Disease

Disease has had a lot to answer for in the history of man, slowly and silently shaping and culling populations for eons. In many stories and tales, mystical illnesses have killed whole species, raised the dead, and altered the planet irrevocably. Such is myth, or fantasy. Yet many such stories hide a truth hidden just as well as the viruses they concern.

In mid-July 2024, returning from the fast-growing state of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a plane carried a person infected from a disease, named Zaire, after its point of origin in the deep jungles surrounding the Congo river. Zaire is a particularly virulent illness. It is likely to kill around 83% of those infected, and appears as simple flu or malaria initially. Yet any contact with an infected person, even simply being nearby them, is likely to result in transmission, and after a few days, the sufferer will have died of large scale internal hemorrhaging, multiple organ failure, and widespread tissue necrosis. This plane landed in France. Within 96 hours, 75% of France was on the point of death. At the end of the week, all contact will France, Germany, Spain and Italy was lost.

Much of the rest of the rest of the world suffered the same fate. In the final hours of humanity's reign as ruler of the earth, the only countries reported to be virus-free were Madagascar and most of the small Pacific island nations. By the end of the decade, the estimated population of the world had dropped below 2 million. The US was hit worst, after France, and the populations of both had been entirely decimated. Not a single person was thought to be alive in either of the countries. Africa, South America and Asia, with their developing infrastructures and poor living standards, were wiped completely. Northern Europe fared slightly better. Russia was rumored to have hidden away it's ruling elite and super rich, and the rural nature of Scotland, Norway, Finland and Siberia and eastern Russia could have saved some areas, isolated from danger, though any small communities left would have declined quickly. The same could have been true for Canada. Humanity was on the brink of extinction. But not quite gone.

The world moved on, and life went on. Many species, mostly mammals, were also decimated, and fell into extinction. In this global interim period, new species began to appear from sub-groups of those gone before, especially places that caused the rapid mutation and change of those animals living there...

After a scant 400-500 years, an equine sub-species began to evolve at a prodigious rate, with greater intelligence than their forebears. Over the decades, they slowly began to harness the powerful natural energy localized to their pastoral heartland. This primordial force, shaping and altering, lifted this equine race, these ponies, to dominance, allowing them to start controlling and guiding the land they lived. This land, of temperate climate and warm weather, had something other places didn't. Magic.

As Equestria, as it became known, grew, its ponies grew civilized and industrious, their way of life powered by this magic, powered by especially potent places, though why this was remained unknown to the ponies. And thus was modern Equestria born. Yet the secret of their magic was still hidden, as all who tracked its origin burned themselves out with the potency involved.

How ironic that the location for the end of humanity would rebirth the next superpower race. As France had spiraled so rapidly into decline, it's love for nuclear reactors proved its downfall, and thus, the radiation smothered death-zone was the magical nexus for the world. Murmansk and the surrounding tundra became the Crystal Empire; Stalliongrad sprung up over ancient Pripyat, and across the ocean, Manehatten grew from what was 3 mile island.

Yet the legacy of that bygone world has never affected Equestria. The cities lie buried, the people dead, and nature's scars have healed. However, all it takes is an inquisitive explorer and delver to stir up the past like mud and filth from the bottom of a crystal clear stream.

Author's Note

More chapters to follow soon!