Fighting in a world of Harmony

"At one point, there was peace in Equestria. The Elements of Harmony existed to fight the villains that arose, and the princesses kept peace within the elements. The elements took to ponies in the form of a crown and five necklaces to  wear and battle evil. For these six friends, it was easy to keep harmony spread across the land. They had even turned the master of chaos, Discord, into an ally to aide them in their adventures. He was their eyes, and he informed them of the bad in Equestria when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna could not. With the master of chaos gone, everything seemed better in the land. The other villains were destroyed. Some were even locked away in a place far, far away.

It was not all cheery for the land, though. Each night, the loss of the disharmony grew tensions. It started in Appaloosa, then spread further, to Manehattan. Fights began to break out among the pedestrians of the towns, big and small alike. News of these conflicts were brought to Princess Celestia, who tried to take action. She made laws against anger, which made the citizens even angrier than before. People tried to rise and revolt against both the sisters that resided in the castle of the greatest city, Canterlot.

Princess Celestia did not want her sister, Princess Luna, to have to experience this fight. She did not want her sister to suffer the cruel fates that the world had brought upon Equestria. Alas, she put a spell onto her sister, locking her away in another far away place. Celestia had not wanted Luna to experience the horror that she knew that she herself would have to go through. She initially put her sister under a sleep spell. When she realized this would be temporary, she strengthened it. She then followed by taking her sister to the secret chamber that Sombra had set up in the Crystal Empire castle, disguising it as the Canterlot Castle itself for if she woke up, and locking her away. She could only hope that Luna would be safe and unharmed. The fighting then commenced. Ponies from everywhere brought anything they could use to fight against her. They even fought with their bare hooves.

Harmony was the creation of magic, so the ponies had no way of fighting but through blunt objects. They took over the castle, sending Princess Celestia to her demise. It was not a surprise when the townspeople began to break out in war yet again. Soon enough, this fighting made its way to Ponyville, the town of the Elements of Harmony. They had early heard news of the fighting, but took it as normal, everyday arguments. When it came to town, the mass was so large they confined themselves to the one safe place, the library.

There they lay, trying to use the elements to battle against everything that had been raging outside. In there, they split themselves into pieces, which they hid in the books that resided within the library. There the six ponies lay, waiting for something to kill them. They soon after died of blood loss. When discovered, it looked as if the chaos had gotten to them.

The bodies were discovered torn apart, teeth marks embedded within their skin. It seemed as if they were trying to devour each other in an attempt to survive. The only hopes were the ponies that had locked themselves from the violence, and the souls of the elements which were all locked into one book in the library, simply marked: The Journal."

That was all that was in the book. The last ten pages seemed to have been torn out. I had only just arrived at this library, picking out the only book that was still legible. Ponyville was deserted, or so I seemed to my eyes. The desolate landscape was burned beyond recognition, the only thing identifying this town was the sign that lay outside of it. Outside, bodies had been scattered everywhere. They had all died of different reasons. Some had disease, spread from the last remaining magic left in ponies. Some were beaten to death. The rest of the ponies had apparently travelled to other destinations. Here, all they wanted were the six friends.

I don't know how I could have survived or even kept my sanity, for that matter. It didn't make any sense that while this book said the only ponies safe were those in the book and those that hid themselves, I was still safe. I didn't remember anything up to the point of walking into the town. In fact, I could really only remember one detail: my name. I knew my name was Sodapop, but there was nothing else that floated through my memories.

When I found this book, I truly learned the extent of what really happened. It was a mystery to me as to how the words were on this page. If the world was such a savage these days, the words couldn't have possibly gotten here. Either way, it made no sense to stop here. I was hungry, and I needed to find any form of food. My only hope was that there were some animals around here, ones that could easily be killed.

I knew the forest that I emerged from was still alive, as were the trees. I could find firewood there, and cook whatever I caught out there.  I walked up the broken stairs of the tree house. Somebody had burned these after the magic dissipated, but somehow most of the building stood as it was. There was nothing more damaged here than a burnt door and some burnt stairs. The stairs seemed ready to collapse, but I tested them out first. Each step I touched made a creak or a moan. It was hard to tell which steps would disintegrate and which steps would actually hold my weight under it. I was fairly small for a pony of my age, at only two feet eight inches tall. Most ponies had the advantage of being normal, which was three feet five inches tall.

Anyways, as I cautiously walked up the stairs, I saw a hammer lying on the top one. The step looked about ready to crumble, but this was a weapon. It had to be my weapon, of course, or I would get no food tonight. The sun was already going down outside, and I couldn't be outside at night. If any of these savages came back through this territory, I couldn't be found. I knew how hard it would be to survive out there. This was war out there.

I could tell by my wings that I was a Pegasus, but my wings weren't any good. Trying to fly was a bust for me, and as I saw no other Pegasus flying through the air, I assumed the same for them. I reached out with my teeth, knowing that this was the only thing other than that journal that I would find in this library. As straining as it was, I caught the edge of the handle and, in the process of bringing it towards me, dropped it to the floor.

The loud noise was shattering glass. It was echoing across the entire library (what was left inside) and I jumped about four feet into the air, landing onto the top platform, where messy beds lay parallel to one another. After the hammer fell silent on the ground, I was too scared to go back down there for a little while. I knew this night that I would be too frightened to go out hunting, and these beds looked quite comfortable. It seemed that there was something else of use in this library after all! I tried making them as best as I good, not ever having the privilege of sleeping in a bed.

I couldn't really remember ever sleeping at all, but right now, I felt like I hadn't slept in at least one hundred years. It was agonizing and, in my tired state, I didn't think of the worst. The thoughts never crossed my mind that I could've been attacked in my sleep, or even that the building could collapse on top of me. Right now, my only thought was the beds. I chose the smaller one, not wanting to feel selfish, and settled down.

What more was there to think about? As my eyes took me to Dream Land, only one other thought crossed my mind.

"This is the Equestrian War. Only the toughest will survive. Just after they sleep...."