The Third and forgotten ruler of Equestria

by Fantom_Poni

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Luna, Drama, King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Profanity, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Death, Human
Length: 22334

Being a big brother is always hard... especially when you have to take care of your little sisters yourself...

Being a big brother is always hard... especially when you have to take care of your little sisters yourself... But what to do now if one very powerful magician is already looking after them, and your sisters themselves, after accomplishing the impossible, became like goddesses - alicorns... You were in no way distinguished by magical skills, much less strength and endurance. A completely ordinary unicorn in a dangerous world...

Published 2024-10-18 22:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-11-09 13:43:10 UTC

Chapter 1

Author's Note

I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Chapter 1

«Oh, what happened to me? Where am I?» Looking around, I tried to understand where I was, but I saw nothing but darkness. «Where am I?» I asked myself questions, to which I never received answers. «What happened to me?» I tried to remember at least something, and I remembered what happened to me.

I was walking down the street with headphones on, it was night, I was walking around the city because I couldn’t sleep again, and I decided to freshen up a little. And when I was already crossing the road, a car suddenly jumped out from around the corner of the building at high speed... I didn’t notice it right away because of the headphones, and only noticed it at the last moment, when I turned my head in its direction. I only managed to see a bright light, and then... I don’t remember what happened next, probably because of the impact...

Yep, it was not for nothing that my parents and older sisters told me that “don’t walk around the city at night with headphones on, otherwise you never know what will happen.” And this something happened - I died... And what should I do? Where am I? In hell? Paradise? Or in Purgatory? This place was nothing like what I listed. What then? It was a dark space without anything. No sounds, no plants, just nothing. I didn’t even see my body, because as I said, it was so dark here that only some kind of night vision device would help me at least see something.

But then I heard a voice, and it came from literally everywhere, and I began to listen to it. At first I didn’t understand anything, but after listening better, I realized that it was a man’s voice, and he was saying something.

"Who do you think, honey, who will he be more like, me or you?" this male voice asked someone.

"I don’t know, dear, until he’s born, we won’t be able to find out." said another female voice as an answer.

Who is this? They say they're going to have a baby soon? It’s just not clear to me why I hear them. I decided to try to move to see if I could walk. And so, I already began to try to move my limbs, and yes, I succeeded, I was able to move my legs, and when I moved them, I touched something, and then the woman’s voice was heard again.

" Oh, look, he’s already kicking with his hooves. " her voice was very joyful and very gentle.

"Ha-ha, he wasn’t born yet, but he’s already playing pranks." a male voice laughed slightly.

Wait, what?! Hooves!? Am I reborn as a horse? Hmmm, I didn’t think that after death I would become a horse, and looks like that male voice is my Father, and the female voice is my Mother. Well, since life gave me a second chance, I will live it with dignity!

And I won't repeat my past mistakes. Well, since I still have time before birth, I can think about what kind of world I found myself in.

Four months have passed

Well, let's summarize what I found out over these four months: first, I found out that my parents are not horses, but talking ponies; secondly, my Father's name is Orion and my mother's name is Galaxy. My parents have very beautiful names, I want to say; and I also found out that in about one month I could be born, which made me happy that I would finally be able to see them. You ask me, aren't you bored here? Partly yes, I have nothing to do except just listen to my parents talk and sometimes show signs of life, or just kick sometimes.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention that I found out my future surname - “Selbion”. This is how unusual it will be for me, and I also found out my future name - “Lucius”, also a rather unusual name. But my last name belongs to the royal family, aka, mine.

Right now I was bored, and my mother is probably sleeping now. How did I understand this? She's been silent for about twelve hours, I need to wake her up, otherwise I can no longer sit or lie in silence? I don't know what position I'm in, but it doesn't really matter. My mother often talks to me, and although I cannot answer her, sometimes it seems to me that she knows that I understand her. Probably a mother's instinct. I gathered my will into my hind hooves and lightly kicked the surface of my mother’s belly.

"Huh" she said sleepily, then I repeated this action again. "Ah it’s you, baby, who wakes me up every morning, thank you." she said in her joyful and gentle voice. "You’re probably hungry, that’s why you’re waking me up."

Oh, how glad I am that she understands me without words. I felt that she began to get out of bed, then I heard the clatter of hooves, and then the sound of a door opening, judging by the sound of metal. It was one of the guards, and then I heard his male voice.

"Good morning, Your Highness. " he said.

"Morning." said my mother. "What did you came with?"

"Your Highness, the King is waiting for you in the dining room."

"Okay, tell my husband that we will be there soon." she said in a gentle voice.

"As you order, Your Highness!" he said, then left the room and closed the door.

"Well, baby, you woke us up on time, I’ll just ask you not to be naughty while eating, okay?" she asked.

In response, I didn’t do anything, because I really was a little hungry, and yet I still can’t tell her anything in her tummy. At first she walked around the room a little for like five minutes, probably getting ready, then I felt that we were already leaving, I realized this because I heard the door open and close. We didn't walk for very long, about ten to twelve minutes. I heard the doors to the dining room opening and closing, and at the same moment I heard the voice of the Father.

"Good morning, honey." he said in a very calm and caring voice. "How did you sleep today?"

"Morning, I slept great, dear." she answered and sat down at the table.

"Our son haven't been rowdy at night?"

"No, he calmly let me sleep, apparently he understood that I was tired."

"Yes, he will definitely be a good prince, or even a king."

"Oh, Ori, why are you looking so far, huh? He hasn’t been born yet, and you’re already making such plans for him." she giggled.

"Oh, come on, Gali, just let me dream already, huh? Well, I can’t be a king all my life, after all, he will find a filly that he will love and marry her, and then he will become a king, and she will become a queen."

"Yes, I understand you, dear, but let’s put off such conversations until he is at least ten years old?"

"Okay, honey, I'm just excited, the deadline is already running out, and he should be born soon"

"Hehe, as if I'm not excited about this event."

You listen to them and understand that in this world I still have a chance for a good life. Yes, in any case I will have to rule Equestria - the country in which I will now live is called exactly that. I like the name, it's easy to remember. Well, at least I’ll try not to disappoint my new parents here.

A month has passed.

The day has come when I can be born to see my parents. I can't wait to find out what they look like and what I look like. Oh, I have so many plans - studying this world, magic, and maybe even creating something in this world myself.

Yes, I have global plans, but I probably won’t be able to do much of this, for some reason for sure, but probably because of the fact that I will have to be learning royal etiquette. I remember reading in one book that everyone in the royal family should know this etiquette. In my past life, I wasn’t an excellent student, but I wasn’t stupid either, I was just often unlucky.

Not everything was smooth in my past life, but there were quite a lot of good moments, especially with my older sisters. Oh, how I will miss them. You probably don't understand why I'm so calm? Yes, it just so happened that I am the kind of person who is ready to calmly accept everything, even my death. But there is no time to be discouraged, I am already starting to hear a lot of voices, which means that we are already in the maternity ward, where I will soon be born. Oh, how I worry.

And so, after a while, too much noise appeared, and during it I saw that a bright light appeared in the darkness, which began to become brighter and larger. I decided to try to crawl to it, and I began to succeed. Of course, I still couldn’t see myself, but that didn’t bother me. And so I got very close to the light and then a very bright light came into my eyes, from which I began to squint, and then I felt that someone took me. I also felt a strange sensation that something was being used on me, but what?

"Please accept my congratulations, Queen!" a male voice said joyfully. "Your son has born absolutely healthy!"

"And please accept my congratulations, Queen!" said a female voice, and then I felt as if I was lifted into the air, then they wrapped me in something and someone began to hug me.

"Oh, he's wonderful!" said my mother. Her voice was right next to my ear. I tried to open my eyes, and I managed to open them, only at first everything seemed blurry to me, but after a short amount of time I was able to see clearly.

In front of my face, I saw the snow-white face of a mare, her horn was the same color, her eyes were bright pink, and she had a very joyful face. Looks like, this is my mother.

"Wow, he has just born, and he's already able to open his eyes!" the stallion in a white robe admired.

"Queen, he has your beautiful eyes!" the mare in the same white robe was already admiring.

"Hehe, well, hello baby, I'm glad you were born." she said in her gentle voice. "And welcome to the family."

After she finished speaking, I tried to give her my smile, and yes! I did it, I even laughed a little joyfully, which surprised everyone, especially my mother, she already had tears of happiness. Then I heard someone running here, and at the same moment a stallion in a crown flew into the room. He also had a horn, he was dark blue in color, his eyes were bright blue, and emotions of excitement and concern were visible on his face. He was looking straight in our direction.

"Where is he?" he asked.

The stallion in the robe pointed his hoof in the direction of my mother and me, and immediately my father ran up to us and began to examine me. A happy smile appeared on his face.

"He has your eyes, my love!" he said very joyfully.

"Heh heh." She giggled a little in response, and then I gave my smile to my father.

"And he also has an unusual coat color." he looked at me interestedly.

"This is where your blood worked, King and Queen." the doctor began. "You are the King, everyone in your family was dark blue. And in your family, Queen, everyone was light white, so your blood mixed in it and created such an unusual color."

"And now, because of this, your son is now purple," the mare in the robe had already finished the dialogue.

"Wow, not only did he open his eyes so quickly, but now he is also unique in his fur color." Mom said joyfully.

"Yes, there haven’t been purple ponies in Equestria yet, but now there are." the father said joyfully.

Wow, how much information was poured out on me in these short minutes after my birth. It looks like my life here will be wonderful, but now something's starting to make me sleepy, I wonder why? *yawn*

"Oh, the baby wants to sleep. *yawn*"

"You also need to sleep, dear, we won’t interfere." he said and looked at the ponies.

"Yes." they said at the same time.

"Sleep, dear." He kissed her forehead. "And you, son." He kissed me on the forehead too.

This made me giggle a little and then started to close my eyes. Well, now I need to get some sleep to gain strength for the new day.

Chapter 2

Ten years have passed

I was sitting in my room. It was small in size, but with all the necessary things: a wardrobe, a wardrobe, a bed, bedside tables, and the table at which I was sitting now. I don’t share the room entirely with anyone, and I’ve been living in it for five years. I was placed in it when I was five years old in this world. In front of me was a book about artifacts.

A lot of time has passed since I was born in this beautiful place. I even got younger sisters. In a past life I had them too, and in that world I really wanted to be an older brother. But now in this world I can fulfill my dream and become a big brother to my younger sisters. They are so cute, I have to admit.

Now I’ll tell you about my first younger sister - her name is Celestia, this is the name our mother gave her. She was born on a beautiful sunny day, a ray of light entered the room in which she was born, it enveloped her and illuminated her white fur, her beautiful pink hair, and also her beautiful pink eyes, like mine and my mother. And this sign meant that she would be great in the future. At least that's what the whole castle said all day.

There is one ancient legend that if a snow-white baby is born in one royal family under a ray of sunlight, then in the future she will become great. But what is great is never said. I don’t believe in this, it’s just that this legend was written a very long time ago by one ancient magician, he wrote a lot more there, but what else I don’t know yet, I didn’t take it in history class. Oh yes, I almost forgot to say that Celestia is already five years old, she is very active and inquisitive.

Now I will tell you about my youngest sister - Luna, or as I like to call her Lulu. She is as beautiful as the night, her beautiful blue mane, her beautiful blue eyes like our father’s, her light blue fur. She was born, oddly enough, at night, under the full moon. Then our parents did not have time to come up with a name for her because of the responsibilities that had fallen on them lately.

And then, when I saw her for the first time, I noticed that the light of the moon was falling on her, so then, without thinking, I said “Moon” out loud. And so it happened that I came up with a name for her. Yes, it didn’t work out as usual, but I even like it. Luna turned out to be a little calmer than Celestia at her age; it’s even surprising that I turned out to be the only son in the family.

This upset my father a little. He probably wanted another son. I don’t know why, but it just so happened that he now had two more daughters. Of course, this fact did not upset him much, because as for me, it doesn’t matter whether you had a daughter or a son, you will still love him no matter what. Well, at least that's what I think.

I’ll also tell you, I found out that in this world, all the ponies in this world don’t have tattoos on their backs, as I initially thought, but cutie marks. They kind of determine your talent, as I learned, and children in this world get them most often before the age of fifteen. I haven’t found my talent in this world yet, although maybe it’s just a hobby. I'm somehow fascinated by the different artifacts in this world.

