The Birth of a New Kingdom

by Dranz_89

Shattered love

It was winter, white snow covered both the earth and the horizon. A winter that has lasted maybe nine or ten years, maybe even more, everyone had stopped counting. On top of a hill, a small city was built virtually in the middle of nowhere. Tall stone walls covered the perimeter of the city, with watch posts where the guards patrolled the surroundings. The houses were also built with stone with roofs made of hay decorated with chimneys that never expelled smoke. In the far north of the city, there was a humble stone castle with a fairly simple design, a squared castle keep in the center and four towers in each corner and another in the center. The center tower is known as the 'Lord’s Tower', where the lord of the castle, his wife and his daughter had their bedchambers.

Inside the daughter's bedchamber, a white unicorn mare combed the hair of her daughter, both unicorns with a pure white coat and silver mane and tail with a violet stripe. The mother's two crimson eyes watched at the young unicorn's smile through the reflection of a large mirror, and the young one with deep purple eyes contemplating the beautiful wavy long mane of her mother, so different from hers, which was straight and short.

"Mommy, mommy! Tell me more about the Spring again," said the young unicorn, "tell me about the flowers, and the birds!"

"Ahhh... it was beautiful, honey. The skies were bright blue and the fields were green, with flowers of all kinds of colors, yellow, blue, white, any color you can think of. And all the birds performed a wonderful symphony every morning. The sun was bright and warm, and it illuminated the critters that roamed through the prairies."

"I would love to see Spring one day, at least for a minute. I'm tired of this cold and all the white! Even my coat had to be white!"

"Lady Starlight," a pale blue earth pony knocked on the door, the mare gently came in and bowed to both unicorns, "excuse me, the hot water is now ready."

"Hot water?!" the filly jumped in surprise, "mom! How could you betray me like this?! I thought we were friends! I am your only daughter?!"

"Now, now, honey, don't be dramatic. I will tell you about Summer if you promise to quietly take this shower."

The young unicorn gasped upon being blackmailed with terms that she could not possibly refuse, she sighed and surrendered to her mother's demands, leaving the room excited about the tale, but not about the shower. Both mares giggled and the earth pony proceed to leave the room, when the door was abruptly opened. A tall and strong brown unicorn stood in front of her, he was wearing a silver crown decorated with amethysts and sapphires. His narrowed eyes were purple like his daughter's and his mane was fiery red, thick black eyebrows and a bulky beard covered his mouth.

"MOVE," his strong voice commanded with a menacing tone, the mare bowed to him and stepped away without even bothering to raise her head again.

"Now leave! Go dig some holes or whatever your kind does," commanded the unicorn stallion again, and the mare instantly left the room, fearing for her life.

"Lancer!" yelled the female unicorn, "that is not the way! How dare you treat her like that!?"

"I treat them how I see them!" responded Lancer, not a sign of regret in his face.

"She did nothing wrong! She has done an excellent job so far!"

"Being born without a horn is all the wrong she could possibly do!"

"There is nothing wrong in not having a horn! What kind of example are you giving to our daughter?"

"That's exactly why I'm here! Where is Platinum? Tomorrow she will learn how to rule the land, and we'll find him a strong unicorn to be her couple!"

"It's not your place to teach her that! It's mine! And the only thing that's going to couple is my hind right hoof with your tail!"

---

After the shower, the young filly could hear her parents still arguing, the mare was yelling blue, and the stallion insisted on green, “they never agree on anything, but they still love each other,” she giggled.

Quiet as a mouse, the princess sneaked down the dark brown wooden staircase that snaked its way through the tower. When she got close to the ground floor, she carefully peeked around the cold stone curve of the tower's inner wall. There she saw the lone guard. He yawned and looked around. Platinum aimed her horn at a window further down the hall, then she cast a simple spell. The seldom used window to creaked open.

Platinum stifled a giggle as the guard's ears swiveled at the sound. Then he trotted down the hall with a tired sigh.

All the guards fell for the same trick, she advanced quickly and nimbly, like a cat. She hid from the last guard around the corner of the corridor, she covered her ear with her hoof, made a serious look and feigned a grave, raspy voice, "Otacolt, I've located the target, but there's a guard blocking my way," she chuckled, and with her magic, she turned off a candle that was lighting the corridor. The confused guard was too busy lighting the candle again to notice the filly that silently sneaked in the door he was supposed to patrol.

