LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES
Whispering Desert, 1,084 years ago
A blue-eyed gray antelope crested a sand dune, her eyes wide open, ignoring the sand blowing in the light wind. Once she reached the top, she turned her head toward the small filly jogging up the mound after her.
"Come now, Lady Kolassa!" Spyder called. "Surely you're not going to make Spyder wait for you, are you?"
Kolassa's baby-blue eyes were stuck in a squint, fighting off the wind and sand, but she quickly made it to the top alongside Spyder.
"Right here," Kolassa muttered, shaking the sand out of her raggedy mane. "We're not almost there, are we? I was hoping to savor the journey a bit more…"
Spyder barked out a laugh. "Nice try. Spyder knows you're only all too eager to get this over with. But the attempt at sounding enlightened is… rather inspiring, Lady Kolassa. Let us continue—we have a few more dunes to go."
They continued through the desert, each laden down with sand-colored sacks of supplies, walking across the top of the dune.
"Spyder?" said Kolassa. "Why do you call me 'Lady' Kolassa?"
"Ah, that's a delightful story," Spyder said eagerly. "You see, old Spyder was once a young slave in a magnificent manor house owned by the noblest family of horses in the Whispering Desert. She was ordered to call all members of the family 'Lord' or 'Lady'… but she didn't. She only gave those titles to those who had earned it. And they knew it, too… everypony knew who in the family could be trusted and who could not, based on who Spyder chose to respect." She laughed. "So you see? It was the slave who held all the power."
Kolassa giggled as well. "That's great. Good for you!"
"Yes, thank you," said Spyder, bowing her head. "Spyder soon gained her freedom, but she never did stop attaching 'Lord' or 'Lady' to the names of those she respects."
Kolassa blushed. "Oh… thank you."
"Do not thank Spyder. You earned it, Lady Kolassa. But here we are."
Over the crest of the next dune, they came across a trio of towering sandstone pyramids, weathered by centuries of wind and sand. They sat in a huge dip in the sand dunes, a smooth valley that looked peaceful even in the mild sandstorm they were experiencing.
"Behold, the Whispering Desert's grand pyramids," Spyder said softly. "Nopony knows who built them, or why… only that they've inspired hundreds of generations by being a reminder of what the mind and body can truly do. And this is where you will be trained."
Kolassa gasped eagerly. "Really? What are we going to do?"
"Well, Spyder can't replicate for you the circumstances of building the pyramid. So instead, we'll be climbing it."
"Ooooh, yay!" Kolassa squealed.
"That's right," said Spyder. "We shall first run a lap around its base. Then, we will climb up to the first layer of stones… and run a lap around that. So on until we reach the top. Are you ready, dear student, dear teacher, dear Lady Kolassa?"
"Yes, Spyder. I'm ready."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Hours passed, the sun crossing from one horizon to the other.
"Whew…" Kolassa heaved. "Am I at the top yet?"
"Is there something above you?" Spyder countered, looking down at Kolassa from the top of the pyramid.
"Yes…"
"Well, that should answer your question."
"Right," Kolassa muttered, looking blearily at the five levels she had yet to scale. "Still gotta walk the lap of this one…"
She started around the square ring.
"You look exhausted, Lady Kolassa," Spyder said casually. "Perhaps we shall set your camp right there, where you are? Finish tomorrow?"
Kolassa looked up and glared. "Spyder, if I was going to give up, I'd have done it a lot sooner. Not when I'm only a few minutes away from the top…"
Spyder's eyes twinkled. "Just checking."
A half-hour passed until Kolassa heaved herself to the top of the pyramid and promptly passed out.
Spyder chuckled and dripped some water from her canteen on the filly's muzzle.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Another hour later, Kolassa awakened under the night sky, finding that Spyder had built a fire there atop the pyramid and was cooking something over it.
"Ah, there you are," Spyder said cheerfully. "Would you care for a gyro?"
She offered Kolassa a pita stuffed with tomatoes, onions, and sauce.
"Thanks," Kolassa said weakly, taking it. "Did I make it?"
"You did indeed, your ladyship," said Spyder, bowing. "Here we are at the top."
Kolassa looked out at the desert, sprawling out in every direction.
"Eat up," Spyder ordered. "And rest. You'll need to recuperate if we're to make it to the bottom." She smiled. "This is a very unorthodox thing for a master to say, but Spyder is so very proud of you. You have as disciplined a mind and body as Spyder has ever met."
"Thank you," Kolassa said, bowing down to her. "I knew I would do it… I knew I had to do it. When you said the pyramids have inspired generations… that's when I decided I would conquer them." She beamed. "The pyramids inspired me, too. I want to be like them. Standing tall and sturdy forever… being an inspiration."
Kolassa's flanks shimmered and sparkled, and a picture appeared on them.
