Erin panted mildly as she finished yet another run with her horse, reaching for her waterbottle and pouring the water over her upraised head, not caring about the water that splashed on her face. It was too hot for Spring and the amount of times Meadow had to go to the water to drink and cool down, let alone relieve herself, was a testament that summer felt like it was already here.
The pair had been training for the last couple weeks, and Erin was no closer to finding out Dawn’s secret. They would start out with a small ride around the property, warming up in the morning, and then Erin would work on her leatherworking project, growing more and more irritated that this one kept being more and more difficult. The client was willing to pay her for her time, but this was cutting in to her goals to attend the local renaissance fair coming up in two weeks and signaling the last event she could do before riding has to take over. Worse yet, her father wouldn’t let her turn it down because it was important to ‘make customers happy.’
She wanted to participate in more of the activities in her armor as Lady Erin of Waterhold, but outside of spending the necessary weekly meetup on Sundays to keep her fighting skills as a ‘lady knight’ up to par, she wouldn’t have her outfit completed and resigned herself to needing to dress up and not fight this year in the tournaments. It was something she lamented over often out loud to Dawn, who simply seemed to stay at her side no matter how loud it would get.
“Come on girl… let’s get home. You did good.” She said quietly, patting their neck.
‘Bucking right I did. You kept pushing me till we consistently got under 2 minutes a lap these last two weeks. I swear she’d almost be as brutal as the EDF training officers!” Dawn thought. She needed no second bidding though, despite her fatigue, and trotted gamely on to the trailer.
Dawn knew she was under near constant scrutiny by Erin, having had a few times where she would act like she was going back and yet stuck around to watch and catch Dawn in the act of causing the flames. Her antics the last few days was pushing her to her limit once again. She found she could shift without the blaze of fire that was becoming typical of her transformation by gradually changing different parts of her, but at the cost of increased fatigue.
Dawn swallowed dryly as she was secured in the trailer, frowning internally as she thought about the close calls they had last week. There were points that her instinct alone told her she was in danger and minutes later, Erin came along, checking in on Dawn.
The drive home was uneventful, and while Dawn missed her usual stimuli of back home, she had to admit it was a nice enough break for the time being.
Dawn was led wearily back to the shed where Erin worked on the leather armor of the commission. Once again, Erin said how she expected she might be done in time for next week, saying she was giving up on her armor.
After they finished, Dawn was led to her stable and Erin went to the house and had dinner. Dawn was surprised however when she had come back, this time with a large pair of blankets.
“Sorry girl, but I’m not staying in the house…” Erin grumbled, letting out a few choice curses as she laid her blanket by Dawn’s form laying on her side, “should have known spoiled brat’s dad wouldn’t leave well enough alone… tried to get dad to do it without my permission by paying more when I told him to go soak his head and dad told me I should and what I should do with my horse.”
Dawn blinked, now irritated as well as this girl just set down all of her blanket stuffs over their side and promptly fell down into place by her flanks, using her as a pillow. ‘Now hang on just a bucking moment! My shapeshifting is going to fall apart here if I have to keep this up!’
Erin sighed and pressed closer, mumbling, “At least you’re there for me… dad’s being an idiot…”
Any further attempts at conversation promptly ended as she fell fast asleep, leaving Dawn stumped. She knew she was on the verge of discovery, disguise ready to break down in less than an hour. She felt for their plight, but unfortunately for Erin, her own survival mattered more. If they didn’t wake on their own, Dawn would leave the stables and figure out where she could rest later, maybe the spot Erin had showed her before each day at lunch.
A half hour later though, she heard a second ATV signaling the father’s coming over to the stables. Dawn perked her head up wearily, the light of a full moon making it easier for the father to see. She could still see even in most dark situations.
He came into the stable, looking around for a bit before spotting Dawn’s stable. He glanced at her, looking away and then glanced back, looking at his daughter laying against her.
The two of them looked at their respective targets, Dawn watching the father who was watching Erin. Dawn fully intended to get up soon anyway, and started to get up when she heard him try to calm her down.
“Whoah, whoah, easy there girl. I’m not gonna do anything to ya.” He said quietly.
Dawn stayed put, watching him, but her shifting had woken Erin. Erin groaned and turned away from her father, recognizing his voice and being stubborn back at him was the only way he listened.
He sighed, looking to the stable as he stepped back, talking quietly. “Erin… I know you can hear me. Look, maybe I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard on the deal he was makin… I think it’s still good money n all, but it’s up to you. She’s your horse like ya said.”
