Of the Lost Prince
Chapter I: Emergence
In an eldritch abyss a lone beacon of energy existed.
It had no movement, no purpose in this nothing, but at irregular intervals, great arcs of power and energy would explode out from the amorphous energy. The arcs would dissipate over a meaningless amount distance, and seemingly set the entire abyss ablaze, an awe-inspiring hellmouth.
And, of course, on occasion a great booming voice would emanate from the abyss itself, the prisoner enjoyed hearing himself talk now and again.
This went on for countless years.
Literally, the prisoner had no way of gauging the passage of time, except perhaps, by the ebb and flow of his power.
And power was something he was not stingy with. She had thought she had severed his connection to the Fates, but she was wrong. She had thought she had destroyed him, but she had not.
And he was much anticipating telling her so, personally.
At first he had not understood the spell keeping him trapped. He had forced his power against the prison again and again, but the walls only got stronger. He had pushed his power evenly across the prison, but the walls drank the energy. But when he simply let energy radiate from him, that was his salvation.
The spellwork of the prison was beyond incredible, and that was what one expected from the the Oracle, but this prison was still an awe-inspiring feat. Unlike other shields and spells of that nature, this spell was not a wall, but a membrane. Like a cell with water, it kept a ratio of energy inside the prison to the outside.
As powerful and knowledgeable as he was, he could not violate the laws of the universe, but he could exploit them.
As he forced his energy into the abyss, the walls of prison let it flow out, and the more energy he let out the less stable the walls became, bending and stretching from the pressure as more and more of the barriers crumbled into formless energy until...
He could feel it now. An infinitesimal portion of the great abyss, illuminated with foreign energy, as if a dust mote in a scorching ray of Sun.
He smiled, well, as close as an amorphous blob of energy could come to a smile. Regardless, after so long pecking away at the many barriers keeping him trapped, the last, and weakest, one had been breached.
An eggshell within a castle, so to speak.
Quickly, before any elaborate spellwork could patch the hole, or otherwise impede upon his progress, he forced his awareness into the world.
And laughed a deep, somehow both mirthful and menacing, laugh that resounded throughout the dilapidated corridors of stone and iron that he could now see.
Then he began a hunt.
He sensed every living thing within hundreds of yards, and quickly delved into their minds.
He could see now, through a thousand eyes, hear through a thousand ears.
Rats, mice, insects, termite colonies, and the odd bat made their way to him, until, finally, he had assembled his grand host.
Laughing bitterly at the cruel fate that had befallen him, relying on bugs and harbingers of disease to advance his agenda, he isolated the weak, old, and sick.
Those he selected rose into the air silently, surrounded by a sepia brown aura. Then, they began to disintegrate, being sucked of all their magical energies. What was left of them was crudely transformed into pure energy, or fell to the ground as husks and dust.
He sighed in satisfaction as he directed the energy toward his efforts of freeing himself. The additional power was welcome, but it was not nearly enough. He needed more.
He had existed in nothing for untold millennia, he was not eager to wait more.
He directed his faster minions: bats, rats, flies, and so on, to find a way out of the decrepit dungeon he found himself in, and to bring him some sentient creature.
He loathed to think at all the gossip he had missed.
Chuckling at his own thoughts he commanded his remaining subjects to spread throughout the area and alert him to any strange happenings. He would not be snuck up on.
He focused all his energy back to tearing apart his prison, and waited for his minions to return.
Lucky was a bit displeased with himself, sure Fluttershy was beautiful and kind and cute and perfect in every way imaginable, but it probably wasn’t worth dying over a plant just to get her attention.
“This is crazy. Zecora better have been right about where I can find that damn flower.”
The flower that he was muttering about was the Foal Blue Gym Sock, a rare plant renowned for its beauty and taste, and a key ingredient in Fluttershy’s favorite dish, Plat de fleurs exotiques et francité.
Lucky wasn’t a five star chef, but he had been practicing the dish for a month. He was confident enough in his skills to finally go all the way, the flower would be his.
…
...
…
...
…
...
Zecora didn’t say it would take this long. All she said was:
“The flower you seek is to be found in the north, be wary and hastily go forth. Something has upset the Everfree’s beasts, and I doubt it is an innocent mirthful feast.”
Then she slammed shut her door, from behind which ancient words did pour.
So Lucky assumed that he wouldn’t want to stick around too long, not that he would have anyway. The Everfree is about as inviting and hospitable as a minotaur’s mouth, sometimes literally.
“It’s fine, I can do this. I can do this.”
A demonic moan from the deepest pits of Tartarus sounded through the trees.
