My Little Warzone: Betrayal Part 1

Chapter Three: Truth

CANTERLOT CASTLE
TIME: 1230 HOURS

Princess Luna finally managed to stop crying, her sister lying next to her, was half-sober, but still had that stutter. "Sister," Luna started, "Do you know why exactly the Union is attacking us? I mean, he said something about 6 ships, 4 military installments, right?" Celestia turned her head towards her smaller sister, "Y-yes...why?" asked the half-drunk mare.

"So, couldn't we perhaps go to them, and find out h-" the older sister shot a menacing glare at Luna, "No! No we cannot! I-if we go anywhere near anything owned by the U-union, we'll be shot up! It doesn't m-matter if we're royalty, we'll s-still be killed..." Luna whimpered a little, and pulled her head back, Celestia sighed, and said "Look, dear sister, I-I'm sorry for blowing up on you, but it's i-impossible to go near the Union. If w-we're considered a 'threat to national security', as the Union says, we c-can't even step within 100 feet of a single soldier. I'm s-sorry, it's just how i-it is..."

"Well I suppose you're right," started Luna, "But still, is there any way we can find out the reason for the attacking?", Celestia turned to her sister with a calm expression on her face, "I-I, perhaps, have a book that could help us. Come, l-let us go to the library to see if we can find it." Celestia tried getting up to get off the bed, but her knees gave in, and she collapsed onto the white linen sheets. Luna giggled a little, Celestia stared at her sister with a furious look in her eyes, her smirk quickly diminished. Luna spoke with a calm voice "Sister, you are still very drunk. I will help you get up."

The night-blue alicorn, using her magic, grabbed her sister by the midsection, lifting her up, and moving her off the bed. Luna then walked over and used her body as a makeshift crutch for her sister. "T-thank you," said the older sister, together, they walked through the white, brick-lined hallways, eventually being stopped by a pair of wooden double doors guarded by two white pegasi soldiers.

They parted the entrance and Celestia used her magic to open the doors, however, she wasn't able to force them open more than a couple inches. "Oh, I forgot, unicorns and alicorns can't u-use their magic efficiently when drunk, our minds are still o-off track, s-silly me." declared the mare with a chuckle. "Here, I will help you sister." Luna, using her magic, managed to force the door open.

They slowly walked in to the room. Several shelves lined with plethora-upon-plethora of books. "I-it should be in the 'politics' section" lamented Celestia, when they walked over, they noticed how it was larger than most of the sections. "Do you remember the title of this book?" asked Luna. "It should be titled 'Origins of the Union'." replied the superior sister.

Luna then saw a large, grey book with the same title along the spine, the author's name was something unpronounceable. "How did you get your hooves on this, sister?" asked the young alicorn. "Gavarixus gave it as a g-gift after your defeat, saying how 'it lets you know about how we got here about a century a-ag-'" replied the white mare before getting cut off by her sister, "A century? The Union's been around for that long? I thought you only knew about them about a week before the attack..." replied Luna, she had a confused look in her eyes, "Are....are you telling me they've been around before we even knew what they were?" Celestia sighed, and said "Yes, h-here, I shall show you."

Similar to only a couple hours ago, Celestia used her horn to project something, once again, it was old-time Equestria. "Canterlot, year 904, exactly 100 years ago..." started the superior sister, "I was standing on th-the bedroom balcony, when I noticed something w-weird," she paused for a minute, looking at her sister to make sure she was taking this in. "It was fine a-at that moment, but I heard something w-weird coming from above..." she paused, breathed in, and continued, "Before I-I had any time to react, a white, comet-like object s-shot over my head, hitting in the Everfree f-forest."

The magic-powered screen showed the mentioned forest, Luna looked in terror as a white dome appeared, a black, static-surrounded orb in the middle. "I could f-feel the wind hitting my face as it e-exploded. I thought it was terrifying...but seeing n-nopony was anywhere near that blast, I realized it was fine. A-after all, the Everfree forest was still considered uninhabitable..." She paused once more, then finished, "Nothing came from there, even after so many years, but 97 years l-later, I noticed something e-emerging from the forest. Tanks, armored personnel carriers, other vehicles...it seemed so strange...I thought 'How did anypony manage t-to develop such s-strange equipment?', I then found out, that they weren't any p-ponies at all, in fact, those were what we know as the Aerisans..." Celestia gave a small smirk, and chuckled, "But, enough w-with the backstory, let's read t-this book..."

