Being a princess meant that I had to be on the go at all moments when necessary. I needed to be completely focused and level-headed at every moment, knowing that a single mistake could have serious consequences. My ponies could quiver in fear when life became too terrifying. My ponies could cry out for somepony to save them when all seemed lost and the world looked to be ending, but I could not. Normal ponies could be weak and helpless, but not princesses. Never princesses.

Antares shot with a Nightmare Weapon. She seemed just as likely to die as she was to survive, even with the magical healing Luna and I performed.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of dead soldiers and civilians. They would need to be cleaned up and buried. That would take days. Families would need to be informed, loved ones would grieve for the rest of their lives. Undertakers would need to make sure that the bodies looked presentable, even for the ones who would look nothing like they had before.

Even more wounded. Some with just scratches. Some would already be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Some would have wounds like Tracer Arrow's. Some would be in critical condition. We would need to transfer doctors and nurses from all over the country to Baltimare to handle it all. Some of the patients in critical condition likely would not last the night.

My ponies could feel fear at a time like this. My ponies could feel uncertainty, but I could not. I needed to save that for much, much later.

Luna and I stood up from the floor, and I looked down at myself for the first time. Given that I used a sunflame sword, my blows cauterized any wounds I left on foes on impact. That made looking down at the blood staining my white coat all the worse, knowing that every drop of it belonged to TD. I took a deep breath and looked at the throne room entrance. "Lulu, we need to go. Baltimare General will be a nightmare, and I think they will need our help, even without seeing TD there."

Luna nodded and wiped some of the blood from her face with the back of her hoof. "Indeed."

Before I could say anything more, I heard a whimper and the sound of quiet sobbing coming from behind me. I swiveled my ears and turned my head, trying to hone in on the noise. I heard it coming from a practically destroyed pillar near the back of the throne room. I motioned to Luna and pointed at the pillar, prompting a nod from her. I walked up to the pillar and looked behind it, revealing TD's secretary, Tulip. She lay curled up on the ground in a ball, shivering and sobbing. I sat down next to her and gently picked her up, wrapping her up in my forelegs and wings.

"Shh," I soothed. "It's okay." I stroked her mane and began working my magic to calm her nerves. "You'll be okay." Tulip's sobbing began quieting, and I tightened my hug on her. "Can you tell me what happened? What did you see?"

Tulip continued taking shaky breaths and leaned into my chest. "I... I c-came in here w-when those griffins came into the palace. I was talking with my friend Strawberry Fields when they attacked, and she told me to get in the throne room and hide. I th-thought she'd come after me, but then those three griffins came in and..." Tulip's heavy breathing intensified, and her tears started coming down again. "They killed her! I looked back and the griffin with the spear just stabbed her right in the neck! I r-ran into the throne room and hid behind here, but then the griffins came in here! Princess Antares came in and they s-shot her with that black crossbow!"

Tulip's sobbing became too severe, and I needed to use more magic to calm her down. "It's okay. We're helping Princess Antares now. She's going to be fine." I gently nuzzled her. "What happened next?"

Tulip sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hoof before continuing. "They pulled her up to the throne after she went down. The griffin leader who shot her told her to beg him to kill her or else he'd shoot her in the back and let her bleed out." Tulip began blinking rapidly and straightened up slightly. "But she didn't. She sent out this... shockwave of magic that blasted them back and stood up like she hadn't been shot at all. Her body turned to stars and her mane and tail into fire. She held the griffins down with her magic and told them that sh-she'd destroy the griffins. Enslave their children a-and salt their fields and destroy their homes and harvests. She said..." Tulip took a deep breath and her face took on a haunted expression. "She said 'I am Antares, the wrath of the stars, and I bow to none!'"

I looked up at Luna, my eyes wide.

I am Antares, the wrath of the stars.

"She then split the sky and summoned a star," Tulip continued. "She brought down bolts of fire that incinerated two of the griffins, then tore her throne out of the floor and beat the leader griffin to death. She took the body and went out of the throne room and... I heard that scream not long after."

I slowly nodded and gave Tulip a little squeeze as she began shaking again. "It's okay. You are safe now. We have stopped the griffins. They cannot hurt you anymore."

