One thousand years ago alicorns were as numerous as any pony species. Alicorns possessed magic and knowledge greater than the highest level of unicorns. But none were more powerful than the royal family. While most alicorns could only control magic the royal family’s magic could control the world around them. Queen Terra controlled the earth and its rotation while King Galactus controlled the universe around them. Their daughters, Celestia and Luna, did not yet have specific magic of their own, but their power was indeed great.
There was an Alicornian prophesy that one day an alicorn with two horns would be born who would hold the powers and knowledge of eternal peace and harmony for the nation of Equestria. This prophesied alicorn was born around the same time as Celestia and was immediately admitted into the canterlot castle to learn the values of leadership and royal power. This alicorn stallion was named later Harmony and under these circumstances Harmony and Celestia grew up together and became very close.
Their friendship soon became more and Harmony asked the king for Celestia’s hand in marriage. The king refused saying,” She is too young to marry, that they didn’t know what true love was.” Harmony had never heard that he didn’t understand something, he was the chosen one after all. Harmony had never been the best with magic, but in one great fit of rage he discovered his true power. Harmony found out that he could take the powers of other creatures, but at a cost, in his newfound lust for power by taking the abilities of other things he would leave them as a hollow shell of their former selves. By taking the magic from King Galactus Harmony took also his wings and color leaving him a black and grey shadow of his former self. With no memory of the incident and little of his past life this newly created unicorn was given the name of Sombra by his newfound master, Harmony.
To try and cover up what had happened Harmony left a note saying that the king needed to leave on urgent business, but finding the king a new task to keep others from noticing wasn’t the only thing Harmony needed to do, it wouldn’t take long for the queen to realize what had happened, he needed a plan.
“Get me a dark crystal.” he ordered, knowing it would make Sombra as evil and crazy as he feared he already had become. “I need something to enhance my power for the upcoming war.”
“Upcoming war, my master?”
“Yes, I have feared that this would be coming but the alicorns have planned to take over Equestria and oppress the other ponies… you don’t want that to happen do you?”
“No! O-of course not! I was just…”
“You were just what!?” Harmony snapped, “Just wasting the precious time you could be out there looking for my crystal!?”
“No, I-I-I’m sorry I don’t know where to find a dark crystal…”
“Of course you wouldn’t you foal. You need to crush one thousand pounds of magically blackened crystal, and then magically bind them all into one gem, to be easily placed in the one inch setting of an amulet I will make myself…. You can use the Crystal Empire in Northern Equestria to produce the black crystal.”
“But what about the ponies living there? What if they don’t want me tearing up their homes?”
“They won’t mind.”
“They won’t?”
“Not once you enslave them to make the dark crystal. Hm-hm-hm-hm” Harmony cackled half to himself.
Harmony and Sombra led their onslaught of the Crystal Empire the next day. The crystal ponies were resilient but were ultimately defeated and enslaved but there was one little filly that didn’t get off so easily. The crystal princess, Princess Cadence, was the one pony that stood up to them the most.
“You can’t do this to my people! You’ll never get away with this, so just leave us alone!” Cadence demanded
“Ha! You pathetic child, do you really think you can win with that hollow threat?” Harmony laughed as he picked her up and opened a portal with his magic
“Wait, what are you doing?” Sombra asked, “This isn’t right.”
“They need to know not to even try to stand up to you or all will be lost. We need to crush any form of hope that they may have, this girl will be an example of what happens to those that stand in my way.” Harmony threw that poor mare through that swirling vortex sending her through time and space to land somewhere in the future. ”Now we have one more thing to do… we need to take away the crystal heart before they can use it.”
After they had successfully taken over Sombra began changing the empire to suit his dark needs and enslaved the crystal ponies. Now depressed and grey the ponies were subjected to the wrath of their new dark lord and were forced to mine their homes and streets for the black crystal. Their greatest fear was the thought that they would never be saved and were often subjected to that fear when they tried to resist and were forced to stare into a door fueled by Sombra’s black magic that made them see what they feared most. Soon the dark crystal was acquired and sent to Harmony for his amulet. Sombra’s exposure to the dark radiance in creating that gem left him wanting more so he continued his dark reign of the crystal ponies.
