As a general rule, Aerys never let her feet touch the ground.

She lived among the clouds, her large wings, a deep blazing red like the rest of her, kept her drifting loftily on the convection currents. Isolated among the clouds, she had no permanent home and no permanent companions—there had been a few here or there when it was convenient, but none had stayed past their destined point of travel. Aerys felt as if she must have circumvented the globe hundreds of times, landing on clouds to rest, perching on tree branches as the birds do to eat the leaves. Her existence was simple, foolproof, and sustainable—her impact on others was shallow, never getting in her way. She saw how the ground-walker’s petty dramas played out hundreds of feet below her, lover’s quarrels and eventual betrayal from companions. I have no place in a world like that, Aerys determined long ago. It is petty and cruel, all their wars and blood. Aerys was not opposed to violence, but found their territorial reasoning immature. How could one own the earth? In the air, everything was different. There was nothing to own permanently—clouds disintegrated, winds changed, weather forced migration. As if inside her thoughts, the wind blew cold across her body, rustling her wings and mane. Winter was coming, even though summer’s hold on the land kept the days warm even if the nights dipped the grass in frost. Aerys always seemed to manage to outrun winter, but this year she was late. A little worry tickled in the back of her mind—will I make it before the snowstorms come? With a roll of her neck she quickened her pace, her sorrel body looked like a bloody comet arcing through the midday sky; the sun’s light burned through her feathered wings made it seem to glow.

The ominous grey clouds hanging low in the distance did not bode well for her. While she could certainly fly in the snow and cold, it was a death sentence to travel long distances. The air is colder, the wind continually wicking away the sweat that is meant to cool in the summers cools too much and sucks away the vital heat from the body. Aerys sighed. Her instincts were screaming at her to land, something they’d never done before. Flicking her wings from flat to upwards, she slowed and drifted gently to the ground, riding the circular current. Giving one final flutter of her wings to ensure a gentle landing, Aerys touched down back hooves first before following them quietly with her front. She shook out her body before tucking her wings neatly to her sides. She felt out of place, her petite Saddlebred body felt defenseless and weak. Bright brown eyes nervously scanned the horizon, though the thick forest to her left and the mountains to her right blocked her view of the area. Tentatively Aerys took a step—the grass looked prickly and hard since it was dead but it provided surprising amounts of cushion for her hooves. This… is different, the sky-tamer thought, but not entirely unpleasant. Her velvet nostrils filled with new smells and her ears twitched, taking in all the different sounds that the solid side of earth had to offer. Twigs snapped, small animals huffed out their breath and chattered to each other quietly. It was also much, much warmer closer to the ground—wetness dripped from her defrosting wings. Keeping her small ears alert, she unfolded one of her bloody sorrel wings and began to carefully groom it. It’s certainly much easier to do this on a surface that isn’t constantly moving, Aerys reluctantly admitted. And perhaps there are no ground-walkers living here.

Little did Aerys know, she’d landed right in the middle of a bustling metropolis, an equine cultural melting pot.