Equestrian Slaughterhouse

Weeks, months, years had gone by. The new government, at one time a faint illusion of a dream someone had as a child in bed, had become all too real. People had adjusted to the new standards. They weren’t afraid of the new leaders, rather just distant from them. But they enjoyed the confidence they had and the freedom they were given. Only 6 ponies could have disagreed with what they’d done. Of course, the Mane Six, could not have disagreed more.

“I don’t understand this,” Twilight repeated over and over as she paced in her treehouse. “They kill the princesses, murder thousands, and everyone is happy?! Have they all gone blind?” Pinkie, usually in her carefree state, sat quietly in one corner of the large room. She had always been told to not be scared, and remain happy as ever, but some things got so deep it couldn’t be helped by a balloon or a party. The rest of them donned an expression of deep concern. They understood the situation at hand, but not what to do with it. As far as they were concerned, Twilight could deal with this. They quickly figured she couldn’t.

“If no one else is on our side, then whadda we do?” Applejack asked. She may as well have just given up. Asking something like that showed how little they could do. Rarity piped up.

“Couldn’t we use the Elements of Harmony? They’ve worked before.” She was right, but it seemed next to useless.

“Sure, assuming none of us die.” That was a bit harsh. Twilight hadn’t meant to lash out like that, but there really wasn’t anything they could do.

“Do you think that we could use them to change people’s opinions about these new rulers?” Rainbow had asked that, and it took her a lot of courage to even mention them. Twilight thought about it. They could do that, but she quickly shook her head.

“That’s not the right thing to do. We can’t make people believe what we want them to.”

“We need them for that now, Twilight. Only a temporary thing, and once this is over, we can promise never to use them for that again. But we need to get this done with.” Twilight sighed. Rainbow was right. But she soon found herself even more so encouraged by the idea. This wasn’t just for her, not even just the group. Not just for Ponyville, not for what was good and just or personal want. This was for Equestria. And she was the princess. She was in charge. This was her deal. Equestria needs a leader, she thought. I’ll give them a leader.

“Can’t do it?” Coffee had to ask. This wasn’t how he imagined this would end up. The small white room in the factory was completely soundproof; no one would know what they were doing.
“No, no, can’t do it now. Bad for the public image.” Blue paced around nervously. Every day, more of their subjects had seemed unsatisfied. What had sparked the change? They had once been content, happy with what was done, despite the sudden jolt of losing two well-loved leaders at once. This wasn’t normal. It was deceit.
“Why the change? We’ve not done anything wrong here. Someone has had to have changed their minds.” Rebellions. The last thing they needed to deal with now. It was hard enough getting the existing army to conform to new standards, and now this.
“Well, whoever did this must want something out of this. Who hates us enough to do that?” Blue still looked nervous.
“Someone with enough power and influence to actually start something; someone that they could look up to.” Of course.
“God damnit, sis. So now what? We can’t kill her, or any of her friends, because we know she’d let everyone know, and then we’d have a problem.”
“We have a problem now. But it doesn’t explain why they’d all look to her, especially after she was disowned by us and pretty much everyone, except her friends of course.” Blue was right. There was something. Magic, most likely. Coffee darted out the door and through the hallways. Blue found him a few minutes later tearing through the innumerable stacks of books before him.
“What the hell are you doing?” Coffee impatiently turned around.
“Twilight’s using the some sort of magic to change people’s minds. I have to find out how. I guessed the Elements.” Blue just stared back in silence. Well, shit, he thought.

“So, now what?” Blue found that he was quoting himself.
“Well,” Coffee said, emerging from the pile of books, “we fight.”
“Yes, we fight. What exactly, do you have in mind?”
“Uh, we gather our army, crush the rebellion, and restore peace.” Blue still shook his head.
“At this point, pretty much everypony is against us. Probably have an army large enough to beat ours, plus the Elements, and…”
“Calm down, jeez. Look, we’ve got great pluses on our side. More advanced, more prepared. If they want to fight, then we’ll give them a slaughter.” Blue prepared to respond, but was interrupted by the flapping of wings. A small, green pegasi flew into the room.
“T-twilight demands….that….you meet her….in Ponyville…for…a peace talk…” he sputtered through heavy gasps as he finally collapsed on the floor of the library.
“Well, unexpected.”

