Amber light was streaming through the windows of Golden Oaks Library when Twilight took her last look around her home. It looked almost like the day she’d first set hoof inside over three years ago: the chest containing the Elements of Harmony was gone and her desk had been swept of notes. Along with a hooful of books she had been forced to choose as the most important, they were packed away on a luggage cart with Warding Ember's battalion. The rest was being abandoned to Blueblood.
Tears welled in Twilight's eyes, hardly for the first time that day, at the thought of losing it all. There was no collection of knowledge like it in Equestria: Golden Oaks, whose carving stood in the centre of the library, had come to the crossroads of Ponyville a century ago to gather magical knowledge from all corners of Equestria, culminating in this colossal collection of lore that had been entrusted to Twilight’s care. Some of the books were the only copies existing; ancient tomes and grimoires from the farthest corners of Equus that had been in Golden Oaks’ collection before she had settled here. She had barely scratched the surface of what this library was able to offer, and now Twilight was abandoning it all.
When she’d wistfully told Warding Ember that story, he’d wanted to burn the library to the ground. Twilight had coldly told him to see to his troops and let her finish packing.
Trying to clear the lump in her throat, Twilight turned to the door. Standing there were her six friends: Rainbow Dash and Applejack in their uniforms had the soldier’s look of stoic resignation on their faces, but Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and even Spike looked like they were on the verge of tears.
“Everything settled then, girls?” said Twilight, trying to sound confident. It came out as a squeaky croak.
“Sweetie Belle’s taking care of the shop for me,” said Rarity a little too heartily. “After all, she's a big filly now, and Mother and Father can pop in from time to time. I don't suppose I'll be getting any new orders for a while anyway...”
"Big Mac an’ Apple Bloom can hol’ down the farm fer a while,” said Applejack, her tone sounding rather like Rarity’s. “Ah said they shoul’ come wi’ us, but Big Mac jus’ says; ‘Applejack, yer duty’s wi’ the Army, and mine’s wi’ the farm’, an’ tha’ was tha’. Spirits know, they've had a lotta practice wi’out me already...”
“And it wasn’t as if I ever woke up for the weather team anyway!” said Rainbow with a mirthless laugh.
“I've sent the animals away to Zecora’s,” squeaked Fluttershy. “Angel's got a note. It’s just... for the Everfree Forest to be safer that here..!”
“Well I think this is going to be GREAT!” said Pinkie a little too effusively. “We’re going to have a big adventure again and in a few weeks we'll be back here with lots of stories! And everypony will laugh at how super-serious we all were and we'll have a big reunion party and... and... Twilight?”
“Yes, Pinkie?”
“I’m... scared, Twilight,” Pinkie said very quietly. “I don’t want to leave. This is my home. I don’t want to leave all my friends to this big meanypants Neigh. We’re the Elements of Harmony and we can’t even stay to protect them. What kind of friends are we?”
“There are some battles that harmony can’t fight,” whispered Twilight. “Neigh and Blueblood aren’t some giant demon whose powers we can blast away. They’re... us.”
And that, she left unsaid, would only make them even harder to fight.
Twilight stuck out her hoof. Her friends gently laid their hooves atop hers. Spike’s claw was last.
“This is not a defeat,” she said quietly. “We will return.”
They left the library to find the Royal Guard ranked in the road in their tattered red uniforms, Warding Ember at their head. Next to them in ranks of green were the Princess Celestia’s Ponyville Light Infantry. At their rear was a gaggle of civilian ponies, the wives and husbands of Ponyville’s soldiers clutching tearful foals. Twilight spotted an unsteady-looking Berry Punch, her eyes bloodshot, a leg tightly wrapped around Berry Pinch. A blazing argument had erupted between Warding Ember and Cherry Fizzy when the latter had declared that he was not leaving without his wife and daughter, while the former had insisted that any civilian would slow them down. In the end they had resorted to casting dice on a drumhead to decide who would stay and who would go, and in the watching crowd of Ponyville’s citizens there were ponies overcome by grief being supported by friends or relatives.
