We have come to believe that everything we hear and see is the undeniable truth in this world but what if the past had been twisted beyond recognition and instead of true history we are presented with lies from a being that has managed to outlive everypony who once bore witness to what actually transpired. If it is not found out, a lie becomes the truth and it will always be easier to accept if the one who tells it to us is someone we have trusted for so very long.
We were once protected by someone who was forced to throw away everything she had come to love in her life, all for the faint hope of a second chance. We all know it was an uprising that failed but what we were never told was the size of this revolt and the true reason behind it. The Lunar republic lasted for but a short moment in the annals of time yet it shaped the world to what it is today.
Luna's role in the conflict was drastically changed when the stories of her heroics warped into nothing more than a sad fairy tale about good and evil battling each other. A princess plagued by jealousy who started a rebellion in order to throw the entire world into a never-ending night. The world is not all black and white but still most citizens of Equestria have accepted this as the truth.
Celestia the sun goddess, the one constant in our lives is quite different from what we believe her to be and to this day the truth behind the crown and the royal family is unknown.
*******
The mare that dared enter the Everfree forest this cold and windy night cared little for the history of all ponykind. She had no interest in the truth but the words of her father acted as an incentive in her mind and pushed her forward. A tad of curiosity, thirst for adventure and the possibility of seeing her old man helped as well. Since she is a unique pony her way of viewing the world differed from most normal mares and colts. A simple word was engraved in the very core of her being, the one thing that makes her into who she is. "Fun", if the world didn't offer a chance to laugh and throw away the chains of order everypony insisted on wearing it would make it impossible for her to live her life the way her father had intended.
Peace is a word she struggles with often, the meaning behind it confuses her greatly. Why do ponies accept an existance that is so utterly boring and meaningless when a world of the unknown is around them? The world offers freedom from the monotone cycle of life and yet they still turn away from it and continue to run in the same tracks as always. Is the only wish in their miserable lives to expand their lifespan so that they can keep walking on the same road they do every day?
Tragedy is what forces everypony to change, the one thing that can make them open their eyes. That is what her father told her and therefor it is the truth. The best way to break the current balance is by throwing in an unknown element, something princess Celestia is unaware of. A forgotten wound hidden in the old Lunar capital, a city now overgrown by the mystical and magical flora conjured by the self-proclaimed ruler of Equestria.
As she trotted past the old crumbling buildings of a generation long since forgotten the moonlight made their shadows cast chaotic and twisted shapes around her, when the wind blew through the trees the dark patterns seemed to be almost dancing under the star filled sky. An illusion of life, she doubted any ghost would still linger in such a place. One thousand years of nothing would bore her to death for sure. Then again is it possible for a ghost to be bored? Maybe she should ask her father once they were reunited.
The gentle breeze made her billowy mane flow and obstruct the vision slightly, she brushed it to her left side while at the same time staring back at the dense forest she had just heard a creature's howling from, no doubt it was one of the timber wolves she had been told about in Ponyville. The cry of the animal did little to scare her; instead it only seemed to intensify the exhilirating feeling that coursed through her body. It was pure excitement in its rawest form, the risk of death made life so much more enjoyable.
The young mare was looking for a special building in the center of the ruins; the dome-shaped structure had once been the official headquarters of the short lived resistance. Majestic during its time in the past but now the vegetation growing all over it made it look alive and sinister. As if the forest itself had the power to bring life to dead objects. She giggled slightly at her own imagination and continued her walk towards the entrance that now was more of a gaping hole than an actual door. Roots had managed to make their way through the roof and now covered large parts of the walls. When struck by the moonlight that managed to make its way through the various cracks and holes in the building hundreds of flowers were lit up on the floor all of them sharing the same three colors. Black, purple and blue with various patterns, the once famous moon blossoms of the royal court. Everything together created quite a serene atmosphere. It was as if it had been planned to be this way from the very beginning.
Once she reached the innermost sanctum of the crumbling ruin the words of her father were proven to be true. In a sea of flowers there stood a mare petrified just like her father in the royal garden of Canterlot. When her hooves touched the ground just in front of the pedestal the warrior had been placed on a cloud of blue fireflies started to emerge under her, all swirling and curious about the new visitor. She let out a faint sneeze when one of the insects decided it would be a good idea to climb on her nose.
"Abandoned and forgotten, poor you. Were all your efforts meaningless in the end I wonder? I like to think every pain has some purpose. After all isn't it our emotions that shape the world in the end? Did your emotions pierce through that suffocating darkness just before she was taken from you?"
The petrified alicorn remained silent, frozen in a posture with her wings spread out and chest protruding as if daring someone to attack her. Her eyes forever glaring at an enemy in a war that had ended over one thousand years ago.
The young mare placed her right hoof on the alicorn's cheek and smiled gently.
