Love and Hatred

The next couple of days were hard on everypony. It seems that another Wonderbolt had died from the same wounds as the first one and Blueball Blitz. Moon took the death of his friend hard, and went into a minor state of depression. He couldn’t believe that his best friend had died, from some random murder. Twilight came in and checked on him while he laid in bed every once in a while, but he barely noticed her. It seemed as though the world had crashed down on top of him.

A couple of days later, Twilight was doing one of her usual check ups on Moon, and she found him out of bed putting his Shadowbolt goggles on.

“Moon, what are you doing?” Twilight asked

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m finding out who killed those two Wonderbolts and Blitz. I’m done lying around doing nothing, while the killer is on the loose.”

Twilight thought he was insane for trying to find the murderer. It was incredibly dangerous, and she didn’t want anything to happen to him. She thought for a few seconds and finally said to him, “I’m going with you.”

“Wha-what? Why are you coming with me? I don’t want anything to happen to you. Plus, who would look after the place in your absence?”

“I can get Applejack to look over the place, I can trust her, and I’m sure she will do a good job at keeping peace within these walls. Plus, it’s going to be extremely dangerous, you could use all the help you can get.”

She was right, it was probably going to be dangerous, and what if it was a group of ponies who killed them? Moon nodded and they began packing for the journey. They both knew it would be long, and would take them outside of Equestria, so they planned to venture into the warzone that was Stalliongrad, and the province of Prance, a country in which Celestia was currently staying.

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They both arrived in the main hall where Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were discussing who would’ve commited the crime.

“I bet it was Celestia’s troops come to kill Moon and his friends.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed

“That wouldn’t surprise me,” Fluttershy said in her usual soft voice, “Celestia has always hated Mo-”

They all finally realized that Moon and Twilight had been standing next to them listening to them take guesses on who killed them.

They all looked embarrassed and Twilight just gave them a small smile and said,

“Having fun girls?”

Rainbow Dash, being the eccentric pony she was nodded and said,

“Yup!”

“Haha I’m glad to hear it. Hey AJ can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Well sure Twilight, what do ya’ll want to talk about?”

“Uh, well, could we talk in private? Maybe in the halls?”

Applejack looked confused and just gave a suspicious nod.

“Alright Applejack, I’ll be gone for a while with Moon, I need you to look over Canterlot while I’m gone, okay?”

“I’d love to Twilight, but why?”

“It’s.... It’s Moon, he’s obsessing about the murders that went on and he’s going to look for the ponies responsible for killing his best friend Blueball Blitz. I’m going with him to make sure that everything will be alright. He’s starting to worry me AJ. He was never like this, even when he was still in the Lunar Republic. I have a feeling he knows what is going on with this, so I’m going to help him with this.”

“Alright Twilight, ya’ll be careful now. Especially around Moon, you’re right, he is actin’ differently.”

And with that, Twilight and Moon left to find the killers. Twilight was right, Moon did have an idea on who killed them. He had an idea on who was the person responsible for the deaths. Twilight grabbed a hold of Moon’s neck and they started to fly south towards the border of Stalliongrad. They were going to see one of the ponies responsible for the hatred in this world.

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The two ponies reached the border of Equestria and Stalliongrad when they were stopped by the same guard who had stopped Moon. He nodded at seeing Twilight, and he opened the gate. Moon flew out of Equestria with such speed, Twilight almost fell off of him. She was used to Rainbow Dash flying recklessly, but she was never on her while she was doing that. Moon noticed and slowed down to a speed that was comfortable for Twilight.

The flight was so quiet, Moon started to get uncomfortable. He almost cringed at the fact that it was so quiet, and to change this he asked Twilight a question he knew would be a touchy subject.

“Hey, Twilight, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure Moon, what’s up?”

“Well, I never knew what had happened that night of the raid on Equestria. When the scouts got back, all I heard was ‘Pinkie Pie’ and ‘Rarity’. I was curious on what happened, so I asked the main scout, and he told me that they had killed them brutally, in front of Sweetie Belle. They said that they had gotten so much pleasure from watching Sweetie Belle cry from killing Rarity, they grabbed a pony by the name of Pinkie Pie. From then on, I didn’t listen to a word he said, I had enough. That is all I know, and from the little you told me at dinner the other night. So, Twilight, what the hell happened?”

