Ponywatching

by ThunderTempest

Prompt #412: Just Right

The planet burned as the great Alicorn walked upon its surface. Her mane and tail both dragged upon the ground, leaving trails of liquid fire in their wake. Her hooves left pools of fire in the places where she had stepped, and her breath warmed the air such that no other life could exist. Every blast of her magic gouged great scars upon the landscape, and left fire in its wake. So great was the Alicorn of Fire’s power that she glowed, illuminating half of the world she walked upon.

On the other side of the planet, things froze, coated in ice of such an intensity that it was blue, not white, and to a great thickness, enough that entire buildings could reside underneath, and not yet emerge from the surface of the ice. A second great Alicorn walked here, bringing cold stasis to everything that she touched. Snow trailed out of her mane and flecked on her black body, and each breath brought crystals of ice forming on the air. Her own magic froze solid everything in its wake, radiating cold, often leaving great pillars of ice to mark the passage of her magic, and her own power exuded cold, freezing her side of the planet.

Between these two great beings, a thin line, scarcely meters wide, existed. A balance point between two different forms of destruction, and it was in this line that a creature of impossibility and madness existed. But one day, as the creature walked down this thin region between warring destruction, it found a pool of water, where the heat from the Alicorn of Fire’s had melted the Alicorn of Cold’s ice into a small hole. And around this hole, the creature found neither ice nor fire, but something green. It was delicate, and would be obliterated when either the Alicorn of Fire or Cold took a few steps in its direction. The creature found this occurrence immensely pleasing, that this form of life could exist in such a narrow band of conditions. So many things had to have lined up exactly right that the situation was almost chaotically random.

The creature decided that it wanted to see more of it, and so it approached the Alicorn of Fire with a plan.

“O Alicorn of Fire,” it began, “I am in awe of your power, but you are bound by this earth. I can make it so that your fire hangs in the sky, and then your dominance of this place will be unable to be stopped by the Alicorn of Cold.”

And the Alicorn of Fire was a prideful being, and could not turn down a chance for truly unlimited domination of the planet, and so she spoke her agreement with the creature’s proposal.

And the Creature reached out, draining the fire from the Alicorn of Fire into a giant ball. And as the fire drained from the Great Alicorn of Fire, her form decreased in stature, leaving her no bigger than the Creature itself. And as the Creature flung the ball of fire into the sky, the Alicorn of fire found that she could no longer control the fire with the same precision as before. Instead, she could merely move it around the sky, for the Creature had done something to prevent her from retaking her fire again, and she could only make minor adjustments to its intensity. In addition, instead of the all-consuming heat, at this distance the flames from her fire only produced a gentle warmth. Realising that she had been tricked, the Alicorn of Fire tried to strike down the Creature, but found that it was already gone.

The Creature slithered and writhed to the other side of the planet, and approached the Alicorn of Cold with honey on his voice.

“O Alicorn of Cold,” began the creature, “The Alicorn of Fire has finally bested you, for she has claimed even the sky for her own. Her own flames rule the heavens above our heads, and will warm the entire planet unless you can stop her.”

And the Alicorn of Cold, jealous and unable to accept the Alicorn of Fire’s domination of the sky, pulled all of her magic, pouring it into a giant ball. So dense did she make the ice that it became more and more solid than any other she had made, and was left with a smooth ball. But as she poured her magic into this ball, she became smaller and smaller, until she too was only as tall as the Creature. As a final touch, the Alicorn of Cold marked the surface of the moon with a pattern depicting her own face, for she wanted the Alicorn of Fire to know that she had made such a thing, and the Creature cast it up into the sky.

But cold does not spread as easily as heat, and so after her creation had been cast into the sky, she could feel no effect from its presence. Indeed, her side of the earth seemed to warm, as the heat and light of the Alicorn of Fire’s ball reflected off her own creation, lighting up the sphere, and the Alicorn of Cold cursed the creature, for it had tricked her.

And with both great Alicorns having the bulk of their power contained far away, the Creature returned to the pool where he had found the green, and wondered what new chaos this would bring to the world.

Author's Note:

Written for Prompt #412: "Just So"

The prompt: How The Moon Got Her Spots
OR
The prompt: How The Sun Got Her Fire