"Not all of us get a second chance, you better appreciate this."
After the simple touch a sparkling purple mark was created, it burnt dimly for a brief moment then began to grow ever so slightly over the face of the ancient Lunar warrior. When the spell freed her sapphire blue eyes from their gaze of hatred a single tear rolled down her cheek. The sudden gush of air her wings created when they repositioned themselves to a more comfortable position at her sides made the warriors white mane flow through the air and land over the black royal armor of the republic that covered her gray coat. She began to paw the ground with her right hoof as if to prepare for an incoming attack while her eyes tried to focus on what was in front of her.
"Lady Luna?" she spoke with a voice that cracked.
"Not even close dear, but i could take you to her and that big sister of hers. I have always loved reunions, especially the emotional ones. Well most of them are but hay, you know what kind of emotions I am talking about right?" the adventurous mare said while nodding her head energetically.
"Who are you?" the former garden ornament asked while her irises tried to adjust to the darkness that engulfed the room.
"Ponies call me Screwball, it is a pleasure to meet you general Freya. My daddy told me lots about you and he isn't much for stories." she said while bobbing her head from side to side.
Freya breathed in deeply and let her gaze wander across the floor and the fading murals that covered the walls, for a brief moment she seemed somewhat lost in thought then shook her head and turned once again towards her unusual liberator.
"I doubt you did all of this out of the kindness of you heart, what do you want from me?"
Screwball began laughing uncontrollably after the question was uttered, her swirly eyes spinning as if they themselves were chuckling. What do I want? She wondered while tapping her left hoof at the floor. Words poured into her mind. She wanted anarchy, mayhem, pandemonium, confusion, instability, devastation, bedlam, uproar, disaster, destruction, chaos, DISCORD!
She raised her head with a huge sadistic grin on her face.
"I just want to have fun."
"Find anything Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked while at the same time eyeing through four books she had brought with her from Ponyville and now placed on a huge table of the royal library. Rainbow dash flew past her and gave off a big sigh of boredom.
"I know that reading can be cool and all but these books are seriously wearing me out Twilight. Why are you interested in this old stuff anyway? Who cares what happened in the past, its not like there were any Wonderbolts heck, not even Cloudsdale existed back then."
A purple sparkling feather controlled by Twilight's magic was writing furiously on a blank piece of paper.
"Oh Rainbow Dash, everything we have today is thanks to the ponies that lived before us and the things they managed to learn back then can still be useful to us. You know the past doesn't need to have a direct connection to the things you like but in some small way the events back then helped shape everything that exists around you today."
"Pss yeah, whatever. Still doesn't change the fact that there is no action in any of these dusty old tomes. Didn't anyone have any adventurous side back then like Daring Do? I had at least hoped there would be one pony who shared my need for speed but the only ones that actually wrote anything back then were a bunch of old farts."
Twilight peered at a small piece of text that had faded over the ages and nodded.
"I guess the world can only handle one Rainbow Dash every millennium. If there would have been anypony like you I doubt she would have had time to write anything."-Not to mention the patience for it.-
A book dropped down with a loud bang right in front of Twilight both startling her and snapping her out of the trail of thought she had been on the last couple of minutes.
"Yeah that's true. I mean I can barely find time for my fans or contain this energy inside me. Legends do come in awesome packages." said the rainbow colored Pegasus, clearly pleased with herself.
Twilight Gave Rainbow Dash an annoyed look and tried to gather her thoughts once again.
"What?" the young Pegasus asked, blinking her large crimson eyes at her friend.
"Was there anything in that one?" Twilight asked and pointed her hoof at the book that had just barely missed her head a moment ago.
"Same as the other two. I know you're a serious bookworm and all Twilight but reading the same exact story five times over like this is a bit much, even for you."
Twilight smiled then tapped her hoof on one of the books.
"You notice a difference between them?"
"What's there to notice? It's five dusty old books filled with ancient history."
Twilight shook her head and started opening the books all to the first couple of pages.
"Not all of them are the same age and yet they all seem to have been written by the same author, the one you just found is over two hundred and fifty years old while the two from my library date back to the time just after Nightmare Moon had been sealed away."
"So what? They must have republished them."
"But they are all hoofwritten, none of them have been printed. I have been searching for other books that are somehow related to the same subject but in the end all I ever find are the these. It's the exact same story in every library; none of them have ever seen a different book about the lunar republic."
Rainbow Dash leaned in and took a closer look, she read the dates with somewhat renewed interest.
"Exactly who has written these books then? I can't find any name. Hold on a minute, there is something about this text that seems familiar but I just can't put my hoof on it." she said and scratched the bottom of her chin.
