As the New Lunar Forces hunkered down in the stronghold that was Stalliongrad, their eventual defeat was already moving beneath their very hooves. True, the walls of Stalliongrad were impenetrable and high enough to repel most airborne attacks. With that being said, logic dictates that if one cannot go over an obstacle…

…One must go under it.

The Diamond Dogs, furious with their treatment at the hooves of the New Lunar Republic, had been among the first to ally themselves with Cadance and the New Dawn. While the surface forces distracted Soarin’s army, the Dogs tunneled deep into the earth. They constructed enormous tunnels from the rear of the lines all the way under the “invincible” walls of Stalliongrad. By the end of a paltry week, the tunnels were finished and Shining Armor could move his forces.

The Army of the New Dawn burst from the ground and entered Stalliongrad… and claimed the city in less than an hour.

General Soarin saw the writing on the wall and fled the battle before it could end. Realizing that Luna would have his head for his cowardice, he ran instead into the depths of the Bad Lands to await the end of the war.

Princess Luna, as one can imagine, was beside herself. Not only had the Minotaurs and Griffons betrayed her, but two entire divisions of her army had been lost. When General Soarin could not be produced to pay for this failure with his life, Luna executed the captive Governor Lightning Dust in his place. She ordered half of the remaining army, commanded by Commandant Night Light, to fortify the defenses of Canterlot Mountain. The remainder she sent to bolster the defenses of the place she knew would be the next line to cross; Sweet Apple Acres.

The Army of the New Dawn marched forth, claiming towns and cities along the way. While stopped over in Appleoosa (surrendered peacefully by new Governor Little Strong Heart after the escape of former Governor Braeburn Apple) a surprising new ally joined their ranks… one who would have a vital role to play in the endgame of the war.

At long last, the two armies faced each other once again, this time at the border of Sweet Apple Acres. Before the first move could be made, yet another trap would be sprung; the former Bearer of Kindness, Fluttershy. The once considered weak-willed pegasus led a charge of monsters and wild animals out of the Everfree Forest and into the fray, forcing the New Lunar Army to fight a battle on two fronts simultaneously.

In a moment that has been dramatized too many times to count, a slave worker named Silver Spoon climbed atop a wagon to rally her fellow slaves to join the fight for Cadance… and was promptly slain by an overseer. Her death enraged the slaves, and they revolted. Beset on three sides now, the New Lunar Forces broke and retreated towards Canterlot Mountain.

Princess Luna finally received responses from the Dragons and Zebras; “You’re on your own.”

With the enormous food supply of Sweet Apple Acres now lost, Luna realized that the war would soon be ended one way or the other very soon. Entrusting command of the military to Grand Marshal Rainbow Dash and Commandant Night Light, she sealed herself in her tower to watch what she knew to be the final battle that would decide the fate of the Republic she had spilled so much blood to create.

The final bloody battle of the War for Solar Resurgence was fought on the Everfree Fields. It’s impossible to tell how many lives were lost, but stories say that for months afterward, one’s hooves would still be stained red if you trod on the grass. Macintosh Apple, Commander of the Earth Pony Forces, was blinded by Commandant Night Light before the unicorn faced off, at last, with his traitorous son.

Eyewitness accounts called the duel between Night Light and Shining Armor the stuff of legends, as beautiful to behold as it was terrible. In the end, it was Shining Armor who stood over his father’s corpse.

Stories say that he was weeping as he led the final charge up the slopes of the mountain.

In truth, the battle outside the castle walls was but a distraction. Aided by their new allies, the Changelings, as well as the League of Ungentlepony Warfare, New Dawn forces smuggled six very special ponies into the depths of the mountain. Their destination lay past the chained and enormous Spike the Dragon, through a door that could only be unlocked by a magical key that had been hidden away in a book written by a very special unicorn.

As the Changelings freed Spike so that he could join the fight against the Republic, these six very special ponies looked upon the most terrible secret Luna had kept from her forces.

They looked upon the body of Princess Celestia, still pristine after all this time.

The names of these six, these new Bearers of Harmony, chosen by the Elements after the breaking of the first circle, are now as venerated as those who were the first to wield that most powerful of magics.

Starlight Glimmer, the Element of Magic.

Cheese Sandwich, the Element of Laughter.

Sugar Belle, the Element of Kindness.

Sweetie Belle, the Element of Generosity.

Diamond Tiara, the Element of Honesty.

Moon Dancer, the Element of Loyalty.

Using the Elements of Harmony, these six ponies did the impossible; they restored life to Princess Celestia.

It was Twilight Sparkle who figured it out, you see. She discovered, through her magical link to Celestia on the night the alicorn fell, that the alicorn sisters could not be permanently destroyed by mortal means. They were tied to the forces they commanded, specifically the sun and moon. It’s why the moon was able to be imprisoned in the moon for a millennium. Thus Celestia could only be completely undone by the sun itself.

Not wasting a moment, Celestia burst from the mountain and brought the battle at last to her sister. The goddesses vanished into the night sky, apparently taking their final struggle to the surface of the moon itself. As nopony was there first hoof to witness the battle, and since Celestia has refused to ever speak of it, we can only imagine what occurred. Whatever happened, the battle magics unleashed must have been terrible to behold, as they split the very moon in twain.

Ponies on both sides looked up when the moon was bathed in Princess Celestia’s magic. For an instant, it was as though the sun had returned. She forced the two halves of the moon together… with her sister apparently trapped between.

It’s said that her dying scream could be heard clear as day, and at the sound the forces of the night threw down their spears and surrendered.

The New Lunar Republic was no more… and the War for Solar Resurgence ended as the sun rose, at last, once again.