//------------------------------// // No Winners // Story: On We Go // by I Am The Night //------------------------------// "War does not determine who is right - only who is left." ~Bertrand Russell Once upon a time...we used to win. There was once a time in our seemingly peaceful and dull lives where we knew what it was like to have fun, to laugh and love - to live the way we were truly meant to live. Hoofball games visited by the thousands upon thousands. Bowling tournaments participated in with friends and common strangers. Raves that shook the whole building, everyone getting down on their hooves and really living the scene up. Family and local cookouts, where all were welcome, and all attended to enjoy a peaceful day with everypony and anypony, regardless if they held them dear in their hearts or saw them as mere neighbors. And then - sometimes, at one bright chance in one's life - there were the Wonderbolts. They were merely nothing more than a walking tourist attraction to the public, travelling all across the land of Equestria to entertain the masses, shock them in mere awe. Inspire. They were just that for me. They were my heroes. For a long time, I always wanted to be like them, grow up to prove myself, my worth to them, to join their ranks and show the world what it was to be a Wonderbolt. I wanted that for a long time. ... Then - one day, everything had changed. The world and every single individual life had been turned on its head and thrown into the frying pan of war. It was told in legend that a thousand years ago, a once great domain had been plagued with evil and tyranny. Its ponies were dragged down into slavery, forced to work themselves until their dying breath. They didn't rebel, they didn't fight back - they simply obeyed. Because the only alternate solution was nothing more than death itself. This once great kingdom was known as the Crystal Empire, one of the largest of its time. And then Sombra had come along. Once a prosperous king - greed and power led him to abuse his rule. His magic grew, becoming darker as he grew himself with age. Then one day, he conquered the empire without the faintest of trouble. His rule troubled and degraded the population for no more than twenty years. But when the time came, when it was the true moment - the Two Sisters were able to banish King Sombra to the frozen north for a thousand years, with the hope of preserving what was left of the Crystal Empire. However - he didn't leave without one final act of revenge. With the dark magic shrouded within him, Sombra placed a curse on the empire. In mere moments, the land was shrouded in darkness. When the darkness lifted - the Crystal Empire was gone, cursed to vanish from the world for as long as the King was banished. It was also said that after a millennium had passed, the empire would rise again - and so would Sombra. But the ponies of old believed that when the day came, a great leader, a testament to the Sisters, would push back the forces of evil and truly preserve the land. The Crystal Ponies would truly be able to live once again. ... The day did come soon enough. The empire appeared once again through the thickness of the northern snow, and revealed the green pureness that was the Crystal Empire, for the first time in a thousand years. Princess Cadance of Canterlot quickly took to the opportunity to create a defense barrier around the city, in the hopes of keeping it safe. And almost as if they had expected it - the King himself came back within a day of the princess's arrival. He had grown in strength, and his magic was much darker than the last time anyone had seen him. Cadance was strong, she was determined to hold the line, protect the empire with her dying breath. But unfortunately, not even she could hold back the dark King. With the faintest of effort - Cadance succumbed to his being. And with hardly a smidgen of trying - King Sombra once more ruled the Crystal Empire with an iron hoof. The ponies, young and old, were turned into warfighters - soldiers with the intent to conquer and kill those who opposed his rule. And they would do just that. By the time the news of the empire's fall to Sombra - and, unfortunately, Cadance's death to her newlywed - had reached the city of Canterlot, Sombra's soldiers had already invaded and taken control of three cities along the east: Baltimare, Hoofington, and Manehattan, all of them holding millions of innocents. And those millions of innocents were now millions of mind-controlled barbarians who followed the order of the King. "Conquer." The Sisters were quick to declare war on the tyrant. Captain Shining Armor sent a mass battalion of soldiers north, towards the empire itself, to combat the slaves. Hell - that was where most of the war took place. I didn't go there at first. When I was drafted, I was shipped east, towards Detrot, when it was only then suffering few casualties. As a child - like I said - I always wanted to grow up and become a Wonderbolt. Instead - I officially became a soldier of the Royal Service. The Guard only protected the princesses and them only. The Service, I, protected the rest of the country. With nothing but a suit of armor and the confidence my friends had in me, I was off within a day of being called forward to fight. A whole array of pegasi - perhaps thirty, if I'm correct - flew through the clouds and through the smoke. And when the city came into view... It was as if the world was ending, fallen apart we were trying to pick up the pieces. And I had every intention of doing so. The war for Detrot was