The Sundering of Equestria - A Future History

Chapters

Equestria before the War
The Battle of Canterlot
The Crystal Empire and the Griffon Invasion
The Siege of Manehatten Continued
The World Empire Arrives and The Changelings Attack
Civilian Life during the War
The March on Baltimare
The Rise of the New Lunar Republic

Equestria before the War

An Introduction by Al-Manākh

The Sundering of Equestria is perhaps the most significant event in the entire history of western equine civilisation. So-named because of the six factions that conquered and warred over different areas of the ancient and magically-rich country of Equestria, the series of events culminating in the final battle of 1043LB arguably had a greater impact on Equestrian civilisation than any other conflict or period of social upheaval before or since.

Beginning as a civil war between the oppressive government and experienced military of Old Equestria, versus the popular revolutionary movement known as the New Lunar Republic, the war rapidly spiralled out of control. Other factions soon emerged from within Equestria to take advantage of the chaos caused by the war – most notably, the fanatical religious sect known as the Discordians, and an insectile, non-pony species native to Equestria, called the Changeling Swarm. At the same time, the governments of two of Equestria’s principle neighbours – the nearby Griffon Kingdoms (bitter after years of being ignored and disregarded by Equestria) and the gigantic industrial powerhouse of the World Empire (in their self-proclaimed role of ‘global interventionists’) – decided for their own reasons to involve themselves.

Though this terrible war has long been shrouded in mystery, recently discovered evidence has shed new light on the triggers, course, ending and impact of this conflict. Described here, with the most care possible taken to ensure its accuracy, is a new, up-to-date and factually-accurate account of the Sundering of Equestria. Although some events and characters remain unknown, opinion (popular or otherwise) is kept carefully separate from ascertained fact, which does leaves a number of blank spaces in this history, but does not compromise its accuracy.

Amongst other things, this chronicle includes: a brief history of the prelude to the Sundering; the infamous assassination of the Princess; the tale of the rise of the New Lunar Republic; a stage-by-stage account of the war’s principle battles and skirmishes; new insights into the personalities and motives of some of the war’s key figures; the violent and unexpected rise of Discordianism, and its consequences; word-for-word extracts from many famous and not-so-famous sources; the war’s ultimate ending; and how the outcome of the war led directly to the world in which we live today.

Through painstaking research and the meticulous comparison of multitudinous sources both new and old, it is possible to piece together the truth behind the legend that is the Sundering of Equestria.

The Stirrings of Revolt

The very beginning of an event is always difficult to pinpoint. Most historians will state the death of the Princess and what followed as being the spark that set off the revolution, and, to some extent, that assessment is accurate. The truth, however, is that public discontent was in the air long before the events 1031LB.

The true beginning of these events is tied in with the arrival of ambassadors from the World Empire, in the years shortly after Princess Sparkle’s ascension (approximately 1008-9LB). At that time, the World Empire (so-called because, until their ‘discovery’ of Equestria, they believed they were the only true organised state left in the world) controlled all the lands to the east of Equestria, as well as lands previously considered mythical, including many far to the distant east that nopony in Equestria had ever even heard of before. Shortly after the ambassadors’ arrival, the largely uninhabited Gallopinghost Islands off of Equestria’s eastern coast were also claimed by the World Empire, much to the detriment of the lawless natives. This caused a short-lived diplomatic dispute, which quickly ended when it was discovered that Equestria had no formal sovereignty over the islands.

More worrying to the Equestrian government than this brief dispute was the high level of militarism present in the World Empire’s representatives. All the political ambassadors came accompanied by heavily-armed guards, equipped with weapons and military technologies never before seen in Equestria, and many of the diplomats themselves held military ranks. This sudden appearance of such an immense, military powerhouse on the very doorstep of Equestria (officials at the time considered it the first viable foreign military threat to Equestria in over five thousand years) led to a dramatic rethink of internal policy by Equestrian politicians.

Several centuries prior, the military forces of Equestria had been quite large, existing in the form of the EUP Defence Forces (Earth pony, Unicorn and Pegasus, the three principle races of Equestria). However, as their existence became less necessary, they had dwindled slowly over the centuries to the point where, in 1010LB, only the Royal Guard of Canterlot (Equestria’s capital city) still remained, in the form of a glorified police force, and the Wonderbolt Flying Corps, which owed its continued existence to its famous display team.

Princess Celestia, Equestria’s alicorn ruler (and national deity), realised that, if the World Empire decided to betray its previous promises of mutually-beneficial trade and peaceful coexistence, Equestria would be helpless in the face of the Emperor’s near-limitless armies. As a contemporary chronicler noted, “After centuries of peace, we found ourselves with a glaring weakness. Peace had made us utterly unprepared for war”.

In order to remedy this situation, in 1013LB Princess Celestia introduced several new taxes and issued a series of Civil Service reforms. The new taxes immediately led to protests – as most ponies at the time naturally expected it would. Although the earliest of the new taxes (such as the Public Lavatories Tax) were minor, and prompted little more protest than angry mutterings and toilet-related editorial cartoons in the newspapers, the subsequent taxes were not so easily forgiven. The ill-fated Foal Tax – a levy taken from every household that had not produced foals, the aim being to increase the Equestrian population in time for war – led to a series of fierce demonstrations in front of the Royal Palace. Ponies felt that foal-less couples and poorer families that could not afford large numbers of children were being unjustly persecuted for reasons that they did not agree with. Many saw no need to increase or bolster their country’s armed forces, suggesting a distinct lack of aggression in the Equestrian psyche at the time, or perhaps a naivety.

Despite the protests, the taxes still went ahead, signalling the beginning of anti-government feeling amongst the previously-content populace. A key event during these protests was the personal quelling of the Cobble Street Protest by Princess Luna; the alicorn sister of Princess Celestia and Equestria’s nominal co-ruler. While displeasure with the Princess of the Sun was beginning to take hold, affection for the Lunar Princess (which had been steadily rising since her return to the political spotlight thirteen years earlier) remained.

The effects of the taxation reforms are not to be overlooked either (although other historians often have). In order to cope with the expected increase in the size of the nation’s military, most of Equestria’s Civil Services were expanded and reorganised. Most notably, the Equestrian Revenue Service was expanded to deal with the new taxes, and many more tax collectors were recruited. As a result, the common pony now saw the government as something of a bureaucratic regime; the Celestian government, being so much larger and more prominent than before, seemed now to be more distant from the needs of the common pony and far more powerful than it should rightly be.

Just to make things worse, in this time when ponies were feeling more and more oppressed by their leaders, the increase in military spending began to take effect. Soldiers of the Royal Guard became a more common sight on the streets, mainly due to training and marching exercises, but all the common pony saw was Celestia’s grip beginning to tighten over them.

It’s no wonder therefore that anti-authoritarian feeling began to rise in the mid-to-late 1020s. As the years passed, previously minor left-wing and anarchist movements began to gain more influence.

The Griffon Kingdoms Unite Again

While the above was taking place in Equestria, fearful eyes were watching from abroad. The twelve Kings and Queens of the Griffon Kingdoms – in a state of internal division as of 1015LB – had noticed Equestria’s sudden increase in military spending. Fearing that this unexpected build-up was somehow directed at them, the twelve rulers of the Griffon Kingdoms called one another and agreed to meet in a Kings Council.

The mere announcement of this event was welcome news to the populace of the Twelve Kingdoms. Sporadic, internal warfare (both nominal and actual) had long debilitated their country and, although competitive military spending had led to the development of black-powder and fuel-pump-based technology to rival the magic of Equestria, it had held back the economic development of the Griffon Kingdoms, reducing them to the status of a second-rate power. A meeting of a Kings Council, it was hoped, would signal a new time of peace and growth for the Griffon population.

For the Griffons’ leaders, however, this council was born more out of self-interest and perceived emergency that any kind of grand vision. The leaders had come to the conclusion that, with the emergence of the powerful World Empire at her borders, Princess Celestia was seeking to strengthen her own position. Either, they concluded, Celestia was in league with the World Empire, and both states were intending to conquer the Griffon Kingdoms and divide it up amongst themselves – or Celestia was planning to intimidate the Empire by invading and annexing the Griffon Kingdoms, thereby strengthening her own country whilst making the World Empire think twice about invading them.

It is perhaps characteristic of Griffon leadership at this time that none of the Kings or Queens considered that Equestria’s new policies were merely cautionary, and had nothing at all to do with the Griffons. It’s also interesting to note that, in the Canterlot documents relating to Celestia’s new policies, there is absolutely no mention of the Griffon Kingdoms; it’s almost as if Celestia didn’t consider the effect her reforms might have on them, or even consider them a potential threat.

Due to this misunderstanding of intentions, the twelve Kings and Queens unanimously agreed at the 1015LB Kings Council to temporarily unite their respective kingdoms. As part of this, their military forces would be merged and – acknowledging that Equestria was still more powerful than them combined – the leaders all pledged to increase spending on both their militaries and (with hindsight, perhaps more importantly) their weapons-development programs. Believing that the World Empire diplomats who had arrived in their country might also be spies, or at the very least plotting alongside the Equestrians, the Kings Council tried its best to keep them at arm’s length.

These aforementioned pledges and diplomatic plans were kept secret from the population at large, however. As far as the average griffon knew, the Kingdoms were uniting (not for the first time in their history), more money was flowing from the government, and things were generally looking up. The possibility of war had never seemed more distant.

Discordianism and National Tragedy

Founded sometime around 1600BLB, the cult of Discordianism is based on the emulation of the mythical being Discord and the belief that chaos is an inherent truth of reality, whereas order, stability and (perhaps paradoxically) truth are all illusions. A cross between a cult and philosophy, Discordianism was never widespread in Equestria and was likewise never considered a possible threat by the Celestian Government. It was looked down upon by society in general, but on the whole it was merely tolerated by the common pony as an unpopular minority movement.

Elsewhere, Discordianism was treated very differently. While it was mostly unheard of in the Griffon Kingdoms (griffons being, on the whole, more practical and less philosophically-motivated than ponies), in the states making up the World Empire, Discordianism was actively persecuted and thoroughly despised on both a social and political level – as it still is today. Imperial diplomats had arrived in Equestria and the Griffon Kingdoms with warnings about the danger the movement posed, and suggestions on how best to deal with the ‘problem’. While this latter view was seen as extremely worrying by liberal Equestrian politicians in the late 1020s, forthcoming events would soon prove to them that Discordianism was not as harmless as it seemed.

In late autumn 1031LB, the Princess Twilight Sparkle was undertaking a return visit to her hometown of Ponyville. Crowds of thousands lined the route, drawn from the town and beyond; a testament to the newly-ascended Princess’ popularity with the masses. As she was pulled down the main carriageway into the town, riding in the back of a unicorn-driven Royal chariot, a lone figure burst out of the cheering crowds.

Hundreds of witnesses watched as the masked stallion threw a homemade explosive device into the Princess’ chariot. Caught unprepared and unable to act in the split-second she had, the device exploded, instantly killing the young alicorn.

The assassin was immediately tackled to the ground by guardsponies and hauled off to jail, never again to see the light of day. The crowds panicked and stampeded from the scene, fearing further explosions, but at the same time impeding the doctors that tried to rush to the Princess’ aid. They arrived at the destroyed chariot within minutes – some would later criticise the doctors for being so slow to get there, but the truth is that the damage had already been done.

Later analysis of the death, from sources only recently released, has shown exactly how the Princess died – presented here, for those of you who have a morbid curiosity for such things. Others may wish to skip the following paragraph.

The autopsies show that the shrapnel (jagged metal shards) from the explosion had perforated the Princess Sparkle’s skull in three separate places, which alone would have been enough to kill her instantly. However, further pieces of metal were discovered to have severed the vertebrae of her neck in two places, suggesting that the Princess could not have felt the severe damage then done to her lower body; a significant-sized shard had cut its way through the chest cavity and out the other side, severing the lungs in two; all four legs were snapped by the force of the blast; and finally, innumerable shrapnel pieces had dug into almost every other inch of the unfortunate Princess’ body that was not destroyed by the force of the explosion.

It was a day that would live in infamy for centuries. Not only was it the first unnatural death of an alicorn in all of recorded history, but the assassination occurred in such a public place, and in such a violent way. It must also be noted here that the use of black-powder in weaponry was almost unheard of in Equestria at this time, as a result of a long-standing ban instituted by Princess Celestia, preventing the use of black-powder for violent ends. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the deceased was the most beloved Princess in living memory. A whole month of national mourning followed.

The assassin was quickly identified as political activist Gavrilo Prancer, and it was announced that he had been hired by a Discordian sect based within Canterlot. This was to remain the Celestian government’s position throughout coming events. Interestingly to historians, Prancer remained in a jail underneath Canterlot for the entirety of the upcoming conflict, and in fact only died after many years of imprisonment, of old age.

The motive for the killing, however, is still not entirely understood, just as it was then. Although the tenets of Discordianism are quite clear, it seemed impossible to many ponies at the time that such a horrific event could have been caused by a mere desire for random chaos. Conspiracy theories soon abounded.

One of the most common and influential theories was that Princess Celestia herself had ordered the assassination of the younger Princess, perhaps jealous of her popularity or wary of a usurpation. There is absolutely no evidence that this was the case, however, and in actuality recently-discovered evidence tells of Celestia as being visibly stricken upon hearing the news of her ex-student’s most untimely death.

In fact, it seems probable that Princess Celestia felt this loss very deeply, as this would help to explain her subsequent actions.

Celestian Justice

The reprisals against the Discordian sect that had planned the assassination were swift, without trial and – to the shock of all; even those who had been most harmed by Princess Sparkle’s death – impossibly violent.

Readers of a delicate disposition may wish to skip over the next four paragraphs.

On the orders of Princess Celestia, all accused and self-confessed Discordians in Canterlot were rounded up by the Royal Guard. The prisoners were then paraded through the streets of the city – to be jeered at by the populace – before being taken to Solar Square (most likely that Square was chosen as it was the only Square in the city big enough to hold all of the accused, but its name would later lead to some unfortunate implications). In common with all public events, a crowd gathered to watch.

Once there, the Discordians were first tied to large wooden posts, referred to as stakes, which had been set up in preparation for the event. Then – to the horror of the watching crowds – the prisoners were flogged with steel-tipped whips, previously used for (illegally) taming dragons. This, sources tell us, went on for some time.

Witnesses describe the soldiers doing the whipping as waiting until “the prisoners’ skin was hanging from their blood-soaked bones like so many sad, burst balloons” before they moved onto the actual execution. First of all, the stomach of each prisoner was cut open, the “grotesque bloody-white ropes” of their intestines pulled out, shown to the “screaming, but still-living” Discordians, and then were wrapped around their necks, forming a kind of noose. The prisoners’ intestines were then tied to the tops of the wooden stakes, which had been notched “for this very, horrifying purpose”.

The ropes holding the prisoners to the wooden stakes were then cut, leaving the Discordians to be hanged with their own intestines. A witness describes one of the prisoners slipping out of her ‘noose’ and falling to the ground, having her guts partially torn from her body in the process. This account tells us that the deeply unfortunate prisoner was immediately surrounded by three Royal Guardsponies and, all while writhing and screaming in agony, was brutally stabbed to death by the Guards’ spears.

According to every witness who recorded what they saw, the entire crowd was “deathly silent” throughout the whole incident.

This was truly the most horrific event ever to occur on Equestrian soil in living history – perhaps even in all known history. Its impact on what was to come cannot be over-exaggerated. The captured Discordians were the first ponies to be put to death since centuries before Equestria’s founding, and the first to be publicly punished by the state in any way in almost a millennium. In her desire for revenge, Celestia had inflicted a deep, irreparable scar on the collective psyche of Equestrian society, as well as on the psyche of every historian who has chosen to study this period.

A term was coined; “Celestian Justice”.

Retribution and the Equestrian Police State

Protests and demonstrations after the executions increased tenfold. Throughout the winter of 1031-32LB, not a single week went by when there wasn’t at least one group of protesters outside the gates of the Royal Palace. Estimations, based on witnesses’ accounts, suggest that, over the winter, groups numbering between three hundred and two thousand ponies protested a total of twenty-seven times in Canterlot. Similar demonstrations, riots and marches occurred all over the country.

In response to this, an (some historians would argue) increasingly-unstable Princess Celestia ordered a crackdown. Her excuse to the representatives of the World Empire, and members of her own government, was that these demonstrations were being orchestrated by subversive Discordian sects. It should be noted that there is little reliable evidence suggesting that this was actually the case, although Discordians were at least present in a number of protests. In every major city and town in Equestria, Martial Law was imposed. For those that are unaware of the term’s meaning, this meant that Celestia’s newly-expanded Royal Guard (now seen by many as her “personal instrument of terror”) had complete control over the main population centres of the country, and could punish ‘lawbreakers’ immediately, brutally and without needing to acknowledge even basic equine rights.

Protests that occurred were broken up, often violently. Suspected Discordians and other “enemies of the state” were rounded up and executed. Such was the horror of this that many government officials quit their jobs, unwilling to be involved in such atrocities. Their positions, on Celestia’ recommendation, were then filled by the ambassadors and representatives from the World Empire who (sources tell us) genuinely believed that they were helping to quell an “epidemic” of Discordianism; it was, and still is, the belief of many in the World Empire that anarchy is a kind of infectious disease. This continued only for a brief time, however, and over the next few months Equestrian-born civil servants willing to enact Celestia’s will were found and employed.

Sources from the time suggest that over six thousand ponies were killed during this period, but modern estimates indicate that in fact only somewhere between 2,800 and 3,300 ponies were killed over these four years. Nevertheless, to the ponies at the time, Celestia’s government had become a ruthless tyranny, with ponies dying on a scale previously unimaginable.

Anti-Celestian feeling was now beyond boiling point. The theory that Celestia had ordered Princess Sparkle’s assassination became commonly believed; her murder, the theory went, was a pre-planned excuse for Celestia to increase her control over the nation. This served to sway even those who had bought Celestia’s propaganda of peace-hating Discordians hiding under every bed.

Revolution was in the air.

The Battle of Canterlot

Battle of Canterlot Part 1 – Assault on the City Walls

It took almost half a year for the Council to amass the necessary forces for the upcoming battle. Most of that time involved organising the rag-tag civilian forces of the revolution into an actual army. By the start of summer 1037LB, a considerable army of approximately 31-34,000 soldiers (other sources suggest their numbers were as high as 40,000 or even 50,000, but these are likely to be exaggerations) had been assembled in the towns north of Canterlot. This force was mostly made up of barely-trained revolutionaries, armed with cheap-to-produce Starbeam rifles, as well as a thousand or so elite troops from Honorary Councillor Luna’s personal guard.

They were led by the pegasus General Ike Trots, an ex-general of the Royal Guard who had defected to the Republic early on in the revolution, and would develop over time to become one of the war’s key personalities. His unpublished autobiography, titled ‘From Sun to Shade: the Battles of General Ike Trots’ and written during the war, has been used extensively by previous historians as a central source. Although it has been used here, Trots’ book has been compared and contrasted with other sources to ensure the most accurate account of events possible.

Facing the revolutionaries, behind the walls of Canterlot, were approximately 18-20,000 troops from the Royal Guard regiments, as well as a hundred or so Solar Disciples and approximately 900 troops from the new Wonderbolt Brigades (an elite aerial force based on the pre-revolution aerial display team of the same name, and whose members were selected for their exceptional speed). The defence of the city was led ostensibly by Field Marshal Dragonfire of the Royal Guard, but in actuality Princess Celestia seems to have had a bigger role in commanding the defenders.

Despite what other historians may say, what followed was the first true battle of the Sundering of Equestria, and marked its turning point from a revolution into a civil war.

The following is drawn from a compilation of sources from both sides.

