*Canterlot, just after midnight.*

Princess Luna was having a typical evening for her Night Court. She had, at most, five petitioners approach her seeking her wisdom or aid, but it was shy of the dozens that her sister would get during the Day Court. Still, she had been busy for the last couple of weeks in her sister’s absence.

Just over a month ago, changelings had invaded the Equestrian capital during the wedding of her niece Cadance and the captain of the guard, Shining Armor. Though the invaders had been expelled, Celestia had felt horribly guilty for not trusting in her student Twilight Sparkle when she claimed something was wrong with Cadance. In the end, Twilight had been right, though at the cost of straining her relationship with her mentor, and her friends.

Celestia had been adamant about making it up to Twilight, though her student had insisted that she had nothing to apologize for. Still, Celestia wouldn’t be denied, and after coordinating with Luna to spend some time alone with the purple unicorn, had gone on a two week sabbatical. Knowing Twilight’s love of literature, the solar diarch had spirited her student away to the greatest and most hidden archive of the equine world: the Great Library of Equisandria.

This, of course, left Luna in charge of both the day and night courts during her sister’s absence. At first, the nobles balked at the solar princess’s sudden departure, but quickly shut up when Luna made it clear that their complaints wouldn’t change a thing. After a few days, and no small amount of grumbling from the ponies involved, things had settled back into their normal routine.

Which, unfortunately, gave Luna a splitting headache by the end of each day as she had to listen to the petty whining of numerous self-important ponies trying to convince her to enact asinine laws or decrees. As much as Luna relished the chance to serve her ponies again and be of use to Equestria, she was glad when her sister finally returned.

“How did you put up with all of this… self-aggrandizing idiocy for so many years?” Luna asked as she met Celestia on the balcony of the throne room two days prior.

“I take it that the nobles were being…difficult.” Celestia said, the sentence being less of a question and more of a statement. Walking up to Luna, the solar princess nuzzled her sister affectionately before the two of them made their way inside.

“Aye. It was like trying to convince a cat to do tricks. How hast thou not thrown all of their pompous, self-serving flanks into the dungeon? Or at the very least striped them of their so-called noble titles?” Luna groused, her tone taking on a sharp edge.

“Centuries of practice. And enough chocolate cake to kill a dragon.” Celestia said flatly.

Two days later, Luna was relishing the relative silence of her Night Court. With few ponies to interrupt her, she had been catching up on some of the literature she had missed in her exile, including a strange new form called a “comic book.” They were silly, but entertaining, and between reading up on all of the legal codes she needed to know and various history books to catch up on events that transpired during her absence, she found them both engaging and relaxing.

Turning the page of the latest issue of The Incredible Ultramare, Luna’s attention was violently torn away by a sudden, sharp pain that struck her horn then rapidly spread through her entire body, causing her to drop the book and double over. The sensation was sharp and searing, like having the sound of claws on a chalkboard distilled down into liquid form, then spread across every nerve in her body while she was being dipped in acid and hundreds of windegos screamed in her ears. Luna slammed her eyes shut and grasped her forehead, forcing herself not to scream as the pain washed over her. An eternity of seconds passed. Yet, as soon as it started, it was gone, leaving the lunar princess stunned and teary eyed. Staggering to her feet, Luna turned to her guards, who had moved to her side when she doubled over.

“Your highness!” One of her thestral guards called as she and her partner ran to their princess. “Are you alright?”

Luna quickly regained her composure. Standing, she turned to the guards and fixed them with a firm look.

“Court is temporarily suspended.” She commanded. “Something is amiss, and we need to seek our sister.”

“Yes, your highness.” The guards said, saluting as they fell into line behind their mistress.

With that, Luna bolted from the room, heading towards her sister’s tower. She got half way there before nearly running into the very mare she was seeking.

“Sister!/Luna!” the two said, their voices overlapping.

“Did you feel that?” Luna said as she skidded to a halt before her sister.

“Yes.” Celestia said, taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves and lungs. “Do you have any idea what caused it?”

“No, I don't.” Luna replied. “Do you?”

“No. I’ve never felt anything like that before.” Celestia said, having regained her composure while tapping her chin with a hoof. “The closest thing I can recall was the feedback from when Starswirl was conducting his research on dimensional travel. But it was nothing like that.”

