1 - The Past

Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 25 The Arcane Era

Lifegiver’s Clinic, Ponyville - Equestria

This was it. My one chance. If I failed, I would have to plan out a whole new thing for my life to be about.

I put more speed into my run, the saddlebags full of books weighed me down too much. I was used to running with weight on me, I never went outside without a mechanic’s coverall on, but twenty kilos of books wasn't exactly a weight I was used to running around with.

But I had to run. If I didn’t run, I wouldn’t get home with enough time to finish this paper before I went to bed.

My hooves clicked loudly against the cobbled streets as I ran through Ponyville’s town square. I had no idea why the streets were still cobbles. I mean, sure, most of the buildings were historical styles, but Ponyville had modern buildings too! Some stuff looked like it had been plucked right out of Manehattan or Trottingham, and they’d had to rebuild the whole stupid city before I was born, but kept the Classical Period streets and rebuilt landmarks exactly.

I guess I just don't understand old ponies love of old things. Maybe a grass roof and mud-straw walls looked better to them than brick, glass, and steel.

Not me. I hated that old-timey architecture. It made running a LOT harder. You can just go right through those roofs if you land on one weird.

I flinched as the clock tower chimed three o'clock. I was already almost late!

I twisted, letting my rear hooves skid as I pivoted around on my right foreleg and sprinted for an alleyway between a cafe and a hat shop. The moment I entered the alleyway, I jumped up, kicked off the wall to my left, and vaulted up onto the cafe's second floor fire escape.

A few quick lunging movements took me up the ladder in record time to the cafe's thankfully brick roof. I held a hoof up to shade my eyes from the sun’ glare and looked around to orient myself. It took me almost exactly a second to find the boxy, square, military shaped white building I called home.

Lifegiver Clinic is easy to spot. Even with the modern buildings. Nothing else looks like a fort with a ranch house built on the roof.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, squinted, dipped my head down to lower drag from my horn, and launched into a sprint. I crossed the cafe’s roof in a few heartbeats, easily clearing the gap between it and the next building using a frontflip to kill extra momentum so I wouldn’t overshoot the narrow building.

I landed, rolled to conserve speed, and took off again, hopping over a chimney via a saddle-vault to shave seconds off my time.

Freerunning didn’t just let me get home faster. It was also relaxing. I never felt tired from running. Not ever. It just didn’t happen. I could do this for as long as I wanted to.

Most ponies I knew assumed that I had a freerunning cutiemark under my coveralls. I never corrected them. Best they didn’t know that I was still a blank flank at twenty-five. I’d already been bullied enough. Hence my love of clothing.

Oh, what’s that Ash Meadow? You haven’t seen my flanks in fourteen years? No, I won't take these off. They are comfy and I like pockets. Why should I ever do you any favors?

That was worth the addition of three pounds while running. One hundred percent worth it.

Sometimes I wondered if mom knew I hadn’t gotten my cutiemark yet. She had to know, I’d have told her, but at the same time, I stayed dressed at home too. Maybe she just forgot? Nah, couldn’t have. She spent her whole fillyhood trying everything to get a cutiemark.

‘They come when they come, Orange Sherbert! You can’t force a mark to appear. I need to apologize to your great grandmare. I completely understand what she meant now.’

I smiled at the memory. Sure it was a decade ago, but it’s not like I could forget breaking into Uncle Sky’s lab and stealing a plasma cannon to see if my special talent was blowing up monsters.

I came to the last rooftop before the park, and skidded to a stop at the edge of the roof. But I only remained stopped for a moment, just long enough to get a firm grip on the edge of the roof, turn around, and lower myself down before making the two-story drop, then turning back around to sprint across the park.

I'd given up trying to find my talent now. If it wasn’t freerunning, I had no idea what it could be. It was possible I just didn’t have a talent. Sapphire Shores was a blank flank at age two forty-three. Sometimes a pony just doesn't get a mark.

That would really, really suck for me. But I was ready for it. I was scared out of my mind that I’d forever be an outcast, but I’d prepared for that. I’d battened the hatches, put my tray table up, seatback in the full upright and locked position, and braced for impact.

I jumped up on an empty picnic table just for fun. Moving to it had added a few milliseconds to my time, but the table had been there, demanding I jump up onto it, and then dismount it with an aileron roll before kicking off that oaktree to correct my course.

An easy enough maneuver. One I pulled off almost without thinking about it. Almost had it down to muscle memory. Sweet!

Downside, the tree and the table had hidden some bushes from my view, and I went crashing through them. They were prickly bushes too. Not good!

I turned my head to check and make sure the hair extensions on my tail hadn't gotten caught in the brush. Fortunately, they had not, and remained affixed to me. I got made fun of enough without ponies knowing I had a griffon-like tail. Well, lion's tail I guess since it's shorter and thinner than a griffons. But hey, who's ever seen one of those outside a zoo? Besides, I felt I looked prettier with full-length tail hair rather than just the tuft at the tip.

I’d have to get dad to fix that as soon as he felt I was old enough to safely work on. Or at least make my hair grow full length there. After all, earth ponies had a similar tail to me, just you know, with proper length hair instead. I liked having another prehensile limb.

No reason to give that up for the sake of being a standard unicorn. Plenty of mixed tribe ponies out there.

Oh hey! That would explain my inability to do much magic! Grandma AJ was an Earth pony. But then why did I have the griffon-like tail tuft?

Random mutation? Griffon somewhere in the family line? Possible considering I had parents with really messy genomes. Particularly dad-

I almost ran face first into the most adorable set of twins ever! I twisted and squirmed, managing to slide between them, barely avoiding the impending collision.

I hadn’t seen them until the last possible second thanks to some bushes behind the table from where I had been. The earth ponies were fraternal twins, the mare on the left, the stallion on the right. Both had very nice deep green coats, slender builds, lovely flowing toasted-peach manes, and a super sexy plotline.

Distracted by the twin hotties, I accidently bumped flanks with the mare while running past them. Actually accidently. I wasn’t smart enough to plan things like that on the fly.

“Hey!” The mare called angrily.

“Sorry!” I called, looking back over my shoulder.

Into identical sets of rich brown eyes.

Luna’s mane, those two were HOT!

Ack! No! Don’t get distracted by cute plots. You have a paper to do. An actually important paper. You want to go to Canterlot University, you need to get into the Neighponese Exchange program for the culture credits. And you can’t ‘cuz your GPA is too low.

The only way you’re going to get it raised up enough is by getting your history grade up. Cuz let’s face it, despite sucking at history, it's the one thing you can really improve in… If you nail this final that is.

I winced, then snorted to blow a lock of my blond mane out of my face. I was almost across the park! Nearly there. I’d be writing in just a few more minutes!

I bit my lip and blushed lightly. A few minutes… That’s not so bad. I could spare another minute to go back and try to get those twin’s Messenger Gem harmonic.

I sighed, shaking my head slowly.

No. No that wouldn’t work. No one would want to go out with me. I was just the weird unicorn in the back of the class who liked to freerun alone. Not popular, not a sports star, not even really all that social.

I could be pretty to a lot of ponies, depending on how you like pale orange with white socks. Not everypony likes multi-color coats, hence why you don’t see too many of us with more than one fur color. More pones boink single-color coats than multi-color coats. Recessive traits are recessive.

And dominant traits are dominant. I had inherited my dad’s heterochromia, only with the eye colors reversed. It looked like we’d swapped one of my blue eyes for one of his green eyes in some sort of weird father-daughter bonding thing.

Which since dad was a biomancer, he could actually have done that. Well, if he could do anything to his own eyes (or my eyes for that matter). So that is exactly what everypony my age thought happened.

It kinda creeps people out when your father has a reputation as ‘the mad germane mage who sells cloned bodies to science classes and does kinky cosmetic work for a living, and seems like he is the kind of dad to swap body parts with his filly like a friendship bracelet. That kind of makes you just a bit well, unapproachable.

I’d never been asked out. Just told I looked nice by my mom, and overheard a few mares being jelly over my mane’s natural ‘neatness’. But well… That’s not exactly enough pure sexiness to get a pony interested in doing the do, now is it?

Yeah, they wouldn’t want to spend a night together. Besides, they probably weren't into incest, which is what a threesome would be for them. So they wouldn’t be down for that.

Awww, sadface…

But I could still at least try. No, no just file them away in the clop drawer for later. You have stuff to do today, Sherbert.

I put some extra speed into my steps and turned a somersault to cross a stone path that cut through the park. Not for any speed reason, just to cheer me up. The maneuver worked wonders, and my heart was soaring again. Much like my body as I jumped a currently dry creekbed, clearing the eight meter gap with a bit of effort.

I reached the other end of the park fairly uneventfully, and dove through the hedge-fence, rolling to a stop at the base of the Clinic’s wall. The Clinic's rear was right against the park. I used to use the hedge as a ladder to get up to a high enough spot to wall run my way to the roof from, but that’s when I was a foal.

I was a mare now, and while I may suck with learning spells, I was damn good at using my magic to boost my physical powers. That came to me instinctively.

I closed my eyes for a moment, focusing my magic on increasing my grip strength, speed, and strength. I felt myself warm up as the ice blue glow washed over my body. I took a few breaths, opened my eyes, swished my tail once, and pounced, aiming for a spot halfway up the wall.

I didn’t quite make it, hitting the wall a few meters short of my goal. Gripping at the wall with all the enhanced strength I could muster I launched upwards again, fighting gravity to jump up the side of the clinic.

One leap. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

My forehooves gripped the top of the wall. I scrabbled my way up, pulling with my forelegs and pushing with my rear hooves until I got my chest above the wall and could lever myself atop it, just in time for my magic to sputter out.

It never let me boost my self for long. Too bad I didn’t have the brains for magic. I could probably improve that if I knew how.

I gave my legs a stretch to shake everything back into a nice and relaxed state, then went ahead and dusted off my denim coveralls with a few quick telekinetic shoves. The little pushes were much more tiring than they normally were. The books in my saddlebags really sapped up more energy than I would have liked.

Hopefully, I still had the calories and stamina to finish my report. I’d already done all of the reading, I just had to write it all down. And probably reference most of the books at least once to make sure I remembered things correctly.

Fortunately for me, Miss Cheerilee didn’t care much about dates and numbers. She just wanted the reports to show you completely comprehended the flow of history, it’s narrative, what events were important and why, and how the past impacted the present.

That’s about as hard as tungsten carbide to pull off, in my opinion. But I’d do it. I had to. If I couldn’t live in Neighpone for a few years, that was the end of my current plans for my life. I’d have to find another place to-

“Sherbert!” Mom called from the kitchen window. “Welcome home. Please don't come in through the kitchen window today, I just waxed the vinyl.”

I snickered, the thought of mom using that as an innuendo to mean she’d just boned a Knight of the Realm was funny. Mostly because the phrase ‘waxed the vinyl’ would make for a great slang for well, tons of stuff.

Mostly sexy stuff. The best kind of stu-

I cringed at my own train of thought as I realized something terrifying. That was my MOM! Ew!

Mom rolled her eyes at me, my face having betrayed everything I’d been thinking. “You should have grown out of your teenage sex drive years ago,” she grumbled, her left ear twitching irritably.

Heh. Sorry, mom. I can't help being who I am.

“Yep. Should have gotten my cutiemark too, but that didn’t happen either,” I quipped only half bitterly, as I jogged towards my open bedroom window.

“You’ll get it one day, sweetie,” Mom sighed, doing her best to not look too sad about me and not quite managing to hide her feelings. “And would it kill you to use the door for a change?”

I sighed. “Mom, I’ve got five hours to write a history report that I NEED to ace, three hours to fact check it, and then one hour to type up the final draft. Every minute counts. I CAN’T fail this one. If I do I won't have a high enough GPA to apply for the exchange program.”

Mom nodded and bit her lip apprehensively. “I-I’m not sure it’s okay to let you go away for that long… But, you are almost a proper adult. You should start learning independence now. I was going to say you couldn’t go but, well, you’re working very hard for it, and your father thinks that traveling the world will help you become a better pony, so… Do your best. If you need an interview to spice things up, I’ll be happy to do one for you, or find the appropriate pony if your report doesn't include anything I was a part of.”

I gave her a grateful smile. “Thanks, mom! And it’s general history. If I remember you offered that when I get to Dad establishing the clinic I’ll- Oh! Actually is Dad free today? Getting both of your accounts of the story would be GREAT for this!”

Mom shook her head rapidly. “Nooo! No, he is not. I tried to take him lunch but he asked me to leave extremely grumpily. A Crystal Empire couple asked to be made into a single pony… And put three hundred thousand bits down. In coin. He couldn’t say no so he may not be coming to bed tonight.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Like, they want to be two minds in one body, or they want to be conjoined twins?”

Mom shrugged. “No idea. Probably conjoined, one body two heads. That’s the more unusual thing after all. Good luck with your report, sweetie!” She said as she pulled her head back into the kitchen and shut the window.

I jogged to my bedroom window and pulled myself inside with one smooth rolling motion. Tumbling through my dark red curtains I landed on my bed, rolled forwards, accidentally fell on the floor, slid my saddlebags off, drop them beside my desk, and hopped into my office chair, before levitating my pen and a notebook out of a desk drawer, and opening it to write.

I’d planned out how to begin the report already. This part would be easy!

The Era of Harmony officially began thirty-seven years ago in the five thousand one hundred and eightieth year of Recorded History. The Era lasted for seventeen years, officially ending in the five thousand one hundred and ninety-seventh year of recorded history. However, it can be said that the Era truly lasted for twenty-seven years, due to the nature of the Era System.

