You were glad to enter the world, weren't you, little life. It had been too warm within the depths of the shadow, much too sheltered and cozy. A star like you were meant to shine in the open, burn bright like a raging bonfire - but coldly, so that no one would get burned. A child of the moon you were, of winter and cold and darkness, and one day you would learn to live with this and all that came with it. But for now you were still innocent, unknowing as you opened your eyes for the first time to stare with wonder all all of the world.

* * *

It was cold on the ground. The contact with the snow and the earth and the biting wind made the child stir, long limbs twitching feebly without knowing how to move themselves away from that which upset them. Pale eyes blinked into the face of the moon. One of them watered under the glare of it, pained even by this gentle glow - the other did not see, at least not enough to be offended by Her otherworldly light.

Shadows moved around her, tall and looming like the holy tree among whose roots she had entered the world. Unlike the tree and its barren branches these figures were moving, and she watched them apprehensively, wary of their unpredictable lurching. These were nothing like the shapes her eyes had been accustomed to within that warm, hot, stifling darkness. Unlike them these were sharp, distinct, unnervingly quick in their erratic movements. She didn't know why, but the child feared them, distrusted them. She strained to create a distance between her and the closest of them, the one that was darkness personified. But it reached out for her, faster than the fallen star and so big that it dwarfed her, blotting out the light of the moon that suddenly had become comforting in comparison.

The filly bleated in fright as a clammy hot something began to lap at her, a weak and pitiful sound soon swept away by the wind. Was it eating her, was it going to hurt her, what was it doing? But soon enough the big, warm, nosy thing had left her again and the child sighed in relief, wondering at the fuzzy feeling it left behind in her heart. Big and scary and strange, but maybe it wasn't altogether bad?

But it wouldn't do to just lie around waiting for it to come back. Maybe next time the nosy something wouldn't be so gentle, so caring, so warm. The girl looked down over herself for the first time, absorbing the pallid body stained with blood and mucus, calculating the efficiency of the spindly legs and featherless wings. Maybe they might serve her purpose? She willed a leg to move and felt a surge of triumph when it lurched obligingly, twitching in the snow. Gradually, with no greater amount of patience, she began the tedious and tiresome process of bringing the body to life and up, unfurling each over-long leg and neck and tail until they brought her up on tiny cloves. For a wild, exalted, fleeting moment the girl found herself standing high over the shadow beside her, was able to take in the massive shape half obscured by snow and darkness, could see the other shades that stood towering even higher beyond that and the vastness of the field behind them, glittering under the light of the moon...

Then she wobbled and fell back to the ground, collapsing into a fuzzy, slimy jumble of legs and big frustrated eyes. She wanted to try again right away but something prickled and teased and stabbed inside her chest and made her cough; dry, rattling sounds that shook the little body and echoed in the night.

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@Vadim