LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES
Campus Cuda, 2,118 years ago
Far beneath the oceans of the world lived the seaponies: colorful creatures whose front halves were indistinguishable from those of ponies, but whose hindquarters were long and muscular finned tails that swept up and down to propel their bodies forward.
To their land-dwelling cousins, seaponies were objects of fascination and mystique. They were celebrated in art, often depicted living in beautiful kingdoms made of pure gold that came looming out of the ocean murk accompanied by beautiful haunting melodies.
This was very far from the truth.
Seapony communities consisted of tiny homes carved out of stone and coral, but carved so very poorly. Some of the streets were littered with seaponies too weak to swim, swollen and decaying with sickness. Even in the castle town of Campus Cuda, the bustling market was full of the homeless and sick, and the castle itself could barely be called such: a spiraled, sickly-white coral structure no larger or better guarded than the meanest definition of a mansion.
Within the throne room of Campus Cuda's castle, the king swam in circles near the ceiling, around and around his ivory chandelier. King Nimo was a large, dark green seapony with a deeply lined face and slanted yellow eyes. Marking him as king was his magnificent headdress; a golden crown with six curved red teeth that extended from the sides of his head, and two long and downward-swept orange horns on either side of a single forward-facing brown crest.
"Soledad, it's time you stopped denying your destiny," King Nimo said. His cultured voice had gone weak with age. "You're of the age that you must face it."
The king's daughter rested on the floor of the throne room, and flinched at his words. Soledad was a teenaged filly of a seafoam green, green-eyed and with a short, very curly mane of pink and purple.
"You will be queen," Nimo stated plainly. "Queen of a race that looks to their ruler to dictate every aspect of their lives, a species plagued with sickness and misfortune. No ruler has been able to change the truth of the seaponies' plight, but you must be up to the task of lifting their spirits."
"I can't, Daddy," Soledad spat viciously. "The seaponies deserve a queen who is wise and intelligent… who is healthy… and beautiful. I'm none of these things."
"You sell yourself short."
"But I don't!" Soledad snapped. "Look at me! Look at everything you've seen of me since I was born! I'm as sickly and weak as a beggar you find dead in the gutter. I'm too dull of mind to master the simplest of tasks. I don't have the common sense and charisma that grace a squid! Everything I've ever said or done has met with failure! And I'm ugly. When I look in the mirror and realize that others have to look upon me, it makes me want to cry. If I became queen… I would be hated."
"Och, aye, ye're right," came a thickly accented voice from the throne room's entrance. "All very real problems, me friend. Ye know what else is wrong with ye? Ye know what's the worst out o' all those? Ye prattle on an' on about flaws that ye don't actually have! It's maddenin'!"
These words came from a filly Soledad's age who had jetted into the throne room and pounced upon Soledad with a tight hug. She was bright red, with brown eyes and silky black hair that possessed more volume than her entire body, and floated and whipped around her in every possible direction with her every movement.
"Hi, Jolly," Soledad said exhaustedly through the hug.
The king floated down toward the floor, frowning. "Jolly, how did you get in here?"
"Ha!" Jolly barked. "The better question is, what made ye think ye could ever keep me out?"
"Well, tell me," the king insisted. "What did you do? Did you bribe the guards?"
"Bribe them?" Jolly repeated. "Nay, there's no need for that. They just like me a whole lot more than they like you, Yer Majesty."
The king seemed to actually find that amusing, and Jolly took the moment to mutter to Soledad under her breath, "If ye were as ugly and charisma-free as ye claim, ye wouldn't have yer well-earned reputation fer sleepin' around, now would ye?"
"Would you stop that?" Soledad laughed, smacking her friend lightly. "My dad is right there."
"Now, Soledad," the king said gently, "you can learn quite a bit from your friend Jolly here. To have others perceive you as worthy, one must first gain a positive perception of oneself. Your self-image is projected outwardly; everypony likes Jolly because she projects confidence and comfort within herself."
"Well, then maybe Jolly should be the queen," Soledad retorted.
"That is not her birthright," said Nimo in amusement. "Nor would it be fair to place such a burden upon her. It is your right and responsibility, Princess Soledad, and you must be prepared to take up my mantle at a moment's notice."
"And I'll be here by yer side, me friend," Jolly added. "Just as I always have."
Soledad backed away from them, shaking her head. "I… I'm just not right for it. The pony I am can't be queen."
"Then it's time ta build yerself inta somethin' new," Jolly said solemnly. "I'll help ye, every step o' the way."
"I just… really need to think about this," Soledad pleaded. "May I be dismissed? I wish to go to my chambers… alone."
