A Grand History of the Avalonian Isle
With all the recent political attention to the Island of Avalon, I felt it important to be the one to recall the older histories, the ones that stretch back to times long forgotten. Humanity has chosen to forget a number of things, but I haven't, that's for sure. I have seen the skulls, and I know the truth of what really happened, back before the Torment. Before Gloucester was a Christian center, or even a town at all. This may explain some things, but will likely open up all the more questions, including the safety of the Avalonian Isle.
A Complete History of Early Avalonian History
Otherwise known as "My Little Warhorse: Murder is Magic"
It all begins back with legends more well known, occuring on the Europa Continental. Arthur, first of his name, came from Camelot bearing Excalibur and took the grail from it's hiding place. He created the Arthurian Order of Knights, and the quested and quested, until Arthur's own son, Mordred, came and burned the Castle of Camelot to the ground with his Medici forces. Arthur's knights loaded him on board their remaining vessels, guided by almost heavenly figures who safely took them to the Isle, where he was nursed back to health, and they established Castle Avalon to be a Christian Utopia.
But the history of the Isle itself spans far back to a more destructive and powerful race, one who inhabited Avalon before Arthur's men stumbled upon land bearing injured men and bloodsoaked crosses. The earliest signs of life began not from another landmass, but from a hidden vale in the mountains, towards Gloucester (if you look at the maps close enough, you might be able to spot it). Now, as it happened, life began in Thera in many strange ways...one of which was an equine form, which was forced to use more elemental tools in place of opposable thumbs. But, as time went on, they adapted beyond their hooves, and began to invent tools using their superior intelligence that even humans would take some time to create. The communities also branched off in evolution; more 'noble' blooded equines were known by their extra bone, probably a genetic defect in truth, which split from their head like a monstrous lump (which also could malform and kill the baby in it's infant years). These were sharpened and used as weapons, creating a warrior-based noble class. And, as time went on, they began to worship the sun and moon, the glorious symbols of light. However, unlike other culture's prayers, these gods or demons answered, whatever these creatures were worshipping in truth. They answered by rewarding certain religious rights with divine 'miracles'. Soon the upper class had also become the theocratic caste, as they hoarded this vulnerable discovery for themselves.
There was also an additional offshoot of equines, which were less civilized and more autonomous than their sibling tribes, as they had, through some miracle of theocracy or genetics, grown wings. These gliders used their gifts to magically grow their gliding appendages into full-on wings, although it was also a curse, for they required constant eating to fuel their massive new bodies, and oftentimes food shortages would leave them dragging far behind their bretheren in population. This drawback left them no time to worship, and soon their fiery gods forsakened them, leaving them with their ferocious appetities.
Leaving their mountain-dwelling cousins alone, the land-equine soon marched out to collect sacrafices, as they knew that life itself was the most powerful energy to use, and that could only be attained through another's death. They sent their non-horned castes to collect dumb animals, break their legs, and drag them to the temples, where the nobles would cut their jugular arteries with their horns, and drain their blood upon their altar. They created small towns and glorious green pastures, but the blood of the dumb beasts was not enough; they were not self-aware of their deaths, which made the power no much weaker. So they replaced quality with quantity, and soon hunters were from shore to shore collecting the largest catches possible and the roads stank of carrion as carts would line up into the distance to cram their fetid prize into the temple. Screams turned the highways into a cacophany, as hundreds upon hundreds of wounded animals cried in pain, waiting to have their blood soak the temple floor. However, many equines protested; after all, animals were an inconstant rescource, and the farms often took up needed fodder that could be used to feed many a pony. This was mostly solved by their first real conflict.
The first trial of this civilization came when ships showed up upon the shores full of fair men and women asking if anyone knew where Valar was. The first few to stumble upon the land were quickly collected, brought to the capitol, and then, when they were busy eating and drinking, they had their limbs smashed as they sat and were dragged, swearing and pleading to the temple, and their blood was used to erect a royal estate. But, alas, for that victory there was hell to pay; more arrived in their poultry-shaped boats demanding vengeance, but they found that while their enchantments failed on these shores, the Equine's flourished, and this new, intelligent blood of the pointy-ears was enough to summon great maelstroms and bolts of lightning and to construct machines of war the pointy-ears would fear. They used it to forge steel on industrial proportions, and this was used to outfit a new caste: the soldier caste. For now noble unicorn blood was rare and valuable, and could not be wasted. So the stronger-muscled middle and lower classes put forth their most brutal progeny, who were armed were hoof-blades, frontal rams, and plate armor. They rode into battle, supported by many nobles who planned their courses and used their elemental forces to smash the enemy to bits from afar. These "elves", seperated by sea storms and unready for war, were smashed on the open plains, and soon fled into the woods, where they could hide and snipe at their opponents. The Old Ape led them, the one with the cloud-hair, but his small ones were captured (they were taken on Bear Day and tied to the tails of several Equines, and ripped apart in ceremony and sport in public. There was much rejoicing) Though many forests were burned down by their pursuers, many elves survived. The elves soon joined the other exiled race, the dragons, which inhabited the Isle.
