Prologue - A Secret to end the Peace
The summer breeze whispered through the cold stone walls of Canterlot Castle, making the two guards shiver slightly. There thoughts were their own though, as to why the Princess talked to her Student in private, especially after the infamous Smarty Pant's epidemic that went through Ponyville, and caused Twilight to break down quite spectacularly.
The Student herself was in the royal suite along with Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna, and they were quite happily chatting about the wedding that had just gone by, with Luna doting on her fellow princess, Celestia chatting about her Captain, and Twilight about both of them. Admittedly, the conversation was growing slightly boring, there's only so much that you can say about a newly wedded couple, and they were running out of them, fast. Although, after all avenues of thought had been searched, and Luna had retired to bed, Twilight spoke up:
"Did you ever get married Princess Celestia?"
Such an innocent question, and the Sun princess only had to think for a moment until she replied. She'd have to be careful here though. There was too much at stake for loose tongues.
Celestia spoke
"Once, yes, a long time ago, just after I became a princess in fact. His name was Midnight Star, and I loved him with all my heart."
Twilight looked interested, and at the mention of a the pony himself, she became puzzled, eventually voicing her thought about the ordeal.
"But, that must have been a humongous announcement, I should have at least seen a footnote about it somewhere if You had married another pony, unless you didn't keep books that long ago." A shiver accompanied this, as if she could no more imagine the world without her magic, than a world without books.
Celestia looked slightly sheepish after that, and her words betrayed her guilt of her action. "Well, actually, the record was made, a very long time ago yes, but it was made." She could see Twilight pondering this for a moment, dreading the question that was sure to come. And her faithful student didn't disappoint her.
"Yes but it's not there, it must have been wiped off the register by somepony."
"Bingo"
Twilight looked at Celestia with a new interest in her eyes: "You wiped your own marriage records? but why would you do that, it's not like he turned out to be the leader of the changelings" she said jokily, but her smile froze when she saw the look on her Mentors' face. It was one of resignation and regret.
"Nope, much worse."
The Princess's flat voice was like ice, concealing a bitter fury against something, Twilight assumed the aforementioned Midnight. She continued:
"He caused everything. Discord, The Changeling's, even the nightmare that took over my sister was created by that pony."
Something struck a cell somewhere in Twilights sleep deprived brain as she tried to figure out what was wrong with what Celestia had just said, something about Nightmare moon... Aha, she had it.
"But Celestia, I thought you said that you met him quite early during your promotion to princess."
Celestia waited for her student to continue.
"That must have been many millennia ago, something like 10,000 years ago, yet Nightmare Moon only came into existence at tops 1,000 years ago. Meaning that this pony is supposedly supernatural to the point of living for more than 9000 years, he must be little more than ash right now"
Celestia turned to her star pupil and looked her in the eye.
"No, he isn't, in fact, he's still alive and kicking."
Twilight reeled at this, and tried to process this new piece of information, finally arriving at the only viable conclusion:
"But that must meant that he's an alicorn... but, how, the only way to become an alicorn is to either get picked by destiny or to get the gift from a current alicorn, which -"
Twilight tailed off as realisation dawned in her, letting out a small "oh."
"Yes... Oh." The princess replied, the same flat tone of voice making Twilight slightly worried at her Mentor's apparent lack of emotion. Then Celestia's body language stiffened up, and her voice taking a slightly sad tone.
"I'm sorry Twilight. What was said in this room can never been told to anypony... ever. the consequences could be in the best case damaging to my reputation."
Twilight was getting more and more nervy by the second.
"Ok, so I won't talk about what was said in this room at all."
Celestia thought for a few seconds, then slowly shook her head.
"Not good enough, you could spill it somehow, people would kill for this secret if they knew it existed."
"Wha- What do you mean Princess?" Twilight's voice starting to tremble slightly, her hyperactive imagination playing horrible tricks on her.
Celestia, Her closest friend through most of her life, stood up tall and spoke in an emotionless monotone that chilled Twilight to the bone.
"Twilight Sparkle, I hereby banish you to the moon until I myself see fit to release you."
Twilight was dumbstruck. She could hardly even protest as Celestia's horn drew in a dark string of magic, much reminiscent of Luna's own slice of night in her mane, and as the horn was covered in shifting shadows, and it was slowly lowered to her, Twilight had finally gained control of her vocal functions, and as the writhing shadows split, one rocketing towards the full moon that Luna had provided for Equestria, and another towards Twilight, she had time to scream one last word, but Celestia knew that that word would keep her awake at night for a fair few nights to come.
"Why?"