The Piebald diaries

We walked for what seemed like days after night in the cave. As we walked into the forests surrounding Maredrid city, we were "greeted" by our friends, or allies, at least. There they all were. Thousands of buffalo, pegasi, unicorns and earthponies, gathered beneath the indigo banner of Princess Luna. The 13 of us starred in awe of what lay before us. Beautiful, in a way. True, the death that would be seen today was a tragedy in the gravest sense, but that wasn't what was beautiful about it. All these brave equestrians, prepared to fight and die for a regime that they now knew was corrupted, not to the highest level, but from it. Everything that we had fought for, ran from, and killed for. It was now all culminating in this moment, this final battle. I shed a tear from the anticipation. So much death would both stop and begin from this day. "Almost there," I whispered. "Almost done. Almost won."
"Hmm?" I hadn't expected anypony to hear me, but Applejack must have at least caught a little bit of what I just said. "Ya say sumthin', Spirit?"
I just looked at her with a face full of relief. "It's almost over, AJ." I looked back to the camp in the woods. "I just can't believe it. It's almost over."
"I know watcha mean, Spirit." She looked at the scenery as solemnly as I did. "we've runnin' fer what seemed like years. And now's the final hurdle. Soarin' told me that if we survive this, he'll settle down on the farm with me and we can live our lives together, all proper like."
"Luna knows you two deserve it."
"Well, what about you and the princess?" She looked at me with eyes that said I probably do something about that. "I was the only that saw the two of ya."
"And?" I was genuinely curious where this was going. I know it was kinda wierd. Princess Luna was over 1000 years old, and here I was only 18. But I didn't care about that. All we knew was that we loved each other. To hay with orthodox romance.
"In case thangs don't go our way, there anythang you wanted to say to her?" Oh. She was just concerned about me.
"I'll be fine, but thank you, AJ." I walked past through the trees and she followed. "I'm kinda really wondering how a wonder bolt would adjust to farm life. I might actually pay to see that." I ended that sentence with a laugh on purpose.
"Heh, you'n me both, partner. I'm gonna buy myself a camera just to record it!" She let out a hearty laugh after she said that.
"Well, Luna went ahead to organize a meeting of the leadership of the battle, so we should probably be there."
"Right," she answered. Luna and the pegasi all went ahead to inform the army of her arrival and to oganize a meeting. She really wanted this thing to go off with a win. Anything else would escalate into a full-fledged civil war. So we had to win.

"Mares and Gentlecolts," Luna shouted from inside the commanders tent. Each of the main six of the group was there. Luna, obviously, Twilight, Rarity, AJ, Pinkie, and Rainbow. There was also Little Strong Heart, the buffalo chief, and me, her knight in shining armour. "We are here today to plan the first, and hopefully last, battle of this conflict. No doubt the whole of you has heard of the terrible sins that my sister has committed for the peace of Equestria. T'is a peace built on lies and blood. Hence, we must finish this battle successfully so as to not draw Equestria into a prolonged conflict. Any questions?" She looked around the room so as to assess whether or not everypony understood. We all did. "Good. Now," she placed her hoof on a map of the warzone. "Scootaloo has scouted out the terrain and has discovered something disturbing. The town is empty."
This was met with gasps from everypony in the tent. I had an idea what this meant: Celestia knew we were coming. Not surprising though. "And what does that mean for the battle, Your Highness?" The buffalo chief inquired. Good question.
"We have developed a plan to counter this. Twilight Sparkle? Please explain." She moved to the left as Twilight took the stage, so to speak.
"Thank, Your Majesty." She levitated a rod and began to point at the map. "Alright, everypony. As you can see from here," she pointed to the southern region of the map. "We are right here, just south of the city. Now, we are currently up hill, but this doesn’t matter, as the city will be on a higher cliff above this small valley. Now normally, this would be suicide ponies to charge into, but we are sending in the buffalo first." The Chief was unsure of how to accept this, but kept listening. "They are stronger and more resilient than almost anypony else. The charge uphill would hardly affect them at all. Behind them would be the unicorn battalion. Now most of the unicorns sided with Celestia, but many more powerful magic wielders sided with our leader, Luna. They will be led Rarity." This was apparently news to her, given the look on her face. "Her experience in meticulous detail and her ability to read situations exceptionally fast will be a great asset in this fight. They will be throws rocks and stones at the guard, then switch to blasts at close range. As for the pegasi forces..." She nodded to Rainbow Dash. "They will be led by Rainbow Dash. She, as the best flyer in Equestria, will be indespincible in this battle. Now, 223 pegasi rallied under our banner. It might have been more if we could reach Cloudsdale, but we were branded enemies and thus would have been instantly recognizable upon arrival."
