1 - The Past
Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 25 The Arcane Era
Lifegiver’s Clinic, Ponyville - Equestria
This was it. My one chance. If I failed, I would have to plan out a whole new thing for my life to be about.
I put more speed into my run, the saddlebags full of books weighed me down too much. I was used to running with weight on me, I never went outside without a mechanic’s coverall on, but twenty kilos of books wasn't exactly a weight I was used to running around with.
But I had to run. If I didn’t run, I wouldn’t get home with enough time to finish this paper before I went to bed.
My hooves clicked loudly against the cobbled streets as I ran through Ponyville’s town square. I had no idea why the streets were still cobbles. I mean, sure, most of the buildings were historical styles, but Ponyville had modern buildings too! Some stuff looked like it had been plucked right out of Manehattan or Trottingham, and they’d had to rebuild the whole stupid city before I was born, but kept the Classical Period streets and rebuilt landmarks exactly.
I guess I just don't understand old ponies love of old things. Maybe a grass roof and mud-straw walls looked better to them than brick, glass, and steel.
Not me. I hated that old-timey architecture. It made running a LOT harder. You can just go right through those roofs if you land on one weird.
I flinched as the clock tower chimed three o'clock. I was already almost late!
I twisted, letting my rear hooves skid as I pivoted around on my right foreleg and sprinted for an alleyway between a cafe and a hat shop. The moment I entered the alleyway, I jumped up, kicked off the wall to my left, and vaulted up onto the cafe's second floor fire escape.
A few quick lunging movements took me up the ladder in record time to the cafe's thankfully brick roof. I held a hoof up to shade my eyes from the sun’ glare and looked around to orient myself. It took me almost exactly a second to find the boxy, square, military shaped white building I called home.
Lifegiver Clinic is easy to spot. Even with the modern buildings. Nothing else looks like a fort with a ranch house built on the roof.
I took a deep breath to calm myself, squinted, dipped my head down to lower drag from my horn, and launched into a sprint. I crossed the cafe’s roof in a few heartbeats, easily clearing the gap between it and the next building using a frontflip to kill extra momentum so I wouldn’t overshoot the narrow building.
I landed, rolled to conserve speed, and took off again, hopping over a chimney via a saddle-vault to shave seconds off my time.
Freerunning didn’t just let me get home faster. It was also relaxing. I never felt tired from running. Not ever. It just didn’t happen. I could do this for as long as I wanted to.
Most ponies I knew assumed that I had a freerunning cutiemark under my coveralls. I never corrected them. Best they didn’t know that I was still a blank flank at twenty-five. I’d already been bullied enough. Hence my love of clothing.
Oh, what’s that Ash Meadow? You haven’t seen my flanks in fourteen years? No, I won't take these off. They are comfy and I like pockets. Why should I ever do you any favors?
That was worth the addition of three pounds while running. One hundred percent worth it.
Sometimes I wondered if mom knew I hadn’t gotten my cutiemark yet. She had to know, I’d have told her, but at the same time, I stayed dressed at home too. Maybe she just forgot? Nah, couldn’t have. She spent her whole fillyhood trying everything to get a cutiemark.
‘They come when they come, Orange Sherbert! You can’t force a mark to appear. I need to apologize to your great grandmare. I completely understand what she meant now.’
I smiled at the memory. Sure it was a decade ago, but it’s not like I could forget breaking into Uncle Sky’s lab and stealing a plasma cannon to see if my special talent was blowing up monsters.
I came to the last rooftop before the park, and skidded to a stop at the edge of the roof. But I only remained stopped for a moment, just long enough to get a firm grip on the edge of the roof, turn around, and lower myself down before making the two-story drop, then turning back around to sprint across the park.
I'd given up trying to find my talent now. If it wasn’t freerunning, I had no idea what it could be. It was possible I just didn’t have a talent. Sapphire Shores was a blank flank at age two forty-three. Sometimes a pony just doesn't get a mark.
That would really, really suck for me. But I was ready for it. I was scared out of my mind that I’d forever be an outcast, but I’d prepared for that. I’d battened the hatches, put my tray table up, seatback in the full upright and locked position, and braced for impact.
