The Past

by overdonefictions

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Human, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 4323

What sits in the basement of the Canterlot Library? The truth?

Twilight has finally received special privileges to visit the basement section of the Canterlot Library where the oldest books are kept. How old are they though? What is held within the leather bound covers? Twilight finds out more than she is comfortable knowing. She wonders about the past.

Published 2012-07-30 02:44:03 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-30 02:44:03 UTC

Chapter 1

Twilight was so excited! Today, she had gotten permission to visit the oldest sections of the Canterlot Library. While she could normally visit most sections, this one was off limits to everypony, only Princess Celestia was allowed inside. But today was the day! Twilight was in a slight hurry, she quickly walked down the halls of the Canterlot Library. The moon shone in through the windows in the hall, making the blue wallpaper glisten and shine. Twilight admired for a moment, but continued. This library was beautiful, she never could see a visit here as routine.

Twilight arrived at the barred door. The door behind the bars was an old oaken wood. The bars also showed age, but not as badly, they still looked like they could keep anypony out. The toughest guard she had ever seen stood before her. He grunted at her “Name.”

“Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight replied in a very business-like manner.

“Good. Enter.”

The guard opened the iron gate and allowed Twilight the honor of seeing the “crypt” library as it was called by anypony who had never seen it. Twilight pushed the door open with her magic and a gust of wind blew out, almost like an ancient tomb. There were marble stairs leading down to the library. Twilight looked back to the light of the moon for a moment, then tenaciously stepped down. She felt the cold stone of the stairs with every step she took. It was dark down there.The darkness engulfed her once the door to the surface was closed behind her. Twilight made a magic glow from her horn so she could see.

Twilight couldn’t tell if she was at the bottom of the stairs or not. She waved a hoof in front of her, since her magical glow didn’t give off enough light. She felt something small protruding from the wall. She pushed it from a down position to up. The sudden flash of light blinded her momentarily. She gave her eyes a minute to adjust and looked around. She was at the bottom of the stairs. She looked out onto a massive auditorium of books. The library was two floors, an upper smaller floor, and a lower, larger floor. Statues of strange creatures with wings accented the railings of the stairs. A wooden sign hung from the upper landing, it was missing a few letters, but it read “LI ARY OF C RESS.”

Twilight assumed that the first word as Library, but had no clue what the second was. She ignored it for now and decided to take a peek into a small, almost hidden door labeled “SCIENCE” with sturdy, plastic letters.

Inside the science wing, most books were destroyed, but there sat one on the floor in front of Twilight. She picked it up and looked at the cover. The Scientific Catalogue of Innovations of the 23rd Century. Twilight didn’t quite know when somepony had divided up the centuries past into numbers, but she ignored it. She took the book with her out into the main room. She sat at a desk, sweeping aside destroyed books and the plastic, glass, and other components to some machine somepony must have been building. Twilight opened her book. Most of the pages had become unreadable, to Twilight’s disappointment, but there was a good chunk that was still intact. Twilight read intently.

August 26th, 2237.

Today, gene manipulation was perfected. We could now create any kind of creature we should wish. We already repopulated many extinct species, and finally, asked our President what we should do next. Our President was an eccentric fellow however, he wished us to make something absurd. He was a big fan of the longest running cartoon ever My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic. He asked us to make an Alicorn. We tried and failed many times, but finally perfected a model. It was, however, unintelligent. We had to continue work to make it as smart as a human being.

October 11th, 2337

We finally perfected the brain for our Alicorn, however, personality was completely of her own accord. She did have to learn much, as would a baby, but she got a hold of many thing such as speech very quickly. She spoke for the first time the other day, she asked for a glass of water. We were happy to oblige. We were skeptical of this project at first, but after our success with creating intelligent life, we were so excited. We studied the beings in the show, saving dangerous creatures and talking cows for last. We first tried creating a pegasus today. The alicorn gave herself a name whilst we worked. Celestia. The pegasus we created failed. It died very quickly. Celestia was devastated. She thought of all these smaller ponies as her children. Seeing her misery, we tried again, and succeeded.

