The Threads that Bind Us

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2 - Memories

Prologue

Magic… what enters your thoughts when you hear this word?

Is it images of fantastical feats? Maybe teleporting, levitation, or even transfiguration?

To many only the unicorns are the true harbingers of magic. They command a power no other pony knows; to control the very essence of the universe itself, to create these impossible events and make them an everyday occurrence. Of course… only unicorns can make this happen…

But what if I tell you that the truth goes deeper? Magic is but a small piece of the whole picture, a picture that is filled to the brim with mystery. In this void of uncertainty, we are all bound… not just ponies, but everything you see, seemingly cut from different patterns, but woven from the same cloth.

Imagine a binding force… a force that commands the very existence of the universe, of everything we know. Imagine that this force is the very being of our universe, a “celestial fabric” that we are all composed of and subjected to. Magic… is the very nature of this fabric.

The Celestial Fabric is the embodiment of the universe. It is composed of everything that exists within our plane of existence. We ponies are but a small fraction of a fraction of the infinitely complex structure that makes of the Fabric. Each form of life that exists has a connection to the Fabric in some way, but Ponies are somehow… different. We contain within ourselves unique abilities that are not present in the other creatures that roam this land. We cast spells, control weather, and create sustenance. We are the lifeblood of Equestria.

This brings me back to magic… the feat of which “only unicorns can command”. Magic, in a deeper sense, is our ability to bend the Fabric to our will. It is not just the shallow diction we give to the abilities of the unicorns, but the unique abilities of all of our races.

Our kind, the ponies, were born from the Celestial Fabric. Just as we differ in appearance and ability, so, too, does the Fabric. Each of the 3 races of pony commands a separate aspect, the metaphysical “threads”, of the fabric, each of which commands certain aspects of the universe as a whole.

The Unicorns were born of the physical being of the Fabric. As the very entity of the universe itself, unicorns are able to influence all that makes up the universe in its physical being. They are able to influence the structure of anything, allowing for the movement, sensing, and changing of anything that has a physical effect on the universe, from matter and particles, to the fabric of space-time itself.

The Pegasi were born of the energy of the Fabric. They command the actions the Universe takes, able to influence the very fate of anything without the will to change it. As such, they display talents in the fields of weather and movement. They command the natural forces that drive the natural world. In the absence of force, all would grind to a halt.

The Earth Ponies were born of the will of the Fabric. Things do not just happen; something has to push change to occur. Earth Ponies command the power of mind and will, and as such, are the ones who command the universe to provide for them. They grow the food, they tend the animals, and they embody the very conscience of the universe. They know the effects of the changes that occur, and are able to will favorable conditions for the betterment of everything.

The Unicorns embody Structure, The Pegasi embody Force, and the Earth Ponies embody Will. These three seemingly unrelated aspects are actually one in the same, the very essence of the Celestial Fabric. They embody the physical realm, the energy that brings change, and the ability to command these raw materials to form a foreseeable outcome. They are all present within the minds of every sentient creature, creating the ability to command and understand the nature of such a grand construct.

So I ask you again, what do you envision when you hear the word “Magic”? Is it the shallow thoughts of simple manipulation, or the ability for any of us to change the world in profound ways we can only begin to conceive?

Chapter 1

“I wonder what he wants now… it’s nearly 3 in the morning”, said Ceti.

He was used to the late hours his overseer was used to working, but he himself wasn’t a night owl. As he climbed the stairs into the tall tower, he couldn’t help but wonder if the late nights were running his friend’s mind into rags. As he wandered through possible reasons for his calling, he didn’t realize he had already made the long trek to the top of the tower until his nose had hit off the ivory door.

“I am really not a night pony.”, the dark-blue unicorn scowled, rubbing his nose gingerly. “He better have a reason to call me up so late, or I swear he’ll have to deal with a whole different Ceti than he’s used to.”

