We can dare to save the day.

by Pinkievstheworld

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Discord, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human, Doctor Whooves, Sad, Adventure, DJ P0N-3
Length: 6123

Equestia has fallen. Celestia is dead. Discord rulles with an iron fist. Twilight Sparkle may be carrying the last hope for all inside a metal case, but can she trust a small group of freedom fighters enough to let them in?

This is an AU human universe story, that will be dark, contain character death and violence, as well as guns and magic.
when Equestia is taken over by Discord, Twilight Sparkle is alone with no one to turn to. a metal case she has never opened, given to her by the Princess right before her death that may be the last hope humanity has for freedom. however when she searches out a group of freedom fighters she learns that there is more then power that can change the world.

Published 2013-10-26 01:00:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-26 01:00:03 UTC

freedom falls in flames.

Pain. All she knew was pain. There was only agony and as Twilight Sparkle lay sprawled in the street, surrounded by rubble, blood (both hers and of others) and corpses. the young woman could not be fully sure that there had ever been anything else but the pain.

She could not see through the blood in her eyes. She could not hear anything but the ringing of her brain and somewhere, faintly somewhere that may be meters or may of been miles away, there was the sound of Rainbow Dash. She was screaming in what sounded like what was not physical pain, but emotional grief. It was the worst sound Twilight had ever heard, like Rainbows very soul had been torn to shreds in the process of comprehending whatever had caused her to be in such pain.

AppleJack was a few feet from her. Face down in a crater, her limbs twisted and limp. There was no telling if she was alive or dead.

Fluttershy had been the last of them standing. But now she was restrained. An iron fist holding her by her throat as she did the best she could to squirm and force herself free, her face paling as she found herself with less and less breath in her lungs.

Twilight had not seen Pinky or Rarity in hours. She found herself praying they had ran, fled, left the rest of them to their fates. Already knowing it wasn’t true. It was just an impossible and irrational idea to think they would abandon their friends. But such a hope was all Twilight had left.

“We tried.” Twilght whispered, to herself, or under the assumption someone could here her. They had tried with everything they could. And they had lost. maybe, just maybe, someone else would do better one day. it was possible after all. Twilight had made mistakes. Someone might read about it and learn how not to go about things. tears ran from her eye, mixing with blood on her way down her cheek.

Twilight.

It was her fault. Everyone she loved was about to die and it was all her fault. But she had tried her best to save them. Save everyone. To save Equestria. Maybe if there was a heaven then she could beg them for forgiveness.

You have to get up.

This was it. This was how her life ended. She would hear Fluttershy die. Perhaps they would kill Rainbow Dash or finish AppleJack before they got to her, hopefully she would go first. But that was better then she deserved.

“get up Twilight.”

Cool, gentle fingers carefully wiped the blood sweat and tears from her face, blinking at the sudden clearing of her vision, Twilight looked up, her vision still hazy as she looked up at the speaker.

“What are you doing Twilight? You have to do something or…. There is no or! We need you!” A short boy, even for eleven, looked down at her, his expression calm, his short green hair just how she remembered it. His large eyes, the way he showed so much emotion when things really mattered, even when he acted calm. In his hands was a small packet of sweets, jelly diamonds. His favourite. It was all so much him that Twilight almost believed it.

Almost.

“Spike.” Twilight tried to talk but only managed a pained gasp, “it can’t. you’re.” she couldn’t say it. Even when it wasn’t (couldn’t be) Spike, she wouldn’t say something that hurtful.

“I’m dead.” Spike agreed, saying it like the idea didn’t matter in the slightest, a tone he had used to refer to reorganising a bookshelf. “Maybe I’m a ghost? Maybe I’m a figment of your imagination trying to get you to not give up? So who knows?” he shrugged disinterestedly, tossing another sugar coated sweet into his mouth. “would explain why I’m not exactly feeling the need to freak out.”

“Giving up? It’s already over Spike.” Twilight tried to insist, the words bitter. Why was she even acknowledging whatever this was? Was she so desperate to see Spike again she would instantly accept going crazy just to see her little brother? “we failed.”

