“We, the Royals of Equestria and the Crystal Empire, hereby find you guilty on all counts.”

After years of being a treasured friend, the human they thought they knew was revealed as a mass murderer. He never showed the slightest remorse after being caught.

Days later, Celestia has unanswered questions that cannot be denied.

Small extra note: Appearances can be deceiving...
Pre-readers: JimboTex and BikerPon3
Featured 9/4/2018
Oh bloody hell...

Chance's theme: Two Steps From Hell - Star Sky

Six months ago, Melody had a one night stand and the impossible happened.

As her new husband gets ready for bed, she takes some time to think about how much her life had changed in that time.

In the aftermath of her defeat, Sunset Shimmer is struggling under the weight of paying for her wrongdoing as the other students throw insults at her, sometimes even shove her out of the way if they have an excuse, among other things. The five girls that helped Twilight Sparkle defeat Sunset have been slow to warm up to her, even if they aren't ignoring her. Sunset is virtually alone with the results of her past right now.

Then she noticed one of the guys in the school has been staring at her from a distance in the hall each day. He never says a word to her, an angry scowl on his face the whole time he stares as she leaves the school.

He is really starting to scare her.

Editing provided by stupidhand14

(Dark tag for prejudice and abuse themes in T story)
(Human stays human and is not the lead character)

It is four hundred years before the Unification of the three pony tribes and founding of Equestria. The events that prepared the three tribes began by chance, long before the idea of Harmony was even believed possible.

It is a time when Earth ponies struggle against abuse, exploitation, subjugation, and sometimes even outright slavery.

Unicorns and Pegasi regularly take their food, leaving them struggling to survive each winter. When an Earth pony gains their mark in something of value, they are often stolen away, forced into labor for the rest of their lives. Their treatment by other races is rarely better. Most are worse, if not outright deadly.

Pegasi, with their wings and weather control, can strike anywhere. Unicorns and their spells can lay them low from a distance. Their few free towns and cities never remain so long enough to develop any means with which to fight back. They have ideas, but learning is always stolen or destroyed with each raid. Each generation struggles just to maintain what has been, hoping to find a new way.

Then came the day a village, four years into a new subjugation, found a strange wounded biped known to them only by tale and legend shortly after a Unicorn visit took much of their food yet again one mid-winter. Unwilling to let him die in the cold even with so little to share, they take him in.

With a sign from the gods and the stranger's knowledge, one mare and her village begin to see a chance to finally break the cycle and be free.

Art of the main character, Quiet Grace: https://wilvarin-liadon.deviantart.com/art/Quiet-Grace-702726048

Editing help from: stupidhand14

A side story and ancient history in the same verse as my main story, Protecting Harmony. Timeline of the verse places the events of this story roughly around 4000 years in the past. The specifics of why are complicated in this intricate and expansive verse. Initial expected length was once projected under 50k words. However, considering the sheer volume of stuff I need to do, I have recognized it's not going to be enough. I have a terrible capacity for thinking up more stuff to add to something of this nature on top of it.

Initial inspiration came from listening to this thematic musical score: Chinese battle music - Xian

I had a moment of pondering what made Unicorns and Pegasi see Earth ponies as equals. About what makes the Earth tribe such an equally vital part of the triad and what those qualities are.

This story is the result.

To a certain extent, I am drawing from my understanding of the natural tendencies of humans and other species expressing preferential bias towards those like themselves, be it in family groups or up to the species as a whole. In ancient times, humans were quite brutal towards just rival nations visually identical to themselves. Where things like differences in skin color came into play, I don't think anyone needs to be reminded of how much worse it could get.

Cover image is more a Protecting Harmony verse placeholder. Might be a long time, but I eventually intend to see a post-chapter 1 image of a defiant Quiet Grace on this story. I have a lot of images in this verse to seek out surrounding my main story already.

(Gore tag is only for one short scene in ch2 due to description of blood in T story)
(It tickles me every time people erroneously think this is a self-insert)

Tobias has lived in Ponyville for almost two years now. He's been holding onto his secret, even though his friends keep worrying more about him every day. He focuses on the different jobs he does around town, trying to get by one week at a time.

