Author's Note
I know, I know, WTH an A/N at the top?!?!? Well, this is because I'm ambivalent about this fic. I'd like to expand it, but I don't know how much interest there will be.
If this gets enough attention, I'll consider expanding it into a full blown, multi-chapter fic (ideas abound if not the will or the time.) If not, it's a nice little headcanon piece.
I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you like and don't like, or if want to see more!
~ Pixie
An Uncharted Destiny
An Uncharted Destiny
by sweetPixiesmile
All she knew was that she had to move.
Her muscles bunched and strained as she galloped up and over each rolling hill. Tall waving grass spread before her, changing to tumbleweeds and scrub brush. They gave way to vast deserts and sands, eventually forming into rocky crags and lofty heights. Her breath frosted in the air, her laboured gasps trailing behind. She climbed, her legs trembling, knocking rocks and boulders from her path to tumble down the crystal mountain side. Lather fell in clotted clumps from her star speckled heaving flanks of midnight.
If her legs were a union of strength and endurance, it was her wings that were filled with the magic of speed and flight. She leapt from a peak and her deep, dark wings unfurled in a majesty of iridescent hues, bearing her into the sky, over the vast expanse of the ocean.
The heavens were her domain, not the solidity of earth.
With mighty sweeps, she soared higher and higher. Her legs churned in the night sky as she rose into the deeper dark, the cold, colder and sharper. When the land lay far below her, the features melded into indistinct forms of colour, she snapped her wings out, twirling and as her momentum stopped, she hung in place like a shimmering star. Then she lowered her head, furled her wings and dived.
She plummeted, the sun’s rays glinting off her sable horn. Down, down she fell, her eyes closed. The air about her warmed and contrails began to play off her glistening body. The air thickened into a tangible force. Today would be a day of joy, and as much as she loved flying, her heart was elsewhere. She opened her eyes. The wide sheet of the grey sea rose to meet her, the towers of the ocean were slow moving mountains that were taller than the mountains of the earth. With a single power snap of her wings, the water exploded from around her and she shot over the frothing crests.
She flew, chasing a dream, racing to meet the dawn.
The rolling seas were a tortured churning. She could feel the pain of their upheaval, skittering along her coat.
Her sweat ran off her, the wind whistled in her flattened ears, her black mane and tail flying free in the rushing air. Far in the horizon she could see a speck on the tumultuous tableau of constantly moving grey, the constant to which the compass of her heart was fixed. Geysers formed and spewed upward with a final blast of water, before stilling.
She grinned.
The mote in the ocean grew larger as she neared, resolving into a lush crescent shaped island of fine white sand. In the shallows of the sheltered lagoon were four figures and her heart leapt at the ight of them.
One mare lay in the shallow water, blood still floating crimson around the scaled coat. A second stood next to her, the coat an ever undulating shimmer with hocks as ephemeral as a cloud at dawn, nuzzled the dozing mare. A smaller figure with a pristine white coat frolicked in the water her light pink mane flicking out behind her, while the last, her coat a deep, deep blue and a light silver mane, trembled and shook and stumbled about, trying to follow the other filly.
“Mom!” cried out the white foal with glee, lurching to a stop before galloping over in a sparkling spray of water and sand. She threw her white forelegs around the tall slender mare as she alighted with a final flap of her massive wings.
“Hey sunshine,” she greeted as they nuzzled each other, “have you been good for your other mothers, Celestia?”
“Of course,” the filly sniffed with utmost aplomb, before breaking into an irresistible grin. “C’mon, come meet my sister!” She gambled a few paces away before pausing to ensure the dark alicorn followed.
“Your sister,” she chuckled. “Not my new baby daughter?”
“Well, she’s my sister,” she pointed out with a flick of her pink tail, walking through the still waters. As they approached, the shimmering alicorn looked up, glowing with light, and smiled.
“Nyx,” she sighed, rubbing cheeks with the newly arrived alicorn’s dark, sparkling coat with a sigh. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Aurora. Didn’t quite make it, though,” the darker mare muttered. They touched horns briefly before sharing a quick kiss. “How is she?”
“You could just ask me,” complained the mare in the water with ill disguised humour. Nyx dutifully approached the supine mare.
“Thassie,” she greeted her with a deep kiss. “You’re so beautiful.”
“For a mare who’s just been a beached whale for the last seven months,” she rolled her eyes before she closed her eyes as they also touched horns. “Luna,” she called out, “come and meet your other mother!”
The gamboling foal paused mid leap and fell over into the water with a splash. Celestia giggled as the newborn thrashed her legs and wings in an attempt to right herself before she trotted over and nudged the filly upright and lifted her with a glow of her horn. Luna looked up at the dark, sparkling alicorn before her, then squeaked and stumbled to hide behind the older filly. Thalassa frowned, but Nyx smiled. She was, after all the only dark coated alicorn the newborn had seen.
“Come out, Loonie,” Nyx crooned.
“We are not calling her that,” the foal’s mother sniffed as she struggled to her feet.
“No, Thalassa, we won’t,” Nyx agreed, before turning back to the shivering foal, who was peeking out from under her older, half-sister's hooves. “Come, little one,” she encouraged, unconsciously intensifying the sparkles in her coat. After a moment, the dark blue filly edged out and carefully approached, her eyes flicking between the dark mare and her mother. She was much smaller than her older sister, but then, she was two months premature. As the foal froze again in indecision, Nyx slowly sat down in the water. With that, Luna approached, fascinated by the sparkling on the dark mare’s coat and mane.
“Pretty,” she declared. She then turned about three times, before laying down. She pressed against Nyx’s barrel and promptly fell asleep.
“She’s going to be a lady killer,” laughed the brightly shining alicorn.
Nyx looked at her as a vast feeling of warmth filled her with affection and pride. She bent her neck down over the small filly and inhaled her scent deeply, but as she drew back, her eyes began to glow, brighter and brighter even as her dark coat deepened. Time parted before her, the universe began to spin and spool out under her gaze. She saw Luna growing up, falling in love, ascending to royalty, falling into hate, rising above her hurt and then… Nyx blinked to find Thalassa and Aurora staring at her.
"Did you just part the veils?" Celestia crowed in surprised glee. She kicked up her hooves in excitement. "Did you? Did you?" Thalassa and Aurora were less sanguine.
"A seeing, and so quickly," Aurora murmured in concern. Thalassa came closer, stepping lightly with her clawed hooves, her eyes filled with worry.
“What did you see,” The Sea asked The Night in a whisper. Nyx shook away her tears and gathered the small filly to her with her long, elegant wings as The Stars looked on, a touch of a smile of unbreakable fondness.
“Beauty,” Nyx said as she nuzzled the slumbering foal, her eyes glittering with unshed tears in the clear morning sun.
“Beauty, and an uncharted destiny.”