Come little fillies and colts, let me tell you a tale. This is a very old tale about one prince’s sins and one little common filly’s pure intents. It is not well known today, perhaps it never was. But still this tale survives time, some say it isn’t a tale at all, but a real event that happened to long ago for any pony to remember. Depending on who is telling it, it is called either ‘Shadows of Sin’ or ‘The Mystical Alicorn’. It goes something like this…
 
Long ago there once was an alicorn prince. He lived in a castle so grand that it was carved entirely from crystal and gold. He was pure of heart and proud. He ruled his people with honor. All adored him, all praised him. All made him ever prouder.
 
His pride swelled so much that he thought himself invincible. Any challenge, any pony, he could defeat. He battled grand beasts, dueled great kings. He woo’d beautiful princesses, amazed majestic queens.
 
His power grew so much that his white mane turned to shining, swirling white of a magical nature.
 
But something else was happening, unseen, unheard to all but him. Shadows danced in his mind, they whispered in his ear. He didn’t know his pride was a dark sin, and they used that against him. They boosted of his power, they told him that with it, he could rule more than his simple kingdom. They followed him, skirting his every move.
 
He began to lose his kindness to his ponies. He began to rule with an iron hoof. He became paranoid towards the other royalty, his supposed friends.
 
He soon became convinced that the king of the neighboring land, a once great friend and ally, was plotting against him. The king, of course, was not. But the king was also old, and stubborn, and didn’t take kindly to the accusation.
 
They argued and the argument became a fight and soon all nearby could see the flashes of magic from the two.
 
In the end, the prince killed the king and felt no shame for it. As he stood triumphantly over the dead body of his former friend, his mane turned to a black void. His golden coat turned dark and dull. His bright clear crystal castle turned black as the darkest moonless night.
 
From that day on, the prince was cruel and his castle cold. Shadows fell upon his land and his ponies went hungry. He raped the forests and every aspect of nature itself and gave nothing in return. He beat and even killed those he suspected of disobedience.
 
Ponies now had no love for their leader, only fear.
 
One day though a little blank flank filly went bravely into the cold castle. A mere earth pony, thought by many to be the lesser of all ponies, moreover, passed the age young Ponies usually got their cutie marks. She stood before him and pleaded with him to stop his destruction. The wildlife was dying, the water was too dirty to drink, the forest was nearly gone. The Caretakers of Nature were restless and fearful. Things were dire and soon all would be lost if he did not stop and see what he was doing.
 
The prince only laughed at her and bid her run away before he had her whipped and thrown in the dungeon.
 
But the filly stood defiantly and told him “no”. She told him how balance must be restored or else there would be nothing left.
 
This made the prince angry. How dare a mere earth filly disobey him! He was going to teach her a lesson. He was going to teach them all a lesson.
 
He pointed his horn at her with intent to kill. He didn’t need nature and didn’t want it and this filly would not stand in his way
 
However, the filly, instead of running away, leap towards him and unleashed magic she did not even know she had. An energy within her fueled by her love for all things of the natural order.
 
She stood before him, aglow with light like a shield. She told him it had to stop and if it meant sacrificing herself for it to stop, so be it.
 
Angrier than ever now, he did try to kill her. But just as his magic hit her eitheral shield, she unleashed five points of light and the entire castle blazed like the brighter star come to life.
 
When the glow disappeared, the castle was once again crystal, but it was closed off, sealed, and the prince was entombed in it. Forever locked away.
 
The little filly was nowhere to be seen. But soon she appeared. No longer a little earth pony but now a shining alicorn. She had a cutie mark too, a five point star with a different color on each point and a maze like spiral in the middle. Her cutie mark represented five elements of the natural order, spirit, death, life, shadow and light, and the balance between them.
 
She had achieved that which few ever did.
 
The ponies took this as a sign that she was to be their new leader. But she shook her head, ever humble. She told them her destiny did not lay in leading ponies but in helping to restore balance between the natural elements and ponies themselves. She was now a guarding between the veils, between ponies and nature, between worlds even, and could not tie herself to any one land.
 
With that, she left them, disappearing into the forest. They never saw her again.
 
The ponies recovered with time, they replenished nature and lived in harmony with it. They governed themselves and were happy. But they spoke of the mystery filly who saved them forever more. None even knew her name, though they called her the “Mystical One”.
 
It is said that the Mystical One still lives. She works quietly, unseen, often watching over things from her cave of pools from which she can see things far and wide.
 
As for the prince, he is still encased in his crystal tomb. Though where it is, no pony knows.
 
Base by silent-umbra