The Prince Of The Everfree Forest

Water, always unbiased and could never lie to you. Throughout my whole life I had looked down into the damp abyss and hated what reflected back at me. When I was an earth pony, I'd look at my damaged face and despise my weaknesses, then I got my wings and horn I hated my strengths. Now I just look down into it and see if its all still there, hoping I had just dreamt it all. I wouldn't of had it any other way though, if the forest hadn't chosen me it would have picked somepony else to become a alicorn. The thought of somepony selfish getting a hold on my kind of power is terrifying.

I didn't know how it felt for Twilight and how many other alicorns there were running about,  but my ascension was far from graceful. The unnatural warping and shifting under my skin from my wings tearing free as bone and muscle was pushed aside to make way for these two appendages to break free. The feeling of a headache turning physical as my skull was altered to make way for my sleek horn to turn skywards. The word to describe it, unnatural.

Honestly, it was mostly just a blur. I was young, tears flowing down my face and tired, puffy eyes darting in panic. I had ran, ran further that I thought was possible for my tiny little legs, the forest was in front of me, I wanted to go in there and never come out. To die where nothing could find me. But something found me, a mist of violent purple and sickly green seeped from the trees and earth, it consumed me and changed me into... this.

I think, deep down, the forest felt my pain and anger, it gave me a way to act out my revenge, but I just played the fool to the forest's machinations. Pain's a good catalyst, that why I was chosen, the shattered heart of a survivor in my chest and angelic tears running free down my muzzle.

The Everfree was far from done though, instead of leaving me a traumatized alicorn colt, it pumped pure magical energy into me until I could burn holes into the floor. I saw my reflection on that day to, eyes like liquid fire with the same purple mist running from the whites. The horn looked fake, like it had been glued onto my head with wings stitched to my sides, yet I could control both of them. Little earth pony me didn't know what to do, he originally wanted to go to the royal castle, it was only a short walk away, now I wish I did do that. Some magic discharge dripped out of my horn, some would call it liquid magic, magic that hasn't been processed by the soul just yet. Pure magic.

The little golden drop splashed against the water, rippling my reflection. At first, nothing, then the water started to bubble and boil. One single drop was able to get the water pool to rise in temperature until it became a hot spring, the immense power the forest gave me was incomprehensible for little me to understand.

Then the bright idea came to his head, he pointed his horn at a shrub. He thought about the shrub burning, when he opened his eyes it had turned to ash. Little me couldn't stop there though, he crushed boulders, tore down trees and made waterfall run backwards. Then his mind turned dark, crushing goldilocks, tearing down her snobby nosed coltfriend and making his friends run backwards in terror. A twisted smile etched on his face, little me went off to get his revenge. And here I was, looking into my reflection 2000 years later, paying the price of that decision.

Living a life mostly dictated by other ponies, I never had the chance to make many decisions of my own, but crusading for my own personal revenge was one that haunted me still.

A single tear spilled from my eye, ran down my face and splashed into the water, rippling my reflection.

A certain rainbow haired mare found me and told me that Twilight wanted to speak with me about 'important alicorn stuff'. Rainbow Dash wasn't keen on talking much more after she pasted on her message, leaving me alone in the peaceful sunset lit hills. I didn't really care how important it was, I was enjoying my walk and I would finish it when I was ready, Twilight could wait until the sunset had gone.

I didn't hate Twilight, it was quite the opposite in fact. But I was getting my own life and would finally be able to do the things I wanted to do, the last thing I wanted was to give Twilight the impression that she owns me. I wasn't going to dismiss her part in me getting this life, so I would have to listen to her eventually.

It seemed, no matter what I do or am, I will always have to live in somepony else's shadow. Whether its Celestia by day, brushing me under the carpet and keeping me out of her ethereal graces. Or it was Luna by night, looking over my shoulders and taking notes on all my dreams and late night machinations, remembering all my dreams of power and seeming evil deeds but never mentioning my dreams of sorrow or regret to Celestia. These two where able to keep me in the dark, never mentioning me or visiting in 2000 years, the only whisper that got out was a legend that was told by mystic witch doctors and jumpy school kids.

All of this was done for the greater good, as Celestia said, “Equestria comes first,”. She was right, millions of ponies lived under Equestria's banner and I was a threat to them all, back then. Now I worked on a higher authority, Celestia locked me away because I was a danger to the millions, but now I had to save the zillions of zebras, griffins and ponies that shared this planets, when the time comes, I wasn't going to let Celestia stand in the way. Equestria comes first.

