"Hello my children. Have you ever wondered where my legend came from? No, it did not come from Camp Everfree. In fact, it wasn't even in that universe.
"Let me tell you a story. The real story of how my legend began. Please, have a seat and enjoy some tea. This might take a while.
"You see, before those two princesses showed up, I ruled the entirety of Equestria. After all, who better to rule it than the embodiment of mother earth herself, no?
"Anyway, I ruled as a leader should, with love and care and a bit of discipline here and there when needed.
"As is typical of nature's laws, the strongest of my children partook of the weaker, devouring them and adding the nutrients they partook in to their own bodies.
"As a mother, I did not necessarily like watching my children feast upon one another, but were it not this way, the eldest of my children would starve and die. Survival of the fittest and whatnot.
"Back to the point, I watched over my children for centuries as they lived in perfect balance with one another. But, that all changed when Those 'goddesses' Celestia and Luna appeared. They came upon my domain, bringing with them the rest of their kind. They called themselves ponies.
"Being the mother of all things natural, I knew what a pony was of course, but never have I seen ones such as this. Some could fly, some had horns, and some were stronger than most would believe. Even further still, the two leaders of the group had both horns and wings, and I assumed that they were some sort of hybrid of the three races.
"As is to be expected of those who would take up a journey, some were sick or tired, and some were injured and even dying. Celestia and Luna came before me, bowing and begging me to allow them to create a home for themselves here.
'Please forgive us Lady Everfree,' Celestia had said to me. 'But we have no gifts to offer you in return for your kindness.'
'We are afraid that our meager offerings would not please The Lady very much.' Luna said, referring to both her companion and herself in the third person, a strange quirk that I found out later from Celestia was a bad habit. I had also found out that they were siblings.
"I thought on it for a moment before saying yes. But, I also told them that in exchange for me allowing them to stay here, I would require them to work the land and give to the animals.
"They were so overjoyed that I let them stay that they agreed wholeheartedly, leaving to tell the news to the group of over a thousand that they were leading.
"For a time, they kept their word. Tending to the land and caring for the animals. As they were seemingly peaceful, and had done as I asked, I remained seated upon my throne, only venturing out to check up on their progress and maintain the natural patterns of the world, such as the weather.
"That however, is when it all changed. Soon, the ponies were building their own government, centered around the two 'Alicorns' as they called themselves.
"At first I had no problems with this. I had helped them, they were going about life happily, and all was well.
"Then they began to use the land for their own profit, growing trees for the sake of selling their fruit and gaining money.
"This was nothing more than a mild annoyance, considering I knew they had to find some way to sustain themselves, as well as the fact they were still doing as I asked, even if they were using nature for personal gain, so I let it slide.
"Then came this 'nightmare moon' incident, where princess Luna plunged the world into eternal darkness, forcing me to work overtime even after she was defeated. But that was not the worst of it.
"What really got my blood boiling was what happened after. It is not that I expected them to worship me as a goddess myself, despite my being exactly that. However, I did expect at least some credit for what I had done for them. Now, they were referring to those princesses as goddesses and throwing me to the wayside, as if I was nothing but a memory. It was so frustrating. Still, being as merciful as I was, and seeing as they had continued to keep their promises, I gave them one last chance.
"Then, many years later, as if to confirm my previous statement, I heard a rumor.
"On one of my periodic outings to check on the progress of the ponies of Equestria, as they had called the new country they now resided in, I overheard a few ponies talking. As I usually hid my identity when traveling out of the Everfree in order to not attract attention to myself, the ponies could not see me, and it was while I was in this perfect hiding place that I heard of a legend.
"The legend told of a beautiful pony who lived in the Everfree Forest. She had a blue mane, green eyes, a red-ish brown coat and her attire appeared to be made from the earth itself. She was said to be the ruler of the Everfree.
"It took only moments for me to realize who they were referring to. They were talking about me. And they were talking as if I wasn't even there! It had finally happened. After all this time, I had officially become nothing more than...a memory.
"I was furious. I marched my way up to the castle of the so called 'Goddesses' That had so rudely usurped my throne.
