*revised* Episode 0
As the newly apointed rebel leader entered her new living quarters, her head was filled with thoughts. How damp her room looked, how expecting everyone was of her now, and the book.
She was given this book as a gift for being apointed leader. It was a old, leather bound, ripped up book. Looking to be about a thousand years old. It apparently told of a time before the war had erupted.
As soon as all the lights in the troops bunks went out, the leader used her magical horn to illuminate her room just enough to see the words on the page:
"Hundres of years ago, in a young equestria, times were peaceful. Six ponies, who possesed the power of the elements of harmony, protected the land from evil. The elements were six medals, which if used properly, contained the power to vanquish any evil. These six held years of peace on the land. But a new order began, worshipping a pony whos heart was pure darkness. This pony, Nightmare Moon, ruled beside her sister. But she killed her sister in her sleep, and took the land as her own, ruling with a iron fist. She imprisoned any who questioned her, leading to the formation of the rebels. The rebels battled against Nightmare, creating the great war.
The war raged on for centurys, destroying all plant life, and turning towns into barren waste lands. Most ponies died off over time, but the two oppoisng forces stayed strong. Weapons were stocked everywhere, and the whole landscape was turned into a weapon."
She shut the book quickly, not able to take any more of that horror. Just imagining the pain that accompanied that war brought tears to her eyes. Why did anypony have to suffer through that?
Then she noticed something, a sketch drawn on the back cover of the book, in old pencil. She flipped the book over and examined the drawing closer, it was surprisingly in color.
It detailed, as it seemed, a purple unicorn and five uncolored ponies standing side by side. Under their hooves it looked to be.....Nightmare Moon, the enemy leader.
Who had drawn this? Why? All these questions just sent her head into a spiral so she stuffed the book in her nightstand drawer and closed it.
She rolled over and tried to sleep, but for some reason she could not get the image out of her mind. Why had it stuck itself so far in her thoughts?
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She was rudely awoken the next morning by two rebel troops bursting open her door. She sprawled onto the ground in surprise, her hair stiull undone, she looked like a mess.
"Soarin!? Spitfire!? Why do you so suddenly awake me!?" This wasn't only rude, it was embarrassing for the leader, who hated ponies seeing her so vulnerable.
The orange rebel, Sptifire, responded first "M'lady, we have apprehended one of the enemy troops. He is currently in questioning." She talked with such certainty, she seemed to be a soilder from the books the leader had read of.
"Captured? They would not so easily let themselves be captured. I desire to see them immediantly." She stood up, shaking loose strands of her mane from her face.
Now Soarin spoke "Thats kind of the point of us coming here. Follow me m'lady, we can show you the way." He began walking out her bedroom door, to which the leader followed swiftly.
This would be a long day.
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The questioning room felt like a castle.
Two gaurds stood by the front door in case of attempted escape, and inside everything was made of concrete. The only non-concrete items in the square room were a desk and two chairs on either side.
On the far side of the table, sat a Rainbow maned, cyan colored colt. He was looking down at the ground, as if this hid him from us.
He looked strong, but limber two. He seemed to be quite the warrior, telling from the scar on the right side of his face.
Then he stretched out his wings, revealing himself a pegasus. From ledgend, they were the warriors of their time. But that was before the war, now most were either dead or drunkards.
The leader, named Celestia by her parents, walked over and occupied the seat on the other side of the table.
"Hello there, my name is Celestia, leader of the rebels. What is your name young one?" The pegasus did seem in fact to be much younger, since Celestia circled 50 years, this one seemed to be in his 20's.
"Names Rainbow Dash. Fastest flier in all of the army, and winner of the Iron General award." He talked with such cockiness, as if Celestia were some child Rainbow wished to impress, not an enemy. Rainbow leaned back in his chair, placing his hooves on the table.
"Exscuse you! I would appreciate it if you did not treat me with such rudeness!" Celestia was appalled by how much of a rapscallion this pony was.
"Yeah yeah, your higness." Rainbow placed her hooves on the ground. "So what the buck do you want to know?"
"First, please watch your language. And second tell us everything you know about your army." Celestia wanted any information she could aquire that could help her in the war.
"Well....then this could take awhile." Rainbow chuckled as he started rambling off about how great the army was.
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Elsewhere, on the other side of Equestria, a young Twilight Sparkle woke up screaming. It seemed to be very early in the morning due to the lack of sunlight, and her parent was still asleep asleep, hearing the snoring from down the hallway.
The same dream as always had haunted her: Twilight was being trampled on by a tall black alicorn.
Twilight had never seen this Alicorn before, but she had heard of her.
Nightmare moon, leader of the New Lunar army, a fierce and deadly warrior.
Twilight quickly made her way down the dark hallway of the nearly completely deteriated house, towards her moms room. The walls of the house were nearly non-existent, letting the night time in. Plants had grown up some walls, and there was no power in the house, so Twilight could hardly see where she stepped.
