Chapters Celestia and Luna walked past a strange world, Discord’s reign always was, as his name implied, chaotic but not an evil kind, just like a circus. “I know he is an anarchist but this extreme even for their standards” said Luna, as she walked past houses that existed from three parts from one view and then in the other one it fell as if it was a made from single file of paper, all while surrounded by bright pink clouds that rained chocolate milk.
Celestia was a bit disturbed by the creatures eating objects in reverse and drinking glass and throwing away the milk
Celestia and Luna then turn a corner and see Discord, the draconequus. The two sisters approach him in confidence, Luna then spoke "we have asked of you this before but surrender your rule, we have the elements of harmony, and their faith is not one you would wish see.” Luna knew that it was useless telling him anything, but she was confident in the element’s power and wanted to give discord a fair chance, with a warning.
Discord was eating seeds and spill a lot of them over the sisters as he was a lot taller than them “dear Luna, I think you’ve forgotten, there is nobody as powerful as me, maybe exclude Grogar, but he is been dead for millennials.” Discord switched tone and started mocking the sister. “Want some sunflower seeds? They are delicious.”
The Celestia pulled out the elements of harmony. Celestia hands three of the crystals to Luna and then held the other three herself. The two sisters, stood wing-to-wing and surrounded themselves with the crystals in the shape of a circle.
Discord took notice and started mocking them “oh the elements, oh the horror!” Discord said sarcastically “I am the lord of chaos, I have control over all of reality. Literally!!” Discord then snapped his finger leading to a brief moment when the night came and was followed by day in a matter of seconds, and all of the houses were made from cheese and all the bulls were covered in sheep wool and dancing as if they were professionals with decades of experience and then night returned for a brief a second to show now the bulls were the size of the mountains.
The sisters stood there in silence preparing the spell. Then there eye’s glowed and the hexagonal crystals connected with each other and then powered the element of magic. This created an incredibly powerful source of magic that was directed towards discord, who was still doubtful that it would cause any damage let alone defeat him. Discord started posing to continue to mock the sisters. That would mark his downfall, as soon as he was hit by the power the elements he was turned into stone.
“You know what the best part of his reign was?” asked Celestia “the end of it”. Luna gave a light chuckle “well that’s his end, he set his reputation in stone.” The puns stopped after that.
In the aftermath the ponies of Equestria needed someone to lead them. The two sisters stood up to take the position in part because they were alicorn, the perfect of all ponies with their ability to access the magic of unicorns, the flight of pegassai and the raw strength and connection to nature of earth ponies. The two sisters were also capable of moving the sun and the moon to bring forth night and day.
5 years have passed since the defeat of discord and the sisters were crowned queens of Equestria but they still choose the title princess. The older sister, Celestia was crowned as the ruler of the day. The younger one was crowned as ruler during the night. Together they had created a castle in the Everfree forest where they also hid the elements of harmony to protect it from necessary evils on. The sisters defended their land from the invasion of lord Tierk, banishing him to Tartarus.
Celestia was incredible at boosting morale and improving the economy, in the span of the timeframe she made an incredible recovery from the aftermath of discord’s chaotic empire, which left nearly everything in ruin, and then proceed to bring a small city together after just a few weeks, creating the city of Canterlot, located in the middle of the Everfree forest and one of the biggest to ever exist. Celestia worked to the bone to from her city, she had walls collapse on her while building them and taught all the unicorns and pegasai the basics for defense in case of another threat that would harm the individuals
Luna, on the other hands spent her time studying the magic of the stars and thought all magic individuals of Canterlot how to control and use their magic, she helped distribute the teachings of her mentor starswirl the bearded. There was problem, as she was the one who ruled during the night very few were there learn from her, fortunately she had her sister, Celestia who learned from her to help with the improving the day.
With the second year on the horizon, Celestia and Luna, formed a festival to celebrate the incredible progress of Canterlot and the defeat of discord, they hoped it would be help give more faith and hope to their people to push forward, to continue and unify all of equestria under a peaceful twilight.
