Chapters There are 4 races of equines in the magical realm of Equestria. The Earth ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, and the Alicorns. Each race has their own unique powers and responsibilities. The Earth ponies are strong and rely mostly on brute force for work, that is why they usually on things such as agriculture or mining. The Pegasi are quick and agile, their wings make them able to fly and reach supersonic speeds, their job is weather stability. The unicorns are smart and organized, their horns enable them to use magic to levitate objects, teleport, and much more. They deal with economy and order. But their entire civilization would fall if it wasn’t for the Alicorns. They have the combined abilities of all 3 races, which means they are able to fly, use magic and have brute force. The perfect being. There are no records of how many Alicorns exist in the world. There could be a few tens to hundreds of thousands. Their responsibilities are the most important. They need to keep the world stable. Some Alicorns are able to bring the sun and the moon up each morning and evening. They control the tides, the winds, and even the earth itself. The thing that made the Alicorns even more powerful was the fact that they never age, never get ill and never drown or suffocate, making them almost immortal.
There are very few records of Alicorns making contact with the other races, the princesses took advantage of that and made themselves royalty. Thousands of years passed and the princesses were still in power. One day, another Alicorn walked into the palace gates.
The stallion Alicorn walked into the throne room where both princesses were chatting. He had a serious, deadly look on his eyes. Both princesses turned when they sensed his presence. The stallion coat was a dark grey, his spiky mane was black and green, so was his tail, his cutie mark consisted of a world shaped like Equestria. The stallion was a couple of inches taller than Celestia and his horn was about 2 times as large as hers. He started to slowly walk over to her, Luna began to back away, but Celestia stayed still, with the same look as he had.
When both Alicorns were about an inch from each other, the stallion stopped. He still had that stern look in his face. "Celestia." He said.
"Atlas." She responded. "What do you want?"
"You know you can't keep this up forever. Right?" Atlas asked the princess who took a step back.
"I don’t know what you're talking about." She turned her head.
"I've seen your kingdom Tia, I've seen how these ponies adore you and treat you like a god. But I know, you're no god. You're just a liar." Atlas didn’t change his expression.
"How dare you!?" She shouted.
"How dare I? How dare you? How dare you exploit the weak, how dare you make this place into your own little private tea party. These ponies think you're their savior, their leader. You aren't any of that Tia. You have been lying to them for thousands of years. "
"Guards!" Celestia shouted. In a matter of seconds a dozen guards burst through the door and surrounded Atlas. They all pointed their spears at him. Atlas just chuckled and put his head up. His horn began to shine bright white and a shockwave pushed all the guards away, knocking them unconscious. Atlas smiled and looked at Celestia who stood agape.
"I've been doing this way longer than you Tia, do you really think a couple of inferiors would be able to hurt me? You can't beat me." Atlas walked closer to Celestia, she didn’t move, all she did was stare into those expressionless green eyes. When their mussels where nearly touching, he spoke. "I won't hurt you, not now that is. I will give you a chance to redeem yourself, a chance where all you did will be forgiven. I want you to publicly announce to your beloved subjects that you're aren't so powerful as they think, that you are not the omnipotent being that you claim to be, I want you to show them your true colors, Tia. If you do that, you are allowed to keep your empire, your castle, and all of this will just have been a bad dream. But, if refuse my offer, then I will tell them personally, and after they learn that, I will proceed to kill you, just like I should have done all those years ago. I will give you a year to decide what you want to do. Until then, I will be watching." Atlas extended his wings and started to trot to the palace window. He jumped up and began to fly away.
Celestia was staring at the ground, old memories crowded her mind, anger took over. Her eyes became dark green, a purple aura surrounded her horn. She ran to the window and fired a bolt of magic at Atlas. "MY EMPIRE!!!" She screamed as she propelled the beam.
Once Atlas felt the attack, he tried to block it, but wasn’t able. The energy that was contained in the attack was too strong. The evil and the anger that surrounded the attack was overwhelming. Atlas felt his inside burn and his skin boil. He started to feel dizzy. When the pain ended, the stallion fell from the skies. Everything felt so peaceful, Atlas felt like the world was perfect. He felt himself crashing on the water. He looked up and saw the blissful night, all distorted by the water. His eyelids felt heavy. Soon, everything was dark.
Chapter 1: The Cutie Mark Crusaders!
There is a mare trotting over to me. She is smiling, her short pink mane and tail move with the wind. Her white coat seems to be as soft and beautiful as the clouds. Her smile cheers up even the most devious of ponies. Her eyes seem to bring bliss into the world. She is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
My head is hurting. It feels like there is something constantly poking it.
I opened my eyes, the sky is blue, there isn't a single cloud present. I can feel the wind blowing and the water hitting my back, the sand covering my forearms. There are birds singing in the distance, and three fillies looking down on me with sticks in their hooves.
I lift myself up and look around. I am at a large pond. Seems more like a crater with water inside, there seems to be a dense forest in the opposite side of where I'm standing. The three fillies take a step back when I gaze upon them. They seem normal enough, one of them is a unicorn with a purple and pink mane and a white coat. The other one is a yellow earth pony with a bright red mane. There is another Earth pony right beside her, she has a orange coat and purple mane… wait, she's a pegasus, wow, I've never seen wings that small in a filly her age. Poor little pegasus, she'll probably never be able to fly.
