Chapter VI : Lies, Lies, Lies...

Thought of the Day : In an hour of Darkness a blind man is the best guide. In an age of Insanity look to the madman to show the way.

Location : Equestria, Ponyville.
Time : 12:29 PM, 09/11/1003 in the Equestrian Calendar.

Ponyville was abandon, only a few pony were marching on the streets of the village. Almost the entire city joined the regiments after the famous Celestia speech six months ago. The Mayor announced that due too city emptiness, Ponyville will lose municipal law. While of course, the rest of Ponyville citizens weren't happy about it, they couldn't deny that it was good decision. A city with a few dozens ponies wasn't a city anymore. It was unnatural, usually the city was filled with the annoying noise of the ponies talking, trading at the market and usual craziness. Now, there was nothing.

On Sweet Apple Acres, an orange filly was looking with nostalgia at her "home". Maybe not home, but though the months she spent here more time than anywhere else. Once she dreamed about the house on the tree, but she never thought, that the best part of this wouldn't be the awesomeness of the house on the tree, but her friends that could enjoy it too.

She didn't understand much of what was going on. She only knew, that this was also responsible for her friends disappearing. Wrong word, they didn't disappear. First one joined to her parents at the Canterlot, second was busy all day at the farm, helping Granny Smith. Without Big Mac, her friend had a real problem with maintaining the Apple farm. She was helping her from time to time, but it didn't help that they didn't spend much time together.

Scootaloo suddenly heard the small *thump* of the hooves hitting the ground. She turned to see the familiar blue pegasus. The newcomer face broke in the gentle smile.

The rainbow maned pony hugged her tightly too. "Yea, I missed you too."
They were hugging each other for a few dozens seconds but finally Rainbow Dash freed herself from the grip. Scootaloo was waving her tiny wings with excitement, a true, adorable smile appeared on her face. "This little filly is so adorable..." Dash thought.

"How you manage to get here?" filly asked. "You shouldn't be at these "training grounds?"

"Yea, I should, but I get a permit. Don't ask me how I managed to do this, I can say only it was seriously hard, but still not enough hard for me!"

"Is that means that you are not going? That you will stay with me? Please, please, please!" orange pegasus begged.

Rainbow Dash couldn't help and winced when she heard her question. Holding her smile became a problem too.

The weight of the mentor words stroke the filly horribly, Scootaloo could feel the tears slowly gathering in her eyes. Rainbow Dash thought about herself as a brave mare, but she truly scared when she looked on her "little sister" face with fury clearly written on it.

"Why!?" she squirted. "Why we can't just make same things as always!? I didn't see you much for about six months and it's painful already! You are doing it only because Panders told you!"

"Whatever! I mean, this is nonsence! These "humans" are just coming from nowhere and first what they do is making demands! I don't want to see you and your friends just going on "war", whatever it is. Where is your loyalty when it's needed the most?"

Scootaloo breath became rough as she just couldn't stop herself from crying. Rainbow Dash weakly hugged her, however filly didn't respond for that.

"The biggest problem with loyalty, is that being the loyal to one, usually means being unloyal to somebody else." the blue pegasus said. "A choice between everything, my friends, Equestria, ponykind and you was a hard one. I wish I could not make it. I... I really wish you will not be obligated to make similiar one in the future. I'm not feeling awesome anymore, knowing that I did it." Rainbow Dash lowered her head. "Whatever I would chose, I was screwed. You are right kid. I'm not the loyal to my friends, but rather I'm disloyal to a pony, that I truely adore. You know kid, you are awesome, aren't you?"

"I think the greatest things we achieve are not in ourselves, but what other ponies can achieve because of us. In that case, you are my biggest pride squirt. Besides..." she changed topic, because speaking of the slice-and-life stuff make her head dizzy "I kinda need somebody to be enough awesome to replace me here, in Equestria. You are fitting this role really well." Dash chuckled.

"Of course! Heck, I wish I would be here to see your cutie mark right after you will achieve one. Think about that in this way, the longer you will wait for it, the more awesome it will become!"

