An Unwanted Pastby WhovianPonyChaptersIntroductionChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5IntroductionMany millennia ago, the great and mighty race of the alicorns ruled over all of Equestria. Under their reign, the ponies of Equestria lived in a golden age of peace and prosperity. In the very center of our country stood a glorious and shining capitol. In the center of this was the royal citadel, home to the royal family, and where I lived for many years. Towering spires inlaid with gold and silver stood as a reminder to all who saw them of the alicorn's power and pride. The alicorns saw it as their birthright to rule over the lesser races of Equestria, and the Equestrians were content to be ruled by those that they saw as gods. The ponies and the alicorns lived in harmony with each other and with the countries that surrounded Equestria. The largest were the dragon clans to the east, and the gryphon kingdom to the west. But to the south lied a no pony's land, filled with chaos and unrest. To the three leaders of our world, and to their people, this was the very definition of hell. The wasteland was home only to the race of the draconequus. They were much older than the alicorns and older than the dragons, but still young and foalish. Their world was in a constant state of chaos, where day and night shifted independently from the rest of the planet, and where no regular pony could go without soon turning to insanity. The draconequus were very much like the alicorns. They had great powers and unyielding pride; but unlike the alicorns, the draconequus took no pleasure in peace, and had no need for prosperity. So it was only a matter of time, when disaster struck. This is not a happy story. This is not a story that will make you laugh, or make you feel better about yourself. It's not a story meant for pleasure reading. It's not one that I often took pleasure in living, not without him. This is the story of our history. The story of pain, and sorrow; of loves lost and hardships found. Painful, but the truth. The tome which you hold now in your hooves, is filled with the darkest, and most well kept of secrets. These are the tales and the events that even today are kept away from the ponies of Equestria at all costs; the story of the alicorn’s shame and the fall of the two mightiest empires that Equestria has ever seen. My name is Rose Everfree. This is the story of how I lived, and how I died. Chapter 1Many times at night I would lie awake and look out my window. It wasn't a terrific view, to be sure, but it was beautiful nonetheless. From my room in the servants quarters, I could just barely look out upon the streets of Capitol City and see the shops close and the ponies walk home with their loved ones. Some nights, when the sky was clear and the moon was especially bright, the light of the moon shone upon the white cobblestone paths and it looked like the middle of the day. This night I remember with a particular fondness because it was my birthday. As usual I kept it to myself, mostly. There was too much work to be done around the castle to worry about silly things like birthdays or celebrations. Despite this, I was happy. I was close friends with the chef in the kitchens and birthdays were one of the few occasions when he would make absolutely sure to save something for me. That year, I think, was my 17th birthday. It's hard for me to really be sure, it was so long ago. He saved one of the red velvet cupcakes that the royals had ordered for desert and let me take it back to my room. He knew he wasn't supposed to, but he was always did anyway. That night, I had taken it into my head that it would be a good idea to sneak out of the servants quarters and explore the castle. I wasn't allowed to go out into town, even during the day, but I had lived in the castle for my entire life and knew it well. As I walked through the halls, my hooves fell quietly on the polished marble floors. Unconsciously, I found myself walking the path to the library, where I always liked to read whenever I got a break. It wasn't until just before I went through the door that I heard the voices. "Something must be done. If we wait too much longer, they will surely attack us and the Capitol must not let this come to pass." A voice said in hushed tones. "Are you questioning my judgment, Eagle Standard? Do you think I am so dim that I haven't noticed already?" Another voice hissed in response. "No, your majesty. I was only doing my duty as your adviser." My breath caught in my throat and I stepped carefully away from the door of the library. Eagle Standard was the king's closest adviser, and in the event of a war he was the head of the entire army. The stallion he was talking to could be no other than the king, Night Lance. I remember my horror as I realized that in my sneaking about I had stumbled upon a war meeting! The king sighed, "The last thing my kingdom needs is a war. My wife is expecting her second child any week now. The rebellions in the gryphon kingdom are worrying both their king and my subjects. Even Celestia, my own daughter, is starting to ask questions about it." "I understand that, your highness. Any father would be concerned. But if war breaks out, if we let the enemy make the first strike, than they will make it here. Where would that put your family then, sire? Think of what would happen to your wife, and to your daughter, if the war was brought to the Capitol!" I heard a sharp intake of breath from the room. I can only imagine that the king had, just as I did, pictured the terrible fate which would befall the royal family and the Capitol if a war broke out. "The draconequus are strong. Not enough study has been done into their brand of magic to know how strong exactly, but it would be in our best interest, your majesty, to prepare for the worst." The king exhaled deeply in defeat, "Then I suppose it can not be avoided. Prepare the troops, start making plans. It's nearly time for morning and it wouldn't do for me to be late for the sun celebration." I heard a chair being pushed back. "Of course, your majesty. I will have preparations underway by tomorrow afternoon." Somehow I could tell that Eagle Standard was happy about the decision. There was no doubt in my mind that he would take great joy in warfare. I heard hooves approach the door and quickly hid behind a suit of armor in the hall. Only once I heard the hoofsteps fade into the silence of the castle, did I sneak back to my room. Chapter 2I remember the next few weeks being a blur. Everywhere you went preparations were being made to