Erin’s response was to continue trying to sleep for a few more minutes. Dawn watched him for that time until he let out another sigh, turning to leave and saying, “Good night Erin.”
Erin bit back her initial response to answer ‘good night’ back, continuing to feel her resentment. She had heard him say this kind of stuff when she was ‘asleep’ before, when he would start to regret it, only to be stern again in the morning under the guise of ‘caring.’
Erin couldn’t get back to sleep though, the ground too rough on her back and started to hurt. She sighed and got up fifteen minutes later and gathered her things, seeing Dawn start to wake up at the sudden shift in their rest.
“Sorry girl, I need my bed… maybe another night.” She grumbled before leaving and turning on her ATV to go home.
Dawn had to breathe a sigh of relief and slowly let her transformation down, finally willing to let herself rest as the motor grew quieter. ‘Well… that was close.’
-----
Dawn continued to have these close calls for the rest of the week. Erin couldn’t go a day without having Mr. Pepper calling in to ask her to reconsider, she would tell him to go boil his head first, and then the dad would ask why she was so adamant, only to try to camp out in the stable with Dawn, lasting longer and longer.
Dawn sighed in relief once Sunday came, as the only bothering she would get would be during the morning and during the night barring any surprises.
Dawn relaxed for a while longer through the morning once her meal was given and eaten before finally having recovered almost all of her shapeshifting ‘muscle.’ She knew it shouldn’t have been a muscle, but this is how the world worked for her, and she had no better comparison.
Dawn knew Erin wouldn’t be back for a while, as well as the rest of the family being busy with church functions and the like, so she decided to take a small risk.
Using her recharged ability, she took a human form, brushing her slightly too long bangs out of her eyes and noting they still held their green color and yellow stripe just off center, and began to stroll toward the leatherworking shed that Erin had used.
Technically, she knew she shouldn’t. This was a risk that she wouldn’t want to take, but keeping herself mentally alert was also a survival need, and it was far too boring without the minds of her foals reaching out to her for guidance or challenges of the court scenarios.
Dawn got out the seat and workstations that Erin had needed, making sure she kept close attention to her surroundings out of survival by listening and occasionally looking up. Setting the desired outcome of Erin’s leather outfit nearby, she studied the design and frowned.
‘Looks like they cared more about style than function. Makes sense if it’s a costume, but a proper armor of that age would have style included in function. Erin, let’s use what I had learned from Svik and the commander to get you some proper runes for these “enchantments” of yours.’ Dawn thought, then began to work.
It took hardly any time for her to get into a rhythm, having spent so much time watching how Erin had done the task, figuring out ways to improve how to engrave the patterning into the pliable leather.
First, she took the sections that had the runework and spaced it, trying to find places where it wouldn’t interfere with the equations while trying to honor their symbolism. Light penciling over the parchment, almost too difficult to see for normal eyes, helped confirm how she should place everything. She gave a satisfactory nod once finished and took up the leather for Erin’s piece and began to etch in her own world’s runes for protection, agility, and magic absorption.
She stayed there, minute after minute, she used her tools to etch in magical equations and curves into the runes, acting as if she were back home trying to enchant it. Naturally, she wasn’t putting any magic into it since this world had weird allowances and prohibitions on what she could use anyway, but if on the off chance she visited her world or the commander’s, they technically could request it be charged properly and have some mild protection.
She was surprised when her runework for the enchantments was done in about an hour and a half, if the shadows’ movement was any indication here. She still had another hour and a half before risking detection since no one got back till before dinnertime.
Dawn looked at some of the designs and began hammering away with the etcher, having an easy time molding the leather. She had noted back when she started that her equine enhanced strength was still retained, and it made molding much faster, not needing several taps each time like Erin did.
She finished the shoulder area and began on the lower corners, building up the Celtic knots that she seemed so fascinated with before letting out a satisfied hum. Erin’s piece had its core design aspects finished much faster than she feared and with half an hour left of nearly guaranteed time alone, she could add some finishing touches that Erin might enjoy.
A curved line started to form in between the area left for the bust, eventually turning into a partial circle, then triangles were placed evenly around the circle’s upper half. When that was done to her satisfaction, she began to make a lower curve toward the abdomen, shaping back up toward the other side and turning that into a hill where it would meet the circle. Once completed, she added a few final lines that were the sprigs of grass that poked up on the hill and placed a final one right in front of the sun.
‘There… Now my human has a way of showing who she belongs to by borrowing my crest… Wait, what was I thinking? That’s a terrible idea!’ Dawn thought, fretting over what she had finished right as she noticed someone pulling into the driveway. ‘Bucking horseapples! Time to move!’
