//------------------------------//
// The Legend 
// Story: Breaking Stone 
// by KidatHeart5 
//------------------------------//

	One millennium ago, Equestria was ruled by two alicorn sisters. One brought up the sun and the other the moon. Under their reign, Equestria was peaceful and harmonious. Their rule was soon threatened by a grotesque and mischievous creature known as Discord. He plunged all of Equestria in eternal chaos and made the lives of ponies everywhere miserable. The sisters knew they had to do something, so they found the Elements of Harmony and stopped Discord by turning him to stone. The calamities didn’t stop there, however.
Luna, feeling undervalued, turned against her sister in a fit of jealousy and became Nightmare Moon. After being forced to banish her sister to the moon, Celestia felt distraught and lonely. Clover, Star Swirl’s apprentice, sought a solution to this. Like Celestia, Clover too believed that Luna would return someday and be herself again. She wondered if the same could apply to Discord. With the princess’s permission, she cast a prophetic spell on the statue, proclaiming:
“You may have a heart of stone, but there may be some hope for you yet. For someday in the future, you will be freed to pay your debt. However, you will remain in servitude to the one who will liberate you for good. When the time comes for you to wake, from true love’s kiss, the spell shall break.”
*****
Princess Teardrop was fascinated by this legend. She had been bored from her last lesson, so she decided to search the Canterlot archives for something to read. She had come across the Star Swirl the Bearded wing and found this particular book. She didn’t know why, but she somehow felt drawn to it. Though she knew what happened to Luna, she was interested in learning about Discord. She had only heard very little about him in her lessons, but this gave her new insight.
It had been not so long ago that Nightmare Moon returned to bring about eternal night, only to revert back to Luna by six ponies who then wielded the Elements of Harmony. Teardrop had been in Canterlot when it happened and greeted Luna warmly when the latter came to the castle. During those first few months after she returned to Equestria, Luna had trouble adjusting, so Teardrop volunteered to help her fit back in. With Celestia’s permission to take some days off from learning, Teardrop sacrificed hours of sleep to aid Luna in returning to her nightly duties. The first several nights were rough for the Princess of the Night because just raising the moon brought back bad memories. However, Teardrop helped her raise the moon and eventually calmed Luna enough to let her do it herself. The princess-in-training was very proud of the moment she witnessed Luna regain her regal appearance. 
Luna was ever grateful for her and the two became close friends. One reason for this was because the Princess of the Night could relate to Teardrop. Like Luna, Teardrop was a natural alicorn. Her mother, Princess Rose, had been a unicorn before she became an alicorn. A few centuries ago, Rose had proven her worth by finding other uses for tears. She knew there was something special about them and always claimed that emotion was a strong thing that could be manifested in magic. Besides creating new purposes for tears, Rose’s creative mind and love of art earned her the title “Princess of Imagination”.
Soon after being coronated to princesshood, Rose established the kingdom of Palorania on the outskirts of Equestria. When she founded her kingdom, it was desert-like and almost barren. She used tears to grow plant life and create buildings, even her castle! Many ponies flocked to this new, beautiful paradise and were in awe of its majestic glory. Teardrop herself had been born in the blissful land a couple of centuries after her mother created it. Besides being born an alicorn, she was different from her mother in other ways. One such way was that Rose had a pink coat, a short blue mane and tail with red stripes, and near-sighted blue eyes, while Teardrop had a dark red coat, a long blue mane and tail with gray stripes tied up in a braid, and violet eyes with 20/20 vision.
Since Rose knew nothing about how alicorns were raised, she sent Teardrop to study under Princess Celestia. One of the reasons Rose sent her daughter to Canterlot was that like other alicorns, Teardrop aged differently and had not received her cutie mark yet. The Paloranian ruler hoped that Teardrop would find her destiny in Canterlot and eventually found her own kingdom. Teardrop missed her mother dearly, so they both kept magic mirrors to communicate with each other. Even after nearly a century in Canterlot, Teardrop was still a blank flank.
She knew to be patient, but even that was tested sometimes. She had seen fellow students of the academy graduate and pursue their own lives. She had even seen Sunset Shimmer turn rogue and leave Equestria entirely. Teardrop was lucky to know Twilight and her friends. She was genuinely happy for Twilight when the latter became an alicorn and got her own castle in Ponyville. Still, this made Teardrop frustrated that she had not found her destiny yet. The book she found, though, ignited a feeling within her that made her think that that day was closer than ever.