“So Twilight it’s time you learned about Equestria’s History.” Celestia said to Twilight as they sat within Celestia’s royal chambers, the fireplace they sat in front of was the only source of illumination as it flickered a dancing light across the room. The smell of sweet smelling incense filling the room. If it wasn’t for the fact that their was knowledge to learn and Twilight thought of their relationship as mentor and student. She would’ve thought it a very romantic setting.

“Thank you I can’t wait to learn.” Twilight said with a grin plastered on her features.

“About four thousand five hundred years ago, about a two thousand years before me and my sister became the rulers of Equestria there was a great two thousand year war.”

“A war what war? I never heard about a war in the royal archives.”

“Twilight please don’t interrupt or I’ll have to stop your lesson for tonight.”

“Sorry Princess, please continue.”

“Call me Celestia, after all we are both Princesses now. And as for not in the Archives, it wouldn’t be. It long before the archives were started, and most of the knowledge that’s survived is known only to me and my sister. Now it’ll be passed onto you. What I'm going to tell you as complete and as best as my recollections of the events as I learned them and as they happened. As I was saying there was a two thousand year war. You see the Alicorn race is immortal, while we may not die from old age we can still die from injury or even disease. But when there were more Alicorn around they were split between two groups.

One group saw the mortal races as inferior and should worship the Alicorns. That the mortal races should serve us without question. The other group saw a part of themselves in the mortal pony races and thought that they should be guided and helped. That we had a duty to ensure that they had a prosperous life filled with joy and peace. The former group decided that they would destroy their opposition by any means necessary. They used forbidden magics to remove qualities and properties in the Pony Races as well as each other, then filling the void with other qualities and properties for battle.

This led to many of the problems that we have now in days. Changelings for example were formed by the Alicorns that wished to enslave the others races for the purpose of espionage. A capable spy who could take infiltrate anywhere, and drain the emotional energy of their prey. With the insectile ability to lay eggs to make more of themselves, they were one of the biggest threats of the war. It’s also why my sister and I have always have been wary of them. It’s in their nature to be devious and take over their targets. But of course that power came with the weakness to more destructive emotions which is poisonous to them. While you didn’t know when the barrier was used by Cadence and your brother, Cadence threw all her hatred into the barrier, this from what our scouts have seen have decimated the recent Changeling hive.

Yes I know it may seem harsh, but in consideration of what she was put through and the thread of what your brother and Cadence were put through they were justified. Not to mention what the Changelings would have done to all of us and eventually all of Equestria if they hadn’t done what they did.

Now onto other more known creations. The Draconequus were a fusion of dragon, manticore, alicorn, griffon, and for some reason goat and deer. Once mixed they were infused with raw magical energy and tapped into control one aspect of reality, giving them god like powers. Only four were ever created and the only one that I know to have survived was Discord, the second of our enemies Draconequus created. They were to be the Generals of the collective armies. Weapons that could alter the very world to their whim. Their names were Bellum, Discord, Contego, and Pondera. Their minds and souls were altered to fully resemble the essence of what they represented. Bellum was the Spirit of War, he was the first one created. His ability to spread war and control the spread of battle was such a danger, that the other group created Contego to counter him. Then there was Discord whom you know and his counterpart Pondera, the Spirit of Order.

I talked to Discord after he was reformed by your friend Fluttershy. He said that he tricked Bellum to attack Pondera so that he could kill Contego, seeing how Bellum was a threat to his power base killed Bellum. By this time the war was near its end and he wandered the world before coming to this land.

Now as for our heritage, there were once many types of Alicorn and ponies. Nocturnal type ponies, the Tulpa which are the dragon eyed and winged Pegasi in the Royal Lunar Guard. You have the Anar, which are dark grey to black looking Unicorns with glowing red eyes. They had a draconic ability to breath fire and use fire magics. They were well know to specialize in combat magics rather than normal Unicorns who as you know are more well rounded. Then you had the Nox Equi or night horses. They as well as the Anar are probably extinct, and I never really saw them although what my father told me. They were cave dwelling ponies that came out rarely at night. Supposedly they were carnivorous, well more accurately they were opportunistic carnivores. They fought for the group dedicated to enslaving ponies for sacrifices.

