Starfall's vision trembled as the golden mane of the white unicorn he was holding dwindled like a fire being slowly suffocated. He dragged his sight toward the white unicorn, looking at the white canines presented to him. The sun hung atop a higher plane, looking down on the lesser creatures below. Starfall stared beyond the hideous beasts and towards the sun, feebly attempting to escape the situation. Yet still he still felt the witnesses’ eyes boring into his head, and in his hands he felt the poor creature desperately clinging on to what little life it had left. His eyes were stinging though he refused to let himself look at what he held, but the stinging was too much… too much...
He looked down quickly at the dead unicorn, and in the daylight, a single teardrop glistened beautifully for the short while before it fell, but was lost forever as it soaked into the body.
"I made a promise to his mother before I died, that I would find a way to save my son's soul..."
The human picked up the dead unicorn and turned towards the elements of harmony, Princess Cadence, A younger version of spike and the crystal ponies all witnessing the tragedy. "You shall have a burial in the most fertile garden of Canterlot, where your body will rest next to mine." The ponies that were witnessing the whole thing stepped out of the human's way as he opened a portal that had a living image of Canterlot throne room.
Starfall's eyes slowly creaked open and knew the vision had come to an end. He sighed before he spoke. "One more thing to add to the list."
The day had finally come, today was Starfall's 13th birthday and he had just gotten out of the shower before making his way towards The Crystal Empire. Frosthowl was waiting outside of his room, giving his master some privacy while he was drying up and changing cloths. The Prince couldn't help but to look at himself in the mirror and his short human size. He was confident that he was somewhere from 136-141 centimeters tall, despite him being taller than anyone else, except spike, Starfall was anxious to find out just how big he is going to get, his mother had told him that his father and uncle were 185 and 191 and the fact that he was a legal adult in Equestria yet lacked the basic height of one...He started to feel like a failure. Even his wings were a embarrassing size, he couldn't even fly with them.
He leaned in closer and looked and removed his lips covering his teeth. He saw that his canines that seemed to be growing and growing. Despite the very clear sign from nature telling him that eating the dead is part of who he is, he refused to accept it and quickly made his way towards his wardrobe and started getting dressed.
Starfall, dressed in his beautiful crimson and heaven's white robe that he wore on Skyla's birthday, now enlarged with some help of his mothers magic he made his way towards the throne room where a chariot would be waiting, but came only to find his mother sitting on the throne room finishing up some paperwork before the dawn.
"Mother? Where is everypony?" Starfall asked as he looked left and right to reveal a abandoned throne room.
"Sorry sweetheart. but I had to finish some paperwork, so I let Tia and the others go before me, I'll teleport us to the empire once I've finished up here." She said, the pen never stopping it’s relaxed scrawling as it’s mistress calmly kept her focus on her work.
Starfall knew something was off, "Okay?" He bowed and turned towards Frosthowl and shrugged in confusion, The albino wolf also looked at the Prince, also confused by the sudden news.
Minutes had gone by and a sudden swirling smoke popped up in front of the throne. Starfall recognized it as Spike's dragon fire messaging. Luna smiled as she read the note. "We can depart now my little moonshine." She said, her malicious smile unsettling the young prince.
Starfall stood back at attention, cancelling his game of go fish with Frosthowl. The wolf growled, Once again politics had squandered his card game dominance. "Finally! I hope that I don't have to spend this much time on paperwork when I'm ruling alongside you." Starfall groaned.
Luna gave a small giggle as she walk down the stair steps from her throne. "Don't worry about it so much." Luna nuzzled her son's cheek and noticed there was a small stain on his other cheek. "Sweetie you got something on your face." Luna slightly licked her hoof and started to wipe away the the small stain on her son, which he started to try to repel off.
"Mhph- Mother! I'm not a little colt anymore!" He said as he wiped away his mother's saliva on his cheek.
Luna laughed a bit with liquid pride in her eyes. "You will always be my little moonshine no matter how old you are." She put her wing on his cheek and gave her son a warm smile.
"Yes,yes You've said it a million times. Let us depart now."
In a flash Starfall was brought to a dark room where his eyes quickly switched to nocturnal and he saw all the quiet pony's who were expecting him and waiting for his arrival.