It was dark inside the room, yet again she used her telekinetic spell to open a cabinet, and grab a small bottle with a label that had the word sugar written on it. Suddenly, someone touched her back, she was spotted by the blue mare, "my young lady! Don't tell me you are the sugar thief!" she gasped in surprise. The young unicorn grinned nervously and returned the sugar back to its place.

"Please, young lady, return to bed, I'll be in trouble if your parents find out about this," the mare tried to command, but it sounded more like begging.

"It's fine, Cerulean," said Starlight as she came inside the kitchen and lighted the room with a spell, surprising the earth pony and her daughter.

"My lady!" the earth pony bowed down, very scared, "I'm... I'm very sorry, I was careless for just one second, and... and," she tried to explain, but she was stopped by Platinum's mother by just raising her hoof.

"It's not your fault," the unicorn was very calm, "Platinum, you have caused much trouble to Cerulean. She was the one who paid the price for your little mischief. As punishment, your father commanded that her bed must be taken from her, and now she sleeps on the floor every night. You should apologize to her."

"I'm sorry, Cerulean," the young filly frowned in regret.

"Don't worry about it, young lady," said the earth pony who was touched by the young unicorn's sincere apology, she bowed to Starlight in gratitude, and left the kitchen with a satisfied smile while Starlight took her daughter back to her bedroom.

"Honey, this is not how a princess must behave," Starlight talked to her daughter and put her on the bed, "never, ever, let anyone suffer because of your selfishness."

"Am I a bad princess?" Platinum looked down, feeling awful for the poor earth pony, but she suddenly began to laugh because of her mother was using her horn to playfully tickle the belly of the young filly. Platinum began to kick the air trying to escape, and breathing in between giggles.

"At that very moment you were," responded Starlight once she was done with playing with Platinum, "but you suddenly turned into a good one when you apologized. Let me tell you something about Summer. Summer was the warmest season of the year, it was so warm and so sunny, that it would make you miss the cold nights of the winter."

"I don't think so, I'd be happy if all this boring snow goes away and never comes back!"

"But during summer, there were also rainy days, where tiny drops of water fell from the clouds."

"Like the snow?" Platinum lifted a brow and tilted her head to the side.

"Yes, that's right, but it's a bit different. Rainy days were often boring and sad, because we couldn't go out to play, and the ground turned into mud being hit with a mud ball is not as fun as being hit with a snowball, you know? Anyway, right after the rainy days, the sun came out, and it illuminated the traces of water left by the rain, forming a beautiful arch made of different colors, it was called a ‘Rainbow’. When your father found out about the sugar thief, he believed Cerulean was the thief. She tried to defend herself, but no one believed her because she was an earth pony, that was a rainy moment for Cerulean. But thanks to your apology, you made the Rainbow in her life appear. Honey, sometimes your actions can make others sad, but they can also make others happy."

"Like the sunny days and rainy days of summer!"

"Exactly, honey! And just like in summer, even if it can make others sad, rainy days are also necessary. You can't always make everyone happy, sometimes you have to take the hard decision of making others sad, as long as it is for the greater good."

"How will I know when to give rainbows or when to give rain, mommy?"

"That is something you must learn on your own. Sometimes you'll make mistakes, and when that happens, make sure you apologize. Just like I must do now. I'm sorry, honey, but you have to dream, it's sleeping spell time for you."

"No! Don't use that spell on me! I hate it! It makes me… sleepy," said Platinum, as she hid under the sheets while Lady Starlight aimed her horn on her. The mother giggled and cast the spell, and her daughter fell asleep under the sheets while her snores made the sound of an erupting volcano.

‘That snore... at least it doesn't sound as bad as her singing,’ mumbled the unicorn, and quietly left her daughter's bedroom.

---

Princess Platinum calmly woke up, she stretched her hooves while a long yawn escaped from her mouth. Then raised from her bed and looked herself through the mirror, her mane was wavy and tousled, ‘my mane is everywhere just like my mother's, not as pretty though,’ she giggled and cast a telekinesis spell on a pink comb and began to fix her mane. The door to her room opened with a slam, and his father came inside, his serious face quickly changed into a happy smile upon crossing stares with his beautiful daughter.

"Platinum," his strong voice called, "today you will accompany your father to attend the kingdom."

"You? But what about mommy?" asked the filly, tilting her head.

"She is busy, right now," explained Lancer, the trace of a smile found in his face.

