Abominations Are Magic:
A scenario that really makes me question just exactly what is wrong with myself. Based on My little Pony Friendship is Magic with significant influences from the Conversion Bureau fanfiction series and Theocracy Empires of Abomination.
The normal world ended on in the December of 2012. There weren't any specific signs. No strange weather patterns, unnerving alignments of the stars or unusual activity. If anything the end of the world was a genuine surprise simply by how it was so anticipated by conspiracy theorists and at the same time so unexpected. It was on the 2st day of that month that the sky was torn open and strange figures appeared around the world. Their entrances ranged from subdued to dramatic but they all had one thing in common, they were undeniably inhuman.
They were the Equestrians.
Though often equine in shape and certain aspects of their nature, the Equestrians were overtly alien and hostile. Wielding strange forces and bearing pre-existing grudges against humanity and one another they unleashed their powers in displays of violence and destruction, seeking to cow the human race and one another. Their size and shape tended to be inconsistent at times with minor details of their appearance and anatomy shifting and changing, often at will. To humans they appeared as horses but their form would often easily change something about their appearance, remaining unique but inconsistent at the same time. Even then their appearances exhibited patterns and hues on their manes, tails and coats that were unnatural. Combinations of colour that seemed harmless under casual scrutiny became painful to look at when shown on their skin.
Their powers were toxic to the natural earth and humanity. Their presence disrupted weather patterns, sickened people, caused cancers to develop in countless thousands of people and warped reality in ways that destroyed peoples sanity. Though the ways it manifested differed each them possessed some kind of strange, almost instinctive, desire to subjugate humanity and bend them to their will.
The nations of the world put up a formidable fight but the Equestrians exhibited truly disturbing and incomprehensible powers. Armies were swept aside and when the invading abominations seized nuclear weapon silos things became desperate. It took an almost uncontrolled nuclear exchange that threatened to plunge the world into nuclear winter to finally end their rampage. Even with all their strength the sheer destructive force of nuclear weapons proved to be too great for the Equestrians, regardless of who they were and what power they wielded. However with arsenals of their own captured from conquered nations and now in their possession the Equestrians had now evened the odds.
A delicate truce emerged and both sides, human and Equestrian, settled down to lick their wounds. Though it had not yet been documented, the remaining nations of humanity soon saw that the Equestrian disliked many of their own kin as much as, if not more than, humanity.
It is now 2063, half a century since the Equestrians descended upon the Earth.
The arrival of the Equestrians and their strange powers immediately began to war the Earth. Even though the natural laws of physics continued to function (to the detriment of the Equestrians who found the concept of fully autonomous natural processes terrifying) their strange magic made changes to the world. Weather bends to the will of Equestrians. Though it may still function independently of their desires, weather patterns are still manipulable and malleable to Equestrians hooves. At the same time minerals grow in rich veins like plant-life beneath the land the Equestrians occupy. Various Equestrians devote themselves to farming weather and minerals and humans would crop plants. Despite the strangeness of these practices the uses these unnaturally produce are surprisingly more mundane.
Arguably the most powerful in terms of concrete, quantifiable power, is the Solar Empire. Celestia, the alicorn of the Sun descended on one of the most unstable portions of the earth, demanding that they accept her order and harmony and end the conflicts which she had decreed were all meaningless. The violent response she received for her demands angered her and forced her to respond with similar violence. From there she unleashed her servants and adoring subjects on humanity and cut a swathe of destruction through West Asia and India before meeting with the followers of her many rivals and enemies.
The Solar Empire is a land of stifling order and slavish devotion to their god-princess. Using human slave labour the Equestrians loyal to Celestia were able to build immense beautiful cities to decorate her empire. Without any form of prompting the Equestrians of the Solar Empire work hard to build and commission countless statues, temples and other displays of their god-princess' radiance and beauty. Every one of them adores their ruler and does their best to show it to her. They also make sure that the humans of the Solar Empire show it as well.
The new settlements of the Solar Empire are beautific marvels. The idyllic deciduous paradises that the Equestrians claim to be more familiar with are difficult to replicate in the warmer and more arid environment of much of the Solar Empire and therefore they have turned to their more grandiose architecture instead. The Equestrian cities of the Solar Empire are beautifully complexes of spires and domes. Made of marble white stone and topped by golden and deep purple roofs, these structures appear spindly, fragile and ostentatious but are, at the same time, incredibly difficult to damage for the sorcery that went into their construction stabilises them and allows them to be built in the logic defying fashions that the Equestrians of the Solar Empire find so appealing. All manner of decorations cover these structures. Though vast amounts of space are left for the marble walls and golden roofs to shine in the sunlight, there are also plenty of frescos and mosaics depicting floral and celestial themed patterns. Stain glass windows also depict great events in the history of the Equestrians, the most notable achievements of the Empire's heroes and themes that Celestia finds appealing.
At the top of the social hierarchy are the Equestrian nobles, aristocrats of the superior class. Beneath them is a far more mobile society of that competes and cooperates for recognition and success. Overall every Equestrian is in a superior position to humans, gaining benefits and preferences due to their status. Their incomprehensible powers provide them with advantages that ensure their superior position and the subjugation of humans. The Equestrians of the Solar Empire are fanatically devoted to their god-princess and enforce her rule and social orders with a strict zeal.
