Far From Home

Walking through Canterlot was a trying experience. It was only once we reached the city limits that I realized I'd forgotten to re-illusion my Mark. I was getting weird stares from the ponies in the street. At least, the ones that had there eyes forward. The ones with their noses in the air were just begging for a tell off from one of the dominants, especially since the so called nobles lost their Alphaship long ago. At least, if that was how it worked here. I was a little lost as this was nothing like any pack, or even the Capital, the one city in Lycana.

We made it to the castle about a half hour after we entered the city and went around to a private door, as, according to Twilight, the front gates would be closed for another hour before the Night Court started. Why a Day Court and a Night Court were needed was beyond me.

The Defenders surprisingly just let Twilight pass, no questions asked beyond a quick submission to that same disturbingly chaotic spell Twilight used during my time stop stunt, which I'm surprised she hadn't interrogated me about yet. That and my stupid comment on my Journey.

Once we were inside, Twilight turned to us and said, "We should probably go and check in with the Princesses. Its only eight so they should be in the dining hall for dinner."

We followed her to the dining room and upon entry I saw the strangest sight I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. At the end of the table, on either side of the head, were ponies with both wings and a horn. The one on the right was white with a pastel mane in constant motion. She was in gold regalia and had a grin that spoke of a bet that was won, and no matter the retribution, the reward was worth it. Across the table from her was a dark blue pony with a flowing mane the colour of the cosmos and black regalia and... my jaw dropped at the horrific sight.

I looked around at everyone else's reactions Moonlight, Pinkie, and Rainbow were rolling on the ground laughing while everyone else shared my stunned to silence reaction. The dark blue pony was in the pooffiest, to the point I swear they were inflated, pantaloons I have ever laid eyes on. They were a pink that hurt to look at with lavender poka-dots a similar colour to Twilights coat.

My Chaos magic took that moment to inform me that this was Luna, Goddess of the Moon, The Great Lunar Being, Saviour of the Lycans in her defeat of Discord through unknown means, and she was a pony. In pantaloons. Telling me I have at least three embarrassing stories I owe Moonlight, Firefang, and my Master, as well as a couple of skeletons in my past I owe Moonlight. I, Hurricane Eye, the Chaos Storm, bearer of the Mark of the Killer and the Journeyman Shaman have seen the Goddess in pants. As a pony. The Goddess of the Lycans was a pony. This was going to take a while to sink in.

Twilight was the first one to regain her voice, Moonlight and Rainbow still immobilized by laughter, Pinkie just sporting a grin that defied basic biology, Rarity now appeared to be trying to unsee the outfit and Fluttershy appeared to be broken, "Princess Celestia, may I ask why Princess Luna is in that outfit?"

"She lost a bet with me and must do everything not within the public eye in a set of magically inflated pantaloons of a garish colour scheme."

"What was the bet?' Applejack asked, and, as the rest of us also seemed to have regained our composure, with the exception of the still broken Fluttershy, we all leaned in to hear.

"The bet was that this would be the month that  we wouldn't receive a panic letter from Spike over something in Ponyville." At this Twilight turned red and ducked her head slightly.

"But," Rainbow started, still reigning in laughter, "It's only the second."

"We made the bet yesterday," Luna grumbled.

I was still in shock and looking over at Moonlight, I saw she had caught when Twilight had said Luna's name, and was giving me a grin that told me she also knew I owed her some stories. This was the weirdest day I had had yet, and I had only just completed the first leg of my journey. However, being in the presence of the Princesses, the other shoe had to drop. "Who are these two?" Celestia asked looking at me and Moonlight.

"They are more of those odd ponies. They show up at least once a year, and when they see me their brains seem to break. I don't understand why," Luna responded to Celestia's question, surprising me in seeing past my shock at her attire, into my shock at her species.

"What was the last one to do this?" Celestia asked, turning to her sister. Luna's comment had removed any and all doubt that my magic was messing with me, and this was the honest to Lupus Luna. As soon as I realized that, I bowed deeply, head to the ground, neck to the side, throat at an angle, exactly as an Omega would bow to a Council Alpha. Upon seeing this Moonlight followed my lead.

