"Is this what a war is...?"
Celestia turned her head towards the direction of the tiny voice she had heard behind her. She saw a very small foal who was huddled in a corner with two other foals. The three were all shaking, and Celestia saw the ice clumps sticking to their small, short coats.
It was extremely cold in the old, worn down fort. If what was going outside was quiet you could hear the crying of the foals and the hushed cooing of their mothers as they tried to calm them down. But it was not quiet. Ear splitting explosion sounds came from outside every ten minutes, and it shook the walls of the fort so much you could feel as if it was about to collapse. The heavy sound of wind blowing an hail striking the land could also be heard. But the worse part was the screams that could be heard very clearly outside. The screams of pain, the screams of agony that you hear before somepony dies a gruesome death. This was the noise that was the worst to hear, along with the sound of metal and iron weapons screeching together as ponies fought.
They're were a total of fifty refugees in the fort. Regular civilians that had lived in Canterlot. Stallions, mares, and foals alike. Everywhere you looked in the fort you could see everypony slowly suffering, ponies crying and begging the soidlers and Celestia to move them out of there.
It bought great pain to Celestia, knowing that there was nothing she could do about it. They couldn't leave this frozen fort, there was nowhere to go. The enemy would find them if they left, and among the fifty refugees there were only 34 solders.
34 soldiers. Celestia had thought to herself. She tried not to think about the amount of soldiers they had too much, for that was draining her hope by the minute.
She was the princess of Equestria. She had desperately wanted to fight but her father, who was also the King, had forbid her. He said that he couldn't bare to see her get hurt or die in the war. So he had ordered her to take the civilians and her mother, the Queen, to this fort to hide until it was over.
She could barely believe her father. Years of her growing up under her father's personal training, and now he wasn't allowing her to fight in the war? Why couldn't Starswirl the Bearded hide the civilians? His magic could protect them better than she could. Celestia knew she was being selfish, but she just didn't feel like she could protect them. If the enemy were to find this place and get in...
Celestia shivered She didn't think she could live with herself if the blood of innocents was spilled under her protection.
But there was one thing that was worrying her to the bone. Her mother. The queen of Equestria, Diana. Celestia knew that something was wrong with her mother. She had been ill a week before the enemy attacked, and now she was getting even sicker at the worst of times Celestia, her father, and all of the royal guards had tried to find out what was wrong, but she had snapped at them and sent them away. This only increased their concern.
The entire world of Equestria was shaken at the moment. Canterlot was probably blown to dust by now, and she could hear the shreiks out dying ponies outside. For the first time, Celestia felt about as helpless as the defenseless civilians inside the fort. There was nothing she could do about any of this.
But that wasn't all. Neither her nor her mother would have seen this coming. The nature of who the enemy was, was just something too hard to bare. It was Celestia own uncle, Nathaniel. Celestia felt so betrayed, and she couldn't imagine how bad it was for her father. The king had been betrayed by his own brother, and now Nathaniel was setting war down on their heads.
The sound of a bomb exploding onto the snowy, bloodstained ground outside the fort ripped into Celestia's thoughts. The sudden crying of a newborn foal filled the entire first floor of the fort, interrupting the silence. Celestia was surprised at how quiet it had been. The only sounds before had just been the quiet sniffling and soft crying of the fillies. She turned her head to the sound of the crying. The mother, who was a unicorn wearing a tattered dress, was struggling to calm down her screaming foal.
Damn, that foal is going to get us found... Celestia thought. She could hear the exasperated sounds as other civilians and some of the soldiers mutter angrily at the mother, telling her to shut her foal up.
She was about to get up from her spot near the front of the barricaded fort doors to handle the situation herself, when she suddenly say an large, heavily armored stallion solider trot roughly over to where the mother and her foal were. His hoofsteps seemed to make the weak fort ground shake, and his wings her spread as far as they would possibly go. He looked agitated as he towered over the exhausted mare, who was cradling the still sobbing foal.
Celestia narrowed her eyes. She stood a distance away, watching the scene unfold. A few of the ponies in the fort glanced at her. Some of the soldiers gave Celestia an uneasy glance before they turned their eyes back on the giant, intimidating looking soldier.
The mare with the tattered dress glanced uneasily up at the soldier. "I'm sorry, sir." The mare said softly, as if she was predicting that he was about to complain. "I'm trying to calm him down...I just need to calm him back to sleep..." She muttered.
