Author's Note: Hello ponyfolk! So I'll be honest. It's definitely been a while since I've written fanfic, and this is my first time trying my hand at some MLP stuff. So I'll start off with a Celestia/Luna focused story and go from there. This one may not read that smoothly, and perhaps more like a series of vignettes, but they are all related thematically, so I'm going to stick them all under this story.

Disclaimer: I don`t own My Litle Pony. I don`t even own a horse.

Never Shone so Bright
Prologue

Long, long ago, the land of Equestria was a peaceful, self-sustaining place. The land was able to thrive without pony intervention. All the ponies frolicked and lived happily. The Earth Ponies had their settlements, the Pegasi had their homes in the clouds, and the Unicorns preferred secluded settlements where they could practice their magic in peace. Rumour had it that some ponies didn't know that the other varieties even existed. And yet, their ignorance was bliss. The ponies lived amongst only those of their kind, and they were happy.

Unbeknownst to the ponies, there lay a malignant spirit beneath the joyous illusion the ponies lived under. While they frolicked under the sun this spirit, known only as Acerbitus, watched them. He hated them. The ponies were always happy and that made him angry. Acerbitus could only survive off of hate and anger. When the ponies were happy, he starved.

So he hatched a plan. Acerbitus lived to breed bitterness amongst the ponies, and what better way than to create a feud between the different types of ponies. Each variation had its own unique talents that made it special, but Acerbitus knew that the ponies would fight over whose was the best.

The Pegasi lived in the clouds. They were the only variation of pony that could walk on the cloud, and because they were the only ones with wings, they figured they were the only ones that would need to. Some Pegasus cloud cities were built right above settlements of Earth Ponies or Unicorns, but they never even knew it. They were high enough in the clouds that the ponies below couldn't see them, and they never felt the need to look down and see the settlement right below them. Arrangements such as this were perfect for Acerbitus' plan.

One day, he snuck up on an unsuspecting Pegasus filly. She was not a very good flyer yet, so falling out of the clouds would bring her right to the ground, unable to get back up on her own. Acerbitus stole the cloud out from right under her and she found herself in a free fall. Fortunately, she was a strong enough flyer to stop herself from crash-landing, but the clouds were a long way off and she seemed to be grounded.

After getting used to having her hooves on the ground, this young filly found herself in a strange new world she never knew about. She was in a settlement of Earth Ponies, a variety she never even knew existed. The displaced filly roamed about this new land until one of the strange ponies started talking to her.

"Excuse me?" came the voice of a stallion. "Are you lost, little filly? Where did you come from?"

In response, she looked up to the sky and said "I live in the clouds." She spread her wings and flapped them a couple times to bring herself a few feet off the ground before drifting back down. "I'm a Pegasus Pony, but I don't think I can get back home."

The stallion did not know what to do. He had never seen one of these Pegasus Ponies before, and he wouldn't have believed she came from the clouds if it wasn't for the wings.

Meanwhile, the filly's parents wondered where their little darling could have gotten off to. It wasn't like their little girl to just disappear like that, and she was still learning how to use her wings properly, so she couldn't have gotten far. Their town wasn't very large, and somepony would have seen her. This led them to the conclusion that they had been dreading- the ground.

None of them had ever been to the ground before. The filly's parents did not want to go to the ground, but if their daughter was there, it appeared that they had no other choice than to go and retrieve her. Reluctantly, the Pegasus couple flew to the edge of their city and took off, headed for the ground. They had no idea what they would find down below, but they were about to find out.

Meanwhile, the grounded filly was making new Earth Pony friends. She enjoyed their company, and didn't let little differences get in the way of a new friendship. Her parents didn't see it the same way. When they finally found their daughter, they accused the Earth Ponies of kidnapping an innocent and unsuspecting filly. She had wings, she could fly back up anytime she wanted, they reasoned, and accused the Earth Ponies of interfering where they had no business. The Earth Ponies took offence to this unjust accusation, and a giant argument broke out in the town square. Of course, this meant war.

