The Mythology of Equestria

>"Hey Anon, what's up?"
"Oh, hey Twilight. I just came over because I thought you might be able to help me with something."
>"What's that?"
"Well, it's just that your history seems a little bit... well, confusing, at best. I have loads of questions about it. What is Celestia, for example? Is she a goddess? What about the times before her? What were they like? I'm just a little bit curious, I suppose, being new to this whole world."
>"Well, Anon, I think you came to the right place. But if we're talking about Equestria's history, we might as well start at the very beginning. Let me tell you a little story about the Age of Chaos..."

>"In the ancient times, the first waking moments of anything that could be considered an element of the universe as we know it, there was Chaos. He preceded reason, understanding, the laws of time and space themselves. He ruled over his ever-changing domain in a state of eternal darkness, for light had not yet broken through the eye of the black void."
>"Chaos was a being, a force, and a world simultaneously. His appearance goes unremarked, for there was no light to shine upon his visage. He was the first of the Titans, and for time immeasurable he ruled as one with the untamed elements of the universe. No constants. No variables. Only Chaos and his realm."
"How long did he rule?"
>"There's no way of telling, and to attempt to do so, Anon, would be to delve into the absurd. There was no time while he ruled; he bent the universe to his will, and that will was one of darkness and confusion. Little is known of him or his domain."
>"What IS known is that one day during Chaos' rule, the Titan fell from his black tower where he commanded his world and hit his head on a jagged peak. His head split open, and from the liquids that spilled out burst two more Titans. They were Anarchy and Discord, and after his head had healed Chaos proclaimed them to be his brother-sons, fit to rule by his side."

"Wait, you mean THE Discord? Like, our Discord? The one you're always complaining about?"
>"Wha... I do NOT complain about him!"
"You're always talking about how you can't stand him. I've never met the guy, but I'm sure he's pretty insufferable if the Princess of Friendship won't even bother with him."
>"He's a god, Anon. He precedes even the concepts of reason and logic. So yes, I can get a bit annoyed by his antics at times."
>"Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah."
>"The three immortal lords of the infinite darkness ruled together as Chaos once did alone."
>"Each, as they would discover amongst themselves, possessed a certain aspect of the same shared spirit, the universe's chaotic state."
>"Discord represented the lawlessness of the universe. His conscious unwillingness to rely upon any consistency makes him come across today as a jokester, but in reality his boundless creativity would be a great contributing factor in the formation of the universe as we know it."
>"Anarchy represented the defiance of order in the personal sense. His magic was derived from a strong antithesis to obedience, and it is known through the word of Discord that he was often outspoken against the whims of his brothers."
>"Finally, Chaos represented the most powerful spirit of all: absolute unruliness in every sense of the word. Where Discord was intrapersonal, and Anarchy was interpersonal, Chaos was the incarnate of unreasonability, the King of Darkness that defied any standard that came unto him. And it was this kind of power that eventually made his brothers resent him."
>"Anarchy and Discord each hated Chaos in their own separate way. But where Anarchy was loud and harsh against Chaos, Discord was crafty."
>"He knew that in order to come out on top, he would have to rely on his creative wit rather than magic."
>"Discord claims that a millennium passed as he slowly but surely built up Anarchy's seething rage towards Chaos' unwillingness to change."
>"And therein lied the quarrel between Anarchy and Chaos, Discord had discovered. Though anarchy and chaos seem to imply the same notion, in reality they are polar opposites."
>"Chaos is constant change, yes, but it never goes anywhere. It is a massless, shapeless, colorless blob trapped in an eternal state of non-cohesion."
>"Anarchy, on the other hand, is a lawless state that implies revolution; change moving forward. Anarchy wanted to make changes that would better the world, but Chaos refused, as was his nature."
>"Discord planted whispers in Anarchy subtly, until finally he asked Anarchy why they, after so long, were still subordinate to the absolute rule of Chaos."
>"'Surely', he would ask him, 'if we were truly brothers in his eyes, we would be equal? We would each make our contributions?'"
>"'But instead,' he would say so craftily, 'he ignores your pleas for progress. He builds his fortress upon an endless sea of nothing. He cares not for understanding, and he shuns reason.'"
>"And so in this way, Discord persuaded Anarchy to murder Chaos while he slept, using the jagged edge of the peak that broke off on Chaos' head when the two younger spirits were first conceived."
>"So Anarchy ascended the black tower and found Chaos abed. Before Chaos could even awake, Anarchy plunged the twisted knife into his stomach and together, Discord and Anarchy ate the organs of their late brother-father."
>"From this macabre feast Anarchy and Discord gained the powers of Chaos and ended his reign. Reason was invented in his place, and Physics became possible."

“Jesus, they killed him and then ATE him? That’s a bit dark based on what I’ve come to expect from you ponies.”
>”I told you, Anon, this is ancient mythology. It tends to be a bit darker than modern day. Didn’t you say that there was some guy on Earth who got his heart pecked out by eagles every single day?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
>”Now you’ve made me lose my page, Anon. Wait, there it is. Ahem.”
>”Chaos’ lifeless body shriveled up into a ball and became the world. His bones became the trees, his skin became the soil, and his blood became the rivers and the seas.”
>”Together Discord and Anarchy utilized their newfound energy to their own whim. Anarchy rallied for progress and forward change, and Discord responded with boundless creativity.”
>”The two fashioned several new spirits from clay and gave them life. Among these were the five Senses: Visus, Sonus, Tactus, Gustus, and Odos. There were also the three Materati: Form, Color, and Shape.”
>”Soon the world was populated by scores of Titans, who under the command of Discord and Anarchy fashioned their kingdom.”
>”But even after all of his success, all of his creative measures, Discord still wanted more power. And here is why.”
>”When Anarchy plunged his blade into Chaos, he committed the very first murder. It was a fratricide, a patricide, and a regicide all in one.”
>”From this blasphemous treachery a new spirit was created, one that took no physical form and one that even Discord could not have foreseen: Evil.”
>”More powerful even than Chaos, Evil manipulated the Titans in ways they could not comprehend. It took hold of Discord and made him jealous of his brother.”
>”Discord felt that he did all the work in the creation of the world, and Anarchy simply supplied ideas. This was Evil’s doing.”]

