Thousands of years in the future; Celestia and Luna have long since disappeared, and nearly all the towns and cities have been long abandoned and turned to ruins. Only the zebra tribe has seemed to survive.
As the leading cultural anthropologist, the Zebrican leaders have tasked you with finding out as much as you can about this ancient civilization. You and your team have taken interest in a town closest to your home lands, just on the other side of the Everfree Forest: Ponyville.
Preliminary results of your study indicated that, after the mysterious disappearance of the princesses, there were no creatures able to raise or lower the sun and moon. This led to devastating stagnation of water, famine, a mysterious plague. In some places there is physical evidence of predation. Unfortunately, with how much time has passed it is nearly impossible to determine in the field if it was due to animals, monsters, or the ponies themselves.
Yet for all the physical evidence, there is no written record of the ponies that lived here. From what little is left, your team determined the books which held the written history were eventually burned for cooking, light, and warmth.
Today marks the start of your fifth month of research and you are expecting the results of a few experiments any day now. As you begin your work day, you glance up and turn your head. Your attention is drawn to a rather young griffon. At first you're confused at why a griffon is there, then you remember you took on an intern.
Said intern seems to be babbling and squawking excitedly about something. You could never understand griffons when they got this excited. Before you could ask the intern to slow down, she shoves an odd object into your hoof.
You glance down and go wide eyed, about to ask if you are holding what you think you are. Before a single word escapes your lips, your young intern is tugging on your mane. Taking the hint, you follow after her to the ruins of a barn on what you learned three months ago was called Sweet Apple Acres. Your intern leads you to one of the more intact stalls and points.
You look where she’s pointing closely and gasp. Five months of digging, excavating, and exploring and you missed a hidden compartment! You gallop over there and yank the panel off; a dozen more of the objects fall out and onto the floor. You scoop up the tapes and carefully place them in a saddlebag, excitedly rushing out. You have to get back to your homelands to find out what is on them. In your haste, you give your intern a field promotion and put her in charge until you can get back. She's shocked at first but accepts it eagerly, allowing you the time to do your research.
Once back at your lab in the Zebrican lands, you work quickly to find the proper player for the tapes. Some part of you fears that with how much time has passed the tapes won't work. Luckily, you find a proper player and pop in one of the tapes. You hear a crackling sound and silence. Disappointed that the tape is too old, you almost shut it off when there's another crackle and some pony starts talking! You quickly pull over a notebook and pen, ready to take notes.
"Hi, my name is Moolissa. I live in Ponyville and I am a cow. I recently turned 14 and, unlike others my age here or even those older than me, I realize things here aren’t as perfect as things may seem. I don’t want to be content living here knowing things could be better. The ponies here can be nice at times, but when not in public, things can get pretty bad.
Firstly, we don’t get to live in houses like the ponies do. Depending on which one owns you, sometimes you get to stay inside their house, sometimes it’s a barn, sometimes it’s an overcrowded barn, sometimes it’s just outside. At least they outlawed the pegasus ponies who don’t live on the ground from owning cows.
We're not supposed to have any recording devices, and most, if not all, cows like me aren't supposed to know how to read. I-"
The tape makes an odd thump sound, followed by a slight crackling. At first you fear that time has taken its toll on the tape after all but, after bumping up the volume, you can pick out some talking. What they say is somewhat muffled... Obviously the recorder was quickly hidden while still recording.
"I didn't ... food. Why susp ... me? ... I'm not lying!"
The words cut off and you listen carefully. There’s suddenly a loud snap sound and what sounds like crying, followed by more snap sounds. You take notes in your notebook, marking down that the sounds seems to be a whip of some kind. Inferring from the context on the tape, this Moolissa was being punished for stealing food. It doesn’t seem that the accusing pony even cares what Moolissa has to say. The whipping sounds last for a few minutes before the muffled sounds of hooves clopping away came on. There is a rustling sound as the crying got louder and more clear. You realize that the hidden panel was moved away, and the sound of Moolissa crying is now clearly able to be heard. She cries for a good couple of minutes before it seems she’s realized the tape is still recording. She says something odd, a strange type of moo, before the tape cuts off.