Spike reached down and prodded her. She actually felt him poke her. “No. you’re losing. Not lost. Are you really going to just sit there and let this happen after all this? Are you really accepting Discord’s going to rule forever?” Spike sounded disappointed, almost ashamed to be having to say this. “Celestia is dead. and Discord is going to get away with killing her. Is that what you are saying?”

Twilight felt revulsion, actual feelings of sickness, of the very concept. “No.” she said weakly.

“you sound afraid. Not determined. What about Luna? Did she die for nothing?” Spike demanded.

“Of cause not.” Twilight insisted, it hurt like nothing she had ever felt, but she dragged her arm to under her chest, her fingers brushing the rocks and broken glass as she tried to push herself up.

“Shining Armour? Princess Cadence? Your Family? Were they stupid for fighting?” Spike goaded, determined enough to push her like this.

“I’m trying.” Twilight said, wanting to stand and finding nothing left in her to make it happen. She was just empty, out of reserves. Finished.

“there is no one you have ever cared about that isn’t either dead or suffering right now because of Discord.” Spike said softly. “He killed me Twilight. Do you even care at all?”

Twilight stood. Her limbs screamed in protest. But she stood. Shaking, she looked and saw that Spike was gone. If he had ever been there at all. “More then any pain.” Twilight said softly. “Thank you Spike.”

She leaned down, and picked up her element of harmony from where it lay. the coolness of the metal felt comforting even now. “You.” Twilight called out, causing the giant of a man across from her to drop Fluttershy and turn to face her, an arrogant smirk on his face. “get away from her. Now.”

TEN YEARS AGO.

Thirteen year old Twilight Sparkle ran through the hallways as fast as she could, one hand holding tightly to a book of spells, the other gripping Spike’s hand as he followed after her, his eyes darting about as he tried to take in the surroundings more than focus on where he was going.

Every few dozen seconds or so, the entire palace would shake as another attack hit it, causing debris and clouds of dust to fall from the ceilings. The two children moved between the legs of soldiers and other members of the royal staff hurry around trying to be everywhere at once.

It was just so out of nowhere. Somehow Discords armies had managed to get to Canterlot. Not only without having attacked any of the many dozens of towns and cities between the two borders, but without a hint of warning. Completely taken off guard in the middle of the night, it was the mighty walls of the city that were the only reason that they hadn’t already fallen. But it was a matter of time.

the grim determination on the faces of every guard as they constantly fired from windows and alcoves towards the giant horde of enemy soldiers marching towards them made it all too clear there was no victory to be had here. Just delaying Discord his for as long as possible and until the last breath.

Twilight hated the sight of guns, but with their being less and less children born with the ability to use magic every year, there was no other way for most of the men. One of them screamed as a lucky shot hit him, and he fell to the floor in front of the two children. He died moments after hitting the floor, his blood soaking into the rich carpets of the palace corridors. Both Twilight and Spike started to cry and forced their way through the closest doors.

The commotion of the main thrown room momentarily paused at the sight of two young children barging in. one a small boy with green hair and purple PJ’s that naturally hid himself behind a pale girl with long purple, streaked hair, tanned skin and a petite, thin frame. Both of them openly crying.

Before any of the staff could react, one of the women at the main table, until now going over battle reports and giving orders through phones, rushed over and picked them both up.

The Woman was Dark skinned, with beautiful long black flowing hair, a soft smile, and an honest look in her eyes. On her head was a crown and she wore the sleeveless, pitch black dress that Princess Luna always seemed to be dressed in. on her back were the wings that marked her as an Angel. Being a magic wielding Angel was something that less than ten people in Equestrian history had ever been. The Princess scooped both of them up and hugged them tightly, murmuring quiet reassurances that everything was alright. A lie. But one the children needed to hear, enough to make them calm down and stop crying.

Luna carried them over to the conference table and smiled at her Sister. “it seems your prize pupil is here to offer her expertise Dear Sister.” The simple act of taking the time to joke managed to take a large amount of the tension and stress out of the room, where naturally emotions had been running high. Luna sat them both down on her throne, placing a hand on each of their heads, the youngest of the royal family smiled at them. “Now try your hardest not to make too much noise okay? The grownups need to concentrate.”

