Dur du dur. I think… I have no idea where this is going (I rarely do), but here we have this. Thing.
I'm gonna need some encouragement to finish this, or continue it, since I've already got a couple of 'fic I've gotta work on. But this happened. And. Yeah.
First pony fiction. Yeah, bro. So… I'll try to have fun with it while keeping it serious. Sort of. I think I'll be okay.
You'll hear from me again at the end of this chapter.
It was quiet, for the moment, and Twilight Sparkle was going to make the most of it. She snuck through the camp, which was also unusually silent. Normally there were at least the guards, standing around or looking across the barren fields. There had been grass there only recently, she had forgotten when that'd changed. The quiet muttering of various unicorns and pegasi alike came from the tents, though a few were abandoned.
She was going to meet her friends, the few people she still talked to. She was very withdrawn since this whole thing started, keeping to herself and staring off into space. She wasn't much of a soldier, and so she was kept behind the lines for safety. She was never questioned; everypony in Equestria knew who she was and why she was left behind.
This had all started a year or so ago. Some of the earth ponies had begun to realize how oppressed they were in comparison to the pegasi and unicorns. The realization only hit one pony at a time, but soon they were all aware, and tensions were rising. It was no wonder they hadn't realized until then, there was just a particular way of doing things, but once you knew it was hard to miss. Twilight had known since she was young, training her magic under Princess Celestia and reading all she could about the history of their great land. Great being a flexible term. And then the war had started. They were small riots at first, and put down quickly, the culprits being shipped to Canterlot, and nobody knew what happened to them there. They might have been re-conditioned, but she doubted any measures that extreme were taken. They were more likely just taken to the prisons or underground holding and guarded. And through all of this, awareness was spreading past Canterlot and Ponyville, and into the big cities, the countryside. Celestia set her troops on the move, collecting volunteers in secret from the ranks of pegasi and unicorns in her castle and on her royal guard. Unsurprisingly, there were no earth ponies in her legion. There batches of troops were stationed all across Equestria, ready to strike down riots—whole towns if necessary—at the call of the either princess. Celestia was the preferred commander, but in the event of her death or absence, they were also to take orders from Luna.
Not long after, the towns and villages got wind of the move, and all of the earth ponies began their own rallies of troops. Smaller bands were captured, others fought back and won. Upon hearing about the tragic death of their brethren, everypony became outraged, bombarding the princesses with their protests and demands for justice. Celestia consulted every pony she trusted, all those that would still speak to her, at least, and got the consensus. Everypony wanted justice, and nopony could get it without another group going into hysterics. There was just no way. The oppression was heavy-set, far longer than Celestia had even been on the throne, and farther back than even the princesses before her. It came from the time even before Equestria, and nopony knew how to end it. If they tried, the unicorns and pegasi would become angry with them, as well, and then there would be no control and no way to stop the full-on obliteration of the whole of Equestria. Celestia, not knowing what to do, stood back and watched her subjects fight amongst themselves. She held several, heavily-guarded conferences with towns and cities and important, leading ponies in all the places she could, her sister doing the same in the places she couldn't reach. Nothing worked, no matter how hard she tried to explain to them, they just wouldn't understand. So the war had begun.
The earth ponies had gathered all of their kind in the night, after being driven from their homes in cities and small towns alike, and organized themselves into tight garrisons of soldiers. Foals would be watched by the nurses, mares and stallions in good shape and willing to fight for freedom from their oppression took up the front lines. They weren't well trained and they weren't magical, but they would still put up one hell of a fight.
Their attack on the city of Manehatten the next day had caught the attention of everypony in Equestria, the princesses and princess of nearby kingdoms, too. Hearing of the discord reigning there, they issued laws keeping Equestrians off of their soil, and to keep their own subjects out of the fray. Since their own kingdoms ran in much the same way, with the deep-rooted oppression of lesser ponies and on the friendship keeping them oblivious, they didn't want their own kingdoms to fall to the same fate. For that was the truth in the matter, Equestria had fallen. Princesses Luna and Celestia could only do so much, with threats of death over their heads, and returned to Canterlot. Things weren't peaceful there, but they were much better than the conditions below. The earth ponies of every city and town, including Canterlot, had all gone. Nopony knew exactly where, but they weren't where they used to be. Attacks continued, retaliations would follow, and many ponies' lives were lost.
Ponyvillie, being the close-knit community they always were, were the last to break apart from one-another. The Apples were adamant on staying at the farm, and they turned away the earth pony refugees who came in the night to gather them and take them to the camps. The Cakes were torn, considering the children. Pinkie was worried about her family back on the farm, but didn't leave to see if they were at the camps, too. As with all of the earth ponies in Ponyville, they were determined to stay until the fight was over. They were all very good friends, after all.
