The last stand of Equestria was drawing near. The country's defenders have finally gathered in the capital of Canterlot for the final showdown. After they evacuated anypony they could and pushed the Storm King's ground forces back, their main goal was to take out Storm King's dark airship which was currently hovering over the city.
"We will be able to hold the key locations in the city now." Celestia instructed Captain Thunderlane and the Wonderbolts. "Our primary objective is the Storm King's airship. If we take it down, we will cripple his entire army. But remember, the goal is to infiltrate, not destroy! The magic he stole from our lands is collected up there. There is no telling what will happen to it if the ship crashes!" the pegasi all nodded before saluting her and taking off.
As the Wonderbolts Squadron approached the airship, the Storm King was sitting on the bridge, where he had a prefect view of the approaching enemy. But he didn't appear worried in the slightest. He just smirked smugly as he watched the ponies trying to get into his ship... only for all of them to be collectively knocked back by an invisible barrier. Celestia and Thunderlane saw this from the ground and gasped in shock as the pegasi fell out of the sky. Fortunately, their comrades who were still preoccupied on the ground were quick to save them from falling to their deaths.
"Magical barrier." Thunderlane sighed. "We should have seen this coming."
Celestia cursed under her breath. Of course it wouldn't be this easy. As she started thinking about what should she do now, she was interrupted by a gust of wind hitting her from behind. Before she could turn around to see what it was, she saw none other than her former student, Twilight Sparkle fly by and rocketing up into the air, right towards the Storm King's airship. Celestia's eyes widened as she realized what she was about to do.
"Twilight, no!" she called out, but it was in vain. The purple alicorn was already too far to hear her and even if she did, her velocity would have prevented her from stopping anyway. Twilight smashed into the airship's shield with such a force that it pushed her back so hard she smashed into the ground down below, crashing through the pavement and creating a small crater, pushing Celestia and Thunderlane back in the process. The two ponies had to cover their eyes to protect them from the dustcloud created by the impact.
If Twilight wasn't an alicorn, she more than likely wouldn't have survived the crash. But her enhanced endurance allowed her to just stand up and brush herself off. She then heard Celestia clear her throat.
"Now do I have your attention?" she spoke on a calm, almost sarcastic tone. "His airship is shielded. And from the looks of it, it is an adaptive shield spell. Meaning the harder we hit it..."
"...the harder it hits back." Twilight finished. "Right." she said with determination before flying back up. Twilight stopped mid-air, hovering right in front of the Storm King's ship. She collected as much magical energy into her horn and fired it at the ship, but the shield absorbed it and fired it right back at her. But this was just what she wanted. Twilight gathered the magical energy fired back at her around her horn and shot it back right at the ship. But the spell was becoming harder to keep up and it didn't look like the shield was weakening at all.
"What is she doing?" Thunderlane asked on the ground. Celestia wasn't sure what to answer at first, but eventually she figured it out.
"She's trying to overload the shield! Turning the counterenergy the shield fires back against it!"
It was a genius move. But Celestia found it dubious that Twilight would be able to keep it up by herself for long enough to overload shield. Twilight herself was adamant to prove her wrong, but even with all of her might, she felt herself weakening more and more. As she tried to muster up more energy, she saw that there was a hole opening in the shield.
For a moment, she felt like her efforts were paying off, but then something fired out of the airship through the hole and surrounded her body. Twilight screamed as the magical energy around her exploded in a blinding white flash that forced everypony around her in the air and on the ground to cover their eyes. And when they opened them and looked up, Twilight Sparkle was nowhere to be seen.
"NO!"
Celestia turned to see a young blue unicorn with blonde mane staring up at the sky where Twilight was just a second ago with horror. Tears were escaping her eyes as she collapsed on the ground and buried her muzzle in her forelegs and wept silently. Celestia slowly approached the crying mare and tried to lay her comforting hoof on her shoulder, but it was firmly rejected.
