Username: Embergleam
Show Name: RRS A Safe Place to Land
Barn Name: Morgan
Gender: Mare, identifies as agender (they/them pronouns)
Height: 13.3 hh
Halter Color: Artist's choice
Prompt:Morgan isn't really a trotter. They're something stranger and altogether sadder: the living embodiment, or 'genius loci', of a coral reef.
As their rather grim appearance might indicate, Morgan's home reef isn't doing well.
It hasn't been for years, actually. Rising temperatures and ocean acidification had done a number on the reef itself, bleaching much of the coral a ghastly grey-white. Trawling nets and fishing industry cast-offs had damaged even more. Invasive fish had flooded in to finish the job, decimating native populations already driven to the brink. Most disastrous of all, repeated offshore oil spills had poisoned the few reef denizens that still clung to life. Great swathes of Morgan's reef, located just off the coast of Florida, were either dead or dying by the time the reef-trotter made their presence known.
Every one of those disasters left an indelible mark on Morgan themself. Coral bleaching wiped the color from their coat, leaving it the same sickly grey as their dying reef. The more lionfish and crown-of-thorns starfish invaded their home, the more bruised-looking blue-grey splotches crept across their frame. Every time oil flooded the ocean, more clouds of toxic black sludge crept across their frame. With every new blemish on their body, Morgan's attitude towards the humans who shared their waters soured.
All of which meant Raven Ridge had their work cut out for them when they first met Morgan. They weren't just dealing with a mistreated trotter; they were dealing with the righteously pissed-off guardian of a reef on its last legs.
The first step towards reconciliation was to simply prove their goodwill. That meant staunching the reef's wounds. If they couldn't fix systemic problems like global warming and ocean acidification, well, they'd just have to fix the problems they
could make a dent in.
Step one was shoreline cleanup. As Morgan's reef began to struggle, tourism tailed off, leaving fewer and fewer visitors to collect the garbage that inevitably washed up at high tide. Now great heaps of the stuff decorated the tideline, bristling mounds of plastic and rotting seaweed that stunk to high heaven. It took thirty-odd people the better part of a day to get the whole mess bagged, sorted, and sent off for recycling, but it was absolutely worth it. Morgan, watching from deeper water, begrudgingly let them into their watery abode.
Step two was... somewhat grimmer. Somewhere along the line some bright spark had released [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterois[/url]lionfish[/url] near Morgan's reef. With no natural predators to thin their numbers, the spiny menaces had promptly taken over. Entirely too many of them stalked the shallows, devouring every fish that dared cross their path.
It's perfectly legal to spear lionfish in the state of Florida, and they make for surprisingly good eating once their venomous spines are snipped off. Raven Ridge's staff got pretty darn good at cooking them over the weeks they stayed near Morgan's reef.
Step three was to start the long, arduous process of bringing native flora and fauna back to Morgan's reef. Before they'd even arrived, Raven Ridge's leadership had put feelers out in search of native species they could bring to Morgan's reef. They'd found
Coral Vita, a company who 'farmed' coral. Some undisclosed amount of money later, a quite literal boatload of new coral was carefully scattered around the reef. With the new coral came captive-bred fish sourced from reputable breeders. It wasn't much, but it was
something a seed of hope that could someday grow into something magnificent.
That gesture was enough to finally convince Morgan that maybe, just maybe, they could trust these humans after all.
Morgan's hide is still pale and sickly, but the reef that gave them life is slowly beginning to recover. As it recovers, so too will its guardian. For now Raven Ridge is hard at work setting up a satellite stable in Florida. If they play their cards right, Morgan will never need to leave the reef they love and nearly lost. Instead, Raven Ridge will come to them. No one's quite sure how to accommodate a spirit- 'a sheltered pool for their new mer-friend to rest in and some sort of shade structure' is as far as anyone's gotten- but hopes run high they'll figure something out.
After all, they did promise Morgan they'd heal the reef, and keeping them happy is part of that promise.
