Author's note: This story takes place in another world, another Equestria, yet somehow contains all the ponies we know and love from the show. Certain ponies who were siblings in FiM may not be so in their incarnations of THIS Equestria. Any questions for those of you who have not played the game, just ask!

A little background…

1,000 years ago, the War of Chaos left the world a shattered wasteland, and the awesome force known as magic was almost wiped out entirely. Few in numbers and left powerless, the unicorns faded into obscurity. But unicorn magic doesn't happen without a reason, and for some ponies, greed is reason enough…

Is history doomed to repeat itself, or can the magic of "friendship" make a difference?

Equestria, present day…

Neighshe sat within the frigid mountains near the neck of the world of Equestria. Watching the town from the high cliffs that surrounded it, it was a wonder its citizens could endure the harsh cold of the north, even with coal-powered thermal regulators supplied by its neighbor, Canterlot. Few ponies knew if such technology existed before that horrible war. If it did exist, any traces of it were destroyed in the battles. What Equestria WAS sure of, was that in this day and age, the princess of Canterlot and her scholars were regarded as the sharpest minds in Equestria and the champions of the industrial revolution.

Two male pony soldiers stood on top of those cliffs in their enormous Magitek armor, walking tanks armed with missiles, magic beams, the capability to restore a pony's wounds and nearly every other advanced technology a pony could dream of. A pony at the controls of such a weapon felt powerful, even invincible. As such, both of the soldiers spoke with an air of confidence.

"I can see Neighshe," Snips, the shorter, pudgier soldier said. The coal-generated puffs of smoke coming from the houses were tell-tale signs of the coal-powered heaters that kept the town warm in the bitter cold. "Still quite a march from here."

Snails, the lankier soldier, rubbed his chin with his hoof. A look of deep thought was veiled under his bronze helmet. "Do you think we can trust our intel? I find it hard to believe an esper's been frozen there for a thousand years."

Snips paused to ponder what the esper looked like. From the stories he'd heard, he imagined an immense monster with multiple arms and a mouthful of dagger-like teeth. "Do you think it would wake up if we thawed it out?"

"Probably. They say those beasts are nearly immortal."

Snips turned his armor around to face the partner who had been assigned to them, also piloting a suit of Magitek armor. She was a violet unicorn with a mane of purple, red and dark blue. Her expressionless face held a pair of dull, lifeless, unblinking eyes. She almost seemed like a zombie. "Why'd we bring this… unicorn? She doesn't look like she can handle herself in a fight."

"She's our new weapon. I heard she fried fifty of our best men in under three minutes." Snails' voice trembled as he spoke those words, as if just imagining it was too frightening for him. "But we shouldn't worry. With that slave crown she's wearing, she's just a mindless puppet for us to control. She won't do anything we don't order her to." Gears grinding and the metallic echo of Snails' armor's footsteps signaled to Snips it was time to begin their mission. "We'll approach from the east. Move out!"

The trio of enormous machines cut the silence of the frigid wilderness as they descended the snowy cliffs to approach their target. Snips and Snails had used Magitek armor before. Entire cities could easily fall to the weapons, and they expected Neighshe to be no different. However, the unicorn riding with them struck them with far more fear than the threat of a few lightly armed town guards. Thus, when the trio reached the front gate of Neighshe, Snails spoke his next order.

"We'll put the unicorn on point. I don't want to be number 51 if anything goes wrong. Forward!"

Warm air radiated from the town, a welcome relief from the harsh mountain cold that had numbed the soldiers' hooves. Neighshe was different from any town Snips and Snails had been to. Steam and coal-powered machines with twisting gears and winding chains kept the town warm. Large ventilators connected the attics of the buildings, each one containing a heating unit. More wheels spun on the outside of the walkway-like ventilators; these wheels pumped the heat into the connected buildings. Thanks to Canterlot's technology, of course, but Snips and Snails knew that if they could secure that esper, they'd be with the most powerful force in Equestria. Even Canterlot's Princess Celestia would bow before the Empire.

