Missing Pages & Scrawled Footnotes

by Ice Star

Pri(n)celess [Cancelled]

Author's Note:

This story was cancelled before I could get more than the prelude out. Sorry! I have a lot on my plate, especially in terms of future stories and working on the epic beast that is Favorable Alignment. Does this mean you won't get to know what happens? No, of course not! I had an outline written for this story so you can get all the notes and other details of the setting in the next chapter that will be published with this one.

Because this wasn't a scrapped story, the events that occurred are still canon to the Iceverse, even if they were never written. Might I come back to this story another day? Yes, it is always possible, but for now it stays here. It's also extremely unlikely. Sorry...

On a side note, the title can be read as either 'Princeless' or 'Priceless', in case anyone was wondering about that. This was also an entry for the Time Action Glory Challenge and inspired by the Imposing Sovereigns contest, though it was never an official entry (had I done so my prompt would have been 'Madwoman Platinum'). Set before the events of the show. Stand-alone sequel. You don't need to read the prequel to understand the content.

---

I Put The Goddamned Title At The Top Already

Teen|Horsie Kisses|I Give The Fuck Up

Princess Platinum is in mourning after the death of Clover, her faithful companion. But none would know just how deep their bond really was, and it would be a secret that the noble unicorn takes to her grave... among other less-than-noble things.

Princess Platinum, like all of the Unicorn Royalty before her, was a mostly insufferable brat. Her muzzle was always scrunched up with disdain and turned upwards with contempt, but this was not an unusual gait for any who dwelled in the cold, unforgiving stone stronghold that was the unicorn's castle in the near-barren Tribelands.

She stumbled down dim halls after the adults when she could escape her nurse, following in her mother's hoofsteps not because she cared for her - Platinum was a proper filly and was indulged with no silly notions by any of the castle staff, or her mother, Queen Vitalis. She was raised to be a proper unicorn after all. Even at the tender age of four winters old she knew that only three things mattered: the blood in her veins that marked her as royalty, the gold of her family, horn on her head - but not magic, which was a mad notion for those below her since her crown would get her what she wanted.

She heard this and much more whispered in the hall by noblemares and stallions rushing about with servants rushing blindly to their every need, never questioning an order as was proper. Platinum was a good filly, and in her time a good filly was a little filly like her - spoiled beyond belief and rotten to her very core, as cold as the metal for which her and her father before her and his father before him were all named.

Platinum looked like her father too. Her luminous white mane, a trait that named her sire before she spoke his name, grew long and spilled over her withers and brow, helped in part by the long grooming sessions that maids made her endure, brushing out each tangle that they were allowed to keep in their own non-stop, ignoring the young filly's constant cries not to pull so hard. But those ceased after a while, the queen would not have such a noisy daughter and her cold, loveless words made it clear to the young filly - who understood not much at all at her tender age - that she was to obey. She was a proper filly. A good filly. A royal filly. A unicorn filly. All of which were things that mattered, as she was often told. Though, she was never told why, but that was alright, for she never asked.

Her father's coat of silver had not shown in hers, but his watery blue eyes were shared with her. She loved them, even though she had to squint nearly all the time to see anything that was more than a couple hoof-lengths in front of her. But that was okay too, because if she squinted hard enough her mother's pale green coat - rare and to be treasured she was told - almost looked bluish. She hated her coat, and whispered to curses at her hooves when nopony was listening.

It was ugly because it reminded her of her mother. Anything that reminded her of her mother was ugly. She was glad that her mother was not there to hit her like all the other mothers Platinum knew.

She was glad that in Tirek's first invasion, her mother was the most notable victim of his destruction. Yet, this never changed the fact that every time she opened her eyes, she often saw the face of a mare that only lingered in portraits on the halls, a mare she had never met. A ghost no magician could detect, if they believed her at all. A phantom her father, King Tantalum, told her to shut up about lest the court think her mad.

In her chambers, she heard her mother's voice, haunting her and telling her about all the things a good filly would do, her voice as cold as Platinum could recall from the lingering memories of her mother, which were few considering she was only an infant at the time of her death, and even then her mother only wanted to adhere to the proper customs of the court and allow a nurse to see to her daughter, who would have been heir in name only and continued to be so until the death of her mother and her father's near-scandalous choice not to take a new wife made her the heir of the Unicorn Tribe - even if she wasn't a colt.

Her mother liked to remind her of that a lot too - even when ponies where around Platinum. The queen was there to tell her daughter that she should have been a colt. Platinum didn't know why her mother longed for this so much. She was dead. Her stare was cold. Her voice was like the ice of the long winter that her land experienced. Sometimes, the little filly would wonder if she could touch her mother - though she had no reason to - and if she would feel as cold as her voice was.

The days when her mother wouldn't come were the worst. Platinum was often alone then, and she hated being alone even when her mother wasn't there. She would sway back and forth on her hooves as much as her gaudy silk dresses and jewels would allow under cold pressures that she didn't think should be there and achy headaches she liked to imagine were just from her having a horn. It was like when her father told her the crown was a burden, she simply concluded that all this was the burden of being the pure race, the true race and all the other things she was told.

Listen and obey. She did those a lot. The only pony Platinum never thought to obey was her mother, who told her things she wasn't sure how to obey and didn't sound like commands at all.

Princess Platinum was not a scholar. She was not smart, but she was called beautiful countless times, as was proper for mares and fillies to be called. Smart and powerful were words for the stallions. She knew that, but being a princess she knew a fair deal too. She knew that she hated her mother, who made her eyes burn with colors she didn't like before she appeared and watched little Platinum when she wasn't there. Platinum felt cold strokes on her mane when no crown was there, and she knew it was her mother. The bitter taste of something like poor ale would touch her throat after she spoke her mother's name but she smiled to show everypony how much she loved the dead mare who stalked the halls from portrait and told her to listen, listen, listen to everypony and all the things that the queen knew to be true about life. She had been born to the highest gentry and had a marriage arranged with the king, whom she never loved and never would - as was proper - and always loved to remind Platinum of this as a distant scream that was never hers replayed in her mind. Was it her mother's scream? She wasn't sure of that, but she liked it. Sometimes, it would make her feel safe.

She was almost glad that the shadow of the queen - sometimes she thought of her as a shadow when nopony was watching, but that was almost never - took such pleasure in tormenting her. It meant she had a heart. Somewhere. Probably.

Like her mother and father, Princess Platinum took to lies easily. What pony didn't? Lies were everyday, common among both the wealthy and the poor, and almost required. They were a basic part of speech, like all the other things she was supposed to memorize from the tutors who didn't quiz her all that well at times. She heard them talk about how she would have been better off a colt, but that was okay because most of the time she didn't hear them. She avoided the cane and always stared straight ahead. At the lesson.

But that was a lie too. She really didn't like lessons all that much. Instead, she preferred to stare as calmly as possible at her mother, who sat there. She attended every lesson, her hard look of disapproval always boring into Platinum.

It didn't matter. Things were okay. Lots of things were okay. Many ponies were okay.

Platinum just wasn't one of them.