The Secret History of the New Princess

By White Eyes

I write this, in my exile in Oatwheel, to posterity alone, for, though I wish I could reveal it now, the cost of doing so would undoubtedly be my life. I hope that it might still be relevant and useful to whoever finds it. Perhaps you future ponies find yourselves under the rule of the this alicorn. I hope that my fears about her intentions were unfounded, in which case this document will be a mere curiosity. But if they were not, I hope that you will be able to find some way to use it against her, and regain the freedom that is your right.

Fifty years ago, I was a young and foolish stallion of nineteen years, going by my birth name, Vorpal Pin. Born to an old and respectable family of minor nobility in the Eastern Dusts, I had been gifted with considerable and early magical aptitude, and already graduated from Radiance Magical College in my hometown with high honors. I began graduate studies at the Crooked Tower, but I was dissatisfied with the plodding pace of my work. When the lich Risen Bones passed through the area - I later learned he was following up on the progress of a centuries-old program of eugenics, of which my family and others in my hometown had unwittingly been a part - I was terribly susceptible to his promises of power and meaningful work. We traveled Equus, first as master and apprentice, and then also as friends, working on a great but obscure project involving magical technology. Occasionally, we visited Risen Bones' headquarters on Teardrop Island to resupply, and there I glimpsed the vast scope of his work, but we spent most of our time away from it.

One night, when we were camping in the upper abyss, Bones returned to me after his evening meditations terribly distraught. I asked him what the matter was, and he confided in me something which I can never tell another person. He told me that work in which we were engaged was not truly his own -- he had been recruited too, long ago, when he was still living. A vision in a dream, promising immortal power, had drawn him to Teardrop Island. Exploring the place, he encountered a mighty spectral being, who identified herself as the greatest unicorn archmage of her time, Dusty Tomes. The specter said that she sought to take an apprentice to aid in critically important work, and that he was being considered - but not he alone. Dusty had drawn seven other mages to the island, and stipulated that the last one surviving would take his or her place by her side. Bones said that he was at first reluctant to fight the others, but was attacked, and defended himself... and that he found his will to continued existence far surpassing his compunctions about the situation. He prevailed, of course, and began to serve Dusty and her cause.