A Third Front Has Opened Up

by waywardfallout

Chapter 2 Friends

Twilight appeared in a flash of magic in the middle of her room. A loud yelp of surprise sounded from nearby her.
Twilight quickly looked around her room looking for anything out of place.
Bright white walls, check.
Bookshelves running across the wall in front of her, check.
A white bed that was huge compared to her behind her, check.
The war map to her right untouched.
The door to her room on her left - ah.

She had found the source of the yelp. It had been Applejack, her personal guard who was wearing only her hat. She was laying on the ground in a battle stance in the doorway. Ready to attack anypony who foolishly tried to infiltrate Twilight's room. Once she saw the lavender alicorn she calmed down a bit and stood back up straight and readjusted her hat .

“Heavens Dammit sugarcube you nearly sacred me to death, I was about to jump ya.” The guard shouted.

“Sorry, AJ you ok?” Twilight asked.

“Yea I’m good, but more importantly how’d it go? Did she accept your offer?” AJ said with hope in her voice as she walked over to the alicorn.

Applejack was one of the few ponies who Twilight trusted completely and would most definitely call her a friend. Twilight had met the orange mare early in her military career. When Applejack had been first assigned to Twilight she was downright terrified of her. Worried that one wrong word would get her punished severely or even hanged, if the rumors were to be believed.

It had taken Twilight nearly a year to get the guard to open up and be more than a silent sentinel. But when she did it was wonderful. Because she could talk to somepony without the filter of religion or her High Priestess title getting in the way. Twilight would now regularly get Applejack’s opinion on her war plans. While AJ was no strategist by any means. It was just nice to have another opinion that wasn’t colored by ‘yes’s” and ‘of course General’.

Applejack was also one of very few she told about her plan to rebel against Celestia and start a new kingdom.

Twilight was interrupted from her thoughts by Applejack. “Did Rainbow Dash accept your offer or not?” Twilight magicly put her saddle bag on the war map. “She did AJ.” Twilight answered almost squealing in excitement. “We have one of Luna’s best soldiers on our side.” Twilight flew into the air as the rush of success hit her like an arrow to the face.

“Two months of planning and preparation a success! Just think of what we cou-“
A loud shushing sound interrupted her in her revelry. “Heavens Twilight, not so loud. A maid or somepony else could hear us. Then it won’t matter what happened.” The orange mare peaked out the doorway looking for any of the fort’s staff that could have overheard the alicorn's excitement. The hallway which Twilight's room was at the end of was dark. Save for the moonlight that entered through a window at the other end of the hall.

Sighing in relief at the empty hallway the guard closed the door, turned and looked up at the still flying Twilight Sparkle.
“Looks like we’re in the clear sugarcube.” AJ said then rose an eyebrow at the general. “Y’all coming back down? I want to know what the ‘Great Rainbow Of The Night’ is like.” AJ sat down on the huge bed looking at Twilight expectedly.

The mare laughed sheepishly and landed on the bed. A metallic thunk emanated from behind her.

Both heads of the mares whipped around to see a shiny black medallion laying on the floor that read “Nightshadow Rainbow Dash“. At this revaluation Twilight let out a most Priestess like curse of “oh shit”. Then teleported over to her saddle bag and levitated everything out searching for her medallion and did not find it. “Rainbow must have my medallion if I still have hers.”
AJ had been Twilights personal guard for quiet a few years now and she knew the signs of a Twilight freak out. Applejack decided to stop it be for it began.

“You gave her that message book. Right Twilight?”
“I did, but how does that help me? All it can do is let me talk to-oh.”

Twilight took out the message book and held it in her magic. She also grabbed a quill magically from the war map. She opened the book and informed the pegasus of the fact she had her medallion. Twilight walked back to the bed and sat down.
“Thanks for the save, there AJ.” The guards pony smiled. “Your welcome sugarcube.”
“Now what’s she like, is what they say about her true?”
“Some things are true like the fact she has fangs like a bat, but you can't see them with her mouth closed.” A shiver went up AJ’s back “creepy”.

“Others are not, like her having bat wings or glowing eyes. But I think I know why she agreed to help us.” The alicorn’s eyes saddened as she remembered what she had learned about the rainbow maned pegasus.
“She's a puppet, a tool, like us but she has it so much worse than we do.”
“How is that possible? We say one wrong word to the wrong pony and it’s to the gallows.” AJ looked over to Twilight but was surprised to see tears in her eyes.