Few humans in the Solar Empire are ever permitted to live in these settlements. Instead they are relegated to the remaining human built cities and towns. Though they do not exactly live in squalor they are purposefully deprived of the same resources that the Equestrians enjoy. Soldiers and officials, both Equestrian and human (there are plenty of quislings to exploit) monitor these settlements and constantly remind the human population of the Solar Empire of its intrinsic harmony and righteousness. Propaganda is everywhere and it is not uncommon for Equestrians to visit human settlements from time to time to remind them why they should be so happy and gracious about living within their borders. Occasionally humans will be called away by Equestrians for certain specific purposes. They are rarely expected to ever return and their fates can be as varied as they are terrible.
Humans may be granted a few comforts but they are watched intently by the Equestrians. Informants, their minds dominated by an assortment of spells (you'd be surprised what can be developed from 'want it need it'), watch the population even in the privacy of their own communities. Any sign of dissidence, disloyalty or disharmony is punished swiftly and cruelly by the soldiers of the Solar Empire.
Harmony is the prerogative of the Solar Empire and Celestia and her government go to great lengths to ensure it is maintained. A vast bureaucracy and countless ministries, staffed by Equestrians and human slaves, manage every little detail in the Solar Empire. Life for humans in the bureaucracy is one of drudgery and minutia and they are forever at risk from sickness as constant close proximity to the alien Equestrians and their powers cause strange afflictions and madness in many of them. Everything is managed carefully and strictly monitored by the military and police forces that endlessly patrol the Empire. Most of the imperial forces are tied up in maintaining public order, suppressing the countless Jihadi resistance groups and inspecting the Empire for signs of disharmony. Any deviation from the pre-prepared or approved forms of action is harshly punished by public burning.
At the capital of New Canterlot, a sprawling metropolis of towers, domes, galleried halls and endless housing, lies the enormous and flamboyant royal castle. The castle itself is a ridiculously imposing structure that looms over the city and, supposedly, the entire Empire. Countless observatories dot the castle, their telescopes pointing in all directions. No-one man them but that is not necessary for their mere existence allows Celestia to see for miles. They are the farseeing eyes of the god-princess.
Princess Celestia, ruler of the Solar Empire, is a figure of radiance and terror. She sits on a vast golden throne at the centre of her city-sized palace, a vaguely equine shaped being composed of fire and solar radiation. The glare of her 'skin' is blinding and flares or ebbs depending on her emotions. Despite these displays the god-princess is almost inscrutable and unpredictable, switching between pragmatic ruler, coy trickster and unflinching totalitarian at a moments notice. Only two features are ever discernible from her vague and shapeless body, her blazing eyes and her vast and lustrous wings. Made of fire even more magnificent than her luminous body, Celestia's wings are shining appendages that fill the throne-room she resides within. Hermane is a multi-hued nimbus of colour that swirls and shifts endlessly, waving and reaching out to anything in the chamber. Constantly leaking cosmic radiation, the god-princess of the Solar Empire is a dangerous creature to approach. Even regular Equestrians abase themselves in fear and reverence at her presence. Despite her mood swings the god-princess is very much devoted to the order and harmony she has created. She is the one who ensures that everything in the Empire runs smoothly, she commands the vast intelligence forces that scour the Empire for disruptions and disharmony and she is the one who presides over a court that is open to all (even humans) but fraught with peril (especially for humans). Outwardly sedate and serene, the one thing that raises Celestia's ire without fail is disharmony and the current state of the world has left her agitated, ensuring her subjects that their ruler's mood will always shift erratically and violently.
Though the unquestioned ruler of the Solar Empire, Celestia also has plenty of vassals. These close confidantes are Equestrians that were powerful enough to earn their own territories, separate and distinct from her own. They too shaped these lands to their preferences, exhibiting their own unique forms of insanity whilst still adhering to Celestia's wishes. They are granted reasonable amounts of autonomy but their loyalty is never in question.
Integral to Celestia's harmony and invaluable friends, the Elements of Harmony were all granted their own personal fiefdoms which they immediately set about rebuilding to their own preferences.
Twilight Sparkle is a strange amalgam of equine parts, feathers and horny protrusions that tends to rearrange itself at her will. In a calm mood she is the same equine shape as most other Equestrians but when she is dishevelled her body will devolve into a chaotic mass of body parts that erratically shifts and morphs until she calms once again. Her entire fiefdom is devoted to some form of scientific experimentation. Laboratories, factories, testing fields and storage depots dominate the land, centred in the crystalline palace of Twilight Sparkle herself. Twilight's palace is a strange structure that utilises unnatural forms of geometry in order to form into the shape of a tree, defying numerous psychical laws in order to maintain its shape and stance despite the impossibility of its size. The humans who live their toil to produce results for Twilight Sparkle who toils in turn to develop new scientific and arcane breakthroughs to present to Celestia, going to great length and sacrificing whatever resources, human or otherwise, that she deems necessary in order to gain the results she is seeking.
The personal fiefdom of Applejack is the breadbasket of the Solar Empire. Applejack is a stable entity, always maintaining the same equine shape. However her alien presence is still undeniable. Her orange body still shimmers when looked upon too long and exudes a disturbing aura of intimidation, cowing humans into submission through its mere existence. The Tigris, Euphrates and copious amounts of Pegasus generated weather have been diverted to feed the endless farms and orchards of Applejack's domains. Here a permanent harvest is ongoing and armies of humans are employed to tend the fields alongside countless Equestrians. The tireless alien creatures are the standard against which humans are measured and those who fail to meet such standards are taken aside and made examples of. Applejack does not tolerate laziness in humanity and those who are unable to till the land will fertilise it with their remains instead.
