An old book containing the history of Equestria. Can it really be trusted?
A Compilation of stories that attempt to explain some of the oddities of Equestria. The story itself is a book, while each chapter is one explanation of the world's history. Several of the chapters within the book contradict each other, so how much if it is true is a mystery.
The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters and the Everfree Woods
It is a well known fact among scholars that The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is located within what is now known as the Everfree Forest, and while everypony who has seen the Everfree Forest knows that the Everfree Forest just doesn’t follow natural law, almost nopony really knows why the royal sisters would build a castle within it’s boundaries.
The truth lies in the past, at a time where the Elements of Harmony were not connected to anypony, Not even the Royal Sisters. This was the time where Discord had first come to Equestria, spreading chaos everywhere he could, causing natural law to run backwards, sideways, and, indeed, diagonally. Discord had corrupted all of Equestria with his power. Chaos had spread everywhere, and no place escaped him. No place, save the Everfree Forest.
The Everfree Forest, though at the time it was not called that,was a place where seasons changed on their own, where the animals fed themselves, and where the plants grew when nopony was looking, was not bound to natural law, and so there was nothing for Discord to draw power from for the Forest was already Chaos among Order, and one cannot make Chaos out of Chaos. The Forest, being the only safe haven from the tyranny of Discord, was soon inhabited by a group of ponies who did not wish to live by the whims of Discord. Among these ponies were the Royal Sisters, Celestia and Luna. They had built the castle as their home, somewhere they’d be safe from the monstrous creatures who inhabited the forest before them. They lived here for some time before they found the only thing capable of defeating Discord. The Elements of Harmony. Celestia, not wanting her younger sister to be in harm’s way, set off to defeat Discord on her own, leaving Luna behind in their castle, the only safe place she knew. However, when Celestia confronted Discord, she found she could not use the elements on her own. Panicked, she rushed back into the Forest, back to her castle. But Discord, not wanting her to get away, followed in pursuit. Celestia, thinking she had lost him among the trees, arrived just in time to hear her sister’s cries for help. Discord had known where she was going all along! Celestia rushed to her sister’s aid, running as fast as her hooves could carry her, hoping she could get to Discord and try using the Elements of Harmony again. Celestia was somewhat relieved as she saw her sister running towards her, but that relief was soon replaced with dread as Discord came around the corner after her. She wasn’t sure if the Elements would work. They did not work earlier. She backed away from Discord with her sister Luna. They thought they were doomed, as Discord began to sing about how enjoyable the chaos he would wreak would be. She tried again, but it didn’t work. She began to panic, she nearly released the six orbs from her magical grasp, but when she saw a second glow supporting them with her, she realized she wasn’t alone. She glanced at her sister, who, though younger than her, seemed to be more brave than her, determined to help her big sister. Celestia’s resolve was renewed, twice as strong as it was before and, with her sister’s help, she finally activated those six glowing orbs of power known as the Elements of Harmony. The sisters watched in awe as a beam of light more beautiful than anything they had seen before, shining with all different colors, shot out at Discord, catching him in mid-song. When the light had finally dissipated, they saw no threat. Just a stone statue of a draconequus in the middle of the hall.
With Discord gone, the chaos that had ravaged Equestria was undone, allowing all the ponies residing in the Forest to go back to the homes they once knew. The Princesses, deciding that they might need the Elements once more in the future, left them in the palace, in a shrine built just for holding them. Because the tools that brought them freedom from Discord, and had indeed protected them from his Tyranny, Celestia and Luna both agreed that the unnamed forest that they had resided in was to be named the Everfree Forest.
As surprising as it may seem to anypony living in a large city like Manehatten, there was a time when all tools were created using non-magical means. Not even the thought of enchanting ball with Unicorn Magic in order to make it shine at will ad occured to anypony. There were no arcades, no lamps, no bight and colorful signs on storefronts. Everything everypony used was non-magical; Nothing needed any magic to run. Everypony was getting along fine. Sure, life was a bit inconvenient for most ponies since only Unicorns had magic, but they managed to survive without it.
Then, there came two unicorn brothers, Glassmakers, who observed something amazing. The younger of the brothers, Shim, was moving around some glass beads at night when he noticed, If he used enough magic in holding them, they kept shining even after he set them down. He showed this to his older brother Sham, who thought if a glass bead could glow for a few minutes, a glass ball should be able to glow for a few days. And so, the brothers spent days making balls of glass about the size of your hoof and put them in baskets that they wove from grass. Every week or so, they would leave their town and travel around Equestria, enchanting the balls before they walked into a new town at night, sold their wares and left sometime the next day for, they knew, that the amount of magicthey put into the glass ball would only let it glow for a day, at most. Through this scam, they did something they never expected to do. They gave unicorns all ove Equestria the idea of making other things do magical things. The Shim Sham Brothers, through their scam, had singlehoofedly begun the Magical Revolution.
Everypony's been touched by music at some point in their life. Lullabies are sun to foals. Making up songs help any ponies remember things. And, Of course, there is the occasional pony, and sometime an entire town, who spontaneously bursts into song. However, How much thought have you put into the music you hear? Probably not too much, unless you're writing a song. The thing is, Music wasn't always around.
Scholars are unsure about the origins of music. However, they do agree that it began without words or instruments. One widespread theory is that somepony with a mind for patterns noticed the walking gait of somepony else. Music, therefore, began with dance. The sound of hooves stamping the ground provided the first precussion music. Tap dancing, in all it's forms, is one of the oldest forms of dance and, without any music to back it up, is still very musical on it's own, making it the most likely candidate.
The next form of music is unclear. Some claim that drum music came next, while others say that string instruments came first. No matter the case, the truth is that only String Instruments really took off over the next few centuries. These instruments, however, are not the instruments we are familiar with. Often times, the instruments that were made could be called any number of names by today's standards. At times, an instrument may be played like a fiddle, at others a banjo. The size was the only thing that changed the instrument's purpose. However, later on, we begun to see distinctions between string instruments. Harps, Lyres, Lutes, the old strings. The Classic strings are many years off. They were not made untill after the Piano.
The Piano, coincidentally, was created during the height of the string age. It was something new, something never tred before. It was exciting to the musical community. Many ponies thought it's distinctive sound was beautiful. So, the piano was the next instrument that the musical world revolved around. New instruments were made to compliment the piano. String instruments, new drums, and the beginning of Wind Instruments. This surge of complimentary mentality was what gave birth to The Orchestra.
After the Orchestra, the musical community all wanted to be the next big thing. There came a surge of new genres. Country, Classical, Blues, Soul. However, the largest genre of music did not come until the Magical Revolution. Once ponies thought of putting magic into instruments, we got several kinds of Rock music. Violin Rock, Country Rock, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Progressive Rock, Alternative Rock, Synth Rock, and so on. However, Rock wasn't the only thing exploding onto the scene. There's the genres like Disco, Dubtrot, Break Beat, Pop, Gabber, and those sort.
Now, I know you must be wondering about Lyrical Music. Now, Lyrical music is a sort of music that can't be pinned to any time period. Ponieshave been composing lyrics to music for a long time. However, lyrics to music surged when string instruments were made, died down when Orchestras first came out, but then surged once more with the invention of the Chorus. The popularity of vocal music had waned sicne then, coming down to the, still immensely popular, level it is at today. So, now that you know how music began, perhaps you will appreciate it more.