Based on Visiden Visidane's Upheaval series, which begins in Breaking Point, this story is non-canon with that story but written as a fan tribute to the series. I highly recommend checking out the canon series if you're a fan of adventure and military exploits.

Equestria is a peaceful realm, but one that has been kept in the dark about the price of that peace. The Heartland, as it is called, has been protected for generations by the Barrier Lands, a realm outside of Equestria that is occupied by ponies who make up a large army known as the Legion, controlled by the brother of the Princesses, Prince Terrato. This Legion has been fighting an ongoing war for centuries against a host of deadly enemy species that would gladly destroy Equestria if not for the Legion's efforts to keep them at bay.

After a series of events leads Twilight Sparkle and her friends to discover all this, the Barrier Lands and the Heartland are reunited, and the peaceful Equestrians told the truth. However this reunification is not entirely smooth and has with it a terrible price of its own; the draft. Equestrains who have never known a day of violence in their lives must now serve in the Legion, whether they want to or not.

Trixie Lulamoon, Blossomforth, and Coco Pommel are three such ponies, drafted into the Legion and sent to the Western Barrier Lands, where the dangerous bear-like race known as the ursans rule a vast realm of mountains and forest. Though their posting at Beartrap Fortress is meant to be a quiet one, out of the way of the main fighting, these three mares suddenly find themselves stuck in the forefront of an unexpected invasion. Ursans gather in numbers not seen in centuries under the rule of a new warchief, and it seems Beartrap Fortress is directly in the path of this new assault.

To make matters worse it seems there is an even deadlier new threat lurking in the shadows behind this invasion, one that could change the very dynamic of the Legion's struggle to protect Equestria.

Can a single company of raw, inexperienced Equestrian draftees make a difference in such a battle? Its time for the Legionnaires of Equestria to find out what they're made of, one way or another.

This story is a sequel to Upheaval: Reckoning

Equestria's fragments have reunited, and the power of sunlight shines once more within Celestia. With the remnants of the Old Kingdom destroyed, the Abyssal Throne sent away, the threat of Gravitas defeated, and Black Rose no more, Equestria now faces the encroaching darkness of Oceanus and his rebels.

But the stage is not yet fully set. Twilight Sparkle and her friends must gather what means they may before the battle is joined.

Cover art provided by Captain Nibbles

This story is a sequel to Upheaval: Breaking Point

Following the events of Breaking Point, Twilight Sparkle and her friends discover that Equestria's demise may not come from an enemy invasion, but from within. The Barrier Lands and the Heartland begin the slow and uneasy process of reuniting into a single Equestria, but this long-delayed joining is already in danger at its conception.

With Celestia's power in her grasp and her agents by her side, the wheels of Black Rose's plans for Equestria's future continue to turn. However, her brazen gamble has done more than just bring down a centuries-old barrier. Ancient powers begin to stir: the remnants of a dark period in Equestria's history, the immortal inhabitants of Celestia's homeworld, and a rising tide of darkness coming ever closer.

Equestria is a land of magic and harmony, a peaceful realm ruled by immortal and benevolent monarchs. At what cost is this possible?

Following the discovery of a strange and powerful device, Twilight Sparkle is whisked away to the edges of a land she thought she knew so well. Here, surrounded by ponies whose very existences have been kept secret, she must contend with vicious enemies, hostile allies, and the truth.

Chapters 1-16 edited by KiltedKey