Three hundred winters ago
Once upon a time, in the snowy kingdoms of the Crystal Mountains, there was a king. This king went by the name of Derpiacus and with an iron hoof, he ruled over all the pegasi north of the Rainy River.
Derpiacus was the most respected stallion there was among his own people, but he never once received even a single word of gratitude for all his hard work as leader from any of the earth ponies or unicorns. This is why, on one fatal day, Derpiacus decided to declare war on the unicorn and earth pony tribes, should their citizens fail to pay him homage within the fortnight.
Three days later, one of the king's messengers arrived in a small earth pony town called Greensdale. He read loud and clear the message that Derpiacus had sent for all the town to hear. When he was done reading the message, he was off again, on his way to the next town or village or city where he'd been charged to spread the word.
The citizens of Greensdale watched the blue pegasus in awe as he rapidly moved towards the sun and finally disappeared. Most of the townsfolk had never even seen a pegasus before, given that they all lived north of the Rainy River. None of them knew what to make of the order, though there was one pony who'd watched the spectacle with eyes as big and round as the moon who knew now what was the right thing to do.
This pony was a little filly by the name of Sunny Snow, a name well fitting for a pony with a coat as white as can be under a mane of orange and gold and with eyes as bright and yellow as the sun itself.
That same night, Sunny told the matron of the orphanage of her plans to set forth on a journey to the Land of the Seven Feathers. She told her she wanted to traverse the Green Ranges and cross the Rainy River. She told her she wanted to take a dip in the Pool of Clouds and pay homage to king Derpiacus and that she wanted to go over the Purple Hills to see what was past Lyara's Line on her way home. And she told her she wanted to see Equina, the official capital of all three kingdoms of the Crystal Mountains where unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies lived together in harmony.
The matron though, was less than thrilled. She called Sunny foolish and stupid for wanting to leave the Green Ranges to pay homage to some barbarian pegasus king.
"That king is a fool to be so nasty and speak such vile words!" she said. "Soon, dear Sunny, the counsel of four hooves shall come together again in Equina and then, my dearest Sunny, our good chancellor Puddinghead and the unicorn king Platinum will surely pass a motion of no confidence against this brute. Trust me sweetie, with two-thirds of the realm against him that mean king is going to hurt nopony."
The matron spoke the truth, for that is indeed how politics worked in those dark times. The three pony races lived apart and were mostly only concerned for their own well being, caring little for the other tribes. Only in times of great need would different races band together in an alliance, but the fact that they were willing to do even that meant that no one tribe would ever be able to gain full power over all the realm.
Sunny however, knew little of politics and cared even less for them. The fact that the matron had disapproved of her decision to go see king Derpiacus was a disappointment, but it certainly wasn't going to stop her.
And so it came that that night, when the outside world was dark and when all the lights of the orphanage had gone out, Sunny Snow snuck out her window and set forth on what would be a long journey.
Sunny walked for hours and hours in the dark, moving miles and miles away from Greenstown. It was snowing and therefore cold, but Sunny kept moving on, determined and fearless. She knew not exactly where the Land of the Seven Feathers was, for back then maps had not been invented yet, but Sunny knew from stories that the kingdom of the pegasi was due north-east of the Green Ranges.
She traversed fields and crossed streams, climbed over hills and walked through forests. She saw the most amazing things she'd ever seen in her entire life: species of birds, trees and flowers that were not native to Greenstown. There were red birds, blue birds, green birds and even purple birds and the flora was even more spectacular. Rising from a sea of white snow they were like explosions of color on new canvas.
In the evenings, she gathered edible plants and berries to prepare over a fire that she'd make. It was quite a lot of effort to get it all done in one night, but the results were nice and healthy dinners.
On the third dawn of her journey, Sunny reached a forest where the leaves of the trees were all a deep purple with light-blue outlines and the trunks were as green as the grass was where she came from, though that was red as the dawning sun here. These colors were strange indeed, but stranger still was the fact that the trees even had leaves at all, for it was deep winter, a time when all normal trees let their leaves go.
