~ BOOK IV - CONCERNING MATTERS OF THE FIRST EQUESTRIAN RENAISSANCE ~
And thereafter the three tibes of ponykind were united thus: the Unicorns, greatest wielders of spells and the arcane; the Pegasi, masters of flight, of rain and cloud and finally, Earth Ponies; cultivators supreme of the apple and the soil. Snow and the chill air receded – the touch of the Windigos waning as the greenery of the land prevailed.
And for a time, 'twas good.
Hooves with wings or horns or neither gathered together in a great forest, girt by rivers and fertile, rolling hills. Here they made their home amongst ancient branch and tree and dubbed it Ever Free. From their forest came intrepid explorers who galloped forth along all four points of a compass; journeying north to find a lean, snow-capped mountain that towered high above the patchwork plains. Unicorn magic delved deeper into the side of the mountain than even the iron hooves of the Earth Ponies, uncovering incalculable wealth in gems and precious metals.
A vast caravan of ponies – led by the sage council of the brother of Princess Platinum, Prince Sombra – travelled even further north beyond the Crystal Mountains and passed from all knowledge of the tribes.
And for a time, 'twas good.
The relentless toil of the Earth Ponies reaped carrot and barley for all ponykind, freeing the Unicorns to delve into the mysteries of the arcane. High upon the clouds Pegasi furthered the knowledge of the sciences; crafting ever more complex machinery to regulate the rain and quench the thirst of the land.
The great city of Ever Free climbed higher with glittering spires and turreted peaks, until the forest canopy was no more distinct than a field of green from the highest balconies. The raw industriousness of the Pegasi and their desire to build ever wider was tempered by the Earth Ponies' desire to preserve. Using powerful new wards developed by the Unicorn tribe, vast caverns were carved from beneath the solid rock of the forest; opening vast new chambers in which the hunger of the city to expand could be sated, without consuming the greater greenery.
The magic of the Unicorns made the stone and metalwork of the Pegasi ever-stronger, such that the tallest point of the city of Ever Free pierced the cloud top, upon which and around the Pegasi founded their capital and greatest city – Cloudsdale. Thus marked the beginning of a great cooperation between those with wings and those with horns.
The Earth Ponies, dedicated to the care and service of the land as always, worked on as they always had.
Thus began a new age of progress in the sciences and arcane; spells and metal combined to form automatons powered by pure magic and capable of tasks that had previously required dozens of ponies to toil for weeks, or months or years to accomplish.
And for a time, 'twas good.
A fortress, alas, is only as strong as its foundations and a society built on equality cannot prosper, nor even endure, in the face of inequality. With the rise of Techno-Arcana, the dichotomy of the three pony races became ever clearer. Whilst the Pegasi and the Unicorn tribes found their lives ever more liberated to spend as they wished, freed of the menial drudgery of survival, the Earth Ponies toiled as they had always done. Slow to adopt the new ways of those with wings or horns.
With the passage of time, the wedge drove deeper. The Earth Ponies – historically distrustful of new methods and ideas which threatened the way things had always been – felt deep unease and distaste at the growing complexity, and sophistication, of the world surrounding them.
Led by Chancellor Daisy the Dutiful, a great exodus of Earth Ponies left the city of Ever Free; eschewing the shining metal and stone of its mighty spires to found a new settlement in the South-West. Only a small number remained behind, tasked with maintaining the great forest of Ever Free and acting as a bulwark against the industrial machine of the other two tribes.
Inequality begot suspicion, suspicion begot distrust. While the Earth Ponies did not trample the treaties creating Equestria underhoof, cease to feed all of ponykind or march with swords between their teeth, they nonetheless all but withdrew from the tri-pony accord which had defeated disharmony and strife only a few short decades before.
And so, 'twas no longer good.
Without the honesty or toil of work, the Pegasi and Unicorns were freed from all mundane concerns. Without the moderating influence of the Earth Ponies, however progress outstripped maturity and creation became a reason, rather than the answer to a question. The pursuit of knowledge became all-consuming, with questioning voices ostracised and mocked.
Disillusioned, those not heeded were drawn to the Earth Ponies' settlement of Ponyvale.
