The Equestrian Kalpa

The night sky shone with thousands of stars doting it's black surface. At the late time of night, barely anypony was awake to star at them, and even fewer still were the ones who were awake and bothered to look. And those that did, were surely not those who would notice the strange phenomenon that was now occurring. For the first time ever, Equestria's sky found itself graced with 17 new stars, scattered randomly across it's face.

But all would be able to see the show they put on, as light began to streak through the dark like a miniature star shower. While those that saw it smile, laughed and pointed, unknowing of exactly what they were, and exactly what they were about to bring down upon their peaceful, happy world.

The vault containing the Elements of Harmony was entombed by silence as well as the walls and magic that kept even dust and air away from them. But even with their nigh uncrackable physical and magical defenses, the chest started to glow with a colour shifting purple, blue and yellow light, before dimming back it it's natural state seconds after it started.

In a room hidden in a small mountain village stood a sight equal parts amazing and terrifying. A shelf that contained what seemed to be pony's cutie marks, still glittering with magic energy. Resting against it was a pronged staff with two tines that bent in two unnatural ninety degree angles. And rested against that was a piece of armour that was not there when the owner of the room left. The chest reflected light as if it's black surface was glass, and the rest was filled out with black metal chains.

A cart rested just off the path, filled with baubles and concoctions of miraculous magical powers. If, one were to believe the owners of the cart. But right now the cart was closed, leaving them to collect the chill and dust of the night. Except for a small number of green bottles, who suddenly found themselves given shelter from the dust, in the form a mask. It was a very dull mask, in the form of a pony's face, completely expressionless, made of a strange grey metal, flecked randomly with blue specks.

The library housed in Canterlot held countless tomes within it's walls, ranging from ancient scrolls to soft-backed books of the modern day. It was a marvelous center of knowledge, and thus needed 24/7 supervision. To that end, there was a singular night librarian that watched it that night. Sitting at his desk, mindlessly staring at a bit as he spun it around and around with his magic. He dropped the coin as he was suddenly struck by a nauseating smell. He could tell instantly it was mere ink, but the entire library reeked of it, like he was shoving his head into a sealed vat of the stuff. He got up from his desk, pinching his nose with a hoof as he sought out the cause of the stench. It didn't take him long to find a podium he had never seen before. And on top, a collection of old, yellowed papers he had never seen before. He slowly, cautiously approached. There was no way he could have missed this, there was no way they had simply put this in so swiftly during the day. But nopony else was there. Nopony could have put it here while he was there, podiums and unbound books didn't simply appear. He carefully peeled back the first, black page and stared at the strange runes that spread across it. He couldn't make out anything on the page, but something tickled in the back of his mind. He felt like he could understand... Everything. And then everything went black.

Far away from Equestria stood the homes of griffins, a race with a culture and philosophy as different from the ponies as their physiology was. Both made the concept of hunting for their food so much easier to them. Alone in a tent, in woods that would probably never see a pony in between their trees, was a griffin sleeping off their hunt of the day, oblivious to a ring appearing on their folding table. It was made of steel, with a wave pattern carved around it, terminating at the likeness of a wolf jutting out from them band.

In the unexplored badlands of the world of Equestria laid a black spire, far enough away from borders the others would dare cross to be unknown to the world. Those living inside were a race of truly unique power, power feared by the ponies of Equestria. But they found their talents wasted, betrayed by their ruler's incompetence. The peace of night was interrupted as their home was assaulted, their tower broken open as a hammer embedded itself in the ground at the towers very bottom. Made of strange green metal, jutting out from a central, glowing red gem like thick scales.

Nobles are very rarely liked by those around them, even moreso if those others are other nobles. But nopony, noble or not, has proven to be so unlikable, and no noble had ever been so ignoble than Duke Blueblood. And no matter how ponies may think of him by law he was a noble of non-insignificant stature, and so he was given the privileges that entailed, including a fine silver sword for ceremonial reasons. And now resting in the same display, was a dull iron dagger, with a round, black gem set in the pommel.

The station of Princess Luna's Spymaster was as pointless as it was boring. He was told from the start that his position would be little more than ceremony, as the idea of the Princesses having a council of advisors had fallen out of the norm since her banishment, but he also expected that would mean he didn't need to do anything. But no, if he wanted the title and the pay that came with it, the bat pony would need to sit at a desk in a room all night, reading over reports from the same ponies that always said the same thing; Nothing. They didn't even have the decency to say it in under 100 words. His eyes were currently glazed over, scanning over a report without even reading. He was so bored, he didn't even notice the golden ring appear on his desk, even when it's oddly long, oddly placed purple gem started to shimmer in the candle light.

Princess Celestia lived in one of the finest rooms in all the country she ruled over. Similarly, she was adorned during the day with some of the finest regalia ever produced, pure gold embedded with fine jewels with simple but fine carving. Come the morning with the raising of her sun, she would find another golden addition to her outfit. A sword, whose blade seemed to contain fire, wisps flicking all up and down it as if the metal were panes of glass securing a lantern. The hilt was a circle surrounded a ring that contained an orb that radiated golden light, as if it held a fragment of Celestia's sun.