I stand up on my hooves for me to get a better look, when I feel a sharp pain on my ribs. I grunt in pain, which startles the little fillies. The white and yellow ones hide behind the orange, who stands still with a mean look on her face. Reminds me of Celestia. Celestia, if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be in this mess, damn princess and her lies.
I look over to the little fillies. "What do you want mister?" The orange one asks me. I just look down on them. Strange, usually the fillies look a lot smaller, maybe they aren't fillies after all. No, wait, none of them have their cutie marks yet, so they are fillies. But how are they so tall. Maybe genetics. Or I have just been away for too long and didn’t notice the evolutionary process that occurred in the past… "Hey mister!" She shouted at me, making me lose my train of thought. I do that sometimes, just daze off when thinking about something, it just occurs naturally, I don’t have much control over it, it mostly happens when I think too much or when I'm bored and… there, I did it again.
"Sorry, little filly, I was just…. Oh wow…" My voice seems a lot thinner. It seems like I just inhaled a balloon full of helium. What is this? I clear my throat a couple times just to see if it helps. "Test, test." Nope, not at all. The fillies appear to be even more frightened now, good job Atlas. "Sorry. Could you tell me where I am, please?"
"Sure thing mister, you're in outskirts of Ponyville." The white one raises her hoof and smiles at me. I don’t smile back. Ponyville huh? Ponyville…Celestia really likes her puns. Her sense of humor will always bewilder me.
"Thank you little one, now could you tell me the way to Canterlot please?" I ask politely.
"Why don’t you just find a map?!" The orange one flaps her wings furiously as if trying to take flight.
"That's rude." I reply. "Didn’t your mother ever teach you anything?"
" My mother's dead." She replies with her head down.
I just look at her for a couple of seconds. "That's very unfortunate for you, anyway, which way is it to Canterlot … I don’t think I caught your name." I say to the white unicorn.
"It's Sweetie Belle." She says smiling.
"Sweetie Belle, thank you. So, Sweetie Belle, which way is it to Canterlot?" I ask trying to smile as best I can, but failing miserably.
"All you have to do is take the train up the mountain, right there." She points to something behind me. I turn around and look at the mountain. Right on the side of it, is Canterlot. And right at the top of the highest tower, is the princesses quarters. There is where I must go in one year time, to see what the will be the princesses choice.
"Thank you very much Sweetie Belle. Now I must go." I walk past them and prepare for my flight back to my home. Maybe I'll pass by donut Joes, they say that he has the best donuts in Equestria. Huh? I can't feel my wings. I look back and what I saw will haunt me forever. I saw nothing, there was nothing there. Absolutely nothing, my wings, were gone! GONE! How could my wings be gone?! Oh no, this isn't good! My horn, MY HORN! I run as fast as I can to the pond and look at my reflection. My horn, it's gone! GONE! Oh no, no, no, no! I look smaller, that’s why everything is so tall, and that's why my voice is thinner. I'm an earth pony, an earth pony. "CELESTIA!!!!!" I fall down on my rear legs and throw my forelegs up to the sky. "I will get you for this, I will have my revenge. I swear it, I will!!!!" I fall down on the shallow water. I look up and see Canterlot. And I know that Celestia is looking at me right now, with a huge grin on her face. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I turn back and see three scared little fillies hiding behind a bush. "Hey. Girls, I'm not going to hurt you." I assure them. Might as well make friends with the locals, maybe they can help me somehow. There may be a powerful enough unicorn to bring my horn and wings back. The white one, Swettie Belle was it? Gets out of the bush and walks over to me. She puts a hoof on my own.
"I trust you." I see her smile and my heart just explodes, twice. How can something so little be so adorable? After she says that, the yellow one leaves the bush. She also smiles at me.
"Howdy, I'm Apple Bloom, you already met Swettie Belle and the paranoid one is Scootaloo." I snicker at her name. For some reason it makes me think of chicken. "And we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!!" Sweetie and Bloom shouted in unison making me cringe.
"Well, okay."
"Hey what does your Cutie Mark means?" Sweetie asked.
"Yea, what does it mean?" Scotaloo decided to leave the safety of the bush to hear my story.
"Well, I'm.." I can't say that I'm the one that keeps the world from falling into the void. I need to think of something, okay, think, think. "I'm an geologist. I study the earth and … geology."
"Cool." They say in unison.
"Hey mister, you never told us your name?" Apple Bloom states.
"I guess I haven't," I chuckle at the thought . "…it's Atlas."
"Come on mister you need to speed up if we want to get there in time?" Sweetie Belle said while running ahead of me. I really don’t care about time or anything for that matter. My mind right now is too busy thinking of ways for me to dismember and torture Celestia in the most painful, inequine way possible. She will pay for taking my horn and wings away, she will pay for all the things she did in past, her time is well overdue. "Atlas, are you even listening to me?"
"Oh sorry." I picked up the pace. Don’t know why we're speeding up, it's the middle of the day for Divus sake, what could be so important?
