Something Spoonlol said has drawn our attention to a slight error in the final chapter which I put in by accident. We talked over the events of the timeline and figured out the problem.

So, Harmony Station was not built for the purpose of an Alcora experiment to appease them and refrain from eliminating the colonies. I had that impression while I was writing the chapter, but you know how it is with a multi-year project -- sometimes, the details slip your mind for a moment.

To be clear, Harmony Station was conceived and built by the Harmony Initiative, headed by Dusk (Twilight Sparkle) for the express purpose of trying to reunify a deeply fractured pony race among the colonies.

It just happens to be that this is also lines up with the goals of the Alcora, who are only interested in ponies who are tribally unified. As far as they are concerned, everyone else can die and it would be just fine.

So given this situation, it's easy to accidentally suggest that the entire purpose of the station was in relation to Alcora threats. It isn't.

When we start revealing the motives behind major groups, it will be clear why the Alcora want the ponies to be in a state of tribal unity. It's a paradox of sorts that has fueled their longstanding involvement and also allowed the ponies to largely build their civilization unmolested, despite being weak militarily.

Sorry for the confusion. We may actually edit that part of the chapter slightly.

Thanks for clearing that up my dude.

Are the ponies aware of the Alcora motives or are they just guessing that they want them for something?

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At the point of Flurry in Time, it's as Nyx said in chapter 24.

“Alright. So, the Council has been working for centuries to piece together the clues of what’s been going on with the Alcora. Very hush-hush stuff. Everything from obscure texts in the Great Library to relics from ancient Equus dig sites. Alien cultures have given us some insight too.”

“Ancient Equus? Wait, they’ve visited Equus before our time?”

“Yeah. The Alcora’s history on Equus goes back further than anyone can pinpoint. The most ancient manuscripts on Equus suggest they predate the very first alicorn, between thirteen and fifteen hundred centuries ago. For some reason, they’ve never set up a permanent occupation—we figure because of the wild alicorns. They finally came back when they noticed we developed mirrorspace technology.”

“That’s when I heard they showed up, yeah. I always thought that was first contact. So, what’s the threat? What are they doing that’s so bad you need to risk the end of everything just to stop them?” Flurry asked.

“All our data points to them working on some kind of experiment with ponykind, dating back pretty much to the beginning. And from what we can tell, they’ve nearly finished.”

“Experimenting on ponies? If they finished, wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

“Again, this is all extremely confidential. Nobody can know that we are aware of this. Equus is one giant project for them. And when that project is done, well… let’s just say the only reason our race even exists still is because they need us desperately.”

“Need us for what?”

“We’re not quite sure,” Nyx stated flatly.

So what this means is the alicorn council has been trying to piece together bits of information over the last 145,000 years, almost all of which has been lost due to the Calamity. Certain things have made it through, and certain things the alicorns have figured out just from observation.

They know the Alcora are at war with the Wendigo. They know that somehow the ponies are a key ingredient in the Alcora's goals. But they don't yet know about the force of Harmony. I think there would have been some record of Wendigo defeat from the ancient past, on Equus, but the ponies haven't figured out yet that this is because of Harmony rather than some other reason.

From the pony perspective, the Alcora involvement is rather confusing. They are strict and controlling, uncaring about ponies on an individual level, and yet they obviously care very much that the pony race continues in some form. It is clear that the Alcora are using the ponies for some purpose, but that purpose has yet to be discovered (at the point of Flurry in Time anyway). Alcora influence has been enigmatic. At times, they seem to insist on things that truly benefit the pony civilization, but it confuses the leadership why they care so much about this when they don't seem to really care about ponies in any other respect.

The Alicorn Council has been specifically warned that if they screw up too badly with what they were told to do, that the Alcora will simply wipe out their current civilization and start over. They are extremely patient and unwilling to take certain risks. To them, it is easier to capture a few hundred ponies and wipe out the rest, then let the ponies loose on Equus to rebuild their civilization over the next few thousand years... than to allow ponies the freedom to do things entirely how they choose.

