The Lost Prince of the Sea

by Cursory Note

An Idea

Twilight sat in her library, absently reading a book detailing the Terms of Abdication. Ever since Luna had asked about Aecorum she had been going through a few history books and some old folklore but she had come up empty so far. Suddenly she remembered that Luna had called him the “Prince of the Sea” and furrowed her brow in thought. Twilight pulled a couple scientific reference books off the shelves and Spike walked in with her morning coffee.

Spike put down Twilight’s mug and picked a few books off the floor. “What’cha reading?”

Twilight opened the books and started reading “You remember when Princess Luna came and she asked about an alicorn stallion?”

Spike nodded with a raised eyebrow “Yeah.”

“Well, she called him the ‘Prince of the Sea’ so I was thinking that since Luna and Celestia raise the moon and the sun, maybe this Aecorum’s power has something to do with the tides.”

Spike shrugged “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. But what about you and Cadance? I mean, it’s not like she controls all the love in the world and you are the mistress of friendship.” His eyes widened slightly “Is it?”

“No Spike, of course not.” Twilight flipped to the oceanography section of her reference book “But Cadance and I are princesses of ideas, not physical things like Celestia and Luna. And it’s more like we’re responsible for informing ponies about it and trying to make everypony happy.” She furrowed her brow as she flipped a few more pages “The only problem is I don’t really know what to look for, Princess Luna wasn’t very specific.”

Spike walked towards the door “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You want me to get you anything, Twi?”

Twilight shook her head “No thanks.” Spike closed the door and Twilight kept reading. After a few minutes Twilight switched to a different book and tried to keep her train of thought alive. So far the only idea she had that made any sense was that Aecorum was somehow connected to the tides, but none of her books had any evidence of that.

“Ah ha! Here’s something: ‘Recent scientific studies have yielded evidence that the ocean tides are affected, or possibly caused, by the gravitational pull of the moon’, which is consistent with the long held belief of layponies that the ocean and the moon are connected.” Twilight furrowed her brow “Hmmm…I’m not sure how that could relate to a sea prince…If anything, it suggests that Luna is more powerful than I thought.” Twilight smiled and grabbed a few more books “Well, a little more research never hurt anything.”

---

Celestia sat in her study, reading a few notes she had written during the most recent meeting with the Minotaurean ambassadors. She sighed and picked up her quill to write a quick addendum but it leaped from her magical grip and started dancing on her desk, making stray ink marks all over her papers.

She rolled her eyes “Hello, Discord.”

The quill blew a raspberry and morphed into the draconequus God of Chaos. “Oh, Celestia, must you roll your eyes at me every time I have a little fun?”

Celestia raised an eyebrow as Discord lounged across her desk “Must you always appear while I’m working?”

“Working? That sounds so boring; I don’t know how you manage.” Discord chuckled “Although definitely less boring than being stone.”

Celestia sighed “Why are you here? I am a little busy at the moment.”

“Well, my dear Celestia, I’m here as a friend, to offer you some advice,” Discord snapped his talons and appeared in front of her desk with Luna’s mane and tail and a black tiara. “About your darling little sister.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow at Discord and spoke with a slight edge in her voice “What makes you think I need advice about Luna?”

Discord chuckled and snapped his talons again, taking off the Luna costume “Well, just the other day she dropped by my humble abode and we had a nice little chat. Or, we would have if she hadn’t been so accusing of little old, reformed, me.” A halo appeared above Discord’s head and Celestia furrowed her brow.

“Accusing? What did she accuse you of? Did you turn her pillows into hedgehogs again?”

Discord smirked “Of course not! I save that for special occasions.” He snapped his talons and flopped onto a fainting couch with a sigh “She said that I had done something to some coltfriend of hers.”

Celestia’s ears perked up “Aecorum?”

Discord thought for a moment then nodded “I think that was the name, yes. She was absolutely certain that I had something to do with Aecorum’s disappearance even after I promised that I hadn’t even heard of him.”