“What do you make of it then?” Luna said.

“I can’t say.” Celestia replied.

The two alicorns were interrupted as the third member of their kind came racing down the corridor, swiftly tailed by her husband.

“Auntie Celestia! Auntie Luna!” Cadance shouted as she ran up to the two other alicorns.

“You too?” Celestia said as she approached her niece.

“If you mean being woken up by horrific agony, then yes, me too.” Cadance said as she made took a couple of deep breaths, “Do you have any idea what in Tartarus’s name that was?”

“No, we do not.” Luna replied. “Sister claims it's akin to something our old mentor Starswirl once performed, but otherwise, we know as much as you, dear niece.”

Celestia turned to Shining Armor, who was standing next to Cadance, stroking her hoof calmingly with a concerned look in his eyes. “Captain, what about you?”

“No, your majesty.” He said, turning his eyes to the eldest princess, “I just remember waking up to Cadance screaming in pain, then rushing to find you and princess Luna.”

All three princesses and the captain of the guard all regarded one another for a moment, each one trying to think of what to do next. Ultimately, it was Celestia who broke the stalemate.

“I doubt we’re going to figure this out tonight.” Celestia said before looking back at Luna. “I’ll launch an investigation in the morning. I think I’ll contact Twilight as well and bring her onboard. Do you think you’ll be alright for the rest of the evening?”

“Yes. We should be fine.” Luna replied.

“I think so.” Cadance said.

“Okay then.” Celestia sighed. “Cadance, Shining and I will try to get some sleep. Luna, please wake me if you notice anything else amiss.”

“Of course sister.” Luna said as she nuzzled Celestia’s neck. “Sleep well.”

With that, the royals all went their separate ways. As Celestia climbed the stairs back to her chamber, she had to stifle a yawn. ‘Seems that this sort of thing is happening more and more regularly these days. What interesting times we’re living in.’ The solar princess mused to herself.

Entering her chamber, Celestia pulled out a large teapot and began to brew some mint tea to calm her nerves. The memory of the pain she felt not twenty minutes prior had her shaken, and despite how tired she felt, she doubted she would get much sleep. Using her magic to start the water boiling, she settled down on her bed and waited.

Minutes passed, and dried mint leaves were added to boiled water. Pouring herself a cup of the aromatic liquid, and taking a sip, Celestia let out a contented sigh as she started to relax. Looking at her desk, the solar princess summoned her magic and pulled over a stack of letters. In her time away, she had developed a bit of a backlog, and since she couldn’t sleep, she figured she might as well make some headway in clearing it out.

The majority of the letters were from various nobles or interest groups trying to curry her favor, or complain about some minor grievance that they felt didn’t need to be made in person. These she set aside to be dealt with later. A smaller number were letters from the general populace, telling the princess of their hardships and pleading for her aid, or thanking her for some small decree she had made to make their lives easier. She set these aside to be read more carefully in the morning. The fewest in number were simple well wishes from fillies and colts, often accompanied by drawings of the princess, and sharing their love with her. These, she chose to read line for line.

After an hour or so, Celestia had made a small inroad into the pile. As she was reading a letter from a filly thanking her for raising the sun each day, she suddenly felt something to the south. At first, she thought she was imagining things, but when she focused her attention on it, she could feel it right in her heart. The sensation was familiar, but its location was wrong. For over a millennium, she had felt a similar sensation each day in the sky above. But now, she could feel a small, nearly infinitesimally minuscule shard of that sensation in the direction of Ponyville.

Somehow, someway, there was a small spark of the sun moving around on its own.

*Daybreak, Sweet Apple Acres*

Dawn Wings’ eyes slowly opened as she felt the warmth of the sun rising above the horizon. Fluffing out her feathers and spreading her wings to her sides, she turned towards the fiery orb and bowed.

“Lord Helios, bless this day that I may shine your light upon the dark places of the world, and bring their secrets into your light.” She croaked.

Looking to the sky, she continued.

“Father Raven, let my wings carry me as I fulfill my duty to you, let my eyes spot what I must see, and let my laughter fill the sky with your wisdom.”

Finally, looking to the ground, she finished her prayer.

“Mother Gaia, hear my words, and let the secrets I tell you aid you in your works. To the Light Bringer, to the Spirit Father, and to the World Soul, I offer my oath: I am your eyes, from now till I breath my last.”

