Nothing can destroy friendship, but war will damn well try

Twilight had been occupied with her favorite pastime, reading. Spike was over helping Rarity as he usually did on days when all Twilight planed to do was study. She had just read through The Art of the To Do List for probably the third time that month when her whole house was shaken by and explosion of in the distance. When her head stopped shaking and she could think straight, she flew out of her home off toward Ponyvillie airport and the source of the "earthquake."

When she arrived, she found Fluttershy talking with Sorin as a few other members of the emergency rescue team loaded another one of there members on a stretcher into an ambulance. She had come close enought to start to make out what Fluttershy and Sorin were saying, "I'm sorry Sorin, but there is no two ways around it. That left wing is broken and you have at least three broken ribs and a bruised lung, now please don't make me force you." Sorin grunted as he shifted on his left front leg, you could tell it was painful for him, "Alright Shy, if you say so. But when Rainbow Dash wakes up I want to be on the first to hear about it got that." Fluttershy just nodded as Twilight landed in a frenzy, "Fluttershy, Sorin, what happened? Who got loaded into that ambulance? And where's Rainbow Dash, i thought she would have been the one in charge around here."

Fluttershy looked at her friend and sighed, "A plane came in that was in rough shape, and crashed on landing. Rainbow had already gotten her and helped the first people out of the plan waiting for the rest of us to get there. Her and Sorin had went into the plane when one of the wings exploded. Sorin had been outside the plane by about a foot when the blast occurred, but Rainbow was inside the the plane helping someone when the wing exploded. From what Sorin says, she was right under the wing. When we got her out of what was left of the plane, she was in really bad shape. So we got her loaded up into an ambulance bound for the Emergency room. Now Sorin is next in line." Sorin just gave her a quick nod.

Twilight was in shock, the fact that one of her closest friends had almost died was almost to much to bear. Then a thought crossed her mind, "Shy you said the plane was in rough shape, what happened?" Fluttershy shrugged, "I couldn't tell you Twilight, i just know the right wing had a hole in it from the streaks of fuel on the runway." a voice from behind her startled the whole group, "I can tell you what happened." It was the pilot that Rainbow had helped out of the wreck. Twilight looked over to him, "So what happened that Captain?" The pilot looked up at the group, " We were flying at 12,000 feet when i heard the sound of guns going off. I didn't what was happening, then the plane jerked to the right. I struggled to keep the plane level as my mechanical officer said we were losing power in engines 3 and 4. He also told us that we were losing fuel at a fast rate. I asked the Co-pilot where the nearest airport was and here's where we ended up." it was then a truck showed up with two of Sorin's fellow wonderbolts, "Come on Sorin, time to get you to the hospital."

Sorin turned and waved good-bye to Fluttershy and Twilight as he got into the truck and it pulled away. Twilight then turned back to the pilot, "You said you heard gun shots, could you see where they were coming from?" He shook his head, "I couldn't tell you for certain, but they were coming from somewhere below us." Twilight nodded then turned to Fluttershy, "Can you handle this by yourself Shy?" Fluttershy nodded, most of the injured have been scent to the hospital or are being taken care of in the terminal." Twilight nodded at her, "Ok then, I got to go let Luna and Celestia know about this. I will be back as soon as I can to help clean up this mess." With that, Twilight's horn began to glow and a lavender aura surrounded her and with a flash she disappeared.

Celestia and Luna where walking back to there chambers as they talked about how Celestia had seen smoke in the sky heading for Ponyvillie. Luna was listening then said, "Tia don't worry. I'm sure if something was wrong, Twilight would have come here and told us." As if on cue, Twilight materialized in front of them with the hurried and worried expression on her face, "Celestia, Luna, we have had a major accident in Ponyvillie." Celestia looked over at Luna almost with an I told you so look on her face. She then turned back to Twilight, "What has happened."

Twilight took a quick breath, "A large passenger plane crash landed in Ponyvillie. From what I heard and saw when i got there, it was a horrid crash. Rainbow Dash was the one first pony on the scene and was able to pull a large number of the passengers and the pilot out of the plane before the rest of the rescue team got there. Then, they whole team went to help more survives as Rainbow and Sorin went back into the plane. Then one of the wings exploded. Sorin got out but Rainbow wasn't so lucky, she was right under the blast. I got there as they loaded her into an ambulance, she was in terrible shape.The pilot then informed us that he believed the plane was shot at about ten miles out of Equestria." The princesses stood in shock, Celestia broke the silence, "You mean to tell  us that one of our countries civilian was attacked for no reason. I must look into this."

Luna turned to her sister, "If you are going anywhere i am coming with." Celestia turned back to her, "No sister, I need you to stay her and help the people through this. I have faith in Twilight but she is a new princess and i fell that she still needs time." Celestia turned to look at Twilight, "Now offence Twilight." Twilight smiled back at her, "Non taken princess, I completely understand." Celestia nodded and then turned back to Luna, "Can you do this for me Sister?" Luna nodded, "I understand Tia, I will keep the country under control." Celestia smiled, then she  addressed them both, "I know you two won't let me down, I must go. When i return please inform me of the condition of Rainbow Dash and the rest of the survives." Twilight then nodded and the two alicorns watched as the older white alicorn flew off into the distance.

Twilight looked back at Luna, "So what do we do know." Luna looked back at here, "We let the ponies of Ponyvillie know what happened at the airport but nothing about why the plane crashed. We will let that come out in time." Twilight nodded as Luna spoke again, "Now go back to Ponyville and check on your friend and the others that survived the crash. Let me know how they are doing to see if some should be moved up here to Canterlot." Twilight nodded and teleported away, leaving Luna alone with her thoughts.

Rainbow Dash was groaning as she sat in her bed at the hospital,  most of her body rapped in different bandages and casts. Sorin had been sitting in a chair next to the bed half asleep with his left front leg in a cast along with her wing. He woke up as Dash began to stir even worse, he hobbled over to her as Rainbow began to come to. Rainbow squinted as the light from around her came rushing in at all angles. Finally images, as blurry as they were started to come into focus, if only a little.

She could barely through hear the mild ringing in her ears, which slowly started to subside as she began to hear someone calling out to her, "Rainbow, Rainbow!" She couldn't tell who it was, but they sounded familiar. It was then her vision cleared up just enough to make out a blue pegasus hovering above her. Finally she was able to put two and two together, Sorin. Rainbow could barely speak, but she used most of her strength and muttered, "Sorin, is that you?"

When Sorin heard the quiet voice and then hugged Dash tight, "Oh Rainbow Dash, we thought we lost you. It's so good to know your ok." It was then Twilight teleported into the room, hearing the last of the conversation. "Yes Dash, it is good to see you awake." Rainbow Dash weakly smiled then passed out again. Sorin panicked but Twilight calmed him, "Don't worry Sorin, She's fine. But she is in critical state and we must keep an eye on her. I don't know when or if she'll ever fully recover."

Sorin and Twilight spent the rest of the day checking on the others who had survived. They had been told how many people who had been on the flight, 156 passengers and crew had been on the plane when it had crashed. Twilight and Sorin had been heart broken to learn that only 82 ponies including the pilot had gotten out of the plane alive. She reported this back to Luna and also informed her that there had been 19 ponies including Rainbow Dash who needed to be moved to Canterlot due to critical  conditions.

Two days had passed since the incident and there was still no sight of Celestia returning from her trip to wherever the plane had been shot at. Still no one but Twilight, Rainbow, Sorin, Fluttershy, the pilot, and Luna knew the real reason why the plane crashed. And non of them either wanted to or could (in Rainbow's case) tell what the real reason was, not yet. Not until Celestia came back. It was on that Second day after her leaving that Luna found a tape left in her room marked, watch alone. She could tell this wasn't good so she summoned Twilight to the castle to view the tape with her.

When she had arrived, Luna put the tape into a vcr and played it back. The first thing they saw was just a bag with a strange metal object coming out it's top. Then a shadow moved in the background and came to the front of the shot, still staying in the shadows.  then a hoof from out of the shot grabbed the bag and pulled it back. What the two alicorns saw rocked them to there core. There was Celestia, tied up and severely bruised with a metal object wrapped around her horn. Then the shadow pony spoke in a deep voice, "We have your sister and ruler. We will not kill her if you meet our demands. IF our demands our not met prepare for war." Celestia then was able to muscle out her voice, "Luna, Twilight, don't give these bastards anything, hold your ground." A new voice from of camera then yelled out, "Quiet you!" then punched the princess square in the jaw.

Luna and Twilight cringed as they saw there sister abused in front of them. The shadow voice then spoke again, "If you don't want all out war, you will step down from your positions and allow myself and my followers take the thrown." Celestia then yelled out with blood and spit coming out as she yelled, "You must give them nothing. Rally troops, bring them in from all over, just give them nothing Make them pay for me." The voice from outside the camera came again, "I said quiet!" as he reared up and bucked Celestia hard in the ribs. You could almost her the sound of a rib cracking in the video.

The shadow said one last thing before the video cut out, "You have two weeks to make your decision. We will give you one warning of war on your last day. If nothing is done, then prepare for all out war."

Then the video stopped. Twilight looked shocked at Luna who had tears forming in her eyes, "What do we do?" Then Luna put on a barred face, nothing she had ever seen the alicorn princess show  before, "We're going to fight." Twilight was shocked for a moment but then nodded in agreement. Luna then contiued, "Get the Airforce and Army ready for war, I have a feeling this isn't going to go over easy when these people don't get there way." Twilight nodded and then spoke, "I have a feeling that we're going to need more for this fight. If they were able to capture Celestia they mean business." Luna only nodded, then stated, "Equestria is going to war."