General Trots ordered the assault to begin at sundown. This would give his troops the advantage of surprise, hopefully catching the defenders unaware, as well as having the effect of weakening the power of Celestia’s Solar Disciples, whose magic relied heavily on light from the sun. This was apparently an intentional move by the rebel commander, since the Solar Disciples were in actuality almost incapable of performing any major acts of magic after sundown. Even today the exact mechanics behind this fatal flaw remain unknown to all but the most dedicated students of magical theory.

The battle began with the Republican artillery opening fire. The choice artillery-piece of the Republic forces at this early stage in the war was the Eclipse Bombard – a modified version of Old Equestria’s crude black-powder bombard cannons, enhanced with the same magic-crystal technology as the Starbeam rifles (albeit on a more powerful scale). Bombards were no longer used by Old Equestrian siege units at this point, as they had long since replaced their simplistic (and, by ancient decree, highly illegal) black-powder weapons with trebuchets. Although many nowadays would consider this a technological step backwards, it must have made perfect sense to the Equestrians of the time.

The opening artillery salvos, as Trots had hoped, took the defenders completely by surprise. Without the sunlight to boost their power, the no-doubt sleepy Solar Disciples were unable to maintain Canterlot’s magical shield, which fell within minutes. Notably, this is one of the few recorded times when Republican artillery fire was actually effective in a battle, and demonstrates the importance of surprise in New Lunar Republic tactics.

Trots then ordered forward his pegasi, followed by his slower-moving ground troops. His air forces, as per the plan, attacked in two highly-dispersed waves, to minimise casualties. His ground forces however, due to the fact that Canterlot was built on the side of mountain, had no choice but to advance in a dense column up the highly-exposed mountain pass.

The plan was for the pegasi to take out – or at least tie up – the defenders along Canterlot’s walls, thereby allowing the Republic’s ground forces to advance unopposed to the city gates. Things did not go as planned for the Republic, however.

The first wave of pegasi, having done the job of drawing the defender’s arrow- and beam-fire away from the slowly-advancing ground troops, suffered heavy losses and was forced to turn back. The second wave, whose job was to attack the Guardsponies on the city walls directly, had almost reached their targets when they were counter-attacked by the Wonderbolt Brigades. An aerial battle above Canterlot immediately ensued.

Although the Wonderbolts were heavily outnumbered by the Republic’s aerial forces, their role – as it soon became clear to General Trots – was to tie up the attacking pegasi. Without them distracting the defenders on the walls, the Royal Guard troops there concentrated their attacks on the still-advancing ground troops. Trots immediately ordered his sorcerers to use whatever magic they could to protect or obscure the advancing unicorns and earth ponies, but the attackers still took inordinate casualties.

Just as it seemed as though the attack would falter, and the Republic’s forces would be forced to fall back, Trots made the decision to commit Luna’s personal troops to the battle. It was a make-or-break point; once deployed, the general had no way of recalling these precious assets, and if the Republic’s army on the ground still failed to break through then the assault would have to be called off.

Luna’s personal guard, however, quickly proved their worth. More skilled and better trained than even Celestia’s Royal Guard, Luna’s pegasi (referred to in the sources as ‘Shadowbolts’; it is unknown if they were in any way related to Old Equestria’s Wonderbolts) joined in with the aerial battle above the city. Within minutes, the heavily depleted Wonderbolt formations were forced to flee, allowing the combined Republican air force to descend upon the city walls.

Meanwhile, the unicorns and earth ponies of Luna’s guard made their way to the front of the advancing column. With their morale boosted by the pegasi’s victory, and the fact that they were no longer under fire from the city walls, the ground troops of the Republic increased their pace. Although they had taken heavy casualties, General Trots was confident that his ground forces could still overrun the city.

When the Republic’s troops reached the end of the winding mountain path, they found – no doubt to their amazement – that the gates were opening for them. Such was the efficacy of the aerial fighters that the rebel pegasi and Luna’s Shadowbolts had completely pushed the Royal Guard from the city walls and actually captured a number of defensive structures along the walls, including the gate controls. Further bolstered by this, the troops of the New Lunar Republic burst through the gates and into Canterlot itself.

Battle of Canterlot Part 2 – Inside the Capital

From one of the towers of the Royal Palace, Celestia and her generals watched the Republican forces charge through the city gates – and into a deserted street. Once it had become clear to her that the walls were going to be overrun, the Princess had ordered most of her forces to fall back to previously-prepared positions (it is debated as to whether this was in reaction to her forces already fleeing, or whether the fleeing was merely an ordered retreat and part of Celestia’s plan). This left the attacking troops momentarily confused, and without a foe to fight.

At the time of the battle, the city of Canterlot was a mixture of long, clear roads and miles of twisting, turning alleyways. From above, the Old Equestrian’s fall-back positions would have been clear as a jagged line of heavily-defended roadblocks, reinforced buildings and recently-constructed defensive towers cutting almost straight across the contrasting spaces.

The Republican forces had by now secured a large area of the apparently uninhabited city, and had sent scouts ahead to identify the defenders locations and relative strengths. General Ike Trots, who had accompanied the reinforcements when they entered the city, now faced a dilemma. Should they march down the open streets and be forced to attack the defenders’ most heavily-defended positions, or should he send his troops through the back-alleys to find the weakest point, risking ambushes and booby traps every time they turned a corner?

Time, Trots’ advisors told him, was of the essence. If they didn’t succeed in taking the Royal Palace by sunrise, then Celestia and her Solar Disciples would be able to draw power from the sun and tip the balance in the favour of Old Equestria. With this in mind, General Trots ordered his troops to assemble on the three main roads that led to the Palace and assault the barricades. Although inelegant and highly risky, Trots hoped that this unusually direct tactic would catch the defenders off-guard and, once a breach was made, they could quickly rush for the Palace.

Unwilling to simply march in thick columns (as they had been forced to do up the mountain pass to reach Canterlot), the soldiers of the Republic advanced down the three central roads of Canterlot in a well spread-out formation. As they approached the barricades, the troops began taking advantage of every building and piece of makeshift cover to protect themselves from the Royal Guard’s ranged attacks. Consequently, the advancing Republicans took very few casualties from the entrenched Old Equestrians, until the time came to attack their positions directly.

In order to soften up the enemy defences before the assault, General Ike Trots ordered his artillery to fire on the toughest of the reinforced barricades. When there was no immediate roar of Eclipse Bombards opening fire, Trots sent a messenger to the last-known position of the artillery to discover why they weren't firing. It was in this way that General Trots and his advisers discovered that the Wonderbolts (previously thought to be completely broken due to overwhelming casualties) hadn’t given up, and had successfully destroyed or disabled most of the Republic’s artillery in a daring rearguard action.

On the advice of the Shadowbolt commander, Captain Darkspray, Trots ordered the Shadowbolts to track down and eliminate the remaining Wonderbolts – although this meant he would be unable to use them in the forthcoming assault, Trots felt that it was necessary to secure the army against any sudden attacks from the flanks or the rear.

The Republican troops near the barricades, however, knew none of this. All they were aware of was that they had been told to wait near to the enemy positions for the artillery to begin firing. Many of them were exchanging beam- and arrow-fire with the Royal Guard when they heard the orders to begin the assault immediately. Somewhat confused due to the change in orders, and concerned about why the artillery hadn’t opened fire, the morale of the Republic’s ground forces took a beating.

Nevertheless, they began the assault.

Battle of Canterlot Part 3 – Charging the Barricades

Much to the dismay of the attackers, however, it soon became apparent that the Solar Disciples had added magical protection to this second line of defences as well. Although these ‘shields’ were nowhere near as powerful as they could be – the sun was still down at this point – the Republic forces were now unable to simply break through them with their artillery, as they had done before. This mean that the revolutionaries’ Starbeam rifles did no determinable damage to the defenders when fired at range; if they wanted to break through the barricades, the Republic’s ground troops would have to fight the Royal Guard at close quarters.

Although there are no sources that explicitly state this, it seems likely that this was Celestia’s plan all along. As this and later battles were to prove, the Royal Guard (despite their comparatively antiquated weaponry) were a truly formidable force in close-combat. Their standard weapons – swords, halberds and pikes – were often enchanted and enhanced at the wielder’s personal expense, making them far superior to almost all of the close-combat weapons any faction was to utilise during the war. To make things even worse for the attackers, due to the Republic’s tendency to use evasion tactics and Starbeam rifles at range whenever possible, most revolutionaries did not even wear armour.

Even though they knew the odds were against them, the soldiers of the Republic very bravely – or possibly very foolishly, depending on where one stands – drew their combat knives or whatever close-combat weapon they had picked up, and charged towards the barricades.

A summary of this action, taken from General Ike Trots’ book and written from his viewpoint, truly encapsulates the tragedy of the assault.

“If I’d known about those shields, I would never have let that attack go ahead. Even today I have no idea what else we could have done, but I would have done something else. Anything else. Even if that meant ending the battle and going home, right then and there, then I would have done it.”

“They were slaughtered. Those brave idiots attacked on their own initiative, didn't bother sending word to their commanders, and they were slaughtered. I figure they thought they could take on the Royal Guard hoof-to-hoof, and, maybe, if we’d trained them properly, they could have. But we didn't.”

“You see, those mares and stallions we sent in to fight – they weren't soldiers. Ah hay, they were practically foals. The real soldiers from who’d defected from the Solar Tyrant, me included, had given them some basic training; how to hold a Starbeam rifle, how to shoot straight, stuff like that. The Council called them soldiers. But the Royal Guard – some of those stallions had been trained pretty much from birth to fight. For some it was their destiny to fight, and kill. They showed our ‘soldiers’ for what they really were – brave idiots.”

“We thought it was the end of the revolution.”

There are no sources describing Celestia’s reaction to the failed assault, but it’s reasonable to assume that she would have been pleased; everything had gone according to her plan.

Battle of Canterlot Part 4 – Conclusion and Losses

The assault on the Royal Guards’ roadblock continued for several hours with no progress made, until General Trots learned of the casualties thus far sustained (and the projected casualties should it continue) and promptly called off the attack.

The Republic’s weakened and severely-depleted ground troops retreated from the barricades, pursued only by the odd beam and the sounds of the Royal Guards’ jubilant cheers. Recently-discovered sources can now confirm that the troops of the Royal Guard were ordered to stay in their positions (rather than the previously-held belief, that they numbered too few to effect a pursuit); it appears that Celestia and the Old Equestria generals believed the New Lunar Republic’s army to be far larger than it actually was, and were awaiting a second assault from fresh troops.

After taking a quick census, General Trots decided that he did not have enough remaining soldiers to continue the battle, and so ordered a general retreat before the sun rose and the Old Equestrian forces could counter-attack. He and the Republic had failed to break through the enemy defences and so win a decisive victory for the revolution. Princess Celestia was still in power, and it looked like what had previously been conceived as a popular revolution had now become a true civil war. Even then, many realised that there would be no swift end to such a conflict. As one contemporary chronicler commented, "Well, I guess it won’t be over by Hearth’s Warming.”

Trots’ book records that, during the retreat from Canterlot, the General was approached by Captain Darkspray and his troops. Darkspray apparently volunteered to lead a small strike force to infiltrate the Royal Palace, while the enemy were distracted by their victory, and assassinate Princess Celestia. Trots agreed, and the Shadowbolts departed.

However, this account is not supported by any other sources from the event, and so is not entirely reliable. If Darkspray did indeed lead a strike force to assassinate Celestia, then he undoubtedly failed, as the Solar Tyrant continued to play an active role in the rest of the war. The account does, however, serve to explain why the Shadowbolts play no major roles in the rest of the war (it is generally believed that the remainder of the force were subsumed into the ordinary forces as officers), so there may be some truth in it.

For General Ike Trots and his remaining forces, however, the Battle of Canterlot was not quite over. After they had made it down the mountain, but before they could make the journey to the nearest Republic-held town, the sun finally rose. Within minutes (and to the revolutionaries’ unbridled terror), a “fleet” of Solar Disciples descended on the retreating army. General Trots records that these Disciples rode on “flying disks” that blazed sunlight – later sources refer to them as ‘palanquins’. The number of Disciples attacking the remaining Republic forces could not have been high, but their offensive spells were so powerful that the retreating army was quickly broken, and many were killed. General Trots talks of “blinding sunbeams… incinerating” his troops, and magical “lightning storms” that “tore up the ground like a gigantic pony would tear up weeds”.

Unfortunately General Trots is the only source we have for this event, conceivably due to the massive casualties the Republic forces sustained, but his account bares many similarities to later battles, when Solar Disciples were used en masse, so it seems likely to be accurate. His decision to fight personally in the rearguard action against them in order to give the rest of his army time to escape, however, is of debatable authenticity.

When General Ike Trots returned to the nearest town (assuming he hadn’t already returned with the main body of his army), he was supposedly accompanied by 313 soldiers. While many historians like to focus on this detail, it should be noted that over two thousand other Republican soldiers also returned alive to other towns and outposts, having been scattered in many directions during their flight.

The total estimated losses for the army of the New Lunar Republic, following the Battle of Canterlot, are at approximately 22-24,000 dead or wounded (including those captured, and subsequently interrogated, by the Celestian government). As well as the roughly 1,500 troops accompanying General Trots after the pursuit, an uncertain number (believed to be somewhere between 9,000 and 11,000) of the main army also survived, thanks to the bravery of the rear-guard. Another three thousand troops from untouched reinforcements also survived, having been held back for the whole battle, but it is unknown if the sources consider these soldiers to be part of the Republic’s army for the purposes of their total starting numbers.

Records here, as on many occasions throughout the war, frustratingly do not differentiate between those who were killed in battle, those who died of their wounds afterwards, those who were wounded and survived, and those who were simply lost. This makes it possible that the actual numbers of true casualties may be either much higher or much lower than stated, but most irritatingly we historians have no way of being sure.

On a side note, most of the Republic’s losses came from the failed assault on the magically-protected barricades, but it is believed that at least a fifth of their total losses were suffered before they had even breached the city’s walls.

The losses for the forces of Old Equestria are even more difficult to establish, however. It is known that well under a thousand soldiers died or were wounded before Celestia ordered her troops to fall back to the second line of defence, but how many were lost during the assault on the barricades can only be guessed at. There is no mention in the sources of any loss of stallion-power following the battle, so we must assume that, whatever the cost paid by Celestia’s forces was, it must have been relatively light – modern estimates put their losses at somewhere around 3-4,000.

A possible clue to the mystery of Old Equestria’s exact losses may lie in a recently-discovered source, believed to be from the diary of a soldier who fought in the Battle of Canterlot – although on which side is unclear, since he chooses not to inform his readers. This source mentions the loss of an ‘Element’, or possibly ‘Elements’, in the battle, but historians are unsure as to exactly what this means. The most likely possibility is that an ‘Element’ refers to a sizeable group of soldiers, like a brigade or a division, although how many soldiers it includes and where an ‘Element’ fits into the army structure are unknown.

To further add to the mystery, this unnamed soldier claims he was “given” an Element by another pony – possibly a euphemism for a field promotion – and attributes his new position to his survival. Since separate sources describe the Element as being “lost” we can either assume that the newly-promoted soldier’s troops were subsequently killed, or that the source is referring to a separate, second Element. This further convolutes the history of this battle as General Trots account explicitly notes the lack of any civilians whatsoever; presumably then, if the second possibility is correct, this Element was lost before the battle even began. Unless of course, one or more of the sources were written in error, which would complicate the situation even further.

Despite the lure of such historical mysteries, it is perhaps best to accept this strange new evidence as unsolvable, and hope that future discoveries will provide new answers to these perplexing questions.

The Changeling Raid

Merely a few days following the Battle of Canterlot, an Old Equestria-held town south of the city would become the site of the war’s second and most-often-overlooked battle. Most previous historians simply skip over it and move on to the major events following the Battle of Canterlot (namely the Siege of Manehatten). In fact, this skirmish is so often overlooked that it does not even have a name; nevertheless, the Changeling Raid is an important point in the history of the Sundering of Equestria.

The settlement of Ponyville – known principally by historians as the hometown of Princess Twilight Sparkle – has been connected with many ancient legends, including many that date from a time before the Sundering. The mythical alicorn known as Nightmare Moon supposedly first appeared there, as did the namesake of Discordianism, the equally-fictitious Discord. Perhaps partly because of these legends (or perhaps, more likely, because of its connection to the deceased Princess Sparkle) Ponyville was a site of great spiritual importance to the ponies of Equestria during the war.

Although we can never be wholly certain, it seems likely that Equestria’s emotional attachment to the place was the motive behind the Changeling Raid there. Possibly drawn by the location’s emotional energy, or intending to strike a blow against Equestrian morale, on early one summer morning in 1037LB, without any warning, roughly three thousand Changelings descended on Ponyville.

Considering that the town had a pre-war population of less than a thousand civilians, this army of ‘only’ 3,000 was clearly supposed to be an overwhelming force against a mostly-defenceless target. A local chronicler and inhabitant of Ponyville recorded that the Changelings, once they had landed in the town (undoubtedly sending the locals running, terrified, for their homes), were interested mainly in “capturing prisoners”. The chronicler records that they did this using a substance known as Changeling Bile; for those unfamiliar with Changeling physiology, this is an extremely sticky material vomited up from a Changeling that, after a few moments, binds the legs of a target (usually a captured pony) or adheres them to a surface (typically the walls or floor) with greater strength than even our most powerful modern super-glues. The helpless pony is then taken to a gathering place (usually a local building or cave commandeered for the purpose) and put with other prisoners, before all those captured are flown back to the Changelings’ Hive in one go.

It seems to have been the Changelings’ intention to capture the entire population of Ponyville, but clearly their leader was woefully unaware of the recent dramatic social and political changes that had been occurring in Equestria.

Barely a few minutes after the Changelings struck, a force totalling no more than 2,700 ponies from the Royal Guard arrived in the town. They had been scrambled from the Ponyville garrison building, situated on the edge of the town, and had originally been put there in order to deter potential Republic troops from trying to take over the (strategically-insignificant) settlement. Suffice to say, the Changelings were not prepared for the Royal Guard’s brutal retaliation against their raid.

Our contemporary chronicler describes how, initially, the Changelings tried to use their standard tactic of swarming the enemy one at a time, and then covering them with Bile. While this may have worked on unarmed civilians or even on the ‘old’ Royal Guard (when they were merely a glorified police force), the new Royal Guard simply slaughtered them. No-nonsense brutality, it seems, had become second nature to the soldiers of Old Equestria.

The Changeling raiding party was led by a tall, slender figure that was clearly not an “ordinary Changeling” – later ponies would name this new caste of Changeling ‘Swarm Commanders’. The chronicler writes that this Commander ordered her troops to withdraw to the edge of town, carrying with them anypony they’d taken prisoner. The Royal Guard immediately pursued them. This unnamed Swarm Commander, hovering on the edge of town and surrounded by her remaining followers, apparently chose to make a derogatory and dramatic speech to the advancing Royal Guard rather than flee immediately.

She was barely into her second sentence when she was unceremoniously shot out of the sky by a magic-blast from an unnamed Guardspony. A number of other Changelings were felled in the same volley, and ensuing volleys killed the majority of the remaining raiders before they could even react.

According to the local chronicler, only a hoof-full of Changelings escaped the massacre, to take the news of what had transpired back to their Queen, and no prisoners were taken (by either side). A small number of the ponies that had been captured by the Changelings (less than a dozen) were killed in the battle, almost certainly by misaimed attacks by the Royal Guard. There appears to have been no formal apology from the Guard for this.

Although this battle – barely a minor skirmish on the scale of some of the other battles during the Sundering – had no strategic impact, it served to prove an important point to both sides involved. The government of Old Equestria now knew that the Changelings had returned and were active, although they were not yet aware on quite what scale. For the Changeling leader, Queen Chrysalis, this raid must have been something of a wake-up call. Although we can’t know for sure (the Changeling Swarm did not keep records, or at least none that we have access to), Chrysalis’ next action against a major population centre was done on a much larger scale, and with more violence, so she must surely have been aware of the two new, militaristic Equestrian factions that were now fighting one another.

