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// Prologue 
// Story: Leaves on the Wind 
// by Mickey Dubs 
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Prologue

Before Ponykind assembled the brightest minds of its race to save their species, the land was ruled over by two sisters who shared the duties of creating the heavens and piloting their closest star to establish the seasons and allow the plants and animals they fostered to survive the untamed weather patterns and seasonal shifts which arose from the unbridled rule of Chaos itself. Upon taming their new land, they ruled their kind in a diarchy in which the eldest, Celestia, raised and lowered the sun to support the agricultural endeavours of her people and facilitate the general happiness of her race, for which she received the undying and eternal admiration of her subjects. Her younger sister, Luna, envious of the adorations directed towards her sister, rebelled by refusing to lower the moon, ushering in an Eternal Night which, if not for the efforts of the Elements of Harmony, would have lasted for the rest of their reign. She was exiled to the moon for a thousand years until, finally, her stars aided in her escape and she was thrust back into a world which had left her behind, both in adoration and her other great love: knowledge.

This schism between the two sisters, lasting even after Luna’s return to power, divided the bureaucracy into two clandestine governmental factions, both hiding in the shadows implementing their wills upon the populace both with and without The Princesses’ awareness. Those who embraced the Eternal Night promised by Luna strived to study and adore her heavenly designs, pursuing knowledge both ancient and newfangled with a rabid, and only sometimes violent, hunger. Those who followed Celestia during her reign in her sister’s absence prided themselves on their adherence to her rule and excelled at implementing her decrees with startling efficiency in a form of government for which deviation from the Royal Decree was punishable by death. Despite interventions by both sisters to stall these two powers, they were unable to control them completely and could only watch as resentment grew into all-out war.

In a move unprecedented by any race in their world, the Sisters, sole monarchs of Equestria since the dawn of recorded history, abdicated the throne and helped establish a bicameral legislative body which would incorporate the governmental prowess of Celestia’s followers, The New Equestrian Republic, with the scientific drive of those following Luna, The Heavenly Empire. They placed the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony into the lead positions of power, hoping that the meeting of the two collective minds would help establish a worldwide emphasis on education, the sharing of technology for mutual benefit, a dedication to mechanized industry and advanced forms of engineering, and a sense of unity which would, in turn, prevent any future wars between any faction. They allowed the world that they created to take its first steps on its own and hoped for the best.

The two factions, following the leads of their respective leaders and the orders of the Element Bearers, joined together in absolute Harmony, every decree and decision being ratified by the Six with a steadfast dedication to the Princesses’ wishes. They propelled Ponykind to the position as foremost power in the world, amalgamating all other races of their planet into the collective identity, gaining the ancient magic of Dragonsfyre and the aeronautical technologies of the Griffons.

They reigned and built their world from the ground up in peace, industry replacing agriculture as the main engine of economics and social life. They mined the mountains away and plunged into the earth for minerals and gems to keep themselves alive and chugging away. But the more they mined and the more they raised their buildings to meet the heavens their Goddesses had created, the less they found themselves able to keep up with their ever-increasing demand. It only took a spark to ignite the powder upon which this new superpower, The Alliance, was built: a spark which was locked in a word which had never been uttered by Ponykind since the beginning of recorded history.

Famine.

The Earth-that-was could no longer sustain their numbers, they were so many. Over the next hundreds of years, long after the Element Bearers themselves passed away to leave their families behind to continue their legacies, Ponykind reached out to the surrounding solar system and found salvation in the planets, each terraformed and populated to support life. As time passed, they proceeded onward past the borders of their own solar system and began settling in other parts of their galaxy, exploring new worlds and systems as they expanded ever further into the reaches of The Black.

But the farther they spread from the Central Planets, the more unruly the imposed planetary governments became and the more the people resisted the Alliance’s meddling. The people found themselves out of work, underpaid, underfed, and overly bothered by the ruling government, many of them forced to fight, steal, and trade in black markets to gather the bare necessities to survive. While Alliance monopolies grew, more people resorted to crime, organized and otherwise, to scratch out a meager life for their families back home or on-world. Unable to indulge in the luxuries of Alliance living, they survived on the clothes and food they made for themselves and shunned Alliance handouts. They grew more and more impatient, and in the end called for drastic action to wrest control back into their own hooves.

They rebelled against the Alliance, instigating a war lacking in length but more than compensating in ferocity and bloodshed. The rebels, outfitted in the rustic leather barding in which they were sent to their new homes, passed down throughout the ages from parent to child or crafted anew from the designs of the old, assembled and took on the much larger and more organized Alliance to fight for their freedom. Guerilla warfare and superior weapons prowess clashed against the sheer might of numbers and technology, and when the dust settled the Alliance found themselves the victors. Riding the wake of their victory, they pursued more draconian and more pervasive control of the Galaxy, leaving the rebels to lick their wounds as they became the hidden and unspoken dissenters, the butt-end of aristocratic jokes and a lesson on the follies of confronting the government. They are and will forever be remembered by their steadfast dedication to their cause and the rustic clothing they wore, evidence of both Alliance’s neglect and their one patch of friendly ground, clothing which earned them the infamous name which is still muttered by children and government officials alike:

The Brownbards.