I jumped up on an empty picnic table just for fun. Moving to it had added a few milliseconds to my time, but the table had been there, demanding I jump up onto it, and then dismount it with an aileron roll before kicking off that oaktree to correct my course.
An easy enough maneuver. One I pulled off almost without thinking about it. Almost had it down to muscle memory. Sweet!
Downside, the tree and the table had hidden some bushes from my view, and I went crashing through them. They were prickly bushes too. Not good!
I turned my head to check and make sure the hair extensions on my tail hadn't gotten caught in the brush. Fortunately, they had not, and remained affixed to me. I got made fun of enough without ponies knowing I had a griffon-like tail. Well, lion's tail I guess since it's shorter and thinner than a griffons. But hey, who's ever seen one of those outside a zoo? Besides, I felt I looked prettier with full-length tail hair rather than just the tuft at the tip.
I’d have to get dad to fix that as soon as he felt I was old enough to safely work on. Or at least make my hair grow full length there. After all, earth ponies had a similar tail to me, just you know, with proper length hair instead. I liked having another prehensile limb.
No reason to give that up for the sake of being a standard unicorn. Plenty of mixed tribe ponies out there.
Oh hey! That would explain my inability to do much magic! Grandma AJ was an Earth pony. But then why did I have the griffon-like tail tuft?
Random mutation? Griffon somewhere in the family line? Possible considering I had parents with really messy genomes. Particularly dad-
I almost ran face first into the most adorable set of twins ever! I twisted and squirmed, managing to slide between them, barely avoiding the impending collision.
I hadn’t seen them until the last possible second thanks to some bushes behind the table from where I had been. The earth ponies were fraternal twins, the mare on the left, the stallion on the right. Both had very nice deep green coats, slender builds, lovely flowing toasted-peach manes, and a super sexy plotline.
Distracted by the twin hotties, I accidently bumped flanks with the mare while running past them. Actually accidently. I wasn’t smart enough to plan things like that on the fly.
“Hey!” The mare called angrily.
“Sorry!” I called, looking back over my shoulder.
Into identical sets of rich brown eyes.
Luna’s mane, those two were HOT!
Ack! No! Don’t get distracted by cute plots. You have a paper to do. An actually important paper. You want to go to Canterlot University, you need to get into the Neighponese Exchange program for the culture credits. And you can’t ‘cuz your GPA is too low.
The only way you’re going to get it raised up enough is by getting your history grade up. Cuz let’s face it, despite sucking at history, it's the one thing you can really improve in… If you nail this final that is.
I winced, then snorted to blow a lock of my blond mane out of my face. I was almost across the park! Nearly there. I’d be writing in just a few more minutes!
I bit my lip and blushed lightly. A few minutes… That’s not so bad. I could spare another minute to go back and try to get those twin’s Messenger Gem harmonic.
I sighed, shaking my head slowly.
No. No that wouldn’t work. No one would want to go out with me. I was just the weird unicorn in the back of the class who liked to freerun alone. Not popular, not a sports star, not even really all that social.
I could be pretty to a lot of ponies, depending on how you like pale orange with white socks. Not everypony likes multi-color coats, hence why you don’t see too many of us with more than one fur color. More pones boink single-color coats than multi-color coats. Recessive traits are recessive.
And dominant traits are dominant. I had inherited my dad’s heterochromia, only with the eye colors reversed. It looked like we’d swapped one of my blue eyes for one of his green eyes in some sort of weird father-daughter bonding thing.
Which since dad was a biomancer, he could actually have done that. Well, if he could do anything to his own eyes (or my eyes for that matter). So that is exactly what everypony my age thought happened.
It kinda creeps people out when your father has a reputation as ‘the mad germane mage who sells cloned bodies to science classes and does kinky cosmetic work for a living, and seems like he is the kind of dad to swap body parts with his filly like a friendship bracelet. That kind of makes you just a bit well, unapproachable.
