The Dream
Princess Celestia was fast asleep in her bedchamber in the royal castle in Canterlot. It was a quiet, peaceful rest – for a while. But then...
The princess stirred. In her dream there was complete and utter darkness. She could see nothing and hear nothing, but she somehow knew that the darkness was just a ruse. Celestia was not alone; there was somepony else here – a malevolent pony she could not see. He was up to something; something terrible. But he was hidden. He was always hidden, until it was too late to stop him.
All was still for a while, until the silence was suddenly broken by laughter. When Celestia searched for the source of the laughter she finally saw him – a stallion hiding in a thick black fog. There was too much darkness to tell what the stallion looked like, but even the shadows could not hide his mirth. He laughed, and laughed, and laughed until he cried. He was full of joy – the joy of one who had won.
She hated it. Celestia hated his laughter. She hated it because it wasn't the good kind of laughter – the kind that Pinkie Pie worked so hard to bring. This was an evil laughter. It was the boast of a stallion who had just committed the greatest evil that had ever been fostered upon the world. It was the day that the darkness lost and the sun had won.
There had been other days like that. After all, darkness tended to lose in Equestria. When Tirek tried to conquer the nation, the Elements of Harmony defeated him. Before that, when Luna turned into Nightmare Moon and threatened to plunge the land into eternal darkness, Celestia had defeated her. Before that, when Sombra conquered the Crystal Empire and ruled it with an iron hoof, Celestia and Luna jointly defeated him and banished his empire for a millennium.
But this darkness was the first one. This was the first time the darkness lost – and it cost the world everything.
* * * * *
Celestia charged at the spectral figure. By now she knew she was dreaming, but she didn't care. The cruel stallion who was laughing with such joyful sincerity had been killed long ago – so long ago that only the royal sisters even remembered him. He was far beyond the reach of justice. It was impossible for the world of the living – the world he had destroyed – to gets its revenge. Even his bones were long gone, for they had been burned to ash by those he had wronged. But if Celestia could just reach him in her dreams, then perhaps a little of her anger would be abated.
She knew that she shouldn't feel this way about him. She knew that holding on to her anger like that for century after century could only harm her, and would cause him no pain. But some wounds just cut too deep. There were some pains that even time could not heal.
Celestia lunged for him, piercing the gloom that surrounded him with a beam of radiant light. The stallion looked at her, laughed once more, and then vanished.
The Princess of the Sun immediately woke up. She sat straight up in bed and just barely managed to stifle a scream. The alicorn was drenched in sweat and her heart raced. A glance out the window showed that it was still dark outside. Of course it is, she thought. It will remain dark until I raise the sun. That is my task, after all. I fill the world with light.
Celestia glanced at the antique wooden clock on her nightstand and saw that it was three in the morning. It was far too early to raise the sun; Luna was still reigning over the night. I am sure she is tending to the dreams of her subjects. With her help they will rest easy. I wish I could do the same.
The princess got out of her bed and stretched. She then walked over to her vanity and looked at herself in the mirror. Her mane was a mess; she had been tossing in her sleep. Celestia knew that nopony would dare make fun of her for it, but appearances mattered. She had to set a standard for her subjects, no matter how she felt. A quick spell fixed her mane and put every last hair in place.
She couldn't go back to sleep; not after that dream. Yet there was no use in sitting in her bedroom and doing nothing. She could go and see Luna, but she didn't want to crowd her sister. Celestia got enough attention during the day; she didn't want to hog the spotlight during the night as well. Luna deserved better than that.
Celestia stared at the ornate marble fireplace in her room. The flames had died down hours ago; now there were only embers. Embers, Celestia thought. Embers are small bits of material that were once hot, but have grown cold. They have lost the fire that once animated them. They are shadows of what they once were.
The stallion in her dream – his name had been Ember. Or something like it, at least. Celestia had long ago forgotten what he looked like. Even in her dreams his form was ever changing. He had been an alicorn; that she remembered. There had been many alicorns back then. More than that, though, she could not say. Sometimes Celestia would catch a glimpse of a pony in a crowd and it would stir a long-forgotten memory. She would almost remember what he had looked like – almost. Then it would be gone.
