LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES

Camelazú, 702 years ago

Camelazú was a bustling coastal city, with the endless, lifeless expanses of the Whispering Desert on three sides and an ocean port on the fourth side as wide as the city itself. It was a city of desert stone skyscrapers, shaped by transmutation and held aloft by alchemy.

Nearly a mile outside the city limits, Lady Kolassa was walking past at a slow, trudging pace, watching the city out of the corner of her eye.

Annihilara dangled upside-down in front of Kolassa's face, slightly larger than she usually was. "So, what do you think?"

"Well, I can't exactly subtly lurk around the city for very long," Kolassa observed. "If this is going to happen without anypony realizing that I have business here, it's going to have to happen quickly."

"I can do 'quickly'," said Annihilara. "I can do very, very quickly."

"That's if we haven't raised suspicion already," said Kolassa. "Somepony could be reading my lips."

"Not to worry," Annihilara said pleasantly. "I'll stay right here with you… while these shadowy little bits of me"—she raised a hoof, and dozens of tiny tadpole-like creatures, each composed out of shadow like herself and bearing her face, emerged from her body and swarmed around her—"search out every nook and cranny in the city until they find the cult's headquarters."

The shadows scampered across the floor of the desert at an impossible speed, crossing the mile separating them from the city in only a few seconds.

"Thanks for accompanying me here, Annihilara," said Kolassa. "Subtlety isn't my strong suit."

"Meh, subtlety isn't my favorite, but I can do it," said Annihilara, slowly rotating in the air to float right-side up.

Kolassa kept walking, dragging her hooves slowly and taking the smallest steps she could manage, while Annihilara simply floated a fixed distance from her face.

"So, they're searching?" Kolassa said after a long silence.

"Yeah, they're searching all right," Annihilara said darkly.

"Anything yet?"

"I would tell you if there was anything yet."

"Okay. Sorry."

After another period of silence, Kolassa prompted, "So…"

"Aha," Annihilara said sharply. "There they are. Okay… okay, okay… oh wow. Wow."

"What is it? What?" Kolassa demanded. "…Are you seeing what your little duplicates are doing? Is there some way I could see it too?"

"Oh. Sure. Maybe I can get a little psychic link going on here…"

Annihilara snapped her front legs like a pair of whips, and they each extended dozens of feet, far enough that she could press her hooves on either side of Kolassa's gigantic head. "Ooh, you've got a nice, peaceful consciousness there, don'tcha?" she remarked.

"I try."

Annihilara inhaled sharply. "Ooh, man, they were prepared for something like this." Her glowing red eyes suddenly went dull and lusterless. "…They were prepared for exactly this."

"Oh dear," Kolassa said in alarm, as she felt some sort of magical current run along Annihilara's arms and into her own head, too quickly for her to react.

Suddenly, the sand dunes seemed so much bigger to Kolassa. Just as quickly as she was able to register that, all the sand was blown away on a gust of wind, bringing the earth and sky along with it, leaving her standing on a reflective black surface under an equally black sky.

Examining her body, Kolassa found that she was a mortal pony again, her purple-pink fur covering flesh and bone. It took her a moment to realize that she was not only mortal, but also a child.

The surface where she now stood was a circle, some hundred feet square, before dropping off into the black void to parts unknown. Three figures floated down from the sky, gently and silently landing: Kolassa's mother and father, and Spyder… all of them impossibly old, weary, and decayed.

Rhea hobbled toward her. Her once lustrous golden mane was now gray, tangled, and coarse; even her gorgeous blue fur now had white streaks in it and was falling out in places.

"Kolassa," she croaked. "Why did you do this to us?"

"What?" Kolassa breathed.

"Why did you leave us to die like this?" Rhea said viciously. "Is it because you wanted to see us gone? You wanted to be alone?" With immense effort, she spit on the ground.

Chronus sidled up to his wife's side and patted her shoulder comfortingly, glaring at Kolassa all the while. His bald head was covered in spots, and his once solid figure was emaciated.

"You valued us once," he spat. "You loved us once. When did that end? Is there no room for others in the heart of a goddess?"

"At any point, did you wish to keep us by your side?" Rhea demanded. "Did you even think to try?"

Spyder walked up to Kolassa and circled around her. "The lady likes to watch the ravages of time, Spyder thinks," she whispered. She stuck her face into Kolassa's with a manic grin, revealing fogged white eyes and a mouth full of decayed teeth. "Time comes for all things, yes? Oh, but she loves being an exception. She wants to see herself rise above us all."