"What about all of the earthponies, Twilight?" I had to ask. Maybe one third of our forces were earthponies, so we naturally needed a way to press that.
"I was just getting to that, Noble." She sighed and continued. "Maybe one third of our army is made up of earth ponies. Now, since the buffalo tribe will be taking on the main charge, that would distract much of the Equestrian guard forces and make it more difficult for them to counter anything else. Which brings me to my winning point in this fight." She looked at Big Mac and I in that order. "You two will lead a flanking maneuver into their formation. Pegasus guards are not that common across Equestria, and even if they do have them among their ranks, they would be otherwise engaged by our own air forces. Any questions?" She looked around the tent and then smiled. "Good."
"Well done Twilight Sparkle. Now, I will lead a small group of volunteers to help lead into the thickest of fighting and get me to the citadel of the spire. Thunder Striker, Twilight Sparkle, Scootaloo, Applejack and Pinkie Pie will be a part of that team." She looked across the tent solemnly. "This is the beginning of a new age in Equestrian history. Good luck everypony."
I wanted desperately to say something to her, but she was immediately bombarded with questions as she led the tent. Tomorrow would be the end of this all, or the beginning of something else. For better or worse. So I went to my own tent, such as it was. I needed a good night’s rest to be able to live through the next 24 hours.

I woke up early that day. It was more or less what I wanted, but it was an accident. I remember a dream where I was flying through the air and when I landed, I woke up. I decided it was time to check out everything for the biggest fight of my life. Of all of our lives. I walked around the camp and saw each of my companions in a set of armour that looked tailor made for what they were doing. Something sleek for Rainbow Dash, a minimalist approach for Scootaloo, reason being she was more agile than most pegasi and armour would just ruin it for her. AJ was wearing some heavy armour, as was Big Mac. I eventually found Twilight who helped me put on my armour. The battle would happen at late morning, so we still had a few hours to go. So I walked around for a few of those hours, seeing what everypony was brining to the party. The buffalo had some wooden armour on, painted with some tribal stripes on them. Not sure if that was going to do much good, but alright. I saw Rainbow Dash drilling some of her subordinates on how to fight in the air. Many of these guys were really green, but, hopefully, the strategy that Twilight and Luna came up with would make that a moot point. Speaking of which, I saw Twilight and Thunder together in a tree. They were just watching the beautiful rolling hills before all of us. I made my heart ache to know that this was to be the final resting place of so many. Hopefully, most of these recruits remembered to let their loved ones know what was to happen today. I'd hate to be left waiting at home if AJ or Big Mac left and didn't tell why. And then it occurred to me. In case things went south for either of us, I needed to see Luna. If it was one last time, I needed to see again. So I combed the camp for nearly an hour, looking for my love, the princess. Eventually, I found her, looking at the battlefield and wacthing the guards prepare for our assault. That settles it. They knew. "Luna?" I called out timidly.
As she stood there, I swore I saw her crack a faint smile. "Hello, Noble. Come to admire the view?" She was somber. More somber than I had ever seen her in the years we've known each other.
"I have," I walked up next to her to join her in this, a prebattle meditation. "Sad, isn't it?"
"It is. Such beauty, soon to be ruined and marred by bloodshed." She took in a deep sigh as she continued. "I wish there were another way, Noble. But here? In a battle that would end the lives of so many? I never wanted this."
"I don't think Celestia did, either, Luna."
"Hmm?"
"Celestia evacuated the city. That means she didn't want anypony getting hurt, right?"