"I spent the last two years thinking that you took everything away from her. That you became a heartless monster and abandoned her when she needed you the most after Canterlot's destruction. Now I know that is actually the opposite of what happened. But I still respected her and always looked up to her." Luster wept as she glared up at Celestia. "But I bet this is the best thing you think happened all day." Celestia didn't react to the accusation with anger or resentment. Her expression remained kind and calm, never losing any of her motherly warmth.
"You wound me, my little pony." Celestia whispered softly. "To assume that I would ever wish for harm to fall upon one of my subjects. Especially the one that I considered a daughter. My former student may have strayed from the path I guided her upon, but that doesn't mean I loved her any less. And her loss pains me more than you can imagine. It has been hurting ever since that day."
Luster Dawn looked up at the alicorn with an inquisitive look. Even after finding out that Twilight wasn't the wronged hero Rainbow Dash and Blueblood painted her as, she still wanted Celestia to live up to the horror stories she heard from them. She wanted to spot lies and deception in her words, but couldn't. No words have been ever spoken more sincerely than the ones she just heard from the alicorn. She hung her head in defeat. She can no longer lie to herself. She has been lied to and mislead by her mentors. Whatever good intentions Twilight may had, she was the villain of this story, not Celestia.
Celestia once again offered her hoof to the young unicorn and this time she took it. After Celestia helped her on her hooves, they heard the unmistakable sound of magical energy surging from a few meters away. They turned to see a portal opening in front of them and Starlight Glimmer exited out of it, followed by Applejack and Princess Cadance. The appearance of her niece greatly surprised Celestia, as from what Applejack had told her, she wanted nothing to do with her or Equestria anymore. Cadance wore a particularly depressed expression, which didn't go unnoticed by Celestia as she approached her.
"The Crystal Empire?" Was the only thing Celestia said to her, causing Cadance to hang her head in defeat and shame.
"The Crystal Empire had fallen." she announced grimly. "I was too stubborn to listen. Flurry was right. I'm a useless ruler too consumed by her self pity to do anything when the time comes to fight. And now we have lost everything." A tear slid down on Cadance's cheek, before Celestia put a hoof to her chin and gently lifted her head to meet her gaze.
"Nopony is giving up yet, Cadance." she said on an encouraging tone. "We have been in worse situations before." Cadance wasn't fully convinced and just hung her head back down. Celestia then turned to Applejack.
"Any word on your sister and Sweetie Belle?" she asked.
"No." Applejack replied in concern. "And ah'm really startin' to worry." Before Celestia could attempt to reassure her, two more ponies entered the scene. It was Rainbow Dash and Blueblood. The pegasus shot a brief glare at Luster Dawn before turning her attention on the alicorn.
"This is all your fault Celestia!" she accused aggressively. "I knew we shouldn't have listened to you and just straight up take the fight to the Storm King! If we did that, we would have found a way to take down his shield by now. Instead, we wasted our time with evacuation and now we don't have time to find a way on that ship before that bastard drains all of our magic! You should have followed our lead!" Celestia wanted to reply, but the one pony she least expected to came to her defense instead.
"Enough, Rainbow Dash!" The young unicorn has had enough of the reckless and entitled behavior of the pegasus. And that combined with the lies and deception she's been feeding her for the past two years just added to her frustration with her. "Instead of yelling accusations at each other, we should be working together and find a solution!"
"Working together with her?!" Rainbow Dash snorted as she motioned at Celestia. "Didn't that lead to enough disasters already?"
"Oh, yeah! Dat is so you, Dash!" Applejack joined in on the argument, who was also quite fed up with Dash's behavior. "It's always somepony else's fault! Ye never done anythin' wrong in yer entire life and ye are never wrong! Because heavan forbid anythin' takin' a strike at yer Faust damned ego!"
"You would know all about that, wouldn't you, Applejack?!" Thunderlane yelled, joining the argument. "As I recall, you spent your years within the Regime trying to pin the blame on your family as an attempt to justify everything you've done!"
"You're talking about justifications, Thunderlane?!" Starlight questioned accusingly. "How many times have I heard you trying to convince yourself that you're doing what you're doing to honor the memory of your little brother and to make sure what happened to him won't happen to anypony else before you betrayed us?!"
