LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES
the ocean, 1,006 years ago
The sun glittered over calm ocean waves, no land in sight for miles and miles.
A spear of smooth black shadow jetted across the surface of the ocean and solidified into the shape of Annihilara. As always, she gave a small mutter of pain when her cutie mark appeared. She hovered a few feet over the water, though her sharp-edged wings were motionless, scanning the water with her empty red eyes.
"Quite the place for a Gathering," she muttered.
Black tendrils of wispy smoke floated from her hooves to the ocean, and upon touching the water, the shadows formed the outline of a huge black circle the size of a large stadium.
"There we go, the exact spot, all marked off for everypony," she said in satisfaction. She giggled. "I wonder who all is coming?"
Something came bursting out of the clouds; a magnificent and massive trireme. Instead of sails and masts, the narrow wooden warship was topped by a great white balloon twice the size of the ship itself, and at its stern was a pair of enormous propellers.
"Ohhhhh," Annihilara exclaimed, impressed.
The ship dived, landing gently in the sea and proceeding like an ordinary seagoing ship, entering the ring of shadows before slowly ceasing its forward propulsion.
Celestia and Luna revealed themselves, standing on opposite sides of the ship's bow, both of them scanning the skies and waters with curiosity and mild suspicion.
Luna's eyes widened when they fell upon the floating shadow. "Lara!" she exclaimed.
Annihilara stared. "No…" she whispered. "No, it can't be." She approached them, floating through the air like a leaf on the breeze, her toothy jaw hanging open in awe.
"Cousins," she said blankly. "So many years I've wondered why you're not dead. Every day, I've feared that the time would come… that you'd enter the domain that I can only glimpse… but look at you."
She darted toward them, and her shadowy body extended into long tendrils which hugged her two cousins tightly. "You're young again," she marveled. "There is time to spare."
"Yes, Lara," Luna said tenderly, hugging the shadow back as best as she could. "We became young when we battled Discord, defeated him and became the princesses of Equestria. How I've missed you."
Annihilara backed away and started pacing back and forth through the air as a wisp of black mist. "I already knew, I suppose," she said thoughtfully. "Obviously, I've been seeing you in the thoughts of the dead for six years now, but… I guess I managed to convince myself I was dreaming. I didn't let myself believe that what I saw was real. I started tuning out all those images years ago, anyway. But… here it is, in front of my own eyes." She drifted down to their eye level. "What brings you here?"
"We're not certain," said Celestia. She spread her wings and hopped out of the ship, sailing down to the sea and walking across the water's surface. Luna followed her lead, and Annihilara solidified alongside them. "We just know that the both of us have been having this urge for weeks now, one we didn't know how to follow, and that it finally made itself clear: we had to be at this spot in the ocean, right here, right now."
"Fascinating," said Annihilara. "That sounds just like… but why…?"
Abruptly, something rose out of the water, looking for all the world like a huge desert island—Lady Kolassa, rearing up as high as she could before dipping back into the water and gently swimming into the circle. She treaded water, nothing visible of her but her massive head and, much further back, some of her raggedy tail. Celestia stumbled backwards as the mountainous pony approached.
A wave rose out of the sea, morphing into great pillar of water. Soledad was on top of this pillar, shrouded in white mist, her angry multicolored eyes piercing the gloom from within. As the mist cleared around her, another tendril of water rose up behind her. Within this clear liquid structure, a huge black stingray swam up from the bottom of the column of water, and floated in place above Soledad's head to shield her from the sun.
"What is going on?" Celestia demanded, staring in alarm at the figure of Soledad perched high above.
Is it not obvious? said Discord in her head. You're so slow. Must I outline everything for you?
"Shut up," Celestia hissed. Luna heard her, and stared at her sister in bewilderment.
"Why, you're at the second Gathering of the Goddesses," said Kolassa, squinting at Celestia and Luna with interest. "I've heard of you, the new dual princesses of Equestria who rule over the sun and the night. How interesting! I shouldn't be surprised to see you here, I guess. That's a description of goddesses if I ever heard one."
"Goddesses?" said Luna in alarm. "I believe you are mistaken, o Titaness of the Whispering Desert. We are not…"
Annihilara gasped in excitement, and Discord started chuckling in Celestia's head. Celestia and Luna slowly turned to face each other, both looking stunned.
"When Discord made us young again…" Celestia said slowly.
"He not only gave us more time, he made us young for all time," Luna finished, her eyes wide with shock.
Yes, Discord whispered gleefully. Death would have been too easy an escape, I think. I wanted to play with you forever.
