Prologue - The end of an age?
Prologue : The end of an age?
15 years have passed since the defeat of Nightmare Moon and return of Princess Luna. Luna is not happy with the politics that her sister, Celestia, pursued in order to change entire Equestria and be the only Princess. It all began when Celestia started giving restrictions to ponies, Equestria became more controlled. These restrictions were believed to save Equestria from future failure and rebellions. Luna knew it isn't right to control their own ponies. Another factor that was driving Luna towards rebellion was that her own sister cut her power. Luna was just a Princess to show-off at official events while Celestia held true power over Equestria.
The breaking point was when Celestia discharged Luna's personal guard and replaced it with her own to keep an eye on her. The things that Celestia did to ponies was for example more inspections on what ponies sell. It was believed to save ponies from dangerous substances.
Luna didn't want to do this because of her own good, Luna wanted to do that for all ponies. She found many ponies that listened to her, she began to gather them under her command. Small forces grew into a big army very quickly, many of her royals captains converting ponies in Trottingham, Ponyville, Fillydelphia and other pony cities to join the New Lunar Republic.
Celestia saw what was happening, she tried to talk with her sister Luna, but answer that she heard was that it is nothing, no big forces and no rebellion. New Lunar Republic didn't have any territories, they instead gathered into a secret society. Celestia made a decree :
“Everypony that will support the New Lunar Republic, or will try to change the views of ponies to join Luna's forces, will end in prison.”
After the decree Luna needed to escape, she wasn’t safe in Canterlot Castle anymore. She was living in one of her royals captains' home. Greensword was a tough pony, with a posture was larger than normal. His left eye had a scar from a sword, Greensword was blind because of it. He was promoted to main General of NLR very quickly.
Because of the decree, Celestia forced ponies that believed in Luna and supported her to flee into hiding, they choosing old warehouses or destroyed buildings for their meetings. Large number of cities had a captain that led New Lunar Republic forces in the city. A rebellion was needed, but Luna couldn't make that happen yet. They needed a plan, one that would allow conquering cities with minimal pony losses. And there still was one other problem - New Lunar Republic needed a capital city. Without it, they couldn’t start a real rebellion.
Celestia, growing frustrated with the rebellion, decided to take action. She ordered her best spies to infiltrate the New Lunar Republic. They were tasked to take down leaders in several cities. The Spies did very well, especially one of them - Goldenhood. She was a thick pony, but swift and agile. She performed numerous tasks for Celestia, including assassination. Forces in Manehattan were defeated, every supporter of Luna in the town taken to prisons of Canterlot. Some of them were sent to the mines and other places to work, where they could be useful to the Solar Empire.
Greensword was angered by this turn of events, nopony ever saw him in a mood like this before. He asked Luna for permission to attack Fillydelphia and to take the city. Luna, at first reluctant to take cities by force, gave her permission to conquer the city for New Lunar Republic. City was taken with minimal loses, because of propaganda and information on what happen in Manehattan, which convinced ponies to join Luna. On the map of Equestria, a new country arose called the New Lunar Republic, with the capital city of Fillydelphia.
The war, has just begun….
Chapter 1: The Lunar Night
Chapter 1 : The Lunar Night?
It was a raining day. Greensword took a look at his loyal soldiers, the veteran pony without an eye sighed. He was already tired of the fighting with Solar Empire but the only thing they took so far is the Fillydelphia. He cleared his throat and slowly started talking.
“We took one city, but there are many others we need to take. Our secret ponies in several cities are being slowly taken down and we need to support them. We need to win for the New Lunar Republic and for our Princess Luna.” He said, being very sure of his words, this is probably the reason he is the main General. He gave faith to his soldiers and ponies that weren’t really in a state to fight.
“But, sir…” Said a blue mare unicorn with a long brown mane, she had it very nicely done. The mare looks very young, like she just passed adulthood but she already had scars on her beautiful body. Her cutie mark is a map.
“…You see Captain Greensword. Your speech was very nice indeed. I’m sure that our soldiers after hearing it would have more faith in themselves while fighting, but let’s see… We have only one city, our armies are tired. Ponies that were trying to take down cities in a quiet way, are slowly being taken to prison. Instead of attacking a city, we should battle with the convoy to rescue th…” She was stopped by Greensword who didn’t look very happy.
“You… Tactira if I remember correctly.. All the time were here, You and only You were trying to ruin my plan!”
The mare laughed while looking at him and started to move around while looking at her Captain
“Oh Mr. Greensword, but what can we do with tired soldiers? With our other soldiers in prison? With this.. We can show that we care for our people more than the Solar Empire and rescue, many of our soldiers… Right? And yet… They took one, very important pony that was in Manehattan.. With this, we could make more ponies stand on our side, don’t You think?”
