“I was born long before ponies first came to Equestria, among what has later come to be known as the earth pony tribe. Ponies call it a tribe these days, but really we were not a united people. Mostly every family fended for themselves, and we only lived together in small villages for mutual protection. I don’t remember much about those days except for hardship. What I now know about those times I’ve had to learn from history books: like almost all ponies back then, I knew next to nothing about what happened more than a mile away from our village.”
“Now wait just a moment!”
One of the attending ponies, a green-coated mare sitting to the left of the Storyteller, had interrupted him.
“You want us to believe that you really lived in the time of the three tribes? That was thousands of years ago! The very idea is preposterous.”
A shushing sound came from the red stallion sitting next to her.
“He is telling a story. It’s not meant to be taken literally! He’s just trying to make it sound interesting. And it sounds intriguing. I want to hear the rest.”
The green mare looked indignant, but held her tongue. The Storyteller chose not to comment on either of their reactions, but rather went on with his Story.
“Now I’m sure you’ve all heard the Hearth’s Warming Eve story. But that story is colored by how the world works today. Back then the world was different.
For one thing, while it is true that we payed tribute to the wjukhynders - that’s the pre-Equestrian word for pegasi - it was not for creating the weather, but rather for controlling it. You see, in those days the weather happened all on it’s own. If no pegasus intervened, it would rain one day and be sunny the next. Seasons changed into each other without any help. The pegasi worked to prevent the worst extremes of the weather. Even then, it was nowhere near the beautiful and reliable weather we enjoy now.
For another thing, plants grew on their own, even without the help of ierdhynders - earth ponies. A pony who wanted to grow crops needed only to plant the seeds and keep the field from flooding or drying out. There was no magic in earth ponies, and the only advantage they held over the other tribes was slightly greater endurance.
But the most important thing that ponies get wrong is thinking that ienhoarns - unicorns - raised the sun and moon. They didn’t need raising: they rose and set on their own.”
At this, a gasp escaped the green mare. “Blasphemy!”, she whispered as if afraid to say it out loud. The red stallion was already trying to silence her again, but her voice rose shrilly.
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing. This pony is claiming that the sun and moon moved on their own. Why, next you’re going to tell us that the princesses do nothing but show off and fool us all into believing they raise the sun and moon. May Celestia forgive you for speaking such lies!”
“Oh don’t be so dramatic Starflower!” - The blue stallion on the Storyteller’s right said. “The pony is trying to tell a Story here. He doesn’t need you interrupting him all the time. Just listen. I bet next he’ll tell us about floating wagons and ponies from the moon. Go on then. Tell us another one!”
The eyes of all ponies fall back on the Storyteller, who resumed his Story without further comment.
“I remember the coldest winter of my life. It lasted for many months. Spring never came, and it was starting to look like summer would not come either.
They say that chancellor Puddinghead spoke for all earth ponies. I’d never heard of her, nor of the events that transpired at the meeting hall. All we knew was that our stores were about to run out, and we were desperate.
But then word finally reached us of the discovery of a new land, called Equestria. We were told that it had a far more gentle climate than anything we were used to, and that the land was most fertile. So we packed up our few possessions and left. That journey was later called the great Exodus. I walked besides my three older brothers and my younger sister, along with all the ponies of our little village. First it was just us, but as we got closer to Equestria we joined with ponies from other villages. I had never seen more than fifty different ponies in my life, and now we were walking in a crowed of hundreds. It made an impression on me I will never forget.
The trek across the mountains was hard, and we were weak with hunger. Not all of us made it. Whenever we set up camp for the night, we knew that when we’d leave the next morning there would be ponies left behind. I lost my little sister during that journey…”
A moment of respectful silence descends in the hut, and a tear falls from the little filly’s eyes.
“Things were very exciting when we got to Equestria. We spread out, but not nearly as thin as we had before. The land was fertile enough to sustain larger communities. A peace had also been struck between the three tribes, and earth ponies were suddenly living among unicorns and pegasi. I have to admit, that did take some getting used to. There was name-calling and discrimination at first, but our leaders came down hard on those kinds of things, afraid the Wendigos might return. Besides, as always happens: when the young generation grows up not knowing anything else, and the last generation to have known different dies, their prejudices die with them.
