The Divided, Reunited

Princess Celestia had to find a place to sit after trying to hear her little ponies pleas. The grievances of the inhabitants of the island were seemingly endless, not to mention heartbreaking. Pegasi forced from their homes if they refused to ally with Stormwing. Earth ponies forced into slavery by her own apprentice. The list went on and atrocities grew in scale. Now however, she wanted to be left alone.

Celestia found a section of beach that was unoccupied and trotted down it to the edge of the water. Her breath became shaky as she stared at the horizon, with tears following seconds after.

“Princess?” a voice made Celestia whip her head around to see Fleetfoot, the last wonderbolt sitting calmly behind her.

“Yes my little pony, what may I do for you?” Celestia asked as she wiped away her tears.

Fleetfoot frowned and flew towards her until she was a foot away. Celestia nearly jumped out of her coat as she was swiftly hugged by an airborne Fleetfoot.

“Let it out,” Fleetfoot gently commanded, a command that Celestia obliged.

Tears came forth, of pain, and rage, and sorrow. All of her carefully built walls crumbled, the pains of her sub-, no, her children was too much.

“They committed such evil,” Celestia wailed into the crook of Fleetfoots neck.

Fleetfoot did her best to console her ruler, but couldn’t help her own tears.

The two parted as they calmed down, Fleetfoot landed in front of Celestia before she asked her question, a question that plagued everyone’s mind since the beginning of the war.

“Princess, where did you and Luna go? Why did you leave us here?” her voice cracked as she spoke.

Celestia turned and motioned with her head to follow her down the beach, Fleetfoot did as commanded.

The matron of the sun breathed deeply before she answered, “My sister and I didn’t leave by choice my little pony. Something took us, a demon. A conniving, evil creature that called itself, Legion. Now known as The Laughing Mare."

Fleetfoot’s eyes widened at the revelation, and suddenly the pieces began to fall into place.

“I will explain fully once we get back to town. I would request silence on your part so as to make sure that everypony is on the same page,” Celestia said after a moment of silence before she turned to begin the trek back to the rough town that had been built from flotsam and recycled resources.

Fleetfoot followed dutifully behind her princess and when they reached the center of town she rang a large bell six times in quick succession. The townsfolk, being comprised of all four races immediately headed to town square. They gathered around its boarder in a semi-circle. All eager to hear what the princess was going to say.

“My little ponies, I wish, I wish to put your minds at ease about what happened ten years ago when mine sister and I vanished without a trace.” Celestia announced, which brought murmurs from the crowd.

Celestia swallowed, and continued, “It was not by choice that we left, far from it. A day prior to our vanishing Luna and I were on the trail of an entity so vile it threatened the very nature of our world. It called itself, Legion. Better known here as The Laughing Mare.”

Celestia watched as the faces of curiosity turned into horror. Some of her little ponies shook with fear.

“It captured us in our drawing-room and imprisoned us in the bowels of Tartarus.” Celestia explained and was about to explain further only another voice interrupted her.

“What I and a couple of guys here want to know is, why the bloody hell did the sun not stop going round? That’s what you control right, what happened to that?” a scruffy looking Earth pony questioned.

The crowd, for the most part, made noises of agreement whilst others whispered about not interrupting the princess.

“My little ponies, I’ve never controlled the sun’s rising and falling, but it’s trajectory,” Celestia answered, and hoped that would placate the crowd. Instead it confused a few.

“I do not control the sun, I set the sun in a path that will positively effect crops and warm the days at the perfect temperature.” Celestia answered in simpler terms.

This answer placated the crowd who nodded their approval. At their silence Celestia continued.

“The Laughing Mare has poisoned the minds of the Elements of Harmony and granted five of them unnatural abilities, such as Applejack who can spot a lie.” Celestia’s mention of the former farmer garnered a collective hiss from the Thestral in the crowd. She’d let it slip her mind what had happened to the bat ponies and she bowed her head in shame at what happened, to all of the races.

A new voice questioned her, this one had traces of the Trottingham accent. A tall, beige Pegasus stepped forwards.

“And how do we kill it?” the tall stallion asked with his head cocked to the left.

“I’m sorry?” Celestia asked, as if his question seemed to have been lost in the distance between them.

“I said, how do we kill the bloody thing?” the stallion repeated louder, his pale blue eyes bored holes into the princess.

“That is a job for my sister and I, Mister?” Celestia asked as she could have sworn that she saw him before her imprisonment.

“Captain Flintlock, of the Walrus. At your service Ma’am.” Flintlock answered with a small bow.

Celestia wanted to kick herself for forgetting the youngest Pegasus to graduate from the naval academy. Now an older stallion with sunken eyes and a dirty beige coat.

“Rest assured Captain, my sister and I will be handling the Cult of Laughter. And we will be sending the demon into the deepest pits of the underworld, never to return. And then we shall end this war, no more will anypony have to fear for tomorrow. We will have harmony again, I promise you all.” Celestia placated the sailor, and was responded to with cheers.

Celestia smiled, for the first time in a long time.

Sidewinder eyed the headquarters of House Earthborn, it took them two days to reach the place, even with the help of a few friendly trawlers that collected kelp. Had he been born a Pegasus he’d have no trouble getting to far off places but he was Thestral, silent and fierce.

“Commander, are we ready to begin?” a voice from below asked.

Sidewinder looked down to see a younger Unicorn as he squinted up at him, Pepperjack was his name.

“No, there are too many sentries. We wait till the midnight shift change,” responded the older stallion from his position in the trees.

The task force of seven, five Thestral, an Earth pony and a Unicorn, had positioned themselves in a mass of trees above an orchard overlooking the base.

“All we need to do is wait for our contact and everything will be taken care of then?” the Unicorn asked as he tried to refrain from using his magic and thereby giving away their position.

