//------------------------------//
// Rebels and Loyalists within. 
// Story: Rebels' Schism 
// by Castok the Shadow 
//------------------------------//

You are the unbreakable rebel.

You are the man that came back from hell and survived.

Your defiance boosted the morale within the rebellion, making their goal  and liberty almost believable and in their grip. 

Your face and your name is known within the rebellion as well as this world's tyrannical overlords.

Your determination and resilience hasn't gone unnoticed by the rebellion's leaders, as they appointed you to a higher rank in the rebellion.

You have more authority and influence within the rebellion as well as you commanding a lot of the rebels, as they look to you as their hero.

Six months after your return to the rebellion, you have inspired many with your words and tales of defiance, resilience and hope that you've grown a large following of like-minded individuals.

With them by your side and your higher rank in the rebellion thanks to the leaders, you have been ordered to be on the front lines and fight against the overlords's loyalists and enthralled forces.

However, within those six months. You also heard the leaders' questioning your own tactics and strategies against your enemies as if they are concerned about your own sanity.

Not only them but also the rebels that doesn't think or follows your ideals and stance against the Sirens.

Unofficially, though truthfully, the rebellion is already split between two sides:

Those who support the rebel leaders and those who follow you.

All because of that one incident to a certain Loyalist Commander.





"Another day, another setback for the Sirens" You gloated over your latest enemy defeat at Nightingale Lane. Your team, no, your legion executed your plan perfectly as the Sirens's Loyalist commander surrendered in minutes after the ambush. With his surrender, all the enthralled soldiers surrendered as well as your forces surrounded them and took away their weapons. You are in charge of the Iron Onslaught Battalion, or I.O.B for short, who by now has earned the well deserved reputation as the rebel team that takes no chances.

You watched your team escorting the enthralled people that were forced to fight for their overlords from an old shop that had been overtaken by nature. Its location was perfect for setting up ambushes and guerrilla strikes, which cripples productions and resources for the Sirens. Ever since your return to action, you have made it your top priority to make every assault against the Dazzlings costly and to make a certain orange siren furious from the simple fact that you are leading these attacks near her stronghold of Canterlot High. The thought of her screaming at her fellow sirens and loyal minions always made you chuckle to yourself.

As you watched, with your right hand resting on your Revolver pistol on your belt, a fellow rebel walked into the overgrown shop and saluted at you. The person was a female student from another school called Crystal Prep Academy, one of the biggest schools in the city and where a lot of rebels that follows you originally come from. She had white and cyan hair in a twin ponytail style, which has gone scruffy from the ambush she was apart in. Her blueish-purple skin was covered in warpaint and she wore a pair of orange glasses on her face to see clearly. Her outfit was made of grey clothing and some armour your team looted form a local museum, giving her a more intimidating look like the rest of the I.O.B. As she was saluting you, she held a loaded shotgun in her left hand and had some ammo around her wrist for her to reload her weapon.

"Status Report, Sugarcoat?" You asked her as you turned your head towards her, not moving your body as it still faces the escorting.

"We've rounded up all of the students and are sending them back to base so that Twilight, Lemon and Vinyl can break their brainwashed minds with them sonic frequencies they know too well" Sugarcoat replied bluntly like she always does, no matter if the world is in a bad state. "Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare has that commander tied down and waiting your orders, whereas Indigo's team is coming back from their scouting mission near Canterlot High"

"Casualties?"

"Twelve enemies dead, only fourteen injured on our side"

"That's better than the last ambush" You sighed as you sort out your one gauntlet on your left hand. You took this in the same museum the I.O.B looted as well, the main reason was you thought it looks cool on you but after a couple of vicious brawls against Loyalists, you found it most useful to knockout your opponents with.

"Also, Sunset Shimmer called through our radio transceiver. She said she is coming here to help with getting the brainwash students back to base" Sugarcoat rolled her eyes annoyance. "She's bringing some transports with Rainbow Dash, Applejack, some medics and reinforcement, much to our disapproval"

You sighed in disappointment and irritation, this has been the forth time Sunset and the other leaders comes uninvited and bombarded you with questions that has no point in the Rainboom Rebellion. Sure at first it was understandable, but now it's just getting on your nerves and you're just getting sick and tired of it all.

"Well, I better go and sort out the commander before dealing with Sunset's questions again. Where have Sour and Sunny took the commander?"

"They've taken him to where most of us were before the ambush" Sugarcoat answered as she held the shotgun in both hands.

"The postoffice" You remembered as you and Sugarcoat left the overgrown shop and headed to the direction of the postoffice.