"Why, Lady Kolassa, is that what Spyder thinks it is?" Spyder said gleefully.
"My cutie mark!" Kolassa exclaimed, turning her head. "I can't see it…"
Spyder took a stick from the fire and used it as a torch, holding it close to Kolassa's flank. The cutie mark was the three pyramids, dull and sandy against her pinkish-purple fur.
"Oh, it's magnificent," said Spyder. "Hmm… Spyder hopes your parents won't be angry with her. They would have wanted to be there for their daughter's cutie mark story, Spyder thinks."
"Aw, that's all right, Spyder," Kolassa said, nuzzling her. "My parents know you're important to me, and how much you've been teaching me. When I come home with a cutie mark… they'll be thrilled."
Spyder nodded. "Well, eat your supper, Lady Kolassa. We shall need our strength if we're to get back to the bottom. And try to get some more sleep… Spyder thinks we shall be awake an hour before dawn, if we're to return home in a timely fashion."
"Right!"
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Kolassa woke up again well into the night. Looming up above her was a single, almond-shaped eye with a violently red iris. Around it floated six other eyes, round and blue. These eyes floated still for a moment, before a thin line in the air below them opened into a hugely grinning mouth of knifelike teeth.
Kolassa sighed and looked away. "If you're here to kill me, just kill me."
The central eye blinked; an odd sight, as its eyelid consisted of nothingness, simply making the eye invisible for a single moment. The toothy mouth frowned. "What?" it said blankly.
Kolassa rolled over. "Didn't know you monsters could talk. But these attacks have just been getting worse and worse… I can't spend the rest of my life like this. If you're never going to leave me alone, fine. I don't know why you're always coming after me, or what you want to do with me, but just… just do it. I'm not going to fight anymore."
The floating face circled her. "Well, that's no kind of talk for a filly who just got her cutie mark," it said. "Your life is just beginning, isn't it?"
"Not if this keeps happening," Kolassa said softly. "I can't fight forever."
"…I'm not here to kill you, Kolassa," the face muttered.
Kolassa flipped herself into a sitting position, scowling at the face.
"My name is Spectatus," it said. "My… supervisor… sent me here to keep an eye on you. He's taken notice of you. A lot of folks from my world have. That's why you're attacked by monsters: you're extra-special, and you get more and more special as you grow older."
Kolassa stood up. "Are… are you saying you know what makes me special? Why these attacks have been happening my entire life, why I have dreams about things I've never seen but turn out to be completely real? Tell me! Tell me what I am!"
Spectatus flinched away. "Ah… no idea? You really don't know?"
Kolassa glared.
"Okay, well, brace yourself," Spectatus said gently. "Your strange powers… the magical energy you give off that attracts monsters to you…"
"Yes?"
"It's because… you're half Old God."
Silence hung in the air for a few seconds, then Kolassa's jaw dropped.
"It happens sometimes," Spectatus went on. "There are creatures in the world with trace amounts of Old God blood… but half? That hasn't happened for millions of years."
"Half… what does that mean?" Kolassa demanded.
"It means one of your parents is an Old God."
"Th-that's impossible!" Kolassa squealed. "I have a mother and a father…"
"Meh, I don't know the details," Spectatus admitted. "Maybe one of them is an Old God in disguise. Maybe they're lying to you about who your real mother or father is. All I know for sure is that you have an Old God for a parent."
"No," she whispered. "No, you're lying…"
"No, Lady Kolassa," Spyder whispered. "It's true."
Kolassa turned her head. Spyder was still lying on her side, but she was awake.
"Spyder has often wondered at the strangeness of your soul," she went on. "Your magnetism, your iron mind, even the way you stand, these have always been clues that you were something beyond the ordinary. This story… it is the only explanation that truly makes sense."
Kolassa bit her lip. "You really believe I'm the child of an Old God?"
"If you can't trust the word of a terrifyingly huge floating mass of eyeballs and teeth, whose word can you trust?" Spyder said, grinning toothily.
Kolassa glanced at Spectatus to see how he would react to that statement. The weird creature simply chuckled.
There was an explosion of pale blue light above their heads, and a tiny creature fell upon them from above. A toy-sized white unicorn tumbled to the ground, his red-and-purple insectlike wings crumpled and tattered.
Fork's spiky silver mane was now exceedingly long, the back long enough to almost touch the ground when he was standing upright and the front covering much of his face.
"Wha…?" Kolassa exclaimed. "Who are you?"
He lifted his head, his pale blue eyes burning with ferocious glee. "Who, me?" he growled. "The name's Fork. I'm a pixie pony." He held up his hoof, displaying his glittering sapphire charm bracelet. "Might wanna look behind you."
Kolassa turned around, to the edge of the top stone of the pyramid. Three scaly maroon claws came up from below, digging into the stone—two of the claws were three-fingered, the other seven-fingered.