I’d never been asked out. Just told I looked nice by my mom, and overheard a few mares being jelly over my mane’s natural ‘neatness’. But well… That’s not exactly enough pure sexiness to get a pony interested in doing the do, now is it?
Yeah, they wouldn’t want to spend a night together. Besides, they probably weren't into incest, which is what a threesome would be for them. So they wouldn’t be down for that.
Awww, sadface…
But I could still at least try. No, no just file them away in the clop drawer for later. You have stuff to do today, Sherbert.
I put some extra speed into my steps and turned a somersault to cross a stone path that cut through the park. Not for any speed reason, just to cheer me up. The maneuver worked wonders, and my heart was soaring again. Much like my body as I jumped a currently dry creekbed, clearing the eight meter gap with a bit of effort.
I reached the other end of the park fairly uneventfully, and dove through the hedge-fence, rolling to a stop at the base of the Clinic’s wall. The Clinic's rear was right against the park. I used to use the hedge as a ladder to get up to a high enough spot to wall run my way to the roof from, but that’s when I was a foal.
I was a mare now, and while I may suck with learning spells, I was damn good at using my magic to boost my physical powers. That came to me instinctively.
I closed my eyes for a moment, focusing my magic on increasing my grip strength, speed, and strength. I felt myself warm up as the ice blue glow washed over my body. I took a few breaths, opened my eyes, swished my tail once, and pounced, aiming for a spot halfway up the wall.
I didn’t quite make it, hitting the wall a few meters short of my goal. Gripping at the wall with all the enhanced strength I could muster I launched upwards again, fighting gravity to jump up the side of the clinic.
One leap. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.
My forehooves gripped the top of the wall. I scrabbled my way up, pulling with my forelegs and pushing with my rear hooves until I got my chest above the wall and could lever myself atop it, just in time for my magic to sputter out.
It never let me boost my self for long. Too bad I didn’t have the brains for magic. I could probably improve that if I knew how.
I gave my legs a stretch to shake everything back into a nice and relaxed state, then went ahead and dusted off my denim coveralls with a few quick telekinetic shoves. The little pushes were much more tiring than they normally were. The books in my saddlebags really sapped up more energy than I would have liked.
Hopefully, I still had the calories and stamina to finish my report. I’d already done all of the reading, I just had to write it all down. And probably reference most of the books at least once to make sure I remembered things correctly.
Fortunately for me, Miss Cheerilee didn’t care much about dates and numbers. She just wanted the reports to show you completely comprehended the flow of history, it’s narrative, what events were important and why, and how the past impacted the present.
That’s about as hard as tungsten carbide to pull off, in my opinion. But I’d do it. I had to. If I couldn’t live in Neighpone for a few years, that was the end of my current plans for my life. I’d have to find another place to-
“Sherbert!” Mom called from the kitchen window. “Welcome home. Please don't come in through the kitchen window today, I just waxed the vinyl.”
I snickered, the thought of mom using that as an innuendo to mean she’d just boned a Knight of the Realm was funny. Mostly because the phrase ‘waxed the vinyl’ would make for a great slang for well, tons of stuff.
Mostly sexy stuff. The best kind of stu-
I cringed at my own train of thought as I realized something terrifying. That was my MOM! Ew!
Mom rolled her eyes at me, my face having betrayed everything I’d been thinking. “You should have grown out of your teenage sex drive years ago,” she grumbled, her left ear twitching irritably.
Heh. Sorry, mom. I can't help being who I am.
“Yep. Should have gotten my cutiemark too, but that didn’t happen either,” I quipped only half bitterly, as I jogged towards my open bedroom window.
“You’ll get it one day, sweetie,” Mom sighed, doing her best to not look too sad about me and not quite managing to hide her feelings. “And would it kill you to use the door for a change?”
I sighed. “Mom, I’ve got five hours to write a history report that I NEED to ace, three hours to fact check it, and then one hour to type up the final draft. Every minute counts. I CAN’T fail this one. If I do I won't have a high enough GPA to apply for the exchange program.”