With the purple unicorn leading, the group made their way through town. Most of the townsponies had locked themselves inside at the sight of the monstrous machines invading their home. Of course, with the esper recently uncovered, Neighshe's guards were on point and ready for anything. A pair of these armored guards sprang from an alleyway, axes at the ready.

"Imperial Magitek armor? We're being invaded!" one of the guards shouted.

Snips and Snails had been ordered to eliminate anypony who put up a fight, and lightly armed guards such as these posed little threat to suits of Magitek armor. Their axes accomplished little more than filling the town with the echo of steel on steel. A hatch opened on the front of Snips' armor to reveal a hidden cannon. Before the Neighshe guard could retreat for cover, a beam of fire shot from the weapon. Heat waves followed it as it reduced the guard to ash.

The second guard fared no better than his partner, as a ray of electricity from Snail's armor made him convulse and drop lifeless to the ground.

More Neighshe guards obstructed the Imperial soldiers and their unicorn partner. Attack dogs rushed in as well, barking and snarling. Again, the guards stood no chance against the Magitek armor. The foot of Snails' armor crushed one of the dogs where it stood. Snips' shot out another beam of fire that incinerated one of the soldiers. The unicorn's horn glowed and a wave of magically conjured fire finished off the second guard. Only a plume of smoke was left of him.

The Imperial soldiers pressed on towards the coal mines behind the town, making quick work of any soldier who stood in their way. Even the town's trained mastodon vomammoths were easy prey for Magitek armor. Immense size and strength and thick, wooly fur could not protect them from the missiles and fire beams.

A bridge overhead signaled that they were nearing the mines; the ponies who worked in the mines used the bridged to connect the higher parts of the colliery. Without these bridges, the miners would need a pesgasus to reach the upper levels.

At last they reached a large hole in the wall of the mountain that lead to a mineshaft, evident by the carts full of coal and pickaxes scattered along the rock floor of the cave.

"Our intelligence said the esper was hidden in a new mineshaft," Snails said. "Maybe this one."

The back of the dark, cold shaft was blocked off by a simple barrier made with long sticks of wood tied together to make a gate. Snails' armor easily broke it down, only to find another Neighshe guard on the other side. Beside him was an enormous snail-like creature with ugly-looking spikes protruding from its shell.

"We won't hoof over the esper. Whelk, get them!"

Snips chuckled at the notion that this snail creature could pose any threat to their Magitek armor. The hatch on the front of his slid open.

"Hold it!" Snails shouted. "Think back to our briefing!"

"What about it?"

"Do you recall hearing about a monster that absorbs lightning…"

"And stores the energy it its shell!" Snails thought better of firing the electric beam having remembered that.

"Right, so whatever you do, don't attack the shell!"

"Got it!"

Snails fiddled with his controls and fired a fire beam at the sluggish body of the creature. Snips followed up with a beam of ice that left patches of rime on the floor and walls of the cave. The purple unicorn finished the assault with a Tek missile.

The attacks only made Whelk groan in protest and hawk up a slimy mucus that landed on the control panel of Snails' armor, then retreated inside its shell.

"Keep me covered, that slime's gummed up my controls!" Snails shouted, struggling to regain control of his machine.

Snips and the violet unicorn stood at the ready, waiting for Whelk's fleshy body to come back out of the shell. As soon as it did, it was greeted by another fire beam and a final missile that splattered its slimy body across the walls and floor of the cave.

"Too easy," Snips said. He took point into the formerly barricaded section of the mine. The other two followed.

Sure enough, secluded in that room of the mines was a creature encased in a ten-foot tall block of ice. It didn't look anything like Snips imagined it would. A birdlike creature the size of an eagle stood silently in its icy prison; a graceful creature with blue-green feathers and wings in a rainbow of colors. Though useless in this state, once thawed out, the soldiers knew it would be very, very powerful.

"This is the frozen esper…" Snips marveled at its grace.

