The Predecessors of Midnight

by Boopy Doopy

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Original Character
Length: 6205

An alternate universe of My Little Pony

An alternate universe of My Little Pony, set on the continent of Illandra. It provides a brief glimpse at the previous rulers of Illandra before Midnight Bloom. Effectively, this is the story of the world leading up to a story that I plan on writing, called Midnight Bloom (which would follow the main character, Midnight Bloom).

Key sections to read would be Princess Illandra, Prince Lightning Dust, and King Anthem

Published 2020-01-11 06:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-02-23 03:01:18 UTC

Princess Illandra and Prince Magnus

Princess Illandra:

No pony knew how old she was. She was just always… there. Well, not exactly there. She lived on the outskirts, alone, rarely ever seen. Sometimes it was years in between sightings of her. Some ponies thought she was a legend. But she was real. And she protected them. As best she could anyway.

Many claimed to be healed by her, or even saved from death by her. Some claimed that she visited in dreams, others claimed to have seen a glimpse of her, only for her image to vanish with the wind. Many claimed that she brought good fortune. More claimed that she was their good fortune. Almost everypony knew her name, and the thought of her being out their brought everypony, from the smallest foal to the oldest stallion, a glimmer of hope in their lives.

On the continent ponies lived on, there was an awful ruler named Chaos. Being an alicorn, he was much stronger than his subjects, and consistently disregarded their well being and oppressed them. As a result, it left the continent in shambles, it being filled with hunger, sickness, and poverty under his rule. The ponies on the continent had a constant feeling of hopelessness, and desperately wished for something to change.

However, Illandra’s capabilities were limited. While she was an alicorn like Chaos, she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop him. Chaos was powerful, just as powerful as her, perhaps more so. She knew that in the worst outcome, she would die, and her legend would die with her. If that happened, she feared there would be nothing left for these ponies to hope for. Even in the best case, she knew that both her and Chaos would die, leaving the continent in shambles and giving way to the possibility of another, more terrible ruler to take Chaos’s place.

So Illandra did what she could. She used her strong wings to bring rain or sun. She used her powerful magic to heal the sick. She used her knowledge of the world to help grow food and medicinal herbs. She did everything she could to ease their lives. However, in her heart, she knew it wasn’t enough.

But one day, as she was traveling the continent, searching for ponies to help, she came across a crown. Her inclination was to ignore it, but she could feel it calling to her. As Illandra drew near, she could feel the magic radiating off of it. Suddenly, she thought of Chaos and his reign as a terrible king over the continent. In that moment, seeing the crown lying there, she knew that this would be the end of Chaos’s rule.

Illandra put the crown on her head and felt the magic in it rush inside her. She felt more powerful and magical than ever before, and used her newfound power and magic to defeat Chaos. In doing so, she freed the ponies subjected under him from his wrath, and they named her the new ruler of the continent, which they named Illandra, after her. She reigned for a thousand years afterward, improving their lives immeasurably during that time. What was once a poor and miserable continent became a rich and pleasant one during her reign as the Princess of Illandra.

Prince Magnus:

Prince Magnus lay in his bed, thinking about the events of his life that led up to that moment. He didn’t think he was anything special. Or, at least, he wasn’t anything special before. Now he was the most special pony on the whole continent. He was the ruler of Illandra, crowned by Illandra herself. He never expected it to happen to him. No pony expected it to happen to him. No pony expected it to happen to anyone. Princess Illandra had reigned for the last thousand years, so they naturally just assumed that she’d reign forever. As it turned out, however, that wasn’t the case.

Magnus had always been intelligent, as well as talented. He was a natural leader, a great organizer, and delegator. He quickly developed a reputation as somepony who got things done. Being a unicorn, he also had natural magical ability, and used this along with his leadership as best he could to help the ponies around him. With these two things combined, it wasn’t anypony’s surprised when Princess Illandra decided to become his tutor.

However, after a few years of tutoring him, watching Magnus excel in magic and grow into a great leader, Princess Illandra made the announcement that he would be her successor. Of course, she told him privately at first, much to his shock. He naturally asked her why, to which she answered cryptically, “I feel my time is coming to an end,”.

Magnus stared at her blankly at that response. “How?” he asked. “When?”

“I don’t know,” the princess responded. “Not more than a few months I believe,”. She then looked down at him, smiling gently, and said, “But I have faith in you,”.

“What are you going to do?” Magnus asked her, a drop of worry starting to make its way into his voice.

