Book 1: Foundation of Equestria

After the stunt that the Draconequus pulled with the filly, Noche was secretly starting to think she was cursed. Although if they hadn't ran off, they wouldn't have found Fayard's chick Novo. He'd be here in a week to collect his chick, and then there was the issue of getting the two Abyssinian's out of his castle! He had far better things to do than have to waste guards on them! He didn't trust them, and his wife wanted to eat the cat.

Speaking of his wife, Crepúsculo Radiante walked into the throne room. She had a very angered look on her face, The Mountain King rolling his eyes, wondering what she was going to yell about now. Ever since that filly came into their lives Crepúsculo had been going nuts. She always allowed her guard to be down around him, but even now, he could see some of her mask remained. Something had ticked her off, more than the fact their youngest son was laying in a bed, sick of something they didn't know. That and Draconeqi really annoyed her. The younger ones anyway.

"I want Skiadrum out of the castle and i want it done now!" she shouted to nobody in particular. Noche De Neón understood why she was so upset by him, to be honest Noche was as well. Skiadrum was, in may terms, a failure. In his eyes, that colt didn't do much other than suffer in silence. He normally just disappeared for thousands of pony years, and then randomly turn up out of the blue only to leave again. He rarely stayed very long, a pony week maybe? He'd spent a lot longer than normal here. It seemed something had caught his interest.

"Tell me what's going on my love," Noche De Neón sighed, watching her pace. She struggled accepting it was their fault that Skiadrum had become the way he was. Noche felt a lot of the blame should be on him for not intervening when her strict way of raising him was making him suffer.

She'd been raised the same way, but the added pressure of being the first born made it a lot worse. It only deteriorated after it became clear he couldn't perform the Diamante Sangre, a very important part of being an Umbrum King. The power to generate crystals without the use of magic... Their son was a breathing corpse, all because he failed at being a father. His wife was very difficult, the challenge had always been appealing, but she was also very insecure. She expects perfection, and is unable to take the blame when something goes wrong. He accepted the blame after La Sombra Del Sol was born... It got even worse after that, somehow. After their second son where he put his hoof down and spent much more time raising this son, she completely ignored Skiadrum's existence. Noche sometimes wondered why he even bothered coming round when his own mother detested him. Maybe he cared for his baby brother in that thick hide of his somewhere, so far down that he didn't know what it was?

"I was checking up on Medianoche, The Draconequus healing our son being there as well. I was thinking about skinning that Abyssitire and then HE just walked in saying i shouldn't be brash! I did what i normally do to that living statue, i wanted him to go away and leave my eye sight!" she spat. Skiadrum rarely ever showed a reaction when verbally or even physically attacked. He didn't know much different, so it seemed normal to him. Deep down under his own hide, Noche wanted his eldest to somehow find happiness, even if it was impossible at this stage "Then it started talking. That Draconequus started saying it was my fault, that it was me that made him like that! he called me the embodiment of bitchness!" not totally wrong there, even if a little arousing at times "It isn't my fault he's like that! i didn't fail!"

"We both did i'm afraid. myself for not seeing what was happening, and not thinking that you would pass on your strict up bringing... you didn't stop when he started to shut down, and you kept going even when you saw he was slowly dying on the inside. we both failed, it's something we have to live with." maybe there was hope after all. the Draconequus had stuck up for him, so it was possible that Skiadrum could learn to break free of the stone encasing his heart? still, he always had to consider it was too late. he couldn't get his hopes up, it wasn't a very smart thing to do.

"What, are you doing?"

"it's my healing magic!" Kanashimi grinned, his hands glowing pink of all colours "The poison is pretty strong whatever it is. i have an idea what could get rid of it, but i can't go for too long or your baby brother here could bite the dust." the stallion rose a brow at the expression, the first sign of life since he'd come back in here a few hours ago. he would make a really good statue just standing there like that. that kind of patience was pretty awesome when Kanashimi thought about it. hilarious that his name translated to sorrow, when he was rather optimistic. the only one who rivalled his optimism was Fuwa, and nobody was more cubish than him!

"I see. what is it you need, to be exact?" Kanashimi hummed, scratching his chin with a third arm that appeared out of nowhere. Skiadrum held no reaction. it was a Draconequus, they could do very impressive things after all. being surprised was like saying the sky was blue.

"Aacries," Kanashimi said "Well the nickname is Sacred Moon Lavender, they grow around the Hollow Shades which is a pretty long ways away from here," he sighed. then his ears perked as he heard the familiar sound of teleportation magic. Kanashimi turned around just in time to see the left over light of said spell "Well, that's interesting." he cared about his brother, so that meant he had a chance with getting him out of the shell his bitch of a mom forced him into. he was gonna get a raise if he pulled this off.