Later scholars would claim the Siege of Canterlot marked the death of the old Equestria. When ponies turned from the light of Harmony to embrace ideals not seen since the Three Tribes Era and stood against Princess Twilight for their own selfish ends.
To this day, no one knows why those who turned did so. The truth most likely died with them.
It began with a single bomb aimed at Canterlot Castle, the heart of Equestria. No one knew which of the besieging armies fired it, but the message and afront was clear. Princess Twilight would fall, and it mattered not how many fell with her.
The bomb exploded harmlessly on the shield that surrounded the castle. All eyes in the city followed its flight, and none could miss that it was aimed directly at Princess Twilight's bedroom in the highest tower. A symbolic gesture, if futile.
With the city sealed, an order that not even in their worst nightmares had Princess Celestia or Princess Luna ever thought they would give, all thoughts of talking this out, or without bloodshed, were gone. This was no longer a rebellion.
It was a civil war.
Celestia frowned as another bomb exploded on the shield around Canterlot Castle. "They are persistent, I will give them that."
Azure shook her head. "The City Wall will not hold much longer. All non-combatants have been ordered to the old mines under the city." She eyed the Pegasus family that stood with the commanders. "Except for you. Pearl. I once again must implore you and your family to go with them."
Pearl Rose shook her head. "I'm not leaving. I've never run from a fight in my life, and I won't start now. What would I tell Princess Twilight when she gets back if I did?"
Luna sighed. "And what do we tell her if she returns and finds you hurt or worse?"
Pearl bit her lip, but she knew Luna was right. She knew the princess loved her above and beyond just as her student, and it was a feeling she shared as well. She looked at her parents for support.
Her mother shook her head. "I'm afraid that once Pearl has her mind set on something, nothing will change it. Not even an order from the princess herself. Just ask Princess Twilight."
Celestia giggled. It was a good mentality to have, and one she wished more of her own students had once had. Pearl and her family had been on one of the last trains to make it into the city before the gate was sealed, having barely escaped Baltimare before it fell to an attack from Maretonia.
The backstab bit deep the most for Celestia. She had long hoped the worst of the dukedom's past was behind them and the country was on the road to prosperity. It had all been a lie, and the heat in the room went up several degrees at her anger.
"What about our allies?" Celestia finally asked, calming herself for the moment.
Azure shook her head. "The Crystal Empire has sealed the border and refuses to treat them as nothing more than terrorists. Same with Mount Aris. Queen Skystar is assembling a fleet to take back Baltimare, as is the Crystal Empire to relieve us. But it is anyone's guess when either will arrive."
Luna shook her head. "It will not reach us in time. As you said, the City Wall is almost breached. Once it falls..."
Celestia nodded sadly, as her head fell. "Once the wall falls, Canterlot will fall not long after. We cannot hold out for long here. The citizens must begin the evacuation. They will find the caves before long. There is a secret pathway that leads to the other side of the mountain. It is still open."
Azure nodded, quickly giving orders to one of the Royal Guard officers. Even as the Pegasus ran off, a tremendous explosion rocked the room, sending Pearl and her family to the floor in a heap.
Celestia's ears fell even before a unicorn ran in, a look of terror on his face. "The wall is breached! Centurions are flooding into the city!"
Luna frowned at the informal name for the machines the attackers were using, but it was as good a name as any for them, and it made destroying them easier knowing they were not living. "Pull the guard back to the Second Line. Buy us as much time as you can."
The stallion hesitated a moment, receiving a report on his communicator. "The Second Line is also breached. The Third Line will not hold for long with these numbers. It appears they are sending in the entire army."
Celestia shook her head in despair, sharing a forlorn look with her sister. This was it, then? "Then the city is lost. We will make our last stand here. They will get nothing out of us. We must give Twilight more time. Time to end this. Even if it means laying down our lives for Equestria's future." She looked again at Twilight's student, and her heart fell that a filly so young would see the end of Equestria. "Pearl. I am not asking you this time. I am telling you. You and your family must evacuate now. They must never find you. They will use you in ways I refuse to even think of."
Pearl's ears fell as she shared a sorrowful look with her parents, even as she could begin to hear the sounds of combat outside the castle. This was it then, wasn't it? Not even three months as Princess Twilight's Personal Student and it was all over. She sniffed as her mother hugged her as they were led out of the room. "And if I see Princess Twilight?" In her heart, she knew that she would never see them alive again.
Celestia smiled as her own tears fell, knowing that she would never see her student and friend again. "Tell her, we love her, and that we will always be proud of her."
Celestia grunted as she blasted another Centurion into atoms, only to have ten more replace it, and twice that number of Spheres rolled at its feet. "I do not understand how they could have built an army like this and we did not know about it?"
