Ten years. Ten long years since the Armies of the Earth had defeated mankind at their new capital of Canterlot. Ten years since the human army had vanished off the face of the earth and ten years since humanity began to suffer from the Plague of madness that consumed their very souls. General Cloud Hoof counted every day that the Earth Mother gave him as a blessing, and every night as a curse. He would awake, bathed in sweat from the nightmares of what was consuming the humans. But not just that, he would often take his head into his hooves and force down the tears, hating himself for every human that he had killed in battle on The Day of Judgement and for every human that he had sent to their graves just for freeing himself from their slavery.
His only solace in life was his family, his beloved wife Starshine who would comfort him in time of need, chase away the nightmares with her warm touch. And then there was his heart and soul, his daughter Hurricane who had been his reason for living before the War. His little filly had grown so much in her ten years on this earth, and it was her smile and her laugh that kept Cloud from falling to salt addiction like so many other veterans. Simply put, they kept him alive, and he did what he could to make them happy. But both Starshine and Hurricane knew something haunted the stallion of the family, always on the edge of his mind and tormenting him endlessly.
Cloud Hoof was not the only one who suffered. Less than a year after the Princesses left to fight some mysterious monster, infighting and political unrest had forced the various tribes of ponies to split apart, by schism they were rent asunder. The unicorns proclaimed the capital of Canterlot as their own city, banishing the pegasi and the earth ponies from the safety of the walls. This came after Cloud's friend Starswirl, another veteran of the War with mankind, stepped down as the unicorn leader. Some upstart unicorn noble had then declared himself king and ousted any of his opponents, namely the other tribes and the other creatures that still lived in Canterlot.
The pegasi fared rather well in their city-state polis of Cloudsdale, the highly militarized society of warriors fighting off any threat that dared come within their clouded borders. But there was a problem, the pegasi controlled little to none of the ground level and were thus incapable of growing their own food. The ousted earth ponies accepted their fate almost without question, they seemed to prefer the simple life of their small villages and hamlets as opposed to the bustling city of Canterlot and could grow enough food for several nations of ponies. The pegasi had approached the earth ponies, promising protection from their wilder comrades from the war and maybe even the occasional human infected with Chaos Plague. Though attacks were few and far between, the earth ponies had no choice but to accept the deal of the mighty pegasi that still controlled the clouds and thus the rain to grow their crops.
Seeing their underhanded dealings, the unicorn nobility demanded their own share of the tribute from the earth ponies, maintaining that they could never have won the War without their magic. And who knew? Maybe some new threat could arise at any moment. And thus a tenuous agreement existed between the three tribes. It was shaky and based on might is right, but it held.
But Cloud hated the deal, it was the Ephor council's idea to bully the earth ponies into giving them food, not his. And he appealed to them often for a better solution than simply intimidating their brethren. Now was such a moment. He stood in a cloudmasonry forum building, wearing his black ceremonial armor, once again appealing to his brothers in arms.
"Gentlecolts of the Ephor council, I beg of you to please reconsider our agreement with the earth ponies. Such a thoughtlessly brutal alliance can only result in deeper hatreds than we have already created. And on top of that, none of our efforts to aid the humans have even passed a vote, why can we not set aside our political goals and simply help them?!"
An older, robed pegasus stallion with a dark grey coat stood from his bench. "Ha! General you cannot be serious about either issue. Those mindless earth ponies are happy digging in the dirt, we are the ones being generous with our part of the agreement. We already provide them with the rains to make their crops grow, it is only our good nature that gives them protection from the creatures of the wild. And why would we want to aid the demons? They are dying off if you did not know, this is our world now."
"Councilpony Storm Chaser, we must consider the humans as our fellow living creatures! We do not even know what is killing them. What will it do when it finishes off all the humans? I can assure you it will turn on us to feed on next!"
The entire council laughed at the roan red pegasus. "Surely you must be joking Cloud Hoof! The humans themselves even acknowledge that this is some kind of plague that strikes them with madness. If anything we should focus our efforts on reclaiming our place in Canterlot." Most of the council stomped their hooves in agreement. Cloud shook his head and flew away. Outside of the forum he was met by a friendly face.
