The Princess' Sin

The piece and quiet was a luxurious moment for Sin's adjustment to the royal throne. . . something that he had not expected until he got whisper of his training and bathing Luna had spread across the castle. However, a quiet place meant idle hand, and idle hands meant a devilish playground of concern and paranoia. With his experience in running a kingdom, the thought of an attack ran feverishly in his mind as he sat in the pinnacle of Canterlot's symbolism for authority. The feeling disgusted him to the point of spitting at the steps, but it was nothing comparable to his impatience for someone or something to step through those doors or barge through a window and attempt at striking him down.

Thankfully the secretary personally assigned to Celestia was there to ease some of his paranoia as he relentlessly tapped the foot of the chair, cracking the marble with ease as he became a mess before the mare.

He had no doubt that Fine Quill had seen he fair share of antsy royalty, but the look in her critical eyes made him almost wonder if she was observing him from a safe distance with quill and parchment in magic.

"Um...sir..." The alabaster mare paused to clear her throat. "I'm not sure if this is normal for you, but the glowing from your body is very concerning for me."

This mare was braver than most, he had given her that since friends and family of the past had backed away before pointing out his expressive magic.

Taking his attention off the gulping unicorn, Sin looked to his feet and trailed his gaze to the rest of his body and finally on his right hand that had an intense pulsation of magic. His fingertips throbbed with energies even Celestia couldn't comprehend, hot boiling magic sending a tingle across his skin before the thought of control crossed his mind.

Oops. . .

Sin reached for his hair and pulled a handful in front of him, and saw that his magic creating a fiery aura in his strands. He was embarrassed to have let it reach this magnitude and began calming himself with breathing and focusing his body to contain the magic before it could grow into a dangerous aura.

A minute, or two at best, Sin reached his balanced and took a quick drink of the wine he found earlier in the day and snapped his fingers, instantaneously repairing the cracked marble that he knew was more damaged by the aura the released.

His simple action wasn't even close to a minor feat of magic, but the awe in Fine Quill's eyes said a different thing.

"You have chaos magic." She gasped.

She was slightly correct.

"No, no, no!" Sin shook his head frustratingly, hating that he had to explain to her now.

He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That was the time tome, a simple spell that lets me focus on an area and reverse its action in time."

He watched the confusion grow quickly and groaned to the unicorn.

"Okay," he began, emphasizing his explanation by summoning images of the tomes. "I'm going to make this short and sweet. Before spells were actual spells, magic was introduced in categories as tomes and made forbidden due to how dangerous they can be."

He paused to give Fine Quill a chance to ask any question that came to her mind, but she remained silent, so he continued, ever-so reluctantly.

"While the magic you know of is used to benefit others, such as healing and building and whatever fuckery there is, the tomes are a magic that was used in wars and political advantages. After the old council, long before you were thought of by your parents, saw how dangerous they were, they made laws to forbid and eliminate any and all teaching and use of the tomes."

"Did you learn them before those laws existed?"

And there was the question, and it annoyed the man deeply to endure questioning when he had already spent many years having to explain his magic.

The urge to shoo her away welled up within the prince. He was getting too old for this shit. . .

"No, after I escaped experimentation I found a calling for learning them. So I searched for masters of the tomes and learned to control them."

"How many are there?"

Sin stood out of the throne and rotated the magical images above his hand. Taking in another breath, he manipulated his control with a flick of his finger and expanded said images before sending them to Fine Quill for her to have a good look at them.

"There are nine tomes that can be controlled," he spun his index finger, commanding the images to stop and then rotate with each description. "Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Light, Darkness, Space, Time. . . and Blood."

Sin noticed that she was fixated on the blood time with some fear in eyes but continued, regaining her attention.

"Earth, the symbol of Gaia's great gift for life. Wind, the symbol of Eurus' bliss and ferocity, Water, Samudra's balance and strength, Fire, Hellfire's beauty and intensity."

He took a quick breath.

"Space, Juno's grasp of everything, Time, Athaiah's understanding of everything, Light, Aalok's gift of warmth, Darkness, Kek's strength of death, and blood. . ."