'Ah, Lady Everfree. You seem upset. Whatever is the matter?' Celestia said, speaking in a tone that spoke of the royalty she had now become accustomed to. She spoke as if we were equals.
'Don't play dumb with me! You know exact;y what the problem is!' I said, anger from past transgressions seeping to the surface as I was no longer able to hold back the flood of emotion in my voice.
'No, we are afraid we do not, Lady Everfree. Please, explain it to us, so that we may understand.' It was Luna's turn to speak.
"I exploded. 'You...you...fine! You want an explanation? I'll give you one! Not only did you desecrate the land I so generously gave you by building a town, not to mention a castle atop it, which I had no issue with, given the circumstances, you used that land for your own personal gain, usurped my throne, took over my claim to goddess, and now I have been forgotten completely, lost to history, and replaced with a mere legend. My once great land has become nothing more than a product of your greed and pride. Have you forgotten all that I have done for you?'
"As I said this, the princesses were dumbstruck. They looked at me with wide eyes, mouths agape in shock and bewilderment.
"Luna was the first to recover from the verbal slap they had both just received, and had moved to speak. 'P-please forgive us lady Everfree. All this time we have been misguided, led astray by our own desires. We had no intentions of incurring your wrath upon us.'
'No intention? It's a little late to be saying that now don't you think?' I snapped back at the princess.
'Yes, it is. We understand completely, and will accept whatever punishment you see fit to give us. I only wish to ask one final thing of you.'
'The time for favors is over Celestia! It passed a long time ago. But I suppose I will hear you out just this once.'
'Thank you very much. The favor I wish to ask is this. Punish us however you see fit, but please do not lay waste to ponykind.'
At this, I had calmed down a bit, wanting to listen. I was still plenty angry, but the prospect of this favor intrigued me. 'And why shouldn't I?'
'You are the reason we now have all that we do, Lady Everfree.' Luna spoke up next, giving the reasoning behind their request. 'You are the reason we were able to go on living.'
'Yes, and?' I was becoming a bit impatient with them.
'Would you really like to destroy the place you put so much effort into trying to make for us? To bring to ruin the very race you helped save?'
"I could only stare at them, wide eyed. They had a point. No one would want to destroy the work they had invested so much of their time into.
"I thought about it for a moment before, '...I get it. Fine. I won't end your race. But you still must be punished for your transgressions.'
'As I said before, we are willing to accept any punishment you deem fit, Lady Everfree.' Celestia spoke up, repeating her words from before almost verbatim.
'Hmm...Any punishment huh?'
'That is what we said, Lady Everfree-'
'Quiet, I'm thinking!' I cut Luna off.
Then it came to me.
'Ah yes, perfect.' I smiled, raising my hands to the sky.
'What are you doing, Lady Everfree?' Celestia asked, suddenly worried.
'Oh you'll see!'
"With that, a bright green glow surrounded me, enveloping me in a green light as I floated high into the air, the brightness of the light finally dying down a bit.
"My eyes glowed as well, as I looked down at the two of them and spoke. 'Princesses Celestia and Luna, for your crimes against nature and the goddess who represents it, I sentence you to two thousand years of labor. Since you wanted so badly to replace me, you and all your ponies shall take up my work. The Pegasi will handle the weather, The earth ponies will till the soil, and as for you dearest princesses, you will handle the sun and the moon, however only one of you may have either of them. Celestia shall raise the sun in the day, and Luna will raise the moon at night. You will feel the pain of the work I put into maintaining this precious town of yours!'
"As I said that, an explosion of magic erupted from my body, creating symbols that attached themselves to the flanks of the two alicorns.
'What are these?' They asked.
'Those are your cutie marks.' I answered. 'They will serve as a reminder of the punishment you have to face. They also represent your jobs. These marks will appear on every pony born in the future at the point in their life when they find their destiny, and only then.'
"The princesses simply looked down, too afraid to look me in the eye. 'We understand.'
'Good.' I said in response. 'And as an added punishment, you are not allowed inside the Everfree forest for the next thousand years.'
