Civil War of Harmony

by SC_Orion

Chapter 8

The ground before me shook violently as another spell landed, laying waste to any unfortunate enough to be within it's kill radius. Anypony unlucky enough to be between the kill radius and safe zone would wish they had been in the kill radius as the magic lashed out against them, driving them mad with insanity, and sending them into convulsions as the magic rushed through their body.

My barrier cracked slightly as a stray spell struck it with enough force to penetrate steel. A sudden pain formed in my head as the impact jostled my body, I felt the start of a nasty headache. The force of the impact pushed me back slightly, the blast wave from the spell's detonation warped around my barrier, I momentarily lost focus and my barrier faltered when another spell detonated to my left.

I closed my eyes to avoid the blinding flare the magic produced, when I re-opened my eyes I watched in horror, helpless to act, as Rainbow Dash jumped in front of me, taking the impact of a spell, saving me from it. Rainbow seemed momentarily stunned, her mane flew backwards as excess magical energy was converted into a pressure wave, causing the air to distort. Rainbow was also pushed back slightly by the impact, she fell to the ground at my hooves.

I blinked, Rainbow Dash stood dead at my hooves, a large hole in her chest from the impact of a spell that had been intended for me. Blood was gushing out of the fatal wound, seeping into the ground and covering her body. I stepped forwards and knelt, even as the blood started to flow onto my hooves.

I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. I tried to cast a spell to save her life, but my magic refused to cooperate. I fell to my haunches, distraught, unable to do anything... Unable to protect my friends...

A loud voice called out, "ENOUGH!" it commanded. The scene before me immediately changed.

Gone was the still form of Rainbow Dash lying at my hooves in a pool of blood, gone was the charred earth from the effects of spells designed to kill. Instead, serene peace and quiet. As if I was the last pony alive in the world. The light had changed, it was no longer sunset, but the middle of the night. I looked up to the sky, and found the moon.

The full moon cast a bright glow, bathing the world in it's pale, soft nighttime light. I could make out a silhouette of a pegasus descending from the moon... I could make out the pegasus flapping it's wings as it descended, soon I could see it had a horn too. Not a pegasus, an alicorn. I could soon make out the alicorn's coat, night blue. Princess Luna was descending towards me.

'I'm dreaming.' I finally realized, I felt my heart start to slow down.

Princess Luna landed beside me, and immediately wrapped a wing around me. I leaned into her comforting embrace, enjoying the warmth radiating from her body, allowing it to soothe my mind. As I relaxed, I began to cry. Violent sobs racketed my body as I let my emotions flow uncontested.

Minutes passed as I cried from all the horrors I had seen in my nightmares... Things nopony should have to see... Their friends being killed before then, being unable to save them... Not being able to stop yourself from doing horrible things to other ponies... Eventually, I ran out of tears to cry, and calmed down.

I found Luna's voice soothing, "I did... I did not realize that your nightmares were so... Violent, Twilight..." Luna used her magic and summoned a cloth, and dried my face with it. The cloth was warm, and seemed to almost undo the effects of my crying, however I still felt better, having let it out.

We sat in silence for a few minutes... Or maybe seconds, seeing as though it was a dream. I finally spoke, "Thank you, Princess Luna..."

"It is my duty to guard the dreams of my... Of everypony, Twilight." Luna spoke in a soft, yet conversational tone.

It was obvious to me that she was originally going to say 'my subjects.' I chose to ignore that, she had after all banished my nightmare... "I have nightmares like that... And worse... Every night..."

"Do you want to talk about them?" Luna gently asked.

I thought for a moment, I didn't particularly want to talk about the nightmares, it would bring up unpleasant memories... If I talked about them, however, I knew I would feel better... But with Princess Luna? I hadn't even talked to my friends about my nightmares... What would they think then, if they found out I was talking to Princess Luna... One of my... Enemies... About my nightmares? She is the princess of the night... It is her duty to guard dreams right? Yet, I had been having nightmares... Even if she hadn't been causing them, it was a lapse in her duties.