Here in the book about artifacts, a lot of interesting things are written about them, for example, one artifact can control the weather! Damn the weather! This means that this one is listed in the “dangerous” section. Well, there are also “safe” artifacts, “less dangerous”, and “ultra dangerous”. If such artifacts fall into the wrong hands, then disaster will follow. And in this world these were not ordinary things. In the games of my world, they were, one might say, useless, they slightly added some buffs to the character, but here the artifacts are downright useful!

By the way, I was able to study a little of the magic of this world. I learned the spell of telekinesis, small fire (you can use it to light candles), and finally the spell...

I was brought out of my thoughts and thoughts by a knock on the door. I turned to her and asked:

"Who's there?"

"It's me, brother!" Celestia said happily outside the door. I got up from the table, walked over to it and opened it.

Celestia stood in front of me. I was taller than her by about fifty centimeters, so I lowered my head so that I could look into her eyes.

"Sister? Did you run away from the nanny again?" I asked tenderly.

"Well... she began to move her hoof along the floor," oh, she ran away, I’m bored, brother.

"Tia, if you’re bored, then this is not a reason to run away from the nanny. What is this already, the tenth time?"

"The eleventh…" she answered sadly.

I just rolled my eyes and, using telekinesis, quickly carried her into my room, looked around the corridor, then went back in and closed the door. She was slightly surprised by this, and I turned to her.

"Celie, this is the last time I’ll help you hide in my room, next time I’ll tell your nanny where you are... I didn’t have time to finish when she immediately hugged me."

"Thank you, thank you Luci!" she shouted joyfully and hugged him even tighter.

"Tia, you’re going to choke me like that." I said.

"Oh," I realized that I overdid it with the hugs, and stopped hugging. "sorry…"

"Nothing, you didn’t do it on purpose." I smiled at her and stroked her head.

She smiled at me, and at that moment someone knocked on my door again.

"Celie, hide under the bed." I told her very quietly, and she nodded her head, crawling under it.

I calmly walked to the door and opened it. Standing in front of me was Celestia's nanny, her name was Linda Young, but everyone just called her Linda. It was clear from her appearance that she was a little angry and worried.

"Prince Lucius," she began, "have you seen your sister Celestia?"

I shook my head. "No, I didn’t see it, but why did she run away from you again?"

"Oh, she can’t sit still," she sighed. "You prince were calmer than she was."

"Well, she’s definitely not here, I would have noticed if she had snuck into my room." I lied. Damn, I don’t really like to lie, but for my sister’s sake I have to.

"Okay, prince, if you still see her, then let me know."

"Yes, of course, I will definitely tell you."

She nodded her head and began to leave, and I closed the door and sighed with relief.

"Come out sister, she's gone."

"Is it true?" she asked looking out from under the bed.

"Really, why should I deceive you?"

"Hooray!" she shouted joyfully.

"But don’t forget, I’m helping you for the last time, because you need to study, dear sister." I told her with a serious look.

"I don’t understand how you aren’t bored listening to these lectures on history, magic, and all this in general."

"Because I’m really interested in listening to them, sister, when you grow up, you’ll understand how important it is."

"Oh, I don’t need to know that, you’ll still rule, just like you were the first born, brother." she said offendedly and turned away.

"Oh, Celie, understand, we will all grow up and rule Equestria together,” I walked up to her and turned her head towards me, “look at me, do you see me so smart, and that I can rule the whole of Equestria alone?” After all, even our parents rule together, and they are also helped by assistants, because they have a lot of work."

She started looking at me and thought for a while, then she sighed.

"Maybe you’re right, brother, you can’t handle this kind of work alone..."

"So, do you promise that you will study and not drive around?"

"I promise, brother!" and showed the oath gesture that we came up with.

"Well, that's good." I gave her a «boop».

"Hey, that's not fair!" she pouted, but I just laughed a little.

"Haha, okay, so what are we going to play?"

"Hmm, let's play chess! You promised to teach me how to play them!""

"Yes, yes, I remember that I promised, and I will keep it." I smiled at her.

I went to the closet, opened it and took out a chess set, and Celestia sat down on the carpet where we often played different games. Then I walked up to her, arranged all the pieces correctly, and then sat down in front of her.

"Well, let's start with the rules of the game..."

After three hours of chess training

"Well, damn it," Celestia was a little upset, "I thought that at least now I’d win you!"

"Well, don’t be so upset, in the future you can beat me." I reassured her.

"Eh, maybe..." she said sadly.

I looked out the window and saw that the sun was already setting "Oops, this is bad."

"A? Is there something wrong?"

"How wrong it is! The sun is already setting! And that means dinner is coming soon! And you're in my room now!" I said nervously. This is very bad! Servants always come for us and take us to our dining room, and if someone is not in their room, they will punish us. Yes, there is such an unusual rule.

"Horror! How come we didn’t keep track of time!" she said nervously.

And then there was a knock on my door. Well, that's it, let's play! Now my father will punish us for this. We sat down, I was about to forgive you for distracting me, and we were playing. Of course, I wasn’t against it, BUT this incident changed everything. I stood up, walked to the door, then opened it and in front of me stood the guard who always accompanied me.

"Prince Lucius, I came to..." but then he noticed Celestia awkwardly waving her hoof. He raised one eyebrow and started looking at me.

"Eh, I know, so lead us." I sighed and answered as calmly as I could.

He nodded his head, Celestia walked up to me and we left the room together and the guard led us to the dining room. We walked for a while in silence; Cely looked like she was very worried, because she might get the blame for running away from the nanny and running away from the lesson. And I might get punished for hiding her in my place. Yes, I hope that the punishment will not be very severe.

And after some time we were there, two guards stood near the entrance, and outside the doors I heard the voice of Father and nanny Celestia. That means he already knows that she ran away. I turned my head towards Cely, she already understood everything, and taking a deep breath, I opened the door. And when I opened it, I immediately saw Father sitting at the table, and Linda standing next to him. When Celestia, I, and the guard went inside, the doors immediately closed behind us.

When this happened, Father and Linda immediately looked in our direction. From their silent gaze I understood that they were not happy, and it was understandable why. I turned my head towards Celestia and she was shaking all over, damn she’s too nervous right now.

"Well ," Father began, "I’m waiting for an explanation, Celestia, why did you run away from class?"

"I...I..." I tried to say something. Oh my goodness, I can't do this!

"I asked her, Father." I came forward and stood up for her.

Everyone looked at me in surprise, except the guard, he didn’t care.

"For what?" Father continued.

"I was a little bored alone, and I asked her to come to me so we could play." answered clearly and clearly.

"It's clear." he said and sighed. "So that this is the last time!"

"Yes, of course, dad. " I answered.

He nodded his head.

"Linda, you can go."

"Yes, king." she bowed and walked towards the exit, then when she passed us, that guard followed her. And when they left the dining room and closed the doors, the Father began.

"Sit down, children." he said in a gentle voice. Celie and I nodded and sat down at the table.

"Thank you..." she thanked me very quietly.

"Dad," I began and looked at him, "where’s Mom?"

"She won’t have dinner with us today," he sighed sadly, "she’s been watching the Moon all day and is very tired."

"It's clear." I answered. Well, yes, because a small child needs to be monitored very closely.

"Celestia, he turned to her," you understand that if this happens again, "I will have to punish you severely. You understood?

"Yes, Father..." she answered sadly.

"Well, well, don’t be sad, daughter, just understand that you will all have to rule with us later, and these lessons are important to you."

"I understand, dad..."

"Celie, be more cheerful, you’re not punished." I reassured her.

"She is not, but you are." he said.

"I know, and what is my punishment?"

"You will learn royal etiquette all week, and nothing else."

Oh, come on! For what! Although I don’t mind teaching him, but not for the whole week! Damn, I wanted to study at least a small part of the knowledge about artifacts this week! Well Father, this is too much...

Chapter 3

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 4

Some time later

Lucius' Room

The time: 20:35

It's been a couple of days since I learned the teleportation spell. Well, I'm glad I was able to learn it. This makes me very happy, I even managed to scare Tia a couple of times with it. And she reacted very funny to these two times, I will never forget her expression. Hehe, yeah, I haven't had so much fun in a long time, Tia is now also studying magic, she has already mastered telekinesis. What is most interesting is that she mastered it, you can say ... instantly! Yes, yes, I was surprised by it myself! Honestly, even our parents were surprised by this. Our mutual magic mentor said that she has some talent in magic that hasn't been seen in a very long time.

It's a little offending even, she learns it quickly, not like me. I can't stand out in magic in any way, and I'd be surprised if Lulu will master it as quickly! Then it turns out that I am the only one who is not gifted in magic. It will be a shame for sure. Okay, enough of the sad stuff, you can talk about the good stuff too — for example it's my birthday tomorrow! I’ll be eleven years already! And in honor of this, as in the last six times, there will be a ball. It's not that I'm against them, it's just that they're so boring, you can't imagine, but there's only one plus, and only one.

Wonder which one? I met a very wonderful filly at this event 3 years ago, and her name was Radiant Hope. Her mother's name is Princess Amora, and she rules the Crystal Empire. Crystal ponies live in it, they’re like ordinary ponies in appearance, but not really. Unfortunately, I have not yet understood their strangeness, but I will soon understand for sure! Okay, so, about Hope. I met her 3 years ago…

3 years ago

The Main hall

I was standing near a table with various sweets. I was wearing a tuxedo with a white shirt and a red bow tie. I just stood there and ate a little candies. There was nothing to do, this is my third ball in my life, and like all the others, they were very boring. Stupidly there is nothing for a little foal to do.

"Oh, how boring…" I said to myself, watching the various aristocrats and acquaintances of my parents talking.

And then I felt someone touch my shoulder from behind. When I turned around, I didn't see anyone. «Maybe it was just my imagination?». And again someone touched me, but this time from the front. I turn around again and see no one. «What the hell?! Who’s doing this?! Celi? No, she's already asleep, then who?!» And then again, someone touched me from behind. I decided to cheat: I pretended that I wanted to turn around again. And when I did, I noticed slightly lavender hair that was slightly shiny. I immediately turn back around, and at the same moment, I collide nose to nose with the filly.

In front of me stood a purple filly with a lavender mane and cloudy sky eyes. She looked at me in mild surprise and then quickly moved away a little. I noticed that she was shining somehow, and then it dawned on me - she was a crystal pony!

"Wow," I said in surprise, "I... uh, we haven't seen crystal ponies before. "

"He he, and now I've seen it, " she said with a smile. "What's your name?"

"My name is Lucius Selbion, but you can just call me Lucius," I said with a smile. "Yours?"

"And I'm Radiant Hope, but you can just call me Hope. I guess you're the Lucius who caused this boring ball.

"Well, yes, We turn eight today, and, as always, my parents are throwing a ball in honor of it. We understand that you are bored here too?"

"Yeah, you can't even have fun here."

"I completely agree with you, Hope, it's boring here."

"Then maybe we should go from here and take a walk around the castle?"

"I don't know, my parents won't be happy that we ran away from here."

"My mom is too, but I can't be here anymore."

"Who’s your mother? "

"Princess Amore," she said with a satisfied smile.

It made my jaw drop. Her mother is the ruler of the Crystal Empire! «Wow! I'm not talking to a child of some nobility right now, but to the Empress's daughter herself! Well, if I make friends with her, it will be cool!»

"Wow! You must be kidding me!"

"No," she shook her head, "I really am her daughter."

"Well, if that's the case, then I suggest to really take a walk around the castle, We can even show you very beautiful places."

"Really?! Cool!"

"Yeah, so do you agree?"

"Of course yes!"

Present time

And from that moment on, we are friends. She is, in fact, my first friend in this new world and new life. I haven't seen her for a whole year, I wonder how she is. Yes, we chat by letters, but real conversations are way better than any written ones. I remember in the last letter she said she would surprise me at my next birthday. I wonder how? I'll find out tomorrow!

I came out of my thoughts and memories and wanted to read books about artifacts, but someone knocked on my door. I sighed sadly and put the book back on the shelf, then got up from the table, then went to the door and opened it. A unicorn maid appeared in front of me, magically holding something.