Mom nodded and bit her lip apprehensively. “I-I’m not sure it’s okay to let you go away for that long… But, you are almost a proper adult. You should start learning independence now. I was going to say you couldn’t go but, well, you’re working very hard for it, and your father thinks that traveling the world will help you become a better pony, so… Do your best. If you need an interview to spice things up, I’ll be happy to do one for you, or find the appropriate pony if your report doesn't include anything I was a part of.”
I gave her a grateful smile. “Thanks, mom! And it’s general history. If I remember you offered that when I get to Dad establishing the clinic I’ll- Oh! Actually is Dad free today? Getting both of your accounts of the story would be GREAT for this!”
Mom shook her head rapidly. “Nooo! No, he is not. I tried to take him lunch but he asked me to leave extremely grumpily. A Crystal Empire couple asked to be made into a single pony… And put three hundred thousand bits down. In coin. He couldn’t say no so he may not be coming to bed tonight.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Like, they want to be two minds in one body, or they want to be conjoined twins?”
Mom shrugged. “No idea. Probably conjoined, one body two heads. That’s the more unusual thing after all. Good luck with your report, sweetie!” She said as she pulled her head back into the kitchen and shut the window.
I jogged to my bedroom window and pulled myself inside with one smooth rolling motion. Tumbling through my dark red curtains I landed on my bed, rolled forwards, accidentally fell on the floor, slid my saddlebags off, drop them beside my desk, and hopped into my office chair, before levitating my pen and a notebook out of a desk drawer, and opening it to write.
I’d planned out how to begin the report already. This part would be easy!
The Era of Harmony officially began thirty-seven years ago in the five thousand one hundred and eightieth year of Recorded History. The Era lasted for seventeen years, officially ending in the five thousand one hundred and ninety-seventh year of recorded history. However, it can be said that the Era truly lasted for twenty-seven years, due to the nature of the Era System.
The events which lead up to the official beginning of the Era of Harmony are of great historical importance, and doubtlessly would be counted as part of the Era if not for Princess Luna’s return making for such a poetic end to the Solar Era. Had Princess Twilight not spent the five years leading up to Luna’s Return personally sorting through the Canterlot Royal Library’s storerooms to create a special rare books section, she would never have discovered the truth behind the legend of the Mare in the Moon.
Had that pivotal moment never occurred, Princess Twilight would not have spent two years obsessing over the legend and begging Princess Celestia for the resources, time, and ponypower to get ready for the return of Nightmare Moon. Princess Celestia would not have sent Twilight to Ponyville, fearing that their close bond and Twilight’s obsession with stopping the inevitable tragedy would result in the young mare being grievously injured in the upcoming battle.
Had this occurred, Twilight Sparkle would not have been in Ponyville on the First of Solarus in the First Year of the Era of Harmony and would therefore have not been present to activate the Elements of Harmony, even if by some quirk of fate the other five Elements had found their way to the Castle of the Two Sisters. As such, it is extremely arguable that the Era system should be modified to allow Eras to overlap so as to preserve a more accurate view of history. Namely that of an ever-shifting gradient of cause and effect, rather than as a string of isolated points.
The true beginning of the Era aside, the Era of Harmony officially began when Twilight Sparkle, along with the other Element Bearers restored the Elements of Harmony to working order and used them to defeat Nightmare Moon, freeing Princess Luna from the Nightmare's possession in the process.
I stopped writing, unable to properly focus as my mind began to wander. I couldn’t help it! This part of history was so boring!
Yeah, sure my grandmothers had been there and I knew that Dash had to have been awesome as ever but like, they just zapped Nightmare Moon with a rainbow laser. That’s it. She monologed, presumably summoned a fake mustache to twirl, and then got zapped.
One and done, son!
So boring! Defeating an evil demigoddess should be something bigger than taking a walk through a slightly creepy forest, surviving an encounter with a manticore, hopping over a gorge with water at the bottom, and then using a rainbow laser of doom.
I sighed and leaned back in my chair, closing my eyes for a moment to refocus on my work.
That didn’t happen. Instead, I had a vivid daydream play out.
