Aetiology

For thousands of years, the ponies had been in charge of all aspects of life.

They had once controlled the forces of nature with their wings, cared for animals with their kindness, and sent the sun and the moon through the sky with their magic. But when their population had begun to dwindle, nature had resumed its wild reign over the world, the animals had learned to care for themselves, and the celestial bodies had begun to move on their own accord.

It was late evening, and Spark Shadow was sitting on a mountaintop, watching the sun as it passed by overhead.

That old pony was right all along, he mused, chewing on the last of his hay. This is my fate. The last thing I’ll ever do’ll be fulfilling my promise. The unicorn blinked into the sunlight and smiled. I guess I couldn’t have asked for a better way to go.

He glanced down at the bones of his family and his love that lay around him. Filled with a sudden sense of peace, he lay back on the grass and shut his eyes. With his last bit of strength, he rolled onto his side and pulled close the bones of the mare who had been by his side until the moment she had finally passed.

Spark lay there quietly, his breathing becoming shallower with each passing second, until he finally heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching him. He had been expecting this. A hoof glided across his back. He lay still, and a fresh wave of comfort passed through him as the visitor spoke in that old, familiar voice.

“You’ve done a great job, colt. You’ve kept your promises. There’s just one more thing I need from you.”

Spark sucked in a breath of fresh air. He held it for a long moment. He thought of his family and of his love, he remembered centuries’ worth of memories, and with one last smile, he finally exhaled. The smile faded from his lips and the world slid away beneath him, lulling him into his final sleep…

***
Aetiology
Prologue

ae•ti•ol•o•gy
n. pl. -gies
Variant of etiology
1. The study of causes and origins
2. (Medical) The study of the cause of a disease
***

Four thousand years ago...

The forces of nature were balanced, the animals were cared for, and the sun and the moon rose and set like clockwork. Starswirl the Bearded intended to keep it that way.

It had been fifteen hundred years since his last rebirth, and Starswirl was beginning to feel the effects of old age. Where his mane had once been a luxurious bright yellow, it was now a long, curly bundle of off-white that ran into his beard. His coat had once been a bright blue, but now it was a blueish-grey that no longer matched his eyes, hat or cape.

It wasn’t all bad, though. His beard was now long enough for pensive stroking, which, as a wizard, he took much pleasure in.

But now, as he stroked his beard and watched the few remaining ponies go about their lives, he could find no pleasure in it. These ponies were aimless, uncivilized beings. They did nothing more than eat and sleep and go about their days wordlessly and without purpose.

He remembered the humans who had once populated the land, and cursed them for having left the ponies to fend for themselves. The humans had been their caretakers, keeping them alive and cared for as they ran their cities and civilizations by themselves, only needing the occasional pony to pull a carriage or be given to their daughters as birthday presents.

The time had come for Starswirl to renew the land once again. He had mixed feelings about it.

He’d done it before. He’d recreated the pony races twice before today, but today would be different. Previously there had been humans to live in harmony with the ponies, but without the humans these new ponies would have to be built to care for themselves. These new ponies would be the caretakers of the land, building their own cities and civilizations with their own hooves.

This is going to be a challenge, he thought sadly.

His usual spell of rebirth would spawn nothing but unguided, aimless creatures like the ones he was looking at through his window. No, he needed a new spell, a grander spell, that would create ponies like himself: ones with goals, ones who could speak and discuss life, ones who could build their own cultures and towns like the humans before them.

He turned away from the window and made his way to his laboratory, muttering under his breath as he trotted. “I have to gather my elements, I have to gather my tools, I need a guiding spirit, a plan, a place for testing, a source of power—” Starswirl stopped in his tracks, sighed, and rubbed a forehoof against his brow. “I need to make a list. I really hate lists.”

He arrived at his lab after a few minutes and began to scan the many shelves, searching for the ingredients he would need. The lab was a part of a castle that had once held a royal family. It was massive, larger than some cities, and it contained everything there was to be collected.

He worked his way through the wings, pulling bottles from the shelves as he went. Jars of scales, feathers and tufts of fur lined the shelves of the Beasts section; rare rocks and minerals sat in bottles throughout the Earth section. With his saddlebags nearly full of samples and extracts, he entered the final wing.

