Chapter One
It’s hard to know where to start this story. Everypony always says that the beginning is always the best place to start, but where exactly is the beginning? The beginning of my life? The beginning of my love? The beginning of our meeting? Well, I suppose an introduction would be best. My name is Princess Luna, and I am writing this because I believe that everypony should know the truth. It is true that I have an alter ego named Nightmare Moon. But it is not true that she, or I, is evil. My sister, however, isn’t exactly the saint my parents sought to make her seem. However, she is no evil force, either. I suppose nopony is truly evil...but this isn’t the time to speak of such things. This is the story of my meeting with Discord, the famed spirit of Chaos. This is the story of freedom verses family. This is the story of love, hate, lies, truth, banishment and home. It all began with the Great War.
The Great War had lasted for many years, destroying town after town, city after city, land after land, life after life. It was the most unspeakably horrific war we ponies have ever known of. Destruction had seemed to favour our kind before, but not like this. I’m not one to speak of the horrors myself; I had yet to come into existence at this time. Nopony is sure what they were before the time they were born into Equestria, but I like to think that I, along with many other ponies, stood and watched the living destroy each other, all of us brought to attention, looking for comfort with one another in the heavens, joined by fear and pain at the things we saw.
A story was told by my sister, Princess Celestia, every Hearth’s Warming Eve, that spoke of the pegasi, the earth ponies and the unicorns turning against one another, yet finding harmony in the end through the power of their friendship. The story was a sweet one, but a censored one at that.
Yes, it is true that the three different types of ponies did split up after many an argument. However, they did not go off in search for their own land. They fought to conquer the one they already stood on. Neither race was willing to give up until they were the last race in all of Equestria. At least, that’s what the citizens believed, and were taught. However, the politicians themselves came to the conclusion that, though the other races were evil and selfish, they were necessary, and therefore decided to decrease their amounts by many through war, then take prisoners and force them to work as slaves.
Therefore, the war began. Pegasi would use their wings as an advantage and use the element of surprise to strike their opponents from a faraway distance, much like the ‘snipers’ that are spoken of today, except with far less advanced weaponry; it was thousands of years ago, after all. However, unicorns would use their wings to their advantage, thinking themselves the most intelligent of all the races, aiming for the pegasi wings when striking them with their magic, causing them to fall to the ground in pain. From that point on, they were powerless. Earth ponies, however, would use strategy and raw strength to fight their way through, often aiming large rocks towards the pegasi with contraptions called ‘catapults’, which were capable of taking out large groups of them at one time.
For the most part, earth ponies were at a disadvantage, so they tried to gain help from the animals that were loyal to them. However, pegasi and unicorns soon caught on to this trick. Creatures that flew were labelled as on the pegasus side, such as birds, while creatures that were created by magic or were magical themselves belonged to the unicorns. Soon, the entire animal kingdom was involved, whether they wanted to be or not, causing much more destruction than was needed. The fighting ponies also had arguments about what species belonged to what side; for example, phoenixes are not only magical, but also a flying species. Therefore, the two sides would fight over property of the phoenixes. The phoenixes, after being asked about it, communicated that they wanted nothing to do with the war, which didn’t satisfy either side. Therefore, ponies would often search out the phoenixes and destroy them when they weren’t on the battlefield, causing them to be a rare species, even today. Only dragons were the creatures that were allowed to not become involved. As destructive as ponies were in those days, it was nothing compared to the horrors that dragons could cause, so they were feared by all. Eventually, everypony destroyed each other, and themselves. In only a hundred years, they were all dead. All except one. His name was Arion.
Nopony knew where he came from. All we know is that he was not here to see the Great War; he only arrived in Equestria when the effects of it had come into place. Legend says that he saw the destruction around him and flew back into the skies, at an incredible speed, to ask permission from the gods to recreate our species once again. Those creatures went against that decision, saying that they were far too destructive. So Arion raced off from the heavens, and used his great powers to do the work himself. The other gods banished him from the heavens, naming him a fool, until a few thousand years later. Arion had taught all the ponies about what had happened, and brought them down the path of justice and harmony. However, he also gave them the free will to do as they wished. Some ponies still turned against Arion, but most lived through his teachings, and were happy with their lives. Only once the gods saw the good that Arion had done did they let him return to the heavens, to race along with all the other creatures, as was his nature. Though the existence of a pony named Arion is a fact, the stories about him soaring into the heavens and having incredible speed may be nothing more than stories. We may never know. But the legends do also explain the existence of alicorns. So pleased were the gods with Arion’s success that they allowed him to create another species. So adoring was he of his ponies that he fashioned them to look like them, only bigger and more powerful, with ‘beautiful wings that allowed them to scrape the heavens, and magical powers that allowed them to create their own heavens in their own land’, as the old books said. Even in Arion’s absence, everypony believed in him and his beliefs. However, the alicorns became too proud of the legends told about them and believed themselves as gods, and begun to force ponies to worship them. Arion, seeing the injustice his creations caused him, realised his mistake. Though the gods recommended that he destroy them, he refused, and instead chose to create another species to rival them; a humble species that would treat their subjects correctly. Therefore, he mixed the blood of his favourite species, the ponies, and the blood of the deadliest species, dragons, to create a draconequus. He continued this until they were the same in number as alicorns. He told his new creations about what they must do for him. They all agreed to it, so free will wasn’t an issue. So, with intimidation and strategy, without using any violence, draconequuses were able to take the throne from alicorns, and raised the ponies with dignity and respect. That’s the way it was for thousands of years afterwards.