It could be said that, from this date in 1037LB, the Changeling Swarm had officially entered the war.

The Crystal Empire and the Griffon Invasion

March of the Crystal Ponies

With the armies of the New Lunar Republic having failed to depose Celestia, the War Council of the Republic realised that they were going to be in for a long war. Reports were coming in from the north of a hostile force marching over the Crystal Mountains.

Fortunately for the rebels, the Republic was far more organised by the end of 1037LB than it had been by the end of the previous year. The Council drew up ‘zones of control’ on their maps – essentially borders between those areas under their control and those under the banner of Old Equestria – and began to utilise effectively their greatest assets; raw pony-power, and their great numbers of defected intellectuals (who rejoiced in their freedom to develop new technologies without Celestia’s ancient restrictions holding them back). New units were drafted and whole army formations drawn up to replace the losses suffered at the Battle of Canterlot.

Despite the new troops still being “barely-trained” – the War Council having ignored General Trots’ warning – the Republic’s new army did at least have the benefit of experience, their officer corps being mainly composed of survivors from the Battle of Canterlot. Furthermore, the Republic’s newly-constructed armament factories had begun to churn out the more powerful Type 3 Starbeam rifle (although the weapon did not become general issue until 1039LB) and the earliest versions of the antipersonnel Multibeam rifle, designed to compensate for the average revolutionary’s bad aiming by allowing them to fire more shots per second.

Several sub-armies of around 12-14,000 ponies each, accompanied by great numbers of artillery pieces, were sent to besiege all of the major Celestian-held cities. However, due to the Council’s earlier decision to strike at Canterlot rather than begin the sieges in 1036LB, the Old Equestrian forces had had plenty of time to prepare their defences and gather resources. In fact, for the first few months of 1038LB, more of the besieging Republican forces died from lack of food and exposure to the cold than the besieged Celestians.

The War Council then had to deal with the army of reinforcements for Princess Celestia that had, by the end of winter 1038LB, made it through the Crystal Mountains and had captured a number of minor towns built in the shadow of the mountain range. Republic scouts had confirmed their identity as a legion of Crystal Warriors – approximately 30,000 soldiers hailing from the northerly Crystal Empire, armed and trained in much the same way as their southerly counterparts, the Royal Guard. Their goal was undoubtedly to lift the sieges now taking place all over Equestria and aid Celestia in re-conquering her land.

After much debate, during which the Crystal Warriors pushed even further south and towards the large Republic base at Neighagra Falls, the War Council decided to enact the ideas of one Captain Nightstrider. A proficient commander who had worked his way up through the ranks, beginning as a mere citizen revolutionary, Captain Nightstrider was well known in the Republic as a daring guerrilla fighter and, to the populace, he had become somewhat of a national hero. It was this status that permitted him an audience with the Council.

Nightstrider’s plan was to form a number of small but highly-specialised Brigades with which to mount hit-and-run attacks on the advancing Crystal Warriors, overwhelming isolated groups and destroying key pieces of infrastructure that the larger army would be intending to rely on. These carefully planned strikes would hopefully slow down their advance, forcing the Crystal Warriors to waste pony-power trying to hunt down their elusive attackers and ultimately weakening their army.

Following the Captain’s advice, the first three Brigades were organised, the troops composing them hoof-picked by their commanders for their innate stealth. The Council promoted Captain Nightstrider to General and gave him command of the newly-christened Nightstrider Brigades.

Over the spring months and into the summer of 1038LB, the Nightstrider Brigades launched innumerable raids against the legion from the Crystal Empire. It is estimated that only around 900-1,200 Crystal Warriors were killed during these months of guerrilla warfare, but the actions of the Nightstrider Brigades had a powerful impact on the morale of the larger army. Due to the state of his soldiers, the Crystal Warriors’ commander, Legate Pilum Sternum, made the decision not to launch an attack against the Republic fort at the Neighagra Falls and circled around it.

A recently-discovered account from one of Legate Sternum’s advisors, written in her diary, records that the Legate was becoming increasingly frustrated by Nightstrider’s actions. It seems that he was becoming increasingly fixated on capturing and defeating his “elusive nemesis”. Upon being told the news that General Nightstrider and his forces had once again escaped Celestian pursuit, Legate Sternum supposedly slammed his hoof on the table and exclaimed, “Curse that slippery fiend! Is there no soldier in my army that can kill that infernal mule?!”

However, despite the best attempts of General Nightstrider and his soldiers, the Crystal Warriors advanced relatively unimpeded. The War Council of the Republic organised and sent in an army of 7,000 soldiers in an attempt to slow them down, but this punitive force was crushed by the legion’s vanguard troops at the Battle of Hollow Hill. A highly evocative account by one of Legate Sternum’s adjutants described how, in this relatively straightforward battle, the Legate forced the Republic army to attack him on a treeless, grassy hillside, thereby depriving the revolutionaries of their usual strike-from-cover tactics.

Despite increasingly audacious raids, Nightstrider and the wider Republic were ultimately unable stop the Crystal Warriors from meeting up with a force from Canterlot, and sending fresh troops to replace those drawn from the city.

This combined army of around 27,000 soldiers then marched eastwards. It was at this point in mid-to-late summer 1038LB that the leaders of the Republic realised that the target of the Crystal ponies’ march was not Fillydelphia, with the aim of relieving the siege there, as they had previously imagined. To their surprise, the Council discovered that Legate Pilum Sternum and his troops were heading towards the Republic-controlled city of Manehatten.

Nightstrider and his forces broke off from their guerrilla raids in order to reach Manehatten and warn the defenders before the Crystal Warriors reached them. Once there, General Nightstrider decided to remain in the city for the upcoming battle, and (despite it being offered to him) willingly gave up overall command of the Republic’s forces there; instead he pledged himself and his Brigades to the leadership of General Brownstocking, the commander of the Manehatten regiments.

While the revolutionaries prepared themselves for an attack from the land, fortifying the wall-less city and evacuating civilians to more distant towns, neither of the high-ranking generals in the coast-bound city seemed aware of the danger of attack from the sea.

The Griffon Invasion

Since their decision to unite in 1015LB, the Griffon Kingdoms had been steadily building up their forces and directing their industries towards the production of war materials. The union of the twelve Kingdoms had produced other beneficial effects as well; an unexpected eruption of new technological development had taken place, thanks to their intellectuals’ sudden freedom to share their ideas between Kingdoms, and new trade (boosted by increased spending by the government on those industries that the military would rely on) had improved the economy dramatically. As a result, by 1038LB, the Griffon Kingdoms had become the richest and most powerful it had been for centuries.

In addition to improvements in the traditional Griffon technology of black-powder weaponry (muskets and cannon), a new type of weapon, based on the fuel-pump invented in 1002LB, had led to the creation of two entirely new corps in the Griffons’ armed forces.

Specially-trained teams of Griffon soldiers were given Flamenwerfers. Named after their inventor, Klaus Flamenwerf, the Flamenwerfer was essentially a claw-held tube connected to a back-pack full of highly-flammable liquid; a small pump moved the liquid from the back-pack and through the tube, which was then sprayed towards the target. Since the liquid would ignite on contact with air, the target would be engulfed in a mass of liquid fire. One Griffon commander described them as “ingenious, but monstrous…. if war was a weapon, it would be this.”

The second new corps that had been created was the Cannonade Corps, who were trained to operate a type of self-propelled armoured vehicle (although an extremely crude one by our modern standards). While who exactly invented it is up to debate, there are many sources that describe the design and function of these machines. The aptly named ‘Cannonade Carts’ were essentially large wheeled carts protected by a thick metal dome. Small ports were cut into their sides to allow black-powder cannon mounted inside to be fired out. The whole thing was driven by a rudimentary fuel-pump engine that injected in flammable liquid to create small explosions, which in turn powered the ‘drive arms’ that propelled the vehicle forwards. Although slow and unwieldy, Cannonade Carts were unlike any other type of weapon previously seen in Griffon or Equestrian history.

Having been living in constant expectation of an invasion, the Griffon Kings and Queens were immensely surprised to hear of the revolution and the rise of the New Lunar Republic in 1036LB. Overjoyed by this unexpected turn of events, the leaders of the Twelve Kingdoms met to debate on what should be done next. Should the Griffons stay out of it completely? Or wait until it was over, and then invade, annexing parts of the undoubtedly weakened state? Or should they assist one side against the other?

Ultimately they decided to do none of these things. This short speech by King Paris IV, recorded and preserved by the meeting’s scribe, clearly outlines the Griffon’s decision and their motives for making it.

“My fellow Kings and Queens – while your arguments are both many and engaging, I have an alternative proposition.”

“Since their very creation, our twelve great kingdoms have warred with one another. Although we may have united in times of great peril – such as in recent years – we Griffons have been, for the most part, divided. And divided we were weak, unable to progress, unable to advance, unable even to conquer one another.”

“Our neighbour, Equestria, has known since the beginning the dangers of being divided. That is why, time and time again in our history, they have been able to defeat us. And not just in battle – although they have done that many times. You see, the average Equestrian considers himself more cultured, better educated, healthier and safer than his Griffon counterpart. And that is because Equestria has always been united, as one people, with one purpose.”

“In fact, the average Equestrian considers himself SO MUCH better than us, that he does not even acknowledge our existence! Equestria as a whole does not care for us one bit – after all, we are their closest and oldest neighbour; where are the trade deals? Where are the ambassadors? Where is their renowned SPIRIT OF FRIENDSHIP? It’s not here, that’s for certain!”

“My fellow monarchs, we have to face facts. The Equestrians mock us. They mocked us as weak and barbaric a thousand years ago and, despite our many glorious achievements throughout our illustrious history, they continue to mock us today! But NO LONGER!”

“For today, Equestria is the one who is divided, and we the ones united! Equestria is weak, and we are strong! While their culture and their ‘science’ have stagnated, we have PROGRESSED! The Griffon Kingdoms are stronger than they have ever been, while Equestria is tearing itself apart, and I say – is it not time for revenge? Is it not time to bring those arrogant ponies to their knees? Is it not time to demonstrate to those high-horsed Equestrians that it is WE who are better than THEM?”

“My fellow monarchs – is it not time we conquered Equestria?”

This speech, the scribe avidly records, was met with much agreement throughout, and much applause at its end. It was decided then and there to assemble the newly-enlarged Griffon armies and invade Equestria. Buoyed by King Paris’ speech (which had been edited so that it appeared to address the masses, and then hoofed out to the general public in a leaflet), and their recent advances both economically and technologically, the civilians and soldiers of the Griffon Kingdoms were very much for the war and utterly confident of victory. The expected acquisition of new land and more resources for their expanding economy excited nobles, merchants, entrepreneurs, politicians and ordinary folk alike.

The Griffon armies embarked in their ships during the middle of summer, 1038LB, and set sail. Their first objective was to take a port or coastal city along the east coast of Equestria. It was the hope of the Griffon Kings and Queens that, should this initial assault be successful, their forces could then be reinforced from the sea, before pushing deeper into the heartland of their ancient enemy.

Siege of Manehatten Part 1 – Crossing the Hubson River

A week after the longest day of 1038LB, the forces of Old Equestria arrived at the outskirts of Manehatten. Although the city had no walls, it was clear to the attackers that things would not be as simple as they’d hoped. In fact, the coming battle would turn out to be the second major conflict of the war.

All but one of the bridges across the Hubson River that separated the city from the mainland had been destroyed. The one remaining bridge was overlooked by four impregnable-looking guardhouses and, as Legate Pilum Sternum correctly observed, was no doubt a trap designed to kill as many of the Celestian forces trying to enter the city as possible. The Legate also realised that this meant the defenders had received prior warning of their approach, and had had ample time to prepare; he correctly concluded that the much-hated Nightstrider Brigades were to blame for this.

Sources explicitly state that the Old Equestrian force number almost exactly 27,000 soldiers, including reserves. This number, repeated in a number of different sources, seems to have come from a mare named Diamond Heart; a military administrator from the Crystal Empire, who had served with Legate Sternum since the beginning of his career. Most of the Celestian force was composed of Crystal Warriors, with around 5,000 soldiers from the Royal Guard, a hoof-full of Solar Disciples, and several hundred siege engines. The remaining Wonderbolt Brigades were also present, and are not recorded as being part of the 27,000 soldiers; the sources aren't clear on exactly how many there were, but there could not have been more than a thousand or so - almost certainly there were fewer than that. Overall command of the force was, of course, in the hooves of the Legate.

The Republic forces opposing them originally numbered around 17-18,000 troops, the vast majority of whom were revolutionaries equipped with basic Starbeam rifles, but also included at least two thousand equipped with the new Multibeam rifle (these troops, a Republic military advisor tells us, were attached individually to ordinary squads). Added to that were the 1,200 or so troops from the Nightstrider Brigades, as well as 25 Eclipse Bombard cannons and their crew (although the latter played no part in the battle), bringing the total Republic numbers to around 19-20,000. Despite constant pleads for the Hero of the Republic to take command, General Nightstrider pointedly refused, preferring to go out and fight on the front lines, so General Brownstocking remained in charge.

Sternum wasted no time in beginning the battle. Ordering his siege engines to begin the bombardment (these particular siege engines were trebuchets – wooden constructs, ubiquitously used by Old Equestrian siege forces, that used a massive counterbalance to ‘throw’ boulders and other large missiles through the air), the Legate ordered his ground troops to spread out around the city, to stop any “cowardly revolutionaries” from escaping.

The soldiers of the Republic, holed up in buildings and behind makeshift barricades, prepared themselves for an assault. However, the expected assault did not come. On Legate Sternum’s orders, the Old Equestrian bombardment of the city continued for the remainder of the afternoon, all through the night, and into the following morning. His soldiers worked tirelessly throughout to scour the surrounding area for potential missiles, as well as to actually operate the trebuchets. The bombardment only ended at around midday, when they ran out of objects in the immediate vicinity that they could throw.

Although this had the effect of exhausting a significant proportion of the Legate’s army, the effect on the Republic’s soldiers was utterly devastating. Not only were a great many of their carefully-prepared defences smashed, but the endless whistle of falling boulders had kept almost everypony in Manehatten awake through the fear that they would be hit next. The city itself – thus far untouched by the ravages of the war – was now covered in craters, many of its skyscrapers crushed to rubble, its streets and roadways in ruins.

Mere minutes after the end of the bombardment, Legate Sternum ordered the first 4,000 of his troops to advance. As the ordered ranks of the Crystal Warriors marched towards the one remaining bridge into the city (intentionally untouched by the bombardment), the Old Equestrian soldiers, as previously ordered, formed themselves into a ‘tortoise’ formation. This involved every soldier holding their scuta (large, rectangular shields made out of a tough but lightweight, pumice-like stone, issued to every Crystal Warrior) above their heads, resulting in a kind of interlocking ‘ceiling’ that protected the whole formation from attack from above.

The Republican soldiers garrisoned in the bridge’s four guardhouses began firing a rain of shots down at the advancing troops, but to no avail. The Crystal Warrior’s tough scuta protected them from the revolutionaries’ attack, allowing them to march across the bridge and into Manehatten unharmed.

Legate Sternum then formed up the rest of his assault troops into 4,000 strong ‘tortoise’ columns, and then sent them one after the other into the city. The revolutionaries in the guardhouses were no doubt embarrassed and dismayed as, powerless, they were forced to watch the enemy march straight past them. Cut off from the rest of Republic’s forces and surrounded by marching Crystal Warriors, these 600-or-so well dug-in troops played no further part in the battle.

A recently discovered piece of evidence suggests that, amongst these 600 soldiers, was a young Sergeant named Moonlight Sonata – later known and feared as High Marshal Sonata, who would one day lead the New Lunar Republic’s forces in the final battle of the Sundering of Equestria. But that would not be for some time.

Siege of Manehatten Part 2 – Tightening the Noose

The leader of the Republic’s forces, General Brownstocking, had hoped that the troops in the bridge’s guardhouses would have at the very least slowed down the enemy advance, and at best caused them significant casualties. Realising that this had not happened, Brownstocking ordered his troops in the outskirts of Manehatten to adopt a series of ‘flexible’ lines of defence. In effect, this meant that his soldiers would be constantly and gradually falling back from the advancing Crystal Warriors, but doing so in an orderly way and firing at the enemy the entire time.

This, Brownstocking hoped, would prevent his forces from having to fight in close-combat with the Old Equestrians – something that the Battle of Canterlot had taught them would end in disaster – and result in a high number of casualties for the enemy, compared to only a few for the Republic.

This did mean, however, that a lot of ground would be sacrificed to the enemy. General Nightstrider therefore volunteered to lead his Brigades to the area behind the advancing Celestians, and launch guerrilla attacks against their rear. Brownstocking agreed, and Nightstrider left with his troops. It would be the last time the two Generals saw each other.

Initially, Brownstocking’s plan worked perfectly. Although heavily-armoured, the advancing Crystal Warriors were very slow-moving compared to the lightweight revolutionaries, and so the Republican soldiers were able to keep out of reach of the Warriors’ halberds whilst still maintaining a high level of fire. It is a testament to the Crystal Warriors’ high level of training that they maintained their formations and continued their inexorable advance, rather than break ranks and pursue, in the face of such aggravation.

The losses for the attackers at this stage of the battle are generally considered by historians to have been very high, but recent evidence suggests that this is merely misinterpretation. The Crystal Warriors did not suffer extremely high casualties, but merely lost a proportionally higher number of soldiers than their enemies; overall casualties for both sides during the advance were very low, being estimated at around a thousand for Old Equestria, and barely a few hundred for the Republic - if that.

Unfortunately for the defenders, as the hours passed, the soldiers of the Republic were running out of room into which to retreat. The Old Equestrian forces had, as ordered by their Legate, spread out once they’d entered the Manehatten, and had effectively surrounded the revolutionaries in a semi-circle, with the defenders’ backs to the ocean. At this point, Legate Sternum ordered his troops to “tighten the noose”.

With the Republic troops being forced into an ever-smaller area centred on the Manehatten Spire – one of the few skyscrapers remaining after the initial bombardment, and the command centre of the revolutionary forces – the Legate ordered his troops to halt and form an unbreakable cordon of troops. He then ordered his army’s siege weapons to be moved closer to the city, in preparation for another bombardment. Sternum’s plan in doing this was twofold; but, to the hidden Nightstrider Brigades, only his intention of bombarding the city centre was apparent.

The Old Equestrian trebuchets were pulled up to the very edge of the Hubson River; setting up began immediately, under the watchful eye of only 800 Crystal Warriors, and those were very spread out. General Nightstrider, confident that Legate Sternum was once again being both careless and overconfident, personally led his remaining Brigades across the Hubson River, and descended on the unprepared trebuchet operators en masse.

Unfortunately for General Nightstrider, this was exactly what the Legate had been expecting him to do.

Thanks to his Solar Disciples’ magic, Legate Sternum had been able to conceal approximately 7-8,000 of his reinforcements from the would-be ambushers’ sight. When Nightstrider emerged from the shadows the riverbank and personally led the charge towards the trebuchets, Legate Sternum ordered his own ambush troops to advance, thereby breaking the Solar Disciple’s enchantment.

Acting fast, the Old Equestrians fell on the surprised Nightstrider Brigades before they could react. Approximately 700 of Nightstrider’s troops were killed in this extremely brief battle; General Nightstrider himself was identified by an enemy soldier and captured. In comparison, less than a dozen Crystal Warriors fell. The remaining 500 or so Republican soldiers fled from the field of battle, and escaped into a nearby forest. Although their leader had been captured, the Nightstrider Brigades would continue on.

The Siege of Manehatten Continued

Siege of Manehatten Part 3 – The General’s Martyrdom

Whilst the siege engineers went back to setting up their trebuchets, and eventually commencing the bombardment of the city centre, General Nightstrider (bound and disarmed) was brought before Legate Sternum.

