Clink....clink...clink
The black iron fetters bound tightly about her hooves were heavy. Heavier still were the thick wrought iron chains dragging across the muddy cobblestones behind her. But even with the many wounds and whip marks cutting deep into her once pure azure coat, nothing was heavier than the jeers and insults thrown at her heart.
"Hey, your cutie mark still worth it now, 'hero'?"
"What happened to 'freedom', 'Mare-Die-Well'?!"
"What does your cutie mark tell you now, huh?"
"Ooooh, save us all, 'Mare-Do-Fail'!"
She kept her head up high, her long pale silver mane shining through the dirt and grime that covered her. With a force of will that would have moved the sun and moon itself, she put one hoof in front of the other, slowly but surely inching herself forwards down the long, seemingly endless grand boulevard. She was only one of many who had walked the 'Traitor's Path', a last journey leading up to the execution block before the Governor's Palace, now a black silhouette against the dark storm clouds hanging low under Luna's night. Every Cutie Mark Crusader caught alive had walked it, the longest journey that would last the rest of their lives.
Once upon a time this had been a beautiful city square, thronged by free ponies. That was a thousand years ago. Now the grand boulevard leading up to the palace was still lined with ponies. But their wary, fearful eyes, their blank flanks, their blinkers and harnesses, told of an entirely different way of life.
She eyed them. Even as they threw jeers, catcalls, even rotten vegetables, eggs and rocks at her, she could still see it in their eyes. Behind the looks of forced hate, vindictive anger, there was Fear. Uncertainty. Huddling in the herd. Following the herd. Doing as the herd was told. Once divided in adversity, they were now one in defeat. Once proud wild stallions and mares, now broken and tamed like beasts of burden. All huddling together for safety, content to be alive, living every day for the sake of the next.
"Ungh..." She fought to bite back a cry of pain as a stone struck her forehead, just where the cruel iron magic inhibitor ring squeezed her horn, drawing a fresh trickle of blood. While she managed to keep the pain in, she didn't manage to keep her balance. She collapsed onto her weary knees, falling forwards into the freezing cold mud. She could taste the dirt, the filth, the squalor her fellow ponies lived in. It was the taste of decay, of despair, of pessimism and nihilism.
She didn't get to rest for long. The pony guards escorting her were quick to tug on the chains binding the cruel, heavy iron yoke wrapped tight about her neck. But she did not gasp, she did not cry. She threw a defiant glare up at them so fierce it caused them to fall back and falter. Another pony guard brought up the rear with a whip. But with a forceful buck of one hindhoof the whip was sent flying into the crowd.
Then she stood. Legs shaking, body trembling, she stood, head held high. She put down one hoof, then another, pushing forwards of her own free will. The crowd was silenced, stunned by the sight, by her very presence striding down ahead of the hapless guards. The jeers and catcalls died away in the harsh wind. Only frightened eyes dared follow her down the boulevard. Each and every one would alight upon the mark branded upon her flank, the magic wand lighting up the darkness like a torch in the night. They knew it was the sign of blasphemy, they knew the curse was punishable by torture and death, but the way the filly striding to her doom carried the mark, it was as if she held it up with strength, pride, maybe even joy.
With heavy hooves she finally stepped up onto the execution block, the final stage of her ultimate performance. The showmare within her awoke. The tears, the despair, the pain, all that no longer mattered. The stage was hers, and she would give them all a great and powerful final performance.
"My fellow ponies!" A loud, aloof voice finally pierced the silence. It was loud, but from where she stood, on the execution block amidst the palace square, it was deafening. The mare glared up at the ball of pretentious arrogance that stood up at the steps of the palace. She knew him well. The traitor of ponykind, one who had sold his own people, his very soul to their overlords for power, Lord Blueblood. "1000 years ago our valiant and most holy god, lord Ahuizotl, vanquished the tyrant Nightmare Moon and the pony scourge of her 1000 armies of Equestria and delivered Equus from the eternal darkness." The pompous ponce continued, seemingly in love with his own voice. "In his infinite generosity he saw fit to give us the light of the sun and to come down from his celestial throne to establish his most divine Empire of Talicon, to spread peace and order throughout Equus. His chosen people, the Felis, were returned to their rightful place as peacekeepers of the realm. In his infinite mercy he allowed the Gryphons, Minotaurs, and even us sinners, us unworthy ponies, their place in his utopia. Truly, his mercy is without bounds. But how have we ponies decided to repay his infinite kindness?! With rebellion! By bringing the order and peace he had so painstakingly built for us crashing down!" He stomped his hooves upon the palace steps.
