History VideoGame / EquestriaAtWar

** Concordat of Free Nations: Headed by Asterion. It is an alliance of nations opposing the Karthinian Pact, based in the southeast of Griffonia.

* CivilWar: Many examples:

* CorruptPolitician: [[BastardBastard Johan of Olenia]] seizes the throne from the rightful heir Velvet, maintaining his tenous grip on power through kickbacks, bribes and an army of corrupt cronies willing to put advancement before ethics.

* CuttingOffTheBranches: The "Historical AI" option in the starting screen usually gives what was meant to be the true path each faction took along with the results if the player's faction doesn't meddle in it, making every other outcome {{Alternate Timeline}}s. Considering that most factions has at least two outcomes, this setting prevents the player from having to constantly guess what is going to happen to his future opponents. Some examples include:

** The Gryphonian revolution that tore apart the empire before being cut down is very reminiscent of the UsefulNotes/RevolutionsOf1848.

** "The Great War" being an analogue to [=WW2=] means that the Changelings (Nazi Germany) will take over Olenia (Poland) and the Polar Bears will always be a vessel afterwards. While they would make gains on Equestria and the Crystal Empire (Britain, France and USA), Stalliongrad (USSR) would usually enter the war and help turn the tide, resulting in the Changelings' defeat. Olenia would be restored while the Changelings will be led by Thorax, representing post-[=WW2=] Germany. However, the lands are actually restored to their pre-war borders instead of being split in two between the victors.

** Wingbardy will be the dominant power in the south and will choose to annex Griffonstone.

* PintSizedPowerhouse: The Free City of Romau punches well above its weight militarily, and is, even if AI-led, capable of fielding several divisions of mountain troops and other special forces supported by high-level defensive structures. Any [[TheLastStand attempt to conquer it]] by any of its much larger neighbours (and even, say, the [[TheEmpire Griffonian Empire]]) is sure to rake in dozens of thousands of casualities on ''each'' side, since maneuvering past their positions generally isn't an option. Even then, unless the attacker outnumbers them heavily, Romau can actually [[TheHunterBecomesTheHunted turn the tide and drive the enemy back]] ''far'' beyond city limits. In any case, Romau will inevitably put up a tougher fight than either of its much larger neighbours Yale and Greifmarschen.

** Season 9 isn't canon as the darker setting convinced the Royal Sisters to stay and the defeated villains not coming back. Sombra's return and takeover of the Crystal Empire is a completely separate event which isn't canon anyway. The Royal Sisters abdicating the throne, not necessarily to Twilight, takes place only after a secret route which require playing as the Changelings and ''annexing'' Equestria or one of its successor states.

** "The Great War" being an analogue to [=WW2=] means that the Changelings (Nazi Germany) will take over Olenia (Poland) and the Polar Bears will always be a vessel afterwards. While they would make gains on Equestria and the Crystal Empire (Britain, France and USA), Stalliongrad (USSR) will enter the war and help turn the tide, resulting in the Changelings' defeat. Olenia would be restored while the Changelings will be led by Thorax, representing post-[=WW2=] Germany. However, the lands are actually restored to their pre-war borders instead of being split in two between the victors.

** When the River Coalition becomes the River Federation, the chosen capital is in the River Republic, making it the winner of the 8 countries. All members will be annexed successfully.

* OutsideContextProblem: Due to how easy to get annex war goals, especially in Griffonia, it is very common to find yourself on a warpath of a superior outside force when you are in the middle of development and your own story. Many narratives were often cut short as a result of being conquered, [[ShaggyDogStory rendering their personal struggles moot]].

* RealityEnsues: Ponies are not gung ho fighters, and Equestria will be militarily incompetent against the Changelings until major government reforms are implemented to change things up.

** United Ponies Front: formed by Equestria to defend against the Changelings, bringing together horses, commie horses, sparkling horses and Australian horses.

** Vassals of Aquileia are colored wine red.

* EnemyMine: The Kingdom of Brodfeld (Royalist Pryhwen) can call on Blackrock's Bandits for aid against the communists. While they obviously don't care for the slaving, plundering bandits, and Blackrock herself is no fan of nobles, they both have a vested interest in preventing communism from gaining a foothold.

** Played straight with the Changeling Lands, a FantasyCounterpartCulture to Nazi Germany.

Released in July 2017, Equestria at War has grown to be one of the most comprehensive mods for [[VideoGame/HeartsOfIronIV HOI4]]. With a custom-made map, 60+ countries with 30+ unique focus trees, racial tech trees and units, a huge variety of complex interweaving events, and more custom icons and portraits than the entire base game, it shouldn't exist, but it somehow does.

