Sol Invicta
“Erm… Excuse me, Your Majesty? Do you… have any thoughts you’d like to contribute?”
Princess Celestia blinked out of her stupor and roughly shook her head, bringing her mind to the present. Snapped out of her daydreams, it took her a moment to remember where she was and what she was doing. Generals from the Royal Guard sat around her, their ceremonial armor exchanged for the more modern tan uniforms of the military, while a map of Equus covered the wall in front of her, courtesy of the slide projector in the middle of the room. She could see borders, dotted lines, X’s and O’s, each accompanied by arrows pointing just as vaguely across international borders as they did into an inconceivable future. It made the ageless princess wonder just what she was doing wasting her precious, golden, early morning hours sitting in a briefing room with the generals of the Royal Guard.
“Oh, pardon me, general. I was just… deep in thought.” Celestia stretched her wide white wings, wincing as she felt the stiffness in them slowly melt away. “You know I always prefer to leave the affairs of the Guard to the professionals. What do you think?”
General Fast Clip obviously wasn’t satisfied with that evasive response, but he refrained from commenting on it in front of the princess. “I think it’s concerning,” he said, turning his attention from Celestia to the map of Equus projected on the screen before them. “Queen Chrysalis has mobilized an army the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Not even a week ago, they completely folded Olenia's unprepared military with coordination and tactics that have never before been seen in war. The reports we’ve gathered from its collapse have been frightening, to say the least. A modern army, a million changelings strong, armed with rifles, armored vehicles, and airplanes… I think it’s clear that soon they will turn their attention toward us.”
“You think there will be war?” Celestia raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think there’s a chance for diplomacy? For this crisis to be resolved through peaceful means?”
Fast Clip fidgeted in his seat. “My princess… I know what you want me to tell you,” he said. “But the reality of the situation is quite different. This is no longer the days of the past, where any threats that sought to make ruin of our nation could be dismantled with the Elements of Harmony or the resolute belief in our own righteousness. The Changeling threat will not be like the surprise attack on Canterlot years ago. This is an army, and it is trained and ready to fight. Powerful as the Elements may be, they cannot be everywhere at once. And with the posturing that Queen Chrysalis has made on our borders, I believe that war is inevitable. If you have read Dotted Line’s report, you will understand my concerns.”
Celestia had read Dotted Line’s report—or at least, she had stomached as much of it as she could before she left it with Luna. The simple truth of the matter was that the notion of bloodshed and suffering left her feeling ill, and she preferred to find the gentler approach, the diplomatic solution, to avoid it whenever she could. The last time she had been forced to resort to violence, she had lost her sister for a thousand years. And for an immortal being such as herself, a thousand years might as well have been yesterday. Even centuries after Luna’s banishment, Celestia would still find herself waking up in the middle of the night, tears streaming down her face, wondering if she could have done something different…
“I have,” Celestia told her general. “And I suppose I do share the same worries as everypony here in this room. War is an unfathomable, terribly bloody nightmare. If we can avoid it while keeping our little ponies safe, then I want it to be done.” Her eyes narrowed at Fast Clip. “And there will not be a repeat of the Stalliongrad incident. Whatever the Royal Guard decides to do, I want to be informed about it. I will not be left out of the loop when the lives of my little ponies are on the line.”
“Understood, Your Majesty. I’ll make sure that message is heard crystal clear throughout the chain of command. Prince Blueblood should be returning from his tour of the Vanhoover Line within the week, so he should be able to give you a fresh appraisal of the situation during your next meeting.”
“I will be sure to ask after his thoughts,” Celestia said, rising from her seat to signal the end to the meeting. The rest of the ponies seated around the table did the same, and they all bowed their heads before her. “Thank you for the briefing, generals. These are troubling times we find ourselves in, but I firmly believe that, with the right approach, we can achieve peace in our time.”
Even though they didn’t say it, Celestia pursed her lips as she realized they didn’t share her convictions. But after centuries spent ruling over Equestria, that didn’t perturb her that much. Countless ponies before them had proclaimed doom and gloom, death and destruction, for countless different reasons, but diplomacy and harmony had always prevailed. So too would it prevail in the coming days.
-----
“Pray tell, what do you intend to do about it, sister of mine?”
Whatever keeps my little ponies safe, Celestia thought, frowning down at her dinner. Truth be told, she didn’t want to think about the prospect of hostilities with the changelings at the moment. Breakfast and dinner were the only two times Celestia could reliably spend some time with her beloved sister, given her sibling’s naturally nocturnal sleeping schedule. She preferred to talk about happier things, to destress after a day spent holding court for petitioners, to gossip about the quirks and scandals of the nobility. The last thing she wanted to do was spend this time working even more, and especially not concerning some prospect as gruesome as war.
“I’ve had my diplomats busy trying to open channels with the changelings so that we can resolve this standoff with words, not weapons,” Celestia answered, her fork and knife descending once more to her plate to slice into her carrots and potatoes. “And, if Queen Chrysalis refuses to negotiate, I’m also sending messages to our allies, both at home and overseas. A strong, united front will be a deterrence to any sort of military action by the changelings. If Chrysalis sees how hopeless this endeavor of hers is, then she will be forced to back down. And even if she doesn’t, there will be cooler heads on her staff that will force her to reconsider.”
“You think rationally,” Luna stated, though her face wore a scowl and her meal had barely been touched as of yet. But instead of it being a compliment, it was clear that the younger alicorn saw it as a criticism. “Queen Chrysalis does not. She does not act or think how you imagine she will act or think. She is fixated on one thing only, and that is revenge for the wedding in 1002. She does not care how many of her brood she will send to die to accomplish it.”
“Even if it means destabilizing her own regime?” Celestia asked, and she cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t see everypony—or everycreature, as the case may oftentimes be—as a reflection of my own mind. I’ve seen tyrants rise and, inevitably, fall. In fact, there have been so many in so many different parts of the world that I forget most of them, alongside the history books. But you remember King Sombra before your… well…”
While Celestia swallowed, Luna could only roll her eyes. “My banishment? Yes, sister, I do. And rather than fight like a real stallion, I remember he launched his entire empire forward a thousand years in time when he realized that he would not prevail against us.”
“What’s important is that he overreached and it ruined him.” Celestia tapped her hooves together as if to emphasize that point. “Tyrants rely on stability to keep and amass their power. Their towers of power are only as strong as their foundations, and when those foundations crack, the tower topples over. Chrysalis would have to realize that a long, bloody war would only destabilize her regime and create a swift end to her power from within. That is why I am confident it will not come to bloodshed.”
She once more set her utensils to work, pointedly punctuating the end of her statement with a period of thoughtful silence. When she swallowed, she sighed and sadly shook her head at Luna. “Can we discuss something else, Luna? I’ve heard so many worries about the changelings from the petitioners today, not to mention the nobility and the guards in the palace. I would very much rather focus on something more pleasant, like the plans for this year’s Grand Galloping Gala.”
Luna’s nostrils flared as she let out a pensive breath, and Celestia saw her sister’s jaw set—one of her many little tells that Luna was internalizing her frustrations. “If you wish, Celestia,” she said. “I’ll bring these matters up with Prince Blueblood tomorrow morning before I retire for the day. That way at least somepony is planning our strategy should diplomacy fail.”
Though the barb stung, Celestia let it pass without comment. It disappointed her that her sister didn’t support her diplomatic overtures, but Luna was similarly a princess of the diarchy. She was free to pursue whatever means she felt were necessary to maintain peace in Equestria. If that meant conferring with the generals, then so be it. Celestia just hoped that Luna would not try to pressure the military to do anything rash, because then she would have to rebuke her sister when the military sought her approval as well. And the last thing she needed to do was to strike a blow to Luna’s confidence in her ability to lead after so many centuries spent on the moon.
Equestria could only navigate the dark times ahead if everypony worked together. And right now, Celestia felt like she was the sole voice of optimism and hope in a room full of pessimism and despair. Hopefully time would prove her right.
-----
She was proven wrong on June 22nd, 1011, at 4:45AM.
It was not the guards or her aides that woke her up first, but her sister. Celestia had been dreaming of soaring high over a sunny glade as the sun rose behind her, feeling the morning light dry the dew off her back. Her shadow on the waving grass below her seemed so small from up so high. Birds flew with her, and the gust of wind in her feathers reminded her of her youthful days after first becoming an alicorn, learning to fly after spending her foalhood as a unicorn, and finally embracing the freedom of the blue sky above.
That was when Luna tore through the veil of her dream with a distraught voice. “Sister!” the mistress of the night called out, her voice echoing hauntingly through Celestia’s dream. “Sister, wake up! Something has happened!”
