Reunion and Division

I bare my teeth as I fall through the sky. The enemy is below me; a great behemoth of shadows and energy inside a hollow shell of armor. A ghost of its former self. A Brotherhood commander. A fierce foe that can wreck a city with a single arm. Yet I am not afraid. All fear has been replaced with strong, burning rage. The images of the ponies I protect and care for flash across my mind, their suffering and misery and fear are the fuel for my strength. I fall and slash my blade into the crystal eye of the being and he roars in pain. I start ramming the jagged metal again and again and again into the crystal. Tainted energy begins flowing out and passed by my side, but I pay it no mind. I smash it completely and dive into its helmet. It shatter the second one and the being stumbled forth. I am sent flying into his skull and grunt in pain. He crashed against my village and I barely dodge the flying shards of broken wood. One smashed through my side and I wince as excruciating pain burns there. My legs are propped up against the helmet and I struggle as I push. Hard. Hard. Harder. The helmet slowly begins to slide off with difficulty and the being roars as dark orbs fly through the holes of where his eyes were and explode around me. I ignored the blasts and kept pushing. Soon, the helmet fell off and a blast of energy erupted from behind me and sent me flying. I skidded across the ground, my skin was torn up quite a bit, and I crashed into a wall. With a glance, I saw that the Brotherhood soldier’s power had quickly evaporated and he diminished to normal size; his skull was open and tainted energy flowing through it and keeping it stable was fully visible. I took one of my handmade grenades and threw it at him. It touched his skull and exploded. The body and armor fell down and the tainted energy dissipated.

“One down, two to go.” I said.

Meanwhile on the approaching ship, Hawke stared in silence from afar as the towering armor collapsed and the energy that was piloting it was burned away. “Holy crap, someone actually killed one of those freaks!”

Frost called out. “What happened!?”

“You know that huge Brotherhood guy? Yeah, there’s three of them of them on that island! Some pony jumped and freakin’ killed one!”

Frost’s expression was one akin to being incredulous. “Are you serious!? How is that possible!?” he shouted back.

Hawke shook his head and landed on the bow. “No clue, but I saw its helmet fly off and then a blast. Next thing I know, green smoke is coming up and fading like whenever we killed them.”

Frost nodded slowly. “Sounds like they could use some help” he said, referring to Dusk, though he had not known that it was him at the time being. “Can we speed the ship up?”

“Barely. It’s in shitty condition as it is. But get some pegasi in the back, unicorns boosting it and Earth Ponies fixing it up and we can MAYBE triple our speed.”

“Do it.” said Frost firmly.

Hawke nodded and tapped the magical intercom. “AHOY EVERYONE! GET OFF OF YOUR FAT FLANKS AND GET TO WORK! POUR THE NITROUS IN, BOOST THE SAILS, FIX THE GEARS AND GET THE FLOATING DEUTCHMAN MOVING!” he yelled. Everyone began hurrying all over the ship and it creaked loudly as its speed was increased immensely.

Dawn rushed to the bow with an angry look and glared at Frost. “What the hell are you doing!?”

“Speeding up. We’re going to go help someone and save those ponies.”

“Are you crazy!? That island is surrounded with Brotherhood soldiers. We’re low on supplies, defenseless, and the ship is near breaking point! We won’t make it!” she yelled.

“Do you have another idea? Should we really let these survivors get killed because we’re afraid? Right now there is a single pony fighting three giants and winning. If he can do something like that, then we can do something like help him. Ready the cannons that we took from the wreckage of the sunken ships. Prepare to fire on the giants on my command.”

She grimaced, but reluctantly nodded and left. Frost then looked ahead and stared into the distance. “We’re coming. Just hang on.”

I breathed hard and readied my shard again. I was on the shoulder of the second giant and quite injured. Though I managed to make my way up there, the constant attacks and flying shrapnel tore me up pretty badly. With a glance, I could tell that my wounds were bad enough to possibly impede me soon. I reached for a torn piece of cloth and wrapped it around my side. I looked up at the large helmet and I felt the drowning realization that I barely stood a chance. I quickly dashed underneath the bottom edge of it as more floating shadow balls exploded where I formerly was. I once again began to pry that massive helmet off of the skull. It was difficult and my muscles screeched in pain as they burned from the strain. I ignored the pain and with a tackle, I knocked the helmet off and went flying with it. Both the helmet and I crashed into the earth. The air was knocked out of me along with some spurts of blood. The pain was excruciating. I panted hard and rolled to my side and slowly got up. My legs wobbled beneath me and coupled with the blinding headache mixed with the cracking noises of my bones, I was amazed that I was still conscious. But my amazement lasted only a short time before the flat side of a spear hit the bottom of the my head and sent me flying into a wall. That, so to speak, was the feather that broke my back. I screeched in agony and sobbed as the wretched pain permeated from my backside. The Brotherhood soldier drew ever so closer…

A shot rang out and a bullet struck him in the head. It crackled with red electricity and the skeleton in armor keeled over.

