As all things in any universe Equestria too had a beginning. In the same way a plant sometimes grows on the remains of its ancestors, Equestria grew on the remains of the world that came before it.
Scientists assume an imbalance in the magical field of the universe caused a gigantic explosion that formed all matter. That matter then gathered and formed Equestria by the virtue of its own gravitational pull. It then pulled in more and more matter until it had absorbed all material in its sphere of influence. Sun and moon got pulled into orbit and the basic foundations of life were laid. And as life tends to do, it inevitably found a way to thrive.
More religious ponies believe that Equestria was formed by an all-powerful creator. Said creator then formed the very universe in a way so they could live in it. Some believe that either Celestia or Luna or both of them did that. Others give that honour to an obscure entity they call Faust.
Neither the scientists nor the priests are correct though. But Twilight Sparkle will soon find out the truth.
This was a very good story :D 9/10
My only real complaint is with a bit of Luna's characterization. Namely this line: "Well, she was all-powerful, but she was still bound to some rules."
This makes Luna look like a moron. I'm sorry but if there is any constraints on your power at all, you can't be all powerful. It's basic logic. All minus anything is not all. A better explanation, one more in line with Luna not being too dumb to understand that it's not omnipotence if they can't do literally anything they desire when they desire it, would have been "Obviously, Sunset wished for the world to be different." or "Perhaps she was homesick. A desire to walk amongst ponies once more influenced her thoughts, creating the very world she came from."
Damn Scout... Just damn... I loved that but does that mean that they are stuck in a loop of time? Or is there a definite end to the world?
Woo glad to see this posted!
Quite the amazing idea Scout, poor Sunset. 
8193036 Time loops are generally misunderstood. It's a loop. It has ends. If it were a cycle, then it would repeat over and over and over. However the word 'loop' implies a twist within a 'string'. IE open ended. A time loop goes back on itself but there's a before, during, and after that time loop.
8193484 But doesn't it repeat over and over for Sunset?
She gets born goes through the mirror turns it into Equestria gets born again etc.
8192996
I'm happy you liked the story and I have to agree, the way the sentence is phrased is a bit misleading of what I wanted to say.
Thanks for pointing it out.
8193036
There is no loop as far as I'm concearned.
Time flows naturally before Sunset's birth and after her "death". Neither the world nor Sunset herself is stuck in an eternal loop.
8193348
Thanks
But I deliberately never told what truly happened to Sunset. Maybe she became some sort of god, maybe she became one with the magic of the world itself or maybe she just died. Nopony knows, but you are free to believe whatever you like.
8193484
Time travel is a thing that's done pretty poorly most of the time. Comics are generally a huge mess as soon a writer decides to involve time travel. So I think it's understandable that the topic itself is largely missunderstood.
That being said, you're right, this story involves no ever returning time loop.
8193748
Nope, from Sunset's perspective nothing ever repeates itself.
She get's born, travels to Earth and "dies". The born Sunset has no memory of the past and therefore doesn't perceive it as a repetition.
Look at it that way, if Sunset survived the experiment she would have seen the world continue its existence. She would be able to see her own birth, meet herself and live on after her younger self goes through the mirror. It's more like a huge looping on a rollercoaster, not a full circle.
8193802
Sir either way it was a great read and I personally enjoyed your head canon
No literally. Who else do you think put a magical crystal box into the ground, grew a giant crystal castle, and that has a throne room with a map that always seems to knows where a "Friendship Problem" is located?
Joking aside though I find this to be well made story.
So Star Swirl didn't create a dimensional portal, he ended up creating a time portal. Very interesting story, even more so because of how well it fits with canon and how many things about the EQ world it explains (like human Celestia only being a school principal compared to Princess Celestia, no human Sunset, etc.).
Sad ending, I was hoping that Sunset could rejoin them now that history has run its course (or that she had literally become the Tree of Harmony), but guess not.
Makes a nice character build of Celestia. To go that long not telling anyone. To looking foal Sunset in the eyes and not being able to tell her how she save everyone. When reading this then thinking about sunset shimmer running away it adds alot more emotion to Sunset Shimmer's Orgins story. And to the relationship between Shimmer and Celestia.
Wow, just wow, now I need a Favorites shelf, because Favorites just won't do for this one... Great, now I'm starting to sound like Zatharas...
Any how, I like how you made both worlds connect, explained Celestia, Luna and the origin of Equus in a short story. Very nice. As to Sunset, I guess she's become the mare who folded herself (a reference to this story)
8193811
Glad you liked it and thanks for the compliment
8194398
Thanks
8194758
Funny thing is, I never intended to explain so many things and fit it into the canon like this.
