Forgotten

Mare 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.