A History of Friendship Is Magic

Planet Earth, 2698:

A terrible war has been raging on the surface for so long many have forgotten what peace is. What was once a diverse and rich planet now lays in apocalyptic ruin. Every last piece of flora alive on the surface withered and died long ago, and what few are left of the animal population have been altered to become monstrous creatures which roam the smoking ruins, picking off soldiers who happen to be unlucky enough to stray across their path. Entire races have been destroyed, and those who remain are in such diminished numbers that an encounter with the enemy could easily result in extinction.

Of course, technology has advanced dramatically since the dawn of the basic microchip, and governments had power over large sections of our galaxy until the war began. To increase space for humans on Earth, almost all farming had been outsourced to planets far from here, but surprisingly, the entire human population remained on Earth, having built a city across the entire planet to cope with the ever increasing population. This was the downfall of the human race: as populations seemed to increase exponentially, space was becoming limited despite government’s best efforts, and with every race allowed to live anywhere they liked, there was large amounts of friction between many residents. All at once it erupted into the largest war the planet had seen, and entire countries worth of the city were laid to waste overnight.

We thought that this was impossible at first; all of the governments of the world had vowed to join together to create a harmonious place in which to live, and each said to have stopped their production of weapons. We now know that this is far from the truth, as they simply created more and more weapons in secret. Once the war had taken hold, nearly every remaining resident of earth was equipped with weaponry, and thus began a generation of war, and ultimately, the destruction of Earth.

As soon as the war began, the governments cancelled the less important farming programs, keeping only essential ones. Many planets that were used for holding large mammals such as giraffes, ponies, lions, elephants, and others that could not be eaten were left without human interference for many years, and despite the best efforts of humans beforehand, ‘survival of the fittest’ quickly reverted these planets back to naturality. The plants that were once carefully pruned began to take back the landscape, and soon, all evidence of human activity was buried deep in thick forests.

Hidden deep under the surface around the area that was once the United Kingdom, and now one of the main government bases of the north-western territories, there is a laboratory. Large pieces of machinery are positioned around the centre while endless test tubes, chemicals, and other equipment cover tables around the edge of the room. One of the walls is taken up by, or rather is, a giant cabinet full of drawers and compartments holding thousands of research papers and other items of some scientific importance, probably. At the centre of this chaos was a woman. Wearing a coffee stained white lab coat with a security pass fixed to the top pocket. It read: Dr. Amy Hopkins, Lab-162, Access: Limited, Security: 03463883. She was frantically adjusting some cables inside a large machine whilst looking back at a crumpled piece of paper on the table next to her. Making one final addition to the spaghetti of wires, she closed the compartment door and rushed around to the front of the machine. “Are we ready to go now then doctor?” A figure appeared in the doorway on the opposite side of the room. He had the same urgency that had been evident in Dr. Hopkins’ actions. “Yes, that should do it”, she replied with a sigh of relief.

“Good, I will get everyone on position”, he replied whilst turning to return through the doorway.

High above the laboratory, higher than the military base that is built upon the surface, a small plane is flying. Out of range of the radar, it cuts its engines and begins its descent. The plane travelling at terminal velocity towards the base reaches its destination. The explosion is devastating. It tears through the base easily, throwing its millions of tonnes of reinforced concrete and steel high into the atmosphere. In the lower levels there is chaos. Flashing red lights, alarms and terrified people fill the corridors. Wounded people from the devastation above attempt to reach the lower levels before the emergency doors close to protect what little of the base is left.

“What the hell was that?” Dr. Hopkins stood up and rushed to the door, crashing into the man from earlier. “Doctor, we have to do it now, go!”

“What’s going on?”

“We’re under attack. We’ve lost the first 30 levels, but the others are sure to fall soon too!”

“B-but...”

“Now, Doctor!”

Dr. Hopkins rushed to the machine and began pressing a series of buttons. The machine began to make a whirring noise and lights lit up around it. “I’ve waited a long time for this”, Doctor Hopkins said to herself as she carefully retrieved ten gemstones from a nearby shelf. Taking each one out individually, she placed them gently into corresponding places in the machine. Once all of the gems were in place, she pressed a series of buttons and stepped onto a platform in the machine. “Good luck Doctor”, the man said.

“Thanks. You know what to do right?”

“Yes, I’ll get to it now”, and with that the man hurried off through the door. With that, Dr. Hopkins pulled a lever and the machine began to work.