“I already told you,” Illandra told him calmly, “I’m going to make you my successor,”.

Over the next few months, Magnus warmed up to the idea of succeeding the princess. You could even say he was a tad excited. Perhaps also a little worried, but not very. From what he'd heard, during her entire reign, Princess Illandra hadn't been wrong even once. And if that was the case, there was no reason for Magnus to doubt her faith in him.

Eventually, the time came for Magnus’ coronation. Thousands of ponies from across the continent gathered before him and Princess Illandra to attend. They watched as the princess gave a short speech about how, after a thousand years of reigning over the continent, bringing immeasurable changes, she would be leaving them, and how they would be in capable hooves under Magnus. While the thought of Princess Illandra leaving did make the crowd feel sad, the fact that the princess chose him as her successor reassured them.

Finally, for the first time in a thousand years, Illandra took off her crown and placed it on Magnus's head, declaring him the new ruler of the continent of Illandra. Magnus felt its magic rush into him as it touched his head, and the crowd watched as he turned into an alicorn. He was quite shocked by this, as was the crowd, and he looked to the now former ruler for an explanation. All he got from her was a small smile, a small affirmation that this was the way it was meant to be. Then, a moment later, the new prince, along with the crowd, watched as she turned into white feathers that blew away in the wind.

Princess Green Meadow, Princess Rainbow Mist, and Princess Dalia

Author's Note

So yeah, I know these three characters are a little boring, but I promise the next four (Prince Lightning Dust, Princess Lunar Sky, Princess Starry Night, and Prince Cornelius) should be more exciting.

Princess Green Meadow, Princess Rainbow Mist, and Princess Dalia

Princess Green Meadow:

While there wasn’t much variety on the continent, Princess Green Meadow loved looking at Illandra’s natural beauty. She was named for the meadows that could be seen in many places of Illandra, the ones that stretched on for miles with no end in sight. Of course, finding such a meadow to view could often be a difficult task, seeing as much of the continent she ruled over was rocky badlands. It was a bit better now than it was before the previous two rulers, under the rule of Chaos, but not by much. Princess Illandra had spent much of her time cleaning up what was left behind from him, and Magnus used his time as prince to build cities across the continent out of what was previously villages. The two just never seemed to have the time to put into fixing the landscape itself, and Green Meadow thought Illandra suffered because of it.

She knew that this was partly why she was tutored by Magnus to become his successor.he had a love of nature that was obvious to anypony. It was strong, so strong that it bordered on obsession. Of course, she was still able to take care of her duties as ruler of Illandra, but more often than not, she was wandering the continent, taking it all in.

During her reign, her main focus was on Illandra’s landscape. She set out to change much of what was badlands into something livable. She created massive campaigns to dig rivers and plant forests across the continent. Of course, she made sure to keep room for the animals that naturally lived on the continent, and took measures to bring in only non-invasive species. She studied carefully how one ecosystem might interact with the next, and made certain to set things up in a cohesive way. It was so thoughtful and intricate that, by the time Green Meadow had finished manipulating the continent’s terrain, over half of Illandra was unrecognizable.

She also made sure to make time for her citizens, visiting town after town and city after city during her reign. She had the ability to make even the shyest and most timid ponies smile, and was consistently regarded as one of the friendliest ponies in Illandra. She was also looked up to by many, being the first earth pony to be named ruler and become an alicorn, and greatly missed when she went away.

Princess Rainbow Mist:

“So how come your title is ‘princess’?” Rainbow Mist asked. “Shouldn’t it be ‘queen’?”

Princess Green Meadow laughed at that. “Well,” she explained, “while you are right that the proper title would be ‘queen’, as Prince Magnus explained it to me, we go by ‘prince’ and ‘princess’ because it sounds less authoritative,”

“But aren’t you authoritative?”.

“I prefer to let Illandra think of me as guiding hoof in their lives. My job is not to be the boss over anypony, and it won’t be your job either,”.

“I understand that, I’m just saying that ‘queen’ is technically the correct term… but I guess I can settle for ‘Princess Rainbow Mist’,”.

“Do you have any other questions before your coronation?” Princess Green Meadow asked.

Rainbow Mist started to say something, then stopped and frowned. Green Meadow raised her eyebrows in question, before Rainbow Mist asked, “Were you afraid of the future?”.

