Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there lived four magical pony princesses who ruled together and maintained harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn, and the second princess, her younger sister, brought out the moon to begin the night. The two sisters were natural alicorns and thus immortal, unlike the younger princesses who ascended into alicorns and their royal titles. The third princess, the Princess of Love, used her powers to spread love and light across the land from her home in the Crystal Empire. The youngest princess was the leader of the group of pony heroes, who together wielded the most powerful magic known to ponydom, the Elements of Harmony, to protect the land from evils' influence.
Their leader, before she was a princess, had united the heroes together to free the Moon Princess from her nightmares. The nightmare’s influence had caused her to seek nighttime eternal, even when she returned after being banished by her sister, the Sun Princess, one thousand years prior. Discovering the magic of friendship, the heroes revitalized the depleted Elements of Harmony and used their powerful magic to return the Moon Princess to her former self. From there the heroes continued to have many more adventures and learn more of the magic of friendship. They employed the Elements of Harmony whenever the harmony of Equestria was threatened.
When the immortal Lord of Chaos escaped his prison and set the heroes against each other, all hope seemed lost. However, their leader remembered the power of the magic of friendship and rallied the heroes to confine the Lord of Chaos once again. The heroes fought against the armies of the Imposter Queen who had tried to replace the Princess of Love. Ultimately the real princess arrived and cast the Imposter Queen and her armies from the land. Finally the heroes helped the Princess of Love free the Crystal Empire from the Tyrant King who had sealed it away with himself after the alicorn sisters had bested him a millennia before.
Harmony reigned in the now whole Equestria and the love and light shone from the Crystal Empire across the country. The heroes released the Lord of Chaos and convinced him to reform his mischievous ways. Soon after, the leader of the heroes transformed into an alicorn and became Equestria’s newest princess. The nation celebrated the appearance of its newest princess, and her and the other heroes defeat of their foes, and settled in to a time of peace. That peace, however, was not meant to last.
Eventually a fragment of the Tyrant King’s power was discovered and taken to the Sun Princess for safekeeping, as she was the oldest and most powerful. The Sun Princess made a critical mistake when she went to lock away the fragment and its strange and potent magic corrupted her. Sensing something was wrong with her sister, the Moon Princess sought out the heroes so that they might use the Elements to free her sister as they had done for her. No sooner had the Moon Princess found the leader of the heroes when she heard her sister arrive in the distance. Not wanting the Elements to be misused, she used her magic to hide the leader before she fled to the one place she could not be followed, her moon.
The Sun Princess was furious that the leader of the heroes has been snatched from right under her nose. She quickly found the other heroes and turned them all to stone before locking them and their Elements away across the land so that they could not be used against her. She then called upon the Lord of Chaos and told him he no longer had to behave and could do as he saw fit. A wicked smile crossed the face of the Lord of Chaos as he went to the heroes’ hometown and literally turned it upside down. Darkness spread far and wide until the havoc caused by the Lord of Chaos covered all of Equestria. Finally, the Sun Princess turned her attention to the far North, where the Crystal Empire, and the only other threat to her rule, lay. Before any of the citizens could react, the Sun Princess sealed away the Crystal Empire and the Princess of Love along with it, just as the Tyrant King had a thousand years prior. Having secured her position, the Sun Princess began her oppressive reign with the Lord of Chaos at her right hoof, and laughing when her sister brought her moon into the sky but once each year to see if she had changed.
Years passed and the ponies she ruled over tried time and again to rebel against the Corrupted Sun Princess. When an uprising like this would occur the Corrupted Princess would send the Lord of Chaos to stop it. He, in turn, would not fight the ponies but simply make them lose their will to fight, or do anything else for that matter, leaving them a dull husk of their former selves. This cycle continued until the ponies no longer resisted, fearing becoming like those who had. They resigned to living in misery under the Corrupted Princess and suffered for many generations.
Eventually the Lord of Chaos grew restless in his position. Few ponies resisted the Corrupted Princess and so he was left to cater to her whims. He decided he would serve under her no longer and challenged her for control of Equestria. They fought an epic battle that lasted many days, but from the start the Lord of Chaos knew something was amiss. This was not like when they had battled eons ago, he felt none of the Sun Princesses familiar magic, only the dark powers that the Tyrant King’s fragment had infected her with. That dark power was like nothing he had ever felt in Equestria or beyond; indeed he realized it was not of their world, and he saw his defeat was inevitable. He stopped trying to match blows with the Corrupted Princess and instead focused on perceiving the source of the dark magic, that he might find a way to counter it when he faced her again. What he discovered overwhelmed him and the Corrupted Princess took advantage of his confusion to deal him the deciding blow.