As Cadence said it wasn’t long before the queen had figured out what had actually happened to her husband. She knew what she was up against and also knew that only all the alicorn magic of Equestria could stop Harmony before it was too late. So she gathered all the alicorns, young and old to go up against this great foe. She found him on his way to the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters to meet Celestia and Luna for lunch. There was something different about him but she couldn’t let that bother her now.
“I know what you did Harmony, it’s over.”
“Oh do you? Well it does look like you have taken the necessary precautions seeing as how you brought every alicorn you could find.”
“Hmm weird he still seems different, what happened to him?” she wondered to herself, “Harmony… “
“Don’t call me that name! I am not the one prophesied to bring peace! I realize that I wasn’t destined to bring order I must bring chaos! My name is no longer Harmony but I have taken a new name! I am chaos itself! I… am… Discord!” As he spoke the universe around them became more and more distorted
“Well then, Discord, why did you do it?
Why? Why!? He denied me my love! That’s why! Celestia and I would have been perfect together and he said no!” red flashed across his eyes and Queen Terra found out what was different
“What is that around your neck!?”
“Oh this?” he said flashing his new amulet, “I call it the Alicorn Amulet, forged by the darkened crystal of the Crystal Empire; this amulet increases my power one hundred fold! Ha-ha-ha! You have no hopes of defeating me now! Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“We’ll see about that! Aaaattaaaack!”
As the alicorn army charged Discord, using all his energy, made one great magical blast that not only sent his amulet flying and changed the alicorn army forever, but also changed him into a draconoquis. That blast changed his strongly built pony body into a long snakelike one, pushing back his signature dual horns and changing them into two different antlers while his wings were transformed into a bat and bird wing both completely different and changing each leg into the appendage of a different creature. The only thing that didn’t change was one leg, a permanent reminder of what he once was. When he realized this Discord flew off changing the universe with his new powers, making the world as ugly as he felt.
The blast changed the queen and her army into blackened insect like creatures that somewhat resembled the alicorns themselves but they had no individuality to base memories on for they too could remember little about their past lives. What they could make out was that their queen had to be the one that was permanently different and they began to call her Queen Chrysalis for her obvious superior intellect, while most could only make out chirps and clicks the Queen could make full and complete sentences. They also soon found out they could turn into any pony they saw and began to call themselves the changelings for they could also speak normally in pony form. Before they were sent to the badlands the ponies tried to accept their new changeling friends, but the changelings continued to impersonate others and feed off their love, even though they were asked to stop and then consequently leave, the changelings not all left and sometimes meet themselves or are sometimes mistaken for dejia-vu by other ponies to this day.
As Discord slowly made his way to the only one he cared for his mind began to warp becoming as dark and chaotic as the world he was unknowingly changing, he didn’t even realize it when he started to make the plants and animals grow and become a dangerously sinister forest. When he reached the castle a storm of chocolate rain had already began to fall and he was drenched in the sticky liquid that he controlled. Through peals of thunder he flung open the doors to find Luna sobbing in the main hall of the castle, shocked by his new appearance she stopped her crying, and with a horrified look she asked, “Who are you? Wh-what are you”
“Luna, it’s me, Harmony. Where is your sister?”
“Harmony would never have done that to father!”
“You heard about that huh? It doesn’t matter now. Where is your sister?”
“You monster!”
“Shut up you insolent whelp! I’ll find her myself!”
As he stormed off even further into the castle he brushed passed her insensitive to her cries. Discord found Celestia in the western wing of the castle, she also looked distraught. “Celestia I…”
“How dare you.”
“What?”
“How dare you turn not only my father and mother into monsters, like yourself, but the entire Alicorn race is all but wiped out. Those were innocent ponies you turned into those, those creatures. And now you come here seeking sanctuary for obvious crimes against Equestria? I’m sorry but you are not the one I once loved.”
“But Celestia, I-I did this all for you…”
“And I’m doing this for you.”
