Fragment

by Heliostorm

Chapter 6: Chaos Redux

“Discord is dead. Undoubtedly this news will be the cause of much rejoicing in ponies across Equestria. You, my daughter, must not join them. I give you now this one warning: Prepare. Though Discord’s death was a necessary first step, it will unleash a wave of chaos across our lands hitherto held in reserve only by his control. For Chaos is the natural order of things, and this victory is the only the first in our coming war against extinction.”
- The Diaries of Tick Tock, 2nd Centennial Edition

As the squadrons of flying machines cruised away from Canterlot, Crystalline gazed back through a small, circular viewport in the back of the transport, watching the city of her birthplace burn.

The damage the attack had done was only superficial, of course. The Manehattanite flying divisions could start fires and terrorize the populace, but they could not do any lasting harm to the city’s industry or military complexes. Canterlot was more fortress than city. Even though what was left of the original castle had since been swallowed by more recent construction, the newer buildings still kept to the same methods that the ancients had built Canterlot with. Every tower was a possible stronghold, every road and plaza a potential killing field—to say nothing of its impregnable position on the mountaintop. The fires would burn and the columns of smoke would rise into the night sky, but once all was said and done, all Manehattan had managed to do was make the old capital of Equestria hungry for vengeance.

A strange tension twinged through Crystalline’s chest, and it was a while before she recognized it as guilt. It had been many years since she had felt any loyalty to where she had grown up as a filly, but nevertheless the thought that she had participated in an event that may have threatened her family and old friends was disconcerting. Not that it would have mattered if she had refused to participate—the Manehattanites would have attacked with or without her.

Gradually, Canterlot grew smaller and smaller in her vision, until it was no more than a whitish speck on the mountain. Sighing, Crystalline tore her gaze away from it and hardened her heart. What was done was done. Now was the time to attend to more pressing concerns.

She walked past the Rangers to the front of the transport. Some of the Manehattanites were still tending the wounds they had received from Shining Armor. She opened the door to the cockpit and stepped inside, gazing out the windshield. The sun was rising on schedule, the sky turning from black to orange, and from that Crystalline surmised that any attack on Solarium that had been attempted had been defeated.

“We’ve got a nasty chaos storm ahead,” the pilot reported to the gray unicorn sitting in the chair next to him. “Looks like it’s blowing northeast from Central Yellow Zone.”

Crystalline noted the swirling mass of light-pink clouds in front of them. Chocolate rain poured down from the cotton candy thunderclouds, pooling into rivers that flowed into lakes. Below, the rolling hills were covered in the blue and purple checkerboard-patterns characteristic of the first stage of chaos infestation, what were referred to as “yellow zones”.

Once, the whole of Equestria had been like that. To restore the land back to green hills, white clouds, and clear water took huge amounts of magical energy. Two hundred years later, and most of Equestria was still marked by the legacy of Discord’s reign.

“The fleet is diverting south,” the pilot continued. He looked up. “Shall we follow, Captain Slice?”

Slice shook his head. “No. It makes sense for them to do it because they’re heading for Baltimare. But we need to get back to Manehattan.” He pointed a hoof to the right. “Go north, around the storm.”

The pilot nodded, and tilted his joystick to the left. The horizon angled as the vehicle banked towards the north. Crystallined watched the ground, taking note of a small lake of chocolate milk that they would pass over in the next couple of minutes.

Slice glanced over at Crystalline. “Did you need anything?”

Crystalline smiled. “Yes. I’d like my payment now, if you’d please.”

The gray unicorn snorted. “You can get it after we get back to Manehattan.”

“But I’d like it now.” Crystalline leaned forward. “Come now, we both watched your men bring it aboard. What’s the harm in giving it to me now as opposed to later?” She fluttered her eyes alluringly.

Slice sighed, seemingly in exasperation, but Crystalline could see a darker calculation in his eyes. “Fine. Come with me.” He stood up and walked out of the cockpit, Crystalline in tow.

