Author's Note

Sorry to make this such a fat starting chapter, I just had to get the time skip out of the way before getting to the real story!

1: A new world

A powerful alicorn spirit watches the events of another world with tears flowing down her face as she collects another soldier from one of many battles to claim the holy city of Jerusalem between the Saracens and the Templar order, saying "Oh how you stir complex emotions within me, soldiers of god, I mourn and grieve for each of you that falls in this struggle."

After spending a little over two centuries to collect certain souls, her mind conjures up the memory of the fall of Acre and causes a tear to drop from her left eye. Not wanting to see any more suffering, she uses her magic to travel to the dimension where she placed each of the souls she gathered, looking upon the hundreds of thousands of gathered souls thinking, 'I must find a way for their souls to hear my words...'

Using her magic to grant them spectral bodies, as well as being able to listen, think, and speak, she watches their souls each choose its own appearance. She looks upon the souls as their transparent ghostly bluish white equine forms look around at each other and talk to each other about what just happened, what they are, where they are, who they are, as well as what is going on when she clears her voice a few minutes later to get their attention.

Hearing someone clear their voice causes the gathered souls to go silent, making the din of confused voices go silent as each one turns to face who just spoke. A surprised gasp or quiet murmur can be heard occasionally from someone in the group as they take notice of a gently glowing form towering above them with no discernible details besides having an equine shape with thin, long legs, a large pair of wings sitting against their sides, and a long horn on their forehead.

The spirit watches the souls and hears several of them mutter about how her mane and tail flows and chuckles lightly before saying, "I must look quite strange to you, but let me clear up some of your confusion for you. You all have perished while performing your duties admirably, however, your order has lost control of the East. Personally, I think that your leaders were led astray by their desires, because you were protectors when your order was first created. You were at your best when you watched over and helped guard travelers to and from the east, not as the conquerors you later became." Shaking her head lightly, she sighs and says, "Forgive me for getting off topic, it has been some time since I last spoke with anyone capable of holding a conversation."

The souls all watch with rapt attention as they hear her continue speaking, "After you died, be it battle, wounds, or sickness, I collected certain pure souls over a number of years and placed you here. I had already asked your god if they would grant me aid, and it was granted to me in the form of permission to borrow a number of souls to fulfill my mission."

Extending her wings in a raised, regal manner, she stands tall and says, "I have brought you all here because I need your help in a world much different than the one you came from, one where Mankind has never been before. This world is under my care, and I am not a god, I am just a otherworldly, incredibly long-lived being with numerous and wondrous magical powers. The world I wish to send you to is inhabited by numerous races of creatures, some sentient, and others not. Though the sentient ones are capable of thought and learning, they have not yet discovered how to speak or write. I ask you to serve as protectors to the sentient races, help them find their way into the world, and set out to find knowledge and discovery. If there should ever be more creatures such as I, protect them from harm as they will be a beacon of hope for the future. When each of you passes from life into death once more in your service, you shall return to your god's realm. I will grant the first few thousand of you with living bodies that your soul has already decided on, hence your spectral, ghostly appearance. As for the rest of you, you shall be reincarnated from birth whenever I decide necessary and shall retain your memories, however you will have to relearn how to use your body and speak. I strictly forbid you all from sharing your memories with anyone but each other and the ones like me."

Wanting to add one more thing before she sends the first Templars to the new world, she adds, "Before I continue, I want you all to heed one bit of advice while you are down there. Beings like me yearn to bring peace and harmony, and in turn, peace and harmony are glorious. In spite of one's station in life, all are equals in a god's eyes. Love, friends, and family are treasures...food, sleep, and shelter are necessities...knowledge is a double-edged blade, and magic is not evil sorcery, but a useful tool. All else is a luxury which one can live without." Seeing their faces nod and bow their heads in agreement, several others voice their acceptance of her task, which brings a smile to her face as she says, "Now I would call upon those knowledgeable among you who have something to impart upon others."

Still feeling it their duty to help others, a couple hours pass as the souls discuss amongst themselves who will be the first to enter a new world. Once the volunteers gather before the towering being and bow their heads to her while bending down on their left foreleg, saying in unison, "We are ready to serve, Your Majesty. Send us where you will, the Templar Order will not disappoint you."

As she prepares to send them to the warm northern lands, she tilts her head ever so slightly and comments, saying, "I always found it strange how your god told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, repeating the same thing to their children and their children's children, and so on. What I find out of place is how your entire order swore oaths of chastity..." then pauses and raises an unseen eyebrow asking, "Isn't that impolite to your god when they clearly expect you to raise families and teach your children how to live their lives?"

Seeing them rise to their hooves and open their mouths to say something, she cuts them off and says, "My apologies for overstepping, but I just thought I would give you something to think about and possibly reconsider. On to your new lives with you, and be sure to remember the duties I charged to your order."

When she begins to do something with her horn, they turn to each other as one of them asks, "We must have a way to figure out who is reincarnated, how will we accomplish that, brothers?"