"Why did they attack us at all?" Tulip whimpered. "Why did they have to kill my friend and shoot Princess Antares?"

"I do not know, but I swear that we shall find out." I gently set Tulip down and got to my hooves before lifting Tulip onto my back. I looked over at Luna who stared at Tulip contemplatively. "For now we are needed at the hospital."

After dropping Tulip off with a group of surviving servants, Luna and I rushed over to the hospital to see what we could do to help.

To say that it was chaos... well, chaos does not even come close to describing it.

Piles of armor and weapons filled the waiting room as nurses stripped the wounded soldiers of their armor so that they could treat them. Red stained hospital beds littered the hallways as wounded ponies waited to be treated. Doctors ran up and down the lines of wounded with markers, marking the ponies to indicate the level of priority. Two doctors worked on a soldier bleeding from a dozen different deep wounds for a few moments before one of the doctors tapped the other on the shoulder and shook his head. The other doctor nodded and pulled a sheet over the head of the pony before the two ran over to the next pony in line. A civilian pony ran in, mentioned to a single doctor working on a bleeding, unconscious pony that she had some medical training. The doctor roughly pulled her over to him and pressed her left forehoof on a bleeding spot on the wounded pony's chest.

Luna and I spotted a group of about two or three dozen minimally wounded soldiers and civilians, and we rushed over to help them. Anything we could do to heal as many as we could to lighten the load of the doctors. I moved over to a soldier with a broken foreleg and several large gashes on his face, using my magic to heal his foreleg and scratches. When he realized he had been healed, he stood up and bowed to me.

"Thank you. What can I do now?"

I walked over to a pony putting pressure to a wound on his neck and closed the wound. "If you have no medical training, you can send messages to the cities and towns near Baltimare to get whatever medics you can to the hospitals in this city!"

The pony saluted and ran out of the hospital, the pony I had just healed following after him. The order I gave the healed guard spread rapidly amongst the ponies Luna and I cured, and within a half hour of work, the group had completely dispersed to gather more workers. I could only hope that more would arrive soon.

We worked for more hours than I even want to remember.

Within a few hours, Life-Flights from all over Equestria were arriving to the hospital, both to move those soldiers who were in a state where that was possible, and to evacuate the foal's ward of the hospital so that we had more space. Most brought in what doctors and nurses could be spared from their own hospitals, and I recognized doctors from places such as Vanhoover, Fillydelphia, and even Ponyville running in to assist the horrendously overworked Baltimare staff. Two detachments of both Luna and my guards, led by their respective captains, set up a watch around the hospital to prevent the press from gaining entry.

And so we worked.

The Equestria I knew then was one of peace, and so the times were few and far between when I needed to be on the go to the extent that my body moved completely independent of my mind. I did not think, I did not feel, I just did. My mind went into a cloudy haze like it had not for a long time, but I pushed on. Occasionally, my mind would snap back to reality, and I would become fully alert and realize what was going on around me. I usually did not like what I saw. A civilian would be asking me if I could re-attach his leg.

Or yet another of TD's guards would slip away while we rushed to save her, knowing they could not.

Or a doctor, who had been trained for years to be calm, collected, and detached in stressful situations would completely break down, causing the one next to him to push him aside so he could continue working. Once or twice somepony would notice Luna and I, then ask where Princess Antares was. Is Princess Antares going to come help too? Where is she? Is she getting more help? Every time I heard somepony ask that, I felt as old as I was, if only for a fleeting moment. Then I pushed the feeling aside and pressed onwards.

Nothing else mattered but saving as many lives as possible. Healing as many wounds as we could. Nothing else mattered. They were helping TD. I had done everything that I had for her. Her fate was in the hooves of powers much stronger than mine.

"Tia?"

I blinked once and snapped out of the haze. It took my mind a moment to realize who had spoken to me. I turned my head to the source of the voice and sighed when I saw Luna standing beside me. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her mane less wavy than normal. Even with her dark blue coat, I could still see splatters of blood that dotted her body. I had no doubt I looked very much the same.

"Tia, We believe it is over. All have been helped who could have been helped." She slowly walked over to me and put a hoof on my shoulder. "We can rest now."