“Seriously? You’re going?” Coffee sighed.
“Yeah, even though I really don’t want to. This doesn’t get fun until I intentionally screw the talks over.” Blue seemed a little puzzled.
“Couldn’t you actually find a good way to end this?”
“Why would I? We both know that all Twilight wants is for us to step down, probably going to offer us freedom of charges. We’ve come this far; I’m not backing down now.” With that, Coffee took off, heading to Ponyville, and sealing the fate of Equestria to come.

Coffee smirked broadly. He was glad to see that he still held some power, and how many hated him. They stood aside, and in some, he could even see some of the fear that lingered inside, which only made him grin even wider. He carried the broken dagger that he would use during what battles may take place, should it come to that, which he knew it would. Standing outside the town hall, the doors swung open to reveal Twilight amongst some hastily arranged militia and, of course, her friends. Coffee couldn’t help grinning maniacally at Rainbow, who tried to appear unmoved. Coffee knew she was scared. Coffee then turned to Twilight.
“So, peace talks. Alright, let’s get this started then shall we?” Twilight obliged, leading him in and following close behind. The two sat across from each other at a large oval table. Coffee laid the dagger in front of him. The large room was comfortable, but felt excessively large on the inside.
“So,” Twilight started, “what is it you want?” Coffee glared back at his opposing sister.
“I have what I want. You don’t, which is why you’ve called me here.” Twilight kept her glare, but a small smile played on her mouth.
“Oh, but I do have what I want. Got it about 2 minutes ago.” Well, Coffee thought. Weapons, military, support. All possible options, but none would fit in that time span.
“I won’t bother asking; you’re not giving that away. I suppose you would want Blue and I to step down, wouldn’t you?”
“You could, but I take it you won’t. Same either way, we’ll have what we want soon enough, by force or by will.” This was uncharacteristically narcissistic. She must have something.
“How could you bend us to your will? What have you against us?”
“Well,” she started, “we do have a leader here in enemy lands.” Coffee didn’t even bother to think it over. Rather, he didn’t have time to. He was suddenly jerked up by a group of three stallions, two of which shackled his front legs. He turned to face Twilight, who just stared back at him, like she had from the start. He was brought down a secret passageway; one he never knew existed in the first place, and brought to a cold, gray room. The door shut behind him with a loud thud, and then silence. He heard hooves upstairs running, not sure where to. A stallion entered through the door, throwing at him his own dagger.
“Heh, have fun with that while you’re here, maybe think about suicide while you’re at it.” The door shut once more. What a fool, Coffee thought. The broken dagger, though appearing worn and shattered, was simply compressed. At a nod, the blade sprung forth, revealing the true length of the blade. The dagger, which when wielded would have been too short to cut his bonds, was now easily able to slice through the shackles. Free again, he thought to himself in the sterile room. What the hell were they doing? Shit, forget it, just get back to Blue, he thought. He listened again for steps, which never came. Assuming they left, he broke the simple, wooden door down and took off. Oh, this is not going to end well.

