On the 12 of Celestius in the Equestrian year, A.N. 23,945, something came to Equestria, even Armonia for that matter. I, Big Macintosh, was doing my early morning chores, when I heard a loud crash, and then an abrupt explosion. I went over to investigate. I will never, ever forget what beheld my eyes. It was the wreckage of some type of glowing, red sphere. I realized, it had hit the barn.I quickly forgot the sphere and ran to the barn to check out if anyone was inside. I will never forget it...her-- her body was lying their limp less and unable to move...Granny Smith was dead. I quickly ran to cradle Granny Smith's lifeless body within my arms, tears beginning to stream down my face when the red, glowing orb shot three almost claw-like arms into the ground. The orb then slowly opened on the sides, and four creatures slithered and skulked out of the orb. Two looked like Dragons like we had on Equestria, but bigger, and two were these creatures that walked on two legs instead of four. All the creatures were carrying these rifle looking weapons. Before I could search into this more, I Remembered that Applejack and AppleBloom were inside. I dropped Granny Smith, and ran to the house. AJ and Apple Bloom were already coming outside.
"Get inside!", I yelled to them, "Now!" I shouted with the most demanding voice I have ever used.
"What's the matter?", AppleJack returned. I ignored her, and continued to sprint to the barn.
When I was five feet from them, I again yelled to them to run into the house, and this time they listened without question. We all ran into the house, and I told them to shut all the shutters and doors. I then started explaining to them what I saw outside.
"Okay, listen, we are inside because something just hit the barn and--",
"The barn!!", AppleBloom shouted, "Granny Smith's in there, quick we need to--"
"Granny Smith is... dead." I told it to both AppleBloom and AppleJack straight. They cocked their heads at me and then started to sob. I needed to tell them about the orb, but it wasn't the right time. I waited.
Waiting, something in the distance caught my attention. Slowly, I started to pull back one of the curtains. Opening it, I had to shield my eyes from the blinding Equestrian sun. I gave them time to adjust, and noticed smoke rising out where Canterlot was. Something big was happening out there. Then something to my left recaught my attention. One of those Two legged walking things was heading back to that orb. When he got there, he pressed something on the orb, pulled some type of glowing green thing out which resembled a crystal, and then he again walked away. I decided to ignor him, and again went back to examining Canterlot. I saw a building, the Microrich building actually, collapse in a heap of fire, brick, and rubble. It was one of the most awesome, and fearsome sights, I would ever behold on Equestria. I continued to watch this scenario for a while until my sisters calmed down.
It must have been 5 hours before AppleJack and Apple Bloom finally started to stop sobbing for a moment. When they did, I knew it was my chance. I revealed to them all that I had seen, and then told them to go rest. While they slept, I stayed up to guard the house the rest of the night.I however had fallen asleep sometime during the night.
I awoke to a banging on the door. Getting up to see who it could possibly be at 6:00 in the morning, I walked over to the door. I was thrown back as the door was kicked open. Then two of these creatures, both Dragons, rushed in and yelled, "Where is the one named AppleJack!?"
"Get out of here!!", I yelled to one of them, but he just glanced at me. The other one though, with furious eyes, rushed over to me, grabbed me by the throat, and then through me against the wall, slowly pushing my neck deeper into the wall practically choking me. Then he pulled out one of his metal daggers, and put it up to my throat, ready to slice it.
"Hold it!!!", screamed one of the two legged walking ones, who was just now entering. He grabbed the Dragon's arm who had pinned me to the wall. "Do you not realize that we need these pesky vermin to work for us to supply all the resources we require for the Dragononian empire... And do not make me remind you of the artifact which we require which only these Equestrian scum can get... and need I remind you of what will happen to those who kill the relatives of this AppleJack?!" the two legged thing spoke all of this with an urgency in his voice. The Dragon one gave the Two legged one a nod, and then lowered his arm, dropping me to the floor.
"Yes, forgive me sir." the Dragon replied in apology.
"You liars, whatever you are," I shouted, "You killed my grandmother!". In rage, I rushed to the commanding one who swiftly dodged me, and let me run into a wall facefirst. Two other guards grabbed me, and held me down for a few seconds. I struggled, but could not get free.
"Now... where is that pony we need that is called AppleJack?... Search the House and find her!" he shouted. The two Dragon ones started to throw things all over the place. They were ruining my house. Then they went upstairs, and I heard screams.
The two Dragon ones came down the stairs only a moment later, grasping AppleJack in their vile clutches. Apple Bloom was behind them, attempting to do any damage she could. She did nothing, though, because these brutes were very huge, full of muscle mass, and they had tons of armor on. I felt sorry for Apple Bloom. The commanding one, unhappy with Apple Bloom's efforts, grabbed Apple Bloom, while the two Dragon ones dragged AppleJack to this aircraft. They then tied her up so she didn't give them any fuss. The dragons then got on board, and waited while the commanding officer turned to us.
"Thank you kindly for your services, and in letting us "borrow" your sister... Have a nice day, and, oh, yes, report to the center of town square tommorrow where you will be assigned your job in service to the Dragononian empire... Goodbye, and have a nice day". With that, he threw Apple Bloom to the ground, and signaled to the two legged ones, who still held me in their clutches. They too then threw me to the ground, and walked away toward the aircraft. They all got on, and left.
Apple Bloom started to sob. I realized that I had let Granny Smith, AppleJack, and now Apple Bloom down. Not only that, I had let my parents down. I had promised them so long ago that no matter what would happen, I would make sure to take care of my sisters. Now I had even failed them. I too realized that there was no point in trying to be strong. I just walked over to my sister, the only one I had left, and just fell to the floor, crying. I promised that, for AppleBloom's sake, I would protect her even if it meant death to me. Eventually, I took her to her bed, stroked her mane until she fell asleep, and then I finally collapsed onto the floor, to tired to continue.
