Intro- Dust, Ash, Sand and Ice
<<I still remember it like it was yesterday, though it was countless moons ago.
After He was defeated not much of our once beautiful home was left, and the two brave ones that stood up for us all ruled Equestria from then on.
One day the younger one, saddened by our daily struggles, proposed to form a new colony, where all of us could grow strong and happy; but the elder one forbade it, for she felt that it would divide in shadows the weakened kingdom forever.
Nopony knows that we are still here, smiling beneath the moonlight and remembering our sweet Mother. For we will forever be Her children of the night.>>
(Anonymous, The Legend of The Children of The Night)
It happened more than twenty decades ago, by now. The tensions among the ponies of Equestria and the Zebra reigns reached their peak in the Celestial Year 1063, shattering the Harmony that Equestria reached with such difficulty in just a hooful of hours, maybe days.
A war enraged between Equestria and the Zebra Reigns; the worst and fastest war since the expulsion of Nightmare Moon. All Equestria burned down in it's ashes; The Pegasus Enclave enclosed the skies in a thick sheet of clouds, and darkness fell over the ruined reign of Equestria, declaring the end of the war with silence.
That was not the end, though: before the war, fleeing from the magic fires, ponies hid in underground Stables where they stayed for two hundred years since the Great War.
Then, the armored gates of the Stables opened back, and ponies witnessed a new world before their eyes; they started colonizing the irradiated wastelands, starting to found tribes.
A decade or two later, what were the regions of the south-western hills reunited as the New Lunar Republic, which follows the rules of Harmony and Democracy told in the legend of the Children of the Night.
As the population grew, the needs of the Republic grew as well, so it sent explorers to the East, in search of farmable land. The scouts reported huge walls on Rainbow River, and a prewar city that survived the MegaSpells of the war: the land district of Las Pegasus.
The NLR then moved it's army to occupy Hoof Dam, and get the turbines of the dam to work again; the republic was not the only one planning to take over New Pegasus though:
Over the other side of Rainbow River another tribe had risen from the ashes of the war: The Cristal Empire frozen since long before the MegaSpells, came back to life, and took control of several minor tribes, aggregating them under their new leader's control: Crystal's legion impended over Hoof Dam, and with difficulty the NLR warded off their advance, three years ago. But the Legion didn't fall back yet.
On the eastern side of Hoof Dam they are licking the blood off their scars; the lights of the campfires can be seen, and the sounds of the cristal horns can be heard.
With all that being said, the Strip of New Pegasus had always remained in affairs, ran by it's misterious overseer and his personal army of reclaimed clans and securiponies.
You are a courier hired by the Apple Fritters Express to bring a package to the Strip of New Pegasus; what looked like an easy delivery, though, didn't end up as easily.
All tied up. Just as usual
"We did all that you wanted. Where are our caps now?" I tried to stretch the ropes around my wrists. Too tight to try to untie them, and too thick to chew them, as well as the ones around my back hoofs. My mouth was blocked, too.
"You are whining for nothing, buddy"
"I am not whining! I am complaining!" I hardly raised my head, right in front of me. As much as my fogged sight could allow, I managed to spot three shadows, a pony and two dogs. I tried to tilt my head around, to relieve myself from the nausea.
"Hey, would you look at who's waking up!" said one of the dogs, as my view got clearer.
In the very middle of my field of view there was a skinny unicorn, his coat as white as the snow, dressed in a black-squared white suit (kinda like a chessboard, it looks like). He was between two dogs. The one on the right had a big dirty shovel in his paws, and he was drenched in sweat. His awful smell was destroying my nostrils, making me feel sick back again, despite being five or six meters from me. I don't even know how his two friends could stand so close to him... yuck.
The unicorn in the center spat to the ground the cigarette he was smoking, stamping it with one of his back hoofs as he got closer to me.
"Now it is time to pay..." he mumbled.
"Speaking of which, we still have to be paid for-" the dog on the left tried to bump into the train of thoughts of the unicorn, but he got shut by a sudden movement of the hoof of the white stallion, which created a long tense pause.
"Maybe you kani kill ponies without mercy, but I'm no mercenary, got that?" he said to them, while levitating something out of his suit, which was still too far for me to distinguish what it was precisely, even though he was trying to make me look at it. He got back at looking at me, with those mommy's-pupil eyes.
"This was your last package, my friend. I'm sorry that you got involved in a situation so... much bigger than you" he whispered, while exchangig my package with what sure looked like a gun, in his magic field. There was something about that pistol... it was almost shining under the moonlight.
"It's funny. From your point of view this must look like bad luck, an incredible series of unlucky events" He cocked back the hammer in the back of his weapon; it now was ready to shoot.
"The truth of the matter is..." he pressed his gun against my forehead, the cold metal rubbing over my coat and skin.
"We have been cheating all along" It was dark, that night, the light of the moon and the stars were glooming softly, suffocated by the lights of New Pegasus. A soft breeze was caressing softly my cheecks. Everything disappeared, as he pulled the trigger.
