Air Horse: Darkening Skies

Heritage: Part 2

"There was a fight. Between the air horses and land horses. Air horses were becoming mean and pushy to the land horses, and the land horses would start fights. Luna, Solis, and I thought it would all blow over, but instead it became so bad that the lithoclaws left the herds to live across the Gorge," Jupiter's voice broke.

Solis continued, speaking very differently than his former know-it-all manner, "The horses continued to fight with one another. Air horses took to the structures. Land horses, not willing to admit defeat, climbed structures to reach the air horses...."

"Not all horses wanted to fight, but land and air horses had to stay in their groups to avoid being caught alone by the other group and getting drawn into a fight. Still, some horses tried to just be separate from the other horses."

"One such family of air horses were caught off guard by land horses. A fight didn't even start right off, but some air horses thought the family was under attack and rushed in to attack the land horses. Other horses saw the fight and ran to join."

Jupiter picked up the story again. "The three of us saw the fight and knew we had to stop it then, before it was too late. I flew Luna and myself there as fast as I could. Even Solis left his daylight duty to try and stop the fight. We weren't fast enough. A land horse fell and was severely crippled."

"We reached Rocky Cliffs moments after the land horse fell. Horses saw us coming and, of all the ways to respond, they started to make wishes. Doubtless, they were trying to wish the other side into nonexistence. Luckily for everyone there, they were all confused about what had happened and couldn't get their wishes out."

"Then, before anyone did something they would regret, a filly that was Luna's many-times granddaughter, made a wish that Luna would only grant selfless wishes."

"I have never seen since a silence like the one that fell over everyone that day. Or maybe 'heard' is better word for it. Half the horses still didn't know that a horse had fallen, just the filly's wish and that the other half of the herd was furious."

Solis started again, "In their anger, the horses blamed us for their differences. They thought it would have been better if we had just stayed above."

"Some of the horses must have thought that Luna's wish-granting had been taken away, because someone shouted that they wished they had never met us. Whoever made the wish had some sort of selfless reason that we can only guess."

"In that one wish, Luna, Jupiter, and I and everything we ever taught about the outside world just disappeared. The herd saw us as strangers, and we decided it would be best that way. We left, hoping that in the confusion, they would forget the reason they were fighting."

"It worked for a time. The lost memories of us and the world around them were so jumbled, some of the herd had to relearn everything they knew. It was in this time that dogs were renamed whuffs, tree cats were forgotten, and the Above became a myth."

"When tensions began to rise again, I tried wishing that the herds would forget their differences and make up. Nothing happened. I made many wishes, both selfless and selfish, but none came true. We thought Luna's gift had finally run out."

"Then, one night, the sister of the land horse that had been crippled in the fight looked up at Luna in the night sky and wished that her brother would be able to run again. The next day, he was running as well as any horse. Because of the manner of the wish, he could barely walk, but he ran fine."

"Why did it work for her, but not you?" Cloudy asked.

Jupiter answered. "The same thing had happened to Wolf years before when he tried to wish he had a horn. We had thought at the time that Wolf merely made an impossible wish, but now we suspect that each horse gets no more than three wishes."

"I wanted to use my final wish to end the fight in the herd, but Luna wisely pointed out that the frustrations would rise again eventually. So instead, we watched as the herd split."

"It was around then that we changed our names, the final connection to our former lives in the human world."

"For hundreds of years, we waited for something to happen. We had decided that it would be best to stay out of the herd's business, no matter how it played out. For the most part, we stopped watching and listening to the herd, in case we were tempted to interfere. We were just starting to lose hope, when your friend Skip made a wish."

Cloudy started. "Skip did?"

"He did. On the night before the raid in which Copper was captured, he whispered a wish to the night sky that the herds would unite. Luna always hears the wishes made at night, whether or not she's trying. That's how horses get gifts like being a seer: a wish made by themselves or, more often, a parent before they are born."

"That wish led to the capture of Copper, who was so angry that she fought and delayed making it to the Rushing River for three days. Aeolus only crossed that path four days after he had seen raiding parties pass to Rocky Cliffs, because by then, the raiders had already crossed back through and raids never happened so close to each other. But on this one occasion, the raiding party was just leaving with Copper in tow. He heard a mare named Sandy say that she wanted the air and land horses to unite and got the idea that if the King Icarus heard that, then he might make some attempt to befriend the land horses. And he was right. After Copper was freed, she told King Icarus what Sandy had said and he took the necessary first steps to uniting. Kalo knew what Aeolus hoped would happen, so she waited near the Crossing to see what would happen, so she was there to speak in favor of uniting when King Shady tried to leave the meeting between the herds."

Cloudy's mouth dropped open. She could hardly believe that the whole uniting process had started with a wish by Skip. It was somehow harder to take than the Jupiter, Solis, and Luna's story.

"It is getting late. We should hasten back to Peak before it is time for my departure," Solis said.

Cloudy and Jupiter rolled their eyes at each other. Solis lit up again and started down the tunnel. Cloudy examined the new world she had been introduced to for one more time before following. It had been a crazy, exciting day, and she couldn't wait to get back to Rocky Cliffs to tell everyone.