Scent of Sea

“It is with great sorrow that I announce the passing of our leader.” Ice Blue stood atop the meeting rock and stared down at the large collection of ponies who had amassed below it. “It was today, five in the afternoon, when our beloved Seafoam breathed his last.” There were a few gasps – albeit seemingly mixed with several sighs of relief. Seafoam’s impending death had been obvious, at least to the grown ponies of the village, and Ice Blue had used all her power to make it into a community issue, not least because Seafoam was indeed her own father.

Pale Skies felt her younger brother grasp at her foreleg and she looked down to comfort him, placing a hoof on his head. He didn’t understand, none of the foals did; it must have been difficult to tell what to feel since the looks on the faces of all the ponies in the crowd were so varied. Ice Blue herself looked distraught and pained – as one who had just lost a parent would tend to. As Seafoam’s only child, she was next in line for position as leader, which had generated mixed responses; Ice Blue was young, inexperienced, and hardly appeared confident about taking the position of duty.

And yet this was exactly why many of the younger ponies among Pale Skies’ age felt that she would be a successful leader. It seemed at times that Seafoam had been in power for a virtual eternity, and quite a number of the ponies of Pale Skies’ generation had complained that he had made no effort to adapt as time had moved forward and culture had grown. In his young daughter Ice Blue, these ponies saw someone who was closer to them, might be more willing to listen to their ideas, and truly improve life.

♦

They lived on an island. Maresolus was its name, and Pale Skies remembered learning that this name meant “alone in the sea,” supposedly in some forgotten ancient language. There was also the rather humorous legend that the island had been discovered by a mare named Solus, and she could think of no better way to mark her territory than with her identity.

As far as Pale Skies had been taught, nopony really knew where the population of Maresolus had come from; a popular idea was that the original ponies who’d founded the island had been pegasi, since they would have been physically capable of reaching the isolated land before the invention of boats. But if there ever had been pegasi living on Maresolus, they evidently hadn’t stayed long, since the island’s occupants now consisted of a great majority of earth ponies with a few unicorns, including Seafoam and Ice Blue’s family line.

Pale Skies’ father, Thundercloud, once told her of a visit to Maresolus by one Princess Celestia, a pony who was supposedly majestically tall and had both a unicorn horn and wings like a pegasus, and apparently ruled over the entirety of the world. It was said that she possessed incredible magic and aged at an extremely slow rate, much to the fascination of the ponies of Maresolus. Thundercloud explained that Princess Celestia had allegedly visited the island in order to recruit students, but the reception had been a cool one.

Pale Skies remembered sitting on the floor in their beach hut while her mother, Calm Breeze, prepared fruit for dinner. “Seafoam told her, ‘While we acknowledge and respect your royalty, we here on Maresolus prefer to be left alone.’ Can you believe that? He actually told Princess Celestia to leave!” Thundercloud exclaimed.

“Oh, goodness, are you telling her that story again? I’ve asked you not to talk about it. That was a long time ago,” Calm Breeze said. She sounded sad.

“Look, it’s relevant in our island’s history,” Thundercloud replied. “I don’t know if Seafoam is even going to include it in their curriculum. He probably doesn’t want them to be aware that there are any superiors above him.”

Calm Breeze thought this over. “Yes, I guess you are right,” she murmured. Then she came in from the kitchen and sat down with them for a moment. “I recall it too… she was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Like something out of a dream. She was so kind to us, but I remember… my parents were scared. They told me that she couldn’t understand us, that we could only trust one of our own.”

“The false prophet, they called her,” Thundercloud added.

“Yes…” Calm Breeze looked like she was on the verge of tears, so Pale Skies quickly trotted over and hugged her. “Thank you, darling. I’m alright. This was many years ago; I was younger than you are now.” Pale Skies had been a filly at the time, old enough to be out of diapers and understand language, but certainly far from being capable of fully comprehending the weight of the tale her parents were telling. “She wasn’t even angry when Seafoam asked her to leave,” Calm Breeze went on. “Just…” she trailed off.

