Hopeful Hooves: A Unicorn Friendship Tale

CHAPTER ONE: HOPELESSNESS

                                                          Unicorn Island, A Temperate Pacific Island

For many years, on a beautiful Island known as Unicorn Island, where cold winters have snow and warm summers have flowers, where springs have butterflies and autumns have squirrels, and all kinds of unicorns had lived together in peace, and all unicorns had two rules:

Respect all unicorns, and respect all non-unicorns.

The most graceful of them all, the Equinicorns—now what is an Equinicorn, one may ask? There are many types of unicorns but the one many are most familiar with — the horse with one horn— is an Equinicorn. Because they are shy around humans, they rarely encounter them, but they establish a strong sense of comfort with other animals, particularly horses, even those without horns. As I have said, the Equinicorns had lived in the most peace with each other, and they have never fought each other. Many other animals have desired to be as peaceful as they are. Ah, such carefree, innocent days as those must have been. 

But the days began to end when the King Equinicorn had passed away and his Queen took over.  The Widowed Queen, of course, had been nothing like her husband. He was kind, selfless, and humble, always seeking the best for his unicorns, whilst she was self-centered, unthankful, and vain with an immense desire for power. She began to undo everything that the King had done for the kingdom. She demanded that everyone work harder so she could fill her pockets. 

This caused a war between many unicorns and all non-unicorns, and when she had passed, her son tried to fix everything his mother had done, but he used force—causing a bigger war. This time, the kingdom split into four, and he could only claim the Northeast. This was the darkest and most depressing place. The flowers stopped blooming; the birds ceased their singing, and people had no more love for each other. Worst of all, it had a massive effect on his favorite and only daughter.

It not only left her with a problem walking and an inability to fly, but she—Princess Charity, that is— had also picked up bitterness and resentment. Alicorns could fly, so why couldn't she be able to reach the sky? Why couldn't she walk normally? Why did everyone not seem to accept her? Why couldn't she be normal? These bitter words kept echoing in her head. She remembered it like it was yesterday.

Now, to understand her disability, one must understand what an alicorn is and how they fly. Alicorns are unicorns with wings. They have feathers, but are not bird wings. The first alicorn was given feathers after doing a charitable deed to an eagle. When the eagle shed her feathers, he gave them to the unicorn as a gift. When the alicorn married and had foals, the foals were born with wings as well. To fly, alicorns rotate their shoulder which causes the wings to flap, and thus they fly. It takes practice and skill, but it is worth it.

Charity had been born a sweet, happy, alicorn who saw the bright side of everything. But when she was just learning how to fly, a battle broke up, and Isabul, a Karkadann (a bigger unicorn with the feet of an elephant, perhaps a rhinoceros) had severely crushed her foot. Even though Isabul never came back, the incident left her with a scar and she would limp for the rest of her life, unable to fly. But it also impaired her life. Charity experienced exclusion because of her limp, which caused her attitude to change from joyful to resentful. Even her color changed because of her attitude from a bright cyan to a bluish gray.

The King and queen tried their best to cheer up their daughter, but to no avail. Nothing worked. Finally, they went to her room in the palace to speak to her.

"Darling, we know that you have been upset," said her mother. "But we want you to cheer up and look at the bright side of things. Even though no one will talk to you, we are always here."

The father continued, "We will soon grant you the throne to the kingdom, and we want you to become the best ruler possible."

But Charity replied, "Nobody would want a ruler just like me. I am not strong enough, and I am trying to use my horn to make me recover, but it doesn't work. My horn is useless, and I am useless."

"Aw, sweetheart, don't say that," said the King, gently nudging her. "You are not any of those things. You are who you are, my daughter. Your horn may not be useful, and you may never walk normally or fly, but it is what comes from the heart that makes you a good ruler."

But the dark pall of gloom remained. The face that had once been grinning was now left with a frown. Finally, the parents left the princess for another room.

"She seems like she'll never be happy again," said her father, dismayed.

"Never? Oh, how I want my Cherrie back!" his wife sobbed. "Whatever happened to my bubbly baby girl, and not just her ability; if I could get just one thing, it would be her joy and laughter!"

"It isn't just that which is bad," her father sighed. "The entire kingdom is affected: where there were once children playing on the streets, now there are adults who want to destroy them. Where there was once honesty, now there is thievery. Where there was once happiness, there is rage and depression. Where there was once love, now there is hate. Where there was once morality, now there is wickedness."

"This reminds me," he went on. "I have a letter from my father, who may have the answer to all our problems. We should show the note to her we go on our wedding anniversary tomorrow."

So the Royal parents left to get the note. Little did they know that this paper would change everything.