Revolution

by Darkshield69

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Thriller, Mystery, Random, Adventure
Length: 3870

Revolution in Equestria, simple as that, or is it?

A revolution is stirring in Equestria. Celestia and the rest of the royalty are in danger. Will Twilight and her friends support their old mentor, or will they help to topple a thousand year old empire?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-08-19 19:50:01 UTC

Chapter 1

Canterlot was busy, as usual. Ponies waltzing down the streets, their heads tilted upwards in pride. Rarity and her best friends were sitting at a restaurant named ‘The Gourmet's Delight.’ Rarity, who was eating the special, rose soup, with a cup of tea asked Twilight. “So darling, are you sure that Princess Celestia asked us to meet her here, and at this time?”

“Yes, she said this exact place and time in her letter… It's not like her to be late for anything… I don't like it.” She replied with uneasiness in her voice. Suddenly they all heard screaming and hollering, coming from the grounds of the royal castle. They all bolted towards it.

When they arrived they saw a mob of ponies hollering at the castle and its guards. “What in tarnation is goin on here?” Applejack asked. Twilight walked up to a tall, brown coated unicorn who was standing at the back of the crowd. “Excuse me sir, whats going on here?”

“Didn’t you hear? The citizens of Canterlot are infuriated by Celestia lack of care for the outer regions of Equestria.” He answered her.

“What do you mean, lack of care?”

“She doesn’t care that ponies are starving, or that they are being raided by bandits all year long. Ponies are dying in the outer regions, by the hundreds… A stallion named Haynin came from a village that was being purposefully starved. Its because of him these ponies are becoming unrestful.”

Twilight turned herself to face her friends. “We have to speak to the princess’s.” They all nodded, and ran for the castle. As they reached the stairs leading to the gate, 2 guards blocked their paths with spears.

“Halt, nopony is to enter.”

“Please, I must speak with Princess Celestia. Look she sent me a letter.” She said as she held out the letter the Princess had sent her.

“Hugh, very well. You may pass, but ONLY you. Is that understood. We'll be keeping a close eye on you.” Twilight walked through the towering, golden gate and into the visitor centre of the castle, which was filled with guards, who were on high alert. They jumped up and grasped their weapons when they saw her enter. “Lay down your weapons, Twilight is a loyal friend of mine.” Celestia told her guards. They obeyed her order.

“Do you know why the ponies outside are almost about to attack this castle?” Twilight asked.

Celestia sighed. “Walk with me. Do not believe the lies they shall tell you. There are no starving ponies. The mob outside was simply paid to become unrestful, but I don't know by who exactly.”

“Is there anything I can do to assist you?” Twilight asked.

“No, no, just don't make it harder for my guards to suppress this unrestfulness.” A guard walked Twilight out of the castle. She approached her friend, Rainbow Dash.

“I'm a bit worried about whats going on. Rainbow, could you fly to a village in one of the outer regions to see if they really are lying about the food shortages?”

“No prob. I’ll be back before you even notice.” Rainbow Dash replied. She blasted off of the ground and flew away.

Chapter 2

The wind was rushing through Rainbow's mane. She had been flying for a few hours now; on her way to a village on the southern border of Equestria. There was something, different about the countryside. She hadn’t seen any ponies, anywhere. Until she arrived at a small farming village. Rainbow Dash’s heart sank as she saw what had been happening at the village.

There were dead bodies piled up on carts. Ponies lying on the ground, half dead and starving. The houses were all dilapidated and the wood was nearly rooting.

The only pony who seemed to be “normal” was a stallion who was busy planting crops. Rainbow Dash approached him and asked. “Whats happening. Why is everypony… Living in such conditions?”

“Because… The guards, they come, every once in awhile… They come, and take away all our crops. Saying that it's needed in other cities. I’ve never heard of any food shortages, ANYWHERE in Equestria!!! Now i'm the only pony here who has enough strength to farm for the entire village.”

“So, there was a reason that those ponies were nearly rioting in Canterlot. Listen, I was flying for half a day to see if the rumours were true. Can I sleep the night here?”

“If you don't mind sleeping in a dilapidated house. And i'm afraid that I won't be able to feed you. I’ve barely got enough to feed myself, let alone the village.”

“I understand, I’ll just be happy to have a place to sleep tonight.”

The sun was beginning to set in Ponyville. Twilight was at the same place she was every Saturday night. At Pinkie Pie's party. There was a table with punch and snacks on it. Balloons hugged the ceiling, and there were lots of games, such as pin the tail on the pony. Twilight yawned. “I think I’m gonna head home, I'm feeling pretty sluggish.”