Sunny merrily walked through this forest, enjoying the beautiful, if somewhat extraordinary scenery, when all of a sudden she heard a loud growl coming from behind her. She turned around, wondering what it was and to her greatest shock, she found out it was a bear.
Sunny didn't understand. Weren't bears supposed to be hibernating this time of the year? At least that's what the teachers always said. And yet here it was, about to gobble her up in a single bite.
Sunny was at a loss. She had no idea what to do. Then, all of a sudden, she saw a purple beam heading towards the bear. When it hit, the bear went down, knocked unconscious.
She must have wandered off too far to the east, for when Sunny searched for the source of the purple beam, she saw that her rescuer was a unicorn.
He was a magnificent colt, probably no more than two years her elder, with a mysterious light-grey coat and an elegant purple mane. His eyes were a blue clearer than the sky and the look on his face was so warm and welcoming.
"I'm Greydust," the pony said. "What's your name?"
"I'm Sunny Snow," Sunny replied. "Thanks for saving me. Without you I would have been toast. Bear toast."
Greydust laughed. "No problem, I'm glad I could be of help. What's an earth pony like you doing all alone so far past Lyara's line?"
She blushed. "I was on my way to pay homage to king Derpiacus. I guess I got a little bit lost. You're not mad at me for entering unicorn territory, are you?
Greydust smiled at her. "Of course not. If you ask me, the whole line thing is a silly concept anyway. We're all ponies in the end, right? I was heading for Derpiacus' cloud as well. We could travel together if you want, it would be a lot saver."
And so it came to pass that Sunny got a new friend. Sunny and Greydust traveled together from that moment on, never leaving each other's sided and always watching each other's back, though there were no more bear ambushes from that moment on. Now they traversed fields and crossed streams together, climbed over hills and walked through forests side by side.
In the evenings, Greydust would set up camp and use his magic to prepare a fire whilst Sunny gathered edible plants and berries. It was nice for Sunny to have a companion. It meant she had to do much less work and she was also no longer lonely. She'd quite enjoyed the scenery on her first two days, but she'd missed being able to talk to somepony. Now she could talk all she wanted to and laugh too, sharing meals over the magically prepared campfire.
They reached the northern border of the Purple Hills by the end of the fifth day. From this point, it was only a few more miles until they reached the Rainy River where they'd cross into the Land of the Seven Feathers. Here the layer of snow was slowly getting thicker and the grass underneath again greener. It was also getting colder. Much, much colder. They put up camp earlier than usual that night because of it.
Sunny found few edible plants that night, so they had to live mostly of what was left of yesterday's meal, which consisted only of red and purple mushroom caps. After dinner, they immediately went to sleep, huddling together to give each other warmth.
The morning was no better. The icy northern winds kept howling on and the snow got progressively thicker as they closed in on the Rainy river. When they finally reached the line that separated pegasus territory from unicorn and earth pony territory though, they didn't find it frozen as they'd expected, but instead, rather unfrozen and quite wild too.
They stood there for a while, on the river bank, just staring off into the distance. The river was very, very wide and neither of them knew of any bridges spanning it.
Finally, after a long, long time, Greydust said: "Maybe it's not so wild as it looks. Maybe we can swim the distance." and before Sunny could even protest, he was in and gone. The current ate him up in one, quick gulp and he was nowhere to be seen.
Sunny, brave as she was, hesitated not a moment and jumped right in after him, hoping for a slight chance that she would somehow be able to save him. Before she knew it though, she was under water too. Water filled her lungs as the current rapidly dragged her along the bottom of the river. She thought she'd never see sunlight again, when suddenly, something grabbed her and pulled her straight out of the water.
When the pegasus that had saved her life let go of her, she was on the opposite bank and facing Greydust, all wet and panting. She was panting heavily herself too, trying to make up for the lack of air of the past few seconds. It took her quite a while before she could harness all strength left in her and face her savior.
