There is a story often told, in many lands, in many ways, from many tellers.
It is a story that says that every creature were once all creatures. Every individual could have a pegasus's flight, a unicorn's spells, a dragon's fire, a minotaur's strength, a griffon's voice, and more, whenever they wished. They could see the world through every set of eyes imaginable, and never had to worry about envy or strife. They were every gender and none all at once, and new beings sprung from earth, sea, and sky whenever there was enough love to tell the world that the newly-arrived would never know loneliness.
These primordial beings, they say, lived in perfect harmony.
Until something broke the world.
What did it changes from telling to telling. Sometimes it is an outside force, a brewing evil from outside of the bounds of the perfect world. Something twisted, something Other that hungered to be part of something it could not touch without the world itself recoiling. Something rotted from the inside out with envy, and so would seek to destroy that which it could never have.
Sometimes it is the selfish acts of a select few who wished to be only ones who could be everything. Creatures who wanted to hoard the grandest powers for themselves and diminish the others. And they succeeded in diving the world, and driving wedges between what would have once been family and friends and now were so impossibly different.
It depends on the lesson that the teller wishes to impart who the perpetrator is, but no matter what, the shattering happens, and everyone ends up locked to a single shape forevermore.
"What do you mean, her heir?!"
Sunset Shimmer couldn't have said she hadn't expected that reaction, but she still flinched away from the volume. "There's no need to shout, Trixie."
"I think there's every need to--"
"But what does that mean?" Twilight Sparkle's shock had come and gone much more quickly, and now curiosity was burning in her eyes. "Princess Celestia is immortal."
"She's not immortal, Twilight. She's ageless. There's a difference. And she hasn't been sitting around for over a thousand years just hoping that nothing heavy ever falls on her head. " It felt like she'd said that so many times before, throughout her time as an apprentice, repeating the correction every time the word came up.
As she continued, however, she started onto topics she had never discussed with any pony but her mentor. "There's a series of mechanisms in place for if something happens to her, and under normal circumstances, Parliament can just... keep doing what it's doing. The parts of governance that usually go straight to the princess are distributed between various key positions."
Moondancer, who'd been sitting quietly in thought, spoke up. "So... what about you?"
"I'm not the heir to the throne." She shifted, twisting her head to look at the mark on her flank. "I'm the heir to the sun. Every generation, she finds a pony with a sun-shaped cutie mark, and takes them under her wing. She trains them, and prepares them to take over. If the worst happens, I make sure the next day comes."
Trixie's voice still held every last bit of incredulity, though thankfully had lowered several decibels. "You've been making the sun rise, then?"
Sunset shook her head. "No. That's how I know that Princess Celestia is still out there. And I think I know how to get a message to her."
The old airship tended to creak, then strong winds rushed by and made it sway back and forth. It was one of the things that Sunflower found charming about it.
The crew were a mixed lot. A few minotaurs, some abyssinians, a diamond dog or two, and she'd spotted at least one griffon. The captain, the strangest of all, was a young dragon, one who couldn't be more than half a century old. She was a serpentine breed who tended to slither more often than use her legs, and coil herself around furniture that was never built to be rested on in such a way. Her scales were mottled in a few different colours, extra glittery scales dotted over her hide like hidden gems, and her eyes were two different colours, one red and the other yellow.
She almost reminded Sunflower a bit of--
dragged through the gates screaming writhing cursing her his last words claiming he'd rather be stone
She didn't want to think about him.
She didn't want to think about a lot of things.
Lovesong was pressed against her side. Her niece had been quiet since boarding, only able to coax the occasional smile or word out when greeted by the crew. Sunflower had done most of the talking for the both of them, convincing them to let the two of them hitch a ride. There hadn't been a ton of protest; apparently the occasional pony would make the same bargain, wanting to see a slice of the world beyond Equestria, and the crew found it amusing.
Pegasi were the most frequent, wanting to go beyond where just their own wings could take them. But the captain had admitted that it wasn't often that one arrived with an earth pony in tow, let alone one who claimed to be her aunt despite looking to be barely older.
Sunflower kept claiming to be older than she looked. After the third or fourth time, she was starting to think that they may believe her. At the very least, she'd heard one of the feline crewmembers muttering that ponies all looked like children to him anyway, so what did he know. She could have taken offense to that, too, as she was slightly taller and more robust than the average mare, but given that she has still towered over by the ship's crew, she couldn't help but acknowledge that he had a point.
She wasn't used to being shorter than anyone.
Best not to think so much about that, either.
At least the two looked related, which was an extra bit of irony because the part that they'd kept to themselves was that Lovesong was adopted. The (comparatively) big earth pony mare was primarily white, a particularly dazzling shade of it that had made one of the creatures aboard grumble that she'd end up reflecting the sunlight and blinding someone, the uniform shade of her coat broken up by her sunny yellow cutie mark. Her mane and tail--both of them were long, impossibly messy, and she'd cheerily referred to them as the "twin hairbrush eaters"--were instead of a pale pink that could remind a viewer of candyfloss.