Her morning oaths to her three patron spirits done, Dawn Wings turned to the apple she had started last night. Pecking at it some more, she realized that it was probably the single most delicious apple she had ever eaten. The flavor was clean, crisp and just the right amount of tart and sweet. Though she’d been too tired last night to appreciate it, now, she found herself sighing contentedly as she swallowed small bits of the juicy fruit.

‘Whoever grows these deserves a medal. Forget medal, they deserve to be labeled a national treasure. These are beyond amazing.’ She thought to herself as she pecked off a few more pieces.

Having finished her meal, Dawn Wings turned her attention back to her current dilemma: figuring out where in Raven’s name she was. Taking off and circling around in the sky, she spotted a pair of buildings to the north. Both were decidedly rustic, but clearly well cared for and homey, though their architecture was kinda… strange. One appeared to mix elements of a barrel with a two story home, while the other combined elements of a barn and house. Dawn Wings mind boggled a bit at the unusual appearance of both structures, but brushed it aside. Outlandish as they were, these weren’t the strangest houses she’d ever seen. Her territory included the Los Angeles metropolitan area after all.

‘May as well see who the locals are.’ She thought as she flew towards the buildings. Alighting on the roof of the red barn/house, she settled in to watch and wait.

Fortunately for her, she could hear the inhabitants moving around inside, though what she was hearing concerned her. It wasn’t what was being said, but how it was being said. Or rather, the language it was being said in. What she was hearing was very clearly not any language she was familiar with. Dawn Wings knew English, Spanish, Kawaiisu and Mandarin Chinese, with a smattering of Korean thrown in for good measure, and could recognize at least a dozen others. But this language sounded nothing like anything she had heard before.

‘Okay. That’s bad. Wherever I’ve ended up, it’s a long way from home.’ She thought as she continued to listen.

Despite not being able to understand the words, she did pick up a few things. From the number of footsteps she could hear, there were at least eight people in the house, though only four of them spoke. Stranger still, they seemed to be walking around in pairs at all times.

As for the voices, she could only identify one male voice, an infrequent and deep baritone, which rarely said more than a single syllable or grunt. One was clearly very young, feminine, and quite energetic, probably belonging to a child. The third voice was ancient, creaky, and would trail off frequently, indicating that the speaker was probably elderly. The most dominant voice was deeper contralto female one, and carried with it a strong sense of authority. This last voice Dawn Wings assumed was the matriarch of the house, probably the little one’s mother.

Still listening and watching, Dawn Wings heard three of the speakers along with three of the silent occupants move towards the large door on the front of the house. Shifting her position on the roof, she peered down, waiting to see what the inhabitants looked like. If their language couldn’t help her figure out where she was, maybe their appearance could.

Unfortunately, she was completely unprepared for what she saw.

Dawn Wings had seen a lot in her days. She’d shared jokes with her oath sister Cackling Mesa as she and the nuisha had traversed the umbra of the Mojave Desert, causing all sorts of mischief. She’d gone to moots with Bright-claw’s pack, and danced around the fire while drinking, singing and sharing tales with her garou friends. She’d given intel to Gnawing Hunger’s nest of ratkin and helped them take out both agents of the Wyrm and the Weaver. She’d negotiated with mages, traded secrets with Kuei-jin for favors that she had yet to claim, sung songs of imagination with faeries, and pointed hunters in the direction of dangerous creatures. Though she knew that she hadn’t seen it all, she was sure that she could handle just about anything. But, despite all of that, the sight before her at that very moment caused her brain to completely stall.

The beings that stepped out of the house were not human. They weren’t even bipedal. They were brightly colored, talking ponies. The largest was deep red with a straw colored mane, and was wearing a plow-hitch. The smallest was blond-yellow with a red mane and wearing a bright pink bow. The middle one was orange with blond hair done up in a ponytail, and was wearing a looked like a Stetson.

Dawn Wings’ mind refused to register what she was seeing.

‘No. No. No no no no no. Not possible.’ Her mind howled as she watched the smallest one walk down the path towards the town in the distance, with the two others walking towards the apple orchard to the south. ‘This is wrong. No way in hell. Can’t be. No fucking way. I’m not seeing talking, clothes wearing ponies. This is too ridiculous! They look like something Avalon would make!’

