A/N: Warning, this is a bit of filler while I try and solidify the background for the Civil War. At first I wasn't going to touch the subject, but I started writing and couldn't really stop. Feel free to judge my compressed background and let me know of any discrepancies that you might find.

Ponyville, a relatively new town within the borders of Equestria, one of the few that dares to reside so near to the feared Everfree forest; a town of calm demeanor, but impressive feats. Home to the Elements of Harmony, the small village has seen much in recent days, from the return of Nightmare Moon, a rampaging Ursa Minor, to the return of the God of Chaos: Discord.

The town was founded long ago by the renowned Apple family, and is home to the famed Sweet Apple Acres, run by the Element of Honesty herself. A majority of the land surrounding the town is owned by the farm as well, housing hundreds of apple trees in massive groves, of which no other area in Equestria has since been able to match. Most would say that the calm days in which Ponyville dwelled would never end, only interrupted by the occasional mishap which most residents left to the guards, or Elements to handle. It would have most likely continued with these soft days…if not for the war.

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With the return of Princess Luna, after the Elements had purged the shadow of Nightmare Moon, the political pressures that had burdened Princess Celestia for the last thousand years seemed as if they would lessen. She had been alone to handle to the affairs of the country with a few trusted advisers who had come and gone within her reign, her eternal life ensuring that she outlived all of them, but few had she trusted more than her sister.

Princess Luna was one of the few remaining alicorns with the land; the rest withered away over time, or were taken by sickness or battle. She and her sister had ruled Equestria for nigh on one and one-half millennia, after the disappearance of the King and Queen, and before the incident of her banishment. Now, with her return, she had to take time to ‘catch up with the times’, even gaining the aid of the Elements during the celebrated ‘Nightmare Night’. But, even as she held Night Court to Celestia’s Day Court, few dared to come before her. She, after so many years, had become an object of fear to the masses, as well as the citizens being naturally diurnal (opposite of nocturnal), led to few, if any, who would come to her for aid. Besides her Night Guards, the occasional professor, and the few times she spent with the elements, she was alone.

As before, this led to conflicts between the two sisters, but none as powerful as the ones before the Nightmare. Time had mellowed out the once haughty tempers of the sisters, tragedy and hardship bringing them together after so many years.

There were no true disputes between the two sisters, but it was not the conflicts of the sisters that led to the war. No, the war was started by the citizens themselves. There were those who had been loyal to Nightmare oh so long ago, and left descendants, which grew into organizations that hid away within the recesses of the shadows. By contrast, there were those that were loyal to Celestia and worked their way to the top of Equestria’s political placement. Though Celestia had disbanded them after the banishment of Nightmare Moon, they continued on, their descendents growing in power and influence, waging a shadow war on the remaining supporters of Nightmare.

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As the river of time flowed by, and leaders were lost to its depths, the mandates that held up the two sides crumbled away, sides shifted, and reversed. The Solar Empire, as they named themselves, grew to be powerful and wealthy, leading the nation with brilliant inventors and scientists, one of the most noted in history being Starswirl the Bearded. Though as time flowed on, it eroded at even the once thought unbreakable supports of the Empire. They fell to petty squabbles and clambered over each other for power; their honor, brilliance, and chivalry being replaced by pride and greed.

On the other side of the spectrum lay the Nightmare’s Legion. A collection of individuals who followed Nightmare Moon during her brief war against Celestia who was, according to their ancient texts, a tyrant who ruled all of Equestria beneath the oppressive light, and by following the Nightmare they would be given the freedom that lies In the shadows. These fanatical leaders led with fear and force, and after the subsequent banishment of N.M. and raids conducted by the old S.E, the once fanatical leaders of the N.L. dwindled and were either killed by the Empire or assassinated by their own followers. As the Legion fell and became obscured behind rumor and shadow it was quickly forgotten by the general public, but never left the sight of the Empire.

In a desperate bid to regain their power, the few remaining leaders of the Legion left on a journey that was supposedly hinted in a conversation between Nightmare and her generals, and disappeared. With their power all but gone, the Legion fell out of the gaze of the Empire, becoming nothing more but a minor nuisance.

Leaving no one that truly believed in the fanatical ways of their past, the Legion fell to pieces and became several separate factions who became iconically known as The Mob, The Disciples of Midnight, and The Followers of Rafewray. None of these factions truly had any power on their own, and so fell into their own specialties. The Mob were experts at smuggling and organization, The Disciples were secretive and stealthy, working as protection or assassination, or anything else shady for pay, but were always true to their word. The Followers were a group that took after one of the few scribes that were within the ranks of the Legion.

Rafewray had sought to spread the propaganda of the Legion, but at the same time attempted to store away as much true knowledge as he could acquire within his possession. After the banishment of N.M. Rafewray turned to staying out of political affairs which would create bias, and focused on the cold hard facts. He was never really one of the Legion’s fanatics, just someone who was overly concerned with the preservation of knowledge and free thinking, which with the subsequent fall of the Old Empire became of an even greater importance.

