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// Prince Sombra 
// Story: Where Did I Go Wrong? 
// by zeroxwolfx 
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“Where are all the heroes now, uncle?” asked the young prince.

“They’re gone for now little Oscar, gone until the day we might need them again.”







        As time went on the old hero kings and queens also grew older.  Their role in the Crystal Kingdom became less and less.  Each proceeding king, or queen, that shared the blood of greatness held less power, instead sharing it with the crystal council, a democratically elected house of ponies.  Over time these ponies would eventually make most of the important decisions about the Crystal Kingdom; the laws, the judgments, heath, progression, the land and more or less everything.  The king or queen at my time had the lovely job of opening congressional hearings, closing congressional hearings, giving important sounding opinions in reports and attending royal events and openings and such occasions that seemed to be met with increasingly less patriotism and enthusiasm as the years went on.

        And then I was born.  As the last member of the royal bloodline; I was born Prince Oscura Sombra the third.  My parents were very old when they gave birth to their only son, they were lucky to have one at all.  They died when I was very young of natural causes.  I neither hated, nor love them. I simply could not have any strong feelings to them, as I had no memory of them. To me they were a large, somewhat imposing picture on the entryway wall.  Of course I did wonder about them from time to time.  Reighloph told me that my father would be proud of me; to have such an energetic, eager and rambunctious young lad.

        My old uncle Reighloph was always my father to me.  He was a strange old pony, a little round at the edges at that, but jolly and kind.  He was all the family I had in the world, but that was plenty for me.  Aside from a handful of servants, Reighloph looked after me for my young life.  It was a fond time for me, a time that I enjoyed.  I remember every night Uncle Reighloph would read me stories about the old heroes and tell me of their great deeds.  When I got older yet, he even entertained me to teach me some of the old combative magic ways.  “Teach me to be a hero!” I would say to him.  He always told me what  good hero, a strong warrior and a loyal soldier I was.

        I loved him and I loved being the Crystal Kingdom's little hero, play fighting with imaginary dragons and fighting imaginary monsters.  Occasionally I even saved imaginary damsels in distress.  I always knew somewhere deep in my heart that I could be a hero just like the ones Uncle Reighloph told me about, I just knew it.  As a child there was no fantasy of heroes, or old tales.  They were as real as the sun and the moon, as day and night.  The monsters, the greatness and the legends were truths that I held close to my heart.  

        When I was just eight years old I had the pleasure of taking a visit to a very young nation that had formed to the south of us.  I wasn't sure exactly how it had formed at the time, nor did I probably care much, but I do remember my uncle telling me that it was ruled by a pair of wonderful sister princesses.  At that thought I was as giddy as could be, a pair of princesses, damsels that needed rescuing, just like in the stories!  I looked forward to the trips, as one of the few responsibilities of the royal family was as emissary.

        Equestria was a very different place than the Crystal Kingdom to say the least.  Mountainsides were not covered in gleaming gemstones, winter snowfall did not threaten every boundary.  The weather was somewhat sporadic and not as well managed as ours and the buildings were small, fewer and much less lustrous than our own.  But out of all of that, what I really remembered was the royal greeting we received.  Even though they were still a small and struggling nation, they managed to throw us such a welcome.  There were fireworks and so many well decorated royal soldiers! I got in trouble more than once playing with their armor and spears.  But what I remember most are the two princesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.  What a glory they were to behold.  They were the closest thing I had ever seen in person to the old heroes of my stories, and the ponies of Equestria all loved them so much.  They showed such zeal, such admiration for their princesses, never questioning them, always following their careful guidance.  

        At this very young age I met each of them.  I didn't find it a bit strange that they were taller than most ponies, they were heroes after all.  I was a bit afraid of Princess Celestia at first, as she was the older sister, taller and more imposing.  But she proved to be kind and motherly to me, always bowing before me and calling me “little prince”.  I remember giggling at this, always trying to act as professional and dignified, even at such a young age around her.  I wanted to show that I could be a hero just like her after all.  I liked Princess Luna more.  She was not as formal or as imposing as her older sister.  I remember always looking forward to visiting Equestria each year, so I could play with Luna.  We would always play around the Canterlot fields, play fighting, reenacting old battles from Uncle Reighloph’s stories.  A couple times she even played the damsel in distress and let me rescue her.

        She was the only other pony to ever call me “Oscar”.  “Silly little Oscar…” she would say.  I loved her smile, and I loved to make her giggle at my foal-ish ways.  I loved making her happy and the time I spent with her.  Here was this lovely and powerful hero of a pony, but she still looked so sweet and young.  What a wonderful friend to have!  Being as young and naive as I was, I thought of her as a sister at that time.  Of course when I grew older, I would think of her much less as a sister.  We couldn't visit every year of course, as Equestria had quite a hoof full of it’s own problems with managing a rapidly growing nation.  But it was nonetheless one of the more memorable and joyous memories of my childhood.

        As grew older the fantasies of my childhood began to lessen.  When I was sixteen my uncle Reighloph died of natural causes.  This saddened me deeply, but he was bedridden for some time before his death and he made sure that I promised not to let his death affect me.  Even in that dim hour he was always smiling at me and still read me those old tales that he used to when I was a foal.  The days after he died I felt my heart begin to drop.  When I tried to remember him I could never once think of anything melancholy about him.  He was always smiling away at me, laughing his big, jolly laugh, that made his belly jiggle.  He was always there for me, teaching me what was right and wrong and he taught me how to be a hero.  Never once was he ashamed of me or was he disappointed.  As much as I tried to continue my despair for him, I could not.  I could not let my uncle down.  I knew that wherever he was, he was in the halls of heroes and he would still smile and be happy.

