I used to be human.
I don’t know how long ago it was. It feels like an eternity, honestly.
So long ago, in fact, that I can hardly remember what being human was like. It was so long ago... before the world came to an end, I think. You don’t forget watching your planet shattering into millions of pieces. But that was after I had stopped being human.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t care about... about... Earth- yes, that’s the name.
I did care. But I could do nothing about it.
After the end of the Earth, there was a lot of nothing. I, of course, spent some time on the other planets in the solar system, but they were barren other than the marks we humans had left with our habitats and space shuttles and robots. Through all this I had mourned.
Eventually I moved on, and travelled to a different land. A different place. It took a long, long time. Eons of nothing. Nothing but myself.
When I say I used to be human, I do mean that I am not human any more. I am... everything. Or at least anything I want to be. It started when I died, oh so long ago. Someone, I can’t remember who, told me I had died, and for living I could become anything. But there were rules. Some I had been told. One was that I could become real again, but I would forget everything I had ever done after my death. I would no longer be able to become anything. Another rule was that I could only be things that were already there. I could be the wind, or a rock, or the dirt, or an entire ocean. Through experimentation I had found other rules. I could not change events. I could not go back in time.
And the rule that I hoped was false.
That I would be alone. Silent. Lost from the rest of humanity for eternity.
For a time I could pretend I was there- I would be a chair, or a table, and I would listen. Listen to the living talk about their lives. And then the Earth shattered, and what I knew of humanity was no more.
But before that I had watched the humans build spacecraft. We made contact with aliens, you see. From there, technology grew. Humanity spread itself across the galaxies. Across the universe.
In all that time I never left Earth. I stayed. I stayed until it was too late to go.
Nobody came to watch the earth die. I would have known. I would have become something near them so they could take me away.
I went to Mars after. A long time after. My first time leaving Earth, although there was no more Earth to leave.
There were things still moving on the surface of Mars. Robots. Some so very, very old. Some older than me. Somewhere in time we had found the lost ones, and fixed them. I don’t know how, but they could think. They could live.
And so I stayed there for a time, as the red dust and the ice.
When I left, it was to go to the other planets, although none were as interesting as Mars. Even so, every large heavenly body I could find had long-forgotten white flags, bleached by the sun. But nothing else was there.
Eventually I left, to seek out other worlds. To find humanity in the cosmos.
There was a lot of nothing. A lot of time until I found another star with planets. They were all barren. Unmarred by life, or so it seemed.
So I left, and travelled longer and farther.
I used to have a name. I can’t remember it now. It doesn’t matter.
I went to so many stars. So many worlds. All empty. All lifeless.
Until I came to an odd star. It was a much smaller star than some I had visited. It orbited a planet, as did a moon of similar size.
That’s what intrigued me first. The star orbiting the planet perfectly opposite a moon.
When I went closer, I saw that the planet was blue. And green. And white and brown and so many other colors.
The colors of life.
I entered the planet’s atmosphere and became the air. I could feel so many creatures breathing me. So many new things. So much life. And... something else. A new feeling. A new force- one I had not experienced in all my time with humanity.
So I became it.
And it had a name. It told me. Harmony.
Harmony was everywhere on this planet. It stretched to the sun and moon and kept them orbiting the planet. Through Harmony I could see everything. The entire planet. And Harmony could see my memories of humanity. I could feel it searching them as it did so. It seemed enraptured by them.
So I showed it the best of humanity. I showed it good times I had seen. I showed it peace treaties and reunited friends. I showed it birthday parties and people saving countless others.
But for every good thing, I also presented a bad thing. War. Famine. Dictators. Hate. Hostility.
In my mind, humanity was the best of the best, but also the worst of the worst.
When I had shown Harmony all I could, it asked me a question.
Was It Worth It All?
I did not respond, and Harmony asked again.
Was It Worth It?
I thought for some time. Harmony let me think.
And after I was done thinking, I replied.
Yes.
So Be It.
And Harmony began to reshape the world.
First came the centaurs. Over ages and ages they evolved into creatures with a human-like intelligence. During this time, Harmony and I watched. It did not interfere, while I could not interfere. They became like humans, the centaurs did. Clever, but almost too clever.
Then came the early ponies. The earth ponies, the unicorns, and the pegasi. Harmony was much more careful with these ponies than it had been with the centaurs. It guided their growth for a time, and they became peaceful and happy.
Over time, the centaurs fought each other and many died. The remaining few went their separate ways and spread across the planet.
Harmony created other races. The minotaurs. The griffins. The yaks. Buffalo. Deer. So many variations- each one grown in a different way.
Harmony gave two ponies the power to keep the sun and moon in orbit. Two sisters. They were the first alicorns.
Then came a time of division and chaos. The three pony tribes split, and for many years they fought, despite Harmony’s influence. Everything was going wrong.
And so Harmony turned to me. I, who had been there the whole time. Watching. It asked me a question.
What Should I Do?
Trust them. is what I told it.
And so Harmony waited, and the pony tribes were able to reunite on their own under the words of the two alicorn sisters.
When discord came for the first time, Harmony provided the Elements of Itself to help the ponies.
It seemed as if the ponies were about to enter a golden age.
And then it all fell apart when the sister of the moon grew jealous of the sister of the sun. Harmony refused to intervene.
So I tried to.
While the two sisters fought, I tried to become part of the sister of the moon. And as I tried, the sister of the sun used the elements of harmony, banishing us both to the moon. I became the seal that kept her up there. And for once, I could not become something else.
My thousand years as the moon made me tired. I was ready to be done with this life of things. While the sister of the moon and I had been gone, the planet had fallen into a dark age. This made me even more tired. And so I was not there when Nightmare Moon was saved. Nor was I there for the return of Discord, or the wedding, although I learned of them all after the fact. For a while, I just... slept. Hibernated. I wasn’t anything.
It was years later when I returned. I was surprised, honestly. I expected eons to pass me by in my stasis of sorts, and yet it was only a few years.
Upon my return, I was greeted by Harmony.
It Is Time. it told me. I knew what it meant.
Who knows how long I spent as a spirit? Ages upon ages. The death of my home planet. The robots of Mars. The history of this new planet, even. I would forget it all soon.
Will you remember? I asked Harmony.
I Will.
I could not say any more. No more needed to be said.
“I want to live.” I said.
And so it came to be, on the planet Equus, in the kingdom of Equestria, a human appeared.
Author's Note
In the end, it was a choice to live again.
Would you, dear reader, make that same choice?
