You ask, how did I pass the time?

Sometimes, it seems as though I’ve hardly just arrived. I am forgetful of the million million years I spent before my little ones arrived. Who can blame me? What is probably the briefest span of years in my life has been, easily, the most important.

On the first day, I remember, I remember, before the sun and the moon, before there was light to cast shadow, there was only the great sea. The first thing, the first action, was movement in the deep. The second thing, was light. The third thing, was darkness.

And that was the first day. How else to describe being born? Spun from stardust, from water and iron and gold and silver and light, every wisp of nebula another layer of my existence. Why did I kindle? What birthed my flaming heart? Who can say? I tell you, when I took my first step and cast light upon the darkness, there was no mortal there to witness it. I did not see the hand that set my ablaze. Thus the origin of my first name, El-Alam-Olan, the Eternal Sun. But that ancient name is newborn compared to me, for at that time, there was no language, nor words.

For my first million years, I watched what might have been brothers and sisters condense before me, but they did not burn as I did. They lacked some spark that I possessed, and they became planets, of all shapes and forms, but for two. One became a mirror of my light, and the other a mirror of my life. So I descended to the surface of the largest one, to see what my light had wrought.

I do not remember anything of my walk but this: when the volcanoes had calmed themselves, and the primordial forces of the planet ceased their struggle and became the gentle rhythms of the earth, I walked along the shore of the sea. I marveled at the ocean, its depth and grandeur, at the small deep that mirrored the great deep below everything. And there, in the reflection of light and water, I found another like me, and we became sisters, and for a million years we were never apart from each other.

Some say that my sister is less than I, being born from a reflection of light on water, but they are fools. I was born from the spinning dust of the cosmos. She was born from deepest wonder and awe. The ocean may be shallower than the great deep, but wonder is deeper than the farthest fathoms.

The next eon was very boring. Mountains were formed, worn down, and formed again. Continents drifted across the sea.

Nothing happened.

What of my relationship between my sister and I, you ask? Surely there was some distraction? What should I tell you, little one? How can I explain how the Sun speaks to the Moon, without language, without music, without bodies. We spoke only with the secret language that lives in the spirit, the language of love, and the soul. But, truth be told, we were barely alive.

It was this world that really brought us to life.

I do not remember when the first of my little ones walked the world. You may find that strange, but you must remember that I measured time in thousands on thousands of years. I blinked, and there you were, walking the world.

So much changed. I changed.

Let me tell you the most important part of the story.

It was after you ponies, on your own, defeated the Wendigos, the spectres of frost that were as much your own creation as a creation of this strange world, that my sister and I could stand it no longer, and we shed our forms as the Sun and Moon and were reborn amongst you.

What? You find that strange? Think of how I once exiled my sister. I am not the Sun any longer, nor is my sister. To her and I, they are but bodies to be taken, a shell to house a spirit. This flesh is not Celestia.

So we were born among you, and kept our secret origin a secret. It was not as hard as you think. We knew not language nor convention. In many ways, when we first came here we were children. I, El-Alam-Olan, the Ancient One, was a child. It was strange.

We could not have known of the chaos in the deep.

My little one sometimes forget that this body is merely a vessel for the blinding incandesence that was formed at the beginning of time. I ascended to the heavens, my sister and I, and I fought him three times.

The first time with power. The pure and infinite power of the sun. I stamped him out, but he rose from the ashes every time. Chaos cannot be beaten by destruction, for it is entropy and chaos that births him. He laughed, and mocked, but he lacked words.

So then I fought him with words, and I uttered the phrases that the unicorns had taught me, and said ‘The weapon against chaos is secret knowledge’. I bound him with language into the form of a dragon with many parts, and though he screeched, he could not break those chains. But then he laughed, and now having langugage, said:

“I AM OLDER THAN MUSIC
I BRING
A STAR
I BRING
LIGHT
I BRING
THE FATHOMLESS DEEP

And he was not defeated, and his presence threatened to sink the whole world.

Finally, I and my sister fought him with perfect harmony, which all living things embodied, but only ponies had chosen. Such an action is anathema to the great chaos in the deep. Though the fathoms are great, deeper still is wonder, and deeper still is love, and deeper still the great harmony. We made this world anathema to him, and bound him chains, he could not live here, and became a rock.

