LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES

Campus Cuda, 994 years ago

In the white coral halls of Campus Cuda's castle, Soledad swam along, propelled by subtle movements of her fins and tail, a splintered piece of wood held in her hooves.

A bubble approached her, and inside was Fork. He looked different now; his long wild hair was tied back and better groomed, and he had a small beard. "Queen Soledad," he said quietly. "I don't suppose you remember me? I'd like to have a word for a moment."

Her glowing eyes turned toward him, piercing him deeply. "Ah. Fork." She opened her tiny mouth and spat a stream of bright green acid at him. Wildly, he dodged in his bubble, while the green liquid hit the wall of the palace, eating away at the coral before fading away.

"Hmm," Soledad said with interest. "I didn't know I could do that. What do you want, Fork?"

"Wha… wha…" Fork stammered. "Why did you spit acid at me?"

"Because I do remember you, so why wouldn't I?" she said casually. "You sent me to the Crags, you knew what would happen there. And ever since, you've been watching me. Every time anything important happens to me, you're lurking in the shadows. Sometimes there are three or four of you in one room, all of you just… staring at me."

Fork was flabbergasted for a moment, then spoke to his sapphire. "Well, fillies and colts, if we've learned nothing else from this experience, we've learned that I'm not nearly as stealthy as I think I am."

"I'm a generally passive pony," said Soledad, "so I never did anything about it, but in the back of my mind, I always knew that if you ever approached me again, ever spoke to me, I'd take a shot at you. So you want to have a word? Speak all you want, servant of the Old Gods, I'm not going to march to their drum."

Fork flinched. "I assure you I am in no way affiliated with the Old Gods, nor have I ever been. I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

Her furious eyes bored into him for several seconds, and eventually, she casually passed the piece of wood from her hooves to the coils of her tail so her hooves were free for gesturing. "Go on," she said dismissively.

"I… well, I wanted to ask you your philosophy about being a goddess, and a ruler," he said, grinning awkwardly.

Soledad scowled deeply. "My philosophy?" she spat. "Philosophy is for those who have too much time and too much on their minds. I've had the time, but I haven't had a coherent thought for centuries." She advanced on Fork, looming over him. "You know. You were there. My husband left me because I was an unfit queen. I spent the rest of his life trying to get him back. And then he died. And with him, all my reasons to live. He was the last of everything I ever loved, ever cared for. And so, I've been sleepwalking for a thousand years.

"And do you want to know why the ponies closest to me were the only thing I cared about, why I never really had a philosophy on ruling, why I never really bothered?" she continued, her voice growing shrill. "Because this is a kingdom of—of—of seaponies. Just a bunch of fucking seaponies! I can't cure their kingdom! I can't save them! Seaponies are a bunch of morally bankrupt cowards, none of whom could ever take the initiative to help themselves, so who could possibly help them? Jolly was the last and only good seapony—the hope of our race died with her. There's no other being or beast in the sea like her, who could find the happiness in this cold and bitter world, and spread it out to others. She was the one." She laughed, the sound harsh and bitter. "I should know better than anyone what loathsome, useless worms seaponies are. I've been one for a millennium.

"And do you think I have any wisdom to show for it after all this time? You think I have what it takes to rule? Of course not! I'm—I'm sixteen years old!" Desperately, she started waving her hooves wildly and shouting. "Whose idea was it to turn a sixteen-year-old into a goddess? Was it YOURS, Fork? Freezing me forever in my moody and tumultuous emotional state? Sticking me with this undead, underdeveloped brain, and then expecting me to hold onto a throne forever? It's too much pressure! You can't expect me to understand how or why I should do things I don't want to do. By the damned and accursed Old Gods, I'm a teenager! A teenager! You can't expect me to deal with stuff like this!"

She lowered her head, breathing raggedly. "Does that… express… my philosophy… well enough for you?"

Fork blinked rapidly. "…Yeah, that'll do it," he peeped.

She transferred the splintery stick back into her hooves, and started toying with it.

"Whatcha got there, piece of driftwood?" Fork said nervously.