Dragons, of course, were also foreign; Avalon wasn't Disneyland. They were introduced in one of the red priest's experiments with sentience, when they had spotted another visitor, a young ape-being with bleached hair and three dragons. They had accepted her into their homes as she raved, with a very extreme look of mental illness about her. So they accepted her, and then attempted to burn her alive, which somehow failed and she proved impervious to their pyres. So they took this as a sign of the god's will, and instead impaled her with their horns and trampled her body into the ground. They used this power to try and control the dragons, which instead went mad, and burned the town, the fields, and the forests to cinders before hiding in forgotten caves far away. A shame. The Equines, frustrated, then marched in angry mobs upon her two ape companions. The old one impaled several with his sword, and his iron suit held firm...but his internal organs were not so lucky, and they used their tails to tie and drag him through the capitol, cheering. The hairy one ran fast and far, swimming to a rocky alcove and surviving off fish for several decades, escaping their wrath. He survived off fish and gulls for decades, muttering "khaleesi, khaleesi, khaleesi" until one day he was eaten by a shark as he swam, and dyed the water crimson. And the Equines then made it a holiday, "Bear Day", when The Bear-Ape was killed by the god's chosen Horse-fish of the depths and slaughtered for running. But the dragons...they escaped.
With these terrors in the trees breeding and skirmishing, the Equines had made a rescource for good offerings that would be forever there for those brave few to venture forth and conquer. A new Capitol was erected, making the foundations of Gloucester today, and it's shining spires and massive buildings housed a new era of Equestria's power and prestige. This soon attracted the envy of the mountain-settling primitives, the Pegasi, which decided to strike fast and stop their overly ambitious neighbors. They conspired with the pointy-ears and build fiery iron capsules that would alight it's surroundings on contact (but very prettily, as the elves always have to be pretty. Bloody elves.). These were dropped en masse upon the Equine fields, upon the massive pastures of the nation, and soon it was alight and a war had begun. The elves, able to find hidden fields where no pony would easily access on foot, located good feeding spots for the Pegasi, while the Equine starved in the Great Famine. Everwhere was death and decay, and the Capitol soon felt a ghost town as many a horse died in it's home, slowly starving. But the Pegasi, which spread slowly in population and focused upon the individual, soon was also hurting, as the war machines and bolt-launchers and windstorms of the Equine sent them spiraling to the ground, and ambushed raiding parties, causing it to rain bloody feathers and screaming Pegasi. Death was all around, leaving both the aloft cavernous halls and the towering cities empty and reeking of blood and decomposing horse. And, as the Equine vowed 'Fire for Fire', they also set the forests alight, using new machines based on the elvish contraptions to fling fire all across the land and bring about destructive firestorms that raged across Avalon.
But this carnage was soon brought to an end, as the Pegasi and the Equine united to end the war. The Pegasi had finally given up on their allies, as their leader, that ugly apething, had built a boat and sailed on to 'civilized lands' he said. Without his leadership, the disenfranchised elves soon cared more of cookies than of bombs, and the Pegasi knew that it was pointless to continue; better to end it while on good terms. And so the first ever Equine peace was made, and the Red Faith brought the Pegasi back into the fold, declaring them "no longer heretical, simply sadly impotent". The Pegasi, which was truly running on minimum energy and nearing extinction due to disease, accepted to submit a little and hand over the Queen's firstborn male, accepting a kingship and allowing the Equine Federation to claim the queenship (in Equine society, females are the warriors and priests. The males often tried to get the rights to claim property, but were stopped by social restrictions). However, laws were still in place, only edited, changing the rules of inter-breed coupling being banned to it being banned outside the royal family, which would be in itself a sub-breed now, and usually kept it's genes within it's ranks, breeding with lower castes only when necessary. This new mix was itself a carrier of both the skullhorn and the wings, making for a very high-needs but high-capacity royal caste, which was perfectly fine for the social position. The Queen would also be the head of the clergy, leading the heavenly Red Order.