“She doesn’t know how to write more then her own name and a few words.” Applejack’s eyes widened in shock. “Really?” AJ knew that to Twilight knowledge was one of the most important things a pony could have. To Twilight Sparkle to deprive a pony of knowledge was the one the worst kinds of evil imaginable.
“She said she was kept as dumb as possible.”
“But why would they do that? Make one of their greatest fighters stupid, seems dumder then giving a recruit a crossbow.” The orange mare questioned Twilight. “No, it makes perfect sense.”
“It does?” Twilight nodded
“It’s much easier to control a pony who can’t even fathom the idea of questioning something. Much less the idea that there is more to life t-then executing orders as told and killing as told. B-being just a body a-and nothing else. The perfect slave, that’s what she was.” By the end of the explanation Twilight had started to lose her composure. She started shaking in a mix of anger and sadness. The fact that Luna had done that to a pony enraged her. It made her want to kill Luna for what she did to Rainbow.
“My Stars.”

Twilight wiped her face free of water. ”She asked me to be her teacher, that was her main request of me.”
“So was she also under a spell like you. Was it like the one that made you not question authority?” Applejack asked, taking a guess.
“I have no idea. All I know is that something I did during the battle of Saint Silverhoof helped her break free.”
The message book lit up, signifying that a message had been received. Twilight opened the book and read the response. “Ok” was messily written in the book. The alicorn let out a sigh. “She responded.”

Applejack could feel the sadness in the room, it hung in the room like a fog. A fog that she tried to lift.
“So, was Rainbow Dash still the sexiest mare you have ever seen?” An impish smirk formed on the orange mare’s face as she said those words.

“AJ!” Twilight started blushing madly, her earlier sadness forgotten replaced by embarrassment.

“Y’all said it.” Applejack’s smirk widened at her plan working as intended.”and right after she nearly killed ya too. ”At this point Twilight had buried her face in her forelegs. “AJ!” Twilight magicly flicked Applejack's hat over her eyes.
“I’m only messing with you sugarcube.” Applejack said, fixing her hat , laughing at Twilight’s embarrassment.

A bell rang out over the fort.

“Dammit, its curfew already.” Applejack got up and moved to sit next to the bed, on the floor. Stealing a pillow while doing so. “We best get to sleep.”

“Yea” Twilight agreed

---

The next morning

Applejack woke up to the sound of a bell ringing out over the fort. “Morning Twilight.” AJ said as she stretched out, loud popping coming from her back. “Good morning AJ.” Applejack got up and walked to the war map where Twilight always sat in the morning. She was sitting drinking a cup of tea, that sat on a cart full of food. She was looking over both her plans and the army’s.

“Hey Twilight, when am I getting my new armor? I feel a might bit under protected.”
Twilight turned her head to look at the guard. “I think Rarity should be done with it today in fact.” Twilight lifted an apple off the cart with her magic and took a bite. “We should be able to go pick it today at her forge, why don’t we go now?”
Applejack shook her head no. “Breakfast first then we pick up my armor.” Applejack sat next to the cart and started to eat.
“Fine.”

---

Once they had finished breakfast then exited Twilight’s personal room into the white stone hallway.
Four banners with the picture of Twilight’s cutie mark against a white background were spaced out on both sides of the hallway. The hallway ended in a T junction with a widow in the middle. The endings of the T junction led to the main keep which due to it being the middle of winter, was full of boxes that held various items the army needed.

Twilight looked out the window that overlooked the keep. As she and Applejack walked by and she spotted something she hadn’t been expecting to see, well more like somepony. The Alicorn held out a hoof in front of AJ stopping her.
“What is Sunset Shimmer Doing here? She shouldn’t be here till tomorrow.” Twilight asked, quickly analyzing the situation. Sunset had her red fire mage robes on that looked fine if a bit dirty. But her face was one of fear and panic. She had been in a fight recently, a bad one too. Because very few things scared the fire mage.

To Twilight, Sunset Shimmer was also a friend and also one of the very few that knew about her plans.
Sunset had come to her one day to ‘ confess her sins of doubting Celestia ’. And when she did Twilight jumped at the chance to bring her best fire mage into the fold.
But seeing the now panicked look on the light amber mare face worried her greatly.

Sunset spotted Twilight in the window and disappeared in a flash of red magic and reappeared it front of Twilight.

“High Priestess ther-“ Shimmer was cut off by the alicorn who pointed a hoof at Applejack. “She knows about ‘it’.” Twilight couldn’t stand being called Priestess after all she learned. Sunset nodded.
“As I was saying the shipment I was escorting got attacked. I was the only survivor.” At this Twilight already had a sneaking suspicion of who had attacked the shipment.
“Who attacked you?” Twilight asked hoping she was right.

“The Rainbow demon attacked the shipment, it happened so fast.” Sunset said with fear in her voice.

“It happened just before sunrise. Then all of sudden, one of the guards next to me disappeared. He was gone just like ‘that’. Then the other two fell over dead. Then she flew towards me but stopped, then took out a little book, next thing I knew she told to teleport away or she’d kill me.” Shimmer looked at the stone floor of the hallway in shame. “And I did without thinking, like a coward.”

