In the beginning, Equestria was a land without sun and moon, day and night. We had no harmony. We had no ponies! Ponies did not exist on Equestrian soil. They existed far, far away. They were ethereal beings beyond our imaginations. That is, until two of them came down from on high, bringing with them the first children of Equestria...

--

“Mother, please,” a little white filly whimpered, “my wings are tired. Why can’t we go home?”

“Your home will be here, little one,” a white mare said softly, helping her little one up higher as they soared through the dayless, nightless land that they had come to. There was nothing. All the filly saw below her was brown expanses of nothing. Why couldn’t they fly back home? Home was familiar and safe, and it wasn’t so... empty.

“Why do we have to stay?” the filly groaned as she flapped harder to stay aloft between the white mare and a midnight blue stallion.

“Because, little Tia,” the stallion murmured gently, “our home is no longer the place for you. Your place will be here.” On the stallion’s back was an even younger filly, a little purple one with wings that couldn’t even carry her weight yet.

“I wish my place was home,” Celestia, or Tia for short, grumbled. It was not long before the mare and stallion guided their tiring white filly down towards the ground. She landed on unsteady hooves for a moment before throwing her pink mane back and standing tall.

“Do not act so strong, little filly,” the white mare chuckled, nuzzling her daughter gently. “Why don’t you rest?”

“Where?” Celestia whined. All she could see for miles was flat nothing. Brown, flat nothing. “Mother, there is nowhere to sleep here!”

“Sleep tonight on the ground,” her mother soothed. “Tomorrow your father and I will help with the lack of shelter.” Grudgingly, the white filly folded her legs beneath her to lay down. Despite arguing there was nowhere to rest, Celestia was soon asleep on the ground. The midnight stallion gently rested his precious cargo beside her sister, and together he and his wife watched the children sleep.

“Did we make the right choice, Orion?” the white mare sighed, resting her head against the stallion’s neck in his billowing purple mane. “Bringing them away from the Cosmos that they’ve known for so long?”

“There is no home for our daughters in the Cosmos, Galaxia,” Orion said soothingly, turning his head to nuzzle his wife affectionately. “The Oracle said so herself. We had to bring them here.”

“To this land of nothing?” Galaxia whispered, looking up at the colorless sky above them. “I know that we can create, but can our daughters? What if we have brought them to a destiny where they are doomed to fail?”

“They will not fail,” Orion said strongly, though quietly so he did not wake the foals. “They are Celestia and Luna Cosmos, daughters of the King and Queen of the Cosmos. We are hear to assure that worlds beyond our own survive. We will provide them with the world, and they will provide the world with life.”

“They don’t even know their special talents yet,” Galaxia said softly. “And Celestia is nearly past the age where the mark appears. What happens if -- ”

“Her talent will be found here,” Orion said softly. “She and her sister both will discover their destinies in the land we provide them. Come now, dear,” he said, starting to walk away, “we have much to do before the children wake. They will need a land to rule.” Galaxia nodded slowly. With one glance back at her sleeping foals, she followed her husband into the nothingness. He was right; her children would need a land to rule. Their children would find their true selves here. She had to believe they had done right...

--

Celestia woke up to something tickling her nose. She blinked open her eyes in confusion, looking around slowly. When they had landed here, the land had been barren. Empty. Devoid of anything. Now little shoots of grass were poking up from the ground, just little babies, but grass the same. The land sloped and fell gently off to the north before spiking up sharply as very distant mountains. To the south, the land was flatter for the most part. It was much more alive than it had been when she’d gone to sleep. Not far from where she lay, a huge mountain peak rose up among the land, a single spear into the sky.

The sky was still gray and colorless. No sun, no clouds, no moon. Nothing. Why would all of this other stuff appear, but not the sun or moon?

Her filly sister slept on still beside her, exhausted from the long journey from the Cosmos. Luna was just a baby, younger than Celestia by many years. Celestia rose to her hooves and shook dirt off her coat, looking around for her parents. She did not have to look long. Galaxia and Orion descended from the sky soon after she woke. Her mother looked exhausted, her father not much better off. Creating an entire land out of nothing was exhausting. That was why they were King and Queen of the Cosmos, though.

“Mother, did you and Father make all this?” Celestia asked curiously. “Just like you made the Cosmos for the alicorns?”

“Yes, Tia,” Galaxia sighed as she laid down on the downy grass on the hillside. “We made this for you and Luna. For you to find your special talent, you have to understand this land. Once your father has recovered, he will take you through it all.”

“All of it?” Celestia repeated with wide eyes. “It’s so much!”

“It is much smaller than the Cosmos,” Orion chuckled as he laid down beside his wife. “You may explore a little bit if you wish. Try using your magic to grow things, but not too much. We want nature to grow the grass and trees, not magic.” Celestia nodded eagerly and bounded off on her own to explore the world.
She did not go far. The world was still newborn and growing. There was not much for her to see. She bounced along through the new shoots of grass happily. She had not ever seen such new plant life. Life on the Cosmos was all very, very old. She turned around after long to go back to where her parents and baby sister slept, cuddling up to her father’s side. The family slept on silently, at peace in this new world they had discovered.

--

“Come on, baby sister, you can do it!” Celestia giggled, running through the small field with Luna desperately trying to keep pace at her side. “Flap your wings like this, you can do it!” The sisters ran faster and faster, the smaller trying to get off the ground and fly. “You can do it, you can do it!” Celestia said as Luna started to hover over the ground, beating her little wings furiously to try and get off the ground.

