Forgottenby Nasuna SenshiChaptersPrologue: MemoriesChapter 1: A Life-Changing GiftChapter 2: Turning Town Upside-DownPrologue: MemoriesCelestia walked through the large, white, silent halls of Canterlot Castle, her hooffalls echoing throughout the space in a truly splendid manner. The architect of this building had certainly done well at what he had been attempting to do: make it as easy to be heard as possible. This helped when capturing intruders, as their hooves' impacts were so magnified that most of the guards heard them as if they were coming from right next to them, as well as helping should the princesses need to lift their voices for any reason. For Celestia, however, it was little more than a mild annoyance, something to distract her from her thoughts even when she did not desire it. The Princess of the Sun turned a corner, and spotted her destination. A small, shabby-looking door at the end of a pristine white hallway. Celestia could not stop her pace from slowing slightly as she took in the sight of the door. It's hinges were rusted, and the fine oak wood had grown mildew and just begun to rot. How sad, she thought, as she continued down the hall, that something of such importance should fall into such disrepair. She reached out with her magic, and grasped the handle of the door. The princess hesitated, but only for a moment, before pushing the door open carefully, so as not to damage it further. The sight before Celestia's eyes was one she had not seen in a long, long time. It was a small room, with shelves on either side, and a table set against the far wall. On the shelves and table sat candles, enchanted so that they might burn for all eternity, and between every candle sat a picture, creating a lovely display of interspersed candles and frames, and always ending with a candle on the edge of the shelf. Some of the pictures were paintings, some photographs, but each one was set into a small frame that could easily be held in a single hoof. There were also several frames on the shelves that remained empty, waiting for a picture to be placed inside. The table, however, only had four candles set upon it, and three frames, each in between two candles, much like the ones on the shelves. One frame, the frame on the left, was empty. The one on the right held a painting of a white unicorn stallion with a white coat and long white beard, in combination with a star-speckled hat with bells all around the rim, and a single one hanging off the point. But the one in the center held a picture of a plain, gray-coated mare, an earth pony, with nothing striking about her at all. This was the picture Celestia made a beeline for, occasionally glancing at the other portraits around her, but always coming back to the one that appeared to be the centerpiece for the room. Once she reached it, she stopped, and simply stood there for a moment, looking at the mare in the picture. After a while, she stretched out her wings, picking up the old painting with her prehensile feathers, and brought it close to her. She then sat back on her haunches, picking up her forehooves and wrapping them around the picture, bringing it to her chest as a few small tears threatened to escape from her eyes. "I thought I would find you here." The sound of her sister's voice surprised the Sun Princess, but she managed to keep calm and put the picture back in it's place. She then turned around to face her sister, Princess Luna. "Do you miss her as much as I do, sister?" Celestia asked after a moment. "Of course I do. How could I not?" "I just... after I had to banish you to the moon, I had no one. I came here often during those thousand years." "I'm sorry for that, sister." "No... no I'm sorry. I was the one who didn't see how jealous you were becoming. I was the one who did not act, even when you began acting out. I was the one who banished you to the moon." "Sister, you cannot blame yourself. It was, after all, I who chose to become Nightmare Moon. If I had not let my jealousy get the best of me..." "We are both at fault for what happened then. But it would have been easier for me if she had been there. Indeed, none of that might have happened if she had been there." Luna looked as though she wanted to disagree, to say nothing would have been made different just by the presence of one pony, but she could not bring herself to think otherwise. She had always been there for them. She could have stopped her from letting the ponies' love of sunlight get to her. She could have prevented Nightmare Moon from ever existing. But she was gone, now, and she had been for so many years. "Sister, I'm sorry, but I miss her greatly, and wish that she could be here today." Celestia said. "As do I, sister. Yet you know as well as I that she watches us still." Celestia nodded, and turned back to the picture, listening to Luna's hooves approach from behind, until she came up beside her. She briefly wondered how the Princess of the Moon had approached without her hearing in the first place. Had she been that wrapped up in her old memories? Or had Luna simply flown through the halls? Perhaps a combination of the two. "Sister, have you ever considered... changing our names? Back to what they were supposed to be?" Luna asked the larger mare. Celestia could do nothing but stare at the picture that had been the cause of the discussion, and ponder the question that her younger sister posed to her. Chapter 1: A Life-Changing GiftMare awoke slowly, forcing herself out of the comfortable mass that her bed had become. It had been a long night, as usual, and she could barely stand on her four hooves. Oh well, a good mug of hot mud would cure that right up. Mare sighed. Drinking mud for breakfast. That had been her life for a good twenty years now, but she still couldn't shake off the feeling that it wasn't right. Ponies weren't supposed to eat mud. She had heard, once, from old Granny Boulders, that there were other ponies far away who ate a golden thing called hay, but that didn't sound right, either. Eating gold? That sounded just as bad as eating mud! Of course, Granny Boulders also said those ponies could control the weather, and some of them had horns and could levitate things, but that was preposterous. Levitating things with a horn? No, no, old Granny was just a little eccentric, that was all. Mare walked down her stairs and grabbed a mug from her kitchen before stepping outside and dropping it into the bog. After a few minutes, it would be filled to the brim with mud and moss, and then she could take it back in and heat it up at the fireplace. Simple. In the meantime, she gathered up what few pebbles she could find in all the mud around her home, and brought them inside for a nice morning's pebbles in dirty water. Dirty water was hard to come by, but Mare always thought that if she didn't use it while she had it, then she would always have it, but never use it. It was a somewhat complicated thought, and one that Mare prided herself on. She didn't have much else to be proud of. Her house was just like the other five in the village, muddy, mossy, and moldy, depending on where you looked at it. She had not come up with any ingenious inventions like Flint the Great, who had discovered how to make fire with rocks, and heck, she didn't even have a unique name! Her parents had not been the most creative ponies in the world, but couldn't they have given her a better name than Mare? Like Pebble, or Mud, or Moss, but not just Mare! Mare sighed as she dropped the pebbles she had gathered into a bowl, before reaching down and picking her dirty water up off the floor. She poured the water onto the pebbles and was rather entertained at how the light gray areas that had managed to dry turned almost black as they got wet again. She then lowered her muzzle and began gulping down pebbles, which might have been difficult if she hadn't been doing