Equestria Wasteland

by Atriark the Scribe

1 It Begins

A long time ago, Equestria was not the harsh and barren land we know today. It was ruled by two Alicorns, and they established equality between their ponies, and sought for peace with all other creatures upon the land; with different amount of success. The land was peaceful, and their subjects happy; protected by two immortal and powerful Alicorns-- The older sister, named Celestia, raised the sun in the morning and ruled at day, and her younger sister raised the moon each evening and ruled at night. However, this peace would not last. The younger sister grew jealous of her elder; as their ponies played in the day time, living and enjoying the day, but they slept her beautiful night away. After many long years, she decided she had enough. Blinded by her anger and jealousy, the younger sister sought to make the night time eternal.

Using the Elements of Harmony, Celestia was reluctantly able to banish her younger sister, and take up the responsibility of moving both the moon and the sun. The civil strife would not go unnoticed by the enemies of Equestria, and saw an opportune moment to invade. Celestia and her armies fought back, but without her sister and the Elements of Harmony, lost with her sister's banishment, Equestria was unable to repel their enemies. As the war and the plight of the ponies became more dire, Celestia turned to her assistant, a Unicorn wizard named Star Swirl. Together they developed a spell they hoped would end the war once and for all.

The spell did do that, but at a great cost; Equestria was filled with high levels of Magical Radiation, killing the invaders and a number of her own ponies. Those that survived the initial blast were either disfigured for life or left to fend for themselves in remote locations. Ponies were saved from extinction, but were forced to survive in a scarred and toxic land.

It has been a thousand years since Celestia used the spell to end the devastating war, and the land has healed somewhat, but not entirely. Magical Radiation still litters the land, Creatures have been irreversibly mutated, and safety is a rarity.

Dangers are everywhere; but for the ponies in the Southern Wasteland, they have a unique threat. Somewhere, hidden far from the view of everyone, a faction resides. Hushed stories, spoken in fear, tell of changelings coming in the night to foalnap ponies, replacing them and feeding off of love. No pony knows who does this or what their ends are. But ponies are afraid, scared by a monster under the bed.

Deep in a lost library, one pony, a lavender unicorn mare, finds an intact book. The brown binding and gold engravings caught her attention. Overwhelmed by curiosity, the mare opened the book and read. She spent the next five nights consumed by the book's contents, excited by the wealth of knowledge it contained. On the fifth night, one passage made her stop in her tracks, a prophesy that sent a chill down her spine. On the longest day of the thousandth year, the terrible mare will return, and the stars will aid in her escape. With her, she will bring about nighttime eternal!