You and Sugarcoat didn't have to go far before you see a large mob of your rebels surrounding the entrance of the postoffice. Said postoffice was left to rot ever since the Dazzlings won the Battle of the Bands. Only time would the Rebellion go to the postoffice was to either because it was in front of the main road the rebellion uses for moving about in their vehicles, or incase they need some cover from a surprise Siren Loyalist attack. Even now, you could still see the hanging postoffice sign and all the bullet holes that were in the walls during a skirmish.

Nonetheless, you arrived with Sugarcoat at the postoffice. The rebels at the back saw you and began to move out of your way and either saluting you or nodding their heads in respect. As you walked through the mob, you heard them crying out angrily, most likely at the captured commander as they were shouting out words such as 'traitor' and 'coward'. You knew this for awhile but most of the rebels that agrees with you or follow the same mindset as you were mainly from Crystal Prep Academy. The few exceptions were Lyra, Bon-Bon, Octavia, Gilda, Bulk Biceps, Spitfire and Fleetfoot to name a few you could remember.

Soon enough, thanks to the rebels moving out of your way, you were in front of the postoffice with the mob quietly ending their shouts as they saw you entering the scene. You saw Sour Sweet leaning on a wall near the entrance of the postoffice with a sniper, keeping watch of the mob and the captured commander. Sunny Flare was sitting on the steps of the postoffice, sorting out her shoes with her submachine gun next to her. Both of them were wearing similar outfits like Sugarcoat and the rest of the Iron Onslaught Battalion.

However, your main focus was not on your allies nor their uniforms of rebellious spirit. Your focus was on a certain man who had a bag over his head and his hands tied to his back. He wore a somewhat romanised uniform with the symbol of the three headed sea serpents which represent the rulers of your worlds; The Dazzlings. Around him were small rocks and stones that you could only guess were used by your rebels as throwing tools.

"What the hell happened here?" you asked out loud, mainly towards Sour and Sunny who were supposed to keep order while you were gone.

"Oh hey there, Rowland" Sunny gleefully waved at you as she picked up her weapon and got up. "We were just waiting for you"

"Can you or Sour please tell me why there's stones around our guest?"

"Well you see, the commander didn't want to remain quiet while we were waiting for you" Sour replied with her obnoxiously nice tone of voice, which you will know will change any- "So some of us decided to throw some rocks at him to make him shut up, the traitorous coward!"

"Now this is unacceptable!" You growled at your rebels as you leaned down and picked one of the stones up. "Why would you all do this...? Stones have feelings, you should of been more thoughtful than to throw them at this filth"

This made your rebels chuckle to themselves, it even made Sugarcoat smirk from your little misplace feelings for some solid object than the Loyalist commander. Regardless, you dropped the stone and walked up to the commander. Before you could do anything, you heard the sound of a motorbike coming towards you and your rebels from the east. You already know who it was.

"All rebels standing east, make some space for Indigo Zap's Team!" You ordered as the rebels did what you said. As they cleared the eastern side of the main road, you saw the dark purple Harley Davidson slowing down to allow a more safer approach and to make it more easier to stop. Once the bike was near to you, the engine was turned off by its rider.

Hopping off the motorbike was your second-in-command, Indigo Zap. She has been your second-in-command ever since she proved herself in a mission that not only cripple the Sirens's control of the south-west region of the city, but also for the fact that she slapped the hell out of several loyalist forces which pinned you down and almost made you a prisoner for the Sirens again. To say that she wasn't made of iron, would  be an insult to her and the entire Iron Onslaught Battalion. She took off her spiky biker helmet and saluted you.

"Report" You saluted back at her.

"Rowland, CHS has double its defences since the last attack" Indigo answered strongly and proudly. "From what I could gather, most of the Loyalist forces are guarding those witches and are not venturing out of their controlled territories without an army. My guess is that the Sirens are now getting paranoid 'cause of our successes"

"Indigo?" You responded with some concerns and confusion as you looked at the only motorbike next to her. There should be two more. "Where's Flitter and Cloudchaser? They should be with you?"

Indigo hesitated, losing eye contact as she looked elsewhere that wasn't your own two eyes.

"Indigo?" You asked again, this time stepping forward a bit. "Where are they?"