* AdaptationInspiration: Adapting to [[VideoGame/HeartsOfIronIV HOI4]] has foregrounded the industrialising, modernising aspects of the show, which were always in the background. The result has been a dramatic tone and theme shift away from adventure to more complex stories about ideas, diplomacy and national changes.

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: [[PunnyName Las Pegasus]] is a dead ringer for UsefulNotes//LasVegas.

** "The Great War" being an analogue to [=WW2=] means that the Changelings (Nazi Germany) will take over Olenia (Poland) and the Polar Bears will always be a vessel afterwards. While they would make gains on Equestria and the Crystal Empire (Britain, France and USA), Stalliongrad (USSR) will enter the war and help turn the tide, resulting in the Changelings' defeat in the year 1015. Olenia would be restored while the Changelings will be led by Thorax, representing post-[=WW2=] Germany. However, the lands are actually restored to their pre-war borders instead of being split in two between the victors.

** If you have taken over the world, you will receive a special option to preemptively declare war on the [[OmnicidalManiac Dread League]] before they can unleash the Black Crusade in 1021 to tie up that loose end immediately and finish the game, since it's impossible to manually justify a war goal on the Dread League.

** Starting around 1010, countries start developing powerful magical rifles that use magical crystal cartidges to shoot powerful magical blasts that make them significantly more potent than standard firearms.

** Idol Hooves, fortification engineer for the Crystal Empire, is taken from ''FanFic/TheChangelingOfTheGuard''.

** The Knightly Order of Hellquill is a Griffonian Empire knightly order founded to fight against the ponies of the Riverlands. They were granted their captured territory as reward for their actions.

** Aztlan Free State/[[spoiler:Aztlan Empire]]: The Aztecs

** Longsword and Hellquill: Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, especially as ruled by the Livonian and Teutonic Orders. Somewhat like the Changelings, Hellquill also has Nazi Germany aspects.

** Baltimare: Revolutionary Catalonia, the libertarian socialist side of Baltimare in particular.

** Free City of Romau: The Papal States and the Vatican with a dash of AncientRome.

** Free City of Romau: The Papal States and the Vatican

** Wingbardy: Italy

** Should Equestria be defeated by the Changelings, New Mareland can harbor the Equestrian government, and call for aid not only from the Hippogriffs, but all pony and Harmonic countries to form a giant alliance.
** Harmonic Olenia can call Equestria to their defense, which early enough in the game is usually a AwakeningTheSleepingGiant moment.

* HomeFieldAdvantage: Olenia, which faces an almost unwinnable fight, gains focuses to build mass forts, has a border with poor infrastructure, has racial tech specialized in fighting in cold and mountains, and is generally designed to make Changeling life as miserable as possible on the defense.

* FlockOfWolves: The Griffonian Empire's security apparatus at the start of the game is so decrepit and muddled by red tape that one FlavorText recounts the story of the secret police happening upon the location of a shootout between two rival gangs in an AbandonedWarehouse. Not only were both gangs armed with police-issue weaponry, but both gangs ultimately turn out to be secret police fronts, with neither (nor the secret police's investigators) having been aware of the other's existence.

** The Changeling invasion Equestria is treated as a counterpart of World War II, with a news event calling it "The Great War". The changelings are analogues to Germany, who are revanchist and desire conquest, while Equestria is the analogue of the European Allies (France and Britain), who are surprised by the Changeling invasion despite having witnessed their invasion of Olenia beforehand (the Changeling invasion of Olenia in this case could be seen as an analogue of German invasion of Poland).

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: As a crossover between [=WW2=] and ponies, many of the counterparts are very deliberate, borrowing language, names, industrial firms, famous politicians, ministers, scientists and generals from real life in this era. Some cultures do not take inspiration from the 1930s and are in fact modeled after ancient ones.
** Equestria: United States mixed with United Kingdom

* FlockOfWolves: The Griffonian Empire's security apparatus at the start of the game is so decrepit and muddled by red tape that one flavour text recounts the story of the secret police happening upon the location of a shootout between two rival gangs in an AbandonedWarehouse. Not only were both gangs armed with police-issue weaponry, but both gangs ultimately turn out to be secret police fronts, with neither (nor the secret police's investigators) having been aware of the other's existence.

