12 miles from Canterlot
Somewhere in the Austeer Empire
20 minutes later

The day the gates opened was the day it happened. But i'm going to far ahead in the story, so i'll start with now.
Tainted Dawn was resting her head on the window sill, drooping her front hooves over the edge, sitting on her bed with a bored look on her face. Staring off into the distance, she focused on the castle nestled at the bottom of a looming mountain, its snow-capped ridges threatening to topple over and cover the city with snow and rocks. She sighed with inward contempt, not really caring about anything in the world other than if the doors would open today. A few days ago an announcement went out around the empire that after years of closure, the gates of the castle would open, letting any pony in, be it poor or rich. Of course, After the news had spread many families packed traveling bags and packed out to make it in time to witness the gates opening, though Tainted Dawn had the luck of living in the same city.
Today was, of course, the day all the ponies in the empire had marked on their calendars, not only because of the gate-opening, but also because an important treaty was to be signed by the neighboring Canterlot empire, ending the tension that had settled itself over the ponies of the Austeer empire. No one wanted a war to break out, though it seemed that at the rate things had been going, one could only be imminent, if not for this event.
Dawn flinched as her brother, Dusk, opened her door and set down beside her, laying one of his hooves over her back.
"Today might just be the day, Dawn." He said, and Dawn replied, "Maybe." and went back to staring at the landscape. It's so beautiful, Dawn thinks, gazing over the thatched roofs and following the cobbled roads, watching the Earth ponies and Unicorns trot down the streets, mingling amongst each other as they make for the massive stone bridge, separating the rest of the town from the spired castle.
The Pegasi had promised clear skies today, but a wind was picking up, making the flags and banners flap in the wind as they hang from numerous door signs and posts alike. Wind blows in through the open window, and Dawn shivers, sending small ripples through her dark fur and ruffling her feathers. Dusk stands up and says, "I'm going to meet up with our brothers by the bridge, will you be in the air?"
Dawn looks over and gives him a small nod, replying, "Sure, better to get a bird's eye view than to be stuck in a crowded space with no breathing room. Yeah, i'm thinking i'll be in the air." And with that she stands up and opens her wings, letting the wind run through them before she jumps off and begins flapping them, taking to the skies, swirling around and dodging clouds until she finds the proper height to view the opening.
She gazes around, overlooking numerous clouds that seem promising, until she spots one, hanging far overhead of the bridge, and she flies toward it, coming to rest on it. She tucks her wings on her back and looks over the crowd, looking for her other brothers, of which Dusk would also be with. She spots them near the back of the ever-growing mass of ponies, giving them a small wave, even though she knew they wouldn't see her. That is, until Dusk looks up and waves back, and she smiles inwardly, turning her gaze over to the gates once more.

Dusk saw her, and waved back, smiling up at her until he hears trumpets and looks behind him, seeing a yellow, sparkling speck in the distance. As he watched it grew larger, forming into the shape of a pegasus-drawn chariot, and sitting upon the seat was the representative of the Canterlot empire, Princess Celestia herself! Dusk gaped as a booming voice called out from the castle walls. "MAKE WAY FOR PRINCESS CELESTIA!!!" And the crowd parted on the bridge, some sitting on the small walls alongside the bridge, others clearing off of it to make room for a landing, and Dusk continued to gape with his brothers as the great doors, closed for years without end, finally opened, allowing the princess passage into the castle of the Austeer Empire.
The princess flew in, and ponies were about to move for the gates when they closed again, causing confusion, and even more so when A great barrier was raised, turning the castle a light yellow tint. As Dusk and his brothers continued to watch, behind the shield they could make out numerous guards rushing about the ramparts, bearing crossbows and ballistae pieces, assembling the defences for the castle.
"What the buck?!" Dusk cried out, and one of his brothers kicked his flank, muttering something under his breath before saying, "Is that it?" Other ponies began to curse under their breath or walk around, talking under their breathe, generally expressing their anger in the second quietest way possible. Dusk was about to say something when the sky turned suspiciously red, and before he could say anything else, a massive fireball pounded into the bridge.

