Author's Note

The prelude will be told by Princess Twilight in first pony.

Prelude

It was something that I never imagined would happen, I never imagined that the great nation of Equestria would be split in two. I honestly don't think anypony ever imagined it would happen. However, it was inevitable once I was abducted by Grand Mage Starlight Glimmer, an old foe of mine who is now an incredibly powerful Alicorn. How she became one remains a mystery to me but it did give her an advantage over me.

I still remember that night when Starlight managed to break into my castle, get to my bedroom, remove my mark and abduct Spike and myself. That had to be the scariest night of my life. While my life was not in danger, I was much more scared during this moment than I was when my friends and I had to face Tirek. I still remember the humiliation of being locked up in a Fillydelphia jail like a common criminal and seeing Starlight carrying my cutie mark around in a glass jar, giving me the same smirk she gave me when she took my mark up in "Our Town."

I remember Spike and myself being locked up in cages like animals as the princesses were negotiating with Starlight over my release. I was hoping that Starlight would simply want Eastern ponies to be treated equally. I never imagined that she would demand land, and lots of it in exchange for my release. I pleaded with Celestia to not give up so much for me but she would not listen, she would not put the nation ahead of me and despite the good points Luna made, she still signed the agreement that would give Starlight over half of the continent, including the land that has the Tree of Harmony.

It was nearly a year after my capture that Spike and myself were taken to a neutral location along the new border that separated East and West Equestria. While I was admittedly happy that Celestia would give up so much just for me, one part of me wishes that she would have tried to rescue me in a way that would not have harmed our nation so much. What is now West Equestria, the land ruled by princesses is at a grave advantage. We have little in the way of manufacturing, we have very few mines as we had always relied on the ones in the East and a majority of the wealth lies in the East. Celestia has promised those of us in the West that we will begin to explore our land for resources so that we don't collapse into an economic depression. The only advantage we have is that a good portion of the apple orchards lie here in the West, but I'm sure Starlight will have plenty of orchards up and running in the East within a year or so.

While I know that Celestia is a great leader, I just worry that the economic problems of this split will cause a lot of unhappiness among our citizens and will lead to disharmony. For so long it has been the harmony among us ponies that has kept the nation mostly stable. Disharmony will lead to chaos and perhaps even lead to old evils returning and Celestia forbid, the collapse of West Equestria. But I do know that if Celestia, Luna and myself work our hardest, West Equestria will not fall and will eventually hold just as much wealth as East Equestria.