The Prince

The Awakening

By Desolated Brony

Another day another sunrise in the kingdom of Equestria, as princess Celestia began her morning routine. The princess was of course up the earliest, to see that everypony was to be welcomed with the shining star which she had granted every morning. This was not new to her, for she had been raising the sun for hundreds of years. The princess stood on her bedroom balcony; ready to begin her daily routine. She used her wings and propelled herself into the air and began to raise the sun. The longstanding alicorn sighed as she descended to her hooves. Same old same old she thought; telepathically opening her bedroom door. She then proceeded slowly over to the kitchen, where her normal day would begin. But better yet, breakfast would be served.
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Somewhere, in the depths of a cave in the evergreen forest, an obstreperous rumble could be heard over a mile away. Breaking the sound barrier; it sent birds flying, rabbits running, and pinkie pie shudder in her sleep. Engrossed beneath the earth, the sound was emitted from a dark, cold cavern filled with icicles hanging from ceiling, glaciers forming along the rock walls as a living figure could be seen on the floor. The stallion opened his golden eyes; his coat was a deep orange and encrusted with ice shavings, his mane black and short, and his cutie mark a wonders constellation of stars. He analyzed his surrounding seeing that where he laid, stood a large wall made of rock-hard ice, also a notable hole seeming to be the source of the explosion. As the rather young and tall stallion rose from his slumber he steadily recollected himself as he plodded himself up, trying to find his way out of the murky cave. He had little choice but to proceed to an exit he had found after examining the cave for some time.

He stumbled toward the entrance, slowly wobbling through the winding passageways. Walking for what seemed forever in the never-ending pitch black hollows, he thought that he was trapped. He walked through different paths and crosses, and soon found himself lost. He was giving up. The pony was extremely dazed and still weary of his brief awakening; trying to go back this way, then that. He tried to retrace his steps but seemed to be going nowhere fast. As the pony was nearly done; giving up to the caves, he found a promising walkway. He took a turn and another and there, he found it. There it was, beams of light expanding his pupils. As the stallion galloped towards the light, he pushed as hard as he could; trying to liberate himself from the rocks that led to his freedom. He pushed and pushed until finally one rock fell, opening a small hole outside, and then another and another until the pony broke free. Gasping for air he made his way out. He stood still bewildered. Amazed by the light, fresh morning air and warmth; he looked up into the sky. Just in time, the sunrise had merely begun; he smiled with tears forming on his eyes.

Freedom.
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The princess was sitting by herself and was having her best chiefs fricassee her legendary favorite meal.

Pancakes.

A servant approached from out of the doorway which led to one of the many kitchens scattered about the palace, he held a large plate in his right hoof.

"Bon appetite," the servant said with an exquisite look as he laid down the platter on the table.

"Thank you monsieur," Celestia replied chuckling at her servant’s bad attempt at a French accent.

The waiter smiled and left the princess to her food. There they were, the delicious scent of warm pancakes stacked on each other, with butter and pecans on top. The piping hot stack of fat pancakes filled the dining room with an intoxicating scent of warm deliciousness. Celestia then took a generous amount of syrup and bathed her towering pastry with maple goodness. About to dive into the welcoming pastry, Celestia remembered her manners and grabbed her napkin and cutlery, and began cutting into the not so healthy breakfast using her magic to do the work. As she was enjoying the most important meal of the day, Princess Luna was lazily walking toward the table, her mane was a mess and her fur was scuffled; as she sat down in her regular seat.

“You’re up early." Celestia said wittingly; as she gave a sarcastic smile to her sister.

Luna merely gave her a glaring look. Her sister of course knew that Luna was not a morning pony, she was always devastated to have her sister arrange a servant to wake her; thankfully enough today she awoke naturally. Her thoughts were interrupted as she targeted all her attention to the waiter giving Luna her favorite breakfast.

Waffles.

She gave a thank you and a smile as he took off.; Luna stared down at her Belgian treat. The room was suddenly filled with a loud rumble; and the castle shook startlingly. "What was that?" Princess Luna said as she gulped down a piece of her waffle.

"I'm... not sure, I can't imagine it being Discord." Celestia said with a troubled look on her face, as she turned to her sister.

"You don't think?"

"No it can't be.......can it?"

"*gulp*, I’m afraid so"

"Has it really been that long?"

