Prologue

We should’ve listened to the signs… The warnings that were in plain sight… but we didn’t, instead we continued on with our lives. Work, play, eat, and sleep… for weeks the warnings displayed across the sky for all to see. Like a kaleidoscope, colors and patterns of all kinds swished and spun across the sky. For days ponies, including myself, stood outside mesmerized by the glorious light show we thought our rulers were displaying before us. Fillies and colts laughed in joy as their parents left them to play outside in the night, while they sat on the front porch watching the sky in awe. For some they could say it was rather romantic. Sitting in their homes or even outside snuggling each other possibly for the last time; none of us knew what terrors held behind those beautiful colors in that night sky. Instead behind that fake mask was something no pony could even imagine… something that would bring the collapse of ponydom as we know it.

And on the following month they arrived without warning.

Their path of destruction swept across the country side like an unstoppable forest fire. Nothing could halt them, not even our most powerful leaders. Canterlot was the first to fall, along with the Gryphon capital of Talonsden. Massive vessels loomed over each and every one of our cities, charging up some type of super weapon, and when the time seemed right; bright flashes of light swooped across the plains like a horrific lighting storm. Anything caught in those rays of light, disintegrated within seconds of contact leaving nothing but a pile of ash and maybe a few charred bones.

The ones who survived the first wave fled for their lives, most of us making our way north towards the Crystal Empire; hoping for some type of safe haven, an army to protect us from our common enemy. But the others who also lived, but weren’t able to run… the unlucky survivors. Were captured and taken to the colossal machine that was stationed over the ruins of our beloved capital.

The horrors they must’ve endured, the pain and suffering that was driven upon like an iron curtain. Tortured, mutilated, changed beyond anything I have ever seen, flesh bound to metal. They were changed… friends and family I once knew. Before my eyes I saw them turned into hunks of metal and flesh, creatures that were specifically bred for war. They weren’t ponies any more; they were machines… blood thirsty killing machines.

When I reached the Crystal Empire, I realized it was hopeless. The city was full of refugees, not just ponies either, Gryphons, Dragons, Zebras, Diamond Dogs, almost every sapient being on this entire continent was fleeing towards this giant fortress in the middle of an arctic waste. What everypony thought was going to be a safe haven, was wrong.

The city was chaotic and out of control, riots and protest were held in the streets. Princess Cadence along with her husband Shining Armor, were unable to keep the peace. Soldiers who were once out in the streets trying their hardest to keep the marauding crowds that were fighting over that one slice of bread under control, were brought back to the city center to protect the two rulers.

For days ponies and the other species fought for food and shelter, segregation erupted what seemed like out of nowhere. Dragons were prohibited to only one portion of the city, along with the others, save for the Zebras and Diamond dogs that were hired by the rulers themselves to work on medicine and the underground portion of the city.

Nopony knew what was going on beyond those walls; the outside was shrouded in black smog. An endless night as others called it, raising the suspicion that Nightmare Moon was behind it all. But it didn’t matter, not one bit. Knowing who caused this wasn’t going to help us at all. The only thing keeping us safe from the outside world, were the walls and the shield provided by Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. But it was only a matter of time before they find us, it is was a matter of time before their vessels appeared over our very city and we were all converted into those horrific hunks of walking flesh and metal…