The festival started from when the sun was risen followed by a speech by Celestia “dear ponies of equestria we are united today to celebrate the great accomplishment of I and my beloved sister in defeating the tyrannical reign of Discord which was shortly followed by the attempt of tierk. We shall spend these two days to appreciate and enjoy the lack of unnecessary chaos and be free from predatory pineapples, realty-altering conjuration and flying pigs.” Everypony cheered in excitement. “Let the festival begin” announced Celestia
The festival was a success, during the day it was thriving and was full of life. As dusk approached Luna swapped places with Celestia and raised her moon with its beautiful soft shade. “Dear attendees of the festival, night has fallen as I stand where my sister sat. I hope you enjoy the beauty of the stars and the off-light of the sun.” The night brought with it many’s desire to leave as they were tired form the strikes of the day and as the younger kin could not hold themselves to see the bright night sky, the older took them with lullabies to the land of dreams. Very few stayed to study with Luna of the stars, Luna carried the power of empathy and actually preferred solitude but didn’t mind the few who stuck with her.
As dawn was approaching many woke up to view the beautiful morning twilight. Luna made her way back to her castle where she saw Celestia raise her sun. Celestia then arrived to the front to see a crowd eagerly waiting for her to speak her words of hope. “Dear ponies, stated like yesterday today we shall take gratitude in the life free of dread form chaotic powers!” and like yesterday everypony cheered
Midway through the day Celestia got a strange visit from another species of ponies. They had eyes shaped like crystals, their colors mostly covered with cooler tones, it was as if they had a layer of that gave them a cooler and transparent, sheet-of-glass, regardless of their actual colors. Celestia was very intrigued by the ponies and personally welcomed them and was beyond egger to know their origins.
“Welcome fellow travelers, the city of Canterlot is open to all who respect it.” Greeted Celestia. The travelers were left in aw twice. First with the presence of an alicorn, her beautiful white wings and horns were a spectacle beyond their world. The second was the size of their castle and the dense population of Canterlot, which they described much smaller than their homeland but nowhere near as clusterphobic. The foreign ponies decided to temporarily stay, as their new nomadic lifestyle required more effort than they anticipated.
During their visit the foreigners were surprised by the commercial power of the town, with items they considered rare being as common as the air they were breathing.
Dusk was approaching, the foreigners went to the city center to see everyone surrounding Celestia and Luna to witness the dusk ceremony, they found Luna more hospitable as she shared their similar colors, dark blue fur and near transparent outline for her mane. They were again in aw twice. First when they saw the sisters work their magic and lowering the sun bringing the moon. Second by her oddly commanding but soft voice which mixed perfectly with her cool toned wings and horn.
The visitors were pulled aside by Celestia as she tried to introduce them to Luna. Luna became curious as she started asking questions about where they came from. Hoping to expand their relations with other kingdoms. The sister then learn about the crystal empire and their upcoming ruler, king Sombra. His kingdom was located in the artic north near the foot of the east side of the mountain range that acted as border to equestrian territory.
The two sisters less than week managed to plan a trip to head north. They had left their most trusted pony in charge, Clipperchip, in a hope he would be able to rule in their absence.
The sisters began their journey. “This journey isn’t taking as long as I thought it would. We already nearing the white snow and we are close to the mountain range as well.” remarked Celestia.
“Dear sister, do I need remind you that we have wings more able than most native to them.” Responded Luna, acting as if her sister were simple-minded.
Celestia responded with slight concern “I am aware of these wings but I feel it should be further away, equestria isn’t that big is it? Either way I am surprised we didn’t discover this place sooner. Its full empire not a small village and the crystal ponies said their capital was bigger in size and we searched long and far for the elements of the pillars”.
“That too surprises me that we are this late. Do you think they were affected by discord’s reign?” asked Luna.
“I doubt that it wouldnt have been” responded Celestia with confidence “his reign covered all that an eye could see”.
“Our eyes didn’t see this place for their entire existence” responded Luna “if it was to be unaffected do you think many would have migrated to it?”
"We will need to wait and see sister.” finished Celestia
The sisters saw the foot of the northern mountains “move east sister!” yelled Luna.
Celestia a bit curious responded “I know! I know! But I just want to see what is beyond the mountains”.
Luna almost losing her patience from all the flying “only more mountains!” Celestia reluctantly followed her sister.
Within the next four hours the sisters, saw a sharp shard sticking out from the clouds. The sisters reacted quickly unfortunately for Luna, she came to an unsuccessful halt and injuring both the shard and her underwing, immobilizing her wings. Celestia was quick to grab her and bring her younger sister down to land.
