--A Forgotten Nation--
Long ago, before the sun and the moon went to war, before the Crystal Empire had been trampled under Sombra's darkened hoof, before the Changeling Queen had hatched her multitudes, there was a draconequus. In this time, he was extremely powerful, but young and inexperienced in the ways of ponies. He traveled the world over, disguising himself cunningly to evade notice. He sought to gain power and insight with his exploration.
While he was disguised, he came across a humble country, filled with peaceful ponies of every kind, existing in quiet harmony with one another. Seeking to end their harmony, which he found dull and useless, he began to play with those he met on the road, causing minor disruptions in their lives. Confident with his small achievements, the draconequus approached the nearest town to sow the seeds of his delightful chaos.
To his dismay, however, the townsfolk were not receptive to his dark whispers. In disgust, he left the town, seeking easier prey. The more he traveled, the angrier he grew at the contentment of the ponies he found, until he reached the very capital of the kingdom he sought to corrupt. So righteous and kind was the ruler of this nation that the draconequus failed to cause chaos even in the dissidence of the royal court. Incited to rage by the resistance of the entire nation, the draconequus cast a curse of great magnitude over all the good ponies of the kingdom. An impossibly dark cloud grew across the land, obscuring the skies. The magic of the jumbled beast dripped in a brown rain from the storm, effecting the words of Discord.
From this day forth, I stake my claim
From each foal's birth, I grow my fame.
From every pony I take my tax
For every youth from now on will lack.
And by this lack will Chaos reign!
Smugly, Discord watched as his very first curse seeped across the entire civilization, causing irreparable damage to the lives of the people. Even the deposed Emperor and his bride wept for their future. But Discord had foiled his own plot. Even as the new foals were born, the intended chaos withered. Ponies bemoaned the fate of their children, mothers wept for their foals, but chaos did not take hold. Instead, the ponies drew closer together in their time of need, and their harmony strengthened.
So powerful was this sorrowful harmony that it banished Discord forever from its borders. The rightful rulers took their place leading their nation. In their wisdom, they chose to withdraw from the world until a time in which their foals could find a place in the outside realms. Five generations passed, and the ponies grew accustomed to their personal curse. It is here that the real story begins.
--Featherpen--
“What is she like, Swifter? Tell me about my baby.” The new mother asked her husband, her flat gaze passing straight through him. The filly's navy blue father looked at his daughter and took a deep breath, unwilling to break the news. Exasperated, his wife gently chided him. “Swift, you have to tell me. I can hear that there's something wrong, but there's always something wrong. Whatever it is, we promised that we'd handle it together, right?” She was, in fact, right. Swifter Wing couldn't escape his word. He swallowed once and began with the good news.
“She's beautiful, Gossamer. Her eyes are bright and shiny, blue like the sky on a clear day after snow. Her little hooves are so small, I can scarcely believe it. They have to be an eighth the size of my own. Her mane is already long, and I think its color will streak as she gets older. She reacts so readily to my voice, I'm not sure she can't already understand my words.”
“Ohh, I wish I could see her. She sounds wonderful. And can you tell what's – what's missing?”
“Yes.”
“Swift, please. What is our filly missing?”
“She's missing her wings.”
Gossamer gasped, gently feeling her child with feather-light hooves, verifying for herself what she'd been told. She breathed slowly, trying to quiet herself. “She didn't fall through the clouds when she was born, right? Not like the Gust colt last year. She's still a pegasus, like us, right?”
“Yes, she has our magic. Just... not our wings. I'm so sorry, Gossamer.”
The green pegasus mother hung her head and sobbed, tears falling from her sightless eyes.
--Fleetfoot--
A cream-colored colt with a terra-cotta mane and tail sat sulkily on his couch at home, a rolling harness on the floor in front of him. His mother scolded him loudly, but he had tuned her out long ago. He was in trouble yet again, this time for wandering alone in the woods after school. He sniffed a little bit in frustration. His mom wouldn't be nearly so mad if he'd earned his cutie mark today. He could tell he was close, his wanderings in the forest felt so right. Too bad his mom didn't remember what it was like to be a foal.
Of course, it didn't help matters that he'd damaged his wheels on his little outing. It sucked being an adventurous colt without all four of his legs. He could scarcely go a week without jamming a wheel or denting an axle, and if he did manage to avoid breaking it, it was usually because Hearth's Warming Eve was coming soon.
Why did his mom have to name him Fleetfoot, anyway? It seemed petty and mean to him. It was incredibly ironic that she had chosen to name him after the least appropriate ancestor possible. He tuned back in to his mother's ranting just to hear her wrap up.
“And I was so worried about you out there! What if you had run into a Poison Joak patch, or worse?! You know you can't handle yourself out there, it's too dangerous! I have half a mind to restrict you to the house this entire week, young colt!”