send an attack force into what ponies had named "The Southlands". My job as servant had been to assist the chef in the kitchen, but during the times of preparation I was put to work sharpening swords and fletching arrows. Day in and day out I would wake, eat, work, sleep, repeat. I was surprised and terrified by the blood lust of the ponies that I thought I knew so well. Some were already inventing war chants and many had taken to painting their shields with horrifying images of slain enemies. I was the youngest of the group of ponies put to the task of prepping the soldiers and from what I can recall, the only pegasus. Any questions I thought to ask about the morality of going to war were shot down by my elders. It was foalish of me to question the king, they said, I was to young to understand such matters. Even some of the ponies I was working with had taken to humming the chants and most of them knew the words by heart. Somehow or other, the peaceful ponies that I grew up with had all become very comfortable with the idea of hurting others, simply because our king believed it to be the right thing to do. While I didn't understand it at the time, I know now the dangers of panic and herd mentality. Even today, I still have not forgotten the day they brought him in. A couple weeks or so before General Standard planned to launch the first attack, a small group of alicorns ventured across the border with the intention of taking a prisoner. When they returned, I don't remember ever being so horrified. At that point in time, I had never seen a draconequus in my entire life. I had heard stories, every filly and colt in Equestria had heard countless stories, but had never actually seen one in person. Yes, I was horrified, but not of the draconequus, of the alicorns. Even I, who had never seen a creature of his kind before, could tell how young the draconequus was. He was unbelievably small, and had the proportions of a child. His mouth was gagged and his bruised limbs were thin and tightly bound. His two horns had been sawed off so as to prevent him using magic. His yellow eyes held such fear as I had never seen as he took in the sight of my king, and tears trailed steadily down his cheeks. Yet, the alicorn soldiers, who had caused him so much pain, stood as if they should be praised. The colt, or would it be drake, was in such pain that he seemed to have trouble standing as his legs repeatedly crumpled beneath him. Each time this happened his captors would hoist him back up and force him to stand. I looked around the throne room where everypony stood and took in the faces of the ponies around me. They were triumphant. Pleased. The kidnapping and torture of this child was a sign that the war was won before it had even began. They wanted this. I remember asking myself if it was even possible that I was the only one there who pitied him, the only one who was ashamed of my country. Unfortunately, it seemed like I was. The king stood from his throne and approached the colt. His golden crown and robes set him apart from the others. Each hoofstep was purposeful and deliberate. His starry mane and tail flowed around him as if they were blown by some sort of wind that no other pony could feel. He took his time in approaching the colt, he seemed content to bask in this moment of glory. When he got the the colt, he grasped what was left his unicorn horn and pulled him from where he had fallen on the floor again up to eye level. The colt cried out and struggled to free himself, but to no avail. The king took a deep breath and addressed the crowd that had gathered to see the spectacle. "I invite you all to look before you at this creature our brave soldiers have captured. This...thing is our enemy. They mean to bring chaos and death into our world, and to topple our glorious Capitol." The king released the colt and let him fall to the floor. His head rebounded off the marble floor with a sickening crack. "I do not intend to let that happen. I will not have my children living in fear of what havoc these creatures may cause. As of now my loyal subjects, my soldiers, my brethren, citizens of Capitol City! We are at war." The king glared at the heap that laid at his hooves as the crowd around him cheered and stomped their hooves. He nodded and the soldiers forced the child onto his feet and pulled him out of the room. While the king turned to join his subjects in their celebration, I snuck out the door to follow them. Chapter 3Without really thinking, I followed them as closely as I dared. Back in the throne room, champagne was being opened and ponies bursted out into their songs of war. Whether the soldiers were aware of my pursuit, I never knew but I followed them all the way to the dungeons, to the one place in the castle that I had never been to. I never so much as dared to go down into that horrible place, but at that moment I suppose I was more worried about the colt than myself. The king did not often keep prisoners. All the ponies under his care were so in love with their king that they didn't dare to do anything that might disappoint him or make him ashamed. Crime simply didn't happen. When there were prisoners down there, they were only horrible, evil ponies that did things like murdering ponies. The soldiers dragged him to one of the cells and tossed him roughly inside. The laughed and jeered at the colt in his misery, and continued laughing as they walked away. When I was sure that the coast was clear, I snuck over to his cell. When he saw me, he panicked and tried to back away. I didn't blame him for not trusting ponies, after what they did to him. "It's okay! It's okay!" I whispered. He sat up taller and glared daggers at me. Somewhere in the castle I could hear the songs being sung and unfortunately he heard them too. I saw him shiver as bar after bar of their horrible song echoed off the stone walls. "I don't like them either." I said it more to myself than the colt. "I think they're absolutely horrible and disgusting." The colt grunted in agreement but continued to study me closely. "I think what they did to you was horrible and disgusting, too. I'm not even sure if you speak common, but I want you to know that I'll do anything I can to help you." There was only silence still. "If you slide over here a bit, I'll even take the gag off for you." After some hesitation he slid over to me and I reached through the bars and removed the sash from his mouth. "I'll go ahead and let you rest now. To say that you've had a rough day would be a severe understatement." I said. Slowly, so as not to make a sound, I