An older unicorn with a white mane and tail thinks for a moment, saying, "What do you think about a challenge, saying, 'Life is Sacred' or its latin translation, 'Vita sacra est'?"

A light orange pegasus Templar answers, "That sounds good, then the answer can be 'Our duties shall lead to glory' or in latin, 'Officia nostra ad gloriam ducet' "

With a nod, they practice it together for a few moments to commit it to memory, then turn to face the others behind them as the older one speaks up and says, "Commit these things to your memories, brothers, for there is a challenge that will be asked upon meeting another templar of the order. The challenge phrase in common is, 'Life is Sacred' or in latin it's, 'Vita sacra est'."

When the other group repeats both translations a few times, they say it together as the first group nods with the older one saying, "The answering phrase to identify you as a reincarnated brother in common shall be, 'Our duties shall lead to glory' or in latin, 'Officia nostra ad gloriam ducet'

As they practice it and get the other group to do the same, the older one raises his voice, saying the challenge phrase, "Vita sacra est." waiting a moment before saying, "Reply." When the large group calls back with the correct phrase in latin, he nods in satisfaction, saying, "Do not allow yourself to forget the challenge and its reply, for you all will be expected to remember it to claim your place as a special member of our order just as we will. Together, the first of us shall found the new order and call it Celestial Crusaders."

Once they turn back to her, she takes a breath and begins to cast her spell, saying, "May you do well in the times ahead, Crusaders." Sending them off in a brilliant flash, she looks upon the empty space they once stood with a hopeful sigh and lifts her eyes to look upon the rest of the crusaders waiting to be reborn and says, "You all will be waiting around quite a bit, so I recommend that you tutor each other in what you do not know so that your minds and skills stay sharp."

As the first group appears on the ground and looks around, the older one looks around and turns to face the others, saying, "Alright, first thing we must do is find a place we can make our home, one which we shall expand underground to store our collected knowledge as we record what we know of the past."

Time Passage

So, the newly formed order of Crusaders set out to locate a suitable location to start a shelter, taking them several weeks until they stumble upon a solitary peak amid vast, grassy plains. As they choose to make it their home, they work together to gather building materials to craft makeshift shelters as they attempt to make a cave partway up the mountain into their main base.

The alicorn spirit watches with great interest at how the group shares knowledge with each other and teaches new things to those who do not know them. A year passes as they decide to be a leaderless order when at peace, then the younger ones are sent out in groups of fifty to a hundred to wander the world and learn new things as well as educate the ones capable of thought.

Over the first few years they suffer a few setbacks at first when making first contact with the world's denizens, with some of them just turning tail and running away or choosing to fight.

As time passes, the denizens begin to form tribes after being educated by the Celestial Crusaders. Watching with eyes wide with happiness, the teenage alicorn fights against her urge to prance in place, thinking, 'Oh I am so glad that father let me borrow these souls to give my creations a guiding hand...er...hoof in my place.'

Decades pass by as the Celestial Crusaders learn magic from the unicorns and how to fly from the pegasi, slowly discovering new magic spells and sharing them with those able to use magic responsibly. Unexpectedly, it is the Crusaders who first discover the pegasi's inborn ability to walk on clouds and shape them.

Decades quickly turn into centuries as the Crusaders start to wear their trademark white cloaks leaving their neck and head exposed, with the reincarnated Crusaders having red crosses with flared ends while the regular members have plain crosses on the front and sides with only their backsides uncovered for some curious reason unknown to the spirit. She notices another order form within the Celestial Crusaders called the Hospitaller Knights with a different uniform being much the same way except being black with red crosses.

When things continue to progress over the years, the alicorn spirit is shocked to discover her powers of foresight have greatly weakened when she fails to see past the time of upheaval rapidly approaching, causing her to think over what she predicted so far, thinking, 'Why are my powers not working as they should, I wonder if my father might be able to tell me why.'

In his own dimension, watching over his own creations with a curious, watchful eye, he hears his daughter's voice speak about her failing powers and chuckles, saying, "Fear not, my daughter...everything is as it should be. I am impressed that your foresight lasted this long, it just means that you are coming into adulthood. It was inevitable that your foresight will slowly disappear when you are old enough, so you will have to learn to adapt to being unable to predict things as you could before. Everything will work out somehow, life and fate are interesting that way. By the way, your own creations are doing remarkably well compared to my own."

Her smile threatens to split her face in half at the praise her father just gave her, not caring in the slightest with how her powers will continue to weaken and eventually disappear altogether. When she takes a new breath, her body shivers as it senses something shifting around her. Able to smell the coming trouble, her cheerful mood turns somber as she sighs and thinks, 'Is it that time already? I thought I would have more time to let them prepare...'

Turning away from the mirror to face the others waiting to be reincarnated, she stands tall and says, "A time of struggle is quickly approaching, but I will tell you no more about it. Calmly approach me one at a time in a single line no longer than a hundred souls so that I may reincarnate you to do your part in the times ahead. Protect those you can and help them learn to fight to protect themselves, the only failure I shall punish you for would be to do absolutely nothing for others with your life."