Now rapidly developing an intense desire to freak out and fly head first into the nearest tree in the off chance that it might make whatever this crazy hallucination was stop, Dawn Wings instead closed her eyes and took a couple of deep, cleansing breaths.

‘Okay. Either I’m hallucinating, or that mage’s magick did something really messed up.’ She thought as she opened her eyes. She hoped that when she looked again, she wouldn’t see two ponies, but a pair of humans. Nope. Still ponies.

‘Calm down.’ She chastised herself, ‘Now, lets think this through. You were stepping sideways when you got shot by a mage. Okay. The mage was clearly trying to kill you when he did that. If he wanted to capture you, he’d have frozen you, not blasted you. If you were stepping sideways, and he hit you with magick, maybe it sent you to another realm. You know what mages are capable of, and you know that mixing two types of magick can be unpredictable. So, the most logical conclusion that you can reach is that everything you just thought is a load of crap, you’re dead, and this is hell.’

Dawn Wings blinked at the conclusion her internal voice reached.

‘But, I’m not dead. I can feel Raven’s presence, and Helios’s, but I’m not standing before either of them. If I was dead, then I’d be with them, not just connected to them. And I doubt a Malfean would try to trap me in any sort of ridiculous, crazy dream world. He’d just kill me.’

Looking back at the barn/house, her mind still trying to wrap itself around what she was seeing, and had seen.

‘Could this be real? Am I really in a realm with talking ponies? Is this honestly any stranger than anything else you’ve seen Dawn Wings?’

Shaking her head, she stared off into the distance, looking at the town while trying to grasp the implications of what she was thinking.

‘I need to know more. Hallucination or not, I can’t make any decisions without knowing about where I am. If this is a hallucination, and I can find some inconsistencies, maybe I can break free. And if it’s not a hallucination…’ She let her internal voice trail off with that last thought.

Spreading her wings, the corax launched herself off the roof of the building and flew towards the town, and whatever she would find there.

*****

All around her, the town was coming to life. Everywhere she looked, she could see nothing but the strange, technicolored ponies, each going about their daily business. Dawn Wings continued to glide over the tops of the buildings, her eyes scanning everything she saw in hopes of finding something useful. So far, she could find little that she thought could help.

As she flew about, she noticed that these creatures weren’t all alike. Some looked mostly like normal ponies, while others had wings, which clearly gave them flight. These flying ponies were few in number, but appeared to control the skies, both literally and figuratively. Dawn Wings watched in awe as a group of the flying ones began to actually move clouds around by pushing them, as though they were solid. Thinking back to what she had read of old human myths, she recalled that there was an analogous creature. Not knowing what else to call them, she decided that pegasus would do.

Even rarer than the pegasi were the ones with horns. These ponies instantly put her on edge, because they were all clearly mages of some sort. Each one would regularly use some sort of magick, which was emitted from their horns in the form of a chromatic aura. Again, going back to her knowledge of human mythology, Dawn Wings decided that despite only looking superficially like the mythical creatures she was thinking of, the title unicorn would have to do.

What was more, almost all of them bore a mark on their flanks, with only a few of the younger ponies lacking a symbol. All of the insignias appeared to be unique to their owners. Dawn Wings’ mind boggled at the sight. Were the symbols tattoos of some sort? How did they tattoo fur? Why put such a mark on your butt in the first place? What purpose did they serve?

Settling down on the roof of a random building, Dawn Wings took a deep breath and let out a sigh. This was getting her nowhere. She needed somewhere normal and sane to collect her thoughts. Turning back to the south, she took off and began to fly back towards the woodland she had emerged from the night before. That place at least felt right.

As she flew, Dawn Wings also considered something else: what would happen when she changed forms. Up until now, she’d kept to her natural form: that of a raven. But, as a corax, she had two other forms she could take: a human form, and a hybrid human/raven. Hallucination or not, could she still use these different forms in this world? Once she got somewhere safe, she’d test it out.

*****

Twilight Sparkle’s morning had started out pretty normally. Get out of bed. Eat breakfast. Then, get started on organizing the stacks.

