I could have been legend.
I could have been, if I hadn't so royally screwed up. I was well on my way there. Favored Princess, banished from my country by her own best friend who had been taken over by an evil sorceress, exiled for nine years until my secret return and glorious defeat of said sorceress and her evil minions. I was crowned Queen. The Prophecy's Queen. The One.
The Prophecy in Course since the days no one can remember has been that The One would rise out from the darkness like a full moon and end Course's dark days by joining the two families completely and irrevocably. She would come from the line of Acetonal and she would bear a symbol that was wholly undeniable. She would take the throne and bring Course into the brightest and happiest days it had ever seen. The never-ending battle between the royal families would die in one swift blow and the continent to the south would be unequaled in all the world.
Ahh, but everyone makes mistakes do they not? Of course they do. I am no different. She will be different. She will truly be The One and fulfill the Prophecy as it was meant to be filled. I was an arrogant, selfish little brat with dreams of revenge wedged far too deep inside to become what she will be. She will be selfless, a born leader, with the gifts of both her mother and her father, and a simple upbringing. She will be legend.
It had been a fine day, the moon hanging in the sky opposite the sun, visible even in the light hours, and brilliant by the nights. There was a steady, salty breeze off the coast that rippled through our manes and tails as we climbed the steep slope to the top of the cliffs. Even the cliffs (usually dark and shrouded in mystery) had thrown off their heavy cloaks of gray and become green and yellow and inviting. No boogie-men could hide in that brightness, no evil lurking through the shadows, and it was the only place in Course that they wouldn't look for a young and timid King, and his best friend, the beloved and fiery Princess.
Apollo was rolled over onto his side, robe off, oversized crown sitting on the neatly folded red fabric beside him. The sunlight was splashing off his mane as if the hair itself were emitting it. He looked nearly on fire as his golden tail swished up and flicked a small fly from the gold on chestnut-red symbol. His forelock fell down over his eyes but he was too busy dreaming of being simply an overlooked prince again to push it back up where it belonged.
I was sitting just on the edge of the cliff, purple cape still on despite the heat, gray mane matted in sweat against a paler gray neck. My tail was barely visible under all of that fabric (after all, I was only a princess of the Acetonal family, I would just have to grow into my robes) and my symbol not at all. I was daydreaming of younger days too, although Rainbow knows we were young enough as it was. My pale blue eyes searched the ocean out to Jadus Marinus, the tiny island country that was a good friend and ally of Course. They had pledged their allegiance to Apollo just days before in his crowning ceremony, and Apollo certainly needed a good, strong advisor like that Aresyal Galedon over there. It had made me truly happy to see so many come to honor and pledge their allegiance to my best friend.
I was still lost in my daydreams when I heard a noise behind me and turned quickly, standing up and tripping on the oversized robe. I stubbed my nose into Apollo's back and winced at the pain as he woke, startled, and sat up next to me. The noise had come from a black unicorn, black as the Dark Rainbow itself, with red hair the color of smoldering ashes and a bit of the same in her eyes. They sparkled like coals which had just been lit with some grand idea and she reeked of power. It was easy to sense power in Course, not many had it although it is common in the North Continent. The power she kept was not magician's tricks I feared, but something deeper and darker and waiting to be unleashed.
"Who are you?" Apollo asked in the most King-like voice he could summon. It left much to be desired.
"Me?" The dark mare cooed at him, "I'm your dream come true. I can do miracles if you want me to."
Apollo gave her a look that went straight from her hooves to the tips of her ears and laid his own back. He stood up and nudged me with his nose, "come on Luna, let's go." There were plenty of nuts trying to get an unofficial audience with the new young King.
"If you could have anything you wished for, what would it be?" The mare ignored me and starred into his eyes, and I could see Apollo back down from her. I grabbed his forehoof roughly and pulled him closer, and she regarded me not at all. "I can do things," she said and stepped forward, her tail lightly caressing his face while he pulled away in disgusted fear, "things you never even knew were possible. I can change your whole world."
"No thanks," he said and turned to me, pushing slightly on my side so I would walk faster, but there really was no where to go. We were trapped in on the top of the cliff, with only a narrow and steep path down, and that was still ten feet to our left.
The mare stepped in front of us, a fluid movement with all the grace of a serpent. "I can do miracles if you want me to," she repeated into Apollo's ear and his eyes went distant. I looked at him in alarm, then to her, but she was still treating me as if I were air, a ghost perhaps. And I knew what she was showing him – a picture of his recently-dead parents; his father on the throne with the crown fitting perfectly, his mother the picture of grace and geniality in her red and gold gown, both of them smiling down on their shy son.
"Come on," I whispered to Apollo and tugged a chestnut-red foreleg.
"Let go," he replied in the strongest voice I had ever heard him use. It shocked me into silence and I blinked hard, trying to place what had just happened.
"Anything is possible for you," she whispered so close to his ear that the end of her mouth was lost inside to my view.
She put a firm hoof around his shoulders and he took a step in her direction. I blinked back the tears in my eyes, but I knew that he was lost for now. Lost in a vision of the past, of what could never be as hard as she might try. I would get to him later; make him see reason, wash her spell off him. For now I walked away.
I should have killed her that day on the cliff. Just pushed her over the edge and into the waves. But what did I know of murder and evil and the sickeningly sweet feel of having control over someone's life? I was only just eight. Still, it would have saved me a lot of grief had I just pushed her.
Apollo took up her look of active indifference towards me. It was worse than being ignored: it was not existing. He could look straight at my face and see only the wall behind. His eyes were always distant, caught in that waking dream of still being only a prince. He never answered a question without Glasya (the only name she gave, although I'm sure it was not her own) giving him an answer, bent over his ear like an actual advisor. No one worried too much; all the important affairs of state still had to be passed through his Aunt, who had the final word until his eighteenth birthday. By then surely this Glasya mare would have fallen out of his favor; after all, look at how quickly he dropped his own best friend.
Rumors flew about Glasya's origins. She was from the great Dream Valley to the north; no, a place called the Darklands (which everyone only half believed actually existed) was her home; no, she was abandoned on the Fatum Isles and taught to be a dark mage by the old gods. One even went so far as to suggest she might actually be a long-lost from the line of Acetonal. My own long-lost cousin, come back as The One. She had no discernable symbol though, and the red hair made it impossible for her to be descendant of the all black, gray, and white line.
I still should have killed her.