//------------------------------// // Peace Shattered // Story: DisQord Continuum: Equestria Rising // by ZoidbergIsBestPony //------------------------------// Peace Shattered “Hey! Could you pass the ball?” The ball rolled up to a teenaged Unicorn colt, bouncing off his hooves. The colt looked down at it disinterestedly. "Please, could you pass the ball?" a young Earth pony called as he made his way over toward him. He was a small, scrawny pony, maybe only a couple of years old. He was too little to have a cutie mark just yet. His friend accidentally sent the ball flying over his head while playing catch in the park. The teenage Unicorn's mane had been dyed bright green with a cutie mark of two drumsticks crossed together. Looking down at the ball again, a thought dawned on him that made him smile. “You want your ball back?” he called, levitating the ball in the air. Two more Earth ponies had joined the first. “Yes. Please. Give it back!” one of them called. “Here, I’ll throw it to you. Go long!” he said levitating the ball behind his back, like a pitcher on the mound. The little ponies started running in the direction he was aiming. “Go further!” he yelled out to them. The ponies weren’t sure they would be able to catch such a long throw but were excited to try. He launched the ball with his magic, sending it flying far ahead of the little ponies. They ran and ran trying to make it in time to catch it. They stared at the ball soaring over their heads and nothing else until…. “Oomf!” Thick globs of mud covered the faces of the three little ponies. They had fallen into a large puddle leftover from the recent rainstorm. The ball landed just in front of them, splashing additional mud in their shocked faces. “Didn’t you know?” the colt called to them. “That’s why you’re called Earth ponies! Because you belong in the dirt!” He laughed himself silly, completely unaware of anything happening behind him. The ponies in the mud had noticed it though. Enormous dark clouds appeared to be growing directly over the city. A hole had formed in the center that appeared to be sucking air inside like a vortex. A thunderous noise echoed across the park. The scared ponies ran away, screaming. The Unicorn colt thought it was nothing more than a little thunder and that the little ponies were running away from him. But the the noise from the sky grew much louder, to the point where he needed to cover his ears. He turned around looking up at the source. He watched as a bright light flashed through the hole in the clouds, down into the ground shooting a gigantic beam of white energy. Its girth spread across several city blocks. It hit the ground in an explosion that knocked the colt backward off his hooves. Picking himself up, he quickly looked again at the beam shooting down. The entire ground was being uplifted, and rubble was pushing outward like a massive tsunami wave. As he stared at the encroaching wave of earth building towards him, he had only enough time to cry, “Mommy!”, before the wave had overtaken him. In orbit of the planet below, satellites started reporting on the event. Data flooded the terminals of every military and government branch. “Report!” Commander Hirkain yelled at the young private sitting in front of one of the larger terminals. “Sir, the city of Maretropolis is in ruins! A gigantic cloud of ash and smoke is being thrust into the clouds. The force of the blast was over four million Mcp!” “That’s impossible! No pony should be able to produce that kind of magic, not even the unicorns! What's the source?" "Sensors can't find it sir! At the rate the ash cloud is spreading, we could be looking at a possible nuclear winter!” The private's eyes were being bouncing from log to log on his screenpad with the massive flood of data. “Damn it! Who could have done this?" the commander shouted. "Get me the council immediately. We’re in trouble!” He slammed his hoof on the table hard, knocking the private’s coffee mug off, shattering on the floor. Three hours after the event... Onboard the U.C.P. Starbase Harmony (United Coalition of Ponies), in orbit over the pony homeworld, the Grand Council of Ponies had been called to an immediate session. An unknown disturbance in the upper ionosphere over Maretropolis triggered the massive explosion destroying the city. The deaths were still being reported but had risen to 13.5 million in the last hour. “All rise for the council leaders!” a guard near the entrance to the Hall of Harmony announced, as he and another guard pulled the doors open, allowing the ambassadors to enter. “Daughter of the Unicorn King, Princess Platinum." A beautiful unicorn maiden with a silky smooth velvet mane and soft white fur entered the hall wearing the symbol of her royalty, a thin gold tiara with tiny jewels of all kinds aligned along the band. Above her horn, a heart-shaped blue-tinted diamond gleamed from the lights in the room. She walked with a soft fluid-like stride and her head held high with an air of superiority. Her servant entered immediately after and rushed to help her princess to be seated. Grabbing a chair waiting for her majesty to sit, she