Celestia watched in frozen horror her guard flew back in a straight line, propelled by the beam emitted from Luna's armored forehoof. The earth pony hit the wall behind him with enough force that Celestia winced as she heard a loud cracking sound caused by both armor and bones being broken before he fell to the ground where he laid there motionless.
“Royal Guard, attack!” commanded Stareye before he teleported away.
“No!” shouted Celestia as she turned to look at her guards. “Stand down! Please! Everypony calm down!”
However, her words were ignored at the two unicorn guards suddenly charged at Luna, their spears pointed at her heart. Shadow read their attack and jumped into the air as he flew towards them. Once he was in range he struck their horns with both of his wings causing their magic to falter for a moment. Yet in that moment he had done a backflip, taken one of the spears in his hooves, and swung it at one of the guards head. The force of the attack flung the one guard into the other while breaking the spear in the process.
Shadow quickly turned his head to his comrades. "Lunar Guard, engage!" he ordered loudly. The battle-suited ponies under his command leapt into action.
While this was going on, the other guards were racing towards Luna at great speed. Luna’s guard intercepted most of them, but at least two dozen managed to make it to the dark-blue alicorn and began to dogpile on top of her. A moment later Luna’s scream of fury could be heard as magical light began to escape through the cracks between the guards. A half second later the guards were blown off of her as if they weighed nothing as Luna fired her magic in an explosively expanding-dome.
However, Luna’s magical shockwave struck part of the castle, cause large chucks of rock to come loose and fall down. Celestia saw this and realized it would fall upon Blueblood, North Star, Fancy Pants, and the other nobles. Reacting quickly, Celestia teleported in front of the group and quickly created a powerful force field around them which caused the rubble to bounce harmlessly off it and onto the ground around them. When it was over, most of the nobles ran into the castle except for North Star.
“T-Thank you,” he stammered.
“Get into the castle,” was all Celestia said as she kept an eye on her sister. North Star nodded and quickly ran into the castle while looking over his shoulder.
As North Star ran, Celestia saw Luna charge at her. Focusing the magic in her horn, she was quickly surrounded by a brilliant golden light that blinded everypony around her. When the light faded, Celestia was clad in golden armor similar to that of her guards along with a helmet that had a long blade on it that ran alongside her horn. In her magical gasp were four items. One of them was a long golden sword that had a phoenix shaped grip. On both of her sides were two circular blade called a chakrams. They were small and, like the sword, looked like they were made of the same golden material that the sword was made of. The final item was a wooden shield that was shaped like her cutie mark. As Luna raised her glaive to strike, Celestia brought her shield up to block. Yet, much to the sun princess’ surprise, Luna’s weapon cut right through her defense.
Backing up, Celestia used her magic which caused both of chakrams to glow brightly. She then threw both weapons at Luna. Luna dodged the attack allowing the weapons to whiz on past her. At first Luna didn’t think too much of this but then felt something light strike her back. She then saw the two throwing weapons flying away from her and then turning in midair to attack her. Once more they struck her, this time on her chest before they flew away again. ‘You have got to be kidding me,’ thought Luna as she rolled her eyes and readied her sword. Once Celestia’s weapons were close enough she swung her own weapon and cut both of the chakrams at once ending the minor annoyance once and for all.
Seeing this, Celestia pumped a large amount of her magic into her weapon causing the blade to be set aflame. The blade swung at Luna, barely scratching her armor. ‘That attack should have at least cut through her armor,’ thought Celestia. ‘Fighting like this will take too much time and the longer we take the more likely Discord will be freed due to all the chaos. I’ll have to finish this quickly without killing Luna.’ Narrowing her eyes Celestia took to the sky. Once she was well above the castle she pointed the weapon upright in the air to create a large ball of fire.
“Luna, please don’t make me do this,” called out Celestia. “You could never take me in a fight and your magic isn’t as powerful as my own. Call off your guards and I will do the same. Trust me.”
“I did," growled Luna. “And look where it took us!” Before Celestia could launch her attack, Luna took to the air. Seeing this, Celestia pointed her sword at Luna causing the fireball to be hurled at her. Luna, in response, stopped and crossed her forelegs. At first, nothing seemed to happen other than her armor giving off a light glow. But when the inferno sphere was about to hit her it exploded as if it suddenly hit an invisible wall. Still, Luna was flung backwards from the attack and hit the ground so hard there was a small crater.
Quickly, Luna got to her feet and noticed that her armor was sparking. She herself felt like she had been hit by a dozen platforms, but counted herself lucky that her armors shield protected her from most of the blast.
“Warning,” said her armor’s computer in a female voice. “Armor’s shield unit has taken severe damage and is now offline. Armor’s durability is now at eighty six percent.”
‘That’s what I get for thinking I could take on a spell of that power,’ thought Luna as her horn began to glow. ‘I’d better make sure she can’t do that again.’ With that thought, chains made of pure magic shot out of Luna’s horn and went flying towards Celestia’s. Celestia realized what Luna was trying to do and began to prepare a counter spell. When the chains were a mere centimeter from her horn, Celestia was surrounded by an intense ball of flames that burned away everything that got close. Even parts of her castle that were nearby seemed to melt due to the heat of her defense.
When the flames died out, Celestia was left panting. ‘It’s been awhile since I had to use this much effort,’ thought Celestia as she did her best to catch her breath. ‘And this armor feels a little tight. I really need to get back into shape.’ It was then that Celestia noticed that Luna was flying towards her. Readying her weapon, Celestia prepared to defend herself.
-x-
While that was going on, Lightning Dust had taken out her two crescent moon glaives and was flying around like a blur at all of the incoming pegasi guards that were beginning to fill the sky. As she passed them by, they would suddenly fall to the ground with bloody slash marks in their armor.
Things were not that much different on the ground. Red Shirt and the two other lunar earth ponies began to fire upon the Equestrian earth ponies with their blasters. Celestia’s guards did their best to reach them, but were cut down before they could touch them. Luckily for them there were a few unicorns among them that were able to create a magic barrier stop enough to protect themselves.
“Slay them all!” shouted a voice from above. It was Blueblood, his head sticking out a window. “Slay Nightmare Moon and her evil minions! Do not allow her to destroy our peaceful land!”
“Donut, seal the entrance!” shouted Shining Armor as he watched the two princesses’ fighting. He could hear Shadow contacting the Lunar Embassy in the background, tell it to take off before he flew into the air.
“You got it,” said the pink stallion as he pulled out an orange sphere and threw it at the entrance. Once it got in the doorway it began to hover before emitting a light orange light towards the frame of the doorway. The Celestia Guards saw this, but kept galloping forward only to be stopped by the light. It was like running into a magical force field.
“Good job Private,” said Shining Armor. “Now, get the rest of those holes.”
“No need to worry sir,” said Donut as he threw another one at a window. “When it comes to filling up holes, I’m an expert!”
“Now is not the time for jokes!” shouted Shining as he placed a hoof onto his helmet and began to speak into his communicator. “This is Captain Shining Armor calling Crescent Hope! Captain Armor to Crescent Hope! Do you copy?”
For a few moments, Shining Armor heard nothing but static. Fear began to grip his heart as thought that the battle of the two alicorns were disrupting the signal. Then...
“This is Captain Starway,” said a voice from his communicator's receiver. However, there was still a lot of static in the background. “We're getting a lot of interference, what seems to be the problem?”
"We are under attack by the Equestrians!" said Shining Armor, practically shouting into his helmet microphone, "I am calling for emergency evacuation!"
Starway swore over the transceiver. “Shining, Princess Luna herself ordered me not to leave until my mission here was complete.”
"And I'm countermanding that order!" barked Shining, losing patience, "We are under heavy attack! Do you copy?!? The Princess is under attack! Emergency evac! Now!"
"Ac-Acknowled-, -aptain Arm-," came the static-filled reply, "ETA t- Canter-FFZZZ..." And then the line went dead.