“Hey!” the pilot called after them. “Close the door behind you!” When neither of the two unicorns responded, he simply grunted in annoyance and turned his attention back to flying.

They walked back into the main bay, past the Lord Magister who had been bound and gagged in the corner. Opening a large metal locker, Slice levitated out a saddlebag. Crystalline approached. Though her posture was relaxed, her muscles were tense, and her eyes alert. As the saddlebag floated towards her, she summoned a levitation spell of her own, and the dark blue aura surrounding the bag transformed into a purplish-pink one. With deliberate care she floated the bag around and onto her back. Though her gaze was fixed on the bag, her attention was focused on the gray unicorn in the corner of her eye. He was watching her carefully.

Crystalline tensed up. There was roughly a fifty-fifty chance of her prediction being wrong, and now was the moment of truth.

The bag came to a rest on her back. There was a blur of motion from the corner of her eye, and she instinctively ducked. A blade passed through the air where her head had been a moment before. Slice’s other hoof came stabbing towards her chest, and she jumped back.

And then everything was still again. Crystalline feigned surprise. “What is the meaning of this?” she cried.

“Oh, don’t give me that bullshit,” Slice said, retracting his hoof-blade, his voice full of contempt. “You know that I know that the first thing you’re going to do once we get to Manehattan is to scurry back to Canterlot and give them all the intel you have on us.”

Crystalline glanced up at the ceiling. “Well, I wasn’t planning to...” That was true enough, though she’d be lying if she had said she hadn’t thought about it. Her voice purred deadly sweet. “But now that you’ve given me the idea...”

The other Rangers were getting up from their seats now, weapons drawn. “Don’t make this hard,” Slice replied. “There’s too many of us, and this is too confined a space for your teleportation to be of much use.”

Crystalline nodded. “You’re right. I surrender.” She bowed her head in supplication, making her long neck vulnerable to a quick killing blow.

The gray unicorn’s eyebrows lifted in surprise; he hadn’t been expecting her to actually give up. There was a moment’s hesitation, and that was all Crystalline needed.

She teleported through the open door into the cockpit and slammed it shut. Telekinetically swinging out the blades attached to her front hooves, she stabbed the pilot in the chest and sliced his throat with the other before he could react. Shoving his body aside, she then reached for the joystick and smashed it forward.

Crystalline had no idea how to fly the airplane, but she was smart enough to gather that muddling with the joystick would mess up their flight path. As she expected, the flying machine suddenly lurched forward. The ground began to fill the window very quickly.

There were several muffled thumps behind her as the other ponies slid forward and hit the other side of the cockpit wall. “ARE YOU INSANE?!” Slice screamed as he struggled to get the door open.

Crystalline didn’t have time for a witty one-liner. Turning around, she cemented her front hooves into the floor as best she could and bucked at the window with all her strength. The windshield was made of ordinary glass and shattered easily, jagged shards slicing into her legs. Crystalline ignored the pain and turned back around. Her eyes fell upon the lake from before.

She took a deep breath and summoned her strength. It was a long distance she had to teleport now, much longer than she was used to. Magical energy surged through her body and into her horn. Behind her, the door finally opened, and the Rangers rushed forward with killing intent.

There was a flash of light. Space-time twisted, and Crystalline felt her body smash into the surface of the pond. Pain exploded on her skin as she struggled to stay conscious.

Eventually it faded away, and her brain registered the fact that was she still alive. Alive, and mostly uninjured. She swam to the surface and took a deep breath as her head broke the surface. The vehicle she had jumped from had managed to pull out of its dive, but was now flying very erratically. She watched as it dipped and spun as the Rangers desperately fought to maintain control. For a moment it looked as though they might make it, and then they dove once more, finally crashing behind a hill.

Crystalline smiled. She had survived, and she had survived with her money. Lazily she paddled over to the shore of the pond and climbed onto it. She made a quick check of the contents of the bag; the gleam of gold confirmed that there had been no deception in the money, at least. Crystalline wouldn’t even have boarded the transport unless she had been sure her payment was onboard, after all.