"It does. I know the thoughts you harbor, Noble." I knew what she was talking about. It was the 'million shades of grey' thing I wrote about earlier. "And I want you to know that I have them too. How I wish so badly that I didn't rebel 1000 years ago. Had that not happened, we could have stood united and defended Equestria from the griffons. But now? Now we are forced to battle each other once again."
"Luna," I called out, trying to change the subject. "Would there be time for us after all of this is over?"
"I hope so, Noble." It was the best truthful answer she could give. I would have said the same thing. "With everything that has occured, I pray to the heavens that we may find solace within each other’s arms after terrible chapter in our history is over."

There it was, the main force. Thousands of Equestrians prepared to fight and die for what they believed in. It was truly a sight to behold. But then was not the time to admire the resolve of the ponies I had to send to their death. No, now was the time they needed to hear their princess rally them. They needed words before the actions. So I flew ahead of them as they stopped their march to war and bloodshed. I was wearing my battle armour that I had crafted during when Sir Noble Spirit and I had braved a prison to rescue our friends, Rarity and Spike. "My fellow Equestrians! I beg that you hear me this day!" I shouted to them all in my loudest voice, augmented by my magic. "You have all traveled far and wide to help me see the end of my sisters rule, and for that, I am more grateful than you could ever know! And today, we stand upon the threshold of a new Equestria! There are those that say that we are in the wrong! That the deaths Princess Celestia caused are justified because they saved the lives of many a pony, but we know that cannot be true! For a peace built upon lies and bloodshed should not stand! And there may be a day when WE are in the wrong! When Equeatria faulters and loses sight of the true path under my protection! But it is not this day! For on this day, we know what must be done! And with this first and last battle, we end my sisters tenure as leader of Equestria! We end her murderous prosperity! For the sake of peace, we fight to end the lies! Are you with me, everypony?!" I heard a resounding cheer from each and every one of the colts and mares that had committed themselves to my cause. But even still, I could taste the hypocrisy on my tongue. It was that profound. What I had done, everything from the past few years, had begun to combine into one, single, dreadful memory. The ponies killed to fight my sister. The blood on my hooves and what I had forced an innocent young colt to become an adult in. Some would say I helped to make him a hero, but I would not. I was lucky to have him on my side as well as in my heart, and I in his. "Over," I whispered to myself. "It's almost over." And then I prepared some of what I had so dearly hoped would some be the last words of this horrible ordeal. "CHARGE!!"

And so we charged. The pegasi would hold off their own assault until the buffalo and unicorn forces had met the guards in battle. I myself flew close to the ground, leading the vanguard of the forces. Twilight was to my right, Pinkie Pie to my left. Then to Thunder and Scootaloo. Behind us was a great line of buffalo with a force of unicorns behind them. As they ran, they used their magic to through polished rocks at the unicorns. But as soon as we finally engaged the guard, they ceased, no doubt realizing that continuing that tactic would surely result in a loss of lives on both side. As the buffalo slammed into Celestias line, my vanguard acted as a lance going through wooden armour, penetrating through their forces easily enough. The buffalo army itself took very few casualties by the looks of it. They had been running so fast, it had felt like thunder had happened on the Equeatrian earth itself. The guard stood little chance. Even with the wall of magical beams headed straight at them, most of the bison simply shrugged it off. Only strikes to the head seemed to prove fatal to them. As we engaged the enemy, they proved to be much more skilled in close quarters than expected. Their horns were coated in it's own razor sharp tip, with a small hole in the tip so as to be able blast through the enemy. But regardless of their own armour, mine proved to be better. Each blast simply deflected off my own shields and they themselves fell easy to my alicorn magic. But eventually, I was made seperate from my team and found maybe fifty guards colts prepared to attack me all at once. I thought I may have well and truly been done for had it not been for a vortex of green flame incinerating all of them, along with a swath of their forces. "Twilight and the others are already on their way to the Spire! Go!" Spike demanded. Thank the heavens for the mistake my sister had made in turning him into a unicorn.