it for at least twenty-five years. "MARE! MARE!" Somepony called as they knocked with a hoof. Mare was barely phased by the suddenness of the arrival. Of course, he did this practically every day. "What is it now, Clay?" (Now he had an uncommon name!) "Is the mud boiling? Or the pebbles walking? Oooo, or maybe the moss ate Granny Boulders?" Mare sassed as she walked forward and opened the door. Clay was always reporting some disaster or another, which was always just a mistake. "No!" Clay shouted in her face. The dull brown pony looked frantic, his eyes darting every which way. He always looked like that, though. "Then what is it?" "It's Grass Day!" Mare felt what little color was in her face drain away as he said those two words. Grass Day. The most dreaded day of the entire year. How could she have forgotten? Well, her mornings were always the same, maybe that was it. "Mayor Pebbles is gathering everypony in the square!" Mare simply nodded and rushed outside after Clay, though the nervous pony ran much more erratically than she. She briefly thought of how she had considered running for mayor. She probably could have won, but she decided not to run at all for two reasons. One, the only real benefit it had was that you weren't an option on Grass Day, and she had never been picked anyway, and two, her name. Mayor Mare. That would fly with everypony in town. Once she reached the square she stopped dead in her tracks, right behind Clay, so they actually fell in with everypony else in an orderly fashion. Two ponies in the front, Clay and Granny Boulders, and three in the back, Mare, Rock, and Weed. Mayor Pebbles stood in front of everypony else, on a small mound of mud and moss. The makeshift stage was still soft, and so the town's leader was slowly slipping lower and lower, approaching the height of everypony else. "Attention, ponies! I will now choose who will venture into the swamps to retrieve more grass for our homes!" An audible gulp was heard from everypony in the small crowd. The swamps were dangerous. Almost every pony who was chosen for Grass Day never came back out again, but a few had, hence why they had any grass for their roofs at all. The Mayor closed his eyes and swept his hoof from side to side, over everypony in the crowd. Several of the other ponies shut their eyes as well, but Mare kept hers open. She wanted to see if she was chosen. But soon, the Mayor's hoof began to slow, and eventually it stopped, pointing straight at Weed. The sickly green mare trembled, though her eyes were closed. Perhaps she knew, somehow, that it was her. Mare let out a breath she had not realized she'd been holding. That was it. It was Weed. What a shame, she was a nice enough pony, but it had to be done. It was then that fate played a cruel trick. Just as the Mayor began to open his eyes, the mud he was standing on gave out, and he staggered. After a moment of attempting to regain his balance while still keeping his forehoof in the air, Mayor Pebbles managed it, and looked up to see who he had pointed at. His hoof was pointing straight at Mare. Mare felt every fiber of her being tense up as she watched everypony else open their eyes and see that he was pointing right at her. Nopony except her knew that Weed had been the one who had been pointed at first, and if she tried to tell them, it would seem like she was just trying to get out of having to do it. Which, to be fair, is what she would be doing. She could barely hear the Mayor say, "Mare, you have been chosen to travel into the swamp to retrieve some grass for our village. Return quickly, and... be safe." She barely felt all of the hugs and hoofshakes she got from the other villagers. She couldn't believe it. She, Mare, was about to walk into her own death. "Alright Mare, be safe!" Granny Boulders said cheerily, as if Mare was simply going home after a hard day's work at the trees. The trees surrounded their small settlement, and every day they went out to chop off limbs that were getting too close, and pull up any saplings that had begun to sprout. The trees were where the monsters lived, so they had to be held back. It was these trees that Mare walked towards now. She took one last look back at her home before pressing forward, the black branches reaching out like hungry talons. As she began to walk through the trees, Mare noticed something. She wasn't in a swamp, or a bog. The ground beneath her feet seemed hard, and solid. What could have caused that? Did it have something to do with the trees? And if it wasn't a swamp, then what was it? It was this interesting train of thought that kept her from being terrified for her life. Until, of course, she heard a rustling in the plant life around her. Mare stopped, her ears swiveling to listen to what could very well be the last thing she ever heard. Slowly, she turned her head in the direction of the rustling. There, off to her right just a short way, was a patch of grass. She managed to get a little excited at the thought of grabbing it and going home, but then she noticed what had made the rustling sound. It was a horrible little monster, with a bushy white tail and long white ears. It's little pink nose sniffed about in the grass, and Mare screamed at the sight of the creature. She ran as fast as she could away from the white horror which she was sure would catch up to her at any moment and take a bite out of her hind leg. After awhile, Mare found herself getting tired, so she collapsed to the ground in a shivering heap, convinced she was doomed. It was at this moment of utter despair that Mare felt a light touch on her back. She knew she should be scared, should tense up and wait for the end, but somehow, that one little touch made her feel more calm than she ever had in her life. Slowly, she uncurled herself and stood, facing whatever had touched her. The sight she saw made her jaw drop in disbelief. They were two ponies, but not like any ponies she had ever seen before. They were both very tall, easily dwarfing any other pony that Mare had encountered. They also both shone with an ethereal light, one was like the sun, the other shining in a way that only darkness can, with small stars seeming to be scattered through it's being, as well as large, circular bodies that Mare could not identify. They were more like light given pony form than anything else. But the most significant thing about them was that the masses of stars and sunlight that comprised them seemed to form two large wings at each of their backs, and one large horn for their foreheads. Mare had no idea who these two were, but it seemed appropriate to bow in this instance. "Arise, Mare of the Forgotten." The sun-like one said, in a voice that indicated she was a mare. "Forgotten?" Mare asked. "Yes." The star-speckled one answered, his voice showing he was a stallion. "Your people have forgotten, and in turn, been forgotten." "What does that mean?" "There are others, Mare of the Forgotten. Many other ponies, with gifts your people do not possess. Ponies with magic." "What?" Mare's mind was reeling. Other ponies? Who used magic? Granny Boulders wasn't just a kooky old lady? Who were these two? Why were they here? Why were they telling her all of this? Who were these two? "Who are you?" Mare finally spat out, despite all of the questions spinning in her head. "We are your creators. The creators of this whole world. We are the ones who move the sun and moon. We are Day..." The sunny mare introduced herself. "And Night." The stallion finished. Mare was only left reeling again. Gods? She was standing in a swamp that wasn't a swamp, having a conversation with two gods? "Why are you talking to me? Surely there are more important ponies out there that you can talk to, especially if some of them can use magic, like you say!" "We are here, Mare of the Forgotten, to pass on knowledge to you, and..." Day looked at Night