She looked to the sky. Her mane was soaking wet and the chocolate milk would become very sticky as it dried. Hopefully she’d find some water to wash in on the way back to Canterlot. At a good pace, she might make it there by nightfall.

----------

There was a single loud knock on the door of the hospital room before it swung open, revealing a nurse pushing an empty wheelchair. “Time to go,” the nurse declared.

Twilight Sparkle turned away from the window she had been staring at for the last ten minutes, her expression one of mild confusion. “Am I already healed?” She certainly didn’t feel healthy.

“No,” the nurse declared, bring the wheelchair up to the side of Twilight’s bed. “But you’re awake and you’re going to live, so that means there are a lot of ponies out there that need this bed more than you.” She offered her front hooves, her expression utterly unsympathetic. “Come.”

With the nurse’s help, Twilight pushed herself off the bed and into the chair, wincing as pain crackled in her chest. For the first time since entering the room, the nurse’s face softened. “Take it easy for the next couple of days, alright? Normally we’d be keeping you in here for at least a week. Don’t do anything too strenuous, and make sure to stay off your left rear leg.”

Twilight nodded. “Thanks,” she said, her voice full of sincerity. The nurse made to push the wheelchair, but Twilight waved her off. “I’ve got it.” Spinning the wheels with telekinesis, Twilight rolled herself out to the lobby.

The hospital lobby was filled with many wounded soldiers and their worried relatives who had spent the night here. Even amongst ponies, purple was not a very common coat color, so Twilight had little trouble spotting her twin curled up in a corner of the room. The other unicorn was sleeping peacefully in a pile of blankets. The sight gave her a calm feeling. Is that what I look like when I’m sleeping?

“Hey,” Twilight said, leaning forward from her wheelchair to shake the other pony. “Wake up, time to go.”

Other Twilight groggily sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Mornin’,” she mumbled sleepily, shaking off her slumber. She gazed at the wheelchair, and her expression turned worried. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, fine,” Twilight answered dismissively, then wheeled around and towards the door. “C’mon, we’ve got things to do.”

The skies were still dark outside, despite it approaching ten o’clock in the morning. Twilight frowned—it wasn’t like Solar Control to be late. They raised the sun on time yesterday, so what’s wrong today? Well, whatever it was, Twilight was certain they had good reason.

Once the two ponies were past the makeshift medical tents, the streets of Solarium looked much as they always did. One full day had passed since the attack and already things were getting back to normal. Ponies trotted across sidewalks, looking both ways before crossing the stone-paved streets where other ponies pulling carts and the occasional rune engine-powered car ran. Further away, the horn of a train blew. And on the distant northern horizon, Canterlot gleamed in the mountains as brightly as ever. Life went on in the City of Motion—the joint Manehattan-Cloudsdale attack had been stopped before doing any real damage to the infrastructure and citizens of the city. The defenses would be repaired, the buildings rebuilt.

Beneath the surface hustle and bustle, though, there was a grim atmosphere descending upon the city. Combat was nothing new to these ponies, of course. Even during times of peace there were always border skirmishes and assassinations. But for most of the young ponies that now lived across Equestria, full-scale warfare was something none of them had ever seen.

Twilight noticed none of this. Despite the fact that she had only been barely let outside the Harmony research complex to see the city, she wasn’t at all curious. Her mind dwelt fixedly on the events of last night, unable to get over her mistakes and her losses. The only thing she cared about now was getting back to work. Her time spent poring over maps of the city now came in handy as she navigated the streets.

Her twin, on the other hand, could not stop looking at the city. Her eyes dashed to and fro, every new sight bewildering and fascinating her. Eventually though, they came to rest on the wheelchair-bound pony in front of her. “Um,” Other Twilight said, breaking the silence that had lingered since they left the hospital. Her voice was slow, uncertain. “You said... you said your dad was dead?”

