In her short seventeen years of life, Weiss had never seen anything quite like this.

All around her, stars sparkled and danced - seeming to flow through the space like leaves in a current, and the void looked like an oceanic blue. Her body felt light, as if immersed in water, but there was no such thing. Weiss looked down and almost immediately regretted it. A void exactly like the one above her met her gaze, her feet standing on nothing. Weiss looked up again and squeezed her eyes shut.

Taking in a deep breath to calm herself, Weiss slowly opened her eyes and looked to her side. Princess Luna stood there, a hoof placed on Weiss’ shoulder, and a smile on her face. “Are you alright, Weiss?”

She gulped, and nodded in response. Weiss couldn’t trust her mouth to make coherent words yet. This place... it was so unlike anything she had ever seen before. Weiss took yet another look around, marveling at the sight. It was so strange, yet so beautiful too. In the corner of her eye, Weiss spotted Celestia, too, taking in the sight.

“I do love this place,” Celestia said with a small smile on her face. “I do not get the chance to come here very often. But when I do, I make sure to appreciate its beauty.” Celestia let out a sigh of content before turning to Weiss, her smile dropping as she did so. “Weiss, what you are seeing... This is magic, in its purest form. Magic is what makes up our world, and our universe. Magic flows through every being in this realm, though how they express it varies.

“This, Weiss, is the the realm of magic - it lies between universes, in the space between. You see, though magic makes up all universes, the amount that each universe has can be very different. Our universe, on one end, has more than its fair share. Yours, Weiss... It can be considered to be near the middle of the spectrum. Your universe has more magic than average.

“Are you following me so far?” Celestia asked. Weiss nearly jumped at being addressed so suddenly, but managed to hold it back.

“... I think so. But... what does this have to do with you getting me home?” To her side, Weiss saw Luna shift.

“I’m getting there.” Celestia said before continuing. “Discord told you that magic follows a set of rules, even his chaos. Take a look around you, Weiss - the magic is constantly shifting, see?” Weiss looked at her feet and, indeed, the flowing stars that she noticed earlier that seemed to be carried by a current. “The magic is always flowing, and so the universes follow. Think of the universes like a bubble, and the bubble being carried by the water around it. Sometimes, the universes can bump next to each other. Rub against one another.”

Weiss’ eyes widened. “The day that I died - are you saying that-?”

Celestia nodded. “On that night, our two universes just so happened to be next to each other. A very rare occurrence. I do not know why your death sent you here, Weiss, but whatever the reason, it must have been caused by the overlap. The magic that sent you here could have simply been random chance - the amount of magic between the universes, and their proximity, could have simply opened a doorway. Or, maybe, something greater happened that we do not know of just yet. But...”

Weiss felt her stomach drop. She could read between the lines well enough to know the words that were coming next. She dropped her head and sighed, as Celestia continued. “Because we don’t know what sent you here, we cannot replicate it. So we cannot send you back. And at this point, our universes are too far apart for any connection to me made, anyhow. I’m sorry, Weiss.” With that, the princess took a step back from the heiress, and hung her head slightly.

Weiss felt Luna’s hoof pat her on the shoulder. Weiss just simply closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She let it out slowly, in ragged breaths as her heart began to pound in her chest. So it was impossible. There was no way to get home. Celestia said that the universes overlapping was a rare occurrence, and without it, there’d be no way for them to send her back.

She was stuck.

Up and down, her chest heaved, her lungs taking in shaky breaths as she tried her hardest not to scream. She had let her guard down. She knew this was a longshot, but the incredible sight of the magic had made her mind wander - wondering about the possibility of getting home, of seeing her sister again, and hell, even her brother. She’d never see team JNPR again, or any of the students back at Beacon.

Just as Weiss thought she might fall, she was suddenly pulled into a hug - her face being pushed into Luna’s mane. The princess wrapped two legs around Weiss, and held her just tight enough but not too much. Weiss’ breathing stopped for a moment, but slowly started again. She hesitantly raised a hand and wrapped it around Luna.

“I’m so sorry, Weiss.” Luna spoke softly. “I wish there was more we could do.” She let her words hang in the silence for a moment, before pulling away slowly. Weiss took in a shaky breath to steady herself and, lacking any proper response, simply nodded at the younger sister. She took in a steadier breath and focused on keeping herself calm. Freaking out now would do no good.

“Weiss,” Celestia began. “I recognize that you’re feeling a great deal of emotion right now. If you would like, I can send us back to Equestria, and let you process this information. Captain Flowers will be outside your room, ready to lend an ear, if you need it. Or you can have him call on Luna or I - I assure you that we will not hesitate to come to your aid if you need it.”