"You know, that I can see you Aunt Pinkie?" Starfall commented. He had expected to hear a disappointed groan but instead the room flickered the lights back on and his eyes felt like they were burnt of their sockets. "AOW!" His pain was met with a loud cheering.
"SURPRISE!" All the ponies yelled out ignoring the child in pain. Pinkie was thrilled that she thought that she had finally managed to surprise the prince. "I FINALLY DID IT!" She rejoiced.
This is going to be a fun evening... He thought grimly as his eyes recovered.
The evening went as expected. Most of Starfall's family and friends were there to celebrate his birthday with him. He had the pleasantries of eating, finding out that the cake was 'hay' cake. As his face slowly twisted in disgust, pinkie fell over laughing.
“Tricked ya!” she chirped. Starfall just shrugged it off and got to slice the real one. The night sky was reaching it's peak as it was time for Starfall to open his present's.
"I'm still not comfortable accepting gifts from you all, I am happy with the Party Aunt Pie threw for me." Starfall frowned humbly towards their request to offer him a birthday present.
Everyone rolled their eyes from his stubbornness to let loose and enjoy himself. "Come on Starfall! Don't be such a downy frowny and just have fun!" Pinkie put her hooves on his cheek and simulated a smile. "And besides, I'm sure you'll LOVE LOVE LOVE what we have for you!" She said, barely containing herself from spoiling the surprise.
Starfall sighed. "Very well." He lifted his hand to let them resume. To his surprise, Dinky, Vigile and Luna were the only one appear to be offering something. "Really? Only you three? I expected something much more... out of proportion... Oh well." He shrugged.
Vigile walked closer to the crystal throne. "Before your father died, He asked me to give you this once you were old enough." Starfall stepped off his throne and bowed to his friend. "Thank you Vigile." He slowly took a black plastic case. Everyone was anxious to see what was inside.
Starfall slowly opened the case and what he saw widened his eyes. "That is one. Big. Dagger...Or is it a sword?" He asked Vigile who shook his head. "A beautiful design and a very...- Wait what is this Mtech?" He asked as he looked on the small inscription on the blade.
"I don't know. That knife was forged in the human world." Vigile's answer took Starfall by surprise.
"Human world!?" Starfall went back eyeing the impressively smithed piece of metal. "This knife is literally out of this world..." Everyone groaned at the awful pun. Starfall stopped his boyish grin and looked back at Vigile with a grateful smile. "Thank you my friend, your loyal service to my father is unquestionable, and I am humbled by your gift." He put his hand on the Captain's shoulder and gave him a thankful smile.
Vigile bowed to his prince and stepped back to let his daughter offer her gift to him. She stepped forward and held in her magic a small box.
"Happy birthday Starfall!" She said, her warm smile enchanting him to blush. Starfall gently accepted the box and felt it barely had any weight to it. He glanced at Dinky as he opened it. "This was given to me 14 years ago on my sixth birthday by your father, I've carried it since then until, you were born."
Starfall dropped the box. In his hand lay 2 ellipse pieces of metal and a small beaded necklace that was attached to it. His eyes were gazing ever so intensely at the inscription.
Anthony W.
Crimson 6.1
Blood type HH
Christan
On the other side it had a image of a anker behind a planet and a eagle on the top of it with a snake in its beak, and it said:
SEMPER FI
USMC
"What is this necklace?" He asked as his eyes were released from the two plates and looked back on the beautiful young mare.
"That necklace was given to me a few days after Amy was foalnapped by Diamond dogs, fortunately your father and his best friend were there to rescue her in less than two hours. He said that I was very brave to endure such a experience and gave me it as a birthday present and I thought it would be more than fitting if you would have it. It was worn by heroes just like him and you." All the ponies and dragon glanced at each other with a heartwarming smile from the thoughtful present.
Starfall did his best to hold back the tears and just responded by hugging her. "Thank you..." He whispered into her ear as he sniffled. He removed the tears from his eyes and went back to his previous composure. "Words can't explain how much this means to me." Dinky bowed, stepping back to let his mother give the final present.