“No one fucks with us.” said Boltok icily as he reloaded his revolver with one of the very special enchanted bullets that he created. He walked over and helped me up. “Fuck kid, you look like battered shit. You’re going to need urgent medical attention. Surprising that your spine didn’t give out…”

“Oh yes because that’s EXACTLY what I want to hear” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. I jumped up a bit as a loud cannon blast echoed across the beach and the massive soldier was suddenly sent recoiling to its right. It roared at the ship and I saw that half of its mask was shattered; the venomous tainted magic seeped out of it.

“Yohoho motherfucker” yelled Hawke as he and two other Pegasi rammed into the soldier and knocked it into the earth. He flew down and landed near me. His eyes were wide open and his jaw dropped. “Holy shit you’re alive!”

I coughed again and spit out a molar. “Yeah, s’been too long Hawke.” I said stoically. He nodded at me and looked back to the soldier. “Hey sis! Get the others down here! Take care of that walking trash heap!” yelled Hawke loudly. I saw Glade nod at him and fly off.

“What the hell took you guys so long?” I rasped.

Hawke shrugged. “Bad weather, supply stops, we had to take several detours. The magical barrier near the region where the islands are really slowed us down. I have no idea how you passed through it without harm, but when we did, it wrecked out ship. Old one that is. We later found an old, wrecked ship called the Floating Deutchman. Probably best choice we ever made was using it and fixing it up. The ship had some more cooler stuff in it than the usual ones that Equestria had. To make it better, it had a ghost haunting it. The ghost had been quite helpful in letting us get here.”

My jaw dropped and my eye twitched. “What. The. Hell. Happened.”

“Lots of shit. But let’s save that for another chapter in your lil diary. Or you can just check out the Captai-er, I mean Frost’s logs.”

Another cannon blast echoed and the mask was completely shattered. The party aboard the ship rushed forth and killed the Brotherhood soldier. I stared in awe. My old companions walked over. They were dusty, battered and surprisingly minty smelling, but they just the same as before. Grey and Frost came up to me first.

Frost smiled faintly at me. “Hm. Good to see you’re alive ___.”

I nodded. “It’s Dusk now. And same goes for you. Both of you. All of you I mean.”

Grey chuckled and hugged me. “How’ve you been?”

“Good I suppose. Raised up these other exiles. We formed a village. Kept safe for months with my help.”
Both Frost and Grey looked a bit surprised. “Raised up? You mean like...Guided them? I never would’ve pegged you for the leading type” said Frost slowly.

“Yeah, well, I’m not. But the situation called for it and I couldn’t let them die. No...Not like what the queen did to us.” I said angrily.

Dawn walked over and looked miffed. “Who cares what the queen ordered!? We were guilty and got fair punishment! We could’ve been left to rot in the dungeon!” she retorted. Needless to say, I was not surprised that I was not even met with a greeting.

“We were tossed on a ship and left to sail the ocean until we either starved or dehydrated to death. Our families were executed just because of some book that I found. Everyone here, my friends, were thrown in with me because they met me. YOU EXPLAIN THAT SHIT YOU UPTIGHT, FLANK-KISSING BITCH!” I yelled.

She looked a bit startled at first, but her expression darkened. “Blasphemer. Our queen has kept Equestria alive for centuries. The needs of the few do not compare to the needs of the many. Hell, if it wasn’t for Her everlasting merciful and nurturing nature, you wouldn’t have been born and the scavenging packrats that live in Old Town would’ve been finally shoved in The Hole where they belong!”

I growled and spit some blood in her face. The Hole was one of the worst punishments possible. It was a hundred feet deep and littered with horrid traps and no light. Ponies sent down there sometimes spent years there before they devolved into some...Weird mutants with wings. “Go fuck yourself Dawn. That’s my family...My community...My entire way of life that you’re forsaking. For all we know, that hash-brown eating tyrant did that!”

