The Birth of a Rebellion

Crimson woke up with a shout. He was sweating and he had the heart accelerated. It was that dream again… It was too realistic. Almost every night since the attack, he could see everything again, with all kind of damn gore details. Those images haunted him.

There was something he hadn’t told to anypony about the attack. He didn’t run immediately, but he stayed and checked if he could save somepony of the expedition. They were all already dead but one mare. He could clearly remember her look, full of pain and suffering. Her eyes full of tears looked to the sky awaiting his death impatiently. In the dream, as he did after the attack, Crimson approached her, still invisible by the effect of the brew. Thought the manticores had left, she looked anxiously in all directions as she heard Crimson’s approaching steps. Once near, he could completely see the damage that the manticore attack caused. It was horrid. She had both hinder legs where broken, being the bone completely visible as the manticore pawn had pierced the skin. The rest of the body wasn’t better. A deep cut went from top to bottom of the trunk, bleeding substantially.

Her look was confused now, like wondering where the noises came from. Crimson approached his mouth to her ear and said “Is there anything I can do?”

Crimson wasn’t a healer, and he barely knew anything about healing spells. At that moment he wished more than ever that he had any knowledge of healing.

The pony recognised his voice and said with a weak and tremulous voice “Crimson… I’m glad you are fine…” she coughed, spiting blood to his invisible face, revealing its contour. “Just end this… please”

Crimson was shocked when he realised what she wanted. He couldn’t even recognise which of his companions she was, completely covered by her own blood, and she was begging him to kill her. One tear started to slide over his face, until it fell from his face to hers.

“Don’t hesitate… just do it… I beg you…”

Crimson grabbed her head with both forelegs, and took his time while he remembered how to do it. It was one of the finishing moves of Fallen Caesar’s fight style, the one that zebras taught him during his expedition.

“Forgive me…” he said with trembling voice before doing it.

She closed her eyes as he made the move. A loud creak sounded as her neck broke. At that moment Crimson forgot about the manticores, the time the brew would work and the discoveries he made. He could just focus on what he did. He stood in front of her for hours, just crying. He would never be able to forget that sound, and he asked himself if he would ever sleep again without dreaming with that moment…

Crimson tossed and turned on the bed wondering how much he had actually slept, until he looked through the window. The light of dusk coloured in red the front of the buildings. Definitively it was late…He woke up, stretching himself, from the cushion that served him as bed that night. It haven’t been a pleasant sleep, and, as always, he was still tired. He looked at the studio’s table and smiled. There laid a tray that Opal had left with breakfast prepared. She surely left some hours earlier, heading to her jewellery in the centre of Manehattan. The sandwich looked delicious, and she had also prepared coffee. For a moment Crimson wondered how she got all the food, as his fridge was completely empty and turned off. He gave a sip to the coffee. It was cold, but it tasted delicious.

With a glow of his horn, Crimson started to float the tray to the living room, taking care of not hitting any of the huge piles of books that filled the entire apartment.

“If I pretended to live here for long I should organise everything again, including the new books…”

At that moment he remembered. The logbook! He left the tray on the living room’s table as he sought for the black book. After searching on the top of a couple of book piles, he found it. The cover was perfectly conserved, and even thought the book was a thousand years old the paper was still as white as a new one. Perhaps the magical field followed other purpose than standing out the importance of the logbook? The library had some of the oldest spell books and one of the best treatises about dragon anatomy Crimson had ever seen, but this book was chosen to be conserved in better condition. This book had to be very important to somepony. Impatiently he opened the book and started reading…

Introduction

To any pony that is reading this book, there is something you must know. What is written here represents accurately the story of this war. I don’t know when this book shall be read or even if it will ever be, so believe me when I promise that I haven’t twisted or changed any fact. The truth may be uncomfortable sometimes, but what is told in this book, whether seems fair on not, or simply horrid, should never diminish your faith in ponykind. We are capable of wonderful things when it’s our purpose to do them.

Some things told here are beyond imagination. Forbidden magic has been used during all this conflict, a magic that no pony should know. A magic I domain widely and that I have used without any limitation. Even though I don’t regret any of the decisions I took, I must warn you that the lack of moral is a common factor in those decisions, decisions that I took because I believed in our cause, a nation that was once called the Lunar Republic.

