The Awesome Pony Rp : Under the Shadow of War (OOC: Sign Up)

[Fascist Russian Empire]

2.) They still have no real, actual, legit reason to want kill Changeling allies. There's no way that Razor Wing and his allies would decieve Equestria and everypony should know and accept that. No matter what, I don't see Celestia letting ToV kill her friends and alies without some backup plan to screw the ToV over. Like only pretend to let the ToV have their genocide while authorizing Razor Wing and his allies to fight back and secretly giving them support.

There's no way Razor Wing would deceive Equestria, and everypony should know that? I disagree. Changelings lie to advance their own political agenda all the time; it's one of the staple points of their race. It's common knowledge that Razor Wing and Chrysalis are political rivals; it's completely within reason for ponies to believe that Razor Wing is pretending to be an ally of Equestria for the sake of strengthening his own position within the changeling realms. There's nothing unbelievable or unreasonable about ponies not believing Razor Wing is an honest ally. Is he actually genuine? Sure, he might be, but ponies have a lot of reasons to doubt that authenticity.

Either way, I think it should be worth noting, on this point, that the rebels don't actually really go after Razor Wing's forces; if you'll review the epilogue, you'll see that the genocide primarily takes place in the cities liberated from Chrysalis, with the rebels and other anti-changeling forces engaging in massacres of changelings after every successful liberation. There aren't any battles between the rebels and Razor Wing.

[The Flutterlands]

2.) They still have no real, actual, legit reason to want kill Changeling allies. There's no way that Razor Wing and his allies would decieve Equestria and everypony should know and accept that. No matter what, I don't see Celestia letting ToV kill her friends and alies without some backup plan to screw the ToV over. Like only pretend to let the ToV have their genocide while authorizing Razor Wing and his allies to fight back and secretly giving them support.

There's no way Razor Wing would deceive Equestria, and everypony should know that? I disagree. Changelings lie to advance their own political agenda all the time; it's one of the staple points of their race. It's common knowledge that Razor Wing and Chrysalis are political rivals; it's completely within reason for ponies to believe that Razor Wing is pretending to be an ally of Equestria for the sake of strengthening his own position within the changeling realms. There's nothing unbelievable or unreasonable about ponies not believing Razor Wing is an honest ally. Is he actually genuine? Sure, he might be, but ponies have a lot of reasons to doubt that authenticity.

Either way, I think it should be worth noting, on this point, that the rebels don't actually really go after Razor Wing's forces; if you'll review the epilogue, you'll see that the genocide primarily takes place in the cities liberated from Chrysalis, with the rebels and other anti-changeling forces engaging in massacres of changelings after every successful liberation. There aren't any battles between the rebels and Razor Wing.

Fair enough. Still Celestia would still give full suport Razor Wing and his Alles just in case.

Perhaps, I could make another nation made up primarily of changelings called the Confederacy of Changeling Colonies and Hives. It wouldn't actually be a nation though, it would be more like a kind of UN kind of thing.

[The Flutterlands]

I have begun working on my parts after a lot of thought...

The fact that Razor Wing and his allies won't be harmfully afflicted just yet makes things a lot easier.

[The Flutterlands]

Question, FRE, wouldn't the Equestrian Constitution, which provides protection for all beings, make the so-called Peace of Canterlot null and void?

[Frenequesta]

Question, FRE, wouldn't the Equestrian Constitution, which provides protection for all beings, make the so-called Peace of Canterlot null and void?

My point in our TG exchange was that a constitution is only as good as the people who interpret it.

[Fascist Russian Empire]

Question, FRE, wouldn't the Equestrian Constitution, which provides protection for all beings, make the so-called Peace of Canterlot null and void?

The United States Constitution is supposed to provide equal protection for all US citizens, but that hasn't stopped discrimination by the government in the past; under the Roosevelt administration, during World War Two, the government enacted all kinds of race-based, discriminatory policies targeting ethnic Japanese citizens, for example.

Constitutional guidelines don't really accomplish anything; if the government wants to do something, they will do it regardless.

[The Flutterlands]

Question, FRE, wouldn't the Equestrian Constitution, which provides protection for all beings, make the so-called Peace of Canterlot null and void?

The United States Constitution is supposed to provide equal protection for all US citizens, but that hasn't stopped discrimination by the government in the past; under the Roosevelt administration, during World War Two, the government enacted all kinds of race-based, discriminatory policies targeting ethnic Japanese citizens, for example.

Constitutional guidelines don't really accomplish anything; if the government wants to do something, they will do it regardless.

Good points.

Man life sucks...

[The Flutterlands]

Is this good? My additons are compeletly in bold.

Epilogue

The Chamber of Deputies passed Lopesy Neigh's appropriation and draft measures by a vote of 302-147 (Cherry Ranger abstaining) and the Senate approving 120-30. Later, Parliament passed a more enlightened version of Lopesy's changeling relocation measure, creating the Internal Equestitarian Act, authorizing the Domestic Bureau to create a program "for the re-accommodation of threatened persons." For about two weeks, the program operated clandestinely, working with the Peacekeepers to bring changelings and changeling sympathizers to the Crystal Empire.

The interception of a note Rock Mason wrote to one of the administrators of the program confirmed to the Temple that the Equestrian government was trying to weaken its efforts to rid the world of changelings and that changelings were employed by Salt Lick City undocumented. He and a number of other Peacekeepers associated with the Works Commission were given mock trials by Temple authorities, where they were convicted of high treason and crimes against Equestria; they were subsequently given public executions, most being burnt at the stake (though Brief Wit, Sapphire Quill's boss at the law office, was acquitted by Sapphire Quill for promising to recant his affiliation with the Peacekeepers and share information on other Peacekeeper networks; and reminding her that she was an at-will employee and that partner status was waiting for her when she left public office). The discovery of the conspiracy prompted a much more aggressive expansion policy by the rebels and further contributed to the increasing militancy of the anti-changeling elements of Equestria, preempting a series of major rebel offensives (utilizing weapons and munitions claimed from Royal Guard arsenals throughout the Dessert Valley).

Through the leadership and aid of the All-Maker, the rebellion continued to thrive throughout Equestria. Having widespread support throughout the Equestrian Midwest and the forntier, large stockpiles of weapons and supplies, a large force of ideologically driven fanatics, and the immense magical power of the All-Maker on their side, they were able to rapidly snowball into a huge problem for the government. The rebel army marched to victory after victory against Celestia's army, defeating multiple counterattacks and seizing control of several more cities and towns, including Las Pegasus and San Flankcisco, further bolstering their forces and resources as their territory grew. They were seemingly unstoppable, growing in strength and scale with each passing day, posing an undeniably major threat to the Celestial diarchy. Before long, the All-Maker and his army began laying siege to Canterlot itself, attacking the very heart of the Equestrian government.

Celestia knew she had to do something; she had two major enemies seeking her downfall, and was fighting a losing war on either front. Even if she managed to defeat the rebellion, her army would doubtlessly suffer enough casualties to guarantee the changelings would be able to easily triumph over the remnants of her forces, and even if she managed to defeat Chrysalis the rebels would almost certainly be able to defeat what remained of her army and fulfill their goal of a new government across all of Equestria. Realizing the desperate gravity of her situation, she went to the negotiating table with the All-Maker and other major rebel figures to discuss the terms of a peace treaty. Holding a great deal of bargaining power against her, the rebels demanded a number of major concessions. First and foremost among their demands was the total reversal of the changeling-integration policy in its entirety; every last pro-changeling reform, including but not limited to government-mandated nondiscrimination and affirmative action programs, would be repealed in full. Second among their demands was that the Third Treaty of Tripony be suspended throughout the duration of the war, effectively allowing the rebel forces to commit war crimes against the changeling community with complete legal impunity, and the Equestrian government would make no efforts to prosecute the rebels for the massacres they had perpetrated against the changeling community. Third among their demands was that the Temple of Vision become a legally protected entity in Equestria, with guaranteed freedom of speech and tax-exempt status among other things, and that the government would enact similar protections to other anti-changeling organizations and ideologues, effectively allowing anti-changeling agitators to operate throughout the country with impunity. A number of other concessions were also demanded, including the termination of the changeling relocation program.

However, Princess Celestia still tried to keep the Crystal Empire out of the provisions of the treaty. Sapphire Quill, who had by this time also became the Temple's official legal counsel, read the fine print just before the treaty was to be signed and immediately demanded that the Crystal Empire exemption be struck and make clear that the Sovereignty Doctrine did not apply to the treaty. Princess Celestia realized that the only way out now was outright independence for her adopted niece's territory.

On the request of Princess Celestia, Parliament authorized the Crystal Empire to conduct an independence referenda if Princess Cadence so chose to, over strident objections by Cherry Ranger and Blind Justice for Celestia giving in too much. Cadence was initially surprised at Celestia's move, and Shining Armor knew that he might lose command of the Crystal Guard and therefore an extra set of troops to fight the Changeling Empire, but eventually they both agreed that it was probably the for the best and Shining could still lead the Crystal Guard in a subsequent treaty with Equestria.

Meanwhile, Sapphire Quill knew full well of Celestia's intentions. After some consultation with other Temple leaders, they agreed that they would only accept the Crystal Empire's independence if other districts in Equestria were given the same right and that it would not enter any treaties or agreements with the Crystal Empire relating to changelings. Princess Celestia reluctantly agreed to this, and made a new independence referenda recommendation to Parliament. Though Parliament debate was more contentious This time, with members such as Cherry Ranger and Constellation warning that more district independence would "bring us back to the era of Windigos and disharmony," the recommendation passed by a single vote. With that, the "Peace of Canterlot" was finally official.

The Crystal Empire held its independence referendum the following day, returning an overwhelming "yes" from the population. It came at a rather significant price, however: Cadence was wary that the Temple might still turn on the Crystal Empire, and with disagreements on using the Crystal Guards' integrated troops, the Crystal Empire decide to pull from its alliance with Equestria in the war against the Changeling Empire and concentrate on its own self-defense.

Razor Wing and all his changeling allies were greatly disheartened by Celestia's decision to give into the ToV's demands. None of them could stand the very thought of so much work made in improving Pony-Changeling Relations. Many have even seen this as outright betrayal on Celestia's part, even despite her explaination of what actually happened. Thus many groups of changelings went back to the old way of life. Many took on disgiues to assimilate into the pony commuity without being noticed, taking extra measures to avoid suspicion, others migrated to the Crystal Empire, while a large number returned to the mountians and caves that they called home. Most of the colonies and hives have cut off all ties to the Equestrian nation that was once their ally, making a pact to avoid making dealings with ponies ever again. Others, however, have even became fully convinced by Chrysalis's word about pony kind and joined her cause to overthrow the pony race.

Despite the Crystal Empire's retreat from the Fourth Pony-Changeling War, Equestria's new alliance with the Temple turned out to be a net positive, at least for a while. Between the combined forces of the Royal Guard and the rebel army, and the combined powers of the Diarchs and the All-Maker, ponykind was able to create a truly formidable united front against changeling aggression. Over the course of the few months following the Peace of Canterlot, the Equestrian forces made dozens of vicious counterattacks against the Changeling Empire, winning victory after victory and liberating city after city. The desolate, barren, depopulated ruins of Cloudsdale, the little town of Hollow Shades, and the big cities of Fillydelphia and Baltimare each fell to the triumphant pony forces, the changelings facing defeat on every front. Throughout the process, changelings in the liberated cities were treated mercilessly; retribution-seekers, both from the violently anti-changeling rebel forces and from the liberated ponies (many of which had been instilled with viciously anti-changeling sentiment after the changelings had brought slavery and death to their homes), made relentless attacks against the changeling communities in the formerly occupied cities, with thousands of changelings being massacred in savage reprisals against their kind.

The Fourth (and, in all likelihood, final) Pony-Changeling War finally reached a bloody end at the Battle of Manehattan, a day which would live in both legend and infamy. The combined army of Celestia and the All-Maker descended upon the city, attacking it in a coordinated effort. The changelings had an artifact which disabled non-changeling magic; it mattered little to the advancing pony forces, who relentlessly struck at the enemy with guns and artillery. Thousands of fanatical martyrs from the Temple, led by the Prophet Visionary, swarmed Manehattan, showing a ferocity in battle the likes of which would frighten even the legendary warriors of griffin mythology, emboldened by the knowledge that their enemies were foul, ungodly abominations, and that they would receive passage to the greatest of afterlives if they died fighting them. Thousands of Royal Guards fought alongside them, filled with courage of their own, knowing that they were driving out the last vestiges of Equestria's nemesis, though their dedication paled in comparison to the pure fanaticism of the rebels.

As the changeling forces began to crumble and their defenses were breached by the pony attackers, things very rapidly went downhill for Chrysalis and her army. A major slave revolt broke out against the changelings; tens of thousands of pony slaves and resistance members, seeing the vulnerability of their oppressors, took up arms and struck at the changeling menace, full of contempt for them. The changelings swiftly found themselves surrounded on all sides by enemies, and it quickly became clear that they were fighting a losing battle. The Equestrian armies advanced swiftly through the city, and, before long, Chrysalis' palace was stormed by the attackers, its inhabitants being massacred, at which point fanatical retribution-seekers (from the ranks of both the revolting slaves and the Temple's holy warriors) started destroying every last trace of the changeling regalia, starting with the throne of Chrysalis. The magical black throne was shattered, and the changelings' anti-magic shield evaporated; what followed after that was nothing less than a total and utter bloodbath. Finally able to utilize his powers against the abominations, the All-Maker unleashed his full fury against the enemy; he cast a magic spell across all of Manehattan, disabling the shapeshifting powers of the changelings, and he began unleashing a series of terrifyingly devastating magical attacks against them.

Ponykind had suffered innumerable atrocities at the hooves of the changeling race; hundreds of thousands of ponies had been killed, and millions more had suffered from the vile institution of slavery. Death, oppression, and unfathomable cruelty had all been perpetrated in immense volumes against the innocent; the changeling race was responsible for some of the most heinous crimes the world had ever seen. Ponies didn't just want to punish Chrysalis; they were out for blood. The changeling race had defiled Equestria, and it was time for retribution. Changelings were indiscriminately butchered in droves all across Manehattan, with thousands of ponies, especially the former-slaves (who had developed a special kind of hatred against changelings, after what they had been subjected to), joining the All-Maker in inflicting vengeance upon the abominations. The changelings were utterly massacred; over a hundred thousand of them were slaughtered in the single largest act of genocide in recorded history. Chrysalis fled the city, alongside what little remained of her decimated army, finding temporary refuge in the Griffin Kingdom before returning to her hidden hive. Tens of thousands of changeling civilians attempted to flee northwards to the Crystal Empire, to escape the fury of the retribution-seekers; thousands died in the process, with the All-Maker raining fire from the sky upon them, killing a great many of the fleeing refugees. It wasn't just the changeling people who were targeted, though; iconoclastic fury swept through the ranks of the victorious and vengeful ponies, who demolished countless buildings the changelings had erected, destroying every trace of changeling architecture they could find, purging Manehattan of changeling influence very thoroughly.

Though a great many pony soldiers died in the process, the Battle of Manehattan proved to be a major victory for Equestria, the final setback for the invading forces. The war had cost the lives of innumerable ponies, and its political ramifications left Equestria as a polarized and sharply divided realm, but there could be no debate; ponykind had won a glorious victory against their enemy, safeguarding their land against the evil menace which sought to enslave their race. On that day, in that city, where vast numbers of changelings lay dead with triumphant ponies desecrating their mangled bodies, ponykind had proven that it would not take a single step back; if anyone perpetrated violence against Equestria, its denizens were willing and able to respond with violence in equal or greater measure. Equestria was not afraid of violence; they had proven that, should anyone attack their country, they would fight with unyielding ferocity to drive the invaders from their soil no matter the cost.

The Changeling Empire was completely shattered from the Battle of Manehattan, and Chrysalis's power was forever broken. Her army had been almost totally wiped out during the war, and her subjects had been butchered in droves, leaving her hive as a broken, depopulated husk of what it once was. Chrysalis herself barely escaped the fury of Equestria; many other changeling nobles had no such luck, being indiscriminately killed during the massacre. Though she would live on, the prospects of her ever being able to fulfill her ambitions of conquering Equestria were dimmer than ever; her empire was in total shambles, and her prestige among her fellow changeling royals fell to an all-time low after her miserable failures in the war. She had become known as a failure of a monarch, and, thanks largely to the All-Maker and his utterly merciless acts of genocide against the changeling race, almost no other hives would be willing to join her in the future; she was incompetent, and other rulers wouldn't risk having their subjects be exterminated at the hooves of raving hordes of anti-changeling fanatics for her sake.

The Temple of Vision became utterly vilified by the changeling race, and the great massacre of Manehattan was extremely virulently condemned by the liberal elites of Equestria and by the populations of the more tolerant cities. Elsewhere in Equestria, especially in the cities that had suffered under changeling occupation, the soldiers of the Temple were hailed as heroes for having inflicted a killing blow to the Changeling Empire and successfully exacting vengeance upon the abominations which had wrought so much devastation upon ponykind. Equestria became more polarized than ever before, regarding the changeling issue; whereas Celestia and the other elites were determined to force Equestrian society to accept changelings, the general population experienced a surge of anti-changeling fervor. Vehement hatred of the changeling race flourished along the frontier and in all the cities where the changelings had perpetrated mass-murder and slavery, which would lead to surges of separatist sentiment when the independence referendums started.

Celestia's government was more deeply unpopular than ever before, among almost every demographic. The Temple of Vision and other anti-changeling groups despised her for having tried to force the failed policy of changeling-integration upon Equestria, and for her repeated failures in protecting Equestria from the changeling menace. Liberals and reformers, alongside many changelings, held her in contempt for having surrendered to the rebellion and allowing wanton acts of genocide to be perpetrated against the changeling community. As a consequence, the Celestial regime completely crumbled once the independence referendums took place; city after city broke away from the principality, and Equestria fragmented into multiple independent states. The once-idolized Princesses, formerly symbols of Equestrian unity and continuity, became symbols of incompetence, broken promises, and failed ideologies, an obstacle to progress in the eyes of both pro and anti-changeling elements of society. The political elites of Equestria, who had a vested interest in preserving the central government, were among the only ponies which remained supportive of the continued reign of Celestia; though Celestia would be able to keep her crown, and convince a hoof-full of districts to vote against independence, her influence, power, and popular support were at an all-time low.

Cherry Ranger's influence in Parliament became greatly diminished, and her reputation nosedived. Thunderstorm was only able to get a reprimand from Parliament for her mocking of Princess Twilight and a demotion to the Agriculture Committee, but her grudge against unicorns became more apparent when she did not invite Princess Twilight to her 70th birthday party, despite Twilight recommending Pinkie Pie to arrange it and offering to pay for some of the expenses. Pinkie Pie at first agreed to help Cherry, but when she learned that Cherry would not invite Twilight, she canceled the deal in a rare retraction of a Pinkie Promise (by realizing that she forgot to add the hoof motions). As her party was sparsely attended and not particularly fun (even for an old mare), her wrong finally hit her, and she sought Princess Twilight's forgiveness.

Twilight accepted her apology and their relationship warmed. But the damage was already done. Because of Cherry Ranger's affront to unicorns alienated a large portion of the Equestrian populace, especially critical support from Rose and Blue Party moderates, her outspoken criticism of the Temple at a time when their support was needed, and Agrarian's own turn on her, led by Thunderstorm (she had effectively ran as an independent), she lost her first at-large election, ending a thirty-three year career in Parliament. She would retreat to the family farm in Dodge Junction, and later to Whinnyapolis as Temple support in Dodge Junction was too much for her to bear, changing her name to Cherry Gardener and starting her own cherry farm.

Trilby would too face backlash, this time in his own 6th District of Manehattan. Support for his Manehattan Resistance, already lower than expectations, had basically been destroyed after the Wednesday meeting (not to mention that indeed the messenger was captured and executed by Empire forces and the brochures burned). He still maintained his Whip position with the Rose Party and was still respected as the changeling race's official voice in Parliament. He was one of the few deputies to vote against Cherry's reprimand and continued to support her in her efforts. He was also one of the most strident denouncers of the Manehattan Massacre, which did not bode well for even his supporters. He would lose the next election very narrowly. He would stay in Manehattan, however, risking and surviving many attacks on his life, at least until Manehattan declared its independence from Equestria. He would move to Canterlot, still hoping that his idea of Manehattan would come to blossom again.

Princess Twilight would campaign heavily against many districts' independence, and especially Ponyville's, and was even able to delay the Ponyville vote through the duration of a legal challenge to the Temple's claim to the Crystal Tree Castle (Silver Shield advised her not to challenge their claim to Ponyville itself), over an oversight that was lost in the Peace of Canterlot's Sovereignty Doctrine controversy--whether Equestria could still recover property seized by the Temple. The Supreme Court, in an 8-6 vote (Windstriker recusing herself for undisclosed reasons), ruled that the only legal protections for the Temple that applied for acts prior to the ratification of the Peace of Canterlot went to their crimes "against changelings, changeling sympathizers, and treason," and did not cover theft, trespassing, or conversion of property (and in fact pointed to evidence that it was understood by both Equestria and the Temple that the Temple would return control of the western military bases and the weapons seized from the Guard). It awarded Twilight--and Equestria--the Crystal Tree Castle back.

Members of the Temple were outraged at the Court's decision in Princess Twilight Sparkle v. The Temple of Vision, fearing that they would be forced to return changeling property. But Sapphire Quill, embarrassed at her oversight in negotiating the Peace of Canterlot, declined to pursue a second hearing. Instead, she negotiated a second treaty, this time also as the head of the newly independent United Lands of the Dessert Valley (ULDV), the Salt Lick Supplemental Accords, that would formally transfer the Dessert Valley bases to the ULDV, pay Equestria 100 million bits in both consideration of those bases and for damages in pre-independence government property seizures and trespass, and an explicit promise from Equestria not to prosecute the Temple or its members for property damage to changelings or changeling sympathizers.

The Temple of Vision was filled with fury by Sapphire Quill's decision to give many millions of bits to the government which they had lost many lives attempting to overthrow, considering it to be an act of high treason, and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the treaty or pay a single penny to the Celestial government. Visionary made an official edict declaring her a traitor to the Temple and decreeing her to be a changeling sympathizer, stripping her entirely of her position within the Temple, and even her fellow city council members would strip her of her mayorship (saying that she "set a good precedent with Waterforge"). Although Brief Wit still offered her his promised partner status, she turned it down and resigned from the firm. In a deep flurry of emotions she took the same poison that she used to kill her husband. However, that night Princess Luna came into her dreams, telling her that she needed to face her guilt over Tinkering's murder honestly (having learned about it through her supervision of the Domestic Bureau's relocation program) and that death would not solve it. Sapphire woke up the next morning to take the antidote to that poison and a train to the Crystal Empire, where she would seek out Peacekeeper to make amends.

The Valley's new government, with the blessing and support of Temple authorities, immediately canceled the new treaty Sapphire Quill negotiated with Celestial authorities (along with the payments she planned to Celestia's government). This would lead to a renewed series of conflicts, reigniting the flames of war for a brief time, with a series of large skirmishes being fought as soldiers from the Royal Guard attempted to forcibly seize control of military bases and weapons caches in the region. After several weeks of fighting, the ULDV's forces, combined with the Temple's milita forces, routed the Royal Guard from the Dessert Valley, securing their hold over the area. Following the victory, the Temple mounted multiple attacks on Celestial forces in Ponyville and San Flankcisco; both the Temple and the Celestial regime prepared to entirely repudiate the Peace of Canterlot and resume full-scale war, but, after public backlash against the prospect of further prolonged war and destruction, the two sides reluctantly agreed to further peace talks. The Celestial government agreed to abandon its claim to the military bases and resources within Temple-controlled territory, and would take no further legal action against the ToV or its members, and the Temple agreed to abandon its claim to Twilight's Castle. Despite the fighting being brief and limited in scale, it brought a swift end to any thoughts of reconciliation between the two powers, and would help shape an extremely aggressive anti-Celestial foreign policy by the frontier governments. Hostilities between the two forces would remain rampant for many years to come, despite the treaties they had signed, and the borders between Celestial controlled territory and Temple controlled territory would remain constantly militarized; hundreds of skirmishes and small battles would take place over the next decade, and they would remain in a perpetual state of animosity and conflict.

The Dessert Valley, Appaloosa, and Dodge Junction, the heartlands of the Temple, were among the most unanimous districts to declare independence from the Celestial regime. Unified through their mutual religious zeal, and instilled with further anti-Celestial militancy as a result of the recent conflicts following the end of the Changeling-Pony War, the ponies of the frontier, alongside their buffalo comrades, created a unified kingdom in opposition to Celestial authority, establishing an elective absolute monarchy; they would have a hero of the people rule with absolute authority from the people, with no democratic process to hold back progress. At first, the Prophet Visionary (who had become revered by anti-changeling elements throughout Equestria as Saint Visionary the Changeling-Slayer for his heroic involvement in the Battle of Manehattan; even among the irreligious, he had became a famous and beloved symbol of resistance against the once seemingly insurmountable and omnipresent changeling menace) was the most popular choice for a ruler to lead the frontier kingdom, with a large majority of the population voting to crown him, but Visionary rejected the offer, insisting that he was simply a humble servant of the All-Maker and was not worthy of the honor. After some further deliberation, the denizens of the frontier chose to elect the All-Maker himself to lead their nation, an honor which he accepted. He became the God-King of the frontier kingdom (which he had named the Kingdom of Lethe), quickly leading it to a golden era.

The Kingdom of Lethe was a...rather strange country, to say the least, blurring the lines between secular monarchy and divine rule. The All-Maker (who had readopted his old name for secular matters, adopting the title His Heavenly Majesty, God-King Letum of Lethe, Shield of Righteousness and Sword of Justice) was a living relic of a long-gone era of ancient history; an era which he attempted to revive in his new kingdom. Everything about the new realm, from its laws to its cultural values to its architecture was completely new to ponykind, with the frontier region starting to take on a very unique cultural identity separate from normal pony culture. The ruins of Salt-Lick City, a city which had taken a great deal of damage during the civil war, were rebuilt using ancient pre-changeling architectural styles, giving the metropolis an appearance very much so reminiscent of the scattered ruins throughout the Forbidden Jungle. Dress codes, literature, diets, entertainment, and other customs from the pre-changeling era made a similar revival under the All-Maker's watch, though his legal system was perhaps the most intriguing part of the kingdom.

The All-Maker was a hard-ruler, to say the least; under his legal system, almost all crimes were punishable by slow and painful deaths, with truly minor crimes like petty theft being punishable by public torture followed by permanent exile from the Kingdom. Yet, at the same time, he was extremely lenient in what was considered to be a crime; the KoL outlawed very few things, with the All-Maker having very little involvement in his subjects' personal lives, creating almost no regulations (relative to what the Celestial regime had established, anyway). Citizens were allowed to do almost literally anything they wanted, outside of theft, murder (though honorable duels to the death were legal, and vigilante murders of known criminals were legal), rape, and slavery, among a few other things; as long as you weren't a changeling, an alicorn-worshiper, or a Peacekeeper, or sympathetic to any of those three demographics, you could do just about whatever you wanted.

The All-Maker was the arch-nemesis of the changeling community, which he declared hostibus suis imperpetuum, enemies in perpetuity, and actively perpetrated genocide against them at every possible opportunity alongside everyone sympathetic towards them (including the Peacekeepers, who were active supporters of changeling-integration, and alicorn-worshipers, who venerated Celestia, a known changeling-sympathizer). Needless to say, he wasn't exactly on good terms with Celestia; Lethe and the Principality were in a constant state of near-war. Despite the peace which existed on paper, skirmishes would break out between the All-Maker's forces and Celestial forces on a regular basis, started by both sides; as such, considering the overwhelmingly hostile relations shared between the two nations, citizens of the Principality passing through the area were frequent targets of violence, and citizens of Lethe who demonstrated support for Celestia were given automatic death sentences. For everyone else, however, the Kingdom of Lethe was a paradise, where anybody could do anything; just about everything that didn't physically harm another civilized creature, from same-sex marriage to narcotics usage, was freely allowed. The region quickly attracted numerous entrepreneurs and investors, with hundreds of new businesses being opened over the next few years; the near-total lack of laws and regulations, in addition to low taxes, made the frontier a very attractive location for ponies to start business enterprises and for rich ponies looking for a tax haven. Members of the homo and bisexual community, also, flocked to the frontier, where they found a great deal of acceptance (thanks largely to the efforts of the All-Maker and the Temple of Vision, which actively taught that homosexuality was a normal part of society and should not be condemned). It was a strange country, unlike anything ponykind had ever seen, yet it managed to be successful; the influx of wealthy investors helped create a strong economy, and the exceedingly harsh punishments (alongside mass-monitoring of society undertaken by the state Inquisition force, led by the apostle Deep Insight) kept order in the streets.

Meanwhile, the Ponyville independence referendum failed by a slim margin, to the surprise of many observers. In fact, because Salt Lick City became a more prominent center of Temple activity, many members moved there, and Temple influence diminished in Ponyville, giving the yes vote less clout than predicted. Still, there remained a sizable number that believed that Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, and Parliament should have done more to combat the Temple.

