//------------------------------//
// Another Morning 
// Story: The Fall of Canterlot 
// by BrightDawn 
//------------------------------//

Twilight woke up. The sun still hadn't been raised, she was horribly tired, but the shells had woken her up once again. Day after day. Night after night. Those... things just kept firing their cannons over and over and over. They were persistent, she had to give them that. Canterlot's magic shield was the one spell that worked against the invaders, and it had worked flawlessly for two months. Otherwise Canterlot would have been turned to rubble and slaughtered like Ponyville, or every other village, city and hamlet in Equestria.

The book she read until she had fallen asleep, or more appropriately, passed out was still next to her. It was in a sad state. She had once treated books with the utmost respect, but as her life and her home had crumbled, she had grown more negligent. Notes were scribbled, crossed out and rescribbled. Pages were folded. Pages were torn out. Notes were glued in. Anything to find a way to fight back against them. Anything to turn the tide. Anything for that desperate hope.

She sighed, set the magic book aside, got up and looked outside the window, the constant flashes of the invaders' artillery  illuminating the place that once was her home. Not one structure was left standing in Ponyville. Not one. 

"Why? Why do they want this? Why are they doing this? Where did they come from? Who are they?" she asked herself out loud.

But this wasn't the worst. Not even close. Once the shelling had stopped, everypony in her town that still had a heart beat was dragged out of the rubble and executed by them, one by one, crying, their bodies already mangled by shrapnel. Had she and the other elements of harmony not been called to the city to discuss the invasion that was had take Equestria by storm, she would have been among them. Either killed by those things' cannons or finished off afterwards. She wanted collapse again like she had collapsed that day, but she remembered the words Celestia had repeated over and over to her.

"You have to keep going Twilight. For everypony who has lost their life to them."

She exited her room. She had to go get her daily rations. The whole city would soon be lining up in front of the bakery for that tasty, tasty piece of bread. Her stomach grumbled. She was skin and bones, just like Celestia and Luna and everypony in this city. Celestia had insisted that not even the Princesses got preferential treatment. In front of her door was a note.

"Come to the palace's hall. We'll have one last party like we used to.

Hugs, Pinkie Pie."

Confused, she followed the instructions.