“Here she comes.” Sidewinder murmured when the contact headed in their direction, no one guarding her.

Applebloom made her way up the hill and into the thicket of trees. She could see her breath in the crisp night air.

“I’m here.” She whispered, as she could barely see anything.

Sidewinder crept down from his position and whispered so as to not startle the mare, “What’s the news? Any new additions to the force?”

“Fifty in the barracks, dozen or so in the mess, and Braeburn got here yesterday with a couple dozen reinforcements from Appleloosa.” The red headed mare answered in a hushed tone.

“Alright, when is the shift change?” Sidewinder pressed for more information.

“In ten minutes, takes five minutes to complete. They all have to sweep the orchard for thieves.” Applebloom’s answer elicited a low hiss from the Thestral. The noise chilled her to the bone.

“Alright, go get everyone who isn’t going to fight out. You have fifteen minutes before we attack, and if you even think about warning your brother or sister, so help me God,” Sidewinder growled out in warning which made Applebloom leave the area in a calm but fast manner.

The oldest Thestral resumed his position in the tree as the Earth pony, Pipsqueak, asked Winding Storm, a Thestral, “Why do you Thestral hate Applejack so much? When anypony even mentions her you guys hiss.”

“When Twilight Sparkle put the slavery act into place she made Thestrals and Earth ponies mine the tunnels under Canterlot to look for gems to feed her dragon. Applejack found out, she and her army bucked a fault line, which caused a cave-in. That created a gas leak, there was a spark and it lit up the whole mine.” Winding Storm answered, as he checked his small wrist crossbow for defects.

“Oh Celestia, she did that and that’s why the boss hates her?” Pip asked, his face a look of horror at the callousness of the mare.

“Believe it or not, no. Sides wasn’t at Canterlot when it happened. He was surviving out here with his son in a small colony of Thestral. Sickness hit, and little Thunderbolt went to get clean food to help his friend who was ill. He, he got caught taking an apple from a nearby orchard that was under Applejacks control. To send a message to anypony that thought of stealing… she killed him and threw him into the newly made Ponyville swamp. He was twelve years old.” Winding explained with a guilty look before their commander got down from his position.

“Alright, the shift’s about to change. Jack, sabotage the siege machines. Make sure none of them can work. Winding, Pip, take care of Big Mac and Braeburn. Everypony else, pick your targets and take them down. Leave Applejack to me.” Sidewinder said as he removed himself from the trees.

Everypony moved out as the Earthborn soldiers checked the orchards.

Rainbow Dash woke abruptly as cold water was dumped over her. She rolled onto her back and screamed, her wings were gone.

Rainbow looked around in a near delirious state till she figured out where she was, she was in a small cell with Princess Luna on the other side of the bars.

“This cell, was once in the warship Lurker. It’s housed many criminals, murderers, thieves, and now you,” the princess said as she went over the perimeter of the cell with her eyes.

“Why are you keeping me here? I was loyal to you even though your powers were fake!” Rainbow tried to reason only for Luna’s facial muscles to crease in a frown.

“Loyalty, true loyalty is what my sister and I ask for. I believe that your loyalty ended when you allowed your soldiers to do as they wished, allowing them to threaten towns with flooding in order to gain monetarily. You flooded Ponyville, albeit being tricked into it, is no excuse for it hath cost many lives, both foe and unaligned,” Luna spat out, her voice rising after every misdeed, “Doth thou know what mine sister and I can do? I control the flight path of the moon in order to provide light for lost ponies, and to bring a good sea tide. I doth not simply control the rotation of the earth thou foal, if I or mine sister did such a thing we’d be casting our magic unceasing!”

Luna calmed herself as she looked away from the scarred pegasus then said, “If you truly showed loyalty you would’ve provided for everypony freely. Does Celestia get a bonus paycheck for good crops every harvest? No, she believes that one should use their power to care for others and not use it to make ponies fear you!”

Luna continued as she saw the shame make its way onto Rainbow’s face, “Though it’s not all your fault. The Laughing Mare is to blame for some part.”

“What does that have to do with this?” Rainbow asked in a defeated tone.

“The Laughing Mare has poisoned all of your minds, thoughts of unity and love become those of division and hate. That voice that whispers to you when you are in the war room, the voice that tells you that scorched earth is better than losing. That’s The Laughing Mare working to bring you to ruin. It’s what she does you see, all to claim this world as her own. And thanks to the manipulation of Twilight Sparkle, she’s here, dividing the Elements of Harmony and sinking her claws into the earth.” Luna revealed, face still hard as she looked at her prisoner.

Rainbow didn’t know how to respond to that, in hindsight she really wished things went differently. She regretted the flooding of Ponyville, she regretted not trying to keep her remaining friends together. Now she realized the gravity of what transpired, all of the strife was for something to claim Equestria. There was only one thing to do.

“I’m sorry,” Rainbow choked out before water filled her eyes and she wept on the cave floor.

“I accept your apology, but you still must face justice. Fret not, for your followers won’t face the same fate, at least those who surrendered. Take comfort in that.” Luna said, solemn in her duty.

With that she left the cyan mare to her thoughts.

The raid was going well enough, sentries had been dealt with and now Sidewinder approached Applejack’s quarters, utterly silent.

He reached the door and turned the knob. When it was open he shot a dart from his wrist crossbow at the bed where the leader of the house slept, the dart had been dipped into a paralyzing agent which would put it's target to sleep in less than a minute. The dart hit it’s mark and Sidewinder went to collect his target.

He pulled back the covers, and his eyes widened as the door shut, this was a trap!

A voice from behind made him whirl around, “I thought I recognized my sister acting up, you no good son of a bitch.”

There, in between Sidewinder and the door stood Applejack, and not a second later she charged the Thestral!