Timeline of the Eclipse War

by josh_the_changeling

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Human, Sad
Length: 29174

A thousand years before the events of the show, a great war happened. A horrible war. One that consumed all of Equestria in fire and death. Yet this war shaped Equestria into what it is today.

The Eclipse war is a full timeline of the war between the Solar Empire and New Luna Republic, along with the new UCI. This timeline is canon up to season 4 (I had to rewrite it for season 3 I am NOT doing that again >.<) and while it might seem WAY out of canon to begin with, it all makes sense at the end. This timeline is for public use So long as you do not claim any of the characters as your own, you are free to write any fanfics based on this fic with any characters at any time.

The timeline works like this. BW stands for the years before the war, DW is during war, and is how many years into the war it is. Finally, AW is after war and is how many years after the war ended have past. Just remember this timeline is to act as a foundation.

I do not own My Little Pony or Snow Drop.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-14 02:42:34 UTC

Revolution- 0 DW 4th of September to 1 DW 30th of March

0 DW- 4th of September- The first reveals mass amounts of blueprints for weapons and products, both for military and civilian use, that are based on human design. While many weapons and equipment have to be modified, sometime vastly, to fit with pony biology, this gives the UCI the edge it need to go against the magically boosted forces of the Solar Empire and Luna Republic. Single shot rifles, crude but effective tanks, artillery and other devastating weapons go into production. Factories, a construction system never before seen in Equestria are built, pumping out mass weapons of war never before seen. Knowing a good economy is just as important to victory as weapons and soldiers, civilian products also go into production. Medicine, trains and human based musical instruments are all introduced. These start a renaissance inside the UCI, and with the huge boost to income, repairs are quick, and soon whole cities and village are expanded. Ponies from all over hear rumours of a cultural revolution inside the UCI boarders and become citizens, not only giving them a population to rival the two powers, but surpassing them. That along with its propaganda leads it to having the largest army out of the three.

0 DW- 30th of October- People prepare for new moon night but, under propaganda and the princesses approval, it is renamed nightmare night and instead, is about the monsters and ghouls that the republic is supposedly making, so they can take the children to Luna so she can eat then. While very silly and many people lashed out at this change, it was surprisingly successful simply because a holiday about fear had never been thought up before, and most people had fun with it.

0 DW- 17th of November- the First starts being called by that title. Up till then people have never known his name or species so they called him “Leader”. When finally asked, he simply said “I am the first human to enter the realm of Equestria. My name means nothing to me, nor should it mean anything to you.” As such he begins to be called a number of titles including the General, the Leader, the Lord commissar, based on a new political officer rank given to the army, in charge of keeping morale up and inspiring the men before they charge, The Warlord by the Zebras and many more names but the most popular was the First, as he was the first human. On this day also he begins four secret projects, ones that aim to win the war, or at least act as tide turners. These include project Templar, project Locus, project Javelin and project Dusk and Dawn.

0 DW- 21st of November- Around this time both Luna Republic and Solar Empire prepare for war once again. Celestia plans to attack as soon as the cease fire ends. The First leaves Stalliongrad to seek out allies and sources of energy. Many of the new inventions he introduced need electricity to run, and a lot of his modified schematics need some kind of power source that doesn’t run out and bends reality. Knowing magic is the key, he sets out to find a source to be used in his empire, while also heading towards the Griffin Empire, making contact with the dragons, the major Diamond dog clans and finally the Zebra tribes. He chooses not to go to the changelings as he believes that they cannot be trusted, and the Buffalo to wrapped up in tradition to follow his new way of life.

0 DW- 28th of November- the Luna Empire armed forces and Solar Empire royal guard start to fortify their borders and start mass garrisons. The First arrives at the Crystal Empire. UCI intelligence speaks of how the crystals dug from the empires famous mines are known to glow when magic is forced inside them. Experiments with one Chrystal which was purchased from a merchant confirmed the fact that magic could be stored inside and released both to best reality and to act as a power source. The First plans to make a deal with the empire, safety in return for crystals.

0 DW- 29th of November- The city council agrees to meet with him. The empire was founded as a city state ruled by a king, but after the bloodline ran dry the city was taken over by a council selected by the cities merchant guilds. It was still called an empire for two reasons, first because it gave the people an impression of unity and power while making them feel that being ruled by a council instead of a king didn't change the way they lived. Another, which was used as the guilds as an excuse to stay in power if challenged, was as long as the Crystal heart, an ancient relic of power that was in tuned with the emotions of the Crystal ponies, stayed lit then clearly the council was , by the gods, fit to rule. There is much discussion over how agreeing to the terms may make themselves a target, though it is offset by those who argue that by defying the princess, they already made themselves targets. After two hours and forty three minutes of debating, they agree to the terms. The UCI now has their power sources. However, to constantly recharge them and keep the working, most unicorns in the growing army act more in engineering roles then combat ones. As a result, while the UCI will have a vast technological advantage, the two empires have a magical one.

0 DW- 2nd of December- Both sides are ready to strike but both knows whoever moves first will take huge losses in crossing the boarders. Sun Shine does come up with an idea when playing a game of chess. Seeing that the game was about predicting the foes movement, she saw its connection to the current war. She comes up with an idea that to win the match, one had to break the rules. She comes up with an idea of using dummies and blow up supplies to mimic a garrison, while the real one is redeployed.  The First sets sail to the Griffin Empire.

0 DW- 10th of December- the Royal Guard are in position and ready to execute the attack. The First arrives in the Griffin Empire.

0 DW-12th of December- To the far north, a few dozen miles from the sea, a border outpost was preparing to celebrate. Many who were stationed there were scared of the coming storm, especially due to the high build-up across the river. Their job was to hold the enemy at the bridge they were stationed at, as the river stretched along the north and crossing it would both be difficult and take time, time the rest of the armed forces could use to mount a counter attack. However, they found that many of the garrison across the river seemed to have left, most likely being redeploy to where the attack was actually going to happen. Almost all the garrison went south to the nearby town to celebrate, though one Pegasus was left behind to contact them if anything happened. Late that night, while the stallion was asleep, a huge Royal Guard attack force marched straight over the river and headed towards the town. After waking up, the Stallion found the base crawling with guards. He managed to stay hidden for some time and attempted to contact the guards to allow them to defend themselves and the town. However, he was captured before this could happen. After being confronted in the main tower by the commander, the stallion managed to break free, kill the commander, and set fire to the tower before escaping. The fire as seen from the town and a defence was mustered before the guard arrived.

0 DW-13th of December- Battle of the Green Dragon tavern- Many of the soldiers from the garrison were actually drinking from a tavern on the outskirts of town, in the direction of the outpost. As such, the battle wasn't so much in the city as it was based around this little tavern. Due to a heavy civilian population and time constraints, they wouldn't be able to fortify the town, so instead they fortified the tavern. It was based on a much smaller bridge leading over a stream so the road was easily fortified with some wagons and crates since they knew most of the soldiers would cross by the bridge, while the taverns windows were bordered up and lines of defence were established.

When the army arrived and found them in a tavern of all things, the Royal Guard commander chose a full frontal attack mainly because the siege weapons they had brought were made for bombarding huge cities not targeting a tiny pub. However they found it difficult mainly because so many of them were being forced in such a small space, and if any of them flew over or attempted to cross the stream, crossbowmen inside the pub would fill them with arrows. Eventually, due to share numbers they were forced back into the tavern, although they managed to stall the attack by using fire spells to blow the bridge. After a few hours of peace, they were attacked again by soldiers who had crossed the river further down, meaning they got attacked from all directions. Crossbowmen and magic users did cause major casualties by firing out of slits in the boarded up windows, the front door was rammed open and they spent a few minutes holding them off behind the bar before going upstairs.

Finally, in the main hallway, they did one last final stand against the foe. To their luck however, the stallion that had fallen asleep had run into a Luna Republic patrol and reinforcements were sent, driving out the attackers and saving the taverns defenders.

0 DW-14th of December- the Griffin Empire denies the Firsts attempt to form an alliance, since even though ponies and Griffins have had an old rivalry, they have nothing against them at the moment. However, he does get assistance from a group of vigilantes who despise ponies, calling themselves the Pro Griffin Militia Group or PGMG, who heard of this attempted alliance and wish to join. Overall, the group sought conflict, as Griffins were always proud warriors, and the group’s goal was to prove Griffin might to the other races. While the UCI believed in unity and equal right for all, this was only racially and financially. A griffin with much fighting strength had more respect than the average earth pony, and that was just the environment they were looking for. They would continue to recruit other griffins during the war, though the griffins only made up a small part of the army. Manly they acted as heavy troopers and the air force till project Javelin was completed.

0 DW- 15th of December- the First sets sail for the south of Equestria, towards the Zebra's. War is declared once again between the two factions and skirmishes break out around the boarders.

0 DW- 27th of December- Battle of Grey Stone bridge-This time it’s the Luna Republic that go on the offensive, Black Dye spearheading the offensive.  Not much thought goes into the attack but speed and numbers. Unfortunately, the Royal Guard had put up defences and while huge casualties were taking on both sides, they fought to a standstill. Upon hearing this, Luna becomes convinced that mimicking the Solar Empires way of war was not going anywhere. They needed to come up with new ways of fighting. He gave this job to Blackmare, who surprisingly agreed with her on this.

0 DW-29th of December- Blackmare comes up with an idea for how they can beat the Royal Guards. He comes up with a new formation of infantry, magic infantry. Up till then, magic was used on a personal level; there was just melee, winged and archery infantry formations. The new formations would work together to cast single, massive spells. However, these spells were not tide turners as hoped, but helped to give the republic an upper hand.  This includes spells that caused cloud cover, a spell that caused fear in a small group of foes and the power to summon a sphere of dark energy from the ground that while not harming anyone physically could knock them around and to the ground.

1 DW-1st of January- Despite no peace treaty or cease fire signed, all fighting stops for New Year’s Day. It does give both soldiers and commanders a chance to look at the damages. Deaths and destruction is huge as both sides try to push through the other only to fail. If it is not resolved quickly, a stalemate is likely. Sun Shine and Swordn Shield both have dinner with Celestia for propaganda reasons, though this is the first time both have actually talked to her face to face. Both find her personality somewhat cold and the dinner is more an awkward conversation about the war and the state of the empire then anything, any attempts at something more light-hearted being shot down by the princess. Ironically enough, Blackmare also organises a dinner with Luna and the council, only for everyone but Luna wanting to talk about the war and the state of the republic. The First is forced to celebrate with the crew of his ship, first acting cold but eventually lighting up after a few drinks and they sing tavern songs together.

1 DW-4th of January- The boarder assault- Not one, but three battle occur this day on three different locations, although due to the fact they have the same goal, organized by the same commander, Blackmare himself, and occurred at the same time, they are generally described as one battle.  To the north, the Luna republic manage to force the Royal guard that had attacked the tavern in the Battle of Green Dragon Tavern back across the bridge but they blew it before the Luna could cross it and take to the offense. To the south, the Republic tried to attack from swampland to get the defenders by surprise, and they succeed, however under heavy melee the guard manage to win, but only with a dozen uninjured soldiers left. However, when attacking directly west they attacked Grey Claw fortress. A small defensive watchtower, it was used as a boarder outpost and was built to keep an eye out for diamond dogs, as it was built in a rocky area were mines could easily crop up. Any attack on it was easily forced back. However, the republic attacked in force and while they managed to just barely push them back for a while, Blackmare’s new magic formations launched projectiles at the tower and, after channelling one massive one together, blew the fortress apart. They took too much casualties to keep pushing, but with the way was open and now skirmishes and battles took place all over the Solar Empire and even in the Luna Republic. Overall, it became a mobile war.

1 DW-5th of January- the First arrives and sets about organizing a meeting with the Zebra chieftains.

1 DW-8th of January- the First meets with the chieftains. However, the meeting goes horribly. The Zebra have nothing against the ponies even if they were encroaching on their territory. About to leave, frustrated, a zebra comes to him and tells of a monster deep in the jungle that is said only a true warrior can slay. If the First slew the creature, the chieftains would join him out of respect. The First sets out to slay the best with his body guards, planning to take it on with number advantage and simply say he slew it alone.

1 DW-10th of January- The creature attacks The First and his guards late at night. It slaughters everyone in sight, but the First manages to escape, though only by running and leaving his men to die.

1 DW-11th of January- the First comes across a Zebra hunter. He convinces the first to continue on his quest, and become a warrior.

1 DW-13th of January- The hunter and the First, together, find the beast’s lair. Over the last two days the hunter has given the First a lot to think about concerning what it means to be a warrior and about honour. They do battle with the beast but the hunter is killed, although the First slays the beast by plunging his sabre deep into the beast’s eye.

1 DW-15th of January- Despite the First slaying the beast, the chieftains still refuse to offer any help. To them, going to such length for their help made him a war monger. However, many zebra warriors are outraged by this choice. Ironically, they had nothing against the ponies and did not want a war either, but after finding out their leaders refused any help to what they saw now as a, the embodiment of the zebra ideals, they were enraged. They left with the First, and joined the UCI against their chieftain’s orders.

1 DW-18th of January-Battle of the grassy field- Since this battle happened in no real town, city or landmark, it’s simply called what it was, a battle on a grassy field. The Luna Republic wanted to see if they could push all the way to Canterlot. Blackmare lead a couple of platoons to try and rush for the capital, but are cut off in, what was simply a large grassy field, but Royal guard led by Swordn Shield. The battle went back and forth, each side attack and then retreating, though both armies always stayed in sight of the other. Unlike many of the other battles that just ended up in a melee, this battle played out more like a game of chess, each predicting the others moves and trying to take advantage of it. However, eventually Blackmare became sick of it all and deployed his magical infantry to disrupt the Royal Guards formations and charge in...What he did not expect though, was that just after the Boarder Assault, Swordn Shield had trained a counter measure to magical infantry. He took the best Pegasus in Equestria and in a short week, gave them the best training the Empire could afford, as well as the best weapons and armour. This airborne platoon became known as the Wonderbolts, and for the rest of the war they were the best air force of all three factions. Attacking from the cover of the clouds then launched themselves against the infantry before any spells were cast, and in the confusion the Empire charged and defeated the Luna Republic, though half of the remaining number, along with Blackmare, managed to retreat.

1 DW- 21st of January- the First arrives back and heads to the North Mountains to get the support of the Diamond Dogs. In retrospective, he realises it probably would have been best to see them first.

1 DW-23rd of January- the Diamond dog Guild master meet up, but ironically, no matter what he says, not matter what ideals he puts in front of them, no matter how much treasure he offers, they all can't agree to join for one reason... They all hate each other’s guts. The First puts it simply...What would it take for each clan to swear their loyalty to him? They all swear their clans loyalty, if they eliminate the other chieftains...So that’s what he does. Ordering his guards, they butcher every chieftain there, leaving no leaders left. Confronting their second in commands, he points out that they all swore their clans loyalty if he killed their rivals...All chieftains were dead, so they all served him now. The clans agree, either for a respect in power, or the idea of looting a posh pony city full of gold and gems. Diamond dogs would make up the heavy infantry of the UCI, usually carrying heavy weapons and wearing steel plated armor.

1 DW-25th of January- the First meets with a large number of dragons, also living in the mountains. However, they do not wish to join the war despite the treasure to be had. Neither could the First gain their respect though a show of power. He ended up walking away with no support this time, though now and again an odd dragon would come down to Stalliongrad and join by themselves for the spoils of war. However these were far from an armed group. The Griffins joined in hundreds, the Zebra's thousands, yet only a handful of dragons joined during the war, and each joined at a different point, not all at once. Still, what few did join were massive creatures that could burn whole armies alive, and as the UCI technology got more and more advance, these dragons soon became even more a threat when they wore armor plating and carried massive artillery batteries on their back. With the last of his meetings over, the First finally heads back home to Stalliongrad.