As they landed, Celestia took a look at Luna’s wound “we need to treat that as soon as possible.”
Luna was dismissive of the pain “it just a scratch!”
“And it’s as big as your eyes! It will probably snap if remained untreated” exclaimed Celestia.
luna impulsively combated “You are not the one who studied healing and star prophecies.”
“Ok but what does the second part have anything to do with this.” Celestia was confused.
Luna then gave a long sigh and followed through with “what I am saying is that I will be fine for a few weeks but yes I will not recover without treatment and to do that I will require certain herbs that are impossible to find the white snow. Guess we should not have rushed the preparation for the trip.”
Celestia was still concerned for her sister “but we won’t find any capable herb merchants before the moon needs you.”
Luna stood up and pointed into the endless void of fog “we do not need to search any longer, we are within the outer premise of the empire. I saw it as crashed into the shard.”
Luna stood up as if nothing happened and started walking. “The empire is that way.” Pointing in the opposite direction they landed into. They started walking, luna struggled as she practically drag her wing through the snow, which reached their knees. After a seemingly short walk that elongated by Luna’s wound and the fog. They had reached a single flat city covered in hues of blue.
The sisters were a bit surprised to see only a single city, large one but only one. They walked through the city, and they were greeted by many eyes. “It’s a bit off-putting that they stare so…vividly, is it not sister?” whispered Luna.
“Well not exactly, in equestria, at least to the ponies, there only two maybe three known alicorns.” Responded Celestia.
“Three?” Luna was left confused “Unless you intend our other sister there is no other alicorn they could know, and if they did know her then that is big news.”
“maybe their king is an alicorn, probably an ascended one,but that wouldn't explain the eyes. And to answer your first question, we stick out like a candle in darkness, because we are alicorns”
The two sisters traveled through the city until they the center shard. In one of the foot of the shard there was big piece of crystal that was surrounded by a small crowd with a unicorn with a dark cyan skin and red cape which contrasted with his dark mane.
“I am willing to bet a hundred bits that he is at least somepony important” said Celestia, “well sister looks like you’ve already won.”
The unicorn then turned to look at the sister and instantly dropped what he was doing. “It seems that we have visitors to our empire, royal ones form the look of it. King Sombra at your service.” Greeted Sombra. The sisters were a bit shocked that he was king they were expecting an alicorn. “So what brings you to our fine empire, and might I ask if you had any information on the damage caused to the upper end of shard?” asked Sombra.
Luna responded “uhh yes it was I who accidently bumped into it, its mark is still visible. I do deeply apologize for the collateral damage.”
Celestia interrupts “so it a kind of specialized or powerful transformer that changes the magic it receives.” Sombra then continues “more or less, it’s a generator more, we know that emotions can serve as power source or fuel, the crystal heart receives these emotions, in this case the love for the empire, and powers the city. Now if I am given a moment ill share with you its power.”
Sombra took Luna near the crystal and stood still and started concentrating, then he spoke in an foreign language and then Sombra used his horn to connect with the crystal and then transferred its energy and directed it towards Luna who in a matter of seconds felt her wing recover fully. Luna felt great and her sister was mesmerized by the crystal’s power.
Sombra then turned towards the two sisters and asked for something in return that being answer to some questions he had been willing to ask alicorns. “First question. How long do you guys tend to live and what age are you living through now.”
Celestia responded first “well alicorn age is very long in comparison to that of normal ponies, one alicorn year is roughly fifty pony years, on top of that most alicorn last upwards fifty to eighty alicorn years, I just reached twenty years and my sister stands tall at eighteen. Despite the fact that those numbers signal just reaching maturity, many alicorns reach full maturity by age four or five. ”
This only left Sombra with more questions. “ok so, what of your parents who were they, how long did they live for?”
