Chapter 1
Two degrees north, hold your breath, exhale slowly and squeeze. Target down. Rarity woke up in a cold sweat. The curtains didn’t even rustle with the single indication of the windows being open. She was having one of those dreams again. A dream about the war. The war is over though. It’s been over for two years now. The white unicorn rolled over in her bed and began to sob. It was the constant guilt and reminder of taking so many lives.
As a sniper she was different from everypony. Infantry only spastically shot at the enemy. Pegasi dropped massive bombs on the enemy and flew off before they could witness their handiwork. The sniper took their time to choose a target and eliminate that pony. Snipers were never taken as PPW’s (pony prisoners of war).
Rarity realized during the war she and Twilight were not so different and became closer than before. They shared a bond, being plagued with the blood of ponies on their hooves. Twilight was a State Sorcerer. Contracted to do the dirty work of the military campaign. After the war Twilight grew more reclusive than usua,l hiding away from her friends. Rarity was one of the few ponies who could get her to talk other than Spike. He was by Twilight’s side the entire time as her personal bodyguard.
The two of them were an efficient killing machine annihilating so many ponies during the Insurrection. They had no choice, but to turn on their fellow equine. It was a harsh reality both unicorns had to live through. The war had changed them drastically.
Rarity tried picking up her quill to design another dress but all her attempts failed as she could not produce any happiness. Seeing their oblivious faces through a scope and taking their lives within an instant ravaged her mind. She fell to the floor and held her hind legs up to her chest and sobbed profusely until dehydration set in forcing the pony to drink some water.
She was discharged honorably for acts of valor and PTSD. After a mission in Manehattan her military career had ended from insanity. She couldn’t do it anymore. The target, Iron Hooves. The main propagandist was escaping the military’s forces and Rarity was ordered to terminate him immediately. Like any soldier she listened and did what she was told. The brown earth pony wielding a cutie mark of an iron hoof raised in the air like it had some sort of conviction to tell. Another life ended as Rarity shot him down.
Screaming in her sleep and schizophrenia became almost normal for the unicorn. Heavy doses of anti-psychotics lied in wait for her morning ritual as she climbed out of bed trotting into her bathroom and opening the mirrored cabinet in front of her. A couple large blue pills later and a glass of water. The unicorn felt odd. This odd sense always happened went she took her ‘medication’. She thought it was poison. She only took them to keep Sweetie Belle happy. Her sweet, young sister did everything she could to make Rarity happy. That’s why when the draft was sent out Sweetie Belle was hysterical about joining the fight. A chance to get her cutie mark and make her sister proud was all the little filly needed to join. Rarity was skeptical at first. She knew the possibilities of what might happen to her in the war. She tried to persuade Twilight to urge the Princess to deny Sweetie Belle’s draft form, but they needed everypony they could get to defend against the rebels.
The once innocent and adorable filly Rarity so much loved with all her heart was now another battle-hardened war pony. She could see it in her sister’s eyes. The cold, icy eyes of a killer. Not by choice, but by survival. If they did not kill they would not live to see another day. It was a bleak, harsh reality that hovered over the sisters like a black cloud. Both knowing the pain they’ve caused and the pain they have endured.
Sweetie Belle’s psyche couldn’t handle what was in store for her after a botched rescue mission outside of the Diamond Dogs’ territory. The savages sided with Iron Hooves and were hired as bandits to rape, torture, and kill any passing ponies that weren’t part of Iron Hooves army.
Scootaloo and Applebloom were being held captive in one of the lower caverns. Sweetie Belle’s mission, save the ponies and kill all diamond dogs. She could still remember the sickening stench of decomposing flesh, urine, and feces that made it nearly impossible to breathe inside the complex. Blood and organs covered the walls as she could still hear the screaming of her fillyhood friends. Running, running, running, that’s all she could remember dashing left and right through the cavern system trying to find her friends.
She eventually found them. It would have been better if she never did. The state in which there were in was grotesque and mortifying. It was something only a depraved madpony could come up with. Their lifeless corpses lay sprawled across each other. Mutilated beyond recognition. Vicious cuts and lacerations covered the ponies while their blood dripping onto the ground mixed in with what she knew was semen from the diamond dogs. Appleboom’s left eye rolled over to her hoof stopping as it touch her. Raped, tortured, and murdered.