Her vacation with princess Celestia had been unexpected, but she had eventually acquiesced when she learned where her mentor had intended to take her. Few ponies outside the royal sisters and the ponies that lived in and cared for the facility had ever set hoof inside the Great Library. Not only did the archives contain numerous irreplaceable, priceless tomes from throughout the history of Equestria, but also many forbidden texts on the dark arts, necromancy, and other eldritch lore too dangerous for most of pony kind. As such, the location of the Great Library was kept a closely guarded secret, not only to protect the literature it contained, but also to ensure that the more dangerous contents didn’t end up in the wrong hands.

Twilight had always dreamed of visiting the Great Library. She had never considered that she would get the chance one day. Or that the trip would be an apology from her mentor because she felt that she had wronged Twilight by not trusting her judgment.

The two weeks of one-on-one time with princess Celestia in the Library had more than made up for it in Twilight’s mind. Like a filly in a candy store, Twilight hadn’t known where to begin when she and the princess had teleported into the cavernous building. Yet, with some gentle direction from the princess of the sun, Twilight had managed to find her focus and chosen a subject to research. When they finally had to depart, Twilight had filled at least five volumes with notes on new magical theories that she wanted to try out.

Of course, in her absence, the Golden Oak’s Library had become slightly more chaotic than she liked. Spike, for all of his talent as an assistant, wasn’t as good at organizing and managing the library as she was. So, when she got home two days earlier, she had a slight meltdown over the “unacceptable” state the library had fallen into, and had spent the ensuing days getting everything back into “proper order”. Which entailed a lot of re-shelving.

Having finished the latest section, Twilight checked it off on her clipboard and turned to Spike.

“Ready to get started on the next area.” She asked.

“Sure Twilight.” Spike responded, without much enthusiasm as he followed behind the purple unicorn.

“I think we’ll work on the periodicals next. That should be easy.” Twilight said as she walked towards the shelves of magazines, journals and newspapers. Spike rolled his eyes, thinking that nothing was ever as easy as Twilight made it out to be.

Just as they were beginning to pull down the slightly miss-ordered literature, Spike belched loudly and emitted a small burst of flame, which transformed into a scroll. Catching the parchment in his claws, Spike looked up to Twilight, who had set down the magazines she was sorting and turned to face him. Taking the scroll in her magic, Twilight opened the letter, and began to read.

My Faithful Student,

Last night, my sister, niece and I experienced a strange phenomenon, for which we are all currently at a loss to explain. I have felt something similar once before, many centuries ago, but it was nothing like the events of last night. To compound the odd happenstances of last night, almost an hour and a half later, I became aware of a shard of the sun’s power moving about in the vicinity of Ponyville.

I do not believe these events are unrelated.

As such, I would like you to investigate this anomalous sun spark that I have detected, and report back to me what you find. To aid you in this endeavor, I have included a spell that will allow you to detect the presence of solar essence. Be forewarned, this spell is highly classified, as it would allow anypony to know my whereabouts were I to be in range. Once you have memorized it, I want you to destroy the scroll containing its formula.

I have utmost faith that you will get to the bottom of this strange occurrence.

Princess Celestia

Twilight’s mind was racing as she read and re-read the letter. Solar essence was one of the most dangerous powers in all of Equestria, even outweighing dark magic in terms of its raw destructive capabilities. There was a reason that in the time of Princess Platinum and the Warring Tribes, hundreds of unicorns were needed to raise the sun. Any single pony that wasn’t an alicorn who made contact with that much solar essence would be consumed by the radiant power of the sun. For there to be a detectable fragment of that power moving around outside the princess could lead to disaster if it went unchecked.

Flipping the scroll over, Twilight began to examine the spell her mentor had provided. The spell’s basic formula by itself was astoundingly complex, though the actual casting matrix was quite simple. The unicorn could understand why this spell was so classified. If one could understand the spell’s formula, even a weak mage could cast it.

Reading the spell for the fifth time, Twilight decided to try casting the spell from the scroll, to get a feeling for it. Drawing upon her power, Twilight focused her mind into the pattern of the spell, and then released the spell’s energy into her body.

At first, Twilight wasn’t sure if she had cast the spell correctly, because she couldn’t feel anything different from before. Picking up the scroll again to re-examine the spell’s formula, she was startled when she suddenly felt a strange pulse from outside. It was faint, but the spell had picked something up.