Now by the time me and my sister were born the war was dying down, and only a handful of Alicorns were alive. By the time I was nearing adolescence and our parents left for an important mission, all of them suddenly disappeared other than my sister, myself, and sombra who was a distant cousin. We didn’t know about him until after the ponies of Equestria thrust the weight of rulership upon us. He was an orphan and it was pure happen chance that we came across him while trying to stabilize the world after the chaos that Discord caused.

Now as for after the war, and in between then and us over throwing Discord. You are aware of the play given in Hearth’s Warming Eve. Well it is somewhat less than honest. It was three thousand five hundred years ago that it happened rather than one thousand, and while it was accurate up to the finding of Equestria from deep in the frozen wastes of Stalliongrad. The frozen north was actually caused by the Wendigos. The animosity of the three tribes was like a beacon of those relics of the war. It was friendship that was their bane and caused the tribes which weren’t just those 6 ponies but a large force that went with them. The 6 are used to make the play simpler to understand. Well that and it was those 6 who had the greatest impact on history.

They had five hundred years of peace before Discord arrived. Now all ponies know is that he caused ponies to be unhappy. But the truth is so much worse. He killed the founders of Equestria for rulership, using dark magics and his ability to manipulate the minds of ponies. He killed Chancellor Pudding by turning her weekly bath in the lake into thick pudding trapping her under it until she drowned. As Smart Cookie tried to save her he turned her bones to cookies, as she crushed under her own weight her organs and bones mixed into a sludge. Well lets just say that it wasn’t a pretty sight for anyone who were there for their funeral.

Princess Platinum was encased in the money of her vault. While its true that he never turned a Pony into stone he did entomb her in wealth she valued more than anything other than her looks. We actually had her entombed body in the Castle of the Royal sisters in a memorial to the previous rulers. Her assistant Clover the clever was attacked by all things giant, mutant weeds. By the time the unicorns were able to save her they were to late. The blades of grass had cut her to shreds.

Now as for Private Pansy and Captain Hurricane, I won’t go into details on them. It’s too gruesome to go into. I’ll never know why he targeted them as he did and I don’t want to ask him. Well after they were killed history just says that he made pony’s unhappy and put them in a state of unrest and unhappiness. We just say that to water down what really happened. Well that’s all for tonight. I’ll let you know more tomorrow night if you feel like it.”

Twilight was wide awake with questions and images in her head that she wished she didn’t have. But Celestia told her that when she was finished telling her everything she would allow her to ask her questions. So Twilight waited to the next night to hear the rest of her story. Although she didn’t get any sleep, having nightmares of all the deaths that happened in Celestia’s recollections.

“ Now we left off on Discord’s rule. He didn’t use the cotton candy clouds with chocolate milk that he used on you and your friends. Nor did he do simple mischief, truth be told he did those things since you were all mortals and he underestimated all of you. When he first took power it was similar to what Ponyville went through in some ways. Ponies being forced into a constant state of insanity where they were forced to do acts on his whim. But when he was bored with that he would twist their souls into their darker opposites and would watch them hunt, then hunt their friends and family for sport.

I know that look and I can guess what you’re going to ask, why did I want him free after what he did? The answer is simple. Being imprisoned for over three thousand years is more than enough of a punishment. That and we know where we stand with each other, and let’s just say that my faith in you was well placed. That plus only us Alicorns know what really happened back then. The reason I’m telling you is because those who fail to understand the past are doomed to repeat it, and if I don’t want you to ever live through some of the lessons that I’ve had to live through. As for why don’t I let this know to most of Equestria? Well the answer to your unasked question is that if they knew the gory truth behind the finding of their past the lessons of friendship and community that they grew up learning would be a whole lot less impacting.

It’s the ponies reliance of the power of friendship that is their defense mechanism from a lot of things out there that have weakness to those things. If they were to loose sight of that I am terrified to what the price would be. It’s honestly something that I loose sleep over sometimes when our history hits a rather bumpy patch, knowing the horrors that this world hides.