On the northeast tower of the castle, Lady Starlight was seated on a desk receiving pillars of documents containing the reports from the guards of the watch posts and the intel gathered from the explorer unit. All documents informed always the same: the weather was snowy and no signs of invaders. ‘No big news, you'll pay for this, Lancer,’ thought the unicorn as she signed the documents as if she was trying to tear the paper with the feather she was using.

Meanwhile, Platinum walked among the businesses of a very active market alongside her father. They walked on a long street that went from the castle’s main door to the city’s entrance, interrupted only by the main square where the statue of her father stood strong.

The townsfolk consisted almost of only unicorns, they all bowed in respect, "your majesty," they called as the king unicorn walked proudly among them. The other inhabitants were earth ponies, who also bowed, but they tried to stay as far as possible from them.

Anywhere she looked, some earth ponies used shovels to clean the snow away from the rooftops and streets. Some others used their own bodies to pull wagons and carriages filled with heavy looking boxes, as unicorns kept yelling at them and abusing them. And the unluckiest ones had no job at all, they sit still in alleyways trying to endure the cold.

"Why are the earth ponies servants to everypony, daddy?" asked Platinum.

"Ahh, young one, it is their place," explained her father, "why do you ask that? There are plenty of earth pony servants back in the castle."

"Yes, but we are royalty, it's normal that we have servants. But I've always wondered, why the baker needs a servant? or the barber? And now that I think about it, all the servants in our castle are earth ponies too. Not a single unicorn."

"Earth ponies lack the gift of magic, Platinum. Therefore we are clearly a superior race, they are born only to serve us. Just look at them, hornless beasts. Their inability to cast magic makes them a waste of air and space. The least they could do is serve us to compensate for their lack of usefulness. Hmph! And to think that there are lands out there where only their inferior race lives."

"I just don't understand. They don't look so happy about this lifestyle. Our servant is nice to me, so I am nice to her and mommy is also nice to her. But still, she barely smiles, it feels like she wants to go away."

"Of course she is nice to you, Platinum, you are a unicorn, and she understands her role in this world. Being nice to you is her duty. You don't have to understand it, that's just the way it is."

Platinum followed her father without a word and hear him talk and talk all day, about food, and supplies, and equipment, and all that stuff she didn’t really cared. She and her father visited almost every single store in the market. It was a day that felt way longer than the others, and even colder.

Once back in the castle, her father took her to Cerulean. Platinum was tired and sleepy, and was glad to finally get some rest at home and maybe, get something sweet to eat. But her father exposed different plans when he gave an order to Cerulean. “You! Make sure my daughter is presentable for the banquet, now!”

“Yes, milord.” Cerulean bowed her head gulped, “this way, my young lady.” Cerulean turned around and led the princess to the Throne Room where the door to the Lord's Tower was. Platinum, sighed in frustration, and quietly followed.

“Say, Cerulean,” said Platinum, so timidly as if the words escaped her mouth without her consent. “I’ve been meaning to ask you… do you… like me? Are you… are you happy living here?”

Cerulean stopped walking and Princess Platinum stopped behind her. Her trembling voice barely managed its way through Platinum’s ears. “Of… of course like you, my young lady.” She gave Platinum the strongest smile she could manage, then she turned around again to keep walking.

---

"I swear, when I see him, I'm gonna rip off his damned beard hair by hair, until he cries for mercy!" Once in the Throne Room, Queen Starlight was impatiently walking in circles. Her body and hear hopped during a mere instant when she turned and met her somewhat confused daughter. “Ohh, honey." She hid a nervous giggle with her hoof, "I didn’t hear you come in. I was just waiting for your daddy to show his grumpy face and definitely not ranting at all, ha ha ha. Ahem, Cerulean, where’s Lancer?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” said Cerulean, quickly bowing her face and raising it, “he just said that Princess Platinum must be prepared for the banquet. I’m taking her to her room, right now.”

“I see… that slippery old goat. Well, let’s take care of it, Cerulean.”

Once in the Platinum’s bed chambers, Lady Starlight and Cerulean dressed her up with a beautiful violet colored dress adorned with golden flowers sewn on the skirt. Lady Starlight tested several tiaras on her daughter’s head.

“Why’s daddy doing this banquet thing, mommy?” asked Platinum, “I thought daddy wasn’t fond to parties.”

“This is no party, honey.” Starlight stopped comparing the accessories, and stared to Platinum directly in her eyes. “Your father invited some of the most influential families to discuss the future of the kingdom. At least, that’s what I hope so. Somehow he believes you’re old enough to learn such matters.”

