A harsh, icy wind blew across the snow-covered trail. A deep blue pony pressed forward on his way up this relentless mountain, determined to reach the peak. Strong gusts caused his long midnight blue cloak to flail violently, enchanted bells attached to the tips rang out, reverberating across the vast mountain range. His pointed had was held magically in place, secured tightly.
Frost and snowflakes clung to his long gray beard and mane, and his eyes narrowed as he saw his goal. He looked back, behind him the deep red sun sat perfectly still, just above the western horizon. He continued up the mountain, and as he reached the peak, he stood silent. He was stricken by the most magical and magnificent sight he felt this world had to offer. Huge green waves of light danced across the sky, behind them millions of brightly glowing stars illuminated the night sky. Below the brilliantly lit sky, sat the moon, dimly glowing just above the eastern horizon.
The entranced pony pointed his unusually large and long horn towards the sky, facing straight above himself with his eyes tightly closed. His horn began to glow and radiate a deep green light, seemingly drawing in an intense power from the cosmic event.
"Yes, yes, splendid! I must record this immediately." He spoke aloud to himself, his voice slightly raspy.
He reached beneath his cloak, pulling out a journal. The cover read: Magical Findings and Phenomena, as Documented by Starswirl.
"Now where was I?... Yes, ... Power..... Drawn in... Aurora... Done, excellent finding if I do say so myself."
Starswirl put the journal away, and sat down staring at the moon. The wind had calmed down to nothing more than a slight breeze. This was only the second time he had seen the moon in all his long years, and it was even more mystical and full of interesting questions than he had remembered. He allowed his horn to feel the magic being emitted from the great celestial object. A light blue aura formed around his horn as he felt it radiating a cold and bleak magic. This magic chilled him to the core, sending a shiver down his spine.
He stood up and stared into the moon, then began to concentrate. In an instant his horn burst into a deep blue flame that went spiraling towards it. With further concentration, his horn began to emit a bright light, growing brighter with each passing moment. Soon his entire body was engulfed in a blinding aura, and the moon began to brighten from its eerie orange, to a bluish gray. Starswirl opened his eyes, and smiled. The moon began to move, if only slightly. Fatigued, he lost his focus and collapsed. The aurora had faded, and the moon resumed its deep orange glow.
"I... I can't believe it, it can be done! This changes everything! I must return at once!"
The over excited old pony quickly began his trek down the steep and unforgiving mountain, very shortly after he had reached the peak. He began to rethink everything he felt he had recently become certain of. Magic wouldn't be lost, with the power of the alicorns, and with his ingenuity, the world would be filled with the wondrous radiance of magic, and peace may once again be attained.
***
Long ago, before the rule of the two great nations, and before the existence of ponies, the world stood united. The two elder dragons forged the landscape with their powerful talons and implanted their magic into the ground with their fabled green dragon's breath. This caused the barren wasteland and brittle stone to fill with life and beauty. An overabundance of magic soon built up deep within the world, causing a great mountain to erupt from the ground, springing miles into the air. At the peak of the great mountain, a large sum of magical buildup remained. The tip of the peak began to glow brightly, brilliant beams of light shrouded the area, and from he midst of the eruption, the first alicorn was born. The bright light caught the attention of Morokoth, the oldest of the elder dragons, and he instinctively breathed fire at the strange creature.
The alicorn reacted, although being just a young colt, his reflexes were far from quick. The deep green flames exploded around him, and when the smoke cleared, the alicorn remained standing atop the peak, encased in stone. Soon dozens, then hundreds of mountains jetted into the air, the tips of each spawning another creature. Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, griffons, and even smaller dragons dotted the mountain peaks. Morokoth began to breath his fire, petrifying everything in its wake. Avirreth, the younger of the two dragons, stood up against his older brother, in an attempt to protect the new life spawned from their great magic. Morokoth felt that he had created this world only for himself and his brother, and didn't want these new creatures disturbing his silence. Avirreth welcomed the new life, and felt it was another beautiful byproduct of the powerful magic. Morokoth was outraged by his younger brother's betrayal, and engaged him in battle.
