The Dragonriders of Equestria

by Dawn-Designs-Art

A Brief History of Pern

Thousands of years after man first developed interstellar travel, colonists from Earth, Tau Ceti III, and many other planets throughout the known universe, settled upon Pern, which was the third planet of the star named Rukbat, in the Sagittarian Sector of space.

Rukbat’s solar system was home to five planets, two asteroid belts and a stray planet, which had only come to orbit in the system in recent millennia. The colonists who settled on Pern, found it to be the perfect planet for their purposes, an agricutural world a long ways off the standard intergalactic trading routes, and a perfect new start for those recovering from the horrors of the Nathi Wars.

The colonists, who were led by the war hero Admiral Paul Benden, and Governor Emily Boll of the war-torn planet of Tau Ceti, quickly abandoned their star-travelling technology in favour of a simpler agricultural life. For eight peaceful years - 'Turns' as they came to call them on Pern- the settlers spread out and multiplied on Pern's tropical Southern Continent, giving little thought to the strange little planet -the Red Star as they would soon come to call it- swinging around its adopted star in an unusual oval orbit. This planet would swing out to the edge of the solar system, passing through the edge of the system's Oort Cloud, before returning inward toward the warmth of the sun, a long cycle which took the small planet two hundred and fifty Turns.

For fifty of those turns, the Red Star was visible in the night sky over Pern. They say keep your enemies where you can see them, but that was not the case with the Red Star, for when it travelled into a close enough range, as it was in range for those fifty Turns of it’s journey, the native life form of the planet would bridge the gap through space between its home world and the more temperate and hospitable Pern. Once these alien spores entered the atmosphere of Pern, they would thin out into long, flat, narrow, silver streamers, like silk ribbons, which floated down to the ground, with the appearance from below of seemingly harmless 'Threads'. However, the mindless silver Threads were anything but harmless. Like all living things, Thread needed to eat to survive, and it ate indiscriminately and extensively of anything organic within it’s reach, plants or flesh, it was all the same to Thread.

The first deadly Fall of Thread caught the colonists completely off guard. This was not what they’d signed up for, and the data from the original evaluation of Pern made no mention of this threat, but this was their planet now, and while they’d abandoned much of their high tech weaponry and tools as part of their idealistic move to Pern, they were a peoples of ingenuity and skills, with battle experience from war-hardened veterans. For a while, they managed to fight off the Thread, using the flying sleds they had brought with them for the purposes of transport, in aerial battles against the sky born threat. It soon became apparent though, that this plan could not be sustained long enough to keep the settlers alive. They’d been able to calculate that the Thread would fall for the next fifty years. They also calculated that with the loss of sleds during the sky battles against Thread and no way of recharging the batteries which powered these flying vehicles, they would only be able to last, at most, another few Turn. Without enough fuel to return everyone safely to the colony ships which had brought them to Pern, and no other options available, they came up with a desperate plan to design a shield against what they knew would be a recurring threat.

Bio-geneticist Kitti Ping, with the help of the colonist’s scientifically minded, used her knowledge of genetic engineering to modify fire lizards - the four legged, winged Pernese lifeforms that possessed abilities needed to fight against Thread - into huge, intelligent, telepathic dragons, named for the mythological creature they resembled. These dragons had many characteristics which made them a perfect weapon against Thread, they could travel from one place to another instantly by going Between, essentially travelling through time and space. After chewing a phosphine-bearing rock the settlers called firestone, they would emit a gas which ignited upon contact with the air, essentially breathing fire. Because the dragons could fly, they were able to burn Thread in midair, before it could ever reach the ground below. Telepathically linked to their chosen riders from the moment of Hatching, during Impression, they could work together as fighting units in perfect harmony. These dragons and their riders formed the mainstay of the protection on Pern.