Weiss took in a breath and closed her eyes. Lacking words at the moment, she simply nodded. There was another flash of light, and Weiss felt herself floating.

The next day saw Weiss in her room, lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling.

She stared ahead, blinking ever so often, with one arm over her chest as it rose and fell with her breath. Her mind had been racing ever since the events of the day before. The revelation that she couldn’t go home was not unexpected, but she’d foolishly let herself get her hopes up. Now she was forced to come to terms with the fact that she’d be here, in this strange world, forever.

Captain Flowers had left last night, as he said he would. The Princesses didn’t seem to know, but Weiss figured that was nothing to fret over. She couldn’t expect them to know the whereabouts of every single guard. Weiss had no reason to suspect anything wrong. It was just her mind trying to find something to distract itself with.

So she gave it something - a new goal. Celestia and Luna had offered her a job, something about high level combat. And well, Weiss was certainly capable of more than the standard royal guard. If she was to accept the position....

Just then, the door to her room opened. Weiss sat up in her bed to see Princess Luna trot in, the door closing magically behind her. Weiss was going to greet the princess, but just then she saw the look on Luna’s face - a dark, serious expression. So Weiss instead said nothing and stood from the bed.

“Weiss,” Luna said. “We need your help.”

The heiress nodded and reached for Myrtenaster, which lay on the foot of her bed. “I figured. What’s going on?”

“There’s a situation in a town called Ponyville. A filly has gone missing, in a forest full of monsters that could tear through even our most trained soldiers. To make matters worse, we fear that the forest might also be harboring dangerous criminals - poachers, to be exact - who would not hesitate to harm her. My sister and I would like to have you help find her.”

Weiss took a second to process the information. It sounded serious - there were actually dangerous things in this cutesy cartoonish world - and she certainly would help. But... Ponyville? Didn’t Flowers say he was heading there, to sort out a “ruckus”?

Weiss didn’t hesitate. “I’ll help.”

And who knows - maybe she’d be able to find her team.

Most ponies were asleep at this hour, but she was not most ponies.

Her routine was the same every day - barring any monster attacks or world-ending scenarios, Celestia forbid. Day after day she worked to care for all the animals that passed through her home, and every night she made sure they were ready for tomorrow. Her nights consisted of making sure they all had food, water, and a nice place to sleep. It was definitely time consuming, but she didn’t mind.

It was Fluttershy’s passion, after all.

Fluttershy had just finished filling the chickens’ food for the night, and began to walk back to her cottage. Living on the edge of town gave her plenty of room for all of her animal friends and - if she was being honest - cut down on her interactions with other ponies. Sure, she’d grown a bit more confident in herself since Twilight moved to town, but animals were her strong-suit, not other ponies.

Humming a small tune to herself, Fluttershy stopped at the door to her house to take a look at the night sky. It was a beautiful night - not a cloud was to be seen, and the stars were clearly visible against the black of the night. Fluttershy smiled to herself and turned to go inside.

But just then, a thunderous boom sounded out. Fluttershy let out a scream and immediately dropped to the ground, covering her face with her hooves as she shook in fear... and the shockwave of whatever hit the ground. She could already hear the squawks of her birds and growls of other animals, as their sleep was so rudely disturbed.

Just as quickly as it came, the shockwaves stopped. Fluttershy whimpered to herself for a second before standing on shaky hooves. She cautiously looked around for anything out of the ordinary, but only saw the faces of her animal friends looking at her.

“Oh my...” She muttered quietly. “What in Equestria could have caused something like that?”

The flames burned, and she screamed. She screamed as her skin melted away and her nerves could not register the pain. Eventually she stopped screaming. Then there was nothing.

Blake opened her eyes.

Arc Three: From Shadows

Begin

Author's Note

I'll admit that I rushed the ending. I just... could not get this to work the way I wanted it to.

I will be the first to admit that this arc had it's issues. I do hold a soft spot for a few certain scenes, mainly between Weiss and Luna, but otherwise, eh, a lot could have been done better.

The explanation for how RWBY got to Equestria, and why they can't go back, was one of the first things I thought of for the story. If it doesn't make sense, tell me so, and I'll clarify in a comment.

We haven't seen the last of Weiss, Luna, or Celestia. There's still questions that need answers. But they'll have to wait a bit, because we're going into the third arc of the story at long last: From Shadows.

My editor, Soren Mercer, was the one who wrote the first batch of chapters for this arc. So you can expect those to be released on a steady schedule! Yay! If I manage my time right, I'll hopefully have a backlog of chapters to release until this arc finishes. No promises, though.

See you soon.
-Qrow