The rumbling of thunder continued to echo throughout the city as the column of smoke billowed up into the sky, forming a wider dark blot. Beneath them, Zugzwang’s soldiers continued their advance, indiscriminately firing on the terrified civilians as they ran for cover. Completely taken unawares, the City Guard scrambled to form lines of defense and escort what civilians they could to safety.

“I think that’s the signal,” Tinderspark commented, looking up at the descending dome.

The driver nodded, then rapped on the back wall of the cab. “Get ready back there!” he shouted. With a great grinding, he shifted the truck into gear and floored the accelerator. The truck roared forward, headed for the Palace wall. Guards and civilians dived out of the way as the vehicle plowed through over the gate and through the solid wall with a tremendous crash, its reinforced bumper pushing right through the wall. The truck came to a stop inside the main hall, ponies still running away in panic as Solar and Lunar House Guards advanced.

The back doors of the truck burst open and six ponies climbed out. Each of them was wearing fire-retardant clothing, jackets and boots torn and adorned with various symbols and emblems. Strapped upon each of their backs was a large fuel tank, with a hose running down to a gauntlet-mounted gun strapped to their forelegs; other weapons—knives, hatchets, sawn-off guns, crude grenades—hung from their belts. Gas masks adorned the intruders’ faces, the masks decorated to resemble twisted, monstrous faces that glared out at their frightened prey.

Every approaching Guard froze in their tracks, faces blanching at the sight of the intruders. One Lunar House Guard stared, jaw slack in horror. “SCORCHERS!” he screamed.

One of the intruders raised his foreleg at the Guards, sending a jet of flame roaring at them from his weapon. The Guards turned and retreated from the attack as the other Scorchers began setting anything that moved aflame. Smoke alarms began to blare out their warnings and sprinklers set in the ceiling dumped streams of water, futilely trying to battle back the flames.

Tinderspark climbed down out of the cab, snapping her gas mask down over her face. The mask had been painted to resemble a white cyclopean monster with a gaping mouth like a jagged rip with needle-like teeth. Her ripped fire-retardant jacket, stolen from a firefighter in Vanhoover that she had tortured for three days straight, was decorated with a painting of her cutie mark: a burning match.

“Okay, everypony knows the plan,” Tinderspark declared.

“Set fires and raise hell, then get the hell out!” a mare with a mask decorated to resemble a timberwolf’s face shouted, sending a jet of flame at a pair of Guards who were trying to peek out from behind cover.

“Yes, but don’t forget the most important part,” Tinderspark said, calmly unhooking a bottle of cider with a cloth wick from her belt. Igniting the wick with her lighter, she tossed the bottle into another hallway. The bottle shattered, sending burning liquid spreading throughout the hallway, licking at the tapestries on the walls.

“Have fun,” Tinderspark added, the smile evident even through the mask.

Floors above them, the ponies in the lobby looked up as the alarms began to ring. After a moment of hesitation, the mare Guard with the red wand stepped up. “All right, everypony, I need you to move calmly and quickly towards the exits,” she declared, gesturing with her wand. The frightened visitors began following her command, filing towards the glowing red “EXIT” sign with fearful murmurs.

“What’s happening?” a mare with a golden beehive manedo asked in panic.

“Ma’am, please remain calm,” a Guard told her. “We need to get you out of here.”

While the Guards were distracted, Star Watcher looked up at the other four ponies who were loitering behind with him and nodded. The others nodded back. The novel-reading unicorn tossed Star a small white packet. Star tore the packet open with his teeth and poured the white powder inside into his flask. Instantly, pale yellow gas began to billow from the flask, filling the room and leaking out into the hallways. Star and his band were unaffected, but the other ponies who were caught in the cloud began coughing and choking on the fumes.

A few seconds later, the screaming started. The affected ponies faces turned to expressions of terror as they screeched and wailed at things that only they could see. A howling civilian leapt upon the mare Guard and started flailing violently at her face as she writhed beneath him; two of the other Guards turned and fled in panic.