October 20th, 2337

We’ve created many successful ponies. They’ve actually asked to set up a town nearby. We decided to let them. They’re so adorable, how could we say no? The President was also very happy with our progress. He did say though, that Celestia was missing a sister. The Alicorn was the most difficult [strike]thing[/strike] being we had to make, but we gave it a go, for Celestia’s sake.

October 21st, 2337

After a total of two tries, we succeeded again. Luna, as she began calling herself, immediately gravitated towards the location of Celestia, as if she always knew where she was, and they wanted to be together. They wrapped their hooves around one another in a sisterly embrace. Celestia thanked us and tears graced her eyes. We were so happy we had started this project. Currently, there was a total population of 10 pegasi, 10 unicorns, 10 regular ponies, and 2 Alicorns. We wondered how we would get magic to work for them. We thought about levitation and simple things first. Then a yellow unicorn knocked on our door. As I had said before, their settlement wasn’t far from ours, so we could observe and occasionally help them. She asked for our help, but wouldn’t elaborate. She escorted us outside and told us “The weather is working on its own.”. We weren’t really sure what she meant, but then we remembered that pegasi were supposed to be in charge of weather and rain. Their crops weren’t doing to well, and the weather was kind of freaking them out. We told her to retrieve us a pegasus and we would see what we could do.

October 19th, 2338

After a year of trial and error, and eventually having the ponies come live inside, we successfully engineered the pegasus Rainy Days to walk on clouds. We repeated the process on the other pegasi, then allowed them outside again. They began testing out the clouds and making sure that everything worked properly. Pegasus Lightning Bolt immediately fired off a lightning bolt by kicking into one of the clouds. We hoped this wouldn’t become dangerous. We allowed the ponies back outside. Their structures still stood, we maintained the buildings for their return to the outside.

We observed the ponies for the rest of the day. Earth ponies began cultivating the land. Pegasi began planning a schedule for the weather. Unicorns were building a stone structure in the middle of town. We weren’t sure what it would be yet, but we would soon find out.

October 20th, 2338

Today we looked out our window at the town’s center. The unicorns had apparently worked all night. They had erected a statue in our honor. We couldn’t help but feel undeserving. However, in return, we set to work making their horns functional. We had no idea how we were going to start.

The first foal was born today. To Miss Feeling Fine, the unicorn, whom had established herself as the town’s doctor. This really just meant we had to help deliver the baby, since she was the doctor. The baby was promptly named Silver Moon.

October 29th, 2338

In the days past, we figured out how to get a “cutie mark” to appear. This was mainly triggered by growth to adolescence, but also finding a “special talent” Cutie marks in the future generations would be randomized, but the current population received them based on their current job. We went to give Celestia hers, but found she had done it herself, as had Luna. This remained a mystery for us until she explained that they had indeed trained their horns and developed magic. They hadn’t told us. Other unicorns had been coming to Celestia and Luna for help, and receiving magical powers. They had almost replaced us now, figuring out what would have taken us years in a matter of weeks.

Twilight wasn’t sure if she wanted to read any more. This was either a bad sci-fi/ conspiracy story or...the truth? She wasn’t really sure what to believe. She wondered if she should talk to Celestia. She decided on finding out what else happened first. Why weren’t these “humans” still around today?

Chapter 2

So these humans...supposedly created ponies. Twilight was very suspicious of this. She wanted to see more though. Why weren't humans still here? She had to find out.

Twilight adjusted herself in the library chair. She was beginning to get uncomfortable. These weren't the plushest chairs. She finally settled on a comfortable position before continuing to read the old book.

January 1st, 2339

Our second year of observation has come to a close. The pegasi have gotten better control of the weather, the unicorns have a much greater understanding of their magic. Really there is no explaining these ponies. They're just magical. There is a problem though.

The ponies have a sort of tyrranny. The Alicorns are "royals" and don't respect the laws of Washington D.C. or really any other laws. They've become a bit of a problem. The president doesn't want the project shut down. We can't continue letting the ponies break laws. I've spoken with the president and he recommends that our research facility and the ponies' town become a sovereign nation, leaving us as their human ambassadors.

