"Tiaaa! Slow down! I can't keep up!" A blue pegasus filly yelled at a slightly larger, pure white alicorn filly who was clearly outrunning her. She panted as she tried to fly faster, despite obvious exhaustion. She spent much of her energy getting past the large river that lie some yards from their home castle. The filly eventually landed on the ground and tried to regain energy as quickly as possible, her sapphire mane covering her face as she laid on her stomach spread-eagle and tiny wings resting on the ground. She heard hoofsteps and, flicking an ear up to move her hair, lazily looked up to the same alicorn she was trying to chase.

The alicorn giggled, her bubblegum mane covering one half of her face, "What's wrong, Lulu? Out of breath already? And I thought pegasi had more energy than that, little sister." She laid down next to the pegasus and waited for her. After a while, "Lulu" sat up and tackled her older sibling suddenly before jabbing two hoofs into the alicorns sides, making her squeal and writhe before she lit her horn to attack the filly's wing joints, making her giggle loudly before the two continued their play fighting.

After they collapsed in fits of giggles did the alicorn filly get up and said, "Cmon! Let's go explore some more!"

However her sister complained, "But father said not to go past the river! He'll be angry at us again!"

"Then I'll tell him I dragged you into this."

"You already are though, Celestia..."

Celestia scoffed and continued walking deeper until she heard her sister yell, "I'll tell mother!" She nearly halted, as she knew while her father was stern, he wasn't even close to how grumpy her mother could get when rules weren't followed. Celestia even nearly shuddered the last time she got in trouble with her.

However, she put up a brave face and continued walking while looking back, "I think I can handle mother, Lun-AHH!" She yelped as she fell over an unseen pothole, which led her to tumble into a larger hole she saw earlier, and would have stopped in front of it to wait for Luna. Now, she slid further in the darkness until she hit something solid with her left wing, leading Celestia to yelp again and start tumbling until she hit something just as solid on her rump, and tilting her over to land on her back with a weak, "Ow."

"TIAAA!" Her younger sister cried in panic. She heard scrabbling and started to slowly get up unto her hooves.

"I'm alright, Luna! Ugh, my wings aren't!" She looked up where the light was filtering through the dust and saw it move slightly, letting her know that her sister was at the very top of the hole she fell from.

"I'll go get father!!" The alicorn filly heard more scrabbling before hearing nothing. Now that help was on the way, Celestia looked around to see what was at the bottom, lighting her horn to see.

She found out that she landed on a set of stone bricks, which led deeper into the dark and out of her sight in the light. She gave a bit more energy to her horn to see better. The pathway still led deeper and deeper from the light. Celestia was about to sit down and nurse her injured wing when she felt a soft breeze and what even sounded like a voice... Calling to her?

Like a pony in a trance, Celestia couldn't help herself but follow down the path, trying to find and hear that little voice.

The path twisted and turned, ascended and descended for what felt like an hour to Celestia, and yet she still continued. She deftly avoided the animals and insects that would have made her shy away or hesitate, yet the voice that still called to her in an unknown language and still felt unclear drove her on. It was only when Celestia felt like she snapped out of the trance did she see that the stone pathway and the now gone and silent voice had led her to a very large "doorway". The doorway was as large as her mother and father, while it held the carved frame of two T's. The frame held no latices of any kind, leaving it bland. Yet, it held a descending outline from the borders that spanned clear from one side of the tunnel she followed to the other, giving it a visual effect that the tunnel was shrinking into this "doorway".

Driven curiosity and the now gone ghostly lure of the voice, Celestia crept through.

Celestia immediately stopped and gaped at the very large room. It was full of pillars, seemingly untouched by time except for the moss, but still holding the structure well enough with not even a clear sign of damage. The ceiling itself was in similar condition, holding up all the earth and trees above ground so well, there didn't seem to be a patch of broken stone or dirt anywhere. It all looked as if it had been made and finished very recently.

As Celestia moved further she noticed words of some language on the ground and walls. They weren't recognizable to Celestia, and she was often on ancient sites learning with archeologists out in the San Palomino Desert and even went on an expedition into the badlands, much to the worry and anger of her parents and the panic of poor Luna. As she looked around more, she noticed pictures on and around the walls, before she noticed a very large something in the center. The alicorn filly moved closer to it, noticing that she was at the back of it, judging by the wall of text facing her and seeing a set of ascending stairs behind it.

