Perception (A before Equestria Tale)

Neither of us were there when it began. We weren't there to see it end either, but we did know one thing. We were born and we grew and that we weren't alone. Mother? Father? Both foreign ideas to me. Who raised me? You'd laugh if I told you I think.

I don't have the answers. I just know that there is and that there isn't. I know that we are. And they aren't.

Who's we? Oh right.

The tree tells me I am the pruner and he is the planter. Tree also tells me that we are one of the same branch. When Tree first says this to me I don't understand it. She says all of us ponies are the same but me and my...... brother? maybe that was the word.... oh yes. She says me and brother are more the same than the others. I don't understand at all.Tree confuses me with her wisdom. But she says I am smarter than brother, that I will understand soon.

That was before the worlds came to me. Before the world, I lived in a sea of blackness and everything I knew of was something Tree had given me called memories. Then, I did not have my own but tree promised I would. She explained that she did not have see-ing tools called eyes but she did have the hearing tools called ears. She had a special tool she could not say that let her be in memories of other animals. She says it is very complicated. I did not know then what I know now.

I was just a child then. I am so much more now. I am the Pruner, but the other ponies have a name for me.... Death. I do not know what it means, but when the other say it, they grimace and frown. They don't teach their young fillies about me. But they have also given brother a name. They call him Life. They talk about him nicely and celebrate him. Brother does not understand it, but he says we are not like them so we do not worry about those things. They do not understand Tree.