“I was at one point,” Green Meadow admitted. “For a long time. I always thought to myself, ‘what if I make the wrong decision?’. Then, I thought about Princess Illandra, and all that she had done. I realized that, in some small way, all of my decisions were really her decisions, and from what I heard, she’d never made one bad decision in her life. So, if that was true, and all her decisions lead up to my being princess, then there was no way I could mess up, and so there was no reason to be afraid,”.

“That makes me feel better,” Rainbow Mist told her.

“I knew it would,” the princess told her with a small smile. “Now I’m going to leave you to get ready. You’re going out in exactly one hour,”.

Green Meadow turned to walk out of the future ruler’s room, before Rainbow Mist called out to her. “Wait!” she said. “Do you have any last words of advice for me?”.

The princess thought for a moment, then told her, “Don’t be afraid to take action, listen to your heart, and be prepared for any challenges you might face,”. She stopped, then added, “And enjoy it. You’ll be crowning your successor before you know it,”.

Princess Dalia:

Like Rainbow Mist before her, and Green Meadow before her, and Magnus before her, and Illandra before him, Princess Dalia could feel her time coming. She didn't know exactly when, maybe in a few weeks, maybe in a few years, but she somehow knew it wouldn't be much longer before she would pass. It was simply a feeling she had, maybe a whisper in her ear. And that whisper told her that she needed to find a successor.

However, she had no idea where to start. She didn't know what she should look for in a leader. Well, she knew in general what to look for. Selflessness, confidence, leadership, things of that nature. But to her, half of the ponies in Illandra fit that description. She was concerned she might make the wrong decision. Of course, she knew for her to make the wrong decision would mean that Princess Illandra made a wrong decision, which was impossible, but still, she fretted over the task of finding her successor.

Part of the problem was that many were intimidated by the princess. While she generally stayed in and ruled from the castle Illandra built centuries ago, during the few times she did go out, she struggled to connect with her subjects. She tried to appear friendly to them, but her expression was naturally a look of seriousness. She always looked as though she was going to scold them. Even when she was feeling particularly upbeat, the best she could manage was a blank expression. When she tried to smile at them, she knew it seemed fake, like the kind of smile someone would give when they were forced to be nice to you. She also struggled to talk to her subjects, having a tendency to give them one word answers and ask serious sounding questions. She wanted them to know that she genuinely did like and care for them, but was bad at expressing it.

She'd been this way as long as she could remember. Before she became the ruler of Illandra, she spent most of her time thinking. Thinking about everything. Everything from where the world came from to how to improve it to what it would be like ten thousand years in the future. She had written pages and pages of things she thought about, and a list of things she wanted to think about in the future. Many times, when somepony saw her staring at the wall, believing she was doing nothing, she was thinking. She wanted to know why things were the way they were. She also read. She read hundreds of books a year, about anything she could get her hooves on. The most common place she could be found was in the royal library, thinking or reading. These two things, combined with her royal duties, often left little room for her to go out and speak to her subjects.

Because of these things, she had an ambassador to speak on her behalf. His name was Lightning Dust, and he was exceptional at his job. He spoke the words she told him effectively and with confidence. He often delivered her speeches for her, and went to distant parts of the continent on her behalf. Before, she had a dozen ponies help her with these things, but since he'd come around, she was able to trust it all to him. He really was impressive.

And then Princess Dalia realized: Lightning Dust could be her successor. He already knew the right things to say and should have already known how to be an effective leader. He seemed bright, and from what she could tell, he enjoyed what he was doing. She was effectively already tutoring since his job was to be her ambassador, so she figured that she might as well go the extra mile and make him get successor.

And so, that same evening, she revealed her plan to him, telling him that within a few years he'd be the new prince of Illandra. And, upon seeing how excited he looked by the news, Princess Dalia let out a rare smile.

Prince Lightning Dust and Princess Lunar Sky

Author's Note

Okay, so a little bit more about Chaos is introduced in this installment, plus a bit about another villain named Crimson Moon. Also, I 100% plan on bringing back Lightning Dust, Crimson Moon, and Chaos in the main series (you might already sense the direction I want to go, even though I have yet to start writing the actual story.).

Prince Lightning Dust and Princess Lunar Sky

Prince Lightning Dust:

Prince Lightning Dust knew his reign as ruler of Illandra was about to end. He didn't want it to end. He desperately didn't want it to end. However, he knew that it would.