Greensword slowly started cheering up, smiled to the mare and nodded a bit.
“And who is this mare?” He asked slowly but with a better tone than before to Tactira. The mare nodded to him with a little smile and gave him a letter to read, Greensword started laughing like a maniac then nodded a bit
“Yes… This will be, great.”
***
“Did you hear? Did you hear that?” The brown stallion asked another colt, it was evening in Manehattan, yet many ponies looked really scared with last Solar Empire order. It's police city right now, ponies can’t leave their houses at night if someone tried to do so ( an exception was going to job) they were taken to prison.
“What? What happened?” Asked Colt while looking at the stallion very interested and yet scared.
“They took her! No more concerts, no more music from her! She is in prison, curse Luna and her rebel forces!”
“What do You mean? They took her? HER? It's impossible, Celestia would never agree to that ! Or make this order!”
Because of the colts shouting, more and more ponies were interested in their talk and started approaching them.
“Who? Who did they take?”
‘Yes who! Somepony famous? Or are You two just lying to scary us?”
“Listen, they took…” The stallion was stopped when somepony started shouting that it was Herald who was giving news about the situation
.
“Listen everpony, last night because a conspiracy detected by Royal Princess Celestia agents, a pony with the name Vinyl Scratch that is also known as DJ-P0N3 was taken to prison. We discovered that she was secretly supporting The New Lunar Republic, there were many factors that made us see that. Her concerts were being held at night, there was always atleast one song that had “Luna” in its name. Yet, she never supported The Solar Empire. To make everypony see that we don’t allow helping The New Lunar Republic, Vinyl Scratch will be executed tomorrow in Canterlot.”
Ponies started looking at eachother being very scared, they didn’t want to believe these words, yet they were true and nothing could change them.
“This is madness! To the hell with Luna and her Republic! She wanted to save us, now we will slowly die due to her stupidity”
“Yes! Yes, You are right! Kill The New Lunar Republic, kill them all! Burn them alive and let us see how they die! We suffer because of them.”
“Hypocrites! New Lunar are hypocrites! We were very good under Princess Celestia's command! We didn’t need a new ruler, death to Luna! Death to the New Lunar Republic!”
Ponies in Manehattan after hearing Herald were very angry at The New Lunar Republic. They started burning their banners and flags in the park, many of the ponies from the city began signing up to The Solar Empire army just to fight with the rebellion. Hearing information about the execution of Vinyl Scratch, ponies reacted like The Solar Empire expected, and killing one famous pony to raise the hearts of their Empire? They can do it.
***
Greensword with Tactira took a look at the map to discuss the rescue plan.
“If we will attack here and take out the guards very fast, they won’t have time to…” Greensword was stopped by Tactira and shook her head.
“No You see, with this I’m sure the plan will fail.”
“Because…?” Captain looked at her adviser, the mare smiled.
“Look, if we will rush towards them head on.. Even with an ambush from the grass, we will fail. My plan is simple, look at this road. If we will cut down the trees, some of them will block the road. They will need to change the path where they go. With this, they would rather would pick road with mountains or the road by the swamp. Both of them could work for us, in the mountains we could use the rocks to throw at them. In the swamp, we can simply hide in the trees, underwater and attack them. Of course, our main objective will be to defend the prisoners. You, Captain Greesword will take care of taking down the guards with your men. Me and two soldiers that will help me, we will try to rescue the prisoners.”
Greensword nodded and smiled.
“Genius, Genius plan Ms. Tactira, I knew I can count on your objectives. It is a pleasure to have tactician like You on our side.”
“It's my pleasure.”
Two ponies smiled and were continuing on the plan, it can’t fail. Otherwise, The New Lunar Republic and their leader can look like tyrants.
***
Canterlot was dealing with a problem, one of the best thieves named Thiefy a black unicorn with a white mane and tail the cutie mark was locksmith with a key. Her body was under the average and that gives her advantages. Her speediness and agility is really above average. She stole one of the royal family crystals that Celestia wanted back. To catch Thiefy, Celestia send her the best spy, Goldenhood. But didn’t want her to kill the thief. Thiefy was in her friends house, she had a room in the basement here as she didn’t want anything better. She made her tools here to rob houses and other stuff, even some potions that she used on her last robbery to make royal guards faint. She was very happy with her new “reward” that she took from castle and looked at it.
“So Beautiful… Why Celestia had a crystal like this in private and didn’t want to show it to world, it is shiny and looks like… Wait.” She took a closer look at it and saw that it had a familiar color to the sun, inside it there was a sun symbol.
“What could that mean? Maybe this is something important, or just a personal gift fro.. Wait, there is something inside it…” Thiefy said to herself when she got it to her hooves. She got her monocle and put it on her eye, she closed her left eye and looked at the symbol and start reading letters written on it.