As he opened the door, he was startled by a loud crash in the corner of the room. As he ran in to see what had caused the noise, he was greeted by an embarrassed green Pegasus smiling at him guiltily among a pile of books.

“Scrib, you think you would have learned to use a step-ladder by now…” Ceti said, trying not to let his annoyance show through his voice.

Scribble Down, or Scrib as he is known to his friends, is the royal taskmaster of the Canterlot Court. It is his duty to coordinate the daily weather all across Equestria, as well as planning celestial events for celebrations, which leaves him a bit empty-minded at times as his work keeps him occupied mentally and physically most of the day.

“Yes, I know, but Tau always moves the dang thing. I couldn’t find it.” Scrib said in his defense.

“Well, I don’t blame you, then. He really should start organizing his office more often.” Ceti said, realizing that Scrib was right. Tau would often leave things in places that they shouldn’t go. It was a miracle he could remember where he slept, let alone monitor the very source of Equestrian magic for all these years.

“What are you doing here anyhow? Shouldn’t you be in the library planning for the Alignment Celebration next week?” Ceti asked, quizzically.

“I would be, but I needed a copy of “Equestrian Alignment Theory”, and the only copy the library has disappeared a few weeks ago. Tau has the only other copy in all of Canterlot”, Scrib answered.

A week from now, one of the greatest celestial events in Pony history would soon be occurring. It was the Equestrian Alignment, a time when the Sun, the Moon, and all the planets of the Equestrian System would become aligned. This once-in-a-millennium event caused a large warping of the Celestial Fabric, allowing ponies of every kind to feel a deeper connection to the inherent magics they all possessed.

“What’s all that noise I just heard?” a loud voice bellowed down from rooftop.

“Scrib couldn’t find the stepladder again”, Ceti quickly answered, almost accusingly towards the voice.

“Oh, sorry, I’ll be right down”, the voice called out.

A few moments later, an alicorn came billowing down the staircase leading up to the roof. This alicorn was none other than Prince Tau, the oldest of the Celestial Family. He was a large charcoal-colored pony with a black muzzle roughly the same height as his younger sister, Celestia, with a grey and emerald mane that he let hang loose, ending in a long tail he fashioned into a spiked demeanor.

With a guilty look in his sharp, green eyes, he placed the step-ladder on the ground by his feet.

“The telescope needed some lens adjustments, so I borrowed the bookshelves ladder to get a closer look”, Prince Tau explained, looking at the pile of books his friend had knocked off the shelf trying to get to the highest one.

“What I don’t understand is why neither of you can ever seem to remember that you can fly”, Ceti exclaimed. “That’s the only reason I ever got that thing, because you numbskulls would forget your own manes if they weren’t attached to your heads”.

Scrib and Tau looked at each other, embarrassed. “Well, that’s why you’re here, Ceti”, Tau jokingly remarked.

“That’s what it feels like most of the time…”, Ceti thought to himself. “Anyway, what was it you needed me for Tau?”

Tau, snapping back into his usual work-oriented self, thought for a second on why he had called Ceti to the tower so late at night.

“Aah, now I remember”, he exclaimed. “Recently I began noticing some... disturbances in the Celestial Fabric. At first I didn’t think much of them, knowing that the Alignment was coming up soon and that these were probably just the beginning of the event taking place”, Tau explained, becoming noticeably sterner with every word.

“However, when I went back to the notes of the event I took last time this occurred, I noticed that this warping was occurring days before it should.” Tau then proceeded to hand Ceti a stack of ancient-looking scrolls. The paper was yellowed with age and the wording was so badly weathered it was barely legible, but Ceti could gather enough from the scrawlings that he knew something was indeed wrong.

“Well, you are definitely right. These calculations don’t account for any kind of warping that should be occurring for at least another 3 or 4 days, but that doesn’t exactly rule out any natural explanations for the disturbances. I’ll have to go over my notes” Ceti said, trying to think of anything that could be causing such warps in the Fabric.

