"Please w-wait one moment... D-d-did you hear that? Ah! There it is! A c-cricket is roaming inside the c-castle walls, haha."

History

Retracing Idalia's, or any royal's, family tree is nearly impossible. Despite the alicorns feeling a familial bond, there is nothing further back than that information. Due to their long lifespans and mysterious natures, little record has been kept. Asking the alicorn's themselves, however, can provide varied answers. Idalia can recall the splendor of his and New Moon's parents, but not their faces. He remembers them as beautiful, celestial, benevolent, and wise. Idalia doesn't recall them having purely physical bodies, but rather flowing and immaterial, as large as the heavenly bodies themselves. Despite only being a young unicorn colt at the time, Idalia keeps those precious memories close to him. His parents stopped visiting the brothers shortly after New Moon was born. Idalia cannot recall the reason for their departure, and has always been quite distraught over it. All the current royals have a feeling of familial relation to one another, even if they are unsure of specifics. Idalia and New Moon, Celestia and Luna, Cadence, Endearing and Immaculate - all claim to be cousins of one another.

Adolescence

The young unicorn Idalia and his pegasus brother New Moon were left alone in a hidden oasis - a large waterfall with a surrounding forest. Idalia had grown up there, and continued to stay since he knew the area well. He took care of his younger brother as best as he was able, and never seemed to have trouble gathering food in the secluded area. He taught New Moon about language, writing, and mathematics, their parents, love and morals. New Moon, despite being a little annoyed about learning these things from his brother rather than his parents, always behaved well. They had quite a lot of fun together as they quietly lived in the oasis.

A day came, when Idalia was now a teenager and New Moon a young colt, that other ponies discovered the secluded waterfall. Idalia had heard voices he did not recognize, and he and New Moon hid in a space behind the falls. A small group of ponies and other creatures had followed the river upstream, and ended up there. After the group had been chatting there together for some time, Idalia chose to leave the nook behind the waterfall and meet his unexpected guests. He had never met other ponies before, and the other creatures intrigued him even more! Although their was one common factor between them: how they dressed. A white raiment adorned with the sun - it was quite pretty. Idalia barely uttered a greeting to the group before they all gleefully rejoiced and exclaimed. A bat pony, who seemed to be the leader of the troupe, shouted that their prayers had been answered! Idalia, despite being confused and afraid, was glad they all seemed so relieved and joyful. With no moment to give protest, the group all at once began to tell him what this meant, and seemed to sweep him away as they spoke.

As Idalia finally began to grasp what had happened, the group entered a large cave, which connected to a cavern system. Despite the cave's eerie darkness, the residents thereof kept the place bright and cheery with their own torches, tapestries, and even their own magic. The small troupe rejoined their comrades and joyfully presented their travel and findings. Every creature was excited to meet Idalia, and he had more than one pony speaking with him at every moment. Between everypony's chatter, he began to piece together the story: "A great evil plagued the land...," "...Zest received a prophecy of a sun deity to save them all," "...ordered a disbanding of the group, so they retreated underground," "prayers have been answered!" Although extremely overwhelmed, Idalia had to admit he was excited at the prospect of being a hero.

Idalia did his best to become accustomed to his new "fulfilled-prophecy prince" life. Rarely was he allowed to do anything on his own, and spent most of his time residing in a great throne. Eating, mane-styling, magic practice - nearly everything was done from that spot. Although the happy cavern-dwellers reassured the young deity they were on the search for his brother, their lack of results begged otherwise. Similarly, their regular worshiping and praying to him began to leave Idalia feeling uneasy...

Maturing

His suspicions were confirmed when an unwilling guest was brought to the young Idalia. The changeling was scared and very clearly did not want to be there. "You are no sun god!" He yelled. "Celestia will be the one who raises the sun! This traitorous cult will be destroyed!" Idalia said nothing, but flinched at the changeling's words. A cult? Idalia was involved in a cult? After this horrid display, the changeling was dragged away, and Idalia never saw him again. Zest - a bat pony and one of the most prominent members of the group - begged and pleaded with Idalia to forgive him for this horrendous display of disrespect. Idalia held no ill will towards Zest, and assured him it was not his fault. Suddenly Idalia felt very hot, and a bright light surrounded him! After the flash, Idalia felt much heavier- he turned to see he had sprouted a pair of wings! Additionally, a lovely cutie mark adorned his flank. Zest and the other members were beyond joyful! They finally had a fully-fledged prince, and his talent was something special.

