Mind vs Matter

by LupoMikti

Prologue [Rewrite]

Only three entities existed, in the beginning: The Darkness, The Void, and an Alicorn. Eventually, the first two became indistinguishable from one another and just became Nothing, a state that was not simply the absence of something. It actually cannot be described with language, for to do so would give it substance and it would no longer be the Nothing. A name is all that we have.

The Alicorn did not have feelings on the matter. But she did have a purpose. While she did not know, nor care, how she came to be, she knew what her purpose was: to create. And so, she did. From knowledge locked deep within her, she created our universe and everything in it. It had no form, it just existed. She began the process of time and took to shaping her creation. After what we would consider an incomprehensible amount of years, the universe was stable enough to sustain itself, and the Alicorn was content.

It soon came to her attention that something great was happening: the formation of other life. Fascinated, she watched its progress from afar, never interfering. When that life came to be able to think for itself, essentially gaining sapience, she made a choice. She would not involve or reveal herself to the creatures and watch how they behaved. What she observed over still many years appalled her. She began to think of how the creatures she watched seemed to suffer, going through endless war and strife. So, having developed emotions just as the life she observed had, she gave action to her feelings, and using her power, destroyed all life present at the time by restarting the universe. She thought of it as an act of kindness, for truly, every being wished for some ultimate end to their pain when she granted them that very fate.

But this was not enough. The Alicorn felt like life could be better than what she observed. So, she took it upon herself to resume her purpose of creation and created new life. This left her weaker than before, however. Fearing that her form would not be able to handle all of her power any longer, she split it up into other forms, made in her likeness. This was the birth of the Alicorns of Life.

Mimicking the life she observed before, she gave herself and the others names and titles. She was Terra Omnes Vivat, Alicorn of Nature, Structure & Existence. She created eight other alicorns: The Alicorn of Fate, Destiny & Choice; The Alicorn of Luck & Random Outcome; The Alicorn of Death, War & the Afterlife; The Alicorn of Health, Nourishment & Disease; The Alicorn of Time, Age & History; The Alicorn of Change, Evolution, Technology & Innovation; The Alicorn of the Sun, Day & Light; and The Alicorn of the Moon, Night, Stars & Darkness.

But, like with most seemingly good things, there is always a darker side. As a result of her creation, the Nothing that existed before also took form and called itself Chaos. Terra saw the dangerous potential in him, but let him be, hypothesizing that for there to be true balance in the universe, Chaos must always exist. This was the first of Terra’s rules.

As the creator, Terra also governed the way things worked in the world and existence. Thus, she also created and established the rules of the universe. Those that broke these rules, or were a threat, would be dealt with by her personally. She made this her duty. For a time, the world she had created functioned properly. But, soon the Chaos began to spread and gain more power than he should have or Terra had ever predicted. Fearing for her creation, Terra used her absolute power one last time to give rise to the final alicorn: the Alicorn of Harmony & Order.

This new alicorn and the Chaos waged a war of sorts at that point. It went on for some years, but it was eventually settled. The result was that Chaos had lost his powers that represented evil and the bad in life. He was reduced, in a manner of speaking, to a being known as Discord. This being would keep up the balance that existed, but no longer influenced or exuded negativity. That part of Chaos became just a part of nature. But the Alicorn of Harmony & Order did not escape unscathed. She was broken and unstable, no longer able to remain in her form. As a result, she was transformed into what is now known as the Tree of Harmony, the same tree from which the Elements of Harmony came.

The world continued on. Terra had lost even more of her ultimate power. The Alicorns of the Sun and Moon were soon reincarnated after their "death" so to speak, and two new ones took their places. The same happened for every other alicorn save for Terra and the Alicorn of Time. The latter had gained Terra's absolute immortality during the first split. Terra was due to suffer the same "death" as the others soon; her power was affording her some prolonged existence after ten thousand years or so of weakened living.

Seeing the world she had created, Terra wanted to ensure that her rules would always be followed. Instead of her reincarnation coming into the world blindly, he or she would have all of her knowledge and memories. This reincarnation would not be born naturally, but would instead be chosen among the children of the ponies, the now apparent dominant species in contention with the Griffons. This would be the same for all following reincarnations. And with that last deed, Terra Omnes Vivat II came into being.

While the first Terra, who will be referred to as The Creator from now on, had done a splendid job defining the rules of the universe, the rules of magic proved to be more cumbersome. As a result of all of The Creator's magic creating existence, excess magic that was used as a failsafe in case she had not put enough energy into her work leaked from all around.

This extra magic came to coalesce and form another alicorn. It was not an extra Alicorn of Life, however. This was raw magic from the time before Chaos lost his power over evil. And so, the entity born of this event was imbalanced. He gained a sickening power as a result and chose to be known as the Alicorn of the Mind, Consciousness & Psyche.

He only saw the world as evil. He was only capable of seeing the evil in any being's mind or heart. The good that was still present in him wanted to fix this. But, the only way he knew how to do that on such a large scale was to take control of every mind in existence. This was not a natural solution, and it fell upon Terra Vivat II to do something about it.

Assembling the other alicorns, Terra led an attack on this threat that called himself Infinite Dreamer. He had gravely underestimated his opponent, however. The result of the battle was as expected, but at great cost. The Alicorns of Time, Health, Fate, Luck, and Change were all sealed away. Only the several magic artifacts that resulted from the defeat of Chaos could be used to unseal them, but they had been scattered to parts unknown with no easy way of detecting their whereabouts. The Alicorns of the Sun and Moon were weakened, and would die relatively soon. Fortunately, they had two daughters to take their place, instead of relying on reincarnations, before this could happen. The Alicorn of Death was exiled to Tartaros, and made unable to return to the world of the living. He would no longer gain power from war and prayer for victory in battle either. With this revelation, he too passed on the torch to another to take his place some time later. Terra was left weakened as well. He soon came to the conclusion that instead of fighting to stay alive he would allow his reincarnation to handle things in his stead. Thus, Terra Omnes Vivat III was chosen.

She quickly grew tired of the name and chose a more simple one for herself: Soil Work. The world seemed to be back in order and any remnants of Dreamer's magic were dealt with accordingly. The two daughters of the Sun and Moon now rule a relatively peaceful kingdom. Nature carries on as it is intended to do so as well. The Alicorn that governs Death is still cursed and cannot freely walk the realm of the living willingly. He maintains his job of ferrying the dead and deciding the fate of their afterlife, however, and he does it well. There is also another alicorn that has been born relatively recently. She shows promise to one day be included with the Alicorns of Life. Power over Love and Emotions has become an important part of life, and The Creator's residual failsafe magic took notice, giving rise to one Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

The most recent event of note, the Element of Magic ascending to alicorndom, may bring with it unprecedented results as well. It would not be surprising if a new Alicorn of Life came about in the form of the Alicorn of Magic & Relations. But for now, these newest princesses hold limited power. It would take nothing short of the greatest events of their lives to give them the power to control an aspect of life.

Author's Note:

This is the final version of the rewritten prologue I've been working on for some time now. I hope to be able to finish this story, although complete revival is but a thought of the past. Now, it's more about finish what I started so I can move on from it.