Shining Armor tried to reconnect, but noticed several squads of the pegasi had thrown their spears. Acting quickly, he created a powerful shell above them causing the attack to bounce harmlessly off of it before vanishing.
“I’ll get them,” said Overkill with a grin as she took to the air. As she did, she reached for one of her grenades and threw it in front of her. As far as the incoming pegasi knew, it was just a harmless silver orb until it exploded creating a brilliant white light. When it cleared they noticed that the three closest to it had completely vanished while several of those who were closer were falling to the ground.
“Monster!” screamed one of the pegasi as he flew towards the bat mare. Overkill grinned as she readied her axe. Once her target was close enough she swung. The pegasus saw this and held up his spear to block it, but instead the axe cut through his weapon as well as himself with the ease of a knife cutting through warm butter.
Out of the corner of her eye, Overkill saw Lightning Dust and smirked. ‘Ok,’ she thought. ‘Might as well see who can take down the most of these Equestrians.’ With that Overkill let out a whistle causing the two metal darts on her back detached and began to hover next to her. With another whistle they shot out towards the pegasi like spears, piercing dozens of the enemy before they circled around and reattached themselves to Overkill’s back so that they could recharge. She then smiled and motioned for her enemies to come closer.
-x-
In the air, Lightning Dust dashed from side to side while holding her two crescent moon shaped glaives in her hooves. Ahead of her she could see at least a hundred or so pegasi in the sky. Some were chumped into bunches while the majority were scatter around without any reason. Lightning Dust smiled and decided to strike down the easy pickings first.
She quickly scanned the area ahead of her to decide her course. While she did this, she caught sight of the fight going on between Princess Luna and Celestia. She could see her princess fire a beam of energy into the clouds above. At first nothing happened, but then hail the size of Lightning’s hoof began to fall from the sky within the small area. At first Celestia fired several fire balls at them in order to protect herself. The ones she didn’t get, however, struck down several of the guards below and damage the surrounding area. Seeing this, Celestia pointed her horn downwards and created a magical barrier of golden light that caused the hail to bounce off harmlessly. The same could not be said about her since in order to do this Celestia had to remain still for a bit allowing several balls of ice to hit her. As a result, Celestia gain a few more dents in her armor and a few bruises in her unprotected areas.
“Luna, please stop this!” she heard Celestia call out. “We can work this out but you need to calm down and trust me.”
“Will you stop saying that?” roared Luna as she flew at Celestia with both weapons raised. She swung them at Celestia who managed to dodge at the last second. “Why should I trust you? Why should I believe in you after everything that has happened?”
“Then you leave me no choice,” said Celestia loudly as her horn began to glow brightly. “If you will not stop willingly then I will have to stop you. I am sorry sister.”
Seeing the next flash of magic, Lighting Dust decided that while she loved a challenge she knew that she would be more in the way if she went to go help Princess Luna. So with that in mind she began to scan that battlefield in the opposite direction of the two battling princess’. Once she had made up her mind she began to move at her fullest speed, becoming nothing but a blur that even the most experienced pegasi would have a hard time seeing. She moved from enemy to enemy, cutting through their armor with the greatest of ease. Most of Celestia’s Guard never even felt the blade, all they knew was that they were falling to ground as blood gushed from their chests.
‘This is too easy,’ thought Lightning Dust after she had taken down her thirtieth enemy in less than fifteen seconds. ‘Lets try one of the larger groups.’
With that, Lightning Dust shot towards one of the large clusters and drove straight on inside. As soon as she did, she found herself surround on all sides by enemy pegasi. More than once she slammed into one of them, causing herself to lose her momentum for a split second. During those moments, the enemy would realize her position and attempt to strike her with their spears or swords. But luckily for Lightning, she would be able to speed up enough to avoid getting hit. After several close call she found an opening and zoomed out. But not before leaving a grenade behind to take care of all the ones she had missed.
As the scene behind her exploded, Lightning Dust looked around to see where she could strike next. Part of her wanted to wipe out another large group since it proved to be more of a challenge. Yet just as she was about decide where she was going to strike next...
“Private Lightning Dust!” shouted Shadow as he flew into her general area. “Get your sorry flank over here NOW!”
Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow at this. She had never heard him talk to her like this before. However she did as she was told and headed off into his direction. When she reached him Lightning stopped and gave him a quick salute.
“What the buck do you think you are doing?” he demanded. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that stunt was that you just pulled?”
“Well,” began Lightning but interrupted.
“It was nothing short of insane,” he said. “I know you like a challenge, but there is a time and a place to do it. And here, on the battlefield, is not the place. We don’t have any back up and we can’t go wasting our forces. If I had known you would show this kind of poor judgment then I wouldn’t have brought you along.” He then pointed towards a group of incoming pegasi that were scattered about like the first bunch she had taken out. “Now I want you to clear the skies safely. No more taking unnecessary risks. Understand?”
Lightning nodded, a gesture that Shadow returned. With nothing else left to say she flew off.
-x-
Aerial Ace let out a curse as he flew through the air. The magical communication that was supposed to connect him with the new ‘lieutenants’ was not working leaving most of those in the air to make their own decisions. This was resulted in spontaneous attacks on their enemies without any sort of plan or backup. Only a few of the more seasoned soldiers were scoping the battlefield and trying to make a plan with anypony who would listen.
Suddenly a flash of blue light shot dangerously close to his right. Looking in the direction where it had come from, Aerial Ace saw blasts of energy coming out of Luna’s hoof guards aimed in Princess Celestia’s direction. He was about fly towards her but stopped when he saw his princess create a barrier that was larger than it should have been. He watched as the barrier not only stopped the attacks that would have hit her, but also the ones that might have hit those flying close by.
‘If I go to her I’ll just be in the way,’ he thought sadly as Princess Celestia fired an attack of her own at Luna.
Before he could think of what he should do, he noticed a blur out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw that the speedster of the Lunar forces was flying towards the bat stallion who was now up in the air. He watched as the mare stopped in front of him. He could tell that the two were talking, but about what he had no idea. Then he watched as the bat pony pointed in one direction, clearly issuing an order. The mare nodded before flying off in said direction leaving the bat pony alone.
‘If I were a betting pony I would bet that he is some kind of ranked officer,’ thought Aerial Ace. ‘Removing him from the battlefield would benefit us greatly.’
With that thought in mind, Aerial Ace flew around until he was behind the unsuspecting bat pony before charging in with his spear. But, once he was close enough, the stallion turned and broke the spear with a quick jab of his foreleg. Aerial Ace, however, did not stop his attack only redirecting his broken weapon towards his enemy’s wing. The bat stallion seemed to instantly read his move and tucked in his wings causing him to fall. Aerial Ace watched as the other stallion began to free fall for a bit before he righted himself and flew back up.
‘For a bat pony he has good instincts,’ thought Aerial Ace as he pulled out his sword. ‘He read my attacks as if he were an old war pro.’
‘He’s got skill,’ thought Shadow as he stared back at Aerial Ace while their last encounter played back in his head. ‘He was able to move into my blind spot without me noticing until the last second. Then, when I interrupted the attack, he simply redirected it without hesitation. I’ll have to get rid of him.’ As he thought this, Shadow’s front right hoof guard began to glow for a moment before a light blue saber sword came out looking like it was made of light.
And with that, the two charged at each other.
-x-
The room that the Lieutenants had been given was very comfortable. Each one had been given a red silk pillow to sit on while they watched their own squads through crystal balls that showed them what they wished to see. At one corner of the room was a table filled with snacks and drinks should they become hungry.
Yes it was very, very nice. A pity they were in too much of a panic to enjoy any of it.
As soon as the two princess’s began their fight, the new lieutenants began to issue out orders while noticing that the images in the orbs had begun to blur more and more with each passing second. Also the reports coming in from their troops were getting harder and harder to hear. Very soon into the battle they found themselves completely cut off. When that happened, everypony in the room began silent for a moment as the realization of what was happening began to dawn on them.