Luna then picked up the conversations “our parent's name are ones we can not speak in public about but i can provide with some information on their lives in equestria, by their tradition they had to raise children away from their empire, they choose to raise me and my sister’s lives at equestria in the end they eventually were rejected by their own empire, and choose to raise us in the mountain of Canterlot. They then fought Grogar as they realized his threat not only to their own empire that they worked hard to create. They were incredibly powerful even for alicorn status, but Grogar stood on a higher level and with the help of his bell was able to take a majority of their magic. They spent their final bit of magic instead on sharing it creating an eternal spell that would give way to the ascended alicorn, meaning any pony with enough skill ,power and leadership to rule all three kinds of ponies, would be capable of turning into an alicorn so far none have broken that barrier. Our parents stuck the last breath on the age one hundred and twenty.”
Sombra knew from the look of the sisters that they were very distressed just hearing about her parents so he stopped with his question and instead offered them a place to stay. But before he could offer them a place to rest the sisters started their process of lowering the sun and bring the moon. Sombra was amazed, and then offer them a place to rest as he could easily tell by their sunken eyes and week wings.
Sombra then lead them into his shard and lend them the opposite side of the castle to his quarters. As Celestia went to sleep Luna stayed up to perform her nightly studies on the stars.
Sombra noticed Luna awake “you are not sleeping?” he asked.
Luna turned to him “no, though it is my duty to guard and research the moon and her children.”
“the sun and the moon are two of the most powerful entities to exist, not divine more like sentient power banks, with power only being demonstrated by their form, of which the moon’s cannot be transformed into another, at least that is what we know, which is very little and can be disproven or improved with more that is discover; in other words there is much to learn about them. But the stars on the other hand, we have decent information for them, they, like the sun and moon are power banks. But unlike the sun and moon, their power can be extracted but only by few, and when they are extracted they tend to be temporary as no creature can handle it without either removing it or wasting themselves with it.”
Sombra was still confused as to why research. Luna felt like she was talking to her sister who rarely understood what Luna did during the night. “In order for one to take the magic of the stars" continued luna "they need to be in certain position. From this many, including I, believe that these stars collectively know all there is to know in the timeline, meaning they know who will absorb their magic so they head into place; studying the correlation between our world’s magical events and their position can be a key to learning of the future. Unfortunately it is a very long process; a pony can start from birth study nonstop till death and barely scratch their secrets only alicorn with their gift of long life can even attempt to reach it only to learn very little of the whole. Now if you don’t mind I prefer I would like to perform my duties alone tonight I am very weary from yesterday’s interactions.”
The day eventually had been risen by Celestia and Luna moved to sleep. During the day Sombra and Celestia discussed nonstop about their respective lives and kingdoms. They eventually agree on forming an alliance of trade and military, before the sister decided to leave.
Many years had passed since the alliance was formed. During these years Sombra and Celestia formed a very strong friendship they would often visit each other for both diplomatic and personal reasons. Luna too was involved with Sombra, while not as much as Celestia, Luna did discuss with Sombra a lot about magic and Sombra even provided Luna with tool resources that accelerated magic discovery.
One day while Celestia was helping resolve an argument caused by the talented merchant known as loaded hooves, came an urgent message by Clipperchip. “Dear princess this message can’t wait a single second! The crystal empire has declared war! Here is the note signed by the king himself he says you have ten day and that they’ve already claimed Stalionstead! We must take action!”
Celestia was shocked, almost as if she were paralyzed. But she tried to bring herself back “take your five best scouts and map their entire area of dominance with that info we will know what to do next.” said Celestia.
Celestia awaited till dusk, when the moon had to be risen, for sister. The two began talking “why? Why would he out of the blue declare war on us? Our relations have never been poor, in fact it was probably as close to ideal we could get.” Asked Luna
“maybe he played us he was never our friend to begin with.” Responded Celestia in a cold voice
“no that makes too little sense he funded our magical discoveries. Of how magic works, it wouldn’t benefit him at all as our enemies.” Luna she was slowly becoming more and more impatient as none of the pieces made sense.
The second day arrived and the sister impatiently awaited Clipperchip’s return. Instead came his son, Cloudcutter, the greatest of all the flyers. “Where is your father, Cloudcutter?” asked Celestia she feared the worst.
“that’s what I need to talk about.” said Cloudcutter “we arrived at the empire and saw that blue floor was now instead black same goes with Sombra his eyes were as green as the stem of the flowers and…” the sisters already knew what had happened “he had a thick and dense kind of smoke around him, my father lead half of the squad to the north and east sides while I covered the south and west ones. My entire squad was ambushed and all of them had lost their wings and died, my father had experienced the same fate but narrowly survived unlike his other friends and he had also his wing fully chopped I tried to save him. I landed us outside the conflict zone, and now awaits recovery.” Both Luna and Celestia were shocked to hear this.