I slowly breathed in and looked down at my body, grimacing ever so slightly at the sight of my blood stained forelegs and chest. I looked back up at Luna. "Very well." I pulled her in for a small hug and nuzzled her neck. "How are you?"

"Tired," Luna said, her voice coming out as a whimper. "We do not wish for this to be happening, Tia."

"I know, Lulu, I know." I broke off from the hug and motioned for her to follow me. "We are not done quite yet. We need to find the head doctor and get more answers."

"Of course."

I put on my most practiced detached look, and the two of us walked down the hall to the office of the head doctor. I found myself thankful that he was in his office, making the search far easier. I opened up his office door, and found the gray pegasus stallion sitting on his chair with his head resting on his desk. I noted with a touch of disdain that a tall bottle of gin sat beside him on the desk. When he didn't respond to his door being opened, I cleared my throat, and his head popped up. He blinked once and looked up at us, first with mild surprise, then with the same look of exhaustion that we all felt.

"Princess Celestia." He nodded to me, then my sister. "Princess Luna."

"Doctor Gurney." I returned his nod. "We have come for a status update on all of your patients."

Dr. Gurney scoffed quietly. "Yeah, I'd like that myself, along with what's in this bottle." He clicked his tongue and pushed it away. "I haven't had a drop, if that's what you're wondering. I'll occasionally have a little swig every so often once my shift is over if I've had a hard night. It was tempting after the day I've had, but I'm still on duty." He looked up at the two of us. "I'd be more than happy to pour you two a glass if you'd like. You saved more lives and healed more ponies than anypony else today. You've earned it."

"As tempting as it is, Doctor, it would not be for the best."

"Which is why I didn't," he mumbled. Dr. Gurney shrugged and motioned over to a stack of manila folders on his desk nearly half as tall as I was. "Those are the reports you wanted, I guess. That battle at the palace brought in more ponies than I've ever seen at one time. I was hoping that they were mostly just bad wounds that could be treated easily enough, but..." Dr. Gurney shook his head. "It didn't quite turn out like that. A lot of ponies died in the beginning because we just didn't have enough staff to cover everything. Ten soldiers come in with their guts spilling out and there are only six doctors who can help them? Yeah, the math doesn't look so good with that."

"Do you have an exact casualty list?" I asked.

Dr. Gurney nodded. "Got it from the morgue." He reached into his coat pocket and produced a scrap of paper. "Uh... sixty-eight, Princess Celestia. We lost sixty-eight of the ponies who came in. Considering that almost three hundred patients came in here..." Dr. Gurney eyed his bottle again. "Some of that was not enough staff, some of that was ponies who were going to die anyway, things like that." Dr. Gurney gave a small shrug. "I think most of our patients should be out soon enough."

"And..." I exchanged a small glance with Luna. "What of Princess Antares?"

Dr. Gurney visibly tensed up, and I saw his hoof twitch towards the bottle. He resisted the urge and slowly shook his head. "Dunno, really. She could survive, she could die. I don't know much about how you alicorns are different from your subjects. Helping her was a nightmare, though. We couldn't get needles into her skin, so we..." Dr. Gurney's ear twitched. "We took what samples we could from the wounded area. Black magic isn't really my area of expertise, but the unicorn toxicologist said that she felt dirty handling her blood samples. I don't know what she was hit with, so I can't say for sure what's going to happen."

"She was shot with what was called a Nightmare Weapon: a weapon designed specifically to kill alicorns. I won't go into the details with you about their make or origin, but suffice to say, it works by pumping black magic into its target that sucks the life out of her." I give Luna credit for not flinching or betraying any emotion. Maybe she had no more left to give. "I removed the arrow she was shot with and gave her what healing magic I could to stem the poison. I brought her here afterwards."

"Yeah." Dr. Gurney sighed and ran a hoof through his unkempt mane. "I guess we'll see if she dies, then."

"You are unsure?" Luna questioned.

"I don't have the next clue, and neither do the other doctors and nurses I've been talking to who have treated her. I'm sorry to put it bluntly, but..."

I held up a hoof. "Do not worry, Doctor. Mincing words will not help anypony right now."

He shrugged once more. "Fine, I guess. I suppose whether or not Princess Antares survives is up to Princess Antares. Her body is going to have to do all of the work from here on out, from where I'm sitting."