Lucky upped his trot to a gallop and his pep talk to nervous whinnys.
His stomach kept pace with him, motivating him onward with its demonic moans.
A rat skittered through the underbrush of the forest.
It dodged and jumped and sprinted when necessary, fueled by an ancient magic that existed long before the forest was a single sapling.
Many things it encountered were of interest to its master, the violence of the forest, the odd gnarled stature of the trees, the general intimidating nature of everything. The rat’s master had seen something like this long ago, an ecosystem of cruel rage instead of calculated necessity.
One thing was obvious to him, much power was expended here, power that saturated the ground and air, power that over hundreds of years had been carelessly, perhaps unknowingly, weaved into a very dark blanket over this land.
Some of this was his, the earth responded to him in a recognizable, if warped, way, but another power was much more prevalent, that of the Oracle. This was a surprise, for the Oracle was used wholly, and they could not have used it in its completeness without him.
Something else was odd about it too. The Oracle was whole, but it was...reckless? No that wasn’t right. It was used wholly and with its consent, but without skill. As if its users were connected but did not know they were. Very, very odd, but even more exciting.
The Oracle was nearby, it had been used perhaps only a couple of years ago. And the Oracle would lead him, one way or another, to them.
His musing was interrupted by a most welcome sight, a pony.
A cobalt stallion, apparently collapsed from exhaustion. The stallion was breathing heavily and slumped on the ground and his limbs were splayed outwards. In front of the stallion was a blue flower, a flower the rat’s master recognized.
The flower was rara perfide.
The stallion had just recognized the flower, unless there was some other reason he was dancing and approaching the plant.
This was a prime opportunity.
Without delay the rat obeyed its master and jumped into the small clearing that held the flower and stallion. It snapped the base of the stem and ran with the flower, a furious stallion shortly behind.
The rat’s master smiled. He would soon have company.
Exhausted, and just a bit ashamed that he had been running from his stomach the last few minutes, Lucky collapsed into a clearing.
“Well, guess that’s that. I’m not going to find that flower, I’m not going to make that dish, and I most definitely am not going to have Fluttershy. Celestia I’m pathe-DEAR SISTERS YES!!!”
As he lifted his head up he found the object of his desires, well not Fluttershy, but the legendary flower, right in front of him. He shot up, and without any thought, began advancing toward the plant with a Pinkie worthy pep in his step.
Until a rat ran out of the underbrush and snatched the flower, before running back the way it came.
Lucky was not pleased in the slightest.
“Wh-what? COME BACK HERE YOU RAT!! I KNOW PONIES!!! YOU’RE A DEAD RAT, RAT!!!!”
The rat’s master watched with hundreds of other eyes as the stallion chased the rat. He prepared a few speeches in his mind, none of them were particularly good.
How does one say, “Hello stallion that just chased my mind controlled rat for the past couple of miles. I’m an ancient being that was petrified by an even more ancient power, and I would really appreciate it if you could give me the abridged version of the last three thousand or so years of history, thanks. Oh, and please don’t ask about why I was imprisoned,” without coming off as evil or insane.
Of course, he was pretty sure he was as close to insane as he could get, and if anypony remembered him he was probably remembered as evil. But first impressions are everything, and it certainly wouldn’t do to be branded a menace to society immediately. Especially if the Oracle was still functioning.
He barely escaped that last prison. He was NOT going back, ever.
The stallion was coming now, he hesitated at the entrance, and then entered.
Wheezing and coughing, Lucky came to stop at the stone passageway the rat had just descended into.
“Oh, *wheeze* sure wh-*cough*-why not. An ancient stone hole, yeah, why not. Celestia I’m so dead.”
Not heeding his own portent, he took a deep breath and entered the cave.
Before realizing it was pitch black inside. “Hehe, well, uh, time to go home then.”
He was turning to gallop back to bed, when the flower caught his eye. It was glowing and illuminating the rat as it ran down the passage.
“I don’t remember reading anything about the flower glowing. Why am I still doing this?”
A few millennia locked inside a stone and thaumaturgical cage hadn’t done wonders for his thinking.
Of course, he should have realized that he was staring through the eyes of dwellers of the dark. A pony couldn’t very well just run straight to him in a pitch black labrinth.
Luckily he had thought to make the flower luminescent before the cobalt stallion could leave.
And he and the rat were close. It was time to make an impression.
Lucky had stopped shouting at the rat long ago, but he had lost none of his intensity, despite the burning in his lungs.
In fact, the rat seemed to be slowing down. He was winning this rat race!
