My Head Cannon Cracked: And That's How Equestria Was Made · 3:41am Oct 2nd, 2015
Let's lay a little groundwork first.
I was checking out the front page here on fimfiction and was generally not finding anything interesting when I took note of how many 'human in Equestria' stories there were. I'm not really a fan of the genre and so, in my lame attempt at trying to get the audience in my imagination to side with me about human in Equestria stories being a kind of tired trope, I started thinking about ways of subverting the concept.
Nothing much was coming except for the idea that it'd be kind of funny if the ponies in the story thought this new creature was a human, only to have the creature contradict them. At first it was more along the lines of some mystical creation - that it only appeared human because that's what was needed for the work it had to do.
But that's not really that interesting and the ponies in my imagination wanted to know what the creature really was, and the possible answers I came up with are where it started getting fun.
I started running through humanoid fantasy creatures and hit upon elves, like in Lord of the Rings. And I was thinking about how it was actually plausible that in one of the deep forests of Equestria or somewhere else in the world, that elves still existed. But then, because it was coming from a Lord of the Rings frame of mind, I hit upon the best idea.
Tolkien created a character who would perfectly fit as the creator and originator of a world of happy, singing, colorful ponies.
And so, in steps Tom Bombadil as the new god of the world of ponies. The more I thought about it, the more it fit. He speaks to animals, and the animals in his care are massively smarter than any others in the whole world. He is constantly bursting into song and can even use his songs themselves as a kind of magic. No magic in the world has any power over him, but he is still intensely magical himself. He is highly interested in keeping his little piece of the world in harmony despite its wildness. And he is a friend to all - whether they are wicked or good as long as they behave themselves in his piece of the world.
I think Tolkien's Old Forest has become the Everfree Forest. Tom's constant nurturing of the plants and the animals of that place spawned multiple sentient races and several other magical creatures. Because they spring from Tom's magic, song is a part of them, and deeply ingrained into the world around them. That's why they burst into song, and also why no one seems to mind - it happens all the time because of the magic that first birthed them.
And the thing is, we even have a character that is quite a lot like Tom Bombadil already - they're just not as old, wise, and powerful as he was in Tolkien's tales.
Of course it's Pinkie Pie.
Who else better embodies an exceptionally powerful magical being, who doesn't seem to know how, or at least doesn't want, to use their magic for more conventional purposes? Who else goes into song as easily and as often? Who else seems to be able to ignore magic or many other powerful forces? Discord is certainly more powerful and older, but given that same lifespan isn't it easy to see Pinkie Pie surpass what he can do when she's as old and experienced?
And there you have it. Tom Bombadil from The Lord of the Rings survived long enough in his Old Forest through all the ages of men, and from that forest came the creatures that would found the three tribes, the griffins, Discord, and all the rest of the world. And because he is still in that forest, happy and singing with his Goldberry, it remains Everfree.
Probably doesn't work because Tolkien was die hard Catholic who became even more die hard in WW I (a time even when the medical personnel had balls that'd make actual infantrymen feel like they lacked masculinity) and probably would chastise you, in perfect Latin no less, for your conclusion.
3530838 But Tolkien wasn't adverse to talking about worlds where God didn't exist - heck, there's not even a Christian God analog in Middle Earth at all. There's one in Tolkien's friend's books - C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.
I think Tolkien would be okay with the concept from a belief standpoint. It's more likely that he'd critique me for using his world as a starting point rather than coming up with my own. But he was a make it from scratch junky - pretty much created Middle Earth just so he'd have a setting for the languages that he was developing. In case you couldn't tell from the length of his books and the style of his writing - dude loved words and language.