It was a long time ago, so long nopony even knows if it is true now. How long? Nopony can say. Centuries, millennia, millennia upon millennia. All that we know is that before there was life, there was naught but a void. Magic swirled in the void, particles colliding and splitting and merging in an infinite dance of creation and destruction. Inevitably, it was bound to happen. Roll the dice over and over for an eternity and probability demands it happen.

Into the void the first alicorn was born.

We know not her name, nor even her appearance. We merely call her The First. The First was born of the magic of non-existence and opened her eyes to a world without light. Nay, not even a world, merely darkness itself. She spread forth her wings, raised her hooves, lifted her horn, and poured forth her magic into the void. She created the world we call Equus.

The planet The First created was still wild and chaotic. On the first day, The First created the laws that would reign in the world. These truths that we hold in our hearts are her mark, the fundamental principles that all beings must obey and cannot deny. Time, space, physics, all her work to begin a new world, laws of science and magic that govern our very being. Upon these laws would all else be built. So it was that Honesty unto Equus.

Though the planet was now possessed of law, it still roiled with destruction. On the second day, The First gifted to the world her loving spirit. Her compassion and empathy filtered down into the world and reformed it. Storms dispersed, volcanos cooled, chasms closed, and the world calmed itself after its turbulent birth. On the barren soil trees and grass grew, and the winds grew warm and sweet with the scent of life. So it was that Kindness came unto Equus.

From the newly peaceful world came the first beasts, mindless and directionless, seeking only to kill and survive. On the third day, The First found the three greatest of them and touched their hearts, seeking to give them a greater life. She granted them art, music, dance, and taught them happiness and joy. The dragons, the griffons, and the zebras, all felt The First’s touch and began to create instead of destroy. So it was that Laughter came unto Equus.

Though their smiles warmed their hearts, the beasts that lived on the planet were still disparate and struggled to live. On the fourth day, The First wished to pacify these races, so that all might live in peace. She created two greats orbs in the sky, one of fire and one of stone, and parted the clouds. She gave the power of light to the world, that all ponies might see the shadows retreat and know they held no fear for them any longer. The beasts came together at a high mountain to bask in the sun and exchanged tokens of goodwill. So it was that Generosity came unto Equus.

On the firth day, The First descended to Equus herself. When her hooves touched down on that highest of mountains, a grand fortress of white and gold spread out from it, spires and towers rising into the air. The gathered beasts saw this fortress rise and The First looking over them, and she told them that it was she who had created all they saw around them. One by one the races kneeled and pledged themselves to her, thanking her for her boons. So it was that Loyalty came unto Equus.

Though the dragons, the griffons and the zebras were now living in peace, The First grew lonely and sought children more like herself. On the sixth day, The First cast off filings from her horn, feathers from her wings, and shavings from her hooves. Filings, feathers, and shavings fell around her, and The First endowed them with her magic. From her horn filings came the unicorns, studious and noble scholars of magic. From her shed feathers came the pegasi, proud and stalwart masters of the sky. And from her hoof shavings came the earth ponies, hard-working and mighty lords of the land. So it was that ponies came unto Equus.

The three pony tribes spread to the furthest reaches of Equus, most living in peace with the other races. The First ruled over them from afar in her mountainous fortress, watching over them as they enjoyed all her world could give them. This time of peace lasted countless years. Friendship and love blossomed in the hearts of the races and none wanted for anything.

During this time her infantile pony children began to grow. One day, a stunning transformation came over a young mare. The other ponies became afraid and shrank from her, but The First alit among them and saw what so frightened them. A glowing image had appeared on the young pony’s flank. The First told her other children to not fear her, for the mark was nothing to fear, and made the young pony look even more beautiful and grand than before.

Soon others were clamoring to find their own mark. In time they did, and when they received their marks they felt a sense of pride and purpose. The First soon found the shape of the marks and their timing was different for every pony, and they were tied to the innate magic she had granted her children at their birth. The First knew this was a sign the beings she had created could grow even stronger than she had thought at first, and knew there was greatness in their futures.

The ponies of The First began to grow more numerous. The earth ponies filled the south and grew bountiful harvests, the unicorns settled the north and raised mighty crystal palaces, and the pegasi colonized the skies and constructed magnificent cloud cities. The beast races began to grow restless. The griffons had to share their skies with the pegasi, the zebra were having their magic outdone by the unicorns, and the dragons were losing their migration routes to the fields of the earth ponies.

A council of the beast races met in a deep forest to discuss what they saw as the favoritism of The First. They agreed she was giving her ponies too much reign over the new world she had created, and was shunning them, the first races. They proclaimed The First loved her ponies more than them. The First heard of this meeting and arrived at it herself to comfort them. But the three races would not believe her and proclaimed she had lost their trust, and that she had taken from them the world that was once theirs. The dragons, the griffons, and the zebras departed across the oceans to settle in realms without ponies. The First saw them go and pleaded for them to return, but they refused.

The First sat alone in the forest in the place the dragons, griffons and zebras had met, and her heart grew turbulent. They accused her of being untrustworthy, of taking their world from them, after all she had done for them? And now they would leave her alone? Anger and sorrow filled her as their words circled her head. In her darkest moment, The First bowed her head and shed a tear. To cleanse herself, she poured into this tear all her pain; the deception of the beast races, the cruelty they showed for abandoning her, the sorrow she felt now that they were gone, the anger she felt for them scorning her gifts, and the treachery they showed in turning their backs on her.

