Celestia sighed to herself as she sat in her room. It was a rare moment right before the day began where she did not have anything urgent to be doing. She could just sit back and think. Of course, this was a lot easier said than done, due to her large vault of memories. Being an immortal meant that at any one moment in time, she would have dozens of thoughts competing for her attention. Today was different, however, because there was only one thing on the forefront of her mind. Twilight Sparkle.
The Princess had arranged for her sister, Luna, to take over her duties the next day, and she was looking forward to a full day of just spending some time alone with her student. She hadn’t spent a proper day with Twilight in a long time, and was looking forward to hearing about everything that her student had learned recently. Receiving letters was fine and all, but sometimes, it was refreshing to talk to her subjects face to face.
She allowed a smile to creep on her face as she thought about what her student must be doing right now. No doubt she was probably stressed to the limit trying to make everything just perfect for the Princess’s arrival. Celestia had informed her that the visit would be informal, and not to tax herself trying to arrange something intricate, but no doubt Twilight would still do her best to prepare for royalty. This was both a source of great amusement for Celestia, and, at times, a slight frustration. She just hoped Twilight didn’t go into a frenzy trying to get the whole town prepared for the visit, as she only wanted to spend time with her student personally.
Celestia decided that, whatever Twilight did, she had no control over it and she should just take it in stride. She allowed herself another sigh, got up from her position on her bed, and headed out to perform the day’s duties. The sun wouldn’t rise on its own, after all. Not in this day and age, at least, she mused to herself.
“Hurry up Spike! The Princess could be here any minute!”
“I’m going, I’m going! Yeesh! You need to calm down Twilight! It’s only an informal meeting, and before you go off on me again saying that there is nothing informal about royalty, I will remind you that the Princess even requested that you keep it informal and not go all out like you have on several past occasions.”
“I know, I know. It’s just that, Celestia is my teacher, even if I have left to go live on my own. What if this visit is some sort of test to see if I am prepared for anything? What if I don’t pass?! What if she has me sent back to school to learn how to be prepared?!”
“Twilight!” Spike yelled “Snap out of it! This isn’t a test! If she wanted to see if you could be prepared in an instant, she wouldn’t have sent a letter one week in advance.” Twilight started to calm down again after Spike mentioned that last bit. He was right, and she should have seen that too.
“Sorry Spike. You know how I get when the Princess visits.”
“Yeah, I know. Just calm down a bit. How about we go outside for some fresh air and wait for the Princess? You know she made it a beautiful day out just for this occasion. It would be a shame not to enjoy it.”
“Yeah, your right. We’ve probably done all we can do for the library anyway.” The library was practically shining from all the cleaning they had been doing. There wasn’t a crumb on the floor (a rare occurrence) and not a single book was out of place (Even rarer).
The both walked outside into the bright sunshine. But that wasn’t the only thing they walked into…
“Surprise!” Pinkie shouted into Twilight’s face the moment she stepped outside. Twilight took a step back from Pinkie and looked around. Somehow, Pinkie had managed to set up an entire party right outside her house without her knowing it. There was a long table with a banquet of food set up on it and a piñata was hung from one of her tree’s branches. All her friends were gathered around a smaller table with a giant cake set atop it.
“Pinkie, how-”she stopped when she saw her friends shaking their heads and making cut-off gestures. “-come you threw me a party?” she improvised. Pinkie, however, seemed oblivious to the pause in her sentence.
“Well~ I heard that Princess Celestia was visiting and you know she hasn’t visited in a while and I started thinking about how to best welcome her because you know I don’t know what the Princess likes and then I was like Let’s throw her a party because everypony loves parties at least I hope they do because if they didn’t like my parties that would mean I was doing a bad job and that would make me sad.” She somehow managed to get that all out in one breath, and not a one of them had caught a single word of it. So they just nodded and decided to go along with it.
“Well, thanks for being here everypony. I was getting kind of nervous about the Princess visiting and all.” Twilght chuckled sheepishly.
“Well that’s why ya got us sugarcube! What else are friends for? Besides, Ah wouldn’t miss a visit from the Princess for the world!” Applejack exclaimed.
