"My Lord, are you sure this is a wise idea? It was already a task to convince Prince Xanthos to give the foal your name. If he ever finds out about this, he might never forgive you."
Inside the walls of Platinum Manor, Prince Cocytus Platinum walked through the corridors of the building, a bundle of cloth held in his magic, with a butler speaking to him in whispers as the two Unicorns made their way through the silent halls of the manor.
"His forgiveness is negligible, Shadow Lock. As long as this foal survives, the Platinum name will be able to live on." Prince Cocytus Platinum said, his ice blue eyes staring at the bundle of cloth levitating in his pale blue magic.
Exiting the Manor under a silencing spell, the two ponies made their way through the garden until they reached a small well made of gray bricks.
"You already know the procedure, Shadow Lock," Cocytus told the other pony, who silently nodded his head before his horn began to glow with a reddish-pink light, a barrier soon surrounding the two, making them disappear from the sight of any pony who might be watching from outside the veil of magical protection.
With a soft pulse of light blue magic, Cocytus moved a portion of the cloth bundle held in his magic, revealing a small Unicorn foal, still a newborn. With a coat of snow white fur and a tiny mane of golden blonde hair.
Cocytus took a moment to look at his grandson, taking a deep breath, before he pulled out a single golden coin, a ceremonial trinket that had lost its use with the ascension of the Alicorn Sisters and the introduction of the new Equestrian Bit, and tossed the coin into the well.
He watched the coin dissappear as it touched the water, as if sucked away by an invisible force.
Cocytus Platinum took one last look around the garden, making sure that his current group was the only Ponies outside, before he refocused on the well and on the pale pink light that began to emanate from it.
Without any further wait, Prince Cocytus Platinum opened his mouth and spoke.
"I wish-"
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King Aspen was walking down the corridors of Platinum Manor, his mind racing as he followed the incessant sound that had been calling out to him.
"Where are you?" He yelled as he made another turn down the corridor, ignoring his tired mind screaming at him that this was the fifth time he turned left, "I'm almost there! My sweetest Gaia!"
The voice that awoke him in the middle of the night was calling for him, asking him to find it. "Gaia, I'm coming!" He yelled to his love as he burst through an old wooden door, finding himself in another corridor, "I'm getting close, I can hear you!" He whispered to himself before he kept running, his eyes bloodshot and tired, his legs shaking, but he kept running.
He turned more corners, passed through more doors, the halls and corridors seeming to twist and turn in ways that always kept him just out of reach of the calls in his ears.
"I'm- I'm almost there..." Aspen gasped tiredly, feeling his eyelids grow heavy as exhaustion took hold of him, "My Gaia..." He called out, only for his back legs to collapse, throwing the old king onto the floor.
It hurt.
His legs, his torso, his pride.
It all hurt.
"I will be there, My sweetest Gaia..." But none of it hurt more than the idea of being so close to reaching his love, just to love her again.
And with a yell of effort, King Aspen Everfree pulled himself back onto his legs and resumed his walk, shaking and stumbling as he went.
"Just... One more door... I'm so close- I'M SO CLOSE!" He yelled as he reached the end of the corridor he was stumbling towards, his eyes glued to the door in front of him, and of the soft light that escaped from the space between the door and the floor.
"I'm HERE!" He yelled as he pushed the door open, the soft light revealing itself to be coming from an open window, revealing the bright blue sky outside, the sun shining down to bless the King with the touch of its warmth.
He stepped into the room, taking a look at the soft greens and earthly browns that painted the walls, the red and white cushions and pillows that decorated the sofas and chair made of living wood shaped like furniture.
In the center of the room, stood a Deer, her eyes soft and inviting, her fur a healthy earthly brown, with eyes of inviting gold.
"Gaia..." Aspen whispered, his voice sounding younger, more vigorous, as if he hadn't just spent tens of minutes, perhaps even hours, running through the dilapidated ruins of a broken-down Mansion.
"Took you long enough," Gaia smirked at him before she walked in his direction, having to move her body around a wooden crib in the middle of the room that separated her from Aspen, "I need some rest, keep an eye on him, yeah?" She gave Aspen a swift peck on the cheek before she moved to lie down on one of the sofas in the room, closing her eyes and stretching her back as she released a sigh of contentment.
Aspen stared at her with shocked eyes before he turned to look at the crib in the middle of the room and at the small fawn that lay within it.
"Bramble..." Aspen whispered at the sight of the small deer, recognizing it as the source of the sound that called out to him.
He released a shuddered breath, watching wet spots begin to form on the baby's blanket as tears fell from his eyes. He took a step back, his body falling as his legs failed him, and he began to hyperventilate, his mind searching for any answers as to what was going on, before his eyes landed on a mirror.