The events which lead up to the official beginning of the Era of Harmony are of great historical importance, and doubtlessly would be counted as part of the Era if not for Princess Luna’s return making for such a poetic end to the Solar Era. Had Princess Twilight not spent the five years leading up to Luna’s Return personally sorting through the Canterlot Royal Library’s storerooms to create a special rare books section, she would never have discovered the truth behind the legend of the Mare in the Moon.

Had that pivotal moment never occurred, Princess Twilight would not have spent two years obsessing over the legend and begging Princess Celestia for the resources, time, and ponypower to get ready for the return of Nightmare Moon. Princess Celestia would not have sent Twilight to Ponyville, fearing that their close bond and Twilight’s obsession with stopping the inevitable tragedy would result in the young mare being grievously injured in the upcoming battle.

Had this occurred, Twilight Sparkle would not have been in Ponyville on the First of Solarus in the First Year of the Era of Harmony and would therefore have not been present to activate the Elements of Harmony, even if by some quirk of fate the other five Elements had found their way to the Castle of the Two Sisters. As such, it is extremely arguable that the Era system should be modified to allow Eras to overlap so as to preserve a more accurate view of history. Namely that of an ever-shifting gradient of cause and effect, rather than as a string of isolated points.

The true beginning of the Era aside, the Era of Harmony officially began when Twilight Sparkle, along with the other Element Bearers restored the Elements of Harmony to working order and used them to defeat Nightmare Moon, freeing Princess Luna from the Nightmare's possession in the process.

I stopped writing, unable to properly focus as my mind began to wander. I couldn’t help it! This part of history was so boring!

Yeah, sure my grandmothers had been there and I knew that Dash had to have been awesome as ever but like, they just zapped Nightmare Moon with a rainbow laser. That’s it. She monologed, presumably summoned a fake mustache to twirl, and then got zapped.

One and done, son!

So boring! Defeating an evil demigoddess should be something bigger than taking a walk through a slightly creepy forest, surviving an encounter with a manticore, hopping over a gorge with water at the bottom, and then using a rainbow laser of doom.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair, closing my eyes for a moment to refocus on my work.

That didn’t happen. Instead, I had a vivid daydream play out.

Twilight faced off against Nightmare Moon in a crumbling keep, her friends surrounded the two of them, keeping shadowy creatures the Nightmare had conjured forth from the Realm of Dreams at bay with whatever came to hoof. Rocks, a curtain rod, a pocket knife, a sock full of small rocks.

Twilight had come prepared. She had on a black business suit, one more appropriate for a member of the Special Services, or the Mares in Black, than simple office work. A pair of mismatched large caliber Griffonese made revolvers floated, suspended in the lavender flames of her arcane aura, aimed at Nightmare Moon’s smug face.

Her smug face in the process of regenerating after the good part of a kilo of lead and copper had punched holes clean through it!

‘Those are some interesting toys you have,’ the Nightmare mocked. ‘Ultimately useless, but interesting.’

Yeah! That would be AWESOME! And then after a prolonged battle, right before they are all crushed under the hooves of the demonic ruler of the night, that’s when Twilight finally understands friendship and unlocked the Elements power, allowing everypony to save the day and-

Dammit, brain! You’re supposed to write a history report. Not a fanfic! Wait, is it still fanfiction if you’re writing something based on history? It seems like there would be a different word for-

“Arrrgh! No! Focus, damn it!” I growled at myself, forcing my eyes to look back at my notebook and picking my pen back up once more.

The restoration of the Elements of Harmony shook up global politics around the world. Equestria’s Age of Expansion had been fueled by the use of the Elements as a superweapon of sorts. Had Nightmare Moon not disabled their use by Princess Celestia, the Kingdom would likely have continued to grow during the Solar Era as it had before.

Many foreign governments sought to strengthen diplomatic relationships with the largely isolationist nation. Others sought to strengthen their militaries and prepare for new wars of conquest now that Equestria’s Princess-General was back, and Equestria’s greatest weapon was active once more.

However, Princess Celestia chose to continue the firm non-aggression policies of the Solar Era. Of course, the international situation remained tense for many years. While most scholars say nothing came of the tension, many scholars disagree and insist that the heightened global tensions directly led to the second major event of the Solar Era, Queen Chrysalis's attack on Canterlot.

The history of the Changeling Hives is long, complex, and serves little importance here. Suffice to say that with foreign governments going on the alert, and the militarizing of Chrysalis and her Sapphire Changelings (aka The Swarm), that they were forced to move into the one non-panicking nation available, Equestria.

The Swarm moved into Equestria between three and four months after Luna’s return. Investigations couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact time, nor could either of the sane surviving Sapphires shed any light on the mystery. However, it is known that the Swarm infiltrated Equestria and remained within it for a solid year before striking, launching an invasion of Canterlot during the wedding of Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence.

The invasion itself was the first attack on Equestrian soil by a foreign force in seven hundred years, but was especially minor in terms of a military engagement. It’s most lasting impact on Equestria was instigating an event most commonly referred to as ‘The Unmasking’, wherein the Existence of Changelings was revealed to the Equestrian public.

Prior to the Unmasking, Equestrians believed Changelings to be completely mythical. This illusion was perpetrated on the Equestrian people by Princess Celestia herself, via the Special Services on behalf of the Ruby Changeling Hive. The Rubies are unusual changelings who have inherited their Queens extreme psychological issues related to being identified as a Changeling.

Rubies live their entire lives shape changed into a pony form of their own design, and can be driven to suicide if exposed as a non-pony. As such, for the whole of the Solar Era, Celestia had ensured no one thought changelings were real so no one would go looking for them, and harm Equestria's hidden insectoid citizens.

However, the bug hunts which followed the Canterlot Invasion couldn’t be stopped, and so five years of public relations work began to repair the damages the ancient lie had caused. Interestingly, the panic over changelings during this point in history seems to have completely eclipsed the return of Discord and his brief New Chaos. People remember the events, but don’t talk about them, as if they were of any real importance. Perhaps this is due to those two days of chaos being nothing compared to years of panic wondering who is really a predatory insect disguised as a friend.

Today, the damage has been completely undone, and many non-Ruby changelings can be found in most Equestrian communities shape changed or not. The Unmasking lead to greater harmony within Equestria, though it did take time. Time and a different enemy to worry about.

The Canterlot Invasion also lead to the formation of the legendary Knights of the Rampant Moon. The Knights were recruited by Princess Luna after she witnessed the astonishing level of teamwork displayed by Vinyl Scratch, Octavia Melody-Scratch, Lyra Heartstrings, Sweetie “Bonbon” Drops, and Mi’par Ka’ra while they fought off Sapphire Changelings during the invasion.

Rumor has it that Princess Luna only initially knighted them in order to give them palace access so she would have somepony to play tabletop roleplaying games with. While this rumor has a fair amount of evidence to it, this was likely a cover story which failed to become ‘fact’. After all, when the knighted individuals turn out to be vampires, a changeling, and a half-windigo with significant adventuring experience, there simply isn’t much of a possibility of mere coincidence.

I shook my head slowly as I thought about Lady Colegate.

“Half Windigo… That doesn't even make sense,” I mumbled.

How the hay can something be half meat-based lifeform and half coalesced magic housing a consciousness of a pony who had been eaten alive by another pony? That’s completely impossible if you ask me.

Now THAT had to be a cover up. She was definitely a windigo, just friendly. Unlike all the others. So they said she was a half blood to avoid causing panic.

“Oh! Okay, yeah, that would make sense,” I said to myself as I remembered that Old Ponyville once panicked over a zebra trying to buy oranges.

I wonder how many other ponies had figured that out and were just being polite? Probably everypony. I mean, she’s a freaking Knight of the Rampant Moon. You don’t be rude to awesome people who put their plots on the line for you on the regular.

The Vampiric nature of Luna’s Knights is common knowledge now, but at the time was completely unknown. Princess Celestia has something of an affinity for keeping secrets, and this included the true nature of the village of Hollow Shades and its associated Fiefdom. Namely, the village’s existence as a refuge and rehabilitation center for monsters capable of sapient thought.

Shortly before the Ascension of Princess Twilight a reporter for Manehatten’s Daily Trotter infiltrated the village following a lead on a missing monster hunter and blew the lid off that conspiracy as hard as equinly possible. The story spread like wildfire, within a week everypony knew that vampires were real and were out there, lurking in the shadows. And the sun, since vampires are only depowered by it, not killed or injured.

Ironically this took the spotlight off Changelings and allowed them to more easily integrate. After all, you can zap a suspicious pony with a spell to detect a changeling, but there’s nothing in a mage’s arsenal to reveal a vampire.

Princess Celestia’s attempts to repair the wound were interrupted by the return of the Dark Lord Sombra and the Crystal Empire. Twilight and the Elements of Harmony were dispatched to resolve the situation, and as one would expect from a bunch of untrained civilians, they did not succeed. The day would have been lost if not for the work of Twilight’s adopted Drake son, Prince Shining Armor's throwing leg, a nearly comatose Princess Cadence, and more luck than most ponies will ever experience in their entire lifetimes.

However, the victory did make the Elements look good in the public eye and lead to the common pony starting to call this a new age, the Age of Harmony. After all, the Elements were back and could clearly solve all major problems.

How this impression emerged is likely due to Princess Celestia’s far greater public relations skills than Princess Luna. During the same rough period of time, the Knights of the Rampant Moon cut their teeth on several dangerous missions. These included slaying a hostile dragon, repelling an attack by an extremely directionally challenged Neighponese Kaiju which had confused Los Pegasus for Trotkyo, and busting a foal trafficking ring wide open. All without an ‘instantly win this conflict’ device.

I frowned and crossed out the last sentence I’d written. That was… A bit unfair. Even if it was true.

I could hold my own opinions, but I shouldn’t express them here. Not while trying to get an A on this report. I’d just get yelled at for not respecting heroes, and how it was so bad that I didn’t, even though I was related to three of them.

Yeah. I was. And I respected AJ for being a great farmer and getting over what everypony told me had been legendary amounts of stubborn pride and modernizing her farm a little. I respected Dash for being a hero in her own right, saving ponies from everything like somepony out of a Dark Colt comic book character.

But I didn’t respect them as Elements. Not for things they did in their early days.

Why would I? All they were in that respect were keys to turn on the firing mechanism of an ancient superweapon. They didn’t do any of that stuff. The Elements of Harmony did.

Sort of makes it hard to respect somepony for something you don't see them as having done.

That said, after the Elements of Harmony broke, the Elements kept adventuring. Kept being heroes. And started to you know, actually do things themselves!

I respected them for their later achievements, and the times when they weren't using the Instawin Nine Thousand to solve all their problems for them. But before that, in my opinion, all they ever did was the equivalent of turning on a robot.

And not even a piloted robot. A simple machine that did the work before it with no user input. Something that takes no skill to use and couldn’t be stopped. Like cheating in a video game.

But that’s not the kind of thing you write in a school report if you want a good grade. Miss Cheerly would probably slap you into next week for speaking ill of Twilight. There had to be a story there, cuz it couldn’t be unrequited love. Miss Cheerly is straight after all.

I frowned and chewed on the back of my pen slightly as I tried to picture myself only liking one sex. I honestly couldn’t do it.

“Weird…” I mumbled disappointedly.

Normally my imagination can do anything I want it to… Maybe it was too used to doing the opposite of what I’d tried to do. Generally by making fantasies of incestuous fraternal yet otherwise identical twins who both liked me. That way I’d have the ‘same pony’ but with both sets of-

“UGH! No! Focus on the stupid report!” I snapped at myself to keep from going down the bunny trail of no return.

Yet while the Elements were being hailed as heroes, the Knights merely swayed public opinion on vampires, werewolves, and other sapient monsters. Creating the general opinion that such creatures were people IF they had been to Hollow Shades.

This would set the norm for the next ten years. Changelings were tolerated, and supernatural creatures were accepted if they could prove they were residents of, or had been to Hollow Shades for treatment. Despite the disharmony caused by the lack of trust and love between neighbors, the nation remained largely at peace for a good while.

The next major event in the Era of Harmony was the Ascension of Twilight Sparkle.

While Equestria had experienced its first new alicorn Princess nearly five hundred years prior with Princess Cadence, Princess Cadence, being Princess Celestia’s bodyguard had never been in the public consciousness. Princess Twilight on the other hoof was a very well known public figure due to being one of the Elements of Harmony, and of course Princess Celestia’s personal protege. As a result, many ponies mistakenly believed her to be the first new Alicorn since Celestia and Luna first arrived in ancient Equestria.

The ponies of the time experienced something of a religious fervor at seeing a normal pony become an Alicorn. Suddenly it seemed like hard work and dedication could grant you immortality and awesome power over a part of the natural world. While this is naturally completely untrue, over the following years many industries saw major booms as individuals did their best to become Alicorn Princes or Princesses themselves.

Several small cults even emerged around the idea. Known as Ascension Cults, these religious groups were looked upon oddly by most of Equestria, due to the nation’s predominantly secular equinist population, but left unmolested since, after all, the Cults only desired self-improvement.

One of these Cults even survives to this day. The Church of Perpetual Friendship remains a small but active presence in many Equestrian cities, though their numbers are starting to dwindle as nopony has achieved Alicornhood on the same timetable as Twilight Sparkle.