He'd been prince for barely over two years, so it was understandable why he thought he wasn't ready. All of the previous rulers had ruled for hundreds of years. Of course, none of the other rulers had faced Crimson Moon. He was powerful. And destructive. Very destructive. He'd nearly destroyed the whole world the last time he was free. The only reason he wasn't able to before was because Chaos alone knew the spell to stop him. Lightning Dust couldn't bring Chaos back, and even if he could, there was no way he would dare to try and bring Chaos back. Even Illandra, a natural born alicorn, even with the crown Lightning Dust now wore, even she had a tough time defeating him. Lightning Dust knew that there was no way he could stand a chance against him. Not that it mattered, since Chaos was no longer.

However, it seemed Crimson Moon had finally figured out that Chaos was no longer, and took the opportunity to wreak havoc. And there was no way to stop him. Well, there was one way. The only way Lightning Dust knew. Which is why he knew his time as prince was coming to an end.

Whenever a pony died, they would go to the Other Place. It was said to be a tranquil place, a place where a pony could be at peace for the rest of eternity. It was said to be like a pleasant dream. The thing was, between here and the Other Place, there was a place called Stasis. Many ponies described it as nothing, but that wasn't exactly a good description. It wasn't nothing, it was almost nothing. It was like being alone in a dark room. There was nothing to see, hear, taste, touch, or smell. But you were aware. You were aware that you were there, but there was nothing you could do about it.

That's the place he was going to send Crimson Moon. He would be trapped there forever, at least in theory. The only problem was that, when Lightning Dust cast the spell to trap Crimson Moon in the Stasis, he would be trapped there as well. He didn't look forward to being locked there forever, and especially didn't look forward to his only companion being Crimson Moon. But he knew it would be for the good of Illandra, so he would do it, in spite of the price.

He told his best friend, Lunar Sky, of his plan, and, as he expected, she didn't like it. She tried to tell him that there had to be another way, however, she knew he wouldn't be swayed from his decision. So after a quick ceremony in front of his most important staff, he crowned Lunar Sky the new ruler of Illandra, and went out to battle Crimson Moon. Lightning Dust stepped out of the castle to face him, knowing that that would likely be the last he saw his best friend.

It was a sad thought, but it was okay. He was protecting the land he loved. And just knowing that made him happy. But still, he knew he would be leaving Lunar Sky. The thought of leaving his best friend alone made him upset. Thinking that she might be sad made him upset. But she would get on. He knew she would. But he wouldn’t. He would be in Stasis alone. Well, not completely alone. He’d be stuck there with the one pony who caused it to happen, Crimson Moon.

Princess Lunar Sky:
Princess Lunar Sky thought about the moment every day. The moment when she just missed grabbing on to Lightning Dust's hoof as he and Crimson Moon disappeared into the abyss. The Stasis. It made her upset to think about how, if she just reached out a tiny bit farther, he might not be dead.

Well, dead was the wrong word. She knew he was certainly still alive. He might have even been thinking about her at that very moment. But he might as well have been dead. He was completely unreachable. Even if there was a way to reach him, she didn't know how. He didn't share the spell he used with anypony. He might actually have known a way for her to bring him back to Illandra, but didn't tell her for fear of bringing back Crimson Moon.

She constantly thought about how things could have gone different. Maybe if she protested harder to find a different way to stop Crimson Moon, or tried just a bit harder to help him, or just reached her hoof out a little bit farther to grab his, just one inch farther, he might have still been here. But, of course, that was all history now. What was done was done.

It did give her consolation that he left protecting Illandra. There were no victims during Crimson Moon’s brief return. Lightning Dust would have been ecstatic to hear that. He was probably happy to know he was leaving protecting Illandra. And if he was happy, she would have been happy.

Still, though, she knew that he was sad to leave. And she knew that because she was sad. Whenever she was upset, he would get upset. He was her best friend, and she loved him. She felt awful that he was gone, and knowing that he knew how his departure made her feel would make him feel bad, the thought of which only made her feel worse.

However, she knew she couldn’t stay preoccupied with Lightning Dust’s absence. He had crowned her the princess of Illandra. She had a continent to rule over, and a mess to clean up that Crimson Moon left behind. She had work to do. So after a day of grieving, she got to work doing the job he was counting on her to do. It made her feel better, taking care of her subjects. She knew it was what Lightning Dust would want her to do, and she knew he’d be happy to see what a job she was doing. But still, she missed her friend, and wished she could see him again.

King Anthem

Author's Note

This is a whole bunch of the very far backstory. A very distorted view of the very far backstory, but the very far backstory nonetheless.

