What would Equestria be without the rule of its solar princess?  Today’s story speculates that the answer might be “nothing” in a more literal way than anyone suspects.

Equestria From Dust
[Adventure] [Alternate Universe] • 69,579 words

Celestia awakens to see an empty world, white sandstone stretching the horizon. She wanders the world as she builds it from her imagination, filling it with life, but as time passes, the world that she created begins to seem like little more than a lucid dream, conjured from the dust.

FROM THE CURATORS: “Mythology fics are always going to be divisive,” Chris warned us when he nominated this one, but he had nothing to worry about — this one solidly won over its critics.  “Even though I generally don’t care for premises that hinge on Celestia and Luna being gods, this story does too many things too well for me not to support it,” JohnPerry said.  Similarly, Horizon got hooked: “We’ve seen so much great Equestria mythology come through here that the merely good is getting underwhelming … but once the world had fully come together, Equestria From Dust grabbed me enough that I read all 70,000 words in a single sitting.”

What made the story so compelling?  “Celestia,” Chris said. “It paints a vivid picture of who Celestia is in relation to Equestria, and does so while crafting a suitably grand parallel for her budding awareness in her shaping of the world.  I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a great example of how to paint a character in a memorable, expansive manner.”  JohnPerry found other elements to like: “The characterizations, in particular, felt right (which is high praise from me whenever Discord is involved).  Going through it, I kept fearing that moment when it would slip up as we moved from ‘creation’ to ‘ruling’ to ‘fighting evil,’ but it never did, thanks in large part to the clever stylistic choices the author employs.”  And Horizon found its use of narrative tension exemplary: “Not only is there a compelling mystery in the darkness that Celestia fights, but the relationships we know from canon are also kept dangling over the characters like the sword of Damocles.  It won’t end how you expect, but it will tie everything up beautifully.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Soundslikeponies discusses Lovecraft’s reality, redeeming artistic flops, and trial by bear.
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