//------------------------------// // Chapter TwentyOne: The Aftermath // Story: The World is my Sandbox // by PoniesMine //------------------------------// “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” —George Santayana —— Chapter TwentyOne: The Aftermath —— And then, the white earth pony—still covered in blood— dragged herself over the glass shards, and proceeded to haul herself over the edge, causing her whole frame to disappear and fall into the unknown—where a large chance of her dying from the fall height was most probable.  Crimson blood, and unsymmetric hair still remained on the floor, bleaching the surrounding marble environment into an unnatural red. It simply did not par with the glorious architecture.  The whole room was deathly silenced, not a single soul moved, every organism within the space were what many people would refer to as ‘shell shocked’, not a single person had ever seen anything like the events that had just unfolded. The purple unicorn was shocked. The white unicorn fainted. The blue pegasus was shaking. The orange earth pony was a little bitc— I mean, scared. The yello— I could literally go on all day. Each of the aforementioned ponies thought life was fun, that nothing, ever, could possibly go wrong. That every participate in the end would be frolicking in the grass meadows, smelling the beautiful flowers, and having delicious picnics with their friends. They were innocent in that regard, none had ever been exposed to the reality of this world. All lived in the plagiarised and fake environment Celestia attempted to assemble. Bit by bit, however, this unadulterated mask slowly slipped, exposing more and more of the hash reality for what it really is. This white and red earth pony (Atomic), just seemed to have sped up the process. It really was inevitable. The funny thing was that every soul continued to stay in this shocked trance for over a minute. None had even decided to help their ruler, Princess Celestia, out of the cocoon in the ceiling.  Well, that is, except for one. The pink alicorn, now who would no longer, could no longer be stopped by the dead black queen, attempted to rescue her husband before it was too late.  There were several problems with this prospect, however; 1.She was still connected to the floor by that disgusting green goo. 2.Was an idiot as she didn’t have the intellect to actually make adequate decisions. (Like using her magic) 3.Shining Armour was already dead. But she still struggled, it failed to achieve results, but this conclusion didn’t ratify her.  This dreadful atmosphere was suddenly interrupted by the blaring smack of the throne room door, forty guards poured in, survivors from the invasion, their main goal at that moment was to see if their rulers were in good health.  The loud noises that reverberated throughout the space was able to snap almost every pony out of the preconceived mindsets, and actually take in the whole situation without being shell shocked. Each pony rotated their to look around, and finally noticed that others still needed help in this particular predicament.  “Your highness!” A guard entering shouted.  Almost all recognised the horrible state the room was in; a massive cocoon was on the ceiling, every pony was still attached to the ground with green restraints, and generally the room was covered in shards and blood, something that clearly needed to be cleaned up.  The squadron leader of this intruding guard under stress, quickly administered orders, “You three! Take the Captain to the medical ward! You! Cut that cocoon up there off the ceiling! And the rest of you, free everypony from their restraints!” They all nodded, and tended to their tasks.  It honestly didn’t take long to achieve all of this; and in fact, everything would have been completed if it weren’t for one, specific being.  *CRUNCH*  This one, loud, extremely annoying sound echoed throughout the room. No-one was completely sure exactly what it was; was it some sort of structural integrity that failed, or was it the bones of some sort of individual being crushed? What could it possibly be? *CRUNCH* This repeated sound allowed the audience within the room to finally locate the source; a strange being, made of a multitude of different animal limbs, like a lions paw, for example. Hovered towards one of the darker sides of the room.  And that crunching noise? Popcorn. He was eating it, straight out of a bag. Buttered. Popcorn. A glass of lemonade also levitated beside him, occasionally, the unidentified being grabbed said mentioned drink, and took a purposely loud slurp from it. The strange sound almost caused all possible bodies to jump out of the socks, on every occasion.  Each pony stopped the tasks they were completing, and just stared, as if anything else couldn’t possibly take a turn for the worse.  In the middle of a mouthful of food, he momentarily stopped chewing, since he was the middle of observation, he decided to voice his simple enquiry, “What?” His eyes scanned the environment for any reactions, but all he got was blank, uninterested, stares. He was, honestly, quite disappointed by that prospect.  “Oh come on!” He waved his forelimbs, “nothing? The lord of Chaos,” he pointed to himself, “moi, have suddenly appeared before your very eyes, despite being trapped in a stone prison, and this is all you give me? Just stares?” He hovered there for a moment, thumbs to his chin, clearly in deep thought, until a light flicked into existence above his head, and he snapped his fingers, “Aha!” First, chocolate milk started to sprinkle from the roof, he then pulled a bunch of bunnies out of his ass and started throwing them around, lightning sprouted from the floor, and in-front of every pony, a golden Equestrian 100 bit transfixed.  