Equestria's Beginnings

by Nightshade2012

3: Baby Steps, Little Ponies

Finally, night graced Equestria for the first time. Princess Luna’s moon cooled the land greatly, and the grasses that had been shriveling despite the best care they could ask for started to thrive with the nightly breaks from the sun. The sisters soon developed a pattern for raising their celestial bodies. Celestia’s sun stayed out for a little over fifteen hours each day, and in the time it was not up Luna’s moon reigned supreme.
Ah, you thought I’d forgotten where we left off? You have such little faith in me, little ones! Yes, Celestia wished to bring ponies to Equestria at last, but with extremely advanced magic. She didn’t want more alicorns either. Shall we see what she had in mind?

--

“Sister, I do believe you’ve started to go nutty in your head,” Luna said as she and her sister trotted back within the palace. It was dark for once, transforming the inside. They made their way to the throne room, where they spent much of their time discussing things for the land. As they walked in, Luna noticed something beyond the throne. “Look...”

Where Celestia’s image raising the sun had once been alone, it was now a completed window. Celestia’s image was still raising her sun, but next to it and flipped upside down was a darker image of Luna raising the moon. They formed a circle, a balance. Harmony.

“Father promised it would complete itself,” the elder sister murmured with a smile. “Now, back to what we were saying. I am not nutty, sister dear. I think it can be done.”

“Create alicorns?” Luna said. “It can’t be done, Celestia! Alicorns aren’t just pulled out of thin air, you know.”

“No, no alicorns,” Celestia said sharply, and in doing so startled her younger sister. “I am sorry, I did not mean to snap. I just...” She sighed and moved to look out the uncolored window nearest to her, at her first glimpse at this world’s stars and constellations. “Mother and Father sent us here to rule over everything, even if our title is ‘princess’ instead of ‘queen.’ If we create more alicorns, who's to say they don’t try and take our seat in this world and rule themselves? We can’t let our parents down that way.”

“So instead we’ll create... what?” Luna asked dubiously, going to stand beside her sister. “What is there but alicorns?” After all, in their home, there was only alicorns.

“I... I was thinking we would... break apart an alicorn,” Celestia began slowly. “Not literally, but we could create ponies out of what an alicorn is. I was figuring we could have three sorts of ponies,” she explained. “The first group would be ground-dwelling ponies. No wings, no magic. They will have the physical strength of an alicorn. We would make them from the soil they would be grounded to.”

“Ponies without magic... or wings...” Luna murmured softly. Well, she didn’t sound against the idea, so Celestia continued.

“Yes, without magic or wings. They would farm the land and produce food, hopefully. The second type would have wings, but no magic,” the white princess continued. “They would be able to fly and soar through the air and sleep on clouds, like we can. They would be our weather bringers. Their wingbeats would bring wind, and from wind and sun and moon we will soon have clouds and rain and other weather patterns.

“The final group would be the magic users. They wouldn’t have any wings, though. They’d help us to write books and develop magic in this world, Luna. They’d be like... scholars, but of course any pony could learn and be educated. What do you think?” Celestia asked hopefully. Luna might be the younger sibling, but with age her sister had matured greatly. She was wise for such a young pony. Then again, so was Celestia. Living alone did that to you.

“Farmers, weather ponies, and scholars,” Luna said softly, considering all of this in silence for a while. “It is not a bad idea sister. We should not put our hopes in it, though. First we need to see if your magic works.”

“We can start when you are rested,” Celestia said, realizing just how exhausted her sister looked. “Sleep well, Luna. I’ll be up a while yet.” Luna nodded and walked away slowly, her hoof-steps fading into the halls. True to her word, the elder princess was up well into the night. In fact, she was awake working on her spells until her sister rose to lower the moon so the sun could rise again. The first dawn was bestowed upon the world as the moon set and the sun rose, and together the alicorn princesses admired the colors in the sky.