Then...
“We’re doomed!” cried one of them.
“What are we supposed to do?” shouted another as the room flew into a panic. “I-I have no bucking idea what I’m doing!”
Similar shouts were heard. Some of them were doing their best to look like they knew what they were doing by focusing their magic on the orbs, but all they were doing was making the orbs hover for a moment. A few of them began offering to pay the others to fix the situation, but that didn’t last very long. Stareye had never given them any instructions on what to do should something like this happen nor was it in their basic training. They were completely at a loss.
Well, most of them anyways, As soon as the shouting started Hot Pants got off of her cushion and ran out of the room as fast as she could. She had been placed in charge of some of the earth ponies outside. Right now they needed assistance or they would be picked off by the Lunar soldiers.
Hot’s ears picked up the sound of hooved behind her. Turning her head she saw Crème de la Crème running behind her.
“Crème, what are you-” began Hot Pants.
“We need to do something,” interrupted Crème with a serious expression. “And you seem to be the only other pony in that room that feels the same. So, what are you planning to do?”
“I,” began Hot Pants as she turned a corner, “don’t really have a plan. Right now all I know is that I have to get outside. And, due to the magical interference caused by the princess’s fight, teleporting outside isn’t a good idea.” She paused for a moment. “Which squad were you given?”
“A large pegasus one,” replied Crème. “Last I checked they were on the opposite side of the castle waiting for my orders.”
Hot Pants mind was reeling with everything going on. She stopped when the two approached a staircase leading to both the upper levels of the castle as well as a direct path to the main floor. There was also a large window that overlooked the battlefield. Gulping, Hot Pants walked towards it to take in everything.
The first thing she saw was the battle between Celestia and Luna. Her princess was firing a beam of golden energy at the other alicorn who was doing her best to counter it with a similar blue beam. At first it looked like they were even, but then Celestia’s attack began to push closer to Luna with what looked like very little effort. From what the mare could tell, it looked like Princess Celestia was adjusting the amount of magic in her attack as was needed. Hot Pants then watched as Luna then pointed both of her forehooves at Celestia right before a couple of short energy blasts were fired from them, hitting Celestia who canceled her spell.
She watched as Luna pressed her advantage and began to cast another spell. Around the lunar princess’ body appeared a dozen black spikes, each about two feet long. With a flap of her wings Luna sent them flying towards Celestia. Said princess created a magical barrier of golden light around her, canceling out her attackers spell.
A small flash caught Hot Pants’ eye. Looking in the direction it came from she saw several pegasi flying towards Princess Luna with spears in hoof. Celestia must of seen them as well for Hot Pants saw her raise her hoof and shout at them. It was, however, too late as they then threw their spears at Princess Luna. Hot Pants watched as Luna turned, most likely due to Princess Celestia’s actions, and fired an icy blue beam from her horn. All of those that got struck found their bodies to be incased in ice and then fell to the ground below where they shattered into thousands of pieces.
Pulling herself away from the princess’s battle and looking around, Hot Pants then saw Aerial Ace fighting with a bat pony stallion. The two aerial fighters were charging at each other at impressive speeds. The bat pony, however, was a bit faster as he reached Aerial Ace first and swung a glowing saber at him. Hot Pants’ eyes widen as Aerial not only narrowly dodged the attack by going above him at the last possible second but also managing to buck him while flying above. Sadly this impressive counter attack seemed to have little effect. It was then that the bat pony did a barrel roll while swinging his blade at the former lieutenant only to barely graze his armor. The two then got some distance from each other and then seemed to be circling each other like two timber wolves who were preparing to fight over a piece of meat.
She also noticed that there were two other lunar ponies in the sky. One was moving so fast that she was a blur while the other was cutting through the pegasi with a large axe while laughing. While Hot Pants knew that Aerial Ace could take care of the bat pony, she knew that the current pegasi in the air would need some help in order to take care of those two.
As she pulled her head in, Hot Pants took a deep breath before turning to look at Crème. “Head up to one of the castle towards and use your magic to signal some of the pegasi,” she said quickly. “We need to take control of the air before we lose too many of our ponies. Have some of them assist the earth ponies in the front of the castle. I’ll head downstairs and bring out the unicorns.”
Crème nodded her head and smiled. “Sounds like a plan,” she said. With that said she galloped up the stairway towards her destination while Hot Pants stole one more look out the window before she too raced downstairs.
-x-
“How many guards do they have?” cried Red Shirt as another wave of earth ponies began to approach.
Shining Armor nodded as he surveyed the area. Simply put, they were surrounded. Behind them was the castle entrance while on their other three sides were large groups of earth ponies hiding behind large metal shields or barriers created by the few unicorns that were among their numbers. From time to time Celestia’s guards would throw whatever spears they had at the three earth ponies.
Luckily for the Lunar Guards, Shining Armor and Donut were keeping them at bay with their magical defenses. However this could not last forever. Sooner or later Red Shirt and the two other earth ponies blasters would run out of energy leaving them to hid behind barriers with no means of escape.
‘We have to do something,’ thought Shining Armor as he looked upwards again. ‘Our armor’s power cells won’t last forever. I can protect us all with a powerful barrier until help arrives or Princess Luna finishes her battle. But...” Shining’s thoughts trailed off as his mind produced a single frightening question: What if Princess Luna loses? At once the white stallions mind began to show him images of Princess Celestia standing on top of Princess Luna’s body with a look of triumph before she easily shattered his barrier.
Shining Armor shook his head to rid himself of those images. ‘Focus Shining,’ he thought. ‘Regardless of the outcome of their fight, we need to secure an escape route in case Captain Starway can’t make it in time.’
“Private Donut,” ordered Shining Armor suddenly. “We are going on the offensive with Plan Zeta. You will set up the reflectors while I jump into the fray.”
Donut’s ears flattened when he heard this. “Sir, with all due respect, wouldn’t it be better if you set up the reflectors?”
“This isn’t up for debate,” snapped Shining. “I gave you an order and I expect you to follow it.”
“Yes sir,” said Donut as he saluted. His horn then began to glow pink as dozens of octagon shaped disks began to appear in the air in seemingly random places. Each one was about a foot tall, tilted at various angles, and very thin. When this was done, Donut yelled out “plan zeta” and the three earth ponies nodded. Each one picked the disk closest to them and began to fire a constant stream of energy that bounced from disk to disk, catching the enemy off guard. Acting quickly, Donut used his magic to readjust the dicks and moving them so that the energy blasts were able to move around the enemies defenses and strike them from behind. Then, the pink stallion made it so the energy made a sweeping motion taking out a large chuck of the enemy before the disks shattered.
“Warning,” came the computers voice from the three earth pony’s suits. “Energy levels have severely dropped. Power level is now at forty percent.”
“Alright then let’s move!” shouted Red Shirt. The others nodded and began to race away from the castle.
While this was going on, Shining Armor surrounded himself with his own barrier while at the same time creating four large sphere above him. Each one was light blue and looked like they could hold up to a dozen ponies each. Once this was done the captain of the Shield Corps set out.
Once he reach the first group of earth ponies, Shining Armor’s barrier was barraged with swords and spears. Yet he paid no mind to this as his shield took extremely little damage. Instead he moved the floating orbs into the crowd. Celestia’s guards slipped into the membrane of the orbs with ease, however once they were in they found they could not exit.
As soon as each of the four spheres were full, Shining Armor threw them at the castle. Right before they impacted, the orbs burst like a soap bubble causing the guards to take the full force of the impact and were knocked out. As Shining Armor began to craft three more he looked up towards Princess Luna.
‘I will not leave your side Princess,’ thought Shining Armor. ‘I don’t know if I can protect you from Celestia should the worse happen, but I won’t go down without a fight.’ With that, Shining Armor began his attack again.