“This potion would be a thousand times easier if I still had my bottles of love and loyalty,” he complained as he trotted through the section marked “Emotions.” The section held all sorts of things: jars of baby kisses; bottles of laughter and dedication; containers holding the essence of truth and lies. But he had used the last of his essence of love and spirit of loyalty to settle a rising aggression between the humans and ponies many generations ago, and he’d forgotten to replace them.

“I’ll just have to make do without it,” he grumbled as he scanned the shelves for an alternative. “It’s not as though love and loyalty are necessary to a society, right? Oh, what am I thinking, of course they are! I need something to keep them together, some kind of fellowship, or camaraderie, or—”

Starswirl’s gaze stopped on a misplaced vial at the end of the shelf, and an excited grin lit up his face like a wildfire in a forest of dry leaves.

“Togetherness!” he cried, galloping down the aisle. His hat flew off as he ran, revealing his glowing horn underneath. The vial floated over to him and he ground to a halt, lifted the vial to his eyes and hoped he’d remembered to seal it properly the last time he’d used it.

“YAHOOOOO!”

His sudden urge to bounce up and down was quickly suppressed once he remembered how old he was. Sure enough, the vial contained one last drop, and with the humans gone, it would be impossible to obtain anymore. With the drop of togetherness, his pony creations would be able to live in harmony as the humans once had. This new generation would be his greatest creation to date.

A half hour later, the raw base of the potion was complete and his star-spangled wizard’s hat was back on his head. He tucked the potion into his saddlebag, carefully resting it beside the vial of togetherness. He couldn’t risk adding the togetherness until he knew the full effects of his potion. No point in creating a bunch of talking lizards, after all.

With his saddlebags resting atop his starry cape, his hat on his head and his wooden staff hovering at his side, he set off to find the perfect testing ground.

***

Starswirl spun in a circle at the bottom of the mountain and took in his surroundings. The base of the mountain was covered in tall grass, although the area in which he was standing was covered in rocks. A small forest lay nearby. The top half of the mountain was blanketed with snow, while the bottom half was grassy and peppered with the occasional tree.

He noted that the hard ground was unlikely to be damaged in an accident, and that there was enough room to be blown backwards a couple of miles and still land softly in some grass. And if his potion turned out to be a complete failure, there was fresh snow up the mountain, and nothing made him feel better about his failures than building a snowpony.

Starswirl dropped one saddlebag on the ground along with his wooden staff, and turned away from the mountain. Looking at the world behind him, he felt a twinge of regret. A part of him wished the humans would return, partly because magic was a precise science and any slight change could have severe consequences, but also because he felt he was stealing everything they were and giving it all to the ponies. The other part of him, however—and perhaps it was the older, wiser part of him—was sick of everything being the same.

Yes, what this world needs now, he thought as he took one of his few remaining bottles of pony essence and mixed it with a bit of his raw base potion, is something completely different. He shook the potion, took a deep breath, and poured it into a pit of rocks that he’d made in the ground.

Perhaps not that different, Starswirl thought wryly as he pulled himself out of the pond a few minutes later. His potion had awoken the rocks he had poured it on, and the ensuing rock monster had punched him rather hard in the chin, sending him flying into a pond nearly 200 feet away. Now why would pony essence bring a rock to life? Ah, well.

He’d wound up with a mouthful of pond algae, and now he had the idea that the algae mixed with his own saliva would be just what he needed to fix his potion (though he couldn’t be sure if it would actually work or if it was just brought on by being hit in the head with a small rock appendage). He galloped back to his testing spot, trying in vain to think of anything but the way the algae was now coating his tongue. It’s like licking an eel!

The rock monster seemed to have gotten itself trapped between some other rocks by the time Starswirl returned, but it had calmed down and was now merely complaining about the weather and how stiff its joints were. I’ll fix that later. First things first… Starswirl spat the algae into another bottle of pony essence, added it to his raw base potion, shook it up, prayed to the sun that he was right, and poured it into the rocks.

As smoke began to rise from the rocks, he decided it would be best if he hid in some tall grass nearby, lest he be punched by a rock again.

