Equestria: A New Genesis
By Judah Brown
It was a beautiful summer day in Equestria. The Birds were chirping loudly and the town of Ponyville was very lively. The Mayor was holding a senior resident’s meeting, and Fluttershy was helping Derpy deliver some muffins for the Cakes. While trotting through Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle and Spike came across Pinkie Pie and, Rainbow Dash, chatting by Sugarcube Corner.
“Hi Twilight!” Pinkie shouted
Twilight approached, Spike charging for the doughnut counter.
“So, what are you to doing?” she inquired.
“Oh! Oh! Lyra was just telling Rainbow Dash and me some totally fantastic stories from Equestian mytha..mytho.”
“Mythology, birdbrain” Rainbow cut in.
“Oh, right, mythology.”
Twilight perked up. “Mythology huh? Sounds interesting. You know, back in Canterlot, I had to study all the legends of ancient Equestria.”
“Lyra was telling us about this creature called the..the…
“Come on Pinkie Pie, can’t you retain anything! Humans, you dodo!”
Twilight was puzzled. “Humans? I do not recall ever reading about humans in my studies of mythology.”
“Legends tell of these ape-like creatures that once ruled the world, and kept ponies as pets! Then suddenly, one day...” rainbow dashed paused. “They simply disappeared.”
“What?” Twilight was not buying Rainbow’s story. “I’m not sure about this. I would have come across them in my studies long ago, if it were true. Rainbow Dash, where did you hear this story?
“Lyra told us, and she learned it from an old mare”
“Well that figures”
“OOH! OOH!!” Pinkie Pie shouted “I LOVE figures... especially figure eights!”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and Twilight was to curious to focus.
“Well, I still have some chemistry notes to catch up on for my report to Princess Celestia, so I better get a move on! Spike, let’s go!” No answer came. “SPIKE!!!”
Spike came charging out of the diner with donut crumbs all around his mouth, and a bag of donuts in his hands.
“I’m coming, I’m coming, don’t get you mane in a fix!” he snapped.
………………………………………………………………………………………
Later that night, Twilight scoured her library for all her books on mythology. She had been at it for hours, searching each page, and had gone through forty books with nothing.
“What’s so important about an old mare’s tale?” Spike moaned. “And besides...it’s late” Spike grumbled as he tossed and turned on his bed.
“Spike, every myth has some element of truth, and if Lyra heard of this story, then it must have come from somewhere…sigh, but where?”
She came across one last book, The Encyclopedia of Mythological Creatures. It was a very old book, and was the oldest in her collection. Using her magic, she turned through the pages.
“
Gasp! Here it is...Human:
Human: Homo sapien. – Humans were believed to have lived prior to the existence of our ancient history, and were considered the most advanced creatures in the world. Believed to have evolved from primates, the humans disappeared by mysterious circumstances, which were never explained.
“I wonder why I never heard this before...” she mused.
Twilight was terribly confused, and found herself pacing the room. Why is this ‘Human’ legend only in ONE of my books and even then, very little is truly given, and why did I not learn about them in Canterlot? I mean everything else in all of the books I am quite familiar with. Then it stuck her. I know! I will go to Canterlot, the royal library is sure to have plenty of books on the matter.
Twilight finally stopped, and turned to ask spike to prepare for the journey, but he was fast asleep. She could not help but chuckle in spite of herself. She lay in bed and tried to sleep, but was too anxious.
………………………………………………………………………………………
The Following morning, Twilight was up bright and early. She decided to leave spike at home, and left a note stating her whereabouts. She headed out the door and down the street where she met Lyra.
“Hi Twilight. Where are you going this morning?”
“I’m off to learn more about humans.”
“Ooohh” Lyra was pleased. “I love reading about humans”
“Well I can’t find anything on them so I am heading out to Canterlot to see if there is something official about them there”
“Sound like a plan! Good luck Twilight!” Lyra commented before leaving twilight on her way.
Upon arriving at the castle at Canterlot, Twilight headed straight to the library which was at the second spire from the main palace. She went to the east wing of the library, which was devoted to history and mythology. Going though each book, she moved frantically. Minutes passed, then hours, and before she knew it, it was late afternoon. She had gone through all of books and none of them had any information on humans. She was in mid frustration when from behind her came a familiar voice.
“Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student, what a wonderful surprise it is to see you here”
It was the Princess.