Taking into account the actual course of the war, I perhaps should assume that you, my estimate reader, don’t have any idea of what a republic is. Even thought you had, I would like to transmit you my vision. Many things could be said about a republic, but I will describe it with a single word: freedom. I have fought for it during the last fifty years, always as faithful as the first day of war.

“Fifty years!” Crimson shouted and stood up in happiness.

But he instantly calmed down. He did not know what war the author was speaking about. Anyway, the author was right assuming that the reader would not know what a “republic” was. Perhaps if he read more he would find out the answer.

While he laid again on the sofa, Crimson heard a knock on the door. Visits always arrive in the best moments.

“Open the door Crimson, I know you are there! I think half of Manehattan could hear you shout!” A voice said from the door. It was the voice of a mare, but she wasn’t Opal. Could it be…? Crimson approached the door with logbook still floating by his side. When he realised, he hid it fast inside one of the saddlebags that hung from a hook on the wall. He wasn’t willing to let anyone see it by the moment.

“Frost Clo…” He tried to say as he opened the door. He was immediately knocked to the floor when Frost Cloud dashed in faster than lightning. She was a light gray, almost white, coated pegasus. Her mane was light blue, coloured in a tonality similar to ice. She wore the black uniform of the Ponytec company, where she actually worked as a technician and researcher.

“…ud.” Crimson finished from the floor. “How are you? How did you know I arrived to Manehattan?”

“Well,I’m fine thanks! Opal told me today you had arrived from Canterlot and I couldn’t wait to see you. Wow… The scar is bigger than anything I could have imagined!”

“So Opal told you…”

“Yes, she did… But she wasn’t very descriptive. Anyway…How long has it been since the last time we met?”

“Five or six years.” Crimson said as he stood up.

When he left Manehattan, he flew away without telling barely anyone he left, and he never returned. Not until now. All the time he lived in Manehattan, he wanted to leave. The indifference ponies had regarding towards what happened to other ponies just made him feel uncomfortable and he thought that if he flew away to Canterlot heI would find something different. He was completely wrong, but the knowledge that the academies and universities in Canterlot offered was just too tempting and he stayed.

“Yeah, you know that you could have sent a letter or something, do you?” she joked. At that moment Crimson felt really embarrassed, as it was true he haven’t barely wrote a letter to any friend since he left to live in Canterlot.

“Well, look at the positive side, now I will have more stories to tell you” He said, as he closed the door. It was sincerely the worst excuse he could have ever imagined, but she just smiled and looked at him.

“And you will tell them to me. Now hurry up and pack what you need. I told Opal that we would meet her in half an hour in the Central Café. And we will…” She stopped speaking as she realised the condition of the apartment. As she looked around she fixed her eyes on the tray with the half-eaten breakfast, and quickly looked back at Crimson.

“You just woke up, right?”

Crimson nodded.

“Then take a quick shower, we are leaving as soon as you finish.”

She lifted him up in the air, carrying him to the bathroom’s door, dragging him across almost all the flat.

“Remember, be quick, or we will arrive late.”

Crimson opened the door and sighed. It seemed that the truth would have to wait a little more. While the water fell on his head he meditated. He couldn’t risk anyone to read the book. Based on the reaction that Opal had when he told her what he suspected, nopony would believe what the book said. They would think that it was a forgery, and he couldn’t risk that to happen. Crimson promised himself that the deaths of the ponies in the Royal Sisters’ palace wouldn’t be in vain. But he jet had to imagine how to tell everypony the truth. He dried himself with a towel and put his vest on.

“Ready?” Frost asked as she threw him his saddlebag.

“Yes, lets leave” Crimson said as she opened the door.

The dusk in Manehattan was wonderful. The moon was rising up bright in the sky, empty of clouds as the pegasi weather patrol took them away. Crimson walked side by side with Frost Cloud through the streets full of ponies. They didn’t care about anything apart from themselves… If they knew that the history of Equestria they knew was a lie, how would they react?

“Would you mind to leave your meditation for later and pay me attention?” Frost Cloud protested.

“Sorry, I was…”

“Don’t tell me. I don’t need to know what you where thinking of. I just need you to pay me attention.” She said as she stared at him. She just couldn’t stand when Crimson got lost in thought. After ensuring he paid attention to her, she kept speaking “Opal has got a free place at the jewellery”

“Are you… offering me a job?” Crimson asked, shocked. “I didn’t thought I gave the impression of being in such a need jet…”

“It isn’t difficult to guess that you aren’t here sent by the academy, as you aren’t absorbed by huge piles of books this time.” She said sarcastically. “Anyway, Opal told me that you had a clash with Canterlot Academy. I’m sure that, whatever happened, you were right.”

