Ukulele Moon’s eyes fluttered open and focused in on what seemed to be a mirror image of herself staring back at her in the dimness of the obsidian cave. For a brief moment, she thought that death was taunting her with visions of her past failures. Her joints ached as she struggled to stand upright on all four of her pink hooves. “Where am I?” she muttered to herself as she turned away from the reflection in the blackened glass. Always the adventurer, she couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of wonder for the cavern that sprawled out before her like some undiscovered toy.
“I must be in one of the fabled underground caverns on the island,” She began speaking to no one in particular. Ukulele had always had a bad habit of talking to herself when she was alone on her adventures. If anypony heard her, she’d surely be put in a loony bin for being unable to contain her sense of astonishment. “If only Blue Moon was here to see this,” her voice carried through the conically shaped cavern as if she was in concert in Manehatten.
As her thoughts turned to her cousin, Blue Moon, a feeling of dread began to fill her as she began to remember how she had begun this journey. Only one name filled her mind and began pounding as rapidly as her frightened heart. “Gear Turner!” she shrilled, setting motion to a myriad of rocks and debris falling from the fragile cave’s ceiling. Gasping hoarsely in the dimly lit cavern, Ukulele could see that the ceiling was beginning to give way. Pieces of the roof began raining down around the young mare like thick black knives being tossed around by skillful assassins.
As she tore through the underground gallery, attempting to avoid being spliced in half by one of the slivers of volcanic glass, Ukulele noticed that the walls beside her reflected an image of herself that was unfamiliar. She couldn’t help catching glances of her mirrored doppelganger that seemed to be leading her to yet another underground passage and away from the bombardment of the falling rocks. Full of remorse, the unwitting subject of some cruel game of cat and mouse, Ukulele followed her reflection to a safer room that seemed to be rising into some kind of platform.
Gasping for air after the aerobics of running for her own life, Ukulele realized that she had indeed found safety. As she surveyed the raised platform of granite and obsidian, she was faced with another polished wall projecting an image at her. Shivering coldly, Ukulele could not help but notice that the figure of herself began to glow and that the luminescence began to fill the room. She saw that the unicorn mare before her, trapped in the stone fortress, sprouted wings.
“I’m an alicorn?!” Ukulele Moon gasped in surprise.
As if spurned on by some unheard cue, the room began to fill with a hearty laughter. “You are most certainly not,” answered a voice that seemed to originate from very far away and began to edge closer to a reality nearest Ukulele.
The figure in the wall stepped forward and became three dimensional. The teal and pink mass that was once recognizable as Ukulele began to fade. It twisted and contorted into a large alicorn with a tan, sun kissed coat and long fiery orange hair. Her eyes were most impressive and seemingly endless. Her voice seemed familiar to Ukulele Moon, as if it had once visited her in her dreams or been part of the very essence that made up her being. The great alicorn mare carried herself like a queen before the tiny, tropical pony.
Ukulele felt herself being filled with an imposing sense of dread and wonder as the great smoldering entity walked towards her.
“I am Pele.” The alicorn said as if it were some kind of royal decree coming from Princess Celestia.
“Pele?” Ukulele’s mind raced to remember the name, as if she had once heard about it long ago as a filly.
Pele glared at the unicorn indignantly. She seemed as if she was offended by the young mare not honoring her with at least a glimpse of recognition. Her eyes flickered like a candle catching a tropical breeze. A deep, resounding sigh filled the cavern as did a friendly warmth. Although magnificent, Ukulele could sense a maternal feeling coming from the great alicorn.
“You’re an old mare’s tale,” Ukulele began. “I remember my mother telling me about you when I was a scared little filly. She always said that the Goddess Pele protected her children during the pirate raids.” She wasn’t sure if she had just outraged the alicorn or reassured her that she was indeed recognizable as something past a mere faerie tale.
“I am the mother of your people,” Pele initiated in a tone that sounded as warm as the beaches of Paisley Island. “Your mother and I are old friends, Ukulele.”
“You know my mother? Is that that why am I here?” Ukulele was filled with her trademark insatiable curiosity.
“You are going to help me help your people.” Pele looked to her with twin orbs of melted chocolate.
“How could I help you? I’m no one special.” Ukulele responded. Her heart poured over with grief. She was mentally reliving the last argument with Gear Turner in her mind repeatedly.
“All of my little ponies are special,” Pele said in a heart-warming tone that brought Ukulele out of her sad repose. “Do you know how your people came to my Island?” She asked with a genuine inquisitiveness.