Celestia then walked off to the basement of her castle “where are you going, sister?” asked Luna.
“To take the elements of harmony out of their protective jail” responded Celestia with a tone of frustration.
“no sister, we must not use them out of emotion. We made a pact not use it for threats smaller than our capabilities.” Said Luna
“he surely isn’t as powerful as the two of us. His power source is the crystal heart and after long research it does not function over hate, but his own emotion can serve as a capable source of power. But I do doubt he can rely solely on it” explained Luna.
The sisters then order the best of all three tribes came with her to fight, she gathered ten pegasi to give aerial denial, and ten earth ponies as raw strength, ten unicorns, two of them were specialized medical support the rest served as with the earth ponies.
The sisters arrived with their small army, ready to fight, for the city of Canterlot and ultimately all of equestria. At the empire they saw all the ponies wearing identical helmets that had a green light coming from the small opened visor. Then one of the pegasi quickly did a scan of the empire that you could see, when he returned he described it as enslavement camp.
As a last hope for a peaceful resolution Celestia wrote a treaty and with her magic threw it to Sombra, who stood on top of the wall of the empire. Sombra wrote back and Luna caught it and read it she ripped it there out of anger. “Sombra rejected.” Celestia knew from one look and voice that there was more to the letter and she could not share it.
The sisters then moved forward and began the attack. five unicorns were commanded to move forward and break the wall, the unicorns stood forth a charged their horns and first shot in a circular shape then all at once, including the sisters's vastly superior skills, aimed at the center of their previous shot, leading to the wall being in multiple pieces.
The sister then took lead and raised their wings and began to hover at high speed toward the empire, the pegasai stayed close and did not reach for the sun due to the archers defending the sun. The earth ponies followed on foot with the unicorns right behind them, who were both somewhat left in the dust form the speed of their winged peers. The two sisters entered head first in to the city, their plan was dig to the center to the shard, where Sombra had moved to, then the earth ponies, supported by the unicorns would spread from the inside.
The alicorn sisters reached the walls and prepared their magic, shooting powerful rays forcing the soldiers to move or be shot, regardless the crystal ponies still charged, the pegasai focused on the archers on the walls of the city, as aerial power would give an advantage so powerful it’d guarantee victory. Eventually came the earth pony who stared carving a path through the crowd followed by the explosive powers of the unicorns.
The war was suffering many losses, the sisters had lost half of their healers and main force. Ultimately the sisters realized that they could not suffer any more losses and told her forces to retreat, but the sisters stood where they stand and did not abandon their objective to stop Sombra.
Celestia looked and Luna “for all those who live in their homes, we will protect by offensive measures.” Said Celestia.
“well looks like we are back to our old ways, alone but tall standing. None of our warriors must die without their last vision being of their loved ones. We will take that bit for ourselves.” Responded Luna.
Both sisters jumped into the sky and made and attempt to fly to Sombra. As they flew past they saw nothing but darkness the arrows by the archers filled their vison, the sisters were not deterred by the sight, they knew about their natural abilities to take more damage, to fly faster than sound, to use their gifted talent of magic.
The sister gave an incredible attempt, they constantly kept using their deflection spell and teleportation one as well, moved fast to the point of creating multiple sonic booms, they withstood many steel arrows.
Celestia then landed through a window in the hall where Sombra stood. Celestia had five arrows on her, one on each wing and the area below it and one at her front left knee. “you are weary, my love. It would be futile for you to even stand, my archers were enough to damage you to disability. I’d advise you to let that knee heal.” Celestia stayed silent and slowly tried standing up “you were always so arrogant. My darling we don’t need to fight we can rule together. Imagine it, your parents’ always wanted you to rule over a wide and powerful kingdom.” Celestia stood up and said no words “the silent treatment… you clearly stand where you believe. Against your own parents’ dreams. In that case we will let time choose our fate.” Celestia stood prepared on her feet know what was to come, she had her ward spell at the ready.