Twilight faced off against Nightmare Moon in a crumbling keep, her friends surrounded the two of them, keeping shadowy creatures the Nightmare had conjured forth from the Realm of Dreams at bay with whatever came to hoof. Rocks, a curtain rod, a pocket knife, a sock full of small rocks.
Twilight had come prepared. She had on a black business suit, one more appropriate for a member of the Special Services, or the Mares in Black, than simple office work. A pair of mismatched large caliber Griffonese made revolvers floated, suspended in the lavender flames of her arcane aura, aimed at Nightmare Moon’s smug face.
Her smug face in the process of regenerating after the good part of a kilo of lead and copper had punched holes clean through it!
‘Those are some interesting toys you have,’ the Nightmare mocked. ‘Ultimately useless, but interesting.’
Yeah! That would be AWESOME! And then after a prolonged battle, right before they are all crushed under the hooves of the demonic ruler of the night, that’s when Twilight finally understands friendship and unlocked the Elements power, allowing everypony to save the day and-
Dammit, brain! You’re supposed to write a history report. Not a fanfic! Wait, is it still fanfiction if you’re writing something based on history? It seems like there would be a different word for-
“Arrrgh! No! Focus, damn it!” I growled at myself, forcing my eyes to look back at my notebook and picking my pen back up once more.
The restoration of the Elements of Harmony shook up global politics around the world. Equestria’s Age of Expansion had been fueled by the use of the Elements as a superweapon of sorts. Had Nightmare Moon not disabled their use by Princess Celestia, the Kingdom would likely have continued to grow during the Solar Era as it had before.
Many foreign governments sought to strengthen diplomatic relationships with the largely isolationist nation. Others sought to strengthen their militaries and prepare for new wars of conquest now that Equestria’s Princess-General was back, and Equestria’s greatest weapon was active once more.
However, Princess Celestia chose to continue the firm non-aggression policies of the Solar Era. Of course, the international situation remained tense for many years. While most scholars say nothing came of the tension, many scholars disagree and insist that the heightened global tensions directly led to the second major event of the Solar Era, Queen Chrysalis's attack on Canterlot.
The history of the Changeling Hives is long, complex, and serves little importance here. Suffice to say that with foreign governments going on the alert, and the militarizing of Chrysalis and her Sapphire Changelings (aka The Swarm), that they were forced to move into the one non-panicking nation available, Equestria.
The Swarm moved into Equestria between three and four months after Luna’s return. Investigations couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact time, nor could either of the sane surviving Sapphires shed any light on the mystery. However, it is known that the Swarm infiltrated Equestria and remained within it for a solid year before striking, launching an invasion of Canterlot during the wedding of Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence.
The invasion itself was the first attack on Equestrian soil by a foreign force in seven hundred years, but was especially minor in terms of a military engagement. It’s most lasting impact on Equestria was instigating an event most commonly referred to as ‘The Unmasking’, wherein the Existence of Changelings was revealed to the Equestrian public.
Prior to the Unmasking, Equestrians believed Changelings to be completely mythical. This illusion was perpetrated on the Equestrian people by Princess Celestia herself, via the Special Services on behalf of the Ruby Changeling Hive. The Rubies are unusual changelings who have inherited their Queens extreme psychological issues related to being identified as a Changeling.
Rubies live their entire lives shape changed into a pony form of their own design, and can be driven to suicide if exposed as a non-pony. As such, for the whole of the Solar Era, Celestia had ensured no one thought changelings were real so no one would go looking for them, and harm Equestria's hidden insectoid citizens.
However, the bug hunts which followed the Canterlot Invasion couldn’t be stopped, and so five years of public relations work began to repair the damages the ancient lie had caused. Interestingly, the panic over changelings during this point in history seems to have completely eclipsed the return of Discord and his brief New Chaos. People remember the events, but don’t talk about them, as if they were of any real importance. Perhaps this is due to those two days of chaos being nothing compared to years of panic wondering who is really a predatory insect disguised as a friend.
Today, the damage has been completely undone, and many non-Ruby changelings can be found in most Equestrian communities shape changed or not. The Unmasking lead to greater harmony within Equestria, though it did take time. Time and a different enemy to worry about.
