Ending an Empire
Canterlot was surrounded. The once grand city, was in ruins due to the continuous bombings on the city over the course of the war. Previously white spires were coated in ash as fires burned across the ruins. Artillery shells rained down upon the defenders, who had long since acknowledged their oncoming defeat, and were merely fighting either out of fear of what their Empress would do to them, or of a fanatical want to take down as many enemies as they could, to try and make this victory a pyrrhic one.
Outside of the city, were a variety of soldiers that could have only been dreamed of before the days of the Solar Empire. Changelings stood with Deer, who stood with Griffons, and Yaks and Ponies. The forces of a united continent.
The soldiers of the Changeling-Olenian commonwealth made up the brunt of the soldiers slamming into the Imperial lines, General Pharynx leading his troops with immense skill, that outmatched her generals by several levels, not to mention with direct support from the Crystal Empire's Prince, Shining Armor, who had an unparalleled knowledge of the inner workings of the Equestrian Army.
Daybreaker felt sick as she looked at the map below her. How dare these degenerates stand before her? How could she have lost to them? What cosmic entity, or primordial god did she anger to allow this to happen? Her pure rage at this turn of events turned into bile within her throat. How could this happen?
She was surrounded by her Generals, some of her most loyal followers. They all stared at the maps before them, showing just how far their empire had fallen, and just how doomed they seemed.
A voice rose from the crowd, one of her generals raised his head to speak. "Just counting the soldiers of the Commonwealth we are outnumbered ten to one, adding in the Griffon and Stalliongrad forces... It comes to twenty-five to one." The shaken grey pony stated taking off their cap and wiping the sweat from their forehead.
Marshall Blueblood rose from his seat then and there. "I unfortunately see no other alternative." he said as he stood up. "Our only course of action in this junction is to surrender. King Thorax and Queen Velvet are merciful, not even mentioning Princess Cadence. It is likely that upon our surrender they will protect us from execution at the hands of the other leaders."
No one said anything upon the completion of his sentence, but everyone had instinctually turned their heads to Daybreaker, who was positively fuming. Her faming mane flared in intensity as her eyes fumed with hate.
In one move, she fired a beam of fire from her horn. The beam shot forwards and consumed Blueblood. In less then a second the Prince was reduced to nothing more that ash and a stain on the wall. The General rose from their seats and each took a step back from the table.
They turned to their Empress, fear evident in their eyes. "Surrender?" She stated rising to her hooves. "The moment we capitulate is the moment that the Sun itself burns out! Any Stallion or Mare who even THINKS about surrendering will be disintegrated! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR VERMIN!" She shouted, her voice drowning out the sound of fighting outside, and the explosions of artillery.
The soldiers did not say anything. A couple of them glanced at each other, and others closed their eyes and lowered their heads. It was clear they had given up any hope of victory.
With a hiss Daybreaker turned and started walking towards a Balcony. "Get out of my sight." She stated. The Generals bowed before they left, the last bow any of them would give the tyrant.
Daybreaker placed her hooves upon the balconies crenulations. She rapidly clenched and unclenched her jaw. 'How could this have happened?' She asked herself for what felt like the thousandth time that day.
What had she done to deserve this end? This collapse of her once mighty empire!
"You still don't know do you? Are you blind?" She heard a voice. She quickly spun her head to see the figure of Twilight Sparkle, who stepped onto the Balcony with her.
"You Dare speak to your Empress like that?!?" Daybreaker shouted to her, red aura surrounding her horn.
"No, I dare talk to a friend like that." The Inquisitor said as she fearlessly walked up to her former teacher. She stopped right next to her. "I was your most loyal follower, my Empress. I would have followed you into Tartarus if you commanded it. But now? Now that I realize just what is happening, just when is seems that Tartarus is where I might end up.... I am hesitant. I realize just what crimes have been committed in your wake. "
Daybreaker growled at this, but she could not bring herself to vaporize her student, as if an invisible hoof was holding her back. "And what crimes, pray tell, have I committed!"
