Greetings, Equinox fans and happy new year!

I've spent the last two days beating my head against the wall, trying to figure out where to begin in revealing this amazing universe to you. Should I start with the characters? Should I start by talking about major events? Maybe I should start with universal mechanisms like the 'magic' system and how all that works.

I think the first thing to share with you is the concept of the ages of ponykind. By age, I mean times when the calendar is reset. Because of the length of the entire timeline, we can't very well just use an absolute dating system. That would make Flurry in Time take place in the year 145,192.

Most of our "story" takes place during the Age of Harmony, which is only the final 2% of the total timeline.

The Age of Harmony begins with Luna's corruption into becoming the Nightmare. This event marked the end of the previous age, known as the Age of the Sun.

The year 1183 AH is important, as this is the year Luna returns as the Nightmare. The year 1183 also marks when Nyx arrives on the scene as a small child. It is where Nyx starts her journey growing up. Flurry in Time takes place in the year 2922 AH. The Age of Harmony ends with the saga's climax, in the year 2928 AH, only six years after Flurry in Time. Nyx wasn't kidding when she said there isn't much time left.

Prior to the Age of Harmony was the Age of the Sun. This began with the birth of Helios. He was the first alicorn not to transform into a wild alicorn. This age was 4,270 years long, which is why Luna said she was seventy-one centuries old in Flurry in Time. The Age of the Sun is when the pony nation of Nevhara was founded and grew to a thriving and powerful civilization on the planet Equus. There was much conflict, growth, intrigue, and drama throughout this period.

Prior to the Age of the Sun was an extremely lengthy ancient history, most of which was known as the Calamity of Alicorns. During this time, ponykind suffered reset after reset as their civilization was brought to ruins due to the wild alicorns.

One of the most interesting ages was the Age of Penumbra, or the "First Age". This began at the very start of the universe, with the creation of Equus along with three herds of ponies placed on different continents. Eventually, the herds expanded into tribes and discovered one another on the open seas. After more time, they became unified as one pony race and developed an advanced civilization. It is also the time when Equus was first visited by powerful aliens from across the galaxy, an event which began the primary struggle of the entire Equinox saga.

At this point, you surely have some questions. Please speak up if you have any, as that is the only way I can clarify anything which needs clarify. All questions are on the table. Go for it.

How much of Friendship is Magic’s storyline still applies to the Equinox lore?

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Mmmm... what does Equinox have in common with MLP? A fair question.

• The main thing we've got in common with MLP, apart from having ponies, is an alicorn named Luna becoming corrupted into a creature of nightmares, being defeated, and returning after many centuries before then being restored.
• We have a dangerous forest full of monsters near the small town where most of our starting cast lives.
• There are three pony tribes still.
• We do have a pair of mortal ponies becoming alicorns, but the conditions are very different from MLP.
• The pony nation is a monarchy benevolent dictatorship still, like MLP, so there's that.
• We've got some similar races, such as griffins, dragons, and zebras.
• The general theme of tribal unity is integral to our saga, as is the theme of MLP G5. Though we did not know what G5 was going to be about until long after we made our saga's theme.

I think that's it, really. The idea here is to be legally distinct and removed from anything Hasbro owns, which really, the thing we are pushing the boundary of is Luna herself. And the reason for that was because Luna's "Nightmare" return was already a critical part of our story even before we decided to part from Hasbro. But let's be honet, any MLP fan is going to see the similarities at first, though it won't take long to realize that this is an entirely original story beyond the superficial.

So after Luna's return, the story diverges 100% because we do not have the "mane six" or anything like that. There's a whole new cast of characters we've come up with as well as new settings, new events, new challenges and so on.

I probably should re-post this, from the "Welcome FIT Fans" post I made a year ago:

Ultimately, you will no doubt notice several characters and settings have taken loose inspiration from MLP, though do not be fooled -- the similarities end quickly, and you will soon find yourself immersed in a wholly unique world with characters you will grow to know from scratch. This is not MLP. But it was inspired by MLP. We have put a great deal of care into making Equinox a compelling and enjoyable tale, and we hope you will come along with us as we finish building it and begin putting it to paper.