Ultimately, Flurry will discover the missing pieces when an Alcora named Ceres reveals it to her. Ceres shows up on Harmony Station as the Alcora ambassador two stories after Flurry in Time. The two form a bond of sorts. It is the first time any Alcora has explored the concept of 'friendship'. She actually begins to care for Flurry as an individual, which is really profound considering her race has never done such a thing. This is where things start turning around for the ponies as Flurry learns key pieces of inside info from her.

Additionally, Flurry will learn that Equus has been forbidden from interfering in colonial conflict. This is the true reason Twilight (Dusk) could not send help during that crisis from Chapter 19 where Flurry's best friend was lost on the colony the Pegasus Republic destroyed. Flurry is still pissed at her for not coming, but the Alcora found out about the rescue and put a stop to it. Equus cannot be involved in colonial conflict because it would potentially disrupt Harmony levels in the population.

Thanks for the answer, although I'm not quite sure why you felt the need to spoil future plot points.

Also - and this corresponds with my comment on the age of penumbra - i again have and issue with your time scale: in the early stage of the universe you rush development at a breakneck speed: about 1.000 years from the creation of the universe to interstellar warfare - and then you give them 145.000 years of time to spread to the stars, which is so much time for a sentient FTL civilization.

Consider this:
If we assume that a single planet (just Equus at the start) can only gather up enough resources or colonial spirit to create a new colony every 5.000 years, then how many colonies will exist after 145.000 years, assuming every planet survives (just assume for the sake of the example)?
Year 1: 1 planet
Year 5.000 : 2 planets
Year 10.000 : 4 planets
...
Year 50.000 :1.024 planets
Year 100.000 : 1.048.576 planets
Year 145.000 : 536.870.912 planets

Ok, not all colonies would survive and not all colonies would spawn new colonies. Wars will be fought, borders drawn. I know.
But the purpose of this small math example was to show you that you probably underestimated the sheer amount of stuff that can happen in such a large span of time.

And this doesn't even touch the unimaginable advances in science and magic that would occur in that time period.
Or the psychological effect on immortals.

Anyway, don't let that deter you from doing what you want with your universe. It's just food for thought

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spoil future plot points.

At this point, you are all in on the development. There are no spoilers because it's going to take literal years to write all the stories up to that point.

We've fretted a lot about just what we can reveal and what we should keep hidden. And it eventually came to the point where we realized that there simply is no way to have active discussions about the saga if we are going to assign specific topics as spoilers not to be discussed. It's all so thoroughly integrated, that this is just not feasible.

So the things which will be discovered as new, at the time of story writing, is more nuanced details on how the characters progress and react to the unfolding story. We will continue to write "revelations" for characters who are not aware of big picture events. But the reader will likely know the big picture by then. The enjoyment will have to come from vicariously experiencing things for the first time along with the characters as they read.

I guess it is what it is. Just something we've had to accept -- the fact that current fans of the saga will be in on the deep secrets that future readers, not part of this pre-existing fan base, will discover only by reading the books.

Again, to help understand the spoiler policy at this stage, there are so many interconnected things going on which the characters only incrementally find out about... that it becomes impossible to have a meaningful discussion about the saga if we had to keep huge segments of it off limits.

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then you give them 145.000 years of time to spread to the stars, which is so much time for a sentient FTL civilization

Oh, but we have taken that into consideration.

I will expound on this more as we reveal the full timeline, but you should know that ponykind was initially given an idyllic world upon which to live. They have not had that thirst to expand to the stars which other races were given.

But more importantly, their civilization was repeatedly crushed during the Calamity of Alicorns, which lasted 138,000 years. During this time, they were never really given the chance to become a spacefaring civilization, and as such, have been put far behind other races who developed space programs early. Like the Griffins...

Finally, the whole reason the ponies eventually developed space travel was because of an artifact discovered during Nyx's youth. This unlocked the key to opening a Mirrorspace portal. There was a technology revolution shortly after this. But I will get into that part of the timeline ... all in due time.

Suffice to say, we have a very full timeline for our ponies. We have documented precisely how and when ponies have made all of their advancements.

Ah,every well then.

I guess it will benefit the released story if you hold back on the age of pony civilization unless you also pair it with info on how cruelly they got set back.

It might be a good idea to find a reason for why the W&D practically stagnated during that time. Maybe they started overpowered but will always be what they are, with no capacity to evolve.

Btw this reminds me of Futurama episode 1: