Prologue: The One You Feed
It was a bright, sunny day in the capital city of Concordia. Birds were singing, the wind gently rolled through the streets, and everyone was cheerful as they walked along. It was a beautiful day to be in Celestia’s sun, and it would be even more so for Luna’s moon.
I was but a foal at the time, and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to play in the fields outside of town before my father would come home, since my mother was busy with chores around the house. I kicked a stone in front of me as I passed along a field of corn. Occasionally, my horn would flicker to life and my eyes would close hard with concentration. Eliciting a the stone to be wrapped in a light silver glow and rise for a moment before falling back to the dirt with a thump. I gave a frustrated huff, then blew my violet mane with it’s silver streak out of my eyes and tried again.
This was my usual day’s journey out the grassy fields where I liked to play. It was very far across the dirt road along the cornfield, but my little legs couldn't carry me very far. I saw the usual passersby as well, a few carriages, farmers, royal guards. There was something terribly different about this day, however.
I had just passed two royal guards before I made it to the open field. I was looking back to admire the stallions regal armor and the official way that they held themselves. I turned my head towards the fields and saw something out of place.
Two farmers were arguing loudly with each other at the edge of the cornfield, in plain view. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they were obviously very angry with each other. I was too scared to go out into the fields with them there, so I hid behind some stalks and watched them from the road.
I had seen them around the farms over here quite often, but had never gotten to know them, only that they were usually close to each other. One of them was a dark brown, and the other was a lighter gray, that was mostly all I knew.
The brown one was obviously much angrier, but the gray one wasn’t much further behind. They argued for what seemed like ten minutes before the brown one turned around and tried to walk off, steaming. The gray one didn't like that apparently, he strode forward and put a hoof on his shoulder to turn him around.
I glanced back to the road to see if there were any ponies coming. Sure enough, the two guards I had passed were trotting back this direction with curious expressions.
Just as soon as I had turned my head and noticed the two guards, an ear piercing scream resonated across the field where the farmers were. My hair stood on end all across my body and a jumped in fear. The guards broke out into a gallop behind me. I looked forward to see that the brown farmer was on top of the other one, repeatedly ramming his fist into the face of the other one. To my horror, his hoof was stained a dark red, and the gray farmer lay limp beneath him as he continued mercilessly beating him.
I took a couple steps back into the road, not believing what I saw. My mouth hung open and tears formed in my eyes at the violence before me. The two guards darted past me, leaving a cloud of dust as they side stepped into the field and sprinted towards the farmer.
I sat back on my haunches and could only stare at what played out. One of the guards slammed into the farmer and knocked him off of the poor stallion. The other one hurried up to the gray farmer and started to check him over. The guard over the assailant pointed his horn down at the struggling pony, and with a bright light, casted a spell that bound the farmers hooves together.
I walked into the field to look at what seemed to be happening. The other guard moved away from the limp gray farmer and shook his head.
“He’s gone,” the guard said solemnly to the other.
The brown farmer beneath the guard spat out strange words at the pny holding him down quite loudly. The guard simply raised a hoof above his head and thrust it down across his cheek. That quickly silenced his loud obscenities, but he still looked up at the guard menacingly.
“The princesses do not take kindly to murder, you criminal,” The guard brought his hoof down yet again, and the pony below him went limp. He maneuvered the farmer onto his back, and the other guard noticed me.
I did not think to do anything as he began trotting up to me, other than to look over him at the gray one on the ground. All I could see was his disfigured face discolored a deep red before the guard got to me.
“This is no place for you, little one. Please, go home, you should not have to see this,” he said in an easy tone, in a stark contrast from how I normally heard guards.
I could only stare up at him in awe for a moment, still a bit shocked by what I had seen.
“Y-Yes sir,” I told him before I started to make my way back towards home.
I could only stare at the dirt in front of me, pondering what happened and why that pony would do such a thing. I looked back occasionally and could see the two guards not far behind me, one of them carried a limp brown farmer on his back.