The frozen creature began emitting an eerie light that reflected off the metal of the Magitek suits. More odd was the fact that the unicorn was glowing along with it. Without being ordered, she stepped closer to the esper.

"What's going on?" Snails asked. "Do you know something we don't? Where's this light coming from?"

Snails, along with his armor, became transparent for a few seconds before both vanished completely.

"Hey! Snails, where'd you go?" Snips said in a panicked tone. "What's going on? WAAAAHHHHHH!"

Snips disappeared next, leaving the purple unicorn to face the esper alone. It was as if she was somehow connected to it. Even in a frozen state, the esper's mind was clearly very much awake. A mix of fire, lightning and ice shot towards her Magitek armor. The armor's resulting explosion was the last thing the unicorn saw before she blacked out.

The sound of a door opening roused the violet unicorn from her deep slumber induced by the frozen esper. A blurred world awaited her when her senses faded in. She found herself warmed by a white wool blanket, lying on her back in a bed. Whose bed, though?

His form was hazy, but the image of an old stallion with a cream colored body and long grey mane came into view beside the unicorn’s bed. She figured she might as well try to stand up. The unicorn swung her hooves over the side of the bed and stood up. Barely able to support her weight, her legs trembled, but she forced herself to remain straight as she tried to rub the sleepiness from her eyes.

“Where am I?”

“Hey! You’re safe for now,” the old stallion replied. “Don’t move around too much. I found you lying face-first on the ground in the mines. You looked like you’d been in a fight or something. My name’s Arvis.”

The unicorn shook her head. Not only was her mind in a fog, it throbbed with a dull ache. Her back hooves collapsed under the weight of her grogginess and sent her to her knees. “My… head hurts.”

Arvis walked over to the corner of the room and knelt down to retrieve a silver metallic object that resembled a circlet and presented it to the glossy-eyed unicorn. “This is a slave crown. I removed it from your head when I found you. The Empire was using it to control you.”

Again, the unicorn shook her head. Lost in a silent struggle to remember what had happened to her, she hardly cared about the slave-whatever. “I can’t remember… anything.”

“Don’t panic, your memory should come back. Just take it easy and give it some time.”

Who am I? What happened to me? My name… what is my name? Sparkle? Light…something “light”.

She took a few more moments to search for the answer until her violet eyes brightened as though she’d flicked a mental light switch. “My name… is Twilight Sparkle.”

Arvis put the slave crown back where he’d gotten it. “Really? You’re recovering faster than normal. You must have a strong mind.”

A loud pounding shook the walls of the house, accompanied by the baying of attack dogs. A panicked look formed on Arvis’ face as he ran for the den of his home. Peering out the front window, his worst suspicions were proven true. The city guards were there. They must have learned he was hiding Twilight.

“Open up! Give us the Pony and the Magitek armor.” With no response, the guards pounded even harder. The pictures hanging on the walls danced with the guards’ wrath. “Open this door! We want that pony, she’s an officer of the empire!”

Twilight stepped into Arvis’ den as best as she could under the grip of her sleepiness and mental fog. “Empire? Magitek armor?”

Still wearing that panicked expression, Arvis placed his hooves on Twilight’s shoulder and turned her back to his bedroom. “Listen, I don’t have time to explain. You need to get out of here!” He guided her to the door in the back of his room. “You can escape through here and into the mines. Don’t worry, I’ll keep the guards busy!”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion, but Arvis had been kind to her in the few minutes she’d known him and decided to trust the old stallion. At the back of the house was a bridge that ran through the mountains in the back of town. The right of the bridge ended at a nearby cliff face. The left side of the bridge must lead to the mines Arvis mentioned. It was the only way to leave, anyway, so Twilight walked down the left. The bridge hung a couple stories above Neighshe; Twilight could see the entire town from that high up. For a moment she marveled at the steam-powered machines that stood next to the houses, but a pair of men dressed in armor caught her attention. Were they the guards Arvis mentioned?