I shook my head slowly. How the hay could ponies STILL be mostly non-religious? The former goddess of death lived down the street from me. We all know who Dusk was. My mom was an actual demigoddess with command over the weather, and while nopony knew it was her under the costume, they knew that Calm Skies was a minor deity.

Not to mention the time Tartarus actually attacked Equestria. And that the actual motherbucking Faust had shown up to help at the end of that.

Then again, it’s not like they asked mortals to do anything. They just sort of… Existed. So, I guess religion isn’t maybe anything that’s required of us. Still, I felt like I should send Faust a cup of tea or something. Maybe a ‘thanks for creating us’ card.

You know what? Once I was a full legal adult in five years, I was going to buy Dusk a bottle of Butterscotch Mead. She deserved that.

2 - Princess Twilight

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Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 25 The Arcane Era

Lifegiver’s Clinic, Ponyville - Equestria

Not everyone appreciated Twilight’s ascension. As with the restoration with the Elements of Harmony, many foreign countries feared that this change to the international status quo was more preparation for war. After all, if the Princess of the Sun controlled the motions of the sun, and the Princess of the Night controlled the appearance of the heavens and could see the dreams of all living things, did that not mean the Princess of Friendship could manipulate the bonds of friendship to change the world however she pleased?

Operating on this logic, the Venisneighlian Parliament instigated a false flag operation, freeing Lord Tirek from his prison in Tartarus and planting evidence which implicated Hound as the nation responsible. However, the plan backfired horribly.

Princess Twilight and the Elements were able to defeat Lord Tirek by unlocking the full potential of the Elements of Harmony. In short, the Venisneighlian plot made Equestria stronger rather than weaker. Furthermore, the Knights of the Rampant Moon were dispatched to investigate Lord Tirek’s prison break and found pieces of a Hound Special Forces uniform near the broken ward-runes.

The investigation into Hounds involvement angered the small nation immensely, as they saw the entire investigation as an attempt to gain a hoofhold in the region to launch an invasion of their homeland. While Sir Heartstrings eventually discovered the uniform’s patch was a forgery and linked the forged patch to a factory in Venisneighlia, the damage had already been done, and Hound openly declared a State of Hostility against Equestria. One which lasts to this day, and makes the possibility of war with the small nation quite likely.

Venisneighlia, meanwhile, remains under heavy trade sanctions. A state of affairs which has greatly crippled the nation’s plastics manufacturing industries which depended on Equestrian minerals to operate. Naturally, Princess Celestia's actions here have greatly lowered the quality of Equestrian-Venisneighlian relations as well.

Despite making enemies abroad, Equestrians could not possibly have been happier with the current state of affairs. The Elements had not only stopped the soul-devouring demonic centaur, but had restored everypony’s magic in the process. To many, this meant Equestria was not just safe, it was invulnerable. Nothing could ever possibly threaten Equestria so long as the Elements stood strong in its defense.

This state of delusion lasted for eleven years. During these peaceful years, the Elements of Harmony went on many adventures, most of them light-hearted ones designed to keep them in the public eye. Such as retrieving long lost artifacts, participating in diplomatic talks as Celestia did her best to improve foreign relations, with a few important events along the way.

The most notable adventures include: Slaying a rogue dragon who was so fixed in his belief that by destroying Equestria the world would be brought into balance that the Elements could not stop him or change his mind. Befriending a rouge Pegasi with unnaturally sharp weather control powers who had plans to flood Manehattan. Saving the Empress of Neighpone from a sinking ship which had been attacked by the Dread Pirate Sudikahmen.

It is important to note that while the Elements were working mostly at home, the Knights of the Rampant Moon were doing more than their fair share of work as well. The Knights predominantly were dispatched to deal with foreign threats. Rogue spies, shadowy deals, and other conspiracies intended to bloody Equestria's nose were dealt with swiftly and at the source. The Knights are equally responsible for the eleven years of peace as the Elements, and indeed the Equestrian Guard as well, though both of those forces contributions to the peace tend to be ignored.

I winced as I realized what I wrote and what it sounded like. I turned my chair to the left, sheepishly looking at my poster of Sir Heartstrings in her signature human costume.

That thing had to be expensive. It definitely used magic to either let her squeeze into it or to make the inside larger than the outside, and to compensate for the different ways a pony body bent vs a human body. All that on top of looking almost totally lifelike. Pretty sure my Aunt and Uncle made it for her. I couldn’t see anypony else pulling that off.

“I um, I hope that doesn't sound like I’m sucking your dick too much there…” I said to the poster before turning back to my work.

Did she have one? Maybe. Possibly. She had been to dad’s clinic before. Futanization was super popular with mares living in the Crystal Empire. Like one in three popular. Sure, Lyra didn’t live there but she definitely would fit right in if she moved to it.

Of course, plenty of ponies come here for non-sexual things too. Maybe she just wanted more perky ears.

She’d also been single for decades now… Poor mare. She’d had true love once, apparently. Everypony old enough to remember the Era of Harmony said that.

And yet, almost everypony on the street would go “Oh, Lyra Heartstrings? That’s Princess Luna’s weird bodyguard who dresses up like a human, right? Doesn't she teach an archeology class at Canterlot University?”

None of them knew that she was bucking awesome! Who else could take their fetish and turn it into a signature look, and still be taken seriously?

But even if you ignored that, she was STILL bucking awesome! She once held off an entire Griffon platoon by herself to recover her friend’s retreat, lasting for three days before being captured and then escaping in under twelve hours by biting her own legs off, sticking them back on, and letting her vampiric regeneration reattach them.

Made it back home, and said escaping was no big deal. Nopony learned what happened until I’d overheard her mumbling to herself about there being some pain still while I was walking past her in the park.

Sexy. Tough. Brave as anyone could ever be, and skilled enough to guard a Princess while Tartarus itself was attacking.

You go, mare! I am SO getting into your Archeology class! That’s step one of my plan to maybe get to hang out with you some day.

I put my pen to paper again, to resume my writing, when something suddenly occurred to me. Maybe the costume thing wasn’t a fetish of Lyra's.

After all, I knew her twin sister was somehow a biological human, despite using a magical disguise when in public. Public baths are awesome! Maybe Lyra dressed up to be closer to her sister?

Maybe. Yeah, actually that seemed probable, really.

I frowned, looking down at my report. “Um, well… Maybe I’ll know one day. If I can ace this report,” I said with a weary sigh, my ears drooping.

If I didn’t pass this report, I wouldn’t get into the exchange program. If I didn’t get into the exchange program, Canterlot University wouldn’t accept me as a student due to lacking cultural studies. It had to be the exchange program. It’s credits counted as double. I didn’t have time to just take Prench Culture and Germane History classes on top of every other credit I’d need to get into CU. At which point I could take Lyra’s classes.

UGH! Why was it so hard for me to focus on history? I’d learned Neighponese just fine…

Back. To. Work!

Two major events occurred during the Peaceful Eleven which no examination of the Era would be complete without. Princess Cadence opened the doors of the Crystal Empire as Equestria’s first Red Light City, and the Emerald Hive opened itself to outside contact for the first time since its creation.

We will discuss these events in the order given above.

Many know of Princess Cadence as the ‘Princess of Love’, and assume she is able to act as a sort of ‘cupid’ and create love where there is none. This is not true. Princess Cadence’s power is limited to strengthening or diminishing the existing passions within a person’s soul. Unfortunately, her nature prevents her from seeing diminishing passions as anything but completely and objectively evil, save for in the cases of those who love to harm others.

The misfortune comes from her uncontrollable power to instantly know the greatest passions of everypony she ever sees, and remember those passions forever because she will typically copy them to herself for a short time.

Since most ponies have a personal fetish they greatly adore, Princess Cadence was constantly aware of every sexual thought of every pony she ever saw for the entire five hundred years she has lived as an Alicorn. Naturally, this warped her personality somewhat, turning the once stoic and brave warrior into a loving, bubbly, kinky-as-all-Tartarus, warrior princess.

Princess Cadence had come to style herself as a champion of those who were looked down upon for enjoying their passions, sexual or otherwise, though typically sexual. As such, when given the Crystal Empire as a reward for her half millennium of faithful service, Princess Cadance turned the city into a refuge for people who wished to live a more sexual lifestyle than normal Equestrian laws permit.

One hardly has to think to understand the controversy involved in her project, but despite objections, many legal battles, and undergoing a massive PR campaign to demonstrate that foals and ponies under twenty-five would not even be allowed to visit the ‘Guest Quarter’ district of the city, the Crystal Empire became the place it is today.

Astonishingly, that happens to be a place of perfectly happy, content, extraordinarily caring ponies who just to happen to almost exclusively be made up of nymphomaniacs and sex enthusiasts.

I made a quick footnote to show evidence for that last statement. Yeah, sure, the source was me but I was an expert on the mentality of the average Crystal Citizen. I lived with my dad. Doctor Azur Lily, Biomancer.

Sure, dad had trained a few more biomancers over the last thirty years, but he was still the pony who had performed species changes, fixed Celestia’s horn, and healed hundreds of soldiers after a major battle. Everypony who could afford his cosmetic modifications came here.

I’d personally seen, talked with, and honestly enjoyed the company of at least three thousand ponies from the Crystal Empire in my life. Great people, really mad that mom refused to sign the permission slip I’d need to visit the city despite being the age of consent for five months now. I’d like to visit it before leaving Equestria, seemed like a great place to spend a spring break!

Where else could I get up to typical twenty-five-year-old fooling around in a totally safe environment? I could get drunk and wind up hooking up with a stallion into sexy torture and he wouldn’t do a damn thing to me because I was drunk. And if he did, an angry alicorn would beat him bloody.

Seriously, mom. I’m almost legally able to live on my own! I’m legally old enough to bone. I’m not a little filly, I know what things are now and want to do them. I think I can handle spending a week in a city full of loving, kinky ponies, whose only taboo is non-consensual fun.

Sheesh! Repressive much? Also hypocrite much? I've seen your bedroom, mom...

At least dad said he’d do free work on me if I ever wanted anything after my thirtieth birthday. That’s something. I guess. Would be really weird to tell him anything I might want though. Cuz, you know. Dad.

I’m also definitely still worked up over those twins in the park. Maybe I should-

No. Finish report first.

The next of the two major events during the Peaceful Eleven was when the Emerald Hive opened their borders for the first time since their inception. The hive had remained hidden in the Equestrian Badlands for hundreds of years, and despite not existing before Equestria conquered the Badlands, Princess Celestia honored the changeling hive’s wishes to remain isolated and gave them a two hundred kilometer radius around their hive as sovereign territory known internationally as The City-State of Phoenix.

Some sources report that this territory wasn’t given, but couldn’t be taken from the changelings in the first place. However, there is not enough evidence to prove or dismiss this alternative. Yet it does bear mentioning, as the Emerald Hive has never once been successfully attacked in its history, despite over two dozen attempts. The most recent three being the only times its walls were ever breached, though its record of having never once been occupied by enemy forces remains intact.

A short time after Twilight’s ascension and the defeat of Lord Tirek, the major global manufacturer SkyTech revealed that it was headquartered in Phoenix. This involved a public announcement and an open interview where the President and CEO answered questions regarding this, which eventually involved the Hive revealing itself as a changeling city due to the need for more food for its citizens after a social schism drove half the ponies who had been living there away from the hive.

As such SkyTech was going to be running a new trade agreement with any country which wished to participate. The Emerald Hive would turn it’s own independent manufacturing capabilities to producing raw materials as well as manufactured goods and medical supplies in exchange for foreign citizens moving in to live and work within the hive.

Due to Equestria’s uneasy relationship with changelings at the time, Princess Celestia accepted the offer and made a big public show out of the first hundred hoof-picked volunteers for the program. The exchange did wonders for improving the Equestrian relationship with changelings, as the publicly aired interviews and day-in-a-life recordings the program produced showed the Emerald Changelings simply being people.

The program worked, and Equestria became a changeling friendly nation within the span of ten years after the program began. Unfortunately for the Emeralds, the program did reveal one of their hive’s secrets. Their underground city was, in fact, the wreck of an ancient starship built by a long-dead species, which they had spent generations reverse engineering and restoring. While this did little to diminish the appreciation of their services as manufacturers, it did somewhat diminish their mystique. Which had been of great importance to the hive’s culture.

The biggest hurdle to the full acceptance of Changelings into Equestrian society was with the nobility. They viewed changelings with the same kind of disgust as they did the Crystal Empire. Only changing their opinions after a large amount of work by several different changeling hives to educate ponies on changeling culture and behavior at last taught everypony that for changelings, sexual intercourse really is just lunch.

Amusingly enough, the way ponies will publicly behave with their romantic partners, the hoof holding, hugging, loving nicknames, and date nights, are what changelings find to be taboo, and reserved for private places. Our romance is their sex, and our sex is their cooking a meal. Quite a few amusing cultural conflicts have arisen from this and doubtlessly will continue to arise in the future.

The most practical part of Equestria participating in the exchange came in the form of manufacturing. Equestria is and always has been, amongst the forerunners in the mass production of goods, but the Emerald Hive was a cut above. They could make things faster, cheaper, and at a higher quality than almost everyone else. However, they generally did not work in the traditional styles Equestrians of the time preferred.

The Emeralds provided prefabricated houses, furniture, infrastructure, entertainment systems and media, construction equipment, and other major goods, but these goods clashed with the more Classical Era inspired designs for Equestrian technology. Over the years, this slowly began to loosen the traditional designs grip on Equestrian culture as younger ponies found themselves linking the more industrial sleek look of Emerald made items.