Febuary 5th, 2339

After going through the necessary procedures, today, we became the new nation of Equestria. The size of this nation encompassed the entire street, all of the people living here on this street accepted the ponies and loved the idea of living with them, mingling will begin tomorrow. This new nation is a Tyranny, so there will only be laws made by the princesses. We will try to influence them to make rational decisions regarding other countries, but we can only do so much. I have been excited to become a royal ambassador, Celestia sent me my badge yesterday. And they said I'd never put my Political Science major to good use. Well who's laughing now?

Febuary 6th, 2339

Our decisions regarding Human-Pony mingling were to have a sort of exchange student type thing. Every human family must have a pony of the same profession in their house, and every pony family must have a human of the same profession in their house. This meant that ponies' human co-workers would also live together. This has been working out fairly well. The ponies are enjoying talking with the Humans and vice versa. Looking over our nation the size of a town, I have seen that we have all the necessary facilities. A hospital, a government center, roads, housing, plumbing, and waste disposal. Currently a water treatment plant is being built further away from the town. The pegasi are doing something I don't quite understand with the clouds. I asked one, and they said that they were getting ready to treat water.

Febuary 7th, 2339

Well, they must have worked through the night. I am thoroughly impressed by the pegasi's work. They actually built a new facility in the clouds! Incredible! I asked the President of the United States to come see this. He arrived later today thoroughly suprised. Many other nearby citizens of the United States were also very impressed. They asked to move here! I told the president that we were running out of space in our nation. He obliged. There was a large open field behind the town that he granted us, as well as more of the city that wished to become part of Equestria. We were probably about the same size, if not bigger, of Vatican City. We were contacted by the UN today, and I asked one of our scientists/ambassadors to represent us, along with a government pony, whose name was Representative. She might get a little confused when everyone there says "representative" to one another, but she'll adjust.

Febuary 20th, 2339

Working with a pony took some adjusting to. There are certain things that I can do that Beaker cannot, and there are certain things that Beaker can do that I cannot. Yes, since everyone has pony co-workers now, I deemed it appropriate that the only major science pony would work with me on future projects. Beaker has been a great help, giving me a pony's point of view. Their society actually seems to revolve around friendship. I asked him what he would do if someone slighted him. I got an interesting answer. Most ponies only act passively/passionately. They are passionate about their accomplishments, their work, their dreams, and so on, and they are passive about insults, bullying, and negative criticisms. I found this fascinating.

May 20th, 2339

For the past few months, Beaker and I have diligently worked on creating the ideal Equestrian/human society. It has been hard. Humans aren't as forgiving when it comes to making a mistake. Ponies' feelings have indeed been hurt by some. They do manage to continue forward, but I'm not sure if the ponies are keeping a kind eye upon the human race. I talked to Beaker and he seemed to think that the ponies didn't appreciate the bitter air around some.

Twilight took another break from reading. She rubbed her eyes gently. They were getting dry. She looked about the library again, to see if she could gather any more clues about what humans were. Paintings hung around the room, some crooked, and some on the floor, but from what Twilight could see, they were tall creatures, with pale furless flesh, and a gathering of hair on the top of their head crowned their serious faces.

Twilight once again questioned whether she should talk to Celestia about this book. She didn't like the direction this was headed. She worried that something bad happened, and ponies left the humans. Or that humans left the ponies. Whatever the case, she had a gruesome feeling about the rest of the entries. She decided she would see how bad things got before talking with the princess about this book. Twilight still wanted to find out more about this scientist, and what his actions toward this uprise would be.

Chapter 3

Twilight continued reading the worn and ratty book. She flipped the page she had just read to a new page.

July 18th, 2339

Things have started to get out of hand. Ponies have started having more and more arguments with Humans. Yesterday a fistfight broke out in a restaurant. I don't quite remember what sparked it, but it ended with an unconscious man in the hospital. I hope that things can get better. Some Humans have actually started leaving our little country. The current population is about 100 Ponies and 80 Humans.

