Everything hurts. The ground beneath me is cushioned with grass, but my entire body feels hollow. Miraculously, my legs are not broken, and my massive wings are intact. I can tell by the weight atop my head that my horn is still where it belongs. As I blink furiously to adjust to the blinding light, I spot my obsidian crown and necklace lying a few yards away. I grunt, gathering my legs underneath my body and slowly rising to my hooves. My ears flick in every direction as I survey my new surroundings: A sprawling green pasture occupied by several other equines, whom I instantly recognize as regular horses—Earth ponies. A stocky chestnut mare trots toward me, her ears pinned. I immediately recognize that she is the dominant mare of the herd, so I lower my head submissively and prick my ears forward, showing that I respect her position and will not attempt to usurp her authority. The mare’s ears remain flat against her head.
“Greetings, Earth brethren!” I call. “I am Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria. I would appreciate some—OW!” I grit my teeth as the mare delivers a swift kick to my side.
“Your title means nothing here, blue one,” the mare snorts. “We are here to do the humans’ bidding. We exist only for their pleasure. You’ll figure that out soon enough. Now, shut up and eat your grass like the rest of us.” Her words feel like a kick to my teeth. I gather my bruised pride and toss my head, trotting off to the opposite side of the field.
Soon, the sky grows dark. I long to raise the moon as I have done for years, but my power is useless in this world. A human comes out to the gate and opens it. My companions nicker softly, pricking their ears forward at the sound of the creature’s footsteps. It is a male, and he carries a bucket that clearly contains some sort of food, but certainly nothing that royalty like myself would dare partake in eating. I snort incredulously, pinning my ears at the approaching bipedal creature.
“Easy, now, girl,” he says in a low voice, holding up a strange leather object with gold buckles on it. “We’re just gonna take you on inside now, all right?” This creature is either suicidal, insane, incredibly stupid, or a combination of all three traits. I tense up and kick the human in the stomach, knocking him backward—at least, I assume he has fallen backward, since I’m not going to stick around long enough to find out.
I take to the sky, trying to conjure some sort of portal back to Equestria. Strangely, my magic seems to hit a brick wall; there is some kind of buffer preventing it from working correctly. For the time being, I will not be able to return home. All I can do is bide my time as I wait for my power to return. Unfortunately, this means I am defenseless against any kind of threat that might arise in this world. Damn it, Celestia never should have dared me to try that spell that Starswirl specifically told us never to attempt; we were both five tequila shots deep into a party with Cadance, though, so really, what could we have expected? I snort again and land in a small clearing in a nearby forest. My wings are so tired. I am in desperate need of rest, some food, and a bath, but Celestia only knows what kinds of fierce creatures might lurk in these woods. I glance over my shoulder, then lower my head to graze. The moon rises on its own in this strange place. I am terrified, dirty, hungry, and so very alone. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.