“Well Moon, here is what happened on that night. Celestia was putting the sun down, so all of the fillies in town were running inside, ready to go to bed. Rainbow was finishing up her moves with the Wonderbolts, when she noticed out of the corner of her eye, what looked like a stampede. As she flew closer, she realized that it was Luna’s troops, heading straight for the gate. Rainbow flew as fast as she could to tell me what was going on. All I could make out from her panting and babbling was ‘Luna, troops, wall’. And at that moment, I knew what was going on. I climbed on her back as we flew up to Canterlot, which had been turned into the Solar Empire’s HQ, and we told Celestia what was happening. I’ve never seen her with such a scared look on her face. She couldn’t believe what was happening. She immediatly told the guards to stand watch at Cloudsdale, Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest. The attack was quick, but brutal, killing civilians and guards like they were nothing. Rainbow and I were in the sky looking down at the horrors we saw. We saw young ponies getting killed, we saw Granny Smith get tackled by one of Luna’s troops, instantly killing her. And then it happened. I saw a pitch black colt dragging Rarity behind him laughing hysterically. We flew in closer to see what would happen to her. We got there just in time to watch the colt stab Rarity in front of her sister. He thought it was the greatest thing, killing a pony in front of a younger sibling. At that point I was sobbing, tears falling from my face like a waterfall. I just couldn’t believe that Rarity was killed in front of us. The next part made me go insane. I saw a purple pony carrying Pinkie Pie like she was a feather, and threw her on the ground. Pinkie and Sweetie had grown close in the past couple months, making her feel like her second sister. Pinkie looked up at Sweetie with a swollen eye, and gave her a reassuring smile and whispered, ‘Don’t worry Sweetie, everything will just be Pinkie Keen.’ And then she was gone. Kicked in the face a dozen times by the two troops. I lost it, Rainbow lost it, we couldn’t control what was going on. We were filled with anger, sadness, and frustration. When the troops left Equestria, Rainbow and I went to see Applejack, and see how she was taking the death of Granny Smith. Her and Big Mac looked more depressed than anyone. We walked up to them and shared a hug. We told them what happened to Pinkie Pie and Rarity, and they both burst into tears. We all burst into tears. And at that moment, we all decided that we would join the Solar Empire. Celestia, like as a filly, took me under her wing, and made me her second in command. I didn’t like that job, in fact, I hated it. I tried to get out of it, but Celestia wouldn’t let me. She said that ‘I was her second in command, and I was the most important thing in her life’. I believed her, although I shouldn’t have. And everything after that is just me being here doing nothing. The only reason I hit Sergant so quickly is because of Celestia. So, yeah. Now you know what happened that night. I hope I never have to live it again.”

Moon said nothing. He couldn’t say anything. He just stared forward, tears welling up in his eyes. He couldn’t believe that a group of troops could do that to one country, or just a small town in the middle of Equestria. Twilight could see the sadness as he focused on the flight, and too, started to feel sad. She thought that it wouldn’t phase her anymore. She thought that after 2 years she could get over that night, she was obviously wrong.

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They reached a small town about 78 miles in Stalliongrad, and they both decided to stay there for the night. They were able to find an inn to stay there for the night, and when Twilight looked up to see who was working behind the front desk, she saw someone whom she hadn’t seen since the war began.

“Sp- Spike, i-is that you?”

The dragon, now grown since the last time she saw him looked over his shoulder to see the purple pony who he had lived with for most of his adolesence. He stood there, mouth open and was only able to mutter out one word, “Twilight...?” The purple pony nodded her head and gave him a warm smile. He returned the smile and walked over to give her a hug. Moon gave a little smirk at this reunion, then returned to a frown wishing that they would be reunited under better circumstances.

“Oh, and who is this?” Spike asked turning around to look Moon dead in the eye.

“Spike, this is Searing Moon, he’s an old friend of mine, we’re going to see... Well I actually don’t know what were doing. He never gave me the details.”

Moon quickly realized that and said, “We’re going to see Luna, at the Lunar Republic’s HQ. And now that I think about this, I don’t think they’ll be too happy to see us.”

“But we’ve got you, and I’m sure you could get us in.”

“Right, like they’d be thrilled to see a Solar Empire General, let alone a deserter.”

Spike couldn’t help but to chuckle at this. Moon and Twilight both gave him a dirty look and he just shrugged. Even growing up, Twilight could still see that he was still that young dragon she knew and loved.

Spike, still with a smile on his face looked at Moon and asked, “So, what, you guys want a room tonight?”

“Uh, yes that would be pleasant.” Moon said.

“Alright, we only have one more room left, lucky you.”

“Thank you Spike, and how much will this cost us for the one night?” Twilight asked.

“Well, since you were basically my sister, the room is free for the night. Family discount.” Spike smiled at the two of them and winked. Moon gave a half-smile, while Twilight gave him a full out gleaming smile.

They walked up a creaky winding staircase to the rooms above. The walked down a narrow hallway and stopped at the farthest right side room.

“Well, here ya go guys. It’s no tree library, but it’s shelter. You have a good night!”

“Thanks Spike, you too.” Both said, tired from a long trip.