The Canterlot Invasion also lead to the formation of the legendary Knights of the Rampant Moon. The Knights were recruited by Princess Luna after she witnessed the astonishing level of teamwork displayed by Vinyl Scratch, Octavia Melody-Scratch, Lyra Heartstrings, Sweetie “Bonbon” Drops, and Mi’par Ka’ra while they fought off Sapphire Changelings during the invasion.
Rumor has it that Princess Luna only initially knighted them in order to give them palace access so she would have somepony to play tabletop roleplaying games with. While this rumor has a fair amount of evidence to it, this was likely a cover story which failed to become ‘fact’. After all, when the knighted individuals turn out to be vampires, a changeling, and a half-windigo with significant adventuring experience, there simply isn’t much of a possibility of mere coincidence.
I shook my head slowly as I thought about Lady Colegate.
“Half Windigo… That doesn't even make sense,” I mumbled.
How the hay can something be half meat-based lifeform and half coalesced magic housing a consciousness of a pony who had been eaten alive by another pony? That’s completely impossible if you ask me.
Now THAT had to be a cover up. She was definitely a windigo, just friendly. Unlike all the others. So they said she was a half blood to avoid causing panic.
“Oh! Okay, yeah, that would make sense,” I said to myself as I remembered that Old Ponyville once panicked over a zebra trying to buy oranges.
I wonder how many other ponies had figured that out and were just being polite? Probably everypony. I mean, she’s a freaking Knight of the Rampant Moon. You don’t be rude to awesome people who put their plots on the line for you on the regular.
The Vampiric nature of Luna’s Knights is common knowledge now, but at the time was completely unknown. Princess Celestia has something of an affinity for keeping secrets, and this included the true nature of the village of Hollow Shades and its associated Fiefdom. Namely, the village’s existence as a refuge and rehabilitation center for monsters capable of sapient thought.
Shortly before the Ascension of Princess Twilight a reporter for Manehatten’s Daily Trotter infiltrated the village following a lead on a missing monster hunter and blew the lid off that conspiracy as hard as equinly possible. The story spread like wildfire, within a week everypony knew that vampires were real and were out there, lurking in the shadows. And the sun, since vampires are only depowered by it, not killed or injured.
Ironically this took the spotlight off Changelings and allowed them to more easily integrate. After all, you can zap a suspicious pony with a spell to detect a changeling, but there’s nothing in a mage’s arsenal to reveal a vampire.
Princess Celestia’s attempts to repair the wound were interrupted by the return of the Dark Lord Sombra and the Crystal Empire. Twilight and the Elements of Harmony were dispatched to resolve the situation, and as one would expect from a bunch of untrained civilians, they did not succeed. The day would have been lost if not for the work of Twilight’s adopted Drake son, Prince Shining Armor's throwing leg, a nearly comatose Princess Cadence, and more luck than most ponies will ever experience in their entire lifetimes.
However, the victory did make the Elements look good in the public eye and lead to the common pony starting to call this a new age, the Age of Harmony. After all, the Elements were back and could clearly solve all major problems.
How this impression emerged is likely due to Princess Celestia’s far greater public relations skills than Princess Luna. During the same rough period of time, the Knights of the Rampant Moon cut their teeth on several dangerous missions. These included slaying a hostile dragon, repelling an attack by an extremely directionally challenged Neighponese Kaiju which had confused Los Pegasus for Trotkyo, and busting a foal trafficking ring wide open. All without an ‘instantly win this conflict’ device.
I frowned and crossed out the last sentence I’d written. That was… A bit unfair. Even if it was true.
I could hold my own opinions, but I shouldn’t express them here. Not while trying to get an A on this report. I’d just get yelled at for not respecting heroes, and how it was so bad that I didn’t, even though I was related to three of them.
Yeah. I was. And I respected AJ for being a great farmer and getting over what everypony told me had been legendary amounts of stubborn pride and modernizing her farm a little. I respected Dash for being a hero in her own right, saving ponies from everything like somepony out of a Dark Colt comic book character.