Dawn blitzed most of the equipment back in, not being as careful as she would have liked to be, but not wanting to be caught out as a human by taking too long either. Humans generally were bad with not detecting trouble right away if it was ‘close enough.’ She still shared that drawback.
She barely got everything inside and closed the door before seeing that a head was looking out of the side of the house. Dawn estimated they were trying to see what activity they might be seeing or hearing from her frantic dash to put things away.
Dawn cursed, staying low to the ground and slunk behind the shed. Once out of sight and checking to confirm it, she began her flameless transformation back into the race horse disguise she usually bore.
Erin approached the shed, cautious and worried. She swore she had seen the door was opened a bit ago, but as she approached, it seemed like it was closed shut. She approached further and was surprised to see her horse out in the grass, grazing her way outside of the penned area.
“Hey girl, what are you doing out of the pasture here?” She asked, blinking. She knew her gate had been secured, but maybe Dawn was hungry enough they undid the rope. Horses were pretty smart creatures after all. “Come on, let’s get you over here so we can put you back and get you a snack.”
Dawn tried to ignore Erin, but as she approached, she knew she had to raise her head a little, and Erin simply stood by their side and with some difficulty got onto Dawn, riding bareback.
Dawn sighed, trying to continue the charade of ignoring their instructions, but Erin would just dig her heels into her sides more and Dawn let out another sigh.
“Ok… fine, be that way, let me get some rope and we’ll get you a harness since that’s what you listen to.” Erin grumbled, getting off of Dawn’s back and heading for the shed.
Erin looked inside the shed they were near for the rope when she noticed something strange as she looked around. Nothing was put away quite right. Most things seemed haphazardly put away, different than her own way of putting things away. She habitually looked over her leather pieces. The commission seemed fine, untouched really. Then she looked to hers and did a double take.
“What in the world?!” She half yelled, pulling it up from the workstation it laid on and carried it outside into the better light to look at it.
Her leather armor that she would wear for the rehearsal had been fully modified. She could tell from the feeling of it that not all of it had set, that it was like it was freshly done, and there was a lot of things different than her designs intended.
The first thing that caught her eye was the same mark that was on her horse’s flanks was pressed deeply into the leather where her chest and abdomen were. It was the dead giveaway that something was wrong. She traced it and compared it as she laid it partly on Dawn’s back to look closer, noticing how most of the details about it exactly matched, even the little bits of grass were in the right place!
The rest of the leather was equally confusing. The Celtic design she was trying to emulate was present in some places, but the runes she wanted that spelled out different significant words to her were spaced out between foreign symbols that were far more foreign and distinct, setting her runewords apart from whatever she saw.
“Ok… Meadow, you and I need to talk.” Erin said, listening to her gut as she confronted the source of her suspicions.
‘Well buck… that’s what I get for giving myself something to do. Probably shouldn’t have done my mark on the middle… This is what I get for following my emotions.’ Dawn mentally sighed as she looked to the girl, pretending she looked because her name was said.
“You see this right? You do this somehow?” she asked, holding up the chestpiece for Dawn to see.
‘Do you see any hands for me to do that with?’ Dawn thought back sarcastically.
“Come on, no one else knows your symbol on your flank, and there’s no way some random person came along and did my leather armor.”
‘And if I could kick myself for having done so, I’d be doing that.’ Dawn mentally replied, looking away.
“Meadow…” Erin tried to say threateningly, then grinned when she heard Meadow sigh. “You wanna keep it a secret huh?”
Dawn turned back to Erin, knowing that she had to do something to keep this contained. If she could keep Erin quiet, she should do so. Slowly, she nodded.
Erin grinned, “So you can understand me?”
Dawn nodded slowly again.
“All this time?”
Another nod, ‘Come on, keep asking things that make me nod.’
“Girl… you and I need to talk.”
‘Well, bobblehead time over.’ Dawn said with another nod, then gently nudged Erin toward the stables and looked that way.
“All right, we can talk in your pen.” Erin said.
‘Talk… in a world where I can’t talk, even as a human. Right.’ Dawn thought as she knelt down to make Erin’s mounting her easier. Once Erin got on, Dawn walked them to the entrance to the pasture, where Erin slipped the gate open and closed it back up once they had entered, then walked together toward the stables.
Dawn took some deep breaths, collecting herself as she prepared for the reveal, determining what she would and wouldn’t give up.
