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// Cast List/Prologue 
// Story: Moon Dancing on Water 
// by michealdark 
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Cast list

Aligorna: Male Alicorn, leader of the nation of Aquilonia. A proud Prince and former pirate. Controls the oceans. Madly in love with Princess Luna for over 1000 years, and hoping to woo her.

Princess Luna: The dark coated younger sister of Princess Celestia. Raises and lowers the moon.

Strife: Draconequus. Older brother to Discord. Has power over...well...strife. Worshiped in Aquilonia as a war god, but unknown to the Equestrians.

Princess Celestia: With Luna, the defeater of Discord. Alicorn. Crowned princess and ruler of Equestria and teacher to Princess Twilight Sparkle and adopted aunt to Princess Cadence. Raises and lowers the sun.

Discord: Draconequus. Younger brother to Strife. The "Spirit of Chaos". Recently reformed thanks to a friendship with Fluttershy, which has started to develop into something more, and now Celestia's adviser instead of her sword enemy.

Princess Twilight Sparkle: Recently ascended Alicorn and student of Princess Celestia. Princess of Friendship. Talented young sorceress and avid nerd. The baby dragon Spike is her faithful assistant.

Spike: Baby dragon. Twilight's assistant, able to curry messages with his fire breath almost instantaneously. Has a monster crush on Rarity.

Fluttershy: Shy, soft spoken pegasus. Generally shies away from contact with others, preferring to nurture the woodland creatures she takes in, but is extremely loyal when she warms to others. Despite being a pegasus, she's not a great flyer and acts as more of a nurturing earth mother figure to her friends. Occasionally prone to violent rages, especially when her friends are hurt.

Rainbow Dash: Pegasus. Excellent flyer who aspires to join the stunt flying team, the Wonderbolts. A fighter by nature, she has trouble containing her energy and is always looking for adventure. Only pony currently living to ever fly fast enough to generate a Sonic Rainboom.

Rarity: Hoity-toity fashion designer unicorn. Prissy, valuing her appearance at all times to her friends' eternal consternation. Can be extremely obsessive-compulsive. Sometimes seems greedy because she's from a wealthy background with aspirations to become the most famous fashion designer in Equestria, but is in fact quite generous. Mildly aware of Spike's crush and occasionally flirts with him.

Pinkie Pie: An earth pony baker and comedian. Flighty, absent-minded, hyperactive, even borderline manic. Wants nothing more than to make life one big joke so that no one ever has to cry again.

Applejack: Earth pony and part of the Apple family, who run the Sweet Apple Acres farm and apple orchard. Loyal and dependable to a fault, and makes up for lack of flight and magic with great athletic skills and a kick that could bend steel. Sweethearted, family oriented, a secondary earth mother to Fluttershy. Coming from a farm family, she speaks with a country dialect.

Dr. Whooves: aka Time Turner. A dimension flung Time Lord stuck in Equestria for reasons not quite sure to himself. Has become one of Princess Celestia's most important allies. Largely working behind the scenes to make sure things run smoothly, he and his assistant have even stopped a Dalek invasion without many noticing it.

Ditzy Doo: The Doctor's faithful assistant/lover. Pegasus, whose official occupation is as a mail pony. She has a sweet, inviting personality, but most ponies look down on her because she's very absent minded and accident prone. Her defining physical characteristic is being wall eyed. It's frankly a little disorienting, which is a good reflection of her disoriented mindset. Pulls through for her friends when needed though. Some ponies think she's mentally retarded, but chances are that her issues are something else as she is in fact rather bright, just with an extremely short attention span. Has an almost fetish like obsession with muffins.

Princess Cadence: Full name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Is married to Twilight's brother, Shining Armor, who is the head of Princess Celestia's Royal Guard. Together they rule the Crystal Empire. Alicorn, whose power is love and compassion. Capable of using her love as a powerful weapon, especially with the aid of Shining Armor or certain magical talismans like the Heart Spell Crystal.

Shining Armor: Princess Cadence's husband and leader of the Royal Guard. Twilight's older brother. Legendary soldier with a compassionate nature and extreme reserves of perseverance. Co-ruler of the Crystal Empire.



Prologue

In the world of Equestria, across the wide ocean from the continent Equestria itself, lies the land of Aquilonia. It is a hard land, ruled over by the Alicorn Prince Aligorna. It is a rocky land, mountainous, with only a few unicorns and no pegasi to generate weather, meaning that most of its weather is the remnants of that created in Cloudsdale in the weather factory that drifts from Equestria across the sea. As such, growing food for the earth ponies that make the majority of the population is a struggle. What they have at their disposal though is the sea itself, which Prince Aligorna's magic has power over. The ponies of Aqulonia have long been known for their skills as fisherponies...and as pirates.

Soon after the defeat of Discord, over 1000 years ago, Prince Aligorna traveled to Equestria to meet the triumphant sisters, hoping to cement an alliance with them. He spent a week there, conducting business with Princess Celestia but spending most of his private time with her younger, dark maned sister Luna. He would sit and watch her in her work at raising the moon at night, and listen to her sing and dance to the night. An arrogant leader who believed the Alicorns to be gods, and understanding that Luna's moon was the driving mechanism behind his tides, he became convinced that it was divine right that they were meant for each other. He never got his chance to court her though. Soon enough, his treaty with the sisters was negotiated and he sailed back to his homeland, agreeing that he would meet the sisters every once in a while to work out new treaties to benefit both parties and even to reduce or eliminate his people's piracy. He hoped that in those times he would be able to pursue the young Luna, but after a few short years, he received the news. Jealous that Equestria's ponies slept through her beautiful night while enjoying her sister's sunny days, Luna had transformed herself into the villainous Nightmare Moon and had been banished into the moon by her sister.

Prince Aligorna was extremely dejected. He had missed his opportunity, and in the process lost what he was so sure was his divinely chosen mate. He and Celestia ruled their respective lands peacefully for 1000 years, maintaining a friendly working relationship the whole time. Then something miraculous happened. Luna started appearing to him in dream, singing and dancing for him, beckoning him back to Equestria. Word soon reached him that one of Celestia's students, Twilight Sparkle, had gathered a group of friends together and used the mystical weapons known as the Elements of Harmony to defeat a returned Nightmare Moon and bring her back to her benevolent form of Princess Luna. Convinced this was a sign, he started to gather a crew and sent word to Celestia that he would be meeting her again soon. It took over a year to complete preparations, but in that time he grew more and more content with this being his opportunity, largely in part to his newly acquired vizier.

This vizier was new to his position, but he was not new to the ponies of Aquilonia. He was Strife. The ponies of Equestria had always assumed that Discord was the only draconequus (dragon pony, the technical name for the chimera-like conglomerate of species that make up their being). This was false. In fact, he had a brother, operating across the sea. But unlike Discord, Strife didn't oppose the people he lived amongst, but made an alliance with Aligorna early on, becoming the Aquilonian's battle god, their protector and benefactor during raids. When the piracy stopped, he had stayed on as one of Aligorna's advisers, and now was whispering in his ear the plan that Aligorna hoped would win Luna's heart.