War of Equestria: By Halfcrescent Time
The clouds were dark. The crackling of bombs could be heard from afar, as they had been for years. The war was raging on, becoming more and more dreadful by the hour. Canterlot, still barley hanging off the side of the mountain was now nearly in ruins.
It had been years since the war started. Those who were weak became strong. Those who were strong became weak. Earth ponies had taken over Ponyville, driving out all pegasi and unicorns.
Running through the main hallway of Canterlot Castle, a blue Pegasus was quickly trying to get to the door on the other side. With his face covered in black soot and the rest of him covered in cuts and scars, he carried a single knife strapped to his side. His mane was yellow and filled with dirt, and his cutie mark was three white stars.
As he opened the door, he entered a dark room lit only with candles. Sitting on a throne, another Pegasus stood the only visible part of her being the front of her light pink mane.
“What is it?” she asked.
“They’re gone, all of them!” the blue stallion said, his voice shaking. “They killed them all.”
“Where are they now?”
“They’re coming. They’re coming to Canterlot!”
“We still have time. They are only earth ponies. It will take them hours, days even to get up that mountain. Without unicorns or pegasi, we should be able to overtake them on their way.”
“But they already destroyed our biggest Pegasus army! Their cannons are strong! They shot them out of the sky!”
The pink haired Pegasus started to open her mouth, but then simply looked down at the floor.
“I know what we must do. But it is risky. Know that as long as they are moving up the mountain, we have the upper hand. Get the unicorns ready. I will be back.”
As she backed up, a flash of yellow and pink whizzed past the blue Pegasus, and out a broken stained-glass window.
A few minutes later, the pony landed in another part of Canterlot that leaded into a cave in the mountain. She approached two unicorn guards who seemed to fear her.
“Bring me to Celestia.”
Starring wide-eyed, the guards hesitated to respond.
“Y-Yes Fluttershy,” they said leading her into the cave.
They walked into the dark cave, none of them saying a word. Each one of the guards carried a single lantern by his side to light the way, but it was still very dark.
“How bad has she gotten?” Fluttershy finally asked in a serious, more confident voice.
“It’s hard to tell. Almost nopony goes in there. But I can tell you that it’s dangerous. We had to chain her up in fear that she might escape.”
“This war has brought out the worst of us.”
As they continued walking, silence creped in over the three of them again. They came to the end of the cave where a cold metal door stood chained up and locked. One of the guards used his magic to unlock the door with a key and take the chains off.
“This is as far as we can go,” one of the guards said with fear in his voice.
“Stay by my side. I will keep you safe, but if anything happens to me, you must tell Rainbow Dash.”
“As you wish, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy, putting a single hoof on the door, pushed open. Inside was an awful sight. It was the former princess chained up, using her unicorn magic to circle rocks around the room. Not wanting to, the guards walked in with Fluttershy towards the quietly humming pony.
“Celestia,” Fluttershy started. “What has happened to you?”
Celestia looked up, revealing her face. She was starring wide-eyed with a scar running across her right cheek.
“Fluttershy? How have you been? Do you still represent the element of kindness?” Celestia said in a quiet, creepy sounding voice that seemed to echo throughout the room.
“Kindness,” Fluttershy put her head down. “I haven’t heard that word in a long time.”
“Do you like my room? I decorated it myself?”
Fluttershy looked around, but saw nothing but rock piles.
“Listen Celestia, we need you. The earth ponies are coming to destroy Canterlot.”
“The earth ponies? Canterlot? That’s impossible. They are all destroyed! I already destroyed them all!” she let out a laugh that made Fluttershy and the guards somewhat uneasy.
“You did not kill any of them.” Fluttershy sighed. “It’s useless. Celestia has lost it. There is no way she can help us.”
As Fluttershy turned around to exit the room, she heard the soft, quiet voice of Celestia again.
“Fluttershy,” said Celestia dropping all of the rocks. “You don’t have to worry anymore. The war is over now.”
“Celestia, you have to listen to me. The war is not over. It still goes on, now worse than ever,”
“Fluttershy,” one of the guards pleaded. “Allow me to advise you to stop! If you anger her…”
“No. The war is over. You can let me free now,” Celestia insisted.
Fluttershy and the guards said nothing back, but instead continued towards the door.
“No. Free me!” she said again. “FREE ME!”
Celestia sent off a wind blowing Fluttershy and the guards back. As the chains were being forced back, one of them finally reached the end of its limits and broke.
“We have to leave!” Fluttershy yelled, trying to make herself hearable over the loud wind and clinging chains.
As soon as Fluttershy and the guards left the alicorn, they saw a familiar figure. A purple unicorn with a long dirty mane and a star cutie mark.
“Twilight Sparkle, what are you doing here?” the yellow Pegasus asked.
“After Starcannon and I assembled the unicorn army he told me you might be here,” Twilight responded.
“Celestia isn’t going to help us. I already talked to her. She has become crazy. She thinks the war is over. When is the last time you talked to Princess Luna? Does she want to go out there yet?”
Out of the darkness behind Twilight Sparkle came a darker pony with a moon for a cutie mark.
“Yes, Fluttershy,” she said. “These last five years have been scaring, watching Equestria go into civil war and seeing my sister go downhill since the start of it, but finally, I am ready for battle.