Twilight turned to her. In that moment, she saw her own reflection in her students eyes as she opened her mouth. "You don't realize? In your insanity have you failed to consider just what you have done? The countless members of other races you have burned, just for being different then us? The Thousands dead in your wake? The subjugation of the ponies who followed you? The Millions of soldiers who died in this war you started!" Twilight said puling herself to her full height to stare at her former teacher. "Just now you killed your own nephew for offering us the RATIONAL option! Do you not realize that?"
Tears began streaming down her face as she continued. "I hesitate to even refer to you as Celestia anymore."
Daybreaker was quiet. A lump formed in her throat as her student talked. "I followed you, because you offered Equestria something better at first, or at least you claimed to. I followed you, because I thought you were my former teacher." Twilight said as she used her magic to remove the Solar Empire's insignia from her uniform. She brought it before her face and with great lamentation, looked to her reflection in the golden insignia.
"But I see now, that I was wrong. You are not Celestia." She stated before she hurled the insignia over the side of the Balcony. She then spread her wings and took a step onto the crenulations. She turned to her mentor, pure grief and regret in her eyes.
"You can kill me if you wish Daybreaker." She said. "I only have three options now, and all three of them end in my death."
Daybreaker was quiet. She could say nothing, all she could do was watch as her student, her most trusted follower, stood before her, with nothing but contempt for her in her eyes.
"Fine then." Twilight said looking up and closing her eyes, putting and end to her tears. "Goodbye, monster."
That was when Twilight leaned back. Daybreaker reached out for her, but it was too late, and he student fell over the edge.
All she heard next was a crack on the pavements below. The Empress dared not look down. She only turned her head. In doing so, she once again saw her own reflection in the palaces red stained-glass windows.
She saw herself, the mighty Empress of Equestria, the might of the sun, the greatest ruler to ever live, crying. Tears fell down her eyes as she realized just what was happening. All she had accomplished, what goals she had overcome, what great heights she had risen too? What good were they now? What good was the actions of her past, now that she was nothing.
The Empress of a falling citadel, and the ruler of a bunch of brainwashed fanatics. That was all she could claim to be now. What difference, in that case, was there between her and the Arch-necromancer Rosa, in that case?
That was when she rose her head. That was when it finally hit her. She indeed was all that her opponents claimed she was. She was evil, she was a villain, and she indeed was nothing more that the Alicorn equivalent of Rosa. She ten narrowed her eyes and turned to the battle around her.
'Fine.' She stated as she stepped onto the crenulations. If she was the Villain, she was going to be a villain through and through. She would claim as many lives as she could. She would show these dirty degenerates why she was called, the Empress of the Sun.
Luna stood near the front of the battle lines, inside a ruined bank. She was on the upper levels where a mock command quarters had been set up. The sound of machine gun fire, from a gun emplacement below her, drowned out most other sound and made it hard for her to think properly.
Soon it stopped to reload, allowing her to catcher her breath and listen to more of the sounds around her. There was the sound of rifle fire, as was expected, and bang of a distant explosion.
She looked to the map on her desk. If the soldiers of the combined countries kept pushing, they would be at the palace by nightfall, and they would finally bring an end to this nightmare.
She reached over and grabbed a radio from a resistance soldier.
"Shining Armor do you copy?" she said into it as she moved a couple of the soldiers on the table.
"I read you loud and clear Lunar one." The voice of Shining said to her in reply on the radio.
"The Resistance cells in Canterlot have fully risen up as planned, and the soldiers of the Empire are completely boxed in. The Crystal Empire's and Commonwealth's 2nd waves should be able to move in with impunity soon, I trust the others hear this?"
"Indeed we do." General Pharynx said on the radio. "And we have just been given word that Stalliongrad's 3rd and 4th on the East Coast have finished off the last of the resistance there and are coming to reinforce the 1st here. Victory is at hand."
Luna smiled as the gun emplacement below her started up again, alongside the rolling treads of a Yak Tank which had come into the streets below, alongside a small platoon of soldiers. "Excellent," she said with genuine happiness, the first time she had felt that since the war began in fact. "I am confident in saying that this battle will be over by-" She started, but she was immediately cut off by an explosion in the streets below, as the tank and Yaks were annihilated. Fire burst into the room and she barely had enough time to put up a shield for herself, before the room was consumed and the radio was destroyed.