“Okay Twilight, see you tomorrow?” Pinkie Pie asked her. Twilight nodded as she exited Pinkies place and left Sugar Cube Corner. Spike was sitting on top of her, he was nearly dropping from drowsiness. Twilight walked down the dark road towards her library. She opened the door and entered.

“Who, who.” Owlowiscious hooted as she entered.

“Hello, YAWN, Owlowiscious… I'm gonna go to sleep. See you in the morning.”  Twilight put Spike to bed, before she herself laid down, in her bed and drifted into sleep.

Twilight was in the castle again. “Is this a dream? I can see through my hooves.” She said to herself. She looked up and saw Luna facing Celestia. They both looked furious.

“What do you think YOU’RE doing?!” Celestia yelled at her sister.

“I can’t just sit idly by while our people are dying. What are you doing about it?! Nothing! I'm starting to wonder if it was your fault this all started! I'm leaving sister. And you can't stop me.” Luna said to her sister.

She turned around and was about to leave the throne room, when her sister shot a beam of paralyzing magic at her back. “I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave. I hope you’ll someday understand that what I'm doing right now, is for your own good.” Celestia levitated Lunas paralyzed body into the castle dungeon and chained her up using an enchanted chain which stopped Luna from casting any spells.

Twilight watched with unease. She noticed that Luna was moving her eyes around wildly. Eventually, it looked as if Luna had seen Twilight and stared at her. And with that Twilight woke up. “Wha… What a realistic dream. It's almost, as if it was a vision.” Twilight fell back into bed and let out a sigh before returning to sleep.

Chapter 3

“Please, sister… There's no need to lock me up. I, am…” Luna was cut off by Celestia.

Celestia's face showed a touch of insanity; her lower lip was twitching. “Yes, you are… You are a traitor, and don’t you see dear sister? That is exactly why i'm forced to lock you up, again.” Celestia said with a grin that stuck a great deal of fear into Luna. Tears began to build up in Lunas eyes. She tried to stop the tears from flowing, but to no avail.

Celestia started to walk away, quietly laughing to herself. What happened to you, dear sister? The cell in which Luna was in was damp and cold. It was quite small; only about 5 ponies could fit into it. There was a barred window on the left wall, but it only let sunlight in when it was already sunset. The shackles by which Luna was being held were enchanted. They prevented her from being able to cast any spells, and also seemed to drain her of energy.

She had only recently realized how thirsty she was becoming. She calmed herself down by thinking that somepony, Twilight, Cadence; anypony would notice her absence. She thought for a second and only one good option came to her mind. I might as well get some sleep. I have nothing better to do… WAIT, I can enter other ponies dreams still. That power is not connected to my physical magic.

Luna tried with all her willpower and determination to fall asleep, but she couldn’t. Her mind kept thinking about what was happening to her sister. Was she going insane; locking her up for no good reason. Or was it far worse, was her sister going into a state of evil, like she herself had once gone into. Eventually Luna was able to fall asleep.

She was in the world of dreams and nightmares now; all she had to do was find a pony who would understand what she had to say. Luna had hoped that Twilight would have been dreaming that night, but she couldn’t seem to find her. She did however find another pony who she could trust, Scootaloo.

Luna had appeared in her dreams before, so she was sure that Scootaloo would be willing to help her. Luna thought of Scootaloo and was teleported into her dream. Luna was standing in a field of grass. The field contained zap apple trees with nearly full grown apples on them. The sky was in a state of twilight; the sun and moon both being in the sky at the same time. Stars were scarce in the colourful sky.

As Luna observed her surroundings she noticed a streak of rainbow following a lightning fast pegasus. Rainbow Dash was in Scootaloo's dreams, Scootaloo was flying beside her idol, happy as can be. Scootaloo noticed Luna watch her from the distance and flew towards her. “Hey princess, whatcha doing in my dream?”

“I'm afraid, young pony, that my reason for being here is not a simple friendly visit. I require your assistance. I need you to give Twilight a message, may this be asked of thou?”

“Of course; what's the message?” Scootaloo paid close attention to what Luna was telling her, as she knew it was of utmost importance. Luna finished telling Scootaloo all that she would need to repeat to Twilight.

“Farwell Scootaloo. If fates will it, we shall meet again.” Luna said as she vanished from Scootaloo's dream. Her dream began to collapse in on itself. Everything was slowly being absorbed by everything else; until Scootaloo herself was being pulled into the mass of particles that had begun to form a white ball. As Scootaloo fell into it she woke up with a slight gasp. The sun was beginning to rise, and thankfully she remembered exactly what Princess Luna wanted her to tell Twilight.

…

Rainbow Dash woke from a dreamless sleep, her back aching from sleeping on the old wood of one of the dilapidated houses. She slept terribly, and felt worse. Her stomach growled, but she knew she wouldn’t receive any breakfast while a whole village was starving. She was still in shock from what she saw at the village. She opened the door, which made a loud irritating creak.

