Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 25 The Arcane EraLifegiver’s Clinic, Ponyville - Equestria
Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 25 The Arcane Era
Lifegiver’s Clinic, Ponyville - Equestria
In the fifteenth year of the Era of Harmony, Queen Chrysalis brokered a deal with a griffon warlord to help her raid and conscript the Diamond Hive. The Diamonds lived in a very remote and poor part of the world, but possessed exceptionally potent arcane defenses. If there is one thing griffons excel at, it’s defeating magic.
This exceptional ‘power’ is due to their species completely lacking any form of magic at all. No other creatures have as much experience making do without and working around arcane defenses. Queen Chrysalis calculated she would lose far more changelings than she would gain if she raided the hive on her own, and in a rare move for her, struck the aforementioned deal with the warlord, whom she presumably chose at random.
In exchange for their assistance, the Griffons would be allowed to keep the hive’s physical location, structures, and supplies for themselves. The Swarm was only after more bodies to merge with its mass and cared not for the mines or city the Diamonds possessed.
The raid was something of a problem for the Griffons. Changelings are a protected species under the Sovereigns Guild’s Rules of International Conduct due to being a stateless people found all across the world (Typically in locations which were once great cities within their long since fallen empire.). The Confederation of Griffon Kingdoms is a member of the Sovereigns Guild and as such, if any of the Diamonds survived, the changelings could call upon the other member states to punish the Griffons for them.
However, the warlord must have believed total annihilation was possible, for he went ahead with the plan, and attacked the Diamond Hive, successfully slaughtering the entire population save for one Scout named Jade, who was sent away from the hive as the attack begun to unknowingly carry one of the Hive’s greatest treasures to safety.
Said treasure was the spellbook of Clover the Clever, a tome which requires no explanation of its vast power and historical importance. Unfortunately for this scout, it turned out that the primary reason Chrysalis had chosen the Diamond Hive for her raid was to acquire that very book for herself and an international chase began.
Fortunately for Jade, she met up with a treated werewolf by the name of David who had formerly served as a medic and a soldier. The two traveled together for quite some ways before encountering the now legendary biomancer-
“Oh, crap…” I muttered to myself, ears flicking back in annoyance.
I couldn’t remember dad’s name. Not his full name at least. Not from that point in time.
If I was going to do this report right, I should use the name he had when he met them… But what the crap was it!?
I sighed in frustration, closed my eyes and called. “Mom? What was dad’s name before he moved to Ponyville?” I asked.
“Same as now. Azur Lily,” she called back.
“No, his full name,” I corrected. “It’s for my report.”
“Oh, for buck’s sake! Give me a minute,” Mom moaned irritably.
She also hated dad's full name.
I nodded and tapped my pen against the page for a few moments, waiting for her answer.
“It was; Master Wizard Herr Doctor Azur Lily von Maresburg the Third, Md, Esquire,” mom finally answered.
I quickly wrote the name down before I could forget it, rolling my eyes in annoyance. “Can we sue Germany for giving its citizens stupidly long names and insisting on using every title a pony earns as part of their legal name?” I asked hopefully.
“Just be glad your father didn’t name you,” Mom called with a laugh.
I rolled my eyes harder. “Uncle Sky named me after ice cream that’s orange and white swirled together,” I pointed out. “I’m basically named with a sex pun!”
Mom was pure orange. Dad was pure white. You do the math.
“Uh, be glad your Aunt didn’t name you,” Mom countered quickly.
I frowned. “What did Aunt Ay want to call me?” I asked with a worried twitch of my tail.
“Creamsicle,” mom answered with a snicker.
“Um, I don’t get it?” I started, racking my mind to see how being named after a popsicle would be worse than- “OH, LUNA! THE WHITE GOES INSIDE THE ORANGE!”
I turned back to my paper to focus on anything else, tuning out the sound of my mom’s laughter.
Still, at least Creamsicle was better than Grandma Dash’s idea for a name for me. Filly McAwesome. Or her backup pick Babbers Screamsalot.
I shuddered and returned to work. Thank goodness Grandma AJ banned Dash from naming their eventual foals...
Fortunately for Jade, she met up with a treated werewolf by the name of David who had formerly served as a medic and a soldier. The two traveled together for quite some ways before encountering the now legendary biomancer Master Wizard Herr Doctor Azur Lily von Maresburg the Third, Md, Esquire, who joined them in their travels to help see them safely out of the country, but wound up befriending the pair and completing the journey with them.
The three made their way to Zebrica, where they were able to catch a train to the Equestrian Badlands. While the method of discovery remains classified, the Princesses discovered the three’s quest to take the book to safety in Equestria, and deployed the recently downsized Equestrian Guard to intercept and safeguard them, as well as Clover’s Spellbook.
