Chapter One: Her name was Aurora.
If you count the number of stars in the sky one by every second, you'd eventually find your life was too short to really get every one of them. You may also realize that the world you stand on has maybe existed as many years as there are stars. No life time can be normally spent counting every last star, even if the task was started before speaking your first word. And yet, when we look above, we already know -though we cannot fathom the numbers- that our world has existed before the first star twinkled against first twilight. An immeasurable amount of time able to be measured if only within our small, mortal minds. However, the time of first twilight is a quantum conundrum that rattles the mind and resounds through time, isn't it?
Ten thousand years ago, the world was still very young. It was plagued with shadows, grim beasts, and the haunt of unspeakable horrors. One thousand years ago, the earth had been long since cleansed and had grown as old and wise beyond any living creature. What evil existed was not vanquished, but suppressed behind the vale of ever present harmony. Yet, what of five thousand years ago? The time between chaos and tranquility? The moment of new hope? The hour of Harmony.
It was five thousand years ago that the Elements of Harmony, the epicenter of peace in the world we now know as Equestria, was first made. Upon the eve of the divine Maker's first contact with what is now our world...
There was nothing... Light was scarce, as too the dark. The world bathed within a state between dark and light with something swirling at the center of it all. Eternity had no motion... No reason... In the beginning, there was no existence.
But... One Being came... It looked upon this empty existence and wept; wept for a world it did not know by felt grief for it. Those tears stuck against the swirling eternity and halted it. The swirl heaved and relinquished from itself a pained hush. A hush that silenced what existed around it... Before, from nothing, a twinkle emerged. The Being reached against this twinkle to cradle, yet it would always be just outside its grasp. Enraged, the Being spat flames towards the twinkle, igniting the swirling hush around it and setting all of eternity ablaze. Grief once more struck the Being, ashamed by its own actions. Once more, tears struck against the swirling eternity, sending billows of hot steam into existence as fire met water.
When time came to pass that the steam faded away, the Being was astounded to find that eternity was no longer a swirling hush; but now a vast, open mound of petrified life. The twinkle was jammed at the center of the earthen surface, held perfectly still in an eternal embrace. The Being reached down once more, now able to touch its fingers against the twinkling center. It was cool... burning... painful... uplifting... liberating... oppressing... bright... dull... It sparkled against the Being's touch all the more with each new second of first life.
When the Being took itself back, the twinkle stuck against its touch. It kept close, sparking beautifully at the flat of its hold. The Being admired this twinkle for some time... An eternity at the least... Before it crushed the twinkle and reshaped it with a purpose now in mind. For its tears, rage, and interfering, this state of eternity had become existent... Now, the Being was no longer a curious observer... When it looked back to its hold and the newly reshaped twinkle, it had made the transfer into a Maker.
In a slow, powerful motion, the Being slammed the twinkle back towards the earthen surface. From its hold, six stones and a single spark formed a harsh collision against the surface. Each object, reforged from the twinkle the Being warped, breathed in at once; warping the land around them and bringing with each a new form of life. Grass, lava, stone, water, air, light, dark, life, death... All at once, all was made in a single, equal motion. And from the six stones first cast by the Being, six singular lives were given birth. All life for the Being was made in but the blink of an eye. Yet, to the buddings of life...
In the beginning... There was the Makers and Harmony.
That being came to be known as "The Maker". As for the six shards he discarded against the land, they formed into beautiful, majestic mares that came to usher in a new order to a world of nothingness. Those six came to be known as "The Royals".
Ananta The Brave and Faithful. Her eight luxurious wings held the passion of a thousand burning suns and the caress of the endless night's coo. She brought Avalon, the first kingdom in all existence into being with but a stomp of her hoof against a once decollete world. It is also told that she alone brought her sisters into creation by her own will; that being if you questioned the Maker's first creation.
Skaoi The Honorable and Merciful. She was said to be the most divine in beauty, yet the most crass in tongue. To a new world, her crusade for an honorable world to exist within brought to the existence of armaments as well as delegation. From her, law was brought to be; and with it, justice.
Aphrodite The Devoted and Cunning. Long is the list of this mare's flagrant abuse of power, authority, and sovereignty. True, at the same time, the list is at length for the great share of duty and causes she has led alongside or heading her sisters. Though more accustomed to the sea, she remains to date the only existing "Kelpie" as she called herself.
Astra The Mother of Night. Along with her zealous sister, she served to protect the nature of life in the ways of law and order. However, her affinity was more so to the nature of night than the waking world. No records tell of the mare ever resting her own eyes; serving to protect the waking as well as the sleeping with all her might.