We were heading up a cliff, Sweetie and Bloom weren't having any trouble, but Scootaloo seemed to be having a hard time. She started to flail her wings furiously, making her speed up a little. It was kind of funny really, in a sad way. When we reached the top of the hill, I was able to see the entire city of Ponyville. No, it's too small to be a city, a village maybe? Anyway, it seemed pretty nice, there was a river passing through it, all houses seem to made of wood. The village doesn’t seem to be too old, must not be older than 100 or 120.
"Come on Atlas, there are some people you need to meet." Scootaloo started to walk down the hill in the direction of the village.
"Wait, hold up. Meet? Hey I'm not going to be friends with anyone around here, I'm just here so I can rest for a bit. Then I'll be on my way." I told the fillies.
"But where do you think you're going to stay? It's not like somepony will just stroll up and give you a house and food for free."
"I guess you're right." I accepted defeat. All four of us trot over to the small town. I'm still getting used to my new, shrunken body. Everything seems so much bigger. Never thought I'd actually see the world through an Earth Pony's eyes.
We arrive at this new, strange town. Everything seems normal. All ponies here seem normal enough. There is a couple of mares over sitting in a bench nearby. One is a white Earth Pony with a blue and pink mane, and the other one is a unicorn with a mint green coat and white and light blue mane. Wait, how does she sit like that, that must hurt like heck after a while. I then see a brown colt with a hourglass cutie mark, he is standing next to a grey pegasus mare. He seems to be holding some sort of device in his hoof. Strange.
I try to get a better look at the strange device when my vision is crowded by pink, pink everywhere."Heyhowareyoudoingi'mPinkiePieandineverseenyouherebeforewhichmeansyou'renewhereandiknoweveryponyheresoyoumustbenewIreallylikeyou'recutiemarkitlookssocoolwaitineedtomakeyouawelcometoPonyvillepartyimakethatpartyforeveryoneand…" Good Divus, what is this thing, a pink mare just put her face on mine and starts to babble nonsense everywhere. All I could get from that was, that her name is Pinkie Pie and she likes my cutie mark. I push her away.
"Have you never heard of personal space, geez." I wipe myself a couple times to get the dust off.
"Hey, I forgot to sing you the welcome song." She takes a deep breath and starts singing.
Welcome welcome welcome A fine welcome to you Welcome Welcome Welcome I say how do you do? Welcome Welcome Welcome I say hip hip hooray Welcome Welcome Welcome To Ponyville today!!
Then she grabs a cannon and points it at me. She fires and a blast of confeti just shoots out of the cannon and into the air. The confetti falls over me and all I do is stare at her expressionless. Oh how I wish I had my horn so I could banish her to the moon right now.
I walk past her and she dashes off somewhere. Good, one less problem I have to deal with. So I just keep on walking. Wait, where's Sweetie Belle and the others. Uh, perfect, now I'm lost and lonely. This day just keeps getting better. Might as well ask for directions.
I walk up to a dark pink mare with mulberry shaded mane, her cutie mark is a bunch of grapes and a strawberry. She is holding a cup filled with grape juice, or is it wine? Anyway, I approach her and ask: "Hello, could you tell me if there is a place where I can stay for a while. " She doesn’t respond, all she does is look over my way and smile.
"Hey handsome." She sais groggily. "Where have you been all my life?" Her breath smells like alcohol. Good Divus, she's drunk. Who gets drunk at 2 in the afternoon?
"Berry!" A female voice shouts at the drunk mare. I turn to see who it is. It's a mare, with a blue coat and white and blue mane that kind of looks like toothpaste. Her cutie mark is an hourglass, just like that colt with the strange device. "I told you, no wine until tonight remember." She starts scolding the drunkard.
"But baby, I'm stressed." Wait, baby, are they a couple? Huh? That's cool I guess.
"It doesn’t matter Berry, you need to get home right now." She starts pushing the mare away from me. She looks over to me. "I am so sorry mister, Berry here drank one cup too much." Make that ten cups.
"Hey, could you help me?" I ask her.
"Sure, what do you want?"
"I just need a place to stay for a while, do you know somepony or someplace where I can rest for a couple months." She stops and thinks for a couple of seconds. Then she raises her hoof and smiles.
"You should check with Twilight over at the library, she might have a place where you could stay. Fluttershy might have an extra bed, but don’t hope for any talk with her. If you like loud noise and music, Vinyl is your choice. And I think maybe Thunderlane or Caramel might welcome you. But If none of them work, then you could always ask Applejack in Sweat Apple Acres, that is, if you don’t mind sleeping in a barn." She laughs. And I try my hardest to smile with her, but I just can't.
"Thank you …."
"It's Minuette, but you can call me Colgate. Everyone does."
"It's because of your mane right?"
"Right." She smiles and pushes Berry into their house. She seems very nice. She just helped me out a bunch. Someone she doesn't even know, a complete stranger. I wish more Alicorns would be like that.
Okay, first stop: Twilight.
Author's Note
If you're wondering who's Divus, don’t worry, it will be explained in the future. But for now think that he is like what Celestia is to the ponies, but for the Alicorns.