//------------------------------//
// The Tale of the Long-Legged Mare 
// Story: Her Eyes Reflect The Stars 
// by Lynwood 
//------------------------------//

Once upon a time, long before Equestria, before the Princesses, even before the hearth's warming, there was a queen who ruled over a small kingdom of ponies. She was strict but fair, and had long, slender, beautiful legs, and towered high over her subjects, who cared for her greatly.

The Long-Legged Mare's kingdom was safe and prosperous. Crops grew so easily and plentifully that farmers merely had to cast their seeds upon the ground and they would bear fruit in a night and a day. Woodcutters had only to ask the trees to fall, and they would topple to the ground. Artists could touch their brush to their canvas and be filled with such inspiration as to create the most beautiful works the world had ever seen, and soldiers needed only to brandish their spears to drive their enemies away.

The Long-Legged Mare ruled from her palace built over a sacred spring, from which the waters of the kingdom's mighty River flowed. This River was none other than the River of Power, and the Mare, who sat at its base, needed only to dip her hoof into the River's mouth to provide food and health and life to herself and to her ponies.

However, the queen desired more. She used the River to arm her ponies and to create powerful beasts and to conquer, and in this way, many were slain and the kingdom grew into a mighty empire that trod on the backs of its fallen enemies. And the sky was turned gray from the fires upon the world. And the ponies who conquered saw the ruined lands and the corruption that the River had brought to their once-fair queen. So one day, the palace guards took up their arms and made their way to where the Long-Legged Mare's chambers, built around the spot where the sacred spring came forth from the World.

The ponies demanded that the queen give up her crown. When she refused, they bore down upon her with their spears, and in the chaos, the mare was struck in the face and made blind. She stumbled to the pool where the River came forth and toppled in.

The water of the River of Power seeped into the Long-Legged Mare's wounds and changed her.

When the Long-Legged Mare rose from the pool and faced the ponies, she was no longer their queen. They fled the palace in fear, and the land shook, and a great chasm opened beneath the River and the palace, swallowing them into its depths.

The empire soon broke upon itself and faded away, forgotten by nearly all.

Ever since then, the Long-Legged Mare has lusted for revenge from her palace buried deep under the ground. She is sealed there by her own hoof, twisted and warped into something that is not a pony at all. She plans for the day when she will again emerge and the River of Power will see the sun once again. Until then, she watches the dreams of ponies from the shadows, waiting for her time to come.

However, be wary, for she still sits at the mouth of the River, and you ever spot her in your dreams, pray to whatever power you hold dear because you have captured the focus of the Long-Legged Mare's dark and endless rage.

The End.