"Behold, my fellow ponies! Today order is restored to our fair Empire! For the great general Fireclaw," He gestured up to the top of the palace steps. There stood a grand form, a truly majestic creature of blazing orange and midnight black, the Tiger Commander of the Talicon Imperial Forces, Fireclaw himself. The mare glowered. For him to come out in public here, the general must consider the capture of Mare-Do-Well a truly important and momentous occasion. His arrogant self-importance would not allow him to attend the execution of anyone lesser. He stood there, imposing, at least 3 hooves taller than the other Felis commanders flanking him. But all of his intimidating presence, from his deathly jaws to his fearsome glare, was all focused down upon the mare standing in the middle of the square. Her.
"...with the grace and guidance of Lord Ahuizotl, has captured the nefarious radical, Mare-Do-Well, infamous leader of the terrorist organization who call themselves the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'." Blueblood spat, "Nothing more than a misguided bunch of lunatics, parading the curse etched into their sad plots as symbols of 'freedom', of 'individuality', of 'fate and destiny'. A curse, by any sweet name, shall remain as rotten. And the most rotten curse of them all is the false prophet of their demon worship of Nightmare Moon and Celestia, the devil known as Mare-Do-Well."
"See her stand before you, citizens of Talicon." Blueblood raised his hooves, "See the wretched creature finally dragged into the light of justice. Behold....Mare-Do-Well, or, should I call you, Beatrix Lulamoon..."
"It's the Great and Powerful Trixie to you, traitor!" The mare standing amidst the execution block barked, stomping a chained hoof heavily into the ground, before she was cut off by a blow to her back, courtesy of a guard bearing a heavy metal rod. She was sent to her knees, pain searing every bit of her body. She whimpered, but only quietly to herself. She would not allow them the pleasure of hearing or seeing her weakened. No, not today.
"Fine, Trixie, whatever." Blueblood muttered, lazily, waving a dismissive hoof. "Daughter of....hah, Starlight Lulamoon, the third-rate street show-mare who couldn't even slice a pack of cards straight. I liked her. She was the cheapest and sweetest piece of flank in this dump for quite a while." He chuckled, to a chorus of anxious laughter from the gathered ponies. "Truly, the apple does not fall from the tree. Your mother lifted her tail to anypony. You? You lift your tail for the demons themselves."
"My mother sold everything to feed me..." Trixie muttered, eyes glowing with pride, "But she never sold her equinity! She never sold her soul! She never sold out all of ponykind! Tell me, Blueblood, what do you have left-GAAAH!" She bit back another scream of anguish as the rod struck her back with a loud crack.
"Heh, she was real quality. She even managed to earn enough to school you in that sad little school for gifted unicorns. Must have killed her to see you flunk out." Blueblood sighed, shaking his head. "Oh, wait, she was already dead. Died to the pony pox. Difficult to say though with how she was a melting pot of venereal diseases by that point. Well, you might know, you got to watch her die from the other side of the glass at the sanatorium. Tell me, Trixie, did she die peacefully like the saint you think she was?"
"Trixie'd tell you to ask her yourself." Trixie spat, "But you're not going where she is. Oh no, where you're going, you will be begging for her to shed a tear from on high, that it might relieve your Tartarus-scorched plot." There was another loud crack. Trixie bit the dust once more. This time she couldn't feel her rearhooves. Tears filled her eyes. But she refused to lie down. No, not here. Not now. Not yet. She pushed herself up by her forehooves, pulling herself up once more. She would stand, proud.
"Armed with all the cheap parlour tricks you scrounged together at the school you went around to put on shows on the road, eking a pittance from every filly and colt you managed to blinker." Blueblood went on. "But you resorted to lies and tall tales to compensate for your pitiful lack of skill. You couldn't face the fact that even after all your mother sacrificed, you were still be an absolute failure at magic. The lies built up. One con lead to the next. We know where that ended, don't we?"