I'm old, she thought. Old and so very tired. No one told me alicorns lived this long. None of the old ones knew. Perhaps my lifespan is caused by what they did. Perhaps I am reaping the benefits of their terrible sin. I don't suppose it really matters. What was done cannot be undone – they saw to that.
Celestia put on a pair of comfortable yet regal slippers and stepped out into the hallway. She glanced up and down the passage but didn't see any of Luna's guardians of the night. The princess was content. For the time being she just wanted to be alone with her thoughts.
The white alicorn quietly made her way down the hallway and headed for a rarely-used part of the castle. Her hoofsteps were muted by the slippers she wore, and she took care to make little noise. Other ponies were sleeping at this hour and she did not want to wake them.
In the lowest level of her castle, in a basement that was empty and unused, Celestia found an ancient wooden door. It was locked, as it had been for centuries. The only key that had ever been made for that door was long gone – destroyed in an act of rage.
It didn't matter. Celestia teleported to the other side of the door.
The princess was confronted by utter darkness. The air was heavy with a dank and musty smell, and dust seemed to hang in the air. There was no light of any kind, but Celestia knew where she was. She lit up her horn and filled the hallway with a gentle white light. The light revealed a set of winding stone stairs that spiraled down into the darkness.
Celestia began to descend.
* * * * *
It took Celestia about a minute to reach the first alcove. Set in recesses at regular intervals were small landings. Each landing contained a life-sized statue of an alicorn, lovingly rendered in marble with exquisite detail. At one time these five alicorn statues had been highly prized, but those days were long gone. The once-glorious statues were showing their age. They were all covered in dirt and grime, and cobwebs filled the alcoves. They needed care to keep from crumbling into dust – care that they would never receive. Celestia would make sure of that.
The first one depicted a powerful stallion. He had a look of serene care on his face, and a snowflake for a cutie mark. In one hoof he held a new branch with tender leaves; in the other, a branch of aging leaves that were ready to fall.
Celestia glanced at the statue in disgust and kept moving.
He was one of the Five, she thought. The pony's name was rendered at the base of the statue, but Celestia refused to give him the honor of reading it. As far as Celestia knew, these statues were the last surviving records of the Five. The princess had destroyed all the other records in a fit of rage, long ago. But burning them with fire could not undo the past.
Celestia hated this passage, but she could not bear to get rid of it. This passage was why Canterlot Castle had been built on these grounds in the first place, although there was no pony left who remembered. Well, except Luna, of course. But Luna is not preoccupied with his laughter. She battles a different nightmare in her dreams.
This passage was much older than the castle that sat above it. When Celestia was young she had wanted to get far away from this place; that was why she built the Castle of the Two Sisters. At the time she couldn't remember why – there was just something about Canterlot that troubled her. After Celestia was forced to banish her own sister to the moon, though, she found herself retreading familiar ground. It seemed that no alicorn could stay away for long; they were always drawn back to the place where it all began.
At least Twilight and Cadence are free from this cursed line, Celestia thought. That is one burden they do not have to bear.
The princess continued her lonely march down into the darkness. She passed another alcove, which housed another statue. This stallion was holding a bird. He was smiling – just as all the other alicorns were. More than once Celestia had wanted to wipe that smile off his face, but she resisted. These were the last records of the Five, and one day she would have to pass on this knowledge to Twilight. Perhaps she could right the wrong that had been done – but for now Celestia could not bear to tell her.
One day she will ask me the question, and that is when I will have to tell her. One day she will wonder: why do the birds need the help of ponies to migrate? Why does the world need ponies to change the seasons? Why do the pegasi control the weather? Yes, we all know that is how the world works. But why does the world work that way?
Step by step Celestia continued her journey down into the heart of the mountain. Her muffled hooves made no noise. She walked by two more dusty alcoves, which contained two more grimy statues. The third statue depicted a stallion who held a cloud in one hoof and a lightning bolt in another. He wore a look of pride. The fourth figure was holding nothing at all; instead the stallion simply looked up at the sky. He had the moon for his cutie mark.
The final alcove, though, was empty. All that remained of it were a few crushed bits marble and a fine white powder. This stallion had been the leader of the Five – in fact, he had ruled over all of the world. He was the one who had created the cursed plan to begin with. It was his laughter which haunted her dreams.
