Raven
by Knight of Lycaeus
A soft caw drew my attention from the night sky. I was outside on the crystalline balcony of my new home, watching the night sky in hopes of calming myself down. The past week has been…. difficult, it wasn’t easy watching Tirek’s magic destroy the Library. My new home seems so vast, so quiet, so…. empty. I turned my focus towards the soft caws and there on the railing sat a dark figure. A small bird, a raven with its feathers of glossy black and deep midnight blue, the sharp silver beak and talons, and piercing blue eyes. I knew that bird although it had been several years since I last saw it.
The first time I ever laid eyes on that bird was back when I was still a student living in Canterlot. Even as a small filly, I’ve always enjoyed stargazing. The relaxing nature of watching the stars slowly drift across the sky night after night. The first time I saw the raven was very much like what was happening now; a soft caw had drawn my attention away from the wondrous night sky to find a raven sitting on the railing. Back then I did not know where the raven came from or why. It was strange watching the raven; the ponies of Canterlot treated the raven in vastly different ways. The Solar Ponies and by extension the Solar Guard if they chanced upon the raven sitting on my railing after it staying late into the night and into the dawn of a new day, would simply attack the bird or if they were Guards then weapons were favoured. To them they would give the bird no quarter, although some of the kinder ones merely sought to catch it rather than resort to running their blade through. The rarer Lunar Ponies instead seemed to almost revere the bird; its appearance to them was seen as a sign of luck and good fortune.
I would not learn the reason behind this discrepancy for many years. What I eventually did learn was that the raven, a carrion eater was seen as a harbinger of death by Solars. For them the raven inspired fear, it was the messenger from Beyond and it bode to whoever received it or looked at one nothing but ill omen. The Lunars instead saw them as a messenger from their goddess; she had disappeared from this world many years ago. But the Lunars had hopes and the belief that one day she would return, to be the recipient of a visit from a raven was a good omen.
The last time I had seen this raven was just before my departure from Canterlot, on that last visit the raven seemed more content than I had ever seen it before. It was on this visit that I learned, I learned about the discrepancy between the beliefs of Solars and Lunars. It was on this visit I learned who the raven was.
I smiled now; I thought I had lost her several years ago. Now it seems I had not; it seems she had been biding her time. Now was the time for her return, I watched as the raven grew in size and shape, I watched as the bird became a pony. The mare who had been with me for so long watching and guarding from the shadows, the mare I knew I wanted to spend my life with had finally stepped out of the shadows.