Souls in front of the group stop what their doing as they begin to walk forward, starting to form a line already as they head towards her. A light orange pegasus stops before her and bows before her, kneeling on his left foreleg, closing his eyes and saying, "I am ready to serve god's will, Your Majesty."

Her throat collapses on itself as her breath hitches in it, a fierce blush coloring her cheeks a tinge of barely noticeable pink as her mind screams, 'Just how the world did he figure that out?!' Realizing how she was taken by surprise, she pushes that matter aside to deal with later and calms herself, saying, "May you make many fond memories in your life and have a happy family." She then chooses a mare trying hard for a foal and smiles upon her, then casts a spell upon the soul to send him to her and be reborn. Moving onto the next, she waits for a little while before sending him down to a different mare not in the act of trying for a foal.

A couple decades pass as she continues to send down souls at a more frequent pace when a malicious goat develops a way to steal magical powers and begins gathering goats able to talk like himself, then trains them to fight before sending them off to cause trouble as he starts to use his stolen powers to create monsters to prey upon the other sentient races.

As the Crusaders fight against the monsters and Grogar's hopelessly enslaved soldiers, the casualties goes well past a hundred thousand deaths before he is slain and his bell hidden away by a few reincarnated Crusaders forty years later.

The alicorn sheds her first tears at how many souls it took to bring Grogar's path of conquest to an end, resulting in the race's extinction. Sniffles and sobs escape her in spite of how hard she fights to hold them back as she watches an uneasy alliance form between the tribes, however, the trouble is only just getting started as black, insectoid, pony-like creatures start abducting ponies in the night. Some of the new creatures creep into the homes and beds of their victims and feed on their lust, while others do something similar but use magic to take their appearance and pose as their victims to feed on their love. However, the worst creatures snatch the newly deceased and feast on the misery they cause.

With no choice but to continue reincarnating souls at a quicker pace, it takes a century and a half to drive all but one hive into extinction, whose queen manages to evade being discovered. Looking over and seeing how only just over a hundred thousand remain of the hundreds of thousands she had collected to help her creations prosper, sighing heavily as she thinks to herself, 'How much more trouble lies ahead for my creations? Out of the 300,000 souls I collected over a few centuries, I find myself left with only a few hundred thousand!' Closing her eyes and praying silently, she prays in her mind, 'Oh father, please don't let there be any more battles like the last one, for I might not have the souls to drive back the darkness threatening my world and creations.'

Hearing his daughter's prayer, he sighs and caresses her cheek from afar, saying to her, "Don't lose your way to despair, my dear, everything will work out...I promise. All creations of life must go through a series of trials and hard times before getting a break. Have faith in my wisdom, please."

With her drive renewed and her spirits lifted, she wipes her tears away and stands tall once more, thinking, 'Right, my father promised things will work out, so I will continue keeping watch over them as they make their way through the times ahead and keep sending aid when it is needed.'

A few centuries pass as tensions start to grow between the tribes, despite the Crusaders doing everything they can to ease tensions, the once warm and fertile northern lands soon begin to head toward winter as the Windigoes become drawn to the anger and hatred held by the tribes towards each other.

As a group of earth ponies strikes out on their own, escorted by a few of the well-known and respected Celestial Crusaders, they eventually come across a pleasant place with its own weather and build their own village there. Years later, a black stallion stands beside his wife as she struggles to give birth to the largest foal recorded, he holds her small hoof in his, offering her encouragement, saying, "Come on dear, I know you are strong enough to bring our foal into the world. Remember what the Hospitaller doctors told you about needing to relax and the breathing exercises."

The white coated mare with an off-pink mane and tail with a moderate pale blue streak through them both and a pair of brilliant blue eyes turns to her husband with sweat running down her head and neck, hissing out in a pained voice, nearly shouting, "How do you expect me to relax when our child seems intent on splitting me in half!" Just then she cries out as another spasm hits her body, with the nurse urging her to push hard.

Watching with wide eyes from her secret dimension with the remaining souls, she fights to keep a squeal of joy from escaping her lips as she thinks, 'I knew that it was a distant possibility of another like me to be born, but I never realized that it would actually come to pass!'

The foal is born three hours later with a neighing cry as the nurse mutters to herself in astonishment, saying, "I've never seen anything like this...wings, and the horn of a unicorn?"

The stallion hears her as his eyes go wide while his wife struggles to remain conscious and heads over to see for himself, looking down at a nearly white filly with pale magenta eyes just like his. Having a flowing mane and tail consisting of several colors matching both his and his wife's, he is at a loss for words as he sees that she has both, wings and a horn. When she is swaddled in a pink blanket, he sits down on the floor and cradles her carefully in his forelegs, saying, "She is the first of her kind, dear, our daughter has both wings and a horn. What do you wish to name her?"

Staying awake just long enough to opening her eyes, she sighs breathlessly and asks, "She has a pegasi's wings and a unicorn's horn?"

Nodding, the black unicorn stallion says, "Who knows, she might even have the abilities of the three pony types."