Soledad chuckled. "So transparent. Asking me about my 'philosophy'—I know why you decided to ask me that today. It's always been obvious that you know what's going to happen before it does. You know what I'm about to do out there on the balcony. I don't know how, or why, and I don't care. I don't care about anything anymore. Never did, really."

She started swimming for the balcony, but Fork fluttered his wings and blocked her path. "Please don't!" he begged. "Please stop! I… I care about you. I couldn't possibly just stand by and let you do this."

She swung her tail, clubbing him with immense force, popping his bubble and slamming him against a wall.

Realizing he was losing consciousness, he frantically disappeared, singeing the coral walls. He reappeared a moment later, in a new bubble and in perfect health.

"There's absolutely nothing you can do," she sneered.

"I know," Fork said sadly, desperately glancing at his gem. "I know that, but damn it, I'm going to try anyway. Please, Soledad…"

She shoved past him and he backed away, reaching out for her hopelessly, but not wanting to be caught on the balcony.

"I so badly want to go out there," he whispered to his gem. "But… but in my heart, I know I'm not trying that hard, because… because the fact is I wasn't out there. Simple as that."

Soledad floated solemnly on her balcony, looking out at the city, where the entire population was gathered, looking up at her with uneasy silence.

"Citizens of Campus Cuda, I apologize for the delay," Soledad said. She used her normal speaking tone, but her voice carried through the water with ease and the silent crowd could hear her perfectly. "I've called you here because we've reached a turning point in our kingdom's history… or so I've just decided."

Confused murmurs rippled through the crowd, and she waited for them to finish.

"Too long, you and I have been a burden on each other," she continued. "So, for the first time in many, many centuries, I'm going to take some initiative. I'm going to take… action."

The silence seemed to grow even heavier; many seaponies in the crowd seemed to be holding their breath.

"This will be to the immense benefit to myself and my kingdom." Soledad held the piece of driftwood up to her eyes and tossed it from one hoof to the other. "Though admittedly, I'm doing it mostly for myself. This all being scribed, right?"

The tough-looking seapony guards floating on the sides of the balcony nodded to her, and she spotted several scribes who had been writing down her every word.

"Good, good…" she mused. "As I was saying, you're all beyond help. Not once has maintaining this kingdom struck me as a worthy thing to even try. But perhaps it'll be a good enough pursuit… for my successor."

She held the piece of driftwood tightly between her front hooves, extended it outward, and drove the sharp point of it into her heart.

Her eyes bulged and she screamed, the piercing sound making the water shake and vibrate visibly for a mile in every direction. Her skin slowly began to crack as if stone, and light of vibrant red, yellow, and purple, the same three colors as her eyes, filtered out from within her.

Her scream became more raspy and bestial as her fangs emerged, and she turned toward the sky, her eyes huge and round and glowing brighter than they ever had before.

Legions of guards were attempting to approach and grab her, but the radiation seeping out from her insides deflected them.

Her gray-green skin and purple armor plates had dissolved completely. All that remained was the floating corpse of the little filly she had been before, blue-green and with curly pink-and-purple hair—a perfectly preserved corpse, suspended in the exact place Soledad had died.

Then, that body wore away into a blackened skeleton, which crumbled into ash, which dissolved in the water.

Instantly, the city went into an uproar of turmoil and panic, seaponies turning to each other and desperately demanding to know what would become of their lives and their world.

Fork sat in the hall inside the bubble, facing away from the grisly scene, stunned.

"What have I been doing?" he said tonelessly. "I am a horrible, horrible creature. All these years I've spent, pulling at… strings, because it's… because it's a fun story to be a part of, but… it's no story. These are real events that happened to real ponies with real souls, real lives. I didn't really understand that until I realized I was nearing the point where I had to let one of them go. I watched Luna sent away, and now this. I care about them. They're like… they're like my… my little girls."

Heaving with sobs, he hung his head, curled up and huddled as if cradling a baby. "I've been quite a fool, eh folks?" he said bitterly. "A sadistic, sociopathic fool. But no more. What's past is past… and I promised I would finish this. So here we go."

Confidently, he got to his hooves and disappeared in a puff of magic.