//------------------------------//
// Prologue: The First Three 
// Story: Luster 
// by crash826 
//------------------------------//

-- Long ago:

Before there was Celestia, or Luna, or Discord...

Before there was anything in the world but roads and mountains and the Ever Free Forest...

There were the First Three Ponies.

They were bare and thin, and they walked with stoops; they didn't have cutie marks, or know what cutie marks were. They had been born in circumstances that they never explained to each other, and each was like the other, save that one was male. They lived off scraps in the fields, and the few plants that were not poisonous; their constitutions were frail, and their bodies were slow, and they were always at the whim of the beasts.

One day, they came to a mountain, with three paths diverging- one down into a cave, one up along a winding road, and one up to the highest point they had ever seen. Each decided to take their own path.

The first pony took the cave path, and found a strange thing under the earth- a grove of long, sweeping vines, a tree with a glorious golden fruit and a pool of water underneath. In the water was a strange emaciated figure, long dead; the pony had no idea what it was, but felt that she should pay her respects. So she took it out from the water, and though she thirsted and hungered mightily, she drank nothing and ate nothing until she had mourned and buried him.

Then, as she came to drink, the water and the vines and the fruit cried out that they had seen her noble deed, her unselfishness, and had decided to reward her- for her respect to the earth and to the living, they would place parts of themselves into her and all her children, that they might be strong. So the fruit and the water and the vines mixed, and she ate of them, and became strong as an ox, and tied to the land and all its creatures. And she was the first Earth pony.

The second pony took the winding road, and came about halfway up the mountain. There he saw a swirling layer of clouds, pouring down around him; some struck with lightning, and others blew gentle breezes. He thirsted, and so he called out to the clouds, and asked for drink. But the clouds were vain and mad with freedom, and refused him even a drop.

So the second pony devised a plan. He loudly admired the freedom and the glory of the clouds, and asked them to come closer that he might know their beauty better; and the clouds, smitten with his praise, came closer and closer until he leaped at the rainwater pool. They shot lightning at him, but the second pony was fleet and agile, and drank his fill without the thunder touching him. The clouds, though they struck at him, became enamored with his agility, and they decided that upon this pony- quick enough to trick them- would be a blessing until the end of days, that he might always be so quick. And soon he grew wings, and was the lord of all clouds that he surveyed, and was the first Pegasus.

The third pony took the longest path, to the highest point of the world, and there she observed that a piece of bright cold ice had fallen into the peak, and had frozen it to the bone. As she came to it, it spoke to her, and asked her what she wanted- for it was the King, it said, and could grant her anything in the world. Though she recoiled in shock at first, she quickly grew interested, and told it that she wanted to take her proper place in the world. For though the first had been respectful, and the second was cunning, the third was ambitious. So the ice told her thus:

"Should you place me in the sky, all the days of your life, you and your children will be served by me and mine; all I ask in return is that you give us homes in your hearts and in your minds, and that one day you will let us reclaim our own."

The third pony agreed, and took the ice in her mouth and stuck it to the sky. Then, situated there, the ice named itself Star, and snapped off a point of itself, and placed it on her forehead; it became her horn, and she became the first unicorn.

And the First Earth Pony harvested and grew and birthed, and more and more foods grew that were safe for eating.

And the First Pegasus fought and flew and jibed and dodged, and the manticores and the cockatrices fled into the forests.

And the First Unicorn mumbled contracts and flung purple fire, and the Ever Free Forest burnt away, and towns were born.

And they grew and were mighty, and multiplied across the land, and the unicorns forgot their progenitor's deal with the First Star. But the stars remembered. And they still gave their magic to the unicorns, generation after generation.

And the stars, who were capricious, decided that the races should be united, for the three squabbled endlessly. So they chipped ice from the mountain, and made the Windigoes, and sent them to freeze the earth and corral their progeny into the promised land. And the Air and Earth fought the Stars, but they were not mighty enough, and the Wind turned cold, and the Earth bore no crop, until a unicorn burned away the monsters and brought peace.

And the Stars decided that the races needed leaders, heroes and villains; and so it took a spirit and suckled him on their coldness, and filled him with their terrible knowledge, and made of him a monster-tyrant. And when the ponies despaired,  their closest numbers brought the spirits the ponies loved- sisters of light and dark- and made them the Princesses. And the Mirror devoted itself to the younger, the Fire to the older; they called themselves sun and moon, and called their Princesses Celestia and Luna, and they toppled the tyrant.

And one day they decided to name a unicorn their heir. So they created tools, extensions of themselves, and sent a few of their number to the land to set events in motion. And things happened as they planned, and they bred an heir.

And the heir was --