From this tear was born chaos.

The First returned to her mountain fortress, but the chaos she had birthed went beneath her notice and grew stronger. The ground where she had shed her tear grew strange in appearance. Chasms ripped open, the winds grew violent, and despite their best efforts her ponies could not tame them. A maelstrom grew around the tear and spread ever wider, the magic of the land itself twisting. A few remaining dragons, griffons and zebras allied with members of the three pony tribes, and braved the maelstrom to find the tear and destroy it, hoping to stem the chaos at its source. Alas, their efforts were for naught. The maelstrom of magic merged them as one being and imbued it with the power of chaos, and gave birth to the first and only draconequus.

The draconequus spread forth his claws and created spectral beings that fed on hatred and anger and sent them forth to spread disharmony. The three pony tribes began to bicker and posture, making grand shows and giving gifts to earn the favor of The First. Ashamed of herself for creating this chaos and seeing how easily it shattered the unity of her ponies, The First turned her eyes from the world. She shut herself in her mountain fortress and let nopony in.

The three tribes fragmented. The beings of chaos fueled their distrust and hostility to the other tribes, and it spiraled out of control. With The First gone the sun and moon no longer moved and the unicorns needed to devote themselves to the task. Yet they were not strong enough to protect the world without The First. The days began to grow shorter, the nights colder, and soon an endless winter engulfed the world. The three pony tribes struggled to survive, but as long as their hearts were empty of harmony and friendship, the spectral beings of chaos would continue to endure and the winter would only grow more vicious.

Alone in her fortress, The First questioned herself and her past deeds. Had she done something wrong in raising the beast races and creating the ponies? She had only ever wanted companionship from ones like herself, but her ponies were all pale shades of her power. She turned her eyes to the sun and moon, obscured by the storm clouds of the winter, and reached out to them. She plucked a piece of the two and took them into her fortress, and once again poured them full of her magic. To her elation, two more alicorns were born. The First cared for them, teaching them all about Equus and the world beyond their fortress.

Years passed. The three alicorns lived together uncaring about the outside world. The beast races began to return to take back the country they had left now that The First was gone, and chaos and disharmony gripped the land. The pony tribes began to die out, the winters were too cold and the food too scarce. The spectral creatures of chaos began to latch to ponies, turning them into deformed creatures that shifted their bodies to infiltrate the tribes and drain the power of harmony from ponies directly.

Then it came that a glimmer of hope shone. Three members of the tribes, alone in the cold, found common ground and put aside their difference to endure the night. The fires of friendship began to flicker in their hearts, and the cold receded. When day came the three returned to their tribes to spread the word of how to combat the chaos beings. The three tribes held meetings, conducted treaty negotiations, and friendship between them was born again. The winter began to grow warmer, the chaos beings dispersed by the power of harmony. Then at last the snow stopped, and the clouds parted.

The First, seeing the sun shining for the first time in years, looked over the land and saw her pony children learning to live together again. The power of harmony had not been shattered as she once believed, and it now shone brighter than ever. She realized the error was not in her children, but in herself. Left to their own designs the ponies had struggled, but they endured and now were reuniting without her influence. Perhaps the beast races were right, even if their children had forgotten the reason they left the land so long ago.

The First returned to the place where she had created chaos. The draconequus yet lived and was now acting directly to seize control of the world, the shapeshifting unicorns infected by chaos were still among the tribes in secret, and other ponies were turning to dark magic to try to restore the world. There was still darkness that needed to be destroyed. Yet The First knew she was unfit to fight it. The light of harmony had left her heart and she knew no peace. But there was hope. If her ponies could learn the friendship she had forgotten, so too could others.

The First lay on the cave floor and curled on herself. She poured all of her magic, her very life spirit, into one final spell. A protective prison of crystal rose around her, splintering and stabbing into the air and sheltering her body from the chaos. With her dying wish, she promised her ponies that as long as her crystal prison survived, her spirit within it would protect the world. And that one day, the two alicorns she had left in her fortress would find her prison, and the fragments of her power that had sprouted in its branches.

On that day, her mistakes could finally be fixed. And perhaps then, The First would know peace.

Princess Celestia grew silent as she finished her tale. In the bed in front of her, a young lavender unicorn filly stared up at her in awe.

"Princess, is that story really true?"

Celestia bowed her head. "It is indeed, my faithful student. As The First wished, the two young alicorns found the crystal prison she was sealed in and used her power to defeat the draconequus and bring harmony to the world."

The unicorn tilted her head.

"But how do you know?"

Celestia chuckled. "Because I met her."

"Really?"

"Yes."

The unicorn paused and thought. "What was her name?"

Celestia shook her head. "I do not know. The ancient pony tribes had forgotten about her and her name by the time she sealed herself in her prison and the two alicorns made contact with them, and she never told me her name."

"Then what did you call her?"

Celestia turned her head to look out over the balcony. Far on the horizon, the dark clouds marking the Everfree Forest rumbled.

"Mother."