After nearly half an hour of hiding inside the grass, Starswirl poked his head out to see what had gone wrong. There had been no explosions, he could hear no complaining (other than the rock-monster who was now whining about his inability to move), and nothing had tried to kill him. Well, Starswirl, the first step in successful alchemy is not being dead, so we’re off to a good start.

He cautiously approached the pit of rocks, and discovered… absolutely nothing. The rocks weren’t even wet. It was like he’d never poured the potion at all. “Maybe I’m losing my touch,” he said with a sigh, and glanced up at the white mountaintop. Suddenly I feel like building a snowpony.

His thought was interrupted by a squeal.

Starswirl looked around, startled, but apart from the rock monster, there were no creatures in sight. Frowning, he shut his eyes and focused on the noises around him. He could hear the wind breezing past his ears, the rock monster whining nearby—

Another squeal, louder and clearer than the first. His eyes snapped open and he galloped in the direction of the noise. The grass brushed his old legs as he ran, the bells on his hat and cape jingled in the wind, and he prayed that he’d gotten it right on the second try.

***

Starswirl had been following the noise for at least three miles now, and his legs were really beginning to ache. Whatever it is, it’s certainly fast, he thought as he weaved his way through the forest. He gratefully slowed to a trot as he finally approached the source of the noise, and stepped carefully into a small clearing, unsure of what he might find there.

He sighed in relief. There in the clearing were nearly two dozen ponies playing together in the dirt. Maybe I didn’t need that togetherness after all, he thought with a proud grin. But as he watched, he realized that there was something off about the scene before him. They all had dark coats, but that wasn’t it; besides, that could be fixed. No, there was something else that was strange about all this.

The bearded wizard whistled sharply and the ponies froze where they were to stare at him. He counted twenty-three: twelve colts and eleven fillies. Seven had wings, eight had horns, and eight had neither, but one of them, a pure black pony, had wings and a horn. He stared back at them, taking slow, cautious steps towards them, and then stopped in alarm as he realized what was off.

Their muzzles are all soaked in blood!

Starswirl looked to each of them in horror and now he could see the gashes and bite marks in each of their coats, the blood that matted their fur and dripped from their teeth. There was a noise to his right; he turned to see the black alicorn wrestling with a dark blue unicorn with a white streak down its back. Oh, by the moon, they’re not playing at all! They’re trying to kill each other!

There was another noise to his left, a high-pitched squeal, and he swivelled to see a filly pegasus collapse into the dirt. The rest of the ponies scattered as he dashed to her side. She was different from the rest, smaller and much lighter-colored, and he lifted her gingerly onto his back before taking off after the other ponies, determined to put a stop to their violence.

The sky was beginning to darken overhead, and he glanced to the west to see the sun touching the horizon. How long have I been on this mountain? He shook his head and turned his gaze back to the forest before him, searching the trees for the missing ponies. If these damn creatures manage to escape... No, no, I won’t let that happen. My new world is not going to be destroyed by these things.

Galloping as fast as his ancient legs would allow, he realized suddenly that he had no idea what he would do with them once he finally found them again.

The sun had almost set when he heard the yelping, and he followed the sound to a giant willow tree up the mountainside, slowing to a stop as soon as he saw the ponies sitting beneath it. To his relief, they seemed to have calmed down, but he ducked behind a nearby bush anyway. The last thing he wanted to do now was to scare them off again.

Wrapping the pegasus filly in his magic, he gently floated her into the shade of the tree. The ponies had stopped fighting completely; they licked their wounds and growled at one another, but apart from that, they seemed rather docile. It must be the shade, Starswirl noted. It seems to have a tranquilizing effect on them.

Indeed, the darker it got, the calmer they became. Soon they had divided themselves into two groups: on the left were sixteen ponies who gathered around the alicorn, and on the right were the other six, consisting of two earth ponies, two unicorns, and two pegasi, including the injured filly.

The second group was huddled together, licking each other’s wounds and nuzzling one another. The first group, on the other hoof, seemed to be bowing to the alicorn. Now would be the time for the old pony to make his move. Slowly he removed a spellbook from one of his saddlebags, being careful not to make too much noise. He couldn’t afford to have them go running off again.

I can’t have these... things running around and wreaking havoc all over the place. The sooner I take care of this mistake, the sooner I can get back to creating non-bloodthirsty ponies,he thought as he came to the section titled “Lightning Spells”. Ah, this will do nicely.