for a moment, "Something more." "Mare of the Forgotten, your people have forgotten how to live. These trees, this forest, is a blessing to you. It would keep the ground from crumbling, it would help to keep you dry, and yet you push it back for fear of monsters that dare not tread near this part of the wood. You eat stones and dirt when there is green grass waiting to be eaten just outside your borders. You do not..." "Enough, husband. She has heard enough to fix what has been broken." Mare was reeling once again. Grass was meant to be eaten? Monsters did not come near this part of the, what was it, wood? The trees kept the ground steady? "Mare of the Forgotten, many ponies disappeared in this part of the wood, but only because we sent them on their way to a better life. Some, we urged to come back and tell their families what they learned, but none did. Some did not hear us, and simply gathered grass and left. But you, you are different. You are special." Mare was startled by this statement. Her, different? Her, special? That couldn't be right. "You are the only one in all of our creation that we could entrust with the most precious of all things to us." Day finished, and her wings, which had been unfurled at her sides all this time, stretched forward, cupping around each other, and then spreading apart again. Her left wing, which had been on top of the other, stretched back to it's place, but the other remained outstretched, and Mare saw two small things there. They were foals. Fillies, to be specific, and they were asleep on Day's wing. One as black as night but with a light blue mane that curled in a cutesy way, and the other white as snow with a pink mane that stretched out behind her. "Their... their manes aren't the same color as their coats!" Mare exclaimed in genuine surprise. Day chuckled. "No, that is because they have magic. Your people remain rather colorless, and their manes always match the rest of them, because they lack magic. These two, however, possess more magic than any other pony in the world. These are our children, Sunlight and Moonshine." Mare stared in awe at the two sleeping fillies, with so much power. They were really quite adorable. A question crept into the back of Mare's mind, though, even as she was mesmerized by the young foals. As if on cue, Day continued talking. "We are afraid that if we raise them ourselves, they will not appreciate ponies the way princesses should. The way the ones who move the sun and moon should. So, we decided to entrust them to a pony who can raise them to love ponies. You." Mare was snapped out of her awe-inspired stupor by that one simple word. Princesses? Who raised the sun and moon? And... SHE was supposed to raise them?! "But... but... but... How can I raise them? I know nothing about magic! Nothing about goddesses! Nothing about princesses! How am I supposed to do anything with them?!" "She speaks the truth, dear wife." Night said. "How can she raise something she knows nothing about?" "She can, husband. I know she can." "But, why can't you just keep raising the sun and moon?! I mean, why do they need to do it?" "It is their purpose." Day answered, as if that was supposed to clear everything up. Mare sighed and lowered her head. If these two wanted her to take these fillies into her care, she couldn't refuse, but... it was so much, and so suddenly! How was she supposed to raise the princesses who would move the sun and moon? "We must leave here soon, Mare of the Forgotten. Will you take our children under your care?" Day asked simply. Mare thought. She should say no. Just say no, and go back home, where she could tell everypony about what she had learned. But... she looked at the fillies. They needed to care for ponies. If they didn't, they had the power to destroy them. And with that kind of power combined with an absence of love... Another thought to be proud of. "Yes." Mare finally answered. "I will take these fillies into my care." "Thank you, Mare of the Forgotten. Good-bye." Day said, as she slipped the two fillies onto Mare's back, ever so gently, and then rose into the sky. Night stayed for a moment, looking at Mare and his two daughters, and then following his wife into the sky, before disappearing altogether. Mare stood there for a moment, thinking about what had just happened. It had been sudden, and brief, and yet it was probably the single most important and memorable thing that would ever happen to her. It was at that moment that the fillies began to stir and wake up. They looked around for a moment, and then began to cry. Loudly. Great. Mare thought. This is what I agreed to. Chapter 2: Turning Town Upside-DownMare had been walking for some time now, and two things had become apparent. One, the two fillies on her back were not going to stop crying anytime soon, and two, she had gotten herself completely lost when she ran from that white fluffy creature before. Which way is home? she thought to herself. Which way is..? "OOF!" One of the fillies, the white one, had thrown herself violently against Mare's back. Mare huffed through her nostrils once, and then decided to get them to stop, one way or another. She tipped the foals off of her back gently, and then turned to face them, bringing her face close to their own. "Listen you two, I don't care if you grow up to be goddesses or princesses or whatever, your crying is really getting ON MY NERVES!" She hadn't quite meant to shout, but she had, and somehow, by some miracle, it had worked. Both fillies were now completely silent and staring at her. She drew her head back, and nodded once. "Good." Was all she said before turning around and sitting back on her haunches, waiting for the fillies to climb up. Unfortunately, for Mare, she hadn't realized that the fillies' crying was a blessing in disguise. The light flapping sound she heard coming from behind her was enough to get her to turn around. What she saw was so frightening, and so dangerous, that her pupils reduced to pinpricks at the mere sight of it. The little white one, Sunlight, was flitting through the branches of the trees, giggling merrily as her tiny wings somehow managed to lift her up. The black one, Moonshine, sat on the ground staring longingly up at her sister. She flapped her wings experimentally, and then began to flap them as hard as she could, but she couldn't get herself off the ground. It looked for a moment like she would start to cry again, but then Sunlight flew down to her, hovering a couple of inches in the air. They stared at each other for a moment, and then Sunlight giggled, and her little horn began to glow. Moonshine slowly lifted into the air, enveloped in the same color energy as was coming from Sunlight's horn. Mare could only stand there, mouth agape, as the two fillies in her care flew about the forest in fits of giggles. How? How could they do these things? What had she gotten herself into? Eventually, she managed to pull herself together enough to talk. "Alright you two, you'd better come down!" She said, without any real force to her voice at all. "We've got to get back to town, and tell them what's happened." Much to Mare's surprise, the two seemed to understand, and came down, landing on her back in an only slightly painful manner. They liked to do what they wanted, but they also took direction. Interesting. Mare breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't have to go chasing through the trees after two small fillies, one of whom would be nearly impossible to find if night fell. As she walked in what she hoped was the direction of the village, Mare thought about what she had been told. Grass was edible, huh? She decided to stop and try it out for herself, so as soon as she spotted a patch of grass, she trotted over to it. She leaned her head down and took a bite, and was surprised at just how good it was, especially when compared to mud and