In most things, Hoffnarr Feather Song was a fairly average griffon who lived a fairly mundane life.

He was an older griffon, just recently into his mid-sixties in fact. He kept in decent shape by visiting the gym near his home three times a week. Like many griffons, he was a frugal sort, though he spared no expense for certain things. Between his wife's job as an archivist and his own work as a bank teller, there was no shortage of bits, and they'd managed to find a nice apartment in a good neighborhood near the business district where Hoffnarr spent most of his day.

He'd lost his one and only son several years back in a terrible accident, and his daughter-in-law had chosen to move out of the city with his granddaughter of only a few years shortly after. That had been at a time when the city was still growing, but once Iron Wing City had become a thriving metropolis, their granddaughter, newly out of her fledgling years and now a full grown adult, had decided to come live with them in the city. It was surprise to be sure, but a welcome one, though somewhat bittersweet given that Hoffnarr's daughter-in-law refused to join her own daughter.

Still, no love was lost and both Hoffnarr and his wife were happy to have their granddaughter around. She'd been a small ray of sunshine in a life that had become somewhat dreary and monotonous for Hoffnarr over the years. It wasn't a perfect life, but neither Hoffnarr's wife, nor his granddaughter could've asked for more. Unfortunately Hoffnarr had only grown more restless as time went on. He began to feel that something was missing from his own life—a slowly widening void that needed filling, a growing itch that needed to be scratched, a thirst for the kind of adventure one couldn't obtain by being tied down by his family and job like he'd been for so many years.

He'd tried taking his wife and granddaughter on an exotic vacation to Asterios, the country of minotaurs and a place famous for its many sprawling mountains, beautiful hot springs and ancient cities dotted throughout the land. It was a fun experience and Hoffnarr's granddaughter had enjoyed herself quite a bit, but it hadn't been what the older griffon himself was looking for. He'd tried spicing things up in his love life, even going so far as to try and convince his wife to try a few new things in the nest they shared, and while that had been a bit closer, it didn't quite hit the mark.

Deep down, Hoffnarr knew what he really wanted—what he began to feel he needed, but for the longest time he tried to deny it. More and more often he found his eyes wandering to the younger hens he worked with or saw on the streets; more and more often he had to pull those eyes away as certain thoughts began to form, causing no end of guilt and shame. The more he denied it, the more miserable life seemed to become. The drinking started not long after that, and things quickly began to spiral out of control from there.

Work suffered, fights began to break out with the wife at home, a rift started to grow between Hoffnarr and his granddaughter, the barriers cracked further and further in Hoffnarr's mind. Eventually, they broke down completely, shattered by a co-worker who'd been making some not-so-subtle attempts to bed the older griffon. He didn't know why, and though he'd always tried to ignore the hen before, now he didn't particularly care why. On that day, after work had let out, he followed the mare to a certain kind of hotel in the shadier area of the entertainment district.

Broken and desperate, Hoffnarr committed the worst breach of trust one possibly could between a husband and their wife.

It was everything he'd been craving and more, and yet it had also left him feeling sick and hollow—a shell of the griffon his wife had married. To make matters worse, he'd found himself waking up in that hotel alone and without a bit to his name, his bit pouch no doubt snatched away by the very hen who'd been fawning over him just the other day. Played like a fool and too ashamed to return home, Hoffnarr made use of the hotels amenities to ready himself for the day and left for work. The hotel had already been paid for the night prior, a fact that brought little comfort to Hoffnarr as he walked into the bank that day.

Not long after he'd punched in, he'd been called to meet with his boss. He entered the office to find his disgusted and irate boss and a pitifully sobbing and intimately familiar co-worker waiting for him. Hoffnarr had taken one look at the two, and realized in an instant what had happened, and what coming next. Accusations were made, tempers flared, threats were issued, and in the end, Hoffarr found himself out of a job. It was here that Hoffnarr felt he had reached the lowest point in his life. Robbed of his bits, he couldn't even afford to drink his problems away, and so, bitter, angry and hollow, he headed home.