1 DW-27th of January- Around this time a small group of rebels believing the Crystal Empire should be independent from the Solar Empire and no longer provide any support to the UCI crops up. They have little to no real power, but will be helping change the Crystal Empire forever in future events. The First arrives home and celebrations are thrown. While away the UCI has finished reconstruction thanks to both an influx of urban based workers and their new technologies. More so, with the new magically charge crystals, rifles, artillery and even very crude tanks start being produced. Zebras are integrated into the army, the Griffins organize themselves into an air force, known as the Red Wing, and diamond dogs are mixed in with the divisions also, though being encased in metal armour and carrying Gatling guns and mortars.

1 DW-29th of January- A formation of Luna guards besieging a village find out that many of the occupants had taken up arms to help the defenders, constructing weapons from iron brought from merchants entering the town. According to the cease fire, if the war was to break out again, while supply lines for troops could be attacked, merchants would be untouched. However the commander decided that technically, as it was supplying the defenders with weapon making parts, it was indeed counted as a supply line and the next convoy to walk though come under attack by them.  This incident becomes a minor focal point for propaganda, as it was seen as proof that the Luna Republic would no follow the rules of war.

1 DW-13rd of February- Overall, the war has been going back and forth, Celestia taken a firm stance against the Republic and Luna, while still feeling bad about the conflict with her sister, has hardened up and is more than ready to go all the way to see victory. With his army being fitted out, the First starts to get paranoid the two empires will find out which is pretty understandable considering how strange it was they never found out when the whole government started. After a few days of thinking with his generals, the First decides both factions are practically held together by their leaders. Celestia and Luna fall, they both dissolve. While this may have been true for the Solar Empire, the Luna Republic might have stayed together due to their loyalty to her, and simply worshiped her as a prophet that made a sacrifice so they could go on. He plans to force the two leaders out in the open and destroy them there. But how will he do this without the two sisters discovering the ideal? In the end, he chooses a very very risky plan that, while not a success in the long one was rather effective. He sends two messages disguised as a messenger from the Empire and one from the Republic.

1 DW-17th of February- A Luna Republic messenger arrives at Canterlot. Apparently, Luna has requested they meet north of their empires and have a duel. The winner gets taken into the others custody and becomes a prisoner of their respected governments. Celestia leaps at the idea and accepts. She knows out of the two sisters she is the strongest and as the war could go either way, so this is the perfect chance to end the war once and for all. However, it seems almost too good to be true, and decides to take a huge chunk of the Royal Guard to protect her in case it’s a trap.

1 DW-20th of February- a Solar Empire messenger arrives at Baltimare. Apparently, Celestia has requested they meet north of their empires and have a duel. The winner gets taken into the others custody and becomes a prisoner of their respected governments. Unlike her sister’s reaction, Luna is very, very sceptical. This seems almost like Celestia's plan for Blackmare, the same plan she spoiled and ended up leaving the Empire for. Blackmare jumps at the idea however and pressures her into it, explaining that the army will back her up in case of treachery and that even if she does lose; they will rush in to rescue her and take the queen into custody. While Luna is against the idea, the fact this could end the war for good helps change her mind and she agrees.

1 DW-25th of February- The two messengers return to Stalliongrad and give the good news. However, the First is still nervous as the whole plan seems straight out of a poorly written TV episode then a military plan. It all relied on whether the Luna Republic or Solar Empire had a spy ring. If they did, it would have been easy for them to find out that the other did not send the messenger. However, espionage would not become a tool of the war till latter on, and for now, both sisters are none the wiser. They both have agreed to meet north of their kingdoms just west of the Chrystal Empire with a small attachment of body guards.

1 DW-29th of February-Battle of the red dawn- Called the tide turner of the war, this will mark the declaration of total war by all three factions, the reveal of the UCI and Officially escalate the war from a series of conflicts into full on battles. Both forces arrived at the agreed upon time, although their "body guards" ended up containing the entire Solar Empire and New Luna Republic armed forces. After a short banter over which side should surrender, Celestia attempts to use the elements of harmony against her sister.

However, they don't even start up, to the surprise of Celestia. Luna then attempts to reason with her sister, explaining that the elements not working proves her point, that she has become a tyrant. Celestia, frustrated that her easy victory is now robed of her, attacked Luna and they face off on a one on one duel. Celestia seems to have an upper hand anyway, though the battle is very close. However, half way through the duel, the combat and cheering from the thousands of soldier bystanders stop as all forces here a long, high pitch noise like an insect, that slowly sounded lower and lower. When the noise hit its lowest a long series of explosives devastated both armies. The UCI had revealed itself. The original plan was simple. Both forces would rally to defend themselves, even to the point where they put their differences apart, at least for the moment.

A first wave of rifle men would charge their lines led by the First, which would act as a distraction while a second wave uses a pincer manoeuver to surround both armies, stopping any from escaping. Once complete, both armies and national leaders would be eliminated and the war would be over, with the UCI victories. However, the First overestimated the courage of both armies. Being attacked by an unforseen force with technology they had never seen before, both forces instantly scramble. It was a complete disaster for all parties involved. Luna escaped the first chance she got, but Celestia attempted to rally her forces, but failed and she was caught in the charge. Both Solar empire and New Republic forces were run down by pursuing UCI soldiers, although the majority escaped to the First's disappointment.

Leading the first charge, the First came across Celestia, attempting a fighting withdrawal with her royal guard, and attack her himself. There duel was mainly one on one except for a single guard that attempted to intervened who was shot and killed instantly by the First. Although Celestia had her magic she had no experience fighting such a creature that specialised on skill, speed and his weapons instead of any special powers. The First on the other hand, hand been practising for a duel like this since he first arrived in Equestria, and had a clear upper hand. The duel ended were, while deflecting a beam with his sabre, he fired two bullets in the right wing of Celestia. She was soon captured as a prisoner of war. The battle ended with a decisive UCI victory but they failed to deliver the war winning blow they wanted.

1 DW- 2nd of March-The Luna Republic forces reassemble on the outskirts of the forest. After much debating, Luna decides that the best cause of action is to retreat back to Baltimare. The source of the attack is unknown but Luna believes it was not her sister’s work, since they did not wear solar empire uniform and no signal was seen to give them an order to attack. She believes the best cause of action is to wait it out and collect information on this new foe, letting the empire and this new enemy fight it out. Solar empires forces slowly collect themselves into a number of independent groups and make their way back to Canterlot, unaware that their Princess is missing. UCI forces celebrate victory. Although they failed their goal, the first acknowledged that it was due to the cowards of their opponents and not because of any factor on their part, so he allows it. Celestia herself is put away under guard, unconscious due to powerful drugs being introduced to her system. Talk begins on what to do with the princess, with most commanders wanting a public execution, while the others wish to kill her in the camp. All agree that ending her life would cause the collapse of the empire.

However the first surprises them all but declaring she would be put on a trial that he sees fit, and that if she truly is the ruler of Equestria, she would be returned to the empire. Less experienced officers argue, but the veterans agree with the first, sense experience has shown them that he has a knack for turning anything his way, and that this must be some kind of plot to further to UCI.

1 DW- 8th of March-Luna and her forces return to Baltimare. She dispatches the army to outposts and towns all along the border of the New Luna Republic. Her plan is to turtle down, getting all the facts before she decides how to act. She is frightened by the idea that there is another force besides her sister that can challenge the republic, let alone cause her armed forces to fall apart like they did. For once, the voice is quite on the matter, scaring her even more. This was supposed to be a clean war, just remove her sister and that would be it, but now she was way over her head.

1 DW- 15th of March-the first and the UCI forces arrive back at Stalliongrad. Celestia, bound, heavily guarded and drug induced to keep her passive, is drawn though the city in the middle of the parading army. With this victory, its numbers and its technological advantage, the UCI would be winning the war for quite some time starting with this event. After the Ceremony, Celestia is put into complete lockdown. Not even Viola heartstrings is allowed to see her, even though in this time she had become the Firsts right hand.

1 DW-16th of March-Solar empire forces slowly makes their way back to Canterlot. Sun Shine panics when the queen does not show up and, without asking permission from Swordn Shield, takes a detachment of guards to the battle ground to investigate. They magically are able to find Celestia's blood, but only a splatter, suggesting she was still alive, but wounded.

1 DW-17th of March-Sun Shine sends a guard back to Canterlot with her findings and sets off to try and track down the princess. Swordn Shield, weather he likes it or not, is now left alone to deal with spreading panic, military issues, finding intelligence on this new foe AND keeping a lid on the disappearance of the princess.

1 DW- 21st of March-Swordn Shield lies to the population by declaring the princess is back but resting from a wound. The first leaves Stalliongrad with only half a dozen of his best guards without telling any of the general staff or Viola. They take Celestia with them.

1 DW-22nd of March-Sun Shine makes it to Stalliongrad and makes a plan to get into the dungeon. It works until she gets there, in which case an ambush was set and the princess gone. She manages to escape, but of the guards she is with are either captured or killed.

1 DW-23rd of March--Moona panics over the sudden intrusion by Solar Empire forces (although acting alone) and the disappearance of the first. Believing she may have to take charge, she orders the UCI to start a push into the Solar Empire and New Luna Republic.

1 DW-25th of March-Celestia is taken to a remote mountain named simply "the hole", a location that even Celestia herself did not know about. The guards then beat her and using tools, remove each feather from her wings and remove her horn. The First then explains that inside this hole is an environment that evolved away from the magic and peace of Equestria, pointing out the horrific and unnatural creatures that live in its bowls. Pushed to the edge and defenceless, he then asks his guards to leave them, to their surprise. After they leave, the first give Celestia a speech about what a true leader is all about, calling Celestia to detached from the people and Luna too soft to rule effectively and that he has proven to be the better leader. He then tells her "There have been many rulers and there are many reason they became rulers but a true ruler is a far different breed. Despite what most people think, a true ruler is not born with power nor do they have power thrust upon them.

A true leader is not sly or kind or strong or charismatic. A true leader does not take power or let their power be taken. A true leader Celestia...Earns their place. Now earn yours." At which point he kick Celestia into the dark chasm and leaves. Celestia wakes a few hours later at the bottom of the dark hole, unable to see the light of day. She then begins to look for an exit, unable to fly or teleport without her feathers or horn.

1 DW-28th of March-Attacks begin on both nations borders. The New Luna Republic is able to mount an organised resistance thanks to Luna's preparations. Despite this, they are spread thin and still unable to counter the technological powerhouse of the UCI and eventually they are forced to retreat and hold up in the major cities. The solar Empire didn't stand a chance at the beginning of the push as its forces were still trying to reorganise after the Battle of the Red Dawn. During the time Sun Shine arrived back at Canterlot, she would find that Swordn Shield had left to stop the advancing UCI troops himself. Celestia finds the skeletal remains of a pony and manages to retrieve a dagger from its remains.

1 DW-30 of March-Battle of Hoofington- Continuing their push the UCI found themselves forced through a narrow strip of land since the Foul Mountains lied to the east while the Unicorn Range lied to the west. In order to continue their march they needed to pass through the village of Hoofington. Quite large for its location, Hoofington was the only city to connect Canterlot to the North which resulted in a booming trade economy, although they also had quite a large number of outlying farms. The village despite being important to Solar Empire trade was poorly defended previously since it was so close to the capital and out of the way of the Luna Republic boarders. UCI scouts report the village empty and the few defences that they did have unattended. Led by a low ranking officer due to the forces running ahead of the general staff. Believing that they smartly ran to the capital, the officer pushed his men forward, ahead of artillery support. He believed there was no point waiting for the artillery to catch up and that once they reach the town they could fortify it and establish it as an artillery outpost. Once they started entering homes however, the discovered them full of Royal guards. Rushing out of the buildings, they engage the UCI forces in close combat, were their rifles could not be used to full advantage. Although they could not fit enough soldiers in the houses to take on the UCI alone, they did hide the remainder over the hill and now that they could not form up into a firing line, Swordn Shield led a final charge into the line.

The UCI were crushed and their advance finally halted. Furthermore, without frontline protection the artillery column that was supposed to follow was abandoned, and although the Solar Empire had no idea how to use these weapons, it was a major blow to the UCI armed forces.

War-1 DW 1st of April to 1 DW 3rd of September

1 DW-1st of April-Celestia is attacked by a mutant snail which she barely survives by killing the beast with the dagger. Starved, she reluctantly eats some of the snails flesh, the ultimate taboo for the herbivore ponies. Little did she know the snails slime was hallucinogenic and she will hallucinate for the rest of the time she is in the cave system.

1 DW-3rd of April-Swordn Shield returns to Canterlot and is celebrated as a hero. He threatens to court martial Sun Shine but is unable to find a replacement. As such, she is given charge of the capitol while he leads to the defence and offence of the empire. Celestia hallucinates that she can see another her standing over Luna, eating her like a carnivore.

1 DW- 4th of April-Luna spearheads a number of skirmishes and manages to force the UCI back using magic and her mages. She discovers in these battles that the UCI seem to not send unicorns in battle, giving the republic an advantage in the form of magical power. Celestia hallucinates that she is back in Canterlot victories, with the head of her sister and of the first at her feet. She also finds herself surrounded by mass graves, full of women and children as well as soldiers. She seems to fine this very funny, which terrifies her.

1 DW-5th of April-Celestia sees the first and attacks him, only to be transported to a Canterlot were she is dead and the red flag of the Ideal flies overhead. What surprises her most is that everyone is happy and joyful instead of fearful.

1 DW-6th of April-Celestia is supposedly confronted by her sister. She tells her how everything is her fault and that she will burn for it. She also tells her that the only way to save herself is to take her own life. Emotionally broken, she attempts suicide by jumping over an underground cliff. However, she survives the fall and follows a light at the bottom that eventually leads out of the caverns.

1 DW-7th of April-The first arrives back at the UCI and is very disappointed by the failure to achieve a quick victory. He was hoping that stalemates would stop the advances of his foes, not downright defeats.

1 DW-7th to 13th of April-Under the Firsts command the UCI are able to stop the advance.

1 DW-15th of April-Celestia stumbles up to the gates of Canterlot, near death. She is rushed to the castle where the Empires best doctors spend a good eight hours in surgery to bring her back from the brink of death. They succeed, barely, and she is put under in her room under constant supervision by doctors. This news shock the whole empire but while it plummets moral, the fact she was found and is alive keeps the empire together.

1 DW-16th to 21st of April-After much examination the doctors aren't sure how long it will take for Celestia to recover. There no instance of an alicorn getting injured like this has ever been recorded so they simply don't know. However, if it took as long as a normal pony, they explain to the public it would take around three months and in these three months there will be a power vacuum. Despite Sword n Shield being in command this whole time, now the princess is both found and unable to rule the nobility step up and declare the empire under their rule. This causes some trouble as most of the military still wished to be in control, and as such it is agreed upon that for the next week different factions of the empire will be sorted out so both parties get what they want.

However as negotiations go on the nobility keep getting more then the military mainly because the nobility automatically gains control if the princess dies and as such most people are acting as if this just happened. More so because the nobility outranks any military officer in the Empire social structure. However a couple of days before the end of the week, after some long thinking and experiences he has a long emotional talk with Sun Shine about what exactly the Empire stands for, he finds out that before the week is even up, let alone bargains met, the nobility has gained control and declared themselves rulers of the Solar Empire. Marching into the palace with a whole platoon of Royal guard loyal to him, he finds the throne room converted to seat twelves of the nobility selected to represent the nobility.

The castle is heavily guarded and full of nobility supporters, as well as the city. The nobility tell him to stand down by order of the empire. Swordn Shield explains that the empire is about hope. About the simple ideal of doing the right thing. About doing its best to further a better tomorrow. He then declares that the nobility betray these ideals and as such are traitors to the Empire. He orders the nobility to stand down from their position as leaders of the empire or they will be charged for high treason and executed. The nobility, surprised at a military officer challenging their power, tell him to recall this order or it will be seen as high treason and he and his men will be executed. He refuses. Before aggressions could be made and the Solar Empire consumed by civil war, Celestia, body broken and bruised, limps out to the throne rooms and orders both parties to stand down, as there is only one ruler of the empire. All bow at her presence and do as commanded. This event proved the instability of the Empire and how close it came to complete destruction not by one of its foes, but by its own people. Change had to come, and it did.