“Booooooriiiiiing....”

“I know and agree, you’re still too young for this stuff. But the families you’ll meet in this banquet are not like the other parties we’ve had here at the castle. Some of them are fun, and some are kind. But some selfishly think themselves high and mighty.”

“Like daddy?” Platinum tilted her head.

“No, not like him,” Starlight put a golden tiara on her daughter’s head, her cheeks flushed and her eyes glew with a passionate love. “Even if your father thinks himself high and mighty, he’s not selfish about it, he cares for his family and his race. He’s sincere and noble, and everything he does is for the wellbeing of the unicorns. However, he doesn’t care for the wellbeing of earth ponies, and his way of dealing with them may improve. And just between you and I, his beard makes him look ridiculous.”

Once she was finished dressing her daughter, Lady Starlight dismissed Cerulean and took Platinum to the banquet room herself, “I’ll go and look for your father, there’s something I want to ask him,” said Lady Starlight, “you go and mingle, maybe eat something, you look hungry.”

“Good plan, good plan!” responded Platinum, with a relieved grin, her mother left her alone, and she wasted no time to approach the feast in the middle of the hall.

A huge rectangular table covered by a red tablecloth and dishes served with plenty of orange and cabbage salads, and big plates with grapes, apples and strawberries on it. Tons of juicy and sweet looking fruits she has never met before, like a big yellow disk-like treat, it was obviously a piece cut from a larger fruit. With no concern of her manners, she grabbed the thing and put it in her mouth, the juices of the fruit bathed her tongue, and a silly face was forced on her.

“You like it?” said a young orange unicorn colt, his mane and tail were dark yellow, and sapphire colored eyes, he wore an elegant blue jacket and a red bowtie around his neck. “It was harvested from the far south lands, where winter doesn’t exist. It’s called ‘Piña’. And take a look at this,” he offered an even larger piece of a red fruit which had black seeds all over it, and its peel was green with some stripe pattern on it. “This one is ‘Sandía’, try it it’s really sweet.”

Platinum’s interest got caught when she heard one of her favorite words, and snatched the fruit from the colt’s hooves with her mouth.

“I must say, you look dazzling in that magnificent piece, my lady,” claimed the colt, as he flushed a little, however Princess Platinum was too busy devouring the sweet fruit and spitting away the black seeds. “I’ve only seen the beauty of our princess from a distance, but up close, you look even more radiant. It will be my honor to be your escort.”

Platinum turned to see the colt’s face, and for reasons unknown to her, she couldn't stop staring at him, she felt her heart beating as if trying to escape from her chest. When suddenly, a brown, unlucky earth pony filly stumbled against him, the colt lost his balance for a mere second, and he started barking out insults at the earth pony.

"Watch where you're going, hornless! You want to embarrass me in front of the princess? If I was your master you would be already eating the snow outside!"

The poor filly turned around, her angry face wanted to respond, but she was wise, and knew better than to insult a unicorn in a room filled with other powerful unicorns, ”I’m so very sorry, sir. I was clumsy,” she said, and bowed her head before turning away and leaving.

“I’ll have her reported to her master for this insult, did you see her face? The nerve to try and defy a unicorn,” mumbled the colt, “now? Where was I?”

“You were trying to impress me by looking gentle and saying nice words to me,” responded Platinum spitting a few black seeds at his face, “but you just repulsed me with your awful manners. Now if you excuse me, I would be happy if you never speak to me again, or I’ll make YOU eat the snow outside.”

The colt stood shocked as he watched Princess Platinum lash him in the face with her tail.

Almost instinctively, Platinum went to follow that filly, ‘something is different about this earth pony,’ she mumbled to herself.

The filly went out to a garden, she digged a hole in the snow, put her face inside it and screamed as loud as she could. She lifted her head from the snow and sniffed, not noticing the presence of the unicorn standing behind her.

"Uhh, you don’t have to eat the snow just because he said so," said Platinum, she walked two steps closer, the brown earth filly turned around, gasping in shock, her golden manes and tail were all messy.

"E-Excuse me, I didn't mean to cause any trouble," the brown filly bowed, the words sounded sincere but also forced out, almost as if they were spat from her mouth.

"Don't matter," responded Platinum with a big smile, "that colt was very rude!"

The brown filly raised her face, she gasped in shock yet again, "uhhh... yes... yes, he was... thank you, my lady."