The only ponies that began to scream were the ones who recently entered, the guards, while the rest of the audience would do nothing but perform minor finches to the loud sounds reverberating within the room. Still, he didn’t seem pleased, in his book, he may as well got nothing, no reactions. He slumped, “Hmmm, tough crowd.” And immediately snapped his fingers one again, and everything turned back to normal.  Only now, the room was once again interrupted by another sound, the loud THUMP of the green cocoon that was once connected to the ceiling. A disgusting green liquid leaked out rips, and every movement from inside it, just seemed to create more squishing noises.  Well, that was until it exploded.  “DISCOOOOOOOORD!” The huge white alicorn emerged from within, eyes glowing, mane, literally on freaking fire, the air around her truly felt as though it was aflame. Let’s just say, she didn’t seem pleased, or unhappy for that matter. No, she was absolutely furious.   “YOU DARE COME HERE, IN MY CASTLE, PROVOKE MY SUBJECTS, AND START THIS WHOLE MESS!!? I WILL HAVE YOU INPRIS—”  “I’m going to have to stop you right there, Celly.” He dramatically interrupted, “The disorder around me was caused by a much greater chaotic being than myself,” he scowled, “As much as I’d like to deny it.”  “DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT??! THAT THE LORD OF CHAOS DIDN’T HAVE A PART IN STARTING SOME OF THE BIGGEST MADNESS IN ALL OF EQUESTRIAN HISTORY??!” Before the being known as Discord was able to reply, Celestia quickly asked the six ponies at the front for something, “GRAB THE ELEMENTS TO DEFEAT DISCORD! I WILL NOT LET HIM RUN HIS RAMPAGE THROUGH EQUESTRIA ONCE AGAIN!” The lilac unicorn’s facade was terrified, this flaming alicorn was her mentor, and to see her like this—different from her kind and loving attitude— scared her. And so, she just stared.  Well, that was until a prompted caused her to go into overdrive, “QUICKLY!” This resulted in her to swiftly shove everything that had happened in the last ten minutes into the back of her mindset, locked in a prison, far from view or compassion. “Come on girls! Let’s get the Elements!” And so, with a bit of pushing, and waving hoofs in from of each other’s faces, they all eventually ran off. “If you think I’m going to do anything now, you’d be wrong. In fact, why, Chaos is reigning everywhere; why would I intervene?"  Celestial glared so hard, she may have been melting solid iron.  Discord just shrugged as a response, and then, with a snap of his fingers, he vanished. The only thing left in his wake was a series of sparkles and pixie dust.  Celestial was even more furious. A few days Later Twilight had been assigning a happy/content facade throughout the whole day, every-pony she talked to, every book she checked out, and every passing glance towards another Ponyville citizen, she ensured that she withheld that cheerful expression. In reality, however, the truth couldn’t be any further away, and that’s why she felt so exhausted, it took a large percentage of energy just to maintain that image. Of course, it slipped during some parts of the day, which normally accompanied with, ‘Are you alright?’ from a nearby pony, every response Twilight stated, however, was ‘Yes.’ Nothing more, nothing less.  And worst of all, she’s pretty sure her friends feel the exact same— yet she can’t gather up the courage or perseverance to communicate with them. Ever since the incident, even when they were attempting to retrieve the elements, none had even spoken a single word to each other, and obviously, the town was slowly catching on, it was only a matter of time before they start prodding places they're not supposed to.  This is why she wanted to be alone. She just wanted time to think for herself, and being in town wouldn’t allow that—there is always someone waiting to butt into her thinking process, even Spike (the purple dragon), had been responsible on multiple occasions.  The steady *crunch* of leaves crumbling under her hooves was perhaps one of the most calming prospects, it kept her mind occupied.  Clouds loomed overhead, which cast dark shadows on the surrounding environment, including herself. The direction she was trotting to was the edge of the Everfree forest. The one place untouched by pony influence, and the one place where she can relax.  Once reaching a desired spot, a place underneath a tree, she sat down and lucidly stared into space. Her eyes, completely unblinking, breaths short and shallow. It was only about half an hour after the event that she was told exactly what happened—the whole story. That the pony fugitive known as Atomic discharge—the pony she knew for a very brief amount of time—was responsible for her brother’s death. That she literally jumped through the Castle window and stabbed him mid-flight.  Knowing that an Equestrian pony did this, along with perceiving first-hand multiple deaths of guards and witnessing the murder of Queen Chrysalis, was absolutely life-changing for her. She’s always known about the concept of death, but had always ignored the thought—shoved to the back of her brain and covered with tones of textbooks and hobbies—but by perceiving actual death take place. Has made her bring up all these thoughts at once, that death isn’t only caused by old age, but other, unseen instances as well. That death can happen to anyone of us.  Like her brother. It is truly mind opening.   