It was during this time that it started to become apparent that I was different from other ponies. When I became full-grown, I stopped aging. At first nopony noticed, including myself. Then I started to get comments about how young and healthy I looked. But when my daughter’s son was full-grown and I looked more like his father than his grandfather, ponies started to become afraid of me. They accused me of stealing their life force from them. To be honest, I cannot say for certain that I wasn’t: to this day, I do not know what it is that has set me apart from my fellow ponies like this. So I was driven out of the town by my neighbors whom I had know for years. I never saw my family again, and I don’t know what ever became of them.”
The Storyteller fell silent for a while. A different look was on the face of every pony in his audience: the filly looked enraptured by the Story, her mother confused. The blue stallion looked incredulous, Starflower mocking and the red Stallion looked intrigued, but uncertain as to where this was going. The closeness of the hut’s wall and the flickering of the firelight made them all look as if they huddled close together, as if the sharing of this bizarre tale tied them all in some way.
When nothing else was said, the Storyteller resumed.
“The first few years I tried to live on my own, away from other ponies. But even in the softer climate of Equestria, I could not grow enough food without pegasi adjusting the weather, or other earth ponies helping me work the land. So I moved from town to town, never staying anywhere longer than a decade. I constantly asked myself what was happening to me, why I was different from every other pony. I discreetly questioned any pony who might know of other ponies like me, but I found nothing.
I started losing track of the years, so I only have a vague idea of how much time I spent this way. But after decades of wandering, I came to a choice: to accept who and what I was and get on with my strange life, or to lay down and wait for the end. I chose the former. I could say I never looked back on that decision, but what came next made me unsure of everything.
A war spilled into Equestria. A war between Order and Chaos. The war between the alicorns and the dragoneqii. Although, by the time the war came to Equestria, there was only one dragonequus and a handful of alicorns left. Thus began what historians call the Reign of Discord.
Years ago, you experienced what the world was like under the rule of Discord. You only had to suffer through a day of it. But the first rule of Discord lasted neigh a decade. The nature of time and space was warped, and so are my memories of it. What I do remember was living in fear. Ponies went to bed at night praying that they would awake in the same shape, or even wake up at all. Our dreams and nightmares seemed peaceful compared to our waking hours. This was more than silly tricks: this was true Chaos, in a time before Order rose up against it.
But eventually it did rise up. One day I awoke to find that sanity had returned. The earth below us was green, the sky was blue, and I cried to see those colors again. Ponies were out in the streets, celebrating. Foals looked worried at their parents who cried with happiness. Late in the day, a pony came galloping into town and proclaimed that Discord had been turned to stone at the hand of the last remaining alicorns. They were led by Celestia. Ponies praised her name as they do to this day for what she had freed us of.”
At this lull in the Story, the red stallion raised his voice.
“You speak of a group of alicorns. Surely you mean the sisters Celestia and Luna?”
The Storyteller shook his head. “There were others with them. There are six elements of harmony, and in that day they were wielded by six alicorns. But before his end, Discord had sown the seeds of Chaos in their hearts, and over time they all became corrupted. I have heard little of what befell them. I understand one was changed in body and mind, and became queen of the changelings. Another traded his wings for dark magics and beleaguered a great empire to the north. One after the other, the alicorns fell prey to corruption. In the end, only the sisters remained. They ruled over Equestria, which was starting to change before our very eyes.
After Discord fell, the ways of Equestria had become as they were: plants grew on their own, weather and seasons changed and sun and moon coursed through the sky. But over centuries, as the magic of the alicorn sisters became interwoven with the land, nature was transformed. The sisters were the embodiment of Order, and the natural processes that had always taken their own course now slowed down, then stopped.
I remember waking up one day to find that the sun had not yet risen. I turned over, but when I awoke again it still was dark outside. Hearing voices, I got up and went to the town square. Ponies were milling around in confusion and fear. The sun failed to rise. As the hours went by, the land got colder and colder. Without the warmth and light of the sun, we could not hope to survive for long.
