Goldenia is a place far away from Equestria. The magic in Goldenia is quite stray. Meaning there would often be an outburst of magic if the pony in charge wasn't there to 'take care' of it. Taking care of the stray magic is like taking care of a wounded animal. The magic at first is very aggressive and would attack the pony that got close to it. The only way to tame the magic was to feed it. Feeding stray magic crystal allows it to eventually gain a pony's trust.
This might seem all happy and nice, but crystals weren't hard to find at all. Leading to some pony taking advantage of the knowledge to gain more magic and become more powerful. The most powerful stray magic was given the name 'Matilda'. The reason ponies named it Matilda was because apparently there was a filly name Matilda that was abandoned at where the stray magic now roams. There had been rumours that the stray magic was Matilda's soul coming back to haunt whoever abandoned her to die.
The legend of Matilda scared all ponies alike. They would use the legend to scare their little foals into becoming more obedient. It worked to the point ponies would avoid going into Matilda's resting place.
Some stray magic are bad news from the beginning to the end. However, there are a few cases where foals are born with stray magic inside them. In this instance, the magic inside them are called familiar, and they take up a form of mythical or realistic animals. Ponies believe this makes them violent and prone to conflict without hesitation. Those foals had been killed without a chance in life because they were too dangerous.
Goldenia currently only has one leader. They don't believe in Kings and Queens ever since the last time King Orion and Queen Goldie forcefully made ponies give up their foals if there was a chance they could have a familiar inside them. The former king and queen believed their judgement was the only one that was correct and no one should ever question their actions. Plenty of ponies rose up in rebellion against the king and queen and drove them out of the small country.
The queen had protested before running away, she claimed she was the founder of Goldenia.
Some had believed it since the country was named after a pony who found it. It eventually was found out Goldie was lying and instantly got the boot.
The original founder was named Golden Heart. Despite her name, she was anything but kind. Golden Heart promoted and gave a better life to those who were rich in bits. Those who don't have much bits had to pay to live.
Goldenia used to be a very unfair and unbalanced country, but all that is in the past.
It is now known as a safe haven for creatures who felt they needed a getaway.
It was just another normal day in Goldenia. The sun shone brightly and creatures all around knew exactly who was responsible for their time of night and day. The were thankful to every little thing they have, from the farm they built up to the amount of bits, no matter how little.
Goldenia has a trading system. Meaning bits are not the most essential source of payment here in Goldenia. Everyone could reject another's bits if there was something else they felt would be more of worth. An example would be a farmer wanted to buy some cloth for his daughter to practice her sewing. He would be requested to pay using his crops instead of bits, depending on what the salespony wants.
A new day means a new beginning and a new story for those who seek out to it. New adventures that awaits right outside the front door of their homes.
On this particular day, a mare named 'Kinako', had found herself staring at what she considers the most handsome stallion there is. Despite her saying he is the most handsome stallion, she tends to ignore the fact that he is also a major jerk towards people he doesn't like. They were a perfect match, except that he wasn't interested in her.
He was, in fact, quite interested in Abra, a source of familiar that Duck has inside of him.
Duck is a stallion that was born with a feminine figure, making him look more like a mare instead of a stallion. Some even don't believe him when he said he wasn't a mare. He was named such by his aunt, who was also the mother of Kinako. Which means he and Abra are cousins of Kinako. Well, Abra was a cousin to Kinako. The keyword being 'was'.
The reason Kinako's mother named her cousin Duck was to humiliate him. Duck was a pegasus, and ducks can't fly fast.
Duck eventually gets to have the last laugh when he was became one of the best dodgeball players. He doesn't talk much, doesn't like socializing with ponies since they all think he's just some kind of snobby pony who doesn't like ponies below his rank. He wasn't such, Kinako just painted a picture of him in a bad light so he would be alone. Duck didn't mind being alone, he likes the quiet air around him.
"Quacking or dodging?" That was one of the most common question he heard others ask his aunt.
Usually his aunt would reply 'Quacking', which means he talks a lot. But luckily he doesn't go anywhere without his parents. They were quick to tell out the entire story and how it happened, what happened and why he has such a name. At first they wanted to change his name but he decided against it. He told his parents his aunt may have named him to humiliate him, but he wants everyone to know why he was named 'Duck'.
He was a skillful dodger indeed.
Abra was Duck's twin sister, younger and smarter. She wasn't quite into sports as Duck is, but her intelligence is slightly below to that of Twilight Sparkle's. She was great friends with Kinako, who would always out her life in danger. Kinaki once dared Abra to enter an unseemingly abandoned cave. To which Abra did, with Kinako, of course. They both ventured deep down where they found jewels and gems of all sorts.
Kinako would coax Abra into getting one of the gems for her. Abra, who had always looked up to Kinako, wanted to please her, so she did. As soon as she reached out to take the gem, the ground crumbled and fell. Abra would've fallen into the dark pit if she hadn't jumped.
She turned around to Kinako, smiling. Only to see that she was scowling.
Kinako's scowl turned into an evil grin as she stood on her hind legs and pushed Abra down the dark pit. She smiled, knowing nopony would ever find her body. The pit was deeper than her heart. Which is saying it might as well be bottomless.
Kinako returned, after placing a few scars on herself to make it look like she had been attacked. When asked where Abra was, she answered, "I tried to save her, but my efforts were in vain as she fell into the pit in the middle of the cave when we were fighting a bug-bear." Ponies around Goldenia bought her bogus story and congratulated her for escaping all the while feeling sorry she lost a good friend.
As much as Duck wanted to believe her, his guts were telling him something was wrong. At night, when his aunt and uncle were asleep, he slipped out of the house and went to the same cave Kinako claimed to have a bug-bear. Taking a deep breath, he went inside, only to find it empty. He did, however, find the dark pit. Dropping the stone into the pit, he couldn't hear anything.
Trying not to jump to conclusion, he walked around the cave, finding it unoccupied for a long long time. He returned the next morning and tried to tell the ponies of Goldenia that Kinako was lying, there was no bug-bear and there wasn't any trace of his twin.
Nopony would believe him, they all thought he was just in too much grieve to accept that his twin was gone. But Abra wasn't truly gone.
Abra had sensed that Duck was in that cave the night before, she wasn't dead, but she was dying. So she sent her familiar to him, unknowingly fusing her familiar into his body.
Her last breath were spoken as, "I'm always with you.".
Years later, after all this happened, Duck managed to find out he had a familiar and named it 'Abra' after his late sister.
Ponies around found it funny that he would name a familiar after a deceased family member. Some ponies even made fun of him, but he didn't care. Having a familiar was much better than trying to foolishly tame Matilda.