A Long Way From Equestria: Going Beyond Our Duty

by Fluttersyke

Chapter 0: A History Lesson

        I have to say, I’m not exactly what you’d call a history buff. My knowledge of the time when Twilight Sparkle and her friends roamed Equestria in peace and harmony was pretty much non existent for the first few months after I escaped from the country I once swore my allegiance to. And I still don’t know a whole heck of a lot about what happened between that time, The Golden Age of Harmony, and my time. The current period of pony history; which we actually came up with a pretty accurate title for: The Age of Arrogance, Depression, and War.

Really, I’m missing so many pieces of the story that I don’t even know why I’m the one talking to you right now... But there’s nothing for it now, you’re stuck with me; I just hope I can give you a decent understanding of my world.

        Let’s start off with the basics; firstly, one big event I do actually know a bit about is the Stellar War, or Wars (If you’re an egghead like Somepony). Basically, a long time ago, in an Equestria far, far different from this one... two all-powerful alicorns had taken care of ponies for millennia, the were the goddesses of the Sun and Moon and their only goal was to protect the ponies in their kingdom. Unfortunately, something caused these ruling sisters of the land to get into a bit of a... disagreement.

That ‘disagreement’ led to sides being taken, swords being re-invented (and then sharpened), and a great, bloody battle that ended with neither side the victor. There’s a lot more detail than that and it isn’t as black and white as it sounds; neither sister was evil. In fact, given Equestria’s history, you may begin to suspect that no pony is born evil, but that evil itself picks and chooses the ponies it infects. Almost like it is more of a... sentient spirit, than just a descriptive term for a plothole. But back to the story! (Sorry, I’ve been told I go off on tangents quite a bi- )

        *Ahem* Right, where was I?

The first battle in what became known as the Stellar Wars was fought on Equestrian soil and ended with Celestia, the older sister, retreating with her army to the ancient fortress of Canterlot; where she quickly drew out a territory for her sister to reside in that didn’t directly interfere with her Equestria’s daily life. Luna, the younger sister who had been the instigator of the war, was incredibly eager for peace, and she readily agreed to her elder’s terms. She crossed the large desert to the west with her faithful followers and founding the New Pony Common Wealth, a nation led by Luna and organized by six of her best friends: Twilight Sparkle and the other Elements of Harmony (Who apparently were rather adamant about which side was in the right from the very beginning... I can’t make heads or tails of these old ponies, but I guess these six were quite well known, especially since they repeatedly saved the princess’s plots oh, ten or fifty times before the war began).

        Celestia, meanwhile, organized a new nation of her own. Built around a strong central government ruled by its Empress and its Empress alone, (after this second disaster with her unruly sister, she was done with sharing power) the Celestial Empire claimed a wide swath of land surrounding Canterlot as its territory; a place where no NPCW citizen could tread. For a time, the two nations co existed relatively well, and some ponies began to hope they could one day be reunited...

        Then, the history books get a little fuzzy. At some point in time, one can assume that the balance shifted for some reason, for the sisters went to war once more. This time with the result of the destruction of the NPCW’s capital, the metropolis formerly known as ‘Freedom’, and the creation of a huge, poisoned streak of land with rocky terrain and twisted forests full of deadly creatures that effectively cut right between the two countries. The Badlands, as this hellish strip of real estate came to be known on both sides, was nigh impassable for any but the most seasoned and alert explorers, a fact that effectively ended all communication between the two nations. Don’t go thinking that they actually got over their differences or forgot about each other though, while Luna is no longer ever mentioned in history, the Empress repeatedly passes decrees declaring anypony coming from the west a traitor to be brought before her in Canterlot immediately for questioning. Not that she got many prisoners though, whatever happened to cause that rift in the land, it either wiped out most of the NPCW, or the Empress wants it to seem that way. No detail is ever given on the sisters’ reasons for fighting, and no conclusion is ever drawn as to whether anypony still lives on the far side of the Badlands, or if there even is a far side.

        Given a few secret correspondences however, I know that the New Pony Common Wealth did not die out with the Stellar Wars, but I have no idea if it persevered into present day. Basically, the last record of the NPCW dates back to about fifty years after the very first Stellar battle, after that, there’s nothing written about them for nearly a century. It’s like they just vanished from existence as far as Empire historians are concerned.

Now honestly, I highly doubt that my summary gives you a whole lot of satisfaction, but I’m not here to tell you our history. I’m here to give you the background information necessary for understanding the problems of today, and boy have we got a cart load of those... Nah you’re right, more like a thousand cart loads.

