INTRODUCTION
Equestria.
Once a land filled with peace, love and prosperity. A land where many live in harmony, with no fears to cloud their lives. A shining beacon to the rest of the world that, not everything was dark and cruel. The kingdom was ruled over by four benevolent Princess's, each tasked with a sacred duty, to help their subjects thrive. the eldest of them, Princess Celestia, blessed with the power to raise the sun to shine it's light upon the world, filling her subjects with hope. Her younger sister, Princes Luna, raised the moon at night, blanketing the world in her mysterious, beautiful night, filling her subjects with wonder. Their niece, Princess Cadence, who used her powers to spread love and light across the kingdom, giving them the power to see through the odds. Finally, there was Princess Twilight Sparkle, who used her new powers to spread the power of magic and friendship, across the land, with her friends by her side, nothing could defeat them, and many looked up to her as a sign of inspiration and courage, that no matter how dark things seemed to get, there is always a light in that darkness.
But that was a very long time ago.
20 years had passed since Princess Twilight defeated Lord Tirek, and saved Equestria from utter darkness, bringing peace back to the kingdom, but not all had changed for the better. Realizing that in case of another national emergency, they would need help, Equestria turned to their long-time rival nation of the Gryphons. Though tensions had always been high between the two countries, they managed to find a way to coexist, until one fateful day. Knowing they would need help in case of another attack, Equestria proposed a alliance treaty with the Gryphons, but they refused, believing that nothing could be benefited from it.
During this time, a greedy young general in the Equestrian army, saw the Gryphons refusal as a chance to grab power. Quickly orchestrating a massive explosion at an international school in manehatten, that resulted in the death of dozens of innocent ponies and gryphons. Enraged at the death of their innocent citizens and Equestria's inability to handle the situation, the Gryphon kingdom declared war on Equestria. With the help of brilliant and gifted young general, Equestria managed to turn by the tides of invaders and every turn, giving a sense of victory to the costly war. Helpless to challenge the new general, the gryphons were forced into surrender, vowing to leave Equestria.
Despite receiving numerous rewards and accommodations from his heroic actions, the young general felt cheated, and demanded a higher place in the Equestria royal court, but the Princess's quickly denied him. Feeling betrayed, the young general exiled himself to the gryphon homeland, where he struck a deal with them, vowing to give them access to Equestrian goods, in exchange for their help to remove the Princess's from power.
Without a general to lead their armies, Equestria quickly fell to the traitors brilliance and cruelty, until his forces had arrived at the gates of Canterlot. With no where left to run, the young former general challenged Celestia, to a fight to the death, with the throne as the prize, Celestia quickly fell to his power. With Luna on the run, and the crown on his head, the new king quickly placed his supporters into key positions of power, and set off to obtain absolute control. Until group of six brave heroes each embodying a virtue of friendship, rose up to stop the new king rule, but even they could not stand up to him, and quickly fell to the king's seemingly unstoppable power.
With all opposition out of the way, any remnants of the old regime, was stripped from the kingdom and destroyed, and anypony who resisted was quickly silenced.
That is where out story begins.