Once upon a time, long before the peaceful rule of Celestia, and before ponies discovered our beautiful land in Equestria, ponies did not know Harmony.
It was a strange and dark time, a time when ponies were torn apart, by hatred.
During this frightful age, each of the three tribes, the pegasi, the unicorns, and the earth ponies, cared not for what befell the other tribes, but only for their own welfare.
In those troubled times, as now, the pegasi were the stewards of the weather, but, they demanded something in return, food that could only be grown by the earth ponies.
The unicorns demanded the same, in return for magically bringing forth day, and night.
And so this trust between the tribes festered, until one fateful day, it came to a boil, and what prompted the ponies to clash?
Twas a mysterious blizzard, that overtook the land, and toppled the tribes precarious peace.
A long wood cabin, cold and dimly lit with a few dripping candles that melted into a long table, several bodies crowded around the table, all clothed in rags, looking tired with bags under each eye, A large stallion, grey in mane with white streaks running through, and a beige, ruffled coat approached the table, setting down a scroll and a quill from his mouth.
“What be the total for the months harvest.” he lifted the quill into his mouth and onto the scroll.
“Fifty three sacks of grain from the west fields.” said a voice coming out from the crowd of faces.
“Forty seven barrels of apples from the east fields.” a mare said standing next to the large stallion.
“Twenty six sacks of potatoes in the north fields.” an old colt cough from the edge of the other end of the table.
The stallion was writing down the results on the scroll, he paused and waited.
Placing the quill back into the inkwell, he looked up to the crowd.
“South fields...” he said, the other ponies turned to see a young mare, no older than about twelve.
“E-eighteen sacks of c-carrots...south fields.” she said looking up from the floor.
“Anna, where is your father?” ask the head stallion.
“Papa s’ feeling... sick from working the fields in all that snow, he wanted me to come instead.”
The stallion started collecting the information down onto the scroll, tallying the amounts of the harvest.
“...not even half of last month...” he said under his breath
They were all hungry, going on few days with only cup of stew, some had even passed on with help from working in the cold. Cold winter had a terrible affect on the earth ponies crops, making just barely enough to feed each family, but the food collections from the Pegasi and Unicorns only made things worse, the demand was getting bigger and bigger each month, leaving almost nothing for the labourers of the harvest.
“Tribute...” they called it, trying to justify their outright theft of good ponyfolks hard labour, and at worse, earth pony lives.
“We’ll have to lessen our rations even more then if we have to, gather the...tribute into the cellar, they will be here by tomorrow to collect, I suggest you all go rest, you’ve all done well.”
The crowd all started to move towards the door, they stopped right in front of it, bracing for the cold air they were about to enter, a colt reached for the handle
*SWOOSH*
They all went back to their fields houses, leaving the long wood cabin and the stallion.
The cellar was dark, all the food was in the main barns cellar, stacks of barrels covered the walls, filled with all kinds of fruit and vegetables, sacks filled with grains mounded over each other on the floor, enough to last the earth ponies several winters in comfort, all going straight to the Pegasi and Unicorns.
The silence of the room was suddenly broken by the sound of laches being undone, then a red light emanating from the stairwell became larger, hoofsteps clopped through the stone cellar.
A young colt, holding a lit torch in his maw, wearing a black, snow covered cloak, walked up to one of the grain piles, he gently placed the torch down on the cobblestone floor, and took out a knife from his saddlebag along with a small bag.
He slashed one of the sacks of grain and began to pour the contents into his small bag.
A thump, He froze, dropping the grain sack from his mouth, voices were heard from the floor above, muffled but quickly getting louder and more clear.
“...told you...saw someone...into the...get him...”
Before the colt could think, three other earth ponies were standing at the cellar stairway, two were common farmers, but the third large one was the gray maned stallion, they all looked at the colt.
“See, told you this would happen.” said one of the farmer ponies.
“What should we do with him...” the other asked
The colt found himself stuck down there with the three.
“Please, I only wanted enough for my sister and me, I didn’t even take a whole sack full, I...”
“Tie him up in the snow!” shouted the first farmer, “Leave him for the timberwolves!”
The colt laid down on the cold floor, covering his head with his hooves in fear.
The large stallion started to walk up to the young colt, he stared down at the frightened pony, the young colt looked up at the stallion and slowly got up from the floor.
Staring at eachother for a while, the stallion suddenly struck the colt in the face with his large hoof, the young colt on the floor with a bleeding nose, the stallion stood over the young colt anf began beating him on the ground, stomping on his chest.
Blood spat out of the colts mouth, and he began to tear up.
A little filly was sitting at a table looking into a small lit candle when suddenly the door to the hut was thrown open.
“Big brothe...” she stopped as a young colt was thrown inside the house, covered in blood with bruises all over his face and body, he curled up in pain.
The stallion was standing outside looking down at the colt, then to the filly, he took something out of the saddlebag he was carrying, a small little bag of grain, and threw it in front of the colt on the grounds face, then closed the door.