-x-
Shadow Blade stared at the tiny cut in his opponent’s armor. ‘It should have been a killing blow both times,’ he thought to himself. When he had launched his first charge he had aimed his strike at the chest and swung at full speed. Yet this older pegasus must have read his attack and reacted not only to dodge but also to counter him at the same time. He was just lucky for his armor or else he would have broken his back.
‘Must be muscle memory,’ thought Shadow. ‘It’s the only way he could have reacted as quickly as he did. This stallion must have years of experience. He could have even seen real combat in the past. It would be unwise to underestimate him just because I have a younger body and better technology.’
Over with Aerial Ace, the pegasus was using his free hoof to feel the area that had been cut. As far as he could tell without taking his eyes off his enemy, he wasn’t bleeding. That was the good news. The bad news was that along the edges of the cut he could feel that, for a moment, the armor had begun to melt.
‘I’ll have to be careful,’ thought Aerial as he tightened his hold on his sword. ‘His armor makes him almost immune to my attacks and his weapon cut through my armor like it were cardboard. He is young, but he isn’t reckless like so many fools I have seen in the past. This will be an uphill battle for the both of us.’
Aerial began to think of his best course of action. He could try and prolong the fight until backup arrived, but he no idea when that would be and this bat pony could clearly outlast him. He could try to finish him off himself, however the armor that the other wore made that impossible as well. Not to mention that if he got too close he could counter with that weapon.
‘Wait,’ thought Aerial as an idea popped into his head causing his eyes to widen slightly. ‘His armor doesn’t cover everything! The upper part of his legs, his wings, his neck, and face are all exposed! If I can get a clean enough cut through one of them I can most likely end this fight and move on to the others.’
Meanwhile, over with Shadow, he kept a careful eye on the older pegasus taking note as his eyes widened. ‘He must have thought of something,’ he thought while doing his best to keep him face blank. He could not afford to give anything away. The slightest slip up could give him away and, maybe, cost him his life.
Then, without warning, the pegasus shot into the air. Not wanting his enemy to get too high above him Shadow followed in hot pursuit. Slowly, Shadow inched closer and closer as he tried his best to figure what his enemy was trying to do. After climbing several hundred yards into the air the pegasus seemed to hit the brakes suddenly while at the same time flapping his wings so that he would be behind Shadow as he passed.
Shadow, realizing his enemy’s intention, spun around and did his best to get some distance between them. However the pegasus trust forward at an impressive speed, his weapon aimed at one of the exposed areas on Shadow’s body. There was a flash as the pegasus swung his sword and continued to fly past him.
Panting slightly, Aerial noticed that his sword had some blood on it. Carefully, Aerial Ace turned around and saw there was once a slight cut on the bat ponies left foreleg and a thin trail of blood moving down his legs. Acting quickly, Aerial Ace shot forward in order to press the attack. However, this time the bat pony defected the attack using his right hoof guard while at the same time sending his left into Aerial’s gut. Aerial double over in pain but managed to both stay in the air and keep hold of his sword.
“Buck,” moaned Aerial aloud. ‘Ok, he’s pretty strong and… he didn’t use his right hoof guard? Why? He could have deflected with his left and then used his right to impale me on that blade. Did he not think about it or-’ Aerial then head a ‘Bweee’ sound coming from the bat pony’s left hoof guard. Acting quickly, Aerial beat his wings to back away from his enemy and shot downwards just as a light blue beam of light shot out of the forehoof.
‘What kind of magic is that?’ screamed Aerial mentally as he rounded on his opponent. ‘No matter. He was that back, waiting for the right time to use it effectively. Now that I know about it, I know to watch out for his left. This will make all the difference in Equestria.’
-x-
“Amazing,” whispered Blueblood as he looked out a window in one of the upper towers of the castle. Before him he had an excellent view of the entire battle. He watched as the speedy one slashed through their forces and the bat mare’s weapons impaled her opponents. He watched in awe as the bat stallion fought with one of their more seasoned fighters, both of them giving it their all. He had even seen how a few earth ponies had used their devices to an amazing effect, wiping out a portion of the guard in one blow.
And it was better than he ever dreamed.
Yes, Equestria was losing many of their ponies. But in the end it would all be worth it. Those lunar ponies would fail sooner or later and, when they did he would be there to claim their lives and gear for the good of Equestria. Imagine that kind of weaponry given to each of Equestria’s soldiers. None of the other races would stand a chance against them. Ponies could take their rightful place as the rulers of the world with unicorns as the highest class!
A sudden flash then caught his eye. Looking in the direction of its source, Blueblood saw Celestia block another of Luna’s magical assaults with a barrier shield. Even from this distance, he could see that the lunar princess was looking annoyed. He watched as she said something right before a dozen or some objects shot out of the armor. These objects were small, about the size of a marble, but left a trail of smoke as they flew towards Celestia.
Celestia saw them and acted quickly. Her horn lit up once more as she created a whip of pure golden light. With two lashes, the magical while struck all of the objects which caused them to erupt in earth shaking explosions. It was so bright that Blueblood was forced to look away for a moment. When he looked out the window again, he saw that Luna had closed in on Celestia who was dodging a blow from her glaive.
It was then that Celestia’s horn began to burn with golden flames. The sun princess suddenly charged at the other alicorn as her mane, wings, her entire body, seemed to transform into the flames. The unicorn prince watched as Celestia slammed into Luna, knocking her to the ground once more. Never had Blueblood seen such a display of beauty or power in all his life.
“Soon,” whispered Blueblood as he stared at Luna. “Soon you will fall.” And with that, Blueblood turned and walked towards a stairway that would lead him outside.
-x-
“What in Celestia’s name is going on out there?” demanded Trixie as her room shook once again. Carefully, the mare walked over to the window to check on the events going on. She had done this several times already and each time it had been the same. Nothing but ponies fighting for whatever reason.
Right now she had a good view of Celestia as she flew close to the tower where her bedroom was. Luna was following closely, firing a barrage of black needles. For her part, Celestia created a shield that was large enough to protect not only herself but the castle as well. For some reason, however, the shield wasn’t strong enough to block all of the projectiles and one hit the castle, causing the room to shake.
As it did, Trixie heard the cry of a small filly. Trixie turned around and saw a light amber colored cutie markless filly with a crimson mane that had yellow streaks in it curled up in the corner, shaking in fear. It surprised her that this had once been the insane mare Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset Shimmer had been dropped off at her room by Princess Celestia herself. Trixie knew who it was the moment she laid her eyes on her, not turning her gaze as the filly tried to hide behind the solar princess. When Trixie looked her mentor in the eye to ask why she had brought a criminal into her room (as well as to ask why said criminal was now a filly) but stopped when she saw how tired her princess looked.
Oddly, Celestia seemed to guess what Trixie wished to ask. As Sunset began to explore Trixie’s room, Celestia began to explain what Luna had done to the once insane mare in a hushed tone so that only Trixie could hear. She then explained that she had turned Sunset into a filly so she could better adapt into this new world.
When she was done explaining all of this, Trixie asked what she planned to do about Sunset.
“Right now,” Celestia had said, “I’m not sure. Perhaps I’ll make her my next pupil. But that is a decision for another day. Right now, I need you to watch her and keep her hidden.”
“From Princess Luna?” asked Trixie.
Celestia had nodded. “Yes, I cannot imagine how my sister will react when she finds out what I have done to Sunset. I think it best not to let her know at this point. However, she is not the only one I am worried about. I fear that the nobles, if they ever found out about where she is from, might try to help her regain her lost memories or use her in some way to meet their own ends. For the sake of Equestria, this must be avoided at all costs. So I am entrusting you with this important task. I know you will make me proud.”
Now, in the present, Trixie let out a sigh as she used her magic to pull out a bottle of brandy. ‘So this is all Trixie is good for,’ thought Trixie darkly as she drank from the bottle. ‘Celestia’s faithful student and instead of being there when she needs Trixie the most, here Trixie is babysitting her next student. Trixie bets she can’t wait to be rid of Trixie.’