I nodded. "Very well, Doctor. I suppose we shall let you get back to..." I hesitated. "What you were doing."

"Yeah." Dr. Gurney shook his head and grasped the bottle. He opened up a small drawer in his desk and gently placed it inside before shutting the desk drawer and putting his head back on the desk. "I'll let you know if anything changes around here, Princess Celestia."

"Please do." He took a deep breath and raised his head at us once more. "You can also go see Princess Antares now, I guess. She's in room 12-A in the ICU."

"Thank you, Doctor."

With nothing else to say, Luna and I turned and walked towards TD's room. I think she needed us, whether she was awake to see us or not.

Cold. It was very cold.

I think I was shot with something. Yeah, that sounds right. I was shot with a Nightmare Weapon by Sinosis. What happened to him? I think...

I killed him, didn't I? Yeah, him and his other soldiers. He shot me, so I killed him with my throne.

Very cold.

I sucked in a breath through my teeth and slowly opened my eyes. I thought I was still alive, so I needed to do more than just lie around and do... whatever I was doing. My re-gained eyesight revealed that I currently lay in the throne room of my palace. Just right in the middle of the floor. Not very regal of me, I'll admit.

No, that didn't make any sense. I thought I remembered Celestia and Luna coming in. Why would they have just left me on the floor of my throne room? I raised my head and frowned when I saw that my floor was not the usual ornate tile, but a strange mist. I pushed my hoof through it and shuddered when an icy feeling shot up my leg. My eyes narrowed in confusion. Why...?

I looked around at my throne room again and my jaw dropped open. Instead of the fairly well-kept room there was now only a twisted ruin. A memory flashed through my mind of my magic destroying it. The ceiling crumbling, the sky splitting, a star appearing, but this... this wasn't like that. It looked like nopony had stepped hoof inside this place for, well, centuries, if I had to guess. I smelled the musty scent of decay in the air, and cobwebs and mold littered the walls and what remained of the ceiling. Looking closer, the throne room bore all of the marks of the battle. My throne lay in the middle of the room where I had dropped it, but the ornate gold had begun flaking off from all of the years that had gone by. I got to my hooves and tentatively walked over to it. I flinched back and moaned in discomfort when I saw what lay underneath.

A twisted skeleton, still clad in once strong armor. Only one claw remained out from under the throne, and it was extended in full, as if the griffin had been trying to reach something in his final moments. I squeezed my eyes shut and backed away from the gruesome sight.

No, no I hadn't done that. Something else, maybe. This was a different throne room. Some other battle that took place long before, or after, my time. I didn't do that. That couldn't have been me. Never me.

I pushed all thoughts of the skeleton out of my mind. I couldn't focus on that. I had to find out what to do next. I turned around and saw a ruined doorway behind me. Better than nothing. I trotted through it, not expecting much.

Outside of the ruined throne room, the hopes that this was not my palace faded away completely. The carpets and the curtains were in total disrepair, but years of living here left no doubt that they were mine. I shuddered and pushed onward. I needed to find something. I needed to get out of here and maybe find Celestia or Luna. If this was a dream then Luna would likely be around. I needed to find her. If it wasn't, and the attack had prompted something worse, then... I didn't know.

All of a sudden, I heard a noise coming from down the hallway. I perked my ears up a touch and swiveled them forward to pick up the sound better. It sounded like... crying.

I frowned and continued walking down the hall. Yes, the noise was definitely crying. As the noise grew louder, I saw a dark huddled shape sitting in the middle of the floor, her hooves wrapped around herself and rocking back and forth. I chanced a little light from my horn and cast it in the direction of the shape. My eyes widened when I saw who it was. One of my staff, Strawberry Fields! I ran up to her and sat down, wrapping her up in my wings and forelegs.

"Shh," I soothed, stroking her mane. "It's going to be okay now. Don't you worry."

Strawberry's crying slowed down, and she looked up at me. It seemed she had been crying for a while. Her eyes were puffed up and red, and her face was drenched with tears. She sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hoof.

"P-Princess Antares?" she whispered.

I gave her a comforting smile and gently nuzzled her. "Yeah, it's me. Don't cry anymore, okay? You're going to be fine."

