For the Power of a God

There was a time, millennia ago, when the Earth was governed by peace and harmony. All the races would assist each other, maintaining the fragile balance that kept their land stable. The Dragons, with their fireproof scales and immense strength, would bring about night and day along with the Unicorns. The Griffons, with the innate ability to touch clouds, would change the weather and the seasons with the Pegasi. The Zebra, with their advances in potion-making, would help farm and fertilize the soil to grow food for everyone with the Earth Ponies. To date, there is no other period in history where peace existed between all the races of the Earth.

However, all the races knew that this peace was thinning, and that any tip to the natural balance would cause it to falter. Many disputes have been left for negotiations for the sake of maintaining harmony. Some that were in dire need of attention had been brushed aside due to the sheer amount of requests that plagued the rulers of each land. The Dragons felt that the Griffons and the pegasi were taking too much of the airspace while the Zebra complained that the Griffons’ harsh takeoff due to their large size displaced their fertilizer. Due to the lack of experience the rulers had in dealing with these requests, the first *Council of Elders** was held to address them. Each race sent their leader in order to negotiate an understanding between them.*

However, all did not go as planned as the council departed with one missing member. The Alicorn that represented the Ponies had mysteriously vanished and none of the other races dared to speak of what occurred during the meeting. Without a word, they quickly departed to their homes and left the Ponies in a state of panic and unrest. The Dragons and the Griffons decided to take this weakness as an opening and attacked the Ponies they once worked with. With the guidance and leadership of two nameless, regal sisters, the Ponies were able to repel the attacks and force them back to their own lands. Thus began the *Age of Chaos** where the leaders of each race would attack each other for the sake of dominance, or so it seemed.*

One pony, the single guard present during the Council of Elders, knew a portion of the truth behind the warring races. Ruling over all the land had no merit if it created years of civil unrest and the races knew this. This wasn’t a war for supremacy; it was a war for divinity. The guard raced to the princesses as soon as he regained consciousness from the contained explosion that occurred within the room where the council was held. However, he did not realize that the blast knocked him out for six months and he awoke under piles of rubble and debris. By then, it was too late to stop the war from escalating, but it wasn’t too late to stop the races from destroying each other. There was only one way to do this, however, and that was through the *Crystalline Equinox*, the product of the Council that no one wished to speak of, the lost artifact that was spoken of only in hushed tones after the meeting.

Little is known about the Crystalline Equinox besides the thousand year war that it provoked. Tyrant after tyrant had tried to find the mysterious crystal, only to be killed or overthrown by another who wished for its power. Thousands of villages were raided and destroyed to acquire an item that only the race leaders knew about. Ponies, Griffons, Dragons and Zebras all suffered under those harsh times when their young were brutally murdered and their homes completely destroyed. For it is said that the Crystalline Equinox held incredible power and granted the wishes of the one in possession of it. Those that knew this secret were willing to sacrifice anything for it, including their kingdom, their loved ones, and even their lives when the occasion called for it. Death was a common sight in all the kingdoms as the war, famine and sickness began claiming more and more victims. Finally, when all hope was lost and the races were all but extinct, the Crystalline Equinox was found…

***

He stared, horrified at the scene before him. Moments ago, waves upon waves of all the races had clashed, their final goal in sight. Now, there was nothing but dead, rotting corpses that carpeted the blood stained ground. He knew that he had done this, that his wish had caused the eradication of every single soldier that had fought on that mountain. This twisted atrocity of his initial intentions forced him to his knees, the crystal lay forgotten beside him. Not a soul heard the piercing cry of pure frustration and torment that escaped his lips and resounded throughout the land. He picked himself up, he needed to show the world the corruption that they had all sought for, that only evil could come of what they had been searching for. Focusing the last of his strength into the crystal, he projected his image, surroundings, and voice across the entire Earth and said:

“Thine of the Earth, hear my call and cease thine actions. I have found that which has been sought for millennia, that which has drawn more blood than the collective natural deaths beforehand. THIS is what the populace has fought for. THIS is what tore families apart, caused the genocide of many races and made one strike down an innocent in cold blood!”

“This small, worthless rock is the cause of all the suffering, all the pain, all the hatred that thou hast for one another!”

He held the crystal high and glared at it with such loathing that those that watched believed that his stare might be enough to reverse the spell it had cast. He lowered the crystal and continued:

“Many wish to have this crystal in their possession and for them, I have a message!”

“Brave the trails that none shall ever finish and find that only darkness awaits, for this will never see the light of day from this moment on!”

***

The unicorn cast a spell, infused with the power of the crystal, and sent it to places unknown. Though nobody knew where the crystal was, the tether that it had formed with them could no longer be felt on their Earth and each race began to reconstruct their homes and their land. Unfortunately, only chaos followed as the ties that the crystal formed with the warring races could never truly be dispelled. These ties were formed from the strong emotions that guided spirits to find the crystal and, even after death, remained with them. It is said that a common voice resounded through the hearts of these individuals that prophesized a second coming of the crystal and that the souls of those that it touched will never truly be at rest until it is destroyed.

The ancient tome was closed as a certain lavender unicorn mused...

“Hmm…A second coming…?”