In his command tent outside the city, the Legate made a speech, recorded for posterity by Diamond Heart, in front of his commanders and his defeated foe. The account that follows was widely believed at the time by the ponies of the Republic as actually happening, but only recently has it been confirmed as fact.

“Nightstrider. At last. You and your pesky Brigades have toyed with me ever since I led this army over the Crystal Mountains and into Equestria proper. You have been a thorn in my side for far too long - to pull you out, I even diverted my entire army to attack this Celestia-forsaken city. And now, at last, I have the great satisfaction of finally meeting my nemesis in the flesh.”

“Your cause is lost, Nightstrider. Even now our siege engines are raining down death and destruction upon your last stronghold in Manehatten. Then the pattern will be repeated, until every last town, village, and hamlet has been returned to the leadership of the true ruler of Equestria.”

According to Diamond Heart, Nightstrider muttered something at this point, but nopony other than Pilum Sternum heard him.

“No, I don’t think so. Miss Heart, make a note; when we return to Canterlot in triumph after this victory, I want Nightstrider here wrapped in chains, pulled behind my chariot. Any other prisoners we take will follow behind their beloved ‘Hero of the Republic’.”

“Fellow commanders, mark this day! For this is the day the war turns against the New Lunar Republic. With this so-called ‘hero’ in chains and paraded before the Princess, the common ponies of Equestria will know, as Nightstrider now knows, that their cause is lost.”

“They will return to the light, and then everything… everything will go back to the way it used to be.”

At this point, Diamond Heart records, Nightstrider broke free of his bonds and – with a cry of “Long Live the Republic!” – stabbed the Legate in the throat with a knife he’d previously hidden. As Sternum collapsed to the ground, “gurgling his last”, the Legate’s bodyguards leapt into action and cut off Nightstrider’s head with a single sweep of their halberds. The two acrimonious enemies died within seconds of each other.

The knowledge of this event somehow leaked out to the War Council of the Republic (even today historians are not sure exactly how, but the general consensus was that some kind of magic was involved), and General Nightstrider – Hero of the Republic – became the revolution’s most popular martyr.

The impact of Legate Sternum’s death on the battle, however, was negligible. His second-in-command, a relatively inexperienced mare named Cinnamon Pearl, immediately took command. She and her new subordinates merely followed Sternum’s existing plan for the remainder of the battle.

Meanwhile, General Brownstocking was watching, powerless, as yet more missiles rained down upon his severely-confined forces, which, having taken shelter behind Manehatten’s final defensive cordon, were easy targets for the Celestian artillery. Unable to counter-attack without risking close-combat with the Crystal Warriors, things for Brownstocking looked bleak. Victory for Old Equestria, it seemed, was assured.

It was at this point, however, on the evening of the second day of the battle, that the ships of the United Griffon Assault Fleet became visible on the horizon.

Siege of Manehatten Part 4 – The Griffons Arrive

While previous historians have put the Griffon Kingdoms fleet at around 50 strong (with each ship capable of holding around 600 soldiers, that gives us a total of 30,000 soldiers), and composed entirely of the enormous ‘Lion-O-War’ wooden frigates, recent evidence suggests otherwise. In fact, only around 40 of the fleet’s ships were Lions-O-War, giving a much more likely estimate of 24,000 troops. This mistake in numbers seems to have arisen from the omission in many of the sources of the 10 or so empty ‘Yawners’.

Yawners (instrumental to the following account, as well as to the Griffon’s other naval ventures) were small but heavily-armoured metal ships that were pulled along by the larger wooden frigates, as they had to rely on a primitive fuel-pump engine that could only power the craft for a few minutes. The Yawners would be empty of soldiers until the fleet neared its objective, when troops would fly down from the frigate and fill up the closest metal boat. These craft were called Yawners because they were designed to beach themselves on an enemy coastline, before their prows would open (like a giant beak ‘yawning’) and disgorge the soldiers contained within, who would then commence the assault.

In dual command of the assault fleet was a naval commander, the colourful Rear-Admiral Huette, and a separate commander for the land-assault force. This second Griffon was none other than the famous Baron Von Clawtoven. Well-known nowadays as one of the Sundering of Equestria’s great personalities (and often erroneously portrayed in films and books as a dastardly, moustache-twirling villain), this was the battle in which the unconventional Von Clawtoven made a name for himself.

The United Griffon Assault Fleet finally reached Manehatten on the dawn of the third day of the siege. The centre of the city had been suffering from the Old Equestrians’ trebuchet bombardment on-and-off for almost the entire night, but the resolute soldiers of the Republic still held onto most of the seaward half of the city. They were therefore horrified to find that, as the sun rose, they began to be bombarded from the ocean.

The few buildings in Manehatten that were thus far undamaged were located mainly around the docks, and it was these buildings that suffered the most from the Griffon fleet’s cannon-fire. Although mostly unoccupied, the few soldiers and spotters residing in these buildings were soon torn apart by the Griffons’ new explosive cannonballs, or crushed to death when the building they were taking shelter in collapsed on top of them. After merely half-an-hour of this, the area immediately around the docks had been effectively flattened into a kind of ‘beach’ composed of rubble.

General Brownstocking and his commanders, holed up in a reinforced bunker below the Manehatten Spire, weren’t sure how to react to this. The Celestians might cease their bombardment and begin their attack any moment, but now the General had to fight a battle on two fronts. Brownstocking hastily ordered his few remaining precious reinforcements to the docks, to try to fight off the inevitable seaborne assault. Sources indicate that he sent only two or three thousand troops to do this.

An oft-discounted source that has been recently proven to be genuine and of great importance, tells us that General Brownstocking and his commanders had known about the approaching fleet since it had appeared on the horizon the previous day. There is no doubt that they knew the fleet was Griffon; endless numbers of sources can confirm that every griffon frigate proudly and constantly displayed the flag of the Twelve Kingdoms from their highest mast. This then begs the question – why did the Republic commanders not react to their approach?

One often put-forward argument is that Brownstocking simply did not have enough troops with which to deal with this new threat. After all, he was already under attack from the land – but the lack of any activity at all towards seeing off the griffons seems to discount this. In fact, until the Griffon fleet began its bombardment, Brownstocking hadn’t given any orders relating to the approaching fleet. The conclusion drawn, therefore, is that Brownstocking and his commanders identified the approaching fleet as hailing from the Griffon Kingdoms, and then simply discounted it. This would not be the last time that the Equestrians’ inexplicable disregard for the Griffons would lead to their downfall.

Siege of Manehatten Part 5 – Dual Assaults

Mere minutes after the Griffon bombardment ended, the Old Equestrian’s bombardment ended as well. The forces of the New Lunar Republic were therefore in the ill-fated position of being under simultaneous assault by two different forces from two different directions – or at least they were, for about an hour.

The Crystal Warriors’ assault quickly overran the revolutionaries’ already weakened defences and, sources tell us, rapidly slaughtered the Republican forces. Although they put up a much better fight than they had at the Battle of Canterlot, the revolutionaries remained no match for the highly-trained Old Equestrian soldiers at close range. Within minutes, the attacker’s vanguard had reached the defenders’ last line of barricades, right in front of the Manehatten Spire.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, the Griffons’ Yawners had been dispatched. The metal craft smashed their way through the dock’s meagre flood defences with their powerful (but short-lived) engines and beached themselves on the rubble at the edge of the city, just as they’d been designed to do. The Yawners’ speed and thick metal plating proved resistant to the Republican forces’ Starbeam and Multibeam rifles, and every one of the ten assault craft made it onto the ‘beach’ undamaged. The first action of the Griffon soldiers, once the Yawners had opened up, was to march out and release two timed volleys of musket-fire into the defenders.

This devastating tactic of ranked musket-fire, combined with the shock of the assault – nopony in Equestria had ever seen or heard of an amphibious attack like this before – quickly scattered the revolutionaries, who fled in a disorganised fashion back into the ruined city. The griffons, at the urging of Baron Von Clawtoven (who, in true griffon tradition, was in the front lines as part of the initial assault wave), pressed their advantage and continued forwards. A messenger was sent back to the fleet to tell the Rear Admiral of the Baron’s success and to tell him to send in the second and third waves – troops that would enter the city, unprotected, via the air, and further wooden boats that would carry the griffon’s heavy cannon to shore.

The two forces – Old Equestrians and Griffons – met one another in the assault on Manehatten Spire. With the Republican forces all but annihilated by the force of the dual assaults, Manehatten quickly became a battleground between the waves of Griffon Kingdoms’ soldiers attacking from the sea, and the slowly-advancing blocks of Crystal Warriors advancing from the land.

Although the Crystal Warriors remained superior in close-combat – many units of griffon musketeers found themselves torn to pieces by the second or third rank of their armoured foes before they could reload for another volley – ultimately it was the advanced technology of the griffons and the rapidity of their assault that won the day. Though only a few hundred of them were present in the battle (different sources give different numbers), the griffon’s Flamenwerfers were decisive in destroying the tightly-packed formations of Crystal Warriors, and sending most who saw them fleeing (considering the harsh training and tough dispositions of the average Celestian soldier, this was no mean feat). Similarly, the five Cannonade Carts that were present in the battle, although not credited with many kills, were certainly terrifying to the Crystal Warriors, who had never seen anything like them before, and appeared to be utterly impervious to all of their weapons.

After a few hours of bloody fighting, the Old Equestrians were in full retreat. The new Legate, Cinnamon Pearl, ordered her few remaining reserve units (the only units still at full strength) to form a rearguard to hold off the advancing griffons while she lead the rest of the army away. Amongst these reserves were the remaining Wonderbolts – it is generally believed that Legate Pearl was unaware that she was sending in these elite and indisputably irreplaceable flyers.

In one of the most poetic moments of the war, the few hundred remaining Wonderbolts made their stand in the air, above the 1,000 or so Crystal Warriors chosen to fight on the ground; modern estimates tell us that they faced a griffon vanguard of around 8,000 troops, including at least 50 Flamenwerfers and two Cannonade Carts, and led in person by Baron Von Clawtoven. Nevertheless, these few brave souls fought for over an hour against an overwhelming enemy force. By the end of this valiant rearguard action, almost 90% of them were dead, or at least in no condition to continue fighting. The remaining ten percent were Crystal Warriors that, upon seeing that they’d fought on long enough for the rest of their army to get away, reluctantly surrendered.

The Wonderbolts were wiped out. Their leader, several sources can confirm, died in personal combat with Baron Von Clawtoven. The Griffon Kingdoms commander would later honour this unnamed fighter in his memoirs, describing her as “the bravest foe I have ever faced, and most loyal to their cause”. Von Clawtoven personally ensured that she and her companions were buried with full honours after the battle, much to the disgruntlement of the Baron’s superiors.

At this point in his memoirs, the Von Clawtoven also makes a cryptic reference to an “Element” being lost in this same rearguard action, but whether this refers to the griffon’s losses or the size of the enemy force they were fighting is unknown. There are no other sources that pertain to this, written about or during the Siege, and thus the Baron's claim is impossible to corroborate, even if modern historians actually knew what it meant. It is, as with prior and subsequent mentions of ‘Elements’, a complete mystery.

Siege of Manehatten Part 6 – Losses and Impact

With the forces of Old Equestria in full retreat back towards the capital, and the last remains of the previous occupiers wiped out (General Brownstocking and his remaining troops at the Manehatten Spire chose to fight to the death rather than surrender, for reasons that remain unknown), the armies of the Griffon Kingdoms were the undisputed victors of this monumental three-day battle. Despite the devastation done to the city, Manehatten’s docks were still in mostly-working order, and the greater part of the griffon fleet unloaded there. Three ships were sent back to the Griffon Kingdoms to report on their victory and to request reinforcements to take the whole of Equestria. Manehatten would act as the griffon’s primary port and the entry-place for their reinforcements for the rest of the war.

The estimated casualties for the Griffon Kingdoms are very low indeed. While some sources claim that their losses were as low as a hundred, more reliable evidence puts their dead and wounded at around 2,100-2,500; still extremely light for the intensity of the battle. Most historians credit this to the suddenness of the griffon assault, and the terror their weapons caused amongst the enemy ranks.

The Celestian forces suffered significantly higher losses but, thanks to the accurate record-keeping of Diamond Heart, we now know the precise figures. Of the 27,000 soldiers that marched on Manehatten, exactly 9,783 are recorded as killed or missing in action (almost certainly, this number also covers those taken prisoner). This is including the Crystal Warriors who fought in the rearguard, but not the Wonderbolts, whose exact numbers remain unknown. It is generally believed that most of these casualties were suffered during the final assault on the New Lunar Republic defences, and consequent griffon attack, in the latter stages of the battle.

The Republican forces suffered by far the highest losses of the battle. Not only were both their commanders killed, but almost their entire army was wiped out, trapped as it was between the two attacking forces. Of their starting number of approximately 19-20,000 troops, an estimated 1,050 soldiers survived. This figure is an amalgamation of the numbers of the only two known surviving groups of soldiers; the 550 survivors from the Nightstrider Brigades, and the 600 revolutionaries in the bridge’s guardhouses, who made their escape under the cover of the Old Equestrians’ chaotic retreat. Among these, as we now know, was the soldier who would later become feared as High Marshal Moonlight Sonata; it is believed that her inability to influence the outcome this battle had a significant impact on her personality.

This unexpected result of the Siege of Manehatten, and the entry of the Griffon Kingdoms into the war, forced both Princess Celestia and her government, and the War Council of the Republic, to make a number of changes to their armies and plans.

Perhaps stung by the failure of her forces’ offensive, Celestia made the decision to withdraw her forces even more into the cities still under her control; she ordered new defences to be built, and existing defences to be reinforced. The infrastructure, administration and agriculture of these tightly-packed zones were even more rigidly controlled, to ensure maximum productivity in all areas of Old Equestrian society, at the cost of all remaining civil liberties.

Despite this second catastrophic defeat, and the emergence of a new foe, the Council of the New Lunar Republic resolved to fight on, inspired by Nightstrider’s heroic sacrifice. In response to the heavy armour of their Celestian foes, and as-yet unconfirmed reports of armoured vehicles being used by the Griffon forces, the Council diverted more of their resources towards producing new weaponry. The most successful and widespread of these new weapons was known as the Eclipse Hoof-Cannon; this powerful but slow-firing gun is considered historically to have been the epitome of magic-crystal-powered technology. Small numbers of them became available to the Republic’s troops at the beginning of 1039LB, along with the decidedly-superior Type 3 version of the Starbeam rifle, which was also designed to deal with small numbers of heavily-armoured targets.

All three of these factions – Old Equestria, the New Lunar Republic, and the Griffon Kingdoms – realised shortly after the battle that, in order to have the best chance of winning this war, they would need an ally. After the Siege of Manehatten, there was no way any of these three sides could have allied with one another, so the only and most obvious choice for an alliance was, of course, the World Empire.

With a group of Republican diplomats already awaiting their arrival in a town near to Horseshoe Bay, the Griffons and Celestians both dispatched their own diplomats to the area. Under a white banner of temporary truce, these three delegations waited for the arrival of the Imperial expeditionary force, and prepared their arguments. The World Empire’s decision in this forthcoming conference would have an enormous impact on the war – but, as it turned out, not in a way any of the delegates could have imagined.

The World Empire Arrives and The Changelings Attack

The World Empire Arrives

The World Empire’s expeditionary force arrived at Horseshoe Bay at the beginning of autumn, 1039LB. To the amazement of both the ambassadors and the locals, this ‘minor’ expeditionary force from a mere three Provinces numbered approximately 500,000 soldiers. This is not including vehicles and artillery crews, precise numbers for which are unavailable.

Although this may seem an impossibly large number (and previous historians have long disputed its likelihood of being the true number), the administrators of the World Empire are renowned amongst historians for their accuracy and precise detail, and – since sources from their side give this figure – 500,000 seems to have been the actual strength of this force. Also, if one considers that not all these troops were active military personnel (the expeditionary force almost certainly included military administrators and those who worked in the processing units, for example), then this number becomes much more reasonable.

Furthermore, a local witnesses described a “great wall of iron ships… stretching from horizon to horizon” approaching Horseshoe Bay, and “endless numbers of stallions in pale grey uniform” disembarking once the fleet arrived. Other local sources give various other poetic over-exaggerations, all on the same theme of great numbers of troops. When one also considers the World Empire’s view of ‘more is better’, applied in almost every aspect of Imperial society, then it seems likely that there were, indeed, half a million Imperial soldiers on Equestrian soil in the autumn of 1039LB.

In overall command of this force was Ambassador-General Doctrinaire, an old pony with a great deal of battle experience, although exactly where he gained this experience is unknown (the pony recording this information makes a reference to another, much older Imperial source, which, as a Saddle Arabian and therefore not part of the Empire, I have been unable to acquire). His rank, although it sounds unusual, is a common one in the World Empire; it signifies that Doctrinaire had diplomatic authority as well as military command.

Amongst his many, many officers was one Captain Staid – later Colonel Staid – who would eventually become one of the war’s most famous personalities, particularly in the World Empire. He would also be at the centre of one of the Sundering of Equestria’s greatest mysteries.

The Ambassador-General’s first order to his troops was to establish a ‘peace zone’. Supposedly this was done in order to identify and hedge out any hostile soldiers or anarchists, but in effect Doctrinaire’s orders were to take over the entire area immediately around Horseshoe Bay. Fortunately, the local towns had remained mostly neutral throughout the previous years of conflict, not siding openly with either Old Equestria or the Republic, and considered the war mostly a distant problem. There was therefore no struggle between the towns’ residents and the Imperial troops, who now declared themselves to be in charge “over and above any local or national authority”. The locals were then processed without much trouble – it therefore seems reasonable to assume that none of them were Discordians – and were allowed to remain in their homes mostly undisturbed.

Imperial Diplomacy

The ambassadorial delegations from the other factions, upon seeing Imperial troops marching through the streets, peaceably requested the foreign troops to take them to their commander. Having expected representatives from the local factions to come forth, Doctrinaire agreed to see them but, much to the annoyance of all three delegations, he insisted that he speak with all three at the same time, on board the expeditionary force’s flagship, HIMS Command.

What followed, as many historians have commented, was more akin to a court hearing than a diplomatic meeting. The three delegations were forced to argue their point of view and righteousness of their cause against one another, ‘adjudicated’ by the Ambassador-General. An Imperial device known as a Phonograph – an old piece of Imperial technology that used wax cylinders to record and replay sound – was present during the proceedings, and recorded the entire meeting. Transcribed here in its entirety, with a small amount of historical deduction in the form of edited notes, is that recording.

[Scratching noise]

Unnamed adjutant: The Phonograph is recording, sir.

Doctrinaire: Excellent. [Clears throat] Speaking now is Ambassador-General Doctrinaire of the Imperial expeditionary force to Equestria, and official representative of the World Empire in Equestria. I speak with the full authority of the Emperor. Starting on my far left, could the speakers of the three parties please state their names and roles.

Lacklustre: [Hesitates, possibly due to being unfamiliar with Imperial technology] Ambassador Lacklustre, speaking on behalf of the War Council of the New Lunar Republic.

De Auvin: Ambassador Austin De Auvin, servant of the High King. I speak on behalf of the twelve rulers of the Griffon Kingdoms.

Cloutus: I am Ambassador Cloutus, and I speak with the authority of Her Highness Princess Celestia, one true ruler of Equestria. And furthermore I do not recognise the authority of this so-called Republic; I demand you remove this charlatan at once-

Doctrinaire: [Amidst angry shouts, presumably from the Republic delegation] Be silent! The World Empire has not yet recognised any of your leaders as having a legitimate claim to ruling this country; that is what this enquiry is here to decide.

Lacklustre: ‘Enquiry’?

Doctrinaire: I will begin the proceedings with the obvious. Ambassador Lacklustre, I am aware that your War Council initiated a revolution against Equestria’s erstwhile ruler, Princess Celestia. While the World Empire does not condone revolutionary action, I am aware that there were some mitigating circumstances. Please describe for me, as concisely as possible, your Council’s motives for initiating this action.