“Girls…”
“Oh, absolutely darling. Besides, if the Princess is here, she may not mind telling us about all the new trends in Canterlot!” Rarity’s eyes took on a dreamy look at the prospect.
“Girls, I really think you should look behind you.” Fluttershy tried again.
“Well, actually, I was hoping to ask the Princess about the past of Equestria.” Twilight said.
“Well darling, why don’t you just look in some of those books you are always reading? No offense of course.”
“Girls? I really think you should turn around.” Fluttershy tried once more.
“I can’t Rarity. I’ve looked and looked but there are no books on the subject I want to look up. And the books I have read merely take guesses.”
“And what is this supposed subject?” said a voice from behind the girls.
They all collectively gasped and turned around to see Princess Celestia standing there in full glory. They all sheepishly started to bow to their Princess.
“Now, I will have none of that. This is a visit among friends, as I am your friend just as I am your Princess, and I wish to be treated as such.” She royally stated.
“Princess…” Twilight started
“I would prefer to be called Celestia while I am here, Twilight.”
“All right Pri- I mean Celestia.” Twilight amended.
“Now what is this subject you want to know more about? I am very curious to hear what you want to know that only I can tell you.”
“W-well uh you see, I was wondering if, maybe, if you don’t mind-“ Twilight seemed to be kind of nervous now that she had the opportunity.
“How about we enjoy this party that your friends have set up and you can ask me later, when were alone.”
“Yeah… that sounds good.”
The party was a simple affair, compared to most Pinkie Pie parties. It was, however, the perfect opportunity for the Princess to bond better with the Elements of Harmony. They spent some time simply chatting about recent events that hadn’t been included in Twilight’s letters. When all was said and done, the others decided it was about time that they leave and let Twilight have some time with her mentor.
Now situated in Twilight’s library, Celestia decided it was about time that Twilight asked her what she had wanted to know.
“So, Twilight, what was it you wanted to ask me?”
“Well…” Twilight was still a little hesitant to ask her mentor a question that she thought may be personal. “I was wondering, about…”
“About what?”
“About…about…about the creation of the Universe and ponies.” She suddenly gushed out. She instantly regretted it when she saw the look in her mentor’s eyes too. There was a sadness there that just couldn’t be explained or fathomed by any mortal pony. A sadness that could only have been born of thousands upon thousands of years of mourning.
“So you wish to know the creation story. The one thing that can only be speculated about. The story of which only I and Luna know?” Celestia asked after a pause.
“Y-yes. I mean, if you don’t mind. If you don’t want to tell me, I’ll understand.” Twilight stumbled over her own words.
“No no. I shall tell you. I have kept the secret of the birth of the universe for far too long. If this is truly what you wish to know, then I shall tell you. Under the condition that you must not tell another soul without my permission. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Celestia, I understand.” Twilight solemnly swore.
“The story is a long one at best, as I am assuming you want to know about the creation of the sentient races as well as the universe?” Twilight nodded. “Then I suggest you get comfortable. Before I begin my story, however, where is Spike?”
“I sent him to Rarity’s when she left. She needed the extra work, Spike was only too willing, and I kinda wanted to spend the day alone with you. Do you want him here?”
“No, I merely wished to know why he wasn’t here eagerly waiting for me to tell my story. He does have a lot of curiosity, after all.” She chuckled lightly, some of the sadness seeming to leave her, though it returned when she started her story.
“It all started long ago, with my mother, Sol, creating the universe…”
Sol sighed to herself as she looked back upon her previous attempts. She had grown tired of floating in the infinite nothingness and had attempted to create something solid that she could touch. Yet she had failed so far in making something she found suitable. With a spark from her horn she obliterated her latest attempt. No point in leaving it around, serving as a reminder of her mistakes.
“One more attempt,” she said to herself “if this one fails, I might just destroy myself. I can barely stand this darkness as it is.” She sparked her horn yet again. She had done the same thing thousands of times before, and the magic now flowed through her as if only it were too willing to leave. In a blast that should have destroyed her, she created what looked to be a sphere made of some hard material. It had a brownish tint to it, and looked to be firm.