Celestia had been able to resist destroying the other statues, but this one was more than she could bear. She had given in to her rage long, long ago. That was why she couldn't remember what he looked like – the statue had been the last record of her father's form.
He had meant well, in a way. He wanted to guarantee that his line would continue to rule over the world forever, and he achieved that. Thanks to him, Celestia's reign had been secure for a millennium. But she could not bring herself to forgive him. He wasn't even sorry! Even at the end he refused to express any regret for what the Five had done.
Celestia finally reached the end of the stairs. The stairwell emptied into an enormous room. In fact, it was more than a room; it was a cavern. Even though it was steeped in shadows, the princess could feel the evil that lingered in the air. The room remembered what had taken place there.
The white alicorn fired a bolt of magic into the air. It soared up into the air and then stopped, and began radiating a brilliant white light. The miniature sun lit up the cave and drove the darkness away.
The circular cave was quite large. Its floor, walls, and ceiling were made of polished granite. Even now, after all this time, Celestia could still see her reflection in it. The room contained not a single speck of dust. Everything was in perfect condition, just as it had been on the day that darkness lost.
Her father had hated the darkness. He hated the way that Nature set the sun each night and covered the land in shadow. The night was his enemy – one forced upon him by an uncaring world that acted on its own accord. And my father always, always defeated his enemies.
There was only one thing left in the room: thousands upon thousands of broken shards. The princess had never been able to figure out what they were. Even Starswirl the Bearded, after years of study, was unable to find a definitive answer. The shards weren't rock and they weren't crystal. They were all colors of the rainbow, and they refracted light in dazzling ways. They almost appeared to be fragments of frozen light, but that was surely impossible. Starswirl thought that they might have been something more fundamental – perhaps something older than the universe. Whatever it was, nothing else like it had ever been found.
Celestia stood there for hours, staring at them. She finally levitated a fragment off the ground and looked at it. It was an irregular shape, about three inches long and half an inch wide. The color that was trapped inside it changed, depending on the way it was turned. It was maddening. How could you understand a thing when its very nature constantly shifted?
The princess threw it across the cavern and fell to the ground. She let out a shout of anger and pure frustration. She desperately wanted to put the pieces back together again – but she couldn't. After a thousand years of trying she was still no closer to an answer than she had been that fateful day when it happened.
* * * * *
She remembered it like it was yesterday. She heard the terrible crashing sound – a noise that sounded like time itself was being torn apart. Not only did she hear it, but she felt it. Everypony had felt it. The crashing, jarring echo reverberated throughout the entire world. It was like nothing she had ever experienced, before or since. She could feel in her soul that something had been unmade.
A very young Celestia had raced down the stairs as fast as her hooves could carry her. She had known the Five were doing something; what it was, she didn't know. She was young, after all; still only a filly. It really wasn't her business – and besides, she trusted them.
In fact, all the living races in the world trusted them. They were alicorns, after all – the greatest of all the pony races. They had the strength of earth ponies, the wings of pegasi, the magic of unicorns, and the combined wisdom of all the races. They were the best of the best.
When Celestia reached the bottom of the stairs she looked around in bewilderment. There, on the floor of the cave, were the shards. Around them stood the Five, who looked quite pleased with themselves. Four of them were congratulating themselves for what they had just done. The fifth – her father – was laughing.
“What was that terrible noise?” Celestia asked, terrified. “Did something break?”
“It certainly did,” he said, laughing yet again. “We did it, my dear daughter. We broke it. We unraveled Nature itself, and it can never be put together again. We have laid a new foundation for the world, and nothing will ever be the same. Nature's darkness will no longer be able to defeat the light. Now the night will be forced to bend to my will. It's a new day, darling – literally. Welcome to the Age of the Sun.”
* * * * *
Her father was right: after that, nothing was the same. It took some time for Celestia to realize what the Five had done. In the days that followed the citizens of the world noticed that the sun no longer rose in their kingdoms. It stayed at a fixed point in the sky and did not move. In the farthest parts of the world the night stretched on, day after day. The weather there grew colder but the seasons did not change.
