Turning and turning in the widening gyre...

The Elements of Harmony long predate Equestria and its sister rulers, and there are other aspects to their power that no one could comprehend. It now falls to their most recent bearers, and their families and friends, to deal with the repercussions of viewing reality through an incomplete auspice. The land itself tires of the ambitions and passions of ponies.

Ingenuity, abstract logic, the ability to work together, and, of course, magic. These elements, and the unifying moral principles that guide them, have precipitated the rise of civilization across Equestria and the face of the world. Civilizations are, however, fragile things.

It is unnatural for countless individual wills to labor under one cause. The same ambition that drives success and discovery drives opposing wills into conflict. What is right, though, and what is wrong? How is that decided? For power to be gained in one place, it must be lost in another.

An answer is provided from the prehistory or Equestria, and the origin of pony-kind. Another force provides an alternate path juxtaposed that of magic and morality.

Where does friendship end, and instinct begin?