Such force was required as Chrysalis, enraged at her failure to capture a mere three ponies, had mobilized the entire Swarm. Which at the time, was millions strong due to her global conscription of changelings over the course of a decade.
The three were attacked by the Swarm in a move which destroyed the train they were riding, but by classified means, were able to teleport to a distant location where they were found by members of the Emerald Hive who were able to heal their wounds with the advanced medical technology at their disposal. This drug the Emeralds into the well of Chrysalis’s wrath, along with the three travelers and Equestria.
As ill luck would have it, Queen Chrysalis's reason for amassing such a large force was to take revenge upon Equestria for her prior defeat, by launching a Crusade on the same scale of her ancient ancestors millions strong assaults on early pony kingdoms. Upon discovering the amassed Equestrian army, she immediately attacked.
The resulting Battle of the Badlands was more of a massacre. The Equestrian Guard had spent decades doing little more than hunting monsters and acting as law enforcement officers for Equestrian cities. With no recent wars, there were no veterans on the field aside from Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Princess Cadence, and the Knights of the Rampant Moon.
Against all odds the Equestrian Guard wasn’t slaughtered to the last stallion thanks to the efforts of Jade (who had metamorphosed into a Queen herself along her journey) and Princess Twilight, who managed to fight Queen Chrysalis to a standstill, allowing David to finish her off with a primitive shotgun which for classified reasons, was confiscated after the battle.
Due to the mind control spells Queen Chrysalis utilized to control her Swarm, her death resulted in the majority of the Swarm going brain dead. Some of the individual changelings were successfully revived, but none of the individuals who made up the Swarm ever returned to more than a feral animal state post-Chrysalis.
Concurrent to the Battle of the Badlands, a small detachment of the Swarm had attacked the Emerald Hive, intending to gather some last minute reinforcements. The Swarm managed to breach the Hive but were dispatched easily once civilians and military personnel cleared the breached area. This was achieved by simply reconfiguring the Hive’s gravity plating to crush everything organic within the hallways.
With all due respect to the eight thousand four hundred and fifty-three deceased Guards and their families, the battle’s after effects are of greater importance to the modern age than the battle itself.
First and foremost, the massive casualties sustained by the Duchy of Dressage resulted in a massive economic crash as most of the guards they fielded for the battle were Reserve Guard Personnel, and possessed day jobs which now had no one to fill them. To compensate for the loss of pony power, Duke Gru commissioned SkyTech to automate the majority of Dressage’s industries to the fullest extent the Dutchy’s finances would allow.
This was the first hoofhold modernization had on Equestria and is responsible for beginning the spread of technoarcane machinery throughout Equestria.
Second, the Battle of the Badlands shook public confidence in the Elements of Harmony. They proved that the Elements could not handle every threat on their own. Many ponies begged Princess Celestia to allow Princess Luna to enact many of Princess Luna’s publicly listed military reform acts, but Princess Celestia’s pacifistic and idealist nature prevented her from agreeing to any of the changes, Princess Twilight followed along with her mentor’s lead, and while Princess Cadence sided with Princess Luna, the Crown could not resolve the tie in the votes. And so, the issue was dropped, to be revisited in ten years time.
Following this, Princess Luna faded out of the public eye somewhat. Seemingly withdrawing from the political arena, under the impression that this new Equestria had no place for her rule within it.
Fortunately for everypony, rather than attempting to summon a companion from the Realm of Dreams to comfort her, Princess Luna acquired an apartment within the Emerald Hive to use as a private getaway, seeking comfort in her friendship with her Knights.
Due to Princess Luna’s refusal to participate in what she described as ‘Figureheadding’, the Lunar Court was given to Princess Twilight, who operated the court via nightly teleports to Canterlot. This left Princess Luna with the responsibilities of being Equestria’s Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, but nothing else.
Third and finally, due to Master Wizard Herr Doctor Azur Lily von Maresburg the Third, Md, Esquire healing Princess Celestia’s broken horn at the end of the Battle of the Badlands via biomancy, the once illegal School of Magic was made legal once more. Allowing for extreme advances in Arcane Medical Care, as well as cosmetic transformations, as the good doctor trained many apprentices over the following decades.
It is of historical note to mention that Queen Jade’s assistance in the Battle of the Badlands was rewarded with promises to restore her hive to her by every possible means. These promises have yet to be fulfilled despite the passing of multiple decades. A failure which many modern Equestrians regard as a national shame.
