cold, furious tone. “You are nowhere near ready to become a sovereign. You’ve--”

“What? Mastered everything you’ve taught me?” Hinoiri asked, taking a step forward. She was rewarded with the guards looking nervous. “Learned magic in weeks what takes most ponies years? Become the greatest mage you’ve ever taught? I’m ready for MORE! The only pony who isn’t ready for me to advance is you!”

Sora glared down, unyielding before her student’s fury. “Hinoiri Kirara, do not think to lecture me on what you are and are not ready for. You’ve mastered my magic lessons, yes. But there is plenty you still have to learn. How to be humble, for one. Not to mention the value of friendship and companionship. Did you forget that--”

Hinoiri’s eyes narrowed. Another reminder of her failings. How she didn’t have any useless friends. How she wasn’t HUMBLE enough! How was it her fault nopony wanted to be her friend? She didn’t NEED friends. She didn’t WANT friends! “What do you know about being humble? Or friendship? You don’t even HAVE any friends! When are you EVER humble? Everypony here practically worships the ground you walk on!”

Sora was taken about, her mouth falling open at such vitriol from her student.

“How dare you!” one of the guards yelled.

But Hinoiri didn’t back down. She couldn’t run, she couldn’t hide. But she’d be bucked if she was going to just stand here and be lectured by Sora over something she knew nothing about. “Have you EVER had a friend? Have you ever NEEDED a friend? That’s all you EVER tell me lately. Why? All they do is hold you back! You’re the most powerful creature in our world, the sovereign over the sun and moon! You stand alone! So why are you so desperate to HANDICAP me? Why are you so SCARED that I could be like you? I deserve to be at your side, not dragging a bunch of useless deadweight around!”

“Hinoiri…” Sora said, her jaw clenched, her wings spread aggressively and her rage barely contained.

“NO!” Hinoiri yelled. “This is just another excuse, another way for you to just move the goalpost! You’ve never had a friend and you’ll NEVER have a friend! Neither will I, because--”

“ENOUGH!” Sora yelled, fire rising from her mane and even Hinoiri backing away in shock. “Enough. I… see now where the mistake lies. I thought there was compassion and sincerity in you, but all that lies in you is ambition and selfishness. With every word I can see just how deep this lies. Just… how much of a disappointment you have become.”

“W-what?” Hinoiri asked, staring up at her.

“You are henceforth removed from your position as my pupil. You are banished from the castle,” Sora said.

“You… you can’t do this,” Hinoiri said.

“I can, I have and perhaps I should have done it much, much sooner,” Sora said, the angry scowl on her face the last look her student would see from her. “Escort--” Her words were cut off when Hinoiri just ran past her, shoving the guard aside with a telekinetic spell. “Hinoiri! HINOIRI!”

Hinoiri didn’t look back, her face contorted in rage. As furious as she could make it. Desperately willing the tears to not fall until she was far enough away.

Fine. If Sora was just going to stand in her way… then she’d find her own way. The mirror showed her what she could be. Perhaps the mirror could show her how.

Unseen by Hinoiri, Sora stood alone in the midst of the discarded books, the guards having left in pursuit of her disgraced pupil. Slowly, she began to pick them up and place them back on the shelves.

Her pupil shared much with her. Talent. Ambition. Unfortunately, her temper. Without the millennia of practice to properly control it. Then again, was she any better? She’d lost her own temper over words that were… far too similar to ones she’d told herself.

A few days, a week or so. For them to both cool their hooves. Perhaps… perhaps then they could come at this from a different direction.

 = Now =

“Do you think she’s going to be banished from the school next? Sovereign Sora should just ban her from the city. She’s always alone, nopony even likes her,” the students had said, whispering to themselves when they knew she could hear. That was what they always did. Nice to her face, then whispering such things behind her back, often loud enough she could hear.

"You go around acting like you're so much better than everyone, but you're just mad because I have friends and you ‘don't’. You always have to fight on your own because no one likes you!" Sailor Moon had said, when she was alone. Words echoed by so many others.

But when others joined, when her end was here… when Sunbreaker was at her most desperate…

Sailor Moon had stepped in. Sailor Moon had protected her. After everything she’d done, after all the hurt she’d caused.

“She kidnapped Naru, and she hurt people, and she hurt me. But ‘she’ hasn't killed anyone."

Was that it? Of course she didn’t kill anyone. She… if… she killed someone… you couldn’t take that back. Not that she cared about this world. But… but she…

There were some lines she couldn’t, wouldn’t cross. She’d beaten some, hurt others, but she couldn’t kill. She wouldn’t. She would be sovereign. She was worthy. She’d be better than Sora. She’d never kill. She’d never turn on her student, her servants. She’d be for them everything Sora refused to be for her.

She’d lost. She’d lost and she hurt and she was so mad and it all hurt so much. Had it been a ploy? Had those girls really meant to kill her, or was it to scare her?

… 

It was to scare her.

That was it. They weren’t…

No. They were sparkle skirts. Sparkle skirts thought they were better than her. She literally JUST did this to that one girl. Molly. Make her scared so she’d stop. Teach her a lesson. That was it. That…

… Why did it feel like that wasn’t it? It was logical, it made sense. But it wasn’t…

…

Why was the only person who’d helped her, when everyone else in the world turned on her… Sailor Moon? Why was it that when she lost the sunlight… she found herself enveloped in the moonlight? Why was it that the first person to come when she needed it was the person she hated the most? The moon was just the reflection of the sun, a pale, pathetic imitation… A mirror to the sun.

This world was a pale imitation of her own. Did that mean… the moon was to the sun?

Wreathed in the flames of despair and sorrow, Sunbreaker wailed, letting the pain wash over her and the darkness fill her. She would be worthy. She was ready. She’d understand everything. She’d lost too much to stop…

No matter how much it hurt.