Chapter 1: War of the Four
After 100 years of peace, the souls of the Elements of Harmony began to die out. One after another, each one faded from Equestria. It was a tragedy for Twilight Sparkle, she witnessed the death of each of her greatest friends. An enormous and royal funeral was held for the five mares, and the new princess attended each one of them.
When her first two friends had passed, Twilight had started a small drinking habit, a shot glass each night. Though it quickly grew into a large bottle every evening. The other three princesses quickly noticed this, they tried to stop her, though a fight between the royalty broke out.
Luna fought, telling for the others to relax, play some video games, and just let the guards do everything.
Celestia quickly despised this, thinking they should be more uptight and serious.
Cadence pushed the two out of the way, stating that they should be serious, but loving and relaxed.
Twilight couldn't say anything, she didn't have any actual authority. Also, she was too intoxicated to communicate.
The four continued to argue, their yells echoed throughout the castle that night. After weeks, the princesses shot disgusting faces to each other immaturely. After months, they never even talked to each other. The group of princesses that were once the greatest of friends, were now complete enemies. Thus, they separated Equestria into four individual empires. Each princess ruled her own empire, not having any contact with others. Celestia and Luna still continued to raise the sun and moon, though not side by side.
After the angered group separated, huge, glass domes were built, completely sectioning off each empire. The princesses all created their own name for the new sections.
Luna named her area the Lunar Republic.
Celestia created the Solar Empire.
Cadence continued to rule the Crystal Empire along with Shining Armor.
Twilight called her dome the Sparkling Kingdom.
After years of seperation, ponies began to suffer from poverty. Food and water ran low, riots broke out, and crops would not grow. Everypony knew that it all would only get worse. Somepony had to stand up to make a change. Though, courage was the one trait that all ponies began to lack. When the domes rose, strict rules and laws weakened the citizens, frightening them all. Now, everypony was scared and weak, which meant there was a very low chance of a pony standing up against the rulers.
The princesses were aware of their problems, though they all chose to ignore it. The harsh rulers continued to send out strict laws and enforcements each day, not realizing that it was only making things worse. Large riots started wildfires, which terrorized the empires even more. Each dome was hanging on by a thread, the townsfolk knew it, though the princesses were too ignorant to realize it.
One after another, poor or sick ponies would pass away. In certain areas, they would drop like flies. Though the four princesses gave little thought to it. Each of the rulers thought their section was quickly advancing towards a better future, they each imagined it, and never paid full attention to what was actually happening.
Dread and sorrow burned a hole in everpony's hearts. Weeping was now very common, fights were no longer rare, and ignorance was a normal reaction.
A unicorn horn lit the damp, empty road. It was pitch black outside, and a night guard was scanning the streets. Celestia had made a new rule of nopony outside after 9:00, every window darkened as the strict unicorn walked slowly down the streets. The city lights immediately shut down as a clock tower struck 9 long loud chimes that echoed throughout the large town.
A pony ducked under a small table as the guard lights turned her way, it faced directly at her for a moment, though quickly moved on and shut the lights off. The pony, being her clumsy self, accidentally opened her wings and being to flap them loudly. Suddenly, the light flickered back on and glanced directly into her eyes. All she remembered after that was a loud shout, hooves stampeding, and the pegasus racing through the dark streets, soaring into the moonlight as fast as she could. She laughed to herself as the unicorns and earth pony guards stumbled over themselves trying to get to the pony, yelling, and asking for the pegasi guards that were all asleep.
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Two ponies, a unicorn and earth pony, dove into a small bush that could barely fit the two of them. Sneakily and slowly, a grey pegasus dove into a tree nearby.
"That you Derp?" The mint unicorn whispered.
"Yup!" The pegasus said from above.
"SHHHHHHHHH!" The earth pony shouted in a raspy whisper, "THEY'RE COMING!"
All three of them grew silent as two unicorn guards galloped down the road in union. Each stopped as another guard raced down the dirt road towards them. They all stopped and looked down each street thoroughly, and raced back to where they came from. The ponies rushed out of the crowded bush and tree, and tip-toed over to a small wooden door. The earth pony knocked a rhythmic pattern and the door swung open. Inside was a small, dim-lit room, much like a cave, and had a stale odor.
"Report," a voice said.
"Here," another unknown voice whispered.
"Right here," said the unicorn and earth pony in sync.
"Uh... Here!" Said a male voice from a different corner of the room.
There was a long silence until a voice asked, "Is... Is Derpy here?"
"She was with us when we walked in," the unicorn explained.
"Derpy?" The male asked.
The others turned towards the voice, and above him, the grey pegasus was flying around in circles.
"Derpy why didn't you report?" A quiet voice asked.
"I... I just don't know what went wrong," she answered sadly.
A loud slap echoed in the background, Octavia had face-hoofed. The white unicorn, Vinyl Scratch, trotted over to the gas lamp and slightly brightened the room. The six ponies in the area were now more visible;
Derpy, a grey pegasus with a bright golden mane sat on the top of a podium, which wobbled and tipped over because of the weight.
Octavia was also a dark grey pony with a smooth black mane, she sat calmly and quietly next to her cello case.
In a darker corner of the room, a brown stallion pony with a darker shade of brown mane, sat with a strange tool in his mouth, with a green light illuminating the space around him, Doctor Whooves.
A teal unicorn with an aqua and white mane stood near the fallen podium, Lyra, was examining a book in her golden aura of magic, Anthropology: Human Mythology and Beliefs
Bon Bon stood next to the unicorn, a creme colored pony with a puffy blue and pink mane, looking with curiosity at the book.
The leader, a white unicorn with two dark shades of blue in her mane, was Vinyl Scratch, she wore dark purple sunglasses and occasionally nodded her head to the beat of music playing in her mind.
Vinyl trotted up and levitated the podium up to its normal position in a red aura of her magic. She cleared her throat and began, "Ok ponies!" Everypony looked up at the white unicorn, "Today is the second meeting of the United Equestria," She slammed her hooves on the podium, shaking everything on it. "We are gathered here today to unify, join forces, and strengthen this divided land!" She said firmly. "Any questions?"