1 DW 22nd of April-Celestia takes back control over the empire, but due to her injuries she can only spend around an hour in the throne room every day. All this extra time allows her to think about what her sister and the First said to her, along with what she saw in the cave. Eventually, she begins to right down certain changes she wishes to announce when she has recovered.

1 DW 27th of April-Celestia recovers enough to take over the empire again fully, and her first order after getting back this power is to put in place a new policy that will take power away from the nobility and give it to the military so they cannot take over the empire on a whim again. More so however, laws involving  what can be defined as a “traitor” are laxed. Basically, it allows free speech against the empire to no longer be looked down upon, personal beliefs are encouraged and. Most importantly, conscription is abolished.

This sends a wave of panic threw out the kingdom as military officers  are afraid that having no reliable source of men could mean their defeat in the war, while the nobles are outraged as this is the first time power had been taken away from their position since the empire was formed. In fact, everyone except her own guards started bickering as soon as the announcement was made in the throne room. Public opinion on this decision was mixed. Some said it lessened the might of the empire, others said the princesses will to offer change to better the lives of her subjects. In the end, the change actually helped the empire as rebellions stop now that groups relies that they don't have to resort to violence to get change and this idea that the princess is now giving more power to the average pony increases volunteers.

1 DW-29th of April-Without talking with her generals or the nobility, Celestia sends two messages to the Luna Republic and United Communist Ideal. Despite almost all of her subjects in power wishing for nothing but these “traitors blood”, she asks not just for a cease fire, but a peace agreement, ending the war for good.

1 DW-3rd of May-The First receives the message and is shocked to find out Celestia is still alive, but agrees to go to the summit. He believes that the UCI is winning the war and is in the perfect position for negotiations.

1 DW-5th of May-Luna gets the massage and agrees to go too. She believes she can get her sister to stand down and surrender the empire and make it part of the republic.

1 DW- 10th of May-Celestia is pleased with their responses and announces happily in the throne room that soon the war will be over. Many are shocked and angry upon finding out. The Solar Empire had stood since the entrapment of discord! It had fought of changelings, diamond dogs, griffins and rebels! It had stood the test of time yet it was to negotiate with two groups of pathetic wanna be rulers? They believed they should continue to fight and crush them in the name of the Empire, just as Celestia had taught them to.  However, Celestia was queen. She had always been queen.  Whatever she said went.

1 DW- 18th of May-Both factions leaders and generals meet in the Crystal Empire, setting up camps on a clear field instead of meeting inside the city. This is mainly because Luna and Celestia don’t want to upset the ruling council if things go wrong, and the First doesn’t want any chance of the other two finding out about his deal with them. They all sit down in the main tent and discuss a possible treaty.

While Celestia swears she wishes to change and wants nothing more than peace, Luna doesn't believe her and the First simply doesn't care, since if they did all make friends a queen would still rule Equestria, something his entire faction is against choosing to put him in power instead of simply being sworn in by some kind of blue blooded nobility into the leading role, is against. Luna explains that her republic has been proven vastly superior to the Empire, that she has proven untrustworthy, and that at the moment, she will accept nothing more than full surrender. She might have acted differently if she had spoken to Celestia alone, but she was representing her people in front of another nation’s leader, not to mention had the gaze of her best generals on her, judging her actions. She walked in not as a sister, but as a leader. The First was not as unwilling to negotiate. He agreed to an alliance to with the Solar Empire...If she steps down and the empire is annexed by the UCI.

Celestia refuses. As it goes on though, the First and Luna get into a verbal fight about why each of them fight in this war, the First calling Luna a spoiled child her started a war over s sisterly spat while Luna calls him a cowardice tyrant who only desires power and nothing else. In the end, both storm out and leave, though before going the First agrees to a two month long cease fire with the Empire after Celestia promised to consider a counteroffer to his original terms. While they were in the main tent, some of the Empires, Republics and Ideals finest had time to spend with each other. Viola, Black Dye and Sun Shine originally started off quite aggressive towards each other but after working together to help an armorer’s boy find his lost ring, they actually bonded, though were tragically never to become friends due to the powers which they serve. Blackmare and Swordn Shield were even more aggressive towards each other, but where shoved together by the sisters before they enter negotiations. Though strangely enough, before going their separate ways they did share a kiss.

1 DW-23rd of May-All factions return to their capital cities. Luna contemplates what to do now and decides if peace is what Celestia is truly looking for, than she'll be less likely to attack. That is, until she changes her mind. So she believes now would be a good time to take on the UCI, but in order to fight such a technological powerhouse she needs an ace in the hole. Ground forces are no match for UCI firing lines and now they are in a peace agreement with the Solar Empire, its borders will be locked down while the amass resources most likely for a massive push into the republic. She goes for a walk to think about her plan, but it soon leads to her questioning if her sister really did mean all the things she said. However she comes across two fillies fighting, a Pegasus and a unicorn. She watches as the Pegasus would quickly swoop up rocks from the ground, then fly up into the air and drop them on the unicorn, which couldn't aim that high up to hit accurately. This inspires Luna to come up with her own military plan to take on the UCI.

1 DW-24th of May-Luna describes her plan to her generals. Since they couldn't take the UCI by the ground, they will take it by the air. However there was nowhere near enough Pegasus to take the ideal by themselves...So instead of strafing or landing, they will instead keep at a high altitude and drop magical explosives onto military bases and cities weakening them till the point where they can take them on the ground. This was met with much applause though Blackmare found the strategy a bit cowardly, though admitted it was a good one.

1 DW- 27th of May-Bombing runs on the UCI start. While the UCI have developed anti-aircraft guns their designs are based of human ones so long range guns are nothing more than a deterrent since they can't hit such tiny targets. Short range anti-aircraft would be far more accurate and dangerous, but now the pegasus are using magical charges from such a great height these guns find themselves out of range. This means the UCI's only defence against these raids are the red wings, the griffin air force.

While the UCI had many pegasus it was decided early on that operation Javelin would make them obsolete so they were integrated into the army instead of an air force. However the griffins reputation on their amazing air combat make it too good an asset to ignore so those who chose to fight in the air over the ground were made into the red wings. However while these were skilled fighters they were also low in number. Basically they could not be everywhere at once while since the Republic had the largest air force out of the three they seemingly could! The only problem the republic air force had was that while they could send thousands of pegasus on a single raid an individual pegasus could only cause a tiny amount of damage with such small explosives. Another thing was they were incredibly inaccurate, since it was basically like throwing a stone at a building from a balloon up in the air.

1 DW-2nd of June-Raids get worse. The research station for project Locus is bombed. The project was to use magic to make an organism that would devour crops and reproduce at an amazing rate, at which point they would be released into the empire and republic to starve the two other factions. They were having issues however with producing a way to stop them once they had taken over. Eventually, one of the scientists came up with the idea of using music made with instruments exclusive to the ideal, ones that the first had introduced that were originally human designs. While these indeed attracted their attention, no way to outright destroy a massive swarm of these creatures was yet to be produced beyond using fire when the station was bombed into the ground, destroying years of research and releasing three of the prototype “Parasprites” into the environment. The project was scrapped and its resources sent to developing Javelin and Templar.

1 DW-4th of June-After some time Black Dye comes up with a plan to end the war once and for all by sending over three thousand pegasus to Stalliongrad and bomb the palace. Although there was a good chance of the First escaping or surviving, destroying the palace would hit hard at the UCI's already weakened moral due to the raids. The red wings did manage to stall them just outside the city but most of them made through. However, project Javelin was prepared for a field test and was nearing completion, and now the capital was threatened it was deployed to stem the tide. As the pegasus flew in from the west, they soon found hidden out of view by the palace, three armored airships enter view. Completely made of steel, they each had a balloon the size of two busses high and length. Under them were chains connected to an armored hull as long as the balloon.

Attached to them were four quad anti-aircraft guns and on the stern a massive flank cannon. It managed to keep afloat and steer as if it was a windless day due to the use of magically charged crystals which countered the weight of the metal and being at the same height as the pegasus meant the weapons on these blimps were devastating. They ripped through the attackers who had no idea what they were fighting and believed it to be some kind of monster. In the end it was a disaster as over half the pegasus where killed or captured, the rest fleeing for their lives. Project Javelin was deemed a success and went into mass production, producing different variations which differed in size, speed and number of weapons it carried.

1 DW-5th of June-Blackmare verbally attack Luna at the senate’s meeting after the failed attack calling her out for not getting wind of such a massive weapons project, let along the weapons launch hours before the attack. Luna defends her leadership and the two butt heads. It ends with the Senate agreeing with Luna, but this only causes Blackmare's slowly growing hatred of his savour to get to breaking point. He begins talking with Black Dye about weather Luna should really be in control of the Republic.

1 DW-8th of June-UCI start bombing raids of their own, dropping military grade bombs with as much impact and damage as those used in the world wars. These are far more effective than the Republics plan of having pegasus simply throw magical explosives. It is discovered the blimps have one weakness which is if a group of pegasus sneak up to the ships, or attack from above where there were no weapons they could land on the air ships and engage in a boarding action, this leading to the Red Wings being called back into action to protect the ships from close engagement. There was also another major flaw. Most blimps had to set out from Stalliongrad, where, at the time was the only location to house air docks, and fly all the way over to Luna towns and cities. Since magically enchanted crystals were used to defy physics and make the ships perform like they do, once the magic started to fade, similar to how a battery ran out of power, they had to return to the capital, as without magic the blimps just became metal bricks with an air pocket inside them. This meant they couldn't reach Baltimare or many of the southern cities and towns.

1 DW-15th of June-Eventually, the Republic comes up with a counter measure.  Using towers magically charged by republic mages, they focus the power into a single beam and fire them high into the sky. These beams rip right through these blimps but they do have some major problems. First they were extremely expensive to build and maintain, with only the major cities having one. More so, it takes a lot of power to charge each shot so it takes time for the beams to form and fire. Finally, because of the design they cannot be reversed engineered to be mobile.

1 DW-19th of June-Now the cease fire with the Empire has stopped, the First sends a message to Luna, that they should join forces at least for a month, and together use both the republics pegasus and the UCI's blimps to bomb the Empire to the ground ending the war once and for all. He is certain Luna will not except, but believes it might cause the Republic to split.

1 DW- 24th of June-When Luna gets the message, she of cause says no, but this infuriates Blackmare. This was the republics best chance of a quick and easy victory over the Empire and Luna would not even hear the First out? This leads to a very heated discussion as Blackmare has had enough taking orders from Luna, telling him and his people what to do despite her abandoning Equestria and running away to hide with some orphans instead of staying and fighting! He was the one who stood up to Celestia centuries before the war! He gave everything including his identity in order see her head on a pike, yet it was Luna, her sister, that was supposed to lead them to victory!?! He should be the leader of this Republic, not her! Luna explains her choice is final, and for the first time since leaving Equestria she also loses her temper.

All this fighting in a war she thought would be over in a few weeks, all the rich and the powerful second guessing anything she said, and the fact that the senate had slowly become more and more corrupted all caused her anger to grow. She had saved him AND his people from death and destruction! The First was a lying bastard who only wanted power for himself and he was going to make friends with him? She had left her home, her friends, even her title as princess in order to give her subjects a fresh start and he was going to tell her about sacrifice!?! In the end, Blackmare crossed the line by comparing her to her sister, and saying that she was “Unfit.” Luna loses it and attacks him. Soon, Blackhoof and Republic soldiers start brawling in the palace, each believing their leader to be in the right. In the end, Luna managed to defeat Blackmare and in her anger, supposedly kill him.

This was the first time Luna had taken a life with her own two hooves and this hit hard. The fighting stopped and the Blackhoof were rounded up. After a few hours of thinking and regretting, Luna decrees that the Blackhoofs are to be exiled from the republic, and the government reformed so the president, she had a far longer seat of office and more power to stop anything like this happening again. While the average citizen was unsure of this, her fanatical followers were more than happy and that was enough. She declared the Luna Republic no more, and the New Luna Republic formed. After being sent to a morgue, the body of Blackmare went missing. Black Dye swore to defend the Republic with his life and as such, he chose to takes Luna's side during the brawl. As such, he was allowed to keep his position.

1 DW-26th of June-Celestia has recovered from her wounds, her horn growing back and her wings back to normal. However doctors were unable to remove the bullets from her wings and she will now feel pain when flying for extended periods of time. A chariot which will be pulled by pegasus is commissioned for travel, but the bullets have much more psychological effects. She constantly feels them between her wings, acting as a cruel reminder of everything that happened the day she received them.

1 DW-28th of June-The surviving black hooves arrive at Stalliongrad. Their leader, Jade Emblem, offer the first a deal. If he offers her a position of power and promise to protect to protect the Blackhoofs they will join the United Communist Ideal. He agrees. She asked her to become his left hand. She agrees.

1 DW- 18th of July-Fighting starts up along the Empires boarders again as the cease fire ends. The UCI attack first using long range artillery, however the Empire has adapted new strategies to deal with the technological differences and it is less affective then before. While the UCI are ready to start the conflict again, the UCI are somewhat reluctant to make any major pushes, either stalling for time till more of their projects are completed or putting all their effort into attacking the Republic.

1 DW-27th of July-Jade Emblem and the First get very close. They enjoy each other’s company and Jade goes out of her way to keep herself close. Viola gets jealous and digs into her background. After hitting some dead ends she discovers that places she talked about she never visited. She believes that Jade had been taking different aliases but for what reason she does not know, plus these aliases are not connected in any way. In the end, it clicks and she fingers out there’s no connection because she's not a pony, but a changeling. She rushes back to the palace and manages to stop Jade from killing the First in his sleep, after being let in by the guards dew to their friendship. The first, against Viola's advice, locks Jade away as oppose to execution, though she does not realise the First has his own plans for the insect. Viola is still celebrated for her commitment to the UCI and given the title “Protector of the Ideal.”

1 DW-28th of July-Before going into this entry it should be explained how the Changelings communicate. The hive mind connects all changelings together, based around the queen. Unlike ants or bees, the hive mind does not direct changelings, but has two effects. First, it compels changelings to do whatever they are told by the queen. Second, they are always aware of other Changelings positions and locations. There are three ways to disconnect with the hive mind. First is removing the changeling's horn, as it acts as an antenna. The horn does grow back and with a different setting for detecting waves, in a nut shell, if the hive mind was a radio channel, then a regrown horn was set to a different frequency.

Usually steps were taken in the hive to reset the horn and re-connect it to the mind, but outside the changeling could easily free itself. Second was suffering a concussion, which can rattle the brain and reset the horns connection.  Finally, when a changeling is separated and knows vital information, a “kill me” Order is given to said changeling. Their organs shut down and die. However, there’s a 95% chance that the body simply reads the message wrong, probably because its comes through the air as opposed to being told directly, plus considering the changelings natural will to live, and they simply fall asleep, waking up a few hours later, but for some reason this results in them having a much smaller intelligence, similar to a dog.

There is a side effect to all these. Since one of the effects of the hive mind knows the location of fellow changelings, they never feel completely alone. However, when their connection breaks, it’s like being alone for the first time in your whole life. Some changelings are known to even be driven insane by the isolation. Oddly, changelings who get freed threw ignoring the “kill me” order, they can regain their intelligence by taking the form of smarter creatures, like other ponies. The First decides, studying Changelings a little before starting the UCI when we put upon himself to learn about all the Equestrian sentinel races to choose potential allies, that he wishes to use the changeling to further the ideal, and orders her horn removed.

1 DW-2nd of August-Up to this point, Celestia has refused to go on the offensive against the Republic and UCI. However, after a heart to heart talk with Swordn Shield, she caves in and agrees to allow offensive operations to take place again.

1 DW-3rd of August-Jade goes into a deep depression, alone for the first time, imprisoned and without purpose. She is put on suicide watch. The First admits to Viola he plans to turn Jade into an assassin.