July 23rd, 2339

More Humans are leaving. The Human population is down to 70. More fights have been breaking out, as well as some hurtful graffiti. Ponies can't operate spray cans, so naturally, all graffiti is anti-pony. Except for one which was just a drawing of a penis.

July 26th, 2339

Threats to the princesses. Who would have thought that things would escalate to this level? Borders have closed and the current Human population is now 50. Celestia and Luna still trust our team of scientists, but prejudices have blossomed on the streets. I can't believe some of the things that these people have come up with. I refuse to write any of it down, for it might offend future generations.

July 27th, 2339

More threats. Now things have gotten hairy. A pony was stabbed last night. The man was arrested. I never talked to Celestia or Luna about this, since there has never been any kind of reason to, but let's just say that Equestria has a no-nonsense policy against murder. No life in prison, no. Death. The man was executed today at lunch.

August 21st, 2339

I tried to talk Celestia out of it. My god, she won't listen to me anymore. Another pony was hurt, all humans are in prison. I'm still out here. I feel like a traitor. The United States have moved a squad into Equestria. Celestia has begun arming ponies. This won't end well.

August 22nd, 2339

War. Those men didn't even last a day. They were all vaporized by some kind of magic. The United States have declared war. Celestia asked me to build a suit to augment magical abilities. I can't say no. I told her I would build it. She smiled that kind smile she always had. I can't tell if she cares or not anymore. I hadn't been keeping track, but the pony population has gone up significantly. Beaker and I have been pumping out ponies in the lab, there have also been several natural births. I pray for the U.S., they won't know what hit them.

October 20th, 2339

I finished it. I had Celestia with me while I was building the suit, making sure it fit her. She was still so...kind. I don't think she's evil. Maybe we humans are. I just hope nothing bad has to...what was that? It sounded like an explosion. Oh my. As I look outside my window I can see the burning husk that was once Washington D.C. The entire government is gone. I'm not sure what will happen now. I suppose more troops will attack. I'll just have to stay here in the palace. It'll be the safest place.

Twilight put down the book. Celestia waged war on the...United States, as they were called. This sounded like rubbish to Twilight, ponies had never gone to war. And putting all humans in jail? That was also ridiculous. What about this augmentation suit? There hasn't ever been anything like that. Twilight felt more and more comfortable while she refuted the existence of all these things. There was no way that this could have happened. As far as ponies knew anyway.

Chapter 4

Twilight flipped to the back of the book. Only a few more pages. Soon she would return to the surface. The library has gotten a bit creepy.

October 28th, 2339
The humans that were being held were executed. I don't care to give the details.

October 29th, 2339
Beaker and Celestia have both been taking care of me. Feeding me. clothing me. I hate that they like me. Granted, I love them all, the ponies, but I don't want to remain just because I made them.

October 30th, 2339

That's it. Beaker has kept me posted on the events of the outside world. Genocide. Every human is dead, except for me and a few others. The world belongs to the ponies now. I almost feel happy. My creations have their own lives now. They don't have to deal with us anymore. I left the palace today. I had to sneak past the guard. The sun still shines, birds still sing, and life goes on. Ponies have used magic to change the burnt world back to a lush paradise. I left Ponyville. I won't be returning.

November 2nd, 2339
The land is still beautiful. Rolling hills and large trees cover the burnt wreckage of human civilization. I need to get there, to the library.

November 3rd, 2339
The ponies saw me today. One nicked my shoulder, but I'm okay. Such power...it cut a clean wound. Burns too. I know I'm closer. There's smoke in the distance. I guess the world hasn't quite stopped burning. I haven't seen any bodies. I assume they were disintegrated. Makes my skin crawl, knowing there's no trace of us anymore.

November 4th, 2339
More ponies. They didn't see me this time. These are the ones re-growing plants. They're doing such good work. Beautiful. I sat there for a while, watching them work. I never realized how pleasing to the eye ponies were. I was overcome with the sudden urge to hold one. To touch one. Feel their soft coat again. Such an odd feeling.

