There are few ponies left in Equestria that ask why the leaves on the trees change from their splendid green to their luxurious reds and golds, but those who do find the time to question the beauty and grace of it all are rarely rewarded an answer. I found myself asking the exact same question many a time, but being dissatisfied with everypony telling me that “They were always like that,” I decided to do some research in my local library. After years of searching the whole of Equestria and various other places, I am confident that I have found the whole story and have compiled the entirety of it in the following tale.
According to legends, the leaves didn’t always change their colour. Before this time, ponies found it almost impossible to tell when winter was coming or when to start preparing. This left many ponies unprepared, allowing the ponies that over prepared to sell off some of their supply for drastically high prices. Celestia and Luna saw this problem and tried to formulate a solution. They tried many methods of warning the ponies of equestria of the upcoming snow, Celestia attempted to have every newspaper in the land print a message warning ponies of the change of season, however by the time they got to the ponies near the outskirts of Equestria, the winter was too close for the warning to be of any help. Luna thought that a solar eclipse would help, but the ponies of Equestria thought she was threatening to take over the kingdom.
Hundreds of years had past, but the two sisters could not find any way of informing all of the citizens effectively. One day, while they were working with Star swirl the bearded to try harnessing the power of magic mirrors, a guard came in with a small box, saying it contained a visitor from a distant land. Suddenly, the box opened, and a gray cloud of smoke rose out from the box, it started to create a form that no pony had ever seen before. The creature was the size of 4 ponies, with the head of a dragon and the body in the form of a snake, his yellow eyes glowing brightly and a wicked grin crossing his face. The creature introduced himself as Discord, King of chaos and corruption. He said that word of the sisters’ problem had spread far to his home outside of our realm and that he wanted to give them some assistance. Star swirl urged them not to listen, for he could sense dark magic within the beast, but the sisters put their faith in Discord and allowed him to help fix the problem.
Within seconds, the creature snapped his claws and showed the two princesses thousand of possibilities that they couldn’t possibly dream of. The chaotic monster introduced them to the idea of boats, trains, and many other ways to solve their problem. The sisters looked around, amazed at the thing they could see, rushing to anything they could find, trying to make it work. Discord knew they were distracted. He left the castle gates, creating as much destruction as he could on his way. Once outside, he took in a deep breath, and clicked his claws.
With that one action, everything in the land had changed, the sun and moon were both gone, replaced by a red, glowing sphere, the very ground was orange, houses were flipped upside down and waves could be seen in the sky. Discord let out a wicked laugh, realizing that he had taken over our reality and could do with it whatever he saw fit. He went on, making clouds fall from the sky, making books grow on trees and making small woodland creatures the size of barns. The ponies of Equestria watched in horror as the world they knew and loved was being changed in every way imaginable, and in some ways that couldn’t be thought of in any ponies wildest fantasies.
Star swirl the bearded watched from inside the castle, panicking. He ran into the throne room, yelling at the princesses to get their attention. Some time passed as he tried to explain to them the horror going on outside of the castle, time that discord spent further destroying the land and sky. Once the sisters fully understood the danger their subjects were in, the two alicorns and Star swirl ran outside to confront the threat. The battle lasted for hours, but with a few well timed shots from the alicorns and the greatest unicorn of all times, the villain was weakened. He vowed to return, better, stronger and more chaotic than before.
The three ponies spent weeks fixing the damage Discord had created, rebuilding houses, replanting crops, and creating new spells to fix the more extreme problems. During the clean-up, the younger sister noticed something; the leaves on the trees were changing colour. After further observations, Luna also noticed that once the leaves turned from green to red, the clouds would fall from the sky like snow. Realizing that this could help solve their problems with winter, the young princess asked Star swirl if he could create a spell to do the same. Once the spell was completed, Star swirl asked Celestia to cast it on the sun. The spell made the sun emit a magic that would make the leaves change to the colours that ponykind would love for thousands of years to come. This new season was known as the fall of discord, but over time, this was shortened to fall and the legend was forgotten.
So whenever somepony tells you that the leaves have always changed, you can tell them this tale, and who knows, it may inspire you to find your own answers to the other questions of Equestria. Why are there leap years? Why do the nights get longer in winter? How did the alicorns meet Star swirl? And the biggest question of all, what's wrong with a little curiosity?
Author's Note
Uhh... Hi?
So this is the first fan fiction I've ever written, Constructive criticism would be appreciated. I made this for a challenge a while ago, and after someone recommend that I get a fimfiction account I thought it would be a good idea to upload it here as well.
So I wanted to write the legend of how the two sisters came up with the idea of autumn (or fall) and I decided that it would be fun to write it from an equestrian author's perspective. I decided to name this author Fiction Finder and i made a ~~awful looking~~ version of her in ponytown. Unfortunately, because I'm ~~an idiot~~ new to this website I have no idea how to put pictures into this thing...
Anyway, hope you liked it, tell me if you want more like this, I enjoyed writing it.
-Ivafakename