Luna had nothing in her mouth or magic. Starfall was anxiously waiting. "The day you were born was the happiest day in my life and I am confident it was your father's as well. He gave his life to make sure you would live. I wish he could see you now, all grown up and soon you will be just as big and strong as he was." Starfall felt a blushing embarrassment from his mother’s words. "But as of this day, you are a legal adult and thus it gives me the joy of acknowledging you as a fellow ruler of Equestria!" An image of the throne room revealed to have a large throne in between his mother’s and aunt's with the mark of an eclipse. "As of this day you are an equal to me and my sister. Happy birthday Prince Starfall!" A silver crown, controlled by his mothers magic was placed on his head.No matter what species or title, all the ponies in the room knelt down to the newly crowned sovereign Prince of Equestria.
Starfall was lost for words. He had known that the day he is of age, he would rule Equestria next to his mother and aunts, but he still was so shocked and humbled to be crowned an equal. He immediately starting thinking of a speech to ease his subjects and fellow rulers. "Thank you mother, I hope I will be as wise and kind ruler as you. But from the roots of the tree more than one new branch is born, today is not only my day, but also Skyla's." Everyone stood up as they had noticed Skyla's cutie mark from before the party. Luna nodded as she knew where he was going with this. "Are you ready Skyla?" He offered his elbow to lead the way outside of the castle with the pink alicorn.
The group made their way out of the palace with all of the citizen of the Crystal Empire all awaiting their prince. a prepared stage was set and the pair stepped up to it with Zenith The Loyal following his prince whilst carrying the crystal crown on a wine red cushion.
Behind the stage where all of their friends and family watching with joy and happiness for the young alicorn.
Starfall cleared his throat before using his Royal Canterlot Voice. "Citizens of the Crystal Empire! Today we have gathered here for the Coronation of Princess Skyla's ascendancy to Crystal Queen! All of the crystal ponies started cheering with joy. Zenith moved presented the spire crown to Starfall who delicately took it with his hands. "As my right as Son of Crystal King Crimson and the descendant of Crystal King Alexander, along with the blessing of the previous Crystal Queen!" Starfall glanced over to His aunt Celestia who nodded with a smile.
"I hereby crown you, Crystal Queen!" The Crystal ponies frantically started cheering towards the new Crystal Queen. " The crown was placed on top of Skyla's head. "All kneel before Crystal Queen Skyla!" All the crystal ponies and the party guests knelt down, but the elements and princesses were looking towards Starfall.
Their eyes kept on the young human as he lowered his body down on one knee, with his left hand resting limply on his lap and right fist on the the ground, he also kept his gaze towards the ground. Tears ran down Luna’s face. It had been thirteen long years, but little Starfall had finally grown up. She felt Celestia’s wing on her back, and felt her gaze on her tears.
“He would be so proud.” Luna didn’t turn, nor did she reply. She simply nodded once.
"It’s too dramatic if you ask me." Pinkie cut in between their admiring.
It was the hour of twilight before the sunrise. Starfall was sitting in the train with his family and friends back to their respective homes. Starfall was channeling a ember spell that was a small burning flame hovering above his hand as he could feel the heat coming of it in the cold winter night. Most of the ponies were sleeping, Only Celestia,Vigile and Zenith were awake. Celestia could feel how it was time for her to raise the the sun and lower the moon, and she did. The dawn light was blazing towards the young prince and his ember vanished from the lack of magic.
"Aunty Celestia, Vigile, I am ready to hear and learn about my father, My race and Alexander. The time has come for you to reveal who and what I am." He spoke calmly as he turned his gaze towards the Captain and his aunt.
Vigile glanced at his sleeping daughter to make sure she couldn't hear any of their discussion and quickly turned back. "Very well. Do you wish to begin Princess or shall I?" He asked.
Celestia raised her hoof. "I should tell him." Starfall's full attention was directed towards his aunt. Celestia sighed before speaking.
"To understand about your father and ancestor's burden." Celestia hesitated, still unsure whether to tell the boy. After all, it was ponies who matured at 13, not humans. When Celestia looked into Starfall’s eyes she didn't see a brave man, she saw a brave boy pretending to be a man. He had no idea of the decimation that Equestria had suffered. However, She had promised the boy it was at 13 that he’d learn about his past. She could no longer hold this off.
