In the beginning, there was nothing. There was no matter nor energy in the cosmos. And it was called The Empty Space.

But there were four gods. And they ruled over The Empty Space, a place that has no rules and no life, for the gods transcended life and death. But their lives were dull and they wished for change, and they stored their mighty power and released it all in a single week to create a world.

On the first day, the First God created the axis. And on the axis he created poles and he made the axis rotate. On the Northern Pole he created the Temple to Discord. On the Southern Pole he created the Temple to Order. And the First God alight upon the north pole and so it came to be that chaos was his domain.

On the second day the Second God created the world around the axis. And she created the color and gave their creation imagination and the imagination gave it wonder and beauty. Then, the second god, her power expended, went to rest and planned to resume on the third day. And so it came to be that on the third day, the Second God, her powers restored, created the mist and the clouds and the ocean and the seas. And she created a Moon to orbit the earth and there, too, she placed seas. And then, the Second God, her work completed, flew into the moon and took the moon to be her home.

Then the Third God came to the earth that her brother and sister had created. She created a Sun to warm the earth and to let it be visible to them. Then she created the children for the sun, and they fed off of its light. And they were the flora of the world, and they kept its air clean and its water pure.

And then came the fifth day. And then she felt that it should be peopled. The Discordant one and the Lunar one objected, not wanting their creation to be destroyed by a sentient being. The Third God ignored their objections and crafted The Sentient Ones from the earth and the flora and the warm rays of light. And they too fed off of the sun and the flora and they were called Ponies. And then she created other Sentient Ones and named them the Reindeer, the Griffons, the Dragons, and the Bears. And she granted them all strength and speed and intellect and cunning. And they were all made equal. Then, her work completed, she lowered the sun and granted her sister's creation permission to light the world for many hours. And the Third god flew into the sun and kept watch over their creation from on high.

Then the Fourth God, the Elder God, came. And she looked at the world and decided it needed rule. She created rules for how the world worked, and created rules of magic and physics. And then she created rules, stronger rules, rules of love and tolerance that governed the actions of her sister's Sentient Ones. And they obeyed.

And then came the final day. And on the final day they argued over who should be the ruler. The youngest of them, the First God, stated his argument first. And he said that since the whole of their creation literally revolved around his work, that he should be the one to rule. And he said also that his chaos added the most variety to the creation.

"No." The Elder God said. "Discord will only interfere with my rules, and may shatter the code of love and tolerance that I have created. No, it must not be you." The First God was angered by this, but objected not.

Then the Second god stated her arguement. And she said that since she had given color to the world, and thus had added the most to the creation that she should be the one to rule.

"No." The Elder God said. "Color is not the most important thing in this creation, though it does affect it most greatly.

And the Third God stepped forwards. And, smug in her confidence that the Elder God would not chose to rule herself, and that her siblings had been rejected, she too stated her arguement. "I have created the Sentient Ones, and they will affect the world and change it of their own accord. Seeing as they were the most difficult to create, and I have put the most effort into this creation, I should be the one to rule."

"No." The Elder God said. "None of you should beleive that you have the wisdom to rule alone. We will rule this creation as we have ruled The Empty Space, We will rule as four, and we will, on the whole, allow the creation to govern itself, and our only role will be to guide them into the path of light and see that they do not stray far off it. The Third God was angered that her older sister would not grant her rulership. But she, like the First god, cooled her anger with time.

Mostly.

For a time, things were good. But then, the First, Second, and Third god grew greedy. They all moved into their creation, trying to claim it as their own. But the Third God, always the most physically powerful of the four siblings, attacked her siblings. Her attacks were made even more dangerous by the years of anger and bitterness at not being the one to be ruler. Her first sibling she attacked first, sealing him in the purest of stones, and leaving him frozen as a gross cross of all of the Sentient Ones, in the stone that the Sentient ones called Marble. And she took his crystallized form as a trophy. Then she attacked her second sibling. And she, in a cruel joke, trapped her in a Pony's form and sealed her in the moon she loved so.

