Civil War of Harmony

by SC_Orion

Chapter 11

Twilight Sparkle

I gently lowered the crystal from my magical grasp and set it gently down on the table. I raised my hooves to my head and massaged my temples. My research with the Void Crystal was not progressing as well as I had hoped. Despite having been it's creator, despite having nearly every book on magic and crystals in existence in my library, and despite all my best attempts to understand it, I was unable to do so. Somehow it was generating more dark magic on it's own, regardless of what I did to try to prevent it from doing so. I had tried magic barriers, putting it in direct sunlight, even sealing it inside of a thick lead chest.

Nothing worked, every time I checked on it, it had more magic than it did previously. I was concerned about it. I would have been anyway, but my data indicated it's charge rate was beginning to drop off exponentially as it held more and more dark magic. The amount of dark magic contained within the crystal had turned it pitch black. I shuddered as I picked it up in a hoof, feeling the dark energies churning within.

The amount of dark magic within the crystal was more than it could completely contain, I could feel the dark magic radiating off of it, even from outside the room. Needless to say, I kept the Void Crystal well guarded, like it's counterpart. The dark magic the crystal held was enough to level a city, however from my experiments I had deduced that an accidental catastrophic release of the dark magic within would be impossible. The crystal was nearly indestructible, tests with other crystals I had created revealed this.

Of course I did have a spell that would render 'indestructible' useless. The spell that converted crystals into their base elements... If I were to use that on the Void Crystal... I shuddered at the thought of the devastation that would bring. The amount of dark magic this crystal I held in my hooves... It would be more than enough to kill both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna...

I would not be using that crystal. Killing either of them was still not my main objective, just dethroning them. I could probably use their help in getting things running again after it was all over. 'I should drain this crystal and destroy it... Keeping it is too much of a risk.' I nodded at my thoughts. True, it would be a shame to waste such an opportunity to experiment on such power...

I shook the thoughts out of my head, it was simply too dangerous.

The other crystal, on the other hoof... I put the Void Crystal back down and picked up the first crystal, I hadn't named it. It was simply the first crystal I had produced with that spell, but it did hold a special place in my mind. A symbol of success so to say. I smiled as I looked at the faint pink heart of it. It radiated pure magic, alicorn magic. My magic. Uncorrupted magic of the bearer of the Element of Magic.

This crystal had not increased it's power more than what I had put into it. It was slightly disappointing, but comforting to know it was not dangerous. The past few days I had been wearing the crystal around my neck, and I had been channeling my excess alicorn magic into it, storing it for later. I channeled an equal amount of magic into it as my body was generating it, except for when I needed to use magic. The crystal now held several hours worth of my magic.

I stood to my hooves and levitated the crystal back into my regalia. I grabbed the Void Crystal in my magic and gently set it inside an enchanted lead chest, softly laying it in the center. With a quick spell, I locked the chest so that only I, or somepony more powerful than myself could open it. With a brief flash of magic, I teleported the small chest into my treasury's most secure vault.

I immediately felt relief that that accursed crystal was gone, removing it's tainting presence from my castle. I turned towards the door. I paused for a moment and put a hoof on my regalia's crystal. The crystal was a little cooler than my body temperature, but it felt right. Almost as if it was a piece of me. 'Probably because it holds quite a bit of my own magic.' I thought to myself.

I lit my horn, and cast a spell to channel excess magic from my body into my regalia's crystal, then I opened the door with a hoof and walked out into the hallway. Two guards saluted me as I walked out, I nodded at them, acknowledging the salute. They looked visible relieved that I was okay, it did not take an alicorn to sense the amount of dark magic within that crystal.

---

Princess Celestia

I sat on my haunches, gazing out across Equestria from my balcony. Despite the war... It was peaceful, serene even. I levitated my teacup to my mouth and took a small sip of tea. The warm liquid flowed around my tongue and down my throat, comforting me. Off in the distance I could see Ponyville... The thought of failing my sister and my most faithful student... It sent a pang of sadness to the forefront of my mind.

Perhaps I deserved this. I had grown accustomed to ruling on my own for a thousand years... I tried to get my sister to take over her duties more slowly than what she did, I told her and myself that it was because I didn't want to lose her again from the stress of the sudden changes. Perhaps I had lied to myself. I frowned.