By the time Celestia started awake, heavy hooves were pounding on her door. “Your Majesty!” came the voice from one of her guards. “Your Majesty, urgent news from the border! General Soarin’ needs to speak with you in the war room as soon as possible!”
The rest of those predawn hours were all a blur to Celestia, a whirlwind of panic and confusion. Luna was already waiting in the war room with Soarin’ by the time Celestia had gathered her wits about herself and donned her regalia to join them. Luna had feared something was wrong when the dreams of countless soldiers along the changeling border all ended at around the same time as they woke up en masse, and Soarin’ confirmed her worries with a telegram from the front. All it read was a few short lines:
VANHOOVER LINE SUSTAINING HEAVY SHELLING AND BOMBARDMENT BY CHANGELING FORCES. INFILTRATORS IN THE REAR CUTTING TELEGRAPH LINES. PLEASE CONFIRM IF RECEIVED.
“We sent a confirmation, but it’s likely that the line was cut by the time we sent it back,” Soarin’ said, a frown covering his muzzle. “Changelings must have slipped across the border while disguised and quickly set up shop sabotaging our communications. The army on the Vanhoover Line is fighting blind. I can’t guarantee what the situation will be like when we reestablish contact; some of our fastest fliers are racing to the front to try and ascertain the situation.”
“I knew it would come to blows sooner rather than later,” Princess Luna growled. “That much was clear to anypony who knew what the situation at the border was like. Do we have reserves sitting back from the front?”
“The Fifth Army had just been deployed from Canterlot to the front,” Soarin’ said. “They stopped at Vanhoover last night prior to their scheduled deployment along the border today.”
“Then fortune has given us this one gift. Mobilize the Fifth Army immediately and send them to the front. Make sure to leave at least three divisions in and around Vanhoover to protect it; we can’t afford to lose that city and its ports from this cowardly surprise attack.”
“And their orders when they arrive?”
“Make sure that the rear of Blueblood’s army corps is free of infiltrator presence. If they lose their supply lines, it does not matter how well-fortified the Vanhoover Line is. They will starve and surrender within weeks.”
“Of course, Your Majesty. But I just have to ask… Princess Celestia? Are you and Princess Luna in agreement?”
The question hit Celestia’s ears, but her mind failed to process it. She could only stare blankly at the map of Equestria on the table in front of her, at the bold line that demarcated the borders between Equestria and the Changeling Lands. How many thousands of ponies stood on that line? How many millions more stood behind it? Acornage was right along the border. Was it under attack too? How many ponies were fighting for their lives, screaming in pain and dying alone, because diplomacy had failed?
How many of her little ponies had she failed to protect?
When Celestia didn’t respond, Princess Luna answered Soarin’s question with a scowl. “Am I not an equal princess of this land?” she barked at him. “At any rate, military matters have been my forte, not my sister’s. See to it that these orders are carried out, and then get me a better picture of the situation at the front. I don’t care if I have to fly there myself to understand what’s happening; if I must, then so be it.”
“O-of course, Your Majesty. I’m sorry. I’ll have it done.”
“Good. Then until we get a better idea of what’s happening, you are dismissed, General.” The alicorn of the night waved her wing, and Soarin’ stood up, saluted, and escorted himself out of the war room to relay Luna’s commands. When he was gone, Luna turned to look at her shell-shocked sister, her scowl quickly melting into a frown of worry. “Celestia… sister. Look at me.”
She reached out with her hooves and her wings, hugging Celestia and nuzzling her neck. When her older sister finally met her eyes, Luna shook her head. “All is not lost, sister. This is only the beginning. We have to do what we must to protect our subjects. And that means learning how to fight against the foes of today, not the villains of yesterday.”
“I failed them,” Celestia whispered. “All my little ponies on the border… what about the families in Acornage and Vanhoover? What will become of them? How much will they suffer because I was too blind to see this threat? Too confident that I could find the peaceful answer?”
“Do not blame yourself,” Luna scolded her, an edge in her voice cutting through Celestia’s worries. “You chose the high ground. You chose peace and diplomacy. That is admirable. The world would be a better place if its leaders could all be like you. But sometimes, no matter how you try, the villains of this world will still drag you down into the muck with them. And then, we must learn to sink or swim, fight or die.
“This is not something we can throw the Elements of Harmony at, dear sister. But it is still nevertheless something we can overcome.” Princess Luna stood up to her full height and briefly touched Celestia’s shoulder with her wingtip. “I… I do not know how to break this news to Equestria. We may be diarchs, but they were your subjects long before they were mine. Equestria will need you to reassure them that we will prevail. They need you to tell them that this is not the end, only the beginning. And I… I cannot do that on my own.” She sucked down a deep breath. “Please, sister. Equestria cannot see its mother like this. We need to be strong for them now. Can you do that?”
Finally, swallowing hard, Celestia nodded. “Yes. Yes, Luna, I… I can. I will.” When she stood up, she sighed like a centuries-old mare, not the wise yet youthful matron her timeless appearance painted her as. “You’re right; we cannot be weak for Equestria now. They need to see that we are strong. They need to see that we can protect them. And we will protect them.”
“That’s right,” Luna said with a faint smile. “We will. And we will do so together, with harmony and friendship. We will not let this war change who we are. We will fight for freedom and harmony and friendship. If we forget our morals, then we have already lost.”
The two alicorns embraced one more time, and Celestia felt some of her unease melt away at her sister’s touch. Luna was right; they could do this together. Together, they would keep Equestria safe, and harmony would prevail.
If only I listened to her before today, a little voice in the back of her mind nagged. Maybe I could have prevented this.
-----
Celestia watched the radio technicians set up their equipment around her throne in preparation for what was to be the most consequential radio broadcast to her subjects she had ever made. Somepony had even brought in cameras to film her address; not only did she have to sound the part of a calm, collected, and confident leader, she had to look it, too. Though she felt some unease at being filmed, Celestia instead looked past the glass lenses focused on her and at the ponies standing behind them. She had spent centuries carefully guarding her face and expressions when speaking with countless ponies in person; what she was doing now was little different when she imagined herself talking to her subjects instead of a machine.
“We’ll be broadcasting in sixty seconds,” Celestia’s top aide, Raven Inkwell, informed her from her side. “Are you prepared, Your Majesty?”
“Yes,” was the simple answer Celestia gave. In reality, she longed for Luna’s presence by her side, but her younger sister was already making arrangements to travel to the Vanhoover Line herself and personally take command of the situation. Celestia worried for her, feared that she might lose her sister again after so many long years, and this time for good. But Luna’s choice was hers to make, and she had made it. She could only pray for the best, and do what she could to support her sister through the home front.
“Good. Remember, keep your face neutral, and speak slowly and clearly so even the deaf could read your lips.” Raven took a deep breath and slowly let it out through pursed lips. “Good luck, Your Majesty.”
Her assistant scurried off, and Celestia took one breath herself as she listened to the operators count down to the beginning of the broadcast. The mare announcing the countdown fell silent at three seconds, and then Celestia ticked the numbers away in her head until a red light in the back of the room blinked on. Then, looking directly through the camera lens and into the eyes of the ponies standing behind it, she began to recite the speech she had memorized that morning.
“Ponies of Equestria and my loyal subjects,” Celestia began, speaking in a calm and collected manner. “Yesterday, June 22nd, 1011, at 4:45AM—a date which we will never forget—our peaceful Principality of Equestria was suddenly and deliberately attacked, without provocation and without warning, by the military forces of our neighbors, the Changeling Lands. We were at peace with the changelings, and had been attempting to open diplomatic channels to resolve any disputes along the border without the use of force. I am sorry to say that these efforts have been in vain.”
Celestia swallowed the lump forming in her throat, allowed herself to blink twice, and then continued in the same steady voice, never once letting it waver. “You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more, or anything different, that I could have done and that would have been more successful. It is clear that Queen Chrysalis’ intentions have always been to attack our peaceful nation, regardless of any negotiations we could have made with the changeling hives, and that the conquest of Olenia was merely a stepping stone toward her ambitions. Her actions show convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that she will ever give up her practice of using force to gain her will. She can, unfortunately, only be stopped by force.
“The attack yesterday on the Vanhoover Line has caused severe damage to Equestrian military forces. I regret to tell you that very many Equestrian lives have been lost. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The ponies of Equestria have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation. As Princess of Equestria, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the Equestrian ponies in their righteous belief in harmony and friendship will win through to absolute victory.
“We have a clear conscience. We have done all that any country could do to establish peace. And now that we have resolved to finish it, I know that you will all play your part with calmness and courage. Thank you, and may the magic of friendship prevail in these dark times.”