It was a unique thing, built using a crystalline reflective sap that could be found inside the trees the Heart of the Everfree grew specifically for their reflective nature.
As Aspen stared into the mirror of clear sap, the face that stared back was unquestionably his own. It was the face he wore over one thousand years prior, long before he let himself go.
He looked healthy, bright, clean.
He looked like a Deer worthy of handling the Heart of the Everfree.
Nothing like his current self.
"This is a dream..." Aspen said to himself as he looked into the mirror, "I'm still sleeping outside the Manor..." He sighed tiredly before he stood up and picked up the small Fawn from the crib, his legs taking the two of them towards the Sofa where his wife was resting.
With a simple use of the Heart of the Everfree, the sofa extended, making space for Aspen to lie down beside his wife, with the tiny Bramble sleeping soundly on his chest.
"That's not how you keep an eye on him..." Gaia Everfree mumbled as she rolled over, her legs moving to hug her husband and pull her son closer to her, "You silly goof..."
"I love you." Aspen simply responded, his eyes closing as he took in the warmth of having his wife hug him, his son resting on his chest, with the gentle rays of sunlight painting the room with a dim orange light.
"This is a dream..." Aspen's mind said to himself.
This was a dream. And King Aspen did not want to wake up.
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Prince Bramble remained close to Prince Blueblood as the two made their way through the dilapidated corridors of the Platinum Manor.
"How long do you think it'll take us to find him?" Bramble asked the Unicorn prince, who instead of answering his question put his leg in front of the Prince to block his path.
With a glow of his horn, a trio of silver orbs appeared in front of Prince Blueblood before they levitated ahead of the duo, entering the next room to the right of the corridor, before moving to the room on the left.
"All clear." Prince Blueblood said once the silver orbs floated back to him, disappearing in a puff of magic before the two royals moved further down the corridor, repeating the process every time they reached a door.
"What if ghosts got to him?" Bramble asked.
"Ghosts aren't real," Blueblood said simply, his horn continuing to light the corridor around them as they slowly made it deeper into the manor.
"Gaia's supposed to be... Y'know, but she still managed to take over that Gloriosa lady, proving herself to still be-" Bramble was interrupted.
"Alive." Blueblood said, "Gaia Everfree is still alive, that's how she managed to take over Gloriosa Daisy. She wouldn't be able to do that if she were dead."
"But it would be possible if she were a gho-" Bramble froze as he watched something move behind Blueblood.
"No, it wouldn't, because Ghosts aren't-" Blueblood began to say as he turned to look at Bramble, only to notice his gaze staring ahead of him, eyes wide.
Without even asking what happened, Blueblood whipped his head back in the direction Bramble was looking at, his horn unleashing a bright light that illuminated the entire corridor.
With his eyes focused on the corridor, Blueblood noticed a shadow flicker on the wall.
Something moved.
"Stay close, keep your body low, and if I tell you to run, you run," Blueblood told Bramble before the silver orbs reappeared, joined by a trio of golden orbs, as they floated towards the end of the corridor, where the two royals saw the shadow flicker.
The orbs moved quietly through the air, if it wasn't for the soft hum of magic coursing through them. Once they reached the end of the corridor, they spun to look at where the shadow came from, only to be blasted back with a beam of pink magic.
"Bramble, get down!" Blueblood yelled, the Deer prince dropping to the ground in order to hide behind the larger Prince's body, "We got company!" He yelled, a small blue orb appearing in front of him before swiftly shooting forward towards where the other orbs were before they were attacked.
Once the beam of magic returned to blast the new orb, Blueblood activated the magic of the orb, causing it to detonate into an explosion of magic and crystalline shrapnel.
"AAGH!" A voice yelled from behind the corner at the end of the corridor.
"We got a hit," Blueblood noted to himself, "Pluto!" He yelled as the broken-down furniture from the nearby rooms assembled into the chest and arms of a muscular statue, an illusion of a flaming blue serpentine skull appearing above the torso's neck, "Protect Bramble, I'm going ahead!" Blueblood ordered the animated statue before he ran ahead, a yell of "Venus!" Echoing after him as golden chains wrapped around his body.
"Wait!" Bramble yelled as he pushed himself up and started to run after the Unicorn, trying to push past Pluto as the statue weakly tried to stop Bramble from moving closer to the fight.
Bramble watched with wide eyes as Blueblood turned the corner of the corridor before disappearing from view, the only sign he was still doing fine being the sound of magic echoing from beyond the corner.
"Let me go!" Bramble tried to plead with Pluto, "Blueblood might need my help, our help!"
The living statue wouldn't budge. Its empty, blazing eye sockets silently staring down at the Deer Prince.