"Of course that's what she wants," a raspy voice shrieked.

From whatever was beneath the circular platform, two hands clawed at the edge—one three-fingered, the other seven-fingered. Kane and Boll heaved themselves up onto the surface, looking immensely satisfied with themselves, examining their body as if it was a new toy.

"Isn't that right, kiddo?" Kane said to Kolassa. "That's always what you wished to be."

"The big goddess on campus," Boll sang.

They picked up Rhea, Chronus, and Spyder in their three hands, and in less than three seconds, shredded them to bloody ribbons with their teeth, claws, and beak.

"Do you have any idea how deeply you failed?" Kane growled.

The tiny Kolassa bit her lip and stared at the glassy floor. "This vision doesn't have any effect on me, I'm sorry to tell you," she said shakily. "Don't get me wrong, this was well-orchestrated. A vision that plays off a creature's fear of failure is a powerful weapon…"

She looked up and glared at the towering god. "But I have no such fear. I know who I am, and you can't deceive me."

Kane and Boll hissed angrily, and the entire vision disappeared in a swirl of energy and a loud, hideous CRUNCH.

Back in the familiar world of the desert and her own body, Kolassa shook her head slowly to clear it, taking a moment to realize that Annihilara was still hanging from her face, floating weakly, her jaw gaping.

"Oh dear," Kolassa muttered. "A powerful illusion, to travel across psychic links like that. It got to me through my connection with you, through your connection to your little minions. How…"

She realized Annihilara was entirely unresponsive. "Oh dear… Lara… you do fear yourself, don't you? Hrmm… how tormented you must be. If I could only share in your vision… ah, but perhaps I can."

Kolassa leaned close, staring deeply into Annihilara's blank eyes, and matched her breathing perfectly. She briefly mused on the question of whether either of them even needed to breathe, but didn't let it disrupt her concentration; she kept her breaths even and perfectly synced with Annihilara's, and sent a pair of little sandy tendrils out of her forehead, pressing them against the side of Annihilara's own, less-than-solid head.

"Breathe with me, Princess Annihilara…" she said in a faint, soothing whisper, and with her next exhalation she allowed herself to sink into Annihilara's fantasy.

A child again, she found herself beneath a stormy grayish-yellow sky full of swirling black clouds, with occasional bluish lightning shooting from one cloud to another. Within the dream, she sensed Annihilara's presence at the top of a jagged hill of some sort. She clambered up the odd incline, a strange surface of various materials, some of it squishy, other parts of it hard but brittle and breakable. It was a treacherous climb, and it seemed she lost as much ground as she gained, but Kolassa's focus was absolute: her progress was straight, paying no mind to the obstacles or the uneven footing.

At the peak of the hill, Kolassa came upon a pink alicorn filly, the conservative cut of her red mane matching Annihilara's, staring out in the distance with quivering eyes.

"Annihilara!" Kolassa yelled over the roaring winds and rumbling thunder. "Take my hoof!"

The filly's green eyes met Kolassa's blue ones, and she gaped with uncertain recognition. "Kolassa?" she squeaked.

Kolassa nodded, offering up her hoof.

Annihilara shook her head and gazed out into the landscape. "I did this," she croaked in anguish.

Frowning, Kolassa followed her gaze, and her jaw dropped. In every direction, all the way to horizon, the earth was blackened, the landscape scattered with the wreckage of cities, desolation and catastrophic destruction.

To her horror, Kolassa realized that the hill where they stood was in fact a mountain of dismembered corpses.

Tears in her eyes, Kolassa reached out to Annihilara once again. "Lara," she cried out. "…I am very happy you're here with me. I could not do this without you."

Enthralled, Annihilara touched Kolassa's hoof, and in an instant they were ripped back into the real world.

The psychic link broke apart, blasting them both backward; Annihilara screamed and breathed heavily, flapping her wings reflexively in a panic.

Kolassa waited as Annihilara regained her composure. Soon, she was breathing normally, and then not breathing at all, and hovering in place without the use of her wings.

"That… that was…" she muttered. She stared up at Kolassa. "You made that look so easy. All the torments of their mental assault, and you freed me with a few short words. How did you do that?"

