//------------------------------// // Once Her Home // Story: Broken Swords and Battle Scars // by moonblossom131 //------------------------------// The Pegasus stared across the wasteland. This place was once her home. A broken windmill was halfway burned down to the ground. Only part of the net-like frame was showing. The grass near the bottom of it, on the once-green hill, was blackened. The mare sighed and took off her helmet. Her rainbow mane was showing, fluttering in the wind. Most of the buildings in the little town were burned. She flew down from the high hilltop she was sitting on and walked through the, or what used to be, the town square. Sand replaced the water in the fountain. The bakery smelled of burnt candy. It was nearly burned to the ground, with only the foundation and the steps remaining. Smoke burned off the top of the town hall. The ash crunched under the mare's hooves, and she kept her hoof-guards on. She walked past a most familiar area, with a blackened tree stump in its place. A broken beehive lay on the ground. Small silent tears created streaks in her ash-covered face as she saw the few burnt books scattered around the area. It was all too vivid. The mare flew to what was once her home. She stood atop the hill just leading to the cloud. Half of her home had fallen. The wind carried the smell of burnt apple wood from then apple acre just north of her home. Little paw prints in the dirt were left from the animals that fled from the little cottage away from the village. The Pegasus had just just passed a boutique. Manikins were covered in and torn, burnt, pieces of cloth. They were once beautiful garments, destroyed by war like the country itself. More tears fell down the mare’s face. Her helmet had been left behind on the hill. It, too, was covered in ashes. Torching her own home, torching her friend’s home, was the worst thing the Pegasus had ever done. She thought joining the Royal guard would gain her respect. She thought it would make her loyal to her country. But being part of the Equestrian navy had made her betray and lie to her friends too many times to count. The mare flew up to the remains of her house. The once pure white, breath-taking palace, was burned like everything else. So many lives were lost. She remembered the twins, only foals now, just barely three years old. She remembered her little sister. The Pegasus with unusually small wings. She remembered her friends’ sisters. The little unicorn with the cotton-candy looking mane and the beautiful voice. The intelligent Earth pony with the bow in her mane and the light in her eyes. She remembered the last time she saw them. A lilac unicorn leading three other mares away from her home, the yellow Pegasus nowhere to be found, in her silver armor and ash-covered helmet. The tree that served as the town’s library. She remembered the betrayal in their eyes. How hurt they were, emotionally and physically. The scars on her sister were the things that scared the mare the most. As the unicorn with the blue-and-purple rainbow mane led the little unicorn and the mare’s sister away. “You lied to us, you said you weren’t working for them anymore!” she yelled behind her. “What have you done, Rainbow? What have you done?” As much as she wanted to run after her sister, to tear her from Twilight’s arms, to fly her back to her broken house in the clouds, Rainbow knew she could not. Scootaloo would not have wanted to go with someone who had torched the only place she had ever called home. Rainbow pushed all of the horrid memories to the back of her mind. Why did she do it? To impress the princess, who’d gone insane with a mysterious disease? To defeat her dark sister, who was the enemy? Rainbow could not answer her own question. Entering her home, she took off all of her armor. Pillars surrounded by dust had fallen, crushing the tile on the ground. Bloodstains were scattered and smeared onto the paintings on the majestic hallways. In her own bedroom, nothing was left but a pile of ashes. Only a picture, of the mare and a lighter blue stallion, remained untouched. Rainbow couldn’t believe it as she picked up the photo. The glass was broken. War fought in her own home. The sister of the stallion in the picture leading her troops to destroy her home. She still could not understand why she had obeyed those orders. Why she had lit the match and left the scene. Why her home was covered in bloodstains. “Joining the navy was the WORST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE!” Rainbow screamed, smashing the picture onto the ground. She fled her home, leaving the little village, landing on a nearby mountain where she once laughed with her former-friends about the dragon filling Equestria with smoke. She thought that was the worst of her problems. Rainbow was far from the truth. Her knees faltered and she fell to the ground. She sobbed into her bloodstained hooves. Nothing was worth this much pain. This much suffering. This much death. Soft clacks sounded