1 DW-6th of August-The Vanhooven Defence- Since Celestia did not allow any advances or counterattacks the UCI commanders thought it meant she had given up the will to fight, evident by her physical and mental well-being. This meant while they were more reckless in their attacks, it also meant that they were also careless. When Celestia allowed offensive operations to take place once again, the road to Vanhoover was practically undefended.  Sun Shine led an attack force deep into UCI territory with no one the wiser. Vanhoover was on the sunnier side of the UCI, as was its only major warm water port.

It was important for trade and as a naval base, despite the fact the war had not taken to the ocean, it was still essential for stopping pirates. Viola was sent there a few days earlier since the First sensed Viola's disagreement with what he was doing to Jade, and decided it would be best if she was out of the capital until Jade's training was done.  Her job was to oversee the update of the fleet. Most of the ships were sailed using ballista’s or primitive cannons, and so they were being replaced by ransacked pre-WW1 designed battleships, which could outrun and outshoot a whole fleet of pirates.

Most of the fleet just before the battle had been beached outside the city, where they were supposed to be broken down into materials to be recycled, but they never had the chance when they Empires army came into sight. The battle itself was actually usual fair strategic wise, with the Royal guards using siege weapons to soften up the walls and then assault them en mass. The defenders of the city were vastly outnumbered but Viola had given them a major advantage. Although the ships were not taken apart they were disarmed, so Viola organized her engineers to install these weapons on the battlements. The shear amount of siege weapons and placements made it very hard to gain any ground, however Sun Shine had a brain wave.

Putting her siege weapons on the beached ships, she ordered half her army to sail out an assault by see, before unloading on the docks. However, Viola had seen this coming and before retreating into the city, she had gotten the workers to stack the ships full of gunpowder. Once they had set sail, a swarm of heated shots, fire arrows and magical fire bolts blew up the whole fleet. With half her army gone as well as her siege weapons, she retreated. While Viola had won the day there were side effects to the battle that made in more of a tie. While Vanhoover was defended, the land between the city and Canterlot was taken by the Royal guard. Now the docks were right on the edge of the UCI and now for the first time since the start of the war the Solar Empire had actually taken land back.

1 DW-6th to 10th of August- It is around this time that Blackmare reappears in the Crystal Empire, apparently either faking his death or perhaps his so called immortality brought him back from deaths embrace. He manages to get control of the rebel group and convinces the group to becoming more aggressive and open. He also tells the people that by breaking their neutrality once the war was over the Empire or Republic would come after them as revenge, or would simply attack them now to destroy a strategic advantage that the UCI possessed. This hits a nerve with the people as this was something they feared for a long time but didn't have a say in the matter, resulting in the group gaining many followers . Blackmare, in order to avoid being tracked down by the Republic, changes his name to Sombra.

1 DW- 8th of August- Jade gets out of her depression but denounces her name, along with whatever name she had as a changeling. Free of the queen’s influence, she wishes to start fresh. The First starts visiting regularly and her assassin training begins. The First also suggests the name Elizabeth, a human name, which she takes.

1 DW-11th of August- the Chrystal Empire's council send out a bounty for Sombra for ten thousand bits, dead or alive and contact the UCI over the matter. The UCI reply by sending a few hundred soldiers to support the local guards. While this isn't much compared to the amount of ponies fighting in the war, it is twice as much guard the city had originally and the council is quite pleased.

1 DW-13th of August- The First starts teaching Elizabeth about UCI and general philosophy.  However, to his surprise, she has interesting counter arguments to his philosophy of order. This amuses him and he spends more time with her.

1 DW- 14th of August- While many small battles and skirmishes happen between the three major factions, conflict breaks out in the Chrystal Empire. One of the mines come under attack by the rebels and is ransacked. Shortly after rebel stir up trouble in the streets of the city and a riot erupts. Now they hold a mine, Sombra starts experimenting with crystals, knowing about their strange magic power and wanted to harness it so he could return to the Republic powerful enough to destroy Luna.

1 DW-16th of August- The city seems to be more and more up in arms over the matter, slowly getting the impression that the council want to line their pockets over protecting them. This causes the heart to dim, which terrify the council.

1 DW- 17th to 21st of August- More skirmishes break out between the guards and rebels. On the 21st day the heart goes dark and the people riot on the street demanding the council step down, which, afraid for their lives, do. Sombra declares that the empire needs a king, and he will take up the role to lead the empire into a better tomorrow. The new King Sombra continues to ship crystals to the UCI despite what he said earlier to the people, but only half as much as the previous government. Instead, he keeps the other half for his own personal experiments.

1 DW-26th of August- The First himself come to negotiate the terms of this new trade agreement but no matter what the first says, including threatening to go to the Republic about his true identity, he does not budge, even declaring at the end of their negotiations that he will now send only a quarter of the original amount. The First sends a messenger to Luna about him. Council members make their way to the Solar Empire and beg Celestia for help which, due to her new calmer and more merciful nature, organises to take the city back.

1 DW-31st of August- Luna gets the letter and prepares to march out. Luna already had men in reserve when she received the letter while Celestia had to bring men back from the front lines. As such the both left for the Chrystal Empire around the same time.

1 DW-2nd of September- Sombra gets word of the two forces heading towards the empire. desperate, he forces magic built up inside the crystals directly into his body, draining all the magical essence from them turning them black. However, along with vastly boosting his power, it also vasty alters him, changing his body, as well as his mind, into the form most well-known.

1 DW- 3rd of September- Sombra goes on a rampage through his own kingdom, enslaving everyone in the city, affecting both their bodies and their minds before hiding the crystal heart away in a secret room in the palace. He then gets the now enslaved ponies to mine crystals, which he then sucks the magic out of and boost his strength.

Dusk- 1 DW 5th of September to 2 DW of 6th of April

1 DW-5th of September- Luna and Celestia run into each other on their way to the empire. They agree to negotiations and do talk instead of fight. Despite Luna not wanting to be even in the same tent as her sister, eventually she agrees to work together to take Sombra down but that’s it.

1 DW- 7th of September- Battle for the Crystal Empire- Both factions find the city now manned by every single citizen who can hold a spear, clearly either brainwashed, directly controlled or simply forced into it. Either way, their trademark sparkle was gone and each pony was dark and grey. They also see that the cities been transformed from a gleaming residential city into a massive workhouse, bringing in ore and breaking crystals from them. This all proves to be quite challenging for the attackers as their foe is using the young, old and even children, all who fought them against their will. The only option for this to end happily was to use nets and paralyse spells, but this would make a certain victory over a much smaller, less well equipped foe into a long and dangerous slog.

Celestia and Luna argue about how to proceed, Celestia wanting to rush in and capture as many ponies as they can before Sombra causes them more pain, Luna wishes to wait and consider alternative ways to keep the ponies safe either then using nets. It gets to the point where their forces split, Luna's forces taking up position behind the city, Celestia's forces at the front. After a few hours Celestia loses her nerves and attacks the walls using stun spells and ordering her unicorns to enchant weapons with electricity, just enough to knock a pony out. The attack was successful, but a lot more ponies were injured and killed then there would have been if they had used lethal force. Once the cities defenders rush to the front gate to holt the invaders, Luna's forces attacked from the rear.  The battle was won pretty simply though it took quite some time to knock out all the attackers making the battle start in the morning and go all the way into the night. Eventually, Sombra's palace is breached and the allied Republic and Empire soldiers rush in to find the building empty.

On the battlefield, Luna spot Sombra and a large group of followers attempting to flee from the city. Sombra was not certain he had enough power to take on both princesses at once, let alone their combines forces. Luna rushed in for the attack but found the pushed stalled while Sombra made his escape. On reaction, she ordered her forces to push through by any means, letting them use lethal force. They pushed through his escorts, allowing Luna to confront the fleeing Sombra and the two fight. While they seemed evenly matched, she manages to stall him long enough for Celestia to catch up and cause him to retreat as his new form, a cloud of black smoke. Before leaving, he casted a massive spell on the city, making it, along with its citizens, vanish into thin air. Sombra latter retreated to the mountains, where he was not seen for another thousand years. When the city went, it was replaced by a wide wasteland of pitch black crystals, which would play a big role latter on.

1 DW-8th of September- Celestia finds out about Luna's use of lethal weapons and confronts her. During the argument she admits that the biggest reason she is not willing to negotiate is because the way she saw it, when she left Canterlot she left her sisterhood behind. She now considers herself a leader, and her decisions have to be what a leader would make, even if her rival was her own sister. She goes on to explain that while Celestia took it too fair, she did teach her that you have to make moral sacrifices for your people. After leaving Celestia breaks down, now realising peace is out of her reach.

1 DW-10th of September- Changelings attempt a rescue of Elizabeth, since they believe escape is impossible and now her horn is removed they can no longer send a “kill me” order to her. They rescue is stopped however when Elizabeth herself raises the alarm. The changelings are made examples off which keeps the hive away permanently and Elizabeth, now having proved her loyalty, is now free to go and do whatever she pleases.

1 DW-13th of September- UCI scouts find the Crystal empire gone, but bring back some of the black crystals. After trying to use it, it is discovered running a current through it disables magic in a small field. Its sent to the research station for project Templar right away.

1 DW-16th of September- Project Templar is finished and ready for field testing.

1 DW-19th of September- Celestia tells Swordn Shield about Sombra and who he was. Swordn goes into a depression as a result.

1 DW-22nd of September- Battle of Unicorn range- This area had seen much conflict ever since the UCI entered the war, mainly because the hilly area to the east of the range was the perfect place to sit super long range artillery like rail cannons to fire onto Canterlot, from such a range retaliation was impossible without having to scale a probably heavy defended hillside. The unicorns used this to their advantage though by using the hillside to position magical artillery units, turning these battles into a stalemate every time. In fact, the range was unnamed until it was given one by the unicorns.

The battles were never on the mountains themselves as they were some of the tallest south of the crystal empire and were too difficult to fight in, even by pegasus. On this day however, something different occurred. Using a wardrobe sized device, called a magic jammer, the unicorns suddenly found any attempts of using magic useless. Since most of the defending forces were unicorns, they soon found themselves fighting off attackers using weapons they have never even held before. Despite this, and some clever tactics and traps, managed to just barely hold them off until Sun Shine charged in with royal guards from the palace to force the UCI back into a stalemate. While the battle was a draw, this proved the effectiveness of this new weapon build using black crystals, and it would start mass productions. These weapons did have their faults though. They were expensive, few in number, only disabled magic in a certain area and had to be carried around out in the open. They were also bulky.

1 DW-25th of September- the UCI take over all mines that used to be in control of the crystal empire, continuing the stream of batteries for their empire.

1 DW 30th of September- the First decides to no longer train Elizabeth into an assassin and instead into a commander, and she becomes his left hand. She hates this because she felt she was robbed for a chance to end the war once and for all by eliminating each faction’s leaders while they slept, all because the First didn't want to see her hurt.

1 DW-3rd of October- After some confusion about where his loyalty truly lied and coming to terms with his feelings, Swordn Shield is pulled out of his depression by Sun Shine and, despite their differences, become close friends.

1 DW- 5th of October- Celestia attempts to cancel the second nightmare night but is talked down by some nobles and Sun Shine, not only because in just one year it had become massively popular, and it would give the empire a massive boost to moral.

1 DW- 7th of October- Swordn Shield returns to the battle field. He helps the royal guard achieve some minor victories and starts organising extra training to all magical infantry in melee combat to help counter act the effects of the magic jammers.

1 DW- 10th of October- Battle of Neighagra Falls- The UCI, having taken the new crystal wasteland after it was abandoned by both other forces, push through towards Manehatten. Manehatten was a massive port and a centre of trade for the Republic, let alone the massive population it could count towards recruitment. When scouts reported the UCI was on the move, led by the newly appointed left hand of the First Elizabeth, a force was mustered by Black Dye to halt them as Neighagra Falls, knowing full well that they would have a massive height advantage. When Elizabeth arrived with her army, Black Dye offered a chance to talk before the conflict began, and she agreed. Black Dye confronted her about the value of honour on the battlefield, how, despite being in charge of the armed forces, he was still vastly overshadowed first by Blackmare, then by Luna. He told her that, in the end, he was simply a clever soldier, with no quirks.

A completely average who took orders to the letter. Before leaving he finished his talk by asking her if he deserved to die. It’s unknown why he opened up like this to Elizabeth, but it seemed he was holding these feelings in for a while, suggesting he was suffering from war fatigue. When the battle itself started, it wasn't a mighty clash as other before it. The Republic had position itself above the falls, with the UCI at the bottom. With no way up except with pegasus or grappling hooks, both of which would be a meat grinder, pot shots from archers and unicorns were all that took place. This weren't on for the whole day until night took over and the moon rose back into the sky. When the night came round, Elizabeth herself infiltrated the Republics lines as a soldier and then, when Black Dye was with his generals, planning out the day, she disguised herself as him and ordered the commanders to advance down the waterfall with the cover of night. Of cause, this was a disaster, and the Republic took a large amount of casualties before Black Dye called back his troops. However, while still licking their wounds, they soon found themselves under attack.

While the Republic forces were in confusion over the attack, UCI pegasus had attached a grappling hooks to the side of the cliff, directly under the waterfall. Despite the massive torrent of water, and many ponies fall down into the murky depth below, they somehow managed to clime threw the water, which acted as perfect cover doing the night. After such a second wave of confusion, only minutes after the attack was called off, caused many of the republic forces to run off, and the rest was forced to retreat under Black Dye. However, while this was technically a win for the UCI, Black Dye and those who stayed with him did a fighting retreat, stalling the vastly greater numbered UCI long enough for Manehatten to be fortified and the cities defences too strong for the UCI to take without a massive effort, and the UCI were stalled. They had taken the land leading to the city, but not the city itself.

1 DW-12th of October- the siege of Manehatten- the UCI start besieging the city, but this wasn't so much a battle or an attempt to stave them out as much as it was build fortifications surrounding the city and stationing soldiers there. The people of Manehatten were worried at first, but soon calmed down as the days went on without any fighting. Republic ships full of food and water kept sailing in and trade was unaffected, mainly because the UCI Navy was on the other side of Equestria with no ways to get around. Really, the cities value was not worth the lives it would take to capture it, though it was clear that if the Republic was going to counter attack, it would be out of this city.

1 DW-15th of October-Windigos start popping up around Equestria, dropping the temperature. They feed on the feast of anger and hatred created by the war, however all factions soon find a way to deal with it themselves. Celestia directs sunlight to scare them off, while the republic uses spells and its enchanted towers to shoot them down. The UCI were in the best position, as all the smog coming out of their factories caused any Windigo to get sick and leave, so they never had to worry about them.

1 DW-18th of October- Viola confronts the First about something that had been troubling her. The First had become a lot more lenient and merciful since Elizabeth became his left hand. While this was actually a nice change of pace, it did bother her about exactly WHAT brought about this change. The First simply replies that, as the UCI was an improvement over communism, that it was his sworn duty to keep the UCI constantly updated to serve the people better. She drops the subject, but knows it’s the changeling that has shifting things around the empire.

1 DW-25th of October- To everyone’s surprise and shock, the First, figuring that, technically Elizabeth was now an orphan, and under aged by pony standards, that he was officially adopting her. Elizabeth becomes the Firsts daughter, and is given the title “Daughter of the Ideal”

1 DW- 27TH of October-Refugees from the front line settle in the ruins of Ponyville and rebuild it bit by bit using whatever they can get their hands on, slowly building a new community and resurrecting Ponyville.

1 DW-31st of October- the Empire and oddly enough the UCI celebrate Nightmare Night, while the republic celebrate New Moon Night. While Nightmare Night is vastly more popular and a far bigger success than last year, New Moon Night doesn't see that much popularity. Most of the other faction’s leaders to indulge themselves in the celebrations...All but Celestia, who spends the whole night alone in her room.