***

It was completely dark when Starswirl decided to make his move. The yelping and growling had stopped completely, and all of the ponies were silent and settled except for two: a unicorn from the smaller group was locked in a staring contest with the alicorn, their eyes shooting daggers at each other.

Starswirl burst from his hiding place, his magic charging in his horn as he readied a deadly bolt of lightning, but the glow faded as he approached them. The two glaring at each other hadn’t even looked up at him, and only a few of the others seemed to even notice him. None made a move to attack, and suddenly Starswirl was struck by a wave of guilt.

These ponies were the first he’d ever created without the help of humans. In a way, they were his children, the first creations he’d ever been able to call his own. He knew they were dangerous, that they had the potential to tear apart any world he could create, but looking upon them now as they sat quietly in the darkness, he just didn’t have the heart to kill them.

His decision was confirmed a moment later when the unicorn broke his staring contest with the alicorn. Rising to his hooves, he approached Starswirl slowly, coming to a stop before him and staring up at the bearded pony with wide, light purple eyes. Starswirl looked down at the colt, smiled warmly and leaned down to come face-to-face with him.

This is the one with the white streak down his back—the one who was fighting with the alicorn in the clearing.

The small unicorn searched his face for a long moment before opening his mouth, dried blood cracking on his fur as he uttered a single word:

“Papa?”

***

The ponies seemed to respect power—or perhaps just taller ponies—and thus were quite willing to follow Starswirl around the mountain. It would be several hours before dawn broke, and as he watched the moon pass through the sky, he became increasingly worried as to what would happen once the sun rose again.

The other reason he had chosen this mountain was the vast network of caves it contained. The cave had been the former residence of a very large dragon, and as such was large enough for whatever ponies he created to live comfortably within it. The cave also had a single entrance, which would facilitate Starswirl’s plan to keep these ponies out of the sun, although he hoped he wouldn’t have to go through with that.

The hike to the entrance had taken most of the night, and Starswirl could sense that the sunrise would soon be upon them. When the cave came into view, he stopped just inside the entrance, and used his magic to send a small orb of light deeper inside.

Mesmerized by the light, the ponies followed the orb into the cave as the sun began to rise. When they were all fully inside, Starswirl turned and galloped into the newly-risen sun. He heard their hoofsteps behind him and, praying to the moon that he was wrong, turned around to watch as the ponies followed him into the sunlight.

But just as before, the moment the sunlight struck them, they froze in place, and a moment later they were at each other’s throats. Starswirl heaved a sigh as he watched them attack one another. Reaching out with his magic, he shoved them all back into the darkness of the cave.

***

Starswirl sat outside the cave, gazing sadly upon his creations. It had taken him four hours to construct a magical barrier across the mouth of the cave, and now the twenty-three ponies sat in the darkness, staring back at him.

The barrier would keep them from escaping at night and dissolve during the day in order to recharge. Locking them away like prisoners had been his last resort. He hadn’t wanted to do it, but—and now he looked at the bite marks on their coats and shivered—he hadn’t had any other option.

Along with the barrier, he had enchanted them all with another spell, one perhaps more selfish than merely locking them away from the sun to prevent them from killing each other. These ponies would age extremely slowly; it would be a millennium before they’d even be adolescents.

If I’m not going to let them die in the sunlight, I’m certainly not going to let them die in the darkness in a few years’ time. No, these ponies will be around as long as I am. Perhaps even longer… He sighed and turned away from the cave.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that they’ll forget the sun’s effects and escape into the day. And if that happens, they’ll either end up killing themselves or getting eaten by a passing dragon…

As he made his way back down the mountain, he forced the thought of them escaping the cave to the back of his mind. He knew that if they ever managed to escape when the sun wasn’t in the sky, there would be no stopping the devastation they were sure to cause.

But he couldn’t think about that right now. He still had three bottles of pony essence remaining, as well as the vial of togetherness. He had a job to do.

He had a new pony population to create—one that would be able to roam free in the sunlight, one that would build their own civilizations, one that would no longer need the humans to take care of them...

One that would be kept far, far away from his shadow ponies.

***