Author's Note: Alright, I am happy I managed to finish this chapter as I promised to the few I told this to. This is my first story ever. Seriously, the only other times I've ever written were for school. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed at how little I could write over the past month, but I'm gonna make that change soon. Long chapter= happy me! Once again, this is my first story so be nice, but be suggestive! I need all the help I can get! If anyone is willing to help me proofread and help me review the upcoming chapters for me, please PM me. I also enjoy writing these chapters to songs, as the tempo matches the emotions I felt at the different parts of the stories. As such, I'll post the links to the songs in the Author's note of each chapter. So here's the first! ----> Prologue: The Battle of Discord
OMG FANART! Check it out here

and her dA page here! Silverene!
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Azrael slid into his armor, tightening the leather straps, ensuring it wouldn’t fall off during battle. He checked over all of his things once, twice, three times more. He had to make sure that he was ready. The oncoming fight with an ancient deity was not something that you would want to do unprepared. In fact, nopony would even consider fighting Discord even if they were prepared. He checked himself in the mirror for any cracks in his armor. His mane flowed gently above his head, lightning cracking harmlessly in its light blue and black splendor. Grey fur was shaved short to reduce wind turbulence, with it making it easier to see his “blade and wings” Cutie Mark. His horn glimmered with the new sharp edge it had been gifted with earlier that day. He levitated two necklaces onto his neck. Celestia believed that with these necklaces, they could defeat Discord, or at the very least, stop him from ever gracing the lands of Equestria ever again. The ones he possessed were called the Elements of Laughter and Loyalty. He smirked as he saw Luna trying to sneak up on him from behind after catching her reflection in the mirror.

He spun in a quick half circle and pounced on her and started tickling the mare’s belly with his muzzle, inciting shouts of laughter from the “would be” attacker. She tried to escape, but he blocked her from moving with his hoof. “AHAAHAHAHA! St-Stop that! “She shouted. Azrael smiled and slowly rose off of Luna. She got back on all fours, tears still surfacing from the tickling, and turned to Azrael. “Are you ready yet, or will we have to wait longer for you to get your mane right?” she said with mock sarcasm.

When he finally got a good look at Luna, he was amazed. She adorned a light blue cuirass and a tiara embedded with a sapphire that was big enough to buy an entire town. He knew that it wasn’t a fashion sense; gemstones had a natural affinity for magic. Her mane was not as long as Celestia’s but it was still gorgeous, as it swayed outward with stars littering her mane like the midnight sky. She was also wearing the Elements of Generosity and Honesty. In short, she was beautiful.

“Yeah, I’m ready. Is Tia outside?” he replied, trying to keep his composure after the brief roughhousing they had together.

Luna nodded, “Everything’s set. All the Elements are fully charged with magic as well.” Her smile started to drop into a worried frown. She started biting her lower lip and pawed the dirt in front of her with her hoof into a small crescent shape. She was obviously bothered by the whole prospect of going against a god like Discord.

Discord was unbelievable. His reign brought ponydom to its knees. Everything was chaotic, which fit Discord’s title to a T. He had summoned chocolate rain all over Equestria, ruining crops and plants all over Equestria with its over-sweetened nectar. His tyranny brought fear over the lands and his chaotic antics destroyed homes and lives of ponies everywhere. Discord had to be stopped, or ponies would fall extinct. That was not going to happen. Not when there were ponies willing to fight for their lives.

“Luna, don’t worry. Everything will be fine. Discord will be gone. How about this? After we beat Discord like the freak show he is, we go get some donuts at Pony Joe’s. Whaddya say?” He tried to cheer Luna up but it only made her smile a little compared to her usual self.

“I know I shouldn’t, but I’m just worried. After all of this, what will happen? If we beat Discord, we’ll change the fate of Equestria, but if we don’t…” She shuddered. “Equestria would fall… But, you’re right, we can’t lose. Not with you, me, and Tia standing in his way.”

Azrael’s face lit up once again, “That’s the spirit! Discord won’t know what hit him!”
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They stepped out of the tent together, scanning the skies for any of Discord’s Chaos Unit. Discord’s Chaos Unit consisted of ponies that either willingly joined him or were captured and mind controlled into servitude. Celestia was speaking to a soldier about the regiment formation until she spotted the two other alicorns exiting their hastily set up tent. She motioned the two over while dismissing the commander.

“I’m glad that you’re ready so early. I was expecting to wait another two days until you were finished.” Tia smirked. She was trying to lighten the mood of everyone around her with her jokes, but not many had been affected as much as she had hoped for.