'We understand.' was all they said.
'Thank you very much. I will take my leave now.'
'Wait, please!' Celestia suddenly called out. 'What will happen to the unicorns?'
"I turned around and thought. then I said, 'The unicorns may keep their magic.'
The two royal ponies sighed in relief at this.
'But the magical texts will be scattered around equestria. If you wish to study magic once again, you must find them all.'
"With that, I made my way back to the Everfree, changing to look a little different once I got there. Gone were the peaceful, serene trees, the soft, warm grasses, the gentle breezes, and the kind and gentle animals. They were now a sight of horror to any who may enter. Trees were a horrid black and seemed to breathe with a wicked flame of life. The grass was dead and dry, the air tasted of sulfur, and the once happy animals were now beasts to be feared.
"The only ones who had continued on with their promise even after all of this were the zebras, my most loyal of children. They were a simple tribe, and they only used the land to feed themselves and those around them. They used its gifts to create magnificent concoctions and potions that would allow them to do many things that were at times, beyond their capability. Sadly, most could not survive in this new, harsher Everfree I had created, and they soon died out. All except for one.
"Devastated by the results of my actions upon my children, I took up the last surviving zebra and raised her, teaching her everything I knew and giving her a place to call home.
"By the time she was all grown up, she knew more about the world than most ponies did, and while it saddened me to see her making nice with those infernal quadrupeds, she assured me herself that she would always remember me, and that her home would always be the Everfree.
"It had gotten to a point where I decided it was time for me to leave this place. After a particularly hard day, I made my way to my throne, planning to leave the forest behind, along with the world that had forgotten me. I stepped behind it, revealing a stone portal. I had used this portal to traverse many a dimension in my time, and now was the time to use it again. I activated it with my magic, and stepped through, never to return.
"Now, this was not the end of my story. No, not at all. For there was more to be told about the path walked by the great Gaia Everfree.
"Once through the portal, I had stepped into a world where, unlike those wretched ponies, the populous was wide spread and consisted of very different types of creatures.
"These creatures were bipedal, and spoke in a language I did not understand.
"Instead of the infernal 'Equestrian' I had been forced to learn in the first dimension, there was now some other, even more ridiculous language that I had to get used to. It was called English, or something like that.
"What's worse, my body looked very different from the previous dimension as well. I had strange five clawed appendages that had somehow replaced my hooves, and a much smaller muzzle than before.
"I would eventually learn that in that dimension, what I would call a muzzle was called a nose, but that is not important.
"What is important is that, as I spent time learning about these 'humans' as they were called, I began to see that they were just like ponies, albeit with different physical appearances. ...Quite physically different.
"They had no fur to keep out the cold, nor any magic to cast spells, outside of false parlor tricks that the so called 'magicians' of this world used to manipulate people into giving them money.
"They also had the most crude way of solving disputes. I dare say that this is where they differ from Equestria the most.
"When it comes to something they disagree on, they argue all day about it instead of making up and becoming friends. And even the 'friends' I see here seem to do much the same thing
"They even go so far as to fight, or even carry a weapon with them. Given that equestria had not seen war in so long, they know not what a weapon looks like. But I have been here longer than any other pony, so I know what a tool of death a weapon can be.
"As I made my way through this strange land in this strange body that I had yet to explore given the close proximity of the prying eyes I saw all around me, I began talking with people. They were called people and not ponies, here, by the way.
"Even though I told them who I was, everyone I talked to simply laughed at me or tried to joke around with me.
"I didn't like it. I told many people of who I was, and eventually, found some who would believe me, but they turned out to be this strange group among the 'humans' as their species was called, much different form our equines, called scientists
"They had believed me, but that was only because they thought I was some kind of unidentified creature that they could run experiments on.
"I tried to tell them who I was, tell them they were defying the will of a goddess by not letting me go, but their belief in my words only extended so far.
"As I lie there on the table, bound and forced to wait for the inevitable prodding and poking that was to come, I suddenly got an idea.
"I thought that I could use my magic to escape. Turns out that coming to this world had blocked out the use of my magic.
