When I entered the training room, Poppy was working with a block of plastic, her eyes focused completely on it as it shifted and flowed in front of her into a new shape, a sphere rather than the square block it started as. Once she seemed finished and was about to turn her attention to another substance, a block of silvery metal, I attempted to get her attention. “What are you doing?” I asked. I had a pretty good idea, but I figured that it was as good a way to get her attention as any.

“Huh? Oh, hey Lily,” she replied, her face brightening almost immediately with a smile that made my heart melt. “I’m just going through the various materials I was given to see which ones I can manipulate with my power. It seems like all of them except raw iron so far. I can manipulate steel, but it’s a little harder to work with than everything else. Maybe because of the iron content? I wanted to know what I can actually work with before I try making things for us.”

“Oh, cool. I figured it was something like that. I was… I need to tell you something… I mean, introduce you to someone,” I verbally bumbled as I looked away.

Now that the moment had come to reveal Moonlight to her, I was starting to falter and doubt myself. What if she truly was just a figment of my imagination? What if Moonlight didn’t appear and Poppy thought that I was weird or crazy and didn’t want to be around me anymore?

My heart hammered in my chest as Poppy gave me her undivided attention and asked, “Really? Is this about your sister? I thought that you were going to wait until she was coping better before introducing me to her.”

The words seemed to slip away before I could speak them, my throat suddenly too dry and tight to get anything more than a wheeze out in place of whatever I had been about to say. I couldn’t even remember how I was going to do this now, and I had gone over it over a dozen times in my head on the way to talk to her. The words had abandoned both my mind and my tongue.

No, I had to do this. I was trembling now, and I could feel a panic attack building up in my chest. I needed to push through this, I needed to tell her and then, no matter what happened, at least I would know if I was crazy or not. Working up some saliva and swallowing, I tried speaking again. “I… it’s not my sister. I… umm… need you to just trust me for a minute, okay? M-maybe we should get in the air for this? You can get a better look at her that way when she… uhh… gets here, and we won’t risk being stepped on or something.”

“Okay?” Poppy more asked than replied. She was looking at me in concern now. I wasn’t exactly doing a good job of hiding my nervousness, but she was giving me the benefit of the doubt and started to beat her wings to follow me upward until we had nearly reached the ceiling.

Once we were in a better position to get a more glamorous view than Moonlight’s undercarriage, if she would indeed show up, I tried to explain. “Okay, Poppy, this is going to sound weird, but I have this… friend. We’re… umm… bonded. She talks to me in my head, and she’s been… uhh… watching over me since before I even Sprouted.”

Poppy’s face fell even as I stammered my way through my explanation, and she looked hurt. Why did she look hurt? Wait, were those tears? What could I have said to hurt her? That question was swiftly answered as she looked away. “This… friend, you said you’re bonded? I guess I should have asked before if you had a girlfriend… I thought that you were like me and you…”

“Ewww! No! It’s not like that at all!” I cut her off in protest. On the one hand, I didn’t even want to think of Moonlight in that way, and from the way her mind responded to those nascent disturbing thoughts that were brought up, the Unicorn was similarly grossed out by the very idea. Our bond was built on friendship, purity, and innocence. On the other hand, there was this little squee of excitement in my now fluttering heart that Poppy seemed so upset at the thought of me being with someone else. Oh damn, I wanted to kiss her so badly right then. “Umm… Moonlight, could you…”

Despite my inability to finish my request verbally, Moonlight was able to glean what I wanted from my thoughts and began to materialize beneath us. I held my breath unthinkingly as my heart seemed to thrum faster than even my wings. I could practically feel my chest vibrating with the galloping of my heart and the torrential cascade of blood rushing through my veins. This was the moment that my sanity rested upon.

There was not a sound from Poppy beside me, save the buzzing of rapidly beating wings, moving almost in a counter beat to my own in the silence that had fallen over us. I was too afraid to turn and look at her face, afraid that there would be no sign of her seeing the pristine, white Unicorn below us who was taking up most of the small room. Well, small for her, not us Sprites.

After a moment, the relative silence was broken as Poppy let loose the breath that had been taken away from her as she said in barely more than a whisper, “Bloody hell. Th-that’s a bloody Unicorn! You’re seeing this too, right, Lily?”

I almost fell from the air as my body relaxed so much in relief that I almost lost control of my wings. “Y-yeah… I was a little worried that you wouldn’t see her, that maybe she wasn’t real after all. This is Moonlight, and she says that she’s sworn to protect me. She was my filly before the Incursion, and I guess she was changed too. She bonded with me and has been watching out for me since I was brought here in my cocoon. She doesn’t really trust humans so she’s been keeping herself hidden until now and she can talk with me because of our bond. Moonlight already knows you since she’s been watching me since I Sprouted.”