“I have seen those earth ponies. They are strong. They will take a lot of work to defeat, but…” Luna paused, unable to think of what to say.
“Princess, you must understand that not all earth ponies are against us. We still have Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom and Cherilee,” Twilight said trying to comfort the princess.
“I know,” Luna sighed, and then looked up. “We have to go. If we succeed at this, it could very well be the last battle.”
The three of them exited the cave, leaving the guards at the entrance. They flew up, Twilight being carried by Princess Luna, to where the unicorn army was waiting for them to return.
“Unicorns, this is it!” the princess announced in a loud voice. “This very well could be the last battle! Now that we’re ready, move out!”
The unicorn army moved out through a hole where a door used to stand, taking with them cannons and knives.
“Twilight, I know where Rainbow Dash is, but where are the others?” Fluttershy asked.
“Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom and Cheerilee are with the unicorn army. I have no idea where Applejack and Rarity are. They disappeared over two years ago. I sent Pinkie Pie to look for them. ” Twilight responded.
“Look,” Princess Luna pointed out another broken window towards the earth ponies. “This is going to be big. Are the cannons ready?”
“The cannons are ready,” Twilight answered.
“Twilight, Fluttershy,” said a voice in the dark.
They turned around to see Rainbow Dash. She had a scar running from her right ear down to her front right hoof, and her left eye was covered with an eye patch. Her right wing was also torn and broken from what seemed to be from a recent event no more than two days ago.
“Rainbow Dash, there you are,” said Fluttershy.
“We are just about to head out,” Twilight Sparkle added.
“This war has changed everyone. Look at Celestia, Apple Bloom, ven I have changed drastically. Let’s hope this is the end,” noted Fluttershy.
“Let’s go,” Luna commanded.
As they left Canterlot and were walking down the mountain, Luna stopped the army at a cliff where the earth ponies were in view. Just when they were about to fire the cannons, an avalanche of rocks tumbled onto them. Shocked at what had happened, the four of them looked up to see a white mare covered in dirt with a messed up purple mane standing on the top of another close mountain.
“It’s Rarity!” Rainbow Dash pointed out.
Next to her was an orange earth pony. They concluded it must have been Applejack. Her hat was missing and her mane was free from the hair tie, but the apple cutie mark made them sure.
“ATTACK!” Princess Luna shouted.
The whole unicorn army then jumped off the cliff and attacked the earth pony army. As the battle went on, Princess Luna and Fluttershy flew with Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash over to the other mountain. As they approached the two dirt covered ponies, Pinkie Pie suddenly came up from behind them.
“I found them, Twilight. Just like you wanted me to,” she said in an unusually serious voice.
“Rarity, Applejack, where were you guys?” Twilight asked.
Looking at the battle for a few seconds, Rarity finally spoke.
“Equestria was falling apart. Applejack and I just could not stand to watch it. So we left. We went as far as we could. It was hard for both of us, but we didn’t see anything else we could do.”
“But then,” Applejack started, “Rarity thought maybe the war was over. So we started our journey back. That’s when Pinkie Pie found us.”
“Equestria looks worse than ever. How is Princess Celestia? Is she any better?” Rarity asked.
Luna, putting her head down, walked away from the group, not wanting to hear about her sister’s condition.
“Celestia is not even the princess anymore. We had to lock her deep within a mountain. I tried talking to her, but… nothing,” answered Fluttershy.
Looking back at where the princess went, Twilight Sparkle followed her. She found her standing on a rock looking out at an open field that seemed to glow red with the clouds.
“Princess, I know it’s hard, but it’s not too late. We can still save Equestria and Celestia.”
Luna closed her eyes, thinking.
“Let’s go. We have to end this war,” she instructed.
She turned around and started running towards the battle. As she jumped off the cliff, it wasn’t long until the others followed.
Inside the pit was a bloodbath. Trying to avoid every knife was not easy. The earth ponies’ strength was massive.
Finally, Luna had enough. She started to use her unicorn magic to try to end the battle, but the she felt a sharp pain in her side. Fluttershy looked over just in time to see an earth pony take a knife from the princess’s side.
“No… NO!” she shrieked.
Quickly she pulled out a knife that she had strapped to her side and threw it at the pony, hitting him in the neck. Not soon after, she ran over to Princess Luna.
“Princess, you…”
“No,” Luna interrupted. “I-I shall not give up. I have to end this war!”
Grunting in pain, she made another attempt to use her magic. This time succeeding, she sent out a light more powerful than anything anypony had ever seen before. After that, all anypony saw was darkness. For hours, everypony say nothing but darkness.
When Luna and the others finally woke up, they saw the battlefield. Everypony was now waking up. Nopony could remember the light or the hours of darkness. Only the battle and everything before.
“What happened?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“This war,” Princess Luna announced, “is over!”
Many days past after that. All the earth ponies that were part of the revolution were taken into a prison. With no smoke coming into the air anymore, the skies finally started to clear up, leaving the sun to shine on what was left of Equestia.
Standing on what used to be the balcony of her room, Princess Luna stood, watching as the pegasi and unicorns tried recovered the dead.
“This shall become the beginning of a new time,” she said. “A time of peace.”