King Nimo nodded. "You may go. Just one last thing… You're going to be something very special, Soledad. I've always known that."
Jolly nodded solemnly as Soledad swam away.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Soledad rested on the balcony of her bedroom, on the castle's top floor. The outside of the top floor wasn't really a private place underwater, any more than it would be if one's neighbors could fly, but most citizens gave this balcony a wide berth, knowing better than to disturb the princess.
Soledad's eyes travelled around the city below her and the ocean above, then directly to her own balcony railing, where a small creature stood.
"Agh!" Soledad exclaimed.
"WAUGH!" the creature shouted, jumping backward. There he was, a diminutive version of a land-dwelling pony, white-furred and silver-haired, with colorful wings and a sapphire on his bracelet. He was encased in a large bubble.
"Who… are you?" Soledad stammered.
He gulped and gave the exact same answer that young Kopé would receive nearly fourteen hundred years later: "Fork. I'm a pixie pony."
"You look like something that ought to be breathing air, Fork," Soledad said casually.
"That's why I'm in the bubble," he said, grinning awkwardly.
Soledad scooped up the bubble and held it closer to herself. "What am I gonna do, Fork?"
"You're asking me?" he demanded.
"I'm asking whoever's listening," Soledad sighed. "I don't want to be queen. I'm trying my best. I can't think straight! What should I do?"
Fork bit his lip and looked around nervously. "Well… okay, I've got something. Whether you walk or swim or fly, the best way to think straight is to get out and move. Where do you go when you really need some time away from everything?"
Soledad blinked. Fork's tone indicated he knew exactly what the answer was. "The Crags of Okeanos," she said.
Fork nodded. "Of course. Head out there and mull things over… it'll help."
"Yes… okay," Soledad said slowly. "That sounds good…"
She swam off of her balcony and started swimming to the north. Fork remained where he stood, watching until she was out of sight. At that moment, he dropped to his knees in anguish.
"Aaaagh! I can't believe I said that!" he cried out. He looked at the sapphire on his bracelet and began speaking to it. "Did everybody hear that? She… she put me under pressure! I didn't know what else to say!" He stared at the sapphire as if begging it for help. "What have I done?"
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
The Crags of Okeanos were a pair of deep trenches in the ocean floor. Down below, they were a twisting maze of passageways and surprisingly massive chambers of stone. Soledad knew them well, and was one of the only seaponies she knew who could navigate them without a light source, completely blind in that deep-sea world.
She swam down a winding tunnel now. "I am trying my best," she assured herself. "I just don't have the potential… it's just the way I was born, lacking potential. Right?"
She paused. "HA!" she exclaimed, listening to the way it echoed around her. The echo pattern was unfamiliar.
"I don't know where I am," she realized. "Was I that lost in thought? I've never gotten lost in the Crags of Okeanos…"
The princess swam forward just a bit, reaching out with her hooves. "Is this… a current…?"
Before she could process it, the current swept her away, further down this unfamiliar tunnel. She flailed, but had no strength to fight back. Instead, she relaxed, simply looking forward to where the current was taking her. She saw the red glow of the volcanic vent seconds before the current blasted her into its path, and its rising heat shot her upwards as it seared her to the bone.
She screeched hideously, pondered briefly how unfair it was that she hadn't died instantly, and tearfully muttered, "I'm sorry, Daddy."
Her body had been thrown toward the sky, and her skeleton sank to the bottom, coming to rest next to the vent.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Soledad opened her eyes and blinked in surprise. She had been fairly certain that she was dead. But no, here she was, on the ground beside the vent of thermal energy. She propelled herself away from the pillar as quickly as possible.
She then realized that she was taking in her surroundings, not by sound or feeling, but by sight. Here she was, at the bottom of the ocean where no sunlight could penetrate, yet she could see.
And what she saw right now was an odd protrusion stuck to her face. She touched it, and was horrified to realize it was her own muzzle. Her tiny mouth was now at the end of a long, tubular snout.
Looking beyond it, she realized with a gasp that this area of the Crags, its towering walls, were lined with immense veins of glassy obsidian, each vein as long as a whale and almost as thick. The area could have been mined for an unbelievably hefty profit if not for the vent that shared its chamber.
She swam up to one of the veins, wondering if her new dark-vision might allow her to see her own reflection in the obsidian. All she could see, as it turned out, were her eyes: no longer innocent and spring green, they had deep purple scleras, red irises, and slit-shaped yellow pupils, all glowing intensely. Despite the fear she was feeling, her reflection's expression was of pure fury.
"NOOOOOO!" she screamed.