"Greetings, Prince," she said, bowing to me, "I have brought your new outfit for tomorrow's ball." She continued and magically handed me my outfit.

"Thank you," I thanked her and took the package. "You can go now."

She bowed and left.

I closed the door and went to my closet to try it on. After a short amount of time, I was already wearing it and looked at the mirror. I was looking at my new tuxedo, its color was dark blue with gold patterns, a dark blue shirt and a bow tie with gold patterns. I decided to choose this style because of Tia and Luna, because tomorrow First one will not be able to get to the ball because of her studies, but after the ball she will be able to attend, and Luna will not be able because she is still small for this. So I asked the tailors to combine these colors, the golden color is the sign of Tia, the dark blue is Luna.

Why did I choose the gold color for Tia? It's simple, she was enveloped in the golden light of the sun when she was born, and Luna - at night. I decided to think a little bit, and this idea about this came to mind. I continued to examine myself in front of the mirror.

"Hmm, it really turned out beautiful." — I said to myself and smiled slightly.

Then someone knocked on my door again. "Just a minute," I said, then began to quickly take off and carefully fold the outfit, it's like a small surprise. I folded it and put it in the closet, then went to the door and, opening it, I saw Tia in front of me with a satisfied smile. «What is she up to?»

"Hi, Luci!" She said happily.

"Hello, Celi," I said with a smile. "What brings you to me? Or did you decide to break the vow you made?"

"No, no!" She shook her head. "Brother, I made our vow, I will not break it for anything!"

"Okay, then why did you come?" I asked her and raised one eyebrow.

"Well..." she became slightly embarrassed, "I just wanted to say good night to you…"

"But you've already said it," I said, slightly surprised, "you wished it after the dinner. Now tell the truth, Tia."

"Oh..." she sighed a little sadly, "well, I just wanted to say that an amazing surprise awaits you tomorrow, brother..." she lowered her ears.

"Oh, Tia," I said, and started hugging her. "I understand that you can't wait to congratulate me already, and I know that you, as always, will be able to surprise me with your gift."

"Do you think so?" She looked at me with sad eyes.

"Of course, sis!" I said with a smile.

"Okay, then I'll see you tomorrow!" She said very happily and left.

"See you tomorrow," I said and closed the door.

=======================================

The next day

The Main hall

Time: 15:27

I was standing, as always, near the same table with sweets and waiting for my friend, because we only met here. I thought a little: «Hmm, I wonder what she wants to surprise me with? Maybe some kind of gift? Maybe, but her gifts always reach me after the holiday, and she wrote that she would surprise me right on it. Well, she's as cunning as Tia - Hope decided to surprise me today, then Tia wants to surprise me with something in the evening, but here's the mystery - she looked worried, apparently worried that her gift would not please me. Oh, I will be glad of any gift from her, I hope this day will not spoil anything, probably...» I thought to myself.

«And besides, Hope is somehow very late for our meeting. She's usually already here and bothering me. I even wonder where she is,» I thought again, and someone touched my shoulder from behind. I smiled slightly and turned around. Hope was standing in front of me all beaming with a smile on her face, she was wearing a beautiful bluish dress. She smiled even wider when I turned to her, and then gave me a *boop*.

"Hehe, you look beautiful, Hope," I said, laughing a little and smiling.

"Thank you! You look beautiful too! Your new suit looks really nice on you," she said, looking me up and down. "As for being late, I have a good reason. "

"And which?" I asked her.

"Hee hee, you'll find it out now!" She said very happily.

"Really?"

"yes! Really! Follow me!" She said and went somewhere.

"Okay," I said, and followed her.

We didn't walk around the room for very long, and after a while I noticed that a unicorn foal about the same age as Hope was sitting near one table. He was of a pearly light gray color, his mane was black, his eyes were not yet visible, because he was partially sitting with his back to us, and he was still wearing an ordinary tuxedo. Hope stopped me and asked me to wait. She went up to that unicorn and said something in his ear, he turned to her a little surprised, then turned to me, still surprised, then he asked Hope something, and she nodded back at him.

«My gut tells me that he has something to do with her surprise, the question is - how? Hmm, he has pretty beautiful eyes, emerald green, but for some reason he doesn't glow like Hope, maybe he's an ordinary unicorn? Or am I wrong?» I wondered, until I noticed that they began to approach. It was obvious that he was a little worried, but Hope was still with a very pleased smile. They had already stood in front of me, this unicorn bowed and then began to speak.

"Glad to meet you, Your Highness Prince Lucius Selbion," he said, "my name is Sombra..." at the end, he said somehow uncertainly.

"Well, it's nice to meet you too, Sombra, and please, call me Lucius," I said with a smile.

"As you wish, Your-... Uh, whatever you want, Lucius." He said once more uncertainly, and because of that, Hope rolled her eyes and hit her forehead with a hoof.

"And what did you want to surprise me with?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Eh, Sombra, you need to be a little bolder," she said, turning her head in his direction.

"Hope, I can't do this! He's the Prince of Equestria!" He replied, turning in response.

" I'm talking to him and I'm not nervous! And you should too!"

"Well, Hope…" he said and rolled his eyes.

"Well, I'm waiting for an explanation!" I interrupted them.

They both turned to me and looked at me in silence.

"Well? Why are you silent?" I asked them.

"I'm sorry," Hope apologized. "Well, I wanted to introduce Sombra to you, he's my brother now." She said with a satisfied smile.

"Oh, I see, I..." and then it hit me. "Wait?! Did you say that he's your brother now?!" I asked in great surprise, to which she nodded affirmatively to me.

"Yes, you heard it right! Now Sombra is my stepbrother!"

"Well, yes..." he said uncertainly and blushed slightly.

I stood with my mouth open and looked at them. «No, I could have expected anything, but not this! I'm in total shock! This Sombra is now my friend's half-brother, it's amazing that Princess Amore has taken someone else in. I don't even get it all in my head! No, I need to calm down... *inhale-exhale*, it's okay, I'm calm... *inhale-exhale*, yes, that's it, now I'm calm...»

"Well, Hope, you surprised me, that's for sure." I said, still surprised.

"I knew you'd be surprised."

"Then I suggest we take a walk together," I grinned slightly, "before we die of boredom here."

They nodded their heads at the same time.

Three hours later

Well, I can say that it was the best three hours of my quiet life over the past year! The three of us had a very, very good time. We played together, and, to put it simply, had as much fun as we could. We played many games, catch-up, hide-and-seek, etc. A couple of times we almost got caught by our guards, I don't even want to know what my father would say if he found out that I ran away from the ball. I can't stand another week of etiquette! So, we tried to avoid contact with the guards as often as possible. Oh, it's even a pity that these three hours ended so quickly. They already had to go back, so I said goodbye to them and went back to my place.

There should be a non-public celebration of my birthday soon. Where I can open various gifts from my: parents, Celestia, Luna… Nah, she’s too small; from some distant relatives, and, of course, a gift from Hope. She said that despite the surprise, she was still able to find one gift for me. She said that it costed her a lot, and now I wonder what she prepared for me. What could she have given me that was so precious? I'll find out soon!

I walked along the corridor for a while, then stopped in front of one painting. I turned to her and looked at it with a smile. Our family was painted in this picture: father, mother, me, Celestia and little Luna. This painting was made one year ago, and it took about ten hours to complete this masterpiece. Heh, yes, it was boring to sit so still, but it was worth it, now you can safely admire it. Actually, this is not the first picture I've been depicted in. Six years ago, I was posing too. It was back when my mother was pregnant with Tia, this painting was near the throne room, and if you walk down the corridor, you can see more than just this one. There are also paintings of our parents hanging there, well, more precisely, first there are paintings of our father, then with our mother, and then with me, and finally there is a picture of our current family.

«Oh, I've been thinking too long and staring, I have to go already, I don't want to be late for my own holiday.» I stopped looking at the painting and walked down the corridor. After a while, I arrived at the venue and, taking myself in my hooves, I went inside. The room was decorated with various decorations, and a sign with the inscription "Happy Birthday!" hung above the table with food.

"Happy birthday!" My whole family said in unison.

I looked at them with a sincere smile, they also had a smile. On the left stood the father, and next to him was Luna, and on the right stood mother with Tia.

"Hehe, thank you," I said very happily.

"Oh, I can't believe you're already eleven years old," Mom said, wiping away tears of happiness.

"Well, well, my dear, don't shed your tears," said father, then went up to her and hugged her. "Don't forget that we still have two little fillies growing up here," he laughed a little at the end.

"You're right, honey," she said, and returned her smile. "I suggest we start with your gifts, son."

"Yes, yes! I really want to know if he will like our gifts!" Tia was saying happily.

"Ya!" said the Moon already joyfully.

"Hehe, let’s proceed then," I agreed with them.

I was sitting at the table and looking at the presents. I decided to open gifts from distant relatives later, I hardly know them and do not see them often. I decided to open the gifts from my parents, then from Seli, from Luna, unexpectedly, and from Hope, of course. Well, I decided to open the first gift from Hope, she intrigued me too much.

"Well, son, what's the first gift you want to open?" Mother asked.

"Well, I'll probably open a gift from a friend first," I said.

"Isn't it from that filly that you've been running away from the ball and going for a walk with for the third year in a row?" My father asked me with a sly smile.

And now everyone was looking at me with surprised eyes. It even seems that they looked at me as if I had done something terrible. «The question is: how did he find out about this?! I did everything carefully and unnoticeably! How the hell did he know?! And how can I justify myself now? Although, what's the point of doing that? He already knew for sure before, and now my mother and sisters also know that I'm hecking running away from my own ball! I got there, damn it, I dug a hole for myself, as they say. Well, now I can't get out of this situation, and I'll have to answer their questions.»

"Doe brofer hav a frieeen?" Luna said in surprise.

"Brother, why didn't you tell us?!" Tia said a little bit viciously.

"Son, tell us more about her," Mom asked in a joyful voice with the same sly smile as her father.

I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Okay, my dears, let's not bother him with this now, it's better to ask him about it later," my dad said, and everyone nodded to him in agreement.

"Dad, how did you know about this?" I asked.

"No one can hide anything in my castle," he said with the same smile.

"But how? I did everything carefully! How did you?"

"Hehe, you'll grow up and understand how I did it," he said in a gentle voice. Something tells me that he decided to postpone this conversation for a reason.

"Okay," I said, and took the gift from Hope.

Her gift was beautifully wrapped in a blue cloth and a blue ribbon. It was small in size, about ten by ten centimeters long and wide, and about five centimeters thick. I wonder what's in there. After untying the ribbon and then removing the fabric, I saw a gray box, and opening it, I saw that on the red fabric there was a beautiful pendant with a gold chain holding a purple crystal in the shape of a heart. I took it out and started looking at it. «Wow! That’s is a very beautiful stone! Where could Hope find it?» While I was looking at this pendant, I noticed out of the corner of my eye the very surprised faces of my parents. When I stopped looking at stone, I turned in their direction and heard the joyful voices of Tia and Luna.

"What a beautiful gift you have, brother!" Tia shouted happily, looking at my pendant.

"Ya! It veri beautifulee!" Luna said.

"It's not just beautiful, my lovely girls..." said mom, recovering from the shock.

"That's definitely noticed, dear," said ded, also recovering from the shock.

"I don’t understand, why are you so surprised?" I asked, not understanding anything.

"The thing is, son," Mom began.

"This is one of the rarest crystals in this world..." my father finished.

"Wh-what?!" I shouted in surprise. "Are you kidding?!"

"No, son, we're not kidding, it's really one of the very rare crystals," the mother said.

"And wa bout tis Crestall?" Luna asked.

"This, my dear Luna, is an amethyst - one of the most beautiful crystals and one of the rarest," said father, taking her to himself.

"I see… Since it's so rare, then..." I began to look at my father with worried eyes.

"Yes, that's right, son, he's also one of the most expensive," the father finished.

"And it could be worth about one million bits, " the mother said.

My, Tia's, and Luna's jaws dropped open in surprise. «Wha?! How much?! One million?! Hope, why did you give me such an expensive gift?! I owe you for it all my life! Hope, when I see you, I'll make you tell me again why you gave me such a gift!»

"Oh, so my gift won't be as cool as this one…" Seli said sadly and lowered her ears.

"Now, Sister! I'm sure your gift is no worse than this!" I tried to comfort her.