I heard a knock on the door. "Enter." I softly commanded after taking a moment to compose myself. It wouldn't do for my ponies to see their princess having doubts.

I looked over towards the door, it silently opened and Director Tap leisurely walked in. He bowed his head before he started to speak, "Princess, the rest of the council is assembled. We're waiting on your presence to begin."

"Start without me, Director. I wish to be left alone for the time being. Bring any plans you come up with to me for approval, and I shall look them over."

"Yes, Princess." Director Tap turned around and put a hoof on the door to open it, but paused and looked back towards me. For a moment I thought he might say something, but he didn't. He turned back towards the door, pushing it open as he walked through it.

'Perhaps I could... Convince Twilight to return to me...' I smiled at the sudden thought, 'But how?' I furrowed my brow in thought, I could always send her letters, and ask her to return... No, she probably be insulted if I did that... 'If I could... Convince her friends to talk to her...' I smiled briefly before frowning, 'I would have to convince them to side with me...'

I sighed, in order to do that I would need to talk to them. There was no way Twilight would allow that. I bit my lip, 'Then again... If I were to... Capture one or more of her friends... I could try to convince them to talk to Twilight... If that didn't work, I could use them to draw her out...' Yes, that would work.

That was also incredibly risky. If something were to happen to her friends during their capture... She would never forgive me. She... I dared not think of what would possibly happen then.

'If it came down to it, I could capture Twilight or her friends myself...' Hopefully, if I were to do that, none of them would fight back...

'What if Twilight refused to come peacefully... Could I really fight her?' I pondered with a frown.

I had a lot to think about and consider. And that was just with Twilight... With my sister, on the other hoof... I was at a loss. How could I convince her to come back to me? I had undermined her authority perhaps too many times... 'I did it for the right reason, didn't I?' I sighed, 'I tried to prevent something like this from happening between Equestria and any other nation...'

I lifted my teacup and took another sip. It had cooled by now, with a quick spell I heated the tea back up. I took another sip. How would I reach my sister, if I were to beat her in battle and force her to hear me out? What if she refused to listen to me... What then? Sending her back to the moon would be impossible for me... Locking her up would probably end badly. And what if she never came around? What if it made her hate me more? I felt sadness rising in my body.

And what of all the lives that had already been lost? Over ten thousand ponies, dead. Was their sacrifice pointless? Did they fight for a better future which would never come? Had I sent them to die, with no hope for the future?

'No, I have to be strong. My ponies need a strong leader. One who can unite them, and bring them peace and prosperity.'

---

Twilight Sparkle

I levitated the final piece of my armor off the armor stand, my helmet. I put the helmet on, the cold metal embraced my head, it fit me perfectly, thanks to Rarity's astonishing abilities. I lifted my right hoof from the floor and looked at my armored hoof. The purple painted metal boot had a small gem set in it, and it served both ornate and protective functions. I had Rarity make a few modifications to the body armor from her original design. I could now hold my wings directly against my body, rather than the cold, hard metal. It was more comfortable than before, but it did sacrifice protection. Rarity had argued against this change, however I was able to convince her to do it.

My argument against her went something like 'If that change ends up costing me, then I will have already been in a bad position, and I doubt my armor would help much anyway.'

Of course the armor wasn't really necessary, it was just in case my magic failed me. I touched the crystal set in my chest plate with my hoof and smiled. That wasn't likely to happen now, so the armor was mostly a formality. Well, that and Rarity did make it for me, so it was special to me.

I lit my horn and teleported just outside the castle, where my escort was awaiting my arrival. I reappeared in a flash, none of them looked surprised by my sudden appearance. I smiled, they were getting used to me teleporting around all the time it seemed. My escort to Cloudsdale would consist of four pegasi, Rainbow Dash was among them. Her status as a Wonderbolt would probably prove useful. If that didn't help, then perhaps the fact that she was the only pegasus alive to perform the Sonic Rainboom would help.

Of course four pegasi, even if one of them was a Wonderbolt, would not be enough to take on the Cloudsdale defense forces, or the Wonderbolts themselves. Hopefully, that wouldn't happen. If it did, I was there. I would be able to teleport us away, or fight them off. I wasn't particularly keen of the latter thought. Yes, I had been training, but fighting living ponies who were trying to kill you was different.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, holding it for a second before exhaling. I opened my eyes, "Let's go." I commanded. I spread my large alicorn wings, and jumped into the air. I didn't need to look back to know that all four of them had taken off after me. A second later Rainbow was flying by my side with a look of determination in her eyes. The other three soon took formation also, one on my left side, Rainbow on my right side, one behind me, and the last one above me.