Trixie's eyes dimmed noticeably. The laughter, the jeers from the crowd, they grew louder and louder, resonating with the echoes from dark, bitter memories within. The darkest moments of her life rose up, flashing before her eyes like they did every night in her dreams.
"Your show cart wrecked. Your show turned away at every city across Talicon. Shunned, spurned, even outright hated by your beloved 'ponykind'. Tell me, Trixie, how did that washed-up filly, hallucinating from starvation and thirst on the roadside, become 'Mare-Do-Well'? How did one shunned and hated by all her fellow ponies to the point of raving madness come to become the 'hero' striving for the freedom of all ponies alike? What ambition could you have left in that pit of despair other than the death and destruction of all ponykind? But ah....perhaps the cutie-mark plague, your crusade for 'freedom', is all but your ruse to ruin all of ponykind? To deliver us all once and for all into the hands of the twin demons Nightmare Moon and Celestia?" Roars of outrage, bellows of anger coursed through the crowd like a chorus to his speech.
The clamour of the crowd quickly died away, suddenly washed away by the first pitter patter of rain upon the frozen mud. But even as the heavens began to cast down upon the square, a single pale beam of moonlight pierced the darkness. Luna's light warmed the young filly and gave her courage, enough to stomp her hoof defiantly and raise her voice.
"How, you ask?" Trixie chuckled, giggled, before breaking into peals of laughter. The crowd remained silent, partly out of fear, but mostly out of awe. "Oh, how fitting that you'd ask Trixie, poor poor Blueblood. No, you'd never know. You'd never understand." She sighed, shaking her head, "And for that Trixie pities you, truly. But the great and powerful Trixie will be generous. Trixie will tell you. Trixie met a mare. A wonderful, great and powerful mare. She showed Trixie kindness, generosity, gave Trixie honesty, loyalty and laughter. She shared with Trixie the most powerful of magics." She smiled a smile of resolute determination, a smile so sincere it shone like the sun amidst the dark square. "The magic of friendship. A magic worth fighting for. A magic worth dying for."
Whispers spread amongst the crowd. It spread like wildfire from one pony to the next. It grew, took on a life of its own, as arguments broke out. For the first time that night, the herd was not one but many.
"Blueblood." General Fireclaw spoke for the first time, aiming an annoyed glare at the pony lord. "Contain this."
"Y-yes, m'lord." Blueblood was quick to bow before facing the crowd, "ENOUGH!" He roared, pulling a veil of silence down upon the gathered ponies. "You are here to stand judgement, Trixie Lulamoon, not preach your prattle! You stand here today before the public court of his most gracious Excellency General Fireclaw charged with inciting unrest, terrorizing innocents and treason, all under the cowardly guise of 'the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well'. How do you plead?" He demanded, almost spitting with rage.
"Guilty." Trixie replied, calmly. Outrageously calmly.
"M'lord! The defendant pleads guilty!" Blueblood announced to the general.
"Then by the power invested in me by the almighty lord Ahuizotl..." The General rumbled, his voice building up to a deadly roar, "I sentence you, pony, to death by stoning by the very ponies you sought to misguide! Let your blood wash away their sins in doubting the benevolence of lord Ahuizotl!"
"His Excellency has spoken! Ponies, come! Join me in showing our faith to the merciful lord Ahuizotl and bringing this demon to his absolute and unerring justice!" Blueblood roared, picking up the first stone with a wave of his unicorn magic.
The stone soared through the air. It struck Trixie upon her forehead. But she barely even winced, her glare fixed through the new trickle of blood dribbling over one eye, her hooves dug into the ground, her head raised tall and proud.
Another murmur ran through the crowd. Ponies looked at one another. A few picked up stones uncertainly. But none dared cast the first stone.
"Stone her!" Blueblood roared once more, "Stone her, I say!"
A few ponies took a step forwards, maybe two. But still none dared be the first. The very sight of Trixie, standing tall and mighty, was enough to drive fear into the very pits of their souls.
"STOOONE HEEEER!" Blueblood was almost foaming at the mouth. "Must I strike you all?! Or torture your mares and take your firstborns as this unholy creature would?!"