"Do you think so?" she asked, raising her ears.

"I am sure, and I know it," I said with a smile.

"So then I suggest we move on to the gifts of your sisters," our mother suggested.

"I agree," I said.

Putting the gift from Hope aside, I took the gift, as I understood it, from Luna. It was dark blue in color and with a bright blue ribbon. It wasn't too big either. When I opened it, I saw the box again, and when I opened it, I saw the drawing she had drawn. There were a lot of things painted on it: a green clearing, trees, me, Tia, of course, Luna itself, and in this drawing we all had fun together.

"What a beauty!" I said.

"Is it?" Luna asked, coming closer to me.

"It is, sis," I said, hugging her.

"Hurrah!" she said and hugged me back.

After that, I put Luna's gift aside to Hope's and now I took Tia's gift. It was a little heavy, I could feel it even through telekinesis, which is amazing. Her gift was already more than the last two. It was bright yellow in color and had a dark yellow ribbon. Having untied it and opened the box, a crystal appeared in front of my eyes, not very large, but also not small in size. He was completely black in color and... I don't know why, but magic emanated from him, and not simple at that.

«Does magic come from him? No, this is nonsense! Where could she get the magic stone from? Maybe I'm wrong, or is it also not just an ordinary crystal? Although, knowing Tia, she could have done it, she could have, but still, where the hell did she get it from?! If I'm not mistaken, does it look like Onyx?! One of the most powerful magic crystals! Tia, why are you doing this to me? I understand if you gave me an ordinary stone, but why would I need such a cool one?! I'm not hecking trained in artifact creation yet!»

"Tia..." I began, taking out the stone with telekinesis. "Are you kidding me? Where did you get it from?" I asked her, taking it out.

"Hee hee, a secret, brother!" She said with a smile.

"Hmm, so that's what the order was," the father said, looking at Tia.

"Dad!" Tia said a little indignantly.

"I'm silent, I'm silent," he said in response.

"Oh, what wonderful gifts are you giving me today?"

"You haven't seen my present yet, son," Dad said with a tight smile. I looked at him blankly.

But he didn't answer me. I sighed, put the crystal back in the box and put it aside to the opened gifts, then with telekinesis I took a gift from my him. It wasn't packed in any way, it was just beautifully decorated. Taking the will in my hooves, I opened it and saw... a scroll? I took it with telekinesis and stared at it uncomprehendingly, then at my father.

"Read what it says," he said.

I just rolled my eyes slightly and, unfolding the scroll, began to read it.

A decree from His Majesty King Orion Selbion

To build an additional room in the castle of the village of Alist on the lower level

To equip it with the necessary thing, in order for the new room to become a workshop, everyone who will help in the construction of the workshop will receive about ten thousand bits…

I didn't read any further, because I understood what it was all about. «So my little dream will be fulfilled? It's so cool! I will be able to create my own artifacts! There is!» I began to look at my father with a joyful smile.

"Well, as you can see, I thought about it and made a decision..." he said and then got a hoof on the shoulder from mom.

"Have you forgotten anything, darling?" She asked with a sinister smile, and it gave me goosebumps.

"Ay, okay, we've made our decisions, that is, me and your mother..." He said, and my mother nodded.

"Thank you very much!" I said very happily.

"Also wait, soon I will hire you a teacher who will teach you. I don't want you to destroy our entire castle in some way," my father said sternly.

"Of course, I was not going to make dangerous artifacts!" I said.

"Who knows," he said.

«It's so good that now I can create artifacts, it's so exciting!»

Chspter 5

A week later

It's been a week since my birthday. Nothing interesting happened for this time. Studying, etiquette, reading and much more. It was a little boring, I was able to walk with Tia and Luna a couple of times in our palace park, it's very beautiful there, a lot of beautiful flowers and plants. I liked walking there with them, and they told me about their small successes: Luna can now speak a little better, although still do a few few mistakes in words. I was very pleased, soon she will be able to speak fine and normally; Tia, as she told me, was able to master all the magic for the first grade very quickly in one week! I was very impressed by this, she learns too fast. I needed a whole year to understand it, and she did everything just in a week! Now she can just take minor magic exams all year long. I was already envious that she was learning so fast. I asked Roger once why, and he told me that he didn't know why, he said there had never been such a thing in the world before, and he suggested that the legend might still be true. I brushed it off, I don't believe in these fairy tales, Tia was just born special, that's all. I won't believe it until I see the truth, and until she becomes great! If it does, then I'll believe it, but not yet.

In general, I've been a little nervous all week, waiting for the workshop to be done for me. I can't wait to start learning everything you need to create artifacts! My father said at the birthday party that the workers would be able to build it in a week. Oh yes, I forgot to mention what my mother gave me. She gave me an unusual gift, however, she told me that I could go out of the castle into the city whenever I wanted! I've been waiting for this for a very long time! Now I can go out into the city to see and explore it. This made me very happy, but Tia and Luna began to envy me because they could not. Hehe, it was funny to watch them sulk, they had such cute faces, you could just squeeze them, but I restrained myself. Today I had a day off, and therefore I think that they have already finished making the workshop, and therefore now I am lying in my room and waiting for this to happen, and so that I will not be bored, I continued to read my favorite book.

I've been lying down for two hours and reading. So far, nothing is happening, yet it's only noon, I've reached the chapter where they describe a small process of creating an artifact. It's quite an interesting one, mana flows need to be directed correctly to make one, and if done incorrectly, the artifact will explode. It also says here that if, after creating an artifact, you overload it with your mana, it will also explode, but only stronger and more powerful. Yes, it will be necessary somehow not to overdo it, otherwise you don't want to accidentally lose your limbs and become disabled in some way. No, I don't need such a life, so I will try to make safer artifacts, although the idea with some magic stones that can be overloaded can be used as grenades from my world. No! This is definitely a bad idea, if such knowledge gets into the wrong hooves, then there will be trouble! So I'm definitely not going to make some kind of weapon out of them, I don’t want some war here.

A knock on my door brought me out of my thoughts. I got out of bed slowly and started walking towards the door. Going up to it, I opened it, and a joyful Tia appeared in front of me. She was wearing her little golden crown, a small gold necklace and gold greves, it seems that she slightly copies our mother. I was a little surprised by this, but then I remembered that she also had a day off today, so she was here. She probably wanted to play or something, but I don't mind, it's boring now anyway.

"Hello, Luci!" She said very happily.

"Hello, little sister," I said with a smile, "what brought you to me?"

"Our father wants you to come to the throne room!" She declared in a very cheerful tone. «Hmm, if my father wants to see me, then it means that something is urgent, I even wonder what he wants to tell me.»

"Well, if so, then of course I will come." I said, still smiling. "You're coming with me, aren't you?"

"Yes, brother," she nodded affirmatively.

"Well, then let's go?"

"Let’s go."

And with that, I left, closing the door behind me, and we headed for the throne room. We had a little conversation on the way, and she told me that after she took me to my father, she would go for a walk with Luna to the park and would be there until the evening, which upset me a little. I don't walk with them very often myself because of my lessons and hobbies. Well, I should somehow arrange everything so that I can walk with them at least once a week, or something, or if so, they will be able to forget about me, and I don't want that. Maybe this will come back to me in the future.

We had already reached the throne room, and two guards were standing near the entrance. I said goodbye to Tia, and she walked away. I took a deep breath and decided to go into the hall. The same two guards opened the doors for me, and I went inside, and after their closing, I began to approach the thrones of my parents. Only one was here, that is, the father, the throne of the mother was empty, she went somewhere. I was walking at my usual pace to him, and one of the council members who help our parents rule was standing next to him. This advisor was a unicorn, and his name was Ozor Lonewater, and they were discussing something. When I got closer to them, they ended the conversation, then he bowed to my father and hurriedly left the hall. When he left, the father started:

"Well, son, I have very good news for you," he said with a smile.

"And what is it?" I asked him.

"Of course, I should have told your mother this, but she had to go, so for this reason I'm the only one who will tell you about it," he got a little upset, but then continued joyfully: "The workshop for your affairs has finally been finished."

"Wow! That's great!" I said happily.

"Yes, of course, and I want to know, are you sure you want to study this?" my father decided to clarify my decision.

"Yes, Father, I'm sure," I said confidently.

"Okay, then tomorrow you will be taken there, and there you will meet your teacher."

=======================================

The next day

For the rest of yesterday, I was safely preparing for today, mentally and physically. Today my little dream will come true, I kind of want it and at the same time I'm a little scared. I'm afraid that I won't be able to cope with all this, I will, of course, be overloaded and I won't be able to see my sisters often, but still, on weekends I will definitely devote my time only to them! Well, my father told me that a guard was coming to me to take me to the workshop. I can't wait to meet the teacher too.

After a while, there was a knock on my door. I calmly walked over to it and opened it. I saw the aforementioned guard in front of me. «Apparently, this one will bring me to the workshop.»

"Greetings, Your Highness," he said to me, bowing.

"Greetings, I think you are the one who will take us to workshop."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Okay, then lead the way," I said, leaving the room and closing the door.

The guard just nodded, and he began to lead me to the workshop. We didn't walk for long, about twenty minutes, and we walked the whole way without saying a word, only the maids and other guards greeted me when I passed them. It's kind of awkward to walk like this in silence, it's uneasy. Well, to hell with it, in silence, so be in silence. We have already reached the doors to the workshop, I realized this by the look of it, it was made almost entirely of iron and stones. It is clear that they were added to strengthen it, so it could withstand a small explosion, like blast door. Well, Dad, I'm not even surprised that you ordered such a defence to be made, you don't take my word for it. Well, I'll make sure there are no explosions. You don't have to believe it! I'll prove to you later that you were wrong!

When we came to the door, there were two guards and a unicorn mare in clothes similar to blacksmith's, and she also had a large bag. She looks like she's only somewhere between sixteen and twenty, she looks too young. «Hmm, something tells me that she is the teacher who will teach me, cool!» Then I also noticed her talking to one of my father's assistants, he was a pegasus. «I wonder what they're discussing.» When we approached them, they finished talking, then the assistant bowed to her and left, then the guard also bowed to me and left. When they left us, she looked at me first from hooves to head, then grinned slightly.

"Well, first of all, I will introduce myself to you, Your Highness," she began, bowing to me, "my name is Angela Trail, I am a master of runes and artifacts," she introduced herself completely.

«The rune master?! And even of artifacts?! Father, where did you find her?! She's worth more than gold! Such ponies are now a huge rarity, and after all, he did not spare his efforts to find her, thank him very much for that.» I rejoiced in my thoughts.

"Well, we're glad to meet you, Miss Angela," I said with a smile.

"I am also glad to meet you, Prince Lucius..." she did not finish, because I interrupted her.

"Just Lucius, we don't mind."

"Um, okay, Lucius. Ahem, so, today your classes on runes and artifact creation will begin, then on what days I will teach you, your mom and dad will decide," she said in a serious tone.

"Yes, of course, we understand everything, Miss Angela," I said in a calm tone.

"Great, and remember, I'm a very strict teacher, so don't expect any favors," she said in a sinister tone that made those two guards flinch. Although it scared me too, I didn't show it.

"Don't worry, we always take our studies very seriously," I said in a serious tone, which made her grin.

"I like your attitude, your father was right, you're very serious about this case," she said.

"I know…"

"Okay, enough talking, let's go to the workshop," she said and headed inside.

I followed her, she opened the door. Entering the room, I closed it and began to look around, and at the same moment I fell into shock - in front of me I saw a cool, damn, workshop! It's just huge! And there is literally everything here! The first thing that caught my eye was a couple of boxes of magic crystals! Of course, small stones, but they will be enough for a very long time, at least for a year! Dad, you pleasantly surprised me! And where did you get so much? Then I saw a bunch of different tools. As I understand it, they will all be needed to create different artifacts, it's so fascinating, I can't wait to use them already! I noticed a locker, probably uniforms will be stored in it. Next, I noticed a desktop, for me, it turns out, it can be lowered and raised, and another table, at which Miss Angela will do something on. The workshop turned out to be quite excellent. Slightly dark colors were chosen for it, candles illuminated everything well here. Then I noticed a small door, and while Miss Angela was examining the work table, I quietly approached it and, opening it slightly, realized that it was a sleeping place, apparently for her. It is clear that she will be living here for some time, probably this was done so that it would be easier for her to teach me. I closed the door and went over to her.