“Oh, Hello your majesty, I did not hear you come”, She broke out in desperation “I was doing a lot of research and still could not find what I was looking for”
The Princes seemed surprised.
“I find that hard to believe, as I am always trying to keep the library stocked with as much information as I can. What is it you are so diligently seeking?”
“I am trying to find out more about humans”
A sudden change of expression came over the Princess when she heard these words. She took a half step back; her face showing shock and pain, like a deep and terrible secret had been revealed.
“Where did you hear about humans?” Her voice had grown very faint, almost to a whisper.
Twilight sensed she had said something wrong to upset the Princess and herself, backed away.
“I... I’m sorry, I just heard about them from Rainbow Dash who in turn heard it from Lyra, and then saw it in this book”- She gave the Princes the encyclopedia. Princess Celestia came to the article in the book, and let out a mournful sigh. Taking a deep breath, she composed herself.
“Twilight, why don’t we take a walk to my private library”
Twilight was very nervous, and apprehensive, but dared not refuse the offer. She and the Princess walked for some time in silence. Glancing from time to time, Twilight could see the Princess was remembering something painful. Some distant memory long buried within side her now unearthed and afflicting her thoughts. Finally, after some time, the Princess broke the awkward silence.
“Twilight, would you believe, that at one time I was an earth pony?”
Twilight was dumbstruck. Never in all her days had she ever thought that.
“I- I had no idea...”
“You know, there was a time, when Unicorns and Pegasi were considered mythology. They did not exist”
Twilight was overwhelmed by these statements and was terribly confused.
“But, how can that be? What happened to change that, I mean, I am a unicorn, and Princess, you are a winged Unicorn, the most majestic of all the creatures.”
Sensing Twilights total confusion, the princess stopped, turned to face her, and looked her straight in the eye. “I am about to relate to you something I vowed I would never reveal to anypony. You must swear to me you will never tell anypony, now, or ever.”
“I swear”
“About three thousand years ago, Humans did in fact exist, and they were the most intelligent creatures on earth. They had ruled the earth for over 10,000 years.
They divided themselves into groups by physical, mental, and philosophical attributes. At first, these groups, were called ‘tribes’, and before long, these tribes became very brutal for various reasons, and some tribes joined forces while others split up. They would fight for land, food, and because others may not be the same in one or more attributes.
As the humans multiplied, the groups got larger, and began forming ‘nations’, and sought to conquer as much territory as possible. Skirmishes between tribes evolved into massive war campaigns spanning continents. They developed great distrust for one another, and as they fought, their weapons became more sophisticated, designed to kill more with less effort. As time went by weapons got bigger, and more destructive, until one day, man developed a weapon that was so destructive; it could wipe out five Ponyville’s combined. Soon every nation had this weapon, and not just one or two, but hundreds, and thousands. Soon, each nation was fearful of being attacked, and yet, ready at an instant to unleash their own.”
Twilight was engrossed by the Princess’ words
“What Happened?”
“Well, as I told you earlier I was a pony just like you. My sister and I lived on a ranch, and were owned by a human. Now, you must understand Twilight, that not all humans were bad. In fact, many humans were good at heart, it was their governments, and the nature of distrust that made them act the way they did. The human who owned us called himself George Faust.
He was a scientist, who studied Ponies for a living. He believed that horses were just as smart as humans were, and taught my sister and me how to read though special equipment he developed so that he could read our minds. He was always kind, and never spoke a harsh word to us. He was wonderful.”
“I wish I could meet him.”
“So do I, my dear, so do I...” she let out a sigh, and then continued.
“One day, He came running out to the barn where we stayed with saddlebags slung over his shoulder. He was out of breath, sweating profusely. He had the most fearful look on his face that we had ever seen. His pupils were as small as pinholes, and he was ghostly pale. He threw the bags onto our backs, and moved us to a cave that had huge steel doors on it. He placed us inside, and then kissed us on the forehead. He cracked a very weak and grave smile and said ‘goodbye my friends’ and shut the doors. On one side of the cave was a plate of transparent material about eight feet thick, which we could look out of, and see the ranch house and barn. On the other was a feed trough, and a communication device that he had taught us how to operate. We waited for a long time for him to come back. Hours passed, then days. Luna and I were very upset and confused.”
“Why would he just abandon you like that?” Twilight asked.