"I'm sure you went through the same a lot during your time as a cult leader Starlight!" Cadance snapped at her. "At least, Thunderlane had a proper motivation for his actions! I wonder what was your motivation for trying to destroy time if your friend moving away was all you needed to enslave a village. Did your favorite team lose a hoofball game?"
"Hypocrisy at it's finest, Cadance!" Blueblood chided. "Starlight at least had conviction! You were just a mournful widow who couldn't even comfort your daughter in her time of loss! And you were willing to sell your whole empire out to us if that meant getting her back!"
Celestia could only watch helplessly as members of the former royal family and Equestria's greatest defenders bickered amongst themselves. But before she could interrupt them, she was beaten to it by a low and sinister chuckling coming from right above them. The voice made the arguing stop and all of the ponies present looked up to see a magical holographic projection of the Storm King floating over them.
"Chrysalis did a better job at breaking up the harmony between you than I expected." he gloated smugly. "Too bad she didn't live to see the fruition of her work." The ponies on the ground glared up at him in disdain.
"Did ye call in just to gloat?" Applejack asked bitterly, causing the Storm King's expression to turn serious.
"Very well, let's get down to business. The way I see it, your country is overrun, your forces are hopelessly outnumbered and soon all of your magic will be mine. Your Equestria is about to become a thing of the past, Celestia." Before Celestia could give a defiant response, the Storm King raised a finger." Unless..." And pointed it at Luster Dawn. "...you surrender her."
Everypony looked at the young unicorn standing in the middle of the group, staring up at the conqueror with fear and confusion. "Me? Why do you want me?"
The Storm King glared down at her darkly. "Do you think I attacked your pathetic, insignificant little village all those years ago because I wanted it? Because it had any significance or strategic importance to me? No, girl. The target was always you."
Luster Dawn's expression turned from one of fear to hate. How could this monster speak so casually of his atrocities, he slaughtered so many innocent lives that day, including Luster's parents without a care in the world and now he had the gall to throw it in her face? And all because of her?
"Why? What makes me so special to you anyway?!" Luster snapped. "What makes me worth slaughtering an entire village of ponies just to find me?!" The Storm King looked like he was hesitant to give an answer, but eventually, he replied.
"Not everypony can become an alicorn. Only those born with a special magical spark inside them are gifted with the possibility. You, Luster Dawn, carry this spark inside you." Everypony reacted in wide eyed shock to this revelation.
"Aunty, is this true?" Blueblood asked as he turned to Celestia. All eyes were on the white alicorn now. She also looked hesitant to answer, but eventually gave in.
"Yes, it is." she answered. "That's why I was always so careful with picking my students. That's why I also rejected you in favor of Twilight Sparkle, nephew. The magic of alicorns are hidden deep inside only a few ponies. I can only help to bring it out. Nopony knows why is it this way. It simply is."
"I... I can become an alicorn?" Luster Dawn asked in surprise.
"You carry that magic deep inside you, yes." The Storm King replied. "Now do you understand? You are my opportunity to obtain the most powerful of magics. Raw, untamed alicorn magic at it's purest. Surrender yourself to me and I will spare Equestria's autonomy. I will still take my collected magic of course, but it's a bigger mercy I've ever shown anycreature."
Luster was unsure of what to do. She wanted the Storm King to face justice for his crimes, but if they couldn't defeat him, she could at least ensure the safety of everypony in Equestria by sacraficing herself. She was about to take a step forward and offer herself to the tyrant, but she was stopped by one of Celestia's wing blocking her way. The alicorn of the sun stood in front of the young unicorn protectingly and gave the Storm King an uncompromising glare.
"Even if we were certain you would honor that offer, we wouldn't take it." she said firmly. For the first time since this invasion began, the Storm King dropped his smug facade and actually looked shocked. He didn't expect Celestia to be this defiant. But he quickly got over his shock and regained his composure.
