The war was getting worse each day, Celestia’s troops forced back inch by inch due to Sombra’s army. Things weren’t looking up, and with a small moment of peace both royal sisters paced around their base tent, trying to come up with a new strategy that would earn them more time to keep the strength of their soldiers. Both knew there had to be a way to defeat Sombra, they had done it once in the past, but it had been with the help of the Elements of the Harmony.
Everypony was relying on them to work out a solution that would end the war once and for all, as it was tearing Equestria apart from the inside out. Ponies wouldn’t last much longer with the lives they currently had, giving all their energy into the efforts for helping anyway they could to win the war. The only solution involved brute force, and could defeat Sombra, but at the cost of losing a big part of, if not all, the lives of those ponies he had put the helmets on and forced them to fight for him.
“This is not going to help sister! We must think of something, we can’t let him win!” Luna had finally gotten tired of pacing, stopping and looking at her sister as if hoping that out of nowhere the elder one would get a bright idea and save them all. Even if she knew she had been forgiven for her deeds of a thousand years ago, her self-esteem was still low and looked up to her sister in times like this; almost as if she was afraid she would mess up if the decision was made by herself.
“I know Luna, I know. But we must come across this carefully, the last I want is to end up hurting more ponies than it’s needed to stop Sombra” Celestia calmly replied to her sister, never stopping her pacing or looking up to Luna. She had been trying to find any loophole around Sombra’s attacks that she hadn’t seen before. But she kept coming up empty, and knew that if Luna, who had a better eye for military things, hadn’t found a loophole yet then it was almost impossible for one to even exist.
Both sisters suddenly looked towards the entrance of the tent when the guards allowed a flustered pony to come inside, shaking and out of breath but still bowing to the royals before him. Celestia was quick to react “You may rise. Do you bring any news?”. This pony was the messenger, the only one who had been allowed to go back and forth in the battlefield to relieve messages towards the princesses and those in charge of each division in their army.
“Yes, your highness. The… the ‘captain’ of Sombra’s army keeps saying that their leader wishes to meet with the princesses… but he didn’t state the reason why. Our captain said they dismissed those words multiple times, thinking it was a trap, but now that they have grown in tone they sent me to relay those words to you.” The poor pony was obviously scared, no one knew what was to be expected if Sombra claimed to want to meet with the princesses.
Both Luna and Celestia shared looks, trying to silently agree on how to proceed with this situation. Chances of things going wrong were very high, Sombra was not one to be trusted, but a meeting could finally give the sisters an idea on how to defeat him. On the other hand, it could lead to a trap, and leave the sisters to fight their way out before things got worse. Finally, both reach a silent agreement, and it’s Luna who speaks up towards the messenger pony. “Go back and tell the captain to agree to the meeting. You shall give them this parchment, so they hand it to Sombra directly. It contains all the details we need to have for the meeting to take place” She handed him the parchment, which Celestia had quickly written and levitated over to her sister.
The requirements were very specific, it would be a dome in the middle of the territory, held up by the sisters’ magic and covered so no magic from Sombra could affect it. Only the 3 of them could be there, each army was to stay behind on each side by at least 50 feet. At any sign of threat, the dome would go down and teleport the sisters back to the base tent and incapacitate Sombra’s magic for a couple seconds to avoid him following them.
“Are you sure this is the best decision sister? We know Sombra is capable of lying and turning this ‘meeting’ into something much worse” Luna was nervous, even if her face remained neutral, and glanced towards the battlefield, eyes following the messenger pony until he disappeared in the distance.
“I don’t know Luna, but it’s the best chance we have at ending this war. All we can do is be prepared for the worst and put some faith in Sombra, hoping he doesn’t try anything else.” Celestia went and nuzzled her little sister, hoping to offer some reassurance while also praying to anyone above them that this meeting would help them end this war before it turned into a real bloodbath.
Soon, the answer came back: Sombra accepted their rules and would meet them in the magical dome 15 minutes after sunset. It was of little relief to the sisters, who were still on high alert for anything that seemed off before the meeting was to take place. Once they lowered and raised their respective duties (the sun and the moon), they quickly teleported to the meeting point and began setting up the barrier. Each checked every spell at least twice before they were confident that if things went down, the spells would do as needed.
They tensed up when the tyrant calmly walked forward, entering the magical dome and daring to smirk at them. He seemed to enjoy watching the effect he had on them, almost as if it was an inner joke only he understood and laughed internally at them both. “Let’s get this started, shall we? We agreed to your meeting Sombra, now speak about what you wanted” The first to talk was Luna, obviously not able to keep her patience any longer and going straight to the point.
“Oh, but of course dearest Luna- “. His mocking tone was quickly interrupted by a growl from the younger princess, who didn’t seem pleased he was using such a tone or word to refer to her. He completely ignored her and kept on speaking. “I have come up with 3 possibly treaties that you both would be fools if you did not accept. Unless, of course, you wish the war to continue. My own army can go on for as long as needed, using every prisoner to become a new soldier in my lines. They are quite simple you see: 1) You step down and give me the victory so I’m free to take all Equestria for myself as it should be, 2) You leave, and I stay as the rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire, with things continuing as they were before the war for the ponies living here”
His smirk was evident, and it took Celestia’s magical grip to avoid Luna from jumping on him and trying to kill him right there and then. How her sister stayed so calm after these two options was a mystery for Luna, but reluctantly she calmed down and stayed put, though she didn’t stop glaring at Sombra. Once she was sure her sister wouldn’t yell or try attack the tyrant, Celestia spoke up. “You said 3 options Sombra, but you have only told us 2 of them. What is the third?”
“The last is quite simple actually, nothing you can’t afford not doing. But now that I consider it…” He trailed off, obviously playing with both the sister’s patience and almost causing Luna to lose her control once more “Just say it already Sombra! We won’t take any longer of your foolish games!
“Well if you so kindly insist… What better way to end the war and make peace than by allying with the enemy? Another ruler for the Crystal Empire, simple as that. And who better than one of the all mighty alicorn sisters?” His smirk only grew as he dropped the bomb, making both princesses freeze in their place, unable to say anything “I shall wait for your answer. You have until the next sunset. I shall take my leave now, ladies” Quickly he stepped out of the magical dome and teleported back to his castle.