A millennium or so ago, Equestria was a small, recently formed kingdom. It was ruled by King Terra and Queen Thetis, the first Alicorns. Terra was king over the earth. Not only could he control the ground his subjects stood upon, but was skilled in agriculture and the nurturing of animals. His wife was his polar opposite in power, though. She was the Queen of the sea, and where her husband excelled in all things relating to the land, she did as well in the sea. She communed with animals of the sea, grew great fields of aquatic plants, and held dominion over the surf. She was so powerful her will could cause the low and high tides. Together they controlled the only two things that people really paid attention to, but their children would increase the scope of power the royal family possessed.

Their first child was a boy, the Crown Prince Comet. Comet showed early signs of greatness, Not only was he able to wield a sword with the greatest skill possible, but he excelled in magic and learning. He was truly a worthy successor to the throne, but this was not his only destiny. He also had a fascination with the night sky from an early age. His mother would often take him out to the astronomy tower and they would sit together, star-gazing. This led to him finding his destiny as the architect of the heavens. He turned the night sky from a jumbled mess of light into a tapestry of beautiful power. His powers included the stars, comets, asteroids, and even the deadliest thing in the night sky, the black hole. His power, however stopped short at the two greatest celestial bodies of that world, the sun and the moon.

Terra and Thetis now had some idea of the power that their children would hold. Their second child was a girl whom they named Celestia. Celestia was most certainly their child, but she looked so different from Comet that many doubted it. Comet was a tall yet slender young man. His skin was was pale at night but a light brown in day and his hair was black as the night sky, yet dark blue hid in his mane. His eyes shone with the light of the north star. Celestia, however, had a mane of pink, though as she matured her hair took on the hues of the rainbow. Her skin was as the sun's rays. Pale, but with the light of many other colors within. Her eyes shone with kindness and compassion. She was similar in build to her brother though, tall and slender.

Celestia was much like her brother in attitude and personality though. She was strong and unwavering. Her conviction never faltered and she constantly put people in good moods. Just being around the princess placed a smile on ponies faces. The major difference between her and her brother,though, was their interests. Comet loved the night. He knew the cool embrace and comfort it brought and treated his stars as friends. He gave them names and titles and they grew and blossomed under his care. Celestia did much the same when she discovered her special talent. She could control the sun. She could influence its speed across the sky, the heat it gave off, and its trajectory as well. She named the sun Sol and he was her constant companion. The sun was, in a way, her child. She cared for it, set it to sleep and nurtured it to give its most every day.

The third child to be born to the King and Queen was a girl. She was born 2 years after Celestia and 6 years after Comet. Her name was Luna. Luna was remarkably similar to her brother. They both relished the night, spending time together for him to teach her about his stars. This led to Luna discovering her talent at an early age. When she was 7 years old she found she could control the moon. Just like how Celestia and Comet made bonds with their wards, Luna discovered the moon. She found that the moon was a female spirit, and because she was so young, she named the moon after herself. Luna then taught Luna about her brothers and sisters in the sky.

These were Terra and Thetis' children. Comet, Celestia, and Luna controlled the heavens. Terra and Thetis controlled the land and the sea. Together they controlled the aspects of life in their land. There was, however, more aspects of alicorn magic. Namely, the emotions.

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Far in the south of their kingdom, the same year Luna was born, a child was born. The infants parents were a pegasus father and a unicorn mother. Together, they produced an alicorn. They named this child Cadence. Cadance was a beautiful child. Her hair was purple and gold and pink, her wings pink with purple tips, her horn was pink as well. Her skin was rosy, and her eyes were a light shade of purple.

Cadance and her family quickly fell under he attention of the King and Queen. They shipped the family to their castle in the Everfree as soon as they found out about her. They wanted to keep a close eye on Cadance and her family and to find out how she was born from two normal ponies. Cadance and her family quickly adapted to castle life and became like an addition to the family. It was in the castle that Cadance found her talent of finding and causing love. When the King and Queen found out about her talent they christened her with a new name and formally made her a princess. Princess Mi Amore Cadance, My Love Cadance. Cadance and her family lived in the castle for 12 happy years. But all god things must come to an end at some point.