In the snow far away from lands of the Crystal Empire lay hidden what might seem to the unknowing as a simple piece of carved red and black stone. But those they knew would turn away and run away from it, knowing the evil that may still lay dormant within. Same could be said for the mace that now lay buried right next to it. Rare weapons like it may be to ponies, it seemed fairly bland and innocuous, just like a truncheon with dozens of half triangles on it's fatter part. Though, for some reason it did seem to every so often glow green.

As rare as death may be in Equestria, it was a sad and unavoidable truth that all things die in their due time. And where there is death, there is inevitable ceremonies for those deaths. But until that point, they must be kept safe somewhere. Places like the Manehattan Morgue, where the rare sort of pony who would enjoy the company of those dead and cold would work. The mortician sat at his desk, tired eyes reviewing his work of the day, mostly matching names to cutie marks of those poor souls that found themselves abandoned on the cities unforgiving streets. He was distracted from his mindnumbing work by a spider walking through some drying ink. He was about to smack it, but his attention was diverted by whispers. He turned to a corpse, still waiting to be put away after his long night of overtime. He could swear, it was her whispering. He looked to his table of autopsy tools, and then to one of the mare's hooves. The whispers urged him to walk forward.

Las Pegasus, a city of sin, a black oasis in the otherwise pristine sands of Equestria. By the standards of other places in the world, it was as tame as everywhere else in Equestria. But by the metrics of everywhere else in the nation, it was a hotbed of crime. The constant flux of visitors and tourists gave the petty thieves of the world plenty of marks, and the most daring of them all could ATTEMPT to rob the casinos of a paltry sum of their hundreds of thousands of bits. One such of those heists was currently in the planning, and the heisters would find a boon on their plans in the morning, as in the center of the casino's blueprints was now a lockpick of a most unusual design, with four copper tines that terminated in a point like hypodermic needles.

Ponyville had itself a very fine practitioner of the animal doctoring art, one with a much grander claim to fame than the frail, bashful thing would like. But, that was only one pony and great her knowledge may be, it was limited by her own four hooves. So the realm of saving animals was shared with precisely one other in town, though most would never know her name, let alone give it the same praise as the Element of Kindness. Though she would be sure to turn heads to turn heads towards herself with the shield that now sat on an exam table in her place of practice. Especially with that big white pearl in the center that seemed to glow with a rainbow right below the surface.

Very few in Equestria could fall to the dark depths of addiction. A place so caring to all living souls would hardly let it happen so easily, but of course nothing could ever be one-hundred percent certain. In Ponyville there sat a bar, many seats coated in dust and a plant pot filled with many dead and rotting flowers. The bartender slept behind the counter, as they oft did when abusing their favourite kind of wine. Once awake in the morning and fighting back their senses from a hangover, she'd notice those dead flowers gone, and in their place, one large red rose, with a stem nearly as tall as she was.

Equestria was not a place completely without it's own realms of chaos, in their own silly ways. Baring the long, chaotic reign of Discord, his eventual return, and his other return before his reformation though, it was hardly ever serious though. A perfect example of pony's harmless brand of chaos, was the lifesized gingerbread house/cupcake that sat proudly and strong as the cornerstone of the city's luxury food industry. And the absolute zenith of it lived inside of it, fittingly enough. The Pink mare would find something perfect for her, and her unique, zany form of chaos, in the form a simple two tined fork hidden deep within her impossibly deep mane.

Princess Luna walked through the hall of dreams of all the ponies under her and her sister's charge, determined as she always was to seek nightmares that threatened to break the resolve of those she held to her heart so dear. But never before had she felt the hall of her duties so cold, and foreboding. Every fiber of her being told her that was danger and darkness near, but she could not find it's source. Sadly, she would not notice the black skulls with red eyes replacing the doorknobs before it was far, far too late.

The forest of Everfree was a place swaddled in much mystery, where weather refused to be tamed, where the life of the plants and the animals were hostile to those that would seek to unwrap it, where very few dared to tread. But there was one who knew it more than any other, a lone Zebra that would dare to live deep within it's danger. One also undeterred by the sweet embrace of the night, as she brewed potions that would give her the eyes of a cat to cut through the darkness in search for things both old and new. Something very new was to be found in the Everfree tonight, for as she walked through the swamps that dotted the forest's landscape, she took notice of a new grove of trees she'd never seen before. They had thick trunks and high leaves like a baobab, but one was truly remarkable, and very unlike a tree. It had a base of dozens of trees, before forming one gigantic trunk in the middle, forming a physically impossible gazebo in the middle. What was even more remarkable was that they were leaking golden, glowing sap into the waters of the swamp. The zebra, mystified by their sudden appearance took to the swamp, trudging through it for a good few minutes before she was stopped by several equine figures rose from below the surface, obscured by the black muck, all she could tell about these ponies were that they were staring her down for trespassing into what she now knew was their domain. And for the first time in a long time, she was scared by the Everfree.