But then the elder god came to th/e creation. And she, to chastise her siblings, stripped them of almost all of their strength, and of their title of god. And she trapped the Third God in a Pony's form even as she had trapped the Second God. And she made their strength equal and left a weapon, known as the Elements of Harmony, in the care of the Sentient Ones. And, disgusted by the depraved greed her siblings had shown, left the creation to create others.

She did not forsee the warring among the Sentient ones that took place as a result of the Third God's actions.

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So anyway, i'm putting the AN at the bottom to confuse everypony. If anypony is wondering why I did this, why I capitalized the last three words, ect., i'm planning a couple stories in the world I just built. To anypony wondering who the Elder God is, it's Lauren Faust. If there are any more questions, feel free to comment.

Yay, AN! At the top just to throw you, again. Anyways, this story will most likely be updated more frequently than Not So Different, mostly because I have an epic idea for the finale with Twil but no clue how to work up to there- yet. Also, this is an OC idea, so I'd rather finish this before a crossfic. Also, Magic uses your physical strength as a fuel, inspired by Eragon. If you've read it, good, if not, PM me for any addditional needed information. Anyway, same rules for pov/time changes as in not so different, please leave comment, ect. ect., blah blah blah. Thank's for reading!

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Silver Dawn looked on in dismay as his army was decimated by their current number-one target: Archmage Lightbringer of the First Celestial Army. Even from here he could see the savage cleft of a blood-spattered grin on the Unicorn's face. If we don't do something about him we're all dead stallions, Silver thought. He grabbed the shoulder of a passing mage, wearing the white and red tunic of a expert spellcaster. "You! I need you to find some way of stopping that bloody maniac. If we don't we'll lose this battle without even inflicting a single casualty upon yonder army. I'll get my engineers to fire the catapult and ballistae at him, and you tell the troops in the area to clear out of your way, but you're on your own from now on."

Silver expected the unicorn to object, but he merely saw a grey pallor on his face as he changed direction towards Lightbringer as if walking to the gallows. Good Luck, he thought, and prayed to the Elder God for the unicorn that he had just sent on what he knew they both thought was suicide. A sudden sadness came over him. I sent you to die and I don't even know your name. This was, of course, ridiculous. He was a general- thousands had died for him over the course of his life. But he still felt compelled to indulge his desires just once. He ran after the unicorn, who still carried on with his weary, yet purposed stride towards the thick of the battle. " I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name earlier?"

The wizard turned back to him briefly. "I am called Roseheart." It was a fitting name- his hair was primarily a light leaf-green, and the tips were the pink of cherry blossoms.

"That's a good name." Silver Dawn said gruffly. "I just want to tell you... I'm sorry."

A ghost of a smile briefly flitted over Roseheart's face, and he turned back towards his destination, with rather more energy in his movements. Then Silver himself walked in the opposite direction, where their engines of war stood perched on a hill. It took him a while, but he eventually convinced the Reindeer he had appointed seige master that his plan would work. The difficulty of this task was exacerbated by the fact that he himself was not sure of the plan, but so be it.

Then he stayed on the hill and watched the greatest magician's duel of his life unfold.

Roseheart had regarded it as a death sentence when general Silver Dawn had given him the order to face an Archmage, especially one as notorious as Lightbringer, in combat. But he was determined to defeat his foe, no matter if the cost be death- or worse. He arrived on the edge of the devastation, watching as his allies were murdered by the dozen. I have to stop him, he thought, before more lives are lost. And then he knew what to do.

"Lightbringer!" He screamed. "I am the champion of general Silver Dawn, and I challenge thee to a magician's duel! Defeat me, and our army will crumble. But if I best you, the fate shall befall your army, and your honor. Do you have the nerve to face my challenge like a stallion?" Everypony, and some others, stiffened with shock at his words. Then Lightbringer's cruel smile widened, and he laughed, a low guttural noise.

"I will face you, champion," He said derisively. But speak your name, so I may know the name of the pony I have killed.

