The Guardians

“The... the truth?” Regina stammered. The other four guardians had landed now as well.
“Yes. I had almost forgotten, but you don't know anything about us guardians, do you?” Saule asked.
“No, I... Only what I read in my history books, and that was a long time ago. And those are now long lost anyway, since the eruption.” Regina admitted shamefully.
Ruki had to agree with her grandmother though- she had searched far and wide for information on winged ponies, and she hadn't found anything useful. Their existence had been all but forgotten.

“Very well then. I shall start at the beginning. Long, long ago, there were no Guardians- there was only the Mother, Vitalia, the great goddess. She alone was the creator of all life, and she enjoyed her creations- She loved to dwell in the realms of the mortals, enjoy their laughter and comfort their sadness. There was no need for any king or queen, for She alone guarded her creations against corruption and evil.

But as time passed, her Children began to fade... and die. Vitalia who had come out of the Heavens, realized the souls of those who died passed on, but alone they would not be able to find their way and attain eternal peace. So with pain in her heart the Great Goddess left her beloved world behind to guide those lost souls to the eternal Heavens.

Without her guidance, though, the world soon fell apart. Ponies and other living beings now long forgotten found that sometimes, sadness and anger was too much to endure and began to fight. It pained her so much that Vitalia realized she could not leave the world behind unguarded. So she searched the world for a person she could trust more than anyone and who understood her sense of justice.

She found this person, a pony called Taira. Taira would be the first High Queen, and she is your ancestor. Through Taira, and Taira's eldest child, and the ones following her, Vitalia could still keep the world in order and let everyone live in harmony and peace. But it was not enough. For the High Queens were only mortals, and not without faults. The High Queens began to rule on their own, without consulting her. While they did not do a bad job at all, Vitalia became more and more concerned she would one day be too far away from this world to help, should it ever be needed.

So she created a plan to make sure her guidance would not disappear, even if she would. One day, the young princess Raphia found she was pregnant. This was a curious fact seeing as how she had not been with a man before. When she gave birth, the baby was more beautiful than anything that had wondered this earth since the days of the Great Goddess.

The baby had wings, and even at a very young age her sense of justice and her knowledge of the world were greater than that of anyone alive. She was soon able to explain to her earthen mother who she was- her spirit was the child of Vitalia, planted in Raphia's womb to grow an earthen body. During her life, this child grew to love this earth more than anyone had done ever before. She died at an old age, and while the world mourned the loss of their Winged princess, Vitalia welcomed her into the Heavens.

But that was not the end, for her true purpose was finally revealed- the spirit of the Winged princess was send back to the earth as a Guardian, with a spiritual body and an immortal spirit. Her time on earth as a mortal had been necessary to link her spirit to it, much like how we linked the Heavens to the earth just now. The spirit's name was Saule, and she was the first Guardian of the Great Goddess Vitalia.”

Ruki gazed at the guardian with her mouth open. She understood now why the others seemed to follow her. Saule was the first Guardian and had probably wandered on this earth for so long... Ruki couldn't even imagine. She hadn't even known her mother had been named after the first High Queen.

“For a while, the world was at peace again. I wandered here, guiding the High Queens where I could and guiding others when the Queens could not help them. But still, Vitalia was not yet content. She realized I alone was not powerful enough to save this world, should the link to the Heavens ever be broken.

So she created my sister Roze, the Flaming Guardian.” Saule pointed at the Fiery Guardian next to her. “She was born in the same fashion as I was, her spirit linked to a body in the womb of a Princess capable of bearing such a child. In time, Roze died as I had and was send back to the earth by our True Mother, to assist me.

By then, Vitalia had realized her mistake. By residing in the Heavens, her link with this world began to fade more and more, until she could not return here herself. She feared that which had almost come to pass before you ponies summoned us- she feared that one day the gates would be shut and the heavens would disconnect from the earth altogether.

She calculated that the two of us, no matter how strong, would never be enough to recreate the link. So she gave birth to Laima, the Copper Guardian, and Rasa, the Guardian of Flowers, and last, to Fiume, the Guardian of Water. Hundreds of years passed between the birth of each of us, but we all knew what our purpose was. Content that the five of us were enough to maintain the link between her and the earth, Vitalia resumed her role as Guardian of the Spirits in the Heavens.

But once again, Vitalia had miscalculated. Our existence was a product of the Heavens, and after our mortal death our link to this earth was purely artificial. We felt the power of our spirits wane over the years, and we became scared that like our Mother, we might be consumed by the Heavens, never able to return.

So Vitalia send one more spirit to this earth. To our surprise, this spirit was male, not female. The name of our brother was Aras, the Guardian of the Earth. His wings were different from ours, taking the shape of bird wings. He was a child of the Earth, he claimed, here to maintain the link between us and the earth, not the Heavens and the Earth. An intermediate, as it were.

But Aras was flawed. Our Mother did not understand the spirits of men, and she was wrong about his ambitions. Aras was not content with his position, which he felt was inferior to his own. So in the dark corners of the earth, he plotted to take a position above us. He would severe our link to the Heavens so that we would fade, and he would be the Only Guardian.