as another Pegasus landed beside Rainbow. The dignified mare wiped the tears out of her eyes and stood up. She stared at her fellow soldier. “It is done,” the mare said darkly. Her pink hair was stained with red, and her yellow coat was covered in mud stains. “At what cost, Fluttershy?” the mare screamed at her comrade. “That’s COMMANDER Fluttershy to you, soldier!” “What happened to the mare that you used to be?” “She disappeared when I joined the Navy with you.” “She didn’t need to disappear!” Rainbow argued, she stomped her hooves on the ground, puffing air out of her nostrils. “The mare that I used to be was weak and afraid!” “By being weak and afraid that mare had a soul!” Rainbow yelled. She whinnied and waved her front hooves in the air. “By being weak and afraid that mare was only covering and bottling up what she was meant to be!” “You were never meant to be anything like this!” Rainbow said. “Under your command, under Spitfire’s command, too many lives have been lost. Chrysalis was right when she said that Equestria had more love than any place in the galaxy! Look what it has turned into!” “And that is not my fault!” Fluttershy growled. Her eyes were no longer blue. She voice was no longer quiet and soft. The eyes were red. The voice was harsh, rough, demanding. This mare was not Fluttershy. “That is our princess’s fault.” “That ruler of ours has led our country into darkness! Before, with Sombra, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, it never came to this! The skies are no longer blue. The foals no longer laugh. The crops no longer grow and the clouds no longer rain! Because of this Celestia you call a princess, a leader, this country is now destroyed.” “Celestia is a GREAT ruler! Who do you think we’ve been fighting for?” “We’ve been fighting for the wrong side!” Rainbow yelled. She was so loud that her voice echoed in the canyons. “Luna realized that darkness seeping into her sister’s heart! That’s why she had Lunar guards. That’s why your eyes are red, that’s why all the soldiers have no souls! It is because we are fighting for the wrong princess. She is no princess at all!” “You will not talk that way about YOUR LEADER!” Fluttershy exploded. The two voices bounced along the cliff walls. “You will not talk that way about our enemy!” “Watch me,” Rainbow said as she spat on the ground. “this is not Equestria. That excuse for a princess is no leader. This is not a country that my filly will be raised in!” Rainbow shut her mouth only too late. “What?” Fluttershy growled. “You have a daughter?” “I am expecting a daughter,” Rainbow sighed. “The father was sent to the dungeons because he realized what this country was turning into! He realized before all of us!” “He thought wrong!” Fluttershy said. “You no longer wear your ring.” “That is because you stole it.” Fluttershy ignored her soldier. “He. Thought. Wrong! That’s why he is in the dungeons, that’s why he is hoof-cuffed to the walls! That’s why his back is scarred with injuries.” “The Lunar guards are correct to fight against Celestia! Her eyes are surrounded by darkness. The evil in her presence is palpable.” “Lies!” Fluttershy tried to object. “It is all lies!” “No, it’s not, and you know it!” Rainbow pinned Fluttershy to the ground. The commander was unsuspecting. “I’ll have you court-martialed for lack of support!” Fluttershy hissed. Rainbow spat on the ground next to her commander. “I don’t give a flying feather,” Rainbow said. “I am going to leave Equestria.” “Where will you go?” “The only place not touched by this war!” “How will you get to Arctic north!” Fluttershy objected. “The train stations were shut down long before this war began.” “I don’t care if it will take me months to fly there! The Crystal Empire is the only place that shines with light!” Fluttershy smirked. Rainbow let her up. To her surprise, Fluttershy smiled at her. Not a happy smile. A smile of darkness, evilness. A twisted, cruel smile. And she started laughing. Manically laughing. “What’s so funny?” “You really think that the empire is safe?” Fluttershy continued laughing. “Fine! Go see for yourself, ‘hero’.” Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “When I come back, I expect the old Fluttershy to be here. And I expect her to stay.” “She’s not coming back,” Fluttershy said. Rainbow flew away from the mountain, her former-friend’s laughter echoing through the mountains, and across the plains. Rainbow would travel to the Empire. And she would find what she was looking for. But she needed to make a little detour. She touched her hoof to her stomach. Three months pregnant, six months to go. No soldier or commander could tell. But she’d have to escape quickly. There was a strict law a newborn foals. They were immediately taken and trained for Celestia’s army. When in the Lunar territory, they were taken and trained for Luna’s army. Rainbow shook her head. There was no right side. There was no wrong side. There was no good or evil, moral or immoral… there was just war.