The prismatic creature known as Rainbow Dash barely remains in her own personal fiefdom, instead travelling in and around the domains of the other Elements or appearing over major population centres. Whatever solid form the flashy Equestrian has is rarely ever seen. Instead she is commonly seen as a dazzling array of light that appears similar to the chromatic arrangement of a rainbow in motion. However when she is still the lines of colour break down into a swirling maelstrom of unidentifiable hues. Nearly all of her actions are determined by her ego. This is reflected in her personal fiefdom. When she does visit it is always to garner the attention and admiration of whatever Equestrians and humans exist within it. Massive statues and arenas dominate the landscape and are constantly being expanded. The population is conscripted in order to build, expand, demolish and repair extensive obstacle courses for their ruler. These structures constantly defy all logical forms of construction and geometry and cause mental and physical pain to the builders. Human audiences to the alien displays of athleticism, pyrotechnics and chromatography are slowly driven insane by the impossibility of what they are seeing. At certain times Rainbow Dash will even reach the speeds and velocity necessary to tear the sky apart and unleash a Sonic Rainboom. This phenomenon appears as an explosion of colour and electricity that rips a sanity degrading hole in reality and unleashes flares of lightning and radiation in its wake.
The realm of Rarity puts any other portion of the Solar Empire to shame in terms of gaudy flamboyancy and vibrancy. The entire landscape is carefully tended by armies of human slaves in order to make it a perfect and aesthetically pleasing domain. There are no wild spaces here for nothing is left to become ugly and unappealing. The areas where vegetation and animals are allowed to exist appear more like palatial gardens rather than wilderness and require intense gardening and caring from the Equestrians and humans to ensure they remain clean, orderly and pleasant for their ruler. The settlements are just as clean and symmetrically designed. Ugliness is not tolerated and thus the punishments given out to humans that fail to keep the standards Rarity imposes on them are never seen. However rumours of these punishments indescribable nature ensure that the humans will never dare to fail her. At the centre of this edifice to coordination and vanity is a great city built in the same style as the capital of the Solar Empire. Though the basic colour scheme substitutes gold and silver for darker blues and purples and absconds the floral designs for mineral ones, the architecture is still the same physics defying fragility and opulence. Rarity herself is a shining creature that exudes a glaring silver light that seems to obscure the rest of her body. The only exceptions are what can only be described as her mane and tail which are spots of darkness that offset the blinding brilliance of the rest of her body.
Pinkie Pie's personal domain is by far the most deranged. Here it does not matter what you are, Equestrian or human, so long as you have a good time. The lands of Pinkie Pie are ones of constant revelry. Tonnes of supplies are constantly imported from across the Solar Empire to provide the Element of Laughter with the resources necessary to operate the entertainment hub of the Empire. Equestrians pay low rates for high quality entertainment of any kind. However the popularity of such attractions ensures that the income is high. For the humans who are equal parts workers and guests the domain is slightly less inviting. Pinkie Pie profess to adore humans as much as she does everyone else but she too places lethally high expectations on them. The humans that populate this domain can be invited to a celebration. It is an opportunity for revelry without responsibility that comes once in a lifetime. A human guest is expected to celebrate continuously, they will only be allowed to stop when they have exhausted themselves completely. They are then taken to the blood stained kitchens where they are made to pay the price for their participation, with their lives. Pinkie Pie, whilst appearing like any other Equestrian is painful to behold. Her body is only partially in the physical world. Whatever other plane she connects herself to is visible to those who see her. To humanity they pink coated equine they see quickly implodes into a disgusting black hole that pulls in the light around it. All those who see Pinkie Pie can expect to see things, terrible things that will often claim their minds. In many cases Pinkie Pie does not notice, all she sees are initially reluctant party attendants who immediately shed all inhibitions and fears after they get a good look at her.
Fluttershy's domain is the least populated. Almost devoid of both Equestrians and humans the area has been cultivated as a great wilderness. Fluttershy does not like rampant chaos and finds the physical laws of the world she now lives in terrifying but she does want the countless animals she raises and nurtures to have plenty of natural space to live in. All manner of creatures have been gathered here from around the world. However they despite predator and prey living here they do not attack one another for they are all kept in line by the mistress of this land. However whilst they are forbidden from attacking one another they have no qualms with rabidly assaulting and killing any trespassers. Fluttershy is one of the more sedate Elements and rarely accepts visitors, barring the other Elements and anyone of a higher station. Though she appears stable and harmless to all others, even humanity, her eyes are dangerous. Her gaze is able to instil maddening terror in all who see it. Her eyes are gateways to another realm of cold, pain and fear and all who look into them are struck down by the intensity of whatever they see.
