World of Equestria

by Lunar Soldier

Prologue

A prologue to World of Equestria
(It will make sense. Trust me.)

There once lived an alicorn queen known by the name of Bulwark. She ruled her kingdom with an iron hoof, never backing down from a fight when challenged. In her time as a ruler, she stretched forth her empire to conquer the continent. During her conquest, she bore two daughters, her heirs, Celestia and Luna. When the pony sisters came of age, the castle scryer, mages who were tellers of the future, was called to reveal their destinies. Upon peering into their future, the scryer told Bulwark that Equestria would fall because of the sisters' inability to do one thing: Kill their enemies. Instead, they would seek tolerance, and a place of peace instead of unified control that Bulwark had given them.

More disturbing is what the scryer saw that he didn't tell her. A leader would rise from the grave, who, in life, never feared to wage war, but in death, only sought the destruction of not only Equestria, but the entire world. The scryer saw a harbinger, a foreigner, not born on the planet, standing on two legs, leading her risen armies into the fray.

The scryer was disturbed so much by what he saw, he enlisted, in secret, the services of a warlock pony who had fought with the Griffon Kingdom. The warlock helped the scryer build subterranean chambers, three in total, that would warn future generations of the coming apocalypse. The words were written in the language of death, so that only the correct pony at the correct time would be able to decipher the locked foretelling.

During the construction of the second Foretelling Wall, as they came to calling them, the scryer had another vision in his sleep. The mage saw the harbinger laying in the middle of a lit circle, surrounded by four alicorns. He saw the alicorn's horns glow, in colors of yellow, dark blue, sky blue, and violet magics, and they struck out at the harbinger. In a brilliant flash, the once darkened shadowed harbinger gleamed with a holy light, and floated down to where he once laid.

"It worked...again." he heard one of the ponies whisper. "He is cleansed." The scryer awoke in such a startle he nearly tumbled over a pony soldier standing above him. Bulwark had found him, saying he had been monitoring his actions through her extensive network of spies and listening to the word-of-mouth stories that reached back to the castle. She demanded to know what he was doing. The scryer responded he was cataloging the victories and triumphs of her rule in stone, and it was to be a surprise. He looked to the warlock for validation, but she was nowhere to be found.

Bulwark informed the scryer that a traveling pony warlock told her that he was trying to commune with demons to overthrow her rule. She had spared her life in exchange for the information and the translation of the runes that were being transcribed in the stone. He was chained and led back to her castle.

The warlock had reveived the same vision the scryer had, only an hour earlier. Being connected to the dead, the voices of pony warriors past had foreseen the camp's discovery, and warned her to escape, taking the visage of a traveling warlock seeking redemption, which was partially true. The warlock had fought Bulwark's armies during their advance into the Griffon Kingdom. Her dark magic would be her undoing, as the spirits of the afterlife would never accept a pony who raised the dead and stole the souls of the dying.

The warlock travelled to the castle of Bulwark to see if there was a way to retrieve her friend. The two had developed a bond over the few months they had been acquainted. She was beginning to develop more personal feelings halfway through the construction of the second Foretelling Wall. They even shared a night together on an especially cold night, and she could get the sense he was just as interested in her as she was in him.

Upon arriving at the ancient home of Equestrian leaders, she found it to be mysteriously under-guarded. Only two pony guards walked the wall this night, another cold night that reminded her of the time she and the scryer shared a bed roll. She easily infiltrated through the front door, however, she sensed it was too easy...planned perhaps. She continued to walk through the dark corridors when a laid snare trap prematurely fired, sending a net from the ceiling to the floor.

She quickly sprang backward, finding cover behind a column of stone, when she heard the cackling laughter of Bulwark herself. "I can't believe you fell for it!" she managed to exclaim between cackles of laughter. But when the lights were raised to reveal an empty net, the warlock saw Bulwark's grin turn to grimace, turning to the nearest guard and vaporizing him. A slew of shouted orders followed, commanding the guardponies to find the warlock.

A hissing sound caught Bulwark's attention. Behind a column, she could see the flicker of green light. The warlock had started a fel fire, a fire that could burn on the solid stone of the castle. With one blow from her mouth, the fel fire spread out from her cover area into the corridor. Bulwark now shouted for the guards to contain the fire, and in the confusion, the warlock managed to slip by in the guise of her black cloak.

A late-arriving guard tripped over an improperly pushed in chair, and the warlock seized the opportunity. She held him down, demanding to know the location of where the scryer was being held. The guard pointed down the steps he had just come up, and, after thanking him, struck him unconscious with one swift blow. The warlock sped down the spiral staircase to see the scryer chained to the floor. She rushed to him, taking the chains in her magic and enveloping them in a time-warp spell, turning them into dust.

The previous days for the scryer had been treacherous. Bulwark had begun to torture him, wanting to know why he planned a revolution. When he denied the accusation, the torture became worse; being burned by a branding iron, immediately followed by ice and cold spells that would leave him shivering to the bone. He believed he was going to die without telling the world of the remedy for Bulwark's re-rise in death. The warlock's intervention startled him. "Why did you come for me?" he asked.

