Onyx

by Ravenpuff

Long Live the Princess

Taking over a kingdom lost from time after the harsh rule of a dark king is… no, taking over sounds hostile. I was put in lead by the support of the Royal Sisters as well as my new subjects in need of guidance.

I’m told I remind them of their old princess. I have found no name in any records other than simply Crystal Princess. Like the title was her name.

I can’t help but feel saddened by that. A pony, even a monarch over a forgotten nation, should be more than just a title. But I wish not to reopen too many wounds this soon by asking around for more details. Losing their princess must have been a great loss. And then conquered by an evil unicorn crowning himself their king. To be lost in time for a thousand years, now having to adjust to not only being free again but to learn how much the outside world has changed without them.

I can be their Crystal Princess for as long they need. I’m here to help them rebuild and heal.

The Crystal Heart rebuild their hope, restored their love as they restored the Heart in return. It is a beautiful symbiosis. I’m sure Sombra hid it away instead of destroying the heart, thinking it was purely a powerful tool he could hope to corrupt for own use. Instead it became his doom. His darkness forever cleansed from this kingdom through its power and the love of the ponies it is connected to.

All that is history. Now we rebuild, focusing on presence and the future.

Even with their love and hope restored, they still need to heal.

I do my best to wash away the darkness, the bad dreams and black memories. At least it is easy to see when a job is done well. These crystal ponies shine with the most beautiful light once their minds have been restored to how they were before everything was taken away from them.

Even after the return of the Crystal Heart and its cleansing of the Empire, there are still ponies out there not yet shining.

The more they shine, the more they hope and love, the stronger the Crystal Heart will be and it will continue to protect them and tenfold that love.

As new Crystal Princess, it is my job to help that cycle continue. I must rebuild the hope still lost among those few. Help them heal and tell them they are not alone with their burdens. We are all in this together. Together as one, King Sombra will be nothing more than a forgotten memory. A bad dream washed away by morning light.

But my job is more than that. Secure their happiness will lead to secure their safety, after all. As long the Heart and the Crystal Ponies are in sync, they will keep each other safe.

Even before King Sombra’s reign, they were an isolated state, not needing the world outside their borders. The world has grown since then and what both Equestria and the Crystal Empire needs are allies. Friends. Trade. Connections. They need to feel safe enough to leave the only world they knew and explore this new modern world. And allow the new world in.

So many meetings, trading agreements, upgrading of laws and adjustment of what worked then to what works now.

Still, I must never forget my new subjects. They are not just a mass of shiny ponies. They are individuals. Each needing to shine their own light. And we have found a few who has yet to shine.

I’m meeting one of them today.

She is just one among those who have a harder time putting the past behind them. And I understand. I have no way of truly knowing the horrors they went through and the shock the return to the living world must be. A thousand years lost. To us that’s forever ago - To them it all happened yesterday. Of course not everypony will move on right away.

But we all need to shine, to keep the Empire protected.

She is shy, quiet. She wears a coat of the bright fabrics the Empire takes pride in producing. But she isn’t wearing it with pride; it is a cloak to hide how dull her coat is. She seems surprised when the guards leave us to talk alone, watching them leave like she expected them to stay. Or something else.

She doesn’t dare to look at me, yet I keep a gentle smile. Just like Princess Celestia. Stay calm, keep on a soothing smile even if ponies are not looking. Not even an almighty alicorn can know for sure when ponies are looking. And your expression can mean everything to calm or upset a pony.

I look her over while the silence reign between us. We have time, I made sure to make time, let her adjust to the room and the royal presence, before pushing the agenda.

Her mane unkempt, hanging flat. Although the colours are dull, I see the purple tones that would be absolutely beautiful in the crystal gleam of a the citizens in this Empire. Her coat nearly grey, but hints of teal. Her eyes might be rosey although they seem so bloodshot I might be wrong.

Finally I clear my throat. She flinches, even stepping back from me. She’s afraid.

This is new.

I have never had ponies be afraid me, not even when I first ascended.

Her eyes are wide, finally looking at me. Pupils are just pin pricks, I’m not even sure she is actually seeing me. She looks so… lost.