One of the stallions pointed up at her. “There she is, up there!”

Twilight gasped and knew there was no time to marvel at the scenery. She ran down the length of the bridge until it took her to the other side of town where it ended next to a hole in the mountain that lead to the mines.

Flickering lamps on the walls lit the dark caverns, revealing pick axes, mine carts and more of those strange machines with chains and wheels. As Twilight neared one, she held her hoof out to it. They radiated warm air, which gave the confused unicorn a sense of comfort, but she knew she didn’t have time to stay still.

The only noise was the echoing of her hoofsteps against the floor of the caverns. That silence was unsettling, but comforting at the same time. If anypony was coming for her, she’d be able to hear them.

Well, not COMPLETELY alone. The flickering light from the lanterns cast the shadows of armored ponies across the floor behind her. Looking for her. Why HER? She was just one unicorn. Couldn’t they find somepony who still had their memory to pick on?

Odd squeaking noises came from behind her, and Twilight snapped around again. Three monstrous white rats, each two feet tall and nearly as wide as Twilight, had come out from behind a nearby column of rock. They approached the unicorn, showing their long, dirty claws. Drool dripped from their mouths and webbed between vicious teeth.

Twilight was trapped. She glanced around for something to defend herself with. Maybe one of those pickaxes, but could she find one in time? As she glanced down at her waist, a dagger hanging from her belt beckoned for her attention. Where did it come from? Why did she have a knife? She remembered what the guards said about being an officer of some… empire. Whatever the reason, Twilight drew it with her right hoof, putting all her trust in it as if it was her best friend.

The were-rat in the middle leapt at her. Twilight closed her eyes and slashed. She’d cut it clean across the gut and fell dead to the ground. The other two charged at the same time. Twilight readied her dagger and slashed at the one on her right, which screamed and dropped stiff to the ground. A sharp pain on her left arm made Twilight shout. The last rat had latched onto it with its long fangs. Her instinct told Twilight to slash at it, but she didn’t want to cut her arm by accident.

As her frustration grew, Twilight noticed a strange purple glow surround her horn. Shortly after, a ball of fire engulfed the rat and singed all of its hair off. The fried were-rat dropped lifeless along its companions. Twilight trembled. What WAS that? How did she do it? For a moment, she felt more frightened of herself than the soldiers who were pursuing her.

“I heard it come from this way!”

Twilight gasped. The guards. Those were-rats made her forget all about them! Their hoofsteps grew louder, and she ran the other way down the stone corridor, clutching the wound on her left arm. The mine shaft made a sudden left, sandwiching her between the guards and the wall in front of her.

One of the guards pointed his axe at Twilight. “There she is!”

Twilight gasped again and turned down the left. More guards spilled in from that corridor as well. The unicorn backed up, now trapped between a rocky wall on two sides and two troops of city guards on the other sides. Twilight pressed her back against the corner she’d been trapped in. Her heart pounded. Her hooves tingled. All those angry armed ponies, out to get her, carrying axes and swords and other weapons. All she had was a small dagger and the ability to conjure fire which she couldn’t control.

Come on, fire, if you’re going to work again, now would be a good time!

The unicorn’s purple eyes widened with fear at the two platoons of guards. What did they want with her? What were they going to do?

A rumbling beneath her hooves snapped Twilight out of her thoughts. The ground was cracking. Before Twilight had time to panic, the floor underneath her crumbled and opened up like a mouth trying to swallow her hole. The rock floor of the lower level rushed up at her; she had just enough time to brace herself cover her face with her arms before she bounced off the ground.

Racked with pain, but still conscious, Twilight struggled to pick herself up. Her arms and legs were covered in scrapes and cuts and protested with a sharp agony against the movement, but the unicorn forced herself to take a couple wobbly steps. Everything she saw came in blurry, translucent doubles from the dizziness induced by the blow of her landing.

It was no use. The pain was too strong, and she flopped down on her stomach, again overcome by darkness.