made my way back to the entrance to the dungeon. "Hey," a voice said behind me, "My name is Neo." "Mine is Rose!" I called back. "I'll come back soon, don't worry." I thought that I would be able to get back to my room unnoticed, but as soon as my hoof reached for the handle on the dungeon door somepony else pulled it open instead. I jumped back in surprise as the king himself descended the steps in front of me. He did not seem altogether surprised to find me there. "I figured somepony would sneak down here and try to take a closer look." He laughed, "Not to worry, my dear. It's normal that you would be curious about it." "Actually your highness, I was just leaving." The king looked down into my eyes, "You look familiar to me, young one. Do you perhaps work at the castle?" "Y-yes sir." I stammered, "I work down in the kitchens with Pastry Dough. I'm Rose Everfree." The king put his hoof on my shoulder and led me back to the cell. "Tell me what you see there." He said gravely. I looked into Neo's yellow eyes. I'm not the kind of pony that can easily lie about my opinion, even in situations where it would be beneficial to my health to say what ponies want to hear. "In all honesty, your majesty, what I see in that cell is a colt no older than me, who has been treated horribly and punished for something he had no hoof in." A growl built in the back of the kings throat, but he managed to turn it into a chuckle at the last moment. His hoof gripped my shoulder tighter so that I was sure it would leave a bruise. "That is not what I see. You are young and naive, such opinions are only to be expected from little fillies such as yourself." The king sighed to calm himself. "No, let me tell you what is really in there. Sitting right before you is the very spawn of Tartarus. That creature there was born of evil. His purpose is to destroy the order we have tried to hard to establish. His kind have been planning to ruin us.They want to end the alicorn reign, to spread the insanity and anarchy of their kind. How it has been treated is no less than what it deserves." I whispered something under my breath. "Come again, dear? I'm old and I can't understand you when you're muttering." I ducked quickly out from under his hoof and faced away from Neo to be able too look the king in the eyes. "I said you're wrong! I have heard and grown up with the same stories as everypony else, but I don't believe that he's evil at all. How he's being treated isn't even remotely fair! And by the way, his name is 'Neo' not 'It'!" The king brought his hoof down hard on my cheek and I stumbled back in shock. "You will not question me! You are a servant, and I am your king!" He struck me again and raised his hoof for a third. "LEAVE HER ALONE!" Neo cried out. "AND YOU! You will get your dues, demon!" The king huffed angrily and got his temper back under control. "Fine. I will leave this foalish servant alone. However as punishment for your insolence, Miss Everfree, he is your responsibility. On top of your work in the kitchen, you will see that he is fed enough to stay alive, and clean enough to not stink up my castle. You will sleep in the next cell over. You will change his bandages as necessary. And you will mind curfew. Do you understand?" I could only nod my head in response since the sting from his first blow had still not faded from my cheek and my mind was too foggy for more. "Very well. You will stay here tonight until somepony collects you in the morning and escorts you to the kitchens. And Miss Everfree?" "Sir?" "If he escapes, you will be put to death for high treason." With that, the king stormed out of the dungeon and returned to the festivities above. The door slammed behind him and Neo and I were left alone once again in the dark of the dungeon. "You didn't have to protect me like that. You could have lied. Then you wouldn't have gotten hurt." Neo said apologetically. His eyes seemed to glow softly in the darkness. "But you would have, and you've been hurt enough." I felt along the wall for the bars of his cell and reached my hoof through them. I felt my hoof brush the fur on his shoulder and hugged him carefully. "What I said is true. Never in my whole life has the king ever been this cruel. Not to anypony. Besides, you need somepony down here to keep you company anyway." I settled down in the next cell over and despite the coldness of the stone floor and the lump on my head, I felt myself being pulled to sleep. "Rose?" "Yes, Neo? "Thank you." Chapter 4Daylight came earlier than I wanted it to. It was hard to tell the passage of time in the dungeon, but soon enough I could hear the castle wake up and get to work. I heard Neo turn over in his cell, it was hard for me to tell whether he had gotten any sleep or not. I reached my hoof through the bars like I had the night before and rested it on his shoulder. I could feel him shiver beneath my hoof and I became aware that he was sobbing softly under his breath. "How are you feeling Neo? Just as bad as yesterday?" I felt him exhale as his body shivered again. "Worse. I kept waking up during the night and hoping that I would wake up back home." Neo rolled towards around the face me. His eyes softly glowed gold in the darkness. "My dad was going to teach me how to fly today." He laughed sadly. "You don't know how?" Neo shook his head. "It's not like I'm ever going to learn now. Hay, I don't even know if I'm going to see him again." He shook as he tried to suppress the urge to cry again. "Maybe I could teach you. I am a pegasus after all, and I know how to fly." "No, flying for draconequus works differently. We fly using magic, our wings alone aren't actually used for flying." "And now thanks to those horrible ponies, you can't use magic either." "Well, we shed our horns every couple of years anyway and grow new ones." he sighed, "But with my rotten luck, I'll be long gone by then." I heard a rough grinding sound and a blinding light filled the dungeon. A guard stepped in and lit the torch next to the door. "Wake up call for Rose Everfree." He said gruffly. I said goodbye to Neo and followed the guard out into the halls and back to my station in the kitchen. The ponies there refused to talk with me. When they did it was always "Please fetch the large pot for me Miss Everfree.", or "Miss Everfree, I told you to keep an eye on that soup!". So began my new routine. In the mornings before wake up call and in the afternoons once my work was done, Neo and I would share stories about each other while I changed his bandages. He always loved telling my about his homeland. The more I