She tip-hoofed as quietly as she could to her moms room, slowly pushing the door open. Her father had died of disease when she was young, before she could remember.
She saw her mom curled up in blankets, engulfed by darkness.
Twilight made her way over to the bed, weasling her way under the blankets, and curled up next to her mothers warm body. Her mom shuffled in her sleep and pulled Twilight closer, as they both drifted off back to dreamland.
Thats how most nights went for Twilight Sparkle, a simple unicorn.
*Authors Note: I will upload these in parts, so there may not be whole acs or chapter uploaded at once. Thank you for your patience, and please remember to check for updates*
Act 1: Twilight
A wasteland. Thats all I can see for miles around me. How did I end up out here anyways? I remember...
I was sent here. Sent to my find my brother. The day he didn't arrive back home, the first time in months he didn't return, we knew something bad had happened.
He left months ago to search for the legendary resistance, the only chance of hope people like us had left. People abandoned by society, left to die by the capitol.
He had left nearly two years ago, and would return every three months to check on us, and if he couldn't return in time he'd send a note. This time he didn't return.
He thought it was ridiculous, him searching for this resistance that may have only been but a fable, but we saw in his eyes how determined he was. So we let him go.
I snuck out last night to find him, I couldn't sleep, not with the thought of him hurt or dead in my mind, I had to save him. So I creeped out of the house, with making little to no sound, trotting out into the thickness of midnight. I don't care of the danger, I can't let him die. Maybe I'm being foolish or stupid, but my gut hasn't led me wrong yet.
I know lots about survival, most anything anypony could know. I used to sneak into the old abandoned library that used to be part of a nearby town. Not its just ruins, but still, some books remain. I'd spend whole days there, reading until I slipped off into sleep.
Thats how I've learned so much, and how knew what to pack to survive out here. Now I'm alone, in the silent, flat wasteland. The dead meadows littered with destroyed, rusty remains of various devices once belonging to ponies.
I walked for hours, taking small bites of food or drinks of water occasionally. I walked and walked, not looking back, focused on the ground in front of me.
Shining had told us little of his travels, but he did say he'd walk for miles at a time with nothing interesting appearing, so i didn't let my hopes get up. I'm not exactly sure how long I walked, but I know the sun rose at least twice along my travel.
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After the sun rising four more times, I had ran out of food, and was nearly out of water. I won't last much longer out here.
I started to wonder about my mother, how she reacted seeing me gone from my bed. What she had wondered happened to me, if she tried to search for me. If she listened to anything I had told her, she would know not to stray too far into the wasteland.
How ironic I didn't take my own advice.
As the sun lowered for the fifth time in the sky, my legs gave way. I felt the cold hard dirt smack against my body as I let myself go. I lay there on my side, easy prey to any nearby predators. I knew this is how I would die.
My body ached with pain, my legs convulsing occasionally, and my head feeling as though it got hit with a mallet.
Then the peace took over. My heart slowed, letting my body go limp. My pain began to die away, and I let out a sigh of relief, thinking maybe it had passed over. Then I realized something, what if this was the feeling you got before death? Peace, peace like no one had experienced before.
My eye lids began to twitch, becoming too heavy to keep open, so I didn't try to. As they closed, the darkness blanketing over me, I saw the brief glimps of a baby manticore in the distance.
I was ready to die. It was my time. I had died trying to save family, so was it not worth the attempt?
Then an explosion ringed in my ears, a flash so bright it shone through my eyelids. Thats the last thing I noticed before I went unconscious.
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I heard the sound wind. Strong powerful wind, whipping through my mane. The feeling of a warm sun overwhelmed me, and as I forced my eyes open, adjusting to the intense light, I saw I was in the sky.
Below me, a sea of clouds, flying past me. I was moving?
I rose my head, and noticed I was in fact in a carriage, a large wooden carriage. I saw at least four fully grown stallions, pegasi from what I saw. They wore battered, somewhat rust armor, and held long spears. When they noticed I was awake, they stalked towards me, spears raised for the kill.
"Stop there gaurds, we have yet to learn if she is with the enemy." A voice, sounding as though it belonged to a child, but it spoke as though it was a mature adult, came from beside me.
I turned to see a young purple dragon beside me, looking as though it was no more then the age of twelve. It hopped down from its position on a small stool, walking over to the gaurds.
"I swear, if you kill everything that you see, we won't get anywhere in this war." It waved the gaurds away, turning its attention back to me. "And you, what were you doing in the wasteland? We had to chase a manticore off, I swear if we were two minutes off you'd be dead right now."
"Umm, thanks?" I looked closer at the dragon, from what I could tell it was a male dragon, telling from the shape of the spines on his head. "May I ask whats going on here?"
"I guess you do deserve a explanation, after all not many ponies wake up in a carriage in the sky. So yes, you may ask."
"Then, whats going on here?" I didn't like this dragon, the sound of sarcasm and apparent superiority in his voice drove me bonkers.
