Author's Note

Dedicated to all those who grew up proud in the shadow of the mushroom cloud.

Thank you, kkat.

This story is an AU of Fallout: Equestria, and should not be assumed to follow the same canon.

Prologue 1: Friendship Intervention

War. War never changes.

The ancient Zebraicans waged war to gather coal and alchemical materials. The Crystal Ponies forged an empire from their lust for magical gems. The three tribes of ponies, fleeing famine and seeking a new home, drove the buffalo from their ancestral lands.

Centuries later, Celestia’s reign brought a thousand years of peace to Equestria. Ponies forgot the ways of violence.

But war never changes.

The ascension of Twilight Sparkle to the Equestrian throne was heralded as a new Era of Harmony. Her reign brought unprecedented progress in technology and the arts.

But all was not well.

Faced with a world reeling from the collapse of the Storm King’s Empire, Twilight staged a series of ‘friendship interventions’ to restore order.1 Her troops brought peace to Saddle Arabia, Mount Erebus, and Abyssinia. The Zebraican Caesar Musa III, perceiving aggression and deprived of access to the Abyssinian lead mines, retaliated by invading metal-rich Yakyakistan.2

Princess Twilight struck back, touching off a war of attrition that would last for almost a decade. Finally, Empress Cadence, heartbroken by the bloodshed, forbid any more Equestrian troops or supplies to pass through her lands. Twilight responded by imprisoning her and annexing the Crystal Empire.

After the apocalyptic battle of Shattered Hoof Ridge, Equestria and Zebraica came to a fragile peace. But, when hope seemed to shine brightest, a terrible misunderstanding snuffed out that hope in a blaze of balefire.

In a few brief hours, Equestria was reduced to cinders.

— Crispy Apples, A Creatures’ History of the Northeastern Wasteland