The King is Dead, Long Live the Princess
Skyla sat by the gravestone.
“I guess this is goodbye,” she said. “I hope you’re not mad at me for leaving. I mean, I know you aren’t, but I also know what you told me when I asked about the tunnel for the first time. You were still dead serious back then, remember?” She winced, placing her hoof flat on her face. “Forgive me, that was inappropriate. ‘Very’ serious is what I meant to say. Sorry.”
The dethroned king, may his soul rest in peace, didn’t feel much offended.
“You shouted at me, even scared me a little. Back then I didn’t understand how difficult for you it all was. Sheltering an alicorn while everyone else hates them with passion? Now that’s what I call courage!” she said. “I feel terrible that I couldn’t see it, and that I called you stupid. I should have turned my frustration at the villagers instead, because, let’s be honest, they are the ones that are stupid.”
They were also mistrustful, and as inhospitable as the crude wastelands they called their own.
Skyla passed her hoof over the lush green grass, letting a nearby stream express its irritation in her place. The splashing remarks were accompanied by the singing of a blue jay sitting on one of the many trees that surrounded the rose-adorned area around the gravestone.
“What’s their problem, anyway?” Skyla said. “Just because some other alicorn has abandoned them in the time of their need doesn’t mean that every other wishes them ill. I certainly don’t! I would do my best to show them that I’m more than just a horse of apocalypse they want to see in my kind! If they didn’t start throwing rocks at me first, that is.”
Skyla didn’t really know why a mob of superstitious ponies would choose to throw rocks at her. The only rocks she was familiar with were also her stalwart protectors, as she was living in a narrow, but charming valley between the mountains where steep, rocky walls separated her cottage from the rest of the world. They valley itself was also protected by powerful enchantments veiling it from those who would like to find the young alicorn.
“You said that this is the only place where I will be safe. That out there, the ponies will hate me because I’m so different, because I’m something more than them. But I really can’t stay here forever,” she said, straightening up and taking a saunter around the glade. “I don’t want to be ungrateful or something. I know that the best way to appreciate what you did for me is to stay alive, to cherish life, but sitting here will only get me so far. I know every rock, every turn of our stream, every herb and fruit that we planted together!”
She looked up to the sky, a streak of blue cutting in between the mountain peaks.
“Ugh, I’ll go crazy if I won’t try and see something new,” she said. “Look! I’m already taking to myself! Well, to you, but it’s not like you can hear me.”
I can hear you, Skyla.
She turned towards the gravestone with renewed hope. “But you know what? Even if you can’t hear me, I still think I need to get this off my chest before I go, and I don’t really have anypony else to talk to, so please bear with me,” she said. “You promised that even in death you’d be still watching over me. I could… I could really use some of that right now.”
I am, and I will! I will be watching over you to the best of my abilities! Here, on the other side, it is difficult to discern the living and the dead, the afterworld from the world in which I left you. Everything I see is hazy, and everything I hear is muffled, everything apart from you. I can see you quite vividly, Skyla, and only thanks to you I have not given up on myself like the rest of these poor wretches.
Skyla sighed. “Of course we both know that you couldn’t be certain of what’s on the other side, but I guess that some part of me wants to believe that you found a way to stay with me… somehow. I know for sure that you’d try,” she said, sitting by the gravestone again. “So, about staying. With you gone, there is really no future for me here, so I’m leaving today. First, I’ll do my best to avoid the villagers, and then I think I’ll go find that mythical land you told me about when I was little.”
I should have never taken you so deep into these lands. I thought that I could exploit the mistrust of the locals and make them an impenetrable barrier between you and the Crystal Princess. Now I can only hope that you will reach your home, Skyla.
“The house just isn’t the same without you, but it took me quite some time to realize it, you know. At first I didn’t cry much. You never cried, and I wanted to be tough like you,” she said, her voice faltering. “I even tried to convince myself that getting stuck all on my own wasn’t such a big deal! That I could do whatever I wanted! No more lessons in magic, no more exhausting fighting exercises!”
I have deprived you of your childhood, Skyla. I’ve been training you in the magical arts when I should have been reading you stories for a good night’s sleep. I’ve been teaching you how to act and think like a conqueror when I should have been showing you the wonders of the world.
Her eyes wet, Skyla whispered, “But then I realized I missed you more than I thought I would. What’s the point of having a dinner for breakfast if you can’t share it with anyone? Where’s the fun in playing in the stream all afternoon if no one plays with you? All that remained was silence,” she said. “I think I miss your voice the most. ‘Skyla, dinner’s ready!’ ‘Skyla, have you read the treaty I gave you?’ ‘Skyla, did you clog the chimney with your crystals again?’ ”
A faint chuckle was heard in between sobs.
I am guilty of a terrible crime, Skyla, and my only relief is that I have realized my mistake in time. It is true that a couple of years of giving isn’t enough to repay for a decade of demands, but that was the best I could do. At least… I thought it was.
