Written by James Vermont

Over 1000 years ago, before the reign of Celestia and Luna, before the crowning of Princess Twilight and the return of the Crystal Empire, Equestria had fallen under a dark shadow. It used to be the magical art of the ponies to raise the sun and moon themselves. The unicorn tribes would gather together to cycle the night and day, to preserve order and harmony. Until one day, a darkness fell, the smoke clouded the sky as three conquerors took Equestria for their own.

First was a unicorn of immense power, his mane was black and flowing, his horn red and his eyes burned with green fire. He began the assault on the great nation of Equestria, he used his magical amulet to magnify his powers, making him more powerful than any Unicorn to stand against him.

Second was The Changeling Queen, whoes armies devastated the defending pegasi in the air, taking control of the weather and forcing terrible rain and cold onto the ponies below. The bug like Queen watched as a terrible winter settled on the earth ponies. But their troubles were not over.

For the arrival of the third conqueror marked the end of Equestria. He was made from all creatures, a jumbled up monster of mischief. His power was unheard of, his purpose was chaos. He took control of all of Equestria, and The Changling Queen and Unicorn King became his generals.

There was resistance at first, the unicorns banded together for one final attack, but anticipating this, the monster Discord, now the Ruler of Equestria, had anticipated this, and sent King Sombre and his guards to do the unspeakable. On the eve of the Unicorns attack on Discord, the kings guards searched every home, found every Unicorn, and used Sombre's amulet to purge them of magic.

During the raid, the Earth Pony Leto was giving birth, to a young Unicorn when Sombre's guards burst into their home. Leto's oldest daughter, a white unicorn barely five years of age burst from her mother's room and fled, attempting to distract the guards. The gambit worked, and although the young Celestia lost her powers that night, her young sister Luna was born.

A hope for the future.

One who will end the nightmare.

Fifteen years later

The sun had been up for a mere five minutes before it shot downwards, zigzagging along a random path and changing it's shape with each zig and changing it's color with each zag. Finally it set and the moon rose to take it's place. The moon was in it's standard round shape this evening, maybe she was lucky today, or maybe Discord appreciated the beauty of the night just like Luna did.

The young Unicorn sat on the hill and watched the moon, admiring it's splendour. She thought it so calm and peaceful, she wondered why the other ponies slept through it, shunning such a beautiful night. Luna loved watching the moon, she would sit up all day(Which could last anywhere from five minutes to 14 hours or more) and wait for it to appear, recently she had been sleeping much less often. She wanted to see as much of the night as she could, almost as if she had been studying it.

“Up again at this time of night?” From behind her came the surprisingly regal voice of her older sister Celestia.

“It'll be day time soon anyway, besides, I can't sleep.” Luna bowed her head, her short locks of light blue mane dropped over her eyes as she pawed at the ground with a hoof. Celestia sat next to her, she was at least a head taller than her sister and put a paw around her shoulders and drew her close.

“You need to sleep Luna, it's worrying us.”

Luna shivered and Celestia tightened her protective hold, her sister remained silent.

“Luna?”

“I don't want to miss the night big sister. I want it to last forever.”

Celestia gave her sister a sad smile.

“Not all ponies can appreciate a beautiful night little Sister.”

“No. They cannot.” The two sister watched as the night sky passed by, turned a bright shade of lavender, the moon turned into a balloon and whizzed away, the sun replacing it slowly.

A voice echoed from the bottom of the hill, their mother Leto stood waiting for them. The old mare flicked her long black mane, three tired strands hung constantly in front of her eyes.

"Celestia! Luna!"

The two sisters breathed in sighs of exhaustion. They knew what their mother was calling about. Luna raised her head to look at her older sister.

"Do you think we'll ever stop moving home." Her eyes were large and pleading, Celestia wanted to lie to her, to tell her that they would find a home soon. But she knew they couldn't, staying in one place would endanger Luna, Discord could not be allowed to find her. And so Celestia dipped her head quietly, unable to answer her sister. Luna rose to her feet, she nuzzled Celestia softly, before turning and leading them down the hill to their waiting mother.

And as Celestia reached the end of the path she turned and watched the sun, it's warmth providing them with all the energy they would need for the day, in a way it was more beautiful to her than the moon was to Luna. Not that she would dare say it in front of the younger Unicorn. She closed her eyes for a few moments, letting it's heat touch her coat. For those few moments she was back at home with her parents, her father yet to disappear, her magic still at her hooves, harmony maintained in the world.

"one day little sister" She whispered to herself. "One day we will have a home."

She blinked away the tears and trotted down to join her mother and sister.