Golden Age

Prologue:

"This Was Equestria"

A canister soared through the night sky, whistling as it traveled between massive skyscrapers trailing a thin grey line of gas behind it. It hit the ground, the gas spreading amongst a crowd of ponies who dispersed, charging forward. Flames coated some of the nearby buildings as the equine mass merely advanced forward, some waving signs into the air chanting “Down with the council!”. Down fifty soldiers stood atop the staircase of the ManeHatten Councilor’s palace.

The soldiers all wore thick black armor and gas masks, a club holstered at each of their hips. Burly Earth ponies held in place riot shields, blue electricity dancing on the surface of each shield. Behind them were all Unicorns aiming rifles, many of which firing  the gas canisters into the crowd of protestors.

Slate ran out of the mass, taking cover behind the staircase to a building. He wore a black trench-coat along with a black snowcap and a microphone over his white coat and orange mane, his horn protruding through a hole in the cap. “The police are firing on the crowd! It’s starting!”

A harsh mechanically distorted voice played back to him. “Excellent. Proceed to the third floor of the building across the street. The rest of us are already in position.”

Slate poked his head from the staircase, noticing a canister flying in his direction. Shit! He quickly reached into his trench-coat, producing a gas-mask. The canister landed mere feet away from him as he felt the mask seal along the edge of his muzzle. He picked up the can with his magic, tossing it back towards the police.

He ran as fast as he could, vaulting over ponies suffocated from the gas and weaving around those still standing who were in his path. Finally making his way to the sidewalk he charged up the short staircase, forcing the door open with his magic. More stairs. It was an old building, possibly from the old days of the monarchy. He climbed the staircase which wrapped around the rusty elevator chamber. First floor. Second floor. Third floor.

The third floor was simply one level with no rooms, just debris and support pillars.  He spotted a chair with a large briefcase in the corner. Trotting to the briefcase, he opened it, revealing a sniper rifle. By the length and size of it, it had to be a .50 caliber.

The voice on the young stallion’s headset played once more. “It’s a Mark VI arcana-shot. Magically amplified, we need you to take out the riot shields. Pour your own magic into the rifle if you wanna break through those things.”

Slate’s horn lit up with a light-blue aura, enveloping the rifle in a similar field. Aiming it, he lined up a single shield into the cross-hairs. He commanded the rifle suspended in the air before him to fire, cleaving the Earth-Pony’s shield in half and splattering its wielder into the staircase. The rioters excitedly advanced as the wall spaced itself appropriately, bracing themselves for an onslaught.

Police on the upper levels drew pistols and rifles, firing upon the crowd with bullets in addition to gas. A gentle breeze blew the gas back towards the police, shrouding the base of the staircase.

Slate searched the staircase for clear targets. Ponies threw themselves onto the shields of the police attempting to overwhelm them. “I can’t get a fix!” he shouted. Soon he noticed a Unicorn civilian struggle with the riot shield of a police Earth Pony. He fired on the shield, knocking it free of the Earth-Pony’s grasp.

To the Unicorn civilian’s dismay, his reward was met in the form of a burst of bullets into his chest from the Earth-Pony’s quickly-drawn shotgun.

The headset crackled again. “What the hell is taking so long, Slate? The rioters haven’t gotten onto the staircase, we need more guards up there for the diversion to work!”

Suddenly, high-pitched shrieks broke the dissonance of shouts and gunfire. Bat-Ponies... Slate thought to himself. Suddenly, dark pegasi-like forms with shorter tails and bat-like wings descended upon the crowd, dive-bombing explosives.

Slate focused again on the staircase. He fired on an officer who fired a continuous stream of bullets from an assault rifle into the crowd. He looked up from the scope, time to reload. Just then, he noticed a flicker of light in the corner of his eye. Across the street atop a building sat a bat pony, aiming a laser-guided rifle towards him.

The distorted voice played once more. “Thank you for your service towards the Order.”

A single shot erupted, merely adding to the chaos. All the while, the mare in the moon looked down at the ponies of Equestria, the sole witness to that fateful night.

§

They say it was well over a thousand years ago, before the time of the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony. A time when ponies could work together in harmony and safety, without worry of threats or dangers. After the three pony tribes had come together in the land of Equestria united as one nation, they achieved remarkable feats of architecture and engineering as well as technological advances, and a harmonious culture which has endured even the greatest threats to our existence.

The knowledge of the three different races finally brought together set off a spark for progress, a spark which soon became a raging inferno of ideas and innovations. From the Pegasi, large cityscapes were planned based on the intricate architecture seen in cities such as Cloudsdale incorporating ancient techniques into physical buildings. This was likely made possible by the physical abilities of the Earth Ponies to build such cities, and the abilities of Unicorns to mine the metals required to create something referred to in ancient documents as "skyscrapers": lone towers of glass and steel which could rival the height of the Crystal Palace, and even "super-towers" reaching even into the stratosphere. In large cities today ponykind has recreated skyscrapers recently in ManeHatten and VanHoover, but until then skyscrapers were seen only in the sole remaining city from this golden age known as Tall Tale, where skyscrapers have mysteriously stood for millennia (it has also been the primary location of my research). Though many historical documents are burnt, and the city has been abandoned until five-hundred years ago. However, in all major cities, remnants of the old architecture can be found below the ground: the ancient sewage systems.