Eventually the Co-Principality whittled down to an area encompassing Canterlot, Ponyville, Whinnyapolis, Buckmark, and some smaller towns in between, plus an exclave at San Flankcisco. (Lincolt would rejoin a little later, after a brief stint as an independent state, when economic difficulties forced it to choose between integrating with Cloudsdale or Equestria.) Even there the status quo did not stay put; the remaining lawmakers from these cities enacted Equestria's first major constitutional change—almost rewriting the whole Constitution--in hundreds of years, giving the old districts their own sovereign basis, breaking the unitary model that had governed Equestria for a thousand years. (In fact this had already been in the works since Parliament ratified the Peace of Canterlot to encourage more districts to stay in.) Parliament would handle defense, foreign affairs, interdistrict and international commerce, raise a few specified taxes, and otherwise would "coordinate district affairs as necessary for any serious conflicts that may arise between them, and spend to equalize opportunities pursuant to the personal, political, civil, and social rights in this Constitution" while the district assemblies would deal with education, weather control, healthcare, welfare, criminal law, regulation of intoxicating liquors--basically anything else not explicitly granted to Parliament. As a result, for example, while Equestria itself did not recognize same-sex marriage, every district soon would, and Equestria was obliged to honor that choice. Most significantly, all restored the personal, political, civil, and social rights of changelings to at least official public nondiscrimination: Lincolt and Buckmark still allowed private discrimination and Ponyville turned a blind eye to police abuses, while only Whinnyapolis, with its ties to the Crystal Empire, implemented affirmative action programs to guarantee equal opportunities. (The Supreme Court had a small role in this though, declaring in Estate of Jag v. Starry Eyes that the Peace of Canterlot was unconstitutional for unduly discriminating on the basis of religion, though it did not address the actual rights of changelings, leaving it for a future case.) Princesses Celestia and Luna remained as its heads of state, but their Royal Assents became more symbolic than meaningful with the “single conversions” rule where only one minority member of each chamber had to change their vote to overcome a veto from the Regal Sisters.

Princess Twilight remained the chief mediator for the people of the remaining districts of Equestria, and fortunately saw a trimming of subject matter jurisprudence so she did not have to hear most contract or tort claims (she still heard a few fiduciary duty cases involving partnerships, as well as those with breaches of confidentiality every now and then), allowing her more time to deal with "pure" friendship problems and spend time with her children. (For that matter, Potter Black, who remained a deputy despite the great political shake-ups, officially re-adopted Pitch Black as his son when Pitch turned thirteen. As a result, Potter spent more time with Pitch, taking him camping and fishing and teaching him about a past that seemed so remote today, when all Equestria could still feel united under the Sun Princess despite their great differences.)

Of the districts, San Flankcisco and Ponyville seemed to be in the most precarious positions. As Equestria's only remaining outlet to the sea, San Flankcisco was critically important, and soon became the commerce hub that Manehattan once filled, but its fruits to mainland Equestria always had to pass through Lethe in some way, risking robberies by some of the more fanatical members of the Temple, especially if a changeling happened to be the driver (and it took one unfortunate incident for Equestria to pass a law forbidding changeling drivers in commerce from passing through Lethe). Ponyville, meanwhile, had a related problem: the Everfree Forest and the old Ponyville temple were still considered holy sites by the Temple, and pilgrims were a frequent sight. These pilgrims would evangelize the city, stirring up revivals of secessionist fervor. In fact Ponyville got permission from Parliament to hold another independence referenda, yet it too would fail. Twilight and the local Ponyville leaders were committed to keep the Temple at bay, and while attacks against changelings were more frequent there than other places in Equestria, nothing even approached the level of the Great Ponyville Massacre or the Ponyville Rebellion.

Vanhoofer and Tall Tale (and the districts immediately surrounding it), as some of the few Equestrian cities to not see a Temple uprising or attack, formed the Republic of Cataract, whose policies towards changelings were as progressive as the Crystal Empire's. In fact they counted the Crystal Empire as an even greater ally than Equestria, relying on the Crystal Empire for military protection and (at first) much of its trade. However, it did not integrate with the Crystal Empire because of its republican streak, objecting to even Princess Cadence's enlightened rule. Smoky Topaz became its first President, leading the nation to a high-tech economy and widespread workplace democracy. Despite having a more strictly regulated and interventionist economy than Lethe, it attracted quite a few rich investors of its own by emphasizing innovation, high finance, and sheer productivity, eventually surpassing the other newly-independent nations in GDP per capita.

Los Pegasus, and a few districts in the San Palomino Desert, formed Sierra Palomino, a state that initially declined to allow protections for changelings because of its (more moderate) Temple political elite but later granted it by referendum (and would also lose power in the general election that year). It boosted its already robust tourism industry by allowing casino gambling, though with it came a higher rate of crime than other newly-independent districts. It also instituted compulsory military service for youths just reaching the age of majority, forming a large pool of soldiers for a government whose foreign policy zig-zagged between support for the Kingdom of Lethe and the Co-Principality of Equestria (and at times they supported both or neither).

Cloudsdale and its suburbs formed the City-State of Nubes-Synnefo. It resisted changeling integration, but once it became independent it failed to actually go quite as far as the Kingdom of Lethe: it forbade changelings from coming within its borders, but it did not sanction killing them. A little surprisingly, it even became vehemently anti-Griffon Kingdom and even a little anti-griffin, not forgetting King Philip's side looting. As a district of Equestria, it boasted the largest population of griffins in Equestria outside Manehattan; as independent it drove many out and discriminated against those who stayed. Since it was no longer associated with the Equestrian government, the old base of its economy was at a near vacuum, and it struggled to diversify beyond its own weather-making, the military, and occasional deals with Equestria and Lethe to provide rain and snow to border towns. Of the new countries, Nubes-Synnefo would be the least self-sufficient.

Among the cities of the eastern coast, Baltimare and Wingscotting, while they did fall to the Changeling Empire, did not suffer under it quite as long--or even as hard--as Manehattan, Hollow Shades, and Fillydelphia. As a result their new nation, the United Duchies of Neighland, were more moderate in their changeling policies than their sister cities up north, if a little paradoxical. While it discriminated against changelings by default and practically considered nearly every killing of a changeling by a pony to be one in self-defense, it did allow changelings to apply for full citizenship status upon grueling examinations and "re-education," which in reality stripped them of their love-sharing and shape-shifting abilities, forcing them to eat tangible food like every other pony and always stay in their default form. (Liberal critics would especially criticize this practice and Temple orthodoxy lambasted it for even contemplating equal rights for changelings, but its defenders argued that this was actually a more fitting punishment for their crimes than just killing them. In fact what prompted this policy was the nation’s original plan to make changelings a slave caste on a strict application of “an eye for an eye,” which only lasted a week before seeing widespread slave revolts.) Besides Baltimare and Wingscotting, Neighland included seven other small towns. Each were headed by a duke or duchess, selected from among a pool of its old Equestrian political, business, and social elite, forming a nobility almost entirely unicorn (though Wingscotting had more pegasi) like in Equestria's early years. It would compete with Lethe as a tax haven, and even a few Equestrian companies would incorporate there.

Historically, Manehattan and Fillydelphia had been more tolerant of changelings than other Equestrian cities, but the war completely reversed that policy. With Hollow Shades and their suburbs, they would form the Northeast Confederation, who, like Lethe, would strip changelings and changeling sympathizers of all their rights. It had no central government except for an emergency council, composed of city leaders, convened in cases of collective self-defense (and each city had its own militia) or other national emergencies. A reluctance for the cities not to form stronger ties, though one that cemented its shared identity, was driven in part by an epidemic that exploded among the Manehattan population shortly after its independence referendum, which spread to Fillydelphia and Hollow Shades before the leaders in the cities enacted strict quarantines to both protect themselves and other now-foreign cities. (Even as the Equestria whittled down, Princess Celestia and Parliament moved quickly to help the Northeast Confederation contain the disease, as did Neighland, successfully preventing whatever disease came into their own countries from getting out of hoof.) Already devastated by war and oppression, the Northeast Confederation would lose at least a quarter of its population through the epidemic. (Because changelings turned out to be resistant to the disease, many labeled it “Chrysalis’ Revenge.”) Even when the vaccine was found and the number infected dwindled, Northeasters developed a fear of going outside their cities, and ended up being the most isolationist of the new nations, at least for the first ten years. Slowly the cities began to pick up the pieces, and within ten years each city’s economy was well-diversified and self-sufficient (evoking a little jealousy from Nubes-Synnefo), if not quite as rich as they once were.

Of course, Equestria wasn't the only nation to undergo major political upheaval. Across the sea, in the Griffin Kingdom, a massive change in the political climate had taken place, one which would rather seriously jeopardize Equestrian interests in the region. With the support of both Chrysalis and the local griffin aristocracy, Lord Philip Blackwing made a second bid for the Throne of Griffonstone, the Griffin Kingdom erupting into civil war over the crown for the second time. Equestria, having been occupied with their own civil war and the changeling invasion, was able to offer almost nothing to the rapidly crumbling Groverian dynasty; King Guto's forces were swiftly outmatched by the Blackwing rebels, who had significant resources at their disposal from their numerous aristocratic sponsors. Having both superior leadership and a substantially better funded army, the Blackwings decisively defeated the Groverian loyalists, winning victory after victory, striking a killing blow against the ancient royal family.

In a matter of months, the Griffin Kingdom was under the complete control of the Blackwing Clan, their opposition being shattered after a number of major defeats; Guto himself was slain by Lord Philip in battle during the war. The surviving members of the Groverian dynasty fled westwards, into Equestria, along with the talon-full of noble families which had supported Guto during the war, where they formed a government-in-exile. Back home in the Griffin Kingdom, though, His Royal Majesty, Lord Philip Blackwing, King of the Griffins, had secured total dominance, consolidating his hold on the throne and solidifying himself as the indisputable king. With the support of almost all the griffin nobility, and the respect of a great deal of the peasantry, King Philip set about bringing his vision for the Griffin Kingdom to life. A series of major reactionary political reforms were created in the kingdom, greatly empowering the aristocratic elite and establishing an official feudal hierarchy revolving around birthright and noble privilege, with the Blackwing monarchy revolving around the concept that the highborn nobility rule through divine right.

Unfortunately for King Philip's ally, Chrysalis, his victory, while overwhelmingly decisive, came too late for the kingdom to intervene in the Pony-Changeling war. The last of Guto's forces were defeated a week after the changeling defeat in the Battle of Manehattan, just after the fall of the empire. Philip was a griffin of his word, and he had an honor-bound obligation to repay Chrysalis for the assistance she provided his army, but not even the fearless warrior-king was going to attack Equestria all on his own, especially after the triumphant ponies had made a bloodthirsty example of the defeated changelings. The terms of his agreement with the changelings were renegotiated; rather than invading Equestria, as he had previously agreed to do, Philip would indefinitely owe one favor to Chrysalis, redeemable at any time for anything he was capable of providing (short of giving up the kingdom he had worked his entire life to claim, that is).

While changelings in most of the Changeling Friendly Nations emereged from the shadows, others remained hidden in plain sight. Meanwhile, the Fourth Pony-Changeling War have taken it's toll on Changeling Communities throughout Equestria. The Sand and Snow Changelings have become increasingly isolationist and xenophobic, fortifying their mounds and moutian homes of their tribes with deadly traps and weaponry to the point of near savagery. The Equestrian Changeling communites, on the other hand, became closer and more united than ever before as they took in many of Chrysalis's survivors, including the very queen herself. An agreement and alliance was fordged between them: a unity of colonies and hives alik which became known as the Confederacy of Changeling Hives and Colonies, a vast network of changeling settlements working together for the betterment of changeling kind while keeping to themselves.

Within this Confederacy, a great peace treaty was made declaring none to ever declare war against one another and instead commit to trade and protection for one another, all while remaining completely soverign to themselves in law and leadership. A mere council, making up of Confederacy leaders, was made to keep the peace within this alliance, taking plaace in an area of pure secrecy in one of Equestria's most tallest mountains. The attitude towards ponykind varied among colonies and hives. However, an agreement was made to never again declare war against them. Many, including those who once belonged to Chrysalis's Empire and especally those among the Kingdom of Lethe, declared pure isolation from all ponykind to the point of sharing Sand and Ice changeling-like xenophobia. Others, like Razor Wing's Colony, would declare themselves in open trade with Ponykind, especially thse most friendly to the Changeling race.

The world had been changed; all the major powers, Equestria, the Griffin Kingdom, and the Changeling Empire, had experienced drastic changes. An era of newfound nationalism, separatism, and political polarization had swept Equus, and its effects could be felt everywhere, shaking up the political landscape, and even the most concrete of ancient regimes would crumble under its weight. The world was a delicate house of cards, and, through opportunism and luck, a few interested parties had been able to collapse it from within, creating a divided world in flames; a world up for grabs, where new players could enter the scene of global geo-politics, and anyone could make a rise to power from the ashes of the once-unified old order. Nations would rise and fall, leaders would come and go, and life would go on in the shattered world that ponies, griffins, changelings, and buffalo alike now lived in.

[Frenequesta]

Is this good? My additons are compeletly in bold.

Epilogue

The Chamber of Deputies passed Lopesy Neigh's appropriation and draft measures by a vote of 302-147 (Cherry Ranger abstaining) and the Senate approving 120-30. Later, Parliament passed a more enlightened version of Lopesy's changeling relocation measure, creating the Internal Equestitarian Act, authorizing the Domestic Bureau to create a program "for the re-accommodation of threatened persons." For about two weeks, the program operated clandestinely, working with the Peacekeepers to bring changelings and changeling sympathizers to the Crystal Empire.

The interception of a note Rock Mason wrote to one of the administrators of the program confirmed to the Temple that the Equestrian government was trying to weaken its efforts to rid the world of changelings and that changelings were employed by Salt Lick City undocumented. He and a number of other Peacekeepers associated with the Works Commission were given mock trials by Temple authorities, where they were convicted of high treason and crimes against Equestria; they were subsequently given public executions, most being burnt at the stake (though Brief Wit, Sapphire Quill's boss at the law office, was acquitted by Sapphire Quill for promising to recant his affiliation with the Peacekeepers and share information on other Peacekeeper networks; and reminding her that she was an at-will employee and that partner status was waiting for her when she left public office). The discovery of the conspiracy prompted a much more aggressive expansion policy by the rebels and further contributed to the increasing militancy of the anti-changeling elements of Equestria, preempting a series of major rebel offensives (utilizing weapons and munitions claimed from Royal Guard arsenals throughout the Dessert Valley).

Through the leadership and aid of the All-Maker, the rebellion continued to thrive throughout Equestria. Having widespread support throughout the Equestrian Midwest and the forntier, large stockpiles of weapons and supplies, a large force of ideologically driven fanatics, and the immense magical power of the All-Maker on their side, they were able to rapidly snowball into a huge problem for the government. The rebel army marched to victory after victory against Celestia's army, defeating multiple counterattacks and seizing control of several more cities and towns, including Las Pegasus and San Flankcisco, further bolstering their forces and resources as their territory grew. They were seemingly unstoppable, growing in strength and scale with each passing day, posing an undeniably major threat to the Celestial diarchy. Before long, the All-Maker and his army began laying siege to Canterlot itself, attacking the very heart of the Equestrian government.

Celestia knew she had to do something; she had two major enemies seeking her downfall, and was fighting a losing war on either front. Even if she managed to defeat the rebellion, her army would doubtlessly suffer enough casualties to guarantee the changelings would be able to easily triumph over the remnants of her forces, and even if she managed to defeat Chrysalis the rebels would almost certainly be able to defeat what remained of her army and fulfill their goal of a new government across all of Equestria. Realizing the desperate gravity of her situation, she went to the negotiating table with the All-Maker and other major rebel figures to discuss the terms of a peace treaty. Holding a great deal of bargaining power against her, the rebels demanded a number of major concessions. First and foremost among their demands was the total reversal of the changeling-integration policy in its entirety; every last pro-changeling reform, including but not limited to government-mandated nondiscrimination and affirmative action programs, would be repealed in full. Second among their demands was that the Third Treaty of Tripony be suspended throughout the duration of the war, effectively allowing the rebel forces to commit war crimes against the changeling community with complete legal impunity, and the Equestrian government would make no efforts to prosecute the rebels for the massacres they had perpetrated against the changeling community. Third among their demands was that the Temple of Vision become a legally protected entity in Equestria, with guaranteed freedom of speech and tax-exempt status among other things, and that the government would enact similar protections to other anti-changeling organizations and ideologues, effectively allowing anti-changeling agitators to operate throughout the country with impunity. A number of other concessions were also demanded, including the termination of the changeling relocation program.

However, Princess Celestia still tried to keep the Crystal Empire out of the provisions of the treaty. Sapphire Quill, who had by this time also became the Temple's official legal counsel, read the fine print just before the treaty was to be signed and immediately demanded that the Crystal Empire exemption be struck and make clear that the Sovereignty Doctrine did not apply to the treaty. Princess Celestia realized that the only way out now was outright independence for her adopted niece's territory.

On the request of Princess Celestia, Parliament authorized the Crystal Empire to conduct an independence referenda if Princess Cadence so chose to, over strident objections by Cherry Ranger and Blind Justice for Celestia giving in too much. Cadence was initially surprised at Celestia's move, and Shining Armor knew that he might lose command of the Crystal Guard and therefore an extra set of troops to fight the Changeling Empire, but eventually they both agreed that it was probably the for the best and Shining could still lead the Crystal Guard in a subsequent treaty with Equestria.

Meanwhile, Sapphire Quill knew full well of Celestia's intentions. After some consultation with other Temple leaders, they agreed that they would only accept the Crystal Empire's independence if other districts in Equestria were given the same right and that it would not enter any treaties or agreements with the Crystal Empire relating to changelings. Princess Celestia reluctantly agreed to this, and made a new independence referenda recommendation to Parliament. Though Parliament debate was more contentious This time, with members such as Cherry Ranger and Constellation warning that more district independence would "bring us back to the era of Windigos and disharmony," the recommendation passed by a single vote. With that, the "Peace of Canterlot" was finally official.

The Crystal Empire held its independence referendum the following day, returning an overwhelming "yes" from the population. It came at a rather significant price, however: Cadence was wary that the Temple might still turn on the Crystal Empire, and with disagreements on using the Crystal Guards' integrated troops, the Crystal Empire decide to pull from its alliance with Equestria in the war against the Changeling Empire and concentrate on its own self-defense.

Razor Wing and all his changeling allies were greatly disheartened by Celestia's decision to give into the ToV's demands. None of them could stand the very thought of so much work made in improving Pony-Changeling Relations. Many have even seen this as outright betrayal on Celestia's part, even despite her explaination of what actually happened. Thus many groups of changelings went back to the old way of life. Many took on disgiues to assimilate into the pony commuity without being noticed, taking extra measures to avoid suspicion, others migrated to the Crystal Empire, while a large number returned to the mountians and caves that they called home. Most of the colonies and hives have cut off all ties to the Equestrian nation that was once their ally, making a pact to avoid making dealings with ponies ever again. Others, however, have even became fully convinced by Chrysalis's word about pony kind and joined her cause to overthrow the pony race.

Despite the Crystal Empire's retreat from the Fourth Pony-Changeling War, Equestria's new alliance with the Temple turned out to be a net positive, at least for a while. Between the combined forces of the Royal Guard and the rebel army, and the combined powers of the Diarchs and the All-Maker, ponykind was able to create a truly formidable united front against changeling aggression. Over the course of the few months following the Peace of Canterlot, the Equestrian forces made dozens of vicious counterattacks against the Changeling Empire, winning victory after victory and liberating city after city. The desolate, barren, depopulated ruins of Cloudsdale, the little town of Hollow Shades, and the big cities of Fillydelphia and Baltimare each fell to the triumphant pony forces, the changelings facing defeat on every front. Throughout the process, changelings in the liberated cities were treated mercilessly; retribution-seekers, both from the violently anti-changeling rebel forces and from the liberated ponies (many of which had been instilled with viciously anti-changeling sentiment after the changelings had brought slavery and death to their homes), made relentless attacks against the changeling communities in the formerly occupied cities, with thousands of changelings being massacred in savage reprisals against their kind.

The Fourth (and, in all likelihood, final) Pony-Changeling War finally reached a bloody end at the Battle of Manehattan, a day which would live in both legend and infamy. The combined army of Celestia and the All-Maker descended upon the city, attacking it in a coordinated effort. The changelings had an artifact which disabled non-changeling magic; it mattered little to the advancing pony forces, who relentlessly struck at the enemy with guns and artillery. Thousands of fanatical martyrs from the Temple, led by the Prophet Visionary, swarmed Manehattan, showing a ferocity in battle the likes of which would frighten even the legendary warriors of griffin mythology, emboldened by the knowledge that their enemies were foul, ungodly abominations, and that they would receive passage to the greatest of afterlives if they died fighting them. Thousands of Royal Guards fought alongside them, filled with courage of their own, knowing that they were driving out the last vestiges of Equestria's nemesis, though their dedication paled in comparison to the pure fanaticism of the rebels.

As the changeling forces began to crumble and their defenses were breached by the pony attackers, things very rapidly went downhill for Chrysalis and her army. A major slave revolt broke out against the changelings; tens of thousands of pony slaves and resistance members, seeing the vulnerability of their oppressors, took up arms and struck at the changeling menace, full of contempt for them. The changelings swiftly found themselves surrounded on all sides by enemies, and it quickly became clear that they were fighting a losing battle. The Equestrian armies advanced swiftly through the city, and, before long, Chrysalis' palace was stormed by the attackers, its inhabitants being massacred, at which point fanatical retribution-seekers (from the ranks of both the revolting slaves and the Temple's holy warriors) started destroying every last trace of the changeling regalia, starting with the throne of Chrysalis. The magical black throne was shattered, and the changelings' anti-magic shield evaporated; what followed after that was nothing less than a total and utter bloodbath. Finally able to utilize his powers against the abominations, the All-Maker unleashed his full fury against the enemy; he cast a magic spell across all of Manehattan, disabling the shapeshifting powers of the changelings, and he began unleashing a series of terrifyingly devastating magical attacks against them.

Ponykind had suffered innumerable atrocities at the hooves of the changeling race; hundreds of thousands of ponies had been killed, and millions more had suffered from the vile institution of slavery. Death, oppression, and unfathomable cruelty had all been perpetrated in immense volumes against the innocent; the changeling race was responsible for some of the most heinous crimes the world had ever seen. Ponies didn't just want to punish Chrysalis; they were out for blood. The changeling race had defiled Equestria, and it was time for retribution. Changelings were indiscriminately butchered in droves all across Manehattan, with thousands of ponies, especially the former-slaves (who had developed a special kind of hatred against changelings, after what they had been subjected to), joining the All-Maker in inflicting vengeance upon the abominations. The changelings were utterly massacred; over a hundred thousand of them were slaughtered in the single largest act of genocide in recorded history. Chrysalis fled the city, alongside what little remained of her decimated army, finding temporary refuge in the Griffin Kingdom before returning to her hidden hive. Tens of thousands of changeling civilians attempted to flee northwards to the Crystal Empire, to escape the fury of the retribution-seekers; thousands died in the process, with the All-Maker raining fire from the sky upon them, killing a great many of the fleeing refugees. It wasn't just the changeling people who were targeted, though; iconoclastic fury swept through the ranks of the victorious and vengeful ponies, who demolished countless buildings the changelings had erected, destroying every trace of changeling architecture they could find, purging Manehattan of changeling influence very thoroughly.

Though a great many pony soldiers died in the process, the Battle of Manehattan proved to be a major victory for Equestria, the final setback for the invading forces. The war had cost the lives of innumerable ponies, and its political ramifications left Equestria as a polarized and sharply divided realm, but there could be no debate; ponykind had won a glorious victory against their enemy, safeguarding their land against the evil menace which sought to enslave their race. On that day, in that city, where vast numbers of changelings lay dead with triumphant ponies desecrating their mangled bodies, ponykind had proven that it would not take a single step back; if anyone perpetrated violence against Equestria, its denizens were willing and able to respond with violence in equal or greater measure. Equestria was not afraid of violence; they had proven that, should anyone attack their country, they would fight with unyielding ferocity to drive the invaders from their soil no matter the cost.

The Changeling Empire was completely shattered from the Battle of Manehattan, and Chrysalis's power was forever broken. Her army had been almost totally wiped out during the war, and her subjects had been butchered in droves, leaving her hive as a broken, depopulated husk of what it once was. Chrysalis herself barely escaped the fury of Equestria; many other changeling nobles had no such luck, being indiscriminately killed during the massacre. Though she would live on, the prospects of her ever being able to fulfill her ambitions of conquering Equestria were dimmer than ever; her empire was in total shambles, and her prestige among her fellow changeling royals fell to an all-time low after her miserable failures in the war. She had become known as a failure of a monarch, and, thanks largely to the All-Maker and his utterly merciless acts of genocide against the changeling race, almost no other hives would be willing to join her in the future; she was incompetent, and other rulers wouldn't risk having their subjects be exterminated at the hooves of raving hordes of anti-changeling fanatics for her sake.

The Temple of Vision became utterly vilified by the changeling race, and the great massacre of Manehattan was extremely virulently condemned by the liberal elites of Equestria and by the populations of the more tolerant cities. Elsewhere in Equestria, especially in the cities that had suffered under changeling occupation, the soldiers of the Temple were hailed as heroes for having inflicted a killing blow to the Changeling Empire and successfully exacting vengeance upon the abominations which had wrought so much devastation upon ponykind. Equestria became more polarized than ever before, regarding the changeling issue; whereas Celestia and the other elites were determined to force Equestrian society to accept changelings, the general population experienced a surge of anti-changeling fervor. Vehement hatred of the changeling race flourished along the frontier and in all the cities where the changelings had perpetrated mass-murder and slavery, which would lead to surges of separatist sentiment when the independence referendums started.

Celestia's government was more deeply unpopular than ever before, among almost every demographic. The Temple of Vision and other anti-changeling groups despised her for having tried to force the failed policy of changeling-integration upon Equestria, and for her repeated failures in protecting Equestria from the changeling menace. Liberals and reformers, alongside many changelings, held her in contempt for having surrendered to the rebellion and allowing wanton acts of genocide to be perpetrated against the changeling community. As a consequence, the Celestial regime completely crumbled once the independence referendums took place; city after city broke away from the principality, and Equestria fragmented into multiple independent states. The once-idolized Princesses, formerly symbols of Equestrian unity and continuity, became symbols of incompetence, broken promises, and failed ideologies, an obstacle to progress in the eyes of both pro and anti-changeling elements of society. The political elites of Equestria, who had a vested interest in preserving the central government, were among the only ponies which remained supportive of the continued reign of Celestia; though Celestia would be able to keep her crown, and convince a hoof-full of districts to vote against independence, her influence, power, and popular support were at an all-time low.

Cherry Ranger's influence in Parliament became greatly diminished, and her reputation nosedived. Thunderstorm was only able to get a reprimand from Parliament for her mocking of Princess Twilight and a demotion to the Agriculture Committee, but her grudge against unicorns became more apparent when she did not invite Princess Twilight to her 70th birthday party, despite Twilight recommending Pinkie Pie to arrange it and offering to pay for some of the expenses. Pinkie Pie at first agreed to help Cherry, but when she learned that Cherry would not invite Twilight, she canceled the deal in a rare retraction of a Pinkie Promise (by realizing that she forgot to add the hoof motions). As her party was sparsely attended and not particularly fun (even for an old mare), her wrong finally hit her, and she sought Princess Twilight's forgiveness.

Twilight accepted her apology and their relationship warmed. But the damage was already done. Because of Cherry Ranger's affront to unicorns alienated a large portion of the Equestrian populace, especially critical support from Rose and Blue Party moderates, her outspoken criticism of the Temple at a time when their support was needed, and Agrarian's own turn on her, led by Thunderstorm (she had effectively ran as an independent), she lost her first at-large election, ending a thirty-three year career in Parliament. She would retreat to the family farm in Dodge Junction, and later to Whinnyapolis as Temple support in Dodge Junction was too much for her to bear, changing her name to Cherry Gardener and starting her own cherry farm.

Trilby would too face backlash, this time in his own 6th District of Manehattan. Support for his Manehattan Resistance, already lower than expectations, had basically been destroyed after the Wednesday meeting (not to mention that indeed the messenger was captured and executed by Empire forces and the brochures burned). He still maintained his Whip position with the Rose Party and was still respected as the changeling race's official voice in Parliament. He was one of the few deputies to vote against Cherry's reprimand and continued to support her in her efforts. He was also one of the most strident denouncers of the Manehattan Massacre, which did not bode well for even his supporters. He would lose the next election very narrowly. He would stay in Manehattan, however, risking and surviving many attacks on his life, at least until Manehattan declared its independence from Equestria. He would move to Canterlot, still hoping that his idea of Manehattan would come to blossom again.

Princess Twilight would campaign heavily against many districts' independence, and especially Ponyville's, and was even able to delay the Ponyville vote through the duration of a legal challenge to the Temple's claim to the Crystal Tree Castle (Silver Shield advised her not to challenge their claim to Ponyville itself), over an oversight that was lost in the Peace of Canterlot's Sovereignty Doctrine controversy--whether Equestria could still recover property seized by the Temple. The Supreme Court, in an 8-6 vote (Windstriker recusing herself for undisclosed reasons), ruled that the only legal protections for the Temple that applied for acts prior to the ratification of the Peace of Canterlot went to their crimes "against changelings, changeling sympathizers, and treason," and did not cover theft, trespassing, or conversion of property (and in fact pointed to evidence that it was understood by both Equestria and the Temple that the Temple would return control of the western military bases and the weapons seized from the Guard). It awarded Twilight--and Equestria--the Crystal Tree Castle back.

Members of the Temple were outraged at the Court's decision in Princess Twilight Sparkle v. The Temple of Vision, fearing that they would be forced to return changeling property. But Sapphire Quill, embarrassed at her oversight in negotiating the Peace of Canterlot, declined to pursue a second hearing. Instead, she negotiated a second treaty, this time also as the head of the newly independent United Lands of the Dessert Valley (ULDV), the Salt Lick Supplemental Accords, that would formally transfer the Dessert Valley bases to the ULDV, pay Equestria 100 million bits in both consideration of those bases and for damages in pre-independence government property seizures and trespass, and an explicit promise from Equestria not to prosecute the Temple or its members for property damage to changelings or changeling sympathizers.

The Temple of Vision was filled with fury by Sapphire Quill's decision to give many millions of bits to the government which they had lost many lives attempting to overthrow, considering it to be an act of high treason, and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the treaty or pay a single penny to the Celestial government. Visionary made an official edict declaring her a traitor to the Temple and decreeing her to be a changeling sympathizer, stripping her entirely of her position within the Temple, and even her fellow city council members would strip her of her mayorship (saying that she "set a good precedent with Waterforge"). Although Brief Wit still offered her his promised partner status, she turned it down and resigned from the firm. In a deep flurry of emotions she took the same poison that she used to kill her husband. However, that night Princess Luna came into her dreams, telling her that she needed to face her guilt over Tinkering's murder honestly (having learned about it through her supervision of the Domestic Bureau's relocation program) and that death would not solve it. Sapphire woke up the next morning to take the antidote to that poison and a train to the Crystal Empire, where she would seek out Peacekeeper to make amends.

