Equestria Aflame.

      Twilight Sparkle had never been more nervous in her life. She awoke in a cold sweat and was almost too afraid to leave her bed. She finally arose and carefully checked her surroundings. "Get a hold of yourself, Twilight." she told herself with a deep breath, "I'm sure whatever this decision is I'll know it when I see it." Telling herself this calmed her down enough for her to regain her composure and get ready for the day. She went through her morning routine and made her way down to the royal dining hall for breakfast. She went over the schedule for the day in her head as she was walking. Her mind did go to food very quickly, that little crisis last night had left her famished, she couldn't wait to eat. She quickened her pace.

       She neared the doors, ready to use her magic to open them and sooth the gnawing in her stomach. But, before she could they swung open and Celestia trotted out. She didn't look happy. Twilight paused upon seeing her and wanted to ask what was wrong until Celestia beat her to the punch.

       "Twilight, come with me." Celestia deadpanned, didn't even say good morning. She continued trotting in a hurried pace, opposite the direction of Twilight's food.

       "Uh, Wh-what's going on?" Twilight asked doubletaking back at the dining hall while clumsily following Celestia.

       "We have a problem." Celestia said, looking down at Twilight, "It seems Ponyville has taken more extreme means of complaining to me about my new policies. I thought outright revolt and murder of royal troops was out of the question for civilized ponies."

       Twilight was shocked, "Wh-what?" she couldn't find the right words to say then she said, "What happens now?"

       "What happens on the large scale will be decided soon. What happens to Ponyville has already been decided" Celestia turned her eyes back to the hallway as she and Twilight made a right turn down another hallway.

       "And what's that?" Twilight asked nervously, fearing the answer.

       Celestia glared at Twilight for a second then said, "The situation is being dealt with, don't worry yourself. I don't need your mind muddled with your town during the council meeting."

       Twilight looked down, she knew nothing good was happening to her town but she also knew that she needed to be professional about the situation and not let anything that would bring personal feelings into it. "I guess that makes sense."

       A guard walked astride Celestia and informed, "The advisors are on their way to the war room, your majesty."

       "Thank you." Celestia replied. The guard left and she turned her head to Twilight, "Summon my sister, she'll be needed as well. I'll head to the war room."

       "Of course, princess." Twilight answered and broke off down another hall towards Luna's bedchambers where she knew that Luna would be getting ready to sleep through the day.

      Pinkie Pie trotted up to the group who were too shocked for words. She removed her hood and a big smile painted her face. The first pony to speak up, however, was Big Macintosh. "H-How?" was all he said.

      "How what?" Pinkie asked gleefully.

      "Y-you...you killed them." He finally spat out.

      Pinkie looked back at the smoldering bodies of the soldiers, some still alive and clawing for life. "hmm...oh yeah! I guess I did!" She turned towards Big Mac with that same smile plastered on her face. "It's awesome what you can do with magic and a glass bottle filled with gasoline!"

     Rarity and Fluttershy gave each other a worried look. At this point, Applejack had calmed down enough to notice Pinkie Pie. She said, "How did you kill them?"

     Pinkie Pie's mane twithed and her ears perked up, her face went from a smile to a face of stone. "Not here, we need to go."

     "B-But." Fluttershy spurted.

     "Now! We need to go now! More are coming." Pinkie took off towards the everfree forest.

     "Something has to be done!" Celestia slammed her hoof down on the rectangular table in the war room. She was sitting at the head, on her right was Luna and her left, Twilight. They were in the middle of the council meeting.

     "You're majesty." Celestia's civil advisor interrupted, "We don't even know if the story is genuine. For all we know, nothing could be wrong and Ponyville is just doing business as usual."

     Celestia just glared at her advisor, "Are you questioning the validity of my soldier's statement? Are you telling me that a royal soldier lied to me? To his princess?" The anger was very apparent in her voice.

     The advisor just stammered, "N-No your majesty, I'm just saying that we should be completely sure of the situation before making any major deci-" he was cut off when he felt a serious tugging at his neck and his body toppling over his chair then being dragged across the room.

    Celestia stormed across the room with the gagging and struggling advisor in tow.

    "Celestia, stop it!" Luna shouted, rising up. Celestia was deaf to it. She approached the door, flung it open and stormed to the nearest window, the other advisors were too scared to do anything and were too shocked to speak. She rose her advisor up by his bottom hooves with a yellow glow. She dangled him outside, like a toy.

     The advisor screamed in panic as he stared down at the very far distance between Canterlot and the ground.

     "SILENCE!" It's been years since Celestia had used it, but her royal Canterlot voice boomed throughout the palace. She was gritting her teeth after and slightly growled at the now silenced pony.