Sweetie Belle vomited accounting that fateful mission. The Diamond Dogs were long since dead as well. She took care of that personally. As the anger, rage, disgust and horror boiled insider her she could not hold back the blood lust dwelling insider her for revenge. These monsters deserved to die for what they did to her friends.
Several dry heaves came after the mare thought she was done hurling. She still couldn’t handle what she did to those dogs. Even for what they did to her friends she didn’t want to believe she was capable of even worse, in which, she was.
Rarity stroked her cotton-candy maned sister cooing her with a soft lullaby. Sweetie Belle wrapped her forehooves around Rarity hugging her tightly as she buried her face into her coat sobbing uncontrollably. A few tears streamed down Rarity’s cheek as the two sisters stood there holding each other for what seemed hours.
“Sis, am I an evil pony?” Asked Sweetie Belle looking up into the eyes of her old sister.
“No Sweetie Belle, you’re not. You’re a wonderful pony and I love you.” A few more heavy tears barreled down Rarity’s cheeks as she squeezed her little sister.
Chapter 2
The library was dark and eerily quiet. The windows that once radiated light throughout the hollowed out tree were now boarded up by long planks of wood. The two occupants inside made little noise as neither ventured outside anymore in what has been over a year. Twilight and Spike have rarely been seen since the end of the war. Spike had to forcefully remove Twilight from the Royal Courts after a couple nobles made condescending remarks about how she failed to wipe out the remaining rebel forces.
“They were mares and foals! MARES AND FOALS! And you expect me to kill them! You fucking disgust me! I should kill you too for saying such treachery!” Those were Twilight’s last words before being dragged by her hooves backwards by Spike her loyal assistant. Twilight was lucky she was so close to the Princess or under normal circumstances she would have been executed or sent into exile for her comments.
Spike had been badly scarred from the war. Shrapnel during the second mega spell impact caused him to lose his right eye and now he wore an eye patch to cover the empty socket. Twilight felt helpless after seeing her dragon companion squirm on the operating table as doctors struggled to sedate him. His scales were too tough to pierce through conventionally. Twilight was forced to inflict more pain upon her already suffering comrade as she knocked him unconscious after several agonizing blows to the head.
The lavender unicorn reached her hoof up to the dragon’s eye and lowered her head as she started to cry. She couldn’t help but blame herself for what happened to him. He protected her from certain death and all she could pay him back with was more pain. Spike stroked her forehoof that extended up to his eye and hugged his unicorn friend tightly. He didn’t care about the pain he went through. He only cared about keeping Twilight safe.
“I’m so sorry Spike, I’m so sorry, please don’t hate me.” She would repeat these words everyday when she couldn’t bear the pain anymore from seeing her companion and her gracious dragon friend could only reply, “I will never hate you Twilight, I had to protect you, I love you.” Tears from both dragon and pony hit the ground as they held each other trying to cope with the memories that haunted them.
Nightmares kept Twilight up all night. The faces of every foal, mare, and colt she killed haunted her relentlessly. As a State Sorcerer she had to do the job no pony wanted to do. Wipe out whole platoons, battalions, towns, villages, ect.. there was nothing that could stop a State Sorcerer. The rebels had unicorns on their side too, but not even all of them combined could stand up to a single State Sorcerer. It was the cunning and decisive measure that allowed the Princesses’ military forces to quell the rebellion in only a year.
Twilight cried and cried until Spike carried her unconscious body back up the stairs and laid her on her bed. He pulled the blanket up over her and ran his claw through her hair thinking back on the times they had together, before and during the war. He fondly loved basking in the sunshine of each and every beautiful summer day with Rarity lying down near him and Twilight in the shade reading a book under a tree. A nostalgic thought.
Spike was well on into his adolescent years when the war hit, but his physical appearance did not match his emotional strength. He was still the sweet, caring dragon everypony knew and loved. He took it personally and it with much disdain when Iron Hooves’ army reared its ugly head in Ponyville’s direction. He was the first one to want to take action, and also, one of the many to suffer the trauma of battle.