Frost and Hawke pulled me and Dawk away from each other before a fight could start. The ponies from my village began emerging from the cellars and catacombs. “Whoa there “Dusk” don’t go ramping up Dawn. She’s got a bit of a point. Queen Aurora has kept Equestria safe for a while, and sure she did some fucked up things when were imprisoned, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a douche about it.” said Grey nervously.

I shook my head vehemently. “No. I have the right to criticize her. You haven’t heard or seen what I have. These villagers...All of them were secretly imprisoned and exiled like we were. And for what? For eating a bit too much? For being too poor? For not paying those ridiculous taxes? Those aren’t good reasons. A good Queen takes care of her nation and her people. Queen Aurora did nothing like that. We’re going to settle this later. I have a plan to get us back to Equestria. I don’t know about you guys, but I want my home back.” I turned away from my close friends. I was happy we were reunited, but...I wanted revenge. Somewhere deep in my heart, all of that anger at the Queen had festered and grew. Seeing the atrocities she had committed and hearing of how the conditions in Equestria were worsening only further sickened me. Now my friends were back, we had a ship here, and we were not just Exiles, poor and ignorant. We were ponies united by a similar cause.

Note

Even to this day, I do not know why I turned my back on my former allies. I was at first so happy to see them despite the agonizing pain that rushed through me. I had even shed tears though I neglected to write that down purposefully. But as soon as Dawn came and starting spouting about the Queen of Equestria...All that suppressed anger within me had grown and exploded outward. I want you to understand my intentions from this point on. I never desired to cause a split. To divide us and to alienate my friends. No. That was not what I had wished to accomplish and I certainly did not wish to lose them. But what went on that evening would be a simple little meeting that would change the world. Forever.

Endnote

That evening, after a day of relaxation, merriment, and getting to know each other better, we the original Exiles and our companions had gathered in the City Hall and we stood aside a table. The room was dark, lit only by the burning sticks upon the pillars.

“I have a plan.” I began. “My people have gathered loads of weapons that we made ourselves. They’re far stronger that those that Equestria has to offer. We can use the Floating Deutchman and come back to Equestria, overthrow the Queen, and set to work on fixing our old home. It won’t be pretty and we’ll have to resort to more than questionable methods to accomplish our ends, but it’s for the good of everyone. Both as revenge, and as a way to get our home back.”

Dawn growled at me from across the table. “I have a counter-offer for everyone. We set out and explore. We form a NEW Equestria and we live in peace; worship the Benevolent Queen who saved us, and we make it into a Utopia under the Sun.”

Skye was silent and then she quietly spoke. “I say we simply return to Northern Equestria. Close by to the Crystal Empire and there we stay in peace. We’ll have our home back and no one has to get hurt. We’ll live out the rest of our lives happily.”

Both I and Dawn began yelling at Skye and saying what a stupid idea it was and that it was pointless. Skyfall, as ever, was silent. She was devout to her opinion and was going to stick with it.

We argued long and deep into the night. Eventually, we reached an impasse. Since none of us could agree with the other, we split into three factions. The Exiles, the Solarions, and the Cloudchasers. My group, the Exiles, was followed by Grey, Duster, Starlight, Boltok, and most surprisingly, Rose who was quite reluctant. The Solarions were followed by Sierra, Raindrop, Dawn of course, Frost who was quite reluctant, and plenty of villagers. The Cloudchasers composed of hawke, Skyfall, Glade, Snowflake, Storm Chaser and several other Pegasi. Soon, the Solarions left for the north. I gave them a boat and plenty of supplies. They were gone. The Cloudchasers stayed with us, but separately away from us. Our village was reconstructed and split into two. The North and the South. The Southern side was where I was the mayor and my villagers stayed. The North was populated by the Cloudchasers who lived in peace and got rid of the tech that remained.

And so, that’s what happened to us. The original Exiles. We were split apart, separated by beliefs and our desires and a wish to live in peace. Who am I to say who was right? Dawn and Skye, no matter how much I missed them, made a good point, yet I could not see them any more. That rend my heart quite a bit. I missed my friends. And Skye especially. Even as I am finishing up this final page in my journal, I can feel my tears falling upon it and staining the sheet. Reluctant I was to admit, but I had grown to care for her. Now that meant nothing. Our interests were opposing and now we no longer see each other. For the first few weeks, we’d meet at the wall during the night and talk. Gradually...The talks ceased. I lost her.

As I had lost all others.

But now is not the time for mourning.

Now is the time to prepare.

For a Revolution.