The rat turned a corner. Lucky followed suit.
It was dark. The flower was gone.
“Hello?” That just seemed the right thing to say really.
Suffice to say, he was surprised when a voice answered.
“Hello yourself, pony.” A voice came from seemingly everywhere at once. It was very disturbing.
The voice itself, however, wasn’t. It was deep and rich and smooth. It radiated power and vitality, yet also wisdom and majesty. He would call himself crazy, but it sounded like Princess Celestia.
“Are you frightened? There is no need to be, I shall not hurt you, and I assure you nothing can here.”
“W-who exactly am I ta-talking to?” He whispered and swiveled his eyes around anxiously.
“Ah, where are my manners? I have been called many things over the ages. ‘God,’ by those who could not understand my power, ‘Prince,’ by those who respected me and my sisters, and ‘Monster,’ by those who opposed me.”
As he said those words, what must have been hundreds of torches lit themselves as he emphasised parts of his speech. They revealed a great library, or what was once a great library. Now the marble shelves were black with dirt, and the books were but husks of leather covers. Only the walls seemed unscathed, expertly smoothed rock that still shone with the light of the torches.
“But you may call me, ‘Terrarius, Master of the earth, and Prince of the Kingdom of Equestria.”
As he said, “Terrarius,” a great chandelier above became lit and revealed the speaker to Lucky.
A statue of an alicorn was before him. The alicorn was bent low to the ground, in a charging position, his wings, each about the size of Lucky, were extended, and his face was twisted into a snarl.
The whole thing radiated power and hatred, and was a near perfect contrast with the voice’s demeanor.
This was all too much for Lucky, who promptly collapsed at the hooves of the statue.
Terrarius snorted, “Foal.”
Chapter II: Learn, Reconnoiter, Retaliate
Of the Lost Prince
Chapter II: Learn, Reconnoiter, Retaliate
The stallion in front of Terrarius had been unconscious for ten minutes and showed no sign of waking up soon.
Terrarius was less than amused. He had waited thousands of years to break free of his binds, and now he was impeded by a mortal’s lack of mental fortitude. Typical.
He searched through the minds of his minions, and managed to amuse himself for awhile, but he tired of it quickly. He swept his mind through the great library, but there was nothing even close to a page let alone a word. He poked at the sleeping stallion hoping to wake him, or at least to react in an amusing manner, but all he did was mumble “Fluttershy.”.
It was odd, but for the first time in almost all his memory, he was bored.
He had always had something to do, something to think about and plan, but he didn’t know anything about the state of the world. How can a newborn conject on a world he doesn’t know?
“Wake up.”
The stallion didn’t respond.
“Wake up!”
His front left leg gave a twitch.
“WAKE UP YOU SPINELESS PEASANT!!”
He coughed.
“I SWEAR UPON THE FATES I SHALL-I SHALL-I, I’ll what? I’ll kill him? And then what? I suppose I keep foalnapping ponies and scaring them asleep until I’m discovered?” He sighed, “Look at me, yelling at a sleeping stallion to awaken, and I can’t even do that. I should feel indignant, but that’s what got me here in the first place. I should hate to say it, but I don’t think conquering is the answer to my problems.”
He sighed again and became still, pondering how he could have been brought so low.
Lucky was with Fluttershy. She smiled at him and laughed when he told jokes, it was magical. She showered his Prench dish with praise and asked him to cook for her again, to which he immediately asserted he would have lunch for her tomorrow, or breakfast if she so wished, or a midnight snack.
They were happy in a meadow, the sun was bright but cool, and perfect little clover patches dotted themselves among the marigolds and chrysanthemums and the million other flowers. Soft shadows rolled languidly across the land from the few white, doughy clouds that hung in the sky.
And of course there was a rainbow that perfectly silhouetted Fluttershy.
Life was perfect.
“Anything you need my most beautiful and perfect angel?” Lucky asked his love.
“Yes, actually. If you don’t mind.” Fluttershy hid partially behind her mane. Lucky was sure such cuteness could only be bad for his life expectancy.
“Well if it’s not too much trouble could you WAKE UP YOU WORTHLESS WASTE OF ESSENCE!!”
Lucky awoke with a start.
“I see you’re back in the land of the waking, excellent. We have much to discuss.” The voice was calm, but he was most definitely not making a request.
“You’re Terrarius, right?” Lucky sounded unsure of himself, not entirely unconvinced he wasn’t lying in the middle of the Everfree hallucinating from dehydration and infection.