But I didn’t respect them as Elements. Not for things they did in their early days.
Why would I? All they were in that respect were keys to turn on the firing mechanism of an ancient superweapon. They didn’t do any of that stuff. The Elements of Harmony did.
Sort of makes it hard to respect somepony for something you don't see them as having done.
That said, after the Elements of Harmony broke, the Elements kept adventuring. Kept being heroes. And started to you know, actually do things themselves!
I respected them for their later achievements, and the times when they weren't using the Instawin Nine Thousand to solve all their problems for them. But before that, in my opinion, all they ever did was the equivalent of turning on a robot.
And not even a piloted robot. A simple machine that did the work before it with no user input. Something that takes no skill to use and couldn’t be stopped. Like cheating in a video game.
But that’s not the kind of thing you write in a school report if you want a good grade. Miss Cheerly would probably slap you into next week for speaking ill of Twilight. There had to be a story there, cuz it couldn’t be unrequited love. Miss Cheerly is straight after all.
I frowned and chewed on the back of my pen slightly as I tried to picture myself only liking one sex. I honestly couldn’t do it.
“Weird…” I mumbled disappointedly.
Normally my imagination can do anything I want it to… Maybe it was too used to doing the opposite of what I’d tried to do. Generally by making fantasies of incestuous fraternal yet otherwise identical twins who both liked me. That way I’d have the ‘same pony’ but with both sets of-
“UGH! No! Focus on the stupid report!” I snapped at myself to keep from going down the bunny trail of no return.
Yet while the Elements were being hailed as heroes, the Knights merely swayed public opinion on vampires, werewolves, and other sapient monsters. Creating the general opinion that such creatures were people IF they had been to Hollow Shades.
This would set the norm for the next ten years. Changelings were tolerated, and supernatural creatures were accepted if they could prove they were residents of, or had been to Hollow Shades for treatment. Despite the disharmony caused by the lack of trust and love between neighbors, the nation remained largely at peace for a good while.
The next major event in the Era of Harmony was the Ascension of Twilight Sparkle.
While Equestria had experienced its first new alicorn Princess nearly five hundred years prior with Princess Cadence, Princess Cadence, being Princess Celestia’s bodyguard had never been in the public consciousness. Princess Twilight on the other hoof was a very well known public figure due to being one of the Elements of Harmony, and of course Princess Celestia’s personal protege. As a result, many ponies mistakenly believed her to be the first new Alicorn since Celestia and Luna first arrived in ancient Equestria.
The ponies of the time experienced something of a religious fervor at seeing a normal pony become an Alicorn. Suddenly it seemed like hard work and dedication could grant you immortality and awesome power over a part of the natural world. While this is naturally completely untrue, over the following years many industries saw major booms as individuals did their best to become Alicorn Princes or Princesses themselves.
Several small cults even emerged around the idea. Known as Ascension Cults, these religious groups were looked upon oddly by most of Equestria, due to the nation’s predominantly secular equinist population, but left unmolested since, after all, the Cults only desired self-improvement.
One of these Cults even survives to this day. The Church of Perpetual Friendship remains a small but active presence in many Equestrian cities, though their numbers are starting to dwindle as nopony has achieved Alicornhood on the same timetable as Twilight Sparkle.
I shook my head slowly. How the hay could ponies STILL be mostly non-religious? The former goddess of death lived down the street from me. We all know who Dusk was. My mom was an actual demigoddess with command over the weather, and while nopony knew it was her under the costume, they knew that Calm Skies was a minor deity.
Not to mention the time Tartarus actually attacked Equestria. And that the actual motherbucking Faust had shown up to help at the end of that.
Then again, it’s not like they asked mortals to do anything. They just sort of… Existed. So, I guess religion isn’t maybe anything that’s required of us. Still, I felt like I should send Faust a cup of tea or something. Maybe a ‘thanks for creating us’ card.
You know what? Once I was a full legal adult in five years, I was going to buy Dusk a bottle of Butterscotch Mead. She deserved that.