Inside the Castle of Friendship, Queen Twilight starts off with another happy day in Hearts Warming Eve with her daughter, Princess Violet Aura, and her husband Captain Flash Sentry.
"Violet, do you want to go to Canterlot to celebrate Hearts Warming Eve there?" Twilight asked her daughter.
"Yes, mother. I'd be delighted!!!" Violet Aura responded in a cheerful, jolly tone.
As the Alicorn Queen made her way to the Mayor's Office, she wrote down some more paperwork to let the griffon and Yak immigrants to seek vacancy in Ponyville. After that, Queen Twilight and Princess Violet Aura went to Canterlot only to find the Mane 5, Spike, their children, the Royal Sisters, Princess Cadence, Flurry Heart, and Shinning Armor waiting for them. As soon as Twilight showed up at the Palace Courtyard, they greeted her with a surprise Democratic Party during the Happy Hearts Warming celebration, much to Twilight's happy excitement. All around the Palace Courtyard, there were trees decorated with ornaments, wreaths hung on walls, presents setup up underneath the benches, and food crates stashed next to the walls. As Twilight looked around, she sees ponies celebrating her Democracy and Hearts Warming Eve all at once. Before Twilight knew it, Pinkie appeared and shoved the purple alicorn into the Great Hall to have a party with the rest of her friends. After things finally settled down from doing party games, activities, and dancing, Princess Celestia invited Twilight over to the Palace balcony to go over what Twilight did in Ponyville and in Canterlot.
"So my dear Twilight, were you and your friends able to handle things lot better than before in Equestria?" Celestia asked, not wanting to worry about what will ever become of Twilight's second life.
"Why, absolutely." Twilight responded with excitement. "In fact, Majesty was able to trade in some of her country's energy crystals for a shipment of food crates from Canterlot."
"Energy Crystals? Well, I hope you can handle those wisely because they're the real reason why Felhand was able to create and unleash those powerful weapons at the command of the Armies of Unicornia." Luna said giving the purple alicorn a fair warning.
"Really? Well, I was interested in using those energy crystals to do some research with the aid of Dr. Hooves and Trixie Lulamoon." Twilight said to Luna. "It may work well with harnessing technology and to strengthen our industrial resources."
"Well, ever since during the first years that the Kingdom of Unicornia was established, they were harvesting and researching various energy crystals to gain power to increase their military dominance; they come with all sorts of unstable, volatile energies that can cause destruction or death." Luna explained to Twilight. "However, just like the Orichalcum, Princess Platinum ordered the Energy Crystals to be banned from being used. She was afraid that those crystals would cause more harm than good."
"That's funny. And I thought that the Orichalcum was the only thing that we all need to watch out for." Twilight chuckled nervously.
"I'm being serious, Twilight." Luna continued. "I'm sure you're probably wondering how we Equestrians lost to the Unicornians years ago, during the time that you were dead ."
"Really?! Now that you mentioned it, there are still some things about the Unicornians that I still haven't covered up yet." Twilight explained to Luna. "What did Amadeus and the Unicornians do to put all of Equestria into jeopardy? And why is it that my friends couldn't hold them off when I was gone?"
"Ever since they tore up Princess Platinum's peace treaty, Amadeus and Majesty ordered the Unicornians to harvest the Energy Crystals and used them to power up the weapons that they built before commencing their invasion upon Equestria." Luna summarized the details towards Twilight. "Despite how you were able to convince us Equestrians to harness new technology to strengthen our country, we were never prepared to face what Unicornia just threw at us when the civil war started."
Just when Twilight was ready to listen to Luna's story of how they lost the civil war, most of Twilight's friends joined in before telling her how all of that past tragedy occurred.
16 years ago.........
In the morning, the sun shine up into the sky, with the moon lowering itself below the surface on the horizon. Animals were coming out of their homes to forage for food. Ponies were living happily everywhere in Equestria. All is peaceful until, the ground shook tremendously. During the immediate shift, animals were running for cover, ponies were panicking not even knowing what was going on, and the entire sky is filled with huge black airships. Before anypony could see what was coming, one of them spotted a flag at stern from one of the airships. Much to everypony's horror, the flag resembles the Kingdom of Unicornia!!!
Meanwhile at Ponyville, Applejack called forth the Mane 5 to celebrate their 6th anniversary of Twilight Sparkle's passing at the very same place that was once her beloved Castle of Friendship. Twilight's beautiful domain lies at the edge of Ponyville. After the Mane 5 spent several minutes of eating lunch, Rainbow Dash, a light-blue pegasus that bears the Element of Loyalty, hears distant explosions from a mile away. Before any of her friends went out to see what was going on, Rainbow flew out of Twilight's Castle and spotted something ominous floating up in the air above Ponyville.