"Okay." Strawberry leaned her head against my chest and wrapped her forelegs around one of my own. "They attacked us."

"I know, but we beat them back, alright? We don't have to worry about them anymore."

"They came in here." I felt her squeeze my foreleg tighter. "They came in here and just started killing everypony they saw." Strawberry's breathing became more rapid, and tears began dripping down her face. "I was so scared, Princess Antares. I was so scared that they were going to find me and kill me too."

"I know, but it's all better now." I closed my eyes and nuzzled the back of her head. "We beat them back, and we're going to find whoever was behind this."

"It hurt, Princess Antares. It hurt more than anything I've ever felt before. I didn't know things could hurt that much."

"What di--?"

When I opened my eyes Strawberry Fields was gone. My forelegs were positioned as if I still held her, but she had vanished completely. I sharply exhaled and got to my hooves. I didn't bother calling out for her. I knew nothing would come of it. Maybe I could find her again. Maybe somepony else was around here. I had to hope.

I began walking down the hallway once more, my horn still lit, but when I passed what remained of a large window, I chanced a glance outside. My eyes widened once more when I saw the sight outside. The courtyard of my palace where the battle had taken place was packed with dozens, if not hundreds of ponies, all standing silently on either side of a road made by the mist. None of them moved, none of them acknowledged one another, nothing. They just stood there. Ponies of all races and ages. I hopped out the window and glided down to a group of three earth ponies, a mare and her two fillies. Despite their princess landing next to them, neither the mare nor her young foals moved.

"Ma'am?" I gently put a hoof on the mare's shoulder. "Can... can you tell me what's going on?" I looked out into the mist as far as I could see. The rows of ponies seemed to go on forever. I looked down to the mare, who had still not moved. "Why are you all here?"

"Are you one of them?" The mare's voice came out so quietly I could barely hear it.

I blinked in confusion. "One of them? I... I don't know what that means."

The mare gave a quiet scoff. "Figures. You always were a special kind of sort, I suppose. Nothing like us normal ponies."

"Normal?" I tilted my head. "Ma'am, I don't--"

"We're waiting."

"Waiting for who?"

The mare didn't respond, so I leaned my head down a little more so that I could be at eye level with her. "Waiting for who?"

"Get out of my sight," the mare snarled, her face twisting into a glare. "Get away from me."

I flinched back and retreated into the middle of the fog road, my eyes never leaving the mare. Her face had slipped back into that blank mask she wore when I had first approached.

Waiting? I looked at all of the ponies around me. Waiting for what?

My answer came swiftly. The silence was shattered by the sound of marching appearing from behind me. I turned around to see what it was.

My stomach clenched and my breath caught in my throat at the sight before me. Marching down the road were hundreds of ponies, over half of whom were dressed in familiar armor. The armor of my guard. I shook my head and began backing up as the macabre parade approached me. Even now I recognized many of the ponies in the formation as having died during the battle. Sergeant Stones and Private Flare were in the front row of ponies.

"No," I whimpered. "Not this."

As the marching ponies came closer, many of them laid eyes on me, and to my horror, their previously blank faces broke out into wide grins. My mind told me that I should run or fly away; try to escape the death march before me, but my wings and legs would not obey me, and I could not stop the onslaught of ponies approaching me.

As the first group approached me, the ponies each bowed their heads though kept marching, and muttered some words, words that chilled me to my very core.

"Princess Antares, it was an honor."

"It was an honor to die for you, Princess Antares."

"Long live Princess Antares! It was an honor to lay down my life for you, Princess, and I'd do it a thousand times over!"

I whimpered and backed away from the marching ponies, hoping to gather my thoughts and figure out to do next, but what came next was far worse.

Before I could do anything, the very air itself was split with the noise of hundreds of voices all crying out in pure agony. I turned to the side and saw the observers, who had previously been standing there silently, now screaming and reaching out towards the marching ponies. Some were even throwing themselves at the fog road, but they were held back by some invisible barrier. I saw the mare I had spoken to collapse on the ground and was scratching at her face with her hooves.

I flattened my ears in an attempt to drown out the screams of ponies shouting for their loved ones on one side of me, and the ponies who had died for me cheering me on and praising my name, assuring me that they were proud to have died horribly for me on the other. I sat down on the ground and grabbed my head in my hooves, wishing the nightmare would just end or that all would fade away and I could figure out what to do next.