"I'm sorry, sir" She finally spoke in a defeated tone. She rarely calls you sir, in fact, most of the I.O.B doesn't refer to you as sir and call you by your name unless it was serious or deep in a battle. "We had a surprise attack from one of the Loyalist commanders, they attacked us when we were just leaving. Flitter and Cloudchaser they...They didn't make it"

Everyone went silent after hearing this. Everything was going so well. You made another great plan that resulted in a victory, no one died during the ambush and you even managed to capture a Loyalist Commander. Now Indigo sadly had to tell you and the I.O.B that some of your comrades has perished in action. Even though you had your head down from hearing this tragedy, you could feel everyone's eyes looking at you, waiting for your reaction or your response.

After a moment of silence, you raised you head again and looked at Indigo. "Indigo...Remove that filth's bag over his head"

You tilted your head at the Loyalist commander with an iron glare facing Indigo. She already knew that look and grinned at you as she headed towards the prisoner. You and the rest of your rebels watched Indigo as she went behind the commander and quickly took off the bag over his head.

Once she removed that bag, most of your rebels gasped in surprise, even yourself was taken back from the person behind the bag.

Orange skin and blue spiky hair. His blue eyes opened weakly and trying to gain focus.

You couldn't believe it. The Loyalist commander was-

"It's Flash Sentry!" One of the rebel cried out.

Everyone started to talk among themselves in harsh whispers, as you approach Flash with a glare that could turn Medusa to stone.

"Of all the people that could turn traitor!" you spoke loud enough to silent the rambling behind you. "The former boyfriend of Sunset would be the second to last person on my list, the last being innocent little Derpy Hooves!"

"Wait..." Flash said in confusion as he looked at you with narrow eyes. "Is that Rowland? Rowland Weaver?"

"That's my name, don't overkill it" you confirmed proudly.

"B-but, you and your team were capture? I saw you being dragged into one of the cells in CHS"

"Let's just say I only rent that place for, oh I don't know, four weeks till I was bored of it!" You growled in remembrance of your past timing in that forsaken cell.

"It'll take more then interrogation to break him" Indigo said loyally as she grabbed Flash by his hair. "Unlike you!"

"Look, you got this all wrong" Flash nervously said as he breathed through his teeth. "I didn't betray Sunset nor the Rebellion I-"

You and your rebels laughed at Flash's sentence, lying straight to your face.

"Really?" Sugarcoat smirked. "Well it's a funny way of showing it"

"Please listen!" Flash begged. "I'm telling you! Sunset needed a man from the inside to know what was going to be the next plan from the Sirens. So I pretended to be a loyalist whilst being a double agent for the Rebellion"

"A good coverup story" you grunted. "If you were a double agent, why do I have reports telling me that you have killed four fellow rebels in cold blood at the Battle of Secondary Maker Street?"

"Look I had to make sacrifices for the rebellion, otherwise I would of been spotted out and most likely be turned to the Sirens by an -actual- Loyalist and be turned into one of them brainwashed zombies"

Your rebels thought otherwise:

"He's lying!"

"Don't believe him, Rowland!"

"He should pay for his betrayal!"

Indigo looked at you. "Rowland, what's your order?"

You didn't look at her as you glared deep into Flash's eyes, who tried to look away from you. But already, you've made up your mind.

"Let him go, indigo" you commanded, still keeping an eye on Flash. Indigo did as she commanded and moved away from Flash, standing next to you with her back against the others.

You looked at Flash one last time before clinching your gauntlet hand into a fist and slammed it across Flash's face. The rebels cheered from this as the loyalist fell to the ground hard.

"That was for lying to my face!" You firmly spoke as the rebels cheers with either their weapons in the air, their fists pumping in the air or even both.

As Flash tried to get up, you stopped him by stomping on his face, pushing him back into the hard concrete road. This made the rebels's cheers even louder.

"That's for all the souls my Iron Onslaught has lost in this baleful conflict!"

Flash didn't get up, seeing him in a daze with some blood coming out of his head. Regardless of his injuries, you kicked him on his side to force him on his back. You then put a foot onto his chest and pulled out your Revolver.

"P-please..." Flash whispered in pain. "Don't..."

"And this..." You said seriously, loading your gun and drowning out any other sounds around you, pointed the gun at his head.

"Is for four weeks of torture, that almost made me cement those witches rule over our planet forever"

"Rowland! No-"

*Bang!*

That voice that called out your name. You know it too well.

Sunset Shimmer.

Turns out, in your moment of justice and revenge, Sunset and her allies arrived on the western side of the main road with transports, medics and reinforcement. Your rebels tried to block them to prevent any interruption, however Sunset, Rainbow Dash and Applejack managed to break through your rebels just in time to see you executing Flash Sentry.

You watched as Sunset kneeled down at the corpse of Flash in horror and complete shock. "R-Rowland... What have you done?"