“Disappointed,” Thundercloud finished the sentence. “She could easily have done anything; she obviously had a great deal of magical power, but she didn’t. All she said was, ‘If that’s truly what you believe is best for your ponies, I will not deny it.’ And then she left. I doubt she’ll ever return.”

To this day, Pale Skies remembered the story. It seemed impossible, in a way, but she liked to believe it; she liked believing that there was some mystical tall pony with wings and a horn who could open the door to a life of enlightenment.

It wasn’t that life on Maresolus was bad, exactly, it was just – empty. There was always a great deal of work to be done, since everypony was considered responsible for the upkeep of the island and its community. Each pony was assigned a role by the leader after the appearance of his or her cutie mark, although the greater part of jobs involved some form of labor.

Pale Skies’ cutie mark was a spyglass, and upon seeing it Seafoam had described it as “impressive.” Even though he didn’t exactly sound happy about it, Calm Breeze and Thundercloud had been visibly proud. Thus, Pale Skies was allotted the job of “Observer,” which was in effect just a title that matched with her cutie mark. Her task, ostensibly, was to check the beaches for incoming unexpected tides, but since they could be tracked quite well, Pale Skies usually spent her time cleaning up debris that washed up onshore. It was dull, dull work, but then it was easy – far preferable to the career of “boulder management.”

Pale Skies often found herself wondering if this was simply how life was; mostly planned by others, with every pony having an assured, assigned place in the world. Life was something to be endured, and leisure something to be savored. Perhaps there was some small chance that things could be changed under the rule of Ice Blue, but Pale Skies found herself having a difficult time imagining life a different way.

Time would tell.

♦

Pale Skies’ closest friend was Finch, a male earth pony whose cutie mark showed a crooning songbird. It had been determined by Seafoam that the appropriate job for him, then, was to work as a regional guard, since his cutie mark seemed to indicate a talent for alerting others to danger. In retrospect, both Pale Skies and Finch agreed that this interpretation was laughable, but challenging it publicly would have meant humiliation, and besides, Finch was decent at his job.

In truth, for the most part Finch did nothing, but if a ship appeared to be approaching from the south (Finch lived in the Southern Region, like Pale Skies, and thus worked at the southern guard post) then he was to turn them away “if not meeting qualifications.” Essentially what this amounted to was refusing all vessels: the qualifications for accepting a ship were that its passengers were residents of Maresolus, but since leaving the island was basically impossible, no ships were able to be eligible.

For a while, it seemed to not yet have occurred to Seafoam that he had created a job doing nothing, and the guard posts around the island effectually became nothing more than hangout spots. But somehow he got wind of the situation, and instituted a new policy: several times per week at random intervals, Seafoam would “investigate” one of the four guard posts on the island, and whomsoever was found to be doing an inadequate job would be reassigned to work in the quarry.

Finch was dedicated and optimistic about his work, and this was part of the reason that Pale Skies enjoyed being with him; he renewed her own sense of faith in life. They spent time together whenever they had the chance – if Pale Skies managed to clear the beach or early, or if Finch saw an opportunity to slip away for a while.

Today they had met up particularly at Pale Skies’ request; she was eager to discuss her thoughts on Ice Blue’s ascension to leader and she wondered how Finch felt about it, too. They sat on the sand of Unity Beach in the western region of Maresolus where Pale Skies did her work. The two were far from alone; there were plenty of other workers who, like Pale Skies, had been assigned jobs with prestigious titles but whose actual job amounted to cleanup. Finch and Pale Skies found a spot that was relatively clean and not too busy and situated themselves there.

“Do you really think she can change things?” Pale Skies ventured.

“Change things how?”

Pale Skies tried to find the words. “It just seems like… I don’t know. It’s like we’re out of balance with the rest of the world.”

Finch looked genuinely perplexed. “Out of balance? What do you mean by that?”

