Tabitha was lost. She was in a very dark place. There was nothing around her. She couldn't even be sure she was there. She couldn't feel herself, or the things that did the feeling. Was she dead?

No. Your death at this point would be saddening. No, you're being much more interesting than that. I'm afraid I haven't told you the rules that many others get. The larger and more dangerous the item you bring with you, the more... interesting... your situation will be. You can also only bring things you own. Look at that, you happen to own a building...

The words appeared, burning and bright. They existed, even if nothing else did, not even Tabitha, though she could see them. What did it all mean ultimately? Last she could remember, she was being attacked by a vengeful fae in the middle of horse land.

You could have handled that better. I'm glad you didn't. There were paths laid out for you. The one you took is yours to keep. You can't blame me for this one.

Like what?!

Do you really want me to answer that? Seeing paths behind you will only make you more angry.

Tabitha considered that for a moment before she shrugged shoulders she couldn't feel or see. She wanted to know, even if she couldn't say that.

If you insist, but only because you've been a treat so far, and I do hope you continue. You could have asked for good health. That's a simple, straight forward, but entirely legitimate use of that elf's power. That is but one path that is now behind you, impossible to walk.

Tabitha was annoyed. Not at the text, per se, but more at herself. That was a good idea! She couldn't think of why she wouldn't want that... instead of whatever was going on. She wasn't dead?

Now we delve into philosophy. You are quite dead, by some measures. You are gone from your world. You are gone from those who once knew you. By their measure, you died a while ago, never to return. If you mean if your heart beats? What makes it your heart? The heart you knew and lungs you knew are gone. The elf has forged you in her green magic.

Great... Was she made an elf? She didn't want to be one of those, especially if that meant following their rules, as complex and confusing as those seemed to be.

No screaming? Yelling? No railing against unjust fates? I find myself adoring you, Tabitha. Please, change in all ways, but never that. No, you will not be an elf. She does not think that highly of you. She is convinced you love ponies.

Was she made into a pony?! She liked fingers, and skin, and...

You'll have fingers, and skin, but perhaps some fur too...

The dream, or whatever it was, ended.

Razz walked to his fridge. Every one-fourth of his steps brought a wince and a soft hiss of breath, but he was walking.

"I'm sorry!" repeated Trap, looking quite dismayed. "On the, uh, bright side, it did clean off your hoof."

"Yeah..." His hoof was cleared, but he also had a big band-aid on it. "You have to fine tune that." He opened his fridge with a wing and pulled out two bottles of carrot juice and brought them back from the fridge with his new limp.

Trap reached out and took a bottle with one of his hooves. "Thanks, but really, sorry. You sure you're alright?"

Razz settled on the cushions softly beside his friend. "Compared to some of your other, uh, attempts, this isn't that bad..." All he'd gotten was one slice across his frog. Sure, it hurt like anything, especially while walking, but... "I'll just have to fly more for a while."

Trap smiled brightly. "At least you have that option. Look, I must have made it too fine-tuned to my hoof. I'll make it more flexible and we'll try it again... if you're up for it."

Razz was tempted to decline that, but that was Trap they were speaking of. If he didn't do it, nopony would... "Rejigger it and we can try again, after I'm all healed up."

"You're the best." Trap threw a leg over Razz and hugged him before they clinked their juice bottles together and chugged to wash away their troubles with alcohol-free beverages.

Luna stepped in front of the strange building. She had dealt with another troubling situation in that city that had uncovered a changeling living among them. Even compared to that, the energy she felt gently wafting from the building itself unnerved her.

"You are in the way."

Luna looked over her shoulder to see a unicorn peering at her with piercing eyes and a short fuse. He was somehow impatient and yet had an ageless quality to him, as if he'd been forced to wait a long time. He pointed past her to the building. "You are in the way," he repeated firmly.

She stepped aside for the stallion, confused. "Are you not aware who we are?"

He was about to say something, but it aborted before it left his mouth. He quickly made something new, "princess of the three tribes."

"That much is true. I am Princess Luna."

Despite her words, he was already walking past. He ascended the steps to the building and entered without delay. He didn't care who she was.

He was gone.

Luna frowned at where he once was. "This city..." It had its share of disrespectful ponies that didn't give royalty their proper berth and respect. None of that explained what she had seen, but she wasn't even sure how to approach that.