With that, Scootaloo hugged her, pulling the rainbow mane close. Dash feeled the Scootaloo mane wiping her chest.

"I will missed you so much..." the filly turned her face to meet the Rainbow soft gaze. "...but I understand."

"Good to know that kid." she smiled. "But actually, I came here not only to make some talking stuff with you. I want to show you something."

"So I guess I need to help you a bit with it, because this place is quite far away" she said and spread her wings. Scootaloo blinked only once, before the hooves of her mentor brought her into the air, the wind striking furiously against her face. She cried with excitement when she realised that she was in the air with her idol, flying toward the east.

"So here it is." Rainbow Dash said as she landed on top of the arboreous forest.

Thanks to the trees leaves, only the small amount of light illumanitated area. While earlier Scootaloo heard the sounds of birds and other creatures of the forest, now she heard only a quiet sound of the wind, sweeping between the trees. At first, she didn't spotted anything at all, just some boring trees, grass and bushes. The filly was about to ask why Rainbow took her here, but then she finally noted something which wasn't usual. It was the sculpture of somepony, covered with so many vines that it was blending with the scenery. It was quite strange, she didn't think that there were more ruins than the Old Castle in the Everfree Forest.

The sculpture itself was the pegasus, she spotted a piece of rock which looked really similarly to the wings. She couldn't recognize if it was the stallion or mare, the were too few hints to guess it. However, Scootaloo spotted that the pony was wearing a big armor and was holding a weapon in her hoof, however due to the low quality of the sculpture she wasn't able to tell the name of it.

"Heck, I never thought I would become so philosophical." Rainbow Dash started "I dunno why, but after I heard about all these "Calling, regiments and humans" stuff I realised something strange. The grass isn't the greener where we aren't, but the grass is greener in the places we left. While practising to the Wonderbolts I almost forgot about this. The past is always better. Okay, not always but hey! You can miss the stuff from your past, but you can't miss stuff from future, because, well they didn't happen yet! Kinda."

Scootaloo was ashamed by this suprisingly wise statement, but she started wondering why exactly her mentor brought her here.

"You see... this is one of the thing I will miss much. You know, Equestria... itself? Like... dunno. Just a small things. Like a cloud napping. Or making pranks in duo with Pinkie. Usually, I start thinking too late to realise such kind of stuff. Do you know who is he?" she asked pointing the sculpture.

Scootaloo observated the statue for several seconds. It seemed familiar but not enough to recall who exactly this pony was.

"Oh, come on squirt. Pegasi who don’t know this guy are Changelings for sure." Dash chuckled.

"Well I..." Scootaloo was about to said that she didn't remember him, but then she recalled one particular lesson with Cheerilee. "Okay, I remember." she said unhesitatingly.

"Of course you are!" Rainbow Dash smirked. "This is one of the thing I will probably miss too during this "war". You know, I will go to the places where everything is so "new" and "not like" Equestria. These things are worring me more than this "war" itself."

"I wish I could go with you Rainbow Dash, it would be awesome." Scootaloo whispered.

"I guess it would, but you are too young for that. And somebody need to be awesome here, while I will be helping my friends!" Dash cried with joy. The blue pegasus looked to the sun when suddenly the shock appeared on her face. "Oh, sweet Celestia. I'm late! Spitfire will kill me or something worse!" she was about to fly immediately, when she recalled that her favourite filly was still there.

“Of course! As soon as I will manage to get a permit! Stay awesome there kiddo!” she screamed, while the rainbow mare lifted off into the air. Scootaloo was observating her for a few seconds as her idol figure became less visible until she couldn’t see it at all.

Location : Equestria, Canterlot Castle
Time : 14:13 PM 09/11/1003 in the Equestrian Calendar.

"I'm not impressed." the governor said. "You managed to do this better than my superior expected, but in my personal opinion it's not enough."

"What's your problem with the regiments? We made everything according to the original Uplifting Primer and re-written Codex, everything is perfect." Celestia stated.

