We set out earlier again the next morning. Swirl and the sisters packed their sleeping bags and started walking, with me trailing them high above. I would occasionally call out if I saw any tracks to alert Starswirl. We seemed to be making good progress, except for one thing.
Come on you stupid wings!! You didn’t do this before! My wings seemed to be dragging the air more than usual. It slowed me down and made me have to flap near constantly to keep up with the group. Oh my gosh this is a work out. I huffed into the wind. My wings were starting to burn and I needed to catch my breath. “KEEEEEAR!!”I screeched. Swirl stopped along with Luna and Tia to watch me spiral down. I aimed for a branch beside them but missed it by quite a bit. “Caaaaw!!!” I.....cawed. Flapping my wings to slow myself down, I hit the dirt and rolled. Ooooow. I laid there catching my breath.
“Are you ok!?” Luna ran up to me and jumped on my chest. Oh god! “Are you awake!?”
“Luna! Get off of him, your hurting him!” Tia ran up to her and pulled her off of me. Oh thank goodness. I took in big gulps of air as the weight was lifted off of me. “Are you ok Night?”
I shook my head and took deep breaths. “Hmmmm.” Starswirl hummed. He leaned close to me and observed something he found interesting. “Have you been preening?” Preening? Why would I-oh
“Chirp.” How do I tell them I don’t know how to preen? I’m a bird to them.
“Well no wonder your exhausted. Everything with wings needs to preen. Why haven’t you been doing it?”
“Chirp.” I motioned to my wings with my head and shrugged my shoulders.
“What? You don’t know how?” Tia asked disbelievingly.
“That’s crazy! I learned to preen years ago!” Luna added. “How old are you?”
“Chirp.” Another shrug.
“You don’t know? That’s sad. I’m a whole three years old!!” Luna bragged. I couldn’t help but smile internally at that.
“Would you like help?” Tia asked. I nodded, a little embarrassed.
“Your a strange bird Night. A very strange bird.” Swirl commented.
And so Tia began instructing me on how to care for my feathers while Swirl and Luna rested nearby. She did one of my wings and let me do the other, only correcting me when needed. I fell into a rhythm of adjusting feathers. It was a deceptively easy task. Turns out I had oil glands at the base of each feather. I had to use my beak to straiten each feather, then coat it with a little oil. It also helped when you had what amounted to a real-time video of space to watch. Did I mention I love space?
This was also my first real chance to get really close to one of the ponies. As we both worked on my wing I studied her closely. Her mane was just shy of being a painful pink, settling on a baby pink. It didn’t flow yet so I wondered when that started. She was just barely bigger than me and Swirl. I wonder how other ponies will react to a giant hawk. I made a snickering noise as I thought about that. Had they discovered griffins yet? Even if they had, they where different than a full on bird.
I noticed she didn’t use her magic to adjust any feather. Now that I think about it, neither her nor Luna have used any magic. I moitoined with my finished wing at her horn. “Chirp?”
“What?” Tia looked at her horn in confusion. “What’s wrong with my Horn? Is there something on it?” She started rubbing her horn in an attempt to remove whatever was there.
“Chirp.” I shook my head and motioned to Starswirl, who was levitating Luna around.
“Oooh. Well, Luna and I don’t use magic because Starswirl illusion spell keeps us from using it. It prevents us from accidentally levitating something if we’re not paying attention.” She frowned a little. “Unfortunately he hasn’t figured out how to shorten the magic prevention with the illusion. So we can’t use magic for a full day after the illusion is dispelled. And we haven’t used any today because there hasn’t been a reason to.” I motioned my head at the wing we were working on. “Oh, magic is no good for preening. You can’t feel with your magic as well as you can by actually touching something.”
Huh. The more you know. She levitated a branch over to us and started spinning it in the air. “Starswirl also puts a magic blocking spell on Luna. Young unicorns tend to have a few magic surges. Especially alicorns foals it seems.” She paused to adjust a couple feathers. “When combined with the illusion spell it blocks the surges completely. The down side is that it stores the surge. Releasing it later when it’s dispelled. But on its own it just lessens the severity.” Tia explained. She looked thoughtfully at my wing before adjusting a few more feathers. I realized I wasn’t helping and leaned down to work more on the wing. Apparently I’m getting a magic lesson. Never thought that would happen. With a few twists of my head I finished the last couple feathers.
“Chirp!” I thanked Celestia, nodding my head at how clean my wings looked. The next second I was on the ground with something on my back.
“Your wings are even more pretty now!!” Luna yelled in excitement. It was true. You know when you get dust on your glasses, or your phone screen and you don’t notice how blurred the screen was until you brush it off? That’s how my wings where. I didn’t notice how much the dirt and dust fogged them up until they were clean.
“Yes yes. Pretty bird. Now we need to move. We have wasted enough day light by now.” Starswirl smirked at me as he saw me staring at my wings. What? There cool ok!?
“Caaaaaw!” I flew over him and knocked off his hat. Flapping my wings was much smoother now, and I could glide full speed again. I looked down and saw Swirl grumbling as he picked up his hat and settled it on his head. I smiled internally as I looked down at them. These ponies are really growing on me.
That night, as everyone settled down, I thought about some things that were bothering me. Namely, the fact I wasn’t as freaked out as I should be. I should be freaked out about being in another dimension. I should be depressed beyond belief at being away from my family. I should be more concerned about getting home. Yet I wasn’t. I was traveling through the woods with three magical ponies. As a bird. Hunting a shadow monster. Just another Tuesday.