STS Manticore

It all really started about four thousand years ago, or so I'm told. Princess Twilight Sparkle tried an experiment. You see, in Equestria there is a magical portal that leads from Equestria to a parallel version of Equestria. A human version. I don't know details, nor do I really want to know. Most of magical science goes over my horn, but what I can tell you is it started a change in everything.

At first is was slow. Ponies started finding a new sense of balance, allowing them to walk around on their hind legs. For a while there were long debates about weather or not it's better to be on ones hind legs or on all fours. Any debate after that went out the window as soon as fingers started appearing.

It's strange to think, but all this had occurred in the first few hundred years after this experiment. It was like someone took the clock of evolution and thought 'lets jump forward a few thousand years' and spun the hour hand. So, needless to say, and quite boringly put, after the first thousand years of this super evolution, Equestrians not only had hands, but had learned how to use them to such a degree that what took humans thousands of years to understand and develop was already being implemented in everyday life.

I'm not going to drone on about the different ages of Equine development, but what's important to know is the simple fact that magic and science, hand in hand, sped up technology and understanding of the world around them to the point that after the second thousand years Equestrians had already visited the moon and were building space stations to help further space exploration.

Lets take another jump to where my part of the story plays in. By this point, the world of Equestria was one growing Empire, lead by the four Princesses: Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Twilight Sparkle. That is when we made first contact with the Animites, anthropomorphic animals of the planet Ani-Mal. In short, we formed we formed relations and formed an alliance, for trade purposes. Not long after that, we then encouraged humans, and from there the first galactic conflict was had.

Lucky for all, that didn't even last a full hundred years and once the cease fire was issued and peace conferences were held, the United Galactic Republic was formed. How ever, the first conflict did leave the ground work for the Great Calamity to slowly build upon, as the seeds of distrust and prejudice were sown. Now, on to my story.