"Hey guys, are you all seeing this??" Rainbow Dash asked, while looking through her telescope from the Castle's balcony.
After several seconds, Applejack and the rest of the Mane 5 nodded.
"OOOooooo!!! I wonder if they're hear for a welcoming party???" Pinkie Pie guessed. She happens to be a pink earth pony that bears the Element of Laughter.
"I don't know, Pinkie Pie." Rarity spoke to the pink earth pony. "It doesn't look like that they're here for a warm welcome."
"Or maybe, they wanted something more, than just a welcoming reception." Fluttershy muttered to herself.
"Come on, y'all. It can't be that bad, right?!" Applejack asked the Mane 5.
Before they could say anymore, the cannons started to appear from the hull of the airships. Without warning, the airships started bombarding the Castle of Friendship, much to the shock and horror of the Mane 5. Upon seeing their' deceased friends' castle get hit by incoming fire, the castle's exterior started receiving heavy damage from left and right.
"SWEET CELESTIA!!! THEY'RE FIRING UPON US!!! RUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN!!!!!" Rarity shrieked as she and the rest of the Mane 5 went inside the Friendship Castle for cover.
During the attack, the castle received explosions all over the exterior walls, glass windows were breaking, the towers collapsed and plunged straight into the ground. The Mane 5 flew underneath the basement until the firings stopped. As they went out of their hiding place, they see the interior of Twilight's Castle in a complete wreck. Benches were blown off, statues collapsed and broke into smaller pieces, banners were caught on fire, and the tree chandelier was half destroyed.
"Oh dear, Faust!!!" Rarity sobbed in horror. "This poor Castle is done for!!!! Oh Twilight, if only she was still here for us."
"We got more things to worry about other than dealing with such property damage, Rarity!!!" Applejack said as they went out the door. "Look!!!"
As the rest of the Mane 5 went out the Castle's half-blown up doors, they see the other airships turned towards Ponyville and started unleashing cannon fire upon the citizens and buildings residing there. In an instant, the Mane 5 heard screams echoing through the broad daylight and building were caught on fire. While the rest of the Mane 5 stared at their beloved village being attacked and burned to the ground, Rainbow Dash spotted a flag bearing the Unicornian Emblem on one of the airships with her telescope.
"Uh guys, you all want to take a look at this!!!" Rainbow Dash suggested to the rest of the Mane 5.
When Applejack grabbed the telescope from Rainbow's hooves, her eyes widened with shock, realizing that Unicornia has begun attacking their beloved land of Equestria.
"We better get our families to a safer place and figure out what were up against." Applejack told the rest of the Mane 5.
As the Mane 5 went into Ponyville, they spread out to find their families and find a safe place to hide until all of this blows over. Just when they entered the town square, Unicornian paratroopers came down from the sky, the started razing Ponyville to the ground, capturing or neutralizing every pony in sight, even the little fillies were getting captured by the soldiers left and right. Any pony that was posing resistance against the paratroopers were met by a lethal blast of magic or by getting stabbed in the stomach by their spears. To make matters worse, Mayor Mare gets captured immediately in her own office. Unable to do anything about it, Mane 5 split up in hopes of getting their families to a safer place, away from the Unicornian troops. As they proceeded further, Rainbow spotted Canterlot under attack from a distance. From the light-blue pegasus point of view, she sees smoke and distant explosions erupting from the Capital City of Equestria.
"OMGOSH!!!!" Rainbow Dash spoke in fear. "T-This can't get any worse."
As soon as the rest of the Mane 5 separated and disappeared into the panicking crowd, a Unicornian Commander appears in Ponyville's Town Square. He goes by the name Commander Vermillion, the Red Brigand! He happens to be an black armored, red unicorn stallion with a grey mane, bearing an orange circular strip cutiemark. When he stepped up to the Mayor's Town Hall, Vermillion makes his announcement throughout the entire town.
"Citizens of Ponyville!" Commander Vermillion announced while raising his megaphone towards the public with his magic. "This is Commander Vermillion of Unicornia. By the order of Queen Majesty Blueblood, you have no possibility of fighting back, no chance of escape, but you've had warning. Stop now or we'll destroy you. Ponies of Ponyville, this is your last warning, STOP NOW AND SURRENDER OR WE'LL DESTROY YOU!!!"
When Vermillion and his guards spread out and captured the ponies of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash and the Mane 5 went behind cover, as they moved on to rescue their families. By doing so, the Mane 5 prayed that they'll survive this immediate invasion.