Terrarius had to restrain himself from giving the stallion in front of him a very physical lesson on proper protocol relating to the addressing of royalty. Instead of breaking the stallion’s legs he replied, “That is correct. And on such a note, what do you go by, mo-pony?”
“Oh, um, I’m Lucky.” He said doing a remarkable impersonation of the object of his dream’s affections.
“Well, Lucky, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. And please do forgive me if I seem a bit, how should I say it, curt? After so many millennia trapped inside one’s own mind, well, patience is somewhat of a commodity in regards to freedom.”
“Trapped in your own mind?” The stallion seemed somewhat perplexed by this statement.
I suppose the truth would serve me little good. “Yes, I was the most unfortunate accident of an experiment gone awry quite some time ago. It left me a bit, petrified, I dare say?”
“Okay…” He was still a bit confused, but that mostly had to do with the fact he was talking with an alicorn.
“Indeed. As it is I am quite anxious to be free of these binds, but first I must have some information in regards to the world. I hope you are not opposed?” The slightest bit of malice was concealed by a polite tone.
“Nope, no, not a bit.” Lucky was not the most socially perceptive of ponies, but even he knew that one didn’t refuse a being as immensely powerful as the one he was talking to.
“Excellent. First, do the names Celestia or Luna mean anything to you?” His voice was even betraying not the slightest hint of what answer he was hoping for or thought likely.
“Of course, the Princesses rule Equestria.” That seemed like an odd question, even for an alicorn that had apparently been trapped for thousands of years.
“Hmm, what of the Oracle of the Fates?”
“The what?”
“The Oracle, an immensely powerful arcane device that channels the ambient energy of a thaumic location and amplifies it with the host’s own essence.”
“I’ve never heard of the, uh, ‘Oracle,’ but what you described sounds a lot like the Elements of Harmony.”
“Elements of Harmony? Please, elaborate.”
“Oh, sure, well the Elements of Harmony are really powerful objects that six ponies wield to defeat evil using the power of friendship.”
“Of course they are. Have they been used in this forest recently?”
“Well not recently, but a little over two years ago the six got the Elements from here.”
“Indeed they did. I suppose these six have names?”
“Yeah. Twilight Sparkle, she’s the Element of Magic and kinda their leader. Rainbow Dash, she’s the Element of Loyalty. Applejack is Honesty. Rarity is Generosity. Pinkie Pie is Laughter and the most hyper living thing I know. And finally Fluttershy, the most perfect beautiful mare in all of Equestria, she’s Kindness and there isn’t a more perfectly titled pony, and she is just so p-”
I thought the world might have grown soft since I was gone, but this is outrageous. “While I would love nothing more than to stay here forever and hear you rant about you infatuations, I’m afraid I have some rather urgent items on my agenda. This Twilight Sparkle, she is the leader of the six?”
Lucky shrank considerably from his high of discussing Fluttershy, of which he is a master, under the cold sarcasm of the immortal being in front of him. “Y-yeah.”
“Tell me all there is to know about her.”
A squirrel hidden in a bush was eagerly devouring the acorn in front of her. Intermittently she lifted her head, twitched an ear, and took a few sniffs of the air before returning to her meal.
All in all it was a normal day for her, until a malicious spirit of darkness invaded her mind and crushed her primitive consciousness beneath its exponentially more powerful and experienced aura.
With his new spy in hoof, or mind as it were, the Prince set her about searching for the residence of this “Twilight Sparkle.” She would sprint to a bush conspiratorially, constantly looking behind her for possible pursuants, before entering another one and climbing to its top to attempt to locate the fabled Great Tree that her master was so intent upon her finding.
This was repeated a couple dozen times before the objective was sighted; there in all its glory was the key to the first door to reclaiming his throne. The Prince was most eager to observe the mare whom had impressed Celestia and the Oracle, and defeated Luna.
He had become enraged when he had heard that Luna had been so humbled, and by a mere mortal all the more! Though he was much pacified by the knowledge that she had recovered quite alright and had resumed her duties as Mistress of the Night. Her banishment, surprisingly enough to Lucky, was met with little to no shock or unpleasantness by Terrarius.
Ah! but back to the squirrel. Under her master’s guidance she infiltrated the tree, climbing its trunk and sneaking through the branches for some entrance or, barring that, a window of some kind.
All was going according to plan until the squirrel started floating upward in a purple aura. “And that makes four. Nice spot Spike.” Came a mare’s voice and soon enough the owner of that voice was revealed. A young unicorn mare of somewhere around twenty-threeish, lavender coat and eyes, and from what the Prince was feeling incredibly powerful, for a mortal.