Naturally, there'd been an altercation between Hoffnarr and his wife when he'd gotten home. His granddaughter tried to intervene, but could do nothing but watch as things began to turn violent. Fortunately a third party had arrived just as things were about to spiral out of control, and the griffon family was surprised to find their horrible situation interrupted by none other than a trio of ponies... or so they thought. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that these were no ordinary ponies, or even ponies at all, but something else entirely. Their surprise didn't last long before things took a turn for the worst...

When Fluttershy closed her eyes, she could still see the scene play out in vivid detail. She remembered the argument she and her friends had witnessed as they peered into the window, preparing to make their move. She remembered how things had escalated—the words that had been said, and the horror she felt. She remembered how that horror had turned to anger when the husband had attacked his wife, striking her across the face and leaving a deep furrow of bloody gashes where his claws had swiped. The last thing she heard before everything had gone red was the sound of the granddaughter's terrified scream, then... nothing.

There was a large hole in her memory, and in its place were the memories of Hoffnarr Feather Song. His entire life had played out in her mind, giving her the full story to what she and her friends had bore witness to through the window. She remembered it all from his perspective, and she had not liked what she saw, how she, as Hoffnarr, had felt in those last few days. When she finally came to, the main room of the apartment was a complete wreck and she sat amidst all the carnage, an old and tragic griffon blinking stupidly at his family. They watched him with no small amount of concern, his wife and granddaughter, only they weren't really his wife and granddaughter anymore, and she wasn't an old griffon.

It took Fluttershy a moment, but eventually all the memories of what she, Pinkie and Twilight had come to do came flooding back. There'd been a brief panic attack on her part, but her friends had helped her calm down soon enough. Still, even now, as she stood out on the balcony of the fifth floor of the apartment, watching the endless crowds of griffons pass by below, Fluttershy hadn't completely recovered from the experience. Hoffnarr had never actually gotten to tell his family about his infidelity, and Fluttershy herself hadn't told Twilight or Pinkie.

It just didn't feel right for some reason; none of it felt right, being in the guise of another creature, and of a different gender no less. It had been a couple of days since the incident, but she still hadn't fully gotten used to her shapeshifting abilities, and somehow she doubt she'd ever fully get used to it like the others had. Since she was outside where everyone could see her, she'd once again dawned the guise of Hoffnarr, and while she could just go back inside and revert back to her normal pegasus self, she opted to stay on the balcony and creature watch for a bit longer.

It was getting late in the day and Twilight and Pinkie would probably be back soon, though Fluttershy was still unsure of whether or not she was ready to talk to them about how she felt. She'd gone into the business district alone looking for clues to their current predicament, but had gotten sidetracked by her—or rather Hoffnarr's—memories. She'd wasted the last few hours wandering around in a daze and had eventually wound up standing outside of the very bank where Hoffnarr had worked. She didn't know how long she'd been standing there, and the only reason she'd snapped out of it and left was because the manager had come out and shouted that he'd file those charges if she didn't leave the premises.

And so she'd returned back to the apartment without finding out a single thing.

Fluttershy had no idea why her consumption of the griffon had affected her so strongly. She couldn't help but compare it to what had happened to Rainbow Dash when she consumed Svanhild, but the problem was that Hoffnarr hadn't been a virus like Svanhild, or even infected at all. Was it Fluttershy herself? Was this just a side effect unique to her? Or was it something else? Something that had to do with who or what she used to be? She didn't know the answer, and she didn't know what she was going to tell the others, but she'd have to come up with something soon.

Closing her eyes and casting out her still relatively new senses, she could feel both Twilight and Pinkie heading up the stairs and towards the door to the apartment they'd taken over. With a resigned and weary sigh, Fluttershy turned away from the city and stepped back into the apartment, shedding her disguise and dawning her normal yellow coat once she was inside. The interior had been cleaned up since the incident, and the girls, disguised as the family currently living there, somehow managed to explain away the disturbance as a simple misunderstanding. Fluttershy wasn't sure whether or not the manager of the apartments had believed them, but thankfully there had been no follow up investigation.

Fluttershy had barely made it to the front door before it was thrown open and she found herself staggering backwards, wrapped in a tight pink furry embrace.