The flight would take only a little over an hour at our current pace, aided by the wind pushing us along.

---

Rainbow Dash

The flight had taken a little less time that Twilight had said it would, Cloudsdale was growing as we approached it. The massive, majestic cloud city was hope to countless pegasi, and it was where the Wonderbolts were based. The fact that Cloudsdale didn't side with anypony yet surprised me, I would have thought they would have sided with Princess Celestia immediately.

I scanned the sky, keeping an eye out for anything that could threaten us. I was surprised when I saw a lone pegasus approached us at a leisurely pace. I alerted the others to his presence, "Lone pegasus on the right, three o'clock."

"Copy. I'll intercept him" the sergeant flying above Twilight answered in her cheery voice. The sergeant broke off from formation and flew towards the lone oncoming pegasi. I kept an eye on both of them, while continuing to scan the sky around us for more threats. The pegasus flying towards us seemed to slow down when he realized that the sergeant had armor on. They both stopped a few ponies' lengths from each other and hovered for a few moments, it looked like they were talking.

After a few more seconds, both of them started flying towards us. As they flew closer, I started to recognize the pegasus. Captain Spitfire. I felt my heart rate increase at the prospect of seeing one of my idols... Even if I was a Wonderbolt.

Our group slowed down, and eventually we found ourselves hovering. Twilight flew over to greet them.

Twilight spoke with curiosity, "Captain Spitfire I believe? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Princess Twilight Sparkle." Spitfire returned slightly coldly. Spitfire glanced around, looking at each of us in turn. "Why exactly are you here, in battle armor, with four guards?"

"I'm here to try to convince Cloudsdale to follow me."

"And the guards?" Spitfire asked skeptically.

"An escort, nothing more." Twilight paused, "It's mostly for show, to deter any sort of attack against me."

"Four guards wouldn't be able to stop an army." Spitfire countered.

"I did not come to fight, I came to talk. Besides," Twilight pointed a hoof at her horn, "I am an alicorn."

"Right." Spitfire sighed, "The Mayor will be happy to see you. The reason Cloudsdale hadn't decided what to do... You know of General Maneuver?"

"Yes, I've heard of him. I've never personally met him, however." Twilight replied.

"Well, a lot of pegasi wanted to follow with him and join Princess Celestia, however the other half..." Spitfire whispered the rest of it low enough that I couldn't hear it. Twilight looked momentarily surprised. She looked back towards us briefly.

"I didn't realize she was that well known in Cloudsdale."

"Well she is... Anyway, after General Maneuver's defeat, a lot of pegasi have been changing their minds. Not all of them, but quite a few. You should be able to convince they Mayor to side with you. And with the Wonderbolts' support, you shouldn't have any problems."

"Alright then, please lead the way." Twilight motioned towards us to follow her.

---

Twilight Sparkle

"Ah! Princess Twilight Sparkle! It is an honor to finally meet you." The Mayor, a tan pegasus stallion bowed deeply as I entered the room following Spitfire. I motioned Rainbow to step into the room also. I nodded at the stallion.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mayor..?" I trailed off.

The stallion chuckled lightly, "Mayor is both my title and name."

That, while strange, was not that strange. "I see." I nodded, he smiled broadly at me.

"Ah, and this fine mare is Rainbow Dash I take it?" he looked at Rainbow Dash.

I nodded, "Yes."

"And do you support Princess Twilight Sparkle?" he asked.

Rainbow looked towards me, I nodded lightly. "Yeah, I support her. She's my friend, she's more than capable of handling anything Princess Celestia or Princess Luna throw at her!" I blushed lightly at Rainbow's praise.

Mayor smiled, "That is all I needed to know. Thank you, Miss Dash. I shall pledge my support to Princess Twilight Sparkle then, most of Cloudsdale should follow suit. There may be some who may not come around for a while, but I believe they will in time."

"That's it?" I blinked.

