From One Civil War to Another (Old Version)

by Teal

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Are you sure this would work, Doc?” Applejack asked, as she stared at the weird contraption in front of her.

Hidden behind the closed door of her barn, the weird looking machine was a large and bulky device, with brass pipes and crystal objects that she thought were there for display purposes only. Standing three ponies high and as wide as three wagons, the device took a lot of space and attracted the attention of anypony who went inside.

“Of course I’m sure!” Time Turner said confidently, as he slammed his hoof on the ground. “When was the last time I failed in one of my experiments?”

Giving him a deadpanned look, Applejack stared at the stallion as her eyes met his. “Do you really want to know?”

“Actually, never mind…” He said, shaking it off and turning his attention back towards the large device in the center of the barn.

“So…uhh…how is this contraption of yours going to help us, exactly?” Applejack, eyeing him and the device, as Time Turner began circling it, making sure that everything was in ready.

Applejack was never a fan of big inventions that were said to be great leaps of science, especially once that were made by Time Turner. There was just an inner sense and feeling within her that kept on shouting ‘disaster’ every time she got near a device like this.

So as she stood by in front of this one, being dwarfed by its immense size, she felt highly uncomfortable.

“Well it’s quite simple actually…” Time Turner said as he moved next to her. “…for this device over here takes the energy stored in the special crystal I’ve put and uses it to create something that we all know as a portal.”

“A portal, huh…” Applejack questioned. “…a portal to where, exactly?”

A broad grin formed on Time Turner’s face, as he looked at Applejack with exceptional glee. “A portal to anywhere we want!” He exclaimed. “With proper calibration, this device can create a portal that could lead to any destination in Equestria.”

“Sounds like that thing of yours could be really helpful.

Giving the contraption another stern look, she studied it before giving a shake of her head. She then turned her gaze towards Time Turner, who seemed to be confident, yet at the same time, nervous on the success of device.

This scenario wasn’t new to the two of them, as both Applejack and Time Turner have been through this before. Giving his inventions to her, he would always demonstrate them to her, hoping that it would be helpful for their cause. But no matter hope promising they all looked, they always ended up as a flop and failure.

Despite this, Applejack was always willing to accept his demonstrations, hoping that one of his devises would work and prove useful.

Fighting a war against the tyrant who has now taken over Equestria, Applejack and her group would need every help they can get. Nightmare
Moon, self-proclaimed Queen of the Equestrian lands, was now in control of the kingdom and was enforcing her rule by combining her power and employing her elite Lunar Guard. Many feared both, especially her bat ponies, who seemed to scare everypony to the bone, so most decided to submit without complain, for they could do nothing more.

But despite her almost complete control, there were always ponies who resisted.

With only six hour days, many of the ponies under her rule were displeased due to its aftereffects, like the smaller harvests farmer receive because of lack of sunlight. These ponies, who think Nightmare Moon is abusing her power by forcing them to love her nights, decided to go underground and resist her rule by disrupting her government. They conducted raids and attacks, angering the Queen and gathering more ponies for the cause.

But despite the amount of ponies, the powerful forces of the Queen were still hard to fight and the only hope they had was a united rebellion, which was still far off, or a secret weapon, weapons that could prove very useful and promising.

Like the one right in front of them, for if it worked, it could be a useful tool for their organization.

Now knowing that it could create a portal to anywhere in Equestria, Applejack could just imagine the possibilities for this contraption. With its help, her forces could go through it and be on top of the enemy, surprising them and catching them off guard. Instead of sneaking in the darkness, where the enemy has as much advantage as they do in the daylight, they could just teleport in their base and conduct raids efficiently.

Not only that, but it could also help her get out of Ponyville, without the fear of being trailed by Nightmare Moon’s agents.

Ever since the little escapade with Princess Celestia prized student, Twilight Sparkle, in attempting recovering the Elements of Harmony, Applejack and the other ponies who helped Twilight had been on the watch list of the Queen. With eyes watching them every time they left Ponyville, it was better to just stay in the town that leave. At least their faith was better than Twilight’s, who had been imprisoned somewhere in the high towers of Canterlot.

But with eyes watching her every movement out of the town, everything she did was always viewed with suspicion by the Lunar Guard’s intelligence agency, who kept an eye in the shadows, watching suspicious ponies. Which made things difficult for her, as fulfilling her duties as the local leader of the underground movement meant that she needed to interact with other groups. But how can she interact with them when every movement she did was watched by eyes in the dark? So if Time Turner’s contraption worked, then Applejack could find lots of valuable uses for it.