“I’m afraid that’s the reason I called you up here. I’ve gone over the notes, I’ve checked every book pertaining to the subjects of magic and celestial events, but nothing turned up that could have explained this.” Tau explained, rather solemnly.
“But if it’s nothing natural, the only thing that could be causing noticeable disturbances to the fabric would have to be an extremely potent source of magic, more so than any Pony should be capable of”.

Several seconds passed as Ceti tried to think of someone, or something, that was capable of warping the Fabric. His face then broke into a look of sheer fright, his eyes frozen in a blank stare. “Y-you don’t think D-Discord could be escaping his imprisonment, d-do you?!?”, Ceti asked in terror.

Scrib, who up until now had been listening in silence, started trembling, and with a wobbly voice added in “But he’s been encased in stone for almost 20 years. I thought Twilight Sparkle sealed him away for good?”

“No, it isn’t Discord”, Tau said, trying to reassure his friends. “My sister’s student and her friends still maintain a strong connection to the Elements of Harmony. Knowing Twilight, she’d have informed Celestia if she felt something was wrong with the Elements or Discord”, said Tau, knowing full well that a power the size of Discord’s would have a much more noticeable effect on the Fabric.

“Well, if you think so…” said Ceti, feeling a bit safer. “But I’m not taking off the list of possibilities. It never hurts to be safe.”
“Fine, fine, but we have a lot of research to do before we make any calls.” Tau said. “Scrib, do you think you could get me a copy of “Magic throughout Equestria” from the library?”

“Sure, I’ll be back soon”, Scrib said, turning around to fly off to the library.

“Scrib”, Ceti called out, stopping him before he could take off. “I’m afraid that we’ll be needing that copy of “Equestrian Alignment Theory” more than you right now. We need every book on magic we can get our hands on.”

“Oh, no problem. I didn’t need it for the celebration that badly, I was just hoping to find that passage on Magical Aspects and their relation to the alignment”, Scrib said, as he placed the book down on the tale in the center of the room. “I’ll be back as soon as I find that book”.

As Scrib flew off into the night, Tau and Ceti sat down to begin a hard night’s work…

Chapter 2 - Memories

The history of Equestria is known to everyone. In the days before Equestria, our three races despised one another. An unstable truce was all that kept us from destroying each other as we knew we needed each other to survive. However, this abound hatred and distrust attracted the attention of the Windigos, evil spirits of ice and snow that prey on the hatred of others, and plunged their lands into an endless cold. We know this place today as the “Frozen North”.

In time this eternal winter suffocated and slowly destroyed the once thriving kingdoms of our ancestors, enough to the point where they were forced to seek out untouched lands to the south. Unfortunately, this land was claimed by all three tribes, who in their bickering, once more called the attention of the Windigos, who threatened to turn this place into a frozen wasteland as well.

In a move of sheer luck, the tribes realized that their bickering meant nothing as they had no true reason to hate each other. This sudden realization resulted in the creation of the “Fire of Friendship”, a large beacon of incredible magic power that drove away the Windigos and symbolizes the uniting of the three tribes in friendship… At least, that’s what everypony thinks.

The truth of this event is known only to a few. While it is true that the Fire of Friendship is the article that was created through trust and drove away those who threatened to destroy that trust, its true identity is much deeper…

The Fire of Friendship is a manifestation of the Celestial Fabric. It was not created through the power of friendship as is known to many, but in the true unification of the 3 tribes. When Force, Will, and Structure united for the first time in pony history, it resulted in the creation of a physical manifestation of the Celestial Fabric that overpowered all of the seemingly unbeatable magic of the Windigos.

That is the true power behind the “magic of friendship”. It’s not the friendship itself, but the unification of the aspects of the Fabric in that create a power nothing in this universe can match. The means to cause change and the will to do so are a powerful thing, and in the right hands, friendship is a powerful magic that cannot be wielded alone.

