When Princess Celestia is found dead, a new ruler must take the throne. Without the Princess's leadership, many opportunist factions find themselves free to act as they see fit. Until now, Equestrian politics had often been overlooked, thanks to the benevolent Princess of the Sun wisely presiding over them. Now, betrayal and secret plots run rampant in Canterlot's court. Five ponies are sent to the different corners of Equestria in an attempt to save their broken nation.

Special thanks to Galrion, Coldsilverd, and Striving for Harmony for proofreading everything and helping me brainstorm ideas.
I wanna thank my editor, Derpypaws, who's a great help for grammar and punctuation. He also designed and vectored the Captain Silvermane cutie mark.
The cover art was made by DarkFlame, here is his deviantart. Also, check out his tumblr ask blog.
Cutie Mark vectors by Hawk9mm, you can find his deviantart here. Scootaloo's cutie mark by Lahirien.
Also, I wanna thank Alptraum Mond and Throttlesky for extra tips and proofreading.

Equestria, once a peaceful land living in harmony. That was until the disappearance of the two royal sisters, which lead to the dividing of Equestria and the dividing of the Elements. Here in this story is a collection of tales, spotlighting one of the six factions troops.

Update: The site containing all the Equestria divided info is gone. Use Google search if you want to see the house forces.

To the far east across the vast sea is the forgotten homeland of the diamond dogs. A land once full of poverty, sickness, and famine has become an industrial super power that threatens Equestrias economic dominance/standing. Can Equestria survive as countless ponies are put out of work from the influx of cheaper and higher quality goods from Britannia or will they be forced into an war against a technologically superior foe? And just who is the Emperor and is every thing they know a lie?

In the aftermath of the Changeling incursion of Canterlot during the marriage of Shining Armour and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Equestria gears itself for war against the Changeling menace. Against a foe that can take the shape of anypony, assume their life, and undermine Equestria from within, the Royal Pony Sisters create a new institution to monitor their Royal Guard for any Changeling corruption, cowardice, and incompetence: the Commissariat. As total war rages across the land one hero stands out above the rest; Commissar Blueblood, Hero of Equestria. Or at least that's what the propaganda says. The truth, as ever, is far more complex, as the esteemed Blueblood is merely looking for an easy and sedate life. Unfortunately, fate has a habit of throwing him into increasingly dangerous and suicidal missions, which he must survive with a combination of self-preservation, lying, and sheer blind luck, even if doing so only fuels his soaring reputation!

Equine military fiction in the style of Ciaphas Cain and Flashman.

Cover art done by me.

Proofread and edited by the always dependable Setokaiva.

For two weeks—following the banishment of her sister—Celestia is inconsolable. When she emerges from her self-imposed isolation, however, she finds that the country is not the same as it once was. In order to placate the nobles—who fear her following her sister’s path—Celestia forms a Legislative Assembly, with herself given sole executive power. Over the next few centuries, she agrees to further concessions, more than willing to give her little ponies the freedom to decide what they want for themselves.

It has been almost one thousand years since then and she has regretted her agreement to self-determination greatly. Her role now purely symbolic—with her power solely over the Sun, Moon and her school—she finds herself on the sidelines of a highly corrupt bicameral parliamentary system. Foreign relations are tense, resources are squandered, military interventionist policies are rampant, wealth disparity is at an all-time high, and her former subjects are miserable.

Now—with Nightmare Moon soon to return—she is running out of time to get her nation in a state able to defeat her once again. Without the resources of the state capable of finding the Bearers of Harmony, and with only a select few even willing to listen to her at all, it might already be too late.

Reminder - This story uses two systems of dating:
A.D. - After Discord - The years of Luna and Celestia’s rule following the petrification of Discord
C.E. - Celestial Era - The years following Celestia’s banishment of Luna

Equestria is a nation seemingly untouched by war, but not all wars consist of traditional armies and sieges. An attempt on Princess Luna's life was the opening salvo of a new covert conflict that threatens to shatter that peace that ponykind has enjoyed for 1000 years. When two aliens are inadvertently brought to Equestria, they find themselves thrown into a conflict that all the players see them as crucial to either Equestria's salvation, or its destruction.

Note: This is a complete rewrite from the previous incarnation.

Diplomacy has failed. Six years have passed Equestria's crowning of the princess of friendship, ushering in a supposed unprecedented age of peace and harmony. The concept of warfare is, to most ponies, nothing more than an unfathomable legend. They have let their guard down.

An unknown enemy has seized the opportunity to attack Equestria with terrifying new weapons of war, bent on taking the fertile land and restoring an ancient order. The valiant efforts of the Royal Guard have given Princess Twilight and her arcane scientists time to research and develop a response to their attackers, and the time has come for that response to be implemented. Utilizing weapons and tactics borrowed from another world, five squads under the command of Princess Luna will infiltrate the forests of the Equestrian Northwest to destroy a revolutionary magical matrix that Twilight refers to as the "radio" - a tool that allows enemy ponies to communicate across vast distances instantly.

Nightmare Two is comprised of three foalhood friends who, rather than be separated from each other in the draft, volunteer to become one of the five Nightmare squads. With their bodies forever altered to suit the needs of their mission, the three young mares join legions of ponies armed with powerful weapons to partake in a horrifying new breed of warfare - Equestria's first in over one thousand years.

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Heads up, folks. If you wouldn't mind leaving a comment alongside the thumbs-down, I'd appreciate it. This is my first foray into fan fiction and although it's a hobby I nonetheless wish to get better. :)

Got some FAQ's for you guys as well!

- Alternate universe in which the events of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" did not occur. (As much as I loved it! :D)

- Numerical age tends to vary with headcanon, but the CMC here were just getting started with their adult lives when the draft went into effect.

- The war is pony v. pony, utilizing firearms and the Equestrian equivalent of a tank. The underlying headcanon is that ponies used firearms similar to muskets and tracked armored vehicles akin to our tanks in times of old, and what the enemy currently employs is essentially the natural progression of these technologies.

- There are no real-world weapons or equipment i.e. "Panzer IV," or "M16 assault rifle." Particularly acute details such as the caliber of weapons are also absent.

- Technology is based on that of WWI with some WWII elements. Firearms are primarily bolt-action.

- The "radio" spell matrix functions as what we know to be a radio, but is not identical.

- All four of a Night Mare's legs are permanently replaced by the augments.

- Night Mares are female. Stallions proved unable to properly animate the limbs.

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Hold up, now - fanart? You guys rock. Like, for real. Thanks a lot!

1. A great YouTube video coming from The_Pegasus_Box. Thanks, bud!
Check it out!

2. Click here for the collection on DArt.

3. https://derpibooru.org/740375?scope=scpeac921b191f688d04521575f31608785cbc3bbaa1
[img]https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/10/10/740375__safe_anthro_apple+bloom_gun_artist-colon-pusspuss_night+mares.png[/img]

At one point, the Diamond Dogs did whatever they pleased. They were content and happy with their lives. Until they came. And drove them to madness.

Story requested by The Sorcerer.

Thanks goes to him for this rather interesting idea.

Also, this is the 30th published story of mine!

A young man with a love of military history and MLP:FIM finds himself dragged into Equestria as war threatens the pony nation.

I got the idea for this story from my Civil War book collection and Altoid's Blood and Guts and Ponies story, as it involves a human coming to Equestria to aid in its defense, partly by modernizing it's military and leading its forces on the battlefield.

Just a warning; the main character is Christian and pro-Union. Just to give people a heads up.