You pop the tape out of the player and examine it. You hope to find some idea as to a year, a date, any indication as to when the cow was speaking from. At last, you spot a number! You are disappointed, though, when the number on the tape is just a number 1. Suddenly a thought occurs to you and you look at another tape. This one is marked with a number 4, another with a number 8, and a third with a number 2. So while the tapes themselves are no indication of date, you at least know the order to play them in. Sadly, the rest of tape one has no more talk of the ponies, just the sound of the cow singing some songs. So you decide to pop in tape two.
At first, it's just Moolissa singing again, but after a few minutes there's a small crackle. She is talking again!
"Today I got to play with a few ponies. They seem to be around my age, maybe a little bit younger. One of them works on the farm and I think she's the younger sister of the owner. Or her daughter, I don't know. One can do magic and one can fly. Anymoo, they came to me for some reason for help. Something about getting a mark or something on their flanks. I was polite enough to agree to help, but who would want a mark on their flank?”
You can clearly hear the surprise and confusion in Moolissa’s voice.
“Getting those hurts. Well I think it hurts. My mom says I'm not old enough to get a mark yet, I have a few more years til inspection, whatever that is.
The three ponies are obsessed with this mark of theirs, trying all sorts of things. Some I was reluctant to do, like getting pushed over. I can get up just fine but landing on your side hurts. So is getting choked by a rope when they tried to be like those rodeo ponies. They also got a little too eager to do milking, and they wouldn’t listen when I told them I was too young to be making milk. My mom says us cows don’t start making milk til after we get our marks, and only after we go into a certain-"
The tape crackles again and there’s the sound of shuffling hooves and a loud thump. Then, all the sounds get muffled. Looks like she had hidden her recorder again in haste. You can hear three new voices though they are a bit muffled. They sounded quite young, and perhaps these are the ponies Moolissa was talking about earlier.
“Well girls, we didn’t get cutie marks in cow tipping, or being rodeo ponies, or milking, so maybe we can try cleaning out the cow’s pen.”
You make a few more notes, excited and barely listening to the tape. Cutie mark… that must be the mark Moolissa was talking about. There are a few references in the evidence found about the strange mark and its’ importance, but Zebras never got those marks; As such, most info about their impoortance was lost. From all the research your team has done, though, the only definitive thing is the mark somehow tied in with the job the ponies did. This is a foreign concept to you since you have no mark but was still able to do a job.
While working on your notes, you are barely paying attention to the tape until you hear three things: an oops, a splat, and that strange moo sound again followed by a gasp. You make special note of that moo sound, wondering what that sound is. Just listening to the tape, though, brings the answer.
“NO! BAD COW! You don’t use that language around ponies!”
So that strange moo is some kind of curse word, at least from the context you are getting. You also don’t know who the pony is that’s talking, since none of them are using their names.
“You’re not the boss of me you MOO pony! You need to watch where you fling that stuff when you’re cleaning you little-”
You jump slightly when there’s a loud slap sound, the sound of a crying cow, and then a dragging sound. You hear only the first part of the words as they fade quickly.
“I might not be big or in charge, but my big sister is. If you won’t behave I’ll show you what’s gonna happen when you…”
You try to bump up the volume to hear anything else but there’s mostly silence for a good 5 minutes. Suddenly you can hear the clopping of approaching hooves, loud crying mixed with the occasional moo, and arguing.
"Did you have to do that to her? That's just mean!"
The voice is different from Moolissa and the pony that was talking before. This one seems to squeak at times when she spoke. You mark in your notes that, until a name is said, you will refer to her as Squeaky and the one that had been talking earlier as Meanie.
