» In The Deep

AURELIA They led them to a lake and a volcano and a forest. The golden mare had been here once before, with Kiada. She hadn't been aware that there was actual life- evil, sentient, dark life- down there. The matriarch tells them they need to take malspira and dive into the lake, into the darkness, directly into danger. Otem plunged into the water easily, and Aurelia figured it was her turn now. She grasped some malspira and wobbled awkwardly towards the water. Aurelia had been an enormous hydrophobe for most of her life (a fact known by few). The only horse who had ever verbally acknowledged it had been Mauja, amidst Aurelia's bout of insanity. The idea of plunging into the dark, deep, evil water was truly terrifying, but Aurelia had to. The land needed to be healed and she was one of the few tasked with doing it. She breathed in heavily and then went for it, her body submerging beneath the surface of the water easily. Using her wings, legs, tail, any body parts that could move Aurelia tried to swim deeper and deeper, the sparking of her coat provided by her locket diminishing as the darkness grew around her. Her mane still pulsed and glowed, sourly misplaced in the otherwise dark waters, thanks to the Bear God crystals tied into her mane like beads. Aurelia didn't know what to do, how to reach the sirens, so she just swam around the dark waters, the orb following obediently behind her. She hoped it would do what it had to because Aurelia wasn't exactly sure what to do. She simply swam to the darker parts of the water, leading the orb, hoping it would heal the dark, evil waters. Now, she desperately hoped the malspira would save her ass if this task went sideways. in madness we reign

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