Luna grunted, as she too blasted her way through the encircling throng. "Really, Tia? You're asking that question now of all times?"
Celestia ducked a blade aimed at her head. "I cannot help it, Luna. You know how I am?"
Azure shook her head, as she and Zipp and Pipp weaved through the throngs, taking out as many as they could. "Is now really the time for sisters to bicker?"
Pipp chuckled. "You must be an only child. All sisters are like that. Just ask Zipp." Zipp only stuck her tongue out at her.
Izzy was adding what magic she could to the firefight, while Hitch and Sunny did their best to direct the magic at what seemed like command units. If they could take those out, then it might be able to buy them some more time.
The group had refused to evacuate with the rest of Canterlot's citizens and the refugees, even when Celestia and Luna had made it a direct order. And again, there was that feeling that there was something more to their friendship than was on the surface, Luna thought with a smile.
At that moment, every machine stopped, before pulling back and standing in serried ranks, earning confused looks from the ponies now surrounded at the center of Canterlot's Main Plazza.
"Why did they stop?" Izzy asked nervously.
Celestia frowned as the ranks split and three ponies stepped forward. "I know why."
An earth pony mare stepped forward, a smug smile on her face. "Celestia! I didn't expect you to be here of all places."
Celestia's frown grew. "Phyliss. Why am I not surprised to see you here with this rabble of traitors?"
Luna nodded, looking over the other two ponies at her side. One she recognized, while the unicorn was new to her, but judging from Izzy's reaction, she knew the stallion. "Haven. I never thought you of all ponies would stoop so low as this."
The Pegasus mare frowned as well. "That is Queen Haven to you, freak."
Luna spat in her face, taking great satisfaction in seeing the look of horror on the mare's face as she did so. "You have no right to that title. Your daughters have a greater claim to it."
Haven looked to the two younger Pegasi, hoping they would see sense and join her as they should. But all she saw in their eyes was betrayal and loss at what their mother was doing.
Alphabrittle shook his head. "Be that as it may. Surrender, Celestia and Luna. You have lost. Equestria is ours. Princess Twilight will not save you now, no matter where she is. Your lives will be spared if you do so."
Celestia cackled. "I doubt that. Your kind is always the same. We will die as soon as we're no longer of any use to you."
Phyliss ground her teeth. "Then die, as you should have long ago. I do not care. All I care about is one thing. Where is the princess's student?"
Luna's eyes narrowed. And there it was. "Someplace you will never find her. Pearl is everything that makes Equestria great, everything that we stand for, and the hope for the future. You will not tarnish her by laying your hooves on her."
Phyliss smirked. "I doubt that," she said, before turning to the largest mech in the army that stood behind the trio. "Sprout, honey. Be a dear and go find her. Tear this city apart if you have to. Drag her out of whatever hole she's in. But I want that Pegasus alive." Her smirk grew. "For now anyway."
"Yes, mommy," the mech replied, in a surprisingly young voice as it began to trudge off.
Celestia's eyes widened. But even as she began to charge a spell, she felt the temperature rise dramatically, and judging by the reactions of the ponies around her, they were all feeling it as well. But how?
Just then, a beam of magic sliced down from the sky, burning through rank upon rank of machines, causing Luna to cast a shield spell over the group to protect them from flying parts, and Sprout's machine was picked up and tossed around like a rag doll before being thrown at his mother's hooves.
ENOUGH!
The commanding voice brought a halt to everything, as everypony watched in shock and awe as Princess Twilight Sparkle landed between the groups, her face a mask of barely restrained rage and disgust as she looked at the trio, before looking at Celestia, Luna, and Sunny and her friends.
For a moment, she felt something between them that she had not felt in a long time. A bond that reminded her so much of the one she once had with five ponies so close to her heart. She smiled, and the group couldn't help but smile in return before Twilight looked back at the attacking forces with a sigh.
"I go away for one month, and this happens! Is Equestria that immature?!" She wailed, flailing her hooves in exasperation, earning a giggle from Celestia and Luna at the sight.
Alphabrittle smiled. "Princess Twilight. Just the mare we were looking for. You have saved us the trouble of looking for you."
Haven nodded. "I suggest you surrender now. You are hopelessly outnumbered, and we do not need you alive. None of you in fact."
Phyliss nodded "I have been holding this back for you, in fact. So please. Do try to make this interesting. Even you cannot fight an entire army."
Twilight tapped her chin, seemingly nonplused about this, much to the confusion of her friends. They were right. She had seen the vast numbers that waited outside Canterlot's walls. A number that beggared belief. "True. Even I am not that good. Wish I had thought of that."