“yes Princess.” Twilight and Spike nodded in unison their fear quickly ceasing. As Luna went back to the table, Twilight put an arm around Spike to comfort both of them. “We have to be quiet okay Spike?” Twilight repeated in her best attempt of sounding grown up.

Spike just frowned, “I know! You don’t have to treat me like a little kid.” He pouted, getting Twilight to just smile and accept it without comment.

As the hours passed, Twilight fell asleep against her adopted little brother. But she was awoken by the largest explosions yet, that seemed to come from every corner of the castle at once.

Everyone in the room seemed to start talking at once:

“the left wing of the north corridors have fallen!”

“Princess! The back gate defenders report that they are being pushed back!”

“There are Changlings pouring in from a hole in the wall of the left east corridor!”

“Timber Wolves are over running the barracks!”

“oh my stars! the Front Gates report an Ursa Major! We have to move any troops we can to stop it!”

But the entire room fell silent when one of the radios simply had the sound of a terrified man screaming “IT’S DISCORD!” before sounds that sounded like nothing Twilight had ever heard came through. Then yelling, then…. Static.

If a pin had been dropped, then it would have produced a sound to deafen. No one knew what to do. All eyes turned to Celestia, who stared at the now silent speaker without movement. Finally she turned and walked over to a painting of Canterlot that hung on of the walls. Taking it down showed that a large metal briefcase had been hidden inside an alcove behind it. Pulling it out, Celestia held it tightly.

Celestia was the most beautiful woman in the world, Twilight was sure of it, her features were flawless, her skin pale and smooth, her hair flowed like it was in wind simply from the magic inside her, but while Luna’s hair bobbed and waved like the sea. Celetia’s seemed like the wind and the clouds themselves. Like she was a true part of nature brought to life.

Twilight had never seen her looking so sad. Her eyes heavy, her mouth held in a firm line. She sighed with grief before turning to one of the senior guardsmen. “Soldier. I am entrusting you with three of the most important things I have ever found.” She said firmly, making sure to carry across just how vital this was. Luna seemed to know what was going on, because she opened up a panel of the wall without being asked, revealing a doorway to what seemed like a staircase spiralling down.

“you are to take this case, as well as those two children, and get out.” Celestia said softly, she saw the guard start to protest and quickly she cut him off, touched by his devotion to duty all the same. “if we fall here. What is inside this case can NEVER be allowed to fall into Discords hand. If it happens, what is inside may be the best hope the remains of our army will have against Discord. BUT. You are to destroy it if you even suspect that you will be captured or stolen. The benefits of it must never outweigh the risk of him using it for evil. Do you understand?”

The Soldier swallowed the lump in his throat and saluted at full attention. “Yes your majesty. I do.”

Celestia nodded before moving over to Twilight and looking her in the eye. “Twilight. I need you to go with him. It’s not going to be safe here much longer and I need you to get out of here.”

Twilight shook her head frantically and threw her arms around the princess, “No! no no! I want to stay. I can help! I can do magic.” She insisted, desperate to not leave. “I can. I can fight!”

The princesses eyes seemed unusually damp as she hugged Twilight tightly. “No. listen to me now. You have been the most talented and gifted student I have ever met. It has been a true privilege to watch you grow up.” Celestia pulled back just enough to rest her forehead against that of the girls. “I could not be more proud of you then if you were truly my daughter and I love you very much. You are going to grow up to be a wonderful person Twilight Sparkle. I am certain of it. But this is goodbye.”

Picked up before she could even register what was going on, Twilight was handed over to the guard and carried over towards the door as Celestia carried Spike. “I’m expecting you to look after your sister. Okay Spike?” Celestia said, smiling weakly when the boy copied the salute.

“yes your majesty I will.” Spike said, trying to make his voice deeper. He quickly looked around as if worried someone was watching before throwing his arms around Celestia’s neck.

It was so sudden that Twilight didn’t fully comprehend what happened at first. One moment, the two people she cared for the most were hugging, the next a beam of energy far larger then seemed possible had enveloped them both, Twilight stared in disbelieving horror. she heard herself screaming before she realised what she was doing.

