//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Taking Pictures in the Woods 
// by SilverEyedWolf 
//------------------------------//

Panting, the little mare stumbled through dense underbrush as she ran through the place she'd thought herself ready for.

Sure, she wasn't exactly a farmer or wilderness expert or anything, but she was an earth pony, for goodness' sake! Surely something as vital as genetics should have been enough to move around something like a bunch of some trees!

But of course, she'd forgotten about the other half of the forest.

The inhabitants.

And so hours after entering, Crystal Dawn was thoroughly lost in one of the last remaining natural woods on the continent, being chased by a bunch of weird wooden dogs, her saddlebags torn, and her mane and tail a total mess.

Muttering to herself, she flinched as one of the branches she passed sprung back and delivered a stinging swat to her rear, only giving her that much more motivation to keep running. Jumping over a high tree root, she lost footing in the thick weeds and rotting leaves covering the forest floor. Landing on her barrel and neck, she squeaked as pain shot through her, closing her eyes, and panting for a moment.

But she still heard the yips and barks in the distance. Closing the gap. Getting nearer.

So she stumbled and limped to her hooves, wincing as her bare hind hoof came into contact with the ground. Turning, she shuffled through the overgrown plants, looking for her lost hoof pad, but her pursuers sent another call through the air, and she turned away and ran as quickly as her hurt chest would let her.

She couldn't keep her eyes in front of her. She was desperately looking up at the canopy for a glance of the sky, at the gaps in the trees to her sides for signs of a path, sniffing the air desperately for the wet smell of a creek, anything that would give her a bearing.

She saw fresh green, dark brown trunks and a creeping darkness as the leaves grew thicker.

She had no idea how long she'd been running when she finally stumbled across something different.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the treeline she was so desperately galloping for. Though it was a kind of treeline, she supposed, one mirrored a few yards in front of her. It had the interesting effect of creating a hallway through the trees, overgrown with grass but nothing more substantial.

Looking left and right, she started moving towards where she thought home was before skidding to a halt as one of the wooden creatures burst through the same line of trunks she had.

It glanced towards her, grinning as she backed away from its glowing green eyes before lifting its head and howling.

Turning, she ran up the strange hall as more howls answered its call.

She ran as hard as she could, hearing the creaking and cracking of wood and splinters behind her, getting closer, their hot breath on her hooves...

And then she broke through another line, finally galloping into the sun after so long in the forest's darkness.

Sobbing in relief, she started to slow, her muscles and lungs burning...

And she looked into the distance only to see the line of trees coming to a dead end with a meadow in their center. Not her home, not the city, just more trees, tall grasses, and a strange pale boulder in the middle.

There was another keening howl behind her.

Turning, she saw the dogs slowly trickling into the clearing. There were so many, too many, and they split into two streams to circle her. Backing up, she whipped her head back and forth, trying to keep both sides in sight as they prowled closer before she bumped into something and squeaked in panic.

Flinching, she spared a glance behind herself and saw that she'd just hit the boulder in the middle.

Turning, she froze as she saw a large form lumbering out of the shadows of the forest. It seemed to be another of the wooden dogs but as if it had been formed of several of the massive trees on its own, with a strange fern growing from its head in some mockery of a royal crown.

It moved into the meadow slowly. It was taking even steps and wasn't even bothering to growl or bare its teeth at her.

She stepped up onto the boulder, trying to back further away, but a yip from behind her had her trembling in a pile on top of the stone, strangely warm on her single padless hoof. Looking up, she watched the lead beast moving closer and suddenly felt a warm aura of peace coming over her.

Must be an eminent death thing, she thought and closed her eyes to welcome in her end.

But they snapped open again when she felt the boulder shifting beneath her.

Glancing up, she saw the snout of the beast nearing her, opening, but all of her real focus was on the feeling of flowing happening underneath her hooves.