Lacklustre: Well… [Pause, possible shuffling of paper] Ambassador, the revolution was not a prearranged, deliberate action. It was a popular movement by the ponies of Equestria – the War Council is merely a collection of the most prominent political revolutionaries that we have allowed, by popular consent, to lead and organise the revolutionary effort.

[Angry mutterings, most likely from Cloutus]

Doctrinaire: I see. And what was this ‘popular movement’ a reaction to?

Lacklustre: The harsh and oppressive rule of the Solar Tyrant-

[Uproar as several voices begin to argue vehemently. Somepony, presumably Doctrinaire, bangs his hoof on the table to restore silence]

Doctrinaire: Please keep opinions out of this, Ambassador Lacklustre. We already have some examples of what Princess Celestia has done to her people, recorded by our agents in previous years. Ambassador Cloutus, do you have any justification for your monarch’s actions prior to the revolution?

Cloutus: Discordians, Ambassador. Eight years ago, an assassin hired by a Discordian cell killed our beloved Princess Twilight Sparkle-

Lacklustre: That was never proven! [An argument breaks out in the background, presumably between the Old Equestrians and the Republicans. Lacklustre speaks louder] We in the Republic know the truth! The Solar Tyrant arranged the whole thing!

Doctrinaire: Silence! [Silence] Ambassador Cloutus, please continue – and please stick to confirmable facts. As I have said, there is no room for opinion or unnecessary emotion in this enquiry.

Cloutus: Well then, as I was saying… after the assassination, the Discordian cells began to orchestrate protests and demonstrations against Princess Celestia, playing on the greed, jealousy and other base motives of the common ponies to gain support for their cause. The Princess’ crackdowns may have been harsh, but they were no harsher than was necessary. And you have my personal assurance, Ambassador-General, that nopony was executed that wasn’t proven guilty as a Discordian in a court of law.

Doctrinaire: Ambassador Lacklustre, do you have something you wish to say?

Lacklustre: Indeed I do! Ambassador Cloutus is speaking complete rubbish! For one thing, that last statement of his is a complete lie! And- and besides, there’s no evidence that the Discordians were behind any of this!

Doctrinaire: No, Ambassador Cloutus, you will remain silent. Please continue, Ambassador Lacklustre.

Lacklustre: Thank you. You see, the Republic believes – as do I – that Celestia’s attack on Discordianism was nothing more than an excuse to gain more power and seize wealth from the people. The Discordians are merely harmless scapegoats who have never intended any harm to anypony, selected by Celestia as an easy target because of their outlandish ways. And furthermore-

Doctrinaire: One moment, Ambassador. Could you please repeat that last sentence?

Lacklustre: Um… may I ask why?

Doctrinaire: Just for the record. If you would be so kind?

Lacklustre: As you wish. [Clears throat] The Discordians are merely harmless scapegoats who have never intended any harm to anypony-

Doctrinaire: Hmm, I suspected as much from the moment you walked into the room. Guards, Ambassador Lacklustre has been infected. Arrest the entire Republic delegation and take them to the industrial processing unit. Kill them immediately if they resist.

Lacklustre: What? Processing? [Sounds of movement and ponies struggling] But I’m a diplomat – I have immunity! You can’t-!

[Sounds of indecipherable shouts and hoof-steps, the latter presumably of the guards. Sounds of what are most likely bodies being forcibly dragged out of the room, followed by a door being closed]

Doctrinaire: For the record, Ambassador Lacklustre and his delegation have been removed from the room following suspected Discordian infection, and have been taken to the nearest re-education facility for processing. And, as per Imperial policy, the evidence and arguments submitted by the infected party must be considered null and void, to avoid intellectual contamination.

Cloutus: [Clears throat] Does this mean then that Princess Celestia is to be recognised as the legitimate ruler of Equestria?

Doctrinaire: The enquiry has not yet decided on that, Ambassador. Nevertheless, based on the remaining admissible evidence, we must assume that the emergence of the New Lunar Republic is somehow connected to the emergence of Discordianism here in Equestria. The War Council of the Republic is hereby declared unfit to rule, pending processing.

De Auvin: Ambassador-General, if the previous incident is now over, may I be allowed to say my piece?

Doctrinaire: Indeed, Ambassador. Your patience and calm composure reflects well on both your Kingdoms and your own person. But before you speak your piece, I have a question.

De Auvin: As you wish. What is your question?

Doctrinaire: Ambassador De Auvin, upon my arrival in Equestria I was informed that your country, the Griffon Kingdoms, had unlawfully and without provocation invaded these domains. How do you intend to defend these actions?

De Auvin: Are you aware of the history and relationship between my country and Equestria, Ambassador?

Doctrinaire: Indeed I am, and I assume you are referring to the ancient feud between your two countries. Is this feud the Griffon Kingdoms’ sole motive for this unlawful activity?

De Auvin: The feud is the common Griffon’s motives for supporting the invasion, yes, but I can assure you it is not the motive of the Twelve Kings.

[Cloutus mutters something. Presumably it is derogatory or insulting, because De Auvin responds with a short ‘hm’ noise. Doctrinaire does not appear to hear]

De Auvin: My country’s true motives are, I believe, much the same as yours, Ambassador. It is the intention of the Griffon Kingdoms to restore order to Equestria.

Cloutus: What?!

Doctrinaire: Ambassador Cloutus, for the last time, do not interrupt! Ambassador De Auvin, you may continue.

De Auvin: Thank you. You must understand; the people of the Griffon Kingdoms are not as… emotionally-motivated as the people of Equestria. It has spared our land from the blight of the Changeling Swarm, who prefer to feed on our emotionally malleable neighbours instead-

Doctrinaire: [Quietly aside, while De Auvin speaks] Adjutant, make a note to investigate these ‘Changelings’ I keep hearing about.

De Auvin: - and now from the dangers of Discordianism, which, I must confess, our people had not even heard of until a few months ago. I can say with a great deal of certainty that it has not, ah, ‘infected’ the Griffon Kingdoms. In seeing the current state of Equestria, our leaders merely wish to… correct the failings of our neighbours.

Doctrinaire: Hmm. This is good news, Ambassador. It’s clear to me that the World Empire and the Griffon Kingdoms have no quarrel with one another.

[Grumpy-sounding noise, most likely from Cloutus]

De Auvin: I take it then that you have no objection to the Griffon presence in Equestria?

[Pause]

Doctrinaire: That is not the case. The mission of the World Empire in this country is to restore order and unity to Equestria, at any cost. While we are appreciative of your attempts to do the same, Ambassador De Auvin, it would be best for the Griffons to withdraw from Equestria. There is no need to risk Discordian infection amongst your soldiers, and we wish to avoid any instances in which one of our parties gets under the others’ hooves – or claws.

De Auvin: I see.

Doctrinaire: After this operation is over, it is my sincere hope for good relations between our two countries. Please pass this message on to your leaders.

Cloutus: So, Ambassador-General, does this mean that Princess Celestia is being recognised as the legitimate ruler of Equestria?

Doctrinaire: No. Ambassador Cloutus, please tell your Princess that she and her government have fifteen days to surrender her forces to the World Empire and submit both herself and her people to Imperial processing. After we have completed our operation here, and if the Princess is found clean of infection, then the World Empire will restore her to her previous position as the ruler of Equestria.

Cloutus: …And if we refuse?

Doctrinaire: Then we will consider that a declaration of war against the World Empire, and I will act accordingly. Likewise, Ambassador De Auvin, the armies of the Griffon Kingdoms have fifteen days in which to declare their intentions to withdraw.

De Auvin: I take it that, if the Kings’ Council should also refuse, the World Empire will declare war on the Griffon Kingdoms as well?

Doctrinaire: That would only be fair. But it is the hope of both myself and the Empire that your two parties will see reason and make good on these requests. The World Empire seeks only to quell Discordianism and prevent its spread – there is no need to make this expedition’s duty any harder than it already is. I hope I have made the Empire’s position clear.

[Pause]

Doctrinaire: If none of the representatives have anything further to say, then I hereby declare this enquiry over. Long live the Emperor.

World Empire Guards and Adjutants: [As one] Long live the Emperor.

[Scratching noise]

The Messengers Return

Neither Cloutus nor De Auvin had achieved what they their leaders had desired. They returned, escorted by still-technically-neutral Imperial soldiers, to their respective territories.

Upon hearing of Doctrinaire’s request, Princess Celestia was supposedly so filled with rage and indignation that she struck down the luckless Ambassador Cloutus where he stood. While there is some debate as to whether this actually happened (another source tells us that Cloutus died several days after his return, from a sudden illness), Celestia was indeed furious. Knowing of the Empire’s love for rules and order, she had expected the World Empire to support her – the legitimate ruler of Equestria – against the rebels, but was almost astonished by their apparently single-minded focus on controlling the Discordian ‘outbreak’. Despite protests from the rest of her government, Celestia refused to surrender to the Empire and submit to their ‘processing’. She sent orders to her generals in the other cities under her control to treat the Imperial forces as hostiles, and to fight them as fiercely as they would the forces of the revolution.

Austin De Auvin’s return caused somewhat more debate in the Griffon Kingdoms. The Kings’ Council met to discuss their next actions. The rulers of the Griffon Kingdoms eventually concluded that the World Empire was too focused on “whoever these Discordian-things are” (to quote the words of Queen Sotte) to worry much about the Griffon invasion of Equestria. Besides, they told each other, since there was absolutely no risk of anarchy suddenly ‘breaking out’ amongst their own forces (the idea of anarchy as a disease being laughable to them), it seemed unlikely that the Imperial forces would go out of their way to fight them. After Doctrinaire had done whatever it was he was here to do, it was decided, the Griffon Kingdoms could send another ambassador and make peace, hopefully keeping hold of whatever land they’d grabbed in the meantime.

The reaction of the War Council of the New Lunar Republic was one of great consternation. They received their reply slightly later than the other two factions, and in the form of not their ambassador, but a squad of “ten mechanical ponies… Their bodies were made of dull grey metal, and when they moved they spouted steam from every joint, as though fuelled by a roaring fire that stood in place of their hearts.”

These were not actual automatons, of course, but merely members of the World Empire’s elite fighting regiment – the Iron Guard. Equipped with mechanical suits of armour and driven by the Imperial invention of steam-power (small engines were attached to these ponies’ backs, like saddles), they would have indeed resembled some kind of mechanical marvel to the technologically-backward Equestrians of the time. Most historians agree, however, that the Iron Guard were not the strangest sort of soldier at the World Empire’s disposal, as Equestria would soon discover.

The message delivered to the War Council was similar to the one given to Celestia; the New Lunar Republic had fifteen days in which to announce their surrender to the World Empire and submit to processing. Refusal would result in a declaration of war. Shocked by the Empire’s consideration of the apparently-harmless Discordians (and their own ambassador) as a threat to civilisation, as well as the terrifying appearance of the Iron Guard and the emergence of yet another enemy power, the Council took a very long time to make up its mind. Eventually, after three days of near-constant debating, Honorary Councillor Luna made their decision for them.

In the paraphrased words of one of the Council’s guards, who witnessed the event, Honorary Councillor Luna approached the Iron Guard messengers (who, in their enhanced armour, actually stood taller than the alicorn) and informed them that the War Council had rejected their offer. She them told them, in no uncertain terms, where they could “shove it” – ‘it’, of course, being their offer. Offended and somewhat confused, the Iron Guard squad left and reported back to Ambassador-General Doctrinaire that Luna and the entire Council had been infected with Discordianism.

As a result of all this, fifteen or so days later, the World Empire declared war on all three opposing factions. However, it would be some time before Imperial forces were in direct conflict with any of their new enemies.

The Capture of Vanhoover

Thanks to the negotiations with the World Empire, the war had slowed down significantly since their arrival and, after the negotiations failed, took a while to start up again; the result of a particularly harsh winter. While the forces of Old Equestria merely fortified themselves further inside their cities, the New Lunar Republic used the winter months to reorganise their forces, reinforcing those troops (ineffectually) besieging the Old Equestrian cities, and sending more soldiers to the areas near to the Griffon Kingdoms’ and the World Empire’s forces. They also began distributing larger numbers of Multibeam and Type 3 Starbeam rifles to their troops, in preparation for the anticipated renewal of hostilities.

The Griffon Kingdoms advanced their troops into some of the towns and villages surrounding Manehatten, but then stopped for the winter. They spent most the winter months building up their forces and making sure that enough supplies were coming in by sea to stop them from starving. The World Empire meanwhile took over the direct day-to-day running of the area around Horseshoe Bay; according to Imperial figures, they improved production in all areas by 200% and ensured that every civilian received an equal share of food (equivalent in quantity to the rations given to Imperial soldiers). It is unknown exactly how successful this was, but there are no accounts of any ponies dying of starvation, so we must assume that, for the locals, the first months of Imperial occupation were not wholly negative.

Unlike the other factions however, Queen Chrysalis and her Changelings were not idle. Although there are no sources recorded by the Changelings themselves – for obvious reasons – it is likely that, since their failed raid in 1037LB, the Changelings had been building up their forces at an increasingly high rate. Queen Chrysalis seems to have re-evaluated her priorities, and possibly her motives as well. Rather than targeting the increasingly heavily-defended town of Ponyville, she instead switched her sights to a much larger target – the city of Vanhoover – presumably because of the city’s large population and close proximity to the forests in which the Changelings lived.

These facts were utterly unknown to the ponies of Equestria and the various warring factions, until, in the middle of winter 1039LB, a truly gigantic force of Changelings burst out of Equestria’s forests without warning and invaded Vanhoover. There are no accurate records of the Changeling’s exact numbers in this attack – only garbled accounts of “the sky turning black with their numbers” and of “Royal Guard units… outnumbered ten-to-one” – but modern historians have put their number at somewhere between 100,000 and 140,000. Due to accounts of more Changelings entering the city after the battle, the total number is likely to have been much higher.

Vanhoover had successfully resisted the Republican forces’ inept besiegement of the place since 1037LB, but the Old Equestrian forces occupying the city were taken completely by surprise by the all-aerial Changeling assault. Mass aerial assaults are usually discounted by equine commanders due to the massive casualties the assaulting force inevitably suffers (there being no cover from ranged weapons in the air) and the inability of said force to bring in heavy weaponry; but this was of no concern to the Changelings. Concentrated beam- and arrow-fire “brought down hundreds” of the attackers, but such losses were easily ignored by the innumerable armies of the Changeling Swarm. They swiftly broke through the city’s magical defences – none of the sources are quite clear on how they did this, so we must assume it was through sheer force of numbers – and began the battle proper.

Under the direction of Queen Chrysalis herself (at least, according to eyewitnesses; while it may simply have been one of the Swarm Commander caste, Chrysalis’ presence at the battle is not impossible), the Swarm descended on all areas of Vanhoover at once, apparently devoid of any tactics other than ‘overwhelm through numbers’. Although the plan was crude, it was undoubtedly effective. Under the command of General Glimmer, the small defensive force that had been holding the city in the name of Princess Celestia totalled barely 16,000; sufficient to see off the revolutionary force besieging them, but nowhere near enough to fight off the Changeling assault.

Having taken up position on the tallest buildings of Vanhoover, in order that they might have the best line-of-sight to any invading Republicans, the Solar Disciples present in Vanhoover were amongst the first to be overwhelmed. Although there are accounts of “blinding blasts” of magical energy from the rooftops – indications that they at least had time to respond to the invasion – the numbers of Changelings killed by the unicorns were, again, so small as to be inconsequential. The Solar Disciples therefore played only a minor part in this battle.

With his army under attack from every direction at once, and with more of his units separated from the main force and overwhelmed every second, General Glimmer ordered a full-scale retreat from the city. His army was so divided by the attack, however, that the message did not get out to every officer; many individual units and even larger formations of Royal Guard found themselves fighting against overwhelming odds without any support, and under attack from positions they thought were secure. General Glimmer and whatever soldiers he could gather (along with a small number of civilians) fought their way “through a river of ichor” to reach the main gates of Vanhoover.

The besieging Republic force – led by recently-promoted mare, General Shimmer – had watched the Changeling assault from afar with growing trepidation. They’d already sent off a message to the War Council, and were awaiting their orders on what to do next, when General Shimmer spotted the “unbreakable” gates of Vanhoover swinging open, and a small number of their previous opponents fleeing the city.

Fortunately for both the Republican and the surviving Old Equestrian forces, the Changelings did not follow. The reason most generally agreed-upon for this is that Queen Chrysalis had ordered her army to focus on capturing the city and enslaving its inhabitants, rather than to defeat the armed forces there. General Glimmer and the other surviving soldiers (approximately 721 Royal Guardsponies, including the General, but not including any Solar Disciples) immediately surrendered themselves to the revolutionaries, on the condition that the Republican force immediately took them away from Vanhoover.

Seeing still more Changelings pouring into the already-overrun city, General Shimmer agreed. She ordered the prisoners’ weapons and armour to be taken from them and distributed amongst her soldiers (possibly in an attempt to boost morale) and the whole Republic force (numbering around 10,000, but actual estimates vary), without waiting from orders from the Council, retreated to the nearby town of Tall Tale.

Still trapped in Vanhoover were approximately 90,000 defenceless civilians, utterly at the mercy of the Changeling Swarm. It is from the records left behind by the lucky few who survived the occupation of Vanhoover (and sometimes those who didn’t survive), that we in the modern world have gained much of our knowledge about Changeling behaviour and ‘society’ from this time.

Battle for Tall Tale

The under-strength Republic army that had retreated from Vanhoover reached Tall Tale early the next day, and rendezvoused with the local defenders (who had an approximate strength of 4-5,000 revolutionaries). Despite the common portrayal in popular media of these ponies thinking that they were now safe from Changeling attack, in actuality General Shimmer is recorded as telling her soldiers not to be complacent, and to “prepare to face the hordes”.

Historians have long assumed that the New Lunar Republic forces must have prepared some kind of defences, but until very recently, General Shimmer’s exact battle-plan was completely unknown. A recently-discovered amateur report by a local pony, who (perhaps unwisely) decided to stay behind and watch the battle, rather than be evacuated along with the other civilians, gives a vital insight into how the Republic’s forces were deployed.

It seems that Shimmer decided to take advantage of Tall Tale’s natural height and many tall buildings (believed by most modern historians to have been constructed due to the town’s name, rather than the other way around). As opposed to consolidating her forces in one small area to try to negate the Changeling’s numerical advantage – which, Shimmer appears to have realised, wouldn’t have worked anyway – the Republican general stationed her troops in an extremely spread out manner, installing one or two soldiers in every room of every block of flats in the town, with higher concentrations of troops further towards the centre. While this would have been almost tactical suicide against a well-organized army, versus the disorderly Changeling Swarm (who would attack on all fronts at once) it ensured that each revolutionary would effectively be fighting one-on-one against the attacking Changelings.

This principle of defending on the same level as a larger assaulting force was attacking (known colloquially as the ‘Equal-Hoofing’ strategy), rather than concentrating the defensive forces in a small area, is known to have been a technique taught in the Royal Guard schools of Canterlot. Since there is no record of General Shimmer having had any Old-Equestria-style military training, some historians believe that she was in fact taking the advice of the captured General Glimmer. This in turn has led to rumours of Royal Guard soldiers being temporarily released and re-equipped in order to help fight in the upcoming battle against the two factions’ common foe – but, since there is no solid evidence for this, these old rumours must thus remain tales of poetic fancy, rather than actual history.

The Changeling assault did not come immediately, but General Shimmer was right to have prepared her troops immediately. Just as the sun was setting, a Changeling force of approximately 40,000 appeared on the horizon, flying towards Tall Tale. Upon seeing this, the General immediately ordered her ponies to prepare for the assault.

