"Luna! You must stop this madness! You are tearing this once peaceful nation in two!"
Luna and Celestia were meeting in private to avoid the press. Even the guards had been caught leaking information, they trusted nopony. They'd decided to hold their meeting in Luna's bedchamber, and had cast a deafening spell around them to deter eavesdroppers. They were cut off from the rest of the world in a private bubble, finally free to speak their minds without fear of having their words twisted. Celestia was exercising this right to its fullest.
"Thou does not have to yell, we are right next to thou sister," Luna stated.
"STOP TALKING LIKE THAT! Can't you see what you're doing? I get that you want more duties, but you're just not ready. The one time I let you do something you split the entire country!" Celestia was definitely not her normal composed self, clearly thrown off by the constant pestering from newsponies.
"Not ready sister? Clearly many of the ponies disagree. Otherwise there wouldn't be such an issue." Luna, on the other hand was as cool and collected as her sister usually was, having been released from her relative isolation (although the paparazzi was still a bit much for her as well). "Now why did you want to meet with me?"
"I wanted to meet with you because we're on the verge of civil war. There have been several violent incidents due to this whole Lunar/Solar debacle, and it's only going to get worse if we don't come to some kind of agreement. Why would you start something so destructive in the first place?"
"Allow me to explain using a metaphor. Life is a game of cards, there are thousands of hands you can have, and what you do with them determines how well you do. You dealt me a bad hand sister, my cards had me cooped up in this castle because you didn't think I was competent. I escaped from the moon just to be imprisoned again here. And I waited sister; i waited to be dealt a new hand. A new opportunity to move forward. But none came to me, I remained trapped here. Now Celestia, what would you do if you were trapped in a hopeless game of cards?" Celestia was surprised at her sister's unusually eloquent metaphor. I guess a millennium alone gives you time to think.
"Simple. If I can't have fun playing this game, I'll play a new one," Celestia replied.
"And that's exactly what I did. I flipped the table sister. I gave up playing a game where you dealt the cards and started dealing my own. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some of my own duties to get to." With that Luna pushed Celestia out of her room. Celestia began to form her own plan. Well if Luna flipped the table, i guess I'll have to too.
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Ditzy again found herself flying over Ponyville, although it was a very different place than the one she had known before. It seemed normal at first glance, but a closer look revealed that the normal mish-mash of ponies now moved in distinct groups, each group altering their path to avoid certain other ones. Two groups would meet, sometimes to merge but often to fight. Harsh words could be heard even at Ditzy's height, and it sickened her.
She tried to just fly by and ignore it, and was somewhat successful until a familiar voice reached her ears. No way. Not her. She wouldn't be a part of this.
"I can't believe those lunar ponies. Everyone can see the day is better, the night is so un-rainbow." It was unmistakable Rainbow Dash, and while Ditzy could withstand strangers saying bad things she would not hear it from her friends. She banked towards Dash.
"Hey Rainbow Dash! What the buck are you doing? You shouldn't say those kinds of things!"
"Oh, I shouldn't Ditzy? Or should I call you Derpy, it figures a numbskull like you would support those idiots." Ditzy was shocked at Rainbow's behaviour. She'd never seen Dash acting so cruel.
"Who said I supported either side? Why would I have anything to do with this debate if it makes ponies act like this! Look around you Rainbow; look at what we've become! I'll never support anything that causes this!" Everypony in the square was staring now, but Ditzy was nowhere close to finished. "I thought you ponies wanted to be happy, but all you want to do is fight! Look at you Rainbow Dash, you used to be one of the best friends a pony could have and now you're a bigoted ass! This debate as torn us in two, and I will not stand for it anymore! Lunar or solar, YOU ARE ALL BEING IDIOTS!" Ditzy inhaled again to continue, but somepony cut her off.
"Now wait there one minute Ditzy!" Applejack had arrived. "Now Ah don't like all this feuding and fighting either, but do you honestly think being neutral will solve anything?" Murmurs were heard throughout the crowd. "We will only end this when somepony wins, and Ah say it should be the pony that’s not going around trying to start things!"
"What are you saying Applejack? That we should keep hurting each other so somepony can win?"
"Ah'm saying that we need to be together on one side, and that should be the side that's not causing so many issues. Luna went and caused all this with her speech, and we were all fine without her before! Ah say we all just work together, on the right side! Ah say-" Applejack was interrupted by a hoof to the side of her face. Nopony really noticed who threw the first punch, nor did they care. All they knew is that somepony had started a fight, and somepony was going to win it.
All Ditzy saw was violence. It had all escalated so quickly, just last week she'd known these ponies. She'd known the brawler who she bought celery from each week. She knew the fighter who said hello to her each day. She knew the farmer and the flier who'd once been so admirable. But all she saw now were pointless participants in a fight that shouldn't be happening.
All she saw was chaos, pure and unbridled.
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In the Canterlot statue garden, one of the statues shook and grew still again. Across its chest was a single, sharp, crack the width of a hair. "Soon," thought the statue. Soon.
Luna flipped the table. He was going to burn it.