      The advisor just gazed at Celestia, his lips quivering and eyes watering in fear. A few guards stormed in and froze in place when they saw what was happening, they didn't dare interfere. The rest of the advisors, Luna, and Twilight were also frozen. Luna was poised to fly if Celestia were to drop the advisor, who was a flightless unicorn.

      Celestia turned the pony around and fouced him southward. "Look!" she barked. The advisor barely made out a few billows of black smoke on the horizon. "Are you telling me-" Celestia clenched her teeth and fought back her rage, "-that my town is not burning? That nopony is dying? That my people haven't revolted against me! And murdered dozens of honorable soldiers!" Celestia couldn't hold back her anger anymore and she belted out every word with passion. "Are you telling me that a soldier lied to me about this, because he thought it was humorous?!"

      Everyone held their breath for the terrified unicorn's response.

      "No." he squeaked out. "I-I was wrong." tears began to form.

      Celestia took a few deep breaths then tossed the advisor back inside. He tumbled and rolled a few times and a few guards helped him back on his hooves.

      Celestia turned and faced the rest of the council. She eyed every single one then said in a very dignified voice, "I hereby take upon myself: emergency powers over Equestria. I will stop these rebellions, find the instigators and restore order to our land. At whatever the cost."

      Luna stepped forward, "Do you realize what you're sayi-"

      "Know your place," Celestia hissed, "...Luna. You are all relieved of your positions until I resign my emergency powers."

      The advisors just looked at each other worriedly. They didn't dare object, even the military advisor's ever stone expression was broken down to a face of uncertainty behind his ornamented helmet.

      "Dismissed!" Celestia barked and everyone scurried out of the room. Twilight looked back at Celestia with a look of confusion before leaving. The only one who stayed was Luna, and she was not happy.

     Luna quickstepped to he sister, "How dare you?!"

     "How dare YOU?!" Celestia yelled in response. "How dare you question me in front of the council? You have no right to object to my decisions!"

     "How can you say that!?" Luna argued back, shocked at what her sister just said. "And how can you take sole leadership of this nation!? We are supposed to rule together, as one. Did you even know what you were claiming?"

     "I knew exactly what I was claiming. And hearing that from your mouth is unbelievable." Celestia glared at her sister.

     "You cannot take take sole leadership and become a-a dictator! You cannot run these ponies lives for them! Can't you see that what you are doing is fueling the disorder, not restoring it?!" Luna gave her soul to that statement.

     Celestia briefly paused and belted, "You have NO RIGHT! The ONLY reason you are still here and have your position is because of my good graces! Even a thousand years of exile cannot change who a pony really is! A treacherous, deceptive, usurper!" Celestia's horn began to glow a solar yellow.

     Luna's face went from anger to shock, she was completely speechless.

     "I should've let you rot on that rock!" her horn glew brighter.

     Luna gathered herself and braced her hooves down and powered her horn, making a blue, lunar glow. "Celestia! If you attack me and plunge our nation into deeper chaos ... You are no longer my sister!" Tears formed in Luna's eyes at the last statement.

     Celestia shook her head, "I lost my sister a thousand years ago." A blinding, yellow-white pillar of power erupted from Celestia's horn.

     Luna only had a split-second to react with a blue pillar of her own. The two powers collided in a tug-of-war, light flooding the room. The hissing and crackling of the two combatting energies resonated throughout the entire palace.

     Luna's mind went back to one millennium in the past, when Celestia used the elements of harmony to defeat her and banish her to the moon. Was this the same? Was she wrong like she was last time? These questions raced through her mind, but she didn't have time to answer them. Her magic was weaker than her sister's and she was losing ground, she couldn't hold back Celestia's power anymore and she buckled under the pressure.

     The beam of white magic enveloped her and propelled her screaming body backwards, scorching her coat. She flew back with incredible speed and nailed one of the stain glass artworks. It shattered from the impact, the glass shards cutting Luna's burned skin and slicing into her scorched wings. Gravity took hold of Luna and she plummeted down to the forest below. Luna barely held onto consciousness and had only enough energy to cast a protective spell before blacking out. She tumbled on the rocky slopes of the mountain, her limp body scraping and pounding the stone. Her spell could only protect so much and a leg and wing broke from the tumbling. She fell into the trees, branches snapped and bended from her broken and bloody body plummeting through. The leaves and flexible branches slowed her decent enough to make the impact on the dirt nonlethal. Luna laid there in the dirt, covered in gravel and tree sap. Her fur was a clashing of red and blue and her limbs were twisted like the tree branches she fell through. Luna was spared from the pain by the mercy of sleep.

     "Where are we going?" Applejack asked as she and the rest of her group trudged through the bowels of the everfree forest. The sun was going to set soon and that was a place you didn't want to get lost in at night.

     "To where it's safe." Pinkie replied, still in a serious tone that was foreign to anyone who knew her.

     They finally came into a clearing and saw their destination. The Castle of the Two Sisters.