Once upon a time on another world the earth met the sea. In that place there were creatures like those known to all. A Mera mare of a pod that lived in the ocean abutting a great mountain range met a Diamond Dog miner from a notably large colony.
Though their land let hybrids come by nature, without need of Princesses and marriages, they were not born without thought. Love would unite disparate blood. As it is known, though Merae have their casual intimacy, shooping, they can love and marry, and share particular and dedicated passion with their spouse. So it was with the two of them. Daughter of water, son of stone, made one. But the story is not about their love. It is about the product of their love. The Diamond Mera.
He was a soft sea blue, like his mother, with fiery red mane like his father's body. Like other Diamond Ponies he had his father's style of body, with two legs and two hands, and the much more canine tail. He had a Mera's head, with the fin-like ears and longer snout than most ponies. His hands and feet were webbed, while his tail was longer, fanned at the end and stiffer than even the normal Diamond Dog tail, much like a rudder.
He did not live in a kind world, as others do. He was of two worlds and neither treated him well. The young Merae chided him for his lack of ability with swimming; his ungainly strokes and kicks, though effective, were nothing like the easy tail-flicks of the Merae. The young Diamond pups mocked his digging; while he could tunnel well, dress stone and cut gems, he was always slower and often had to pull back if he injured his webbing. The lands of mother and father gave rise to the name by which he was derided: the Sea Dog.
He grew up in different homes. His mother could not live on land without transport, which his father often provided, nor could his father live beneath the water unless he was given a kiss from his bride at intervals. So they maintained separate homes for working periods and a single home for the times when they could be together, on the ocean's edge, by the mountain's face.
As he grew the Sea Dog became more uncomfortable in his own skin. He had been told often that he was no good in the worlds of his parents. However his loving parents may have told him to be happy he could not. He believed the others his own age. They informed all of his thoughts and the feelings he had. He grew to dislike being a hybrid, and occasionally wished he had been born a pure-blooded member of some species.
Because his Mera blood gave him great resistance to cold, and his Diamond Dog blood gave him the ability to get on in thin or stale air the Sea Dog often took to scaling the heights of his mountain home. He could do well in the snow, and could hide away from his troubles. It was a good place from which to watch the stars and wonder if he had been put on the face of the land as some kind of poor joke.
One evening as he lay in the snow watching the sun slowly set he thought he saw the light move. As he focused on it he saw the burnished copper tone was not the light of the setting sun but came from a large winged creature that was approaching the mountain. The creature seemed to see him for it turned slightly in the air and made directly for the peak on which he lay, a bright speck among the snow.
As the thing approached its features came into clearer view. Its large wings were casting the color, that warm cooper-gold that merged with the sunset. Most of its body was a similar tone, though a sandy color was evident at the hind paws while up at what were unmistakeably talons at the end of long arms the color yellow was visible. A closer approach revealed the medium-muzzled face of a female Diamond Dog, with a torso that was mostly the same until it reached the hips, where the color and look of a lion took over, though the tail was properly Diamond Dog. Dog-like arms ended, indeed, in eagle talons. Her attire consisted of a vest and a wrapped skirt, in pragmatic Griffin style. She was a Simurgh, an ancient and once-thought-mythic name for the offspring of a griffin and a Diamond Dog.
The Simurgh alit on the peak just before the Sea Dog, standing in typical Diamond Dog posture for a moment before dropping into something between the standard griffin pose and the all-fours running pose of a Dog, her wings folding against her back. The two hybrids looked at one another, as though each was trying to size up the other. Finally, the Simurgh said, “My family inhabits these mountains heights, but I don't think yours does, pup, not if they wish to be together.”
The Sea Dog blinked a little bit. He knew what a Simurgh was but he had never seen them. Griffin aeries were much further inland and his group only ever dealt with small groups of dealers buying ore, ingots, dressed stone or seafood. He knew well it was not common to have a griffin and Diamond Dog getting together. He nodded slowly, “The Dogs much prefer the lower altitudes and beneath the mountain. The merae cannot get up this high without a great deal of help. It is the best place to be alone.”
