Thousands of years ago there were two races of ponies: the unicorns and the earth ponies. The earth ponies tilled the land and grew crops for the unicorn aristocracy. While the unicorns lorded over the earth ponies with an iron hoof, they amused themselves by arbitrarily changing the weather and altering the length of the night and day. The earth ponies toiled day and night and while their magic was strong with the earth they still needed rain and sun to grow their crops.
They weren't thanked, most of whatever wealth they could make were stripped away to fill the coffers of those in power, and often times they starved. But toiled they still did, fore they unicorns could directly affect magic to a much greater extent then any earth pony had ever dreamed. So they worked, starved, and just simply tried to survive. Life was horrible but it was all they knew so they put up with it.
Enter Blackened Hurricane. An earth pony colt who wants life to be better for his family. The crops they were pulling in could barely feed themselves, and due to the weather the hard cracked earth was hardly fit for growing weeds, let alone anything edible. When his father died of pneumonia, no one could continue to work the meager farm. It didn't help that the government continued to demand higher and higher percentage of whatever they could produce.
After a particularly hard winter, when most of the days were spent trying to stave off the hunger pains, Hurricane decided that he was finished feeding the corpulent cesspit that was his government and decided to refuse paying his taxes. "I will not feed those bloated evils that pretend to be virtuous at the throne." He then beat the tax collector for trying to take them by force.
Hurricane left the decaying household and gathered a group of like minded individuals. They too boycotted the taxes, in favor of feeding their families. This angered their queen. One Queen Solaris called for the heads of the rebels. Instead the majority of the rest of the country rose against them. Queen Solaris, in a fit of rage, called upon the stars to strike down these insurgents. Instead they frowned upon the evils of the queen and took hers, as well as the rest of the unicorns ability to manipulate weather, and instead gave them to the ponies that dared to take a stand against the throne. And while they didn't have horns to manipulate the sky they instead were given wings to control the skies. This infuriated the unicorns, fore they took great pleasure in the suffering of those below them. They believed that if they destroyed pegasi they would have their powers back.
The remaining earth ponies shunned the pegasi, since they believed them to be abominations. The pegasi's abilities came at the cost of their earth magic so they couldn't effectively farm anymore. The very air seethed with hate. The unicorns refused to bring back the day, the earth ponies refused to share what little food they had, and the pegasi were unsure of how to go about fixing it. So instead they built an army to take the food from the earth ponies. Hurricane refused to go along with it and instead worked to bring the split pony races back together.
Then winter came and it was the hardest winter of all. With all the hate spreading around, the windigos came in full force and threatened to completely overtake the fractured nation. It wasn't until the capitol froze over that the famine was fully thrust upon the populace. Instead of the races uniting they continued to blame each other for the misgivings. Queen Solaris fell into madness and threw herself from the towers of the palace, leaving her daughter Princess Platinum in charge. Her long time friend and the archmage Clover the Clever created a spell that would get rid of the ice and snow, but it would only work if there was a unification of the pony races.
Now Blackened Hurricane eventually accepted the leadership of the pegasi race and accepted the title "Commander Hurricane". It was around this time when the local militia of the Manehattan below them tried to make peace with the new race of pegasi. Colonel Cupcake then was able to quickly gain the trust and friendship of Hurricane by sharing his goals of uniting the pony races.
As the world slowly began to ice over, the ponies got more and more desperate, resorting to eating meat and eventually cannibalism to survive. When cities began falling left and right was when Clover the Clever, Commander Hurricane, and Colonel Cupcake met and after an argument they became friends and united the three pony races under the same flag. They drove the windigos to the far north and south. They rebuilt their cities and the sense of togetherness continued to run rampant. The unicorns were still mostly the ruling class, but things became far easier for the earth ponies and the fresh pegasi.
As the days continued the ponies grew ever closer. Equestria, which is what they decided to call their empire expanded greatly. Eventually the Unicorns created three great beings to control the sun the moon and the stars. They were created to embody Order, Chaos, and Balance. Chaos went mad, and began making the same mistakes the old order of unicorns made. It was then that the two goddesses rallied the people and created six elements to combat Discord. They succeeded and Discord was imprisoned in stone. Leading to the golden age, where the two goddesses ruled over the land and brought forth a golden age.
And thus ends the tale of how the pegasi got their wings. They are immersed in history and without them we may have ended up destroying ourselves instead. The pegasi were crucial to the progress of Equestria. Without them there wouldn't have been an Equestria.
So children, The next time you see a pegasus, remember what I told you.
Author's Note
This was a part of the thirty minute ponies prompt #412. I hope you enjoyed it.