I would talk to her, it would help me. "I don't really want to, but I know it would make me feel better... I haven't even talked to my friends about them..." I sighed and frowned, "I've kind of been neglecting them since this whole thing started... I've not had time to just spend with them and relax..."

"It is understandable, that you would be busy, having to prepare your... Kingdom... For war." Luna seemed to gaze off into the distance, appearing to lose herself in her thoughts, before shaking her head slightly. "Your friends will be there for you... You should keep them close."

"Well, I have them staying in the castle with me..." I smiled slightly. There were close by if I ended up needing them.

"That's not what I meant. You should spend some time with them, it would do your mind well to relax."

Despite the fact I suspected she had ulterior motives for suggesting that, I chose to not bring that up. "Maybe..."

"Your nightmares?" Luna inquired. I had been sidetracked, and had forgot about that.

"They're just... You saw that one, I couldn't save my friend... I can never save any of them... I feel so... Helpless." I lowered my head with shame, "I'm... I mean, I'm the youngest alicorn of the four of us. I'm only twenty." I shook my head, "I'm also the weakest of us. I can't match any of you in terms of sheer power..."

"Perhaps not," Luna mused, "but perhaps you don't need to. You're smart, Twilight. Your intelligence is frightening, even to me. I had observed you using that spell in your nightmare, I had no idea you knew that spell. I know for a fact my sister... Does not know that spell."

"It's fairly simply, really..." I chuckled awkwardly. The spell I had been using was one of dark magic, it was crude, but effective. I wasn't in control, however. I bit my lip as I pondered my lack of control when I was spell casting. "I wasn't... I wasn't in control when I was doing that. It's like... I felt nothing from that, until..."

"I think you should stay away from dark magic until you're older and stronger. Dark magic is dangerous, I know this first hand. It is easy to lose yourself to it... I'm sure you can figure out a way to weaponize normal magic."

"I don't want to kill anypony..." My voice came out as a barely audible whisper.

Luna smiled softly at me, "Do not worry about that for now, Twilight." Luna's horn glowed, I felt an overwhelming tiredness begin to take hold of my mind, "Rest." Luna commanded.

The first thing I noted when I awoke was I felt very refreshed, and wide awake. Slowly, I remembered my dream encounter with Princess Luna. I smiled, perhaps she would help me in the future. I practically jumped to my hooves as I rose from my bed. I looked around my room and smiled when my eyes rested on my tiara and regalia. I felt calm, and happy now.

I walked over to the balcony doorway, I opened the door and took a step outside. It was early in the morning. the cool morning air filled my lungs as I inhaled, invigorating my body with a rush of energy. The sun was just barely peeking above the horizon. It was the first time in weeks I had arisen early enough in the morning to watch in awe as the majestic celestial orb, a gigantic thermonuclear fusion reaction in space, held together by it's own gravity, rise over the world.

I smiled at the sight, and felt a tear form in my eye, and gently roll down my muzzle as I recalled the first time I had watched Princess Celestia raise the sun in person. It was a beautiful sight, watching her raise the sun and lower the moon. She looked so beautiful that day, with her majestic ethereal mane billowing in the morning breeze. It was that moment when I dedicated myself to learning magic, wholeheartedly. It truly was a sight to behold.

I looked out across Ponyville, my kingdom, I smiled. The town was mostly still asleep, only a handful of ponies were out and about. I could see the construction of the barracks and training ground from my balcony, they were continuing to add more structures to the facilities as it became necessary, and it was being built quickly. It could already house the small army I had recruited. Even if the army was untrained, moral was high. They all truly believed in me, my heart swelled with pride.

Of course, my castle was always active, at least partially. Roughly one fourth of the trained guards I had were on night watch, and I had a few staff ponies handling business during the night, but most of the business going on was during the bustle of day. Since the sun had yet to fully rise over the horizon, neither Sparkler nor Mayor Mare would be up yet. I doubted any of my friends would be awake yet either. I watched the sun with contentedness as it slowly continued to rise over the horizon.

'Perhaps I should grab an early breakfast...' I smiled, 'Yes, eating breakfast and watching the sun rise would be nice.' I lit my horn and teleported to the kitchen. While the full kitchen staff wouldn't be in yet, there'd always be somepony there to tend to any requests.