>”Motivated by Evil’s control, Discord lunged at Anarchy with a sickle fashioned from his father’s bone. He-“
“Wait, didn’t you say that the trees are Chaos’ bones? So it’s, like, a wooden sickle? Why would that hurt anybody, especially a god?”
>”It’s a metaphor, Anon! Not to mention that these stories were all written by scores of ponies over thousands of years, so you might expect a bit of inconsistency!”
“Well, I ain’t buying it. Let’s just say that the sickle is imbued with the energy of Evil or some bullshit like that.”
>”Fine. Discord lunged at Anarchy with a sickle fashioned from his father’s bone, IMBUED WITH THE ENERGY OF EVIL.  There was a struggle, and witnessed by all the Titans of the land the maddened Discord murdered his brother and absorbed his energy.”
>”As Discord frenzied in the shower of blood that Anarchy’s corpse provided, Evil lost its grip on him. He realized the selfish act he had committed, and though he could not bring his brother back from the dead, he could ensure that it never happened again.”
>”Discord used his magic to imprison the spirit of Evil inside a vase, where it would remain for an eon.”
“Alright, cool! Is that the end, then? Discord banishes Evil forever?”
>”Not quite, Anon. In fact, this is the part where it gets really interesting!”
“*sigh* I wish I’d never asked…”
>”Discord continued to rule alone, influenced by neither good nor evil, in a state of eternal innovation. His creative spirit knew no bounds, and eventually, he grew tired of living in a world of Titans.
>”He wanted subjects that would truly be SUBJECT to the things he created, who could bear witness to all that came before them and all that came while they lived.
>”So Discord molded from the clay a creature that lacked the power of a Titan, but possessed his unique and creative spirit. He called the creature the pony, and he let it free upon the world.”

>”Now Discord always yaps about how the pony was his worst creation ever, Anon, but I can tell that even he doesn’t believe himself. Even he knows that the pony was by far the most unique creation he had ever molded.
>”It is said that the first pony to ever breathe Life was named Manedora, and when Discord set her upon the world she opened her eyes…”
>”And saw nothing.”
>”For even now, after untold eons of creativity and innovation, Discord had neglected the inception of an instrument by which his mortal folk could view their world. The universe was still black, devoid of illumination.”
>”Discord set forth trying to find a way to allow Manedora to see all of the wonderful things he had created, but to no avail. Even with the powers of Visus, sight would not come to the mortal pony. And so Discord began to give up.”
>”Then, he had an idea. An idea so brilliant, no pun intended, that he was sure it would work. I hate praising him so much, Anon, since he can be sort of a jerk, but believe me when I tell you that his work in the early ages was significance incarnate.”
“What, you got a crush on the guy now?”
>”ANON! Anyways, Discord imagined a spark of what he called light. From his infinite imagination he produced two great spheres of light, which he called Celestas and Lunas, and fixed them on a great rotating ring in the sky where they would always shine down upon Manedora.”
>”At last, the pony was able to see Discord’s colorful world, and to his surprise, she wasn’t too fond of it. Her mortal mind was structured in such a way to see things differently than Discord ever could.”
>”The chaos was too much for her, but it mattered not to Discord, because he realized that he could give this mare a great task. The Order in her mind meant that she did not possess the volatility that the Titans did.”
>”So Discord entrusted Manedora with the vase that contained Evil. He warned her never to open the vase under any circumstances. And so the pony built her home and set the vase at her bedside.”
“I have a feeling that this will end badly…”

>”For many years the vase sat dormant in Manedora’s cottage, while the Titans danced in the skies and Discord watched his creation closely.”
>”All was at peace. Or at least, so they thought.”
>”Though the gods had flaws, they were immortal as well, and had an infinity to learn from their mistakes and recognize error when they saw it.”
>”This was not the case for the mortal Manedora, who with each waking morning longed more and more to know what was contained inside the vase.”
>”Her curiosity grew and grew, for it was her weakness as a mortal mare. Eventually she could not stand the mystery any longer.”
>”She had to know what the vase contained.”
>”So one night, while the Titans slept and Lunas pranced in the sky, Manedora carefully opened the lid of the vase and looked inside.”
>”Wave after violent wave of shock hit her as the spirit of Evil escaped from the vase, flying about the room, destroying everything. Manedora tried desperately to contain it, but it was in vain. She was no god.”
>”Evil escaped and spread its vile form across the world, an ever-shifting mass of energy devoted to making things bad.”
>”When Discord discovered that Manedora had disobeyed him, he was furious. Though he continued to create ponies, he cut off ties between the gods and their mortal subjects.”
>“The waking forces of Evil stirred the mortal ponies to anger and violence, and they began to hate the Titans for ignoring their pleas for help.”
>”Things spiraled into chaos. There was no order amongst them. This amused Discord, but the other Titans thought a bit less of it.”