1000 years ago, what stopped the sun and moon from rising?

[Denim&Venöm 16,654]

The princesses raise the sun and moon. Before that it was a council of unicorns. But what about before that?

Who raised the sun and moon back then? Or even worse, what stopped the sun and moon from rising on their own? 

Life evolved in equestria. Inteligent, sapient life that formed societies and nations. This life evolved before the need to manually control the heavens, during a normal automatic day/night cycle. 

So what the heck happened that forced the unicorns to start sacrificing the magic of 24 of their own daily just to keep the heavens moving before the princesses arrived?

[Brony Number 42 9,995]

As I have said before, I think the whole thing is a scam. The planet operates like normal, but some ponies were able to convince the general population that it was they, the special council, that moved the sun and moon.

[Megas 27,120]

It was science! Then Magic happened and messed with the balance!

[Goat-kun 2,500]

You may want to change that "1000 years" into "aeons". Anyhow, shit must have really hit the fans if even PV staff members started asking the hard-hitting questions. This is one of those nuggets that terrify even the staunchest advocates of Equestrian supremacy. Once you uncover your first glitch, no amount of feel-good lies can stop the mind from wondering into the ever more perilous depths. Would you forsake them for the sake of truth? Do not fret. Such treacherous action carries the potential to save us all.

[SharpWit 2,495]

I think I go with the Fallout: Equestria explanation of they'll just move on their own after being neglected, they just won't fall into such an orderly cycle, like how we can have our moon out in broad daylight and there's nothing abnormal about it since we're used to it, but we're also used to having battles with mother nature rather than shape it too our whim.

[Ittoni 536]

They were cave ponies before there was a sun and moon. Deep Bellow the earth, like a bunch of gollums, that's why they have such big eyes, to see in the darkness with the faint glow of magical crystals which transfered their magic to them over time, like Warcraft elves. Then they ventured towards the surface but they discovered that the sky was divided. On one side there was nothing but sun and it was scorching hot, nothing could live there because it was all a yellow shining desert, the other side was cold and even more dark than under the earth, nothing could live there because it was a white freezing desert.

But there was some of this ancestor creatures that, thanks to the crystals, evolved a horn with a great concentration of magic and they thought that if they could make the two deserts more like each other there would be balance and they could probably make it a pleasant place to live. And so it begins the day and night cycles. The rest is history.

Edited November 3, 2019 by Ittoni