Dawn was watching the shield, wondering why that would be needed in a diplomatic time, when she saw a large, flaming ball of death fly over a mountain and land on the bridge, blowing it apart. She gasped as ponies were tossed into the air, some with burned bur, others in torn pieces and misshapen lumps of flesh. Those that did not fall into the water were thrown to either side of the moat, some landing on top of houses, others hitting the shield and bouncing off to some to a sicking crunch on the cobblestones.
Getting over her shock, Dawn looked down to where her brothers were, and found them, running to and fro, helping ponies on their feet and trying to move those on their side towards the buildings, when another fireball arced in and landed near them, blasting more ponies and setting houses ablaze. One of Dawn's brothers was in the epicenter of the explosion, and she could only watch in horror as his body was blown to pieces, burning like a torch. She looked away and hid her face in her hooves, trying hard not to cry, but found tears rolling down her cheeks, and she buried her face in the cloud, trying to hide from the chaos.

Dusk was helping a group of fillies to the town hall when he saw the second fireball come down on his brother, blowing him to bits and ending the lives of many others.
"No! Brixton!" He cried out, and his other brothers looked up from hearing the sound of their brother's name, and realizing his fate, shocked looks came over their faces. Dusk ran over to where he had seen his brother, to find any evidence, any hope that he was still alive, but all he found was the charred remains of unrecognizable body parts, and he let out a sob before running back to his brothers, tears welling up in his eyes. When he got back, his brothers were making for the Town hall with the fillies, and he galloped after them, vaguely hearing more explosions in the background.
When he reached the doors of the hall, he ran inside and searched for his siblings, finding them in a corner, trying to keep the fillies together, which wasn't a problem seeing as all they wanted to do was huddle under a table cloth in a corner. Other ponies were milling about, quickly talking back and forth about the current events.
As he approached them one of his brothers saw him approaching and split from the group, trotting over to him with an angry look in his eyes.
"What the buck is going on?! Why aren't the princesses doing anything about this?"
Dusk gave him a weary look and replied through sobs, "I don't *sob* know, Tarrel. Maybe *sob* hey just don't *sob* care anymore."
and with that last part Dusk leaned in to embrace his brother, and Tarrel's face softened as he caught him, then saw something over Dusk's shoulder.
"Oh no." Dusk looked at him through teary eyes, then turned around to see multiple ponies wearing grey-plated armor, swords drawn, slowly advancing towards the group of ponies gathered in the hall. Dusk took one look at the weapons and his face hardened, replacing his sadness with a burning anger, and he made for the soldiers but was pushed aside by Tarrel, who strode up to them and looked the leading soldier in the eyes.
"What the buck is going on?!" He asked. "Why isn't the princess trying to help us?" The leader looked at him with a blank stare, and replied, "We do not work for the princess."
Dusk got the idea quicker than Tarrel did, and called out, "Tarrel get back!" But it was too late, and Dusk watched in horror as the soldier swung his sword around, slicing into Tarrel's neck and cutting deep into it, causing a sudden spurt of blood when he hit a vein.
Tarrel tried to skirt back whilst gurgling out incoherent phrases, but the soldier moved with him, tugging the sword out and bringing it down on Tarrel's head, splitting his forehead open and snapping his neck to the side. Dusk gasped as blood began to well out of his brothers' neck and head, and again when the guard brought his sword out again and stabbed it forward, into Tarrel's heart and ensuring his death. His body fell towards the ground, his head cracking against the hard wood floor, and settled on it, blood spilling out of the wound, pooling on the floor.
Dusk backed away, toward his remaining brother, and told him, "Get the back door open!" His brother nodded and ran towards the back door, but one of the soldiers saw the movement and drew his bow out, raising it above the heads of his comrades and let loose.