"Blueblood said you have to protect me! He never said anything about you needed to keep me from going with!" He yelled at the statue, which simply stared back at him for a moment, before a soft chuckle that sounded vaguely like a pile of burning furniture whispered the word Pluto escaped the Statue's blazing lips before it moved to float over the Prince like a protective guardian.
"Yes!" Bramble yelled in excitement as he started running towards the battle, "Now let's go!"
"Pluto!!!"
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Blueblood ducked his head as a beam of reddish-pink magic flew over his head, followed by a tendril of dark gray magic whipping in his direction like a limb made of living smoke that caused him to step to the side before he hit back with a pair of golden orbs, the two orbs orbiting each other in a helix patterns as they fired small beams of magic at a cloaked figure that continued to try and close the distance between themselves and the Prince.
"Dammit!" The cloaked figure shouted as they once more fired a beam of magic, destroying the two orbs but not before getting hit in the side, a hastily cast protection spell turning what could have been a fatal blow into little more than the equivalent of a strong punch.
"You know!" Blueblood yelled across the corridor, the cloaked figure groaning as it rolled to the side, avoiding a ceramic shard that flew in his direction, "You're lucky I don't want to destroy this place!" A beam of blue magic flew out of the Prince's horn in the direction of the cloaked figure, only to be smacked away by a tendril of shadowy smoke, causing a small explosion of dust to cover the corridor, hiding the two opponents from one another.
"You shouldn't be here!" The cloaked figure shouted through pained breaths as it prepared its horn for when the dust would settle and the fight would resume, their voice sounding like both a young and old stallion at the same time, as if the two voices were overlapping.
"This is my home, actually!" Blueblood yelled back, several orbs appearing in the air around him while his mind began to think of a spell that would allow him to fight in close range without destroying more of the manor. "So don't tell me where I'm allowed to be!"
For once in his life, Blueblood cursed himself for designing his combat spells to fight against someone like Chrysalis.
Who would have guessed that spells that require an open space to be used effectively wouldn't work well inside a narrow corridor?
"That's-" The Cloaked figure yelled, "Impossible!" And with a bright reddish-pink burst of magic from their horn, they teleported beside the Unicorn Prince, quickly firing off an explosion of magic that shattered the orbs the prince prepared, pushing Blueblood away from the explosion.
Now that the cloaked figure had their eyes on Blueblood, they froze as the golden mask over the Prince's face shattered to reveal his eyes.
The same eyes that their old master once had.
"Young Master?" The cloaked figure whispered to itself in its mind, the shock from the Prince's appearance being enough to stun the figure long enough for Blueblood's new close-range spell to hit.
"SATURN!" The prince yelled, a white disc of spinning magic slicing at the cloaked figure like a magical buzzsaw, cutting open its neck and spouting blood all over the Prince.
"Fuck!" Blueblood spat out, his front half covered in blood, "That should have been cleaner than that, shit!" With a dimming of his horn, the white spinning ring of light disappeared, before another burst of light cleaned the blood off of his fur, "Gonna' have to work on that one a bit more..."
"Blueblood!" The prince turned away from the cloaked figure that was now lying dead on the ground to see Prince Bramble turn the corner with Pluto hovering protectively above him, "Is everything alri-" The young deer paused as he saw the corpse before he turned his head to the side and began to throw up.
"I told you you should have gone back to Thicket," Blueblood told the deer before he walked over and began to rub his back.
"Pluto..." The statue voiced as it backed off to give the two royals some space.
"I'm fine-" Bramble gagged, "I'm fine, We still need to find my Dad." He wiped a leg over his mouth, wiping the bile off.
"You know, I still recommend you go back to Thicket and leave this to the adults like me," Blueblood told him.
"I'm not leaving my Dad here," Was Bramble's response as he shakily straightened his legs and prepared to continue deeper into the Manor, only for his eyes to widen before he called out- "BLUEBLOOD!"
"What?!" Blueblood quickly turned back to the corridor, expecting to see another figure preparing to attack them, only to find the corpse of the assailant that just attacked him standing back up, as if the giant tear in their neck wasn't even an issue for them.
With their cloak now in tatters, it allowed Blueblood a moment to look at the assailant's face.
A Grey coat, two deep green eyes, and a mane that was a shade of purple so dark that he would have mistaken it for black if it wasn't for the reddish-pink light emanating from their horn. Their Cutie Mark was that of an open book with a bolt of purple magic striking it.
But most noticeable about the assailant, outside of the gaping open wound in their neck, was the scar across their face.
"BRAMBLE GET BEHIND ME NOW!" Blueblood yelled as his horn burst into a beacon of blue light as the Prince telekinetically grabbed as much rubble as he could and formed a makeshift barrier between him and the assailant.
