A/N This is a multiple-part prelude to what I'm terming a fourth-order counterfactual but is probably best described as an alternate universe of an alternate universe. Starting from the bare bones described in the flashbacks laid out in KKat's epic novella, "Fallout Equestria", this is a description of the last month or so leading up to the massive megaspell attacks that create the world of KKat's novella... but with a few alterations. Borrowing from Pen Stroke's "Past Sins" and Anonymous Pegasus' "Transcend" to to the end of Chapter 15, I posit a few changes that lead to more and eventually, lead to a totally different Equestria 200 years in the future
Events, characters, and depictions of characters that are canon to the stories of other authors are copyright to them; it's their creative work, it's their good idea, I'm just borrowing their eggs and cup of sugar and making something new. If I manage to miss an author in my credits, bop me on the head and I'll add them because they deserve credit for what they've done. All that said, the 'something new' I've made from the pieces of other works is mine.
It began with a tragedy, a massacre unintended. From a terrible event, a war has expanded to fill the entire world and a decade, the cause shifting from a massacre and a war over resources to a crusade; one side wishes to end a war, the other side wishes to end one pony. For the longest time, it was a war of soldiers and of ordinary weapons, each side racing for the best advantage. But the combination of innovative brilliance and tragic desperation stemming from the best of intentions has turned the war from one of soldiers and machines to one over which the dread shadow of apocalypse looms. With a sudden positive turn in the military fortunes of Equestria, that shadow has advanced to inevitability.
It is five weeks to nightfall, and the time is slipping away.