Azrael turned to port and closed the tent’s flap shut. He turned back to Tia and sized her up just like he did for Luna. She was wearing golden armor with a sun adorning the front of her chest plate. Her mane billowed in different shades of colors, and her ivory complected fur bristled in the foreground of the setting sun. She wore a pink gemstone necklace and a tiara that held a lavender gemstone. Presumably the Elements of Kindness and Magic.

“Where are we fighting Discord at? If he’s in one of his cities, then we’d be at a major disadvantage.” Azrael borrowed a map from a nearby soldier and named off key cities they would want to avoid. “We should avoid Damarescus, Gallopolli, and Stalliongrad, since they have the biggest barracks in those cities.”

Celestia scanned the map herself, and tapped a location on it twice. “Discord tends to enjoy meditating on this mountain every full moon. The “Crown of Equestria” is what it’s called. ” She turned to Azrael and silenced him before he could enquire how she knew that. “Don’t ask. It’s a long story, and we don’t have the time to elaborate on that.”

Luna chimed in with her own suggestion, “Tonight would be the soonest, and the greatest time to strike. Tonight’s the Pegalithe Solstice; Discord would be at his weakest tonight since the sun and the moon are both hidden from view from the mountain.”

Azrael smirked and turned back to the map. “All going according to plan.” He placed his hoof over the “Crown of Equestria”, burning a hole through the aged parchment.
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Discord sighed and traced a loose circle into the soil. It transformed into a pink balloon with a sadistic smile staining its surface as it cackled and floated away into the night sky. He was tired of being hated. His subjects despised him and he knew it. He wanted his subjects to love him, not loathe him for who he was. He was the God of Chaos and nothing could change that. He would never be the ruler that he always wanted to be when he was little; he would always be the bad guy in the fairy tale, the one that would always lose in the end. He traced a crown into the already disrupted soil, which formed not into a crown of gold, but into a crown of thorns. He heard hoofsteps trying to be as silent as possible, but they had failed that particular part of the plan.

He didn’t turn towards them. “Celestia, you pick just the most wonderful nights to come visit me, you know? I see you brought your friends as well. What do you three want?” He tapped his front paw on the thorned crown and it disintegrated into water vapor. “By the way you all are dressed, this won’t be a formal invitation to one of those Galas you host every year, correct?”

Celestia eyes squinted into angry slits, “Enough! You’re reign of terror is over, Discord! Equestria will be free of your chaos once and for all!”

Luna and Azrael took their positions on opposite sides of Celestia. Luna prepared her magic and formed the energies into a tight funnel around her horn. Azrael stomped his front hooves into the dirt, causing lighting to crack and form off of his fur. He growled and kicked up the soil, ready to strike at any sign of hostility.

Discord slowly brought himself to his feet and turned to the menacing trio. “What makes you three think you will be all you need to beat me? Especially after all the things my Chaos Unit has been able to pull off? You cannot defeat me.” He protruded his chest forward, claw and paw held close to his sides ready for battle. He wanted to be a good ruler for Equestria. He wouldn’t be able to improve if he lost it now.

Azrael tapped his back hoof and shifted forward, light rings appearing as he flashed to Discord. They caught each other hoof in claw, and grappled at a stalemate as Luna proceeded to place a binding circle on the mountain to ensure the Elements of Harmony would not fail. Celestia proceeded to fire bolts of magic at Discord as he batted them away with quick flaps of his wings.

“HAH! You three are hopeless!” Discord leapt away from Azrael as he proceeded to fire shadows at the two sisters. Azrael stepped in between the two and ignited his magic, catching them, erupting them into flames as he bucked them back to Discord, which only infuriated him as each was evaded.

Celestia turned to port and spotted a small waterfall running off the side of the mountain. She glided in its general direction and levitated large globes of water onto the battlefield. “Azzie! Catch!”, she shouted as she shot them at Azrael.

He caught the two globes and tapped both with his hooves, charging them with electricity and glided at Discord with them, each being held in one hoof. He thrusted forward and caught Discord in the gut with one as the other was harmlessly deflected by a heavy paw.

Discord cringed from his injury and batted his assailant away as he flew towards the side of the mountain. He punched a hole in the wall and poured his magic into it, giant stone soldiers molded into shape. They stepped out of the side of the mountain and clambered their way over to the two sisters who were preparing the circle to activate the Elements of Harmony.

Azrael flashed in front of a small group of the soldiers and sliced through them with his bladed wings and destroyed the rest with a shout that blew them to bits and pieces.

