How Equestria Was Made

by Feo Takahari

The Passing of the Goddesses

Once there was a patchwork beast with mismatched limbs and a serpentine body. He called himself Discord, but his victims called him terror incarnate, for just a wink of his eye or a snap of his fingers could change anything and anyone as he saw fit. There seemed to be no limit to his powers, and the destruction he left was truly random--one town had every building turned upside down, while another had all its inhabitants transfigured into hedgehogs. No warrior or wizard was able to defeat him, so the populace took to praying. They called for the wisdom of Polly, to find this monster’s weakness, and the might of Annie, to strike him down.

One day (if it could be called such, with no sun visible in the rich purple sky), he bounced down a road made of edible pink rubber, looking for a new target. He spied two young mares standing in the middle of the road, one pure black and the other pure white--and to his surprise, they weren’t bouncing at all. This wouldn’t do, so with a snap of his fingers, both were flung into the air.

“Vile villain--” the black one spat. Then she hit the road and bounced back up. “We are here--” Bounce. “To defeat--” Bounce. “Stop it already!”

“Since you asked so nicely . . .” Discord said. A miniature tornado sucked the ponies up and threw them far into the distance.

-- -- -- --

Fifteen seconds and several miles away, Polly dug herself out of the impact crater. “Let me guess--you didn’t make this one.”

Annie looked herself over, discovering that she was covered in dirt. She shook herself like a dog, and most of it flew off onto Polly. “Nope,” she said. “But he can’t really be this strong. We’re goddesses! There has to be a way for us to beat him.”

“E-excuse me,” a small voice stuttered.

Belatedly, Polly checked her surroundings. They were near the point where a grassy field met a forest. A small wooden hut stood at the edge of the woods, smoke rising from its tiny chimney. A pale yellow earth pony stood in the doorway, staring at Polly a little too widely.

“I w-was--” She coughed a few times, and her voice steadied. “I was just about to make tea. I can make enough for you both if you want. Do you like tea?”

Polly did her best to look friendly and unintimidating. “We’d love to have some. Thank you.”

She realized the earth pony was eying her coat, and like Annie, she shook herself to keep from tracking dirt in.

The inside of the hut was a mess, for which the earth pony was incredibly apologetic--“I wasn’t expecting to have goddesses over.” The kitchen table was large enough for three, but there was only one cushion to sit on--“I’m sorry; I don’t have guests very often.” The tea was a common blend, found all over Equestria--“Nothing as fancy as you’re used to, I’m sure.”

“What’s your name?” Polly asked

“Posey,” the yellow pony said. “But it needn’t matter to--”

“Posey, stop diminishing yourself,” Polly said. “We’re not here to set ourselves above you. It’s not like we could right now, anyway.” She took a sip of tea. It was disgusting, but she swallowed anyway. “Right now, we’re not goddesses. We’re just two ponies trying to figure out what to do.”

“There has to be a way to stop Discord,” Annie repeated. “We just need to find something stronger than him.”

“What should we do?” Polly asked.

Rather than try to answer, Annie tried the tea. She made a face, but Polly glared at her until she swallowed it.

Posey coughed. “Um, if I may . . .”

“Go for it,” Polly said.

“You can’t change morality, can you?” Posey asked. “Right is right, and wrong is wrong. So that means morality is stronger than you. So it might be stronger than Discord.”

“Oh!” Annie exclaimed. “Like the Crystal of Harmony! The box says it uses the power of friendship to protect the Pony Princesses against evil forces!”

“Um, what?” Posey asked.

“It’s in another world,” Polly explained. “But that’s actually a really good idea. We think up a few magic crystals made of virtues, and we make it so they’ve always been there. Once they’re there, they’ll be more powerful than us. The only problem is that if they’re really more powerful, we won’t be able to change them once we make them. What virtues would work?”

“Courage,” Annie said. “Like my Night Guards when they faced down that manticore.”

“But courage isn’t always smart,” Polly said. “Sometimes, it’s better to run away. How about loyalty? Staying when you need to protect the people you care about?”

“Yeah, that goes with you, too,” Annie said. “Remember that griffon who fell in love with a pony? You helped them remember to be loyal to each other.”

Bantering back and forth produced honesty, kindness, friendship, and sacrifice (the latter renamed to generosity at Polly’s insistence--“I don’t want anypony killing goats on an altar for me.”) “That’s five,” Annie observed. “It’s a good number. Four little ones, and friendship as the big one.”

“Excuse me . . .” Posey said.

“You have something to add?” Polly asked.

Posey nodded. “I like to think I’m honest and kind, and I can be pretty generous. But I used to be completely alone out here, only going into town when I needed to buy things. I was always scared that if I tried to talk to anypony, I’d say the wrong thing and they’d make fun of me.”

