After the events of the Crystal Empire resurfacing, Princess Celestia decreed that a special task force be made out of the most elite soldiers of the royal army. This special task force was given the name E.S.O.D which is the acrostic for the Equestrian Special Operations Division. Soldiers going into this branch of the military must show excellent battle records and have to go through a series of tests that test their mentality, stamina, and overall strength. Only about one out of every fifty soldiers who apply make it through these tough series of tests that are performed. If a pony passes all qualifications they have to go to basic training for a month before finally graduating and joining the ranks. There are loops around these qualifications however. If a pony already in E.S.O.D with a rank of sargent or higher requests that a certain pony in a different division of the military the sargent's decision will be honored at a cost. First the pony being drafted in by the sargent must become an apprentice of the sargent. Next the sargent must sign a contract stating that he is liable for everything the pony being drafted dose. Last the pony that gets drafted must, after one to two years of service under the apprenticeship of the drafting pony, take all of the tests required by regular inductees must go through.
This special division of the military proved themselves as "indispensable" in the Great War of Ponies and Griffons about thirty years later following the resurfacing of the Crystal Empire. Although the Equestrian front lines were showing signs of weariness and defeat, the equestrian offensives, composed purely of E.S.O.D forces behind enemy lines, were undefeated leaving a path of destruction wherever they trotted. The offensive was not stopped by the griffons and the force reached the enemy leader within two months. When the offensive got to the griffon monarch they took him captive crippling griffon forces that had just reached the outer most perimeter of Canterlot. At that point the Equestrian princess, Celestia, was able to make a peace treaty between the Equestrians and the Griffons that still stands to this day. E.S.O.D performed so well in the war that they had earned the nickname of "The End Time Stallions."
As time went on in Equestria so did it's technology. Equestrian weaponry, back in the days leading up to the Griffin war, was composed of merely knives and battle armor. This quickly changed. About 25 years of peace over the land later Equestrian scientists had started creating their first line of gun weaponry. Princess Celestia immediately stopped the production of this new form of weaponry for peaceful reasons. However, about a year later Equestria’s mortal enemy the changelings, got their hands on the design for the new weaponry and began making their own forms of the new weapon. They later declared war on Equestria. Within the first month of fighting members of all branches of Equestria's military, including E.S.O.D, had a combined loss of around 250,000 ponies. This forced Celestia's hand to lift the banishment on the guns and make them the standard weapon for the Equestrian military. At this point the war quickly turned around and started to favor the Equestrians. Their guns were far superior to that of the Changeling's copied weapons. About eight months later after the guns were permitted the war was over and the Changelings had been crippled so much that there was no doubt that they would not be attacking Equestria for years to come. To honor the lives of the ponies that fell in the first month of the war Princess Celestia issued that a giant wall with the names of every soldier that died in the war engraved on it be built in the statue garden with the name "The Sunrise Memorial" that still stands today.
Time went on and Equestria's weapon technology changed as well and there was peace throughout the land, that is at least until now. Recently a new rebel pony terrorist organization that calls themselves the New Equestrian Order (N.E.O) has surfaced. This organization is headed by a pony named Shazid Capon who would make constant threats to Equestria. Later on, this organization organized a terrorist attack on Phillydelphia killing 2,000 civilians and wounding 7,000 more. Equestria immediately declared war on the organization after the attack and the two have been fighting and are still fighting to this day. Although N.E.O forces are scattered around the world Equestria has tracked their origins to the San Palomino Desert and has established a military base in the western coast of the area. Even though N.E.O has been very inactive as of lately they still pose a major threat toward Equestria. E.S.O.D forces have already been deployed and are awaiting orders from their superiors. One thing is certain about this war: Equestria has yet to see the full power of N.E.O and when they do, they might not be able to recover.