Nightmare Moon's Stars

Princess Celestia ensured that not a sound was made while she closed the door behind her before finally dropping her head and sighing.

"How is she?"

Celestia raised her head and looked into her adopted niece's eyes.

"Terribly. But she's recovering." Answered Celestia.

As the two walked down the hall and Celestia told Cadance what had happened in the room, Celestia thought back to the events that brought them there.

Celestia sat on her throne while pretending to listen to the pompous noblecolt of the day when a pegasus wearing a Equestrian Star Realm burst through the throne doors.

Before the noblecolt could even inhale, Celestia raised her hoof to silence him and addressed the messenger.

"Speak."

While Celestia welcomed the break from her typical royal duties, she was now bound by her duties to the Equestrian Star Realm. And despite her current relationship with her sister, the individuals within the Equestrian Star Realm did their best to accomodate the existing ruling structures of Equestria. Ponies knew better than to interrupt Celestia's court without good reason.

And it was a very good reason.

The entire fleet had been wiped out.

The entire room was aghast by the news.

Celestia never doubted Luna's dreams as warnings, but her long experience with conflict and power as an alicorn had convinced her that the establishment of the Equestrian Star Realm as a military force was unnecessary. Her wisdom as a politician and her charisma made her a leader; a true peacemaker with the strength and knowledge to enforce and execute with.

But it wasn't enough.

The best engineering from earth ponies, shields designed by the smartest unicorns, even piloting skills of the Wonderbolts wasn't enough. The last thing they left behind was video footage of the fleet's last stand against an enemy they could not defeat and could not flee from fast enough.

There stood the incontrovertible evidence.

That wasn't the worst part either.

The worst part was seeing her little ponies floating in space dying or already dead, far away from home. Never to feel her sunlight again. Never to gaze upon Luna's stars again. Not even take their final resting place in the soils of Equestria.

That day, Celestia wept for her little ponies. And all of Equestria wept with her.