Let Us Open the Storybook and Read
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were three regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land.
To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. Thus, the ponies had brightly lit fields and cities to work and play in, enjoying each moment better than the last.
The middle sister, in turn, brought out the moon to begin the night, offering ponies restful sleep and sweet dreams, giving hopes and smiles so that as the next day arose, they would wake up bright, happy, and ready for another day.
The youngest painted the sky full of colors with her magic as her sisters brought up the sun and the moon, bringing the ponies wonder. As the ponies prepared for work or wound down from it, she taught them to care for one another, so that their lives would be more fulfilling in work just like in rest.
Thus, their subjects, all the different types of ponies, were happy, living in balance and harmony.
However, there came a day where the two elder sisters began fighting amongst themselves.
"It is not fair!" The middle sister declared. "The ponies frolic in your day, working and playing with the utmost joy, but when my night falls, they all return to their homes and sleep!"
"I am sorry, sister, but it is how things are," the eldest declared, refusing to budge. "You give ponies the rest they need; is this not a task that makes you happy?"
The middle sister did not reply, for there was no changing the eldest’s mind. However, within her heart, bitterness grew.
The youngest sister looked on, hesitant. She dared not question her elders.
As the years passed, the middle sister grew more and more upset. She had tried to talk to her older sister many times, but the sun mare did not understand her plight. One fateful night, exasperated, she refused to lower the moon and make way for the dawn. Her hatred overwhelmed her and transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night.
The elder sister took the situation into her hooves. Much as it pained her, she believed her sister to be beyond redemption, consumed by hatred. Reluctantly harnessing the most powerful magic known to ponydom, the Elements of Harmony, she defeated the middle sister, and sought to forever banish her from their kingdom, fearing for the safety of their ponies.
The youngest one would not allow this. She had been observing as her elders bickered all this time and, unable to make them see reason on her own, she had gone to their subjects to seek a solution amongst the crowds, something the other princesses had never thought to do.
“Their Majesties must be convinced of the truth,” the honest pony had said. “The Princess of Day means well, but she struggles to accept that she failed her nightly sibling. The Princess of Night refuses to see how much we love her. My kin and I will come with you and help dispel the lies that keep them in conflict.”
“Their Majesties seem so troubled,” the kind pony had said. “I worry for them, much as you do. They each, in their own way, fear for their subjects. Please, allow my kin and I to come with you. We will talk to them and help them through their worries.
“Their Majesties have lost track of what truly matters,” the loyal pony had said. “They have let the letter of their duties overtake its true meaning. Let my kin and I come with you. We will help show them the true value of their efforts.”
“Their Majesties fear that we do not love them as we should,” the generous pony had said. “They fear that we are forgetting one of them. With your blessing, my kin and I will come with you, to bring proof of our devotion.”
“Their Majesties must have forgotten to take the time to breathe,” the jovial pony had said. “For all their greatness, even they must need a moment to relax. May my kin and I come with you? We will help lighten their burden, so that they may have a moment to think.”
Encouraged by the many subjects that now followed her, the youngest princess returned to the castle, and asked that the eldest give her the Elements. Though hesistant, still fearing that the middle sister represented a danger, the eldest did so.
With the help of her new allies, the youngest princess brought forth the true power of the Elements, and restored the middle sister to her pure glory.
By standing out of her elder sisters' shadows and bringing them the guidance of their subjects, the youngest had taught them each an important lesson.
She had showed the middle sister that their subjects did truly love her. They thought of her in their sleep, and relished in the sweet dreams she gave them. They celebrated beneath her moon, enjoying music, food, and drink, and if she sought to join them, they would welcome her warmly. Why, many of them had come with her younger sister just to show her as much!
To the eldest sister, she had taught a lesson in understanding and humility, that though she was a wise and kind ruler, she needed to accept that there were times where she needed to rely more on her younger siblings, and trust in their concerns just as much as her own. Embracing the middle sister, she accepted her apologies and, together, they promised never to fight again.