The actual events of the battle are difficult to describe, as it appears that there simply weren’t many. The Changelings began the attack in what was to become their typical fashion – attacking from every direction at once in a buzzing mass, seeking to overwhelm small groups of enemies with large numbers of their own soldiers – but, undoubtedly to the Changelings’ surprise, the soldiers of the Republic held out. Equipped with a mix of Type 3 Starbeam rifles (which, modern tests have shown, could quite easily have punched straight through a Changeling warrior with enough force to injure or kill the one behind it) and the occasional Multibeam rifle (perfectly designed for eliminating large numbers of lightly-armoured enemies), each individual Republican soldier was more than a match for his or her Changeling counterpart.

Thanks to this advantage in weapons technology, and the cramped confines of the buildings in which the revolutionaries chose to fight, the forces of the Republic successfully held back a Changeling force that outnumbered them almost five-to-one.

By the time the sun rose the following morning, 6,800 of the original 14-15,000 Republican troops had been killed or seriously injured. Despite what various films have depicted, the evidence clearly states that the Changelings retreated long before the sun rose, and that General Shimmer was only able to count her army’s losses once daylight had come (hence the common misconception). Although contemporary sources are not very clear on the matter, modern estimates put the Changelings’ losses at around 30-35,000. Since Changelings have often been recorded as not giving up a battle until they are almost out of warriors to fight with, this seems to be a reasonable guess.

Despite her victory, General Shimmer realised that she could not maintain her hold on Tall Tale without calling in significant numbers of reinforcements – and, inevitably, the Changelings would strike again, and in greater numbers. She therefore made the decision to withdraw her forces from the town, along with all the remaining civilians but not, strangely, the captured Royal Guard. It is generally agreed that either the prisoners were killed during the battle, or they managed to escape while their captors were distracted; there are sources that seem to support both arguments. Proponents of the informally-named ‘Equestrian Team-Up’ theory often put forward the idea that General Glimmer and his troops were released by the Revolutionaries after the battle, but this lacks evidence, and the absence of General Glimmer from any subsequent records suggests that he at least must have been killed in the fighting.

Making the decision to withdraw, General Shimmer abandoned the empty city to the Changelings and returned, with all due haste, back to the War Council to give a personal account of what transpired. Many of the soldiers who fought at Tall Tale were promoted for their bravery – Shimmer herself received a medal – and, when put in charge of fresh units, these veterans would become instrumental in later battles against the Changeling Swarm.

Civilian Life during the War

The Home Front Part 1 – Under an Iron Hoof

By the beginning of 1040LB, life for the ordinary citizens of Equestria had changed dramatically since the assassination of 1031LB. In the interests of providing a full and impartial social history of the war, a brief examination will now be made of the various lifestyles, problems, sufferings and achievements made by the common ponies living in different parts of Equestria, during the first months of 1040LB.

Modern estimates put the proportion of Equestrian civilians living in areas under the control of Princess Celestia at around 30-40% of the total population. These citizens, however, were existing in extremely cramped living conditions, as Celestia’s remaining domains consisted mainly of cities under siege.

Life for these ponies was regimented and extremely harsh. In most cities, large areas of below-average-priced housing had been demolished to allow for all-important food to be grown behind the safety of the city walls. This had the effect of making a significant proportion of the cities’ population homeless; these civilians therefore had little choice but to either cram into the houses of their friends or, if their friends had no homes either, to join the Royal Guard. Those with jobs unrelated to the war effort (including such otherwise vital things as civilian healthcare) were forcibly drafted into the factories and forges to produce weapons, armour, tools and equipment for the armies of Old Equestria. Working hours were universally long, and pay almost non-existent, as part of Princess Celestia’s effort to maximise the output of her meagre resources. Working injuries, including severe burns and “impromptu amputations”, were common.

Life was somewhat better for a new unicorn elite that the Sundering of Equestria had inadvertently created. The demand for Solar Disciples had greatly increased over the previous few months – sources suggest that the Princess was planning to use them as a counter to the armoured war-creations of the World Empire and the Griffon Kingdoms – and Celestia’s ‘Solar Schools’ were taking on more and more unicorns. Those ponies with a talent for magic quickly realised their worth, and arrogantly demanded the best food, accommodation and lifestyle available in the wartime cities. This created a kind of new aristocracy that quickly drained the Old Equestrian cities of what little extra resources they possessed.

Riots and attempted coups are surprisingly absent from sources referring to life under Celestian rule, but this does not mean that they did not happen. Possibly they did, and were merely expunged from the government’s records; if riots did occur, then it is certain that they failed. Explanations for why there may have been no attempts to overthrow Celestia within the Old Equestrian cities are many and varied, but most proponents of this argument point to the constant presence of the Royal Guard in every walk of life and, of course, the fear of ‘Celestian Justice’.

Despite large sections of cities being turned over to farming, most of the food produced was given over to the armies and the government, so rationing was still harshly enforced. According to one source, as many as 1,100 ponies had died from starvation by the beginning of 1040LB, and most of those died during that winter. More were to die in the same way as the war dragged on. The source that gives us the aforementioned figure also claims that Princess Celestia, upon hearing of an unexpected bread shortage, jokingly offered the starving ponies a piece of the cake she was eating. However, a different source claims that Celestia made a point to eat the same size and quality meals as her subjects; the exact truth of the matter is therefore unknown.

Overall, Princess Celestia’s interaction with her people is best described as distant. Although she made regular appearances at government meetings, Celestia made extremely few appearances in public. While this may have been for her own safety (those under her rule were not necessarily her supporters), one of her ministers recorded the following.

“She doesn’t hide from them because she’s scared. Far from it. She’s ashamed. She’s filled with regret for what she’s done – the war that she knows she caused. She can’t stand to look into another pony’s eyes and see only burning hatred, where once there was only unconditional adoration. I don’t know if trying times can make great ponies, but they can certainly break them.”

It is unknown how accurate this assessment of Celestia is, but another source tells us that the aforementioned politician was later executed for “libel and treason against Her Highness”. Historians have interpreted this in many ways.

The Home Front Part 2 – Under Free Stars

The ponies living in the areas under the control of the New Lunar Republic were considerably better off than their Celestian counterparts, but by no means were they free of hardships. Due to the War Council’s incessant demand for more pony-power and more weapons with which to equip their troops (large, easily-replaceable armies being one of the main strengths of the Republic), huge numbers of civilians were forcibly drafted into the Republic’s armed forces. Although their armies were initially made up entirely of civilian volunteers and defectors from Old Equestria’s military, the Council decided to introduce regular conscription after the Siege of Manehatten, in order to ensure that their military remained at full strength.

Modern historians estimate that, of those ponies living under the banner of the New Lunar Republic over the whole course of the war, approximately one-fifth were drafted into active military service, and another quarter were forced into working in factories and businesses that directly contributed to the war effort (including armament factories, farms and military hospitals).

The social impact of this was tremendous. By the end of the conflict, there was not a single family that had remained untouched by the war, and for most, achieving victory became a matter of personal import, rather than merely a common national hope. Many historians are therefore quite right in concluding that, of all the factions involved in the Sundering of Equestria, the ordinary citizens of the New Lunar Republic were most desirous of victory.

Of all the various groups contributing to the war effort, the ponies most respected by both the War Council and the common soldier were the scientists. Freed from Princess Celestia’s ancient laws put in place (apparently intentionally) to impede and (very nearly) prevent any technological advancement, the scientists of the Republic managed to quickly perfect magic-crystal technology. Originally intended to be a cheap and easily-accessible power-source by its developers, magic-crystal technology was seized upon early on by the War Council and was used to create a new breed of weapon, with which the Republic could gain an advantage in the war.

It is believed that, by early 1040LB, tests had begun on the first prototype of an entirely new kind of magic-crystal-based weapon. Based on the Hearthstone Engine (the semi-magical device once envisioned to produce limitless amounts of cheap energy, though it was never quite that efficient), and inspired by now-confirmed reports of the Griffon Cannonade Cart, the first Battlecart prototypes came into existence. Although not deployed in battle for quite some time, the Battlecart – this first experimental prototype was dubbed the ‘Type 1 Nocturne’ – was truly a miracle of magic-crystal-based technology. Hovering several inches off the ground and covered in thick armour plating, Republican Battlecarts were intended to be the revolution’s swift-moving (but still heavily-armed) answer to the Griffon Kingdoms’ Cannonade Cart. However, due to setbacks concerning the weapons they were to be equipped with and various other issues, the deployment dates of the first Nocturne Battlecarts were continuously delayed, much to the chagrin of the War Council and their generals.

Meanwhile, in those towns and villages of the Republic that remained distant of the fighting, the new culture of the revolution was thriving. Songs, stories, poems and plays depicting the struggle of the “glorious ponies’ revolution of Equestria” were crafted and swiftly became immensely popular. Many of these works of art still survive today, and are rightly credited with keeping morale high amongst the citizens of the New Lunar Republic throughout the war.

The Home Front Part 3 – In the Claws of the Invaders

Life for Equestrians in the conquered territories was vastly different to elsewhere. Mainly this was due to the invading factions drawing their resources and reinforcements from their own countries (so no Equestrians were forced into factories or conscripted into the army), but the different ways the ‘natives’ were treated by the occupying soldiers gave rise to two very different kinds of localised society.

For the ponies living in the towns and villages around Manehatten, and therefore those under the rule of the Griffon Kingdoms, day-to-day life was truly terrible. With over a thousand years of pent-up racial and national aggression being released, the soldiers of the Griffon Kingdoms wasted no time in enjoying their newfound power over their ancestral enemies. Many ponies were effectively enslaved; taken away from their families, abused and forced to work without breaks or pay for their Griffon ‘masters’, a great number of these ponies were never seen again. There are recorded cases of ponies that objected or tried to hold on to their loved ones being dispassionately killed. Although slavery and the murder of civilians were against the law in all twelve of the Griffon Kingdoms, very few of the officers in charge of army discipline and conduct seemed interested in stopping these abhorrent actions, and in fact many officers seemed to have indulged in them.

Food was regularly taken from ponies’ homes, as were numerous other possessions, whenever a Griffon soldier felt like taking it, either as an interesting trophy or to supplement their rations. When combined with the fierceness of the winter, this resulted in a number of ponies dying of starvation. Eventually these practices of theft, murder and slavery (and most likely worse) were reported to the civilian authorities back in the Griffon Kingdoms, and these things came to a gradual end. However, during the winter of 1039-40LB, an estimated 3,400 civilians starved to death or were either killed or made into slaves by the Griffon occupiers.

In the area around Horseshoe Bay, things could not have been more different. While the majority of the World Empire’s expeditionary force spent the winter of 1039-40LB constructing intricate defences and acclimatising themselves to the foreign land they now found themselves in, they did this at a great social distance to the local ponies, who were not unduly effected by the Empire’s defensive and constructive efforts.

There was inevitably some impact on the Equestrian ponies’ everyday life, however. With the Empire having assumed the role of local government, squads of Imperial soldiers were ordered to patrol the streets and act, in all respects, like police-ponies. Since most Imperials did not speak the local language, officers of the expeditionary force were taught basic (and often fractured) phrases in Equestrian – such as “you have broken the rules”, “halt right there, criminal”, and “no seeing here, citizen, continue moving” – to help them in their new role of peacekeepers.

Higher-ranking officers (usually Captains or Majors) who had a better grasp of Equestrian took the role of local magistrates. There are numerous accounts of these officers settling private disputes as judges, ensuring that poorer ponies received (at minimum) the Empire-approved quantity of food and clothing rations, and even organising traditional local events (including the Hearth’s Warming Eve celebrations, which must have been particularly amusing at the time as the citizens of the World Empire did not celebrate Hearth’s Warming, and thus the occupiers must have had no idea what it was all about).

Relations were helped by the fact that the ponies local to Horseshoe Bay had been mostly neutral during the revolution, and that, due to their extremely strict training, the Imperial soldiers did not in general indulge in the kind of minor looting and other misdemeanours that so often plague armies in foreign lands. Therefore, despite a number of minor incidents (usually resulting from mistranslations), relations were generally good between the local Equestrians and the soldiers of the World Empire during this time.

The Home Front Part 4 – The Occupation of Vanhoover

Unquestionably, the Equestrians who suffered most during the last weeks of the winter of 1039-40LB were those unlucky enough to have been enslaved by the Changeling Swarm, after Queen Chrysalis’ takeover of Vanhoover. Since Changelings do not keep records, it is extremely fortunate for historians that some ponies were brave enough to keep diaries of their lives during this period.

One such account, only recently rediscovered, is the now-famous diary of Anne Flank. As it is more intact and comprehensive than any other account of life under Changeling rule, Amaranth Flyer’s diary can rightfully be said to be amongst the most important documents dating from the time of the Sundering of Equestria.

In the following extract, Miss Flyer describes how the Changelings treated the populace of Vanhoover.

“Under the carpet in the main room is a trapdoor that leads to the cellar underneath our house. As soon as we heard the buzzing, Mom jumped out of her seat and rushed us all over there. Fizz went down the trapdoor stairs first, asking all the time what was happening, in that little squeaky voice of hers. I went next, then Mom.”

“In the cellar there are two wooden benches, some cans of food and a small candle so we can see. Once Mom had made sure the carpet was rolled over the trapdoor, she closed it, locked it, and came down the stairs.”

“Almost straightaway we heard the front door open, and then the buzzing got louder. Mom kept pressing her hoof to Fizz’s lips, not saying anything, just trying to keep her quiet. I already knew not to make any noise. I bit down on my hoof, to stop me making any gasps by accident. Mom did the same, and Fizz copied us.”

“I heard Them come to a stop, right above our heads. None of us dared to even breathe.”

“I knew what would happen if They found us. It had happened to my friend Bell Blossom two weeks ago. They’d come into her house and taken away the healthiest members of her family. Bell Blossom was sick with something at the time, so They hadn’t taken her. She told me that They were taking the healthiest ponies in the city into Their Hive, to be drained of all their emotions, never to come out again.”

“I haven’t seen Bell Blossom at all since then. I hope she’s okay.”

“We heard a sudden banging noise, and we all nearly jumped. I realised later it was Them knocking over our furniture. Little Fizz almost cried out, and she would have done, if Mom hadn’t been holding her so hard she could barely breathe.”

“After a few seconds, the banging and crashing died away. Then there was a silence. It was the worst silence I’ve ever experienced. We didn’t know if They’d found us – if They’d spotted the trapdoor – or if They had given up.”

“For one terrible moment, I felt the urge to scream. They’d found us, I knew it, and what was going to come next was too terrible to even think about. If I had, it would have been all over for us.”

“Thank goodness I didn’t. A few seconds passed, and we heard the buzzing of Their insect wings again – but it quickly got fainter. They were leaving. We were all so relieved. In fact, Mom was so relieved she almost fainted. I was pretty pale myself.”

“As I’m writing this, I’m so, so happy that we managed to escape Them – but what about next time? Eventually They will come back. Can we keep hiding from Them forever?”

There are only two further entries in Miss Flyer's diary after this one. Amaranth Flyer’s ultimate fate remains unknown, but historians agree that the unfortunate mare was most likely abducted and eventually drained to death by the Changelings.

The Home Front Part 5 – The Everfree Cross

One organisation from this time that cannot go unmentioned is the Everfree Cross. Renowned today as the world’s largest international aid organisation, the Everfree Cross was first founded during the Sundering of Equestria, at the beginning of autumn, 1039LB. Starting from humble beginnings – a team of nine like-minded ponies and griffons – the Everfree Cross eventually swelled to an organisation of almost 12,000 peace-loving volunteers, complete with its own hospitals and management staff, by the time of the war’s final battle, and is remembered as being the only truly neutral organisation in the whole of the war.

The Everfree Cross (as the source-less legend goes) was originally inspired by the selfless sacrifice of a single pony during the Siege of Manehatten. This mare supposedly risked her own life to drag wounded soldiers (from all three sides) out of the line of fire and into her makeshift ‘hospital’. There, this heroic pony treated these wounded soldiers to the best of her ability, saving (supposedly) at least 30 lives. However, after venturing out into the line of fire one-too-many times, this mythical mare took a musket-round to the head and perished. A group of those she’d saved vowed to carry on her work, and thus the idea of the Everfree Cross was born.

The name of this pony has, unfortunately, been lost to history, but a statue of what she supposedly looked like has been erected outside the Everfree Cross Centre in Riydh (the capital of Saddle Arabia, for those who are unaware); it depicts her as a long-haired pegasus, cradling the symbol of the Everfree Cross in her hooves. However, there are no reliable sources available to modern historians that confirm that this mare was indeed a pegasus – or, indeed, that she ever actually existed.

What the sources do confirm, however, is that, during the ambassadorial meetings between the four factions that took place as a result of the arrival of the World Empire’s expeditionary force in Equestria (1039LB), six ponies and three griffons arrived at Horseshoe Bay. After convincing the Imperial soldiers to let them meet with Ambassador-General Doctrinaire, these nine souls pleaded before Doctrinaire and the other ambassadors to allow them to form the Everfree Cross organisation.

Moved by their pleas, and the story of the pony that had inspired them, all four ambassadors – Doctrinaire, Cloutus, De Auvin and Lacklustre – signed the International Everfree Cross Agreement. This document ensured that the four ‘member’ factions would agree to respect the neutrality of the Everfree Cross workers, not to fire at them during battles, and allow them to help wounded soldiers and civilians from all sides, in “this and any other future conflicts”. De Auvin and Doctrinaire also agreed to petition their governments to help fund the organisation; they were successful, and this allowed this small group to set up their first base of operations, near to the ruins of Manehatten.

Although this meeting was not recorded on a Phonograph (as the subsequent ‘enquiry’ was), paper records of the meeting do still exist in the vaults of the World Empire. Other than the terms of the Everfree Cross Agreement itself, the events of this meeting are somewhat haphazard and difficult to understand. For example, one line refers to an ‘Element’ being “recovered” by the founders of the Everfree Cross after the Siege of Manehatten – presumably this is separate from the ‘Element’ Baron Von Clawtoven spoke of, and has led some historians to speculate that an ‘Element’ is a group of 30 soldiers (the number of troops the mythical mare saved during the Siege), although this is still debated. Following the mention of the term, Ambassador-General Doctrinaire expresses some confusion, so presumably ‘Element’ was a term used solely in Equestrian armies, and was never used by the World Empire. However, later sources involving Colonel Staid seem to contradict this latter fact, so the truth continues to be shrouded in mystery.

Regardless, from that meeting onwards, in every battle involving those four factions, members of the Everfree Cross were present, often unnoticed and unrecorded by most contemporary chroniclers, aiding and healing the troops of all sides without preference or partiality.

The March on Baltimare

The Overthrowing of Fillydelphia

In the early weeks of spring, 1040LB, a single event was to break the monotonous inactivity of the previous winter and restart the war. The exact circumstances immediately prior to this event are unknown to modern historians; how exactly it occurred is still open to much speculation.

The city of Fillydelphia, much like the other Old-Equestria-held cities, had been successfully resisting the half-hearted siege pressed onto it by the forces of the New Lunar Republic. Its defence was organised by long-serving Royal Guardspony, General Bloodbalm, who is recorded as enjoying war “a bit too much”, and being extremely severe to those who disobeyed his orders (even to the point of inflicting capital punishment on possible innocents, to “keep the rest in line”). One of his personal adjutants recorded that, when provoked, “his wrath… knew no difference between soldier and civilian.”

At the beginning to spring, 1040LB, this bloodthirsty general was brutally assassinated by his second-in-command, a unicorn named Major Warlander. After killing him, sources tell us, Warlander mounted her ex-commander’s head on a spike, before announcing to Bloodbalm’s horrified adjutants that she had converted to Discordianism. Guards were called in to arrest her, but the guards that entered the room were wearing extraordinarily multi-coloured clothes “somewhat like the uniform of a jester”, and likewise proclaimed their allegiance to Discordianism.