Celestia sighed “Of course you haven’t. Nopony except Luna has any idea who Aecorum is. Is that what your advice was?”

In two bright flashes Discord appeared next to Celestia and leaned on her head “Ah, Celestia, astute as always. You’ve been having some trouble with Luna and this Aecorum, yes?” Celestia nodded and Discord continued “Well, the only thing to do is prove to her that he didn’t exist.”

Celestia waved his paw off her head and raised an eyebrow “And how do you suggest I do that?”

Discord shrugged “I’ll leave that to you. But an interesting thought to keep in mind is if I, the Lord of Chaos,” Celestia frowned slightly and Discord’s shoulders slumped just barely “Former Lord of Chaos, don’t remember him, then he either didn’t exist, or was powerful enough to change my memories.” Celestia furrowed her brow “That’s what you should be looking for.” Discord popped next to the door and checked his nails “Unless, of course, you don’t believe little Luna.”

Celestia slumped her shoulders “I don’t know, Discord. I want to believe her, but it seems impossible.” Discord tried to hide his giggling but after a second he started rolling on the floor, clutching his sides as he roared with laughter. Celestia raised an eyebrow “What’s so funny?”

Discord wiped a tear from his eye and pointed his talon at Celestia “You…The immortal crossbreed of pegasus, earth pony, and unicorn, who raises and lowers the sun every day without fail while ruling over one of the largest nations in the world…” He laughed a little more “After defeating a magic thief from another world and the embodiment of chaos with magic gems that came from a tree…Think something is impossible?! That’s hilarious!”

---

Twilight furrowed her brow in thought. She flipped through her notes about the potion she used to figure out what happened to the Tree of Harmony. After a second of reading she thought to herself. That doesn’t make sense…If Aecorum was the Prince of the Sea, and an alicorn that Luna knew before she was banished, shouldn’t I have seen him when I drank that potion? Hmmm…Well, if anypony would know, it would be Zecora. Twilight gathered her notes and a few other things into her saddlebags and took off towards Zecora’s hut.

It only took about fifteen minutes for Twilight to reach her zebra friend’s house and a sudden updraft almost made her crash into a tree during her landing. After a second she straightened her saddle bags and knocked on Zecora’s door. Zecora opened the door and smiled warmly.

“Princess Twilight, how nice of you to come! What brings you to my humble home?”

Twilight smiled “Hi Zecora, I had a question about that potion you made a while back, you know, when the princesses disappeared and the forest got wild?”

Zecora nodded “Ah, of course, I remember it very well. What question do you have about that spell?” Zecora motioned Twilight in and closed the door behind them.

Twilight glanced around at the art and turned to Zecora. “I was wondering if you knew how it worked, Princess Luna asked me about somepony I should have seen after I drank the potion but didn’t, so I was thinking that there might have been a flaw in the original recipe or maybe I did something to it with my magic that made it fail in some way.”

Zecora raised her eyebrow and cocked her head “I don’t know if your spell could have spoiled the potion, but are you asking because of the Prince of the Ocean?”

Twilight nodded “Yes, I am. How did you know?”

“The Princess of the Night came here some days ago and asked me about the stallion that she used to know.”

Twilight furrowed her brow “Really? Why would she ask you?” Twilight chuckled “Oh, she probably thought the stories from your homeland might help her.”

Zecora nodded and smiled “That is indeed why she came to me, although her disappointment was easy to see. If you think that my potion may be of assistance, please allow me to gather the ingredients.”

Twilight shook her head “No thanks, that’s fine, I was actually curious about where you learned how to make it.”

“I learned of that potion from a scholarly mare who came to my village with knowledge quite rare.” Zecora walked over to a shelf and started rummaging around “She gave me many scrolls and spells from afar, and said they were as rare as a new fallen star.” She pulled out a very old looking scroll and handed it to Twilight. “Here is the recipe that needed your spell, is there any other way I can offer my help?”

