Tree-Borne Creator Pony

by Crescent Pulsar

The Root of the Matter

At Celestia's suggestion, the group began their trek to Ponyville while Ranma related her story.

"To give you guys some context," Ranma began, who walked alongside the princesses at the center of their procession, "there were around two hundred countries before I changed everything, and many more divisions among the people themselves. Human history was fraught with conflict, which inevitably led to the development of a powerful weapon that could instantly kill millions of people if it was used on a major city, then more in the fallout."

There were several horrified gasps, and Twilight Sparkle regarded her with wide eyes as she whispered, "M-millions?"

Ranma nodded her head, her expression inscrutable while her attention remained on the forest path ahead, looking beyond the ponies leading the group. "These weapons were proliferated, largely between two countries, but only two were ever used against people. They were so powerful that people worried about what would happen if these weapons were exchanged in a war in general, and there was also the risk that it would lead to mutually-assured destruction if such an exchange were to happen, but there were various reasons for why a country would want them."

"There was always the fear that these weapons would be used against people again," she continued, "and there were efforts to keep them out of the hands of real or perceived threats. Unfortunately..." Her eyes closed, and the two older princesses could easily imagine that she was recalling memories behind her eyelids. "The day came when the third weapon was used to kill people. It was used against one of the largest cities in the world, the one where I lived. Millions died. I lost my family and friends, mostly in the aftermath. I almost didn't make it, myself."

She stopped when she felt a hoof rest on her withers, then looked up at Celestia, whose expression conveyed that she didn't need to continue if it was too painful. Looking around, she saw that the others had stopped as well, and seemed to be giving her the benefit of the doubt regarding such a terrible experience, which wasn't something that any decent person would lie about. She also noticed that Pinkie Pie's mane and tail had gone straight and limp instead of curly and bouncy.

"Don't worry about me," she assured them. "It was a long time ago."

"Anyway," she picked up where she left off, once they were moving again, "as you can imagine, it was very traumatic. There was death and destruction all around us, and it wasn't long before we knew that our own days were numbered. I was a mess, watching the people I cared about die, wondering why it happened, and what I should do about it."

She raised her head and looked up at the canopy. "It wasn't until the passing of my fiancée that my attention turned outward, and my thoughts darker — I wanted revenge. Of course, my first obstacle was surviving long enough to get it. I'd already learned that modern medicine couldn't save me, and I knew that my constitution did more to ignore my deteriorating health than prolong my life, so I looked for a magical solution."

"I didn't have time to learn about — and hunt down — something that may or may not be located where it's said to be," she went on, recalling that fateful decision, "and hope that they did what they claimed to do, so I sought a source of magic that I knew the location of and what it did, even if I didn't know if it could help me: a place called Jusenkyo."

She paused, in case someone wanted to ask the question that she planned to answer anyway, but her audience remained silent and solemn. "For a long time, I thought it was just a place where people got cursed to turn into things with cold water if they fell into a spring, but it was more complex than that. It wasn't even water, like I had first thought: rather, it was an immense reservoir of condensed magic that — somehow — acquired a transformative nature. I think it was even capable of some form of manipulation, able to get at least some people to fall into springs that were appropriate for them, although I don't think it was intelligent. Maybe the fact that it had once been used as a training ground had something to do with it."

"Regardless," she said, getting herself back on track, "I went there for the sake of transformation: not just for the purpose of trying to save my life, but so I could change the world afterward. Unexpectedly, the magic of Jusenkyo responded to my strong desire to accept and impose change. It was more a feeling than anything, overwhelming and primal, yet — on some level — I understood it. I... embraced it."

She looked about herself, to gauge everyone's reaction as she stated, "That was when I became an alicorn, as you call it."

There was a moment of silence before Twilight Sparkle said, "That's—"

"Totally unbelievable?" Rainbow Dash interjected, which earned her a glare from the pony she interrupted.

"Like I said before," Ranma addressed the pegasus, "I don't care if you believe me or not. All that matters to me is the state of the world and its inhabitants, and whether I'll have to do anything drastic to them again."

Twilight Sparkle, with an undercurrent of unease, curiously asked, "Drastic... how?"

"I'll get to that," Ranma evenly informed her. "Now, between the new body and powers, I couldn't rush off to get my revenge. I had to relearn how to walk, figure out how my wings and horn worked, and come to terms with being a pony. By the time I had all that sorted out, I'd had plenty of time to think and cool down... Not so much that I didn't want revenge, but enough to be more prudent and constructive about it."

