A War

by Comma Typer

A Mare's Quiet

Months later

Dark inside, save for a lantern on the dining table.

Windows closed, door shut.

Under the glow of the lantern could be seen the pale outlines of cabinets, of shelves—of the fridge, too.

Fragrant with a whiff of roses.

Sitting at the table over scrolls, Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst sitting beside each other.

However, it was not a romantic dinner—for, one thing, there was no dinner to begin with.

Another thing was Sunburst's appearance since, now, his mane was more worn and sapped than before, and his glasses had heaps of cracks upon it, fracturing his vision.

"OK, I still don't get how you can see with that thing," Starlight commented, rubbing her chin and scrutinizing the glasses, "but, what's so urgent, you had to come here right before Hearth's Warming morning?"

Sunburst's horn glowed.

All the scrolls unfolded open on the table.

He let out a short, surprised cry. "Long story short, Twilight Sparkle's coming here and it's not good!"

Starlight backed her head up a bit. "Slow down, Sunburst! That's a lot of news to take in! I still don't have much of an idea of who this Twilight Sparkle is, and I don't see why it's not good—or, at least, not that bad."

Sunburst panted for breath—sweating. "I can't tell you all the details—I don't know all the details, that's why—but...this Twilight pony...Twilight actually used to be Princess Celestia's chosen pupil, personally taking her up and guiding her during her foalhood at the School for Gifted Unicorns. But, for some reason, Twilight left Celestia, her own family...and her current residence—nopony knows where it is!"

Starlight half-closed her eyes, curious. "Why did she leave her? Isn't it a unicorn's dream to be personally taught by Princess Celestia herself in her school?"

"I don't know why!" Sunburst said, the sweat doubling on his face. "But what I know is, after she left...that's when her descent began. She cut off ties with all but those closest to her, and even those ponies only get letters from her like every few months or so—no actual visits. She hoarded books and more books, practiced her magic skills, and...well, I managed to grab hold of this."

She pushed a letter to Starlight.

Starlight levitated it and read it under the lantern light.

"Hmm...'Dear Princess Celestia...chrono magic...Canterlot Archives...non-branchable...causality...conclusive evidence...tampering with reality itself...precarious...what must be done to preserve Equestria and what we believe in...my parents...Shining Armor...last word to them.

"'From Twilight Sparkle.'"

Starlight put the letter down on the table, by the lantern.

"That's over a year ago," Sunburst said, nervously tapping on the table with his hoof, now bending his hoof about. "I won't be surprised if she'd use chrono magic against you."

"Me?!" She pointed at herself, then at Sunburst. "Why do you think she wants to go against me? Didn't you say she cut off all ties with the outside world?"

"Well, not exactly that way..."

Starlight shook her head. "Please, Sunburst. Don't hide anything from me. What is Twilight planning?"

Sunburst shot his head up, staring at Starlight. "She...she roams around Equestria, disguised as somepony else with cloak and goggles. She wants to make sure Equestria wins, but...I don't like the way she does it."

Starlight remained silent, ears listening.

"I could only get this from snooping around—I almost got killed more times than I could remember—but she manipulates everypony to do what she thinks will make Equestria better at war. She has no qualms about killing honest ponies, tearing families and friendships apart, breaking laws and traditions—" burred "—she's so pragmatic, it's scary!"

Starlight blinked, a little silent. "How come you didn't tell me Twilight was like that?! And she's coming here to fight me?! I may be proficient at magic, but controlling time itself?! That's impossible!"

"Well, it's possible since Twilight says she could do it."

Starlight placed a hoof on her head, uncertain, looking to the side. "This is bad. Really bad. If Twilight is as powerful as you say she is, then...what're we going to do about her?!"

Sunburst gawked crazed at the door. "I don't know! I was coming here to ask you the same question!"

Huffing and puffing out air.

Starlight grabbed his head, pulled him closer.

Shielding him from the lantern, plunging him into her home's darkness.

"OK. As long as we're not dead, we have a shot at her. So, do you have any idea when she's coming?"

Sunburst laughed nervously, adjusted his broken glasses. "Uh, about that...."

Starlight let out an exasperated sigh. "She's just outside town, isn't she?"

Bang!

They tumbled out of their chairs.

Ground shaking.

Items falling off shelves, breaking to pieces.

Battle cries from the outside.

Starlight and Sunburst looking around in the dark, Sunburst holding the lantern. "Let's, uh, stay here and hide! I've heard stories of ponies surviving because they hid and—"

Saw Starlight trotting to the door.

"Where are you going?!" Sunburst yelled.

Bang!