“Well, this is different. It might even be acceptable.” She landed upon the tiny sphere of material. “I think this material deserves a name of its own. I shall call it rock. A simple name, for a simple object.” But the material was small. Too small. If she was going to make a life out of this "rock" then it would have to be much bigger. It would have to be colossal in size, just to keep her occupied. So, focusing the magic in her horn once more, she proceeded to enlarge the "rock" beneath her until it was big enough to keep her busy for many lifetimes. Looking around, she noticed just how empty the space was without something to fill it. "What could I possibly make to fill it, though?"
“Maybe it needs something other than yourself” Said a voice from behind her.
“Discord,” she said without turning around “where have you been? I was worried you had left me. I haven’t seen you in years.”
“Where else could I have been? There is only an infinite amount of nothing around us, except for this, whatever it is, and us.” He gestured at the rock Sol had created. “What do you call this material anyway?”
“I’m calling it rock.”
“And what shall be its purpose?”
“It shall be the foundation upon which we’ll build our own world.”
“There is still something missing.”
“Yes, you are right. I have given some thought as to what I would do once I created our world. I believe it could do with some animals.”
“Animals? What are animals? And what would be their purpose?”
“They would provide us with something to care for, other than ourselves. We could make them so that they are not immortal, like us, and so that they have specific needs in order to survive.”
“And why would we want something to care for?” He scoffed. “That means work, and work is boring.”
Sol sighed. “You’re so lazy. Don’t you think it would be fun to at least come up with ideas? Think of all the things you could make.”
Discord sighed too “If you say so. I’m only doing this because you asked me. As long as I get to make a few creatures that are entirely of my own design.”
“…Fine.”
________________________________________
“…After many hundreds of years of hard work and thought, my mother and Discord eventually made all of the fauna that you see in Equestria, and around the world, today. They eventually created flora when they realized that not being immortal meant the animals had to eat, which explains all of the plant life.”
“Celestia, may I ask a question?” Her teacher nodded “Why was your mother working with Discord, if he is evil?”
“A good question my student. You see, as a result of my mother and Discord being the only two immortals in the universe at the time, they actually fell in love with one another.” Twilight’s jaw literally dropped after hearing this latest bit of news, and she stuttered out her next question.
“B-but h-how could… h-how come… But Discord is evil! Why would your mom love him”
“He wasn’t always so evil. Or at least, there was no way for him to show his evil tendencies at the time. There is actually a reason for why he is so evil, though I loath to repeat it. It does, however, tie in with my story, so you shall get your explanation soon enough.” The explanation was enough to visibly calm Twilight down.
“Okay. One more question.” Celestia nodded once more “Why did Sol create animals instead of sentient beings?”
“Another good question. You see there are many good reasons why, but the most obvious one is that she hadn’t thought of them yet. My mother may have been a god, but we gods don’t know everything. Most of our wisdom comes with age. Sadly, that also means that we must experience many more tragedies and misfortunes in our life than most do.” Celestia’s eyes took on that sad look again, though that was the only sign of her sorrow.
“I see what you mean.”
“I should hope so, as you did have me for a teacher.” Celestia smiled. “Besides, those few good parts of life are all that is needed to more than make up for the bad parts. Now, as I was saying before, Sol and Discord created all of animal kind and all the plants, though they soon grew unsettled again…”
________________________________________
Sol was thinking. She seemed to be doing that an awful lot of lately, as though something was bothering her. But what could be missing? They had all the animals to take care of. She also had all of the plants she could ever want to eat or admire. The only problem she could see was that all the plants had to be sustained by her magic, and Equis, as she had decided to name the sphere she had created, had to constantly be warmed. It was becoming very taxing on her mind to constantly sustain all of this life.
“You know, you could create something to do the job for you.” said Discord suddenly, interrupting her thoughts.
“Come again?”
“I mean take care of this… planet, as I would like to call it. You could create something that would both warm Equis and sustain the plants. Besides, all this darkness must be getting on your nerves by now.”
“And how do you propose I create something like that?”
“Well, I have been studying the magic you have been using and the flora itself. It seems that they create their food with the help of light. All you would need is something that produces constant light, and with light comes heat. In essence, you would be solving two problems in one go.”
“Wow. I never thought of that. Wait… why were you studying the flora?”