Which brings us to present day, or at least, helps to explain the conditions of present day Equestria. The Celestial Empire is still around; in fact, it’s a super power in a world where the next biggest threat comes from the nation of buffalo to the south, who are severely outgunned.The problem is, the Empire’s a twisted, terrible reflection of what it was supposed to be. Its population is segregated into three different categories: the Model Citizens, the Air Force, and the Soldiers; formerly known as Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies. Unfortunately, the country really does run like that; unicorns reside in the giant city-state of the Capitol underneath Canterlot, with only a few hundred out in the field leading every single branch of the military. Pegasi are almost always drafted into the Swarm, the most effective form of flying death every seen in Equestrian history. Some pegasi are needed to run the cloud cities of course, and there are a few other careers as well, but the job of weather pony has been completely abolished; it’s all cloudy, all the time in the Empire. The Empress decreed that no pegasi should mess with that, which certainly makes sense since the grey, cloudy sky perfectly reflects the grey, drab land beneath it. Moments of sunshine occasionally break through the farther you get from Canterlot, but color in the Empire is a rare thing; it’s almost like the whole damn country was bleached of more and more of its beauty as it grew more and more corrupted.

But back to the third race, or ‘class’ in the Empire: Earth Ponies. As the ‘unwanted cousins’ of the unicorns, they have two choices, pretty much the only options they’ll ever get to choose for themselves in life. They can either go into production in the fields and factories of the Celestial Empire, or a life long career as a soldier in the Battalion, which constitutes the ground forces of the CE. Given that earth ponies and pegasi are basically treated like crap by every unicorn they come in contact with, it’s a wonder the system has worked for so long.

I don’t actually know why no pony ever rebelled, and I honestly don’t care, all I know is, somepony needed to tell the entire government to go buck itself, and my friends and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to finally realize what needed to be done; we volunteered for the job as soon as we saw the opening. Now though, we’re in a bit of a jam, and we could definitely use some help. Especially since we already lost our fight.

That’s where you come in. Y’see, I know to you this is just a fun book to read when you’ve got an hour or two to kill, but the messages in this tome are ones that take years to learn, and while you may not realize it yet, the darkness that lurks in the edges of every society, every world, are susceptible to your actions. You have to choose to fight for your friends, stand up for your beliefs, and tell evil to go set itself on fire. Basically, within the pages of this cry for help we fight against a variety of enemies, most with colorful vocabularies, all with a hand, hoof, or entire face in the cookie jar of the dark side. Sometimes we win, sometimes we tie, and sometimes we lose. And whether it be a friend, a family, or a city... we always have a hard time getting back on our hooves.

But enough about us, jeez, we have like a bajillion things to tell you about ourselves in the pages to come. What we need from you is to take the things you learn here, our little life lessons, and use them yourself; draw on our pain and suffering so that your world might still have a chance. You may not agree with what we have to say, but if you find yourself in a situation where you have a clear choice, I ask you to take our collective wisdom into account.

And with that, I think I’m going to pass you off to the first filly you’ll be learning about, Harmony may not seem like much, but she’s got a fire in her heart that, once ignited, cannot be stamped out.

Trust me, quite a few ponies have tried, and those ponies have learned a much more practical lesson from the mare: bullets hurt, a lot.

Dear Reader,

Today, we learned a little of what happened between the Golden Age of Harmony and now. I’m sure I got an F on the whole ‘impersonal research paper’ thing, but come on, no pony wants to listen to me recite history!

That said, History is incredibly important; for those who fail to study it... Are doomed to repeat it.

We’d like you to take this away from these pages: Please pay attention to our lessons, they’re usually learned through a lot more hardship than just looking through history books.

(Although, and I’m sure some of you can sympathize with me here, given the entertainment level of history in general, this may be one of the most painful lessons I’ve ever learned.)

Sincerely,

Unity

Hello my Dear readers!

I am so excited about this story! I hope you’ll take some of the lessons these friends will be sharing with you into account. Sure, many will be borrowed from the episodes of MLP:FiM; but that makes them no less valuable. Sometimes it takes another look at them to get us to realize how much we aren’t following them.

Thank you all so much for reading. If you see an error anywhere or have a suggestion for how it could be improved, please tell me in the comments, or a personal message even. I don’t care if its years after this is out on the interwebs, I’d like to make it as good as possible!

Disclaimer: Any and all constructive criticism will be taken as a learning experience. I want to improve my writing skills because, shockingly, I wish to become an author later in life. Feel free to kill that dream right here and now!

I write in Google Docs, and as such have taken the liberty to create a Hub page. There you can find updates on the progress of the chapters in my story as well as links to each chapter. Just you know, if you're interested ^_^

If you decide to read in the Docs though, please feel free to come back here and give me a piece of your mind! And if you like what you read, be prepared to wield your thumbs in an aggressive manner below!

Inspiration Credits: Kkat, and Somber & The Project Horizons Syndicate. AcoustiMandoBrony for the Title and beginning ideas of this Story. No, this story does mirror the song at all. But the title is a reference to both their song, and to Equestria's fall from what it once was.