Twilight rested near the Dusk Range. She heaved a breath, the strain of creating her world getting to her. Still, she knew she must continue. She was finicky by nature, and under no circumstances was she going to leave a job half-finished.
She opened her wings and shook them out, flapping them hard. She took off into the air, Rainbow's cerulean sun shining its gorgeous light on her and warming her wings.
She felt that she was nearly done with the landscaping. Glorious lakes and vast oceans covered her planet. Majestic waterfalls fell from cliffs high in the mountains. The ravine containing the Belle Stones scarred the land, adding a touch of character to her world. If she squinted, she could just about see the mountain range where she had erected the Memorial Temple.
The atmosphere was coming along nicely, and Twilight knew that her world would soon be ready to support more life than simply a few patches of stubby red and green grass.
She did, however, notice the lack of geothermal activity on her planet. There were no volcanoes, nor geysers nor hot springs. Twilight's scholarly mind instantly took note of the danger. If too much pressure was to build up with no way to escape, the results could be extremely volatile. She wouldn't allow that to happen and destroy the life she would create.
Soaring over one of the more remote mountain ranges, close to the North Pole, Twilight focused her strained magic. She concentrated her telekinesis in a way she'd never tried before. Her magic condensed into an opaque magenta cone, ridged along the sides and almost solid to the touch.
Twilight drove the cone downwards into the summit of a mountain, rotating it rapidly. The drill of pure magic began to burrow deep into the rock that formed the mountain. Gritting her teeth, Twilight continued to drill into her mountain.
Suddenly, she felt something give. She dispersed her drill and flew clear as a violent shaking built up around the mountain.
A pillar of molten rock, mud and smoke came billowing out of her brand new volcano. The heated matter began to fall, lava oozing down the side of the mountain and incinerating the patches of grass in its path.
Twilight smiled. She would allow other volcanoes to form naturally, but this one would satisfy the ground's geothermal needs for now.
She condensed her magic into a smaller drill and flew around, drilling holes in the ground, creating vents. She placed them strategically, attempting to avoid areas that would make for good farmland.
Future volcanoes would grow up around these vents. She didn't want to leave them too close to anywhere that her ponies might settle.
She alighted near a lake's edge, taking a drink of the clear, cool water. It was somehow immensely more satisfying, knowing that she had created this water with her own magic.
Sweat dripped down her mane and into her eyes. Twilight shuddered. It had been quite a while since she had bathed herself. She looked at the lake again.
Well, no time like the present.
With a very un-princesslike whoop, she dove into the chilly lake. A part of her felt ashamed for sullying the water, but the more rational part of her told her that the lake would clean itself, as water does.
She ducked under the water, and paddled leisurely with her wings, just enjoying her surroundings. The lake looked lonely. It was merely a rock basin filled with water. There was no pondweed. No wader birds pecking for shrimp, or true water birds diving for fish. She made a mental note to make sure that her underwater kingdom was just as full of life as her land-based one.
She noticed an indent in the side of the lake. She swam over to investigate it. It was just a short hollow, nothing spectacular about it, but it reminded Twilight of adventure stories she'd read. Stories where there were underwater tunnels that would lead to caverns.
Twilight formed her drill once more. She dug it into the hollow, angling it downwards. Water rushed in the fill the space. Twilight followed her drill into her tunnel, the light from her horn guiding her. When she felt it of sufficient length, she angled her drill upwards. Gravity opposed the water's attempts to fill the gap, and it remained behind.
Twilight folded her dripping wings and walked along the tunnel, which was gradually getting steeper. She made sure not to make it so steep that any non-Pegasi who were daring enough to attempt to follow the tunnel would not be able to traverse it.
Feeling once more that she had gone a sufficient distance, she enlarged her drill. She began to cut a cavern into the rock. The fallen scree piled up, and Twilight levitated it off to the side. She would deal with it later.
When she had a sizeable cavern dug out, she picked up the scree. Her horn glowed brightly for a moment before the scree disappeared in a flash. She had teleported it to some place near the Lunar Range.
Standing on the edge of the cavern's spacious basin, Twilight sighed and lit her horn, beginning the arduous process of creating water from scratch.
After several hours, she cut off her magic with a groan. She fell back on her haunches and wiped her brow with a wing. She was exhausted, but when she looked at the sparkling underground lake she had created, she knew it was worth it.
She had lined the ceiling with luminescent gems. Like the Belle Stones, they could not be removed. But whereas the Belle Stones could be removed under certain conditions, these gems were completely immobile. They cast a soft light on the lake's water, their many colours dancing on the small ripples.
Twilight smiled. She was not done with this lake. But she would have to wait before her plans for it could come to fruition.