When the nations began to panic and demanded answers, the Five told them what they had done: they had shattered Nature itself and given themselves magical power over the world. The sun would no longer rise on its own; it now had to be raised magically – by one of the Five. Without them there would be no light. The rain would no longer fall on its own either; the weather cycle had been shattered, and depended on the Five as well. Even the animals could not live without them, for their life cycles depended on the Five's magic. The entire world was now under their control.
Oh, the nations could resist – if they wanted. But how long would they last without the sun? How long would they survive without rain? The Five told them that they had to surrender. Any nation that refused to submit to their dominion would be turned to dust.
The Five surely thought they were invincible, Celestia thought. Each one of them controlled a different element of Nature, so all of them were indispensable. Or so they thought.
* * * * *
Alicorns were known for their friendship. They were famous for spreading peace, love, and harmony. That is why the two sisters had been asked to reign over Equestria – it just made sense. Or so the history books taught.
Starswirl was the one who had discovered where Celestia and Luna were hiding. They were the last of the alicorn race, and the only ones to survive the Purge. The two sisters had wisely chosen to flee after their father's ultimatum. The Five may have thought they were invincible, but Celestia knew better. Even as a filly she knew the consequences of breaking the world's harmony.
The sisters did not want to come back, but Starswirl told them the world needed them. The magic of the Five could not be undone. Even though they were now gone, Nature was still broken. The ponies tried desperately to keep the planet alive, but it was a failing effort. Raising the sun was just too taxing. It took the combined might of five unicorns to raise the sun, and that act drained them of magic for life after just a short period of time. It would not be long before the last unicorn was drained, and when that happened the sun would be stuck in the sky forever – and all life would die.
The world needed alicorns again – alicorns to raise the sun and the moon. Alicorns to unite the pony tribes and restore harmony to the shattered world. Alicorns to rule – just as the Five wanted.
Starswirl promised that he could make it easier for them. He could cast a spell that would make the world forget how it had been broken. He could even cause Celestia and Luna to forget the past for a time, so they could reunite the world without the terrible knowledge of how it had been broken in the first place.
Celestia and Luna could not stand by and do nothing while the world died. They agreed to help, and so the new nation of Equestria was born – on top of the ruins of the old one. The history books were written to tell the story that Starswirl wanted to be told. But the nightmares could not be kept at bay forever.
The new Princess of the Sun had tried her best to fix the world. Even after she was forced to banish Luna she kept on trying. From the Castle of the Two Sisters she and Starswirl cast a spell that should have mended Nature. It should have – but it didn't. Instead it turned the Everfree Forest into a realm of nightmares. Yes, it was true the weather once again operated on its own there and the animals tended to themselves – but the darkness was thick, and the shadows were full of evil. What had once been a place of wonder was now cursed. The Tree of Harmony was now the only thing that kept the darkness in those woods from engulfing the entire world – a darkness that she had accidentally created.
That was the last time Celestia tried to fix the problem with magic. The only possible solution was to put the shattered shards back together again – but that was beyond the skill of every pony who ever tried. The world, it seemed, could not be fixed.
* * * * *
It's almost time, Celestia thought. Time to raise the sun once more.
Celestia walked back up the winding stone stairs and out of the basement. She walked down the marble hallways and past the regal pony guards, who were dressed in shining gold. If any of the guards noticed her slippers they didn't comment on them.
The Princess of the Sun walked out onto her balcony and looked over her kingdom. In a few moments the weather pegasi would get to work, moving clouds into position for a summer rainstorm. Then, when the time came, other ponies would lead the birds south for the winter. Ponies would guide animals on their migrations, then change the seasons.
The entire world was waiting on Celestia to start the new day. Only the pony race could control the celestial bodies, and all sentient creatures knew it. True, occasionally an insane race like the changelings would challenge ponies and attempt to eradicate them, but no one else ever dared to do so – despite their muttered threats. Ponies were simply too integral to the world. They were too important. Everything depended on them – just like her father wanted. The pony race would rule over the world forever, and an alicorn would always reign supreme.
Celestia hated it. She hated it with a passion – but she could not change it. Nor could she afford to dwell on it any longer. The night was over, and it was time to raise the sun.