The Valley's new government, with the blessing and support of Temple authorities, immediately canceled the new treaty Sapphire Quill negotiated with Celestial authorities (along with the payments she planned to Celestia's government). This would lead to a renewed series of conflicts, reigniting the flames of war for a brief time, with a series of large skirmishes being fought as soldiers from the Royal Guard attempted to forcibly seize control of military bases and weapons caches in the region. After several weeks of fighting, the ULDV's forces, combined with the Temple's milita forces, routed the Royal Guard from the Dessert Valley, securing their hold over the area. Following the victory, the Temple mounted multiple attacks on Celestial forces in Ponyville and San Flankcisco; both the Temple and the Celestial regime prepared to entirely repudiate the Peace of Canterlot and resume full-scale war, but, after public backlash against the prospect of further prolonged war and destruction, the two sides reluctantly agreed to further peace talks. The Celestial government agreed to abandon its claim to the military bases and resources within Temple-controlled territory, and would take no further legal action against the ToV or its members, and the Temple agreed to abandon its claim to Twilight's Castle. Despite the fighting being brief and limited in scale, it brought a swift end to any thoughts of reconciliation between the two powers, and would help shape an extremely aggressive anti-Celestial foreign policy by the frontier governments. Hostilities between the two forces would remain rampant for many years to come, despite the treaties they had signed, and the borders between Celestial controlled territory and Temple controlled territory would remain constantly militarized; hundreds of skirmishes and small battles would take place over the next decade, and they would remain in a perpetual state of animosity and conflict.

The Dessert Valley, Appaloosa, and Dodge Junction, the heartlands of the Temple, were among the most unanimous districts to declare independence from the Celestial regime. Unified through their mutual religious zeal, and instilled with further anti-Celestial militancy as a result of the recent conflicts following the end of the Changeling-Pony War, the ponies of the frontier, alongside their buffalo comrades, created a unified kingdom in opposition to Celestial authority, establishing an elective absolute monarchy; they would have a hero of the people rule with absolute authority from the people, with no democratic process to hold back progress. At first, the Prophet Visionary (who had become revered by anti-changeling elements throughout Equestria as Saint Visionary the Changeling-Slayer for his heroic involvement in the Battle of Manehattan; even among the irreligious, he had became a famous and beloved symbol of resistance against the once seemingly insurmountable and omnipresent changeling menace) was the most popular choice for a ruler to lead the frontier kingdom, with a large majority of the population voting to crown him, but Visionary rejected the offer, insisting that he was simply a humble servant of the All-Maker and was not worthy of the honor. After some further deliberation, the denizens of the frontier chose to elect the All-Maker himself to lead their nation, an honor which he accepted. He became the God-King of the frontier kingdom (which he had named the Kingdom of Lethe), quickly leading it to a golden era.

The Kingdom of Lethe was a...rather strange country, to say the least, blurring the lines between secular monarchy and divine rule. The All-Maker (who had readopted his old name for secular matters, adopting the title His Heavenly Majesty, God-King Letum of Lethe, Shield of Righteousness and Sword of Justice) was a living relic of a long-gone era of ancient history; an era which he attempted to revive in his new kingdom. Everything about the new realm, from its laws to its cultural values to its architecture was completely new to ponykind, with the frontier region starting to take on a very unique cultural identity separate from normal pony culture. The ruins of Salt-Lick City, a city which had taken a great deal of damage during the civil war, were rebuilt using ancient pre-changeling architectural styles, giving the metropolis an appearance very much so reminiscent of the scattered ruins throughout the Forbidden Jungle. Dress codes, literature, diets, entertainment, and other customs from the pre-changeling era made a similar revival under the All-Maker's watch, though his legal system was perhaps the most intriguing part of the kingdom.

The All-Maker was a hard-ruler, to say the least; under his legal system, almost all crimes were punishable by slow and painful deaths, with truly minor crimes like petty theft being punishable by public torture followed by permanent exile from the Kingdom. Yet, at the same time, he was extremely lenient in what was considered to be a crime; the KoL outlawed very few things, with the All-Maker having very little involvement in his subjects' personal lives, creating almost no regulations (relative to what the Celestial regime had established, anyway). Citizens were allowed to do almost literally anything they wanted, outside of theft, murder (though honorable duels to the death were legal, and vigilante murders of known criminals were legal), rape, and slavery, among a few other things; as long as you weren't a changeling, an alicorn-worshiper, or a Peacekeeper, or sympathetic to any of those three demographics, you could do just about whatever you wanted.

The All-Maker was the arch-nemesis of the changeling community, which he declared hostibus suis imperpetuum, enemies in perpetuity, and actively perpetrated genocide against them at every possible opportunity alongside everyone sympathetic towards them (including the Peacekeepers, who were active supporters of changeling-integration, and alicorn-worshipers, who venerated Celestia, a known changeling-sympathizer). Needless to say, he wasn't exactly on good terms with Celestia; Lethe and the Principality were in a constant state of near-war. Despite the peace which existed on paper, skirmishes would break out between the All-Maker's forces and Celestial forces on a regular basis, started by both sides; as such, considering the overwhelmingly hostile relations shared between the two nations, citizens of the Principality passing through the area were frequent targets of violence, and citizens of Lethe who demonstrated support for Celestia were given automatic death sentences. For everyone else, however, the Kingdom of Lethe was a paradise, where anybody could do anything; just about everything that didn't physically harm another civilized creature, from same-sex marriage to narcotics usage, was freely allowed. The region quickly attracted numerous entrepreneurs and investors, with hundreds of new businesses being opened over the next few years; the near-total lack of laws and regulations, in addition to low taxes, made the frontier a very attractive location for ponies to start business enterprises and for rich ponies looking for a tax haven. Members of the homo and bisexual community, also, flocked to the frontier, where they found a great deal of acceptance (thanks largely to the efforts of the All-Maker and the Temple of Vision, which actively taught that homosexuality was a normal part of society and should not be condemned). It was a strange country, unlike anything ponykind had ever seen, yet it managed to be successful; the influx of wealthy investors helped create a strong economy, and the exceedingly harsh punishments (alongside mass-monitoring of society undertaken by the state Inquisition force, led by the apostle Deep Insight) kept order in the streets.

Meanwhile, the Ponyville independence referendum failed by a slim margin, to the surprise of many observers. In fact, because Salt Lick City became a more prominent center of Temple activity, many members moved there, and Temple influence diminished in Ponyville, giving the yes vote less clout than predicted. Still, there remained a sizable number that believed that Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, and Parliament should have done more to combat the Temple.

Eventually the Co-Principality whittled down to an area encompassing Canterlot, Ponyville, Whinnyapolis, Buckmark, and some smaller towns in between, plus an exclave at San Flankcisco. (Lincolt would rejoin a little later, after a brief stint as an independent state, when economic difficulties forced it to choose between integrating with Cloudsdale or Equestria.) Even there the status quo did not stay put; the remaining lawmakers from these cities enacted Equestria's first major constitutional change—almost rewriting the whole Constitution--in hundreds of years, giving the old districts their own sovereign basis, breaking the unitary model that had governed Equestria for a thousand years. (In fact this had already been in the works since Parliament ratified the Peace of Canterlot to encourage more districts to stay in.) Parliament would handle defense, foreign affairs, interdistrict and international commerce, raise a few specified taxes, and otherwise would "coordinate district affairs as necessary for any serious conflicts that may arise between them, and spend to equalize opportunities pursuant to the personal, political, civil, and social rights in this Constitution" while the district assemblies would deal with education, weather control, healthcare, welfare, criminal law, regulation of intoxicating liquors--basically anything else not explicitly granted to Parliament. As a result, for example, while Equestria itself did not recognize same-sex marriage, every district soon would, and Equestria was obliged to honor that choice. Most significantly, all restored the personal, political, civil, and social rights of changelings to at least official public nondiscrimination: Lincolt and Buckmark still allowed private discrimination and Ponyville turned a blind eye to police abuses, while only Whinnyapolis, with its ties to the Crystal Empire, implemented affirmative action programs to guarantee equal opportunities. (The Supreme Court had a small role in this though, declaring in Estate of Jag v. Starry Eyes that the Peace of Canterlot was unconstitutional for unduly discriminating on the basis of religion, though it did not address the actual rights of changelings, leaving it for a future case.) Princesses Celestia and Luna remained as its heads of state, but their Royal Assents became more symbolic than meaningful with the “single conversions” rule where only one minority member of each chamber had to change their vote to overcome a veto from the Regal Sisters.

Princess Twilight remained the chief mediator for the people of the remaining districts of Equestria, and fortunately saw a trimming of subject matter jurisprudence so she did not have to hear most contract or tort claims (she still heard a few fiduciary duty cases involving partnerships, as well as those with breaches of confidentiality every now and then), allowing her more time to deal with "pure" friendship problems and spend time with her children. (For that matter, Potter Black, who remained a deputy despite the great political shake-ups, officially re-adopted Pitch Black as his son when Pitch turned thirteen. As a result, Potter spent more time with Pitch, taking him camping and fishing and teaching him about a past that seemed so remote today, when all Equestria could still feel united under the Sun Princess despite their great differences.)

Of the districts, San Flankcisco and Ponyville seemed to be in the most precarious positions. As Equestria's only remaining outlet to the sea, San Flankcisco was critically important, and soon became the commerce hub that Manehattan once filled, but its fruits to mainland Equestria always had to pass through Lethe in some way, risking robberies by some of the more fanatical members of the Temple, especially if a changeling happened to be the driver (and it took one unfortunate incident for Equestria to pass a law forbidding changeling drivers in commerce from passing through Lethe). Ponyville, meanwhile, had a related problem: the Everfree Forest and the old Ponyville temple were still considered holy sites by the Temple, and pilgrims were a frequent sight. These pilgrims would evangelize the city, stirring up revivals of secessionist fervor. In fact Ponyville got permission from Parliament to hold another independence referenda, yet it too would fail. Twilight and the local Ponyville leaders were committed to keep the Temple at bay, and while attacks against changelings were more frequent there than other places in Equestria, nothing even approached the level of the Great Ponyville Massacre or the Ponyville Rebellion.

Vanhoofer and Tall Tale (and the districts immediately surrounding it), as some of the few Equestrian cities to not see a Temple uprising or attack, formed the Republic of Cataract, whose policies towards changelings were as progressive as the Crystal Empire's. In fact they counted the Crystal Empire as an even greater ally than Equestria, relying on the Crystal Empire for military protection and (at first) much of its trade. However, it did not integrate with the Crystal Empire because of its republican streak, objecting to even Princess Cadence's enlightened rule. Smoky Topaz became its first President, leading the nation to a high-tech economy and widespread workplace democracy. Despite having a more strictly regulated and interventionist economy than Lethe, it attracted quite a few rich investors of its own by emphasizing innovation, high finance, and sheer productivity, eventually surpassing the other newly-independent nations in GDP per capita.

Los Pegasus, and a few districts in the San Palomino Desert, formed Sierra Palomino, a state that initially declined to allow protections for changelings because of its (more moderate) Temple political elite but later granted it by referendum (and would also lose power in the general election that year). It boosted its already robust tourism industry by allowing casino gambling, though with it came a higher rate of crime than other newly-independent districts. It also instituted compulsory military service for youths just reaching the age of majority, forming a large pool of soldiers for a government whose foreign policy zig-zagged between support for the Kingdom of Lethe and the Co-Principality of Equestria (and at times they supported both or neither).

Cloudsdale and its suburbs formed the City-State of Nubes-Synnefo. It resisted changeling integration, but once it became independent it failed to actually go quite as far as the Kingdom of Lethe: it forbade changelings from coming within its borders, but it did not sanction killing them. A little surprisingly, it even became vehemently anti-Griffon Kingdom and even a little anti-griffin, not forgetting King Philip's side looting. As a district of Equestria, it boasted the largest population of griffins in Equestria outside Manehattan; as independent it drove many out and discriminated against those who stayed. Since it was no longer associated with the Equestrian government, the old base of its economy was at a near vacuum, and it struggled to diversify beyond its own weather-making, the military, and occasional deals with Equestria and Lethe to provide rain and snow to border towns. Of the new countries, Nubes-Synnefo would be the least self-sufficient.

Among the cities of the eastern coast, Baltimare and Wingscotting, while they did fall to the Changeling Empire, did not suffer under it quite as long--or even as hard--as Manehattan, Hollow Shades, and Fillydelphia. As a result their new nation, the United Duchies of Neighland, were more moderate in their changeling policies than their sister cities up north, if a little paradoxical. While it discriminated against changelings by default and practically considered nearly every killing of a changeling by a pony to be one in self-defense, it did allow changelings to apply for full citizenship status upon grueling examinations and "re-education," which in reality stripped them of their love-sharing and shape-shifting abilities, forcing them to eat tangible food like every other pony and always stay in their default form. (Liberal critics would especially criticize this practice and Temple orthodoxy lambasted it for even contemplating equal rights for changelings, but its defenders argued that this was actually a more fitting punishment for their crimes than just killing them. In fact what prompted this policy was the nation’s original plan to make changelings a slave caste on a strict application of “an eye for an eye,” which only lasted a week before seeing widespread slave revolts.) Besides Baltimare and Wingscotting, Neighland included seven other small towns. Each were headed by a duke or duchess, selected from among a pool of its old Equestrian political, business, and social elite, forming a nobility almost entirely unicorn (though Wingscotting had more pegasi) like in Equestria's early years. It would compete with Lethe as a tax haven, and even a few Equestrian companies would incorporate there.

Historically, Manehattan and Fillydelphia had been more tolerant of changelings than other Equestrian cities, but the war completely reversed that policy. With Hollow Shades and their suburbs, they would form the Northeast Confederation, who, like Lethe, would strip changelings and changeling sympathizers of all their rights. It had no central government except for an emergency council, composed of city leaders, convened in cases of collective self-defense (and each city had its own militia) or other national emergencies. A reluctance for the cities not to form stronger ties, though one that cemented its shared identity, was driven in part by an epidemic that exploded among the Manehattan population shortly after its independence referendum, which spread to Fillydelphia and Hollow Shades before the leaders in the cities enacted strict quarantines to both protect themselves and other now-foreign cities. (Even as the Equestria whittled down, Princess Celestia and Parliament moved quickly to help the Northeast Confederation contain the disease, as did Neighland, successfully preventing whatever disease came into their own countries from getting out of hoof.) Already devastated by war and oppression, the Northeast Confederation would lose at least a quarter of its population through the epidemic. (Because changelings turned out to be resistant to the disease, many labeled it “Chrysalis’ Revenge.”) Even when the vaccine was found and the number infected dwindled, Northeasters developed a fear of going outside their cities, and ended up being the most isolationist of the new nations, at least for the first ten years. Slowly the cities began to pick up the pieces, and within ten years each city’s economy was well-diversified and self-sufficient (evoking a little jealousy from Nubes-Synnefo), if not quite as rich as they once were.

Of course, Equestria wasn't the only nation to undergo major political upheaval. Across the sea, in the Griffin Kingdom, a massive change in the political climate had taken place, one which would rather seriously jeopardize Equestrian interests in the region. With the support of both Chrysalis and the local griffin aristocracy, Lord Philip Blackwing made a second bid for the Throne of Griffonstone, the Griffin Kingdom erupting into civil war over the crown for the second time. Equestria, having been occupied with their own civil war and the changeling invasion, was able to offer almost nothing to the rapidly crumbling Groverian dynasty; King Guto's forces were swiftly outmatched by the Blackwing rebels, who had significant resources at their disposal from their numerous aristocratic sponsors. Having both superior leadership and a substantially better funded army, the Blackwings decisively defeated the Groverian loyalists, winning victory after victory, striking a killing blow against the ancient royal family.

In a matter of months, the Griffin Kingdom was under the complete control of the Blackwing Clan, their opposition being shattered after a number of major defeats; Guto himself was slain by Lord Philip in battle during the war. The surviving members of the Groverian dynasty fled westwards, into Equestria, along with the talon-full of noble families which had supported Guto during the war, where they formed a government-in-exile. Back home in the Griffin Kingdom, though, His Royal Majesty, Lord Philip Blackwing, King of the Griffins, had secured total dominance, consolidating his hold on the throne and solidifying himself as the indisputable king. With the support of almost all the griffin nobility, and the respect of a great deal of the peasantry, King Philip set about bringing his vision for the Griffin Kingdom to life. A series of major reactionary political reforms were created in the kingdom, greatly empowering the aristocratic elite and establishing an official feudal hierarchy revolving around birthright and noble privilege, with the Blackwing monarchy revolving around the concept that the highborn nobility rule through divine right.

Unfortunately for King Philip's ally, Chrysalis, his victory, while overwhelmingly decisive, came too late for the kingdom to intervene in the Pony-Changeling war. The last of Guto's forces were defeated a week after the changeling defeat in the Battle of Manehattan, just after the fall of the empire. Philip was a griffin of his word, and he had an honor-bound obligation to repay Chrysalis for the assistance she provided his army, but not even the fearless warrior-king was going to attack Equestria all on his own, especially after the triumphant ponies had made a bloodthirsty example of the defeated changelings. The terms of his agreement with the changelings were renegotiated; rather than invading Equestria, as he had previously agreed to do, Philip would indefinitely owe one favor to Chrysalis, redeemable at any time for anything he was capable of providing (short of giving up the kingdom he had worked his entire life to claim, that is).

While changelings in most of the Changeling Friendly Nations emereged from the shadows, others remained hidden in plain sight. Meanwhile, the Fourth Pony-Changeling War have taken it's toll on Changeling Communities throughout Equestria. The Sand and Snow Changelings have become increasingly isolationist and xenophobic, fortifying their mounds and moutian homes of their tribes with deadly traps and weaponry to the point of near savagery. The Equestrian Changeling communites, on the other hand, became closer and more united than ever before as they took in many of Chrysalis's survivors, including the very queen herself. An agreement and alliance was fordged between them: a unity of colonies and hives alik which became known as the Confederacy of Changeling Hives and Colonies, a vast network of changeling settlements working together for the betterment of changeling kind while keeping to themselves.

Within this Confederacy, a great peace treaty was made declaring none to ever declare war against one another and instead commit to trade and protection for one another, all while remaining completely soverign to themselves in law and leadership. A mere council, making up of Confederacy leaders, was made to keep the peace within this alliance, taking plaace in an area of pure secrecy in one of Equestria's most tallest mountains. The attitude towards ponykind varied among colonies and hives. However, an agreement was made to never again declare war against them. Many, including those who once belonged to Chrysalis's Empire and especally those among the Kingdom of Lethe, declared pure isolation from all ponykind to the point of sharing Sand and Ice changeling-like xenophobia. Others, like Razor Wing's Colony, would declare themselves in open trade with Ponykind, especially thse most friendly to the Changeling race.

The world had been changed; all the major powers, Equestria, the Griffin Kingdom, and the Changeling Empire, had experienced drastic changes. An era of newfound nationalism, separatism, and political polarization had swept Equus, and its effects could be felt everywhere, shaking up the political landscape, and even the most concrete of ancient regimes would crumble under its weight. The world was a delicate house of cards, and, through opportunism and luck, a few interested parties had been able to collapse it from within, creating a divided world in flames; a world up for grabs, where new players could enter the scene of global geo-politics, and anyone could make a rise to power from the ashes of the once-unified old order. Nations would rise and fall, leaders would come and go, and life would go on in the shattered world that ponies, griffins, changelings, and buffalo alike now lived in.

A couple of spelling errors here and there and might work with some more detail, but it's good for now.

I have some revisions to make which I'll deliver where I can find the time to do so.

[Frenequesta]

Finally got the time to put in my revisions. Significant revisions are in bold:

The Chamber of Deputies passed Lopesy Neigh's appropriation and draft measures by a vote of 302-147 (Cherry Ranger abstaining) and the Senate approving 120-30. Later, Parliament passed a more enlightened version of Lopesy's changeling relocation measure, creating the Internal Equestitarian Act, authorizing the Domestic Bureau to create a program "for the re-accommodation of threatened persons." For about two weeks, the program operated clandestinely, working with the Peacekeepers to bring changelings and changeling sympathizers to the Crystal Empire.

The interception of a note Rock Mason wrote to one of the administrators of the program confirmed to the Temple that the Equestrian government was trying to weaken its efforts to rid the world of changelings and that changelings were employed by Salt Lick City undocumented. He and a number of other Peacekeepers associated with the Works Commission were given mock trials by Temple authorities, where they were convicted of high treason and crimes against Equestria; they were subsequently given public executions, most being burnt at the stake (though Brief Wit, Sapphire Quill's boss at the law office, was acquitted by Sapphire Quill for promising to recant his affiliation with the Peacekeepers and share information on other Peacekeeper networks; and reminding her that she was an at-will employee and that partner status was waiting for her when she left public office). The discovery of the conspiracy prompted a much more aggressive expansion policy by the rebels and further contributed to the increasing militancy of the anti-changeling elements of Equestria, preempting a series of major rebel offensives (utilizing weapons and munitions claimed from Royal Guard arsenals throughout the Dessert Valley).

Through the leadership and aid of the All-Maker, the rebellion continued to thrive throughout Equestria. Having widespread support throughout the Equestrian Midwest and the forntier, large stockpiles of weapons and supplies, a large force of ideologically driven fanatics, and the immense magical power of the All-Maker on their side, they were able to rapidly snowball into a huge problem for the government. The rebel army marched to victory after victory against Celestia's army, defeating multiple counterattacks and seizing control of several more cities and towns, including Las Pegasus and San Flankcisco, further bolstering their forces and resources as their territory grew. They were seemingly unstoppable, growing in strength and scale with each passing day, posing an undeniably major threat to the Celestial diarchy. Before long, the All-Maker and his army began laying siege to Canterlot itself, attacking the very heart of the Equestrian government.

Celestia knew she had to do something; she had two major enemies seeking her downfall, and was fighting a losing war on either front. Even if she managed to defeat the rebellion, her army would doubtlessly suffer enough casualties to guarantee the changelings would be able to easily triumph over the remnants of her forces, and even if she managed to defeat Chrysalis the rebels would almost certainly be able to defeat what remained of her army and fulfill their goal of a new government across all of Equestria. Realizing the desperate gravity of her situation, she went to the negotiating table with the All-Maker and other major rebel figures to discuss the terms of a peace treaty. Holding a great deal of bargaining power against her, the rebels demanded a number of major concessions. First and foremost among their demands was the total reversal of the changeling-integration policy in its entirety; every last pro-changeling reform, including but not limited to government-mandated nondiscrimination and affirmative action programs, would be repealed in full. Second among their demands was that the Third Treaty of Tripony be suspended throughout the duration of the war, effectively allowing the rebel forces to commit war crimes against the changeling community with complete legal impunity, and the Equestrian government would make no efforts to prosecute the rebels for the massacres they had perpetrated against the changeling community. Third among their demands was that the Temple of Vision become a legally protected entity in Equestria, with guaranteed freedom of speech and tax-exempt status among other things, and that the government would enact similar protections to other anti-changeling organizations and ideologues, effectively allowing anti-changeling agitators to operate throughout the country with impunity. A number of other concessions were also demanded, including the termination of the changeling relocation program.

However, Princess Celestia still tried to keep the Crystal Empire out of the provisions of the treaty. Sapphire Quill, who had by this time also became the Temple's official legal counsel, read the fine print just before the treaty was to be signed and immediately demanded that the Crystal Empire exemption be struck and make clear that the Sovereignty Doctrine did not apply to the treaty. Princess Celestia realized that the only way out now was outright independence for her adopted niece's territory.

On the request of Princess Celestia, Parliament authorized the Crystal Empire to conduct an independence referenda if Princess Cadence so chose to, over strident objections by Cherry Ranger and Blind Justice for Celestia giving in too much. Cadence was initially surprised at Celestia's move, and Shining Armor knew that he might lose command of the Crystal Guard and therefore an extra set of troops to fight the Changeling Empire, but eventually they both agreed that it was probably the for the best and Shining could still lead the Crystal Guard in a subsequent treaty with Equestria.

Meanwhile, Sapphire Quill knew full well of Celestia's intentions. After some consultation with other Temple leaders, they agreed that they would only accept the Crystal Empire's independence if other districts in Equestria were given the same right and that it would not enter any treaties or agreements with the Crystal Empire relating to changelings. Princess Celestia reluctantly agreed to this, and made a new independence referenda recommendation to Parliament. Though Parliament debate was more contentious This time, with members such as Cherry Ranger and Constellation warning that more district independence would "bring us back to the era of Windigos and disharmony," the recommendation passed by a single vote. With that, the "Peace of Canterlot" was finally official.

The Crystal Empire held its independence referendum the following day, returning an overwhelming "yes" from the population. It came at a rather significant price, however: Cadence was wary that the Temple might still turn on the Crystal Empire, and with disagreements on using the Crystal Guards' integrated troops, the Crystal Empire decide to pull from its alliance with Equestria in the war against the Changeling Empire and concentrate on its own self-defense.

Razor Wing and all his changeling allies were greatly disheartened by Celestia's decision to give into the ToV's demands. None of them could stand the very thought of so much work made in improving Pony-Changeling Relations. Many have even seen this as outright betrayal on Celestia's part, even despite her explanation of what actually happened. Thus many groups of changelings went back to the old way of life. Many took on disguises to assimilate into the pony community without being noticed, taking extra measures to avoid suspicion, others migrated to the Crystal Empire, while a large number returned to the mountains and caves that they called home. Most of the colonies and hives cut off all ties to the Equestrian nation that was once their ally, making a pact to avoid making dealings with ponies ever again. Others, however, have even became fully convinced by Chrysalis's word about pony kind and joined her cause to overthrow the pony race.

Despite the Crystal Empire's and changeling allies’ retreat from the Fourth Pony-Changeling War, Equestria's new alliance with the Temple turned out to be a net positive, at least for a while. Between the combined forces of the Royal Guard and the rebel army, and the combined powers of the Diarchs and the All-Maker, ponykind was able to create a truly formidable united front against changeling aggression. Over the course of the few months following the Peace of Canterlot, the Equestrian forces made dozens of vicious counterattacks against the Changeling Empire, winning victory after victory and liberating city after city. The desolate, barren, depopulated ruins of Cloudsdale, the little town of Hollow Shades, and the big cities of Fillydelphia and Baltimare each fell to the triumphant pony forces, the changelings facing defeat on every front. Throughout the process, changelings in the liberated cities were treated mercilessly; retribution-seekers, both from the violently anti-changeling rebel forces and from the liberated ponies (many of which had been instilled with viciously anti-changeling sentiment after the changelings had brought slavery and death to their homes), made relentless attacks against the changeling communities in the formerly occupied cities, with thousands of changelings being massacred in savage reprisals against their kind.

The Fourth (and, in all likelihood, final) Pony-Changeling War finally reached a bloody end at the Battle of Manehattan, a day which would live in both legend and infamy. The combined army of Celestia and the All-Maker descended upon the city, attacking it in a coordinated effort. The changelings had an artifact which disabled non-changeling magic; it mattered little to the advancing pony forces, who relentlessly struck at the enemy with guns and artillery. Thousands of fanatical martyrs from the Temple, led by the Prophet Visionary, swarmed Manehattan, showing a ferocity in battle the likes of which would frighten even the legendary warriors of griffin mythology, emboldened by the knowledge that their enemies were foul, ungodly abominations, and that they would receive passage to the greatest of afterlives if they died fighting them. Thousands of Royal Guards fought alongside them, filled with courage of their own, knowing that they were driving out the last vestiges of Equestria's nemesis, though their dedication paled in comparison to the pure fanaticism of the rebels.

As the changeling forces began to crumble and their defenses were breached by the pony attackers, things very rapidly went downhill for Chrysalis and her army. A major slave revolt broke out against the changelings; tens of thousands of pony slaves and resistance members, seeing the vulnerability of their oppressors, took up arms and struck at the changeling menace, full of contempt for them. The changelings swiftly found themselves surrounded on all sides by enemies, and it quickly became clear that they were fighting a losing battle. The Equestrian armies advanced swiftly through the city, and, before long, Chrysalis' palace was stormed by the attackers, its inhabitants being massacred, at which point fanatical retribution-seekers (from the ranks of both the revolting slaves and the Temple's holy warriors) started destroying every last trace of the changeling regalia, starting with the throne of Chrysalis. The magical black throne was shattered, and the changelings' anti-magic shield evaporated; what followed after that was nothing less than a total and utter bloodbath. Finally able to utilize his powers against the abominations, the All-Maker unleashed his full fury against the enemy; he cast a magic spell across all of Manehattan, disabling the shapeshifting powers of the changelings, and he began unleashing a series of terrifyingly devastating magical attacks against them.

Ponykind had suffered innumerable atrocities at the hooves of the changeling race; hundreds of thousands of ponies had been killed, and millions more had suffered from the vile institution of slavery. Death, oppression, and unfathomable cruelty had all been perpetrated in immense volumes against the innocent; the changeling race was responsible for some of the most heinous crimes the world had ever seen. Ponies didn't just want to punish Chrysalis; they were out for blood. The changeling race had defiled Equestria, and it was time for retribution. Changelings were indiscriminately butchered in droves all across Manehattan, with thousands of ponies, especially the former-slaves (who had developed a special kind of hatred against changelings, after what they had been subjected to), joining the All-Maker in inflicting vengeance upon the abominations. The changelings were utterly massacred; over a hundred thousand of them were slaughtered in the single largest act of genocide in recorded history. Chrysalis fled the city, alongside what little remained of her decimated army, finding temporary refuge in the Griffin Kingdom before returning to her hidden hive. Tens of thousands of changeling civilians attempted to flee northwards to the Crystal Empire, to escape the fury of the retribution-seekers; thousands died in the process, with the All-Maker raining fire from the sky upon them, killing a great many of the fleeing refugees. It wasn't just the changeling people who were targeted, though; iconoclastic fury swept through the ranks of the victorious and vengeful ponies, who demolished countless buildings the changelings had erected, destroying every trace of changeling architecture they could find, purging Manehattan of changeling influence very thoroughly.

