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// Prologue - Queen Rabia 
// Story: Retirement of a king 
// by Askre 
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273 days since Queen Rabia’s capture.

“To Her Majesty, Queen Rabia of the Great Dark Pony Empire.

Your majesty, I write you this letter now that I turn eleven years of age. The court intends to hold a nationwide celebration and already the palace is abuzz with preparations. I must confess feeling nervous, and unsure why they wish to celebrate. I am still just a colt, I am an emir in name, but my mother runs the office. I will not take over for seven more years.

How did the Dark Ponies handle such events? Was there ever a time when a regent was required?

On another note, I wish to say how happy I am that your rehabilitation is going well and that you have responded to my letters. It has been over half a year now and your letters and insights have been the highlight of my life.

With regards.

Emir Horsefar.”





288 days since Queen Rabia’s capture.

“To His Eminence, Emir Horsefar of Saddle Arabia.

Dear child, do not be confused by the love and adoration your subjects are showing you. Yes, your mother currently holds the reins due to your young age, but you are the emir and your subjects both know and understand that. I am sure when you do come of age, a much grander celebration will be held. But this clearly shows that they still support your rule.

We have had regencies happen in the empire. Queen Odio the second was merely 14 winters when her mother passed away, so was one of our very few kings, King Oscuro, who only took the throne at five winters. Of course, that happened in the distant past even for me, so I am not too certain of any details of festivities they made during their formative years.

And there is that word again, rehabilitation. Ah well, I suppose if it makes you all feel better to call it that, so be it. I certainly do not have a better word for it, other than exile. I was of course resistant at first to the very idea, but your letters did start to intrigue me eventually.

I will confess though, what with you becoming a little older, as is very clear by your articulate letter, that it was at first under Celestia’s strong urging that I started responding to them. I do apologize for the curtness and short length my first responses were. I also have come to realize I’ve been most unfair to you, your people, and your gender. I was raised in a society that encouraged such views and as I’ve witnessed more of Equestrian society, I have come to realize more and more how wrong those views were.

In many respects these letters have reminded me of my son when we still spoke. To him though I was horrid. I will not burden your young mind with those issues, they are ones I still have to deal with. Rather, you should enjoy still being young and mostly worry-free. Your mother has raised a fine young colt in you. Treasure this loving mare, that is far more than my son or daughter could ever do. I am sure you will reign long as a respected and beloved ruler. Far cry from the old King Mustangfor IV.

With regards.

Queen Rabia.”





303 days since Queen Rabia’s capture.

“To Her Majesty, Queen Rabia of the Great Dark Pony Empire.

Your Majesty, my son told me of your most recent letter and I wanted to convey my thanks for your kind words and encouragement.

I was skeptical at first of his wish to write to you and did not understand why he wanted to do such a thing. Your first reply almost made me want to forbid him from writing any more letters. Yet he insisted and I allowed it. It seems he has proven me thoroughly wrong.

It did truly amaze me that you agreed, in the end, to be rehabilitated. You did not strike me as a mare who would subject herself to something like that. If you pardon my bluntness, you seemed far too proud. But I have been receiving regular reports from the Celestial Sisters and though there were struggles at first, you seem to have come around quite a lot as your latest letter attests.

Tell me, if you do not mind, has there been any news of your son? I understand he is still unaccounted for since he had a hoof in your capture. From what we were told, he was only out of his own imprisonment temporarily.

With regards.

Manemin, Regent to Emir Horsefar of Saddle Arabia.”





318 days since Queen Rabia’s capture.

“To Manemin, Regent to Emir Horsefar of Saddle Arabia.

As one mother to another, I fully understand that you had concerns with your son corresponding to a pony who was once your nation’s greatest enemy. Your fears were quite well-founded. I really resisted these efforts the Celestial Sisters made for weeks. I was rude and condescending in the first few letters to your son, something I now regret.

Yet your son persisted in writing me and the sisters never seemed to give up. If I must confess a small secret, I was approached by a pony who had the records to prove that she was a descendant of the Dark Ponies that had fled to Equestria so long ago. She wanted to meet me and for some reason Celestia allowed it.

I received her while I was still in a prison cell, and she told me what a great honor it was to meet me and how she sincerely celebrated her ancestry and was saddened by the reputation it sometimes still had. It dawned on me that my son and I were truly the last Dark Ponies, the last true representatives of our race. It caused me to reflect on my behavior and how in the end it had cost me both my children and even the empire. I had destroyed everything Odio the First had made because of my selfish behavior. First, I alienated my son to a point he felt compelled to flee the empire and then I had made such a powerful enemy in the sire of my children that he felt compelled to protect our daughter from me, which eventually led to the death of my daughter and the destruction of the empire.