"As long as I still have magic..." The assailant spoke, their voice breathy and thick, blood pooling in their mouth, "You will never release the Pony of Shadows..." Their horn began to glow brighter.
"GOODBYE NOSTALGIA!!!"
Blueblood covered Bramble with his body, making sure to protect the Fawn as much as he could.
Even activating Venus in order to strengthen his telekinetic hold over the barrier of rubble.
It didn't matter.
From the assailant Unicorn's horn exploded a bright pink light, so bright it pierced through the barrier of rubble as if it were a window, passing through the golden mask of Venus, through the sensation-sealing magic of the spell, and past the closed eyelids of the Prince.
And the moment Prince Blueblood Platinum saw the light, He fell unconscious.
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The Unicorn's body heaved as more and more blood gushed out of his open neck, his sight growing blurry as his magic kept him standing. He watched as the makeshift barrier collapsed, revealing two unconscious creatures lying behind it.
He stepped closer to the unconscious Unicorn before he grabbed the necklace around his neck, watching the crystal shards that it held, before he moved them away from the Prince.
"That should be far enough..." He whispered as he placed the crystal shard necklace a few meters away, far enough for the spirit inside to be unable to take over the Prince's unconscious body.
He slid his body down the wall, leaving a trail of blood behind him like a pony-shaped slug, before collapsing down, his body no longer able to support his own weight in his weakened state.
He moved a hoof towards the hole in his neck, biting his cheek as he pushed it in, rummaging through the open wound as if he felt no pain, before he felt his hoof touch an organ that shouldn't physically exist in his body.
With a glow of magic from his horn, he pulled the false organ out, revealing a small crystal marble, roughly one centimeter in diameter, with a tiny depiction of his cutie mark on it. A wispy trail of magic wafted from the marble, leading back to his body.
He smirked at the sight of a small crack on the marble, his eyes briefly moving to look at the unconscious Prince's body.
"My Lord..." The Unicorn said, his mind drifting to think of an old Stallion, and of that night next to the wishing well, "You've succeeded..." He ignored the blood dripping from his mouth as he dropped the marble onto the floor, letting it rest beside him, the tendril of wispy magic connecting him to the tiny crystal ball growing thinner and thinner.
"Prince Blueblood Cocytus Platinum..." He whispered the name as he continued to stare at the Prince, "I am sorry... But you, too, will be forgotten here... As long as my magic holds..." He glanced down at the marble before returning to the prince, "Then you will never reach the truth..."
"..." A contented smile spread on the Unicorn's face as he watched the tendril of magic connecting him to the marble grow so thin he couldn't even see it through his blurry vision.
"Heh..." A weak chuckle escaped his lips as he lay there, "The Truth of House Platinum is Ruled by Lies..." His smile grew at those words, as if it meant something important to him.
And as he closed his eyes, the tendril of magic connecting him to the marble withered away.
The blood that flowed from his open wound began to turn into motes of light, soon followed by his tail and mane, his coat joining soon after. Soon enough, his entire body turned into tiny motes of reddish-pink light, like magical embers floating in the air, before they too disappeared, taking with them every biological sign that he was there.
Leaving behind nothing more than a tattered brown cloak and a broken crystal marble.
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I groaned tiredly as I stretched my body before sitting up, ignoring the sun glaring at my face through the window I forgot to close the blinds of. I stood up and made my way to the bathroom, brushing my teeth over the sink before deciding that I needed a morning shower.
After drying my body and wearing some clothes, I stepped into the living room, passed by the neatly folded pile of laundry laying on my couch that I had yet to put in the closet, before I entered the kitchen and turned on the kettle, opening a drawer to grab a mug before I opened a wooden box that laid on the counter and grabbed two glass jars that I stored inside, one with sugar and another with instant coffee.
I poured a spoonful of coffee into the mug, followed by a spoonful of sugar, before I moved to the fridge to grab some milk.
Once the water was boiled, I poured it into the mug until it was half full, and I filled the other half with milk before I moved the mug to the table and placed it there, going back to the kitchen to grab a box of almond cookies before returning to the table.
I leaned back in my chair, my legs resting on another chair, as I dipped the almond cookies into the coffee before taking a bite. A quick and light breakfast.
Once I was done, I stood up and grabbed my phone to read the to-do list I prepared in advance, my face balking at seeing it was grocery day.
I swallowed my despair and grabbed my wallet and keys, turned off the lights and closed the windows, and walked outside of my house, locking the door behind me before unlocking the car door and stepping inside.
As I drove towards the grocery store, I turned on the radio and began tapping my fingers to the familiar beat of Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box, driving down the streets of Tampa, Florida.
My name is Blueblood Platinum, Ex-Navy, and a student of Nautical Science. I am twenty-eight years old.
And last night, I had the craziest dream.