1 DW-3rd of November- battle of Manehatten- For whatever reason, the First decides to take Manehatten. The First himself chooses to take command, and he decides against full on assault. The defenders have spent all this time building defences and walls, turning the outskirts of Manehatten into a maze of walls, traps , hard points and kill zones. Instead, he chose to direct his artillery not at the city, but at a single point in this defensive line. This blasts apart most of the defences and the UCI troops rush in before the Republic defenders can fill the gap. The battle is still hard fought.

Many of the defenders retreat into defendable buildings, which either had to be demolished by artillery or taken threw a bloody assault. The citizens also form a militia and fight back too, making it even harder for the UCI to push through. However, the First lead the spearhead, and knowing the zeal that the defending militia would have, set up firing lines for these would be heroes to rush right into, cutting them down in storm of lead. A handful of tanks were also rolled in to smash right into the buildings, causing them to collapse right on top of those insides, leaving the armored shell of the tanks unharmed though some found themselves immobile until UCI troops dug them out. Manehatten was eventually taken when they defenders were pushed back to the docks, were they surrendered. The UCI ordered the cities repairs to start right away, and for the docks to quickly be repurposed to start producing war ships.

1 DW-5th of November- Battle of Dodge City- While Dodge City might have been a trade hub for the cities built in the blistering heat of the southern desserts, it was relatively under defended. This was before the Equestrian railway was built, in fact only the UCI even had access to trains. More so, Apple Loosa would not be built for hundreds of years, and with no major cities nearby local militia were small and unorganized. The Republic aimed to use this to their advantage by Taking the city and using it as a staging ground to launch assaults into the Empire. The attack, led by Luna herself this time as she was taking a more active role in leader the army since the fall of the Crystal Empire, did run into a serious problem before the battle even started. The heat was not something the Republic had delt with before and it forced many soldiers to a crawl, especially since, while the militia and royal guards against their order’s, wore light, breezy leather armor that helped in the heat, the Republic was told to keep wearing its heavy, metal plate armor instead, since it offered way better protection and in a one on one fight the heavy armor would most likely win. When the Republic got there, they were completely tired. Some of them had even collapses from heat stroke and had to be carried back.

Those who did get there however, had a fight on their hands. The whole city goes up in arms given them a number advantage that the republic did not count on, and instead of defending the city like expected, surprisingly they go on the offensive,  and soon is the republic on the defence. The battle goes back and forth for three who days of none stop fighting, the Empire taking casualties but the republic baking in the boiling heat and constant fighting, soon find soldiers simply collapsing in the middle of battle. However, thanks to Luna's leadership, they manage to take the city. Its only then they figure out that in order to march into the empire, they have to cross the desert itself, suicide for a fully armored platoon of soldiers. While they gain land, it was not the war winning manoeuvre that the Republic had hoped, and underestimation of the heat being on Luna's part, talks began behind closed doors from the council about whether or not Luna was in the right mind to lead.

1 DW- 10th of November- Luna starts to get more and more paranoid of first the council, then then anyone who was not shipped over from the Luna Republic homeland.

1 DW-15th of November- Strange reports of some kind of virus start coming in, supposedly spreading from the east. Up to this point, the UCI was in the best position then all factions, having the railway to ship supplies, advance medical and industrial technology and suffered little in the conflict. However, what was about to quickly put them on equal footing with the Empire and Republic.

1 DW- 21st of November- Outbreaks of a virus occur in individual cities. The outbreak of mysterious origin is nicknamed the “Cutie pox”. A completely odd disease, it involves said pony gaining dozens of new cutie marks and a need to act them out, resulting in ponies literally dying of exhaustion and heart attacks. The UCI are slow to act and the virus spreads rapidly.

1 DW-23rd of November- the First gets a full run down of the virus, and he orders full quarantine of these areas. Doctors with hazmat suits will enter these locations and help the populous. While this is quite popular amongst those not inflected, those who are infected feel abandoned, and despite the doctors being there to help, some are beaten by angry and scared mobs, some even having their suits ripped open so they can catch the disease.

1 DW-27th of November- the First sends a messenger confronting Luna over the outbreak which she says she knows nothing about. The virus seems to be a magical creation, as something with such pacific side effects, especially ones this bizarre could only be created with magic. While the Republic was known for experimenting with magic, it was all documented and there was no proof of any research that could have led to such a thing, though the UCI would still hold it against the Republic.

1 DW-2nd of December- Riots break out as infected ponies try to break free of the quarantine zones. They are eventually pushed back by lethal force. A handful of ponies start talking about how this virus would end them all, and move to the empire, where they start up a village in the secluded Everfree Forest.

1 DW-5th of December- After three full days of riots, the UCI finally contain the outbreak threw use of lethal force. It goes down as a dark day in the UCI history.

1 DW-15th of December- the virus dies out...Along with all those infected. While it never got around to infecting the army, it did kill a large chunk of the workforce, plus this was the first time the citizens of the UCI experienced something so horrific. It takes a hit to the UCI's moral.

1 DW-25th of December- Heartwarmings eve- Luna spends it alone in her tower, while Celestia, pushed into celebrating it with nobility to boost morale, also feels completely alone. The First actually has a wonderful holiday, spending it with the two people he considers family, Elizabeth and Viola.

1 DW- 31st of December- While celebrating new year’s day, Elizabeth confronts the First and asks, if not begs, to let her do what she was created for and assassinate the princesses. The First strictly says no, until, after much pressure he eventually gives in. He allows her whatever support she needs for an operation to eliminate either faction’s leader, but it must be a military operation, not an assassination.

2 DW-2nd of January- the Senate find out threw their agents that Luna has been spying on them and building a case with the help of local law enforcement. They pay off the investigators and start to conspire against her.

2 DW-10th of January- the Senate approach Black Dye and ask him a “Theoretical” Question. If Luna was seen as no longer fit to rule, would he be able to take over a Prime Minister. He does not answer the question and considers telling Luna about it.

2 DW-14th of January- Swordn Shield organises a secret operation to be led by Sun Shine herself, to sneak into UCI territory and use explosives to destroy a massive, blimp/artillery producing factory.

2 DW-19th of January-Sun Shine gathers her team and sets off to the UCI

2 DW- 24th of January-After a series of events that eventually lead to them succeeding in their mission, Sun Shine and her group find out that all blimps that were supposed to be stationed there have been shipped out to the front lines, all of them to the same area.

2 DW-29th of January- Sun Shine arrives back and reports her findings, though Swordn Shield, suspects an attack, he does no foresee the battle to come.

2 DW-2nd of February- Battle for Clouds Dale- At the time, Clouds Dale was actually a massive fortress as opposed to a city. It was built just before the war when the black hooves were still the empires chief threat. Many ponies were frightened of the idea that the hooves could pop up anywhere and attack, so the current leader of the Empire armed forces built the fortress out of clouds to show that If they dare show their heads, they will be annihilate by our shear righteous power!” The fortress was built for firepower and durability, while also being mobile, though its mobility was VERY limited. Plus, due to only being clouds, only pegasus could be garrisoned. When the war began, it was too far west to make a difference, and moving it over such a long distance risked it being blown off cause, perhaps into Republic territory where it could be isolated and taken at the republics leisure. Instead, when the UCI showed themselves, it was stationed behind Canterlot to act as a buffer for any attack that might go for Canterlot.

At the time, it was seen as invincible since only pegasus could attack it and the mass of crossbow men, ballista’s, scorpions and other anti-air weapons made an attack from the air suicidal. However, when the UCI attacked with a combined might of its full war blimp and griffons, they instead besieged the fortress, keeping their distance and blasting it apart with flank and artillery guns. A siege by air, let alone an artillery barrage, was something no one would think possible before the technological might of the UCI. Blasting apart towers and siege emplacements,  Elizabeth ordered them to rush the fortress, as their goal was to capture it. This was quite rash and many were loss to crossbowmen and surviving siege equipment before the fortress erupted into a massive brawl. In the end, the UCI pulled out on top and they deployed balloon platforms to place artillery guns which, due to the height and position on the fortress, could fire onto Canterlot itself. This was the only time Canterlot was directly affected by the war.

2 DW-3rd of February- The citizens of Canterlot panic when suddenly their city comes under attack without warning. The Royal guard send citizens into basements and makeshift bomb shelters to protect them while Celestia, Sun Shine and Swordn Shield talk about a way to stop the bombardment. Unwilling to take men back from the front lines for what could be a suicidal attack on their own creation, Swordn Shield uses his power to make a shield around the city, though this agitates Elizabeth who orders the blimp fleet to assault the city.

2 DW-4th of February- The fleet parks itself outside the city and pound the shield with fire, weakening it. Quickly changing their minds now that they know the capital is at risk, soldiers fighting against the UCI get called back to help defend the city. Oddly, the UCI use the opportunity to send its soldiers to push against the republic, a huge chunk going to the lines outside Manehatten.

2 DW-5th of February- Battle for Canterlot- The shield simply cannot take anymore and collapses. The blimps and griffins bomb the city before deploying troops inside its walls. The guards set up checkpoints with the goal of protecting citizens, though, knowing it was not the people the UCI was after but the crown, Swordn Shield orders them to redeploy in new locations. These new locations, while some difficult to defend, are in perfect place to separate the attackers and keep them independent from each other. While this gives the city a fighting chance, troops deploy in the palace after the roof to the throne room is blasted off with a luck artillery shell.

Celestia, Swordn Shield and Sun Shine all lead the palace’s defenders from the front line, personally joining the fight. After hours of battle, the city is saved by an air attack force spearheaded by the Wonderbolts which came from around the mountain surprising the blimps and landing on their decks before they can turn their guns to fire. Soon, they become great blossoms of fire in the sky as the fleet is slowly destroyed using magical flame explosives and fire spells used by unicorns on the ground. Canterlot was saved, though was now a bombed out ruin. Surprisingly, the UCI did not attack the cities supports connecting it to the side of the mountain. This suggests they goal was to capture the city, not destroy it. Elizabeth was captured by Sun Shine after she defeated the changeling in one on one combat.

2 DW-10th of February- the First finds out not only is the attack a failure, but also his daughter has been captured. Panicking, and also blaming himself a little, he sends Celestia a message. Keep her alive and safe and he will be willing to discuss a permanent peace agreement.

2 DW-15th of February- Celestia receives the message to her joy and quickly agrees to it, and they choose to meet in Ponyville. Sun Shine and Swordn Shield don’t like the idea of making friends with the same people who just tried to kill them, but they know if the UCI and the Solar Empire make peace, maybe they could unit and overpower the Republic.

2 DW-18th of February- the Royal Guard go to the dungeon to collect Elizabeth…Only to find her cell empty. There is no sign of any escape attempt, and the cell suffered no signs of internal or external changes to the cell. It’s like she literally disappeared. She was never seen again. They tell Celestia, who panics.

2 DW-20th of February-The First arrives in Ponyville with Celestia running late. His “bodyguards”, numbering in the hundreds, camp outside the village though some intermingle with the locals. After all, this is where they reunite as brothers! However these are mostly new recruits, as most of the soldiers taken are hand selected for their almost robotic like loyalty to the Ideal and its leader.

2 DW-22nd of February- Second burning of Ponyville- Celestia arrives with only a dozen guards. The two leaders sit down and discuss the terms, which are quite simple.  The war between them will end and they will organise a military alliance in return for the release of all Elizabeth and that Luna will be taken in alive if possible. Both leaders sign and the First ask for his daughter to be released immediately. Celestia doges the question. He asks again and she explains she’s still in Canterlot.

The First asks to see her but Celestia refuses. The First demands to see her but Celestia refuses again, but tries to calm him down. He losses it, and believes that she’s dead and that the Empire is covering it up to get the treaty.  He, in a fit of dark rage, orders the village burnt to the ground and Celestia’s head on a pike. With cold, unflinching efficiency, they begin using fire spells, Molotov cocktail and very basic flame throwers to set fire to the town.  Celestia barely manages to escape with a handful of her guards as she watches the town and the people themselves set on fire. Once the town becomes a smouldering wreck, the First leaves with his guards.

2 DW-23rd of February-Celestia comes back and is shocked to see the damages, also helping any pony she can find. Most of the residents are now brunt corpses or suffering from serious, permanent burns.

2 DW- 27th of February- the First arrives back at Stalliongrad and isolates himself in the palace, ordering everyone, including Viola, to leave.

2 DW-2nd of March- the First finally lets others see him. He proceeds to rebuild the UCI from the ground up.  Free speech is no longer allowed, those of high military standing are given more rights and privileges, and the laws are re-written. Overall, while some argued the Empire’s laws benefited the rich, the UCI laws now benefited the strong. This was loathed by many ponies, some even rioting before being put down with live fire, but other races, such as the zebra, Griffins and diamonds dogs are much more pleased with the changes, probably because of their warrior cultures.

2 DW-21st of March- After much planning, Viola and the First come up with a plan to finally defeat the Republic once and for all. Almost all UCI troops are pulled out and sent to Manehatten. They know the Empire will use this chance to invade the UCI, but have a trick up their sleeve.

2 DW-17th of March- Celestia, finding out about that most of the UCI forces have left the frontlines, decides to take a gamble. She herself does a similar thing to the first, drawing back most of her forces from offensive and defensive operations to form an attack for to assault the UCI taking Sun Shine with her, leaving behind a small forces lead by Swordn Shield, whose goal is to hold off any attacks until she returns from taking Stalliongrad.

2 DW-20th of March- the First arrives in Manehatten and inspects his newly constructed fleet. While smaller than the western fleet, the fact it was built so fast is a miracle, using magic and almost none-stop work.  Once he is satisfied, he orders his forces onto the ships and orders them to head out to sea, taking their equipment and supplies with them. The fleet heads out, and Luna is given news of this. She also hears news of Celestia heading into the UCI. She has a choice, send her forces to intercept the fleet, most likely planning to take Baltimare by sea and cutting off the republic from its home islands, or push into the Solar Empire and take the seemingly defenceless Canterlot. In the end, she choice the latter. Despite her plans to take the city back by attacking from land and sea, the Senate feel like she is abandoning them to the UCI, and decide to act.

2 DW- 24th of March- Battle of red ridge-Celestia runs into a problem. In order to reach Stalliongrad she needs to run her army between two ridges. However, Viola, being left behind to defend the UCI with as few soldiers that where left, managed to form a massive artillery battery on the left side, defended by anti-aircraft guns. This means that while there is only a couple thousand soldiers, each and every one are vastly well equipped, and in the perfect position to set up a kill zone. In a rash choice, Celestia decides to send the pegasus, led by Sun Shine, to attack the UCI to hold them up while the rest of the army dashes threw, once they are clear the pegasus would retreat and return to the Empire.

However, they both underestimate the UCI presence and the pegasus find themselves on the defence and surrounded with the army including Celestia herself only half way through.  Knowing that they would be caught in the pass and destroyed, Sun Shine chooses to stand her ground, and her and her forces are eventually destroyed,  giving their lives so Celestia and her forces get threw and rush towards Stalliongrad, too fast for Viola to catch up if her and her forces left. Instead, she orders them to head for the operation Dawn and Dusk research facility, as the First told her to in case the capital fell.

2 DW- 26th of March-Swordn Shield comes up with an unconventional way to hold the Republic back. Instead of setting up a static, defendable position, he sets up a long line of “Mock fortresses”, hard points that are built to look like they contained hundreds or thousands of soldiers when they only really contained a couple dozen at most. This was to scare the Republic away and it almost works, Luna and her commanders believing that the Empire forces must have been pushed back and returned. However, on a rather rash and surprising choice, Luna orders them to push through anyway. Although there were almost no soldiers standing in their way, the fact remains Luna almost lead her soldiers into a meat grinder in her quest to win the war.

2 DW- 28th of March- Battle of Eternity’s Crossing-unfortunately, Luna was wrong when she thought the UCI was heading for Baltimare. In truth, he paid off a merchant and found the location of the Luna Republics home islands. His plan was to destroy the people there and cut Luna off, and knowing threw spies about the friction between the Senate and their Prime Minister, that they would turn on each other and whoever won, they would simply be too weak to fight on and all it would take is a small push to wipe them out. No longer fighting on two fronts, he will concentrate most of his forces on the Empire before they are able to withdraw their forces from the eastern front, and overpower them, ending the war.