This created a divide between the youth of the nation and the older generations. Many young ponies wished to integrate more technology into society, while older ponies saw little point when magical equivalents to most everything already existed. The divide exists to this day and remains a source of inter-generational conflict. Despite the science proving that mundane technology and arcane technology only benefit from being combined into a greater whole.

Today we find ourselves at a turning point where roughly half of the buildings and household items integrate non-arcane technology to some extent. Whether the old world survives in some form or the new style takes over completely remains to be seen.

Of course, the Peaceful Eleven couldn’t last forever. They ended shortly after Celestia seemed confident she had fixed Equestria’s foreign relations and started to make cuts to the Equestrian Guard as a show of her good intentions. Things seemed as if they could only improve from there.

But everything changed when the Swarm attacked.

I snickered at my little reference joke. Miss Cheerly hated cartoons. She’d never get it, ever. But on the off chance anypony else read it someone would get a laugh out of it.

At least if they’d watched the Mage Gem recording version of Avatar, or if they owned a TV and watched the STE channels. I got to see the real version too, not the reanimated version SkyTech Entertainment produced. The one where everyone’s replaced by a pony. Perks of having an awesome Uncle.

It’s pretty cool to think that a beyond ancient show beloved by an extinct species enough to have preserved it past their own extinction was equally beloved by us. Then again, good comedy is good comedy. It doesn't really depend on species, and when dealing with a fictional world, a simple change to species usually won’t ruin the way the in-universe culture works. You can still get it.

I reached into the left barrel pocket of my coveralls and fished out my pink mage gem. I had the show stored on it. I could watch an episode now.

“I am EXTREMELY bad at focusing on this junk!” I shouted, tossing the gem onto my desk in anger.

“Take a deep breath dear,” Mom called from across the house.

I blushed, embarrassed that she’d heard my outburst from what sounded like the reading room.

“Sorry, mom,” I apologized loud enough for her to hear me.

3 - The Swarm

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Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 25 The Arcane Era

Lifegiver’s Clinic, Ponyville - Equestria

In the fifteenth year of the Era of Harmony, Queen Chrysalis brokered a deal with a griffon warlord to help her raid and conscript the Diamond Hive. The Diamonds lived in a very remote and poor part of the world, but possessed exceptionally potent arcane defenses. If there is one thing griffons excel at, it’s defeating magic.

This exceptional ‘power’ is due to their species completely lacking any form of magic at all. No other creatures have as much experience making do without and working around arcane defenses. Queen Chrysalis calculated she would lose far more changelings than she would gain if she raided the hive on her own, and in a rare move for her, struck the aforementioned deal with the warlord, whom she presumably chose at random.

In exchange for their assistance, the Griffons would be allowed to keep the hive’s physical location, structures, and supplies for themselves. The Swarm was only after more bodies to merge with its mass and cared not for the mines or city the Diamonds possessed.

The raid was something of a problem for the Griffons. Changelings are a protected species under the Sovereigns Guild’s Rules of International Conduct due to being a stateless people found all across the world (Typically in locations which were once great cities within their long since fallen empire.). The Confederation of Griffon Kingdoms is a member of the Sovereigns Guild and as such, if any of the Diamonds survived, the changelings could call upon the other member states to punish the Griffons for them.

However, the warlord must have believed total annihilation was possible, for he went ahead with the plan, and attacked the Diamond Hive, successfully slaughtering the entire population save for one Scout named Jade, who was sent away from the hive as the attack begun to unknowingly carry one of the Hive’s greatest treasures to safety.

Said treasure was the spellbook of Clover the Clever, a tome which requires no explanation of its vast power and historical importance. Unfortunately for this scout, it turned out that the primary reason Chrysalis had chosen the Diamond Hive for her raid was to acquire that very book for herself and an international chase began.

“Oh, crap…” I muttered to myself, ears flicking back in annoyance.

I couldn’t remember dad’s name. Not his full name at least. Not from that point in time.

If I was going to do this report right, I should use the name he had when he met them… But what the crap was it!?

I sighed in frustration, closed my eyes and called. “Mom? What was dad’s name before he moved to Ponyville?” I asked.

“Same as now. Azur Lily,” she called back.

“No, his full name,” I corrected. “It’s for my report.”

“Oh, for buck’s sake! Give me a minute,” Mom moaned irritably.

She also hated dad's full name.

I nodded and tapped my pen against the page for a few moments, waiting for her answer.

“It was; Master Wizard Herr Doctor Azur Lily von Maresburg the Third, Md, Esquire,” mom finally answered.

I quickly wrote the name down before I could forget it, rolling my eyes in annoyance. “Can we sue Germany for giving its citizens stupidly long names and insisting on using every title a pony earns as part of their legal name?” I asked hopefully.

“Just be glad your father didn’t name you,” Mom called with a laugh.

I rolled my eyes harder. “Uncle Sky named me after ice cream that’s orange and white swirled together,” I pointed out. “I’m basically named with a sex pun!”

Mom was pure orange. Dad was pure white. You do the math.

“Uh, be glad your Aunt didn’t name you,” Mom countered quickly.

I frowned. “What did Aunt Ay want to call me?” I asked with a worried twitch of my tail.

“Creamsicle,” mom answered with a snicker.

“Um, I don’t get it?” I started, racking my mind to see how being named after a popsicle would be worse than- “OH, LUNA! THE WHITE GOES INSIDE THE ORANGE!”

I turned back to my paper to focus on anything else, tuning out the sound of my mom’s laughter.

Still, at least Creamsicle was better than Grandma Dash’s idea for a name for me. Filly McAwesome. Or her backup pick Babbers Screamsalot.

I shuddered and returned to work. Thank goodness Grandma AJ banned Dash from naming their eventual foals...

Fortunately for Jade, she met up with a treated werewolf by the name of David who had formerly served as a medic and a soldier. The two traveled together for quite some ways before encountering the now legendary biomancer Master Wizard Herr Doctor Azur Lily von Maresburg the Third, Md, Esquire, who joined them in their travels to help see them safely out of the country, but wound up befriending the pair and completing the journey with them.

The three made their way to Zebrica, where they were able to catch a train to the Equestrian Badlands. While the method of discovery remains classified, the Princesses discovered the three’s quest to take the book to safety in Equestria, and deployed the recently downsized Equestrian Guard to intercept and safeguard them, as well as Clover’s Spellbook.

Such force was required as Chrysalis, enraged at her failure to capture a mere three ponies, had mobilized the entire Swarm. Which at the time, was millions strong due to her global conscription of changelings over the course of a decade.

The three were attacked by the Swarm in a move which destroyed the train they were riding, but by classified means, were able to teleport to a distant location where they were found by members of the Emerald Hive who were able to heal their wounds with the advanced medical technology at their disposal. This drug the Emeralds into the well of Chrysalis’s wrath, along with the three travelers and Equestria.

As ill luck would have it, Queen Chrysalis's reason for amassing such a large force was to take revenge upon Equestria for her prior defeat, by launching a Crusade on the same scale of her ancient ancestors millions strong assaults on early pony kingdoms. Upon discovering the amassed Equestrian army, she immediately attacked.

The resulting Battle of the Badlands was more of a massacre. The Equestrian Guard had spent decades doing little more than hunting monsters and acting as law enforcement officers for Equestrian cities. With no recent wars, there were no veterans on the field aside from Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Princess Cadence, and the Knights of the Rampant Moon.

Against all odds the Equestrian Guard wasn’t slaughtered to the last stallion thanks to the efforts of Jade (who had metamorphosed into a Queen herself along her journey) and Princess Twilight, who managed to fight Queen Chrysalis to a standstill, allowing David to finish her off with a primitive shotgun which for classified reasons, was confiscated after the battle.

Due to the mind control spells Queen Chrysalis utilized to control her Swarm, her death resulted in the majority of the Swarm going brain dead. Some of the individual changelings were successfully revived, but none of the individuals who made up the Swarm ever returned to more than a feral animal state post-Chrysalis.

Concurrent to the Battle of the Badlands, a small detachment of the Swarm had attacked the Emerald Hive, intending to gather some last minute reinforcements. The Swarm managed to breach the Hive but were dispatched easily once civilians and military personnel cleared the breached area. This was achieved by simply reconfiguring the Hive’s gravity plating to crush everything organic within the hallways.

With all due respect to the eight thousand four hundred and fifty-three deceased Guards and their families, the battle’s after effects are of greater importance to the modern age than the battle itself.

First and foremost, the massive casualties sustained by the Duchy of Dressage resulted in a massive economic crash as most of the guards they fielded for the battle were Reserve Guard Personnel, and possessed day jobs which now had no one to fill them. To compensate for the loss of pony power, Duke Gru commissioned SkyTech to automate the majority of Dressage’s industries to the fullest extent the Dutchy’s finances would allow.

This was the first hoofhold modernization had on Equestria and is responsible for beginning the spread of technoarcane machinery throughout Equestria.

Second, the Battle of the Badlands shook public confidence in the Elements of Harmony. They proved that the Elements could not handle every threat on their own. Many ponies begged Princess Celestia to allow Princess Luna to enact many of Princess Luna’s publicly listed military reform acts, but Princess Celestia’s pacifistic and idealist nature prevented her from agreeing to any of the changes, Princess Twilight followed along with her mentor’s lead, and while Princess Cadence sided with Princess Luna, the Crown could not resolve the tie in the votes. And so, the issue was dropped, to be revisited in ten years time.

Following this, Princess Luna faded out of the public eye somewhat. Seemingly withdrawing from the political arena, under the impression that this new Equestria had no place for her rule within it.

Fortunately for everypony, rather than attempting to summon a companion from the Realm of Dreams to comfort her, Princess Luna acquired an apartment within the Emerald Hive to use as a private getaway, seeking comfort in her friendship with her Knights.

Due to Princess Luna’s refusal to participate in what she described as ‘Figureheadding’, the Lunar Court was given to Princess Twilight, who operated the court via nightly teleports to Canterlot. This left Princess Luna with the responsibilities of being Equestria’s Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, but nothing else.

Third and finally, due to Master Wizard Herr Doctor Azur Lily von Maresburg the Third, Md, Esquire healing Princess Celestia’s broken horn at the end of the Battle of the Badlands via biomancy, the once illegal School of Magic was made legal once more. Allowing for extreme advances in Arcane Medical Care, as well as cosmetic transformations, as the good doctor trained many apprentices over the following decades.

It is of historical note to mention that Queen Jade’s assistance in the Battle of the Badlands was rewarded with promises to restore her hive to her by every possible means. These promises have yet to be fulfilled despite the passing of multiple decades. A failure which many modern Equestrians regard as a national shame.

The founding of the first Biomancy Clinic in Equestria begins the next major event of the Era. By happenstance, the building awarded to Master Wizard Herr Doctor Azur Lily von Maresburg the Third, Md, Esquire (Now known as Master Wizard Lifegiver Barron Herr Doctor Azur Lily Trigger von Ponyville the Third, Md, Ph.D., LW, Esquire)-

I groaned aloud as I wrote down dad’s name in full. “Oh, Luna’s flanks… In another thirty years, his name won't fit on one line of a page,” I grumbled to myself. “Seriously, Germaney, some traditions are stupid. You should know this, you’re Germaney! Your history is like, nothing but ‘Well, following that tradition screwed us over.’

“It’s only a matter of time before your names get so long that by the time your parliament introduces themselves to the new Prime Minister it will be time to elect a new Prime Minister. Your entire nation will crumble as your government is paralyzed by stupidly long names!”

Rage thus quelled, I resumed writing.

...happened to have been owned previously by a string of different groups, one of which was a Unicorn Supremacy Cult who had constructed a laboratory within the building for the purpose of attempting to recreate a pure unicorn genome as well as a living pureblood unicorn.

It’s common knowledge that no unicorn, pegasi, or earth pony have been of purely one tribe’s blood for the last ten thousand years. Naturally, assembling viable ‘pure’ strains of DNA from the interwoven genomes of the modern pony kinds was a task only the most zealous of bigots or determined of scientists would undergo. The King most decidedly falls into the ‘bigot’ category.

While the laboratory had been abandoned due to the project’s failures-

I really should ask permission to share that in a school report…

I got up from my chair and trotted out of my room, walking down the disgustingly beige painted craftspony furniture decorated hallway to the Reading room, where mom was sitting in the lazy boy reading a Daring Doo novel.

Mom looked up as I leaned against the doorway, brushing the rainbow striped strands of her purple mane out of her eyes.

“Yes, Sherbert?” She asked politely.

I bit my lip nervously. “I um… I want my report to be as accurate as possible, and I’m at well, the King and the Cult of Ashes. Would it be okay to mention you’re the only living specimen their project produced? As you know, a means of showing how poorly their plans to build a perfect unicorn were going?”

Mom frowned deeply, but her eyes held a certain sadness within them that I could tell wasn’t from my question itself, but rather something else.

“That’s perfectly fine, honey. I find it ironic that the best they could do was a crippled pegasi mare. Amusing as well,” Mom answered, that hint of sadness still in her eyes. “I- I want you to know that you’re not broken because you came from me, nor do I think of myself as lesser or broken because of how I was born. You’re my perfect filly.”

“I don’t feel like that, mom,” I said with a smile. “And can you knock off the ‘prefect filly’ stuff? Dad calls me that ALL the time. It’s really annoying. I’m like, almost the opposite of perfect,” I snickered bitterly.

