Battle For Equestria

by Cutiemarkcrusader

Chapter Two

Twilight looked at Rarity for the first time in months. Rarity had changed just as Twilight had. Her old, wavy mane was now straightened and chopped short. Her violet eyes were clouded from too many sleepless nights. Twilight had never seen her friend without her makeup until today. The only thing that remained the same were Rarity's fake eyelashes. But even with them on she looked at least ten years older.

Twilight beamed, "Rarity, you look so different."

Rarity let out a squeal of laughter as she ran to hug her best friend, "Twilight it is you! I knew you were alive! I just knew it! Everypony said you died, but I never believed them!"

Twilight laughed as Rarity released her from her embrace. Rarity's eyes widened as they drifted up and down Twilight's body. She seemed to have finally seen Twilight's appearance.

"Oh my…" she took a step back, "Twilight, you look ghastly. What on Equestria made you like this?"

"It's a long story," Twilight took a seat by the door as Rarity went back to her workshop, "What are you working on?"

"Well, I was working on a new uniform for the guards. But now I'm working on you."

"There's no need for that, Rarity," Twilight frowned, "I feel fine."

"Twilight, Twilight, Twilight," Rarity tusked, "If you come back home with me you'll give everypony a fright. Especially your parents."

"My parents are living with you?"

Rarity reappeared with a glass bottle floating alongside her, "I'm living with my parents and them. Sweetie Belle was lucky to have found them so soon."

Rarity unscrewed the lid to the bottle and applied it to a soft, cotton ball as she continued, "It's been awful here, Twilight. Just…awful."

Twilight winced as the cotton ball was pressed to her cheek. Her scar stung and twitched uncontrollably, but Rarity didn't take the cotton ball off or lighten the pressure on it.

"So, you're in charge of outfitting the military now?" Twilight asked through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the pain.

Rarity's face became stony, "Everypony has a job to do here. Even Sweetie Belle has a job working as a housemaid for Fancypants, Earl Grey, Fleur de Lis, and other rich, elite unicorns out there. She works hard to the bone everyday. I've never seen her so tired."

Rarity took the cotton ball off of Twilight's cheek at last. With her horn, she levitated a large brush off from a table and began to comb Twilight's cropped mane.

"How did you guys even settle here?" Twilight asked between the tugs of her mane, "What did I miss?"

Rarity sighed as she put the brush down and returned to the workshop, "It's not a short story, Twilight. You remember the Pegasi bombing of Ponyville, of course. Well it all happened after the six of us were separated in the crowd. While you were somewhere around Sugarcube Corner, I was stranded around the border of Ponyville. From far away I could see Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flying out toward Cloudsdale. But then I bumped into somepony.

It was nobody other than Joe from Joe's doughnuts. He and a group of unicorns were evacuating. I thought Sweetie Belle had already evacuated with the other ponies, but there she was with Joe. I was furious with her! But then they informed me of what had happened."

"What happened?" Twilight asked slowly as Rarity trotted back to Twilight with a plain, red dress levitated out in front of her.

"They had been ambushed by pegasi while they were leaving Ponyville, so they panicked and hid. They saw the pegasi go to Ponyville, so they decided to go back for unicorns like me. They led me to the camp where the unicorns were staying. The moment we made it there, the unicorns informed all of the other unicorns in Manehatten about their plan to overrun the city and make it their own territory."

"Wait," Twilight interrupted as she took the dress from Rarity, "Why would they do that for?"

"That's exactly what I had asked them. They told me that since it was wartime, they would feel safer being with their own race of pony. And since a majority of Manehatten is made up of unicorns, they wanted that place to be their rightful land. They couldn't go to Canterlot because it was too close to Cloudsdale. The ponies let us in, thinking that we were just refugees. But little did they know, we were monsters. Every unicorn drove the ponies out during the night. It was horrid. I can still hear them screaming in my mind as they're a broken record.

In their minds, the pegasi had Cloudsdale, so they decided to make their own exclusive city. I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen to reason. They were scared and let their own cowardice get the best of them. As of now, unicorns are strictly neutral in this war. It's all thanks to Prince Blueblo- sorry, King Blueblood now. Some ruler he is. If you ask me, I think your brother and Princess Cadence should be the proper rulers here."

Twilight had tentatively changed into the red dress as Rarity went back to her work on the guards' uniforms. Her eyebrows shot up at their name however.

"Shining Armor and Cadence are here?"

Rarity was silent for the longest time. She had frozen in place with a piece of fabric floating idly over her head. Twilight felt a wave of dread rush over her for a second or two.

"Rarity…" her voice echoed through the silence, "Where are they? And don't say you don't know if they're here or not. Shining Armor must have been the pony who's put up this force field. But…why would he do this? He wasn't one of the unicorns that drove out the earth ponies, was he? He wouldn't let that happen. Rarity?"

Rarity's fabric floated down to the workshop table in front of her. There was another long pause between the two ponies until Rarity turned back to Twilight. Her eyes were spilling with tears as she looked at her best friend. Twilight stared back at Rarity, bracing herself for the worst.

Rarity wiped her eyes with a small handkerchief lightly as she sniffed, "He didn't have a choice."

"What?" Twilight could feel her heart stop mid-beat, "What are you saying, Rarity?"

"Okay, Blueblood wasn't supposed to be the leader. Shining Armor and Cadence were. Sweetie Belle overheard everything while working as a maid for Filthy Rich."

"Filthy Rich?" Twilight frowned, "But he's an earth pony, not a unicorn."

"He and a few other rich ponies bought their way in. They have the rich ponies and unicorns staying in the same 'palace' as the royals. So Sweetie Belle was dusting a bookshelf when she heard Prince Blueblood talking with somepony. They were coming closer. Since Sweetie was a maid, they didn't pay her any attention.