King Anthem

King Anthem:

King Anthem had tried to fight back, but such a task was hard to accomplish when you constantly bedridden. Terrible migraines and muscle pains kept him confined as he went on suffering through what would have quickly brought an end to any ordinary pony, or even any alicorn that was made ruler. Even Anthem, as strong as he was, was at one point driven to madness by his suffering. Only now, over twenty five hundred years later, was his pain starting to abate, albeit rather slowly. It might be another twenty five hundred years before it was gone entirely.

He knew the two ponies responsible for his suffering was. The first Anthem hated with his whole being. The second, he tried to hate, but couldn't. He could only hate her weakness. And her greed. Her greed was the reason he was no longer king. He had done all of the work because of her weakness, and was subsequently deposed because of her greed. And yet he couldn't hate her, so he settled for hating her actions.

He had ruled for thousands of years after he established his kingdom. He was a harsh ruler, but a fair one he thought. His subjects needed order, sought it out even after what was before, and he provided it. Despite his harshness, his subjects regarded him as a good king. And while their lives were still difficult, it was much better than it was before.

However, as generations came to pass, many began to forget about what it was like before, thinking that what was once very real was only legend. Not only this, but the one Anthem hated was causing him to suffer. At first, his pain was barely perceptible, but after thousands of years, it was driving him towards insanity. He became more harsh in his ruling, more tolerant of their suffering. What did they even know about suffering? They weren’t around to see life before his rule. He was aching in pain and fighting off insanity for their well being.

And all the while, the one he tried to hate did nothing. She couldn’t fight the one he hated because of her weakness, and wouldn’t ease his pain because of her greed. He hated her greed. She went on, building a legend about her, claiming to him she was doing it under his orders. “My job is out there,” she would say to him mockingly, because it was the very thing he told her years ago.

He knew it was to strip him from his rule. She had done nothing, yet demanded the throne from him. He knew she went on hating him because of his answer. She watched him suffer and slip into madness, and plotted to take his throne from him because of her greed.

She claimed he was ineffective and stubborn. She said the country was dying because of his stubbornness, that ponies were dying because of his ineffectiveness. He claimed that the cause was her greed and weakness. That if she was stronger, the country wouldn’t be in such a sorry state, that if she was more content his subjects' lives would be far better off. They went back and forth about this for many days, years, centuries.

As he dropped further into madness, he watched as she plotted against him, telling lies about his history, about what he’d done. He watched as she told him that his rule was chaos, that he was chaos, that their lives would continue to be awful because of him. That he hated them. That he wanted nothing more than to see them suffer. That if only she was ruler, their lives would be so much better. That he was greedy. She made them hate him, made them afraid of him.

He knew it wasn’t hard for her to do. Part of it was his fault. His suffering made him lash out at his subjects, when he knew he shouldn’t. It wasn’t their fault he was in pain. They didn’t ask him to live in suffering for them, he chose to live like this for them. However, it did make him upset to know that, instead of respecting and fearing him, they were afraid of him and hated him. It hurt to know that it was partly his fault, and made him angry to know that it was partly her greed and weakness’s fault.

Anthem at one point threatened to kill her for her greed. Not because he hated her though. In fact, he would've hated himself for it, and grieved for her. So many times, he didn’t know where he would be without her, and thanked and appreciated her for it. However, if she forced his hand, he would do it. He would not be deposed from his throne. He was the only thing keeping everything together. If he was deposed, he knew it would all fall apart. Maybe not that very day, or even that very millennium, but eventually it would crumble. He would not let his country crumble, not let the one he hated return. Besides, it wasn’t like she was above killing him. The only thing that stopped her was her weakness.

However, when the moment came, he was weak, and he cursed himself for it. He hesitated. Even in his madness, even in his pain, even in his hate for her weakness, he hesitated. It was for just a moment, but a moment too long. And she took advantage of his brief moment of hesitation. Of course, he knew that she knew he would hesitate. She was clever in that way, and would only attack if she knew she would win. She knew that for a moment he would be weak. She was his sister after all.

But even in his weakened and insane state, he survived. But just barely. It took his whole being to not die. He wouldn’t die. He knew his country would need him, even as much as his subjects feared and hated him. He stayed alive for them. But he was deposed, and too weak to fight back, much to his anger. He was now weak, and it was her fault. He hated himself for his weakness, even if it was only temporary.

Princess Starry Night and Prince Cornelius

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,”.