Her eyes begin to drift shut as she says sleepily, "Sounds like she is an embodiment of all three tribes, perhaps one day, she may lead us all into a newfound era of peace...you name her, I'm going to sleep for awhile."

Smiling happily, he rubs his nose against his daughter's and thinks out loud, saying, "The traits of three species huh? I know just what to call your unique species...an Alicorn, and your name shall be Celestia."

Five years pass as he spends what quality time he can with his daughter when his wife gives birth to a second alicorn slightly smaller than her sister, having light blue eyes and a dark coat almost similar to his, except being a greyish blue and a floating mane and tail consisting of a more vivid moderate shade of blue. Smiling down at her while his other daughter hops up onto his back to see her sister, no doubt with a wide smile on her face, he giggles and says, "Since I named you, Cece, how about I let you have the privilege of thinking of a name for your sister?"

Squealing with joy, Celestia prances around her father happily, saying, "YAY! I GET TO NAME MY BABY SISTER!"

Watching her hop around excitedly in his white cloak with a red cross with flared ends, he chuckles and says, "Now do yourself a favor and calm down before somepony gets hurt dear. If you're going to pick out a name, you need to think of something that suits the infant you are naming."

Ceasing her excited prancing almost immediately, she quickly says, "Okay, okay, okay!" then closes her eyes and breathes deeply for a few moments to calm her self down. It takes her a few moments to calm down, but she does open her eyes as her mind no longer races with excited thoughts and walks around the room calmly for any ideas. As she thinks, she then stops by the window and gazes outside, asking, "Momma said that I was born during the day, is that correct?"

Nodding his head, he says, "That is correct, Caelestia, my heavenly treasure."

Scrunching her nose in confusion, her eyebrows rise as she turns to her father, saying, "Why do you occasionally call me Caelestia, have I been pronouncing my name wrong for the last two years?"

Unable to keep from laughing, he shakes his head, saying, "No, sweetheart, you haven't." letting out a half-laugh, adding, "Caelestia is latin, which means heavenly in the common tongue, I sometimes call you that because you are my heavenly treasure."

Thinking it over for a moment, she tries to say it herself, saying, "Hmm...Caylestia, did I say it right?"

Chuckling, he shakes his head again, saying, "No, there's an E sound in there just after the short a." He then pronounces it slowly for her, asking, "Would you like to learn latin?"

Nodding her head, her eyes then go wide as the implication hits her, asking, "Are you implying there's a way to write it in this other language?"

Nodding, he says, "There is, would you like me to teach you to write that as well?"

Smiling widely, she nods rapidly, saying, "YES...ahem, yes please, father. Please teach me to speak and write the latin language you know."

With a gentle nod, he turns his head back to his newborn alicorn daughter, saying, "Very well, but only if you come up with a very good suggestion for her name."

She smiles even wider and turns towards the window, saying, "Okay, I'll hold you to that." Looking around at the dark ground outside the window, she squints to see any details and sighs, saying, "I wish that I could see more outside so I might come up with something good..."

As if in answer, a cloud drifts off to slowly reveal the brilliant full moon hanging high in the sky, allowing a beam of its light to shine on the window and strike the young filly's eye, causing her to squint her eyes shut saying in surprise, "GAH!"

Having seen what happened, he chuckles and asks, "Yeah I do remember that the moon is in its brightest phase right now, so it is bright enough for a pony to see at night. Are you okay?"

She shakes her head and blinks her eyes to get rid of the spots in her vision, then looks around at the nightly landscape before her, saying, "I'm fine, the spots are gone now. I never realized how beautiful the landscape is around us at night with the moon at this point..." Just then a thought drifts into her mind and rattles around a bit, then slowly is joined by another thought, which lead to the forming of an idea. Looking up in the night sky as another cloud prepares to cover the moon once more, she turns back to her baby sister in her father's arms then to the window and back again, saying, "Hmm...what about naming her after the moon, father?"

He thinks it over and nuzzles his nose against his newborn daughter's as a smile crosses his face, saying, "Naming her after the moon, huh?" He then pauses to give it some serious thought, then lets his smile grow wider, saying, "Moon in latin is Lunae, so as per your suggestion, we shall name your sister Luna." Turning to gaze at his daughter, he says, "Since you were both born at opposite times of the day, that creates a bond between you two that is not easily broken. Your lessons shall begin once your mother can look after Luna."

No sooner than having said that, Celestia feels her rump tingling before a brief flash causes her to look back and angle her body to look at her flank. When she sees an image depicting the sun in the sky on both sides of her flanks, she prances around in place, crying out, "I JUST GOT MY CUTIE MARK!"

With a proud smile, he says, "Congratulations, my darling daughter, we shall have a party for coming one step closer to adulthood." His eyes then turn back to his swaddled daughter as she squirms around in his arms, causing him to unwrap her to look her over. When he pulls the swaddle away, he sees a large splotch of black on one side of her flank with a white moon in the center of the black and chuckles, saying, "It seems you both have just gotten your Cutie Marks. Since you have a sun on your flanks, and your sister has the moon on hers...I know that you two are both destined for great things in the future. I do believe quite strongly that you two might need to be side by side through your whole life."