It is unknown exactly how, when or why Major Warlander converted to Discordianism, or why she had chosen to wait until now to suddenly reveal it. Proponents of the ‘anarchy as a disease’ theory claim that the Major had been ‘infected’ a few days before, by a Discordian cell hidden in the city, but it seems more likely that General Bloodbalm’s actions caused her to snap and adopt this extreme practice. It must be noted, however, that this latter explanation does not explain why, once Major Warlander had declared her allegiance to Discordianism, a significant proportion of both the Royal Guard and the civilian population living in Fillydelphia likewise suddenly announced that they too were Discordians.

However it came about, within hours of Major Warlander’s announcement, the city of Fillydelphia was in complete chaos. Just like in Los Pegasus four years earlier, the Discordians took to the streets in a mass of armed and highly-disorganised mobs. These violent groups rampaged through the city, looting homes and businesses, and attacking non-Discordians at random. One key difference between the two events, and one often highlighted by historians, is that the majority of the non-Discordians in the city were not brutally killed or forcefully converted, as they had been in Los Pegasus (although some were). On this occasion, they were merely humiliated. One witness that survived the Discordian takeover wrote that “non-Discordians were… covered in hot sugar… and forced to march through the streets. Jubilant Discordians in the crowd, dressed in a garish mix-match of colours… spat chewing gum and sticky toffee at them [while others] threw buckets of tar mixed with feathers torn from their own and other’s wings. It was like some kind of strange carnival.”

Outside the walls of Fillydelphia, the New Lunar Republic army that had been laying siege to the city was both surprised and alarmed to hear the sounds of laughter and celebrations coming from within. Concerned both for the morale of her own soldiers, and that the Old Equestrians might have heard some news of which the Republic was unaware, the Republican commander in the field – General Tawleed – ordered a platoon from an attached Nightstrider Brigade to investigate.

Led by Captain Star-Strike (an otherwise unremarkable Nightstrider commander who would later find herself embroiled in one of the Sundering of Equestria’s greatest mysteries), the Nightstrider formation succeeded in infiltrating Fillydelphia – according to the report, no guards had been posted on the city walls – and observed with some puzzlement the Discordian revelry.

Considering that the average Republic soldier was generally unaware of the exact nature of the Discordians, it is therefore unsurprising that Star-Strike’s report to the General was a positive one, containing the immortal line, “The Loyalists appear to be partying. Intensely.”

Despite the good humour generated amongst the Republic troops as the news of what was happening spread, General Tawleed and the other high-ranking officers were not in good spirits. While the War Council had seen fit to hide the true nature of Discordianism from the common pony for propaganda purposes (portraying them as the victims of the oppressive Solar Tyrant was, after all, in their interests), the higher-ups in the Republic military had been briefed on what had happen in Los Pegasus in 1036LB, and been allowed access to the reports concerning Discordian raids into Republican territory. Although we do not have access to the actual reports, and thus are unaware of exactly what transpired around Los Pegasus 1036-40LB, historians generally agree that they could not have been positive.

Aware of the dangers posed by this new threat, General Tawleed ordered her troops into battle formation. Sending a missive to her superiors for reinforcements, Tawleed readied her forces for what she believed to be the inevitable; a Discordian break-out.

The Imperials March

Receiving news of the uprising in Fillydelphia mere days after it had occurred, and before even the War Council of the Republic (thanks in no small part to the efficiency of the expedition’s administrators, advanced Imperial technology, and Doctrinaire’s network of spies), Ambassador-General Doctrinaire was forced to reappraise the magnitude of the danger posed by Discordians in Equestria. Sources tell us that Doctrinaire had previously believed the Discordian ‘infection’ to have been contained in the south-west of the country, but hearing of the completely unexpected overthrowing in the west made him reconsider. The expeditionary force’s defensive plans were put on hold – the World Empire had to act, and act fast.

As per his original plan, the Ambassador-General divided his 500,000-strong force into five, self-sufficient armies of 100,000 soldiers. The First army, under the direct command of Doctrinaire himself, was to remain at Horseshoe Bay, while the Second and Third armies were to begin the march towards Los Pegasus and Fillydelphia respectively (the Third army was also expected to march further north and take control of Manehatten, once the Discordians had been crushed). The Fourth army was ordered initially to remain at Horseshoe Bay to complete defensive preparations, but Doctrinaire ultimately intended it to march on Canterlot. The Fifth army was also kept back – historians believe that distant reports of events in Vanhoover and Tall Tale convinced Doctrinaire that there may very well be another threat lurking on the other side of Equestria.

It is perhaps with this in mind that Doctrinaire sent a message back to the Empire, via Imperial Telegram, asking for more ‘exotic’ reinforcements. While the Ambassador-General was confident that he had large enough armies for the task at hoof, he was apparently concerned that the Empire would face “unconventional difficulties” in Equestria, and thus would need more specialised troops.

Through a miracle of bureaucracy, 200,000 troops were organised, equipped and despatched within a week of the Ambassador-General giving the order. The Third army, which left first, was commanded by the relatively innocuous Marshal Lonquin, remembered primarily by non-historians for the events surrounding his death. Accompanying his force of several thousand infantry was a formation of 4,000 Iron Guard – complete with their steam-powered, mechanised armour – and a squadron of Imperial Landships.

For those unfamiliar with old Imperial technology, a Landship was a house-sized, steam-powered, heavily-armoured vehicle, designed primarily to break through defensive fortifications and to terrorise enemy formations. Equipped with caterpillar tracks to enable steady (but extremely slow, due to its simple steam engine) movement across any kind of terrain, armour thick enough to resist all but the most powerful attacks, and, for most examples present in Equestria at this time, a single Ballistae siege cannon, Landships are generally considered to have been one of the most dangerous of the World Empire’s military assets.

Also under the command of Marshal Lonquin was the now-famous Colonel Staid – at that time merely a Captain – who would play a key role in coming events.

The speed and suddenness of the Imperials’ mobilisation shocked the War Council of the Republic and, once they had discovered the Third army’s target, they dispatched a force of 21,000 troops under the command of the previously-disgraced General Ike Trots. Eager to regain his standing with the War Council, Trots led his forces towards Fillydelphia with the aim of reinforcing General Tawleed’s small army. In a diary entry written by one of his aides, Trots was apparently confident of defeating both the Discordians – whom he believed to be so disorganised that they weren’t even a threat – and the advancing Imperials, thus ensuring “his inevitable promotion”.

The Conquest of Baltimare Part 1 – Confident of Victory

In the closing weeks of spring, 1040LB, Marshal Lonquin and his army had encountered an obstacle preventing them from advancing any further towards Fillydelphia; the Old-Equestrian-held city of Baltimare. Taking the city had been part of the Ambassador-General’s plan, however, and he had taken steps to ensure that Marshal Lonquin’s army was prepared and equipped to obtain a quick and efficient victory.

The commander of Baltimare’s defensive forces, Lieutenant-General Blake Ridelings, had had plenty of time to build up and prepare the city’s defences, and was supremely confident that he and his force of 18,000 soldiers could easily fight off any attack. According to one source, Ridelings, upon seeing what he believed to be the entire Imperial Third army marching towards the city one spring morning, commented, “Ha! Is this all they send to fight us? Do they think we are foals? The walls of Baltimare are ten metres thick – they are impregnable! Pushing back these Imperials will be no harder than pulling dead leaves from a tree. I tell you, by tomorrow night, this will all be over.”

The force Lieutenant-General Ridelings observed was not the main force however; it was merely the advance guard, composed of a few thousand light infantry. Over the course of that afternoon, a total of 50,000 troops, including the Iron Guard formations and twelve of the Imperial Landships, arrived outside the walls of the city. The other half of Marshal Lonquin’s army had taken a slightly longer route so as not to slow down the entire column– by the time the other 50,000 troops arrived at Baltimare, the battle had been fought and decided.

It took all night for Lonquin’s troops to fully surround the city, organise themselves into battle formations and for a plan of attack to be drawn up. Lieutenant-General Ridelings used this time to organise his own plans – the sources tell us that Ridelings drew up some very intricate plans, including several predictions of what the Imperials’ moves might be and effective counters to all of them – and had the small cabal of Solar Disciples under his command ready their most powerful spells for a dawn battle.

Inside Baltimare, the Royal Guard units were not as confident of victory as Ridelings was but, thanks to a good night’s rest and their confidence in the city’s extremely impressive fortifications, were in good morale. The Imperial soldiers on the other hoof, due to their training and belief in the invincibility of the World Empire, had absolutely no doubt that they would be victorious.

In fact, a local entrepreneur (who, according to their diary, gained entry into the Imperial’s camp in the hope of selling some of her homemade doughnuts) recorded that, upon asking an Imperial soldier if they were confident of victory, the soldier didn’t seem to understand the question, replying in fractured Equestrian, “Of course we win. We already win. We just have to fight first, then enemy see we already win.” The local mare understood this as meaning that the soldiers of the World Empire were utterly incapable of believing they could lose; whether or not this was true for every soldier, or even for any of them, is often debated by historians.

The Conquest of Baltimare Part 2 – The Imperial Steamroller

As the sun rose the following day, Marshal Lonquin wasted no time in beginning the assault. Lieutenant-General Ridelings had already positioned his troops before dawn broke, and so was confident that his soldiers were in optimum position on top of the city’s walls and by the main gate to repel their attackers. In examining the evidence of the battle, it does appear that the Lieutenant-General was very clever in his positioning; a conventional Equestrian army would have stood no chance against Ridelings’ army. However, Ridelings forgot to consider that the Imperial Third army was not an Equestrian force, and fought wars in a very different way.

Ridelings had placed the majority of his Royal Guard troops (including most the unicorns under his command) on top of the walls, in place to repel the expected aerial assault to try to take control of the city’s defences. The pony population of the World Empire, however, includes very few pegasi (and even fewer few unicorns, but that’s by-the-by), and so – unexpectedly for the Equestrians – there was no aerial assault. (Note that this does not mean that the World Empire possessed no air force, as they quite famously did and still do, but since their air force was not present in this battle, it is, for the moment, inconsequential). Ridelings had anticipated every Equestrian attack formation, but he had not anticipated the absence of an attack.

Instead, Marshal Lonquin ordered forward his assault troops in three spearhead formations, with his twelve Landships forming the three tips. Advancing slowly, the Landships had plenty of time in which to repeatedly fire their Ballistae siege cannons. Utilising artillery ‘shells’ (similar to most armies in our modern world) rather than the simple black-powder-and-cannonball technology of the West, the Landships’ weapons were powerful enough that, by the time the Imperial troops had reached the city’s defences, three great holes had been smashed open in Baltimare’s “impregnable” walls.

The Royal Guard units on top of the walls found themselves falling and crushed underneath the rubble of their defences. Those elsewhere on the walls and by the main gate looked on in horror as the house-sized Imperial war-machines rumbled through the open gaps, followed by unit after unit of grey-uniformed soldiers. Although these ‘wave’ tactics were simplistic – relying as they did on a direct assault with numerically superior forces – they were undoubtedly effective.

Ridelings reacted quickly, ordering in all available reserves to push them back, as well as drawing hundreds of soldiers off of the walls, where he now realised they were not needed – but it was not enough. The first Royal Guard units to attack the Landships quickly discovered (as other units had done in Manehatten, against a different machine) that the vehicles’ thick armour rendered them impervious to the Guardsponies’ spears and magical bolts. Things only got worse however; packed into the dense Baltimare streets, the massed Royal Guard (sent in great numbers to “plug the gaps”) could not retreat fast enough when they discovered that the Landships did not stop for infantry. Approximately a hundred or so Old Equestrian soldiers were crushed by the Imperial war-machines in the initial assault, before they had a chance to retreat.

Once they were inside the city, the World Empire soldiers spread out, making assaults down every street simultaneously, thus making the most out of their numbers – just as Marshal Lonquin (who was safe in the Imperial camp outside Baltimare, and well away from the fighting) had previously ordered them to do.

The Imperial infantry units were equipped ubiquitously with the Standard Imperial Rifle – a simple weapon that utilised bullets, rather than the Griffons’ musket-balls, as ammunition. Although not notably powerful, the SIR was bolt-action, ensuring a high rate of fire, and the Imperial’s bullet technology gave their weapons a good chance of piercing the Royal Guards’ armour. However, the Imperial soldiers themselves did not wear armour and, once this was discovered by Lieutenant-General Ridelings, he ordered all troops to counter-attack at close range, hoping the Royal Guard’s superior strength and close-combat expertise would win the day.

Unfortunately for the defenders, in giving this order Ridelings had overlooked the sheer number of Imperial soldiers attacking them. In many locations, Imperial soldiers fixed their bayonets (specially-designed blades that can be attached to the barrels of rifles) and counter-charged. While the Royal Guard once again proved themselves to be the greatest individual fighters in the whole of the Sundering of Equestria (one surviving Guardspony is credited with killing 117 Imperial soldiers), the Imperial soldiers facing them outnumbered the Royal Guard units approximately 10-to-one (although the exact number of Imperial units taking part directly in the battle is unknown, historians agree that the defenders were undoubtedly heavily outnumbered). A significant proportion of those Guardsponies fighting on the front line were overwhelmed and brought down under a pile of stabbing bayonets and clubbing rifle-butts.

With his carefully-laid plans in tatters and his supposedly-impregnable defences rendered useless, the Old Equestrian commander began to panic. Ridelings ordered in all his specialist reserve units to push back the attackers. The aerial Royal Guard, however, had no more effect than their Earth pony and unicorn equivalents, and succumbed in large numbers to concentrated rifle-fire. The Solar Disciples, on the other hoof, were somewhat more effectual.

Concentrating their attacks, the powerful magical beams of the Solar Disciples, launched from their shielded, hovering palanquins, succeeded in repeatedly piercing the armour of one of the Landships. After peppering it with “holes each the size of a pony’s head” – the effect of which was apparently negligible on the vehicle’s performance – one lucky beam succeeded in detonating the ammunition storage, causing the Landship to explode.

While a tremendous achievement in the eyes of the defenders, this action actually had very little impact on the battle as a whole. The Landship in question was on the front lines when it exploded, and its detonation killed and injured almost as many Royal Guardsponies as it did Imperial soldiers – and the latter were more easily replaced. Furthermore, this was to be the only Landship to be destroyed in the battle; as a result of its loss, the Imperial officers in the field identified the Solar Disciples as the greatest threat to their elite units, and consequently ordered their troops to concentrate their fire against this new target.

Despite their magical shielding, the Solar Disciples rapidly suffered unsustainable casualties and were forced to retreat. Sources more critical of the stereotypically vain and self-serving Solar Disciples accuse them of fleeing as soon as they came under concentrated fire, but that is a matter for debate. Seeing the most powerful and visible element of their army forced to retreat, the Royal Guard troops below began to lose heart. Rather than panic and flee, however, they merely began a slow and steady retreat away from the advancing Imperials, fighting them all the while; a testament to the Royal Guards’ intense training and stoicism in battle.

Realising that the victory of the “Imperial steam-roller” was inevitable, and that retreat from the city would be impossible, Lieutenant-General Ridelings made the decision to preserve the lives of his soldiers and called for all troops to surrender. He was, however, canny enough to order the remaining Solar Disciples to flee (via magical teleportation, one would assume) back to Princess Celestia to report on what had transpired.

The official document detailing the surrender of all Baltimare forces and the hoof-over of the city to the World Empire was signed by Marshal Lonquin and Lieutenant-General Ridelings at the end of the second day of the battle; ironically, exactly when the latter had predicted it would end.

The Conquest of Baltimare Part 3 – Impact

With the fall of Baltimare to the World Empire, Princess Celestia had lost her last significant base of operations outside of the capital. This was undoubtedly a serious blow to Old Equestrian morale. With all but Canterlot and a few strategically- and economically-unimportant towns (such as Ponyville and Cloudsdale) now in the hooves of one of her many enemies, Celestia was forced to reconsider her strategies. During a lull in activity, in which Old Equestria would again build up its remaining forces and assets, Celestia’s armies would also undergo retraining, reorganisation and reformation, all as a direct result of their defeat at Baltimare. Furthermore, thanks to the information provided by the hoof-full of Solar Disciples that escaped the city, the military leaders of Old Equestria would ultimately be able to institute new battle-tactics and strategies that would prove to be much more effective than their previous efforts – but this would not be for some time.

For Marshal Lonquin and his superiors, however, this battle was merely the first step in their campaign to subdue the various factions warring over Equestria. Once the surrender document had been signed, the processing of the civilians and captured soldiers of Baltimare began. When the other half of the Third army arrived two days later – their progress having been slowed by their efforts to establish a chain of fortified outposts, connected by Imperial Telegraphs, on the road to Baltimare – the fresh half took over the job of processing, whilst the original half resumed their march northwards, towards Fillydelphia.

According to Imperial records, approximately 12% of the military and civilian population of Baltimare (the exact numbers are unknown, but are presumed to be at around 10,000) were identified as being ‘infected’ with Discordianism, knowingly or otherwise. In what was to quickly become an established trend, these ‘infected’ ponies then disappeared from history; there are no sources whatsoever that explain or hint at what may have happened to them. Many modern historians now believe that there are records hidden away deep in the vaults of the World Empire government that, should they ever be released, would shed a great deal of light on the ultimate fate of these unlucky ponies.

With losses of merely 8,457 soldiers, and one Landship (next to nothing for the vast armies of the World Empire), the Conquest of Baltimare was almost a perfect success for the Imperials. Despite having lost the psychological advantage of their Landships, Marshal Lonquin had cleverly not committed to battle any forces other than the aforementioned Landships and his basic infantry. The enemy, therefore, had no experience of his Iron Guard units or of his fixed-position artillery. Hearing word from Doctrinaire that more specialised regiments were on their way to further reinforce his army, Lonquin was confident that he would retain the psychological advantages granted to him by advanced Imperial technology and the more exotic World Empire troops when he faced his next foe.

Additionally, the now-famous Captain Staid took part in and survived the Conquest of Baltimare. Apparently as a result of his “resolute leadership” (but, more likely, the result of the loss of a number of higher-ranking field officers, caused by Marshal Lonquin’s simplistic tactics), Captain Staid was promoted to the rank of Major. This was merely one a number of promotions for this “hero of the Empire”, who had begun his career (if the source-less story is to be believed) at the very lowest ranks of the Imperial military, some thirty years previously. Those more interested in this pony should direct their attention to one of the many biographies written about him after the war.

The continued march north by the Third army was a slow one, again because of the numerous fortified outposts that were set up, as well as the logistical issue of moving so many soldiers. This gave the Republican commander General Ike Trots sufficient time to arrive with his army at the outskirts of Fillydelphia, and he arrived just in time for the first of two battles for the city.

Conflicts in the West

Unlike in the east, where the combatants kept detailed records of developments events and battles, the two principle factions fighting over the western edge of Equestria in 1040LB onwards – the Discordians and the Changeling Swarm – were not in the habit of keeping detailed records. Historians thus have to rely on the (often speculatory) accounts of scouts from the more organised factions, who were observing events in the west, and, on occasion, the very rare accounts actually from the westernmost factions. The exact events occurring in the west are mostly unknown, and even modern historians are forced to make, at best, approximate guesses of what battles and events transpired between the Changeling Swarm in the north and the followers of Discordianism in the south.

Despite this, historians are certain that, during the last weeks of spring 1040LB, all the way through the summer, and then on-and-off throughout the rest of the war, there were intermittent battles between the two aforementioned factions. One of the few battles we know of (and can be certain took place) occurred in the first week of summer 1040LB, in which a significant number of Changelings (approximately 9,000, but estimates vary wildly) encountered a Discordian ‘war-band’ (a group of violently-inclined Discordians, numbering anywhere from a dozen to several thousand) near to the base of Smokey Mountain.

