Author's Notes:

I realized after uploading the last chapter I hadn't done a fuller version of the princesses final stand at Canterlot. I've had it on my mind for a while and wanted to get it out before I forgot. Hope y'all enjoy.

“After everything we went through, all of our trials to be good leaders for thousands of years, it all ends in a bloodbath. We’ve never lost a war before, diplomacy and overwhelming force have held us over for almost 15,000 years.” I knew tears were rolling down her face. “Why did it come to this? Why must this be the way our glorious kingdom ends? Sombra, all of tartarus, even a war with the dragons, nothing ever threatened to end us. NOTHING!”

I put a hoof to the shoulder of her armor. “Lulu, there is nothing more we could have done. We tried diplomacy, we tried overwhelming force, we used almost all of our resources to fend them off. You can’t blame yourself, it wasn’t your fault, it was mine. I should have told Twilight about her parents sooner, about her friends sooner, maybe that would have prevented everything from going this far.”

“Celestia, Luna, your highnesses. They’re assembling at the base of Canterlot, preparing to march up here and tear down the castle. What should we do?” The last captain of the honor guard, his armor barely holding together, still fighting.

“We fight to the last, just like we have always promised to do. They took our kingdom from us, so we take their glory from them. If they want this castle, they’ll have to take it from or cold dead hooves. And killing US, especially with our honor guard is not a feat that is so easy to accomplish.” Maintain your regality to the end, even if we’re fighting to the death we have to show them that they can’t break our spirits. “What do you say sister? We show them the true might of the princesses, show them that no matter what, the spirit and soul of Equestria will never be broken.”

Luna brought her head back up drawing her sword and pistol as she did. “I’m out of rounds for my rifle, but I’ve still got hundreds left for Lunar Judge. Together we bring judgement day down on them, and none of them will escape the pits of tartarus for their crimes.”

“Captain, I’ll give you a choice, and it’s not an easy one. Fighting them head on is suicide and not something I can ask of you. If you or any of the honor guard wish to, you may live to see another day. Let us have our last battle, even if we’re overwhelmed, you will carry on our legacy for the future.”

The final few honor guard soldiers trotted through the door, armor trying to repair itself as they walked. “No. Not in a million years, we swore an oath to protect the both of you until our dying breaths. We’d all rather die with honor and with your names on our lips than to live our days out knowing we backed down when you needed us. We’ll show those boars what it means to be real soldiers, even with the odds 1000 to 1 Equestrians fight to the last.”

I looked over the rag tag group. Ten of us, including Luna and myself. “Prepare what heavy weapons we have, unleash them upon the army below, and set your suits to self destruct if your vital signs flatline. Fight to the last my little ponies, and let the afterlife accept you as soldiers and legends, let all who follow know that we fought to our dying breath and the we were fighters to the end.” I drew my sword. “And let those boars down there feel the wrath of the Sun, the Moon, and all of the ponies who they killed in this war. For Glory, For Honor, For Equestria! Send em to the grave!”

They all sprinted off, knowing they would die today. “Celly, are you sure about this? We’ve been through tough times, but we might die today. Immune to aging or no, mortal wounds will still kill us, I’m afraid. I know what the afterlife looks like, but I’m not ready to go yet.”

I put a hoof over her shoulder and rested my head against hers. “Relax you silly filly, we won’t meet our end today, they won’t kill us, nay can’t kill us. We stand together, as we always have and nothing can stop us. Right?”

Luna looked up and locked eyes with me. “Right… We can do this. We’re princesses, goddesses, the strongest soldiers to have ever lived and with over 10,000 years of wars to prove it.”

“We’re ready. Give us the word and we’ll kick this off.”

“Fire everything you’ve got. We’re ready when you are.” I trotted over to the door, 20 feet tall made of solid oak. “Ready yourself sister, it’s time.” I reared my back hooves and slammed them into the door. It came cleanly off its hinges and began its spiral down to the enemy below. “Kill them all, show no mercy!”