Twilight was ecstatic hearing that Rainbow had listened to her. “It’s fine Sunset there was no way you could challenge her alone. Besides it’s a good thing you did.”

“What, why?” The light amber mare looked up at Twilight confused. Twilight decided that she might as well tell Sunset about their insider in Luna's army.

“Sunset, remember when I said that I may have found a pony willing to work with us in the Lunar army?” Twilight could see the pieces fall into place behind the mares eyes.

“N-no way you got the Rainbow demon to work with us in-” Shimmer quickly looked around the hallway for anypony who could overhear them. “-The rebellion.”

The alicorn simply nodded her head in silent confirmation.

”How? She’s supposed to have unbreakable loyalty. How did you manage that?” Sunset asked, starry eyed. Even though Sunset Shimmer was slightly older than the alicorn she looked up to Twilight in a strange way. She was her commander after all and she had led her though countless battles and brought her back alive.
“She came to the same realization that we all have.” Twilight said.

“That we’re fighting for nothing.” Applejack replied.

“That scripture is nothing but lies.” Sunset answered.

Twilight nodded. “Yes” Twilight paused then added. ”Sunset we were heading to Rarity to pick up Applejack's new armor and check on the progress of mine. Would you like to accompany us?”

“Yeah sure, but I have a question.” Twilight started to walk forward, towards the staircase that led to the keep. Sunset moved out of the general’s way and fell in behind her.

“Why didn’t you tell me Applejack knew, who else knows.” She kept her wording vague just in case as they had exited the hallway into the cold keep.

“Because if one pony betrayed us only I would take the hit. As they’d only know about me and I would most likely survive it.” Answered the alicorn.

To Sunset the fort was also felt weirdly empty. “Where is everypony?”

“Cold Stone needed reinforcements” Answered Applejack.

The group turned left into the forge exiting the keep. The ringing of metal being hit by a hammer entered into their ears.
Much to Sunset’s utter delight the forge was not colored white like everything else under Celestia’s damned rule. But instead a sooty black, most likely from said soot and ash from the forge.

Which had the aforementioned white unicorn Rarity the ‘armorer of the North Point Fort’ as she loved to say. Although Sunset would disagree with the name fort, as in the winter it acted more like a storage depot then a fort. Working on some piece of metal next to the furnace. Sunset heard the lavender alicorn clear her throat.

“Rarity is my personal guard’s armor done?” Twilight had fully switched into her Priestess slash army general role.

“Why yes of course Priestess. It’s in the back, let me get it for you.” The alabaster unicorn said as she went to a door in the back of the room and went to grab Applejack’s armor. After a few seconds a ponyikin came floating out in a blue magic aura followed by a nervous looking Rarity. The manikin was wearing what must have been the Applejack’s armor. Shimmer heard AJ let out a loud whistle at the armor. Sunset just sat there stunned.

The armor covered everything up to the head, leaving room for Aj’s hat. It was colored silver with orange highlights around the sides of her legs. The gauntlets that covered each hoof had hoof blades built in, making each hoof a way to stab an enemy. Most ponies were lucky to get two, even pegasi as they took time to make. Time the army usually didn’t have but Twilight made time for it. Where Applejack’s cutie mark would be was a purple 6 pointed star, big enough to hold Applejack's cutie mark inside.
But what stood out the most was a rail that ran along the right side of the armor that had a small box above it.
“Suga-Priestess is that a crossbow mount?” Applejack asked, shocked to see something so expensive on her armor.

“Yes, and you will learn how to use it.”
“But who w-“Applejack saw Twilight’s left ear flick which was the sign for, I will explain later. “Of course Priestess.”

Twilight approached the armor and put a hoof on it, inspecting it. “Is it ready for enchantments?”
Rarity answered immediately. “Yes it is your Holiness. Want me to get Sunburst to enchant it?” Twilight scoffed at that.“Nonsense, I will personally enchant it.”

Now Sunset was jealous of the guard pony, Twilight herself was going to enchant the armor. With her ridiculous magic reserves and alicorn magic, Applejack may end up with armor that has enchantments that could deflect magic artillery spells.
“Now, I Would like to check up on my armor. Please lead me to it.” Twilight requested. “Of course follow me” Rarity pointed to the back room. Then went in with the alicorn following her.

After a moment Twilight reappeared with what could be best described as a giddy smile on her face. Which she quickly wiped away. “One more thing Rarity and I will be out of your way.” Twilight said as she regrouped with her friends.
“The first is to have AJ’s armor delivered to my room by noon.”
“It will be done Priestess.” Answered the unicorn.
And with that they left the room.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

[WhatShouldIDo]

I am loving this so far

[waywardfallout]

10445495
Thanks

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

10445520
You’re welcome!

[SayuriCeleste]

viva la revolution !!!!!!

[kitsune119]

Sunsets toally a pplant