Well, the prince was talking about how he truly deserved the throne, not some married-in royalty. The other pony pointed out that without your brother we would be sitting ducks. He also said that it'd be safer to be a sitting duck with a force field. Prince Blueblood then told the pony that 'if he made this work he would not regret it'. Two days later, Blueblood was in power. I'm almost certain that your brother was not only blackmailed, but also kidnapped. No one has seen him since Blueblood took control."

Twilight felt a light, uneasy feeling go through her. She fell back onto the seat, suddenly very tired, "Where's Cadence?"

Rarity let out a small sob, "S-She's with Blueblood. There's going to be a wedding and everything. I-I just don't know what's going on!"

"WHAT?" Twilight's eyes widened in horror, "But Cadence is married to Shining Armor! How is this happening? What's going on?"

Rarity began to compose herself, "Twilight, you have to go to my house. Have Sweetie Belle find you a job working at the palace. You have to get to the bottom of this. Please. You must!"

• • •

Twilight looked around the small street. Lined up in front of her were three to four storied houses. Twilight looked back at the directions Rarity had written down for her. The house on the corner of the street was supposed to be where she lived. Twilight trotted to the front step cautiously, humming to herself before ringing the doorbell. There was a long period of time before anypony answered the door.

Twilight was about to ring the doorbell again when a small creak caught her attention. The door had opened a crack and a set of blue eyes were now looking up at her intently. Twilight peered into the open crack, but could only see the shadow of another figure standing nearby the door.

"Uh, hello? I was sent here by Rarity."

"Twilight?" a familiar voice spoke from the crack of the door.

The door opened fully and Twilight could see who had been looking at her with those intent, blue eyes. Pearl beamed up at Twilight from the doorway. Rarity's mother hadn't changed at all except for the small grey streak running down the front of her mane. Her eyes scanned Twilight slowly.

"It really is you," she shrieked loudly with a smile, "Come in! Come in!"

Twilight rushed into the house before anyone could see what all of that screaming had been about. The door closed behind her with a whoosh.

"Oh come to the dining room quickly," Pearl said, already going up the stairs, "Everyone's eating. They will be so glad to see you."

Twilight followed behind her. The house was actually very well maintained for its age. The wall smelled of drying, white paint and the wooden floor had been freshly polished. Voices could be heard from the next room. Twilight's stomach churned at the thought of seeing more familiar faces. The doorway came into view, as did the ponies eating together.

"Everyone, look! Twilight's here!" A filly's voice rang out.

Gasps and cries of delight rose around the room as Twilight stepped forward. Sweetie Belle was the first one to greet her. Twilight's eyes widened slightly at her appearance. Sweetie Belle had grown in height since Twilight had last seen her. Her mane was longer, straight, but dull. She looked older, just as Rarity had said. But, as Twilight snuck a glance, she could tell that Sweetie Belle had still not yet received her cutie mark. It relieved Twilight for some reason. Perhaps it was because it was the only thing that hadn't changed during the war.

"Everypony said that you were dead," Sweetie Belle buried her face into Twilight's mane, "I didn't believe them And now you're here."

The second pony to hug Twilight was her father. He had grey hairs sprouting around his usually black mane. Twilight's father gave her a proud smile that made Twilight tear up. She embraced her dad lovingly. As they broke apart, Twilight looked around the dining room. Rarity's father was sitting in the seat closest her with a happy, yet dazed look on his face. But Twilight looked around desperately for that one other face missing amongst everypony.

"Where's-

"She's in her room," Pearl said with a sad, far off look in her eyes, "She found out about Cadence and Blueblood a few days ago. She's...just hasn't been the same."

"Where's her room?"

With a small sigh, Pearl led Twilight out of the dining room and up the small flight of stairs. Their hooves creaked upon the cold floorboards. The upstairs hallway was dimly lit, but like the hallway downstairs, smelled of fresh paint, and had a newly polished floor. Pearl continued past two closed doors and finally came to a stop by the third closed door. She knocked softly. No answer.

"Velvet? Darling? There's someone special here to see you."

Still no answer. Twilight's heart sped up when the door opened. But it came to a slow stop when she realized it was Pearl opening the door. She entered the bedroom slowly with Twilight following closely behind.

The bedroom was small with only enough space for the double bed, nightstand, and small bookshelf in it. Twilight almost didn't see her mother. She was standing by the windowsill, looking out into the street below. Her light purple and white hair was slightly messy from the back instead of being sleek and straight like before. Twilight took a small step forward, gulping.

"Mom?" Twilight's voice rang aloud in the empty space between them.

Twilight Velvet's ears didn't even perk up at the sound of her daughter's voice. She stayed as still as a statue. Pearl gave a small sniff as she sat down on the bed.

"I'm sorry Twilight," she spoke in a rigid voice, "She's been like this since she saw the newspaper article about Cadence and Blueblood's upcoming wedding. It was a huge shock for all of us. We think after seeing the article, she thought her suspicions about her son being dead or held hostage were true."

Twilight could barely here her voice. She walked up to her mother slowly until she was right next to her. Twilight Velvet blinked. There was a dead silence. Twilight didn't notice that Pearl had left nor did she care. She leaned her head against her mom's neck and sighed as she looked out the window. Unicorns strolled up and down the sidewalk, but they decreased in numbers as the day turned to dusk. In the distance a large blue brick building stood out. Flags flapped from its small tower. Twilight coud only assume that this was the palace Rarity had described to her.

Twilight's dull sadness soon turned into a burning anger rising from the pit of her stomach all the way to her head. Her nostrils flared at the thought of Cadence trapped with Blueblood against her will. Twilight vowed then and there that no matter what she would find a way to find Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. But first she was going to find Blueblood and make him pay for what he had done if it was the last thing she did.