Years later, a traveling unicorn with a pair of violetish grey eyes, a light grey coat, a two-tone white and light grey mane, tail, and a short beard on his face comes to their village, Celestia watches her father move in front of her and Luna. When her father looks at the newcomer, standing tall in his stark white cloak with a red cross on the sides and front with flared ends, she hears him say, "Greetings, distant traveller, what brings you so far out to our humble village?"

Stopping a respectable distance away from the protective parent, the stallion introduces himself, saying, "Good day to you, honorable Crusader, my name is Star Swirl, and I have heard rumors of two foals born with the appearance of a pegasus and a unicorn. I believe they were called Alicorns in one of the less popular rumors, I was wondering if you might permit me the chance to serve as a mentor to those two?"

Relaxing his posture at sensing no ill from this pony, he steps back a little and says, "I shall allow it on the condition that you only teach them with me or my wife around to watch over them."

Star Swirl smiles and bows his head to him, saying, "I thank you for your gracious approval, I shall look for a place to stay so I can begin teaching them what I know."

The spirit watches the two alicorn fillies discover their special powers to raise the sun and moon while also learning latin from her father and being taught many other things from Star Swirl.

Everything changes for the girls one day as they get a rare chance to go out and play together, accidentally playing a little farther from the village than they should when they hear the angry roar of a large creature that swoops down out of the sky to attack them, causing Celestia to shout to her sister, "A Manticore! Get behind me sis!" then casts a barrier to protect the both of them.

The manticore swipes a massive paw at the barrier with its claws extended, causing the shield to wobble slightly. The shield continues to hold as Luna screams in fright.

Hearing the roar so close to town, the black stallion and his wife race out of their home to go find their daughters. Traveling together, they find them both taking shelter under a protective shield held by their oldest daughter Celestia. Upon seeing his children in peril, his duty comes to mind, causing him to lower his head and bellow, "GET AWAY FROM OUR CHILDREN, YOU MONSTER!" then goes into an all-out gallop with the intent to blast it away with his magic.

Holding onto the shield with all her strength, Celestia turns to see their dad charging into the fight and blast the creature with a beam of pure magic. Upon hearing the manticore bellow in pain, she turns her head to see that her father had heavily damaged its wings and sent it away from them. She watches as her father skids to a stop in front of them and faces the angry manticore, then stands tall with his hooves together, somehow to appear as a mountain before them as he looks back to her, saying, "Stay safe within that shield and don't let it fall, I must fight this foe until it either runs away or perishes."

With nothing more to say, he turns back to the creature and sings something in latin before rearing up on his hind legs on the first of the last three words. Throwing his weight forward with his head as he comes back down, he charges forth with his large hooves hitting the ground hard and prepares a spell to attack the beast from the left side.

Celestia watches in awe as she keeps the shield up, hearing her father's thundering hooves when her father suddenly vanishes in a flash and reappears on the monsters right side still charging it, goring it in the side with his horn while blasting it away again with a blast of magic. The creature doesn't go far, but it staggers back to its feet, even angrier than before as it then runs toward the one who hurt it.

The stallion then charges it again and appears from the creatures opposite side this time, managing to gore it again and blast it away with his magic, shouting, "GO AWAY!"

Absolutely livid at being injured yet again, the manticore catches movement in the corner of its right eye and lashes out horizontally with its claws. Feeling his claws tear through flesh and muscle, he hears a weak gurgling sound followed by a skidding thud. Looking down curiously, he sees that it wasn't the one who hurt him as it is a pony with a white coat and turns back towards it, roaring angrily before charging toward the pony who badly hurt it.

Focusing on his duty to protect his daughters instead of his fatally injured wife, he sighs as he figures out that the manticore won't stop attacking until one of them is dead, saying, "Have it your way then, but I am determined to come out of this victorious!"

With tears spilling from her and her sister's eyes from seeing their mother's throat be ripped out by the manticore's claws, she holds her close with her wings wrapped comfortingly around her sister, saying, "Don't worry Lunae, our father will not lose this fight."

The stallion charges the creature from a slight angle, waiting until he is several feet away before teleporting to the opposite side. Unfortunately, his attack fails as the manticore reacts to the flash and blindly lashes out with his tail, stinging him in the side and causing him to lose momentum and stumble.

Having an opportunity, the manticore seizes it and rakes his claws across the pony's body, sending him flying through the air and landing hard on his side. Roaring victoriously, he watches as the pony remains still for several moments.

Waking up to the sound of his daughters' frantic voices, he slowly rises to his hooves once more and shakes the dirt and grass off of him, saying with a pained grunt, "I am fine, my daughters, but the fight must continue as long as you both remain in danger."

At seeing the left side of her father's cloak, she gasps and says, "But you have several deep gashes along your left side, let us finish this fight for you!"

