Equestrian Heroes

There are many myths about how Equestria came into existence. This is one such tale:

    The Tiger, whose powerful legs allowed him to move mountains, began to create a world where all forms of life could coexist. He rolled together a large hunk of matter he collected from different parts of the universe. Sadly, he could not seem to get life to assimilate on this "planet" as he called it. The other three elemental spirits, saw this and were rather surprised by these actions, for they had, up until that point, thought the Tiger to be selfish and to not care about other life. They ask if they can help and the Tiger, desperate for his creation to be a success, accepts their offer.

    The Phoenix, with his will over flame created the sun, and warmed the ball of rock so that it could be more livable. The Turtle, with his liquid soul, placed water on the world, which pooled in the deepest areas to form the oceans. And the Dragon, who, without wings, caused wind to circle the planet and clouds to take shape. Almost immediately, they saw life begin to take shape. But only one form of life was sentient enough to alter Equestria, as they decided to call it, for the sentient race was ponies.Each spirit took a liking to a particular species.

    The Tiger preferred the earth ponies, for they had no advantages and were still able to get by. The Turtle had a fondness for the unicorns who were able to move from task to task like water in a river flowing to the ocean with use of their magic. The Dragon marveled at the way the pegasi moved the clouds effortlessly. The Phoenix, however, loved the alicorn species, who, with their regal bearing, were able to rule the others fairly.

    Now, that is not to say he thought of himself as better than the other spirits, but the others certainly thought this. They confronted the spirit of fire, and soon, war broke out. After years of fighting, they realized they were about to tear the world they created together apart. The fighting drained them, so they decided to give their power to each of the four pony species. To see which ones would be worthy of wielding the power of  the elements, they looked carefully at each pony and discovered that each of the four most worthy also happened to be friends with each other. They appeared to each of them in a dream. The next day the four friends met up and discussed what they saw, as instructed by the spirits.

    They went to the clearing the spirits said they would meet them at. As soon as they got there, the spirits appeared to them in a physical form. They explained their destinies. With that, they used the last of their strength to create crests that housed their total powers. Each crest was made of a special gem said to house the elements of these four spirits. The Amethyst Tiger, the Ruby Phoenix, the Emerald Dragon, and the Sapphire Turtle were given to these four friends. They used their powers to guard Equestria from all evil.

    Suddenly, the alicorn race was afflicted with a mysterious sickness. Up until this point, all four species had both males and females. Male alicorns began to fall ill. No one knew why only males were affected. When the friend of the other elemental guardians became ill, crests were empowered further. They had been friends for so long they began to have the feeling of protecting each other as though they were a family. They tried everything,but sadly, their friend passed. they tried to find a successor to the phoenix crest. None was found. Then one day the remaining three guardians vanished without a trace.  The ponies began to worry when disaster would strike, but it never did. Soon, the fear of attack faded, as did the memory of the spiritual elements themselves. All was well in Equestria. Some say the disappearance led to the creation of the elements of harmony, but that's another tale. The essence of the spiritual elements traveled to the other worlds that the four spirits had created. This story faded with time, quickly becoming a shadow of what it was. Equestria had never seen the spiritual elements again.

Until now.