Twilight gave a long sigh, her eyes cast down towards the sidewalk. “Yeah.”

“How did it happen?”

Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head. “It’s... it’s...” She sighed again. “Alright, I’ll tell you.” Her eyes looked upwards. “There’s this mountain range called the Chaos Mountains that separates us from the Free-Staters. In those mountains is a pass, the only pass big enough to move an army through. And in there, at the bottom of this valley, was a big hill. And on that hill was a tree.”

She turned her head around to face her only audience member, who was looking understandably confused. “That tree, apparently, was a problem. It blocked the line of sight between two Canterlot outposts, so one could be attacked without the other outpost realizing it. So they decided that that tree had to go, and sent a squad to cut it down. The Free-Staters... didn’t like that.”

She paused for a moment, turning back around and staring down at the ground. Her voice was underlaid by a low, bitter growl. “There was a scuffle. And when the dust had settled, dad had a hole the size of a grapefruit in his chest.” Twilight raised her front hooves to show how big the hole was. “They tried to operate, but... he didn’t make it.”

Twilight shook her head, her teeth grinding together. “That tree. That damn tree. My dad died because of a stupid, bucking, tree!”

There was a sharp shriek of metal as her wheelchair suddenly lurched to a stop. Twilight looked down. The wheels had been crushed and the metal handles had been bent badly out of shape. Her anger evaporated, replaced by a sinking feeling as she tried to ignore the strange looks the other ponies in the street were shooting her. She sighed. “Oh, not again.”

“You’ve done this before?” the other Twilight asked.

“Kinda.” Twilight shook her head and groaned. “Great, now we have to go back to the hospital and explain why their wheelchair’s been destroyed.”

“It’s alright, I got it.” The other unicorn leaned down and pointed her horn towards the wheelchair. A purple aura surrounded the mangled wheels, and Twilight watched in amazement as they magically unbent themselves back into shape. “There, good as new!”

Twilight blinked. “That sure is... something.”

Other Twilight looked at her. “Never seen a repair spell before?”

Twilight shook her head. She looked at her twin, who shrugged. “Say... how many spells would you say you know?”

“Umm...” Other Twilight furrowed her brows, her eyes gazing off into the distance as she rubbed her chin. “I’d say... two hundred, give or take?”

Twilight almost fell out of her chair. “T- TWO HUNDRED?” she sputtered, causing heads to turn all around the two unicorns.

Other Twilight took a step backwards. “Uh...”

Twilight rubbed her head. “Flaming cola rain.” She looked into her twin’s confused eyes. “I know six.”

The second mare stared back for a few moments, then awkwardly chuckled. “Wow, uh... I don’t what to say.”

Twilight shook her head and started wheeling herself forward again. “Two hundred spells,” she muttered quietly. “I think all of Equestria put together might be lucky to know two hundred different spells.” She looked back at her twin. “You probably know more magic than my entire civilization.”

Once again they traveled in silence. The second Twilight found herself having to break into a slow trot to keep up with the wheelchair. “Why so few?” she finally asked.

“Lost,” Twilight responded. As if on cue, the street suddenly opened up into an intersection, the buildings on either side giving way to reveal Canterlot’s towers in the distant north. The two unicorns stared at the distant city. “Lost when Discord conquered Canterlot. When all the masters of magic either died or became his slaves, when every scroll in the archives was burned to ash. Knowledge and spells gathered over thousands of years, all gone forever. Until...” Twilight’s eyes turned back to her twin, sparkling with realization. Her voice softened into a whisper. “Until now.”

The other unicorn seemed to grow uneasy under her gaze. Twilight gave a small smile and turned back around. “Ah, we’re here!”

Before them was a large, rectangular building. It was built in a more traditional style of architecture and lacked the glowing lights and spinning contraptions of most Solarium buildings. Past a polished staircase, gleaming marble columns held up a beautiful vaulted roof over walls decorated with golden spirals and stars. At the bottom was nestled a grand wooden door.