Kolassa blinked slowly with a loud scraping sound. "I could tell that the visions fed upon our self-doubt. I knew you well enough to realize that there was nothing I could do to make you see your own value in the grand scheme of things. I thought perhaps I could help you take things moment-to-moment. All I could do was to assure you that right now, I need your help and you are being helpful." She smiled. "Ponies respond well to that sort of thing, I've found. I know too well that a single mistake can make one feel that they've accomplished nothing… so I simply made you know that this was not the case. You are doing a bang-up job as a goddess."

Annihilara nodded. "Thank you," she said in a choked voice, averting her eyes.

After a few moments of silence, they both turned to stare at the city.

"I'm still out there," Annihilara growled. "…The rest of me, I mean. What should we do? Should we try to learn more about the cult?"

Kolassa's lips turned up in a snarl. "I see no need for that," she said viciously. "Just take them down."

"All right," Annihilara agreed, gnashing her teeth.

Around one tall building in Camelazú, black spires like vines rose up and coiled around and around, tightening until the entire building shattered and collapsed. It was gone in seconds, none of the surrounding buildings so much as disturbed.

An outcry went out in the city, but the two goddesses ignored it, and the small black wisps of Annihilara's consciousness crossed the desert and were absorbed back into her body. Hesitantly, Kolassa began walking again, while Annihilara flew backwards a few dozen yards ahead.

"Were your visions the same as mine?" Annihilara asked quietly.

"Likely," said Kolassa. "I was a child, as were you."

"Your loved ones…" Annihilara said in a strangled voice. "Condemning you, putting you down, before being torn apart by ghastly things from your past."

"Yes," Kolassa whispered.

"I panicked," Annihilara whimpered. "I forgot, as I often do, what they really thought of me. I know that because I speak to them often." She looked up at Kolassa. "Would you like to speak with those you left behind?"

Kolassa tilted her head. "Wh… what?"

"Ponies who have been at peace for a few centuries can be difficult to understand," Annihilara explained. "They've achieved a higher level of enlightenment and knowledge, the kind of thing even a goddess couldn't begin to comprehend, bound to the mortal plane as we are. But… they're still up there. I can still bring them here in a form we can understand. Would you like that?"

Kolassa grinned. "Would I ever. I would hate for that awful vision to be my last memory of seeing them. It would ease my mind very much."

"Say no more. Who am I looking for?"

"My mother and father. And my teacher, Spyder."

Annihilara stared off into space. "Okay, I think I've got them. Anyone else?"

"No, just them will be fine."

In a swirl of smoke, Rhea, Chronus, and Spyder appeared around Annihilara, so far away that Kolassa could barely see them.

Spyder beamed. "Lady Kolassa," she said lovingly.

The spirits of Rhea and Chronus floated toward Kolassa and gently placed their transparent hooves on her snout.

"Oh, Kolassa…" Rhea said tenderly. "Do you have any idea how proud of you we are?"

Kolassa beamed. "Thank you. You told me that many times."

"Yes, but it has been a while, hasn't it?" Chronus chuckled.

"Yes," Kolassa agreed with a tremor. "A long time. Gosh, you two look young! …Spyder, why don't you look young?"

Spyder floated up alongside Kolassa's parents; she did indeed look aged, though not nearly as much as she had in the hallucination.

"We all have our ideal selves," she explained. "Some best remember the days when they were young and vibrant, and so appear that way as they go about their life after death. Spyder knows she was at her best at the end of her life: the culmination of all her wisdom and experience, the very moment it was time to say 'Let Spyder go'."

Kolassa's smile widened. "How intriguing. Do you think I'm so enlightened, Spyder?"

"Hrmm, Spyder does not know," Spyder said thoughtfully. "How much wisdom can be accrued by one who does not die? It's hard to say. But you make Spyder proud too, Lady Kolassa."

Rhea shivered and looked around rapidly. "What, um… what's happening?"

"That'll be the fear," said Annihilara, looming up behind the spirits. "It takes a spirit some time to acclimate to being on earth again. I'm going to release you before things get any worse."

"O-okay…" Rhea stammered uncomfortably.

"Thank you for this opportunity, Your Highness," said Chronus, bowing his head.

"Anytime," Annihilara said tonelessly. With a wave of her hoof, the three spirits evaporated.