pebbles. It was a little bitter, but it didn't taste like dirt, so that was a plus. Just then, a shout came from Mare's back. "Wabbit!" One of the fillies shouted, and dove into the grass. Mare watched as one of the small white monsters skittered through the grass, fleeing from a laughing Sunlight. Mare started trotting at a faster pace to catch the filly, but the creature and the foal moved quickly, so she was forced to start galloping, and then yelled for the filly to stop. Once again, she obeyed. It was proving to be quite a nice aspect of these two's personalities, that they did as they were told. Mare thought for a moment. Sunlight and Moonshine, the daughters of Night and Day. Ugh. Now those were some unoriginal names. Maybe not as bad as hers, but still undesirable. She considered changing them, but they were the names given to them by gods, and their parents, didn't they know best? Still, Mare couldn't keep herself from trying to think up knew names for the fillies. The sun was a celestial body, and the moon was a lunar one. Maybe she could work with those two words, and see what came of it. After several more minutes of light trotting, during which the fillies scampered about and got distracted at least a dozen times, Mare found her way back into the clearing where her settlement stood. She walked to the Mayor's building, explaining what she had seen and heard and showing the fillies as proof. Obviously, Mayor Pebbles was skeptical, but after she took him to find some grass and he tried it, he agreed that it was better than rocks. Perhaps she was right, and they should let the trees grow in. "Anyway," Mayor Pebbles started, after all of this had occurred, "I'm sure you are quite tired, after the day you've just had, and if you're right, then you won't have to go out and work at the trees anyway, so I think it would be best if you went home and got some rest." Sunlight chose that moment to fall from where she had been hovering and land solidly on the Mayor's head. "Besides," he continued, picking the filly up and handing her back to Mare, "It looks like you'll be busy enough at home." The Mayor was right about that, to be sure. It took Mare the better part of three hours to get the fillies stationary, and another one and a half to get them settled into her bed and asleep. Mare shook her head and crept under her covers, ending up between the two, and, just before she fell asleep, she thought of the two fillies' new names. Celestia and Luna. * * * The next morning, Mare awoke slowly, just as she did every day. It took her a moment to remember what had happened the previous day, and even longer to realize she had slept for fourteen hours straight. Yeesh, she had been tired. That was when she noticed she was alone in her bed, and she heard frantic giggles coming from the main floor of her house. She rushed downstairs and spotted Moonshine, who she had now dubbed Luna, staring out the window with a broad smile on her face, laughing like she was watching a circus act. Mare walked over to her and looked out the window herself. Her heart jumped into her throat and she ran outside as fast as her hooves could carry her. The entire town, minus Mare's house was floating in the air. Four ponies, Clay, Rock, Weed, and Mayor Pebbles, were standing on the ground, awestruck by what they saw. Clay's house floated over and nearly smashed into Weed's, but they just managed to miss each other. Mare thought she knew what was happening, and before she knew it, her thoughts were proven right. The little filly Mare now called Celestia was standing in the middle of the floating buildings, giggling with glee. Granny Boulders was among the objects floating through the air now, and was laughing as hard as Mare had ever seen her. "Celestia!" Mare shouted at the filly. The small pony looked over to her, smiling, but then stopped when she realized her caretaker was not happy. "Put all those things back where you got them this instant young lady!" Celestia pouted for a moment, but then complied, returning every house and every object back to their former places. The only problem was that she put all the houses back upside-down. The filly trotted over to Mare, smiling once again, but Mare could only frown at her and say, "Put them back right-side up, Celestia." The filly tried. Her horn glowed for a moment, and then sparked and went out. The filly then yawned and lay down in the mud to take a nap. Mare turned to face the other townsponies, each and every one of whom were now glaring at her. "Heh. It's a funny story." She started, and began to explain where the fillies had come from. Once she was finished, Weed, Rock, and Clay were thoroughly convinced that the fillies were dangerous, and had to go. Mayor Pebbles was fine with them, as long as they behaved, and Granny Boulders was simply ecstatic that there were real, magic-using ponies in their humble little village. "See? See? I told you they could use magic! I told all of ya, but ya didn't believe me did ya? Thought I was just a kooky old lady didn'tcha? But now the evidence is right in front of yer faces! And not just magic users, but ALICORNS no less! But PRINCESSES no less! And such sweet little girls they are, aren't dey?" "Oh, stow it Granny!" Rocks said. He had always been the rudest of the villagers. "Those... those... things don't belong here! They're dangerous! We've got to get rid of them!" "Nonsense! They'z just cute little fillies who don't understand their own powers yet! Can't blame 'em fer that!" "You just watch me, Granny! They turned all of our houses upside-down! Except for hers, of course, since she's raisin' 'em!" "Well, technically, only Celestia turned the houses upside-down." Mare interjected, ignoring the obvious insult Rock had made towards her. "Even worse! What if they work together to do something like that? What if they kill somepony? Will you keep defending them then?" "I'm not defending them, Rock, I'm just being sensible. What Celestia did was wrong, and she knows that now. As soon as she's got her strength back I'll make her fix the buildings, I promise." "Oh yeah? Well what about that other one? Why can't she fix the buildings while her sister's restin'? "I don't think Luna is as strong as Celestia yet, if ever. She can't fix what Celestia did." "Then make her lift one building at a time, I don't care! Just get my house and our town back to normal!" "Rock, I don't think Luna could lift any of these houses, and even if she could, I don't know how many she could do before passing out. I was tasked with taking care of these fillies, and I'm not about to force them to work just because their sibling did something wrong!" "And why not? You saw her! She just sat by that window, LAUGHIN' as her sister messed with our homes!" "It's not Luna's fault, and I'm not going to make her struggle just because you hold a petty grudge against an innocent filly." "INNOCENT?!" Rock spluttered, obviously losing control of his anger, "Mare, have you even looked around you?! That 'innocent' filly just RUINED OUR TOWN!" "It's not ruined, it's not even damaged, just turned upside-down, that's all." "I'M TELLING YOU MARE, IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW, I'LL..." "You'll what, Rock?" Mare asked, getting right up in Rock's face, so their muzzles were almost touching. "You'll beat a defenseless mare? You'll hurt, maybe even kill, fillies?" Rock was left with no words, just his mouth hanging open as Mare backed away. "Now, if you would all excuse me, I'm going to go inside and scold the fillies in my care, as I should." And she did. The others, who had been silent all this time, began to disperse, but not before looking at Rock, some with anger, and others with fearful respect. Soon, only Rock was left, staring at the only right house left. "If that's what it takes, Mare." He mumbled to himself, as he turned back to his own, upside-down, house. "If that's what it takes."