As another explosion rumbled outside, tears began to flow down Trixie’s face.
-x-
Hot Pants was panting by the time she reached the ground floor. Her fatigue, however, did not stop her from continuing at this pace until she reached the main entrance of the castle. There, standing there were at least a hundred unicorns. Most of them were guards except for two: Fancy Pants and North Star. The guards were talking in angry voices up until one of them noticed she was approaching. He signaled to the others and they all became quiet as they saluted her.
“What is going on here?” she demanded.
“We were just trying to decide how to get past this barrier,” said one of the unicorn guards as he motioned to the door. His hoof then pointed to the orange sphere in the middle of the doorway. “But every time we touch the thing we get zapped.”
Hot Pants took a deep breath. “Ok then, what else have you tried?” she asked.
“We tried to teleport, but we can’t,” said somepony in the crowd.
“We tried ramming it down, but it just destroyed the fancy table we used for a battering ram,” said another.
“I threw a rock,” said a third. As soon as he said this, all eyes were on him with a deadpanned expression. “It was a big rock,” he said, more than a little defensively.
Once again, an argument broke out with the soldiers leaving Hot Pants alone with her thoughts. ‘Ok we need to get outside,’ she thought as she did her best to break down the situation. Yet, as she began to process this the castle began to shake as bits of dust and small rocks fell from the ceiling. Most likely a result of the two Princess’ battle outside. ‘Those…things are what is keeping us from going outside. Maybe if I think of this like magic. Really advanced magic that I don’t fully understand, but never the less magic. Ok, so this is like a magical barrier. A barrier spell will fail when the power runs out or if another force is stronger than the will behind the magic being used. Perhaps...’
“I got it,” said Hot Pants suddenly causing all eyes to look at her. “Here’s what we are going to do. I want energy beam spells focused at one point on the barrier. We are either going to drain that thing of all of its power or we are going to shatter the barrier.”
“But what if that doesn’t work,” said one of the guards.
“Better than doing nothing,” said Hot Pants as she charged up her horn. “Now, with me everypony!” Once she finished speaking she fired her spell near the orb.
“Yes ma’am,” said a hundred ponies before they to fire a similar spell close to hers.
At first it looked like nothing was happening. Then, around the spot where they were targeting, cracks began to appear. At first they were small, but as the seconds passed they grew larger and larger until they covered the entire doorway. Finally the barrier crashed with a deafening sound as the orange orb fell harmlessly to the ground.
“Finally,” shouted one of the guards. “Now let’s go kill us some lunar scum!” At this, there was a cheer of agreement.
“Not so fast young stallion,” said Fancy Pants, speaking up for the first time. “While I am not your superior, doesn’t military protocol dictate that in a situation such this that your first objective should be to secure the removal of all non-military personal? Like say the castle staff?”
The stallion snorted. “They’ll be fine,” he replied. “Besides, the sooner we kill them the sooner we’ll all be safe.”
“Why you little-” began Fancy Pants.
“Enough!” shouted Hot Pants as she wiped some sweat from her brow. As she did the castle shook once more, pressing the young mare for time. “We have enough enemies outside the castle. We don’t need to be making more inside. Now I know you all want to get out there and help your friends. So, those who want to help evacuate civilians can stay behind while those who want to help fight may leave. Is this understood?”
“Yes ma’am,” they all said in unison as they saluted her once more. Then, all at once, they turned and raced outside leaving behind only Fancy Pants, North Star, and Hot Pants.
Hot Pants let out a sigh. “Well, looks like I’m on my own,” she said aloud to herself.
“Not at all my dear,” said Fancy Pants. “We’ll help clear out all of this fine castles employees. Isn’t that right Lord North Star?”
“Of course,” replied the pony noble. “It is what Princess Celestia would have want.”
“Thank you,” said Hot Pants with a small smile. She then cleared her throat to give them both orders. “Ok, we’re going to split up and round up as many of the castle staff as well as any nobles you both find. If they refuse to come then suggest that they head down to the catacombs. They’ll be safe there and making sure everypony is safe is what we need to be focusing on right now.”
-x-
Overkill was now panting as she swung her axe to kill another one of the seemingly endless pegasi that assaulted her. But it seemed for each one she killed, thirty more would come to take its place.
But that wasn’t the worse of it. They were getting smarter, becoming more coordinated. They has recognized the threat posed by her grenades and kept a watch out for them. Once they spotted one in the air they would scatter as best they could. Now Overkill had one left and she knew better than to waste it like the last few.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a series of flares. Turning her head slightly, she saw a unicorn standing of top of a tower with her horn glowing brightly. She also took note that she wasn’t the only one watching her. She could see many of the pegasi looking at the unicorn. ‘She must be using her magic to send them a code,’ thought Overkill as she tightened the grip on her weapon.
Then it happened. Hundreds of spears from all directions were launched at her. Overkill flew upwards while swinging her giant axe and using her remote spears. Smash. Smash. Smash. Over and over again she knocked away as many of the projectiles as she could. Those she didn’t bounced harmlessly off of her armor.
‘I can do this,’ thought Overkill. ‘I can-’ her thoughts ended as pain gripped her from behind as she began to fall. Looking over her shoulder, Overkill saw that one of the spears had made a hole in her webbing.
Then they came. Stallions armed with spears moved in quickly while her head was turned. The first impaled her right foreleg causing Overkill to scream out in pain while dropping her axe. Using all of her strength she knocked him away only to leave herself open. Her left foreleg, both of her hind legs, and her stomach were all impaled by spears held by Celestia’s pegasi. She could now feel her life slip away from her as they began to slowly, very slowly lower her to the ground.
“Burn in Tartarus you freak,” whispered one of them.
Overkill looked at him for a moment as felt around her belt. It took her a moment before her hoof landed on her last grenade. She activated it and then smiled leaving her enemy with a confused expression on his face.
“Sounds like fun,” she said before coughing up some blood. “Care to join me?” Before the pegasi could respond they were all consumed in a brilliant white light. And then they were no more.
-x-
“Let’s hurry!” shouted Red Shirt as he and the others raced down the streets of Canterlot. All around them there were ponies in all sorts of filly get up that shouted angrily at them as they pushed through the crowd. The few that were too stubborn to get out of the way were knocked onto their fancy plot.
“Are you sure the embassy is this way?” asked Donut as he looked around. “We don’t have any LPS to guide us.”
“I’m sure,” replied Red Shirt as they turned down an ally way. “We’re just taking a short cut.”
“Oh goodie,” said Donut obliviously as the other two stallions rolled their eyes. As they ran through the alleyway, the lunar guards noticed trash cans full have half eaten and wasted food. Most of them narrowed their eyes in anger as they sped up to make their way to their final destination.
After three more detours they finally found themselves heading in the right direction. Standing several hundred yards from them was their embassy with its shield raised. However, just outside of it were several uniformed unicorn officers shouting at the barrier, ordering it to come down.
As the Lunar guards ran towards them, they were spotted and fired upon without any warning or the like.
“If that’s how they want to play,” said one of the earth ponies in a gruff voice. He then fired his blaster as did the other two. Within seconds, the officers fell to the ground below.
“Nice shoot-” began Donut before his voice was drowned out by a loud zap sound. By the time the others turned their heads to look at him Donut had already fallen to the ground, his eyes wide in surprise and confusion.
Looking up now, the Lunar Guards saw about fifty unicorns galloping towards them with the heads lowered, horns glowing as they were pointed at them. Red Shirt pointed his laser at them, but the ground in front of him exploded before he could let out a single shot. He was thrown up into the air along with the stone road and then everything went black.
The first of his senses to return was sound. It was muffled, but he could hear ponies talking in the distance. Something about securing the area. Slowly, Red Shirt opened his eyes. Vision was only coming from one and what he saw horrified him. They were surrounded by Celestia’s guards. Donut’s body was a few feet away from him while the other two lay much further away while a couple of the guards poked at their body with their hooves. He also noted that three of their number were also on the ground, most likely dead.