long and tiring. The elements of the war, and the elements of the weather at the time made the battle much harder to push through. Left and right, we were losing soldiers - and as we were losing soldiers, innocents were forced into the King's ranks. Downtown wasn't a safe place to be, whether you were in the street or in a building. Every part of it became a battleground between slaves and soldiers. And the bodies... We pushed forward for weeks. I was confined to nothing more than a sleeping bag in a subway tunnel that constantly shook with running hooves and cannons blasting every which way. Not that the cannons did much. But despite our efforts, our will to take back the city - our time in Detrot ended when we were ambushed at night. A cold winter storm forced us to huddle close to one another for protection from the freezing air. It gave them the opportunity to try and kill us when we were all bunched up. I couldn't help but admit - it was a clever tactic. It was how I even lost my wing to begin with. There were fifty-three of us in that tunnel, all trying to protect and block each other from our enemies. Less than fifteen actually survived - me included, of course. I know some of them - some that I know - are among the ranks of slaves now. We were forced to retreat into the tunnels, carry ourselves out of the city limits. I didn't even know I lost my wing until we arrived at a refugee camp - miles away. When I saw that little...stub that was supposed to be my wing... My luscious wing... I felt broken. I wanted to break down and cry there and then. Initially, I was afraid of them seeing me as nothing more than weak. No one ever cried in the Service. But the way Halberd talked to me...the things he said... I held him for a while, just crying in his shoulder. And no one looked down on me. They knew me as a brash, overconfident, and determined fighter. But that one night only solidified one fact-... We were all someone. At the end of the day - we were all just another civilian, another victim... Another casualty amongst the rest. It took a week, maybe two, to fit another wing where mine used to be. The new one was cold and metallic against my body. It was uncomfortable - so very uncomfortable. It just wasn't the same. But I had to grow to it. I had to get used to it. And I did. It took me a while to be able to fly again, or even learn how to fly with the then-new wing. Until that day came where I could soar with the rest - I was restricted to the ground forces, who invaded low while the rest invaded high - it was our common tactic. In the time it took for them to build my wing and attach it to my body, we lost two more cities - Detrot and Trottingham, both holding millions on their own. Every day that passed was another million or more civilians falling to Sombra and rising up as his soldiers - his slaves. His army grew, and it seemed like with every day, we were losing. But then there was the Militia. Common citizens who were not yet drafted rose up alongside us in the months after the war had started. Young and old, they stood out amongst the crowd, carrying their flags, wearing their insignias. Many of them who joined had no experience like the Guard or the Service - but they definitely knew how to fight. And fight they did. At month three, the city of Vanhoover had been invaded - and within just a single day, its citizens were able to successfully push them back. It was a difficult time for all of them - but in the end, they prevailed. Equestria's flag continued to hang on the city's capitol building after that day. Many of its civilians were congratulated by the Sisters themselves, many of them granted medals of courage and honor. And after that historic day - we stopped losing. But we weren't winning. Both sides were stuck on a simple edge. No one was winning, and yet, no one was losing. Every time the King tried to push against us, we pushed back - but it was always the same spot we were stuck on. The battles for cities and towns went on longer than we hoped. It led to more casualties, more injuries, more destruction to our land. Then we heard reports that citizens were not just being converted into slaves - they were executed if they refused or attempted to flee. We needed to win. We really needed to. By the time I could fly again, we had been fighting this war for no more than a year. I had rarely seen my friends, my family, the ponies that I cared for - I only focused on keeping them safe. And by then, by the end of a single year - I wasn't the same mare who walked into battle for the first time. I was a true soldier. In the beginning, I was able to take on two or three slaves at a single time, but nothing more. As soon as I could fly once again, I could take on multiple slaves at any given point - with the help of others, of course. To me, I believed that I had some involvement in the way the battle had turned, because at that point in time - we were starting to move it in our favor. We were beginning to take back cities, save as many of the slaves as we could have, raise our flags to declare our victory. Initially, it was tough and difficult to push through - but in the end, we still pushed. At the end of year one, we were able to take back Hoofington and Baltimare within a month's time with as little casualties as possible. It was a definite first for the time. Soldiers and civilians alike were overjoyed. They couldn't believe they were actually gaining an advantage. Princess Celestia, ruler of the sun, used this as a chance to launch a full-out assault on the Crystal Empire, a