Before you could answer, Rainbow came up to you with her rifle pointing at you. "Drop your gun now!"

"I don't think so!" Indigo replied on your behalf with one of her pistols aiming at Rainbow.

Suddenly, Applejack also aimed her weapon at your second-in-command. "Ya'll stand down, Indigo!"

The sounds of a sniper getting reloaded could be heard along with a submachine gun. You saw Sour and Sunny aiming at Applejack. "Aw, that's really brave and cute. You think you can stop all of us!?"

Soon, everyone was getting out their weapons and start pointing them at each other. Your Iron Onslaught Battalion pointing their weapons at the reinforcement loyal to the leaders of the Rebellion. Out of all the rebels that follows you, the people who made up the Shadowbolts were by far the most loyal and dedicated to your ideals and stances. Which is why you made them your top-lieutenants within the Iron Onslaught Battalion, nicknaming them the Ironbolts. Those being Indigo Zap, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, Sugarcoat and Sunny Flare.

Everything was getting too hot and you must calm everyone down. "Iron Onslaughts! At ease, there's no need to make a riot within the Rebellion over a dead Loyalist!"

"Rainbow, Applejack! Stand down!" Sunset ordered as well, getting up off her knees and seeing that there's nothing she could do for Flash. "Go and help the injured and get those thralls onto the trucks. Leave the jeep for Rowland and his team"

Rainbow and Applejack were at first hesitant, but listened to Sunset as they lower their weapons. As they did this, so too does your top-lieutenants along with all the other rebels, calming themselves and not making this any more worse. Still glaring with concern and anger, the two girls left to do as they were told.

After that, Sunset looked at you with an angry glare. "Rowland, may I have a word with you in privacy?"

You looked at her for moment, giving her your iron glare as you stare deeply into both Sunset's eyes. Soon after, you called Indigo.

"Indigo!" You barked, making her stand straight and firm.

"Yes Rowland?"

"Help the reinforcement as well as I have a word with our founder of the rebellion. Once you have done that, find someway to place your bike onto the transports and bring the Ironbolts to the jeep that our allies have generously gave us"

Indigo saluted as she called the rest of the Ironbolts to follow her, leaving you alone with Sunset.

"Perhaps the postoffice will be the best location for our discussion" You said to her as you headed towards the entrance of the postoffice without Sunset's opinion or protest.

"I couldn't agree more" Sunset concurred as she followed you.

You two head up the steps and opened the doors to the postoffice, leaving the corpse of Flash Sentry in the middle of the road.





"Now, can you please tell me what the hell happened back there?" Sunset angrily said as she slammed her hands onto the old desk with some paperwork still on it.

You and Sunset were in one of the many rooms of the postoffice. To not waste time, you chose the nearest room and entered with Sunset closing the door behind her.

You rolled your eyes from Sunset's anger as you had other things to do.

"You just executed someone in front of your team, not only that but had orders to round up the thrall forces and make sure no one gets harmed!"

"Yes, Thrall forces" you sighed annoyingly. "But there was no mention about Loyalist filth and how to deal with them"

"Treat them like prisoners!"

"Who sold their entire planet to our tyrannical overlords cheaply"

"For crying out loud!"

"For all those who perished, why should we treat them any better than what they've done to us?"

"Because we are not them and-"

"Which is why I shot him!" You yelled back at Sunset, who was taken by surprise by your quick tone of voice. "We are not them! We don't break our friends' minds with brainwash lyrics! We do not put our enslaved people to build monuments to their witches from hell! And most importantly, we do not betray our entire race for the promise of power, wealth or pleasure!"

A moment of silence fell in the room as you finished your stance on the matter. You've never lost your temper at Sunset nor argue with her. But this has been happening for so long that you couldn't take anymore of this.

Sunset gathered her thoughts as she crossed her arms and took a more relax stance.

"Rowland, I thi-"

"Was he a double agent?" You interrupted her with a question.

"Who was?"

"Who do you think?"

"What?" Sunset said confusedly, till she finally understood who you were talking about. "Oh! No, Flash wasn't a double agent. He was a true loyalist ever since he defected to Adagio and her sisters. My reports said that he was one of Aria's Chosens, whatever that means"

You widened your eyes from this information, you know what the Chosens were and you're loving this even more.

"So not only did I executed a traitor" you said with a smile. "But one of Aria's playthings? Oh, she's gonna be pissed"

"About that execution" Sunset said, making you drop that smile as you looked at her with boredom. She moved around the table to get up closer to you.