"It's amazing that your father did such a good job on the workshop," she said somehow joyfully.

"He can surprise well."

"I won't argue with you," she said, and turned to me." Well, let's start your studying."

Twenty minutes later

I was sitting at a small table opposite to Miss Angela, she took out a small book from her bag and telekinetically handed it to me. Its cover was dark blue, it had some kind of drawing and the inscription "Rune mastery for dummies." «I'm not even surprised that I'll have to start right from the bottom, well, it's understandable why she gave me this book, I'm just starting to learn rune magic. Nothing is done without theory, almost.» Then she took out another book, but in a red cover, it had an artifact drawing and also the inscription "Creating artifacts for dummies." «Ah, alright.»

"You and I will start by learning all the basics of them," she explained, "then we will move on to regular training for you."

"I see," I said shortly and nodded at her.

"No questions?"

"No, Teacher."

"That's good, then let's start!"

Eight hours later

I went into my room, closed the door behind me and lay down on my bed joyfully. «It was the best eight hours of my life!». During these eight hours I learned a lot of new and interesting things. I learned how runes can be used, namely, how to use them, how to apply them and what types are there! It's just incredible! It's just amazing! It's not for nothing that I chose the direction of runes and artifacts! So, about rune magic, it's just incredible, you can do almost anything with it! From creating artifacts (which is logical) to creating super cool combat weapons and stuff. It's just wonderful, I just can't get enough of being able to do it myself later. At the moment, I have only been able to study three runes, and I cannot apply them yet, only in practice. After all, theory comes first, and then practice.

The first rune that I studied is the "Rune of Power" — obviously, it can increase strength, and if used on an ordinary sword, its strength will increase, that is, for example, before enchanting this rune, the sword could not, for example, cut metal, but after enchanting it will be able to cut it. So cool! And if you put this rune on some object that someone will wear, then his strength will increase, that is, before, for example, a pony could not knock down another pony with one blow, but after he take something with this rune on, that he will be able to. Yes, it's very cool.

The second rune that I studied is the "Rune of Light" — it is used mostly against the undead, or, more simply, against various monsters. Yes, in this world they exist, oddly enough. There are even guilds in this world, etc… and my teacher even visited one group of adventurers, which is surprising, she doesn't look like a fighting mare, but, as it turned out, she is still capable of some kind of fighting, and even a master of runes and artifacts. The awesome combo, as they say, has already become enviable.

So okay, now I'll tell you about the third rune that I studied, and this is the "Volume Rune" — the simplest of all that I know now. This rune can increase the volume of anything, for example, there is a bottle of water for five liters, and after applying this rune, the volume became one liter more, that is, it already fits not five, but six liters, but this bottle has not changed from the outside, only in volume and weight. Non-Euclidean, as I could call it.

Yeah, but these are just the initial runes, which ones will go further? It will be interesting to study them all the same, and there are not many runes to begin with, but it's also good, I'm sure that later I will study almost all the runes in this world. This will be my success, even goosebumps run through my body from such wonderful thoughts, maybe my vocation in this world is the creation of artifacts? If so, then I already like my talent, it would be cool if a hobby became my vocation in this world.

A knock on my door brought me out of my reverie. I first directed my gaze to the window, where the sun was already setting. «Time flies so fast, I didn't even notice how dinner had already arrived.» Getting out of bed, I went to the door and opened it. As always, the guard who had accompanied me for all six years appeared in front of me.

"Your Highness," he said and bowed to me, "come along."

"Yes, of course," I said, leaving the room and closing the door.

After a while, we were already at the place, the guard who brought me left, and then the doors to the dining room were opened to me. Inside, I saw only my father, mother and Luna, who for the first time will eat with all of us at this table. «Hmm, where is Tia? I don't remember coming to the dining room before her, it's obvious that here's set for her too, but where is she?» Realizing that I would not get an answer like that, I went to the table and sat down at it. Dad was sitting on my right, our mom was on his right, Luna was on her right, and Tia should be sitting on my left.

"Hello, son," said the father, "how was your day?"

"Hello,"I said, "you can say it's great."

"Oh, even so? So, did you like today's teaching?" He said with a little joy and surprise.

"Yes, I liked everything," I said happily. "And where is Celi? I thought she had already arrived."

"Your sister's going to be a little late," mother began, "she's been caught up in a fascinating book on magic."

"I think I know what book you're talking about, Mom," I said, being sure that Seli was reading a book about magic from Star Swirl. «Apparently, she has already begun to understand something in this book.»

"Mom, when can I read the same book?" Luna asked.

"When you're older, my dear," she replied in a gentle voice.

"Oh…" said Luna, lowering her cute ears.

And at that moment, the doors to the dining room opened again, and turning my head in their direction, I saw Seli. Fatigue and joy were visible on her face at the same time, her hair was slightly disheveled. «How long does it take to read this book to get yourself like that, Tia?» The doors closed behind her, she came to us and sat down at the table.

"Hi, Mom, Dad," she said in a tired voice.

"Hello, my darling," father said.

"Hello, dear," said the mother, "how was your day?"

"I'm very tired," Seli replied as well.

"Then don't read books for so long, Sister," I said.

"You read a lot too," she said, slightly offended.

"Yes, I'm reading, but I'm not as tired as you are, so just spend a little less time reading books, and you won't get so tired," I said with a smile on my face.

From this, she pouted her cheeks resentfully, and I laughed softly, and it turned out that this not only made me laugh, but also Luna and her mother, they also began to laugh softly. Only the father kept himself in the hooves.

"Mom, what's so funny?" Tia asked our mother. "I understand why Luna is laughing, but why are you laughing too?"

"I just remembered how worried your brother was when he found out that he was going to have a younger sister, and he was worried for nothing then, he thought he wouldn't be the best brother for you and Luna," she replied, stopping laughing.

"Yes?" Seli said in surprise and turned to me. "Is it true?"

"Well, of course, it's true. Tia," I said. "Do you think I don't worry about you when you do something? If so, then I'm even offended," having said that, I turned away from her a little resentfully.

"No! I didn't think so, brother! Never!" She spoke confidently.

"Prove it," I said, turning to her.

She was a little confused, but then she made our first and slightly unfinished swearing gesture.

"I swore then not to lie to you, brother..." she said, finishing the gesture and lowering her ears.

"All right, Sister," I said with a smile and lightly stroked her head, "I believe you."

"May you tell us about your swearing gesture, children," Mom said with a smile.

"We were wondering what kind of vows you have," my father said.

"Uh, oh," said Seli.

"Well, this is the one, we invented it so that we can be sure that what we promise each other, we will definitely fulfill, and not cheat," I explained to them.

"Hmm, that's pretty well thought out," the mother said.

"I agree," Dad said.

"Will you come up with this gesture with me?" Luna asked us.

"Of course," my sister and I said at the same time.

"By the way, I forgot to tell you something, son," his father said, remembering something.

"And what do you want to tell me?"

"I mean, you're going to learn fencing too," my father said proudly.

"Oh, you mean..." before I could finish, he interrupted me.

"Yes, son, you'll have even less free time," he said.

"Father!" Tia began, a little indignantly. "But you can't do that! Do you want to drive Luci to death? Mom, at least say something!"

"I cannot dispute Orion's words," mother began. "Yes, and to be honest, everything that Lucius learns will be useful to him in the future, as a ruler..."

"But, Mom! I'm going to rule with Luna, too! And you're going to drive us around the same way?" Still indignant, she continued to speak.

"No, we won't," my father replied.

"Then why you drive our brother like that?" Tia asked blankly.

"Because I'm a prince, Sister." I decided to say it because I understood what my father and mother were leading to.

"Huh?" said Tia and Lulu at the same time.

"I am a prince, and a prince should be able to stand up for himself, for his family and for the country," I said in a confident tone, then turned my gaze to Dad. "Am I right, Father?"

"Oddly enough, you're right about everything, son," he said, nodding affirmatively.

Then I turned to Tia. "I have to protect you and Luna somehow, so believe me, if I'm being driven like this, then it's necessary.

"Okay, I get it," Tia said.

"Okay, we're all talking, we should start eating," my father said.

"Yes, I agree with you, darling," said the mother.

"Oh, we're really talking," Tia said.

"Yeah, I've been waiting so long for you to finish," said a slightly offended Luna.

"Hee hee, I'm sorry, Lulu, that you had to wait so long because of us," I said in a gentle voice.

"Pf, I won't forgive you next time," said Luna, ceasing to be offended at us.

"Well done, Luna," said the mother.

"You can't stay angry at your family for long," father said.

"Even after a thousand years?" Luna asked.

"Yes, even after a thousand years, you can't be mad at any of the family members," my father said with a sincere smile.

And then we started eating.

To be continued…

Chapter 6

Two months later

It's been a couple of months since I started learning rune mastery, and along with that, learning how to create artifacts, and fencing. Surprisingly, fencing is working for me easy, all these striking movements, weapon blocks, etc. No doubts that I have a harsh fencing teacher, my teacher's name is Estoc Walker, he is a unicorn with gray fur, has slightly dark blue mane with already visible gray strands and yellow eyes. He is the commander of the royal guard, and, as it turned out, he was a teacher for my father! Wow, I'm going to be taught by the one who taught my dad! He’s also strict, that's for sure — for any little thing, he gives me a slap on the back of the head, and not slight one, damn it! I had a headache a couple of times after training, but it was worth it, I guess now I can at least handle a sword normally. I'm going to have a little sparring session with one of the guards today, as he told me, in order to test my skills over the past couple of months. Even my father will be watching this, it's amazing that he will come.

I have not progressed so far in teaching runes and artifacts, tomorrow I will study how to create an artifact - an ordinary magic lantern, in other words. Miss Angela said we'll just practice making it, but it's possible that I might accidentally make a full-fledged lantern. If I do manage to make it, then, as she said, she won't be surprised, because I’ll have the potential to create them. I don't know why she thinks I do, but okay, if so, then so be it. She also said that she decided to look at my sparring. Aw, so it turns out, not only my dad will be watching this, but also my teacher, I will try not to screw up there.

Also, now I have only one day off a week — the Sunday, and I've already been able to take a little walk with my sisters. We all always have fun, but most of the time it's just me and Luna walking, because Tia, damn it, got carried away with this book on magic from Starswirl. And what did she find in this book that she should already sit, read, and even reread this book in her free time? Who knows what's on her mind, I hope Lulu won't do the same? Right? It would be a shame that I would have to spend my day off alone, one thing I know for sure is that she, like Seli, has a magical gift. How did I understand that? Thanks to the rune of epiphany, you can use it to see the magical power and everything related to it, and mana. This rune is often used on the monocles of teachers who evaluate efforts on tests. Interestingly, Roger Sutton does not use such monocles, maybe he can just see it all without it? Perhaps this cannot be ruled out. Also, Miss Angela had two of such monocles, and she kindly gave me one, but what about me? I didn't mind such a cool gift. So, when I looked at Seli through it, one very distinguishing thing was visible — her magical aura was simply indescribably large! Compared to the maids and guards, it was too big, and even I myself am was only slightly bigger than an ordinary unicorn! And she have it twenty times larger, same for Luna, damn it! I almost fainted the moment I saw it. Yes, I have one and a half times more than the others, and only a small advantage over the rest, so I can say that I do not stand out in magic in any way.

Quite a long time has passed, however, and the cold autumn has already arrived, which means that winter is near, the day of the Hearth’s Warming is also coming soon, one of the holidays in this world, similar to those from my world. It's already spring there, where Luna's birthday will be, then Tia's. Time flies so fast.

Another slap on the head from Estoc Walker brought me out of my thoughts. At the moment, I was partially preparing for sparring, so it's clear why he did it.

"Stop flying in the clouds!" he began to speak sternly. "You definitely won't win this sparring if you do so!"

I just rolled my eyes slightly and continued training on the wooden dummy. I've been honing the skills I've learned. Raising my sword again, I made a cut across the cross section, and after I made it, the mannequin was cut into two parts. I was already surprised that I had mastered this technique, no matter how much I had not done it up to this point, it did not work out in any way! And then bam — and it worked! Unexpectedly, though.