"Fellow ponies!" Trixie bellowed over Blueblood. Her vision was blurring. Her lips quivered. Her hooves were standing from the weight of the fetters alone. But still she managed to gather the breath to shout, "Your lord bids you to carry out his execution for him. You are not free. You are not free because you must carry out his order without question. You are not free because if you do not do so you and your loved ones may share my fate. Well, Trixie tells you this, Trixie is free. Trixie is free to bleed for you, for the safety of you and your loved ones. And Trixie will bleed as much blood as is necessary to keep you all safe. And Trixie will continue to bleed until you are all free! Cast your stones and Trixie will bleed for you all!"
"SILENCE!" Fireclaw himself finally raised his voice. "Enough. Ponies, you will stone this filly, or you will all join her in the execution field." He announced as calmly as he could manage.
A muttering rippled through the crowd. It was no longer a divided sound, but one rising note. The few stones held up in hooves and magic fell with empty clatters upon the streets.
"What is the matter, Fireclaw?" Trixie suddenly snapped, "Too weak to throw your own stones? What's wrong? Kitty got a broken nail?"
"....I don't like those eyes." Fireclaw muttered, finally stepping forwards and raising a claw, pointing it at Trixie. Fire erupted about his claws, swirling like a searing serpent from Tartarus. "Burn." He intoned.
Trixie's scream pierced the night. Every heart present was chilled by the bloodcurdling scream, even Blueblood's. But if that hadn't frozen them, their hearts were stopped still by what they saw.
Trixie's eyes.
They were on fire.
"Glare at me now, pony." Fireclaw growled, a smug smile on his face. But the smugness was quickly wiped off his face, his smile fading, as what he saw began to chill his very own heart.
The pony before him was still glaring at him. Glaring at him, through burning eyes. Even as her tears ran red with blood, she kept her defiant gaze steady and true upon him. For the first time in his entire life, the fierce general of the Talicon Empire knew the chill of fear deep in his heart.
"You insolent..." Fireclaw growled, striding forwards as he wove thunder and lightning about his arms and into his claws. With a roar and a swipe of his claws he brought a pillar of brilliant lightning crashing down upon the filly.
There was a scream.
"Impudent..."
Another blast of lightning.
Another deafening scream.
"Impertinent..."
Yet another blast.
Now naught but deathly silence.
"Foalish little creature." Fireclaw spat, watching as the pillar of smoke and smouldering embers rose up from the small crater in the ground.
Many, many eyes watched, transfixed, watching for the scene of carnage that awaited them once the smoke cleared. A few whimpers, even cries and tears filled the crowd.
A smile slowly widened across Fireclaw's face. He raised his claws into the air as the smoke finally dissolved away with one last whip of wind, ready to announce the death of the Empire's greatest foe, Mare-Do-Well.
Except he was faced with Trixie, still standing as tall, as proud, and as great and powerful as ever.
"You dare?! You still dare stand?!" Fireclaw half-roared, half-gasped in disbelief.
"The Great...and Powerful Trixie...may find her end today." Trixie wheezed, weakly. It hurt to breath. Her skin around her ribcage had been charred, restraining her breathing. Her hooves had melted into her iron fetters, now the only thing keeping her barely standing. She could see nothing but a darkness blacker than the deepest pits of Tartarus. But still she persevered to utter her final part. "But know this....Blueblood...know this, Fireclaw, pawns of the Talicon....Mare-Do-Well...is everywhere."
As one the shadows of the city came to life. Cloaks as dark as night, masks as black as vengeance, wide hats as foreboding as death itself. All made their way through the maze of shadows and alleyways across the city towards the square.
"She is...amongst the crowd gathered here. She is within the stallions and mares...the colts and fillies. She is amongst you when you are awake....she haunts your guilty nightmares....when you sleep." She raised one very painful hoof and gave a stomp. Sparks flew out as her hooves stomped down on the chains binding her.
Heavy hooves clattered across the rainy rooftops. Wings soared through the freezing rain trailing ice and frost in their wake. Horns glowed in the chilly shadows. As silent as death they melded into the square, taking up their positions.
"As long as a single heart in Equus beats for freedom...Mare-Do-Well...shall live on." Trixie raised her face to the heavens, allowing the rain to wash away her blood and tears. "Mare-Do-Well...Forever..."
