//------------------------------// // Mother Tells A Tale // Story: What Is This Strange Feeling? // by PonySage86 //------------------------------// Luna just takes a few moments to process everything in front of her, she stares at the giant woman in front her. Mother Nature, a being Luna wasn't even sure existed a few days ago. But here she was in her fifty foot tall swirling green glory, her hair might be even longer as it extends all the way down to her feet, if she should even call the mass of vines, leaves, and flowers coming out of her head hair, but what Luna found herself staring at the most was Mother Nature's eyes, she didn't have pupils, her eyes just looked like pools of glowing water, so calm and peaceful. Luna is brought out of her dumbstruck state by Mother Nature's voice. "So my little Dissy Poo what brings you here to see your dear old mum?" Discord groans in embarrassment as his mother pinches his cheek with the tips of her fingers, meanwhile Luna just continues to stare at Mother Nature, she can't believe that the being that controls the planet sounds like such a mom, literally her voice sounds exactly like the stereotype for what moms sound like. "Look Mom we need your help finding-" Discord begins explaining but his mother interrupts him. "Oh is the moon to close do I need to move it further away?" Mother Nature asks sweetly, the two immortals blink at her. "Uh no mom that's not-" Discord begins but he is interrupted again. "Or is it the sun? Is the light to bright? I could dim it if you want." Mother Nature says putting a finger to her chin. "No mom that's not it either." Discord says slightly annoyed. "Well Honey if it's not the moon or the light what is it?" Mother Nature asks as she places her arms on the ledge and rests her head on them. Before Discord can speak Luna chimes in. "Wait, you can control the sun and the moon?" Luna asks wide eyed, Mother Nature smiles at her. "Well they orbit me there for they are subservient to me as well." Mother Nature looks nonchalantly at her finger tips. "Just as I blessed the pegasi with the power to control the weather, I also let you and Celestia play with the sun and moon." "Incredible." Luna whispers in awe, Mother Nature looks at the Princess of Night sweetly. "But my sweet little night flower I know you two didn't come all this way to learn what the soul of the planet can do." Discord nods in agreement to this. "That's right, we want to know if you know anything about the strange weather we've been having." Discord says with his arms folded. "Oh strange weather, that's why you came to see me." Mother Nature says with a pout. "You never just come to visit me." "Well that's..." Discord stares at his Mother as she continues to pout at him, after a moment he sighs and looks away guiltily. "Sorry Mother." "Oh it's alright sweet heart I understand it is quite a trip down here." Mother Nature's expression turns serious. "It has to be otherwise anyone could come down here and find me." "Are there ponies you don't want to see you?" Luna asks curiously, Mother Nature turns her gaze to Luna. "Yes there are little one." Mother Nature's expression softens a little. "I cannot interact with mortals." "Why is that?" Luna asks with a raised eyebrow, Mother Nature sighs in response. "If I interact with mortals directly it could have unknowable effects on them." Mother Nature looks between her son and the Princess of Night. "Only immortal beings possess the power to be near me without becoming overwhelmed by my magic. You probably didn't notice but you'll find it slightly harder to breathe while you're in my chamber." "It is?" Luna asks, she takes a moment to examine her breathing, and its true she is breathing heavier it feels like something is pressing down on her chest. "But my affect on mortals isn't why you two came down here." Mother Nature pushes off the ledge and claps her hands together. "So lets get down to business." "Right of course." Discord nods his head. "Now mom I can't seem to sense anyone manipulating the weather, but I was hoping you could tell us whats causing these storms." "But sweetheart you share my magic, you can sense everything I can sense." Mother Nature leans back in the air as if she is resting in a lawn chair. She looks at Discord from the corner of her eye. "So how could I know something you don't?" "Well you've been around a lot longer then I have so I was hoping you could sense something I missed. A trace of who is causing this maybe." Discord puts a claw to his chin in thought, he is about to speak again when he suddenly jumps back in surprise from his Mother quickly moving herself in front of him, her huge smile covering his field of vision. "Oh sweety your missing something but it's not something you can sense." She looks down at him slyly. "It's something you can't sense at all." "What do you mean he already said he can't sense