“I get extremely bored. Besides, I was hoping to make a plant that can eat animals, and I wanted to see how a plant feeds. How righteous it would be if a plant could eat an animal instead of the other way around.” Discord’s eyes took on a malicious gleam.
Sol took no notice of the look. She was too busy concentrating all the magic she had into her horn. Finally, in a giant pulse of energy, she unleashed the magic, which sped towards the nothingness surrounding the planet. There was a great flash and suddenly, the sun was born and the nothingness took on a blue color. It was spectacular to say the least.
Already, Sol could feel the heat from the sun warming the planet, and she could see clearly from the light it provided. Actually, the heat was starting to become too much. Sol could feel a burning sensation brought on by the heat. She quickly attempted to move the sun away from the planet, but instead it just started revolving around it, though the temperature did drop. She sighed in relief from the averted near-disaster.
“…why didn’t you just destroy it?” Discord calmly asked.
“Because I didn’t have the energy. Creating that thing took a lot more magic than I thought.”
Discord was quiet for a moment, before voicing his thoughts. “You do realize that once in reaches the other side of the planet, this side will no longer have light, right?”
“I am. And I have a solution for this.”
“Do you now? I thought it nearly drained you of magic just to create the sun.”
“It did, but I don’t need to create another. I just need an object that can reflect the light of the sun., while rotating around the planet at nearly the same speed.”
“Impressive, though I must ask, why only nearly the same speed? Why not the exact same?”
“Don’t you think it would be spectacular if they crossed paths every now and then?” She said with a slight grin.
“Maybe so, but what practical purpose does it serve?”
Her smile faded upon hearing these words “It doesn’t have to be practical, just beautiful.”
“And what good does beauty do?” Discord suddenly spat
Sol recoiled at this sudden aggressive behavior “It gives us something to strive for and admire and gives a physical aspect to a job well done!”
“And that’s exactly what all our creating is, isn’t it? A job! And do you see anything that thanks us for the work? I don’t! In, fact, I think it would be so much more fun to destroy it all!”
At this, his entire body began to glow, signally a great use of magic. Sol, sensing what was about to happened, intervened, and directed her own magic at Discord.
________________________________________
“That was the first major fight between my mother and Discord, and all because of an argument over beauty. Even then, Discord had a violent and unpredictable behavior. They fought over the course of three days, trying to destroy each other. Mother eventually won, though it was at a cost. She was already weakened by the creation of the sun, and didn’t have the power to turn him to stone like you did.” Twilight blushed sheepishly at the unexpected praise “Instead, she only managed to weaken him to an almost powerless state. She herself was almost completely drained, though she had the ability to recover much faster than Discord, thankfully.”
The library was quiet for a time as Celestia allowed her student time to digest the information she had been given. After a few minutes of thinking, Twilight decided the time was ripe to ask her mentor some more questions.
“What about the moon? If they fought before she created it, and was nearly powerless afterwards, how did it come to be?”
“Like I said, Mother was much quicker to recover than Discord, though she still had to wait awhile. During this time, many of the plants became starved of light. Mother didn’t have enough power to feed them all till much later, meaning that many of the less hardy plants went extinct. She managed to save most of them, though, and in due time she was able to create the moon she desired.”
“Well, what about weather? Why did… Sol,” She was hesitant to say Celestia’s mother’s name, but a nod from the Princess assured her it was alright “create the weather?”
“Once again you ask an interesting question. You see, when she stopped applying her magic to the plants, she noticed that they soon began to die, so she began to make her own observations. That’s when she realized the need for water in the plant’s life cycle. But she couldn’t provide them with it constantly, or they would drown. So she created the clouds, and made it so that they would rain at regular intervals. A very simple solution, in hindsight.” Celestia chuckled to herself.
“What about snow and, for that matter, the seasons in general?”
“Also good questions. Snow itself and the seasons were more of an accident than anything else, though she saw fit to keep them that way. What my mother didn’t realize when she moved the sun, was the fact that it wasn’t going around Equis in a perfect circle, but instead had two separate points in which it was either really close to the planet, or farthest away from it, with everything in between making up the seasons. Soon, all of the trees in the area had their leaves changing colors. Mother didn’t make the correlation at the time, though. She just thought that the change looked beautiful. After a while, the temperature on the planet began to rapidly decrease, the plants began to die, the clouds soon began to stop raining, and snow began to fall instead. This led to all the leaves eventually falling off the trees on their own due to the weight of the snow, unlike now when we have the Running of the Leaves.”