What made it even worse, is that she felt sorry for the Ponyville citizens. Yes! She felt sorry for them, and not the other way around! The fact they were completely oblivious to what Death is upsetting for her, that when they do actually realise what is meant by passing away, they’d already be on their deathbeds.  Every pony should be aware of this—how life works, that not everything is perfect. The carefree expressions of the town makes her feel sick.  What is the point to life if you just die in the end? What actually is her purpose? Is she just another student to the Princess? When she dies, Celestia would just adopt another one. Just like in the past. Is she nothing? Just a replaceable nobody? She had always lived life believing there would be another tomorrow, but what she really should do, is act like there isn’t going to be a tomorrow, to live life to its fullest and create as big of an impact on the society you live in. But Twilight doesn’t know how to do that. And neither did her brother. She cried for three hours straight that night.  “Captain, Report.” Celestia was sitting in her retreat, sipping an absolutely delicious cup of herbal tea, the chair she was perched on was adjacent to another body, the new temporarily promoted Captain of the guard, he withheld a small stack of paper in front of him. His whole body clearly shook in his position, his facade was of distress.     The Captain wanted to bolt as fast as physically possible out of the room, he didn’t want to face the Princess, especially when he withheld so much bad news. “Ah-hem,” he shakily started, “Approximately one third of the city has been destroyed since the attack, houses and commercial buildings have been raided, and several government structures have also been demolished,” he leaned towards to paper he withheld, “a-about 40 m-million bits worth.”    Celestial momentarily stopped spinning her cup of tea, hesitating, all of that money would have to come straight out of the gold archives, something that was already limited in storage. This brief pause, however, quickly dissipated as she continued to drink the liquid from the cup.  “On another n-note, the guard was able to clean any d-deceased bodies from the streets; changeling and pony alike. Best of all, some those weapons the invaders had, were recovered. About forty of them, to be precise.” She simply nodded, uninterested. “Casualties were…s-significant, 3,340 are r-recorded dead, 6,000 injured and surprisingly, no recorded civilian deaths. Almost all involved in combat had some sort of unidentified behaviour, studies have started to counteract this, most with this sort of attitude have immediately quit from the military,” he waved hoof around as if proving his point, ”We are struggling to replenish the pony power of the guard, nobody wants to volunteer, especially due to what had transpired not three days ago.” He nodded to himself, “I-I would like to gain permission to start a mass propaganda campaign to encourage more ponies to join, otherwise we’d be forced to introduce conscription if we want to reach the same level of soldiers previously,” the Captain gazed up from his papers, and into the eye’s of the Princess, “the necessary documents for either option were dropped into you office.”  She placed her dished cup of tea onto the table in font of her, “Mmmmm-hmmmmm.” “The citizens of Canterlot have been acting…restless these last few days, they believe the guard to be completely incompetent and unable to properly protect our country from raising foreign threats, small scale protesting has already started, and it’s only like to get worse if we continue to ignore it.” The captain paused briefly, “There has also been an increase of aggressiveness of foreign countries like the Germane Reich and the Buffalo Chiefdom on our border, obvious to the incapability of our military, and with the soon to be annexation of the Griffon Empire by the Republicans, and the rise of the Zebra Soviets, it’s only a matter of time until we’re surrounded by vicious nations.” “And finally; the search for this ‘Atomic Discharge’ has yielded no results, she seems to have escaped.” Celestia was aware of the destruction the Changelings caused to her city, her subjects. The fact that the citizens don’t feel safe anymore is extremely worrying, and the gradual increase of threats and technology is even more distressing. There’s no way she can stop the progress now—if an unknown race (The Changelings) that was literally discovered not a few days prior, had access to those boom-sticks, then is only a matter of time before the rest of the world gets their grubby little hooves on the weapons as well. There’s no point attempting to prevent it now, only to guarantee the safety of her subjects, and that requires a larger, more modern military. One that actually has the ability to effectively combat foreign invading armies. Celestia needs an advantage. And she’ll just have to use those ‘boom-sticks’ to do it.  “Captain,” she started, “see if you can get as many blacksmiths and engineers as possible to study the recovered weapons, and attempt to mass replicate it, place any additional documents required on my desk.” With the Captain speechless, she sat up, and trotted out of the room with a grim expression masked across her face.  The technological arms race has officially begun.     —— Editor's Note: Oh shit...Shiny is dead, I thought only the BBB died. Well, good riddance, the incompent die, and now with Celestia entering the Arms Race, it's officially Cold war pony edition™ Why cold? Well, they don't want to fight but are prepared to.  But I still wait for the Trench Warfare to start...I hope Music: Nothing at all, I was eating a pepperoni Pizza hotpocket instead.