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Original Description:
 
Yes, ANOTHER AU. This one was so much fun to design for!!!! (starting YCHs tomorrow lol)

A gist of the AU:

Alicorn sisters Celestia and Luna have ruled over their kingdom for almost 100 years (once ascended, alicorns in this AU live to about 1,000, so they’re still young 20s). Their parents taught them well, but died young during the Great Changeling invasion when the princesses were about 15 and 20 years old. Celestia had already been trained by her parents and had ascended to the alicorn state (from a unicorn), but Luna was only part way through her training. Under her sister’s guidance, she completed her training and ascended at age 18 (from a batpony-pegasus, courtesy of her dad’s side of the family).

Despite the great loss of their parents, the sisters took on the immense responsibility of leading and caring for their nation and, over the next several decades, became the beloved and revered rulers of the nation.

All was well…

… But, about 20 years ago, Luna began noticing a change in her sister. Celestia – always concerned with the strength and survival of Equestria – had taken on more and more responsibilities from her subjects, and had taken to locking herself away in her study at night when she used to sleep. While alicorns do not need to sleep as often as normal ponies, Celestia didn’t appear to be sleeping at all. After a few years of this, Celestia began changing many of the laws, claiming that the sisters needed to crack down more strongly on crime rings and unharmonious conduct within Equestria. While Luna didn’t disagree with the general principle, her sister’s methods didn’t exactly seem to be doing the job. Taxes were raised, slowly at first, then much more dramatically, to fund the Equestrian guard and bring in more recruits to bring about a stronger order to the nation.

The Equestrian military force grew immensely, as did control over its citizens. Tax laws began being enforced in extreme ways, and even petty crime was subject to severe punishment. Public floggings became common, as did public executions. Those who failed to meet the required tax rates were often dragged off to work as slaves in the royal fields and mines. Celestia also seemed to sense a sudden threat from the resident dragon and griffon populations, both of whom had become quite integrated into Equestrian society over the past several generations, with even some inter-marrying. Relations with Griffonia and the Dragonlands (both bordering territories) were – while tense at times – maintaining peace with Equestria, but Celestia declared them hostile to the nation, and promptly cut off trade and communication with them. Tension between the three nations spiked, and, after a few years of back and forth raids, Celestia declared griffons and dragons in Equestria to be outlaws. Many were arrested, beaten, executed, or forced into labor in the mines and fields.

By this point, Luna could barely recognize her dear sister. Celestia was defensive, hostile, and paranoid about everything, including Luna’s well-meaning advice. Her magic is getting stronger and more brutal, and even her physical appearance is beginning to change. Her eyes seem to be more bloodshot, her horn seems almost burnt, and around her eyes is getting darker and darker, like a smoldering fire is creeping out of her eyes. Luna has practically no control over Equestria, and even the few followers that are faithful to her cannot obey if her orders go against Celestia’s, for fear of the consequences on themselves and their families. Schools (mostly attended by wealthier families) are forced to teach propaganda about the “newer, stronger Equestria,” and most nobles are in full support of Celestia’s changes because it means coins in their pockets and power in their hands. Any teachers that try to teach truth or educate the lower levels of society are punished severly.

Finally, Luna can’t take it anymore. She lies to her sister for the first time and tricks her away from the palace for a few days, deciding that she needs to get to the bottom of this. She tries to get into Celestia’s study, but finds that the entire study tower is barricaded with a plethora of spells, magical barriers, and a darker force that she can’t find the source of. After almost two solid days of constant, focused reverse spellwork, Luna manages to unlock part of the study (it’s several rooms, all within one tower), and finds a disturbing scene inside. Despite being the princess of the sun, Celestia’s study is completely dark. Heavy blackout curtains are drawn across the windows, no fires, torches, or candles are lit, and something seems to be lurking in the darker corners. Luna peruses the tower, searching for answers. Bubbling potions, magic-infused gems and metals, and scrolls upon scrolls of spells are littered throughout the entire room.. along with scrolls and carvings of very strange, yet eerily familiar symbols on them that Luna can’t quite identify. The source for Celestia’s growing magical strength seems apparent to Luna, but as she continues to inspect the room, a dark, terrifying feeling suddenly comes over her. Someone… someTHING is there. As the mistress of dreams and nightmares, Luna has seen her fair share of horrors, but this being… this presence is so intense that her magical senses can hardly grasp it; a presence so terrifying and powerful it practically paralyzes her.

And then that something is THERE, around her, engulfing her, suffocating her…. and everything goes black.

When Luna wakes up, she’s no longer in the study. She’s in the throne room, Celestia standing over her with the most foreign expression of rage Luna has ever seen. The Celestia that Luna knows is not this Celestia. That is the only thought she can process before she registers what is going on; Celestia is exiling her, banishing her from Equestria forever on pain of death.

Celestia’s final words break her little sister’s heart: “I hope to never see you again. Go and die a slow, painful death alone, you traitor.”

A spell transports Luna out of kingdom, and she finds herself deep in the Everfree forest, which spans both Equestria and the Unknown Lands – unexplored wilds that ponies, griffons, and dragons alike dare not venture into. Her spirit broken, Luna wanders listlessly, not knowing where she’s going or how much time passes. After almost of a month of mindless wandering, a strange zebra encounters the young princess crying alone in a grove of sapphire willow trees. The zebra introduces herself as Zecora, a hermit that lives alone in the endless, wild empire of the Everfree. With her vast knowledge of the flora and fauna of the forest, Zecora has made herself many homes throughout the Everfree, traveling between them via trails she blazed herself – as well as some more magical means or transportation – and observing outsiders from the hidden fringes of the trees.