They walked over to a table in the center of the library, using her magic, Luna opened the thick book to the first few pages. "This is the table of contents, what should we look up first?" asked Luna, "Right there!" Celestia pointed her hoof to a line of text, it read: "Reprisal, Defection, Civil War, and other inter-Union-Equestrian disputes...Page 320." Luna flipped through the now-browning white pages, until seeing a small "320" at the bottom right of the page.

The two sisters sat huddled around the book, flipping through the pages of the section. One of them caught Luna's attention, she stopped the pages, and looked at her sister with a worried expression. "This says...oh my..." Luna said with a cough, "Princess Celestia, and the sinking of the UNS Virtue..." "What?!" Celestia screamed. A guard walked in, seeing the white alicorn expressing such rage was uncommon in the castle, "Your highness, is everything alright?" asked the guard, his knees shaking. Celestia's furious expression quickly disappeared, "Yes, everything is fine...report back to your post" said the princess in her calm voice, the guard nodded, and walked out of the room.

"Um....anyhow...it says here that several of your soldiers sunk the second largest carrier in the Union carrier fleet, the UNS Virtue, in 992...it reminds me of...the time...I...sank...the Aspire...." The dark-blue said with a gulp, she started sweating. Luna's older sister said with a sullen, dark expression, "Yes...yes, it's t-true...I did sink t-that...all because of-" she was cut off by her sister, "Wai-wai-wai-wai-wait...you....lied to me?" Luna asked, her voice raising in the final words, "Y-you said that they were unknown until 3 years ago...." Luna's eyes began welling up with tears.

"Does that mean that....you attacked the Union...for the reason being...because they were different?" her sadness turned into rage, Celestia began, "Y-yes, but only because they looked very dangerous, they could've been detrimental...Gavarixus himself said he was skeptical about the w-whole passage...but...yes...I led an attack, and I sunk the UNS Virtue..."

Luna started yelling in her face, "I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I PUT MY TRUST IN MY OWN SISTER...ONLY TO REALIZE THAT SHE WAS KILLING UNION SOLDIERS BEFORE ANYPONY EVEN KNEW WHO THEY WERE...ONLY BECAUSE THEY'RE DIFFERENT?!" Luna realized that she was directly in her face, her older sister whimpered, tears rolling down her cheeks as the dark-blue mare slowly backed away, she recomposed herself, and finished. "Sister...Excuse my language...but you are one, sick b-bitch...." Celestia gasped at her sister's words, she, weakly, replied "S-sister, please understand, I was doing i-it for the sake of Equestria! W-who knows, they might have attacked first, they coul-" she didn't have time to finish before her sister got back in her face. "They could have what? Been possibly peaceful with us? Resolving any worries with them? I bet that didn't go through your thick skull..."

Luna nearly began shouting again, "Whatever happened to 'Celestia the friendly', or perhaps 'Celestia the peacful'...No! How about 'Celestia, the mare that attacked a seemingly harmless force before even talking to them', does that sound better, because that's what it is sister...I cannot believe you lied to me...of all ponies, you should be considered the enemy, you lying, scraggly, drunken excuse for a princess." The words just came out of her mouth, Luna had no time to stop it.

Celestia just stared at her, "Y-....Wh-...You just-..." she tried saying before bursting into a full fit of tears and running out of the room. The guards at the door just peered in and glared at Luna, before running over to her sister. Oh no...what have I done? thought the mare. She just sat at the table, before putting her head in her forelegs and crying.

CRAWSON PRISONER OF WAR INTERNMENT FACILITY
TIME: 1700 HOURS

That man was right....this place is "hell," or whatever he was saying... thought the young, orange colt while digging. "U-u-ugh..." groaned a nearby mare lying on the ground, the colt looked and saw as the same, black-vested soldier walked up to her. "What the hell do you think you're doing, get back up!" yelled the brutish Aerisan. The mare just looked up at him, and said "M-my back hurts, near my flank, I think...I think it might be a kidney stone..." "Is that so?" asked the soldier, he grabbed her by her hind-legs and flipped her onto her back. "This will just take a little while..." said the soldier with a crazed smile.