I hurried home. I doubted my father would be back by this time, but I knew I could at least talk to my mother about it, maybe she could tell me why someone would do something so horrible.
As soon as I was close enough to see out of our window, my mother flew out of the front door up to me.
“Where have you been Silver Line?” my mother asked with concern.
“I was going to the fields like I usually do, but something bad happened...” I said as I looked down, kicking the dirt around.
“What? You aren’t hurt are you?” She lifted my face up with a navy blue wing and began searching me for and signs of injury, with a very concerned look on her face.
“No ma’am, nothing like that.” I pushed the wing down gently and looked up at her.
“It was those farmers, there was a brown one and a gray one, they were fighting, and...”
“That must be Sugar Cane and his brother. What happened Silver?” She raised an eyebrow.
“The brown one hurt the other one real bad, he wasn’t moving. There was a lot of blood...” Thinking about it made me tear up a bit, and my mother looked down at me in shock.
“I do not-” She looked behind me and her eyes widened in disbelief.
“C-Cane?!” I turned around to see the guards carrying the farmer through the street. Cane’s hoof was still stained red.
My mother pulled my back and started walking with me towards the house.
“Come now, we should go inside.” I followed her, occasionally glancing back into the street before she closed the door.
“Mother... What would make a pony hurt someone like that?”
She looked back, and almost seemed to wonder if she should really tell me or not, or how to word it.
“Some ponies become evil, and they end up doing bad things like that.”
“But what makes a pony become evil like that?”
She sat me down on a cushion by the fire, and pulled me close and wrapped me in a wing. I looked up at her with a questioning glance and waited for an answer.
“Silver, there is a battle between two wolves in all of us. One of them is evil, it embodies all the hate and anger we feel, and the ill will towards other ponies. The other is good, and this one represents all of our kindness and generosity, the one that creates the harmony that we have,” she said down to me gently.
“But which one wins?”
“The one you feed.”
“-OOOOO!” A bright flash of light cut me off as I realised I wasn't in the castle anymore. My battle armor clanked as my blood soaked hooves hit the dirt. I dropped my bloodied sword to the ground as a wave of emotion took hold of me. The only remaining night guards stood behind me as they looked up in sorrowful awe at the sky.
The stars aligned with the moon. I couldn't bear to watch it as tears clouded my vision.
“It wasn't supposed to be like this!” I shouted up to the heavens, hoping Celestia would change her mind. I cried harder than I ever had before. She didn't deserve this, even through all she's done, she didn't deserve this.
The stars shone out behind the moon and permanently etched the mare in the moon onto its surface, sealing the fate of the one I held the closest. I let out a pained cry. All I had worked for, all of the lives I had ended, and only failure to show for it.
There was nothing left for me now but to hope for a quick death. I laid in the cold dirt and sobbed as the sun pushed the moon out of the sky.
“Silver, we have to go. They'll find us here,” One of the guards said through a broken voice as he pulled me out of the dirt.
I nodded. We were the last, we were the condemned. We were going to be hunted and killed to the last pony, and we all knew it. The only thing we had left to do is run.
______________________________________________________________________________
I marched into the castle with a massive smile on my face, and party fares covering me from hoof to horn. There was never another party like the summer sun festival. Every servant in the whole castle was released to celebrate that day. The entire town of Concordia was alive through the night, shouting and singing and dancing. It had to be the best time of the year. As the party drew to a close, I decided to retire to my place in the castle in Luna’s servants quarters to begin my duties for the next day.
But as I walked through the empty castle corridor, I only heard muffled sobbing through the celebrations outside.
“Hello? Who is there?” I called out. No answer came. I decided to find the source, since no pony should be sad and alone on this day.
I followed the sound through the halls, losing my smile to the cries of this melancholy soul. As I neared the Royal bedchambers, I recalled one particular princess of the night was absent from the celebration this day.
