My take.

Now for something completely different.




Thousands of years in the future, society has progressed to the point of true post-scarcity. Humans have mastered energy-matter conversion, genetic engineering, developmental biology, the whole package. To amuse themselves, people engage in nanite-based enhanced-reality gaming, instantly traveling to exotic locations, flying, etc. People can also “Change” themselves into whatever they want; modifying their bodies into elves, mermaids, were-animals, unicorns, pegasi, dragons, gnomes, dwarves, you name it. The Internet has evolved into a world-monitoring nanite-enforced super-network controlled by a massive AI program (let’s call her “Mother”). The Network is powered is powered by fusion plants and by siphoning off natural power such as volcanoes, lightning, explosions, whatever. 
           There’s a human council that governs Mother’s usage, modifying her kernel programming and making adjustments here and there. Anyone can access Mother by mental command and use her within legal boundaries to do anything they want with the Network, telekinesis, fly, teleport, summon shields, anything you can think of. Even the seasons and weather are controlled by the Network. To want is to have and the world is a paradise. 
          One day, however, the Council falls out. In response to the disparity, Mother shuts down public access to the network and millions are thrown into a dark age. There is no electricity, explosions, or pressure above certain parameters (such as those needed to operate combustion engines, firearms, lights, steam engines, etc. as the Network siphons the excess power off). Within a few centuries the only intelligent life on earth are colonies of Changed humans, the descendants of those lucky enough to modify themselves into cursorial grass-eaters (deer, bison, ‘centaurs’, horses, etc.) and their predators. After a few millennia, however, Mother’s programming begins to decay. Blocks on Network usage are dropped, allowing people with the right knowledge to access it. 
           The first to notice this is a tribe of Equine humans who quickly block access off from those without the right genetic markers, cementing this block is the necessity for a biological extension needed to communicate with the Network – a “horn” antenna used to send and receive commands. A society of Network-enabled “unicorns” develops who use the Network’s “magic” to conquer the other remaining societies of Equines. Using the Network is not as simple as issuing a thought-command, the Network’s UI has degraded far beyond that. Network users need to memorize extensive programs, or “spells” to communicate with the Network at a primitive level, thus limiting a unicorn’s use to a specific set of skills. However, the various AI programs of the past have re-awakened as a result of the growing Network use, fashioning bodies to suit their tastes. These bodies are more often than not influenced by ancient mythology, those of phoenixes, hydras, Dragons, and other bizarre creatures. Faced with ever-growing rebellion from their serfs, as well as increasing pressure from growing populations of fantasy creatures, the unicorns act to unite the fighting peoples of earth by creating biological castes, each with a set purpose in life. 
          They grant certain groups of Equines with flight and weather-control programs set in their genes as protocols, the group need not memorize lengthy programs, but instead hone their protocol use by physical training; as a badge of office these Equines are granted a set of vestigial feathered wings, thus becoming Pegasi. To another group, the Unicorns relinquish biological growth protocols, giving them magical “green thumbs” (or hooves), thus allowing them to produce food for the other Equines. Finally, the Unicorn’s leaders establish themselves as a biologically unique ruling class with both wings and horns. 
           The ruling class places the newly-created Unicorns, Pegasi, and “Earth Ponies” into a new society of mutual dependence, each individual focused on improving society as a whole without worry or need of insurrection. The ruling class instructs the now-obsolete Mother to monitor each Equine throughout its development, rewarding those who stick to their occupations with a special insignia pertaining to their occupation and ostracizing those who stray by not giving them an insignia of their own. Over time these insignias evolve into marks of individuality, each one bearing special significance to whom it belongs. 
           Wars are fought between the Equine Dominion and the rogue AI creatures until finally, the upper hoof is one by the Equines and the AI programs are all but banished to barren prison-realms, kept locked away by geographic isolation. The worst offenders in the war were permanently jailed in a hell-dimension, Tartarus, whose portal remained open, but vigilantly guarded. Those AI who remained neutral in the conflict were not imprisoned, but instead given free stretches of wilderness to claim as their own. With the Equines ruling the earth, the Equine society fell into a state of peace and happiness, lovingly governed by the now almost-extinct ruling class. Unfortunately, with the last of the fusion plants destroyed in the AI war, the Network had turned to draining earth’s rotational potential for power, almost tidally locking one of Earth’s hemispheres to the sun. 
           Acting quickly, two of the last members of this class, sisters, developed a program that would let the Network source power elsewhere. Unfortunately, that would not re-stabilize Earth’s decaying rotation. This would take direct intervention. They were given the job of developing special warp programs that would manually rotate the planet. They divided the task, one “Raising the sun in the morning” and the other “lowering it at night”. However, one of the sisters became seduced by visions of power and threatened to throw Earth into stagnation by locking her half of the Rotational protocol. The other sister gained unanimous council support and usurped the would-be usurper, imprisoning her on the moon and assuming the program management of both. My Little Pony