The sun was rising up, it was still early though, but as always, there were ponies out already doing their daily chores, the snow was still falling, constantly covering the ground even though the earth ponies tried to plow the mounds away.
The fillies were also out, helping around in whatever they need to do, plowing the snow, herding animals and such.
There were two young ponies plowing in the far sides of the west fields, a little ways out of anypony else's view, trying to clear the buildup of snow on the ground.
“...my stomach hurts...” a boy filly with a small frame was pushing a plow along side with his sister behind him.
“Do you think the others might share with us?” he asked, nothing, just the sound of metal scraping ice and snow away. Then a thud. The filly turned around.
“Hannah?” He unstrapped the leather bindings that held him in the small plow, and went over to his sister who fell out of hers.
“Hannah?... C'mon, we gotta keep working, Papa will be very sore with us if we stop now...”
Nothing.
“Hannah...”
Hours passed through the day and the food tribute was stacked onto a large wooden stage, with the large grey maned stallion standing with other earth pony officials of the village.
A dark spot appeared in front of the sun and began to grow larger, a convoy of Pegasi, escorting an enormous cart half filled with more food from the neighboring villages.
They swooped down with the cart, at least twenty of them surrounding it, dressed in ebony and silver edged armor, a spear on each one, all looking battle ready, the kind of thing you would come to expect from a savage, warmongering race.
A Pegasus broke from the front of the group and descended in front of the large stallion, he met the other face to face on eye level, he was as tall, but thinner and less muscular.
The Pegasus stood straight, as if trying to be able to look down upon the stallion in front of him, his mane was a deep dark blue, cut into a short mohawk like style, , his coat, hiding behind his black armor, was a silver, that had countless amount of scars all over it, his armor was just like that of an average wing soldier, but had a small red cape draped over a shoulder.
One of the farmer officials passed a scroll to the large one, who took it with his mouth and passed it to the pegasus, the pegasus took the scroll and placed it on the ground, spreading it open with his hooves.
Without saying a word, he waved his hoof to the other pegasi, gesturing them over to the pile of food. They began to pile it on to the cart and soon were out of the village and into the blizzarding sky with a cart full of food.
The Pegasi convoy was on its way to their home base, it started to get darker as the trips to each mud pony village to collect the tribute did take a considerable amount of time, the sky was dark blue, but was pale from all of the white snow that the Pegasi were flying through.
The air was filled with the flapping of wings from each of the flyers, and were all flying in a box shape, around the cart full of food being carried by four ponies on each end,
*cough**cough*
The trip was halfway finished and the flyers could soon go and rest for a day of easy collection, this month proved better than last, no need to quell any mud pony rebellions today.
Wings kept beating, all in almost perfect unison, but soon a louder sound rose over the flapping, the sound of... heavier wings broke in between the Pegasi, much slower.
A loud roar echoed in the cold night air, and the convoy began to lose control as the Pegasi started tilting out of line in the air out of fear.
Before the line regained form, a large ball of fire tore the convoy in half, Pegasi lost balance and spun in the air soon becoming lost in the blizzard, and others were barely keeping the line together, the smell of singed hair would have been in everyone’s nose if it weren't for them flying away so fast that the freezing air stung their faces.
It was A dragon, the large reptilian body broke threw a large cloud and began chasing the convoy, roaring all the way.
The side of what remained of the convoy broke off, going around left and right to take the dragon from the side, they approached the dragon, spears at the ready, the dragon swung his head around them, snatching at the air while the Pegasi flew out of his reach.
They began throwing the spears at the creature, it bellowed in pain and rage, soon after just minutes of battle, the dragon was already covered in metal rods sticking out of him, the creature gave up the chase, and the battalion returned to the remnants of the convoy.
Barely half of the food made it back to the city, and even less Pegasi who were sent out came back.
“What is this!” A Pegasus stood in front of the convoy, who were all panting on the cloud floor, and severely injured.
“You call yourselves soldiers, those who can’t even do the simple task of carrying supplies back home!”
The blue maned Pegasus bowed down to the other. A large Pegasus with golden gilded armor and a plumed helm, authority seemed to resonate off of him, and his voice seemed to shake the cloud floor in its deep and harsh tone.
“Commander Hurricane S-sir! W-we were attacked by a dragon in the sky and...”
“I could have taken down that dragon in mere seconds, that is no excuse for you and your men lieutenant.”
The Pegasus was too afraid to speak.
“And now we have almost nothing left for this month's supply, you had single hoofedly doomed this city to starvation.”
“Please Commander, f-forgive me, i can fix this.”
“How do you suppose you do that, lieutenant”
The Pegasus looked around in thought, hesitation and anxiety growing in his face.
“We could demand a second collection, what could those earth ponies do against us!”
“Against somepony like you, i’d bet on the mud pony, fine, heal your soldiers and leave for the collection tomorrow, or you’ll be locked up for life, without court.”
The group headed the injured to the hospital, and rested up for next days collection.