"I'm sure it’s about time"

As the orange stallion walked his way around the forest, he was once again stumped.

“Not again” he said to himself as he couldn't find a direct route or a road, for that matter.

He was now in the same situation as before, but with a more pleasant view and sunrise. In fact, the evergreen forest seemed distinctively more alive. There were many more diverse creatures living here than how he remembered it being before. The pony then stopped to recollect his thoughts. In his faint memories he remembered the evergreen forest to be more silent and frightening, a place lurking with thieves and criminals. Yet the real question was why? Why had it been so different from how he knew it, why aren’t there any soldiers after him or at least on the lookout? A winding path halted the pony as he turned his attention to the new-found road.

"Canterlot" he read as he looked at the sign directing north. If there was any way to seeing what was going on, it was in Canterlot. The stallion then proceeded to make his way north home bound.

It had been at least half an hour since he last saw the sign. He was indeed close, but was now fatigued. As he made his way up to the Canterlot steps, he approached the gates. There sat the royal guards on duty showing no emotion whatsoever, watching the entrance as they were instructed to. However, as the noticeably taller stallion ascended from the stairs, the guard’s jaws dropped loose at the sight of the great pony.

"Good afternoon." the orange pony said as he effortlessly trotted past the gate; watching inquisitively as the guards didn't stop or addressed him. As he made his entrance towards ‘Main St.’ he noticed that everypony grew quieter as he trotted along the sidewalk, with some ponies gasping as they saw the stallion.

"No"

"Could it be?"

"Impossible"

He heard ponies say as they stared at him baffled. He had to admit he was a bit uneasy having all this attention paid to him. Even so, what he was really uncertain about was this....unknown Canterlot. The stallion couldn't recall if this street even existed. As he proceeded down the street he looked around and was astounded at all the modern statues that they had, and the gardens that had been built. The pony then proceeded to make his way towards what looked like a park. His eyes widened with interest as he looked at all the wondrous things. He saw beautiful flowers of pinks and blues, grand statues and fountains of royal and legendary ponies along with elegant murals and paintings. He wandered through each pathway astounded by the brilliant works of art. His hooves stopped suddenly at the new sight that stood before him. He was shocked to see that there was an old statue of a young stallion alicorn standing proud wrapped in armor. His eyes filled with tears as he read the slab below the statue. “In loving memory of Dawn.”

In the castle, princess celestia was trotting towards her library. “OK Luna but only this once, that's the last time" Princess Luna smiled childishly as she succeeded to whine her sister into an explanation of what was happening. Once they had passed through several hallways, Celestia opened the door to her library. The room was a vast and wide, filled with books. The shelves spread across the room making Isles, paintings of the evergreen forest were mounted on the walls.

"This way" Celestia directed and proceeded to lead her younger sibling into her secret collection. Princess Celestia then led her sister through a door leading towards a set of stairs descending to a basement. At the bottom of the staircase and through a door, Luna found herself with her sister in what seemed to be her study. Books piled high on her desk, quills and parchments everywhere, notes and paper were scattered across the floor. The ‘not so’ organized princess presented her sister with an aged book that seemed yellow with maturity and had a weary cover. The book was labeled "Equestria.vol16" and had clearly been an ancient doctrine written long ago. “You see here, Luna" Celestia began flipping through pages of the old tome.

“It says here that long ago there was only one prince who ruled over Equestria, and his name was Dawn." here

Luna found a seat; this was going to take a while.

“But when Prince Dawn inherited the throne from his father, he left him a mess of a land." “At this time there was a group of rebel ponies, who thought that the rulers of Equestria were corrupted and unfair. These rebels soon waged war, and Dawn was left with a heavy weight on his shoulders."

"Wait." Luna interrupted “So these ponies fought against the royal family?
"That's right. They thought that we were dictators, and believed the only way for peace was to overthrow our family

“Celestia stated.

"Ooh, ok go on?"

"Well the new prince was, in fact, a great leader and a very kind gentle colt, but that wasn't enough to convince the rebels." “So they went to war against one another; many lives were lost." “However, the rebel numbers where overwhelming. The prince soon took drastic measures. For an act of salvation, Dawn told his guards to bring him two healthy new-born's one male and one female. With the new fillies, he cast a powerful spell on them to make them pure alicorn, and had them taken to safety outside of Canterlot." “It was not but a month later that the Canterlot castle was being attacked, the prince had no choice but to surrender to the rebels." “It was that night that the rebels led Dawn deep into the evergreen forest, and it is said that all the unicorn ponies contributed towards a spell to freeze him and lock him away forever." “Although this story seems quite sad, there are tales that one day the prince will return and seek his place on throne again."

