The air smelt of smoke and gunshots were heard sounding off into the night. Nova sat in the corner with a gun close by. Her wings were tightly shut and her back against the wall. The Equestrian war had been going for sixteen years starting two years after her birth. A knock was heard at the door and she said from the corner of the room, "What's your soldier number?"
"Uh....1234?" It was an unreckognizable voice. She sighed and raised the gun to the door. She opened a small dog door put the barrell of the gun through the door and shot the pony in the chest, shutting her eyes before she did so. She learned the rule that if somepony gave a soldier number that she didn't know, shoot them. She had learned all pegasi soldier numbers by heart and 1234 was not one of them. She walked back towards the wall her dark violet mane a mess.
She didn't know an Equestria without war. Though, what she had learned over the years, was that she was the reason for the war. Before, the tribes could only marry within their own tribes. If you were an Alicorn, though, you had to marry a unicorn. Nova's mother had broken the rule as an earth pony and married a pegasus stallion. This caused a slight anger throught the tribes some angry at her mother, some angry at her father. They hadn't tried anything brash, until they had a child. But, even though this child was born a girl, it was a pegasus. This caused an uproar betweent the tribes as to wether she belonged to the pegasi, or the earth ponies. This caused the largest war in Equestria to break out. The Alicorns sided with the earth ponies, while the uicorns sided with the pegasi. Nova sighed at the fact they couldn't just say that she belonged to both tribes. Another knock at the door. She looked up. "Soldier number?"
"7892." Nova smiled as the sweet voice relayed the number to her. She opened the door and Fluttershy quietly walked into the old castle. Blood was smeared on her coat and mane, her uniform was no longer the soft sky blue it used to be, instead it was crimson with blood. She smiled at Nova and sighed. "Nova, the Alicorns are starting to fall back, but the earth ponies are still after you. Unicorns have turned their backs on us too." Nova sighed. She wished that this whole thing just could have been avoided. Fluttershy looked to the side of the castle wall. The tapestries still hung thrown about as Rarity had left them from trying to restore their true beauty. All of the fabric, though, had gone to making uniforms for the soldiers in her tribe.
"Fluttershy, have you found my parents?" Nova asked with hope in her voice. Fluttershy shook her head and Nova frowned. "I see, thank you for still looking, even if it is a lost cause." Fluttershy nodded and walked to a small table to the side of her. Guns and ammo were stacked up along with blue prints for more. Fluttershy looked at Nova's cutiemark, which was two guns crossing each other. Fluttershy looked at her own cutiemark of three butterflies and smiled at the good times she had with her friends before the war. Nova put a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder and gave a smile that could make even a dragon calm and happy. Nova then looked at the door. "I need to scavenge for food so I need you to stay here and protect this place for me okay?" Fluttershy looked at her.
"Alright, just stay safe." Nova nodded and left the castle, closing and locking the door behind her. The walk to Ponyville was fairly quiet with not that many guards on the trail. She entered Ponyville and sprinted towards the first building she saw. She put her ear to the door and knocked. Nothing was heard from inside so she opened the door and went through everything. She found some medicine and a small bag of food. She then left leaving the door in the same position as it was before. She was about to sprint to the next building when she heard voices coming from a little ways down the street. She ducked into the bushes and waited. The voices got closer until they were close enough for her to reach out and touch them. One of them sighed.
"I can't believe that you would give a pegasus mercy." One said in a southern accent that sounded like a mare. The other one didn't answer and just opened the door.
"C'mon I'm starvin'." The other one said, younger, but also had a southern accent. They walked inside and the younger one shouted, "We've been robbed!" They both ran outside and looked began searching the streets. "Sis," the younger one said, "Let's try the bush-"
"Apple Bloom, you should know by now that pegasi aint smart enough to hide in good spots. Now they got away and all we have is this small bag of food that we took with us. Now come inside and have lunch." The younger one grumbled and shut the door. Nova quietly got out of the bushes and sprinted to the next house. She did the knocking procedure and a stallion shouted at her.
"What's your soldier number?" He shouted,
"1234." Nova shouted back. The stallion opened the door and she shot him in each of his legs and ran inside. She took a large sack of food and the medicine out of the cabinet. "Thanks." Nova said before shooting him in the chest. His blood splattered on the floor and she left, sprinting towards the next house. After five hours she returned to the edge of the Everfree Forest with seven sacks of food, six gallion jugs of water, and enough medicine to overdose thirty times over. She knocked on the door and heard Fluttershy's voice call out to her.
"Soldier number?"
"7678." Nova called. Fluttershy opened the door letting her in. She set the supplies down and sat down at her work bench. "What happened while I was gon-" Nova felt the bitter cold of metal pressed against her neck and looked up to see who it was. "Well, well, well. Princess Celestia."
