• It was beautiful. The sun kissing the horizon ever so gently as the trees swayed gently back and forth. It had been many a year since the defeat of King Sombra, and yet Twilight was still uneasy to allow equestria to drift into the night.

    It had been so long since the Princess, the guardian of the night, Luna and the Princess, the royal Sun, Celestia had been gone...and yet Twilight managed on still.

    For you see...Twilight was the last Alicorn. The last of her kind and the last defender of Equestria. Sure, many small groups had come and gone over the millennia. None as special to her as her own. She was eternal like her power. Unlike those she held so dear to herself.

    She gazed into the crisp evening air, longing for companionship, friendship, something.

    "Spike..." She whispered softly. Her loyal companion and friend had perished with the others when the war began.

    It began back when Twilight first became a princess. Waves of changelings would attack, at random, from time to time. Working on finding weaknesses and wearing down their defenses. King Sombra had manifested himself into a being once more, picking up his pieces like a puzzle.

    It was Chrysalis who had found him. He was weak. Helpless. She proposed they band together to defeat their foes together. Take Equestria one city at a time...and they moved fast.

    They moved from the East toward ponyville. Ponyville was the last they took. Canterlot was protected by all kinds of magic. But not for long. Discord, tired of being treated as the palace pet rose up in defiance. He lashed at Celestia,and when Luna tried to interject, he lashed at her too. The elements of Harmony couldn't handle this kind of power collision...and so they failed. Twilight's friends had aged quite a bit and couldn't handle the strain on their mortal, frail bodies.

    Twilight couldn't think of anything else to do, so she gathered as many ponyfolk as she could and brought them to Canterlot, where she cast a protective spell over the city that would last 1000 years.

    That was all but a blur and old mare's tale to the cities population. But to Twilight it was a painful reminder that her 1000 years was almost up. She rose into the night sky, lowering the sun for what was probably the last time. She flew off into the night to the Royal Canterlot graveyard, where her friends and companions lay still.

    She sometimes came here when she was in need of guidance or solitude. But she was never alone. The groundskeeper sank quietly behind a tree each night. Waiting for his princess to come round. Unknowing that he was there, Twilight would often talk about everything that had happened. He was one of the only ones who knew it wasn't an old mare's tale.

    Why would the Princess make a story like that up? Some ponies didn't believe it. Some had even left Canterlot to see for themselves. They never returned.

    Over the hills and rooftops, from the highest point in the Canterlot castle, you could see ponyville. There was almost nothing left. All destruction and infestation of Changelings.