anything." Luna says a bit confused, Mother Nature smiles at her. "That's exactly it my dear." Mother Nature straightens herself up to her full height so she towers over the two. "Me and my son are in-tuned to the magic of the world so we can sense all magic, especially abnormalities in the flow of magic." "Like Tirek." Luna says with understanding, Discord and Mother Nature nod happily. "Right but that doe-" Discord begins. "Except their is one form of magic not even we can sense." Mother Nature says interrupting her son, both immortals in the room turn to look at her. "A form of magic I can't sense?" Discord asks with a blink. "I thought maybe they were just covering their tracks." "What kind of magic is that?" Luna asks equally confused, Mother Nature just chuckles at the two. "I'll give you a hint." She lowers herself to eye level and winks at Discord. "It turned you to stone twice." Discord and Luna's eyes open widely at this. "What!?" "Don't worry I'll explain." Mother Nature smiles at the pair. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Back at the dawn of time, I was alone, I was nothing but a ball of burning rock trying to form into something better. I have no idea how long I was in that state but eventually I took shape. At first I felt nothing, I was nothing just a frozen ball of stone spinning in an empty void, I didn't know what but I wanted something else. That's when he arrived, a small star that had somehow begun drifting through space, he was impressed by my size, he wished to serve me. I was annoyed by this star, I wanted something I didn't know what but I knew it wasn't him. I was about to send him away, back into the void... when suddenly I didn't feel so stiff, the ice that covered my surface had begun to melt from the heat of the star. I was happy, for once I felt warmth, I thought maybe that's what I wanted, so I told him he could stay if he orbited me and melted all the ice from my body, of course he couldn't reach the top and bottom of my mass but I didn't mind. Soon I was covered in water. So there we were a ball of stone covered in a ball of water and a small star spinning through the universe. It was nice for a while... but it still wasn't what I wanted. I don't know how long it was just the two of use, but it was a shorter amount of time then I was alone. But soon we were joined by a third, she was large, for a moon, almost the same size as the star that already orbited me. Once again I knew she wasn't what I wanted, and again I was going to send her away... when I noticed that her gravity was effecting the water on my surface. It was nice, larger sections of my stone were raised above the water so I could feel the warmth of the star. So I decided she could stay if she too agreed to serve me, as was normal of a moon she had no objections. It wasn't long after that, maybe a few centuries, when I finally realized what I wanted. The star had melted my body, and the moon and created my oceans, but I wanted to change my body for myself. I took some time to study my mountainous body, it only took me a day to realize I wanted to add color. So I used my magic and created the first vegetation, I didn't know how it worked at the time, I was just making wishes and they seemed to come true. It wasn't long before my entire surface both below and above the water was covered in plant life. I was content, I had finally gotten what I wanted... But then I wanted more. I was able to talk to the star and the moon, but not to the plant I had created, sure I can feel their presence and sense what they want and need, but they spoke no words. So I decided to take it a step further and create more life, life that could move on its own, and speak. My first attempt was the humans, beings I created in my own image... but they sucked so I got rid of them. But while I had been raising the humans I created other life for them to interact with, dragons, dogs, chimeras, etc. So I just enjoyed watching these animals live their lives for a while, unlike the humans I could understand the animals, I couldn't speak to them, as I had realized with the humans mortal being can't hear my thoughts as the star and moon do. Everything was fine for a while, until I noticed that three of the species I had created we're slowly gaining intelligence, the horses, the winged horses and the horned horses had begun to communicate in more complicated ways then simply living in a herd. So I decided to help them, I blessed the horses with a close relationship with my stone, the winged ones I let control the clouds and the horned ones I gave them the power of magic. With each generation I made them smarter, more adaptable, with their increased abilities I decided to rename them earth-ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns respectfully, a fourth kind of pony, the crystal ponies appeared over time even I'm not sure