Though a great many pony soldiers died in the process, the Battle of Manehattan proved to be a major victory for Equestria, the final setback for the invading forces. The war had cost the lives of innumerable ponies, and its political ramifications left Equestria as a polarized and sharply divided realm, but there could be no debate; ponykind had won a glorious victory against their enemy, safeguarding their land against the evil menace which sought to enslave their race. On that day, in that city, where vast numbers of changelings lay dead with triumphant ponies desecrating their mangled bodies, ponykind had proven that it would not take a single step back; if anyone perpetrated violence against Equestria, its denizens were willing and able to respond with violence in equal or greater measure. Equestria was not afraid of violence; they had proven that, should anyone attack their country, they would fight with unyielding ferocity to drive the invaders from their soil no matter the cost.

The Changeling Empire was completely shattered from the Battle of Manehattan, and Chrysalis's power was forever broken. Her army had been almost totally wiped out during the war, and her subjects had been butchered in droves, leaving her hive as a broken, depopulated husk of what it once was. Chrysalis herself barely escaped the fury of Equestria; many other changeling nobles had no such luck, being indiscriminately killed during the massacre. Though she would live on, the prospects of her ever being able to fulfill her ambitions of conquering Equestria were dimmer than ever; her empire was in total shambles, and her prestige among her fellow changeling royals fell to an all-time low after her miserable failures in the war. She had become known as a failure of a monarch, and, thanks largely to the All-Maker and his utterly merciless acts of genocide against the changeling race, almost no other hives would be willing to join her in the future; she was incompetent, and other rulers wouldn't risk having their subjects be exterminated at the hooves of raving hordes of anti-changeling fanatics for her sake.

The Temple of Vision became utterly vilified by the changeling race, and the great massacre of Manehattan was extremely virulently condemned by the liberal elites of Equestria and by the populations of the more tolerant cities. Elsewhere in Equestria, especially in the cities that had suffered under changeling occupation, the soldiers of the Temple were hailed as heroes for having inflicted a killing blow to the Changeling Empire and successfully exacting vengeance upon the abominations which had wrought so much devastation upon ponykind. Equestria became more polarized than ever before, regarding the changeling issue; whereas Celestia and the other elites were determined to force Equestrian society to accept changelings, the general population experienced a surge of anti-changeling fervor. Vehement hatred of the changeling race flourished along the frontier and in all the cities where the changelings had perpetrated mass-murder and slavery, which would lead to surges of separatist sentiment when the independence referendums started.

Celestia's government was more deeply unpopular than ever before, among almost every demographic. The Temple of Vision and other anti-changeling groups despised her for having tried to force the failed policy of changeling-integration upon Equestria, and for her repeated failures in protecting Equestria from the changeling menace. Liberals and reformers, alongside many changelings, held her in contempt for having surrendered to the rebellion and allowing wanton acts of genocide to be perpetrated against the changeling community. As a consequence, the Celestial regime completely crumbled once the independence referendums took place; city after city broke away from the principality, and Equestria fragmented into multiple independent states. The once-idolized Princesses, formerly symbols of Equestrian unity and continuity, became symbols of incompetence, broken promises, and failed ideologies, an obstacle to progress in the eyes of both pro and anti-changeling elements of society. The political elites of Equestria, who had a vested interest in preserving the central government, were among the only ponies which remained supportive of the continued reign of Celestia; though Celestia would be able to keep her crown, and convince a hoof-full of districts to vote against independence, her influence, power, and popular support were at an all-time low.

Cherry Ranger's influence in Parliament became greatly diminished, and her reputation nosedived. Thunderstorm was only able to get a reprimand from Parliament for her mocking of Princess Twilight and a demotion to the Agriculture Committee, but her grudge against unicorns became more apparent when she did not invite Princess Twilight to her 70th birthday party, despite Twilight recommending Pinkie Pie to arrange it and offering to pay for some of the expenses. Pinkie Pie at first agreed to help Cherry, but when she learned that Cherry would not invite Twilight, she canceled the deal in a rare retraction of a Pinkie Promise (by realizing that she forgot to add the hoof motions). As her party was sparsely attended and not particularly fun (even for an old mare), her wrong finally hit her, and she sought Princess Twilight's forgiveness.

Twilight accepted her apology and their relationship warmed. But the damage was already done. Because of Cherry Ranger's affront to unicorns alienated a large portion of the Equestrian populace, especially critical support from Rose and Blue Party moderates, her outspoken criticism of the Temple at a time when their support was needed, and Agrarian's own turn on her, led by Thunderstorm (she had effectively ran as an independent), she lost her first at-large election, ending a thirty-three year career in Parliament. She would retreat to the family farm in Dodge Junction, and later to Whinnyapolis as Temple support in Dodge Junction was too much for her to bear, changing her name to Cherry Gardener and starting her own cherry farm.

Trilby would too face backlash, this time in his own 6th District of Manehattan. Support for his Manehattan Resistance, already lower than expectations, had basically been destroyed after the Wednesday meeting (not to mention that indeed the messenger was captured and executed by Empire forces and the brochures burned). He still maintained his Whip position with the Rose Party and was still respected as the changeling race's official voice in Parliament. He was one of the few deputies to vote against Cherry's reprimand and continued to support her in her efforts. He was also one of the most strident denouncers of the Manehattan Massacre, which did not bode well for even his supporters. He would lose the next election very narrowly. He would stay in Manehattan, however, risking and surviving many attacks on his life, at least until Manehattan declared its independence from Equestria. He would move to Canterlot, still hoping that his idea of Manehattan would come to blossom again.

Princess Twilight would campaign heavily against many districts' independence, and especially Ponyville's, and was even able to delay the Ponyville vote through the duration of a legal challenge to the Temple's claim to the Crystal Tree Castle (Silver Shield advised her not to challenge their claim to Ponyville itself), over an oversight that was lost in the Peace of Canterlot's Sovereignty Doctrine controversy--whether Equestria could still recover property seized by the Temple. The Supreme Court, in an 8-6 vote (Windstriker recusing herself for undisclosed reasons), ruled that the only legal protections for the Temple that applied for acts prior to the ratification of the Peace of Canterlot went to their crimes "against changelings, changeling sympathizers, and treason," and did not cover theft, trespassing, or conversion of property (and in fact pointed to evidence that it was understood by both Equestria and the Temple that the Temple would return control of the western military bases and the weapons seized from the Guard). It awarded Twilight--and Equestria--the Crystal Tree Castle back.

Members of the Temple were outraged at the Court's decision in Princess Twilight Sparkle v. The Temple of Vision, fearing that they would be forced to return changeling property. But Sapphire Quill, embarrassed at her oversight in negotiating the Peace of Canterlot, declined to pursue a second hearing. Instead, she negotiated a second treaty, this time also as the head of the newly independent United Lands of the Dessert Valley (ULDV), the Salt Lick Supplemental Accords, that would formally transfer the Dessert Valley bases to the ULDV, pay Equestria 100 million bits in both consideration of those bases and for damages in pre-independence government property seizures and trespass, and an explicit promise from Equestria not to prosecute the Temple or its members for property damage to changelings or changeling sympathizers.

The Temple of Vision was filled with fury by Sapphire Quill's decision to give many millions of bits to the government which they had lost many lives attempting to overthrow, considering it to be an act of high treason, and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the treaty or pay a single penny to the Celestial government. Visionary made an official edict declaring her a traitor to the Temple and decreeing her to be a changeling sympathizer, stripping her entirely of her position within the Temple, and even her fellow city council members would strip her of her mayorship (saying that she "set a good precedent with Waterforge"). Even Brief Wit, anticipating that the Temple would soon execute Sapphire, refused to honor his promise to her, and she resigned from the firm. In a deep flurry of emotions she took the same poison that she used to kill her husband. However, that night Princess Luna came into her dreams, telling her that she needed to face her guilt over Tinkering's murder honestly (having learned about it through her supervision of the Domestic Bureau's relocation program) and that death would not solve it. Sapphire woke up the next morning to take the antidote to that poison and a train to the Crystal Empire, where she would seek out Peacekeeper to make amends.

The Valley's new government, with the blessing and support of Temple authorities, immediately canceled the new treaty Sapphire Quill negotiated with Celestial authorities (along with the payments she planned to Celestia's government). This would lead to a renewed series of conflicts, reigniting the flames of war for a brief time, with a series of large skirmishes being fought as soldiers from the Royal Guard attempted to forcibly seize control of military bases and weapons caches in the region. After several weeks of fighting, the ULDV's forces, combined with the Temple's milita forces, routed the Royal Guard from the Dessert Valley, securing their hold over the area. Following the victory, the Temple mounted multiple attacks on Celestial forces in Ponyville and San Flankcisco; both the Temple and the Celestial regime prepared to entirely repudiate the Peace of Canterlot and resume full-scale war, but, after public backlash against the prospect of further prolonged war and destruction, the two sides reluctantly agreed to further peace talks. The Celestial government agreed to abandon its claim to the military bases and resources within Temple-controlled territory, and would take no further legal action against the ToV or its members, and the Temple agreed to abandon its claim to Twilight's Castle. Despite the fighting being brief and limited in scale, it brought a swift end to any thoughts of reconciliation between the two powers, and would help shape an extremely aggressive anti-Celestial foreign policy by the frontier governments. Hostilities between the two forces would remain rampant for many years to come, despite the treaties they had signed, and the borders between Celestial controlled territory and Temple controlled territory would remain constantly militarized; hundreds of skirmishes and small battles would take place over the next decade, and they would remain in a perpetual state of animosity and conflict.

The Dessert Valley, Appaloosa, and Dodge Junction, the heartlands of the Temple, were among the most unanimous districts to declare independence from the Celestial regime. Unified through their mutual religious zeal, and instilled with further anti-Celestial militancy as a result of the recent conflicts following the end of the Changeling-Pony War, the ponies of the frontier, alongside their buffalo comrades, created a unified kingdom in opposition to Celestial authority, establishing an elective absolute monarchy; they would have a hero of the people rule with absolute authority from the people, with no democratic process to hold back progress. At first, the Prophet Visionary (who had become revered by anti-changeling elements throughout Equestria as Saint Visionary the Changeling-Slayer for his heroic involvement in the Battle of Manehattan; even among the irreligious, he had became a famous and beloved symbol of resistance against the once seemingly insurmountable and omnipresent changeling menace) was the most popular choice for a ruler to lead the frontier kingdom, with a large majority of the population voting to crown him, but Visionary rejected the offer, insisting that he was simply a humble servant of the All-Maker and was not worthy of the honor. After some further deliberation, the denizens of the frontier chose to elect the All-Maker himself to lead their nation, an honor which he accepted. He became the God-King of the frontier kingdom (which he had named the Kingdom of Lethe), quickly leading it to a golden era.

The Kingdom of Lethe was a... rather strange country, to say the least, blurring the lines between secular monarchy and divine rule. The All-Maker (who had readopted his old name for secular matters, adopting the title His Heavenly Majesty, God-King Letum of Lethe, Shield of Righteousness and Sword of Justice) was a living relic of a long-gone era of ancient history; an era which he attempted to revive in his new kingdom. Everything about the new realm, from its laws to its cultural values to its architecture was completely new to ponykind, with the frontier region starting to take on a very unique cultural identity separate from normal pony culture. The ruins of Salt-Lick City, a city which had taken a great deal of damage during the civil war, were rebuilt using ancient pre-changeling architectural styles, giving the metropolis an appearance very much so reminiscent of the scattered ruins throughout the Forbidden Jungle. Dress codes, literature, diets, entertainment, and other customs from the pre-changeling era made a similar revival under the All-Maker's watch, though his legal system was perhaps the most intriguing part of the kingdom.

The All-Maker was a hard-ruler, to say the least; under his legal system, almost all crimes were punishable by slow and painful deaths, with truly minor crimes like petty theft being punishable by public torture followed by permanent exile from the Kingdom. Yet, at the same time, he was extremely lenient in what was considered to be a crime; the KoL outlawed very few things, with the All-Maker having very little involvement in his subjects' personal lives, creating almost no regulations (relative to what the Celestial regime had established, anyway). Citizens were allowed to do almost literally anything they wanted, outside of theft, murder (though honorable duels to the death were legal, and vigilante murders of known criminals were legal), rape, and slavery, among a few other things; as long as you weren't a changeling, an alicorn-worshiper, or a Peacekeeper, or sympathetic to any of those three demographics, you could do just about whatever you wanted.

The All-Maker was the arch-nemesis of the changeling community, which he declared hostibus suis imperpetuum, enemies in perpetuity, and actively perpetrated genocide against them at every possible opportunity alongside everyone sympathetic towards them (including the Peacekeepers, who were active supporters of changeling-integration, and alicorn-worshipers, who venerated Celestia, a known changeling-sympathizer). Needless to say, he wasn't exactly on good terms with Celestia; Lethe and the Principality were in a constant state of near-war. Despite the peace which existed on paper, skirmishes would break out between the All-Maker's forces and Celestial forces on a regular basis, started by both sides; as such, considering the overwhelmingly hostile relations shared between the two nations, citizens of the Principality passing through the area were frequent targets of violence, and citizens of Lethe who demonstrated support for Celestia were given automatic death sentences. For everyone else, however, the Kingdom of Lethe was a paradise, where anybody could do anything; just about everything that didn't physically harm another civilized creature, from same-sex marriage to narcotics usage, was freely allowed. The region quickly attracted numerous entrepreneurs and investors, with hundreds of new businesses being opened over the next few years; the near-total lack of laws and regulations, in addition to low taxes, made the frontier a very attractive location for ponies to start business enterprises and for rich ponies looking for a tax haven. Members of the homo and bisexual community, also, flocked to the frontier, where they found a great deal of acceptance (thanks largely to the efforts of the All-Maker and the Temple of Vision, which actively taught that homosexuality was a normal part of society and should not be condemned). It was a strange country, unlike anything ponykind had ever seen, yet it managed to be successful; the influx of wealthy investors helped create a strong economy, and the exceedingly harsh punishments (alongside mass-monitoring of society undertaken by the state Inquisition force, led by the apostle Deep Insight) kept order in the streets.

Meanwhile, the Ponyville independence referendum failed by a slim margin, to the surprise of many observers. In fact, because Salt Lick City became a more prominent center of Temple activity, many members moved there, and Temple influence diminished in Ponyville, giving the yes vote less clout than predicted. Still, there remained a sizable number that believed that Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, and Parliament should have done more to combat the Temple.

Eventually the Co-Principality whittled down to an area encompassing Canterlot, Ponyville, Whinnyapolis, Buckmark, Lincolt, and some smaller towns in between, plus an exclave at San Flankcisco. Even there the status quo did not stay put; the remaining lawmakers from these cities enacted Equestria's first major constitutional change—almost rewriting the whole Constitution--in hundreds of years, giving the cities their own sovereign basis, breaking the unitary model that had governed Equestria for a thousand years. (In fact this had already been in the works since Parliament ratified the Peace of Canterlot to encourage more districts to stay in.) Parliament would handle defense, foreign affairs, interdistrict and international commerce, raise a few specified taxes, and otherwise would "coordinate district affairs as necessary for any serious conflicts that may arise between them.” The district assemblies would deal with education, weather control, healthcare, welfare, criminal law, regulation of intoxicating liquors--basically anything else not explicitly granted to Parliament. As a result, for example, while Equestria itself did not recognize same-sex marriage, every district soon would, and Equestria was obliged to honor that choice. Princesses Celestia and Luna remained as its heads of state, but their Royal Assents became more symbolic than meaningful, removing the “unchanged bill” requirement for overcoming the Princesses’ veto.

Princess Celestia felt guilty about the concessions she made to the Temple of Vision and the atrocities committed under it, and insisted on protecting the rights of all species—even changelings. Though she had no formal power in the amendment process, she proposed an amendment that would “maintain the equal protection of personal, civil, political, and social rights of this Constitution as to all species" at the national level. While Princess Twilight and some deputies, such as Trilby and Blind Justice, supported the measure, many other elites and deputies found Celestia’s efforts to “persuade” Parliament (among them threatening to remove dissenting Senators, propose amendments to expand the Senate, or outright dissolving Parliament) to violate separation of powers on one hoof and dangerous to the compromise necessary to salvage as much as Equestria as possible on the other. Lincolt and Detrot, which had expected to be able to allow public accommodations to discriminate against changelings under the new constitutional amendments, were especially turned off by Celestia’s maneuvers and left the union. (Lincolt, after starting its own independent state, would return in a couple of years due to economic difficulties.) Even Princess Twilight became skeptical of the legitimacy of Celestia’s asserted powers, which became fuel for opponents to call for Celestia’s impeachment. Celestia soon backed down from her efforts, agreeing to respect Parliament’s choice. After an impassioned speech by Trilby—the final one of his term—Parliament narrowly agreed to Celestia’s amendment, realizing that allowing cities to set their own civil rights rules could mean disparate treatment among the pony races as well.

Princess Twilight remained the chief mediator for the people of the remaining districts of Equestria, and fortunately saw a trimming of subject matter jurisdiction so she did not have to hear most contract or tort claims (she still heard a few fiduciary duty cases involving partnerships, as well as those with breaches of confidentiality every now and then), allowing her more time to deal with "pure" friendship problems and spend time with her children. (For that matter, Potter Black, who remained a deputy despite the great political shake-ups, officially re-adopted Pitch Black as his son when Pitch turned thirteen. As a result, Potter spent more time with Pitch, taking him camping and fishing and teaching him about a past that seemed so remote today, when all Equestria could still feel united under the Sun Princess despite their great differences.)

Of the cities, San Flankcisco and Ponyville seemed to be in the most precarious positions. As Equestria's only remaining outlet to the sea, San Flankcisco was critically important, and soon became the commerce hub that Manehattan once filled, but its fruits to mainland Equestria always had to pass through Lethe in some way, risking robberies by some of the more fanatical members of the Temple, especially if a changeling happened to be the driver (and it took one unfortunate incident for Equestria to pass a law forbidding changeling drivers in commerce from passing through Lethe). Ponyville, meanwhile, had a related problem: the Everfree Forest and the old Ponyville temple were still considered holy sites by the Temple, and pilgrims were a frequent sight. These pilgrims would evangelize the city, stirring up revivals of secessionist fervor. In fact Ponyville got permission from Parliament to hold another independence referenda, yet it too would fail. Twilight and the local Ponyville leaders were committed to keep the Temple at bay, and while attacks against changelings were more frequent there than other places in Equestria, nothing even approached the level of the Great Ponyville Massacre or the Ponyville Rebellion.

Vanhoofer and Tall Tale (and the districts immediately surrounding it), as some of the few Equestrian cities to not see a Temple uprising or attack, formed the Republic of Cataract, whose policies towards changelings were as progressive as the Crystal Empire's. In fact they counted the Crystal Empire as an even greater ally than Equestria, relying on the Crystal Empire for military protection and (at first) much of its trade. However, it did not integrate with the Crystal Empire because of its republican streak, objecting to even Princess Cadence's enlightened rule. Smoky Topaz became its first President, leading the nation to a high-tech economy and widespread workplace democracy. Despite having a more strictly regulated and interventionist economy than Lethe, it attracted quite a few rich investors of its own by emphasizing innovation, high finance, and sheer productivity, eventually surpassing the other newly-independent nations in GDP per capita.

Los Pegasus, and a few districts in the San Palomino Desert, formed Sierra Palomino, a state that initially declined to allow protections for changelings because of its (more moderate) Temple political elite but later granted it by referendum (and would also lose power in the general election that year). It boosted its already robust tourism industry by allowing casino gambling, though with it came a higher rate of crime than other newly-independent districts. It also instituted compulsory military service for youths just reaching the age of majority, forming a large pool of soldiers for a government whose foreign policy zig-zagged between support for the Kingdom of Lethe and the Co-Principality of Equestria (and at times they supported both or neither).

Cloudsdale and its suburbs formed the City-State of Nubes-Synnefo. It resisted changeling integration, but once it became independent it failed to actually go quite as far as the Kingdom of Lethe: it forbade changelings from coming within its borders, but it did not sanction killing them. A little surprisingly, it even became vehemently anti-Griffon Kingdom and even a little anti-griffin, not forgetting King Philip's side looting. As a district of Equestria, it boasted the largest population of griffins in Equestria outside Manehattan; as independent it drove many out and discriminated against those who stayed. Since it was no longer associated with the Equestrian government, the old base of its economy was at a near vacuum, and it struggled to diversify beyond its own weather-making, the military, and occasional deals with Equestria and Lethe to provide rain and snow to border towns. Of the new countries, Nubes-Synnefo would be the least self-sufficient.

Among the cities of the eastern coast, Baltimare and Wingscotting, while they did fall to the Changeling Empire, did not suffer under it quite as long--or even as hard--as Manehattan, Hollow Shades, and Fillydelphia. As a result their new nation, the United Duchies of Neighland, were more moderate in their changeling policies than their sister cities up north, if a little paradoxical. While it discriminated against changelings by default and practically considered nearly every killing of a changeling by a pony to be one in self-defense, it did allow changelings to apply for full citizenship status upon grueling examinations and "re-education," which in reality stripped them of their love-sharing and shape-shifting abilities, forcing them to eat tangible food like every other pony and always stay in their default form. (Liberal critics would especially criticize this practice and Temple orthodoxy lambasted it for even contemplating equal rights for changelings, but its defenders argued that this was actually a more fitting punishment for their crimes than just killing them. In fact what prompted this policy was the nation’s original plan to make changelings a slave caste on a strict application of “an eye for an eye,” which only lasted a week before seeing widespread slave revolts.) Besides Baltimare and Wingscotting, Neighland included seven other smaller towns and numerous villages. Each city and town were headed by a duke or duchess, selected from among a pool of its old Equestrian political, business, and social elite, forming a nobility almost entirely unicorn (with Wingscotting providing a pegasus) like in Equestria's early years. It would compete with Lethe as a tax haven, and even a few Equestrian companies would incorporate there.

Historically, Manehattan and Fillydelphia had been more tolerant of changelings than other Equestrian cities, but the war completely reversed that policy. With Hollow Shades, New Londam, and their suburbs (and later Detrot), they would form the Northeast Confederation, who, like Lethe, would strip changelings and changeling sympathizers of all their rights (with the exception of Detrot, which did protect a few). It had no central government except for an emergency council, composed of city leaders, convened in cases of collective self-defense (and each city had its own militia) or other national emergencies. A reluctance for the cities not to form stronger ties, though one that cemented its shared identity, was driven in part by an epidemic that exploded among the Manehattan population shortly after its independence referendum, which spread to Fillydelphia and Hollow Shades before the leaders in the cities enacted strict quarantines to both protect themselves and other now-foreign cities. (Even as the Equestria whittled down, Princess Celestia and Parliament moved quickly to help the Northeast Confederation contain the disease, as did Neighland, successfully preventing whatever disease came into their own countries from getting out of hoof.) Already devastated by war and oppression, the Northeast Confederation would lose at least a quarter of its population through the epidemic. (Because changelings turned out to be resistant to the disease, many labeled it “Chrysalis’ Revenge.”) Even when the vaccine was found and the number infected dwindled, Northeasters developed a fear of going outside their cities, and ended up being the most isolationist of the new nations, at least for the first ten years. Slowly the cities began to pick up the pieces, and within ten years each city’s economy was well-diversified and self-sufficient (evoking a little jealousy from Nubes-Synnefo), if not quite as rich as they once were.

Of course, Equestria wasn't the only nation to undergo major political upheaval. Across the sea, in the Griffin Kingdom, a massive change in the political climate had taken place, one which would rather seriously jeopardize Equestrian interests in the region. With the support of both Chrysalis and the local griffin aristocracy, Lord Philip Blackwing made a second bid for the Throne of Griffonstone, the Griffin Kingdom erupting into civil war over the crown for the second time. Equestria, having been occupied with their own civil war and the changeling invasion, was able to offer almost nothing to the rapidly crumbling Groverian dynasty; King Guto's forces were swiftly outmatched by the Blackwing rebels, who had significant resources at their disposal from their numerous aristocratic sponsors. Having both superior leadership and a substantially better funded army, the Blackwings decisively defeated the Groverian loyalists, winning victory after victory, striking a killing blow against the ancient royal family.

In a matter of months, the Griffin Kingdom was under the complete control of the Blackwing Clan, their opposition being shattered after a number of major defeats; Guto himself was slain by Lord Philip in battle during the war. The surviving members of the Groverian dynasty fled westwards, into Equestria, along with the talon-full of noble families which had supported Guto during the war, where they formed a government-in-exile. Back home in the Griffin Kingdom, though, His Royal Majesty, Lord Philip Blackwing, King of the Griffins, had secured total dominance, consolidating his hold on the throne and solidifying himself as the indisputable king. With the support of almost all the griffin nobility, and the respect of a great deal of the peasantry, King Philip set about bringing his vision for the Griffin Kingdom to life. A series of major reactionary political reforms were created in the kingdom, greatly empowering the aristocratic elite and establishing an official feudal hierarchy revolving around birthright and noble privilege, with the Blackwing monarchy revolving around the concept that the highborn nobility rule through divine right.

Unfortunately for King Philip's ally, Chrysalis, his victory, while overwhelmingly decisive, came too late for the kingdom to intervene in the Pony-Changeling war. The last of Guto's forces were defeated a week after the changeling defeat in the Battle of Manehattan, just after the fall of the empire. Philip was a griffin of his word, and he had an honor-bound obligation to repay Chrysalis for the assistance she provided his army, but not even the fearless warrior-king was going to attack Equestria all on his own, especially after the triumphant ponies had made a bloodthirsty example of the defeated changelings. The terms of his agreement with the changelings were renegotiated; rather than invading Equestria, as he had previously agreed to do, Philip would indefinitely owe one favor to Chrysalis, redeemable at any time for anything he was capable of providing (short of giving up the kingdom he had worked his entire life to claim, that is).

While changelings in most of the Changeling-Friendly Nations emerged from the shadows, others remained hidden in plain sight. Meanwhile, the Fourth Pony-Changeling War have taken its toll on Changeling Communities throughout Equestria. The Sand and Snow Changelings became increasingly isolationist and xenophobic, fortifying their mounds and mountain homes of their tribes with deadly traps and weaponry to the point of near savagery. The Equestrian Changeling communities, on the other hand, became closer and more united than ever before as they took in many of Chrysalis's survivors, including the very queen herself. An agreement and alliance was forged between them: a unity of colonies and hives alike which became known as the Confederacy of Changeling Hives and Colonies, a vast network of changeling settlements working together for the betterment of changeling kind while keeping to themselves.

Within this Confederacy, a great peace treaty was made declaring none to ever declare war against one another and instead commit to trade and protection for one another, all while remaining completely sovereign to themselves in law and leadership. A mere council, making up of Confederacy leaders, was made to keep the peace within this alliance, taking place in an area of pure secrecy in one of Equestria's most tallest mountains. The attitude towards ponykind varied among colonies and hives. However, an agreement was made to never again declare war against them. Many, including those who once belonged to Chrysalis's Empire and especially those among the Kingdom of Lethe, declared pure isolation from all ponykind to the point of sharing Sand and Ice changeling-like xenophobia. Others, like Razor Wing's Colony, would declare themselves in open trade with Ponykind, especially those most friendly to the Changeling race.

The world had been changed; all the major powers, Equestria, the Griffin Kingdom, and the Changeling Empire, had experienced drastic changes. An era of newfound nationalism, separatism, and political polarization had swept Equus, and its effects could be felt everywhere, shaking up the political landscape, and even the most concrete of ancient regimes would crumble under its weight. The world was a delicate house of cards, and, through opportunism and luck, a few interested parties had been able to collapse it from within, creating a divided world in flames; a world up for grabs, where new players could enter the scene of global geo-politics, and anyone could make a rise to power from the ashes of the once-unified old order. Nations would rise and fall, leaders would come and go, and life would go on in the shattered world that ponies, griffins, changelings, and buffalo alike now lived in.

[Fascist Russian Empire]

Alright, great. So, are we almost ready to move on to the next thread?

[Turmenista]

I was going through some of my old RPs and almost forgot that I had been a part of this. I know that in the beginning of this RP (and towards the end of the previous RP) I sort of went MIA without notice, but now that the summer is nearing I'll be much more active in posting frequency than before.

I've basically caught myself up, but at this point I guess waiting until the next RP to give this another shot would be the best option. It seems like everything's preparing for the epilogue and new RP, if there even is gonna be one.

[Frenequesta]

Alright, great. So, are we almost ready to move on to the next thread?

Well, Flutters approved it via TG.

I'd think that he'd post the epilogue in the IC and then work on the new OOC.

[The Flutterlands]

Great, Fren. I have took measures to also make some more additions that I have bolded like last time. What do you think of them?

The Chamber of Deputies passed Lopesy Neigh's appropriation and draft measures by a vote of 302-147 (Cherry Ranger abstaining) and the Senate approving 120-30. Later, Parliament passed a more enlightened version of Lopesy's changeling relocation measure, creating the Internal Equestitarian Act, authorizing the Domestic Bureau to create a program "for the re-accommodation of threatened persons." For about two weeks, the program operated clandestinely, working with the Peacekeepers to bring changelings and changeling sympathizers to the Crystal Empire.

The interception of a note Rock Mason wrote to one of the administrators of the program confirmed to the Temple that the Equestrian government was trying to weaken its efforts to rid the world of changelings and that changelings were employed by Salt Lick City undocumented. He and a number of other Peacekeepers associated with the Works Commission were given mock trials by Temple authorities, where they were convicted of high treason and crimes against Equestria; they were subsequently given public executions, most being burnt at the stake (though Brief Wit, Sapphire Quill's boss at the law office, was acquitted by Sapphire Quill for promising to recant his affiliation with the Peacekeepers and share information on other Peacekeeper networks; and reminding her that she was an at-will employee and that partner status was waiting for her when she left public office). The discovery of the conspiracy prompted a much more aggressive expansion policy by the rebels and further contributed to the increasing militancy of the anti-changeling elements of Equestria, preempting a series of major rebel offensives (utilizing weapons and munitions claimed from Royal Guard arsenals throughout the Dessert Valley).