The first two foals of the coupling were twins, whelped before the Red Order itself. The Red Order made a prediction as the fumes of the herbs swirled from the many surrounding bonfires, and the lesser priests chanted for health and life. From each sister foal an element surround and permeate. Fire is first, then comes the chilling deadly cold. Then is Earth, solid and towering, and fourth be Air, light and breezy. The scriptures go on about the order after that, so don't even bother asking. And so from this mare does the world be birthed, and on and on it goes, for eternity and forever. The twins were of opposing genders, and so they both lived without doubt, but from then on, the second sister would be always imprisoned after birth; never killed, or the Great Other, the thing of ice and death, would seek revenge, but a nice, mildy-stern imprisoning should do. The Third would be castellan of the Capitol, the Fourth would be Protector of the Mountain Halls and in charge of expanding it's granduer, ect, ect. And so the royal family doled out important decisions based on vague prophecy; how else are you supposed to do things?
This kingdom continued to work on it's meager harvesting of elves and animals to continue construction. However, to their dismay, the ape animals had been breeding far too much, and were spreading all across Thera; it was only a matter of time before the primitive monkeys landed on Avalon. So the Equine began planning invasions of Tethra and Europa, to begin a worldwide Equine dynasty instead of their concentrated but small settlement of Avalon. However, with such a small population to start, such low population growth, low numbers of elves to hunt, and several battles with rogue dragons, they didn't get the head start they'd hoped. Before they could mount an invasion, humans landed upon Avalon. They were led by an injured King Arthur, guided by the elves to perhaps sort out the Equine and maybe lure over the Inquisition. But bloody Gandalf just couldn't pick a major nation, no, he chose the near-beaten injured knightly order, didn't he?! And all that business with him sticking swords in rocks was just embarrassing, really. But these men landed safely and began to colonize the lesser-touched Western regions, trundling along without realizing what was so close. But they had little chance to explore, as soon Pegasi had spotted their settlement, and Queen Solanis sent spies among their enslaved and brutish cousins. These new arrivals had no intelligence, and did not worship, and were therefore unworthy and even blasphemous. Even Glacera in the dungeons agreed (for Solaris was kind to her sister, and often listened to her advice despite the Red Order's decrees. And that is truly saying something, for Solanis was obsessed with their god, and a true zealot).
And so, as they developed, they were slowly herded in the 'right' direction by the Equine, until at last they were ready. They had ensured that Arthur knew not of them until they were ready to assume control, and now it was time to strike. On their orders, Arthur and his council was struck down by his own men, the 'Stable Cult', who had 'heard the Red God through the mouths of their mounts'...or so they thought. The Order soon broke into civil war, as Arthur's technical heir was Mordred, his near slayer and arch-enemy. As the factions called for help by sending galleys, these mysteriously burnt in the harbor, and communication was lost. And soon the Equine moved in, offering up their own government of Red worshippers, true Equine puppets. The knights resisted, but soon they were forced by superior military strength to submit, and many, astounded by the Red God's power, embraced it for their own. The Equine then used these new knights to fight the dragons, killing of their two possible enemies.
And, as time went on, the two settlements grew, and the Equine tried to wthdraw as much as possible, even allowing humans to practice Christianity outside of the government (by Queen Ignala's Decree), although traders were regulated to ensure that the Inquisition knew as little as possible. Which, with such a small settlement and such a ridiculous tale, was easy enough. However, it did not take long for things to begin to collapse.
