> The past.
>  by Auro454
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> Part One.
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"Armor, you've been staring at the floor for an hour now. What's wrong?"
Shining Armor blinked into reality at his wife's soft voice. 
"Nothing dear, just sleepless I guess." He kissed her cheek softly.
"You seem troubled. You can talk to me you know.." She sighed worriedly.
He chuckled a little bit, "trust me, you'd be the first to know if something was up."
She smiled, reassured. Shield stood up and stretched.
"Get some sleep, I'll go on a walk and ire myself out." He kissed her cheek again. As she yawned and nodded.
Shining Armor had left the Canterlot royal guard and moved to the crystal empire with his wife so they wouldn't be far apart. He quickly joined their guard soon after and they love it there.
However, this past week they have been in Canterlot. Princess Celestia invited them to stay there for a few days to see old friends and talk about governmental stuff between kingdoms.

As shield walked the quiet hallways of the castle, the moon shone brightly above. Armor knew how hard Princess Luna worked to keep the night as pretty as it was and she did a darn god job at it. The stars complemented the moon perfectly, and only she could get it that way.
On his little stroll, he walked into the great hall. The stained glass windows could still be seen with the brightness of the moon. He was always fascinated with how pretty they always were.
"Shining Armor?"
Armor whipped around to see the white Alicorn princess standing near him.
"Pr-princess!" He bowed fast and instinctively.
"At ease," she chuckled softly, "why are you up?"
"I couldn't sleep your majesty, so I decided to take a walk."
"Please, drop the formalities Armor we're both friends," she continued and stepped past him, "I couldn't sleep well either."
"I see." He looked to where she was looking.
"Perhaps fate dictated that we met here?" She smiled
"I can't think of anything." Armor shrugged.
Celestia looked up at the stained glass window of dischord being turned to stone by the elements of harmony.
"Armor, who does that look like?" She gestured to the purple unicorn depicted in the depiction.
He studied it briefly, "It's twily right? From when dischord attacked?"
"No, actually."
Armor tilted his head.
"Twilight Sparkle banished him a second time. This window depicts the first time he was banished."
"But Twily surely wasn't alive all those years ago?" Armor's confusion carried thick into his voice, "Nor Applejack, Rainbow, or the other elements.."
"You are correct Armor. Their ancestors are the ones on this window. They were the first elements of harmony."
Celestia walked to another window and beaconed Armor over.
"Eons ago, when my sister and I first started our rule there was nopony who opposed our peaceful empire. The way we governed Equestia was easy and free. There were and still are ambassadors that travel to Canterlot from all over to speak for their towns and cities to request audiences with my sister and I."
"However, there was a unicorn born with a condition that no doctor to date can explain. As he grew, the condition got worse and worse. One day he ran away from his hometown to live alone in the wilderness."
"As he lived out there, he picked up traits from the animals that helped him live."
Celestia walked to another window and looked deep into it. Armor was transfixed.
"When he found the power to," she continued, "He started to shape the world in his own insane image. Chaos ruled where he went. His power was great and was spreading fast. Our royal forces couldn't be deployed fast enough to cope with the pending crisis."
"There came a day where I, myself had to go to parts  of equestria to fix the chaos. Dischord, as he came to be known, planned my absence of Canterlot and moved in only a day after I had left…"
"That's when.." Armors voice trailed off.
"That's when he infected Luna," Celestia spoke with a hint of aggravation towards the reminiscence, "He made her think the way she did to turn into NIghtmare Moon. Luna wasn't strong enough back then and discord punched through the guards as if they were nothing."
Celestia calmed a little, "I was forced to abandon the post I was at and go back to Canterlot After the sun wouldn't rise no matter how hard I tried. When I arrived, the situation was far worse than I had imagined. Luna had become so..evil and strong. It was so hard to face her the way she was. Nothing I said got through to her and she made the first move to attack me. I knew I couldn't defeat her emotionally or physically, so I had to banish her to the moon. I hated that she had to  be there for so long.."
Celestia moved back to another window, "It took a long time to fix Canterlot. I was grieving for Luna as well so that didn't help."
Armor felt sympathetic, "why did you banish her for so long?"
"Because I didn't know how long it would take to defeat discord. I just needed to know she wouldn't cause any more chaos than there was already. It took several more years to clean up Canterlot and the surrounding area."
"It was then 6 ponies steped up to me and pleaded that I use their help," Clelestia atoned at another window. This one showed the elements of harmony, "they showed me each of their talents and their bond of friendship they all shared showed so much power that we got the idea to harness it and overpower chaos with the harmony the shared."
"we shaped their powers into the primitive elements of harmony. Dischord was reeking havoc on the other side of equestria so we sent a messenger to give him a challenge. It only took him a few days to come back to Canterlot. He fell right into the trap we set up and the elements and I sealed him into stone."
"Equestria rejoiced and gave the 'Elements of Harmony' their name. The period of peace lasted a great while. However," she dropped her tone, "there was still luna."
"The elements and I hypothesized a way to turn her back wen she returned, but the problem was that they wouldn't live to see her return. We thought about the descendants of all of them, but didn't know if they'd be able to control the elements."
She walked to another window, the one of the 'cleansing' of Nightmare Moon, "We were so lucky did her magic kindergarten test when she did. I followed the elements' family ties every year after the first banishment of discord, but none of the descendants had the same ties of friendship as the first elements."
"I purposefully gave Twilight Sparkle one of the hardest tests because I knew that she might have the same astounding magical capability as the first element of magic."
"After she started her test it looked like she wasn't the one. However, halfway through her test a sonic RAINBOOM filled the sky. That was my first hint. The RAINBOOM could only be preformed by the element of loyalty. My next clue was Twilight's powers coming online. She lifted the examiners into the air, shapeshifted her parents AND broke the egg open as a filly. I took her on as my apprentice  and trained her until the day Luna was to return. That day I sent her to find the other elements."
Celestia smiled, "Their bonds instantly formed, as fate intended, and I was glad twilight knew what was going on. I knew she would."
"They changed Luna back to the way she was 1000 years ago, although being gone for long had effected her. She knew it was necessary as well."
"Wow." Armor breathed out and smiled.
"That's the story, Armor," celestia laughed a little, "I hope I didn't bore you."
"Not at all princess. Thank you." Armor beamed.
Celestia nodded, "go get some sleep Armor, you and I both have busy days tomorrow."
"Yes ma'am." Armor smiled and walked back to his already sleeping wife and kissed her softly.
"I'll tell you a story sometime cadence. Promise." Armor closed his eyes and instantly fell asleep.