A Divided Equestria
Chapter 1: A House Divided
I.
"We demand an end to tyranny!" "No longer shall some, eternal tyrants, rule over us!"
The speaker's words, echoed throughout Manehatten's city hall. His words lit a fire inside every pony there.
"No more, of this being ruled over by the nobles of Canterlot, while we suffer and starve! While our families are forced out of their homes!" His voice, peircing through the halls, and the joyous cheers of the crowd, my own included.
"The time for action is upon us!" The crowd went completely ecstatic at these words. "It is time for the common pony to take a stand!" The crowd was cheering, leaping, hanging on his every word.
"It is time, for REBELLION!"
The cheers stuttered, then stopped dead... uneasy glances were exchanged, as everypony in the room tried to understand what they just heard... The speaker seemed to be uneasy as well...
"Well... um, It must happen! We can no longer live like this!" The cheering started up again, though I kept quiet. "Do it for your family, your friends, your very way of life! For these reasons, we must take up arms!"
The cheers stuttered once again, but this time, they grew louder, the room echoed with the joyous cries of ponies.
While I'm thinking to myself... Rebellion? Taking up arms... this pony wanted war! I had to do something, I couldn't let this happen... I pictured myself delivering a powerful speech, calm, relaxed...
Instead, I settled on... "Your a complete Loony!"
Everypony's eyes quickly turned to me... the speaker seemed to give me an evil glare...
"There must be a peaceful way out of this!" That sounded a lot better in my head...
"The time for diplomacy is at an end! Even the Princess sees the truth! Why else would she order all these gaurds into our city!?"
I quickly retreated back into the crowd... some speech that was...
" We must unite, and destr-"
The doors were kicked in... and about a dozen gaurds streamed in, clad in that gold armor, that royal Canterlot armor, worn by all guards. They surveyed the crowd, seeming to pierce the soul of everypony there...
I didn't want to believe this... this couldn't be happening... it can't end this way! There must be another way! But I knew... long before it happened...
One of the guards, probably the captain, stepped forward...
II.
This wasn't going to go down well... but, its our duty as her Majesty's Royal Guards...
"Private Mallet, stay out side with the rest, ill just take a few in, were only arresting one pony, shouldn't be to much trouble."
He answered in his normal, proud, "Yes Sir!"
So, I took eleven other ponies, and we started walking towards the doors, of the Manehatten city hall.
"Locked!" Of course... make our job even harder...
"What now Captain?"
"Your gonna get your rear up here and help me bust this thing open!"
The doors swung open, fairly easy despite their size... what we saw stunned us... There shouldn't be this many ponies here... we were told a crowd of twenty.. This was at least a few hundred! But we still had a job to do... I saw the man at the podium, he looked enraged, yet calm...
"Mr. Birchwood, you are under arrest for high treason, against our, fair and just leaders, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna!"
"Just leaders!?" He stepped down from the stage, and made his way through the crowd. "You think it's just, to leave us to starve, to die, in the streets!?"
"I assure you... Celestia is doing all she can to do address the problems facing the country."
"Don't hand me that nonsense! You may be willing to follow your tyrant blindly, but we are not! We shall unite! We shall resist!" The crowd, moved forward slightly, shouting, at us, and cheering for this idiot standing in front of me...
"Look, just come with us peacefully. I assure you, everything will work out. You just have to-"
"Pony Down!" Somepony flung a chair across the room at Ruffles, knocked him to his hooves... The crowd lunged forward, seething with rage...
"Out! "Out on the street NOW!"
We took off for Mallet's platoon, with a 200 pony mob on our tails... But Mallet had his hooves full as well...
There was another mob, except, this one was armed... you could see the pitchforks, shine in the light of Luna's moon... The glow of torches. Some even had spears, and bows... but where could they have... The Armory! They must have over run the guards there! This was Rebellion! This was... war...
Then they charged, weapons stretching forward, the sound of hooves on Manehatten's cobblestone streets... I had no choice... My soldiers were in trouble, we had no choice...
"Archers! Fire!" Immediately, a wave of arrows shot forward, striking down the ponies at the front... At least thirty lay dead... I just ordered a slaughter...
Somepony, brought a shovel crashing through Mallet's skull... I saw a a group of three of my troops, impaled on spears, and pitch forks... Their archers returned the favor, bringing down at least twenty... We were being overrun... There were just to many...
"Fall Back!" Once they heard those words, the guards ran... they had held their ground, they put up one hay of a fight, despite staring death in the face.. but, they ran, this wasn't an orderly retreat, like you read in those history books... this was panic...
This was knowing, that death stood just inches behind you... But, this also wasn't a battle... this was a slaughter...
We took off down the streets, arrows flying past, striking down pony after pony... Morning Star took a Molotov to the head... drenched with the lamp oil, he was burning within a second... I pray that he was unconscious... I saw a Pegasus, dragging, him self along, I saw the unicorn bring the spear to his neck... I turned away, I knew what was next...
By now, we've entered the farmland, and fields that surround Manehatten... If we could just make it to the forest...
I looked back, to see if the mob was still there... they were. Then I saw it... I saw Winter Dew, and Autumn Frost, brothers, I saw Winter, fall to the ground, struck down by an arrow... I saw Autumn stop... look down at his dead brother... Then draw his sword, and charge... he ran straight at the mob, he jabbed that sword into the chest of the Unicorn at the front... he slashed at the Pegasus next to him, slicing his neck... he brought down four more ponies, before he was shot through the neck by an arrow...
I know why he did it... Revenge... Revenge for his brother who lay dead, but I like to think of it as a heroes sacrifice... He delayed them just long enough for us to reach the forest. May Celestia have mercy on his soul. He saved us, the few that remained... I turned around, to see just how few remained... Six... plus myself... Seven guards... out of fifty! We all looked at each other... I don't know who cried first, who started it... but we were all huddled together...sobbing in the dim light of Luna's moon...
After, Celestia knows how long we cried.. we began the long march back to Canterlot... It must have been at least Midnight, that meant the report to the princess was two hours over due... I didn't know how to tell her... that we were at war... that we just lost half of the Royal Canterlot guard... Even worse... our messenger was dead...
We were gonna have to deliver this report to her ourselves...