Erin got Dawn into their pen and closed the gate behind her, figuring if it was an issue, it would have appeared before now. “Ok girl. Spill.”
Dawn nodded and allowed her form to change to reveal part of her secret. Green fire went from the bottom of her hooves up her body, revealing her alicorn wings and lightly curved horn.
Erin was dumbstruck as she looked at this horse that had both wings and a horn on her head. She couldn’t help but smile as she saw this horse that was both a unicorn and a pegasus, and while she didn’t know what to call it yet, she knew she liked it.
“So, that’s your secret huh?” Erin finally asked.
Dawn nodded, allowing the misdirection for her to think that she was only hiding her horn and wings. She didn’t clarify if it was all of the secrets she had after all.
“Is there anything else you can do? How did you do up my armor?” Erin asked, having carried it with them.
Dawn looked at the armor and made a quick decision. Erin would know that they have no hands to handle the tools properly, and her muzzle was nowhere near dexterous enough compared with Equestria – She already expected Jeron’s sarcastic remark but felt a ping of sadness when she failed to feel him in the link.
Erin watched as the green flames enveloped Dawn, then before her stood a girl her own height with the same green and yellow hair pattern she had seen in their mane. They seemed to keep their green eyes, and had paler than usual skin despite constantly being in the sun. They wore a lime green tee-shirt and dark forest green cargo pants that bore the same flank mark on both sides of the seat of her pants.
“Whoah… so is this what you’re normally like?” Erin asked, feeling guilty.
Dawn shook her head, raising her hand up with a thumb out and gesturing back, indicating her last form was. ‘Technically true, since I’m no longer human outside of shapeshifting.’
“So why do you let me ride your back? What makes you stay here?” Erin asked.
Dawn frowned. She opened her mouth, tried to speak, only to cough. She bent over slightly and turned her head to the side, then pointed to her throat and made a cutting motion with a flat hand.
“Can’t speak here huh?” Erin asked with some empathy.
Dawn shook her head then brought her left hand up flat and gestured writing with her right hand, a way for her to request writing stuffs.
“Ah. I’ll get you one of my notebooks to write in, at least we can talk that way. Can ya wait for me?”
Dawn gave her a smirk and turned back into her disguise and moved forward to allow Erin a ride.
Erin hesitated getting on this time, looking at Dawn as if she should be asking permission this time. This hesitation got a nudge from Dawn toward her side, clearly telling her it was ok to get on.
Erin nodded, saying, “Thanks,” before getting onto Dawn’s back. Dawn snorted and they went off through the gate and back toward the house. Erin got off when they got close to the fencing, not bothering to open anything and ducked through the bars so she could get through quick and went inside.
Erin rushed up the stairs after she got her shoes off and grabbed a few of her still empty spiral notebooks and a few pens and put them in a bag, then stomped her way down the stairs, got her shoes back on, and rushed back outside with the bag in tow.
Dawn was waiting for her, laying down so they could get back on again. Erin didn’t need a nudge like before, and Dawn took her time walking back to the stables before letting Erin off and shifting back to a human form.
“Here… so, who and what are you?” Erin asked.
Dawn wrote down the question on the first page, taking her time as she struggled to write standing, then gave up and sat down, using her legs as a desk. Once she was done, she showed the writing to Erin.
-I am Meadow Dawn, Alicorn of Hope, Legate of the Ridgeback Hive, and Queen of the Sunrise Hive.-
“Huh… Writing in English huh?” Erin thought out loud before reading and giving a low whistle, “That’s a mouthful. Alicorn huh? So what brought you over here?”
-I come from a place where sometimes, bits of magic or other phenomena cause a warp in reality, sucking objects or people like myself into other places or times. I’m awaiting rescue.-
“Rescue? Makes sense I guess… So why is it you landed in my field, or let me treat you like you weren’t intelligent?”
-In that place, we undergo training to ensure that we are kept safe. Best case scenario is to lay low and not be detected, next best is to blend in. When I saw I was in an enclosure I couldn’t easily get out of, and saw none of your horses were unicorns or pegasi, I had to make a choice to run or blend in. I chose to blend in, hiding my wings and horn, and tried to act like your other horses. I didn’t choose to land in your field, but despite fears, not all of my magics were unreachable.-
“Seriously? There’s more of you?” Erin blinked, grinning, “More unicorns and pegasi and alicorns with magic n stuff?”
-Far more creatures than I wish to name here, including dangerous ones. Magic is something that requires a number of things to use.-
“So you can be human and use some of your magic, can you be other things?”