The Followers continued his mission and over time obtained a sort of ‘hold’ over the other two factions. They would pay the Disciples to steal a text or make it a very ‘unhealthy’ occupation to be spouting the propaganda of the Empire, and help the Mob undermine its grip on the economy. They would pay the Disciples to obtain a certain text that the Empire was going to ‘refurbish’ and then have The Mob keep it out of sight until it could be copied and stored. Acting as the mediators between the two, the Followers soon became a sort of governing system for the former Legion. Pulling tighter reins around the Disciples, and becoming tied into the economy alongside the Mob, it wasn't long before Followers became the de facto leaders of this shady band.

Using funds obtained through the Mob’s dealings they started schools and funded settlements, creating the first true areas of Equestria that lay out of the reach of the now corrupt Empire. They became teachers and professors that slowly began to chip away at the holds of the Empire. The Disciples would covertly study under the Followers, soon becoming adept strategists and planners, aside from their other skills. The Mob members who attended became much more successful at white-collar business, leading them to gain a hand against the economic might of the Empire.

The coming of this new organization and rejoining of the factions led to several significant changes. The new cooperation between the factions provided boons to each branch. Supplies brought in by the Mob provided better equipment for the Disciples and the Followers, allowing for better training and greater caliber of the skills being taught. The Mob received added protection for their operation from the Disciples, and kept their books clean with the aid of the Followers. The Followers received protection from the many attempted ‘accidents’ of the Empire, and the supplies to continue spreading the truth allowing for the undermining of the Empire’s power over ever greater areas.

With all of the power that the newly jointed groups attained, they sought to become unified under one banner, to truly begin the resistance against the Empire…and so the New Lunar Republic was born, not in memory of the Nightmare who attempted to control all of life on the world, but of the radiance of the moonlight, the mystery in the stars, the light that they provided against the many horrors that lurked in the darkness. It was on the day of the renaming that the scales were switched. The NLR would combat the SE at every grab for power, and await the day when the Princess of the Night would return; for the Followers had discovered a way that the Nightmare may be dispelled and the bright Luna returned to the world.

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It was only a few minor arguments between the sisters, arguments that would have passed and been forgotten; but this source of even the most minor of conflict provided the spark for the two sides to begin fighting. By the time after the return of the Princess of the Night the NLR had reached a level of power that was almost equal to that of the SE. By spreading the arguments and misinformation, the SE made its move gaining a one up on the NLR. With the knowledge of the arguments spreading through the country plus the embellishment of certain parts led to widespread civil unrest allowing for the SE to launch attacks into NLR territory burning towns and causing casualties not just to the NLR, but to their own areas as well as a faux-provocation. Their targets being schools and warehouses that were thought to hold resources of the NLR were camouflaged behind the many other fires that were raging in different areas.

The NLR was caught off guard as they were knee deep in preparations to reveal themselves to Princess Luna, to make themselves presentable. Besides the few forces of Disciples that they retained, they were woefully unprepared for the attacks planned by SE Commander Blitz Wings.

By the time that the NLR had created a defensive line against the attacking forces, the damage had already been done. The burning buildings, slain citizens (on both sides), Empire-planted evidence, and sudden mobilization of forces that seemingly appeared out of nowhere (Disciples), gave away a far different story then what had actually occurred.

The sisters were stunned at this new turn of events and moved their own personal forces to begin tracking the cause of the chaos. Princess Luna went to the field of battle itself, while Celestia remained in Canterlot, where both were approached by members of the respective groups; the locations of the two creating instant tension between the sisters.

The SE spun off their carefully crafted story to Celestia and presented evidence to back it up, even pointing to Luna’s desire to travel to the field as a sign that she went to check on the handiwork or her secret organization. The SE had even gone so far to plant numerous members within the ranks of the Royal Guard and formal Equestrian military. With the NLR still reeling from the blows, the SE began to spread dissent within the ranks causing several groups to go AWOL in patriotic rage against the Night Princess.

Princess Luna, by contrast, was horrified at the destruction and was almost convinced by the evidence that a remnant of the Nightmare’s organization still remained. It took an insanely brave Disciple to infiltrate her quarters at a nearby hotel and, braving Luna’s wrath, was able to convince her to look closely at the evidence and invite her to one of the major NLR camouflaged Academies. Taking a small detachment of her guards with her, she spent the next few days stunned as she sat through an accelerated history of the NLR.

After hearing their side of the story, she promised to plead their case to her sister and be wary of the SE. but, upon returning to the hotel to collect the remainder of her guards, found a massacre. In the short span of time that she had been gone, the AWOL detachment mix of Royal Guards and Eq. military had launched a surprise attack in an effort to capture the Princess. With their failure however, the SE plants executed the captured members of Luna’s guard when they would not reveal her location.

