History: Celestia and Luna's Reign

We know by now that, before Luna's corruption and defeat a thousand years ago, she and Celestia ruled together as sisters, managing the sun and the moon, wielding the Elements of Harmony, and setting the stage for Twilight and co. a thousand years later. They first took to the throne after defeating Discord, who ruled Equestria before they did, and having discovered the Elements of Harmony, proceeded to kick Sombra's flank into the middle of the next millennium. It wasn't long after that when Luna's envy of Celestia led to the brief rebellion of Nightmare Moon, and ultimately to the sisters' power over the Elements being broken.

This thread is for those who are interested in developing, discussing, questioning, ordering, or outright inventing the historical events of their reign. Here's the place to wonder if the sisters' reign was a Golden Age or nowhere near as harmonious as one might think, to speculate over how Sombra managed to cause so much trouble under their watch, and to wonder whether the Hearts and Hooves' Day tradition can be traced back here.

A few notes to get you thinking

Celestia and Luna's Origins

The first question is: Where did the sisters come from? Were they already well-integrated into pony society before Discord's reign, and if so, then had they already ruled it before Discord came along? How did they discover the Elements, and where did those artefacts come from? Was the quest to defeat Discord a long and epic one, or something closer to Twilight's quest in the series? After Discord was defeated, how did they come to the arrangement of ruling together? Weren't there already leaders of the pony tribes, and were the sisters already in possession of their cutie marks?

The Relationship Between Celestia and Luna

Luna eventually rebelled against Celestia, but the details we have of this time are rather concise. It's possible that Luna developed her envy early on in their reign, keeping it to herself for all those years, but it's equally possible that she developed it much closer to the moment when Nightmare Moon would appear. Also, there's the question of how the Elements were shared amongst themselves - Celestia may have embodied half the virtues and Luna the other half, for example - and perhaps their relationship still had other problems even as their friendship was enough to sustain harmony. Moreover, there's the question of how long they ruled in harmony for; was it a thousand years, a hundred, or a mere ten?

Nightmare Moon

Moreover, what is Nightmare Moon? She may be a completely different personality or Luna's true self, or something in-between. And how was she corrupted in the first place? Other points to consider are how long she was around for, what damage she caused before then, and whether Celestia had any choice in banishing her to the moon, as opposed to the Elements doing it themselves.

Pony Culture

Presumably, this is the first time ponies had to live under alicorn rulers. How did the unicorns react when they had the sun and moon confiscated from them? Alternatively, pony society may already have dealt with alicorns before. Did Canterlot exist back then? What about the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters; what was that like in its day? Was technology still in the medieval stage of Hearth's Warming Eve's pageant, or had it progressed by then? Was Tartarus a prison built around this time, and where did Celestia get Cerberus and Philomena from?

As I said in a previous thread related to the Crystal Empire, I said at the beginning there was a war that split the super continent into other, smaller yet still huge ones. I had to mention this because I want to develop this chronologically.

We know that before the three separate ponie tribes of the unicorns, pegasi and earth-ponies settled their differences and founded Equestria presumably Canterlot. They livedon a different region than nowadays Equestria thus I want to mention the followings.

The alicorns that inhabited the super continent before had lost their wings and horns thus creating the earth-ponies, but somehow some of them kept either their horns or their wings this leading to the separation of the three tribes and their continuous bickering.

After the three tribes set aside their differences and united into one kingdom thus founding Canterlot, maybe the last two alicorn, The Celestial Parents, Luna and Celestia's parents came to aid the ponies after they searched the world for the survivors.

In this time, the wild magic unleashed in the beginning could had settled down and create The Ever Free Forest and maybe Discord seeing his godly powers. The two alicorns were unaware of discords birth and thus continuing to rule.

When Discord finally got old enough, he could've discovered the ponies and seeing how powerful he was, he used his magic to get rid of the two celestial Parents thus ending the first Golden Age of Equestria. After this event the two alicorns might've fled the early Equestria and settle away were they gave birth to Luna and Celestia and raised them to take back Equestria and rule in peace and harmony.

To help the two sisters do that, when the two reached the right age, the two Celestial Parents gave their lives to create the elements of Harmony. Their mother, probably an alicorn from the kingdom of day created the elements of generosity, laughter and kindness and gave them to Celestia. Their father, an alicorn from the kingdom of night transformed into the elements of magic, loyalty and honesty and gave them to Luna.

