How the Beard Became the Legend

by peacevic

prologue- The Stories We Tell Ourselves to Make Sense of the World

Long ago, before anything like ponies walked the land, the world was lit only by two strange objects in the sky. These swirling potentialities circled endlessly as the spirits danced and played below.

Eons passed, and the masses began to harden and harden, until finally... they cracked! And the spirits witnessed a new, different kind of light, a celestial pair adorned with alicorn wings and horns. Their birth signified the coming of a new age.

But the Sisters (for what else could they be but sisters?) looked around and despaired the darkness their birth had created. The loss of light caused many of the spirits to quake in fear, and the sight of their suffering broke the Sisters' hearts.

Then the first Sister (for that is the nature of time, everything has an order- first to last) had an idea. Sacrificing immense portions of the long life she had been blessed with, she spun into existence a perfect sphere of light and heat and power. The gigantic ball of yellow took the place that had been occupied by what she had been before, lighting half the world and giving those living a way to measure the passing of their lives.

The second one created her own light source, as well. But though she desired to help the spirits, she did not want to upstage her now elder Sister. Thus she used less of her longevity and, instead of making her contribution perfectly spherical and gaseous, fashioned it into a smaller, scarred, and solid satellite to her Sister's Sun.

The spirits, now able to see, began to dance once again...