My name is Roddel. And I am the Captain of the Sleipnir Royal Guard. I was given this opportunity by the High King himself, after the tragic loss of our former captain, Hal. There were others more qualified than I was to be the captain, but he chose me. He trusted me. However, I only have this position because of Hal's death. He died from a magical explosion caused by the Keys to Order. My dislike for those stones rivaled that of the High King.

On my first day as captain, I immediately approached him on the throne. "My Lord," I bowed. "I must ask; why did you choose me? There are many other qualified Sleipnir in the ranks to take over such a position - "

"Roddel," The High King cut me off. "You are aware of the special power the six kings have?"

I paused. "Yes. Divination."

"The power to see the future. The power to make prophecies." The High King shrank down to my size and began to walk onto the runway. I followed him. The runway had an amazing view of most of the city. You could see almost anything from there. I looked down in amazement before looking up into the sky, far beyond the clouds. "It may be perhaps the greatest power we have. By knowing what will happen in the future, we can be better prepared to face it...or change it. However, there are limits to the power. The visions of the future come to us randomly; we have no control over what we see and when we see it. Prophecies, while we have more control, take a very large amount of our power. The last prophecy I made, in fact, may have been about half a century ago."

"But," I interjected. "What does this mean?"

"In my last vision, I saw you as the captain of the Royal Guard." The High King walked to the edge of the runway. Standing behind him, I realized why I was chosen: the High King saw me as the captain.

"Me? Really?"

"However, while you wore the armor of the captain, the world you were in was very different. Much destruction and suffering. You were leading a battle against other Sleipnir. Other beings were by your side, although I could not make out what they were."

I didn't understand. A battle against other Sleipnir? Are we going to be in a civil war soon?

"I fear that something terrible will happen in the future. Something that may be out of even my hooves. But, you will be there to fight against it. My only hope is that you are on the side of justice. That is why I made you captain now; because it is your fate."

From that moment on, I would always be with the High King: During his meetings, accompanying him on trips through the land, or even to visit the location of the Keys to Order. As great as it felt to be in my position, I ended up seeing Rana less and less. I wanted to talk to her about how things were going, but I never had time.

After the incident, the High King declared that the stones would only be used when the time calls for them, and to be placed in a vault when not in use. It was the best way to prevent the power of these stones from taking over our better judgement.

The lower kings began to change after that as well. Every time King Falchion would come over, he would demand to see his key.

"It is bound to me. We have the right to use them!" He would offer, but the High King always denied.

"As long as I am the High King, we will never use these to destroy. Only to protect." And the discussion would end.

"Roddel," The High King spoke as we took a look at the stones one day. "I fear we have found something we shouldn't have."

The stones all shone brightly in the room, as if they were asking to be used. I felt myself being drawn to them as well, and I was not even bound to the Keys.

"You saw the power they contained...in one fell swoop, we could destroy all of the Draconequus and anypony who chooses to oppose us...as a result, we would grow power crazy and terrorize the world until there is nothing left. The world would end, leaving only us to pick at the remains. Who knows how long it would be until we turned on each other at that point?"

I understood what the High King meant, but I did not know why he was saying this now.

"Roddel," The High King turned to me once again. "I had another vision; the other kings may plan to take this power for themselves."

"They can't!" I protested. "The stones are locked in our vault!"

"They will do whatever it takes. I can see it in their eyes...especially Falchion...But, I have a plan. And this is where you come in."

The High King wanted me to do something for him? Something about controlling the other kings?

"I will give my key to you. You will be bound to it, not me. Should something happen to me, they would not be able to take that key without destroying you too. And they won't, because you have the Royal Guard on your side."

I didn't understand what was happening. "You can't possibly mean that...they will kill you? What exactly did you see in your vision?"

The High King didn't respond. "I cannot expose them now, because I do not have evidence. Also, even if I did and they were dealt with, I may lose the support of their kingdoms. The vision of you leading the Sleipnir may be coming soon, but I would like to prevent that as much as possible."

"And they cannot possibly mean to kill you without losing the support of the entire kingdom! Surely there is somepony you can trust?"

"You, Roddel. I only trust you. You've seen them during our meetings and how they always ask for more power, or to destroy the Draconequus completely. They are destroying the very order we were sworn to uphold. Power is not order."

The High King picked up one of the six stones. It began to glow purple as it floated into the air.

"Wait," I continued. "Why me? Why give it to me?"

"You will just have to trust me back." The High King said. I looked into his eyes. There was something he was not telling me.

"Did...did you make a prophecy?"

Since prophecies require a great deal of power, they are not performed very often. Even then, the results were only sometimes accurate and were only guidelines, giving us an idea of what would happen if we didn't do something about it.