“Look, Maresolus is a great country… well, it’s better than some others, I suppose… but there’s a whole world of other countries, other cultures, and other ponies…”

Finch put his hoof on his friend’s shoulder. “I know. But they wouldn’t understand us, Pale Skies, you know that.”

“Right, but… don’t you feel like they could? Like they could understand us, if we worked with them and talked about things.”

Finch seemed to be thinking this through for a few moments. “Are you unhappy?” he said, finally.

“Well, I just think that maybe we need to change some of our ways. I mean, you and I do nothing all day. And why? Because we’ve been assigned jobs by our leader. The truth in our cutie marks is disregarded…”

“What ‘truth’?”

“Look. Look at your cutie mark: it’s a singing bird. So why are you working as a guard? Because Seafoam said that makes sense? None of us are putting our real talents to use! We’re all just doing simple, mindless labor…” Pale Skies trailed off.

Finch opened his mouth, then closed it. He furrowed his brow, and then looked up at Pale Skies. She was prepared to hear the worst; she was prepared to hear that he no longer trusted her as a friend, or something even more painful than that – but instead, Finch said, “Well, maybe you could talk to Ice Blue.”

♦

“I’m glad you came,” was the first thing Ice Blue said.

Pale Skies could see that her new leader didn’t look very glad; Ice Blue still appeared beat up from her father’s death only a week previously. In a way, though, Ice Blue was quite beautiful: she was only a few years older than Pale Skies and Finch but was somewhat taller, and it was impossible not to notice her beautiful unicorn horn, a true rarity on Maresolus.

“You are?” Pale Skies asked, rather taken aback at the response.

“No one’s come to see me yet,” Ice Blue answered and gave a hollow laugh. “After I made the announcement of my father’s death, everyone knew I was next in line, and that was it.” She paused and took a breath. “Anyway, I suppose it doesn’t matter. It’s not as if I was looking forward to a great ceremony or something.”

“Ponies didn’t generally come visit Seafoam,” Pale Skies said quietly. “I’m sure every pony assumes the same social protocol is in place.” She felt meek and scared, though she didn’t know why; Ice Blue was no elder, and besides that, she seemed fragile. To avoid catching her new leader’s eye, Pale Skies glanced at her cutie mark: it appeared to be a bright blue shooting star.

Ice Blue followed Pale Skies’ gaze. “Oh, don’t look at that,” she said and quickly covered the mark with a hoof.

“I’m sorry…” Pale Skies quickly looked elsewhere.

“Why did you come?” Ice Blue said. She had begun to sound defensive, probably recovering from having Pale Skies look at her cutie mark.

Pale Skies gulped. In a way, she herself didn’t even know. She had been so impassioned before when talking to Finch, but now much of it had fizzled away. Pale Skies was disappointed in herself for already upsetting the new leader, and she had no desire to continue on that path by unloading a bevy of radical thoughts upon her. “I…” she mumbled. “I have a few ideas.”

Ice Blue’s expression softened and a small smile appeared on her face. “I bet you do,” she said, not sarcastically.

“You… do?”

“I’m sure you’ve got a lot to say.” Ice Blue nodded.  “It’s about time, too. This is what I’ve been waiting for. I’ve been dying to get over this period where people are only starting to view me as their leader. There’s work to be done, don’t you think?”

Pale Skies felt a few drops of courage fall onto her heart, and she smiled back at the leader. “Yes… I do think,” she replied.

“Well, let’s hear,” Ice Blue said.

“Um, there’s a lot I want to talk about,” Pale Skies admitted. “Like… work, and our education, and maybe we should invite Princess Cel-” she caught herself and stopped, blushing.

Suddenly Ice Blue’s manner changed back to cold and distant. “Say that again,” she demanded.

“Our work and education policies…”

“Say what you were going to say at the end.”

Pale Skies scanned the ground. What would her punishment be for saying Princess Celestia’s name? Would it be better to refuse Ice Blue’s request? No, that couldn’t be. Pale Skies forced out the words in a tiny voice: “Maybe we should invite Princess Celestia to come again.”