Just as suddenly, the attack faided away, to show Celestia picking herself out of the rubble that had been the left wall of the thrown room, her dress was torn and burned, and blood was running from the side of her mouth.

Spike was gone. Completely gone from this world. Just like that. Her adopted little brother was gone, killed by an attack that had left nothing of him behind. Twilights rock, her anchor, best friend, moral support, number one assistant. Numbly, she tried to understand how life was still going, how could the universe exist if Spike was gone? Like the sky or gravity, Spike was just something that had always been a part of her life that she had never even comprehended the concept that he could be gone.

But impossibly, illogically, the world carried on going, even if it was infinitely less than it had just been a moment before.

Standing in the doorway of the same door Twilight had entered from so short a time before, was a man Twilight could never forget looking at.

He had grey hair that was slicked back, with a long goatee on his chin, one eye yellow and the other red, a single tooth stretched past his lips that were pointed upwards in a wide manic smirk as he surveyed the room before him. Dressed in a green three button suit of the most highly tailored make, he strode into the room, giggling in a sickening insane way that made Twilight think of snakes.

Discord was in the throne room of Equestia, holding himself as if he belonged there.

“A child.” Celestia said, her voice almost disbelieving, her expression the most angry and hate filled look Twilight had ever seen, it was just so wrong to see on her face. It was a look for soldiers, not Princesses. “You would kill a child just like that? Is there really nothing but evil left in you Discord?”

Chuckling, Discord shrugged his shoulders uncaringly, “oops.” He said patronisingly “Perhaps that was a little uncalled for. I usually don’t dirty my hands with something as weak as that.” He inspected his nails as he spoke, ignoring the fact that the room was full of guards with guns trained on his skull. Not caring Luna’s eyes were glowing a bright with blackness, her fists holding magical darkness and moonlight that shifted like flames, waiting to strike. Not even seeming to care that Celestia herself was starting to gather energy. Twilight was barely into her second year of study and even she could sense how much power the Princess was preparing to unleash.

“But you don’t write, don’t answer my calls. What else could I do to get your attention long enough for me to tell you I’m evicting you from my new country? If you think about it that way, you really have to blame yourself from not surrendering when I told you too. After-“ Discord was interrupted by a fist engulfed by light, slamming into his jaw, sending him flying out of the room, straight through brick work.

Twilight hadn’t even seen Luna move. One moment she had been next to the thrones, the next she had flew a good ten feet and sucker punched Discord. “STOP. TALKING.” Luna yelled furiously, without even waiting for a reply she gestured sharply, making two silver orbs that looked like full moons appear and arc their way directly for where Discord was laying. The result was an explosion that sent the guards of the room flying to the floor, the one that was carrying Twilight dropped her and the case, Twilight yelped in pain, and watched the case go falling down the secret stair case, bouncing off each step like it had no cares in the world.

She turned back at the sound of Discord laughing as he waltzed his way back into the room, tilting his head until popping sounds were audible. “Ah fair Luna, you have improved. You even took me by surprise. Imagine that.” Discord said, seemingly none the worse for ware. Luna took a step back out of shock at seeing him uninjured.

“What? That’s impossible!” Celestia said in disbelief before freezing in shock at the familiar giggling coming from above her. Slowly she looked up to see Discord sitting in mid air near the ceiling, sipping a cup of tea.

The Discord in the doorway took full advantage, and with a gesture sent a bolt of green lightning flying at her, Celestia was ready this time and conjured a marble coloured shield to block it in the nick of time.

“oh the joys of being able to hide injuries.” Said the same Discord in a strange female voice. Silver hair grew longer and turned green, pale skin became pitch black and the body of a man became that of a shorter, thinner woman’s. Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings grinned at the two shocked princesses. “surprise?” she offered with a short cackling laugh.

Celestia narrowed her eyes before looking up at the true Discord and flew straight upwards at him, white wings unfurled and angled like a hawk swooping at its pray. Purple energy beams flew from her eyes as she rose, and Discord was forced to raise his palms to block them, making him unable to prepare for when she slammed into him, her hand closed around his neck before she hurled him to the floor hard enough to leave a small creator in the floorboards. Immediately four of the guards moved in and opened fire, the weapons were built to be able to take Diamond Dog’s down in one shot, but Discord just seemed slightly annoyed by dozens hitting him.