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On a quiet summer night, as the royal family lay in bed ( except for Luna and Comet, of course) a lone, winged figure crawled into a window on the third floor of the castle. The shadowy figure crept through an open window and into the room of the young Princess Cadance. His intent was to take her away, for reasons known only to himself and his master. He crept towards the bed. As he reached the edge of the bed, the princess facing him as she slumbered soundly, he stubbed his toe against the bed post. Though small, the jolt was enough to startle the Princess awake from her soft sleep. When she saw the dark, looming figure above her, a knife in one hand and a rag in the other, she did the only sensible thing that she could at the time. She screamed.

The kidnapper leapt towards her, intending to quickly knock her out and take her, but she resisted. She proved so much of a problem as she kicked, screamed, and hollered, that she gave enough time for both her parents to rush from their room across from the hall and into hers. As Cadance finally succumbed and the kidnapper knocked her out with the chemical covered rag, her parents burst into the room.

At first the assassin and the couple looked at each other in shock. Then the assassin acted, he gripped the prone body of Cadance around the waist and leapt towards the window before either parent had time to react. In his flight towards the window, though he crashed into a dark figure. A tall, dark, angry figure with eyes that gleamed in the night like stars.

The kidnapper knew that he could never match the Crown Prince in open combat so he knew that he had to flee. The kidnapper may have been a craven, vile being, but he was smart, and he knew when to retreat. His cowardly mind quickly came up with a plan. He raised Cadance above his head and threw her at Comet. Comet leapt to catch her and as he did the would-be-kidnapper ran in the opposite direction. The father reacted first and lunged at the intruder. He grabbed him around the waist and knocked him to the floor. He then sat on his opponents chest and proceeded to rain blows upon the man. He threw punch after punch in his anger, but he failed to realize that the man had a knife.

He stabbed the father as he drew back his right fist to strike another blow. The knife found its home in the mans stomach and he grunted in pain, but he was too angry to stop his assault. He kept punching and for every punch he landed on his enemy, the enemy got another hit in with the knife. Soon enough the father was covered in his own blood. His stomach was slashed open and his internal organs lay on the floor. His wife screamed at the sight and cowered where she stood in the doorway. The father was now in a haze from blood loss. He slowly slid off his enemy and onto the floor. The man stood up and looked in anger at the pitiable form that lay on the floor in front of him. He made one last cut with the knife, right across the father's throat.

The mother had seen the fight and was horrified by the sight. She watched as her husband slowly succumbed to blood loss and watched the man she loved be killed. Then she snapped. She charged the murderer in a fit of rage, but was unlucky. The hapless widow slipped on the organs of her beloved and fell right into the murders knife. The murderer left her to die next to her husband and he fled the room.

Comet had not been able to help the father and the mother in their fight. He had been too preoccupied with catching Cadance and when he finally ensured her safety he saw the mother charging the murderer. He stared in shock as he witnessed her die, but steeled his mind as he saw the coward flee. He carried Cadance outside the door of the room and chased the murderer.

~~~

When Cadance had screamed, Comet had been with Luna in the astronomy tower. They had been in the middle of a lesson about the personality's of their celestial bodies when Cadance screamed. Normally, Comet would have written this off as a nightmare, but the way Cadence had screamed told him otherwise.Comet had then ordered Luna to go to their parent's bed chambers and wake them up.
She flew as fast as her wings could take her and slipped onto the her parent's balcony. She tumbled forward and smashed into the double doors, opening them and she landed on her stomach on her parent's carpet.

Slowly, she got up. She couldn't remember the reason she had come there at first, but it quickly sprang to mind. Luckily, her spectacular fall woke her parents, saving her from the hassle of doing so herself. She rushed to their bed, inundating them with an incoherent mess of words. She spoke as rapidly as she could to get it all out in time.

Every pony, however, needs to breath. As she drew a breath to continue her report, her mother reached forward and placed a hand over her mouth. She slowly instructed Luna to begin again, from the top, and slower. Luna calmed down enough to follow her mother's commands and told her parents about everything that had happened. She told them about the scream and she placed great emphasis on Comet's reaction. As she finished her story, King Terra got out of the bed and walked to his writing table. He picked up a sheet of paper and a quill and quickly jotted down a message.

Terra then walked to the door and handed the sheet to the guard positioned outside, ordering him to head to the barracks with the utmost speed and give the letter to the captain of the guard, then to return immediately. As the guard carried out his orders, Terra walked to his closet and opened it. He quickly donned his armor and retrieved his sword. He had just finished putting on his armor when the captain arrived with 20 pegasi. The King gave him the shortest possible version of the situation and headed out to search the castle for Cadance. He ordered the door guard to fetch Celestia and as he left, he instructed Thetis to keep Luna there and to not leave the room.