-I haven’t experimented too much with that yet. Unlike back home, I seem to have a limited time I can stay in a certain form before I revert, possibly about four days. I will also warn you nothing of our conversations must go beyond us, or I will ensure my survival. I have no desire to be experimented on and simply wish to wait until I get rescued.-
“If you’re just trying to wait till you get rescued, how come you tried to do my armor or ran so fast?” Erin asked with a smirk. “Not very good for keeping yourself just to survival.”
-You got me there. I got bored, knew keeping myself mentally active was needed and without helping review policies or working with one of my foals, I needed something to do. I figured I’d start with your armor while I ‘knew’ you’d be gone. I misjudged my available time and now it’s backfired.-
“Well, if you were gonna help, why did you change it? It didn’t have what I wanted on it.” Erin countered, referencing the magical equations.
-Way to look a gift horse in the mouth missie.- Dawn paused her writing to look up at her and show her that line, then when Erin started to speak, Dawn raised a finger to indicate she should wait, and began to write again. -To answer your question, you had notes stating you wanted defense runes. Those are magical equations being grafted into your armor with whatever your excuse for defensive magic runes being put into non-critical parts of the enchantment. As far as I know, no magic transferred, but if you were going to have defensive magic, might as well do it right.-
Erin blinked several times as she read it, jaw opening as it sunk in that her request for defense rune things had been answered. She took a look again at the armor and began to trace the equations with a new awe, “Real magic runes? How can I repay you?”
-You probably don’t use our currency, but I’ll take being able to go with you to your medieval reenactments.- Dawn showed with a smirk.
Erin blinked, then looked at her with a smirk, “Aaaand what’s this about keeping a low profile again? Won’t that ruin it?”
-Not if we have a good cover story and make it part of the act. I had been listening when you talked about the others in your group as you worked, ‘Lady Erin of Waterhold.’ Perhaps your lands rely on the upkeep of one Druid who has spent so much time in animal form she’s forgotten to speak.-
Dawn grinned as she saw Erin’s reading of the sheet, seeing that Erin smirked and began to give her answer.
“You like flirting with danger huh? You could get discovered doing that you know.”
-If it’s a small enough group, no one will take that seriously unless they record my transformation magic. If it’s a large performance area, then we could say it’s part of the show. Just need a tent or something to change in when they decide to let us participate so no one can see were not just trading out a horse with a realistic horn prop on her head with a human with a wig.-
“Oooo, sneaky.” Erin grinned, “Well, we’ve got a meetup for battle practice in a few days, and then our rehearsals and setup at the fair’s grounds are next week. If you’re sure you want to do that, I’ll do it and let dad know. It’s a pretty big fair, people come from the big city an hour away to participate and it’s so hard to park that without reservations for staff parking. We’d have a hard time getting around without it!”
-I do want to participate, including the battle practice. I need to see if you can keep up after all. Teach me your ruleset and maybe we can spar after dinner or something. All I ask in exchange for continuing to be your derby horse is you keep me and my identity safe.-
“You got it!” Erin said with a grin, then talked with her new secret friend about the rules of combat, societal rules, and then when it came to dress, she looked at Dawn, who seemed to be wearing modern clothing. “I don’t suppose you can control what clothes you’re wearing, can you?”
-To an extent. If I see your outfit, I could model my form to reflect it. I just need to be careful as ripping the clothing would be like getting a scratch or a major tear in my skin. The clothes are a part of me still.-
“Oof. Keep it around knee length then, or perhaps your druidic magic made you copy the closest clothes and a visitor ‘happened’ to be nearby.” Erin grinned briefly before asking, “Can you feel through the clothes?”
Dawn gave a shake of her head. Any further conversation was cut off by a yell from a familiar voice.
“Erin! Food’s ready!” her dad called.
Dawn shifted in front of Erin, having gotten their promise of keeping it secret, and once again became the wingless, hornless green horse the family had assumed she was. Erin grinned as she saw the near instant transformation that followed the fire and patted Dawn’s withers.
“Don’t worry girl, I’ll keep your secret.” Erin said before yelling back out, “Coming!”
The father went back toward the house with Erin on the back of his ATV since she had come to the stables on Dawn’s back.
Dawn reverted to her ‘natural’ form for this world so she could rest once more, feeling her heart beat in anticipation. This was a huge risk she took, but she knew her prior actions left her no choice. It reminded her this was another lesson in paying more attention to her surroundings. There was a feeling of irony in knowing she needed to take to heart that Changelings knew nearly instinctively from so many near-extinction events… and she was courting another.