Fleetfoot, sick of hearing about his supposed lack of ability, broke. “Just because I don't have my front legs doesn't mean I can't do stuff outside! I'm not made of parchment, Mom! You don't understand at all. I could be out there making a difference, but you JUST WON'T LISTEN!” With that, the angry colt hopped off the couch, settled into his harness, and bolted out the door, leaving his flabbergasted mother behind.
--Vesper--
Vesper felt her sister's side heave as she sighed dutifully. Evenfall never liked escorting her little sister to market, the gray filly knew. Even though her big sister never said as much to Vesper, she could feel the mare's discomfort. The unicorns had been the ponies most able to weather the storm of Discord's long-ago curse, but not even unicorn magic could fix Vesper's sight and hearing, since she had never seen or heard the world.
Vesper got along pretty well, though she relied heavily on her family to get around on market day. After years of practice, she'd hammered out a reasonably effective mode of communication as well. Because her hooves were so perceptive in the void of her other senses, other ponies would tap out their messages with their hooves, and Vesper would speak in reply. Only a handful of the foals her age had bothered to learn the new language, but enough of them knew it to translate for her. She'd been complimented several times on her speaking voice, though a few of the more candid mares told her she spoke in a strangely flat tone. Vesper wished she knew what they meant so she could fix it.
Soon, the vibrations coming up through Vesper's hooves signaled that she and Evenfall had reached the town square, where the market was held every week's end. Above the cacophony of unintentional speech, Vesper felt a greeting in the earth from one of her friends. It was slow and a little wobbly, so she guessed as to the identity of its author.
“Hi, Vesper.”
“Hello, Fleetfoot.You seem less enthusiastic today. What's wrong.”
“You can feel enthusiasm through your feet?”
Vesper snorted. “Of course I can. When you feel less energetic, you don't speak as quickly. You're the fastest talker I know, so something must be wrong.”
“Yeah, well, my mom didn't like my wandering off the other day. I got so frustrated that I just ran out of there, and now I feel really bad. I don't feel like I was wrong, but I think I hurt her feelings.”
Vesper nodded her head, more for Fleetfoot's benefit than her own. As she thought over her friend's dilemma, she realized that Evenfall had left her side, presumably to barter for wood for their father's woodcarving business. Even with reasonable motivation like that, it left Vesper feeling vulnerable, adrift in a sea of nattering hooves.
Perhaps seeing her anxiety, Fleetfoot moved to her side, his sudden warmth startling Vesper almost as much as the sudden dearth of heat from her sister. Fleetfoot stiffened, realizing that he had committed a minor faux pas. Before he could stammer an apology, Vesper murmured a shaken “Thank you.”
The last time Evenfall left Vesper alone in the market, the terrified filly had stampeded through the town, certain that her sister was just a few steps ahead and hadn't meant to leave her behind. Evenfall eventually caught Vesper in the middle of the younger foal's panic. One of Evenfall's friends had called her away to chat, and Evenfall hadn't thought to tell Vesper. Many of the stall keepers still found her relatively infamous, even though Evenfall had been duly scolded and Vesper hadn't had reason to run off since.
“You should tell her why you run off like you do," Vesper stated baldly.
“Huh?!”
“You said your mother doesn't like you wandering off. Tell her why you do it.”
“Oh, well, the problem is, I've tried. It's not a feeling I can put into words, there's just this pull on me to go out and do something. This most recent time, I even got a warm tingling in my flank right before Miss Chalk Dust called me away. I almost got my cutie mark! Instead, I got a lecture about stuff like Poison Joak.” The staccato pace of Fleetfoot's hooves indicated his exasperation with the entire affair. “I just want to be able to find what I'm worth. Mom has her cutie mark, she must have felt the same way at some point!”
Vesper tossed her head gently. “That's what I mean. When your mom's not worried sick about you, she's pretty wise. You should go talk to her before you go wandering off again, you might be pleasantly surprised. She might get where you're coming from.”
“Vesper, that's a great idea! I'm going to go talk to her right now!” Fleetfoot's muscles tensed as he prepared to take off, then relaxed as he remembered who he was with. “Actually, I think I should walk you home before I do that. I'll tell Evenfall on my way back through that she doesn't have to worry about her fair name getting besmirched again.” This last phrase was tapped out with such prim delicacy, Vesper couldn't help but laugh.
“Thanks, Fleetfoot. I know I can depend on you.”
--
Author's Note
Yes, I know Vesper's punctuation is a little off. That's how she speaks, because she can't hear to inflect properly. A question mark or an exclamation point causes a little mental sound, right? There. You just heard it. Vesper can't do that, so when she speaks, it all comes out flat.
I don't like writing phonetically, so you'll also have to imagine the distortion in her voice as she speaks.