She sighed once again, and looked back at Starfall, her gaze lost in memories. "Crystal King Alexander... My husband came from a world full with warmongering humans, and he was the most ruthless warmonger there was... He conquered nations and slew hundreds of thousands of his own kind. But the nature of his kind wasn't his fault... It was the curse of a very, very powerful creature, More powerful than me and your mother combined. His name was... Legion."
Celestia could still feel the echo of the Dark Archangel's evil. "Every time I think about him, My fur coat shivers from the thought of him. Legion is a being that inhales sadness and despair, breaths out anger, hatred and war. It is responsible for countless atrocities towards your kind...millions upon millions of humans are dead due to his influence and power." The final sentence really took Starfall by shock and sorrow, yet he did his best to hide it. Celestia however saw this and decided to let it sink in.
"From the sound of it, you describe It as the complete opposite of Grandmother Lightbringer."
Celestia nodded. "Thats because He is. Mother thrives in the happiness and goodwill of all creatures in the world, and in turn, she spreads more joy and happiness to the world." Celestia paused, trying to remember Legion in detail. "While Legion, a being that feeds off and creates evil, sustains itself like a parasite and revels in the greed, lies, anger, anguish, hatred, war and pride of all creatures, but unfortunately, humans seemed to have the most potential when it came to these emotions, or if you would say, a better and more plentiful harvest."
Starfall kept his gaze towards his aunt the whole time and let her continue and him to process all the new information. Celestia sighed before getting to the hard part. "As you learned six years ago, the first humans in Equestria were running amok, Killing thousands of creatures and nearly driving the dragon population to extinction. But what you don't know is that they were being manipulated by Legion which had been controlling Discord against his will."
"-So that he could create misery and evil that he could feed on?" Starfall concluded his aunt's sentence and Celestia nodded.
"But amongst the human's, a newly freed Alexander finally regained control over his body and with it came his attempt on his life. But being still a devoted leader, he couldn't just simply kill his own men, so he decided to flee with only very few casualties that were absolutely necessary." Celestia looked out on the dripping window glass to see the Neighagra falls endlessly pouring the Essential water source to all of Equestria.
"Aunty, could you explain to me how Alexander could fight and escape a thousand warriors hunting him?" Starfall leaned slightly closer giving her, his full attention.
Before Celestia could answer, Vigile stepped in. "- Because Alexander was tricked and enslaved to be the Avatar of Legion." Starfall and Celestia both directed their eyes towards the pegasus. Celestia mouthed thank you to Vigile, it was hard for her to remember Alexander for what he truly was. "But when he fell in the human world, he woke up here, miraculously freed from his tie to Legion, but to immediately find that his own kin where now slaves to the same evil." A small cold wind blew through one of the open windows that was supplying the large wagon some fresh air, whipping the mane’s of the sleeping ponies beside it. Celestia turned to look at the distraction, desperate to escape the past. "After his escape, Alexander was roaming the world, trying to find allied forces or any form of sanctuary. Unfortunately, he was ambushed by a dragon. He managed to beat back the dragon, but he himself was mortally wounded..." Vigile directed his attention towards Celestia to signal her to take over as this is where she came in.
Celestia took a deep breath before speaking and looked at her nephew with her sparkling amethyst eyes. "That is when I found him.. Lying on the ground, still breathing but with a lot of lost blood. At first glance, I was about to fly away from the conscious human begging for help. But I took pity on him, I couldn't let any innocent creature die helplessly, but when I did help him, I immediately sensed a different aura, compared to the rest of his kind." Starfall sympathetically smiled to his aunt. He decided to go sit next to her. He went over to her seat and crossed his legs as he put both his right wing and arm around her back. Her warm fur coat kept, warmed him a little and his affectionate hug made her smile with love gleaming in her eyes for her nephew. She felt renewed strength to continue with the story.
"Despite his human weight, I was strong enough to carry him on my back as I flew him back to the royal castle just at the edge of Everfree- err I mean Everlife forest. At first, your mother was ready to put Alexander off his misery but I quickly intervened and we came to a decision to nurse him back to health." Starfall was a bit taken back by his mother's cruelty but quickly continued to listen to his aunt. "After I nurtured him back to health, with a little bit of help from my sister, he told us his story. He told us his name, his origin and his title. He also told us of his pact with the Dark Archangel."