"Please, stop it, stop it!" Platinum stomped the snow, "I am not your lady! My name is Platinum, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine... Lady Platinum," the earth pony bowed once again. Then, she felt a cold impact against her head, and traces of snow fell from her head. She raised her face, and a snowball hit her face. She cleaned herself by shaking her head and glared at the unicorn. Platinum was laughing and hopping in celebration.

"Right in your face!" Platinum raised a front hoof and then, a snowball hit her face, too. After cleaning herself, she spotted a giggling filly in front of her, she couldn't help but giggle as well. She prepared another snowball and threw it, but the filly was prepared this time, she dodged easily and responded with her own snowballs. The snow battle extended for a few minutes, until they both fell exhausted on the snow.

"I never thought I'd meet a unicorn who is actually nice. This is the best time I've had since I remember," said the brown filly.

"Me too, I've never had a real friend before," said Platinum with great struggle, she was panting and huffing, "at least, not besides my mother."

"Really? But I’ve seen you with lots of friends in the castle."

"They're not my friends, I barely even know them!"

"You barely even know me, too," said the filly, she chuckled.

"Well, yes. But I've had more fun with you this day than with any other unicorn during my entire life! The colt I met today was the worst! Shame, though... he was actually very good looking."

"What are you doing!?" said a mysterious mare from afar, her voice was hysterical, she trotted to the brown filly and made her get up. She bowed to the unicorn and pressed the filly's head to make her bow too, "please forgive my disrespectful sister, my young lady!"

"But she said we were friends!" claimed the brown filly.

"Don't be ridiculous, earth ponies and unicorns could never be friends, you know that very well!"

"Why not?" asked Platinum, very curiously. The mare turned to the young unicorn, but did not answer, she could not find the words to explain the reason, or maybe she could not find a reason at all.

"That's just the way it is, my young lady," finally said the mare, she took her younger sister back to the castle, the young filly hopelessly looked back at Platinum with a sad look as they got inside the castle.

“I didn't even get her name,” mumbled Platinum, watching her last chance for a friend go.

---

Platinum resigned to return to her father, he was seated on a chair in front of the head of a large table, while the other unicorns discussed stuff about some unicorns that somehow learned the spell of flight, though she was distracted counting the grapes in the bowl in the middle of the table, the conversation suddenly caught her attention when her mother blasted to the king, and she looked very angry.

"Lancer! What is the meaning of this!?" she yelled, and all the unicorns stood silent and trembling upon the rage of the king's wife. There was a piece of paper floating over her head covered with a light blue aura, which apparently, was the reason of her rage. "I forbid it! It's out of the question! NO! NO! NO! You put me in that desk the whole day, and this is what you're teaching to our daughter?" Starlight crushed the piece of paper and threw it at Lancer's head, the piece of paper bounced back and the strong unicorn stood still like a rock.

The discussion went on and on, but Platinum paid no attention to it. Instead, she lifted the piece of paper with her telekinesis spell, and read it, with a confused look.

Day unknown. Month unknown. Year whatever. Explorer unit 142 reporting. Sergeant Raystorm.

The storm has calmed, and after a failed expedition we decided to return home, but we spotted a tribe of hornless to the south, it's awfully near to the city. Our best spellcasters are ready to engage, we are short on supplies and outnumbered, but we have the surprise factor and also we don't expect much of a battle from the hornless, the invasion should go smoothly. We expect your orders Lord Lancer, sire.

“Battle? Invasion?” A chill went down her shoulders as she read these words. She never understood very well the boring documents that her father receives, but these two words she understood perfectly. She turned to her parents, and realised that it was not an ordinary argument, Starlight was yelling at her husband and insulting all the unicorns desperately. But she was silenced by the adamant expression of her husband.

"Starlight!" he raised his voice and walked to his wife, Starlight shut, her lips trembling, "the decision has been made! We have to impose respect to the lesser races. Platinum must understand this while she's still young, and I won't tolerate that you keep confusing her with your compassion towards them! From now on, I'll educate Platinum and you'll be in charge of the economy!"

"Respect!? This is what you call respect!?" Starlight pointed at one of the earth ponies, her voice was cracking and her eyes were teary, "look at that! That's no respect! It is fear! It is hate! Please, Lancer, stop this, I know you want to earn the respect of other races, but this is not the way!"

"I have spoken!" claimed Lancer glaring at his wife with his fiery eyes. Starlight sniffed, she glared back at her husband and ran off the room, "Starlight!" called the unicorn king, but the mare continued and only looked back to see her daughter, a sigh escaped from her before she ran off.