Dropping the scroll, she ran to the nearest window, trying to spot the fiery wisp of the sun’s power she could feel. But, as she reached the window, the sun energy she had detected faded away as it moved beyond the range of the spell.

“Twilight, are you okay?” Spike asked as he waddled up to his big sister/mother.

“Something strange is going on Spike.” Twilight said, still looking out the window.

“And?” The drake replied. “This is different from every other day how?”

Twilight looked back at the young dragon and narrowed her eyes, but eventually relented after she thought about it for a few seconds.

“Its not. But, still, this one’s pretty weird.” She said, looking back out the window.

“Well, don’t leave me in the dark. What’s going on?” Spike said as he walked up next to Twilight and peeked up over the windowsill.

“Well, according to the letter that princess Celestia sent me…”

*Everfree Forest*

Gliding along lazily, Dawn Wings found herself enjoying the simple, pure beauty of the woodland below her. There was always something about untamed wilderness that brought her peace. Having grown up in a mountain forest, there was also the comfort of familiarity.

Taking a few more minutes to simply enjoy her flight above the trees, Dawn Wings eventually spotted a glen with a pond on one of its sides. Banking her wings, she dropped down and landed in one of the trees on the edge of the clearing.

As peaceful as this place seemed, she was still cautious. Activating her threat detection power, she noted that there were a few potential threats nearby, but they all registered as minor. They were mostly predatory animals, and one or two semi-mystical ones, though they were not close enough to be a concern. Feeling that it was safe to use the clearing to test her ability to change forms, she took off again and glided down into the glen, landing near the edge of the pond.

‘Should probably shift to crinos first, then homid. No sense in overdoing it.’ She thought. Taking a deep breath, Dawn Wings willed the change to occur. Spiritual energy blossomed within her body as her essence and physical shell complied with her will to move into one of her other configurations. Flesh and bones expanded and distorted as the raven’s body began to rapidly put on mass, her body shuddering and convulsing as the change began to overtake her. Wings shifted downward on her torso as a pair of clawed hands sprouted from the wrist. Legs twisted and grew, as did her torso. A new set of wings grew from her back, while her tail lengthened and filled out with more feathers.

The change finished, Dawn Wings knew instantly that something was horribly, horribly wrong just from the way her body felt. Rather than a bipedal, human/raven combination, she could tell that she was quadrapedal, and had what felt like two pairs of forelimbs, one situated up high on her body near her shoulder blades, and one set just below the midline of her barrel. Looking down at her forelegs, she could see what appeared to be a set of wings with a pair of taloned claws that looked designed for both flight and walking on the ground. Looking back, she flexed the upper pair of limbs, noting that she now had not one, but two pairs of wings, though the top ones resembled her regular wings more than the ones she was currently standing on. Stretching them out, she could see that her wingspan was probably close to two and a half meters across. Her entire body was covered with familiar ebony feathers, which extended down her hind legs till the ankle, where it gave way to black scales, and a single, hooked hoof, while her tail was still distinctly avian. Reaching up with one of her forelimbs, she felt her face, which, thankfully, was still nearly pure raven, a fact she confirmed by taking a quick glance into the pond’s surface and seeing her reflection.

Dawn Wings’ heart was racing as she tried to process what she was seeing.

‘Okay, now I’m pretty sure I’ve lost it.’ She thought as she began to move her limbs to get a feeling for this ‘new’ body. Though she still had her basic motor skills down, moving around on four limbs instead of two was tricky. As she began to try walking, she stumbled and fell face first into the grass. Grumbling, she got back to her feet. ‘Then again, if I was hallucinating, I probably wouldn’t have done that.

‘Lets work under the assumption that however I ended up here, it’s affected my body in some way. Sure, that sounds so much less crazy than the idea that I’ve just gone nuts.

‘Well, might as well see just of far this goes.’ She thought, looking back at the, quite frankly, strange(r) crinos form she was now stuck with. Taking a deep breath, Dawn Wings steeled herself and once again willed her body to change form, this time to her homid state. She already suspected that the term wouldn’t be appropriate, and she was right.

