The Princess of the Night was dreaming.

In her dream, there was a menace that had never come, but had never truly left. They almost never walked upon the earth, but had circled above. They never existed, yet they stood before her to place their demands. They spoke a strange language with strange expressions and walked a strange walk with strange movements. Their gestures meant something entirely different from the Equestrian equivalent. They reminded her of Lord Tirek mixed with a mutant snake.

“Pony of Gurank,” the closest hissed, “you and your comrades have breached the technological barrier that is carefully guarded by the Protectors of Knowledge for the third and final time. Consider this your final warning. Should you renounce your path, destroy your technology, and submit to Protectorate status, the Cleansing will be swift and painless. Some of your comrades may even survive as honored subjects of the Protectors, allowed to live with their families in utopian splendor for the rest of their days.

“Should you resist, Pony of Gurank, the Cleansing will be thorough and complete. Not a single piece of your planet shall remain intact, and your species will be eliminated from the universe. The Protectors have come for the final Cleansing of your world. Resistance is futile.”

Before Luna even had time to contemplate her reply, she already knew what her allies would say. She would stand by them, even if it meant death, and so would her sister. In memory of Queen Atlanta and King Flawless Ice, in honor of Crimson Dawn, Platinum Starlight, and all those whose lives were cut tragically short two centuries before on the fields around the Crystal Empire. To uphold the tradition begun by Admiral Robinson and his American battle fleet, to defend the freedom of her people from the tyrannies of destruction, she would fight.

“You may instill fear in the hearts of your enemies,” she coldly uttered, “but you will never defeat us. Even if Equestria falls, Atlantis crushed, Griffonstone set ablaze, the Crystal Empire annihilated, and the Dominion razed to the ground, our spirits will live on in the lives of others throughout this universe of yours, and we will spark the flame that will burn your order to ashes. Do your worst, enemies of Equestria.”

“So be it.”

Celestia burst into the room just as Luna opened her eyes to the mid-afternoon sun. Her white coat dazzled reflectively across the walls, and her flowing rainbow mane and tail brushed against her sister’s nightstand. Her yellowish magic still fizzed off her horn and the door, signaling her rushed arrival, and her wings were tiredly stretched.

Luna took a moment to address her own coat. Climbing out of her comfortable blankets, she smoothed her ruffled coat and brushed her mane and tail, although hers was similar to Celestia’s. Her midnight-blue color had not faded to gray, as it sometimes did when she dreamt lucid, which was definitely a good sign. Gray fur meant stress, and stress meant an extra five cups of coffee would be in order. But she was sweaty like never before. It had to be the blankets.

“Luna,” Celestia panted, “I came to tell you as soon as I heard. King Jade’s astronomers sighted a significant number of extremely large objects that will arrive in less than a year.”

Luna suddenly didn’t need the coffee that she’d habitually materialized seconds before. “How long? A few months?”

“By their best assumptions, ten months at the most. It’s likely closer to eight.”

“If only we still had the Elements of Harmony or their Bearers, we would be more prepared to deal with a threat such as this.”

“No, Luna, we would not. This can only be explained as a technological threat, and a highly advanced one at that. As the World War proved, the best way to defeat a technological enemy is with technology. Magic may help, but only to a degree. We must fight this battle without the Elements of Harmony."

“Sister, we must prepare in any way that we can. They will come, and we will fight them, because our duty to our ponies demands it. If we succeed--that is up for debate. But preparation and acknowledgement of the threat is the first step, and one we would be wise to take. Begin mobilization of our military. It may have not needed to fight a war in two hundred years, but it has taken the mistakes and lessons learned then well. Queen Andromeda of Atlantis will likely do the same, as will King Jade and his Dominion.”

“Then we have work to do.” Celestia stood straight, a regal look returning to her pant-reddened face. Massaging her forehead with her hoof, she absent-mindedly adjusted her crown and smoothed her mane. Little things like that were virtually unacceptable to her before the World War, but small panic attacks had since changed her mind. “I will work the day, and you the night. That way, one of us is always available.”

“Sister, we have been doing that for the last two centuries. And you are messing with your crown again.”

Celestia snapped her hoof to the floor with a clang. “This is not the time, Luna…”

“No, this is the perfect time. It’s Robinson, isn’t it? He was diagnosed with cancer not long after the War and retired. Sister, wake up! It has been two hundred years since his death. You must move on.”

“You didn’t know him as I did.” Celestia’s head hung low, her mane covering her tearing eyes.

“Sister.” Luna’s no-nonsense tone was unmistakable. “We have lived for thousands of years, whereas everypony else is lucky to reach ninety. We are the exception to life and death. No amount of wishing can change the past, nor can it alleviate the pain. You of all ponies know that you must not dwell on the past.”

“I can’t, Luna. No matter how hard I try, I cannot stop thinking about him. About what he did for us--what he sacrificed when he didn't have to.”

“Then perhaps you need something to occupy your mind. The coming conflict will do that well enough.”

Andromeda Star, Queen of Atlantis and Guardian of the Celestial Isles, scanned the hastily written letter from her communications department. She unconsciously twirled her violet mane around her hooves while her sparkling blue-star eyes skipped the pleasantries that someone thought had to head every official document and found the main point: King Jade’s astronomers had seen a flotilla of objects hurtling unabated through space. These ships were calculated to be traveling faster than light itself. And the only reason they’d been seen in the first place was the insanely compressed photonic energy shoved ahead at many times its normal speed--507,469-point-25 times, to be exact. She wasn’t about to second guess Jade’s astronomers, but that number still seemed like pulling numbers from a hat.

Her late-evening coat puffed as the great oaken double doors to her throne hall banged open. As a pair of guards rushed to her dias, she magically smoothed it and repacked her wings, glaring at the surprise. Just because she was Queen didn’t mean she had to like sudden news. In fact, she learned to dread it.

The two guards stopped and bowed simply before speaking. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna of Equestria and King Jade of the Dominion request an audience.”

“When would they prefer to conduct it?”

“Right now, if isn’t too much to ask,” came a soft, melodic voice, strained from stress.

Andromeda looked up. Celestia stood in the banged-open entrance. Luna was on her left and Jade on her right. All three appeared harried, as if their arrival was rushed, and Jade was still combing his glossy green hair. Luna’s coat was ruffled from sleeping, and bags hung from her eyes. Celestia’s coat was stained gray in some places.

“Is this about the objects from space?” the Queen of Atlantis asked. “I only heard the news myself thirty seconds ago.”

“An alien force has directly threatened us,” Luna replied. “Somehow, they were able to speak into my dreams.”

“What was the threat?”

“Destruction.”

“Did they offer any way to avoid it?”

“No, only that it would be faster if we destroyed our technology.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Jade asserted. “It’s the only thing uniting our world in the first place. Instant communications, a connection to the human world, even the basics make up the core of all of us. Even you will admit it: our alliances are fraying and have been over the past fifty years.” The three matriarchs nodded, shameful faced. “There’s no question about it. We must act now. Permission to launch the carrier, Princess Celestia?”

Celestia was dumbfounded. “Uh, sure?"

Author's Note

I'm definitely not listening to rock music as I write this story. Some of it may be rock or metal, but I don't even know the genres anymore.

Whatever this track is, there really isn't an update schedule to this story since it's the actual last of the series, both chronologically and literally. I'll work on this when I'm not doing others, but anyone who has read my previous stories know exactly where I'm going. Big booms, big battles, and this time, I get to play with spaceships.

Oh, this is going to be fun. And probably a lot like The Atlantean-Dominion War in how I portray it.