//------------------------------//
// Prologue - Storytime 
// Story: Fallout: Equestria - Elder Knowledge 
// by Veradon Chimera 
//------------------------------//


Prologue


Storytime


Once upon a time, the magical land of Equestria was under constant siege. 

Back before it even had a name, it had enemies. It constantly defended itself from a slew of malicious kings and evil spirits, each throwing themselves against it in an attempt to smother the young nation. But each time, without fail, a small band of champions would rise up to protect Equestria from these ‘old gods’ and each time it prevailed. 

But then, equinity discovered war. Armies went where only heroes tread before, equine stood against equine in the field of battle, tools of killing advanced in gallops. And at the end, it wasn’t gods or monsters that brought about our demise, but equinity itself. Ponies forged the tools of our destruction, the megaspells, and zebras wielded them in the final battle. Hoof in hoof, the two belligerents worked to wash our world in balefire. 

This is all most ponies know of history, those two decades known as the Great War. In fact, for most ponies, history ended a hundred and fifty years ago with the megaspells. 

But what of the old gods? Did they die in the apocalypse? Or did they survive, lingering underneath the surface? Well, a brief answer to that is ‘to different degrees.’ A longer answer however... well, I can only guess now that you are looking at no less than three volumes of my writing.

My name is Twilight Twinkle, and I am writing this because, to be blunt, I am bored and there is no one who’ll listen anymore. More than likely, you’ve probably never heard of me. The Wasteland is a self-loathing beast, always chewing away at its own history and has probably long wiped me from its annals. But if on the off-chance you have, please, don’t put this down just yet. Listen to what I have to say, listen to my story. You may learn something that you didn’t hear before.

My mother named me after Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic and Mare of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, because I have a lavender coat with a deep purple mane. All well and good except that I am an earth pony. Still, I like my name. I wouldn’t change it for any other one in the wasteland. However, whatever I lack in magic, I more than make up in Twilight Sparkle’s other love: books. As a foal I could never get enough of them, eating through at least three a week and more than once my mother had to take a book off me because it was too mature. By fourteen, I had read every book in the Stable 46 and had to start ordering them in from merchants. I even took the job as the librarian’s assistant, which is where I stayed until my nineteenth year.

And, in a twist of fate that seems ironic now, the only reason I left the comfort of my stable home was because of a book.

Thoughts of Twilight Sparkle, a collection of short stories and thought experiments written by the ministry mare herself in the closing days of the war. From the few legends that even exist of it, it is said they she wrote it to keep herself sane as the world slowly went to Tartarus around her. A bit like me. But the only recurring myth was that there were only seven ever printed. So, being the naive pony that I was, I believed that going to look for one would have been worth the strife it would bring. 

Now to be honest, despite everything, despite all the pain and grief and hard choices it all brought, what I gained out there was worth all of it. But it wasn’t what I went out for.

This is a story of the Wasteland, the Old World long before the Great War, and those obsessed with the Old World. A story of how all three met, bringing the Wasteland to the brink.