They teetered about, yet stood their ground with their four hooves.

Heard yelps, wails outside.

Starlight placed a hoof on the door.

Hesitating.

Seeing Sunburst by the light, that mild yellow light of the lantern.

"Sunburst, those are my friends out there! Many days ago, they came out with me to this empty land and turned it into an organized utopia where everypony is equal...I would be going back on my promises and their trust if I hide in here and let them die without my help!"

Sunburst crouched down, scampered under the table with the lantern. "That's good! You're a good pony, a good mare! Thing is, I don't have those responsibilities, so I'll stay here and I hope you come back—"

Bang!

Crash!

A ray of light breaking through the hole in the ceiling.

Smashing through, cracking the table, dust and smoke outwards and blinding Starlight's eyes; she staggered, fell—

---

Starlight shot her head up, breathing heavy.

Blurry dark sky.

Chilly. Freezing.

She hugged herself, clattered her teeth.

Looked left and right.

Bars.

Cage bars.

Vision clearing up.

Around her, cage bars.

Tried to place a hoof past them.

Too many, too narrow.

Hooves stuck inside the cage.

She gasped. "Wh-Where am I?!"

Raised her head, took a look outside.

Her hearing coming back.

Hearing the noise of battle upon her burning town, upon that Town of Efficiency.

Buildings crumbling under the fire, structures succumbing to the artillery's shells. Ponies on the ground, on the streets, fighting and descending to hoof-to-hoof combat in the cold and on the snow, their black silhouettes wavering before spontaneous fires. Armored ponies versus those with no metal upon their coats, only make-do helmets. Arrows injuring, arrows killing—spears and lancets injuring, spears and lancets killing. Over there, another shell drove snow-covered dirt high into the air, leaving a fresh crater where a good bakery used to be.

As more soldiers charged into the town, swarming it with their numbers.

Starlight placed her hooves on the cage, seeing her town die.

Eyes wide open.

In the cold, under the dying night.

Murmured, "No!"

Closed her mouth hard, gulping down a rising lump—only to force it out in a gravelly breath.

And somepony else chuckling.

Starlight turned around inside the cage.

To see, accompanied by a few armored ponies of her own as they stood outside the wagon that cage was on—to see that cloaked stranger with her red goggles.

Twilight smiled, her goggles reflecting the moon in its last hour. "The figurehead of so-called peace, now at my mercy."

The pony to her left poked her on the shoulder. "Does that mean we get to kill her now?"

Twilight growled at the inquiring pony.

She shrunk back.

"Let me have my moment!" Twilight commanded. "You'll have yours."

Faced Starlight.

As they stood around her wagon on a snowy hill surrounded by a snowy landscape, the forests farther back now filled with dead trees and clear branches.

"I do my best not to lie," Twilight began, slowly pacing around the trapped Starlight who followed the cloaked pony with her eyes. "But, situations and circumstances brought me a bit too early, for you've seen me again but the moon is still up."

"What do you mean?!" Starlight yelled, enraged. "You're...you're not the pony I was hoping for! I thought you were the key to averting a big disaster that would befall Equestria, but you're the exact opposite! You are the disaster!"

Twilight giggled, continued with her pacing. "So, what? No pain, no gain—as many ponies will gladly tell you. Staying put, staying still...it will never do. A life sheltered from pain, from discipline and the results of wrongdoing—that's a life not worth living."

Starlight placed her two hooves on the cage's wall, begging her with downcast eyes and swelling tears.

"You know yourself too well, Starlight. You're fighting a futile fight. Sombra wants nothing but to take over the world—there is no use in trying to reason with his slaves. Ponies have followed you, have blindly accepted your propositions, and look where they've gone! They either do nothing or take your principles to such extremes, they end up killing other ponies who don't agree with them."

"That's not true!" Starlight shouted from within her cage. "I may look like I'm the leader of everypony pacifist, and...OK, maybe that's very true, but I am not a pacifist first! You know it as much as I do that I don't let this war take over me!"

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"I established this town as a way of life—a different way of life. We wanted to live free from the evils of the Canterlot aristocracy, to be able to do what is wise in the eyes of the people, for the people do see and the people do know—together, we could realize what would serve all without heaping favor upon anypony!

"Yes, I do admit that we weren't in the best of straits—how can one possibly argue against war if the enemy wants nothing but world domination? But, I've...I've grown to accept the war as a fact, to only despise how it's being done. The soldiers are too happy with their 'achievements' in taking away lives who can't resist Sombra's mind control, the recruiters and drafters produce lies that make war look so nice and fun to ponies who don't know any better, the generals up in high command consciously censor this and that out and make the press spit out half-truths and whole lies, and the average citizen isn't allowed to ask too many questions unless he wants to go to jail for probably being a Crystal spy!"