heard, though, the more I realized that the draconequus weren't monsters at all. I felt like everything I had ever been told about them was a lie. They fell in love. They raised families. They protected each other every bit as much as any pony ever did. It occurred to me, that the only monsters I had ever met were the alicorns. I realized that I was sick of being lied too. This whole life, which had been fabricated with doctored truths to the point where I could finally stand the taste of them, was fake and unfamiliar to me. I realized, that something had to be done. Innocent ponies could get, and in fact already had been, hurt. So one night, having realized these things, I rolled over in my cell and woke Neo. "Neo, I need to talk to you." Neo turned to me and blinked his eyes a few times to clear the fatigue from them. "I've suddenly come to the shocking revelation, that I have been lied too." Even in the dark I could see a grin form on his lips and he laughed before responding, "Only just now?" "I know, I'm truly ashamed of how dim I am. But here's the thing," I turned my ear to the door to reassure myself that nopony was listening or hiding in the shadows, "we're getting you out of here." His smile faded as quickly as it had come and he tensed as if he were expecting to be hit. Perhaps he was. "Rose, we can't do that. If I escape than you get charged with high treason. They'll kill you. Besides, even if that weren't a concern, in what possible way could a pegasus and a still useless draconequus possibly hope to escape from a dungeon that is not only directly beneath a heavily armed citadel, but in the very center of a giant city full of blood thirsty war ponies?" "You aren't useless, Neo. I feel like we have to try something though. The only reason why I'm being allowed to heal you, is so they can kill you later. And sooner than that, General Standard is going to attack the Southlands. It's going to be a thousand times harder getting you home if there's a war going on." "Even if I agreed to go, it's not like we have a plan." "At what point did I say I had no plan? I have a plan. It's a very stupid plan with a slim chance of success that will have you out of here and on your way home by morning with nopony the wiser." Neo allowed himself to smile again. I could practically see the wheels in his head turning. With the minuscule bit of magic he had retained, he made a line of rocks roll around in swirling patterns on the floor. He watched them go around for a while to help him think of how to respond to me. I didn't press him, I knew he would answer me eventually. Finally, it seemed as if he had come to a decision, one that made him smile wider than I had seen him smile before. It's beautiful and terrifying at the same time to see a draconequus wear the kind of manic grin that Neo wore then. "Alright, but on one condition. You're coming with me." Chapter 5"No, absolutely not. It'll be a lot harder Neo. If I go, your already slim chances get a lot slimmer." "So be it. There's no way, in all of Equestria, Dragon Country, the Gryphon Kingdom, the northern wastes and the Southlands put together that I'm leaving you behind to take the blame for my escape." "Neo... I..." "I know... splintered loyalty is something I certainly understand." "Splintered loyalty?" "Yeah Rose! I get that this place is your home, and that how much ever it's changed it's still your home and all your family and friends are here. But I also understand that you're the best friend I ever had Rose, and you want to help me get out of this place." I sighed and rested my head on the cool stone floor. "If I slow you down..." "Then I'd rather die next to a friend then on a chopping block all alone." Who was I kidding, he knew the danger. He knew it better than anyone. I sighed deeply and picked up a rock from the floor. "You are incredibly stubborn. Fine I'll come along but you have to follow my directions TO THE LETTER. Understand?" His face lit up the darkness around him. "Fantastic! What's the plan?" "Alright, here it is." I picked a rock up off the floor and started drawing out my plan in a moonbeam shining on the stone, "I'll pick the locks on your cell with one of my feathers, don't ask why I know how to do that, and between the two of us we should have enough strength to get the dungeon door moved. This late at night the guards are either dead asleep at their posts or simply not there at all, so all we have to do is sneak through the halls to my old room in the servants quarters. I have a map there of all the secret passageways in the entire castle that my friends and I have found so far. While I haven't traveled it myself, there's a path on it that leads straight out from the citadel and out of Capitol City to a meadow outside city limits. I guess it's for if the royal family was ever in danger and needed to skip town on short notice. If all goes well, than we should be far away from the city before the sun rises. From there, I think I know the general direction to go to get you back home." Neo looked ever my etchings on the ground but he still seemed confused. "This seems fairly straightforward to me, Rose. How are our chances so slim?" "Well, my room is on the other end of the castle, first of all. Second, while the dungeon is probably unguarded, the rest of the citadel will be heavily guarded for sure. And third," I paused in my explanation to ruffle my wings uncomfortably. "Third, in order to get the map we'll have to walk through the servants quarters without waking anypony up and most of them really hate me now that they all think I'm a traitor." Despite the seriousness of the situation, I found cause to roll my eyes. I doubted that any of them had even bothered to find out the truth before they believed what anypony told them. Of course... I suppose I wasn't so different myself not too long ago. Neo sighed. "We still have to try though. Even if not for my own safety, even if not for yours, my folks back home are probably worried sick about me and somepony needs to warn them about what the alicorns are planning. Who else would even be willing to bother about them? You're the only friend I have here, Rose." An unwanted pang of sadness struck my heart, I wasn't sure why at the time. The glow coming from Neo's eyes reminded me of twin moons. Somehow, the darkness of the underground cellar didn't seem as lonely when I saw them. "Then it's settled I guess... There's really no preparations to make so I guess it's now or never, huh Neo?" His yellow eyes nodded in the blackness. "Now or never." Using the tip of one of my feathers, I carefully picked the locks and opened the cell door.