"We still have work to do...my love." She pulled him up, laying a kiss upon his lips. They had both yearned to be close, but were unsure the other wanted the same. Now, in a crumbling, burning castle, in a torture room painted with the dried blood of ponies past, they only wanted to be with each other.

A crack from a support beam snapped their attention back to the burning castle. The mage charged his horn and shot at the wall, blowing a hold to the outside. The warlock instinctively grabbed him when she heard the sound of Bulwark's voice coming down the stairs. They both teleported to the nearby road, and after a moment of dazed confusion, they sprinted into the night.

They ran until they came across a small settlement they later learned was called Canterlot. Dawn had just broken in the east. Bruised, exhausted, and hungry, they found a refuge in the town's local inn. After asking for a room and their location, the scryer asked about the tow's lack of Bulwark's guradponies. The innkeeper explained the town had been founded in secret, away from the "war-monger queen" as he described it. All they wanted to do in their town was live in peace.

The warlock looked to the scryer, "A fine place to settle down." she tiredly said, leaning her head against his. The innkeep asked if they were two eloping lovers escaping from their parents, and the warlock and the scryer responded with the truth. The scryer's first visions, the two completed Foretelling Walls, discovery, escape; no detail was spared.

The innkeeper's wife had come into the main room during the story. "You're more than welcome to settle here." she said when they had completed their story.

"Are you mad?" the innkeeper replied. "They'll bring Bulwark and her army here."

"And we would be delivering them to her if we would not take them in." The mare stared her husband down, and he knew she made a fair but uncomfortable point. To reject them would only bring about their demise.

"Okay, but I don't like it." The innkeeper said as he levitated a mug. "Everypony earns their keep here. You reap what you sew, so you have to build your own house, like we did." And they did. With the combined powers of the two powerful unicorns, they had a house built in three days, and fully furnished in another two.

Afterwards, they constructed the third and final Foretelling Wall, inside an existing cave behind a waterfall. The scryer became a farmhand, to which he initially loathed but as time went on, he began to enjoy the feeling of the fresh plowed earth on his hooves. The warlock gave up fel magic, separating herself from the foul magic forever. "You know this means I'll never be able to read what the words say."

"No matter." the scryer replied. "We've done our part." The warlock began as an assistant innkeeper, and also assisted the farmers during the harvest.

They lived this way for three weeks before the scryer asked the warlock to be his bride, to which she jubilantly said yes. Their ceremony brought out the entire town, with dances and drinks and feasts that lasted well into the morning hours.

Two years passed before the scryer had yet another vision, on the anniversary of the completion of the first Foretelling Wall. Six ponies, bound in the magic of friendship, surrounded the holy harbinger. They launched him forward with a powerful magic unknown to him, firing at a great shadow. The harbinger brought forth a glowing blade, hacking at the shadow. It roared, with cracks of light now breaking through. The shadow shattered, leaving behind only dust that was cold to the touch, and an insignia that the scryer immediately recognized as Bulwark's own. In his vision, the sun was glowing, greater than ever, and when he awoke, he could still feel it's warmth, despite the darkness of night. His stirring made the warlock awaken as well, and he told her of his vision. He said that this vision means that they hadn't prevented the rise of Bulwark with the construction of the Foretelling Walls, but a means to defeat it. They shared their relief with each other, that they had delivered Equestria, the world, into an era of peace, even if it didn't mean today. They then shared a tender, loving night that lasted until dawn.

A month later the warlock told the scryer she was with child. Before now, the scryer hadn't fathomed the thought of children while he was in the domain of Bulwark's rule. But now, in the place of serene bliss, he exclaimed his joy. Everypony in Canterlot knew the two outsider unicorns would soon bear a child. And they did, eight months later. A unicorn colt lay in the crib they had made, sitting in the extension of the house they had recently added. And for the next six months, the scryer would come home from the fields, lay beside his wife and son, and whisper into her ear, "There's no magic in this world that could make life more perfect than now."

But the peace did not last, for the next day, Bulwark herself marched into town, with Celestia and Luna in tow. Aerial scouts had discovered the secret settlement, and the two alicorn sisters were going to learn two valuable lessons on this day: How to incorporate a city into the empire or what to do when a city resists, and what to do with traitors and escapees. "My spies have located the traitor unicorn and the liar warlock to this village." she thundered to the crowd. "Where are they?"

The scryer and the warlock watched from their window as the other townsponies trembled in fear. The warlock gasped when Bulwark grabbed a young filly and brought forth a blade. Even Celestia and Luna were taken aback by her ferocity. She released the captive filly when the scryer stepped forth from the doorway. He called out that if she wanted him, she could have him, but to spare the town and its ponies.

Bulwark motioned for her guard to capture him, while another pair raided the house and found the warlock. Bulwark announced to the crowd that the warlock and the scryer had been found guilty of treason against the high crown, and would be executed here and now, and their home would be burned to the ground. The warlock screamed, because their still sleeping colt was inside.

