The Flame of Life

Remember this. It becomes pretty important later in the story.

I was walking on the shore with Libri, May, and Thunder Crack. We were friends having fun on the beach. It was a pretty normal day, and it continued being a normal day. Not much out of the ordinary happened except for finding a strange object being washed up onto the sand.

Libri was the one who spotted it.

“What’s that?” Libri asked.

“What’s what?” May countered.

Libri trotted over to where she saw the object. My eyes followed her, and then I saw the glint of reflected sunlight on the sand, the telltale sign of a shiny object. Libri picked it up and brought it back to us.

It was circular and had an odd picture on it. I found it odd because it depicted a pony that had both wings and a horn. I never saw anything like that nor did I know something like that even existed.

Maybe it was just some mythical creature that doesn’t actually exist. Maybe it was a freak of nature, but having both wings and a horn would be a blessing, so how could it be a freak?

We galloped back to the village and showed it to Libri’s dad. He was a scholar and knew everything. At least, it seemed that way to us when we were so young.

He took it and searched his library to find a book. He seemed to know exactly which book he wanted. He flipped through the pages and exclaimed with joy as he found what was looking for. He came back to us and showed us the book.

He said that what we held was a Celestial Amulet. Apparently, the creatures on the amulet were called “alicorns.” They’re the rarest type of pony and are only present in royal families. He also said that it’s likely just a copy of the real one. The original was said to have been either lost or destroyed.

Libri’s father was very knowledgeable when it comes to lore and history, and he even knew who the two alicorns depicted were. The darker alicorn, who embodied the moon portion of the amulet, was named Luna. The lighter one, who embodied the sun portion of the amulet, was named Celestia.

He told us a story of old that dates back a thousand years – give or take a few years.

It went something like this –

Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land.

To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The younger brought out the moon to begin the night.

Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all of different types of ponies.

But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth but shunned and slept through her beautiful night.

One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one’s heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness – Nightmare Moon! She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night!

Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponies – the Elements of Harmony!

Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently to the moon.

The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon, and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since.

I was skeptical of this story’s authenticity. What pony could be as powerful as to be able to control the sun or moon, or even both? That kind of power is unreal! However, the story did spark interest in this land of “Equestria.” I didn’t know if it was real or not, but the country depicted in that story could be of use to me. It could hold the education I sought out for.

Libri’s father gave the pendant back to us. We all agreed that it should go to Libri since she was the one who found it. Little did we know, though, that this small pendant held significance beyond our comprehension.

The end of the day was nigh, so Libri, May, Thunder and I went to our homes and regarded that day as moderately interesting. We found a cool necklace, we listened to a fairy tale, and we just had fun as friends.