Skyla collected herself and stood up. “Speaking of which, I’ve got something for you. Sort of a thank-you gift for all those birthday presents you gave me,” she said. “I’ve been working on it for some time now, and I know you probably wouldn’t like the means, so apologies in advance, but it will require extra power for the spell to kick in. It’s one of those instances I really need to tap into the higher magic, so you better keep your head down.”
She glanced at the mound by her hooves, a blush darkening her already rose cheeks.
“Sorry again! Of all the things you’ve taught me, tact and rhetoric were never my strongest suits. I’ll try to work on them in my journey, okay? Maybe then I’ll be worth the nickname you gave me.”
All I have ever given you were blatant lies, Skyla. First I was lying to satisfy my petty need for revenge, to keep my machinations going. Then I was lying to keep you away from them, because you deserved so much more, you deserved to follow your own path instead of becoming a part of a mad pony’s dream as worthless as the dreamer himself. At all times, I was lying to keep you close.
Skyla took a step back.
“Alright, here it comes!”
She closed her eyes and unearthed the darkest thoughts she carried within. She found herself all alone in a dangerous land where life imprisonment would be the least the ignorant masses would do to her. She was afraid. Her mother died in childbirth, and now she lost her father as well. She did not want to accept that her father was dead, no, she straight hated it! She hated the cruel world for taking her father away! He was a good pony, a decent pony, he alone had been taking care of her as long as she could remember! He didn’t deserve such a fate!
Although Skyla didn’t know much about the proper use of the higher magic only available to her kind, she had learned time and again that strong emotions were her best chance to unleash it.
She fell to her knees with a helpless lament.
“WHY? WHY YOU? WHY NOT THE WORLD INSTEAD?”
As fear and hatred took over, Skyla cried. Tears flowed down her cheeks while violet and green mist of magic streamed from under her eyelids.
Stop! Don’t do it! You’re still too young for the alicorn magic to obey you! It will consume you like it once did me with! Argh! I should have taught you better, but I saw only a source of power where I should have recognized the greatest of dangers!
Her eyes and horn still flaming, Skyla took a deep breath. While doing so, she placed her hoof on her chest, and after a moment of holding her breath, she exhaled and took her hoof away, drawing an arc in front of her. The magic withdrew, then a violent surge went through her body. Some invisible force lifted her in the air and tossed like a rag doll.
Please, let go of the magic! You are still young, and the temporary power is not worth the risk. I am not worth the risk! Whatever you are planning, Skyla, I am not worth it!
Skyla straightened up. Her horn shined with a blinding light, flooding the glade with waves of magic that was no longer violet and green, but brilliant blue instead, and as imperious and regal as the young alicorn herself. Upon completing her spell, Skyla couldn’t help but smile. She dried her eyes with the edge of her hoof, glad that her personal breathing technique worked.
“Not bad for your ‘Princess’, am I right?”
It’s… beautiful.
Everything in the thirty foot radius from the gravestone had been transformed. The grass turned into a smooth, emerald surface from which numerous topaz columns—former trees—were rising high to join their ruby crowns over the glace. Slices of white opals entwined into exquisite roses stuck to the amethyst bushes, and the gravestone itself changed into a mighty chunk of diamond.
Only the words carved on its surface remained the same.
Here lies
Sombra
a loving father
a unicorn whose heart
was pure as crystal
I… I have no words.
“This is my gift for you,” Skyla said. “Without anyone tending to the house, the valley will get swallowed by weeds in no time. But not this place. I made sure of that.”
You shielded the place of my final rest with crystal, because your heart knows love like no other. You truly are your parents’ daughter, and I was a fool for thinking I could change that.
Since the moment your cutie mark appeared I knew I wouldn’t be able to exploit you for achieving my goals. At the same time, I was too afraid to stand in the light of truth, to return you to the Crystal Princess and accept the punishment for my crimes. I couldn’t. I wasn’t strong enough, and I am sorry. I do not ask for forgiveness, for I deserve none, but I want you to know that amongst all my lies there is a single truth that I have realized much too late. A truth that is now keeping me sane, here, on the other side.
Skyla embraced the tombstone, and Sombra embraced her.
“Thanks for hearing me out, dad,” she said. “I love you.”
I love you too, Skyla, my daughter of whom I have never been worthy.
Skyla left the dethroned king’s crystalline sanctuary.
She stopped before a thick curtain of ivy, making sure that her wings were tucked beneath a simple shirt, weighted by her saddlebags, and covered by a traveling cloak. She decided she’d be posing as a unicorn during the journey, at least until she’s sure that the ponies around her were no longer after her skin because she was different. There had to be some good-willed ponies out there, right? Her father was one of them, after all.
She took a deep breath and entered the tunnel that would lead her to the vast expanse of the uncharted world.
“I wonder if this Equestria place is very far.”
Author's Note
Hello there! Thank you for reading my story. I am no longer writing pony fiction, but if you want to support my current creative endeavor, check out my content on Twitch! 