"Fluttershy, I'm surprised you're awake already." I spoke as I sat beside her. The chef who had prepared my breakfast had told me that Fluttershy had already awoken, when I inquired as to where she went, he pointed me to the uppermost balcony of the castle. Fluttershy had apparently started eating her breakfasts there, it went to show how much I had neglected my friends.

Fluttershy jumped slightly and squeaked in surprise when she heard me call out to her, before turning around and smiling towards me. "Twilight? Oh, I didn't expect to see you here... With it being so early... And um..."

"Well, I slept well last night. Princess Luna helped me with the nightmares..." I hadn't told them about Princess Luna giving me a visit yesterday, so I didn't know what to expect her reaction to be.

"Oh... That was nice of her." Fluttershy softly responded. She raised a cup of steaming tea with her hoof and took a drink.

I walked over to her and pulled a chair out, "Mind if I join you?"

Fluttersy smiled, "That would be lovely, Twilight." I smiled back.

I levitated the plate of food for myself I had been carrying since I left the kitchen, I had chosen two waffles for breakfast, and tea to drink. I sat the plate down on the table. I didn't remember there being a table or chairs here before, "I don't remember there being a table of chairs here before, did you move these here?"

Fluttershy softly answered, "Oh um, yes, I hope you don't mind. It's just so nice up here."

I had to give her credit for taking initiative without asking me. The view up here was beautiful, you could see for miles around. The sun was about halfway above the horizon by now, and climbing. "No, that's fine. It really is beautiful up here." I nodded my head to myself as I forked a bite of waffle into my mouth.

"It really is, isn't it? I always love coming up here to eat breakfast. The view, the sereneness, the openness..."

"Sorry I've been neglecting you and the rest of the girls... I've been busy... But it's not excuse."

"Oh, no, it's fine, Twilight. You're really busy now, running your own kingdom, I can't begin to imagine how stressful it must be for you..."

"I'll have to make it up to all of you sometime..." I trailed off in thought.

After breakfast with Fluttershy, I didn't have anything that required my immediate attention. I offered to hang out with Fluttershy, but she declined my offer. Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to experiment with some of the crystals that the diamond dogs had been extracting from the Everfree Forest. I held an amethyst in my hooves, the purple gem was unrefined, raw. Lacking in any truly useful form. I analyzed it in my magic, it contained many imperfections and impurities which would weaken the structure.

I would fix that momentarily.

I levitated a book from the bookshelf over to me, 'Higher Enchantments and Gem Transmutology'. The knowledge contained within was focused on purifying crystals, and enchanting them to store magic or spells for later use. Most of the information within it was theoretical, and had been attempted to varying degrees of success by lesser unicorns. Unicorns who did not have the magic of an alicorn, even a weak one.

I prepared a new spell in my mind, then lashed out with my magic, separating the crystal into it's base components. The concentration required was almost too much, even for me. Slowly, the gem undid itself into it's base molecular components. I cast another spell, separating the impure molecules from the pure ones. I then cast a final spell, restoring the bonds between molecules. Slowly, I shaped the mass of disordered crystal into a beautiful, six-pointed magenta star, one of just the right size to fit into the chestplate of my armor.

The spells having finished, I exhaled and inhaled sharply, my mind was screaming from the amount of focus it had required. I gently lowered the perfect crystal onto the table. Once I let go of it with my magic, I was assaulted by a massive headache. I checked my magic with a simple spell. It took a lot out of me to do that.

However, my mind was already fighting through the headache to process the information I had learned from that. I was already designing a far more efficient spell to accomplish the same task, in just one step. I looked over at the pile of leftover material, and then to the pile of impurities. The leftover mass of crystal could be placed back into the treasury and I could mess with it again later. The impurities contained a high amount of lead and iron. It could be refined and separated, providing additional mineral resources.

I lit my horn to levitate my armor over to me, but I quickly threw my hooves against my head as the headache attacked me. 'Right... No using magic for a while... That might have been a mistake.'