The stallion lowered his head and looked the mare dead in the eye. A few of the soldiers started to move forwards, about to get in between the soldier and then mare. But Celestia held up her right hoof, stopping them. They had to stop being so quick to jump to conclusions. But apparently, their prediction was right. The large pegasus suddenly snatched the foal roughly out of the mare's arms.
The mother screamed in horror as she scrambled to her feet. She launched herself at the soldier, and slammed into his golden armor in a poor attempt at an attack. "NO!" She wailed. "LET HIM GO! LET MY FOAL GO! PLEASE!!" Her terrified scream filled the fort and sent everyone into mass panic. Gasps and screams of horror came from some of the older foals at the violence unlocking before them. The soldier, still holding the foal, kicked the mare away from him. She fell on her back and got up again, begging the soldier to release her foal.
"Goddamn bitch." The stallion growled. His voice was deep and threatening. "If yer' damn little shit won't shut blood hell up, I'll make it." He then aimed to knock the foal on the head with his giant hoof.
The soldiers began to charge at their violent comrade, about to take the foal away from him. But Celestia was one step ahead of them. She spread her majestic white wings and leaped into the air. Like a powerful lioness, she dived at the soldier. Her hooves came in contact wit his back, and the princess pushed down hard, pinning the violent soldier into the ground.
The newborn foal went flying from his hooves, and it was still crying as loud as possible. One of soldiers gently caught it in his hooves, and the mother galloped over to retrieve her foal. The soldier returned it to it's mother, and she quickly took it away to calm it down. The mare had tears streaming down her face at the fact that her foal had almost been killed.
The stallion was struggling under Celestia's hooves. "Let me go, ya bitch!" He growled, lashing against Celestia. "Yer' gonna get us all killed in here! What idiot let you command the fort?"
Celestia decided it was time to tell this loud mouthed idiot off. What the hell did he think he was doing?
"Listen here, you cur. We're supposed to be protecting fifty innocent lives here, not tormenting or killing them." Celestia hissed into his ears, her ears flat against her head. At normal times, Celestia would be very calm and collected when dealing with these types of situations. However, she feared that the screaming and other loud noises they were making was starting to draw unwanted attention from the enemy. She was urgent to make everyone stop tearing each other's throats out.
The stallion stopped struggling under Celestia after she said that. Instead, gazed around the fort, at all of the terrified faces. "We're all gonna die." He said gruffly, not taking his eyes off of a small filly that was crying in a nearby corner. "It's no use. We might as well just start killing each other and get it over with. The enemy is winning, I can hear them. I'm sure you can hear them to, bitch." He growled, glancing up at Celestia. She fought back the incredibly powerful urge to slam her hoof into this guy's face.
"Ah, well." The soldier continued. "Ya would've made a terrible ruler anyway. A whiny, weak ass alicorn like yourself would probably get us all killed in three days.
Celestia felt anger bolt through her. Not at what this stallion said, but at the fact that she believed him. She would probably get them all killed. And if she ever did become a ruler, she knew that her immature self would never make a good one.
She slowly slid off of the stallion, her head bowed slightly. "Get out of my sight." Celestia said in a threatening voice. The soldier gazed at her for a few mere seconds. She could see the slight confusion in his eyes. Did he want to be more punished?
However, the stallion got up and quietly slunk into the shadows at the back of the fort. Celestia didn't break thoughtful eye contact with the ground for a long time.
Hours passed. Celestia had resumed her position near the front of the fort's doors. The moon was supposed to be up by now, but it wasn't. Night would have fallen by now. Celestia began to worry, because her mother had said she would still raise the moon, even though they were all in the fort. Her mother was resting on the top floor of the fort. Had something happened?
Celestia was about to get up and check on her mother herself, when suddenly the sound of frantic hoofsteps came from the stairs in the fort that led to the top floor. A horrified looking unicorn healer scrambled down the stairs, her eyes as big as saucers. She opened her mouth to speak, but she was apparently so scared she couldn't.
Celestia instantly ran over\ to the healer, fearing the worse. A few soldiers followed behind Celestia. The civilians watched with nervous eyes. "What has happened?! Please, tell me!" Celestia commanded frantically to the healer. Her worry was to the max. The healer looked up at Celestia and sputtered out the words Celestia never suspected she'd ever hear.
"Th- The queen...! Her water broke!"