Celestia moved to see the other side and immediately stopped, noticed a sitting figure on a throne of a sorts. The throne holding heads of lions and the front paws of them as the legs of the throne, and the "backing" of the throne depicting 10 wings branching out of the sitting being. 'Ten wings?!' She thought, gaping at the sight she wouldn't have been surprised if her jaw wasn't touching the floor.

Alicorns were a rare and somewhat dying breed within Equestria, but it was rarer when pegasi reported of having a "half-wing" that was joined with one of their own, which didn't hinder their ability to fly, mind you, but it was near impossible to not stand out with them unfurled completely. Some considered such phenomena a freak of nature, while there were reports that a religious cult was formed and they held the idea that those with such conditions were "demi-gods" of a sort.

But what truly stopped her was that the "statue" sitting on the throne looked so real and so tall, it passed off to her as if an actual living being was right there, sitting so perfectly still.

She immediately sputtered, "E-e-excuse me! I-I'm so sorry! I didn't know anypony would be here!" She continued to sputter apologies and scrambled backwards until her back hit a wall. She fell silent and expected the being to move its head to look at her.

And yet it didn't.

It didn't and it first frightened her. She waited and waited, with baited breath for the thing to suddenly move its head and have glowing eyes stare at her, and with every second that it didn't only made her more afraid, having read similar situations in novels and plays, most often ending in terrible fates. She waited more until she was for certain the being wasn't either aware of her... Or was just a statue?

She slowly crept forwards, freezing after every step, her eyes never wavering from the figure until she was standing in front of it, she first turned her head until she was looking where the statue was looking, only too see nothing. After testing and seeing if the statue wasn't in fact alive, she gave a large sigh of relief. She then inspected the statue itself.

The statue was carved with a very fanciful, yet practical armor. Coloured in the purest white that made even Celestia's coat look dirty (Which it did since she fell), the breastplate was in half at (what she assumed) the middle of the being's stomach, where it allowed more maneuverability to twist, turn and even bend forwards and backwards while not compromising any loss of protection. The leggings, cuisses connecting to both rear and foreleg grieves held a similar pattern in armor, while the pauldrons were somewhat opened outwards around the forelegs connecting to its body, seemingly to give the statue warrior to lift its forelegs higher. The helm itself held a Royal Stallionet design, however the visor was in the shape of an arrow, with the tip bending and pointing down the middle. The foreleg sabatons were not as armored as its rear legs were, but instead seemed to be clad in leather, and was covered in a stamp pattern of dragon scales.

She noticed however, that the rear legs were bent in only one direction, rather than how ponies rear legs bent in two. Which gave clear sign that this statue was from an unknown species that Equestria has never seen before.

And this was here? Right within the territories of her family's castle??

Celestia turned around and looked about the ancient site, excited at her discovery and wanted to see if there had been more. She descended down the stairway from the statue and roamed around the room. However, after seeing that it was only one room and there was little else but writings and pictures on the walls, behind and in front of the statue, her excitement started diminishing.

She knew she had to get back to the hole she fell in to check if her father was there to rescue her, but Celestia's curiosity of her newfound discovery kept her there. She once tried to make sense of the ancient and unknown language, but gave up quickly since she held no expertise in ancient typography. So she gave some attention to the pictures that were there.

The pictures themselves were in incredible detail, almost as if Stallionardo Da Vinci made them. They constantly held images of the same statue as a terrible but powerful warrior, decimating armies and what looked like cities. Some of them held the images of the same warrior protecting and defending either armies, cities or towns. Other times, they held images of the same warrior doing peaceful things, such as writing, training and sparring with what seemed to be recruits, to even painting with the armor on an armor rack while the being who wore it was hidden by an easel.

She heard another voice. This time it sounded male, it was faint but the sound of it carried its way to her. Celestia looked back, before realizing that she had been waiting for her sister to bring her father.

She immediately ran, using magic to blast back all the animals and creatures who she had once avoided with little trouble and, once reaching the hole where there was light shining through, called back, "I'm here, father!" She heard a harsh whisss before seeing a dark cloud moving down and when touching the ground, reformed into a tall, whispy alicorn as dark as the night sky, with a small Luna holding onto him. She gave a happy cry before galloping to hug the two. After the they hugged, she immediately started tugging on him, "Father! Father! You really need to see this!"

