The Prince Of The Everfree Forest

As the carriage sailed swiftly and smoothly onwards to the shining palace, Twilight turned to her mentor with a burning question, “Are his legends true?”

My ears jumped to attention. I continued to lean over the edge and pretended not to listen, I hadn't heard my legend yet, but from the sounds of it, it wasn't good. I let the wind whip through my hair, the high breeze refreshing my senses.

“Unfortunately, some of them are,” Celestia whispered back, I waited for her to continue, but when she didn't, something inside me snapped. Why was everypony acting so vague and cryptic with my legend, I had a right to know the stories that supposedly fabled me, even if they were horrible.

I turned away from the edge, facing Celestia with new-found interest. “Go one, tell me these legends, it seems everypony knows them apart from me,” I pointed my hoof at them accusingly, Twilight gulped as my hoof fell on her.

“Do you remember the years from before your banishment?” Celestia asked with her usual poised voice. How could I forget, the nightmares were relentless in haunting my sleep.

“You can't imagine the burning insults or horrible torments they throw at me every day of my life, to have your life stamped out by somepony else,” I replied, it reminded me of a certain princess and her banishment destroying my life.

“Perhaps your thinking too far back, I was referring to the weeks when I chased you down and the time you spent at the castle, not everypony could forget the damage you left behind,” Celestia said, Twilight looked at her fellow princess with wide eyes that leaked her curiosity and confusion. “You see Twilight, Autumn was originally going to be my student like you were before your ascension, he was going to be the prince of magic, at first I wanted to teach him the basics of magical control, until-”

“-Until you saw the power I wielded, you saw me as a danger to the citizens of Equestria so you took my powers for your own perverted motives, after you saw the wonders I conjured with minor magic, you extracted what little I had left and chucked the waste into that sickening forest,” I spat off the edge of the carriage, my sympathy to any that stood under us at the time.

Celestia scowled at me, apparently unhappy that I finished her sentence for her. “You know that's not true, I took your powers so you can learn magic without being overwhelmed by that power, I have every intention to give you back that power I took, in time,” Celestia responded, oh good, I had so many plans for that magic, to get it back will definitely speed things up.

“Do you really think that's a good idea princess?” Twilight enquired, I raised an eyebrow at her, why did she suddenly not trust me with my rightful powers. If I was given that power in the first place then I was surely meant to wield it.

“I will explain everything when we get to the castle,” Celestia assured, we wouldn't have to wait long, the castle was very close now. The crystal clear water dropped silently into the clearing below. I could only imagine the wicked and cruel dictations that were acted under Celestia's nose by power-hungry politicians and bureaucrats.

The chariot pulled into a long marble landing strip that rested on the side of the castle. We touched down with a slight bump, but I hardly felt it. The landing zone was a picture perfect scene, golden armoured pegasi and unicorn stood like acutely sculpted statues. Huge marble columns held up a river of water that poured gently from their realm of demigods to the citizens below, potted flowers hung from the columns and gave the white faced structures life. Beside one of these columns waited princess Luna, when she spotted me her eyes hardened to stone, I pretended I hadn't seen that yet.

Celestia walked off the chariot first, then me with Twilight closely behind me. My hooves weren't use to the smooth, hard surface of the marble-like floor, they flinched back despite my careful placement, but I quickly adapted. Apparently I'd done something that Luna didn't like, for she made no effort to hide her cold eyes and disgusted look from me.

“Luna! It's been too long,” I cheered, flashing her a smile. Her hate grew by each breath I took.

“That's princess Luna to you,” she growled, “Before we begin, I would like to point out that I have seen your dreams and I have urged dear sister many times to reconsider her plans for you, yet your have persisted to be a nuisance for us, even after 2000 years,”

“Now Luna, play nice, Autumn here's our guest and we will make him feel welcome,” Celestia intervened, Luna looked shocked at first, yet quickly grew back to her aggravated face.

“This isn't over,” she poked me with her metal horseshoe. Twilight and me shared a worried glance before continuing. Great, first day out and I have already made an powerful enemy. Celestia led the way, we walked through the infinite hallways of the castle, I was surprised by the amount of guards waiting around, whether it was because of me or something else, it still concerned me. We reached a long, high hallway, windows of coloured glass told stories of past victories. I spotted Twilight many times on the stained glass, with her friends they had beaten many villains and saved Equestria multiple times. The sheer size of it all, I felt overwhelmed, my hooves began slowing down and breaths became shaky. I'd never been in such a marvellous room before, to have a celling over my head didn't help either.

