The midnight moon glows upon the quiet beach and calm waters, the trees before the coastline sway gently against the wind, and two young lovers, Seirbigh and Crystal, stand in the shallow tide, gazing at the stars.

“So,” the prince speaks, nervous about the arranged marriage. “We are now going to be married.”

“Wasn’t that always our plan?” Crystal replies in a dreamlike stupor. “Could it be fate, making sure we are together?”

“I don’t know.”

“Seirbigh, what will Ceann and Dorch think of us after the marriage?”

“They’ll still be our friends. Ceann I know for sure.”

“What about Dorch?”

“…I don’t know, he’s very close to his father, and he was more than eager to overthrow my family.”

“Dorch wouldn’t do that to us.”

“You sure?”

“He is our friend after all.”

“I guess.”

“Any plans for the festival together, now that we’re in this arranged marriage?”

“What festival?”

“The Festival of Harmony, the one that occurs every year after the meeting.”

“Oh,”

The princess gives a soft giggle before responding, “Oh, if I wasn’t there for you, you’d probably forget you had wings.”

“Haha, maybe, maybe… Crystal, I know this may seem off timed due to circumstances, but,” Seirbigh turns to face his lover and bends down on one knee before opening his right wing to reveal a small black box underneath. The pegasus then stretches out his wing to her with the box balanced on it. “The reason I desired you here tonight was to propose to you.”

With a rush of glee pulsing through her body and a wide smile on her face, the Earth Pony slowly opens the lid of the obsidian box with her front hooves. Upon looking inside, Crystal sees Seirbigh’s proposal gift to her, a golden pair of ball earnings. She immediately becomes overwhelmed with joy and lunges towards Seirbigh, launching the box from his wing onto the sand and the prince into the water with her hugging his thin torso.

“Thank you, thank you so much! What can I do to even repay you?”

Although the tide is up to Seirbigh’s ear level, he can still hear her sweet voice as perfect as before.

“You don’t, my queen, my sparkling prized gemstone of all the land, sky, and sea.”

As the two ponies cuddle each other in the cool water, an unseen pony watches them from the forest brush. His dark blue, nocturnal mane and tail, and seaweed green eyes made him invisible as the stalks the lovers’ merriment.

“Look at them…” Dorch mumbles to himself in the brush. “Two lovers, practically inseparable, if I wasn’t such a practical gentlepony, I’d call it true love. However, I fear that this love will bring negative reproductions to our kingdom. They will soon favor each other over my land, and soon, my ponies shall suffer for it. Wars may follow because of it, bringing so many innocent lives to an end, as well as my father’s respect. I must do something to ensure that my kingdom, under my wise rule, shall guide Trihearth to equality and prosperity, for these two, as much as they are my friends, will surely become more terrible rulers than their parents. But how will I be able to perform such a task? What if I were to marry the princess and Ceann to marry the prince? I’ve always had feelings towards such a beautiful mare, and my sister has confessed that she’d want to marry Seirbigh as well. If the marriages were changed, the Forest Kingdom and the Metal Kingdom would lose their power and it be given to me and Ceann. And with me as the eldest brother, I can lead all three kingdoms and make my father more proud of me than ever before. But how shall I make this be? Surely my sister won’t marry Seirbigh if he’s with Crystal, and I will never be able to pick the prized flower from the prince’s garden at this rate. Surely, there must be a way to split them up in three days. There is no such thing as true love, for any bound can fall if the right something were to happen.”

For hours, the dark figure continues to lurk in the forest, watching the lovers resting in the tide and contemplating a plan to separate them. Eventually, a memory bubbles into his mind and in an instant, an idea strikes upon him like lightning.

“I know what I shall do. Lore speaks of a witch pony by name of Medicine An Uisce. She is said to be the disowned offspring of a pegasus from the Pearl Kingdom and a zebra from across the seas, abandoned in the swamps of the Pearl Kingdom for hundreds of years. And in those hundreds of years of banishment to this day, it has been rumored that she brews potions, potions that can perform any task magic can perform. Not even arcane alicorn magic can escape from her legendary skills in brewery. If that is so, then she might provide me a potion or brew that I require. I usually don’t believe in such fantastical beings of myth and legend, but it is the only way I see that can possibly execute my plan properly. But what will my sister think of me, what will my parents, my friends, even my kingdom and all of Trihearth think of my actions? Will I be seen as a villain, a traitor, an associate with a witch, a schemer against the traditions of Trihearth? Is performing the greater benefit to the greater number for the price of love between two ponies and the loyalties of already untrusting kingdoms wrong? If doing such makes me a villain by definition, then I shall be a villain. I shall become the necessary evil for the betterment of all ponies. I have now set my path, my destiny, and I shall fulfill it, no matter what others say.”

Upon finishing his speech to himself, the dark unicorn sneaks away into the thick of the jungle, leaving Seirbigh and Crystal alone as if nothing had happened.

Back at the beach, Princess Crystal and Prince Seirbigh have now fallen asleep in the shallow wake of water, still locked together in a close cuddle. It is unknown exactly when they fell asleep, but to them, it didn’t matter. Visions of the two dancing, playing, and nuzzling together upon golden grains of beach sand dance in their heads through the night as the water and wind rock their bodies back and forth. It was only until an hour later, when a rogue wave crashes upon their still bodies, did they wake up. Upon the foaming wall of water crashing onto the ponies, Crystal’s and Seirbigh’s eyes shoot open as Crystal slid off of Seirbigh’s belly and into the water. Chills rocket down her spine as she stumbles to get her face out of the water. In the blink of an eye, the green stallion gets to his hooves and searches for Crystal. He immediately finds her, muzzle deep in the sandy bottom of the tide. He grabs upon her bare sides and yanks her from the water. Crystal gasps upon escaping from the shallow’s grip and leans herself into her companion’s warm embrace.

“What, happened?” She nasally sputters as drops of water pour from her nostrils and mouth.

“We must have fallen asleep,” Seirbigh responds, thumping the sides of his head to drain the water from his ears, “probably for an hour or two judging by the moon.”

“The meeting might be over by now! Our parents are probably worried sick about us!”

“Thou shall not fear, if we return home in time, then no pony will notice our absence.”

“Then we must go now, see you again at the festival as we planned?”

“I shall be there.” The two ponies quickly share a brief kiss on each other’s cheek before departing on their separate ways back home.