While Luna groaned a little, the Starry-night coated alicorn chuckled, "Oh alright, little Tia. What did daddy's adventuring filly find?" Once he saw the area, he immediately stopped and started looking around in wonder, often flying upwards a little to see the writings and trying to read what they meant. Once she shown him the statue, he almost stumbled the same way Celestia had before she told him it wasn't alive.

"Incredible, not even magic could make something like this." The alicorn muttered. Luna looked at the statue in fear and squeaked as she buried herself further into her father's mane. He moved his attention to the young filly to comfort her before he said, "I will alert the archeologists about this, well done, Little Tia." The filly grinned in pride, she tried to shift her wings, but was immediately reminded of the hurt wing, "Now, let's get you both home, your mother is in a panic, hearing you hurt yourself." That grin fell as she knew what her mother would say and yell, despite her love for her daughters. The three left the carved cave and as her father turned into the same shadowy wisp, Celestia took another look behind her, wondering just what was the statue.

The news of such a discovery made all of Equestria erupt in excitement and surprise. To find something such as this, so close to the royal family's castle? It immediately became famous as all sorts of ponies skilled in ancient civilizations poured in, asking for permission from the royal family and investigating every inch of the cavern.

Due to the location being well within the family's territory, excavation was severely limited, however the archeologists were not so easily deterred and was able to make a pathway from the surface to the entrance. From there, hundreds upon hundreds poured in, desperate to study and see what could be discovered. However, despite their wisdom and knowledge, there was one consistent result: None of them could make sense of any of the writings upon the walls, nor the back of the throne. After hundreds of arguments that had to be broken up by the royal family, it was decided to focus on translating at least one passage of the unknown language.

Celestia decided to risk a trip to the place she discovered. After permission from her parents, (which took almost a day, to her despair) she went down to the cavern to see it well lit as compared to when she explored it with little more but her horn glowing. She noticed details she never saw before. The columns, as she noted they were rather than pillars, were bare except for the top and bottoms where in four corners were spirals that spun once inwards. She looked at the walls, now seeing the pictures in better light. She saw more of them than she had when she first arrived.

Those missing images held a story of sorts within the same and incredible detail, rivaling and even besting the skills of the gryphon kingdoms. There was a single being who was knelt with a sword in front of what seemed to be a depiction of light. The pictures moved on to some of the accomplishments she had either already seen or missed, such as the warrior confronting a large amount of smaller beings, with a mid-slain bipedal that seemed similar to the being. The numbers and even a few depictions of castles, land and what even seemed like villages varied but often said the same thing: This being was capable of laying waste to armies (or civilians she wondered). However, as she turned away from that wall, which happened to have been the left side from the entrance, and looked to the right, it depicted a different story. It was the same being, except he wasn't (She guess it was a he) wielding a sword, but rather was sitting with other bipedals, most often with a scroll of sorts being written in between them.

The best she (And through the other archeologists that were there with her) could guess at the depictions, this being was both dangerous enough to wipe armies, storm castles and raze villages alone (As far as they could tell, there was no allying army of any sort in most of them) but was wise enough to influence and aid in creating kingdoms and cities. But even when they declared that the depictions were completely translated already, there was still nothing about the translations of writings. Spells that were dedicated to translations failed miserably, as they often mistranslated and even failed to translate a few words correctly (Which almost reminded her of the first attempt at creating translation spells; The Guggle Translation spell.)

She was able to spend some days and weeks, however she was often dragged away from the stone room to focus upon inheriting her parents' throne. Despite all her habits and hobbies, she still was a princess. It still didn't stop Celestia from making it part of her daily activity as she grew up. She would get up, tackle the responsibilities as a Princess during most of the day, which often involved long, boring meetings and dull "parties" (Which often ended with her and Luna hiding away and giggling whenever one of the guards or even their parents passed by their hiding spots who were trying to keep an eye on the two.) Afterwards, within the evening hours she would go down and visit the ancient cave (She couldn't bring herself to call it a ruin, seeing as it was in incredibly unusual perfect condition, despite the moss and dust that collected there, almost as if it were made just only a month or so ago.) After exhausting herself to try and make sense with anything there, she would play with Luna and then head for bed, only to start the same cycle again and again. Even after her mane turned from bubblegum pink to sparkling rainbow and earning her Cutie Mark (Much to her joy, and amusement from her parents, and much to the annoyance from her little sister as she ran around all day.) Nothing truly stopped her from visiting again and again.

