Chapter 2: The Beginnings of War
The atmosphere was heavy around the cooking fire that afternoon. Each of the Bearers was still unconscious in their own one-pony tent, the Crusaders always carrying extras. Apple Bloom sat by the fire, watching the small cauldron of soup they had put on for when the bearers woke up. Sweetie had left a while ago, wandering around the gardens and lost in her own thoughts. Scootaloo sat staring at the tents, trying to think of how to tell everypony about everything - the prejudice, the war, the deaths - and trying not to think of what she would do if Rainbow Dash woke up first.
Finally, after a few hours of silence, Scootaloo heard sounds coming from Twilight's tent. She glanced over at Apple Bloom, who was staring into the soup as if it contained the schematics of Paradise Castle. Figuring she shouldn't disturb her, Scootaloo stood and walked alone into the tent.
Twilight was facing away from Scootaloo, sitting up and rubbing the side of her head. Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Scootaloo spoke. "It's good to see you again, Twilight."
Twilight's head whipped around almost quickly enough to get backlash. She stood quickly, staring down the uniformed and armed mare before her, more than a hint of fear in her eyes. "Do I know you?" she said eventually.
"Yeah," said Scootaloo softly, hoping beyond hope that Sweetie and Apple Bloom would never have to hear their sisters ask that to them. "You know me," she continued. "I knew you too, 10 years ago."
Twilight raised a suspicious eyebrow at this. "You must be mistaken," she said, still on guard and ready to run or teleport at a moment's notice. "The only ponies I really knew when I was 8 were my family and foal-sitter, and you don't fit the bill for any of them."
Scootaloo blinked once, face blank, before she burst out laughing. It certainly fit what she'd heard from Spike about Twilight's old life as an anti-social bookworm. "Fair enough," Scootaloo finally said, "but I'm not talking about when you were 10 years younger, I'm talking about 10 years ago."
Guarded, suspicious, and now confused, Twilight regarded this strange pegasus. "I don't follow."
Scootaloo sighed and sobered up immediately, the abrupt change startling Twilight. "Look, Twilight, there's no easy way to say this, so i'm just going to be blunt. You and your friends have been gone for 10 years."
"Gone?" asked Twilight, her other eyebrow rising to join the first. "What do you mean, gone?"
"I mean that 10 years ago, you and the other 5 Bearers of the Elements of Harmony vanished without a trace when you went to confront Discord. Nopony knows how or why, and most of us assumed that you were all dead. The Elements are scattered, the Princesses are still missing, and Equestria has dissolved into a civil war that has been going on for 7 years."
"..."
A moment later it was Twilight's turn to burst out laughing. Scootaloo groaned, having thought that this might be her reaction. She did the only thing she could think of to convince her quickly; she slipped off her dogtags and threw them at Twilight's hooves. As soon a Twilight saw them, her laughter stopped. She stared down at the tags, unable to accept what she was reading. She slowly looked up at Scootaloo and back down at the tags that bore her name and rank. "S- Scootaloo?" she whispered.
The tent's flap flung up and Apple Bloom looked in. When she saw Twilight sitting up, she grinned hugely. "Twilight! You're up! How're you feelin'?"
Recognition dawned on Twilight quickly. "Apple Bloom?" she whispered.
"I'm goin' to get SB," Apple Bloom said to Scootaloo before running off.
"Don't forget the soup!" shouted Scootaloo after her. "Don't let it... Oh, never mind. I swear, if she somehow manages to burn the soup again..."
"SB?" asked Twilight, voice slowly re-approaching normal volume. "Sweetie Bell is here too?"
"That's right," said Scootaloo, grinning down at her. "7 years of war and hardship, and the Crusaders are still together!"
"And you're all soldiers?"
Scootaloo's grin faded immediately, replaced by a stone-hard look that made Twilight look away. "7 years is a long time, Twilight," she said evenly. "When the war started, it took every mare and stallion just to survive. Very few are blessed with the rank of 'civilian' these days."