November 5th, 2339

I never realized how far we really were from D.C. it feels so empty now. I didn't come here for human interaction anyways. I came for the Library of Congress. Luckily, it isn't in that bad of shape. I had overheard Celestia talking before I left. Their capitol city will be here. I want to hide this book. Maybe some pony will find it and read it. Maybe they'll remember us.

Novemeber 6th, 2339

Today is the day. I write this as my final words. I love my ponies. I forgive them for everything that has happened. They're just so lovely. I'll place the book here, underneath this chair in the science wing. Well, the chair won't be there for much longer once I kick it out from underneath me.

That was it then. The end. It seems so real. There's really only one way to know if it was all true. Twilight stood on her hooves and returned the book to the science wing. She found a chair, tipped on its side, and gingerly place it there, as though it was a final resting place for it. She looked up and saw an old rope. Centuries old. calcified and grimy, tied as a noose. Twilight shivered and backed away. She kicked something.

Twilight looked down at her back hooves and saw a round skull. Also centuries old. It sure didn't belong to a pony.

Twilight tried to push the skull and the humans out of her head. She needed to return to the surface. She would speak with Celestia after lunch. Twilight was hungry.

Chapter 5

Twilight said goodbye to the guard and returned to the sunlight. She visited the nearest cafe for a sandwich. Twilight had been reading from the early hours of the morn and was absolutely famished.

She savoured the delectable dish and tipped her waiter a larger sum than she usually would. She left the cafe and immediately headed towards the castle. She passed Canterlot ponies in the street, all of them doing some kind of shopping. She saw a lovely flower stand, but resisted the urge to (literally) stop and smell the roses.

The front door of the castle was open, after all, tour day was today. Twilight entered without a problem. Bright light streamed in from the stained glass windows, depicting heroes of Equestria, including her and her friends. She took a right turn down a hall. The purple walls pleased her eyes and the soft red carpets felt so wonderful on her hooves. She glanced at pictures of royalty, including the newest picture of her brother and Princess Cadence, together, watching the sunset.

Twilight stared at the picture. They were so happy together. She wondered what the scientist would have thought of ponies today. She pushed the thought out of her mind in frustration. They aren't real! She pounded a hoof on her head. She wasn't sure anymore. She felt such a strong connection to them, but at the same time, all of her knowledge said they were fiction. This...man...he felt so real....and the bones...Twilight wasn't sure any more. She needed to talk to Celestia.

Twilight hadn't been paying attention to where she was walking. She had been so wrapped up in thought and bumped into Celestia herself.

"Why hello Twilight! Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine, but I have a couple of questions."

"Oh? What did you want to know? Is it about the library? I understand the basement is extremely dirty."

"Do you know anything about The United States?"

"Oh. Yes...I remember them well. I suppose you read the book then?"

"Celestia, you can't be telling me that all that is true! I mean, we can't be products of science, can we? No! Tell me that book is a work of fiction! Tell me that Beaker and Representative and all those other ponies aren't real!" Twilight was exasperated. She almost sounded crazy.

"It is true Twilight. They're all real. All ponies now are of natural birth. The original ponies were products of science."

"So you destroyed an entire race? A race that cared so much for you!? CREATED YOU!? What could you have been thinking?"

"I regret doing so Twilight. More than you could ever understand. However, I cannot excuse the actions the Humans had commited."

"Celestia. I never want to speak of this again. I can't understand, that much you're right about. I do know that you killed them all. I can't say I approve, but what's done is done now."

" I hope you know I did what was best for ponykind. I was young. I don't know whether or not I made the right choice anymore." Celestia whispered something else that Twilight didn't hear.

"What was that?"

"I said I miss them. They cared so much." A single tear graced her regal eyes before she left the company of Twilight.

Twilight turned to leave the castle. She thought of how she could create a human. If the humans created ponies, then it can't be that hard. Science could solve any problem. She heard Lyra mention them before. Maybe she could help. Celestia needs to see her choice was wrong. Humans have so much to contribute. Like...hands...

END