It was still dark outside, but Rainbow was determined to get to Ponyville as quick as possible to give Twilight the bad news. Rainbow Dash walked towards the small river that was hidden behind a hill to the south of the village. The water was cold and fresh. She swallowed several mouthfuls, and filled her canteen. She was about to fly away when she heard yelling and screaming coming from the village.

She crawled over the hill and looked to see what was happening. What she saw made her want to cry. A unit of about 25 Equestrian soldiers were busy burning the village, and massacring its inhabitants. One of the soldiers spotted her and yelled. “We got a witness, kill her!”

When Rainbow heard that she burst up into the air and flew away as fast as she could. Several unicorns from the unit of soldiers began to fire at her. A few of their shoots nearly hit her in her wing or head, but most missed. Thanks to her speed, she was able to get out of there in time. She was now on her way to ponyville to explain all that she saw to Twilight. Rainbow Dash felt scared. What the hell is going on… Why were they starving that village, and then just massacring it?

Chapter 4

Scootaloo got out of her bed, tossing her blanket onto the ground; as she always did. This morning, instead of staying in her bed for another 10 minutes; she ran downstairs to where her mother was busy making breakfast. “Hey, you’re up early… That's, odd.” Her mother told her.

“Ya, I just had a wonderful night full of rest.” Scootaloo replied. Her mother smiled, then returned to making pancakes for breakfast. Scootaloo sat down at the diner table, and waited for her breakfast. Her mother finished making the pancakes and passed a stack to her.

Scootaloo quickly gobbled them up. While she was eating she recited what Luna had told her to pass on to Twilight. Before Scootaloo knew it she finished all of her pancakes, and was nearly licking the plate. “I have to go dear, be good, do your chores and then go play with your friends, okay?” Her mother said to her.

Scootaloo nodded. When her mother left their house and went to work Scootaloo put on her helmet and grabbed her scooter. She exited the house and locked the door behind her, then got onto the scooter and darted away towards Twilight's library. She zipped past ponies and carts. She noticed that Apple Jack wasn’t at her stall yet, which was weird as she was one of the first ponies to get to work.

The library was getting closer and closer, no matter how much Scootaloo hated reading she knew she had to go there. She parked her scooter beside the door, and placed her helmet onto the handle. She walked over to the door and gave it a good couple of knocks.

A sleepy Twilight opened the door. Twilight noticed Scootaloo and smiled. “Come in come in, what brings you here Scootaloo?”

“It's actually something important.”

“Oh, well then say it, if it's important it must be heard as quickly as possible.”

Scootaloo nodded before taking a deep breath. “Tonight Luna appeared in my dreams and asked me to give you a message. Celestia has locked her up in the dungeons. Her shackles are preventing her from using her magic. She said that Celestia was beginning to seem a bit, crazy. And that she has something terrible planned.” Twilight seemed to be soaking up what she had just heard. “That's all I came here for. I'm gonna go now, k?” Twilight nodded.

Why… What is going on in Equestria?

…

Rainbow Dash was getting tired, without eating a breakfast she noticed that she couldn’t fly as fast as before. And that she was sometimes beginning to fall asleep. Nevertheless she was still determined to make it to Ponyville, after all there was maybe an hour of flying left. She was also nervous that the guards she saw yesterday would find her; that thought made her increase her speed.

It was now about 9 o’clock by Rainbows prediction. She thought of what her friends were doing right now to try and change the topic her mind was thinking of. No matter how hard she tried to think of something else, the scene from the village kept coming back to her. Soldiers killing already half dead starved ponies. It made her eyes water and also made her shudder.

Finally… She thought as she was beginning to see the see the outskirts of town. She flew past Sweet Apple Acres; which seemed eerily empty, but she had no time to worry about that. She began to fly even faster, pushing herself hard to get to the library. She landed in front of the wooden door that led into the library. She knocked it a bunch of times.

Twilight opened the door, she had a look of despair on her face. “Your back, I hope you have some good news for me…”

Rainbow Dash shaked her head. “I'm afraid it's worse than the pony in Canterlot told us. I flew to a village, and it was horrific. Almost everypony was too starved to move, only one pony was trying to grow food for the others. The houses were all wrecked, but all that paled in comparison to what happened in the following day.” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and sighed deeply. “Soldiers came in the morning, and… They, massacred all of them. They noticed me and tried to hit me with shots of magic, but I quickly flew away.” Rainbow Dash sat down on the floor and put her head in her hooves.

