Celestia just wasn’t cut out to lead a nation in times of war. Fifteen years ago, when King Sombra came as close as Canterlot to completely occupying all of Equestria, Nightmare Moon’s sudden and early return under mysterious circumstances rallied the people to her cause, and she drove back the invaders to only slightly south of the original northern border. Luna had a vastly different vision of Her Equestria; a place of magi-technological and military progress which would dominate the known world. Driven by the maddening new normal of a world where all were out to either kill or control one another, ponies’ paranoia drove them to accept feverous hatred of all those different to them, going so far as to enslave or destroy all other creatures who dared to oppose them. In this new era of Equestrian civilization, a tense standoff and shaky peace is all that keeps the two superpowers from obliterating each other’s terror states. Throughout all of those fifteen years, everpony only hoped that their castle of glass would outlast the other…