Celestia stared into the camera until the red light went off and somepony shouted, “Cut!” Only then did she take a deep breath and let her wings hang low on either side of her throne. Despite the congratulations and assurances she received from Raven and the rest of the ponies in the throne room that she had given a moving and powerful speech, Celestia felt hollow and distraught inside. If anypony in Equestria hadn’t known that their peaceful nation was now at war, then now they did. There would surely be millions of frightened and scared ponies throughout the country, and Celestia languished that she couldn’t personally comfort each of them. How many families had soldiers on the Vanhoover Line? How many would never hear from their sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters ever again? How many lives would be lost, and how many more ruined, all to protect the country?
And instead of providing comfort, instead of assuring her little ponies that everything would be alright, all Celestia could do was steel them for what was to come. Even if the Vanhoover Line held, the war would not end quickly. There would be months of bloodshed to come, months of death and misery. And instead of protecting her little ponies, Celestia could only encourage them to march off and die in the name of friendship and harmony, in Equestria’s name, in her name. And it left her feeling guilty for every life that would be lost in the months to come.
How could she ask her little ponies to die in her name when she had failed them as a leader?
-----
“The Vanhoover Line… it is lost, Auntie. Acornage, Vanhoover… they’re gone. Whatever divisions that weren’t encircled, they’re retreating as fast as they can to new positions. But even then, they aren’t fast enough to outrun the Changeling tanks. They’re being overrun, and the situation is growing more desperate by the day.”
Celestia did her best to hide her worry as she listened to Prince Blueblood’s debriefing of the situation on the front line. But between the ominous news and the bandages covering Blueblood’s head, courtesy of a shrapnel injury that had sent him back to Canterlot to recuperate for the time being, she struggled at managing even that. She had lost many nights of sleep fretting over the fates of her little ponies near the front, and it was taking its toll on her as well. She knew she looked frazzled and off-balance, and she knew that Blueblood saw it as well, but there wasn’t much she could do to retake control of her emotions as the news grew worse and worse by the day.
Still, she forced herself to take a few deep breaths and at least try to steady herself. Equestria needed her, and to protect her ponies as best as she could, she needed to force herself to understand the situation at the front, no matter how distressing the story. “What can we do to stop them?” she asked Blueblood. “How can we keep our ponies safe?”
Blueblood grimaced as he sat up a little straighter in his bed. “We need more of everything,” he said. “More ponies in the trenches, more rifles in their hooves, more planes in the air and tanks on the ground. We need to dedicate everything we have to winning this war.”
The suggestion forced a frown out of Celestia. “I cannot turn my country into a factory of death,” she asserted. “Harmony must prevail. If we stoop to Chrysalis’ level—”
“Then we just might have a chance,” Blueblood interrupted. Though one eye was covered under the bandage on his head, the other fixed Celestia with a steely gaze. “Auntie, what is the point in not doing everything we can to win because we’re uncomfortable with the sacrifice it asks of us? Is it not better to put aside harmony to have a country rather than have no country at all? The only way we defeat the Changelings is to fully militarize and throw everything we have at them—anything less will surely see us become their slaves.”
“Put aside harmony?” The suggestion took Celestia aback. She had spent a thousand years following her sister’s banishment trying to foster harmony and create a perfect Equestria—how could she turn her back on those ideals now? “Perish the thought! I could never do that to my little ponies. Sure, we will need to mobilize in some measure, build more factories to produce military equipment, and rally the country to its defense… but total mobilization? We would forget the principles Equestria is built on: friendship, harmony, and peace. Such an Equestria is one I could not possibly imagine.”
But Blueblood only shook his head. “If that’s what you believe, Auntie… but remember, we’re all depending on you at the front. Auntie Luna is doing the best she can to slow the Changeling advance, but she can only work with what you can get the country to provide her. Do you expect her to stop this mighty changeling army with only a hoofful of ponies and guns? Are you going to force her into such a desperate situation because doing anything more makes you uncomfortable? In doing so little, you might keep your peace of mind that you stuck to harmony and the magic of friendship. Hopefully that comforts you when your subjects are stuffed in cocoons and turned into love farms for the changelings.”
Blueblood grunted and shifted in bed, sliding down against the mass of pillows keeping him propped up as he yawned. “I… apologies, Auntie. I’m feeling dreadfully exhausted. I need to rest and recover so I can rejoin my soldiers at the front as soon as I possibly can. Perhaps we can continue this conversation another time?”
“Yes… yes, perhaps that would be for the best.” Celestia sighed and let her wings sag, but she did manage a tiny, reassuring smile for the wounded stallion. “Do rest up as best you can, Prince. My sister will need you back on the front soon enough.”
Bowing her head, Celestia turned away and left Blueblood’s chambers, knowing that she had plenty of other official duties she needed to take care of. But even if Blueblood was no longer in her presence, his words lingered after her. She refused to believe that the only way to stop the changelings was by setting aside the ideals of harmony and friendship… but what if he was right?
Celestia anxiously paced down the many long hallways of the royal castle, lost in her thoughts as she struggled with the implications of Blueblood’s words. Part of her knew that he was right; Equestria’s military needed every pony, gun, and bomb it could get its hooves on if it was to have any chance in repulsing the Changelings. But Equestria couldn’t provide that to her armies and still cling to peace and harmony. The army was only a volunteer army, and most of its industry was still dedicated to producing the consumer goods and items that the civilian populace enjoyed. That needed to change if Equestria was going to have any chance at slowing down the Changeling advance… but it wasn’t going to change on its own.
It took all of Celestia’s willpower to force herself to her study, but she did it anyway. Once there, she pulled over a piece of paper, dipped a quill in ink, and began to draft out an order. Every stroke of her quill onto that page felt like a knife slicing into her coat, but she made herself do it anyway. Blueblood’s haunting warning pushed her forward as much as anything else: what good was easing her conscience throughout the war if it contributed to Equestria’s defeat and the enslavement of her precious little ponies? Harmony and friendship were supposed to be flags to wave and accomplishments to be touted, not a crutch to lean on or a burden to carry. And right now, they were too much like the latter and not the former.
When she finished an hour later, Celestia looked over the grim work she had created. They were only three orders, but three chilling orders she had never thought she would write during her time as princess of Equestria. The first was Equestria’s first ever conscription order, requiring all mares and stallions of fighting age to register for a draft, and if their number was pulled during a lottery, they would be ordered to enter into basic training and support the military effort. The second mandated that Equestria’s private industries would use their factories to produce materiel for the war effort as best as they could, even if civilian products had to temporarily be canceled. And finally, the last directive mandated that all media coverage of the war had to be friendly to the Equestrian military and the war effort, and a government agency would be established to drum up war support among the population and unify Equestria’s ponies into one massive effort to save their land. Lies and half-truths would have to be substituted for uncomfortable reality where necessary to keep the ponies of Equestria fighting until the end, no matter how glorious or bitter it may be.
Those three orders were not harmonious, nor did they embody the principles of friendship that Celestia had strived for over hundreds of years. But they were three pieces of legislation that would save Equestria from falling to the changelings and becoming something far, far worse.
Celestia lifted her stamp in her magic, ready to affix her official seal on each of the directives, but hesitated at the last moment. Her mind went to Luna and the hopes and fears her sister had shared with her before departing for the front. Luna had hoped that they could win the war with harmony and friendship, just as Celestia herself did. She had warned that losing their way would be just as bad as losing the war. Could she really betray the trust her sister had put in her to support the war without losing sight of what Equestria was?
But then Blueblood’s words came back to her, and Celestia swallowed the lump in her throat and pressed her stamp against the inkpad. He was right, and Luna was wrong: losing Equestria would be far worse than losing their morals. How much untold suffering would her ponies experience should Equestria lose the war? No, Equestria had to win, and Celestia had to spur them onwards to victory if she wanted to protect her ponies, regardless of what it cost. Anything else was unacceptable.
Her stamp fell three times against her desk—three simple stamps that would change Equestria forever.
-----
Celestia’s generals had opposed the idea of letting her travel to the front lines to speak to her troops in person, but in the end, nopony had the guts to tell her ‘no’. After all, while she presented the appearance of a concerned mother looking out for her children in her public appearances, those that interacted with her behind closed doors could see the stress the toll of war was exacting on Equestria’s elder princess. Her generally cheery and delightful demeanor had become subdued, her smile gone, and on occasion she had snapped at subordinates that raised their concerns with her. The kind and calm Princess Celestia of the days before the war, she was not.