“You ok? You seem a bit flushed,” Twilight pointed out, I looked into her kind eyes. Celestia kept on walking, despite us stopping.

“Yeah, I'm alright, just a bit homesick is all,” I replied, she placed a hoof on my shoulder, her eyes displayed a welcoming light to me.

“It'll be ok, if you need anything just ask me,” she said, her friendship she offered so readily to me was one of the biggest comforts I had felt in a long time. I bounced back to my hooves, pretending that I wasn't missing home. Despite my harsh words against the forest, the endless trees and general silence was a kind of cold comfort to me, after all these years calling it a prison, it had slowly began to call me its own.

“Nah, I don't need anything, I'm golden,” I assured her, a smile forced onto my lips, I was pretty sure she saw past it, but she didn't say anything.

Me and Twilight caught up with Celestia and Luna, they were waiting by a oak door with swirling patterns over it, the guard that waited beside it pulled out a key and opened it. It let out a thunderous click down the hall. He returned back to his original position without a word but left the key in the door.

“Autumn, would you like to do the honours?” Celestia gestured to the door. I approached the door, there was nothing unique about it, but it sure did look old and out of place though. I pushed it with my hoof and it groaned to the side, the weight of the door was too heavy for the hinges to keep it held up so it scrapped across the floor and emitted a ear piercing screech.

The room itself was littered with boxes, it was hardy a big room to begin with but with the large boxes and chests it was extremely cramped. On top of them were flags, discarded dresses and tattered banners, it was basically a storage room. That however, wasn't the main focus of the room. In the middle, lit up by the sun breaching through the dust covered window, was a mannequin slightly taller than me. This mannequin wore copper coloured greaves on its forehooves with a matching pair of smaller boots on its hindlegs. The greaves had swirly patterns like the door had, yet these had been done with a more professional touch, they way it was done was made to make it look like a they were made of wood, yet they oblivious weren't. On the mannequin's chest was a large, jewels encrusted breastplate, all these gems surrounded a beautifully designed insignia of a tree, the jewels were present to the eyes yet not overpowering, a perfect blend. Lastly but most certainly not least, a dark gold crown rested on the mannequin's head, it was riddled with tiny diamonds and priceless crystals. It was a crown fit for a prince.

“Do you like it? I designed it myself, yet the patterns serve a purpose highly than aesthetic,” Celestia informed, I felt something, a distinct calling, telling me to grab all of it and run.

I moved in closer, but a night-like hoof stopped me. As I pushed more, the stronger Luna's hoof became, “Sister, this is a mistake, don't tell him,” she pleaded.

“Have faith sister,” Celestia responded.

Twilight moved closer to my gifts and ran her hoof over the runic breastplate, “What do this patterns do?” she asked, no doubt already come up with several theories in her mind. I didn't know if she felt the calling, but as her hoof touched it the voices screamed, slowly becoming louder in the back of my mind.

“When I absorbed Autumn of his powers, I had no where to store them, I couldn't keep them  for myself,” she began to explain, turning to me and the distressed Luna, “So I had these made, they are enchanted with your magic, granting whoever wears them your powers,”

“You haven't let anypony wear any pieces of this have you?” I demanded, Twilight quickly retracted her hoof from he mannequin. “You know that magic is rightfully mine,” I tried to get past Luna meddling hooves, but she was content with being the barrier between me and my magic.

“Nopony has ever been in this room besides me, until now of course, only an alicorn can touch such enchantments anyway, it would no doubt drive the pony mad,” Celestia assured, I let out a sigh of relief, I wasn't going to be happy if any unicorns decided to play dress up and found out they had more power than the royal princesses combined.

Twilight put her ear to the breastplate, her eyes quickly widened. “How much magic is in here?” she inquired.

“More than you can imagine,” I muttered, I stopped trying to get past Luna once I knew it was fruitless. Instead I tried levitation, but Luna clashed horns with me, breaking any magic build up.

“Will you ever stop trying? I'm stronger than you!” Luna declared, pushing me back against the wall. I hit some sort of cabinet, dust falling onto my head. Luna rushed over to pin me, her hoof over my throat and slowly applied pressure. Despite my hooves wailing at the offending appendage, she didn't release me and It became more and more difficult to keep myself breathing. I locked eyes with her, as one final attempt for mercy, but her eyes shrank into a frown.

“Luna! Stop this now!” Celestia commanded, taking a stance by my side, Luna turned to her. Her hold on me decreased, only slightly but enough to keep myself breathing some quick, shallow breaths.