The word Pact made Starfall peer up at his aunt in confusion. It meant that he had willingly accepted Legion's curse. "But why would he make a pact with Legion?"
Celestia sighed. "It was a hard time for him, he had just witnessed his father's assassination and without a commander of their army, Alexander was hopeless to defeat a force, four times the size of his, so when Legion appeared, he offered the power to defeat the opposing nation, and he accepted." Starfall could feel how his aunt's sadness over her lost love was starting to take its toll on her.
"Vigile, what happened after he was nursed back to health?" The Prince asked his trusty Captain to answer so his aunt could take a break.
Vigile didn't waste a moment to answer. "He went and confronted his men, and revealed the truth to them about Discord's lies."
"Lies? What lies?" Starfall raised an eyebrow at the Captain.
Celestia,Vigile and Zenith all shared glances amongst each other. And Celestia nodded at the Captain. "You may not know this, but Humans in their world, have no magic. it only exist in old maretales. You see... Humans are born with unique abilities, such as complete immunity to magic... And magic stealing..."
Starfall's attention was fully peaked and his eyes were both widely open as he stared in awe from the new reveal of his kind’s terrifying powers. "But... My mother and even you aunty Celestia have used magic several times to teleport me and even heal my wounds. And what is magic stealing?" Starfall's curiosity was interrupted by a voice emanating from behind Captain Vigile.
"Daddy are we there yet?" Dinky drowsily broke the silence as she slowly rose up from her seat that she had been sleeping on.
Vigile, Celestia, Zenith and Starfall all directed their surprised gaze at the newly woken mare. Starfall's first and only priority was to get everyone's attention. "Eh... As I was saying Vigile, I think its best if we discuss Zenith's poor performance when we get back home." All of the ponies looked confused at the prince sudden change of heart. Starfall however was desperately hinting with his head towards Dinky who was still too tired to notice his pointing. But Vigile however picked up on it and smiled as he turned his attention towards Zenith.
"Get your head in the game soldier!" Vigile smacked the backside of Zenith's head. Vigile turned his head back towards his daughter. "Don't worry Honey, We'll be home soon." He smiled warmly towards Dinky and she nodded and fell back on the seat.
Zenith was rubbing his head after being hit in the backside of his head but he wouldn't speak up against his prince, even if he didn't do anything wrong. "Forgive me for my misconduct, sir." He bowed to Starfall, begging for forgiveness for doing nothing.
Starfall thought that Zenith would take the hint and just play along. Starfall leaned closer to the pony and whispered: "It was just a act, we don't want to speak of genocide in front a lady." He leaned back and Zenith nodded. "we will continue to talk when we get home... But until then.-" Starfall gave a tired gasp. "I'm going to rest. Good night aunty, thank you for enduring my questions." Starfall leaned closer and nuzzled her neck.
Celestia gave the young boy a kiss on the forehead. "Good night Starfall." Starfall bowed to the two guards and made his way to the royal sleeping booth where his mother and Frosthowl were sleeping. He silently opened the slide door and saw her sleeping peacefully, it would be about four hours before they would reach Canterlot and in the meanwhile, despite his mother sleeping on the bed, Starfall didn't mind sleeping on top of Frosthowl like a giant fur bed. He slowly laid down close to Frosthowl and rubbed up close to the furry wolf who was drowsily woken up as he came into contact with him but quickly went back to sleep.
The mares in my life is going to be the end of me. Starfall thought ironically and smiled before fading away to the world of dreams.
Starfall was sitting in the royal booth, he could see Canterlot on the horizon and he was looking forward to getting home and rule alongside his mother and aunt as equals. Frosthowl was lying on the large bed, big enough for a human and was being stroked by his bored master. "What you suppose the first thing we do when we get home?" His question was ironically answered by two knocking sounds that was asking permission to enter the booth. "Come in!"
To Starfall's fortune, it was Dinky who had been knocking on his door. "Hey Starfall, what you up to?" Dinky entered and shut the door behind her.