Other Twilight blinked slowly. “Is this... what I think it is?”

Twilight smirked. “What do you think it is?”

“A library!”

Twilight nodded, smiling. “Yep. The Solarium Public Library. Third largest library in Equestria.” Her smile turned into a frown as she regarded the stairs. “Hmph.”

After a short period of consideration, she decided to teleport up to the door, wheelchair and all. Her twin was galloping up the polished steps, her face glowing as brightly as the marble. I think she likes libraries even more than I do, Twilight thought. That made her wonder. Twilight had blazed through school as fast as she could, becoming one of the youngest graduates of Canterlot University ever. But this other world must have reams more knowledge than hers did, thousands of years worth of magic more to learn. Was the other Twilight still in school, still just a student?

This was Twilight’s first time in the Solarium Public Library, so she asked a librarian to point her to the section she was after. Nestled deep in the back of the library were only two dusty shelves labeled “History.”

“Why don’t you go find a seat?” she suggested to the other Twilight as she started magically pulling books off the shelves and piling them in her lap. After that she wheeled around to the “Reference” and “Science” sections before finding her twin again, seated at a small table under a staircase.

“So,” Twilight began as she handed the unicorn a green encyclopedia edition, “there’s a lot for you to learn. I suggest beginning with The Comprehensive Canterlot Encyclopedia’s entry on the Rune Wars, and then you can look up stuff off of that.” She began piling more books in front of her. “Then there’s Collapse by Ink Blink, which is an excellent history of the post-Discord era up to the beginning of the Second Rune War. Antennae, Claws, and Unicorn Horns is a very vivid account of the Second Rune War that goes into great detail about the changelings and the griffons. Apples and Oranges has everything an average pony needs to know about economics and will give you some good insight into our culture, and The Structure of Scientific Revolutions will give you the basics on rune engines and how we think of magic in this world.”

And to top it all off, she threw a couple more books onto the stack. “And here’s some miscellaneous books, just in case you finish early. Sound good?”

Her twin had to bend around the pile of books to look back at her. “Wait, you aren’t going to explain any of this to me?”

“I’ve got things I need to get to,” Twilight said as she wheeled around and started for the door.

Other Twilight frowned as she gazed at the stack of books. “You only gave me books about history, though. What about now?”

Twilight turned back around, her expression confused. “What do you mean ‘now’?”

Her twin shoved the pile out of the way. “Why are you fighting this war? What’s so different between you ‘Imperialists’ and the ‘Free States’ that you have to kill each other?”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “How do you know about that?”

The other unicorn waved a hoof dismissively. “I talked to a lot of ponies while you were out. None of them had a good explanation. They all said stuff like ‘Either we win or we die,’ or ‘They just want our magic and technology.’” She glowered at Twilight. “If that’s all there is to it, then this war business is just... illogical! It makes no sense! Why fight each other over magic and technology?”

Twilight stared at the floor, deep in thought. “I’m not surprised they said things like that. This kind of stuff is more than the average pony cares to learn about.” She sat back in her wheelchair and sighed. “Alright then. There’s lots of reasons, but I’ll tell you the only one that matters.” She glanced at the “Science” section of the library. “Be right back.”

Her eyes scanned the shelves, looking at the names of authors. T... T... T... Aha! Wow, I didn’t really think they’d have it. When she got back, the other Twilight had cracked open the encyclopedia and was skimming through the opening entry on the Rune Wars. “Alright,” Twilight said, sliding a thin, plastic-bound paperback across the table.

Her twin flipped the book around and scanned the title, eyebrow raised. “Chaos Theory,” she read aloud, “... by Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight nodded, taking a deep breath as she took the book back. Her expression was forlorn as she flipped the pages open to the middle. “This,” she said, sliding the book back to the other pony and gesturing, “is a map of Equestria today.”

Other Twilight peered at the map. “What’s with all the colored lines?”

