Author's Note

Oops. Did I post to "The Predecessors of Midnight"?

Princess Starry Night and Prince Cornelius

Princess Starry Night:

“You don’t have to do this,” Princess Starry Night told Cornelius, as she took a step towards him.

She watched as he took a step back, slightly fearful, keeping the crown in his grasp. That was the reaction she was hoping for. It meant that he might be able to be talked out of what he was doing. If not, he would have just broken the crown right then and there.

“What else am I supposed to do?”he asked her angrily. “Suffer? Let those who claim they care stay in power while I die?”

“We do care,” the princess said calmly. “All you have-”

“No!” he yelled, interrupting her. “You don't care! If you weren’t, you would have seen me! If you cared you would have helped me!”

Cornelius didn’t actually believe what he said. If he did, he wouldn’t have been talking to her at all. Although just a unicorn, he was quick enough and strong enough to match the alicorn princess. He could have broken the crown easily enough, and, with a bit of luck, finished her off, but he didn’t. Even though he was lashing out, he still wanted to be helped. He was once told that Princess Illandra never made wrong decisions, which meant that Princess Starry Night didn’t make wrong decisions. As angry and upset as he was, he still wanted that to be true.

“I understand how you feel,” the princess told him, “but this isn’t the route you should go down. You should be asking your fellow ponies for help. Nopony can help you if they don’t know you need help,”.

“They should have known!” he told her bitterly. “You should have known!”.

“You must know that I can’t possibly watch all corners of Illandra at once,”.

Tears started to form in his eyes. He knew that was true. He knew that nopony could possibly know he needed help if he didn’t ask. But still, he believed they should have known.

Starry Night took another step towards Cornelius, and he took another step back, hitting the wall of the throne room. “Don’t come near me!” he tried to tell her.

Still, though, the princess advanced, until she was just a few feet away from him. She stood in front of him and asked, “How do you think this will end?”

He knew this could end only one of three ways. Either he'd break the crown, kill her, and become king, she'd kill him and keep power, or they'd both end up in stasis, like Prince Lightning Dust and Crimson Moon. Of course, he didn’t want to be king, and had no intention of killing anypony, let alone the princess, and he didn’t think she wanted to kill him. Which left only one outcome.

“I know you believe there’s only one outcome to all of this,” the princess told him, “but there’s two. The first is that we both end up in Stasis, which I won’t hesitate to cast the spell to if I feel you’re about to break the crown. The second is that you give up the crown here, and all of this ends,”.

More tears formed in Cornelius’s eyes. He hated this, and knew that she was right. He didn’t want it to be like this, but didn’t know what else to do. He just wanted to be helped. This, to him, was a desperate cry, and still, he felt like she wasn’t listening.

“I’m listening,” Starry Night said, as if reading his mind. “And I want to help you, but you have to ask for help. You can’t just assume ponies know what you’re going through,”.

He closed his eyes tight, clenching his teeth. He hated the idea of having to tell ponies what he was going through, of telling the princess what he was going through. She should already know. He didn’t want to ask for that reason alone. But still…

“I need you to ask me,” the princess told him calmly.

Through tears, he whispered, “Will you help me?”.

Prince Cornelius:

The castle Prince Cornelius lived in was much better than where he lived before. It was much better than how he lived before. He struggled just to survive, and has a constant weight of anger and sadness on his shoulders because of it. He felt like nopony cared then, and maybe they didn’t, but now knew that the way he lived and what he felt were no justifications for his actions. He was ashamed now to think about the extremes he’d taken things to.

Once he’d given up the crown, Princess Starry Night had been quick to forgive him and give him a space in the castle to stay in. However, she still handed down a sentence on him, that sentence being to be tutored by herself. And not the fun kind the previous rulers of Illandra had gone through. For the first year, he was hardly ever allowed to leave his room, and had a watchful eye on him all hours of the day and night. He was given rigorous testing, and most of his waking hours were to be spent studying. Other than the guards who watched over him and the princess herself, he saw almost nopony else. It almost felt like a prison sentence.

After a while however, Princess Starry Night began to let up. Beginning the second year, he was allowed to explore parts of the castle, and by the fourth, he was allowed to roam the city of Magnus unsupervised. All the while, he grew stronger and became smarter, to the point where, although just a unicorn, he was already well past what Starry Night was capable of. He himself believed he would be incredible if he had the crown on his head. Nowhere near what Illandra was capable of, and just below what Lightning Dust was capable of, but still, he would be formidable.

Of course, he had no interest in ever putting the crown on his head. He didn’t trust himself to. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to serve Illandra’s best interests. In fact, his shame proved the opposite. Besides, even if he did want to be prince, which he did not, the princess would never allow that to happen.

Which was why he was quite surprised with Princess Starry Night announced to him that she would make him the next ruler of Illandra. He tried to argue against it, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“After what I tried to do,” he told her, “I shouldn’t even be considered for being the next ruler of Illandra. I should be in a dungeon,”.

“That was years ago, Cornelius,” she explained, “and I’ve already forgiven you for it. Besides, my time is quickly coming to an end. I don’t have time to train anypony else,”.

“And what happens if I disgrace Illandra and become an awful prince?”

“You doubt the progress you’ve made since the incident, but I have complete faith in your ability to lead your subjects,”

“And what if I can’t? What if I’m the wrong choice?”

“That’s not possible, because I chose you. The only way for you to be the wrong choice would be for Princess Illandra to have made a wrong decision,”.

Cornelius sighed, still doubting. “I can’t do it,” he told her as a matter of fact.

“You can do it,” Starry night said to him, “and you will. As my pupil, this is going to be your final test: leading Illandra the way I know you can,”.

He paused at that. He knew he couldn’t say no now. “Are you sure I can do it?” he asked the princess.

“I know you can,” she assured him. “You were misguided before, but well intentioned. Besides, you’ve grown beyond that, becoming somepony I can trust to lead Illandra. I have faith that, during your coronation, you’ll use this time with me and the experiences you’ve had to lead Illandra the way it’s meant to be led,”.