Twilight faced the crowd. It was full of faces she knew instantly: Mayor Mare was at their head. Derpy Hooves and Roseluck stood close to Time Turner. Tears flowed freely down Sweetie Belle’s face, while Scootaloo made a valiant effort not to do the same as Cheerilee gently put a leg around her. Apple Bloom’s lip quivered while Big McIntosh and Granny Smith watched stoically: the elderly matriarch of the Apple Clan had refused all of Applejack’s desperate entreaties to come with them, and that had been good enough for Big Mac. Lily and Daisy wept while Cranky and Matilda held each other’s hooves tightly. Then there were the countless others whose faces she recognised from seeing every day but could not name.
“I know this will be poor comfort,” Twilight cried. “But I leave now so that you might be safe. So that we may draw the scourge of war far from your homes. From our homes. Ponyville is my home, and I will return to you. Before I have come through nightmare, I have come through chaos, and I have come through shadow, and I have returned. I will come through this, and I will return!”
“PARADE!” barked Warding Ember. “REVERSE ARMS!”
The Guards and Light Infantry swung their spears around, grasped them by the butts and tucked the points under their arms. Then they spun on their hooves and, with the drums beating a retreat, marched out of Ponyville before a crowd silent but for its sobs.
The Pegasi of the Life Guards came last, covering the rear of the column and fluttering through the great cloud of dust it had kicked up. As the battalions slowly passed out of Ponyville, marching west along the Great Braytish Road, the battalions’ fifers began to play.
“What’s that?” asked Pinkie Pie quietly.
Twilight struggled to listen over the dejected tramping of thousands of hooves. Like all fife music the tune was high and light-hearted, almost obscenely so, but there was something else behind it, almost like a sense of mourning for something lost.
“The World Turned Upside Down,” she whispered.
***
Amber Spyglass had handed over all his personnel files to Blueblood bar two. Those he had destroyed, and altered all his records. The magically-resistant ink all government documents were written in should have been impossible to remove, but Amber's magic was of a rather different sort, and after a little coaxing the letters had literally danced off the page. As far as Blueblood knew, these two ponies did not exist. Amber had done nothing else. He trusted his two finest agents to do the right thing.
Concealed beneath a trenchcoat and a trilby hat, Octavia Melody hammered on the apartment door. This was a fancy block of flats in a fancy district, overlooking the Canter Valley from the very edge of the city. But today the sumptuous corridors and immaculately-swept streets were deserted and the windows had their curtains drawn. Octavia had a very good idea of what awaited these ponies at Blueblood's hooves, and they seemed to guess as well.
The door opened a crack. It was still on its chain. Through the gap Octavia saw a single cold blue eye, surrounded by crow's feet and scowling. Octavia had seen that look before in the eyes of other agents: it was the look of a pony who knew they were doomed but intended to fight to the last.
"Ms Twilight Velvet?" she asked carefully.
"Yes?" the Unicorn mare demanded. Octavia heard iron in her voice, but behind it was a wan, resigned quiver.
“My name is Octavia Melody. I’m an agent of Their Highnesses’ Intelligence Service, and I’m here to get you out of Canterlot.”
Octavia heard the chain rattling as it was pulled off the door. Suddenly it opened wide to reveal a light grey Unicorn with a striped mane cut into a thick fringe. She is her daughter’s mother…
“You’re dressed too much like a spy to be a spy,” remarked Twilight Velvet sharply. “Nopony outside foals’ thrillers dresses like that. I’d know.”
“H… Honey?” croaked somepony from inside. “Who… who’s that?”
Octavia looked past Twilight Velvet to see an azure Unicorn stallion sitting uncomfortably on a sofa, his blue mane dishevelled and dabbing at his forehead with a hoofkerchief.
“We’ve been expecting somepony like you since Radical Road made his speech,” snarled Twilight Velvet. “How do we know you’re not going to take us to him to get some leverage over our daughter?”
“Radical Road isn’t the one you should be concerned about,” growled Octavia. “Blueblood’s the rotter behind all of this…”
“What…?” began Twilight Velvet, but at that point another Unicorn, identically addressed, appeared next to Octavia.
“Tavi, come on!” hissed Vinyl Scratch. “Are they coming or not?!”
Octavia swiftly swept off Vinyl’s hat and pulled a thick file off the top of her head.