* GenreShift: For both ''Hearts of Iron'' and MLP given the crossover. For MLP:FIM, its characters are in a world akin to our's on the eve of World War II, and thus problems aren't going to be solved by the magic of friendship as opposed to war, diplomacy and economics. Once you step out of the Pony-Changeling conflict, the mod makes heavy use of FantasyCounterpartCulture and NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed (Kingfisher is obviously Huey Long and Lavender Berry is Lavrentiy Beria for instance) to see what would happen in a Hearts of Iron game if our world's nations, problems and figures were in a fantasy setting while inhabitting the bodies of mythical creatures. And within the mod, the conflit between the Arcturian Order and Dread League is straight up fantasy, with both nations having been lost time and centuries behind anyone in terms of scientific advancement and technology. With some elements of mystery, it's almost closer to the spirit of the show.

** A Griffonian Empire event mentions the publication of a book named "Of Things That Never Happened" by author Barys Solartail, which follows the life of a Republican terrorist named Ropshin, and some critics have pointed out that at times it feels as if the character and the writer are the same person. This is a reference to real life Russian right-wing revolutionary of ''Kaiserreich'' infamy Boris Savinkov, who wrote a book titled "Of Things That Never Happened" using the pseudonym Ropshin.

** Should Equestria be defeated by the Changelings, New Mareland can harbour the Equestrian government, and call for aid not only from the Hippogriffs, but all pony and Harmonic countries to form a giant alliance.
** Harmonic Olenia can call Equestria to their defence, which early enough in the game is usually a AwakeningTheSleepingGiant moment.

** If Thorax' rebellion goes off, his rebel faction has a focus to convince his brother Pharynx to join his side.

* HomeFieldAdvantage: Olenia, which faces an almost unwinnable fight, gains focuses to build mass forts, has a border with poor infrastructure, has racial tech specialised in fighting in cold and mountains, and is generally designed to make Changeling life as miserable as possible on the defense.

** The Rozenkamp brothers are based off the Strasser brothers, and are likewise CommieNazis that advocate for a centrally planned worker's repbulic that is also ultranationalist.

** Most of the Gryphian Host leaders correspond to historical leaders of Ukrainian and Cossack history: Harmonic leader Borad Gfifnitsky is based on Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky who led the Cossack uprisings against Poland, the Supremacist leader Yeven Krawvelets is based on the OUN founder Yevhen Konovalets, the Communist leader Cornilo Khurshevich is another take on Nikita Khrushchev with a reference to his memetic corn obsessions, and the non-aligned counter-coup path leader Pavel Vereskopadsy is based on Pavel Skoropadsky who briefly led post-WWI independent Ukraine, mixed with a little of his many great uncle Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky. Only Caras Bulba, the initial non-aligned Host leader who dies very early, is not based on any historical person, but on the book ''Taras Bulba'' which is about the romantized depiction of Cossacks.

* WeirdCrossover: Its ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' meets UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The weirdest thing is how well it works. The extensive use of NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed even gives us a bunch of FantasyCounterpartCulture versions of Earth's 20th century generals and politicians to interact with the show's characters.

* {{Wutai}}: Averted. [[WordOfGod The Developers]] have ruled out a Japanese nation, despite a large amount of other nations inspired by South East Asia. However, though no nation has explicit Japanese influences, the Lake City restoration path is based on the Empire of Japan during WWII.

* GenreShift: For both ''Hearts of Iron'' and MLP given the crossover. For MLP:FIM, its characters are in a world akin to our's on the eve of World War II, and thus problems aren't going to be solved by the magic of friendship as opposed to war, diplomacy and economics. Once you step out of the Pony-Changeling conflict, the mod makes heavy use of FantasyCounterpartCulture and NoCelebritiesWereHarmed (Kingfisher is obviously Huey Long and Lavender Berry is Lavrentiy Beria for instance) to see what would happen in a Hearts of Iron game if our world's nations, problems and figures were in a fantasy setting while inhabitting the bodies of mythical creatures. And within the mod, the conflit between the Arcturian Order and Dread League is straight up fantasy, with both nations having been lost time and centuries behind anyone in terms of scientific advancement and technology. With some elements of mystery, it's almost closer to the spirit of the show.
* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: The dynamic between the Griffonian Republic and the Griffonian Empire: the Republic is a democracy (or at least aiming to be one) that can eventually adopt Harmony as their ideology, and will always work to improve the livelihood of the griffons if they are victorious, even if they become dicatorial for a certain time. The Empire is a decaying aristocratic monarchy with no possibility of peace or democratic reform[[note]]until 1021, fourteen years after the startdate, when Grover VI comes to age and the Regency ends.[[/note]], and aims to reconquer their lost territories to reestablish their hegemony.

** The Tree of Harmony is not depicted save for a brief appearance in an Equestrian focus. Among the Pillars of Equestria, only Rockhoof and Flash Magnus are available as Chief of Army candidates while the others are unaccounted for.
* AdaptationExpansion: EAW massively expands on the setting of ''My Little Pony'', establishing three continents (Equus, Griffonia, and Zebrica) worth of countries, cultures, religions, histories, and characters.