The youngest sister herself had gained a valuable lesson all her own. With the wisdom gleaned from the ponies she had befriended, she had learned to stand on her own as a ruler, and take an equal seat to her siblings, where she could guide them in their times of need just as they had guided her in the past. With the support of her new friends, she knew that, from now on, she would be confident and proud to stand alongside her sisters.
With the three sisters again united thanks to the teachings of the youngest, harmony was restored to Equestria and has been maintained for generations since.
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An Alternate universe, perhaps? This really needs that tag, considering that you're trying to make it the three of them. Aside from having improper tag usage... It wasn't bad. Wasn't mind-shatteringly awesome, but not bad. Certainly a unique take on the story-book idea and what might have happened were Twilight there from the beginning.
3999518
It's not really intended as an alternate universe. Rather, it's the tale as would be seen by ponies born now that Twilight's the third princess. Hm... Perhaps some additional time clues would have been called for.
T'is a very original and cool idea. To create a legend that ponies told about the three Equestrian princesses. I love it!
A good story, but you might want to change this.
they would welcome her with open arms.
Great little story. An interesting exanimation of how facts give way to story give way to myth over a long enough time frame. Felt like something that could happen in Equestria.
I enjoyed it. A version of the first two episodes thousands of years down the line with new twists added over the generations. Happens today with tales from ancient times getting retold over and over again.
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Glad you like it!
4002219
Good catch, thanks!
4125740
I love the idea of Twilight (and her friends) being adopted into the mythology of the world. I've read quite a few creation myths, but never a myth like this.
One thing tho,
looks like you tried to fix it and only got halfway there.
Overall a fun short read.
4126063
Hehe. That'll teach me to make fixes late at night.
That was a rather nice little story. Have something green.
4126155
Ooh! Ooh! Is it a cabbage? Limes? A frog?
Glad you enjoyed the story, and thanks for the thumbs-up.
Something that might make this clearer would be an epilogue where a two thousand year old Princess Twilight while walking in the royal gardens over hears a school group visiting the gardens telling this story. Her reaction by thinking about her friends or looking towards some statues honoring them, could place the story in time and context.
5125958
While that might make it clearer, I'm not sure the story truly needs clarification. I had a similar epilogue in the first version of the story, and my beta readers and I felt it really didn't add much, so I cut it.
I'll let people draw their own conclusions.
That's very popular opinion about Celestia but i still don't see how she failed her. She isn't psychic.
5964753
It's one thing not to be psychic, and it's another to fail to notice that your sister has been upset for months, possibly years. There is a gray area between being perceptive and being clairvoyant.
oops :B
You've got quite the knack for legends and fables. :D
5964894 I would venture that it's not a matter of perception, but of empathy. Sadly, I have discovered that it is a lost art these days (although i'll concede that I'm not even that sure were ever were partiualrly good at it).
As someone who has repeatedly shone a light into the darkest places of men's hearts, I know all too well that even a little empathy looks positively psychic to most people. They're just not used to it. Some react positively, coming to understand that what seems irreconcilable is actually understandable and controllable, while others cannot stand to see their own pain directly.
It is with this experience, and dare I say talent, in mind that I recognise that the story isn't written for people like me. I went the other route and did a much slower, more thorough examination of the sister's breakdown, using Rarity as a mirror for Luna. I get it, perhaps too clearly to get much other than some mild disappointment that so many don't see the interplay happening here as rather obvious – which is, I imagine, your reason for writing the story in the first place.
So all I can really say about the story is this: I get it.
I suspect this alone will be quite sufficient.
Its a nice read. I wish we got more of the back story to NMM in cannon but the lack of iit allows for so many different interpretations.
Was there any style choices you made when weriting this? It reads like a folk tale and I can't quite figure out why.
Thanks for writing this!
6189511
The main style choice was that I was trying to emulate the tone of the first episode's opening storytale as closely as possible. That's why it reads like a folk tale.
Hm, yeah. Fuck Cadence.
6320820
Such vulgar words are highly uncalled for.
I appreciate Cadance, but given her unclear position in the show's cosmology and her general disconnect from the Nightmare Moon incident, I chose not to include her here.
That's no reason to cuss.
This was really cool to read, I really enjoyed it. It felt like this story could be told thousands of years past cannon time and the history has been forgotten/rewritten. Although I don't think Twilight would ever let false facts be published, hah.
