Letters from the Homefront

Celestia lay in the midst of the four-poster bed, staring at the mirror standing atop the simple crystal dresser next to her. Her reflection scowled back at her, the mouth drawn thin, the eyes glaring.

She turned and studied the room around them. They were in a stately room with crystal walls and no windows. Aside from the dresser and the bed, there was also a pair of cushioned chairs and a low purple crystal table. The room was dimly lit by a small chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

Celestia was not alone in the room. Four other ponies stayed with her, each of them wearing the blue and gold uniforms of an Equestrian Royal Guard. Two of them, a white stallion pegasus corporal with red hair and an orange female unicorn with golden hair, each laid on one of the couches, snoring quietly. A yellow pegasus mare with blue and white hair and a tall, broad-shouldered red earth pony with clay brown and red hair stood by the door, facing inside. All four of the guards had their hooves close to the holsters at their sides.

Lighting up her horn, Celestia closed the curtains of the four-poster bed, allowing herself some privacy. Taking out a pen and a roll of parchment, she began to write.

Dear Luna,

I’m writing you from the guest room from the Crystal Palace. We arrived a few hours ago, just after sunrise, and what I have seen has broken my heart.

When our train pulled into the station, we found an entire platoon of Crystal Soldiers, thirty of all, waiting for us on the platform. They were adorned in their new uniforms: black, with purple highlights and heavy metal helmets. Each of them was armed with BARs, those new guns that their armory’s designed. Over the station, I saw the new flag of the Crystal Empire: the same snowflake, but now embossed on a shield with a black background.

The lieutenant in charge of the platoon stepped forward as we disembarked. “Celestia,” he growled at me. “You will come with us.” It was an order. All those soldiers glared at us as we followed, and I saw several of them reaching for their weapons. Their anger and their fear was like a cloud hanging over us. My guards could feel it themselves, and not one of their hooves went far from their holsters.

We walked from the station to the town center, towards the sound of a great marching band, and beheld an army procession marching through the streets. Hundreds upon hundreds of grim-faced soldiers stomped across the crystal, every step so perfectly in time that the ground shook beneath their weight. As they passed by a stand set in front of the Palace, each of them, in perfect, machine-like precision, turned to their right and raised their forelegs in salute to Sombra himself, who stood at the top of the stand. He looked just like any other unicorn, but as I stared up at him, straight-backed, proud, and pristine, I felt like I was looking up at a legend torn from a history book...or maybe a fairy tale. One of the ones that mother and father used to tell us, about monsters in the woods and wicked things passing off as ponies. He wore a uniform himself, that of a five-star general, and saluted the soldiers beneath him as they passed. His generals were on either side of him. The crowd cheered as the soldiers passed: “Grandine vittoria! Grandine vittoria!”

“Hail victory,” they were saying. What victory?

That’s when Sombra saw me. He directed those cold blue eyes at me and raised a hoof. Immediately, everything stopped. Everything was silent, and it was more horrifying than any scream, any thunderclap. Every eye turned towards us, towards me. I found it hard not to swallow.

“Is it not enough that you must control the sun and the moon?” Sombra called to me, his voice booming across the town center. “Now you murder our Empress and keep our Princess from us?”

At his words, the entire crowd started jeering and catcalling. “Murderer!” they screamed. “Give us back our Princess!”

Celestia paused, closing her eyes momentarily and taking a slow, shuddering breath. For a moment, the echoes of the screaming crowd sounded in her ears. Quieting the voices, she continued to write.

You know that since mother passed the crowns to us, we’ve had to get used to wearing masks, to pretending that nothing affects us. But that mask almost cracked right then. If Amore could see what had become of her beloved ponies, if they could see the prominence of their soldiers, how they screamed at me, she would have wept.

“Cadance is safe, where she belongs,” I declared. “It was the dying wish of Princess Amore that she be cared for in Equestria—”

“I heard her dying wish from her own lips before she died from your poison!” Sombra spat back. “She wished for Mi Amore Cadenza to be returned home! Why are you keeping her from us?”

Again, the crowd screamed at me, howled accusations at me. Again, the mask almost cracked.

“This is not something that is to be discussed in front of a crowd, Prime Minister Sombra,” I declared. “Could we please move this to more private quarters?”

Sombra just glared at me for a moment, then jerked his head. “Come,” he commanded and turned away. Our entourage went with him, the crowd still shouting accusations at me.

I followed him up to the Palace, past the spire where the Crystal Heart was placed, sending out its energies across the nation. I couldn’t help but think of Amore then. Do you remember, sister, when we helped her carve that stone? She wished to ensure that her mother’s empire would be given hope and light for all time.

What can the Heart do for them now?

Sombra insisted on having the negotiations in a private room in the Palace, by ourselves. He laid out his demands right from the start. He wants us to return Cadance to the Crystal Empire, pay reparation for Amore’s death, cede a significant amount of territory to him, and begin to disarm and reduce our armed forces. Such demands are patently absurd, and I had half a mind to tell him as such, but that would have gotten us nowhere. Instead, I attempted to reason with him, to explain that we were not responsible for Amore’s death and that Cadance was to stay in Equestria. But he refused to listen.

We went back and forth like this for several hours until long after dark and we were both exhausted. Sombra dismissed me with a grunt and two of the palace guards brought us to a set of guest chambers. There’s enough room for myself and my four bodyguards.

Celestia paused again, casting her eyes around as if she could see through the curtains. The room was still silent save for the breathing of her companions.

But this is a gilded cage. As soon as the door was shut behind us, I heard it lock, and I detected a Looking Spell glass on the mirror over the dresser, so we are being watched as well. We are secured in and watched. Right now, Sunny Skies and Clay Pigeon are standing guard at the door while Zipline and Bright Torch sleep. All four of them are keeping their hooves on their holsters--the palace guards tried to get them to disarm themselves when we arrived, but they flatly declined.

I’m writing this behind the covers of the four-poster bed. I’ll send it to you with that spell that Starswirl taught us. If Sombra is monitoring the magic usage in this room, all he will feel is a short burst of indistinct magic, I hope.

Luna, this is all going wrong. I had hoped that this was a simple misunderstanding, but now we are prisoners in the land that used to be our ally. I know you are likely eager to leap to our ponies’ defense, but please, be patient. I will give Sombra one last chance to end this peacefully.

Fret not, my sister. I will be all right.

Love,

Celestia

Rolling up the parchment, Celestia held it up before her and the letter vanished in a brief flash of golden light. Laying back down on the bed, Celestia tucked the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes, knowing that she would not get much sleep that night.