Wind, dust, rocks, and a very depressing atmosphere.
That's all there was.
What once was Equestria, was now a huge wasteland. There was nothing left.
Suddenly, in the middle of nowhere, a hole in the gray and brown clouds up in the sky opened, and a shining white beam struck down and hit the surface. If one was there, they would have seen a silhouette of a tall four legged being. The beam quickly disappeared and the hole in the clouds started to fill back up, presenting the moon in the short moment it did.
Princess Celestia opened her eyes with determination and started to say, "Alright, dear sister. Your time of reign is coming to an-" She looked around herself and stared at the wastelands around her. "...end?" The alicorn was very confused and worried. She was back in Equestria... right?
A couple minutes later and you could see Princess Celestia wandering the wastelands. She looked left and right in search for any life, finding no pony, a wild animal, or even a plant for that matter. "Sister..." She thought out loud, "Is this one of your nightmares?" She covered her eyes with a wing when a blast of wind carrying rocks and sand hit her face. She looked around and found a good sized rock to hide behind while this wind died down.
A few minutes later and Celestia could be seen wandering once again. "When my sister came back from the moon she appeared at the same spot where she got banished from, the old castle." She looked to her left to see a hill in the distance. "So why have I appeared in this wasteland?"
"Perhaps you are looking at this the wrong way." Said a deep voice.
Celestia turned calmly to see another pony with a cloak covering its legs, body, and face. "Oh! Didn't think I would find life here anytime soon."
"I am probably going to be the only source of life you're going to see here in a very long time."
Celestia raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Look around you..." The pony said, gesturing around the area.
Celestia looked at each spot this mysterious pony pointed to with his hoof.
"Look very closely at that mountain over there."
"Yes, I see. Are there other ponies there as well?"
"There held something that you held dear, Princess." He said, ignoring the question. "A symbol in other pony's eyes."
Celestia inspected the mountain some more. She looked to her left to see a bunch of dead trees in the distance. She soon put two and two together and gasped. "You aren't possibly saying..."
"Princess Celestia... The lands you are walking on right now is Equestria."
The alicorn's eyes widened as she looked at the mountain once again.
"I can see that you've figured out that the mountain before you once held up Canterlot... and your castle."
Celestia snapped her head to the cloaked pony with her eyebrows furrowed. "What happened while I was gone for a thousand years? What has Nightmare Moon done?!"
"I should inform that you were not gone for a thousand years, but only two."
"I was only gone for two years? Nightmare Moon isn't foolish enough to let me go after two years..." Celestia looked down in a deeply frustrated thought.
"Your Highness... your sister has passed the living world, thus, sending you back here."
Celestia was shocked, not even noticing that this mysterious pony knew that Nightmare Moon was her sister. She stepped back several times before saying, "She's... gone?!"
The cloaked pony nodded under his hood.
Celestia took a deep breath. "Before I was sent to the moon, Equestria looked nothing like this. What has my sister done to make it so in just two years?"
"Your sister was just one of the main causes of this disaster." The pony sighed in his cloak and began to speak. "Allow me to explain..."
***
It all started when Nightmare Moon appeared in Equestria. I'm sure you know what happened.
Nightmare Moon cackled as Celestia stood in front of her with bruises from battle. "Dear sister," She spat. "How ever did you get so weak during the years. Why I never even heard you use the Royal Canterlot Voice once! Especially since you're very angry right at the moment." Again she started to laugh while Celestia gritted her teeth in frustration.
"Stand down Luna! It doesn't have to go like this. Equestria needs its days as much as its nights!"
"I am no longer Luna!" The black alicorn gave a sadistic grin as her horn flashed like moonlight, it was all Celestia saw before she vanished.
Of course, you have no idea of what happened after that.
Nightmare Moon repaired the old castle in the Everfree Forest and made it her own. Her next act, however, shocked many.
The dark alicorn laughed as she flew above the graceful city known as Canterlot in the night sky. "So this is the magnificent castle Celestia built?" She said when she looked over the giant building. "How pathetic, haha!" She lit her horn and in an instant a beam came down and blasted the castle's rooftops. Guards and other ponies ran in fear as Nightmare Moon just flew in the sky laughing.
Soon, Princess Cadence took charge and tried to rebuild the now destroyed Canterlot city whilst defending off Nightmare Moon's many attacks. She with her coltfriend known as Shining Armor tried their best to look over Canterlot with their shields and love magic, but without you, Your Highness, it was very close to useless.
