//------------------------------//
// Chapter 0: Prologue 
// Story: Essence: Past, Present, Future 
// by IceQB 
//------------------------------//

	Hi! My name is Princess Diane, but you can just call me Diane. I live with this annoying sister of mine, Princess Celestia, who bugs me non-stop. Every single day, she makes me read up on books, like “How to act like a proper Princess – by Princess Celestia,” and “Things Princesses should neither say nor do in front of guests – by Princess Celestia.” I dread reading books like these, which she wrote hundreds of years ago. 

We have never gotten along as sisters, constantly fighting and bickering about the smallest issues. Due to her constantly whining about my behaviours, I have decided to nickname her 'Celly', after the string instrument, the cello. On the surface, she will appear, but pull some strings and make her mad, and her voice will shatter your eardrums. Urgh... Thank natural laws that Celly isn't my only sister; I actually have another older sister, Luna, but I rarely get to see her because she is always so busy. I'm sleeping, and she's working. I'm awake, and she's sleeping. There really isn't time to talk to her. Together, us three live in this castle which is levitating on some floating rock that Celly keeps floated with her magic.

With great power comes great responsibility... at least that's what Celly always tells me, but I never seem to understand. But I do understand each of us have different roles as Princesses, albeit sharing the same power; Celly manages the day activities, Luna manages the night, while I manage a special little box called Ponydora: a magical box that is used to seal Discord from the world when he wrecked evil about a thousand years ago. It has been sealed and kept away at a top of a secret tower, and if anypony happens to find it and reaches for the top, there's an extremely tedious mountainous route he or she has to scale to get up there, not to mention if he or she takes one wrong step, death awaits. Not like anypony will find it randomly. A shroud conceals it so that no pony can see, a dome veneers it so that no magic can pass through, and a magical net covers it so that no pony can fly through. Of course, us Princesses can just disable the magic, but to any pony lucky, or unlucky, enough to find the place, they won't make it all the way to the top. Most ponies either give up and head back down, fall to their deaths, or starve to death. 

Somehow, they like picking starving for some reason. Maybe because they think someone might come rescue them, but they're just silly.	No one makes it up there alive.

Magic eventually fades, and there's no exception to the magic that binds Discord to Ponydora. To prevent world mayhem from happening, I have been assigned to reinforce the magic, which seems like a glorious thing at first- I'm protecting the world!-, but after just a few years, this yearly routine has become rather tedisome. Nothing interesting ever happens at the tower. I use some magic and 'Poof!', Discord's inside the box for another year. Using my youthful age as an excuse, Celly makes me do easy stuff as part of my 'training'. Something about learning to make sacrifices when the time is right. Heh...

Despite the 'sacrifices' I have to make to keep the world safe- something that needs to stay so I can just spend my time happily-, as well as the constant hammering from Celly about me not acting like royalty, there are in fact, quirks to being a Princess. For example, I can make others do whatever I don't want to do, as long as Celly doesn't know about it. In fact, I've once made a guard carry me around because I didn't want to damage my newly trimmed and washed nails. I even made one lie down on the mud so that I can walk through a mud puddle.	Sometimes, I feel like a jerk, but a princess has to do what she has to do, right?

I live quite the joyous life; being able to abuse my power for my own selfish needs- gosh, did I just say that?- is only the tip of the iceberg. I enjoy sparring, and just so happens that there is a weapons room convieniently located behind my own bedroom. Every free time I have will be spent in there, experimenting on different weapon techniques, handling and strokes. The whole idea of fighting excites me; the intesnity I get in between slashes, the the force that resonates when two weapons collide, and the speed at which the weapons flails around, all adds to my insatiable hunger. 

That's just fighting. What the room is filled with are what cherries on top of cakes do; they enrich the already sweet-tasting wonder. Every single time I enter, I smile with excitement, the arrays of weapons I itch to wield and mutilate my opponents with- I mean practice techniques on my opponents with(with that I mean my 'highly-trained' guards)- end up freezing all daylight and burning all moonlight of mine. I do have a favorite weapon, aptly named Sylph for its light weight, which I had enchanted to my likings. Before, it had been compact but fierce, but after the enchantment, it feels even lighter than a feather, and stronger than a whole herd of bison. On top of that, it can return to my side at my whim, and is indestructible. 

With that said, of course my 'dear' sister Celly doesn't know about it. The knowledge of my acquisition of a weapon will definitely irk her, saying something like "Weapons are unsafe!", or like "Our guards can fight for us.". That's why every time I want to swing a couple of swords around, I have to cast a spell- something Celly already prohibits me from doing for unknown reasons- to ward the place off from other eyes.

Other then my love for a couple of steel clashing together, I also love playing pranks on Celly. It's actually quite the joyride, especially when it's Celly. I will always remember my first prank on her, back then when I was just a little filly. She woke me up from my early slumber, amounting to the fact I skipped dinner- I wasn't hungry anyways- and demanded I finish it. I didn't like my sleep to be interrupted, and anger filled my tiny head. I was so mad, I sneaked into her room while she was asleep, and poured glue all over her hair and pillow. The next day, she walked around the castle with the pillow stuck onto her head, her confused expression giving away her oblivion of what I had done. Every time a pony walked by and saw her, they would break into laughter instantly, much to Celly's anger and puzzlement. It was humiliating for one to have a pillow glued to the back of her head. It was another for a princess to succumb to a prank of such low-life comedy, which had always pleased me for pulling it. Ever since that day, whenever I needed a good laugh, I'd find any means to disturb my 'dear' older sister. Talk about irony, where the younger bullies the older.

Strangely, it felt good to watch Celly get humiliated. And every time I did it, not even the slightest remorse would come out of me. Ask me. Ask me if I had regretted any misgivings towards her, and my answer will always be what Celly would tell me when I had ask for a little more than independence.

Well, of course, Celly soon found out about it and I got punished for that; I had to pack her room for an entire year, and she insisted that I cleaned it the way she had always cleaned hers. But it was all worth the humiliation she suffered.

All worth it.