That what Takato plans to do

“H…Heir?” Ruki stammered.
This guy, Takato, the one who had saved her, the one who had made her feel so safe and who she had trusted so much, was the heir to the throne of the High King? It made no sense.
 “But… the capital… shouldn’t you be there? Right? I mean…” Ruki had forgotten how to express herself clearly.
Takato had revealed so much to her in such a short time she felt the world was turned upside down. She hardly realized the warmth of the hearth anymore. She felt cold and utterly alone surrounded by so many others who seemed nothing but ghosts to her. Everything she had relied on turned out to be a lie. Her life would never be calm and quiet… Not that it had ever been something she had hoped for, but the day she had left her father had been a day she had hoped to clear things so she could live on peacefully. Now she knew it would never be the case.

“Ruki, please allow me to explain. I live here, hidden, in exile. My father… the High King. Please allow me to tell you the story of how I came here. You have a right to know.” Takato said.
Ruki managed to nod slightly, knowing in advance she wouldn’t catch it all. Her head felt dizzy, and she was sure standing up right now was a bad idea.

“I was born… as the first son of the High King of the west. The heir to the throne. After me, my father got three more children. However… it was shameful, but his second born child was a girl. Just like in the west… the royal family hardly gets a child who cannot wield its powers. As you know, prana can only be controlled by males, so therefore, a girl born into the royal family is not only rare but considered shameful, because those who are strong with prana do not get a girl. However, my father, the High King, had a second child who was a girl.

While this was considered shameful especially by my father, he allowed the girl to grow up like a child of his. A princess, something the royal house had not seen in ages. My sister… Asana. I loved her. She was my darling little sister who I felt I had to protect. All my lessons, everything I learned about prana… I was told I had to protect the ponies of the west and maintain the balance so that the west would prosper. However, as a child, I only cared about protecting my little sister. I felt she needed it. She was never truly accepted, being a girl, and I wanted to make sure I could protect her from any who meant her harm.

As is traditional in the west, the children of the High King all take a test on how well they can handle prana when they’re ten years old. Once the youngest child turns ten, it is decided who can handle prana the best, and that child becomes the heir. Usually, the oldest born child is simply the strongest. I think it is five hundred years ago when it turned out the second child was the better one, and that one was a twin. The test was nothing but a custom, therefore, but should be taken none the less.

My father never bothered training his daughter in prana. He was convinced, as anyone was, that she could not control it anyway, like any other girl. She would take the test but fail, and that was that. However, shortly before her tenth birthday, an accident happened. We were on a trip to a village that had been hit severely by a storm. When we were there, my youngest brother walked away from the group. Too late did we notice he was headed towards the river, which had turned wild because of all the rain. He fell in. My sister was the first to notice. She ran towards my little brother who was swept away and as she yelled his name, a nearby tree began to glow with prana. Its branches grew rapidly and before anyone knew what happened the tree had grown so much it took my brother out of the water and put him on the shore.

There was no doubt about it. My sister could control prana in a way not even I could. She could force prana to let something grow, a rare ability only the strongest heirs were able to handle. My father’s shame was complete. Not only had he fathered a girl, his heir would be a girl. She would pass the test gloriously, better than I had done some years before, and better than any of my younger brothers. My father was desperate. If the strongest child he had been able to produce was a girl, what shame would fall on him? He did not think about the fact that he had a rare and special daughter, one who could use prana in ways he could not even dream of. He thought only of his shame.

The evening before my sister’s test… She spent in her rose garden. The white roses surrounded her as she enjoyed the silent sunset. I was watching her from a distance, hidden behind a tower. My feelings were mixed. I was proud of my special sister but also afraid that if she became queen, I could no longer protect her. My poor Asana… I did not see the shadow that approached her, because I was too busy wondering what the future would be like if she would become queen.

Before I could think of what to do, it was over. The hooded figure had struck down my sister with his long sword. All I saw was her body on the ground and his sword stained red with her blood. The hooded figure had disappeared before I could set one step towards him. I ran towards my sister, but it was already too late. She had already passed on. I ran to my father, but when I told him what had happened… I just knew. He was not surprised. He knew. He had ordered it, the assassination of his own daughter. He never admitted it to me, but I know.

My sister received a state burial, and my father played the perfect upset father who had lost his child. But deep inside, I knew he was relieved that his daughter was gone. His heir would be a boy like he should be. And that boy was me, because it was already clear my prana use was stronger than that of my younger brothers. I would become king because my father had killed his own daughter out of shame. While I watched my sister’s body being returned to the earth, I realized I had failed in protecting her. I was so close to her, and I couldn’t do a thing. I couldn’t protect her from the one who had been her biggest threat all her life.