As the two argue on the tape, you mark down a few more notes and assumptions. First, Meanie seems to be the pony Moolissa had been talking about earlier, and she is the little sister of the farm owner. Squeaky, as far as you can tell, is what is known as unicorn. Of course with most records destroyed, your knowledge of unicorns is sketchy at best. A fourth voice speaks up on the tape, complaining about how she could be practicing tricks on her scooter instead of wasting time on, as she says in her own words, a dumb cow. Again, not knowing their names, you have to mark down an assumed name, so you call this new pony Scooter.
The way Scooter talks, you figure she's impatient and possibly a bit brash. You don't get to write too many notes about her when Moolissa starts speaking through her crying.
"I'll behave! I promise! Please don't take me back there!"
"See? I knew that would get her to behave." That is Meanie speaking again.
"You didn't have to show her THAT! You nearly scared her to death!" That is Squeaky's response to Meanie.
From how the ponies are speaking, it seems that Squeaky is the voice of reason in the group, whereas Meanie is more action oriented.
“If you like cows so much, maybe you should become one! Don’t blame me, though, if things don’t turn out good! You saw what’ll happen to this one if she doesn’t learn to behave.”
“But you shouldn’t be mean to them!”
“They’re just dumb cows!”
“That doesn’t mean you have to be mean to them!”
“Girls! Stop fighting, the sun’s about to go down. Can we stay in the clubhouse tonight, so we can get started on crusading again first thing tomorrow?”
“Fine… but she...” There’s a brief pause on the tape as Meanie is probably pointing at one of the ponies or the cow. “Doesn’t get to pick any of the things we try for the whole day. “Cause she’s a cow lover!”
The sound of clopping hooves fades away and the only sound left on the tape is a loud crying. You’re curious exactly what was shown to the cow to make her so scared and unhappy. In all honesty, you’re completely shocked at what you’re hearing coming from a young creature. Surely the older ponies weren’t that bad, right?
Hours pass as you listen to more of the tapes. Your notes are quite lacking as tapes two through five had just recordings of Moolissa singing. Tape six, though, starts off with an interesting introduction.
"Today is a day of celebration for the ponies, which means a break from all the bad things they do. Celebrations tend to lead to disaster here, first with the Return of Nightmare Moon, then the thing with Tirek. This means I'll be able to sneak out for awhile while the ponies are distracted. Luckily I was able to convince Applejack to let me wear a collar I made myself, so I can bring my recorder with me.”
There’s a slight rustling sound as you assume Moolissa was putting her recorder in said collar. You make a note in your notebook about the name Applejack, adding a question mark next to it. The name at least sounds a bit familiar, possibly something from earlier rese
“Testing, testing. 1, 2, 3. OK, good.”
The sound of clopping hooves follows soon after the test, your attention drawn to just the sounds on the tape. From the ambient noise, you infer that Moolissa is carefully making her way out of the barn.
“I guess all the ponies have gone, let’s explore in their house!”
You keep listening to the tape as the sound of a door opens. Obviously, the ponies in this village were quite trusting if they left the door unlocked. Or very forgetful. There’s the echoing sound of hooves as they walk over what you can only assume to be a hardwood floor. Whatever pony owned this house, probably the Applejack mentioned earlier on the tape, must have made a large sum of.. You pause and flip through your notes quickly, finding the reference to the monetary system: bits. On the tape is a loud huff and a different sound of clopping hooves.
“Hmph! They get an upstairs AND a basement, nice food and pots and pans and…”
At about that time in the tape, Moolissa’s breathing seems a bit labored. You wonder why, but once again, the tape doesn’t fail to deliver.
“Not… used to… *wheeze*... going up so many stairs… Now, let’s look in THIS room.”
The sound of a doorknob turning is heard on the tape as well as another loud scoff from the young cow. The steady clip clop of hooves on wood is a constant reminder of where Moolissa is.
“Look at THIS! All kinds of toys, a nice big comfy bed…”
The sound of cow flopping on bed and a slight creaking sound punctuates her statement.