Sombra jumped at Celestia with his horn first. The two clashed with horn to horn. Celestia with her wings launches a powerful wind that pushes Sombra to the ground and pushes herself away, she followed it up with a powerful ray of energy directed towards Sombra. Sombra combats it with a teleportation to help him close the gap. The two again end up in a clash but now Sombra shows his strength and pushes Celestia until she has her back towards the corner wall there she a risky gamble. She had tried a repulsion spell that she had very little knowledge of, she commits to it and casts it. The effect was colossal. She destroyed the wall behind her completely and pushed Sombra across the hall. Celestia was badly injured and could not move.
Then came Luna flying from the broken wall and immediately shot the celling’s support right above Sombra causing that part of the celling to collapse on him, she than came down to help her sister and started performing a spell she discovered herself, she brought out a small crystal that she drew energy form and started healing her. Then Sombra stood up from the ruble and shot the floor that Celestia performed her spell on causing it to fall apart. Luna was fast enough to move out of the collapsing floor but her sister fell through onto the crowd below. Luna knew from her spell that she would be fine.
She began fighting Sombra. Sombra came charging at her, Luna the teleported behind him and shot him into the wall but before he could even touch he turns in to a cloud of smoke and reappears in front her. Luna was caught off guard by that in response she creates an area-of-effect spell that cause all to burn around her. Sombra again turns into a smoke and appears right underneath her, hitting him with his horn and following through with a powerful shot that stunned Luna. Sombra then leaped on to Luna, pinning her and putting his hove on her wing and slowly reaching to Luna’s ear. All Luna saw was Sombra’s face with a parasitic black flame exiting from the back of his head. “Is thou worth?” said Sombra in a slow and calm voice.
Sombra then lets out the black flame that exited from his head and directs it towards Luna. It devourers Luna, she sees many visions each scarier than the one she sees before until she sees herself frozen but conscious for a millennia. Luna screamed in terrible agony from the flame’s tapeworm like presence that caused a massive headache, she screamed at the top of her lungs, it’s pushed all away.
During this time Celestia was trapped below from all direction but she proved to be a strong fighter and easily withstood the forces that came towards her. Eventually after a few minutes she finally found her way out of the ruble, as she did, she heard the almost unrecognizable scream of her suffering sister. Filled with the power of her emotions, Celestia rose with the speed of a thousand sounds and threw herself into Sombra, quickly followed by her repulsion spell directed entirely towards Sombra. She brought up her wings covering Luna. Sombra then shot the same magic towards Celestia, in response she used one of her wings to protect herself and the other protecting Luna. Celestia did not even flinch.
Luna slowly backed herself up, as she thought of a way to defeat Sombra. Then she looked up to the brown sky, she had an idea. Although it was still day Luna raised her moon to block the sun creating a temporary night. The sudden absence of light shortly stunned Sombra, but for long enough to allow Celestia to temporarily disable him, by shooting for the leg and forcing part of the ceiling to collapse on to him.
Then Luna looked at the stars and noticed one in a perfect position to intercept “sister we now have access to the stars! Their power projected from our combined talents will surly defeat Sombra.” Called Luna. The sisters then rose to the sky and put their horn together. “We only have a brief moment to perform our spell! The star will provide us with the power but we must perform our spell perfectly to defeat Sombra.” The sister began concentrating and preparing themselves to feel the power of a star. During this Sombra began recovering and reached to where the sisters stood. The next thing he saw was a powerful beam that obliterated him to beyond ash.
The sister struck a sigh of relief and turned back to first see the star that they took and second the crystal ponies free from Sombra’s cursed helmets that forced his bidding. Instead they saw a star still present and snow with a lack of population. “Where is the empire?!” said Celestia.
Luna saved and thought and responded with “Sombra, must have cast a spell that caused the empire and all in it to disappear with him, the crystal heart couldn’t have saved the empire because it was already inactive.”
“So both the empire and Sombra are gone” continued Celestia.
“Well that explains the empire but what of the star?” Said Luna
“I don’t think we used It.” said Celestia “our powers combined were enough to defeat Sombra.” “But that level of power can’t be acomplished by ponies!” said Luna in confusion
“we are alicorns, remember?” responded with Celestia with slight arrogance
“well looks as if we underestimate our own powers then.” said Luna.