I simply nodded as I took flight to find my team of elites. There they were, fighting to the gates of the city. I flew down to the circle they had formed, fighting off the never ending assault of the enemy. Scootaloo, with her razor sharp wing blades, now stained scarlet. Twilight Sparkle, with a pile of corpses facing her and a line of carcasses that seemed to go on for miles. Applejack, with her back hooves crimson and the bashed in heads of her unicorn opponents. Pinkie Pie, with a battle ax in her mouth and an entire army afraid to face her in battle. And Thunder Striker, staying a close to his new bride as he could, keeping anything that tried to attack her at bay, showing them the true meaning of "vengeance from above". They fought off wave upon wave of enemy. All the more impressive, considering the force we were attacking had been nearly twice the size of our main force. I rushed into to join them, clearing the way behind them with a mighty and powerful shout decimated the soldiers nearest the gate, also forcing open the gates. "We end this now, everypony! Come with me, so that we may end this bloody conflict!" And so my elite vanguard rushed through the breach and into the city, prepared to end this fight.

"Follow me, everypony!" We rushed through the breach into the city itself. It was naught but a ghost town. Interesting, so Noble would say. I would find myself agreeing with him. But now was not the time. We had to ascend to the spire. To save Equestria, and to stop my sister. We ran as fast as we could through the abandoned city, slaying all who tried to stop us, and sparing all who surrendered. Cowards or not, they deserved at least some measure of mercy. Perhaps my sister wouldn't agree, but that was why I was there, was it not? As we approached the sky spire, we were approached only a few that dared to challenge us. Curious. I did not like this at all. But not just this, everything about this day. The empty town, the army outside of the walls of the city, and the minimal use of tactics for the entirety of the battle. Any first year cadet at the Royal Canterlot Guard Academy would know that the effectiveness of any army would be dampened considerably if it were a siege. Or perhaps Celestia knew that Twilight was among us or that I or her would easily be able to take down nigh any wall she set before us.
"This is a trap, Princess." Twilight Sparkle had stolen the words from my very mouth. "I don't think we should any further."
"No, Twilight." I took in as deep sigh as I could. It would be a grave mistake to turn back now. After the cost we had already paid to get here. "No, it must be now."
"But, Princess Luna," She began to argue. This could not be easy for her. She was usually the one in control of these situations. Being the subordinate could not have been harder. "Princess Celestia has obviously planned this entire battle through. And it stands to reason that she would have planned for a fight with you."
"And I have considered this, and she no doubt has realized that we would learn of this as well. But we must end this here, Twilight. For if we do not, then the whole of Equestria may be consumed by a never ending civil war."
"But!"
"I also have faith that the seeds of my rebellion may might have spread both farther and wider than I wanted. And if so, it would be fuel for the flames of war. It must this day, Twilight Sparkle, for there is no other option."
Twilight Simply resigned herself to my decision, accepting it as truth, albeit not a wise one. A wise alicorn would have heeded her warning and retreated to prepare for a battle of her choosing, but that would draw out this bloody war and cost many more ponies their lives. And I would not, could not allow such a travesty to occur. "I understand, Your Majesty."
"T'is alright, my friend." We continued to walk up the stairs, still being met by no resistance of any sort. I did not like this at all, but what did the great pegasus leader, Commander Hurricane, do when she knew she would be walking into a trap? She sprung the trap. As we approached the final set of doors to what would undoubtedly lead us to the roof of the tower where my sister was no doubt watching the battle, I took a moment to review my friends. To look at my comrades in arms for what could be the last time. They needed to hear me. Not as a commander or princess, but as a friend that they had been there for through both the thickest and thinnest of it all. "Everypony, hear my words."
"Uh, sure, Princess." Applejack answered, unsure of what this could possibly be. "Wadga need?"
"You all have been the best friends anypony could have asked for. You all have been there and left behind your lives for what many would consider a pariah. An outcast of the royal court. You all have been my friends and for that, I am more grateful than any of you could ever know." I bowed to all of them, showing how dearly I held them all and how close they were to my heart. "Thank you all." And they all bowed in turn, content with what may have been my goodbye. "Now! Let us end this!" I slammed the doors open, but what I had seen had not been what I had expected. Not in one thousand years and not in ten thousand years.

