"Here's what I don't get," Rainbow Dash began. They had been sitting in the castle library while Twilight researched the spell that would get them to the Warriors world. "The Warriors books are just books. I don't care what book it is, books are just stories. Made up." Rainbow waved her hoof in the air. "Fiction!"
Twilight spun to look at her, but before she could speak Pinkie Pie jumped in between them. She smiled crazily, as if she felt she was the smart one and everyone else was an idiot. Sometimes that was the case.
"Duh!" Pinkie said, still having the four SOS hats on. "She's going to use the magic in here-" she pointed to the Warriors book "-and put in there!" She then pointed to a closet in the corner of the room. Rainbow Dash snorted.
"Right. Well, while you put a book into a door, I'm getting something to eat." She turned to leave only to have her tail be dragged back by Twilight's magic. She frowned. It didn't hurt, but tails weren't meant to stand still, they were meant flap around. At least I'll still have a tail when I'm a cat... Rainbow frowned even more. She still wasn't sure whether she wanted to go through with it or not. Being another creature would be cool, but a cat? Twilight cleared her throat to get Rainbow's attention. She realized she had been staring at the ground while thinking.
"Well, Pinkie Pie is somehow correct," Twilight said with an edge with her voice, as if she was mad at Pinkie for deducing her surprise plans. "The plan was to use a duping spell on the Canterlot High portal. which is in that closet." Rainbow Dash kept her frown. "Then we'll simply do what we did with Sunset Shimmer's Journal, and create a gateway between the two worlds."
Rainbow had more questions. "Right, but you said that you have to speak a code for us to go back home. Instead of that, why can't we just go through the back through the portal when we're done, like you did in High School land?" Twilight looked stumped for a heartbeat, but then responded very confidently.
"Because it doesn't work like that," Twilight said. Rainbow Dash waited for more, but Twilight kept her confident expression. Giving up that question with a sigh, she moved on to her next one.
"OK, whatever, but where will the portal leave us?" Rainbow was getting worried now. "What if other pon- er... cats see us emerge from a tree or something?"
"Well we have to hope that won't happen. If it does," Twilight added, "We'll say that we're cats sent by StarClan." In the corner, Pinkie raised her hoof as if they were in school.
"I have a question," Pinkie said loudly so that the other two could hear her. "What is StarClan?"
Rainbow Dash blinked. She had totally forgotten that Pinkie Pie hadn't read any of the Warriors books She wasn't entirely sure if Pinkie had ever read a book besides a Cookbook. It would be a pain to explain everything to her.
"Well, there are four Clans around the lake," Rainbow begun. "ShadowClan, RiverClan, WindClan, and the one the books focus on: ThunderClan. These four battle for territory, in which they catch prey and drive off intruders in. A full grown cat who battles and hunts and is fully trained is called a Warrior, hence the name of the series."
"What about the kitties and the oldies?" Pinkie questioned, obviously getting interested.
"Well, kitties are called kits. At birth, the mother names them something. Lets say 'Ciderkit'." Rainbow licked her lips. "'Ciderkit', after six moons, which are about 1 month each, will go on to be an apprentice, then named Ciderpaw. He would get a mentor, lets say 'Burgertail'." Twilight kept quiet, but Rainbow knew she was way more interested now. "When Ciderpaw has passed an assesment, he becomes a warrior, and gets a name like 'Ciderpelt', or 'Ciderfur'. Then, 'Ciderpelt' can become an elder after he has hunted and battled to his limit. He will then be fed by other cats and be taken care of."
Rainbow Dash hoped she had covered everything, and she breathed a sign of relief when Pinkie had a satisfied look on her face. "Okie Dokie Lokie!" Pinkie Pie said, bouncing away to the corner of the room. Why are those hats not coming off, I wonder...
"OK," Twilight said, startling Rainbow Dash. "Preparations are complete. Pinkie? push that portal over here from the closet, will you?" Pinkie did as she was told, and she watched Twilight perform a spell on the portal. It looked like Twilight might not pull it off, but suddenly there was a bright flash of light and there were two portals. Rainbow noticed that there were not two journals, though.
Twilight took the Warriors book and hovered it into a slot at the top. Magical electricity hummed and whirred, pistons pumped furiously, and there was another bright flash of light, and a dark green portal opened up in front of them.
"Ready, guys?"
Twilight's words made Rainbow Dash aware that her legs were shaking. No, she thought. I have to be strong. For them. She and Pinkie spoke the same words simultaneously.
"Ready."
They all stepped through the portal.
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Bright light was filtered through the trees of the pine forest, leaving splotches of shade all through the woods. Petalpaw was dozing by a creek on the border of WindClan, when a croak woke her up. Instinctively, her eyes flapped open, but she didn't move. It was a frog; a plump one at that, as it moved slowly and hopped fewer times that a skinny one. Pinpointing its location by angling her ears, she waited. The frog began to hop into the creek, pausing on a lily pad.
Petalpaw sprung at it. Flinging herself at something while laying on the ground was a ShadowClan specific battle move. The frog tried to hop away, but Petalpaw was faster. She scooped the frog up with one paw and threw it on dry land. When a nip to its neck missed, she had to chase it again, doing the same thing but killing it this time. Embarrassed by her clumsy catch, she scraped dirt over it, wanting to get back to her nap.
