Journal of a War Pony

by CrackedInkWell

August 18 - 24 (Part 4)

Celestia gave off a sigh of regret and said: “Then the next forty years was the biggest mistake that we have ever made as rulers and as a family. While we were setting up for the rise of Equestria, other nations sprung up too all over the world. So, the three of us decided that we need to establish alliances and peace while it's still early. What we ended up doing was for me and my sister to travel from nation to nation to set up these alliances. While our brother would be a temporary ruler when we're away... But we should never even left.”

“Why?” I asked, “What happened?”

“While we were away,” said Luna, “our brother tried to maintain order among the three tribes for the first few months. But the more he tried to strengthen control, the worse it got. Also, to top it all off, the Everfree forest grew more and more rapidly. It was growing out of control and it threatens to swallow all of Equestria. He tried everything, poison, hungry animals, even fire, but nothing worked. The more he tried to keep the Everfree back, the more out of hoof it became. Until he got a very dangerous idea.”

“Without the consent from us or our ponies, he declared himself (in a state of emergency) king of Equestria.” Celestia told us, “He concluded that in order to stop the Everfree from growing, even more, he took out of himself the things that he thought would bring harmony to the land; by growing a special tree in the middle of the forest. To do so, he took out of him most of his honesty, his kindness, his laughter, his generosity, his loyalty... And even the magic of friendship he took out of himself.”

“Wait!” Twilight interjected, “are you saying that Discord created the elements of harmony!?!”

“Yes.” Celestia nodded, “This was why you and your friends were able to stop him when he broke out. Because the six of you had those elements that he once had. For he used these elements to set up the tree to maintain order. But after he did, he spends those forty years to make those ponies lives as miserable as possible. He created the changelings to cause confusion, the nightmares to haunt their dreams, and the Wendigos to create horrible weather, just so he can watch them suffer and to divide the tribes even further.”

“This of course,” Luna interjected, “during this time period, was where the stories from Star Swirled the Bearded to the origins of Hearts Warming came from.”

“So by the time we finally got back,” Celestia continued, “we found that Equestria was turned upside-down, literally in someplace. For nonsense and anarchy ruled the land, with our brother was at the head of it all.”

“And all those ponies,” Luna said, shaking her head. “Even to this day, I could hardly describe how miserable they all were. It was as if all the color they once had was sucked out and replaced with these miserable, rude, melancholy and hollowed ponies. As a result of our little brother's regime, the Amadeus we once knew was gone, and in his place was Discord. A lying, rude, mean-spirited, greedy, selfish and entirely unfriendly creature.”

“From our citizens,” said Celestia, “we learned how he has gotten that way. So we searched for the elements, battling to find them and to find Discord in hopes that it would bring our brother back. We knew that the magic wouldn't last to keep the Everfree at bay, we risked it to bring him back, but instead, it turned him into stone.”

“Excuse me, Princess,” Twilight said. “How come none of the history books never say anything about Discord like this?”

“Well,” said Celestia, “at the time we were so angry at our brother of what he has done, to us, Equestria and all those innocent ponies, that we ordered anything that reminded of Discord destroyed. Statues, monuments, stain-glass windows, signs, we had them smashed. Books, poems, plays, paintings, drawings, you name it, we had them set to the torch. We destroyed Discord's memory, and yet, no matter how enraged we were, we couldn't destroy our own brother. As much as we wanted to smash him, the fact remains that as much as we hated him for what he's done, he's still family. We kept him here in the garden since then, that was, until recently when he broke out of his stone prison. Twilight and her friends did stop him and turned him back into stone. Also when we become princess, we did everything possible to distance ourselves from him.”

“Well... Alright.” I said, “But before you go any further, I do have one question that has been bothering me. If you are the eldest, why does everyone keep calling you princess when, if I may say it, you seemed to be a queen. Logically it would make more sense.”

“I understand, but there are two important reasons behind this. The first is that because of our brother, he left Equestria in such dire shape that the ponies looked to us to fix everything. It was because of our brother who took the title of king, that to them, anypony who had the title of king or queen was considered to be pure evil. We took the title of princess so that our ponies will be satisfied and Equestria has two leaders to make sure that the other doesn’t become evil herself. The other reason is that when we both have the title of princess, neither I nor Luna has more power or greater responsibility for the other. Does that make sense?”

“I suppose so,” I said.

“The rest, as they say, is history,” said Luna. “All 1,439 years of it.”

When Luna said this, Celestia stopped and looked around. She smiled and said, “Now, before we go any further, I want to show you two something. But before we do, I want to ask you, my faithful student, what are your thoughts from what we told you?”

“Well princess, it's a very fascinating story. It really is, it's just that's all we have to go off of is from your story. Not that I doubt you completely, it's just that there's no hard proof if what you are saying really did happen.”

“I understand,” Celestia nodded, “then allow us to show you proof.” Both of the sister's horns glowed and Celestia told me that I should close my eyes for a moment. Even with my eyes closed, I saw a bright light. But a second later the light was gone, I opened my eyes to find that both the princesses are there as well as Twilight. But there was one major difference though, instead of being in a tall hedge maze, we were underground. At first, I thought it was a cave from all the stalactites hanging from the above. That is until Twilight points out the crystals.

As for me at this point, I was shaken because I never was telephoned from the surface to the underground in the blink of an eye. I asked them where we are and how. Luna told me that we are right under the castle, they used a transportation spell to get the four of us down below.

With the light of the princesses and Twilight's horns, we spotted a door. A metal door embedded into the solid rock, on the door, a rusty sign read: “Top Secret. U.N. Staff ONLY.” I asked what is this place.

“Behind that door and at the end of the hallway,” Celestia said, “is the place where we were born.”

Comments

[A random person]

Good chapter, although there are a few grammar mistakes and a bit is rushed