Mom raised an eyebrow. “Um… Well, I won't be able to get him to stop, but I’ll do my best from now on to not call you that,” mom promised. “But I will be having a talk with him… He was supposed to tell something to you on your last birthday but didn’t. Clearly.”

I bit my lip nervously. I really wanted to press mom for more information on that, because it sounded kinda like dad wanted to most likely give me some clue as to why he hadn’t fixed my tail when I was a foal. One that wasn’t the generic ‘cancer risk due to age’ excuse which didn’t hold up from what I had learned about Biomancy, and simple operations like increasing fur length.

But at the same time, I REALLY needed to get back to my report…

Ah, ponyfeathers.

“Um, well, how about you tell me instead? I’m right here,” I pointed out.

Mom shook her head no so firmly that I knew that I wouldn’t be making her budge on the issue. “Absolutely not. It’s his job to explain it. Besides, you have that report to do and it would take a rather lengthy conversation to explain it,” Mom countered. “You should get your nose back to the grindstone.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I really should. I’m not that far from the end after all!” I said cheerfully as I left the room, returning to my desk in a few short seconds and picking up my pen once more.

While the laboratory had been abandoned due to the project’s failures it was recently abandoned. The last foal produced by the Cult of Ashes gene splicing and breeding program was not only still alive, but had only just recently become an adult mare. That mare, named Scootaloo, serves as an example of why the project had been abandoned. Despite trying to create a pureblood unicorn, they had instead created a nearly half and half bloodline of Pegasi and Earth Ponies.

Scootaloo herself has a significant contribution to these historical events. She had been flightless for her entire life, as well as homeless, as a result of being abandoned with the rest of the project. In a poetic twist of fate, after getting her wings healed by Doctor Lily as his first civilian patient, the two fell in love and began dating. While exploring the good doctor’s new facilities the two discovered the hidden laboratory.

This brought the still active Cult of Ashes out of hiding, as their leader, an ancient Lich known only by the title ‘The King’, feared their present base of operations being discovered now that Equestria knew they existed. These fears proved quite true. Within a month, Equestrian agents had captured one of the cult’s clone soldiers and learned everything.

The Ashes clone soldiers all share a single appearance, and the captured soldier was at first believed to be Trixie Lulamoon, a traveling performer Princess Twilight knew thanks to the mare having been briefly possessed by a Dark Magic artifact and used as a host body for a consciousness contained within that artifact.

The resemblance was due to Trixie being a deserter from, and in fact the genetically engineered template for the entire clone army. She had fled the Cult after realizing its teachings were a lie and had been traveling the land mostly out of love for the real world, but had returned to Equestria upon learning that the Ashes had been discovered, intending to assassinate The King to prevent a major war between the extremely large cult and Equestria.

I froze mid pen stroke, realizing at the last moment that explaining anything further about Trixie’s travels would have been a massive mistake.

I knew her. She’d married my Aunt. I’d almost written down that she had traveled to Neighpone and become an actual ninja after discovering an ancient clan that still survived within one single district of Trotkyo.

I had almost blown the lid off an ancient secret I only knew because one mare had gotten drunk and thought it would be a good idea to tell me of a place where I might be able to become a hero after she found me crying about being a disgrace to my family name.

I was related to so many heroes. Two of the Elements through my mother, who was herself a hero even if nopony knew it. She had been adopted by Rainbow Dash, who had married Applejack. On my father's side, I had the doctor who had reduced the casualties in the Battle of the Badlands by sixty percent, as well as his blood brother Sky Trigger, which linked me to a THIRD Element by making me Pinkie Pie’s niece.

Then there was Sky’s adopted sister, my Aunt Ayna, who herself was an accomplished wizard with pioneering work in portals and divination. Since Changeling reproduction means Ayna had hundreds of potential sisters, that linked me to goodness knows how many other changelings in the Emerald Hive. Then through Ay’s marriage, I was linked to Trixie Lulamoon, actual motherbucking ninja and one of the best Battlemages in Equestria.

And because I had Trixie for an Aunt, and she was a clone, and all of the TR series clones saw each other as sisters, I was technically related to the ENTIRETY OF THE EVENTIDE GUARD! Over a thousand perfectly loyal, dedicated, relentlessly subservient yet powerful ponies who now served as Princess Twilight’s sworn protectors and Ponyville’s Guard.

My family tree was nothing but heroes and world changers. And then me. A not that good looking, not that smart mare who was admittedly pretty good in terms of athleticism but not to the point of being exceptional.

I had to be better than that to be worthy of being a member of this family. And I’d nearly just destroyed my entire plan by doing something which would have ensured I would NEVER have gotten to train at that single dojo. I nearly had to find an entirely new path to success.

“Buck… That was close,” I whispered to myself.

Said war would have emerged because the true identity of the Lich was that of one of the heirs to the throne of ancient Equestria, who would have become King had the Everfree Peasant Revolt not occurred, which saw the Princesses Celestia and Luna be given the crown by the peasantry as thanks for liberating them from the ancient and oppressive bloodline.

Due to learning everything about the organization from Trixie, and having discovered the Cult a mere year before they had planned to launch a massive Equestria-wide assault upon the Crown thanks to Scootaloo and Doctor Lily, the Cult of Ashes was destroyed completely as Princess Celestia and Luna annihilated their hidden city within the Everfree, and most surprisingly the Cult's Second in Command, Sacred Shadow, surrendered to Princess Twilight after losing a duel to her, ordering the entire clone army to surrender as well.

Sacred surrendered due to personal feelings. Those being that since Twilight defeated him, the Equestrian ideas were superior to the Ashes own, and as such, he should not oppose them. Due to their conditioning, the soldiers under his command simply obeyed their commander and surrendered as well.

In the aftermath of this skirmish, the clone soldiers couldn’t adapt to a civilian life. They had been designed, born, and raised to be soldiers and nothing else. Several of the TRs committed suicide after going a few weeks without being ordered to do something, making it clear that their psychological state is nowhere near that of a normal pony.

Sacred Shadow likewise didn’t wish to be a civilian, though possessed a more neurotypical mindset and could have adapted if he desired. However, due to having decided that Equestria’s philosophies and ideals were the best ones, he offered his services to Princess Twilight as a guard.

Twilight accepted, and put him in command of the Eventide Guard, which she formed by taking all of the clone soldiers and admitting them into the Equestrian Guard as Ponyville’s first Guard regiment, as well as her own personal security force (Much like Princess Celestia’s Solar Guard, Princess Luna’s Lunar Guard, and Princess Cadence and Prince Shining’s Harem Guard.).

4 - The Final Years

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Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 25 The Arcane Era

Lifegiver’s Clinic, Ponyville - Equestria

A year after the Battle of the Badlands, a minor international incident occurred which rapidly spiraled out of control and brought Equestria deep into its web. The Empire of Prance has always been known for their casual use of the undead as laborers as well as Necromancy, and in general it works fine for them.

However, in this case, a necromancer in the state’s employ who happened to be a Lich defected and fled the country. This Lich, a surprisingly sane and kind-minded person, went by the name Gentle Repose and was offered sanctuary by Equestria due to the Prench Emperor begging for it, and offering an extremely favorable trade deal.

Many ponies wondered why, if the Emperor wanted the litch to be spared, there was any legal problems for him at all. As it turns out, the Prench Emperor had been in a coma and preserved via necromancy for millennia in order to act as a figurehead and diplomat while a line of stewards had been doing the actual ruling. Or so ponies thought!

The stewards were in actuality a single changeling Queen who was getting revenge for her mother having been killed by the Empire in ages long past. Gentle Repose had been working on a means of restoring the Emperor to life, which he completed and used on the Emperor with help from Twilight Sparkle, restoring him to the Prench Throne.

While that is a significant change to the global status quo alone, as Emperor Prance is the stallion who singlehoofidly conquered the lands which would become Prench Empire in days long past, and achieved immortality through his knowledge of alchemy. Since Equestria helped such a stallion return to power, the situation was and is far more complex.

Despite restoring the Emperor’s life, Gentle Repose was not given a pardon for several crimes committed while escaping from the Steward’s Prance. The Emperor wanted to show the nation that no one was above the law, nor would he go over the law despite technically having the authority to do so. As such, Gentle Repose’s sentence of exile had to stand.

However, the exile was not a permanent one, and Repose would be allowed to return home after many years. Since he was an undead creature who had long since out unlived his family, the delay did not bother Gentle Repose, who took an offered position as Princess Twilight’s Court Enchanter to pass the time. Surprisingly, Princess Twilight’s enchanted equipment has substantially improved since Gentle Repose’s hiring.

Gentle Repose did not travel alone, he came to Equestria with two friends. One of whom, a Felin (pegasi-griffon hybrid) mare by the name of Light Step fell for Princess Luna, who returned the mare’s affections. The two had been dating for long enough to decide to go steady and see if they could make a marriage work, when Emperor Prance attended a diplomatic dinner in Canterlot which Luna had brought Light Step to.

The resemblance shared between Emperor Prance and Lightstep was uncanny, especially since both ponies share a rare genetic allergy to enlargement potions, and had developed a case of arcane gigantism. At the Emperor’s insistence, several mages performed a Bloodline Trace on the two, determining that Light Step was a direct descendant of the Emperor’s first son.

This was a small miracle as the Emperor’s family line had been purged by the Steward. It also greatly shook the entire world as the mare Princess Luna was intended to one day marry was now the Crown Princess of Prance.

Unfortunately for Princess Luna and Princess Light Step, the politics involved in their marriage will result in the unification of two of the world’s biggest Empires. They can not marry until the political groundwork for such a merger has been laid, which may very well be a hundred years from now. However as the Emperor and the entire Equestria Crown are on board with the unification, since Prance is already a permanent ally, the unification is most likely a certainty that just needs enough time to pass before it happens.

I sighed and turned to look out my bedroom window at Ponyville’s skyline. I could see the roof of Sugarcube corner from here, peeking out from behind the three story brick and mortar high school I attended.

Ponyville High. Great school. Ten outta Ten.

Not.

I wish I was at Sugarcube Corner right now… Pinkie was selling her new Diabeetus Delight cupcakes. So sugary one bite will kill any non-pony within five minutes!

Poor griffons. Unable to properly digest sucrose. Those cupcakes were AMAZING! I got to try one while she and Chip were inventing them.

I kicked against my desk to make my chain spin in circles, enjoying the spins to distract myself. I really could use one right now. I didn’t want to write about the Tartarian Conflict yet.

Yeah, sure, my grandmother had killed the evil god controlling all of the demons in Tartarus, but no one had, you know, killed all of the demons and sealed that realm away forever. At literally any moment, any random powerful demon could theoretically open up a portal into our plane of existence and lead a warband on a mindless butchering rampage.

And there wasn’t exactly anything stopping that from happening save for a tiny company of mercenaries who sealed known portals. Yeah, that’s a huge deal, and everyone should be writing monthly thank you cards to the Slayers for (Especially Genesis, cuz nopony else can actually CLOSE those portals.), but well… If you don’t cut off the head, the body can survive a surprising amount of pain.

The only thing stopping the world from disappearing under constant random teleport murder sprees was some form of super classified technoarcane ward spell and shield generator maintained by every major nation in the world. But no spell or machine is ever perfect. There were cracks in the defences. Rare and random times and places where a portal could be opened through the barrier.

You read about the aftermath of those moments in the papers or online sometimes…

I’d rather not think about that. Quick, brain, distraction!

I lay between the twins I’d met in the park this afternoon, in a rather steamy good old fashioned daisy chain position. The stallion was adorably submissive, letting me take control of his hindquarters completely, making no move whatsoever to pleasure himself, his hind legs separated by a spreader bar. Just like my own were, I’d given my own rump to his sister. Domming while subbing, yay!

But it was better than that. Technically, this was a fourway. The three of us were curled around a rather sexy, light sand fured, burnt-straw maned sphinx girl, who was giving our little group a loving wing-hug. While also taking care of her own needs in such a way as to give my back a nice coating of-

TRAITOR!

Not THAT much distraction, brain. I didn’t have an hour to waste right now, I had to write about the war. But… Was there anything I could write about first?

Though um, kudos for remembering I fucking love Sphinxes and tossing one in, Brain. Good work! Just really bad timing. How about we pick this up after the ‘rents are asleep? Also, remind me to find a way to become a hero in Zebrica if we fail to get to Neighpone. I remember hearing that the Sun Cat sphinx tribe recently settled in one of their cities...

Gotta love the perma-teats! So cute!

Now where was I? Right! Not wanting to write about the war yet.

I smiled in sudden realization, or possibly dizziness, and stopped my chair by extending my left hoof. “I could talk about Seven!” I exclaimed happily, but then frowned.

No. I couldn’t. Not really.

That was not Equestrian history. That was City-State of Pheonix history.

Although… There was one thing I could mention in terms of Lyra’s sister’s journey which was of importance here.

Between the beginnings of Prance and Equestria’s pending unification, and the last major event of the Era of Harmony, is a minor event which resulted in a piece of legislation most likely going to be one of the most important laws in Equestrian history.

A prototype teleportation device went missing from SkyTech during an emergency use of the device. The device broke when used, opening a portal across different universes. This event not only confirmed the existence of a multiverse, but led to the discovery of a small group of loosely connected individuals known as ‘Travelers’, who can be best described as tourists of the multiverse.

The fact that certain powerful, lucky, or dedicated individuals can travel between universes at their leisure did not sit well with the Crown. As such the Interdimensional Travel Office was established to handle visas and screen Travelers who arrived in our universe within Equestria.