One of the largest vassal states is the Crystal Empire. Though one of two different entities to claim the title, this Crystal Empire purports to uphold the ideals and aesthetics of the original. The Crystal Empire is a land of beautific crystalline landscapes that stretch from border to border. Nothing grows here except the unnatural crystals that the Empire's inhabitants craft for their own purposes. Only on the borders can pastures and farmland be found where the few non-imported food is grown. Humans do still live their in their own specially built compounds carved into the crystals of the surrounding landscape. The crystal Ponies that live here are strange and fey creatures. Formed of living crystals, they move and are built in unnatural ways with joint configurations that do not appear in any normal organic life-form. Ruling over all of this is the subordinate princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, like the other princesses of the empire appears as a largely inconsistent being. She is a nova of pinkish energy that constantly swirls, glares and writhes when in motion. When immobile this energy takes the usual horned and winged equine form of Equestrian princesses. However she still exudes the off-colour aura that pools around her and reaches out to caress any who come nearby. Though not openly hostile to humans the princess still seems to exhibit the strange instinctive distaste or callousness towards humanity that all Equestrians seem to have. Mi Amore Cadenza veers closer to callousness as she claims to adore them and does show them far more love and respect than most other Equestrians. The princess often wants humans to be beautiful and fulfilled, by her standards. A common course for her to have her followers pick out exceptional humans to be brought before her. Here they are blessed by her and granted a new form. They are then encased by veins of crystal that grow out of the landscape to engulf their bodies. They will then be returned to the human compounds to be displayed to a random human community as a display of gratitude.
The traditional Equestrian kingdom was already experiencing an internal schism before they arrived on Earth and this carried on even after they had landed and subjugated humanity. This is exemplified in the existence of the New Lunar Dominion.
The New Lunar Dominion may not be shrouded in eternal night as its ruler would want but it is covered in perpetual cloud cover and fog. When night does come however it is an indescribable spectacle. Everything in the heavens is magnified to a spectacular level with constellations and galaxies covering the night sky. At the centre of it is the Moon which seems to shine like a second sun and yet fails to obscure the other occupants of the night sky at the same time. This nightly display may be beautiful but it is a cover for what has been done to the Dominion. The entire land is not only constantly shrouded but also cold. The humans of the Dominion toil to coax crops from cold land and raise scrawny animals. Only night blooming plants thrive in these lands and many people struggle to find ways to make them palatable.
The cities of the Dominion evoke a similar aesthetic to the ones in the Solar Empire. However they are far more Gothic with silver and blue trims replacing the gold and purple of the Empire. The Equestrians of the Empire are far more dour and hostile and openly oppress the humans of the Dominion. Disturbing hybrids of bats and the already alien equines soar through the skies and use their unnatural senses to monitor the population. They blend into the shadows and disappear from sight completely at night, instilling paranoia in the human and Equestrian population. It is not uncommon for people to randomly disappear into the shadows should the guards of the Nightmare Moon grow hungry or bored. Even though the Equestrians of the New Lunar Dominion will still perform menial labour as many of them are compelled instinctively to it, the humans of the Dominion are the ones who toil to maintain it. Humans in the Dominion are hounded into compounds where they live in squalor until they are called out and assigned some occupation. These jobs are always temporary and require the endless shuffling of communities as they move across the Dominion from job to job. These journeys are fraught with peril as bad weather, the Nightmare Forces and enemy assaults are constant threats to these vulnerable columns of nomadic slaves.
The gloom that saturates the New Lunar Dominion is a satisfactory breeding ground for Nightmare Moon's trump card. The Nightmare Forces. These shapeless creatures flit to and fro through the Dominion, crossing oceans with ease and thriving in the dark corners of the Dominion. Formed of shadows of pitch blackness that contrasts even in the darkest night, the Nightmare Forces seek hosts to inhabit and corrupt. They do not discriminate over what species they possess. They only care that the host possesses the sufficient amounts of fear, hatred, greed or envy necessary for them to establish a connection. Whoever is possessed by a Nightmare Force is twisted into a perverse parody of whatever they once were. Equestrians and humans alike stretch and grow as the Nightmare Forces warp their bodies into shapes that can reflect their new status. They exude strange shadowy energies and unnatural radiation and their predatory eyes are filled with nothing but malice. They are the shock troops of the Dominion and human and Equestrian alike has learnt to fear them for they are their worst nightmares.
Deep in the (ironically named) Everfree Castle lies the ruler of this kingdom of eternal gloom and shadow. Everfree is gothic castle at the centre of a sprawling city. It looms over the settlement casting a vast shadow over the entire metropolis. No matter where you or what direction the Sun or Moon is facing, the castle will shroud the city, right to the horizon. In a vast palatial chamber with beautiful stain glass windows chronicling the greatest achievements of the chambers occupant is Nightmare Moon. The ruler of the New Lunar Dominion has a 'vague at best' shape. She is composed of shadow and the strange bluish energy that the Nightmare Forces exude. In the swirling mass of darkness are constellations and galactic spirals that churn and warp in the black mass that is Nightmare Moon. The only static thing are the cold piercing eyes of the god-princess of the Dominion. Dripping with dark energy and cosmic radiation, Nightmare Moon is a figure of dread for all. She walks in dreams and enjoys nothing more than tormenting others, twisting their dreams into foul visions and night terrors. Those outside of her domain are safe from her nightly predations but she is constantly wrestling with the powers that protect them ,desperate to unleash her Nightmare Forces on them.
The most terrifying of the Equestrians descended upon Africa and much of the unfortunate continent was transformed into a carnage riven edifice to madness.
Discord the Spirit of Chaos does not need nuclear weapons and therefore did not deliberately bother to attack nations that he knew possessed nuclear arsenals. Instead he made an example of his own personal empire and several other locations that he knew would dissuade any large scale attack. Unfortunately doing so in such an unnatural environment exhausted him and he has since had to contend with the forces of the Solar Empire and assaults from human Europe.