“Get them. Get everyone. Everyone you know, everyone you want on our side. Get them now.” Coffee said as he sat in the rubber room. Known for keeping insane people, he felt at home in here. Blue just nodded and turned to the steel door, painted white like the rest of the room. Blue walked down the hallways. Smashing the large red button at the head of the factory, alarms sounded, sending every pegasus below the factory to their rooms, to prepare themselves. Blue darted back into the rubber room, nodding at Coffee once more. The pegasi would fly to the castle in Canterlot, and remain there until further notified. Coffee looked up at Blue.
“You understand what I’m going to do, right?” It dawned on him. No wonder he chose to be here.
“You haven’t done this in a long time. Can you take it?”
“Now’s as good a time as any.” ‘The insanity potion’, he called it. Essentially coffee, but increased thousand fold. Blue sighed.
“Fine, I’ll get them to the castle.” Blue took off out of the factory, and dashed into the air. Behind him trailed thousands of armored workers, fit with all the weapons they needed. They would win this, without a doubt. Blue and the army landed smoothly onto the balcony. They filed behind him, standing at the edge of the balcony. Squinting, he saw the incoming army opposing them. Led by a purple alicorn, none other than Twilight, the army halted some miles away from the castle. They expect us to come, he thought. Fine. They filed out and into the open field that seemed to beckon. Whatever he was doing, Coffee couldn’t get here soon enough.

Blue and Twilight stood face to face, 30 feet apart. Blue lowered his eyebrows and gritted his teeth. Twilight picked up on this and smiled.
“You don’t look so good. Almost like you’re…missing something.” She smiled wider. She knew this wasn’t like her, but she felt so good finally getting rid of her little brother. Even so, this wouldn’t be the easiest fight, but she was convinced they could win. They’d beaten so many other things, how hard could this be?
She stepped forward, and then turned to face the army that she had gathered.

“Well, this is it,” she started, “but today we’re going to win this.” The little rebel army had grown a bit. It was a shame they couldn’t touch on the formal army, then this wouldn’t have been a battle; it’d be a massacre. She felt comfortable with what she said, and the rebels cheered. They were driven by the magic, not much else. Either way, this would go over smoothly. The heavy flapping of wings brought attention above her, like a giant sail in the wind. She turned to face Blue, thinking this was his doing, and was instead greeted with two ponies. A fully armored Coffee stood at attention, his elongated blade held firmly in his mouth. Whipping his head to the side, the blade planted itself in the ground. His eyes bulged, his mouth widened sickeningly, and he stared at the imposing army. His thoughts were clouded by rage. He longed to kill, his only faint memory was of Blue and the army behind him. Everyone else was prey, food for the taking.

“Now, WE FIGHT!”

Blue stared in amazement at Coffee. It looked as though he had gone through immense physical change. Taller, stronger, deadlier. Dear Celestia, what have you done to yourself? Blue found himself wondering. What the hell is this? He had no time to think. Across the 30 foot gap, Twilight gaped in horror. This wasn’t her brother, not that she even considered him one after what he had done, but this was insanity. Whatever he had done, he had gone too far. She already knew that winning was impossible. Even with the help from her brother and the Crystal Empire, who came in recently, this wouldn’t be easy. Her legs quivered. Coffee kept staring her down, smiling wider at every ounce of fear she showed. He turned to face his army.

“LOAD YOUR WEAPONS! PREPARE YOURSELVES, AND CHARGE ON MY COMMAND!” he yelled his orders at his ‘followers’ as he loved to call them. They nodded in unison, but even they were afraid of what had happened. One of their leaders, usually calm and precise, had turned into, something. As they loaded their weapons, Twilight nearly yelped. She had forgotten about this. She quickly turned.

“ALL TROOPS BACK! BACK! RETREAT!” She prayed for mercy. For 4 seconds, everything was calm as the army backed itself away, only to be disturbed by a loud cry.

“GO! CHARGE! KILL EVERYONE!” No matter how afraid, the army followed orders. Weapons in their mouths, they ran forward, taking shots whenever possible. Blood flew everywhere, loud cries of pain shouted out amidst the confusion, and what started out as a retreat became a full-fledged run for their lives. Twilight could hardly stand everything she heard and saw, and the images pressed in her mind. Beams of light flew everywhere, and Coffee and Blue started to laugh. Even Blue was enjoying this. Twilight kept running, no matter how much she saw. She closed her eyes, nearly crying, and flew into the ground at incredible speed. Her eyes dimmed, and the world faded out.