That pink was what Lovesong echoed, only in her coat and feathers. She was a bit tall and leggy for a pegasus, and had that candyfloss shade across her body, except for the tips of her wings, where it faded to more of a purple, and that pinky-purple also filled the curls of her mane and tail. Those wings were a bit oversized, too, and when someone had managed to rouse her into conversation about it, she admitted that she was more of a glider than a flier, but that with the right wind conditions, she could glide for a very long time.
Two ponies, one not the best flier and one without wings at all. Them catching a ship together to travel only made sense.
None of the creatures on the ship knew what had happened to the capitol. They'd only been visiting a port town, one that hadn't been hit yet, and word had yet to travel.
Maybe it would all be taken care of before the world at large did know, but she doubted it.
That's why they needed the ship.
The next question was obvious, and it came from Twilight. "How?"
"Princess Celestia taught me a spell," Sunset explained as she shifted her weight slightly. While the importance of her role's secrecy wasn't something she disagreed with, having told somepony felt like a heavy load being removed from her back. "A way to get a message to anypony that I personally know, so long as they're alive to receive it."
Trixie, still fuming, huffed. "And you haven't used it before because?"
Sunset just smiled at her. "Because it requires a special candle, one that's constantly lit. The paper with the message written on it needs to be burned by the flame."
They were on the deck that day.
They spent most of their time above deck, only going down to sleep. Sunflower would keep her eyes on the sky, watching the sun travel from one horizon to the other, while Lovebird would spend most of the time with her eyes closed, letting the wind flow through her hair and feathers, every once and a while opening her wings and almost lifting off. Sometimes they would talk, but most of the time they would just be, and the crew of the ship would be engrossed in their duties and would leave them to their business.
Most of the time.
"So what's you two's actual story?"
Sunflower turned her head, to see the captain eyeing her. She'd slithered over without making a sound, and had lifted her front half up off the deck just enough to comfortably look her in the eye. Lovesong didn't look, or speak, but her posture drooped, ever so slightly, and so it was up to Sunflower to smile and do the talking. "And what makes you think there's an actual story?"
"Because I wasn't hatched yesterday." She jabbed a claw toward Sunflower, then wagged in between the two of them. "An aunt and niece just up and deciding to go 'wherever the wind takes them' one day? Last time I heard an excuse like that, it was a pair of brothers, and I turned out to have some notorious con artists on my ship."
Sunflower's gentle smile never wavered. "My my, captain, that's quite the accusation." Her head tilted slightly. "Do we really look like criminals to you?"
The dragoness merely huffed. "You look like a pair of mares running from something. Whether that's the law or something more personal, I don't know, but--"
"...Personal." The captain blinked as Lovesong said that single word, and no more, her voice barely audible as her body drooped all the more.
Sunflower nudged her niece gently, and nuzzled the top of her head as a mother might do to soothe a foal. "It's alright, you don't have to talk about it." When she looked at the captain, her voice was more sombre. "She lost her husband. Recently."
The serpentine form drew back, as if physically struck, and she formed a few loop-de-loops of coiling scales as she wrapped around thin air. The small wings at her shoulders gave a few flaps to stabilize the strange posture. "Ah. That'd indeed fit as a reason to fly fast and far. And you came with her 'cause...?"
Sombre turned to downright grim. "I'm all the family she has left. We were always a small one, and... tragedy seems to find us."
I waited a thousand years for nothing
Slow breaths. Stop thinking about it.
The silence carried on for several moments. Lovesong had shrunk in on herself, and Sunflower was content to let the captain stew in the awkward situation she'd created. "I'll accept that. So long as you're not keeping any big secrets."
Sunflower managed one last smile. "Would you believe that we're really alicorns, and we just look like this temporarily because we used up most of our magic fighting an evil queen?"
The captain rolled her eyes, a motion that turned into an uncurling of her body. "Har de har. If that's your idea of a joke, lass, don't quit your day job. Whatever it is."
"I was a politician."
That earned a snort. "I think I would've preferred you turn out to be a criminal." The captain shrugged her shoulders, twisting and turning away from the mares and starting to leave. "But I guess at that point, it's all semantics. Just leave my ship with exactly as much silverware as it started with, and I'll be happy."
"Of course. Thank you for being understanding, captain."
Sunflower turned her gaze back to the horizon, and then closed her eyes, leaning against Lovebird. They both waited until the captain was far enough away, and then Lovebird started to cry.
"He was right there..." tumbled out between the sobs
Sunflower let out a soft sigh. "I know."
"He didn't recognize me."
"He didn't recognize anypony anymore. It isn't your fault."
"I should've... I..."
"There was no time to take a pony with us who didn't want to go."
"But we left, and he's still--"
"We'll get him back, Cadance." And briefly, Sunflower's voice got back some of Celestia's steel. "No matter what happens, we'll get everypony back."