‘We were so close,’ thought Red Shirt sadly.
“What should we do with the bodies?” asked one of Celestia’s guard. Red Shirt froze as he listened in on the conversation.
“We’ll get a cart and bring them back to the castle,” said another. “But beyond that, it’s out of our hooves. Most likely the higher ups will want to study their armor and see what they can learn.”
‘Not a chance in the void,’ thought Red Shirt savagely. He tried to point his laser at them, but for some reason it didn’t move. Thinking that it must have been damaged in the blast, Red noticed something on Donut’s belt. A regular grenade!
Keeping his eyes on the weapon, Red Shirt forced his body to crawl over to that of his comrade. Each push seemed to drain more and more of his limited strength. He was beginning to feel numb and cold, but he pressed on regardless. Nothing short of death was going to stop him. Finally he reached his destination. Then, as he slowly reached out a hoof an energy blast struck his foreleg causing him to yell out in pain.
“Stay away from the pink pony,” he heard somepony yell. Red Shirt was now having problems seeing and he couldn’t tell where the voice came from. There was no chance in the void that he could find the grenade, let along activate it.
But there was something that he could do.
“Computer,” he said in faint voice. “Activate Operation: Super Nova. Begin count at ten seconds. Password is moon pie.”
“Command accepted,” replied the armor’s computer.
“I said get away from the pink pony,” barked the same pony once again.
“He’s not pink,” whispered Red Shirt as closed his now useless eyes. “He’s lightish red.”
And with that his armor exploded.
-x-
Up in the air, Shadow and Aerial were still at it. Both guards were fighting with everything they had, neither giving the other an inch. Both of their moves were well polished, making their battle seem more like a dance.
However, both of them knew that sooner or later this would have to end. They were spending too much time on a single opponent when there were others that needed to be taken care of. This went double for Shadow seeing that he didn’t know the status of his fellow guard ponies. For all he knew at this point was he was the last to protect Princess Luna.
As for Aerial Ace, the older stallion was beginning to pant. His stamina was running out and if this fight continued any longer then he would most likely be slain. Meaning he would have to try a risky maneuver that he would normally never use. But he knew that if he didn’t take the risk than he would lose.
Taking a deep breath, Ace scanned his surroundings. For the most part the ground below them was empty. He did, however, notice that south of them the two alicorn princess’ were fighting with everything they had. The Lunar princess was firing magical bolts at Princess Celestia who managed to either avoid they or created a magical barrier to block them. To the east he saw Hot Pants was standing at the castle entrance as a stream of the staff was exiting the building. He hid a smile, proud that she was doing her job of protecting these ponies.
Seeing that the conditions were right, Aerial Ace shot up into the air and then made a U turn towards the ground below. The bat pony followed him while keeping his distance. At first it looked like ace was going to crash into the ground below, but pulled up at the last minute as did the bat pony. Now they were shooting across the castle ground, inches from the ground. Using his sword, Aerial Ace struck the ground real quick bringing up a large amount of dust and debris into the air. At the speed they were going, the bat pony flew into it before he had a chance to close his eyes.
This was the chance Aerial Ace had been waiting for! He turned around and saw that the bat pony was quickly rubbing his eyes. He had only a moment or two to strike. But that was all he would need to cut off both wings.
Then time seemed to slow down as he saw a blast of magic enter his field of vision. Most likely it came from the enemy princess, but that didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was that it struck the castle right above the entrance where Hot Pants was standing. He saw that the mare had noticed it as well and, rather than use her magic to save her own life, pushed all of the civilians out of the way right before a large chunk of rock landed on her.
Without hesitating, Aerial Ace dropped his sword and turned towards the ruined castle entrance just as the bat pony finished getting the dust out of his eyes. Eyes that followed the demoted pegasus with interest.
When Aerial Ace reached his destination, he saw that half of Hot Pants body was covered in rubble. He gave her a quick once over and saw that there was no blood on her body nor did she appear to be in any pain. If fact, she looked like she was in a panic.
“Lieutenant, are you ok?” he asked while trying to move some of the rubble off of her. This proved to be difficult given how tired he was and that some of the stones looked like they would require his mouth to move.
“I-I’m fine sir,” she said between several deep breaths. “I c-can still f-feel m-my legs. I t-think I’m j-just pinned d-down.”
“That’s good,” said Aerial Ace as felt some smaller rubble fall on his head. He looked up and his jaw almost dropped. A huge section of the wall looked like it was about to fall down upon them. From this position he couldn’t tell what was keeping it up, but whatever it was couldn’t hold it up forever. He looked over at Hot Pants and noticed that she was unaware of the threat above her. Knowing time was against him he moved towards the large stone block that appeared to be pinning Hot Pants down and did his best to try and lift it. This, sadly, proved to be impossible for a single pony alone. It was far too heavy.
“S-Sir I’m fine,” said Hot Pants. “Please j-just forget about m-me for now and h-help the others.” Seeing Aerial Ace ignore her caused her to take a deep breath. “Sir, I am ordering y-you to take command of-”
“Not happening,” grunted Ace as he continued his struggle. “Looks like after this is over I’m looking at a demotion.”
“But you were already demoted!” shouted Hot Pants.
Before Aerial Ace could respond they both heard a loud ‘crack!’ above them. The color drained from both of their faces as they looked up and saw the stone begin to fall. Hot Pants yelled for Ace to run, but the stallion rushed over to her and placed his body above hers with the intent to use it to shield her from the rubble. Aerial Ace then closed his eyes tightly and braced himself for the worst. It was then that a sudden ‘Bweee’ sound filled the air and a moment later the older stallion felt smaller rocks and dust fall on him. Opening his eyes, he saw the bat pony pointing his left forehoof at where the fragmented wall had been.
Aerial Ace watched in surprise as the bat pony’s sword vanished while he landed on the ground a few feet in front of them. However Ace refused to move and leave Hot Pants. He kept a careful eye on the other stallion as he walked towards them. Yet, the bat pony’s ultimate destination wasn’t them, but the other side of the stone Aerial Ace had been trying to lift. The bat pony tried to lift the stone off of her and, when that failed, he looked at Ace with an expression that said, ‘Are you going to help me or what?’. Nodding, Ace moved from his spot and back over to where he had been trying to lift before. At the same time the two managed to lift the rubble off of Hot Pants enough to allow her squeeze out.
Once out, Hot Pants stood up and looked at the bat pony with a hint of confusion. “Thank you,” she said. “But why did you help?”
The bat pony said nothing. Instead he looked over to Aerial Ace, gave him a quick nod, and then flew back into the air back to where the two had been fighting. As for Aerial Ace, he smirked before he too flew off in the direction of his sword. He grabbed it before heading towards the bat stallion.
“I don’t get it,” said a confused Hot Pants, shaking her head.
“All of you this way!” came the voice of Blueblood. Hot Pants turned her head and saw the prince leading about thirty unicorns towards the two stallions. “Now fire!”
Fearful that they might hit Aerial Ace, Hot Pants shouted at them to wait. But it was too late as thirty magical blasts were fired wildly into the air. Some were think, broad beams of energy that were hard to dodge while others were thin, narrow beam that were cutting beams. Biting her lower lip, Hot Pants watched as the two did their best to avoid the attack. To her horror she saw Aerial Ace’s right wing take one of the blasts destroying it instantly. Narrowing her eyes, she ran as fast as she could towards the falling guard while the other unicorns just kept firing. She ran with all of her might, but he was falling too fast and was too far away. Not really thinking Hot Pants tried her best to teleport but the spell didn’t work.
“Come on,” said Hot Pants to herself as she tried a different spell. Just as her horn began to glow Aerial Ace fell to the ground. Tears in her eyes she ran over to him with double the speed. When she got there she could hear his shallow breathing while she check to see what was broken. After a few seconds she discovered several broken ribs and both of his hind legs were broken as well.