"We're baaaack~" came the ecstatic voice of Pinkie, "did ya miss us, Fluttershy? 'Cause we definitely missed you!"

"Oof... h-hey, Pinkie," Fluttershy replied, patting the pink earth pony on the back, "I'm glad to see you, both of you," she looked over Pinkie's shoulder just in time to see Twilight enter and close the door behind her before shifting back to her lavender unicorn self. She frowned slightly as she watched Twilight, "so... how did everything go? Did you find what you were looking for yet?"

"One of the things I was looking for, yes," Twilight replied making her way toward a small white couch in one corner of the room and all but throwing herself onto it with a sigh, "it took some time, but I found the route to our next destination."

"Really?" Fluttershy asked, eyes widening with surprise as she pulled away from Pinkie, "I thought..." she paused and shook her head with a small hidden smile of relief, "...well that's good then, I suppose. Where are we heading next?"

Twilight grimaced and Fluttershy's smile faded at the sight.

"Well... before I get to that, did you find any information in the business district?" Twilight asked instead, "anything that might be able to help at all?"

Now it was Fluttershy's turn to grimace.

"No, nothing," she replied quietly after a moment. She looked away, turning her gaze to the darkening grey sky outside the window where the balcony was, "...sorry, Twilight."

There was a brief silence in which Twilight and Pinkie studied their pegasus friend. The moment passed and Twilight shook her head, an understanding smile on her face.

"It's alright, Fluttershy," Twilight finally answered, "I'm sure you did what you could."

"Yeah," Pinkie chimed in, wrapping Fluttershy in a one legged hug, "we have a lead now anyway, so it's all good, right?"

"Exactly," Twilight agreed, though her reassuring smile cracked slightly as she spoke her next words, "although... I'm not so sure you'll like what I have planned, or where we're going."

"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked, trying to push down the guilt at Twilight's earlier statement, "why wouldn't I..."

She trailed off as she thought about what Twilight could've meant. Unless Twilight was talking about some place they'd all gone before their transformation, there were only three other places in Griffonia that they'd all been, and going back to Squawken or the forest at the edge of the mountain didn't really seem make all that much sense given what the lavender mare was looking for.

"...You're planning on going back to that laboratory," Fluttershy deduced, her expression falling slightly as the realization hit, "that place where we all... where we were all... changed."

"Right now, that place is our only lead, Fluttershy," Twilight answered in a slightly placatory voice, "not only that, but if we're going to make any headway in stopping a possible outbreak from spreading, we would've needed to go back there at some point, and the sooner the better."

"And Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked, turning to the pink mare after a beat of silence, "what do you think?"

"Hey, I'd rather not go back if we don't have to, trust me," Pinkie answered with a sad, sympathetic smile, "but I also think Twi's right, Fluttershy. What else can we really do at this point? Where else can we really go besides Equestria? We all agreed to stay here and do something about this nasty virus problem, and there's really no better place to start doing something than that horrible facility."

Fluttershy fell to her haunches and frowned in thought. She knew Twilight had a point, both of them did. She didn't like it, but she couldn't argue that it was probably the best place to start. Still, she searched her mind for another way—any other way that could help them stop the outbreak. Maybe if they cut it off at the source—

"The source..." Fluttershy muttered, "maybe..."

"Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, hopping off the couch and making her way towards Fluttershy with a bemused frown, "what is it? Did you find something else out?"

"We... what if we went to this Crystal Empire?" Fluttershy suggested, "that's where Princess—er, Queen Luna and this King Sombra are both supposed to be, right? A-And this whole thing was because of Luna, right? So..."

She trailed off and let Twilight put the pieces together, which she was doing if her thoughtful frown was anything to go by.

"I... guess that's an idea," Twilight replied slowly, "we'd need to find the specific location, and prepare. The Frozen North isn't someplace we can just stroll into; even taking into account what we are now, I don't think just waltzing into that frozen wasteland is a good idea."

"Wait, but didn't you say Luna was plotting and scheming in some lab underneath Canterlot?" Pinkie asked, pressing a hoof to her chin in confusion, "so wouldn't we need to go back to Equestria?"