"General sir!" said a friendly yet kind of serious yellow pegasus soldier.
"Sergeant Snowfall, I do not know why I even try with those ridiculous Ephors."
"Hello to you too sir. But you know what they say about pegasi, we only have three jobs. Soldier, weather pony and politician. Four jobs if you include cloudmason, but that's just a weather pony with architect skills.Those Ephors just take their job too seriously. And Storm Chaser is the worst, you know he just wants one of the open archon positions with the next council election."
"Hmph, if we didn't suffer from the curse of politics we wouldn't be having the strife with the unicorns and maybe we would finally pull our heads out of our asses long enough to help the humans."
The two armored ponies walked on the cloud streets of Cloudsdale. They reached the market square, not much of a market since they stole most of their food from the earth ponies. Various weapon vendors, armor repairs, household items and artisans had stalls here. Not much business though.
"Are you still on about the humans sir? We've been watching a few of their towns, they seem alright to me, no sign of Plague and some of them don't try to kill us when we get near."
"Good, but keep an eye on them, just in case they make some kind of move or are suddenly stricken with Plague."
"With all due respect General, I'm not here to talk about the humans. I'm here about Cadet Hurricane."
Cloud stopped dead and flared his wings. "What did she do now?"
"Well sir, she and the other cadets were all having their lunch break at the Academy, when suddenly she went wild and beat up another cadet. That colt's father is very angry with how his son looked when he came home today."
Cloud gave a small sigh, "When will that filly learn? Thank you Sergeant Snowfall, I'll take care of her."
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"HURRICANE!" Cloud yelled as he entered the door to his home. "Get your little flank down here right this instant!"
The little blue filly with the fire red mane trudged down the stairs to her bedroom, clutching a snow cloud to her eye. Apparently she had taken her blows as well as given them. He pointed to the stool where she normally sat when in trouble. Hurricane groaned and sat her haunches on the well used stool.
"Sergeant Snowfall had a little chat with me today Hurricane. Care to explain yourself?"
"Sergeant Snowfall doesn't like me Daddy, he only told you Kicks' side of the story!"
"Hurricane!" he said with a slanted stare.
The blue filly groaned as she shifted the cloud between hooves. "We were at lunch and I was just eating when Kicks and his friends started saying you were a dirty demon lover!"
"What did I tell you about that word?"
"But that's what Kicks said! He said 'my dad is a better commander than that dirty demon lover ever was'. I got so mad that the next thing I knew he was crying and I was beating him up."
"We've been over this a hundred times Hurricane, we never resort to violence unless we have to."
"But Daddy, fighting is what being a pegasus is about. We're warriors, not dirty farmers or snobby elites."
Cloud calmed and shook his black maned head. "Being a pegasus isn't about fighting. Being a pegasus is about freedom, we were given wings to be free, my daughter. We just have the willingness to fight for our freedom. Do you understand?"
She nodded her head with a single violet eye looking at Cloud. "Here, let me take a look." He moved her hoof to look at her eye. Underneath was a nearly perfect black ring around her violet eye. "He must have laid a nice one on you, keep the ice on it and you'll be fine. Now off to your room, you're grounded for a week. Think about what I said about being a pegasus."
"But Daddy..."
"No 'buts', now go to your room." the filly trudged off upstairs to her room, her head hung low in personal shame.
"Well you sure handled that cadet well, General." Cloud turned to see his wife Starshine standing in the doorway, an annoyed look on her face.
"She got in another fight Star, all because one of her fellow cadets said I was a human lover."
She trotted in front of her husband, her mint green fur clashing with her white toga. "Well? Are you a human lover?"
"They did horrible things to us Star, they massacred us, imprisoned us, and made us their slaves. But I still feel love for them."
"You mean, you feel love for that one."
Cloud's gaze shifted off to the distance, "Yes, I do love him like a friend, and I miss him."
Starshine placed a hoof on her husband's cheek, "He is almost certainly in a better place now Cloud."
"I know, just about any place is better than this prison we've built for ourselves."
"Don't be so harsh on yourself Cloud, we fought for our freedom and won. We still have the time to make it right with the humans. Now, about our little cadet's punishment."
"Not harsh enough for you my love?"