Naturally it’s impossible to truly screen everyone to locate their origin universe, but the ITO serves one rather interesting purpose. It provides a legal point of entry and immigration for people not from this reality. Amusingly enough, the ITO has had a hooffull of immigrants pass through it, particularly during the aftermath of the Tartarian Conflict.

The Tartarian Conflict was a very short lived but exceptionally devastating invasion of Equestria by the denizens of Tartarus itself. Led by an evil god known as Dawn. The demonic creatures of that living realm of torment constructed a portal into the heart of Old Ponyville, seeking to kill every thing thing in the world. Including plants. And microbes.

Despite having a goal which sounds cartoonishly evil, Dawn’s goal was quite serious and his plan stood a good chance of success. At least within his own head.

The Evil God’s first move was to capture one of the Elements, possess their body to prevent the Elements of Harmony from being used, and then to break the elements themselves. He was successful in capturing Applejack and breaking the Elements, disabling their active properties.

However, Dawn’s success and cunning seemed to diminish greatly over time. While his initial move was well planned, his second move was to usurp control of the Everfree Forest from the magical entity which serves as the forest’s brain, and use the forest to cover the destruction of Old Ponyville.

According to Applejack herself, Dawn was terrified about even higher beings discovering what he was doing, due to not having enough power to win if they came after him. Why he chose to strike before he had enough power seems to be little more than the perception that with Emperor Prance up and moving once again, he would soon be defeated, as the Emperor had once fought him to a standstill.

There is a history between the two, but sadly all information about it save for its existence is classified.

Princess Celestia sensed the Elements breaking, and sent the Bearers on individual quests to retrieve the rare items which were used by the Elements creator to make them all those thousands of years ago. Princess Twilight, being the Element of Magic, had to retrieve an arcanite Crystal from the mountains beneath Canterlot. Since this item was in easy grasp, she was instead sent to a pocket universe created long ago by Starswirl the Bearded as an art project, in order to find the Element’s creator and get her to help repair the superweapon.

As one can imagine, sending a team of minimally trained civilians on a mission is not a good idea. So having them separate, they lose the advantage of being a part of a well working team, making it a terrible idea.

While the Elements were all successful, Lady Pinkie Pie, Lady Fluttershy, and Lady Pinkie’s husband Doctor Sky Trigger teamed up to ensure everypony returned safely. However were nearly killed when an ancient Kaiju interrupted retrieving Lady Fluttershy’s item. Not all of the Element’s questes went that smoothly.

Lady Rarity Belle’s airship was struck by an object reentering the atmosphere and went down over the ocean. She was labeled KIA when Lady Pinkie Pie, Lady Fluttershy, and Doctor Mister the Trigger discovered the remains of her airship floating in the ocean along with a few sizable chunks of Lady Rarity’s body which had been chewed on by sharks.

As fate would have it, Lady Rarity survived the impact, crash, dismemberment, and open ocean. But only just barely. In an ironic twist, she was found by the occupant of the spacecraft which had struck her airship, a synthetic intelligence named Righteous Indignation. Indy, as he prefers to be called, was able to heal her wounds and even construct rather sophisticated cybernetic replacements for her lost limbs, brainstem, miscellaneous organs, and temporal lobe.

Hearing of Equestria’s distress, Indy put his full power at Lady Rarity’s disposal, eventually making her his Captain due to their rapidly budding friendship and Indy’s strong sense of chivalry, as the code is presented in fantasy novels. Cheesy, silly, but completely true.

The technological prowess Indy possessed were due to him having been built by the same ancient species which created the ship the Emerald Hive is built within. Indy had been created to operate a similar ship as a substitute and supplement to a normal crew. And had spent the time since his people’s extinction orbiting a distant planet, only able to leave that post thanks to a distress signal he received from the Emeralds.

Equestria was not the only location Dawn’s forces attacked. His cultists had spent decades slowly infiltrating the Emerald hive to take it out from within once the invasion began. The moment they heard the attack was on they struck, throwing the Hive into disarray via acts of terror and occasionally open warfare. Those attacks are what resulted in the distress call which summoned Righteous Indignation from his post and allowed Lady Rarity to finish her mission, ultimately leading to Dawn’s downfall.

It’s worth mentioning that the Emerald Hive was assisted in ending the cultists due to the efforts of a Twilight Sparkle. Not our Princess, but a version of her from an alternate timeline who had escaped her own universe's destruction along with her immediate family via breaking into our universe as hers disintegrated in a False Vacuum Collapse.

It is theorized that the special anomaly that Twilight caused is what allowed Dawn to break the Elements of Harmony in the first place, but this has never been conclusively proven.

Due to her identical appearance to Princess Twilight, the other Twilight and her family were processed by the ITO. They were given new names, slightly changed appearances to make them obviously different people to our universe's version of themselves, and given government housing in Manehattan after the war.

Regardless of that dimensional rift’s effect on the Elements, it certainly allowed many extra-universal people to enter Equestria during the Tartarian Conflict. All of these individuals helped in some way or another, and all were processed by the ITO afterwards. Naturally the ITO provides confidentiality for those who immigrate through it, but it is known that the individuals who came from the ‘Mirror World’ relocated to Trottingham, save for that pocket universe's version of Queen Chrysalis.

That Chrysalis is an inverse of our universe's version. Sane, kind, loving, and apparently too honest to change her identity to hide her origins. Indeed, she made quite a political stir by announcing her intentions to court Princess Celestia several years after the Conflict as a way to ‘Return the love my monstrous clone stole from this wonderful nation.’ and is at present living as a changeling stallion to suite the Princess's sexual preferences.

Many ponies find it unbelievable that Princess Celestia has begun to accept Chrys’s offers of dates. Apparently they forget that Celestia is thousands of years old, straight, and every other immortal she knows is a female, and are not willing to change sex simply to be with a person they like.

The fragmented way the Tartarian Conflict is presented here is due to the nature of the Conflict itself. Fragmented and odd. The notable events of the war itself include Princess Luna’s transporting the entirety of Ponyville into the Dream Realm to protect it from demons, where the town was set upon by Dream creatures, creating a major mess of dreams and nightmares coming true. It also includes the destruction of Canterlot by Dawn’s forces before he was ultimately slain by Applejack, who had been freed from Dawn’s posession by her wife Rainbow Dash just before the final battle.

Dawn’s planning an intellect diminished as a function of time. To the point where by the end of the conflict, the person who had engineered a means to disable Equestria’s greatest defense within the span of six minutes, forgot that he was trying to hide his presence and activities from those yet more higher beings. During the final battle against the Princesses Twilight, Celestia, and Cadence as well as many of the Elements, and the creator of those elements (a human woman named Megan)-

“Heh. Megan,” I giggled, blushing lightly.

What? She was nice. She made me awesome hash browns any time I went to my grandparents house.

Megan was sort of my third grandma, but only by marriage, not by blood. Another hero added to the pile...

Megan hadn’t been a human since before I was born. She and her grandfather had been brought here by Princess Twilight. And Megan, well… She had a unique talent allowing her to use Dream Magic like a dream creature does. Including the downsides.

Applejack felt she owed Megan everything for saving her life during the final battle and enabling her to take her revenge upon Dawn for the indignities forces upon her at his hooves. After the war was over, she begged Dash to allow her to form a herd so she could care for Megan for the rest of her days.

Dash was totally down for that. Obviously. I mean, her ego required at least two ponies to hold it up. One under each foreleg.

If any mare’s ego wrote checks her body couldn’t cash, it was Dash.

Grandma Dash is my rolemodel. I love her!

Megan had been delighted by AJ’s proposal and as a wedding present, turned herself into AJ’s literal fantasy of the most perfectly hot mare. In terms of AJ’s preferences. Romanticly enough, the form Megan assumed was an earth pony version of Rainbow Dash who was pretty buff but still feminine looking. So cute!

The fact that AJ loved Dash that much, I mean. Not Megan herself. I personally thought Megan looked just okay, but hey, that’s personal preferences in build and color for you.

She was super nice though. It sucked that using her powers literally killed her a little bit each time. She probably didn’t have many years left by now, despite only being eighty five. Not even middle aged and already reaching the end of her life. That bucking sucked.

But hey, where’s it written that life is fair? Nowhere. Because it isn’t.

Durring the battle, Dawn used more power than a mortal is able to have at once and called the wrath of Faust down on himself. Literally.

Naturally, the Goddess of Creation herself showing up and stripping the divinity from someone is irrefutable proof of her existence, it’s little surprise that the older pony religions have experienced a rebirth in the modern era.

With Dawn’s immortality stripped from him, he attempted to make one last stab at Equestrias heart and succeeded by tricking Princess Twilight into touching a cursed book which transported her into another universe. Applejack immediately killed Dawn after Twilight vanished in a fit of rage and grief, assuming Princess Twilight had been disintegrated.

Thankfully this was untrue, as she had in truth been banished. A rescue mission was launched to retrieve her and was successful, however that mission’s details are classified. We do know what came of that mission, which is officially seen as the last operation of the Tartarian Conflict.

Dawn had previously banished the legendary Archmages Starswirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever via the same book he’d used to banish Princess Twilight. Naturally Twilight retrieved them from whatever prison realm she ended up in. The Archmages immediately returned to working for the Equestrian Crown, repairing Starswirl’s laboratory beneath Canterlot, and reopening Clover’s Graduate Mage’s school in Fillydelphia.

Twilight also brought several other individuals with her. This includes a synthetic intelligence by the name of Austin who immigrated into the Emerald hive, even constructing a changeling android body for himself. Austin teamed up with SkyTech and Princess Twilight to convert a large section of Whitetail Wood into a contained wildlife preserve, wherein two of the others Twilight rescued live, helping tend to extinct creatures Austin recreates for scientific study. His park has become something of an Equestrian national park, especially after Discord gave it his ‘Chaos Theory: Seal of Approval’, an ironic way of calling the park safe but fun.

The other notable individual to return with Princess Twilight is her wife Princess Nyota. The public’s reaction to the most beloved Princess genuinely being in love with another mare was the final nail in the coffin for homophobic behavior in Equestrians. Not even the most stuffy of nobility dared invoke the Princess’s wrath by allowing any anti-gay policies to continue, or by expressing such views in public.

As a result, over the last three decades, a cultural shift occurred which ended the need for the discussion of ‘gay rights’ of any kind. There are no longer rights which are based on one’s sexual preferences, there are just equine rights. The struggle is simply over, with nothing less than total victory for equality. At least in terms of sexual orientation.

Older ponies will still sometimes react in shock at just how quickly same sex couples become so normal as to not be a thing to really talk about, due to them simply being ‘a couple’ just like any other couple. Younger ponies have a difficult time believing that around the time they were born, there was anything special, political, or ‘disliked’ about same sex couples at all.

The social change will doubtlessly continue as younger ponies are insisting that transgender and nonbinary individuals be treated with the same level of normality. Many youth political movements predict true full equality for all within the next fifty years.

There are of course further changes which came from the End of the Era of Harmony. The greatest of which being the reason the Era had to end at all.

Princess Celestia had intended for Megan to repair the Elements as soon as she was able to do so. However, while Megan recovered from the last battle of the Tartarian Conflict, Celestia was informed by Applejack and Megan’s grandfather that every time Megan used her unique magics, it not only caused her immediate physical harm, but drained years away from her lifespan. In order to fix the Elements, Megan would need to give up more years than she had left.

Naturally, even if Megan had the time to give, she could not ask that of anyone due to her ideals and moral stances. As such, the Elements of Harmony were retired. The passive magical effects they emit still empower their Bearers with powers beyond the grasp of most ponies, and grant them eternal life, but the Elements themselves will never again be used to save Equestria.

The Era of Harmony had ended. With two of Equestria’s legends come back from the dead and technoarcana rapidly changing the face of Equestria, promising to make up for what had been lost, The Arcane Era had begun.

Naturally, the Era of Harmony continues to influence life today. A notable example is Lady Rarity. Nearly a year and a half after being healed completely of the damage inflicted upon her during her ill fated mission, Lady Rarity found she genuinely missed her cybernetic implants and voluntarily had several limbs amputated so she could once again be partially mechanical.

Rather than allow herself to have a crude or gruesome appearance, Lady Rarity spent some time helping to design the aesthetics of her new implants and bionic limbs, using them as a sort of body jewelry, creating a genuinely beautiful look she called ‘Transcendent Harmony’. Being a national hero, a legend in the fashion industry, and also having taken something nopony had ever thought could be beautiful and made herself into the defining example of this new form of art, Lady Rarity greatly accelerated the Equestrian adoption of modern designs and non-arcane technology.

More interestingly, while not common, most equestrian towns now have at least one individual using a Rarity Belle brand bionic limb or two, and no crippled pony or amputee has gone without full mobility for the last ten years, as cybernetics have gotten to be fairly inexpensive, and thus covered by Eqestria’s Public Healthcare.

Another major change is the dramatic increase to the training, number, and equipment of the Equestrian Guard. Without the Elements, Princess Luna finally was able to implement some changes to the Guard she had wanted to make for millennia. Most of them have yet to be fully accepted, but Equestria now stands ready for the future, shielded behind a mighty bulwark of knights, guards, and government sanctioned ‘Adventurers’ who have pledged to protect Equestria from any threats which come to her shores.

The influences of the Era of Harmony are too many to count. The last thirty years seem to have been largely uneventful, leading many to think the troubles of the past are over for the moment. But if one looks at history, they will see just how hard the people of the age of harmony fought to give us the time of peace we now enjoy. It is our honor bound duty to follow in their example and ensure the next generation also experiences true long lasting peace. Fortunately, we have countless heroes of the prior age to inspire the heros of today.