IntroductionMany millennia ago, the great and mighty race of the alicorns ruled over all of Equestria. Under their reign, the ponies of Equestria lived in a golden age of peace and prosperity. In the very center of our country stood a glorious and shining capitol. In the center of this was the royal citadel, home to the royal family, and where I lived for many years. Towering spires inlaid with gold and silver stood as a reminder to all who saw them of the alicorn's power and pride. The alicorns saw it as their birthright to rule over the lesser races of Equestria, and the Equestrians were content to be ruled by those that they saw as gods. The ponies and the alicorns lived in harmony with each other and with the countries that surrounded Equestria. The largest were the dragon clans to the east, and the gryphon kingdom to the west. But to the south lied a no pony's land, filled with chaos and unrest. To the three leaders of our world, and to their people, this was the very definition of hell. The wasteland was home only to the race of the draconequus. They were much older than the alicorns and older than the dragons, but still young and foalish. Their world was in a constant state of chaos, where day and night shifted independently from the rest of the planet, and where no regular pony could go without soon turning to insanity. The draconequus were very much like the alicorns. They had great powers and unyielding pride; but unlike the alicorns, the draconequus took no pleasure in peace, and had no need for prosperity. So it was only a matter of time, when disaster struck. This is not a happy story. This is not a story that will make you laugh, or make you feel better about yourself. It's not a story meant for pleasure reading. It's not one that I often took pleasure in living, not without him. This is the story of our history. The story of pain, and sorrow; of loves lost and hardships found. Painful, but the truth. The tome which you hold now in your hooves, is filled with the darkest, and most well kept of secrets. These are the tales and the events that even today are kept away from the ponies of Equestria at all costs; the story of the alicorn’s shame and the fall of the two mightiest empires that Equestria has ever seen. My name is Rose Everfree. This is the story of how I lived, and how I died.
Chapter 1Many times at night I would lie awake and look out my window. It wasn't a terrific view, to be sure, but it was beautiful nonetheless. From my room in the servants quarters, I could just barely look out upon the streets of Capitol City and see the shops close and the ponies walk home with their loved ones. Some nights, when the sky was clear and the moon was especially bright, the light of the moon shone upon the white cobblestone paths and it looked like the middle of the day. This night I remember with a particular fondness because it was my birthday. As usual I kept it to myself, mostly. There was too much work to be done around the castle to worry about silly things like birthdays or celebrations. Despite this, I was happy. I was close friends with the chef in the kitchens and birthdays were one of the few occasions when he would make absolutely sure to save something for me. That year, I think, was my 17th birthday. It's hard for me to really be sure, it was so long ago. He saved one of the red velvet cupcakes that the royals had ordered for desert and let me take it back to my room. He knew he wasn't supposed to, but he was always did anyway. That night, I had taken it into my head that it would be a good idea to sneak out of the servants quarters and explore the castle. I wasn't allowed to go out into town, even during the day, but I had lived in the castle for my entire life and knew it well. As I walked through the halls, my hooves fell quietly on the polished marble floors. Unconsciously, I found myself walking the path to the library, where I always liked to read whenever I got a break. It wasn't until just before I went through the door that I heard the voices. "Something must be done. If we wait too much longer, they will surely attack us and the Capitol must not let this come to pass." A voice said in hushed tones. "Are you questioning my judgment, Eagle Standard? Do you think I am so dim that I haven't noticed already?" Another voice hissed in response. "No, your majesty. I was only doing my duty as your adviser." My breath caught in my throat and I stepped carefully away from the door of the library. Eagle Standard was the king's closest adviser, and in the event of a war he was the head of the entire army. The stallion he was talking to could be no other than the king, Night Lance. I remember my horror as I realized that in my sneaking about I had stumbled upon a war meeting! The king sighed, "The last thing my kingdom needs is a war. My wife is expecting her second child any week now. The rebellions in the gryphon kingdom are worrying both their king and my subjects. Even Celestia, my own daughter, is starting to ask questions about it." "I understand that, your highness. Any father would be concerned. But if war breaks out, if we let the enemy make the first strike, than they will make it here. Where would that put your family then, sire? Think of what would happen to your wife, and to your daughter, if the war was brought to the Capitol!" I heard a sharp intake of breath from the room. I can only imagine that the king had, just as I did, pictured the terrible fate which would befall the royal family and the Capitol if a war broke out. "The draconequus are strong. Not enough study has been done into their brand of magic to know how strong exactly, but it would be in our best interest, your majesty, to prepare for the worst." The king exhaled deeply in defeat, "Then I suppose it can not be avoided. Prepare the troops, start making plans. It's nearly time for morning and it wouldn't do for me to be late for the sun celebration." I heard a chair being pushed back. "Of course, your majesty. I will have preparations underway by tomorrow afternoon." Somehow I could tell that Eagle Standard was happy about the decision. There was no doubt in my mind that he would take great joy in warfare. I heard hooves approach the door and quickly hid behind a suit of armor in the hall. Only once I heard the hoofsteps fade into the silence of the castle, did I sneak back to my room.
