Princess Celestia awoke at about midnight, fear plastered on her face. Her eyes were wide and she took the deepest breaths she ever had in her entire life. She waited a minute to calm down, then got out of bed to tiredly walk to the door, knowing she couldn't get back to sleep. The princess, now fully awake, opened the door to the hallway with her magic.
The hallway was fairly well-lit for the time, reflecting the cool moonlight everywhere one looked. Celestia turned her head to the right and saw two Royal Guards enjoying a dozen cookies the night cook brought them not five minutes ago. She then turned to the left, finding an empty corridor.
Might as well get something to eat, Celestia thought, hearing her stomach rumble. She walked down the empty hall to the castle kitchens to quiet her instincts.
“Good morning, Princess. The usual?” the cook asked.
“Yes, thank you.” Celestia tried not to see her younger sister come in for a bagel. Luna, however, noticed her sister’s presence.
“Another nightmare, Tia? Or the same one?”
“The same. And I thought you could just look into ponies’ dreams.”
“You told me not to do that with you because it seemed creepy.”
“Right.” Celestia sighed deeply. “I’m forgetting everything. It’s just-”
“The war?”
“Yeah. I just want these to go away, but ever since Sombra wiped the first army a year ago, I-I don’t know. And then he blasted a hole into the Macintosh Hills. I’m just afraid that one night he’ll hit Canterlot and then it’s over. Then he’s won.”
“Sister, sometimes we have to face our fears. My test was with Nightmare Moon, and I needed the Elements of Harmony to snap out of it. Now it’s your turn.”
“What do you mean, Luna? This isn’t a test.”
“Sister, it’s always a test in this world.”
The night cook brought out a sandwich for Celestia and a bagel for Luna. They walked to a nearby balcony overlooking the city of Canterlot. If the cliffside capital of Equestria looked beautiful in day, the moonlight multiplied it a thousandfold. It reflected off the buildings into the sky, the lakes, and the mountain. The effect was a silvery city with a dark view beyond. To the far east, the princesses could see lights from Ponyville, where the Elements of Harmony were kept.
The Princess of the Sun looked out into the sea of blackness. It seemed empty. Almost too empty.
“Hey, look, it’s Cloudsdale. They must be trying to move away from the siege.” Luna commented, pointing with her hoof. The exclusively Pegasus city magically hovered several kilometers above the ground.
The hairs on Celestia’s mane and tail stood on end. It wasn’t a good feeling. “Luna, do you feel that?”
“Feel what?”
“It’s in the air. Something’s wrong. As if it shouldn’t be used the way it- GET DOWN!” Celestia screamed.
The cause of her anxiety came with blistering speed, as if fired from a gun. A beam of magic half a kilometer in diameter flew from the north, composed of fifteen separate colors. It slammed into the Pegasus cloud city with an enormous explosion, turning Cloudsdale and its populace into little more than expanding clouds of water vapor and steam. Luna and Celestia shielded their eyes from the blinding flash and covered their ears from the thunder-like roar. They braced themselves for the following shockwave, and when they looked again, their faces fell.
The next morning, ponies from all over Canterlot came to the court for an explanation as to what in Equestria happened. Celestia’s response was to make a speech.
“As you all know, Cloudsdale was under siege by the Crystal Empire. And because the city was made of clouds, it could move. So they did, and last night happened.”
“Where is Cloudsdale now?” asked a pony from the crowd. Everyone else clamored for the question to be answered.
“There is no Cloudsdale,” Celestia said. “Sombra has used his weapon, and we have no cards to play. That is all.”
She walked off the royal balcony, followed by Luna. Both of them knew it was only a matter of time before Sombra fired up the Gem yet again, with Canterlot in his sights.
“What do we do, sister?” asked the Princess of the Night.
“I don’t know, Luna. We may have to surrender.”
“No! I won’t accept that! The fate of all ponykind is depending on our winning this war and you say ‘surrender’? I’d die before I bowed down as Sombra’s personal slave! And I know you would, too!”
“This isn’t about us. This is about the survival of billions of ponies. With the range and power Sombra has, no city is safe. We either keep going and have all of Equestria turned into a wasteland, or we surrender and spare the lives of the innocent.”
“You can give up. See how Atlantis thinks of that, with one of their great heroes married to our cousin. We surrender, but Rose Thorn was executed by a hostile empire. She held to the last, and so should we.”
“Luna, this is not about how we think for ourselves.”
“I know that, but you listen to me. Reinforcements from Atlantis arrive in less than a month. They have weapons and technology we could only dream of: projectile launchers that imitate the sound of thunder, better tactics, and armor made not from bronze or iron, but a metal they call steel. What do we say when there’s no place for them to unload? That we just gave up? This isn’t about our reputation, I know, but we must hold.”
“Well then, sister, what’s our chance of success?”
“You saw Crimson Dawn. What do you think?” Luna walked off to her bedchamber to rest. Ruling the night had its disadvantages.
Celestia pondered Luna’s words. There was certainly some truth to them. But she had to look at her subjects and what was best for their survival. Right now, surrender definitely looked like the more sensible path.
Another part of her wanted to fight, to defeat Sombra. But victory hinged on so many things. Crimson Dawn had to hold his ground. The ponies could not lose hope. Equestria couldn’t win this war unless the Atlanteans sailed into Manehattan harbor. And that wasn’t for another month.