As for Celestia herself, guilt and doubt still plagued her mind over whether the orders she had issued were the right thing to do. They had helped slow the Changeling advance, that much was true, and Luna was thankful for the additional reinforcements. But when Celestia rode through the streets of Canterlot or Manehattan or Fillydelphia in her motorcade to raise support for the war and the morale of her subjects, she could see all too clearly how her orders had transformed the nation. Posters reminding ponies of everything they were fighting for and everything they had to do to win the war were plastered across every building and corner, and the air in the cities was thick with smog and soot from the factories of war working nonstop around the clock. And in the eyes of her ponies, the light and happiness of friendship and harmony was gone, replaced by grim determination to fight the war through to its conclusion. Her orders had weaned Equestria off of harmony, but now, Celestia worried that its replacement was poison, and she had doomed the soul of her nation.
That was why her visit to the front was so important. She needed to see how she had made a difference on the front lines, and if the sacrifice on the home front had been worth it.
She had conceded to her generals to not visit Luna on the trip, however. It would have been too much of a risk to put both of Equestria’s rulers in one place in case the Changelings found out; that she could agree on, reluctant as she was to pass up on the opportunity to see her sister after months apart. She comforted herself in knowing that there would be time later to see her sister, under better circumstances. She just hoped she’d still be given that opportunity in the future, and the war wouldn’t snatch her sister from her like it had so many of her subjects.
The spot her generals had chosen was a stretch of plains outside of Marechester, where the Equestrian Eighth Army had fortified the river to prevent a Changeling breakthrough into the Equestrian heartlands. If Marechester fell, there would be no more natural obstacles between Queen Chrysalis’ armies and Canterlot. The river needed to be held, and the fighting was expected to be fierce and brutal. If there was one place along the front that could use the reassuring presence of Equestria’s mother to bolster morale, it was there.
Rather than traveling by sky carriage or automobile, Celestia made the trip to the front in an armored train, the ponies manning its many anti-aircraft gun emplacements keeping wary eyes to the sky the entire trip. Occasionally, when Celestia would look out the slits in the armor that served as windows, she would see black smoke on the distant horizon, or caravans of ponies retreating east from the fighting, or columns of tanks and trucks making their way to the front lines or patrolling for changeling infiltrators along the rails. Once, she saw a wing of spitfires flying overhead, and one of them wagged its wings as it passed by the train in salute. She wondered if Rainbow Dash was flying one of those planes, or if she was somewhere closer to the front. Correspondence with Twilight’s friends was another one of the casualties of the war, and Celestia anxiously waited for the day she could see them all again… or for the dreadful news of their deaths.
When the train finally pulled into the station in Marechester, Celestia had to wait a full hour to disembark as her bodyguards swept the ponies gathered for any infiltrators among them. When the coast was clear, Celestia emerged from the train to fanfare and applause. She smiled, waved, and said a few words to the gathered ponies before her staff escorted her into a nearby car, part of a procession destined for the front lines. Then she was off, leaving the crowd of ponies behind, and alone with her thoughts until she reached the rear lines of the army.
Along the way, Celestia encountered her first obvious signs of the fighting. She’d seen pictures sent back from the front of destroyed vehicles and bombed-out buildings, but to see it in person was something else. Many of Marechester’s buildings had been reduced to shells and rubble, crooked facades jutting out of piles of concrete and debris the only reminder of what they once might have looked like. There were plenty of burnt-out tanks and gutted trucks lining the sides of the road they traveled along, victims of bombing and strafing that were merely pulled aside to clear the road for further traffic instead of being hauled back for recovery or salvage. About five miles out from the city’s edge, they passed by a Changeling twin engine bomber in a nearby field, its aluminum skin peeling off its frame and its paint scorched by an engine fire. Holes riddled its tail and wings, and the glass of the cockpit had been shattered, though nopony could tell if it was from the impact with the ground or a spitfire’s cannons. Celestia could only see each ruined vehicle as a grave, a marker where a pony or a changeling lost their life in this brutal war, and the chilling reminder that there were thousands more tanks and trucks and planes just like those scattered between here and Acornage sent shivers down her spine.
The arrival of the motorcade at the rear lines caught everypony present by surprise; little to no warning had been passed along to the division that Princess Celestia would be making a surprise visit to the front lines to make sure the Changelings didn’t catch wind of it, and it made for a hectic arrival as soldiers rushed out from tents and their posts to see their beloved princess in person. When Celestia stepped out of her car and looked over her soldiers, she momentarily felt her throat tighten as she saw dozens of battle-weary ponies look on at her in awe and hope. They were ponies who had given all that they had, and then some, to fight at the front lines in her name and in defense of their country. And as inspiring as it was to see them make that sacrifice so readily, it also pained Celestia to see that they had to be there in the first place. It didn’t escape her notice that most of the ponies in uniform were eighteen, nineteen, or twenty years old—barely more than foals, but already forced off to war because of the draft. Her draft.
Celestia made sure to take the time to shake hooves with everypony who had come out to see her and listen to what they had to say, and it only continued to break her heart from there. The worst was a trio of mares, the oldest of whom barely looked like she was a day over seventeen, who did their best to salute her and look brave, though Celestia could tell something was bothering them deep down inside. So rather than exchange a few quick words and move on, Celestia pulled them aside so she could speak to them privately.
“How old are you three?” was the first question out of her mouth when they were out of earshot of the rest of the soldiers in the reserves.
The three mares looked at each other before their oldest, a mare with a burnt orange coat, spoke up for the rest of them. “Eighteen, Your Majesty. We’re… young.”
“Eighteen isn’t too young for the draft,” Celestia said, but she tilted her head as she continued. “But you aren’t actually eighteen, are you?”
After a moment of hesitation, the orange mare hung her head. “No,” she admitted. “Siena and I are seventeen. Coral’s sixteen.”
“Seventeen and sixteen?” Celestia had expected it, but to hear her suspicions confirmed aloud just made them sting all the more. “That’s too young to fight in the army. What are you three doing here?”
“We volunteered,” the brown mare who Celestia guessed was Sienna answered. “We lied to the recruiter that we were old enough. It was my idea, actually. I pushed Rusty and Coral to join me.” She winced and hung her head as well. “Please don’t punish them, Your Majesty. It’s all my fault.”
“I don’t plan on punishing anypony,” Celestia assured them, and she stepped forward and draped her wing over Sienna’s back in a motherly hug until she stopped trembling. Then, sighing, she looked each of them in the eyes. “But why?” she asked them. “Why would you lie about your age to volunteer? War is no place for fillies.”
“Equestria needs us,” Coral said. The pink filly nervously scuffed her forehoof across the ground. “It needs everypony to do their part. Everypony needs to work together to defend it. So we’re… we’re doing ours.”
Celestia only shook her head. “You could have helped in the factories, or sold war bonds. I should send you three home.” But she stopped herself before continuing any further. How many more fillies and colts like these three were filling gaps on the front lines? How many more had felt the call of duty to risk their youth and their health to protect their country? And what would it mean to those teenagers who thought they were doing their part to protect Equestria, only to have that sacred obligation stripped away from them?
The alicorn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She did not want to send teenagers off to the front lines, but she couldn’t deny that the army was stretched thin enough as it was. Equestria needed these three fillies to pick up a gun and fight to protect it, just like it needed thousands more like them. How else could they hope to stop the unstoppable Changeling war machine? How could they hope to prevail if everypony wasn’t willing to give everything they could in any way they could to protect their home?
Finally, Celestia opened her eyes and smiled at the three nervous fillies. “I’m proud of you,” she said, to their surprise and confusion. “Your selfless devotion to Equestria is something to be admired, not punished. You make me, and the rest of Equestria, proud. If we had more ponies like you, perhaps the war would already be over.”
The sudden compliment eased the fillies’ worries, and they each gave Celestia a crisp military salute. “Thank you, Your Majesty,” Rusty said, a smile coming to her muzzle. “We’ll fight hard for our friends and family back home. We’ll do everything we can to kill some bugs and protect Equestria. And we won’t ever let you down.”
“I only want you three to stay safe,” Celestia assured them. “I want you to survive this war, and go back to your friends and families. I want you to live long and happy lives in the nation that you helped protect. And…” She took a deep breath and bowed her head to the young soldiers standing across from her. “If you can find it in your hearts to forgive me when this is all over for not doing enough to make sure that you never had to do this, I would be a happy mare. You never should have had to become soldiers. You never should have had to see the things you’ve seen or do the things you’ve done. And yet you have, and it’s my fault.”
“It’s… not your fault, Your Majesty,” Sienna said. “It’s Queen Chrysalis’ fault. It’s the Changelings’ fault. And when we squash ‘em, then Equestria will finally be safe.”