"Wait a minute, what happened to the fillies that he made alicorns?" Luna interrupted abruptly.

"Well nobody is certain how they were raised, but it’s believed that they eventually became king and queen of Equestria." Celestia explained

“Ooh, wait so that means that some pony from centuries ago is coming back, how is that possible?" princess Luna asked.

"Well a unicorn's magic can only be so strong, so the spell is bound to wear off." Celestia made clear. "And that's exactly what I’m afraid of." Celestia added with a frown, worried of the circumstances.

"Well I think that it’s great to have another alicorn in Equestria" Luna replied

"NO! You don't understand." Celestia retorted “If he comes back....... if there were to be another stallion alicorn in the throne......"

"What, what is it?" Luna said unknowingly

"... It means that he would have the right to...well." Celestia stammered.

"Well what is it?!" Luna said giving her sister a nudge.

“He’ll be able to........... Marry us."

Luna stared at her older sibling in question.

“Well who says that he has the right to do so?" Luna asked after a brief moment of the odd thought.

“It’s been a ritual in the royal family for years; the prince chooses his bride, no questions." Celestia answered.

Luna was dumbstruck. Was this really going to happen, was she going to be married? Is this stallion alicorn a mean pony, is he's nice, what if he's hideous? Luna stopped herself in her endless thoughts.

“How do we know if he's really back?" Luna asked.

"I'm... not sure, I suppose the first place he'd trot to is......... well here." Celestia thought aloud, "But, if by any chance he comes here I want you to treat him kindly and with respect, he hasn't been around for thousands of years."
Luna rolled her eyes " Ok sis, but it’s not like he's really going to turn up....... right?"
As she led her younger sibling out of her library she stopped “I hope not, Luna" she said, her eyes lost in thought.

Meanwhile there was an orange pony sitting on a park bench lost in thought. The stallion stared at the now gloomy statue of the remembrance of the alicorn leader. His eyes were swollen from tears and his body weary from sitting too long. He was interrupted by a unicorn who sat next to him. The stallion was tall, had a neat and clean white coat, and wore formal attire.
“Sorry to interrupt you sir but, you seemed rather lonesome here...” the orange pony gave a glance and stared at the statue.

“Oh pardon me, where are my manners; the name’s Fancypants." Fancypants gave him a friendly smile as he introduced himself.

“Hello....um, my name is Dawn." the voice was kind and gentle, but firm and deep.

"Well then Dawn, I couldn't help but notice that you’re an alicorn." Fancypants stated.

"Yep that's me." Dawn said in a very unenthusiastic manner.

"Well, might I ask how that's....um possible?" Fancypants asked honestly.

"What do you mean?" Dawn was obviously confused.

"Well, everypony knows that there are only two alicorn's, Princess Luna and Celestia." Fancypants explained.

“Wait you said there are others?" Dawn lifted his head finding interest in this possibility.

"Of course, there in the castle straight up Hooves Rd." Fancy informed

"Thank you, kind sir." Dawn said politely as he hastily departed from the park and headed towards the royal Canterlot castle.

As Dawn galloped his way up the road he knew he would find answers to this new and confusing Canterlot. He galloped past gossiping ponies and guards who he caught the attention of but didn't seem to care. The journey was not a short one, but he eventually made his way towards the entrance. As he arrived at the Canterlot gates two guards hesitantly halted him.

"What.... how the?" One guard stammered looking at his obvious signs of an alicorn.

"No time to explain let me through!" Dawn commanded

"What sorcery is this?" The other guard asked.

"This is no sorcery, I’m the prince don't you recognize me?" Dawn asked confused.

"Let him in gentlemen." A gentle but firm, feminine voice could be heard from behind the gates.

"Yes milady." The two guards said as they obeyed.

As Dawn looked past the gates he could see a tall, white mare with shining pink eyes and a very colorful flowing mane.

"Hello, my name is Celestia. “The mare introduced. "You must be Dawn."

"Yes... how did you know?" Dawn asked curiously.

"I've been expecting you, come let me show you around the castle, I’m sure there is a lot of questions you have to ask."