Chapter 2I remember the next few weeks being a blur. Everywhere you went preparations were being made to send an attack force into what ponies had named "The Southlands". My job as servant had been to assist the chef in the kitchen, but during the times of preparation I was put to work sharpening swords and fletching arrows. Day in and day out I would wake, eat, work, sleep, repeat. I was surprised and terrified by the blood lust of the ponies that I thought I knew so well. Some were already inventing war chants and many had taken to painting their shields with horrifying images of slain enemies. I was the youngest of the group of ponies put to the task of prepping the soldiers and from what I can recall, the only pegasus. Any questions I thought to ask about the morality of going to war were shot down by my elders. It was foalish of me to question the king, they said, I was to young to understand such matters. Even some of the ponies I was working with had taken to humming the chants and most of them knew the words by heart. Somehow or other, the peaceful ponies that I grew up with had all become very comfortable with the idea of hurting others, simply because our king believed it to be the right thing to do. While I didn't understand it at the time, I know now the dangers of panic and herd mentality. Even today, I still have not forgotten the day they brought him in. A couple weeks or so before General Standard planned to launch the first attack, a small group of alicorns ventured across the border with the intention of taking a prisoner. When they returned, I don't remember ever being so horrified. At that point in time, I had never seen a draconequus in my entire life. I had heard stories, every filly and colt in Equestria had heard countless stories, but had never actually seen one in person. Yes, I was horrified, but not of the draconequus, of the alicorns. Even I, who had never seen a creature of his kind before, could tell how young the draconequus was. He was unbelievably small, and had the proportions of a child. His mouth was gagged and his bruised limbs were thin and tightly bound. His two horns had been sawed off so as to prevent him using magic. His yellow eyes held such fear as I had never seen as he took in the sight of my king, and tears trailed steadily down his cheeks. Yet, the alicorn soldiers, who had caused him so much pain, stood as if they should be praised. The colt, or would it be drake, was in such pain that he seemed to have trouble standing as his legs repeatedly crumpled beneath him. Each time this happened his captors would hoist him back up and force him to stand. I looked around the throne room where everypony stood and took in the faces of the ponies around me. They were triumphant. Pleased. The kidnapping and torture of this child was a sign that the war was won before it had even began. They wanted this. I remember asking myself if it was even possible that I was the only one there who pitied him, the only one who was ashamed of my country. Unfortunately, it seemed like I was. The king stood from his throne and approached the colt. His golden crown and robes set him apart from the others. Each hoofstep was purposeful and deliberate. His starry mane and tail flowed around him as if they were blown by some sort of wind that no other pony could feel. He took his time in approaching the colt, he seemed content to bask in this moment of glory. When he got the the colt, he grasped what was left his unicorn horn and pulled him from where he had fallen on the floor again up to eye level. The colt cried out and struggled to free himself, but to no avail. The king took a deep breath and addressed the crowd that had gathered to see the spectacle. "I invite you all to look before you at this creature our brave soldiers have captured. This...thing is our enemy. They mean to bring chaos and death into our world, and to topple our glorious Capitol." The king released the colt and let him fall to the floor. His head rebounded off the marble floor with a sickening crack. "I do not intend to let that happen. I will not have my children living in fear of what havoc these creatures may cause. As of now my loyal subjects, my soldiers, my brethren, citizens of Capitol City! We are at war." The king glared at the heap that laid at his hooves as the crowd around him cheered and stomped their hooves. He nodded and the soldiers forced the child onto his feet and pulled him out of the room. While the king turned to join his subjects in their celebration, I snuck out the door to follow them.
Chapter 3Without really thinking, I followed them as closely as I dared. Back in the throne room, champagne was being opened and ponies bursted out into their songs of war. Whether the soldiers were aware of my pursuit, I never knew but I followed them all the way to the dungeons, to the one place in the castle that I had never been to. I never so much as dared to go down into that horrible place, but at that moment I suppose I was more worried about the colt than myself. The king did not often keep prisoners. All the ponies under his care were so in love with their king that they didn't dare to do anything that might disappoint him or make him ashamed. Crime simply didn't happen. When there were prisoners down there, they were only horrible, evil ponies that did things like murdering ponies. The soldiers dragged him to one of the cells and tossed him roughly inside. The laughed and jeered at the colt in his misery, and continued laughing as they walked away. When I was sure that the coast was clear, I snuck over to his cell. When he saw me, he panicked and tried to back away. I didn't blame him for not trusting ponies, after what they did to him. "It's okay! It's okay!" I whispered. He sat up taller and glared daggers at me. Somewhere in the castle I could hear the songs being sung and unfortunately he heard them too. I saw him shiver as bar after bar of their horrible song echoed off the stone walls. "I don't like them either." I said it more to myself than the colt. "I think they're absolutely horrible and disgusting." The colt grunted in agreement but continued to study me closely. "I think what they did to you was horrible and disgusting, too. I'm not even sure if you speak common, but I want you to know that I'll do anything I can to help you." There was only silence still. "If you slide over here a bit, I'll even take the gag off for you." After some hesitation he slid over to me and I reached through the bars and removed the sash from his mouth. "I'll go ahead and let you rest now. To say that you've had a rough day would be a severe understatement." I said. Slowly, so as not to make a sound, I made my way back to the entrance to the dungeon. "Hey," a