I slowly stood to my hooves, I almost fell over from the exertion of magic, but I caught myself with a wing. I groaned, "I overdid myself today..." I sighed, "And it started so nice..." I picked the crystal up in my magic and walked over to my armor. I made sure to pace myself, lest I fall over and embarrass myself. Once I reached my armor, I rested my hoof on the crystal that currently sat in the chestplate. I would need magic to get it out, I sighed. "Looks like I won't be finishing this today."

"Mayor Mare?" I asked as I walked into the room. Mayor Mare had been managing some tasks I had delegated to her, but they could wait. I had decided that I needed to have a research facility, and some scientists working there to come up with new ideas and practical applications for them. If you can't win a war by numbers, and you don't have brute force, you need every advantage you can get, right? That's where science would come in for me.

Mayor Mare immediately got up and bowed, "Princess, I wasn't expecting you." She rose from the bow, "What do you need?"

"I would like to have a lab, or research facility constructed. And then I'd like to hire some scientists to work there. Can you get me a quote and a list of scientists residing in my kingdom?"

"Of course Princess, I'll take care of it at once." she bowed again.

"Thanks." I replied, I went to teleport but was reminded why I hadn't teleported here. 'Ow.' I winced as pain throbbed in my skull yet again. I turned and walked out the door, Mayor Mare walked out shortly behind me. 'What to do now...' I wondered, it was more than an hour before lunchtime, and I didn't have anything to immediately see to. Overexerting myself with magic earlier cleared my schedule of practicing with Sergeant Bolt for the day, and I would probably have to take it easy during the next week.

'I could go take a look at my army...' I nodded to myself in confirmation. Yes, I would go to the training grounds and analyze their progress. I remembered not to use magic this time, and took off walking for the main castle door. I made it halfway there before Captain Light showed up with Sergeant Bolt and Rainbow Dash in tow.

"I know you don't like having an escort, or personal guards, Princess. But, we are supposed to protect you." Captain Light firmly replied from his bow. "You overdid your magic, so you can't exactly use your magic to defend yourself. At least take Private Dash with you."

He had a point. "Okay."

"I'm not taking no for-wait what? You're not going to be stubborn?"

"No, you have a point. I can't exactly do anything with my magic right now, so I am pretty defenseless. Even though I highly doubt I would run into trouble."

The captain and sergeant bowed before leaving. Rainbow immediately started hovering beside me. "So what's on the agenda for today?"

"I'm going to go see how my army is coming along." I started walking again.

"Oh, cool." Rainbow responded. We walked in silence for a few minutes before Rainbow spoke again, "So I heard you were up early today?"

"Yeah, I slept better."

"That mean you're done having nightmares?"

I stopped my stride and shifted my hooves, "I certainly hope so." Several seconds later I resumed walking.

As I walked along, examining the ranks of my army, I noted how much more unified it would look if I used a simple illusion spell to change the shade of everypony's coat color. I made a mental note to look into that at a later point in time. The small force assembled here appeared to be around one hundred, I didn't take time to count. The rest of the soldiers were training or busy following the instructors' commands.

While they did not look as unified as they could, you could see their resolve. It was almost palpable, the sea of purple and gold seemed to radiate determination in every direction you looked.

The soldiers assembled before me were a decent mix of all three pony races, unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi. I noted that although the mixture was fairly equal, there certainly were far more earth ponies than the other races. It wasn't really surprising.

They each held a spear against their armor with a hoof. While most of a pony's ability to fight came from their inert magic, they could use a spear to give them additional tactics, such as throwing it from a distance with magic or earth pony strength. Unicorns and earth ponies could throw spears at lethal speeds, and pegasi could drop them from heights that would give them enough velocity to penetrate armor. I shuddered at the thought.

Their armor, it was unique. Unlike their Princess Celestia or Princess Luna's counterparts, consisting of a fairly solid single color, the armor they wore was a deep shade of purple, with gold edging. Other than the color scheme, the armor was basically identical to royal guard armor, consisting of three different types, depending on race.

I turned to the drill sergeant, "Thank you, Sergeant. That will be all..."