"But that's impossible," said Twilight. "How could Equestria have fallen so far in just three years."
"That's a long story, Twilight," said Scootaloo, sitting down and getting comfortable. "You see, when you 6 vanished, the widespread chaos stopped. No more popping corn, chocolate rain, or cotton candy clouds. Discord's statue vanished too, and the Elements of Harmony scattered, finding new bearers both within Equestria and beyond our borders. We thought you had all sacrificed yourselves to finish him off for good. Unfortunately, Discord is still alive. He didn't go away after you all vanished; he just waited in hiding, biding his time and using his magic in a much more subtle way.
"He began corrupting the unicorns. He messed with their thoughts, made them think that they were superior to earth ponies and pegasi. It wasn't obvious at first, but after the first year we noticed how reluctant everypony was to travel to Canterlot. By the end of year two, unicorns had gone from cold shouldering to open hostility. Of course, not all of them gave in like that. SB was one of the first unicorns to realize that something was off, and she and a few others began to fight against Discord's influence. Not only that, but they started to spread the word about him and what he was doing.
"He didn't like that much." Scootaloo hesitated. The hard part was coming up. "Discord decided that there was only one way to cement his hold on the unicorns. He had Sh... the unicorn who had taken charge of Equestria issue a decree banning earth ponies and pegasi from all major cities: Canterlot, Manehattan, Phillydelphia, New Yoke, ect. He enforced this decree with the royal guard, and non-unicorns were forced to flee."
"But that's crazy!" shouted Twilight. "Not that the rest of what you've been saying isn't, but that decree just wouldn't work! How would they control the weather without pegasi? How would they grow crops without earth ponies? Not to mention that less than a third of the guard are unicorns. How would they get the rest to go along with this?"
"You know, that would've been a problem." Scootaloo turned around to see Apple Bloom walking in, Sweetie right behind her. "That is," continued Apple Bloom, "if the guard's ranks had still been even. After two years of bein' looked down on, most of the earth ponies and pegasi had quit, and tons more unicorns suddenly got the idea to join up."
"And there are plenty of spells to handle crops and weather," added Sweetie as she and Apple Bloom sat down. "But you should know that better than any of us."
So caught up was Twilight in the conversation, that she barely even acknowledged that the other two Crusaders had entered. "But those spells are so much less effective!" she exclaimed.
"Do you think Discord cares?" Scootaloo snapped. Twilight flinched and Scootaloo looked down. "All he cared about was getting them out of the major cities. After all," she looked up and locked her eyes with Twilight's, "it's easier to destroy a small village than it is to fight inside of Canterlot."
The Crusaders could see the gears turning quickly in Twilight's head, along with the look of horror as she realized what Scootaloo meant. "No," she whispered. "You don't mean..."
Scootaloo nodded. "On June 21st, year 6 of the Harmonic Era of Equestria, the unicorns gathered under a new flag, and attacked Ponyville."
Silence reigned for several minutes as Twilight processed this information and the Crusaders remembered that eventful day 7 years ago. Scootaloo eventually continued, giving a summery of the war: how the first clash of the Elements had destroyed Canterlot, how Ponyville had become Equestrian Military HQ, how the Southern Gryphon Tribes had allied themselves with Equestria, and finally, the official secession of the unicorns under the name of...
"Utopia!?" Twilight exclaimed when she heard it. "They're under Discord's control and waging a war across Equestria, and they call themselves Utopia!?"
"Of course," said Sweetie, rolling her eyes. "After all, a society ruled by unicorns is a society of perfection."
"Heh, careful there SB," said Apple Bloom. "We wouldn't want you convertin' over to Discord's side, now would we?"
"Don't even joke about that!" shouted Twilight. "I don't think that Rarity could take it if that happened."