Crimson smiled as he thought about how right she was, though he couldn’t tell her.

“She also told me that she has a free place at the jewellery. But you are too proud to accept it and she is too timid to offer it to you. So I beg you, please ask her for the job.”

Opal and Crimson had been friends since they where fillies and, even thought he left Manehattan to study at Canterlot, they sometimes mailed to keep their friendship.

“Thanks, but I need to think a bit about it. Anyway you must know that convincing ponies is not my special talent precisely, right?” At least lately it wasn’t. But he didn’t expect to take the work as he needed time for reading that logbook…

“Come on, you’ll be just fine. A pair of tips and you will be selling jewels to the stuck-up ponies of Canterlot in no time”

Crimson couldn’t stop a giggle. She truly knew how to cheer him up.

A couple of minutes later they arrived to the Central Café. It was at the top of one of the highest buildings in all of Manehattan. While they waited until the waiter took us to our table, they took a look through the windows. The sights where amazing from up there. Manehattan seemed like a light sea.

Crimson realised how much Manehattan had changed since he left. As he kept thinking Frost Cloud told something to the waiter he didn’t got to understand, and he took them to a table near the large window that substituted the wall of the building. There sat Opal, already driking her coffee.

“Hi Opal!” Frost said while she sat down. “I’m sorry for being late, but it seemed that Crimson needed more sleeping than you thought”

“No problem, Frost. I knew he would oversleep.” She said, while she gave a sip to her coffee.

“Yeah, I’m sorry for travelling all the day and speaking with you all the night.” he commented sarcastically. Crimson hated when they spoke about him like if he wasn’t in front of them. It was something they commonly did when they were foals, and some things don’t change.

“Oh, come on Crimson, don’t be so sensitive. Let’s get a couple of coffees and let’s enjoy the meeting” Opal said. She gazed around looking for the waiter. When she made eye contact she shook her hoof.

While the waiter approached Crimson opened his saddlebag. There was the logbook. He forgot to take it out before leaving! He quickly closed the saddlebag and looked around, wondering if someone saw the book.

“We would like another two coffees, please” Opal ordered.

As they waited until they got their coffees served, they chatted a bit about how things had changed in Manehattan. The recent discovery of, among other things, a way to magically charge gems had changed the landscape of the outskirts of Manehattan, filling them up of factories.

“I’m actually working with magical crystal technology at M.C.A. Company, as a consultant. Our team is the main developer of the machines used in the factories all over Equestria.” Frost said proudly. She had always been amazing at the development of machines, and now she could automate them using the power of magical gems, she was happier than ever. “Our main investigations are focused on the development of smaller and more efficient crystals, and we are expecting to generate more portable sources of energy soon.”

Development... that word meant so little for Crimson. He didn’t found any pleasure in looking into the future, and focused as he was on his expeditions, he took no time to see what changed in Equestria recently. It wasn’t his way of thinking. The factories have brought prosperity to Manehattan, implying a boom of population and new whole neighbourhoods around the industrial zones.

“When we achieve it, the possibilities will grow infinitely!” She continued.

“You know what I think of the arrival of that technology. Factories have brought many ponies to Manehattan, not all of them friendly. The outskirts have become dangerous during the night. Even thought the Manehattan police has tried to catch up with the growth of the city, they are now barely able to control that zones.” Opal Shine whispered “It is rumoured that even a black market of products of zebra lands has settled there”

“Fine, then now I know where to buy more tobacco” Crimson joked with a smile in his face.

“This is serious Crimson. Things have changed around here, the city is not the same it was when we where foals.” Frost could really sound fatalistic when she got serious.

“Don’t worry, I’ll not approach the outskirts without you, I promise”

“We both know that’s not true Crimson. Your curiosity has always been your special talent, and I know you more than enough to guess that you will eventually end up there. Just be careful, please…” Opal said. She was right. When they where foals, the three friends got in all sort of trouble because of it. It was in one of those adventures where Crimson got his cutie mark, a magnifying glass.

