History of the Eternal Sun

by ANormalHumanBeing

Preamble

I pray that you will forgive the fact I can't write like the others in this book, but I knew that if I wanted to give this out to any old pony in the wastes, I would need to give context. So if not everything is in place, or not everything is exactly how it should be, know that is because a stallion who only learned to read and write within the past eight years is writing this.

My name is Firebranded. I'm roughly 34 years old, give or take, and I was born in a place that has no name to a gang founded and run by my father. For the first 26 years of my life, that’s the only life I had known. I grew up quick, and I grew up mean. Alongside my older brother, Trailblazer, my father, and some 50 other stallions and mares, we were your typical gang. We regularly attacked caravans and settlements, and sold the loot for drugs. I think I tried my first hit of Dash when I was 13, and was hooked just like the rest of them. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but the things I’ve done since then I spend every day doing my best to atone for; Families I’ve destroyed, and lives I’ve ruined. I was irredeemable, and the only future I had for myself was to die when someone finally got lucky enough. That’s what makes what happened next all the more confusing.

I and Trailblazer went out with some of the others to attack a little town we had heard about from one of our dealers after we mentioned we were running low on loot to sell for drugs. When we got there, we were faced with a militia of townsponies. We took what drugs we had to give ourselves the gusto we needed to charge them, and were able to push them off the little fortification they had set up by the front of it. The remaining townsponies ran away, but we followed close behind a few of them. One in particular, a spry young stallion roughly the same age I was, ended up throwing a rock that hit my brother in the head before he turned and ran.

We followed him a ways, before we ended up following him into a small wooden building. The door slammed shut behind us, though we barely noticed since we were so high off the chase. We tried to follow him as he ran through the hallway and out the back door, but that swung shut, too, and was apparently barred from the other side, because Trailblazer couldn’t break it down. We looked around for a window, but we didn’t find anything. No windows, and the door at the entrance was locked up just as tight.

And that’s when the smell of smoke began to set in.

It turned out to be a trap, and the building was actively being set on fire in an attempt to kill both of us. Panic set in, and both of us began to bang on the doors, the walls, just about anything we could. Time was blurry, so I’m not entirely sure how long we had been banging, but I know our hooves were starting to get bruised and bloody from it when we finally became too weak to keep trying, and so the both of us just got as low to the ground as we could in a vain attempt to stay alive. We screamed and begged for someone to come and open the door, but nothing ever came of it.
I watched as a timber came tumbling down from the ceiling, crushing my brother like a bowl of eggs. I won’t get too graphic with the details, but I could tell by how his chest rose and fell that his rib had pierced his lung. I tried for a long time to get that timber off of him, even after he stopped breathing and whimpering. I hung my head there in despair, as I said my goodbye, and decided I wouldn’t wait for my fate. I stood up, with my head in the thick cloud of black smoke that had already filled the top half of the room, and took a deep breath.

But it wasn’t death that filled my lungs, but life. The smoke filled my lungs just as if it were air. My eyes shot open in surprise, and they weren’t blinded by the smoke. Instead, they were stabbed by the light of the inferno that surrounded me. I was alone, on a solitary patch of ground, in a sea of fire and ruin. Directly in front of me, in the middle of the blaze, slowly formed a larger flame, almost like a bonfire was being built right there.
And the fire formed into the shape of a mare, with long flowing hair. She stood at least twice my height, with a horn and massive wings of burning flame. I fell on my backside, and trembled with fear as Her bright eyes looked directly at me. Then, she spoke. To this day, her words still echo in my ear.
“Firebranded. Do not be afraid.”

Her voice was louder than a gunshot, and it sounded like at least a hundred ponies speaking at once, but it wasn’t painful. No, in fact, I could feel a type of warmth and comfort wrap itself around me at Her mere command.
“You will not die this day. I am Princess Celestia. Before your day, I was the Mother of all Ponykind, and ruler over all Equestria. I was your mother, and you were my children. I knew each of you, and loved each of you, and I know you still, and love you still, in spite of everything you have done. My words, and the words of My prophets, have been lost from the knowledge of Ponykind. Without these words, Ponykind has grown to be something truly evil. There will come a time when I will return to Equestria, in my body of flesh and bone, and when that happens, I will judge the world as I find it, and judge the ponies therein as I find them. But I cannot judge those who have not heard the truth; because I cannot fault somepony who hasn’t heard the truth for not following the truth. So, for this purpose, I will send a prophet, to return My word to the knowledge of Ponykind, and My laws to the hearts of all creation. My little pony, I will send you.”