Again, flesh rippled and contorted as bones and muscles shifted in shape. As the transformation progressed, her feathers morphed into a light, downy coat of brick-red fur, while a short, unkempt black mane emerged from the top of her head to the base of her neck, while her tail lost all avian characteristics and became long black hair the same color as her mane. Her beak vanished, and was replaced by a short muzzle as equine ears emerged from the side of her head. Her lower four limbs lost all avian features, as all of them became single-toed hooves. The wings on her back remained the same, though slightly smaller than before. And finally, on her flank, a symbol suddenly appeared: that of a hand mirror with a single, outspread black wing on its pane.

Once again, Dawn Wings inspected her new body, though this time she managed to avoid the near panic attack as she examined the extent of the changes. What surprised her the most was the presence of one of the tattoo-like marks on her ass. Considering it for a few moments, she decided that whatever the thing was, it was a natural part of being one of the ponies.

Looking back up at her new wings, she decided to test how functional they were. As she began to flap the feathery appendages, she found to her delight that she was easily gaining altitude. Next, she tried flying around, and was pleased to find that it was just as easy to maneuver as her natural state. Maybe even a bit easier.

‘Well, at least I can fly in all three of my bodies now.’ She thought with some minor enthusiasm as she dropped back to the ground with a light “thump.” Willing her body to shift once more, she returned to her natural form and regarded her situation.

‘So, lets ignore the possibility that you’ve just lost it, shall we? You’re in another world; you have only the vaguest idea how you got here; you have no idea if you can get back; the “people” here are talking, tool using ponies; you now turn into one of said ponies instead of a human; you don’t speak their language; you have no idea if there are other fera in this world; and what’s worse I’m a complete outsider here.’ She thought to herself as she took off and landed in the branches of a tree and looked to the sky.

‘I know nothing of how this place works. Has the Triat War reached this world? Are there threats to Gaia that need to be found? What of the spirit world? Are secrets here that need to be discovered and brought to light?’ She thought as she continued to stare at the sky, her mind racing. ‘If there are no threats to Gaia, what good am I to this place?’

Looking back towards the ground, Dawn Wings turned her thoughts over in her mind. As she continued to stare at the grass, she started spotting hidden details everywhere. Small flowers partially obscured by the leaves of larger plants. Little shining pebbles at the edge of the pond’s water. The nearly invisible strands of a spider’s web in the branches of a large shrub. The subtle shift in the vegetation as some small animal made its way through the brush.

‘“There’s always something hidden waiting to be discovered, if you know where to look for it. As corax, its our duty to know how to look when other don’t.” Isn’t that what you always used to say Bright Sky.’ Dawn Wings thought, recalling the teachings of her old mentor with a slight smile.

‘My job is to discover, learn and find that which is unknown so that it can be brought to light. Wherever I am, that is my purpose. Even if this isn’t my world, I can do at least that much. After all, I’m sure Raven’s going to love hearing all about this crazy place.’ She thought, her smile becoming more genuine.

Looking down at herself, a plan began to form in her mind. ‘I suppose the first thing I’m going to have to do is get a feel for my new ‘bod. Then, learn as much as I can about the locals, and brush up on their language. Not as easy to get info if you can’t understand what’s being said.

‘Looks like I’m going to be spending some time around that village after all.’ Dawn Wings thought as she turned to gaze back towards the town. As she did, her eyes drifted up towards the horizon, and what she saw took her breath away.

In the distance, there was a city, situated on the side of a mountain. The city was beautiful and majestic, its architecture less about pure practicality and more about blending function with art. The only places she had ever seen such elegance was in the umbra, in the realms of the most powerful spirits.

And there was something else. The longer she looked at the shining city, the more she felt an ache in her heart, as though something there was calling out to her. Turning her eyes away, Dawn Wings took to the air and flew back towards the ruins where she had emerged into this new world.

‘Work before pleasure D-Wings.’ She chastised herself. ‘Get your bearings first, then you can visit whatever that place is.’

With that, Dawn Wings stepped sideways into the umbra. She was going to be a busy for quite a while.

Author's Note

Glossary of new terms
Helios - Spirit of the sun and the celestine that the corax draw their power from.
Raven - The patron spirit of the Corax.
Gaia - The earth mother and creator of most of the fera.
Ratkin - Wererats, charged by Gaia to keep the human population in check. Strongly tied to the Wyld.
Faeries - also known as changelings, these are beings of living imagination.