The sun had set, Twilight time reigned over the kingdom now. Rainbow said her castle was hard to miss, close to the town, but I wouldn't have to go into it. I was interested to see what 'important alicorn stuff' we would be talking about, no doubt this will be her chance to ask me any questions she wanted answers for, and I would have to answer them for her if I wanted to get in her good graces.

I made my way to the castle, like Rainbow said, it was hard to miss. It sprouted up like a tree from the ground and inside its crystal grasp, a rather normal looking building nestled inside the crystal confines.

I reached the large, double doors and knocked. There was movement up above on the balcony that overlooked the entrance. Soon enough, after some bickering sounds and the rustling of paper, a familiar face mare looked over the balcony's edge. A smile of relief mixed with with fear grew on her purple lips.

“Autumn, so glad you made it,” she turned her head back into the room, when it returned to me it had panic etched all over it with a poor attempt to mask it. “I-I be down in a minute,” she mumbled before going back inside, without even waiting for a response from me. After more sounds of objects being thrown or pushed, Twilight made it to the door and opened it.

“A princess that opens her own door, impressive,” I muttered as I entered the main room. The room was strange, a high celling with 7 thrones in a circle around a disk shaped object, on each of the chairs were cutie marks, some I recognised some I didn't.

“Follow me, we can talk somewhere more private,” she gestured to one of the thrones, on it was a familiar sleeping dragon, snoozing away peacefully. I did as requested and follow Twilight to a smaller, cosier room. This room had a toasty fire and a surprisingly ordinary desk, on top of where books staked high along side notes and scrolls. A pot of ink and a quill rested near a empty piece of parchment. By the fire were 2 armchairs with soft paddings on both the seat and back rest, a mahogany coffee table divided the 2 chairs from each other, on the table were more books, though these were for more leisurely purposes.

“Would you like some tea? I was just about to make some,” she offered, I had no idea what tea was but it sounded nice.

“Sure, I guess,” I replied, she told me to sit down while she got the tea. I sat down and didn't stop myself from sinking into the soft padding, my hind legs drooping to the floor and my back resting against the spongy fabric. It probably didn't look professional but was definitely comfortable, I prioritized one over the other.

Twilight returned shorty with 2 mugs in magic, she rested them both onto the coffee table on coasters and advised me not to drink it yet, for it was still hot. She took her seat in the armchair opposite and watched me in silence, my eyes were focused on the gentle flames of the fire, it mysterious properties licking against the small confines of the fire place. Trying to break free.

“I got a letter,” Twilight said quietly, as if she was trying not to disturb me. My head flopped in her direction.

“From who?” I asked with little interest, my money was on Celestia.

“Princess Luna,” she informed, I sat up a bit, suddenly interested in what that letter had to say. “She thought it would be beneficial for me to know those dreams you keep having,”

“I've had a lot of dreams over the years, must have been a long letter,” I chucked to myself, I was faking my silliness, I knew exactly what dream she was on about.

“No really, she only told me two dreams,” Twilight levitated over a scroll from somewhere. “The first one was you breaking your banishment and using the Everfree creatures to take control of Equestria, over the course of several dreams you took over Ponyville, Canterlot and Manehattan, freezing the residence in cockatrice magic,” she eyed me curiously, as if she was expecting an explanation. She wouldn't understand, it was all necessary in saving Equestria, but I couldn't stop the smile from growing on my face.

“I'm sorry Twilight, but I can't tell you about that,” I said, she didn't look impressed.

“You'll tell me, or I'll throw you into the forest again for another millennium,” she threatened, she wasn't so friendly when Equestria's safety was on the line, I guess I had no choice.

“It was just a foolish fantasy, something to entertain myself, I wasn't serious about it,” I lied, she wasn't buying it.

“I'm not stupid Autumn, I can tell when somepony's lying to me,” she hissed, well at least I tried. I was going to have to explain it to her one way or another, now or in 1000 years time, it didn't matter to her.

“Fine,” I threw myself back into the chair, my body sliding lifelessly into the chair. “Remember the apocalypse I told you about, I can't stop it completely, but I can stop the damage. If everything, from the smallest bug to the biggest ursa major is turned to stone, they can survive the damage. So I can stop the planet cracking in two and stop any widespread panic about it,” I explained my reasoning, she looked sceptical but knew I wasn't lying either.