She looked up towards the sky and saw the bat pony keeping his attention on them while he dodged the attacks. She couldn’t see it but, for reasons she couldn’t explain, she could tell that he was furious. Not at her but somepony else.
But even he couldn’t dodge every attack. One of the narrow beams struck one of the exposed area’s on his front left leg. A moment later he was struck again, only this time it was one of his hind legs. As if realizing that staying in this area was no longer wise, Hot Pants watched as the bat pony flew off heading in the direction of the two princesses.
“After him!” shouted Blueblood.
“Wait,” called out Hot Pants. “He needs medical attention.” But no pony listened to her. All of the unicorns ran off towards the bat pony leaving Hot Pants alone, calling for help for the fallen soldier.
-x-
‘Where is everypony?’ thought Lightning Dust as she took down six more pegasi. Over the course of several minutes, she had noticed a lack of other Lunar ponies. She looked around but could not find Overkill in the sky anymore. She had, however, spotted Shadow fighting with that pegasus. She also didn’t see Donut, Red Shirt, or any of the other ground bound ponies except for Shining Armor who was fighting bellow her.
‘This can’t be it,’ she thought. ‘We can’t be the only three left. Maybe they stormed the castle or something.’
Still, Lightning Dust couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. With great speed she began to zip across the sky while looking for signs of her missing comrades while at the same time taking down as many of Celestia’s guards as she could. Yet this was proving to be harder than when she first started. She had already picked off most of the loners during the first two minutes of the battle. Now there were mostly clumps of pegasi in the sky, trying desperately to catch her.
This proved to be difficult. Some of the groups didn’t know who to follow or bickered about who was in charge. Sometimes a few would get separated from the main mass and Lightning would easily pick them off. It was almost like some idiot had planned all of this at the last minute and forgot to take any precautions.
Lightning Dust zoomed around in her search until she spotted something. It was a glimmer on the ground several hundred yards ahead of her. ‘That’s where Overkill had been fighting,’ thought Lightning Dust as she shot in that direction.
It took her a half a second for her to reach her destination, but when she did she stopped cold in her tracks. Lying there in the ground was Overkill’s axe. ‘N-No way,’ thought Lightning as she felt all warmth leave her body. ‘There’s no way Overkill would ever leave that axe behind unless she was was…’
As the truth began to sink into Lightning Dust, Celestia’s pegasi were now converging on the morning pegasus from every direction. Hundreds of them blocking every escape route she could take with their weapons ready to take her life. Then just as they were closing in they were startled by a loud scream.
“MONSTERS!” roared Lightning Dust as she turned to look at the incoming army with narrowed eyes that showed no sign of fear. At once she zoomed towards the closest pegasi and cut off his head before he even know what happened. She then began to circle around the group, picking off dozens with every rotation.
That, however, was not enough to stop what Celestia’s guard had planned. While Lightning Dust was taking many of them down, they were still able to surround her within seconds. Yet Lightning Dust did not slow down. She slammed into guard after guard, the impact causing her enemies to fall out of the sky. Some she would fly in front of and then vanish as if by magic, but not before slitting their throats.
She soon became away that some of her exposed area’s now had cuts and were bleeding, yet she paid them no mind. It would take a lot more than that to stop her. She didn’t care about escaping or regrouping with the others. Right now all she could think about was killing every single one of these Celestia’s loving monsters before her body became too exhausted to move.
She then became aware of a slight whack on her back. Whatever it was, it only lasted a moment and, with the speed she was going at, wouldn’t happen again. To make sure of that, she increased her speed even more within this tightly knitted space as she killed several more ponies that were now nothing more than blobs of neon colors to her. Her wings began to scream at her to slow down and a voice in the back of her mind warned her that this was unsafe. Lightning dust could no longer tell if she was making a killing blow or not, instead just slashing whatever she came close to.
And then she began to fall.
As she did, she felt a numbness on her back where her wings were. When she turned her head, she saw to her horror that both of them had been cut of leaving little stumps where they had once been. She also noticed a pegasus pony whom she had sliced in half at the torso, holding a bloody sword. That image was quickly replaced as the other pegasi began to fly towards her with their weapons at the ready to end her life.
Lightning closed her eyes as she waited for the attack. But it never came. Instead she felt herself land on something that wasn’t the ground. Slowly she opened her eyes and saw that she was in one of Shining Armor’s defensive bubbles, slowly being lowered near said unicorn. Outside Celestia’s guard tried their best to pierce it, yet had no luck. Seeing this, Lightning stuck out her tongue at them.
Once the bubble made contact with Shining’s main shield, it passed through it without any difficulty before laying her on the ground. Looking up she saw the angry face of Shining Armor.
“That was the stupidest, most reckless thing I have ever seen in my life,” said Shining Armor as a vein appeared on his head. “You are just lucky you were close by or else you would have been killed!”
As Shining Armor opened his mouth to continue talking, he was cut off by the noise outside. Several ponies where knocked out while screaming in pain right before Shadow came into view, creating a path for himself by slashing away at the enemy ponies. Once he made it to Shining Armor’s shield, the barrier allowed him through but not the spears and swords that traveled behind him.
As soon as he was inside, he looked down at Lightning Dust with some pity while Shining Armor created a shield over her wounds in order to stop the bleeding. Lightning, for her part, noticed that two of her captain’s legs had a slow moving river of blood running down them. For a while, no pony spoke.
“I,” began Shadow as he looked at Shining, “haven’t seen anypony else. The three of us are all that remain.”
“Don’t count our troops out just yet,” said Shining. “I sent Private Donut and the others back the embassy. Hopefully they made it back home. If they did then we can expect an emergency teleport soon. As for Overkill, maybe she moved the fight out into the city or something.”
Shadow opened his mouth, but Lightning spoke up before him.
“Overkill is dead,” she said while looking at the ground. “I didn’t see it happen, but I saw her axe. There is no way she would ever leave it behind.”
Upon hearing this news Shadow closed his eyes while lowering his head.
“But that doesn’t mean that the rest of them are dead,” said Shining as worry began to enter his voice.
“But we should proceed as if they have,” said Shadow as he opened his eyes while giving Shining Armor a look of determination. He then began to take off his chest armor and, once he had done so, opened up a panel on its inside.
“What are you doing?” asked Shining while Lightning looked up at her superior.
“Private Lightning Dust,” said Shadow as he ignored Shining Armor’s question. “Hoof over your suit’s power cells.” Lightning’s eyes widened when she heard this. For a moment she didn’t move. Then, with a shaky hoof began to take off her armor as well.
“What the buck are you planning?!” demanded Shining Armor.
“In the event of an emergency, such as this, all member of the Royal Guard are taught how to make a bomb out of their armor,” said Shadow without looking up from his work. “It’s simple really. All I have to do is disengage the safety systems one by one and then trigger an overload. When I’m done, the blast will most likely destroy the castle and nearly everypony here with the exception of Princess Luna and that sister of hers.”
“But my shield,” said Shining Armor in disbelief as Lightning gave Shadow three small rods that gave off a light blue glow. “At this rate it will be three days before they even create a crack. That’s more than enough time for help to arrive!”
“That’s true,” said Shadow as he continued his work, adding Lightning’s power cells into his armor. “But how long will it last if Princess Celestia adds her own power to the attack.”
Shining Armor’s eyes went wide. “B-But that would mean that Princess Luna would have to-”
“Lose?” finished Shadow as he looked up from his work. “I know it’s not a happy thought but we need to be prepared in case something like that happens. If we are to go down, I am going to make sure they think twice before attacking the Republic.”
-x-
Meanwhile, Princess Luna was thrown against the ground once more due to one of Celestia’s attacks. And, like the other times, she managed to get back on her hooves quickly before glaring at her sister.
‘This is taking too long,’ thought the princess of the moon as she took a breath. She then glanced around to see if she could spot any of her Honor Guard and, to her dismay, all she could spot was Shining’s shield. ‘I cannot let this drag on anymore or more of my little ponies will suffer.”