Then came a strange turn of events. Soon after Luna's mane turned from light-blue to sparkling midnight sky, becoming an alicorn and earning her Cutie Mark after raising the moon for the first time (Which resulted with Luna running around almost all night 'celebrating' about her accomplishments.) Luna found herself being given very lucid dreams about the statue, often frightening to awe-inspiring. She would see scenes of battlefields that waged with brutal ferocity, then scenes of grand cities; Some of which seemed to reach for the very clouds high above her, higher than she was used to, let alone clouds that seemed wild and untamed.

Often times within the morning, she ended up speaking in another language, or not understanding her family's language at all. There were even times she woke up with another personality, varied from silent, but calculating to outspoken and brashness. Once, Luna started talking with such wisdom that was far beyond her years as a young mare and ended up making, creating and solving alliances between Equestria and other kingdoms, much to the shock and surprise of the rulers (her parents included) at such wisdom. The last time it happened was when she could suddenly read the ancient writings that lie in the cavern. However, despite the urging of the archeologists, Luna only came up to one particular part of the site and refused to translate anything else.

Once deciphered, she fainted and couldn't read the writings any further. It was only after her father helped her during one very long dream that lasted far beyond her regular waking hours did she stop entirely dreaming them entirely. She couldn't even remember the dreams she had previously, and barely remembered the times she woke up with either a different language or different personalities.

What was oddly strange was that only the writings in front of the statue was deciphered, and even then they spoke of a rather ominous message that Luna spoke:

Despite every attempt to translate and make sense of the writings, regardless their meanings. No one was able to translate even a letter between what Luna had said and the writings to both the floor and walls.

Days became weeks, then to years. Despite the incredible occurrence between her own sister and the ancient site, Celestia continued this cycle of coming to visit the site almost to an instinct, she still went and helped study the statue. The site turned from one of the most popular ancient sites amongst the archeologist community, to a tourist attraction, then to fade in the backs of every ponies minds as nothing was gleaned or found from the statue nor the writings.

And so it fell from the spotlight and into the dusty darkness to lie amongst other, not-so ancient sites.

But the site itself refused to disappear completely.

During the first year of school and finding herself constantly with no friends, Celestia had found herself one day, started to speak to the statue. Celestia obviously felt foolish when she did the first time, often constantly looking over her shoulder and immediately becoming quiet when somepony was within vicinity. The young alicorn mare would do this for several minutes to see if anypony was around before sitting in front of the statue, staring at first before she started talking about herself. She often stopped herself short when she realized what she was doing and on occasion, avoided the ancient room for a few days, fearing her sanity for talking to an inanimate object. However, fueled by loneliness, she would return to the thing again, she couldn't help but see the all-too real statue as an actual being.

Sitting..... Waiting

Listening.

She ended up talking about herself again, this time going as far as admitting her dreams. As time continued to pass, she became comfortable and soon enough, started talking more and one-sided conversing with the statue, slowly seeing the stone being as a friend of sorts, somepony who could sit and listen to her and not judge her in anyway.

It even felt as if it was looking right at her and was actually listening. In some ways, it felt comforting, finding somepony who could listen to all her secrets, and not whisper a word to anypony. Celestia even found the statue an excellent psychiatrist, often making her hear her own words and reflecting on them, almost as if the statue itself was offering words of wisdom. With the statue, she shared her hobbies, said her concerns, admitted her fears; She hid her face with her hooves as she whispered her love interest in a handsome stallion captain that had been recently added to the Royal Guards. Gushed over her love and excitement when she successfully asked the stallion out for a date. Celestia yelled and ranted her anger at it with her problems and frustrations from both family and society; And when she was heartbroken by the breakup between her and the stallion, she sobbed and lied down next to the statue's feet.

Then the deaths of her parents happened.

The guards refused to tell her how it happened and often had to restrain the young mare from going out to find what happened to her mother and father. An entire day spent and past as Celestia and Luna had cuddled tightly with each other, trying to keep up hope and praying that the "deaths" were nothing but rumors. However, when the guards finally told them what happened, it almost broke Celestia.