Then, in my madness and grief, when I was brought back to life, I tried to continue a war that had ended a long time ago. If anything, I was living proof that Mustangfor IV was correct in destroying my people.

So I began to come around. My cell is now a private apartment in Canterlot Castle. I am still not allowed to freely move around, but have been granted limited use of magic. I still must attend meetings with Celestia and Luna and even get a ‘friendship’ tutoring from Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. I must confess I find that title a little absurd.

As for my son, no, there has been no news. I have been unable to give them any insights on what he might do or where he would hide. Sadly I never knew him as he knew me. What I thought I knew has been put into question by myself. All I know is that he’s somewhere out there, no doubt harboring all the resentment and hate towards me that he’s built up.

As a mother, I do miss my children. I was harsh and unforgiving, but I still loved them, even if I never understood that I was just pushing them all away.

I envy you and that loving relationship you have with your son. It is something I will no doubt never experience.

P.S Thank you for convincing Celestia to allow me to attend Ira’s reburial. It was beautiful.

With regards.

Queen Rabia of the Dark Pony Empire.”

Having finished the letter in response to Manemin, Rabia, the former queen put the quill away in a stand. While the ink was still drying, she took the opportunity to glance over it to see if there had been any errors. Once she was sure there were none, the dark pony got an envelope from a drawer of the desk, folded the letter up, put it in and sealed it. Then she grabbed the quill again to write the name of the recipient of the mail.

The queen rose up and placed the envelope on the desk for now. She would ask for it to be delivered later. She walked over to a couch and lay down. From a side table, the mare grabbed a book she had been reading - a history book detailing events she had missed due to having been deceased.

A knock on the door interrupted her reading. Rabia glanced up, then at the nearby clock. With a small sigh, she closed the book and put it back on the table. “Enter.”

The door opened and Twilight Sparkle entered the room. The young princess smiled gently at the former queen, who stared at her with the same stern look Twilight had grown accustomed to over the past few months.

“Time for another instruction on ‘friendship,’ princess?” Rabia remarked, she was growing rather tired of it.

“Well, yes and no, Your Highness, it is our scheduled appointment, but I was thinking of something different today,” Twilight informed her. Ever since Rabia had agreed to the rehabilitation, Princess Celestia had asked ponies to address the queen with the courtesy her old title entailed.

Rabia tilted her head, wondering what Twilight could possibly mean by that. When the princess got seated, it was the first time the queen noticed that the alicorn didn’t have her usual backpack full of materials used to ‘teach’ her.

“Queen Rabia, you resisted this program for a while before coming around. You have come further than most ponies probably expected you to. Most impressive is your regular correspondence with Emir Horsefar. I want to know, what is it that you want?” Twilight asked.

“Interesting question, why bring that up now?” Rabia asked, her brow raising ever so slightly.

“Well, so far you have been doing what we have wanted of you. Then, when a therapist friend of mine asked me what you wanted, I realized I actually couldn’t answer that. We never asked you, so I want to know now, what is it that you want?” the princess clarified to the queen.

Rabia bowed down her head a bit as she thought this question over. She had been absolutely incensed when first approached with this ‘rehabilitation’ program. The queen didn’t think she needed to be rehabilitated at all.

When the days continued to pass and after the visit of the Dark Pony descendant, Rabia’s hidden rage over her situation began dying down. She felt alone and realized she had enjoyed the visit and the brief conversation she had had with that pony. The queen wanted to meet more of them. She was becoming curious about those of her subjects who had escaped the massacre of her race.

Rabia realized then that the princesses were giving her an opening to leave her cell, a slow process up until now, but eventually it would give her more freedom. She thought back to the emir and how she had nearly slaughtered a child, a child ruler younger than even her daughter had been when Ira became queen.

Sure, she had vowed to kill every Saddle Arabian, stallion, mare and foal. But when coming face to face with the emir and briefly seeing the museum in the capital, it dawned on her that she had nearly become just like her most hated enemy, King Mustanfor IV, the last king of Saddle Arabia, who had killed almost every Dark Pony, regardless of age. She hated to admit it, but her own son and the Celestial Sisters had prevented her from making a terrible mistake.

“What I want,” Rabia sighed slightly. “is I want to meet the descendants of my subjects who escaped the destruction of the empire. I want to learn more about them and the life they lead in Equestria… but most of all…”

The Queen fell silent for a moment, her expression hardened a bit. Twilight could see that she was holding back tears, stubbornly refusing to let them come forth.

“I want to see my son again,” she whispered and looked away.

End Prologue