The badlands.

It's a vast desert that seemingly stretches out forever. It is located south of the principality of Equestria. It is known for bandits, various towns and city-states around it's few oases, the changeling hive and the mysterious ancient ruins. Many expeditions have been made to these ruins but no information was recovered from them. It is theorized that an ancient civilization that predated Equestria used to inhabit these once hospitable lands. These beings had a war that wiped them out and made the badlands inhospitable.

This theory is accepted by most and left at that. Some try to go deeper into this mystery but it never ends well for them. What most don't know that is that this mystery is a lot darker than it seems.

Time: 2:13 AM
Location: Ruins 12-2, unclaimed territory, 70 kilometers south of changeling kingdom.

Inside a ruin that once used to be a house, everything is quiet. Most of the house has collapsed, save the front and left wall. In the basement, everything is quiet as well.
...
...
*tink*

A pile of sand and rubble moves in the basement, causing a few rocks to fall. It stop moving for a few moments before a beam of magic is shot straight up from underneath the pile and through the ceiling, covering the entire area in dust and smoke. The smoke continued exiting the basement through the hole in the ceiling for a minute before a form flew out of the hole. The figure flew up to 10 meters before shooting out of the pillar of smokes and crashing into the sands and leaving a trail behind. The figure lay unmoving at the end of the trail, as if they had died.

The figure was a lanky alicorn who was just above the height of princess Cadance. Their coat was ash grey in colo(u)r and mane was chocolate brown in colo(u)r. They were wearing a dirty, white button-up shirt, black trousers, enchanted grey greatcoat, a camouflage helmet and a gas mask. In addition, they had brown saddlebags, a watch, a 3-cylinder flamethrower and a MP5. They lay there for a few minutes, trying to steady their breathing. They rolled on to their back and removed the gas mask revealing that they were a stallion. He had sunken blue eyes and a small scar on the left side of his muzzle.

In those few minutes, he went over his memories to find out why he was buried under a pile of rubble and sand.

'I was hiding in the basement but what was I hiding from and how did I get buried?', he thought. He dug deeper in his memories and remembered what had happened. He had been hiding from a group of gold-clad ponies.

'Royal guards', he thought with hatred as he remembered what those cloned soldiers had done to his world and people. Then he remembered what he was doing before he was buried.

'I had to get to London and find militiamen .' It didn't matter anymore. He was in the town of Worthing but seeing the condition of the town, he figured that it had been a long time since he were last awake. A very long time.

'The militia has been dead for a long time.', he thought. 'The same with anyone else and... my family.' The realization sunk in as he remembered his friends, comrades and family. He started crying and continued doing so for ten minutes before a desire grew within him.

He wanted to avenge them. He wanted to burn the celestial sisters' world just like they burnt his.

He wiped the tears off his face and got up shakily. Right now he was thirsty and hungry. He checked his saddlebags for his water canteen but couldn't find it. All he could find was ammo for the MP5, a torch, a compass and a knife. He didn't need to use the torch to see as the moonlight illuminated the desert just enough. With his final checks done, he started charging up a locator spell. He knew the dangers that he would attract but didn't care.

'This is going to be power consuming.' With that final thought he casted the spell.

Time: 2:21 AM
Location: Canterlot.

The capital of Equestria and where Canterlot castle was located, it was truly a sight to behold. Under the full moon's light it seemed more beautiful. A perfect place to live... only if you are ready to look past the attitude of the unicorn majority that reside here.

A few hours ago, Canterlot city was recovering from the changeling invasion that happened two days ago. Right now, the city was asleep with the exception of a few workers, the lunar guards, and Princess Luna. Princess Luna was preparing for negotiations with the changelings that were going to happen today. She was going to depart for the Central Hive City of the changeling kingdom by carriage at 8:00 AM and reach her destination by 1:00 PM.

Everything was going fine until she felt a locator spell being used on her. She remembered the composition of the magic from when she last felt it over 2000 years ago.

It was grey magic. Grey magic was very stable compared to light and dark magic. Grey magic could only be used by the native ponies. Princess Luna immediately set to locating the spell-caster. She wanted to fix a mistake that she had made a long time ago. The spell-caster was in the badlands, and was heading towards the changeling kingdom. She was going to tell her sister until reality hit her.

'We wiped them out all those years ago and she does not feel guilty to this day., she thought as memories of the war played out in her head. The natives had fought ferociously against their forces but lost in the end. Her plans changed as she started preparing herself for the conversation with the native pony.

Time: 3:51 AM
Location: Southern Hive City

An armored train had stopped at the train station of the Southern Hive City and unloaded a company of 243 changeling soldiers about an hour ago. The soldiers had been sent with the purpose of guarding the city from increasing monster attacks. However, a squad was given a separate mission under direct orders of Queen Chrysalis. They were going to investigate the magic surge in the desert and subdue any threats.

Author's Note

Hi! This has been eating up my time for the past week. I can't update my other stories regularly because writing takes time when your trying to do when you have exams.

Anyways, did you like this? If yes, then cool. If no, then please explain why you didn't like it.