Alicorns.
The immortal, unaging personifications of the forces of nature.
While all ponies know of our dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Alicorns of the Day and of the Moon, respectively, few know of the existence of other alicorns in the world. This is largely due to the fact that the alicorn race is rapidly, and ironically, approaching extinction.
While an alicorn cannot die by any conventional means, they can leave the world at large, a phenomenon which shall be covered in depth later in this volume. Because of the immense difficulty creating new alicorns, especially naturally given the lack of remaining male alicorns, as time marches on, more and more alicorns will have left the world at large and we will, sadly, be left with none remaining here in the mortal world as we know it.
This volume is intended to spread the knowledge of these once great creatures to all who will read it, and to, hopefully, preserve some knowledge of their great passing in this world.
The bronze pony sat before the desk and sat down. This is to be his final task. He can almost hear the Call ringing to him. This is what he is meant to do with his last moments consciously acting in the mortal world. He must focus. He must succeed. All he had to do was finish reading this book. This collection of knowledge gathered across centuries, the history of the alicorn race. Or rather, a history. For that was his final task. To see the entirety of mortal knowledge on the immortal race, and to determine what was to be done with it. The scholar who wrote it had risked his life countless times, and now presented it in its final draft to this pony. The knowledge was more than potentially dangerous. It was definitely dangerous.
But only if it were accurate.
He closed his eyes for a moment, and opened them, gold light flaring out from them as his horn glowed a brilliant yellow and his wings flared back, as all of time and history played itself before him.
He started from the very beginning.