"SitRep. Foot mobiles are on site at the square. They've melded into the crowd. The execution is already underway."
"Turn off all of them turboprops. We're going into silent running. Turn the Crusader about, hard to starboard, 20 degree down-angle. Keep to the cloud cover until the last minute. Keep it cool, crew!"
"Aye aye, Captain Dash."
"Equestria....EVER...FREEEEEEE!" Trixie roared at Celestia and Luna's sky.
A flash of lightning lit up the square. The heavens opened up. Water rushed down like a curtain upon the greatest performance to ever grace Equus.
Dark capes billowed in the cruel wind. Black masks flashed in the lightning. Wide hats brimmed with rain like fountains of vengeance. They were on the rooftops, in the windows, within the crowd, even amongst the guard. And they were in the heavens, swooping down on wings of fiery retribution. Like the very anger and cries for freedom taken form, the shadows filled the night. Fire lit up the skies as the fearful shadow of the notorious silent cruiser, the 'Crusader', descended upon the square, all seven magical turboprop engines roaring like the cry of the gods themselves. The deafening howl of the Cutie Mark Crusader's flagship right in the middle of an Imperial stronghold was more than enough to cast fear and terror deep into the hearts of the Felis and their pony guards.
But what really froze their weak hearts over, what really chilled their very souls and the souls of every Taliconian from that day onwards, was that sight, the sight of thousands upon thousands of ponies, all standing as one, rearing as one, stomping their hooves down upon the earth as one. Like a flash of thunder running through their ranks, brilliant bursts of light crowned their flanks. Cutie Marks, hundreds and thousands of them, lit up the night as they graced their bearers, turning the very sky to day, blinding the Taliconian forces like the radiance of Celestia's sun itself.
They stood no chance.
Tens. Hundreds. Maybe even thousands of ponies clad in the black flag of freedom, the cloak of Mare-Do-Well's will, rose up. And in one fell swoop descended upon the Taliconian Imperial stronghold. Stories would be told, songs sung, of the heroic battle that liberated the once magnificent city of Canterlot.
They would lose it again, regain it again, many many more times over, but the moment itself would forever live on engraved into the minds of all ponykind, their first victory, their first stake upon freedom.
But perhaps the story most celebrated, the one later immortalized in a wave of grafitti that struck the Talicon Empire, the bedtime story forever secretly etched into the imaginations of colts and fillies alike for generations upon generations to come, was the story of Equestria's greatest friend. A unicorn filly who learned of kindness, generosity, loyalty, honesty, laughter. A mare who lived and breathed friendship to her last breath.
"Trixie!"
Trixie lay in the frozen mud. She could feel nothing but her slowing heart. Her senses had dulled. The sound of fighting had long since died away into the distance. But amidst the distant explosions, the screams and battlecries, she could have sworn she heard somepony call her name.
Somepony still cared.
It could only be one pony. Only one.
She chuckled to herself, weakly. Why did she bother deluding herself any further?
It was a hallucination, borne of blindness and the searing pain. She would die delusional in suffering, just like her mother before her. There was no way she would be here.
Even here, at the end, her fading mind yearned for her so....how...pathetic.
"Trixie!" the voice was clearer now, closer too. "Trixie! Please, please, please be alright!" The voice cried.
"T-Twi-...light? Is that...really you?" She raised a hoof weakly into the air, groping at emptiness. "Is that...really you?" Dare she hope? Dare she dream?
"I'm here Trixie!" The voice approached, closer and closer. There was the scraping of hooves skidding into the mud. A pair of hooves gingerly, softly reached around her. They cradled her, gently, almost....lovingly.
It hurt. Being touched hurt. It hurt so so so much. But at that point Trixie would have gone through Tartarus itself to feel her touch just one last time. And it felt like heaven, oh Celestia's heaven.
It was her. It was really her.
She was beyond happy that it was....but Twilight didn't need to know that.
"Oh...the real...Mare-Do-Wells are here..." Trixie forced herself to chuckle offhandedly, as much as the pain seared in her chest. "Hey...Twi...light...I can't....heh...can't see you..."
