Rainbow Dash flies east.

350 C.E. Three hundred and fifty years after the Banishment of Nightmare Moon. Three hundred and fifty years after the founding of the Equestrian Empire in response to the new shift in power. Three hundred and fifty years during which Celestia has held absolute power over Equestria and, indeed, the entire world, albeit in the shadows.

Technology is advancing at a rapid pace. Airships held up by small solid steel balloons instead of massive canvass behemoths, once a thing of only fantasy and fiction, now commonly roam the skies. Soldiers equipped with rifles powered by either powder or magic, firing either metal bullets or beams of pure energy. Massive dreadnoughts capable of leveling entire cities.

But the world is a changing place. Tenuous alliances and non-aggression pacts in the face of war and destruction. A Reich so mindlessly infatuated with their leader that they have lost sight of everything beyond their world. A General obsessed with utter annihilation of any enemies of the Crown. An Admiral afraid to throw his ships at the enemy. A Princess afraid of unnecessary loss of life. A student controlling the vast majority of the economy.

And in the middle of it all, an airship captain just trying to make a living for her and her crew.