"Sorry about that," she said to Kolassa. "Spirits, when I call 'em up for the first time, they only last a couple of minutes before giving in to panic. The weak-willed and the recently dead, even less. They gotta recover a bit, but then I can bring them back, and they last a bit longer… my loved ones can hang tight for quite some time, since I bring them down a lot, and we talk, and… they're pretty much accustomed to it. But yours, I figured I'd send them on their way before you had to see them in any kind of freaked state."

"Probably wise," Kolassa conceded, inclining her head. "I… I think I'll let them go. There's no need to bring them back anytime soon. I wouldn't want to bother them, or you, with such a request."

"As you wish."

Kolassa looked over her shoulder at the city as she walked; the dust from the collapsed building had settled, but she could imagine that the commotion in the city hadn't.

"They'll be all right," said Annihilara. "No one harmed but the cultists. The rest of the city will be… confused, I imagine, but nothing worse than that."

Kolassa nodded silently and went on her way. Annihilara inspected her with interest.

"Kolassa, can I… confess something to you?"

She shrugged. "I don't know that I have the authority to absolve you, but certainly."

"Here's the thing…" Annihilara said awkwardly, rubbing one leg with her other hoof. "When I told Celestia, back when this whole cult deal became an issue, that I didn't know anything about it?" She spread her arms helplessly. "Lying through my teeth."

"You were?"

"Oh yeah. I knew everything there was to know about this cult. You know why? Because whenever somepony finds out too much about them, they kill them! And I know everything known by everypony who's ever died."

She sighed so hard that her physical form melted, and when she reformed she was dangling upside-down, and stretched as if made of half-melted wax, all four of her hooves still attached to each other.

"Sure, sometimes I stop paying attention," she said, slowly rotating in the air. "It's not like I know everything there is to know. It's possible to surprise me with something I could have known. But the idea of a piece of knowledge I can't find is… absurd."

Kolassa's brow furrowed as she carefully considered this. "So you and I have spent this whole year digging for information about the cult, tracking their base to Camelazú and finally to a specific location… and this was information you already knew the whole time?"

"Yes," Annihilara muttered, anxiously twisting her front legs together like two thrashing snakes.

"Why, then? Why lie?"

Annihilara sighed in aggravation. "Because… if I gave out that vital information, I wouldn't feel like a hero, I'd feel like I was cheating."

"Cheating?" Kolassa said dubiously.

"Cheating at the game of life," Annihilara explained, gesticulating wildly with what amounted to four shadowy tentacles. "If you've got somepony who's capable of finding out anything, who's ever going to find things out for themselves? I scare myself, don't you see? I could change the world if I wanted to, but I can't. I am not good for the world. I'm… bad luck." She sank lower in the air and hung her head glumly. "If the whole world had my influence, my hoofprint on it… That. Would. Be. Bad."

Kolassa raised an eyebrow. "I'm not so sure I agree… or approve. This wasn't an easy year for me."

"But if there was no me, you wouldn't know that it could have been easier," Annihilara said desperately.

"That makes very little sense," Kolassa retorted tersely. "There is a you, and that means you have the responsibility of utilizing yourself to your full potential."

Annihilara sighed. "You're a rational, reasonable creature, Kolassa. I hate that about you. Can we just… accept the fact that I'm not reasonable and leave it at that? You said it yourself: I'll never see my potential."

"You're driven by emotion, there's nothing wrong with that," said Kolassa. She let out a sigh of her own and looked away. "Look… you're my friend. You helped me seek and destroy this cult when I couldn't have done it myself. And while I don't pretend to understand why your aid wasn't more substantial… you're still my friend, and that makes you valuable."

"Thank you," Annihilara said softly. After a heaving sigh which reformed her body entirely into its normal shape, she continued, "The rest of the cult, the parts of it in the other two nations, they're still around. Celestia and Okapiopteryx are learning what they can, dissolving the organization in bits and pieces, but… well, you know what they say about snakes… you gotta cut off the head."

"They're highly competent," said Kolassa. "I have confidence that they'll eradicate this wicked faith in short order."

"You won't tell them what I confided?" Annihilara said hopefully.

"I won't." She raised a hoof and bowed down. "May you find peace and happiness in life, Princess Annihilara."

With a mumbled goodbye, a serpentine Annihilara flew away on the desert winds, out of sight in seconds.

"What a strange creature," Kolassa pondered. "You are not like the rest of us, Princess Annihilara… you being among the ranks of the goddesses was a freak accident. Well, I do not believe in freak accidents. If only I knew where fate is trying to take you…"