“We knew he loved us, and there had to be a reason. Then it came. Luna noticed a thin cloud trail in the sky. Humans had invented machines that could fly called airplanes, and we were used to seeing them and the trail or ‘contrail’ they left in the sky. Somehow this was different because followed by it were several other contrails in a formation. Soon they broke off into random directions and one of the trails headed fast down to earth and then there came a blinding flash of white light that flooded our cave window.
Suddenly, the cave floor shook violently, and the earth beneath us cracked. The window shattered, and a strong wind like a hurricane blew through. Soon the white light turned yellow, then orange and finally into a deep red, and we saw what I would compare to Rainbow Dash’s destructive form of the sonic rainboom, only this was made of fiery gases and we held tightly onto each other. Then after about 2 minutes, it was over.
We looked at the giant steel doors, and they were torn in to pieces. Immediately Luna and I charged out to rescue George, only to find that his house, the barn, everything was left to fine ash. We scoured the landscape, but we found that it all looked the same. Everything was in ashes.”
“Oh my gosh...how horrible! Twilight said in horror. “What had happened?”
“I am getting there,” the Princess stated. “We went back to the cave, where we found a note we had neglected to see earlier. In it, George had instructed us to use a secret laboratory he had built for us to operate. Inside we found seeds, special chemicals and all sorts of supplies to initiate what he called ‘Genesis.’ After a couple of days, Luna and I started to feel what felt like needles being stabbed into us, sticking deeper and deeper. I noticed that we started growing little appendages on our sides and on our forehead. Before long, they became wings and horns. We were shocked and confused as what to make of them.
One day Luna was helping me with a task and I almost dropped a glass when Luna caught it with her horn, just by thinking about it. We realized that we had extraordinary powers, and that we could utilize them for good. After a few years, we were able to assess how many creatures had survived the horrible event and to tally them. To our dismay, none of the humans survived, and there were little to no traces of their existence. It was about that time that I began looking at what George had left in our saddlebags. In it were several books, and a typed note:
Dear Celestia and Luna,
It pains me to write this letter, but the truth must be told. The Human race has entered a Third World War. Two were not enough to knock sense into them. This time, it WILL be the war to end all wars, because this time, no one will be spared. I have seen this coming for quite some time now, and have created a facility in which you two can begin anew. In the Bible, God created the earth and everything in it in six days. This was known as Genesis. You, two, will have to start a New Genesis. I believe that God will reward you for your labor. The facility contains about 3,000 different species of plants, for you to nurture and grow in this new world. Take care, my good friends. –George
“Now, we realized the horrible event was the result of a human war. The explosions, which virtually destroyed life on earth, were by the selfishness of man. At that point, in time, I vowed to never let ponies get to point where they would be willing to wipe out life on earth.
“Luna and I toiled for years to try and operate Genesis. Using special lamps, he had in the cave, we begain growing new plants, and genetically creating new ones as well. We also began working with other ponies to try and organize ourselves. After six years, we were able to create a system where the pony would be the dominant species. We had rejuvenated plant life, and new species were appearing along side of some older ones.
New creatures, which up until now, where just mythological, were now a reality and we were happy to see thing working. We used our magic to help rotate the earth since the force of the explosions offset the earth’s orbit. That is where Equestrian History takes over. Ahh, here we are.”
“Wow, I had no idea about any of this. Why didn’t you share this?
“Because I was, and am afraid of an old human saying: ‘history repeats itself’”
When they entered the golden doors of the private library, they were flanked on both sides was a corridor of books, hundreds of them.
“The complete works of William Shakespeare, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, 1001 Arabian Nights, The Art of War, and The Works of Plato…, why have I never heard of these?”
“Well, some of them have been published under different names and slightly edited to suit ponies, like Romeo and Juliet. But to answer your question, these are all human books.”
“REALLY?” Twilight’s eyes widened
“Indeed they are. I, like you, have a thirst for knowledge, and salvaged a few books during the 6 years of cleanup”
Twilight kept scanning the titles, until she noticed a freestanding display case, with a beautiful ornate book inlayed with gold designs and rhinestones. She moved quickly by the others to see it.
“‘H- Holy Bible’, what is this one?”
“That, is probably the greatest gift I have ever received, for inside this cover, lies the greatest story ever told! It is the single most precious possession I have, and George gave it to me.”
“That is amazing!” Twilight opened it to the first chapter “‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth’…”
Princess Celestia slowly placed her hoof on the book and closed it.
“That, Twilight… is another story for another day.”
The two left the library and headed back towards Ponyville.
THE END