The machine took Dr. Hopkins and began to extract her innermost being: her emotions, feelings, judgements: her humanity. The gems in the machine had begun colourless and clear, but now filled with colour as she was extracted into them. As every last part of humanity was taken from her body, it slumped down and fell, lifeless, out of the machine. But Amy Hopkins was not dead, her basic elements had been taken and put into ten gemstones, and she was still very much alive. The man returned and almost tripped over Dr. Hopkins’ body. Shocked at what he saw, he almost forgot what she had told him. Not entirely convinced, but still loyal to the Doctor, he took out the gemstones from the machine and hurried back through the door, not wanting to waste any time as the enemy were already closing in on the base. He could already hear gunfire and explosions in the floors above, and as he rushed through the door, another explosion knocked him off his feet. “Start the countdown!” he shouted into the adjoining room. This was the heart of the base, deep underground in a vast cavern, and towering above all of the workers who remained stood an intergalactic rocket.

“T minus ten seconds”, a female voice echoed around the cavern. The man holding the case of gems had reached midway up the staircase surrounding the rocket. “Nine...Eight...Seven...” Suddenly a huge explosion ripped through the wall of the cavern and enemy soldiers began to rush through, letting out short bursts of gunfire. Many of the workers fell, but the man with the gems ran on up the stairs. “Six...Five...Four...Three...” With but a few seconds remaining, the man opened up a compartment on the side of the hull and placed the gems inside. “Godspeed, Doctor Hopkins”.

With an almighty roar, the rocket’s engines ignited, instantly destroying all of the remaining personnel and attacking soldiers on the ground floor. The entire complex, weakened by the initial blast of the attacking plane, began to crumble around the foundations. The rocket increased in speed as the surrounding building fell, claiming all those who were inside. Soon, the rocket had reached the surface, and the complex finally gave in, sinking into the lower floors and leaving a large, smoking crater. All of the equipment, research and experiments were surely destroyed, save one. Everything that it meant to be human was safely aboard the rocket. Humanity was safe.

The rocket tore through the atmosphere at great speed, but something was wrong. Strong wind currents high in the Earth’s atmosphere had buffeted the rocket side to side, and had put it off course. Without ground control, there was no way of correcting its path, so it flew onwards. Leaving Earth far behind, its new course was now headed directly for one of the isolated farming areas, and more specifically, the solar system that held the planet of ponies. The pony planet was not unlike Earth, although perhaps smaller; it had the same general climates, atmosphere and moon. The rocket, pulled by the gravitational field of the planet, moved closer to the outer atmosphere as it joined the moon in orbit around the planet. With thrusters still at full power, the rocket entered the atmosphere and drew a fiery streak across the sky. As it approached the ground, chunks of the ship flew off due to the ever increasing speed caused by the thrusters. Fiery debris and molten metal traced a line behind the rocket as it flew through the clouds and finally reached the ground.

The explosion was cataclysmic. The engines and fuel tanks hit first, igniting instantly in the heat of the metal. The massive momentum carried by the rocket was transferred into the ground, and the forces tore apart rocket and planet alike. During the explosion, the gemstones were thrown out of their compartment and into the full blast of the energy released. The explosion turned every colour of the rainbow, and a there was a flash of light that was so intense that it lit up the entire planet. In that single moment, all of the emotions and feelings that were held in the gems were released into the world. Amplified by the explosion, humanity itself was released and filled the hearts and souls of the animals inhabiting the planet.

Since each gem held different elements of humanity, each coloured beam held that single part:

orange held honesty; pink, kindness; purple, generosity; red, loyalty; and blue, laughter. The other five gems held elements of humanity, but since to be human is to be imperfect, these gems held the counterparts of the other five gems: dishonesty, cruelty, greed, disloyalty, and spite. At the very height of the explosion, the intense energy separated the two groups of five. In the case of the harmonious elements, they bonded together and created a sixth element: magic. The counterparts, however, being unstable in their nature could not bond, and instead destroyed each other. Although their elements had already been released into the world, this meant that harmony would always triumph over discord.

Soon, the explosion fell silent, and the world of the ponies became peaceful once more. The ponies looked at each other. Something was very different. The minds of every mare, filly, zebra and other animals which lived on the planet were infused with the humanity that was released during the explosion. All of the ponies’ coats had turned different colours, and they could feel thousands of new impulses running through their bodies and minds. Confusion. Not the usual animal, instinctive confusion, rather a confusion accompanied by thoughts and other complex feelings. A few even managed to turn their confusion into a human thought process and the first words of the ponies were spoken: “What in the hay is going on?”