Record of Beryl Wars
By TDR
Prologue
Once upon a time, far from the magical land of Equestria.
Death came to collect a group of souls. This loss could have easily been prevented if cooler heads had prevailed in the situation, instead a moment of panic and a bad choice ended a host of lives.
Death was not through with his appointed round and later that night collected another batch of souls including one that escaped his first harvest.
It was then that the pale horse turned it's sightless gaze to the larger stage and his fellows rode with him.
The Massacre at Littlehorn sparked off what would be known as the bloodiest conflict in the history of Equus. The war that followed raged and flared as stronger and stronger weapons were brought to bear. Mega spells and Balefire bombs wiped out millions of lives across Equss embroiling more than just Equestria and the Zebras. The war raged until the destruction of all life seemed inevitable.
It was not however, as many feared, the end of the world. Only the beginning of a new chapter in Equus's history.
Many were spared the horrors of the wastes by seeking shelter in great underground structures called Stables. Generations passed within these sheltering, but when the doors finally opened again, they only had the horrors of the wastes to greet them.
Despite the horrors, life continued on, despite the hardships and trails, the monsters and roving gangs, the very air and land itself seeking to destroy them. Pony’s and Zebras survived.
Even in this harsh land there were heroes, those who sought to make the world better, striving to save every one they could. Set on fighting the Good Fight.
Most failed, either fading into obscurity, or becoming worse monsters than they sought to defeat.
In time, one such figure rose to the challenge the waste offered. Against all odds she survived everything that could be thrown at her, things that would cause the most hardened warrior to succumb, but the mare known across the wastes as everything from the Stable Dweller, to the Destroyer, persevered. Though all her struggles this mare and her friends managed to spark something in ponies hearts that the wastes had torn from them long ago.
Hope.
Not all the lands however, were so blessed with the presence of such a hero.
Far to the south, nestled in the mountains between the remains of Equestria and the Zebra lands, a great valley lay untouched by things such as hope and peace.
The destruction of Princess Luna's School for Gifted Unicorns was not the only death that Littlehorn Valley would see. Both the zebra's and the ponies built massive bases at either end of the valley and waged a violent land battle in the forests, swamps and trails dotting the huge swath of no ponies land between the two countries.
Despite the fall of the spells and the end of the war in clouds of taint filled death the battle for the valley raged on. Generations passed and foals grew up to die in a battle that had no purpose any more.
Eventually even this battle too fizzled down to a cold war as the two sides turned to raising their families rather than killing others. They spread out around the bases forming small communities of tight families, still remaining segregated from each other. The distrust and fear fed with tales of the horrors the other side committed in the war, ensuring that the hatred between zebra and pony remained even after the cause was long forgotten.
It was the discovery of the school that set the spark to rekindle the war. Not all that dwelt there were killed by the pink cloud that started the war. The first explorers of that place found the cloud all but gone, and in a long forgotten catacomb under the main building they discovered a Stable.
The Stable had no number and the great door only had the word Platinum etched onto it. Within the Vault amid the bones the explorers found some of the most volatile and rare artifacts, items used to test the skill and power of the schools students.
Dragon eggs.
Sealed in the Stable the wall of eggs survived the pink mist and remained frozen in time in their cold tomb.
The discovery in the school set the land ablaze with conflict once more, as the tribes took up arms again and fought over the eggs. Each seeking the power that would come from having an army of dragons on their side. Old battle lines were redrawn and and the killing began again. A centuries old battle rekindled by greed and lust for power.
It did not go as planned however. Even with the violence and killing, both sides acquired many of the eggs and after constant failed attempts they realized that the eggs could not be awoken. No Zebra magic known could rose the eggs into hatching, and no unicorn's spells could stir the sleeping creatures within. A great many of these eggs were destroyed in the attempts before the cause was written off as lost.
Despite this, the eggs that remained were still horded and fought over for years, eventually even the battles for them ceased and the conflict eased once more. In several generations even the reason for collecting them was lost, though the tradition of testing young unicorns by trying to hatch them remained in some villages. A uneasy peace once again fell on the warring tribes, but the lands history shows that peace, never lasts forever.
One of the tribes eventually birthed a unicorn filly who would change everything. A frail girl named Lily. Nothing was expected of her and if the wars had been ongoing she likely would have been left to die at birth rather than be cared for and coddled. But when the time came for her to test herself on the “relic stone” of the tribe, the touch of her magic succeeded where no others had. The cracked and split open, spilling forth a blue scaled lizard.
The beast seemed almost as shocked as those present for the test and it immediately started crying. The small creature only stopped when Lily moved to it, feeling a connection with the tiny dragon. She calmed it treating it as she would a younger brother. The young filly named the newborn dragonling Beryl, after the color of his scales.
From such innocent beginnings the flame of conflict sparked again. Before the blue baby dragon burped his first flame, the bloodshed and death in the lands was sparked again. Tribes rallied and tried again to hatch the eggs they had fighting one another for their possession.
That was sixteen years ago, the conflict between the races has started again, only now with a young mare and dragonling in the middle of it all.
Because in the Zebra Lands, war. War never changes.