“But do I get a comfy bed or toys? NO! I get the pile of hay at best and a bunch of rocks at worst for a bed! And toys? Old, broken, hoof me downs! And what’s in the closet? I bet there’s lots of nice looking dresses. We don’t get dresses, we don’t get ANY clothes at all! Well, unless you count a bell on a collar, but I DON’T!”
Moolissa continues to rant and complain for a few minutes as you take frantic notes. Ponies had their own beds, they had toys, and they wore clothing. This strikes you as a bit peculiar. What need would the ponies have for clothing? The only time you ever wore an article of ‘clothing’ was for rituals and certain occasions, which would make sense, but from the way Moolissa is complaining, it makes it seem that the clothing wasn’t just for special occasions.
"She even has a necklace with her cutie mark on it. How vain! Oops, look at the time, I better get back to the barn, who knows when the ponies will get back."
The clip clop of hooves on wood sounds again, the cow no longer talking. All of a sudden there's an odd thump sound, followed by a sharp cry, the curse moo, and more thumps. This is followed by a loud clattering and clanking, which sounds an awful lot like pots hitting the ground.
"Ahh! I tripped down the dumb stairs because of a dumb rug and made a huge mess! Applejack is gonna be streamed, but there's no time to-"
The sound cuts out and you look up from your notes. At first you think something must have happened to the cow, but oddly, there's no longer the ambient background noise from the playing tape. You pop out said tape and realize Moolissa ran out of tape. It's possible she continued speaking well after she was out, but it was impossible to know.
It's been a few hours since you started listening to the tapes and you are starting to get tired. Perhaps trying to continue your research right when you returned from the site wasn’t a good idea. You decide that one more tape wouldn’t hurt, then you'll sleep to be rested for the last of them.
"So I guess my cassette ran out. I figured that out when I listened back to the tape and found maybe two hours of stuff I was talking about not on there. It really wasn’t that important, anymoo. Something strange is going on here; I expected once Applejack returned from the celebrations to be punished for the mess, but there's been no sign of her or the rest of her family. Not that I'm complaining, I don't like getting in trouble, especially if that MOO Applejack is the one dishing it out. I snuck back into the house, and it looks like none of the ponies have been home. Well, maybe Applejack had been home; I found her vain necklace gone.
I made my way into town and, not surprisingly, most, if not all, of the ponies paid me no mind. They were preoccupied with something. I'm not sure what is going on, but something was mentioned about the Elements of Harmony missing, and the MOO princesses gone. Good riddance, I say to that. The princesses don't care about the cows!"
There’s a brief pause on the tape, the only thing you can hear is ambient noise.
“Still, I can’t help but feel uneasy. Despite my hatred for the ponies, it’s been unheard of that that many of them would just disappear all at once. Eh… just means I’ll finally get to do what I want until the ponies get back. So for now I think I’m gonna go sleep in that comfy looking bed back at the house. I’m not sure if I’ll keep making these tapes now, but if things happen, maybe I’ll continue. For now, this is Moolissa, taking a nap.”
After hearing about those disappearances on the tape, you really wish there was some way of knowing when Moolissa is speaking from. You get a tiny bit more excited when you realize that this is perhaps the event that started the downfall of the town! You glance over the tapes and sigh. There are still so many more tapes but you really don’t have the time to go through ALL of them before passing out. But there’s no way you can get to sleep now! You decide to skip ahead a few tapes, promising to yourself that once you had more time, you’d listen to the skipped ones. You pop in tape number 9 and are quite astonished at what you hear.
“It has been a year since the princesses have disappeared, and the Elements of Harmony are still nowhere to be found. The ponies were distressed at first but have grown to accept it. Or more, they were forced to accept it. Near the end of the year, cows from all over Equestria banded together, stormed the castle, and took over. Now the cows are in control and the PONIES are the slaves! Even I got one, that MOO little filly that was always mean to me.”
There’s a pause in the tape, you can swear you can detect some kind of grin on Moolissa’s face as she’s speaking.