"I'm right here. We're all here." That familiar voice, it was the voice that made her feel safe and warm for the first time years. It was the voice of home. It was Twilight's voice, the most sincere and loving voice in what was left of Trixie's world.
"About...time..." Trixie laughed. She immediately regretted it as her chest tightened painfully, causing her to cough and wheeze.
"Trixie!" The voice panicked. "Medic! Get me a medic here!"
"Hey...stop that..." Trixie sighed, "You're....loud...it hurts."
"Oh, Trixie...."
"You're...the smart one. Look...at Trixie....there's nothing...left..." Trixie groaned. "Just...shut up...keep Trixie company...awhile..."
There was a sob. "T-Trixie...." She felt something warm against her cheeks. It dripped. It hurt, every little touch hurt, but it felt so warm and comforting...it was Twilight's tears. She was crying?
She was shedding tears? For Trixie?
Nopony had ever cried for Trixie. She believed nopony ever would. And yet here was Twilight, proving her wrong. Again. It was always Twilight, she smiled to herself, always.
"Trixie....why?" The voice asked through sobs.
"Silly Twilight..." Trixie chided weakly. "There are...hundreds...thousands of...Trixies...out there... afraid ...lost...alone ...unable to fight. But...there is only...only one Twilight Sparkle...only one...Applejack...Rarity...Fluttershy...Pinkie...Rainbow....the real Mare-Do-Wells..." She sighed. "All the....Trixies out there...they need...the real...heroes..."
"No, Trixie, no...y-you're the real hero..." The voice said, softly, "You're Equestria's greatest hero ever."
"You know...Twi...light...that's the...nicest thing...anypony's ever said...to...Trixie..." Trixie breathed, feeling her very breath slowly escape her. "Thank...you..."
There was a reason. One true reason. It wasn't Equestria or Freedom. She would give it all up, all of it, twice, thrice over, for this one reason. And the reason now held her at the end, embracing her lovingly.
Dare she say it? Before it was too late?
"Hey...Twi...light...?" Trixie whispered, her voice fading away with her.
"What is it, Trixie?" The voice whispered back, softly.
"Twilight...Trixie....I..." She choked. "Twilight...I...I've always...." A vision sparked in her mind, brighter and grander than anything she had ever seen with her now lost eyes. Twilight fought. Twilight freed ponykind. Twilight was crowned princess of a new Equestria. And there, there was Twilight, holding a foal. A beautiful little foal, the future of their new land. And beside her stood the love she would share an eternity of happiness with.
No.
She didn't need Trixie.
Not anymore. Not there in that bright, happy world.
Let this burden die with her. Let it end here, washed away in the rain.
Let her take it with her to Tartarus.
"I-It w-was short...t-too short...but thank you...f-for...being my...first ever...friend..." Trixie said it. She sighed, content.Her lips came to rest in a soft smile. And for the first time in many, many years, she felt peace. Happiness. Love.
"Trixie?" Twilight whispered, "Trixie? Hey, Trixie?" "T-T-Trixiiee...." Twilight sobbed, her chest heaving with the sudden flood of sorrow as she cradled the mare against her chest, pressing her cheeks into hers in the hope of somehow sharing some warmth, some life.
But there was nothing left, as if all had been washed away in that frigid rain into the muddy gutters in the dark.
"T-Trixie....." She whimpered. "T-Trixie....oh....Trixie...."
Hooves strode out of the gathering mist under the roaring rain. They stopped, gathering in a circle around their Commander,
"Twiligh', We've got'em holed up in that there palace." The familiar form of Applejack said, softly. "We got half the Taliconian high command in there. We gotta seize'em while we got'em."
"You're needed at the frontline, Twi." Captain Rainbow Dash stepped up, peering out at the fire now erupting about the palace in the distance. "Rarity and Pinkie are leading, but the troops need you. We need you."
"....I know..." Twilight growled. "....rest well, Trixie. Find your mom, and live ever free." She whispered as she gestured for another mare to come close. "Fluttershy, take care of her, please." She breathed as she gently handed the lifeless form to her friend. "Don't...don't let her be alone...."
"Yes, Twilight." Fluttershy nodded without hesitation, accepting her new burden.