“Luna? Is that you?” Though no answer came, the source of the pained sounds where no doubt emanating from her bedchambers. Determined to help her majesty, I summoned the bravery to enter her door.
I pushed open the large wooden door to find Luna hunched over before a mirror, crying for some reason unbeknownst to me.
I continued my trek into her dark, spacious room and finally spoke up. “Your majesty, whatever is the matte-”
Luna swiftly turned around to look at me as soon as I spoke with the force of a bolt of lightning. Her eyes focused on me and I stopped dead in my tracks, petrified. Her gaze pierced my very essence, her eyes stared with a maddened gaze that promised everlasting pain to whatever wrong was before them.
I could have died by that gaze alone, but after a split second, she recognized me and her gaze eased at my presence.
“Oh, Silver, it is only you.” Luna brushed the tears out of her eyes. She sighed and then trotted over to the balcony. “These are most troubling of times.”
I trotted up to where she was sitting and sat as well, “Whatever has you so upset on such wondrous occasions your majesty?”
“Oh Silver, that is precisely the problem. Ponies are out in the streets celebrating my sister's sun,” she said, motioning to the ponies enjoying themselves in the street.
“But Princess, it is a day of nation wide celebration, why do you cry over such a wondrous occasion?”
“On the eve of the celebration, I had asked of my sister to have an identical celebration for my moon, on the longest night of the year, so ponies may relish in my marvelous creation as well.”
“That sounds like a great idea, what did Celestia have to say?”
The princess began to let her emotions get the better of her as tears began flowing once again, “She shunned the idea before I had even finished. She remarked that no pony would waste their night in the harsh winters celebrating the death of their crops to a dark, meaningless sky,” She said, completely breaking down again.
“She could not have meant such a thing, perhaps she was simply overdrawn by other events and took her anger out on you,” I said, attempting to console the saddened princess.
“While I envy your optimism Silver Line, I cannot help but disagree. She was quite stern with the rejection, she did not even grant me the time to explain myself further, claiming she had ‘more important matters to attend to’. As if her own sister was not deserving of her presence.”
“I-I’m so sorry princess.” I inched closer and hugged her, hoping it would console her. She put an arm around me and cried as a broken mare. Any other pony and the mere thought of getting this close to her majesty would be daunting, but I had grown especially close to the princess of the night over the years of serving her. I could say that her and I were quite close friends, close enough to share moments like this.
“I just do not understand, Silver. Ponies relish and play in the day my elder sister brings forth, yet they shun and sleep through my beautiful night, and Celestia decrees this as how things are supposed to be,” she said through a veil of tears.
“Not I, Princess. I love to witness your lovely night in its entirety on every occasion.”
She broke the embrace to smile at me, which made me feel all the better, but it did not last long. “I know, Silver. It is so precious to me that you do so, but you are only one of few. While your perspective is dear to me, the majority see me as useless and forgotten.”
“Princess, I assure you they do no such thing. You are adored by the masses.”
“I am not so sure. My sister rules with absolute power, leaving me with little but the night itself to ‘bring harmony to the land’,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
“It is true that she rules over you, but what can we do against it?” I asked rhetorically, but the Princess had summoned an air of determination at the words.
“Do you trust me, Silver?” Luna said with a hopeful gaze.
“With my life, your highness.” This brought a determined smile to the face of the Princess, with her starry mane brightening as it whipped in an invisible wind.
“Good. Silver, you are one of the best friends I have ever been blessed with.”
“Think nothing of it, the blessing is all mine.”
“Silver Line, I must ask a favor of you. I assure you this is of utmost importance.”
“Anything for you, your majesty,” I said as I straightened up.
“There may be something we can do to turn the tides of my sisters regime. On the eve of the morrow, the castle will be ours,” she said ominously.
Her eyes sharpened and I was momentarily filled with fear. She had the look of a mad killer while she laid out the plan to me, and my role in it.
This was going to be the start of the bloodiest war that Equestria has ever seen.