Twilight looked at her a bit more hopeful about the possibility of making progress with her investigation when suddenly a bone chilling scream could be heard from the outside hall. The two friends looked at each other for a brief moment then dropped what they were doing and ran out to see what was going on. What they found shocked them considerably. On the floor lay one of the royal guards with his jugular cut open barely alive and trying desperately to stop the blood flow. Barely conscious he looked up at the scared mares.
"What the hay happened?!" Rainbow Dash asked while looking around nervously.
The blood kept flowing from the guard's neck; it took them a while to notice it but something was a bit strange about it's color, a kind of black liquid appeared to be mixed with the normally red blood.
"And what is that stuff?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
Twilight managed to break the grip of fear that had rendered her motionless and placed her hoof on the guard's neck, trying to put pressure on the wound.
"Hurry and rip off a piece of his mantle, we need to stop the bleeding immediately."
She knew it was too late for him but a part of her was unwilling to accept it. Just a few seconds after they had managed to bandage him the guard stopped breathing; his dead eyes stared at them. Before they got a chance to get sick or process what had kust happened another scream could be heard further down the hall towards the southwestern end of the building.
The horrible experience they both had just shared made the two mares somewhat reluctant about examining what was causing the screams but in the end their will to help others in need proved stronger than their fear. But when they rounded the corner they both came to regret it.
Two more dead guards lay before them; the same kind of deep cut could be seen on one of them but the third one had been truly unlucky. His head had been cut off.
"Don't look at it" Rainbow Dash said while covering Twilight's eyes with her wings.
"Believe me you don't want to see any more of this."
Twilight raised her head and tried to avoid looking down at the floor, that was when she saw the cause behind the bloodshed. Just a few meters away stood a gray Alicorn clad in a black blood drenched armor. The gray mare raised both her wings and two blades smeared with blood retracted under them. Behind the intimidating Alicorn stood a peculiar looking earth pony that was carrying the unconscious princess Luna on her back.
"You told me this area was less guarded, so far I've killed five of these foals and it seems there will be far more of them waiting for us outside" said the gray mare while her blades protracted, they splashed a red colored cloud around her.
"I lied. What fun is there in a plan working out just the way you have imagined? Look on the bright side, this way you get a chance to warm up before the big show" said the strange looking earth pony.
Rainbow Dash placed herself in front of Twilight in order to shield her with her own body.
"Who are you weirdoes and what do you think you're doing!?" she shouted out trying her best not to sound scared.
"More of them?" said the Alicorn and turned towards them, her sapphire blue eyes fixed at Rainbow Dash.
"One with a fighting spirit it seems" she said with a sad smile then smelled the air around her.
"You are free from her corruption; I do not smell its vile stench on you. So why don't you just run away like a good little filly?"
Twilight studied the black armor and immediately reconized the scarlet crescent mark as the very same the Lunar republic had placed on their property. A mark that now was forbidden.
"Oh you have a friend with you?"
Rainbow dash raised her wings and hid Twilight's face.
"You leave her alone or ill pummel you!" she shouted with a voice filled with both uncertainty and anger.
"She is important to you; young love is a beautiful thing."
Rainbow Dash's face lit up red as a tomato, she stomped her left hoof at the ground and stuttered.
"S-hut up, y-you know nothing about it! Now release the princess or I'm going to get angry!"
"I would love to drop this deadweight, she is heavier than she looks but I've got a contract to follow and I just hate being told what to do" said the earth pony with the pink swirly eyes while nodding for herself.
"You are Twilight Sparkle are you not?" asked the Alicorn and moved closer.
"Watch it! Or im going to make you experience a sonic ranboom hoof to the face!"
"Yes." Twilight answered and pushed Rainbow Dash's wing to the side.
"The armor you are wearing is not supposed to exist anymore, not to mention those weapons; they were all melted down after Luna's defeat. I have only seen them in books; they have been lost to us. Where did you find them? Who are you and why are you doing this?" Twilight asked when her curiosity got the better of her.
"So it's true then, she really did her best at erasing us from history. No this armor was not found, it has been a part of me since the day I swore my eternal fealty to Luna and it will be buried with me the day I take my final breath. My name is Freya, knight of both the old and the new Lunar republic, as long as I fight there is hope, as long as I live we exist. You remember us though Twilight, that warms my heart."
"Twilight this isn't the kind of pony you have a nice little chat with, she is covered in blood and more than likely to make mincemeat out of the both of us the first chance she gets" Rainbow Dash whispered in her friend's ear.
Freya studied Twilight's face more closely, you could tell she was thinking something through very carefully and when she came to a decision she nodded slightly and turned to her partner in crime.
"There has been a change of plans Screwball, we'll let her live."
Screwball bopped her head from side to side then leaned against one of the stone pillars that were lined up in the giant hallway.