Twilight quickly unfurled the scroll and her jaw dropped in excitement as she read it “Zecora, do you know what this is? This is an original scroll written by Starswirl the Bearded himself!” She read a little more “And it isn’t some sort of time travel spell like I thought, it’s a memory spell! According to this, when the potion is activated the drinker accesses the memories of somepony else.” Her grin widened until it threatened to break her face “I must have been watching Princess Celestia’s memories!” Twilight raised an eyebrow and read the scroll again “But…It looks like somepony else wrote part of this too.” Twilight checked the signatures at the bottom and saw two names in very different but fancy scripts: Starswirl the Bearded and Sea Storm. “I’ve never heard of anypony named ‘Sea Storm’ helping Starswirl, I thought he did most of his work by himself.”

Zecora shrugged “I don’t know who Sea Storm may have been, but Princess Luna may be familiar with him.”

Twilight nodded “I guess.” She put the scroll in her saddlebag and started towards the door “Thanks a lot, Zecora, I’ll see you later.” She stopped before the door and blushed slightly in embarrassment “Um, is it okay if I take the scroll?”

Zecora chuckled and nodded “Of course you can take it with you, Twilight. Farewell, your visit has been today’s highlight.”

Twilight smiled and took off towards Ponyville while she waved to Zecora.

---

Luna sighed as she put Twilight’s letter on her desk. Twilight had written to say that she hadn’t found anything yet but she was still looking. The only pony Twilight had learned about so far was somepony named Sea Storm that may have helped Starswirl the Bearded and Luna was starting to get discouraged. Celestia didn’t believe her, Twilight hadn’t found anything, and Discord was, well, Discord. She stood and paced a few times around her study, wishing more than ever that she could talk to Aecorum. Luna sighed and checked the clock to see how long she had to prepare for Night Court. It was only a few hours, but enough to do some thinking and Luna was happy for the chance.

A sudden shiver went down Luna’s spine and she looked towards the balcony. That shudder could only mean somepony was having a particularly bad nightmare and Luna was more than happy to fulfill her duties as the Princess of the Night. She opened the door and walked to the edge as she entered the dreamscape.

Her vision went black before the outline of continents and islands became clear, each one almost filled with white light. Luna focused her mind on Equestria where a light was shifting to red, showing which dream was the nightmare. She focused closer and closer until she was standing next to the red portal and walked through. A very young colt, only about two years old, sleeping in Appleloosa was dreaming that he was being chased by a monster, and Luna soon calmed him. Luna smiled as his dream shifted to a more pleasant tone and she exited the dream.

She hovered for a moment above Equestria to make sure no other nightmares needed to be stopped and opened her eyes, leaving the dreamscape. She turned back to her desk and gathered a few papers for Night Court before her eyes widened and she dropped the papers on the floor. Luna turned back to the balcony and cursed herself for being so stupid.

“Of course! How could I have been so blind?!” She grinned “Even Aecorum needs to sleep, and if he sleeps, he dreams!”

Comments

[SageBrony07]

Nice idea, but I think he covered that base as well I hope somepony believes Luna. Good luck writing the next chapter.

[gear crash]

only one idea and i will shut up
the memory of someone dead before the events of nightmare moon

[Cursory Note]

4860149 What? I'm afraid I don't have any idea what you mean

[gear crash]

4860488 you can not change the memories of someone dead (like a spirit in heaven) because it was not there when Aecorum cast the spell
it is the only solution i can see to solve the problem

internal voice - but Aecorum sleep
internal voice nº2 - you do not know that, maybe he use some strange herb or mushroom
and yes, i know i sound like a crazy folk but in my defense, i just drunk 2L of beer

[Cursory Note]

4861804 Ooooh I see what you're saying. Well I guess you'll have to wait and see then, won't you?

[gear crash]

4861820 of course, in other case it would be me the one writing

[Nightmare Loopy]

I must have been watching Princess Celestia’s memories!

No, silly Twi. Youn were watching Aecorums! If you were watching Celestia's then you would have seen things from her point of view, meaning Celestia would not be visible.