WOW THIS WAS AN AMAZING STORY I GIVE IT 6 PINKIE GASPS
AND 6 TWILIGHT SMILES 
History becomes legend, legend becomes myth. I can only imagine how many centuries would have to pass to forget the names of the Bearers and the fact of Twilight's ascension. Did some cataclysm befall ponies to make them forget so much? Was it simply the passage of time? Or did the princesses choose to let the knowledge be forgotten, to bring rest to those who had passed on? And where is Cadence in all of this?
A simple fable with complex implications. Thank you for it.
6321332 Agreed. I like Cadance, her character, characterization, and concept, but I cannot help but feel conflicted about what she truly adds to the FiM unicerse. I don't feel she detracts, by any means, but neither do I feel she adds anything on, nothing major at least...
Does that make sense?
this was INCREDIBLY cute, and is now part of my cannon!
6343028
More than Twilight. I mean, the inclusion of Twilight for this piece is completely arbitrary anyway (not that that's a bad thing – it just is), so it seems odd to me for Autumn Wind to say what (s)he did. Cadance isn't relevant – but her lack of cosmological relevance is itself not really relevant.
Oh my, this beauty.
This was an awesome story! You just gained a like and a follow.
Wait no! -police man chucks into car- I didn't mean it that way I'm not a stalker!
Police guy: yeah yeah, sure, say that to the judge at your trial
...I don't even know, I was bored. Don't judge me!!
As a sequel, I'd like to see the same treatment of the The Crystal Empire story (S3E01/02) as seen by the far future's Crystal Ponies. Does Twilight figure into it greatly, or not at all? Do they revere Spike? Or has it all become a legend about their own resident Alicorn of Love?
6343204
Not sure how this follows. The myth is a retelling of S1E01 and S1E02 from a point of view likely hundreds (if not thousands) of years in the future. It's a myth as much about how the Youngest Sister came to stand as an equal alongside her elders as it is about the Celestia-Luna conflict, and so Twilight's presence here feels very much relevant.
6343204 No, Twilight is relevant due to her being a) Celestia's student, b) a key member of the EoH, and c) her new status as royalty. Cadance has...uh...love...and CRISTALLLLZZZZZZZZZ...
6343663 But it's only relevant because the author has decided it's relevant. Since none of what is in the story is what happened as we know it, the results are pretty much the definition or arbitrary.
6343841 And you could make up reasons why Cadence is relevant and Twilight isn't. These are opinions, not facts.
6320820 Cadence would more likely be included in the lore of The Crystal Empire.
Wow. This puts a new spin on the tale of the two sisters, for all we know Celestia adopted Luna, some years into her reign, and they played along with the ponies calling them sisters, perhaps even forgetting altogether. Maybe because the strain of using both the moon and sun was too much for her in her early years.
6343876 Twilight's inclusion is the whole premise of the story. If she isn't included, you just have the opening to episode one in text form. If Twilight is irrelevant, then the whole story is. Irrelevant to what context, I don't really know, because the only context here is the story itself. Although you could make an argument that the premise is arbitrary, pretty much every premise is arbitrary.
6343901 I'm not actually sure what you're even responding to here. Yes, the entire premise of the fic is arbitrary, as it is with most stories. This is normal to the point of necessity. The point was that Autumn Wind said that Cadance was excluded due to her 'unclear' connection to the show's cosmology and I thought that was odd because neither Cadance nor Twilight have anything to do with the show's cosmology. So we were never talking about where Twilight is relevant to the story, but to the world of the show itself.
I can't help but think you're replying to something I haven't actually said.
Anyway, I don't think there is any merit to this conversation and it's probably just taking up space, so I'm out.
6343028
It does. I personally feel she has clear worth, but that her alicorn-itude could have been handled better.
The lack of clues on how much time passed between the events and the added things to Twilight's persona makes comes off as of an Alternate Reality than a retelling. Why would ponies ever think Twilight ,Celestia and Luna are related? There's also bits of information added that I personally think paints Celestia in too harsh of a light. This story makes it seem like it was Celestia who shot first. And the final solution, Twilight showing Luna that there where ponies that actually enjoyed the night, that was only 1000 years after she was banished( and only one night). I think that's just too big of a detail to just gloss over.