“Remove your coat, please,” I request softly. That calming tone I’ve practice hours on end, mimicking my auntie Celestia. She always had that motherly tone set just right to connect to any pony she talks to. I don’t know how the Crystal Princess was like, but if she was anything like Celestia it is only right I try to fit the role.

She trembles. I fight the urge to frown.

Finally the cloak slides off of her form, revealing the rest of her figure. So thin, like she barely kept herself alive.

I know of her as neighbours had reported their worries. Of a mare keeping herself locked away in her home, even refusing visits from friends and family. Isolating herself, only leaving home every so often for a quick grocery run hidden under her cloak and then back home, to lock away the outside world once more.

They all worried for her wellbeing, when unable to reach her.

She’s carrying saddlebags as well, which she slides off onto the floor gently. Leaving herself naked, eyes back down on the polished floors. Staring at her own reflection which is looking back with terror.

The frown makes its way through my mask when I notice the movement of the saddlebag.

She actually brought it with her.

“Show it to me,” I say. Staying calm. Motherly tone. It’s not an order, it is a request with a hint of wish for her to comply. So hard to copy that from Auntie Celestia. She had centuries and more to practice though.

“Please,” I ad as she trembles more, like I had shouted at her.

She’s so scared.

The saddlebag is opened. She doesn’t lift it up to present it to me, simply pushing the opened bag towards me across the floor. Still trembling, eyes wide as she collapses to the ground with a sob. She looks like somepony who has lost everything.

I look down into the bag, so hard to keep the pity off of my face.

The poor thing looks as starved as his mother.

The bag no longer concealing the colt from the light, he wakes and whimpers softly. No wails, no cries, just whimpers, slowly growing to whines.

He must be so hungry. He feels starved of love as well. Putting an infant foal into a bag is no way to transport them.

I gently pick him up into my hooves after removing the hoof guards, they might be uncomfortable. He wiggles and whines some more.

The coat is dark grey, nearly black. The little bit of mane he has, that baby fluff, is a dark purple like his mother’s. Slowly his unfocused eyes blink open, a bright rose of colour looking up at me. Not curious, barely seeing me. Just like his mother, but not out of terror. Without stimulation, support or basic care he has no motivation to muster the natural curiosity for the world around him as any newborn should have.

I wish I had received the reports sooner.

But they are not beyond saving just yet.

Smiling I coo at the little one, trying to capture his attention. My horn lit up, having my suspicions based on the tales of the worried neighbours, I made sure to be prepared. A bottle or formula might be a silly thing to keep prepared near a throne when not yet confirmed a foal would be brought before you. But I’m now glad I did. He’s so hungry. Starving herself as she did, nursing him must been difficult.

She is finally looking up from her position on the floor, looking at me with shock. What else did she expect me to do with a foal?

As he feeds from the bottle eagerly, I smile at her. I get no smile in return.

We stay in silence for a while, I adjust my hold on the foal to better support him. I have no foals of my own, yet, but I am a veteran foalsitter, I know a thing or two.

“He has your eyes,” I finally comment. I have to lift the bottle from him for a moment. He whines, still hungry, but has to pace himself less he chokes in his own eagerness.

No response. At least she’s finally getting up from the floor, sitting up. Staring at me, looking at the baby like it’s the first time she ever saw him before.

“I can tell he has your mane too,” I add. Compare him to her; remind her she’s his mother.

The father is obvious, but he is of no concern. He is unimportant, gone to history, a passing nightmare now left to be forgotten.

The poor thing could do with a bath. They both could. It must have been hard, the depression and trauma. Taking care of herself as well as a newborn which at the time only seemed to serve as a reminder of the pain, it must been too overwhelming.

But the baby is not the carrier of the father’s sins. That is not fair. He never asked to be brought into this world this way. All he wants is to live. And to be loved.

The bottle finally empty I put it aside. He squirms and whimpers. I wave her closer to me with my hoof, offering the baby back into her arms. Not the bag, her arms properly as a mother should hold their foal.

She still seems in shock. But no longer in horror, more of a dazed shock. I make her hold him. With gentle hints helping her to burp him until he finally rests easy against his mother’s chest.

Finally her shocked expression cracks, the emotions welling up inside her as the tears start to pour.