"I saw another vision; one where I am killed and the keys are used to bring ruin on the world...so, I came up with a plan. I created a prophecy: When the world reaches a dark time, one key will shine brighter than the others. Great power will emerge, and all darkness will be sealed away. If I give you my stone, you must use it in the event that I do not make it. Prophecies to save one's self are not very accurate...the best I can do is sacrifice myself to save the world. Hopefully with this, the future will be changed."

The stone began to glow as the High King raised it into the air. "I hereby transfer my bonds with this key to Roddel."

The purple light enveloped me, and I felt something warm all over. The lights went away as quickly as they came, leaving the two of us alone with the stones once again. This time, however, I could feel a stronger connection with the key.

"It is done. I will not change my mind. Everything happens for a reason, even if we need to make that reason ourselves." The High King said before turning to leave the room. I followed him out, looking back at the vault one more time before it was closed.

"Make no mention of this to anypony." The High King told me. "Things will be a lot different around here, I'm sure of it."

"...And we could call them ponies."

I stood in shock as I listened to what King Falchion offered during a meeting one day. He had proposed that we use the power of the keys, as well as our creation magic, to "create" a new being, a being filled with a fraction of the magic we possessed. This would supposedly fix our food shortage, as well as provide us with an added boost due to the magic.

The other kings stood silently as they heard King Falchion give his speech.

"Absolutely not!" The High King echoed, shaking the throne room. "You want us to create beings so we can eat them? Are you mad? I will not allow this! You cannot create these 'ponies', you hear me?"

King Falchion smirked. "Oh, but...I already have."

The throne room doors opened, with two soldiers from Falchion's kingdom walking in with a rather large box. They placed it down in the middle of the room and removed the lid.

Out popped the head of a small figure. It looked just like us, except that it only had four hooves. It was a purple thing, with a dark blue mane and a weird marking on its flank. It had big, purple eyes and a great smile as it tried to take everything in for the first time. The weirdest thing about it was the small, horn-like thing emerging from its forehead.

The other kings gasped as the little creature, no bigger than a filly, jumped out of the box and lost its balance due to its weak legs. It gave out a little cry as it tried to pick itself up.

"I give you, the first pony. I shall name her Dawn Star."

"H-how did you...?" The High King was in shock to see what was before him.

"Of course, this one isn't perfect. Not by a long shot. I only used my own powers for this one." Falchion slithered towards the pony. One thing was for certain: I could smell the magic coming from it. The creature, which I presumed to be female, had a strong scent of magic coming from it, and it made me hungry. Now, I've never eaten another living thing before, but I have eaten balls containing magic power before. We made them all the time at our shop. And this creature seemed to have more magic than an entire month's supply of those balls.

"Don't tell me you plan to..." The High King began.

"Not unless you want to try first!" Falchion laughed before growing in size and picking up the little creature. It looked like a small doll in his large hooves. The big eyes stared up at the king, unknowing of what was going to happen to it.

In one move, King Falchion dropped the pony into its mouth. As he did, I heard the tiniest squeal coming from the creature, with gasps coming from all over the throne room.

"Oh, that feels refreshing!" Falchion declared. "Once you get past the crunchy stuff, you can feel the magic kick in."

"Enough!" The High King's voice towered the rest of the chatter in the room. "You cannot just kill creatures like that, not in my throne room!"

"It is a perfect supply of food and magic. Besides, we are creating them...you don't know how long it took to get something with the largest amount of magical potential. Inanimate objects and traditional foods would not work. And once I began creating living creatures, the first few came out deformed. It is a sacrifice that can mean our survival!"

"No. If I catch you with another one of those ponies, I will see that you will never make another move like that again. Get him out of my sight!"

"You will regret this..."

"Is that a threat?"

"No...it's a promise." I was the only one who heard Falchion utter this as he took his leave. The other kings began to filter out as well, eventually leaving me, the High King, and the box in the room.

I made my way to the container that held the first pony. It was a tiny thing, too tiny even for that pony.

"It was a living, breathing creature..." I said, trying to process what had happened. "And he just ate it. Just like that."

"And he wanted to use the keys to make more..."

I couldn't help but picture the tiny pony that was in this room just a few minutes ago. It looked so happy, so lively, so unaware of what its purpose in the world was.

"I fear the world as we knew it will be coming to an end...much sooner than I thought previously."

High King Sleipnir suspended King Falchion from continuing his "pony creation" work, officially declaring that he would declare war on the western lands if any more progress was made. As a result, the inhabitants of the western lands grew more resentful towards the rest of the kingdom. Things were not looking good now, and the Draconequus had nothing to do with it at all. Before we knew it, the six kingdoms would soon fall apart.