The Realm of Chaos as it is known (it has no official name) is a land of contradiction and madness. The land bucks and convulses as the power of Discord ripples through it at random intervals and changes things in and endless cycle of transformation and corruption. The lands glow with a multitude of hues, many of them steam sporadically despite possessing no water or vegetation. Deserts lie as still as a painting and shimmer like glass whilst forested hills buck and wave like sand dunes. Stones grow into weird shapes, melting and then reforming into eldritch patterns, grotesque statuary or floating text announcing Celestia's apparent weight problem and artificially coloured hair to the surrounding landscape. The weather is erratic and unnatural. Clouds the colour of rainbows pull themselves across the sky, reaching out with puffy tendrils to grab the air ahead and haul the rest of their 'body' through the skies. Flying pancakes and other foodstuffs zip around the skies in great flocks before suddenly stopping, shaking themselves and unleashing deluges of hot coffee, lemonade, crude oil or other liquids onto anything unfortunate enough to be beneath them.
Very few Equestrians willing serve Discord but there are still plenty that have been enthralled by him. Even by the standards of Equestrians these creatures are alien and wrong. Referred to as Screwballs by Discord, these creatures are barely equine in shape. They float through the sky lazily, endlessly shifting in size and shape, dancing with the flesh of their own bodies. Some of them will have the body parts of other animals or have appendages made of other materials like rubber, uranium or cottage cheese.
Humans unfortunate enough to be caught in the Realm of Chaos (and there are many) live hectic and paranoid lives. Nothing is certain to them. Homes they have built may disappear in an instant. Landmarks will be warped into new and disgusting shapes, even people they knew and loved may be irrevocably changed, their minds and personalities twisted and broken. The smartest of the population are nomadic, perpetually on the move, taking turns to sleep and carrying those whose turn it is to sleep in order to remain in motion. Discord approves of such a mobile lifestyle. They take great pains to refrain from moving in any direction, often changing direction or retracing their steps at a moments notice, all to appease their overlord. Food is not an issue as it is often likely that it will randomly rain perfectly prepared steak dinners (complete with crockery, cutlery and napkins) or vast crops of candy floss may burst from the ground. However the food is just as likely to bite back and even fruit and vegetables often have to be violently subdued before they can be checked for rot or poison and then cooked.
However much to Discord's chagrin some stability, consistency and order has to be maintained. His war effort cannot simply be sustained by the discorded Equestrians, humans and beasts eh commands and whilst the mutants he spawns are far more effective he has realised he needs to martial some more substantial weapons. However that requires manufacturing, and labourers, and communities for those labourers and manufacturing centres to exist within. These industrial complexes are foul places. As a strange irony Discord uses his powers to ensure that these areas are absolutely, perfectly clean. However this achieved by making all of the garbage and toxic by-products of industry sapient and mobile. Smog is turned into solid shapeless entities that immediately flee the factories for the instinctive safety of the countryside. Industrial run-off squirms onto the streets where it cavorts with the flocks of flying rubbish and sewage before they too make their way to the city edges and the surrounding countryside. Streets and homes are left spotless but those unfortunate enough to live in rural areas suddenly find themselves under assault by disgusting but incorrigible monstrosities that are completely oblivious to their own toxicity even as the new people they hug expire in their embraces. Quotas are randomly imposed on the factories and should they fail to meet them (and Discord often changes quotas at the last minute) they will often change the foremen and workers into candy-rock, or dachshunds, or wind-up toys, or whatever else is on his mind at the time.
Discord, despite his inconsistency and contradictions, does maintain a capital in Lagos. His throne is an obscene chair, the design of which drives people to insanity as it twists and writhes into new shapes and reaches out to those who approach it. This throne is located in the centre of a pall-pit dug into the remains of an Indian themed family restaurant in the centre of the city. However Discord rarely sits in his throne. He instead spends much of his time travelling the Realm of Chaos. Those unfortunate enough to see him will describe him as a serpentine amalgam of many beasts, with the limbs and extremities of all manner of birds and beasts that offset his vaguely equine head. However what he really is, is a sight too terrible to comprehend. Those who see him concoct the chimera they claim he is in order to provide some kin of shape to his presence. Discord is in fact a hole in reality, a swirling vortex that draws in light and matter around it and regurgitates radiation and esoteric substances. Everywhere he visits is left in a disarray so terrible it defies reality. Time and space twist and turn on themselves in his presence and reality and sanity are strained to their breaking point. The only consistent feature that Discord possesses is his voice which is forever confident and mischievous, forever assured of its own superiority.
Russia was unfortunate enough to receive a monster that had been relatively weak before the Equestrians made him immensely more deadly. The shadowy and insane form of King Sombra was deposited in the tundra of Siberia. Feeding off of the strife and fear that permeated the world in the wake of the Equestrians' arrival, the despotic sorcerer set about turning the land into his new Crystal Empire.
The new Crystal Empire is a twisted and cruel land, forged by anger, hatred and despair. Great towers of jagged crystal burst through the ground and litter the ground around them with shards that quickly take root and sprout other crystals like monstrous trees. In certain areas entire glaciers of black crystal cover hundreds of miles of land. Crystals mark every road and settlement, looming over them like black sentinels. They all glow with an inner light that seems to exist only by absorbing the light around them. Wherever these crystals grow people can expect the light to disappear and the shadows to grow. The great cities of the Crystal Empire are entirely formed of these crystals. They are great black stains on the landscape. Jagged towers and battlements dot these crystalline masses. The inhabitants live in the great tunnels that run through the cities like tunnels in an ants nest. Trapped within the thick walls of the crystal glaciers, they know only darkness and toil. The entirety of the Crystal Empire is now rich in gems, crystals, minerals and metals and all of it feeds both King Sombra's greed and his eternal war machine.