“This proves everything,” she proclaimed. “We’ve been investigating it for months; every day since we got word of the deficient cannons at Maneden. Blueblood was responsible for it, we’re sure. He was probably also responsible for the explosion at Fancypants’ mine. And I’m willing to bet my not-inconsiderable inheritance that he was the guiding spirit behind this coup, not Radical Road. We have to get this evidence to Princess Celestia, and I’d prefer that you came with us.”
Twilight Velvet stared at her for a moment, then said; “I believe you. As it happens we have bags packed, though we didn’t think the circumstances would be this happy.”
“Honey?” squeaked the stallion on the sofa. “What are you doing?”
“We’re going, Night Light. We have no choice but to trust them. Even if they’re lying and are going to take us to Blueblood, nothing is served by waiting here for the next knock, but I don’t think they will do that.”
***
The sky outside the crystal windows was dark, flecked with white as the first of the autumn snows billowed over the Empire. In the throne room, Ration Bag laid a sheet of parchment before the Tourmaline Throne with a shaking hoof.
"Your Highness, I urge you to reconsider," whispered First Minister Jade Stone.
Reading the document before him, Shining Armor was almost prepared to agree. The dry legal language could not mask the awful weight beneath the words.
BY ORDER OF THE CO-PRINCE AND CO-PRINCESS OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE,
In light of the recent actions made against Princess Celestia in Canterlot, all boroughs, counties and parishes within the Imperial Territories shall immediately conduct procedures preparatory to mobilisation:
1) All boroughs and counties shall begin stockpiling food and drink for military purposes sufficient for six (6) months, and begun procedures necessary to sustain said stockpile (full details of quantity and variety of food and drink expected of each borough and county may be found in Annex A).
2) All boroughs shall direct part of their industrial infrastructure sufficient for the production of uniforms, boots, guns and personal weapons in quantities listed in Annex B.
3) All boroughs, counties and parishes shall supply accurate lists of names and addresses of all ponies aged 18 to 35 in their districts to the Imperial Crystal Government, and each shall identify six (6) ponies to serve as a board in their district to register and select said ponies for service in the event of mobilisation (full details of the composition and role of said boards may be found in Annex C).
THESE DIRECTIONS ARE TO BE CONSIDERED VOID SHOULD THE PRESENT CRISIS BE RESOLVED ACCORDING TO TERMS SET BY PRINCESS CELESTIA ON THE EVENING OF SEPTEMBER 29TH 1004.
"The ball is entirely in Blueblood and Radical Road's court," said Shining Armor, almost as though he believed it. "We are taking no aggressive action against them."
"But Ponland, Your Highness!" Jade Stone pleaded. "Ponyatowski is visiting Imperial Ponland now. If he finds out that we're planning to conscript Imperial subjects..!"
Shining Armor was silent for a moment. Then, sitting next to him, Princess Cadance took up the quill in her magic and quickly signed the parchment.
***
"After all these years," remarked Princess Luna, pacing around the room. "My useless nephew finally does something impressive!"
Lieutenant General Sir Dagger von Steel watched as Luna paced around his office. Since meeting her for the first time to plan for the Bucklyns' medal parade he'd had to get used to her habit of grandiloquently monologuing a little too loudly.
"I had expected some sort of move from him even before the election, but to attempt to kill my sister!" she continued. "Personally, for that matter! I'd have never thought the fop had it in him."
"What are your orders, Your Highness?" asked Steel.
Luna took her bicorne from Steel's hat stand. She wore the 2nd (Bucklyn) Regiment of Hoof's red jacket with dark blue facings, with the gold aiguillette and shoulder boards of the regiment's Colonel-in-Chief (distinct from Steel's only slightly-less grand uniform of Honorary Colonel). "My sister's ultimatum expires in two days. Let's see if we can make Blueblood think a little harder."
Three thousand ponies stood to attention in the drill square of Bucklyn Barracks. Watching from rows of seats on the edge of the square were the great and the good of Prancenburg: Steels, Oranges, Hayenzollerns, Fires, Hammers... many of them had family in the Army. Rising high behind the barracks were the shining skyscrapers of Manehattan. Airships flying flags from the four corners of Equus flocked around them. The whole world will hear this, thought Luna. Good.