After the defeat of the windigos, our three tribes lived in peace for many years. But as we know, no good thing can last forever. A malicious evil by the name of Discord had begun his rise to power and ruled over the land of Equestria, creating chaos and ruin wherever he saw fit.

Discord was… unique. He was born of the fabric, same as the ponies, but was infused with the fabric down to its core. He had unrestrained control over every aspect of magic, able to rip holes in reality itself. He had gone mad with power, realizing there was nothing he couldn’t do. He took it upon himself to use this unchecked power of his to bend reality for his own amusement. He began to warp the weather, change the sun and the moon, create vast changes in the physical makeup of Equestria, and force everything to obey his will.

During this time, only my small family of three seemed to not be affected by Discord’s touch. Celestia, my younger sister of only a year, Luna, my youngest sister, and I, Tau, the oldest of us.

Now, you have to understand, During these times, more than a millennia ago, these we were not the powerful trio of alicorns, winged masters of magic, we’re known to be today, but unicorns. Upon seeing the destruction Discord wrought upon the land, and taking notice that they were unaffected by his influence, we took it into our hooves to stop this menace as we knew we were the only ones left to stop such a ferocious evil.

We knew that Discord possessed magic much greater than we had ever seen, and that a magic just as great would our only chance of stopping him. With that driving our incentive, we set to work researching everything that we could find into what was known of magic at the time. In our research, we noted many ancient references to supposedly-mythical ponies of ages long past that possessed seemingly-incredible power, often rivaling that of Discord. These ponies filled many stories of the ancient pony civilizations that dotted the world, before the founding of Equestria, even before the Frozen North became the icy wasteland it is today.

With little to go on, these stories were hope that maybe some ponies were capable of a greater magic few could understand and even fewer could wield. This idea became the center of our research, and we spent many years studying the possibility.

As time passed, hope grew fainter as the years began to catch up us. Discord had only become more reckless while we became weary with failing to discover a way to stop him again and again. We had just about given up hope that Discord could be defeated when I happened upon an ancient tome from a society long gone. This book contained vast amounts of stories and accounts from ancient scholars who spent their lives dedicated to the study of magic. Unfortunately, each of these stories seemed to just echo what our past research had shown us: That magic has its limits when one doesn’t understand what they are studying.

That is, until, when I was finishing up the last of the stories, I came upon an account written by a Pegasus named “Red Sky”. In this account I found many references to what Red Sky referred to as “The Elements of Harmony”. These sources of unfathomable magic, as the author wrote, were ethereal batteries of untapped power. In his time he had seen them defeat a foe who threatened to destroy his civilization, a foe that possessed powers strikingly similar to those of Discord, when wielded by a race of pony he had never seen before.

These ponies, he described as “winged equines, same as myself, but possessed horns and commanded magic far more powerful than I have ever encountered in my travels. They stand twice the height of any common folk and possess an impressive “aura” of sorts that was only matched by their magical insight.”

These “alicorns”, as they preferred to be called, possessed strange gems of familiar shapes set in stunningly beautiful and impossibly intricate golden jewelry. It was these gems that possessed the power to defeat this god-like foe and set him in stone for millennia. When the battle was won, Red Sky took it upon himself to learn all he could from these strangers so a disaster like this could possibly be averted for future generations.

So that’s what he did. He questioned them and questioned them, writing down all he could of them and their knowledge and experiences. In his later years, he compiled these notes into this very tome Tau was reading.

They were all once ordinary ponies, hailing from all corners of Equestria. In a time where Equestria was threatened to be destroyed as it was now, these ponies of differing tribes came together and discovered they possessed a deep connection to some outside force that led them to find each other. This same connection led them to an ancient building, moss covered and eroded away by time, that possessed strange stones with familiar markings that covered their surface. These stones began to emit a strange light as they approached and in a bright flash, had broken away from their mineral exteriors to reveal their true forms, the jewels set in gold Red Sky had witnessed them use earlier. They used their newfound power to bring order back to Equestria, destroying countless evils that threatened to end the harmony that the citizens of Equestria had come to love.

