Prologue: A Twilight Beginning

Author's Note:

The funny thing is is this chapter wasn't originally in the form of a Diary entry, but too much has changed from the canon timeline to not provide some exposition, and given Twilight is the main main character, at least for the first arc, it isn't surprising it took this form. Future chapters will be more normal and while things might be expanded upon from here, there would be absolutely 0 other points in this story where I can tell this info this concisely and succinctly.

June 22, 1000 Celestial Era.

It’s hard to believe dear diary that it is ten years to the day that I earned my Cutie Mark. 10 years to the happiest and saddest day of my life. 10 years to the day Celestia was forced to take me and my baby younger brother in.

…

Ok, I’m good now. It still hurts terribly thinking about the loss. My pet owl who found us in the dilapidated townhouse we now reside in helps me with the PTSD from the day Nightmare Moon returned and conquered Equestria. Some days I’d like to be mad at Celestia for missing a 1000 years ago, but then again she’s suffered her own losses.

You know what, it is time I got this whole thing organized and behind me. Who knows when the power could next go out, what with this constant twilight of the world. Appropriate name I suppose. In case anyone is reading or listening to this log after we’re all gone and you manage to figure out our language, I might as well list a log of our demise.

One thousand years ago according to Celestia a dark spiritual parasite convinced the sister she’d neglected to let it bond with her and grant her its power. In doing so it also gained control over her and used her body to attempt to take over the kingdom. Together they managed to overwhelm Celestia who in her desperation misused the Elements of Harmony, attempting to seal her sister in the moon. She missed the moon and instead sent her sister who knew how far away.

Concerned about her sister’s return, Celestia worked to promote science along with magic...which took a bit. No one is quite sure where she got the ideas for the internal combustion from or how she was so certain it would work. Still, even with her surprising knowledge of advanced technology it took several hundred years for us to go from a feudal agrarian society to one which could achieve spaceflight.

About 400 years ago is when we had our first mass-produced self-propelled carriage, car for short, and about a decade after that we had our first computer as we now know the term. Roughly 350 years ago is when we sent our first object into space and about a decade later we sent the first astronauts to the moon. I wonder why Celestia picked that terminology. Why not Equestronauts...err, pardon my rambling.

300 years ago is when we first landed on the 4^th planet from our sun although it took a hundred years for us to manage to terraform it to be habitable. Having conquered that planet we next turned our eyes to the 2^nd planet from our sun, the only other one theorized to be habitable in our system. That one took even longer to terraform, with the first permanent colonists landing there only half a century ago.

During that time we advanced all the way to the hoof-/hand-held computer I’m using to record this diary entry on right now. We also discovered the wonders of cold fusion and how to make non-magical holograms. All of these techs amongst others are lost or mostly lost, as was the Elements of Harmony.

Now that I’ve psyched myself up for it I should go over what happened ten years ago. At the tender age of eight on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration I was set to take the entry exams for Celestia’s School for Gifted Beings. Even I somehow managed to hear the rumor that Celestia’s prized pupil, a one Sunset Shimmer, had gone missing a few days ago after a very loud crash was heard coming from the castle. The same rumor also stated Celestia would be paying close attention to that year’s crop of incoming students for a new personal pupil.

So there I was, anxiously awaiting my turn to perform the exam alongside my parents and older brother. Finally my turn came and when I entered I was given what I thought was a ridiculously hard final task for one my age, hatch a dragon egg. Still, the task was set so I had to make an attempt. And attempt I did, again and again. I could see it in the examiners’ eyes that they were about to cut me off when I felt the most indescribably pleasurably painful sensation ever and suffered a magic surge like no one in living memory had ever seen. I managed to hatch the egg. I also managed to turn my parents into potted plants and unleashed a lot more chaos in the hall, or so I’m told. I don’t remember any of it beyond the pleasure, pain, and the tingling on my flank as I earned my cutie mark.

So, after all that and being told Celestia was gonna take me in as her personal student, my family went out for ice cream to celebrate. Remember how I said that was both the happiest and saddest day of my life? Yeah that’s when Nightmare Moon struck, her ships attacking Canterlot’s buildings while her mechanical troops landed to take out the guards and army. Turns out my magic surge plus something else helped her finally locate Equiss and more specifically Equestria.

During the skirmish the troops were capturing civilians left and right when they weren’t destroying public places of business. It is here I lost my parents as the Nightmare’s forces hit the building we were in. My parents threw us out through the windows before the roof caved in on them with predictable unfortunate results. My brother and I were then promptly captured.

Meanwhile, as Celestia has told me, Nightmare Moon arrived personally in the throne room to duel Celestia for her throne. Remember what happened a thousand years ago? Yeah that bit of history repeated except there were no Elements to blast away with this time. Nightmare then personally forced Celestia to relinquish control of the nation on live TV before breaking her horn and wings on live TV as a warning to others to not rebel.

Nightmare Moon then left and installed a planetary shield around Equiis leaving the world in the permanent state of twilight it now exists in. Rumor is since then the other two planets have had the same fate happen to them as well as our solar system as a whole. Now, where were we? Ah...yes.

Celestia upon hearing of our loss took us in along with our new baby brother, the dragon I hatched for my test. Since then Celestia has taught me what magic she can but her wings are crippled and her horn is very badly cracked. She can still fly and cast magic, but there’s no way she could stand up to Nightmare Moon so she just raised us.

As a final addendum a few years ago my brother left up north to find his own way. Maybe he’ll find a pink pretty princess to seduce? Nah. There’s no place for fairytales anymore in this grey world that can just grow crops.

Signing out on the 10 year anniversary of my best slash worst day,

Twilight Sparkle.

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