Suddenly, the maw opening towards her, many sized sharpened spikes of teeth glistening with a strange green glow, stopped its encroachment. The head containing that muzzle drew back sharply, and a growl echoed up through the pathway that was its throat.

There was an ominous cracking under her hooves, sharp retorts filling the air like cannons firing. The stone was expanding, growing even larger as it seemed to spread under her hooves. Two dirt-covered planes spread at either of her sides as a thick column began growing before her. The column lifted, and she realized with a start that a horn was rising into the air before her.

It was longer than any she'd ever seen on any unicorn, longer than one of her legs, and it coiled in a tight spiral up to a sharp point. Then the two plans on either side of her flared, and her mind froze.

Wings. Horn and wings and horn and WINGS—

And then she was rising. Not from where she stood but into the air on the back of what had become very obviously not a boulder.

As she was raised into the air, she watched as the neck, it couldn't be anything but a neck, straightened in the air. As she watched, dull pink hair began rapidly growing, a mane sprouting from the marbled muscle and growing in hooves as she stared.

Once she was a good three yards up in the air, easily twice her usual height, all movement stopped. The wooden dog king was still, the wings and horn were still, and even their manes hung limp in the still air.

The massive dog broke the hold with a growl that rattled the very air inside her lungs. Its maw opened wider than before, splitting its whole head in half as more and more teeth grew from its tongue and the roof of its mouth. Its mouth split again in half, four teeth-lined surfaces splitting and cracking open to become everything she could see.

And then the horn lit with the dimmest golden glow.

The teeth immediately pulled back. As Crystal watched, she even saw some of the closer ones turn black and begin smoking. The big dog yipped, strangely high-pitched for such a creature, and its mouth closed back into a face that rapidly pulled away. Once regally lifted and held out, she saw its tail tuck itself up between its legs.

She heard something between herself and the dog. It was the barest whisper, so quiet that she couldn't understand it, but the thing seemed to understand.

Ducking its head, it whimpered once before turning tail and disappearing into the woods, the streams of its wooden lackeys following.

Crystal watched them go, her legs shaking and finally giving out as she sank onto the being's back, shivering and quaking as the adrenaline finally stopped pushing her forward and away and running—

The horn was turning. Two large ears flicked back and forth, away and towards her, as a single magenta eye came into focus before her.

"Hallo, giet it goed?"

Crystal Dawn blinked, looking into the caring eye and slight smile on the muzzle before her.

"E-e-excuse me-e?" she muttered.

The mare, for the voice was warm and soft and caring and everything matronly and maternal, frowned slightly.

"Groetnis, binne jo ûnferwûne?" she asked.

"I-I'm sorry, I don't speak that language," Crystal told her, shaking her head.

Clearing her throat, the mare tried again. "Salve, laedis?" When Crystal shook her head, she asked, "Rozumieš? A bheil thu a 'tuigsinn? Skilur þú? Καταλαβαίνεις?"

"I-I'm sorry, lady, that's all gibberish to me," she said, shaking her head again.

The mare frowned and slowly enunciated, "Gibb-errrr-ishhhh," before nodding to herself. Tilting her head slowly, she gently poked Crystal between her eyebrows with the tip of her horn.

Crystal flinched as her mind felt some sort of rippling, warm sensation across what she imagined as her brain, but it was finished even as it started.

"Ah," the mare said, working her jaw slightly before she said, "No-o-ow I un-d-er-stan-d," in a strange, sharply stopping and starting way. "Gib-er-ish, you me-an nun-sens-se."

"Yes, ma'am," she said slowly, nodding. "Did you just, uhm, look at my mind?"

The mare snorted, frowning. "Yee-es," she said, "I am sor-ry. Need-ed to say, to spee-k lang-gue-age. Did nowt tae-ek eynee-tink, jus-st words."

"Oh," Crystal said, her thoughts swimming in the last ripples of the mare's warm touch. "Okay, I guess. Oh, thank you for your help with the wood dogs."