Celestia stood still in terror, staring at nothing in particular, remaining unresponsive as Annihilara squealed in delight and squeezed the two sisters again. "Yes! Yes!" she whooped. "I get my cousins forever! I won't have to live in fear of losing you, I'll never have to watch you pass beyond this world. How wonderful is this?"
How does it feel, Celestia? Discord asked, appearing in front of her face. Ready to tango with me until the end of time, my love? The imaginary image of him gently caressed Celestia's face.
"Oh, I am QUITE happy about this!" she snapped in return, rising into the air on her wings. "Yes, I, Princess Celestia, goddess of the sun, have been given what I so richly deserved! To rule Equestria for all time! The world deserves an eternity of meeeeee!"
She had no idea she was speaking aloud. She was completely unaware that she was actually flying. She was entirely convinced that this was all happening undetectably inside her mind.
"My power brings forth the glorious sun!" she rambled on, sinking back down to the surface of the water while her horn sparked with golden light. "Living forever is my just and rightful reward!" She glared at the phantasm of Discord, looking him straight in the eye. "What do you matter?" she whispered.
Only Luna could hear that final remark. And with no awareness of Discord, it looked as if Celestia was speaking directly to her sister.
Seething and fuming, Luna took off and flew back to the trireme. In an instant, Annihilara joined her there, and Kolassa slowly approached as well, bringing her head up alongside the ship.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered.
"Hey, cousin," Annihilara said gently.
"It is good to see you, Princess Annihilara," Luna replied stiffly.
Annihilara laughed. "Princess?"
"I suppose," Luna chuckled, turning to smile at her. "After all, we being the rulers of Equestria, and you our closest relative, this makes you our heir."
"Your heir," Annihilara repeated blankly. "You know, Stellaris told me something similar…"
"What?" Luna breathed.
Annihilara waved a hoof dismissively. "Not important. You're goddesses now, you don't need an heir."
Luna smiled. "Where will your path take you, when this Gathering is done?"
"It'll take me where it takes me, Lulu," Annihilara sighed, looking away. "I'm still figuring that out."
Back out on the open waves, Discord cupped Celestia's face in his hands. Keep telling yourself that, he said calmly. I'll be back… He shrank and disappeared back into her head. Celestia shook her head vigorously to clear her thoughts, and was surprised to see Luna had gone back to the ship, where it appeared she was being comforted by Annihilara and Kolassa. She was mildly confused, but shrugged it off and turned her attention to Soledad, high up above, who hadn't said a word since arriving.
Celestia flew up to her and joined her on top of the watery pillar, underneath the canopy that held the shading creature.
"So, Queen Soledad," Celestia said brightly, breaking into Soledad's personal space. "I've heard a bit about you. Boy, you sure don't do much, do you?"
Soledad sighed and glared piercingly at Celestia. "Is that all that is ever said about me?"
"What else is there to say?" Celestia said brightly, toying with Soledad's tail spikes. "You've sat on your thagomizer doing a whole lot of nothing for a thousand years. Your people are starving, withering away. Why, Soledad? Why don't you do anything about it?"
"I… see nothing that can be done," Soledad said flatly. "I see no hope or recourse for them. If I did, I would certainly pursue it."
Celestia wrapped an arm around Soledad's shoulders. "Well, maybe the Gathering of the Goddesses is an opportunity for me to help you out with that. A little bit of 'peer review', if I may. You've been condemned by your kingdom and all the rest of the world, that must be absolutely unbearable! Surely you can see that the only way for the perception of you to change is for you to change, and you've shown no interest at all in making that change, becoming better."
Soledad looked past Celestia at Luna, who was fuming furiously at Celestia from a distance.
"Is that right?" Soledad muttered.
"Oh, but it's never too late for a second chance," said Celestia, fiddling with Soledad's headdress.
"Some of us need a second chance more than others do," Soledad said darkly. "And sometimes, it is too late to change an impression." She pointed to Luna, smirking wickedly.
Celestia didn't even glance away. "Millions of fates hang in the balance," she said with unnerving cheerfulness. "Why don't you start slow? Present your best self to one pony, somepony who matters, I think that'll make a huge difference."
"You're saying if I had a single friend who I was nice to, others would view me with more sympathy?" Soledad summed up.
"Indeed."
Soledad massaged her forehead with a single hoof. "The irony is giving me a migraine. You amaze me, you know that?"
"Oh, thank you," Celestia said in delight.
"You really don't see it?" Soledad demanded, gesturing toward Luna again.
"No, not at all," said Celestia, still not following her gaze. "See you later."
She fluttered away, circling around her flying ship from high above. Soledad glared, then sighed and sank back into the ocean.