//------------------------------//
// Prologue - This Is My Story 
// Story: Mortal Coil 
// by Reeve 
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	The tiny, wooden row boat bobbed along across the endless ocean, the lone mare riding within it standing up tall to survey her surroundings. She looked in every direction and yet all she could see was an infinite stretch of cold grey sea as far as the eye could see, with no hint of land in sight. Even though the sky was nothing more than a limitless expanse of grey clouds, preventing any light from penetrating and making it impossible to tell the time of day, there seemed to be an ever prevalent light none the less, allowing the mare to see the vast nothingness perfectly clearly.

With a small huff she sat down in the boat, looking about herself. There were no oars to be told of, had they fallen overboard earlier on? Or had they never been there to begin with? The mare couldn’t quite remember. It truly seemed hopeless; she probably should have been panicking but… for some reason she was perfectly calm. As strange as the situation she found herself in was, she couldn’t help but feel relaxed, if anything she was more concerned about the absence of her clothes.

While it wasn’t a big deal to the majority of ponies, wearing clothes had become exceedingly popular in recent years, and this mare in particular had taken to the shift in fashion with much pleasure. Just like her predicament regarding where she was however, she quickly stopped worrying about the absence of her clothes, she just considered it strange when she was sure she had been wearing them not that long ago.

With no way of actively steering the little boat, and nothing in it to occupy herself with, she settled on humming to herself in an attempt to keep herself busy. It was a fairly tuneless hum, the light wind had more melody to it, but she continued none the less.  It was unclear exactly how much time had passed before something interesting happened, it could have been a few minutes or a few days and she probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

“How did you come to be here?” the figure next to her asked.

She briefly considered that to be an odd thing to occur, hadn’t she just been alone this whole time? But the figure was indeed right beside her, tall and draped in an all obscuring grey cloak. She had probably been there the whole time and the mare just hadn’t taken notice, that was very unsocial of her and she mentally chastised herself for it.

“Oh that,” she replied with a little laugh, “That is a very long story.”

“I have no doubt,” the figure replied. “But…”

The figure made some motions as if they were looking from side to side; they were all covered up so the mare couldn’t be sure.

“It doesn’t look like we’ll be arriving anywhere soon,” they said at last, turning to face the mare once more, or at least she assumed that’s what the figure was doing.

“Hmm,” the mare considered. “Yes I suppose that is true, and there seems to be little else to do.”

“Indeed,” the figure agreed. “So, while we wait for this boat to take us wherever it’s going, why don’t you tell me the long story of how you came to be here?”

“Very well,” the mare agreed giving a small nod in return before casting her eyes off into the distance as she pondered where to begin. “I suppose I should introduce myself first?”

She looked to the figure, hoping to receive some idea as to whether they already knew who she was or not. When no confirmation was given, she began.

“My name is Rarity, and this is my story.”