        Eventually, I entered into stallion hood and I left my despairs behind me.  At a young age, certainly younger than any other prince before me, I took up the duties of the opening Chairpony at the crystal council.  I did not take much interest in the politics that were laid before me, not simply because I did not play much of a part in them, but also because they were very much boring to me.  I appeared to be removed and disinterested most of the time I appeared in the council or in the news reports.  My royal duties aside from the council usually consisted of going to fancy balls, looking pretty and well dressed, waving to the crowd and smiling in a dignified manner and of course giving my opinions on whatever subject or celebrity was in the news at the time.  Although the crystal ponies approved of me, their interest in the political leadership of the kingdom was distant at best.  They were simply content to get along with whatever newest fashion craze or hot issue was in the news and consider themselves lucky to get away with as little of the bureaucracy of the kingdom as they could.  There seemed to be so few crystal flags flying outside of homes and inside the mouths of excited little crystal colts and fillies.  

        Since the start of my new duties, I hardly ever got to visit Equestria.  But at the age of 22, I took my last visit there.  I was astonished to see how much the new kingdom had grown in only a few short years.  And instead of the ponies losing their zeal, it seemed only to have grown as well.  They had built a beautiful city atop of the high Mount Canterlot.  It was not quite as shimmering as the crystal tower, but it was still a marvelous sight to behold.  I was greeted just as always with the regal Princess Celestia.  She was always so polite to me and to her own subjects.  Even when one of them did not show the proper courtesy, she simply smiled at them and gave them a royal pardon.  At this age, I began to notice something about the princesses.  The older Princess Celestia seemed to command all of the important decisions in Equestria.  All of the guards bore armor, similar to her mark and whenever the citizens spoke of their glorious, leader, they praised Princess Celestia.  

Luna was always there of course, standing off to the side, shyly nodding and smiling to the citizens.  Oh yes, Luna; I no longer could play fight and take place in our imaginary foal-ish adventures with her.  Being as old as I was, I felt… strange feelings for her.  It never came up much as I didn't know quite what to make of it.  But we did smile some at each other, share tea time with awkwardly little conversation.  I did ask her just once, as subtly as I could, why she didn't take a bigger part in the leadership of Equestria.  It was a valid question of course.  For all practical purposes she was still a goddess of the land, an all powerful Alicorn and just as strong as her sister as far as everyone knew.  When I asked this all she did was giggle, telling me how her sister was far better suited to these things than she was and that she was perfectly happy having some time to herself.  I wasn't quite sure that I believed her, but I did nod politely to her as she gave me the oddest look.  When I left Equestria that year I did not know that that would be the last time I would see her in a positive light.

Time passed and the once colt hood fantasies of being a hero were fading fast.  There was absolutely nothing special or spectacular about what I did, not in the least.  The only thing heroic about my deeds was my heroic ability to keep my eyes open during council sessions.  Eventually I started to accept my dreary, uneventful fate.  Perhaps I would not become the hero I so desired to be.  It was strange that how just a few years from that time the heroes of old were so real to me, their lessons and their deeds were law.  What was in those pages and what was on my uncle’s words were as solid and as real to me as the sun and moon.  They were faded now to me, blurred like a fantasy or an abstract concept.  I could just as well have said that they were like the mind of the gods, who could say?  I could not simply give up and leave of course, I had my duties to attend to.  No matter how meager, or boring, or pointless, I was still a prince of the Crystal Kingdom, if anyone still remembered it.

Sometimes I thought about Equestria.  The young nation had grown so fast in so little time and its citizens held such enthusiasm, such undying loyalty for their country and their two supreme leaders.  They were exemplary ponies in their eyes, paragons and examples of perfection.   Whatever happened to that zeal in the crystal kingdom?  Whatever happened to little foals waving their flags around, telling their mommies and daddies that they wanted to be a prince or a princess, or a brave knight when they grew up?  Where did all of that go?  The crystal kingdom those days were slow.  Everything was always held up in the council flow, years worth of backed up issues that needed careful, dreadfully slow debate needed to be worked through, change came ever slower, if it came at all.  I remember one time I even petitioned to help Equestria with supplies when they were still growing.  Of course the princesses bowed and thanked me politely. That inquiry, no matter how simple and no matter how plentiful of supplies we had, never made it through the council.

I knew that it would only be a matter of time, perhaps it would take a century, maybe a little less, until Equestria would surpass the Crystal Kingdom in size and splendor.  The bickering and long debates of the old ponies of the crystal council would eventually grind us away to nothing and any sensible crystal ponies would eventually move away, probably to the prosperous nation to the south.  It wasn't all that bad, surely.  I was a prince after all.  I did look forward to the yearly reenactments by our small group of crystal guards.  And perhaps… there was something to look forward to about being a king, namely finding a princess.  This was to be my fate then.  The somewhat boring life, but certainly not a bad life.  It could be worse, right?  I had come to accept this, more and more as time went on, knowing and applying to my mind the solid fact that nothing interesting would happen to me as my time as a leader.  Just as I began to feel this acceptance, everything changed.
        
Next Chapter: The Swarm