Art, music, dance, engineering, magic – all the great works of ponykind were ruthlessly pursued while the soul, regardless of horns, wings or neither at all was left to wither and twist. Despite this fundamental breakdown in cooperation, no snow blanketed the land in a freezing grip; the Windigos, if any survived made no further appearances and the seasons continued as they had before.
Still, something stirred in the darkness underhoof. Perhaps it began as something unaware, something that existed without understanding, lived but was not alive. It had no definitive shape, no body of its own but instead drew upon the living creatures of the world to inspire a shape. It stood as a patchwork of life; odd, mismatched – chaotic. It would have no name for many years but came to be known from the disharmony that sustained it.
Discord.
Secure in the knowledge that both food, courtesy of the Earth Ponies; shelter, courtesy of the Pegasi and warmth; courtesy of their own magic were in abundance, the Unicorns turned their attention to a last, great unknown – Mortality.
While Princess Platinum remained supreme ruler of the Unicorns, the direction and focus of the tribe had always been guided – and in truth mostly conceived – by the great Starswirl the Bearded. Aloof and miserly, the elderly pony had nonetheless become the greatest wielder of magic in all of Equestria; from his crystal-domed observatory in the city of Ever Free, Starswirl single-hoofedly drove the pursuit of knowledge regardless of cost.
It had been Starswirl that overcame the arrogance of Princess Platinum and the distrust of Commander Stormwind, to conclude the accord between Pegasi and Unicorn that had seen Cloudsdale commissioned above the Royal Tower of Ever Free. It had been Starswirl who had solved the Sunshine Paradox, which led to the first artificially-produced Rainbow and thus allowed the Pegasi to manufacture the full spectrum of weather.
Despite his contribution and despite his unsurpassed skill in the arcane, Starswirl could do nothing about his advancing years. Like all who had come before and all who would come after, he was but a mortal creature. Soon he would pass from the waking world and join the Afterherd. It was inevitable, irresistible. It was the way of things.
This bold new age of progress and discovery, however, was no longer content to accept the way of things. Why? Why should those ponies that deserve to live slip away, and why should some facets of the world be fixed, unchallengeable. Permanent.
Was it not the magic of the Unicorns that pulled the Sun up from whence it slept, and dropped the Moon below the horizon at the dawn of a new day? Was it not the magic of the Unicorns that had all but exhausted the riches beneath Mount Canter, far below where even the strength of the Earth Ponies could reach? Was it not the magic of the Unicorns that had built a spire so tall, that it could anchor an entire city of Pegasi to the ground?
Mortality was not an end, nor even a mystery – it was merely a formula to derive. A question to answer.
Thus, the great Omnispell of the Unicorn tribe was conceived. In time, it would gift immortality to all but, for now, it would bring unending life to Starswirl the Bearded and through him, ensure the Unicorn tribe's pre-eminent place as the greatest of ponykind.
In their ignorance, they knew not what they had done.
The increasing polarisation of ponykind aided the Unicorns in their aims. For over the years, the City of Ever Free – founded as a new, united capital for all the races – had gradually become the domain of those with only horns, following the exodus of the Earth Ponies to Ponyvale and the migration of Pegasi to the city of Cloudsdale, moored above.
The harmony, worked so hard for and that had ushered in a new golden age, a renaissance, continued to dilute.
The omnispell was a great undertaking. Where the Platinum Choir of the Unicorns had successfully manipulated the Sun and the Moon for decades, they now found their efforts woefully insufficient. The ward would not simply require the strongest casters, it would require every caster. Over the course of a year, every unicorn who had so much as summoned a single spell in their lives was requested, ordered or simply forced to return to Ever Free.
Despite the lofty promise to make the omnispell available for all ponykind, a great secrecy pervaded the upper echelons of the Unicorn tribe. Fear of being misunderstood or worse, challenged, led to great efforts to prevent word of the ward reaching the ears of Earth Pony or Pegasus.
At the conclusion of the year of preparation, a final obstacle remained. Such was the power required to cast the Omnispell that there could be no hope of manipulating the Sun and Moon until such time as the Unicorns had rested and reconstituted their powers. A split developed within the tribe, whereby some advocated more research, more examination of the ward until such time as it could be performed without encroaching on the sacred, ancient duty of beginning and ending the day.