With a gesture, a fragment of the floorboards rose from the ground to eye level before Discord pointed lazily at one of the young soldiers. Like a javelin it flew forwards and speared him in the heart, sending him flying back to the floor dead. With inhuman speed, Discord lept from the hole to engage the rest of the men, a blast of magic from him took a second mans head from his shoulders, a third fell from Discord lashing out a devastating kick that broke a neck. Turning to the last two, Discord pointed at both of them with hands made to look like guns.

“bang!” Discord yelled, and the two soldiers chests blew apart like there had been explosives inside of them.

All of it happened in seven seconds. Seven seconds and he had gone through five of the most elite troops in the countries military as if they may as well have been standing still letting him do it. even Celestia seemed to be shocked as she landed infront of him and unleashed a blast of magic. In response Discord did….. something. Twilight had no idea what she had just seen, his entire body just bent to the left like an elastic band, while his feet and head stayed in the exact same spot. completely avoiding the blast aimed for his chest. even though any kind of common sense said that the movement would have broken every bone in his legs chest arms and spine. And then he just seemed to relax with his entire body snapping back to it’s rightful place.

It was like a cartoon Spike would watch. Dimly it occurred to Twilight that she was witnessing chaos magic for the first time. inate Chaos magic at that. Chaos was a very rare discipline, due to the fact it wore down on the users sanity. Celestia had taught her that it wasn’t black magic, in no way was it an evil magic. But the fact that getting to the point of being skilled would almost certainly unhinge you, it left ninety percent of its users dangerous. Innate magic was even more dangerous for chaos. Innate meant that it was not just being used, but an actual part of a persons body and soul. It was why Angels grew wings shortly after birth, what made Celestia and Luna seemingly immortal, and responsible for the many different races of humans that lived in Equestia. Angels, changelings, timber wolves, Diamond Dogs and many more. And here was someone that had chaos embedded in his soul. The thought was terrifying.

What happened next was the stuff of legend. Discord teleported to the side of Chrysalis and waited for the moment Celestia re-joined her sister to stare the two invaders down. There was a silence in the air before Chrysalis took aim and unleashed a storm of small knife like blasts of energy towards Celestia that were immediately halted in mid air by a cloud of black mist Luna created.

And so it began, both pairs had been fighting alongside each other for years upon years of their long lives, and by now they could instinctively fight together without a word. Celestia would force the attack without hesitation as Luna guarded her back. Discord could make risks and take chances without a doubt Chrysalis would be expecting it and moving to anticipate the response. This was a fight of titans, 4 god like beings, unleashing everything they could upon one another in an effort to tear each others worlds down. This was the sun itself waging war, the embodiment of insanity and madness rising to the challenge.

While Chrysalis was the weakest of the four, that Discord was the strongest. It seemed like a fair fight, that would be decided the moment one side lost a member. No one could stand up to one of the pairs alone, and they all knew it. the fight was as much Discord and Celestia trying to take out the others weak link as it was them having to defend their partner.

That was in no way to sell Luna or Chrysalis short. Both of them performed magic powerful enough to destroy entire buildings, magic they had created on their own that almost none would ever come close to reaching. The fight was almost ended at one moment when Luna suddenly caused every shadow in the room to rise up and become hers to control, catching both her opponents by complete surprise. The only reason Chrysalis did not die then and there was that Discord thought fast enough to make his entire body glow with a neon yellow light, sapping the strength from the shadows so that what would have been a blow to slice Chrysalis in half, simply left a deep gash in her right side.

The battle raged for another ten minutes, all of the combatants taking small and large wounds, and all of them slowly tiring from the strain. Celestia took a heavy blow to the face from Discord that left a gash constantly bleeding into her left eye. Discord at the same time had his right ear taken off by a bold move by Luna involving getting close enough to literally tear it from his head with her bare hands.