Through the leadership and aid of the All-Maker, the rebellion continued to thrive throughout Equestria. Having widespread support throughout the Equestrian Midwest and the forntier, large stockpiles of weapons and supplies, a large force of ideologically driven fanatics, and the immense magical power of the All-Maker on their side, they were able to rapidly snowball into a huge problem for the government. The rebel army marched to victory after victory against Celestia's army, defeating multiple counterattacks and seizing control of several more cities and towns, including Las Pegasus and San Flankcisco, further bolstering their forces and resources as their territory grew. They were seemingly unstoppable, growing in strength and scale with each passing day, posing an undeniably major threat to the Celestial diarchy. Before long, the All-Maker and his army began laying siege to Canterlot itself, attacking the very heart of the Equestrian government.

Celestia knew she had to do something; she had two major enemies seeking her downfall, and was fighting a losing war on either front. Even if she managed to defeat the rebellion, her army would doubtlessly suffer enough casualties to guarantee the changelings would be able to easily triumph over the remnants of her forces, and even if she managed to defeat Chrysalis the rebels would almost certainly be able to defeat what remained of her army and fulfill their goal of a new government across all of Equestria. Realizing the desperate gravity of her situation, she went to the negotiating table with the All-Maker and other major rebel figures to discuss the terms of a peace treaty. Holding a great deal of bargaining power against her, the rebels demanded a number of major concessions. First and foremost among their demands was the total reversal of the changeling-integration policy in its entirety; every last pro-changeling reform, including but not limited to government-mandated nondiscrimination and affirmative action programs, would be repealed in full. Second among their demands was that the Third Treaty of Tripony be suspended throughout the duration of the war, effectively allowing the rebel forces to commit war crimes against the changeling community with complete legal impunity, and the Equestrian government would make no efforts to prosecute the rebels for the massacres they had perpetrated against the changeling community. Third among their demands was that the Temple of Vision become a legally protected entity in Equestria, with guaranteed freedom of speech and tax-exempt status among other things, and that the government would enact similar protections to other anti-changeling organizations and ideologues, effectively allowing anti-changeling agitators to operate throughout the country with impunity. A number of other concessions were also demanded, including the termination of the changeling relocation program.

However, Princess Celestia still tried to keep the Crystal Empire out of the provisions of the treaty. Sapphire Quill, who had by this time also became the Temple's official legal counsel, read the fine print just before the treaty was to be signed and immediately demanded that the Crystal Empire exemption be struck and make clear that the Sovereignty Doctrine did not apply to the treaty. Princess Celestia realized that the only way out now was outright independence for her adopted niece's territory.

On the request of Princess Celestia, Parliament authorized the Crystal Empire to conduct an independence referenda if Princess Cadence so chose to, over strident objections by Cherry Ranger and Blind Justice for Celestia giving in too much. Cadence was initially surprised at Celestia's move, and Shining Armor knew that he might lose command of the Crystal Guard and therefore an extra set of troops to fight the Changeling Empire, but eventually they both agreed that it was probably the for the best and Shining could still lead the Crystal Guard in a subsequent treaty with Equestria.

Meanwhile, Sapphire Quill knew full well of Celestia's intentions. After some consultation with other Temple leaders, they agreed that they would only accept the Crystal Empire's independence if other districts in Equestria were given the same right and that it would not enter any treaties or agreements with the Crystal Empire relating to changelings. Princess Celestia reluctantly agreed to this, and made a new independence referenda recommendation to Parliament. Though Parliament debate was more contentious This time, with members such as Cherry Ranger and Constellation warning that more district independence would "bring us back to the era of Windigos and disharmony," the recommendation passed by a single vote. With that, the "Peace of Canterlot" was finally official.

The Crystal Empire held its independence referendum the following day, returning an overwhelming "yes" from the population. It came at a rather significant price, however: Cadence was wary that the Temple might still turn on the Crystal Empire, and with disagreements on using the Crystal Guards' integrated troops, the Crystal Empire decide to pull from its alliance with Equestria in the war against the Changeling Empire and concentrate on its own self-defense.

Razor Wing and all his changeling allies were greatly disheartened by Celestia's decision to give into the ToV's demands. None of them could stand the very thought of so much work made in improving Pony-Changeling Relations. Many have even seen this as outright betrayal on Celestia's part, even despite her explanation of what actually happened. Thus many groups of changelings went back to the old way of life. Many took on disguises to assimilate into the pony community without being noticed, taking extra measures to avoid suspicion, others migrated to the Crystal Empire, while a large number returned to the mountains and caves that they called home. Most of the colonies and hives cut off all ties to the Equestrian nation that was once their ally, making a pact to avoid making dealings with ponies ever again. Others, however, have even became fully convinced by Chrysalis's word about pony kind and joined her cause to overthrow the pony race.

Despite the Crystal Empire's and changeling allies' retreat from the Fourth Pony-Changeling War, Equestria's new alliance with the Temple turned out to be a net positive, at least for a while. Between the combined forces of the Royal Guard and the rebel army, and the combined powers of the Diarchs and the All-Maker, ponykind was able to create a truly formidable united front against changeling aggression. Over the course of the few months following the Peace of Canterlot, the Equestrian forces made dozens of vicious counterattacks against the Changeling Empire, winning victory after victory and liberating city after city. The desolate, barren, depopulated ruins of Cloudsdale, the little town of Hollow Shades, and the big cities of Fillydelphia and Baltimare each fell to the triumphant pony forces, the changelings facing defeat on every front. Throughout the process, changelings in the liberated cities were treated mercilessly; retribution-seekers, both from the violently anti-changeling rebel forces and from the liberated ponies (many of which had been instilled with viciously anti-changeling sentiment after the changelings had brought slavery and death to their homes), made relentless attacks against the changeling communities in the formerly occupied cities, with thousands of changelings being massacred in savage reprisals against their kind.

The Fourth (and, in all likelihood, final) Pony-Changeling War finally reached a bloody end at the Battle of Manehattan, a day which would live in both legend and infamy. The combined army of Celestia and the All-Maker descended upon the city, attacking it in a coordinated effort. The changelings had an artifact which disabled non-changeling magic; it mattered little to the advancing pony forces, who relentlessly struck at the enemy with guns and artillery. Thousands of fanatical martyrs from the Temple, led by the Prophet Visionary, swarmed Manehattan, showing a ferocity in battle the likes of which would frighten even the legendary warriors of griffin mythology, emboldened by the knowledge that their enemies were foul, ungodly abominations, and that they would receive passage to the greatest of afterlives if they died fighting them. Thousands of Royal Guards fought alongside them, filled with courage of their own, knowing that they were driving out the last vestiges of Equestria's nemesis, though their dedication paled in comparison to the pure fanaticism of the rebels.

As the changeling forces began to crumble and their defenses were breached by the pony attackers, things very rapidly went downhill for Chrysalis and her army. A major slave revolt broke out against the changelings; tens of thousands of pony slaves and resistance members, seeing the vulnerability of their oppressors, took up arms and struck at the changeling menace, full of contempt for them. The changelings swiftly found themselves surrounded on all sides by enemies, and it quickly became clear that they were fighting a losing battle. The Equestrian armies advanced swiftly through the city, and, before long, Chrysalis' palace was stormed by the attackers, its inhabitants being massacred, at which point fanatical retribution-seekers (from the ranks of both the revolting slaves and the Temple's holy warriors) started destroying every last trace of the changeling regalia, starting with the throne of Chrysalis. The magical black throne was shattered, and the changelings' anti-magic shield evaporated; what followed after that was nothing less than a total and utter bloodbath. Finally able to utilize his powers against the abominations, the All-Maker unleashed his full fury against the enemy; he cast a magic spell across all of Manehattan, disabling the shapeshifting powers of the changelings, and he began unleashing a series of terrifyingly devastating magical attacks against them.

Ponykind had suffered innumerable atrocities at the hooves of the changeling race; hundreds of thousands of ponies had been killed, and millions more had suffered from the vile institution of slavery. Death, oppression, and unfathomable cruelty had all been perpetrated in immense volumes against the innocent; the changeling race was responsible for some of the most heinous crimes the world had ever seen. Ponies didn't just want to punish Chrysalis; they were out for blood. The changeling race had defiled Equestria, and it was time for retribution. Changelings were indiscriminately butchered in droves all across Manehattan, with thousands of ponies, especially the former-slaves (who had developed a special kind of hatred against changelings, after what they had been subjected to), joining the All-Maker in inflicting vengeance upon the abominations. The changelings were utterly massacred; over a hundred thousand of them were slaughtered in the single largest act of genocide in recorded history. Chrysalis fled the city, alongside what little remained of her decimated army, finding temporary refuge in the Griffin Kingdom before returning to her hidden hive. Tens of thousands of changeling civilians attempted to flee northwards to the Crystal Empire, to escape the fury of the retribution-seekers; thousands died in the process, with the All-Maker raining fire from the sky upon them, killing a great many of the fleeing refugees. It wasn't just the changeling people who were targeted, though; iconoclastic fury swept through the ranks of the victorious and vengeful ponies, who demolished countless buildings the changelings had erected, destroying every trace of changeling architecture they could find, purging Manehattan of changeling influence very thoroughly.

Though a great many pony soldiers died in the process, the Battle of Manehattan proved to be a major victory for Equestria, the final setback for the invading forces. The war had cost the lives of innumerable ponies, and its political ramifications left Equestria as a polarized and sharply divided realm, but there could be no debate; ponykind had won a glorious victory against their enemy, safeguarding their land against the evil menace which sought to enslave their race. On that day, in that city, where vast numbers of changelings lay dead with triumphant ponies desecrating their mangled bodies, ponykind had proven that it would not take a single step back; if anyone perpetrated violence against Equestria, its denizens were willing and able to respond with violence in equal or greater measure. Equestria was not afraid of violence; they had proven that, should anyone attack their country, they would fight with unyielding ferocity to drive the invaders from their soil no matter the cost.

The Changeling Empire was completely shattered from the Battle of Manehattan, and Chrysalis's power was forever broken. Her army had been almost totally wiped out during the war, and her subjects had been butchered in droves, leaving her hive as a broken, depopulated husk of what it once was. Chrysalis herself barely escaped the fury of Equestria; many other changeling nobles had no such luck, being indiscriminately killed during the massacre. Though she would live on, the prospects of her ever being able to fulfill her ambitions of conquering Equestria were dimmer than ever; her empire was in total shambles, and her prestige among her fellow changeling royals fell to an all-time low after her miserable failures in the war. She had become known as a failure of a monarch, and, thanks largely to the All-Maker and his utterly merciless acts of genocide against the changeling race, almost no other hives would be willing to join her in the future; she was incompetent, and other rulers wouldn't risk having their subjects be exterminated at the hooves of raving hordes of anti-changeling fanatics for her sake.

The Temple of Vision became utterly vilified by the changeling race, and the great massacre of Manehattan was extremely virulently condemned by the liberal elites of Equestria and by the populations of the more tolerant cities. Elsewhere in Equestria, especially in the cities that had suffered under changeling occupation, the soldiers of the Temple were hailed as heroes for having inflicted a killing blow to the Changeling Empire and successfully exacting vengeance upon the abominations which had wrought so much devastation upon ponykind. Equestria became more polarized than ever before, regarding the changeling issue; whereas Celestia and the other elites were determined to force Equestrian society to accept changelings, the general population experienced a surge of anti-changeling fervor. Vehement hatred of the changeling race flourished along the frontier and in all the cities where the changelings had perpetrated mass-murder and slavery, which would lead to surges of separatist sentiment when the independence referendums started.

Celestia's government was more deeply unpopular than ever before, among almost every demographic. The Temple of Vision and other anti-changeling groups despised her for having tried to force the failed policy of changeling-integration upon Equestria, and for her repeated failures in protecting Equestria from the changeling menace. Liberals and reformers, alongside many changelings, held her in contempt for having surrendered to the rebellion and allowing wanton acts of genocide to be perpetrated against the changeling community. As a consequence, the Celestial regime completely crumbled once the independence referendums took place; city after city broke away from the principality, and Equestria fragmented into multiple independent states. The once-idolized Princesses, formerly symbols of Equestrian unity and continuity, became symbols of incompetence, broken promises, and failed ideologies, an obstacle to progress in the eyes of both pro and anti-changeling elements of society. The political elites of Equestria, who had a vested interest in preserving the central government, were among the only ponies which remained supportive of the continued reign of Celestia; though Celestia would be able to keep her crown, and convince a hoof-full of districts to vote against independence, her influence, power, and popular support were at an all-time low.

Cherry Ranger's influence in Parliament became greatly diminished, and her reputation nosedived. Thunderstorm was only able to get a reprimand from Parliament for her mocking of Princess Twilight and a demotion to the Agriculture Committee, but her grudge against unicorns became more apparent when she did not invite Princess Twilight to her 70th birthday party, despite Twilight recommending Pinkie Pie to arrange it and offering to pay for some of the expenses. Pinkie Pie at first agreed to help Cherry, but when she learned that Cherry would not invite Twilight, she canceled the deal in a rare retraction of a Pinkie Promise (by realizing that she forgot to add the hoof motions). As her party was sparsely attended and not particularly fun (even for an old mare), her wrong finally hit her, and she sought Princess Twilight's forgiveness.

Twilight accepted her apology and their relationship warmed. But the damage was already done. Because of Cherry Ranger's affront to unicorns alienated a large portion of the Equestrian populace, especially critical support from Rose and Blue Party moderates, her outspoken criticism of the Temple at a time when their support was needed, and Agrarian's own turn on her, led by Thunderstorm (she had effectively ran as an independent), she lost her first at-large election, ending a thirty-three year career in Parliament. She would retreat to the family farm in Dodge Junction, and later to Whinnyapolis as Temple support in Dodge Junction was too much for her to bear, changing her name to Cherry Gardener and starting her own cherry farm.

Trilby would too face backlash, this time in his own 6th District of Manehattan. Support for his Manehattan Resistance, already lower than expectations, had basically been destroyed after the Wednesday meeting (not to mention that indeed the messenger was captured and executed by Empire forces and the brochures burned). He still maintained his Whip position with the Rose Party and was still respected as the changeling race's official voice in Parliament. He was one of the few deputies to vote against Cherry's reprimand and continued to support her in her efforts. He was also one of the most strident denouncers of the Manehattan Massacre, which did not bode well for even his supporters. He would lose the next election very narrowly. He would stay in Manehattan, however, risking and surviving many attacks on his life, at least until Manehattan declared its independence from Equestria. He would move to Canterlot, still hoping that his idea of Manehattan would come to blossom again.

Princess Twilight would campaign heavily against many districts' independence, and especially Ponyville's, and was even able to delay the Ponyville vote through the duration of a legal challenge to the Temple's claim to the Crystal Tree Castle (Silver Shield advised her not to challenge their claim to Ponyville itself), over an oversight that was lost in the Peace of Canterlot's Sovereignty Doctrine controversy--whether Equestria could still recover property seized by the Temple. The Supreme Court, in an 8-6 vote (Windstriker recusing herself for undisclosed reasons), ruled that the only legal protections for the Temple that applied for acts prior to the ratification of the Peace of Canterlot went to their crimes "against changelings, changeling sympathizers, and treason," and did not cover theft, trespassing, or conversion of property (and in fact pointed to evidence that it was understood by both Equestria and the Temple that the Temple would return control of the western military bases and the weapons seized from the Guard). It awarded Twilight--and Equestria--the Crystal Tree Castle back.

Members of the Temple were outraged at the Court's decision in Princess Twilight Sparkle v. The Temple of Vision, fearing that they would be forced to return changeling property. But Sapphire Quill, embarrassed at her oversight in negotiating the Peace of Canterlot, declined to pursue a second hearing. Instead, she negotiated a second treaty, this time also as the head of the newly independent United Lands of the Dessert Valley (ULDV), the Salt Lick Supplemental Accords, that would formally transfer the Dessert Valley bases to the ULDV, pay Equestria 100 million bits in both consideration of those bases and for damages in pre-independence government property seizures and trespass, and an explicit promise from Equestria not to prosecute the Temple or its members for property damage to changelings or changeling sympathizers.

The Temple of Vision was filled with fury by Sapphire Quill's decision to give many millions of bits to the government which they had lost many lives attempting to overthrow, considering it to be an act of high treason, and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the treaty or pay a single penny to the Celestial government. Visionary made an official edict declaring her a traitor to the Temple and decreeing her to be a changeling sympathizer, stripping her entirely of her position within the Temple, and even her fellow city council members would strip her of her mayorship (saying that she "set a good precedent with Waterforge"). Even Brief Wit, anticipating that the Temple would soon execute Sapphire, refused to honor his promise to her, and she resigned from the firm. In a deep flurry of emotions she took the same poison that she used to kill her husband. However, that night Princess Luna came into her dreams, telling her that she needed to face her guilt over Tinkering's murder honestly (having learned about it through her supervision of the Domestic Bureau's relocation program) and that death would not solve it. Sapphire woke up the next morning to take the antidote to that poison and a train to the Crystal Empire, where she would seek out Peacekeeper to make amends.

The Valley's new government, with the blessing and support of Temple authorities, immediately canceled the new treaty Sapphire Quill negotiated with Celestial authorities (along with the payments she planned to Celestia's government). This would lead to a renewed series of conflicts, reigniting the flames of war for a brief time, with a series of large skirmishes being fought as soldiers from the Royal Guard attempted to forcibly seize control of military bases and weapons caches in the region. After several weeks of fighting, the ULDV's forces, combined with the Temple's milita forces, routed the Royal Guard from the Dessert Valley, securing their hold over the area. Following the victory, the Temple mounted multiple attacks on Celestial forces in Ponyville and San Flankcisco; both the Temple and the Celestial regime prepared to entirely repudiate the Peace of Canterlot and resume full-scale war, but, after public backlash against the prospect of further prolonged war and destruction, the two sides reluctantly agreed to further peace talks. The Celestial government agreed to abandon its claim to the military bases and resources within Temple-controlled territory, and would take no further legal action against the ToV or its members, and the Temple agreed to abandon its claim to Twilight's Castle. Despite the fighting being brief and limited in scale, it brought a swift end to any thoughts of reconciliation between the two powers, and would help shape an extremely aggressive anti-Celestial foreign policy by the frontier governments. Hostilities between the two forces would remain rampant for many years to come, despite the treaties they had signed, and the borders between Celestial controlled territory and Temple controlled territory would remain constantly militarized; hundreds of skirmishes and small battles would take place over the next decade, and they would remain in a perpetual state of animosity and conflict.

The Dessert Valley, Appaloosa, and Dodge Junction, the heartlands of the Temple, were among the most unanimous districts to declare independence from the Celestial regime. Unified through their mutual religious zeal, and instilled with further anti-Celestial militancy as a result of the recent conflicts following the end of the Changeling-Pony War, the ponies of the frontier, alongside their buffalo comrades, created a unified kingdom in opposition to Celestial authority, establishing an elective absolute monarchy; they would have a hero of the people rule with absolute authority from the people, with no democratic process to hold back progress. At first, the Prophet Visionary (who had become revered by anti-changeling elements throughout Equestria as Saint Visionary the Changeling-Slayer for his heroic involvement in the Battle of Manehattan; even among the irreligious, he had became a famous and beloved symbol of resistance against the once seemingly insurmountable and omnipresent changeling menace) was the most popular choice for a ruler to lead the frontier kingdom, with a large majority of the population voting to crown him, but Visionary rejected the offer, insisting that he was simply a humble servant of the All-Maker and was not worthy of the honor. After some further deliberation, the denizens of the frontier chose to elect the All-Maker himself to lead their nation, an honor which he accepted. He became the God-King of the frontier kingdom (which he had named the Kingdom of Lethe), quickly leading it to a golden era.

The Kingdom of Lethe was a... rather strange country, to say the least, blurring the lines between secular monarchy and divine rule. The All-Maker (who had readopted his old name for secular matters, adopting the title His Heavenly Majesty, God-King Letum of Lethe, Shield of Righteousness and Sword of Justice) was a living relic of a long-gone era of ancient history; an era which he attempted to revive in his new kingdom. Everything about the new realm, from its laws to its cultural values to its architecture was completely new to ponykind, with the frontier region starting to take on a very unique cultural identity separate from normal pony culture. The ruins of Salt-Lick City, a city which had taken a great deal of damage during the civil war, were rebuilt using ancient pre-changeling architectural styles, giving the metropolis an appearance very much so reminiscent of the scattered ruins throughout the Forbidden Jungle. Dress codes, literature, diets, entertainment, and other customs from the pre-changeling era made a similar revival under the All-Maker's watch, though his legal system was perhaps the most intriguing part of the kingdom.

The All-Maker was a hard-ruler, to say the least; under his legal system, almost all crimes were punishable by slow and painful deaths, with truly minor crimes like petty theft being punishable by public torture followed by permanent exile from the Kingdom. Yet, at the same time, he was extremely lenient in what was considered to be a crime; the KoL outlawed very few things, with the All-Maker having very little involvement in his subjects' personal lives, creating almost no regulations (relative to what the Celestial regime had established, anyway). Citizens were allowed to do almost literally anything they wanted, outside of theft, murder (though honorable duels to the death were legal, and vigilante murders of known criminals were legal), rape, and slavery, among a few other things; as long as you weren't a changeling, an alicorn-worshiper, or a Peacekeeper, or sympathetic to any of those three demographics, you could do just about whatever you wanted.

The All-Maker was the arch-nemesis of the changeling community, which he declared hostibus suis imperpetuum, enemies in perpetuity, and actively perpetrated genocide against them at every possible opportunity alongside everyone sympathetic towards them (including the Peacekeepers, who were active supporters of changeling-integration, and alicorn-worshipers, who venerated Celestia, a known changeling-sympathizer). Needless to say, he wasn't exactly on good terms with Celestia; Lethe and the Principality were in a constant state of near-war. Despite the peace which existed on paper, skirmishes would break out between the All-Maker's forces and Celestial forces on a regular basis, started by both sides; as such, considering the overwhelmingly hostile relations shared between the two nations, citizens of the Principality passing through the area were frequent targets of violence, and citizens of Lethe who demonstrated support for Celestia were given automatic death sentences. For everyone else, however, the Kingdom of Lethe was a paradise, where anybody could do anything; just about everything that didn't physically harm another civilized creature, from same-sex marriage to narcotics usage, was freely allowed. The region quickly attracted numerous entrepreneurs and investors, with hundreds of new businesses being opened over the next few years; the near-total lack of laws and regulations, in addition to low taxes, made the frontier a very attractive location for ponies to start business enterprises and for rich ponies looking for a tax haven. Members of the homo and bisexual community, also, flocked to the frontier, where they found a great deal of acceptance (thanks largely to the efforts of the All-Maker and the Temple of Vision, which actively taught that homosexuality was a normal part of society and should not be condemned). It was a strange country, unlike anything ponykind had ever seen, yet it managed to be successful; the influx of wealthy investors helped create a strong economy, and the exceedingly harsh punishments (alongside mass-monitoring of society undertaken by the state Inquisition force, led by the apostle Deep Insight) kept order in the streets.

Meanwhile, the Ponyville independence referendum failed by a slim margin, to the surprise of many observers. In fact, because Salt Lick City became a more prominent center of Temple activity, many members moved there, and Temple influence diminished in Ponyville, giving the yes vote less clout than predicted. Still, there remained a sizable number that believed that Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, and Parliament should have done more to combat the Temple.

Eventually the Co-Principality whittled down to an area encompassing Canterlot, Ponyville, Whinnyapolis, Buckmark, Lincolt, and some smaller towns in between, plus an exclave at San Flankcisco. Even there the status quo did not stay put; the remaining lawmakers from these cities enacted Equestria's first major constitutional change—almost rewriting the whole Constitution--in hundreds of years, giving the cities their own sovereign basis, breaking the unitary model that had governed Equestria for a thousand years. (In fact this had already been in the works since Parliament ratified the Peace of Canterlot to encourage more districts to stay in.) Parliament would handle defense, foreign affairs, interdistrict and international commerce, raise a few specified taxes, and otherwise would "coordinate district affairs as necessary for any serious conflicts that may arise between them.” The district assemblies would deal with education, weather control, healthcare, welfare, criminal law, regulation of intoxicating liquors--basically anything else not explicitly granted to Parliament. As a result, for example, while Equestria itself did not recognize same-sex marriage, every district soon would, and Equestria was obliged to honor that choice. Princesses Celestia and Luna remained as its heads of state, but their Royal Assents became more symbolic than meaningful, removing the “unchanged bill” requirement for overcoming the Princesses’ veto.

Princess Celestia felt guilty about the concessions she made to the Temple of Vision and the atrocities committed under it, and insisted on protecting the rights of all species—even changelings. Though she had no formal power in the amendment process, she proposed an amendment that would “maintain the equal protection of personal, civil, political, and social rights of this Constitution as to all species" at the national level, even granting full legalization of same-sex marriage and protection for the LGBT Community. While Princess Twilight and some deputies, such as Trilby and Blind Justice, supported the measure, many other elites and deputies found Celestia’s efforts to “persuade” Parliament (among them threatening to remove dissenting Senators, propose amendments to expand the Senate, or outright dissolving Parliament) to violate separation of powers on one hoof and dangerous to the compromise necessary to salvage as much as Equestria as possible on the other. Lincolt and Detrot, which had expected to be able to allow public accommodations to discriminate against changelings under the new constitutional amendments, were especially turned off by Celestia’s maneuvers and left the union. (Lincolt, after starting its own independent state, would return in a couple of years due to economic difficulties.) Even Princess Twilight became skeptical of the legitimacy of Celestia’s asserted powers, which became fuel for opponents to call for Celestia’s impeachment. Celestia soon backed down from her efforts, agreeing to respect Parliament’s choice. After an impassioned speech by Trilby—the final one of his term—Parliament narrowly agreed to Celestia’s amendment, realizing that allowing cities to set their own civil rights rules could mean disparate treatment among the pony races as well.

Princess Twilight remained the chief mediator for the people of the remaining districts of Equestria, and fortunately saw a trimming of subject matter jurisdiction so she did not have to hear most contract or tort claims (she still heard a few fiduciary duty cases involving partnerships, as well as those with breaches of confidentiality every now and then), allowing her more time to deal with "pure" friendship problems and spend time with her children. (For that matter, Potter Black, who remained a deputy despite the great political shake-ups, officially re-adopted Pitch Black as his son when Pitch turned thirteen. As a result, Potter spent more time with Pitch, taking him camping and fishing and teaching him about a past that seemed so remote today, when all Equestria could still feel united under the Sun Princess despite their great differences.)

Of the cities, San Flankcisco and Ponyville seemed to be in the most precarious positions. As Equestria's only remaining outlet to the sea, San Flankcisco was critically important, and soon became the commerce hub that Manehattan once filled, but its fruits to mainland Equestria always had to pass through Lethe in some way, risking robberies by some of the more fanatical members of the Temple, especially if a changeling happened to be the driver (and it took one unfortunate incident for Equestria to pass a law forbidding changeling drivers in commerce from passing through Lethe). Ponyville, meanwhile, had a related problem: the Everfree Forest and the old Ponyville temple were still considered holy sites by the Temple, and pilgrims were a frequent sight. These pilgrims would evangelize the city, stirring up revivals of secessionist fervor. In fact Ponyville got permission from Parliament to hold another independence referenda, yet it too would fail. Twilight and the local Ponyville leaders were committed to keep the Temple at bay, and while attacks against changelings were more frequent there than other places in Equestria, nothing even approached the level of the Great Ponyville Massacre or the Ponyville Rebellion.

Vanhoofer and Tall Tale (and the districts immediately surrounding it), as some of the few Equestrian cities to not see a Temple uprising or attack, formed the Republic of Cataract, whose policies towards changelings were as progressive as the Crystal Empire's. In fact they counted the Crystal Empire as an even greater ally than Equestria, relying on the Crystal Empire for military protection and (at first) much of its trade. However, it did not integrate with the Crystal Empire because of its republican streak, objecting to even Princess Cadence's enlightened rule. Smoky Topaz became its first President, leading the nation to a high-tech economy and widespread workplace democracy. Despite having a more strictly regulated and interventionist economy than Lethe, it attracted quite a few rich investors of its own by emphasizing innovation, high finance, and sheer productivity, eventually surpassing the other newly-independent nations in GDP per capita.

Los Pegasus, and a few districts in the San Palomino Desert, formed Sierra Palomino, a state that initially declined to allow protections for changelings because of its (more moderate) Temple political elite but later granted it by referendum (and would also lose power in the general election that year). It boosted its already robust tourism industry by allowing casino gambling, though with it came a higher rate of crime than other newly-independent districts. It also instituted compulsory military service for youths just reaching the age of majority, forming a large pool of soldiers for a government whose foreign policy zig-zagged between support for the Kingdom of Lethe and the Co-Principality of Equestria (and at times they supported both or neither).

Cloudsdale and its suburbs formed the City-State of Nubes-Synnefo. It resisted changeling integration, but once it became independent it failed to actually go quite as far as the Kingdom of Lethe: it forbade changelings from coming within its borders, but it did not sanction killing them. A little surprisingly, it even became vehemently anti-Griffon Kingdom and even a little anti-griffin, not forgetting King Philip's side looting. As a district of Equestria, it boasted the largest population of griffins in Equestria outside Manehattan; as independent it drove many out and discriminated against those who stayed. Since it was no longer associated with the Equestrian government, the old base of its economy was at a near vacuum, and it struggled to diversify beyond its own weather-making, the military, and occasional deals with Equestria and Lethe to provide rain and snow to border towns. Of the new countries, Nubes-Synnefo would be the least self-sufficient.