Luna had finished the binding circle and called for the other two Element holders. “The circle is finished! Quick, activate the Elements!” She crouched down and summoned all the magic she could muster and focused them into a ball of energy around her as she started levitating into the sky. She saw that both Azrael and Celestia had already started focusing the magic as well.

The stone soldiers gave Discord time to summon one final attack against the three as his magic was not as strong as it usually was. He surrounded himself in a bright blur of black and purple energy. He breathed in deeply, absorbing the mystic energy and let out a mighty roar, aiming the blast at Luna.

“NOOOO! LUNA!” Azrael flashed in between Luna and the shot. He wasn’t fast enough to bat it away; the energy exploded into a black hole, unleashing all its power in sync with the Elements’ attack, leaving the mountain top pitch black.
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Celestia groaned as she levitated rubble off of herself as she got back on all fours. She surveyed the results of the battle. The entire battlefield was littered with rocks and shattered stones. She edged towards a peculiar rock formation and sighed in relief. The statue was of Discord in shock, frozen within the confines of the worst prison possible. She left Discord in his misery and scanned the ruins for Luna. She soon spotted Luna and started to call for her until she fully recognized the scene.

Luna broke down into tears as she held on tight to the prone figure. The body held no response as Luna tried to shake it awake, but to no avail. “You sa-said that nothing would go wrong. That we wo-would win a-against Discord. Please… Please don’t die.”

Celestia rested a hoof on Luna’s shoulder as she looked at her best friend since they were children lay in peace beneath her. He laid still with a smile on his face, like he had accomplished his lifelong goal. His left wing was tattered and feathers were torn along the edge. His armor was dented and ruptured, showing the burns along his grey fur. She had let a few of her own tears slip as well as her memories of them together scrolled through her mind.

Azrael began to glow, his existence starting to fade into the ethereal. Luna tried to hang on as hard as she could, but she failed to hold him as his magic escaped her arms and drifted towards the edge of the mountain.

“Wait! Don’t go!” Luna cried, chasing after him with Celestia close behind.

They reached the edge of the mountain and stopped and watched as he floated higher and higher into the sky until the unimaginable happened. He glowed even brighter than he was and rose into the air, the sun following the Azrael’s every move.

The girls sat and watched in awe as he raised the sun and lowered the moon. Soon, he was finished and disappeared, leaving the two sitting side by side.

As they watched him disappear, their flanks flashed, leaving the sun and the moon forever painted on them.

Celestia turned to her younger sister. “Azrael may be gone, but he left us something special. He left us his memory, his courage, his joyfulness, and the Equestria. He trusted us to take care of Equestria and lead it through these dark times. He trusts us to protect its ponies, and all of its inhabitants. Azrael may be gone, but he didn’t leave in vain, because he’s got us to fulfill his dreams.”

Luna blinked away the last remaining tears, smiled, and leaned against her older sister, watching the sun rise over the awakening plains, and the new age, of Equestria.

Author's Note: Okay, this is the official first chapter of this story, since you don't need to read the prologue to kick it off. I will personally say that I think that this chapter doesn’t feel long enough. I’ll edit it later to add more meat to its bones. Another completely unrelated sidenote. I like to listen to music to get the chapter rolling, and yes, the music doesn't just help me write, it matches my writing style and lets it go much faster than without it. So, I'll post a link here --->Chapter One: Awakening Theme<--- Okay then, enjoy!
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Azrael stumbled through the streets, trying to regain his composure and recollect his thoughts. How did he get here? Where was here? He shook his head out of his stupor and surveyed his surroundings.He was in a city that had cobblestone roads, wooden buildings, and lanterns to light the dark asphalt. It seemed very similar to home, until he spotted a newspaper stand and saw the date.

“Whoa- this is!?”

He gasped in shock, which caused many to give him a rude look as he quickly flipped through the newspaper. How is this happening? Not only am I in another city, I’m in another time! He couldn’t seem to find anything else to help him within his newly acquired paper and he stashed it in his saddlebag. At least he still had that with him. He heard a hawk cry out in the distance and let curiosity take him, catching the silhouette of a looming, but graceful castle in the distance. Maybe they can make sense of this mess. Might as well start big.“

Uh, are you gonna pay for that?” It wasn’t difficult to tell that the newsstand owner was perturbed at the free reading.
Azrael blushed and apologized. “Sorry about that. Here.” He laid out a few Discordian dollars before he took off down the street, heading in the general direction of the castle.
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Princess Celestia gazed out her window, trying in vain to sense the unknown anomaly that had suddenly appeared in Canterlot. Sudden sparks of magic were erupting all over Equestria, like the night sky when Luna felt happy enough to create new stars in her spare time. She took a sip of her hot cocoa as she thought of the endless possibilities. What is this anomaly? Were they ponies? Are they hostile or friendly?