was surprised when the princess stood instead at a place around the table where there were no chairs. The great hall had, at its center, a great circular table that was meant to treat all races equally. The princess had decided to instead, stand at a point that faced the entrance. The servant quickly brought the chair over to the princess and carefully positioned it as she took her seat. The guard continued the announcing: “Ruler of the Pegasi, Commander Hirkain!” Surrounding the council table were semicircular rows of seating for the wealthiest of the tribes. They were normally open to the public, however due to the nature of the discussion it had been limited to only the highest members of society. The commander deliberately chose to use his wings to fly into the chamber, rather than walking. Many of the ponies attending were high ranking Pegasi soldiers and, upon his entrance, rose together and saluted him. He reached the table and took his seat. “And lastly, leader of the Earth ponies, Chancellor Puttinghoof!” the announcer finished. The Chancellor was heavyset and a little dimwitted. The only reason he was the Earth pony chancellor was because of his father, who made Maretropolis the center of trade for the food growers of society, the Earth ponies. His father was also known for his brutal murder by the family maid when Puttinghoof was young colt. The son was voted in on his father’s reputation and sympathy for his tragic youth. Chancellor Puttinghoof took his seat at the table. “I want to know who is responsible for this deliberate attack of the Earth ponies, Commander!” the chancellor yelled, staring directly at Commander Hirkain. “Now wait just a minute!” Commander Hirkain replied. “You can’t possibly think it was us who did it? There were a great many Pegasi killed in that attack too. It must have been the Uni-” “Excuse me, but don’t I still have a seat on this council?” a soft warm voice called by the entrance to the hall. A tall Alicorn with bright pink hair and white fur entered the room. She had to duck so she would not hit her horn on the top of the entrance, which had been built for ponies, not Alicorns. “Who invited you?” The commander asked, looking dismissively at the Alicorn. “I have served on this council for over seventy-five years. Has anything changed in that regard?" she responded. “You haven’t been to a council meeting in years, why should we listen to you now?” Commander Hirkain barked. “When a decision needed to be made to benefit all ponykind, I have always come,” She replied. “I just chose to ignore your petty squabbles of bureaucratic nonsense. But what happened today and is happening now, is something which greatly affects all of us.” “It certainly does,” Chancellor Puttinghoof chimed in. Have a seat Galafrea.” Galafrea, council representative for the Alicorn race, took her seat at the table. She held no higher title, as she greatly disliked the symbolism of superiority the other council members took such pride in. “Whoever was responsible for this atrocity has not only doomed Earth ponies, but in all likelihood, doomed themselves as well!" the chancellor continued, explaining the situation. "If the ashen cloud caused by this attack cannot be dispersed, all plant life will be dead in six months. Animals will be dead sixth months after that. Commander, can your Pegasus Device disperse the clouds?” “No,” he said. The Pegasus Device cannot undo weather. It can only seed or encourage weather toward specific patterns. As the clouds are made of ash, there is no way to easily break them apart.” “But what shall we do for food?” Princess Platinum asked. “I refuse to eat anything that’s been tainted by this soot!” “Are you insane?” the commander screamed. “You’re worried about a little dirt on your dinner? Your people and everypony may die of starvation in coming months! And that includes you, your royal pain in the-” “I think we get the point,” Galafrea calmly said. The first thing we need to do, is to start harvesting any healthy crops remaining on the planet and begin evacuations.” “And where do you suppose we put everypony, huh?” said Hirkain. We’re talking several billion ponies!” “Then we will need to work together to find a new home,” said the Alicorn. She spoke calmly and rationally hoping cooler heads could work together to resolve this crisis. “We have three colonies on worlds nearby that can begin accepting refugees.” “Those colonies are too small to start accepting billions of refugees,” Commander Hirkain said shaking his head. “At best, the Pegasopolis Colony can except maybe a few million Pegasi refugees in the next six months.” Galifrea turned to the commander giving him a look of deep concern. “Mr. Hirkain, please. We need to work together if we are to survive this crisis. The colonies can no longer remain segregated by tribe. We must share all available resources amongst all tribes to succeed.” “That’s Commander Hirkain! And you’re only saying ‘work together’, ‘work together’ because Alicorns don’t have their own colony to flee to! You just want to leech off us! Well nothing doin'! The Pegasi have been wanting to go