The mare's ears twitched, and she nodded after a few moments of absorbing the words. "Yea-us, the timb-bar wul-fffs." She glanced down the corridor of trees. "The lee-dar is gone now, chas-ties-zed."

"Oh yeah," Crystal gasped, looking into the distance, "that was scary. When its jaws split open! Yikes. And all the teeth!"

The mare was bobbing her head and, after a short moment, chuckled. "Yes, mayn-nee tee-yth."

They stood still for half a minute before Crystal gasped. "Oh, I'm standing on you; I'm so sorry," she said, looking down and gulping dryly. Crouching, she closed her eyes and jumped forwards, wincing at the imagined pain in her shoulder.

But the impact didn't come, and when she cracked an eye, she realized that she was being held aloft by a gently sparkling magical field. Glancing around, she saw the mare's horn glittering faintly under the same energy, and she was then being set down on the soft grass and dirt.

"Yu-u are hur-rt," the tall mare said, gently leaning down and nuzzling her shoulder. "Hee-ere, let me hel-lp yuu."

"Oh, that's okay, ma'am," Crystal started to say. "I know healing takes a ton of power," she continued and then realized that her shoulder was fine. It hadn't been a second ago, she knew it hadn't, but now the ache and scuffed skin were gone. "Oh," she said faintly, patting the area. "Thank you."

"Yesh," the mare said, grinning down at her. Then her face evened out, her brows coming together along with a downturn of the corners of her mouth. "Why are yu-u he-ere? The for-est is dan-ger-uss."

"Oh!" she said, her hooves patting at her saddlebags. After a moment, she sighed, her shoulder relaxing as she pulled a thin piece of metal and glass out of one of her bags. Glancing at it, she let out a whimper and a quiet cry as the glass, well and shattered, fell out of the casing.

"Crap," she groaned, "now I'm gonna have to get another phone!"

"Fuoh-nn?" the towering mare asked, lowering her nose to the broken item. She sniffed lightly, her face scrunching. "Smell bad."

Crystal sniffed it. "Yeah, kinda like ozone," she murmured, popping off the back. "The battery's okay, though; probably just a fried wire or something."

"Why err," the mare whispered before looking at her. "Come to fi-yx fuh-ohn?"

"Oh, no," she replied, putting it back in the bag and wincing at the sound of broken glass, "it broke on my way in. I, uh, I'm studying photography, and I thought that I could probably find some really nice scenery in here."

The tall mare gave her a mostly blank look, though she couldn't keep the insides of her eyebrows from raising slightly.

"Yeah, I know," Crystal groaned, closing her eyes and leaning back with a grimace, "it was obviously a really, really bad idea. But could you imagine finding something out here? Nopony else has been through this forest in years, centuries! There has to be something worth taking a picture of."

Sighing, she leaned forward and pouted. Then, an idea struck, and she slowly looked up into the mare's face.

"Heeey," she said, raising an eyebrow and slowly grinning. "I don't suppose you'd be okay with me taking one of you? Would you be?"

The mare looked at her, eyes widening, before she leaned away, threw her head back, and filled the entire meadow with tinkling, throaty laughter that filled the air with such warmth and joy that Crystal couldn't help but laugh along.

When the mare had mostly recovered, looking back down and wiping a tear away, still giggling, Crystal raised her brows.

"So, may I?" she asked, still grinning.

"Oh, oh," the mare said, "mhy de-ar little poh-nee, you may tr-ry," she giggled, nodding.

"Yes!" Crystal cheered, throwing her forelegs up in the air and wiggling in a small victory dance. "The teach will never believe this. Okay, so, the phone's busted, so I'll just have to get fancy with it..."

She trailed off, muttering with a hoof on her muzzle, as her eyes narrowed and her gaze turned to the distance. After a moment, she stamped with a rear hoof, nodding.

"Okay, I've got it. This clearing looks perfect, so all I need to do is go home, get my camera, and then get back here.

