Power lies deep within

Twilight could not sleep. She remembered how she woke up this morning. She remembered the bakery. Then she remembered holding her brother in her arms. She remembered being so desperate. Tears welled up in her eyes again. That monster killed her brother. He can not be trusted. But her teacher and princess Luna seemed to have forgiven him so easily.

How could they do that?

What was going on?

She decided to get up. She couldn't sleep with so many questions on her mind. She needed to know the truth. She had to know what happened to humans. The Canterlot library would surely have the answer. She was careful not to wake any of her friends, who were also sleeping in the same palace room as she was. Luckily, they were all soundly asleep, tired from the events that had transpired today. She made her way to the library. It was only a few streets away from the palace.

When she got to the library, she found that the door was unlocked. That was unusual. The library should have been closed at this hour. She still had the key from when she was still studying in Canterlot, but apparently someone else was also in need of knowledge at this hour. She walked into the library.

"Hello? is anypony there?" she asked.

"Twilight Sparkle", it was princess Celestia, "I should have known that you would not be able to sleep after what happened today".

"Princess Celestia?"

She had not expected to meet the princess here at this hour.

"I'm sorry, I had to know what a human was doing in Equestria, so I came here to investigate"

"The legends of humans can no longer be found in this library", Celestia answered. "It is a legend that could harm our peace in so many ways. But you deserve an explanation after what happened today".

"It all started about ten thousand years ago", Celestia began.

"Humans were a noble race, that ruled this world with their ingenious minds and their technology. They were always busy inventing something new to make their lives easier. They did not possess magic, nor could they fly, but they managed to invent machines that performed all the things that we use magic and flight for. Then, after about four thousand years, the first human obtained magic. When his fellow humans discovered this, they were so afraid that they banished him from their lands. It was decreed that any who sought magic would be severely punished. After that, some humans decided to hunt the magic user. They managed to kill him. This was the first known act of human cruelty. Humans have a strong tendency to fear and exclude everything they view as different or out of the ordinary.

After that, human history is filled with horrors. There were countless wars in the next two thousand years. The human race was divided into five tribes and every tribe fought the others to gain power over the world.

The legends tell us that every one of the five tribes had a son born during the same week. These sons grew up into the strongest warriors the human race had ever seen. All of them became the leader of their tribe. They still continued waging war against each other. After numerous battles, each of the men appeared to be just as strong as the others. None of the tribes could win, and with so much death and destruction, the five men decided to stop their struggle for power.

The tribe leaders realized that them being born in the same week was an act of fate. They were brothers, even though their blood was not related. They thought that they were tasked by fate to stop the endless bloodshed.

The tribes each went their separate ways, colonizing different corners of the world. There was peace for the first time in two thousand years.

The five men left their tribe to learn what they could about the world. During their travels, all of them attained magic powers. Michael was one of the tribes leaders. He was also the first to have ascended to being an angel. Immortal, wise and strong. The others would soon follow his ascension, as it was their destiny. They all considered Michael as their oldest brother, their leader."

Celestia paused for a second. Twilight had been listening to the story intently. As the scholar she was, she was always looking for new knowledge to obtain. The look on her face told Celestia that she was eagerly waiting to hear the rest of the story.

"However", Celestia continued, "Peace is always short lived with humans. With their new found power, the angels went back to their tribes, where they were all cast out. The humans, who were all still strong believers of science, could not except magic as their new ally, nor did they want to accept the other tribes as their equals.

This upset the angels. It did not take long for four of them to grasp back on their human origins, and their anger consumed their hearts. In a meeting the five of them had, all but one swore to wage war against their own race. They were deeply corrupted, and them being so much more powerful meant that none of the tribes stood a chance.

Michael tried to reason with them, he tried to stop them, and finally, he tried to force them, but he could not overpower his brethren. He was chained by the other angels on the top of the mountain of Canterlot, where he could see everything that would transpire that day.

They each went out to perform the greatest evil this world has ever seen. Millions were killed in a single day. Everything was destroyed. Everything but the last tribe, Michael's tribe. When the four angels were done with their own tribes, they all faced to destroy the last standing tribe of humans. Michael however, because of the horrors he had witnessed from his prison, had summoned so much power that he was able to escape. But he was too late. His brothers had destroyed his tribe before he was able to get there.

In his blind fury he waged war against his own brothers. The battle lasted for weeks. One against four. His pain had made Michael so strong that he, in the end, was able to defeat his brothers. One by one, he killed them.

After that, his soul was deeply scarred. His fury had subsided, but revenge had not brought him peace. Nothing could soothe the pain of his loss. He had lost his brothers and the entire human race. In his grief, he returned to the place he had been imprisoned. He must have sat on the Canterlot mountains for centuries. Probably blaming himself for all that had transpired.

Then, our ancestors founded Equestria. Michael saw everything what transpired during the next years. The peace that the ponies had. The balance in our lives, the harmony we had created.

It is said that whenever evil was lurking, it was stopped by an unknown force. No one knew that it was, in fact, Michael who had taken it upon himself to defend this new ‘tribe’. I think he wanted to amend for the crimes he thought he had committed.

Then Luna and I came to power in Equestria. We travelled a lot ourselves. When we came to the Canterlot mountain ridge, we felt a strange presence. As we went to investigate, we found the angel on the top of the mountain. His back facing us, he didn't speak as we approached him. We sat next to him for a while, probably days, admiring the view we had from the mountain's top. He could see everything that transpired in the entirety of Equestria, and he taught us to do so as well. That is why we build Canterlot and the royal palace on this mountain. He also promised us that whatever happened, he would do anything in his power to defend the harmony of Equestria and he asked us to trust him.

He then told us his story. We did not know what to say, and that was probably the best response we could have given him. He started to trust us in return. We spoke to him often, and after a while, we asked him to come live with us in the castle.

He accepted.

The other ponies were very cautious of him, and he noticed this as well. He started to become bitter towards us, probably because he remembered what had caused his brothers to end the human race. He told us that the same feelings still resided deep in his heart, but that he would never lay a finger on this land.

We saw the anger grow inside of him however, and we decided that it was best to ask him to leave. It took us awhile to summon the courage, for we were afraid that he would follow his brethren and would go on a rampage after we would reject him. None of that happened. He was sad, very sad, but he left without ever disagreeing with us. We thought we had found true peace. We thought that no evil from inside would hurt us any more"

“We were so wrong”

The princess noticed that the night would soon end. The moon had already moved out of sight. "Come", She said to Twilight, "Get some rest, the day before us will be long".

"Princess", Twilight said, "Can I ask one more thing?".

"Of course my faithful student", Celestia responded.

"Are our hearts different from humans?".

Celestia had not expected her student to ask this question so soon. "She is sharp as always", she thought to herself. She turned around to face Twilight.

"No", she said.

"I have come to learn that the same evil lies locked within our hearts. However, unlike the humans, we have had an angel watching us day and night to make sure that our hearts would be able to resist evil. We should be forever grateful for that".