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// Celestia and Luna 
// Story: A Guide to Recent Equestrian History 
// by mint20 
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The Reign of Discord
2050-2148 AW
Celestia and Luna
About 2110 AW to the present day


After the Great Attack, hope was starting to fade. Some ponies started to think that Discord would reign forever. To these ones, Discord was omnipresent, and always aware of the Equestrian Armies. While the propaganda spread by the Equestrian Resistance Alliance did turn many against Discord, not all were easily turned. Some ponies even favored Discord’s rule over the corruption of the Republic. The more vocal of this group were often assassinated by the Equestrian Alliance, but the ones that kept their heads down escaped notice and attack.

As hope started to collapse on itself, some of the disorganized Alliance started to see the need for strong, efficient leaders. They started to search for a strong, powerful leader to save them from the tyranny of Discord. However, they had clashing opinions and ideas, never agreeing on who would make a good leader. Allegedly, there was few scuffles and fights over two different candidates to leadership, and civil war almost broke out...again. Luckily, Celestia and Luna sensed the growing anger and hopelessness, and chose to act immediately.

Celestia and Luna have always enjoyed a shroud of mystery when it came to their past, and very little was known of them until very recently, in the past two years, when a combination of discoveries and recent events forced the Princesses to reveal a great deal of secrets about the past. What is known is thus: around 2100, the two Princesses-to-be were born to a unicorn in the Alliance. They were fraternal twins, Celestia being only a few minutes older than Luna. The identity of the mother and father are not known, and if the Royal Sisters remember, they hold the secret close to their hearts. Regardless of their parentage, they were raised on rants of Discord’s cruelty and malice, learning to hate the enemy. By 2110, despite the fact that the two unicorns were still fillies, they were exhibiting great magical talent and understanding of tactics and politics. They attempted to stop the ponies from performing the Great Attack in 2121, claiming that they did not have the numbers or strength to defeat Discord. They were largely ignored by the Alliance, even mocked. Then, when the Attack was crushed, and their parents were killed in action, the sisters swore to never allow the Alliance to ignore them again. They started to focus on learning a great deal of magic, particularly the spells that the unicorns once used to raise the Sun and Moon. Then, on a fall day in 2130, after nine years of intensive study, they assembled some of the higher-ups of the Alliance to a demonstration, where they seized the heavenly bodies from Discord’s control by themselves. They held the link for almost fifteen minutes, until the spirit of chaos noticed the fact that the Sun occupied the sky alone, and the Moon had remained down. Angry, he channeled his force and took back control of the heavenly bodies, surprised by the new degree of resistance offered by the two unicorns, though he did not know that Celestia and Luna were the opposers.

The Alliance were astonished that these two mares, still technically fillies, managed to take over the heavenly bodies from Discord’s grasp. The entire unicorn nation had failed to do so, and these two had succeeded. What happened next, however, shocked them even more. There was a flash of light and suddenly, the two unicorns had cutie marks. One was the shape of a sun, and the other a crescent moon on inky black. Suddenly, on top of this, the two unicorns ascended to to be Alicorns, the greatest of all ponies. They had earned the ascension due to their demonstrated expertise in wielding magic, and, more importantly, though demonstrating moral fiber and a willingness to risk death and/or torture by seizing the Sun and Moon, not for themselves, but for the population they loved.

Now, many believe an Alicorn is a “pegasus unicorn”, a combination of a pegasus and a unicorn. While this is technically true, it is not the full truth. The problem with “pegasus unicorn” is that the term ignores the Earth Ponies. One must not forget that while an Alicorn does indeed gain the speed and flight of the pegasus, and the magic of a unicorn, he or she also gains the strength and stamina of the Earth Pony.

Most of the ponies assembled bowed and declared the two sisters to be their leaders, and later their rulers.

However, not all ponies accepted the sisters. One faction broke off soon after this declaration, claiming that the Alliance needed no leader, and resistance is hopeless. Mostly earth ponies, this faction fled north, to return to the ancestral home of ponies, from before the Three Tribes. They traveled for many weeks, heading farther and farther north until they arrived at an area rich with crystals, outside of Discord’s influence. There, they settled, founding what would become the Crystal Empire. This book will not go over the history of this neighboring realm in any great detail, but know that it had a very rough history, torn by war, enslavement, and famine.

Having taken control of the Alliance, the sisters re-organized the Equestrian Resistance Alliance, building soldiers from farmers and warriors from former politicians. This was a massive undertaking. To put out some numbers, it is estimated that five million ponies were members of the Alliance upon the Declaration of Equestrian Sovereignty, that kick-started the Harmonious Revolution. The task of organizing and arming these makeshift soldiers took thirteen years, and barely escaped notice, with meetings being held deep underground or in what little patches of clouds that the pegasi had managed to seize. When all was in order, and with the Alliance more or less united behind two effective leaders, the time had come for revolution. Thus, in 2143, the Royal Sisters declared that Equestria was an independent nation, sovereign by itself, and not bound to Discord’s overlordship, sparking the single most bloody war in Equestrian history.