//------------------------------//
// Ch.1: Cold dust 
// Story: Revenge is Bittersweet 
// by P-Berry 
//------------------------------//


What do you fight for, when you’ve lost everything? 
When your life lies in ruins and your homeland is ravaged by war?
Do you fight for honor? For glory? For peace?
No, you fight for revenge! You want to make those responsible pay for what they have done!
But with time, you’ll see that revenge isn’t even nearly as sweet as people say.






Chapter 1: Cold dust

I never wanted to do this. I never wanted to rebel, I never wanted to fight, and I never wanted to kill. All I wanted to do was live my simple life. Is that too much to ask for? 

I should have seen it coming. I’ve never been a supporter of Princess Celestia’s strict government, but I accepted it, since I would have never challenged the Princess’ authority: she was the ruler, I was the subject, period. I didn’t like her for living in excess and ignoring the begging voices coming from those who weren’t as lucky as her, but with time, I’ve learnt to live with her attitude: she lived in her perfect world where everypony was happy and everything was made of gold; everypony from outside this world was a servant in the best case.

But I didn’t care that much about her anyways: my life was fine, there was peace and harmony in Equestria, and I had no other worries than what to do with my time. I was young, wild and free; politics were the last thing to care about in my eyes: there was a monarchic Princess and some ponies that were unhappy because of her, simple as that. Even the Princess couldn’t be everypony’s darling after all.

As time went on, there were smaller protests against her reign from time to time, but the majority of the ponies accepted the Princess as their ruler: her dues were more or less bearable and her scattered acts of generosity, such as slightly lowering the taxes or paying random villages a visit and giving smaller presents to the residents, made most of the population stick to her. The ponies were convinced that they could do nothing against her reign anyways: Celestia had been the ruler all along, nothing would ever change this.

However, in the past few years, Celestia’s megalomania seemed to prevail over the sanity in her mind: she hardly ever left her palace, more and more stopped interacting with her subjects, and let her servants provide her with every kind of luxury: huge chariots, grandiose celebrations for her bourgeoisie, and a 24/7-sustenance with only the finest food Equestria could provide.

In order to afford this exuberant luxury, Celestia issued multiple laws, squeezing the population with excessive taxes and merciless dues. Soon, the protests returned and the suffering ponies began to ask for relief; Celestia’s illusion of a perfect world began to crumble as she saw herself faced with a large mass of dissatisfied, exhausted subjects.

But Celestia didn’t accept this trend: she permitted the ponies to protest, increased the taxes even further and recruited hundreds of guards to -if necessary- punish the disobedient ponies. Intimidated by this nonverbal, but definitely expressive threat, the population silenced again and the downcast ponies retired into their misery, their everyday life being controlled by strict surveillance and merciless exploitation. Most of them prayed to Faust and asked for relief, but it was pointless: not even divine powers seemed to help against the ponies’ oppression.

The unexpected coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle sparked the ponies’ hopes for recovery: everypony in Equestria hoped for some fresh wind in the government, some ones even expected a turn towards democracy. As Twilight was widely known for acting wise and fair, the ponies hoped for her to give Celestia a piece of her mind and end the tyranny, or at least abolish the excessive taxes; the desperate ponies clung to this little piece of confidence and pinned all their hopes on the new Princess, hyping her as their ‘great liberator’.

But the hopes remained unfulfilled: instead of modernizing the government and abolishing the extortionate laws, Twilight pretty much became the lapdog of Celestia and simply adapted to her conservative policy, moving to Canterlot and leaving everything she had behind: her property, as well as her friends. Instead of meeting her reputation as liberator and ending the suffering, she became a tyrant, just like her mentor. Retrospectively, that was no real surprise: Twilight had been near and dear to Celestia for multiple years back then, so it was expectable that she wouldn’t rebel against her beloved mentor, even though that was what the population desperately hoped for.

However, the disappointment about the shattered expectations on Princess Twilight seemed to be the final straw: the suffering population finally raised its voice and brutal riots all over Equestria ensued; the enraged ponies took to the street and called for rights, liberty and democracy; the times of despotism seemed to draw a close.

Still, Celestia didn’t want to abandon her cozy lifestyle; the greed for power and luxury seemed to have gotten the better of her: she shouted the rebelling voices down, tightened her iron grip around Equestria and brutally quelled the riots.

But her actions failed their purpose: instead of intimidating the population once again, the suppression of the revolt only made the ponies angrier. Only a few days after the last riot had been quelled by royal guards, the insurgent ponies finally acted actively against their tyrant ruler and charged Canterlot Castle, causing a bloody fight between rebels and royal guards.

But they underestimated Celestia’s obsession: enraged about the ponies’ disobedience, she completely extinguished the assault and killed every single pony participating in it, mercilessly exterminating a noticeable part of the Equestrian population.

Her sister, Princess Luna, who until then had watched the whole conflict with discomfort, then approached her big sister and asked her to be perceptive, to end the slaughter and to grant the ponies their rights. But Celestia was outraged about that request and unhesitatingly expelled her sister, calling her a traitor and public enemy for allegedly ‘backstabbing’ her. 
Since she was a Princess and accordingly stubborn, Luna didn’t let the ban unsettle her: instead of accepting her ban, she appealed to all the ponies in Equestria who wanted to come out of their shells and united with them, forming a new nation of liberty, equality and fraternity: the New Lunar Republic.

Its headquarters are situated on the moon, the tactically best place, since it’s hard to attack by Celestial troops; the last territory of the Republic in Equestria is a small stronghold near Ponyville. Luna managed to build it overnight and expand it to a real fortress by surrounding it with high walls and connecting it to the headquarters on the moon via a magic portal.
As a defense response to the new state, Celestia hastily dissolved the traditional government of Equestria and formed a new nation on her own: the Solar Empire, a totalitarian state with the Princess as the single head of state and a mass of subordinate ponies with neither rights, nor liberty; a state that was supposed to surpass the Republic in every way, and a state that, in fact, was just another sign of Celestia’s obsession.