They had been in the middle of a meeting with the griffon kingdom when a terrorist cult stormed the building and fought the rulers, determined to shake the rule of both the griffons way of diplomacy as well as shake and destabilize Equestria. Magic, underhanded tricks and even using hostages had been the result from the fight and ended with both parents and the griffon's king dead.

Luna refused to listen any further and bolted for her room, trying to ignore everything the guards tried to tell her. Celestia, meanwhile, tried to keep a brave face. Held her emotions as she was informed that while she and her sister was still held in Royalty, but both her and Luna were not qualified to rule, and that it would fall to the claws of a draconequus named Discord. She had met the being before, and while she was entertained as a young filly at his antics, she knew more than anything that he wasn't ruling material.

Many nights were spent as she wailed, sobbed and cried herself to sleep with her young sister. No longer could she be woken up with the rumbling and gentle voice of their father, and no longer could they drift into dreams as their mother hummed and sang lullabies to them. Out of the two, it was Luna who was able to get over their deaths, surprising Celestia to no end. To her, the scar of being an orphan still hadn't healed. While Luna was able to become her former self, Celestia still ended crying herself to sleep. Even after the encouragement and support from her sister and her maids, when she started returning to her daily activities she used to do with excitement, she now did them in a lethargic way. Whenever it was time for her to meet with her ancient, stone "friend", she'd find herself lying on its lap and sobbing away for hours, often to where she almost forgot to raise the sun.

They had done it, they defeated the insane draconequus. They were finally able to free Equestria from the claws of Discord, who had been plaguing the kingdom for so long with chaos and disarray. Celestia could only sit there and look at the sky, thinking that her parents would have been proud of their daughters for defending the kingdom and ascending to the throne. It was a terrible and long 20 years where Celestia and Luna searched and found the Tree of Harmony, and using the Elements to seal Discord in stone.

Despite the powers and insanity of the draconequus, he never even tried to put up a fight, more or less mocking their attempt. Then again, Discord was never the type of creature who would take things seriously. For all the troubles that the two had to suffer, it had to be the journey to and from the Tree of Harmony. The alicorn mares looked at each other and, after a few moments of silence and the scenery around them turning into "normalcy" gave a weak grin to each other, which evolved into weak chuckles.

"I can't believe simply he sat there." Luna said, small tears coming from her eyes. Celestia couldn't help but agree. The two had been preparing, planning and even training for a terrible fight against the insane being. And yet they didn't expect Discord to simply stand there and laugh at them.

In all honesty, it felt incredibly anti-climactic to the two Alicorns. But they decided not to lament on the killjoy and simply enjoyed that their efforts paid off and Equestria could finally live in peace.

And so came the day both Celestia and Luna ascended to the throne(s) of ruling Equestria. Luna once spent a few hours, worrying more than anything about whether the two would be received well. As much as Celestia comforted and counseled her young sister, she too was nervous and scared about the same thing. It took all of Celestia to keep a straight face and not panic as both she and Luna were crowned and being bowed to by both the guards and civilians of Equestria as they sat upon their thrones that had once been used by their parents. It was only after the day was done, and the two sisters were entirely alone did they finally break past their facades and began to bounce in excitement and acted like fillies.

Luna even suggested to disguise themselves as civilians and play like they had as fillies, to which Celestia eagerly agreed; Her excitement was too much to contain and for once in a very, very long time she felt the same genuine happiness she once held when her parents had been alive.

They spent hours outside until nearing scheduled sunrise, playing and shouting their excitement into the air, which resulted them running and hiding from sentries that came to investigate the noise. Often times, they played in the forest, amongst the clouds and even descending into the nearby Ghastly Gorge and played there until the river had nearly swelled to both sides of the cliffs. Other times, they would find a hill or a cloud, and watch the night sky. Celestia, being in the front row seat, watched Luna do all sorts of tricks she learned with the stars as the Lunar Princess.

After exhausting themselves, they snuck back into their chambers, rested and prepared for their newly given duties. Yet, despite the duties and responsibilities she had, Celestia still kept the habit of returning to the ancient chamber. She continued to see the stone statue as a friend, a secret-keeper and someone to talk without any restrictions she had to face within the castle walls.