“You haven't see his dreams, his ambitions are as clear as day,”  Luna argued, once again pushing down on me. Her eyes displayed her killer thoughts and her face was deadly serious, she wanted to push harder, to squash me like a bug underhoof. Yet she resisted, “He wants to take control, overthrow us and rule Equestria under an iron hoof,” she exclaimed, her eyes burned with hatred from my existence. “I know how it feels to want control, its in the way he walks, the way he talks, but behind the clock of lies and deception lies a knife,” she was no doubt referring to her times as Nightmare Moon, what's was worse was her words were getting to Celestia, she was looking at me with that judging gaze, trying to spot something that would give me away. I gave them nothing, not a struggle, kept a straight face, not a sign of any future plans or intentions.

“Lets confer with princess Twilight, she has the most experience with Autumn and has dealt with many tyrants before,” Celestia said, both her and her sister turned to look at the concerned Twilight, she was still standing by my mannequin when the question was asked to her. She didn't talk or indicate anything, but she moved in front of me, Luna dropped me from the wall and I flopped onto the ground. To her left was the sun, Celestia wanted to forgive me and let me have a chance to prove myself. On her right was the moon, Luna hated my existence, believing I will cause more trouble than good, she thought I should be left inside the Everfree for another 1000 years or so, maybe even a more permanent solution. Twilight knelt down to me, looked me in the eyes, and waited. I didn't know if she wanted a confession or was just waiting more me to show a sign, I just looked back. Her violet eyes sparkled.

She stood up, “I trust him, but we shouldn't give him his powers back, not yet,” she continued to look down at me, she was the true twilight in this situation, the perfect middle ground between the sun and moon.

“Sounds reasonable, though I still think that no good can possibly come from this,” Luna said, looking down at me with disgust.

“Very well, yet I must interject an idea of my own, one that we all should be happy with,” Celestia began, “If Twilight takes the horseshoes with her when she goes back to Ponyville, she can manage and watch over Autumn, when he is ready, he can be given them. The horseshoes have the weakest enchantments, meaning that if anything happens, Twilight can still overpower him,”

We all agree to this suggestion, even though I had no say in it. The thought of Twilight holding onto my magic was far more preferable, mainly because it would be close by, just in case. Even if the rest of my magic was still here with Celestia, some of it is better than none at all. I stared at my trapped magic, longing for it, only a few metres away, yet it felt like it was further than ever before. I couldn't stand to look at it any longer, I barged out of the door and into the large hallway. At last the screaming stopped, the patten on the door kept the magic contained to that room, maybe Celestia suspected someone to steal something, but without any magical energy echoing out, it looked just like an ordinary storage room.

I stared up at one of the glass windows and enjoyed the silence. The glass was of Twilight and her friends, she didn't have her wings back then, just a unicorn. In fact, none of them looked particularly special, even when I had seen them walking around the forest on adventures, they wouldn't look like the heroines of Equestria, just a group of ordinary friends. Those as time past and they kept on coming back into the forest, I slowly began to see why they were so special. They had even help me a few times, recently these weird vines sprouted out over the forest and started terrorizing it, until they did something and stop them.

The sound of hooves gently tapping against the ground broke my thoughts. “How are you doing?” Twilight's innocent voice asked from behind, she was breaking the silence, but I was happy for her to. Silence had became a close companion to me in the years, I wouldn't mind if it was replace with something that could talk back to me.

“I'm enduring,” I replied, she sat down next to me, we both didn't look at each other but stayed focused on the stained glass instead. I wanted to ask her about it, I didn't know what it meant but it looked important, why else would Celestia get a giant window to commemorate it.

“We'll be going back to Ponyville soon, I want to talk about some things on the way back as well,” She informed, guessing Ponyville was the town that she lived in.  I wonder what she'll do with her new-found control over me, maybe she will push me as far as I'll go, maybe I'll never get my powers back and she will hold it over my head forever.

“Might as well start now, we've got some time to waste I'm guessing,” I mumbled, breaking the stare at the window. She flickered her pretty eyes, her head turning to meet mine.

“Every princess and prince in your case, has a role to play in Equestria, it's up to us to find your role,” She said, “Know anything we could start with?”

“The only thing I have particular talent in is magic, but apparently I can't be trusted with that,” I felt a frown grow, it wasn't only aimed at her, but I could push some of the blame onto her. Maybe I could guilt trip her into giving me the horseshoes, then push her further into getting me the crown and breastplate. There was no way around it, I needed to get those artefacts or I couldn't continue the plan.