Being alone with the burden, alone with the pain. So blinded by it she couldn’t even see herself in her own child, a living being in need of her love.

“You’re not alone,” I assure her as she cries. I put my hooves and wings around her, pulling all three of us into a protective cocoon of love and security. Just us, a moment of pain let loose to let it wash away finally.

Of course this won’t cure it all away. It will still hurt, it will still be hard.

But she is not alone. She will get the help needed. For both herself and her son. They will shine, together, with all the love shared between them like the love shared between this nation’s ponies and the Crystal Heart.

“What’s his name?” I ask softly, watching the little colt drift to sleep to digest his meal.

Sniffling she looks down at him. Finally truly looking at him. Looking at her foal, the baby she brought into this world all by herself and now need to introduce to the world.

“I-I…” she stammers. I’m putting her on the spot, I realize far too late. She never named him.

“Onyx,” she finally says, before I can take my question back.

I smile. “Fitting. A beautiful gem stone.”

It will be a long, hard road.

But they will be both shine.

Author's Note:

You guys have NO Idea how long this story was stuck in my head. Years actually. Maybe started to form half a year after the first showing of the Crystal Empire episodes.

It has changed length and form a few times while keeping this story purely in my head. I never wrote it down until now because I considered it too short, too simple or too cliche or pointless to share. But now it's finally out of my head at least.

Not much else to say, as usual I rather leave the point of the story to be up to the reader. That said, I'll admit the ending changed dramatically from the first draft in my head years ago. The original ending was with Cadence forcing the mare to forget the time with Sombra through magic manipulation to make her love her child without the pain. But I couldn't add that fluidly to the story as I wrote, and with the concept of birth depression I felt I was better to leave it treated more naturally than just magic fixing it all. Although the idea would have been with an air of disapproval to fix it like that. Still, changed is changed.

Anyways, this is how it turned out in the end. I hope you enjoyed it.

Comments

[Ice Star]

“I can tell he has your mane too,” I ad. Compare him to her; remind her she’s his mother.

*add

I enjoyed this! Though, I would add a crystal pony tag too.

[sailing101]

Strange how much sense things can make when you know the context. Going back to the previous chapter after reading this one feels like a completely different story.

[Fury Assembly]

Great story a little short but really nice.

[Ravenpuff]

8808230

Oh, thanks. I can never remember if that has one or two d's.

[Ravenpuff]

8808551

Glad to know I succeeded my intention with that.

[Ravenpuff]

8808782

Yeah, I worried if the buildup of the first chapter was too much for such a short story, bit it's how long it was always meant to be.

[Drago Cadenza]

I think it was for the best to change the original ending, since it would be way too OOC for Cadence.
Great job on the story by the way. Have a heart.

[Ravenpuff]

8809832

Yeah, although I liked the subject of leaving it open to discuss the right and wrong in "fixing" ponies through magic, especially with somepony shown able to force ponies to fall in love to make them stop fighting, a matured Cadence might not done so now. Least of all after the whole idea of her husband being under the control and magic manipulation of a changeling Queen.

Thanks!

[Drago Cadenza]

8810393
You're Welcome.

Though I thought young Cadence would just remind couples why they love each other with her spell, but to each his own I guess.

[Ravenpuff]

8810899

In the show they specifically said she made ponies fall in love with her magic, but yes each their own how to read into it. Was never brought up again in-show either way.

[litmauthor]

Ah, I guess I missed the original ending, still good though. I mean most of it was very depressing, I cried more than a little on parts of it, but in a good way since it's a depressing subject matter. Very nice overall, I'm somewhat curious what the original ending was, but I think I probably prefer this one.

[Ravenpuff]

8812549

Sometimes you just gotta write sad stuff. Since I've had the story in my head for years and only now wrote it down, parts of it, like the ending, has shifted a bit until finished up as this final product.

Either way I'm glad people like it.

[SIGAWESOME]

I love the note of hope the story ends on. It is going to be a difficult journey, but we just know mother and colt are going to make it now that they are not alone.

[Ravenpuff]

8813735

I like to leave open endings for people to build their own ideas on. Either way it truly ends happy or not, the journey has begun and they will indeed not be left to do it alone now.