“But what about the cockatrices themselves?” she asked, of course they couldn't freeze themselves but could freeze each other.

“Cockatrices can turn each other to stone, the last one I can handle,” Simple really, basic magical deflection could bounce the cockatrice's gaze back at itself.

“What about you, you'll be unprotected,” she asked, I detected a hint of concern for my well-being in her voice.

“I hadn't thought up that part yet, I'll think of something,” I reassured, I guess I secretly hoped to never find a way to survive, I'd lived long enough and an apocalypses was a good excuse to finally end my life. It was selfish though, somepony had to look over the ponies as they reawakened and re-adapted to the world that had been changed by the apocalypse.

“What is this apocalypse and why can't we see it Autumn? If it is as catastrophic as you say it is then we should at least see sighs!” Twilight exclaimed, I barely knew what caused the apocalypse let alone if their was any sighs for it.

“I don't know, but keep your eyes on the sky,” I replied, it comes from above, that all I knew. It was my destiny to stop it though, my one purpose it this world, to reunite with my powers and save Equestria from complete destruction. That's why I was an alicorn and that's why I'm still alive.

Twilight sighed loudly, this topic being mostly guesswork was annoying her, so we moved on to a different topic. “What's the second dream Luna told you about?” I asked, fairly curious about it, I doubt she talked about my time when my face was thrown into mud or me getting pinned into a corner by school yard punks.

Twilight's eyes turned apologetic. “She said you have constant nightmares about your past, I'll spare you the details, I'm sure you already know them all anyway,” her voice was a whisper, a sensitive topic required a sensitive voice. My head was lowered to the floor, my body no longer leaning over in comfort but up straight.

“Just a nightmare, nothing more...” I muttered, lips quivering. I crossed my forehooves awkwardly, never rising my head to met Twilight's eyes.

“But it all happened in real life, didn't it?” she eventually asked the killer question, I wondered how much she knew, how much detail did Luna go into? I hoped for her to already know everything, but I knew she was clueless and I would have to explain everything to her in detail that would bring it back to my reality.

“Yes... but instead of being the better pony, I got my revenge, justified vengeance...” A violent shudder rippled down my spine. The room turned cold and quiet, the wooden flooring reminding me of the schoolhouse from so long ago.

“What happened Autumn? Both you and Celestia keep mentioning it, something bad must of happened if you got banished for so long...” she enquired, I braved my head up and locked eyes for just a second, that second turned into a minute as I silently challenged her with my gaze.

“I... I killed them all... every... single... one...” I uttered, sounding like I was coming to terms  with it myself. Twilight shuddered away and shrunk into her chair, eyes wide at me in terror. I don't know what she was expecting me to say.

“Murderer... you're a murderer...” she mumbled, her eyes never leaving me, whether from fear or shock I didn't know. I honestly expected Celestia to warn Twilight about this, that somewhere along the line she would at least mention that her new friend was a killer.

“I know I can't change the past, but just so you know I have regretted killing them for every second of my life, even after 2000 years I still don't think that's enough payment,” I remarked, making sure she understood my side of the story. I knew she could never see past my murderous pasted, I just hoped she wouldn't be scared of me.

“Why did you kill them, innocent ponies, how could you!?” she cried, her eyes burnt at me, burns of sadness and a sense of disappointment. I couldn't help to feel like I had let her down, and I didn't know why.

Words didn't seem to describe the hell I felt back then, everything I could say turned to dust in my mouth, I couldn't tell her. I couldn't tell her with words, but I could show her. “Do you want me to show you?” I asked, hopping out of my chair and taking a step towards her.

She to, jumped out of her chair, but stepped back and away from me. I couldn't blame her, she was finally seeing the monster I was. But I couldn't let her go either, not until she saw what happened that day. “What do you mean?” she demanded.

“I can't explain it, you're going to have to trust me,” I replied, it was not going to work, she had no reason to trust the pony killer.

Like I thought, she wasn't buying it. “No, Why would I trust you?” she said, taking another step back. Criminals were rare, a life of crime wasn't appealing to many ponies at all, only the lowest of the low would steal or bring harm to a fellow pony. Murder was something unheard of to most ponies, something kept inside books and history lectures, on the rarest of rare occasions and a pony finds itself with blood on its hooves, imprisonment in the darkest dungeons is an instant sentence, maybe the pony would find its own life taken from it as future punishment.

