Over a thousand ago, the land of Equestria was ruled by the malevolent spirit of chaos, Discord. Eventually, his reign was toppled by the celestial sisters, who used the Elements of Harmony against him. Victory came at a price, however. The combination of the most powerful source of chaos and its polar opposite, harmony, radically altered the rules of magic and the structure of the world itself.

The land began to tear itself apart, hurling huge chunks the size of mountains up into the sky. These became the sky islands. The sea spread until it covered the entire world. Normal fish grew into leviathans that could swallow ships whole. The whole planet is divided into three zones by two nearly impenetrable walls of perpetual storms.

Ponies, zebras, donkey and griffins had their bodies’ reconfigured. The equines now walk on two legs and possess hands like those of a primate. The griffins similarly began to walk upright. Clothing became very popular in order to avoid indecent exposure.

Every sentient creature from then on was born with a unique magical ability, called a magic craft. Magic crafts are known instinctively to their users and are nearly impossible for unicorns to replicate. Each ability only appears in one creature, but after the user’s death, another may wield it.

Author's Note

There are four categories of craft:

1) Passive crafts: an ability that cannot be turned off. May have any number or combination of controllable effects. This category tends to have very inconspicuous users.

2) Conjuration crafts: the ability to create and dispel one unique item that possesses a pre-defined magical property. Users are granted total mastery over the object, but mastery does not extend to the item’s mundane counterparts.

3) Spell-like craft: this ability class tends to mirror existing spells or can be equated to an existing spell. Can be performed without unicorn horn.

4) Contract craft: Extremely diverse range of abilities and easily the most powerful of the four classes of craft. Each ability comes with a set of restrictions must be met, with stronger abilities having more restrictions. Pre-requisites are rituals/sacrifices that must be performed each time to use the ability. Conditions limit the situations in which the ability can be used, and they cannot be violated. Payments are ritualistic compulsions inflicted on the user after using the ability. Failing to meet a payment kills the user.

Sorry this chapter has no plot. There were just some things I had to tell you about this alternate version of Equestria where in-story exposition wold be very weird.

And yes, anthro ponies (Biped + hands, otherwise unchanged). THIS HAS PLOT RELEVANCE! DON'T JUDGE ME!

Anyway, *Ding* Have a new story!