Nopony will find out. Not even the extreme foresight possessed by Queen Lumina could predict this, even his fellow immortals are as blind as foals. The high queen's visions were abstract and sporadic. He need not fear them.
Queen Lumina. How long has it been since he thought of her? She has not changed since he last saw her. Neither has he, Hasad's flank was still blank, and though Alicorns were slow to be marked, at almost his age it was less so. To not dabble greatly in more magics, to not study and master what Alicorns could would look unusual in a few centuries.
As a young mare, Lumina and her sisters, along with a few others and Noctus, then her mere companion, defeated a great evil that resided to the farthest reaches of the northern realms, where all was mountains whose fierceness rivaled even the great maw of the volcanoes of the south. It was a savage place.
How long ago it was as well, over nine thousand years had passed since then and now.
Yet still there were whispers... about what Lumina of the Light and King Noctus hid in that castle of theirs. Everypony knew that is where the Spirit of Harmony resided, so that couldn't be it. Why, Lumina even had a pet name for the primordial spirit.
Surely the Queen of All would have some secrets... was it treasure?
Forbidden knowledge?
Hasad was more intrigued then most due to his dabbling in secrecy and similar pursuits.
He just didn't understand what the king and queen had to hide. They were always private but there were whispers now that they were hiding something in their castle.
He wouldn't dismiss it, but his focus needed to be elsewhere.
Hasad stopped pacing through the extent of the void, where he found himself in all his free time and even more now that his duties as a prince were reduced since his sister had adjusted well to her role as queen, unfortunately.
Everything here was the dullest shade of gray imaginable, Hasad had never changed that. The prince kept everything as it was in here. There was still nothing to distinguish between the ground and the air. He didn't leave hoofprints in here. It was like walking on glass, except that there was no immediate feeling of solidity below him. Or any at all.
Anypony else would have felt like they were falling with no way to escape.
Resting on the 'ground' by his hooves were an assortment of objects Hasad had acquired for the magic. The first two times he had tried using the written medium, this time he would try crafting something.
That is why the objects around him were ingots, gems, and various other substances like rare samples of flora and unrefined gemstones. He had gathered anything that might work in order to test out all their properties.
His eyes glowed with a ring of green. That had been disguised from others but never here, where such magic could be very useful. When his horn lit up it was with bursts of magenta striped with bright green, like a firecracker. This hadn't proved hard to manage at all, since his last big project needed a deep and vulnerable mind to control. Hasad's mind was not deeply sensitive or vulnerable.
He set to work, every gemstone he had shining with more life than he could ever have against the silent and rippling pitch-black of his mane.
...
After hours of work a gray amulet of indeterminate metal was held in the cold embrace of his dual colored aura. As an artistic - although not very impressive - last touch he had added a second part to the plain triangle of cold silver material the main part was wrought from.This part was carved from magic like the rest of the humble-looking amulet, but out of a darker substance, with a smokier hue and with a duller luster. It was carved in the shape of an Alicorn, or at least part of one. The wings were spread out against an angular face in profile.
By his tastes, this was almost too extravagant. Hasad turned it over, his expression blank except for the edges of his mouth being downturned slightly. He was a prince, and no mortal who simply wore the title like a jacket either, it didn't matter whether or not he was a prince or some higher-ranking individual, like a kind or emperor, because just like every other Alicorn, ruling was his birthright.
He could be extravagant if he wanted to. With that in mind Hasad plucked out the purest diamond from the pile he had, its facets clearer than glass. There was no proper light in this realm like that shed by the sun and moon, so he could not glimpse it glisten were it to be held up to such a source.
Hasad placed the diamond over the center of the amulet's first part. The metal immediately melded to accompany the piece's newest addition.
It still didn't look right, so he selected a few more materials to add to his creation to form feather tips and an single eye.
When it was complete, Hasad brought the finished amulet to his eye and gave it a once over before pinning it onto the plain metal neckband he wore. As with the diamond the amulet found no difficulties affixing itself to any surface.
Now it was time to figure out which vice this creation would become... and to see if it could pass his test and become an instrument of destruction wielded by him or if it would find the hooves of another.
His magic lit up, the dual aura flaring violently as it raced across his horn like fire consuming dry twigs.
What would trigger this? It would not be envy or greed for he had already tried those.
What was it that could turn a creature to such a state that they might seek goals similar to his own?
Power.
False ambition.
These were such things, the lies that swayed the vain. This artifact would magnify power to a finite level but it would replace the wits of the user with the unsatisfiable lust for power to levels they could never hope to attain as it corrupted their senses. For example, if a unicorn of no particular talent were to wield this artifact they would go from their mundane ranking to somewhere between a demigod and a unicorn archmage.
But for him... it barely did anything. Hasad was already a wild fire of magic but the power this amulet gave was a mere match of light.
He tore it off, fury in his normally blank eyes. That made three failures so far, how much longer would this go on?
How much more would he suffer?!
Success was inevitable. It was possible.
His legs shook with anticipation.
Hasad could tear down civilization brick by brick. His heart was so willing to do this that it knew nothing else and his mind was bent on nothing but achieving this destruction through any means. But most of all, it was his soul that burned for only this since the beginning of his existence, and nothing could deter his soul which was not like that of any other living creatures. It was not him, there were no thoughts or feelings there. Nothing to say that this was Hasad. It was mechanical and undefined and there was nothing that could change that.
Only when there was the slightest destruction that Hasad was behind did this alter slightly and something was expressed, a spark that died before it was born. Were he a bit more reflective he would know that this was the only happiness, however twisted it was, he could hope to achieve.
Every day and night, Hasad felt nothing but the utmost degree of suffering, there was a fire inside him that scorched.
But Hasad was not fireproof and he could feel the screams within himself as his very soul was blistering in torment.
It had burned away any words he might have had to describe such agony and soon he had realized that it had burned away anything else.
Perhaps the greatest revelation that Hasad had as a colt was that this wasn't something external of him. It wasn't a curse or other affliction.
It was him, and Hasad had long since embraced himself and all the twisted workings within.
He was in control. Everywhere but here he was in control.
He was himself, despite whatever oblivion he was forced to exist in.
Hasad stared at the amulet with eyes too hollow for even something like vengeance to form.
How would he dispose of this amulet? Where would it end up?
Its fate was uncertain even if his was not. He neither enjoyed or loathed being himself since other beings were simply that to him - other beings. To him it was impossible for something to exist below the surface because not only had that thought never occurred to him but even if it had he still wouldn't care because others could be destroyed and that was all that mattered to him.
Maybe it was wonderful to be Hasad.
He turned the amulet over again, this time in a manner that appeared absentminded.
But it didn't mean that being him never hurt.
There was still the fire...