So when I looked in Twilight's fearful eyes, I understood her fear, “Celestia trusts me, and do you think she would leave me alone with you if I was a danger to you,” I stood a second step around the coffee table.

Twilight's head turned to the floor at my words, I'd hit the nail on the head, her trust in Celestia's judgement was one of her soft spots. “What are you going to do?”

“Nothing that will harm you,” so long as it all goes to plan, I'd never tried this on a pony before. Her head looked up, we were closer now, my eyes looking slightly down at her. She let out a sigh, then nodded her head, giving me the all clear.

“Now I don't know how well this is going to go, so be ready with some fancy magic,” I informed, but before Twilight could call out her protest, we tapped horns. The room around us dissolved into a blaze of white light, the walls melted away like hot candle wax and the floor was painted a thousand colours as we fell past every memory I had until we fell upon one exact minute, on one exact day.

At least the memory I was emulating was compressed into one room, Twilight face was etched with many different emotions, the most dominate one though was surprise.

She gasped as her eyes darted around the room, “A memory spell comprised of past experiences!” she exclaimed, it was a badly casted spell, the windows were colourless and grey, flickers of white light occasionally broke through my severely limited magical grasp and I almost lost my control several times during transfer into the memory. “Autumn, this is incredible, how are you able to do this,”

Honestly, I felt like I couldn't, my magic was weakening and failing. Ears rang and a headache tore in my skull, few things could make a unicorn feel worse than magic fatigue. Twilight must of saw my distress, she enveloped my horn in her magic, giving me access to her magical energy as well.

  With the addition of Twilight's magic, the rest of the memory began to surface. Ponies, going about their normal school-day. They sat in chairs or lead against tables or walls, laughing, smiling and talking with their friends, no idea that they would all be dead in a few minutes.

“What going on Autumn?...” Twilight asked, I was transfixed on the room around us, it had been so long since I'd last seen it, it still made me feel sick. “Autumn?...”

Somepony screamed outside, catching everypony's attention, they all fell silent. The old door handle rattled, all eyes turned to look at it, all wondered who was on the other side, except me. The door opened with a creek, through the white light of the outside eluded the figure of a unicorn, except he had his wings outstretched. Tied around his neck was a familiar looking blanket, blowing in the wind.

At the sight, everypony broke out into a fit of laughter, hooves pointed at the alicorn in the door. One pegasus with gelled back black hair stepped forward, hoof pointed at the door, “Hey look everypony, Autumn's turned into a pretty princess!” he summoned up more cackles. Young Me stepped into the room, posture readying my body to ponce, my young eyes closed and when they opened, they burned a purple and green flame.

The pegasus achieved flight, but not from his wings, instead with hooves flaying he was chucked towards me and Twilight. We both moved out of the way, despite not being real in the memory. The pegasus collided with the wall head first, the crunch of bones breaking along with the sound of pony meat hitting the floor made the room fall into a ghostly silence. The pegasus never got back up.

“Autumn, what have you done?” A unicorn asked in disbelief. Some ponies moved towards the dead pegasus to see if anything could be done. I had no intention to kill him, past me looked around as ponies started muttering, a few saying they were going to get help. Little me slammed the doors shut and secured the windows.

“Shut up!” Little Me yelled, a few ponies closed their flabby mouths but some still yammered on. He put his hooves to his head, closed his glowing eyes and begun muttering a pray to Celestia. I knew that inside my little head was a choir of voices, all telling him different things, 'Kill them' or 'Run away' were the two most dominate voices.

“I'll go get help!” a pony shouted, beginning to smash at the glass windows. She had climbed onto a cabinet to get to the window and with a book in her magic, she was wailing on the window with all her strength. The sound of the book hitting against the window along with the grunts of the mare holding it was doing the one thing Little Me hated, noise. When the glass inevitably broke, the shards surrounded by a sickly mix of purple and green coloured magic found her face, she screamed and tumbled back onto the floor.

With the death of a second pony, everypony started to panic, screams and shouts for help and the hammering of hooves at the door made more and more noise. Little Me couldn't handle it, “Shut up, Shut up, Shut up!” he roared, nopony listened, lost in their blind panic.

Little Me put his head up and closed his eyes, “SHUT UP!” he voice created a blast of energy that knocked everypony off their feet. My rage didn't end there, I poured every sliver of magic out of my body, creating a sizzling ball of energy that scorched the floor. It lifted Little Me's body off the floor, suspended me in the air. All around, ponies that I hated crawled away in fear, my reflection in their eyes was the last thing they saw.

