Rarity stared at Twilight, “Dear, should we follow them?”

Twilight shrugged, “We may as well…”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and quickly padded after the leaving group of cats. The others hesitantly followed. After a few moments, Rainbow slowed to let them catch up.

“So, um, what do you think ThunderClan will be like?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, seeing as they’re named after thunder, I reckon they’ll be very strong and fast and scary!” Rainbow chuckled.

Pinkie bounced up to Rainbow and commented, “My Pinkie Sense told me they’re very nice, actually.”

“Aww…” Rainbow pouted, contently sheathing and unsheathing her claws.

“We’re here!” the golden tom called Lionblaze shouted back to them.

Rainbow hurried ahead to be first into ThunderClan’s home.

It was a large stone hollow, with cracks in the walls that seemed they could lead to rooms. Brambles covered the entrance and on one side of the hollow there was a ledge with a tumble of rocks leading up to it.

Cats strolled around the clearing, some play-fighting, some joking and some eating squirrels and rabbits – which disgusted Rainbow. As soon as the cats saw the new arrivals, some began hissing, while others murmured warily amongst themselves.

A large brown tabby tom with amber eyes strode towards them. “Lionblaze, why have you brought these kittypets into our camp?” he asked, fixing the golden tabby with a harsh stare.

“They asked to see our ‘ruler’.” Lionblaze replied.

“Well then… Squirrelflight!” Bramblestar yowled. A dark ginger she-cat ran to them. Her right forepaw was white, and she had green eyes. A scar stretched from her chest down her left hind paw.

“Yes, Bramblestar?” she questioned.

“Fetch Jayfeather and Spottedpaw and meet me in my den.” He motioned for Rainbow and her friends to follow him.

After a few moments of scrambling and falling, they were in a small cave. On the far side of the cave there was a spread-out clump of moss that looked a bit like a bed.

Rainbow looked at the cats in the den. There were her friends, Bramblestar, Squirrelflight, Jayfeather and Spottedpaw.

Jayfeather was a grey tabby tom with clear blue eyes. A long scar ran along his side.

Spottedpaw’s pattern was a little more complicated. She was dark brown, with a spotted back, striped legs and a tail, and a black patch of fur on her forehead. Her right foreleg was covered in scars and thin scratches that were clotted with dots of blood.

“So, could you tell me who you are? Lionblaze said you just woke up here, but I sense there’s more to this story then that.” Bramblestar meowed.

Twilight took a deep breath before blabbing the whole story: “Well, we’re actually from another world. We’re ponies there. These ‘collars’ as you call them are actually our Elements of Harmony, a very strong power source where we come from. These marks on our flanks are called our cutie marks. As you can see our Elements of Harmony look like our cutie marks. I, Twilight, am the Element of Magic, Applejack is the Element of Honesty, Pinkie is the Element of Laughter, Rarity is the Element of Generosity, Fluttershy is the Element of Kindness and Rainbow is the Element of Loyalty. You see, I got a letter from our princess telling me of a spell, because I‘m an alicorn – a magic pony, or horse, with wings – where we come from. But when I tried it, it turned us into cats, our Elements into collars and sent us here.”

Bramblestar stared at them, mouth agape. “Well… That’s a very strange story… Jayfeather, have you had any sign about these cats?”

Jayfeather nodded. “A few days ago, I had a prophecy. But it wasn’t from StarClan. It was in another tongue, but I could understand it." the medicine cat proceeded to relay his dream to his leader.

Sounds like Zecora… Rainbow thought.

“I suppose I could let you join the Clan.” Bramblestar murmured. Then he nodded. “Come on then.”

Rainbow stood under the Highledge, as everypony seemed to call it, with the rest of her friends. Bramblestar had called the Clan together.

“I have found some cats who are willing to become apprentices for the Clan.” Bramblestar announced.

“Lucky to!” yowled a voice. The crowd separated to reveal a black tom. He had a brown belly, long legs and light amber eyes.

“Spiderleg, sit down!” hissed a white she-cat with blue eyes and a torn ear.

Rainbow turned and growled back at the warrior. “You want me to prove we’re good enough?”

“Go ahead!” Spiderleg laughed.

Without warning, Rainbow lunged. Her claws were unsheathed, her teeth were bared, her fur was bristling; her tail was lashing.

Spiderleg was unprepared for her attack, and fell straight over beneath her claws. Rainbow ripped at her opponent’s fur, feeling flesh tear in her claws. The black tom beneath her screeched and, being much, much more used to being a cat, launched Rainbow upwards with a swift hind kick to the stomach.

Rainbow landed hard on the cold stone floor of the hollow, but felt no cracks in her back as she rose to her paws. Spiderleg charged at her, and managed to rake his claws along her side as she dodged out of the way.

Hissing, Rainbow leapt again, this time aiming more carefully. From what was just a pure bout of luck, she landed square on Spiderleg’s shoulders, pushing him to the ground. The black warrior growled and turned his head to snap at Rainbow’s ankles.

Rainbow felt as if the battle was over, so she loosened her grip. But she wasn’t prepared for Spiderleg’s next move. He pushed himself upwards, knocking Rainbow straight over and causing pain to lance up her back.

Then it happened.

Spiderleg raked his claws across Rainbow’s flank, right on her cutie mark. Rainbow suddenly felt pain grip her, causing her to screech. She began to writhe around in distress, the pain filling her body.

The white she-cat who had told Spiderleg to sit down earlier pushed to the front of the crowd and yelled, “Spiderleg, what did you do?”

“I-I don’t know!” Spiderleg told her.

A very light grey tom stepped forwards. His tail-tip, ears and paws were black. His eyes were a medium blue.

There was a brown she-cat standing next to him. Her paws, belly, chest and muzzle were light brown; her eyes were amber. Her tail-tip was black, along with a black stripe on her tail. A tuft of fur on her forehead was also black. The two had a similar structure to Spottedpaw, so Rainbow, only being able to see them very faintly through her haze of pain, guessed the three were siblings.

“It might have something to do with that mark on her flank. She was fine until you scratched it.” meowed the brown one.

“Maybe it’s something to with a prophecy or something? Or she could have old wounds that you just aggravated.” agreed the other.

Spiderleg was looking terrified by now, his eyes wide, his tail between his hind legs. “W-w-what do I d-do?” he stuttered.

It was then that the pain ebbed and pressure settled on her back. Rainbow let out another screech as the skin burst on her shoulders. Then, as if someone had planted seeds in the wounds, fresh, new skin seemed to sprout like plants.

Rainbow felt her Element of Harmony lift her into the air. Her tail grew messier, like in pony form and between her ears grew a scruffy rainbow-coloured mane. As the lightning-bolt necklace began to glow in a calm red light, Rainbow felt something feathery spread out behind her back.

When the light faded, Rainbow was surprised to find herself hovering in the air. Turning her head slightly, she saw wings connected to her back, flapping gently.

“Aw yeah!” she grinned.

Author's Note

The inspiration for Rainbow's transformation comes from a 'Human Turned Cat' story that has sadly been lost in the depths of Quotev.