Shaking his head, he says, "No, my beloved children, this is my fight to end. One day you will understand why when you get into a fight of your own." Turning away, he then begins charging the manticore once more, albeit a bit slower than usual due to the poison working through his body as well as the gashes in his left side. Knowing he is at a disadvantage, he waits to teleport into the creature's blind side one last time. When he is a dozen feet away, he teleports and casts a spell to summon a longspear out of ice and hurls it forth with his magic to where the manticore's heart is at. His aim strikes true as the manticore roars out in brief agony before collapsing to the ground and skidding several feet before stopping and taking its last breath, saying with a heavy heart, "I tried to tell you that I would come out victorious..." He then makes his way back to his daughters, saying, "It's safe now, girls, you can drop the shield Caelestia."

Dropping the shield quickly, Celestia races to her father with her sister by her side the whole way. Almost knocking him over from the two of them colliding into him, she nuzzles her head against her father's neck, saying, "Can we go home now, father? We were both so scared that you were going to fall to that manticore."

Sobbing, Luna buries her head between her father's forelegs comfortingly, saying, "We're sorry for playing so far from the village, pater, please don't be angry with us, but we don't get many opportunities to play outside with all the lessons!"

Feeling the poison worming its way through his body, he coughs, but hides his pain as he wraps his forelegs around both his daughters, saying, "I could never be angry with you two for acting your age, for you both still are children in my eyes." Separating himself from their loving embrace, he starts guiding them back to town, saying, "Let's return home and gather our strength again before we come back to retrieve your mother and give her a proper send off."

As they walk up a hillside, he looks at his girls and feels weaker than before, saying, "Girls, should I ever pass on to the next life, I would like to be sent off like your mother and stay by your sides forever."

Celestia nods her head, saying, "Okay father, but I don't want you to leave us until you are beyond old and wrinkly."

With a weak chuckle, he says, "I will do my best to heed your wishes, however, whatever lies ahead for us in the future is ever uncertain and shifting with each decision we make."

When their house is in view, Celestia sighs happily, saying, "Look father, we're almost home, can't you see it just up ahead?!"

Happy at seeing their home, he lets out a heavy sigh, saying weakly as his body begins to rapidly lose strength, "When I'm with you, girls...I'm...always...home."

As they get within a few dozen feet of their home, the girls hear a thud behind them and swiftly turn their heads to look. Finding their father collapsed on the ground, Celestia and Luna both scream out fearfully, "PATER!!" The two try to gently shake him awake, but to no avail as he doesn't respond.

The alicorn spirit sheds tears for how the young alicorns just lost their mother and father, watching as they both run to their mentor to save him. When they get there and he examines the fallen stallion, he reveals to them both that it is too late to do anything as the manticore poison already caused his heart to stop. As the two alicorns find themselves unable to accept that, they run away back to their home. Eventually, as they grow to accept the truth, they both share the same bed and cry themselves to sleep.

Watching as they both attend the funeral in black clothing and black veils, Celestia holds the folded, shredded, and bloody cloak their father died in close to her chest as they watch their father and mother burn on separate piles near each other with their father being burned in a fresh cloak free from any unsightly blemish.

Gathering their things and moving to live with their mentor as he continues to train them, they are closer than ever as Star Swirl starts going out into the world after being inspired by their father's bravery. Star Swirl gathers some like-minded companions and does what he can to protect the ponies from enemies threatening their peace.

Years later, the pony tribes are driven out of their land and led to a more hospitable land by a member of the Heavenly Crusaders, having a red cross on a black background with flared ends. As they discover the other tribes there as well, their feud resumes and causes the temperature to plummet.

As the Hospitaller Knight leads the tribes to a nearby cave for shelter from the storm brewing outside, he turns back to them to see them drawing lines in the sand and sighs, saying, "Why can't you all just get along, you are all equals. You each have an ability unique to you, but being different should not be despised...it should be celebrated instead." When they ignore him completely, he shakes his head, thinking, 'I'm sorry, Your Majesty...but I have failed my duty to you.' then feels himself freezing over when he hears a howling sound on the wind.

Several decades pass as Star Swirl's group wanders the land and vanquishes dangerous foes until he vanishes without a trace one day as Luna and Celestia try to adjust to how much the other ponies look to them for guidance, causing a slight strain on their sisterly bond.

A couple decades after their disappearance, the land falls under the miserably chaotic rule of Discord and his sister Cosmos. As they confront him a few times, failing each time, they set out to find a way to defeat them both and free the ponies from their torment.

When they stumble across a crystal tree brimming with pure and powerful magic eclipsing theirs by a vast amount, the two sisters take the charged gems from their places on the tree and divide them amongst each other. Wanting to face the pair again, they confront him once again and use the jewels to banish them.

As Discord watches his sister try to betray him, a shiver of dread crawls up his spine as he watches a rainbow shoot out and strike his sister. When she disappears before his very eyes and turn to look at the two sisters, he turns to see a rainbow shooting his way and engulfs him completely. As pain flares all through his body, he writhes and twists to get away from the sisters as he feels himself slowly turning to stone. The last thing he sees with his wide, fearful eyes is the white eyes of the two alicorn sisters before he becomes a statue.

