We were hated, shunned, distrusted, whatever you want to call it. For something we never understood. Our own families hated us and abandoned us. Left us to die in the cold.
Something drew the six of us together. Maybe it was destiny, or maybe it was something else. I don't know, and now, I no longer care enough to find out. None of us do anymore.
We would've died anyway, alone and out in the frozen wastes of what would become Equestria. Not even in the Crystal Empire seemed to want us. Crystal can attest to that.
I still find it hard to believe that her own family would do that to her. I had always heard the Crystal Empire was filled with love and tolerance. Apparently not. Though with what has happened with King Sombra, maybe I should not be surprised.
And then she found us. A myth given form, something none of us had ever thought to be real, let alone one day meet.
Why Tiamat took such interest in us, I don't honestly know. I have always been too afraid to ask her, though I know she would tell us if any of us did.
She all but raised us as her own. We had heard of dragons of course, and we had even seen one far in the distance on occasion. But she was different in many ways.
And I just don't mean in the fact that she has five heads, though that is one reason of course. But there were many more, and probably still more that we never saw.
Each of her heads all but adopted one of us for themselves, though Tiamat was quick to point out to us that, while she had more than one, each head was controlled by the same consciousness, so we were all her children in a way, even if tied to a different head.
I know, I know. I don't get it much either. But I've learned that when it comes to gods, somethings about them will never make sense to a mortal, so I don't worry too much about it.
For years, she raised us by herself, far from any pinpricks of light in a world that was slowly being frozen to death by ponykind's own hatred. We knew about the Windigos, and what was happening to the rest of Equus.
And even after what had happened to us, we still hoped our families were alright. For all they had done to us and left us to die as they had, they were still our families. A part of us could never forget that, and so we hoped.
Then came Hearth's Warming Eve, a tale I need not repeat here, and the founding of Equestria. But by then, we no longer cared about the world that had left us behind to die. By then, we were more family than the ones we once had.
Crystal, Emerald, Celestial, Orchid, and Water Lilly. They're not just my best friends. They're sisters to me. Something I never had in my old life, though I had always wanted one. It's a feeling we all share.
By then, we were different as well from who we had once been. Crystal had stopped aging altogether and was still as young as the day we first met. To our shock, we had all stopped aging it seemed. It didn't make sense.
Mother, for by then that was what Tiamat was to us, explained that being so close to her for so long, some of her own divine energy had become a part of us. We were not gods, but we now shared some of her own powers.
Eternal life, youth, invincibility, among others too numerous to list here. We were still ponies of course, but now we were so much more.
And then came a day that changed everything. For all of us. Something we never expected to happen, and least of all like it did. But that is a tale for another day.
...
...
Oh, you want our full story? This wasn't good enough? Hmm. I suppose it wouldn't really work for what you want. But it's not my story alone to tell.
Twilight Sparkle, First of the Six Mages.
***
Yeah. I know about what happened to the Crystal Empire. No matter what they might have done to me, I still hope mom and dad are alright. I can't help it. It's just how I am. Somethings never change I guess.
So what's it like being a filly in a grown mare's group? Weird. Very weird. But also fun! I mean, we've spent more time together than we ever did alone. Oh sure, the others can be a little crazy. But I love them anyway.
Oh, my title? That would be spoilers now, wouldn't it?
Crystal Dawn, Mistress of the Twin Flames.
***
I never really had a family before I came in with the others. Being an orphan was even less fun at that time than being another kind of pony. The only thing that really saved me was that I was a unicorn, but that was really it.
I don't regret running away. They never cared enough about me as it was it seemed, for they never came looking for me. I wouldn't go back and change that now, for all the world.
Celestial Rose, The Draconic Melody.
***
My kind has always been outcast from pony society, but I never once thought that my own family would disown me, all because I never showed the same aptitude for the Dream Realm they did. I do now of course, but what's done is done.
Yes, I know of Princess Luna. We've met several times now in the Dream Space. She's one of the few I can actually call a friend outside my family. I don't regret that though. My kind was never very good at making a lot of friends.
That, if nothing else, hasn't changed much about me.
Emerald Dream, The Dreaming Cold.
***
It hurt, we won't lie when our family threw us away as they did. We still had each other of course. But that only did so much. One sister is hardly enough for anypony to get by with. Especially at the time. Earth ponies more so, because we valued family so much.
We have a whole family now, far more tied together than our old one ever was. But we sometimes still miss it. Call it our heritage or something. But we wouldn't change what we have now, for all of Equus herself.
Orchid Aura and Water Lilly, Maidens of the Ground.
Author's Note
So, yeah. This story wasn't planned at all. But I do have a plot for the rest of. It's really based more on the cover art by Zettaidullahan, and the title of it.
It just wouldn't leave me alone.