The queen during the upcoming Time of Strife (earlier than the great torment, still, considerably earlier), Celestia was much beloved by her kingdom. She ensured this love by cracking down on heresy and sowing spies into her own populace to look for dissent. Those with deviant beliefs or dislike of the crown were sent scared as a massive number of silent executions occured beneath the temples, used to generate the sort of rescources needed to build a fleet and sail to destroy the Inquisition itself, the heathen institution. If they could break the rival faith, she could gather more followers, and therefore influence on the pagan world. She sought to emphasize the combination of extreme faith and science, and so created a new caste, carving it from society. The Equestral Order of Mysteries was founded by her, and she sought to use the powers of the Red God to bring their technology into such a large gap beyond the humans that there would be no contest. The Order's Head Council of Twilight, Cloudcare, Dawn, CurlyQ and ShadowClaw (the last of whom had very, very eccentric parents, as one might tell) soon took the city to a new level as they pushed further and further past the conservative Red Order. The Red Order itself was even shifting forward, going so far as to accept the priests Shimmer and Rarity into it's ranks (both of whom were architects and had backgrounds in basic science) Twilight was made grandmaster after studying personally under Celestia, and so began with new industry upon building unique and powerful machines of war and subjugation. Generals Fluff, Pinkiepie, AppleJack, Prettypeach, RainbowDash, Sunstreak, and Highfly were all adding new discipline for the legions, and there was much preperation for the new invasion, which would occur on the Solar Fesitival, the holy day when the last war ended and the dynasty began.
However, the invasion was shuttered by the Time of Strife, which began just as the boats were being loaded with troops by Celestia herself and were heading off to invade. This was marked by when the 'Cult of Stars', a group of deviants who had been persecuted by Celestia, broke out Luna, her sister who had been imprisoned and tortured (by her sister, personally, of course; a good regent will always make sure to do a little dirty work to remember what good fun it is) beneath SeaFoam Prison. Now that the military was all off to kill some ape, the heretics had decided to try and set up a seperate state, with the help of the Pegasi, and achieve independence. Pinkiepie, the general in charge of the home guard and known for laughing in the face of danger, started using some unconventional guerilla warfare, wearing down Luna's forces and killing off much of her more heavily armored forces (Pinkiepie also started using slaveapes to fire missile, and even *gasp* atop good Equines. This was unexpected for all involved). Luna, with the larger force, was still gaining ground, and was simply waiting for the Pegasi to arrive and sweep the mongrels out into the open. However, the double-agent, General Rainbowdash, betrayed Luna, ambushing the Star's own Pegasi in the woods along with General AppleJack's Capitol Garrison. These forces began to put up a decent fight, but still were not enough, as more heretical groups began to break for Luna's group, including many citizens and even some Red Priests, simply wanting freedom of Celestia's tyranny. However, this all was stopped when they saw a light above the EOM building, far far away at the Capitol.
Bursts of light continued to emit from the tower, but suddenly things were changing. Massive swaths of Luna's main columns were suddenly falling dead. Whineys for help wafted through the air as flesh melted from their bones and they collapsed to the ground. The ground began to shift and crumble and the grass was aflame, horses ran blind and mad through the flaming fields, begging release from the pain. Everwhere was chaos and death, and the smoke smelled of death and wafted into the clouds. Twilight had done it; with the help of her head assistant, Rarity, and the foreign scientist, Fluttershy (a very ethnically Pegasi name), she had finally gotten the EoH to work. That's what Celestia had called it; the Elements of Harmony, for it would ensure that the kingdom was forever harmonious, for fear of death. The machine harnessed Red Forces into something of death incarnate, allowing mass destruction from the safety of the Capitol. The three of them had worked all night on it, in case the rumors of the Cult of Stars taking an armor caravan were true. And, with the forces pinning Luna down, the EoM had done the rest. And, seeing that light, Celestia was already turning around and preparing to march the forces back and arrest Luna.
However, lasting damage had occured; the home guard had withdrawn from Avalon, allowing the people a narrow opportunity to overthrow the Equine puppets. The humans had reinstalled Christianity as their false idols, instead of the glorious Red God, and killed the horses advising them. However, the oddest part is that Celestia was unconcerned for some reason. Most likely she sought to simply burn the Inquisition and not deal with the hassel of a minor knightly order. In any case, it was the time for Avalonian independence, growth, and uninhibited trade..which would ultimately both help and hurt the Equine Kingdom nextdoor.