Among the cities of the eastern coast, Baltimare and Wingscotting, while they did fall to the Changeling Empire, did not suffer under it quite as long--or even as hard--as Manehattan, Hollow Shades, and Fillydelphia. As a result their new nation, the United Duchies of Neighland, were more moderate in their changeling policies than their sister cities up north, if a little paradoxical. While it discriminated against changelings by default and practically considered nearly every killing of a changeling by a pony to be one in self-defense, it did allow changelings to apply for full citizenship status upon grueling examinations and "re-education," which in reality stripped them of their love-sharing and shape-shifting abilities, forcing them to eat tangible food like every other pony and always stay in their default form. (Liberal critics would especially criticize this practice and Temple orthodoxy lambasted it for even contemplating equal rights for changelings, but its defenders argued that this was actually a more fitting punishment for their crimes than just killing them. In fact what prompted this policy was the nation’s original plan to make changelings a slave caste on a strict application of “an eye for an eye,” which only lasted a week before seeing widespread slave revolts.) Besides Baltimare and Wingscotting, Neighland included seven other smaller towns and numerous villages. Each city and town were headed by a duke or duchess, selected from among a pool of its old Equestrian political, business, and social elite, forming a nobility almost entirely unicorn (with Wingscotting providing a pegasus) like in Equestria's early years. It would compete with Lethe as a tax haven, and even a few Equestrian companies would incorporate there.

Historically, Manehattan and Fillydelphia had been more tolerant of changelings than other Equestrian cities, but the war completely reversed that policy. With Hollow Shades, New Londam, and their suburbs (and later Detrot), they would form the Northeast Confederation, who, like Lethe, would strip changelings and changeling sympathizers of all their rights (with the exception of Detrot, which did protect a few). It had no central government except for an emergency council, composed of city leaders, convened in cases of collective self-defense (and each city had its own militia) or other national emergencies. A reluctance for the cities not to form stronger ties, though one that cemented its shared identity, was driven in part by an epidemic that exploded among the Manehattan population shortly after its independence referendum, which spread to Fillydelphia and Hollow Shades before the leaders in the cities enacted strict quarantines to both protect themselves and other now-foreign cities. (Even as the Equestria whittled down, Princess Celestia and Parliament moved quickly to help the Northeast Confederation contain the disease, as did Neighland, successfully preventing whatever disease came into their own countries from getting out of hoof.) Already devastated by war and oppression, the Northeast Confederation would lose at least a quarter of its population through the epidemic. (Because changelings turned out to be resistant to the disease, many labeled it “Chrysalis’ Revenge.”) Even when the vaccine was found and the number infected dwindled, Northeasters developed a fear of going outside their cities, and ended up being the most isolationist of the new nations, at least for the first ten years. Slowly the cities began to pick up the pieces, and within ten years each city’s economy was well-diversified and self-sufficient (evoking a little jealousy from Nubes-Synnefo), if not quite as rich as they once were.

Of course, Equestria wasn't the only nation to undergo major political upheaval. Across the sea, in the Griffin Kingdom, a massive change in the political climate had taken place, one which would rather seriously jeopardize Equestrian interests in the region. With the support of both Chrysalis and the local griffin aristocracy, Lord Philip Blackwing made a second bid for the Throne of Griffonstone, the Griffin Kingdom erupting into civil war over the crown for the second time. Equestria, having been occupied with their own civil war and the changeling invasion, was able to offer almost nothing to the rapidly crumbling Groverian dynasty; King Guto's forces were swiftly outmatched by the Blackwing rebels, who had significant resources at their disposal from their numerous aristocratic sponsors. Having both superior leadership and a substantially better funded army, the Blackwings decisively defeated the Groverian loyalists, winning victory after victory, striking a killing blow against the ancient royal family.

In a matter of months, the Griffin Kingdom was under the complete control of the Blackwing Clan, their opposition being shattered after a number of major defeats; Guto himself was slain by Lord Philip in battle during the war. The surviving members of the Groverian dynasty fled westwards, into Equestria, along with the talon-full of noble families which had supported Guto during the war, where they formed a government-in-exile. Back home in the Griffin Kingdom, though, His Royal Majesty, Lord Philip Blackwing, King of the Griffins, had secured total dominance, consolidating his hold on the throne and solidifying himself as the indisputable king. With the support of almost all the griffin nobility, and the respect of a great deal of the peasantry, King Philip set about bringing his vision for the Griffin Kingdom to life. A series of major reactionary political reforms were created in the kingdom, greatly empowering the aristocratic elite and establishing an official feudal hierarchy revolving around birthright and noble privilege, with the Blackwing monarchy revolving around the concept that the highborn nobility rule through divine right.

Unfortunately for King Philip's ally, Chrysalis, his victory, while overwhelmingly decisive, came too late for the kingdom to intervene in the Pony-Changeling war. The last of Guto's forces were defeated a week after the changeling defeat in the Battle of Manehattan, just after the fall of the empire. Philip was a griffin of his word, and he had an honor-bound obligation to repay Chrysalis for the assistance she provided his army, but not even the fearless warrior-king was going to attack Equestria all on his own, especially after the triumphant ponies had made a bloodthirsty example of the defeated changelings. The terms of his agreement with the changelings were renegotiated; rather than invading Equestria, as he had previously agreed to do, Philip would indefinitely owe one favor to Chrysalis, redeemable at any time for anything he was capable of providing (short of giving up the kingdom he had worked his entire life to claim, that is).

While changelings in most of the Changeling-Friendly Nations emerged from the shadows, others remained hidden in plain sight. Meanwhile, the Fourth Pony-Changeling War have taken its toll on Changeling Communities throughout Equestria. The Sand and Snow Changelings became increasingly isolationist and xenophobic, fortifying their mounds and mountain homes of their tribes with deadly traps and weaponry to the point of near savagery. The Equestrian Changeling communities, on the other hand, became closer and more united than ever before as they took in many of Chrysalis's survivors, including the very queen herself, though she herself was immediately imprisoned for her crimes, even despite ceasing on being a threat due to Changelings no longer taking her seriously . An agreement and alliance was forged between them: a unity of colonies and hives alike which became known as the Confederacy of Changeling Hives and Colonies, a vast network of changeling settlements working together for the betterment of changeling kind while keeping to themselves.

Within this Confederacy, a great peace treaty was made declaring none to ever declare war against one another and instead commit to trade and protection for one another, all while remaining completely sovereign to themselves in law and leadership. A mere council, making up of Confederacy leaders, was made to keep the peace within this alliance, taking place in an area of pure secrecy in one of Equestria's most tallest mountains. The attitude towards ponykind varied among colonies and hives. However, an agreement was made to never again declare war against them. Many, including those who once belonged to Chrysalis's Empire and especially those among the Kingdom of Lethe, declared pure isolation from all ponykind to the point of sharing Sand and Ice changeling-like xenophobia. Others, like Razor Wing's Colony, would declare themselves in open trade with Ponykind, especially those most friendly to the Changeling race.

The world had been changed; all the major powers, Equestria, the Griffin Kingdom, and the Changeling Empire, had experienced drastic changes. An era of newfound nationalism, separatism, and political polarization had swept Equus, and its effects could be felt everywhere, shaking up the political landscape, and even the most concrete of ancient regimes would crumble under its weight. The world was a delicate house of cards, and, through opportunism and luck, a few interested parties had been able to collapse it from within, creating a divided world in flames; a world up for grabs, where new players could enter the scene of global geo-politics, and anyone could make a rise to power from the ashes of the once-unified old order. Nations would rise and fall, leaders would come and go, and life would go on in the shattered world that ponies, griffins, changelings, and buffalo alike now lived in.

[Fascist Russian Empire]

I just remembered an important detail which creates a bit of a discrepancy: Don't Chrysalis and her hive have some sort of important base hidden in the Hayseed Swamp? Why would she seek refuge from her changeling rivals and political adversaries when she, and her supporters, could just go there and evade arrest?

[The Flutterlands]

I just remembered an important detail which creates a bit of a discrepancy: Don't Chrysalis and her hive have some sort of important base hidden in the Hayseed Swamp? Why would she seek refuge from her changeling rivals and political adversaries when she, and her supporters, could just go there and evade arrest?

...I'd assume that was captured. I actually forgot about that for a moment.

[Fascist Russian Empire]

...I'd assume that was captured. I actually forgot about that for a moment.

Isn't it supposed to be a secret location or something?

[The Flutterlands]

...I'd assume that was captured. I actually forgot about that for a moment.

Isn't it supposed to be a secret location or something?

I think so yeah...

[Fascist Russian Empire]

I think so yeah...

So, unless Chrysalis's soldiers are going around volunteering information to the enemy, or Equestrian spies miraculously manage to find out about its existence (which seems pretty doubtful; Equestria hasn't exactly had a history of competence when it comes to espionage), they wouldn't even know that it exists, right? Then, surely, Chrysalis and her troops would just go hide out there as opposed to going to refugee camps and getting themselves arrested?

[The Flutterlands]

I think so yeah...

So, unless Chrysalis's soldiers are going around volunteering information to the enemy, or Equestrian spies miraculously manage to find out about its existence (which seems pretty doubtful; Equestria hasn't exactly had a history of competence when it comes to espionage), they wouldn't even know that it exists, right? Then, surely, Chrysalis and her troops would just go hide out there as opposed to going to refugee camps and getting themselves arrested?

They're not necessarily 'refugee camps', they're just hives and colonies forming an alliance in hopes of a brand new era of peace taking measures in avoiding a fifth pony-changeling war...

That being said, I guess i could edit the epilogue tomorrow...

[The Flutterlands]

Here's a fixed version with some additons.

The Chamber of Deputies passed Lopesy Neigh's appropriation and draft measures by a vote of 302-147 (Cherry Ranger abstaining) and the Senate approving 120-30. Later, Parliament passed a more enlightened version of Lopesy's changeling relocation measure, creating the Internal Equestitarian Act, authorizing the Domestic Bureau to create a program "for the re-accommodation of threatened persons." For about two weeks, the program operated clandestinely, working with the Peacekeepers to bring changelings and changeling sympathizers to the Crystal Empire.

The interception of a note Rock Mason wrote to one of the administrators of the program confirmed to the Temple that the Equestrian government was trying to weaken its efforts to rid the world of changelings and that changelings were employed by Salt Lick City undocumented. He and a number of other Peacekeepers associated with the Works Commission were given mock trials by Temple authorities, where they were convicted of high treason and crimes against Equestria; they were subsequently given public executions, most being burnt at the stake (though Brief Wit, Sapphire Quill's boss at the law office, was acquitted by Sapphire Quill for promising to recant his affiliation with the Peacekeepers and share information on other Peacekeeper networks; and reminding her that she was an at-will employee and that partner status was waiting for her when she left public office). The discovery of the conspiracy prompted a much more aggressive expansion policy by the rebels and further contributed to the increasing militancy of the anti-changeling elements of Equestria, preempting a series of major rebel offensives (utilizing weapons and munitions claimed from Royal Guard arsenals throughout the Dessert Valley).

Through the leadership and aid of the All-Maker, the rebellion continued to thrive throughout Equestria. Having widespread support throughout the Equestrian Midwest and the forntier, large stockpiles of weapons and supplies, a large force of ideologically driven fanatics, and the immense magical power of the All-Maker on their side, they were able to rapidly snowball into a huge problem for the government. The rebel army marched to victory after victory against Celestia's army, defeating multiple counterattacks and seizing control of several more cities and towns, including Las Pegasus and San Flankcisco, further bolstering their forces and resources as their territory grew. They were seemingly unstoppable, growing in strength and scale with each passing day, posing an undeniably major threat to the Celestial diarchy. Before long, the All-Maker and his army began laying siege to Canterlot itself, attacking the very heart of the Equestrian government.

Celestia knew she had to do something; she had two major enemies seeking her downfall, and was fighting a losing war on either front. Even if she managed to defeat the rebellion, her army would doubtlessly suffer enough casualties to guarantee the changelings would be able to easily triumph over the remnants of her forces, and even if she managed to defeat Chrysalis the rebels would almost certainly be able to defeat what remained of her army and fulfill their goal of a new government across all of Equestria. Realizing the desperate gravity of her situation, she went to the negotiating table with the All-Maker and other major rebel figures to discuss the terms of a peace treaty. Holding a great deal of bargaining power against her, the rebels demanded a number of major concessions. First and foremost among their demands was the total reversal of the changeling-integration policy in its entirety; every last pro-changeling reform, including but not limited to government-mandated nondiscrimination and affirmative action programs, would be repealed in full. Second among their demands was that the Third Treaty of Tripony be suspended throughout the duration of the war, effectively allowing the rebel forces to commit war crimes against the changeling community with complete legal impunity, and the Equestrian government would make no efforts to prosecute the rebels for the massacres they had perpetrated against the changeling community. Third among their demands was that the Temple of Vision become a legally protected entity in Equestria, with guaranteed freedom of speech and tax-exempt status among other things, and that the government would enact similar protections to other anti-changeling organizations and ideologues, effectively allowing anti-changeling agitators to operate throughout the country with impunity. A number of other concessions were also demanded, including the termination of the changeling relocation program.

However, Princess Celestia still tried to keep the Crystal Empire out of the provisions of the treaty. Sapphire Quill, who had by this time also became the Temple's official legal counsel, read the fine print just before the treaty was to be signed and immediately demanded that the Crystal Empire exemption be struck and make clear that the Sovereignty Doctrine did not apply to the treaty. Princess Celestia realized that the only way out now was outright independence for her adopted niece's territory.

On the request of Princess Celestia, Parliament authorized the Crystal Empire to conduct an independence referenda if Princess Cadence so chose to, over strident objections by Cherry Ranger and Blind Justice for Celestia giving in too much. Cadence was initially surprised at Celestia's move, and Shining Armor knew that he might lose command of the Crystal Guard and therefore an extra set of troops to fight the Changeling Empire, but eventually they both agreed that it was probably the for the best and Shining could still lead the Crystal Guard in a subsequent treaty with Equestria.

Meanwhile, Sapphire Quill knew full well of Celestia's intentions. After some consultation with other Temple leaders, they agreed that they would only accept the Crystal Empire's independence if other districts in Equestria were given the same right and that it would not enter any treaties or agreements with the Crystal Empire relating to changelings. Princess Celestia reluctantly agreed to this, and made a new independence referenda recommendation to Parliament. Though Parliament debate was more contentious This time, with members such as Cherry Ranger and Constellation warning that more district independence would "bring us back to the era of Windigos and disharmony," the recommendation passed by a single vote. With that, the "Peace of Canterlot" was finally official.

The Crystal Empire held its independence referendum the following day, returning an overwhelming "yes" from the population. It came at a rather significant price, however: Cadence was wary that the Temple might still turn on the Crystal Empire, and with disagreements on using the Crystal Guards' integrated troops, the Crystal Empire decide to pull from its alliance with Equestria in the war against the Changeling Empire and concentrate on its own self-defense.

Razor Wing and all his changeling allies were greatly disheartened by Celestia's decision to give into the ToV's demands. None of them could stand the very thought of so much work made in improving Pony-Changeling Relations. Many have even seen this as outright betrayal on Celestia's part, even despite her explanation of what actually happened. Thus many groups of changelings went back to the old way of life. Many took on disguises to assimilate into the pony community without being noticed, taking extra measures to avoid suspicion, others migrated to the Crystal Empire, while a large number returned to the mountains and caves that they called home. Most of the colonies and hives cut off all ties to the Equestrian nation that was once their ally, making a pact to avoid making dealings with ponies ever again. Others, however, have even became fully convinced by Chrysalis's word about pony kind and joined her cause to overthrow the pony race.

Despite the Crystal Empire's and changeling allies' retreat from the Fourth Pony-Changeling War, Equestria's new alliance with the Temple turned out to be a net positive, at least for a while. Between the combined forces of the Royal Guard and the rebel army, and the combined powers of the Diarchs and the All-Maker, ponykind was able to create a truly formidable united front against changeling aggression. Over the course of the few months following the Peace of Canterlot, the Equestrian forces made dozens of vicious counterattacks against the Changeling Empire, winning victory after victory and liberating city after city. The desolate, barren, depopulated ruins of Cloudsdale, the little town of Hollow Shades, and the big cities of Fillydelphia and Baltimare each fell to the triumphant pony forces, the changelings facing defeat on every front. Throughout the process, changelings in the liberated cities were treated mercilessly; retribution-seekers, both from the violently anti-changeling rebel forces and from the liberated ponies (many of which had been instilled with viciously anti-changeling sentiment after the changelings had brought slavery and death to their homes), made relentless attacks against the changeling communities in the formerly occupied cities, with thousands of changelings being massacred in savage reprisals against their kind.

The Fourth (and, in all likelihood, final) Pony-Changeling War finally reached a bloody end at the Battle of Manehattan, a day which would live in both legend and infamy. The combined army of Celestia and the All-Maker descended upon the city, attacking it in a coordinated effort. The changelings had an artifact which disabled non-changeling magic; it mattered little to the advancing pony forces, who relentlessly struck at the enemy with guns and artillery. Thousands of fanatical martyrs from the Temple, led by the Prophet Visionary, swarmed Manehattan, showing a ferocity in battle the likes of which would frighten even the legendary warriors of griffin mythology, emboldened by the knowledge that their enemies were foul, ungodly abominations, and that they would receive passage to the greatest of afterlives if they died fighting them. Thousands of Royal Guards fought alongside them, filled with courage of their own, knowing that they were driving out the last vestiges of Equestria's nemesis, though their dedication paled in comparison to the pure fanaticism of the rebels.

As the changeling forces began to crumble and their defenses were breached by the pony attackers, things very rapidly went downhill for Chrysalis and her army. A major slave revolt broke out against the changelings; tens of thousands of pony slaves and resistance members, seeing the vulnerability of their oppressors, took up arms and struck at the changeling menace, full of contempt for them. The changelings swiftly found themselves surrounded on all sides by enemies, and it quickly became clear that they were fighting a losing battle. The Equestrian armies advanced swiftly through the city, and, before long, Chrysalis' palace was stormed by the attackers, its inhabitants being massacred, at which point fanatical retribution-seekers (from the ranks of both the revolting slaves and the Temple's holy warriors) started destroying every last trace of the changeling regalia, starting with the throne of Chrysalis. The magical black throne was shattered, and the changelings' anti-magic shield evaporated; what followed after that was nothing less than a total and utter bloodbath. Finally able to utilize his powers against the abominations, the All-Maker unleashed his full fury against the enemy; he cast a magic spell across all of Manehattan, disabling the shapeshifting powers of the changelings, and he began unleashing a series of terrifyingly devastating magical attacks against them.

Ponykind had suffered innumerable atrocities at the hooves of the changeling race; hundreds of thousands of ponies had been killed, and millions more had suffered from the vile institution of slavery. Death, oppression, and unfathomable cruelty had all been perpetrated in immense volumes against the innocent; the changeling race was responsible for some of the most heinous crimes the world had ever seen. Ponies didn't just want to punish Chrysalis; they were out for blood. The changeling race had defiled Equestria, and it was time for retribution. Changelings were indiscriminately butchered in droves all across Manehattan, with thousands of ponies, especially the former-slaves (who had developed a special kind of hatred against changelings, after what they had been subjected to), joining the All-Maker in inflicting vengeance upon the abominations. The changelings were utterly massacred; over a hundred thousand of them were slaughtered in the single largest act of genocide in recorded history. Chrysalis fled the city, alongside what little remained of her decimated army, finding temporary refuge in the Griffin Kingdom before returning to her hidden hive. Tens of thousands of changeling civilians attempted to flee northwards to the Crystal Empire, to escape the fury of the retribution-seekers; thousands died in the process, with the All-Maker raining fire from the sky upon them, killing a great many of the fleeing refugees. It wasn't just the changeling people who were targeted, though; iconoclastic fury swept through the ranks of the victorious and vengeful ponies, who demolished countless buildings the changelings had erected, destroying every trace of changeling architecture they could find, purging Manehattan of changeling influence very thoroughly.

Though a great many pony soldiers died in the process, the Battle of Manehattan proved to be a major victory for Equestria, the final setback for the invading forces. The war had cost the lives of innumerable ponies, and its political ramifications left Equestria as a polarized and sharply divided realm, but there could be no debate; ponykind had won a glorious victory against their enemy, safeguarding their land against the evil menace which sought to enslave their race. On that day, in that city, where vast numbers of changelings lay dead with triumphant ponies desecrating their mangled bodies, ponykind had proven that it would not take a single step back; if anyone perpetrated violence against Equestria, its denizens were willing and able to respond with violence in equal or greater measure. Equestria was not afraid of violence; they had proven that, should anyone attack their country, they would fight with unyielding ferocity to drive the invaders from their soil no matter the cost.

The Changeling Empire was completely shattered from the Battle of Manehattan, and Chrysalis's power was forever broken. Her army had been almost totally wiped out during the war, and her subjects had been butchered in droves, leaving her hive as a broken, depopulated husk of what it once was. Chrysalis herself barely escaped the fury of Equestria; many other changeling nobles had no such luck, being indiscriminately killed during the massacre. Though she would live on, the prospects of her ever being able to fulfill her ambitions of conquering Equestria were dimmer than ever; her empire was in total shambles, and her prestige among her fellow changeling royals fell to an all-time low after her miserable failures in the war. She had become known as a failure of a monarch, and, thanks largely to the All-Maker and his utterly merciless acts of genocide against the changeling race, almost no other hives would be willing to join her in the future; she was incompetent, and other rulers wouldn't risk having their subjects be exterminated at the hooves of raving hordes of anti-changeling fanatics for her sake.

The Temple of Vision became utterly vilified by the changeling race, and the great massacre of Manehattan was extremely virulently condemned by the liberal elites of Equestria and by the populations of the more tolerant cities. Elsewhere in Equestria, especially in the cities that had suffered under changeling occupation, the soldiers of the Temple were hailed as heroes for having inflicted a killing blow to the Changeling Empire and successfully exacting vengeance upon the abominations which had wrought so much devastation upon ponykind. Equestria became more polarized than ever before, regarding the changeling issue; whereas Celestia and the other elites were determined to force Equestrian society to accept changelings, the general population experienced a surge of anti-changeling fervor. Vehement hatred of the changeling race flourished along the frontier and in all the cities where the changelings had perpetrated mass-murder and slavery, which would lead to surges of separatist sentiment when the independence referendums started.

Celestia's government was more deeply unpopular than ever before, among almost every demographic. The Temple of Vision and other anti-changeling groups despised her for having tried to force the failed policy of changeling-integration upon Equestria, and for her repeated failures in protecting Equestria from the changeling menace. Liberals and reformers, alongside many changelings, held her in contempt for having surrendered to the rebellion and allowing wanton acts of genocide to be perpetrated against the changeling community. As a consequence, the Celestial regime completely crumbled once the independence referendums took place; city after city broke away from the principality, and Equestria fragmented into multiple independent states. The once-idolized Princesses, formerly symbols of Equestrian unity and continuity, became symbols of incompetence, broken promises, and failed ideologies, an obstacle to progress in the eyes of both pro and anti-changeling elements of society. The political elites of Equestria, who had a vested interest in preserving the central government, were among the only ponies which remained supportive of the continued reign of Celestia; though Celestia would be able to keep her crown, and convince a hoof-full of districts to vote against independence, her influence, power, and popular support were at an all-time low.

Cherry Ranger's influence in Parliament became greatly diminished, and her reputation nosedived. Thunderstorm was only able to get a reprimand from Parliament for her mocking of Princess Twilight and a demotion to the Agriculture Committee, but her grudge against unicorns became more apparent when she did not invite Princess Twilight to her 70th birthday party, despite Twilight recommending Pinkie Pie to arrange it and offering to pay for some of the expenses. Pinkie Pie at first agreed to help Cherry, but when she learned that Cherry would not invite Twilight, she canceled the deal in a rare retraction of a Pinkie Promise (by realizing that she forgot to add the hoof motions). As her party was sparsely attended and not particularly fun (even for an old mare), her wrong finally hit her, and she sought Princess Twilight's forgiveness.

Twilight accepted her apology and their relationship warmed. But the damage was already done. Because of Cherry Ranger's affront to unicorns alienated a large portion of the Equestrian populace, especially critical support from Rose and Blue Party moderates, her outspoken criticism of the Temple at a time when their support was needed, and Agrarian's own turn on her, led by Thunderstorm (she had effectively ran as an independent), she lost her first at-large election, ending a thirty-three year career in Parliament. She would retreat to the family farm in Dodge Junction, and later to Whinnyapolis as Temple support in Dodge Junction was too much for her to bear, changing her name to Cherry Gardener and starting her own cherry farm.

Trilby would too face backlash, this time in his own 6th District of Manehattan. Support for his Manehattan Resistance, already lower than expectations, had basically been destroyed after the Wednesday meeting (not to mention that indeed the messenger was captured and executed by Empire forces and the brochures burned). He still maintained his Whip position with the Rose Party and was still respected as the changeling race's official voice in Parliament. He was one of the few deputies to vote against Cherry's reprimand and continued to support her in her efforts. He was also one of the most strident denouncers of the Manehattan Massacre, which did not bode well for even his supporters. He would lose the next election very narrowly. He would stay in Manehattan, however, risking and surviving many attacks on his life, at least until Manehattan declared its independence from Equestria. He would move to Canterlot, still hoping that his idea of Manehattan would come to blossom again.

Princess Twilight would campaign heavily against many districts' independence, and especially Ponyville's, and was even able to delay the Ponyville vote through the duration of a legal challenge to the Temple's claim to the Crystal Tree Castle (Silver Shield advised her not to challenge their claim to Ponyville itself), over an oversight that was lost in the Peace of Canterlot's Sovereignty Doctrine controversy--whether Equestria could still recover property seized by the Temple. The Supreme Court, in an 8-6 vote (Windstriker recusing herself for undisclosed reasons), ruled that the only legal protections for the Temple that applied for acts prior to the ratification of the Peace of Canterlot went to their crimes "against changelings, changeling sympathizers, and treason," and did not cover theft, trespassing, or conversion of property (and in fact pointed to evidence that it was understood by both Equestria and the Temple that the Temple would return control of the western military bases and the weapons seized from the Guard). It awarded Twilight--and Equestria--the Crystal Tree Castle back.

Members of the Temple were outraged at the Court's decision in Princess Twilight Sparkle v. The Temple of Vision, fearing that they would be forced to return changeling property. But Sapphire Quill, embarrassed at her oversight in negotiating the Peace of Canterlot, declined to pursue a second hearing. Instead, she negotiated a second treaty, this time also as the head of the newly independent United Lands of the Dessert Valley (ULDV), the Salt Lick Supplemental Accords, that would formally transfer the Dessert Valley bases to the ULDV, pay Equestria 100 million bits in both consideration of those bases and for damages in pre-independence government property seizures and trespass, and an explicit promise from Equestria not to prosecute the Temple or its members for property damage to changelings or changeling sympathizers.

The Temple of Vision was filled with fury by Sapphire Quill's decision to give many millions of bits to the government which they had lost many lives attempting to overthrow, considering it to be an act of high treason, and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the treaty or pay a single penny to the Celestial government. Visionary made an official edict declaring her a traitor to the Temple and decreeing her to be a changeling sympathizer, stripping her entirely of her position within the Temple, and even her fellow city council members would strip her of her mayorship (saying that she "set a good precedent with Waterforge"). Even Brief Wit, anticipating that the Temple would soon execute Sapphire, refused to honor his promise to her, and she resigned from the firm. In a deep flurry of emotions she took the same poison that she used to kill her husband. However, that night Princess Luna came into her dreams, telling her that she needed to face her guilt over Tinkering's murder honestly (having learned about it through her supervision of the Domestic Bureau's relocation program) and that death would not solve it. Sapphire woke up the next morning to take the antidote to that poison and a train to the Crystal Empire, where she would seek out Peacekeeper to make amends.

The Valley's new government, with the blessing and support of Temple authorities, immediately canceled the new treaty Sapphire Quill negotiated with Celestial authorities (along with the payments she planned to Celestia's government). This would lead to a renewed series of conflicts, reigniting the flames of war for a brief time, with a series of large skirmishes being fought as soldiers from the Royal Guard attempted to forcibly seize control of military bases and weapons caches in the region. After several weeks of fighting, the ULDV's forces, combined with the Temple's milita forces, routed the Royal Guard from the Dessert Valley, securing their hold over the area. Following the victory, the Temple mounted multiple attacks on Celestial forces in Ponyville and San Flankcisco; both the Temple and the Celestial regime prepared to entirely repudiate the Peace of Canterlot and resume full-scale war, but, after public backlash against the prospect of further prolonged war and destruction, the two sides reluctantly agreed to further peace talks. The Celestial government agreed to abandon its claim to the military bases and resources within Temple-controlled territory, and would take no further legal action against the ToV or its members, and the Temple agreed to abandon its claim to Twilight's Castle. Despite the fighting being brief and limited in scale, it brought a swift end to any thoughts of reconciliation between the two powers, and would help shape an extremely aggressive anti-Celestial foreign policy by the frontier governments. Hostilities between the two forces would remain rampant for many years to come, despite the treaties they had signed, and the borders between Celestial controlled territory and Temple controlled territory would remain constantly militarized; hundreds of skirmishes and small battles would take place over the next decade, and they would remain in a perpetual state of animosity and conflict.

The Dessert Valley, Appaloosa, and Dodge Junction, the heartlands of the Temple, were among the most unanimous districts to declare independence from the Celestial regime. Unified through their mutual religious zeal, and instilled with further anti-Celestial militancy as a result of the recent conflicts following the end of the Changeling-Pony War, the ponies of the frontier, alongside their buffalo comrades, created a unified kingdom in opposition to Celestial authority, establishing an elective absolute monarchy; they would have a hero of the people rule with absolute authority from the people, with no democratic process to hold back progress. At first, the Prophet Visionary (who had become revered by anti-changeling elements throughout Equestria as Saint Visionary the Changeling-Slayer for his heroic involvement in the Battle of Manehattan; even among the irreligious, he had became a famous and beloved symbol of resistance against the once seemingly insurmountable and omnipresent changeling menace) was the most popular choice for a ruler to lead the frontier kingdom, with a large majority of the population voting to crown him, but Visionary rejected the offer, insisting that he was simply a humble servant of the All-Maker and was not worthy of the honor. After some further deliberation, the denizens of the frontier chose to elect the All-Maker himself to lead their nation, an honor which he accepted. He became the God-King of the frontier kingdom (which he had named the Kingdom of Lethe), quickly leading it to a golden era.