As almost nopony reacted to her orders to apply for a citizenship, Celestia sent out her guards to violently force the population into her dictatorship. Within a few weeks, she so managed to turn the majority of the remaining ponies into her subjects; Luna could only stand back.

Even though none of both parties acted actively, the tense, caused by hostilities and arms race between the two nations, was clearly visible and it was only a question of time until a civil war would break out in Equestria. 

The only job the two sisters did cooperatively was raising the sun and moon in their usual rhythms and so providing the population of Equestria a regulated day-night-rhythm. Even though she or her supporters had no direct benefit from it, since there was hardly any sunlight on the moon and the Republic consequently was independent from Celestia’s control of the sun, Luna upheld this collaboration, for she didn’t want the population of Equestria suffer from an eternal day.

Nonetheless, the disharmony between the two rulers quickly stained on the Equestrian population: while about forty per cent of the ponies joined the Republic either instantly or after a few months, the rest of the ponies still lived in Equestria, being sometimes proud, but mostly submissive subjects of Princess Celestia.

The suffering of the population -especially of the earth ponies who were forced to sustain the whole country with precious food- caused by Celestia’s stranglehold, made many ponies lose their faith in their leader, but the power Celestia showed when extinguishing the riots outfaced the population and prevented them from starting another revolt. Those who wanted to fight Celestia joined the Republic, the rest of the country consisted of Celestia’s subjects; relatively simple, at least on the face of it. 

But there was one last group of ponies: those who were unbiased; who still lived in Equestria, but didn’t officially join the side of the Solar Empire or the New Lunar Republic.

This is where I come into play: my name is Fippo; I used to belong to that third group. It’s not that I agreed with Celestia’s megalomaniac reign, but I just tried to stay out of the conflict and hoped for it to vanish with time; I was convinced that war was no solution for the clash. So, as the Republic was formed and the population more and more divided into supporters of either the Republic or the Empire, I just tried to continue to live my life, refusing to become biased in any way.

Being a pegasus made this a lot easier: even though Cloudsdale officially is a part of the Solar Empire, Celestia ‘kindly’ accepted non-subjects in her second most important city, so least of the ponies in my environment were offended by my neutrality. So I just tried to get by, living in a split country and knowing that a war was inevitable; my future didn’t look that rosy after all. In fact, I even had to deal with depressions: seeing the country I once loved getting torn apart and turned into a battlefield and knowing that ponies would kill each other for the sake of two estranged sisters certainly weren’t the nicest things on earth. But in-between all the melancholia; in-between all the apprehensions, there was one thing that gave me confidence: a red shooting star; a red flicker of hope; a red filly. A filly that always managed to make me forget about my sorrows and just enjoy the time I could spend with her; her beaming smile seemed to break through the grey clouds around my head every time I saw her: Firespark, my daughter.

I groan at the thought of her: why couldn’t I avert it? Why the hell couldn’t I save her!? Why in Faust’s name does fate have to be that cruel!? Narrowing my eyes and forcing myself to hold back tears, I sigh and lift my head, my glance wanders over the bleak landscape in front of me; the moon has never been a nice place to live at: it’s cold, dark and dusty. But joining the Republic, living on the moon and fighting against Celestia’s troops seemed to be the only way for me to get my revenge: for my property, for my daughter, for my life! I clench my teeth and stare at the blue planet presenting in front of me: I’ll soon have my vengeance!

I hear steps behind me and turn around; my look goes to the single pony approaching me. Although she wears the standard armor for earth pony-guards of the Republic -a clunky, black full-body armor with dark-blue accents and a black helmet that only reveals parts of her face- I recognize her by her green eyes and orange fur. Looking at me with a serious glance, she says: “Luna will give a speech at the main square in a couple o’ minutes. Y’all should come with me, she’ll explain the last details of…” she silences and looks to the dusty ground, “Ya know.”

I nod silently. I know how she feels about the upcoming assault: nopony likes to kill other ponies; we aren’t made for that, and none of us should ever do it, but times have changed a lot.

She turns around and gives me a gloomy look: “So, will ya come?”

I nod hesitantly and slowly trot next to her. None of us talks on the way to the nearby settlement: there’s nothing to talk about. Both of us know that we will kill today, and both of us know that we have no other choice than to do so if we want to witness the next day. But in opposite to her, I have a clear motivation to fight today; a single aim, deeply carved into my mind: I will avenge my daughter! I will face the mare responsible for her fate and make her pay for what she has done! I will make her suffer just like she made my daughter suffer!

I growl in anticipation and look at the mare next to me; she silently lifts her head and looks into my face, her dull look gets reflected by my sunglasses.

I look into her eyes: I never saw her before the outbreak of the war, so I can only imagine how she looked when times were better. Now however, her green eyes are vacant and the single streaks of dull, blonde hair which are hanging into her face only suggest how shiny her hair must have been before the war, before she had lost everything she loved. I feel the anticipation quickly turn into sorrow and hastily turn my head away; I fear that I can’t hold back my tears when I look into her eyes any longer.

Confused by my hasty reaction, she weakly asks: “What’s wrong?”

I slowly shake my head: “I’m sorry … your eyes, they just …” my voice breaks, I feel the sorrow overwhelming me once again.

She nods understanding and softly asks: “Thinkin’ of yer daughter again?”

I approve in silence, still fighting with my tears.

Applejack’s eyes. Every time I see them, I see the shining eyes of Firespark, looking at me as she smiles in excitement, right before her flight test. One of the last times I saw her.