“Wouldn’t you know it,” Star Watcher said airily, with the tone of one commenting on the weather. “The good doctor’s formula and his vaccine both work.” With a grunt, he signalled for his four teammates to follow him down a separate hallway. The cloud of fear toxin followed with them, leaving behind a trail of screaming ponies as they rushed into the inner sanctums of the palace.

They paused before a set of white tiles on the wall. One of the intruders pulled aside a small tile, revealing a keyhole. Extracting a key ring from inside his coat pocket, he inserted a small, stubby key into the hole and turned it. An alarm began ringing, but nopony responded. A hidden door opened, revealing a small armory within the walls: swords, knives, shotguns, carbines, boxes of ammunition, tear gas and flashbang grenades, all placed here in preparation for an emergency.

“You were right!” the golden-maned unicorn cried in delight.

“You can thank Tandem Check for this little tidbit,” Star Watcher smiled, taking a shotgun for himself. “Except you can’t, because we arranged for him to ousted and killed.” He looked each of his teammates in the eye. “A lesson about what happens to those who don’t obey.”

“Yes, sir,” the other four nodded.

Star grinned and racked a round into his weapon. “Let’s move out.”

Quickly and quietly, they rushed unopposed down the hallways of the palace.

“Sister, do you recognize that magic?” Luna asked, staring out the window of the Royal Study at the column of dark magic.

“Yes, I do,” Celestia nodded, a note of fear evident in her normally-tranquil voice. “That is Sombra’s magic.”

“But that should not be possible!” Luna protested. “The horn—”

But her sentence was abruptly interrupted by the blaring of alarms. “What is—?” she cried in shock.

“Your Highnesses!” A troupe of Solar and Lunar House Guards rushed into the study, led by Lieutenant Silent Knight.

“The palace is under attack,” Silent reported, no panic showing on his face. “You need to get into the safe room, now.”

Celestia and Luna froze in disbelief for a moment at his words, but quickly recovered themselves. “Yes, of course,” Celestia nodded as she and Luna rose.

The Guards quickly formed a protective bubble around the Princesses and escorted them out of the study and down the hallway, towards an open doorway where a trio of Guards crouched behind ballistic shields. A recent addition to the castle, the safe room for the Princesses was constructed of six inches of magic-reinforced steel, proof against fire, bullets, and magic, and contained its own oxygen system and food and water supply.

The distant barks of gunfire echoed through the hallway, causing every head to turn. Celestia and Luna hurried inside the safe room and closed the door behind them, locking it shut with a clang.

“Form up!” Silent ordered. The shield-bearing Guards dropped their shields in front of the group, crouching behind the protective ceramic and raising their revolvers. The other Guards dropped behind them, raising their own weapons. Silent drew his own service revolver from his wing holster and aimed it down the hallway, ready to fire at any hostile movement.

“Lunar One-One reporting, Artemis and Apollo are on Olympus,” he reported into his radio. “Give me a sitrep, over.”

“Lunar One-One, this is Lunar Two-Four,” a mare’s voice reported, her voice backed by the crackling of flames and the pops of gunfire. “The Scorchers are retreating out the front, but they’re keeping us pinned down. We cannot pursue! Multiple wounded!”

“Solar Three-Seven reporting, we have gunponies inside the castle!” a stallion’s voice cut in. “They’re barricading themselves inside the music room!”

Silent Knight paused, mentally studying his map of the palace. It was at this point that he suddenly realized something concerning: the music room was right over the safe room.

The shield enchantment over the door to the music room held strong, resisting the barrage of spells and bullets that the Guards assaulted it with while allowing the invaders to safely return fire. The yellow cloud of fear toxin continued to swarm around them, keeping their enemies at bay.

“Keep firing!” a Solar sergeant barked, reloading his revolver with his magic. “They can’t stay in there forever!”

The golden-haired unicorn grunted, sweat trickling down his brow as he struggled to keep the spell up. “Whatever you’re doing, boss, do it fast!” he shouted.

Star Watcher crouched at the center of the floor, grinning as he pulled the lighter out of his pocket and flicked it open. With a click, he hit the flint, but no flame sparked.

The steel safe room had been implemented at the suggestion of several officers from the Solar and Lunar House Guards, and the current design was the brainchild of Tandem Check. But unknown to all, the traitor had included a specific design within the walls that were designed for safety.