The customary salutes and courtesies were exchanged and Luna ascended the platform set up for her. There had been a speech prepared for this moment, but events had overtaken it.
"SOLDIERS!" proclaimed Luna. The Royal Canterlot Voice rippled across the square. "By now you will all know what has happened in Canterlot. Blueblood, Radical Road and Major General Neigh have turned traitor! They attempted to murder my sister and a thousand Royal Guards as they slept!"
A roar of anger rose from the Bucklyns' massed ranks. "Pony killing pony within the walls of Canterlot Castle!" Luna continued. "Can you imagine a more terrible sacrilege? Since then they have proclaimed a dictatorship and arrested our ministers on false charges! They threaten war unless my sister and I bow before their treachery!
"Our beloved kingdom is in the hooves of madponies! This is a black day, and I find myself at a fork in the road: I can acquiesce to this treason and let Equestria fall to tyranny and chaos. Or, I can go home with my sword in my hoof and run these maniacs off the peak of the Canterhorn!"
A cheer rose from the regiment. Luna grinned. The skill of rallying an army had not been lost to her after a thousand years. They were with her.
Some would call this a declaration of war. But Blueblood had wanted war from the moment he had fired a shot at Celestia. And Luna would give it to him.
***
Smirking, Blueblood sank back into the green leather upholstery of the government bench of the “Chamber of the National Convention”. As Radical Road read out his Committee appointments to an adoring chamber, he reflected on all he had achieved. It had been quite a week.
Celestia’s ultimatum had cinched it for Trottingham: the slander of their regiment, the implied threat of war, and the demand that the beloved Parliamentarian leader retire from politics or face death (all of it coming from the mouth of an unelected monarch!) had thrown the entire city deep into the Parliamentarian fold. Luna’s ridiculous speech in Manehattan that had seemed to pre-empt Celestia’s ultimatum had merely been the icing on the cake. Lieutenant Colonel Cleansweep was reporting dozens of ponies an hour turning up at the Grenadiers’ barracks offering to volunteer.
The threats against its MP had made Gasconeigh declare for the Parliamentarians as well, and that had opened doors: if they pushed south from there to the Garland Gap between Salt Lick Lake and the Rambling Rock Ridge, they would have not just a militarily-defensible chokepoint, but a natural frontier.
And with the rail hub of Trottingham in their hooves, they could push forces north to Chicacolt in the Rein Valley, and east to the major ports of Baltimare and Fillydelphia. Defensible natural frontiers and ocean access would turn the new republic into a trading nation that was here to stay, and that would go a long way in pushing the nations of Marerope from considering them an illegal insurrection to a legitimate government.
But that was in the future. First they must secure defensible positions to protect their core, for it would come to a fight: Celestia was alive, Luna was marching, and Twilight Sparkle had escaped Ponyville and was racing to establish defences at Asshaye. His vengeance against that bitch Rarity had escaped with her, he thought with a flush of fury.
But no matter, for Shining Armor’s declaration of a “period preparatory to mobilisation” in the Crystal Empire was on the point of delivering another valuable asset into his hooves. It was still filtering through, but when the news that Shining Armor was preparing to conscript ponies – Ponish ponies, not even Crystal Ponies! – into an army for the Crystal Empire became widely known, there would be outrage, and Ponyatowski would be in an ideal position to exploit it for the Parliamentarians. Ponland would declare for them, and Imperial Ponland would split from the Crystal Empire as well. And that, with wicked irony, would deliver for Blueblood’s purposes the very same conscription infrastructure that the Ponish had rebelled against.
The applause died down as Radical Road finished announcing another appointment. Blueblood sat up on the bench. This was it.
“But one pony has been stalwart for the Parliamentarian movement throughout!” declared Radical. “It was he who first broke ranks with Celestia over her attempts to unconstitutionally build an army! It was he who exposed the awful abuses of power within her government! He even abandoned royal title to do so! Why, only this week, when we were ambushed in Canterlot Castle, he even saved my life.”
