In times of great peril, we tend to think of ourselves. How will this affect me? What will I lose because of this? What do I gain from this? My fellow citizens, I ask you not to think of just yourselves. In these times of great peril we mustn't stand together, as one unified nation, country, or state. No, WE must stand together as a WORLD! When I went under the banner of Nightmare Moon, I commanded legions of bat ponies and fey ponies. We came to understand that only together could we accomplish our goals. Only together would we survive! Now we stand on the threshold where the nations of our world will stand together, war and poverty will be a thing of the past! Ponies, dragons, griffons, fey ponies, and the changelings, I ask you to join me and my sister in unifying our nations as one! Let's reach across the stars and into the infinite together and create a new world for us all to live together in peace, and harmony!
Luna, founding of the Equestrian National Federation August 12, 2045.
I remember reading about this speech back in grade school. It was a time when Princess Celestia and Luna united all the major races of our world together under a common banner. It was a monumental task, and one worth fighting for. The centuries prior to this conference were full of blood and death. The Griffon Kingdom assured its dominance over the western part of the world, while Equestria controlled the eastern part of the world. Dragons roamed the world as they saw fit, for none would challenge the dragons. Skirmishes between the griffons and Equestria were common, Luna and her Night Guard stood fast against any foreign threats.
On the other hoof, Luna's Lunar Legion sought out high ranking officials and eliminated them before having a chance to act against her and her sister.Thankfully the Lunar Legion was rarely called upon; otherwise, the conference might have gone very differently.
At the time the changelings were all but myth and legends until one day about 20 years prior on January 2, 2025, when a group of changeling royals came to Equestria seeking refuge from a dragon that destroyed their home in the Badlands. Wary of the new creatures Celestia welcomed the new delegates with open arms. By this time the fighting had dwindled both Equestria and the Griffon Kingdoms forces, and neither wanted to continue to fight.
Rumors of peace talks were whispered across the nations. It's largely debate on where it started, but it's said to have started in the Griffon Kingdoms and spread to Zebracon land of the zebras, past the badlands, and then to Equestria. Using this rumor to their advantage the Royal Sisters and the newly formed Changeling Empire, under the watchful eye of the Royal Sisters, decided it would behoove them to set a grand conferences of nations. And so all the great races of the world gathered: ponies, changelings, griffons, fey ponies, bat ponies, buffalo, sea ponies, zebras, even the breezies were present. In the end a treaty was signed by all who ere present at the conference. Many feared the changelings and voiced this opinion, but all were silenced by Luna who defended the changelings without hesitation.
Not long after around midsummer of 2048, Luna and a few of the worlds leading scientists launched a occupied probe into space. Its mission to lay a stone obelisk made of obsidian on the moons surface. Inside were LT Commander Gusty a pegasus mare, 2 of 3 aka Clicker a changeling, and my ancestor Lunar Legionnaire Misty Lulamoon.
Together they were launched into space from a base in the southern part of the Badlands. Thirty-six hours later they touched down on the surface of the moon. Together they three brave representatives of our world placed the Obelisk down. As they did, Misty Lulamoon radioed back to based and announced, "Lunar Module One to Equis, we're down and package has been delivered I repeat Equis package delivered." That was the start of a new age for our world. For one thing, no one said, 'our world' when referring to the planet we lived on after that. In fact the term Equis went global within a year everyone started calling the planet Equis.
World spread like wildfire across the globe, while the event was televised, talk of Lunar Module Ones mission lasted for months. Luna was always ambitious yet no one ever thought she was serious about "reaching to the stars". Once again the Griffons, not wanting to be outdone by the ponies of Equestria especially changelings, began to build space rockets sending satellites to space. On Sept 12, 2065 the griffons had completed the first orbital space station designated Station Griffon-1 or Station G-1, officaly this lead to the Great Space Race.