Twilight smacked the cage, rattling Starlight inside. "That kind of thinking will only delay the end of the war. More ponies would die, and isn't it a passion of yours to make sure nobody has to die?"

Starlight grunted, struggling to stand back up. "Yes, it is a passion of mine, but could I live with the guilt, the thought of ending the war by evil means—no, could you live with the guilt?!"

Pointed at Twilight.

Twilight looked her over, incredulity seen through her open mouth.

Then, she smiled.

"Starlight, you're too naive. The world isn't as black and white as you think. There will be times when the choices you must make depend on how many benefit from it, among other variables and such. Dead ponies won't speak against me, and their friends will not say a thing if they see their dead under a bad light. For example, there's...Sunburst, hm?"

Starlight gasped. "No, you didn't!"

Twilight chuckled, looking off to the ongoing battle—the fire having spread to all of the town, the village's inhabitants retreating to a road leading away from home. "The great mind behind artillery, destroyed by the very thing he created. He wanted to hasten peace with his contraption, but look where that has gotten us—the Crystals stole the idea, used their own artillery against us, and the war prolongs itself."

A flick of her mane.

"We found his body and we got confirmation that, yes, it was a shell that killed him."

She leaned closer to the cage, her smile growing as she saw a Starlight blubbering.

Starlight gasping for air, holding on to her chest—thrusting air out, seizing air in. "S-S-Sunburst?!"

As the sound of fires burning, of shells smashing, of screams rising—

Twilight flicked her mane again. "No war in history was ever won by a completely virtuous side, for each side has their selfish and sinful motives. It's not black and white. It's gray."

Starlight was silent.

Before the cloaked pony and her escort of guards staring her down.

She put on a smile of her own, a fervent smile to rival Twilight's.

In a rising, rousing voice:

"The world may look gray to you, but isn't gray only a mixture of black and white? Things may look fuzzy at first, but, behind it all, wrong is wrong and right is right—and I'll do what's right until the end!"

With everyone there looking at her, dumbfounded.

Twilight's smile disappeared.

She cringed, took a step back.

Glanced at the armored pony who had shrunk away. "Chink Cling? Open the cage."

She shuddered and ran to the wagon.

Opened the lock, opened the cage.

Starlight had an open mouth.

Watching Twilight looking at her.

She smiled at Starlight.

"Agh!"

Levitated her out of the cage.

Slammed her to the snow-laced ground.

Lifted her up.

Hurled her back down.

Glowed her horn.

Charged it.

Closed her eyes.

Gritted her teeth.

Shot a magical beam at her.

Throwing her high to the air.

Starlight landed on the ground with a thud.

A cry from one of Twilight's guards.

They waited.

Staring at that motionless body laying on chunks of bleak, rough snow.

Twilight ran to her.

Picked up a hoof.

Checked her pulse.

Let it drop.

Lifeless, to the ground with the rest of the corpse.

"You told us you'd let us kill her!" she heard one of her escorts yell at her.

Twilight turned around, gave them a smile, trotting her way to them while levitating Starlight's corpse to the wagon. "Too bad. My emotions got the better of me. Hey—" floated several bags of bits to them "—here's some of the money I'd said you'll receive for your services. Obviously, I can't give all of it to you while your brave friends are fighting below, so meet me at Neighagra Falls when night comes again."

All the guards there nodded and all but one galloped to the burning town, bringing out their weapons in full tilt.

The remaining guard, the one who had both shrunk away from Twilight and let out a cry at the fate of Starlight, stepped forward.

Shivering in the cold.

"What is it?" Twilight said, irritated and checking her watch. "The schedule must be followed to the millisecond."

Chink Cling coughed, a frosty mist twinkling into view. "I-It's hard to ask you of this, b-but...when we're d-done with the Crystal Empire, could you find a way to let Equestria expand farther? Perhaps, all the way to Basalt Beach?"

Twilight grinned. "You are an ambitious pony, but there is good in that. There will always be threats to Equestria from both without and within, so constantly tackling the former is a step in the right direction."

She gave the guard a quiver full of arrows.

Chink Cling rotated it around, then stared at Twilight—stumped.

"But, first...no survivors from the town."

She glowed her horn.

Poof.

Twilight was gone.

Leaving Chink Cling alone on the snow, clutching the quiver in her grip and viewing the blazing scene below.

The Town of Efficiency burning on under the cold night.