"Speakin' of whom," said Apple Bloom, getting up and stretching, "I'm surprised she an' the others ain't up yet. Maybe we should go an' get them up."
"Oh please don't," said Twilight. "I'd rather keep them out of this nightmare for as long as possible. I'm starting to wish that I were still asleep."
"Fair enough," Scootaloo said, "but while we wait, we should get you equipped."
"Equipped?" asked Twilight. "Equipped for what?"
Apple Bloom chuckled. "Think about it, Twilight. What kind of equipment would we soldiers have with us?"
Twilight paled. "You- you don't mean, equipped for, well, fighting, do you?"
"No," said Sweetie, her deadpan out in full force. "We mean equipped for a tea party. Of course we mea-"
"A PARTY?!?!?!?!?!"
The four of them jumped back as a mass of pink appeared out of nowhere in the middle of them, with the exception of Sweetie, who fell onto her back. "Are you crazy?" continued Pinkie Pie. "Nopony would come to a party all the way out here! It's all dark and gloomy and ruiny. It would be way way way way WAY too much of a downer. Oooo, unless it was a Nightmare Night party. Then this place would be perfect! We could have a spider toss and a pumpkin-a-pult and apple bobbing and streamers and baloons and candy and-"
"PINKIE!!!"
It was a good thing that Twilight had been there, because otherwise the Crusaders would have sat there in shock for another 5 minutes at least.
"Twilight!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie happily. "You're up too? Neeto! I went to check on the others, but they're still asleep. So I looked around Canterlot - which could reeeeeeealy use some spring cleaning by the way - but I didn't see anypony there. Well, there were all of those unicorns surrounding the mountain, but they didn't look too friendly, so I just-"
"WHAT!" the Crusaders shouted. Scootaloo zipped out of the door, flying as high as she dared, and moving faster than she had since last Tuesday. She leveled out once she was a short ways above the peak of Canterlot Mountain and looked down. Sure enough, all around the mountain were armed and armored unicorns. They were quickly making their way up the mountain. A few had spotted Scootaloo and were starting to charge spells before she dove back down to the camp that Sweetie and Apple Bloom were quickly breaking down.
"This is bad," she said as she landed, gathering up a few rolled up cots and lashing them together. "Several battalions are making their way up."
"Which side of the mountain?" asked Apple Bloom as she dowsed the fire.
"All of them!" said Scootaloo, loading a heavy pair of saddlebags onto Twilight which she almost buckled under. "They've surrounded us and they're making their way up fast. We have maybe 10 minutes."
Apple Bloom swore loudly. "Ain't no way we can get through that. We've got no choice. SB!" She turned to Sweetie. "You an' Twilight need to start teleportin' us back to HQ. I know it's tierin', but-"
Apple Bloom hadn't even finished her sentence before Sweetie had grabbed Rarity and vanished in a flash of light.
"Wait!" said Twilight, panicked. "What's going on? Where's do I teleport to? I don't even know if I can-"
"Twilight!" shouted Scootaloo, cutting off her panic attack. "Either you help to get all of us out of here, or you'll be staring down a hoard of Utopians at sword-point! Now move! Get them to the library!"
Twilight nodded as Sweetie appeared again. Sweetie grabbed Applejack as Twilight pulled both Rainbow and Fluttershy over to her with her magic. They both vanished at once in a flash.
Apple Bloom sighed and looked over at Scootaloo. "This is goin' to be hard on SB," she said.
Scootaloo nodded as Twilight returned alone, panting slightly. "I know," she said as Twilight vanished with Pinkie. "She can barely handle two trips with passengers. Three will probably knock her out for a few days."
Sweetie and Twilight reappeared, both gasping for breath. "Ready for the last trip?" asked Apple Bloom worriedly.
"Y-yeah," panted Twilight, legs shaking. "Just let me- catch my- my breath."
"No time," wheezed Sweetie, already staggering toward Apple Bloom. "We've got to- get you- out of here- before the- Utopians- see you."
