Rodrigo galloped for what seemed like days. His legs seared with pain and each impact of his hooves upon the rough surfaces of the dirt and grass felt as sledgehammers pounding upon his hooves and sending their shockwave to his brain. The agony in his hooves and head would have easily brought him or anypony down were he not dead-set on continuing. He didn't care. He was numb. Numb from the shock of his loss and from his instincts crying out for him to run, to get the hell away, to escape the kingdom of the treacherous alicorns. To escape the pain.
Eventually, he reached the gates of Unicornia, but by this time his body had been stretched so far past its natural limits that it could no longer continue to sustain his consciousness. He could barely mutter a syllable before fainting at the hooves of the gate guards, who quickly recognized him as a unicorn, and heaved him to the city's apothecary. The entire time he quietly and unconsciously muttered the name of Princess Platinum...
Rodrigo awoke to the sight of a white unicorn in lavish robes and ornate tiara standing at the foot of his bed. It was Princess Platinum, in all her usual majesty. "Oh good, you're awake," said she, in an angelic voice. "Now, would you happen to be able to speak?" Rodrigo stared at her, wide-eyed with amazement. He had never seen the Princess before, only heard stories from his father. She was just as strikingly beautiful as he had imagined, and he found that he was having difficulty speaking in the presence of Her Majesty. Tenuously recovering from the shock of the sight, he managed to croak out a feeble "Yes." "Good!" replied the Princess, "I was worried that whatever you had been through had robbed you of that capacity. Now, onto business. The Apothecary tells me that you collapsed from exhaustion, but you sport no serious injuries. However, he does implore you to rest until your limbs have recovered from the stress. Now if you don't mind, I have a few questions for you."
"Alright," replied Rodrigo, having slowly regained the ability to utter intelligible sentences, "But why have you come personally?" "Because you asked for me, darling. You were apparently muttering my name ever since you arrived!" Platinum replied, "But now on to MY questions. Firstly, what is your name? I don't believe I've seen you in Unicornia before." Rodrigo replied, "My name is Rodrigo Cadenza, son of the ambassador Jacques Hollande-Cadenza." "Ah, Jacques's son! Tell me, how is your father? I haven't seen him in quite some time," replied Platinum with a hint of seduction in her voice. Rodrigo looked down, the burden of the horrible truth weighing heavy upon his soul. "My father... My father is dead," said Rodrigo said sadly.
The coy smile immediately faded from Platinum's face. "I... I see," the Princess said, her voice far less optimistic than before. "He was a great stallion. He will be missed terribly. I will arrange his funeral. I'm deeply sorry for your loss. I assume this is related to the nature of your arrival?" Rodrigo related everything that had happened to him, sparing no detail of his family's deaths or his long run to Unicornia. "I must warn you, Princess," said Rodrigo at the end of his spiel, "King Tyrranus is no pushover. He poses a great threat to Unicornia." The Princess chuckled a bit. "Oh, but you exaggerate my dear! Our unicorn magic can easily handle any threat. There's no need to worry about Tyrranus here," retorted the Princess. "With all due respect, your majesty, I believe you underestimate the gravity of the threat," Rodrigo countered. Platinum leaned in and glared at him a bit, then replied, "And you underestimate the strength of my unicorns, half-breed! Now, get some rest. I will provide you with a residence as condolence for the loss of your family. You are safe here, no alicorn will ever break our defense! You need to learn to trust in your pony kin." Platinum straightened her neck and began to trot out of the room. "And a word of advice, Monsieur Cadenza," she said, "You may not wish to use your Pegasus name here. My ponies don't take too kindly to those other brutish races. Make a Unicorn name for yourself and ponies may not glare at you as much. I think the name 'Real' would suit you well. Good day, monsieur."
Rodrigo spent the night recovering in the Apothecary before leaving the next day for the address Platinum provided him. The address was a small apartment, neatly and ornately decorated and well-stocked with everything a unicorn needed to live comfortably, including a sizable stash of gold coins for subsistence. It seemed that, despite her scathing 'half-breed' insult the day before, Princess Platinum was generous enough to provide Cadenza with a comfortable existence. Following her advice, Rodrigo vowed to live a peaceful life, doing his best to remove the memory of King Tyrranus from his mind.
Days later, whilst walking home from the market, Rodrigo noticed a strange symbol scratched into the side of the Apothecary. It seemed fresh and looked much like a triangle, but with a rounded base that seemed to exceed the angles of the other two sides in its length and faded at the bottom. It seemed odd, but too innocuous to be anything significant. Rodrigo dismissed it as graffiti of some sort and continued home. The next day, Rodrigo saw what appeared to be a hooded figure in a white robe outside his window. It appeared to be a mare, but what made the event significant was the fact that she appeared to be staring directly at Rodrigo. When he awoke, she quickly galloped away. Rodrigo found the same symbol he had seen yesterday twice today, but on the local funeral home and- more disturbingly- on the door to his apartment. And all that day the hooded mare seemed to be stalking him, silently following him everywhere he went, but never drawing too close. Rodrigo slept uneasily that night, his thoughts filled with the strange symbol and the mysterious hooded mare. Their appearance simply could not be a coincidence...