6344563
It's neither Alternate Reality nore a retelling. It's a potential future. Let's take your points one at a time with this in mind:
By the point in time where a legend like this might be told, Twilight has been ruling alongside Celestia and Luna for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. Would it be that strange for her to have become the honorary third alicorn sister?
The story does raise the point that Celestia may have had some fault, that I will admit, but I don't feel that it is to the point where "Celestia shot first". Celestia's fault in the story is failing to notice her sister's concerns before it's too late. I believe this is a fair criticism to levy, depending on one's interpretation of how the past happens. Surely, Luna didn't just one day wake up and go "Welp, time for eternal night!"
I think that, in the grand scheme of things, where immortal alicorns is concerned, a thousand years of banishment might eventually become 'a bad incident to put behind us'. It's not so much a glossing-over as it is a poetic reinterpretation.
6344745
Yes, at least I think it would be. Especially since Twilight is already the honorary sister of Cadence.
You're right and there is no real way currently to know how exactly the events up until then preceded. But from the flashback we know Luna attacked Celestia first.
The sentence
makes it seem like Celstia had another choice then.
Maybe to them personally, but time is still relevant to everyone else. The ponies already tell stories about before Equestria was formed, and presumably before Celestia and Luna. They didn't see the need to add them in like you added in Twilight. And without the passage of time, the story doesn't feel as epic as the original, or as timeless as the Hearts Warming story.
And honestly, if Twilight was still around even thousands of years later, she would mandate the record be 100% accurate.
An intriguing idea.
It would also be interesting to see what TS's reaction would be getting made into a myth retelling the one that got her started--if you did a followup chapter?.
The way it's written, it's conceivable that Luna's banishment and the events of MLP's 5+ seasons were simply forgotten to history, but they managed to create a myth into one where the Mane 6 resolving the situation before banishment became a factor.
As Anne McCaffrey wrote in her introduction of Pern, "when is a legend legend? Why is a myth a myth?"
6345570
You do realize this was written before the show ever revealed that flashback, yes?
We could be arguing for hours, but at some point, all I can truly say is that I respectfully disagree with your assertions. This story shows my personal interpretation of what the story. If my interpretation of Celestia is too at fault, my Luna too redeemed by time, or my Twilight not factual minded (many years of becoming wiser later, mind you), or my alicorns too sisterly, and altogether are not fitting with your interpretation, there is not much I can do about it.
There is always room for some interpretation in fiction. I gladly invite you to write your own take on this.
6346242
My first draft of this fic had a small scene with a much older alicorn Twilight gently set the book down on her student's bedside table after she found said student fallen asleep on said book. Her reaction was a simple knowing smile.
I leave this to your interpretation.
6346242
A fellow fan of Anne McCaffrey and the Dragonriders of Pern! I didn't even remember that quote. Nice to meet you!
6346523
....
Oh, I was thinking of the very first time Twilight sees the book after Celestia & Luna approved the publication & her reaction to it
Of course, that scene you spoke of would be the conclusion--maybe a few decades or centuries later, after she finally accepted that version
6347164
Thanks! Nice to meet you, too.
Yes, that quote is from the Introduction "chapter" of her first book in the series, Dragonflight, before the story begins with Lessa in Chapter 1--it gives a little background history of the world.
6347968
I figured out where it was from from what you said in the previous message, but it just didn't stick in my head. I'm a big fan of McCaffrey's work, though.
Loved the story, quite thought provoking. Could very much see this happening
Nice story. Thanks for writing.
That was well done. Especially the words of the Element's bearers.
6355666
6357873
6363707
Thank you all, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Loved how original it was. Great job
"But it's nothing like what really happened!" Twilight protested.
"Ponies need stories that make sense and that have patterns in which they can believe," Celestia replied. "Let them have this Twilight. Your friends are hardly insulted by this tale and it serves a role in explaining your part in the greater order of things."
"Besides," Luna added. "E'en these millennia hence, we still know the truth of your friends and will never forget it."