“With love from Your sister, Luna” Mare nodded to herself and took off the monocle and she put down the sun crystal on the table.
“Ah, this beautiful crystal.. At first I wanted to sell it but I think I could blackmail the Princess with it, or sell it to Luna so she could give it again to her sis.. Oh wait, the war… Ok. The best idea will be to blackmail Celestia and force her to buy it, I think she will pay me enough so I could live my life for many years without any proble…” Thiefy heard that the door to basement has been opened and someone is coming down to her. She sighed a bit and was thinking where to hide the crystal before her friend could see it.
“I told You! I need some private time now, why are you coming here now? Couldn’t You just give me some time here alone? I know it's Your house but com..” She stopped talking when she heard grenade hitting the ground, she took a look and was scared a little “The hell…”. The Grenade exploded, it was a smoke grenade and entire room was filled with smoke. It was too hard to see anyone in it or breathe without any problems.
“I should have.. Expect that…” She said to herself again sighed a bit. She fell in the trap, that she was often making for others and now she became one of the victims to the same trap. Thiefy laughed a bit and shook her head.
“Ok, Ok. I give up, You've got me. Take the crystal and get out of here, Golden” She put the crystal, in a bag and got out of the smoke and threw it at Golden. A mare walked down from the stairs, it was a pony with a golden pelt. At first she had a hood on her head that also covered her face but she took it off, her mane & tail are very elegant and are in a gray color. She nodded and laughed
“You will never change Thiefy.. You're coming with me”
“Eh, Goldenhood look! I’m sorry, do we need to go ? Can You let me go like always?”
“This time, Princess wants to talk with You.” Thiefy blinked and looked at her old friend being very surprised with her words.
“What? Why does Celestia want to see me ? I’m really sorry for tak…” Goldenhood shook her head and looked a little annoyed at the thief.
“Shut up already Thiefy You're going with me. You can’t say that you won't go as this is the Princess, You need to come and listen to her. Especially, that there is a war and You can be portrayed as a deserter for stealing this or not coming to princess. I don’t want to be the one that will have to kill You, Thiefy.”
Thiefy sighed and nodded
“Ok, Ok I will go. I see there is no point in fighting.” Goldenhood smiled and took her to the Princess. The royal chambers were looking as always, very formal and beautiful to the eye. Thiefy looked with open eyes
“Wow.. Many things to ste…” Golden hit Thiefy a bit
“Ok, Ok I know.. I’m sorry” They got to the Princess, Thiefy gave back the sun crystal and Celestia smiled
“Thank You very much for giving it back.”
“I’m sorry for taking this Princess, I…”
“This is no problem. This isn’t why I called You here. I need Your help, if You will help me.. You will have money to last you a lifetime.”
“Sure thing Princess! What needs to be done? I will do everything!”
“Luna has something that I need and it needs to be stolen, it is a very important amulet of the royal family. She stole it from me before leaving the castle, could You steal it back from her?”
Thiefy nodded and smiled
“Consider it done Princess”
“Princess, is this a good idea? I trust Thiefy but this is Princess Luna and her Republic” Golden said being unsure, she didn’t want to see her friend dead.”
“Don’t worry… I will do that Golden, without any problems…”
***
It was evening, the convoy with the prisoners was going like Greensword and Tactira expected. The trees were already on the ground and they changed the path to where they were going, they decided to go through mountains.
They went on a very hard path, there was a cave aswell. From the sky rocks fell to the ground and the convoy was forced to hide in cave for a while. The entrance was still clear, the guards were very quickly ambushed by The New Lunar Republic soldiers. Greensword ordered his men to attack. Tactira got to the cargo and started freeing the prisoners . Greensword attacked captain of the cargo with his sword in mouth, it was a very tough pony but he looked at Green and smiled.
“Heh, You traitor.. Working now with Luna are ya?”
“I was always her loyal soldier and I won't betray her, never!” Greensword attacked his enemy with fast attacks and the pony had problems with defending. Other ponies from the guards couldn’t defend themselves, they were outmatched. Many of them were dying, some of them were probably going to be imprisoned under The New Lunar Republic command.
Greensword was still fighting with the captain, but finally got through his defenses and put his sword right through the captains body, he began to bleeding out. He looked with smile again at Greensword.
“I’m glad.. I was Your trainer, traitor… Atleast.. You are still a very good soldier.”
“Ay, ay Captain” Greensword took his sword out and cut his neck to kill him, so that he wouldn’t suffer so much in his last minute. Greensword looked at Tactira and sighed a bit, there was DJ-P0N3 like they thought.
“Now, some of the ponies will trust us…”
“Especially that we murdered a lot of others…” Said Tactira and sighed.
“Don’t worry, we will win… We will win for sure. The new times have began.”