"The only problem," she said, grimacing, "is that I have no idea where this is. I don't even know which way home is," she admitted, looking up at the mare. "Could you, uhm, fly us above the trees? Home is pretty big, so I'll know how to get there once I can see past the trees."

The mare's face fell, and she looked unsure.

"It ha-as been a long ty-ime since I flew," she said, stretching her wings before flapping them absently. "And I don-n't want an-ee poh-nees to see me."

"It'll be real quick," Crystal said, gently pressing her forehooves to the mare's upper leg. "Just enough for a direction, then right back down here."

The mare hummed, chewing her bottom lip lightly before scooping Crystal up in her magic and placing her carefully between her wings. There was another spell, something that pinned her hooves in place before the mare was flapping her wings. Rearing back, Crystal was utterly gobsmacked when the mare literally leaped into the sky, her massive wings beating the air with purpose as they rose towards the sky.

"Oh my," she breathed as she looked across what was probably most of the country. After a second, she remembered that she was supposed to be doing something, and she began waving her head in wide arcs as she looked for her home.

"Oh, behind us!" she called, spotting the high-rises and apartment buildings in the distance. When the mare turned, she flicked her chin towards the city. "There, that's where I live, Poncity."

"Pohn-sit-ee?" the mare said, looking at the towers on the horizon. She hummed, looking around the landscape before gasping.

"Not Pohn-ee-vill?"

"Not for years and years," Crystal said, "but it's in the same place. Well, mostly, it grew out and away from the forest, so the old town is all right there, next to the trees."

The mare stared at the city, wings flapping steadily before she tilted them. Crystal watched as they began a shallow dive towards the edge of the forest before the mare circled back on herself and flew through the canopy, dodging and ducking nimbly to enter the treeline easily. Touching down, she trotted forward to spend the momentum.

Coming to a stop, Crystal gasped when she saw how close she was to the border.

With a faint pop, she was pulled from the mare's back and set gently on the ground. She staggered slightly before grinning up at the mare.

"Okay, I'll run and get my equipment. I'll be back in like fifteen minutes, okay?"

"Men-uhts?"

"Uh, sixty seconds?" She looked into the mare's uncomprehending eyes. "Uh, one two three four five?"

"Ahh," the mare said, nodding. "Fif-teehn men-uhts," she nodded, sitting directly where she was. "I wh-ate."

Crystal smiled, saying, "Thank you," before bolting out of the trees and galloping towards her apartment complex. Luckily it was pretty late in the afternoon, so she didn't have a bunch of any other ponies creating traffic. Scrambling through her room, she thanked whoever was watching over her luck that her roommate was asleep, grabbing her camera bag after making sure all her supplies were in it.

High-tailing it to the forest again, her heart sank when the mare was not immediately apparent.

"Oh crap," she muttered before yelling out, "Hello? Ma'am? Are you still there?"

"I am here," a voice said to her right and above her. Looking up, she found the mare leaning on the largest branch available, reclining as she blinked down at Crystal. "Are you ready for the ree-turn flight?"

"Yes, ma'am," she said, giggling as the magic field seized her around the barrel again.

"You're getting better at the language," she tried to compliment the mare before losing her breath again.

"Thank you," the mare giggled, not bothering to rise as high this time. "I have been practice-ing. Getting the language more set-tled in my mind."

Crystal couldn't reply until they set down in the field once again, and she was once again able to easily take in air. The mare settled onto the ground, like a swan onto a nest, and the spell holding her in place disappeared. She tumbled to the ground with a giggle before sitting up and pulling her camera kit out of her saddlebags.

"Okay," she murmured, pulling the camera itself out along with a pouch of lenses, "are you alright with a few different poses? Or should I keep it quick?"

The mare chuckled quietly. "As man-nee as you need. Take your time."

"Awesome," Crystal said under her breath, pulling the first of the lenses out and screwing it onto the camera. Taking a few steps back, she unfolded a telescopic tripod that she screwed the camera into. Activating the magic battery that powered the camera, she got the mare into focus before muttering,  "Okay, alright, let's see..."