She stood over him laughing “You see now that you can never defeat me Discord!” Her voice had an unnatural echo to it and a smile spread across her face. “Besides, I thought you loved chaos. Return to my side and we can go back to the way things were.”
“While I do love chaos, I’ve grown tired of being your lackey, Celestia, and I think it’s time that I claimed Equestria for myself,” he answered conversationally with bit of whimsy in his tone.
“Do not try to deceive me,” she said as she frowned at him. “I felt you searching my powers for some crack that you could exploit. You didn’t find anything to help you claim victory though did you?” she accused, her grin returning, wider than before.
“No, I didn’t find anything like that,” he admitted. “One such as myself could never win against you as you are, no matter how many times we fought, but that doesn’t mean that you’re invincible,” he snapped at her with a glint in his eye.
“Hah!” she snorted, “and who could overthrow me if not you? The heroes are missing their leader and encased in stone, the Princess of Love is trapped along with her entire city, and my sister continues to cower in her moon. One of the pathetic mortals perhaps? It’s been almost a decade since anypony has even thought about defying me.”
Discord sighed and regarded her levelly, when he spoke all of the playfulness was gone from his voice. “Yes, one of these mortals will rise up to confront the evil that has consumed you. He will best the foul magic that has control over you and return harmony to Equestria.”
Celestia laughed uproariously. “You would put your faith in mortals?” she mocked “Fine, help the mortals for all I care. The Elements have been locked away as has the Crystal Empire, and my sister continues to hide from me in her moon. There is nothing a mortal can do to hope to overwhelm me. So long as you continue following my orders you may try and raise this ‘hero’ of yours if it amuses you.”
Discord gave her his most mischievous grin before he popped out of existence, only to pop back at her side a moment later in a servants garb. “We have a deal then,” he announced before adding “but now that I’ve observed your magic and know the rules of the game we’re playing, it is a game I intend to win,” he chuckled as he disappeared again, the sound of his laughter continuing even after he had left.
Ever since that day the Corrupted Princess’ harsh regime continued unhindered. While the Lord of Chaos bided his time waiting for the hero of his own prophesying to emerge and expel the bewitchment from the Corrupted Princess so that harmony could return to Equestria.
"Link! Link, are you up there?"
The familiar voice brought Link back to reality and he carefully closed the aged book he had been reading from. He heard the sound of hooves on stairs and turned to face his open doorway just as his uncle appeared in it. His broad frame took up most of the doorway as he regarded Link with a stern look.
"There you are. I've been looking all over for you. What are you doing up here by yourself?" he asked, but then noticed the book lying out and gave a heavy sigh. "Never mind, I can see you've been reading from that book of old pony's tales again. You really are determined to try and become the legendary hero aren't you?"
Link, not wanting to start another argument on the subject, simply nodded.
"I know what happened to your parents was hard on you but I don’t think this is what my brother would want you to be doing. Is there anything I can do to convince you to stay and continue your apprenticeship here at the smith?" His question had more resigned acceptance than hope of the answer though.
Confirming his uncle's fears, Link silently shook his head.
"Well tomorrow you'll be of age and I can't stop you from leaving then, but for today you are still under my care; so get out there and say goodbye to everypony before you leave on this foalish quest of yours. No excuses."
Link held his uncle's gaze for a moment before he slumped in defeat. He got to his hooves and followed his uncle down the stairs to where the forge and all the other tools needed for the blacksmith were.
His uncle came to a stop at his workbench and regarded Link once again. "I have some work to finish up this afternoon so I'm not going anywhere. It's a nice day out there go and enjoy it. I don't want to see you back here before it's time for supper. Understand?"
Link nodded before turning to walk out the door.
Author's Note
This idea got stuck in my head after Season 3 and after letting it bounce around in my head for a while I finally wrote it down. Since then it's sat on my computer gathering dust, but I decided (against my better judgement) I would finally post it here.