I had thought it impossible. It could not be. It simply could not be. But there he was. Alive after over one thousand years. I was at his burial. I was in a state of awe never seen in Equestria, but even as I denied his very presence, I knew my eyes had not failed. There he was. The greatest wizard in equestrian history. Mine and Celestias teacher in the magical arts. Star Swirl the Bearded, standing triumphantly over my sister. "Welcome, my old student!" He welcomed with a jovial conceit. "How good it is to see my one of my best pupils! How have you been?"
"You! What hast thou done?!" I was so enraged that my habit of using archaic Equestrian had seeped upon my tongue. "How art thou still alive after a millennium!?
"Careful, Student Luna. Your old equestrian has begun to infect your speech." He took a pause, and then began to answer my question. "As for what it is that I've done, It would seem that that is obvious." He looked upon my sister, her horn blackened with soot and her wings injured. "A powerless alicorn. What a paradox. But then, she had begun to rebel, so it was time for her fall."
"What do you me-" And before I had even the time to finish my question, my answer had revealed itself to me. Everything up to this point had been his doing. The treachery, the war and murder, and this moment had all been a part of this, an ingenious plot. "No..." It was the only word that I could utter.
"That is it, my dear Luna." Everything that had happened to me. It had been his doing. "My burial was merely an illusion, like those I would show you and your sister as foals. And after your defeat of that fool, Discord, it was all just a matter of time. And these!." And then I noticed for the first time: black wings, like those of my guards, had opened up from his sides. "Magnificent, aren't they? It took centuries to gather the magic to turn myself into an alicorn, but now? Now I have all the power in the world!" And then he took an insidious smile. "And with the stronger sister down and defeated, it would be an easy enough matter to eliminate the weakest link of the royal chain."
"You..." It was him. It was all him! Fury coursed through my veins in ways I had not thought possible. I then funneled all of my power and every single ounce of my strength into a single magical blast! "My life! My banishment! 1000 years of my life gone!" Tears flowed from my eyes, or they would have, had the enchanted energies being released from my horn not evaporated them. "My entire life has become an undone miserable wreck because of you!" I continued to try and pour all of my power into that one blast. "I was prepared to kill my own sister because of you! You monster!!! I'll kill you!!" But my blast was held back by his own defenses. He had not even needed to create a blast of his own. He had needed only to stop it a mere inches from his head. Even with Twilight jumping in to help me, we were severely outmatched.
"Really, I thought I had taught you better than that." He sent a shock wave of his own power to me. To all of us, knocking each of us to the cold floor of the spire. "But YOU!" He turned his attention to Twilight Sparkle, as though she had somehow earned his approval. "You have just matched the power of an alicorn princess. Only briefly, but even still..." He knelt above her, smiling as she cringed in terror. "Would you ever consider becoming my apprentice?"
And his answer was something I had not ever expected Twilight Sparkle to do. She spat in his face. "Go clop yourself," she commanded with a dead serious expression.
He simply wiped the saliva from his onyx face. "Very well," he responded with an abrupt strike across her face. "You would do well to learn respect, Mare."
Before he even had a chance to lower his arm, Thunder arose from the floor and charged at Star Swirl with all the strength that he had left. "Don't you dare lay a hoof on her!" But he was forced back with out even a thought on the part of Star Swirl.
"My, my, my. All of this power!" He looked down at the fallen guard of the night princess and continued his arrogant smile. "And to think that a member of the night-breed of pegasus would fall so easily to me! It is..." he paused a moment in order to search for the right word. "Intoxicating! But you know... the name Star Swirl the Bearded doesn't really suit an alicorn king of my stature, now does it? And yes," he looked at the fallen Princess Celestia. "I did just say the word king. Does it not suit me? Because as the most powerful being in Equestria, I would most certainly think that anything less would be a insult." The colt was drunk with his newfound power. A unicorn had become an alicorn. What was worse was that the unicorn had been the most powerful sorcerer of his day. And in over 1000 years, his wisdom and prowess would have becoming all the more adept. "Now about the new name... I was considering something more along the lines of... Samarus Night. Ooh! Doesn't that name send chills down your spine?"
"You are insane!" I shouted, or at least meant to. I was weaker than I had thought. "You are insane if you believe we will allow you to do this!"