The colt stopped what he was doing as he heard a blood-curdling scream, he turned around and saw the soldier, his silver combat knife's blade dug halfway into the mare's stomach. He then heard an even louder scream as he saw the soldier drag the blade through her stomach, all the way to her thighs. The colt then became terrified and disgusted as the soldier stuck his clawed hand into her stomach, the blood-stained knife in his other hand. He felt around a bit, then stopped, then he smiled, colt then noticed the soldiers arms flex as he squeezed something, a trail of urine flowing out the mare's now-exposed genitalia. "Ah yes...that's it..." he said with a smile, he stuck the knife where his other hand was, and jerked the knife, the mare screamed in pain. He moved his hand up, until the pony could feel something in her back, she then screamed once more as the knife jerked again. Then, slowly, he pulled out a blood-soaked, bean-shaped organ, a yellow tube dripping urine attached to it.

"There...did that cure your...problem?" the soldier said before laughing, "Now, get the fuck up and start working you worthless stain!" The mare looked at the colt, her watery eyes looked into his as she mouthed "Help me..." The soldier flipped her onto her stomach, as she got up, however, a section of her intestines fell from the large hole now in her stomach. She gasped, her skin now a pale-yellow color, before falling down. The soldier stood there and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

The colt couldn't help it, he stopped and started crying, the soldier noticed, and ran up to him. The soldier sharply backhanded the young pony, before yelling at him, "Get back to work you failed abortion!" the colt didn't know what it meant, but he felt hurt. He grabbed the pony-adapted shovel before getting back to work digging the ditch.

A few minutes later, the sadistic freak the young colt now knew was the main warden left. He ran over to the mare lying on her stomach. "A-are you okay, miss?" the colt said with watery eyes. The mare slowly rotated her head towards the colt until their eyes met. The mare began "I-if you ever g-get out of this-" she coughed up a spurt of blood before continuing, "I-if you ever g-get out of this place...t-tell my husband...I l-love h-him." The colt started crying, he rested his head on the blood-stained body of the mare.

He raised his head up "W-w-what's your n-name?" asked the colt with a stutter, the orange-maned pony looked at the colt with content in her eyes, "G-Golden H-Harvest, I-" she didn't have the time to finish, her yellow body was now very pale, she let out a gasp, before closing her eyes, "Hello?! Hello?! Oh no!" yelled the colt before starting to cry again. He didn't have time to cry, he heard footsteps and he ran over to the ditch he was digging, glancing at the corpse of the yellow filly.

SUGARCUBE CORNER
TIME: 1730 HOURS

Pinkie Pie sighed, she looked around the empty room where she worked, before sighing again. All of the sudden, the wooden front-door was thrown open, she shot up gleefully. "Hey there!" yelled the pink mare before even realizing who it was. "Oh thank God, it's you, listen, you gotta hide me." It was Molokus, he was panting. "Oh...why do you need me to hide you Axis...Oh! Is there a surprise party for a special somepony?" asked the happy pony. Axis replied "What? No! Look, I got troops following me, if they get me, I'm dead." Pinkie Pie's mood changed drastically, from happy-to-serious.

"Oh...follow me!" she said, Axis followed as she hopped over to a trapdoor near a set of stairs. "This is the storage basement, there's another set of stairs leading to a door at the back." said the mare, "T-thank you" Axis said, he quickly got in and hid behind a barrel marked "FLOUR".

He could hear soldiers walking in. They began talking to her, "Miss....um...oh, Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie, we saw something go in here, he looked a lot like someone we're tracking. Do you, perhaps, know where he is?" the pink mare replied with a simple "Nope!" and the soldiers simply replied "Well, alright, hopefully business will get better this evening...where are the owners, by the way?" "They're out to the market to get some materials, they'll be back in...let's say an hour." gleefully replied the pony.

"Well...alright then...take care." said one the soldier. Axis thought That's it? No checking, nothing? That's odd... He didn't have time to think it through as Pinkie Pie opened up the trap door, and said to Axis "You can go now, you should be able to see Twilight's house from the hill! See ya!" Axis nodded, and, after thanking her, walked up to the other door and ran over to a grassy hill.

Molokus eventually reached the green lump of dirt and grass, and began walking up. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw something that made him nearly jump. A bush-like object was sitting on the side of the hill, he was holding a rifle, mounted on a bipod. Axis quickly squatted down, and slowly walked over behind him.

"What are you doing?" asked Axis, "Waiting for Molokus to come in sight, sir. I got ordered to, why?" replied the sniper in a deep, baritone voice. Thank God he doesn't know what I sound like... thought Axis. He realized that the sniper could find out that it was Molokus that was behind him any moment, and sneaking around was no option.

