A sudden flash of light startled Applejack and the others, turning in the direction of the flash, only to see their beloved princess collapsed on the floor. Her demeanor was one of pain and worry, as she attempted to stand up, but quickly collapsed back onto the floor.
"Princess!" yelled all five in unison, rushing to the alicorn princess's aid with haste.
Celestia breathed heavily and grunted in pain. The virus coursing through her entire body was spreading at rapid pace, causing her strength to falter and her limbs to feel as if they were made of gelatin.
"What happened!?" Applejack exclaimed in a mixture of emotions.
"V-Viro ambushed m-me," Celestia responded, her voice trembling. "L-listen to me. All of you! W-we d-don't have much time! V-Viro and h-his army are c-coming, a-and we c-c-cannot win against them! There are no p-princesses' left t-to guard Equestria! T-they killed C-Cadance, and the C-Crystal Empire is v-vacant of any life!"
A tear escaped Celestia's eye at the mention of Cadance's death as she continued to speak what could've been her final words, feeling the virus continue to pulsate painful surges throughout her body. A pain Celestia estimated as the equivalent of being electrocuted and burned by fire, along with a punch that bruised her bones and nerves. It was excruciating, unlike any physical pain she had ever experienced in her lifetime.
"I won't l-last much l-longer, my dear ponies, and as much as I wish I c-could assist you all, I-I'm far too w-weak to even support m-myself anymore," Celestia punctuated with as much seriousness as she could muster.
"What are you saying, princess?" Applejack asked, fear audible in her voice.
"Please tell me that you're not...
Rarity lost track, knowing full well the next words she would've spoken would be all in void. As a result, she had fallen to tears, something Applejack noticed and quickly followed up on by comforting her troubled friend. Celestia followed by answering with the cold and painful truth.
"We can't win, my little ponies," Celestia stated directly. "E-Even with all of C-Canterlot's forces combined, i-it's still not enough. A-As much as I hate to admit i-it, we have n-no choice but t-to fall back."
"B-but, we can't just surrender to t-that creep!" Rainbow Dash retorted, a hint of defeat in her voice. "We would've fought for nothing!"
"I-I'm not saying w-we surrender, Rainbow Dash," Celestia muttered, the virus continuing to pound at her nerves.
That statement caused everypony's ears to immediately perk in surprise.
"Then what are you suggestin?" Applejack asked in confusion, continuing to comfort Rarity.
Celestia stood herself up slowly, supporting herself with only her right hoof. She grunted as she did, her teeth gritted and her skin pale in color.
"I-I'm suggesting that we l-live to fight a-another day," Celestia said, continuously struggling. "We m-may not stand a chance n-now, but i-if we can r-retreat everypony for n-now, then we c-can return another d-day to reclaim E-Equestria."
"And how can we do that?" Rainbow said with a slight arrogance. "If Viro's army is massive enough to take the Crystal Empire with ease, then anywhere we go, they'll find us easily. We won't be able to stay occupied in one area long enough to formulate a plan."
"As much as I hate to say it, Rainbow Dash does have a point," Applejack confirmed. "The Changelings, especially one like Viro, are ruthless and will not stop huntin' for us. We'd be sitting ducks in Equestria, and we don't even have enough time to travel outside of Equestria. Even then, they'd still never stop huntin' us. If only Twi' were here. She'd be able to transport us, savin' us time and givin' us an advantage against Viro. Wait...
A sudden realization hit Applejack like a ton of bricks, causing her to panic.
"What do we do about Twi'?!" Applejack exclaimed in panic. "We can't just leave her behind!"
Celestia intervened quickly, knowing her time was running out.
"A-Applejack! Please l-listen to me!" Celestia barked.
Everypony froze in place, stunned from Celestia's outburst. Celestia continued, now that she had everypony's attention, front and center.
"I'm n-not suggesting to fall b-back elsewhere in E-Equestria, n-nor outside of Equestria," Celestia explained.
"Then where else is there to go?" Fluttershy asked.
"Somewhere V-Viro can never find any of you or any other pony; another world," Celestia clarified.
Everypony was immediately lost on what Celestia was suggesting, but the confusion was subsided as Celestia explained further.
"You all r-remember the S-Sunset Shimmer i-incident, correct?" Celestia questioned.
Applejack caught on immediately, as much as the others.
"The mirror," Applejack spoke slowly. "It's closed now though."
"Cadance's mirror is, b-but Twilight's is not," Celestia clarified.
Applejack gasped, remembering Twilight had made an artificial mirror that was always open. One other factor remained though.
"What about Twi'?" questioned Applejack. "We can't just leave her to die!"
Celestia had no definite answer to that, nor a solution.
"I'm s-sorry Applejack, b-but I have no answer t-to that," Celestia said. "If you take her off her l-life support, then she'll d-die no matter w-what. Equestria's end i-is upon us, t-therefore there's n-no time for c-contemplation. As m-much as it may seem w-wrong, you must l-leave Twilight b-behind. T-there's no time to w-waste, and T-Twilight would want you all to l-live."
As much as Applejack wanted to deny Celestia's claims, she knew that she was right. There was no time left to deny the truth, and by contemplating it, they were just wasting time.
"No way! We can't leave her behind!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"Not after all she's done for us!" Rarity added.