They chatted during a couple of hours. Frost was so excited about her project that she almost didn’t spoke about anything else, but Crimson found out that it was indeed interesting. He asked her how the magically powered devices worked. Her explanation was perhaps too technical for him, but she told him that the spells to configure the crystals were easy once you understood their basis, or at least the technical unicorns that worked with her said so…

“I’ll show you the labs when I get permission, I promise. But only if you promise me first not to go to the outskirts without me.” Frost said.

“I will keep my promise, trust on it. Now let’s go home, its getting late.” He answered as his horn glowed in grey. He picked some bits of his wallet and paid the coffees.

“Yeah… Anyway, we should arrange something now so we met soon again” Opal said.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea!” Frost quickly replied.

Crimson doubted, as, if he kept meeting with them, he’d never be able to read the logbook. After hesitating for a couple of seconds, he made up an excuse.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to spend at least tomorrow sleeping all the day long, I’m exhausted. If you want, we can meet after” He excused himself. He couldn’t tell them about the logbook, and the curiosity was too strong.

“Alright then… We will meet other day, but now that you are in Manehattan, I’d like us to meet more, just like when we were young, all the day together!” Opal said

“I’m pretty sure that you will leave the city as soon as you have an excuse, so I’d like to make the most of your visit” Frost added.

We left the café at the top of the building and said good bye. Crimson still couldn’t believe they wanted to stay with him, not after leaving Manehattan the way he did. Overall he couldn’t believe Frost forgave him, not after what he said.

As they disappeared among the crowd, he started to think again about the change the city had experienced while he was away. He reflected on how he got to be such an absent-minded pony, that he didn’t realise that the world was changing around him. It could be part of the spirit of Canterlot, a city stuck in the past, chained by old protocols and its fairy tale atmosphere.

The ponies from Canterlot didn’t care of anything apart from their social meetings and keeping their fortunes and prestige. Crimson wasn’t like those ponies. He hated the formality of the Academy and always preferred the field work in order to be as far away as possible from Canterlot. Even thought he tried to prevent it, it was like the essence of this spirit chained him to the past as much as other ponies were. Thought he hated the idea, he couldn’t avoid thinking it was right. The only thing that relieved him was the fact that the logbook could contain the answers that he looked for, and they could change everything, and perhaps free him…

He finally arrived to his building. When he approached the door of his apartment, he saw light under the door.

“I didn’t left any light on…”

He approached his ear to the door, and heard some noises like… Somepony was inside! He approached the key to the door and opened suddenly. This seemed to surprise the robber that stared at him paralyzed as he rushed into the room. The thief wore a black complete outfit that covered his whole body, hiding the colour of his coat and his mane. He also wore a snood and sun glasses, covering his face completely.

Crimson charged with his horn, leaving the robber almost no time to think. But he dodged the assault in the last moment, rolling to one side. He took a knife out of a sheath hidden in his suit.

“Damn that is unfair!”

Crimson dropped his saddlebag to the floor, as he stood on his hinderlegs, preparing himself for the counterattack. The thief jumped with the knife in his hoof and tried to stab him. Dodging it just by a bit, Crimson threw a hoof, and using one of the techniques he learned of Fallen Caesars style, he hit his throat, leaving him breathless. Though this wasn’t a deadly technique, Crimson could remember that their effects weren’t pleasant. The robber fell to the floor seeking for a breath he would not get until he released his grip.

“I will release your throat when you agree to tell me what you are doing here. Decide fast, or you will asphyxiate.” Crimson told him. As soon as the robber nooded Crimson released his grip slowly, allowing him to take a deep breath. As he woke up, he spread a couple of wings. He was a pegasus! Taking advantage of his surprise, he kicked Crimson back and started to fly to the window. Crimson tried to grip one of his hinderlegs with his magic, but it was too late.

As he flew away Crimson stared at the knife he tried to stab him with. These kinds of weapons were completely forbidden in Equestria. Its sole possession meant banishment, unless you got direct permission from the princess itself to have them.

“Why would any pony try to rob me?” He thought. It couldn’t be because of the books he took from the Royal Sisters palace, no pony knew they existed. He had told no one about them, except to Opal. But what else could it be?

Crimson fell to the floor as his hinderlegs trembled. The attack itself had left him exhausted. He stood up and went to his room, the knife floating in front of him. When he arrived to his bedroom, he opened the drawer and quickly threw the knife inside. After he closed the door, he collapsed on the bed. The logbook would have to wait again.