//------------------------------//
// The All Powerful 
// Story: The Alicorn Queen 
// by TheEveryDaySparkle 
//------------------------------//

"Tell me, have you ever wondered why Equestria has no queens? There hasn't been a single queen in recorded history. That's right. Not even one. I should know, I've read the entire Canterlot library 3 separate times."

"There's always been only princesses, and there's always been only four. Celestia, her sister Luna, Cadence, and myself."

"Ah, but now you're realizing. I wasn't always a princess, was I?"

"No, I really wasn't. For the longest time I was just plain old boring, nerdy, know it all Twilight Sparkle. I valued studying more than my friends-what few of them I did have at the time- and I was at least ninety-nine percent sure I would've died If I ever did anything to upset Princess Celestia."

"To be honest, I still am a little afraid, even as I am now. A parent never wants to disappoint their child after all."

"What? Were you not expecting that? Well, I have a lot of surprises in store for you. You...might wanna sit down for this one."

"You see, I told you I wasn't always a princess. That for the longest time, I was just a normal pony. Right? Well, what I didn't tell you is who exactly "Twilight Sparkle" was."

"Now, I also said that there were no Alicorns in recorded history, correct? Well, If you paid attention to my previous words, you would know something was amiss. I specifically said, recorded history."

"The reason why there has never been any recorded history of the existence of Alicorns is simple. It is because somepony had them all wiped clean of that particular information."

"And yes. That somepony...was me. Because the very first queen to ever rule Equestria in any way, shape or form...was me."

"You see, all the Alicorns you know, are all actually me. How, you ask? Well, have you ever wondered what my cutie mark is really for? It's not magic, like most people seem to believe."

"It's my symbol as Queen. Celestia was once a part of me, believe it or not. My star Cutie Mark is proof of that. She is the princess of the Sun, and my Cutie Mark is a star? Tell me, what is the sun, really? A star, correct? Now when can you see the most stars in the sky? At night. And Luna is the princess of what again? Come on. Even my coat and mane color is a dead giveaway." 

"I possess the kindness and compassion of Celestia, the ancient knowledge and sheer power of Luna, and the all encompassing love of Cadence. Here, I'll explain."

"It all began some thousands of years ago, during a time when Equestria was first starting out. The three pony tribes I had created to inhabit the land of Equus were just starting to come together as one. I watched as they founded Equestria and lived in harmony for many years to come."

"I never let them go hungry, and I never let their thirst go unsatisfied. All they had to do was ask, and I would provide them with everything they could ever want and more. I gave them warm beds, full bellies and joyful moments. There were some...benefits to being as powerful a being as I was."

"But even still, every joyful moment, has it's end. As is customary for any race, of any species on any world, they began to argue. Their arguments became fights, and their fights became wars, and I watched them destroy each other piece by piece."

"Having grown tired of watching them ruin themselves, I created the Wendigos to foster peace among the races. Having a common enemy is known to bring ponies together after all."

"They were stubborn at first, one not wanting to give in to the other all because of some silly pride. But soon as the world was covered in snow, they all saw that  the danger the wendigos brought was very real."

"So, as they stood there, slowly freezing to death in the biting cold, they formed an alliance with each other, and, seeing this, I stopped the wendigos' advance. But I let the three tribes' leaders know in their dreams that if they ever broke the alliance, and showed disharmony with each other, the wendigoes would return to plunge the world into Eternal Winter."

"And thus, Equestria was formed. Fast forward two thousand years and once again, the ponies were arguing. In a preemptive act of intervention, I was about to set  the Wendigoes upon them again, to remind them of their promise, when out of nowhere, a strange, bipedal creature with the strangest appearance began popping up in Equestria to cause trouble."

"His antics became so outrageous and were so vexing to me that I felt I couldn't handle this on my own anymore. This being was no creation of mine. He had simply popped into existence one day, and started causing a ruckus."

"I knew something had to be done, and so, after countless battles between myself and the creature, I created a being, very similar to myself in terms of power, and sent them down to Equestria to take care of the strange intruder. After a while I noticed that they were having trouble keeping up with it, and so I created another. This being was much like me as well, only less powerful than the first, and perhaps a bit smaller."

"These two being were Celestia and Luna, the first Princesses of the nation of Equestria, and the 'first' alicorns to ever rule it."

"I watched the two work together to defeat the beast, who I had dubbed 'Discord' for obvious reasons, and was very happy to see that they had sealed him away in stone. I was also extra happy to see that they had not killed him. Faust knows what would've become of Equestria if the ponies knew of bloodshed. There's also the fact that I created them to be kind and caring, compassionate and loving beings, so that's a plus."

"Soon, peace was restored, and all was well again. The ponies were happy, and Celestia and Luna were ruling together side by side."

"I was rather surprised to learn that the two had gained free will and now considered each other sisters and me as their mother. But i didn't see any problems with it, and allowed things to continue as they were. I'm not a monster, you know?"

"But soon, yet another problem reared its head. With free will came the ability to make decisions, and feel emotions. Unfortunately for Luna, her emotions, led to some very bad decisions, and yet again, Discord took advantage of this. Even from his stone prison, he was still a thorn in my side. He saw Luna in her confused, angry state, and created a being that would whisper in her ear, invade her thoughts, her dreams, and twist and corrupt her mind with lies and honeyed words. I dubbed this being, 'The Nightmare'."

"I watched, hoping and praying to Faust that Luna would fight this monster, that she would choose not to to believe it's lies and deceits. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Luna was too consumed with Jealousy, and soon, the nightmare took control of her body as well as her mind. She had become...Nightmare Moon."