The Throne Room of the Canterlot Castle was unusual filled with many figures, both humans and ponies. Celestia was sitting at her throne, while the governor sent by Lord-General Anders was standing just before her. There were several doors for the left and right side of the princess, almost every of them was guarded by the member of Royal Guard, now equipped with lasguns. The governor was acompanied by two stormtroopers, the special forces of the Imperial Guard.

Differences were easy to spot, stormtroopers were wearing black carapace armors and instead of lasguns they were equipped with hellguns, much more powerful version of this weapon. Hellguns had much bigger rate of fire and their penentration though the armor was stronger. Faces of the stormtroopers were hidden behind the gasmasks. However, both humans and ponies guards were only mute figures with dangerous tools. They just stood in place, creating the tense atmosphere. Only Celestia and the human governor were the living figures on this board.

"Yes, in term of law you made everything succesful." governor spoke. "However, your soldiers are still untrained and not ready for the warfare. And they will have to be ready in three months."

"With all respect, Anders said we have four years to prepere regiments and we used only a six months." Celestia said, trying to stay calm, because she realised that something is going really wrong. "We still have a lot of time and besides, you said that they are untrained and you still want to send them to battle?"

"The situation has changed. After the victory on Balhaut the forces of Chaos scattered. However, the new chaos leaders appeared and they are regrouping their armies in this sector. Warmaster Macaroth and his generals are suspecting that Chaos want to unleash counter-attack in a few months and they can be a real threat to our Crusade. In that case, we need your regiments now." governor said and got a piece of paper from his pocket. "This is official order, signed by Lord-General Anders. The final Calling of your Regiment will happen in three months, not in three and half year."

"You think I will agree for this? I can't even say it with a manner, so let's state this is ridiculous. They are not ready, plus you broke the rules of our agreement. I will not accept this. We made our agreement six months ago and the term of it will end in three years and half."

The governor didn't seem to be bother by her decline. "Lord-General Anders suspected that you would decline." he said and clapped his hands.

One of the few doors unguarded by her Royal Guard opened, revealing two more stormtroopers. They entered the room caring the unconscious pony in their hands. Celestia gasped in horror when she realised who he was.

With that cry, every guardspony in the room turned their lasguns on the Anders pawn and his stormtroopers. Stormtroopers prepered their hellguns too, pointing towards Celestia, despite that they couldn't hurt her. Shining Armor looked like he was tortured, even from far Celestia spotted a few deep scars across his body.

"Explain it, or I will burn you into the ash!" Celestia cried with fury, her horn glowing with a yellow light ready to unleash the destruction upon the humans. She was ready to fulfil this threat with no doubt.

"You will not." the governor smirked. "The Imperial fleet is still on the orbit. If I will be killed, there will be nothing standing on this planet. Trust me, cyclone torpedoes solves all the problems. Permanetly. But actually, I will explain it."

"Maybe you don't know, but idea of the world being isolated for ten thousand years, without the Chaos taint seems ridiculous. Ponies? Psykers power without the Warp presence? Magic of Friendship? No self-maintaining weather? Flying ponies? A new goddesses we never heard about? The fact we weren't trusting you was obvious you, I guess. Lord-General Anders gave me this order to ensure that no Chaos taint settled down in this land."

Shining Armor opened one of his eyes, still dazed from the torture. He whispered something and thanks to the Celestia hearing she managed to hear him.

"You could ask us, we could tell you about entire history of Equestria. You didn't have to torture my loyal servant. No Chaos taint settled down in this land. " Celestia stated, the glow from her horn fainted. Princess started observating the position of the guardsponies and stormtroopers, thinking of the emergency plan.

"Is that so?" human asked. "This unicorn..." he pointed Shining Armor "didn't gave us much, but I think it's enough. What is Discord?" he asked, having a bit problem with pronouncing “Discord” correctly.

As much as Celestia tried, she couldn' hold her perfect, blank face. She heard the sound of her heart beating loudly and her hooves shaking a bit.