However, they were spotted by a Republic fishing ship, and the Islands navy went out to meet them. The island itself was always troubled by pirates, and as they grew in size they became more and more dependent on outside resources. In a bid to make jobs and with a goal to eliminate the threat of piracy once and for all, they built a massive navy with the best designs and engineering bits could buy, making them the best built and armed ships next to the UCI’s ironclad warships. Even though the Republic ships used primitive cannons and scorpions as opposed to the UCI armor piecing turrets, the UCI navy was still outnumbered five to one. The UCI took a massive chunk out of their numbers by bombarding them from a distance, using their weapons range to their advantage, before they were forced into a bloody melee. Though the republic cannons and spears bounced off harmlessly against the UCI ships armor, they did quite some damage to the deck of the ships, destroying weapons, denting turrets out of shape and killing crew.

They also got close enough to board, drowning the UCI sailors and marines with corpses. However the UCI was winning the battle until the Republic showed off their flagship. A massive vessel, the size of two battleships side by side and stacked on top.  The shear size of the vessel meant a group of mages had to constantly casts spells on it to keep it afloat, and to the UCI horror the massive size was used to put in hundreds of cannons, a thick layer of copper armor and metre long thick wooden walls under that. It ripped through a couple of UCI ships until, in what some would call a lapse in sanity, the First rammed his flagship into the side of the ship. Despite this, the ships still sailed on with the ship in its side, until the First fired the ships turrets directly into the armoury, exposed thanks to the ship’s ram.

The explosion consumed both flagships, destroying them both. Without their secret weapon the Republic either ran or surrendered. The UCI, after the battle, find the First out cold on a piece of wreckage. Upon waking up, he is declared the embodiment of order, as no simple mortal could possibly survive something like that, plus this explains how he hasn’t seemed to age a day since all this began. He has nothing to say on the matter, but he is now put in the same regard as Luna, Celestia and Discord as an immortal embodiment of an eternal element of the world. His name is changed from the First to Order, but since it’s almost the end of the war, and this timeline, for ease we will continue to call him the First.

2 DW- 30th of March- the Second Battle of Stalliongrad- Calling this a battle is more of  mockery then anything, but since there were defenders…Or in this case, a defender, it still counts as a battle. The Empire forces found a single guard in the middle of the gates for the city, and fought back when cornered. Celestia would let him go praising his bravery, before marching into the city. They find, oddly, a quarter of the population is missing, along with all the exotic species leaving. Apparently, when they found out the Empire was on their way, the First had left them an order…If the foe reached the city, soldiers were to go home and let them take it. If this was part of some complex plan or if he just didn’t want to see his people hurt on a useless venture is unknown.

2 DW-2nd of April- Luna is about to march on Canterlot when he finds out the Senate has declared her a renegade and have put Black Dye up as emergency president. Luna, in a blinding rage, knows that while she could take Canterlot with her forces, it would give her former allies time to form a much larger army and catch her. She if forced to retreat to the home islands and come back with the full might of the true Luna Republic and completely destroy Baltimare this time as opposed to save it. To speed this up she takes only the pegasus and fly there, leaving the unicorns and earth ponies behind, who eventually defect to either the Empire or this new Baltimare republic.

2 DW-5th of April- the Burning of Gallopfrey- The home islands of the Luna Republic were not well defended in the slightest, as they were never directly threatened. In fact the city was built more as an art piece then anything, comprising of thin spires that rose into the night sky, made of enchanted blackrock that sparkled like a sea of stars in the moonlight. The city was covered in libraries, theatres, and schools, the roads being made or marble formed into artistic pictures. Its citizens worshipped their leader Luna like a god, after all, she was literally the adopted mother of the Islands people, and made a true paradise for her children of the night. They did not stand a chance. The First lead the attack, bombarding the island with naval fire before launching a swarm of landing craft. There were defenders but they were vastly outnumbered. The whole city was set ablaze as women and children fled to the boats to sail to its neighbouring, unexplored island. They said by the time Luna arrived, the city of the night was burning as bright as the surface of the sun.

2 DW-6th of April- Luna arrives at Gallopfrey and sees her city burning. She rushes into the streets and sees her people…Her children, butchered in the street as they cry for her help. All the pain.  All the anger. All the hatred that had been building up in her since she arrived back in Equestria consumes her…And she becomes Nightmare Moon. Her and her forces, who take her change as some kind of spell, shove the UCI aside like they were children, Nightmare’s power crushing the UCIs technology.  She eventually confronts the First and they fight, battling across the city but the First is just too overpowered and, after failing to blow threw her magical shield and kill her with a direct blast from a beached battleships turret, he is defeated, barley managing to escape by crawling away when Nightmare declares the “Tyranny of the sun over!”

Dawn- 2 DW 9th of April to 1002 AW 14th of October

2 DW-9th of April- Celestia arrives back at Canterlot and raises a statue to Sun Shine in the royal garden in honour of her bravery and courage, along with her sacrifice to see victory and an end to the war. She attempts to raise the sun as always…She fails. Up to this point, both sisters have risen and lowered the moon like normal, as this affected the whole world, not just Equestria. Neither of them could ever even consider keeping their respected celestial object up in the sky as it could mean a natural disaster of unimaginable destruction…And yet there it was, as dawn came and went, the moon stayed high in the sky.

2 DW-10th of April- All of Equestria panics, as the moon stays up and night doesn’t end. Black Dye, the new president who was thrusted into power, choosing his loyalty to the Republic over that of his queen, declares the war over to the horror and shock of the senate. They try to overrule him, but he has too much support from the citizens, who are tired of corrupt officials, war, and are all scared about the unending night.

2 DW-15th of April- Celestia arrives in Baltimare and agrees to peace with Black Dye. The senate, to their anger, is disbanded and Baltimare reabsorbed back into the Empire. This is made possible also by the fact that those who hated the Empire, and supported Luna and her ideal of a republic over an empire were with her when she was betrayed. Black Dye is given the nobility of Baltimare, but unfortunately, the senate will catch up with him a decade after the war, and would siege his mansion, eventually ending in him getting killed, though his son would get revenge for the action.

2 DW-20th of April- The battle of the Dawn- The world itself starts dying. Plants wilt, animals start to die due to sleep confusion, and the ponies themselves are running low on food. Celestia and her forces, comprising of both the entire Solar Empire forces and what was left of the Luna Republic in Equestria sail for Gallopfrey. Upon sailing into the cities docks, they find to their horror not only the city a wreck, but manned by ghostly, shadow like ponies, seemingly powered by corpses of the dead.

The battle itself was a meat grinder. No matter how frightening these foes were, the death of the world was more frightening and they pushed forward despite massive losses, and those in defensive positions found themselves assaulted by what seemed like never ending shadow monsters. Celestia barely manages to reach her sister. They have a VERY heated conversation. Nightmare Moon explains that it was Celestia that made her, that this whole war and the deaths involved were all her fault. Celestia stands up for herself, understanding for the first time, that while the war was her fault, she is more than willing to change and will change,  but her sister and the First were so swept up in a need to defeat her, that they became tyrants themselves, blind to all things around them. She and nightmare fight but after a long battle, Celestia finds herself is outmatched and beaten. Nightmare ends up gloating about how pathetic Celestia is, about how weak she was, and how pathetic she has gotten. This hits a nerve with her.

She had done what they all asked, what they all wanted…She changed. She wasn’t a monster anymore and what did this get her? No one wanted peace…They all wanted power! Her power! At least as a “monster” She accomplished something! She DID something! As this she really was weak. Similar to what happened to Luna, Celestia is consumed by anger, frustration and pure hate, and turns into Solar Flare. Without a single word the battle starts again, no longer one of skill or strategy but one of pure physical and magical power, each consumed by their hatred of one another, fighting like two wild animals then any sentinel creature. This battle is on such a massive scale that the Empire forces flee the city, as it is ripped and blown apart but the two ponies. In the end, just barely, after a fight that set the whole island on fire and turned the city built on it to rubble, Solar Flare manages to win.

This is when the one true moment happened, one simple act that would shape Equestria forever. Solar flare, standing on top of her bleeding, broken sister, looks down at her hate burning in her eyes. Only by killing her can this threat finally end. Only then with this new form can she go after Sombra and Discord, ending their threat for good. She could end them all and only then can there be peace. Only threw a few acts of evil can good exist…And in this moment, consumed by her hatred of her sister…She lets it all go. She backs away from her and letting go of her anger, turns back into Celestia, now with, for an unknown reason, rainbow hair compared to her pink one. Celestia banishes her sister to the moon and leaves, raising the sun as she went. This marks the end of the Eclipse war, although its effects would cause massive change to Equestria for years to come.

0 AW-28th of April- Celestia returns to Canterlot and despite massive celebration to mark her return, she spends it alone in thought.

0 AW-29th of April- Celestia announces some final changes to her kingdom…and it is the largest most extreme. First, the Empire will be no more. While she will remain leader, her powers will be dramatically reduced, making this new government more a commonwealth. Nobility will have their power MASSIVELY reduced, will no longer really on government funds, having to make a living off their lands and businesses, and anyone can now become a noble threw mass wealth and direct influence. Finally, all evidence, including recordings, books, technological advancements and memorials destroyed. This almost splits what empire survived the war, but after what could have been the end of the world, those who would have taken up arms for the nobility before just don’t care. The nobility would continue to try and get support for a takeover but time again they are unable to act due to indifference, current political situations or the inability to unit under a single leader.

0 AW-1st of May- Nightmare Moon is found and taken care off by a moon creature by the name of Larry. However, once healed, he is corrupted and changed into a creature more fitting for the queen of the night. They go about corrupting and changing all the moon creatures.

0 AW- 3rd of May- Royal Guards starts a campaign to collect all evidence of the war for destruction. However, a handful of nobles and Swordn Shield convinces Celestia that certain technologies should be kept, mainly those that benefit the pony’s music, art and economy, including trains, human instruments and blimps. Memorials are also spared, but their plates removed. Sun Shines memorial would soon be renamed the Statue of Victory.

0 AW-22nd of May- the First arrives, finally, manages to sneak his way to the secret base containing project Dusk and Dawn, completed just before the fall of Stalliongrad. Dawn and Dusk, two nuclear missiles, aimed and Canterlot and Baltimare, are ready to launch but after spending some time with the controls, he reluctantly steps away and shuts down the program. The bunker itself is abandoned, still operational, and exists today ready to fire.

0 AW- 30th of May- the First speaks with Viola. Still loyal to him, he tells her they both need to do something. Using a few loyal unicorns, they perform a blood binding ritual. He tells her that he will return, and her blood will be his herald. He leaves for the Crystal mountains…And is never seen again. Viola settles for a merchant and they have four children. She dies of natural causes.

0 AW-31st of October- Celestia tries to ban nightmare night but the backlash is massive. She reluctantly lets it go ahead, hoping it would soon fade away. It does not, though after a few years even she starts to enjoy the holiday, though it still acts as a harsh reminder of her past.

3 AW-9th of November- Finally, all evidence is collected and burned. Old fortresses are left to decay and soon become ruins, filled with monsters and abandoned treasures collected from looted battlefields and towns.

5 AW-3rd of February- Swordn Shield finally retires, haunted by the war he actually travels around Equestria as a hermit before finally settling down with a female soldier who fought on the side of the Republic and they have two children. He died of old age.

6 Aw- 10th of July- The survivors of the Republic home island of Gallopfrey give up trying to rebuild the city and instead follow a more tribal social system. They also form a kind of cult, named “The Children of the Night” after what the citizens of the home island used to call themselves sparingly, like how nobility were “blueblood”. The cult worships Luna as a mythical being, and slowly they begin to believe that the “night ponies” as they called themselves were literal decedents of Luna. In time, pilgrims would take an oath of darkness, in which during the day they would sleep in caves only coming out at night. In time, either with magic or evolution, these ponies became the bat ponies. The cult was very aggressive towards outsiders though the culture itself was not aggressive. The “Children of the Night” was not questioned and so different factions rarely fought, thinking themselves all family in a way, all decedent from Luna. The cult and tribal social system would not change, although new tribes would pop up as the population grows.

Still, when Luna returned a thousand years later, there were just under four hundred night ponies settled in the island system. When she returned, they worshiped her as a god, mainly because they thought she literally WAS a god. Despite this, Luna convinced them to open up to the world and now scientists, pilgrims and adventurers come to the island to taste their unique culture and beliefs. The bat ponies became Luna’s personal guard, and the islands became part of Equestria. However, these islands are not as safe as people think. Pirates tend to try and exploit or simple take supplies and relics from the night ponies, but even before becoming part of Equestria they found surprising resistance from the locals, a lot of them being chased off. The real danger comes from a rival religion and tribal group formed from the remains of the UCI, soldiers who escaped the retribution of Nightmare Moon. They started to form a warlike society inside the ruins built by the original Luna Republic and worshiped a god which is most likely a twisted version of The First.

Order, as he is known, is worshipped as the god of war and conquest. Supposedly, both religions believed the two gods had a massive war, the good forces of darkness lead by Luna, and the evil forces of light led by Order. In the end, Order was banished from the immortal world and now walks amongst the mortal one, and that sometime he would find a way back to the immortal one and begin the war anew. The Children of the Night believe in the mortal world he has no power, the “Followers of Order” as they call themselves believe he does, and watch over them. The biggest difference between the two cultures is how the Children of the night embrace their tribal culture while the Followers of Order try to mimic the past, using incredibly primitive fire arms, their chieftains and war leaders using ancient swords and rifles and their worriers wearing tattered remains of the soldiers uniforms, and as they slowly decayed, mock uniforms. The real issue with them is they tend to attack anyone who crosses them, outsiders and Children of the Night alike, even raiding and attacking villages.

The good thing is they are relatively small in number compared to the Children thanks to a war like culture killing their males off early and the fact that they worship an evil god makes conversion very difficult. However, both pirates and the Children have tried eradicating them, but living in ruins that used to be forts, along with the use of tree canons resalt in them being very, very difficult to destroy once they return to their villages. To this day they are still on the offensive, though now adventurers hoping to help some pour villagers and loot some ancient relics while they’re at it are causing them some serious trouble.

12 AW- 14th of August- After over a decade of running, hiding and fighting, the last of the moon creatures are corrupted and changed. Nightmare Moon now controls the moon, but can’t leave.

20 AW- 27th of September- Celestia, now that many of the aggressive, conservative nobles have stepped down and replace by new ones which Celestia spent a good time with, officially declare the Solar Empire over and the Solar Commonwealth born, even though technically it’s not a Commonwealth. While she declared the Empire over just after the war, it was more symbolic since making it official would have led to too much resistance. Since she no longer has unlimited power like a Queen, and can be removed from power now if the people of Equestria demand it, her title is renamed princess.

Teachers are no longer aloud to talk about the war and in time, fact became legend, legend became myth, and myth was eventually forgotten. Celestia also starts very slowly introducing laws and cultural changes, all too slowly change the ponies way of thinking. In time, the economy would boom to a level where most ponies work part time, murder and crime hits to almost zero, the racial difference between unicorns, pegasus and earth ponies is destroyed…In a nut shell, she goes about creating paradise, and by biding her time and making the right changes at the right time, she succeeds.

39th AW-16th of December- After much consideration Celestia decides to hide the Elements, since she herself can no longer use them and she has no idea how they could be used if they fall into the wrong hands. She is also certain that now she is no longer connected to them, discord should be able to free himself from his prison, but for some reason hasn’t. There could be a number of reasons for this…With no one using the elements there would be no challenge, he was waiting till after Nightmare was turned back into Luna, he was afraid of the First (after all, what better force to fight chaos incarnate then the incarnation of order?) but it may never be known why he choice to break out almost a thousand years latter.