Sin took a moment to compose himself before wording the last tome to the best of his knowledge. Even he had little understanding of such deadly magic, as it had taken his curiosity of magic and crushed it shortly after discovering the full force of it's power.

"Blood," he repeated. "The symbol and curse of Mujah's blatant ignorance to everything that balances magic."

He snapped his fingers, making the images disappear, and sat back down to still compose his thoughts after the memories returned to him.

They left a bitter taste in his mouth while he stared at Fine Quill and waited for her to ask.

There was no doubt in his mind that the glasses-wearing unicorn was going to ask more questions about the blood tome, until she turned around and quickly walked down the steps, leaving him both confused and worried that he might have broken her mind a little.

"Um. . . okay!" Sin said awkwardly, waving at the mare. "I'll catch up with you later and will discuss more about testing and reassigning the guards later."

And just like that, he was left alone in the throne room with some of his integrity questioned.

"Well she took it better than expected. . ." he told himself softly.

A sudden interruption of planning in his deeply thought mind birthed a deep and dangerous growl inside his throat, as well as forcing his entire being to leap off the throne and land in the middle of the room as a result of sensing the powerful and unforgettable magic radiating from his left. Sin spun to left corridor with the intention to kill but another whom he was not expecting to meet for a long while.

"Temper, temper. . ." the figure chuckled, wagging a talon at man now staring at his descendant with uncertainty. "Is that really how you plan to act around others now that you are prince again?"

"Fuck you, Discord." Sin spat with a venemous tone, averting his gaze to the draconequus with a fist balled and light radiating from it.

"Better talk now or she's gonna see what your insides are like."

The mare beside Discord summoned a magic bubble around herself and him without thinking and spread her wings defensively.

"You will leave him alone." Twilight demanded, flaring the magic around her horn to prove how serious she was.

Sin carelessly rolled his eyes at that demand and lowered his guard to approach the two, his hand losing the glow he concentrated before he was facing the bubble that blocked him reaching either two.

"Yeah, yeah. . . Or you'll use the elements of harmony to turn me into stone or cast away the darkness that surrounds my heart." He mulled whilst tapping on the bubble.

He scoffed with a low chuckle and began focusing his magic into his right index finger, a warning to his former friend who remained still and not intimidated by his power.

Sin squatted to Twilight's eye level.

"Don't take this wrong way," he told the alicorn gently.

Twilight then suddenly felt the strength in Sin's finger after he flicked it against the bubble and watched in shock as that single action from him caused her bubble to completely shatter without a single ounce of resistance.

"But you need about five hundred years of learning just to have a chance."

Twilight deadpanned as he stood back up and glared at her chaotic friend.

"And you probably thought bringing her here would save your worthless ass from me, didn't you?"

The undeterred draconequus proceeded to float around Sin and shrug his shoulders with that sly, and somehow, infuriating grin of his.

"Can't blame me for bringing a witness in case you go off your rocker." Discord emphasized with a miniature Sin falling out of recliner.

Sin brought forth the fire tome in a concentrated spell that ignited with a snap of his finger, both the recliner and the miniature version of himself bursting into flames and listening to it scream how much it burned before turning into dust.

"A thousand years have passed and you still don't get how much I hate your guts."

Discord crossed his arms and chuckled at the man.

"Are you really going to grudge over how I almost took over Equestria and made Celestia and Luna my own?"

Sin crossed his arms this time, his eyes glowing a deep red with emotions and memories rising.

"I've got a long list of the fuckery you did to make me hate you, but we can start with that."

Discord laughed and tried to pat the human on the back, only to have his bear claw swatted in an instant."

"Oh come now, old friend, I'm reformed. I've turned over a new leaf and started a new life with the pegasus you saw."

Discord was not convincing Sin, even as he made valid points.

"I have a mate now. I'm helping others out of the goodness of my heart. I have friends now and I help them whenever evil rears it's ugly face. I even help old mares cross the street."

"It's a fucking town inside a field. There are no streets."

Discord pondered that for a moment, before nodding in agreement.

"Okay, I'll give you that one, but the point is I'm a good guy now. I'm not the same Discord that tried to kill you. I want to be your friend now, truly."