“Yeah!” Coral agreed. “Squash the bugs, for princesses and country!”
Celestia managed an agreeable smile, if only to not dampen the enthusiasm of her subjects. She could see it plainly now; harmony was gone, and she had helped foster it. In its place was only hate and xenophobia, justified by a righteous belief in protecting Equestria and its princesses. And as she looked at the three fillies in front of her, the awful realization struck her that it was working. Harmony had failed Equestria, but what she had created in its place, that was saving Equestria.
She didn’t know whether to feel relieved or sickened by it. But regardless, one fact still troubled her, no matter what its impact on the war was:
How had she failed Equestria so badly that she had to rely on fillies to win the war for her?
-----
Marechester held firm into the summer as the Changeling forces bashed and battered against its defenses, but eventually the city began to splinter. Bombers and artillery had leveled most of the city’s buildings, and the civilians that remained inside their hollowed-out city scurried around the rubble like rats in the dark, looking for food and water wherever they could find it, praying that no bombs would land on them when the Changeling bombers flew overhead. The lake the city had been built on had become a poisonous morass, with the water tasting of oil from downed planes and blood and ichor from the clashes between ponies and changelings on the river that fed it. Fish rotted on the surface of the lake, and toxic runoff from the rubble of buildings guaranteed that only the truly desperate would try to get a drink from its waters.
Their numbers grew into the tens of thousands when the right flank of the Eighth Army was turned and the city was abandoned to the Changelings to mount the defense of Canterlot.
For Celestia, who watched the battered remnants of the Eighth and Tenth Armies retreat into Canterlot and construct a haphazard defense around the city, the misery filling her city felt like it would grow claws and rip her heart out. While the propaganda continued to churn and encourage every Equestrian to keep up the fight, she could feel the fighting spirit in the capital beginning to crumble. The soldiers that dug the trenches around the base of Canterlot’s mountain and erected forts and bunkers in the mountain chain were haggard and exhausted, but still they toiled on. They had a job to protect Equestria, and each of them knew that Celestia needed them all to do their part. They had heard it enough times on the radio, seen it enough times on propaganda posters, and most had volunteered or been drafted on the promise that they could help turn the tide of the war and save the country they cared so much about. To give up now was simply unacceptable.
When Marechester fell, Celestia had spent three days poring over casualty reports, looking for the names of the fillies she had met there, hoping she wouldn’t find them. It wasn’t until a week later that she saw the names ‘Rusty Rivet’ and ‘Coral Quartz’ listed as killed in action from one of the last military actions before Marechester was abandoned. Two days later she found ‘Sienna Rise’ officially listed as missing in action. The three fillies, like so many other brave Equestrians that marched off to war at Celestia’s urging, had been lost to the winds. They were three more lives that she had failed to protect, three more little ponies who suffered because she hadn’t done everything she could have to protect Equestria. And though her policies had given Equestria a fighting chance in the war, there was still an unimaginable price in blood to pay to win it. But they had come so far, and the only thing Equestria could do now was continue to pay the price and pray for total victory. The lives that had been lost would be for nothing otherwise.
Changeling heavy bombers soon began to pummel Canterlot, and their fighters controlled the skies. Day after day after day, the protective magical dome erected around the mountaintop city weathered constant punishment and bombardment. The entire team of one hundred unicorns tasked with maintaining the shield at all times suffered horrific turnover as the constant attacks sapped away their magic and left them with permanent horn damage. Their grim-faced replacements moved like ponies half-dead, knowing that it was only a matter of time before they too joined their comrades as cripples and lost their magic for good. But they lent their horns to the cause because the military told them they had to, because Celestia’s voice on the radio assured them it was a necessity to protect Equestria.
And for Celestia, who had to reserve her own magic for moving the sun each day, it was another reminder of how much she had failed her subjects, and how much she asked them to pick up the slack for her failings.
When Princess Luna moved her command post back to Canterlot, it was not cause for any celebration or relief for Celestia given the war situation. With the Changeling forces so close to the capital, it was merely the simplest solution to establish a permanent command center within the city itself to mount a last defense of Equestria’s shining city on the mountain. Apart from a brief but strained greeting when Luna returned to set up shop, Celestia did not have any opportunity to get to talk to her sister about the war—though that changed during one fateful sunset, where the smoke rising in the west draped Canterlot in smog and soot as the winds brought the waste of war in over the city.
Luna found Celestia alone in her room, her dinner untouched, and the white alicorn staring forlornly out the open door to her balcony at the countryside in the distance. Paperwork and forms surrounded her desk, and her regalia had been placed on its stand. Celestia herself looked… tired, like the toll of the war had been clawing away at her conscience since the first shot was fired. But in the moment, Luna ignored all of that. After all, it was she, and not Celestia, who had borne witness to the horrors of the front lines for months on end; and while she tried to defeat the horrors she saw daily, it was Celestia that had been responsible for the horrors she saw in Canterlot during her return.
“Sister,” Luna said, announcing her presence to her elder sibling. “We need to talk.”
The prospect of a conversation with her sister caused Celestia’s ears to perk up, and she turned to face Luna. “Luna,” she said, a moment of relief breaking up the stress and worry clouding her face. “We haven’t had a chance to talk since you got back, have we? With the war and all—”
“The war is why I am here, Celestia,” Luna said, and instantly the tiny mote of happiness on Celestia’s lips vanished. Luna pressed on regardless, her concerns in dire need of addressing. “Sister, what is happening to Equestria? When I left Canterlot at the start of the war, Equestria was shaken and scared, but there was still harmony in the air. But now that I have returned, Equestria has…” A deep breath. “Equestria has changed.”
Celestia’s eyes flitted away from her sister’s, and instead settled on the paperwork covering her desk, the grim reminder of everything she had done since the war began. “It… It has,” Celestia admitted, shame filling her voice. “It has changed out of necessity. We’re fighting for our survival… or, well, my little ponies are fighting for their survival. And I have had to do some… very drastic things to give them everything I can to help them survive.”
“Like drafting children?” Luna asked, her question scathing. Celestia flinched back, but Luna continued on. “I have lost track of the number of scared teenagers that I have encountered in the army. Some of these ponies are as young as fourteen or fifteen! They should be in school, they should be preparing for adulthood, not throwing their lives away in this war! And when I ask them, they all said that they lied about their age to get in. What sort of propaganda machine have you created at home, Celestia? What sort of recruitment drive encourages officers to overlook a colt’s or filly’s lie just to add one more recruit to the army?”
“Do you think I wanted any of this?” Celestia asked, shooting Luna a reproachful look. “Do you think I wanted to implement a draft, Luna? Do you think I wanted to turn Equestria into a factory of death? To put aside harmony and instead feed our subjects into the jaws of Queen Chrysalis’ army, praying that their blood would buy us time to stop it?”
Luna scowled back at her. “The sister I knew wanted to create a harmonious and peaceful Equestria. She would not have thrown it all away so quickly.”
“I did not have a choice, sister!” Celestia rose from her desk, her chair falling over behind her as she turned to face the alicorn of the night. “We were losing! We are still losing! I have had to do countless things that have filled me with shame and regret just to buy us back into the game! How can you stand there and scold me for giving you ponies to lead into battle when you would have had nothing were it not for me?!”
“Because you have sold out harmony and friendship to get them!” Luna shouted back. “Celestia, what have you turned our country into?! Our subjects know only misery and struggle! They come to the front lines filled with hate because of what they see and hear back home! When I left for the front, we made a promise that we would win this war with the magic of friendship and the ideals of harmony. How could you have turned your back so easily on that promise and make our ponies suffer not only at the front, but at home, too?”
“We cannot afford to lose,” Celestia resolutely stated. “Do you understand what our defeat would mean for my little ponies? Do you understand the untold misery and suffering that the changelings would inflict on them? We have to do whatever it takes to win this war, Luna. There is no other way.”
Luna narrowed her eyes at Celestia and squared her shoulders at her sister. Celestia coolly noted her aggressive posture with a raised eyebrow. “What about the suffering that you are inflicting here at home?” Luna asked her. “Your draft is tearing children away from their families and tossing them to the front lines without a choice! You are creating misery just to win this war. You are becoming a monster in your own right, sister. There has to be a better way!”
“Is there?” Celestia snapped at her. “If there was, I would have taken it, Luna. But please, if you think you can run the country better than I can, please take the reins from me. See how quickly you lose the faith of my subjects when you lose the war because you weren’t willing to do what it took to win it!”
Luna winced, and some mean part of Celestia she didn’t know she had was happy to see her sister cowed. “They are our subjects,” Luna said. “Not just yours.”