"No, the air show is on Thursday, and you know how much our little girl loves the air shows."
Cloud looked his beloved wife in her hazel eyes. "Alright, I think I can be a little lenient. Just this once though, and only because I like the air shows too."
Starshine gave Cloud a peck on the cheek. "That's my stallion. We'll let her be grounded for a few days, then let her out on good behavior."
"If she can behave that long..."
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"Clover! I need your assistance here."
"Yes Master Starswirl!" The mauve unicorn filly dashed to the older pony's side.
The elder unicorn balanced his instruments carefully while peering through an odd magical device. "My hooves are full Clover, could you make the tertiary adjustment to upper ley-line diaphragm?" His apprentice looked at all the various knobs and viewers with confusion. Unsure of what he even asked, she lifted a hoof to turn a knob at random.
"Not that one! The red one above it! Just two clicks to the left mind you." Clover made the proper adjustment, breathing a sigh of relief that no reprimand came. "Ah! Perfect Clover, well done my student. Care to take a look?" Clover brightened and peered through the viewing devices of the obscure magical invention.
Though not his own child, Starswirl loved the filly like his own daughter, taking pride in her achievements and being there every time she made a discovery. The deep purple unicorn mage led the way in pioneering the study of magic, with Clover being his prize student. Her ideas were so outside the box and bright that he sometimes called her Clover the Clever. The old bearded unicorn didn't demand respect, but his settings did. He had an outfitted laboratory that would have made a human scientist shiver with envy, but also scratch his head in confusion.
Yes, there were the devices like telescopes, bottles of chemicals and charts of the motions of planets, but also strange and downright weird things. The partial skeleton of a dragon was suspended from the ceiling, casting a bony shadow over the various diagrams of complex runes hanging over devices of questionable magical purpose. The stone walls made it look like a mad scientist's dungeon, yet it had more of an arcane feel to it.
"Notice anything my apprentice?" the older unicorn asked.
"Hmm, there seems to be a standard deviation of about twenty degrees in temperature."
"Correct! Aha, no wonder you are my prize student!" He tussled her mane with a hoof. "You are dismissed for the day, but would you do an old stallion a favor?"
"Yes sir Master!"
"Run down to the market and gather some fresh honeycomb from the vendors, we may need it for that alchemy recipe we tried earlier, mostly for flavor mind you." The mauve filly's face squelched as she remembered the incredibly bitter potion they had cooked up earlier. "And here's a few extra bits, buy yourself something sweet Clover." he handed her a bag of bits, giving his pride and joy a small nuzzle.
"Thank you Master!" she proudly cantered out of the lab for the day. Now that she was gone, Starswirl could move on to darker and more dangerous areas of research without risking his prize student. He opened a box that was enchanted to maintain a very cold temperature, and with his magic levitated out a bloody pink mass. Placing it on the dissection table he began his examination.
Musing his thoughts aloud he wrote down notes as he examined the brain on the table. "Subject number seventy-two, intact this time. Species: human. Affliction: Chaos Plague. Managed to buy the carcass from the pegasi warriors that killed it, for once they saw fit not to decapitate or impale it."
Levitating a scalpel he made a careful incision and opened the cerebrum, "Areas of the brain mostly concerned with higher thinking are shriveled, this creature has been afflicted for some number of months, possibly up to a year. Strange, as the humans afflicted usually fight with one another and succumb to their wounds or starve to death. Still no sign of what causes the neural degeneration, I would need a normal human being to act as a control as opposed to seeing only those afflicted."
He continued to cut, "Areas of the brain concerned with sensory perceptions are in perfect shape, no sign of trauma or of infection. If this were a disease as the humans continue to say it is, it would not have such a localized effect, there would be evidence elsewhere." He set down the levitating scalpel, concentrating his magic as a probe. Though several days dead, it could still provide answers through more arcane means.
"Odd, magical probing shows...nothing. Not even residual magic. Humans have never shown magical inclinations, but a complete lack is disturbing to say the least. This may be a quirk of the individual or an effect of the advanced age of the specimen." Having learned everything he could, Starswirl incinerated the specimen. Muttering with frustration, he began to close his lab for the night.
"If only they would talk to us."