My wicked past unfolded in front of me, as I thought of wasted years which bounced around again and again in my head. I felt every ounce of pain that I have caused, and felt disgusted by everything that I had allowed myself to become. In the presence of perfection, there was me, perhaps the most imperfect creature on this planet.
“Me? I don’t understand. Why would you send me, of all ponies? Why would you save me? I deserved what I got. I deserved to die for what I’ve done. I’m no prophet, and I’m far from a pony which deserves any mercy.”

Her voice softened, as her face shifted. A motherly tone came from her flaming mouth, as her hoof and wing embraced me. Still, I was unburned, and comfort filled me. “You are granted mercy not because of who you are, but because of who I am. And inside of you is a part of Me, and in Me a part of you. This Light that’s in you gives you the chance to change, and it’s this Light that will guide you until the end of your days. You are being saved because I know you. I know you by name, and I know your heart. You have the capacity for great things, Firebranded. I will change the world through you, one shimmering soul at a time. I will use you to perform My miracles. Have faith in yourself, and have faith in Me.”

I was speechless. I could hardly believe what was happening to me, and I could feel myself trembling in awe. But She did not miss a beat, as She continued to unravel Her mystery to me:
“Out of this flame have I delivered you, and I will deliver you down the bank of a nearby river. You will follow this river eastward until you will find a town. This town was the home of one of My prophets, the keeper of My flame. Inside the library of this town is a statue, broken from time. Inside of the base of this statue you will find My word, and My truth. The history of this land, and its creatures. You will take it, and you will read.”

My confusion overwhelmed my awe, as I asked her: “How will I read it? I can’t read.”
“You think that the Goddess that has formed your body and soul is limited by your understanding? Have faith that you might, and you will, Firebranded. I promise. It is in a language few can read, regardless. Now, go. See your destiny, My child.”

And as quickly as it came, the fire left my vision, as my eyes adjusted to the change in lighting, and I found myself surrounded by nothing but the charred remains that used to be a home. Where my brother’s corpse was, I had no clue. Lost in the ashes. But burned into my memory were Her directions, and I followed them to the letter. Nearby the ashen ruin of the house was a river bank, which I walked down, and followed where the sun arose from.

When I eventually found the town, I found it abandoned and in ruins, as a bridge that used to cross the river I followed was now able to be used as a ramp onto the main road of the ruined settlement. Sure enough, near the center of the town was a library. The library was certainly worse for wear: the roof had clearly been gone for some time, half the walls were gone as well, and nearly all the books inside were rotten to pulp.

I wandered the rows of bookshelves for what felt like eons, looking for anything that so much as resembled a statue. Eventually, I found it: a marble statue, faded from the years of acid rain. Still, I recognized it immediately; it was the mare I had seen in my vision, though one of her resplendent wings was broken off, as was her towering horn. That was when I knew I had found it. I wasted no time, as I examined the statue’s base, discovering several large chunks had been cracked, some even having fallen off.

After a minute of prying off notably loose chunks of marble, I discovered what I had been sent to find. Hidden inside the hollow base of the statue was a book, protected from the centuries by the stone shell, though I could tell as I held the cover and turned the pages it had also been treated with some kind of waxy film that probably worked to keep it preserved.

I held it like it was my own newborn foal, cradling it gently as I examined its pages. I don’t know how long I sat there, reading page after page, as my breath was taken away. It wasn’t in Ponish, and even if it were, I had never learned to read. It was like the words themselves were being put directly into my head, whispered by some unseen force every time I turned a page. By the time I reached the end of the first “book” inside, I heard a voice echo inside my head:
“Write.”

So, I’ve written. It took well over a year, and on more than one occasion i’ve had to rely on the charity of some merchant to acquire the materials, and on miracles from the Goddess who gave the book to me that I survived this long, but it’s done. The History of the Eternal Sun, the very book you read right now. So that’s that. My testimony of this. I testify that every word after this preamble came from that very same tome, and that every word in that same tome is true in one way or another, translated from one language or another into Ponish. I know my story is farfetched. Were I not myself, I wouldn’t believe it either. That’s why it’s so important to keep an open mind and an open heart. But anyways, I’ll stop taking your time. Goddess bless you, whoever you are.