It takes several days for Luna to even speak after being brought back to Zecora’s hidden tree house, but when she does, she doesn’t hold back anything, throwing caution to the wind and explaining everything to this wild hermit. Zecora pieces together what Luna says with information she’s heard from her various travels in the past several months and realizes that Luna is telling the truth – a disturbing realization, to say the least; The Princess of the Sun herself is an alien to her own sister.

Luna travels with Zecora for several months and the two ponder the situation at great length. Following a lead from one of the wild creatures of the Everfree (he owed Zecora a favor), they investigate some old carvings deep in the caverns below the forest. It isn’t very clear, but they begin to find some hints as to what is going on. Some ancient, evil power has been released – or summoned – and is somehow involved with Celestia. Zecora and Luna form a plan: Luna will continue following the trail that the carvings laid out for them to find out the source of the problem with Celestia, and Zecora will initiate contact with the already-existing pony rings of rebellion.

While Zecora gets more involved in Equestrian affairs, Luna continues to follow the clues and is eventually led to a dark and mysterious castle, hidden in the most ancient and dangerous part of the Everfree. Only Zecora’s careful warnings and advice allow Luna to reach the castle alive, but once she enters the castle, her magical senses go on high alert: the same dark force she felt in Celestia’s study is THERE… but.. something is different…

Cautious, but anxious to get to the bottom of this, Luna ventures farther into the castle. Strange symbols and decorations line the walls, many from the history books she studied during her training, but so jumbled together and distorted that she has a hard time picking out any individual meaning behind them. As she enters one of the countless rooms, she suddenly feels the dark presence grow stronger. Whirling around, Luna sees a figure silhouetted in the doorway. It’s a tall, dark stallion, his eyes glowing a strange green, blood red irises gazing across the room at her in careful surprise.

And the dark presence… it’s there with the stallion… but it’s not him. It seems to be surrounding him, though, and Luna whips out her magical claw weapons, ready for anything.

He arches a critical brow at her and laughs drily. “Oh, please, little girl. You wouldn’t last two seconds.” He does appear curious, however, and asks rather forcefully how she got there. Luna is unsure what to reveal to a stranger – especially one surrounded by an evil force she can’t see – and opts to keep her mouth shut. The stallion seems unfazed and, with a mild shrug of his shoulders, his eyes and horn suddenly glow, and Luna falls into darkness.

_________________________

YAYYYYY!! You made it through the heckin’ long intro!!

NOTES:
–The more powerful/magical a pony is, the longer-living they are! This is why

Celestia
– Age: 120 (decided to just round the ages off nicely XD)
– Height: 7’7”
– Design:
**SUN MOTIFS!! everywhere!! Every pony has some sort of magical tie, and Celestia’s is to the SUN, so simply having sun imagery on her clothing/person can increase her focus and connection to sun magic.
**Celestia has a LOT of magical items/elements woven into her clothing. The shoulder spikes and halo/crown thingy that float are magically-infused metals (not for wepaons, tho. Literally just for dramatic effect, since INTIMIDATION is a huge part of her ruling style). The jewels and sun motifs throughout her clothing are all magically charged as well, and her gold gauntlets add a lot of strength to hand-conducted magic (charged from the horn, but influenced with hands). Her scepter is a a giant source of magic, created from sun-magic gold and the very potent gem in the middle.
** Prefers spells and cantrips to hand-to-hand combat magic. This is where her scepter and personal magic are best used, although she does have a good amount of training in combat.

Luna
– Age: 115
– Height: 7’
– Design:
** MOON MOTIFS!!! And stars. Luna has a moon-star motif combo and, like Celestia, uses them to focus on moon magic when conducting.
**Luna has some magically-charged gems that Zecora helped create throughout her outfit, which (like Celestia’s, although weaker) add a little extra kick to her spellcasting when drawn on. The metal disk/coin things on her hip each have unique spells and can be personalized for use in different situations (not emergencies, typically). Her pack holds her very minimal supplies, and she has very lightweight armor, mostly relying on the tough weave of the special cloth Zecora wove for her out of a nocturnal spider silk. Her cape is actually an artifact the Zecora had found a few years prior called the Cloak of Shadows (super creative, I know). It acts a semi-invisibility cloak/blend-into-shadows cloak.
** Relies on combat magic, often through the use of her magic-infused claw weapons on her gloves (they’re retractable!)

Sombra
– Age: ????
– Height: 7’7” (Although I’m sure he claims he’s 7’8”, just to lord it over Celestia)
– Design:
** Eye and fang motifs. Why? You’ll see…. XD
**Sombra has cloths made out of a strong, magical material. The only metal he wears is specially designed (for something… XD) and combined with certain gems. Leather, because it comes from a (formerly) living creature, contains certain magical properties that he relies on.
** His horn is VERY abnormal for a unicorn. The spiraling is not the normal corkscrew spiral, but instead a more scaled style. The coloring is also not normal. He was not born like that!