//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 - The Owl House 
// Story: House of Owls and Ponies 
// by Universal Librarian 
//------------------------------//

Celestia wasn't sure whether she should knock or not. Hooty just stared blankly at her, not helping matters in the slightest. She had assumed, given that he knew the three princesses wanted to go inside, that he would simply open the door and let them pass, but he seemed to be waiting for something.

Either that or Hooty really was just as dumb as he looked. 

"Are you going to let us in, or not?" Luna asked roughly.

"Okay, hoot!" Hooty clicked his beak and the door swung inward. Celestia sighed inwardly at Luna's boorishness, more due to the fact that it was actually necessary on occasions like this than any other reason, and stepped inside.

The room had seen better days. Or, maybe it hadn't, and it was always this much of a mess. Either way, the place looked like a cross between a half-repaired bomb site and the cell of a deranged hoarder. 

A once-luxurious red fainting couch sat against one wall, surrounded by piles of odd collectibles, bric-a-brac and junk, ranging from hockey sticks and bowling balls to broken old radios and what appeared to be some sort of stripped-down combustion engine. A huge pair of red curtains was tied back behind the couch, displaying even more items mounted on the wall. A huge wanted poster bearing a stylized image of Eda together with some small black demon took pride of place. Tucked in the corner was another poster, this one of Luz with the words BANNED written in scarlet capitals across the bottom.

"Hey!" Luz called brightly as she hurried through a door in the corner. She had swapped her uniform for a pair of high-waisted jean shorts, black leggings, and a white-and-blue hoodie. "Welcome to the-ow!"

"Welcome to the Owl House!" Eda exclaimed, throwing her arms wide and apparently glossing over the fact that she had just swatted Luz with a ladle.

"Er, thanks for having us?" Twilight replied uneasily.

Eda laughed and waved a hand dismissively. "What, are you kidding? There's no way I'd turn away Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon! You two were my idols back when I was in Hexside!"

"Hexside school still stands, then?" Celestia asked, surprised.

"Unfortunately, yes," Eda huffed. "Still, I suppose I can't complain too much." She jerked a thumb at Luz. "At least they're giving this little mess a good enough education that she won't end up like Hooty or King."

"I resent that!" A squeaky voice snapped. Celestia watched in surprise as a tiny humanoid creature, barely as tall as Luz's hips, scampered into the room. He had pitch-black skin, and had a head that resembled a horned wolf's skull, albeit with one broken horn and missing its lower jaw. Either that or the little creature just had a very odd fashion sense. The creature pointed a clawed, damning finger at Eda. "You know damn well that Hooty's intellect is way beneath mine!"

"Pffft, as if Hooty even has an intellect," Eda grumbled.

The creature cocked its head as he spotted the visitors. "Who the heck are these guys?"

Eda gave him a look that was almost smug. "They're guests from out of town. King, meet Princess Sparklepants-"

"Twilight Sparkle," Twilight put in sharply.

"Like that's any better," Eda mumbled. "And this one is Celestia." She jerked a thumb at the alicorn in question. "You might know her as Daybreaker."

King's eyes widened. "Daybreaker? But that means..." He glanced briefly at Celestia, but his gaze slid swiftly to Luna. "NIGHTMARE MOON?!" Luna squawked in surprise as King darted over to her and clasped his arms and legs around her foreleg. "MY HERO!" He squealed.

"Wha- ew, get it off!" Luna flailed her forelimb wildly until she managed to flick off the offending creature. King sailed through the air until he slammed into a wall with a worrying wham and dropped out of sight behind the couch. 

The three alicorns stepped forward in concern, but King hopped up onto the back of the sofa, apparently unfazed, and stared at Luna with a look that could only be described as rapturous. "Terrifying majesty and callous cruelty. You truly are the Nightmare Moon of my dreams!"

"Great, another tiny fan," Luna grumbled, though she didn't look particularly bothered now that the limpet had been detached.

"Can we expect any more, er, guests?" Celestia asked. 

"I don't think so," Eda replied. "No-one else lives here, unless Luz has dragged back another pathetic creature to try and cuddle at night."

"Not recently!" Luz said, snapping a salute.

Eda gave her a suspicious look, but Luz just stared at her innocently until she gave up and dropped into the sofa. "Alright, this is everyone! Okay, Sparklebutt, what did you wanna know about portals?"

"I am not Sp- oh, forget it." Twilight pressed a hoof to her chest as she breathed in, then held it out as she exhaled, performing the simple breathing exercise that Cadence had taught her. "First of all, I'm trying to figure out how it's possible for there to be humans and unicorns in this world at the same time. The last time I went through a portal to a human world, it transformed us into humans."

Eda frowned and hummed as she thought. "I'm guessing that your human world doesn't have any magic at all of its own?"

"None whatsoever," Twilight replied. "Not do they have unicorns, pegasi, or alicorns such as ourselves."

"I figured as much." Eda nodded, as if something had clicked into place. "Luz' home doesn't have magic either, but whenever a witch like me visits we take our magic with us. Maybe it's something like that? After all, the Boiling Isles does have unicorns, so the portal doesn't transform you?"

"It's possible," Twilight conceded. "But how do you keep your magic in a world that doesn't have any? Whenever I've been to a human world, magic completely disappears."

Eda waved a hand dismissively. "I told you, we take our magic with us, literally. Every witch has a bile sac attached to our heart that produces magic. Where does your magic come from?"

"Every creature in Equestria gets their magic from the environment, and our connection to it," Twilight replied. She rubbed a hoof under her chin contemplatively. "I suppose that actually explains the situation pretty well. We stay in our ordinary forms here because the Boiling Isles has enough magic for us to draw from. It's not Equestrian, but it does the job."

"That makes sense," Celestia added. "I always was able to use my own spells as well as some of the native witch spells."

Eda grinned and leaned forward. "You didn't just use our spells, if I remember rightly. Didn't you both used to transform your bodies into witch-forms as well?"

Twilight's head whipped around, her eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. "You can use transformation spells?!"

Celestia could hardly blame her for being surprised. Back in Equestria, such spells were so difficult and dangerous that only the very highest level of unicorn could cast a full-body transformation. Only the changelings had the ability to change themselves into an entirely different form for extended periods of time. Here in the Boiling Isles, however…

"I suppose this is where we show her how it's done?" Luna asked.

Celestia nodded. In unison, the elder princesses ignited their horns and drew circles in the air above themselves, Celestia's magic glowing golden, Luna's a deep blue. With a flick, each circle sank over its respective owner, and the princesses called out, "Polymorph!"