Thus using the elements the two sisters went back to a Canterlot and instead of facing Discord toe-to-toe they somehow tricked him, maybe by creating a parade for him where when he was turned into stone he was singing seeing his posture. thus the age of Chaos ended and the Second Golden Age began.

The two had to recreate the kingdom as it was before the Age of Chaos and seeing how Discord took over the Sun and Moon the two took dominion over them to ensure balance over the kingdom. the ponies might've had a hard time getting along with the new rule seeing the years under chaos and the possible destruction of their culture. But, now they had the chance to rebuild their culture and thus the two sisters ruled peacefully until Sombra came to power in the north and threatened the kingdom. the two sisters saw the problem and confronted Sombra.

After a battle between their magic backed by the elements and Sombra's backed by the magic oof the Empire. The sisters banished Sombra into a glacier by turning his body into a ghost like one, maybe because the exposure to the magic of the empire made him somehow immortal.

After he was banished and the Crystal Empire disappeared with his curse, the two returned back to rule over Equetria, but maybe Sombra used what remained of his force and made Luna's sin, jealousy come to life and after being tormented by Sombra's curse for a few years she turned into Nightmare Moon and rose against Celestia.

But Celestia defeated her by using the elements, but she was unable to use their true power seeing half of them were bound to Luna thus unable to run her sister back, instead she was forced to banish her to the moon for the next 1000 years waiting for the right ponies who could control the elements to their full capacity to be born. And about the royal palace, that could've been where the sisters ruled after Discord's banishment and where Celestia ultimately sealed the elements for 100 years thus returning to the old palace in Canterlot that once belong to her parents.

It's always seemed to me, ever since HWE, that the Princesses only assumed rule over the tribes because the ponies royally (pardon the pun) screwed things up with the unicorns in charge. After Equestria was founded, they showed up to put things back in order and stop the same infighting from starting up again.

Now where does Discord fit in? The easiest place to fit him is between the events of HWE and the Sisters' arrival. The ponies flee from an icy wasteland into their new home, and things seem to be going swimmingly, but an evil chaos spirit decides he doesn't like them all living in harmony, so Discord decides to screw around with them for a hundred years or so. Eventually, the Sisters hear the ponies' suffering, and come to liberate them.

There's a big fight, and they realize Discord is too powerful to defeat on their own (at least, without shattering the earth in a battle of superpowered immortals), so they go searching for something to bring him down with. They realize that only the magic inherent in the mortal races can stop him, so they harness it and bind those positive magicks inside the elements of harmony. They cast down Discord, and decide that they've had enough of this nonsense, so they take over the kingdom and lead it into a new age.

That's been my impression, anyway.

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That suggests to me that Sombra is pretty much the ultimate evil in Equestria. I think Faust once said that something was responsible for corrupting Luna and for releasing Discord, the implication being that this was some sort of greater power. Perhaps Sombra was the one who released or had a role in releasing Discord in modern Equestria - perhaps because he corrupted Luna, thereby weakening Celestia's hold over the Elements?

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I'm not so sure about the unicorns screwing everything up. You suggest yourself that the pony tribes were getting along well until Discord showed up. Also, how were the sisters delayed by a thousand years before taking on Discord? That seems a touch negligent to me.

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I know, a) necro, and b) if I'm going to wait this long, why not hold out ot the end and avoid any possible contradiction? Buuut i'm bored, the OPs still around and it doesn't look like anyone's taken a crack at this in over half a decade.

We know by now that, before Luna's corruption and defeat a thousand years ago, she and Celestia ruled together as sisters, managing the sun and the moon, wielding the Elements of Harmony, and setting the stage for Twilight and co. a thousand years later. They first took to the throne after defeating Discord, who ruled Equestria before they did, and having discovered the Elements of Harmony, proceeded to kick Sombra's flank into the middle of the next millennium. It wasn't long after that when Luna's envy of Celestia led to the brief rebellion of Nightmare Moon, and ultimately to the sisters' power over the Elements being broken.

Mostly as true now as it was then - only the bolded bit has been largely disproven, but I still hold to it in my headcanon.

The first question is: Where did the sisters come from?

Interesting - no "were they always alicorns" question? Not that I know - heck, even they may not remember in my headcanon - but it speaks to the age of this - published mere weeks before Twilicorn.

Were they already well-integrated into pony society before Discord's reign, and if so, then had they already ruled it before Discord came along?

Canon has seemingly established them as ruling pre-Discord, but I have them born during his reign.

How did they discover the Elements, and where did those artefacts come from?