"Maybe," Twilight replied, a plan forming in her mind as she spoke, "but that was over sixteen years ago, Pinkie. If Luna moved to the Crystal Empire, she might've moved the lab with her, or at the very least brought the resources within the lab to another lab somewhere closer the Empire if not within the Empire itself," she shook her head, "but we don't know if she actually moved to the Crystal Empire is the thing. For all we know, she could be ruling over Equestria from Canterlot in... in Celestia's place."

Twilight winced at the thought, not at all wanting to entertain the possibility, but unable to deny it. The thought hurt, but if it were true, there was nothing she could do about it now, not at the moment anyway. Instead of dwelling on the matter she moved on.

"Alright, here's what we'll do," Twilight decided, "I still think we should pay Sky Talon Labs a visit to see what we can do and find out about the virus. Whether or not we get our answers, we'll find some way to deal with the infected in the facility if need be, then our next objective will be to head back to Equestria and meet up with the others. Once we do that, we can all search Canterlot for the lab beneath the city. If it's not there, then we'll all make preparations and head for the Crystal Empire," she looked from Pinkie to Fluttershy expectantly, "does that sound good?"

"No complaints here," Pinkie replied, clopping her hooves together in satisfaction, "I wanna do what we can to make sure that virus doesn't spread here, but the sooner we get back to Equestria, the better."

"My thoughts exactly, " Twilight replied with a nod. She turned to Fluttershy, "and Fluttershy? What about you?"

"I... I think it sounds like a good plan," Fluttershy conceded hesitantly, "but... what are we going to do about Bright Fang? He's infected too, and I don't think we can just leave him out there in that forest."

"Bright Fang?" Twilight asked, bewildered. A moment later her eyes lit up with recognition, "oh, right, the wolf," she frowned down at her hooves, humming in thought a moment before looking back up at Fluttershy with a shrug, "he does have to be dealt with somehow, but I think I'll leave that up to you, Fluttershy. If you want us to go back for him, we will, but whatever you decide, we need to make sure he can't infect anypony, or anyone else. Also keep in mind, we can't just have him strolling around populated areas. It would kind of cause a panic."

"Right, I understand," Fluttershy replied, perking up somewhat, "if you don't mind, I'd like to visit him before we head back to Equestria then. Bright Fang and I will discuss what to do then, and let you know."

"Sounds good," Twilight nodded, satisfied with how the plan was shaping up, "now if everything is sorted out, we should probably leave as soon as possible."

"Wait, Twilight," Pinkie said suddenly, her tone somewhat solemn as she looked at Twilight, "before that, how's your whole magic situation? Has it returned yet?"

"My..." Twilight's brows shot up in surprise and disbelief, "my magic! I can't believe I... I completely forgot about... I've gotten so used to not using it... had so much do to... to think about, that I..."

She wanted to laugh, to berate herself, to hide her face in embarrassment, to do a lot of things. Instead she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, gathered her wits and attempted to reach within her wellspring for the magic she hoped was still there. She felt for the familiar spark, and to her surprise, found instead something wholly unfamiliar—something black and twisted, but powerful. Tentatively, with both hope and caution in equal measure, she reached for it and pulled gently, attempting to cast some simple telekinesis.

The couch she'd been resting on only moments ago was suddenly wreathed in black and promptly crushed into a hoof sized ball of cloth, cotton and wood, causing both Fluttershy and Twilight herself to cry out in surprise. There was loud crack as the ball shot upwards like a bullet, tearing a small hole in the ceiling above the three stunned viruses. It had all happened in an instant, leaving Twilight with a mix of emotions, a large portion of which consisted of shock and disbelief. For a few seconds, the three stared up at the small hole in silence as the black aura arund Twilight's horn quietly faded out. Then Pinkie spoke, her earlier seriousness and whatever else she'd planned to say replaced with the same surprise as the others.

"Welp... I guess that answers that question..."

Author's Notes:

In all honesty, Hoffnarr's story wasn't supposed to go that deep, but apparently once I start writing backstory, it's kind of hard for me to stop.