♜Username|| SkyWishes21
♜Show Name || PHS Sounds of the Ocean
♜Barn Name || Marina
♜Gender || Nonbinary (they/them), bio mare
♜Halter Color || Blue gradient
♜The Keys♜(Other Tolters Involved -
Glora,
Sterling,
Whirlwind,
Forge,
Warrior,
Ophiel,
CrownWith their saddlebags on their back, filled to the brim with little trinkets they’d collected, Marina was quite excited to return to the peculiar little room behind the waterfall. They’d found that room a few weeks ago by complete accident. All they needed now was the ring of keys that would get them in.
With a quick trot to behind the little shed, Marina began nosing through the bushes for said keys. There was a specific place they were supposed to be but, after a few minutes of searching, nothing came up. Curse their forgetfulness! With a huff and a stamp of the foot, Marina began to trot off to where she might have left them - a specific ash tree.
Halfway to the tree, Marina paused. What if someone had stolen their keys! They threw their head back and broke into a run, panic in their eyes. Those keys, that room! Their secret place!
Just as they suspected - the keys were gone. Marina let out a soft growl, and in a fit of anger they kicked the tree. Stupid tree, not having their keys. Stupid brain, forgetting where they put their things. Stupid, stupid, stupid Marina!
Well, perhaps Gloria would know where the keys were? She was a sort of a witch after all, and at least in fairy tales witches seemed to know these kinds of things. Yes, that would be a great plan of action! Marina gave themselves a satisfied nod and headed off towards Gloria’s “Cave of Wonders”.
The path there was rather gnarled and twisted, and most any other horse would’ve given up once they saw the creepy deer skull and the tangle of brambles. Not only was Marina determined to get to Gloria’s and find their keys, Gloria happened to be one of their only friends and had told them how to get through.
Eww, since when did Gloria have mud around her cave? Marina paused to wipe the affected hoof on some plants before making a short jump over the mud puddles. No mud puddles for them, thanks.
Thankfully, the “Cave of Wonders” wasn’t too much farther, and there weren’t many other patches of mud after that. Marina gently flicked an ear against the brass windchimes that served as a doorbell. It rang out with some clear, yet haunting notes. As they waited, Marina noticed that the decoration of the chimes was an image of a human skull. Yeah Gloria was a witch, but what was with all this creepy stuff?
“Shattered Song Witchery and Fortunes, how may I - oh, Marina! It’s just you.” Gloria let out an annoyed huff, which rattled her bone pendant. “You know you can just come in right?”
“Yeah,” Marina said, an embarrassed blush crossing their face. “I just didn’t want to be rude. Plus, I’m not really planning on staying…”
“What, and miss this chance to see your best friend?” Gloria teased, a grin crossing her face.
“Sorry, Gloria, but I am in a bit of a hurry,” Marina admitted. She gestured towards her saddle bags. “I’m looking for my keys, you know, the big silver ones? They’ve gone missing! I thought maybe you’ve seen them?”
“No, sorry Mars,” Gloria said. “I’ve been working on some readings, so I haven’t been out all day. If you’d like you can stay for -” Marina dashed off in a panic, leaving Gloria standing in the door. “... tea. Never mind then.” Glora hung her head for a moment before returning to her work.
Well, Gloria hadn’t helped. Where could Marina go next? Well… hey, maybe the herd leaders might have an idea! Whirlwind and Sterling did keep a close eye on much of the goings on after all! Marina crashed out of the forest and made a beeline for the pastures where the pair often stayed.
There were quite a lot of tolters there, which was peculiar. What was going on? What did they miss? As they squeaked around the edges, something struck them - all the tolters were related to the herd leaders in some way. Oh, right… Marina had forgotten that they were having a family meeting that day. No matter, they’d just have to ask really fast.
“Excuse me!” They nudged Sterling, trying to get his attention. “Sorry to bother, but I wanted to ask really quickly if you’ve seen a ring of big silver keys? I’m missing them!”
Sterling gave her a funny look and shook his head. “Marina, we’re about to start a meeting.”
“And no, my dude,” put in Whirlwind, “we haven’t seen any keys.”
“R-right. Thanks anyways!” Marina bolted off, embarrassment flooding their every nerve. Why were they such a terrible judge of situations?
They ran without really paying attention to where they was going, huge tears flooding their eyes. Where had their keys gone?
“Hey, watch it dork!” Thud. Turns out, they ran into the flank of a rather large blue taffy horse. Forge, a really rather mean tolter, stood in front of her, his hoof on something rather silver. “Warrior, you want these keys? Betcha Ophiel will throw a fit!”
Oh no. Ophiel had found her keys, and now these dudes had them? This was not going well!
“Please, I found those keys, don’t take them from me,” Ophiel was begging now, sprinting between Warrior and Forge as they threw the keys faster than he could catch.
“Nah, I don’t think so, star fogged idiot,” Warrior sneered, “Forge, go long!” He tossed the keys far away.
Marina backed up. This was very not good. They never did well with confrontation, and these were their keys!
And then Crown arrived.
Crown, the horse with the rippling golden muscles and insanely good track record when it came to bullfighting. Crown, the only tolter like them in the stables.
“Hey boys,” Crown said, their voice a low growl. “Whatcha playing with?”
“Nuthin’. What’s it to you?” Warrior snarked, though one could tell by his ears that he was visibly frightened.
“Really?” Their eyes darted to the silver ring Forge was standing on. “Then what’s that?”
“J-just some keys?” Forge said hopefully, his blatant fear on his face. “B-but they’re not yours, why do you care?”
“Because you obviously took them from someone. Now return them,” Crown ordered, looming over the two.
“O-o-or what?”
“Or I’ll kick your chicken feathered heinies all the way to the moon.”
With a gulp, Forge picked up the keys and gave them to Ophiel before zooming away, Warrior fast on his tail.
“You okay?” Crown asked a very shaken Ophiel.
“Y-yeah,” Ophiel shuddered, his hoof on the keys. “Aren’t these very nice keys? I found them on an ash tree.”
“They are nice keys!” Marina piped up, trotting over to Ophiel. “They’re also mine, I must’ve left them on the tree. Thank you for finding them for me!”
Ophiel stared at them with wide eyes before giving her a relaxed nod. “Of course Marina, sorry about that.” He gave them the keys with a bit of a wink before darting off. Why’d he take that so well? Did he… have a crush on them?
“Oh, those are yours?” Crown asked, wide-eyed. “Where do they unlock?”
Marina slipped the keys into their saddlebags before responding. “They unlock this weird room over by the waterfall. It’s super cool - it’s filled with ocean stuff that reminds me of my old home. There’s this anchor, and bottles of sand and shells. There’s even sand dollars and pictures of my mom!”
“That’s really sweet,” Crown said, nuzzling the top of their head affectionately. “I’m happy you could get them back. Have fun, okay? And don’t let those fools get them again.”
“Right! Thank you Crown, see you around!” Marina dashed off, excited to finally be taking her trinkets to the room with all her precious memories.