After that day, despite only being a young teen, Idalia began to see things in a different light. A new perspective. Everything they did he could associate with cult-like behaviors, and they were more viligant than ever after his transformation. Quickly enough, they began to expirement with what his new cutie mark truly meant. What was this "forgiveness charm?" Did it have limitations? What did "forgiving" actually do? They began with having him forgive small things like a white lie and selfish desires, and then more difficult things like deep envy and immorality. After discovering the talent actually granted a relief from the guilt or forgetting the sin depending on the offender's mental state, they found out it even gave a sense of "good karma" following the pony after the forgiving. Continuing, they tried the limits of how many could he forgive, or does the size of the offense affect the outcome, or does Idalia's answer have to be pure and genuine. It never stopped. "Forgive me." "I apologize." "Please." They always continued. Idalia was very physically weak due to strict confinement, and was doing his best to remain on their good side in fear of what would happen. Finally, a day came where they asked him to forgive something he dreaded ever hearing escape one's mouth... Zest asked for forgiveness of murder. Idalia tried so hard, but could not muster the strength to genuinely forgive the bat pony. But Zest was not so easily discouraged. Over and over, day after day, Zest would come to Idalia for forgiveness - he never seemed angry after being told no, only... delayed. After fourteen days, Idalia had become so numb to hearing this tragic death, he was able to forgive it. Idalia was disgusted with himself, but had also felt there was nothing of him left.

Things took a sharp turn after this. If he had thought things were hard before, the young sun deity realized nothing compared to now. The members began to do whatever they wanted - cruelty, lying, stealing, cursing, harming - anything they wanted to do to one another, and then they would simply come ask for Idalia's forgiveness after. Every creature became so enthralled by getting the sun deity's attention and blessing and affection, that they went to extreme and immoral measures to fulfill these desires. Idalia was vulnerable, weak, and afraid; he became witness to and experienced things that no young pony should ever have to live through.

Prince Idalia is unsure of how many moons he spent enduring this awful cycle... he truly lost count, and all memories of the events began to blur. He never saw his brother again, and speculated that his younger brother was a death he had forgiven.

Freedom

The best day of Idalia's sun deity career began with a crash, many hoofsteps, and voices shouting. Somepony, or rather an army of them, had broken into the caverns! The sun cult members barely had a chance to react before they were placed into magical bindings. It ended nearly as quickly as it had started; and Idalia, lethargic and exhausted, watched through blurry eyes as guards everywhere carried both sun members and himself out of the caverns.

He awoke to a quiet room and the warm feeling of sunlight covering his coat. In front of him stood a large, nearly ethereal, being. She introduced herself as Princess Celestia. She described what had happened during the cavern retrieval, and his being asleep for four days. Idalia had never felt more rested and safe in his life.

After several more days of rest and relaxation, Idalia decided to explore the castle he now resided in. With the help of crutches due to muscle atrophy, he quickly discovered he had never seen something more beautiful! The castle, Canterlot, Equestria - he absorbed every bit of information with fervor! Following shortly after, came the reunion with New Moon. One can only imagine the tears that were exchanged when Idalia embraced New Moon. Moon explained how, after traveling many days in search of Idalia, had stumbled into some travelers that helped the little pegasus find a home. Idalia learned that New Moon had already been titled "Prince of Change," and happily listened to his brother explain his title and cutie mark.

Things were going very well for Idalia. Despite his struggle to understand his new world, he was so genuinely happy. Idalia completely buried and suppressed his horrible memories of adolescence until he had completely forgotten them. Instead, he learned how Equestria was formed, Celestia and Luna became princesses, of Celestia's apprentice, and his cousins: Cadence, Endearing, and Immaculate. He even had the opportunity to forgive Luna of her wrongdoings upon her post-banishment. Something that, although didn't completely erase Luna's feelings on the matter, helped her to move on from Nightmare Moon.

Idalia, however, does have a deep-rooted struggle to connect with his reality. It is extremely difficult for him to interact in a "normal" way, and he is doing his best to fix these awkward tendencies or actions. This has been the cause for many fights between Idalia and his brother; however, they are very glad to have one another.

Idalia's duties as a prince is kept fairly light due to his being easily overwhelmed, and he rarely leaves the palace. Although this combined with his extremely shy nature can make him a hot spot for gossip, Idalia is genuinely happy and doing his best to become a better prince every day.