A little ways off in the distance, a unicorn settlement sat atop a hill. They knew of this existence of the Earth Ponies and kept track of other settlements, both Earth Pony and Unicorn. However, they had never seen a commotion quite like the one that came from the village in the valley. A few unicorns made their way down to the town to see what all the fuss was about. It was then that the discovered the Pegasi.

The unicorns fancied themselves a logical bunch, and they liked to keep track of things. Pegasi threw off all their data. While it was a monumental find, this meant a lot of work for the unicorns. They contacted other unicorn villages about this revelation, and told them to spread it around.

The war was beginning to escalate and other Pegasi and Earth Ponies began to join the fight. Now the Unicorns were getting involved, attempting to be peacemakers and bringing in magical warfare. Negative energy was building up all throughout Equestria and Acerbitus grew stronger. Finally, when he had fed on enough negative energy, the being was able to take control of the sun and the moon. Where they had once worked together in harmony, they were now under complete control of a malicious spirit. Acerbitus made himself known to all ponies as their new master. He controlled the days, and they would have to bend to his every will.

Equestria lived in misery under his rule. Nopony was strong enough to stop him, and he was in power because of the ponies' relentless bickering.

However, there was hope in the form of a Unicorn colt. He had yet to discover his cutie mark, but he seemed to have some strong magic in him. Perhaps this was his calling... He had realized that the being came into control when all of the ponies met and engaged in a war. Perhaps the way to defeat this evil spirit was to work together and feed him as much positive energy as they could.

In legends, there existed the Elements of Harmony. Nopony knew what they were or how to use them, but the Unicorn colt was convinced that they could, in some way, vanquish their dark foe. He read every book he could find that could even remotely relate to these elements. Very little information was to be found, but the supposed that he had happened upon enough to aid him in his task. He thought he had figured out what most of them were, but there was a sixth element that he simply could not determine. What he had would have to do, and that, combined with his Unicorn magic, would save Equestria.

Using the five Elements of Harmony, the colt defeated Acerbitus and once again freed their land. Equestria would never be the same, however, since the sun and the moon no matter worked on their own in harmony. The colt had to raise the sun and the moon himself from them on.

It was a small price to pay for the freedom of Equestria, and he was very willing to pay it for his pony subjects. He had even earned his cutie mark in the process. The colt grew into a strong stallion and was a benevolent ruler for all of Equestria. He convinced his subjects, all Earth Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns to co-exist. If they all lived together peacefully, then Acerbitus would have no negative energy to feed on. So all of the ponies lived happily together in harmony, and Equestria became the happy place it is today.

The End.

Luna's eyelids were getting heavy and Celestia knew that the story had done the trick. She told it a little differently every time, but it always seemed to put her sister right to sleep. "Goodnight, little sis," she said.

"Wait," Luna replied. "Don't go yet."

Celestia stayed put at the edge of her sister's bed. "OK. You know, legend has it that that young colt lived for thousands of years, and he's even still alive today!"

"Is that story about daddy?" Luna asked.

Their father was King Kosmus, the current ruler of Equestria. He raised the sun and his wife, Lumia, took the moon and the stars. They cared deeply for their girls, but they didn't speak too much about their jobs. Celestia didn't actually know the answer to Luna's question because her father would never say. She knew the legends and the myths and nothing more. And yet she was reluctant to tell this to her sister. Luna looked up to her and expected her to answer all of her questions, and she didn't want to let her sister know that maybe she wasn't the all-knowing being her sister thought she was.

"Luna, this legend is thousands of years old. It's nothing more than a silly tale told to try and explain why Equestria only works with pony intervention."

"Oh." Luna paused, not quite convinced. "So that means that... Acerbitus... He's not real is he? There's no evil spirit that lives in Equestria, waiting to strike the moment ponies stop getting along?"

Celestia sighed. She always left out the part of the legend that said Acerbitus couldn't be completely vanquished without that sixth element. There was still some ponies who said that he was ever-present, waiting for the moment that the ponies stop getting along. Ponies were convinced that one day he would strike and bring about misery once more. Some parents told their children that to frighten them into getting along with their siblings, but Celestia could never do that to her sister. "No Luna, that's just an old mare's tale. Now get some sleep, you. It's getting late."

"Alright. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight Luna."