Life in the Crystal Empire is torturous. No Equestrians serve King Sombra and so he has had to make do with human slaves instead. People in the Crystal Empire live with eternal toil and drudgery. They till the frozen fields to coax life from the soil or labour in the deep, extensive and notoriously unsafe mines that stretch beneath the entirety of the Empire. Punishments are harsh and frequent with people displayed to the populace for any perceived crime or act of dissidence. The most common form of punishment is impalement on the crystal spires that stick out of the landscape but King Sombra has since learnt of various human execution techniques and has added the blood eagle, disembowelment (the kind that involves pulling your organs out with a winch) and flaying to his repertoire. The dark magic that permeates the Crystal Empire has had various strange effects on its inhabitants. Many dissidents are no longer executed, instead they are left to stew in their own anguish and grow impassioned and indignant at the injustices around them. It starts with dark crystal fragments growing underneath their skin, they initially penetrate at soft areas like the inner ear, the anus, lips and beneath fingernails and grow from there. Then skin and flesh begin to slough off in liquid chunks as the crystals force their way out from beneath. Finally hey are left as mindless humanoid masses of black crystal, fuelled by hatred and guided by King Sombra's will. After so long the entirety of the population now have some kind of crystalline growth marring their bodies to varying degrees as the despair and fear that permeates the Empire and the world takes its toll on them.
In an immense tower that looms over the black crystalline mass that covers the former St Petersburg is the palace of King Sombra. At the top of the tower is the long corrupted Crystal Heart, an esoteric artefact that manipulates the mental state of the world. By its power the Equestrians have been twisted further and the dark creatures that now stride across the world have been empowered. Deep inside the power, in a spiralling chamber, lies King Sombra, the Crystal Emperor. He is an amorphous and broiling mass of darkness, forever twisting, waxing and waning. Tendrils of his essence reach out and sink into the shadows of his chamber, merging with the darkness that dominates the tower. Only two things are discernible from the empty blackness, a pair of piercing eyes that leak barely contained energy and a twisted horn, stained red with the blood of those he has personally slain. Cruel and shrieking windigoes swirl above him, circling the domed ceiling of his chamber and feeding off of the hatred and madness he exudes.
Here and there, around the world, whether in one of the Equestrian empires, a surviving human nation or one of the more anarchic regions, people have disappeared. It began when the Equestrians arrived and has continued to the present. It was then that the hives that began to grow.
Changelings hives exist around the world, many of them hidden but most of them openly displayed to the world. Satellite imaging negates the natural advantages they would have had by being built in empty locations and mostly underground and the Changelings have realised this. However even the best imaging technology is unable to penetrate the magic that provides them with their disguises and therefore it is almost impossible to detect Changeling subversion activities.
The Changelings are disgusting creatures to look at. Barely equine in shape they are immense insect-like monstrosities, possessing thin transparent wings that are deceptively strong and a twisted horn to project sorcery. They constantly drip bile and the vile secretions they build their hives and cocoons from. Only in their disguises do they fail to exude these noxious secretions. However even these forms exist to hide the true nature of Chagelings. Like Discord the Changelings' true form is a void in the world, a shapeless nothingness in the skin of reality that draws in everything around it. They feed on emotions, draining them of energy to the point of brain-death. They are able to flawlessly copy the physical form of anything with in a reasonable size approximation. They infiltrate areas and kidnap sapient creatures, posing of figures they can trust in order to lower their guard before injecting them with venom and stealing them away. Victims of Changeling infiltrations will inevitably be sealed in cocoons made from the sickly secretions of the Changeling's insectoid form and suspended in special chambers built into the hives. It is common for Changeling hives to farm humans in special compounds. They will have select emotions drained continuously to make them docile and compliant.
The largest of these Changeling Hives is the one inhabited by their ruler, the malevolent Queen Chrysalis. Queen Chrysalis sits on a mound studded with countless eggs. They are constantly hatching the shrill and pale Changeling larvae that leak strange energies that pool on the chamber floor but are replaced just as quickly by the attentive and productive Changeling Queen. Chrysalis is an enormous creature, her mass fills the immense chamber she resides within. The wobbling fleshy mounds she rests upon is actually part of her body. The equine shaped carapace sits atop this mound, attached by her thorax. She exudes slime and vile energy that fills the chamber with a foul noxious smell that chokes any creature other than a Changeling. As the focal point of the Changeling hivemind she knows every action that every Changeling makes, every decision and every desire they have. She is the means by which they harvest energy and she is the one who distributes it throughout the Changeling hives, empowering those in combat and instilling her intelligence and malice into every agent.
For a time the United States managed to hold off every Equestrian assault on their border but they quickly collapsed when a threat manifested within their borders. Something malevolent already existed within their borders long before the Equestrians descended and their arrival on earth empowered these creatures.