Being the only town outside of the fight, they got the injured from every side. Earth ponies with broken legs, pegasi with clipped wings and bashed-in snouts, unicorns with broken horns and the occasional broken rib. It was terrifying, and they resisted taking these wounded in battle until they couldn't anymore. They worked as well and hard as they all could to make sure everybody was healing nicely, and that they would be safe while they were in town, but this didn't last very long. When news came to both sides that Ponyville was healing the enemy as well as their own, they pulled the patients out of the hospital and from the houses they were recovering in, sending them to the overwhelmed doctors on either side. Then Ponyville residents began finding threats outside their homes, and sometimes—more frighteningly—inside. Their children were afraid to leave the house, their parents were afraid to let them. Nobody was going into the town anymore, remaining indoors, and occasionally leaving to check on their families in another house.
As you could imagine, they broke one day. Ponies began moving out of the town, leaving to follow the earth pony missionaries that came in the night to collect whoever would come with them, or flying away to Cloudsdale to plot with their brethren and gain back a small sense of security. Soon the entire town was deserted, leaving only one or two families left, and a couple of lone ponies. Twilight Sparkle was one of those lone ponies, as was Fluttershy, and as was Applejack. Pinkie Pie had run off with the Cakes, when they'd gone to the earth pony lines. None of her friends held a grudge; they were her second family after all. She'd told them they were going, and she'd been very upset about it. Nopony blamed her. Rainbow Dash had headed back to Cloudsdale upon hearing that her friends from her younger years were injured, and nopony blamed her either. Rarity had gone with her parents, they'd come to collect Sweetie Bell from her, and she was simply devastated.
The three of them decided to leave Ponyville as well, and join the ranks of their respective groups. Muttering reassurance to one-another, they promised to gather their friends and meet whenever they could. They still believed that friendship could conquer this mess, no matter how bad it got, and they were going to fix it. They didn't know how, but they would figure something out. And with that, they split up and went their separate ways. The Apples went off with the collectors, Fluttershy—though more reluctantly than the others—flew off back to Cloudsdale, and Twilight Sparkle began the journey to Canterlot. Since the train was no longer in use, she walked the way there. Princess Celestia had wanted her to stay in the castle with her and Luna, but she politely declined, and asked to be stationed wherever Rarity was. She had to inform her about their plan. Celestia was slow in finding her, to put off sending her student away, but eventually an escort came around to pick her up and take her to the Unicorn camp of her friend Rarity and her family. Twilight left Spike at the castle, seeing no point in bringing her baby dragon into the fighting. There were also pegasi in this camp, but very few since most of them found it safer in Cloudsdale. The camp was an upsetting sight, the tents leaning to the side and blowing in the heavy wind on the field, and with foals laying around in a depressed and bored state of mind. Their parents, sisters, brothers, and everypony else were in their tents getting ready for the defense they would be needing very soon.
Rarity was busy at the moment, she had taken up arms and was training with some of the other mares and stallions. Once she finished that session, Twilight explained the situation to her, and she'd agreed. They needed to stop this before she needed to put her new skills to the test. Twilight had taken up learning to heal from one of the nurses, who'd come from Ponyville and knew her quite well.
And now, in the present, Twilight Sparkle met up with Rarity at the edge of the camp and raced across the field to the edge of the forest. It was an unfamiliar forest, but it was thin and you could see through the trees in all directions, she was sure they wouldn't get lost. The pair raced through the trees to the meeting place, where Pinkie Pie and Applejack were already waiting, and they looked very exhausted. The earth pony camp, while being on the other side of the forest not too far away, was in a state of constant disarray and they were in charge of several duties. Pinkie Pie cooked and Applejack was in charge of the weapons, what little they had. They were nervous, leaving their families to meet up with the enemy, but they weren't the enemy, they were friends. To their troops, however, they were the enemy and any association would see them all guilty of a taboo. Soon following, the two pegasi were also in the clearing with them.
"Hi guys." Rainbow Dash broke the silence hanging over them with a slightly-less-enthusiastic-than-usual greeting. A small chorus of 'Hello's and 'Hey's came from her friends. Fluttershy simply nodded. They hadn't spoken since she'd went to Cloudsdale, being in different ranks and in different stations. Rainbow Dash was one of the soldiers, and Fluttershy was a foalsitter. While she'd made it clear she didn't want to fight anybody, and was deathly afraid to, there weren't as many pegasi as there were unicorns or earth ponies, so she would be called out as a last resort. In fact, both the unicorns and pegasi together weren't the same amount as the earth ponies alone.
"On to business, then?" Rarity started, sitting up straighter and scanning the faces of her friends with sad eyes. She hadn't seen some of them in so long. She had hoped they would at least have some time for their old good-news exchange, but she knew it was too good to keep hopes up.
