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// 2nd October, 3483 -- Letter to Twilight Sparkle #1 
// Story: Diaries of an Equestrian Overlord 
// by KitsuneRisu 
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2nd October, 3483


To Twilight Sparkle,

My dearest student.

I hope this letter reaches you in good health. If you are reading this scroll, it either means that I have found you to be finally worthy of knowing the truth behind what has been kept from Ponykind for all these past long years, or that I am dead.

Of course, I do so hope it is not the latter, for if such were the case, it means the Scourge has been successful in its insidious plans and now most, if not all, of Equestria lies in ruin.

But perhaps I am being far too negative.

I have decided to start a chronologically detailed tome of my experiences in this, the year 3483, 2nd of October, old calendar. It is to be considered as a diary of sorts, containing my frank, unabridged thoughts and observations about the land of Equestria, all of which shall now lie in your possession - my dear protégé.

There would be no better time to start detailing these introspections and deliberations in the light of the occurrences the other day, occurrences which you should be most familiar with. Of course, much time might have passed since then and the point at which you are reading this, and as such I shall rekindle you of the events in the pages to come.

The book that should have come with this letter contains these personal accounts of important day by day happenstance, in and around Equestria, from the time of the Luna incident. This book must be, as this letter, kept confidential in every way.

And of course, Twilight, take no offence at the harsh words and strange tone found in the pages of the diary itself. You will always be my first and foremost right-hoof Pony, and if I did not have but a hundred percent trust in you, these words would not even be written at all. While this is a formal document, the diary itself is not, and as such you might find it to be written in a manner most peculiar to what everypony is normally familiar with.

But as you know, everypony wears a mask, and if anything, my honest and true self shall shine within the pages bound within those leather brackets of lore.

Regardless, I pray these pages reach the right Pony, and I pray any of my observations may lead to a way, any small way, to continue the safe and stable overseeing of Equestria.

You will have a large task ahead of you, and many responsibilities.

I have trained you all these many years, and I am sure you have many questions in regard to the position you find yourself in, but all these questions will be answered shortly.

Before we proceed, however, I feel you should know the full and complete truth of the founding of Equestria. I do not know what anyPony will tell you in the future, or has told you in the past, but certainly, our magnificent empire was not created from mere rocks being pushed around in a field.

As you are already familiar, due to your diligent studying, you were in fact the one who had first noticed Princess Luna's foretold escape from her prison in the moon. Back then, I had sent you to Ponyville under the pretence of learning about social sciences, but it pains me to admit to you now that it was all part of a much grander scheme.

I feel no apology is sufficient to alleviate what you must feel upon knowing of my dealings. I had never once intended to mislead you for nefarious purposes. Being the ruler of an entire world is something that comes with heavy burdens, and one of those is the need to guide one's closest pupil in a way that benefits both the pupil and the master.

One day, Twilight, when you have taken on the responsibilities, and wear the crown, I too know that none shall blame you for the same actions you will undoubtedly take upon her; when you have found a protégé of your very own.

I am truly sorry, my dear Twilight Sparkle, but we will return to this topic at a later point.

We must tally on, and there are still things that must be told about our history.

I suppose you might think that our species achieved prominence through natural evolution, or whatever other Ponies might have you believe. Do not be naive, and do not be fooled, young one, for our beginnings stemmed from much more disconsolate origins.

From your research into Luna's tale, I am sure you found that the consensus of the public was that a thousand years had passed since her banishment. However, nopony would know of what happened before that point - three hundred years before. The exact number of years was lost to me - as a beach takes no notice of the number of grains of sand, I no longer take notice of the seconds that eternally pass my existence.

Once, long ago, there was a species who shared this world with us called the Humans. These Humans... indescribable as they are, if you imagine, were hairless beings who stood upon only two legs - their rear ones, something that you and I can do once in a while when prompted, surely, but they remained solely upon them except when asleep or when seated. It boggles the mind how they were to balance, and yet, they were extremely agile as a species. They also shared distinctions with us in other ways - they varied in colour, had hair upon their heads, but rather than hooves, they had an appendage that closely resembled squid. These squid, which firmly attached to the ends of their upper set of legs, allowed them to manipulate things in ways that we are unable.

Back then, us Ponies, or 'horses' as they called us, used to be abused as tools of war and labour. We were naught but slaves. They sat upon us without our permission, and forced us to carry their heavy burdens. If we were not to cooperate, they would use violence, or bribery, in order to make us carry out their deeds, in whatever form it might take.

And back then, we did not resist.

I am sure your initial thought would be, then, why did we not simply say no? Why did we not simply fight back, and argue our freedoms?

If you would believe, we were not capable of speech, and our intelligence was much in need. We were a simple creature, as the birds and the rabbits that you see today, and even much lower in intelligence than even some of them. We were merely animals.

We were beasts, living by Human rule and under their law, not having the power to own, to think or to exist.

The Humans invented devices, most of which you still see around today, and shaped what was to be the modern Equestria. I will admit freely that a fair amount of things found in my dominion, such as trains, cups, quills and doors, are remnants of their technology, and therefore seem to be created for something else besides Ponies to use.

Have you ever wondered, dear Twilight, with your infinite curiosity, why things are as they are in our land? Have you ever thought that some things seem to be made without our benefit in mind? Those things on the side of the cups we drink out of, for instance. The loops that are at an angle that, if one were to hold it within their mouths, would cause the liquid inside to spill out upon the floor; those were known as handles, and they were what the Humans used to clutch within their tentacle-like appendages in order to hold them.