"You have one hour to reconsider." he replied before the hologram disappeared. Luster looked up at Celestia in appreciation. She was grateful the she stood up to her, but she wasn't sure if it was the right call.
"Thank you for giving the new girl a chance, Celestia, but... if there's even a slight chance that we could save Equestria by giving me up, shouldn't we..." she was stopped when Celestia placed a hoof to her mouth.
"i will not let that monster have any of my little ponies. Not as long as there's anything I can do about it."
"What is there we can do?" Thunderlane asked. "Our magic is getting weaker by the second! How will we be able to get past that shield?"
"Twilight was trying to overload the shield." Luster offered. "Couldn't we do that ourselves?"
"That would require an insane amount of magic power." Starlight countered. "With the Storm King's draining process, we have to use our magic sparingly. We don't have that much magic left."
"Maybe not in Equestria."
Everypony turned to the source of the voice, which was revealed to be Prince Blueblood. Celestia raised an eyebrow.
"What do you propose, nephew?" Blueblood looked hesitant at first, but eventually realized that he couldn't hide this information in a situation like this.
"When we were hiding in Staliongrad, me and a few other of our unicorn followers have gathered up a large supply of magical energy in a hidden vault beneath the palace. In case we ever needed it against... well, you." he explained nervously, but to his surprise, Celestia didn't look angered and just motioned for him to continue. "It should be sufficent to overload the Storm King's shields, but I'm not sure if a single unicorn would be able to channel such power. Even ten unicorns wouldn't be enough to transfer that power from Staliongrad to the Storm King's ship."
"How about an alicorn?"
Everypony turned to see Cadance step forward with a determined look on her face. She was ready to strike at the monster how took her kingdom away from her aynway she could.
"Yes!" Blueblood exclaimed in realization. "That could work." Celestia nodded.
"Then that's our plan. Blueblood, Cadance, get to Staliongrad and use that vault to take out the Storm King's shield. The rest of us will stay here and delay the invasion as much as we can." The ponies around Celestia found their spirit restored. They now had a plan to take down that abomination that invaded their home and take their magic back. They could only hope that it will be enough.
On the Storm King's airship, the conqueror was standing on the bridge, overseeing the progress of his invasion on a holographic map. It won't be long now. In less than an hour, all of Equestria's magic will be his. But he suddenly noticed something. Out of nowhere, a new area appeared on the map that so far has been concealed. His eyes widened in surprise. How did the ponies managed to keep this hidden from him? He shook his head. It didn't matter. A new area meant new conquest for him and potentially more magic to collect. Yes, he felt it already. From this new area, he felt a huge magical concentration deep beneath the surface. This required further investigation. He summoned his general.
"Did you summon me?" Tempest Shadow asked as she stepped on the bridge.
"The ponies have revealed to us a new, hidden area that hides enormous magic under the surface. Looks like somepony was smart enough to make an emergency spare amount of magic. It couldn't have been Celestia as that would have been revealed to us already. But it doesn't matter. Commander Tempst, the First Order will secure this new land for me and bring me back this magic." Tempest looked a little nervous upon hearing that order. It was clear that she had news that her master will not be happy to hear.
"The First Order has disbanded." she told him. "Turns out, those cretins were more clever than you gave them credit for and realized what you were really up to. They thought Equestria will be theirs to rule, not yours to drain and leave a barren wasteland." If the Storm King was upset by this turn of events, he did not show it.
"And what about you, Commander?" he asked coldly. Tempest scoffed.
"Equestria can go to Tartarus. I serve The Storm King." she replied with a bow.
"As you should." The Storm King replied, pleased with her loyalty. "I will give you new soldiers and transport to Staliongrad. Secure me my newest conquest and your loyalty will be rewarded."
Tempest smirked. Her time has finally come. WIth the replacement-horn helmet the Storm King provided to her and the vast magic this land was hiding that she could take for herself, it won't be long until the pathetic, broken horned unicorn mocked and abandoned by everypony became whole again and more powerful than ever before. Soon all of Equestria, the former princesses and even the Storm King would refer to her as 'Master'.