Shadows of Giants

by kaiju and pony fan

Interlude: The Tale of Empress Scribe

Once upon a time, on a lifeless world circling a sun, there was an alicorn. She had a bright, white coat of fur with a flowing red mane and tail. She was the only living thing on a barren world. She hadn't been born, she just simply came into existence and fully grown. For a time, she lived on this lifeless world, uncertain as to what to do with it. She was very special however, for she had been gifted with the power of Creation; something she had discovered at the same time she discovered the existence of hunger or thirst. She did this by writing words on the dirt.

The very first things she created were grass to graze and a stream of water of which to drink. With her hunger satiated and her thirst quenched, the alicorn created more and more things such as the sky, trees, rivers, oceans, continents, the Moon; any word that sprung into her mind, she brought it to life with just words.

One day, she decided to give her newly fertile world something to inhabit it. She decided the world needed life. And so, she got to work, by creating paper, a pen, and ink, the alicorn got to work filling her world.

Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, Dragons, Changelings, Hippogriffs, Manticores, Sirens, Mermares, Yetis, Yaks, Griffons, Deer, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Ursas, and so many more sprang forth from the ether and began to inhabit her world. All of them, created with just words on a page. She also gave the ponies markings that would appear once they had found their calling in life, something to make them unique. "Cutie Marks" she called them. One such Cutie Mark appeared on her flank, that of a pen dipped in ink. And thus, she had given a name for herself: Scribe. Empress Scribe. Eventually, the Empress, while watching her creations live and thrive, felt a strong desire to become something else. She did not know what it was at first for she lacked the word for it. Even as Scribe continued to create homes for her people to live in, she couldn't place her hoof on it. So, she continued to create and build her world.

However, while watching her people raising younger versions of themselves, Scribe realized what it was she wanted: a family. Taking her pen, Scribe wrote down the name of her first child, envisioning the look in her mind. And thus, her first daughter, Celestia, came into existence. She gifted her daughter with the ability to control the rise and fall of the Sun. She loved her new daughter, loved her with all her heart; the same love she showed to all her creations. However, one day, whilst Celestia played in the courtyard of her castle, Scribe noticed how her daughter seemed to be alone. So, she created another daughter, Luna, whom she raised to be the scion of the Moon. She then created her only son, Cosmos, to be the scion of the stars in the sky. She loved her children just as much as she loved her creations and knew they would be tasked in keeping the world of Equis safe when she ascended into the ether.

Now the mother of three, Scribe discovered she could create portals capable of breaching the barriers between her world and many other worlds, being able to assume the forms of the residential races of those dimensions. One day, at the behest of her daughters, Scribe even brought Luna and Celestia along with her trips to the unknown. Among the most fascinating of these worlds were the ones that harbored the race of beings known as Humans.

Then on one, fateful day, Scribe and her children came upon a world far more terrifying than any of them. A world where humans were perpetually terrorized by monsters. In the process of escaping, Prince Cosmos was left behind. Whether or not he died on that world remains a mystery. Either way, it scarred Empress Scribe, filling her with shame and sadness that she was unable to rescue her only son in time. A mother's grief forced the Empress to forbid anymore trips to it in fear that, should she or her children not find a way back, they would be forced to live in the perpetual war between human and leviathan. She had already lost one child, she was determined to keep that from happening to her daughters. And who were her daughters to argue with a mournful mother?

As to what happened next, nobody truly knows. Many believe she left her dimension to patch up a failing barrier between worlds and never returned, thus giving rule of the land to her daughters once they had come of age. Others say she faded away, becoming one with Equis itself, having merged with its very essence. Others believe she returned to the forbidden world in order to bring her only son home and never came back. Nobody, Pony or otherwise, can really say for certain what happened to their creator, not even Celestia or Luna know the fate of the alicorn who created and mothered them. All they know is that they have her power to thank for their existence. For without her, they would be lifeless traces of ether waiting to be sculpted.

Comments

[hmaxhanson]

I have a good feeling from this we'll see Empress Scribe return to help in the war of kaijus! As short as this chapter was, the nearly 5 year wait for it was worth everything!