Remnants from this golden age are everywhere, hidden in plain sight. We have simple technologies remaining such as speaker systems, radios, music players, vinyl records, display screens, and even computing technology which we use primarily for electronic aid in military, scientific, and entertainment technologies such as airships, scanners, and video games (The recently-released "Pac-Mare" is a personal favorite of mine).

Though where did this all go? Most of these electronic devices are used for entertainment purposes such as speaker systems, music, and games, but records suggest that this kind of technology was easily available and possibly even mass-produced. In the modern era these technologies are incredibly expensive, costing hundreds or even thousands of bits, and mostly manufactured by the few artisans that even know how this technology works.

At this point I'd like to state none of these advances in the golden age would have been possible without our harmonious culture where ponies were taught to treat one another as equals, and where we thrived in a culture of tolerance, respect, and creativity. But the technology. Something had to have happened to bring about an end to this technological era, and all the evidence points to a singular culprit: Discord. His reign of chaos must have destroyed the knowledge and technology, creating a dark age where there was no education; buildings and technologies destroyed now being dysfunctional from the new chaotic world. But despite this, our culture remained mostly intact. No doubt there was some degradation as a lack of education tends to cause just that, but the values of kindness, generosity, loyalty, honesty, and laughter --the same values of the Elements-- all remained intact.

From my research, I can conclude there is more to our history than we know but most importantly I would like to focus on culture that allowed this golden age to thrive, and has allowed us to recover so well after the rule of Discord. The very few accounts of Discord's first rule show how friends and families stuck together despite all the hardships, all the insanity, all the despair of that period from ideals passed down generation to generation. Furthermore, this golden age is a testament to what the magic of friendship can really do and I see it as beneficial for us as a society to know how to use this magic to its fullest extent.

Princess Twilight Sparkle

1856 AD

"The university archives are for staff and administration only!" Shouted a Prench Unicorn from outside the dimly lit room, a mare dropped a dusty old document, probably one of the oldest things in the room. The mare once holding the parchment quickly scrambled to retrieve it on its steady flight to the floor, clumsily grasping it midair with the blue aura of her magic holding the centuries-old parchment upside down, her heart racing.

A bead of sweat rolled down her muzzle underneath the stallion's gaze. "I- I'm sorry! The door was open, a-and I found this book, and--!"

"Mademoiselle!" quipped the other pony, his face showing restraint of immense anger towards the young mare. "The university archives are always locked! Not even myself," he said, shaking a hoof skyward, "the great and proud associate provost of Canterlot University, holds a key to this threshold!"

The mare's ears flattened, her eyes wide with fear as she nervously raised a hoof, lowering into a near-squat as to enter a defensive ball, her body shaking. "AP Cible De Lis", third in command at the school, was well-known for his self-pride and short temper. At a loss for words, her wit failing her, she could only utter once more "I'm sorry..."

The Prench Unicorn took a breath, lowering his hoof. "Mademoiselle, what is your name?"

The mare swallowed, straightening her legs and regaining her composure, her hoof suspended inches from the ground. "Star Charmer." Quickly, she added "I-I'm a freshman. It's only my second week of classes, I've never been down here before."

Twiddling his thin Prench mustache, the administrator eyed Star Charmer, assessing the situation in his head. Putting his hoof down, he gestured with his chin for the young mare to exit the room. Nervously Star followed his command, her head hung low looking back at the lonely parchment sitting atop a stack of closed books, the only visible thing behind a seemingly endless well of darkness. It was illuminated only by a single beam of sunlight shining through a tall stained-glass window.

The light from the old marble hallway shone on her as she left the dark dusty room, revealing an orange coat and lavender mane decorated with a stripe of blue; the sunlight reflecting off of deep ocean-blue eyes and a neatly combed, stripe-less lavendar tail.

The Prench unicorn took a wide stance, gathering magic. She saw before her the doors lit in a lime green aura of magic, complimenting the thin stallion's red coat and lean form, as the doors slid shut with the effort of the stallion. He began working at a set of locks, sliding rods into position.

"Clearly, Mademoiselle, you could not have opened this door on your own. Did you see anypony around here, when you found that this door was unlocked?"

"No, sir."

"Any hoofsteps?"

"None but my own, sir."

The Associate Provost slid a final lock into position on the massive iron door, and gave the final lock, one similar to that of an old bank, a forceful turn, continuing to spin as he stepped away to face Star Charmer, a hoof held to his chin as he drug out a continuous "Hmmmmmm..." He put his hoof down and straightened his composure. "Then, mademoiselle, you have the benefit of the doubt. Do not let me catch you near these doors again, do you understand?"

"Then I shall be off. Au revoir, mademoiselle. I must report to le chancellor that the vault has been breached immediately!" And with that, both unicorns turn and went their separate ways. As she heard the door at the end of the hallway open and then forcefully shut, Star Charmer began to run down the hallway.