Not far from the fillies, Galaxia and Orion stood watching them with small smiles on their faces. They had spent almost two years now on this new land. They were hopeful that their daughters would find their true selves here, but at the same time they were concerned. The grass was not growing so well without someone to tend it, but both adult alicorns were not willing to tend the ground with magic. There was no weather, either, so water had to be fabricated to give the grass something to drink.

The past two years had kept the alicorn rulers busy. Orion had taken his eldest daughter to explore the farthest reaches of the land he and his wife had created. Celestia had also helped them to plant seeds that would, hopefully, grow into all sorts of trees and bushes and flowers. On the large mountain in the center of it all, Orion had begun the construction of a palace where his daughters would rule from.

“Father, Mother, look!” Celestia cried out. The two alicorns looked up to the sky and saw Luna beating her wings furiously, but keeping aloft alongside her sister.

“Oh, wonderful!” Galaxia said happily.

“That’s fantastic, Luna,” Orion added, smiling up at his daughter. Luna soon descended from the sky, exhausted but exhilarated.

“Did you see me?” the little filly asked. “I flew, just like you and Mother and Tia!” She rushed over to her parents, nuzzling at Galaxia’s legs before running over to Orion and flopping down on the ground there.

“Celestia,” Galaxia said softly as her older daughter flew loops above them, “I want you to come with me into the sky. It’s time we tried something new.”

“New?” Celestia repeated, but together with her mother she flew into the sky. Higher than she’d flown since arriving, and even higher still, until the air grew colder and it became harder to breathe. From so far up, Celestia could see almost all of the land her parents had created, especially the palace on the mountain that was to be hers and Luna’s.

“Why am I up here, Mother?” the young alicorn asked curiously. After Galaxia had surveyed the land, she began to swoop slowly towards the incomplete palace. Celestia followed in silence. They lighted together on the pavillion, the first thing her father had built for her and her sister.

“I believe I know what you are meant to do, Tia,” Galaxia said softly. “Soon, your father and I will leave you and your sister.” This came as a shock to Celestia, but her mother continued before she could interrupt. “We cannot leave you here unless we know that you can rule here well as princesses. So it is time to try and bring day to this land.”

“Day?” Celestia repeated softly. “But Mother, I don’t want you and Father to go. I don’t want to rule! I want you to live here forever with me and Luna, so we can be a family!”

“My sweet child,” Galaxia whispered, “I wish too that I could stay forever with you both. But your father and I are needed back in the Cosmos to keep balance among the celestial bodies. You and your sister are destined to stay here, on this land. You will learn how to rule together, and you will not be alone forever. Now, we need to begin, my darling. Concentrate your magic, like I taught you at home.” Celestia’s horn began to glow a light yellow as she concentrated hard. “Good, child, good. Now, reach out. Find that thing you told me about at home, that feeling of rightness, like this is what your magic is meant to do.”

The glow of Celestia’s horn grew brighter and brighter as the young alicorn gathered more magic. She could feel it, that special feeling that told her she was meant to do this. She dug in hard as she tried to find more of that magic. It felt... stuck. Like it didn’t want to come to her. She pulled and pulled, her little body starting to shake with exertion.

From below on the hill, Orion and Luna watched together as history was made. From beyond the eastern horizon, the sky turned from gray to pink, like Celestia’s mane, and from pink to orange.

“The sun!” Luna shrieked gleefully, bouncing around her father. “The sun is finally coming up, Father!” And that it was. The sky lightened from orange to yellow, and then from yellow to a majestic blue as the sun climbed its way into the sky. Orion was silent, but he was smiling. They had been right after all.

Back on the pavillion, Celestia gasped for air as the glow on her horn sputtered out and died. Galaxia knelt beside her exhausted daughter, smiling proudly. “Celestia,” she murmured softly, “open your eyes. Look and see what you have brought.” The white alicorn opened her eyes slowly, squinting against the bright light of the sun.

Wait.

The sun.

“I... I raised the sun?!” the little one spluttered as she struggled to her hooves. “I... I didn’t, I couldn’t have...” Then something caught her eye. She looked to her flank slowly before she squealed, jumping into the air for joy. There, on her previously bare white flank, was a glorious orange and yellow sun mark.

“I raised the sun!” she shouted in joy, spreading her wings proudly and puffing out her chest as she surveyed the work around her. The land had seen its first sunrise. The sky was blue, and shadows hung in the valleys that her parents had created. “That’s my talent, isn’t it, Mother?” she asked happily. “I will bring day to this land, won’t I?”

“You will, my sweet Tia,” Galaxia said softly. “You are also ready to help your father and I complete work on this land. We have to build canals from the ocean to bring water to the fields, and when the time comes, you will have to help your sister earn her mark.”

“Me? Help Luna get her mark?” Celestia repeated softly. “Are you sure?”

“You are old enough,” Galaxia assured her daughter. “You are, admittedly, the oldest filly to get her cutie mark, but that will work to our benefit. You know how to take care of your sister, and your father and I are confident to leave her in your hands. You will have a few more months to practice setting and raising the sun before we leave. After we are gone, it is up to you and Luna to discover how to populate the world and how to rule.”

“I understand, Mother,” the white alicorn said softly. For the first time, Princess Celestia looked out on her land glowing with natural sunlight.

“I think we’ll call this place Equestria,” the princess said.

Author's Note

The characters Galaxia and Orion belong to SpyrotheFox on and were used with their permission!

This is my first chapter in how I personally like to think Equestria came to be.