He's become a welcome resident of the town, even if a few ponies still shout insults now and then because of his appearance.

Not a single one of them knows he's only been a diamond dog for two years and he's been trying to find a way home.

~~~~

What the crap am I doing in the feature box?!

That's like

And the top of the feature box the day after?!

I'm kind of glad I intended this to only be five or less chapters.

Second chapter given a great boost by feedback and proofreading with the help of:
FreedomFiend
Timetraveling Pony
m2pt5

Third chapter editing and feedback help from:
FreedomFiend
JimboTex

We are the pegasi in the sky, our duty:
To go where others cannot reach
To defend against what others cannot fight
To accomplish our mission when others cannot win
To exemplify the definition of a Pegasus Warrior
Forever watching over those below

The Wonderbolts Initiative. The living legacy of Commander Hurricane's recognition that the power of the pegasus tribe of ponies must show restraint, yet be forever ready to strike. We were created to preserve the ancient skills of the pegasi clans and help the knowledge of our natural flight magic grow. Tasked with guiding our fellow ponies into the future where wars are uncommon but acknowledging that capable warriors forever remain necessary. We both preserve and restrict the knowledge of what a true Pegasus Warrior can accomplish.

When you are in danger, the Wonderbolts will answer your call.

Semper Vigilantes

This is a mostly stand-alone addition to my main story, Protecting Harmony. Chapters are independent of each other. It also exists within the same verse and is completely canon to PH on all levels.

The current two chapters cover the Wonderbolts as Pegasus warriors and some of their capabilities with one battle posted.

The rest of this is notes on how this came about and some other stuff.

This all got started not long after I posted Ch 23: Make Us Proud for my main story, Protecting Harmony. In that chapter, Spitfire tells Rainbow Dash about one of her battles, which has grown to become the Battle of Spring Fawn Valley presented here. I kept going back to read that chapter after posting, but did little to no editing. After a few days, I decided to push my boundaries and do a little history building for my approach to what the Wonderbolts are and how ancient pegasi clans could have challenged the ancient unicorn kingdoms and their magic before the three tribes united to form Equestria.

What started as an early chapter in a long story is slowly growing itself into a whole new vision of an organization of elite warriors that can accomplish feats impossible for any other. They are protectors more than they are performers. The living definition of the phrase 'A pegasus to watch over me' from the core of Equestrian ideals.

I'm sure I'll add more to this at some point, but for now it's just the one fight and the Flight Magic Primer. I'll go back and made adjustments here and there when I feel the need.

If the ideas presented here with the Wonderbolts Initiative and the verse at large are to your liking and fit into your own story idea, have fun and let me know it inspired something. It is my hope that this inspires new directions in fanfiction much like Xenophilia developed the world and culture and the Winningverse version of Cloudkicker have inspired for characters. Personally, Celestia Sleeps In and the sequel Onto The Pony Planet are setting up to do much the same as far as I'm concerned. Then there are ones that follow their own path entirely. After those samples, we still have great fics like The Chase and Diaries of a Madman with entirely separate and unique worlds to explore all on their own. And that's just ones I've read.

I've come to wonder just how complex a world would appear if we had an amalgam of the most world-developing fics mixed together. I am unsure anyone could really write such a thing effectively though, if for no other reason than too many differing opinions about what that would require.

A muffled thump woke him up that morning. It was followed by a yelp as he rolled off the bed in surprise. Now he's just staring at the blue eyes staring back at him from the other side of the bed.

Interesting start to a day off, meeting an alien and all.

Read below about hiatus reason.
~~~~~~~
Chapters are a once in a while side thing for me when an idea strikes. There's a lot of time to dig into between the start and the suggested time of the second chapter. At present, I'm only confirming a third any time soon. When he wakes up for that first meeting.

After that, it's probably going to finish the first day or couple of days before I start doing any major time jumps between additional chapters. I may not do them in order at that point, but they will be placed in order. As is suggested in the second chapter, timeline is limited up to them being middle-aged with an empty nest. Mostly going to be kooky and fun, with the occasional serious event taking place.

No connection to my main story, Protecting Harmony.