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// Unity is Depressingly Dull 
// Story: Being Trapped in Stone is DULL! 
// by Jioplip 
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Hello everypony! Discord here, and I am pleased to reveal that I have FINALLY managed to pick up a thoughtform strong enough to bridge the gap between our worlds. Or I've finally snapped and gone insane.

Again.

So before I begin, I'd like to address someone who has such a bile-inducing name, I will refer to only half of it.

Hello Diamond, I fully appreciate your concern over my well-being, and would like to put your fears to rest. You see, being incased in stone is not without some benefit, and as such, despite being utterly famished right before being incased in stone, I am unable to feel any hunger.

My frustration instead comes from the fact that I barely took time off from causing anarchy last time to eat, all I had was a small brunch in the garden, a refreshing glass of lemonade, a somewhat less refreshing glass, and some cotton candy. Now that might not seem like too small an amount, but after spending OVER A THOUSAND YEARS TRAPPED IN STONE I was rather peeved at not being able to enjoy myself more.

Oh well, I've been mulling it over, and I had a thought.

You see, dear readers, while I realise you possess awareness of me and the general happenings around the Six Harmonious Elements, and those ponies who represent them, it seems that your knowledge on some of the finer points of Equestria, or Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis as it was called one Tuesday when I was in power.

That was also the tuesday I was turned to stone, so I remember it all quite vividly.

But anyway, the subject I wished to broach today was one of magic. Pony Magic to be specific, since the term "magic" can describe a large variety of phenomena both natural and unnatural.

*ahem*

As you are no doubt aware, Pony Magic is comprised of three parts; Unicorn Magic, Pegasus Magic, and Earth Magic.

An Earth Pony's magic is subtle, affecting mainly their physical attributes, but also linking them with the land, which gives them their name. It is for this reason that Earth Ponies tend towards agriculture, as the combination of their enhanced physical traits and the connection with nature they experience allows them to grow a stronger crop and better keep up with the demands of physical labour than other races.

A Pegasus on the other hand, has magic related mostly to flight, creating an internal buoyancy when they need flight to fly, and dissipating it when the Pegasus needs to land. The Pegasi's second trait is their ability to manipulate the weather, by interacting with clouds directly, or by asserting atmospheric pressure around them to generate wind, the second type generally being measured in "wingpower" even though it's mostly dependant of a Pegasi's use of internal magic, with actual wingpower only accounting for about an eighth of a given Pegasi's wingpower on average.

Though with one Snowflake Pigeon it's more like a percent, I swear his internal magic must rival Twilight Sparkle's just to lift him off the ground! But I digress.

And last but certainly not least, is Unicorn Magic, the kind you were probably thinking of as soon as you read the word magic. It is also the most complex type of Pony Magic, and it too is separated into two varieties of use.

The first kind we'll call "natural" magic, and it is the most basic kind that any Unicorn has access to, it's features allow a Pony to reach out and grasp objects with telekinesis and also to link their magic to a given source directly. While telekinesis is used extensively, ponies rarely connect their magic to anything, and many are unaware that it's even a possibility. Of course, it's incredibly dangerous, so it's just as well.

The second way Unicorn magic can be used is known as spellcasting, and it is the only kind of unnatural magic known to ponykind. A spell must be learned or constructed to be used, and despite popular opinion, a Unicorn is not limited by their Cutie-Mark or their magical talent in regards to what spells they can learn. In actuality, the only limiting factor is a given ponies intelligence, memory, and interest, as spells are largely about constructing magical sigils and pumping enough raw magic into them to make them work.

Of course, this means that a Unicorn is limited in what spells they can cast by their own magical reservoirs, but those can be increased with regular training, much like a muscle. Of course, a Unicorn that doesn't use their magic regularly will lose some amount of strength in their reserves. Also like a muscle.

*whew* Well with all that information FINALLY cleared up, now I can tell you all the truth of Hearth's Warming Eve!

Now, while depictions of the story are mostly accurate, some details surrounding the tale's resolution were lost as time went on. Chiefly is that it was not merely two delegates from each tribe who set forth to found equestria, but the majority of the surviving populace. The second issue is more nitpicking than anything else, but the cave that the tribes hid in were actually the now-defunct crystal caverns below Canterlot.

But the most glaring omission from the legend is the lack of an explanation for what the Fire of Friendship *shudder* actually is. You see, when the arguing tribes were frozen, three ponies managed to avoid sharing their fate, solely due to not joining in the surrounding hostilities, and therefore being mostly ignored by the Windigos.

Upon the realisation that they were the only ponies left, Clover the Clever, Private Pansy, and Smart Cookie huddled together for warmth, and began talking, and as you know from the legend, they discovered that they bore no hatred for one another. As they lay and laughed in the face of death, they imbraced, and Clover, being the utter nerd that she is, couldn't help but recall a magic sigil of all things to relate to the situation.

The sigil in question being Unity.

For those not versed in Equestrian Magical Symbology, the sigil of Unity looks like a fanciful "heart," the kind you see everywhere on Hearts and Hooves Day, which were actually based of the flame conjured by Clover, but back to how she did it.

You see, while embracing the others and fixing the sigil of Unity in her mind, their magic flowed freely through their emotion, mingling together, and when that touched upon Clover's magic, it was all released in a burst of energy, and so the spell for creating the Flame of Unity, as it was once called, was born.

By mixing Pegasus Magic, Unicorn Magic, and Earth Magic, and focusing it into Unity, the flame can be brought forth. Of course, Celestia and Luna can perform the spell alone, since they carry all three kinds of magic in their bodies.

And that, My Little Bronies, is how Equestria was made.