Prologue: MemoriesCelestia walked through the large, white, silent halls of Canterlot Castle, her hooffalls echoing throughout the space in a truly splendid manner. The architect of this building had certainly done well at what he had been attempting to do: make it as easy to be heard as possible. This helped when capturing intruders, as their hooves' impacts were so magnified that most of the guards heard them as if they were coming from right next to them, as well as helping should the princesses need to lift their voices for any reason. For Celestia, however, it was little more than a mild annoyance, something to distract her from her thoughts even when she did not desire it. The Princess of the Sun turned a corner, and spotted her destination. A small, shabby-looking door at the end of a pristine white hallway. Celestia could not stop her pace from slowing slightly as she took in the sight of the door. It's hinges were rusted, and the fine oak wood had grown mildew and just begun to rot. How sad, she thought, as she continued down the hall, that something of such importance should fall into such disrepair. She reached out with her magic, and grasped the handle of the door. The princess hesitated, but only for a moment, before pushing the door open carefully, so as not to damage it further. The sight before Celestia's eyes was one she had not seen in a long, long time. It was a small room, with shelves on either side, and a table set against the far wall. On the shelves and table sat candles, enchanted so that they might burn for all eternity, and between every candle sat a picture, creating a lovely display of interspersed candles and frames, and always ending with a candle on the edge of the shelf. Some of the pictures were paintings, some photographs, but each one was set into a small frame that could easily be held in a single hoof. There were also several frames on the shelves that remained empty, waiting for a picture to be placed inside. The table, however, only had four candles set upon it, and three frames, each in between two candles, much like the ones on the shelves. One frame, the frame on the left, was empty. The one on the right held a painting of a white unicorn stallion with a white coat and long white beard, in combination with a star-speckled hat with bells all around the rim, and a single one hanging off the point. But the one in the center held a picture of a plain, gray-coated mare, an earth pony, with nothing striking about her at all. This was the picture Celestia made a beeline for, occasionally glancing at the other portraits around her, but always coming back to the one that appeared to be the centerpiece for the room. Once she reached it, she stopped, and simply stood there for a moment, looking at the mare in the picture. After a while, she stretched out her wings, picking up the old painting with her prehensile feathers, and brought it close to her. She then sat back on her haunches, picking up her forehooves and wrapping them around the picture, bringing it to her chest as a few small tears threatened to escape from her eyes. "I thought I would find you here." The sound of her sister's voice surprised the Sun Princess, but she managed to keep calm and put the picture back in it's place. She then turned around to face her sister, Princess Luna. "Do you miss her as much as I do, sister?" Celestia asked after a moment. "Of course I do. How could I not?" "I just... after I had to banish you to the moon, I had no one. I came here often during those thousand years." "I'm sorry for that, sister." "No... no I'm sorry. I was the one who didn't see how jealous you were becoming. I was the one who did not act, even when you began acting out. I was the one who banished you to the moon." "Sister, you cannot blame yourself. It was, after all, I who chose to become Nightmare Moon. If I had not let my jealousy get the best of me..." "We are both at fault for what happened then. But it would have been easier for me if she had been there. Indeed, none of that might have happened if she had been there." Luna looked as though she wanted to disagree, to say nothing would have been made different just by the presence of one pony, but she could not bring herself to think otherwise. She had always been there for them. She could have stopped her from letting the ponies' love of sunlight get to her. She could have prevented Nightmare Moon from ever existing. But she was gone, now, and she had been for so many years. "Sister, I'm sorry, but I miss her greatly, and wish that she could be here today." Celestia said. "As do I, sister. Yet you know as well as I that she watches us still." Celestia nodded, and turned back to the picture, listening to Luna's hooves approach from behind, until she came up beside her. She briefly wondered how the Princess of the Moon had approached without her hearing in the first place. Had she been that wrapped up in her old memories? Or had Luna simply flown through the halls? Perhaps a combination of the two. "Sister, have you ever considered... changing our names? Back to what they were supposed to be?" Luna asked the larger mare. Celestia could do nothing but stare at the picture that had been the cause of the discussion, and ponder the question that her younger sister posed to her.
Chapter 1: A Life-Changing GiftMare awoke slowly, forcing herself out of the comfortable mass that her bed had become. It had been a long night, as usual, and she could barely stand on her four hooves. Oh well, a good mug of hot mud would cure that right up. Mare sighed. Drinking mud for breakfast. That had been her life for a good twenty years now, but she still couldn't shake off the feeling that it wasn't right. Ponies weren't supposed to eat mud. She had heard, once, from old Granny Boulders, that there were other ponies far away who ate a golden thing called hay, but that didn't sound right, either. Eating gold? That sounded just as bad as eating mud! Of course, Granny Boulders also said those ponies could control the weather, and some of them had horns and could levitate things, but that was preposterous. Levitating things with a horn? No, no, old Granny was just a little eccentric, that was all. Mare walked down her stairs and grabbed a mug from her kitchen before stepping outside and dropping it into the bog. After a few minutes, it would be filled to the brim with mud and moss, and then she could take it back in and heat it up at the fireplace. Simple. In the meantime, she gathered up what few pebbles she could find in all the mud around her home, and brought them inside for a nice morning's pebbles in dirty water. Dirty water was hard to come by, but Mare always thought that if she didn't use it while she had it, then she would always have it, but never use it. It was a somewhat complicated thought, and one that Mare prided herself on. She didn't have much else to be proud of. Her house was just like the other five in the village, muddy, mossy, and moldy, depending on where you looked at it. She had not come up with any ingenious inventions like Flint the Great, who had discovered how to make fire with rocks, and heck, she didn't even have a unique name! Her parents had not been the most creative ponies in the world, but couldn't they have given her a better name than Mare? Like Pebble, or Mud, or Moss, but not just Mare! Mare sighed as she dropped the pebbles she had gathered into a bowl, before reaching down and picking her dirty water up off the floor. She poured the water onto the pebbles and was rather entertained at how the light gray areas that had managed to dry turned almost black as they got wet again. She then lowered her muzzle and began gulping down pebbles, which might have been difficult if she hadn't been doing it for at least twenty-five years. "MARE! MARE!" Somepony