"Well, before you begin looking again, I have to show you something, I got these papers from the O-P." lied Axis, a devious grin on his face, all those years of fighting turned him into a cold-blooded killer, he knew how to lie. "What do they say, sir?" asked the curious sniper, he rolled over onto his back.

"This!" Axis wasted no time, the second the sniper was completely on his back, he lunged at him. Before the soldier even knew what was happening. He looked down and saw a pair of big, blue hands clasped around his throat, Molokus' claws hooked under the fabric of the ghillie suit. The sniper than began squirming. Using his legs, he pushed the captain off of his stomach, his claws tearing away at the olive-drab fabric, revealing his throat.

The sniper got up and lunged back at Molokus, knife out, his shaggy, bush-like suit made it hard for him to walk. He didn't even see when the tall, uncovered soldier kneed him in the stomach, causing him to drop the knife. Molokus then pinned down the sniper and took out his own knife. The soldier had a terrified expression on his face, "P-please don't, I won't speak a word." coughed the petrified soldier, "I don't take to kindly to bullshit." Molokus replied coldly. Without warning, Axis drove the 7-inch black-steel blade into the sniper's throat, the soldier started choking, trying whatever possible to get the knife out, but he didn't realize it had just severed his windpipe. The sniper's squirming and screaming eventually died away.

Axis took the lifeless soldier, and rolled him down to the foot of the hill not facing Ponyville. He then turned to the right and started walking towards Twilight Sparkle's home.

PONYVILLE LIBRARY
TIME: 1755 HOURS

Axis walked up to the wooden door. He quickly looked at his hands, the memory of what just happened ten minutes ago hit him like a train. Dammit, thought the Aerisan, I still have that sniper's blood on my hands... He licked his right hand, using his saliva as water to wash off the blood staining his hands, luckily, most of it got off.

Axis then knocked on the door, "Coming!" replied a voice from behind the door. The top half of the red door opened up, revealing a purple unicorn. "Oh, Axis! I didn't know you were in town, come on! Come on in!" said Twilight with a smile. Molokus replied with a grunted "Thanks" and walked in. There were several shelves inside the home, each one lined with books of varying colors and sizes.

"Soooo....what're you doing here?" asked the purple filly. Axis looked down, a blank expressions smeared across his face, "I'm not sure, the magenta-maned pony, what's her name...Oh yes, Pinkie Pie, told me to come here..." Twilight nodded. "Oh...about the whole 'Union-hunting-you-down' thing?" Twilight asked nervously, fearing Axis would start yelling at her for getting into his business. Molokus simply nodded.

"Well...You can stay here as long as you like, as long as the Union stop, they never come here, saying the books are too 'childish' for them, even when they do say they enjoy a good book." Twilight said with an annoyed expression. Axisus simply chuckled, and said "Well...thank you, I've been trying to hide from them for hours. I simply need to get to Canterlot to talk to Princess Celestia, but I have no way of getting there quick enough. Plus, air traffic is very heavily monitored by the air force: Patrol jets, helicopters, SAMs. They've got the whole works." Twilight looked at him, and said, "I...I have a balloon you could use, and maybe that rifle can help fight off whatever we need to." she pointed at the M-15 strapped to the back of his waist.

"A balloon? Well, I guess at this point we don't have much of a choice." Axis said with a laugh. Twilight simply smiled, and said "Come, follow me then."

The tall Aerisan followed the purple filly until they reached a large, deflated balloon behind the library inside a large shed. Twilight opened the massive doors of the shed, pulling the balloon out with her magic, spread her legs slightly and planted her feet. A few moments later, her horn started glowing again, eventually, the purple balloon was surrounded in a sparkly, purple aura. The balloon inflated a few minutes later, and the two stepped inside the gondola, Axis had to crouch slightly due to the cramped size.

"In this balloon, we won't reach Canterlot until about noon tomorrow, are you sure about this?" Asked Twilight with a nervous expression. "Yes..." Molokus quickly looked at the setting sun as the balloon slowly gained altitude, "From now 'till 0700 hours we should be under the cover of night, that'd protect us from jets and flak, but SAMs are still going to be an issue. I think I know how we could take care of those." Axis said with a smile. "Alright then, to Canterlot!" yelled Twilight, the balloon slowly lurked forward, and they traveled over the now-asleep town of Ponyville towards Canterlot.