//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Guardian of the Princesses // by Darth Annihilator //------------------------------// Storyteller: Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her alicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger alicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. [Lightning crack], "Excuse me…" [BANG!] "There, that should quieten the storm for now…" Storyteller: She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since… So, that is the story of the fall of Princess Luna, what few know is that this story is incorrect; In fact, this isn't even the original version, it is the amended version that Princess Celestia released to hide the complexity and darkness of the true story… and her mistakes. Why would she do this? Why would the truth be masked? Truthfully it was done for a multitude of reasons but the two main ones are: 1) The first is that Ponies have not seen such violence since the Founding Days, war has become almost akin to a myth used to scare young fillies and colts into behaving. As a result: Ponies are childlike, conflicts can be resolved with the simplest of apologies. To reveal that Equestria was once nearly completely destroyed by their diarchs would cause panic and chaos. It is best to keep that fact quiet… 2) The other is that after Luna's imprisonment, all ruling was placed upon Celestia; the public knowing that she was part of what caused Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon would be catastrophic. There would be riots in the streets, greedy nobles would seek to oust her from her position and seize Equestria's throne for themselves, all for "the greater good" of course; Even if this did not happen, her subjects would lose faith in her and ignore her laws and policies, either way: Equestria would crumble from within… No, it is best for the public to never know the true story… So how do I know the true story then? Well, I was there and I will tell you what happened… Over a thousand years ago, the land of Equestria was (and technically still is) a diarchy with the head of states being two alicorn sisters. The elder was a truly beautiful mare by the name of Celestia, she was a pony with a coat so white, it was said that looking at it was like pointing a mirror at white light or a star, with a flowing mane that seemed to always blow in a gentle, non-existent breeze. I personally thought it looked like an aurora; The younger was a stunning midnight blue lass by the name of Luna, looking at her was like looking at the night sky: her coat was the colour of the night sky and her mane was similar to Celestia's only instead of looking at an aurora, you were looking at a river of stars in the night sky. (A/N: Descriptions aren't my strong point as you can most likely see here, so any help with those would be welcomed) What none but the princesses know is, there was a third player in the events that led up to this night: Dark Saber, the alicorn guardian of the two sisters and best friend to both. This stallion had a black coat and a blood red mane, whereas Celestia and Luna had immense power and could notably move the sun and moon respectively, Dark Saber was well acquainted with all branches of magic, favouring illusion over all the others; he had to be in order to adequately protect the princesses. Anyway, I'm digressing. Luna became jealous of how their subjects never seemed to appreciate her beautiful night that she put all her time and effort into planning then making. She did this to the point where every night was like a snowflake: unique from all the others. It seemed that they played all day then ignored her night and slept instead; Slowly her rage consumed her until Dark Saber noticed and began to spend most of his available time with her, resulting in them becoming closer and closer until they were like brother and sister, but still the fact remained that no-one but Dark Saber and Celestia appreciated her night. Celestia became jealous of how beautiful Luna could make her night, Luna could make every aspect of it unique whereas Celestia couldn't change anything in her day to any noticeable degree. She also witnessed the growing closeness between Dark Saber and Luna which only served to increase her jealousy as she wanted to be his closest friend… and maybe more than that. This resulted in tensions growing between the pair, often causing arguments which Dark Saber diffused and calmed them both until one day, when Dark Saber was away gem hunting, an argument broke out; it was the worst one yet, both sides saying cutting words which never should have been said, leaving deep scars on both sisters' hearts which have yet to heal to this day. The argument came to blows, both sisters attempting to wound the other in their anger until the transformation happened… Dark Saber returned to witness Luna turning from the kind-hearted mare he knew into the being consumed by hatred and jealousy: Nightmare Moon. Immediately he and Celestia (who by then had realized her mistakes) leapt into action, attacking Nightmare with all they had, desperate to bring Luna back but all they tried failed… It was night time, and Celestia's immense power was at its minimum while Nightmare's was at its maximum, Nightmare also knew all of Dark Saber's abilities and how to counter them, forcing them to take drastic action. Dark Saber lured her away to a pre-prepared runic array that could nullify a pony's powers and immobilize them while Celestia retrieved the most powerful artefacts they had at their disposal: The Elements of Harmony. Long story short, their plan worked… sort of: Nightmare was immobilized by the array and banished by the Elements, sadly Luna was banished too, as their plan was to separate Luna and Nightmare and seal Nightmare in the moon, permanently but Nightmare took Luna with her. So Celestia took up the duty of the night and the moon and her relationship with Dark Saber got more and more strained until she and him had a fight due to both being consumed by anger and grief, resulting in him being exiled from her sight. Again, how do I know this? Well please allow me to introduce myself: I am Dark Saber, former guardian of the Diarchs of Equestria, former best friend of Celestia and former brother of Luna... "Wait a minute, WHY DID I INTRODUCE MYSELF IN MY OWN JOURNEL?! UNBELIEVABLE…"