Crystal glanced up at the mare, sitting with her wings tucked beside her, her mane barely moving in the slight breeze, her eyes relaxed and half-lidded, her smile merely a turn of her lips but still so obvious, so warm.

Lifting a hoof, Crystal asked, "May I position you?"

When the mare nodded, Crystal gently reached up and took her chin in a hoof before tilting and turning her head to catch a perfect angle of that smiling face.

"You're so lovely," she said absently, backing away for a second to look over the mare before running back to her camera. Peering through the viewfinder, she nodded before calling out, "Taking the picture in three, two, one—"

There was a sizzle of magic, along with a flash, before a picture appeared on the slate on the back of her camera.

She frowned. The picture was perfect, the background a gentle fuzz while still obviously old trees and the area around the mare was perfectly focused on bringing all attention toward the subject in the middle of the shot.

But instead of the mare, there was an outline of white. Inside the tracing, there were no details, no eyes, mane, or any mark. Just the strange absence of anything.

The mare stood and walked over, looking over Crystal's shoulder and humming.

"I have all-wayz had this effect on pic-tours," she said gently with a nod. "My magic enter-fears with the fiylm."

"There's no film," Crystal said absently, lowering the camera's shutter speed and leaning back. Quickly focusing her lens and snapping a picture, she glanced at the slate and grinned, tilting the camera to show the mare's face, her eyes slightly wider with raised eyebrows and perked ears. "There, that fixed it.

"The background is going to be darker now, but that might actually make the shots better. Clearer focus on you," she rattled, looking up at the surprised mare.

"Alright, back in place," she called with a smile.

The mare jerked and smiled before prancing over to her spot, posing precisely as she had been.

Crystal spent what must have been an hour taking various shots of poses and expressions of the mare until it was so dark that she could barely see her hooves.

"That'll do for now," she said, starting to pack away the camera. "Thank you so much; you're a wonderful model. And this place accents it all so well. Mysterious and tantalizing. Very nice."

"You thin-nk I am tant-a-lize-ung?" the mare asked, quirking her lips.

"Oh, uh," Crystal stuttered, blushing as her ears laid back, "I mean, uh—"

The mare laughed again, throwing her head back, and before she could think, Crystal had leveled her camera and taken one final shot of the mare's joy.

"Yes," she said, lowering the camera and looking her model firmly in the eyes. "Yes, I do.

"Now, uh, would you mind helping me get home?" she asked, looking around the dark forest. "I don't want to be eaten by timber dogs."

The mare nodded, and Crystal was again flown to the outskirts of the forest.

Setting down, Crystal fidgeted for a moment before throwing her forelegs around the mare's lowered neck, giving a squeeze before letting go and backing away.

"Thank you again," she said, scratching behind an ear. "Like I said earlier, no one else in class could come even close to these pictures. I might even make a whole portfolio for just these shots.

"Oh!" she gasped as something occurred to her. "Oh, I never asked your name; I'm so sorry."

Putting a hoof forward, she smiled as she said, "My name is Crystal Dawn. May I have yours?"

The mare hesitated, looking amused but also... Something in her eyes was almost frightened, a depth in her irises dark and rippling with uncertainty.

"Celestia," she finally said, lifting a hoof and hooking it around Crystal's. "Celestia Solis."

The name rang some bell in Crystal's kindergarten memories, but she couldn't remember anything specific.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you, Celestia," she said, shaking hooves. After letting it go, she scratched at the base of her mane, itchy from dirt and sweat. "Uhm, I really enjoyed today. Even with the dogs, it was fun. Do you think we could, maybe, talk some more?"

Celestia's shallow smile became deeper, more genuine.

"I would love that, my little pony," she murmured quietly, leaning down to nuzzle Crystal between her ears. "Just call my name here at the edge of the trees, and I will app-peer."

And with that, her massive wings lifted from her side, and Celestia flew back into the forbidden forest, Crystal waving after her.