"If that is what you want I doubt I'll be able to convince you to choose door number two, even though this is incredibly stupid. You know who she is, what she is and what she will become in time. It could all be stopped here and now."
Freya shook her head.
"It would only postpone it until she found a replacement. Besides, she's got good eyes" she said and massaged the back of her head with her left hoof.
"Humph I got far better eyes, my daddy made them perfect in every possible way" Screwball declared while her eyes spun with their hypnotic swirl patterns.
"I doubt you would trust anything I say at this moment so rather than trying to convince you of the truth I will simply say this, history is written by the victors" said Freya.
Twilight thought about the words that had been written by Mareiavelli, a historian and philosopher during the Equestrian renaissance but she was abruptly interrupted by three guards galloping down the hall behind the intruders.
"Stop right there criminal scum, you will pay with your blood for what you have done!"
Before they knew it Freya had already turned around and closed the distance between her and the soldiers with one simple wing stroke. She flew low and with a speed that was breathtaking, the blades below her wings shone red with the blood from her previous victims and once again they cut through her enemies. Freya passed the three guards gracefully, chopping off all of their legs and sending them flying through the air. The soldiers fell to the ground shrieking in horrible pain as they flapped around what remained of their legs.
"You monster!" Rainbow Dash screamed and then charged at Freya's back.
Twilight watched in horror, unable to speak after the gruesome event she had just witnessed.
"Rainbow six o'clock!" shouted Screwball and bounced out of the way.
Freya saw the spectral colored Pegasus in the corner of her eye just before the impact that threw her forward right into a pillar, knocking the air out of her and leaving her lying dizzy on the floor. Rainbow Dash recovered quickly and stomped with all her might at the gray mare's left wing. Freya gritted her teeth and swung her right blade at the young mare that had surprised her so completely. It missed but it did manage to make the young Pegasus jump back. At least it gave her some breathing room.
"Back off! I've got no quarrel with you but if you force my hoof I will not hesitate to kill you." said the gray mare while trying to force air down her lungs.
Rainbow Dash growled at Freya and followed every move she made very closely. It seemed they had reached a stalemate then Twilight heard a voice she knew very well.
"Twilight, what in the world is going on?" asked princess Celestia now standing by her apprentice's side.
"You!" screamed Freya with a voice that was filled with hatred and pain.
"Princess it's too dangerous here." said Twilight her voice weak and barely audible. The terrifying things she had seen seemed to have shocked her greatly, her body felt weak. She leaned against the princess and closed her eyes.
"Don't call her by that name, she has no right to it!" screamed Freya while spreading both her wings thereby revealing the extent of damage Rainbow Dash had done to her. A bone was sticking out of the left wing and her feathers had been ripped off in several spots.
"Freya" said Celestia. Her voice unusually cold and devoid of any emotion.
Celestia stared at the wounded Alicorn for a while, dead silent and with nothing to reveal what kind of emotions that were stirring in her heart. Then she looked down at the dead and wounded guards she had seemed to have been completely unaware of. After that she turned her gaze towards Luna that still slept on Screwball's back.
"So this is the choice you have made? You choose this path again?" she asked coldly.
"What other choice is there?! I would choose her over you any day! You will not deceive me again. No more, I've had enough!" shouted Freya while tears began to build up in her eyes.
Screwball trotted over to her friend, clearly nervous about the solar goddess.
"This isn't good Freya, not good not good not good, really not good!" she whispered in the gray mare's ear.
Screwball started to shiver when Celestia's eyes met her own. She ended up hiding behind Freya with her eyes tightly shut.
"You have a very strange friend there Freya, as always you turn to ponies that will only end up disappointing you in the end. Another backstabber on a long list of traitors for you i'm sure. There is no way out of here so why don't you just give up? It can be just like the old days, I forgive you" said Celestia and held out her right hoof.
Freya ignored the offer and whispered to Screwball.
"How much of your father's power do you have left?"
"I'm not sure, maybe enough to reach daddy but we may end up losing a limb or two if I'm wrong. Considering our predicament we have very little choice."
Freya smiled and spat at the ground in front of Celestia.
"You can take that offer and shove it."
Screwball took a deep breath then blew a giant soap bubble out of her mouth, it quickly engulfed her and the two other ponies meant for the journey. The massive bubble filled up with a blinding light then burst as suddenly as it had appeared. Once it was gone, so were the intruders.
Celestia stood stil for a while with her hoof still stretched out then placed it on Twilight's head instead. The blank expression on her face still lingered. She patted her apprentice's head gently.
Twilight's eyes caught a glimpse of something moving on the ground, when she took a closer look she could see the black liquid once again that seemed to have been a part of the guards blood. It was moving, creating new shapes and trying to create something tangible. Then an eye popped up from under the black substance, it blinked at her. Twilight Sparkle finally fainted.