My thoughts were interrupted once more when I felt a hoof on my shoulder, and I looked up to see a grinning colt of probably no more than fifteen standing in front of me. He bowed low to me when he saw that I had noticed him.

"Princess Antares. It was an honor. I'm glad I could help defend you."

"But they killed you," I whispered. "You died too young. You didn't have to die for me."

The colt chuckled and shook his head. "No, but I wanted to, and I'm glad that I could have."

"YOU!"

I looked over to the source of the noise and saw the mare again, this time on her hooves with her little fillies clutching her hind legs. She looked at me with a look of fury that I had never seen before. Her hoof pointed directly at me.

"Why did he have to die for you?!" she screeched. "He was only fifteen you selfish bitch! Why did you just let my son be slaughtered?! Was he just fodder? A target to distract griffins?" The mare slammed her hoof on the ground. "He was just a thing to you, wasn't he? A tool to be used! Otherwise you would have saved him! Or are you not powerful enough?!"

My mouth flopped up and down as I tried to formulate a response. "I..."

I was cut off when the colt turned to his mother with a chuckle. "No, Mother, you have it all wrong. She isn't like that. I wasn't a tool for her! I died saving innocent ponies from the griffins! I died for something, Mother! I died for Princess Antares!"

"Why did he have to die at all?" the mare snarled as the two fillies began sobbing and calling out to their dead brother. "Why couldn't you have seen this coming? Are you really so stupid?! It's all your fault he's dead! Why are you more important than he is?! Why is your wretched life worth more than his?! Just because you wear some dumb piece of metal on your head and you got hit with some shiny necklaces? Why does that make you worth more?!" The mare slammed her hoof into the ground. "Why are you more important than he is?"

"I..." I blinked once and tears began welling up in my eyes. I felt a tightness begin growing in my chest as I wilted under the mare's gaze. "I'm n-not. I'm not! I'm not!" I got to my hooves and began backing away. "I'm not worth any of this!" I wailed. "Just stop! Just stop!" I spread my wings and took to the air, hoping that I could fly away from the horrors around me, but the invisible barrier blocked my path. I felt another jolt of the stinging cold when I hit it, and I fell towards the ground, not even thinking about trying to take to the air again. All I wanted was for the noises to stop. I didn't want any more praises or accusations. I just wanted everything to stop.

"It was an honor, Princess Antares! I would do it again!"

"He didn't have to die for you! Why couldn't you save him?"

I hit the ground and curled up into a ball, putting my hooves over my ears. "Just stop!" I moaned. "Just leave me alone, please!"

"Princess Antares, why did you let the griffins kill my mommy? My sister and I don't have anypony left anymore!"

"All hail Princess Antares!"

"We were about to have our first foal! Now my baby will have to grow up without her father because of you!"

"Nothing could bring me more joy, Princess Antares. Dying for you is the thing I can be most proud of!"

"Please just STOP!" With another cry, a burst of magic shot through my horn.

My eyes snapped open and I sharply inhaled. The fog was gone. The ponies were gone. Instead I was in another dark room, but this one had all kinds of wires and beeping machines in it. I tried to look around to see where I was, but every small movement sent a sharp burst of pain through my chest. I felt an oxygen mask over my muzzle, so I slowly reached up to pull that off.

The hospital. Yes, I was in the hospital.

Not my ruined palace, the hospital. Alone. Just as I had always been. Just like I had been in my dream, or whatever that was. I felt hot tears streak down my face as the memories of everything came rushing back to me all at once. With nothing else to do, I threw my head back and screamed.

Author's Notes:

Yeah, I removed the comedy tag. I figured it was about time. Does that mean the story won't be funny anymore? Heck no! Heck. No! Not right now, obviously, but no, there will still be funny here. It's jut that the story led me to this place, and it got more serious, something that I think fits completely. When TD first ascended, he was young, immature, and abused his power and authority a little bit. But now he's matured and is facing the realities of the job. He's significantly grown up throughout the course of the story, and the story has matured to match him. Did I expect it to go this way? Not at all. I didn't even think the story was going to be this long.

And here we are.