That night, I made two decisions. One was that I would become High King, no matter what. I would step up and be a better king than my father would ever be. But to do so, I could no longer live under his roof. As long as he was the one teaching me, I could never become the king who I wanted to be. I knew I had to go and discover the world on my own. So I ran away. I left behind not only my father but also my loving mother who had no idea what her husband had done, and my two little brothers. Up to this day, I feel bad about abandoning them.

I ran away, and soon I met Flora. She was just a farm girl, but she had… her own reasons to run away from home. I took her with me, and together we lived in the shadows. We fell in love, and I wanted to protect and support her, too. But I was afraid to show myself, afraid that someone would recognize me. My father was looking for me, I knew.

One cold night, we had no choice but to knock on a door. There was a snowstorm and we were cold, and hungry. Tiafo there… he was the one who opened the door. Of course he recognized me. I was the missing prince. But Tiafo was different. He also suspected what had happened to the princess was my father’s doing. But there was more. He told me that the birth of my sister was not a strange twist of coincidence. He told me, the balance of the powers of the west was shifting. Ever since the eruption in the east destroyed the country that was once the crown of the world, he said, the powers were changing. The world is changing, he said. The age of the east and west is over, but none know how the future will look like.

He told me he had been aware of this for a long time. Taifo is a noble, and he, together with other nobles, had tried for years to get the High King’s attention to this problem. After they heard of the destruction of the Friendship Lands they had tried to get in contact with the High King, asking for his help. What happened there was not only a tragedy for the country, they said, but also for the entire world. Even though the queens of the Friendship Lands had long ceased to be High Queens of the east, they were still the heirs to the powers of the Heavens. Now that their country was destroyed, and they likely wiped away from the world… what would happen?

Yet my father refused to listen. He was only looking at his own safe world. Yet when his wife had given birth to a daughter… the nobles knew they had been right. The balance between east and west, between male and female was fading. The future of the world was in the hands of those who lived now, but the High King refused to even pay attention to what was happening around him. Together with Taifo I gathered all the nobles who were aware of and concerned about this problem. We started a bond, named after my sister, and we vowed to find out what was happening to the world and how we can save it. But to do that, Ruki, we need a High King who will attend to this problem. All the resources of the capital are beyond our reach. That is why we are planning to remove my father from his position. By force, if we must. This is not something we can ignore, Ruki.

Something is happening. The powers that held the world in balance for so long have been fading for a long time, and now they are all but gone. It is up to us to create a new balance in this world. And like it or not, you are one who carries the royal powers of the east. Somehow you are involved in this. It is a fate I am afraid you cannot escape, just like I cannot escape mine. Will you accept our help?”

Ruki did not know what to respond. Takato’s story was impressive, and in her heart she felt that it was all true. The winged pony… no, even before she had seen her. The night she had met her mother, after looking for her for so long, she had known. Fury grew in her. Her mother… The words she had not understood became so clear now, but instead of comforting her they only angered her more.

The night had been cold. That winter night in which she had climbed the mountains of the dead country. The place where her mother would be. The reason she had ran away from her father, to seek her mother. Her father had forbidden her, but she had refused to listen. She had to find her mother, and the answers to questions she did not even know.

That night in the mountains, she had seen her mother. But her eyes had been faded. Blood red, filled with anger.
“Mother!” She had yelled. “Mother, it is me… your daughter. Do you recognize me?”
Her heart had filled with tears when she had recognized her mother. It was her, no doubt, yet there was something so unfamiliar about the pony that stood in front of her, hidden by the shadows of the mountains.

“You call me mother, yet I have no child.” Her mother had said with a voice as hollow as the night.
“Yes… you do! Do you not remember? Father said you… I wanted to see you! I want to see you in my own memories instead of inside those of father!” She had yelled, despairing. Her mother…She had wanted to know why her mother had left her. But she was not even recognizing her existence.
“You, child who were born in the west. Go, run, and hide. The future of the world should not involve you.”

Her mother’s words… The future of the world… Her mother had told her, that night in the mountains, that the future of the world did not involve her. But she would prove her wrong. She would stay with Takato, and force her way into the future. She would help him dethrone the king who has no right to the throne, and one day she would face her mother and challenge her to acknowledge her place in the future of the world.