Twilight walked into the hall. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were already there. She gave them the best smile she could muster. Only Pinkie Pie smiled back. All of them were just as tired and skinny as her. Pinkie held up an empty plate in front of her.
"Twilight, here, have some Equestrian food."
Despite the pain in their stomachs, they couldn't help but chuckle. Pinkie Pie's humor had grown a lot darker and she wasn't alone.
"Look at you" Pinkie Pie then said while moving a hoof over Twilight's ribs "I can use you as a xylophone."
Laughter filled the hall. For a moment all was right with the world. For a moment they weren't poor starving creatures under a continuous artillery barrage. But then reality set in as well as an awkward silence.
"It's almost over." Applejack said, breaking it.
"What is almost over?" Twilight asked confused.
"Applejack, you were supposed to keep it a secret. Now the party is ruined." Pinkie Pie scolded.
"Princess Celestia told us that the shield can only last for a few more hours..." Rainbow Dash explained.
"...and you know what'll happen once that shield fails." Fluttershy reminded in a sad tone.
"Great, I wonder if the shrapnel will kill me or they'll have to drag me out and finish me." Twilight said dryly.
It surprised Twilight how little the oncoming doom phased her. She had seen and lost so much the last two months, it was almost a relief.
"There's no need for such a ghastly end for us, Darling. Pinkie Pie made punch." Rarity began explaining.
"There's barely bread. How did she make..." but before finishing that sentence Twilight knew it was a useless question to ask. The laws of nature weren't that strict for Pinkie Pie.
"How does that fix anything?" Twilight asked frustrated.
"Princess Celestia is giving out hemlock to everypony so they don't have to suffer as much. Pinkie Pie mixed ours in the punch." Fluttershy explained.
Twilight stared at them in disbelief.
"Look, nobody is forcing you to drink it. I'll drink mine so at least I don't give them the satisfaction of killing me." Rainbow explained.
"We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it, sugarcube. Pinkie Pie did her best to throw us one last bash. Please, try to put everything out of mind and enjoy yourself." Applejack explained.
"Okay" Twilight said, trying to sound as happy as she could.
"Yay!" Pinkie Pie jumped up and threw confetti made from the scrap paper from the Canterlot magic academy, covered with failed attempts to find a spell to counter the invaders.
She turned on the gramophone. The music started playing, periodically interrupted by the shells. It was the conga.
"Come on, everypony." Pinkie Pie said enthusiastically.
They formed a conga line and started clumsily dancing around the room. Twilight closed her eyes, trusting her friends to lead the line.. For a moment she was back in Applejack's barn, celebrating Pinkie Pie's surprise party. She couldn't hear the shells for a moment. She smiled.
When one song ended and the other began, they broke up the line and started dancing each on their own. Pinkie Pie somehow got a balloon and blew it up and somehow made it float in the middle of the room without any helium. Despite being accompanied by the constant vile shrieking of artillery shells falling, the songs sounded heavenly.
"I've got a surprise for you, girls." Pinkie Pie said and rushed out.
The rest kept dancing, lost in the moment. Soon, though, they smelled a mouth watering smell.
"I asked Celestia if I could pick up our rations early and she agreed." Pinkie Pie explained.
Each one of them got a tiny piece of bread. They ate it crumb by crumb. It was the best thing they had ever eaten. Each one of them Mmmned out loud to show their appreciation.
Once everypony finished their meal, Pinkie Pie brought the punch.
"Well, having something to drink after such a great meal sounds delightful." Rarity exclaimed.
She filled her glass to the top and lifted it up.
"To Carouselle Boutique!" she said despite there no longer being a Carouselle Boutique.
"It'll take a while for the poison to work. We don't want to drink it only to still feel being ripped apart by the cannons." Applejack explained.
She followed Rarity's example
"To the Apple family!" she toasted, despite her being the only remaining member of the Apple family.
"To the Wonderbolts!" Rainbow Dash followed, despite all other Wonderbolts being lost in an attempt to throw back the invasion.
"To my animal friends!" Fluttershy said, holding up her portion, despite every one of them being killed when a shell had directly struck her cottage.
"To this great party!" Pinkie Pie added, despite that the party was almost over.
"To Equestria." finally Twilight joined in, despite Equestria being almost over as well.
And they all drank. The music kept playing. They resumed dancing, until one by one they collapsed on the floor.
Author's Note
Brace yourself, this is going to be a punch in the gut
Another Morning
Twilight woke up. The sun still hadn't been raised, she was horribly tired, but the shells had woken her up once again. Day after day. Night after night. Those... things just kept firing their cannons over and over and over. They were persistent, she had to give them that. Canterlot's magic shield was the one spell that worked against the invaders, and it had worked flawlessly for two months. Otherwise Canterlot would have been turned to rubble and slaughtered like Ponyville, or every other village, city and hamlet in Equestria.
The book she read until she had fallen asleep, or more appropriately, passed out was still next to her. It was in a sad state. She had once treated books with the utmost respect, but as her life and her home had crumbled, she had grown more negligent. Notes were scribbled, crossed out and rescribbled. Pages were folded. Pages were torn out. Notes were glued in. Anything to find a way to fight back against them. Anything to turn the tide. Anything for that desperate hope.
She sighed, set the magic book aside, got up and looked outside the window, the constant flashes of the invaders' artillery illuminating the place that once was her home. Not one structure was left standing in Ponyville. Not one.
"Why? Why do they want this? Why are they doing this? Where did they come from? Who are they?" she asked herself out loud.
But this wasn't the worst. Not even close. Once the shelling had stopped, everypony in her town that still had a heart beat was dragged out of the rubble and executed by them, one by one, crying, their bodies already mangled by shrapnel. Had she and the other elements of harmony not been called to the city to discuss the invasion that was had take Equestria by storm, she would have been among them. Either killed by those things' cannons or finished off afterwards. She wanted collapse again like she had collapsed that day, but she remembered the words Celestia had repeated over and over to her.
"You have to keep going Twilight. For everypony who has lost their life to them."
She exited her room. She had to go get her daily rations. The whole city would soon be lining up in front of the bakery for that tasty, tasty piece of bread. Her stomach grumbled. She was skin and bones, just like Celestia and Luna and everypony in this city. Celestia had insisted that not even the Princesses got preferential treatment. In front of her door was a note.
"Come to the palace's hall. We'll have one last party like we used to.
Hugs, Pinkie Pie."
Confused, she followed the instructions.