“They were mine long before they were yours,” Celestia said, using Luna’s words from the outbreak of the war against her. “I know my subjects. I care about my subjects. I love my subjects. I have had to make some very, very hard choices to keep them safe as best as I can. And if you can’t see that everything I have done has been for them, then they will never be yours.”
Her chest was heaving by the time she finished, and the two alicorns could only lock eyes from across the room. But now, it was Celestia who was angry, and Luna who was ashamed. And finally, it was Luna who broke eye contact first. Beaten, humiliated, and silent, Luna turned away without a word. The door to Celestia’s bedroom chambers opened and closed, and then the alicorn of the sun was alone once more.
Sucking down a breath, Celestia stood up and made her way out to the balcony, where the sun set over the front lines to the west, over countless miles of death and destruction. Equestria still needed to be saved; everything that she had done had not been enough. Luna did not understand. No, her naïve sister thought she could have her cake and eat it too. There was no way that Equestria could remain harmonious and peaceful, fighting with three hooves tied together, and hope to defeat the Changeling juggernaut. Luna was wrong, and Blueblood had been right; sacrifices were needed to save Equestria. And Celestia was determined to save it, no matter the cost.
But the country was on the tipping point, and if the changelings reached Canterlot, there would be no saving it. But what more could she do? She had already mobilized a massive draft, dedicated Equestria’s massive industry to producing materiel for the war effort, and her subjects were ready to follow her into the jaws of death itself. How could she save them all when she had already done everything she could?
Everything, unless…
Anger began to settle in her chest. Another sortie of changeling bombers began to drop their payloads on the dome over Canterlot, causing it to flicker and boom like a giant bass drum, while outside the protective shield, tracers raced up into the night, accompanying the black flak clouds exploding against the advancing evening sky. Slowly, Celestia bared her teeth at the dark silhouettes trying to bomb the city, trying to kill her ponies, trying to ruin so many more lives than their sadistic queen already had.
This misery was brought about by Queen Chrysalis. It was a tyrant who had sown so much death in Equestria’s fertile fields. And if she didn’t have a match to defeat her, then who possibly could?
“A princess rules with the love of her little ponies,” Celestia murmured. Her eyes flashed with anger. She was tired of feeling useless, of sitting in Canterlot doing nothing while her ponies fought and died for Equestria. Luna was right; she had abandoned harmony, had abandoned the magic of friendship to win this war. What then was one step more?
“A queen rules with the obedience of her people,” Celestia growled. Luna was too concerned with the here and now, missing the forest for the trees. Sacrifices needed to be made in the short term to even guarantee Equestria had a future. One day, the magic of friendship and harmony would return to Equestria, but it could not be now. Not while the Changelings posed a threat to Equestria’s very existence. Chocolates and flowers would not win this war. Blood and steel would.
“An empress rules with the devotion of her subjects.” The ponies of Equestria were ready to fight and die at her command. They heard her voice on the radio every day; though she had been loath to push her subjects this far, Celestia now realized the necessity of her little ponies hearing her voice, calmly ushering them through the trials and tribulations of the war. They had placed their utmost trust in her leadership to save them from the darkness of the changeling war machine. Now, she would repay their devotion with a brilliant shining beacon of hope.
As fear and frustration turned to rage and righteousness, Celestia could feel a change coming over her. She would no longer stand aside in Canterlot, dictating policy while her sister questioned her every move to win the war. She would not ask anything more of her subjects, only of herself. She would lead from the front and usher her ponies into a new golden age. She was an alicorn, an immortal being of immense magical power. She moved the sun every single day and controlled its light and warmth throughout the world. Why shouldn’t she use that power to save Equestria? She had asked her subjects to give everything they had to save Equestria, and until now she had not done the same. But no more. Now, she would join them in dedicating themselves to the survival of Equestria, a survival that dictated sacrifice and devotion above all else.
The setting sun released a flare of fiery energy that arced across the western horizon, as if that heavenly body itself had acknowledged the change that would come to Equestria in the morning. And when that solar flare finally faded into the night, Celestia turned back to her desk and incinerated the stack of orders and directives that had been brought to her chambers to sign. There would be no more directives and missives, not anymore. Only rule by decree. It was what Equestria needed to survive. And come the break of day, there would be no more weak Equestria, no more timid and useless Celestia. There would only be one unified and unbreakable empire under the sun, ruled by its heavenly protector who would do everything she must to defend the safety of her subjects.
-----
While the night dragged on and the sun revolved around the earth, Celestia did not sleep. Instead, she meditated, waiting for its return and the glorious dawn it would bring.
All the while, Celestia focused on reconnecting with the vast magical power she knew resided somewhere deep inside of her. It had been so long since she had tapped into that power, the power of the sun made flesh. She had avoided using it during the wedding in 1002 and even during Nightmare Moon’s genesis a thousand years earlier. But Celestia the mare was too weak to save Equestria. Only a goddess of the sun could wield the divine retribution that would smite the changelings and drive them from Equestria once and for all. And so, as the hours of darkness dragged on, Celestia reached deeper and deeper into that power, coaxing it out of her soul and embracing the fury that came with it.
When it was time to raise the sun in the morning, Celestia finally opened her eyes and stared at the mare watching her from the mirror. Gone was the soft features and gentle colors of the mare she used to be; in their place, she wore a mane of fire and eyes that burned like the coals of a great bonfire. When she bared her teeth, she saw a mouth of fangs appear in her reflection, but the momentary horror was dashed away as she let a glow of powerful, violent red magic build on her horn. She looked and felt every bit like the mare who was going to save Equestria, and save Equestria she would.
Her magic seized hold of her old regalia, and with a few simple spells, Celestia transmuted it into something more fitting for her ascended form. Simple golden curves and amethyst gemstones were replaced by lethally sharp plates of gold and citrine. When she fitted her horn through the headpiece, she felt like she was finally claiming her long-overdue crown. Her golden tiara had been simple and unimposing, blending into her mane and hiding behind her horn, as if it was too shy to remind her subjects to whom they were addressing. But this magnificent crown left no doubt of Celestia’s righteous power and the divine retribution that would meet all who dared to cross her.
Satisfied, Celestia rose to her hooves and made her way to the balcony, staring into the east where the first glow of the approaching dawn had started to lighten the black void of night. She knew she was a few minutes early, but she did not care. With a brilliant glow of red magic, Celestia seized on the heavenly body hidden behind the eastern horizon and dragged it into the morning sky. As the fiery sun emerged from behind hills and mountains, Celestia felt its warm light and power full onto her and flow through her. She felt alive and unstoppable, and even as she sensed the first of the Changeling morning raids on its way from the northwest, Celestia knew that by high noon, the Great War would be forever changed.
But speaking of changes…
Celestia emerged from her chambers and took a deep breath of the change floating in the air. The four guards assigned to protect her chambers from changeling infiltrators gasped and jumped back, frightened and startled by the decidedly different mare who emerged from their princess’ quarters. But there could be no doubt that the white alicorn was Celestia even in her fiery new appearance, despite the fact she passed by her guards without wishing them a good morning like she always did. The fiery radiance that emanated from her body took care of all of that.
She made her way directly to the war room where she knew Princess Luna would be debriefing Prince Blueblood on the night’s activities before retiring for some brief rest after maintaining command throughout the night and patrolling the dreams of her soldiers. The soldiers posted outside of the closed doors blinked in shock when they saw Celestia marching toward them. Unsure of how to react, one mare hesitantly stepped forward and reached for her rifle, only to be swatted aside by Celestia’s magic. “Raising a weapon on your empress is treason, my little pony,” the alicorn warned her. “Think before you act next time.”
Her magic threw open the doors as the other guard retreated in fear for his life. The generals inside abruptly broke off their conversations at the sudden intrusion, a few nearly jumping out of their seats after months spent dodging danger on the front lines. All eyes fell on Celestia and swiftly widened as they beheld her new regal form, and nopony seemed willing to be the first to break the silence. Nopony, that is, except for Princess Luna.
“Sister… Celestia?” she asked from across the room. “What is… what has happened to you?”
“Don’t act so surprised to see me, sister,” Celestia said, frowning down her muzzle at Luna as she slowly stalked around the room. “Did you not call me a monster last night? Isn’t this what I am to you?”
Luna blinked but set her jaw and began to walk around the room as well, keeping the table and the generals between her and her sister. “Is that what this is?” she asked her sister. “When called out for acting like a monster to your own subjects, you decided to sink even further in this lunacy? What happened to harmony? Tia, what is happening to you?!”