"Now..." Twilight Sparkle, Commander-In-Chief of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, rose up to her full height. She lifted up Trixie's Mare-Do-Well mask, hat and cape and donned them as her own, tightening the mask to hide her eyes, pulling her hat low to hide her tears. "We begin." With a billow of her cloak, Mare-Do-Well rode into the darkness.
Author's Note
A scene for a story idea I had in my head. The story itself never got off the ground, mainly because an alternate universe fic like this would take far too long to actually build up steam properly without leaving people lost and confused. But I quite liked how the scene played out in my head. So I decided to write it out as a one-shot, building in all the elements I hoped people would immediately be able to relate to and understand, giving just enough of a bare bones foundation to create this one climatic scene.
A little bit about what I had originally envisioned:
In this world, history takes a drastic turn. Celestia was defeated at the hands of Nightmare Moon. She plunged the world into eternal darkness, but her ambitions did not end there. No, she wanted to create a new pony supremacy that would rule all of Equus. She unified all ponykind under her banner and lead a dark crusade to crush all of Equus under her tyrant hoof. In the wake of her army, amidst the ruins of the once magnificent kingdoms of Gryphons, Minotaurs, diamond dogs and Felis alike, cries of anger and seething vengeance filled the darkness. They called her the 'Tyrant Moon' and her pony followers the 'Pony Scourge'.
Then when all hope was lost, when the 1000 armies of the Equestrian Empire stood at the gates of Equus' last free nation, Talicon, the one who proclaimed himself the great god Ahuizotl himself came down. He appointed 6 Felis bearers of his Elements of Order, and with them rode out to meet the Pony Horde. Together they turned back the pony scourge in one fell swoop. Soon, the tables turned as the downtrodden rebelled and joined the Felis hosts. Equestria was routed. Nightmare Moon herself finally met her end at the hands of the 6 bearers of the Elements of Order. In his 'mercy', Ahuizotl imprisoned Nightmare Moon in the moon.
What followed were 1000 years of relative order and peace as Ahuizotl, in his 'infinite generosity', chose to remain amongst mortals, to reign as their god Emperor. Ponies, branded as the scourge of the earth, the demonic race, were 'put to the service of good'. In short, enslaved. Blinkers and harnesses were their lot. 'Cutie Marks', the pony symbol for individuality, dreams, ambitions and hopes, were stomped out. Before long they had become forgotten, 'Blank Flanks' becoming the norm amongst the beasts of burden that were ponies.
That was until 1000 years later a strange affliction began to spread amongst ponykind. At first it was seen as a sign of blasphemy, of devil worship, a brand of the cult of the twin demons Nightmare Moon and Celestia. Inquisitions arrested and tortured the bearers of these marks and those close to them. Even ponies themselves turned upon those who developed these marks out of fear for themselves and their loved ones, quickly shunning them, even turning them over to the inquisition as a show of loyalty and fervour to Ahuizotl.
Those were the dark years. Ponies lived in fear of one day developing the curse and becoming outcasts.
But then the winds changed. Whispers told of a Mare who walked amongst ponies, who taught them that the cutie marks were anything but a curse. That they were a gift, and not one from any demon or god. They were gifts each and every pony carried within themselves. With it they had hopes, dreams, freedom. She preached freedom in loyalty, happiness in kindness, satisfaction in generosity, joy in laughter, love in honesty and magic in friendship.
She was tortured for years before she was burned at the stake.
But in her wake came a darkness, a darkness that would smite the inquisition, steal away those marked for death, spirit away those that bear the cursed mark. They called her the vengeful ghost of the Mare.
'Mare Do Well'.
And in the years that followed, those who embraced the cutie mark as their standard of freedom gathered about 'Mare-Do-Well' and formed the seed of a new Equestria, The Cutie Mark Crusaders.
This would have been their story.
.....if only I was troubled enough to write it....
For those of you who might have read my other fic, 'My Little Queen', you may have picked up my penchant for writing these kinds of scenes. Yeah, I'm a sap, I know. I can't help it. (If you do happen to like this kind of stuff and you haven't done so already, please do take a moment to take a look at 'My Little Queen'. Yes, this is me shamelessly promoting my one other fic.)
Usual Disclaimer: My Little Ponies and all its characters are the intellectual properties of Hasbro and the awesome Faust.