It all started out as the random thought of "Could Sunset accidentaly destroy the world by playing around with magic?"
And while I thought about it it evolved into the story above.
In regards to the ending ... it is supposed to be a bit sad, but it is also open at one crucial point. We don't know what happened to Sunset. (Well, you guys don't know, I do
)
She could have been destroyed by the powers she wielded at the time.
She could have ascended to a being to powerful for our universe to contain, essentially becoming truly omnipotent and therefore a goddess.
She could have become one with the magic and therefore Equestria.
She could have split her soul into parts and put a small bit into each of the Element of Harmony to balance them against each other.
She could have been reincarnated like the others but maybe at another time.
She could have become the Tree of Harmony, turning herself into some sort of pillar to hold the world together.
All these options are, as far as I'm concearned, valid possibilities and it's entirely up to your believe to which of those "endings" you subscribe.
8197354
Thanks
When I first came up with the idea of a story about Sunset destroying the world I didn't even intent to bring in Celestia. But as the idea developed further I thought it would give the whole thing much more weight in the princesses actually knew this would happen.
Therefore Celestia knew of the events and also knew that she was powerless to do anything about them. So she did the best she could think of. She prepared Sunset in any way she could and told her that she loved her.
8199963
Thanks
I originally never aimed for it to explain so many things but it somehow happened over the course of the story's conception and writing.
But I don't think that either this story nor the version of Sunset in it share similarities with Daniel or The Man Who Folded Himself.
There is only one incarnation of Sunset. She never even knew she had traveled in time and didn't even attempt to change the course of history.
In the end it boils down to one thing, one fundamental rule all my time travel is bound by: You can't change anything.
I personally think the only time travel done right is the one which abides by this rule. But that is in no small part personal taste. I simply prefer my time travel as scientifically correct as possible.
Leaving out what happened to Sunset Shimmer and allowing us the reader to think about it, is the perfect ending to a perfect story thankyou.
My only problem with this story is that Sunset isn't Twilight, she knows about proper scientific procedure and has enough respect for Rainbow Friendship God to not throw it against a wall and try to figure it out from the explosion.
8201000
Let's ANALYZE WITH CANON AND MYTHOLOGY!
1) MLP Universe is pantheistic Rainbow Friendship God is the sum of all that is.
2) Philospher's stones are creatable(god damn it scitwi, also elements.)
3) Internal alchemy is also probably possible as Sunset pulls stupid rainbow tricks out of her hat once a month and well Pantheism.
4) THE WORLD Style enlightenment is definitely a path just from the fact of it being Rainbow Friendship God, So total detachment is not a prerequisite for above internal alchemy/transcendence. Also have you met our would be internal alchemist? She has all the fucks to give.
5) All Magic comes from expressing the soul, all soul's are part of rainbow friendship god.
Now the most important part of her message to figuring out what happened is the following. "And please believe me when I say I’ll always be by your side. I’ll always be by your side."
I see three distinct possibilities.
A) She became one with Rainbow Friendship God, at once herself and everything.
B) She became Equestria's Magic field and why it's so magical.
C) She became the Tree of Harmony.
So Which one was It?
Trick question, they are all the same thing!
I agree just for the "It's the only kind you can write well and that doesn't trample other's wills." reasons.
8192996
A desire too is a limitation.
8206350
You interpret way to much into this
Personally what's important to me it that you enjoyed the story.
8211969
Well yeah, over analyzing is fun though.
Great story, but I gotta ask. You got inspiration from this didn't you? If so you pulled it off nicely.
8459259
I've heard the post-apocalypse theorie about MLP a few years back when the fact that Adventure Time was a post-apocalypse setting was revealed, but this story wasn't inspired by any of those theories. The video you linked for example, I've never before heard of that guy and neither did I see this particular video.
This story evolved from the simple question "Could I make Sunset blow up the world with her new magic?" This, by extension, was a question I asked myself when I thought about Robert Oppenheimer's famous quote "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." which in turn is only a quote from the Bhagavad Gita.
Only later, while I actually put the story to (virtual) paper, it evolved into what you see here today.
So, in short: No, I wasn't inspired by the post-apocalpse theorie that floated (and to an extend still floats) around in the community. I started out with a very simple idea and then went from there. When I first thought up this story I had no idea that it would become some sort of link between MLP and EQG and I sure as suger never even planned to make it such a thing. In hindsight I myself am quite surprised at what I actually managed to pull off here
Anyway, I'm happy you enjoyed it.
8683769
I'm glad you liked It. That it's a bit confusing might be because I never planned it to end up like this. It kinda spiralled out of control and suddenly I had written what you have here
Anyway, thank for your comment and I hope you got a good night sleep in the meantime.