The city's mayor, a unicorn and mother herself, recognized the maternal fear. She stepped forward, protesting the burning of such valuable resources. The mayor spoke of how it was a nice house, suitable for a regional governor from her majesty's council. Bulwark asked if that meant they would submit to imperial rule. The mayor looked around to the other frightened ponies, closed her eyes, and agreed.

"Very well." Bulwark responded. "The house will be spared. Two guardponies brought two execution blocks forward. She signaled for the warlock and the scryer to be brought in front of her. "You have been found guilty of high treason against the crown. What say you?"

The warlock and the scryer took a long last gaze into each other's eyes, her verdant eyes meeting his amethyst purple, both knowing their lives were about to end. They shared one final kiss, and, in unison, said "You will lose." Bulwark scoffed at their final words, and made a motion to move them for execution.

"Mother," Luna's voice piped up, "please don't execute them."

"Why not?" Bulwark asked, annoyed.

"They just want to live," Luna said, "and be happy."

"You will learn, young one," she turned to her executioners and gave them a nod, "you will be called to do what is necessary to protect your kingdom, even if it means killing your own."

"But they didn't do anything." Luna turned to her mother. "The only thing they're guilty of is living." she pleaded as she began to cry.

"Silence!" she snapped. "I will not be questioned by my own kin. Be more like your sister." She pointed a hoof toward Celestia. "Unquestioning, obedient...disciplined. I am glad to know she will take my place when I pass on. Empathy has no place among great leaders."

Celestia had been motionless since the proceedings began. The horrified scream of the warlock scarred her soul, and made her fight tears. But, because she was in the presence of her mother, she needed to at least appear strong. The only time she made a motion was to bring her chin up to see the mayor exiting the home, a wrapped unicorn colt in tow.

The scryer and the warlock took note of the mayor and their son as well, and knelt before the blocks. They exchanged smiling glances, and a final "I love you" before Bulwark raised her hoof, and brought it back down. The executioners' axes followed.

Bulwark left the townsponies to bury the bodies and said a representative would be moving in within a week. She and her entourage moved out, except for one. Celestia had not moved when the others turned to walk. A gentle rain began to fall on her pink mane, but she kept her attention on the beheaded corpses before her. The mayor finally came to her side. "Your highness, your party is leaving."

She retorted with a sniff, and brought her sight to the now abandoned house. "What will happen to the colt?"

The mayor's own gaze joined Celestia's, and she brought forward the sleeping colt. "I am not sure." she sadly replied. "Without other kin, we will have to turn him over to an orphanage."

A young unicorn mare stepped forward beside the mayor, and took the colt in magic. "My husband and I will accept this burden." Celestia brought her attention to the couple who moved to her. She observed their amethyst coats, and cutie marks of stars. "House Sparkle will welcome him as if he were one of our own."

Celestia turned to the infant unicorn. A yawn escaped the colt, and a tear fell from her eye. "Things will be different when she passes." she spoke to the crowd. "I promise." A murmur of voices permeated through the gathering. "No more executions, no more war." She turned to join her caravan. "Please, teach him to only use his powers for good deeds. And teach his heirs as well." She sniffed, "I will make it so they did not die in vain."

And they didn't. Five hundred years later, Bulwark passed on, and left the queen-ship to Celestia, who immediately spilt the throne with Luna. On their coronation day, they stood atop the balcony, addressing the gathered kingdom. "Five hundred years ago, I witnessed a calamity. A young family was destroyed by the corruption of a single ruler. I made a promise to those ponies that things would change, that such an atrocity would never happen again. So long as my sister and I reign, there will be no more war, no more death at the hooves of the crown." They both looked down upon their subjects, their widened eyes looking back up. "The Equestrian armies are coming home as we speak. Our borders will retreat to where they were before her dreadful rule, and Equestria will become a nation - not an empire - but a nation of peace."

"Too long have we warred upon our neighbors." Luna now bellowed to the crowd. "Too long has the shadow of death hung over this castle. We now become a state of tranquility, where everypony is equal, and each is entitled to reap what they sew!"

And, they did. The de-militarized Equestria flourished under the rule of the princess sisters. A tired army came home to the welcoming faces of their families. The leaders of neighboring nations met to re-negotiate borders. They went to their pre-war sizes, and when Celestia asked if there were any other ways to make amends for her mother's actions, the delegates were left speechless, before the delegate representing the Crystal Empire stood. "I think," he began, "I speak for the council when, although great atrocities have occurred, we need not punish you for it. You were not their cause...so long as they do not happen again."

"Agreed, representative Sombra." a griffon representative cheered. "Let us make the first example of peace between nations in more than a millennia." And with the conclusion of the delegation, the princess sisters flew to the now bustling city of Canterlot. It was a shining day, and the light that glowed through the trees that resided where House Sparkle used to stand made it look picturesque. The sisters came on this day to pay homage.

"I told you I promised," Celestia told the two headstones beside the great tree. She heard laughter in a nearby park, and saw their great-great-great-great-great grandson playing with his child. "Your children's children will never know of war."

And the spirits of the warlock and the scryer looked down from Neighalla, turned to each other, and smiled.

Author's Note:

A prologue to the events that will follow.