Luna didn't bat an eye at Moonlight and my display. It seemed she really did see a lot of the Shamans, although I now wondered why the Masters never warned their apprentices about this. Though I guess they could say it's all about the journey.

"The last one," Luna said, answering the now gaping Celestia, "was just about ten months ago. A pegasus by the name of Midnight Fang, with a unicorn named Lightning Storm."

'Well, I finally have species names, I just don't know which type of pony goes to which name.' The thought running through my head as Celestia turns towards us and I feel a tiny tendril of magic hit my illusion, becoming Backlash, nowhere near enough to kill or even hurt the caster, but enough to tell them whatever they were after. Probably deducing that I was within an illusion, or that it was chaos magic.

After the tendril, Celestia's eyes went from the caring, baffled Princess, to cold, dangerous warrior. I was suddenly very nervous, and that was before she spoke, her voice previously warm and caring, now colder than the peak of Howling Mountain in the middle of winter. "Who and what are you?"

Out of fear I pulled another risky spell, one my master said was a Chant Cast that truly powerful Shamans could use without too much risk. An uncontrolled teleport that's only destination was away, and the last time I pulled this is another story I owe Moonlight after seeing the Goddess in pants.

"With a  mariochy band distraction,

The Lycans escape with a teleportation compaction."

As I said the chant, I felt another's magic latch themselves to mine, and the user was suddenly in physical contact with another, meaning I suddenly had two extra tag alongs I wasn't expecting. At least I knew I had more than enough power to get pretty much anywhere within a couple hundred kilometres.

As we shrinking into nothing, the way the teleport works, I saw the smoke from the distraction clear and I got my second look at what a mariochy band was, beyond knowing what the word was, as my master refused tell me what one was. All the ponies in the room were in brightly coloured ponchos, with a bunch of strange instruments in front of them which I still didn't get around to seeing properly as I was to distracted by everyone having a moustache of epic proportions.

We then disappeared with a 'pop.'

~*~*~

When we came out of the teleportation the first thing I thought was, 'This happens way too often.' I was, for the fourth time in my life, a female. I looked around at everyone, seeing who tagged along on the spell. While trying to figure out what happened.

Around me was Twilight, Moonlight and... myself! I looked down at my own body and saw I had a cyan coat and rainbow tail.  Twilight and Moonlight were both glaring at my body, which I suddenly noticed had stormy grey eyes, rather than my ice blue peepers. Moonlight was glaring at me, as she knew this side effect to multi-being spells if anything messes with them in the middle of casting.

I had once switched Firefang, Moonlight and myself around in bodies. I had ended up masquerading as Moonlight. It was another one of those times my Master told my she wouldn't change me back unless I couldn't after a fortnights effort. We spent a week in the archives looking for the counter. Thankfully the magic is attached to the spirit, not the body. Looking for the counter I also found out some other useful information, such as the fact the Griffon Empire was helped to be founded by a pegasus named Streak. Now I just needed to find out what a griffon and a pegasus were and I'd understand that little tidbit.

"I'm actually Hurricane," I said in Rainbow's voice. The glaring turned to me and I saw that Moonlight's body had lavender eyes, making that Twilight, which meant Rainbow was in Twilights body. She was now horny!

I instantly recognized these thoughts as every sing Luna damned TIME! I was turned into a female, I was always, always in heat. I glared at Dash, who was smirking at me, fully aware of her previous condition.

I really need to start carrying a scroll with the body switchback spell. I do not need these thoughts going through my head! Especially not about Moonlight! After hearing a loud pomf I do the first thing that comes to my head to get cool, I juno into the full ditch on the side of the road.

My head exits the water just in time to hear Moonlight ask Dash 'the question,' "Are you in heat?"

"Yes, yes I am," Dash answered her still smirking smugly.

"Thats four out of four times now," Moonlight states smugly, turning to look at me.

Glaring at... I guess she was a him when she's in my body, I deliberately turned to Twilight, and asked, while trying very hard to keep from admiring Moonlight's body, "Where are we?"

"You mean you don't know where you teleported us to?!"

"I should probably eventually give you an explanation of my magic, but in this case suffice to say I'm too powerful to accurately teleport."