"After trying and failing for at least thirty minutes, I was finally able to use it to escape. But, I was only able to use a small portion of it.
"I soon realized that my magic was in fact, locked, and that the only way I could use it to the fullest was if I were to possess a human.
"Anyway, I think I'm getting off track again. The point was that I was stuck in a strange world with a strange new body and no idea how to use it or what the natural customs were.
"So, I decided that, if I knew nothing of their world, I would learn, and so I did.
"Once I had learned all that I needed from studying the humans, I returned to the forests, which were the only things familiar to me in this entire harmony forsaken dimension.
"I eventually got bored and took to watching the humans interact. It was my only entertainment as of late.
"On one of my many times doing this, I happened to spot a human woman, talking with a human male about something that I couldn't quite make out. But, I could see that the woman was afraid of something. The male, perhaps? Had he been saying something...uncouth...to her?
"I made my way towards the woman and spoke so only she could hear, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention.
'Excuse me, but what is your name?' I asked her as politely as I possibly could.
"She sighed and hung her head, not wanting to look at me. 'It's Gloriosa...Gloriosa Daisy.'
'Well, then Ms. Daisy...Whatever is the matter?' I asked, moving to comfort her, but she turned away.
'It's...it's nothing. Nothing you need to worry about.'
'Oh but I am worried. I am worried for all my children. I am mother earth after all.'
'What?'
'Nevermind that, dear. Now, tell me what's wrong.'
'Well, if you really must know then, I guess i'll tell you.'
"She then proceeded to tell me everything. From about her camp to the sick twisted, greedy stallion- oops, man, who wanted to buy it all from her just so he could chop down all the trees and build a mall in their place.
"Now, as mother earth, I could not let that slide could I? Lucky for me, she just had to say the perfect sentence.
'I wish there was something I could do to save the Everfree Forest.'
"I was a bit surprised when she said 'Everfree' but I shook it off as coincidence and pressed on.
'Hold on. You said you wished you could do something to save the forest right?'
'Yes, why? Is there some way you can help?'
'Help? Why I could make all your problems go away with just a snap of my fingers if I wanted to.'
"She brightened up at this. 'Really? You really can do that?'
'Why yes, I can. But my magic doesn't work in this form. Which is why I need your help.'
'Wait did you say magic? So, you weren't kidding when you said all that stuff about you being 'Mother Earth'?''
'No, I was not.' I said proudly.
'Wow that is so cool!'
'I know it is.'
'But, if you have all this power, what do you need me for?'
'I told you. I can't use my power in this form.' It wasn't a lie. I really couldn't use my magic in this state. I didn't know why. 'I need to have a vessel.'
'And you want that vessel to be me.'
'Precisely.'
'um...okay, I know what I get out of it, but what about you? What do you want?'
'I want the same thing you want dear. To stop that wicked stallion from tearing down the forest.'
'I see...wait, did you just say stallion?'
'Oops, my bad. Slip of the tongue.'
'uh-huh...okay then, deal.'
"After that, we shook on it. That seemed to be the proper way of accepting terms in this strange new world.
"What followed was an exchange of sorts. She would get the power she needed to stop Filthy Rich, as she had told me his name was, and I would get to use her body as a vessel in which to store and use my magic.
"We had it all planned out. I would possess her body, while leaving her in control, thus giving her use of my powers of her own will, and she would stop this madman from destroying our precious forest.
"Don't get me wrong, this was not a one-sided or evil deal. I just wanted to stop him from hurting both my land and my children as much as she did, so I used her to do that. We did want the exact same thing after all.
"We were so close to defeating that evil man, when seven students from a local school, along with other students from a separate school that had come here on a camping trip, stopped me just before my plan had fully finished, effectively ending any hope we had of stopping that man.
"At least that's what I thought anyway. Turns out that Gloriosa had enough courage to stand up to him without my help, and the camp was saved without me having to lift an extra hoof-uh...finger.
"We met up one last time to say goodbye, and then we parted ways as friends. I'm going to miss that woman, and, surprisingly, the seven who defeated me as well.
