Archangel Of The Rebellion - A New Lunar Republic Fanfiction

While the two great powers in Equestria considered this intriguing news, the nameless pony had moved on from the town of Saddle-Side roughly a few days prior, and was currently treading a path through one of the few remaining forests on the continent; the rest had become barren, lifeless deserts. Even now, the stranger could hear the sounds of great machines and collapsing trees off in the distance. It wouldn't be long before this small oasis went the way of the Timberwolf, he pondered, a citizen of the forest that had disappeared long ago, when industry had blossomed practically overnight throughout Equestria.

Suddenly, the pony froze, realising that while he had been wrapped up in his thoughts, he had driven his body to the absolute limit by walking practically nonstop for almost a week. He didn't really feel anything as this dawned on him, only anger at the fact that his body restraining him. His wrath and lust for vengeance had been driving him onward restlessly, with no patience or pity for anyone who got in his way.

With some difficulty, he dragged his paralysed form over to a fallen tree, where he propped himself up while he recovered and refreshed himself. Swigging at his flask of water, the nameless pony reflected on his progress thus far. He honestly couldn't believe how his old self, a nervous and thoughtful pony who had garnered respect for his fighting ability that he had worked on for years, had become a killing machine with a vendetta that had driven him all the way from Canterlot to Stalliongrad in order to join the New Lunar Republic. He wondered, not for the first time, if the NLR was really worth his support-but he knew deep down that Luna was probably the only hope for this world, and it wasn't like he had any other choice.

From his saddlebags, he produced a collection of papers with writing scrawled all over them, the closest thing he had to a diary, and read through what information he had gathered on the New Lunar Republic on his travels. It was an armed resistance formed from a partnership between Princess Luna, the goddess of the moon, the most powerful equine in Equestria excluding Celestia herself, and a mysterious corporation known as Eque-Sci, a very shady business empire that apparently appeared from nowhere about 600 years ago. The Republic's only goal is to dethrone Celestia and make her pay for her crimes (though horribly painful and violent death is just as good). The NLR possessed power and technology almost equal to The Solar Empire, and their army had snowballed in size as they became famous/infamous and now they had become an unstoppable war machine.

Aside from this, everything else was speculation. There was a preposterous example he'd learned from some stranger about the NLR working with the Changelings. He had scoffed at the idea.

As the moon began to appear over the horizon, the nameless pony gazed at it and thought of Luna, and her army at his destination of Stalliongrad. He looked about him and took in the location, it was all new to him, and didn’t know what to think. The only trees he’d ever seen were in Canterlot’s single park, in the upper class district near the castle. But he’d only seen that from a distance, his sort wasn’t allowed near. As he drifted to sleep, the pony began to remember back to when he had a name, his childhood, the school, the ponies…

The pony walked down the mud street in the direction of the school. In his hoof was a wad of notes, 2 bits, for that day’s education. Few children went to school, times were hard and they had to work to earn money for the family. But his parents had saved up to allow him a chance in life. The pony quickly stuffed them into his pocket, if anyone saw him with money he would be mugged. It had happened before, and the pony had been training himself. Fighting his friends with sticks and hooves, lifting weights, but he still didn’t want to take any chances.

He approached the school, a dilapidated and crumbling building, it looked on the brink of collapse, but the pony still went there every day. Even the middle class of society sent their children here, as nopony knew what would happen tomorrow.

The pony entered the gates and looked at the broken windows and peeling plaster, he sighed deeply and joined the small group of foals in the corner of the yard.

“Hey!” piped one of the group. The others turned around to face the pony. They smiled and welcomed him into the circle.

“Hi everypony, how’s it going?” he replied.

“We were just talking about the war!” the smallest pony said, in a very high voice.

“Yeah! I’ve heard the NLR has attacked Trottingham!” said another, very enthusiastically.

“They told me that they were using the foals for target practice!” Said another, jumping into the air.

“And they were burning the houses!” Another joined in.

“And throwing the old ponies into the fires!”

“Forcing the ponies to make guns!” They all joined in, shouting accusations of war crimes all at the same time.

“Oh shut up!” boomed the nameless pony, he was bigger than most and the others abruptly stopped talking.

“Don’t tell me you believe all this crap.” He said bluntly “Look around you, armed guards patrol the streets, no one can leave the city.” He said. The others stared blankly.

“So wait, what… What are you saying?” One of the smaller foals replied.

“What I’m saying is that…” he lowered his voice, “I’m not denying that the NLR is evil, but I don’t think everything that we’re being taught is completely true.”

“Whatever.” One of the other foals said, before they went back to babbling on about war atrocities. The nameless pony sighed and looked the other way. The schoolmaster appeared in the doorway.

“To lessons everyone!” He shouted, then returned through the doorway that he had emerged from.

After 2 hours of “If you could kill a rebel every second, how many could you kill in 2 minutes” The foals were released to eat their lunches. The pony opened his cloth bag to reveal his meagre dinner: A 3 day old half-apple and a hoofful of oats. It might not have been much but the pony was very grateful for it, as some of his classmates had no food at all, and he wolfed it down quickly.

As he was finishing, a hulking blue pegasus pony with a black mane sauntered over to the him, the fattest in the school and sturdily built, he had a very mean face.

“Well well well, look who’s over here. Got your fee today I trust?” He sneered, bringing his face close to the nameless pony’s.

He thought for a moment about what to do, when an idea popped into his head. It was risky, but had to be done sometime.

“Not for you I haven’t, fatty.” He said sharply, glaring at the brutish blue pony.

“Oh, you’re going to regret that, my friend. You’re going to regret that for a long time.” He replied, standing up on his hind legs.

“Come at me bro!” The nameless pony said while also standing up and outstretching his front legs.

The bully threw a punch at him, but made the move too obvious, and the olive green pony stepped out of the way, grabbed his foreleg and twisted it behind his back. He let out a slight whimper and had a startled look on his face. A small crowd gathered.

“You were saying?” the nameless pony snarled into his ear. He kicked the blue pegasus away, but held onto his foreleg so that he spun around so they were facing each other, the limb groaned and he whimpered again. The nameless pony punched him hard in the face and blood spurted out of his nose onto his face. He then stumbled back and fell onto the floor. The pegasus rolled over, crying and clutched his nose.

The crowd began to cheer and the nameless pony stood startled at his own skill, he was confident that he could take the bully, but not so conclusively.

“Wow! Look at his flank!” piped one of the foals.

“Woah! That’s the coolest cutie mark ever!” yelled another, they all huddled in closer to see.

“Cool.” Was the only thing the nameless pony said when he finally got a chance to look down his side at the newly formed cutie mark. It was a shield, and behind were two crossed swords. He was happy at the time because he knew his life would be interesting, though he wouldn’t describe it as such any more.

The schoolmaster suddenly appeared from the single door into the building, he was still holding a book.

“What’s going on here? Tell me what’s happened.” He demanded angrily.

The foals all looked at each other with the same message on their faces: Run!

“What in Celestia’s name…” he began as he examined the unconscious bully, before realising that everyone else had disappeared.

The nameless pony woke with a start, it was nearly dawn, and gnawing at his hind-hooves was a small furry animal. The pony was startled, as he had never laid eyes on such a creature before. The pure white rabbit, noticing that he was awake, suddenly ran off into the woods, disappearing from sight. The nameless pony suddenly felt crestfallen that this intriguing new creature, the likes of which he had never seen before, had ran away from him in fear. The pony shook away these thoughts, picked himself up and continued on his journey, deciding that the night was as good a time as any.