Most of what was once the United States, along with a lot of other places, is now the immense Dazzling Empire. The Empire is an obscene edifice designed to feed the ego of its rulers. The relatively 'peaceful' manner in which the Dazzlings took over has allowed more of the infrastructure to survive and the fact that the nations the Dazzlings conquered were already developed has helped them even the odds with the other Equestrian powers and compensate for their lack of supporting supernatural forces. The cities have turned into intentionally segregated zones due to the strife the Dazzlings have generated. The only overruling desires that keep these communities nominally united are their adoration for the Dazzlings and the tasks they are given to perform. Many of these communities and control zones are fortified and patrolled by a class of privileged soldiers that the Dazzlings gift with greater euphoria and stronger mental conditioning than the rest of the population. Statues of the Dazzlings and shrines dedicated to them are everywhere, decorated with offerings and constant prayers and exultations. Throughout the entirety of the Empire is a strange miasma that permeates everything and reinforces the mental conditioning and domination that influences their decisions and emotions.
Adagio Dazzle, the leader of the ruling trio, was smart enough to intertwine the personal territories of her two accomplices with her own, ensuring that they never went abandoned her. With the exception of certain regions the entire empire is divided between the three Dazzlings with a few favoured puppets being granted some territory to abuse.
The Dazzlings rarely stay in one place for very long. They constantly travel their empire, holding immense concerts in order to reaffirm their control over the population, exacerbate divisions and attain their adoration. The Dazzlings appear to the world as impossibly beautiful young women, flawless and perfect. Their voices are just as perfect, able to reach notes without fail and be heard no matter the distance. Their words are bewitching and inflame the senses of their listeners, creeping into a person's mind and planting a euphoria and certain suggestions. The words of their songs direct a listener's thoughts and actions and remain in their heads as long as the Dazzlings desire. It is when they sing that the Dazzlings true form is revealed. The glamour of beauty falls away and the disturbing true form is shown to the world. A foul combination of horse, fish, squid and various unidentifiable body parts, the Dazzlings are monstrous creatures. Their songs hide what they truly are from those who hear them and force them to shower love and adoration on them. At the same time anger, mistrust and envy are stirred within the audience and then harvested by the red gems embedded in each Dazzling's chest. The Dazzlings encourage dissent for the emotions generated by such sentiments nourish and empower them. The strife the world is experiencing and the dark influences of beings like Discord, King Sombra and the Changelings serve to make them stronger.
Here and there, usually on the borders of the major Equestrian states or sandwiched between them, are independent Equestrian domains. Most of them are small and insignificant, mostly being passed back and forth between the larger empires as they fight with one another. The Equestrians that rule them use their comparatively meagre powers to enslave and abuse the human thralls they have been able to gather and force them to design their private fiefdoms to their own desires.
Assailed by impossible and obscene entities and often cut off from the world, a few human nations were able to resist. Many fell to despotism or collapsed entirely with the disappearance of global trade. Those that survived were authoritarian shells of their former selves but they had survived and many rallied around the strongest survivors to form the Alliance of Free Humanity to oppose the supernatural threat of the Equestrians. Order was restored, albeit often at a high cost, and armies were mustered to defend and hopefully one day expand their borders. Weapons were developed and built and new networks of trade and exchange were established by those who had the capacity to do so.
The Commonwealth Realms is, as a whole, the strongest human nation on Earth. Though completely opposed to the supernatural, ironically, it was unnatural forces that saved the United Kingdom. Barely surviving the onslaught of equestrian forces from the south and east, it was only through almost absolute militarisation and the frequent use of nuclear weapons (which ruined a lot of Northern France and Belgium). With a respite they were able to even able to assemble enough forces to organise a successful offensive back into Europe. Australia and New Zealand survived largely because of general obscurity and the Solar Empire distracting the New Lunar Dominion. They experienced plenty of their own attacks and even drove off a vast force of Nightmares though at heavy costs. Once the situation had stabilised the British and Australians were finally able to regain contact with other nations and reformed the Commonwealth as a new entity to rally humanity around.
In the wake of the disaster the British government threatened to collapse. Absolute militarisation has now ensured that the army and the government are virtually synonymous. Parliament is a formality, a mere extension of the bureaucracy that supports the army and the monarchy. The royal family have risen to primacy in politics once again. As supreme commanders of the armed forces and the symbol of British and Commonwealth unity for the public, they are now the heart of the Commonwealth. The British cults of personality that surround important political and military figures have successfully reproduced themselves across the rest of the Commonwealth, spreading to the other Realms and incorporating local individuals of renown. Commonwealth society is consistently militant with the population essentially drafted in their entirety. Commonwealth forces are present throughout the Alliance, representing the single greatest unifying military symbol in the entire Alliance. The entire population receives at least some form of basic military and survival training and is indoctrinated by propaganda and the state owned education system to serve the Commonwealth tirelessly and unquestioningly.
Standards of living are poor compared to pre-2012 levels but they are some of the highest in the entire Alliance, matched only by portions of the EU and USA and surprisingly consistent throughout almost all of their territories. The Commonwealth also the largest orbital presence though it can only devote so many resources. In order to provide more resources they have spearheaded the initiatives in Africa and India in order to liberate productive or wealthy regions from supernatural and indigenous tyrants. However as time goes by the miraculous survival of the UK is starting to draw attention. The fact that the British have not only survived but thrived in this world is suspicious, just what did the UK do in order to marshal such strength.
A a pair of rump remnants of the United States managed to resist the influence of the Dazzlings, ironically saving Canada from them as well. Though now divided the two American successor states still try to salvage some form of unity. The United States is a grim, war ravaged nation, both halves having born the brunt of numerous attacks by the Dazzling Empire, New Lunar Dominion and Crystal Empire.