The whole time Twilight was huddled away, watching from the doorway wanting to run but unwilling to abandon her princesses. The guards were by this point all dead, they had tried to aid their rullers and paid the price. To their credit, some of them had saved Lunas life at a critical moment with their sacrifice, and another had managed to get the drop on Chrysalis and stab her in the shoulder before she picked him up and tore him in half brutally. It had been the same guard that had been ordered to take Twilight away from here, and just before he had left her he had told Twilight:

“Celestia told me before we left, to not open the case until I found people I knew I could trust.” He had placed his hand on Twilights head and looked at her seriously. “I’m telling you the same thing Twilight Sparkle. Can you do that?” Twilight had nodded, which made the man smile. “see.” He had said before going off to die. “now I get why The Princess spoke highly of you.”

But he was gone now, and so was Spike. And so were so so many other people.

Twilight saw it happen before either distracted Princess, her shout of warning going unheard over the clashes of magic. The floor behind them cracked and shook before shattering entirely, and out of the hole climbed the tallest man Twilight had ever seen.

He was at least nine foot tall, with long black hair reaching down his back. He seemed to be completely made of muscle and strength, and was dressed in thick grey armour with a rich red cloak on his back., King Sombra immediately fired a blast of black smoke from his fist that struck Celestia, who screamed in pain as it enveloped her. Horrified Luna used her magic to conjure wind that blew the smoke away from her sister to see that it had contained some kind of acid, for terrible burns covered Celestias body.

It was over.

Everyone in the room knew it. Discord even stopped fighting to just laugh and laugh as he watched Celestia struggle to her feet. “oh well. It was fun my Dear, but I am afraid this is the end. You did far better then I would have ever expected.” He raised his head to Sombra and grinned. “so. you finally managed to finish off Princess Cadence.” He asked, before mockingly adding “took you long enough.”

Instead of replying, Sombra pulled out an achingly familiar crown and tossed it to Celestias feet. It was cracked and broken, twisted and partly melted. Twilight felt her heart shatter all over again, Cadence and Shining Armour were gone. There was no way her Brother was still alive if something had hurt his wife, it was just not going to happen. Her family, Twilights entire family had died in less than an hour. She didn’t. she couldn’t deal with it, her heart was torn from her chest withering and dying. She hadn’t stopped crying since Spikes death but now.

Now there was no tears, no feelings, just nothing in her left. Twilight felt nothing.

It seemed Celestia was having the opposite reaction, her breathing became heavier and her skin started to give off smoke such was her rage. Celestia looked at the crown of her daughter before she screamed a scream of absolute and limitless hate, as she burst into the pure white and yellow flame of the sun as she leapt upon Sombra, no spells, no real thought other than to destroy this man. Her fists rained down upon him without halting as Luna put all the power she had into stopping Discord and Chrysalis from engaging her sister.

But it was all for nought. It had always been clear as soon as someone left the fight it would end. With one last attempt, Luna threw herself at Chrysalis, emptying everything she had left in a last ditch attempt. The shape shifter was overwhellemed, yelling in pain at the power striking her again and again as the fury of the night turned upon her.

It wasn’t enough. Discord blindsided the distracted Woman, grabbing her by the back of her neck he channelled enough thunder into the young Princess to send her unconscious to the floor as she continued to twitch occasionally in pain.

By this point Sombra was three quarters dead, his face was a bloody and burned mess, his left arm completely gone. Not torn off. Just gone. Along with both his legs and a good chunk of his chest. It was a testament to how powerful the man was that he was capable of still living. Celestia had by this point become a humanoid star, the air itself burning to ash on contact with her skin, only her hair and eyes still resembling what Celestia usually looked like. Part of Twilight wondered if this was not her true form. It just seemed to come to Celestia like a natural part of her. A true Goddess.

Turning to Discord, she snarled out “you know you will fall.”

Discord raised a single eyebrow. “oh? Well do tell. I’m all ears.” He paused and frowned. “or rather I am less ears then I used to be.”

“You can create nothing. Your attempt at rule will do nothing but rot and decay.” Celestia said solomly. “There is no harmony in anything you do. You build nothing to last.”