Ukulele Moon shook her head sadly. Even if she did remember those stories that her mother told her so long ago, present circumstance made them seem pretty unspectacular.
Pele’s stare turned from the unicorn mare to the polished walls of the cavern around them. Color and light burst from the blackness and turned the cavern into a living theater. The walls began to show images of the past coming to life like the seeds of the Moonflower in spring. Ukulele looked on in child-like marvel at the spectacle set before her. She felt a kin-ship with this faerie tale and calmness that replaced her terror.
“Over a thousand years ago, your people were merchants. They sailed from another part of Equestria and into the Pawcific ocean to trade with neighboring lands. They were skilled sailors and shrewd business-ponies. They encountered many hardships on their journey, but nothing as wicked as the storm that brought them here.”
Ukulele listened as intently to the story as if she was back in time, a young filly curled up under the blankets in her tree house bungalow. She saw through the eyes of Pele, an ancient being that had granted her special witness to a past that was long forgotten by her peers. She watched the ocean begin to boil and froth around the merchant vessel. Ukulele could also make out the forms of panicking ponies as they dashed from one end of the ship to another in a frantic battle to batten down anything they could.
A band of unicorns were using their magic to keep the mast of the great ship from exploding under the force of the gale. There were pegasi attempting to keep the ship straight on her course as it was whipped dangerously around. Their wings, bloodied, had been battered by the torrent of wind and rain savagely falling in chaos. The earth ponies were securing not only their precious cargo of trade goods but also vainly tying down the sails of their ship that were as tattered as the crew’s nerves. The battle seemed to be in vain as a terrible noise filled the air that seemed to supersede the wrath of the storm for just a moment.
Finally the unicorn magic could not hold out any longer and the mast snapped like a twig. Cries of agony filled the air but no one voice could be heard. The great structure fell and crushed a few of the shipmates, killing them instantly. A unicorn stallion bravely ran to the rescue of a earth pony mare who had just lost her mate during the upheaval and pulled her to the false safety of the cabin. Ukulele’s heart twinged as she briefly thought of her beloved Gear Turner. The crew began to realize they were adrift and heading towards land. Unknown to them, they were perilously close to a coral reef that threatened to tear their ship into shreds of mangled wood and flesh.
Ukulele Moon saw an island coming into view just beyond the reef. On the beach of the island, a wisp of smoke gathered at the shore. It curled and flared and eventually took the form of a transparent being. Pele stepped forward, observing the cave wall’s reflected memories for a moment before speaking. She could tell that this moment must have been pivotal for the alicorn mare because her stare was as intense as an active volcano.
“I saw their impending doom,” Pele initiated. “Within a few minutes, it would all be over for them.”
Ukulele took her eyes away from the alicorn and back to the scene that was unraveling before her eyes. She felt protectiveness over her ancestors and completely hopeless even though she knew the inevitable outcome.
“I had always been alone on the Island. I had created it before these waters had known the touch of a sailing vessel or the cry of a sea gull.” Pele looked distraught as she retold the tale. “Saving them meant taking them in, and all the consequences of parenthood.”
“Parenthood?” Ukulele questioned. She wasn’t sure where Pele was going with this information.
Ignoring the fledgling unicorn’s question, Pele stomped at the ground with her hoof. Ukulele Moon could see forms rising from the ocean. They were dolphins! Beautiful, sleek saviors that were racing towards the sinking vessel as unstoppable waves crashed against its hull. “It was my choice, my call that saved you.” There was an eerie sadness in Pele’s voice that haunted Ukulele to her core.
The large pod of sea mammals seemed possessed as they began to push their mass into the boat’s port side. It seemed impossible, but the vessel actually began to turn away from the coral reef and make its way to the shallow waters of the Moonlight Bay. Ukulele was astonished to see that the beloved beach of the inhabitants had changed very little in over a thousand years and was still recognizable.
With a terrific crash, the merchant vessel was flung against the shore and broken beyond repair. Time began to lapse forward as the Goddess Pele chanted a song that filled the caverns around them with timeless echoes. “My children emerged from that broken shell and we were at once united,”
Ukulele watched as the first survivors bravely made their way from the safety of the boat and deep into Paisley Island’s jungle. The ponies began to make significant changes. Instead of relying on a culture that was now a distant memory, they began to create their own world in the shadow of Goddess Pele. They honored her in all ways possible, their voices singing praise and appreciation to the unseen nature spirit.
