Most of this was edited by the wonderful Katiefrog217 (Thank you so much hun!)
Please refer to this image for the setting of some of the story
Pond Pony Prompt: Polluted Ponds
The earth quietly hummed as it basked in the glow of the night. Starry, who had just finished helping Lady Amalthea with the cleaning and restoration of her pond, treads quietly down a familiar path as she makes her way home. Gradually, the land beings to slope as Starry begins to climb the familiar hill from which she usually enters her dream world. Below the hill is sprawled a town, quiet now that the sun had set but Starry could still see a few lights shining from the windows of scattered residence. Above her stretched the starry sky, clear and magnificent. It almost looked like the painting from which Starry's name derived, but not quite. There were subtle differences here and there that made her home different than that the painting depicted.
As Starry reached the hill's summit, her antlers began to glow and shift and change from their usual blue and yellow hues to ones of brown and a dark forest green. Their color always reminded her of one of the tallest buildings in the town. As she called up the portal that connected this world to her dreamscape, Starry noticed she was feeling a little bit less energetic than she had earlier, but she shook it off, blaming it on fatigue. She had just helped clean Lady's pond and walked a long distance to return home, after all. She was probably just feeling exhausted from the exertion. Shaking the feeling off, she stepped through the portal into her home, happy to finally be back at her pond when she felt it. A sick, dark feeling that sat in the pit of her stomach, and a dread began to settle in her heart. As she opened her eyes and let her gaze fall upon her pond, that feeling of dread turned into sickening horror. Her beautiful pond that had once been a deep blue that reflected the stars had turned into that resembling a night of a new moon- an inky abyss that showed no signs life or light. There was just black.
The sick feeling inside her swelled suddenly, making Starry stumble as she approached her pond. Her legs felt weak and she almost didn't make it to her pond before her legs failed her, and she fell upon the ground with a hard thud. What happened while she was away? What could have done this to her beautiful home? She almost didn't see it, but it caught her eye in the moon light. A mysterious black goo had somehow crept it's way into her pond and was consuming it bit by bit, covering everything including the stones that surrounded the pond, blanketing them in it's inky darkness.
As the corruption spread, Starry gradually began to feel weaker and weaker, to the point she was unable to stand. Her vision flickered, and the moon that usually glowed brightly between her antlers dimed and fell away, as she was too weak to sustain it any longer.
She had to think up of a solution, and fast. If she didn't, this would be the end of her. Her vision flicked again and she shook her head trying to clear it. She couldn't pass out, not now. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Starry opened her eyes and was greeted by the small lights that had gathered around her. The lights were celestial bodies that usually floated freely about her pond without a care, but now they had all gathered around close, some even coming to sit on her nose. While they couldn't speak, she got the impression that they wanted to help, almost as if they were asking her to use them. She was about to shoo them away when an idea clicked in her head. Perhaps she could use them after all.
"Little ones, listen to me carefully," Starry said, her voice weak but urgent, "Find my trusted ones and bring them here. Their names are Nirveli, Lady, Sidera, and Namiko. Go now, and fly quickly! I might not have much time left. Godspeed, little ones, and may your path go unhindered!"
As soon as the last word left her mouth, the celestials took off, each shooting off in a different direction. Starry hoped that they would return soon as she struggled to get up on her feet. She stumbled and nearly fell, but she quickly regained her balance and placed her hooves firmly on the ground. Her legs shook, but she was standing and that's all that mattered. She needed to try to clean the pond as much as she could while her celestials fetched her friends, otherwise she feared she wouldn't make it long enough for help to arrive. She tried to clean the stones of the goo that encased them, but all it did was stain her hooves and she couldn't move fast enough to keep it from covering the stones once again. She was too weak to clean it with magic, as she was also trying her best to sustain the portal that bridged the two worlds, for without it her friends would have no way of reaching her and she would be dead for sure. Laying down way from the goo, Starry closed her eyes and prayed her friends would come swiftly.
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Two days passed without a sign of help, but just when all seemed lost two figures stepped through the weakening portal into the tainted dreamscape. Namiko entered first with Sidera right behind her tail. As they both entered, a feeling of sickness crashed over them both and made them stagger, but they shook it off and hurried to their friend's aid, their hearts beating as they prayed they weren't too late. Starry lay next to her pond, pale and fading fast. Namiko stared at the pond as she tried to come up with a plan, although she wasn't sure exactly what she was supposed to do with the black horror that lay before her.
