LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES
Twixt, 1,077 years ago
A bald-headed gray pony stood in front of his hut and spoke to the crowd gathered around in the chill desert air.
"I'd like to thank you all for coming," said Chronus. "Today, a very special pony, one whom I know you all love, turns eighteen. Please join me in honoring that wonderful girl—my daughter Kolassa!"
He stepped aside, and she walked out of the hut, now a grown mare, her purple-pink coat sparkling and clean, her jagged bright red mane with its orange stripe long and lustrous, and her three-pyramid cutie mark sparkling in the starlight. The crowd all stomped their hooves and cheered for her.
Kolassa's mother approached. "Here you are, sweetheart," said the blue mare. "I've had a whole team working on this all week…"
Four other mares walked up to Kolassa bearing a huge litter, upon which sat a glorious golden cake shaped like one of the pyramids.
"Oh!" Kolassa gasped. "Thank you so much! Mother, Father, everypony—thank you. This is a magnificent party. I'm sure we'll all… enjoy ourselves very much. Thank you." She blinked and shifted nervously on her hooves. "Well, here's, um… you know. Caaaaake! Hee hee…"
With her speech abruptly finished, the party began, with the cake being cut out and passed around.
"Spyder," Kolassa said softly, tapping the big gray antelope on the shoulder. "A word?"
"Of course, Lady Kolassa," Spyder replied.
The two of them shifted aside, away from the crowd. Kolassa looked around to make sure there was no one within earshot before leaning in close to Spyder. "I'm terrified about being eighteen," she whispered. "You know, the older I get, the worse the monster attacks get. You know that. And now that I'm a mare… you, you've turned me into a martial arts master, which is why I've lived this long, but I'm still a pony with all the physical limitations of…" She shrugged. "The monsters don't have those limitations. One of these days, one is going to show up that's more than I can handle." Her voice cracked. "Then what? Will it kill me? Will it… take me somewhere? I don't know what they want, Spyder."
Spyder blinked slowly. "Spyder doesn't know what to tell you, dear teacher. Spyder thinks she cannot tell you to just enjoy your party. She thinks you won't be able to do that."
"No, you're right, I can't enjoy this," Kolassa said, biting her lip and looking around at the party. "Any day could be my last, and I don't like knowing that."
"Spyder wishes she could help," Spyder said solemnly. "She wishes she could remain with you at all times and fight your monsters with you, but masters like you and Spyder, we fight with our minds, you know this, and Spyder's mind was broken by the Old Gods."
Kolassa pouted. "You still haven't recovered? It's been years."
Spyder shook her head, her eyes shut tightly.
Kolassa leaned forward and nuzzled Spyder's face with her own. "I'm feeling a little broken, myself. I've always had these vivid dreams that always come true, and lately they've been… horrible nightmares. White wings blotting out the sun, talons in the sand, horrible pressure on my whole body…"
Spyder suddenly stiffened, wide-eyed and alert. A second later, Kolassa did the same, looking straight at something she could sense over Spyder's shoulder several seconds before it actually became visible.
It was a massive white bird, fifty feet tall with a hooked, steely beak full of sharp teeth, and silver hooked talons. Its breast, the feathery crest on its head, the edges of its wings, and the tip of its long, elaborately feathered tail were an icy blue, as were the irises of its narrow slanted eyes. It swooped down upon the town, skidding upon its massive talons and kicking up sand before coming to a stop at the very point where the sand met Twixt's stone pavement.
The partygoers began screaming and fleeing to their own huts. The bird paid no mind to any of them, its eyes instead trained firmly on Kolassa.
Kolassa leaned toward Spyder, who was now standing at her side. "Spyder…" she said slyly. "Are you quite sure…?"
Spyder chuckled. "No, not sure at all," she said. "You're slipping, Lady Kolassa. Old Spyder noticed this one before you did."
The bird started walking into town, strutting slowly on its huge clawed feet, straight for Kolassa. Spyder lunged forward, galloping mightily, and hooked her horns around one of the bird's feet as it was approaching the ground, causing it to stumble. It flapped its wings to stabilize itself, its wingspan nearly three times its fifty-foot height, kicking up sand, blowing pieces off of the huts, and blowing some of the residents off of their hooves. Only Kolassa and Spyder managed to keep their footing.
The bird folded its wings and opened its beak wide, and from its throat came a massive gust of wind, blasting snow and frost into the desert air, rooting Kolassa in place. She flexed her muscles gently, swiftly breaking out of the icy shell.
Spyder started running up the enormous creature's tail and back. The bird straightened up and shook itself, but Spyder rooted herself in place through sheer will. Spyder flipped onto her back and gored the bird's shoulder with her horns, digging deep into its flesh. It winced, but otherwise seemed unaffected.
The white bird reached Kolassa and raised one of its feet, preparing to stomp on her. Kolassa didn't move or react at all, and the claw found itself meeting major resistance, unable to shift Kolassa's stance in the slightest. Kolassa rose to her hind legs and pushed back against the foot, but the monstrous bird put its entire weight and muscular strength into stepping on Kolassa, eventually causing her legs to buckle underneath her. It had her pinned to the stone.
Spyder climbed up to the bird's neck and swung around, aiming to push her horns into its throat. The bird lifted its other foot, putting even more of its weight onto Kolassa, and snatched Spyder up in it. It had Spyder by the neck, and flung her violently to the ground. It collected Kolassa in both talons and spread its wings, pushing off the ground.