It would take many generations for the dragons to reach the full size specified in their genetic code, to allow them to be most effective at combatting Thread, but until then, these smaller dragons would be able to effectively protect Pern’s small population. The second part of the defence plan against the deadly invasions would take even longer to develop to their full potential, for Thread, once landed, would burrow and multiply with a truly terrifying speed. So a creature was developed to counter this parasite, and the resulting grub, which had the ability to eat Thread, was introduced into the soil of the Southern Continent and allowed to grow and multiply. The original plan was that the dragons would be visible protection, charring Thread while it was still in the sky, and protecting the dwellings and the livestock of the colonists whilst also being a reassuring sight, and the grub would be a hidden protection, safeguarding vegetation by devouring any Thread that managed to evade the dragons' fire.

The creators of this two-part defence did not allow for change or for hard geological fact. The approach of the Red Star not only brought Thread, but also wreaked havoc on the Southern Continent, causing it to heave with volcanoes and earthquakes, and forcing the colonists to seek out refuge on the smaller, less temperate, but comparatively safer Northern Continent. In their haste to flee, they lost many important resources and, over time, much of the knowledge the settlers had brought from their various home worlds was forgotten.

Huddled together in the cave systems of the first settlement on the Northern Continent, which they named Fort Hold, constructed in the eastern face of the Great West Mountain Range, the colonists soon found themselves to be overcrowded. The dragons had by then been bred to a larger size, and they and their riders required more spacious accommodations than the cliff side hold could provide. Soon though, they found that the ancient cave-pocked cones of extinct volcanoes, one high above Fort, and later another in the Benden mountains, were perfect residences for dragon and rider alike, requiring only a few improvements to be made habitable. However, such projects took the last of the fuel for the stonecutters which the colonists had brought with them. These tools had been programmed only for regular mining operations, to help start Pern’s mining operations, not for wholesale cliff excavations. Subsequent holds and weyrs had to be carved out by hand.

As time progressed, another settlement was started slightly to the north, alongside a great lake conveniently formed near a cave-filled cliff, but Ruatha Hold, as the settlement was called, also became overcrowded within a few generations. And so, the population continued to spread and more Holds, and Weyrs, were formed, though only where appropriate cave systems could be found. Only solid rock and metal, both of which were in distressingly short supply on Pern, were impervious to the burning score of Thread.

And so, the dragons and their riders, up in their high places and the people down in their cave holds went about their separate tasks, and each developed habits which soon became custom, which over the Turns solidified into tradition as incontrovertible as law.

Then came the first interval of two hundred Turns when the Red Star was at the end of its orbital cycle, and no Thread fell on Pern. The descendants of the original settlers began to erase the signs of Thread’s devastation, and they grew crops, planted orchards, and thought of reforestation for the slopes destroyed by Thread. They even managed to forget that they had once been in the very real danger of extinction. Then, when the wandering planet returned, and the Threads fell again, the Pernese thanked their ancestors, now many generations removed, for providing the dragons whose fiery breath would protect their beautiful home for the next fifty Turns.

Dragon kind, too, had flourished during that Interval and had settled in four other locations, following the master plan of defence for the Northern Continent created by the leaders of the first dragonriders.

Stories of Earth receded further from Pernese memories with each generation until the knowledge of Mankind’s origins became nothing but a myth. The significance of the southern continent—and the instructions left to teach of the two-part defence system of dragon and grub—became garbled and lost in the more immediate and important struggle to survive.

With each Pass of the Red Star, a complicated societal structure was developed to deal with the recurring evil. The six Weyrs, as the old volcanic homes of the dragonfolk were called, pledged themselves to protect Pern, each Weyr having a section of the Northern Continent literally under its wing.

Holds, which were settlements akin to towns, developed wherever natural caves were found— some of these Holds were, of course, larger or better situated than others. The largest Holds became like the capitol of a state, home to the Lord Holder, to whom all the smaller holders looked to for guidance and judgment. The Lord Holder decided where new small holds would be established, and who would lead each small hold. It was the job of the Lord Holder to listen to the complaints of those under his rule, collect the tithe to be sent to the Weyr, pass judgement on those accused of wrongdoing, and send aid to the smallest holds in times of hardship. The new Lord Holder was chosen from the most able of the old Holders blood relatives, debated and decided upon by the fourteen other Lord and Lady holders of Major Holds.