"Have you seen anything like this Sidera?" Nami asked as she stared, horrified at the corrupted pond.
"I have not, unfortunately" Sidera said sadly. "The most I know are stories passed down from elder ponds, but neither you or I have been around long enough to witness such an event. According to legend, nothing like this has happened in many moons."
Motioning for Sidera to follow, Nami approached the pond and examined the goo. It didn't seem to be flowing in from anywhere far, but a quick search of the surrounding area revealed nothing. It was almost as if the goo had originated from within Starry's pond itself. As they pondered about the goo and why it was here, there were hooves pounding in the distance. Nirveli and Lady arrived onto the scene together, as if they had met while traveling.
Upon their approach to the pond, Lady let out a horrified gasp when seeing what has happened to her friend's pond as it has to hers. She looks at Starry, mortified. The once beautiful and bright starry is now pale and almost lifeless. Lady starts to sob, thinking that she didn't make it in time, mean while Nirveli examines the pond, seeing how she has dealt with this before, many years back. It's been so long, that she has a faint memory of the event happening, but knew that it was gonna be a lot of work ahead for her and others. As looking further across the ponds, there laid 2 other ponds. A gray and spotted mare, and a dark coated doe, whom which have similar appearances to Starry, in her pond structure and features. Nirveli nudged Lady's shoulder, and motioning her head over to the other Ponds. Lady looks over at the mare and doe, and back up at Nirveli, she slowly gathers herself and stands up. They walk over to the other 2, but with a cautious approach, as they don't know these two.
"Greets," Lady said with her elegant voice, and making the first step into finding out who these 2 Ponds are, "who might you all be?"
Nami and Sidera pops up, "I am Sidera, and here with me is Namiko," Sidera said for the both of them. "Who are you two?"
"I am lady amalthea," Stated Lady, giving off a proud aura.
"Hello, I am Nirveli," Nirveli said with a bit of shyness. "Were you all sent here too? By Starry's celestials?"
"We were indeed," Sidera said. "We both were."
"Great, now we need to fix up this disaster. It looks like Starry may not be able to last much longer." Lady stated, looking back to Starry, with despair and worry. "How about Sidera and I try to clean up the pond, and Namiko, can you please watch Starry? And Nirveli, you can help with either the pond, or help clean up around the pond, you may choose."
Everypond nodded, and off they went. Lady used her magic to blast away the black goo out of the pond, while Nirveli and Sidera stared to clean the stones.
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It took from the high sun to the high moon, but they accomplished it. The pond was sparkling and Starry's celestials were floating and bouncing above it once again.
While Starry did not show signs of recovery after the pond was cleaned out, it worried everyone. Sidera, Lady, Nami, and Nirveli all laid down in a circle around Starry, each taking turns of sleeping and watching. The watch started with Nami, and then Nirveli, and it was Lady's turn. About half way through her watch, Starry started to shift, and was waking up. Instead of waking everyone up and stressing Starry out as she started to have life being drawn back into her, she instead waited for Starry to awaken and speak because nudging the other Ponds awake.
They are all in a sleepy state of mind and when they saw starry awake and began to show of life, they all gasp. They all started to pile up questions on Starry, but Lady, being the way she is, she stops the other Ponds and suggested that they should allow Starry to rest, before asking any questions.
Starry look around at the 4 Ponds and gave the biggest smile that is possible for her right now, and said, "I can not thank you all enough," She looks back behind her to her pond, "You all made it so clean and free of the black goo. It's gonna take time for me to recover, but I am grateful that you all came when you did."
Starry yawns, which causes the other Ponds to yawn as well. "I best think that we should rest, do you agree?"
All the other Ponds nodded in agreement, and all the Ponds laid back down and slowly falls back to sleep.
FIN
WORD COUNT: 1801 words
Ponds mentioned:
Lady Amalthea ( SmallSpiritGraphics )
Nirveli ( Toxijen )
Namiko ( lee--bee )
Sidera ( xSidera )
Pond Ponies and Fawn Ponies are a closed species that belongs to Cherri-Crimzon and Rainjay-xx
Skin by SimplySilent
