//------------------------------// // The End of the Era of the Two Sisters and the Early Solar Era // Story: A Complete History of the Kingdom of Equestria // by Book_Wyrm //------------------------------// Chapter 5: The End of the Reign of the Two Sisters and the Early Solar Era After the fall of Sombra, Equestria entered an era of fear and persecution. After the disappearance of the Crystal Empire, dark magic, which had been tolerated, was hated and feared. Ponies ranging from foals to grandparents were murdered by mobs. Those born with powers over shadows or darker forms of magic were distrusted. Princess Luna was hated and feared for her night and dream related powers, many of which fell under dark magic. In a desperate bid to protect her, Princess Celestia did what she could to lessen her sister’s influence and keep her in the background. The persistent atmosphere of fear created a shadow that hung over Equestrian culture. Since then, many of those with shadows of night for their magic talent have been shunned or distrusted, leading them to fall into the paths of revenge and evil, leading to more hatred. Princess Celestia attempted to calm the fears of the general populous. It was during this time that Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns came into being. Most of the younger unicorns with inherent Dark Magic were gathered into the school in an attempt to remove them from mainstream society and protect them from harm. However, removing them from the world only furthered the damage, and in 141 EE a mob destroyed the first iteration of the school, killing many of the students within. The event shook Princess Celestia, and in its wake she banned Dark Magic and most forms of shadow magic, using the laws as a pretense to gather as many Dark Mages to her as possible, in order to protect them. The Shadow laws angered many of the Dark Mages in Equestria. Banned from their own magic, they lashed out, causing a small rebellion labeled as the Shadow Rebellion. The Solar Guard put the rebellion down, but Princess Luna and the Lunar Guard did not participate, for despite her sister’s urging, she refused to play a part in the fight, purportedly saying that it was “...an action to oppress and put down the ponies of the night, and to destroy us solely because of what we are born with.” Many historians agree that Princess Luna’s descent into darkness was hastened greatly by the Shadow Rebellion, and its harsh and devastating end. With most of Equestria’s Dark Mages, ranging from foals to grandparents, dead, the night was feared more than ever. Equestrians shunned the stars. They turned away from the darkness. Protesters gathered near the Castle of the Two Sisters to demand the imprisonment of Princess Luna. The battle between sun and moon finally came to a head on a day in 149 EE* inside the Castle of the Two Sisters. On that day came the event that would change Equestrian history forever. Princess Luna, fed up with the hatred, fear and her sister’s ever-growing power gave in to her hate and jealousy and fear. Taken over, Princess Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon, allowing the moon to eclipse the sun and plunging Equestria into sudden darkness. Analysts and magical experts call Princess Luna’s alter ego a ‘Nightmare Form’. Nightmare Forms, they say, are what occurs when an alicorn succumbs to their worst impulses and emotions, literally becoming a twisted version of themselves. Once fallen into that form, it is impossible for the pony to break out of their own accord, having become somepony else entirely. It takes powerful magic, for example the Elements of Harmony, as well as their own will to escape, for a pony to turn back. After Princess Celestia’s arrival in the throne room of the Castle of the Two Sisters, she and Nightmare Moon fought one of history’s most epic duels, matching the battle between Mistmane and Sable Spirit (30 E.E). In their battle, much of the Castle of the Two Sisters was destroyed and Princess Celestia was injured. She eventually brought out the Elements of Harmony, using their power to banish Nightmare Moon. However, the trouble caused by Nightmare Moon did not end at her defeat. After the battle Princess Celestia was severely wounded. She was rescued by a member of the castle staff and brought to the growing city of Canterlot to be treated. For nearly two weeks, Princess Celestia lay in a hospital, unconscious and unable to use magic. For those two weeks, the sun did not rise, and the night continued. Crops withered and died from the lack of sunlight. Ponies began to eat through their stored supplies. It was midsummer, as anypony who celebrates the Summer Sun Celebration knows, and there was no time to plant new crops after Princess Celestia raised the sun again. The famine of 149-150 EE was the second worst in recorded history, felt by every species in the known world. The winter of 149 was one of the harshest ever, and the lack of crops after Nightmare Moon only added to the trouble. Ponies fled their frozen farms for cities like Canterlot, where the great storehouses attempted to provide everypony with food. During the famine, Princess Celestia, taking the influx of immigrants into Canterlot, began the work on Canterlot Castle. She claimed that she had decided to move her dwelling from the Castle of the Two Sisters to Canterlot because the castle had sustained much damage, and because she wished to be more in touch with her subjects. Some historians suspect that an ulterior motive for the relocation was Princess Celestia’s bad memories of the home she had shared with her sister, for in recorded history she did not return to the castle again until Princess Luna’s return, except to gather a few possessions from her chambers. As the famine continued through the winter, the death count nearly doubled that of all those who died of disaster during the first century of Equestrian history, excluding the period before the founding. Limping out of the Great Famine, Equestria found itself in a period of instability and vulnerability. Pirates raided their borders and eventually, the griffons, following King Grover, the first griffon king attacked. Weak and unprepared, the eastern half of Equestria was soon overrun. For nearly twenty years, the Griffons ruled much of Equestria, after capturing Princess Celestia during the Siege of Canterlot, in 155 EE, what was considered the darkest era of Equestrian history (figuratively.) During these twenty years, a rebellion appeared and grew. Hidden deep in the Everfree Forest, hidden by skill and the magic of the talented Mage Willowsnap, a descendant of Mage Meadowbrook, it flourished, gathering resisting ponies and griffons that had turned to the Equestrian cause. One of the most notable of these rebelling griffons was a griffon named Glyn. Having supposedly been a member of the Dark Lions, the griffon’s most elite fighting force, after his capture it was said that he turned to the ponies’ side before returning to the army, infiltrating it as a spy. Eventually, the griffons found the hidden base of the Equestrian Rebellion. Forced to flee, they were chased south, before finally reaching the great Southern Desert. From here they pressed onwards, becoming the first Equestrians to reach the southern tip of the Westward Continent. It was then that the ponies first discovered the hippogriffs of Mount Aris. Though relatives of the griffons, the hippogriffs were far more pony-like in nature, their culture stemming from pony settlers arriving from the south sometime during the Pre-Equestrian Era. Queen Novo agreed to assist the Equestrians and sailed the hippogriff’s great navy up the coast. They made landfall at the island of Trottingham, at the time a griffon settlement and from there began the reconquest of Equestria. They defeated the griffons in their makeshift capitol, Manehattan, breaking their hold on the kingdom and freeing Princess Celestia. United with Queen Novo, the ponies drove the griffons back to Griffonstone. They claimed Trottingham as their own. After the war ended, Princess Celestia and Queen Novo became the staunchest of allies. Queen Novo gave Princess Celestia her own eldest daughter, Windchaser, who the Princess adopted as her own child as well, uniting the two kingdoms. Windchaser founded the line of which Prince Blueblood and Lady Fleur Dis Lee come from. After the death of her husband and children, however, Windchaser, carrying her mother’s immortality, returned to Mount Aris, where she lived until she was killed in the Storm King’s invasion. Finally, in 166 EE Equestria came out of its troubles, beginning what many historians see as the Golden Age of Ponydom.