“So,” Luna said as they walked through the meadows later on in the day. The sun was high in the sky, shining brightly. “How do you think we will make these ponies of yours? I only knew that mother and father could bring creation. Can we do it as well?”

“I think we can,” Celestia said as she set down the three buckets she’d been carrying with her. “We’re their daughters, after all.” In the three buckets was something a little different. The first had water, enough to dampen dirt but not turn it to mud. The second had feathers, some purple from Luna and some white from Celestia. The third had nothing in it yet, for the third could not be made until the stars were out once more.

“What do we do now?” Luna asked, flipping through the spell book they had created to her sister’s notes with her magic. “‘Add a foal’s-weight in dirt to the pail with water. Once it’s thick, sculpt a foal.’ What?”

“Just what it said,” Celestia said confidently as she started to scrape dirt from the ground. When she’d gathered enough (Luna sitting back to watch the whole time) she set it in the pail with water and swirled it around a bit. When it was damp, she used her magic to very carefully sculpt a foal. She left out the horn for magic and the wings for flying, but everything else was there: mane, tail, muzzle, four hooves, even little stone eyes. “Set that book down, Luna, I need your help now.” Carefully, Celestia set the little clay foal on a flat patch of earth. The sisters touched their horns together on the little creation’s forehead. Light flashed and flared brightly around them, but neither princess moved. They closed their eyes and focused their magic on the foal statue before them. Light continued to flare around the connect their horns made, growing brighter and brighter until it reached a great climax...!

The sisters pulled their horns apart while blinking spots from their eyes and shaking their heads to clear them. Luna looked a bit pale, and Celestia a bit shaky, but they both turned to look down to where the statue had been. And they gasped.

It was gone!

“B-But my calculations were perfect!” Celestia cried, staring at where the foal statue had been. “There... There should have been...”

“Sister,” Luna said quietly, looking down between her sister’s forelegs and trying not to smile. “Look down, you great tall fool!” Celestia did what she was told and almost jumped out of her skin in shock.

A little giggle met her shock. Between her forelegs stood a wobbly-legged foal. It had no wings, and no horn, but four hooves, two eyes, two ears, a mane, and a tail. The foal was dark brown like the earth it had come from, with lighter hues of brown in its mane. The little one’s eyes were a vibrant green.

“Do you think it can talk yet?” Luna whispered, crouching to be eye to eye with the baby.

“Hi!” the little earth pony shouted, laughing loudly when Luna fell over in surprise.

“We made a toddler, sister, not a newborn!” Celestia said, adding her laughter to the little one’s. She crouched down to be eye to eye with the first earth pony Equestria had seen, smiling serenely. “Hello, little one,” she said slowly. “My name is Princess Celestia, and that one over on her back is Princess Luna. We are alicorns,” she explained. “You are... an earth pony. And your name is... um...”

“Shocker!” Luna called from where she was. She’d gotten her legs under her again and had shaken dust from her coat. The little foal seemed to like its name.

“Shocker!” it repeated, wobbling over to Luna with a smile. “Woona,” it said proudly, rearing back to place it’s forehooves on her leg. Luna smiled brightly when the earth pony said her name. She gently nudged it back to her sister, and they watched it totter around on its new legs fondly, like mothers watching their foal walk for the first time.

“Shocker it is,” Celestia chuckled softly. “It worked, Luna,” she added with a wide smile. “This means we can make the others, too. We’ll have to gather more food to feed them, too; hopefully they don’t need milk...” There were animals in Equestria, created by Galaxia and Orion, but they were all wild. Even the cows and other milk-giving animals.

“We’ll have to teach them, too,” Luna said. “If we make more of them, we can make a little kindergarten for them. They’ll have to learn how to read and write just like we did, and all about their new home.” Celestia nodded in agreement, looking down at Shocker. The little foal had fallen asleep, already exhausted.

“We can make the next one while it’s asleep,” the elder princess said.

“Wait!” Luna hissed, making her sister freeze. “Is Shocker a girl or a boy?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” Celestia said, giving her sister a look. “Surely it will figure that out on its own.”