Lying down next to Twilight gave him some sense of security as he could barely even fit on top of the bed anymore. His arms and legs overextended themselves onto the floor and he had to fold his arms on his chest to keep them up.
He stared at his claws as if he were putting himself into a trance and more memories from the past came back causing the green and purple dragon to cringe in terror. He gripped his right eye as phantom pain rushed over him bringing more tears to his remaining eye. At first, it was Twilight words that rang through his head. He could feel the agony she was in and it felt like a razor cutting deeper into his chest each time he had to witness her break under the emotional burdens she wore.
Though, the dragon wasn’t absolved of any more death than Twilight. He had to spill the blood of hundreds to protect his friends, his home. He could see the screaming, angry faces of the ponies he killed. They charged at him brandishing swords and other weaponry and the powerful dragon had to smite them down lest his friends be killed by the marauding equines. He never enjoyed it. Not once. Even when the Noble’s started their propaganda, he refused to buy into it. They decreed Spike a national hero and a symbol of vengeance. He despised it. He wasn’t a hero. He was a killer. A murderer. He believed this so firmly he isolated himself with Twiilight to ‘protect’ the general public.
Chapter 3
An orange hoof pressed itself against the transparent window. The earth pony let out a sign and trailed back and forth from the window as if she was expecting somepony. Applejack lost almost everything during the war. The once vibrant red barn she was housed in had become damaged and dilapidated. Holes in the side and top of the barn caused pests and vermin to attack their food supply. She had to start killing the small animals too just to survive off the minimal rations they had left. Sweet Apple Acres was reduced to a crater after a mega spell impact. Only a single apple tree survived and its withered branches did not produce any fruit.
Applejack was left on her own to manage the farm now. No pony really even knows why she stays there anymore. It may be the nostalgia of her fillyhood home, or the graves she dug for Applebloom, Granny Smith, and Big Mac. Her family now resided six hooves under her own.
At first, the orange earth pony took it with a grain of salt. The deaths of her remaining family members didn’t seem to phase her. At least, that was what the public appearance was. She never told a single pony how she really felt after they passed away. No pony even asked her which may have been the problem in the first place. She just dug their graves and laid their bodies to rest and after that Applejack never left the farm again.
If they only knew what was going on inside her. Applejack turned inwards lied to herself. It was the only coping mechanism she had left. Lying to herself kept her sane. If she didn’t WANT to believe they were dead than they didn’t have to be dead. She just planned to wait it out. She convinced herself that Granny Smith, Applebloom, and Big Mac were just on vacation and they were coming back at any time.
Granny Smith was taken out the same day as the mega spell hit Sweet Apple Acres. Shrapnel tore her body limb from limb. The frail old pony was picked up in pieces by Big Mac and Applejack. Both weeping heavily as they mourned for Applebloom and now Granny Smith.
Big Mac must have put the nail right through the board so to speak. When he died, everything inside Applejack died along with him. He was the last bit of blood family she had left and those bastards took him. It was near the end of the war and Iron Hooves had to make a decisive call. Take out Applejack or Big Mac. Both were master cultivators of the land and so both posed a threat to his army. With them feeding the Princess’ war machine he had to remove them from the battle field. He succeeded, in only half of his mission. An assassin killed Big Mac. Remarkable that such a colt could even be taken down. His body was found in the apple fields where he and his sister used to work together every year day in and day out tending to their orchard.
At first, Applejack just thought he was sleeping, then she realized he wasn’t asleep. He was dead. She tried desperately to bring him back beating and pounding on his chest until his ribs caved in. She even begged and pleaded with Twilight to bring him back somehow, but no pony could master the power over death. He was gone forever and she was left alone at Sweet Apple Acres.
Dark clouds covered the sky and rain began to pour down trickling down the window and pooling into mud behind Applejack as repairs to the barn would appear to never be made against. She just wanted to die. Death was her one wish. To join her family again. She missed them so much. The war took everything from her and she wanted it back.