Luna entered the room with three gems swirling around her, tears still streaming down her face. “What is this?” he asked. As Discord turned to face Celestia three similar gems were also swirling around her. “I made these using the six rare light crystals that were found in Cloudsdale.” she explained, “Their power is unknown but I theorize that they will not only stop your reign of terror, but will be able to fix whatever else you have broken.” Discord began to laugh knowing he was cornered “Ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha! There is no way those pathetic gems can defeat me!” “It’s over Discord.” she responded calmly. As the gems began to spin faster and faster Discord felt his body begin to harden. “No! Noooooooooo!!!” He cried out as his body turned to stone a single tear fell from Celestia’s cheek.
With Discord turned to stone Celestia and Luna began to use the gems to right the wrong Discord had done. “What should we call them?” Luna asked “I like The Elements of Harmony. They somehow remind me of him before he turned evil.” Her sister responded with a little smile. “Do you think we can help our parents?” Luna asked with tears starting back up. “The elements changed the most chaotic parts of the world but that forest is still growing, there is a lot of black magic in there. I don’t know if we can save our parents from Discord’s influence.” As Celestia and Luna made their way towards the Crystal Empire they found the Queen and her Changeling Army.
“Can you help us travelers?” the Queen asked
“Don’t you remember us?” asked Luna in a shaky voice
“I hardly remember myself let alone a couple of fillies.” Queen Chrysalis responded
“We are the new rulers of this land.” Celestia said
“We are!?” Luna asked
“We are now.” Celestia responded, then to the Queen, “There is a town a little south from here, if you all can behave you can become full citizens of Equestria.”
“Thank you Queen…”
“No, Princess is fine, my name is Celestia and this is my sister Luna.”
“Thank you Princess Celestia, Princess Luna.” As the changelings made their way towards the town Celestia broke down and started weeping at the loss of her mother.
Once the two Princesses had made it to the Crystal Empire their fears became a reality. What they found was a kingdom of fear and darkness, a place where a pony’s hopes and dreams were crushed to form the King’s dark crystals. King Sombra met them half way to the castle.
“Halt! Get back to your posts and continue mining the black crystals!”
“You don’t remember us either?” Luna asked and then began to cry yet again
“Um… look, I barely remember my own past, I didn’t mean to make you cry, just get back to work.” For a moment Sombra seemed compassionate.
“You need to stop oppressing these ponies and quit mining the crystal, Harmony is vanquished.” Celestia said
“No! It’s mine all this crystal is mine! You can’t stop me!”
“You know this means you will be stopped.”
“If I can’t have it no one can!” he yelled as he rushed past them
“No stop! What are you doing?” Luna yelled after him
Once they had caught up to him Sombra was already causing the empire to fade away. The Elements were charging up and came to full power as the Crystal Empire disappeared. Celestia and Luna had no choice but to use the Elements on their own father. Turning him to shadow was the last thing to do to fix everything Discord had done…. Or so they thought
Discord had left one little thought in Luna’s head before he left, “They love your sister more than they love you.” Luna began to see this evidence in all the aspects of her new life as co-leader of Equestria. Celestia was given the sun to rise which the ponies laughed and played in. Luna was given the moon to rise and bring forth the night where most ponies slept to gather their strength for activities the next day. There were still some that felt the sadness of the lunar princess and made it their duty to work and play during the night but were ostracized by their fellow ponies. Soon Luna began her crusade to gain more power for her and her children of the night. Luna soon took on the new persona of Nightmare-moon and started a civil war in Equestria between what would later be called the Solar Empire and the New Lunar Republic. Both were based on freedom for their fellow ponies but, the New Lunar Republic was at a disadvantage, with fewer ponies to fight for them the Republic was easily defeated. Nightmare-moon didn’t give up, in one last effort for the night ponies she vowed to never let the sun rise again, against the pleas of her sister Nightmare refused.
Celestia had no choice but to use the Elements of Harmony on her own sister. Taking all the Elements Celestia banished her sister to the moon. The combined magical power of all the Elements changed Celestia transforming her beautiful pink mane into a bright sunny rainbow of colors which eventually faded over time. The elements were turned to stone and became dormant, waiting for the next bearers to awaken them. Filled with regret Celestia began her search to find a pony to replace herself for she was cursed to continue living until her sister returned and a new heir to the throne was found and brought to power, only then would she begin to age along with her sister.