“A bloody Unicorn,” the Fire Sprite repeated in stunned awe in the wake of my explanation. “Breeze says they’re still a myth as far as everyone knows. They told me there have been other Altered animals seen, like Pegasi, Gryphons, Dire Wolves, and even the occasional Dragon near Incursion Zones, but some creatures just haven’t appeared yet, at least that the Vanguard knows of.”

“Maybe Moonlight is the first, or the others are as shy about being seen by people as she is,” I suggested with a sigh of relief that I wasn’t crazy. “Moonlight says that they can keep themselves all ghostly to avoid being seen by people, and they don’t need to eat or drink or anything in that state. They usually only show themselves to their chosen Maidens. She really didn’t want to show herself, but she’s doing it for me.”

“Can… I touch her? You know, to make sure I’m not seeing things?” Poppy asked hesitantly.

“I haven’t touched her myself yet,” I admitted. “She’s always in my head, but I was a little concerned that I might be crazy.

-Please tell your lover that I appreciate her asking first. She may touch me, provided that you get to do so first. It is your right as my Maiden,- Moonlight’s voice gently spoke in my mind. -Not my horn though, it is very sensitive.-

I passed her words on to Poppy, not including the 'lover' thing, and moments later we were both stroking the Unicorn's velvety hide after the Fire Sprite had given me a head start. Our hands were too small to get much reaction out of her though, and it didn’t last long before Moonlight once again made herself ethereal. One of the nurses would be coming to pick me up soon to take me to my power testing appointment, and neither of us wanted to spoil the surprise and miss seeing the shock on people’s faces when Moonlight revealed herself.

The nurse escorting me was a Fae woman named Yvette. She was pretty, slender, and graceful with a distinctive elfin appearance, and bore a striking resemblance to Galadriel from the old Peter Jackson version of The Lord of the Rings movies. That was the only version I had seen anyway.

One of the more daring Hollywood directors had released a new version about four years ago, just before I ended up in my cocoon, using Altered actors to play the appropriate roles and actual magic for the effects. Unfortunately, given the negative view that much of the general populace held toward Altered, it was largely boycotted and didn’t do well at the box office. I guess it was only well-regarded here in Amethyst Harbour, but Oak swore that it was the best version yet and stayed true to the books. Poppy wanted to see if we could convince the nurses to let us have a movie marathon in the Fairy Ward to see them since neither of us had yet.

It was quite the trek to where I had my appointment, and though I tried to use my wings and fly for most of it, I eventually needed to rest on her shoulder so I would have some energy left for my testing. We had to make our way down the elevator, then across the hospital campus to another elevator inside the research building, which then took us to the sub-basement, before we had to traverse several hallways to get to where we were now. The last elevator also required a key card, voice recognition scan, and a biometric scan of Yvette before we could even go down to the sub-basement.

“We’re here,” Yvette said unnecessarily as we stopped at a thick steel door labeled, ‘Powers Testing Lab #4’.

She rang the buzzer of the intercom to the side of the imposing entrance and, a moment later, a deep voice inquired through the speaker, “Who is it?”

“It’s Yvette, I’ve brought Lily Pierce for her three o’clock testing appointment,” the Fae nurse replied.

The door buzzed and Yvette reached out to pull it open. It looked heavy, that steel was like six inches thick. What the hell kinds of powers were they testing down here anyway? I tried not to think about it overly much as I rode her shoulder inside what looked like an armored bunker with a bunch of computers and high-tech equipment that I couldn’t even begin to identify. Most of that stuff was in one corner, while the rest of the room resembled a shooting range with what looked like large metallic training dummies lined up against the far wall.

Yvette walked over to the corner with the computers and fancy equipment, where two men sat in simple office chairs. Both wore lab coats but while one was otherwise dressed comfortably in shorts and a t-shirt underneath, the other wore a button-up shirt and black slacks with polished black shoes. I was pretty sure that they were both Altered as well, though in one case it was pretty obvious.

The one with the casual Friday look seemed to be a Faun, going by the horns poking out from his curly black hair and the goat-like legs ending in hooves. He had olive skin, and brown eyes, and was currently leaning back in his chair with his hooves propped up on one of the computer desks. The well-dressed one looked Human but with my sense of mana and magic starting to get better, I thought I could feel the tingle of magic coming from him. He was of African descent and had a neatly trimmed beard and short-cropped hair that was starting to go gray at the temples.

As the older and more distinguished of the two stood up to greet us, Yvette made the introductions. “Lily, this is Professor Lucius Frazier and his assistant Cole. Dr. Frazier does research here for the Vanguard on magic and special abilities and teaches Magical Theory and a couple of other classes at the university. Professor Frazier, Cole, the Sprite on my shoulder is Lily Pierce.”

“Yo,” the casual Faun said, giving a wave but not leaving his seat.