A smile crept quickly on the young human's face. The mare of his dreams had came to check up on him. "Oh nothing, I just woke up half an hour ago, I felt the need to be alone so I just decided to sit her with my own thoughts."
Dinky kept her friendly smile as she went up to the bed. Starfall's heart beat more rapidly as he was this close to his crush and he was trying to look nervous or give the impression of it. "Mind if I give you company?" She asked gracefully as ever.
Every second he was with her felt like a lifetime of joy he had ever experienced. "Of course not, please." He raised his right hand and signaled her to sit with him. Frosthowl raised his head from his position as he felt some of the madras leaning down by his paws and noticed it was his masters desired mate. Dinky acknowledged him with a wave. and he went back to resting. "He is something Isn't he?" Starfall gave the gray-purple unicorn a confident smile.
"You know, you never mentioned how the both of you met. Its not like you can pick up a six hoof tall wolf from the closest pet store." Dinky asked jokingly.
Starfall gave a small chuckle. "Me and him have been friends since I was seven..."
"I don't doubt it, but that wasn't my question. You're trying to go off-topic like last time!" Dinky slightly bumped the prince on his shoulder as she started giggle.
It's better than the alternative... He thought to himself, as he wouldn't want to go into detail about how Starfall failed to save the young cub's mother. His real smile was replaced with a fake one.
"Alright, alright, I found him during hearths warming eve, exactly 6 years ago. He was so innocent and his mother wasn't ..Around so I waited with him a few hours, hoping his mother would find him, and with me there to protect him in case. But she never came... I couldn't just leave him all alone in that horrible blizzard so I decided to take him home." Starfall felt guilty about lying, but he had no intentions of scarring the innocent mare. "Luckily, my mother loves wolves due to their connection with the moon. So we decided to keep him, and ever since then...-" Frosthowl perked up and raised his body to lie on his stomach and started to pant happily at his master. "I eventually came to see him not as a pet or a friend, but as a brother I never had. Similar to me in many ways." Starfall scratched the albino wolf's jaw, and he reacted by going completely limp. "And over the years, we've gotten to know each other pretty well."
“What? so if i scratch your chin you’ll go completely limp?” The two shared a laugh at the joke.
Quite possibly… thought Starfall. He stopped and looked over the smiling unicorn. "Come to think of it, you know so much about me, and with your father ranting endlessly about me, It would only be fair if you would tell me a little bit about yourself." Starfall suggested with a joking smile, one he did not know he had.
Dinky gave a snorting smile. "Well...-" Her story was cut short by the screeching of the train stopping and grabbing everyone's attention.
"Canterlot City your majesties! Watch your step while leaving the train!" The Conductor yelled out in the other room.
Dinky's ear perked down with a frown on her muzzle. "That's a shame." Dinky stood up and turned her attention back to Starfall. "Looks like that will have to wait until next time Your highness"
Starfall panicking and he didn't want the mare of his dreams to leave. So his mouth spoke words, he had not intended. "How about tomorrow!?" He snapped, and the purple-gray unicorn stopped, she turned around and looked at the prince in confusion.
No turning back now...
Starfall took a relieving deep breath as he composed himself. "How about we meet tomorrow. Dinner at Canterlot's finest restaurant."
Dinky looked puzzled for a moment at Starfall's invitation. "Dinner?" She asked nervously.
"And music!" He added hoping it would increase his chances. His forehead was sliding down drops of nervous sweat, hoping she would accept his offer. "Sometimes, guests are allowed to show their musical talents and perform. I think a Prince of Equestria shouldn't have any problems convincing the employees to let us play."
Dinky gave a submitting sigh. "You sure know how to close a deal, very well, Dinner and music it is at...?"
"The Bluemoon!" He snapped nervously again.
Dinky gave a confident smile. "The Bluemoon it is then. pick me up at five tomorrow evening." And with those words, the beautiful mare made her way out of the royal booth.
Frosthowl looked at Starfall as he stared after his desired mate. He snorted at his master’s silly behaviour. Starfall turned to the wolf, embarrassed. “Shut up.” he said mockingly before scratching the wolf’s jaw again.