The pony in question was a grey-coated pegasus mare in her teens with a mane as golden as her own. Her eyes were yellow, just like her own, though this pony seemed to have something wrong with hers. They were both looking in a different direction, neither of them looking at Sunny, even though the pony's face was clearly fixed on her.
"Thank you so much for saving us," Sunny said. "We would both have drowned if it hadn't been or you. My name is Sunny Snow and this is Greydust."
"No problem, I'm glad I could be of help," the pony responded. "But what are two young ponies like yourselves doing all alone here in the Land of the Seven Feathers, if I may be so bold to ask?"
It was Greydust who responded. "We were on our way to heed the call of pegasus king Derpiacus. And thanks indeed for saving our coats."
The third pony looked shocked. "You're paying homage to king Derpiacus? What has gotten to you little ponies to go on such a dangerous journey without responsible ponies at your sides? You should be trotting away from this place, I say, and not to it. King Derpiacus is a dangerous pony and I should know, for I'm his daughter. I'm princess Derpiana and I am running away from home to try and stop my father from waging war against the other tribes.
This started a long discussion with princess Derpiana on one side, trying to convince Sunny and Greydust to turn homewards, and Sunny and Greydust on the other side, trying to convince princess Derpiana to do the same.
"It's not to the other tribes that you should be running, fair princess," said Greydust. "The problem lies with your father and only there can it be solved. All he wants is for all the ponies of the three kingdoms to respect him. Listen to my words, princess, and listen carefully, for I believe that when your father sees that he's loved and respected, he'll come to his senses.
Princess Derpiana was still not fully convinced that this was indeed the solution to their problem, but Greydust and Sunny had convinced her to at least give it a try and see how it went. So they set forth once again, trotting through the snow, now with a company of three. They traversed fields and crossed streams together, climbed over hills and walked through forests side by side.
In the evenings, princess Derpiana would try and clear some of the snow clouds from their camping area, giving them some rest from the ever falling snow, whilst Greydust set up camp and prepared a fire and Sunny gathered edible plants and berries. With their combined efforts, the three of them managed to make the nights quite nice and warm and they never lacked for anything from that moment on.
By the night of the ninth day they reached the Pool of Clouds and there, the three of them had some of the best times in their lives. the clouds were soft to fall into and you could actually swim through them as if they were a body of water, only you never needed to go up for breath. They put up camp near the pool and spent the whole next day performing stunts and doing tricks in the pool, playing games together, having snowball fights and simply having a great time.
When they set forth again on the dawn of the eleventh day since Sunny left Greenstown, their spirits were renewed and their friendship was a fact. Princess Derpiana no longer had any doubts about Greydust's plan, or if she did she was quite happy not to show them if that meant getting to spend time with her new friends. The journey went quick from there on and they reached the cloud of Derpiacus in no time at all.
Greydust enchanted Sunny and himself with a cloud-walking spell and they were flown up after the princess had told the guards that they were her friends come to pay homage to the king. The cloud was unlike anything she'd ever seen. It was a whole city made all out of clouds and rainbows with pegasus ponies all over the place tending to their day to day business like Sunny and Greydust would on solid ground.
"My friends, I welcome you to the cloud of kings," princess Derpiana said. "Follow me, if you will, and I shall guide you to the royal palace where my father sits his throne."
And so they did. The three of them walked through the cloud city, receiving strange looks from pegasus ponies all the while, them being quite the unusual fellowship. When they reached the palace, Greydust and Sunny were completely stunned, it being the biggest building they'd ever seen in their entire lives and all made up out of clouds, too. Princess Derpiana was smiling all the while, taking pleasure in her friends' amazement over her hometown.
King Derpiacus was like a bigger, male version of his daughter. He had the same grey coat, the same gold mane and he seemed to suffer from the same eye condition.
"Derpiana, my daughter, what have you brought me on this fine day, and where have you been all this time? I was getting quite worried about you. You haven't let heard of yourself for days."