“I did not always take this form,” Pele interrupted the vision with a voice that pierced reality as a hawk’s talon takes to the field. “Your people saw me as an Alicorn Goddess. So I became that for them. They in turn, took on my unique markings.”
Ukulele Moon could not help but grin when the first settler ponies displayed on the cave walls began to have offspring of their own. The unicorn stallion and the earth pony mare that had united over the loss of their loved ones had given birth to a beautiful unicorn filly with a light teal coat and pastel hair. Her fur was adorned with the distinct markings of the Paisley Island ponies. Wide-eyed and innocent, the first filly of the new tribe whinnied at the full moon.
“The fruit and fish eaten by the survivors, used as nourishment, became my link to them. It changed their biochemistry and created a new species. Old hatreds of unicorn, earth pony and Pegasus racial makeup were put aside to create a new tribe. Pegasi no longer controlled the weather as they did in other parts of the world. Earth ponies and Unicorns were not unique for using magic or growing things.”
“That’s why we’re so different, isn't it?” Ukulele Moon ventured to the Goddess. “You didn't want the old tribes warring about their differences,”
Pele smiled and nodded. “And for the gifts that were lost, new ones developed. That is what makes you all unique.”
“But what can I do for you, Goddess?” Ukulele looked to the brightly glowing spirit next to her with newly-inspired fascination.
“My children have forgotten me. They have fallen prey to a world of evils that threatens to destroy not only their existence, but all of pony kind in Equestria.”
Pele showed the tiny unicorn a present day vision of the Paisley Islands. There were no more shrines to the Goddess, only an island exploited for tourism. There were the neon lights of bars canvassing the horizon instead of the magnificent stars that littered the sky above. An unexplainable fakeness infused the atmosphere and painted a veneer over the past tragedies of pirate raids. Even though this was a world Ukulele Moon knew well, one she had grown up in, it suddenly filled her with nausea.
“How do I make this right?” Ukulele asked frantically. The gravity of the situation was finally hitting her. Here was a princess, no-a deity that was asking for her help in saving the balance that permeated through all life in Equestria.
“Ukulele Moon, you have lived a life full of pain and sadness. You have drifted away from me like all of your brothers and sisters. To aide me in my cause, you must make a sacrifice.”
Ukulele held her ground although her body was trembling in terror.
The Goddess’ eyes turned black suddenly. “You must die,”
With a horrified gasp, Ukulele Moon felt the air drawn from her lungs and her life force trickling from her being. Memories of her childhood ran past her and began to diminish into nothingness. She was forgetting everything she cherished and held dear. The walls of the cavern began to fade and revealed that she was under water. Ukulele again lost consciousness. The Goddess Pele’s stare was intense as she watched the unicorn flung by the undertow of the roaring ocean.
“And be reborn, young one.” Spoke the Goddess warmly. As quickly as the tropical storm had come upon the island it began to dissipate as if commanded by some unseen force. Clear, azure skies began to peak through the flurry of storm-gray clouds that had loomed ominously just moments before. Waves that were once the size of mountains began to tame into smaller hills and dales that sprawled the beaches like lazy butterflies.
A pod of dolphins crested the surface for air and life began to return to normal. There was a still silence after the storm that was haunting. The glass-like surface of the water was penetrated by four cinnamon colored hooves. A new figure strode along the beach looking for washed up treasures, her long mane and tail wet and sandy from the grasp of the tropical seashore. She was unadorned and free of Paisley markings, a horn or wings. The creature was a plain-Jane earth pony.
Cinnamon Swirl had long been a hermit on the island. She had traveled to the Paisley Islands four years ago and decided to set up her blacksmithing shop alongside the island’s various flamboyant shops. She hadn’t made any friends since moving there and wasn’t interested in that either. The storm not only brought sunken treasures from the briny depths but also the absence of the Island’s inhabitants. No pony could have expected to see the form of a teal unicorn washed up on the shore.
The earth pony cautiously ventured forward to inspect the damage on the mare that had been flung around carelessly by the storm like a rag doll. There was a flash of recognition in Cinnamon’s memory as she stared at the form before her. She knew this pony. Although she was not talented with introductions among the living, Cinnamon Swirl put a careful ear against Ukulele Moon’s chest. At first there was a long and terrible silence.
But then…
The thrust of a heartbeat that hammered in the anti-social mare’s ears and a weak cough that was as much a greeting as it was a plea for life.
“Ukulele?” Cinnamon Swirl uttered as the lime-colored eyes of the mare gently fluttered open. She was in an incredible amount of pain and barely conscious.
“Who?” The mare said weakly before passing out again.