This is a tale you've heard before - but have you listened from this perspective?

You hear tales about the good and beautiful maiden being locked in a tower, to be rescued by a prince - or put to sleep for thousands of years. It is always the same, this damsel in distress scenario. There are three main character's: the damsel, her rescuer, and the wicked hag who had placed her under lock and key. But did you even for a moment, stop to consider the so-called villain? Did anyone ever ask why she had imprisoned the beauty? Who knows, maybe she had good reason...or maybe, she is under a spell as well...

Phaedra had been cursed.

As the golden beauty stepped out of the Moon Goddess's shadow that fateful day in the Veins, an ugliness had permeated through her; rotting her from the inside out. Her sandy locks had fallen out in large and shimmering clumps, leaving her tail bone fully exposed, and her mane sparse and barren. Although she had been slender of build before, now she appeared emaciated and sickly; her ribs and shoulder bones pushed through a coat which now lacked lustre, and appeared to be infected with mange, or possibly bugs. Wings, once tawny and pillowy-soft, now looked hardly capable of flight, for many feathers had fallen out, and of the few which remained, looked grey and ill-equipt for flight. But it didn't just stop there: most of her teeth had fallen out, she had aged by several years, and her body appeared to have been severely burned, or cut (or maybe both), as heavy and ugly scars covered her malnourished frame.

But Phae was an ignorantly proud creature, and would not yield to the Goddess of the Moon...Then again, no one had seen her, until the day in the Threshold......she had almost let herself believe that odd mare had been the one who cursed it, but knew that it was not so. It was the Goddess, and this was her burden to bear.

Her new body felt strange and cold. Without her abundance of feathers to warm her flanks, she felt physically naked, as well as emotionally. Her only consolation was that she wouldn't - couldn't - be recognized like this. She was a ghost of the girl she had been once - only a few had caught a glimpse into the creature behind the pretty face, but even then, what was there to recognize? Oh sure, Stallions like Levi told her how wonderful and kind and caring she was but...was she really? Maybe beauty was all there was to her - and so what if it was? Not everyone could be so wonderfully complex as Ktulu and Ophelia...Then again, maybe that truly was the beauty of the Goddess' curse; to show her just how plain she really was. For all her beauty and charm, was she simply just a foil to make other Helovian's like Phi, appear that much more attractive?

Moving towards the river, Phae took a deep breath before peering down into the clear waters, and seeing herself for the first time. She was not frightened, as one might expect; rather, she was almost relieved. She was so exceedingly disfigured from the golden beauty she had been only yesterday, that she was sure she would go unrecognized. Flicking her tail bone out of habit, she flinched at how awkward the movement now was. Grumbling to herself, she looked around, before dropping her scarred and wrinkled muzzle to graze.