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// Book I: From Discord Rex unto Celestia Princeps 
// Story: La Vie de Celestia 
// by Workable Goblin 
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Now, it befell in the days of Morning Glory[1], when she was ruler of all of Equestria, that there was a mighty lord of Cloudswall who refused to bend knee to the crown, and fought mightily against her for many years. The lord was called the Lord of the Wall. And tiring of war, Morning Glory called for the Lord, and asked that both he and his wife, the Lady of the Wall, come forth for a peace conference. The Lord agreed, and both he and his wife came to Canterlot[2], and were accorded all the honors of royalty.

[1]: The predecessor of Celestia and Luna as ruler of Equestria (discounting Discord).

[2]: Which city did not yet exist, I note.

Now, this lord was much renowned for his beauty and grace, and from the moment she lay eyes on him Morning Glory coveted him, and would fain lie with him. But he was a good stallion, and she knew he would not assent to her advances. So she fell love-sick, and her archmage and closest advisor, Star Swirl, came to her chambers where she rested. Mistress, he said, no spell of mine can find why you are ill. That is no surprise, she replied, for I am sick of love for the Lord of the Wall, that without him I shall never feel right. Ah, he said. I do believe I can cure that illness.

And he cast a spell of his own devising, and Morning Glory appeared as the Lady of the Wall; and she deceived the Lord into thinking she was her; and she lay with him and was much pleased. But when the Lady heard tell from her husband of what had happened, she trembled mightily and told him that she had been enjoying the gardens then, and that they must have been summoned so that he might be dishonored; and therefore, that they must leave immediately, under cover of darkness, and return to their own lands lest worse befall them. And they did so.

Morning Glory was much wroth when she heard of this, and told her advisors; and they said that she should order them to come forth, or she would resume the war tenfold; and she did so. But they refused, saying that it was a ploy to dishonor them; and Morning Glory was even more wroth with their reply; and set forth with a great host, of unicorns and pegasi both, for the Lord was a pegasus, and his fortress a cloud. And they sieged their fortresses.

But Morning Glory remained wroth; and when she saw the Lord, she felt lustily for him; and she charged Star Swirl with again slipping her into his chambers. And he disguised her as the Lady again, and she traveled to him; and again he gave himself to her and lay with her unknowingly. Now, the Lady of the Wall had seen her departing the siege camp and had set forth to rout her army; but had been killed during the attack. The Lord muchly trembled when he heard that his wife had died hours before he slept with her, for having been dishonored again; and knowing that he could not win, he slew himself by his own hoof and gave orders to destroy his fortress, which happened.

Morning Glory traveled back to Canterlot saddened only by the death of the Lord; she returned to her rule in the capital. And months later, her belly began to swell, and she realized she was with foal, and that the Lord had begat a foal on her; and she concealed herself in her quarters, so that nopony would know. And she waxed greater and greater, and eventually gave birth. And wonder of wonders! Not a unicorn or pegasus or earth pony, but something new; an alicorn, with mane pink as dawn and coat white as the sun. For the father had been pegasus and the mother earth pony and wearing a guise of unicorn spells[3]. And Morning Glory called her Celestia, and thought her the Sun Incarnate. But fearing for the foal’s life, Morning Glory hid the birth, and charged Star Swirl with concealing her daughter; and Star Swirl hid her alicorn nature, disguising her as a simple earth pony, and sent her to be with an ally, a young prince named Sombra in the north. And Sombra’s wife nourished Celestia with her own son, with her own milk.

[3]: This is a blatant failure of biology. While alicorns are genetically mixtures of all three races, true, they arise from the use of powerful magic, as with Cadence and myself, not through some accident of birth. Millions and millions of couplings of this exact type have occurred throughout history, and not one has ever resulted in a naturally-born alicorn.