"There you go! You can do it if you have a wish to!" Estoc praised me slightly, coming up to me and putting a hoof on my shoulder. "Look at me, if you don't live up to expectations, your training will become even stricter! So don't let me down!"

"Of course, we get it, Coach," I said in a calm voice and sheathed my sword.

"Go on, get some rest, we'll meet at your sparring," he said and walked towards the warrior part of the castle.

When he disappeared from my field of vision, I sighed with relief and lay down on the grass. «I'm a little tired of it, but I can't relax, I'm sparring in a couple of hours.» Getting up from the grass, I went to the castle to wash and tidy myself up a little.

After a while, I was already approaching my chambers, when Tia immediately attacked me and began to hug me, not allowing me to walk.

"Luci, that was amazing!" She said very happily. She was wearing her crown with a necklace and greaves.

"What are you talking about, Tia?" I asked her, breaking the hug.

"I'm talking about the trick that you were finally able to do!"

"Wait, you saw how I trained?" I looked at her in surprise.

"Yeah, I decided to walk around the castle a little bit, then I saw through the window that you were training on the field, so I watched you," she told everything with a satisfied smile.

"Of course, I was thinking, why did it seem to me that someone else was watching me besides the coach." I said, rubbing the back of my head with my hoof.

"By the way, I persuaded our father so that I could go with him and watch your sparring!"

And then I just opened my mouth in surprise. «What?! No, are you kidding me, Lady Fate?! Make sure that my mother and Luna come too then, if so! That's when it will finally kill me! Ugh, why?! Why did you become interested in this? Why is she suddenly interested in it?»

"Tia, tell me for mercy's sake, why did you persuade him? You weren't interested in these fights."

"Well, yes, I was not, but now they have become interesting for me!" She said and turned away. "You'd better be glad your sister is coming," she continued, sounding slightly offended.

"I'm glad of that, Sister! It's just that I'm kind of a little tired, and I still have to prepare for it, so I'm sorry that I reacted so wrongly to it," I said in my loving voice, indicating that I wasn't particularly clean, and because of this, Tia herself got a little dirty.

"Oh! I hadn't thought about it," she said, looking at her snow-white fur, which was now dirty. "Now I have to wash again, and I just recently washed!" Lifting her head up, she said in a not particularly cheerful tone.

"Okay, Tia, I'll see you at the sparring then." I said with a smile on my face and started walking towards my chambers.

"Yes, bye, Luci!" Having said that, Tia quickly headed towards her own quarters.

A couple of hours later

So, here I am now standing in front of the guard. Of course, the unicorn is in golden armor, but I was in a small silver armor, and I can't understand these guards all the time. Why do they have the same damn faces? No matter who you look at, they all look the same! My gut tells me that rune magic is involved, most likely their helmets, like their armor, are enchanted for something, but I don't know what. We must definitely find out later! It's not for nothing that I decided to study rune mastery and not only! Okay, I got trailed off a bit. So, I'm standing in front of him, looking at each other and waiting for Estoc Walker to start the fight. Of course, not without an audience, my father is sitting on a small podium, next to him is, of course, Tia with a joyful face. He, of course, was wearing his dark-colored crown, as well as a necklace with a crescent moon painted on it. Also, not far from them sat Miss Angela, who still came to watch. Also, just in case, the castle's healers were here, because we suddenly, without knowing it, can greatly harm each other, and this is natural! I'm only eleven years old, damn it! And how old is this guard? Twenty? Twenty-five? It's clear that we can!

Okay, now is not the time to start whining, I need to be focused now, because my opponent is a guard. I decided to evaluate him slightly, well, more precisely, try to evaluate his strength, dexterity, etc. I recently studied the "Evaluation" spell, and I also did not use it, so now it is possible. I lit my horn slightly and started using a spell: «So, what do we have here? Hmm, so now it's clear to me.» My opponent is most likely a beginner, just like me. How did I understand that? I decided to cast a spell on another guard, and his stats are higher, so are the others. So, he was recently accepted into the guard, and he, like me, is a beginner and is just learning more about it.

A familiar slap on the head brought me out of my thoughts.

"What are you doing, huh?" Estoc Walker asked me. "You cheating?"

"Ouch, no! We just used the Evaluation, and that's it!" I said in a very confident voice.

"Alriiiight," he said, and went to his spot.

"As if we look like some kind of crook," I muttered to myself.

"So," Estoc began to speak, "you are going to fight now, so I ask you not to harm anyone on purpose, you just have to show what you have learned during this time, do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" I said at the same time as that guard.

"Great, when I say «three», you will start. One," he began, and we tensed slightly, "two," he said, and our horns were already glowing, "three!" He shouted.

I immediately drew my sword from its scabbard, as did the guard, and when he did, he immediately attacked me. Swinging the sword at me, I put a block, and our swords crossed. Then I pushed his sword aside, causing him to take a couple of steps back. «Why don't I use spells?» Because we can't use them, he knows powerful combat spells for sure, but I don't know any! Which is a bit insulting, even Tia, damn it, has already reached combat, and I'm still stuck on regular ones. I'm jealous, that's what I want to say.

I quickly moved into reality, because he was coming again. I already wanted to deflect the blow as well, but my gut told me that he would strike in a different way. Deciding to listen to it, I began to bide my time. And it happened: he swung his sword from the right side and quickly began to approach, and when the sword was already very close, I was able to react quickly and deflect his blow, which suddenly sent his sword flying a couple of meters and hit the ground with its blade, stuck in the ground. He was very surprised, and I quickly began to hold my sword near his neck, which meant that he was in a disadvantageous position. He looked at me in surprise, then smiled slightly and then said:

"I give up."

"The match is over, Prince Lucius has won," Estoc Walker announced, causing my father, Tia, and Miss Angela to clap their hooves at me. Dad had a joyful smile, I didn't expect myself to be able to win.

"You fight well for your young age, Mr. Lucius," this guard said to me and held out a hoof.

"Thanks, the best one trains me," I said and also held out a hoof, which made us give each other a hoof.

"Your sword, cadet," Estoc Walker said, coming up to us with the guard's sword.

"Thank you," he replied, taking the sword and sheathing it. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that I hadn't been wrong after all.

The cadet and Walker left, and then my father and Tia came up to me. She immediately started hugging me, as always, she likes to do it when she has the opportunity.

"You did great, brother!" She said happily with a smile.

"Yes, it was impressive," my father said.

"Thank you," I replied and hugged my sister. It remains to be hoped that tomorrow everything will go as smoothly as today.

=======================================

The next day

In the workshop

The day has come when I can create a magic lantern. As I learned, it is used in mines, in houses, on the streets, in general, it is used for ordinary purposes, for convenience, it was made so that it would not be so dark. Now I was sitting at my desk and studying the scheme for its creation, Miss Angela left for a while, she had to go somewhere urgently. So, the diagram describes and paints a plan for creating a magic lantern, from the beginning of the making the case to the full lantern. After studying the scheme and realizing that perhaps Miss Angela might not come soon, I decided to collect all the necessary materials in advance so that I would not be distracted by it later. Getting up from my desk and taking the diagram with me, I headed to a small warehouse with the materials we had. I was wearing a special uniform for such jobs. When I got to the warehouse, I unfolded the diagram and began to read what I would need.

1. Iron plates with iron parts: to create an external housing.

2. Magic parts: to create an inner case.

3. Magic Stone: the heart of the whole structure.

Having studied everything, I began to open the necessary boxes of materials, take them by telekinesis and place them at my desktop.

Thirty minutes later

I was sitting at a desk with prepared materials and details. As soon as I thought about it, she immediately appeared in the hallway of the workshop, slightly battered and out of breath. She closed the door behind her and began to catch her breath. Realizing that something had happened, I decided to ask her.

"Teacher, are you all right?" I asked her. "You don't look very well," she immediately started looking at me.

"It's alright," she said, catching her breath, "I had to go check on someone, and I accidentally bumped into old acquaintances."

"In a good way or bad way?" I decided to clarify.

"In a bad way..." she said and immediately looked at the desktop, then, walking up to it, was slightly surprised. "Did you put it all together yourself?"

"Yes, so that we don't have to do this with you later, we didn't know when you would come, teacher," I said a little proudly.

"Wow, that makes it pretty easy for us," she said, smiling.

Then she went to her bedroom and went in there, a minute later she came out and came up to me.

"So, let's start the creation of the artifact, are you ready?"

"Always ready, Teacher!" I said happily.

Two hours later

"Now, carefully insert the crystal and slowly power it with your magic," Angela told me when I took the magic crystal.

During this time, she and I were able to make a body for the lantern and its inner part. Now we had to test it, if we did everything right, then we successfully made a magic lantern, if not, then... it won't be very good, as Miss Angela said. But I think that everything turned out fine, we followed the instructions of this one, so I don't think that something can go wrong, right? Taking the crystal, I carefully inserted it inside the lantern and began to power it with magic.

"Yes, here, go on," she encouraged me, and I continued. "That's it, stop!" She said it again, and I stopped, then put my hoof away.

"Well, did everything go well?" Turning his head to her, he asked.

"Well, it seems..." she did not have time to finish, as immediately the lantern that we made began to glow red. "Oh, Tartarus!"

"Eh? What's wrong with it?" I asked a little scared.

"Under the table, quickly!" She said and quickly grabbed me and dragged me down.

And then there was an explosion. Metal parts flew out from the place where the lantern was, and we stuck our heads out from under the table and began to look at the place where the lantern was. It was no longer there, only metal remainings and fragments, and a black spot on its former place.

"Ugh, why it always happens the first time!" Angela exclaimed sadly.

"So it's always the first time?"

"Yes, all the times I tried, it exploded!" She rested her head on the table. "And I have no idea why, I've already changed a lot of materials to create it..."

"Oh, I see," I said, a little sadly. "But we are sure that next time we will succeed!"

"Are you so sure of that?" raising her head, she asked me.

"yes!"

"Okay, then promise me this little incident will stay between us, okay?"

"Yes, of course, teacher!"

Chapter 7

Two months later

Two more months of my unremarkable prince's life have passed. It is now the last month of autumn. During these months, nothing so interesting happened, only how my father somehow found out about the incident in the workshop. Question – «How?» He replied: «You can't hide anything from me, son.» Of course, he won't tell me, damn it, what else could I expect? No, I didn't get in trouble for this incident, and neither did Miss Angela, which makes me happy. Well, I also recently received a letter from Hope, in which she says that she and Sombra are fine, they recently had a crystal fair, but unfortunately they could not get to it, the reason was that Sombra became very ill and he could not even eat and everything else, and Hope, because he was sick, didn't want to go without him, that's why they missed it. The next day he felt much better, it pleases me, but one thing worries me: he suddenly felt bad that day, and the next day he immediately became better, maybe this is some kind of curse? A disease? Not realizing this, I went to our library and started my search, I spent two weeks after she wrote me a letter. There I tried to find out what it could be, but I never did, although the only assumption remained that he might be slightly cursed, so that he was feeling bad that day. I don't know what to say about this. It will be necessary to find an answer to this question, after all, we are friends, and I want to help him as a friend with this.

I was in my room now, getting ready to go to breakfast. Yesterday, when we were having dinner, our parents received a letter from someone that made their eyes pop out, and then they told us to be well dressed, because a very, very important guest is coming to us today. It even became interesting what kind of guest they were talking about, because usually when someone comes to us, they are the only ones who deal with them, and then suddenly we have to be ready. Why is this so suddenly? So, me, Tia and Luna should look good, but still I don't understand why, it's just a guest, or not? It's all a little strange, but I won't bother my head with it, it's better to focus on ordinary things, but still dress up properly, I don't want to have unnecessary fun from my mother and father later.

I put on my blue-gold crown, put on the exact same necklace, and then put on my hoarders. After I put it all on, there was a knock on my door. A familiar guard was standing in front of me, although it is difficult to distinguish them yet, oh! As it turned out, I was right! Their entire armor is enchanted! I was able to find it out from Miss Angela, fine, now minus one more question from my list of questions about this world.

"Prince Lucius," he began, "I must inform you that all your classes have been canceled this week."

"Wait, what?!" I said, surprised. "Why were they canceled?!"

"Because of an important guest who will be temporarily staying in this castle," the guard replied.

«Well, thank you! Now I have to die of boredom! I've been dreaming about it so much! Thank you, kind and unknown guest!» — I sarcastically rejoiced at this.