From what he could gather the mare was conducting some survey or study of the squirrel population of her treehome, as evidenced by the cage his host was placed in.
“Is that enough Twilight?” Terrarius immediately recognized the creature that spoke as a dragon. It was not a species he knew, but it was obviously a youth seeing as it lacked wings and was not the size of a castle.
“I believe so Spike. Let’s take them to the lab.” Twilight magicked the cages containing the squirrels down to the ground, followed by herself and her apparent assistant.
Lucky didn’t really know what to do.
Terrarius had commanded him to be silent after he had explained all he knew about the Elements of Harmony, their bearers, and the government of Equestria. He wasn’t sure what the alicorn’s goal was, but he really doubted that it would be good for Equestria.
He had to do something, he resolved, he had to do something.
He looked up to the terrifying statue once more, and he then began looking throughout the decrepit library for something. There were plenty of book binds and dust, the odd grouping of all but unrecognizable wood that must have at one point been tables and seats, the marble bookcases still stood proud and majestic, bearing the dirt and dust upon them silently, and the walls and ceiling were impenetrable.
There were the torches, but he couldn’t very well set fire to a statue, and even if he could he wouldn’t want to. The thought of killing a sentient being was beyond alien to him, pacifism having been impressed upon him his entire life.
There must be something. Perhaps the chandelier? It didn’t seem heavy enough to break the statue, but maybe it would do something. It had to.
Well I could always just wait and do nothing. He thought to himself, but that was unacceptable he resolved. This “Prince” was going after his Fluttershy and he had to do something. He had to stop him. He had to stop this incredibly powerful and ancient alicorn of immense knowledge and arcane prowess.
He looked around the library for any tool that could help him bring the chandelier down, his gaze finally settling upon a hoof size piece of marble that had broken off one of the bookcases. This particular bookcase had somehow fallen over and was propped against its neighbor like a ramp. From this position he could easily throw the marble chunk at the chain suspending the chandelier and, hopefully, break the millenias old thing.
With his plan in mind and his instinct for self preservation no where to be seen, he grabbed the marble chunk and ran quickly up the impromptu ramp in an impressive feat of adrenaline fueled equine agility. Upon reaching the top of the bookcase the ramp lead to he let loose his weapon, unfortunately for him he forgot to take his own inertia into effect and went tumbling off his perch, but not before he saw his shot fly true.
The marble piece hit the bronze chain holding the chandelier with a great CLANG, and the whole thing went tumbling down onto the alicorn.
Terrarius was most intrigued by this mare. She obviously possessed a great intellect, but beyond that she was admirable thorough. If he had had a few ponies like her during the war he no doubt would have given them a run for their money.
His admiration was founded in the way this mare was conducting her survey of these animals she had captured. It was all very scientific, very sterile, for the purposes of inconspicuousness he had allowed the mind of the squirrel to resurface and act in its natural fashion whilst he merely observed.
His reconnaissance was going quite well until a searing pain rushed through out his body like scalding water. Needless to say, Twilight was quite confused when one of her squirrels spontaneously combusted and turned its former cage into molten shrapnel that destroyed much of her lab, though that luckily didn’t cause harm to herself or Spike.
Spike was eager to voice his concern, “Umm, Twilight, I don’t think squirrels are suppose to do that.”
Twilight could only gape at the smoking crater that once use to be a small furry tree dwelling animal.
Terrarius was a teensy bit upset.
His slight unease was manifested in the shockwave that emanated from his stone prison along with a piercing, agonizing scream that blew over every standing object in the room. All the torches were blown out, and Lucky was left in a darkened corner trapped, though luckily not crushed, under several multi-ton marble bookcases.
After the initial pain had subsided, Terrarius realized what had happened. The chandelier above him had fallen, in no small part thanks to that damned mortal, onto him and the spells he had put in place to absorb the surrounding energies of the environment attempted to convert the chandelier into its most basic thaumaturgical essence. This would have been fine if he had not been simultaneously forcing his mind through some of the same spellwork to control the ash formerly known as a squirrel so directly.
The result of all this was pure energy being pumped directly into his mind. Like having burning gasoline in your blood.
And he was most definitely not amused.
He crushed the marble surrounding the mortal pony into fine dust with his magic, and then roughly pulled him up and threw him into the base of his prison. “You have made a grave mistake you wretched, worthless, pitiful excuse for a mortal. I had planned on letting you leave and die peaceably where you wished, but now you must be taught your place, foal.”
Even though his face was stone, Lucky swore he could make out a sadistic grin on the alicorn’s face.
