My little Short Stories 2- Paradise Edition

by Paradise Oasis

Forgotten History

Forgotten History

"Bramely?" Princess Cadence calls out in a worried tone, looking around frantically. "Bright Bramely, where are you?!"

My princess calls to me, and though I am currently busy looking over some treaties that need to be signed, my duty calls, and I must go to her. With a sigh, I adjust my yellow glasses, I trot out of my study, and make my way towards Misty Mountain’s throne room. The guards of course, bowed to me in respect- an orange earth mare with a purple mane and apple cutie mark- a proud member of the Apple family, though my special talent has little to do with apples. I am the pony who handles the mundane day-to-day matters of the bureaucracy of Misty Mountain, helping my lady in her rule of this great Ponyland citadel.

"What is it, my princess?" I ask, bowing before the throne. "What can I do to serve you?"

"Where- where am I?" She asks, looking around nervously with a wild look in her eyes. "What am I doing here!?"

"You're at Misty Mountain, my Princess; your kingdom." I reassure her in a soothing tone. "This is your home, where you rule over all of us, your loyal subjects."

"The Crystal Empire is my kingdom, Bright. Not this strange place" She informed me defiantly, her eye twitching. "Tell me, where is my beloved Shining Armor?"

Staring at her sadly, I can only shake my head in sorrow. Although she is the last surviving immortal alicorn princess, Mi Amore Cadenza is not the intelligent and wise mare that ponies once believed alicorns to be. Much to our city's personal shame, our ruler is a nervous and blubbering mess that has trouble remembering things day to day in her life. Most ponies believe it due to her advanced age brining on senility- but I and a few other know it is something far, far worse.

"Come my princess, your royal audiences are done for the day." I tell her soothingly, gently guiding her off her throne. "It is time for you to go to bed."

Most of Ponyland forgets the fact, that they owe this brave mare for all she has done for our Confederacy. She has sacrificed more then any other pony for the sake of our civilization, and there is no way we can ever begin to repay this mare who is the last of her kind. It angers me that most ponies look upon her eternally beautiful form with pity, feeling sorry for our princess for her shattered and still-crumbling mind.

During the Grogar wars, the old goat tyrant had sought to destroy even the memory of Equestria- his troggle armies going out of their way to ransack every archive and library in the land, and destroying every historical tome that they could get their claws on. That is why our historian Tornado has had such trouble piecing our history back together from the few scattered fragments of journals, letters, and documents that survived the fall of Equestria, our written history only goes back five hundred years to the founding of the confederacy. Everything Tornado has written about is speculation based on a few historical scraps that remain... in truth, we know nothing about the history of ponies before Ponyland.

The memories of our beloved Princess would have been wonderful here- but alas, she was determined to lead that final assault on the evil Grogar after the monster slew Princess Luna during the fall of Canterlot. She and her husband, Shining Armor- magically gifted with an unnatural long life due to lifebonding with an alicorn- led the final assault on Tambelon that was the last battle on the Grogar wars. As the pony army they led battled the troggles, and Shining Armor fought the goat in hoof-to-hoof combat, while Cadence sought out and rung the giant bell that sent Grogar and his city back to the Dark Dimension.

Having defeated the goat tyrant and ended the war, the two fled from the vanishing Tambelon. But Grogar had one final trick up his sleeve- from the window of his tower, he struck the fleeing couple with an energy blast that knocked them to the ground. But when Shining and Cadence awoke, the other ponies found that the spell that had stuck them had severely damaged their powers of recollection. In the centuries thereafter, Shining Armor’s memories faded in and out, his mind becoming as frail as a feeble old pony, whilst his body remained young, healthy, and strong. It was only a decade or two ago, that he quietly passed in his sleep, the magic keeping him young finally dissipating.

"Bramely, which way is my bedroom?" Cadence asked, looking around the hallways in confusion. "I can't seem to remember..."

"Follow me, my princess." I reply calmly, leading the child-like alicorn by the hoof. "It is not far."

It is truly a tragedy, an eternally young and beautiful pony do helpless like this. And a living source of pony memory. our history- Grogar had the last laugh, he knew what he was doing with that final spell. For the contradictory records that Tornado has recovered from the archives- one saying Twilight Sparkle became an alicorn, another saying she remained a unicorn all her life, or Dream Valley's records stating that their castle was built from the remains of the palace of the two sisters, while the Harmony Bearer's friendship journal states this became Twilight Sparkle's rainbow kingdom. And Applejack, the one mare who could answer these contradictions remembers it one way one day, then another the next. The goat tyrant took more from us that our princess that dark day; with his final defeat, he took ponykind's history from us.

"Here you go, my princess." I tell her soothingly, pulling back the sheets so she can climb into bed. "Please, call me or one of the servants if you need to use the bathroom or desire something to drink." I advise her, remembering the one embarrassing time she had been unable to remember how to get to the restroom in time. "Have a pleasant sleep, my princess."

"Thank you Bramely." She tells me softly, drifting off into the repose of slumber. "You are so... good... to... me..."

Trotting out and closing the door, I recall the demands of Misty Mountain’s junkers that our senile princess be retired, and Princess Silver Rain, born a few months after her father's death, should take the throne. Cadence deserves better than this, but I cannot hold off the desires of the nobles forever. Trotting out and looking at the evening sky above, I try to imagine the beautiful colors and the stars appearing being shaped by two caring sisters putting on a show for their mortal subjects.

It's so sad, Equestria was a land ruled by alicorns, benefiting from their love and superior wisdom. Now the bloodline of Queen Sunsparkle rules Ponyland, the nobility of each Ponyland citadel - and even the council of Princess ponies- using their linage from her as their reason for ruling. Even Silver Rain has married into the house of Sunsparkle, ensuring that Misty Mountain will one day be brought under the divine right to rule, just like Hoofkaido, Bright Valley, Fort Dash, and all the rest.

I wish the truth of our past could be recovered, but there remains no other sources we could answer our questions. But perhaps it is better this way, forcing us to look to our future, instead of back to the glories of yesterday. I am happy for the world that I live in, happy for my wonderful husband and beautiful children. And I'm proud of the sacrifices ponies such as my princess made, even though it cost them everything to make them. For out of that uncertain past of Equestria, has been born a bright future for Ponyland. And we ponies could not ask for a better world to live in!