~~~

While the king made his way to the Princess' room, Comet had followed the murderer through the castle. Comet had not lost the trail of his quarry once, always a few steps behind. The murderer was tiring though and knew he would soon be caught. The training he received did very little to increase his stamina, focusing almost solely on his problem solving abilities, and those long hours of training were about to come in handy.

The murderer reached in his jacket pocket. He brought out a small blue vial. The liquid inside glowed faintly with the impact of his feet against the stone floors of the castle. This was his backup plan. The potion was brewed by a witch doctor that lived some miles away. It was a simple brew with one purpose, to explode in a violent and fiery manner. As he ran, he silently hoped he would never have to use it.

~~~

Celestia had just arrived in the room. Queen Thetis had explained to her the situation when she had arrived and now she paced on the other side of the room while Thetis comforted Luna on the bed. Abruptly, the quiet in the room was shattered as the murderer ran into the room, the guard and Comet following.

For a second everybody in the room was still. The murderer stared at Thetis and Luna and they stared back. The shock would have lasted for longer if men of action had not been in the room. The guard outside the door was ahead of Comet and charged the murderer. Together, they crashed to floor, the murderers wings breaking from both the force of impact and the weight of the guard, He gasped in pain and, without realizing it, released the bottle.

Thetis saw the bottle fly out of his hand and her maternal instincts took control. She grasped Luna and wrapped herself around her as tightly as she could, holding her with both limbs and wings. Comet just as quickly realized that the vial meant danger. He bolted towards his younger sister Celestia and just reached her in time, dragging her to the ground, when the bottle hit the floor.

Comet and Celestia were far enough away from the blast to only be blown backwards by the force. Comet suffered Slight burns on his back and shrapnel damage. Celestia only suffered a slight concussion, but not everyone can escape from such catastrophes as easily as they did. Thetis had wrapped herself so tightly around Luna that she suffered no damage from the blast at all. Thetis, however, took the full brunt of the explosion. Her back was covered in third degree burns and she had heavy amounts of shrapnel embedded in her back and neck. She died immediately in an intense, but thankfully short, burst of pain.

The guard had suffered the worst of the damage. His body was strewn around the room, and it was all burned beyond recognition. His body kept the assassin's body from the same fate, though it did not save him.

Comet still lay over Celestia, half in and half out of consciousness. He eventually found the strength of body and will to stand up and assess the damage. He saw the wreckage and acted as quickly as he could. He picked Celestia up and carried her into the hall. After waking her up he told her to find their father and to find a medic, repeating himself over and over in her addled state. He was thankful, though, that he did no have to address their mother's demise at that moment.

As Celestia ran off, Comet went back into the ruined room. He walked over to his mother and slowly lifted her up, taking care not to look at her face. He didn't think he could take it. He picked Luna's shell shocked body out of the last motherly embrace she would ever have and carried her into the hall. A whispered word and a glow of his horn were all it took to set her into a soft sleep. He set her on the floor and leaned back against the wall next to her, allowing himself to pass out as he heard boot steps rushing towards him.

~~~

Hours later, King Terra and a crew of investigative unicorns were assessing the damage of the room. His wife's body had already been removed. Terra walked over to the body of the dead guard. He slowly lifted the remaining torso and head up and off of the body of the assassin. His eyes widened as his slightly burned face came into view. The assassin had a beak! There was only one sentient race in the world with a beak, Gryphons.

The Gryphon Order had never been friendly with Equestria, but he never though they would resort to murder and kidnapping as a way to vent their hatred for the nation. The king reminded himself, though, that this could just be a rogue gryphon. There was only one way to check though. He turned over the assassin and moved the clothing to look at his back. The King's eyes grew wide and his heart started to hammer in his chest. There, on the gryphon's back left shoulder, was a brand. The brand of the Gryphon Order that was a mockery of the cutie marks only ponies had.

His moment of anger and brooding was interrupted when the head of the Equestrian Council came to him. " My lord, we need you to make an announcement of the current events. It's almost dawn and there are ponies lined outside the castle"

The King took a moment to master his anger before rising to speak. " Take a note Counselor, we are headed for war."

Author's Note

Thank you for reading my story. Please feel free to criticize as harshly as you can. You can never stop improving in my opinion.
Give me everything, from grammar mistake to problems you had with reading it, and any questions you have about the story. Thank you.