//------------------------------//
// Introduction 
// Story: My Little Refugi 
// by Future Wonderbolt 
//------------------------------//

It has been four hundred years since the Fall of Equestria.

Four hundred years for the past to fade away. Four hundred years since Harmony last fell upon the world.

We know so little about the past. So much has been lost, from war and fire and ruin. All that remains is what was passed down from the elders. Nopony even knows where Equestria once lay. All we have to believe in is the legends.

Once, the world was happy. Everypony lived under the joint rule of Princesses Celestia and Luna. There was Harmony throughout the land, from the great capital of Canterlot to the roaring metropolis of Manehattan. All was well across Equestria. Until they died.

Nopony knew how it happened, no records survive that mention a reason beyond speculation. All we know is that one day, Celestia and Luna were gone. How? How was it that these ponies who had ruled for millennia would suddenly die? To this day, that remains the great mystery of the Fall.

The Carriers of Harmony, six friends who were Celestia's closest advisers, were called upon by the people of Equestria to lead them. They formed the Council of Equestria, and became the new head of the Equestrian government. But their hoofsteps would be plagued with suffering and misfortune.

The Changelings, dark creatures who had been banished from the lands, had returned. This time, the forces that had prevailed against them failed, and darkness swept across Equestria. The Council ordered the pony Shining Armor to prepare the nation for war.

The war dragged on and on for decades. Cities were razed, ponies were displaced. It was a losing battle for the Equestrians; the Changelings did not seem to age, and soon the Council had grown old and weary, weakened from war and age. The Equestrian battle forces suffered as well, ponies who had never known war were suddenly fighting for their lives and homes, and with each city lost their morale plummeted. Soon the ponies were fighting at the very walls of Canterlot, the last remaining vestige of a once great Equestria.

Little knows what happened after the battle was lost. Pockets of survivors, some led by the surviving Councilponies, others leaderless and lost, spread across the world, escaping from the despair and suffering that had once been a great nation. They would go on to found cities, cities secluded and hidden from the Changelings. Years passed, and soon the ponies began to wonder if it was safe to return to their homeland. The last three surviving Councilponies led an expedition to return to their distant homeland.

To this day that expedition has not returned.

Generations have passed since the fateful events of the Fall, knowledge slipping away through the sieve of time. New nations, have sprung up, but little of the Harmony of old remains. War between these factions is common, each side fighting for preservation of their homes and families. The sun and moon raise and set themselves now. The Changelings have not shown since the Fall, and many ponies think of them as an old mare's tale.

But the elders, the wise ponies, the sages; they whisper silently that the Changelings are still out there. But it's not those Changelings we must worry about, it's the Changelings closer to home.

The Changelings in our hearts.