Centuries of peace pass when the alicorn senses trouble approaching and sighs, saying, "Not again...I just hope this isn't as bad as the last one." then turns towards the waiting souls saying, "Please form a line as before and approach me one at a time, trouble approaches and you must do your part in keeping the princesses safe from danger."

The Crusader's ranks swell to numbers greater than before as they hear of Princess Amore's fall, arming themselves with weapons as the princesses discuss plans to defeat the tyrannical King Sombra. Acting first, the order gathers en masse with only a select few remaining at their home stronghold underneath the young city of Canterlot to send reinforcements when called.

With so few souls remaining to reincarnate, the spirit decides with a heavy heart to send no more down to help. With tears forming in her eyes, she watches helplessly as the ferocious battle rage on for a couple years before word of the battle turning against the Heavenly Crusaders reaches Celestia's and Luna's ears, catching them by surprise and stirs them into action. As she continues to fight back Celestia's and Luna's premonitions, she groans with effort, saying, "This is the defining moment for you two, don't let their sacrifices be for naught."

Deciding to face Sombra with their own strength, Celestia and Luna race through the skies to reach the Crystal Empire and rescue its citizens. When they get there, however, they see a vast battle involving the vast majority of the Heavenly Crusaders all around the outskirts of the crystal city. Desperate to bring the battle to an end, they charge into the battle to fight King Sombra.

Unfortunately, their attack fails as they are driven back because of his dark magic, having to resort to head to the castle to get the elements in order to bring him down. After they return and grab the elements, the sisters head for the door and freeze when they find themselves amid a battlefield between two forces. The Heavenly Crusaders stand on one side and black creatures with red, curved horns and glowing green eyes on the other, unable to hear anything as they see the gathered Crusaders begin to mouth the words to a song they can't hear. Confused at what they are seeing, they watch as they rise on their back hooves and charge forth into battle with their banners flapping in the wind as they storm down the hill en masse.

Just when the two armies are about to collide, the scene fades to black around them when they see a banner appear before them bearing a familiar image of a half black and white alicorn with its wings stretched out to either side. With the moon appearing on the upper left and the sun on the upper right, they recognize it instantly as the newly created flag of the Heavenly Crusaders. Slowly, the banner shrinks into the distance and appears hanging from a wooden pole fastened horizontally across the upper part of a tall pole, standing upright as a breeze sends the banner fluttering until it slowly leans to the side and starts falling to the ground.

Celestia gasps and instinctively goes to catch the pole and keep it from hitting the ground, but the pole falls halfway and stops for a brief moment. Relieved that the banner hasn't completely fallen, she stops and lets out a relieved sigh until she sees the pole snap and hit the ground.

Luna approaches the fallen banner and goes to pick it up, but leaps back when it bursts into flames, asking, "Just what is going on sister?"

The darkness around them slowly fades away, eventually revealing a grisly sight before the two sisters. Celestia looks around to see still bodies of Crusaders and King Sombra's soldiers littering the field as far as her eyes can see, fear and sadness creep up her spine as she takes to the air, saying, "No..."

Joining her sister in the air, Luna looks around as well when she spots her sister fighting to keep airborne. Learning why she is having difficulty flying when she realizes that the vast majority of the casualties are the Heavenly Crusaders, asking, "Wh-What does this mean, Cece?"

Unable to keep flying any longer, she falls to the ground and hangs her head, saying through sobs beginning to wrack her body, "This must mean that unless we do something soon...the entire order of Heavenly Crusaders will perish here against King Sombra's forces."

Landing beside her sister as the scene fades away to reveal them back in the castle, she lifts her head up with the tip of her left wing, saying, "Then there is no point in shedding tears now if we can do something to change this fate, they need our aid sister, let us tarry no longer."

As the Spirit watches the two leave and head towards the Crystal Empire to battle King Sombra and the Umbrum, she grieves over the vast number of lives lost when Celestia arrives a little bit before Luna and sees that it is already too late to save the Heavenly Crusaders as the fields surrounding the city are littered with the fallen order and Sombra's soldiers.

Falling from the sky, Celestia stumbles from her landing as tears stream from her eyes as she hears the crackling of fires consuming wood, looking around to see the broken banner from their vision being consumed by fire and slowly reduced to ashes. Her heart breaks as sobs tear their way out of her, causing her to frantically teleport all around to find any survivors. Unable to hear any coughs or cries for help, Celestia's flank falls to the ground as she wails out, "WHY DID WE FAIL TO SAVE THEM!?"

Racing to embrace her sister as she starts to turn grey, she pulls her against her, saying, "Steady yourself, sister, don't fall to despair. There may yet be survivors of this costly battle, but we must defeat King Sombra first and free the Crystal Ponies."

As they head to confront the evil king, they both say, "Your reign is over, Sombra. We shall not allow you to bring misery to another pony, be lost to the shadow forever, evil king!" then use the elements to banish him into the ice of the frozen north, letting the windigoes up there serve as his warden.