Discord rolled his eyes in disgust. “are you still going on about friendship after all these years? My goodness you need to get new material.” He said. “are you ready?” he asked, almost sadly. In a strange way.

Celestia turned to where Twilight was hiding and met her eyes. Even though the woman’s mouth could not be seen under the fire, Twilight felt like the Princess was smiling sadly at her. “yes. Are you?” she returned, looking at Discord.

The Chaotic being hesitated, as if unsure of himself for the first time. “i. I don’t know. What shall I do without you?” he wondered aloud before sighing sadly. “I didn’t want this Celestia. I never did. Surrender. Submit. Please?” he said, already knowing what her answer would be.

Celestia stared at him, her voice equally sad. “you can’t stop hurting people Discord. You and I know that you will never be able to, even if you wanted too. Your too far gone. I can’t let you.”

Silence hung in the air. Silence the young Twilight did not understand before, barely a whisper.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

Chaos and harmony clashed with one last deafening blast of magic, nature and emotion that Twilight couldn’t comprehend beyond how it ended.

Princess Celestia fell in flames.

Discord stood over her corpse, openly weeping as he believed there were none to see him.

Twilight ran. She ran down the stairs until she came across the case. Staring at it Twilight slowly and methodically picked it up, and carried it with her as heavy as it was she had a duty to her Princess.

That was the day Twilight lost everything. The day Equestria ceased to exist. When Discord became ruler of all.

The stairway led to a tunnel long enough that Twilight came out far from the castle, and through the chaos of war she somehow managed to escape.

The change was sudden and brutal. Where the law had been lax and easy to deal with, now it was barely there. Chaos ruled, and the rule was obey. There was no police but Discords “peace keepers” had no job but to kill anyone that seemed a threat to his rule.

Quickly everyone learned not to step out of line for a moment, what counted as a threat could be as simple as annoying a peace keeper. And with Changelings roaming, paranoia meant that organised resistances were almost impossible to organise. People no longer trusted neighbours or friends when any day they could be killed and replaced with a Changeling.

Twilight was never caught. She was able to keep traveling, looking for some idea of what to do. Her determination drove her to higher and higher levels of magic as her anger at this new world became stronger as she aged. She never opened the case. Feeling like having no one to trust meant that she wasn’t allowed in some strange way.

Nine years passed. And a twenty two year old Twilight Sparkle made her way through the dirty streets of Canterlot. It was a risk to venture into the capital, but rumours of a resistance group that had taken out an entire patrol of Tiber Wolves and stayed hidden had gotten her attention while she had been living in a small place called Ponyvill under the radar. It hadn’t been an easy choice but Twilight had been loosing her mind in such a tiny place.

Brought out of her thoughts, Twilight saw two Diamond Dogs heading up the street ahead of her dressed in the uniform of Peace Keepers. Holding her breath and clutching the handle of the case tightly she watched as they glued a large poster to a wall before heading past her. They looked like normal humans except for bulging muscles, leathery grey skin and pointed ears, trying her best to seem insignificant Twilight waited until they were long gone before looking at the poster.

In massive text were the words:

WANTED DEAD OR ALI VE:

FOR CRIMES OF TREASON, TERRORISM, MURDER OF GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, THEFT, AND DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY.

RAINBOW DASH.

REWARD: 5,000 BITS. DEAD. 6000 BITS ALIVE.

CONSIDERED ARMED AND EXTREAMLY DANGEROUS.

Under this was a photograph of a young woman. She was an angel, with bright blue feathers and rainbow coloured hair, the photo was blurry and clearly taken from a phone camera or something similar from a distance which had been zoomed in as much as possible it was hard to tell anything else about her other then she was wearing a bright blue trench coat and holding what seemed to be a gun of some kind. Well that and she seemed to be grinning.

Well. Twilight thought with some resignation. She supposed she could start there.

Author's Note

right so here we go then. this will be fun i'm sure.
quick note:

calling the pegasus race "Angels" here just because it fits better for humans with wings. also, Unicorn characters will be the ones that can do magic (for the most part, you'll see later) but don't have horns or any way to tell they can perform magic by looking at them.

any other questions I will try to answer :)