When we awoke the next morning, me and Apple Bloom went down to the square like we were told. When we arrived we found it bustling with Equestrians. We also found it bustling with those Dragononians. This was apparently the name of their empire. They had apparently conquered all of this continent, and were fighting all over the rest of this planet, Armonia. Wherever they conquered, I had heard, they imposed their martial law, and with it their slavery.
Eventually, we were all quieted down by the mayor, before one of these Dragononians stood up, and began to read our occupations to us. The Dragononian would call out a name such as Lyra, and would then read his/her specific occupation. In Lyra's case, she was going to mine caves. In fact, many of us were going to mine caves. I wondered why they wanted all of us to mine caves, especially since the caves in Equestria have been barren for years. I mean if they wanted crystals, they should have had the Griffons mine caves especially since the continent Griffoni was rich in minerals and the like. Either way, there was no point in arguing with the Dragononians because arguing could cost you your life. In the afternoon, me and Apple Bloom returned home after receiving our occupations. For dinner, I did my best to make Apple Bloom's favorite dish. I wanted her to enjoy something in this harsh world. After supper, we went to sleep early. We were to immediately start on these new "occupations", and we both wanted to get a good night's sleep. I tucked in Apple Bloom, and before I myself went to sleep, I decided to do some research on this empire. I found out that they were an empire which coexisted with dragons and some other creature that was called a human. These humans were those two legged ones I saw. Eventually, tired form the day and the research, I collapsed to sleep on the materials.
Work began the next day, and me and Apple Bloom awoke just in time for our first day. My job was mining. It was an easy task for me because I was used to hard labor, but I felt bad for those ponies who were like Lyra. These types of ponies were week and feeble, and not only could they not do the work, but they were punished for not doing it. The law, in fact, was that any pony who did not mine at least 400 pounds of rock in a day was to be whipped 20 times. This type of punishment was very harsh and cruel, even worse than King Sombra's. Life went on though because no pony dared try anything.
Within the week, we Equestrians learned that the Dragononians had taken all of our planet Armonia, from the coldest continent, Griffoni, to the most tropical place which was called Changelore. Many of the Changelings were located here. I heard that within two days after their sudden victory, they were already enslaving all of the other Armonians. Even the Dragon Armonians were not spared.
The most enraging thing for me, though, was that I still had no idea what was happening to my sister, if she was even alive, or where she even was. I also noticed that her friends were all missing. I heard Spike say to Flower Wishes one day that Twilight had disappeared practically the same day as my sister, and Sweetiebell mentioned to Apple Bloom that Rarity was taken without cause the same day. It was so frustrating. I think it was worse than the torture the Dragononians dealt us. Maybe this was there way of torturing me and my sister. I was so enraged at our occupiers. I hated them, and I had never hated any one before.
Anyways, Armonia was under total Dragononian control for two months before some Armonian finally snapped. On the eve of the 13 of Lirast, I heard a distant rumble followed by explosions, and other such things, coming from the northeast where Manehattan was located. I only noticed them, and I didn't take much thought of them because, well, I had work to do. However, as I was sitting in the doctor's office the next week, I heard Daisy walk by and mention something about a rebellion which took place in Manehattan. I heard her say that the ponies tried to rebel, but failed, not miserably, however. Apparently, they were led by Twilight Sparkle's brother, Shining Armor. The last thing I heard was that he was taken captive, but not killed by the Dragononians. Why? well, I truly did not care I had my own things to worry about. Anyway, when Daisy got out of earshot, I sat there and meditated on the thought that perhaps a united Armonia could take back our planet.
The thoughts would not go away. Everywhere I went, I could not escape the possibility of becoming a free Armonia again. The possibility seemed, well, possible. I wanted to tell every Equestrian, but even before I did, I realized others had the same thoughts. I would hear random ponies coming from the chapels mention things like, "We need to rebel against these Dragononians", and I heard ponies who delivered mail write things like, "For Armonia...Fight for freedom, love, and harmony!". The reality seemed so real, so possible, all until Appleloosa.
The news spread fast. Things like, "Did you hear about Appleloosa" or "It was a massacre over on Appleloosa", were being gossiped about. All around me, all I heard was of the news of the rebellion of Appleloosa. News of suffering and death to the Armonians there. The story was basically that a group of Buffalo and Earth ponies united and stormed a Dragononian outpost, searching for weapons of any kind. They apparently got pretty far into the base, and actually started to rally the whole town to their cause. However, before the spark became a fire, water was thrown on it because Dragononian Tanks and Planes massacred every Armonian they could. They even massacred children. It was horrible, tear jerking in fact. At first it seemed that we might actually win, but we were not prepared for what the Dragononians had. Their technology was way beyond our own. We may have had spirit, but they had technology.
On the wake of the coming days, uprisings were stopped because of either the Appleloosa massacre or because the Dragononians found out about the uprisings. Not only did we stop our rebellious uprisings, but the Dragononians increased their martial law, made Armonians of all sorts be put to even harder slavery, and started to have planned massacres. The massacres were basically that one family a month would be murdered. The Dragononians then stated that if rebellions would continue, the massacres would be increased. All Armonians realized that the planet was not full of love and peace and harmony, but instead full of darkness, sadness, and outright murder. We had to do something, but what could we do? Armonians could not fight this far more advanced empire, and even if they did, others lives were at stake. Hope, however, would come, but as hope always is, it comes in the most ironic of forms.