"Yes." Twilight Sparkle coughed, clearing her throat. "How are everypony's troops doing? Is everyone alright?" She asked. Being an open question, she didn't care who answered, as long as somebody did. Nobody spoke up for a long while.
"Mine are very, very enthusiastic about this war, Twilight. Not all of them, but most of them. They're willing to jump at the chance to attack." Pinkie finally said, looking down at the ground. Her steps, her friends duly noted, were no longer bouncy, and her voice no longer sing-song and cheery-toned. Her words were drawn out, and they hadn't seen one smile as long as she'd been there. That in itself was cause for worry.
"Pinkie, are you alright?" Rainbow Dash asked, tossing aside the war momentarily to worry about her friend.
The pink pony didn't answer, just looked off to the side into the woods. Rainbow shot Applejack a concerned glance. The others followed suit.
Applejack sucked in a deep breath, and sighed. "Pumpkin Cake ate somethin' really bad a while ago. She's not doin' too well," She, too, looked at her hooves. "Our doctors are just too busy with the soldiers' injuries to take care of 'er, and they're not in much of a rush to, neither." It wasn't what anypony would call understandable, but it was something they could, somewhat, see through a logical eye as being 'understandable'. They needed soldiers to continue fighting.
"Oh, Pinkie," Fluttershy began, they caught herself and stopped speaking again. She didn't look like she was going to continue, and she also looked worse for wear. She had to deal with crying foals all day, and it was clear she hadn't done much else. She was hardly sleeping; it was evident from the bags under her eyes.
"Can we please," Pinkie's voice cracked, but then she looked up and perked up her ears in an attempt to look alright, "Talk about how to stop this now?" It wasn't really a question, she just wanted this to end. They all did. Twilight and the others pushed her no further, no matter how much it seemed she needed the comfort. The longer this went on, the more ponies would be hurt, the more foals would cry and the longer friends had to go without seeing each other.
"Of course." Twilight nodded. Rainbow Dash bumped Pinkie's shoulder good-naturedly and forced a smile in an attempt to cheer her up. "Have we thought about the Elements of Harmony any more since last time?" She asked, looking over her friends' faces.
They all nodded, and Applejack stepped forward. "Will they work? These are other ponies, not monsters or nothin', and they were same as us just a little while ago." She brought up a good point.
"Maybe… But they're not in harmony right now, and I'm sure seeing that we can still pull through as friends, we can make an effort at least, right?" Twilight had no other ideas. There didn't seem to be any other way to finish this. Maybe with help from other kingdoms they could pull it off, but the others had closed their borders.
"Sorry, Twilight, I just don't think it's going to work." Applejack sighed.
"Could we… Maybe, could we try to talk to our troops? We could get them to ask why they're fighting. I mean, they can't want this, can they? I know they don't want to hurt anypony, not really." Fluttershy suggested. "They didn't try talking amongst themselves yet. It could still work." Pinkie Pie's eyes lit up a little bit, and she nodded slowly.
"That might work. Yeah." She looked to be in deep thought. "Yeah!" From her cheer, the others started to brighten up, as well.
"So, what?" Twilight asked, "We just talk to the leaders and get them to talk to each other?" The entire thing, while the favorable solution, also sounded pretty improbable.
"Yeah, do you really think it'll work?" Rainbow Dash asked, also musing over the idea, rolling it around, you could see it in her eyes she was thinking hard about it.
"Sorry, it was a bad idea. I just wanted to help." Fluttershy interjected, slouching over further, looking Twilight in the eye. There was a hint of anger in her expression, as if she didn't want to submit to their disagreement, like she still did think it would work and that she was right. They were wrong. But she was keeping her mouth shut and her comments to herself.
"No, no," Rarity jumped in, "It sounds like a great idea!" She must have caught that too. "It also sounds a lot less messy than a war, don't you think?" She looked at her friends, narrowing her eyes, telling them not to disagree, just to go along because it could actually work. Their society, the entire kingdom of Equestria was built on friendship wasn't it? Those feelings couldn't be gone, and if they could only make everypony see it again…
"We can do it, girls. We're just gonna have to try." Applejack agreed, and Pinkie Pie nodded her head in agreement, more enthusiastic, and with a smile. Fluttershy looked relived, and triumphant. It was a new look for her. War did crazy things to ponies.
"Then it's settled! We'll try to talk it out." Twilight said, nodding to her friends as they stood and began to leave. They wanted to get started as soon as possible. She didn't blame them, she wanted it to end as much as they did, if not more. "See you soon!" She called after them. They whipped their tails in reply, already heading off.
She hoped it would work.
Well, now that you know that I can't write and this was terrible, review and tell me if I should finish it!
-Dave