final attempt to - once and for all - defeat King Sombra. She didn't begin the assault until three months into the second year, until the month of May. During the time we had, we prepared, trained ourselves - trained others to fight like us and defend like we had done. We wanted to be ready for the day that would then come. My friend - Applejack was her name - drafted herself in. Applejack was a proud apple farmer at Sweet Apple Acres, in the town of Ponyville. I never truly lived in those places, but my home was close enough to it that it could technically classify as my home. Before the war had begun, Applejack was nothing more than an apple farmer, bucking trees and collecting apples to sell to whatever customers rolled by. She and her family made a decent living. Come after the war has started - her once green orchard was now a cold, metallic, soulless factory, producing canned apples for every soldier who was fighting or would fight - it was essentially an apple MRE. She told me that she joined because she... She didn't want that to become her legacy. She didn't want to be a slave in her own home, produce nothing but junk while the world was falling apart around her. She wanted to be free again. She wanted to live. And so I trained her. I trained her how to defend herself, how to strike back when the time was right - how to move against the enemy. I taught her when, where, and how to run. I taught her how to not end up like one of them. And she listened to every word that came out of my mouth. Soon enough - she was like me in lesser time than I had done. Soon enough, she was ready to go to war for her family, for her friends. For me. Within a few months, one and a half years since the war came down upon us - we were winning. We were taking back towns and cities left to right. It allowed us to head north. Whatever invasions began in spots across the country, the Militia was able to take care of it or die trying. At that point, the war was waged across Equestria, but it was never as serious as it had been before. And at that same time - Celestia gave the order. The assault on the Crystal Empire had begun. By the thousands, soldiers, Militia members - me...Applejack...Pinkie - we all charged the city. When we arrived, a great wall, a barrier ranging a hundred feet in height blocked us from entering. Whoever could fly simply flew over and dive-bombed them. Those who couldn't rammed the front gates to the ground, creating a plume of dust that blinded the enemy at close range. A perfect opportunity. Every slave we saved from the helmet that imprisoned them, we had our soldiers escort them to safety - away from the horror and the bloodshed. Within mere minutes, we were already a fourth of the way to the King's castle. And with each moment we had to look at the scenery - the sadder I could have been. A year's worth of plant-life and accumulation had settled on the streets of the empire. Cracks now plagued the once shiny roads, plants and grasses were beginning to show. Windows were broken and even some of the buildings seemed burnt, indicating fires had once circulated their way through. And not once did I see a single crystal pony - at least, not without those helmets on their heads. It was always a feeling of justice in my body every time we took off a helmet. Those looks of joy on their faces... For an hour, we punched and kicked and ran our way through the masses of slaves. Those who were able to be saved, we saved. And those who weren't... Soon enough, we were at the base of the castle, ramming our way through the doors and bashing our way up the stairs - not stopping, never stopping until we met the bastard face to face. And we were sure Celestia was right there with us to see it come. It took twenty minutes to get ourselves to the top of the high castle. Hundreds of feet upward, and every entrance and portion of it guarded by slaves, not even the pegasi could simply fly upward without risking casualties to either themselves or the slaves. But we didn't give up, we didn't fall back, even when we had the chance and the choice. We just pushed onward. And it was nothing more than an absolute pleasure to bust down the doors that would lead us to the throne of the King himself. He wasn't surprised - but he wasn't ready either. The King and the Princess fought with an intense vigor to each burst of magic that came from their horns. The few soldiers that were there didn't dare intervene, but simply rescued the few slaves that were in that room. Everyone else was determined to rescue any that they could. But within just minutes of those doors flying off their hinges - I watched, first-hoof, the defeat of King Sombra. With a single beam from the Sister's horn, the malevolent creature had been seemingly vaporized into thin air, reduced to nothing but a shroud of dust and ash, before too disappearing - his screams echoing into nothing. The battle was finally over. The war was finally won. We had finally won. The Crystal Empire had been ruled by the ponies once more, the proud flag of Equestria flying once again in the wind. A year of tyrannical rule, a year of suffering, a year of war... It was over. And then Sombra cursed us. And the Crystal Plague was born. It was more or less a final resort by the King himself - right before we turned him into nothingness, he had one more act of vengeance against us as a whole, as a nation, as a race itself. He wanted to take us with him. And he did just that. Celestia was the only case at the time. By the time we were back at Canterlot to confirm our victory of