Canterlot tried their best to hold off as many attacks as they could, but very soon a new force came in and Canterlot was defenseless against it.
***
"Changelings? I've never heard of a species like that before." Celestia said.
"You remember when I said that Nightmare Moon was only one of the causes of Equestria's downfall? Well, Changelings were another."
Celestia didn't look at the cloaked pony, and her face was hidden under her mane. "...Please go on with your explanation."
***
The changelings got around the shield by disguising themselves as ponies with their changeling magic and entering the city without suspicion. It was unexpected to the ponies and soon they were demolished by the army of changelings and their queen. The queen locked the newly married Princess Cadence and Prince Shining armor away far from any pony's reach and ruled over Canterlot from then forth.
Of course, this caused a war between Nightmare Moon and the Changeling Queen. Many were lost in the fights that took over that month, and the violence only increased as the month went on.
After that said month, another enemy appeared for the few surviving ponies, the crystal ponies.
***
Celestia gasped. "The Crystal Empire! It returned!"
"Yes. But that wasn't the only thing that came back..."
***
In the middle of the war between the two species, a crystal city rose from beneath the grounds up in the north. A week after, the beautiful city turned into a very dark place.
King Sombra, a dark, evil, king, used the innocent crystal ponies that lived there and created an army. With it, he joined the war between the ponies and changelings and swore that he would make all of Equestria his kingdom.
***
"I can't believe this. Not only one but three enemies appeared while I was gone. And this happened because of it." Celestia said with her head down and eyes closed in sadness.
"Apologies, Princess. But I wasn't finished."
Celestia gasped with her eyes wide. "There's more?!"
"It gets much worse."
***
All the chaos that this triple sided war caused freed the Spirit of Chaos, Discord. The first thing he did was make a mass theater for others to watch the war. He took away most of the captured ponies in Canterlot, including Princess Cadence and Shining Armor.
"I just don't get it." Discord thought. "At first, they were happy after I took them, but now they're terrified." He looked over and saw Cadence and Shining Armor staring at the big screen, which was showing a crystal pony with some weird mask on tackling a night guard while changelings and bat ponies covered the night sky, with wide eyes. "Never thought I wouldn't like emotion chaos." He said to himself.
'Friendly' Discord went on for some time until he started to go overboard with his chaos. Still, the ponies definitely rathered to stay with him then to be captured, hurt and possibly tortured.
Then there was one more thing that decided Equestria's fate.
Tirek just finished taking the magic from caught-out changelings, crystal ponies, and night ponies. He grinned and his eyes glowed when he turned and noticed a small town that was stuck in the middle of the war.
Through all the mayhem that was happening, Cerberus, the guard dog of Tartarus, was stolen by the changelings to be used in the war. Their foolish mistake caused a powerful centaur to escape Tartarus and into Equestria. He would steal the magic of others greedily and use it against them and the world, and he was a major threat to every other threat to Equestria.
***
"Tirek escaped?!" Celestia didn't believe it.
"Yes, unfortunately, he did. And he didn't show up friendly."
Celestia frowned and said with seriousness, "What did he do?!"
"This is the part you were waiting for..."
***
Seven powerful beings faced off in the middle of the wasteland.
The dangerous and powerful magic stealer, Tirek.
King of the Crystal Ponies, Sombra.
Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis.
Spirit of Chaos, Discord.
Princess of the night, Nightmare Moon.
And Prince and Princess of the remaining ponies, Shining Armor, and Cadence.
All of which stared down at one another in a standoff. The final battle was about to commence.
"All of your magic belongs to me." Tirek cracked his knuckles.
"The night will reign supreme!" Nightmare Moon shouted.
Sombra just growled menacingly.
"We will stop all of you and bring love and harmony back to Equestria!" Cadence shouted with Shining Armor agreeing behind her.
"My changelings will happily enjoy those emotions!" Chrysalis snarked.
"This is going to be good!" Discord said as he pulled out a popcorn launcher.
The battle lasted for months.
Explosions could be heard around every area the ponies, changelings, and other creatures hid. Whether they were hiding in caves, on top of mountains, in their basements, or even sleeping, the battle could always be heard.
Shining Armor got defeated first very easily.
Shining gulped as he was picked up by Tirek's magic, his eyes widened and got colorless when Tirek inhaled and stole his magic. The next thing he knew, he was blasted back with magic, but it wasn't Tirek's.