Some of us were starting to give into despair, when suddenly against all expectations the sun arose. We later learned that princess Celestia had, after much difficulty, succeeded in using powerful magics to raise the sun at will.
Of course, the opposite then occurred: the sun, once raised, refused to set. Now our land was heating up, and leaves were shriveling on the trees. It didn’t take as long for the evening to come at last as the morning had. Princess Luna, expecting this might happen, had already begun her research on a spell to lower the sun and raise the moon. Still, it was the longest day I have ever seen.
After that, the other natural processes all slowed down, then halted. The rain clouds disappeared, and our fields were struck with drought until the pegasi learned to make new ones. Plants stopped growing on their own, and earth ponies had to learn their own magic to make plants and animals flourish.
A year passed, and we just started hoping that together we had gotten control of the situation, when the land was struck by powerful earthquakes. The energy of nature, which had always moved and balanced itself, now started to build up in stagnant pools. If the unicorns had not learned in time how to use their magic to balance the natural energies themselves, Equestria would have been torn apart.
And so, as the magic of the alicorn sisters brought Order to Equestria, we ponies learned to become the stewards of the lands. So came to be the world that you all know and take for granted.”
The Storyteller paused once more, and the red stallion took the opportunity to ask a question.
“It’s interesting. You say that before that time, clouds moved on their own and plants grew without help. Just like it does to this day in the Everfree forest. Is there some connection between the two?”
The Storyteller nods. “Indeed, I was just getting to that.”
“You see, the seeds of Chaos had at long last taken root in princess Luna’s heart. Rumors about her strange behavior started coming out of the royal court in what was then the greenwoods, but is now the Everfree. Again, I did not learn of what happened until much later, as I lived far to the north of the court and news traveled slow.
We heard that Luna had tried to overthrow her sister. It is said that when she turned into Nightmare Moon, she dealt the first blow, with a powerful spell that encompassed all of the greenwoods. Since then, the magic of the alicorns no longer holds sway there, and so Order’s hold on that forest was broken and it became a wild and sinister place.
As you know, Celestia was forced to banish her sister to the moon before she could harm more of the land. In grief, she abandoned the royal court and retreated to a lonely mountaintop where much later arose the new royal court of Canterlot. Though she continued to raise the sun and moon, we did not hear from her again for centuries.”
The blue stallion next to the Storyteller snorted.
“A fine story you’re spinning, sir, but it could use some work. Every time something of import happens in Equestrian history, you just missed it. That either makes you one unlucky pony, or a bad storyteller.”
The young filly looked angry at these harsh words, but the Storyteller simply shrugged.
“History, in my experience, consists of years and years of boring slow development, with just a few moments in between when things suddenly change. When that happens, you have to be at exactly the right place in the world to witness it. I’m old, not psychic. History could be made tonight in Canterlot, or even Ponyville, and we wouldn’t find out about it until after it’s all over.”
The red stallion joined in. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. Hypothetically, if you really lived during all that time, you would only have been aware of what everypony was aware of. Your insight would be limited by the borders of the knowledge of all ponies.”
The blue stallion gave a derisive snort, but said nothing else. The Storyteller chose to continue his Story.
“Though Luna’s betrayal may have been of great historical significance, it did not really affect our daily lives much. In those first decades after Order had taken hold, it was a very busy time. During Discord’s Reign, the number of ponies had dwindled, and it still had not grown much. Now all ponies, including myself, had to spend all of their days to keep the fields growing, the weather pleasant and the earth from rupturing. They were hard days. Every pony was either a farmer, a weather pony or a geomancer. There was no time for anything else.
It took many decades, but eventually things changed. We were getting better and better at controlling the natural forces, yielding higher results at less effort. And with the increase of food, the population grew. The town that I had moved to grew from 60 to 300 ponies in a generation, and to near a thousand in the next.
As the food supply increased, ponies could start to enjoy activities that weren’t geared toward pure survival. The pegasi invented sports. The earth ponies invented many new crafts, and started trading. The unicorns invested their time in writing books, and developing this strange notion they called “natural philosophy” - the forerunner of what one day became science.