the war - almost everyone on the train, in the skies, anywhere on the way home, was sick. By the time they noticed, potentially hundreds were sick. By the time they went home to their families in the following two days - thousands. Maybe even millions by then. It spread like a flu. It acted like a flu. Coughs, sniffles, sneezing, pain, headaches, diarrhea, seizures - worse and worse, ponies suffered quickly. Within three days since our victory... Well, it wasn't really a victory anymore. It didn't even matter. The plague became the news of the nation. It spread to everyone, of all races, genders, ages. Ponies, dragons, gryphons - side by side, they were all getting sick. Reporters were describing millions of citizens flocking to the hospitals, and they couldn't even get their own rooms, they were so crowded. At first, it was believed it was restricted to just Equestria, even with dragons and gryphons getting sick. But once it was confirmed in the Gryphon Kingdom, Saddle Arabia, YakYakistan, panic began to spread. For the first three or so days, there were protests against rations, demands for Service action, word of the Sisters' condition - anything to ease the public mind. But nothing was able to ease them, no matter what any of us said, or what the Guard said, or what even Princess Luna herself had said. Of course, that was before she too became sick with the illness. As the third day came and passed - ponies were already beginning to hope that this plague would pass us by, like every other plague before it - and that they would prevail once again. They hoped they would be okay. And then Princess Luna died in her chambers. Her body was bloated, torn, bleeding from her mouth, her eyes, her ears, her nose - her face permanently stuck in a fixture of agony. When they found her - they found the shards protruding from her mouth...from her nose... Hundreds of tiny, little, piercing shards of crystals. Hell just broke loose. Cities, towns, villages - the streets weren't fit to be on, not even Ponyville. Riots quickly became a common thing. And with Luna's death came thousands more as the plague finally began to claim the sick. Young and old, male and female - they were all dying the same way. And it was painful. Very painful. The Militia was no longer a thing - at least, that's what the radios were saying. Its members disbanded and went to find their families. The Royal Guard protected the royal chambers where the Sisters laid in sickness. The Service soon enough disbanded too. A lot of the soldiers did the same thing, go and find their families, their friends. If they even survived the war...that is. What did I do? I went back home - to Ponyville. It was chaos. Everywhere I looked, ponies were either looting, fighting each other, or simply just...trying to enjoy a stroll. To me, that was the saddest part. The world was ending around them - or, it very well seemed like it - and you could still see some ponies trying to have one last normal day. It honestly hurt to see that. Everyone that I knew in town either left, died, was dying, or fighting for their life someplace. Pinkie - she was hardly called that...always went by Diane... - she went AWOL before anyone died, her sister went with her. It could be anyone's guess where she went - her family home, another place where they could be safe... Died... Rarity - I hadn't seen her in years. She always had a sense for fashion as a kid. Left for Manehattan years ago, and hadn't heard from her since. For all I knew, she was dead too. Her old home sure as hell wasn't hers again. I just hoped her sister was okay too. Fluttershy...she was too afraid to join - not that they would have drafted her anyway. I don't know what happened to her. The last time I heard about her, she went back to her parents when the war first broke out. Taking care of them, I hope. I hoped she was okay as well. AJ and I had gone back home, to her farm. She had to see them. See if they were okay. But we got there. All of them...in their beds. She saw the shards in their mouths. Apple Bloom... She screamed, kicked, punched the walls, nothing more than a blind fury leading her - until she could do no more than break down and cry. That was all she could do then. Just cry and cry, until she could cry no more. I didn't leave her. I stayed and held her - comforted her. I held her close and dared to not let her go. Then she coughed. But I didn't leave her. Within just hours, the symptoms came to her, almost as if all at once. She was coughing, sneezing, vomiting even. She was still strong enough and didn't choose to go out laying down. With whatever strength was in her, she went out to the field the next day. And she started bucking trees. It had been a long time since she had done it. She missed the feeling of it - she just loved watching the apples fall to the ground. When she picked one up and ate it... She smiled again. It didn't last long, though. By the third day she had been sick, her body was already weak. She couldn't run anymore, couldn't buck the trees. Hell, she was hardly able to walk right, or even upright. And yet... I was still just fine. I hugged her when she coughed, I was close enough to be able to suffer like her. But I was still feeling just fine, and she... That night, when she was lying in her bed...when I was saying that...saying that not just to her - to the walls, the ceiling, the gods above who just watched this all happen... She grabbed me. And she held me close... Just enough for our lips to meet. It was something I never expected - especially not from her. Never