"You see," she began to explain, "the country that carried out the attack was ruled by a dictator who cared more about his power and military than his people. I'll spare you the details on their well-being and how they were treated, but it was pretty bad for millions of people. On top of that, a number of countries couldn't act to resolve what had happened because another country might get involved in defense of this country, which would likely escalate the situation." A bit of anger slipped into her voice when she added, "And it didn't help when they claimed that the launch of the weapon, which was supposedly a test, had been meant to land in the ocean far away — that it was an accident."

She took a few seconds to reel her anger back in before she went on. "To make a long story short: I transformed the leader and his followers into harmless creatures, along with the portion of the military that retaliated and all those running the internment camps, then transformed every weapon I could find, and other things that weren't important, into food for the people, until someone more capable got there and took care of things." She shook her head. "Things got complicated after the situation there was stabilized. I had to fend off a couple attacks, partially stemming from the assumption that the language I spoke meant that I had acted on behalf of my country, and the world leaders didn't care much for the alluded, unspecified threat should my demands not be met."

"What kind of demands did you levy?" Luna inquired, before someone else could say something rash. "And what were you threatening to do?"

"I just wanted very specific components of that weapon to be transformed into something else," Ranma answered, making it sound like it was simple and sensible, "so it couldn't be made anymore. And I wanted everyone to resolve their differences and stop killing each other." She looked up at the canopy, which had thinned out since the last time she had looked, before casually adding, "Then I might have said that they'd be better off if they listened to my demands."

With the exception of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, the former pronking along and the latter being her usual reserved self, everyone regarded her as if she'd done something monumentally stupid. Celestia found her words first, who diplomatically observed, "Perhaps not the wisest course of action."

"Well, yeah," Ranma easily agreed. "I know that now. But I was only seventeen at the time, had no experience with politics, and tended to settle matters with martial arts. Despite that, I tried to reason with the world leaders, but most either had something against me and wouldn't talk about anything of real substance, played games, or were just outright hostile." She sighed wearily, as if just thinking about it was a drain on her energy. "Eventually, I got tired of it all. The world was a mess, lacking in virtues and rife with greed and self-serving behavior. So, I decided that we needed to start over."

"And that's when ya transformed that one species into a bunch o' others?" Applejack questioned, her brow furrowed.

Ranma shook her head. "Not right away. I recognized that I wasn't knowledgeable enough about certain things to accomplish everything that I wanted to do on my own, but I didn't know who to go to for help. So, I figured out how to use my magic to perform divination, in order to find someone dependable and trustworthy. That's how I met John, who I had to transform for the job."

"You've mentioned that individual before..." Twilight Sparkle thoughtfully noted. "Who is that?"

"John?" Came Ranma's rhetorical response, her attention turning a bit inward. "I can sense that he's nearby, so you can meet him and find out for yourself if you want."

Rarity skeptically asked, "Really? What does this John look like?"

If the skepticism bothered her, Ranma didn't show it as she replied, "Kind of like a Chinese dragon, except all of his limbs are from different animals, same as with his wings and horns, and he has the neck of a donkey and the head of a goat." When everyone stopped walking and most stared at her with a mixture of disbelief and apprehension, she quizzically prompted, "What?"

"Um," Fluttershy quietly, hesitantly began, "do you mean... Discord?"

Ranma looked at her, confused. "Who?"

"Me!" A familiar voice exclaimed.

A pair of nearby trees were moved aside from root to crown, revealing a toilet with rays of sunlight streaming out from behind it in a grand display. Discord proceeded to slowly rise out of the bowl, spinning around as if he were being flushed, until the toilet gurgled and he was spat out. He spun, flipped, got flashed by a camera bulb as he did a cheesecake pose, ran upside down, did the Cossack dance, performed a layback spin, filed his taxes, hopped through a spinning lasso both ways, mimed being stuck behind a wall, hit a home run, appraised a gem with a loupe, tap-danced on conga drums, flossed—

"Oh, hell no," Ranma suddenly objected, because of that final move. "Disqualified!"

Discord screeched to a halt, literally, and looked dismayed. "But flossing is an important part of diving hygiene!"

Seeing this exchange, and the familiarity between the two involved, rendered most of the audience silent as they contemplated the possibility that this was evidence of Ranma telling the truth, while Pinkie Pie booed and hissed at the "judge's" call. Of course, between her curiosity and the significance of Faust possibly being real, Twilight Sparkle couldn't help asking, "You two know each other?"

With an actual Cheshire Cat grin on his face, Discord was only too delighted to say, "Oh, Faust and I go waaaaaay back."