• Published 7th Jul 2017
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Before the Sun was Tamed - AlicornPriest



The story of Equestria before Celestia began her reign.

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The Third Taming: The One Put Under Glass

Before the sun was tamed, she was the light of the world.

In those days, the sun rose and fell, guided by the magic of unicorns. But the night was chill, and dark, and terrifying without light. So the stories go, it was in that total darkness that the creatures of myth and terror were first born. And there was no escaping them in sleep, either, for the dreams of ponies in those days were haunted by the same ghastly images as stalked them in the darkness of the real world. Terror in waking, terror in sleeping... the nighttime was a time of stress and pain for all.

Some argued that the night should be shortened and the day lengthened, but this had its own host of problems. The pegasi were constructing their first attempts at weather patterns, but they insisted that if the night were shortened for one month, it would need to be lengthened in another. The first experiment with this is what created the first summer, autumn, winter, and spring--for when the days were long, the world heated up, and when the nights were long, the world froze over. At that point, the ponies simply accepted it, and wrapped up each season in its turn. But still the nightmares appeared, in summer nights and winter: in summer, dreams of vultures picking the bones off desiccated husks; in winter, dreams of fur-covered hulking abominations, invisible in the blizzards and mist.

Northern Bound regularly spoke with Celestia, who could offer no advice. "When I rest," she said, "I cede the world to darkness. I cannot interfere when I am not available. I am sorry."

"Can you not appoint some sort of guardian to watch over the night? Is that beyond your power?"

"If it is, I know not," said Celestia. "I am not omniscient, Northern Bound."

Throughout the years, Celestia had grown closer to Northern Bound. True to her word, they had held multiple conversations, some of importance like this one, while others were simply to pass the time. Celestia had learned Northern Bound's name, and she continued to act more and more caring of her, more and more pony. She began to develop a personality: she was a wise, charming mare, with a knack for jokes and humor and a matronly desire to protect what she now perceived as "her ponies." Though she refused to speak to any pony but Northern Bound, which she could not understand.

So the years passed. The culture of ponies grew, and Northern Bound watched it all, and grew older. While ponykind flourished, Northern Bound was left alone. She was the old wise mare, keeper of ancient memories, and the direct line to Celestia, but even these soon left her in obsolescence. Her bones grew brittle, her mind less sharp, and her eyes cloudy and lightless. One day, late in the evening, she hobbled out into the grasslands, away from her hometown, to speak with Celestia one last time.

Northern Bound never returned from her visit, so the stories can only guess what happened. They all agree on this: she went to Celestia, to ask again for a guardian to protect the night from monsters and bad dreams. Celestia again explained that she did not have the power. Northern Bound accepted this, and they talked for a while. Celestia noticed Northern Bound's infirmity, and asked, "What is the matter?"

"I am dying," she said simply. "It is the ultimate truth of all ponies."

Celestia had never seen death, or at the very least, she had never understood it. A pony fell down on the plains, or walked into a cave and never walked back out. And then... what? Another pony with a close appearance to them took their place, and another after that, their appearance changing slowly generation after generation. In all her time, Celestia had watched thousands upon thousands of ponies, but she had never bonded with any one pony before.

She had never been tamed... not like this. And she suddenly understood that, should Northern Bound die, their conversations would end for good.

So here the stories diverge. In the vast majority of the tellings, they say their last goodbyes, and Northern Bound dies there, under Celestia's watch. Celestia weeps, and her tears turn into the stars. And where Northern Ground's body lay, that spot becomes sacred ground, which Celestia transfers to the sky. A circle, with the black mark of Northern Ground's body in the shape of the Mare in the Moon. So goes one version.

In another, popular with the unicorns, Celestia refuses to let Northern Bound die. They continue their conversation forever, even as her body withers and fades into spirit, and as her soul rises up to Heaven, it transforms into the Moon. And thus, so these tellers say, during late nights in Canterlot, you can hear Celestia continuing their eternal conversation, comforting Northern Bound in her final rest.

But there are a rare few who tell it thus. Celestia watched as Northern Bound struggled to draw breath, as her heart slowed and her life gave out. And in that moment, she felt a great power rise within her, of love and friendship and care, the purest form of magic of all. With that magic, she held Northern Bound tightly in her hooves, and Northern Bound's body began to change. Her eyes went from cloudy white to deep silver; her limbs grew strong and tall; her mind rejuvenated to its former brilliance. And in this way, Celestia did appoint a guardian over the night; but more than that, she found true companionship in a sister, Luna, to stand by her side forever and always, to share eternity together.

Or so they tell it, anyway. Where these storytellers find any evidence that Celestia ever had a sister, I do not know. But that's the thing about stories, isn't it? The truth of the matter has been lost forever to the sands of time. We have only the fragments of these stories to give us insight into the past. Perhaps it happened like none of these; perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Whatever the case, in this way, as Celestia beheld death for the first time, and the moon was created to stand watch over night, the sun was tamed... at least a bit more.