All was darkness. She felt strange, floating in an endless sky of nothingness. Who was she? What had happened? Thinking was difficult, like wading through thick deep mud that kept sucking her back into its cold and clammy embrace. It was bothersome and worrying, this place. It seemed to swirl around her, or maybe she was the one spinning on the spot, in a dizzying dance that didn't bring her anywhere. And somewhere far beyond a horizon she couldn't see, someone was talking. It was a muffled sound, familiar yet foreign at the same time, and she would have loved to move closer to listen more closely. None of her efforts payed out however, and after a while the wordless murmur began to annoy her. It was like the sensation that someone was standing next to you just beyond the range of sight, unspeaking and unwilling to reveal who they were. Like the memory of a warm summers day, fleeting and intangible, alluring and inviting... She turned towards the light, allowed herself to bask in the radiant glow, and when it retreated from the dark void, Shadow followed.

"Ouch... owowow... eh?" The pained murmur broke off in a puzzled grunt as the black mare began to stir on the ground. She had expected sharp, grueling pain to stab her entire body as she returned to consciousness. She wouldn't have been at all surprised if the legs had been turned into bloody twigs, broken and useless, or if the wings had transformed and been replaced by limp rags, forever useless. What she hadn't expected as she straightened out her limbs however, was to feel nothing but a dull ache in the muscles that had banged so ruthlessly into the towering trees. Neither had she counted on a gentle warmth to permeate the air so that the snow beneath her body began to melt, slowly seeping in through the double layered coat and chilling the dark skin beneath. And... wait. Was that breathing? Yes, it was. One, two.. no three set of breaths, scattered in a loose circle around her, and one was decidedly not from a horse. Had predators come to claim her, like they had claimed her mother not a full year ago? Maybe she had died and arrived at some other place, and that was why she only had to deal with minor aches and bruises... But then again, why would there be bruises and scrapes in the Heavenly Meadows?

There was nothing more to it. She would have to take a look. Slowly, carefully the little mare pried an eyelid open and peered up through thick dark eyelashes, barely even revealing the shimmering amethyst eyes hidden beneath the bushy forelock. Something white gleamed at a slight distance from where she lay, a blurred paleness shaped like a horse... Maybe it was her bleary eyes that made it look like the wings had fallen off from the elegant shoulders. A trick of the light, yes. Surely that was the case. The gaze then turned to consider the other frame that towered close by. Shadow had to blink twice before she managed to make out the silhouette, dark and vague like the evening itself. Was it another trick of the eye that the gray coat seemed to swirl and change like the clouds that now rolled in above them, pregnant with snow and cold? There was no mistaking the wings on this one though, because even here on the ground the shade realized their impressive size and felt a prick of envy dart through her mind.

It was the thing next to the large-winged pegasi that finally brought the fallen crow to her feet. With a sudden start she rolled up on her feet and heaved up, wings flapping and nostrils flaring as the purple eyes took in the black and blue predator by the feet of the clouded angel. What was this? A wolf, a dog, a malicious beast ready to rip and tear and devour her flesh, a bringer of tears and agony and death! Shadow backed away quickly, ears pinned tight to the poll without letting the fiery creature go with her eyes for even a second.

"Where am I, what happened? No, I know what happened, but how come you are here, and why am I.. okay? And what is THAT?" She dared a quick look between the two horses before returning to glare at the sharp-fanged monster, distrust painted vividly across her face.