Trixie crossed one front leg over the other, rolling her eyes. "So let me guess, Princess Sunset Shimmer, you need our help to break into the castle and find this candle?"
Sunset shook her head with a chuckle. "I told you, it's just the sun, not the throne. If I'd have a title, it'd be something like Celestial Steward. And nope, no break ins."
There was a slight grinding of teeth. "Sunset, I believe I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, speak for all of us when I say to get to the point."
Sunset shrugged. "The candle might still be in the palace, but I wouldn't have put it past the queen to have destroyed it. It's way too risky to go in there on a 'maybe' while she's camping out there. That's why I've been working on a replacement."
Moondancer's eyebrows rose. "And you made one?"
"No, we have better. The candle was something a unicorn can't make themselves, because it was a gift from the Dragon Lord."
She looked down at Spike, who was currently very preoccupied with the way that light reflecting off the crystal danced over his own scales. It took him several seconds to notice that everypony was staring at him, after which he blinked at them, gurgled, and hiccupped.
"The candle flame is dragonfire."
"Yeah, we've taken a trip or two to Mount Aris. Why?"
Sunflower smiled at the griffon crewmate over her meal. Half osprey, half ocelot, he didn't have nearly as much trouble squashing himself into one of the chairs as other griffons might, still being significantly bigger than the little pony across from him but not quite as large as some. Her salad was piled high with manner of vegetables, and his own plate had a hearty meat pie. Her lack of flinching as he dug in had earned some amount of respect, and she'd found over the journey that he was much more jovial and talkative than the sharp eyes and sharper beak could lead a pony to believe.
"I'm just curious, is all," she said, before leaning down to grasp a cherry tomato in her teeth and chew it thoroughly before swallowing. "My niece and I wanted to see the world, and barely anypony has ever seen of the heart of Hippogriffia for themselves."
"Ehhhh..." He shrugged, and gulped down another chunk of the pie. "You see one mountaintop city, you've seen them all. Besides, they're not big on visitors. They've given us the stink eye every time we pull into port, like we're going to swan in and rob them blind or something."
"Well, isn't that all the more reason to be friendly?" Sunflower gave her kindest smile. "If they're wary of outsiders, then it's up to us to show them that we're nothing to fear."
"And why should we do all the work?" He shook his head. "I get what you're saying. Someone needs to be the first to reach out. But I'm just doing my job." He gestured at her with a claw. "Now you? Of course I'm happy to spend the energy being friendly with you. You're on our ship. No reason to not treat you like part of the motley little family while you're here. But I'm not going to dredge up the energy to put on a happy face for creatures I'll be leagues away from the next day."
Sunflower nodded a bit, conceding the point. "Of course. We're not infinite wells of social energy. We do need to take care of ourselves and recharge." She gave a soft laugh. "After all, you wouldn't want to burn out and start resenting other creatures."
I'm sorry sister I'm so sorry
"Something wrong with the salad, Sunny?" He casually wiped his beak of meat juices, and wiped his talons off on his breastfeathers. "I can talk to the captain if the veggies have gone off."
Sunflower only realized then how much she'd drooped, and she tried to force her ears upright again. "No no, it's fine... Just struck with a bad memory, is all."
The griffon's eyes softened, as much as a griffon's eyes could. "You and your niece have really been through it, haven't you?"
"Yes." There was no point in hiding it, especially when she'd already told the captain some of it.
He nodded solemnly. "A lot of us started out the same way. Sometimes you've just got to get on a ship, fly away, and start over." He then tilted his head to one side, opening his beak in a smile. "If you ever wanted to stay on as crewmembers, I'm sure the captain would love to have you."
Sunflower smiled back. "Tempting." She shook her head. "But no, I don't think this is quite the the life for me, as much as I've enjoyed meeting you all."
He shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just know the option's open, if you change your mind."
Starting over. It certainly was a tempting thought. A new place, with new faces, away from all of her old mistakes.
Maybe she'd get another thousand years.
But even if she did, it'd all catch up to her eventually. And she'd never forgive herself.
She had to help make this right.
Ask a pony to continue the tale, and they may point to alicorns as the ones who have gotten back some of this perfection in their blend of earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn. Ask a dragon, and they may claim that they got the lion's share of the fractured power and will acquire the rest in time. Ask a griffon, and they might spin a story of some golden trinkets who will unlock the latent magic that still lingers in every creature's heart if gathered.
Ask the only and only draconequus, and he'd probably deny that anything had changed at all, before he morphed you into a species you had never heard of before and laughed himself silly at the look on your face, if you even still had one.
Ask a changeling...
Well.
Ask a changeling, and they will laugh at the idea that anyone but them could have changed form so easily in the first place. After all, how could food ever know such power? And the idea that they could have once been part of a perfect whole and diminished?
No changeling talks about the holes.
No changeling talks about the fact that they're scars.
Because they're changelings, and changelings are already perfect.