"Ignoring the fact that goes against just about every rule of magic there is, there is a sign over there," Twilight said, pointing to a large crossroads a few minutes to the south. After reaching it, I saw the distances and wondered how much of Twilight's own magic made it into my spell. Chaos and Order magic might be fundamentally different, but to a spell, power is power. I know even using every once of power I have I could normally only reach about three-quarters of this distance, and the spell consumed all the power I'd allotted it, which would bring us about a two weeks from Canterlot. The distance to Canterlot from here, according to the sign, was six weeks. And Rainbow, currently inhabiting Twilights body, didn't even look tired! Despite magic casting being tied to the spirit, meaning I could still cast, despite currently inhabiting Rainbow's heat ridden body, the physical body still took all the strain, even with a body switch.

Four days to our south was Dryhoof and the border of the Great Southern Rainforest, and a week to the east was Stalliongrad. To our west was a massive forest that, if I had to guess, bordered this entire countries western border. The Chaos magic was pulling me south towards, and probably beyond, Dryhoof.

I looked to my three companions, before saying, "What do you guys want to do? We can go forward to the next destination and hope for a swapback there or we can go to Lycana, get the spell that'll swap us back and then come back to where ever here is."

I looked at Twilight's and Rainbow's confused looks before realizing I never actually explained a thing about myself, my home or my magic before dragging them on this messed up journey. Or did they drag themselves into it? Into... I quickly shook my head again before that thought went any farther, I was a MALE dammit!

Moonlight took the conversation over as she realized exactly how indisposed I was, despite sitting in a ditch full of freezing water. "How about we do this question for question? I know you have them and, frankly, me and Storm have been flying blind in this country."

"Sure!"

"...okay."

It sounded really weird to hear Moonlights voice so hesitant, even if I knew Moonlight was Twilight. That and it was really weird looking at my own body not using a mirror.

"First question, what is this country we landed in?"

"Equestria, ruled the two immortal princesses, Celestia and Luna. My turn, what is Lycana?"

"The country Hurricane and I hail from. About three weeks run to the west and home of the Wolves and the Coyotes, as well as the First Reign Archives." I was a little surprised at her mention of the archives, but then, she may have been trying to distract Twilight, and that was probably the only sure way from what little of her we'd seen. "Now for my question, what in the name of the Great Pack type of magic

do you have that can mess with, break or latch onto Hurricane's strongest spell's, That shouldn't work!"

"I study magic a lot and I've got a fair sized magic reserve-"

"That's putting it lightly," I butt in. At this Moonlight and Dash looked at me curiously, while Twilight looked at me sheepishly. I continued after the silence dragged on for five seconds with, "You've got at least half your power behind a ward so you can't draw on it, making you more powerful than me, and our kind of power is a once a millennium occurrence."

Wasn't this in one of the Archive books Firefang showed you?" Moonlight asked.

At this I stated, "The ten most powerful beings in the First Reign boundaries. Discord, Celestia, Luna, Orion Hunter (Famous Coyote), Starswirl the Bearded (Not sure who that is), Twilight Sparkle (You), Hurricane Eye (Me), Ocean Tide, Green Grove (More unsures), and Forest Stalker (An insane Coyote). You also use Order magic, something that should be impossible."

"Order?" Twilight asked, "What do mean, I just use regular magic. My next question, though, is what are the First Reign Archives?"

"The Archives," I explained, finally getting somewhat over the initial shock of being in heat, again, "are, at the same time, Discord's most benevolent and malevolent act. Can we talk about this on the road, I've finally cooled off, so do you want to continue the journey, or go to Lycana?"

"Continue." Twilight and Moonlight said in chorus.

"Why can't we talk to the Princesses?" Rainbow asked.

"You don't mix Chaos and Order magic. Ever. So unless you find a benevolent Discord or the wolf God Lupus, it's either go back to my home, or continue and hope to find the swapback spell on the journey."

"Fine, we'll continue and hope for the best."

"Alright, off we go," I said with enthusiasm, before leading everyone south.

A/N: The chapter was starting to get long so I split it, the exposition on Lycana and headcanon Equestria will continue next chapter.