“Computer,” said Luna under her breath. “What is our status?”
“Armor strength is at fifty-six percent,” replied her armor’s computer. “This suits energy levels are at forty-one percent. Twelve missiles remain.”
"Computer," said Luna, "prepare to fire all remaining missiles, alpha-strike pattern. Disengage safeties on glaive and chakram, and set for overload. Also disengage safeties on chest and forehoof blasters, and route all remaining power towards them."
"Warning!" replied the computer sharply, with red lights coming up on Luna's peripheral-view Heads-Up Display, "High probability of critical damage to chest armor and all systems. Passcode required to continue."
"Passcode is: Oceana, Celestia..." answered Luna, hesitating for a moment, then with resolution, "...Family."
"Passcode accepted," confirmed the night alicorn's battle computer, "Executing operation."
Luna felt her chest plate and forehooves' armor grow hot as she flapped her wings and rose into the air once more, bringing herself level to Celestia. Panels on Luna's flanks opened to reveal her micro-missile racks. Hovering at her sides, the cores of the lunar alicorn's weapons began to glow brighter than before.
As she did this, Celestia shook her head. “Please little sister, let this end,” begged Celestia. “Hasn’t there been enough damage done to both sides?”
“Oh this will end alright,” stated Luna as her horn began to glow. “And it will end with your defeat!”
With that, A dozen smoke trails spiraled out from the lunar alicorn, some heading dead-on at Celestia, while others curved or curled around to the solar alicorn's sides, top and bottom.
The solar princess let out a sigh as she created a magical sphere around her. The explosive impacts jarred her barrier, but it held.
‘I am so sorry little sister,’ thought Celestia sadly. ‘But I must end this before all of the chaos of this battle awakes Discord. I only hope that she will forgive me for-’
THUK! THUK! Celestia blinked in surprise as the smoke cleared, to find Luna's weapons had partly penetrated and embedded themselves in her barrier. Frowning, Celestia opened her mouth once again try to reason against Luna's futile efforts when noticed that Luna's weapons were emitting a loud shrill noise.
Twin explosions lit the air as Luna's weapons detonated, shattering Celestia's barrier, the white alicorn shielded her face with her forelegs from the blast-wave as she felt shrapnel from the exploded weapons dig into her exposed areas.
But when she brought her forelegs down, Celestia thought for a moment that she was staring into her sun, and it was coming right at her.
A blue-white beam as wide as Celestia streamed forth from Luna as chest and forehoof blasters combined into a single spiraled beam, held together and enhanced by Luna's magic as she poured all her own personal energies into the blast as well. The beam engulfed Celestia's form in a torrent of technological and magical energies.
Battle ceased and froze as the flaring beam lit up the city skies like a beacon, and Celestia's deafening scream could be heard throughout Canterlot. Equestrians all around the area looked up with open mouths to see their princess’ falling to the ground with her eyes closed, her armor destroyed by the attack, her white fur charred in many places.
Thankfully she was caught by a dark-blue magic aura before she fell more than ten yards. Luna who was now panting hard, with her horn's aura flickering, and looked like she was having trouble staying in the air. She looked down at Shining Armor’s barrier and flew towards it with Celestia in tow. Celestia’s guards, who were either still in shock at what they had just see or were afraid that they might harm Celestia, did nothing which allowed Luna to enter the barrier with no difficulty.
As soon as her hooves where on the ground, Luna dropped Celestia like a sack of rocks. Grimacing in pain and exertion, the lunar alicorn reached up a smoking forehoof to rip off her also-smoking, glowing-hot chestplate and cast it upon the ground. Luna kicked off her forelegs' armor as well to join the chestplace, where all three items began to curl and warp inward from their heat and fused circuitry.
She then looked at the three ponies that were in the force field and hoped that they were not the only ones to survive.
Luna stood there panting for a moment before her gaze returned to her sister and her eyes softened a bit. The anger she had during the fight was now fading and the cloud of rage that had fogged her thoughts was now lifting as she stared at the bloody and charred heap that was her sister.
And with this new clarity she began to see things differently. ‘Oh sister, how could you not see what was right in front of you?’ she thought. ‘You always wanted to give everypony the benefit of the doubt, to put your faith in them. But you forgot that there are those who will take advantage of you like Blueblood has done. The guard seems to follow his orders, not yours, and I fear what he will do when he finds you in this state.’
“Princess,” said Shining Armor, pulling Princess Luna from her thoughts. When they made eye contact he noticed that she was panting and her eyes looked a little droopy, as if she were doing her best to stay awake. “It is good to see that you are alright but we need you to teleport us out of here and soon.”
Luna sadly shook her head. “I am afraid that most of my magic has been spent during my fight with Celestia. I have barely the power to do the simplest of spells at the moment.”
“Then we’ll give you time to rest,” said Shining Armor before glancing at Shadow. “So we won’t need that bomb.”
Luna looked over at Shadow who was still working on his armor. Surrounding him were several small devices which she recognized as the safety systems of an armor unit. Judging by how many there were Luna realized that he was halfway done. She also noticed that he was looking a bit paler and his movements were becoming a bit more sluggish.
“Hey,” said Lightning. “Look what’s going on.”
Luna turned her head and saw that the earth ponies were now backing away. Even the pegasi in the air were backing away and landing on the ground. Then Blueblood and an army of unicorns began to move in with the arrogant noble wearing a large grin that got on Luna’s nerves.
“I would say well fought but that would be a lie,” said Blueblood in a sneering tone as the unicorns began to surround the barrier. “In the end this was the only outcome. Your bloodlust has come to an end at the hooves of the Canterlot Royal Guard. Now, in the name of the Princess whom you defeated through trickery, lower your barrier and surrender. Please, do not waste any more time on foolish resistance.”
Luna narrowed her eyes. “You are not in complete control,” she said while motioning to Shining Armor “You have yet to breach this barrier and-”
“That ‘barrier’ will not protect you for long,” interrupted Blueblood. “And do not think you can use my dear Auntie as a hostage. I know her well enough to know that in a situation like this she would insist that I think about Equestria before anything else. And that is what I shall do, for Princess Celestia. But I shall give you this one warning so please pay attention with this tiny brains of yours. If any ‘more’ harm comes to her then any chance that your guards survive this day will be lost.”
“Prin...ess...there? Do... hear...?”
These bits of words mixed in with static were heard on the com system of all of the Lunar ponies. At once all of their eyes widened while Shadow raised his head from his work. Their hearts began to beat faster than ever before.
“Yes, we hear you!” shouted Shining with a smile.
“Good,” said Blueblood. “It seems there is one among you with some degree of sense. Not surprising seeing that he is a unicorn.”
“...out...oving in...to...strength. I repeat, we are moving closer in order to boost the signal,” came Starway’s voice on the comm system.
At that moment, a shadow appeared over all of Canterlot. Looking up, everypony saw something that caused their jaws to drop. The ponies from Equestria didn’t know what it was, but those from The Lunar Republic knew it as Crescent Hope which was directly above them in high orbit, blocking the sun. Many of Equestria’s soldiers looked like they were about to panic. Heck, even Blueblood seemed speechless.
“We can definitely hear you know,” said Shadow as he looked up. “Can you lock on to us?”
“Yes,” replied Starway, relief in her voice. “Unfortunately due to the magical interference we will be unable to do individual teleportation. We will have to do a mass teleport and grab every object within the barrier or we will have to get lower and lift.”
“Do the mass teleport,” said Princess Luna. “Using the lift means opening the outer doors and giving our enemy a chance to entrance Crescent Hope. Teleport us now!”
Luna then turned her attention to Blueblood and narrowed her tired eyes.
“Before we leave know this,” she said. “We did not ask for this, but you wanted a war. And now you shall have it.”
Blueblood opened his mouth but before a single curse came out Luna, Celestia, and the other guards vanished before his eyes.