Bundles of thermite charges that had laid dormant within the ceiling of the safe room for over a year now came to life, activated by the radio signal in the disguised lighter. With a hissing like dozens of angry serpents, a wide circle of bright yellow sparks carved through the floor of the music hall. Star Watcher and a dark green pegasus mare crouched by the circle, waiting. The mare held a canteen of her own in her hooves.

With a crash, the charges finished burning through the steel wall and the hole dropped into the safe room beneath. Immediately, the pegasus dropped the canteen into the safe room, which shattered into a cloud of white gas. Coughing and choking could be heard from within the room, which gradually dissolved into silence as the cloud dissipated.

Star and his partner dropped through the hole. Celestia and Luna lay on the floor, unconscious. Heaving the alicorns up onto their backs with grunts of efforts, they flapped upwards back through the hole and into the music room.

The sergeant’s blue eyes widened in shock as he recognized the shapes. “Cease fire! They’ve got the Princesses!” he shrieked, lowering his weapon.

“Get close!” Star called. The other intruders gathered close to him. The unicorn dropped the barrier shield and tugged a black crystal shard out from his pocket, firing a stream of his magic through the prism. With a burst of pale blue energy, the group and their captured prey disappeared from sight, much to the horror of the Guards.

The sergeant stared in shock for several seconds before slowly reaching for his radio. “This is Solar Two-One. We...we lost the Princesses. They captured the Princesses.”

Bumblebee sprinted ahead of the group, the sheen of his golden armor providing a beacon for the other ponies to follow as they raced towards the precinct. The shrieks of falling bombs pierced the air, punctuated by distant explosions and flashes of flames against the darkening sky.

They turned a corner and saw a wall of black iron plates set up across the street, the plates assembled by magic. A sergeant City Guard, a dark brown, shaggy-maned unicorn, stood in the open doorway, beckoning them forwards. Encouraged by the sight of the promised safety, the ponies pushed themselves forward, a panicked stream racing through the gate.

A sudden crack of thunder pierced the air. A unicorn stallion behind Fluttershy screamed and fell to the ground, a crimson plume blossoming from his chest.

“Sniper!” Prowl shouted.

Fluttershy skidded to a halt and tried to turn around and pick up the stallion, but Daring seized her tail and yanked her through the gates. “No! Let me help him!” Fluttershy protested, scrabbling against her.

“He’s dead!” Daring shouted, trying not to look at the unmoving heap of flesh.

“Look out!” Applejack called, pointing up the street. Barely visible against the descending darkness, a trio of ponies on motorcycles could be seen screeching towards them, firearms at the ready.

“Get in here!” Prowl ordered as Twilight grabbed the straggling ponies in her magic and pulled them through the gate.

“Out of the way!” a voice ordered. Everypony looked up, then dived aside as an earth pony Guard with a mountain-like build and a gray coat raced up, dragging a large metal carriage behind him. Reaching the gate, he performed a tight J-turn, swinging the Gatling gun he was carrying into position. The two Guards following behind him immediately manned the gun, one of them seizing the hoof crank and furiously working at it. With a great roaring, mixed with the singing of brass cartridges against the pavement and blinding flashes of flame, the gun burst to life, sending a volley of hot lead at the would-be pursuers. The enemies all collapsed to the street as the sergeant shut the iron gates, sealing the street off.

The ponies collapsed against each other, panting. Captain Polaris sprinted up. “Sergeant Barker, I want these gates manned 24/7! We are not letting this army take another inch from us!”

“Yes, sir!” Barker saluted as the gunners rushed to reload the gun. Panting, Polaris embraced his wife and two daughters.

“Twilight?” Flash asked. “What do we do now?”

Twilight looked up at the sky, which was now completely swallowed by the black dome that descended down over the city, completely enveloping it in a dark bubble.

“I...I don’t know,” she stammered.

Author's Notes:

Canterlot Has Fallen.

I originally planned to release this and the previous chapter as one chapter, but I realized that it'd be over 6000 words, and decide to split it into two just to break it up a little and hopefully make it a little easier to read.

But what chance do our friends stand against an entire army? More coming soon.