"Queen Skystar," A seapony said, swimming up to the queen apprehensively. The chamber was dimly lit and unkept as nobody had had the time to care about aesthetics since It had begun.
"Not now, Stratus," The queen replied, shooing him off with a hoof. "I'm busy with my cousin." She didn't even turn to look at him, preoccupied with the light pink seapony that sat next to her, barely holding herself together. She opened her mouth to formally dismiss him when she was cut off.
"But, your majesty!" Stratus exclaimed, unable to hold himself back. The queen turned to him, giving a warning glare that plainly read 'now is not the time'. "I have been tasked to inform you that it is now too dangerous for you to venture to the surface, you must stay underwater until further notice." Stratus found it rather strange that the queen was so many years her junior but since her birth, she had been the heir to the throne and it was not her fault that she had to step up prematurely. She was like a child playing dress-up, too small to fill up the seat of her mother and too young to fill in her mother's place. She should be out playing with her friends, not making political decisions.
Skystar frowned. "Don't I already know that? Why do you think I'm stuck here. Now, leave. My cousin and I need some time alone." Her eyes were sad and dull, like they had already seen the cruelty of the world.
Stratus nodded before hurriedly leaving the room. The doors shut with a stream of bubbles.
"Skystar, why can't this stop? I came back!" Silverstream wailed, her usually positive attitude gone. "I came back, just stop the troops! I'm sorry!" Her salty tears were lost to the ocean that hid them from the outside world. Her colors were fading, no longer bright and cheerful.
Skystar stroked her cousin's mane thoughtfully, trying her best to comfort the other. "I can't stop them, Silver, I really can't. If we withdraw, the others will take it as a sign of weakness and conquer us. I'm the queen now, I need to do what's best for my people." Her voice was quiet and resigned, she didn't want to fight either. Skystar didn't want to be queen, she didn't want to have the lives of a whole kingdom resting solely on her shoulders. Her cousins had been there to help her once but one was now dead and the other one grieving.
"But we're dying! We're running low on soldiers and Terramar went out and now he's dead. It's all my fault and I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." The rest of Silverstream's words were lost to her sobs as she buried her face into her cousin who was barely older than her. The two sat together on the throne, clinging to each other like small children did when thunder shook the sky.
"Oh, Silver..." Skystar murmured, a tear rolling down her cheek that was soon lost to the vast sea. "More people will die if we withdraw, this is the best thing I can do. Nothing can bring back your brother, nor any of our parents but we can't show the weakness, they won't show us any kindness." Her gaze stared past her cousin and into the distant, empty reef.
"Can't we just hide here? Like we did from the Storm King," Silverstream asked, her voice barely above a mere whisper. so quiet that it almost couldn't be heard. Her reasoning was childish, for even she knew why that wouldn't work.
"I wish we could, Silver. I wish we could. At least, I have you."
Outside, Stratus couldn't help but found that his heart ached for the two, who were still children.
Two small shapes crouched by the shore, one mostly in the water and the other above. "Don't cry, Silver, don't," Terramar whispered, cupping his older sister's cheek with a claw. "I've made my choice, I need to serve my people. This was our parents' war and now it's ours. We need to put a stop to this so that the foals can have a childhood." His eyes no longer lit up with the hope of childhood, now wise and tired.
"Don't go! Stay with me and we can make peace with the others!" Silverstream pleaded, trembling. "I can't lose you too."
"You know that there is no peace, they will only keep fighting. Our numbers are small and we are weakened from the Storm King's attack, we cannot afford to lose." Terramar sighed, sitting down on the rough sand. There would be no reasoning with his distraught sister.
"Then let me go with you! I can fight, I can be tough. Let me go."
"One of us must stay to watch over Skystar. She alone cannot rule a kingdom," He reasoned, his voice low and wistful. The sun was beginning to rise and he had to go soon.
Silverstream set her jaw, tearfully staring her brother in the eye. "Then let me go instead of you. I'm the older sister and you're always more levelheaded. Skystar would benefit from having you around. Let me take your place so that maybe you could live through this ordeal. Once you leave the water, it's more or less a guaranteed death. Please, Terra, let me do this for you. Mom and Dad would have wanted me to protect you."
"No, Silver. I have already enlisted myself and it's time for me to go, you can't change that. Take care of yourself, take care of Sky. Maybe I'll see you soon, maybe I won't but I will always, always love you. I'm the one who's doing this for you. Goodbye, sis." A silent promise hung in Terramar's words as he paused, before getting up.
"I love you too. Promise me you'll take care of yourself, promise me you'll see me soon." Silverstream stared at her brother, powerless to change his mind. It was too late to do that, all she could to do was love him as much as she could and pray that it was enough. Wasn't this the world where love and friendship held power? Whoever's out there, Silverstream thought to herself, take care of him.
"I can't."
And so the sun rose, bloody and red, as Terramar became no more than a dark speck against the horizon. He was another speck among the millions. Red the sky stayed, as if ashamed of itself. There would never be a pink and purple sunrise again, too much innocent blood spilled for a forgotten cause, creatures all fighting for a reason they could no longer recall.