"I am Roseheart." Then, in a softer voice, he spoke that only his allies could hear, "Stand back. Give us room." He saw Lightbringer muttering what Roseheart was sure was much the same order to his own soldiers. He tugged off his right guantlet off his front hoof, and flung it across the field to where Lightbringer stood. It hit him squarely on the cheek, in the ancient challenge to trial by forelegs. Lightbringer's face flushed with anger, then returned to normal as he realized the significance of the action- and that he was now in a fight for his life.

"Let the games begin, pink-hair!" And he shot a bolt of pure energy at Roseheart. He deflected it easily, much to his surprise. He had never been in a magician's duel before, and now that he was, he found he was rather good at it. Then he fired a return volley of blazing fire, which Lightbringer countered with a veil of mist. Then, out of the corner oh his eye, he saw spears, massive bolts from ballistae, rocks, arrows, every kind of projectile imaginable, arc towards Lightbringer. Yes! He crowed silently to himself. Now we have him! To his horror, each and every one vanished in a puff of gold smoke. Lightbringer's face contorted, and he shouted, "Have you no honor, pink-hair?" Cries of fury from Lightbringer's gold-clad army rose, and the next moment Roseheart was dodging thrown weapons, arrows- but to his releif, the seige weapons in the Celestial Army seemed to take too long to be fired at him. Where is he getting all his power from? Roseheart wondered frantically, still dodging or deflecting flights of arrows. A gleam of something black caught his eye. On Lightbringer's gold armor he saw a tiny black stone- onyx, one of the best gems for storing energy- set into the left side of his equip.

"If I can dislodge that gem, then maybe he'll be weakened enough to fight normally." Roseheart muttered. He fired four rapid explosions, none of which touched Lightbringer, but came close enough to rattle the Onyx in whatever secured it. It also drained a significant portion of his vitality, but for the moment, he had no reason to fear being too weak to cast spells. Then he fired one much larger explosion at Lightbringer, and to his great triumph the gem shattered from the shockwave. He could hear Lightbringer utter a cry of dismay, fear and anger, and he fired his own explosion at Roseheart.

Rather than blocking or deflecting it, which would expend too much energy, and the bolt was traveling too fast to dodge, he cast a quick spell to deflect it. The hex glanced off of his ward and flew off into the distance. Suddenly Roseheart had a flashback to a lesson he had been taught by his mentor.

"Lighting always takes the closest path to the ground- the path of least resistance. Many armor materials are prone to channeling its energy, such as gold and steel. Also, most living creatures channel it efficently as well." And suddenly he knew how he could win. Gathering up almost all of his remaining energy from his body, he formed a massive thunderbolt in the air, hundereds of meteres above the archmage's head. The air crackled with the energy of the spell, and Lightbringer realised what he was doing. Shouting, Lightbringer's horn grew crimson as he cast his own spell at Roseheart. "Thus I curse you, Pink-hair, champion of Silver Dawn!" He screamed as Roseheart released the lightning. He only had time to see Lightbringer's body pulse with a blue-white light before the spell hit him. He could not even move, he was too weak to block or deflect it.

He could hear the Elder Army cheering and the First Celestial Army groaning, but it was as if from a long way away. Nothing seemed to be wrong with him, but he knew that it was unlikely that a direct hit from a spell would ever leave you uncathed. It was worrying, far more so than if the spell had just killed him instantly. Then he realized he was bleeding.Where did I get cut? He wondered, and wiped off the red stain. And then he realized...

He wasn't cut. Anywhere. Not on his entire body. But when he looked upon himself, he could see blood raining off of him like a summer deluge. He was unable to move- it hurt, it hurt far more than any pain he had ever experienced before, and he could not even scream his agony to the world. Petrified, he stood, watching his legs shrivel down to the bone, then his chest, it seemed as if the spell was destroying his vital organs last, and then he felt it as his eyes shriveled as the water and blood was drained from them, too. And finally, he started to lose perception of pain in blessed relief.

But then he realized that the releif he gained was only the releif of an eternal sleep in a mausoleum. His entire existance rebelled, fought, against the idea of death, and he cast a spell, a forbidden, ancient spell that was far older than the conflict between the four gods. And then- sleep.