The Kingdom of Lethe was a... rather strange country, to say the least, blurring the lines between secular monarchy and divine rule. The All-Maker (who had readopted his old name for secular matters, adopting the title His Heavenly Majesty, God-King Letum of Lethe, Shield of Righteousness and Sword of Justice) was a living relic of a long-gone era of ancient history; an era which he attempted to revive in his new kingdom. Everything about the new realm, from its laws to its cultural values to its architecture was completely new to ponykind, with the frontier region starting to take on a very unique cultural identity separate from normal pony culture. The ruins of Salt-Lick City, a city which had taken a great deal of damage during the civil war, were rebuilt using ancient pre-changeling architectural styles, giving the metropolis an appearance very much so reminiscent of the scattered ruins throughout the Forbidden Jungle. Dress codes, literature, diets, entertainment, and other customs from the pre-changeling era made a similar revival under the All-Maker's watch, though his legal system was perhaps the most intriguing part of the kingdom.

The All-Maker was a hard-ruler, to say the least; under his legal system, almost all crimes were punishable by slow and painful deaths, with truly minor crimes like petty theft being punishable by public torture followed by permanent exile from the Kingdom. Yet, at the same time, he was extremely lenient in what was considered to be a crime; the KoL outlawed very few things, with the All-Maker having very little involvement in his subjects' personal lives, creating almost no regulations (relative to what the Celestial regime had established, anyway). Citizens were allowed to do almost literally anything they wanted, outside of theft, murder (though honorable duels to the death were legal, and vigilante murders of known criminals were legal), rape, and slavery, among a few other things; as long as you weren't a changeling, an alicorn-worshiper, or a Peacekeeper, or sympathetic to any of those three demographics, you could do just about whatever you wanted.

The All-Maker was the arch-nemesis of the changeling community, which he declared hostibus suis imperpetuum, enemies in perpetuity, and actively perpetrated genocide against them at every possible opportunity alongside everyone sympathetic towards them (including the Peacekeepers, who were active supporters of changeling-integration, and alicorn-worshipers, who venerated Celestia, a known changeling-sympathizer). Needless to say, he wasn't exactly on good terms with Celestia; Lethe and the Principality were in a constant state of near-war. Despite the peace which existed on paper, skirmishes would break out between the All-Maker's forces and Celestial forces on a regular basis, started by both sides; as such, considering the overwhelmingly hostile relations shared between the two nations, citizens of the Principality passing through the area were frequent targets of violence, and citizens of Lethe who demonstrated support for Celestia were given automatic death sentences. For everyone else, however, the Kingdom of Lethe was a paradise, where anybody could do anything; just about everything that didn't physically harm another civilized creature, from same-sex marriage to narcotics usage, was freely allowed. The region quickly attracted numerous entrepreneurs and investors, with hundreds of new businesses being opened over the next few years; the near-total lack of laws and regulations, in addition to low taxes, made the frontier a very attractive location for ponies to start business enterprises and for rich ponies looking for a tax haven. Members of the homo and bisexual community, also, flocked to the frontier, where they found a great deal of acceptance (thanks largely to the efforts of the All-Maker and the Temple of Vision, which actively taught that homosexuality was a normal part of society and should not be condemned). It was a strange country, unlike anything ponykind had ever seen, yet it managed to be successful; the influx of wealthy investors helped create a strong economy, and the exceedingly harsh punishments (alongside mass-monitoring of society undertaken by the state Inquisition force, led by the apostle Deep Insight) kept order in the streets.

Meanwhile, the Ponyville independence referendum failed by a slim margin, to the surprise of many observers. In fact, because Salt Lick City became a more prominent center of Temple activity, many members moved there, and Temple influence diminished in Ponyville, giving the yes vote less clout than predicted. Still, there remained a sizable number that believed that Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, and Parliament should have done more to combat the Temple.

Eventually the Co-Principality whittled down to an area encompassing Canterlot, Ponyville, Whinnyapolis, Buckmark, Lincolt, and some smaller towns in between, plus an exclave at San Flankcisco. Even there the status quo did not stay put; the remaining lawmakers from these cities enacted Equestria's first major constitutional change—almost rewriting the whole Constitution--in hundreds of years, giving the cities their own sovereign basis, breaking the unitary model that had governed Equestria for a thousand years. (In fact this had already been in the works since Parliament ratified the Peace of Canterlot to encourage more districts to stay in.) Parliament would handle defense, foreign affairs, interdistrict and international commerce, raise a few specified taxes, and otherwise would "coordinate district affairs as necessary for any serious conflicts that may arise between them.” The district assemblies would deal with education, weather control, healthcare, welfare, criminal law, regulation of intoxicating liquors--basically anything else not explicitly granted to Parliament. As a result, for example, while Equestria itself did not recognize same-sex marriage, every district soon would, and Equestria was obliged to honor that choice. Princesses Celestia and Luna remained as its heads of state, but their Royal Assents became more symbolic than meaningful, removing the “unchanged bill” requirement for overcoming the Princesses’ veto.

Princess Celestia felt guilty about the concessions she made to the Temple of Vision and the atrocities committed under it, and insisted on protecting the rights of all species—even changelings. Though she had no formal power in the amendment process, she proposed an amendment that would “maintain the equal protection of personal, civil, political, and social rights of this Constitution as to all species" at the national level, even granting full legalization of same-sex marriage and protection for the LGBT Community to acommodate Chnageling Culture. While Princess Twilight and some deputies, such as Trilby and Blind Justice, supported the measure, many other elites and deputies found Celestia’s efforts to “persuade” Parliament (among them threatening to remove dissenting Senators, propose amendments to expand the Senate, or outright dissolving Parliament) to violate separation of powers on one hoof and dangerous to the compromise necessary to salvage as much as Equestria as possible on the other. Lincolt and Detrot, which had expected to be able to allow public accommodations to discriminate against changelings under the new constitutional amendments, were especially turned off by Celestia’s maneuvers and left the union. (Lincolt, after starting its own independent state, would return in a couple of years due to economic difficulties.) Even Princess Twilight became skeptical of the legitimacy of Celestia’s asserted powers, which became fuel for opponents to call for Celestia’s impeachment. Celestia soon backed down from her efforts, agreeing to respect Parliament’s choice. After an impassioned speech by Trilby—the final one of his term—Parliament narrowly agreed to Celestia’s amendment, realizing that allowing cities to set their own civil rights rules could mean disparate treatment among the pony races as well.

Princess Twilight remained the chief mediator for the people of the remaining districts of Equestria, and fortunately saw a trimming of subject matter jurisdiction so she did not have to hear most contract or tort claims (she still heard a few fiduciary duty cases involving partnerships, as well as those with breaches of confidentiality every now and then), allowing her more time to deal with "pure" friendship problems and spend time with her children. (For that matter, Potter Black, who remained a deputy despite the great political shake-ups, officially re-adopted Pitch Black as his son when Pitch turned thirteen. As a result, Potter spent more time with Pitch, taking him camping and fishing and teaching him about a past that seemed so remote today, when all Equestria could still feel united under the Sun Princess despite their great differences.)

Of the cities, San Flankcisco and Ponyville seemed to be in the most precarious positions. As Equestria's only remaining outlet to the sea, San Flankcisco was critically important, and soon became the commerce hub that Manehattan once filled, but its fruits to mainland Equestria always had to pass through Lethe in some way, risking robberies by some of the more fanatical members of the Temple, especially if a changeling happened to be the driver (and it took one unfortunate incident for Equestria to pass a law forbidding changeling drivers in commerce from passing through Lethe). Ponyville, meanwhile, had a related problem: the Everfree Forest and the old Ponyville temple were still considered holy sites by the Temple, and pilgrims were a frequent sight. These pilgrims would evangelize the city, stirring up revivals of secessionist fervor. In fact Ponyville got permission from Parliament to hold another independence referenda, yet it too would fail. Twilight and the local Ponyville leaders were committed to keep the Temple at bay, and while attacks against changelings were more frequent there than other places in Equestria, nothing even approached the level of the Great Ponyville Massacre or the Ponyville Rebellion.

Vanhoofer and Tall Tale (and the districts immediately surrounding it), as some of the few Equestrian cities to not see a Temple uprising or attack, formed the Republic of Cataract, whose policies towards changelings were as progressive as the Crystal Empire's. In fact they counted the Crystal Empire as an even greater ally than Equestria, relying on the Crystal Empire for military protection and (at first) much of its trade. However, it did not integrate with the Crystal Empire because of its republican streak, objecting to even Princess Cadence's enlightened rule. Smoky Topaz became its first President, leading the nation to a high-tech economy and widespread workplace democracy. Despite having a more strictly regulated and interventionist economy than Lethe, it attracted quite a few rich investors of its own by emphasizing innovation, high finance, and sheer productivity, eventually surpassing the other newly-independent nations in GDP per capita.

Los Pegasus, and a few districts in the San Palomino Desert, formed Sierra Palomino, a state that initially declined to allow protections for changelings because of its (more moderate) Temple political elite but later granted it by referendum (and would also lose power in the general election that year). It boosted its already robust tourism industry by allowing casino gambling, though with it came a higher rate of crime than other newly-independent districts. It also instituted compulsory military service for youths just reaching the age of majority, forming a large pool of soldiers for a government whose foreign policy zig-zagged between support for the Kingdom of Lethe and the Co-Principality of Equestria (and at times they supported both or neither).

Cloudsdale and its suburbs formed the City-State of Nubes-Synnefo. It resisted changeling integration, but once it became independent it failed to actually go quite as far as the Kingdom of Lethe: it forbade changelings from coming within its borders, but it did not sanction killing them. A little surprisingly, it even became vehemently anti-Griffon Kingdom and even a little anti-griffin, not forgetting King Philip's side looting. As a district of Equestria, it boasted the largest population of griffins in Equestria outside Manehattan; as independent it drove many out and discriminated against those who stayed. Since it was no longer associated with the Equestrian government, the old base of its economy was at a near vacuum, and it struggled to diversify beyond its own weather-making, the military, and occasional deals with Equestria and Lethe to provide rain and snow to border towns. Of the new countries, Nubes-Synnefo would be the least self-sufficient.

Among the cities of the eastern coast, Baltimare and Wingscotting, while they did fall to the Changeling Empire, did not suffer under it quite as long--or even as hard--as Manehattan, Hollow Shades, and Fillydelphia. As a result their new nation, the United Duchies of Neighland, were more moderate in their changeling policies than their sister cities up north, if a little paradoxical. While it discriminated against changelings by default and practically considered nearly every killing of a changeling by a pony to be one in self-defense, it did allow changelings to apply for full citizenship status upon grueling examinations and "re-education," which in reality stripped them of their love-sharing and shape-shifting abilities, forcing them to eat tangible food like every other pony and always stay in their default form. (Liberal critics would especially criticize this practice and Temple orthodoxy lambasted it for even contemplating equal rights for changelings, but its defenders argued that this was actually a more fitting punishment for their crimes than just killing them. In fact what prompted this policy was the nation’s original plan to make changelings a slave caste on a strict application of “an eye for an eye,” which only lasted a week before seeing widespread slave revolts.) Besides Baltimare and Wingscotting, Neighland included seven other smaller towns and numerous villages. Each city and town were headed by a duke or duchess, selected from among a pool of its old Equestrian political, business, and social elite, forming a nobility almost entirely unicorn (with Wingscotting providing a pegasus) like in Equestria's early years. It would compete with Lethe as a tax haven, and even a few Equestrian companies would incorporate there.

Historically, Manehattan and Fillydelphia had been more tolerant of changelings than other Equestrian cities, but the war completely reversed that policy. With Hollow Shades, New Londam, and their suburbs (and later Detrot), they would form the Northeast Confederation, who, like Lethe, would strip changelings and changeling sympathizers of all their rights (with the exception of Detrot, which did protect a few). It had no central government except for an emergency council, composed of city leaders, convened in cases of collective self-defense (and each city had its own militia) or other national emergencies. A reluctance for the cities not to form stronger ties, though one that cemented its shared identity, was driven in part by an epidemic that exploded among the Manehattan population shortly after its independence referendum, which spread to Fillydelphia and Hollow Shades before the leaders in the cities enacted strict quarantines to both protect themselves and other now-foreign cities. (Even as the Equestria whittled down, Princess Celestia and Parliament moved quickly to help the Northeast Confederation contain the disease, as did Neighland, successfully preventing whatever disease came into their own countries from getting out of hoof.) Already devastated by war and oppression, the Northeast Confederation would lose at least a quarter of its population through the epidemic. (Because changelings turned out to be resistant to the disease, many labeled it “Chrysalis’ Revenge.”) Even when the vaccine was found and the number infected dwindled, Northeasters developed a fear of going outside their cities, and ended up being the most isolationist of the new nations, at least for the first ten years. Slowly the cities began to pick up the pieces, and within ten years each city’s economy was well-diversified and self-sufficient (evoking a little jealousy from Nubes-Synnefo), if not quite as rich as they once were.

Of course, Equestria wasn't the only nation to undergo major political upheaval. Across the sea, in the Griffin Kingdom, a massive change in the political climate had taken place, one which would rather seriously jeopardize Equestrian interests in the region. With the support of both Chrysalis and the local griffin aristocracy, Lord Philip Blackwing made a second bid for the Throne of Griffonstone, the Griffin Kingdom erupting into civil war over the crown for the second time. Equestria, having been occupied with their own civil war and the changeling invasion, was able to offer almost nothing to the rapidly crumbling Groverian dynasty; King Guto's forces were swiftly outmatched by the Blackwing rebels, who had significant resources at their disposal from their numerous aristocratic sponsors. Having both superior leadership and a substantially better funded army, the Blackwings decisively defeated the Groverian loyalists, winning victory after victory, striking a killing blow against the ancient royal family.

In a matter of months, the Griffin Kingdom was under the complete control of the Blackwing Clan, their opposition being shattered after a number of major defeats; Guto himself was slain by Lord Philip in battle during the war. The surviving members of the Groverian dynasty fled westwards, into Equestria, along with the talon-full of noble families which had supported Guto during the war, where they formed a government-in-exile. Back home in the Griffin Kingdom, though, His Royal Majesty, Lord Philip Blackwing, King of the Griffins, had secured total dominance, consolidating his hold on the throne and solidifying himself as the indisputable king. With the support of almost all the griffin nobility, and the respect of a great deal of the peasantry, King Philip set about bringing his vision for the Griffin Kingdom to life. A series of major reactionary political reforms were created in the kingdom, greatly empowering the aristocratic elite and establishing an official feudal hierarchy revolving around birthright and noble privilege, with the Blackwing monarchy revolving around the concept that the highborn nobility rule through divine right.

Unfortunately for King Philip's ally, Chrysalis, his victory, while overwhelmingly decisive, came too late for the kingdom to intervene in the Pony-Changeling war. The last of Guto's forces were defeated a week after the changeling defeat in the Battle of Manehattan, just after the fall of the empire. Philip was a griffin of his word, and he had an honor-bound obligation to repay Chrysalis for the assistance she provided his army, but not even the fearless warrior-king was going to attack Equestria all on his own, especially after the triumphant ponies had made a bloodthirsty example of the defeated changelings. The terms of his agreement with the changelings were renegotiated; rather than invading Equestria, as he had previously agreed to do, Philip would indefinitely owe one favor to Chrysalis, redeemable at any time for anything he was capable of providing (short of giving up the kingdom he had worked his entire life to claim, that is).

While changelings in most of the Changeling-Friendly Nations emerged from the shadows, others remained hidden in plain sight. Meanwhile, the Fourth Pony-Changeling War have taken its toll on Changeling Communities throughout Equestria. The Sand and Snow Changelings became increasingly isolationist and xenophobic, fortifying their mounds and mountain homes of their tribes with deadly traps and weaponry to the point of near savagery. The Equestrian Changeling communities, on the other hand, became closer and more united than ever before as they took in many of Chrysalis's surviving followers, while the Queen herself gone into hiding at her secret hive in the South Eastern Swamps. An agreement and alliance was forged between them: a unity of colonies and hives alike which became known as the Confederacy of Changeling Hives and Colonies, a vast network of changeling settlements working together for the betterment of changeling kind while keeping to themselves.

Within this Confederacy, a great peace treaty was made declaring none to ever declare war against one another and instead commit to trade and protection for one another, all while remaining completely sovereign to themselves in law and leadership. A mere council, making up of Confederacy leaders, was made to keep the peace within this alliance, taking place in an area of pure secrecy in one of Equestria's most tallest mountains. The attitude towards ponykind varied among colonies and hives. However, an agreement was made to never again declare war against them. Many, including those who once belonged to Chrysalis's Empire and especially those among the Kingdom of Lethe, declared pure isolation from all ponykind to the point of sharing Sand and Ice changeling-like xenophobia. Others, like Razor Wing's Colony, would declare themselves in open trade with Ponykind, especially those most friendly to the Changeling race.

The world had been changed; all the major powers, Equestria, the Griffin Kingdom, and the Changeling Empire, had experienced drastic changes. An era of newfound nationalism, separatism, and political polarization had swept Equus, and its effects could be felt everywhere, shaking up the political landscape, and even the most concrete of ancient regimes would crumble under its weight. The world was a delicate house of cards, and, through opportunism and luck, a few interested parties had been able to collapse it from within, creating a divided world in flames; a world up for grabs, where new players could enter the scene of global geo-politics, and anyone could make a rise to power from the ashes of the once-unified old order. Nations would rise and fall, leaders would come and go, and life would go on in the shattered world that ponies, griffins, changelings, and buffalo alike now lived in.

Any thoughts on the Changeling Confederacy, FRE?

[Fascist Russian Empire]

Here's a fixed version with some additons.

Any thoughts on the Changeling Confederacy, FRE?

"even granting full legalization of same-sex marriage and protection for the LGBT Community to accommodate Changeling Culture"?

SSM isn't a purely or specifically changeling concept; it's endorsed by several demographics within Equestria, including the Temple of Vision, which, obviously, is an antithesis to changeling culture. Seeing as there are multiple different groups which support it, including groups which violently oppose changeling culture, I think it's a bit strange to call legalization of SSM an "accommodation of changeling culture." Polygamy seems like a much more uniquely changeling practice; SSM appears to be more-or-less universally practiced within Equestria.

Anyway, to answer the question, the CCHC doesn't really sound like it's going to have a particularly big impact; it seems, to me at least, like it'll be similar to the League of Nations (that is, an organization which rarely ever creates treaties or other agreements because of massive volumes of internal disagreement, and which wouldn't even be able to enforce said treaties anyway as a result of having little or no de-facto power). Loose, decentralized, international organizations with virtually no real power don't normally tend to have a whole lot of influence, judging from real-life examples.

I also took a moment to fix the handful of spelling mistakes throughout the epilogue.

The Chamber of Deputies passed Lopesy Neigh's appropriation and draft measures by a vote of 302-147 (Cherry Ranger abstaining) and the Senate approving 120-30. Later, Parliament passed a more enlightened version of Lopesy's changeling relocation measure, creating the Internal Equestitarian Act, authorizing the Domestic Bureau to create a program "for the re-accommodation of threatened persons." For about two weeks, the program operated clandestinely, working with the Peacekeepers to bring changelings and changeling sympathizers to the Crystal Empire.

The interception of a note Rock Mason wrote to one of the administrators of the program confirmed to the Temple that the Equestrian government was trying to weaken its efforts to rid the world of changelings and that changelings were employed by Salt Lick City undocumented. He and a number of other Peacekeepers associated with the Works Commission were given mock trials by Temple authorities, where they were convicted of high treason and crimes against Equestria; they were subsequently given public executions, most being burnt at the stake (though Brief Wit, Sapphire Quill's boss at the law office, was acquitted by Sapphire Quill for promising to recant his affiliation with the Peacekeepers and share information on other Peacekeeper networks; and reminding her that she was an at-will employee and that partner status was waiting for her when she left public office). The discovery of the conspiracy prompted a much more aggressive expansion policy by the rebels and further contributed to the increasing militancy of the anti-changeling elements of Equestria, preempting a series of major rebel offensives (utilizing weapons and munitions claimed from Royal Guard arsenals throughout the Dessert Valley).

Through the leadership and aid of the All-Maker, the rebellion continued to thrive throughout Equestria. Having widespread support throughout the Equestrian Midwest and the frontier, large stockpiles of weapons and supplies, a large force of ideologically driven fanatics, and the immense magical power of the All-Maker on their side, they were able to rapidly snowball into a huge problem for the government. The rebel army marched to victory after victory against Celestia's army, defeating multiple counterattacks and seizing control of several more cities and towns, including Las Pegasus and San Flankcisco, further bolstering their forces and resources as their territory grew. They were seemingly unstoppable, growing in strength and scale with each passing day, posing an undeniably major threat to the Celestial diarchy. Before long, the All-Maker and his army began laying siege to Canterlot itself, attacking the very heart of the Equestrian government.

Celestia knew she had to do something; she had two major enemies seeking her downfall, and was fighting a losing war on either front. Even if she managed to defeat the rebellion, her army would doubtlessly suffer enough casualties to guarantee the changelings would be able to easily triumph over the remnants of her forces, and even if she managed to defeat Chrysalis the rebels would almost certainly be able to defeat what remained of her army and fulfill their goal of a new government across all of Equestria. Realizing the desperate gravity of her situation, she went to the negotiating table with the All-Maker and other major rebel figures to discuss the terms of a peace treaty. Holding a great deal of bargaining power against her, the rebels demanded a number of major concessions. First and foremost among their demands was the total reversal of the changeling-integration policy in its entirety; every last pro-changeling reform, including but not limited to government-mandated nondiscrimination and affirmative action programs, would be repealed in full. Second among their demands was that the Third Treaty of Tripony be suspended throughout the duration of the war, effectively allowing the rebel forces to commit war crimes against the changeling community with complete legal impunity, and the Equestrian government would make no efforts to prosecute the rebels for the massacres they had perpetrated against the changeling community. Third among their demands was that the Temple of Vision become a legally protected entity in Equestria, with guaranteed freedom of speech and tax-exempt status among other things, and that the government would enact similar protections to other anti-changeling organizations and ideologues, effectively allowing anti-changeling agitators to operate throughout the country with impunity. A number of other concessions were also demanded, including the termination of the changeling relocation program.

However, Princess Celestia still tried to keep the Crystal Empire out of the provisions of the treaty. Sapphire Quill, who had by this time also became the Temple's official legal counsel, read the fine print just before the treaty was to be signed and immediately demanded that the Crystal Empire exemption be struck and make clear that the Sovereignty Doctrine did not apply to the treaty. Princess Celestia realized that the only way out now was outright independence for her adopted niece's territory.

On the request of Princess Celestia, Parliament authorized the Crystal Empire to conduct an independence referendum if Princess Cadence so chose to, over strident objections by Cherry Ranger and Blind Justice for Celestia giving in too much. Cadence was initially surprised at Celestia's move, and Shining Armor knew that he might lose command of the Crystal Guard and therefore an extra set of troops to fight the Changeling Empire, but eventually they both agreed that it was probably the for the best and Shining could still lead the Crystal Guard in a subsequent treaty with Equestria.

Meanwhile, Sapphire Quill knew full well of Celestia's intentions. After some consultation with other Temple leaders, they agreed that they would only accept the Crystal Empire's independence if other districts in Equestria were given the same right and that it would not enter any treaties or agreements with the Crystal Empire relating to changelings. Princess Celestia reluctantly agreed to this, and made a new independence referenda recommendation to Parliament. Though Parliament debate was more contentious This time, with members such as Cherry Ranger and Constellation warning that more district independence would "bring us back to the era of Windigos and disharmony," the recommendation passed by a single vote. With that, the "Peace of Canterlot" was finally official.

The Crystal Empire held its independence referendum the following day, returning an overwhelming "yes" from the population. It came at a rather significant price, however: Cadence was wary that the Temple might still turn on the Crystal Empire, and with disagreements on using the Crystal Guards' integrated troops, the Crystal Empire decide to pull from its alliance with Equestria in the war against the Changeling Empire and concentrate on its own self-defense.

Razor Wing and all his changeling allies were greatly disheartened by Celestia's decision to give into the ToV's demands. None of them could stand the very thought of so much work made in improving Pony-Changeling Relations. Many have even seen this as outright betrayal on Celestia's part, even despite her explanation of what actually happened. Thus many groups of changelings went back to the old way of life. Many took on disguises to assimilate into the pony community without being noticed, taking extra measures to avoid suspicion, others migrated to the Crystal Empire, while a large number returned to the mountains and caves that they called home. Most of the colonies and hives cut off all ties to the Equestrian nation that was once their ally, making a pact to avoid making dealings with ponies ever again. Others, however, have even became fully convinced by Chrysalis's word about pony kind and joined her cause to overthrow the pony race.

Despite the Crystal Empire's and changeling allies' retreat from the Fourth Pony-Changeling War, Equestria's new alliance with the Temple turned out to be a net positive, at least for a while. Between the combined forces of the Royal Guard and the rebel army, and the combined powers of the Diarchs and the All-Maker, ponykind was able to create a truly formidable united front against changeling aggression. Over the course of the few months following the Peace of Canterlot, the Equestrian forces made dozens of vicious counterattacks against the Changeling Empire, winning victory after victory and liberating city after city. The desolate, barren, depopulated ruins of Cloudsdale, the little town of Hollow Shades, and the big cities of Fillydelphia and Baltimare each fell to the triumphant pony forces, the changelings facing defeat on every front. Throughout the process, changelings in the liberated cities were treated mercilessly; retribution-seekers, both from the violently anti-changeling rebel forces and from the liberated ponies (many of which had been instilled with viciously anti-changeling sentiment after the changelings had brought slavery and death to their homes), made relentless attacks against the changeling communities in the formerly occupied cities, with thousands of changelings being massacred in savage reprisals against their kind.

The Fourth (and, in all likelihood, final) Pony-Changeling War finally reached a bloody end at the Battle of Manehattan, a day which would live in both legend and infamy. The combined army of Celestia and the All-Maker descended upon the city, attacking it in a coordinated effort. The changelings had an artifact which disabled non-changeling magic; it mattered little to the advancing pony forces, who relentlessly struck at the enemy with guns and artillery. Thousands of fanatical martyrs from the Temple, led by the Prophet Visionary, swarmed Manehattan, showing a ferocity in battle the likes of which would frighten even the legendary warriors of griffin mythology, emboldened by the knowledge that their enemies were foul, ungodly abominations, and that they would receive passage to the greatest of afterlives if they died fighting them. Thousands of Royal Guards fought alongside them, filled with courage of their own, knowing that they were driving out the last vestiges of Equestria's nemesis, though their dedication paled in comparison to the pure fanaticism of the rebels.

As the changeling forces began to crumble and their defenses were breached by the pony attackers, things very rapidly went downhill for Chrysalis and her army. A major slave revolt broke out against the changelings; tens of thousands of pony slaves and resistance members, seeing the vulnerability of their oppressors, took up arms and struck at the changeling menace, full of contempt for them. The changelings swiftly found themselves surrounded on all sides by enemies, and it quickly became clear that they were fighting a losing battle. The Equestrian armies advanced swiftly through the city, and, before long, Chrysalis' palace was stormed by the attackers, its inhabitants being massacred, at which point fanatical retribution-seekers (from the ranks of both the revolting slaves and the Temple's holy warriors) started destroying every last trace of the changeling regalia, starting with the throne of Chrysalis. The magical black throne was shattered, and the changelings' anti-magic shield evaporated; what followed after that was nothing less than a total and utter bloodbath. Finally able to utilize his powers against the abominations, the All-Maker unleashed his full fury against the enemy; he cast a magic spell across all of Manehattan, disabling the shapeshifting powers of the changelings, and he began unleashing a series of terrifyingly devastating magical attacks against them.

Ponykind had suffered innumerable atrocities at the hooves of the changeling race; hundreds of thousands of ponies had been killed, and millions more had suffered from the vile institution of slavery. Death, oppression, and unfathomable cruelty had all been perpetrated in immense volumes against the innocent; the changeling race was responsible for some of the most heinous crimes the world had ever seen. Ponies didn't just want to punish Chrysalis; they were out for blood. The changeling race had defiled Equestria, and it was time for retribution. Changelings were indiscriminately butchered in droves all across Manehattan, with thousands of ponies, especially the former-slaves (who had developed a special kind of hatred against changelings, after what they had been subjected to), joining the All-Maker in inflicting vengeance upon the abominations. The changelings were utterly massacred; over a hundred thousand of them were slaughtered in the single largest act of genocide in recorded history. Chrysalis fled the city, alongside what little remained of her decimated army, finding temporary refuge in the Griffin Kingdom before returning to her hidden hive. Tens of thousands of changeling civilians attempted to flee northwards to the Crystal Empire, to escape the fury of the retribution-seekers; thousands died in the process, with the All-Maker raining fire from the sky upon them, killing a great many of the fleeing refugees. It wasn't just the changeling people who were targeted, though; iconoclastic fury swept through the ranks of the victorious and vengeful ponies, who demolished countless buildings the changelings had erected, destroying every trace of changeling architecture they could find, purging Manehattan of changeling influence very thoroughly.

Though a great many pony soldiers died in the process, the Battle of Manehattan proved to be a major victory for Equestria, the final setback for the invading forces. The war had cost the lives of innumerable ponies, and its political ramifications left Equestria as a polarized and sharply divided realm, but there could be no debate; ponykind had won a glorious victory against their enemy, safeguarding their land against the evil menace which sought to enslave their race. On that day, in that city, where vast numbers of changelings lay dead with triumphant ponies desecrating their mangled bodies, ponykind had proven that it would not take a single step back; if anyone perpetrated violence against Equestria, its denizens were willing and able to respond with violence in equal or greater measure. Equestria was not afraid of violence; they had proven that, should anyone attack their country, they would fight with unyielding ferocity to drive the invaders from their soil no matter the cost.

The Changeling Empire was completely shattered from the Battle of Manehattan, and Chrysalis's power was forever broken. Her army had been almost totally wiped out during the war, and her subjects had been butchered in droves, leaving her hive as a broken, depopulated husk of what it once was. Chrysalis herself barely escaped the fury of Equestria; many other changeling nobles had no such luck, being indiscriminately killed during the massacre. Though she would live on, the prospects of her ever being able to fulfill her ambitions of conquering Equestria were dimmer than ever; her empire was in total shambles, and her prestige among her fellow changeling royals fell to an all-time low after her miserable failures in the war. She had become known as a failure of a monarch, and, thanks largely to the All-Maker and his utterly merciless acts of genocide against the changeling race, almost no other hives would be willing to join her in the future; she was incompetent, and other rulers wouldn't risk having their subjects be exterminated at the hooves of raving hordes of anti-changeling fanatics for her sake.

