Prologue

~:~Nearly 1000 years ago...~:~

Tears ran down the Princess' face, staining her pure white coat with dark stains. She had known for some time that her younger sister was not happy with the amount of reverence and love that she got from their subjects, but never did she imagine that her despair and rage boiled so.

The younger alicorn Princess reared up on her hind legs and brought them crashing down to the ground, an impact that seemed to shake the whole castle to its foundation. “Why do you continue to deny me, Sister?” She demanded, tears running down her own face. “Do I not deserve to be loved by our subjects as well? Every year you tell me to wait, that they will soon love me as I deserve! Yet it never comes to be! They continue to sleep through the Night that I create to light the darkness! They turn their back on the moon and shun the stars that I bring forth! So why am I not so well-loved as the Sun? The moon is just as important!”

“Of course the moon is important.” The elder sister whispered, cowered by her sister's anger. “You must believe me! Just a little more time, and everyone will see you and love you as I do!”

“Love? Do not make such claims. It has been years since you have loved anything but yourself.”

“It's not true!” The elder sister cried out.

“Enough! Enough of your lies! If the ponies will not give me their love willingly, then I will force them to love me! This I swear: I will never lower the moon again, Sister! The night will last forever, and soon they will love me!”

The elder sister turned towards the dark window. It was nearly time for dawn. She couldn't even imagine the damage to the balance of the world if she were unable to move the sun in its proper time. Hundreds of years of balance would come to ruin. Such a thing was unthinkable, and the potential damages made this too catastrophic for her to ignore.

“Sister, if you continue down this path, I will be forced to stop you.”

“Stop me? Of course! Stop all the ponies loving me instead of you!” As the younger sister yelled, her body began to change. It was within the ability of an alicorn to change their appearance at will, but this ability was normally used to hide the fact that they are an alicorn if they chose. This transformation was different, and the elder could sense it. The darkness that had been eating at her younger sister's heart all this time was taking over her outward appearance. She grew in size and became as dark as a moonless and starless night. Her mane and tail transformed into a starry void. “I will not be denied!” She yelled in a voice not her own.

A blast of dark energy shot from the dark alicorn's horn, and the elder barely managed to fly out of the way in time. More tears almost blinded the elder alicorn. The darkness had taken over her beloved sister. The only thing that could stop her rampage now was the Elements of Harmony. But would she be able to wield the Elements alone? She had always used them as a team, with her sister at her side.

Another blast almost took down the roof. The elder alicorn was thankful that the castle was empty this night because of the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration.

The elder alicorn glared at her dark sibling. “You leave me no choice.” With a flash of light, she disappeared.

The dark alicorn was only fooled for a moment. She could feel the powerful magic that her sister gave off and knew immediately her teleport destination: the Hall of the Elements of Harmony.

“Foolish sister, you know as well as I do that nopony can wield the Elements alone!” With a flash of deepening shadows, she followed her sibling.

The elder used her magic to bring the Elements down from their pedestal, but they did not react to her magic as she expected. Only a few of the stone orbs transformed into their Elements. The rest, normally controlled by her younger sister, remained inert.

“You see, sister? The Elements of Harmony have given me their blessing! The Night will reign forever!” The dark alicorn laughed.

“No! I will not surrender so easily!” The elder braced herself, gathering the Elements that answered her call to herself. Perhaps three Elements would be enough to purge the evil of her sister?

A bright, multicolored beam of light shot from the elder alicorn's horn and the dark one, too shocked at her sister's success to do anything, took a direct hit. For a moment, the darkness seemed to be pulled out of her. The shadows hung like a dark cloud around her beloved sister. But the three Elements were not strong enough to completely evict the evil within her sister and it took root again.

“No!” The elder alicorn yelled in despair. That had been her only hope. Now, only two options remained. Ending her sister's life was absolutely out of the question. Banishment was the only thing she could do: banishment until new ponies could be found to wield the Elements and restore her sister.

Now the elder was crying in earnest. She used the Elements to keep her sibling in place. “I'm so sorry... Luna. Forgive me.”

“What are you doing?” The voice sounded more like the sister she knew, but the elder knew what she had to do and couldn't let sentimentality stop her. “Celestia! Don't! Please don't! What of Moonlight?”

Celestia's heart hardened as she spoke the words of the spell that would send her sister into exile until such a time as the Elements could cleanse her of her evil. With Luna giving one last cry of pain and despair, she vanished. Celestia looked out the window and saw the shape of a mare's head appear on the surface of the moon. Luna was trapped there now. For how long? Even Celestia did not know.

Celestia's legs failed her and she collapsed to the ground, shaking with bitter sobs. How could it come to this? How had it come to the loss of her beloved sister?

She stayed like that until it was time to raise the sun. For the first time ever on a Summer Sun Celebration, she raised the sun in privacy. When the guards came to see her, her only words to them was an order that from that moment on, all ponies were to stay up the whole night before the Summer Sun Celebration so that all ponies could see the love that Luna put into her night sky.

And then she sent everypony away and made her way up to her sister's private chambers. It had not been damaged in the fight because both of the alicorn's chambers were protected by powerful magic.

Celestia disarmed the spells and stepped inside. The inside was as dark and beautiful as the night sky, but Celestia paid no mind. She traveled straight away to a little basket by her sister's large bed.

Inside was a tiny little filly, purple like the sky between day and night. She was Luna's daughter, Moonlight, whom Luna had begged for at the end. Moonlight: who was the first natural born alicorn. After all, neither Celestia nor Luna had been born, but were created to fulfill the roles assigned to them.

“I promise, little sister,” Celestia vowed. “That I will watch over your daughter until you return. She shall be put into an enchanted sleep and she will not age.” Celestia raised her proud head and cast the spell. Moonlight's breathing deepened and slowed to almost a crawl. “I will watch over you, little niece. I swear it.”