A Twilight's Shadow

*The Past...*

A thousand years ago, the Crystal Empire was never saved. King Sombra usurped the empire, and ruled over them as a tyrant. He made the entire region a landscape full of darkness and devastation. The beautiful blue sky was replaced with a fiery orange of ash and smoke, and the kingdom's shield was no more, so the harsh coldness of the arctic mercilessly froze the inhabitants. The King forced them to work, and to do his deeds. Escape was impossible because of the weather, and if one attempted to do so, any friend or family would be harshly punished. Rations were poor and limited, and any injury or sickness would mean a certain death. Everything was a living hell.

All the kingdoms attempted to stop the tyranny, but to no avail. The darkness continued to spread, and brought havoc to everything within his control. So, the kingdoms came, and brought light and harmony across each other, protecting their inhabitants with their barrier of light. The darkness was stopped, and no longer continued to expand. No one was to know about the darkness, for it will surely bring fear and disunity. Therefore, it was kept a secret, so only the rulers knew about it. They encouraged everypony to stay within their borders, but those who ventured out never returned, which also encouraged everypony to stay inside their kingdoms.

The inhabitants continued to live happily and peacefully, not knowing what lies beyond...

*A few decades in the future from today*

Things have not been going so well for Equestria. Cities began to grow, and ponies began to expand throughout the land, taking up more and more space. Soon, they wanted to expand, yet were discouraged by officials despite the shortage of land. Some decided to venture out, but were never heard from again. This brought suspicion and curiosity to them, and began to question why the officials and Celestia were so worried about not wanting to expand.

Problems began to arouse. Because of the population, unemployment rose, and the economy began to fall. Consumer demands were not met, which led to depressions. The land became more scarce, so property was literally bought up immediately. Because of this, no more farms were able to be made. So, food started to become limited, and hunger spread. The low and higher classes grew further apart. Everypony began to face hardships, and disunity grew. Everyone tried to simply survive and get by.

The ponies complained, and were upset with the officials. They couldn't make the light that all the ponies wanted, needed, or expected. But there was nothing they could do. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Everything started to fall...and the darkness began to expand once more.