The Temple of Vision became utterly vilified by the changeling race, and the great massacre of Manehattan was extremely virulently condemned by the liberal elites of Equestria and by the populations of the more tolerant cities. Elsewhere in Equestria, especially in the cities that had suffered under changeling occupation, the soldiers of the Temple were hailed as heroes for having inflicted a killing blow to the Changeling Empire and successfully exacting vengeance upon the abominations which had wrought so much devastation upon ponykind. Equestria became more polarized than ever before, regarding the changeling issue; whereas Celestia and the other elites were determined to force Equestrian society to accept changelings, the general population experienced a surge of anti-changeling fervor. Vehement hatred of the changeling race flourished along the frontier and in all the cities where the changelings had perpetrated mass-murder and slavery, which would lead to surges of separatist sentiment when the independence referendums started.

Celestia's government was more deeply unpopular than ever before, among almost every demographic. The Temple of Vision and other anti-changeling groups despised her for having tried to force the failed policy of changeling-integration upon Equestria, and for her repeated failures in protecting Equestria from the changeling menace. Liberals and reformers, alongside many changelings, held her in contempt for having surrendered to the rebellion and allowing wanton acts of genocide to be perpetrated against the changeling community. As a consequence, the Celestial regime completely crumbled once the independence referendums took place; city after city broke away from the principality, and Equestria fragmented into multiple independent states. The once-idolized Princesses, formerly symbols of Equestrian unity and continuity, became symbols of incompetence, broken promises, and failed ideologies, an obstacle to progress in the eyes of both pro and anti-changeling elements of society. The political elites of Equestria, who had a vested interest in preserving the central government, were among the only ponies which remained supportive of the continued reign of Celestia; though Celestia would be able to keep her crown, and convince a hoof-full of districts to vote against independence, her influence, power, and popular support were at an all-time low.

Cherry Ranger's influence in Parliament became greatly diminished, and her reputation nosedived. Thunderstorm was only able to get a reprimand from Parliament for her mocking of Princess Twilight and a demotion to the Agriculture Committee, but her grudge against unicorns became more apparent when she did not invite Princess Twilight to her 70th birthday party, despite Twilight recommending Pinkie Pie to arrange it and offering to pay for some of the expenses. Pinkie Pie at first agreed to help Cherry, but when she learned that Cherry would not invite Twilight, she canceled the deal in a rare retraction of a Pinkie Promise (by realizing that she forgot to add the hoof motions). As her party was sparsely attended and not particularly fun (even for an old mare), her wrong finally hit her, and she sought Princess Twilight's forgiveness.

Twilight accepted her apology and their relationship warmed. But the damage was already done. Because of Cherry Ranger's affront to unicorns alienated a large portion of the Equestrian populace, especially critical support from Rose and Blue Party moderates, her outspoken criticism of the Temple at a time when their support was needed, and Agrarian's own turn on her, led by Thunderstorm (she had effectively ran as an independent), she lost her first at-large election, ending a thirty-three year career in Parliament. She would retreat to the family farm in Dodge Junction, and later to Whinnyapolis as Temple support in Dodge Junction was too much for her to bear, changing her name to Cherry Gardener and starting her own cherry farm.

Trilby would too face backlash, this time in his own 6th District of Manehattan. Support for his Manehattan Resistance, already lower than expectations, had basically been destroyed after the Wednesday meeting (not to mention that indeed the messenger was captured and executed by Empire forces and the brochures burned). He still maintained his Whip position with the Rose Party and was still respected as the changeling race's official voice in Parliament. He was one of the few deputies to vote against Cherry's reprimand and continued to support her in her efforts. He was also one of the most strident denouncers of the Manehattan Massacre, which did not bode well for even his supporters. He would lose the next election very narrowly. He would stay in Manehattan, however, risking and surviving many attacks on his life, at least until Manehattan declared its independence from Equestria. He would move to Canterlot, still hoping that his idea of Manehattan would come to blossom again.

Princess Twilight would campaign heavily against many districts' independence, and especially Ponyville's, and was even able to delay the Ponyville vote through the duration of a legal challenge to the Temple's claim to the Crystal Tree Castle (Silver Shield advised her not to challenge their claim to Ponyville itself), over an oversight that was lost in the Peace of Canterlot's Sovereignty Doctrine controversy--whether Equestria could still recover property seized by the Temple. The Supreme Court, in an 8-6 vote (Windstriker recusing herself for undisclosed reasons), ruled that the only legal protections for the Temple that applied for acts prior to the ratification of the Peace of Canterlot went to their crimes "against changelings, changeling sympathizers, and treason," and did not cover theft, trespassing, or conversion of property (and in fact pointed to evidence that it was understood by both Equestria and the Temple that the Temple would return control of the western military bases and the weapons seized from the Guard). It awarded Twilight--and Equestria--the Crystal Tree Castle back.

Members of the Temple were outraged at the Court's decision in Princess Twilight Sparkle v. The Temple of Vision, fearing that they would be forced to return changeling property. But Sapphire Quill, embarrassed at her oversight in negotiating the Peace of Canterlot, declined to pursue a second hearing. Instead, she negotiated a second treaty, this time also as the head of the newly independent United Lands of the Dessert Valley (ULDV), the Salt Lick Supplemental Accords, that would formally transfer the Dessert Valley bases to the ULDV, pay Equestria 100 million bits in both consideration of those bases and for damages in pre-independence government property seizures and trespass, and an explicit promise from Equestria not to prosecute the Temple or its members for property damage to changelings or changeling sympathizers.

The Temple of Vision was filled with fury by Sapphire Quill's decision to give many millions of bits to the government which they had lost many lives attempting to overthrow, considering it to be an act of high treason, and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the treaty or pay a single penny to the Celestial government. Visionary made an official edict declaring her a traitor to the Temple and decreeing her to be a changeling sympathizer, stripping her entirely of her position within the Temple, and even her fellow city council members would strip her of her mayorship (saying that she "set a good precedent with Waterforge"). Even Brief Wit, anticipating that the Temple would soon execute Sapphire, refused to honor his promise to her, and she resigned from the firm. In a deep flurry of emotions she took the same poison that she used to kill her husband. However, that night Princess Luna came into her dreams, telling her that she needed to face her guilt over Tinkering's murder honestly (having learned about it through her supervision of the Domestic Bureau's relocation program) and that death would not solve it. Sapphire woke up the next morning to take the antidote to that poison and a train to the Crystal Empire, where she would seek out Peacekeeper to make amends.

The Valley's new government, with the blessing and support of Temple authorities, immediately canceled the new treaty Sapphire Quill negotiated with Celestial authorities (along with the payments she planned to Celestia's government). This would lead to a renewed series of conflicts, reigniting the flames of war for a brief time, with a series of large skirmishes being fought as soldiers from the Royal Guard attempted to forcibly seize control of military bases and weapons caches in the region. After several weeks of fighting, the ULDV's forces, combined with the Temple's militia forces, routed the Royal Guard from the Dessert Valley, securing their hold over the area. Following the victory, the Temple mounted multiple attacks on Celestial forces in Ponyville and San Flankcisco; both the Temple and the Celestial regime prepared to entirely repudiate the Peace of Canterlot and resume full-scale war, but, after public backlash against the prospect of further prolonged war and destruction, the two sides reluctantly agreed to further peace talks. The Celestial government agreed to abandon its claim to the military bases and resources within Temple-controlled territory, and would take no further legal action against the ToV or its members, and the Temple agreed to abandon its claim to Twilight's Castle. Despite the fighting being brief and limited in scale, it brought a swift end to any thoughts of reconciliation between the two powers, and would help shape an extremely aggressive anti-Celestial foreign policy by the frontier governments. Hostilities between the two forces would remain rampant for many years to come, despite the treaties they had signed, and the borders between Celestial controlled territory and Temple controlled territory would remain constantly militarized; hundreds of skirmishes and small battles would take place over the next decade, and they would remain in a perpetual state of animosity and conflict.

The Dessert Valley, Appaloosa, and Dodge Junction, the heartlands of the Temple, were among the most unanimous districts to declare independence from the Celestial regime. Unified through their mutual religious zeal, and instilled with further anti-Celestial militancy as a result of the recent conflicts following the end of the Changeling-Pony War, the ponies of the frontier, alongside their buffalo comrades, created a unified kingdom in opposition to Celestial authority, establishing an elective absolute monarchy; they would have a hero of the people rule with absolute authority from the people, with no democratic process to hold back progress. At first, the Prophet Visionary (who had become revered by anti-changeling elements throughout Equestria as Saint Visionary the Changeling-Slayer for his heroic involvement in the Battle of Manehattan; even among the irreligious, he had became a famous and beloved symbol of resistance against the once seemingly insurmountable and omnipresent changeling menace) was the most popular choice for a ruler to lead the frontier kingdom, with a large majority of the population voting to crown him, but Visionary rejected the offer, insisting that he was simply a humble servant of the All-Maker and was not worthy of the honor. After some further deliberation, the denizens of the frontier chose to elect the All-Maker himself to lead their nation, an honor which he accepted. He became the God-King of the frontier kingdom (which he had named the Kingdom of Lethe), quickly leading it to a golden era.

The Kingdom of Lethe was a... rather strange country, to say the least, blurring the lines between secular monarchy and divine rule. The All-Maker (who had readopted his old name for secular matters, adopting the title His Heavenly Majesty, God-King Letum of Lethe, Shield of Righteousness and Sword of Justice) was a living relic of a long-gone era of ancient history; an era which he attempted to revive in his new kingdom. Everything about the new realm, from its laws to its cultural values to its architecture was completely new to ponykind, with the frontier region starting to take on a very unique cultural identity separate from normal pony culture. The ruins of Salt-Lick City, a city which had taken a great deal of damage during the civil war, were rebuilt using ancient pre-changeling architectural styles, giving the metropolis an appearance very much so reminiscent of the scattered ruins throughout the Forbidden Jungle. Dress codes, literature, diets, entertainment, and other customs from the pre-changeling era made a similar revival under the All-Maker's watch, though his legal system was perhaps the most intriguing part of the kingdom.

The All-Maker was a hard-ruler, to say the least; under his legal system, almost all crimes were punishable by slow and painful deaths, with truly minor crimes like petty theft being punishable by public torture followed by permanent exile from the Kingdom. Yet, at the same time, he was extremely lenient in what was considered to be a crime; the KoL outlawed very few things, with the All-Maker having very little involvement in his subjects' personal lives, creating almost no regulations (relative to what the Celestial regime had established, anyway). Citizens were allowed to do almost literally anything they wanted, outside of theft, murder (though honorable duels to the death were legal, and vigilante murders of known criminals were legal), rape, and slavery, among a few other things; as long as you weren't a changeling, an alicorn-worshiper, or a Peacekeeper, or sympathetic to any of those three demographics, you could do just about whatever you wanted.

The All-Maker was the arch-nemesis of the changeling community, which he declared hostibus suis imperpetuum, enemies in perpetuity, and actively perpetrated genocide against them at every possible opportunity alongside everyone sympathetic towards them (including the Peacekeepers, who were active supporters of changeling-integration, and alicorn-worshipers, who venerated Celestia, a known changeling-sympathizer). Needless to say, he wasn't exactly on good terms with Celestia; Lethe and the Principality were in a constant state of near-war. Despite the peace which existed on paper, skirmishes would break out between the All-Maker's forces and Celestial forces on a regular basis, started by both sides; as such, considering the overwhelmingly hostile relations shared between the two nations, citizens of the Principality passing through the area were frequent targets of violence, and citizens of Lethe who demonstrated support for Celestia were given automatic death sentences. For everyone else, however, the Kingdom of Lethe was a paradise, where anybody could do anything; just about everything that didn't physically harm another civilized creature, from same-sex marriage to narcotics usage, was freely allowed. The region quickly attracted numerous entrepreneurs and investors, with hundreds of new businesses being opened over the next few years; the near-total lack of laws and regulations, in addition to low taxes, made the frontier a very attractive location for ponies to start business enterprises and for rich ponies looking for a tax haven. Members of the homo and bisexual community, also, flocked to the frontier, where they found a great deal of acceptance (thanks largely to the efforts of the All-Maker and the Temple of Vision, which actively taught that homosexuality was a normal part of society and should not be condemned). It was a strange country, unlike anything ponykind had ever seen, yet it managed to be successful; the influx of wealthy investors helped create a strong economy, and the exceedingly harsh punishments (alongside mass-monitoring of society undertaken by the state Inquisition force, led by the apostle Deep Insight) kept order in the streets.

Meanwhile, the Ponyville independence referendum failed by a slim margin, to the surprise of many observers. In fact, because Salt Lick City became a more prominent center of Temple activity, many members moved there, and Temple influence diminished in Ponyville, giving the yes vote less clout than predicted. Still, there remained a sizable number that believed that Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, and Parliament should have done more to combat the Temple.

Eventually the Co-Principality whittled down to an area encompassing Canterlot, Ponyville, Whinnyapolis, Buckmark, Lincolt, and some smaller towns in between, plus an exclave at San Flankcisco. Even there the status quo did not stay put; the remaining lawmakers from these cities enacted Equestria's first major constitutional change—almost rewriting the whole Constitution--in hundreds of years, giving the cities their own sovereign basis, breaking the unitary model that had governed Equestria for a thousand years. (In fact this had already been in the works since Parliament ratified the Peace of Canterlot to encourage more districts to stay in.) Parliament would handle defense, foreign affairs, interdistrict and international commerce, raise a few specified taxes, and otherwise would "coordinate district affairs as necessary for any serious conflicts that may arise between them.” The district assemblies would deal with education, weather control, healthcare, welfare, criminal law, regulation of intoxicating liquors--basically anything else not explicitly granted to Parliament. As a result, for example, while Equestria itself did not recognize same-sex marriage, every district soon would, and Equestria was obliged to honor that choice. Princesses Celestia and Luna remained as its heads of state, but their Royal Assents became more symbolic than meaningful, removing the “unchanged bill” requirement for overcoming the Princesses’ veto.

Princess Celestia felt guilty about the concessions she made to the Temple of Vision and the atrocities committed under it, and insisted on protecting the rights of all species—even changelings. Though she had no formal power in the amendment process, she proposed an amendment that would “maintain the equal protection of personal, civil, political, and social rights of this Constitution as to all species" at the national level, even granting full legalization of same-sex marriage and protection for the LGBT Community to accommodate Changeling Culture. While Princess Twilight and some deputies, such as Trilby and Blind Justice, supported the measure, many other elites and deputies found Celestia’s efforts to “persuade” Parliament (among them threatening to remove dissenting Senators, propose amendments to expand the Senate, or outright dissolving Parliament) to violate separation of powers on one hoof and dangerous to the compromise necessary to salvage as much as Equestria as possible on the other. Lincolt and Detrot, which had expected to be able to allow public accommodations to discriminate against changelings under the new constitutional amendments, were especially turned off by Celestia’s maneuvers and left the union. (Lincolt, after starting its own independent state, would return in a couple of years due to economic difficulties.) Even Princess Twilight became skeptical of the legitimacy of Celestia’s asserted powers, which became fuel for opponents to call for Celestia’s impeachment. Celestia soon backed down from her efforts, agreeing to respect Parliament’s choice. After an impassioned speech by Trilby—the final one of his term—Parliament narrowly agreed to Celestia’s amendment, realizing that allowing cities to set their own civil rights rules could mean disparate treatment among the pony races as well.

Princess Twilight remained the chief mediator for the people of the remaining districts of Equestria, and fortunately saw a trimming of subject matter jurisdiction so she did not have to hear most contract or tort claims (she still heard a few fiduciary duty cases involving partnerships, as well as those with breaches of confidentiality every now and then), allowing her more time to deal with "pure" friendship problems and spend time with her children. (For that matter, Potter Black, who remained a deputy despite the great political shake-ups, officially re-adopted Pitch Black as his son when Pitch turned thirteen. As a result, Potter spent more time with Pitch, taking him camping and fishing and teaching him about a past that seemed so remote today, when all Equestria could still feel united under the Sun Princess despite their great differences.)

Of the cities, San Flankcisco and Ponyville seemed to be in the most precarious positions. As Equestria's only remaining outlet to the sea, San Flankcisco was critically important, and soon became the commerce hub that Manehattan once filled, but its fruits to mainland Equestria always had to pass through Lethe in some way, risking robberies by some of the more fanatical members of the Temple, especially if a changeling happened to be the driver (and it took one unfortunate incident for Equestria to pass a law forbidding changeling drivers in commerce from passing through Lethe). Ponyville, meanwhile, had a related problem: the Everfree Forest and the old Ponyville temple were still considered holy sites by the Temple, and pilgrims were a frequent sight. These pilgrims would evangelize the city, stirring up revivals of secessionist fervor. In fact Ponyville got permission from Parliament to hold another independence referendum, yet it too would fail. Twilight and the local Ponyville leaders were committed to keep the Temple at bay, and while attacks against changelings were more frequent there than other places in Equestria, nothing even approached the level of the Great Ponyville Massacre or the Ponyville Rebellion.

Vanhoofer and Tall Tale (and the districts immediately surrounding it), as some of the few Equestrian cities to not see a Temple uprising or attack, formed the Republic of Cataract, whose policies towards changelings were as progressive as the Crystal Empire's. In fact they counted the Crystal Empire as an even greater ally than Equestria, relying on the Crystal Empire for military protection and (at first) much of its trade. However, it did not integrate with the Crystal Empire because of its republican streak, objecting to even Princess Cadence's enlightened rule. Smoky Topaz became its first President, leading the nation to a high-tech economy and widespread workplace democracy. Despite having a more strictly regulated and interventionist economy than Lethe, it attracted quite a few rich investors of its own by emphasizing innovation, high finance, and sheer productivity, eventually surpassing the other newly-independent nations in GDP per capita.

Los Pegasus, and a few districts in the San Palomino Desert, formed Sierra Palomino, a state that initially declined to allow protections for changelings because of its (more moderate) Temple political elite but later granted it by referendum (and would also lose power in the general election that year). It boosted its already robust tourism industry by allowing casino gambling, though with it came a higher rate of crime than other newly-independent districts. It also instituted compulsory military service for youths just reaching the age of majority, forming a large pool of soldiers for a government whose foreign policy zig-zagged between support for the Kingdom of Lethe and the Co-Principality of Equestria (and at times they supported both or neither).

Cloudsdale and its suburbs formed the City-State of Nubes-Synnefo. It resisted changeling integration, but once it became independent it failed to actually go quite as far as the Kingdom of Lethe: it forbade changelings from coming within its borders, but it did not sanction killing them. A little surprisingly, it even became vehemently anti-Griffin Kingdom and even a little anti-griffin, not forgetting King Philip's side looting. As a district of Equestria, it boasted the largest population of griffins in Equestria outside Manehattan; as independent it drove many out and discriminated against those who stayed. Since it was no longer associated with the Equestrian government, the old base of its economy was at a near vacuum, and it struggled to diversify beyond its own weather-making, the military, and occasional deals with Equestria and Lethe to provide rain and snow to border towns. Of the new countries, Nubes-Synnefo would be the least self-sufficient.

Among the cities of the eastern coast, Baltimare and Wingscotting, while they did fall to the Changeling Empire, did not suffer under it quite as long--or even as hard--as Manehattan, Hollow Shades, and Fillydelphia. As a result their new nation, the United Duchies of Neighland, were more moderate in their changeling policies than their sister cities up north, if a little paradoxical. While it discriminated against changelings by default and practically considered nearly every killing of a changeling by a pony to be one in self-defense, it did allow changelings to apply for full citizenship status upon grueling examinations and "re-education," which in reality stripped them of their love-sharing and shape-shifting abilities, forcing them to eat tangible food like every other pony and always stay in their default form. (Liberal critics would especially criticize this practice and Temple orthodoxy lambasted it for even contemplating equal rights for changelings, but its defenders argued that this was actually a more fitting punishment for their crimes than just killing them. In fact what prompted this policy was the nation’s original plan to make changelings a slave caste on a strict application of “an eye for an eye,” which only lasted a week before seeing widespread slave revolts.) Besides Baltimare and Wingscotting, Neighland included seven other smaller towns and numerous villages. Each city and town were headed by a duke or duchess, selected from among a pool of its old Equestrian political, business, and social elite, forming a nobility almost entirely unicorn (with Wingscotting providing a pegasus) like in Equestria's early years. It would compete with Lethe as a tax haven, and even a few Equestrian companies would incorporate there.

Historically, Manehattan and Fillydelphia had been more tolerant of changelings than other Equestrian cities, but the war completely reversed that policy. With Hollow Shades, New Londam, and their suburbs (and later Detrot), they would form the Northeast Confederation, who, like Lethe, would strip changelings and changeling sympathizers of all their rights (with the exception of Detrot, which did protect a few). It had no central government except for an emergency council, composed of city leaders, convened in cases of collective self-defense (and each city had its own militia) or other national emergencies. A reluctance for the cities not to form stronger ties, though one that cemented its shared identity, was driven in part by an epidemic that exploded among the Manehattan population shortly after its independence referendum, which spread to Fillydelphia and Hollow Shades before the leaders in the cities enacted strict quarantines to both protect themselves and other now-foreign cities. (Even as the Equestria whittled down, Princess Celestia and Parliament moved quickly to help the Northeast Confederation contain the disease, as did Neighland, successfully preventing whatever disease came into their own countries from getting out of hoof.) Already devastated by war and oppression, the Northeast Confederation would lose at least a quarter of its population through the epidemic. (Because changelings turned out to be resistant to the disease, many labeled it “Chrysalis’ Revenge.”) Even when the vaccine was found and the number infected dwindled, Northeasters developed a fear of going outside their cities, and ended up being the most isolationist of the new nations, at least for the first ten years. Slowly the cities began to pick up the pieces, and within ten years each city’s economy was well-diversified and self-sufficient (evoking a little jealousy from Nubes-Synnefo), if not quite as rich as they once were.

Of course, Equestria wasn't the only nation to undergo major political upheaval. Across the sea, in the Griffin Kingdom, a massive change in the political climate had taken place, one which would rather seriously jeopardize Equestrian interests in the region. With the support of both Chrysalis and the local griffin aristocracy, Lord Philip Blackwing made a second bid for the Throne of Griffonstone, the Griffin Kingdom erupting into civil war over the crown for the second time. Equestria, having been occupied with their own civil war and the changeling invasion, was able to offer almost nothing to the rapidly crumbling Groverian dynasty; King Guto's forces were swiftly outmatched by the Blackwing rebels, who had significant resources at their disposal from their numerous aristocratic sponsors. Having both superior leadership and a substantially better funded army, the Blackwings decisively defeated the Groverian loyalists, winning victory after victory, striking a killing blow against the ancient royal family.

In a matter of months, the Griffin Kingdom was under the complete control of the Blackwing Clan, their opposition being shattered after a number of major defeats; Guto himself was slain by Lord Philip in battle during the war. The surviving members of the Groverian dynasty fled westwards, into Equestria, along with the talon-full of noble families which had supported Guto during the war, where they formed a government-in-exile. Back home in the Griffin Kingdom, though, His Royal Majesty, Lord Philip Blackwing, King of the Griffins, had secured total dominance, consolidating his hold on the throne and solidifying himself as the indisputable king. With the support of almost all the griffin nobility, and the respect of a great deal of the peasantry, King Philip set about bringing his vision for the Griffin Kingdom to life. A series of major reactionary political reforms were created in the kingdom, greatly empowering the aristocratic elite and establishing an official feudal hierarchy revolving around birthright and noble privilege, with the Blackwing monarchy revolving around the concept that the highborn nobility rule through divine right.

Unfortunately for King Philip's ally, Chrysalis, his victory, while overwhelmingly decisive, came too late for the kingdom to intervene in the Pony-Changeling war. The last of Guto's forces were defeated a week after the changeling defeat in the Battle of Manehattan, just after the fall of the empire. Philip was a griffin of his word, and he had an honor-bound obligation to repay Chrysalis for the assistance she provided his army, but not even the fearless warrior-king was going to attack Equestria all on his own, especially after the triumphant ponies had made a bloodthirsty example of the defeated changelings. The terms of his agreement with the changelings were renegotiated; rather than invading Equestria, as he had previously agreed to do, Philip would indefinitely owe one favor to Chrysalis, redeemable at any time for anything he was capable of providing (short of giving up the kingdom he had worked his entire life to claim, that is).

While changelings in most of the Changeling-Friendly Nations emerged from the shadows, others remained hidden in plain sight. Meanwhile, the Fourth Pony-Changeling War have taken its toll on Changeling Communities throughout Equestria. The Sand and Snow Changelings became increasingly isolationist and xenophobic, fortifying their mounds and mountain homes of their tribes with deadly traps and weaponry to the point of near savagery. The Equestrian Changeling communities, on the other hand, became closer and more united than ever before as they took in many of Chrysalis's surviving followers, while the Queen herself gone into hiding at her secret hive in the South Eastern Swamps. An agreement and alliance was forged between them: a unity of colonies and hives alike which became known as the Confederacy of Changeling Hives and Colonies, a vast network of changeling settlements working together for the betterment of changeling kind while keeping to themselves.

Within this Confederacy, a great peace treaty was made declaring none to ever declare war against one another and instead commit to trade and protection for one another, all while remaining completely sovereign to themselves in law and leadership. A mere council, making up of Confederacy leaders, was made to keep the peace within this alliance, taking place in an area of pure secrecy in one of Equestria's most tallest mountains. The attitude towards ponykind varied among colonies and hives. However, an agreement was made to never again declare war against them. Many, including those who once belonged to Chrysalis's Empire and especially those among the Kingdom of Lethe, declared pure isolation from all ponykind to the point of sharing Sand and Ice changeling-like xenophobia. Others, like Razor Wing's Colony, would declare themselves in open trade with Ponykind, especially those most friendly to the Changeling race.

The world had been changed; all the major powers, Equestria, the Griffin Kingdom, and the Changeling Empire, had experienced drastic changes. An era of newfound nationalism, separatism, and political polarization had swept Equus, and its effects could be felt everywhere, shaking up the political landscape, and even the most concrete of ancient regimes would crumble under its weight. The world was a delicate house of cards, and, through opportunism and luck, a few interested parties had been able to collapse it from within, creating a divided world in flames; a world up for grabs, where new players could enter the scene of global geo-politics, and anyone could make a rise to power from the ashes of the once-unified old order. Nations would rise and fall, leaders would come and go, and life would go on in the shattered world that ponies, griffins, changelings, and buffalo alike now lived in.

[The Flutterlands]

Thanks. Fren and I talked about the LGBT part and I added the changeling culture part because he asked me why would Celestia be so concerned with LGBT rights. I explained that it's part of Changeling rights because of how they have legalized SSM long ago even before the ponies came to Equestria...

Also, yeah, the CCHC is based off the LoN and UN, though perhaps a bit more stricter when it comes to war and peace...

[Fascist Russian Empire]

Thanks. Fren and I talked about the LGBT part and I added the changeling culture part because he asked me why would Celestia be so concerned with LGBT rights. I explained that it's part of Changeling rights because of how they have legalized SSM long ago even before the ponies came...

Aren't the changeling hives autonomous/independent? Surely, if changelings want their cultural values put into law, they can just go to the countries they rule over where they have no restrictions on being able to practice their historical traditions? Seeing as the changelings have their own nations, with their own lawmaking bodies to represent their cultural values, and that changelings can (presumably) freely return to said nations, I find it highly doubtful that the Equestrian lawmakers would see SSM as being an integral part of "changeling rights." If Celestia proposed an end to the ban on SSM, and changeling culture was her one and only reason for doing so, chances are most MPs wouldn't take her very seriously; if changelings want to practice their culture, they can go to their countries, after all. And wouldn't it be hypocritical for Celestia to support SSM on the grounds of it being a part of changeling culture without simultaneously supporting polygamous marriage on the same grounds?

Besides, Celestia's intervention with regards to SSM isn't necessary anyway; as you can read in Fren's part of the epilogue, the whole of Equestria de-facto recognizes it.

"The district assemblies would deal with education, weather control, healthcare, welfare, criminal law, regulation of intoxicating liquors--basically anything else not explicitly granted to Parliament. As a result, for example, while Equestria itself did not recognize same-sex marriage, every district soon would, and Equestria was obliged to honor that choice."

[The Flutterlands]

Thanks. Fren and I talked about the LGBT part and I added the changeling culture part because he asked me why would Celestia be so concerned with LGBT rights. I explained that it's part of Changeling rights because of how they have legalized SSM long ago even before the ponies came...

Aren't the changeling hives autonomous/independent? Surely, if changelings want their cultural values put into law, they can just go to the countries they rule over where they have no restrictions on being able to practice their historical traditions? Seeing as the changelings have their own nations, with their own lawmaking bodies to represent their cultural values, and that changelings can (presumably) freely return to said nations, I find it highly doubtful that the Equestrian lawmakers would see SSM as being an integral part of "changeling rights." If Celestia proposed an end to the ban on SSM, and changeling culture was her one and only reason for doing so, chances are most MPs wouldn't take her very seriously; if changelings want to practice their culture, they can go to their countries, after all. And wouldn't it be hypocritical for Celestia to support SSM on the grounds of it being a part of changeling culture without simultaneously supporting polygamous marriage on the same grounds?

Besides, Celestia's intervention with regards to SSM isn't necessary anyway; as you can read in Fren's part of the epilogue, the whole of Equestria de-facto recognizes it.

"The district assemblies would deal with education, weather control, healthcare, welfare, criminal law, regulation of intoxicating liquors--basically anything else not explicitly granted to Parliament. As a result, for example, while Equestria itself did not recognize same-sex marriage, every district soon would, and Equestria was obliged to honor that choice."

Again, good points. I guess my among biggest flaws are not thinking things through. Should I just get rid of that LGBT bit? Or did you do that already?