had I experienced feelings for another mare, not even Applejack... But it just felt so comforting. When our lips parted - all she could do was ask me something so...simple. "...Promise me you'll be safe...okay? ...That you'll make it?" How? How could I be so sure that I would? That I could? I mean...she... ... I nodded. "Okay." The tears were welled up, but I kept them in as long as I could. I didn't want her to see me cry. I couldn't. "It's okay." I broke down in front of her. I never did that. But it was okay. She fell asleep not long after that. Then she died within the hour. I wanted to leave the room, I didn't want to see it happen. But I didn't want her to die a...alone. I held her hoof tightly. I watched her as her eyes dilated, blood came pouring out of her mouth as she puked, as she convulsed. I saw little shards come spewing out, and her body bloated. But I still held on, even when they pierced her skin - made her bleed all over. She shook and seized, but couldn't even scream. Blood and shards pooled in her mouth. Her throat rattled. And like that - she was gone. I slept downstairs, on the couch. Well....tried. It was like I was shell shocked. I lost all...possible ways to react, to feel, to...to know. I didn't want to believe it. I just didn't. But no matter how hard I screamed, or kicked, or begged - it was real. It happened. It would happen again. When the morning came along, I dug four holes on the side of the house. It took me a long time to drag them out, one by one. I shook and stumbled with each step. Tears were coming along again, but I-... No. It was noon by the time I finished filling her hole with dirt. I marked each grave with a stone and wrote each of their names on them. When I was done, I walked into their home and waited for the time to pass. I didn't know what I was waiting for or why I was waiting for it. Perhaps I was waiting to die in a way. Perhaps I... I wanted to die. She didn't want me to. She wouldn't want it. And so I chose to live - even when I thought against it. Whenever I turned the radio on, all it would do was inform me that another city, another town, had fallen to the plague. Ponies were still dying all about, doctors had given up on a cure, again and again... By the time the host himself had gotten sick, it'd been at least two weeks. By then - most of Ponyville was dead. The power had died in the first week, and I found myself digging water from a well and bathing myself with said well water - which was a lot more effort...considering the tub was upstairs. Before the host died, he chose to keep his station running for a long time - he played his songs on loops, large playlists, with the intention to run for months, maybe even years, if the conditions were right. It didn't even last a week before it went off. As for my home, I did return to it at a point. It wasn't even looted or destroyed. It was still there, just floating in the sky near the town. Things still worked as they had, and everything looked clean as they had. Tank - my pet turtle, hm... - he was okay. Fluttershy had taken care of him when I had been away. And...apparently, he made his way back here all by himself, just feeding on whatever he could. Durable little bugger, he is. ... I couldn't believe I forgot him. ... I took him back to the farm with me. As for the house - I merely pushed it along until it was right over the orchard itself. High enough so that nopony could see it and take advantage - and low enough so coming back down to the orchard was never a hassle. Tank and I - we stayed on the orchard for weeks, harvesting the apples from their trees, collecting the water from the well, listening in on whatever radio stations remained open. We were making it pretty well. We could have stayed there as long as possible. And so we did. For a long time, her home eventually became my home, but I never changed anything but the bedsheets - everything was exactly how it was when she... ... As time went on, I grew to accustom myself to the new world, to the ponies who lived in it. I had faced the good, and I had also faced the bad. I only ever scavenged for medicine. The orchard was all that I generally needed. It could be my home for a long time. And I could be okay. Just like she hoped. Just like I promised. Then - one day - I got a signal on the radio. Somewhere...out there, in the three-thousand miles of land, ruin, and anarchy...there was a supposed safe haven. A place where any and all were welcome, a place where everyone was safe. A place run by a princess, no less - so surely, there was some form of order, of civilization. For a couple of weeks, this signal grew only stronger, and I wanted to believe it. I really did. I pondered and pondered. Was I really going to try and see, for myself, if it was truly worth as it says? When the time finally had come - I made my decision. With enough time upon me, I collected my belongings, food, water, anything she owned that I could use - anything I owned that I could use. Tank was hesitant. I could see it clearly. I was too. But even if I could stay at the orchard forever - it didn't mean I'd be able to protect it, and my home... Well...I can't drag it behind me forever. I had to let go. That was all I could do. And so I did. With enough on my back to carry me on for a good, long time - I left Sweet Apple Acres for what seemed to be the last time in my life. It pained me so much, the grief only came back harder. But I needed to do it. I just had to. So with a hopeful stride of confidence - my journey finally had begun. And then I met him.