And so Celestia did, and she executed Luna at high noon the next day ripping her to shreds atop the altar to the Red God. And so began the Time of Strife, as those were not the last wanting to break from the kingdom. In order to mantain civility, a council was formed to govern more closely, the Council of Harmony, consisting of the war heroes involved in putting down Luna's Rebellion. They also were the only others beyond Celestia with access to the two 'superweapons' developed: Projects Spike and Harmony. Oh, yes, I forgot about Spike. Project Spike was in fact the military application of the last of the known dragons, raised personally by Twilight to serve the royal family. These were in constant use, soon enough, as region after region and group after group tried to escape Celestia's clutches, and while it devestated the countryside, the psychological effect was enough to halt any serious rebellion...until, the Deep Strife began. The Elements of Harmony had exploded, decimating the Capitol, and killing Twilight along with the royal heirs and many thousands of civilians. The ruined city became a living hell as the effects of the war machine were turned onto the settlement itself. Rarity had escaped narrowly with Celestia, and Spike had been driven mad by it's radiation, sending the dragon flying to unknown lands (Spike fled to Slavia to live a happy life in the North...for some time) and robbing Equestria of it's superweapons. What exactly had caused this? Some more recent examinations of the plans have revealed that Fluttershy, the foreign Pegasi most likely set it off remotely...compounded by the fact that soon after, the Pegasi declared independence.
And so began the final war of the Equine. Pegasi, under Rainbowdash, flew in force to burn the countryside, and thousands upon thousands were killed as she steamrolled most of the enemy on the open ground. Town after town was set aflame, and all across the nation was pain and madness. However, hundreds of loyalists soon gathered under Celestia and flew to counterattack at the mountain cities of the Pegasi. The Pegasi city, left undefended as Rainbowdash was busy trying to bleed the enemy into submission, was soon stormed, and resistance was little. Celestia asked for her forces to line up the most noble and able of the Pegasi, the most intelligent and noteworthy, all to the town center, to have their wings clipped. This wasn't all too unreasonable, albeit mildly cruel, and would teach the lesson well enough, her army thought...until she dove into the prisoners with her horn, covering herself with blood and gore and she smashed and stabbed and ripped into the panicked crowd. With her blood sacrafices, she called down a massive cataclysm, and the mountain soon began to shatter as she slaughtered more and more fleeing Pegasi, her army stunned. The city crumbled and fell apart as the rock became unstable and the work of centuries fell and shattered. Fluttershy, the foreign dignitary, had hidden herself well, and now came flying to rally the troops against Celestia. They then fell upon the mare, who was slashing and foaming at the mouth in bloodlust. But they managed to restrain her, and slowly the disaster ended, the city ruined but the cave not completely gone. They then chained her up and Fluttershy kicked her horn until it shattered, collecting the bone for later use. They then took the beaten and humiliated regent to the few injured remnants of the Pegasi, and there they kicked and kicked until the stone ran red and revenge was had. The angry soldiers took the dead monarch, and mounted her head from atop the broken horn, leaving it for the crows and teaching those below that one does not simply anger the Pegasi Nation (or Fluttershy).
Rainbowdash and the soldiers were still at it, although their civilians were mostly dead and gone. Their winning streak was over, as the few remaining land Equine rallied back to resist, and soon Pegasi casualties were mounting as Pinkiepie and Applejack led ambush after ambush, and used their remaining technology to their advantage. However, as they were pushed back into the holy Vale, the first and last refuge of Equine kind, they knew they had to call in help. And so they accepted the only possibility they had left, and called for Avalonian assistance. The bargain was clear; Arthur II was to lead little under a thousand longbowmen to help keep the Vale, and the humans were free to enjoy all the land beyond the Vale (which had been burnt to a crisp by Rainbowdash's very thourough campaign). This was agreed upon, and so a trap was laid. And, as Rainbow dash descended to battle the last of the Equines, she soon was trapped; with longbowmen hidden in the hills, they had arrows from above, and attacks from above easily disroiented the confused Pegasi. And, as Rainbowdash was shot in the wing and then speared as she fell to the ground into the horned ranks, the Pegasi fled back, near decimated by this unexpected attack. And so humans inherited almost all of the Isle, and Equine kind sent itself back into the Vale, to recover and begin again. Fluttershy and Applejack, leaders of their nations, agreed upon mutual peace and even assistance to rebuild their shattered world, so unexpectedly demolished. The humans soon establish Gloucester upon the old foundations, and the plentiful ashes proved to only make the extremely fertile ground even more fertile.
So remember what is there as you think upon the Isle of Avalon; the old history is older than you think. And remember that one day, the mists of the Vale will part again, and this time humanity might not be so lucky.
"No man, no matter high or low birth, is above the rule of God. Oh, and by the way, I'm totally the word of God whenever I'm making a law, second rule! Oh, come on, Lancelot, it's totally not cheating! Oh, you're such a stick in the mud-King Arthur IV
also, sidenote:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
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