“Ah yes, the teleporter,” the dark-skinned human-looking man said with a grin, flashing pearly white teeth. “I’ve been very eager to see what you can do and to test your limits. You’ll have to excuse Cole, Fauns are naturally very laid-back, but he’s an excellent research assistant.” Even trying to keep his volume low to not overwhelm me, the professor's deep bass voice seemed to boom and shake the very air around me in his eagerness.

“It’s… umm… nice to meet you both,” I nervously replied, though probably only the professor was close enough to hear me. “Before we… ahh… get started, there is someone who would like to be present for my testing… she’s worried about my safety and stuff.”

Professor Frazier stroked his beard thoughtfully for a moment before replying in as quiet a tone as he could manage, “It is your right to have someone with you if you feel wary, Lily. Should I have an escort sent for your friend before we get started?”

“Umm… actually, she’s already here. You can probably show yourself now, Moonlight.”

-As you wish, my Maiden,- the Unicorn replied before once again coalescing into her physical form.

“The fuck?!” Cole practically squealed as the Faun fell out of his chair at the sight of my materializing companion.

Meanwhile, Yvette’s jaw dropped, and the professor was openly gaping at the Unicorn that was not only apparently still thought mythical but had somehow managed to get past all their security precautions. “That is a…” the professor started to say in silent awe.

“A Unicorn,” I finished the sentence for him. “This is Moonlight, she’s… um… sorta my protector.”

After Moonlight’s sudden appearance, Professor Frazier was totally having a magical nerdgasm as he asked me all about Moonlight, Unicorns in general, and the Maiden Bond. I told him what I could and cleared up the case of the miracle recoveries that the hospital had been experiencing off and on since I was brought to Amethyst Harbour. This was exactly the kind of thing Moonlight had been wanting to avoid though, and it warmed my heart that she showed herself anyway for my sake.

This also meant that my testing turned into testing for both me and Moonlight while the professor, Yvette, and Cole used various scanners and other instruments to try to monitor us and figure out our abilities. It was long and tiresome, extending well into the evening, late enough that Yvette had to get approval from her superior to stay and assist and had to leave for a while to get dinner for all of us. Moonlight and I were both working up an appetite, especially after he asked Moonlight to allow him to observe while she healed a couple of patients that Yvette collected for us.

He was impressed with Moonlight’s healing ability, though it wasn’t something she could use often since it tired her out a lot. He also wanted to know all about our mental communication and her ability to turn ethereal to hide. He wanted us to test the former with Jade to see if telepaths could communicate with Moonlight as well, but the Unicorn instructed me to tell him that she believed it was possible, which was why she had been staying well away from the Fairy Ward while Jade was working. As for the latter, it seemed that Moonlight could only conceal my presence in addition to her own since we were bonded.

She had tried to conceal Yvette as well, for my sake, but she said that she lacked the connection to make her ethereal as well. That was a really weird experience when she did it with me. Sure, nobody could sense, harm, or even touch me in any way, but I couldn’t exactly interact with anything either, only observe.

As for me, the professor had me teleporting around the room until I could figure out how to bring Moonlight with me. If I could at all. I tried touching her at first, hoping that would work, but no dice. Eventually, we discovered that if I mentally tagged something or someone with a little bit of my mana before teleporting, I could bring them with me if they were close enough.

If a person, or object was within an eighteen-foot diameter sphere around me and I had ‘tagged’ it, I could bring it with me. I could ‘port short distances without a clear idea of where I was going but if it was any further than fifty feet then I needed a clear picture of the place or person I was teleporting to in my mind. Live video footage seemed to work well for that, but for some reason, I couldn’t seem to connect with photos or pre-recorded footage to use those mediums.

I also seemed to have some sort of built-in sense of spatial awareness. When I teleported, I always seemed to end up in the nearest spot to my target with enough unoccupied space to accommodate me and whatever I was bringing with me. That was good since I was a little concerned about teleporting inside something solid.

We couldn’t find a maximum range for me to teleport yet either. I had teleported me and Moonlight to Norway and back by watching a video call to one of the professor’s colleagues at a Vanguard base there. Even though I could seem to teleport as long as I kept my mana reserves topped up, I would still need a few minutes between trips to gather mana, and doing it repeatedly was exhausting and only became more so the more that I brought with me. I was thoroughly tuckered out by the time we finally finished testing everything they wanted to.

As we left, Professor Frazier told me to expect someone from the Vanguard to visit me soon. He felt that when he talked to them about my test results, they would be very interested in recruiting me and, by extension, Moonlight. I could have requested that they remain private, but I was happy to let him send his test results to them since recruitment was exactly what I wanted.

Moonlight once again became all ghostly as Yvette escorted us back to the main hospital building. I wasn’t heading directly back to the Fairy Ward though. I wanted to see my sister first and I was already later than my past few after-dinner visits. Visiting hours would be over soon. Tired or not though, the last thing I wanted was for my sister to think I was bailing on her when she needed me, and I wanted to reintroduce her to Moonlight.