//------------------------------//
// Histories 
// Story: War From the Stars 
// by James Pwyll 
//------------------------------//

Though fascinated by what she was seeing, Twilight could not help but feel the tragedy of the images presented to her. Red Alert, hard at work on some sort of computer, had produced a number of pictures on an adjacent screen for her small companion, and Twilight had been transfixed on them since. Pictures of once-beautiful, towering buildings on Cybertron, now left as little more than smouldering wrecks. Roads and open spaces littered with fallen Cybertronians. It was a grim reminder of just what kind of world and past these aliens had come from, and Twilight had been nervously twiddling her thumbs since she'd started watching it. Red Alert, apparently the observant sort, noticed this about her as she glanced from her work. "I realise this is hardly a happy viewing for the young, but..."

Twilight shook her head. "No, it's fine. I asked to see it after all."

Red Alert sighed. "It was beautiful once, our world. But time and conflict change all things." She paused for a moment, just staring at her screen absentmindedly. "Our home...can never be what it once was. It can never be lived upon again. The war lasted so long, took such a heavy toll...our people, Autobot and Decepticon alike, will forever be in exodus."

Looking to her, Twilight's expression was one of sadness, and understandably so. "I'm...so sorry."

"The sentiment is appreciated, Twilight," Red Alert replied. "But it is a situation we have learned to live with...much as we might not wish to."

Slowly, Twilight looked again to the terrible images of war from Cybertron's past. She held herself as she dwelt on the horror of what it must have been like to live through such a time. "I wonder...would this have been us if things had gone differently?"

Red Alert again looked to her, curiosity seeping into her voice. "Your world has had wars?"

Twilight nodded, though she didn't turn towards her. "We have. Mostly they were far into the past. So much time having come and gone that there's something of a disconnect between them and those alive today." Then, she winced. "Except...for one." Her Autobot companion didn't enquire, leaving the way open for Twilight to, finally, look to her and finish. "The Great War." She frowned as she looked to the side. "But believe me, the only thing 'great' about it was its size."

Red Alert turned fully to face her. "Great War...that's what we called ours too."

The two shared a look of understanding, and after a short silence, Twilight continued. "It started over a hundred years ago. Nations had been snarling across borders for years before that, but it took one incident in particular to send the dominoes falling." Again, she looked away. "A driver taking a wrong turn. And what followed...was a killing." She grimaced. "The death led to outrage. Outrage to threats. Threats to buildup. Before anyone could stop it, war had started. And it wouldn't stop for ten years." Slowly, she shook her head. "Nineteen-ten to nineteen-nineteen. The decade where the world nearly destroyed itself. Fighting and killing on a scale never seen before, never dreamed of before. No nation, no continent was spared, not even us over here in the UAF." A long sigh escaped her. "Sure, every once in a while one side would invent some new weapon or come up with a new strategy to tip the balance, but then the other side would do the same and bring things back to how they were. A ten-year stalemate that accomplished nothing but...death."

Red Alert could see how much this tale was upsetting the girl, but even so, there was one question she knew had to be asked. "How many?"

For this, Twilight took off her glasses, looking to them in her hands before speaking softly. "Estimates vary depending on who you ask...but it's generally accepted that the toll numbered around fifty million, soldier and civilian alike." After saying that, she returned her glasses to their rightful place upon her face. "No other event in human history had ever taken so many." Thinking on that, she frowned slightly. "I guess that point finally made it into our leaders' heads by the end of it. Because the closing year of the decade saw calls for peace, from all sides. They knew there'd be nobody left anywhere in the world if things kept up that way, so all gathered and agreed to an end to it." Looking over to Red Alert, she actually smiled here. "And all credit to them...the peace held. For a century afterwards, there's been no wars on our world. The Great one scared people so much that every measure possible was done to prevent it. Global demilitarisation, the formation of the World League, the cultural emphasis on cooperation and unity, all of it has served well to make sure that my generation has never had to take up arms." Her frown returned. "I just...I just wish it hadn't taken such a terrible thing to make them walk that path."

"Maybe so, Twilight," Red Alert remarked. "But consider this." Getting down on one knee, the Autobot medic looked to her thoughtfully. "Your people actually learned their lesson. You stopped yourselves before it was too late." She placed a hand upon her own chest. "My people...did not. Despite knowing the doom we were bringing ourselves, we could not stop it. And now, we pay the price." Despite that grim situation, she actually smiled. "Still, it brings me comfort to know that there is a world out there who, when faced with the same darkness, was able to bring themselves back to the light."

Twilight's face softened. "Words can never express how sorry I am that your people no longer have a home. But...things got better for my world. Perhaps...you can find a new world to call home? One where you can try to do things better?"

Red Alert's smile widened, but only a little. "A sweet dream, little one. But it cannot be. Because even the end of Cybertron did not halt the death. The war rages on, across the stars, wherever Autobots and Decepticons meet." Her expression then became a dark one. "And should the day come when we meet again on this world...you will see that truth first-hand."

As anyone would expect of her, Twilight's own expression became a sad one yet again. "Then let's hope...that day never comes."

In response, Red Alert hung her head. "Trust me, Twilight...it always comes."