Gaia is the ruler of this magical land we know and love, but she takes many forms. She has been a pony, but also a hippogriff, a changeling, a dragon, and an array of other creatures. She has presented as male and female. Each species’ stories about her “coming” all have truth to them because she was there in one of her forms. Interpretations have changed over the centuries to fit each culture of course, but it still stands that it was always her. Nobody has connected the dots yet, though.
Some of the forms she has taken include:
Queen Gaia - Goddess of the ponies, the mother of Queens Celestia and Luna
Queen Periwinkle - Goddess of the hippogriffs
King Augustus - God of the yaks
Dragon Lord Ardor - God of the dragons
Emperor Gideon - God of the griffons
Empress Laurel - Goddess of the kirins
Queen Aphid - Goddess of the changelings