voice said behind me, "My name is Neo." "Mine is Rose!" I called back. "I'll come back soon, don't worry." I thought that I would be able to get back to my room unnoticed, but as soon as my hoof reached for the handle on the dungeon door somepony else pulled it open instead. I jumped back in surprise as the king himself descended the steps in front of me. He did not seem altogether surprised to find me there. "I figured somepony would sneak down here and try to take a closer look." He laughed, "Not to worry, my dear. It's normal that you would be curious about it." "Actually your highness, I was just leaving." The king looked down into my eyes, "You look familiar to me, young one. Do you perhaps work at the castle?" "Y-yes sir." I stammered, "I work down in the kitchens with Pastry Dough. I'm Rose Everfree." The king put his hoof on my shoulder and led me back to the cell. "Tell me what you see there." He said gravely. I looked into Neo's yellow eyes. I'm not the kind of pony that can easily lie about my opinion, even in situations where it would be beneficial to my health to say what ponies want to hear. "In all honesty, your majesty, what I see in that cell is a colt no older than me, who has been treated horribly and punished for something he had no hoof in." A growl built in the back of the kings throat, but he managed to turn it into a chuckle at the last moment. His hoof gripped my shoulder tighter so that I was sure it would leave a bruise. "That is not what I see. You are young and naive, such opinions are only to be expected from little fillies such as yourself." The king sighed to calm himself. "No, let me tell you what is really in there. Sitting right before you is the very spawn of Tartarus. That creature there was born of evil. His purpose is to destroy the order we have tried to hard to establish. His kind have been planning to ruin us.They want to end the alicorn reign, to spread the insanity and anarchy of their kind. How it has been treated is no less than what it deserves." I whispered something under my breath. "Come again, dear? I'm old and I can't understand you when you're muttering." I ducked quickly out from under his hoof and faced away from Neo to be able too look the king in the eyes. "I said you're wrong! I have heard and grown up with the same stories as everypony else, but I don't believe that he's evil at all. How he's being treated isn't even remotely fair! And by the way, his name is 'Neo' not 'It'!" The king brought his hoof down hard on my cheek and I stumbled back in shock. "You will not question me! You are a servant, and I am your king!" He struck me again and raised his hoof for a third. "LEAVE HER ALONE!" Neo cried out. "AND YOU! You will get your dues, demon!" The king huffed angrily and got his temper back under control. "Fine. I will leave this foalish servant alone. However as punishment for your insolence, Miss Everfree, he is your responsibility. On top of your work in the kitchen, you will see that he is fed enough to stay alive, and clean enough to not stink up my castle. You will sleep in the next cell over. You will change his bandages as necessary. And you will mind curfew. Do you understand?" I could only nod my head in response since the sting from his first blow had still not faded from my cheek and my mind was too foggy for more. "Very well. You will stay here tonight until somepony collects you in the morning and escorts you to the kitchens. And Miss Everfree?" "Sir?" "If he escapes, you will be put to death for high treason." With that, the king stormed out of the dungeon and returned to the festivities above. The door slammed behind him and Neo and I were left alone once again in the dark of the dungeon. "You didn't have to protect me like that. You could have lied. Then you wouldn't have gotten hurt." Neo said apologetically. His eyes seemed to glow softly in the darkness. "But you would have, and you've been hurt enough." I felt along the wall for the bars of his cell and reached my hoof through them. I felt my hoof brush the fur on his shoulder and hugged him carefully. "What I said is true. Never in my whole life has the king ever been this cruel. Not to anypony. Besides, you need somepony down here to keep you company anyway." I settled down in the next cell over and despite the coldness of the stone floor and the lump on my head, I felt myself being pulled to sleep. "Rose?" "Yes, Neo? "Thank you."
Chapter 4Daylight came earlier than I wanted it to. It was hard to tell the passage of time in the dungeon, but soon enough I could hear the castle wake up and get to work. I heard Neo turn over in his cell, it was hard for me to tell whether he had gotten any sleep or not. I reached my hoof through the bars like I had the night before and rested it on his shoulder. I could feel him shiver beneath my hoof and I became aware that he was sobbing softly under his breath. "How are you feeling Neo? Just as bad as yesterday?" I felt him exhale as his body shivered again. "Worse. I kept waking up during the night and hoping that I would wake up back home." Neo rolled towards around the face me. His eyes softly glowed gold in the darkness. "My dad was going to teach me how to fly today." He laughed sadly. "You don't know how?" Neo shook his head. "It's not like I'm ever going to learn now. Hay, I don't even know if I'm going to see him again." He shook as he tried to suppress the urge to cry again. "Maybe I could teach you. I am a pegasus after all, and I know how to fly." "No, flying for draconequus works differently. We fly using magic, our wings alone aren't actually used for flying." "And now thanks to those horrible ponies, you can't use magic either." "Well, we shed our horns every couple of years anyway and grow new ones." he sighed, "But with my rotten luck, I'll be long gone by then." I heard a rough grinding sound and a blinding light filled the dungeon. A guard stepped in and lit the torch next to the door. "Wake up call for Rose Everfree." He said gruffly. I said goodbye to Neo and followed the guard out into the halls and back to my station in the kitchen. The ponies there refused to talk with me. When they did it was always "Please fetch the large pot for me Miss Everfree.", or "Miss Everfree, I told you to keep an eye on that soup!". So began my new routine. In the mornings before wake up call and in the afternoons once my work was done, Neo and I would share stories about each other while I changed his bandages. He always loved telling my about his homeland. The more I heard, though, the more I realized that the draconequus