Over time, their understanding into the true power behind these stones grew deeper. They had discovered that magic is not the ability of unicorns that it was believed to be, but the governing power behind everything they knew. This realization ended with their discovery of a vast universal force that seemed to rule over everything. As this discovery passed over them, the stones began to glow again and before they knew what was happening, a blinding flash had enveloped them. When the light had receded, they saw what had occurred. Each of them had transformed into large equines with horns and wings. They had become one with the Celestial Fabric and were given insight into the true nature of magic and the aspects of its complexity. They had reached the pinnacle of pony-kind and used their newfound knowledge to spread the influence that it brought.

Red Sky’s tome ended there, but while its words had come to a close, its influence began a quest to find these stones and defeat Discord.

Through the knowledge gained by Red Sky’s writing, we found ourselves searching for anything that may hint at the resting place of these stones. After many frantic reads and rereads, Luna found a reference to strange stones with markings on them in a place many feared to tread, a place where the laws of this universe do not seem to matter (or even exist!); the Everfree Forest.

Braving the dangers of the forest, we found ourselves standing amongst the ruins of an ancient castle. Inside the crumbling ruins, amongst the remains of a large stone stand, sat 6 perfectly round stones with the markings mentioned in the book. As we approached the stones, the strange glow mentioned in the tome appeared, enveloping us in its light.

We found ourselves standing in a mass of endless white, expanding in every direction. Before we could even question where we were, a strange figure appeared before us, as if it had melded from the white itself. This figure turned out to be the leader of the ancient alicorns. He was a tall and regal figure; every bit of him commanded their absolute attention. He spoke with a booming voice; the very essence of our souls seemed to shudder with every word.

“I fear the Elements are needed once again”, the alicorn boomed. “A pity, we would have hoped their power would not have to be called on again”.

“I see that you three were not affected by Discord’s essence” he continued. “And you have sought out the Elements of your own accord”.

“The Elements of Harmony are pieces of the Celestial Fabric, able to be commanded by those with a strong enough connection to the Fabric to command its power. We entrust them to you, so that you may bring harmony back to Equestria, as we did so many eons ago. Farewell, and may our gift of knowledge see you through this plight”.

As the figure again melded into the white, the room we were standing in slowly came back into view. With each other in full view once again, we were able to see that we ourselves had become what we had just seen; Alicorns.

“We entrust the power of the Elements to you, Celestia and Luna.” The booming voice echoed ethereally through the ruins. “You are the true bearers of their power, for the time at least”.

“And to you, Tau, we entrust to you our knowledge of the Celestial Fabric. You must take up our mantle of guarding its secrets from those who would wish to do harm to Equestria”

With those parting words, we found ourselves with the gathered knowledge of the original alicorns and the Elements of Harmony, giving us a means to fight back. The battle was short, but quite a sight. Discord was unable to hold his own against the might of the Elements and was cast back into his earthly form, all while reciting his plans to return. He froze with a look of joy on his face. Even with all of my knowledge and insight into the nature of the Fabric, I’ll never understand what goes through a mind that twisted.

After the battle was won and the land returned to its harmonious self, we were declared the rulers of Equestria. As Celestia and Luna took up their duties of raising the Sun and the Moon, I relinquished my duties to my sisters. With the words of that ancient alicorn still fresh in my thoughts, I knew I had to monitor the Fabric in the hopes that I might be able to avoid another incident in which our races are unable to fight back. I hope that day never comes, but I’d be a fool to not be prepared…

(May these words from my past never see the light of Celestia’s day. I fear their secrets may do more harm than good, but I had to write them down. I find myself becoming rather scatterbrained as I continue monitoring the Fabric.)

-From the Memoirs of Tau
“The True History of Magic”