The founding of the first Biomancy Clinic in Equestria begins the next major event of the Era. By happenstance, the building awarded to Master Wizard Herr Doctor Azur Lily von Maresburg the Third, Md, Esquire (Now known as Master Wizard Lifegiver Barron Herr Doctor Azur Lily Trigger von Ponyville the Third, Md, Ph.D., LW, Esquire)-
I groaned aloud as I wrote down dad’s name in full. “Oh, Luna’s flanks… In another thirty years, his name won't fit on one line of a page,” I grumbled to myself. “Seriously, Germaney, some traditions are stupid. You should know this, you’re Germaney! Your history is like, nothing but ‘Well, following that tradition screwed us over.’
“It’s only a matter of time before your names get so long that by the time your parliament introduces themselves to the new Prime Minister it will be time to elect a new Prime Minister. Your entire nation will crumble as your government is paralyzed by stupidly long names!”
Rage thus quelled, I resumed writing.
...happened to have been owned previously by a string of different groups, one of which was a Unicorn Supremacy Cult who had constructed a laboratory within the building for the purpose of attempting to recreate a pure unicorn genome as well as a living pureblood unicorn.
It’s common knowledge that no unicorn, pegasi, or earth pony have been of purely one tribe’s blood for the last ten thousand years. Naturally, assembling viable ‘pure’ strains of DNA from the interwoven genomes of the modern pony kinds was a task only the most zealous of bigots or determined of scientists would undergo. The King most decidedly falls into the ‘bigot’ category.
While the laboratory had been abandoned due to the project’s failures-
I really should ask permission to share that in a school report…
I got up from my chair and trotted out of my room, walking down the disgustingly beige painted craftspony furniture decorated hallway to the Reading room, where mom was sitting in the lazy boy reading a Daring Doo novel.
Mom looked up as I leaned against the doorway, brushing the rainbow striped strands of her purple mane out of her eyes.
“Yes, Sherbert?” She asked politely.
I bit my lip nervously. “I um… I want my report to be as accurate as possible, and I’m at well, the King and the Cult of Ashes. Would it be okay to mention you’re the only living specimen their project produced? As you know, a means of showing how poorly their plans to build a perfect unicorn were going?”
Mom frowned deeply, but her eyes held a certain sadness within them that I could tell wasn’t from my question itself, but rather something else.
“That’s perfectly fine, honey. I find it ironic that the best they could do was a crippled pegasi mare. Amusing as well,” Mom answered, that hint of sadness still in her eyes. “I- I want you to know that you’re not broken because you came from me, nor do I think of myself as lesser or broken because of how I was born. You’re my perfect filly.”
“I don’t feel like that, mom,” I said with a smile. “And can you knock off the ‘prefect filly’ stuff? Dad calls me that ALL the time. It’s really annoying. I’m like, almost the opposite of perfect,” I snickered bitterly.
Mom raised an eyebrow. “Um… Well, I won't be able to get him to stop, but I’ll do my best from now on to not call you that,” mom promised. “But I will be having a talk with him… He was supposed to tell something to you on your last birthday but didn’t. Clearly.”
I bit my lip nervously. I really wanted to press mom for more information on that, because it sounded kinda like dad wanted to most likely give me some clue as to why he hadn’t fixed my tail when I was a foal. One that wasn’t the generic ‘cancer risk due to age’ excuse which didn’t hold up from what I had learned about Biomancy, and simple operations like increasing fur length.
But at the same time, I REALLY needed to get back to my report…
Ah, ponyfeathers.
“Um, well, how about you tell me instead? I’m right here,” I pointed out.
Mom shook her head no so firmly that I knew that I wouldn’t be making her budge on the issue. “Absolutely not. It’s his job to explain it. Besides, you have that report to do and it would take a rather lengthy conversation to explain it,” Mom countered. “You should get your nose back to the grindstone.”
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I really should. I’m not that far from the end after all!” I said cheerfully as I left the room, returning to my desk in a few short seconds and picking up my pen once more.
While the laboratory had been abandoned due to the project’s failures it was recently abandoned. The last foal produced by the Cult of Ashes gene splicing and breeding program was not only still alive, but had only just recently become an adult mare. That mare, named Scootaloo, serves as an example of why the project had been abandoned. Despite trying to create a pureblood unicorn, they had instead created a nearly half and half bloodline of Pegasi and Earth Ponies.
Scootaloo herself has a significant contribution to these historical events. She had been flightless for her entire life, as well as homeless, as a result of being abandoned with the rest of the project. In a poetic twist of fate, after getting her wings healed by Doctor Lily as his first civilian patient, the two fell in love and began dating. While exploring the good doctor’s new facilities the two discovered the hidden laboratory.