Platinum confused and scared ran after her mother, she heard her father calling for her but she ignored him, she feared for the worst, “what if she doesn't love daddy, anymore?”

She ran as fast as she could, following the echo of the steps of her mother across the corridors of the castle until the main entrance and continued to the streets while the snow slowly started to fall from the sky and the mist blinded her sight, leaving only the silhouette of her mother, "mommy!" she screamed as she ran until the shadow of her mother had disappeared in the mist. Before she realised, she found herself in the main entrance of the city, and strangely enough, the gate was open and the guard was sleeping, obviously a trail of her mother, so she went on.

She was scared, but still determined to go with her mother. She was too tired to keep running, and the snowfall quickly turned into a raging blizzard, but she kept moving forward. Shortly, sparks of light shone before her, left and right, even behind her. The sound of hooves stomping on the snow running around and shrieks of terror and pain alarmed her.

"Where am I? Mommy!" she closed her eyes and screamed as hard as she could, crying and sniffing, "where are you!? I'm scared!"

Then, a group of ponies were running directly at her from ahead, they got so close that she could see the eyes of the ponies attacking with wrath, she was paralyzed by fear, the group of ponies didn't even see the filly before them, they were about to run her over, but she was saved by something that pulled her by the tail.

"Platinum! What in the world?" called a familiar voice, Platinum was so happy to hear it, she didn't have to see her to know that it was her mother's voice, "Platinum! Listen, go inside one of the houses and hide, don't come out until I tell you, okay? I know you are afraid, but please, do this for me."

"Mommy... hide with me... you are afraid too," the young filly barely managed to say, trembling and sniffing.

"I'll come back to you, honey," Starlight kissed her daughter in the cheek and hugged her as tight as she could before taking her to a home for her to hide, "somepony has to put an end to this, Platinum. It's okay to be afraid as long you don't let it stop you."

Platinum ran inside the house, she went to the kitchen and opened a cabinet to lock herself in. She closed her eyes and covered her ears, but she could still listen to the the screams of ponies and explosions, and the steps of running ponies rumbled the house, and time went on, seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours and the chaos outside didn't stop, until the hours started to feel like an eternity.

---

All the hellish sounds still echoed in her ears, but the rumbling of the earth stopped. The young filly opened her eyes and when she uncovered her ears, there was only silence, the storm had also stopped. She cleaned her eyes and nose and went outside, she peeked outside the window. On the snowy ground there were ponies lying around and stains of red all over a small street, she didn't even realise when she entered in the small village.

She proceeded to the door and slowly opened to walk out, she spotted a unicorn crawling to the house, "honey..." she managed to whisper, Platinum gasped covering her mouth with one of her hooves, there was a trail of blood behind the crawling unicorn.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Platinum ran to her mother crying heavily.

"Starlight!" another scream sounded from afar. It was the king, who came running and hugged his wife, there was a small hole on the mare's chest which was still pouring blood, "no... why?! This is not happening!"

Platinum watched her father shed some tears for the first time, her mother coughed abruptly as she began to talk, "Lancer... I tried to make them listen... I tried to reason... but there was so much hate... please end this hate... and Platinum... my lovely daughter... now it's your turn to be the lady of the unicorns... "

"No! I don't want to!" Platinum wept leaning her face against her mother's chest next to the wound, she could feel how her mother struggled to breath, "I want you to come home with me! I want you to use your sleeping spell on me! I want to hear more tales! You haven't told me about Autumn!"

"Ahh... yes... Autumn..." the mare caressed her daughter's head, "honey, Autumn is when the withered leaves of the trees fall... to leave place for the new leaves that... will bloom in spring. Now it's time for my leave to fall from our family tree... and you, honey... you are the leave who will bloom... and take my place... you must learn how to love... and how to tolerate..."

Platinum felt how her mother's chest stopped pulling air, and the faint warmth of her body turned cold little by little, she raised her face to look at her mother's, and Starlight smiled and slowly closed her eyes, with her hoof still on Platinum's head. Platinum hugged the corpse of her mother and cried on her chest.

The king also cried silently next to his daughter and caressed his wife's face. However, he opened his eyes and frowned, "earth ponies!" he gritted his teeth, his tears were not made of sorrow nor sadness, they were made of something different.

From that night on, the princess of the unicorns shed the tears against her pillow every single night for several weeks, until one night, the tears didn't come out anymore.