Persephone The Deluded and Lucid. A mare of mystery even among her own sisters. Her mind to record was as fragmented as the spaces between stars in the night sky. She spoke of calamity, discord, as well as peace whenever she entered within one of her 'spells'. Whether or not her 'spells' were words of things yet to come or ramblings of madness, none could say for sure.
The five sisters who brought to the world order, control, serenity, peace, and harmony... Together. A combined effort on all parts brought to the world these things for a time. However, the sixth of the sisters was the one that brought something perhaps greater to the world: a future. A future brought on by the ideal of hope. The hope that allows a limping mare stand before the maw of despair and hold against it a brave face with not a tear to shed.
That mare was the youngest of the Royals. Her name was Aurora... The Hopeful.
The warm breeze of the meadow sifted through the the manes and coats of all the creatures that resided within the capital kingdom. Ponies, gryphons, goats, buffalo, all walks of life fitting all shapes and forms called this peaceful, majestic land their home. The towering yet humble stone walls and towers that set shadows upon the streets served as the consent reminder that above them as well as around them, all were protected within this sacred land. This kingdom that accepts all lives, all winds, all lights and shadows; it was named Avalon. Avalon; the central hub for all dignitaries, trade, and discussions between all was as pristine and beautiful as the lush green lands that outlined its kingdom.
Upon the eve of another passing afternoon sky, the melodic chimes of the central bell tower resounded through the roads and countryside of Avalon. The chime signaled all to know not just the passing of time, but the hour of a visiting dignitary from a far off land. Few were there of other lands and kingdoms in the time of Avalon; but important was each and every one of them. However, the sounding of the melodic bell was not meant for good will upon this hour. It had been no secret that this hour on this day was reserved for a highly important meeting of the Royals with a distant leader.
As the bell sounded, alerting to the summoning of the sisters to court, the kingdom streets fell solemn... All except one single street leading out from the most central path towards Avalon's royal palace. On that road, a single mare huffed and clenched her teeth together, straining to keep on the edge of her hooves as she galloped upon all her might down the road. Her hooves, though petite, clopped against the cobblestone roads loudly one after the other. Under her strained, wheezing breath, she muttered to herself at an alarming rate. The denizens of Avalon that she passed, clipping her wing against in the process, could only make out small tidbits of her scrambled words before she blurred away in her bolt down the road.
"Mustn't be late, mustn't be late, mustn't be late~~~!" She chastised herself, ignoring all that she passed aside from a split second of a nod here and there as she passed ponies.
Her side had a rhythmic thump go against her with each skipping trot she took, along with it being a shuffle of loosely bound papers kept inside a poorly clipped together saddle. Even so, the young mare disregarded it and kept to her fevered trot; allowing in her ignorance for small slips of paper to dislodge from her bundle and cascade out behind her in a white shower. The denizens that watched her go by could not but help taking in a momentary smile at the antics of the single mare before going about their afternoon affairs.
In so many words, the mare was fair coated with a creamy tone about her fur. Her mane and tail were a straight, clean peach color. The fluff of her tail, however, being kept in segmented clumps by silver rings. Normally, the wire tiara she adorned on her head was kept just as pristine... However, sometime within her rush, it became as slanted and disheveled as the unclasped guarder around her young neck. If nothing else, the silver heart cutie mark on her flank remained one of the few things left unscathed in her flurry of motion. Along with that, her lone wing beat against the air frantically as she continued to mutter aloud.
"Mustn't be late! Ohh! Curse you, Turner!" She tried to pass the blame onto someone, even if they were not present in her mad dash.
The young mare continued on, beating her hooves against the road faster and faster, tripping over herself time and again in the process; all in the effort of not being late. And yet, despite her efforts, they served for nothing in the end. What was going to be missed, was already in progress. The case between the Royals and their "honored guest".
"For the charge of disregard of innocent life, crimes against all races, the unearthing of unspeakable magics, flagrant abuse of protocols and agreements, as well as proven speculation in part of inciting anarchy... We of the Royals, by the sovereignty of our right of ruling, dost inquire upon you: How would you plead?"
"...Purely innocent..."
"Even now you would lie to our faces? We will grant no mercy for you... Necromancer."
The young mare, chest fleeting of air from her lungs and limbs wobbling in tire, looked far up towards the lawful center of Avalon's court system. However, what normally was a strong, upstanding sight to behold of justice when she looked up was obscured by five long, casting shadows looming over her at the foot of the stairway. She looked up, petrified, humiliated, as well as ashamed when she felt five pairs of eyes set down upon her. Meek was her voice when she swallowed her pride and looked up to the collective of her five elder sisters. "D-Did I... Miss it again?"