The others embodied the view that had pervaded the Unicorns and Pegasi for decades before – to press ahead, regardless until victory was secured. Close was the final hour of a now weary Starswirl and with his guiding hoof tired and diminished, Princess Platinum chose to reassert her dominance and ordered the omnispell cast at once.
It is said that the pall of smoke rising over the remains of the City of Ever Free could be seen from as far away as Mount Canter to the north, and Ponyvale to the south. For how long the fires burned, none can say for the Sun did not rise and even the Moon appeared not, leaving the land under a perpetual, starless nothingness. Of the Pegasi city of Cloudsdale, there was no sign – the high spire it had once been centred upon torn in half and tumbled to ruin.
Though what passed for the sky had no clouds to speak of an incessant, driving rain turned the fields to thick mud and the roads to sloshing rivers. Ever Free received no relief until a force of Earth Ponies, dispatched by Murial the Motivated, reached the forest after a long and difficult journey. Of survivors there were numerous, but they were mere rank-and-file; of the Unicorn tribe's ruling hierarchy, none could be found.
Without the light of the Sun, even the Earth Ponies starved and despaired. What crops survived the lack of light were simply drowned by the never-ending deluge of rain, which soon began to flood entire plains and destroy all but the sturdiest homes. The Earth Ponies were frugal and rationed what remained, grudgingly including those surviving unicorns returned to Ponyvale. Of the Pegasi, there remained no sign.
All too quickly, what little remained was exhausted and ponies – unicorn and not alike – struggled to survive. It was at this point, when all hope seemed lost, that a stranger descended from the cloudless, raining skies and presented the huddled, weary ponies with a last salvation.
He went by no name, but possessed a sharp wit and a charming personality. He was a peculiarity to behold; Griffon, Pony and all manner of creature jumbled and drawn together. He claimed dominion over all lands, and promised to raise the Sun and save all ponykind should they grant him one wish.
It is not recorded what the creature demanded in penance for salvation. It is only known that it was trivial and unimportant. Nonetheless, the Sun duly rose and the rain ceased.
Alas, the creature's vow was insincere. In place of day and night, a schizophrenic kaleidoscope saw the sky shift constantly, even such that at times both the Sun and Moon would rise and fight against each other for dominance. The stars – brilliant points of light fixed in the heavens since time immemorial were wrenched free, and left to fall to the land and burn.
Rainbows rose after showers of chocolate rain, but where they met the land they smashed asunder trees, homes and livelihoods. Mount Canter was torn from its foundations and, impossibly, inverted upon the base of which the unspeakable new Master of Equestria made his home.
Following a rapid day, and a night, and another day's work in the fields, the Earth Ponies and remaining Unicorns returned home to find all of Ponyvale scooped from the ground, and left floating serenely high above. Without the wings or the magic to reach it, they were left to huddle under what remained of the forest of the Ever Free which had remained untouched since the days of the omnispell.
Though the Sun blazed high in the sky, the darkest day of all ponykind had come forth. In their despair, the Earth Ponies and Unicorns wept together and prayed for intervention. Though they knew not where to aim their beseeching, nor what shape it might take, they nonetheless poured forth heart and soul.
When the Moon gave way to the Sun three further times, and the Saddleback River overflowed with strawberry mousse, a miracle arrived at the end of a rainbow.
Two mares; one of alabaster white and the other, darkest indigo, manes trailing and billowing on something greater than the wind. On sweeping wings they soared through the rain and from slender horns, tendrils of magic trailed back like ethereal, coruscating reigns. Pulled by their combined will, the great Pegasi city of Cloudsdale brought relief from the downpour as it settled overhead.
Touching down upon the land they introduced themselves thus; Celestia and Luna. With the empathy of the Earth Pony, the wings of a Pegasus and the magic of the Unicorn they were salvation incarnate. They were justice, equality and friendship. They were laughter, generosity, loyalty, honesty, kindness and magic.
The ill-fated Omnispell of the Unicorn Tribe had ultimately borne fruit. Two new guardians of all ponykind had come forth, representing night and day – the Sun and the Moon. Together they would do battle with Discord, and end his reign of madness. Together, they would reunite the tribes and ensure technology and progress never exceeded the pace at which the soul could grow and prosper.
They were the Royal Pony Sisters, and they would live forever.
… And thus ends the First Equestrian Renaissance.