"Or nevermind, I don't want to know. But hear me now, Celestia." he came a bit closer. "Inquisitor Goran of the Ordo Malleus will come in two minutes for the audience. If upon this time you will not agree, I will tell him everything I know. The inquisitor will show no mercy for this world when he will realise he can't trust you anymore and Chaos really exist in this land. Consider it as the final chance given from the clement hands of the Lord-General Anders. The regiments will be called in three months."

The silence took control over the room. Celestia couldn't help her nerves. She started regeining calm with trying to put her perfect poker face again. When she did it, she looked on the faces of her Royal Guard. They weren't supposed to be her advisors, they weren't even able to talk during the audiences, but she just wanted to know what they felt. Most of the guardsponies were targeting the governor with their lasguns, ignoring the stormtroopers. They were much more experienced than usual recruits with only six months service. Still, their emotions were mostly dominated with fear and insecure. Celestia wasn't even sure if they would start fire if the fight would begin.

Actually, they already agreed to... no, bad words. Luna agreed to create the Equestrian Regiments, in serve of mankind. But the agreement was totally different. They were supposed to be well-trained, she hoped they would come back from war. This order gave her suspicion that Anders just wanted to find the meatshields to protect his own regiment. Still, the power of Lord-General was scaring her. The biggest question was, why Anders was ploting behind the backs of Inquisition? It seemed really strange, in theory all institutions of the Imperium should work together. And how much the Anders pawn knew about Discord? He seemed to only knew a name, maybe he wasn’t knowing anything at all. So many questions, so few answers...

Celestia sighed. The worst part of entire situation was the fact she didn't have any choice at all. She could say “Yes” or “No” but all the facts were against her free will. No matter how much she wanted to decline, she couldn’t do it.

"Well, in that case I'm realising Shining Armor. However, if you will dare to not tell us the truth, other ponies will suffer his fate. Do not try to do this again."

With that words, two stormtroopers who held the unicorn in their hands exited the chamber, pulling captain of the Royal Guard with them. Other two stormtroopers who guarded the governor put off their weapons and stood on attention. With a few seconds of hesitation, the guardsponies did the same. When entire situation looked exactly like the one before Shining Armor entrance, the main door to the Throne Room opened.

Inquisitor Goran entered the chamber. Despite the fearsome reputation of his organization, the bald human was cheerful and his smile seemed genuine.

"My lord, it's a honor to meet you again too." the Anders pawn turned to him. "However, I don't think I can talk with you right now, I need to make inspection of the regiments. Emperor protects."

"Emperor protects." Goran said while the governor left the chamber with his stormtroopers. The pair of stormtroopers closed the door when they entered the corridor in front of the Throne Room. In time when the inquisitor was busy observing the governor, Celestia put the best smile she could on her face, while the guardsponies tried to not shake so much. She was sick of talking with another human, she was sick of tense conversations in which one bad word could bury her. She was sick of these ploting, hiding, planning... everything.

She was sick of her plan being in total ruin. Humans discovered Equestria, Twilight accidentally buried her secret plan, she was forced to send nine thousand ponies to death and future was looking like “Hey, you think that’s the only thing I got? Better brace yourself, because I’m going to make things even worse!”.

But still, the worst part of it was that she was defeated by the mortal human. She had the thousands years experience and she was outsmarted by usual Imperial Guard general. How was it possible? She wasn’t getting old, her mind was still sharp as always. Maybe a bit poor choice of words, she wasn’t defeated. But in the battle between her and Lord-General Anders she was forced to abandon the key structures on the battlefield. She was hoping only, that even with a few defeats on the battlefield she could still win the war...

"Greetings, Inquisitor Goran of the Ordo Malleus, why you came here?" she asked in the soft tone. Despite her experience, she was suprised that she managed to say it that calm.

“Spirit of the Chaos, hear my voice...”
“Spirit of the Chaos, hear my beg...”
“Spirit of the Chaos, hear my pray...”

“The Deamon of Change, answer the call of Souther, for there is a task to be done...”

Equestria First and Only

by Verlax

Chapter VI : Lies, Lies, Lies...