The worlds are changed.

Where Equestria was set to follow a familiar path of harmony and friendship, the path is waylaid by the appearance of a creature out of myth, bearing grave tidings.

On Earth at the dawn of the third millennium, a war that should have never been rages between humanity and the ones who would seek to perfect it.

For down the road less travelled, Equestria is Empire, a dark mirror of what it once was and should be.

Lyra Heartstrings, musician and dreamer, previously content to spend her life in the shadow of Princesses or their faithful students, must now decide the role she’ll play in this new reality. But within the threads that connect us all, just as even Princess Celestia can have the humblest desires, the smallest person may change the future.

Authored by Team Spectrum, currently consisting of Sledge115, VoxAdam, and RoyalPsycho.

Cover by skysayl.

Our TV Tropes Page.

Our Group
Equestria Timeline
Dramatis Personae/Character Sheet
Story Outline

Side Stories

Equestria
The First Second of Eternity, by Sledge115.
A Sun in Winter, by Sledge115 and VoxAdam.
In Night's Garden, by Sledge115.
Celestia Regina, by Sledge115.
The Rose of Florentina, by Sledge115.
Wallflower of Canterlot, by Sledge115.
Sogno di Volare, by Sledge115.
Velvet Quill & Sunny Skies, by Sledge115
Joy to the Worlds, by VoxAdam, TB3 and Sledge115.

Earth
Story of the Asian Front, by Kizuna Tallis.
Snowbound, by DoctorFluffy.
The Slow Mutants, by DoctorFluffy.
The Light Despondent, Remixed, by DoctorFluffy.
Dissonance, by RanOutOfIdeas.
Starvation, by DoctorFluffy.

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.

War is ruin, predicted and then remembered as glory.

The Changelings and their vengeance-mad Queen grow ravenous in the south. Nations all around gaze hungrily at Equestria. In the north, beyond the Crystal Mountains, an unfathomable menace sends even the fiercest Diamond Dog packs fleeing before it. In Canterlot, a capricious Prince lusts for absolute power.

Against it all, Equestria stands toothless. Fearful for his country and thirsty for vengeance against Queen Chrysalis, Shining Armor desperately tries to convince Princess Celestia of the need for an Equestrian Army. Yet even as plans are made to march against the Changelings, the means for his triumph may have been delivered into the hooves of Prince Blueblood, who will risk everything to seize the crown he deems rightfully his.

Map
Royal Equestrian Army order of battle

A thousand years have past, since she killed them all, a thousand years since she banished me from my home and into this violent world, and a thousand years since I swore my revenge.

I am among the last of my kind, a once strong and proud race that protected the night, and all who sleep under her cool embrace.

We were the MoonBlood.

And now after a thousand years of war and violence on this world, I shall return to my home and take my revenge. I will never forget what you did, and I will NEVER forgive you

Nightmare moon.

I don't own the image cover, only the modifications I had made