With the discovery of several bodies from royal guard and the Eq. military intermixed with the forms of her own guards, Luna was struck by a fear and rage that she had only felt once before. She flew back to Canterlot with her remaining guards and a group of Disciples as volunteer guards.

Before she could reach Canterlot however, Celestia was already having doubts about her newly reformed sister. All that was needed to push her over the edge was a well placed faux-assassination attempt by the SE under the guise of the NLR. Of the lone assassin, of the six original, that survived the attack, and subsequently captured by the Royal Guard, the cry of “For Luna!” before committing suicide was enough to tear away what hope Celestia had left.

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Beyond the events of the sisters, there was one outcome which the SE had not planned for. The spread of the rumors and arguments did not just serve to give cover to their attacks, but create divisions within the country was planned for. They did not expect however, for Equestria to become split into two political parties, one for Luna and one for Celestia. The SE had expected for the public to now reject Luna after recent events. Instead, their lies about the NLR were quickly countered by the NLR themselves, now able to become a public entity and reveal themselves.

Though they did so in desperation, the effect was profound. Because of the recent events during Nightmare Night in which Princess Luna participated in the festivities with the aid of the Elements of Harmony, many within the general public began to see her in a kinder light. Usually, such a small point of kindness would have been crushed quickly by the allegations, but because of the support of the Elements, one of which was the personal student of Celestia herself, the ‘truth’ was widely contested. In retaliation to help even the grounds, the NLR began to reveal their own dirty secrets about the SE, the only difference being that these were mainly true, not fabricated to fit the agenda. This served to further split the country, turning it into a full on political war, with the military attempting to keep the peace with any fighting that erupted.

By the time Luna returned to Canterlot, Celestia had been fed so much clashing information that she could not pick out the truth, but with the SE representatives using Luna’s reclusive manner and apparent ‘ignorance’, she became more and more convinced of some sort of treachery.

Upon their meeting, there was an almost immediate conflict between the SE members and the Disciples. This did not help the matter, especially when it transformed into a shouting match between the two sides. Before long, insults and rhetorical answers were being tossed around. By the time it had calmed down, things had been said that should not have and mini brawls had erupted between opposite sides outside of the throne room.

By the end of the day, the trust between the two sisters had been shattered, and both were near tears. With tensions high and the whole Equestria sitting on edge, the sisters were forced to choose sides. A decision was made and both sides suddenly found themselves thrust into something that they were all woefully unprepared for…

War

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Dan

We’re running and trying to distribute these copies wherever we can, but I don’t know how much longer we’re going to last…the damn Empire has spies everywhere. They recently managed to find and destroy two hidden workshops where we were copying and sending off books for the Followers…I wonder how many books were lost to the blaze as we escaped with what we could carry…I hope the others managed to make it to the drop-offs…I hope that we can hold off anymore attacks on the storehouses…but on the off chance that we can’t save several of them and the copies of our records are lost, I’m going to hide this one in the one place those damn Empire censors would not dare to look, I’m pretty sure they won’t do anything to get the Elements on their bad side.

Dan’s eyes skimmed over the information one more time as he tried to solidify the words into his memory. The story told by these few pages was almost too amazing to comprehend, almost as if it was a first person account of the beginning of this world’s civil war. For all he knew, it was.

I’ve got to tell Ghost, this kind of thing definitely needs some attention, though knowing him; we’ll just solve the Van problem and let the locals solve their own conflict. I wish we could do something to help, but who the hell are we to be messing in another world’s politics no matter how dirty it sounds?

BEEP!

Hmmm…looks like the Van are finally making their move…and if what Wide-Eyes told Ghost is true about the Van using hostages to get a VIP, then we can assume it’s either one of the Princesses or these Elements of Harmony.

Dan started to close the book when he felt the edge of the cover give slightly. He turned the book over and looked at the edge of the cover, noting how it was slightly deformed…as if someone had hidden something inside.

Well what have we here?

Pulling his knife from its sheathe, he used the tip to gently slice open a side of the cover. Peeling it back slightly, he could just make out several sheets of paper inside.

Now what are these?

Dan slipped off his gauntlet and delicately reached inside the flap, and tugged at the folded papers causing the whole flap to come off revealing a thin string hidden within the spine of the book.

So that’s how this little compartment opens…

Slowly placing the book on the ground, Dan rested the paper on his thigh plate, before gently prying it apart, revealing several sheets folded together. As he separated the first one, he could just make out the shadow of a drawing through the paper. Turning it over, he shined his light on the drawing and gave a start when he made out the picture and its caption, both of which he recognized.

Looks like someone was…ahh shit…

Author's Note

Once again, allow me to remind my dear readers that if they were to find any discrepancies within my work, if they would be so kind as to point them out for me as while I do have someone who looks over my work, I don't think they can really be counted as a true editor.

Thank you.