Moreover, the author drastically underestimates the problems Morning Glory would suffer from becoming pregnant. The higher ranks of the clergy-administrators of the Solar Empire were supposed to be celibate, permanently renouncing worldly desires to allow them to better serve the Sun and the World (ie., Equestria). Although by the time of Morning Glory the upper hierarchy, especially the Collegium, were extremely corrupt and often flagrantly violated this and other rules, the High Priestess and Solar Regent becoming pregnant and giving birth would have been a major scandal they could not have ignored. She and her foal would certainly have been executed for their affront to the laws.

Finally, and most damningly, there is no documentary evidence whatsoever for the existence of Celestia before more than a decade into Discord’s reign, almost twenty years after the incident being related here; and then she was still a young filly, similar to her description here, not an adult mare as you would expect if she had been Morning Glory’s foal. Although Celestia and Luna have generally been loath to speak of it, both have privately communicated to me--and authorized me to republish--that their mother was not Morning Glory, that they were in fact biologically sisters, and that they would say nothing more on the subject.

And then within three years a great evil appeared in the land; a creature, some said a dragon, others a cockatrice, others still a pony stalked the night, driving ponies to madness. Brave stallions would run heedless from it, devoted mothers would murder their foals, rulers abandon their lands. And Morning Glory and her army rode out to fight it; and they were driven mad or killed, and fled; and the creature established itself in Canterlot, and took it away, none know where hence.[4]

[4]: This clearly refers to Discord--a point made clear later when the creature is specifically referred to by that name. No record exists of Canterlot being swallowed up and destroyed; the prior capital was named “Everfree” and located in the present position of the Everfree Forest. It was destroyed during Discord’s reign, such as it was, but then rebuilt after his defeat; then destroyed again during the later war between Luna and Celestia, corrupted into the Everfree Forest, and abandoned for the new city of Canterlot, built on the sacred slopes of Canterlot Mountain.

Then stood the land in great trial; for without Morning Glory and her priests, there was no check on the lords, and they waxed strong; and each wanted to make themselves a king or emperor. And so there was great fighting up and down the land, while in the middle of it a great cancer grew, a realm of madness and despair. And Star Swirl saw all, and despaired; and he traveled the land, seeing the violence and madness plaguing it; and his thoughts turned back to the filly of Morning Glory. And he hatched a plan.

To all of the great lords he traveled, and the great priests and bishops too, telling them, Come to Fillydelphia on the Solstice, swear to it; for as the holy day of the Sun, she will surely send a miracle to show who should rightly be ruler. And they swore; and on the Solstice, they came, great armies of them. And among those who came were Sombra, now King in the North, and his son and his adopted daughter, still by appearance an earth pony filly. And altogether they prayed to the Sun, from before sunrise; and after emerging from the churches on the sunset, they saw a great platform of stone raised in the square; and upon it in gilt letters, Whosoever canst raise the Sun is the rightful ruler. And they marveled, and thought it impossible for any one pony to raise the Sun. And the bishops and Star Swirl convened, and they said Whichever pony is destined to raise the Sun must be here, or she would not have sent this commandment; and they allowed everypony present to try.

And they did; the unicorns tried, and they failed; then the pegasi tried, and they failed; then the earth ponies tried, and they failed. And all were about to give up in despair when Star Swirl said, Wait, there is one more, and brought forth the filly of Morning Glory’s; the crowd murmured and said But she is just a filly; have not all the mighty lords failed?; and he removed the spells he had wrought concealing her, and they were shocked by her appearance. And she rose, and with her rose the Sun; and she earned her Mark that day; and the crowd loved her, and called her Celestia Imperatrix and Sol Invictus, and other such things. And she said Nay, I am but Celestia Princeps, no more; and they loved her all the more.[5]

[5]: It is difficult to recall in this era, when Princesses of Equestria are given the honor due Empresses of other lands, but at the time this would have been quite the political statement. The crowd--the pony on the street, if you will--was heaping her with exotic and prestigious titles; note that the title Imperatrix, let alone Sol Invictus, was reserved exclusively for the goddess of the Sun. By declining all titles but “Princeps”--First Among Equals--Celestia would have been claiming that she was due no more honor than the average pony.