how or why. I began to increase the intelligence of other animals as well, dragons were the second race I chose although they didn't take to it as well as the ponies had done, third was the griffins they took to it as well as the ponies had. Changelings were fourth, and chimeras were suppose to be fifth but they did little more then master language. After awhile other species like cows, buffalo, donkeys, zebras, and a few others joined the ponies as well. But it wasn't until I had raised up all these races that I learned what had sparked the initial growth in the horses, that was the time I met the sisters. Two spirits not unlike myself, although much smaller, they revealed to me that they had been on my stone from the beginning of time. They had been in a dormant state awaiting the day I created life on my surface, they had awoken when I created the humans, but after I got rid of them they searched for the next creature with the next highest potential, they were drawn to the horses multiple species. What was their purpose? I wondered, what did they want with my creations? It turned out that they were there to give the dominate race on my surface their blessings, one of the sisters glowed white with her magic, she and her sister had no form they were just clouds of magic, that sister wanted to make sure each creature on the planet treated the others right. She offered her six virtues, loyalty, honesty, kindness, generosity, joy(laughter), and friendship(magic). Her sister on the other hand was a being of pure dark magic, she wanted each being on the planet to look out for themselves above all else, she offered her seven 'virtues' pride, greed, wrath, envy, sloth, gluttony, and lust. I figured everything had been going well so far, so I let them stay, but because I did not create them I could not sense the two spirits. But as is always the case soon the two sisters grew to hate each other, each believed that her virtues were better, they fought constantly. I didn't care at first but after awhile they started bringing the innocent beings of my planet into their fight, that's when I stepped in. I told the two of them that if they wanted to remain on my planet they had to find a way to get along... I had no idea what they would choose. The two sisters decided to take physical forms, but the only forms they could manifest were stones, in their physical forms they'd have even greater influence over the ponies but because they would essential be killing themselves by becoming the stones they wouldn't be able to make the ponies do anything. So the light sister took the form of a tree and manifested her virtues as six individual stones, which she named the Elements of harmony, she believed that only teamwork could bring out the true power of her virtues. Her sister the spirit of darkness chose to manifest all her powers in one stone, which she called the Element of Sin, believing that all those that had the courage to stand alone were worthy of wielding her virtues. I wish I hadn't given them the idea, because after they took their physical forms I noticed an increase in evil in my world, the whole race of changelings suddenly became aggressive to the other races, Griffins became un-trusting of the others, and the dragons began to hoard gems and other treasures. To balance out the rise in evil I chose to bless the world with champions, I asked my friends the star and moon to grant me power, they agreed as I knew they would. I combined the powers of the three first races and created the first two alicorns, but even I was surprised when the elements of harmony chose them as there bearers. I was so glad, they did exactly as I had wished they would, protecting the world from evil beings like Tirek and Sombra. Even my own son who had a bit too much of his father in him. But the Element of Sin can choose a bearer too, just as the new bearer of Sin is out there now causing havoc by messing with the weather, a thousand years ago the Element of Sin caused untold devastation to the planet by choosing Princess Luna as its first bearer. But now the Element has- "Wait! What!?" Luna blurts out in surprise, Mother Nature looks at the princess of night curiously. "What is it my dear?" Mother Nature asks a bit confused. "I was never the bearer of any Element of Sin!" Luna shouts throwing her hooves in the air. "I've never even heard of it until now." "That's true mother I've never heard of it either." Discord adds in with his arms crossed. "Well of course you haven't sweet heart, the elements were created long before either of your times, and no one has ever found the Element of Sins resting place." Mother Nature explains sweetly. "B-but when did I become the bearer of the Element of Sin?" Luna asks sounding a little scared, Mother Nature pats Luna on the head softly. "The Element sensed your envy of your sister, that's how you became