called as they knocked with a hoof. Mare was barely phased by the suddenness of the arrival. Of course, he did this practically every day. "What is it now, Clay?" (Now he had an uncommon name!) "Is the mud boiling? Or the pebbles walking? Oooo, or maybe the moss ate Granny Boulders?" Mare sassed as she walked forward and opened the door. Clay was always reporting some disaster or another, which was always just a mistake. "No!" Clay shouted in her face. The dull brown pony looked frantic, his eyes darting every which way. He always looked like that, though. "Then what is it?" "It's Grass Day!" Mare felt what little color was in her face drain away as he said those two words. Grass Day. The most dreaded day of the entire year. How could she have forgotten? Well, her mornings were always the same, maybe that was it. "Mayor Pebbles is gathering everypony in the square!" Mare simply nodded and rushed outside after Clay, though the nervous pony ran much more erratically than she. She briefly thought of how she had considered running for mayor. She probably could have won, but she decided not to run at all for two reasons. One, the only real benefit it had was that you weren't an option on Grass Day, and she had never been picked anyway, and two, her name. Mayor Mare. That would fly with everypony in town. Once she reached the square she stopped dead in her tracks, right behind Clay, so they actually fell in with everypony else in an orderly fashion. Two ponies in the front, Clay and Granny Boulders, and three in the back, Mare, Rock, and Weed. Mayor Pebbles stood in front of everypony else, on a small mound of mud and moss. The makeshift stage was still soft, and so the town's leader was slowly slipping lower and lower, approaching the height of everypony else. "Attention, ponies! I will now choose who will venture into the swamps to retrieve more grass for our homes!" An audible gulp was heard from everypony in the small crowd. The swamps were dangerous. Almost every pony who was chosen for Grass Day never came back out again, but a few had, hence why they had any grass for their roofs at all. The Mayor closed his eyes and swept his hoof from side to side, over everypony in the crowd. Several of the other ponies shut their eyes as well, but Mare kept hers open. She wanted to see if she was chosen. But soon, the Mayor's hoof began to slow, and eventually it stopped, pointing straight at Weed. The sickly green mare trembled, though her eyes were closed. Perhaps she knew, somehow, that it was her. Mare let out a breath she had not realized she'd been holding. That was it. It was Weed. What a shame, she was a nice enough pony, but it had to be done. It was then that fate played a cruel trick. Just as the Mayor began to open his eyes, the mud he was standing on gave out, and he staggered. After a moment of attempting to regain his balance while still keeping his forehoof in the air, Mayor Pebbles managed it, and looked up to see who he had pointed at. His hoof was pointing straight at Mare. Mare felt every fiber of her being tense up as she watched everypony else open their eyes and see that he was pointing right at her. Nopony except her knew that Weed had been the one who had been pointed at first, and if she tried to tell them, it would seem like she was just trying to get out of having to do it. Which, to be fair, is what she would be doing. She could barely hear the Mayor say, "Mare, you have been chosen to travel into the swamp to retrieve some grass for our village. Return quickly, and... be safe." She barely felt all of the hugs and hoofshakes she got from the other villagers. She couldn't believe it. She, Mare, was about to walk into her own death. "Alright Mare, be safe!" Granny Boulders said cheerily, as if Mare was simply going home after a hard day's work at the trees. The trees surrounded their small settlement, and every day they went out to chop off limbs that were getting too close, and pull up any saplings that had begun to sprout. The trees were where the monsters lived, so they had to be held back. It was these trees that Mare walked towards now. She took one last look back at her home before pressing forward, the black branches reaching out like hungry talons. As she began to walk through the trees, Mare noticed something. She wasn't in a swamp, or a bog. The ground beneath her feet seemed hard, and solid. What could have caused that? Did it have something to do with the trees? And if it wasn't a swamp, then what was it? It was this interesting train of thought that kept her from being terrified for her life. Until, of course, she heard a rustling in the plant life around her. Mare stopped, her ears swiveling to listen to what could very well be the last thing she ever heard. Slowly, she turned her head in the direction of the rustling. There, off to her right just a short way, was a patch of grass. She managed to get a little excited at the thought of grabbing it and going home, but then she noticed what had made the rustling sound. It was a horrible little monster, with a bushy white tail and long white ears. It's little pink nose sniffed about in the grass, and Mare screamed at the sight of the creature. She ran as fast as she could away from the white horror which she was sure would catch up to her at any moment and take a bite out of her hind leg. After awhile, Mare found herself getting tired, so she collapsed to the ground in a shivering heap, convinced she was doomed. It was at this moment of utter despair that Mare felt a light touch on her back. She knew she should be scared, should tense up and wait for the end, but somehow, that one little touch made her feel more calm than she ever had in her life. Slowly, she uncurled herself and stood, facing whatever had touched her. The sight she saw made her jaw drop in disbelief. They were two ponies, but not like any ponies she had ever seen before. They were both very tall, easily dwarfing any other pony that Mare had encountered. They also both shone with an ethereal light, one was like the sun, the other shining in a way that only darkness can, with small stars seeming to be scattered through it's being, as well as large, circular bodies that Mare could not identify. They were more like light given pony form than anything else. But the most significant thing about them was that the masses of stars and sunlight that comprised them seemed to form two large wings at each of their backs, and one large horn for their foreheads. Mare had no idea who these two were, but it seemed appropriate to bow in this instance. "Arise, Mare of the Forgotten." The sun-like one said, in a voice that indicated she was a mare. "Forgotten?" Mare asked. "Yes." The star-speckled one answered, his voice showing he was a stallion. "Your people have forgotten, and in turn, been forgotten." "What does that mean?" "There are others, Mare of the Forgotten. Many other ponies, with gifts your people do not possess. Ponies with magic." "What?" Mare's mind was reeling. Other ponies? Who used magic? Granny Boulders wasn't just a kooky old lady? Who were these two? Why were they here? Why were they telling her all of this? Who were these two? "Who are you?" Mare finally spat out, despite all of the questions spinning in her head. "We are your creators. The creators of this whole world. We are the ones who move the sun and moon. We are Day..." The sunny mare introduced herself. "And Night." The stallion finished. Mare was only left reeling again. Gods? She was standing in a swamp that wasn't a swamp, having a conversation with two gods? "Why are you talking to me? Surely there are more important ponies out there that you can talk to, especially if some of them can use magic, like you say!" "We are here, Mare of the Forgotten, to pass on knowledge to you, and..." Day looked at Night for a moment, "Something more." "Mare of the Forgotten, your