“So what changed?”

“Laughter,” Posey explained. “I saw a pegasus try to win a bet by getting onto a cloud without flying. She used a catapult. She wound up splashing down in the lake. I thought she was hurt at first, but she just popped right up and starting laughing, and I started laughing, too, so I decided I might as well say hi. She was the first real friend I made since I started living out here.” She took a deep breath, and for the first time since they’d arrived, she looked Polly square in the eye. “Ponies need honesty, and kindness, and loyalty, and generosity. We wouldn’t be ponies without them. But I don’t think we could have real friendship without laughter.”

“Six is a nice number, isn’t it?” Polly said. She looked to Annie. “Three artifacts for you, and three for me.”

Annie concentrated. “They’re in a tree in the middle of the forest. We can go get them in a minute.”

Polly drained the last of her tea. It had started to taste surprisingly good. Then she looked back to Posey, smiling widely. “We couldn’t have done it without you, Posey. As a thank-you, I’ll give you a gift.”

Posey’s eyes widened. “There’s no need to--”

“Yes, there is,” Polly insisted.

In later generations, the source of the gift was forgotten, as was Posey herself. The cottage was abandoned, and when it was rebuilt, it wasn’t on the same spot. The gift itself remained, a powerful stare that could make any wrongdoer think twice--but as a precaution, it only appeared in the meekest of individuals.

-- -- -- --

“So . . . there it is,” Polly said.

It didn’t really look like a tree so much as a tree-shaped crystal, with smaller crystals hanging off the branches. By all rights, it should have been silly, but it radiated too much power for that. Polly had never felt so aware of her own skeletal structure, and she idly wondered if there was such a thing as pony cancer.

“What are you waiting for?” Annie asked. “Let’s get them.”

Polly stood in place, looking at the tree rather than at Annie. On some level, she hadn’t really expected this to work. She hadn’t thought they could make anything like this. But if their power stretched that far . . .

“We could take these crystals and use them on Discord,” Polly said, “but what about the next monster, and the next one? If we’re not around when they show up, the ponies will be helpless. We shouldn’t fight Discord. We should make ponies who can.”

“But . . . we’re goddesses!” Annie protested.

Polly turned to look Annie in the eye. The younger girl looked quite resolute, but Polly didn’t back down. “We’re kids,” she insisted. “We made these things, but they’re more powerful than we are. We should be able to make ponies who’re more powerful than us, too.”

Annie looked down at the ground. “Two,” she said quietly. “One for the day and one for the night, just like us. One could become a tyrant, but two can keep an eye on each other.” She looked back up at Polly. “I’ll fit them into history. They fought Discord and lost, but then they found this tree.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Polly said. “We’ll watch them and see how they do. If they can beat Discord on their own, we can trust them to protect Equestria.”

Annie smiled crookedly. “If this goes wrong, I’m blaming you, Sis.”

-- -- -- --

Discord went down with surprisingly little fanfare. The newly made super-ponies established themselves as leaders and protectors, defending against all enemies who tried to take advantage of the remaining chaos.

The ponies were leaderless at that time, and Celestia and Luna were invited to rule. They accepted, but refused the title of queen. That was reserved for the goddesses themselves. Instead, they proclaimed themselves princesses, and they ruled as such ever after.

As for Polly and Annie, they were forgotten in time. Objects of worship who can be met in person always have more currency than ones who no longer appear to mortals. A few cultists turned to stranger and stranger rituals, filling their temples with odd carvings and lethal traps, but in time, even they gave up and vanished to who knows where.

The princesses were like the goddesses, but they weren’t the same as them, nor did they have the same memories. Still, Luna felt a secret pang of emotion when she fought Discord. Just before his defeat, he said that the sisters ought to see the looks on their faces, and she felt oddly like there was something she should remember about that.

Author's Note:

This chapter was edited by Rakni and Razalon.

Comments

[ferret]

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, I didn't see that coming. Interesting answer to "Can God create a rock so heavy He can't lift it?" Or, in this case, "Can the Goddesses create rocks so powerful they can do what They can't?" It seems that, as with infinity, there are various levels of omnipotence. It's just that the differences only really matter when those omnipotences are compared against one another.

Still, that leaves a nagging question: who made Discord? Presumably the same person who created the windigoes... but who is that?

Eagerly looking forward to more.

[PresentPerfect]

Okay, that's a remarkably clever inspiration for the Elements.

[MagicKnight55]

Okay, to edit my comment from the previous chapter, this is DEFINITELY the most creative origin story for Celestia and Luna.
I thought it was Polly》Celestia, and Annie》Luna.
But I never saw this coming.

[darklight731]

There is something very sad about so much being forgotten, but I guess it is for the best that the ponies turned away from worshipping the girls.