During that time, I moved around between many towns, moving even more often than I had to to avoid suspicion. In every town I learned new things: new trades, new games, new ideas. I pottered, I turned wheels, I played in the first games of hoofball and I discussed transcendentalism with the first philosophers. I was opening my mind. Centuries of life had given me a great deal of insight, and now that I had the opportunity, I craved new experiences.
After years of learning new things from other ponies, I began exploring. New roads were being built to accommodate the increasing trade. I merely had to follow them until I reached the borders of Equestria. Then I crossed those borders. I went west as a sailor, and saw the gryphon kingdom for myself. I trekked east by myself, as far away as the mountains of faith. I joined a caravan traveling south, and went on to see mountains where dragons nest and woods where phoenixes fly.
Have I mentioned that for all those centuries, I had been a blank-flank? I was. It caused raised eyebrows whenever I moved to a new place, but it is not really that rare. I had pretty much given up on the notion that I’d ever find my one special talent. After having learned so much, the notion of only one special talent even appeared slightly ridiculous to me.”
The little filly was shifting her weight uncomfortably. As he had expected, the Storyteller looked at her flank to find no cutie mark there. He smiled as he brought up the next part.
“But then, when I came back from my many explorations, something curious happened. Many ponies knew how far I had traveled, and asked me to tell them of it. So I told them of the far of places that I had been to. Then they caught hints of my unique knowledge of history. They asked after that, and I told them of times gone by. Then I told them Stories that had been told to me over the many years. More and more ponies came to hear them, and I did not tire of telling them. And one day, this appeared.”
The Storyteller stood up and turned around to show his cutie mark: a scroll covered in writing behind a bright campfire.
“And so, over the last few centuries, I have tried out this new role I have found for myself: to collect the Stories of ponykind and pass them on. I have heard many hundreds of Stories told to me, and I remember them. Thousands of ponies have sat where you now sit, around a campfire with me in places throughout Equestria.
As you can see, in the many centuries since I first came to this land, my body has eventually aged, slowly but surely, and perhaps even my long life will one day come to an end. My days as a Storyteller are still comparatively new to me, though I have done this for the last four hundred years at least. But in all the centuries of my existence I have never told anypony the Story of my own life. Until now.”
The hut had fallen into an uncomfortable silence. Glances passed between each of the gathered ponies. Finally Starflower spoke up.
“It’s all a lie. It has to be. I refuse to believe that all we were taught as foals can be wrong. I don’t know why you did this, and neither do I need to know. Goodbye sir! We will not meet again.”
She strode out of the hut, the eyes of the remaining ponies at her back. Then the stallion in blue spoke up.
“Well, I don’t think you meant any harm, old man, but it was an insane story. I’ll remember it always, that’s for sure. You may be mental, but you’re alright with me.”
As the blue stallion walked out, the Storyteller’s eyes fell on the red-coated stallion. He looked troubled.
“It cannot be true. It simply can’t be.”
He looked at the Storyteller, his eyes haunted.
“Tell me it’s not true!”
The Storyteller held the stallion’s eyes for a minute. Then a grin appeared on the Storyteller’s face. The red stallion sighed in relief.
“Oh thank Celestia! You really had me going. You’re good, you really are. You’ve given me quite a lot to think about. I thank you.”
The stallion left, and the grey mare, who had had not spoken all night, followed him. But the little filly stayed behind. She looked at the Storyteller, a serious frown marring her face.
“Why do they all say you lied, mister? You weren’t just telling a story, were you? It was really real. I know it is.”
The Storyteller looked at her earnest face for a few moments. He longed to tell her that she was right, it was all true. But what would other ponies think if this filly started proclaiming left and right that she’d met a centuries-old pony? He simply smiled at her.
“Go on. Go with your mother.”
The filly did not approve. The frown never left her brow as she brusquely turned around and stormed out after her mother.
Well, the Storyteller thought to himself, I tried. I have a lot of packing to do. I better get started.
Author's Note
The war between the alicorns and dragoneqii is based on this excellent story, though I’ve tweaked the timeline a little bit to fit it into Equestrian history.