weren't monsters at all. I felt like everything I had ever been told about them was a lie. They fell in love. They raised families. They protected each other every bit as much as any pony ever did. It occurred to me, that the only monsters I had ever met were the alicorns. I realized that I was sick of being lied too. This whole life, which had been fabricated with doctored truths to the point where I could finally stand the taste of them, was fake and unfamiliar to me. I realized, that something had to be done. Innocent ponies could get, and in fact already had been, hurt. So one night, having realized these things, I rolled over in my cell and woke Neo. "Neo, I need to talk to you." Neo turned to me and blinked his eyes a few times to clear the fatigue from them. "I've suddenly come to the shocking revelation, that I have been lied too." Even in the dark I could see a grin form on his lips and he laughed before responding, "Only just now?" "I know, I'm truly ashamed of how dim I am. But here's the thing," I turned my ear to the door to reassure myself that nopony was listening or hiding in the shadows, "we're getting you out of here." His smile faded as quickly as it had come and he tensed as if he were expecting to be hit. Perhaps he was. "Rose, we can't do that. If I escape than you get charged with high treason. They'll kill you. Besides, even if that weren't a concern, in what possible way could a pegasus and a still useless draconequus possibly hope to escape from a dungeon that is not only directly beneath a heavily armed citadel, but in the very center of a giant city full of blood thirsty war ponies?" "You aren't useless, Neo. I feel like we have to try something though. The only reason why I'm being allowed to heal you, is so they can kill you later. And sooner than that, General Standard is going to attack the Southlands. It's going to be a thousand times harder getting you home if there's a war going on." "Even if I agreed to go, it's not like we have a plan." "At what point did I say I had no plan? I have a plan. It's a very stupid plan with a slim chance of success that will have you out of here and on your way home by morning with nopony the wiser." Neo allowed himself to smile again. I could practically see the wheels in his head turning. With the minuscule bit of magic he had retained, he made a line of rocks roll around in swirling patterns on the floor. He watched them go around for a while to help him think of how to respond to me. I didn't press him, I knew he would answer me eventually. Finally, it seemed as if he had come to a decision, one that made him smile wider than I had seen him smile before. It's beautiful and terrifying at the same time to see a draconequus wear the kind of manic grin that Neo wore then. "Alright, but on one condition. You're coming with me."
Chapter 5"No, absolutely not. It'll be a lot harder Neo. If I go, your already slim chances get a lot slimmer." "So be it. There's no way, in all of Equestria, Dragon Country, the Gryphon Kingdom, the northern wastes and the Southlands put together that I'm leaving you behind to take the blame for my escape." "Neo... I..." "I know... splintered loyalty is something I certainly understand." "Splintered loyalty?" "Yeah Rose! I get that this place is your home, and that how much ever it's changed it's still your home and all your family and friends are here. But I also understand that you're the best friend I ever had Rose, and you want to help me get out of this place." I sighed and rested my head on the cool stone floor. "If I slow you down..." "Then I'd rather die next to a friend then on a chopping block all alone." Who was I kidding, he knew the danger. He knew it better than anyone. I sighed deeply and picked up a rock from the floor. "You are incredibly stubborn. Fine I'll come along but you have to follow my directions TO THE LETTER. Understand?" His face lit up the darkness around him. "Fantastic! What's the plan?" "Alright, here it is." I picked a rock up off the floor and started drawing out my plan in a moonbeam shining on the stone, "I'll pick the locks on your cell with one of my feathers, don't ask why I know how to do that, and between the two of us we should have enough strength to get the dungeon door moved. This late at night the guards are either dead asleep at their posts or simply not there at all, so all we have to do is sneak through the halls to my old room in the servants quarters. I have a map there of all the secret passageways in the entire castle that my friends and I have found so far. While I haven't traveled it myself, there's a path on it that leads straight out from the citadel and out of Capitol City to a meadow outside city limits. I guess it's for if the royal family was ever in danger and needed to skip town on short notice. If all goes well, than we should be far away from the city before the sun rises. From there, I think I know the general direction to go to get you back home." Neo looked ever my etchings on the ground but he still seemed confused. "This seems fairly straightforward to me, Rose. How are our chances so slim?" "Well, my room is on the other end of the castle, first of all. Second, while the dungeon is probably unguarded, the rest of the citadel will be heavily guarded for sure. And third," I paused in my explanation to ruffle my wings uncomfortably. "Third, in order to get the map we'll have to walk through the servants quarters without waking anypony up and most of them really hate me now that they all think I'm a traitor." Despite the seriousness of the situation, I found cause to roll my eyes. I doubted that any of them had even bothered to find out the truth before they believed what anypony told them. Of course... I suppose I wasn't so different myself not too long ago. Neo sighed. "We still have to try though. Even if not for my own safety, even if not for yours, my folks back home are probably worried sick about me and somepony needs to warn them about what the alicorns are planning. Who else would even be willing to bother about them? You're the only friend I have here, Rose." An unwanted pang of sadness struck my heart, I wasn't sure why at the time. The glow coming from Neo's eyes reminded me of twin moons. Somehow, the darkness of the underground cellar didn't seem as lonely when I saw them. "Then it's settled I guess... There's really no preparations to make so I guess it's now or never, huh Neo?" His yellow eyes nodded in the blackness. "Now or never." Using the tip of one of my feathers, I carefully picked the locks and opened the cell door.
