Light. That was the first thing I felt. I could breathe it into my bruised lungs, and I could feel it pick up my discarded body, lifting me up above the cracked and scorched earth.
Beams of light touched my body, my broken remains. Like a foal's puzzle they reassembled me. I could feel my bones reconnecting and growing. I don't know how to describe the feeling of something stretching your bones...It didn't hurt, nor did it pacify me. It was frightening, despite my inability to truly feel it.
My eyes were returned to me and reconnected to my mind with tiny fingers. My eyelids were moved, not by me, but by an invisible hand. It was frightening.
Fear...That described the first emotion I felt.
My reborn eyes saw a nearly unfathomable sight. I saw the center of the universe, I saw every galaxy spinning and pulsing with the radiance of a million stars. They danced and twirled like pegasus foals around their mother.
It was beautiful. The very sight brought me to tears.
"Sister...?"
A mare stood beside me in the golden abyss. She stared into the glorious light with me, but she could still see me out of the corner of her eye. I could still recognize her, even with the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn. Even with her limbs stretched and her body made stronger.
My sister.
"Luna?"
We tore our eyes away from the beauty, and to each other. Our last sight of each other had involved rings of fire and screams of pain. To see each other well again was a miracle all its own.
But it was not the only one we would witness today.
Luna and I embraced each other, nuzzling our heads against one another. It was then I noticed my own horn. Gleaming in the light and standing proudly atop my head. I gasped at the sight of it, my tearful eyes not knowing what to make of everything.
My sister and I were reborn as some sort of amalgamation of all three types of ponies. We were presented before a council of galaxies. We were standing in a golden oblivion, lost and confused, breathing in the light of the many stars.
"Do not be afraid." The lights would pulse and shimmer with each syllable. The light was talking to us. The voice was backed by a trillion whispers made up of colts, mares, and foals.
"What are you?" I asked the light.
"Art thou...a deity?"
"No, a friend."
Our eyes stared deeper into the golden light, and we saw the inner workings of the universe. Colors without a name. Sounds without a description. Beauty unparalleled. It threatened to overwhelm my sister and I! The sounds and sights were going too fast and were becoming more and more remarkable for the brief glimpses we had. I feared my newly repaired eyes were about to be ruined once more when darkness took both of our visions.
The darkness lifted to reveal a new face. The light was gone, replaced by a two legged creature. Her hair suggested she was a mare, and her smile suggested she was what the voices said. A friend.
"I'm sorry about that." Just one voice now. Her own, I assumed.
"Wh-what was that? What are you? What happened?!" I questioned, afraid, moving away from her hand and instinctively using my newly formed wing to shield my little sister.
"A form I had thought you would be comfortable with. It seemed you were not, so I chose another. I am a friend. I have watched your planet since it was a speck of dust in the cosmic wind, but I can no longer stand by and watch as you suffer. Discord, do you remember him?"
The two of us quivered in awe and fear of the two-legged creature. Her hair seemed to glow and flow like a river, and within her eyes laid eons of knowledge. I averted my eyes away from them and instead stared at the ground, seeing the dark nothingness we stood over.
My sister did the same, out of fear that our eyes would feel the fire of the universe again.
"Yes," my sister answered. "We opposed his rule. We had tried overthrowing him many times, but we failed...This time, he executed us for our crimes."
The woman nodded, a universal sign, it seemed. She placed a pale hand on both of our chins and lifted us up. We saw her and we felt her soft fingers caressing our cheeks.
This god. This eldritch beauty. This living universe had such gentleness to it. She presented to us our tears, floating centimeters over her fingertips. Three from my sister and three of my own.
She kissed them and they glowed with the color. Reds, blues, greens, and colors that I had seen in the golden abyss danced together within the tears as they grew.
"Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty, and Magic. The Elements of Harmony. They will be your hammer as you shatter Discord's rule. They will be your blade as you cut down his tyranny. They will be the foundation of the society you will lead."
"Wh-what?!" I gasped. "Lead? We are but simple ponies! Before Discord, I was a simple farm pony! I...I cannot lead a nation!"
"Why can you not do this yourself?" Luna inquired, moving my wing aside as she looked at the deity. She was far calmer than I during this trying time.
"I do not want your people depending on us. We will not always be there. They need to look to their own, for now. They need to be inspired by you. We have looked through the souls of all that Discord has and will hurt. You two, alone, are the only ones deemed worthy to lead your country through this turmoil. Through you, harmony can be obtained."
"I can understand Luna, but why me?! She has studied hundreds of books, and knows far more magic than I! I can't be a leader! You've chosen wrong! I'm just-"
"It was through our thoughts your galaxy formed! Our waking dreams that allowed your existence! You are our responsibility, and we will protect you from this devil!" The voices boomed through the entity as the golden light lit up once more, but this time it was not alone. Spiral, elliptical, ring, and lentincular. Trillions of galaxies formed around us- above, below, and in every direction we turned.
Luna and I had to shield our eyes as they radiated. Their voices shook our very bones. One of them alone had a trillion mouths, but all together, the sound was deafening.
The light vanished once more, and we opened our eyes to see figures- black silhouettes that stood before a light. Many of them stood back, watching us, while the first one we saw spoke. She was the closest, and so far, the one with the softest voice.
"You must have faith in our decision, and more importantly, in yourself, Celestia. Luna." She turned to my sister, who was still reeling from the voices. "You and your sister together must defeat Discord. You and her must be Equestria's leaders. You opposed him once before, and you shall do so again, only now you will have a portion of our strength, and you will have these."
Our tears were shown to us again, but the presence of the gods had changed them. They were jewels. Crystals.
"The Elements of Harmony. Take them and bring peace back to this once beautiful land. Heal it. Protect it. Teach your subjects. We will be with you when you end Discord's reign. Take the Elements of Harmony, and you will do our wonders..." The figures were leaving now. One by one, they vanished.
I stared at them as they left, and Luna stared with me. She was the quicker one, calling out to them before they left.
"Wait! What is your name?!"
Her whisper touched us on a cold, gentle breeze. "Lauren." With that little whisper, they were gone. Luna and I stood on cracked and scorched earth once more. We looked to the heavens and instead of gods we found the sun eclipsed by the moon...
Another of Discord's jokes...
"I will bring the moon down. Lift the sun up, sister. This will the first morning of a new Equestria," Luna commanded.
I swallowed my fear and simply nodded. What else could I do? If I was to be a leader, I had to be steadfast. Strong. Brave. I had to be more like Luna. I closed my eyes as she closed her own. We rose above the cracked and blackened stone and our horns glowed.
The moon began to set, and the sun did rise. Our eyes opened and I could see Luna's were completely white. I could only imagine the same for my own. The Elements of Harmony rose with us and reacted to our magic. The moon returned to its proper place, away from the sun, and the ball of fire and heat illuminated the land.
The crystals unleashed their power, and a purifying dome formed over them. It stretched out upon the land, encasing us in it, only to spread even farther.
When our spell was over, we fell on our knees and looked at the once-ruined land.
Where was once a land that had been dying for years, now lay a beautiful grassland with trees spread throughout. Neither of us had any idea how far the wave went, but we knew its power now. The Elements of Harmony were our key.
I looked at my sister and she looked back at me. We nodded at one another, our faces showing our determination. We began to gallop, not caring which way we went as any direction would show signs of his infection, and any amount of curing that disease would attract its creator.
This chaos would end. This country would rise again. My sun rose with our birth, and it would fall with his defeat- this I swore.