people have forgotten how to live. These trees, this forest, is a blessing to you. It would keep the ground from crumbling, it would help to keep you dry, and yet you push it back for fear of monsters that dare not tread near this part of the wood. You eat stones and dirt when there is green grass waiting to be eaten just outside your borders. You do not..." "Enough, husband. She has heard enough to fix what has been broken." Mare was reeling once again. Grass was meant to be eaten? Monsters did not come near this part of the, what was it, wood? The trees kept the ground steady? "Mare of the Forgotten, many ponies disappeared in this part of the wood, but only because we sent them on their way to a better life. Some, we urged to come back and tell their families what they learned, but none did. Some did not hear us, and simply gathered grass and left. But you, you are different. You are special." Mare was startled by this statement. Her, different? Her, special? That couldn't be right. "You are the only one in all of our creation that we could entrust with the most precious of all things to us." Day finished, and her wings, which had been unfurled at her sides all this time, stretched forward, cupping around each other, and then spreading apart again. Her left wing, which had been on top of the other, stretched back to it's place, but the other remained outstretched, and Mare saw two small things there. They were foals. Fillies, to be specific, and they were asleep on Day's wing. One as black as night but with a light blue mane that curled in a cutesy way, and the other white as snow with a pink mane that stretched out behind her. "Their... their manes aren't the same color as their coats!" Mare exclaimed in genuine surprise. Day chuckled. "No, that is because they have magic. Your people remain rather colorless, and their manes always match the rest of them, because they lack magic. These two, however, possess more magic than any other pony in the world. These are our children, Sunlight and Moonshine." Mare stared in awe at the two sleeping fillies, with so much power. They were really quite adorable. A question crept into the back of Mare's mind, though, even as she was mesmerized by the young foals. As if on cue, Day continued talking. "We are afraid that if we raise them ourselves, they will not appreciate ponies the way princesses should. The way the ones who move the sun and moon should. So, we decided to entrust them to a pony who can raise them to love ponies. You." Mare was snapped out of her awe-inspired stupor by that one simple word. Princesses? Who raised the sun and moon? And... SHE was supposed to raise them?! "But... but... but... How can I raise them? I know nothing about magic! Nothing about goddesses! Nothing about princesses! How am I supposed to do anything with them?!" "She speaks the truth, dear wife." Night said. "How can she raise something she knows nothing about?" "She can, husband. I know she can." "But, why can't you just keep raising the sun and moon?! I mean, why do they need to do it?" "It is their purpose." Day answered, as if that was supposed to clear everything up. Mare sighed and lowered her head. If these two wanted her to take these fillies into her care, she couldn't refuse, but... it was so much, and so suddenly! How was she supposed to raise the princesses who would move the sun and moon? "We must leave here soon, Mare of the Forgotten. Will you take our children under your care?" Day asked simply. Mare thought. She should say no. Just say no, and go back home, where she could tell everypony about what she had learned. But... she looked at the fillies. They needed to care for ponies. If they didn't, they had the power to destroy them. And with that kind of power combined with an absence of love... Another thought to be proud of. "Yes." Mare finally answered. "I will take these fillies into my care." "Thank you, Mare of the Forgotten. Good-bye." Day said, as she slipped the two fillies onto Mare's back, ever so gently, and then rose into the sky. Night stayed for a moment, looking at Mare and his two daughters, and then following his wife into the sky, before disappearing altogether. Mare stood there for a moment, thinking about what had just happened. It had been sudden, and brief, and yet it was probably the single most important and memorable thing that would ever happen to her. It was at that moment that the fillies began to stir and wake up. They looked around for a moment, and then began to cry. Loudly. Great. Mare thought. This is what I agreed to.
Chapter 2: Turning Town Upside-DownMare had been walking for some time now, and two things had become apparent. One, the two fillies on her back were not going to stop crying anytime soon, and two, she had gotten herself completely lost when she ran from that white fluffy creature before. Which way is home? she thought to herself. Which way is..? "OOF!" One of the fillies, the white one, had thrown herself violently against Mare's back. Mare huffed through her nostrils once, and then decided to get them to stop, one way or another. She tipped the foals off of her back gently, and then turned to face them, bringing her face close to their own. "Listen you two, I don't care if you grow up to be goddesses or princesses or whatever, your crying is really getting ON MY NERVES!" She hadn't quite meant to shout, but she had, and somehow, by some miracle, it had worked. Both fillies were now completely silent and staring at her. She drew her head back, and nodded once. "Good." Was all she said before turning around and sitting back on her haunches, waiting for the fillies to climb up. Unfortunately, for Mare, she hadn't realized that the fillies' crying was a blessing in disguise. The light flapping sound she heard coming from behind her was enough to get her to turn around. What she saw was so frightening, and so dangerous, that her pupils reduced to pinpricks at the mere sight of it. The little white one, Sunlight, was flitting through the branches of the trees, giggling merrily as her tiny wings somehow managed to lift her up. The black one, Moonshine, sat on the ground staring longingly up at her sister. She flapped her wings experimentally, and then began to flap them as hard as she could, but she couldn't get herself off the ground. It looked for a moment like she would start to cry again, but then Sunlight flew down to her, hovering a couple of inches in the air. They stared at each other for a moment, and then Sunlight giggled, and her little horn began to glow. Moonshine slowly lifted into the air, enveloped in the same color energy as was coming from Sunlight's horn. Mare could only stand there, mouth agape, as the two fillies in her care flew about the forest in fits of giggles. How? How could they do these things? What had she gotten herself into? Eventually, she managed to pull herself together enough to talk. "Alright you two, you'd better come down!" She said, without any real force to her voice at all. "We've got to get back to town, and tell them what's happened." Much to Mare's surprise, the two seemed to understand, and came down, landing on her back in an only slightly painful manner. They liked to do what they wanted, but they also took direction. Interesting. Mare breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't have to go chasing through the trees after two small fillies, one of whom would be nearly impossible to find if night fell. As she walked in what she hoped was the direction of the village, Mare thought about what she had been told. Grass was edible, huh? She decided to stop and try it out for herself, so as soon as she spotted a patch of grass, she trotted over to it. She leaned her head down and took a bite, and was surprised at just how good it was, especially when compared to mud and pebbles. It was a little bitter, but it didn't taste like