Chapter One: Eve of War

Canterlot, Capital of Equestria, June 27th 7914 of The Third Age.

It was the tenth time in a month that she had the nightmare, which was more of a daymare as Luna was more of a Nocturnal pony. Luna was somewhere, she did not know where, but it looked like the fields outside the small town of Ponyville. But it had a smell, a smell of death, of rotting flesh, of gunpowder. Something is wrong. Luna thought. The field was covered in a odd fog, greyish looking and menacing like a dragon's teeth.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sound of blasts came from across from the mists, the thud of something hitting the ground. Luna looked around, but could only see fog. The only things not blocked by the fog was a hill and the moon it self, showing brightly through the misty sky. The sounds of the blasts continued as Luna kept searching for their source. Luna soon decided to go up the hill and try to find out where the sounds came from.

Flying to the top, Luna looked down and still saw fog, but it was starting to clear. Luna could hear the 'boom' sound more and more. It was also joined by another sound, a sound that Luna never heard before.

Rata-Tat-Tat

Luna never heard such a sound like it in her very long life. But it filled her with dread and terror, something she never felt since her return, after she was changed back from Nightmare Moon. Something felt very wrong, something was not right. Looking out, she soon saw far off Canterlot, but it seemed to be glowing, not with the lights of city life, but with the red-orange glow of a out of control fire.

Canterlot was burning!

Luna had a look of horror in her face, one which grew as the fog cleared totally.

Ponyville was in utter ruin, great trenches, barbed wire and craters littered the landscape, along the the burnt bodies of thousands of ponies. The smell of death was everywhere. The Blast sounds Luna heard was the sound of artillery shells striking the ground, destroying anything it hit. Luna's eyes went wide, looking on the scene in pure terror and unbelief, this was unreal! Luna continued to look down on the town, watching as three ponies ran out of a ruined building (which looked to be Sugar-cube Corner) and tried to get away from the destruction and death. Suddenly a whistling sound came and then came the blast, the strike of an artillery shell right on the fleeing ponies. A cloud of dirt and fire went up along with parts of the ponies. Luna soon screamed when half of the head of on pony landed right in front of her, it's dead eye looking up at her, like it was accusing her for what was happening. Luna then did what anypony would do if they saw something like this...

She Screamed.

She bolted straight up, no longer in the ruins of Ponyville, but in her own room. Luna looked around, her eyes wide with fear and terror as someone was knocking on the door hard. "Princess Luna! Are you alright!?" said one of the guard. "I am fine." she said through the door, "Just a bad dream."

But Was it a nightmare or a vision of things to come? Luna did not know. She had had the feeling of something bad coming to Equestria. The only times she had that feeling was before she became Nightmare Moon thousands of years ago and before Tirek's return. Those two events were bad enough but what she felt coming felt worse then any disaster Equestria had faced, not even The Changeling invasion or Discords rule felt this bad.

Something was starting and it was coming fast.

Sugar Cube Corner, Ponyville

Discord had always known when something Chaotic was brewing. After all he was the Spirit of Chaos it self and he knew that Chaos would always be a part of the world. That was one of the reasons he always had a 'Discord sense' as he called it, kind of like Pinkie Pie's "Pinkie Sense", but without the twitchy tail. It was this day that he felt a big one brewing out in the east. Oddly he could not pin point where it was coming from. "Strange, seems like it is all over the place." he noted.

"What is all over the place?" a voice said from behind him, causing Discord to jump a bit. Turning around, he saw the source of the voice as a well known pink earth pony. "Eh..Um...nothing!" he said as Pinkie Pie looked at him oddly. She then smiled at him "Okkie Dokkie." she said and bounced away to Twilight, who was sitting near a window, reading a news paper, which was not unusual as Twilight Sparkle would read anything. Discord had thought of a prank of giving Twilight a Pornographic Magazine, just to see her reaction. As he was thinking of the prank idea, he took notice of Twilight suddenly looking shocked, Discord decided to see what had made The Princess of Friendship so shocked. Sneaking over, he came up behind Twilight and read over her shoulder. What he saw was a picture of Prince Blueblood (or Prince Snobby Rude Pants as Rarity called him) and the words below it seemed to be what shocked Twilight.

"Prince Blueblood, Prince of Canterlot, today called for action against the Empire of Lipizzaner for the annexing of Bos-nia calling it 'a great threat to our nation.'"

"What in Tartaus is that idiot think he is doing?" Twilight yelled, making heads turn towards her direction. Discord backed away a bit, but continued reading.

"Many in The Celestial Court view this as war mongering. 'What Blueblood is calling for it starting a war with Lipizzaner.' Duke Fancy Pants and leader of the 'Modernize Equestria Party' said today, 'He thinks that we can win a war not only against Lipizzaner, but against the Germares! It is madness!' many view the idea of war as the worse idea since Baked Bads and think Blueblood is trying to compensate for the lack of size of his you-know-whats."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! See somepony is right about Bluey!" Discord laughed, startling Twilight. "DISCORD!" Twilight yelled, tossing down the newspaper. While Twilight was yelling at Discord for reading over other ponies shoulder, no one saw another article on the front page.

'ARCHDUKE OF LIPIZZANER TO VISIT BOS-NIA'

Sow-ejavo, Bos-nia. June 28th.

The crowds of Ponies, Minotaurs and Pigs were watching as a Automobile passed by, being escorted by a company of pegasi armed with rifles. In the car, two ponies waved to the people. Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were in the city to view the troops who were doing war games nearby.

Sow-ejavo was a city built by the Porcine Tribes seven Centuries ago. It was the capital of Bos-nia and was the seat of the kings of Bos-nia, before the coming of the Osmanlı At Empire. It was not the seat of power for the Imperial Governor.

While the Archduke waved to the crowd and was cheered, no one saw the lone Unicorn who was not cheering. He looked at the car was was nearing him and knew that it was almost time for it, time to strike a blow against the enemies of Equestria. The Unicorn powered up his horn a bit, then he rushed into the street and in front of the car.

The Driver stopped in shock, but soon everypony saw what happened next, something that would start a coming war.

The Unicorn glared at the Car, even as the Pegasi rushed to grab him, He Powered up and shouted "LONG LIVE EQUESTRIA!" and fired two Spell blasts at the Archduke and his wife. Hitting them hard even as he was pinned by the Pegasi Guards.

But it was too late. The Archduke and his wife were both dead. Killed at the horns of a Equestrian Assassin.