The claws heaved the towering, two-headed Old God onto the top. First came the long hooked beak of Kane, then the circular mouth of Boll, followed by their mutilated torso and quill-covered back, and then their legs, one ending in a talon, the other a hoof.
Their long spiked tail quivered and twitched, as their two pairs of eyes, Kane's slanted and white and Boll's round and black, looked around before landing directly on Fork.
"There you are," Kane rasped.
Fork poked Kolassa's ankle. "I led them here," he whispered. "A little gift from me to you. You're welcome." He cackled. "Eeeeehehehehehe! I love meddling!"
He vanished in another burst of blue light, the energy searing Kolassa's legs.
"Ow," she whispered, trying to suppress it as Kane and Boll stalked across the slab of stone.
"Now where'd he go this time?" Kane demanded. "How'd that damn thing find us? How'd he manage to lure us all the way out here…?"
Boll's small head leaned forward and turned toward Kolassa, staring at her with apparent fascination. "Hey, Kane," he whispered. "Check it out."
Kane turned as well, and his hideous beak broke into a grin. "Would you look at that? If it isn't Rhea Strait's little filly." They stepped forward, and Kolassa cowered. "How ya doin', kiddo? What brings you to our pyramids?"
"'Our' pyramids?" Kolassa peeped.
"Yeahhhh," Kane drawled slyly. "The local population built these for us, to conceal the labyrinth of hellish volcanic tunnels below…" He snorted and chuckled. "We enslaved their brains out. So, who's here with ya, kiddo?" He glanced at Spectatus. "An observer! Haven't seen one of your kind for a couple of ages." He then swiveled his long neck to look down at Spyder. "And… no one, really. All right."
Spyder scowled and stood up. "Don't touch Lady Kolassa!" she snapped, advancing on the two-headed god.
Kane ran one of his hands down the length of his black, bony crest, then snapped the fingers of his other hand.
Spyder instantly collapsed, curling into a fetal position, sobbing and quivering.
Boll picked up Kolassa in his seven-fingered claw, holding her up to their eye level. Kane gently caressed her hair and face. She didn't react, too terrified to struggle.
"So, your name is Kolassa," said Kane. "Nice to finally become acquainted. I suppose you know who you are? Well, I'll tell ya… the Old Gods have been working on a retirement plan for a couple hundreds of thousands of years now. Part of our retirement is a little project we've taken to calling 'the goddesses': designating new deities to take our place when we depart."
Kane and Boll started pacing in a circle, staring off into space wistfully as Kane continued. "The past millennium has made it pretty clear that Hukwurm, Shifter, and Carto bet on the wrong seapony. And Stellaris' plan… it's a bit odd. I'm not sure if it's going to work out. As our retirement comes closer and closer, Boll and I realized we'd have to be really careful with our replacement. This is our entire legacy, we can't mess that up. That's why our goddess is going to be… our very own daughter."
Both of them grinned down at Kolassa with their sharp teeth.
"No," said Kolassa. "That can't be. I already have a father. His name is Chronus Twister."
"The bald guy?" Boll slurred. "He wishes."
"Yeah, for real," Kane laughed. "Trust us, kiddo, we're your father. Your mother, Rhea? We're… rather fond of her. And she was fond of us for quite some time. You'll know what we mean by that when you're older." He shrugged and set Kolassa down on the stone, but held her in place with his taloned foot. "But you don't have to believe us. Believe whatever you like, but the truth is that you're our heir… you're the one who will take our place. You'll be the one in charge of our domain. Nightmares. Monsters. It'll all be yours… you're gonna love burning things down… hearing the screams…"
He flipped her over on her side. "Oh, look… even your cutie mark is our pyramids. Ha! That seals the deal! You really are going to replace us. You don't even have a choice. It's destiny."
Kane and Boll took a flying leap off the pyramid, jumping far enough to land on the sand at the base of the pyramid. A crevice opened beneath their feet, red light radiating from it. They crossed their three arms over their chest and dropped down into the depths of the crack in the earth, which sealed itself quickly.
Kolassa rushed to Spyder's side. The gemsbok was still shivering and crying.
"Spyder?" Kolassa said tenderly.
"Spyder's mind has been broken, Lady Kolassa," she sobbed. "The power of the Old Gods can defeat any and all things…" She gazed at Kolassa with wonder. "And it's yours."
"You're… you're not broken," Kolassa insisted, ignoring Spyder's final remark. "You're gonna be okay… I know it."
Spectatus floated up to Kolassa. "So, erm… Kolassa. This is a pretty big update, finding out you're supposed to replace Kane and Boll. I think my supervisor would want me to stay and watch. You know… keep an eye on you."
"Fine, whatever," Kolassa muttered, laying down on her side. "Stay as long as you need to."