"Oh, I see, is that all?"

"Yes, Your Highness," he replied.

"Okay, then take us to the dining room," I said, and he nodded. After leaving the room and closing the door, we headed there.

After a while we reached our destination, he bowed to me and went somewhere, meanwhile the doors were opened to me and I went inside. After entering, I looked towards the table where the whole family commonly was sitting, I saw only Luna and Tia. Tia was sitting at the table with a book and reading it. Looking closely at the title, I immediately realized that she was re-reading the same book that Star Swirl had wrote. Luna just sat silently and looked at the food. When I sat down at the table, I saw that our parents were not served, and it was strange. At the same time, I had a question: «Where are our parents? Why isn't there a table set for them?»

"Hi, Tia, hi, Luna," I greeted them affectionately. They turned in my direction.

"Hi, Luci," Tia said, looking up from her book and greeting me with a smile.

"Hi, Little Brother," Luna greeted with a smile.

"Do you know where our parents are?" I decided to ask them if they know where they are.

"Well, they said that the three of us could eat, because they need to prepare for the arrival of a guest," Tia explained to me.

"I see," I said, sighing. "Do you happen to know who this guest is?" I asked, to which they shook their heads negatively.

"Well, they say this guest is a very important person," Luna said.

"So important that they will stay with us for a week?" I said.

"Yes, this is unpleasant news, especially for you, Luci," Seli said with a kind of grin.

"Oh, come on, Tia, don't mock me like that in the morning.Yes, I agree, it's not really great for me, laziness will kill me, so I'll have to find something to do this week."

"We can all go for a walk in the park together," Luna offered with a smile.

"It's not a bad idea, the three of us can go for a walk unless someone doesn't want to reread the book again," I said, glancing at Tia. She pouted resentfully in response, and Luna giggled slightly.

"This is a very interesting book!" Tia declared.

"Let's say it's interesting, but do you understand everything in it, Sister?"

"I understand!"she said and abruptly teleported near me, using telekinesis she stole my crown and teleported back to her place with it, then stuck out her tongue at me.

"You're kidding, right? I just learned teleportation recently, and you're showing off in front of me?! I’m offended, Tia!" I said resentfully and then looked at her a little angrily.

"I learned that in this book! So it's very interesting!" She said proudly, but I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, it may be interesting to you, but still give me back my crown!"

"No, I'm taking it away for offending me, Luci," she said and, winking at me, teleported away again, but this time it's unclear where.

"Oh, come on, Tia!!!" I shouted indignantly.

"Brother, don't get mad," Luna said restlessly. I turned to her and took a breath, exhaled, and then smiled at her.

"Okay, I won't," I told her, "but I still need to find Tia and get the crown back."

"You'll do it later! You didn't eat anything anyway, and Seli had already eaten everything before you came."

"Oh, well, I'll eat and look for our sister in the castle to return the crown."

"I'll help you, Brother!"

"thanks."

Two hours later

Luna and I are a little tired, why is that? And it's simple — Tia, holy Tartarus, turned out to be a cunning filly! Luna and I found her literally ten minutes later, she was in her room with a book and my crown. When we approached her, she teleported again, but told us to do our best! She was bullying me! Every time we found her, she left using a teleport, then she was on one of the balconies of the castle, then in some room, then, damn it, in a park on a tree! No, of course I understand that she decided to make fun of me like that, BUT you can't mock me like that for TWO hours! Now Luna and I were walking towards the throne room, because our parents were waiting for us there now, and most likely Tia was already there. Why do I think so? Yes, it just so happened that when we were looking for Tia, we met a guard on the way, who said that they’re waiting only for the two of us. So it doesn't take long to think that she's already there, so we were heading there.

After a while, Luna and I were already in front of the door to the throne room, although a little laterbecause Luna did not put on her jewelry, so we went to our parents' chambers on the way and also to Luna's room. She quickly put on her dark blue crown, a necklace of the same color, and greaves. Ahem, so, the door to the throne room was opened to us. After entering, I looked towards the thrones of our parents and saw that my father was sitting on his throne, he was wearing his crown and everything else, my mother was sitting next to him on her throne, she also had her crown and everything else, and to her left stood a satisfied Tia, strongly Smiling, she also had her jewelry and crown. Luna and I started to approach them, and when we approached them, my father and mother looked at me in surprise.

"Son, where is your crown?" My father asked me sternly.

"Well, uh, uh..." I began to mumble and slightly look at Tia. Her mother noticed this and turned to her.

"Celestia?" the mother began. "Do you want to tell us something?"

"No," Tia said, putting her head on her side and looking uncomprehending.

"And if you think more about it?" Mom said even more seriously. Tia became slightly nervous and then sighed.

"Okay!" She said, and then, using telekinesis, she levitated my crown from behind her back.

"That's better, Celestia," Mom said with a smile, then she looked at me and teleported the crown onto my head.

"Thank you," I said to my mom, who nodded in response and then looked back at Tia.

"And you, Celestia, you'd better tell the truth right away, you're lucky that a guest will be with us soon, so my father and I won't punish you for this," she said in a serious voice, then we stood at their thrones, Luna stood to the right of my father's throne, and I next to Tia and my mother's throne.

While we were waiting for our guest, Tia suddenly spoke softly.

"I'm sorry, Luci," she said to me, but I turned my head in her direction.

"Tell me, why did you do that?" I asked her quietly.

"I... I wanted to play with you a little, we haven't played for a long time, and that's why I decided to do it," she said sadly and lowered her ears.

"Oh, Tia, I understand you, you are gifted, and you manage almost everything easily, but understand that when we rule, we will have very, very little time for fun," I told her.

"I know, and that's why I want to play with you so that I don't regret it later…"

"Oh, Tia-Tia," I just managed to say, when suddenly the doors to the throne room began to open, and I turned my attention to them.

When they were fully opened, one guard entered and began to speak.

"Your Highness! A great magician named Star Swirl the Bearded has arrived!" he announced and stepped aside.

And at the same moment, he, the great magician Star Swirl himself, entered the throne room! This made my mouth open wide, and then I looked at Tia and Luna and saw that their mouths were open in surprise. Well, of course, it's not every day you see a magician who is talked about a lot, especially if you're also a fan of his. Looking at him again, I began to examine him. He was gray in color, his hair color was white-light gray, his small beard was the same color, his eyes were kind of turquoise-blue, his cloak was slightly dark in color with two stars and one crescent, there were also small bells on his cloak, he had a hat like this the same color, also with one star, two crescents and bells on it. He walked slowly towards us, and when he came up, he bowed to us.

"I am glad to meet you, King Orion, Queen Galaxy, and, of course, I am glad to meet your children, Prince Lucius, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna," Star Swirl said, then our mother magically closed our mouths, and our father stood up from the throne.

"Well, we are glad to welcome you, Star Swirl," my father began to say, "we hope that your trip to here was without incidents." The father finished, and the magician raised his head.

"No, Your Highness, the trip before you was calm and pleasant," he said with a smile, then our mother stood up.

"We are very pleased to hear that," she said with a smile.

An hour later

At the moment, I was in my room with Tia and Luna, because our mother asked me to take them to her, because, as it turned out, Tia told Luna a little bit about Star Swirl, and now she began to respect him very much. She also told me to keep them, so to speak, at my place, because she and Star Swirl will have a very, very important conversation, on which the future of Equestria may depend. It confused me a little, but I quickly realized what she was leading to, and I told her my guess, and I turned out to be right. What did I understand? I realized that they wanted to discuss whether he could teach Tia and Luna, because they are very gifted unicorns. Of course, there will be no conversation about me, it's understandable, I am ordinary and ungifted, unlike my younger sisters. I understand everything, and it surprised my mother that I understand everything so well at that age, and somehow it doesn't even hurt. She will be surprised at this for a long time, physically I am a colt of eleven years old, but in my soul, damn, I am already over thirty! Or maybe already over forty? Oh, well, it doesn't matter anymore, it's better not to bring back the past, I don't miss my past life and the world much anymore, and not because I'm a prince in my new life! This one is more peaceful, even though the technology is ancient, maybe in a thousand years I will finally be able to use energy or steam engines and everything like that. Or maybe I should write all sorts of sketches on this topic? Well, for posterity? No, why would I do that? They'll figure it out for themselves, they're not stupid.

So, I'm sitting on my bed, Luna is sitting next to me, and we both look, one might say, at Tia in a very stable condition, she somehow walks back and forth, from corner to corner. She's been walking like this for twenty minutes now, and it's starting to get boring, Luna quickly came to her senses after she saw Star Swirl, but Tia still didnt.

"Tia, calm down already. You'd think, I saw someone who is known as a great magician, but I'm already calmly looking at it with Luna." I began the conversation. She immediately turned to me.

"Luci, you don't understand, it's Star Swirl! He's the best magician in Equestria! And he's in our castle now! It's just incredible!" She said very excitedly.

"Yes, yes, I know that he is a great magician, and that we have him here now," I said, getting out of bed, walking right up to her and lifting her head with a hoof. "Tia, I know you're very excited right now, but let's get away from this, otherwise you'll make a hole in the floor if you keep walking like that."

"Brother is right, sister, you’re way too much excited about this," Luna agreed with me, coming up to us.

"I think you're right, I need to calm down a little," then she took two deep breaths and exhaled, "okay, I calmed down, what are we going to play?" She asked with a smile.

A week later

It's been a week since Star Swirl temporarily moved into the castle. Nothing did not happen during these days, everything was as usual, well, almost. I was just dying of boredom, a couple of times we went for a walk in the park with Luna and still Tia and played there. Unfortunately, we could only see our parents at dinner, they said it was because of some business, what exactly they, of course, did not say, it was obvious, but despite all this, I noticed one oddity, what kind? I got the feeling that when I'm in my room or somewhere else alone, I feel like someone is watching me, but who is it? I can't understand it, I used to feel this way, but I didn't attach importance to it, but during these three days this feeling just intensified. Today I decided to ask Tia about it at breakfast in the morning, to which she replied: «You know, Lucie, I feel weird when I'm alone, but do you feel that way too?» This answer made it clear to me that she has the same feeling when she is alone, which gives me one answer — we are being watched, but who? Of course, in any case, one of the parents' assistants, why would they do that? And they don't need it, but Star Swirl! Why would he do that? It's simple — Tia and Luna are gifted, and he needs to know how he will teach them in the future, but why are they also watching me? This is already a complete mystery to me, I'm not gifted, I'm just an ordinary pony and only, yes, the magic core is a little bit bigger, so what? Spells are difficult for me, like to any unicorn, well, okay, maybe I'm very passionate about rune magic and artefactory, well, what's the big deal? I hope I find out everything today.

I was on my way to the throne room at the moment, why? Our parents are gathering us there again on some important issue, and I think I even know what it is. I reached the door that led to the throne room, the guards opened it for me, and I went inside, closing it behind me. Our parents were sitting on thrones, Luna was standing next to my father, Tia – next to mom. «I'm the last one here again,» I thought. I walked up to them and stood next to Tia. After a while, the doors of the throne room opened again, and Star Swirl entered, who began to walk towards us. He came up to us and bowed.

"We are glad to see you again," said mom.

"And we hope you enjoyed your stay with us," my father said, after which Star Swirl raised his head.

"Well, Your Majesty, I really liked everything," he said with a smile, "and I think it's probably better now that we tell the truth in front of your children why I came to you."

"Well, I agree with you," my father agreed.

"That's the right thing to do, because at the moment only four ponies in this room know why you came to us."

"Four?" The magician said, slightly surprised. "Did you tell any of your children?" the father and mother shook their heads negatively.

"We didn't tell any of them," my mother began, and then she turned in my direction, looking at me. "It's just that one of them figured it out for himself," she finished with a smile and turned to Star Swirl. Tia and Luna turned to me in surprise.

"What?" I turned to them and asked. "Well, yes, we admit, we guessed everything, and mom confirmed my guesses, you sisters are already superior to us in magic, so don't look at us like that!" After saying that, they just sighed and turned back to Star Swirl.

"Ahem," Star Swirl began, "so, since that's the case, well, I'll start, perhaps."

"Yes, start," the mother said in agreement.

"I, Star Swirl the Bearded, announce that I officially take your daughters as my apprentices."