This brought the still active Cult of Ashes out of hiding, as their leader, an ancient Lich known only by the title ‘The King’, feared their present base of operations being discovered now that Equestria knew they existed. These fears proved quite true. Within a month, Equestrian agents had captured one of the cult’s clone soldiers and learned everything.
The Ashes clone soldiers all share a single appearance, and the captured soldier was at first believed to be Trixie Lulamoon, a traveling performer Princess Twilight knew thanks to the mare having been briefly possessed by a Dark Magic artifact and used as a host body for a consciousness contained within that artifact.
The resemblance was due to Trixie being a deserter from, and in fact the genetically engineered template for the entire clone army. She had fled the Cult after realizing its teachings were a lie and had been traveling the land mostly out of love for the real world, but had returned to Equestria upon learning that the Ashes had been discovered, intending to assassinate The King to prevent a major war between the extremely large cult and Equestria.
I froze mid pen stroke, realizing at the last moment that explaining anything further about Trixie’s travels would have been a massive mistake.
I knew her. She’d married my Aunt. I’d almost written down that she had traveled to Neighpone and become an actual ninja after discovering an ancient clan that still survived within one single district of Trotkyo.
I had almost blown the lid off an ancient secret I only knew because one mare had gotten drunk and thought it would be a good idea to tell me of a place where I might be able to become a hero after she found me crying about being a disgrace to my family name.
I was related to so many heroes. Two of the Elements through my mother, who was herself a hero even if nopony knew it. She had been adopted by Rainbow Dash, who had married Applejack. On my father's side, I had the doctor who had reduced the casualties in the Battle of the Badlands by sixty percent, as well as his blood brother Sky Trigger, which linked me to a THIRD Element by making me Pinkie Pie’s niece.
Then there was Sky’s adopted sister, my Aunt Ayna, who herself was an accomplished wizard with pioneering work in portals and divination. Since Changeling reproduction means Ayna had hundreds of potential sisters, that linked me to goodness knows how many other changelings in the Emerald Hive. Then through Ay’s marriage, I was linked to Trixie Lulamoon, actual motherbucking ninja and one of the best Battlemages in Equestria.
And because I had Trixie for an Aunt, and she was a clone, and all of the TR series clones saw each other as sisters, I was technically related to the ENTIRETY OF THE EVENTIDE GUARD! Over a thousand perfectly loyal, dedicated, relentlessly subservient yet powerful ponies who now served as Princess Twilight’s sworn protectors and Ponyville’s Guard.
My family tree was nothing but heroes and world changers. And then me. A not that good looking, not that smart mare who was admittedly pretty good in terms of athleticism but not to the point of being exceptional.
I had to be better than that to be worthy of being a member of this family. And I’d nearly just destroyed my entire plan by doing something which would have ensured I would NEVER have gotten to train at that single dojo. I nearly had to find an entirely new path to success.
“Buck… That was close,” I whispered to myself.
Said war would have emerged because the true identity of the Lich was that of one of the heirs to the throne of ancient Equestria, who would have become King had the Everfree Peasant Revolt not occurred, which saw the Princesses Celestia and Luna be given the crown by the peasantry as thanks for liberating them from the ancient and oppressive bloodline.
Due to learning everything about the organization from Trixie, and having discovered the Cult a mere year before they had planned to launch a massive Equestria-wide assault upon the Crown thanks to Scootaloo and Doctor Lily, the Cult of Ashes was destroyed completely as Princess Celestia and Luna annihilated their hidden city within the Everfree, and most surprisingly the Cult's Second in Command, Sacred Shadow, surrendered to Princess Twilight after losing a duel to her, ordering the entire clone army to surrender as well.
Sacred surrendered due to personal feelings. Those being that since Twilight defeated him, the Equestrian ideas were superior to the Ashes own, and as such, he should not oppose them. Due to their conditioning, the soldiers under his command simply obeyed their commander and surrendered as well.
In the aftermath of this skirmish, the clone soldiers couldn’t adapt to a civilian life. They had been designed, born, and raised to be soldiers and nothing else. Several of the TRs committed suicide after going a few weeks without being ordered to do something, making it clear that their psychological state is nowhere near that of a normal pony.
Sacred Shadow likewise didn’t wish to be a civilian, though possessed a more neurotypical mindset and could have adapted if he desired. However, due to having decided that Equestria’s philosophies and ideals were the best ones, he offered his services to Princess Twilight as a guard.
Twilight accepted, and put him in command of the Eventide Guard, which she formed by taking all of the clone soldiers and admitting them into the Equestrian Guard as Ponyville’s first Guard regiment, as well as her own personal security force (Much like Princess Celestia’s Solar Guard, Princess Luna’s Lunar Guard, and Princess Cadence and Prince Shining’s Harem Guard.).