Moongleam soared over Snow Herd, doing leaps and dives and rolls. She loved the wind in her face and the feeling of being able to touch the sky. There was only one part of it that wasn't perfect, and that was that she could never land, and never graze. There was another complication: She was a black filly. The only splashes of color she had were her blue eyes and the purple edge to her black feathers. No pegasus had ever been black before, and nobody knew what it meant.

At birth, she had been cursed by the Ancestors to never be able to touch the ground, or her bones would all break, and she would die. Her mother, Flameflight, would bring her grass and water in her wings, but she never could totally connect with her mother or the other pegasi on the ground.

Now, Flameflight winged toward her, smiling, with a bundle of grasses in her wings. "Are you happy it's your first birthday?" she asked. Moongleam nodded absently. She didn't really care unless her curse disappeared then. Maybe then her life would be perfect.

"Thanks," she told her mother.

"No problem, dear," Flameflight replied and landed on the ground to rejoin the mares grazing. Moongleam winged off to the Trap, landing on the tree canopy. This was where she slept because it wasn't on the ground. She ate her grass and closed her eyes, ready to finish her lousy birthday already. Nothing is going to change today, she thought. But she was wrong.