Twilight looked down at the map in her book. The base was a standard map of Equestria—the mountains, the rivers, borders, and cities, the stuff you’d expect on any geographical map. There was Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare on the east coast, as she was familiar with. But then Cloudsdale was off in the eastern ocean, and there was a huge mountain range cutting down the middle of Equestria. The Chaos Mountains. On the west of the mountains were Canterlot and then Solarium in the valley to the south. But overlaid on top of it all were scattered blotches of colored diagonal lines, like somepony had tried to shade the map with random, colored hatching.

“The lines represent chaos infestation,” she explained, pointing her hoof at each blotch as she spoke about them. “Each of these regions is called a ‘zone,’ and zones are classified into colors by the level of infestation. Green zones are clean and have no detectable chaos magic. Yellow zones are in the first stage of infestation, and then it goes up through red and black.”

Other Twilight looked fixedly at the map for a long while. Roughly a third of the map was green, divided into two great portions that lined the Chaos Mountains. Another fifty percent of the land area was yellow, and the rest was scattered splotches of red and little bits of black here and there, mostly centered around the mountain range that ran down the middle of Equestria.

However, there was something to the north of Equestria that didn’t fit any of the descriptions Twilight had given. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing a great solid black circle at the far top of the map. “That’s where the Crystal Empire should be...”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. That’s where it was. If you go there now though, you won’t find much. That’s Ground Zero, where Tick Tock detonated his Chaos Engine with the Elements of Discord to kill Discord. And that’s where it all went wrong.”

Twilight looked away, her expression growing wistful and distant. “Chaos magic doesn’t work like normal magic. Normal magic needs something to supply it with energy. Chaos magic... it grows on its own.” She sighed. “Discord, when he was alive, held his chaos magic in check. But when he died, that stopped. All the chaos he caused around Equestria started growing when he died, and it would have gotten out of control long ago if we hadn’t stopped it.” She glanced back down at the map. “And the Chaos Engine released so much energy that some say that Tick Tock made things worse than Discord ever did.”

She paused. Her twin was staring at the map again. Gone was the glowering look that she had moments before. Her eyes were now dejected, her teeth biting her lower lip.

Twilight flipped the page. “This is Equestria fifty years ago.” Over half of the map was green, and the yellow was separated into little islands, with only the occasional splotch of red. She flipped the page twice in the other direction. “And this is Equestria as it will be fifty years from now.”

There was maybe a tenth of Equestria that was still green. The rest of it was covered in that sickly yellow, with scars of red and black running across it like dirty wounds.

Other Twilight opened her mouth ever so slightly. Twilight waited, seeing if she was going to say anything. When she didn’t, Twilight closed the book and turned her head to gaze out a distant window.

“Fifty years from now, there won’t be enough farmland to support our population. There will be mass starvation in every city. Ponies will die by hunger and thirst and disease by the hundreds of thousands. It’s already happened to the griffons.” She shook her head. “A hundred years from now, we’ll be reduced to nomadic tribes that wander through the yellow and red zones, looking for the few green zones still left. Three hundred years...” She looked back at her twin, glaring deep into the other pony’s eyes. “There will be no life left in this world.”

Other Twilight broke the gaze, staring down at her blurry reflection in the table. It was a long time before she could speak again, and when she did her voice was barely above a whisper. “So... why fight? Why not work together, to see if you can find a solution?”

Twilight tapped her hoof on the table in annoyance, though it was not at all directed towards the pony in front of her. “Because the ‘Imperialists’ think they have it all figured out. Our ‘top scientists’ have done the math, and they think that, at our current rate of technological progress and our resources, we can build enough rune engines to protect enough farmland to support our current population in Solarium, Canterlot, and Baltimare.” Twilight sighed sadly, leaning back in her wheelchair. “That’s about one-fourth of Equestria’s population. That means, if we go with their plan, three out of four ponies living today have to die.”