The king had a loud, booming voice, as befits a king. His words echoed through the cloudy halls of his palace for everypony to hear.
"Father, I'd like to introduce you to my new friends, Sunny Snow and Greydust. Together we have traversed fields and crossed streams, climbed over hills and walked through forests. Together we have come to pay you homage.
The king looked in awe at the odd trio that had come before him. His daughter friends with a unicorn and earth pony?
"A unicorn and earth pony come to heed my call? They respect me and are thankful for my efforts as leader?"
"Yes father, they are, and so am I. Am I not one of the citizens of the realm whom you commanded to pay you homage? Alone, the nights of this journey were dark and cold, but through our combined efforts we managed to stay warm and cozy. Through our combined efforts we managed to keep each other alive and now, through our combined efforts we will show you that this is no time for war. We're all ponies in the end, aren't we? Let there be peace, father."
The king looked at his daughter and her new friends and, just as Greydust said, realized just how wrong he'd been to declare war on the other tribes, though it was not the realization that he was respected by earth ponies and unicorns too, that swayed him in the end. The true reason he changed his mind was because of what he saw. Earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns working together, accomplishing great goals. He smiled and nodded in agreement and that same night, he threw a party in the honor of his daughter and her new friends, the trio that made him see how profitable an alliance between the three races could be.
Four days later, they reached Equina to attend the counsel meeting and just as Sunny's matron had said, chancellor Puddinghead of the earth ponies and king Platinum of the unicorns passed a motion of no confidence against king Derpiacus, even though he'd sent envoys all over the three kingdoms to spread the word that there'd be no war. The king stepped down willingly though, knowing that he'd made a mistake too big to go completely unpunished.
There were five other ponies in the counsel room apart from Sunny, Greydust, Derpiana, Derpiacus, chancellor Puddinghead and king Platinum: First there was king Platinum's daughter, princess Platinum with her librarian and right hand, Clover the Clever. Then there was chancellor Puddinghead's secretary, Smart Cookie. And finally, the new leader of the pegasus tribe, commander Hurricane, former leader of the pegasus air force, with his most trusted companion, private Pansy.
The three friends drew not too much attention from the leaders and would-be leaders, but the librarian, secretary and private all looked at them with strange looks of interest and something that came close to jealousy, as if they hoped to one day understand the magic of friendship and harmony as well as they did.
When the meeting was over, it was time to return to home. Derpiacus had a house built close to the pool of clouds for him and his daughter to live in and he promised Sunny and Greydust that they'd be welcome to visit whenever they wanted to, and that they'd even be expected to visit every year when the snows started to fall.
Sunny and Greydust got a pair of guards each to escort them back home and sadly, their ways had to split right there in Equina, for Greenstown lay to the south-west and Greydust's town to the south-east.
Sunny had a lot to explain to the matron when she returned to the orphanage. She'd been gone for exactly a month. The matron furious to start with, but after a while, she forgave Sunny and everything went back to normal.
Using the tales her friends had told her about their lands, Sunny drew a map of the Crystal Mountains depicting all key locations she and her friends had been to. The map was displayed on the wall of the orphanage to see for all the fillies and colts who wanted to know more about what the world looked like.
Sunny and Greydust both kept their promises. They came to visit Derpiana many times at her house near the pool of clouds. At least every year when the snows started to fall and often many times more. They even met at Greenstown and Greydust's hometown once, showing each other around and telling more stories about each other's culture and traditions.
They kept this tradition for many years, all the time in sight of the king who'd seen the true meaning of friendship. Though the races of ponykind kept quarreling for years to come, nothing could break the friendship between these three ponies who'd shared in a dangerous journey.
One year, they even received news about the ponies who'd taken so much interest in them back at the counsel meeting they'd attended. Turns out their idea had caught on, for the news was that these three ponies, Clover the Clever, Smart Cookie and private Pansy had shown their leaders the true meaning of friendship and harmony too. Together, they'd united unicorns, earth ponies and pegasi and founded a new land: Equestria.