“It was an extremely confusing time for Mother, because nothing she did seemed to undo the damage done by the temperature drop. After a few months, the trees leaves began to grow back, as did the plants. It was around then that mother finally realized what was happening, though she didn’t try to change it. In fact, she found the changing of the seasons added a certain harmony to the world.” Celestia paused, waiting for the next question to come.
“If the cold was all it took to create snow, why do the ponies in Cloudsdale’s weather factory create those individual snowflakes?”
“For the simple reason that it is more beautiful that way. Besides, snow created by the cold is nowhere near as reliable, and tends to melt too fast for ponies to enjoy.” A flicker of a smile appeared once more on Celestia’s face before being replaced by the sadness again.
“Well in that case, my only question now is what happened after Sol created the weather and the moon?”
Celestia braced herself for the next part. It was going to get painful from here on in. “My mother began to feel lonely. She may have fought with Discord over the matter of beauty, but he had struck a nerve. What was the point of making beautiful things if you’re the only one who can enjoy them? So she began to experiment…”
Author's Note: I know I went on a long Hiatus, and I'm sorry. I would like to explain the reasoning now. Recently, I undertook a huge amout of work, editing 15 stories, co-writing 3, and I'm currently writing another long-*** story titled Elemental Chaos. It looks to me like EC could easily end up being over 500,000 words long by the time it is done, and it should have more than 40 chapters. It's an adventure story concerning the mane six and a bunch of stuff I made up myself. Better yet, it's completely canonical, though that may change if the synopses of S3E1-2 is correct. I, for one, hope not. Regardless, the story will not be posted on this site until the entire thing is done, so you will just have to be content with this for now. Sorry if the chapter is short or not up to par in anyway, but I decided I should at least give you guys something as the choice was between writing a fairly long chapter or splitting it into two smaller parts. The next chapter should be longer to make up for this. Now, let's let the story begin.
The small filly looked around the grassy plain she was currently standing on. Out in the distance, she could see a line of trees, marking the boundary of a forest, and to one side, there was what appeared to be a mountain range. On her other side the grass continued until it met up with the horizon, where the sun was currently setting. Turning around, she was met with a beautiful sight, at least to her.
Standing right there was an amber pony, with long graceful wings and a long, sharp horn, while her mane and tail were flowing ribbons of the deepest black. The filly could feel the power radiating from this pony as if it were a physical force. They stared at each other for a long time before she worked up the courage to speak.
“Who are you, if you don’t mind my asking?” Always be polite, she thought.
“Why child, I am your mother, Sol. A better question to ask is, who are you?” She said, leaning down with a smile.
“I don’t know.” The filly answered truthfully.
“Well, how about Celestia?”
After a bit of thought, Celestia nodded and accepted the name her mother gave her. Then a thought struck her.
“If you’re my mother, then who’s my father?”
“Why, that would probably be me.” Said a voice behind her. Whipping around, Celestia saw what she could only classify as a monstrosity. It looked like a combination of all sorts of animals, though she didn’t know any of the specific ones.
“Discord! What are you doing back here?” Sol demanded. Celestia was very confused as to what was going on, and decided to remain quiet.
“Why, my dear Sol, I came back to apologize. After you so gracefully beat me, I went to another part of this planet you created to nurse my wounds, so to speak. Needless to say, I had plenty of time to reflect on what I did, and I feel just awful about it.” The whole time he said this, he was busy inspecting one of his own hands, which seemed odd to Celestia.
“Well, you’re not welcome here. You have caused enough trouble already, so why don’t you just go off and create your own planet?”
“Becomes it’s too much fun messing with yours” His voice had taken on an angrier quality, and what to Celestia sounded like a hint of madness. “and I shall continue to do so if you don’t cooperate with me.”
“Forget it. I can’t cooperate with a being who can’t appreciate the finer qualities of this world.”
“I think you have it backwards, my dear. It is you who cannot appreciate the beauty found in chaos.” Celestia noticed a certain mad gleam in Discord’s eyes.
