1 - Perdition in Paradise
Once upon a time, a great and beautiful unicorn princess ruled her verdant land. She lead with benevolence, always generous and kind to her loyal subjects. Without end they revelled in her honest company, laughing and talking of beauty and happy things. This was Paradise, the world before Sin and Death.
But what is paradise without love? So love there was. Deep in the heart of the beloved unicorn lay an incomparable interest in gemstones, and so it was only fitting that she married an artisan of the trade. His name was Damascus, a pegasus nigh twenty years her senior; yet in all the land never existed a creature with steadier hoof nor keener eye, save the great Creator that came before.
Their love was lavish, and for decades the princess was only adorned with the finest gems ever shaped, taken from the deep bounties of the earth; for her, this was all that she desired and she was in bliss.
However, as all master craftsmen have since, Damascus became malcontent with his work. Even though he could transmute dull rocks into priceless wonders with a wave of a hoof or flap of a wing, he needed more. A challenge. A princely gift for his princess.
No gem of nature would fulfill this Mighty Work he longed for, nor gem of that unnatural void beyond, nor even gem conjured by magicians with power unknown since. This inadequacy of all around him long haunted the renowned pegasus.
A great sorrow suffused his soul, and neither beautiful wife nor princely life could hope to appease him. His profound taedium vitae bred evil thoughts, to which he eventually yielded, jumping from the highest tower of Paradise, wings bound for an ultimate, ending dive.
But death would not come to poor Damascus, for on that auspicious day a nameless pegasus caught the despairer and delivered him to his consort. He could not bear to tell his beloved the truth, and he spoke the first blasphemy. First sin, then Paradise lost.
“There are no words for what has happened... somepony has done me wrong! They tried to take me away from you, my love!”
An inquiry was made, and the first guards created, such that no harm could ever come to elderly Damascus. There would be no second chance at death, and yet still no achievement of purpose. Wearily, in dark times of the moonless night (moonless and sunless both, for in this age night and day needed no shepherds), times now forgotten having been lost in the changing of the world, he asked his question of the stars.
“Wherefore fate, you cruel fiend! that you destine me talent far too great for this lowly plane. Forever shall I remain, as such, unfulfilled? Do you leave me to perdition in paradise?”
The stars watched the poor pegasus, glittering in their infinity... winking in playful pity.
And so it was, for a time.
2 - Children of the Stars
Perhaps centuries passed, or so it felt to Damascus; no one could know in paradise. Nothing marked time, daylight and darkness rose and set at the idle bidding of their ever young, ever loved, and ever beautiful princess. No great events shook the world... until the night when the celestial bodies rose up in great revolt, and rained down upon the earth.
For an age, the princess found it impossible to turn away the stars and bring back day. Nighttime eternal fell upon the world, and Paradise witnessed unending death from above. Sorrow filled the dwindling survivors, tucked away in the recesses of their ruined city, and with the deaths of her faithful followers, bitterness overcame the princess. Yet, she persevered, taking some comfort in her husband. And with certainty of death, there came possibility for life; she gave birth to a white alicorn foal in a low cavern, the last hole of ponykind. And this foal, a mother’s only hope for the future.
However, Damascus was uncharacteristically callous to these happenings, for early on, he found the object of his impossible desires, a gem of preternatural property, formed of solid fire: alien, yet perfectly familiar in the expert hooves of the artisan. Upon touching the fallen rock it shrunk tenfold before his eyes. Finally, a challenge he would have... a mighty gift of the firmament to match his talent.
His toil was ineffable, so great its span that upon completion the maker forgot how he began. The details of his process, his solitary work, were also soon after lost when he discovered the ultimate oblivion, endless sleep, moments after beholding his newborn daughter. Life for life. He died tightly clutching the finished gem, set into the tiara of his yet beloved princess and imbued with all her virtues. With him was lost the true roots of the craft, but his anonymous legacy would live on in his Mighty Work.
Long lasted the mourning of his fair bride, who took not another stallion in all her numbered years. Darkness overcame her, and she became a Queen, ruling her subterranean kingdom with a fatal hoof. They were all to die anyway. Eventually, a resistance rose... and they stole from her all she held dear: her crown and her daughter. Insanity bred inquisition, and soon more ponies were dying on the blades of the Queen’s terrorguards than were killed by falling stars. Ultimately though, she never found her daughter. In despair, she marched her great host to the abandoned, scorched surface. As her husband had an eon before, she confronted the stars.
“Can you hear me? You ruined us. All of us. There is no more Paradise, only death. Are you even listening? You BASTARDS!”
The Queen sunk to the dusty, desert sands. There was no response; only silence. A masked terrorguard spoke up.