our separate ways anyway, I see no time like the present!” “I have always stated we need to join together and cooperate with one another. And the only reason we don’t have our own colony is because of the treaty you forced us to sign!” Galifrea retorted. The United Pony treaty, signed thiry-five years ago established a united governing body to help reduce the animosity between the pony tribes and establish a one-nation world on which to live. It allowed for the establishment of segregated colonies, under the condition that the homeworld be desegregated and a united council would share the burden of government as representatives for each tribe. The name of the pony homeworld has been argued for generations, but most now referred to it as "Origin" after the establishment of the colonies. Due to the animosity towards the Alicorns for their immortality, they were allowed to have ships for transport jobs, but were prevented from attempting to establish a colony of their own. “It’s bad enough you have immortality," yelled the commander, "you think we were going to let you genetic freaks start spreading across the universe like a plague?” “While I never fully agreed with that stipulation in the treaty, for once, I think I actually agree with something Commander Hirkain said!” the chancellor spoke up. “I think it’s for the best to go our separate ways.” Galifrea couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “It’s unfortunate,” he continued, “but with so little time and so many ponies, sacrifices must be made. 3.7 billion ponies is too many. We can at least lower that figure by twenty-five percent if we don’t have to also resettle the Alicorns. And besides, most of your ponies have lived far longer lives than any of us. And you’re not even real ponies anyway…” “HOW DARE YOU!” the Alicorn Representative screamed. “You’re talking about genocide! You want to MURDER all of us? Because make no mistake, such an action is nothing but the murder of hundreds of millions of lives! “And we may have been genetically engineered, but we have long since evolved into a full and prosperous race of ponies like any one of you! And if you remember your history, it was a team of ponies from all three tribes working together to create a ‘Pony born of all tribes’! The Alicorns were supposed to unite everypony!” “I don’t know about murder,” said the princess, “but I for one look forward to my new home in Unicornia! Away from all of you other ponies’ filth and brutality!” “Please! We mustn’t split apart! This council was started to help prevent just that! This will doom us all!” Galifrea pleaded desperately. “This council was started to prevent a war! Nothing more!” Chancellor Puttinghoof said. “And I think it has outlived its purpose.” “Outlived its purpose?” Galifrea repeated in shock. “If you three go through with your plan to abandon hundreds of millions of my kind, leaving them to die in the cold of a never ending winter, then we won’t simply sit still and just let it happen!” “You know, Galafrea, you’re absolutely right.” said the commander, rising from his chair. The Alicorn looked inquisitively at the commander. She did not think anything could have changed this Pegasus’ mind. He walked over toward her as he continued to speak in a softer tone. “I think we all DO need to work together to survive this crisis. And to do that, we all need to be united against our common enemy. Wouldn’t you agree?” He was now standing right next to Galafrea. “Enemy? If you’re referring to what happened today, we don’t yet know who that enemy is, or that this was even an attack! It may have been a tragic accident!” The princess replied. “But yes, we do need to work together to save our ponies and to find out who or what caused this tragedy to occur.” “The three pony tribes will work together: to save the three pony races from the enemy right here in front of us!” Before she could comment on his 'three pony tribes' remark, in one clean swipe, the commander took the blade from its sheath he wore at his side and slit Galifrea’s throat. She gasped for air, clutching her throat with her hooves, jerking backward off her chair, finally succumbing to the blood loss. She lay there dead upon the floor with her eyes wide in shock. “Do you know what you have done!?” screamed the chancellor, jumping from his chair. “I did what needed to be done. Nothing more,” said the commander spitting at the Alicorn corpse. “You’ve just declared war on the Alicorn race!” the chancellor barked. “I just declared that Pegasi, Unicorn, and Earth ponies won’t be left behind to starve! We will make everypony see the Alicorn threat! We will turn everpony against them, so that they will be too powerless to defend themselves!” The crowd roared at his words; Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasi alike. There were no Alicorns in the crowd, as most were considered the lower class of society. The princess and chancellor looked at each other nervously. With the high class members of their own tribes supporting the commander, they felt they had little choice but to concur with his decision. They too reluctantly applauded.