A friendship is magic fanfic set 18 years since the mane six sealed away DisQord Today marks the twelfth year of the New Lunar Republic and the twelfth year that we must hide from our oppressors. We are in the midst of a secret war, one that threatens to tear all of equestria in two. The guards constantly patrol the streets, apprehending those suspected of taking action against Queen Celestia, who with the denunciation of Luna as her sister, took the throne solely for herself a year before the formation of the New Lunar Republic. There was something that changed about her that year. She had always had her problems, but everyone did, and she was a benevolent ruler who helped her subjects. However three years after the defeat of DisQord, something happened. The six responsible for defeating both DisQord and Nightmare Moon have been missing ever since, having disappeared without a trace. Having been disowned only two nights before, Luna set out to find them, but was attacked by a contingent of the queen’s guard inside the everfree forest. She escaped the guards, and fled back to Ponyville, only to find it already having descended into chaos. Ponies that stood against the queen rallied to the tree where the leader of the six had once lived, and even now our meetings are held in the hidden crevices underneath the library. I paused with my pen, hovering over the last words, and quickly blotted out the last sentence. Or as quick as I could, being an earth pony made it difficult for me to write. But I was dedicated to discovering what had happened all those years ago, and like many in the New Lunar Republic, to remedying it. And if we were to remedy it, we could not let knowledge of our whereabouts get out. It had happened once before, fortunately we were warned by the unicorn Moondancer of the guards and were able to escape before they arrived. Moondancer was an old friend of Spike’s before he left Canterlot to aid the six, and is said to have been the last to see the six before they disappeared. Though he is part of the New Lunar Republic and has been as trustworthy ally he cannot say what happened to them, no matter how hard he tries he cannot remember. The bell for the meetings rang, breaking me out of my thoughts and causing me to butt my head against the low cupboard above my desk that contained my food rations for this week. I flinched against the pain in my skull and quickly ran off to attend the meeting, feeling the throbbing pain in my head the whole way. By the time I reached the meeting hall the pain had subsided to a dull pulsing, and I took my place among the other ponies gathered. I had arrived along with some of the last ponies, who were filing in through the two entrances into the rectangular room where our darkest situations were addressed. The room fell entirely silent as Luna stepped forward the darkened wooden platform to speak, her horn shining to illuminate the room. Room was a grandiose term for it, but it was what most of us were used to, there were no decorations except for rocks that had been shaped into the symbol of our resistance, A crescent moon with a horn creating an almost trident-like shape. “My fellow ponies” My attention was drawn back to Luna as her voice filled the room “I hate to tell you this, but there we have lost thirty of our own today” A horrible tremor ran through the gathered crowd. “When scavenging for food from the old residence of the Cake family they were caught and apprehended. Eight bodies were found, two of them were heavily wounded but still breathing, but the rest of them are dead.” A sickness welled up inside me, we often had to live with this danger every day, but ponies rarely died. Normally when they were apprehended they were delivered a beating but would normally get away with little more than a broken leg at the most. “The two survivors do not know what has happened to the apprehended, other than that they have been taken to the castle. I will now tell you all whom we have lost today, so that their memories may live on in the hearts of all of you.” So it was that she began to read out the list of those we would never see again. I knew all of those on the list, we all did, the resistance was not small, but we all knew each other, wether we were close friends or merely acquaintances. Most of the ponies that had been taken were the latter, but among the deceased were two of the best friends I had ever known. Heartbreak, a young mare of 12 years had been one I had always turned to in moments when things had become too much, they had been a comforting presence, singing the slow sad songs that only someone who had grown up in this life could know. Though we had rarely smiled together, the sadness had seemed beautiful when she was around, and I would share the poems I had written, as she sang them, mourning the night she would never see again, and always living in hope things would get better. I hope that wherever the dead go, she can see the night. The other had always been a bit of a conundrum for me, as I could never decide whether I liked them or loathed them. Stormhoof, an older pegasus who must have been at least 30 year old had been a mentor to me. We would often ironically get into fights over who was the better fighter which would often end in a few blows to each other’s esteem and occasionally to the face. It was only with him gone did I realize how much he had meant to me, he had been as close to a father as I had ever had, both of my parents having been taken away when I was young. I had been hidden and they had not seen me, but because of that my parents could not save themselves. Now with Stormhoof gone, I saw that the competition he had given me had helped me to become someone who would be able to survive if the guards came again. I am glad at least that he died as he would have wanted, fighting for the freedom of us all. “...Which is why we will all have to do our best to save the rations we now have” Luna’s voice broke through my sadness and created a new despair for us to live with. Because they guards now knew where we got our food supplies from we would have to live on less for now, and try to find a new place for us to get food. Otherwise we would all starve. Beside me I heard the snivels of someone who had only recently taken control of their crying. I turned my head and saw another of my friends, a female unicorn who had been good friends with Heartbreak. Her name like mine had been unknown when we got here so we were given names by the ponies of the Lunar Republic. The name I that had been laid upon me was Starfall, upon my flank rested an odd mark that I had never quite understood the meaning of, it was an unusual white line that ended in a fuzzy pentagonal object. I had heard from some of the elder ponies that these were called Cutie Marks, and had been a sign of maturation in ponies, when they found what they were good at, and the mark represented that. However, as Celestria’s oppression of us continued, fewer ponies received these marks, and now it is incredibly rare for any pony to earn theirs. The pony next to me was an example of the ponies that had never received a Cutie Mark, They were known as Darksolar, Having been given the name by Luna herself. Darksolar had always been friends with Heartbreak, and had practically grown up together along with me and PH under Stormhoof’s care. We had never known what PH’s full name actually was, we were not sure that even he knew. That was the only memory he had of his life before coming here, but he clung onto it as if without it he would never remember those times. Luna’s closing words rang out through the hall “and so bide your time, we shall never give up, we shall not be defeated, we shall fight, for freedom, and for equestria”. An answering cheer that all could tell was broken with sadness met her words. Everyone had lost someone close to them today, and it had cut through to us how dangerous a position we were in, as I left the meeting half to attend my small hollow of a room I looked carefully at my friends, storing their image in my mind lest they be taken as well. Darksolar had a shining white mane, draped over her dark body, with her tail tinged with streaks of dark. PH was a pale white with a short bold red mane and tail, His mark was of two winged creatures, vaguely resembling the images I had seen of the legendary wyverns. He was a Pegasus, his wings having fringes of red along each feather. These were the only two friends I had left here, and I could lose them in an instant, the loss of Heartbreak and Stormhoof stabbed into my heart again. I looked at myself in a puddle of water that had gathered through cracks in the stone, thinking to myself what it would be like to be able to enjoy the rain without the fear of being caught. My image was blurred, but I was able to fill in the too blurry features for myself. My blonde mane was normally cut short but I had neglected it for a long time and it now hung down to my shoulders. I had a black coat with a length of spots of yellow speckled around it like I had heard the stars described. The stars that I would never see. I sighed as I entered my small room and began to write the words that I dreamed every night. Celestria rules this land in an eternal day, Luna cannot raise the moon without Celestia being able to track it back to her, but sometimes I wish that she would. That one day I could see the stars that I have been named after. But every day, the chances get slimmer that this will ever come to be...