“Do not call me that,” Celestia growled, her lips pulling back to reveal her new fangs. “Celestia was weak and cowardly. You were right about that, in a way. I was content to send my ponies off to die in my name, but too scared to take the next step and join them. Our little chit-chat last night made me see the light, as it were. From this day forth, my subjects will no longer see a distant and weak princess who rules them from high in her ivory towers in Canterlot. They shall see me as a mother, as a protectress, as a goddess who fights by their side, who smites their enemies, who keeps them safe. That is the only way we can save Equestria, sister. Not with the foolish weakness of ‘friendship’ and ‘harmony’.”
Concern bled over to worry in the darker alicorn’s face. “Tia, this is madness! Don’t give into anger and jealousy. Take it from me; the memories of what I did as Nightmare Moon still haunt me to this day. You… y-you don’t have to do this, sister! Harmony has a place in Equestria still. You can’t ever forget that!”
“Harmony has brought us to the brink of ruin,” Celestia countered, continuing to stalk around the perimeter of the room while the generals of the military looked on in worry from the table. “We have gone so far because of everything I’ve done, and still it has not been enough. Harmony would have seen us fight the changelings without a draft, without the mobilization of our economy, without reminding my subjects of what they fight for. We would have splintered in an instant—or rather, you would have lost us the front, had I not done what I had to do to put the ponies in the trenches and the guns in their hooves. But you were never willing to take the next steps to ensure victory. And for a time, I wasn’t either. But now I am. And you are no longer needed.”
Luna stopped in her tracks, and she stared at Celestia in disbelief. “No longer… Are you casting me out, Celestia? You… no, you cannot! I refuse it!”
“I can, and I have,” Celestia said, frowning as she continued to walk around the room to Luna. “Equestria needs strong leaders who are willing to do what they must to win this war. Anything else is unacceptable. I cannot have your hesitancy and your foolishness shrouding my Solar Empire.”
There were tears forming in Luna’s eyes now, confused and angry tears born of her sister’s sudden betrayal. “Tia… I was on the moon for a thousand years! When I returned you wept for joy at the sight of me, even despite all my flaws and how far I had yet to come. And now, only a decade later, you cast me out again?! Me, your beloved sister, who you had not seen in a millennium?!”
Celestia faltered a step, but she bared her teeth again and powered through it. “My subjects are more important to me than you are, Luna. I am their mother. I am their defender. I deserve to be their goddess. You are only a foal who would stop the ponies of Equestria from achieving their destined glory, who would snuff out the beacon of hope in our darkest hour.”
“But Tia—!”
“I told you not to call me that!” Celestia roared, and her magic seized Luna by the throat and slammed her against the wall. The younger alicorn cried out and fumbled with her hooves against Celestia’s magical grip, and her own magic could not overpower the red glow surrounding her blue horn. Practically hissing, Celestia leaned in until her face was only inches away from her sister’s, and her fiery eyes met Luna’s panicked ones. “You will leave Equestria and never return, sister. The ponies are my subjects, and only I can lead them to greatness. Only I can do what it takes to save Equestria. You would just ruin it.”
Her magic disappeared and Luna fell to the ground, coughing and massaging her throat. Celestia merely sneered at her as she struggled to recover. “This is the only kindness I can offer you, sister. Leave Equestria for good, and I will not have to return you to your wretched moon. Find a home in the Riverlands if you want; become their princess for all that I care. But Equestria is mine, the day is mine, and victory over the Changelings will be mine. Not yours.”
Luna managed to get enough of a breath to cough out a few words. “Sister… Celestia… please…”
“Do not make me reconsider,” Celestia growled at her. “If I have to paint the picture of Equestria’s future with your blood, then I will. Your life means nothing before the lives of my little ponies.”
Finally, Luna stood upright, and through the pain and hurt in her face, her eyes glistened with unshed tears. Swallowing hard, Luna only looked out the window at the rest of Canterlot below, as yet oblivious to what was transpiring within the walls of the palace. “Celestia… this isn’t over. There’s still room for harmony—!”
“Leave. Now.”
Luna winced, her words finally failing to spring forth anymore. Bowing her head, her horn flared blue for barely a moment before there was a pop! and the smell of ozone, and she was gone. Where she had gone to, Celestia did not care. Equestria was hers, and now it was time to save it.
She turned to the generals still seated around the table, many with horrified or nervous expressions on their faces. Spreading her wings to their regal glory, Celestia stepped forward to address them all. “From now on, all of you, and all of Equestria, answer directly to me. You will make my decrees a reality, and we will defeat the changelings together. And when the bugs have been crushed underneath our hooves, we will stand together to make sure that our new Solar Empire shall last a thousand generations, and then a thousand more.
“If there are any of you who do not wish to save Equestria, who do not wish to partake in our new glory,” she continued, her eyes scanning over the generals seated before her, “then I offer to you the same offer I extended to my sister. Leave Equestria now, and never come back. You can be replaced far more easily than you think. And we will be stronger for it when those committed to half-measures and complacency are replaced with those who believe in the righteousness of our cause.”
To her disappointment, but not to her surprise, several of her generals stood up and began to file past her. “This is not what I signed up for,” grumbled one. “I fought for peace and harmony, not this,” muttered another. Celestia let them all pass without comment, though she made sure they knew she was watching them with her piercing glare as they left. When they were gone, she turned back to the generals that remained, and was pleased to see Prince Blueblood seated among their number.
Smiling a predatory smile, Celestia made her way around the table and towards Blueblood, who immediately stood up and then bowed so low to the ground that his horn almost touched the floor before her hooves. “Auntie Celestia, I am… most pleased to see that you are so dedicated to protecting the lives of your subjects,” Blueblood groveled. “I think you will take to it in a way that Auntie Luna never could. She was never willing to take the final push, as it were, to send us to victory.”
“And that is why we almost lost,” Celestia agreed. Then she narrowed her eyes. “But you will not speak her name around me ever again. Nor will you call me Celestia and remind me of the weak and foalish mare I was before.”
Blueblood hesitated, but he lifted his head from the ground with a puzzled look. “Then… if I cannot call you… that name, Your Majesty… what would you prefer?”
Celestia turned to the window and looked outside, where the beautiful golden morning foretold the change in fortunes that were about to bless her nation. The morning was a blessing, a promise fulfilled that the dark terrors of the night had been vanquished once more, and that a new day had begun. It was who she was, in a sense. The old Celestia was broken, and now the new had heralded glory, peace, and prosperity for her empire. It was a promise she would fulfill each morning at the break of day, to all the glory and fanfare it deserved.
“Daybreaker,” the alicorn said. She bared her fangs at the idea in a toothy grin; it was who she was now, wasn’t it? Celestia was gone, and she had shed herself of that name just as easily as she had finally shed herself of that mare’s weaknesses. “You will call me Daybreaker.”
“A name that will leave Queen Chrysalis shaking in her chitin,” Blueblood agreed. “Well then, Auntie Daybreaker… what would you have us do?”
Daybreaker turned to him, and the fire along her mane flickered and glowed in excitement and determination. “Win.”
-----
Vesalipolis was burning, and Chitter was scared.
The teenage changeling cowered in the rubble of the building that used to be his family home in the hive. All he had was a dingy rifle that the Queen’s Guard had slapped in his hooves and a single grenade sitting on the floor next to him. The ground shook from the constant bombardment of pony artillery, and the air was hot with the stench of soot and ash. Chitter sniffled and backed deeper into the dark corner of the rubble, as if the shadows could hide him. If he was stronger, he could have shapeshifted into a rock and waited out the bombardment, but he hadn’t tasted love in months, and he was so tired…
Gunfire caused him to squeak and huddle as tightly into a ball as he could. He didn’t understand what had happened to his home or his family. All he knew was that the ponies had shown up a month ago and had hammered the greatest of the changeling hives into so much rubble. Day after day, night after night, the explosions and thunder left him not a moment’s respite, and every waking moment had him fearing for his life.
He wondered if it would be better to die in the barrage or not. The stories the Queen’s Guard told of the ponies were horrifying. They said that the ponies slaughtered every changeling they found without mercy. They said that if a pony captured a changeling alive, they would cook them over a fire until their exoskeleton cracked and then slurp out the changeling’s boiled insides. They said the ponies were led by a monster of fire and fury, a mighty alicorn who reveled in death and feasted on misery. It was that monster who had brought ruin to the hives, and she would not be satisfied until every last one burned under her gilded hooves.