“We'll check this later, when the time is right,” she promised, I guess I could trust her to keep her word, she hasn't done much against me yet. “We also have to get ponies to start trusting you, this might involve you helping out around town,”

“Oh great, manual labour,” I muttered, “so the greeting I get after being gone for 2000 years is 'Hey, welcome back, here's your high vis jacket and remember to keep your hard hat on',”

She giggled, “I didn't mean it like that,” she kept her smile. “You won't have to do much, and your current magical ability can help you out, I'm sure it will be nothing you can't handle,” she reassured, I guess it wouldn't be that bad, unless these ponies wanted to take advantage of my magical power. Wouldn't put it pasted them.

“I'll do it, but don't expect me to do everything for you,” I replied, her smile grew larger. I knew, under her eyes laid more villainous plans for me, fiendish plans of friendship.

“Thank you, to be honest your cooperation was one of the thing I was worried about,” she admitted. My cooperation? Did she expect me to flip out about something, she held my keys to success, I needed to cooperate.

“I'll cooperate for as long as I want to, I just want my powers, nothing more,” I spoke, getting her attention. She looked inquisitively at me again, trying to put me together like a badly made jigsaw puzzle.

“And when you get your powers, what happens then?” she asked eventually after her failure to figure it out herself, she didn't have Celestia's perceptive eyes.

“Then I can save everypony,” I muttered, loud enough for her to hear. She seemed surprised by my response, on her wide list of possible motives, saving the world was not on her list.

“Save us from what?” she asked, stuttering slightly before regaining her composure.

“The end,” I said back. I didn't say any more, I left her behind. I wanted to wander some more before going back to the Everfree, I think I could remember the way back to the carriage. The endless hallways seamed to branch off into more and more infinite corridors. I felt like I was going in circles, part repeated without me realising and rooms seemed to disappear and reappear for no reason. After a lot more walking and reluctantly asking a guard for directions I soon found a way back to the landing platform. I waited for a few minutes for Twilight to get back, admiring the view over the land from the Castle's elevated area. The view was stunning, I could see as far as my eyes could reach, just over the mountains tops in the horizon. I felt the guards and their eyes watching me, every one of my breaths were being counted and every hoofstep was predicted before I had even raised my hoof. Their caution was understandable, yet a bit drastic, sure my legends might effect my reputation, but whether it painted me a victim or a monster was debatable. Twilight will have to tell me my legend soon, I have a feeling it has some parts that I would find useful to know. From the looks I was getting from everypony I met, it was definitely not a very pleasant story at all.

When Twilight got back to the carriage, she had a bag that hung loosely against her side, it was no secret to what she had in that bag and she wasn't making any attempts to hide it from me. I hopped onto the carriage with her and the pegasi guards took off again without a word. We where heading back to the town, I was eager to get back to a close distance to the forest and she was no doubt happy to get me away from the rest of my magic. I could feel the soft hum of my greaves calling to me, not like the combined chores of my full magic presence, these were too weak to call to me fully. Celestia wasn't kidding when she said that the horseshoes had the weakest enchantment, their power didn't compare at all with the breastplate or crown, but it was a start.

Twilight saw me starring at the bag and she moved it as far as she could away from me, did she really expect me to try and take it with force? “Don't worry, I'm not going to steal them,” I assured.

“Better to be safe than sorry,” she countered, if it made her feel more comfortable then she could move it wherever she liked, I would have them sooner or later anyway. After a deep breath, she asked, “What did you mean by 'the end'?”

How could I explain this to her, in a way she could understand. “Soon, I don't know when, the sky will fall from over our heads, oceans will boil and the ground will crack,” I remember those dreams well, all the horror and panic, and I couldn't forget the screaming. “Everything we know will die,” I added grimly.

“But we can stop it, right?” she asked hopefully, I could stop it, but I needed all my powers and the knowledge that nothing would get in the way. For some reason I had a feeling that wasn't going to happen.

“Of course, but you know exactly what I need and you're not going to give me any of it yet,” I said. She looked at her bag before continuing.

“I can't just give you your powers back, even if I believe you or not. If you had any solid evidence then maybe I could get Celestia to get you back your powers temporally,” she theorized, I had no evidence, it was just a dream, but it felt real, just like most of my dreams.

“If I find any evidence then I'll get it to you, but I won't wait forever, or we'll all have plenty of evidence that the apocalypse is coming,” I retorted, time was running out, the sand was draining and I didn't know how much was left. The carriage continued to drag along, the occasional bump or sharp turning bring me back to reality. Soon enough, we would be back on the solid ground. From the look on her face my words were weighing heavily on her, yet until I figure out a way to prove the apocalypse then I wasn't getting any magic back. Until then ponies would sleep soundly in their beds and continue their normal lives like they'd live forever. They had no idea that their time was quickly fading.