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// Prologue 
// Story: Eternal Conflict 
// by Sparkz 
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	The land of Equestria, once a place of peace, now lays destroyed beyond recognition- a mere shadow of its once harmonious self. Towns lay in ruins, nature was essentially nonexistent, and the planet was lifeless, save for a very small amount in a very small area. The bodies of millions upon millions of lost lives litter the ground, both pony... and human. All because of a single struggle to be the dominant species.

Equestria didn't use to be a desolate wasteland. Before the re-appearance of the human species, the ponies that populated the world lived in peace. They thrived on the tranquil feeling that arose from their own community. The humans were nearly forgotten by all, as they were a species thought to have died out centuries before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were even born. Any knowledge that exists about them were only theories and myths. Nothing more. Legend has it that they were beings said to have been corrupt and prone to strife and disharmony, yet those traits were equally matched by their seemingly unlimited sense of creativity, their strive to evolve, to advance, to be superior. No pony knows for certain how they disappeared but some have speculated that the thing that caused their downfall was their own arrogance. They waged war with the alicorns, as they were the beings with the most power. But they were quickly overwhelmed by the alicorns' might. It was a battle they were doomed to fail in. Ever since that time, they were never seen again... until one day, when they took the world by storm.

Two days after Equestria hosted a royal wedding, celebrating the marriage of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor, a single individual appeared and immediately challenged Princess Celestia and Princess Luna for the throne of Equestria, sparking the war that raged on for centuries. The humans had been living in secrecy for generations upon generations, waiting for the right time to strike. The recent attack of the changelings presented the perfect opportunity to attack, taking advatage of their vulnerability. They advanced in staggering numbers. Nopony and nobody, not even boys or girls, fillies or colts, or even the elderly could go without fighting. Every single day, hundreds of thousands were dying from both sides, all around the world. However, the ponies had the advantage in numbers and powers. They began to overwhelm the humans with their strength like they did so many millennium ago. The humans were on the verge of losing. But they did not give up. They created weapons that gave them a decisive advantage in battle. Five months after Zepheniah Mann started the war, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were assassinated, as were Princess Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor just days afterwards. The advances the humans made gave them an advantage against even alicorn royalty. And not even the elements of harmony were powerful enough to stop them.

The ponies attempted to fight back with their unicorn magic, their pegasus speed, and their earth pony strength, but the human technology was deemed far more dangerous, as injury/death was instantaneous as opposed to the ponies' abilities, which was easier to evade and recover from. The ponies stole and adapted to the new technology that was originally the humans and used it against them.

No matter the loss and no matter the destruction, neither side gave in. They were equal in strength, intelligence, and tactics. Neither side had an advantage against each other and it tore both sides apart. In a matter of only seven years, the population of both species dwindled to only a few hundred thousand. All of the Alicorns had been killed and the individual that challenged Celestia and Luna, as well as his successors lost their own lives in battle. Neither side had no real leadership. Ever since all of the alicorns and Zepheniah had been killed, all fighting lost all order. Almost every single town had been torn down beyond recognition. The creatures that were neither man nor pony had all gone extinct. A few select humans had found that being the dominant species would be pointless if the war was going to destroy them in the process. One hundred humans submitted and claimed they would aid whoever won this long and taxing war. They formed the company that is known today, simply as Mann Co. They do nothing to either side, whether to help or harm them. They would continue to oversee the battles for centuries, waiting for the time to help recolonize the side who turned out victorious.

This, however, did not help either side. The numbers continued to fall. A day arrived where the humans were outnumbered. Nine humans and only several hundred ponies were all that remained. But just when it seemed like the ponies would be victorious, the humans made a decisive advance. The last remaining engineer named Dell Conagher completed the designs of a machine that made you virtually immortal. While they died over and over, the ponies only died once and stayed dead. Naturally, the ponies noticed that something was wrong when they kept killing the same people over and over again. They found out about the technology and managed to steal it at the end of the day. The humans attempted desperately to stop them from building the machine, but to no avail. Although the ponies' numbers fell equal to the humans', Applejack, an orange earth pony, had succeeded in completing the immortality machine. The next strategy of the humans was to destroy the ponies' machine but it was doomed from the beginning. Dell had designed the machine to be unbreakable by everything known to man and pony. He had designed it with no shutoff switch or kill code. It was impossible to shut it down. This caused the ever lasting stalemate between just eighteen living beings.

To this day, they still fight for control of what little land still exists unscathed by the brutal war that consumed all life. They cannot not die, even of old age, because of the immortality machine that continued to bring them back to life every single time they fell in battle. Instead, they fought not to destroy the others, but to take power over the land they fought on. They would win an area one day and lose it the next while winning another piece of land a different day. Both sides continued fighting for what little remained of the planet they once called home for centuries, never wavering, never fading, never dying.