"With new life, spawns evil and hatred, we left that world behind us when we came here." Morokoth told his younger brother where he stood, and he didn't plan on moving.
"This can be different, my brother. These are creatures spawned of magic, not the mundane. Their spirits may be filled with all its beauty." Avirreth's attempt to sway his older brother went out in vein.
"To preserve this life is to preserve evil, I will not tolerate such an action." Morokoth spread his massive wings and flew into the air, breathing intense flames down upon his younger brother.
He continued to fly towards his brother, a stream of fire brushing across his thick scales. Avirreth felt the magical fire burning his flesh away. As his older brother approached he opened his mouth, his deep green flame coned out onto his brother, and within formed a great sword, hidden by the bright light of the flame. The sword pierced his brothers heart, causing him to fall from the sky, crashing to the ground. Morokoth pulled the blade out of his chest, it glimmered with green waves of magic, and was stained with dragon's blood. He then burst into flames and flew off the edge of the world, an anger fueled explosion of energy engulfed him, growing and growing until nothing more than a massive sphere of fire remained. Avirreth's injuries were great, large area's of his chest and neck were burned away. He was exhausted after overusing his powerful dragon's breath, but knew he still had something very important to do. He stood atop the great mountain, breathing his powerful magic into the air. Huge waves of radiant green fire spread through the sky, dancing back and forth slowly across the horizon. The magic soon drizzled down onto the petrified creatures, bringing them each back to life. Having reached his limit, he collapsed. He attempted to heal himself, but simply lacked the energy. He fell asleep on the peak of the great mountain, never to wake again. His body began to glow, a dim white light radiated all around him. He floated into the air, and the light grew into a mass of cold energy, reflecting the brother's sadness. The mass continued to glow white, only changing to orange when his brother's rage reflected in his own heart.
A tall pink unicorn sat the book down gently on a table beside the bed, A Collection of Short Ponytales. She tucked the two fillies in and headed off to her own bed. The two fillies were cuddled up in bed, one was a bit larger and had a brilliant white coat and a long white horn. She snugly wrapped her wing around her younger sister. The smaller of the two was a dark yet pale blue, her smaller horn rest gently across her sister's chest, her wings gently tucked beneath. The two comfortably slept within one another's warmth, and found themselves lost in a world of dreams.
As the morning came, their mom opened the window. The sun was burning bright and hot in the middle of the sky. Below it sat the Royal Palace of Canterlot.
"Ugh, mom, it's still so early, why have I been woken at such an unusual hour?" The white alicorn flopped out of bed, bumping her sister quite intentionally with her hoof on her way.
"Ouch! You did that on purpose!" The little blue pony rubbed the back of her head and glared at her sister.
"Now settle down my little ponies, I've received word only moments ago that your uncle is outside the city walls, only a few hours away. You must get dressed and prepare to greet him with proper esteem."
"Uncle?!" The two sisters shouted out in unison, then quickly galloped towards the palace doors.
As soon as they opened the door they were blinded by the intense sunlight overhead. They shielded their eyes for a moment, blocking the harsh rays, then they saw the city gates being lowered in the distance. A pony walked through the gates, then stopped and looked up at the palace. A bright flash shocked the two sisters, then a loud burst of light appeared behind them. Before they could turn around, they were grabbed.
"Oh my, look at you two, how big you've grown!" Starswirl tightly wrapped his front hooves around the two pony's necks, sandwiching his face between their cheeks.
"We missed you too uncle." The older sister spoke, slightly choking.
"It's true uncle, we really did miss you, especially me!" The small filly closed her eyes and touched his horn with hers.
"Oh, oh my dear Luna, you can speak, and your voice, it's simply wonderful. I was beginning to fear you were a mute! Ha!" Starswirl chuckled at his own foalish jokes.
"Oh, and your horn, it's grown so much. Yes about two full layers, brilliant. You'll be caught up to your sister in no time, no time at all I say. And my goodness, look at these wings!" He walked around the small filly, gripping the tip of her wing in his mouth, stretching it out as far as it would go. "Magnificent if I do say so myself."