It had been a busy moon, thus far, with a fight with three foxes, and Petalpaw got special permission to nap by the creek since she had treated so many injuries. There was also an outburst of whitecough, so she was glad she was having a nap. She was also glad she was in shade, as the sweltering heat made her uncomfortable in the camp.
"Hey!"
A meow sounded from across the stream. Blinking open her eyes, she saw a patrol of WindClan cats. She recognized Thrushpaw as the one who woke her, and Rushbreeze, Yellowfrost, and Creeknose, the deputy, rushing after him.
"What are you doing on our border?" Petalpaw was very confused. I haven't crossed it!
Rushbreeze, who was probably his mentor, padded over to him. "I'm sorry, Petalpaw," She said, looking at her apprentice. "This is Thrushpaw's first time out of the camp. He appears to need more time in it, as he has no sense." She hissed. "Confronting a napping medicine cat apprentice who's not even tresspassing, what's wrong with you?" Just as Thrushpaw opened his jaws to reply, a large crash sounded in Petalpaw's ears, making her flinch. The other cats must have heard it, too, as they looked concerned.
"Come on, patrol," The deputy said. "Lets leave her to take care of whatever that was." As Creeknose padded away with his patrol, Petalpaw realized that they had only left because they thought that the crash was something dangerous. Cowards! Petalpaw wanted to call a jeer at them, but she held her tongue. Instead, she hurried in the direction of the crash.
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It was a very strange sensation. As Rainbow fell through the portal, her world went one color: blue. She could not hear anything, nor smell anything. Her entire body went numb, and her hearing came back in the form of a loud ringing sound. Suddenly, she felt herself collapse. Rainbow had fallen to the ground plenty of times in her life, but this time it was a lot more graceful. She realized it with a jolt:
I'm a cat!
She stood up, surprised to see she could stand with no problem. She was a creature with four legs before being a cat, but Rainbow expected some sort of struggle. She realized she could not see herself past her paws and her tail, so she started there. She looked at her new paws: they looked like what she had expected them to look like, but she completely blanked on the fact that she had claws now. Just thinking about them made them unsheathe, and she yelped.
I bet I'm the first cat ever to get scared by her own claws... Rainbow Dash thought to herself. She realized she was blue. This was strange, as she was quite sure cats were indeed not blue. Rainbow moved her tail around so she could see it, and noticed rainbow markings on her tail.
She heard breathing beyond a bush. She tried walking, and realized it was no problem. Wanting to be more confident in her new body before she checked the breathing, Rainbow tried jumping. She was surprised at the strength in her hind legs, as they carried her far off the ground. Rainbow landed, then realizing there was movement in a bush opposite to her. The ferns rustled, and out came a cream-colored tabby she cat. Oddly, Rainbow picked up her gender by her smell. She was very pretty, but Rainbow realized that she did not look friendly.
"What are you doing on our territory?" She took a defensive crouch. Rainbow struggled not to show her amazement. While the other cat meowed, her cat-brain translated it into words. The cat looked her up and down. "And what is with your fur?"
Rainbow was right. So cats really aren't blue! She realized two things: she was going to have to come with an excuse, and she was going to have to talk to this cat.
"Er..." She meowed, trying to find her voice. "I... um... you see," She was still fascinated at how she talked: by mewing. She swallowed. Somehow this cat had to believe Rainbow wasn't a threat.
"Me and my friends were just... passing by." Rainbow kicked herself for making such a lame excuse up. The cat hissed.
"So there's more than you?" Rainbow gasped.
"Oh, right! My friends!" She bounded away to the other side of the bush, where she had heard breathing. It was then that she saw Twilight and Pinkie for the first time. They were both on the ground, asleep. The cat who Rainbow assumed was Twilight had a lavender coat. Her fur was sleek, and very glossy. Rainbow was surprised once more that Pinkie looked like the cat on the hat; same pink fur and blue tail. She realized Pinkie had fewer whiskers then Twilight.
"Are these your friends?" The cat's mew sounded in Rainbow's ear. "They have weird pelts, too!" The cat listened to their breathing for a moment, and then turned to Rainbow. "Are your friends all right? Rainbow didn't know what to say, so she didn't respond. This only made the cat more worried. She padded over to the bodies of Twilight and Pinkie Pie.
"What are your names?"
"Um, my name is-" Rainbow realized she couldn't say her full pony name. "My name is... Rainbow. The pink one is... Pinkie, and the other one is Twilight." Rainbow was satisfied with her pretend names, but the other cat was not. She shook her head mumbling.
"Of course they're kittypets." She hurried over to Pinkie and pressed her ear on Pinkie's chest. "Get me some water, will you?"
Rainbow blanked. How am I supposed to get water? For the life of her she couldn't remember the way cats got water. Rainbow stood there not moving. The other cat sighed. "Fine I'll do it." The cat padded off deeper into the woods.
"Will they be okay?" The other cat turned around and quickly shrugged. "Wait! What's your name?"
The other cat turned around one more time.
"The name's Petalpaw of ShadowClan."