She stomped her hoof into the puddle and sobbed a bit more trying to repress the memories of her past. The deaths of her family wasn’t the only thing that ravaged the mind of earth pony. The famine she saw. It was the worst she had seen her entire life. Not since the great Dust Storm in granny’s time has a famine killed so many. Thousands died. Iron Hooves ordered their crops and farmlands destroyed even before initial strikes on each city were made. Even Canterlot was plagued by famine. Nobles no doubt had large ‘rations’ they relied on until they too ran out of food and were forced to look elsewhere just like the common pony folk below their aristocracy.
Helpless mares and foals lined up to Sweet Apple Acres with tummies rumbling like thunder expecting a free meal only to be turned down. Not because of the bits they lacked, but the food the farm did not have. Feeding the Princess’ military already took up most of their available food and the remainder was used to feed themselves.
Applejack’s heart felt like a knife had been shoved through it as the pitiful faces of the ponies she had to turn away haunted her once more. She could still make out the detailed ribcages of the starving mares that begged her just for an apple core to feed their foals.
Chapter 4
Rainbow Dash left Ponyville after the war never to return. She couldn’t handle it. She was the best in her field. Dropping bombs and aerial combat were something no pony, but Rainbow Dash could do better. She was an ace fighter killing enemy pegasi in the hundreds. Her total kill count was estimated to be that of Twilight Sparkle’s. Nothing she nor Twilight wanted to gloat about though.
She now resided is somewhere far North of Manehattan. Scattered reports indicate she’s still alive, but not social. No pony has managed to find out where she lives. Only that she takes to the skies to find more food and supplies and nothing else. There is no grace or acrobatics anymore in her flying. Just straight lines that rarely exceeds high speeds unless somepony is following her.
It wasn’t until the invasion of Ponyville that Rainbow Dash questioned what it meant to be ‘loyal’. She was killing ponies just like her. She had no idea who they were or why they joined in this fight, but she was told to kill them. What sort of sick fuck would send their people out to die like this? That was the thought that made her change her mind completely about the Princess’ in charge. They were no better than Iron Hooves in her mind.
To Rainbow Dash, war was the inabilities of the country’s leaders to fight it out each other. Instead they had to rely on their people to do the fighting for them. It was a sign of weakness. If Celestia and Luna couldn’t handle Iron Hooves on their own then they didn’t need Rainbow Dash either.
She was publicly scorned for being a deserter. Some bounty hunters attempted to catch her only to come back broken and bloodied. They had no idea who they were messing with. In fact, coming back alive should have been a blessing to them. She could have killed them without a second thought. It wasn’t like she had anything more left to lose.
The cyan Pegasus looked over the horizon staring into the distance in the direction of Ponyville and let out a deep sign as she laid her head down on the white, puffy cloud. She could never return to the place she once called ‘home’. Any sign of her and she would be thrown into the nearest dungeon until her trial. Cloudsdale even took it to the extreme after accepting private donations from the Nobles and put up wanted banners for Rainbow Dash calling her a traitor to the state. Desertion was not treason, but manipulating the public view was all the Nobles needed to continue their campaigns.
A cold breeze sent shivers up the Pegasus and she reluctantly glided off the cloud and into a cave. This cave she now called home. It was the only place she could find that didn’t hate her. The water dripping from the roof soothed the pony to sleep as she rested her head watching as the sun slowly crest down the horizon.
Chapter 5
Fluttershy watched the sunset from inside her cottage. The rain had passed only minutes ago and she wasn’t eager to go outside. Her home had become one of the bloodiest memorials of the war. While the injured or mamed ponies were brought to nearby hospitals all her woodland creatures relied on her for any wound.
Her once lush and green lawn had become stricken with alignments of headstones. In the middle a particularly larger one was crafted. The name of her favorite pet was displayed for the world to see. Angel was dead. The brave little rabbit foraged for days at a time looking for herbs and medicinal plants before he finally died of exhaustion. His little bunny heart couldn’t take the stress.
Fluttershy wept for days. Eventually the rest of her woodland friends left to find other help seeing as how the timid, yellow Pegasus could no longer help them. She didn’t blame them. She couldn’t even take care of herself. Her assistant was gone and the rest of her friends left too.