"What?!" Luna and Tia shouted in surprise at the same time.

Chapter 8

One month and one week later

A little over a month has passed, autumn is over, and winter has came. As for me, winter in this world is more beautifu, snow is whiter and cleaner! When I first saw it in here, I did not immediately believe that it was exactly is! It wasn't that cool in my world! I enjoyed it like a child, even though I am a child physically, so, in fact, I acted like any colt my age at that time. And, since winter has come, it means that there is not much time left before the Burning Hearth Day. This is an analogue of the New Year in this world, it has an interesting name, but I even like it, it causes very good emotions, for example, joy, delight, and all sorts of positive stuff. Mom said that these emotions help Equestria, how exactly? There is a legend about creatures that feed on negative emotions, they are called Windigos. Creatures that look like ghostly translucent horses, yes, horses, not ponies. It surprised me a little, but I didn't think much of it. So, these Windigos are the fear for the whole world, and they can just be defeated by joyful emotions, so everyone does this holiday every year after the founding of Equestria. They just disappeared and were not seen anymore, which is good, I would not like to see them. They haven't been seen for about four hundred and fifty-seven years, a long time, in short.

Now our palace is decorated with all sorts of festive decorations, and three days is left until Hearth Day, so everyone began to decorate, and on the same day we will have a ball in honor of it in the castle. It’s always celebrated here, well, not everyone does it, of course, but different aristocrats. I remember there was one case a couple of years ago, when Tia was only three, Luna was still in my mother's stomach at that time, and I was nine, then on Hearth Day she offered me to make fun of one, admittedly, vile aristocrat. Oh gods, he was just so arrogant, selfish, everything. The worst thing about this pony was that it infuriated not only Tia and me, but also our parents. And she suggested to make fun of him. Oh yes, her trick was great, thanks to her he was so disgraced that he had not appeared in the castle for many years, how much laughter there was then! And, our father, of course, somehow found out about it and, oddly enough, was a little grateful that we did so, but we still could not escape punishment. Well, was worth it, but many laughed then, and it was a wonderful Hearth Day, I do not regret that Then we have done. And Tia was happy for another week after that, and her smile was beautiful, I wouldn't be surprised if she finds a special pony very quickly in the future.

Star Swirl, by the way, started training Tia and Luna a little bit, they have sessions five times a week, and yes, he stayed with us. This, as one might say, did not surprise me, one could theoretically guess that he would live like Miss Angela. By the way, about her, she continues to teach me, I learned a couple more runes, but unfortunately, she left yesterday, temporarily, to celebrate a holiday with relatives. I was a little upset about it, of course, but not much, because the other teachers in my other lessons also left to celebrate. Ha! You can finally take a little break from etiquette, I will temporarily have no lessons, like my sisters, but not on magic, Star Swirl does not go anywhere, so they will still have lessons, and even on others things, because, as it turned out, he is not only an expert on magic, but also master of almost everything! And they will only be able to relax only on the holiday. It's a bit upsetting that they will be busy too.

So, I got off the subject a little bit, ahem, at the moment I was going to go out into the city, why? It just so happened that I persuaded my parents to give me some money so that I could buy a gift for Tia and Luna. And this will be my first foray into the city. Yes, yes, I'm only going to the city now for all this time, and well, of course, not without guards, after all, I'm the Prince of Equestria and I have to go everywhere with them. I found out from the servants where there is a shop in the city selling various jewelry, and I wanted to buy the sisters some of them, I think I can find what I need there, and I hope they will like my gifts. I have already put on my royal outfit and at the same time put on a purple scarf with gold and blue patterns, Tia gave it to me on the last Day of the Hearth. Of course, she did not sew it herself, but at her request they made one for me, so every time I go outside, to the park or to the city, I'll wear it, it's warmer and good with it. When I have put everything on, I left the room, closing the door behind me, two guards were already waiting for me, who would take me first to the carriage on which I would go to the city, and then they would accompany me.

"Are you ready, Your Highness?" One guard asked me.

"Yes, we are." I replied.

"Then shall we go?" He said, and we went.

Twenty minutes later

I'm standing in front of a jewelry store. There are various necklaces, rings, earrings and so on on display. There is also a sign with a diamond pattern, yet, in this world and in the past one, they are the same. The carriage stopped at the entrance, it was led by two guards and one servant who led the way. I explained to him where I needed to go. One guard was inside with me, the other was outside on the other side of the carriage.

"Shall we go with you, Your Highness?" One of them asked who was standing next to me.

"I think one will come with us, the other one will stay here," I said, looking at them.

"Understood!" they both said, then one came to the entrance and stood near it.

I just silently went inside, as did the guard behind me. I began to look around, everything is about the same as in that world, the only difference is in their exposure. This store was small, but there were no ponies in it today, except for me and the guard. After walking a little near the various shelves with decorations and examining them, I heard a voice.

"Oh, greetings, Your Highness!" said someone not far from me. Turning towards the voice, I saw an elderly old earth pony, slightly dark yellow in color, with black, but also gray hair and blue eyes. He bowed to me. "What brings you to my humble shop?"

"Greetings, we were brought to your store looking for a gift for my younger sisters," I replied with a smile.

"Oh, for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? Then I hope you'll like something here for them," he said with a smile.

"Well, let's see," I said and continued to look around, meanwhile he went to his counter and stayed there.

After a while, I noticed two very interesting pendants, I turned my attention to them, because one of them caught a sunbeam and it was reflected in my eye, so I went to the stand where these pendants were. When I approached them, I was slightly surprised, the pendant on which the sunbeam fell was in the form of a sun, while the second, on which no light fell, was in the form of a crescent moon. They were so well made, you could even see the different patterns on them, and they reminded me of how my sisters were born: Tia appeared under the sun, Luna appeared under the moonlight, so I decided to give them these pendants.

"Well, Your Majesty, did you like these pendants?" the seller asked.

"Yes, they are beautiful, we are ready to buy them," I answered him, turning around.

"Okay, Your Highness, should I pack them for you as a gift?"

"Yes, and if possible, can the pendant be packed in gold, and the moon pendant in blue?"

"Yes, of course, Your Highness, it will be done as you wish," he said, then walked over to them, took them out and went to the counter.

Ten minutes later

After a while, standing at the counter, he handed me two small boxes: one packed in a gold wrapper, and the second in a blue one.

"Here you go, Your Highness."

"Thank you," I said, taking them with my magic, then putting more coins than the cost said, then headed for the exit with the guard.

"Have a nice holiday, Your Highness," he said after me.

"You too," having said that, I left the store and got into the carriage, the guard who was with me went inside, other one outside, and we drove back to the castle.

Twenty minutes later

I was walking down the corridor to my chambers to hide Tia and Luna's gifts. As I was walking, I heard some noise behind me. I quickly hid the gifts, teleporting them to my room. Turning around, I saw nothing, and turning back, I saw a golden flash, and at the same moment, Tia appeared in front of me, she immediately pressed my nose with one hoof and made a "boop", then laughed.

"Hi, Luci!" She said happily and wearily at the same time.

Hi, Tia, how was the lesson?"

"Oh, don't remind me!" She said listlessly. "I'm very tired! But I am glad that we will be able to take a break from studying soon! By the way, did you leave? She asked me with an interested smile.

"Ah... uh... I won't tell you!" I said in a slightly serious tone.

"Why?" she asked sadly, lowering her ears to her head.

"Because it's a secret," I said gently, "and it will be a surprise later for you and Luna."

"Really?! Are you serious?"

"No, I'm not joking."

"I can't wait to find out what the surprise is!" She said happily.

"Okay, Tia, I'll go, and I see that you need a rest."

"Okay, bye, Luci!" She said and ran away happy.

"Apparently, there was too much about the surprise," I said to myself, smiling, and continued on my way again.

After a while, I went to my chambers, went inside, closed the door, and when I turned around, I saw Luna standing next to my bed and holding gifts in her hooves that I had teleported here. She didn’t look inside. I lit my horn and, using telekinesis, took them to myself. luna turned to me in a slightly surprised way.

"Luna, will you please tell me what are you doing here?" I asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Well," she drawled, looking away, "I just wanted to talk to you, but you weren't in the room, and suddenly these boxes fell on me," then she turned to me: "What's in them?"

"A secret," I said shortly and clearly.

"Ugh, why?"

"Because Luna, if I tell you what's in them, it won't be very good for me, I've already been trying to keep this secret."

"Well, then I won't bother you with this, big brother," Luna said with a smile.

"Thank you," I said with a smile and put them on the table, "then I'll hide them until the right hour."

"Until which?" she asked.

"You’ll find out later, Lulu."

"Ugh, damn," she puffed out her cheeks a little resentfully. I couldn't stand such cuteness and teleported to her, hugging her.

"Oh, gods, why you look so cute when you do that?" I said and stopped hugging her, then I saw her blush.

"Ah... uh, I don't even know what to say, brother," she said awkwardly.

"And don't," having said that, she sighed and lay down wearily on the rug that was in my room.

"Are you tired?" I asked.

"Uh—huh," she said in a tired voice, and I lay down next to her.

"Is it really that difficult there?"

"Yes, it is. I'm only three, and I already know too much about magic, plus history and everything else, it's all complicated," she sighed sadly.

"I understand, it's difficult for me too, even now," I tried to cheer her up.

"Yes, yes," she rolled her eyes a little, "but my program is more complicated than yours, brother, because I'm special with Seli."

"I don't even know, maybe yes, maybe no," I said, a little cryptically. "We're all ponies, Lulu, even if you were born special, you're still a pony, I'm sure it will be easier for you to learn everything later, because I can't do everything, honestly, I'm not doing very well myself."

"Really?" She raised her head in surprise and looked at me. "What exactly?"

"Will you keep this a secret?" I asked her, lifting my head and looking at her.

"Yes!" she said very confidently.

"Then it's time to come up with an oath gesture, Sister."

"Hooray! And what will it be like?" She asked with interest.

"Hmm," I said thoughtfully, then came up with: "How about this?"

Having said that, I sat down, then closed my left eye with my left hoof, then lit my horn and began to apply a new spell that I had learned. It was useless, but still beautiful. Lifting my right hoof, I began to move it and use it, so I drew a star surrounded by a circle, I managed to draw it with the color of my magic, namely a slightly light green color, and while I was drawing this star, I began to say such words.

"Let the moon shine, let the river flow under the moon, let the days flow, but the light of the star will be eternal, like the oath o’ maine!" I said as if I were singing.

"Wow!" Luna said, sitting down too and looking at what I did. " It's even cooler than your with Seli!"

"Heh, maybe, but still I don't want our sister to find out that I came up with such a swearing gesture, because she was making up our vows with her," after finishing speaking and putting her hooves on the floor and removing the star, Luna giggled slightly.

"I'm not even surprised," she said, smiling broadly.

"Well, did you remember?"

"yes!"

"Then repeat it," she nodded back and started.

"Let the moon shine," she began, putting her left hoof on her left eye, "let the river flow under the moon," she continued, lighting her horn and starting to draw a star in a circle, "let the days flow, but the light of the star..." she almost finished drawing the star, "will be eternal, like the oath o’ maine!" She finished by drawing a circle. I started smiling happily.

"Well done, Lulu!"

"Thank you!" she said joyfully and then sat down, as she was before the oath. "Now tell me!"

"Okay, okay," I said, rolling my eyes. "Do you remember how four months ago I came home from a class on runes and artefactors very dirty?" She nodded in response. "So, it was because, in an attempt to create my first artifact, it exploded, so to speak." Luna immediately began to look at me in great surprise.

"Are you kidding?! It exploded?!"

"Yes, it exploded, but as you can see, I'm safe and sound! So don't be afraid for me, I will be with you until the end." I said, trying to calm her down a little.

"But you were born first, which means you'll leave earlier!" she said sadly, almost starting to cry, I abruptly began to hug her.

"Lulu, I swear that I will find a way to live up to your days, I will find a way to prolong my life," I stopped hugging her, lifted her head and began to look into her eyes. "Do you believe me, Sister?" Do you believe that I won't leave you early?"

"I believe you, brother," she said, and started hugging me, and I hugged her back. «Now I have to fulfill this promise, because what kind of a brother I’ll be if I don't fulfill it? Certainly not the best one for them.»