The ball of energy spread out in a quick blast, dropping me to the floor and I landed with a thud. The whole time Little Me didn't dare to open his eyes. For a moment nothing happened, everything was on mute. Then a piece of the celling fell, then another, then another. The walls snapped, splinters of broken wood flying in all directions. Soon enough the whole building collapsed on our heads, crushing everypony. It wasn't just the school house though, it was every building in the village.

Little Me opened his eyes, he darted his head around as he's tiny mind tried to process the chaos around him. For the first time since the memory started, I turned to Twilight. She had started crying at some point, whether she was weeping for the dead or for me didn't matter. “Are you alright?” I asked her.

“I-I had no idea...” she stuttered, I guess it was a lot to take in, I would be confused to if it wasn't my second time in this memory. “You were just a foal, with no control of your magic, I thought you were older when this happened,”

I turned my attention back to Little Me, who had crawled up into a ball by the only standing piece of wall left. Covered by his faithful blanket he cried into his hooves. “Might as well show you the rest,” I mumbled.

The world turned into fast motion, me and Twilight watched as hours pasted without Little Me moving a muscle. It was around evening time when Celestia's chariot arrived escorted by armed guards and her sister's darker blue chariot. Time returned to normal as they began searching the ruins for survivors. They had no success.

Luna and Celestia approached the broken school house, the final building to check. “But Sister, what could have caused such damage?” Luna inquired.

“I have no idea, but keep alert, it could still be here,” Celestia advised.

“I doubt that the monster that done this is still here, if it had any sense it would have ran for its life,” Luna replied, upon hearing these words Little Me stirred up, new-found panic and fear washing over him.

Before he could stand though, Luna had spotted him. The blanket covering up his wings for Luna's sight. “Sister, a survivor!” she informed, Little Me panicked and ran, tripping over on the rubble and falling to the floor. The blanket blew away in the wind.

Luna moved closer and closer, she noticed the wings and horn quickly, immediately becoming suspicious. I picked up my blanket again and knotted it around my neck, covering up my wings again

“Good find sister,” Celestia moved past Luna and towards Little Me.

“Be careful sister, his an alicorn!”

Celestia paused, “Don't be silly sister, we're the only two alicorns,”

Luna stood over Little Me, “See for yourself sister,” she attempted to part Me with my blanket, a big mistake. Without thinking my horn blasted Luna with a magical beam, it deflected off her magic barrier, barely.

Little Me was between two alicorn princesses, the fear I felt was indescribable.  Luna had succeed in moving the blanket enough to let Celestia see my wings, if only for a second before she saw my magic. “Attacking a princess! Foolish move!” Luna barked, using a voice louder than necessary. Her horn ready to strike Little Me down, but Celestia blocked her with a hoof.

“Calm down sister, he's only a foal,” Celestia knelt down towards me, our eyes locked and instantly Celestia knew everything. Little Me couldn't hid the guilt and the strike at Luna showed her that I was more powerful than I should be.

“A-Are you going to h-hurt me?” I mumbled behind my blanket, trying to crawl away but I was stuck on my back like an upside down tortoise.

“I promise that you will never get hurt again,” Celestia comforted, “Can you tell us what happened?”

Little Me winced away, “I'm sorry, I didn't want this to happen, I'm so sorry,” I cried, shuffling away from the princesses.

“Wait, you're responsible for this!” Luna exclaimed, she didn't have the perceptive eye her sister had.

A wave of panic washed over Little Me, I wanted a escape and my horn provided one. I teleported up, then again into the distance. Celestia and Luna were left to look around dazed.

“Sister, who was that?” Luna inquired.

“I don't know, I'll chase him, you stay here and clear this mess up,” Celestia commanded, then she sniffed the air, picked a direction and began walking.

“Wait, you can't go alone, its dangerous!” Luna voiced her worry, Celestia turned back with a smile.

“He's just a scared colt, deep down his just a scared and lonely pony,” Celestia said, then turned back to her seemingly random direction and started walking. Twilight tapped real me on the shoulder.

Her eyes were red and puffed up and her voice was shaky. “Can we go back now? I can't watch any more,”

I nodded, ending the spell and again the world dissolved and reshaped until we returned back to reality.