But alicorns began to feel that what had happened to them was unjust. They believed that, because they were Arion’s first creation (ponies didn’t count, as they existed beforehand; he only resurrected the species), they were more important than draconequuses. Many a civil war occurred over this, and all ponies hoped that Arion would come again from the heavens to help them. But it seemed that he had given up on the creatures that caused him so much worry and trouble, and left them to their own devises. Eventually, the alicorns conquered over the draconequuses. They had learnt from their mistakes beforehand, and treated draconequuses with respect, while secretly despising them, and taught ponies using the teachings of Arion. However, they soon became corrupt with power once again, as seemed to be their nature, and banished draconequuses from the land, killing many of them as well. Draconequuses were described as naturally peaceful creatures, so they didn’t fight against them. It seemed they were just as sick of the ways of this world as Arion must have been.
However, once alicorns ruled, all this information was impossible to find, and the old tales ceased to exist. Nowadays, we know that all the alicorns were destroyed by a single family of even more destructive alicorns, and the records of these legends were destroyed. That family, I am ashamed to say, was the very family I was born into. That is where my parents come in. My father’s time in my small family had come to be a royal. Everypony wondered where he would get a wife from, as our family seemed to be the only alicorns left in existence. When I asked my mother about it, she said that she had no memory of her past, and therefore couldn’t tell me anything. However, our family held yet another dark secret, which would tell me the truth soon enough.
I discovered this secret at an extremely young age; I was only six years old. It seems impossible to me now, having lived thousands of years that I could have ever been six years old, but I was. I know I was because of that moment, which may stay etched into my memory for the rest of my eternal life. I was exploring the large castle in which I lived, as was my nature, when I bumped into one of the many statues there. I was about to cry out to my sister about my pain, until I noticed, having slightly moved the statue with my pure force, that they was something behind it. I pushed with all my might, until after many attempts, it moved again, and I was able to squeeze past it. I found myself on a large staircase spiralling downwards. Being the adventurous filly I was, I wandered down the stairs. I had to face many security traps on the way, but the fact that I was an alicorn of my family allowed me to pass them, though it was still difficult to do so. Eventually, I reached the end of the staircase to see a simple stone door. It was impossible to open with force, so I used my magical powers to move it. However, all I saw inside was darkness. Only then did I realise what I was doing. I was at the bottom of a strange staircase, and my family didn’t know where I was. Fear flooded my mind. What if I was killed? What if Daddy couldn’t get past the traps? What if I was stuck here forever? Where’s Lia? I was about to run up the stairs as fast as my little legs could take me when I heard a long, weak moaning coming from the room. Though this would have filled any other pony with even more horror, I became concerned for the owner of the voice and stepped into the chamber, using my horn to conquer light to the room. Only then did I see the horror that had been lying in front of me. Hundreds of alicorns were trapped inside cages. They were in extremely cramped conditions, and were covered with nothing but their own filth and faeces. All of them were horrifyingly skinny and looked exhausted to the point of collapsing. However, one managed to gather the strength to address me when I entered, instead of staring blankly at me as the others had done. She could have been beautiful, if better care had been taken care of. But it hadn’t, and her dark blue eyes seemed to pop out of her starving face as they sparkled with desperation.
“Please...help us...”
It was obviously a struggle for her to speak, as she didn’t even have the energy to sit up when she spoke; she just lay on the floor, staring intently at me, begging for help. I was horrified beyond words. I wondered how long it had been since she’d had water. I managed to overcome my horror, even though I still cannot understand how I did so, and respond.
“I will! I’ll get Daddy!”
I rushed up the stairs to go find my father, to tell him about the alicorns that needed help. My first thought was how happy they’d be once they were out of those cages. Maybe they could live in the castle with me and Tia! We’d play games all the time, and they’d be so happy, and so would I! My optimism spurred me on to go faster, though I was already going at a record speed for me. However, once I reached the top of the stairs, my father was already there, staring down at me with a disapproving look that caused me to slow down. Still, I didn’t know what I could have done wrong, and my news was more important than anything I might have accidentally broken, so I continued to approach him.
“Daddy! Daddy! There’s alicorns down there, and they’re in trouble! We need to help them!”
I had expected his look to change to surprise or worry. However, he looked as furious as he had before. I was confused. But I shook my head and decided to go tell Mommy. Surely she would help, even if Daddy didn’t. But Daddy’s hoof stopped me on my way out. I tried to get past him, but he was as still and stone-like as the statue I had pushed to get in to this world of horrors. I looked up at him, angry at him for the first time. I looked into those eyes, and a light started to emit from his horn. Then everything went dark, darker than the chamber, darker than any magical light could brighten.
When I awoke, I had no memory of what had happened before. However, once my parents reign ended, so did their powers over me, so I am able to remember all the memories they took from me before. I assume that my mother was once a part of the tortured alicorns in that prison, until she was chosen by my father as a wife, who then replaced her memories with ones of happiness and love with my father. But perhaps that is just wishful thinking. Perhaps my mother was just as evil and corrupt as my father. But I have no reason to believe something so horrible from somepony that raised me, so I won’t. However, I can’t deny my father’s true nature. Not after seeing it with my own eyes.
But this is not an autobiography. I must move on from this. The next big topic at hand is, I suppose, how myself and my sister came to meet Discord, the draconequus who, along with myself, would cause a chain reaction throughout the whole of Equestria with only the simple act of loving another.