“Uh, Tia?”

Princess Celestia turned back to see her little sister and Ruler of the Night, Princess Luna, standing in her doorway.

“Yes? Is something wrong?”

Princess Luna gave a worried glance at her older sister. “Yes, I’m fine. Are you okay though? You’re usually asleep by now. Something on your mind?”

Princess Celestia turned once again out her window. She gazed at the streets while the light of the lanterns were slowly put to rest on the cold winter night. “Didn’t you feel it too, Luna? That strange presence? It’s been bugging me ever since it appeared. I couldn’t sleep since.”

“So, that was real? I wasn’t imagining things?”

Celestia gave a slight nod as she quietly sipped her beverage, deep in thought.

“How will we deal with thi-“

Aardvark, a Lieutenant of the Royal Guard, crashed through the twin doors across from them. He was deeply out of breath and there were dents in his once pristine armor.

“Your Highnesses! I’m sorry to interrupt your conversation. A mysterious pony asked to have an audience with you. When we told him that you were not awake at the moment, he told us that he would not take no for an answer. We tried to subdue him but he managed to take down my entire squad! The other guards are holding him back as best as they can.

Princess Celestia turned toward her sister and gave a confirming nod. They raced down the hallway with the Lieutenant. This must’ve had something to do with the anomaly. No pony would dare request an audience with Celestia without an appointment. They knew it, and they were going to get to the bottom of it.
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They galloped down the hallway towards the ballroom. According to the guard, they were holding him off at the main entrance, but barely. Celestia asked if the guard could remember a cutie mark. She might’ve been able to figure out who the mysterious pony was if she knew that much, but the guard answered that it was partially covered by a dark, leather saddlebag, which hid it well.

“This unknown pony is very skilled in combat. His techniques are a complete mystery to me, and what’s even worse, it doesn’t seem to have a distinct magical affinity of choice. Based on my fight with him, it is apparent that he is capable with almost any weapon, as he was able to use weapons that he disarmed from my guards efficiently.”

“Thank you for this report,” said Celestia, “but we wish to settle this as peacefully as possible. I do not like violence anymore than I like contempt. Once we get there, please stand your guards down. Luna ad I will try and settle this.”

“Yes, your majesty. I will call them off as soon as possible.”

They finally reached the ballroom and could hear the commotion out of the main entrance. The door was massive, which made it all the more apparent how grand the battle was that lay outside. All of a sudden, a grand shout was heard throughout the entire castle. It boomed and the walls shook, making an earthquake feel like a quick trip in a jumper.

“Tia! That’s...!” Princess Luna looked at her sister in true sync and gasped.

Celestia stared at the ballroom door. That voice… It can’t be… “Luna! Hurry! That voice was from-“

Luna turned to her sister with an expression that would make any tough pony come to comfort her. Her eyes were filled with shock and her lips trembled likewise. “That voice. I last heard it-” Luna gazed at the silk azure carpet to remember and almost immediately snapped back up.”Before I was imprisoned. Tia, that was before world peace had taken form in Equestria! The guards won’t have a chance!

Before they could rush through the main entrance, another shout filled the palace and the doors violently swung open, caused by one of Aardvark’s men being shot through the door. Aardvark rushed to his subordinate’s aid while the Twin Goddesses darted out the door.
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There were at least a dozen or more ponies, but they were no match for the unknown pony. Each was quickly countered and dropped by the mysterious pony, one by one, as they all tried to subdue him. He was going to have an audience with the leaders of this country. No matter what happens, he would find the solution to all of his unanswered questions that raged in his mind ever since he had awoken. He gave an immense shout and a quick strand of strikes in order to thin the herd of attackers that he had so recently accumulated. He tried thinking up a few cover stories in order to stay on good terms with the monarchs. Royalty would not accept a pony that had brutalized their entire protection force without good reason, and the guards’ inexperience in combat gave him enough space to in his head to brainstorm. He rarely had to focus fully on combat unless there were dire situations and battles that would be impossible to win. These situations had only happened twice in his life. Once before in defense of his small, rural town, and the second defending his best friend, the latter battle which he had lost his life in. Waking up in another time though, showed otherwise. After he had his fair share of fighting, he finished off the final guard, who had put up more of a fight than his fallen comrades, and he turned towards the door with his back-story in tow, and froze immediately with his cover-up long forgotten. His mind had been blown many times in the two and a half decades that he had been alive, but this one almost left him in a coma, as logic seemed to be void in this new time that he had appeared in.