By approaching, of course. She ascended the stairs and stepped into the lobby of the apartments. Her ears swiveled slowly left and right, taking it all in slowly. The sounds of the building were similar to other such places, but subtly different. There were other machines at work in the walls and basement that she couldn't place. The lights that hung overhead seemed of foreign manufacture. There were a thousand little things...

But none of them compared to that energy. That perverted sense of reality itself being frayed. It only grew slowly worse with time. What would happen when the sun was down? Was that building like herself, strongest at night?

Luna didn't see the human from that dream, or anypony else that would be in charge. Of course, it was an apartment building, not a hotel, so she wasn't entirely sure where to look.

She found the office with some searching, but it was empty and locked beside. The human was not there.

That energy... It was throbbing through and around her. The building, or whatever powered it, was fully alive. It was subtle... Only a trained magician would even know it was there, but Luna could feel it, and it was impossible for her to ignore it.

How had the building not caused trouble?

She saw a pony emerge from the elevator, a mare with a flower in her mane. "Excuse me." Luna approached with a little smile.

The pony saw who she was and went wide-eyed a moment. "P-princess, um... Hello."

"Greetings. Please do not be alarmed by our presence. We seek the owner of this building. Might you assist in this task?" Luna tried to not intimidate the perfectly-normal looking earth mare.

She mostly succeeded. "She's up there." The mare pointed up. "I can show you the way, if you'd like, Your... Majesty?"

"Please, and thank you, Miss...?"

"Pommel, Coco Pommel." Coco turned back to the elevator she just emerged from and pressed the call button. Soon they were riding up together. "So, um, Princess Luna, what brings you here?"

"We feel this building may be..." She faltered. Should she be telling that random pony anything? "We wish to visit its owner."

She seemed surprised a moment, then recovered. "Oh... I suppose you heard about her?"

Luna raised a brow. "We have heard many things."

"She may be the first... of her kind, but she's very gentle and generous. She's one of the better landladies I've ever dealt with, and a good friend beside." She turned red as she spoke, going more and more crimson with every word. "I don't mean to speak against you, Princess. I just hope you aren't here to be angry at her. She's a good pony, even if she isn't, technically, a pony."

So the visitor wasn't hiding her nature? At least she wasn't from that pony. "We see. We will approach gently, we assure. It would not do to have an alien in our presence without being properly greeted. You would wish that, would you not?"

Coco deflated with relief. "Oh, yes, please. She's been a gentle and good pony, as odd as she might look."

"If you speak truly, then I would only wish to greet and welcome her." Luna gave a smile even as that odd energy throbbed through her. As nice as the immigrant had been, she had to know what that force was, and how they were tied to it... It could be a great harm to her ponies. "It would only be proper."

"Of course." Coco pointed the way to one door among many. "That's hers. Her name is Tabitha, but all the paperwork says she's Easy Glider. I would use the first if I were you."

Luna's movement stopped as she turned to Coco. "Paperwork?"

Coco froze as well, realizing she might have said more than she should. "Oh, it's, um, nothing."

"Tell us, citizen."

Coco looked down and away, sweat making her coat shine. "P-please, don't hold it against her..."

"We would be informed so that we can form an educated opinion. Miss Pommel, wouldn't you wish this of us?"

"Y-yes, of course..." Coco seemed to deflate a little. "After she said something that made me curious, I checked the records of the building and it should be owned by one 'Easy Glider', the pegasus I first met before she became Tabitha before my eyes. I-I really don't think she's done anything wrong, just oddly... Please don't be angry with her, Princess."

"She's a changeling?" Was there another in the very same city?!

"No! I mean, I think not... There are others who hide the same way." She glanced away and back. "Becoming a tenant here means their disguise falls to other tenants. When I agreed to her terms and accepted my key, I saw her as she really was."

It was all becoming more curious by the moment... "Thank you. You've told us what we need to know. We won't hold you up any longer."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." She bowed quickly before she fled to the elevator and was out of sight in a flash.

She was intimidated. A lot of ponies could be around her, especially when she was doing her job. Luna sighed and raised a hoof towards the door, giving it a solid rapping. She hoped the human within would react to her better.

Author's Notes:

What? We don't find out what happened to Tabitha yet? Most obvious typo ever!