Have you ever wondered why most things seem to be usable only by us with horns and the power of magic? Some might say that the world was made with the biasness toward those with the gift. Some Ponies might even speak of a conspiracy, stating that things are made to keep the Pegasus Ponies and Earth Ponies downtrodden. But no, these items, most of our items, have been copied from the designs of a long history of Human objects, some of which have been appropriated but most of which still remain the same as they were a thousand years ago.

I love each of my subjects equally, be them Earth, Pegasus Ponies or Unicorn. Until this day I still receive requests in the royal courts to make better certain things, and my Research and Development team works hard to accommodate.

In retrospect, I do wonder why no one has ever complained about the cups before.

I could go on forever, listing every single item found in Equestria, but there would be no point. I believe you understand now more about this small facet of our world history.

The Humans, industrious as they were, were also creatures of great lust for power. Unlike how it is now, not a single ruler could govern the world. The world was split, and every country, every island, had its own ruler, all of whom could not and would not work in harmony with each other. As you know, it is much easier with a single monarch managing the problems of Equestria, for there is none to oppose you in your wisdom, which is why the Scourge is such a growing problem (if not one already).

The Humans enjoyed fighting. It wasn't mere squabbles as such that we all go through on a daily basis, but rather on a massive, inter-continental scale. They had inventions not only for aid, but also for death.

One of the great weapons of their time was the use of 'destruction' magic. It is a devastating thing, a great blast of overwhelming consequences, something that I am unable to shape into form with mere description. But yet, it is the key to the events that slowly formed what you see around you today.

I was not able to comprehend the situation around me when our birth began; I was still a 'horse'. It was only after my 'change' when I discovered this piece of history, and as such, this is how I understand the events to have occurred.

It was around the year 2100, according to the Human calendar that we have adopted. They were able to put this destruction magic into metal orbs, which could be carried by flying machines across the entire world and dropped on any place that they wished. And when they landed, they would destroy everything with a large burst of magical energy, which was described to me as a mix between a simple fire spell and a simple disintegration spell, but on a scale that would engulf even the entirety of Manehattan whole, leaving nothing at all in its wake.

I myself have been attempting to recreate this spell, and I must say that it is quite effective, although it has never been able to reach the levels of totality in destruction that the Human orbs were capable of. I even had the spell implanted into your assistant, Spike, but all he is able to do is to disintegrate items that are engulfed in flame, which will then reform later because his powers are quite pathetic. I have, however, managed to repurpose this ability to allow him to send simple items to me directly, over long distances, and also receive things in return.

A great many orbs were sent out one day, all at the same time, across the entire world. It seemed that the Humans were set in their ways to cause the destruction of everyone else, and I cannot fathom what might have spurred on such a thing. It was only much later when I found out that they never seemed to need a reason.

In an instant, many, many Humans perished in the magical flames, but those who remained outside the influence of the spell did not die instantly, but rather, quite painfully and slowly over the course of a number of months or sometimes years. I myself, and my sister Luna, of course, happened to be two of the ones living just outside the radius of an orb's magical effect zone. We watched then, at the time, a huge cloud appearing from the horizon, straight into the air, and a warm breeze then flowed over us like a blanket being pulled over our haunches. It was quite a sensation. It was said that by that time, the number of Humans who survived dropped to merely 40% of their original number, and that number was still decreasing in staggered amounts over time.

It would be two months from that point when our essence and being started to change.

We started to be able to speak and understand the Human language - something that we were unable to do before. The words I write to you now, and the language we speak, in fact, is one of the old Human languages. We started to understand a lot of things, we began to have comprehension of the ways things were, and we also realised that this was not supposed to have happened. We realised, somehow, that were it not for these orbs of magic, we would have lived and died; unintelligent slaves for the entirety of our short continuance.

Another strange observation was that this magic seemed only to have devastating effects on certain creatures. Most living creatures, especially Humans, rodents and birds, who were directly hit by the spell, were destroyed, and those who were present around us fell sick and ill, and eventually perished.

We, however, did not, as did not certain few other species.

Beyond the mental acuity, we had also started to feel healthier, more robust. We became stronger, and we felt better than we have ever been. We had also begun to develop physical differences to what any 'horse' had in those days.

In the days of a thousand years past, 'horses' had no horns; no wings. Every 'horse' was an Earth Pony. All of us were the same in every way. But for Luna and me, our wings and horns had begun to grow.

It was painful, even agonizing. You would not have any idea how tormenting it is to have to sprout a few new body parts, but I can confirm that it was neither pleasant nor comforting. It took a long while before they would flourish to the completion that you see adorning my visage today, and those months were only survivable through the support that I gave Luna, and Luna gave to me. Those were the times when we were still... sociable.

It is regretful, what occurred between us. From humble beginnings to the point where I had to do what had to be done, it is truly a tale wrought with regret and sorrow. My only consolation is that ever since her release from the moon, she is now once again present in my castle, and a great weight is lifted off my shoulders. No sisters should have to fight. No sisters should need to have gone through what either of us had.

But I am sorry, my young one. I cannot help but reminisce, which causes such digression.

Dearest Twilight, I believe now to be a good point in which to exercise rest and deliberation. Please try to absorb what you have read so far, and once you feel sufficient to continue, then, you may continue in the next scroll.

But I would hasten to caution you that it might jar your beliefs in yourself, me, and our very world.



Yours always,

Princess Celestia.