It soared towards him, cutting the air and whistling past Dusk's ears, causing him to duck and turn to follow its flight. It came closer and closer to Dusk's brother, digging into his left leg and breaking his kneecap, and he fell to the floor, crying out. The leader nodded to the archer, and he lowered his bow, bringing up a small dagger, saying, "Anyone who gets in the way is dead," with such certainty that when he walked towards the fallen stallion the crowd parted without an upstander.
"well, they already are-" one soldier began to speak up, but was stopped by one of his comrades, but the damage was done. The silence was broken as a citizen began to scream and run for the doors, and slowly more and more ponies got the idea and ran from the soldiers, some calling out, "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!" while others just screamed and ran.
the lead soldier smacked a hoof over his face, almost certain that at this rate some might escape, and commanded his comrades to "kill them all!" until an explosion blew the back door to pieces, caving in that part of the town hall as a fireball blew up on it, blocking in the remaining citizens. The citizens turned around fearfully, looking into the eyes of their doom. And the bloodbath began.
The soldiers dove into the mass of ponies, swinging their swords left and right, slicing into flanks and stabbing with coordinated abandon, careful not to stay too close to one another. Dusk was standing in the open floor, no being stabbed at or run through, so he had about an instant to himself to think before somepony saw him. He peered around a corner where he saw a shivering table clloh and began to moe for it, stopping when he sees a soldier advancing towards it, a small smile on his face.
Angered by their lack of mercy, Dusk picks up a knife from the floor with his magic and makes for the soldier, but stops when he sees his last brother half galloping, half stumbling towards the soldier, attempting to tackle him but instead tumbling into him. The soldier falls to the floor with him, and Dusk watches in amazement as his brother tries to throw weak punches into the soldier's face, and the soldier gives out small grunts while he fumbles with his sword.
Snapping out of his stare, Dusk resumes his pace, this time aiming to help his brother take down the soldier when the soldier gets a hold of his sword, swinging it around into his brother's flank, and he cries out and stops the assault.
"NO!" Dusk cries out and rushes over, in a rage stabbing the knife into the soldier's eye, making him scream in pain and switch on the floor, and Dusk draws it out and stabs it home again and again, until the knife is bloody to the handle and the soldier no longer has eyes, or a single jawbone.
Dropping the knife, Dusk looks over to his brother, who is still breathing, but weakly. Dusk begins to try and calm him, but his brother holds a hoof up, pointing to the table cloth.
"Get them out of here," he says weakly, and suddenly gasps in air, taking a last, haggard breath before his eyes glaze over, and his hoof drops to the floor.
Trying and failing to fight away tears, Dusk gets up and trots over to the table cloth, drawing it up to reveal three scared fillies, looking up at him with pleading eyes, and he holds a hoof up, indicating they stay there for a moment, and goes back to the dead soldier, loosening the straps on his back pack, bringing it up and off his armor, and lifts it over his own back, tightightening the straps and emptying it of its contents, leaving food rations, a dagger and other things on the floor as he runs back to the fillies, lifting them one by one into the back pack, then turning to gaze about the room that was once a place for meetings and formal events.
It was, quite literally, a bloodbath, for the living anyway. The soldiers ran around, their armor no longer a visible grey but a shade of crimson, the blood even staining their fur, making it hard for thm to tell each other apart, though the leader had a puff of red hair sticking out the top of his helmet.
Seeing that the soldiers were preoccuupied, Dusk made for the door, taking one final glance at his dead siblings, and with a heavy heart ran from the building, though he was almost obliterated by a falling ball of death, landing right in front of him and splattering the pavement in flaming chunks. He ran aound it and continued his pace, looking down alleyways to see stallions and mares being massacred by soldiers bearing the same armor as the ones in the hall.
Leaning into his strides, he bent his head down and ran faster, not looking at the horrific scenes before him.

Author's Note

heh heh... The funny thing is, I lost track of who the real main character is, so i'll just introduce another one here...