“I remembered how she and her dumb little friends were obsessed over their cutie marks. Well, it seemed to me they would never get them, so I helped out a little. She now has a couple of marks on her flank, but they’re not cutie marks! I made sure to get the right symbol, so now when she’s old enough, she’s going to that place she dragged me to and scared me so I would behave. She wasn’t happy when she found out what I did, but it’s only fitting since she would have made sure I shared the same fate! I dunno what happens, but I guess the farm feeds not only ponies, but griffons and dragons too. I moved into the house and kicked all the ponies out to the barn. I sold the old green one, and the big red stallion I sent to the breeding stall, since that’s all he’ll be good for now, but… well, the only mare on this farm at the right age is apparently a wielder of an Element of Harmony, and currently missing. I hope they’re never found, cause getting to beat up and treat the ponies like they treated us, that sounds just fine to me.”
You have to stop the tape there, shaking your head and staring at the player with your mouth hung open.The ponies were THAT bad the cows relish the fact they turned the tables? Certainly once the ponies returned, they would set things right again? You facehoof at the idea when you remember, your research indicates that a disaster befell the place, so there would BE no return of the ponies. You pop out tape 9 and grab tape 10. Oddly, there’s a little asterisk symbol on there as well. You decide to skip that one and go straight to tape 11.
"Three months have passed since we took over. Things are not entirely well about the situation. We were able to force a number of the unicorns to change day to night, but I guess their magic isn't as impressive as they thought. And with the two that have enough power gone, it has been night for the past months. Ironic, I suppose, since this was one of the princesses' plan many years ago. Now she's not here to enjoy it."
The tape continues with laud and praise for the new bovine leaders, how the ponies adapted to their new roles easily since those with the power to resist had disappeared, and how everything seemed alright, at least for now.
"Strangely enough, the leaders in Cowville, that's the new name of the town, said that all through the lands, all the important ponies are missing, not just the ones here and in Canterlot. While I have no remorse for the missing, I'm worried. Eternal night will bring very few crops, and our food supply is limited."
You are certain Moolissa is about to go into another long explanation, so you skip ahead on the tape.
"It has been almost two years since the day I've dubbed Rapture day. By the end of the first year, we ran out of food. Well, crop food. We’ve resorted to eating grass and hay, though there’s not much of it due to little, if any, light. Our eyes have adjusted as well as our sleep schedules, though it's still confusing to know when to sleep or be awake with this everlasting night. I hope one day we figure out what to do, before we run-"
The audio crackles and cuts out, only a brief silence before the sound returns. It's Moolissa, but there's something different about her voice. She sounds scared.
"I've had to tape over one of my other tapes, to make sure there is enough time. Something really bad has happened, and I'm not sure what it is. Reports have come in from all over Equestria: the missing ponies have returned! But... the weird thing is, they just... appeared, like with a teleportation spell. We were concerned they would try to take back power, but they turned their attention to the ponies and completely ignored the cows. There's something off about the ponies that returned, but I'm just not sure what.
From what I can see, none of the ponies that have returned can use their magic, it's odd to see a pegasus walking about instead of flying."
You're very excited now, listening to the descriptions on the tape. So the ponies DID return, just... well something must have happened in their absence. You glance up at the clock and see it's just past midnight. But there's no way you can get to sleep now! You have to know what happens! So instead of listening to the entirety of the last tape and a half, you start skimming through them.
“Food almost gone… everyone starving… days running together… Something terrible is happening!
You stop your skimming right then and there, almost skipping over an important part of the tape. You rewind a bit and start playing the tape back.
“-thing terrible is happening.!”
You note a fearful tone in Moolissa’s voice, with her breathing hard and labored, almost as if she had been running as fast as she could..