“There is no beauty in chaos, Discord, only pain and sadness. Now I suggest you leave, before I make you leave. I can tell your power is still low; you would be no match for me right now.” Her horn started to glow ominously.
“Oh, I’m going to leave. I’m much too busy to stay and chat anyway. But be warned, Sol, I will be back. And I won’t be alone.” He laughed crazily when he finished. Then he snapped his talons and disappeared.
Silence found its way into the air, and Celestia wasn’t sure how to break it. Finally, with a little shuffling of hooves, she worked up the courage to ask her mother something.
“Was that thing really my dad?” She asked.
“No, my child, he wasn’t. He is too evil to enjoy another being such as yourself. Now, let’s explore your new home.” She said the last part with a smile aimed at Celestia.
Celestia smile right back, and hopped after her mother.
________________________________________
“…and so I spent the next few years exploring the world my mother had created. And by a few years, I mean the next few hundred.” She finished, with a faint smile.
The both just sat in silence for a time, as Twilight took the moment to absorb this new wealth of information. Here she was, next to the oldest living being in Equestria, and she was being told all the secrets of the creation. She got excited just thinking about it!
“Twilight, I think we should take a break for lunch, what do you say?” Celestia asked Twilight. As if in answer, both their stomachs growled loudly. Celestia just smiled. “I take it that’s a yes?” They then shared a laugh as the exited the library. It was just as beautiful outside as it had been that morning. Ponies were out everywhere, playing, running about business, or just simply enjoying the weather. Everyone was happy and peaceful, just as they should be. Then, darker thoughts began to assault her mind, and the horror of them began to show on her face.
Twilight looked up at her mentor, a look of concern on her face. “Celestia, are you alright? You look troubled.” Celestia stopped walking, realizing that she had allowed a look of horror to briefly cross her face, and hastened to correct this. “Everything is fine, my little pony. I was just… reminiscing.” Twilight still looked unsure, but she dropped any argument. She knew that if Celestia wanted to talk about it, she would have done so.
They again started their walk for Sugarcube Corner, though the silence was more pronounced. If not for all the ponies around them chatting away, Celestia might have thought she’d gone deaf. Attempting to bring an end to the awkward silence, Celestia moved on to more positive subjects. “So how are your studies coming along? I’d like to know what my faithful student deems necessary for research, you know.”
Twilight visibly brightened at the mention of her studies, and launched into a long tirade on how she was studying griffon history, while at the same time continuing her research on the wide range of beast in the Everfree forest and how she had gotten Zecora to help her, seeing as she lived in the forest itself. By now they had both reached Sugarcube Corner, where Twilight ordered a cupcake, while Celestia had a few donuts.
“Sounds like you have been busy. I hope you are not overworking yourself.”
“Well, maybe a little.” Twilight said sheepishly.
Celestia just shook her head and smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
They sat at their table and began to quietly eat their food, both just enjoying the day. Suddenly, Celestia had an idea that brought a smile to her face. “Hey, Twilight?”
“Yes Celestia?” Twilight responded
“How would you like to go for a little flight?” Celestia asked mischievously.
Twilight looked puzzled. “How am I going to go for a flight?”
“Why, you’re going to climb on my back, of course.”
Twilight stared at the princess in shock, before slowly smiling. She used to go for rides on the princesses back all the time when she was but a little filly. She missed those days.
Walking quitely over to the princess, who had lain down just so Twilight could get on, she climbed aboard the Princess' back. The Princess, to the astonishment of a few local ponies, took off at a speed the Rainbow Dash would envy, and flew around the outside of town, lazily doing her best to let Twilight have a good time. At one point during the flight, The princess' horn glowed, and she cast the cloud-walking spell on her student before alighting on one of the larger clouds. Once they had both sat down, and Twilight took time to catch her breath, they began to talk some more about Celestia's past. Deciding that she shouldn't keep her student waiting any longer, she began to tell her about the creation of Luna.
"Well, after about, I'd say, a thousand years, I began to become lonely and wished for interaction amond someone just like me. Well, I went to my mother and told her my problem. She immediately knew what to do, and so she told me to give her awhile. And so I waited...