"She's right, Twilight," said Scootaloo walking over. "They probably know that you're here, but we can't let them learn that you all haven't aged. We need them to think that we have the Bearers back at full power and rearing to go to war. We need every advantage that we can get."
Twilight nodded and wrapped her forelegs around Scootaloo just as Sweetie took off with Apple Bloom.
"It really is good to see you again, Twilight," said Scootaloo before they vanished.
----------***----------
It was a beautiful summer day in Ponyville, and Show Stopper had taken advantage of his unbearable time off to catch up on reading the works of Shakespur. Not that there was anything particularly wrong with HQ, but after 6 years disguised behind enemy lines, he felt naked in his own brow coat. Of course, now that Utopia knew how far he'd gotten in their hierarchy, it was doubtful that the discovered spy would be able to sneak back in. So here he was, stuck in HQ and reading the plays that he'd long since memorized as he waited to be reassigned.
Couldn't have gotten back a day sooner, could I? he thought, turning a page of Roameo and Jeweliet. Could have joined the Crusaders on their mission to Canterlot, but no. I get back from my daring escape from Paradise - hm, that could be a good name for a play - the day after they leave. Guess I'll see them in a couple of days, if Scoots doesn't get them into trouble again.
Suddenly there was a flash of light in the middle of the library as Sweetie Bell appeared with an unconscious mare. Speaking of them getting into trouble... "Better not let Inkwell catch you doing that," Show said, barely looking up enough to see Sweetie's mane. The paranoid librarian had a strict "No magic" policy for his library.
"No time to explain!" Sweetie shouted. "Get the medics over here. Now!"
Show sighed as Sweetie vanished. Wonder what's happened to them this time. He carefully bookmarked his place and got up to see what was wrong with Apple Bloom.
Except, it wasn't Apple Bloom lying unconscious on the floor.
Show barely had time to register just who lay before him when Sweetie returned, along with another unicorn. They deposited three more unconscious mares before Sweetie yelled, "MOVE IT!"
Snapped out of his shock, Show ran upstairs and grabbed a quill, some ink, and a bottle of dragon fire. He quickly scratched out a note. "Crusaders in library w/ injured. Send full team. Show Stopper, spy." He rolled up the scroll and quickly penned "To HQ Medical" on the outside before opening the bottle of dragon fire over it, sending it off to Spike. He then rushed back down the stairs to tell Sweetie that the message was sent.
When he got to the bottom, he found 9 mares, 6 of them unconscious, crowded onto the ground floor of the library. Three of them were the familiar crusaders, with Sweetie passed out from several long-range teleports. The other 5 unconscious mares were the largest shock: 5 of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, unchanged from how they appeared in the old photos. As for the last conscious mare...
"Wow! That was fun! I've never been teleported before. That was so superly amazingly funtastically cool! Hey Twilight, can we go again? Oh! You're sleeping. I guess that lots of magic will do that to a unicorn. Not that I would know since I'm an earth pony butOH MY GOSH!!! We're back in Twilight's house! That's so so so so sooooo far away from Canterlot! No wonder she's asleep! Sweetie, too. Huh, now that I think of it, she looks all grown up now. How did that-"
Show's ears were saved as Apple Bloom gave the back of pinkie's head a swift blow with a dictionary. "Sweet Apple Cider!" she exclaimed. "I'd forgotten how much she can talk! Sorry about that, Stops."
"At least you stopped her," said Show, rubbing his now ringing ears. "I think my ears were about to start bleeding." He looked down at the 6 unconscious Bearers, silent for a moment as his brain began to work again. "So..." he said.
"So," Apple Bloom answered.
"They're back."
"Eeyup."
"And they're KO'ed."
"Eeyup."
"And they haven't aged at all, apparently."
"Nope."
"...what?"
Scootaloo laughed at the way that Show's brain had shut down. "Yeah," she said, "that was about my reaction too."