"Seeing that one of my own had been taken from me, I quickly made my way down to Equestria to confront the Nightmare and save Luna from the clutches of the vile monster holding her hostage. But i had used much of my power to create the Princesses, and I knew that I would need more power to defeat this threat. I used a smaller bit of my leftover strength to create items that would temporarily gift others with my power. If I was gonna face this, I needed help, and I needed it fast."

"After consoling a broken Celestia, who, surprisingly, had the strength of will to banish her own sister to the moon for a thousand years, I told her of a way we could bring her beloved sister back to her. She immediately gathered herself and asked me what she could do to help."

"I asked her to gather five ponies to bear the items I created-Which I had called the 'Elements of harmony' in order to spite Discord- and bring them to the castle to meet me."

"She did as I had told, and brought the five ponies. I explained the situation-minus my Alicornhood of course- and fitted each of them with an element. And with that, we were on our way."

"We made our way through the Everfree Forest-yet another thing of mine Discord decided to mess with- and eventually found our way to an old castle I gave Celestia and Luna to live in before they founded Canterlot."

"Turns out, Nightmare Moon was one for nostalgia. One look at that, and I knew Luna had to be in there somewhere. I opted to go alone, and the five ponies let me without much resistance."

"I made my way through the castle until my galloping stride took me to the throne room. I opened the old door and stepped inside, and there stood Nightmare Moon, covered from head to hoof in light blue battle armor. I wasted no time in letting her know that what she was doing was wrong, and that she should come to her senses, but the mare was already too far gone to hear me."

"Seeing that I would need to use force, I charged her, hoping that the fear of seeing her mother's power would knock her back to her senses. But, to my surprise, she charged at me as well."

"At this point, it was a game of chicken. We were both wondering which of us would flinch first. But I had a plan."

"Teleporting out of the way i quickly made my way past her, turning around to try and catch her from behind. Unfortunately she managed to gather herself and turn around, aiming a blast at me."

"The battle continued in much the same fashion, with both of us continuously rising into the air. At first it seemed like we were evenly matched, but I started to notice a slight lag in her movements. But, just as I was about to go in for the attack, those five ponies from before showed up."

"Nightmare targeted them instead of me, and I was forced to fight her while protecting them, which proved to be difficult. That is until one of the five in particular, an 'Applejack' I believe her name was, reminded me that we were in this together. That I had brought them here to fight with me, not so that they could stand on the side lines while I fought to protect them and their homeland. The other four agreed, and said that they would not let me risk my life without them."

"And so, we all attacked as one, and for the first time in my life, I wasn't fighting alone. I wasn't by myself on the battlefield surrounded by nothing but helpless ponies that could die if I made one mistake. I was surrounded by equals who wanted to fight by my side."

"I had told the truth about one thing. Until right then, Twilight Sparkle had never valued friendship more than studying. It's the entire reason I created the world in fact. To find out what friendship was. That had been the subject of my study for years. That had been the thing I created life for to begin with. And now here it was, right in front of me this whole time."

"Needless to say, we took care of Nightmare Moon, and Luna was returned to her original state. Though she did bow to me and apologize profusely after the fact for attempting to attack me and her sister. I let her off with a light warning and smiled as if there was nothing wrong. I even told her I would be staying with them in Equestria to monitor things more closely. They were both so happy I was sure one of them might explode. After that, everything was fine. Luna even took the Nightmare for a pet, naming it and taking it to roam ponies' dreams with her. All was well. Until Discord broke free again."

"Discord, the trickster that he is, had turned the entirety of Ponyville into his personal playground. To be honest it...seemed rather tame compared to his other exploits. Was he running out of ideas? Anyway, I got involved again, and this time it didn't take that long to defeat him. He tried to split me and my friends up, even using his powers to flip our personalities upside down. But even then he was no match for the elements of harmony, which were the only reasons why we were even able to defeat Discord. They basically created six versions of me whenever we used them. Multiplying nearly limitless power by six is a huge advantage."

"Anyway, Celestia managed to hide me away, place mine on my head and get away before being spotted, leaving me to do the same with my friends. It was harder than it sounds."

"We soon defeated him, and were about to reseal him when Fluttershy, the kindest of us, said that we should give him another chance. The others, especially Rainbow Dash, were not too happy about that. To be honest, I wasn't either, given our history. But she had a point and, considering all he did this time was cause a general racket everywhere. I supposed he could be forgiven just this once. Little did I know this would come back to bite me in the flank later."

"Some time before being sealed away by Celestia and Luna, Discord created a being of pure shadow, and  set it upon the ponies of Equestria. In an act of quick judgment,  I sent Celestia and Luna there to stop it. But, while they were successful, I could still sense a faint evil coming from the place where he was defeated. In preparation for the day the shadow, no, Sombra, would return, I created yet another Alicorn to serve as my eyes and ears down there in the world. I even gave her a kingdom, and subjects, to rule over, so as not to cause envy among my children. This...was Cadence." 

"She was a just ruler. A kind, loving, and fair ruler, whom all her people loved."

"Seeing as my older children soon gained Independence from me, so to speak, I knew it was only a matter of time until she desired to do the same. The way she achieved it however, is what has, until just a few hundred years ago, stumped me for as long as I can remember. She fell in love."

"She told me that there was this colt she felt really attached to, and that she would like to make him her husband. Being the benevolent queen that I was, I allowed it, and all was well. That is until Sombra showed up, just as I feared."

"Having had enough, I decided to finish this face to face. I went to discord and told him to undo his creation, but he told me that unlike my power, once something created with the power of chaos gained free will, there was nothing he could do."

"The elements and I ended up handling the problem ourselves. Again."

"And don't event get me started on Chrysalis. Cadence and Shining Armor took care of her. Now she's just a thorn in my side just like Discord had been back then, so long ago."