5 - The Future

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Sherbert - 11th of Plantation, 25 The Arcane Era

Ponyville Highschool, Ponyville - Equestria

I squirmed in my seat, nervously fidgeting with the pen in my telekinetic grip. I was super lucky that Miss Cheerilee agreed to grade my paper after school today so I’d be able to go to Principal Ember and show her that my GPA was fine now, and that she could sign the papers to get me into the exchange program before it was too late. Because summer started three days from now. And bureaucracy moves at the speed of cold molasses.

But Principal Ember had promised to sign and submit the papers the moment I showed her I got my grades up. I just needed to show her this report with at least an A minus on it in red ink...

Unfortunately, Miss Cheerilee was taking forever!

She was being SUPER critical! SO many notes, corrections, and ‘mmmhms'. She was taking so long to read it. It had been half an hour! I know that I’d made a bit of a long report but it had been under the maximum page count and-

“Miss Sherbert?” Cheerilee suddenly called still looking at the last page of my paper.

“Y-yes?” I asked with a nervous gulp.

“It’s not very bad. You made a few grammatical errors here and there, there are some misspellings, and you formatted it in EMA instead of MEL format,” Cheerilee summarized, sending icepicks into my heart with every word. “But, despite your… Poor grasp of and dislike of history in general, you showed a lot of knowledge of the Era of Harmony, even if it’s scattered and tangential. What I’m saying is that you know this particular period well.”

“How well?” I asked, my ears drooping as I saw the apologetic look on Cheerilee’s face.

I had failed. I’d tried my hardest and I’d failed…

“B minus well,” she answered with a sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m being generous with your grade because you do clearly know what happened and how it impacted the modern age. But I can’t overlook the formatting error, your technical mistakes, as well as the loose presentation of the facts, and your use of yourself as a scholarly source. Then there’s the way your report flows like one long ramble rather than an organized well-researched paper. Also, you used the slang term for Cadence's guards. It's the Crystal Guard, only people who live in the palace use the other name.”

I bit my lip hard as I tried not to cry or scream in despair. I stopped when I tasted blood, the pain managing to keep my outburst to a sob as I collapsed onto the desktop.

“Miss Sherbert,” Cheerilee said sympathetically. “I understand that going to Neighpone was important to you, but sometimes we don’t get what-”

I snapped upright, glaring at her through tear stained eyes. “IT WAS EVERYTHING TO ME!” I scream-sobbed. “I’m a nobody! There’s NOTHING special about me. I’m still a bucking blank flank! In any country but Equestria, I’d be a full adult, and I’m a blank flank!

“I suck so much that I can’t even do what I need to do even when I try my hardest!”

I knew from Cheerilee’s wincing cringe that I’d exploded too hard… I’d shown her just how raw a nerve my failure had touched… Now she would be walking on eggshells around be for the next five years I was doomed to stay in Ponyville. That would get me bullied even more for being so sensitive, the teachers had to take special care to not hurt my feelings…

BUCK!

Cheerilee paused, her tail swishing back and forth for a long moment before she looked me in the eye. “Sherbert, please take off your jumpsuit for me,” she ordered.

I blinked, tears still rolling down my face. “W-why?”

“I want to see your flank. You only need to show me for a second,” she said as calmly as she could.

I nodded and unzipped the zipper on my blue coveralls back with my magic, letting the fabric slid down over my bare flanks just long enough to show her before pulling my clothes back on.

“See?” I mumbled, kicking at the floor with one hoof bitterly.

“I do… I understand more than you might think, Sherbert. My sister never got a cutiemark either,” Cheerilee said with an understanding but sad smile. “I… I know how hard it can be to feel like you are worth something when everypony else has a special talent that simply makes them great at something…

“Here’s what I’ll do. I won't change our grade just because I sympathize with you. That's unfair to the other students. But I will offer you a ten point piece of extra credit-”

“I MISSED BY TEN MOTHERBUCKING POINTS!?” I snapped angrily.

ARRRGH! That was like, just a few typos and maybe a run on sentence that completely bucked me in the ass with an unlubed cactus! I can't be-

My ears perked eagerly. “Did you say extra credit?”

“I did,” Miss Cheerilee confirmed with a professional nod. “Answer the following question: What fundamental property of magic did the Elements of Harmony use to power themselves?”

I blinked. Every foal knew that.

“T-the magic amplifying effects strong bonds of friendship created between true friends,” I answered.

Cheerilee nodded. “That’s right,” she said with a sad sigh. “Now, this is probably a bit beyond my purview as a teacher… At least in terms of providing a basic education. But you need to learn a different kind of lesson. Thing one, you clearly have a problem with the Elements because they used an artifact to solve their problems. You actually wrote this feels like cheating.

“That’s your aunt and grandmothers you are badmouthing. As far as I have ever seen, you have a great relationship with them. What’s the problem?”

I froze. I hadn’t really considered actually being asked anything…

“Um, well… It’s just-”

Cheerilee cut me off with a raised hoof. “It’s because you don’t understand what the Elements do. Not the Bearers, the actual items. You’re a poor student, you have problems paying attention to things you find boring. That’s understandable, I was a poor student when I was a young mare too. I can excuse your youth and your ignorance. But I can't go on allowing you to continue holding this opinion based on your false assumptions. You need to understand at least this one thing.

“The Elements of Harmony draw upon the bonds of friendship for power. That much you know. What you don’t know is that not just anypony could wield them. They are not a ‘robot’ as you put it. Could others have picked them up and used them besides the six ponies who did? Yes. But not just anypony.

“In order to be a Bearer, an individual had to be a living embodiment of the virtues their element or elements were named for. Kindness could only ever have been wielded by someone who was truly kind. Honesty could only ever have been wielded by someone who was an honest soul.

“This isn’t just some sort of ‘spirit key’, as another student of mine once called it. No. The Elements drew upon those virtues within the hearts of their wielders. That’s what did the work. The Elements of Harmony are tools that allow a number of truly virtuous individuals to take their inner virtues and transform them into a powerful spell.”

I frowned. I’d never heard that before… But she was right. I didn’t like school. Like, at all. I did have problems paying attention… And I even acknowledged that I had to change that about myself.

“So, then, you’re saying that the Elements of Harmony were more of a sword than a robot?” I asked, just for clarification.

“They were exactly like a sword,” Cheerilee said with a proud smile. “You understand what they were really doing now. Correct?”

“Um, sort of?” I said with an embarrassed frown. “They provided the energy for the elements to work, as well as their ammunition. But didn’t the Elements just sort of make the problem go away? That would make the Bearers a power outlet and an ammo can.”

Cheerilee sighed, facehooved, and shook her head.

“That’s not… No,” she said with an exasperated groan. “I don’t understand how you never asked any of your family about this. Please, tell me. And be honest. I won't’ judge.”

I bit my lip nervously. Would she judge?

No… Not any more than she already had.

“I… They… They intimidate me,” I said tapping my forehooves together. “They didn’t use too. Not when I was little. But then I started learning about everything they did and um… All I’ve ever done is save some colt’s pet cat from a hot roof.

“Do you have any idea what that’s like with my family? Literally, everypony I’m related to by blood or by law has or is actively doing things to improve the world on a daily basis! How do I live up to that? I can’t! I’m normal.

“I’m not a hero, I don't have any of the skills needed to be one. All I have going for me is I’m a bit athletic. I… I’m not worthy to be a part of this family, you know?

“And as for my grandmothers and aunt… I’m jealous! Okay? They were just normal ponies like me and stumbled onto a super powerful magical artifact that let them be heroes! I’m not that lucky.”

Miss Cheerilee nodded sagely. “I thought that was the case. That’s why you praised Luna’s Knights so much. You see them as having done what you believe you will have to do. Put in a lot of hard work to become somepony great.”

“Exactly!” I said with a shaky but grateful smile.

“You know, and I mean no offense by this, but Sherbert, you’re not remotely the sort of pony who would become a mage,” Cheerilee said, seemingly going way off topic.

I blinked. “Uh, well, no. Not really. What's that have to do with anything?” I asked with a frown.

“Well, those more aligned with magic would realize just how difficult it is to use the Elements. What kind of skill would be required,” Cheerilee explained, taking a seat on a chair next to me. “The Elements of Harmony are actively controlled by the Bearers as a collective group.

“Everything they ever did was partially consciously and partially unconsciously dictated by all six of them. Their teamwork and ability to coordinate with one another is what restored Princess Luna, sealed Discord, and defeated Lord Tirek.

“Yes, they got lucky with Nightmare Moon. But that’s nothing to think less of them for. They successfully managed to use an exceptionally difficult form of magical attack requiring extreme focus, coordination, and effort on the part of each caster within the ritual spell.”

Oh.

Oh!

Oh bucking-

They had put in the effort, time, and skill. Like, a LOT of effort, time, and skill. I’m a bucking dumbass! But… I already knew that.

“I’m dumb…” I mumbled, looking at the floor in shame.

“You’re not dumb,” Cheerilee disagreed immediately, giving me a stern look. “If you were dumb, I couldn’t have just shown you why you were wrong, because you wouldn’t have understood. You can absorb new information. Quickly too. Your problem is that you think you're worthless. You don’t think you can change, so you don’t pay attention in school as self-improvement seems like a futile effort. You think it’s a waste of your time because you can’t improve.

“And as a result of your feelings about yourself, you allowed your jealousy to blind you to the true heroic nature of your own family. But I trust I’ve sorted that out for you, right?”

I nodded firmly. “Yes! Absolutely! I… I need to go apologize to them… I’ll start with Pinkie, she can get everypony else.”

I winced. This was going to be very humiliating… But I deserved that.

“Good. I’ll ask them tomorrow to see if you really did apologize,” Miss Cheerilee said proudly. “If you did, then I won't have to change your grade back to a B minus.”

Miss Cheerilee grabbed her quill, crossed out the B- on the first page of my report, and scribbled a quick note, signed it, and then regarded it an A-.

“I can tell you don’t want to go to Neighpone for your education,” she said as she wrote. “You’ve got some other reason for wanting to go, and I’m pretty sure it’s to try and improve yourself in some way you think will let you be a hero. You’ve got some psychological issues you need to work through, and I believe that you need to find some sense of self worth before you can begin to do that.

“I hope you find some friends while you are there. Friendship really is magic, and not just literally, Sherbert. Remember, you’re not worthless. Not even as you are right now. Enjoy Neighpone, Sherbert,” she said handing me the report.

I took the report in my magic’s grasp like it was an extra fragile glass sculpture, and threw my forelegs around Miss Cheerilee’s barrel in a tight but brief hug.

“Thank you so much! I will never forget this! I need to go to the office now, bye!” I shouted eagerly, face still tear stained as I sprinted out of the classroom to give the paper to Principal Ember.

I had my chance! I hadn’t earned it through merit, I’d been given it out of pity, but I had my chance!

I also had to apologize. Not just so I could go and not have my grade changed back, but because I’d been a total ass for years. Even if they didn’t know it...

I got a bit lucky.

I’d turned in my report, actually saw the papers get turned in, saw the principal write a note to herself about filing it, and had gone to apologize to everypony.

I called Aunt Pinkie via my mage gem so she could get all of her friends together, and fortunately for me, they already were. They were having a late lunch at Sweet Apple Acres. That was an easy enough place to get too.

I’d made the run over from the school in just a few minutes. I wanted to take longer, figure out what would be best to say. But I didn’t want to make everyone wait for me and I had no idea how long they’d planned on being there.

So I’d run up to the old barn with no real plan. The sound of laughter coming from the open door as the six heroes reminisced.

“I still say it was dumb to just rush on in there,” Rainbow snickered as I trotted through the door.

“Um… Hey,” I said, rubbing the back of my head with a hoof.

“Hey, Squirt!” Dash replied without pause. “Just a sec, we were talking about-”

“Dash, look at her face. This is important,” AJ prompted, nodding towards me. “What’s wrong?”

The others frowned in concern, turning towards me and making me wince.

“I um…” I gulped.

“You broke into the bakery and ate everything I made for tomorrow?” Pinkie asked with a silly grin.

I blinked. “Um, no… I sort of… I need to apologize. For being a dick,” I admitted, my tail flicking worriedly behind me.

“What, for not asking anypony here for help with your paper?” Dash smirked. “It’s just school. Don’t sweat it. We’re all aware you like to do things on your own.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed with a nod. “You’ve been like that since you were ten. It’s okay… We could have easily made sure you got an A though.”

Twilight blinked. “Oh! Did you do poorly on the paper? I told Spike to give you those books. He or I could have forgotten one you could have used to-”

I shook my head rapidly. “No! I- I’ve thought of you as cheaters for years because I didn’t know how the Elements worked, because I didn’t pay attention in school,” I blurted out.

Applejack gave me a rather hurt looking glare. It stood out among all the hurt and disapproving looks. Mostly because it had the added hint of betrayal.

“Ya’ll best explain that…” Applejack ordered, her ears laying flat.

“W-well,” I began nervously. “As far as I knew you just sort of pushed a button and the Elements did everything automatically… And um, I thought that was something literally anypony could do…”

“Ohhh!” Rarity exclaimed, shaking her head slowly before offering me a forgiving smile. “Yes, fair enough. I can see your point of view, given that impression. That’s not how it worked at all.”