“But I don’t want to call Shocker and the others ‘it’s forever,” Luna whined as her sister walked off.

“Then check yourself!” Celestia said. She lifted the second pail with magic and took off into the sky to gather cloud fluff. Her sister joined her a moment later on a large white cloud that had come to the sky with the evaporation of groundwater.

“Boy,” the night princess said with a smirk for her sister. Celestia rolled her eyes, tenderly molding a cloud into another foal shape. The feathers went on its flanks for wings. The sisters repeated the process they’d used to make Shocker. It left them even weaker than before, but they’d been rewarded: a second foal tottered about in the cloud. It fell over in the fluff and sneezed loudly. At its sides were two little wings.

This foal was a light blue color, like the sky above. Its mane was white like the clouds, and its eyes were night blue. With the foal riding on Luna’s back, they glided back down to land. Shocker was still asleep under the shade of a young tree, undisturbed by the lights that had flashed above him.

“Breeze,” Celestia said suddenly as the second foal (later proclaimed a filly by Luna) went to lay down next to Shocker.

“Excuse me?” Luna asked.

“We’ll call it Breeze,” Celestia repeated softly. “One day, that little pegasus will be one of the first to bring a breeze to Equestria. It’s quiet, too, like a gentle breeze.” Together, the sisters carried their little toddler foals back to the castle on their backs. Within the castle walls, Luna watched the sleeping little ones while Celestia set up three new pallets on the ground, small enough for foals to sleep on.

When she returned to her sister, she had to laugh. Luna looked overwhelmed already by just two foals, who had woken while the sun princess had been gone. Shocker toddled among the purple alicorn’s legs, and Breeze fluttered about very close to the ground on new wings before landing with an ‘oof’ of air leaving her body.

“You’re a hopeless mother,” Celestia sighed. She laid down near the little ones after shooing her sister away, bringing them close to her flank and protecting them with a wing. “Why don’t you find some little grass shoots for them, Luna? They’ll be hungry, and we have to wait to make the last one until it’s night.” The younger alicorn nodded and hurried off to get food for the little ones. Celestia, meanwhile, spoke slowly to them. Already they were learning. They repeated her words back to her, stowing them away in their memories, and by the time Luna returned they were babbling like any toddler might.

That afternoon the sisters spent teaching their new students as well as resting. While Luna rose the moon for night, Celestia tucked Breeze and Shocker into bed. She hurried to join her sister with the third pail from that day. It was empty, for now.

“This one will be hardest,” Luna said softly, looking up at the stars.

“It will,” Celestia agreed. In turn, each sister dispensed magic into the pail. It swirled at the bottom like sparkling mist. Luna supplied starlight in her magic as well, adding an extra shimmer.

Together, the sisters carefully crafted the swirling mist into a foal with a single little horn. They performed the creation spell for a third time, collapsing when this one was done. It had been the most difficult to perform. Their results, however, were the same as the other two times. A little foal, a colt, blinked its eyes slowly at the princesses. His eyes were bright yellow, and his coat was yellow with lavender splotches on it.

“How about... Stardust?” Luna suggested. “Because that is where he came from.”

“Stardust, then,” Celestia agreed. The little colt was already tired, and the sisters carried him off to join Breeze and Shocker in the bedroom they all were going to share. The sisters laid down side by side once Stardust was settled in to sleep.

“We can make things,” Luna mumbled sleepily. “Ponies.”

“Only a few,” Celestia said softly. “We’ll make enough so when they grow, the bloodlines won’t be too closely connected. Soon, the land will be flourishing, sister.”

“We have to raise them first,” the moon princess snorted, closing her eyes.

“Baby steps,” the sun princess sighed, laying her head on her forelegs and watching the ponies sleep. “Baby steps, little ponies.”

Comments

[The Shade]

Bravo! Not a single complaint. ( Except a few apelling errors.)