“I see… You must be tired and hungry.” Twilight left the room for a minute. She came back with a bowl filled with apples. She passed it to Rainbow Dash, who began crunching them immediately. “Spike, paper and a quill. Take this down. Dear Princess Cadence. I Princess Twilight am filled with sadness at the news my friends have recently gave me. Im sure you have no idea what is going on in Equestria, and to be honest neither do I. But my friend Rainbow Dash has come back from a village in southern Equestria. I shall spare you the details. All you need to know is that Celestia has gone quite mad. Her soldiers burn villages and take all of the crops back to her. She has even locked her sister in the dungeons of Canterlot. I don’t know what to do. I need your help.”

Spike finished writing it down and sent it away to the Crystal Empire using his dragon breath. Everypony in the library remained quiet, deep in thought.

“I think i'm gonna go home and sleep, I’ll come see you latter.” Rainbow Dash said. She exited Twilight's library and flew away home. Twilight sighed as she watched her friend fly away slowly.

Chapter 5

The sunshine hit Cadence with such intensity that it forced her to wake up. Even though the Crystal Empire is in the far north, it’s protective shield allows it to enjoy warms and sunny days; just like in the rest of Equestria. Shinning armour was currently in Canterlot, princess Celestia herself had asked for his presence. Cadence reluctantly got herself out of her bed; and dragged herself into the restroom. She quickly splashed cold water into her face and was on her way.

As she was entering the living room of the royal chambers a crystal pony ran up to her. “Your highness… Your highness,” She was panting. “A, letter from… Twilight.” She nearly fell over after she handed it over to the Princess. Cadence used her magic to rip open the letter, after which she sat down on a wooden chair and read what it said. After she read it she dismissed the pony who brought her the message. Cadence felt disturbed, but most of all worried after she read the letter.

She left the royal chambers and went to the barracks. She found her general and said to him. “I'm gonna be gone for a week. I'm leaving you in charge of our citizens safety.”

“As you wish, your highness. I shall manage your lands while you are gone.” He said as he saluted her.

Cadence walked out of the castle and once she was outside she cast a teleportation spell. Cadence was proficient enough with magic that she was able to travel great distances in mere seconds. Although it did have a great impact on her concentration and thought afterwards. She teleported to Canterlot; just to see for herself what was happening there.

When she appeared in the city, she almost didn’t believe her eyes. The entire city seemed desolate. Nopony walked the streets, except for the royal guards in their shining golden armour, who didn’t seem to care that she was there. She walked down the road towards the royal castle. Along the sides of the road posters read, “Belive in you majesty, and you shall weather this storm.” but on most of the posters, somepony wrote in crimson paint. “Fight for your comrades, fight for yourselves.”

Screams and cries came from a road to Cadences left, she quickly ran off in the direction. She saw two mobs of ponies standing face to face. One mob was mostly made of unicorns, the other mob was almost solely made of earth and pegasus ponies. The unicorn mob had a blue cloth tied around their right frontal hooves. While the opposite mob had nothing on them.

“You traitors, without the leadership of Celestia what would we become? A race of disorganized sickey ponies!” A unicorn from the mob with blue on their hooves yelled at the opposite mob.

“Celestia has changed. She is gonna drag Equestria down a path of blood and death!” A pegasus yelled. A unicorn threw a rock at his face knocking him down to the ground. The two groups charged each other; bashing and smashing at each others faces. Then the guards began to appear. Only about 10 came at first, but 30 more followed. They were all fully armed and armoured, with a sword and a spear. The guards began to coldly kill the group of pegasi and earth ponies mercilessly.

Cadence couldn’t stand the sight anymore, she teleported out of there. She arrived inside of Twilight's library, she now had a minor headache from the strain of casting such complex teleportation spells. Twilight ran down stairs and looked at Cadence. “Cadence? You got here quick. You received my letter I presume.” Cadence nodded.

“I’ve just been in Canterlot, there was a fight between ponies who supported Celestia, and those who opposed her. I took note of the fact that Celestia supporters were all unicorns. And when the guards showed up, they didn't stop the battle…” Cadence sighed. “They killed the opposition.”

“Something has happened to her… But right now I think that we should think of a way to rescue Luna. We could use another alicorn on our side…” Twilight stated.

“Indeed, may i borrow Spike to send a message to the Crystal Empire?” Twilight nodded. Spike ran up to Cadence a piece of paper in his hand and a quill in the other. “General Ivanov, I leave the Empire under your command until I return, which to be honest I don't know when I’ll do. I have important business to attend to in Equestria. Most importantly, do not move our soldiers out of the empire, unless I command it.” She then cast a spell that formed a sort of royal seal at the bottom.

Spike sent the letter out and then decided that it was in his best interest to go back to sleep.

“So, how are we gonna get Luna out of the dungeon.” Cadence asked.

“Don’t worry, I think I’ve got an idea.”