"Oh? And why is that, Princess Luna?" He turned to me, his coat of black showing brilliantly. "Because as far as I could see, nopony among you is in any position to threaten me." And then he turned menacingly to my sister once more, kneeling next to her and placing his mouth right next to her ear. "Would you like to know happens next, my old student?" I had never seen my older sister with so much fear in her eyes, and because of it, I was filled with trepidation of my own. "Let me tell you. I will turn around, and reduce them to almost nothing. Then I will take them all to the dungeons you had built to protect them and break them. Even your most prized student. And then I will take you and your sister and torture you until you beg for death. And then you will be denied."
Celestia began to cry as she asked the simplest question in the world. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because I have been away for too long, child." He turned around to look at all of us. "And it was time I took equestria by the neck and showed everypony how a true leader does things."
"No!" He had earned the last amount of anger that my sister had possessed. "You seem to forget, Star Swirl!" She struggled to her hooves as she prepared fo what I had assumed would be one last gallant stand against the chess master. "I am still alive!" Celestias magical energy swirled like a tornado around her. "And you have not yet begun to taste my power!" This was it. Her greatest power. The strength trained by lifting the sun and moon for one thousand years! "And I shall be damned if I allow you to harm any other pony ever again!" Her eyes glowed pure white, and her body illuminated the cloudy skies. It even appeared that Samarus was taken aback by the sheer volume of energy. "Luna." She spoke without turning to me. "I am truly sorry for what has happened between us. I know you may never be able to forgive me." A single tear fell from her right eye. "But you have made me more proud than I could have ever thought. Thank you for trying to save Equestria."
And those were the last words I heard her speak, for she had teleported to an airship miles away. The next face I saw was my niece, Cadance, along with her twins, Fluttershy, Appleblossom, Braeburn, Shining Armour and everypony of my party. "Cadance! Turn this ship around!"
"Aunt Luna?" It was obvious that she was still reeling from the shock of my more than unexpected arrival. "What are you-"
"Turn. The ship. Around!" I wish I could say that I was not blinded by anger and by desperation, but I could not. "NOW!"
"Luna, listen!" Twilight cut in now. "Princess Celestia knows she might not be able to win against Star Swirl. We need to take the chance she gave us to escape and plan. We need to think this through!"
I could not argue with her, for I had known that she spoke the truth. We were so terribly outmatched in this fight. But I had only just found out that my sister was not the monster that I had thought. So I bit my tongue, knowing there would be other opportunities to fight the newly discovered evil.
"Um, guys?" And now Soarin' felt the need to cut in. Although this news would not bring wisdom, but only more grief. "I'm not sure exactly how long we'll last to plan, 'cuz there's a whole fleet tailing us!" And so there was. Maybe 15 airships accompanied by dozens of chariots, piloted by unicorns. They were probably still acting on previous orders from Celestia, or perhaps they were being manipulated by the master manipulator, Samarus Night. That mattered little, though, as we were there targets. I looked around to see the shape everypony was in. All the pegasi were in some many of injury and the unicorns were all drained of their powers over use. This did not bode well for any of us. And then I heard the words that seal the final nail in this days coffin of despair.
"Get Shining Armour up. I'll take care of the fleet." Everypony looked at him as though he had dropped off the face of Equestria. Noble Spirit was a great fighter, to be sure, but even he could not face off against a whole Equestrian armada.
"NO!" I could not let him do this, as it would be signing away his life for a only a small chance at our escape. "I shall not allow you to do this, Noble! T'would be a useless gesture and-" And then he kissed me, not a deep and passionate kiss, but a kiss goodbye.
He took a rope from the starboard side of the of the ship. "Shining, for what it's worth, I'm sorry for those things I said to hurt you in that shack. I mean that." And then he turned to me, then placed his bladed helm upon his head and turned back around to look into the skies that may very well become his grave. "And Luna... take care of yourself."
"Noble, don't!" I struggled to my hooves, but my strength had failed me. "I love you!"
He only smiled wryly as I said that. "I know." He placed the rope in his mouth and swung from the starboard side of the ship, landing on an over eager chariot that flew by, high jacking it and send it straight into the heart of their fleet. That was the last thing any of us saw of him, as Shining Armours shield had been raised, obscuring everything. Equestria had lost its greatest hero this day. And I cried. And we all cried.