567 AW- 7th of January- A explorer finds a night pony village razed to the ground by Followers of Order. With no one there to stop him, he collects a number of relics, including an old sacred text, and returns them to the Canterlot library. This text would later be the book Twilight reads to learn about the return of nightmare moon.

927 AW-23rd of Janurary- Migrants come to Celestia asking for help, amougst them the Apple family. She suggests a plot of land outside the Everfree forests and suggests a name, Ponyville, which they take. The new Ponyville is built over the first and second Ponyville. While this Ponyville still stands, it seem like something is trying to destroy it every week, and one could say the lands cursed thanks to the horrors that happened there, and considering its right next to an enchanted forest that might actually be true.

982 AW-17th of November- Lyra Heartstrings, decedent of Viola, is born. At this point in time, humans are seen as make believe like a fair mortgage.  Despite this, Lyra has always believed humans to exist. Even when Twilight discovered a human alternate universe, she insists to people that these humans are “the wrong ones.” There are two theories why she might be this way. First, it’s the side effects from the blood binding ritual, which is weakening resulting in its effects skipping generations. The other is she might be the one to herald the Firsts return.

986 AW- 4th of June- Celestia has created paradise but finds an issue that’s been bugging her. All around she sees innocents and perfection…Yet she herself is wounded. This, along with so many centuries of leadership, convinces her to finally time to find someone to take over her position as ruler, someone she will raise as the perfect ruler, not making the same mistakes she has. However her first attempt with the filly Sunset Shimmer is a complete disaster. She finds that her motherly affection cannot overcome being raised in a position of power. She learns that power corrupts those who aren’t ready for it.

988 AW-14th of November- Celestia, after a magical disaster, comes across the filly Twilight Sparkles. Originally, she was only to train her in magic, acknowledging her gift and hoping to make her a wise mage. However, when she gets to know her, she almost frighteningly reminds her of Luna when they were young. Taking this as a sign, she chooses Twilight as her next attempt of making the perfect leader, this time keeping her training much more downplayed then with her last student.

1000 AW- 1st of May- Somehow, Nightmare Moon finds a portal to Equestria, weak, and only able to transport one person before collapsing. This was likely the work of the Children of the Night, though this has never been proven. There’s also a theory that it was Celestia herself who did this but once again, there is no proof. Twilight is sent to Ponyville were her and five strangers find the elements and use them to turn Nightmare Moon into Luna. While her darkness was destroyed, she wanted nothing more than for Celestia to die and to make sure this happened, kept some of her dark essence on the moon in case something happened. When Luna was freed of her anger and hatred, her dark essence remained. This essence become an individual, but due to her only being a small part of her power, it must bide its time till its power grows.

1001 AW- 3rd of May- Discord awakens and is defeated.

1002 AW-29th of February- Sombra returns and is seemingly destroyed.

1002 AW- 6th of August- Discord is freed and convinced to at the very least, live a let and let live relationship with the Solar Commonwealth and Celestia.

1002 AW-14th of October- The essence of Nightmare Moon returns from the moon (It is unsure if a rouge element of the Children of the Night brought her back, if her moon creature followers form some kind of portal or she herself just has enough power to reach Equestria and back.) She corrupts and takes one of Twilights friends, Rarity, and she becomes her new host. This “Nightmare Rarity” leads a new army of moon creatures to Equestria, but in a very short battle in Ponyville she is destroyed and Twilight’s friend freed. The moon creatures are uncorrupted and return to the moon.

Rebellion - 647 BW to 0 DW 30th of August

647 BW- Lunar and Celestia defeat Discord. His constant medalling in the environment has caused Equestia to experience an environmental disaster, ending a constant day and night cycle, as well as stopping the season. Lunar and Celestia start to us magic to raise the sun and moon manually. Since they are now the most important ponies on the planet, they are voted in as the new rulers.

645 BW- Celestia and Luna take the crown as equal rulers however due to the classification reasons neither are technically queens at this time, so they are called princesses.

602 BW- Lunar starts to feel unappreciated. She asks Celestia for a day to celebrate the moon. She is given a day called “New moon day”. The celebration consistent of ponies watching the stars at night, while entertainment is also provided.

347 BW- Three hundred year anniversary anniversary of Discord’s defeat. The sisters arrive in Cloudsdale to receive gifts from the children there. One particular filly would impact the cause of history greatly. Snow Drop presents the first snowflake, an object the princesses liked so much the changed the weather teams schedule in order for them to make more each winter with Snow Drop assistance.

346 BW- Winter comes around again and Luna is given the job of overseeing Snow Drops creations. As the years slowly go by, she is forced to spend more and more time with Snow Drop. Soon eventually, she befriends the filly and as she grows older, they grow closer.

340 BW- Now old enough, Luna invites Snow Drop to become her representative in court and moves her to Canterlot, allowing them to see each other every day. Celestia also befriends Snow Drop as the years go by and all three end up being very close.

243 BW- Snow Drop finally dies of old age, her final wish being that once a year, one of her specially made snowflakes to be dropped along with all the others. Luna s devastated and becomes distant, but Snow Drop had taught her over the years about friendship and doing what is right even if it meant hurting yourself in the process. She recovers in time and is eventually unaffected by her death. Celestia on the other hand took her death hard. Being one of the few friends she had ever had, she comes to the conclusion after many weeks of thinking that it is her duty to rule equestrian and if that meant outliving everyone she held dear she would simply distant herself from them. She became much colder and unwilling to socialize unless it benifited the Empire. Some could argue this started her road to becoming a tyrant.

235 BW- the Changelings attempt a cue after their 41st queen was killed by zealots. They are pushed back, but cause enormous damage and put Equestia’s protection into question. Celestia declares marshal law and bids to unite all ponies to prevent this from ever happening again. This new government, strictly under her control is called the Solar Empire. The Changelings would eventually grow a deep hatred for ponies after this event. Lunar expresses her dislike for this “empire” but is ignored. Celestia believes it’s the right thing for her people. Now Celestia is in control, she takes the mantle of queen, although still sharing her power with Luna, Luna does not have complete control like her sister.

220 BW- Lunar comes up with the idea of a republic and shows Celestia in court, but is shot down. A rebel group starts up called the black hoof. At this point it consists of twelve members compared to the Solar Empire’s army of two hundred thousand. They believe in a free Equestia by any means, and are led by their founder, Blackmare. Not much is known about his past or his family, but this is what Solar Empire spy’s found out. Blackmare, or Lumber Jack as he was known at the time, was born in a lower class earth pony family who all worked in lumber. When Celestia came to power over the region which they lived, special government licences were commissioned, and had to be signed by the queen herself.

His family did not qualify in the queens eyes, due to their “lack of quality” despite his family making a living on selling inferior but cheap lumber. His family did find work in other industries, but Lumber Jack found it frustrating that the so called queen can do stuff like this while still being portrayed as a god. When his family split ways, he spent time unemployed, and lived on the streets for some time, working odd jobs for criminals. Not much is known about this time, or what convinced him to change his name, dye his coat grey, his mane black, forcefully remove his cutie mark and tattooing a new one (a black hoof mark). It is known that he cut ties with his family, who were believed to think poorly of his beliefs, and soon reappeared as leader of the Black Hoof rebel group.

203 BW- Over the years the Black Hoofs have become a problem. Their members are now in the hundreds and know have access to weapons and armour. Blackmare’s plan is not to defeat the empire, but to bring people aware of their ideal of free Equestria, hoping for the people to overthrow their dictator. In the meantime, they fight a Guerrilla war, using hit and run and destroy supplies. They have little impact asset wise, but are merciless and don’t think twice before killing. This, ironically, stop public support, who see them as bloodthirsty monsters. Lunar asks Celestia to call a compromise. She refuses.

147 BW- The Black Hoof now number in the thousands, but hit a wall. Despite, their growing recruitment rate, public opinion is at an all-time low. More so, despite their numbers the Solar Army is always a step ahead, attack secret outposts and headquarters in all major cities. The Empire is at a loss to how they could take such a betting (both militarily and publicly) while still having increasing numbers. Blackmare starts dying of old age but is contacted by the changelings who make a deal with him. They would show him the trick to immortality if he promises to give the changelings large quarters of land when the queen is removed from power. He agrees. It is not known how it was accomplished, but rumours claim that it involved changeling blood, which allowed his cells to self-regenerate, stopping age and healing wounds, but not making him invincible. Despite the changelings keeping their side of the bargain, he plans to assault the changelings when he gets into power. Little to his knowledge however, a changeling had entered his ranks to spy on him.

107 BW- It is now clear that the rumour that Blackmare was now immortal are true. Celestia orders his bounty raised from 50,000 bits to 500,000 bits. His threat is now taken seriously.

87 BW-Skirmish at the Red Wood- The first, and one of the few, full on battles between the Black Hoof and the Solar Empire. Red Wood was a forest to the south of Canterlot , known for its unique environment of hot whether populated by unique water saving trees who bark was red, hence the name.

It was the first forest that Blackmare's family started to harvest, and had big sentimental value to him personally. When he found out that a descendent his brother had sold the rights to the forest to the Solar Empire for access to resources there, Blackmare ordered a full assault to take it back for his family. Comprising of a force of three thousand, led by Blackmare himself, sneaked as close as they could through the forest before attacking the government payed foresters from the tree line. The surprise attack gave security no change to even slow them down and the forest was taken quickly. Blackmare thought that the Solar Empire would not bother with a counter attack due to its low strategic value; however the local commander took it as an insult and sends the 107th royal guard to take the Red Wood back.

Taking by surprise in turn, Blackmare, for the first time in the organisations history orders his men to stay their ground. However, outnumbered three to one, they are swarmed and forced to retreat. Blackmare stayed the longest of any officer, but escaped when victory became impossible. Lunar personally brings the news to Celestia, as well as the casualties of 1,500 Black Hoof and 2,500 royal guard, security and workers. Celestia is shocked, but becomes more determined to crush the Black Hoof. Lunar suggested exploring a peaceful option, but the queen believes the Black Hoof must pay for the lives it has taken.

47 BW- The fortieth year anniversary of the skirmish at the Red Wood, Celestia opens a memorial to the royal guard who gave their lives. Lunar asks that the Black Hoof who also gave their lives be remembered as well. Celestia is insulted and questions Luna’s loyalty. She expresses that she has no loyalty, since they are both sisters and equals. Celestia keeps an eye on her. She didn’t want her sister to get any ideas on doing something she might regret. Over the last forty years the royal guard have tried their hardest to stomp out the Black Hoof, but find it far more difficult than expected. They did, however, slowed recruitment to a standstill, enough to keep the group strong, but not enough to grow stronger. Sword and Shield, latter to become General of the Solar Empire during the Eclipse war, is born.

41 BW- Black Dye, Second to Blackmare during the Lunar Republic, and General of the New Luna Republic, is born.

39 BW- Sun Shine, Major and war hero of the Solar Empire is born.

30 BW- Sword and Shield joins the royal guard.

27 BW-Violin Heartstrings, General of the United Communist Ideal is born.

25 BW- Black Dye joins the Black Hoof.

23 BW- Sun Shine joins the royal guard.

18 BW- Whispers start-up of a two legged giant, who was found knocked out in a farmer’s field. Luna begins to look for alternatives then to simply follow her sisters orders, but her options are limited at the time.

17 BW- More whispers appear about the giant waking up, but upon hearing about Equestria’s history and political situation, decide to stay hidden and wait. Luna stops looking for an alternative for a time, eventually convincing herself that her sister’s kindness and reasonable thinking to win out. The Black Hoof recruitment numbers start to increase for the first time in thirty years.

14 BW- The Battle of Ponyville- Blackmare discovers that his sister’s great, great, great granddaughter has died, and that the family name has died with her. He decides to go to her funeral in honour of his past life. Taking no chances, he takes over ten thousand Black Hoof rebels, most of his organisation, which he disguises as a protest group against Celestia’s reign. The Solar Empire gets word of this and decided to set a trap. They expect him to be guarded, and so send an additional four thousand troops to the outpost within the city, making a total of five thousand guards on station. After attending the funeral, Blackmare is stopped by a group of guards who ask him to follow. Black Hoof rebels trailing their leader attack the group.

In the chaos, all Black Hoof rebels show themselves and start attacking guards. The royal guard soon mobilise and form a counterattack, but are pushed back by their numbers. Blackmare is taken out of the area, but most of his commanders refuse to retreat, cannot be reached or are too busy to direct a retreat. Out number, the royal guard set up a defensive line around the outpost, planning to hold out to reinforcements arrive. Throughout the night, Black Hoof rebels throw themselves at the defensive lines, but are pushed back. Reinforcements do arrive, but when they begin the attack the Black Hoof believe it only to be the weak defenders trying to break out. The battle goes on for another day, in which the use of combat magic causes most buildings to catch fire and burn down. By the end of the battle, over eight thousand Black Hoof, four thousand royal guard and one thousand five hundred civilians are dead or mortally injured with five hundred Black Hoof rebels taken prisoner.

More so, Ponyville has taken so much damage that trying to rebuild would be fruitless effort, so the city is destroyed to make way for a road while its surviving owners are relocated. The battle of Ponyville goes down as the most violent and horrible battle between the Black Hoof and the Solar Empire. Both Celestia and Lunar are horrified, but Celestia says it was worth it to destroy the majority of the Black Hoof. Lunar is horrified by this remark, saying that no life would be worth it. Celestia ignores this, and orders the prisoners executed. When she is told how they infiltrated the town disguised as a protest group, she removes the right to public gathering and starts propaganda campaign to reinforce her position, introducing such famous posters as “obey”.

10 BW-The Black Hoof have stopped all aggressive action until they can build their numbers back up. Blackmare takes the blame for the disaster to begin with, but he defends his case, shifting the blame to the unorganized commanders that lead the attack. Celestia and the rest of the Solar Empire believe that the lack of activity is due to the group splitting, resulting in lax security in all settlements. Lunar starts to distend herself from her sister.

5 BW- The Black Hoof are now at the strength they once were before the battle of Ponyville, but believe they should use political situation to their advantage, striking a killing blow when they number in the hundreds of thousands, even if it take hundreds of years. This does not go unnoticed, as spy’s start sending reports of the recruitments, but are ignored, believing that they are simply a small, weak fraction that had broken from their old group.

0 BW-21st of January- Blackmare finds that he cannot wait while his numbers slowly grows. He comes up with a plan. He sends a message to the queen writing that he would give himself up in the Red Wood forest if she promises to spare the remaining Black Hoofs. In reality, he is planning to bring his soldiers and assassinate the queen, believing that her sister would be easier to bargain with. Upon reading this, the queen quickly comes up with her own plan to bring an army with her and wipe out Blackmare and all his Black Hoofs. When Lunar hears of this she starts an argument between her and her sister. She believes that this could be the only chance to achieve peace, while her sister argues that that’s exactly what she will do. Lunar expresses that she believes that peace is not made with more blood. In the end, Celestia confines her sister to her room, a mocking and embarrassing gesture. Luna sends a letter warning the Black Hoof of the queen’s plans, getting them to cancel the meeting. Blackmare is convinced that Lunar could be a good ally, if she is shielded from the horrors they have committed.

0 BW-13st of May- Celestia finds out through contacts in the Black Hoof that Lunar warned them. Celestia confronts Luna, who admits to it. Instead of being mad, Celestia tries to make Luna understand that while what she does is tough, it’s the only way to secure the safety of the empire. Luna then suggests a compromise. A way to end the rebellions. She offers for herself, the Blackhoof and some willing citizens to break off and form a republic. Celestia refuses, explaining that splitting the empire, even on good terms, could lead to a war between the two as time goes on. There was dozens of reasons this could happen, resources vital to both groups, dispute over land, the splitting of family’s and many others reasons that could eventually lead to such a conflict. Luna agrees with her sister....but little did she and know her sister had finally realised what she needed to do.

0 BW- May 29- At the dead of night, after casting a sleeping spell on the population of Canterlot. Luna magically takes every orphan in Canterlot and the outlying villages. She then fly’s off with them, collecting more from Baltimare and Manehatten and disappears over the ocean. Celestia is both infuriated and afraid. She would have sent every single available guard after her, if it was for what happened the next day...

