The Arcane papers: Birth of Magic · 9:41pm Nov 10th, 2018
By Thoughtful Irony.
Equestrians have always had some kind of mystical power, but a thousand years ago, it was limited, stifled. What caused this change has been the greatest mystery of our time. We do know of the events that led to our current state of affairs. Once, Equestria was ruled by the Royal Sisters: Celestia during the day, and Luna during the night. They were kind and wise and beloved by all, and everything was as saccharine as you could imagine. But slowly, reports of magic weakening began to come in. Clouds refused to take direction, crops withered, and Unicorns couldn't alter choice physical laws. Being afraid of a level playing field, the ponies of Equestria begged the Princesses for help, a request that would lead to their deaths.
What that help entailed specifically, is lost to time. There is only one record of their quest to save the mystic; a painting made by an unknown author. It is one of the Arcane Artifacts, depicting events from one moment in time with total clarity. It shows both Sisters casting a spell over a book, slowly losing themselves as the spell consumes their bodies. It's a haunting piece, that captures Celestia's courage and Luna's fear perfectly.
The spell that destroyed Sisters rekindled magic tenfold. Whatever barriers that existed to govern magic were gone, granting monumental power to every living thing in Equestria. Pegasi no longer had to touch clouds but re-arranged them with mere emotions. Earth Pony magic that had simply given them a connection to life and the earth but now connected them to their Cutie Marks in ways that defied imagination. Unicorns who had always pushed the boundaries of possibility, now found that those boundaries no longer existed.
With the government only existing as a general concept and god-like power freely available, chaos reigned. But slowly, Equestria as we know it came into being. The Pegasi founded a huge city, far to the west where they couldn't hurt anypony. The Unicorns slowly learned what was and wasn't safe, and began to impose limits upon themselves. The Earth Ponies, possessing the only magic that wasn't a horror story waiting to happen, found themselves relied on more and more. The Unicorns and Earth Ponies began to clash over whose magic was truly the most dangerous, leaving the Pegasi to deal with their own troubles alone.
For most, that's the end of the story. But there is at least one more thing I find interesting, if only because it's considered so uninteresting. The book shown in the painting has never been found. It's not known what was in it; the spine is covered in mysterious runes and the cover shows only a dark green mask. Nopony knows what species the mask is supposed to represent. Despite the many obvious indications that this book is important, it is dismissed by everypony who sees it as unimportant. Most forget it even exists.
If I was inclined to discover the truth, that's where I would start.
This. This is good. Is this going to be put in the story?
Small typo:
*who had
4966511
Posting it in the story directly would break the flow, but this is a paper someone wrote in-universe. I'm not sure if Applejack will ever read it or not; it's mainly a vehicle to explain what's different here and show off one or two mystery boxes.
4966672 True. You may want to link to it somewhere though, maybe in an Author's Note or the description, so people don't miss it. Just a thought.