"Well, well, well. Princess Celestia." Nova said with venom dripping from her words. Celestia frowned and held the blade closer to Nova's neck. "Out for my blood too eh?" Nova said. Fluttershy had grabbed a gun from the work bench only to have Celestia's magic propel her backwards, Fluttershy dropping the gun. Nova glared at her. Celestia glared back.
"Long time no see Nova Lust." Celestia said with anger and hate in her voice. Nova laughed and Celestia pressed the blade closer to her neck.
"That's a little formal don't you think." Nova said still laughing. "Not to mention, knowing you before and now, you don't really care much for ponies names anymore. It's just a killing spree for you." Celestia smiled and looked at Fluttershy who was trying to find the gun again. Her mane had gone from the etheral colors, to just a solid pink color almost identical to Pinkies coat color.
"Fluttershy has taught you a lot about me huh?" Celestia said still smiling. Nova nodded and Celestia laughed. "Oh Fluttershy, I remember when you were so shy that even just talking to Twilight or Pinkie was hard for you." Fluttershy stared coldly at Celestia.
"You dare say their names after what you did to them." Fluttershy said with a low growl. Celestia laughed again though it seemed more insane than evil. "Your own pupil who cared for you and would have done anything to make sure you had never gotten hurt and you murdered her. You didn't even seem saddened by the fact that you had killed a pony who was like family to you." Fluttershy was right in Celestia's face now and looked ready to kill. Celestia's smile seemed to be too large for her face.
"Oh but Fluttershy, their faces when I killed them. They were so.... amusing to me." Fluttershy pointed the gun again at Celestia. "Hah, you don't have the guts." Celestia said. Fluttershy pointed at Celestia's horn and shot. Celestia screamed in pain and crumpled to the floor. Fluttershy picked Celestia up so then they saw eye to eye.
"You're right, I don't have the guts, but you want to know why? Well, I'm not a cold blooded killer." Fluttershy said. She then threw Celestia through the door and slammed it shut. Nova stared at Fluttershy, unaware that she could be capable of that.
"What did she do to Twilight and Pinkie?" Nova said, her eyes full of sympathy for her friend. Fluttershy sighed and motioned for Nova to sit. She did and Fluttershy began.
"Long ago, Celestia and Luna controlled the changing of day and night. As their names show, Celestia ruled the sun, while Luna ruled the moon. Harmony was kept for thousands of years.
That didn't last long though. About a thousand years ago, Luna felt that ponies weren't respecting the night. She bacame angry with her sister and everypony in Equestria. So, she wanted the night to last forever so ponies had to worship the night. She turned herself into a nightmare. Celestia had to banish her sister to the moon in order for Luna to become her normal self again. Because Luna was no longer there to raise the moon, Celestia had to raise sun and moon. This slowly wore on her sanity until she became unstable.
Now, let's skip ahead to maybe, four years before you were born. Celestia's sanity had disappeared all together and she became insane, ruling with brutality. This was so terrible that not even her sister felt safe being alone with her. Luna had told her sister that she was worried about her, but she told Luna she was fine and that all she needed was a bit of rest. Luna let her rest but this wasn't enough.
She turned on the subjects, killing off several a day. The ponies finally stood up to her, and imprisoned her in the castle dungeon. She ended up escaping, and killing even more ponies than she had previously. She finally came to Twilight, the princess of friendship, and Pinkie, a world famous baker. Celestia broadcasted their murders as they each screamed for mercy. She sluaghtered them, laughing as she did. She murdered her own friends. It was... Unforgiveable." As Fluttershy finished, Nova noticed her tears as the memories of what had happened to her friends were replayed in her head over and over again.
"I'm sorry." Nova replied. "If you didn't want to relive the horror again, you could have just told me." Fluttershy looked up at her and smiled.
"No, it's fine, I needed to get it off of my chest." She replied. Nova nodded and looked around the old castle. Fluttershy went to the door and Nova looked at her, confused.
"Where are you going?" Fluttershy looked back at Nova and giggled.
"You didn't really think I was going solo in this war did you? I joined a platoon a few weeks ago. I can only disappear for a little while before they notice I'm gone. I'll see you later okay?" Fluttershy asked happier now. Nova nodded and smiled. She turned back to her work bench as she left. She cleared off the desk and looked at a new weapon blueprint she had designed. She began to work on it, and didn't finish until it was around midnight. A gunshot was heard nearby. She looked through her ammo cabinet, but couldn't find anything large enough for the gun. She went from stash to stash hoping there was something that could fit the size. When she couldn't find anything she sighed and went to start making ammo. She started with a lead core which was easy to make with her abilities. She reached for steel to cover the lead in and found that there was none there. Only one place to find steel now. She smiled as she shouted in the castle,
"To the earth pony territory!"