Thus chaos in his many forms was vanquished. You little ones marveled at our power and wisdom. Then I was named Solaira Invicta, the Unconquered Sun, Keeper of the Light, El-Alam-Olan, The Queen of Heaven, Anu-Padhome-Ahnurr, and all the thousands of names that you have given me since then, as well as the only one I have ever answered to - Celestia.

Yes, I will answer another question. Ah, but haven’t I answered that already?

The Queen of Deception fed upon something deeper than the great chaos swirling beneath everything. Love is one of those strangenesses that is right in spite of the facts, in spite of time or place. I opposed it as Discord did, with strength, and was rebuffed, as I knew I had to be. But I bought time, did I not?

Yes, I know none of this makes sense. I’m sorry, my student, but you asked a mystic question whether or not you knew it, so you get a mystic answer.

I will not speak to you of how I banished my sister, because it is something that I'd rather Equestria forget - but perhaps I am wrong. It did happen. I merely sent her back to the shell she once inhabited. But she didnt'...quite fit back in there, as she was. She was no longer the Moon, but Luna. Well. Nightmare Moon. It was the only thing I could do. The world cannot grow in eternal darkness. There is a time for rest, and a time for waking. You cannot dream forever. To do so is to cease dreaming and become dead.

Oh, but it would have been a sweet dream, Twilight. I saw her, in her heart of hearts. Towers of moonlight and glass, with purple ivy and blades of grass, and stone towers where death and time would sit, patiently, gazing down upon the great night-time. The moon would then beam and give sweet-smelling dreams of the beauteous seaward lee. And the stars would then shine, and would be as bright eyes, to gaze down on the velvet-black sea.

My darling, my darling Luna. It was my fault, Twilight. She was better than me, but I nevet let her shine as bright as I. I knew it too. I knew she was jealous, that the little ones loved me more, because I was bright and kind and because I could be better than her. Because I was the Sun, and I brought them everything, and Luna only brought them dreams. They forgot how important she was. I forgot how important she was. The seasons, the sky, the sea, they all almost stopped working when she left, when she became her own Nightmare and forced us all to recant, to apologize. It was a perfect disharmony, to bring me to my senses. And later, to bring Discord from his prison. But you know how that story goes.

Cadance is a newcomer, of course. As are you, my student, but in a different way. You are a mortal who became an immortal, not a god who became an immortal. I think it could keep going too. Perhaps I could be a pony? You become magic?

How strange would that be.

Finally, we get to the raising of the Sun. The unicorns of old, first, recreated the universe so that the sun orbited around the earth.

What? Impossible? Not as hard as you might think.

Astronomy teaches us that Equestria and the planets orbit the sun, but it has been demonstrated that the Sun will not rise unless I raise it. These are mutually exclusive events, but I assure you they are equally true.

The answer is that the universe is both simpler and more complex than you realize. Two opposite things can indeed be true at the same time. You might say that they must be true. The ancient unicorns took the gap between the mystic and the real and they forced it closed, with ancient rites that I will not tell you or any living creature again. The result is that this is a world governed by natural and mystic forces, a world where a symbol is as important as what it represents. Think on the consequences of this.

The opposite is also true, however. One can do magic with the mundane. Indeed, this is the basis of all alchemy. But I digress.

Time and time again, I have explained this one truth that few have cleaved to - know the difference between truth and reality. Know what is right and what is real. Tell lies to tell the truth. Be wary of being deceived by what is true.

Nothing is real. But that doesn’t make it any less important. It makes it more important. Memento Mori is not a command to despair, but a call to arms, a reminder that everything you do, little one, is so very, very important.

Immortality is merely delaying the inevitable. An immortal can’t waste a single moment. Believe me, we will account for all of them in the end.

But of course, you are right, this tells you nothing of how to raise the sun. Are you prepared?

Strength. What! Are you surprised? Did I not already tell you that you can do magic with the mundane, as every alchemist knows? The secret, time and time again, is more obvious than you ponies think. Have enough strength to reach out the ninety-two million miles to the sun, and then to lift ten times the whole world's weight above your head. Perhaps you should raise the moon instead?

I tease. I know you've had your heart set on it. But don't doubt your own strength. You're an immortal of magic. A feat of strength is, well, nothing to one such as you. Remember that it is simply a shell, and that you are spirit, and with effortless effort, it will move.

Can you feel it? Gold and silver and iron and water and light? Here, let me show you...