“Well….I guess there’s nothing we can do now but see if this things work.” Applejack said. Turning her head, she looked out towards the barn doors, which was slightly opened, so that Big Mac could look outside and check if anypony was approaching.

The local Lunar Guard patrol was always a troublesome group, but after observing them for a couple of days, she knew that they wouldn’t be marching around this area till an hour from now. But it didn’t hurt anypony to be safe and sure, so she kept her brother on guard, keeping an eye on the road and making sure that those bat ponies don’t go snooping around their property.

After getting an all clear from Big Mac, Applejack nodded to her brother before turning back towards Time Turner.

“Alright, Doc, let’s see what your contraption can do.”

Grinning, Time Turner nodded before moving up to press some buttons on the contraption’s control panel. Applejack didn’t know what he was doing, but she didn’t care. As long as the contraption work, then she was happy.

Pulling a lever and engaging the contraption, a bright light emitted from the crystals, as a loud humming sound echoed from the contraption. Soon it was replaced by a loud churning sound, as a bright circular light seemed to appear on top of the strange contraption.

“It’s working…” Time Turner muttered before raising his voice. “…It’s working!”

Suddenly, the bright circular light changed form, turning into a long bean of light that flew upwards and towards the ceiling. The beam, more solid than just actual light, broke through the ceiling, ripping a large hole through the wooden roof, as the beam of light rose to the skies.

Backing away to avoid the bits of wooded that fell, Applejack looked up to see the beam of light create a portal in the sky.

The contraption Time Turner made may have been successful in creating a portal, but it sure was very stealthy about it, as she was sure that the portal and beam of light could be seen way out from Canterlot, attracting the attention of anypony who saw it.

But before Applejack could worry about the Lunar Guard barging in and capturing them all, a large object caught her eye, as it slipped out of the portal and flung itself out, like a pebble on a sling shot. Streaking through the sky like a bird, the object flew above them thanks to the momentum it received, as it headed towards the Everfree forest. She wasn’t sure what it was, but from the large silhouette she saw, she knew that the thing was huge, probably the size of three barns.

“What in tarnation was that?”

Applejack wasn’t sure what that object was, as it went by too fast to comprehend, but whatever it was, it was huge.
Removing her attention from the weird flying object and back towards the beam, she glanced towards Time Turner and gave him an urgent look.

“Turn that thing off!” She shouted, knowing that by now, the Lunar Guard would surely have noticed them.

Without waiting for a reply, Applejack quickly trotted towards her brother, who had now abandoned his position by the door and moved up towards them. She could see the panic on his face and knew that she couldn’t blame him for that, for anypony who witnessed what they saw would surely have shook to the bone.

But despite the fear and shock they both shared, Applejack knew that action must be taken quickly, if not, then things could become worse than they already are.

“Gather the others and tell them to get ready and be armed with anything they have.” She told him, knowing that it would be necessary if the Luar Guard was coming. I was already afternoon, near the time when Nightmare Moon lowered the sun. With the skies slowly fading and a bright beam streaking up towards the sky, she was a hundred percent sure that a Lunar Guard unit would soon be sent to investigate it. And when they do, the three of them would be caught in the center of it all. “We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“But where would we go?”

Applejack paused for a moment before thinking it through. There weren’t many places that they could go, knowing that many ponies would rat them out from fear of punishment. Despite knowing many of the ponies in town for most of her life, a single pony could give away their location, for fear of persecution. The threats and abuse some of the Lunar Guards conduct were notorious to everypony in town and Applejack was sure that there was no safe house for them to take refuge, not here in Ponyville. But there was one place, a place that was a danger, but could provide refuge for them against their enemy.

“We’re going to the Everfree forest.”

Comments

[Clicker]

Man, I love stories of this era, shame they are so rare.

[Fireheart 1945]

Wait... why is this in the new story tab? There's another story with the same title by the same author already out there.

[Teal]

6175747 Oh, this a remake of the old one. Sorry for the confusion.

[Fireheart 1945]

6176004 Ah. So... the old one is... dead?

[Teal]

6176101 For now... I could still go back to it, since I still have a couple of chapters unpublished. The only problem is that I don't know where to go from there.

[Fireheart 1945]

6176110 Alright. Sorry for bothering you about the issue.

[Teal]

6176121 It's no problem.