Blood was smeared and sprayed all over the walls inside the cottage. Countless operations and deaths happened within these halls. Fluttershy touched the wall and held her hoof to it as she used it to guide herself back inside her room.
She tried to so hard. So very hard to keep them alive and she couldn’t. Eventually she was drafted as a medic for the Ponyville clinic and things only got worse from there. Operating on hundreds of bunnies, birds, ferrets, ect… were driving her to the brink of insanity and now she was told she had to operate on live ponies.
She couldn’t save them all. She knew that. And no matter how many times she saved at least one, ten more died before that pony could be saved. Waking up in cold sweats and feeling the sensation of blood dripping all over her plagued her mind as she became just as reclusive as Twilight.
No pony has seen Fluttershy since the end of the war. She risks foraging in the Everfree forest to avoid bumping into anypony in Ponyville that may have had a relative that died on her operating table. It was too much for her to see the face of dead pony on somepony still alive.
Very rarely do animals ever help her anymore. She just shoos them away with her hoof or try to escape them by flying. She thought the less animals she took in the less that had to die. To the contrary, it was quite the opposite. Iron Hooves took pleasure in torturing the small animals. Not for political gain or anything like that, but the sadistic pleasure of it. It was some sort of ecstasy that energized him to kill more.
Fluttershy’s silky, pink mane covered her face as she climbed into bed staring up at the ceiling and closing her eyes shut as tears welled up at the sides of her eyes. The memories of her past were like fresh wounds unable to heal by the power of time.
Chapter 6
A dimly lit room held inside a certain pink pony from Ponyville. At one time this pony was the happiest pony alive. In fact, she was so happy her special talent was parties! All she could think about every second of every day is how she could make somepony happy. Or how to put a smile on their face.
War has no place for happiness.
The once pink and poofy tail and mane she was trademarked with had now become flat and straight. Not a single curl in her hair could be found. Nor a crack of a grin on her face. It was like all the joy was sucked right out of her.
Padded walls from three sides protected the pony from injuring herself. A magical barrier in front of her cell was the window to the outside world for her. Only the outside world was staring into the next cell of a deranged serial killer.
The colt in front of her was more insane than she was. He was Iron Hooves little ‘experiment’. I don’t think it’s even proper to call it a ‘colt’ anymore. It’s more of a chimera similar to Discord. She never tried to make conversation. They both occasionally stared at each other not saying a single word. It was unlikely it could even speak, but Pinkie Pie could sense something about the strange creature. She could feel its pain. But that didn’t matter now. She was locked up in this cell.
She was sent to the asylum shortly after the war. The lack of fun destroyed her mind sending her into a homicidal frenzy during a raid on Griffon territory. She killed her entire team and every Griffon she could spot.
Iron Hooves’ men revered her as, “The Pink Pariah” a fitting name to the socially ostracized earth pony. She couldn’t laugh at the name though. No matter how hard she tried not a single snicker would come out.
Pinkie Pie slumped down on her hooves and leaned her head back against the padded wall thumping her head repeatedly as she thought back to what caused this. The sounds of Griffon screeches rang through her head as she envisioned the blood on her hooves smashing their skulls in and mutilating their corpses.
It didn’t even phase her a bit. The bloodshed didn’t even penetrate the moral consciousness of this pony. It was all but gone since that fateful day. She killed her entire team after her commanding officer tried to pull her off the Griffon, “LOOK AT ALL THIS BLOOD! NEET! OOH! ORGANS TOO! LOOK AT THE FUN WE’RE HAVING! FUN!” She thought back to the words she yelled out and the horrified looks her team gave her as she advanced towards them bearing a wicked blade between her teeth.
“LET’S ALL HAVE SOME FUN!” she exclaimed as she ripped through their flesh stabbing and slashing them. Two tried to run away for help, but they were only hunted down later by the pink menace. Crude balloons, party hats, and masks were made out of the dead ponies. Pinkie Pie remembered playing with them fondly before the search party came and found her.
She looked up into the fluorescent lighting that beamed so far away from her. The blinding glare caused her to squint to avoid permanent damage to her eyes. Not that it mattered anymore. “Memories from the war…” she said under hear breathe and laid her head down on the floor closing her eyes to rest.