An example of a question thoroughly answered by canon since - from the Tree, which was planted by the Pillars.

Was the quest to defeat Discord a long and epic one, or something closer to Twilight's quest in the series?

And an example of a question still largely unanswered - so I go with epic, because why not? A journey to all the corners of the earth, seeking his secret weakness.

After Discord was defeated, how did they come to the arrangement of ruling together? Weren't there already leaders of the pony tribes,

I imagine that during his reign, most existing government structures would have been destroyed or corrupted. Still, the princesses may have taken a mostly symbolic, ceremonial role - at first.

Reverse order for this next set!

Moreover, there's the question of how long they ruled in harmony for; was it a thousand years, a hundred, or a mere ten?

THis one first because it's straightforward. Canon has now pinned this down to little more than a century - I prefer a sightly more generous threeish.

Also, there's the question of how the Elements were shared amongst themselves - Celestia may have embodied half the virtues and Luna the other half, for example - and perhaps their relationship still had other problems even as their friendship was enough to sustain harmony.

Time to once again invoke the mighty power of "being from the future". Comparing these
With these it's clear that canonically, Celestia bore Magic, Kindness and Generosity while Luna got Laughter, Honesty and Loyalty. That said, they probably weren't assigned with any serious intent so feel free to change them up.

And I figure that Luna always though Celly got a bit too much of the praise and adoration, but only began to consider that unfair as the gap between them shrank in proportion to their lifetimes.

Moreover, what is Nightmare Moon? She may be a completely different personality or Luna's true self, or something in-between. And how was she corrupted in the first place? Other points to consider are how long she was around for, what damage she caused before then, and whether Celestia had any choice in banishing her to the moon, as opposed to the Elements doing it themselves.

I think she was originally a form Luna took in dreams - perhaps a villain she hoped to defeat and restore flagging public opinion of her (in which case it backfired) or perhaps just an expression of her repressed negative emotions. Over time, this hidden face became more of her real one than the one she showed in the waking world. She terrorised many ponies in their sleep (enough to get a thousand-year reputation as a foal-gobbler), but the scene from the S4 premiere was her first and only manifestation in the waking world, as Luna was consumed by powerful dark magic and underwent a transformation somewhat similar to Sunset Shimmer's a thousand years later. The battle was longer than shown - an hour or so, perhaps - but was only seen in the distance from Canterlot, and very few knew the truth of what occurred. And the choice was not Celestia's, but Luna's - she was still too raw to accept redemption. Celestia blamed the Elements, though, and left them to rot in the old castle.

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Presumably, this is the first time ponies had to live under alicorn rulers. How did the unicorns react when they had the sun and moon confiscated from them? Canonically, they seem to have been quite glad, given how the things drained their best spell-casters. And in my version, the unicorn methods were lost in Discord's chaotic reign.

Alternatively, pony society may already have dealt with alicorns before. Not as far as we know.

Did Canterlot exist back then? What about the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters; what was that like in its day? Well, the Royal Canterlot Voice has to be named for something. I apply the name to the entire region (including Ponyville) - the mountain city was originally a Classical Era gem mine, then a Discordant Era enclave, eventually growing into a default capital due to it's proximity ot the two new rulers' seat (established in the Everfree for privacy and to protect the Tree).

Was technology still in the medieval stage of Hearth's Warming Eve's pageant, or had it progressed by then? Both - there were big setbacks due to loss of knowledge and infrastructure in the Discordant Era. The pageant is also not necessarily the most accurate depiction.

Was Tartarus a prison built around this time, and where did Celestia get Cerberus and Philomena from? Tartarus was an ancient vault, one of the places they travelled on their quest - they remembered when confronted with an enemy that could not be beaten with the Elements alone. There was originally a proper (if half-mad) Keeper, but at some point he perished and the spells that sustained the place's power were inherited by his dog. The Princesses were not pleased.

Philomena, I have no idea about. She does seem to be fairly secret, though, given that Twilight didn't know of her.

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This short timeframe does seem to be what the show settled on in the end - but they can't pry my Classical Era from my fingers.

Since this franchise doesn't do many backstories, we'll never know what they really did. For some reason, I don't think they were born alicorns, but became them later, and I will even say the same about Opaline as well. I just think that for the most part alicorns aren't natural with Flurry Heart being the exception to that. I even remembered doing a fanfic known as "Royal Origins" that is mostly a retcon especially if it has Megan in it, who was claimed to be responsible for giving them their name due to what they reminded her of.