Men and women who had advanced skills in metalworking, music and the arts, weaving, animal husbandry, farming, fishing, and mining came together to form Crafthalls in each large and major Hold, and looked to one Master-Crafthall, where the concepts of their craft were taught and craft skills were preserved and guarded from one generation to the next. One Lord Holder could not deny the products of the crafthall located in his Hold to others, as the Crafts were deemed independent of all Hold affiliation.

Each Craftmaster of a hall owed allegiance to the Master of his craft, a person who was elected based upon their skill in the craft and on their administration ability. The Mastercraftsman was responsible for the output of his or her halls and the distribution, fair and unprejudiced, of all products created by the craft on a planetary basis. Certain rights and privileges were given to the different leaders of Holds and Masters of Crafts and, naturally, the dragonriders, to whom all Pern looked to for protection during Threadfall.

Because the dragonriders were unable to farm their own food, having no farmable land available, and could not make their own clothes or craft their own tools and furniture, their time consumed by the care and training of their dragons, and the fighting of Thread during the pass, each Hold agreed to pay tithe to the Weyr that directly protected their lands. Crafthalls would craft whatever items the dragonriders needed in exchange for transport on dragon back during the intervals. The Holds and Halls also provided candidates for Hatchings when the dragonriders were on Search, children aged 12 to 15 who would have the chance to stand on the Hatching Grounds, and if they were lucky, they would Impress a dragon and become a dragonrider. As life in the Weyrs was not only prestigious, but seen as easier an easier way of life for women and men alike, both Hold and Hall were proud to have their children taken on Search, and boasted of the members of their bloodlines who had become dragonriders.

It really was in the Weyrs though that the greatest social revolution took place, for the needs of the dragons took priority over all else, which was why it was seen as an easier life, after the first three years that is. Of the dragons, only the golden Queens and the greens were female, the bronze, brown, and blue dragons being male. Of the female dragons, only the Queens were fertile, as the greens were rendered sterile by the chewing of firestone, which wasn’t a bad thing since the sexual tendencies of the small greens would soon have left the Weyrs completely overpopulated. The greens were generally the most agile, however, and were invaluable as fighters of Thread, fearless and aggressive. But the price of fertility was inconvenience, and the riders of Queen dragons were required to use flamethrowers to burn Thread, though only then the Weyr had the required three Queens for a Queen’s wing. The blue males were sturdier than their smaller sisters, while the browns and bronzes had the stamina for the long, arduous battles against Thread, which lasted six long hours, unless the Fall started or finished over water, or the if it snowed that day, for Thread drowned in water and crumbled into a fine black dust when the air high above where a dragon can fly was too cold.

In theory, the Queenndragon would mate with whichever dragon could catch them first during their arduous mating flights, bronze, brown or blue, however the honour always went to the Bronze dragons, whose size, strength and speed were only beaten by the Queens. It quickly became a matter of Weyr law that the rider of the bronze dragon which flew the senior Queen of the Weyr became the Weyr Leader. It was up to him to choose the wing leaders, create new and better tactics to fight Thread, create the training schedule, and he was the one who oversaw the fighting Wings during each Fall. The rider of the senior Queen dragon, however, had the most responsibility in the Weyr during and after each Pass. It was the Weyrwoman’s job to nurture and preserve the dragons, to sustain and improve the Weyr and all its folk. A good, strong Weyrwoman was an essential part to the survival of the Weyr, just as the dragons were essential to the survival of Pern.

We begin our story during the first few years of the Seventh Pass of the Red Star, some fifteen hundred Turns after man first came to Pern....

Comments

[readsponies]

Umm... I'm pretty sure you're going way past Fair Use if you're quoting the entire prologue and calling it Prologue.

[Bronzedragon]

With my site name you can guess how long it took me to start reading this. After reading the prologue and then the comments I will not be finishing the story. I will track the story and wait to see if you correct the prologue and then decide about the rest of the story.

[Dawn-Designs-Art]

8387284
I have corrected the prologue though