The trio looked triumphant before Twilight smiled widely. "Oh wait. I did."
Before anyone could ask what she meant by that, fireball landed in the ranks of machines behind the trio, much to their shock and confusion. As well as everyone else's. It had come from behind the defenders. Twilight only pointed up as everypony looked at her, and their jaws dropped in shock at what was revealed.
Hundreds of airships, an entire aerial armada, drifted down from the clouds. At their head stood the HMS Harmony, the flagship of Princess Twilight herself. Next to her floated an ornate airship of unknown origin, but the golden lion banner that flew from her prow spoke to her homeland. The Swordstorm, flagship of the Khagan of the Lands of the Golden Pride, herself.
At that moment, Twilight fired a pre-arranged signal from her horn. As one, the armada opened fire. Twilight managed to put a shield over everypony as the rain of fire began. The machines in Canterlot were obliterated in mere minutes, and Twilight took smug satisfaction in watching the trio's eyes widen with each passing second.
"Now," she said, walking over and atop Sprout's mech, giving it a good few kicks just to spite this whole thing. "I believe you said something about surrender? Or would you like to skip the show trials and I treat you as the traitors you are and deal with you myself?"
Phyliss ground her teeth. This was not how this was meant to go, but they could still win as she dug around in her pack before pulling out a rock blacker than the most moonless night. "No. We can still win. I am sure you know what this is, Princess Twilight?"
Twilight, Celestia, and Luna's eyes widened in horror. "Null Stone," Luna replied.
Haven nodded at Alphabrittle. "Do you know how hard it was to find even this much? How many died to refine it down into something that could be carried around? Quite a few in fact."
Alphabrittle nodded. Just being near it was painful for him. "Call off your dogs, and we won't use it. I know you know what would happen if it is released on the ground."
Twilight's ears fell in despair. She did know, and it sickened her to know something like this even existed at all. Null Stone was also called the Life Eater, for it would release a virus that was extremely virulent, infecting every living thing, animal or plant, in a wide radius, depending on how large the sample. The virus would lyse cells, essentially melting all living things into a contaminated soup of organic matter, and individuals would suffer an excruciating death as their bodies decayed into organic sludge. Just being near it was dangerous for those with high levels of life magic, and Twilight forced her lunch to stay where it belonged.
Grogar's final gift to the world before his final defeat by Gusty the Great. And there was enough in this sample that all life from Canterlot to Ponyville would die this way, and there was little she could do to stop it.
Twilight bowed her head in despair, missing the looks of smug triumph on Phyliss Haven, and Alphabrittle's faces. "Fine. You win. Do what you want with me. But please. Leave my ponies alone. They do not deserve this."
Phyliss nodded, stepping forward. "A wise choice, your highness," she sneered, delighting in seeing the princess brought so low. "Now call them off."
Twilight nodded sadly. But before she could give the order, a blur zoomed past her, and took the Null Stone from Phyliss' hooves, leaving the mare blinking in surprise as Pipp blew a raspberry at her, before Zipp flew up and punched her in the face with all of her might. It was enough to make the earth pony stagger at least.
Pipp nodded, as she flew up and handed the stone to a stunned Twilight. "I think this is in better hooves with you, Princess Twilight."
Twilight blinked for several seconds before she took the stone with a confused smile. "Um. Yes. Thank you my little pony..."
Pipp smiled. "Name's Pipp. And this is my sister Zipp," she said, gesturing to the strutting Pegasus at her side and then at Haven. "And that air-headed feather brain over there was our mom."
Zipp nodded as she landed, looking proud of herself. "Not anymore. I used to look up to her. I wanted to be her. But not like this. I don't want anything to do with her." Pipp nodded sadly, leaning into her sister's embrace.
The sight broke Twilight's heart, as she glared at the trio, now not as confident without their trump card. In the distance, they could hear the bombardment intensify. It was all Twilight needed to hear as she stood to her full height. "Phyliss Cloverleaf, Haven, Alphabrittle. For your acts of high treason, attempted murder, and threatening to unleash a horror best left forgotten, I declare you Excommunicate Traitoris. Your lives are forfeit under Equestrian law."
Her frown grew by the second. "Death would be the normal penalty for High Treason. But I have a better idea. So you will see how much you have failed." Igniting her horn, she fired a beam of magic at the trio, who watched in mounting horror as their bodies slowly turned to stone. After a moment, the process was finished, and a new statue trio would soon join the Legion of Doom in the Castle Statue Garden.
Twilight sighed, deflating noticeably as Celestia and Luna rushed to her side, as Sunny and Hitch did their best to comfort Zipp and Pipp. "It is done."