Ice Blue stayed unsmiling, but her eyes lit up. “So you know about her, too,” she said. “You must’ve heard from your parents.”

“They didn’t mean any harm,” Pale Skies said quickly. “Don’t do anything to them. I’ll take any punishment instead of them, they have my younger brother to look after.”

Ice Blue seemed not to have heard. “Do you think she’s real?” she asked. She sounded scared or excited. “Can it truly be that there are ponies with wings and a unicorn horn?”

“I- I don’t know.” Pale Skies was baffled. For some reason she had expected Ice Blue to know everything about Princess Celestia. “Didn’t she visit while your father was in power? Didn’t he… tell you things about her?”

Ice Blue rolled her eyes. “As if he ever told me anything important. He didn’t trust anyone but himself, not even his own daughter. He would’ve ruled Maresolus forever if he could’ve.”

“It’s as if he wanted to compete with her,” Pale Skies offered.

“Could be. It’s sad, really… an ordinary earth pony trying to compete with an alicorn who’s a champion of magic.” Ice Blue sighed hard.

Pale Skies thought of something she could say to comfort her. “He… just wanted to be a good leader,” she attempted.

Ice Blue looked up and nodded. “Right. That’s right.”

“Do you want her to come?”

“Do you?”

Pale Skies blew some air threw her lips. “Well… I don’t know. But I want to-” she tried to remember her words from her conversation with Finch earlier that day. “-I want to be in balance with the rest of the world.”

Ice Blue appeared as confounded by this idea as Finch had been. “In balance with it?”

“Some of the things we do, our practices, they seem so…” she looked for the word. “narrow-minded. Too, um, stuck in the past.”

“Go on.”

“Well… this whole policy of having jobs assigned to us – it just seems unnatural. It seems wrong. We’ve been going so many years basically ignoring what our cutie marks say, and for what?” Pale Skies felt her voice becoming louder and more fervent, but she couldn’t stop herself. “So that we could assume some pre-planned role in the society of Maresolus? And there’s so much else that we aren’t even tapping into! I know we don’t have many unicorns here, but I’m sure they want to access magic beyond simple telekinesis. And pegasi! What if we had pegasi? If we all paid attention to our cutie marks and found our abilities that way, then everyone would fit together the way were meant to. We could be happy!”

When Pale Skies was finished, Ice Blue’s mouth was slightly open and her eyebrows raised high. She took a deep breath before she responded. “…And… you think that if Princess Celestia came here, all those things would be… made right?”

“It would help,” Pale Skies answered, her voice returning to a normal tone. “It could be a start.”

“I don’t…. I don’t know how,” Ice Blue said finally. “I don’t know how we can do any of the things you want.”

“Me either,” Pale Skies said, crestfallen.

“Perhaps… perhaps it’s time we opened relations with the mainland,” Ice Blue murmured.

“Equestria?!”

“Yes,” Ice Blue went on, her voice growing in confidence. “Yes. That’s got to be the way. I’ll send an emissary, someone I can trust…”

“I’ll go,” Pale Skies heard herself say.

Ice Blue beamed. “I was hoping you would volunteer!”

“You were?”

The leader nodded. “Look, Pale Skies. Look at your cutie mark. Do you know what that is?”

“Yes, it’s a spyglass.”

“So… unusual,” Ice Blue said wistfully. “I’m not surprised you got the job of Observer. Er… the title of ‘Observer,’ anyway. This mission will be an opportunity for you to really be an observer. Although it will be much more complicated than that. You must understand that you are essentially venturing into the unknown.”

Pale Skies felt waves of fear flow over her body. But it was different from what she’d experienced previously, the worrying of letting down her parents or angering her leader; it was a fear that felt good. There must have been a word for it… excitement. “I understand,” Pale Skies said. “I want to do it.”

“Then Pale Skies, I hereby declare you as my emissary to Equestria.”

Pale Skies smiled and looked up at her leader.

Ice Blue said: “I’m scared.”