the two matriarchs of Equestria since its conception, Celestia and Luna rule over Equestria and its subjects with joint power. Celestia embodies the power of the day and the sun, while Luna harnesses the power of the night and the moon. The two are not blood sisters, but rather sisters joined by a self-decided pact while they studied under their teacher, Starswirl the Bearded.
 
Celestia was born a unicorn in times pre-Equestria, when the ponies were nothing but travelling clans. Coming from the Unicorn Kingdom and holding relation to its last ruler, Princess Platinum, Celestia was a wanderer and sought to study and learn from all the ponies of the world. Travelling with her teacher, Starswirl the Bearded, the two came across a small group of bat ponies, mysterious and nocturnal creatures with a peculiar magic of their own. Fascinated, the two gained the interest of one of the ponies, Luna, who decided to leave her flock and travel with them. The two grew incredibly close, and through their travels they learned much about each other, and their own magic. Through their travels across Equestria, they became the first ever Alicorns when they utilized the Elements of Harmony to unite the tribes of Equestria. Ever since, their magic and power have grown god-like, and each sister holds a particular domain over certain elements. Celestia holds power and takes the responsibility of raising and lowering the sun while Luna takes responsibility over raising and lowering the moon and the night, thus stabilizing and standardizing the length of the day, which had been sporadic and unpredictable beforehand. Under their rule of Equestria, they standardized the process of weather creation to keep ponies fed and safe. A third alicorn, Amore, would ascend alongside the two, and would rule over the Crystal Empire, her own species of crystal ponies. However, a war with the evil King Sombra would result in both Amore and her husband’s death, the disappearance of the Crystal Empire, and the orphaning of their young daughter, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. The two sisters mourned the loss of their third and took the princess under their own wings to raise, and things would go back to peace in the lands of Equestria.
 
However, things would not stay idyllic for long. Though the three main species of ponies had managed to live peacefully together, Luna’s own kind remained on the outskirts of society. Nocturnal, physically different from other ponies, and viewed by most as scary and evil, the bat ponies became targets of contempt from the Equestrians. Their population dwindled as hostility increased, and this pained Luna. When she brought her concerns to her sister, she was, however, brushed off. This was the beginning of the rift between the sisters.
 
As time passed, the rift grew. Luna employed only bat ponies to her royal guard and implemented, without Celestia’s approval or help, efforts to protect the bat ponies. This made Luna very unpopular among the Equestrians, and Celestia unfortunately took their side. Why couldn’t Luna just be more like everyone else?
 
This was the last straw. An epic battle between the sisters commenced, with Luna’s pain and rage corrupting her into Nightmare Moon. This form is one that all alicorns are at risk of succumbing to, if their negative emotions consume them. Celestia had no choice but to banish her sister to the moon, becoming the sole monarch of Equestria. This did little for the bat pony population, who were either killed off in the frenzy of Luna-hatred that Celestia overlooked in her own grief or driven underground.
 
In her grief and guilt over what she’d done to her sister, Celestia locked herself away and did her best to make things right. She couldn’t bring back her sister, but she could make Equestria a better world for her. She threw herself into ruling, and in the thousand years she was without her sister, she had almost moved on. She had a husband for a short while in Prince Scorpan, before he was killed by his brother. Having lost her sister and now her love, Celestia had only her daughter, Princess Harmonia. Celestia grew distant from everyone, and was a refined and hands-off ruler. Her most notable effort after Luna’s banishment, however, was to protect the remaining bat ponies. They were, naturally, skeptic of the princess. However, a bold group of bat ponies took up her offer and went under Celestia’s protection.
 
Things began to become peaceful for Celestia.
 
For Luna, however, it was torture. Alone on the moon, Luna discovered a power she had previously not known she had: dreamwalking. As she gathered her power, she would appear in the dreams of ponies and plague them with nightmares. The longer she was alone, the angrier she grew. It was with this ability that she walked into the dreams of the imprisoned King Sombra, who had been imprisoned by herself and her sister in Tartarus. The two at first butted heads, but eventually bonded and in some sort of twisted, magic-fueled relationship, gave birth to a child: Xibalba. However, the child’s birth was an anomaly, and they were teleported, fully grown, through time and space in a traumatic and disorienting childhood.
 
Luna, heartbroken with grief at losing everything, including her child, finally gathered enough power to break free of her prison and confront her sister. Her anger and grief nearly consumed her, but through the power of sisterly love (and a bit of help from the elements of harmony), she was brought back from her corruption to her original form. Traumatized, Luna was taken back to Canterlot by her sister to get reacquainted with her kingdom, and the two slowly began to rebuild their relationship.
 
Some time after her return, the stars would align and a now-fully grown and very unadjusted Xibalba would be spit back to the corporeal world. After wandering the countryside for days, disoriented, Xibalba would be found by an elderly bat pony who would take them in and nurse them to health. Soon enough, the royal sisters caught wind of the strange pony, and Luna and her child were reunited. The two were… awkward, but with help from their family, they built a relationship. The newly reformed King Sombra, however, has a lot of time to go before he can be anything like a father…
 
Over time, as things returned to normalcy, Luna found a kindred spirit in the reformed enemy-turned general, Tempest Shadow, while Celestia fell in love with the queen of the newly emerged Hippogriffia, Queen Novo. Luna and Tempest had three children together, Princess Hypnos, Prince Deimos, and Prince Phobos, while Celestia and Novo would only have one son together, Prince Sunspot.