There was another round of applause as Blueblood smiled modestly. They’d agreed in advance what position he’d get: Commissioner of Foreign Affairs. Prestigious, influential, and conveniently separated from the hard decisions on prosecuting the war Radical Road would have to make as Chairpony. And when those unpopular decisions piled up and up and up, Blueblood knew but Radical did not, he, principled, untarnished, respected Blueblood, would have no choice but to overthrow this replacement tyrant and bring the war to a quick victory. And with the support of several foreign powers, he would establish his own regime to win the peace.
But that was years in the future. Years of war, years of planning, years of blood, and he could not afford to get ahead of him…
“So committed has he been to the Parliamentarian movement, that I struggle to find a Committee position suitable for him!” continued Radical, and he looked down at Blueblood and grinned.
And in that moment Blueblood felt a horrifying stab of something he had never felt in years: confusion.
“In fact, even I cannot come close to matching him in the integrity, skill, planning and passion he has brought to the Parliamentarian movement!” Radical continued, still grinning. Blueblood felt sweat erupt on his brow. “For this pony risked everything to join us, and in doing so he has raised us to unimagined heights.
“Therefore, Mr Blueblood, it is only appropriate that you take my position as Chairpony of the Committee of Public Safety, and I hope that you will accept me as your Commissioner of Foreign Affairs.”
Blueblood did not hear the gale of applause. He was dimly aware of his body standing up, a wide grin being plastered across his jaw and his hoof awkwardly shaking Radical’s. He felt himself taking to the despatch box to give an acceptance speech he had never even imagined he’d have to prepare. His jaw worked and made sounds but his brain was spinning furiously. How had he done it?! Radical Road, the cowardly weakling who had always let Blueblood’s insults break over him! The career politician who bleated for reform but was so terrified of the populist power he’d have to wield to get it that Blueblood had had to make him complicit in murder before he would do what was necessary! How had this commoner outmanoeuvred him, the last scion of the House of Blueblood?!
As the platitudes spilled from his mouth he fought to calm himself. The hard choices he would have to make when the war began were in the future, and unlike Radical, he was far more prepared to make even harder choices necessary to sustain his power. He had not wanted to rule at the point of a spear, but if he had to, he would. But for now, they had to work together, to secure their territories, entrench their government, and build up their army. For now they were at common purpose.
For now.
***
In the City Hall of Tall Tale, Princess Celestia stared, sickened, at the sheet of parchment Rear Echelon had laid before her. It was a simple message, perhaps even an uplifting one, but a thousand years of ruling had taught her exactly what every single one of these words meant:
BY ORDER OF HER HIGHNESS PRINCESS CELESTIA
CALL TO ARMS!
On the evening of September 29th, 1004, We presented terms to the unlawful insurrectionary movement of Blueblood, Radical Road and Neigh in Canterlot, that unless We heard from them by Eleven o’clock on October 6th, 1004, that they were prepared to renounced all claims to governance and retire from public life, We would mobilise Our Forces and take all steps We deem necessary to ensure the lawful execution of governance in Our Realm.
We can tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and so by the powers vested in Us by the Great Charter and the laws of Equestria, We order the mobilisation of all regiments, batteries and battalions of Our Royal Equestrian Army in order to suppress this insurrection.
The details for this object will be immediately communicated to Our loyal Princes, Dukes, Earls, and other such governors of Our States through the Minister of War.
We appeal to all loyal subjects to favour, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honour, the integrity, and the existence of Our Realm, and the perpetuity of love, tolerance and harmony. We deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the Our Forces hereby called forth will be to repossess the cities, towns, places, and property which have been seized from Us. We direct Our Forces to take the utmost care to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of Our Realm.
We have done all that We can to establish peace, but this state of insurrection where no pony may feel safe has become intolerable. It is evil things that We have been forced to fight against, and against them We are certain right will prevail.
After a moment she whispered; “Let it be done,” and signed the parchment.
She stood and passed the parchment to Rear Echelon. “I shall require passage at once to Whinnyapolis. I shall take command of our forces there.”
“At once, Your Highness.”
Neigh marched south. At Asshaye Twilight Sparkle rallied to meet him. Shining Armor and Luna prepared to descend on Canterlot from the north, and Celestia planned for her strike on Blueblood from the west.
The last war in Equestria’s history, the shattering of its peoples, its cities and its gods, its prophesied end for two thousand years, had come at last.
The Equestrian Civil War had begun.