The United States tries to maintain their democratic conventions but it is little more than a veneer by this point. The military owns the government and controls the bureaucracy and flow of resources within the USA. Despite the propaganda the USA is rather dependent on the Commonwealth, particularly Canada and has a lot of Alliance forces stationed within their borders. The collapse of the global economy and the nationalisation of every necessary industry led to the death of nearly every major corporations except for weapons contractors. Now the munitions industries run the government alongside the military though the border between privatisation and nationalisation are very thin and porous. American society is highly militarised and regimented. Propaganda and censorship are everywhere and regulate what the public are exposed to. The mental dominance of the Dazzlings is an omnipresent fear for the public as is the nocturnal influences of the Nightmare Forces. Music is by far the most heavily controlled form of entertainment and carefully screened by various institutes, monitoring its effects on criminals from behind soundproof barriers and executing them should they show any receptiveness to mental suggestion.
The remaining nations of Europe were able to rally after the converging Equestrian empires turned on one another. The new reformed Europe Union that emerged is another Commonwealth dependency that provides integral support but is still beholden to the British and Australians.
The EU is supposedly a federal entity that maintains the cultural and political autonomy of its constituents on paper but is, in actuality, a centralised fascist dictatorship. Their ideology incorporates non-European xenophobia (their immediate enemies being Russians, Turks, Arabs and Africans ruled by supernatural entities helps justify that), European pan-nationalism and militarism. Religious fervour is very common though the EU is actually religious tolerant, accepting a person's faith so long as they adhere to it. Like the Commonwealth, European society is completely devoted to militancy with the population tasked with either some form of military service or a necessary civil service whilst remaining available for conscription. The European economy is nationalised and, at the same time, practically controlled by the Commonwealth and, to a lesser extent, the Brazilians.
South America was not the site of any Equestrian invasions and excepting the eventual arrival of Changelings and some attacks by the dazzling Empire, was never really reached by any of the Equestrian states. However the nations of South America still suffered as global trade fell apart and paranoia took over the world. Nations collapsed whether from internal strife or the occasional external factor whilst those that were able to maintain order had to resort to some very drastic measures, especially once the Changeling Hives began to grow.
Brazil is by far the most powerful of these nations despite the Changeling invasions. The nation threatened to fragment and only held together thanks to the rise of a military government that managed to take control of the coasts before plunging into the interior. Brazilian control of the Amazon is still rather technical but the developed regions are firmly in their control. The Brazilians have benefited immensely from Commonwealth support and have become a major industrial centre for the Alliance. Society is highly religious and militant, enforcing regimentation and conformity through shows of authority and appeals to traditional communal ideas. The power in the government is now divided between the military, church and bureaucracy but the ever present threats of the Equestrians has managed to allow a great degree of coherency to develop in the administration. Brazil also maintains various puppet states on the continent but the cost of protecting them is becoming questionably high.
Technology for the Alliance is rather high, at least for their military forces. Floating fortresses, immense fortified and mobile platforms equipped with runways and battleship guns, ply the seas, holding fleets of aircraft and flanked by naval warships and submarines that are attached to the fortresses. Powerful turbines have made VTOL aircraft without large, unprotected rotors possible and allowed them to build even larger variants of such aircraft. Computer guidance systems have made guided weapons systems even more effective and powerful, allowing the military of the Alliance to battle the supernatural forces of the Equestrians. Rail guns do exist but are still relegated to artillery weapons since the power cells and coolant systems required to operate them are too large for anything smaller. However coil guns are an increasingly common field weapon that is being issued to regular Alliance soldiers with increasing frequency. Powered armour was only recently developed though and is confined to elite specially trained groups of soldiers. Orbital weapons platforms are another major asset for the Alliance forces. Platforms outfitted with railguns, missile launchers and even primitive particle acceleration arrays have been put into orbit in order to extend the range of their weapons of mass destruction.
Civilian technology, due to resource prioritisation, is much less advanced. Private vehicles are practically unheard of now outside of the government and the wealthiest portions of the upper class. Public travel in general has made a necessary revival. Maglev trains now travel throughout the large cities of the Commonwealth, Brazil, the USA and other wealthier members of the Alliance. Compared to the beginning of the 21st Century the global standard of living is much lower despite undeniable technological advancements in many fields. Genetically modified crop plants allow agriculture to spread into arid regions and occasionally allow for multiple harvests, almost matching the magically induced growth of most Equestrian empires. The internet is gone and is unlikely to ever return since the threat of infiltration by Changelings and Equestrian agents is so high. However the Alliance states still maintain several forms of public and governmental communication and information systems that are secured with extreme paranoia and are only available for consultation in specific public facilities.
Beyond the boundaries of the world, in the collapsed void that the Equestrians came from is a creature. He is shackled and imprisoned but he is not trapped. He is the one responsible for breaking the Equestrians free, in doing so he drove them mad, made them the monsters they are now and drove them to despise humanity and one another. His bonds are decaying by the second and soon his prison will be nothing but energy and dust. His limbs flex, awaiting release and the chance to fall upon this world torn with strife and conflict. One day he will descend upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of Earth and drain it of power and life. He is Tirek and this world will be his.
But I’m rather proud of drawing the ol’ crazy eyes. And I’m glad that I actually drew him pointing his finger accusingly at the viewer. Because Armstrong is the type of guy who wants to see our mangled remains stomped into the dirt. The gesture just says: "You’re next!"
