shattering defeat - after the golden years!AU  
About the AU:  
This AU takes place in an equestria where the alicorn princesses are mortal just like every other being in this world.  
One cold hearts warming eve night when all of the princesses and their most loyal subject and the other heighers of equestria gathered around to celebrate hearts warming eve the lights suddenly turned dark. Every guest was confused, royal foals and fillies began to cry, the princesses tried to calm their subjects down when suddenly an heartbreaking scream caused a mass Panic. When the lights turned on again the Floor was covered in a strange liquid. After the guards somehow managed to calm the nervous ponies down they realized that princess Celestia mystiriouly dissappeared.Right away, the princesses started a huge search operation. After a few days, most ponies expected Celestia already to be dead, others had still not given uo hope. But when Luna then Shining Armor and Cadence and at the end even Twillight got seriously sick and one after the other deceased, all of the ponies were in fear of their beloved equestria. Who should lead them? Soon equestria was split into two parties: One, who wanted the last living princess, Flurry Heart to be raised to become the ruler of equestria and one, who wanted equestria to become a Democracy.  
But they soon had to realize that not only ponies asserted a claim to the thrown of the land.  
Ok. Now I’m finally coming to the picture:  
Anxiously corps commandant Firebrand looked down from the lug of the old, weather- beaten fortress to the remaining members of his corps, which were resting in the leafless, snow-covered garden before the castle. It was an atrocious perspective. Rarely two out of three were still carrying weapons and every single one looked exhausted, freezing and frustrated. Out of every Direction he could hear curses and screams of wounded or hemorrhaging soldiers. Directly under the lug he was standing on he could spot an army doctor amputating a lieutenant’s left back hoof. But even before the doctor could finish the “operation” the lieutenant had hemorrhaged.  
How did this happen… The, between his officers and lieutenants disdained, commandant.  
Frustrated he bit on his lip. Of course, he knew the painful answer. Just two months ago he marched with back then 60.000 soldiers in Drachmen. Before their invading Drachmen had been neutral but after the alderman retired he declared the city in the name of his general as a part of the the Equestrian Empire. After the invading his general told him that due several fights between Drachmen and the crystal empire he wasn’t able to cover the provision for the two corps. Because of the lag of food and weapons the soldiers started to plunder the houses of the city with 450.000 inhabitants. Despite a couple of executions which meant to daunt the plundering soldiers the food storages were nearly empty after just one month. The population of the city was furious.  
Just this morning he had a discussion with the corps commandant of the second corps but they were cut off by a deafening fizz. The “invisible blitz”, as the population called the corps of 10.000 “running dragons” (about half pony sized dragons race without wings) attacked Drachmen after they besieged the city for a couple of weeks without showing any sign for an attack. Within a couple of hours one third of the city and three armories caught fire. The air around the city was covered in smoke before they managed to gather their corps around the HQ. Firebrand decided that there was no use in trying to fight against the attacking army with nearly no equipment. The fasting and sick soldiers wouldn’t have had a chance anyway. Besides, there were only two bridges that lead out of the city. One was already in the claws of the dragons which were streaming into the city. Thank Celestia the bridge wasn’t very wide. It was a humiliating defeat. He was able to lead a few thousand soldiers out of the city but his foreleg got hit by an arrow. It was a miracle that they made it to the old castle about 10 Miles northerly of Drachmen. Now he had to wait until the commandant of the second corps arrive so they could head back to the crystal empire to restore their stock.  
Hopefully they were able to hold the bridge and made it out. He thought. The unforeseeable attack still shocked him. During the way, out of the city he was furious out of anger and accusations. But he had to admit: Nopony could have seen this coming. After all: In just two weeks there would have been a negotiation about the imprisoned ponies and dragons on both sides.  
As he was thinking about some good lines that could downplay this disaster, he continued observing the soldiers that kept appearing on the foggy mountain path. About 15 to 18 thousand soldiers should have arrived now. As he looked in the sky he saw a great number of pegasi of the second corps heading to the castle. He already could identify the first pegasi. When he spotted the commandant, he sighed.  
Looks like the evacuation was successful. He thought as he watched the alicorn commandant landing a few steps beside him.  
“I’m relieved you finally made it.” Firebrand declared as he stood up to hobble inside of the old castle. “So you managed to back up the path for the remaining soldiers in the city, Fiery Bliss?”  
“Kind of, yeah.” The addressed one declared. “But I don’t expect that there are many left coming.”  
Firebrand looked irritated at Fiery Bliss. “Why do you think that? When I look down I’d say only about 40.000 made it until now.”  
Impatient Lightling Bliss listened halfhearted. While she followed the red unicorn in the dark, wet, lackluster and draughty room on the huge stone table which was somehow placed in the middle of the small room. Disgusted she surveyed the moss on the walls. It was quite an opposite to the splendid, magnificent decorated halls in the castle in Drachmen. “I’ve occasioned a targeted detonation after I regathered the remaining pegasi who were still able to fly.” She declared as she rolled the map she saved when she fled and put it down.  
Horrified Firebrand looked at Fiery Bliss. “Excuse me?” He mumbled. But after he internalized what the white- red alicorn just said. But then he couldn’t hold back. “Are you seriously telling me that you left thousands of our soldiers in a burning city full of enemy combattants?!“  
While their chat turned into a fiery, loud discussion, an orange Pegasus landed on the lug who waited for the two commandants to get audience.  
“I just did what I thought was the most promising way to buy us as much time as possible. I’m rather sacrificing thousands of soldiers than giving our enemy the chance to catch up to the head of our corps. And since those snakes can’t fly they won’t be able to do so.” Fiery Bliss angrily shouted back.  
“May I just for a sec-“ Golden Fox, the orange pegasi, began but the two squabblers weren’t even seeing him.  
“What you did is simply unacceptable!” Firebrand shouted.  
Fiery Bliss looked at him like he was just telling her that ice cream tastes like shit. Why was he that angry? She thought her decision was absolutely justified. But she didn’t complain about the argumentation itself. She loved fiery, loud discussions. “Don’t get worked up over that! You should be THANKFUL! Without me, those snakes would be here by now! Without the bridge, they can’t cross the river and considering the lack of wood building a new one will take them DAYS! Enough time for us to get to the crystal empire!”  
Highly worried Golden Fox looked at the red unicorn, waiting for him to response. But what worried him even more was the question when he could FINALLY deliver the letter he had tied on the lef side of his armor.  
Ps.:  
Drachmen is a city between the dragon lands and Equestria but was inhabiteted by much more dragons than ponies. Even though their local government asked for neutrality neither the dragons nor the ponies were about to waive the rich city.  
… I hate writing stories so please forgive me for potential grammar mistakes…  
About the characters: (All of the three are Standing on the side of the equestrian royals)  
Firebrand already was a soldier of the royal army before the war started so he decided to stay on the side of equestrian royals.  
Origial character belongs to joshscorcher  
Golden Fox wasn’t quite sure wether he should join the voulenteer army nearly half of the stallions in equestria joined so he decided for the moment to become an courier for the military.  
Original character belongs to GoldenFoxDA  
Fiery Bliss’s origin is going to be a secret for now. All I’m gonna tell you is that she is a part of the personality of Lightning Bliss.  
Feelings of the rainbow by Schokocream  
 
Original character belongs to Lightning-Bliss