"We're part of the Celestial Rebellion. When the capitol took over long ago, this rebellion was created to overthrow them, to bring the world back to how it once was. Sadly that didn't go too well." The dragon got a embarrassed look ad he scratched the back of his neck "We lost the first war, being driven to underground caves. Our leader, and five after her, were all killed. We kinda got screwed."
I couldn't hold a gasp in, this was the rebellion Shining was searching for, the one he dreamed of. This sarcastic dragon, some dead rulers, and kill-happy pegasi in underground caves. The disappointment was overwhelming.
"Did you ever...find a pony named Shining Armor? He was searching for you all." I couldn't hold back the question.
"Shining Armor" Never heard of him. Probably died in the wasteland" The dragon shrugged.
How could he say that? Shining couldn't be dead, could he? No, I wouldn't accept it.
"Now, tell us about you. Whats your story?" the dragon asked, giving me a suspicious eye.
"Not much to tell really. I lived in a crappy house, and one day my brother went out to find you all. He didn't return and so I went to find him. Thats when you found me I'm Twilight by the way, Twilight Sparkle." If I was truly stuck here with these morons, I might as well try to make friends. better being stuck with allied than enemys.
The dragon offered a claw to shake "And I'm Spike, just Spike."
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Act 2: Twilight
The base was much more impressive than I had imagined it'd be. It was a huge complex labyrinth of underground trails, that
I would've easily gotten lost within, but somehow these ponies have memorized them.
It seemed everypony had a certain function, similar to a beehive. Some were transporting materials, some were in little chambers creating weapons, some were helping the injured and sick, and some ever just sat around shouting orders.
"You know Spike, this is actually a pretty cool place. Better managed than I would've thought." I was suddenly regretting lots of things I had thought earlier.
"Its what happens when you have over 200 hundred years to work on it." Still, I hate that sarcasm.
He must've led me down at least thirty different trails until we finally reached a huge sanctum. It was almost the exact shape of a cube, with probably a hundred ponies scurrying around inside.
Then I saw her, the most regal pony I have ever seen. She was a tall, white Alicorn, with a blowing rainbow mane. But how did an alicorn end up in here with all these dirtied ponies?
Spike walked right to her, taking a knee when he got in front of her, and motioned for me to do the same. I gladly listened, afraid I'd be blasted to bits by alicorn magic if I didn't.
"Ah, spike, its good to see you. How did your stealth mission go?" She had yet to notice me, delivering all her attention to spike. It appeared they were friends.
"Well it WAS going well, until we erm, got distracted." A look of embarrass spread over his face, I realized he was talking about me.
"Distracted you say? Were the enemy prepared?" Finally the alicorn took notice of my presence. "Oh, who is this?"
Spike answered almost instantly "The distraction." I thought it only fair to slug him in the arm for that.
"Oh, so what is her story?"
"She was searching for her brother in the desert when a manticore attacked her. Luckily we were there to save her." A sense of regret was in his voice.
"That is very noble of you, young dragon. And what is your name?" Now she turned to face me, which instantly gave me a sense of importance.
"i am Twilight Sparkle." I said, just hardly making eye contact with her, with the fright I'd end up giving her a bad look.
"Well Twilight, my name is Celestia, leader of the rebellion and rightful leader to the throne of the capitol." Thats when I passed out.
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When I came back around, it looked as though I was in some kind of infirmary. I still felt woozy, probably from smacking my head on the floor. It felt almost as if there was a scab on my forehead too.
I managed to sit up, taking in my sorroundings. I was apparently in the middle row of three rows of hospital beds. Mine was located on the far right, so the only pony around me was the one on my left, a pink one.
"Um, hello? Excuse me Ms.?" I was hoping to pony could tell me why on equestria an alicorn princess was underground in a rebellion.
The pony snapped her head around almost instantly, fixing her baby blue eyes on me, a wild smile emerging on her face. "Oh, helloooooo there! Finally, they put someone next to me! They don't like doing that since somtimes I bite!" This, for some reason, made her erupt with laughter.
For me on the other hand, it filled me with worry, that I was placed next to this psycho. "Umm, I was wondering if you could tell me why the princess is down here? If its no trouble..."
"Oh, of course missy! Because the other princess killed her sister when she took over the capitol, so her daughter escaped with the rebellion, leading that!" Made sense to me. "But enough with boring old history, I'm pinkie!" She shot her hoove out to shake, with I reluctantly accepted.
Not soon enough, Spike returned, he had a deeply concerned look on his face. "Spike, whats wrong?" Then i whispered softly "Please get me away from "her"."
He let out a weak chuckle, sitting on the foot of my bed. "First things first, you asked whats wrong. We're being invaded."
"Wait, what? By the capitol?" I looked over, now seeing pinkie was fast asleep.
"Yes, the capitol has all manticores in captivity, so if one was that close to our base, it means they're locking in on our location. They could be on their way right now."