Now back onto our lessons. It was two thousand five hundred years ago when me and my sister discovered the locations of the Elements of Harmony. Now the thing to know is that they were only a child’s tale to us, and no real information existed about them, but when facing an insurmountable threat any chance for hope is better than nothing. It was Luna who was the more open and in touch with her feelings that held the Elements of Generosity, Laughter, and Kindness. While I was held Loyalty, Honesty, and Magic. It was a desperate gambit, but you know how it ends. We overthrew him and imprisoned him in stone.

We of course were just children at the time, but with us being the only ones able to use the Elements of Harmony. And having overthrown the equivalent of a god, the ponies of this land thrust upon us the title of rulers. It was thirteen years later when while we were securing the outer reaches of our empire, in the outer reaches of Equestria near Stalliongrad in what would be later called the Crystal Empire we found a young Sombra. We never did find out what happened to his parents, but he was an orphan like we were. Although unlike us he had no one. So my sister took it upon herself to take him in and train him. For the next three hundred and some change years later we were like a family.

But Sombra had machinations for the Crystal Empire. I guess in a way it was the only place he could truly call home, or it was the place were everything changed for him. But turned to the dark side of magic specializing in the dark arts. Going even further than me and my sister had, and yes in our younger years we used darker magics in times of war. The reason there are so many laws on their use was because of both Sombra’s actions and we came to see alot of their uses as not ethical. We once again had to use the Elements of Harmony once again in battle. And as you’ve seen first hand both Sombra and the ponies of the Crystal Empire suffered from our last ditch effort from us stopping Sombra’s plans.

It was a thousand years later that Luna turned into a Nightmare Moon. She gathered a large force of those who felt disenfranchised, under appreciated, and those who gravitated to those they felt as the more powerful of the two. Some of those for protection, others for a perverse sense of shared glory. It wasn’t just me sending her two the moon. It was a large civil war that split our land in two, and it was with a heavy heart that I lured Luna to a hill outside of Ponyville, the same one that we sat a few short weeks ago. I used the connection to the Elements that Luna once had and banished her to the moon.

Ever since then I’ve been building the Equestrian Army and using their forces to secure our border from outside threats which there have been many, as well as extremist groups loyal to not only Discord but Nightmare Moon as well who have threatened us from within. Honestly those were the worst, they fought for beings that they have only an ideal of rather than what really happened. Ever since I lost the use of the Elements of Harmony to act as a deterrent, so I had to rely on my little ponies for protecting our nation more than they were before my sister’s banishment.

It’s only been these last four hundred years since I’ve brought us to a land of such prosperity where Ponies can have the lifestyle and peace that they have enjoyed. That’s all for this nights lecture. Tomorrow I will answer all the questions you have to ask.” Celestia finished saying, her face filled with the weight of all she had been through. Although Twilight new that even the time line she gave it was not a fully accurate one, but it was better than everything being simply stated as a thousand years ago, which she always thought was off.

Twilight didn’t sleep that well that night either. Dreams of war and death troubled her mind. It was here that Luna arrived for the first time in her dreams, and with tales of Nightmare Moon in her mind it took Luna sometime to explain she wasn’t a dream. She had seen her dreams and told her that she had to have the weight of such things thrust upon her, but at least she didn’t get the whole story of what happened in those times. Luna then spent the rest of Twilight’s dream helping ease her mind and help her with alot of the images running through her mind.

It would be several more months before the nightmares fully subsided, but Twilight had finally did something she thought she’d never see. Knowledge that she didn’t want to have. Over the nights after the end of the lecture she had poured every question she had been saving up poured out. She learned about how after defeating Discord she collected the memories of all those who were present during the time to see exactly what happened to the original finders of Equestria, the extremist, splinter cells that still existed, about the wars still going on in the border regions of Equestria, and the various myths and stories told by the Alicorns. As for the Anarcorn, she was unable to learn anything other than they were the nocturnal counterpart to Alicorns and went missing before the Alicorns did.

Author's Notes:

Yay! Epic Exposition Time! I wanted to get a chapter earlier that built up the war that the Watcher was talking about as well as setting things up for later parts of the series that I have planned.