"You imbecile!" Chrysalis yelled. "Giving him more magic? Making him stronger?!" Her eyes glowed and her horn sparked.
Sombra growled and also charged his horn.
Tirek, noticing what was going on, looked over at Shining's limp body coldly. "Your magic will be of good use." He charged some magic between his horns. "Now begone."
Cadence watched as her drained husband was blasted by three separate sources of magic. Her eyes lit up due to the reflection of the fire that now replaced where Shining Armor's body was. She yelled at the sky in rage and glowed bright pink.
The Princess of Love grew in the power of rage and love once her husband was gone. She put up a better fight against the rest, but soon, she too was destroyed.
"I'll admit, I've never hated you as much as my sister." Nightmare Moon looked down at Cadence's unconscious body. "So I'll make this quick and painless for you, and won't make you suffer by banishment to the moon." She lit her horn and centered her magic around Cadence's head.
Many ponies and changelings alike got caught in the tornado of the battle. Many innocents and many with a good cause. This battle destroyed Equestria, the Crystal Empire, and the Changeling Hive, and it didn't stop there. Wildlife, mountains, terrain, all lost in this final fight of evil. Eventually, however, the fight ended when each villain took each other out...
***
The cloaked pony finally finished talking, and he looked up at Celestia to see something probably no creature ever saw.
Celestia was crying. She dropped to the ground on her haunches as tears slide down her face like a waterfall. She was quiet, not sobbing or anything, but crying nonetheless.
"It's all my fault..." She finally said. "I never found the Elements or its bearers..." She looked up at the cloaked pony. "It's because of me that Equestria is gone. I could have stopped all of this, but now..." She looked down in sadness. "Now all of my subjects are gone... I failed them..."
The cloaked pony stood and watched without a word as Princess Celestia cried in front of him.
All of a sudden there was a flash of light behind the cloaked pony. He looked back and only saw a huge rock.
Celestia opened her red eyes and looked at where the flash came from. She wiped her eyes and got up when she noticed that the cloaked pony began to walk towards the rock to investigate. She quickly flew to her only companion and stood beside him behind the rock.
The two slowly peeked around the rock to see two purple mares and a small dragon standing on top of a crystal table with a built-in map on top.
"Others actually survived this catastrophe?" Princess Celestia asked.
"That was never there before..." The cloaked pony thought, looking at the huge table.
They couldn't hear what the two mares were saying to each other, and the dragon stood quietly. It seemed that the lighter shaded pony was angry and a bit aggressive, and the darker shade was trying to talk in a calm manner.
Celestia was surprised that one of them was an alicorn. She thought to herself if she was a higher goddess that she never met before.
The lighter shade started to yell even louder, enabling Celestia and the cloaked pony to hear what she was saying much more clearly.
"You want to know what happened to me?!" She was surrounded by her magic aura and was brought up in the air, being dropped on top of the table map right after. "I'll show you!" She struck the map with her magic and the table top was turned into a portal with the color of her magic. The three was sucked inside of the portal right after mysterious symbols floated around them.
Celestia flew out of her hiding place and flew to the map, but before she could fly inside, the portal closed shut, making her stop midair. "What just happened here?" She asked to no one in particular.
"I have no idea either." The cloaked pony put in.
Once again the sun princess dropped to the ground and looked down in sadness. "It's hopeless. My subjects are already gone. There's nothing I can do to fix this."
The cloaked pony laid a hoof on Celestia's shoulder. "Don't put yourself down like this, princess. Protecting Equestria is a difficult job, and you did your best, everypony knows that."
She looked to him in what she thought his eyes were under the cloak and said, "Thank you, that... helps a little bit..."
The two sat there for some time, neither knowing how much time has passed since they did. Neither had talked either, just gazing around and staying quiet.
Eventually, Celestia got up and stared at the distance with her unreadable face.
"What do you plan now, Princess?"
She looked down at him and smiled. "There is no hope for Equestria anymore, I know that, but there are lands beyond it."
"So you are going to travel to those lands?"
She nodded. "I must. There may be other ponies out there... some who maybe even survived this tragedy."
"I see..." The cloaked pony got up. "Your lead."
Celestia looked up in the sky to stare at the clouds covering the stars and the moon. She lit her horn and made a hole in the clouds with her magic. Soon, the sun rose and like a spotlight in a show, lit up Canterlot Mountain.
The Princess took one last look at the mountain which once held her castle, before sighing and starting to walk in the direction which she knew was correct.
"Let's go..."