Sin appeared to appreciate the truth when he suddenly laughed at the top of his lungs, but cruelly returned Discord's words with the best feigned offense he could muster:

"Oh don't feed me that line of bullshit! You may have fooled everyone with reforming and starting a new life. . . but I know you're the same asshole that will rise to a sniff of trouble just to have fun, even if it means hurting others. Inside, you're still the same asshole that waits patiently to strike!" He was all too eager to point that out with an emphatic finger wagging.

Discord sighed in deep annoyance and an eventual offense.

"You're so perfect yourself, Mr. Husband of the year."

"Don't you dare bring up my marriage." Sin growled, then flared his magic at the edge of exploding. He released most of his magic throughout his body, ready to attack should lines be crossed. "Don't you fucking dare."

"And if I do?"

"I'll rip your goddamn tongue--"

"ENOUGH!" Twilight screamed, shoving the two apart with her magic.

Sin could feel the pressure of magic draining from Twilight and watched as she panted with sudden exhaustion. He figured she had excellent control but lacked the proper execution from how hard and how much she put into separating him from Discord.

He focused deeply on his granddaughter with critical eyes:

"You've never been taught how to use real magic."

Sin's bold words never ceased to bemuse the spirit as he focused his attention on the fearful alicorn, her harden glare not bought by him nor Sin as they remained in silence.

Until. . .

"Doesn't surprise me," Sin chuckled very hatefully, turning away from his own granddaughter. "Celestia was afraid of the tomes and steered from them any moment she could. She couldn't handle real magic and cowered in books about levitation and healing little boo-boos for snots."

Twilight was shocked, then angry at the man as he took a slow walk back to the throne without batting another glance to her or Discord, but the sheer arrogance and blatant lack of care was cast across his cheeks with a toothy grin and a laugh as he resumed spinning orbs of light around his finger.

"You don't know anything about the princess."

Having her respond was the bait and she bit down hard. Sin stopped yet keeping his focus on a nearby glass etching of his alabaster wife with the elements of harmony in control when she banished Nightmare Moon. He was not at all peeved that his image was not in the window but rather glad that his history, his own history as the man he became, didn't start on that night.

He was glad to have been forgotten for so long.

He glanced over his shoulder to the purple mare and laughed. "Kiddo, I know everything about your divine princess. I was there the night she first raised the sun. I know all her dislikes, obsessions, even the irrefutable desire to engorge every slice of cake she can find. I would know. I introduced cake to this world when we teenagers."

Little did anyone know in Sin's verbal bout with Twilight that a certain someone was hiding in the corridor, coughing into a rag and had raised a curious eyebrow at her student and lover.

"You see her as a kind and gentle leader, but underneath that paper-thin shell is a gruesome immortal that laid waste to thousands of lives in her younger years. She'll deny it due to her fear of being judged again after the last pony she murdered out of cold blood."

Twilgiht snorted and stepped closer to the man. "You're a liar. Celestia has never killed anypony. She's merciful and forgiving to all, friend or foe."

"Did I hit a nerve?" Sin mocked, approaching the mare until he could kneel to her eye level, meeting the fiery gaze of determination he had not seen in ages. "Oh sweetheart, the things I could tell you about that mare, it would make your body shake with fear. Celestia is no saint, but a killer just like me and always will be one."

Sin had forgotten that the young pony was in fact that: young. She was ignorant about her own emotions and allowing them to fuel her anger as she took every word to heart with a ferocity that she was unaware of.

She fired a beam, forgetting the voice behind her that shot out of the corridor and screamed for her to stop, but the strike was made and her target merely stood there to take nothing more than a scratch across his cheek.

Sin examined his hand across wiping said scratch to see if there was blood and saw that his own descendant couldn't even do that that, and it really disappointed him. Here he was, hoping that underneath the soft shell his wife gave this young pony was a fierce magic user that could at least entertain him with a little blood coming off his form from the blast she used to hurt him.

The only thing that right now was his pride and he glared at the culprit for such a disgusting impasse of her teachings and his.