As soon as the bird was back in the air, Rhea rushed out of her hut. "Where's Kolassa?" she demanded. "Where's my daughter?"
Chronus galloped to Spyder's side and helped her stand up. "Spyder, did that thing take Kolassa?"
The gemsbok nodded. "Yes, Mr. Chronus. It took her away. Spyder is sorry."
"Will our daughter be okay?" Chronus said softly. "Where has she been taken?"
"Spyder doesn't know, your lordship."
Rhea collapsed to her knees. "Kolassa…" she wailed.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Kolassa relaxed and breathed slowly as she was flown over the featureless dunes of the Whispering Desert all the way until morning. She kept her eyes closed until the bird began its descent, and was only mildly surprised to see that they were diving straight for the three pyramids.
The bird set down in front of one of the towering structures, Kolassa clenched in one foot while the other reached up to twist one of the massive stones in the pyramid's corner. A huge pair of double-doors opened in the pyramid's corner, big enough for the bird to slip in. Within the pyramid was an expansive tunnel leading down, down, down into the earth. The tunnel was round, with a bumpy surface, covered in a thin layer of ice.
At the bottom of the long chimney was a door. The bird opened it, and dropped into a huge dungeon, with giant-sized cages, chains, and torture devices hanging all around it. The bird shoved Kolassa into a huge birdcage. Kolassa attempted to fight back, but the huge metal door was slammed on her abruptly. Kolassa experimented with pushing on the bars, seeing if they would yield.
The bird tilted its head, observing her behavior curiously. It shrugged and ruffled its feathers, then looked at the wound on its shoulder and pecked at it, then licked it with its barbed purple tongue. Finally, it turned once again to Kolassa.
"At last, I have you," it said softly. "Kolassa, chosen heir of my fathers, mine at last."
"Your… fathers?" Kolassa repeated hesitantly. "I… oh. Oh, I see it. Your face… you look just like Kane."
The bird nodded. Indeed, though her crest was of feather rather than bone, her head was shaped exactly like Kane's, with a curving toothy beak and slanted eyes.
"That's correct," said the bird. "I'm a creation of Kane and Boll, even as you are. One might say we're sisters. My name is Corvid. I've known of you, and the intentions the Old Gods had for you, for all of your eighteen years." She warbled haughtily, ruffling her feathers again. "I've been trying to sniff you out, but I'm far too sophisticated for such primal senses as those of my monstrous brethren… you've seen plenty of them, I'm sure. Only when you became a mare were you finally significant enough for me to locate you."
Kolassa shrugged. "So, big sister, what do you intend to do with me?"
Corvid leaned in close to Kolassa, training a single eye on her through the bars of the cage. "You, my tiny and pitiful little pony, are no goddess of terror," she sneered. "I was ripping out spines and spilling blood for miles and miles across beach and countryside before you were alive! I should have been their chosen successor when it came time to select new goddesses. But instead they chose to start from scratch, conceive a new heir. But with the heir in my possession…"
Corvid chuckled bitterly, pacing the floor of the dungeon. "They'll come looking for you. And they'll find me. They think heat and fire are the truest source of fear and destruction."
She inhaled deeply, sucking almost all of the air from the room, then said, "I'll make them respect the ice and snow." With that statement, an entire blizzard poured from her beak, swirling around the room, coating Kolassa once again in a thin layer of ice, which she shook off.
"I hope living in a cage causes you immense discomfort," said Corvid, slapping the cage with her claw, waving it back and forth on the chain it dangled from. "I'll be back, little sister. I'm sorry I can't let you become a goddess. I'm sure you'll manage to be a historical footnote. Or at least, my method of killing you will be. Adieu."
Corvid opened a door in the side of the room, squeezing through it and slamming it behind herself.
Kolassa trotted to the center of the birdcage, then stood on one hoof, with her front hooves clasped in front of her chest. She closed her eyes and began breathing.
A huge red eye appeared in the air next to her, orbited by six smaller blue eyes, and beneath the eyes, a mouth full of dagger teeth.
"Hey," said Spectatus.
"Hi there," said Kolassa, not opening her eyes or turning her head. "Whatever happened to me being the first half-god in millions of years?"
"Oh, she's no half-god," Spectatus said hastily. "She's more of what we might call a 'monster'. The Old Gods spawn monsters all the time."
"Charming," Kolassa said dryly. After a few more calming breaths, she added, "I'm glad you're here with me, Spectatus."
"You are?" he said, bewildered. "You're not mad at me?"
"Not at all."
Spectatus sighed in relief, then frowned. "I'm sorry I didn't help you out back there," he muttered. "I'm an observer, you know? I observe. The rules say I can go anywhere, speak to anyone, learn anything, but if I try to do more than observe… well, that breaks the rules. Something horrible might happen to me." He paused. "I'm often tempted to intercede for you. If you weren't so capable of handling yourself, I'd have stepped in… several times before now."
A tiny grin appeared on Kolassa's face. "As wimpy and pathetic as that sounds, I believe you."
"Good," Spectatus said with forced cheerfulness. "So, what are you doing?"
"The only thing I can do: meditating," said Kolassa. "I don't know how long Corvid intends to keep me here with no food. I'll save energy this way." She opened one eye and glanced at Spectatus meaningfully. "And store some up."
"All right," Spectatus said quietly. He vanished.
"Take all the time you need, sister Corvid," Kolassa whispered. "I'll be right here."