Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Piurr Voyd

The inside of an egg can be seen as not too different from a prison, all things considered. Not by anyone or anything finding itself within one, but by external onlookers and observers. A creature being born does not have an innate concept of what a prison is, it likely lacks even the mental capability to conceptualise the idea and link it to its own situation.

But there is a moment where it understands the concept of imprisonment, at least implicitly. It understands that the place it occupies, that which sustained it and within which it has grown, is now an obstacle to overcome, something it wishes to leave. In the act of being born, of hatching, the egg becomes an entity separate from the creature it housed. It becomes its prison.

It is perfectly reasonable then for the creature to wish to leave its prison. For it to push and bite and claw its way out, as little of it as its newborn form is capable of. To break through the shell and pull itself out and become free to inhabit the world.

There is in that one difference, perhaps fundamental. Eggs, while naturally designed to have a modicum of resistance to outside forces for the sake of protecting their contents, are much easier to break through from the inside. They are specifically made to disperse and deflect blows with their shape, only moderate blows in most cases of course, but fundamentally built to break as well, so that they may fulfill their purpose and allow the creatures they house to be born. The same design that makes them resistant to outer blows makes them far more susceptible to inner ones. They are meant to be broken through from the inside, after all.

A prison is not meant to be broken from the inside. Quite the opposite, really, and one would be a rather poorly designed one if it was. Prisons are meant to keep things inside them there as long as is decided, and irregardless of the wishes of the creatures they house. Perhaps it is truly a fundamental difference then. Eggs are meant to protect their contents, but to break at the creature's wishes. Prisons are meant to not allow their contents outside, and ideally exist to protect the outside world from them.

Is an egg not a prison then? Probably not when looked at as a whole, over a large period of time, when considered in terms of its purpose. But, there is a moment where the two are alike. Between the creature choosing it wishes to leave the egg, consciously or not, and the creature breaking through it. A brief moment in which the egg is a prison. A prison soon to be revealed inefficient, but to the creature it is no longer a shield from the adversities of the world outside, it is a barrier preventing it from reaching them.

So it becomes natural for the creature to try to break free of it. So to properly fulfill its designed purpose, an egg needs to be a prison in its last moments, for its inhabitant to wish to leave and break free from it. Given a creature will only gain awareness properly when the egg has otherwise carried out its purpose, given it will only truly be alive as it becomes something separate from the shell around it and wishes to break free of it, the inside of an egg can be seen as not too different from a prison, all things considered.