This unnamed battle – known nowadays as simply ‘The Clash at Smokey Mountain’ – was witnessed and recorded in brief by an unnamed Republican scout from one of the many Nightstrider brigades. Writing frustratingly vaguely that “battle commenced between the two sides” and that, “after some hours… the Discordians gained the upper hoof” so “the Changelings fled”. Despite the shortness of the account, modern historians have deduced that, with all probability, this was one of the first large scale battles between the Changelings and the Discordians; possibly the first of many. Although we do not know the tactics used in, or the events of, the battle, an artefact accompanying the report – to the casual observer, merely a twisted shard of metal – displays some very unusual properties, including a strange rainbow-like glow and its inverted temperature (heating it makes it colder, and vice-versa), that have given both modern historians and modern scientists some great insights into the workings of Discordianism and Discordian magic.

The Discordian Shard, as it is popularly known, is of particular importance because, unlike most other Discordian artefacts, it has not been securely locked away or destroyed by the World Empire – whom, I’m sure my readers are well aware, vehemently disapprove of all things Discordian. The Discordian Shard and the accompanying report are currently on display in the Riydh World History Museum, for those that are interested in visiting this most unusual and mysterious piece of history.

Further battles almost certainly transpired between the Changeling Swarm, whom we now know were attempting to expand their territory, and roving bands of Discordian warriors, whose motives were as random and inexplicable as their actions. (For example, one war-band leader that was active around this time – the self-proclaimed ‘Super-King Mousey Supreme’ – is recorded in one Republic account as seeking out “shiny objects, pony-wigs to brush, and zombies with which to power treadmills”. Following his capture by Republican forces in 1041LB, he repeatedly attempted and failed to get himself elected as a member of the War Council of the New Lunar Republic, for no apparent reason.) The number, events and nature of these battles, however, are surrounded in mystery, and must unfortunately be consigned to brash speculation by historians.

The Rise of the New Lunar Republic

The Secret Speech

In the summer of 1035LB, Princess Luna left the Royal Palace and fled Canterlot under the cover of darkness. Accompanying her were a hoof-full of loyal followers and, sources tell us, a number of prisoners liberated from Celestia’s dungeons. After travelling for several hours non-stop, Luna met with a number of influential leaders of anti-Celestian groups at a pre-arranged location. Sources suggest that this was somewhere in the Everfree Forest, near to the town of Ponyville, but there are arguments to be made for most of the other forests in Equestria, depending on one’s interpretation of the evidence. The sources agree however that, shortly after the meeting had begun, Luna took centre-stage and made her now-famous Secret Speech.

Although the speech is far too long to repeat here in its entirety (the Secret Speech was well over an hour long, and can be found in most historical archives the world over) included here are several of key extracts that serve well to illustrate the popular and political feeling at the time.

“Friends, victims of the regime, true Equestrians all; hear me. Once upon a time I would have called upon you as your Princess, but now I speak to you as an equal. For tonight, before you all, I hereby renounce my claim to the throne of Equestria and sever all ties with that monster in Canterlot and her oppressive government.”

“No, no, let me speak, I pray you. I have no desire to take my sister’s place as the lone ruler of this country, as many of you have asked, but that does not mean I intend to do nothing. My friends – there is an alternative to our Principality. I’m sure many of you have been thinking it, and I know many of you have been dreaming it, but none of you have said it; so I shall.”

“The time has come for a new government.”

[…]

“Amongst the common ponies, Celestia has no supporters. The common pony fears her – as do we all – but no longer desires her rule. All across Equestria, ponies just like ourselves are waiting for things to improve, hoping in their hearts for change. I know; I have seen their dreams.”

“And do you know, my friends, what these ponies dream of? In their darkest, most daring imaginings they, just like yourselves, dream of one thing – one idea, one word so dangerous in past months that you and they have not dared to speak it aloud. One word that, should it be acted upon, would change the future of Equestria.”

“And that word is revolution.”

[…]

“Now listen carefully, you captains of industry, you leaders of ponies, you idealists and innovators, you loyal Equestrians all; listen. Should you make the choice to take action against the Tyrant, then I and my personal guard will be behind you. I can persuade others to join our cause, those I know who would defect immediately from the government or the army and flock to our banner if they but knew of our meeting.”

“Should you ponies gathered here decide to make a stand, then I know that not only myself, not only my troops, not only defectors from the regime – but the whole of Equestria would rise to stand with you!”

[…]

“It is time, my friends. We must choose. Our decision here will determine the future of Equestria; whether it will remain under the yoke of the Solar Tyrant, or rejoice in glorious freedom.”

“We must choose.”

Princess Luna’s words are credited with swaying the others into action. Then and there they pledged to work together to overthrow the “Solar Tyrant” – henceforth, Celestia was always referred to as this by the revolutionaries – and establish a new government, with freedom and equality for all. They wanted to call it the New Free Republic of Equestria.

As word spread from the cell leaders to their followers, and from them to the general populace of Equestria, the movement became more Luna-centric (perhaps due to her role as the figurehead of the revolution), and changed its name to become the New Lunar Republic.

The Rise of the Republic

The official date for the start of the uprising is hotly debated by historians, but is generally agreed to be somewhere in the winter of 1035LB. The first protest that can be directly linked to the underground movement was approximately halfway through the winter, near to the Equestrian holiday of Hearth’s Warming, and began early one morning when a large number of shoppers began protesting in the streets of Canterlot about the recent and astonishingly high increase in the price of sugar.

Troops from the closest Royal Guard regiment were sent in to quell the riot with lance and halberd. Initially, the crowd began to flee, fearful of the Guards’ wrath. However, a hoof-full of brave souls stood their ground. To the surprise of the Royal Guard, these few ponies began fighting back with a never-before-seen kind of magical weapon – we know them now as Starbeam rifles, but one must remember that this was the first time crystal-based magic weaponry had been used in combat.

These weapons, it is now known, were collaboratively manufactured in secret by a group of companies supporting the uprising, using magic-crystal-based technology. Similar technology had been used to power trains and factories for the previous few decades. These companies would later become the economic backbone of the revolution and, more cynically, would profit most from it.

Inspired by these few brave ponies’ example, one-by-one the rest of the crowd stopped fleeing and turned back to help. Wielding whatever improvised weapons they could get their hooves on – wooden clubs, paving stones, even cakes – the enthused protestors rushed towards the soldiers. The Royal Guard units, completely taken aback by the sudden counter-attack, fled the scene. Jubilantly, the protestors surged forwards, singing songs of triumph and revolution. This is known as the First Canterlot Uprising.

Ultimately though, this first uprising was crushed some days later by a concerted effort from the Royal Guard regiments and the newly-formed Solar Disciples (cabals of powerful unicorns, hoof-picked and trained by Celestia herself). However, the Celestian government was unable to quell the hundreds of other uprisings that were now taking place across Equestria; led by trained revolutionaries, thousands of ponies were rising up to throw off the shackles of the Princess’ tyrannical rule. A significant percentage (sources suggest around seventy percent) of the small towns and villages of Equestria succeeded in ridding themselves of the local Royal Guard regiments, sending them fleeing for the hills, and declared their allegiance to the New Lunar Republic.

In fact, such was the desire to overthrow Celestia and the lure of freedom that the self-elected leaders of the Republic had to do little more than hoof out weapons and point out targets for the revolutionaries. Basic hit-and-run tactics, as well as community-organised ambushes, served to eliminate and push back huge numbers of the Royal Guard, stopping the loyalists from spreading out their forces, and compelling them to focus on only a few towns. Ultimately, Celestia’s armies were forced to withdraw from most of the countryside.

By the end of winter 1036LB, as much as sixty percent of Equestria's landmass was under the control of the New Lunar Republic. Their leaders had established a temporary ‘War Council’, consisting of themselves and ‘Honorary Councillor’ Luna; the Council promised their followers democratic elections once the revolution was over and the Solar Tyrant had been overthrown. In the newly liberated towns and villages of the Republic, hundreds of spontaneous parties and celebrations broke out. During this time, a great number of revolutionary songs – such as the famous “Do You Hear the Ponies Sing?” – were written and made popular.

Support for Princess Celestia was now confined mainly to the cities and large towns, where the vast concentrations of Royal Guard regiments were able to maintain the Princess’ rule. Revolutionary action had already severed the main rail-lines between the cities and now, with the Celestian forces confined to these small areas, the semi-organised Republican forces finished the job. Equestria’s rail-lines were so thoroughly demolished that they would not be fully rebuilt until long after the war, with the exception of those within the area controlled by the World Empire (but that would not be for some time).

With constant revolts even within the area they controlled, the soldiers of what was now referred to by both sides as ‘Old Equestria’ seemed to be fighting a losing battle. The ordinary ponies of Equestria truly believed a new beginning of freedom and equality for their country was imminent. Even Princess Celestia herself, safely protected behind the walls of her palace, is recorded by one source as believing that her end was nigh.

However, another source suggests that she was confident of her eventual victory even at this, her most hopeless moment. “The night,” Celestia supposedly commented, “is always darkest before the dawn.”

The Imperial Decree

Whilst these events were taking place in the west, the Emperor of the World Empire was making arrangements to send a new deputation to Equestria. Imperial sources indicate that the Emperor hoped to initiate a series of trade agreements with Equestria, as well as an exchange of ideas. Imperial technology was far in advance of any of the western nations, while the World Empire possessed almost no magic at all; increased diplomatic relations, therefore, would benefit both parties.

However, before the deputation was sent on its way, the Emperor received word from his ambassadors about the unfolding events in Equestria. Due to the great distances involved, the first paper reports about the assassination of Princess Sparkle reached the Emperor halfway through 1035LB. The Imperial ambassadors in the west had yet to get access to the more advanced Imperial Telegraph System, as the trans-oceanic wire system to Equestria had not yet been completed.

Just as he had finished writing a letter expressing his greatest condolences, the Emperor received further news, this time of the Discordian problems Equestria was facing, and Princess Celestia’s reaction to them. Believing his ambassadors’ (extremely limited) reports that only those ‘infected’ with Discordianism were being rounded up and executed, the Emperor was pleased and gave his support to the Celestia and her method of dealing with the anarchists. It should be noted that the exact term used in the ambassador’s message was “processing”; in the World Empire, “processing” refers to forceful re-education of anarchists through conventional and psychotropic means, and execution only on the occasion that the re-education programs should fail. This slight misunderstanding would lead to later complications between the two countries.

However, by the beginning of 1036LB, the Imperial Telegraph System had reached Equestria and real-time reports of the events unfolding there began to flood in. The Emperor listened with increasing discontent at the news of the constant uprisings, the seeming-random attacks on civilians by (it appeared to him) an increasingly deranged ruler, and the rise of the self-proclaimed New Lunar Republic.

Most likely acting in the Imperial belief of anarchy as a disease, and consequently fearing its spread, the Emperor contacted the Provincial Rulers of the three Provinces nearest to Equestria (for those readers who are unaware, the World Empire is divided up into over sixteen thousand semi-autonomous Provinces, each with their own local army and economy, and led by an Emperor-selected ‘Provincial Ruler’). The Emperor then drafted an Imperial Decree (an inviolable order or law, only alterable or dismissible by the Emperor himself), ordering those Provinces to mount an “armed expedition” into the now civil-war-torn country of Equestria to discover exactly what was going on.

The key clause of this Decree, however, was the mention of Discordian activity.

“If it is found that the land of Equestria is in danger of falling into complete anarchy and/or the hooves of anarchistic factions, such as those referred to by themselves or by others as Discordians, then the aforementioned Provincial Rulers and/or their commander on the field have the full authority of His Imperial Majesty to invade and subdue Equestria with the aim of restoring order, at any and all cost.”

With the rise of further factions from within Equestria itself, this clause was to become the guiding principle for the armies of the World Empire.

The Changeling Emergence and the Secession of Los Pegasus

Equestrian sources tell us that, prior to the events of the Sundering, the last concerted effort by the Changeling Swarm to overtake Equestria was thwarted by Prince Shining Armor and Princess Miamori Cadenza somewhere around 1002-3LB (the popular conception that they did so on their wedding day has no support from the historical evidence, and so must be discounted as a mere popular myth) using an unrecorded form of magical weapon. Supposedly, with her direct assault on Canterlot having failed, the Changeling monarch, Queen Chrysalis, drew back her scattered and depleted forces into the wild forests and jungles of Equestria. There, it is believed, she bided her time, building up her forces.

Many of the (rather limited) documents from the local townships and villages of Equestria record a greater-than-average number of missing pony reports between the years 1020 and 1035LB. Although this could be dismissed as being caused by other, unrelated factors, the apparently steady increase in the annual rate of missing ponies in the latter years suggests that the Changelings were responsible.

Changelings – for those readers who are unaware – are a race of insect-like winged creatures that feed by draining the emotions of other sentient beings, typically ponies. It seems likely therefore that, as part of their build-up, Queen Chrysalis’ forces were abducting increasing numbers of ponies to feed the growing Changeling armies. This was no doubt helped in part by the civil turmoil that was taking place in Equestria, distracting Princess Celestia and her government from the rising Changeling threat.

The newly-strengthened Swarm, however, would not reveal itself to the wider world for many years to come.

Meanwhile, in the south-west of Equestria, another build-up was occurring. In the city of Los Pegasus, a coalition of wealthy and influential ponies had been using their power to gather together and protect as many of the “poor, harassed Discordians” as they could. The sources suggest that these ponies themselves were not Discordians, but merely altruistic sympathisers whose philanthropic kindness stemmed from the “ruthless persecution” the Discordians had been suffering from since 1031LB. Their belief seems to have been that every follower of a particular philosophy should not be held accountable for the actions of one small sect.

Los Pegasus soon became known for its high Discordian population – a population mostly protected from Celestia’s increasingly severe anti-Discordian laws by the influence of its wealthy inhabitants. Thousands of other independent Discordians (estimates suggest approximately 7-8000 between 1031 and 1035LB) flocked to the city, thanks to this reputation as a Discordian haven.

Sources from the time suggest that the relations between the Discordians and the locals began as mistrust and suspicion but, with the support of their rich benefactors, the Discordians soon became an accepted part of Los Pegasus society. With their “acts of anarchy” (as the Celestian government called them) being mostly restricted to amusing public pranks and eccentric clothing, relations improved dramatically with this quirky subset of society. In fact, the sources tell us that around 30 percent of the original Los Pegasus population had – privately or publicly – become Discordians themselves, for many simply because it was the fashion.

When the New Lunar Republic emerged to challenge Celestia’s rule in 1035LB, the Royal Guard regiments stationed in Los Pegasus (just like those in every other city and major town in Equestria) were ordered to clamp down on any and all subversive groups. This caused a mass protest in the early months of 1036LB, in which almost the entire population of Los Pegasus marched upon every visible local government building. The march quickly turned violent.

When the Royal Guard were deployed to combat the uprising, they were armed and prepared to fight against the rag-tag civilian soldiers of the New Lunar Republic, who they believed were behind this mass protest. However, when they began to advance towards the increasingly-violent crowd on that snowy winter day, they discovered that things were not what they seemed.

Sources are divided on exactly what happened, but they do agree on a few details. The initial wave of protesters, it seems, were all armed with a great variety of makeshift weapons; kitchen utensils and gardening implements were apparently the most common, but sources also mention stranger objects, such as flower pots, flaming wigs, unicycles and (inexplicably) grand pianos. While such an inexpert assault wouldn’t normally have been a problem for the highly-trained soldiers of Old Equestria, the protestors (as a surviving guardspony described) fought like “possessed madponies”, attacking relentlessly and with no thought to their own personal safety, much to the soldiers’ astonishment. This is in direct contrast to the citizen-soldiers of the Republic, whom, sources repeatedly emphasise, fought with hit-and-run, guerrilla-style attacks.

Despite this, the Royal Guard seemed initially to have the upper hoof. Their discipline and superior weaponry (our guardspony source tells us) were more than a match for the deranged violence and crude weapons of the protestors. It was at this point that the Guard formations were assaulted by waves of unfamiliar and incomprehensible magical attacks. Our eyewitness source attributes these magical attacks to ponies he labels “Chaos Channellers”; these were the informal unicorn ‘priests’ of the Discordian religion, and this was the first demonstration of the power of their highly-dangerous Discordian magic.

The protestors were, of course, all Discordians, and – following their overwhelming victory against the seriously unprepared Royal Guard forces – they took control of the entire city. With all opposition gone, the true face of Discordianism was now revealed.

The defenceless government officials and civil servants of Los Pegasus were all slaughtered without a second thought, as were the wealthy non-Discordians who had sacrificed so much to help them. Every other citizen was either forcibly converted to Discordianism (some kind of magic is believed to have been involved in this), enslaved or promptly put to death. Our guardspony source describes how large groups of Discordians set about decorating the city with helium-filled balloons, crude signs proclaiming the ascent of Discordianism, colourfully-painted rocks, funny hats and the entrails of those they’d killed. There appears to have been no logic behind any of these actions – as in hindsight we would expect from Discordians.

With the city and surrounding villages now a battleground between the various loosely-organised groups of Discordians, by mid-1036LB Los Pegasus had informally ‘seceded’ from both Old Equestria and the rising New Lunar Republic. It would remain in Discordian hooves for most of the coming war.

The Republic Prepares for War

In the summer of 1036LB, the War Council of the New Lunar Republic was feeling extremely confident, and perhaps rightly so. Approximately two-thirds of the country’s total area was under their control, and Princess Celestia’s forces seemed weaker every day. With every month that passed, the Republic became more organised, their forces better trained, their economy more directed towards war.

The Celestian government, however, was not quite as weak as the Republic imagined. With the fall of Los Pegasus to the Discordians – something the Council of the New Lunar Republic was not yet aware of – and the loss of massive amounts of agricultural land to the popular uprising, Princess Celestia had decided to play the long game. She ordered her generals to withdraw their forces into the cities still under her control and prepare for a siege.

Walls, magical shields and other defensive measures were hastily put in place around the cities of Vanhoover, Fillydelphia, Baltimare and Canterlot, as well as the important towns of Ponyville and Cloudsdale. Many of the surrounding villages were scoured for resources and then demolished to deny their expected besiegers any potentially useful materials or foodstuffs. Although Manehatten was still controlled by Celestian forces, the city was surrendered to Republican forces in early autumn 1036LB by Manehatten’s commander, the elderly General Sunbeam, when he discovered that he did not have the resources available to sustain a lengthy siege. In exchange, he and the majority of his forces were allowed to return to Canterlot unharmed. Sunbeam was subsequently executed by the Celestian government for conceding an entire city to the enemy without a fight.

It soon became clear to the War Council that Princess Celestia was preparing for a drawn-out conflict. Reports from their meetings tell us that some of the Councillors were pleased by this – they had the agricultural land after all, and they could easily starve the forces of Old Equestria into surrender. Other Councillors, including Honorary Councillor Luna, were not so pleased. Celestia’s decision to wait it out, they realised, implied that she was waiting for support from elsewhere.

This revelation seriously worried the Councillors, and a discussion began as to whom Celestia might be waiting for. By the end of the meeting, it was decided that either the World Empire was supporting her – in which case a diplomats must be sent to them immediately to prevent an invasion – or Celestia was waiting for reinforcement from the Crystal Empire, to the far north. The latter seemed to the Councillors to be the most likely, as the ponies of the semi-autonomous Crystal Empire had not joined in with the revolts of 1035-36LB, and their leaders (Prince Armor and Princess Cadenza) were known to be personal friends of Celestia.

It is interesting to note that the Griffon Kingdoms were not even considered during this discussion; there is no mention of them in any of the relevant sources. While it may have been the case that the idea of Celestia allying with the Griffons was simply too absurd to even bring up, it seems more likely that the Council did not even consider them a genuine threat.

The Councillors therefore resolved to firstly send a team of diplomats to Horseshoe Bay (the towns around which were effectively neutral, although the Republic claimed control over them), and then to begin amassing their forces for a powerful blow that, they hoped, would unhorse Celestia and establish the New Lunar Republic as the true Equestrian government. The alternative – to begin a series of lengthy sieges – would take far too long, and Celestia’s reinforcements would likely arrive in force before the revolution had succeeded.

The target for this attack was, of course, the capital city of Canterlot. If Celestia could be overthrown, then the New Lunar Republic could be officially established and the war would be over before it began.