He sighed. "You really have gone down the crapper in teaching others, haven't you?"

Sin's questioned meant nothing until the purple princess turned around to face the pony he was staring at, and gasped to find her ill teacher coughing into a levitated cloth and glaring right back at him. The absence of subtlety was thick in the air with the eldest princess baring no crown or regalia to authority, which was a little jarring for Twilight, giving the biggest indication that Celestia was not playing around this time.

"What you did just now was cruel and wrong," Celestia scolded, only making him laugh.

Sin nodded. "Maybe it was, but it's the only way I could think of getting her to trigger. I didn't come here just to fix things. If I see potential then you can be damn sure that I'm going to teach it."

"She is my student and I will teach her how I see fit." Celestia declared before approaching the man and shoving a hoof into his chest.

Sin didn't budge from where he stood. "You are wasting her capabilities. She is far more powerful than you let her know."

"She could hurt herself." The princess countered, meeting him at eye-level. "That kind of power is too dangerous to control, and let's not forget to mention that she's too old now to learn the old ways."

"It is never too late to learn them." Sin spat, pushing the mare back. "You're just afraid that she might be more powerful than you, maybe even more powerful than me."

He pushed Celestia again. "That isn't something to be feared. You should take pride in the next generation exceeding us and help them learn how to use the old magic. You can't protect Equestria forever."

"And you think that you can?" Celestia mocked, only to have her question shutdown.

"No, I expect that some day I will die and when I do I want to leave this world knowing THAT SOMEONE I TAUGHT WILL HAVE THE POWER TO DO WHAT I COULD NOT!"

Celestia took a step back and gasped at Sin's admittance, blinking for several seconds in silence before she could center herself and stare at the frustrated man with a cold stare that she hadn't used for a long time. This was his plan all along, to make things better and find a protege to take his place as a guardian should he fail. He wanted to have a Plan B in case he were to pass, but she was not going to the man she loves have his way.

"You are an immortal, much like Luna and I." She reminded the man, which only aggravated him. "It is through your conviction that you can do the things even I cannot. I'm sorry beloved, but you can't teach a pony to be human. You are the high prince and it may fall to you until this kingdom ends for you to protect it. You cannot pass it on like a trading card that's sat in your album."

Sin narrowed his eyes dangerously on the tall mare. He opened his mouth to speak but found no words to muster for a counter against her accusation. He had no rebuke and accepted that defeat begrudgingly with a deep exhale and hanging his head a little as she pressed her head into his chest.

"I'm tired Celestia." He admitted, hugging her genuinely for comfort. It was long overdue to find such a feeling, but if anyone would give it, it was the only mare that understood him inside and out.

Celestia smiled and pecked his chin. "I know exactly how you feel, but this is your home now. It is yours to protect and raise until something comes to an end. You can't jump from kingdom to kingdom doing what you do."

She coughed into her cloth and then dared to stare into the near lifeless eyes. "Please, if anything, try to stay here and accept it as your permanent home. Do it not for me, but for Luna. She suffered the most when she returned to find that you had been gone for so long."

Sin nodded and almost responded with some acceptance at the thought of Luna having did suffer the greatest, but another shot out of the corridor with the repeated beseeching of his highness. A stallion of deep yellow with a green mane and armor to signify that he was a guard, came to a screeching halt in front of his prince and princess with his lungs trying to collect air after such a long and hard sprint across the castle.

"Your majesty!" The mystery pony panted, collecting the one thought that repeated like a broken record. "N. . .News from. . . .Princess. . . Luna."

"Luna?" Sin and Celestia questioned, receiving a nod from the guard.

The guard finally caught his breath. "Yes, she wanted me to tell you that your sister is awake and stable."

There was no confusion between the two as they realized what he meant and made a dead sprint out of the throne room with Discord and Twilight wondering in confusion what just happened.

"Sister?" Twilight questioned.

"Yes, the guard answered for them, adjusting his mane to fit better in his helmet. "Prince Sin's sister had awoken minutes ago thanks to Princess Luna's efforts, but it was not pretty."

"What do you mean?"

He shook his head and said: "She claims to have never seen a talking horse before."