SCRAMBLES IN, 640 WORDS FOR U YOUR HONOR
Dawn Strider, unicorn of a town people could barely remember the name of as old and as far as it was tucked against the Everfree Forest, had once again crashed through the ravine's canopy after jumping off the cliffs above.
Suicidal?, one may question incredulously. The answer would be a resounding no, actually.
Grunting, Dawn magically tugged at the release of her latest flying device, resembling something close to wings as it thankfully released from her frame.
Another failure in a long line of them, Dawn considered as she poked and gradually freed the contraption from the mess of branches and leaves she'd picked up on her way down. A bit disappointing, perhaps, but she took it as the learning opportunity it provided, mentally logging what worked and what hadn't.
It hadn't felt right, for one. Nothing like the feeling she craved, nothing like-
Dawn blinked away from the floating pieces of her work, scanning the shades and shadows of the woods she'd known her whole life. Though that didn't rule out dangers, being so close to the forest that alone ruled itself.
Another tug, insistent. Dawn slowly turned and-
Of all the things to expect, an egg was probably near the bottom of the list. It sat in a patch of pure sunlight, the gold upon the pale cream shell catching light.
It looked ethereal. It looked majestic, something one might see in a dream.
Dawn distinctly was not dreaming, and that egg had not been there a second ago.
She hesitated, scanning around for any sort of nest. She hadn't seen or heard it fall.. and there were no tracks in the dirt and leaf litter.
Odd, vaguely unnerving, and probably should not be approached considering how close the Everfree Forest was.
ā¦but it was still just an egg. If left alone it could be eaten, and maybe that was the way of the forest, but something still in Dawn's chest sunk at the thought.
Pulling her newly freed contraption after her with a spell, Dawn slowly, carefully approched the egg. Still no signs of a nest in the trees or the ground. Just the egg, gone one second and here the next.
Making up her mind, Dawn gently curled her magic around the egg it pick it up-
And yelped at the yank to her magic, even as she lunged forwards to catch the fragile thing with her forelegs before it could hit the ground.
Green eyes stared, rounded and huge, as her yanked magic sparkled and curled around the egg before the egg itself seemed to absorb it into itself. It seemed to hum with a sound she couldn't hear, gently warming against where the fragile shell was pressed into her legs.
There was the vaguest, oddest sense of a small second heartbeat next to her own now.
"ā¦We are going," Dawn told the egg that wouldn't respond but could maybe hear her anyways, "right to the library to figure out what in the world you are."
And how to care for it. As far as Dawn planned at the moment, she was going to pull out a woven basket, line it with regular blankets and an enchanted heating blanket, and figure out if she could get that sun lamp out of the back of her closet where she stuffed it after the winter months. But who knew what else it could need? Dawn sure didn't.
So to the library they'd go.
ā¦As soon as they got back up the cliff. Dawn sighed, and gently tried curling her magic around the egg again. It didn't yank this time, but there was a small sense of.. absorbing, a little. All the more important to get home then. Thankfully, the egg letting her carry it magically made that a whole lot easier.
It takes some time for the egg to hatch, even with the magic it absorbed. But the magic does appear to be helping - each little bit of magic absorbed it seems to...hum more. More intently. It never actually seems to move, physically, but the sensation intensifies. The egg defies most logic - watching it you never see it move. Placing your hoof upon it as well, there is no vibration.
But vibrate and hum it does, you swear. More intensely with each bit of magic it absorbs.
Until the day arrives, when it does begin to physically, visibly, start to shift and move. But it does not hatch like any egg you have seen. There's little rocking, little shifting. Instead, pieces begin to...simply fall away. The golden crest and horns upon it fall into the nest with gentle thumps, leaving a strangely ordinary looking egg behind. But even then, cracks seem to appear with no effort at all, and the shell begins to fall away.
The hatchling lifts its head, regal and...strangely somber, despite being so newly hatched. It is quiet as it looks around, each stretch of a limb slow and deliberate, then sees you. It dips its head slightly.
The hatchling has deemed you worthy.
What an absolutely stunning creature - its gender is difficult to discern right now, as is much about it. We know so very little, but perhaps as it grows we can find out more? Congratulations on your new friend!
