Author's Note

Just a little something I've been rolling around in my head;

How could/would an ex-villain describe humans to good hearted young ponies; the First Born?
How would she comprehend them?
And how would she speak of the passed-on?

additionally;

How would she tell them of her own past evils?

This also sews the seeds for the creation of The Saga mentioned in the beginning of Part 1

The Uncurling of New Leaves

On a day like many that had come before, the princess Moon was teaching her little ponies, the first born on Earth; of the world around them.

Being raised in her castle, the ponies knew this place as their home and school.

This day however, was a field trip beyond the castle gardens, into the empty city that surrounded them.

Walking down the road with the fillys and colts, she explained what the buildings were for, and a little about the infrastructure.

"Princess?" asked a young colt.

"Yes, Silver Dew?" Moon replied.

"Did you build the city? All by yourself?" he asked.

"Oh? No, I had help. Many came to build what surrounds us" she answered the inquisitive pony.

"Where did they go?" he followed up.

Pausing for a moment, Moon closed her eyes and thought of how to answer his question. This was the beginning of her new life here, with new ponies. What would come of the future, would reflect what she did in these early days...

Nodding to herself, she looked to the colt in front of her;

"The ones who built the city, were lost. Becoming ill with a sickness, all had passed at the same time. Leaving me by myself, here; Waiting for the day you would be born into the world. You and everypony else" She answered gently.

"Oh..." Silver Dew said sadly, looking down with a downcast expression.

"Yes.. It was a time of much sadness. For all across the world" Moon said softly.

"Couldn't you help them? You help us when we're not feeling good?" the colt asked her.

This was a conversation she didn't want to have with her ponies, yet at the same time; knew that she must. They should know.

"Yes, yet no... I had the ability to do so, however not their permission. They did not know that I could help them; so they did not ask, nor did I tell them of my abilities. Doing so would have been dangerous for myself as well as you" Moon replied.

"How? Were they mean to other ponies?" Silver Dew asked the alicorn, desperate for understanding to why she wouldn't help them.

"Well... yes, Silver Dew. They often were."

Looking down to the ground with regret, Moon paused.

"Though they were similar to ponies in certain ways, they were also part beast, in others"

"They weren't ponies? What were they?" the colt asked her.

Looking back up to the colt, the princess elaborated;

"They were... Strange, and restless in their hearts. Rarely did they find peace in harmony with each other, and the world around them. Though they were frail in body, they were driven and quite smart... The illness that took them was of their own making"

"They.. made it? W-why?" Silver Dew questioned her.

"Fighting. It was made as a tool to use in their fights with each other. Such things happened regularly, between them. As love and friendship was a fleeting thing within their restless nature"

"That's so sad... I don't know what I'd do if my friends didn't like me any more" Dew said, tearing up a little.

Moving along side, wrapping a wing around him, Moon consoled the saddened colt;

"It was often sad then. Though, they did try to overcome it. They simply ran out of time as they and time progressed" She spoke somberly.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"The answer is a complex one, Silver Dew. One you may not be able to understand yet, however I will try."

"When they learned new things, they would try to use that knowledge in every way they could think of. Some of those ways were risky, and others outright dangerous, but felt they had to try anyway. Am I making sense?" She asked him.

With a shake of his head, Moon thought to herself to put it a different way;

"Say you had a pen? However your ear itches, and you try to scratch it with said pen. Now while you are scratching your ear with the pen, a pony you didn't notice or check for, crashes into you. Now you have a hurt ear, possibly even badly. Though the idea seemed okay at first, something unforeseen had made for a terrible situation. Though, it was unwise to put a pen in your ear, you did so anyway, then also did not check to see if it was safe to do so beforehoof. Perhaps, you were in a hurry to scratch that itch, or your mind was elsewhere in the moment? This was often the case with them, I presume."

"They thought the illness would be another simple tool to use, as any other, and did not think farther than that as they had made it" the princess finished.

It was then that a filly asked a question of her own;

"How... did they not know you were a pony?" asked Lilac Perfume, an earth pony filly.

Looking up to the curious group of faces, Moon hoped that they were old enough and ready to hear what needed to be told.

"I wore a disguise when I walked among them and talked with them" she told them.

"You looked like one of them? Can we see it?!" many in the crowd pleaded her.

Shaking her head, Moon spoke;

"That would not be appropriate. Dawning that form... would... I feel, be an insult to their memory. A mockery of a kind"

"Why? How?" a few asked her.

"In the way that they are all gone now, and here I would be wearing their form. A form of the passed and gone."

Searching the faces of the foals before her, Moon went on;

"Though they would never accept me for what I really was, some indeed welcomed my disguise as would a friend...as much as they could. And so, when the last of them passed on, I laid my disguise down with them in respect to their friendships" Moon said, disappointing her little ones.

Laying down in front of her class, the alicorn elaborated;

"Additionally, the ways of secrets, disguise, subversion, and untruths; I laid down along with their passing on this world. It led to a countless number of hardships, for every little gains. What gains were ever made, and that I thought useful; I preserved here"

"That sounds terrible, princess?" another asked.

"It often was for most. No matter which methods they used, their restlessness usually betrayed their intentions. The ruin that came, was certainly not the first... However it was the greatest"

Sighing long, she thought upon the decades spent with the creatures. The memories she inherited, mixing with her real life experiences.

"Too often they would live by untruths and betray each other..their own foals and even grandfoals alike. Usually convincing themselves it was for good, in order to hide from the pain of conscience. Such a thing is beyond the comprehension of most ponies."

Looking down to the ground, she took a shuddering breath.

"The fact that I myself, could comprehend it, but a little, frightened me. And still does"

Looking back up to her little ones, she spoke in a shaken tone;

"We... were not always a good pony. We, I, almost.. made mistakes similar to what they made. Long ago" Moon imparted to her little ones.

One of the more daring colts found the courage to ask what she meant.

Taking a deep breath to steel her resolve, the alicorn spoke;

"Long long ago, I was not alive, yet I was something. I did not understand what I was, nor what being alive was..."

"I was like a cold breeze, and a passing thought, looking for a warm place to go. However when what I was...found that warm place, there was little but anger there. From that anger and frustration, I grew"

"Still without thoughts of my own, I became what that frustrated anger shaped. Terrible, was that dark place; Deep inside a heart of a princess"

A collective gasp came from her audience of foals.

"Through that princess, I gained power, and finally a will of my own. That will however, was still bent to that darkness. My first thoughts were terrible, and therefor; so was I"

"Many things that I had planed then, I would come to regret. And for a long time, I was imprisoned for them, deservedly"

"Those past things in turn, gave me a tiny understanding of the ones that built this place. For their nature was ruled in a kindred fashion, though not as deeply" Moon finished.

"Where is that princess now? Is she still alive?" Morning Mist asked the princess.

Nodding, the alicorn answered her earnestly;

"I am sure of it. The power that separated us and sent me here, would do little harm to a princess. I imagine that she is better now, cleansed of that darkness of the heart, in much the same way as I was" the princess spoke.