Over the next century Equis had vastly changed from a world of late industrial development to a futuristic utopia. Massive cities began to populate the world, towers of glass and steel towered over the clouds.Mountains, even Cloudsdale was shadowed by these massive structures housing thousands of residents at a time. Chariots were replaced by solar powered and self-propelled chariots called, cars. The education system was completely redone, medicine was revolutionized, and raw materials could be produced off world while not taking the limited remaining resources of Equis, most of which come from a planet called Jansis. Airships became the common to most income groups, and the moon now had a completely self-sustained colony of 2 million plus, and Equis had an organized fleet of 30 starships.
These starships were really glorified cargo haulers very crudely designed and no combat capability whatsoever. It didn't change the fact that each captain and crew was proud to be part of the Equis Fleet, even if all they did was haul cargo. The ships were cylindrical in shape, massive twin eingines adorned the aft end of each ship and the command bridge was in the smack front of the ship dead center. They weren't fast, in fact they would take months to bring materials back to Equis, that is until the Horizon Drive was invented.
In the year 2099 a zebra and changeling duo created the Horizon Drive. Their names were Zafran Conran and Echo. This new drive when installed on a starship created a stable energy field that allowed ships reach past the speed of light without destroying themselves. The first ship to test the new engine was dubbed, Event Horizon. On October 25, 2102, the Event Horizon took its maiden voyage from Equis to Jansis in a series of trials. three times they activated the Horizon Drive, and three times they succeeded without a hitch. The Horizon Drive was a success.
By the end of 2120 every ship in the Equis Fleet had the new drive and materials and travel became routine. Colonies were established all over the "Equis System", 50 colonies over 4 planets and nine moon, and the Event Horizon and her crew were deemed heroes along with Zafran and Echo. However, when the Event Horizon was testing a new improved H-Drive, they never reached their destination. It had vanished without a trace. A search was made to find out what happened the the ship and her crew. After three months of searching for the Event Horizon, Equis Fleet Command called off the search claiming the ship and crew destroyed during testing.
Unfortunately, there was no mourning the lost of the Horizon or her crew. On Sept 22, 2121 a hostile species was encountered at Jansis 4 Colony. A single ship attacked and nearly destroyed the colony, crashing into the main reactor killing almost everyone there. No remains of the alien ship or crew was recovered. With no answers to this tragedy the rulers of Equis called an emergency meeting to determine how to deal with future threats from hostile species. While they had a fleet of over 150 starships none were combat capable and virtually no armor for defense. It was determined that a fleet of warships would most likely be needed to protect transports. New ships were build to compliment the cargo fleet, effectively separating into two groups, the War Fleet and the Logistics Fleet. While the Logistics Fleet focused on maintaining cargo and transporting it, the War Fleet was built for the sole purpose of combat. Their ships were smaller but they were fast and heavily armed, thus securing all the main routes for the Logistics Fleet to safety transport cargo without fear.
January 5, 2133 was the day a race of aliens came to visit Equis claiming to be friendly, we were extremely distrusting, yet our leaders welcomed the new comers of course escorted by a fleet of warships. The aliens called themselves the Thrane of a world called Atun. Thanks to the magic of the unicorns and alicon sisters the language barrier was nullified. They were pony like in a physical sense resembling bat ponies without wings their eyes narrow and the irises were slit. their ears were longer and fluffy and instead of a mane or tale they had long gossamer looking fins like a beta fish would have, and they were always had white fur. They were a peaceful race with powerful ships, they came chasing a fugitive in one of their transports. It was later determined that the crashed ship on Jansis was the fugitive trying to escape the Thrane. Convinced of their sincerity Equis and Atun joined together as allies.
Over the next few years the Thrane helped us to improve not only our ships but our, medicine, industry, mining became less wasteful. Our solar technology was improved, and living conditions only got better at home and the colonies. And in that time, the Equestrian Space Academy and Officer Academy gained a boost in enrollment , the likes of which hadn't been seen since the inventing of the horizon drive. Thousands herded to the Academy looking to the future. It is here in the class of 2154 where I was graduating at the top of my class in the Officers Academy, ready to take command of my own ship.
I am Trixie Lulamoon, and this is my story.