The small pony smiled smugly at her sister, then closed her eyes and looked up. "Magnificent, indeed."
"And Celestia, just look at you." He brushed his nose up against the taller sister's cheek.
"You've gotten so big, you're really growing into quite the impressive mare."
The proud white pony smiled and stuck her nose up, slightly fluffing her wings out, a gesture of appreciation towards her uncle's admiration.
"Ahem." The tall pink unicorn tapped Starswirl on the back. "Welcome home friend. I trust the trip went well, and by your positive attitude, the experiment was successful?" She smiled down at the three, Starswirl's expression matched the glee of the two fillies.
"Absolutely right Madam. I was met with great success at the peak of Dragon Crest Summit, and I arrived just in time to catch the aurora."
"Impressive, I surely thought the trip couldn't be made in only a few short months."
Starswirl's expression became more grim.
"It had to be made, I honestly don't believe we'll have another year, time is truly of the essence right now..."
He looked back down at the two young filly's, who were looking back up at him with wide innocent eyes, sparkling in the sunlight.
"It pains me to no end knowing you two will be forced to sacrifice your foalhoods, but there's no other way. Now girls, go eat, you need your energy today. Just wait and see what I have in store for you two! Training begins in two hours, now make haste!" Starswirl was as excited as a young school colt, knowing very well that these two alicorns held the potential to change the world.
He went inside as well, slowly following behind the three mares. He looked at the palace walls, they were an amazing pearly white marble, trimmed with gold. Huge supporting pillars lined the main chamber, gold vines spiraling up each of them. The palace was just as beautiful now as when he last saw it, nearly a year ago.
After the four finished their breakfast, Starswirl led the two fillies into the courtyard and began to explain the nature of their training.
"Alright girls, you might not think this is possible, but I assure you it is. I'm going to teach you how to control, move, and guide the sun and moon around the world. They'll be set into motion, being caught in an eternal orbit. If we do this right, we'll fill the world with the magic these amazing objects keep stored within. They were created by the ancient elder dragons, and hold their magic stored within. Setting them in motion will spread the warmth and powerful magic of the sun and the cool mystical magic of the moon all around the world. Ending the struggles between the two great nations."
Luna looked on in utter confusion, her eyes widened. She shook her head, trying to imagine what this could mean. Thoughts of doubt and disbelief filled her mind. Move the sun and moon?... I can barely move a book...
Celestia felt more confident, however she wasn't quite sure what to make of this either. "Uncle, how will moving the sun and moon end the conflict between nations? I've been studying about the great wars, and I don't see how this will help."
"My dear, it will help. The magics of the celestial objects each influence us greatly, whether we know it or not. My studies have confirmed this. The sun is powered by sheer energy, passion, and anger. It represents what was once the strongest forces of a very powerful being. These same forces have driven our leaders here in Canterlot to make misguided decisions for the entire kingdom. They've been influenced by the Sun's harsh and powerful magic to always declare war. They only negotiate when everything goes their way, and they're always quick to accuse others of being a threat. The anger of the sun amplifies the anger within us all. On the other hoof, the moon is powered by restraint, logic, and reason. Duskdale, which sits on a great mountain top just beneath the moon, rules their kingdom with harsh and cold logic. They've also been heavily influenced by the moon's cold, piercing magic. I believe that when the balance of passion and logic is spread all across the globe, harmony will be achieved."
"I think I understand." Celestia looked up at the sun. She had never seen the moon before, but she had seen pictures. Can I really move this thing? She wondered.
"Before your training begins, there are a few very important things I need to teach you. Not about magic, but about the history of our kingdom, and the conflicts between the two great nations. It's of the utmost importance you learn a valuable lesson from the story I'm about to tell you. It may save your lives, no, the entire world in time to come."
The three sat down in the courtyard garden, and Starswirl began to explain the history of the two great nations, and how Equestria came to be.