"Rowland, I do not know how it feels to be imprisoned and tortured by the very hands of the Sirens. But this is not something to be proud of. I understand and do not object your role within the Rebellion, you have led many successful missions with the I.O.B that would seem to others as suicidal. But now I'm starting to feel that you and your rebels are fighting more than just the Loyalists with your weapons. I feel like you are against us with your ideals and your rebels' loyalty more on you than the entire Rebellion"

This caught you by surprise. Sunset is starting to think that you are leading a coup against her and the other rebel leaders. You have never thought of this and the very idea was immoral as both of you and Sunset are fighting a common enemy. Why would you start a coup within the Rebellion? It would only weaken the rebels' fight against the Dazzlings and would end with a defeat.

Yet still, it also made you more angry. Now you know for a fact that the Rainbooms are doubting you and your rebels. They're seeing you as a threat to their hard earned Rebellion, whereas you have brought down the Sirens' control of entire streets and saved hundreds of enthralled people. You are a hero and many people know it as you do not halt your aggression and not allowing your enemies to clean their wounds after a brutal battle with your I.O.B. To say the least, without trying to brag about your importance, the Rebellion would be miles behind without your Battalion and your dedication of ending Adagio, Sonata and Aria's rule over your world.

"Why would I do such a thing?" You asked Sunset, trying to prove you're not thinking about this idea at all. "There's more important things to worry about then Ideals and who controls of the Rebellion. My Iron Onslaught Rebels only follow my ideals and stances against the Dazzlings because they want justice and have a sense of bravery and duty for this Rebellion. I do these things -such as executions- to prevent any counter attack from the Loyalists. Also, maybe you shouldn't put the blame on the person who has seen and felt the wrath of the Dazzlings personally...And walked out of there without losing his mind and soul to a certain orange witch that wanted me by her side?"

After that, you began heading towards the exit and not looking back to see Sunset's facial expression. But just as you grabbed the door handle, she called you again.

"Rowland, what did they do to you?" Sunset asked with actual concern and worry for you, not wanting to push any wrong buttons. "You were never like this before you join the Rebellion"

"Actually" You replied strongly as you opened the door. "I was like this. However, I did not have a reason to show it in public. But now knowing what we're up against and why we need to do this. I should of let it out sooner and all of this bloodshed could of ended within weeks. Now, it's almost two years and we're still not close enough"

With that, you closed the door behind you and headed out of the postoffice. This day is done for you.





You opened the postoffice's doors and headed down the steps, not bothering in looking at anyone that might be looking back at you as you headed towards where that jeep Sunset brought would most likely be. You could hear whispers from the rebels, some with words that either loyal, against or neutral to your methods and ideals.

But soon you raised your head to the sound of your top-lieutenants arguing over something. You saw Sunny Flare, Sour Sweet and Sugarcoat arguing over who should take the middle seat whereas Indigo looked at them in disappointment and a bit of humour.

"Well I think I should sit in the middle" Sunny elegantly said with one of her hand on her chest as she took what you could only guess was a dramatic pose.

"All you did was just keeping watch of a dead man" Sugarcoat replied cynically with narrow eyes. "At least I got Rowland and informed him of your whereabout. Isn't that right, Sour?"

She looked to her left, only to see that Sour was already in the jeep with her sitting in the middle. She then looked at Sugarcoat and Sunny Flare with her hand covering her mouth.

"Oh I am so sorry, girls" Sour sarcastically chuckled at them. "I don't care, now get in! We're heading back to base and I want a nap!"

As the two girls rolled their eyes in annoyance, you headed up to Indigo as she saw you coming. "Do I need to ask why they were arguing?"

"They wanted to be in the middle so that they can see you better" Indigo giggled at how stupid it was explaining it to you.

You sighed and shook your head. "Blooming with hopeful praising. Hop in we're leaving"

You two headed into the jeep, you taking the driver seat and Indigo taking shot-gun. 

"Seatbelt on?" You asked everyone as you fasten yourself in and turned on the engine.

They all nodded their heads as you place the gearstick into drive. You steadily moved the large jeep onto the main road, where you could see through the rearview mirror -minus Sour's head- all the trucks filled with either your rebels or the captured thrall forces.

"Can I ask what Sunset said to you?' Indigo asked as she rolled down her window to rest her arm outside the jeep.

You looked to your side rearview mirror to see Sunset in the distance coming out of the postoffice with Applejack and Rainbow Dash running up to her to tell her what happened.

"Let's just say that when a central government gets overthrown" You answered with your iron glare. "It's very rare for the new government to not fall into Civil War just two days later"