In the end he succeeded, and our spirits began to float between this world and the next. Our Mother was horrified, but she felt there was nothing she could do to stop us from going up into the Heavens. So from earthly materials, she created five stones, in which she contained a small part of our souls, so that one day the next guardian could summon us back. She punished Aras by taking his powers away, leaving him nothing but a spirit to dwell on this earth in darkness. To the High Queen she gave a stone which linked their reign to the Heavens, which got set in the crown of the High Queens, the Queen's Crown.

Years passed, and as Aras had wanted, we faded to the Heavens, no longer able to maintain a form on this world. A challenger arose to the High Queen, a man named Kurao from the western land named Asterian. He did not agree that the High Queen alone should reign, now that she was no longer supported by the Guardians. He duelled with the High Queen for power for eighteen days and nights. The High Queen, realizing Kurao indeed matched her for power, could not maintain her hold as the One True High Queen.

She asked her daughter to bring my stone to the middle of the continent, to be placed at the northern shrine. The night before her daughter took me away, the High Queen made a request; to split the powers of the earth and skies so that neither would ever be more powerful than the other, maintaining a balance till the ends of the earth, for the High Queen had lost all faith in our return.

To the first High King of the West, she offered two of the stones, the Flaming Stone and the Stone of Flowers. She herself kept the stone of water and the copper stone. When her daughter placed my stone in the shrine it did what was requested- it literally split the earth in two, dividing the powers of the skies and the powers of the earth, which until then had always existed peacefully together.

That was the end of the Old Magic. The power to control the forces of the earth and bend them to your will using your own spiritual power. It was broken, artificially mutilated and torn into the power to control the mind and the spiritual world, and the power to wield prana, but without the ability to truly converse with it and without the ability to bend it to their will. The Old Magic disappeared from this world until a child was born who inherited the strongest powers from both sides... Only you, Princess Ruki, can now wield the Old Magic.”

Ruki felt herself blush as everyone stared at her. She had never thought her powers were so amazing, so ancient and so rare. It was so natural for her... To just call out to the earth.
“Am I... the only one able to do this now? Is there no one else who can learn?” Ruki asked, suddenly feeling a bit lonely.

“At the moment, it's only you.” Saule answered.
“But what about my daughter? What about Twinkle Star?” Regina almost begged.
Well, Ruki was also curious about that. How did Twinkle Star fit into this story? And what about her winged daughter, the child of Aras and Illuvia? What about little Câlin?

“I will come to that shortly. As you all know, the High Queens lost their position as High Queen, becoming nothing but Queens of the Friendship Lands, the lands once known only as the Crown of the World. This was because Aras had cut the link between the guardians and the earth, and thus effectively the link between Vitalia and the world, which was the base of their power. So the queens remained, but they were barely a shadow of what they once were.

Our mother in the skies knew, however, that a day would come in which darkness would swallow the earth if she could not recreate the link to the heavens. But only a guardian could do this, and only a guardian could summon us back to the world. So Vitalia was left with only one option- send another guardian to the womb of the line she had once entrusted the entire world to.

So after she had attained enough strength, Vitalia sent her newest spirit to the womb of the heir to the throne. But she had been so busy attaining enough power to do this a seventh time, that she had forgotten two very important things. The first was that she was now so far removed from the earth that the strength with which she send the spirit was barely enough. The second was that the Heir and the Firstborn were not the same person- after all, Regina's eldest sister Reine was banished, and Regina, the third sister, was now the heir.

So due to the weakness and the confusion, the soul split in two- the mind and the soul got separated. The mind, containing all the wisdom a guardian should have but lacking the sense of justice and the emotions needed to control that wisdom, ended up in Reine's womb, where it connected with Reine and created a complete spirit. So Illuvia, Reine's daughter, was a person with a great knowledge of the world and knew a lot about the past, present and future, and was well aware of her destiny and fate. But she was confused, scared and lost, the emotions her worldly soul created barely enough to control her mind.

And Twinkle Star... she was born unknowing of what her future held, or what she was supposed to become, but her soul was strong and she held a great sense of justice and she could feel when things were wrong or right. But she didn't know anything, so she was always searching for her purpose in life, her destiny. So Regina, Twinkle Star was half your daughter as half her spirit was created by you, but your husband was not her father.”

“So what will become of her now? And of Illuvia? You said the guardians were always send back to the world, right?” Ruki asked, hopeful she would see Twinkle Star again soon.
“You must understand, Ruki, that Twinkle Star and Illuvia were one- two sides of the same coin, as it were. When they died, their souls broke up- the part created by their earthly mother passed on, while their Guardian part lingered, waiting to be whole. Should she ever be send back, our youngest sister will not be the entity known to you as either Twinkle Star or Illuvia- she will be a higher being, a mix of two half spirits made whole again- our youngest sister.

But there is another problem. It is true Twinkle Star managed to open the gates of the Heavens and resummon us to this earth. But our mother... she is very far away now. She can not simply come back and send a soul here. It would be too dangerous- the chance of even a guardian spirit breaking apart, shattering in a thousand peaces is simply too great. No, Princess Ruki... I am afraid our youngest sister will never find the way back to the earth.”