0 BW- May 30- The Battle of the Night- Although a short conflict with few casualties on both sides, it marked years of war and set the pieces for the conflict to come. Celestia was in her study when a bribed guard opened the gate for the Black Hoof. The original plan for the attack was simple, to sneak as quietly as possible into the throne room and take the princess hostage to avoid a counter attack. This plan would have probably worked, if the Black Hoof was more organised. Believing this to be a last chance to get even with the empire, the Black Hoof rebels rushed in and attacked anyone they found.

Blackmare lead an attack on the barracks, while Black Dye, his lieutenant led an attack on the throne room. While many guards are caught by surprise, the disorganisation and noise created by the attackers allowed for an organised defence. The barracks was held, barely, but the way to the throne room was swept away. When word of the attack reached Celestia, instead of running she decided to make a stand in the throne room. While the Black Hoof's outnumbered the guards, Celestia blew many of them away with her magic, and the castle was held.

0 DW-1 June- Celestia, knowing what her sister has planned, has no choice but to concentrate on the Black Hoof. If they had taken the castle, which they would have if she wasn't there, they would have overthrown the whole empire. Instead of the conflict simply finding and capturing Blackmare, it become official that the Solar Empire is in a state of civil war.

0 DW- 5 June- Over the next hundred years not much else happened event wise. Many battles and skirmishes happened, but otherwise it stayed the same, Celestia tried to destroy the Blackhoof, but they always regroup a few years later and begin another bunch of attacks. However, everything changed with the first battle of Baltimare.

0 DW- 6 June- The first battle of Baltimare – Blackhoof rebels attack royal guards in the city. While the royal guard are deeply entrenched they had no idea an attack was coming and instead of an organised attack, they literally come out of the houses and sewers in disorganised groups. Despite outnumbering the attackers, the guards panic and try to escape the city, only for them to be run down.

0 DW-7 June- Blackmare decides, after centuries of fighting, to finally make a stand. He declares the city the city state of Blackmark, a nation ruled by the Black Hoof.

0 DW- 8 to 13 of June- Blackhoof groups in other nearby cities as well as minor unrealised rebel groups take the news as a sigh that the time to act was now. They all attack their relative city. In the panic most cities fall in the same way as Baltimare but a few manage to hold their own. However they are weakened and become easy targets for the groups that were successful in their own cities. Soon, almost an entire nation is formed in only a couple of days. People didn’t think something like this could happen including the Blackhoof but it seemed like almost overnight a nation was born.

0 DW- 14 of June- Celestia finally manages to organise a proper invading army. Hoping to end the war quickly they march straight to Baltimare.

0 DW- 15 of June- Blackmare organises the defences but does not trust the new militia to hold. None the less he chooses to stay his ground in a do or die battle.

0 DW- 17 of June- the Second battle of Baltimare. Long before the war the Griffin Empire and Equestria had a mutually beneficial alliance, mainly for trade then military needs. However, when a set of key islands where found between the two nations, the two governments bickered over who would get this newly discovered trade hub. Celestia eventually forced the Griffin Empire to give up on them.  Baltimare, being the closest city, was expected to become an international trade hub because of them and the nobility decide to cash in on it. The city had a huge renovation, greatly increasing its size and docks.

They did know that if they did become such a huge trade hub they would become a target for not just pirates, but also the griffin empire if they ever invaded. As such, they also built a huge defence system. They knew they couldn’t afford huge amounts of guards at the time so instead they build massive and complicated defensive walls, that crisscrossed and which had multiple layers within the city. To an attacker, the city would be a maze of hard points and keeps.  However when they were finished they found out that the griffin empire had the last laugh, banning trade to Equestria and making the island useless except has a military post. Blackmare did not know this little history and maned only the front walls.  When the Guard attacked lead by Sun Shine, they were stalled by the Blackhoof but instead of attacking in organised waves they charged at once on the left walls, leading to them breaking through before the blackhoofs could reorganise. Royal guards flooded the city but they soon became lost and confused. Despite this, the Black Hoof should have been defeated...If it wasn’t for a timely arrival.

Luna leading a platoon of her new Night Guard come in by sea and support the Black Hoof, eventing the odds and forcing the battle into a stalemate. The battle lasted three whole days before arriving reinforcements made from other militias who formed upon hearing how the battle was going. Not risking being trapped between a rock and a hard place, the Solar Empire commander orders the retreat. Overall the battle was won by the Blackhoof due to their unique defences but also because of the arrogance of the royal guard’s leader. Two officers are promoted to fill the command role, Swordn Shield due to his cool, calculating nature, and Sun Shine known for her bravery and courage. The pair were not  good match, but in time over the years they eventually became close friends.

0 DW- 18 June- The occupants and soldiers celebrate Luna as the saviour of Baltimare, much to Blackmare’s displeasure.  What he or Luna did not expect however, was as the crowds came out to celebrate, a whisper rushed through the crowed that Luna should lead this new government. Reluctantly, with the people backing her, the nation of Blackmark becomes part of the Luna Republic. Apparently, when Luna left with the orphans, she founded a small island to the south east of Equestria. There, they built the Luna Republic from scratch. While the Solar Empire was always at war with the Black Hoof, the Luna Republic was free to grow and build, eventually constructing a city state with magical blue towers and reached into the sky.

Although Luna was content with her new life, her followers and commanders convinced her that she needed to spread this paradise to the rest of Equestria that she needed to give the people a choice on who they followed. As such, she had returned to Equestria to free it from Celestia's tyranny. Her overall plan is to capture her sister and force her to stand down. Her follows are fanatically loyal to their princesses. While Celestia's follows were simply taught at a young age to worship her, the so called children of the night consider Luna their mother, being decedents of the orphans, and almost praise her as some kind of prophet.

0 DW- 20 June- Celestia and Luna exchange messages on her new empire. After refusing to surrender and Celestia refusing to acknowledge their independence, they eventually agree of a cease fire. This is done for a number of reasons. First, both sisters have to come to terms that they are about to fight a war against each other. Second, they both need to learn about the others capabilities.

0 DW- 20 of June to 15 of July- Voting campaigns begin and run. Ponies are to vote for their president who will act as their leader on major matters as well as five representatives to will run more basic affairs. Blackmare tends to be a lot more aggressive in his campaign then others and targets Luna quite a bit. Despite the temptation and even other telling her to stoop to his level, she keeps with telling her supporters the truth of how she will rule instead of lashing out at others.

0 DW-16 July- Luna is voted in president and Blackmare Vice president. Black Dye is voted in as general and representative of the armed forces, Paper Note as representative of the earth ponies, Quick Wit as representative of the Pegasus, Glitter Dust as representative of the Unicorns and Blackmare is also voted in to represent the Blackhoof as well. Blackmare feels cheated but a deals a deal and he lets Luna lead the now newly formed Luna republic.

0 DW- 20 July- Celestia organises a meeting to gain support from the other distant states so together they could organise an army to destroy the republic threw share numbers. However, the representative of Stalliongrad brings up the fact that this whole war could have been stopped easily if Celestia gave them more leeway, and even if she couldn’t, this whole thing was believed to be caused by a spat between two sisters, not two nations. Stalliongrad eventually convinces a number of nations to the north and east to join them in an alliance of neutral nations and they abandon Celestia. The Chrystal Empire also declares neutrality, but they chose to stand on their own. Celestia makes a note to punish these states once the war is over.

0 DW- 20 of July to 25 of August- Both nations build up weapons and recruit soldiers. The Solar Empire is already ahead due to already having an established army and plenty of stockpiled weapons, while Luna has to build one from scratch from the local militia, as most of Luna’s forces were left behind, to protect it from pirates, keep order, oversee recruitment and militarization, and while they will sailed for Equestria as soon as they can, that will take time that Luna does not have, and as such relied on local forces. However, after the second battle of Baltimare they are short on experienced officers. The battle truly did serve a mortal blow to the empire and had it not been for the ceasefire. The battle itself was a disaster and officers would be analysing it for year.  The build-up, while necessary, did mean both nations were paralyzed while it was occurring.

0 DW- 27 of July- The first reveals himself- The Village of Red Creek, named due to the way the lake the village was based on looked when the sun set. In was at midday that a dozen stallions and mares where bright red clothing, led a creature threw the market. A two legged, hairless creature announced himself as the saviour of Equestria. He then begins to talk about how both the Empire and the Republic have cheated on the people. Now even though Red Creek was in neutral territory, they did have strong opinions on who would be a better leader, Luna or Celestia. They were at first, very negative at this creature’s accusation. However, as more and more people point out benefits of the two governments, they are quickly countered. The Solar Empire brings order to the nation! Yes but there’s no point in order if the government is just a big a threat then the monsters! The Luna Republic represents freedom! But they have taken land by force and even their leaders, while voted in, only got there threw vast use of bits and will have power over every aspect of live for the next four years!

The Solar Empire is the most powerful force in Equestria! It once was but now they can’t even hold Equestria together, splitting the whole nation in three! Then the Luna Republic will take over! But they are split into bickering leaders who will never think beyond the people they represent! He continues by pointing out that both governments still hold racial prejudice. Earth ponies work the fields, the unicorns work the weather and the Unicorns rule over the two. People can’t help but agree with this, though when he asks for volunteers to join his group, the crowd goes silent. However, Violin, a unicorn who had very little history beyond being the daughter to a blacksmith, joins.  They would leave together  but although the occupants of the village did not throw there lot in with the stranger, over the next couple of days he would return to give more speeches about the governments and slowly turn the people to his side.

0 DW- 7th of August- The Red Creek Revolution- The previous night, the bakers son was arrested for being a Luna Republic spy by Royal guards, despite the village being in neutral territory. There was some visual evidence that suggested he did in fact write a report of Royal Guard forces in training before going back over the border, but there was no documents found in his home. Despite this he was sent to execution. As the crowd roared in anger as it his noose was being made, the First and his guard made their move. Knowing this was the spark they needed, they snuck around the guard and when he started hanging, the first fired a single round; the first bullet shot in Equestria and sometimes called the shot that sparked a revolution, fired from a revolver. Freeing him, both the crowd and his band of misfits charged the guard.

The local law enforcement, under orders that the guards were not to be harmed to keep in good favour with the princess, attempt to calm the crowed, but eventually try to stop the crowd threw force. The first announces this is the chance to take back the land for the people, the beginning of a revolution, and threw all they had seen and heard over the last couple of weeks, they believe him.  A massive civil uprising forces to mayor to step down or risk being killed by an angry mob, the local law enforcement either beaten or down right killed, and one of the Firsts guards raises what will be known as the Ideals flag above town hall. The first speaks of how this is the beginning of a new age, and asks the people to spread the fire of revolution, and they do.

0 DW- 7th of August to 20th of August- Believers of the First’s new way of life speak out in a number of villages. In time of war, especially when it doesn’t seem to serve any purpose and affects the people directly, revolution is always taken seriously. In time, isolated sparks like that of Red Creek started village and city wide revolutions along the west coast, all in the neutral zone. As number grew, those who did not revolt on their own were swallowed up my self-commanding militia fighting for the “New red way” took these cities by force. On the 20th the First invited all leaders of these new red faction to  meeting were what is known as the Unity Pact was formed, meaning all factions would unite under the command of the First to start a new government. All they needed was a capitol, and the first had his eyes on one for a while…

0 DW- 22nd of August- The Mayor of Stalliongrad asks Celestia for assistance. Apparently, rebels were marching in force to take the city and if he did not get support from a major power, the city could fall. Celestia just sends a laughing reply. He also sends this request to Luna but although she wishes to help, by the time forces arrives by going around Solar Empire boarders, the battle would have already been over. She does offer sanctuary to anyone within the city if they make it to her boarders.  The Mayor takes this up and leaves with a number of royals and wealthy, offering his captain of the guards a three hundred percent pay increase if they manage to defeat the invaders.

0 DW- 24th of August- The first battle of Stalliongrad. While most battles involving cities of this size during the war usually involved tens of thousands fighting each other, this battle was on a much smaller scale. It involved only a couple hundred guards and conscripts formed from civilians against just over a thousand poorly equipped and trained revolutionaries. If anything it was just an oversized brawl between police and gang members. The guards did not have access to many bows and crossbows, after all they were armed to deal with criminals not invaders, and while they did thin the numbers, the revolutionaries did hack the wooden gate open with axes. Most of the battle did happen at this gate. Since the revolutionaries did not bring any siege equipment and only a few ladders, they had to force their way through the gate, which was where most of the guards were, taking a defensive phalanx.

Through multiple assaults, they managed to fight off the revolutionaries and for ever guard and conscript, they were worth three revolutionaries. Victory seemed possible if they continued to wear their assaulters down, but then the First intervened. Walking in front of the defenders, announced that any who would lay down their arms would not just be spared, but would be given a place amongst his new order. However, despite the mayor abandoning them, and that a majority was forced into service, after all they had been through, and incredibly, none take his deal. The first would then lead a final charge against the line. This time the first fired a number of rounds into the line directly in front of him before both forces clashed. Killing number of guards in the front, it opened up the formation for revolutionaries to charge threw, splitting the forces in half and destroying them. The first would build a statue in honour of their brave last stand suggesting he respected these men for what they did. When they made it into the city, the remainder defenders gave up and surrendered.

The mayors and nobles houses were looted but civil looting was kept to a minimum, mainly since they were he to “Free the people of their tyrants and kings!” After the battle, when red flags flew from most of the buildings, the First would announce the dawn of a new age. A red age. And in this age Equestria would follow the red ideal. He then declared this “United Communist ideal formed!” The name stuck and they become the UCI for short. The name became somewhat fitting as they followed many ideals from communism, such as taken the wealth from the rich and giving it to the people, but did not follow the communist way of government, allowing free speech, religion and free trade, although there would still only be one party.

0 DW- 28th of August- Both Luna Republic and Solar Empire hear of the uprising. They assume the leader to be a diamond dog due to descriptions from refugees. They do send representatives to meet with this new leader but they only get to see Violin. She gives each side the same story. This new uprising wishes to assist the respected side but with support not fighting. As a gift of good will, half of the stockpiled weapons to each side, claiming it to be the first of many shipments, though due to their weak mining system after the fall of Stalliongrad (A complete lie) they cannot send the next one anytime soon. The weapons are in fact all the guards armour and weapons including those in storage, leaving the new government defenceless…However, it would soon be revealed that such weapons would have been obsolete soon enough.

0 DW- 30th of August- All three factions begin a huge recruitment program to build up an army. Luna republic propaganda chooses to concentrate on “the people” way of thinking, portraying Celestia as a dictator and that it’s the “people will” to free Equestria of her. Solar empire concentrates on Celestia bringing a “golden age” to the nation, both when she defeated discord and in the future. Luna republic is portrayed anarchists, those who wish to destroy order and bring Equestria back into a dark age. The UCI used unity above all else in its propaganda. Red pictures of ponies of multiple races standing together in industry, economics and military. They also, especially in areas under control by the two empires, send propaganda to insight revolution, a call of arms to “TEAR IT DOWN!”

Most successful was arguably the UCI, as it not only set a new sense of nationality and pride, but also caused a number of towns in other territories to rise up in arms and revolt. How neither nation found out about the UCI is a mystery even to specialists, though they all have their theories. One is that it was bad communication between their intelligent agencies and the faction’s leaders. Other excuses include UCI spy’s keeping this information from the leaders, each faction thinking it was the work of their arch enemies instead of a new contender, the fact that each factor was far too busy worried about said arch rival to even care about another faction, that since the empire was based so far north west, away from major cities of the Solar empire and Luna republic distance ended up playing a part.

What everyone can agree on, is while the major factor has not been decided on, it was a large group of tiny factors, or perhaps all these factors combined that kept the UCI hidden and would lead up to the military disaster that was the battle of the red dawn.  Overall, the three faction’s ideology could best be described as order, freedom, and unity.