Feeling his body shift into a shadowy mass, he growls and then shouts, "I will not let you take my crystals from me!!!" then casts one last spell to make the whole city disappear until he returns. Feeling his spell take root, he cackles madly with glee, shouting, "You may have defeated me, but you will never have the chance to retrieve the fallen knights littering the outskirts! AHAHAHAHAHAAA!" When he feels himself sent away through the air, he continues laughing madly as the empire vanishes into thin air and takes the surrounding battlefield with it.

The spirit hangs her head as the few survivors of the battle take off their cloaks and put them away, thinking that they are being punished for failing their duty to her. Placing her hooves upon the mirror, she pleads, "No, please don't let the world forget about you, there is still so much good you can yet do!"

Decades pass as a new flag is created for the ponies, depicting Celestia and Luna chasing each other in a circle with the sun and moon just below and in front of their hooves. Decades turn into Centuries as she continues to reincarnate a few souls to continue working to protect the ponies from the background. Able to see the cross's influence in the Equestrian flag, she smiles, thinking, 'At least they won't be completely forgotten to time... When the time is right, I am sure they will rise again.'

When Luna becomes jealous and transforms into Nightmare Moon, she is then banished to the moon by her sister as the Alicorn spirit remembers the fateful night where this trouble began.

As a group of wounded survivors limp their way past a house with children playing outside, one of the fillies trots up to them, asking, "What happened?"

The surviving crusader remembers when he took off his cloak with a red cross having flared ends and says, "Well, little one, we just got back from fighting back the darkness. Though we saved the day at a terrible cost, the princesses will continue to bring the day and night while keeping you safe from dark forces."

Through the following centuries, she continues to reincarnate the souls until she winds up with just one last warrior, gasping as she then realizes there are no more to send after this soul, pacing back and forth as she shakes her head, saying, "How could I be so foolish and let myself lose track of how many precious souls I had left! If there is a big enough problem this time, how will my creations prevail without their guidance!?"

End of Timeskip

Sensing his daughter's distress, he caresses her cheek from afar and soothes her worries, saying to her mind, "Everything is as it should be, my daughter. Have faith with the last soul you borrowed and have hope that they will succeed, for there is naught else you can do without revealing your existence to your creations. I have learned that for myself, which is why I forbade you from doing the same thing my dear."

Letting out a frustrated huff, she nods hesitantly, saying, "Very well...if you say so, father." then sends the last soul down to the world below.

Never before has time seemed to drag on forever than the slow, torturous three years as she watches the black colt with blonde hair and green eyes live his life. Finding herself growing ever more impatient with every passing minute, she looks around at the vast, empty space around her and sighs when she realizes she is suffering from loneliness and boredom. Trying to find something entertaining about watching the last soul live his life, she utterly fails and groans audibly in frustration, shouting, "GAHH, I HATE THE WAY I'M FEELING!"

Appearing beside her for the first time in a great many millenia, he places his golden shapeless hand against her cheek, saying, "Fear not my daughter, for I know just what to do to help make it go away."

Surprised to see her father in her dimension, she jumps and recovers quickly, saying, "REALLY?!" She then clears her throat and asks, "What might that be, dad?"

Raising his formless hand, he extends a finger towards his daughter's forehead and lightly presses it to her forehead, right between her eyes, saying, "Just this..."

Feeling herself shrinking down to a glowing, white ball of light, asking in alarm, "What are you doing to me?!"

Letting out a light chuckle, he crosses his arms and says, "You will find out very soon, my dear, I shall always be watching over you and your creations."

When she finds herself sinking through the floor and shoot down towards the planet she created, she gasps, shouting, "YOU'RE SERIOUSLY GIVING ME AN ACTUAL BODY?! I THOUGHT YOU SWORE TO NEVER DO THAT AGAIN AFTER WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BROTHER!"

He shakes his head and chuckles mischievously, asking with a metaphorically raised eyebrow, "Did you ever hear me put that into words though?"

Thinking it over, she sighs and says, "Well...no, but you could be a bit clearer with your intentions."

Watching her continue heading down to the world she created, he continues speaking to her, saying in amusement, "That is the great thing about being me, sweetheart...I don't have to explain myself to anyone."

Snorting in annoyance, she says, "You're such a troll!"

Smirking and lifting an eyebrow into the air, he says, "I am not a troll, I may be unpredictable, loving, and a bit eccentric at times, but I am never a troll."

Letting out another snort, she turns her orb self around so that her rear faces him, saying, "HMPH! Talk to the tail dad because my head isn't listening."

Unable to hide his laughter, he laughs softly and watches her get closer to the surface, saying, "I shall wish you a happy birthday in eleven months, sweetheart. No matter what you do with your new life, know that I will always be watching and love you regardless of your mistakes."

When she finds herself heading towards a light grey unicorn mare with a two-tone mane of moderate purple and light grey, she spots a unicorn stallion cuddled beside her with an off-blue coat with a dark blue mane and tail, sighing while thinking, 'Oh wonderful...I really look forward to the messy birth...'