“My Queen, the stars have st--”
“SHUT UP.”
Tears streamed from her eyes, a result of the dust and heat of course, but she could see clearly enough to telekinetically grab the guard’s pike and run him through with it.
“Anypony else feeling gabby?”
She looked across the stiff ranks of her soldiers. They stood perfectly still, not even concerned with the meteors...
...that should have been striking the sands. But they weren’t. The Queen looked to the sky, and lo and behold, for the first time in an age, the stars had ceased their assault! She turned her voice back to the sky, and her troops arranged themselves in a wide circle around her.
“So, you can hear me! You killed my husband, you stole my daughter, you destroyed my kingdom... but I’m a reasonable mare; I think we can put this all behind us. If you’re willing to cooperate, perhaps we can learn to coexist.”
With a signal to her captains, the entirety of her host began stomping in unison, trembling the earth and raising a small sand-storm. And moments later, as one, they stopped. The Queen hoped to impress, or better yet intimidate her empyreal enemy.
Only, the mischievous, twinkling stars cared nothing for displays of power, and effortlessly immobilized the offending army. But not their leader--no, they had a special punishment for that one. At once, all the stars of the sky descended to the earth, shrinking into writhing abominations of light. They surrounded the defenseless queen, occupying the massive area she had so foolishly created between herself and her frozen host.
They did not speak. They had no need to explain themselves. And they wasted no time, getting straight down to business.
All the translucent star-beasts took their turn ravaging the unicorn, who was kept conscious and unequivocally shamed throughout the long proceedings, watched by all her powerless hosts. The gem in her tiara glimmered excitedly, shining brightly with every solar-flaring orgasm. When they had finished with her, she was finally allowed oblivion, having paid the price of her crimes, and unknowingly having bought the freedom of ponykind.
Of that rape was begotten a dark-blue alicorn, removed wailing from the torn womb of her dead mother.
What became of the two young alicorns, born in sadness and raised under darkness, little is known. However, what is known is that the day came soon after, accompanied by her new tenant, the Sun. Then the moon rose, a chunk of rock formed of the shattered surface of Paradise suspended in space, and brought with it the night. Order was restored to the world, and green things began to grow again.
Not long passed before the realm dissolved, leaderless and evil as it was. There were countless wars that for centuries hindered the land’s healing, and at the end of each false hopes for a slowly fading memory of Paradise.
But the gem was buried with its bearer in a royal sepulcher, and forgotten for a time.
3 - A Four-Leaf Clover
The princess’s body decayed, and her tiara tarnished; but when finally the lid of the ancient coffin creaked open, a young mare called Clover had eyes only for the pristine gem of indescribable color, refracting into ethereal rainbows her faint torchlight. She took it in her telekinesis, intently watching it slowly spin, forgetting the world. How long she stood there, who knew, but the clopping hooves of ponies returning from sepulchral depths brought her back. She wouldn’t let this treasure fall into the hooves of those royalty types who’d hired her. With such a glow, surely this artifact had magical properties; so she guilefully hid the gem in her cloak.
My mentor will want to have a look at this...
Further exploration of the ancient catacombs turned up nothing comparable, and she returned to her majesty, Princess Platinum, with only a few baubles and tales of her travails and travels.
The unveiling of her true find came later. Below the pomp and livery of the throne above, in an arcane laboratory, Clover found her mentor working...
“Starswirl! Thou willst be mightily pleased when this treasure of travels mine I show thee...”
The elderly pony, startled at her entrance, carefully placed down his delicate instruments before turning toward the gem, held in the younger pony’s telekinesis. He could barely see the tiny thing in his dusky laboratory, and thus he paid it little thought as he turned back to his work, recounting to her his recent news of grave importance.
“I am overjoyed at thy timely return, Clover the Clever! There is much to be done in preparation for the Solar Festival of Princess Platinum. She wants purple fireworks this year, and for all I’ve tried she won’t listen to reason. Purple! it’s impossible, with wavelengths and what-not... we’ll have to find an whole new way to imbue the lumino-magical energy, and in a week!”
Clover hesitated, suddenly unsure. Should I really show him? It hadn’t been a question before, but gazing into the mesmerizing gem, a powerful reluctance overcame her.
She looked away, and the feeling proved transient. The pupil spoke up before her digressing mentor could continue.
“Forget the festival, you’re really going to want to have a look at this...”
A week later, Princess Platinum was most displeased with the green, blue, and red fireworks lighting up the night sky just before the dawn.
But two unicorns weren't in attendance. Hidden away in their subterranean laboratory, Starswirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever were far too busy, studying the preternatural work of Damascus.
So their worked progressed, for a time. But not long now; for long now the world had borne witness to Death.
And these mortals are so impressionable.