The front of the bank collapsed and rubble buried the shield around her. When the destruction ceased she used her shield to push the rubble off her, allowing to see the destruction first hand.
The entire block the street was on was now on fire. Civilian, Continental, and Imperial soldier burned and screamed alike as they were reduced to ash, and standing in the center of the destruction, untouched by the flames, was her sister.
The Empress turned away from her sister, and began walking down the street in the direction of the front lines. Luna's eyes widened as she saw this. She needed to warn the army some how.
Marshall Elias Bronzetail stood on a rock overlooking the battle lines in Canterlot. He idly smoked his pipe as he watched on. This battle was honestly a waste of resources and manpower. It would have been better to let the Commonwealth do all the fighting, and hence, all the dying.
Sure Nova Griffonia would have lost a little bit of it's bargaining power at the peace negotiations, but in all reality, it would be better to simply return home at this point. The Empire proper was pulling itself back up afterall, and in all reality, it would be better to get ready for them. They would clearly be coming to nab their colonies back later.
He had just blown a ring of smoke out of his mouth when a massive blast of fire slammed into the center of the Griffonian camp, and incinerated a large amount of his soldiers and equipment. He turned to the fire, but then a similar explosion wracked the area behind him. An entire district of the city went up in flames, including a large core of the Griffonian Divisions sent to secure it.
Elias took a step back as his men were consumed, their screams echoing throughout the city.
"What in the world?" He stated in fear. That was when he heard the sound of hooves hitting the ground behind him. He turned around just in time to see Daybreaker narrow his eyes at him. He tried to scream but he was quickly consumed by a beam of fire from her horn.
Daybreaker smiled as the griffon before her was vaporized. A bullet then hit her crown, and a couple more hit her armor. They didn't do much but dent it, but it hurt the Empress quiet a bit.
With a hiss she turned to see a single griffon soldier firing his gun at her. She slowly stomped forwards towards him as he pitifully emptied his clip into her.
When she finally stood directly in front of the soldier her eyes narrowed. With one quick stomp she killed the soldier, and with a satisfied harrumph, she took to the air again.
Shining Armor looked to the devastation, with his eyes wide as dinner plates. "She just wiped out an entire wing of our army!" He shouted as he looked at the destruction.
"Alongside an entire district of the city." Pharynx said, his face turning into a grimace. "She really has lost it."
"Sirs!" A deer soldier shouted running up next to them. "She is on her way here now! What do we do?!?"
Pharynx turned to the soldier. "Redirect all anti-air guns to her position! Shoot her out of the sky as quickly as possible!" he shouted.
The Deer gulped, before saluting and running off to relay Pharynx's order.
Pharynx and Shinning grimaced to the sky as the anti-air batteries opened fire.
"Damn her." Shining whispered to himself as he spotted her flaming form rocketing towards them.
Daybreaker put up a shield of fire, which blocked the flak from the guns below from harming her. These ants were getting persistent. How cute.
With a demented giggle the now insane empress shot her shield downwards. It flew forwards with great speed, consuming both flak and shells, until it hit the enemy position.
The Commonwealth's and the Crystal Empire's anti-air batteries soon went up in smoke as the giggling of Daybreaker turned into a chuckle, then a guffaw, until her mad laughing soon drowned out all sound below. She threw her head back as she laughed, and all the soldiers below turned their heads to her.
The former princess of the sun was gone that much was true. Daybreaker looked down after her laugh. Her horn glowed read, as she prepared to incinerate all below her.
"Prepare to be annihilated peons!" She shouted to them with glee, as a ball of fire formed above her head.
Before she could throw it down upon them, she was interrupted by the sound of sliding metal. She looked down, to see a blade emerging form her chest. The fire ball immediately dissipated as she slowly turned her head.
Behind her, clutching a rifle, with a bayonet attached, was her sister Luna.
Daybreaker said nothing to her sister, she merely stammered. Luna pulled out the bayonet and let her sister go.
The Mad Empress then fell from the sky, as her mane extinguished itself.
The Solar Empire had truly collapsed in that moment. The death of the Empress of the Sun, bringing an end, to the war.