Alicorn Stories

When Luna and Celestia (though they did not yet have those names, of course), first descended to the surface of the world, they found it in shambles at the feet of the mischievous spirit, who was chuckling merrily. They nickered to catch his attention, and he chortled at them. They glared at him, and he broke into guffaws. They lowered their horns and stamped the ground, and he laughed openly. They tried to gore him and trample him outright, and he dissolved into hysterics and draped himself across their backs.

They shook him off, and tried to fly away with their sun and moon, but found to their horror that the orbs did not follow them and, as the ponies did not yet understand their own magic, would not heed their calls. Discord—for Discord it was—collected himself, smirked at the two foalish ponies in front of him, and twiddled his fingers. The lights of the sky went rolling madly like marbles.

Luna and Celestia fled his presence.

Fear was again their existence. They traversed the world at ground level, flitting from hiding place to hiding place and hoping that Discord would forget about them. Now, though, they traveled in one another's company, and the certainty of doom that had once suffused their minds seemed to become much less concrete with each passing day.

They paid close attention to their surroundings, watching for the increasing chaos that heralded Discord's presence, and they began to learn. Weaving closer and farther from the spirit, they began to catalog what was natural, and what resulted from Discord's malign influence. After listening to the singing of birds, and the quiet sounds of other animals, they began to construct a crude language. Through careful study, they discovered their magic, and tentatively touched their long-estranged charges in the sky. They believed themselves ready.

They seized the sun and moon back from Discord's grasp and thrust them into their correct spots in the sky above. The celestial bodies began to turn at their urgings, and they smiled at their victory—the imposition of Harmony through their own Will and magic. They did not have time to savor their triumph. Discord appeared before them in a flash, and he did not laugh. The ponies stood before him, smiling their defiant assurance.

Discord snapped his fingers, and both future princesses collapsed, screaming. Chaos poured into them, and they began to come apart, being dragged toward un-ordered formlessness. Celestia did her best to channel the energy away, and it streamed from her in great incandescent plumes, as if a piece of the sun had come to the world. Luna, beside her, could not withstand the chaos and the sun together, and succumbed. She dissolved into black smoke, but found herself still alive and sensate. The chaos swept past her, still grasping for a form to tear down—for a moment, she had bent herself away from the attack. She seized the opportunity, seized Celestia, and again fled from Discord.

***

They fled again across the world, and now, for the first time in their lives, they were truly hunted. They took disguises, and hid among the creatures and beings scattered across the world, never staying long anyplace. In each, Celestia wrung a little of the chaos from the world, leaving behind good water, reliably-growing food, and stout shelters which stood until Discord noticed and again ground away those small seeds of certainty and security. All the while, Luna spun her body back out of her cloud of self, and thought.

***

“I doubt,” Luna began one day, as they lay hidden in a forest cavern, “that we will last much longer, fighting against Discord in this way.”

Celestia could not disagree.

“Our wills impose Harmony, but they are not enough to overcome the beast. We require...assistance.”

Celestia frowned, “There is no creature capable, who is not already a servant of Chaos.”

Luna smiled softly at Celestia, who frowned a little more deeply at the already-familiar cryptic mannerism. Before she could say anything, however, Luna's horn began to glow, and clay from the floor of the cave began to swirl upward in the soft light.

Out of it, Luna spun a tiny form, and whispered to it a love for the truth of Harmony that was hidden behind Discord's deceptions and distortions. When the light from her horn faded, the very first earth pony foal rested between her hooves, fast asleep.

***

Once she had gotten over her amazement, Celestia immediately tried her horn at creation. The first she made was a second earth pony, whom she filled with her compassion for the creatures suffering under Discord's rule. She shared with Luna the silently amazed joy that all new parents know, but her mind was not still.

After a quiet talk with Luna, she molded a cloud into the first pegasus to calm the weather of the world, and filled her with carefully-hoarded memories of the rare joy and laughter she had shared with Luna and other creatures they had met across the world. Luna, too, made a pegasus, and bound in the little creature her fierce, protective love for Celestia and the new life they had created.

The next step was obvious, and shortly, the first unicorn was raised by Luna from the waters of a still mountain pond. She was imbued with a giving determination, to pour all of herself into bending the world back into harmony. The last pony they made was Celestia's unicorn, and into that tiny body, she poured her love, her goodwill, and her memories of every fleeting friend she had made as they had fled across the world.

The six little ponies grew up together, and they grew immensely powerful in their love for each other and in the love of their alicorn parents. Wherever they walked, the earth ponies left a trail of luscious fruits and grasses. Wherever they flew, the pegasi stilled the air, and calmed raging storms with a flap of a wing. Wherever they raised a horn, the unicorns cleansed Discord's twisted landscapes and untwisted the minds of broken creatures. In concert, the six of them brought peace to a thousand square miles at a time.

They could not help but draw Discord's attention. They believed themselves ready.

***

Discord appeared in front of them in a flash, and the six ponies immediately arrayed themselves between the spirit and the alicorns. Vines shot up and bound Discord's feet and tail. The good creatures of the forest beset him from all sides. Immense hailstones rained down upon him, and bolts of lightning. Finally, intense glows surrounded him as he was set upon by immensely powerful hornworks. All six of them strained mightily.

"Give it up, Discord!" called the pink pegasus overhead.

"Y'haven't got a chance!" yelled the orange earth pony before she aimed a kick at his flank.

"Surrender now, and we can find a way to live in peace," said the pinkish-purple unicorn before him with great seriousness and gravity.

Discord, however, yawned.

The vines withered abruptly and disintegrated. The hail turned into chocolate bon-bons, and the lightning struck several nearby creatures and caused them to be amusingly fluffy and blackened. The magical glow was snuffed out suddenly, and Discord raised his hand, smirking coldly.

He snapped his fingers.

Chaos passed across the throats of the six little ponies, and Entropy reigned. They dropped bonelessly to the ground in six spreading crimson puddles. Celestia screamed, and dropped to her knees; she reached out with her magic, but the wounds would not close. She felt her little ponies slip from her magical grasp--they were gone.

Discord laughed to see the look on her face.

Luna trembled, but thought quickly. Blood is powerful magic, and these ponies, at this time... Luna reached out to the blood-soaked earth, reached out to Celestia to demand her attention and her magic, and together, they grabbed at reality and twisted.

The six glowed, and the ground glowed beneath them. Discord threw his head back mockingly, and that is how he was when the torrent of Harmony exploded from the earth and washed across the landscape, turning him to stone.

When the working was done, blood bound him, and it bound the world; steeping it in honesty, kindness, laughter, loyalty, generosity, and the magic of friendship.

And that, my little pony, is how Equestria was made.