Volume 1: The Flash, The Age of Darkness, And the Grazing Era.
As you walk through the Library of Canterlot, a section of the library catches your attention. An area called The Canterlot Archives. So, you trot into this area. When you get there, a purple furred mare, with a horn and wings trots in front of you, with her head in a book that was levitated in front of her. She then senses your presence and lifts her head up. "Oh, why hello, I didn't see you come in. I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle. But you can call me Twilight. And this here is my protege' Starlight Glimmer," Twilight gestures to the purple and blue maned mare who trotted along side her.
"Hello there young one. You look like somepony who's got an itch to seek Equestria's history," Starlight comments.
"We were just skimming through tales told of our favorite wizard, Starswirl the Bearded. He created over 200 spells, including one that went unfinished for a over a millennium. And it was... Oh, what's that? You want to know more about what happened in Equestria's past? Well, where do you want us to start?.... From the beginning?! Well, there was even a short time before the beginning. Would you like to hear that part as well?... You would? Well, then we best get started," Twigitht says as she uses her magic to find what she is looking for. She then finds the book continues, "Here we are, Mysteries Of Equstria's Past: Volume 1."
Please note that this part will be Italicized for intentions of it being the pages of a book.
Volume 1: The Flash, The Age of Darkness, And The Grazing era
Not much is known about what dwells in our most ancient past. Our ancestors almost remember nothing of what happened before the event we know as "The Flash". Some remember magnificent creatures different from our own, but there was one creature in particular that seemed to be no more then a legend. They walked on two feet, and they seemed to have little to no notion of a muzzle. Our ancestors called them "Humans". They had toes with no claws on their forlegs, and were able to use them to do many things our ancestors had to learn through trail an error. But when The Flash happened, these creatures disappeared, as if something had erased their existance. For many years, after the flash, the sky was dark, and the land was treacherous.
The flash had awoken what we now know as Ponysauruses. Not only that, but other beasts, thought to be pure myth were also awoken by this event. Many of these creatures were gigantic that they could crush you if you didn't watch your footing. But some of these behemoths were few in numbers. True, a few, like Cerberus, the Guard Dog of Tartarus, had immortality, but creatures such as the Ponysauruses were not so fortunate. During the time we now know as the "Age of Darkness", many of these mortal creatures joined the humans in their fate of Extinction. But some, like us, survived the hardships, like the Dragon and Griffon clans. As the years went on, some of our ancestors developed wings to take to the sky, and became known as Pegasi. Others developed horns, which could produce magical feats beyond wonder, and became known as Unicorns. And some stayed with the basics and became known as earth ponies.
After about 2 decades of darkness, light pierced the sky for the first time, and the dark clouds that loomed started to just move away, as if some force told them to leave. Historians still do not know exactly what caused The Flash, but evidence suggest that it was due the fiercest dragon ever known. We called him Ragnarok, but dragons knew him as Apophis. We know not why he caused the event, but strongly believe that he had evil intentions. As far as we know at this point, he was sealed away when we entered what is now known as the Grazing Era.
This was an Era where the land was not so treacherous anymore, but some dangers still lurked. The land was plentiful of food for all of our kind, and for a long while all three mortal tribes of pony got along. We were able to cooperate as our ancestors did, in our herds, with the new wings the Pegasi had gained, whenever we needed to find greener pastures to graze, they could fly ahead and find which direction the best grazning spots were. Whenever predators, such as the dreaded Timber Wolves, and the Manticore were about, unicorns were able to use their magic to defend the herds they were a part of.
During this Grazing Era, they came upon what appeared to be a settlement of the fabled humans. These settlements were the only relics that proved a possibility of their existance, since to this day, some are skeptical of their kind's existance. There were tools that some of our ancestors were familiar with, and as our level of knowledge grew, so did our skills. Some Earth Ponies had begun to learn how to operate plows again, since their ancestors claimed to have used them once before. Unicorns, while some conjured new forms of spells to teach their fellow Unicorns, some learned how to use their magic on tools for the art known as black smithing. This practice was not just kept to the unicorns alone, for both Pegasi and Earth Ponies learned how to use their hooves for the art rather then using magic.