“L-Luna?!”
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“Tia?! Luna?! Wha-? How did-?” Azrael stepped back onto the cobblestoned steps, on the verge of falling into shock. Instead he fell down the steps with a hard thud. His two best friends had reappeared to him almost 1400 years later, looking just as confused as he was.

“Azzie? You’re alive?” Celestia gazed questioningly at her long-lost friend. He died over a millennium ago. How is he here now?

He sat up and rubbed his eyes with his hooves, seeing if the girls would disappear. They didn’t. “I am?”

“Azrael? Is that really you?” She trotted closer to him and squinted to confirm her suspicions. “Oh, it is you!” Luna ran and glomped her best friend. Tears of happiness rolled down her cheeks onto the marble steps. Azrael ended his mental seizure and smiled as he gently brushed her mane. He thought he had lost the only people that meant the world to him, but now that he knew that he hadn’t lost them, he didn’t care what time he was in.

“We thought we lost you. A millennia and a half is a long time to become one with the Shadows, Azrael” Celestia quipped with a smirk as she watched her sister nuzzle Azrael on the neck.

Azrael did a double take as Celestia mentioned “millennia and a half”. “You mean to tell me that you’ve been living the entire millennia and a half that I was gone? You didn’t just magically appear here like I did?”

“No, we’ve lived this entire time after we beat Discord. When you were hit by Discord, we… we thought we lost you. Your body turned into light right before our eyes and you vanished.”

Azrael snickered, “Guess I can officially call you grandma now then, huh?” Celestia replied by slapping him in the face with a wing shrug. “Tia, why must you abuse me sooooo?” he whined playfully.

Celestia huffed at her insulter. “Still got quite the mouth on you apparently. I was hoping that you might’ve matured in the few years you were gone, but it appears I can’t get everything I want.”

He smiled and turned to Luna who was still burying her muzzle in his neck. “So what have you two been doing ever since I disappeared? A millennium and a half is a long time to be chilling in peace after all that mayhem we were through.”

Luna stopped nuzzling Azrael and looked into his eyes. “We’re the Goddesses of Equestria now. We’ve kept Equestria in eternal peace, which is probably why you made short work of our guards.” She eyed the guards and enveloped them in a dark shroud, riddled with stars. The guards were fully rejuvenated and stood up, shaking off the aches and bruised that were gifted to them by the millennia-old pony. “After you disappeared, everyone had completely forgotten you; it was like you never existed.” She pawed at the dirt that lay in front of her. Luna wasn’t happy that they forgot. He was a hero, but the only people that were recognized as heroes that day were the two sisters that emerged victories that night.

Celestia quickly chimed in. “Okay, Luna. Maybe we should bring him in? It’s starting to get a little chilly out here.” She shuffled her feet nervously. A long dead hero that has been revived without explanation wasn’t something she would want to let slip to the public. It would cause panic in some and hopes for loved ones to return from the grave for others. “Come on, Azrael. We’ll explain the rest to you inside.”
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Jace wandered through the ruins of his town. Everything was destroyed. Homes were broken down to their foundations. Massive trees had been uprooted and snapped like toothpicks. This was Trotstone, a once prosperous town, now reduced to nothing by the twisted schemes of a sadistic pony. The Everfree Forest soon took hold of the town and extended its reach and size, the lovely rural vacation homes’ debris enraptured forever by the growing foliage. Jace stumbled on a root, tripping and fell face first right on one of the old house’s welcome mat. His welcome mat. He tried to regain his balance, but fell flat for a second time. His body ached in pain, not forgetting the massive strain it had been pressured with during that evil pony’s plan to destroy Trotstone with a maniacal weapon that nopony could ever conceive, unless they were mad. He remembered everything vividly, the screams still echoing in his head. Diamond Dogs pillaging houses and taking ponies hostage. The explosion that wrecked all that he had fought to protect. The fierce light that blinded him and caused many to erupt in flames. The shockwave that sent him flying into the stone encropment running along the edge of town, breaking his spine and ending his life. The last part didn’t make sense to him at all though. If he had died, why was he here now? Was it a sick way of telling him that he couldn’t stop Him? That all he had protected had been lost over a paranoid pony’s mental state?

He clambered over the ruins and headed towards what he was hoping for was his former home; instead, he felt an unnaturally placed stone taking residence in what was formerly the town square. He placed his hoof and tried to read the Equestrian Script through touch alone.

Jace’s hoof slowly slid down the memorial in defeat. Tears spilled down his tan fur. “I- I’m so-sorry. He rested his against the base of the stone. “I’m sorry Flower Shine… I’m sorry I didn’t listen.