“It’s actually a very complex ritual casting requiring everypony to mutually come to a decision on what to do, and then have the willpower to make those changes. It actually took a lot of work to use those,” Twilight summarized for me.

I nodded. “Y-yeah… Miss Cheerilee explained it after I turned in my report and um… I’m not good at writing reports, you know? It was more of a stream of consciousness thing. Soooo a lot of my opinions got put in there.”

Twilight nodded. “Cheerilee would definitely have confronted anypony who had that detail wrong. She’s a good friend of mine,” Twilight said, explaining their odd connection.

Fluttershy blinked in surprise. “She is? Then why don’t you ever invite her to these?”

“These aren't just for the six of us?” Everypony else asked in unison.

Applejack shrugged. “I reckon it would be fun to bring the occasional friend to one of these… But let’s stay on topic here,” she said, redirecting the conversation back to me. “Sherbert, I get that you don’t like ponies who take the easy route. I admire that. I can see how you might think we were doing that. It hurts deep that you did, real deep, but I can see how you’d think that. Heck, I can even forgive that.

“But I want an explanation for why you never told me this before now. Before it became a problem.”

I shrank back from them, looking at the ground. “Y-you’re intimidating…” I mumbled.

“Darn straight I’m intimidating you!” Applejack exclaimed, ears twitching. “Ya’ll accused me of-”

“Uh, AJ? I think she means like, in general,” Dash corrected.

I nodded. “Yeah. I, um… You’re you. Multiple time savior of the world. It’s true of all of you. I um… W-well, I’m not that. Like, not even close. I haven’t done anything heroic so s-sometimes I feel like I just shouldn’t, well, do…”

Buck this was a nightmare! I couldn’t even actually say what I wanted to. Too much Luna damned intimidation.

Applejack blinked. “Ya’ll think you can’t talk to us about heroic things because you haven't done any yerself yet?”

Rarity frowned and shook her head. “Darling, you’re not even thirty yet. Even if we expected you to turn out like your parents, it would be entirely unreasonable to expect you to have become some kind of world-shaking hero so soon!”

“Right!” Twilight agreed, giving me an apologetic look. “What did we do to give you the impression that you had to be anything other than yourself for us to like you?”

“I um… I don’t know?” I admitted, ears laying down, cheeks burning with embarrassment.

If I could figure out how to drop dead right now, that would be nice…

“You’re not my family, but you’re still important to me as my best friends’ grandfilly slash niece,” Fluttershy said softly. “Yes, we’ve done a lot of important things, but um… We’re still just a bunch of mares. You shouldn’t be afraid to talk to us about anything.”

Applejack nodded twice. “That’s why this hurts me, Sherb,” she grunted. “I don’t care that you had something wrong about what we did back in the day. Heck, you’re here apologizing. Anypony could see you feel like horse apples about this. You know you did bad, and you’re apologizing. That ain't why I'm upset.

“I’m your grandmare, filly! You should be able to talk to me about anything. Anything at all! Especially if you have a problem with me. We’re family. We work through our problems. I want you to promise me that you’ll tell me everything from now on. Do that and I’ll forgive you, understand?”

I nodded, eagerly. “I promise! I really am sorry I just… Well, like you said. I don’t like it when people get to win just because. I- I have to work hard if I want to be like you one day. I don't have any natural talent, I’m not even good at magic and I’m a unicorn. I- I was jealous. Because I thought you just lucked into superpowers.”

Twilight banged a hoof on the picnic table, jumping up, a look of realization stamped on her face. “That’s why you want to go to Neighpone so badly!”

I eeped. “Uhhhhh, w-well-”

“You’ve got a big reserve, but you can’t really control your magic, so you want to try and get picked up by recruiters for the A.L.I.C.O.R.N. program to get training as a mecha pilot so Sky will make you one you can use here in Equestria!” Twilight said, proud of herself for having figured it all out.

Even though she didn’t. Whew!

Oh, wait. I had to actually tell them… CRAP!

“Um, well, right idea, wrong method,” I said with a feeble grin.

“Well, why do you want to go then?” Applejack asked me, her eyes looking at me with the detailed focus which meant she was inspecting me for even a gram of dishonesty.

Crap…

“Aunt Trixie told me where a dojo in Trotkyo is that can train me in various martial arts, including ninjitsu,” I answered honestly. “Not the modern recreation that’s like, sports stuff, the real actual combat and stealth art. I want to go so that I can learn physical skills I could use if I ever have the chance to do something heroic with my life.”

Applejack and Dash facehooved in unison.

“That’s the whole reason?” Dash demanded, giving me the same look she gave my dad when he did something dumb. “For buck’s sake, squirt! I’d have paid for an airship ticket for you if you just told me you wanted to learn martial arts. But noooo! You keep quiet and beat yourself up for months, maybe longer, trying to do super well in school because-"

Dash trailed off, blinking several times as something clicked for her. “Oh… You feel like you can’t talk to us about heroic stuff," she sighed, giving me an apologetic look. "Well, ponyfeathers, Squirt. You need some help straightening yourself out, and you haven't been getting it."

I nodded. “Y-yeah,” I sighed.

Dash nodded and looked around the table at everypony else. "We're all going to get her on the path she want's to be on, right?" Dash asked seriously.

"Eeyup," AJ agreed with a nod.

"We have to, she needs help," Twilight agreed simply, giving me a smile.

"Goodness knows most young mares need a helping hoof around her age," Rarity agreed before holding up her forehooves for me to look at the embedded LEDs in her mechanical left leg lighting up a pale blue as she nodded to it. "Would you prefer help from a keratin or titanium hoof, Sherbert?"

I snickered at her joke. It was good she broke the ice like that.

"I'll probably need both..." I admitted with a sad smile.

Fluttershy frowned. "It occurs to me that Scootaloo hasn't mentioned you having any friends... Do you have friends?" She asked seriously, giving me a look which I was half convinced was a mild version of The Stare.

Because I couldn't imagine not answering her honestly. So I had to.

I shook my head slowly. "Not really? I kinda had a bully problem," I explained with a sigh. "Mom got really mad, made Ash's dad do something that stopped her directly bullying me. So she decided to make sure that everypony in our class avoided me by making them think my parents were psychos or something... Nopony will tell me exactly why they avoid me. But they do.

"The closest thing I have to a friend is Lemongrass. She's a changeling who works for Princess Cadence as her Butler, part of her duties include escorting staff members to and from dad's clinic. So I see her a lot. She's nice, but well, she's not around too much and never for long so... You know."

"Then, you've never really gotten to interact much with ponies your own age?" Twilight asked raising an eyebrow.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, that explains everything," Twilight sighed, giving me a sympathetic frown. "That's exactly why I was such a messed up young mare... Fundamentally speaking. The lack of close relationships outside of your family and possibly teachers has you feeling like you only matter to your family and your teachers. The only difference is that unlike me, you don't care much for scholarly pursuits, so you don't care about how your teachers see you aside from in the pragmatic 'I don't want to flunk a class' way. Right?"

I nodded yet again, then sighed and looked at the floor. "Yeah... If you just want to bluntly state it like that... I don't like ponies knowing I'm a mess," I grumbled.

I looked up at the loud clunk of a hoof smacking into a forehead to see Dash had facehooved rather hard.

“Look, Sherbert. That’s stupid. You’re not stupid. Stop being stupid. Okay?” She demanded, sounding just a little angry with me. "You need to let people help you. I got over my ego enough to accept help, so anypony can!"

"No one can help you if you won't tell them something's wrong, and you just seem like an introvert who likes being left alone," Rarity said with a sad sigh. "Promise us you'll open up more. If you'd said something about this years ago, none of this would be happening right now. We could have avoided this whole... Inferiority Complex you have going on."

I kicked the ground lightly with a hoof. “I can try…”

“I’m guessing you feel you can’t do more than just trying, eh?” Applejack said with a sympathetic sigh. “You definitely inherited some of my stubbornness along with your pa’s derps.”

I snorted in amusement. “Guess I did.”

“Whelp, at least we know you’re family!” Applejack joked. "Well, yer looking to improve yourself. That's the first step out of the way. We just need to get you into that class you want so you can actually do it."

Rarity suddenly cleared her throat. “Are we not concerned that she wants to learn how to fight?” Rarity asked.

“I am, slightly,” Twilight informed, giving me a frown. “But… Well, look at her Rarity. This is a problem for her. No offense, Sherbert, but I don’t think I could teach you magic to help your self esteem. It was hard enough teaching you to cloudwalk, and your magic just sort of likes to do things relating to enhancing our physical attributes.”

I nodded twice. “Yeah. It’s cool. That one spell took us like, actual months. I’m not cut out for magic,” I agreed.

Fluttershy looked over to Rarity. “She’s got her heart in the right place. She wants to help ponies. Yes, she’s young, and our culture does frown on young ponies learning to fight. But she does have some problems, and working on self improvement would be a good place to start. Martial arts is more than combat,it’s also learning discipline, and with Neighponese arts, also meditation and other self-examination skills.

“Yes, she could get that from the sports versions of various styles you can learn here, but she wants to be an actual hero, not a sports star. She mentioned Ninjutsu is what she wants to learn, that’s more than combat training.

"It’s also stealth, infiltration, disguise, avoidance, and survival training. Think of modern special forces training if you removed the standard military training. It’s more focused on not having to fight than fighting, but also ensuring that if you do have to fight you win.

“Honestly, Sherbert has the right idea for a foundation to build herself into a hero with. And if she doesn't have problems with violence when she gets back, a good next step could be to enlist with the Equestrian Guard. I think she should go.”

I nodded eagerly. When did Fluttershy learn that much about Neighponese martial art-

Oh! Right. She loved Neighponese stories. Derp.

“Exactly!” I agreed. “That’s the reason I want to do this so bad. I don’t like feeling worthless and… Well, you know. I’m good at athletic stuff. I think I’d enjoy martial arts, but I don't want to learn a sports version because that would just get me killed if say, I ever stepped in to protect a mare from a gang. Going to this one place I know of in Neighpone is my only shot.

“I mean, well, sure, there’s got to be a place here too… But I want time away from my family to well, find me. I get- I get nervous. You're all really important ponies and- Even now that you know you intimidate me I um… It’s still really hard to talk about stuff...”

“She's got a good point there,” Applejack said, backing me up completely. “Remember when you tried to use your kickboxing to get out of that griffon trap, Rarity? Didn’t exactly work, now did it?”

“Well, no. It certainly did put me in more danger,” Rarity admitted with a sigh. “But correct me if I’m wrong, but well, every play, book, and film portrays ninjas as hired goons or assassins. Do you really want her falling in with those kinds of people?”

I tilted my head to one side, baffled beyond reason. THAT’S what her hangup was? Really?

“You’re all government sanctioned killers. You’re soldiers. Special operatives. Knights,” I objected, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, you don’t go in guns blazing, but you’re ALLOWED to kill someone if you have to. I don’t know if all of you have killed anyone, but Twilight has, and Grandma AJ has. They’re not monsters.

“There’s nothing wrong with killing for your country if there’s no other way to resolve a conflict. I mean come on! That’s literally what a soldier’s job is, to kill people for the sake of other people’s safety. You’d probably all be proud of me if I wanted to just start in ROTC or whatever.”

“She’s got you there Rarity,” Dash laughed. “I mean, we do focus on non-lethal tactics but we sort of are hired goons. Kinda. The difference mostly being who we work for. Besides, if Sherbert found out about this place while literally being two nations and an ocean away it can’t be an underground assassins guild or anything like that.

“Honestly, it’s probably just some group of ponies who like keeping past traditions alive. Heck, remember when we went to Neighpone like, eight years ago? They still teach traditional swordplay and stuff, despite using guns and spell rods now. Neighpone is big on traditions.”

Rarity paused, sighed, and then nodded. “Alright. You’ve changed my mind. We’ll go talk her parents into letting her go.”

“Um… But, I already got into the exchange program,” I pointed out.

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Does Scootaloo know you’re going so you can learn martial arts?”

I shook my head. “Well, no.”

“Same reason you have problems talking to us?” Dash prompted.

I nodded.

“Then we’ll go talk her into it so everypony’s on the same page,” Twilight announced to everypone as she stood up to go. “Come on, lunch was done with anyways. Let’s get the kid on track to not having a massive inferiority complex.”

“Yep!” Dash agreed the very second Twilight stopped speaking. “Definitely something to take care of sooner rather than later.”

“Ya’ll just don’t want your grandfilly to be less awesome than you are,” Applejack joked with a smirk.

“If you’re related to me you gotta be awesome. It’s a law of physics,” Dash replied playfully a she trotted out the door. “Come on! We’re doing this NOW Sherbert. I’m not going to let you have those loose screws any longer than necessary.”

“Since when are all of you my grandmares? I thought it was just Dash and AJ.” I asked nervously blushing slightly from embarrassment.

Rarity snickered. “Darling, the six of us might as well be married with how close we are after forty two years of being the Elements of Harmony. ALL of us have been your grandparents since you were born. This is one big family,” she said as she stood up as well. “Now come along, let’s get you sorted out.”

I had my chance to become somebody. My family gave it to me. And that’s okay. It was probably better to have help.

No, definitely better to have help.

After all, what I needed to do was make something of myself. Miss Cheerilee was right. I should go make some friends.

After all, friendship is magic. Or so I've been told.

It will be nice to find out first hoof!

To be Continued

On the Era of Harmony

by Meep the Changeling

1 - The Past

2 - Princess Twilight

3 - The Swarm

4 - The Final Years

5 - The Future