"Well, yes. Spitfire... Er, Captain Spitfire, that is, and the Wonderbolts did support following Princess Celestia, however with General Maneuver's... Failure... That changed their minds."

Spitfire spoke up, "We have full confidence in you, Princess."

"Thank you, Captain Spitfire..." I spoke.

"Now, I don't have files on hoof, but I should be able to have one of my staff deliver details about the city to you sometime within a week. Is there anypony in particular who I should have the files be given to? Or would you rather have them yourself?"

"Give the files to Mayor Mare or Sparkler, their my two primary civil advisers."

"Mayor Mare or Sparkler?" he rubbed his chin with a hoof, "I can have that done..."

Spitfire spoke up, "Now onto military matters." Spitfire smiled slightly.

"What do you have for me?" I asked.

"Well, the Wonderbolts are yours, along with the Cloudsdale defense forces. Quite a bit of military strength there, Princess."

I nodded to myself, "This is good, the Wonderbolts are very highly trained, and you have quite a few good officers. My current military commander is just a low level captain of the royal guard. He's doing okay, but it could be better..." I smiled wryly.

"I'd be more than happy to help you out there. I am the commander of the entire Wonderbolt force after all. I should be able to manage an entire army."

"Well, I don't exactly have much of an army yet..."

"Don't worry, I'll fix that in no time, Princess." Spitfire smiled warmly.

"Anything I should do while I'm here? I do have some things I need to get to back in Ponyville. Adding a city to my... Kingdom... And all that."

"I'm guessing you didn't want to name it 'The Kingdom of Twilight'?" Mayor asked.

"Not really." I answered.

"Perhaps you would like to take a look at the forces of the Wonderbolts?" Spitfire asked.

I thought for a moment. 'Yes, that would probably be wise. Good for morale or something.' "Sure." I answered.

---

Twilight Sparkle

The ranks of the Wonderbolts stood at attention before me. I looked out across the sea of blue and yellow uniforms. There had to be nearly a thousand ponies grouped up in units. These pegasi were real soldiers. Not just guards, or recruits. They were Wonderbolts. The most elite military force on the planet. I felt a shiver run down my spine as I thought about the fact that they were now under my command. Sure, there may only be a few hundred of them... Not enough for winning through sheer numbers, but they were highly trained.

It was a little overwhelming. Okay, really overwhelming. I did my best to look regal as I looked out across the assembled ponies. It helped that I was on a raised platform, and that I was taller than most ponies. Granted, I was nowhere near as tall as Princess Luna or Princess Celestia. But still, I was taller than the average pony. I nodded to myself and turned to Captain Spitfire, "A fine group of ponies you have here, Captain..."

Spitfire nodded in agreement.

I turned to leave, Spitfire must have dismissed the ponies after I started walking away from the murmurs I heard a few seconds later. "I would like you to take command of my military forces, General Spitfire."

Spitfire took it in stride, "Yes, Princess."

"I'm no military strategist or commander or anything of the sort, I don't exactly know what I'm doing, while you do. I trust you to be able to handle most of the military side of things on a large scale."

"Princess?" she asked.

I paused and looked towards her, "I'm going to be leading from the field. Or I'm going to try to."

"That's rather dangerous, and not a good position for you, Princess."

I sighed, "Maybe so, General... But until I get actual experience, I don't think it would be wise for me to command an entire military force."

"Do you have combat experience, Princess?"

I thought about how to best answer that for a moment, "Yes and no. I have fought monsters with my friends several times before, but I have never fought anything with the intent to kill it before. I have never killed anything before..." I frowned.

"I see..." Spitfire paused, "I suppose you don't have to fight, but it would be wise to know how to fight, Princess."

"I have been training." I stated. I grimaced, "But I will have to fight... I'm the only pony other than Princess Cadance who can stand up to Princess Celestia or Princess Luna in battle." I lifted a hoof to the door and pushed it open.

---

Princess Celestia

Having had several hours to think about it, I had reasoned that capturing some of Twilight's friends and holding them hostage to draw Twilight out, or convince them to talk to her about returning to me would be a good idea. Of course doing this might make me look bad, but if it brought this war to an end sooner, it would be worth it. The doors to the throne room opened, and Director Tap walked inside.

