The Reign of Discord
2050-2148 AW
Life Under Discord
2050-2148 AW
After the Republic fell, ponies continued to fight. Discord had taken the capitol without much resistance, but was forced to fight for almost 3 months to take Pegasusoplis, the final unconquered city, due to the fact that as long as one Pegasus, mare, stallion, or foal, remained alive, he or she fought bitterly. Discord even broke down and directly engaged the defenders in the last week of battle, stooping to what he thought of as an inferior level. His direct intervention is what finally ended the fight, in the summer of 2050.
With the fighting finally over, ponies had to pick up the pieces. It was a daunting task. The war had claimed almost three million lives, and had destroyed many once large, thriving metropolises. Art, technology, and literature of all kinds had been lost. With the fallen technology and cities, many ponies were back to living in straw huts, which had not happened since the Three Tribes. Equestria was in ruins, and pony civilization had just been thrown back to the Stone Age.
Discord’s rule was far from peaceful, and was chaotic, as is befitting of the master of chaos. In general, weather patterns followed and reflected Discord’s mood, though not always. Seeing as Discord is the spirit of disharmony, storms came when he was happy, and sun when he was angry (usually), contrary to what an ordinary pony may expect. Thus, hurricanes were commonplace throughout the land. In addition, the Sun and Moon were never predictable. The day might last four hours, and the night four seconds. Then, the heavenly bodies may appear alongside each other. Or maybe not. Physics went to Tartarus, and many large buildings flipped over and hovered. Even on top of this, animals exhibited many odd behaviors, such as fish being able to swim though air. Ponies themselves were not considered important, and often taken as some form of cheap entertainment to appease their overlord. Many lived in fear, with the knowledge that if he wanted, Discord could end all of pony civilization without even trying.
What’s more, the failure of the old Republic was still in the forefront of many ponies’ minds, and they lacked trust in a large, centralized government. With this distrust and political tensions, it is a wonder that ponies stayed together at all, and did not relapse back into a new Three Tribes or similar phase.
The fact is that they did not. While there were tensions and arguments, for the most part, ponies more or less united against their common foe, the hated Discord. While resistance as light in the early years, by 2085 the Equestrian Resistance Alliance had started to take action against the foreign ruler. They also wielded propaganda, spreading rumors and half-truths to great effect, managing to persuade many thousands into taking up arms when the Harmonious Revolution began. By 2095, many ponies were actively opposing Discord in one way or another, often by attempting to take control of their elements. More often than not, they failed, but occasionally they succeeded, if only briefly. It was merely a nuisance to the spirit of chaos, but it was a step in the direction of freedom.
Meanwhile, Discord became aware of the increasing resentment. He didn’t give a $@!#, though. He considered the ponies beneath him, and his victories had given him a sense of bravo. After all, Equestria was the dominant world superpower at the time, and he was but one who managed to bring it to its knees in two years. However, he seriously underestimated the Equestrian Resistance Alliance. He dismissed them as a small band of terrorists (rather hypocritical, when one considers the fact that Discord himself may be labeled as but a terrorist), and did not believe them to be large or capable of any real resistance.
However, this was not the case. Now, to be fair, the Equestrian Resistance Alliance (or, as it was known by the ponies of the time, the Equestrian Military) did act as a terrorist organization at times, often assassinating the few who co-operated with Discord. By 2135, it is estimated that one-third of all ponies were members of the Alliance, and the other two-thirds who did not want to resist Discord directly gave aid and comfort to them, sometimes more out of fear than loyalty to the state. While the Alliance was disorganized and launching small-scale attacks in the beginning, gradually they saw the need to form a larger resistance corps and launch larger, more organized assaults. And, slowly, they did indeed organize. Before Celestia and Luna took the leadership of the Alliance, however, the largest assault, coined “the Great Attack”, consisted of only two thousand ponies and was a crushing defeat for Equestria. In order to defeat Discord, larger scale attacks were needed, and somepony had to take charge, before all hope was lost.