"I don't think we should be doing this," Cherry said.
"Don't worry about it," Ace said. "We'll just see if the Princess can help us. And if not, then we can be on our way back to Ponyville."
"Well, yeah, but--"
"Don't you want to see the perihelion?" Crescent interrupted.
"I can wait to see the perihelion if it means leaving the castle as soon as possible," Cherry said, sounding a little worried.
"It won't hurt to see if the Princess can help us," Ace said. "We can be back home tomorrow afternoon at the latest."
"I suppose..." Cherry finally agreed.
At that moment, there was a knock at the door. "Dinner," said a voice from beyond the door. Ace went up and opened the door to reveal two unicorns carrying a small buffet with magic. None of us realized how hungry we were until that moment. The unicorns entered the room, heading straight for the table between the couches.
They set their mini-buffet on the table. They took off all the lids to reveal various assorted foods; more than I could ever remember seeing all at once, and certainly more than I could describe. We all ate what we could, and the two unicorns brought everything that remained back out with them.
"I'm going to bed now," Cherry said. She got up and walked to one of the corner bedrooms, closing the door behind her.
"I am, too," I said. Full and tired, I went off to the opposite corner bedroom. It was a larger room than I expected, with a rather large green and purple bed in the corner. The walls were a combination of suns and moons all around, and the ceiling had a sun with a crescent shadow on it. Other than that, the room was a bare dark purple.
I took off my bracelets and set them on the nightstand. I then climbed into the bed and got comfortable. Unfortunately, the window in the room faced North over Canterlot, meaning I wouldn't be awakened like I was used to. I pushed that though aside, as the bed was very comfortable. I fell asleep almost instantly.
I could hear crashing sounds. I got up and looked out the window. There was smoke obscuring my view of the city. What I could see, however, appeared to be creatures flying around. There were small creatures and large creatures all around in the sky. The large ones had moments where they cast a glowing streak through the smoke in front of them.
Dragons? Attacking Canterlot? It didn't make any sense. Why would dragons attack Canterlot if they haven't been provoked? And what were so many dragons doing in the area? Aren't dragons territorial?
Territorial... That must explain why they were attacking. But still, why so many?
"Pepper?" I could here from behind my door. I opened the door to find Ace standing just outside.
"Ace, what's going on? Why are there dragons attacking?" I asked him.
"Dragons?" Cherry said as she walked up accompanied by Cres. "Is that what's happening?"
I moved away from the doorway and gestured to the window. Everypony went to get a look at what was happening outside. As they were all looking, a dragon had sent a fireball in the direction of the castle. It caused a very loud rumbling sound followed by an unfortunate reminder that the castle is precariously positioned on the face of a cliff.
"We need to get out of here," Ace said as the dragon sent a few more fireballs towards the castle.
A guard had broken down the door to the guestroom. "You four, follow me. Quickly!" he snapped. We ran to the door and followed him through the labyrinthine castle. We turned seemingly at random, having to backtrack constantly because of rubble filling the halls. When it appeared that there was no way to the main exit, the guard broke through a nearby window.
What he didn't predict was that it was on the third floor. He blindly jumped, thinking he would land softly. Needless to say, he didn't. Cherry was clearly horrified by the mess that was the guard below, even backing against the far wall to get away from the window. Ace grabbed her between his hooves and flew out the window. I did the same with Cres, barely managing to stay airborne with her.
"Put Crescent on my back," Ace said as I mad my way down. "I can carry her and Cherry back to Ponyville."
I set Cres on Ace, and he took off with both of them. A dragon had shot a fireball right where Ace was a moment before, which disoriented me a little. When the smoke in front of me cleared, Ace was nowhere to be seen. He must have achieved enough distance to be safe from the dragons. At least, I hoped that was the case.
I spread out my wings to prepare for takeoff. As I lifted them, a few stray bits of the castle that a dragon had broken off managed to land directly on my right wing. I could hear the bones crack as my wing shot out in recoil. The sheer pain was enough to render my wing unable to support me in flight.
I noticed that everypony had managed to escape Canterlot, leaving me alone in this crumbling city. I had to try to figure a way out on my own.
There were three ways in or out of Canterlot. One was by flying yourself, which I couldn't do with a shattered wing. One was by guard escort, but there were no guards alive in the ruins of Canterlot. The final way was by old trade route. That was my only ticket out. I didn't know exactly where to go, but it couldn't be hard to find, since it had to be somewhere along the cliff.
I went to the side closer to Ponyville first. No trade route. Just my luck. I had to go through the entire city to find the other route. I ran as fast as I could to try to find it. I eventually hit the cliff side that the other edge of town hung on. Nothing. Nothing? There had to be a trade route going through a tunnel in the cliff, then.
As it turned out, there was only one street that went into the cliff. I went straight for it. Although all ponies had left already, there were still several dragons. One of them must have seen me and shot a fireball towards me. It missed, but it hit the overhang above the street. It collapsed, completely blocking the street. My last chance out, taken away.
Most of the dragons had left by this point. Only one was left. It didn't seem to notice I was still there, to my relief. It was just flying around, trying to cause as much damage as it possibly could. It must have liked this place and wanted to set up a nest, but it had to remove all traces of previous ownership.
It clawed at the castle relentlessly, but all it did was knock more rubble down. He eventually managed to find it's weak point. He shot a fireball right at the point where the castle connected to the cliff. The castle began to tip over even more precariously. Satisfied with this result, the dragon shot another fireball, causing the castle to collapse. The castle fell right on the city of Canterlot.
Unable to support this shift in weight, the ground began to shake. I noticed that the cliff seemed to be rising. No... Canterlot was falling! And I was stuck here. There was nothing I could do but wait for it to hit the ground. I couldn't help but think that we should have paid attention to Cherry, that we shouldn't have come.
My thoughts wandered over all of my friends in Ponyville. Ace and Crescent... Cherry and Zephyr... Thunder... They would never see me again. I couldn't help but think of this as Canterlot fell. It was a strange sensation, being in a city as it literally falls to dragons. As suddenly as the attack had started...
"Pep?" A familiar voice echoed quietly...