* AllGermansAreNazis: Played straight with the Changeling Lands, a FantasyCounterPartCulture to Nazi Germany. Averted with the Griffonian Empire which takes after the Holy Roman Empire instead.

** Twilight's [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E1SchoolDazePart1 School of]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E2SchoolDazePart2 Friendship]] has been established as per Season 8, though without the support of the reformed changelings and Starlight Glimmer, does not perform quite as well.
** Season 9 isn't canon as the darker setting convinced the Royal Sisters to stay and the defeated villains not coming back. Sombra's return and takeover of the Crystal Empire is a completely separate event which isn't canon anyway.

** Wingbardy will be the dominant power in the south and will annex Griffonstone.

* FlockOfWolves: The Gryphonian Empire's security apparatus at the start of the game is so decrepit and muddled by red tape that one flavour text recounts the story of the secret police happening upon the location of a shootout between two rival gangs in an AbandonedWarehouse. Not only were both gangs armed with police-issue weaponry, but both gangs ultimately turn out to be secret police fronts, with neither (nor the secret police's investigators) having been aware of the other's existence.

* FlockOfWolves: The Gryphonian Empire's security apparatus at the start of the game is so decrepit and muddled by red tape that one flavour text recounts the story of the secret police happening upon the location of a shootout between two rival gangs in an AbandonedWarehouse. Both gangs were armed with police-issue weaponry. It soon turns out that both gangs were secret police fronts, and none knew of the other's existence.

** If you have taken over the world, you can preemptively declare war on the [[OmnicidalManiac Dread League]] before they can unleash the Black Crusade in 1021 to tie up that loose end immediately and finish the game. On the other hand for challenge seekers, you can wait until they start attacking instead, using the extra time to build up your remaining focuses, research and armies for one last FinalBattle to cap off your playthrough.

** An admiral for Equestria is pretty clearly a ponified [[VideoGame/KantaiCollection Yuudachi]].

* ANaziByAnyOtherName:
** The Reformisten, also known as the Black Cloaks, are a radical griffon faction in power in the County of Longsword and can come to power in the Knightly Order of Hellquill. They are griffon supremacists that believe that the ponies are mortal enemies to griffons, responsible for all of their problems. They desire to eradicate the griffon land of ponies and create more "living space" for griffons at the expense of ponies.
** In general, the fascist ideology from [=HOI4=] has been renamed to "Supremacy", due to encompassing a far larger set of ideals than just fascism (such as totalitarian theocracies, bandit nations, and non-fascist imperialists).

* AdaptedOut:
** The reformed, multicoloured changelings are gone. Although some Changelings discover that genuine friendship and harmony feeds their hunger, this does not come with any transformation and the changelings remain their dark selves.
** Discord is present, but he really can't be bothered to help.
** The Tree of Harmony and Pillars of Equestria are not depicted save for a brief appearance in an Equestrian focus – these story elements appeared in the show after the mod was already well developed.

* AscendedFridgeHorror: For a world of singing candy coloured ponies, [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic MLP]] is full of little dark moments. The canon includes [[ProudWarriorRace warring Griffons]] that care only for money and power, [[BugWar armies of insects]] that will cocoon you and drain your love and [[BadFuture Equestria in a state of Total War over the invasion of Sombra]]. The mod has taken the canon and followed it to its natural conclusion.
* AdaptationInspiration: Adapting to [[VideoGame/HeartsOfIronIV HOI4]] has foregrounded the industrialising, modernising aspects of the show, which were always in the background. The result has been a dramatic tone and theme shift away from adventure to more complex stories about ideas, diplomacy and national changes.
* AIRoulette: Interestingly, while the AI normally acts like normal [=HOI4=] AI, doing focuses and paths with a weighted randomness, the mod actually has a "Historical AI" option in the starting screen, [[CuttingOffTheBranches which locks the AI paths to some specific paths suggested to be the "canon" (or "historical") paths the countries took]].

* CuttingOffTheBranches: The "Historical AI" option in the starting screen usually gives what was meant to be the true path each faction took along with the results if the player's faction doesn't meddle in it, making every other outcome {{Alternate Universe}}s. Considering that most factions has at least two outcomes, this setting prevents the player from having to constantly guess what is going to happen to his future opponents. Some examples include:

** [[spoiler:If Twilight Sparkle fails to escape Equestria during the rise of Daybreaker, she will be brainwashed and turned into Daybreakers [[TheDragon top enforcer]].]]