Thanks to my glorious prereaders: Venatus, Statoose, and Spiili for their awesome advice. Also thanks to Poptard and That One Guy, who I'm sure will get around to it eventually.
Thanks to Skunkiss for the amazing cover image, which I had had to crop and resize unfortunately. I encourage readers to look at the magnificent full version on his Deviantart account.
And now, the main event.
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I awoke to a corpse, grey and withered. Strands of pale golden hair clung to a mottled scalp. Her eyes were closed by virtue of a deathly reflex.
The world around me had burned, was burning, and would burn forevermore, leaving ash-stricken pathways of cracked stone.
The city of glass and flowers had shrivelled and shattered. Who am I, to have caused this and yet live?
I ruled a land once, my heart ruled me, and she ruled my heart. Is it fair to blame her? Should I curse her beauty? Her elegance? Her grace? All of it is broken and decayed in an emaciated body lying amid a ruined castle.
Blink, reader. I dare you.
Blink, and imagine your world being stripped of life and colour in an instant. Imagine the ones you love decaying in a moment.
Should your imagination provide a suitably realistic portrayal, you will experience my life. We took a sip, just a little sip, and I looked across the table . . . and I blinked.
And so, in truth, my first words on this page are inaccurate. I did not "awake" for I was not asleep. I merely opened my eyes and saw her corpse.
I sit now, in the shell of the royal archives, far from my land. My memory is dying with my body, and despite my age I feel no older than I was when I first saw her. This is not where I "awoke". I was in a basement below an inn. Nothing I have found reveals why we were there. It doesn’t really matter, I suppose.
I combed through the city for hours, looking for reason to this destructive rhyme. When at last, I had gathered all that I could, I returned to the castle. I wondered if my own castle was still standing back home. I doubt I will ever see it, for my time grows short.
My diary was intact, locked within the metal case my father gave me. The lock had rusted enough that even my old, frail hooves were able to crack it.
I will put the relevant diary entries here. Maybe someday it will be discovered and the ponies will know what happened and why. May they curse my name for all eternity.
I am Prince Harrowed Crown of the former Equinian Kingdom, and this is how I destroyed the world.