“It started last week. I saw the Princesses in the middle of town, digging a large hole and burying something there. I tried to get a closer look but the returned ponies formed a tight circle around the object. I was too afraid to get any closer than I had, but I got a glance of some kind of pod or plant type thing half in the ground. I’m confused and scared and-”
And what!? You have to know! That can’t be all! You hear a click and glance up at tape player, realizing it’s just at the end of the tape. With a scowl of anger and frustration, you sigh as you pull out the final tape and hope that there’s enough there to finish explaining things. As soon as you turn on the player with the new tape, you hear Moolissa’s heavy, scared breathing.
“If you’re hearing this, you’ve reached my last tape. I am currently hiding in the barn I used to live in. Something’s happened that I don’t think I’ll ever understand. That plant thing grew quickly while it was guarded, until the thing spewed out some kind of mist or spores. I was lucky to be far enough away to miss the initial blast, but I watched as the ponies in the area breathed it in. After that blast, it looked like it either shrank or… or possibly buried itself back in the ground. I didn’t stay long enough after to see what happened to those ponies closest to the blast, but I heard these strange sounds coming from where I ran away from. I breathed in some of the spores as I ran, or the cloud or… I don’t know! The other ponies not even close to the blast started to look... strange, almost like a mix of ponies and… other creatures? I’m certain it wasn’t caused by Discord, and it’s not creatures from Tartarus, I don’t know what they are.
I had managed to sneak back to the place that thing was buried once the strange ponies had moved away from the center of town and before I snuck back here. I tried to dig it up, but it’s firmly rooted. I managed to make it spew out more of those spore clouds and coughed, afraid of what it might do to me. But after waiting, and knowing how fast I had seen the ponies change, I don’t think it affects cows or forest creatures at all. The plant thing looks dormant, and I think it might be, well, the best I could say is it’s sleeping. And if it is, what will happen when it wakes up again?I didn’t stay around long after I saw two of them get into a fight and start eat-”
There’s a pause in the tape, punctuated with the sound of a breath being drawn and held. The next time Moolissa speaks, it’s in a hushed whisper.
“Some of those things are in the barn. I’ll peek over the edge of the stall and… I don’t know what to make of it. It looks like… like a fusion of a pony and.. and a timberwolf? I’ve ducked back down and moved to the other side. I’m peeking over the side again… this one looks like a mix of pony and… cocatrice? I… I think those spores or whatever is making the ponies turn into a… no, I think the proper term is mutating them into… into whatever they either saw or touched last, I’m not sure.
I have to get out of here, but the ponies are starting to gather here. This may be the last time I’m able to record, so I’m hiding the tapes in the hiding spot in my old stall. Though the ponies were mean to me and I still despise them, I… they… I guess I can say they were alright. If they hadn’t gone missing, I don’t think any of this would have happened.”
There’s a brief pause on the tape.
“I’m gonna make a break for it, maybe try and see if any of the other towns near here are safe.”
Those are the last words that Moolissa speaks on the tape and, with the sounds that follow, probably the last words she ever speaks. The sounds include a loud moo of defiance, the clopping of hooves on wooden floors, a loud thunk that sounds a lot like something stone landing on wood, an odd screech that seemed to be a mix of pony and timberwolf, and a scraping sound of stone sliding on wood. The rest of the tape is ambient barn sounds until it clicks off.
Quickly gathering your notes that you were frantically taking down as you listened to the tape, you rush to the Zebrican Queen’s bedchamber. Ignoring the guards posted outside, you scream and yell for her to wake up. What you have to tell her is of the utmost importance. Luckily, she has just laid down and hasn’t yet fallen asleep, so she beckons you inside.
Excitedly, you show off your notes and relate to her the opinions of the cow about the ponies, making particular note to mention how cruel the ponies were to the cows. In the midst of your explaining, and after mentioning the strange plant like thing, you’re stopped by a light hoof to your shoulder. You stop speaking and look at the queen with a confused look. That’s when she mentions something that never crossed your mind. That plant thing, if it was indeed lying dormant, what would happen if a wrong strike to the ground, one misstep were to awaken the plant? You drop all of your notes then and there and dash from the bedchamber and out into the Everfree, trying to get back to the dig site before it was too late!
