The Book of Ages

The Book of Ages

By Skye Silverwing

Chapter 1: Home World

It had been several days since Equestria’s newest Princess had returned from her trip to the Chrystal Empire, and as she had expected, her days had been filled with the tasks that Princesses were expected to do. Twilight Sparkle barely had time to sleep amidst the constant pleas for attention from every pony that thought they had some reason to be worthy of it.

She had completely forgotten about the book that lay in her saddlebags as she dealt with everything from visiting dignitaries, to Shining Armor, her big brother, being overly protective and trying to convince her to improve her defenses in Ponyville. “After all, I won’t always be around to throw up a Shield if something comes out of the Everfree Forest again.” He would say.

It was true that this close to the Everfree Forest, something new and terrible seemed to arise on a daily basis, and Ponyville lacked the natural defenses that Cities like Canterlot, Cloudsdale, or even Manehatten had for being build on a mountain, in the clouds and on an island respectively, but it was fact that Ponyville lacked the funds to construct the huge defensive walls and castle that Shining Armor kept insisting on, and she was not about to use her position as a Princess to force the issue, so every time he brought it up, she told him no.

Beyond that, everything was great in Ponyville. Rainbow Dash was settling in her new position in the Wonderbolts, Fluttershy, at Discord’s insistence, had taken up teaching younger Fillies and colts about animals and had learned to open up more, Pinkie Pie was still Pinkie Pie, but she had become a partner in the Sweets shop, Rarity had moved to Canterlot on a more permanent basis and was becoming a major player on the fashion scene, and Applejack had met a handsome stallion that Twilight suspected may be more than a friend.

Then a changeling arrived.

She introduced herself as Figment, and as the younger sister to the Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis, she asked for asylum for herself and her followers.

Figment told a tale of woe, of how she had betrayed her sister’s plan to ruin Cadence’s wedding the year before, for the sake of a friend she had made in Canterlot, complicating Chrysalis’s plan to infiltrate the city and forcing her to proceed on her own.

She told of how the energy used to blow the changelings away when the plan had failed had caused fundamental changes in the drone changelings involved in the attack, opening their eyes to the true meaning of love.

This did not sit well with Chrysalis, and when her top generals refused to participate in any further action against the ponies she destroyed them and began a reign of terror, having the “Untainted” changelings destroy the “Tainted ones”.

Figment had had no choice but to gather the reformed changelings in and flee with them, and she hoped that they could find a way to live in peace in the Everfree Forest near Ponyville.

Twilight was not sure how to respond, and she sensed that her fellow princesses might not either, so she asked for some time to sleep on it and turned her away.

Several hours later, Twilight sat in her study pondering the question at hand when her gaze fell upon the ancient book that she had collected from the Chrystal Empire. Perhaps that could give her some new insight into this issue, or at the least let her take her mind off of it for a fresh start. She opened the Protective box, and lifted the Book carefully out, and opened it to Chapter 1.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Chapter 1 - Equinus

It is important to note that even my strongest time magic failed to penetrate back to our earliest rise as a species, so I will have to rely on histories written in the earliest time I can reach for the first few steps. This vastly reduces the detail I can impart, but I will do what I can.

Our story begins, as such, on a distant world, a place known as Equinus. The World of Equinus was a shining world full of Steel spires and tall buildings that could dwarf even the greatest of mountains.

In this odd and foreign world, groups focused on acquiring wealth and power controlled policy, and stabilized the economic base of the world, using their influence to maintain the society that they served while keeping the ponies in check, addicted to the technology and services that they produced. The control of these “Corporations” was absolute.

The Ponies of Equinus were clever and innovative. They created thousands of brilliant technological devices that could allow for everything from speaking over great distances, to moving large objects without needing to touch them, to flight, and even the ability to travel over large distances in space. All of which was controllable through neural interface.

All of these technologies were packaged and sold to the public, year after year with little improvement, as a means of showing status and wealth, as well as a means of making life easier for the Ponies, and increase the Corporations’ profits.

In this time there came a bold, and forward thinking Pony known as Doctor Mane, a foremost pioneer in the field of Biomechanics. He succeeded in convincing one of the great corporations to fund the brilliant idea that was incorporating the technology directly into a pony’s genetic make-up, allowing it to be reproduced within the pony population as each generation passed.

The Corporation saw this as an opportunity to innovate in a manner that would put their own product at a greater value than their competitors, increasing their profits.

It was fifty years before the effect of the genetic engineering began to effect the Corporations, and not in the way that they had hoped. Instead of increasing their profits indefinitely, they found that the genetically altered Ponies no longer had the need for the new technology, and the corporations lost their profits.

The new breeds of Ponies formed into Four Distinctive groups: The Icari, from which Pegasai descended; the Numinae, progenitors of the Unicorn race; the Terrans, from whom the Earth Ponies rose; and the Chrysali, the ancestors of our own Chrystal Ponies. These four races, by virtue of Doctor Mane’s careful design and programming, were able to live in peace and harmony because their powers stemmed from the harmonious co-existence with each other. They lived in peace.

Unfortunately, with the sudden revelation that the new races would not participate in the economy of the world, and the loss of profits that represented, the corporations began to use their public influence to turn the normal Pony population against the new races, declaring them to be violent, dangerous monsters and evoking a violent counter reaction from the normal Ponies that culminated in Doctor Mane and his family being dragged out of their home in the middle of the night, and killed.

The new races, having lost their leader and father, and facing the hatred of their one-time brethren, took on a wild plan. Using their knowledge and abilities, they created a brand new energy core and propulsion technology, and used that new technology to create a large ship, capable of taking all of their people to a new home on a distant world.

When it was finished, all of the new races boarded the ship, and departed from Equinus forever. The bond to that world broken, our ancestors set out for a new home, with only the stars and their ship to guide them.

And they named the ship “Destiny”.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Twilight read with rapt attention until a tap at the door broke her concentration. Putting the book carefully back into its case, the Princess stood and answered the door.

Spike, her dragon assistant, shifted uneasily as he ushered in Figment.

The Changeling had a look of concern on her face. “Princess, my followers are growing restless.” She said, “My sister’s hold on them is still very strong. If you can help us, you must hurry. And if you cannot, then we must move on as quickly as possible, to avoid letting Chrysalis’s forces catch us out in the open.”

Twilight thought about how the Numinae and the other Pony races had been forced to flee from their home world for the crime of being different and nodded to herself. “Alright Figment.” She said, finally, “Deep in the Forest, beyond the Dark Wood, the River Ever, and a great chasm, there is a ruined Castle. It is not much of a home anymore, but it is a secure place for you to stay.”

Figment’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, Princess,” she said, excitedly, “You won’t regret this kindness. Oh! I must inform my followers immediately!”

With that Figment turned and departed at a run.

Spike looked at Twilight. “Are you sure about this, Twilight?” He said, carefully, “They are Changelings. Won’t they get themselves into trouble?”

Twilight smiled at him. “Don’t we all?” she asked simply, “It seems that we have a lot in common with them. Maybe we can be friends.”

She shifted her gaze and glanced at the book again. Much in common indeed.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

A.N. I felt like writing out a bit of my own personal head canon, so I figured I would it as a book within a fiction. The idea that Pony Magic is actually a function of highly advanced technology built directly into their DNA has always been my favorite explanation of Pony magic, as Science Fiction gives us numerous ideas of how to explain individual abilities that ponies tend to have.

As always, I love suggestions, ideas and constructive criticism.