Movement disturbed the rubble beyond Chitter’s shelter, and the changeling grabbed the rifle in his magic, trying to remember what the Queen’s Guard had taught him. If it was a pony, he would have to fight for his life to survive. But if it was a changeling…
A chitinous black hoof appeared in Chitter’s vision, and a changeling’s face peered into the hole. “What are you doing in there?!” the changeling soldier shouted at him, and her magic dragged Chitter out of his cover against his will. When he was deposited at the soldier’s hooves, one of those hooves slapped him across the cheek. “How do you expect to fight for Queen Chrysalis from in there?! There are ponies that need killing, and I need every loyal ‘ling I can get my hooves on!”
Chitter squeaked in protest, but another blow from the changeling’s hoof quickly silenced those noises. “Come on, follow me,” the soldier growled. When Chitter refused to move, she snarled back at the teenager. “Do you want to live or not, grub?!”
Sniffling, Chitter saw no choice but to follow the soldier. Picking up his rifle and grenade, the teenager followed the soldier through the rubble, trying to stay low enough that nopony could spot him. Ponies had keen vision, he had heard, and they could spot a grub in the middle of a dark field in the dead of night. If he ever wanted to leave Vesalipolis alive, if he ever wanted to find his family again, he needed to stay low and out of sight.
Building by building, Chitter and the soldier advanced down the street. Chitter caught glimpses of figures through the flames silhouetting the city, but he could never tell if they were changeling or pony; the soldier would drag him on before he could examine them enough to find out. It was only when they reached an intersection in the middle of the hive guarded by an Equestrian tank did the soldier stop their desperate scurry forward.
She dragged Chitter down into the rubble and frowned through the corner of a window at the tank. “We’re gonna have to wait for that thing to move,” she said. “We aren’t gonna get around it, not with those soldiers standing guard around it as well. Just sit tight and stay quiet. That’s all we can do.”
The two changelings hunkered down into the rubble in silence, and Chitter hugged his rifle close to himself for want of something to steady his shaking legs. Seconds dragged by, then minutes, without any sign of the soldiers moving. But after what felt like an eternity, the soldier frowned and scooted a little bit further up the rubble to get a better view at the crossroads. “Wait… something’s happening…”
Frightened yet curious, Chitter shuffled his way towards a blown-out window to try and spot what the soldier had seen. The ponies in the crossroads had moved out of the road and to the sidewalks, and shortly thereafter bowed low to the ground as a fireball descended on them. It took Chitter a second, but he soon realized that within that fireball was a pony, the largest pony he’d ever seen, as tall as Queen Chrysalis herself. She wore orange and gold armor, and fire trailed in her wake. It didn’t take too long to recognize the monster the Queen’s Guard had warned him about, and suddenly Chitter was very, very scared.
The soldier, on the other hoof, was not. “The Equestrian princess,” she spat, and her green magic took up her rifle. “I oughta kill her right here and end the war!”
Before she could shoot, however, the white alicorn’s hellish eyes snapped in the direction of their building. Whether she had heard the soldier’s exclamations or some divine intuition made her aware of the threat, Chitter couldn’t say. Instead she frowned, pointed, and shouts rang up from the crossroads. The next thing Chitter knew, there was a clap of thunder, and the corner of the building the soldier had been hiding in exploded into rubble and ash. The blast sent Chitter tumbling out of cover and down a slope of rubble into the street, dazed and disoriented, his rifle falling to the ground just out of reach.
Once his vision stopped swimming, Chitter lifted his head up from the ground to see armored hooves in front of him. Swallowing hard, the changeling looked up to see the alicorn standing over him, and the blood immediately drained from his face. Too terrified to talk, Chitter only blanched and shivered as the alicorn shook her head at him, a cruel frown on her face.
“A grub,” she said, the words sounding disappointed and disinterested. “Another one of Chrysalis’ poisoned youth who only wants to kill my precious little ponies. Young, old, it does not matter to me. Every creature that takes up arms against my subjects is a threat. And it is my duty to protect my subjects from harm.”
Her eyes flared like a flickering fire, and the terror that had paralyzed Chitter now sent commands to his limbs to run. Squeaking, the changeling hobbled to his hooves and ran as fast as he could down the street, away from the danger. If he could just get to the alleyway, round the corner and disappear—
Fire consumed him like it had so many other changelings that day.
-----
Vesalipolis lay in ruins, and the might of the Changeling war machine had been smashed to pieces. The Great War was over, and the great hives of the changeling species were broken.
Queen Chrysalis was never found, having fled Vesalipolis just before Equestrian forces surrounded the city. And though that frustrated Daybreaker, who would have loved to have reduced the bug that had caused so much suffering into ashes, she contented herself with executing the entire high command of the changeling military, or at least the ones she could get her hooves on, for war crimes. Their bodies fed the pyre of her righteous wrath like so many blackened logs, and the screams of their dying regime had been a beautiful choir to her ears.
Leaving the remnants of the Changeling Lands under a disciplined military occupation to guarantee they would never rise off of their knees and threaten her ponies again, Daybreaker returned to Canterlot to be greeted with an impressive triumph through its streets. The forces of her army, the forces that she had ordered raised and sent to the front to protect Equestria at all costs, saluted from both sides of Canterlot’s beautiful streets as her motorcade made its way up the mountain to the palace. Her fanatical and devoted subjects packed the streets behind them, cheering and screaming in adulation at their goddess and mother who had protected them from the changeling threat. Without her, they knew, victory would have been impossible. They would have died or become food for the changelings, their bodies drained of love until they could no longer find the willpower to go on anymore. But the Solar Empire was strong, and its empress even stronger. She had saved Equestria from its demise; all she asked in return was their devotion and loyalty, and they were ready to give it in spades.
Daybreaker allowed herself to bask in the glory of her accomplishment, waving to her subjects as she passed them by with matronly love. Every face she saw served as a reminder of why she had done everything she had, and what she would have lost had she been too weak to take that final step. Throwing off the weakness of her past self had allowed the heroine Equestria needed to be born; without Daybreaker, Celestia would have led the country to listless ruin, aided and abetted by an incompetent younger sister who clung too closely to her ideals to win the war.
When her motorcade made it to the Plaza of the Sun, Daybreaker found thousands of soldiers gathered in a ring around the podium erected on the stage, and another ring of steel behind them in the form of dozens of tanks and trucks. A hundred air wings flew overhead, one flight after the other, filling the sky above Canterlot with an invincible aluminum cloud. Emerging from her car, Daybreaker let her gaze wander over the soldiers arrayed before her, all of whom bowed down low before their divine ruler in reverence. Then she made her way to the microphone, and began her speech with a simple proclamation:
“We have won.”
Cheering broke out from the crowd of soldiers and civilians gathered throughout the plaza, and Daybreaker allowed herself a smile before continuing onwards. “Queen Chrysalis’ wretched hives have been reduced to ashes. The changeling species is now like ants without an anthill; scattered, confused, and weak. They sought to break us, but it was we who broke them. And I give you my word, they shall never rise to threaten us again!”
More cheering, more applause. Daybreaker took a moment to soak it all in, comparing the experience against the countless speeches and parades she received as her lesser self in the centuries past. None could compare to the sheer energy and fanatical worship in the crowd here. She had done everything Celestia had sought to do for a thousand years, and done it better. Now, she could create her perfect utopia, where nothing could ever hurt her subjects ever again.
“There are those out there who still want to see Equestria broken, who want to hurt us,” Daybreaker continued, and her words were met by hisses and anger from the crowd. “But I will not let them. We will not let them. We will demand their subjugation or their death. The rebels in Stalliongrad and the traitors in the Crystal Empire will kneel or die. The yaks, the polar bears, the penguins, the griffons—all will kneel or die. And when all have kneeled, only then can we truly be safe. Only then can we create our utopia.
“This is just the beginning, my loyal subjects. This is the beginning of the Solar Empire’s eternal peace!”
Daybreaker grinned as her subjects and soldiers cheered and screamed their worship at her. She knew they would follow her into the very gates of Tartarus to do what needed to be done to keep them safe. True, there were still threats both abroad and within—Prince Blueblood had informed her of rebel activity beginning to organize that morning, and some reports had even claimed that her pathetic sister had returned to the country and was trying to gather the former Element Bearers to her cause—but they did not bother her. The Solar Empire would persevere through all and crush all that sought to harm it. The creatures of Equus would know their place and fall in line, or they would be crushed beneath her hoof. After all, the Great War had left the Solar Empire stronger than it ever had been at any point in Equestria’s history. How could any nation hope to stand up to its righteous fury?
They could not. And as Daybreaker looked out over the crowd, gathered beneath the brilliant light of her sun’s high noon, she imagined the utopia she was on the verge of creating. All it would take was another step forward, another nudge in the right direction. She would finally do what Celestia could not do, would not do.
Her ponies would finally be safe under her rule.
Forever.