One thing Pegasi learned they had a uniqueness to was being able to control the clouds in the sky, whether it be to provide shade, rain, or to make them dissipate. Course there were a few hiccups when pegasi got some shocking results when they were not careful. They then discovered that in order for the rains to come back, they would need to find ways to make the clouds return. Many Pegasi tried, but one finally succeeded and developed the tornado effect that we now use to bring water to what is now known as Cloudsdale. The name of this Pegasi was lost to time, but it is said he was the great-great-great grandfather of General Firefly.
The unicorns had discovered that they were able to control the weather to an extent themselves, but not to the level the Pegasi were able to control them. But what made the Unicorns unique, was that they could transfigure parts of the land to build the houses we know today. At first they were small huts based off of the settlement the ancestors of the three tribes found, but over time they became stone masons who could build entire fortresses out of the hardest stone. Some reached levels that rivaled the famous Starswirl the Bearded.
The Earth Ponies discovered they had a uniqueness to them as well. While at first glance, they seemed to not have any feats that could match the cousin tribes, they discovered that they had developed strength that could quite honestly challenge the behemoths that once roamed among them. When they spoke of this to their Pegasi and Unicorn cousins, at first, they thought they were speaking nonsense, but when a fair challenge was offered, the endurance and strength of the Earth Ponies won out, and the Unicorns and Pegasi agreed that the Earth Ponies did possess a unique strength.
All three tribes agreed that some higher power was at work that had granted them these gifts,
As time went one, the Pegasi started to feel more independent, they still kept ties to each other, but they began to venture out as Earth Ponies learned how to farm the land themselves and only required the help of the Pegasi to bring forth the rain clouds. But their independence start to give them a sort of military attitude. They started practicing in the art of combat. Somehow they felt it was their responsibility to protect the rest of the large herd that were Unicorns and Earth Ponies from the Predators that threatened them. But there was no sense of discipline and ranks were often disputed among the Pegasus tribe.
The Unicorns felt that their magic gave them a sense of status that should be respected, since they were beginning to learn how to master more than just Stone Masonry. When wild storms too powerful for Pegasi to control came by, Unicorns use their magic to provide shields to protect the settlements and the needed crops. And some of the weapons and armor they forged could hardly be matched for strength and flexability, with a few exceptions among their cousin tribes. Some claimed the most powerful were deserving of more respect, while others felt the more creative ones deserved it over all other Unicorns.
The Earth Ponies felt that their ability to farm the land in ways the Unicorns and Pegasi could not, earned them the respect for without them, their cousin tribes could not thrive as all of them did. And even sometimes the Pegasi needed back up when warding off vicious creatures, while the Unicorns needed help keeping the herd safe in more ways then just magic. There were arguments among the Earth Ponies of who had ownership to what farmland within their settlements.
Thankfully, these arguments among the three tribes of the Grazing Era were of small disputes, and were easily dealt with by the most level headed stallions and mares of the three tribes, who soon found ways for their tribes to be settled down once more. For a most of the Grazing Era, the three tribes lived in a bit of a shaky, but stable harmony. But there was something that was coming that would change the way the three tribes lived and behaved, forever.
"Well, that's the end of Volume One. There are still many mysteries that surround the Pre-Grazing Era and the Grazing Era that are yet to be discovered. What is told here is based off of what our ancestors could remember when the written word was first invented. But having some knowledge of what took place during that time is better then having no knowledge of our coming of existence at all," Twilight states.
"Yes, and even though Twilight and myself are very skilled in the art of time travel, there are certain laws that dictate that our kind can not go past the point of the invention of the written word. Not even new time travel spells can bend or even break these laws. So, we can only theorize what may have happened in the time before The Flash, What Dangers lurked in The Age of Darkness, and what was learned in the Grazing Era," Starlight added.
"Right you are Starlight. Well, that's all the time we have today. It's nearing closing time for this part of the library, and I do have a meeting in the throne room with the other Princesses as we discuss matters with the Hippogriffs and our kingdom's relationships. I do suppose that this is your first time in the Canterlot Archives, so Starlight can assist you with gaining an access card to here, should you wish to check out other material such as Starswirl the Bearded's travels. Until next time young one," Twilight says before placing the book on it's shelf and trotting off.
Starlight leads you to the front desk, and helps you with getting the necessary paperwork done to get your access card.