dirt, so that was a plus. Just then, a shout came from Mare's back. "Wabbit!" One of the fillies shouted, and dove into the grass. Mare watched as one of the small white monsters skittered through the grass, fleeing from a laughing Sunlight. Mare started trotting at a faster pace to catch the filly, but the creature and the foal moved quickly, so she was forced to start galloping, and then yelled for the filly to stop. Once again, she obeyed. It was proving to be quite a nice aspect of these two's personalities, that they did as they were told. Mare thought for a moment. Sunlight and Moonshine, the daughters of Night and Day. Ugh. Now those were some unoriginal names. Maybe not as bad as hers, but still undesirable. She considered changing them, but they were the names given to them by gods, and their parents, didn't they know best? Still, Mare couldn't keep herself from trying to think up knew names for the fillies. The sun was a celestial body, and the moon was a lunar one. Maybe she could work with those two words, and see what came of it. After several more minutes of light trotting, during which the fillies scampered about and got distracted at least a dozen times, Mare found her way back into the clearing where her settlement stood. She walked to the Mayor's building, explaining what she had seen and heard and showing the fillies as proof. Obviously, Mayor Pebbles was skeptical, but after she took him to find some grass and he tried it, he agreed that it was better than rocks. Perhaps she was right, and they should let the trees grow in. "Anyway," Mayor Pebbles started, after all of this had occurred, "I'm sure you are quite tired, after the day you've just had, and if you're right, then you won't have to go out and work at the trees anyway, so I think it would be best if you went home and got some rest." Sunlight chose that moment to fall from where she had been hovering and land solidly on the Mayor's head. "Besides," he continued, picking the filly up and handing her back to Mare, "It looks like you'll be busy enough at home." The Mayor was right about that, to be sure. It took Mare the better part of three hours to get the fillies stationary, and another one and a half to get them settled into her bed and asleep. Mare shook her head and crept under her covers, ending up between the two, and, just before she fell asleep, she thought of the two fillies' new names. Celestia and Luna. * * * The next morning, Mare awoke slowly, just as she did every day. It took her a moment to remember what had happened the previous day, and even longer to realize she had slept for fourteen hours straight. Yeesh, she had been tired. That was when she noticed she was alone in her bed, and she heard frantic giggles coming from the main floor of her house. She rushed downstairs and spotted Moonshine, who she had now dubbed Luna, staring out the window with a broad smile on her face, laughing like she was watching a circus act. Mare walked over to her and looked out the window herself. Her heart jumped into her throat and she ran outside as fast as her hooves could carry her. The entire town, minus Mare's house was floating in the air. Four ponies, Clay, Rock, Weed, and Mayor Pebbles, were standing on the ground, awestruck by what they saw. Clay's house floated over and nearly smashed into Weed's, but they just managed to miss each other. Mare thought she knew what was happening, and before she knew it, her thoughts were proven right. The little filly Mare now called Celestia was standing in the middle of the floating buildings, giggling with glee. Granny Boulders was among the objects floating through the air now, and was laughing as hard as Mare had ever seen her. "Celestia!" Mare shouted at the filly. The small pony looked over to her, smiling, but then stopped when she realized her caretaker was not happy. "Put all those things back where you got them this instant young lady!" Celestia pouted for a moment, but then complied, returning every house and every object back to their former places. The only problem was that she put all the houses back upside-down. The filly trotted over to Mare, smiling once again, but Mare could only frown at her and say, "Put them back right-side up, Celestia." The filly tried. Her horn glowed for a moment, and then sparked and went out. The filly then yawned and lay down in the mud to take a nap. Mare turned to face the other townsponies, each and every one of whom were now glaring at her. "Heh. It's a funny story." She started, and began to explain where the fillies had come from. Once she was finished, Weed, Rock, and Clay were thoroughly convinced that the fillies were dangerous, and had to go. Mayor Pebbles was fine with them, as long as they behaved, and Granny Boulders was simply ecstatic that there were real, magic-using ponies in their humble little village. "See? See? I told you they could use magic! I told all of ya, but ya didn't believe me did ya? Thought I was just a kooky old lady didn'tcha? But now the evidence is right in front of yer faces! And not just magic users, but ALICORNS no less! But PRINCESSES no less! And such sweet little girls they are, aren't dey?" "Oh, stow it Granny!" Rocks said. He had always been the rudest of the villagers. "Those... those... things don't belong here! They're dangerous! We've got to get rid of them!" "Nonsense! They'z just cute little fillies who don't understand their own powers yet! Can't blame 'em fer that!" "You just watch me, Granny! They turned all of our houses upside-down! Except for hers, of course, since she's raisin' 'em!" "Well, technically, only Celestia turned the houses upside-down." Mare interjected, ignoring the obvious insult Rock had made towards her. "Even worse! What if they work together to do something like that? What if they kill somepony? Will you keep defending them then?" "I'm not defending them, Rock, I'm just being sensible. What Celestia did was wrong, and she knows that now. As soon as she's got her strength back I'll make her fix the buildings, I promise." "Oh yeah? Well what about that other one? Why can't she fix the buildings while her sister's restin'? "I don't think Luna is as strong as Celestia yet, if ever. She can't fix what Celestia did." "Then make her lift one building at a time, I don't care! Just get my house and our town back to normal!" "Rock, I don't think Luna could lift any of these houses, and even if she could, I don't know how many she could do before passing out. I was tasked with taking care of these fillies, and I'm not about to force them to work just because their sibling did something wrong!" "And why not? You saw her! She just sat by that window, LAUGHIN' as her sister messed with our homes!" "It's not Luna's fault, and I'm not going to make her struggle just because you hold a petty grudge against an innocent filly." "INNOCENT?!" Rock spluttered, obviously losing control of his anger, "Mare, have you even looked around you?! That 'innocent' filly just RUINED OUR TOWN!" "It's not ruined, it's not even damaged, just turned upside-down, that's all." "I'M TELLING YOU MARE, IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW, I'LL..." "You'll what, Rock?" Mare asked, getting right up in Rock's face, so their muzzles were almost touching. "You'll beat a defenseless mare? You'll hurt, maybe even kill, fillies?" Rock was left with no words, just his mouth hanging open as Mare backed away. "Now, if you would all excuse me, I'm going to go inside and scold the fillies in my care, as I should." And she did. The others, who had been silent all this time, began to disperse, but not before looking at Rock, some with anger, and others with fearful respect. Soon, only Rock was left, staring at the only right house left. "If that's what it takes, Mare." He mumbled to himself, as he turned back to his own, upside-down, house. "If that's what it takes."