Twilight shook her head and looked away. “Well, as you can imagine, those three out of four ponies don’t take that very well. So they fight. They fight to try and steal our technology, our knowledge, our resources, so they can try and save themselves, so they can save everypony.” She sighed again. “But the truth is, if they do that—if they try to save everypony—then everypony will die.”

“But... then why...?”

Twilight slammed her hoof on the table, her voice echoing in the quiet of the library. “Because what else are they going to do? Of course they’re not going to lay down and die so the rest of us can live. They want to hope, even when there is none! They fight, because they have nothing else to lose. And so we have to fight back, and by the time this war is over both sides will be too weak to do anything and everypony has to die!”

A long silence followed in which neither unicorn dared to meet the eyes of the other. Finally, Other Twilight broke the silence.

“But... you don’t believe that there’s no hope... do you?” From the intense look her in eyes, it was less a question than a statement. Those eyes were filled with a strange purpose, sending chills down Twilight’s spine. What is she thinking? They were her own eyes, and yet she could not recognize the feelings behind them.

Twilight shook her head, choosing her next words carefully. “No. I don’t. That’s why I dove into old history books and the few scrolls that were saved from Canterlot’s destruction. That’s why I proposed the Harmony Project and got it accepted by the Supreme Commander herself.” And that’s why you’re here, she thought. “If it takes a miracle to save Equestria, then that’s exactly what I’m going to make. The Elements of Harmony will be my miracle.” She turned her chair around and started wheeling herself towards the front of the library.

“You don’t have to do it like this,” Other Twilight said quietly.

Twilight stopped, but did not turn around. “Do it like what?”

“All by yourself.” There was a tone of urgency in the mare’s voice. “I can tell. You think you have to do everything on your own, that there’s nopony else smart or determined enough to do what’s right. But that’s not true. There are good ponies out there—kind, generous, loyal ponies—who can help. And you need their help.” She took a deep breath. “The Elements of Harmony will only work when you have friends who embody them. Without friends, there’s no way you can save Equestria.”

Friends. That word conjured up memories for Twilight. Unbidden, like bubbles rising from the bottom of a pond, those memories broke the surface of her thoughts.

She was a filly, being pushed by her mother through the classroom door on the first day of kindergarten

“Come on, Twilight. Shining Armor’s not going to be home much anymore, so you’ve got to make some new friends!”

She was a student, walking through the college courtyard carrying a heavy load of books, trying desperately to ignore the shouting and singing from the party being held outside her dorm.

“Hey, come join us Twilight! It’s not like the world’s going to end because you got a B on your next test!”

She was a scientist, the young prodigy amongst ponies old enough to be her grandparents, rebuffing their attempts to impart their wisdom and knowledge upon her.

“Oh, give it up. That pony’s more interested in machines than friends.”

Twilight snorted, turning back around. “That’s ridiculous. Tick Tock managed to draw out the power of the Elements with a machine. He didn’t need friends to use them, and neither do I.”

Her twin stood up so quickly she knocked her chair over. “And look how that ended. Didn’t you just say that Tick Tock made things worse than Discord?”

“I said some ponies think that!” Twilight snapped back. “But they’re wrong. Tick Tock did the right thing. Discord had to die, no matter what the cost. It’s the only way we can make progress.” She breathed in, her nostrils flaring. “And progress is all that matters.”

Other Twilight’s eyes grew wide. “That’s not true,” she said, her voice pleading. “There’s so much more that’s more important than that. So much more.”

“What do you know? This isn’t your world.” Twilight spun around, wheeling herself towards the door. “Read your books. I’ll be back when you’re done.”

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Executive Order R3-17653
Establishment of the Harmony Project

By the authority of the Supreme Commander of the Solarium Armed Forces, it is hereby ordered as follows:

There will be the establishment of the Harmony Project, a scientific and magical research program to be placed under the direct supervision of the General-Secretary of the Solarium Legislative Council. The Project shall be headed by a Chief Director who has authority over all technical aspects of the program and a council of six sub-directors to manage non-technical aspects. The Chief Director will be given an administrative assistant to facilitate communication between her and the sub-directors. All further organization is to be implemented by the sub-directors as necessary.