Nightmare Moon." Mother Nature explains. "The Element fueled your envy, made your hatred grow until you could no longer control it. Even with the Elements of Harmony help I didn't think anypony could break free of Sins grasp. I'm impressed, and I don't impress easy." "Oh thank you ma'am." Luna says her cheeks slightly tinted purple. "You mentioned that their was a new bearer of Sin?" Mother Nature and Luna turn to look at the Lord of Chaos. "Who is it?" "Oh my dear." Mother Nature pinches Discord cheek again. "I can't tell you that." "Why not?" Luna asks with a raised eyebrow. "You must figure it out for yourselves." Mother Nature says sternly as she raises to her full height once more. "Can you give us a hint?" Luna asks, Mother Nature smiles at her. "Yes my sweet I can." Mother Nature says happily, she holds out her hand to Luna, an image of Nightmare Moon forms from her green energy. "Just as you changed when the Element chose you, this new bearer's physical form will have changed as well, perhaps not as drastically as you did." "So we just need to look for somepony who doesn't look like any pony else?" Luna asks with a hoof to her chin. Discord stiffens as he suddenly thinks of a rather unique mare he knows. "Exactly." Mother Nature smiles at Luna before her face turns serious. "Now there is one more thing I must tell you two before you leave." "What's that?" Luna and Discord ask in unison, without looking at each other they do their signature 'former villains' hoof bump. "You may not tell any mortal about this meeting or the Element of Sin." Mother Nature says with a glare in her eyes. "What?" Luna's eyes go wide. "Why not?" "If anypony knew about the Element of Sin somepony might try to use it, imagine if Chrysalis had known about it when she attacked Canterlot. Or Sombra when he attacked the Crystal Empire." Discord says his seriousness etched into his face, Luna looks down at the ground. "I don't want to imagine that." Luna says sadly, she looks back up at Mother Nature. "I Get that but why can't we tell anypony about this meeting?" "You're immortals and powerful ones at that, the Element of Sin can't kill you, but mortals are vulnerable to its magic." Mother Natures expression becomes sad. "No matter how powerful they are." "I thought no mortals knew about the Element of Sin." Discord asks with a raised eyebrow, Mother Nature looks slyly at him. "There was one Mortal that actually discovered the origins of the Elements of Harmony himself, following the clues, the unicorn made his way down to me, I told him about the Element of Sin and then he left, he did as I asked and kept it a secret. But he studied the Element of Sin anyway, despite my warnings, he wrote all his findings down in a journal, it might contain even more information then I know, you must find it." Mother Nature looks down at the ground sadly. "But the Element of Sin used it's dark powers and placed a curse on him. It killed him." "Oh my Luna." Discord says in disbelief, Luna looks extremely shocked. "But enough about the past." Mother Nature smiles sweetly at the two immortals. "You two should get heading back." Discord shakes his head back into focus. "R-right of course, come on Luna, we got work to do." "Oh right coming." Luna says as she blinks the shock out of her eyes. The former villains begin heading toward the mouth of the cave. "Oh Princess?" Mother Nature calls from her spot by the ledge, Luna turns to look at the core of the planet. "Yes ma'am?" Luna asks heading back to talk with her. "I want you to take this." As Mother Nature speaks a flower bud emerges from the ground, it slowly opens and reveals three seeds inside its petals, Luna looks at the seeds before levitating them out of the flower. "What are these?" Luna asks as she places them in a pouch, Mother Nature smiles at her. "One burns, one drowns, one is buried alive, but all three allow communication with me." Mother Nature says sweetly, Luna tilts her head confused by the way she phrased it, but Luna doesn't ask any questions because she understood what she meant. "Thank you ma'am." Luna says with a bow. "It was an honor to meet you." "Same to you my dear." Mother Nature says returning the bow. Luna turns to leave but stops short. "Ma'am?" Luna asks nervously. "Yes my dear?" Mother Nature asks raising an eyebrow. "The unicorn who came down here and researched the Element of Sin..." Luna averts her eyes. "Who was it?" "You want to know if it was somepony you know." Mother Nature states not really asking, Luna nods. Mother Nature sighs heavily as she averts her own eyes from the Princess. "It was." "Who was it?" Luna asks looking up at Mother Nature with a hint of anger in her eyes, Mother Nature takes a minute to answer seeming to debate if she wants to actually answer the question, but eventually she sighs and locks eyes with Luna. "You knew him as Starswirl the Bearded."