"She's our friend! Friends don't leave other friends behind to die!" Rainbow exclaimed again.
"Y'all," Applejack said, but the contemplation blocked out her words, as Rainbow and Rarity continued to bicker at Celestia. She raised her voice.
"Y'ALL!!!" Applejack yelled again, catching the others' attention this time. "Celestia is right! The longer we stand here and continue to contemplate on the inevitable, Viro draws closer and we lose time to actually do somethin' helpful!"
"B-but AJ," Rainbow stuttered.
"No "buts" RD! If we don't get movin' now, Equestria will never have a second chance of bein' reclaimed in the future! That's not what Twi' would've wanted! She would've wanted us to save ponykind from assured defeat!"
Rainbow stuttered to find words to say, but found she couldn't, knowing that Applejack was right. Rainbow sighed.
"You're right, AJ. I'm sorry," Rainbow confessed sadly.
"Me too," Rarity added.
"It's alright. I understand," Applejack said in a comforting manner. "It saddens me too, but right now, we need to focus on getting everypony through that mirror, to safety."
Everypony agreed, and now, with their mindsets' set on the task, they returned their attention to Celestia. She had managed to lift herself back onto all fours, using the wall as her support.
"So, how exactly do we alert everypony that they need to go to Twilight's castle?" questioned Rarity.
Almost immediately, the silence following the question was broken by Pinkie Pie.
"Just leave that to me!" Pinkie said cheerfully and confidently, as she rushed off in a haste.
Everypony immediately exchanged looks of confusion, as they returned their focus to Celestia again.
"I'll never understand that mare," whispered Dash, forcing a giggle out of any others that heard her.
"It's best not to even question it," Applejack replied. "Now, back to the task at hoof. What can we do while Pinkie does "her" thing?"
"I'd say we have about t-two hours before all Tartarus b-breaks loose on C-Canterlot," Celestia calculated. "Just enough t-to reinforce the castle as m-much as possible. I-It'll buy time, shall t-the plan t-take longer t-than anticipated."
"Then let's get to it!" Applejack yelled. "Time is not on our side, so let's show those little cheese-legged pesticides just how strong ponies are!"
The others agreed in unison, rushing to get the castle prepared for an all out assault.
Celestia smiled, despite the pain she was enduring.
"Even in the darkest of times, harmony still lives on strong," Celestia said to herself. "That's the one thing Viro will never break."
The hours passed, and within that time, Applejack and the others had made great haste. Pinkie had rounded all the ponies up from Canterlot and Ponyville, which to Applejack and the others seemed completely impossible, but then again, she was Pinkie Pie. It was best not to even question it and move onward with the plan to get the ponies through the mirror.
To everypony's relief, the mirror was already activated, therefore there was no struggle in figuring out Twilight's instructions to activate the mirror, which could've possibly been the cause for the plan to fail on its own. The majority of the ponies gathered up were reluctant to cooperate in the slightest, especially the snooty Canterlot nobles. It nearly got to the point that Applejack and the others decided to let a specific pair of snooty ponies perish under Viro's reign, but in the end, that would literally be murder in a way.
To solve the conundrum, Rarity cast a temporary paralysis spell on the two, causing a literal wave of "thank Celestia's" and "about time's" to pierce the airways. That alone, was enough to make everypony gain some sense of confidence back, even if it was in the midst of the end of Equestria.
Fillies were the next major holdup, due to fear and unsureness being the culprit. A bit of reassurance was all it took to sway the youngsters, all except for the CMC's. They were fearless on the matter, knowing what was at stake. It would take awhile, but the plan would follow through.
As for Canterlot Castle, not much could be done that Celestia had wished could've been done. The outside was reinforced by a protection spell, causing Celestia to lose strength even faster, but the spell was meant only to buy time, due to her fear of the plan taking longer than expected, becoming reality.
With very little time left to prepare for the assault, the Canterlot Royal Guard had prepared, clad in heavy armor. The Royal Guard had devoted their lives to protecting the Celestial Bodies from any threats, therefore, they couldn't be swayed to go through the mirror.
It had made Celestia feel brave and confident, despite the fact she was slowly dying away with each passing second, and that the assured end result of the assault, was defeat. She could only wait now. They had done all they possibly could to fight back.
Celestia had wished she could've seen Twilight one last time, to say goodbye, but just like she had stated before, now was not a time for emotions to get in the way of what must be done. It would be reckless and literal suicide. Now, she was needed there to stand against evil one last time.
In the time she waited for the swarm to manifest upon the open skies of Canterlot, she reminisced about times when things were not so hopeless. Times when she didn't even have a care in the world. Times before she was a princess, and her only responsibility was to care for her beloved sister.
She remembered the times when she and Luna would sneak off from a magic lesson with Starswirl to prank other Canterlot citizens. They'd enchant food to explode in the victim's face, replace shampoo in the local store with dye, put a whoopie cushion under Starswirl's usual chair cushion, and just do carefree things that both the unfortunate pony and the two to-be princesses could get a laugh out of.
Thinking about those simple times sprouted a smile on her face, along with tears. How she wished she could go back to those days all those decades ago, but she knew those days were over. Reality returned to Celestia, gazing upon what seemed like a large number of black dots raging towards Canterlot.
"It's time," Celestia said to herself. "Equestria's end is here."