The program is to be given absolute precedence in terms of resources and logistics over all else except the security of Solarium itself. The office of the Secretariat will ensure that this precedence is maintained.

Furthermore, the Supreme Commander would like personally extend her assurances to all worried parties that the Elements of Harmony do, in fact, exist, and that the age and inexperience of Chief Director Twilight Sparkle are not an insurmountable impediment to the project's success.

General Secretary Blacknote Singer

Comments

[Deadpikle]

Do I smell a little bit of Command and Conquer backstory in here? :)

[FredFredNineNine]

Cannot wait until Our Twilight cracks the somewhat thick skull of AU Twilight about the Elements of Harmony

[StormyVenture]

I think this Twilight is nuts. The Elements are tools of harmony not Chaos, I think that's a plausible reason for this Tick Tock dude having possibly made things worse.

[Heliostorm]

2038394
I'm a big C&C fan

2038603
More or less. It's split up into different independent city-states, kind of like ancient Greece.

2039454
Eventually.

2045899
Well, keep in mind she doesn't know much about the Elements other than that they're old and powerful. To her they're just more tools.

[GBscientist]

Sooo. . . The Princess is basically a UEF Fatboy and and Chaos Magic is spreading like a Tiberium infestation? I'd say you've got a damned interesting wargame setting, but the general populace of Equestria is pretty much SOL.

[Flame Runner]

This review brought to you on behalf of Ponies (and some group called Authors Helping Authors)

Story with a name: Fragment
Grammar: 9.8/10

Pros:
1- The world building is incredible! It's obvious that you've put a lot of thought and effort into creating a believable alternate world for our heroes to live in. (That and I'm a sucker for good world building) Excellently done.
2- The grammar is great. There were a few small errors here and there, but overall the grammar is spot on. Make sure to give your editor(s) a big "Thank you" from me. [One thing I caught, however: the mistakes are becoming a little more noticeable as the story progresses. Just something to be on the lookout for as you keep writing.]
3-The action is well described and keeps things interesting.

Cons: (Forget that. I don't like "Cons". Let's call it "Things for Improvement" instead.)
Things for Improvement:
1- Your characters, while well described, feel a bit flat. To put it somewhat bluntly, I don't think I would be emotionally impacted much if AU Shining Armor were to die right now. That doesn't mean that your characters aren't good, just that I haven't felt a real connection with them yet.
2- There's really nothing else to put here. Anything else I could add would be nit-picky opinions that really don't have any true value to you as an author.

Notes:
This is a really good story. I'm not one who typically goes for war torn Equestria stories, but you managed to capture it in such a way that feels believable and keeps me interested. You write action really well, but that leaves me wondering how you'll manage when things get a bit less action packed considering that so far it's been only action. Your world building is top notch. I love the little tidbits of books and other literature that you throw in at the end and beginning of each chapter. It makes your world feel even more expansive. The only thing I would say needs some improvement is getting your readers to really connect with your characters. So, fave and thumbs up. Can't wait to see where you'll take this story next!

-Flame Runner

[kingtiger666]

So, this is basically Command and Conquer: Chaotic Sun? Fucking rad.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Damn, that is bleak. Tick Tock... is that Whooves? Anyway... admittedly not fond of them betraying Crystalline. It's a bit cliche, IMHO. Other than that, great work,

[jackd9741]

She turned her head around to face her only audience member, who was looking understandably confused. “That tree, apparently, was a problem. It blocked the line of sight between two Canterlot outposts, so one could be attacked without the other outpost realizing it. So they decided that that tree had to go, and sent a squad to cut it down. The Free-Staters... didn’t like that.”

This sounds like The Axe Murder Incident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident

[Yutah123]

5620621
I completely agree. Exactly what I thought when I first read that paragraph.