The first and only volley of explosives rained down, the explosions tore apart the boars in the rear, almost 2,000 wiped away in nuclear fire. Now began the work, tearing the remaining eight thousand apart.

Luna rocketed at the ground ahead of me, her sword drawn and ready, pistol unleashing magazine after magazine as she accelerated at the ground, her dark aura growing ever stronger.

My own aura of bright light followed closely behind, my sword ready and the Revolving Sun firing balls of supersonic superheated plasma, the barrel would give out before I finished firing them, but I wanted them to feel the wrath of the sun.

Rainbow Dash would have been proud if she was still around to see us, both of us pulling out of our dive and emitting a mini rainboom as we went. Our magic barely holding onto our blades as we crisscrossed mid air, tearing boars in power armor in half. Our explosive combo of auras came to rest in the center of the boars.

Luna was still firing her pistol behind me, swinging at anything that got too close. All I had was my sword, and I wasn’t going to let one of them get close enough to hurt her. I heard our final soldiers making their push, miniguns, grenade machine guns, plasma gatling guns. Every big weapon we had left, they were giving it their all to get to us.

“Come get some you stupid bucking boars! You took our kingdom from us, so we’re taking your lives from you!” She always did have a fighting spirit, even if she was a little childish from time to time.

My armor was absorbing most of the hits, but I was starting to feel some of them. “Dammit! Aurora is anything critically damaged on either of us?”

My display popped up, both of our armors were in the red. “I’m doing everything I can to keep systems online. There are too many of them, even if your armor was designed to handle a balefire bomb, it can’t handle this rate of sustained fire.”

A detonation akin to a balefire bomb rung over the battlefield. “Captain’s gone, but he took a few hundred with him, we’re thinning their forces. Just keep fighting boys, we’ve got…” another explosion, followed by six more spread all around us.

“Aurora, transfer yourself to auxiliary facility. Find somepony to rebuild, our great nation.” A bullet tore through my armor hitting the electronics where Aurora was. “Aurora!”

“I uploaded all the important information. Plans, everything, but that hit took most of me with it, goodbye Celestia, kill a few of them for me.” She dissipated into a cloud of pixels.

“One more good push Lulu, we’ve got them on the ropes. We’re gonna make it through!” The army was still collapsing on top of us, more than a thousand soldiers throwing themselves at us.

“Their starting to punch through my armor, I don’t think we can keep this up much longer!” She sounded tired, her vitals still holding steady enough. Too much more and her body might give out on her. Both of us were starting to feel the overuse of our magic, our horns about to explode from overuse.

I was beginning to think we might die, then it happened. She reappeared. A purple aura light up the sky around us, a spell targeting only the boars. “This is what you get for ripping my friends away from me!” A voice louder than even the royal canterlot voice, no spell boosting it, just pure rage.

The last thousand boars dropped dead around us, some unimaginably painful death. She may have been the princess of friendship, but after she lost her friends she became a monster. Equinity lost, no hope behind her eyes, the core of her very being shifter, even her cutie mark had been taken away. The mare that was my student no longer existed, a hollow angry shell remained. “Twilight, stop!”

As quickly as she appeared, she disappeared. The sky regaining the ugly green glow of radiation.

“Not again! Just one chance to try and talk to her is all I ask. I know it won’t be easy to do, but she needs to pass on, her friends are waiting for her, and soon enough she’ll figure out how to bring them back.” I kicked with enough force to send a power armor clad boar two hundred feet into the air and a half mile away.

“We need to go Celly, our armor is barely holding together and those irradiated… things, will be on us in a few minutes. We’re hurt, our armor is almost beyond repair, we’ve done everything we can, we’ll look for her, but for now we need to keep ourselves alive so we can find her another day.”

I nodded knowingly. “There is the last stable that was for us, we can rest there for a while before we make our next move. Hopefully we can start to rebuild our kingdom soon, we’ll need to find the elements again and not just their emodiements in ponies. The element of magic is still with Twilight. The rest are scattered, and I have no idea where.”

“We’ll find them and rebuild. Rebuild as we’ve done before, but this time it will last longer, and we’ll be better.”