Deciding that here was as good a place as any for a nap, Twilight curled up and fell into a deep sleep.
Twilight soared once more. She wanted more geothermal activity. She wasn't sure that a few vents and a volcano would be enough.
She landed on the ground and walked until she noticed a place where the ground was heated beneath her hooves. She deduced that the crust must be thinner here.
The perfect place for a hot spring. She created her drill and burrowed into the ground. Not so deep as to reach the core, but deep enough that the ground was even hotter than before. She didn't even want to think about creating more water from scratch, so she grabbed an amount of water from a nearby river and dropped it into her pool.
After a while, the water grew lukewarm. After that, it became pleasantly hot. Twilight soaked herself in her new hot spring. She let the warm water soothe her tense muscles, in particular her wings, which had seen more use these past few years than they had in the rest of her millennia long life.
The hotspot stretched further, so Twilight idly drilled a few more holes. She wasn't sure why she did it. They weren't deep enough to be vents. They weren't wide enough to be a hot spring.
Maybe they would be warm wells? She borrowed more water from the river and dropped a small amount into each hole. Warm wells didn't seem right. Maybe they would just be a mystery? Maybe she would just leave them, and see what her ponies did with them.
As she sat contemplating the purpose of these holes, she heard a bubbling sound come from one of the holes. The small amount of water in it was boiling. It was both shallower in volume, but further down in the rock than the hot spring.
Suddenly, a plume of steam and water droplets burst from the hole in front of her. Another hole shot a similar spray into the air. All around Twilight, the holes were erupting.
She smiled. Geysers.
She had made geysers. Even when their initial water supply ran out, water seeping into the ground from the spring and river would have a place to escape the pressure via the newly formed geysers.
Twilight found great joy in watching them. So much so, in fact, that she drilled a few more, in a different area of the hotspot.
As her second set of geysers began to erupt, Twilight couldn't help but compare them to a pony she once knew.
They were odd. To somepony less knowledgeable than her, they didn't really make much sense. They were random. They were spontaneous. They erupted whenever they felt like it.
They were a perfect mirror of Pinkie Pie.
Smiling, Twilight grasped the water supply in the second set of geysers with her magic. She cast a conversion spell, but an altered one. Instead of changing it to a different liquid, she changed it to the most fitting thing she could think of. The water slowly solidified and changed shape. Soon, it was not water that Twilight held in her magic field. Instead, she held bits of confetti, long streamers and balloons, some filled with air, some deflated.
She lowered the party supplies into the geysers once more. She lit her horn, still gripping the supplies, and said, "May these objects never run out. May they always be here, eternal. May they not catch fire, nor be destroyed in any way. Their presence shall be a harmless one. They will not contaminate the ground. Instead, they will bring new water to the world upon touching the ground. May they bring joy to the hearts of those who see them. May they be freely taken by those who need them to bring happiness and laughter to others."
Smiling as she completed her spell, she gently placed the party supplies into the geysers. She sat and waited.
Within minutes, one of the geysers erupted. With the sound of a party horn, confetti, streamers and balloons flew into the air. They began to slowly fall, fluttering and twirling in the air. The balloons floated upwards slowly. As the confetti hit the ground, it melted back into water.
A streamer wound itself around Twilight's horn. She picked it up and put it on the ground, watching it dissolve harmlessly. She smiled.
Pinkie would approve, she thought.
As much as she would have loved to just stay there and watch the Party Geysers, Twilight knew she had further business to attend to.
She took off. Her next destination would be a large plain near the Chaotic Range. It was spacious, even ground. There was a large lake, perfect for fresh water.
It would be the perfect place for a city. But, Twilight wanted the place to have a bit more personality. She wanted future settlements in this area to be located on something impressive. Like the mountain Canterlot was built into.
A plateau. She couldn't recall creating any plateaus in all her time here. Gripping the landscape, dotted with patches of red grass, she gently pulled upwards. A section of land was lifted with her magic, expanding so as not to become ripped from the core entirely.
Gently teasing the plateau up from the ground, Twilight let her mind wander. She wondered what her ponies would create on the world she gave them. She wondered what she would do when she was finished. Would she rule the world like Celestia and Luna? Or would she stay out of it, an impartial observer? Perhaps she would assist the crown of the future, but not directly rule herself.
Twilight decided that she had probably raised the plateau enough and refocused her attention on it. What she saw shocked her.
While she hadn't been paying attention the shape of the plateau she was building, she had inadvertently created it to be in the shape of a six-pointed star.
She wasn't one for egotism, but she found herself enjoying the shape, and how similar it was to her cutie mark. It was a symbol of her part in creating the planet. Rather than change it, she decided to leave it as it was. She would return here later. There was still space for more plateaus, after all.
And she had ideas for the shapes of them.