Long, long ago, in the ancient and beautiful land of Aruliea, there lived three tribes.
The unicorns, with their sparkling horns of silver, gold, and diamond, the pegasi, with their swift, silver-white wings, and the alicorns, who had wings of silver and horns of gold.
Together, they lived peacefully in harmony for many long moons.
But then one day, a hateful young two-leg named Shadow, the Dark One, grew jealous of their magic and power.
He felt they shouldn't get to keep it all to themselves. He felt they should share. So he began to capture unicorns, capture pegasi and alicorns and take their magic, their very essence, and give it to the two-legs.
Now they had beings who wielded power far beyond their knowledge. This power, the essence of unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns, could be passed down through the two-leg's bloodlines, so they could have magic generations to come.
As for what happened to the equine tribes when their power was stolen, there were many possibilities of what they turned into.
Most were outright killed when their essence left them.
Some turned into Ghasts, beings who have no body, mind, or soul, who roam the swamps of Aruliea and look for their lost power. When they see a living being of any sort, they fly into a furious rampage and destroy the unlucky creature and take its essence, trying to find what they've lost.
Some, the lucky ones, got turned into animals called horses, beings who have no horns or wings, but retain the shape of what they were before, though have no remembrance of who they used to be.
The unlucky ones turned into Ghasts or, in the rarest cases, Skeletons. They have no body but, as the name suggests, a skeleton. The bones of a unicorn, pegasus, or alicorn. A living skeleton. They were not alive, exactly—lacking heart, blood, and breath—but they moved as if they were.
But these things looked nothing like a beautiful, pure unicorn, pegasus, or alicorn. Their horns were twisted and chipped, and their wings, which had feathers still clinging to them, tattered and torn. They had no coat or colors, just white bone.
Only thirteen were said to exist: two alicorns, eight unicorns, and five pegasi. None of those unlucky thirteen roamed wild.
You see, the Dark One took a certain liking to the skeleton unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns, since they struck fear into the hearts of anyone who saw them.
They lived in his stables, and it is even said he rid the largest, most terrifying of the few. The stallion Boneripper, the Skeleton Alicorn.
Boneripper was the most bloodthirsty and vicious of all of them. His hooves crushed skulls, his teeth ripped into his prey, and his horn had impaled many hundreds of victims.
The worst trait of these monsters is the fact that they are immortal, for they are already dead. Thus, they lived far longer than any regular Equine. But they can only breed once every two thousand years, when all five moons are full and a female Skeleton goes into the Black Cyclone, an eternal lightning storm of immense ferocity. She must reach the eye of the storm and there her foal will be born.
Now, as for the rest of the unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns, they were very well on their way to dying out, since thousands of their kin were taken. Sad and afraid, they did the only thing they felt they could. They ran away.
The tribes separated and fled, the pegasi and alicorns taking to the sky, and the unicorns galloping below and using their magic to teleport short distances.
But the two-legs were greedy. They had magic in their bloodlines, but they wanted more. They wanted the unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns to tame and ride—a barbaric thing for sure.
When the two-legs spotted the fleeing tribes, they didn't just let them go. They knew it was their weakest point. So they grabbed their ropes and chains and weighted nets, heading out to capture the Equines. And indeed they did.
Pegasi fell from the sky as the nets were launched from the ground, and unicorns were roped and knocked out so they couldn't use their magic. They were dragged away from their herds, and even as they whinnied in distress, no one came to their aid. The rest of the Equines knew they could do nothing to rescue them, and most were too focused on their flight to save them.
Only the alicorns suffered no casualties, for they had the swiftness and wings of the pegasi, and the magic and horns of the unicorns, and they were already far ahead of the others.
No one knows why, but finally the two-legs stopped their onslaught. They turned around and went home, taking the captured with them.
What was left of the tribes could, at least, flee in peace.
They ran and flew and ran and flew until they reached the ocean, but still they raced on. Some swimming and others flying.
Far, far out at sea they found an island, not quite a continent, but big enough they could live there without seeing each other.
Each tribe hated the other, for each believed the other had caused the downfall of the great age, back on Aruliea.
The last time they worked together was when they created the magic barrier, a dome, around the island, about a mile out from every shore. You could go out, but you couldn't come back in.
They called the island Aruli Haven.
And even after hundreds of years, when Shadow was most definitely dead, they still did not go back.
Hundreds more years passed, and most forgot why they hated each other, though they still knew they did. They chose to forget the past, hoping that in forgetting, they could forge a new future.
But some knew the past was important. They told the story of their ancestors through every generation. They did not forget.
Castles of the unicorns were built with magic, and still they did not forget. Alicorns built cities, and still they did not forget. The pegasi built a metropolis in the clouds, and still they did not forget.
"But over the many centuries since, some family's heirs blended in with everyone else, and soon only one remained who still told the story. He died, but not without siring a foal, who told it to her foal, and on and on, until me….and you. The last of our family."
The little foal lay in her soft bed of hay and grass, curled up against her mother's side. The five moons shone bright outside their home, the unicorn city Uniia silent and still.
The dam, a bay mare with a black mane and tail, and the foal, a sorrel with a reddish tint to her coat and a peach mane and tail, muzzle fuzzy and black.
The mare had a beautiful golden horn twisting from her fetlock.
The foal's horn was iridescent blue, with many sides like a crystal, and refracted light in a rainbow of color. The rarest of all horns. A diamond horn.
The mother unicorn licked the foal's fetlock off her small forehead, revealing a white diamond marking just below her horn.
Goldmoon smiled. Her foal would continue the tradition her family had started so many moons ago.
She may no longer have her sire, but a dam was all a foal needed. Her daughter was perfect. And—she brought her horn to her foal's—a diamond horn. The sign of a very powerful unicorn. She'd taken after her father after all.
The little chestnut had been born yesterday, and Goldmoon had already told her the story twenty times.
"You're perfect," Goldmoon whispered into the foal's ear, making it twitch. "You're perfect, you're perfect, you're perfect. And Mother loves you very much."
She paused for a second. Had she given her a name yet? Hmm. No…
Goldmoon looked the foal up and down. Her eyes landed on the foal's white diamond marking and iridescent blue horn.
Ah. I know. She thought, smiling gently and saying, "Your name," Goldmoon watch as the foal yawned and opened her eyes, lifting her head to look at her. "Your name is Diamond.