But, during the times she continued to meet with the statue, and tackled her duties, basked in the showering of praise and worship by her little ponies; She never noticed the bitterness and resentment that had grown in her sister. Even during the times she met and sat with Luna, she ignored and never looked at her in the eyes, often reasoning she simply awoke on the wrong side of her bed. While she did try to help ease her sister's bitterness, she never noticed how much of it was rotting away and eating Luna. Celestia never had the skill of seeing into dreams her father had, as she inherited her mother's skill, rather than her father.

It wasn't until that one fateful night where she tried to talk to her sister, only to lead into an argument, getting kicked out of her own sister's room and became Nightmare Moon, did she truly realize her bitterness and hatred at being ignored by the public... And by her... for so long.

The battle had lasted for hours, the family's land and castle being destroyed along the way while it had been evacuated with everypony who once lived there with pride. Celestia often tried to reason and talk to her sister, trying to get past the creature that took over her, even after taking several hits from Nightmare Moon's attacks. After taking a heavy hit and lying amongst the ruins of what had been her parents room, Celestia finally realized that Luna was gone, taken and locked deeply away by her hate and bitterness taken form. Given no choice, she used the Elements of Harmony, locking her dearest and precious family member away into the moon.

She never gave attention to the Elements as they turned into spheres and dropped like stones as she stared at the moon as the face of it turned into her sister's form.

It broke her.

Celestia couldn't longer hold it in any longer, any strength she had in her fell and crumbled as she first started crying, descending into trembling gasps, and ending with her fallen flat unto the ground and wailed. She was now completely, and utterly alone. Her parents: dead; her inheritance, temporarily stripped from her; her love always unrequited; her home, now decimated; and now her sister had been taken away from her by her own pride and ignorance. There was nothing left for her but a throne over a kingdom.

The cost was not even close to being worth it. Celestia even held the thought that it had been better had Discord still ruled if it meant keeping her sister, her only link that left her from descending into a spiral of depression.

Even when she was approached by guards accompanied by Starswirl the Bearded, she continued to lament and sob, refusing to be comforted by her dearest, but mortal friend. She refused to maintain the image of the Sun Goddess her subjects and guards knew her as, and continued to wail her sorrows.

Starswirl couldn't help but feel his heart break, seeing Celestia like this. He didn't need to look at the guards to know they were becoming shaken by the sight. He had tried to get Celestia to move, to get her to at least hug someone, but she either ignored or pushed him away.

In the end, he decided to levitate her and take her to his tower. The guards had scouted around to check if there was anything, or anyone, that was there to bring with her. After finding a few belongings that survived the terrible battle, he used is magic to take said belongings, them, and the Elements to his tower, where he deposited the Elements to his desk, and then took Celestia to his study.

He often made tea and asked for Celestia's maids to find and deliver her favorite cakes, but the alicorn mare didn't eat or drink anything. After long and miserable hours, her tears became spent and leaving her to simply gasp and hiccup. It was only then did she register Starswirl, and even then Celestia didn't say much.

She had refused to go out to her kingdom's subjects to tell the dreadful news about Nightmare Moon, often leaving Starswirl with a group of other unicorns to take her place in raising and lowering the sun and moon, while Starswirl would take over the courts and making announcements to the public. He kept visiting her to continue his attempts at comforting and helping her whenever his new and temporary duties allowed him. The unicorn sage spent his nights with her, either talking to her or helping her fall to sleep. There were even times he shared the same bed with Celestia to help her sleep better, as she had established a habit of crying herself to sleep.

It took a month since then to get her to talk, another for her to eat without being forced to and being connected by IVs. But despite the progress, Starswirl knew it would take a very long time for the frail, broken, depressed mare to become the same, smiling, wise and strong Celestia he once met and knew.

And in during these events of Celestia's sorrow and rehabilitation, no one had payed any attention to the ancient site that had been within eyesight of the conflict. Had anyone been there, they would have heard a loud SNAP, as the left inner thigh of the statue spawned a very large crack, that ran through the waist, twisting and turning into the knee. Small flecks of dust and broken stone flew from the crack, before all was silent once again.

Author's Notes:

Whew! That little bit of a chapter took awhile. I actually never expected this response from you guys.

Also, the image of the armor up there is what I'm basing off of, its not an exact copy of it. I've a little more imagination than that. :D