“Young chicks and pups all seem to prefer alone time. I know my own children are so enamored of hiding in crannies or in the crevices of the mountain,” The Simurgh said, a smile tugging on her lips. “But please tell me, why are you here, alone, seeming very despondent? There seems no reason to rest on the peak unless one wanted to escape those that could not reach it.”
The Sea Dog didn't answer at first, lightly raking at the snow beside himself. “I... want to be away from the others, the foals and pups both. I was to be here to wonder if I am... wrong.”
“Wrong?” The Simurgh queried, with a distinctly eagle-like tilt of her head. “Wrong about what?”
“Not about something. If I am wrong. I wonder if I should even exist...” The Sea Dog began.
“You do exist,” the Simurgh said quickly, “How is that a consideration? 'Should' or 'should not' are not for living beings like us.”
“I don't know if I believe that anymore. Not after seeing how I am... different. I can't swim like the foals, I can't dig like the pups. I do both well enough but not as good as I would if I was pure,” The Sea Dog grumbled, falling back to look up at the stars as they emerged.
“'Pure'... a strange statement. It implies a certain cleanliness, but certainly none of your fellow young creatures are clean or pure. They are cruel to you, after all. Hardly pure,” The Simurgh noted. “I suppose I see. You wish you were like your families, but the crossing means you are not the same as either one. I have encountered this before, when I was younger. I was never as fast as the other griffins, and not as deft in the air. My talons had the enchantments of the other Dogs but their strange make made me less capable of certain digging tasks, and my rear claws were too thin to dig as well as the others. I couldn't imagine ever fitting in.”
“Your comfort is surprisingly lacking,” The Sea Dog said with a frown. “I don't see how that helps.”
“It seems that all young folk are impatient. Let me finish,” The Simurgh said with a laugh. “I thought all of this. Until I came to realize that what made me different made me special. I was bad at things the others could do, but I could do things they could not do as well. No Dog has ever soared the sky like me, not any 'pure' Dog. I see the vistas they can only imagine and drift in a freedom they cannot touch. As for the griffins, well, none of them can tunnel so far or so well, not even with all their prideful might and a heavy pick. I came to see I needed to only turn it around. Not be ashamed of comparisons against those who could beat me, but to think of those things I could do. I would imagine that you can swim better than any Dog.”
“Yes, I have a certain grace beyond the others, and I don't need Mera kisses to breathe in the deep. And... of course I can be on land as much as I want, without needing any transportation,” The Sea Dog said, deeply considering the Simurgh's words.
“Consider what you could do. You are up here, because you say other Dogs do not want to be here, and that you may dive into the depths they cannot reach,” The Simurgh noted, lightly motioning as if encouraging further thought.
“I can be here, down there... I can... I can excavate the mountain tops! I can see the minerals here that we might not ever see, never minding the cold. I could dive to the floor of the ocean, and all the faces of undersea features, digging better than any Mera ever could to pull treasure from the depths. I... I could do what we have never done before!” The Sea Dog leaped to his feet, face a mask of awe as he contemplated all that he could do.
The Simurgh smiled and spread her wings out, slowly flapping them to set her to hovering over the snowy peak. “You will do great things. Just remember, you must be proud of yourself. Only then can you see the real potential that lives inside of you.” With that she flapped powerfully and turned to an angle slightly off from the one that had taken her to the peak, back on the track to wherever she had been going.
After that day the Sea Dog was filled with grand plans and ambitions. His audacious intentions were roundly ridiculed by the pups and colts that had teased him, while the adults were more gently uncertain about what he said. The young were silenced and the old amazed when he came down from the peak with carts of ore let down by pulleys, and when he hauled up the great piles of exotic stones and metals from the dark depths of the ocean.
His singular skills, the capability to do what others could not, made his community rich, and he was hailed by them all, even those that had once mocked him. He never again doubted his own existence. He always remembered the lesson the Simugh had taught him, to be proud of what he was. He was perfect just the way he was, and proud to be a hybrid.