I rose from my throne and met him halfway, I dismissed him from bowing with a hoof. I wanted to get this done as quickly as I could. "Alright, Director. With my knowledge of her friends and your intelligence on the most recent news about them... We should be able to create a plan of action." I looked at the two guards stationed at the sides of the throne room doors, commanding them to leave us.

As soon as the guards left, I lit my horn and sealed the throne room. "What do you know?"

The unicorn used his magic and summoned a briefcase. He lowered it to the ground and unlocked it, pulling out five folders. He levitated one of them over to me, I took it in my magic and opened it. "Fluttershy? I think that's how you pronounce it."

"Yes."

He nodded, "Fluttershy has not been doing much with Princess Twilight Sparkle since the secession. They do talk and eat together occasionally. She's shy enough that nopony would notice if she went missing for a while, however if we were to abduct her... The damage to her mind... I would advise against it."

"Agreed."

He levitated out another folder and levitated it to me. Once again I took it in my magic and opened it, looking over it's contents. "Pinkie Pie..." He stated. "Capturing her would be impossible."

I smirked every so lightly. "It is likely that would be the case."

He pulled out a third folder, I grasped it in my magic and viewed it's contents. "Rarity... She has had quite a bit of contact with Princess Twilight Sparkle. She is responsible for the design of her soldiers' armor, along with having crafted the princess' armor herself. She is quite predictable as to where she will be, however most of the time she's either at her shop or at the castle." He paused, "Her shop is located at a bad place for attempting to capture her without arousing suspicion."

I said nothing, eliciting him to continue. I took the next folder from him and looked at it. "Applejack. She recently joined Princess Twilight Sparkle's military forces. She is a strong earth pony, and is almost never alone, she is either training of at the castle most of the time."

I nodded. He pulled out the last folder. "Rainbow Dash. Wonderbolt. A very talented pegasus, and holder of the record for fastest recorded flight speed. She seems to be near Princess Twilight Sparkle almost all the time. She is one of her personal guards, however the princess does send her on minor errands at times. We may be able to catch her off guard. But unless we could overpower her quickly, we would likely need quite a few operatives to capture her alive. If she were to go missing, the princess would know very quickly. That could prove both useful and detrimental."

"They do all spend the nights staying in the castle as well." he quickly added.

"I see." I pondered his words and his suggestions. "We can rule out all of them except Rarity and Rainbow Dash. They seem to be in the best position to convince Twilight to change her mind." I paused, "Rarity likely wouldn't help us, and Rainbow Dash represents the Element of Loyalty..." I thought for a moment. I nodded to myself, "Prepare a team to capture Rainbow Dash, don't rush it. Wait for the right moment to make your move."

"Yes, Princess."

"Oh, while you're here, perhaps you could give me a brief intelligence report?" I added.

"Of course, Princess." He took the folders in his magic and stuffed them back into the suitcase before teleporting it away. "Not much activity change with Princess Luna, but Princess Twilight Sparkle seems to be experimenting with crystals."

I raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"We can't get any really good intelligence, she's being quite secretive about it. We do know that she seems to be using dark magic, however." My heart skipped a beat in fear. "We have not been able to find out what it is she's doing, but even my pegasus operative can feel the dark magic when it is nearby."

"Why did you not tell me of this development immediately?"

"We didn't have any solid details about it." he stated flatly.

"Surely, Director, a unicorn of your stature must know how much dark magic is needed for a pegasus to be able to feel it in the air." I chastised his incompetence. Dark magic was dangerous, and pegasi could feel dark magic in the air if there was enough of it.

"That particular piece of information I was just made aware of this morning, Princess." he paused and took a firmer tone, "You would have been aware of that had you attended the meeting earlier today."

I clenched my teeth.

Author's Note:

I'm curious as to what you all think is going to happen in this story, and what you think of the crystals. Care to enlighten me?

Comments

[Hyperkirbytwo]

i feel, if Rainbow gets kidnapped, Twilight is either going to all mopey dopey, or it will be the triggering point for her to actually fight one of the others.

The Crystals are interesting, it seems like the void crystal could probably be used as a threat of destruction (AKA IRL Nukes)

I don't know why people aren't rushing to your story though. It has all the components, just not the views.

good job.

[HarmonyRapids]

How the heck doesn't this have more views?

[tuntematon]

Celestia knows........

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Twilight should have gotten rid of that Void Cyrstal.