The first thing I thought when I stepped into my new reality was that I'd messed something up. I mean, it looked like ponyville; the whole place was technicolor, and I knew for a fact that I was standing in front of town hall, but... they were all human. I could see Lyra sitting on a nearby bench with Bonbon, talking about something or other, and Rarity was talking excitedly to a demure Fluttershy as she sipped her tea at a cafe. Applejack was calling out something about apples in front of her stall, and Big Macintosh was leading a horse-drawn cart with apples in the back to refill her stock. Even Twilight and Spike were nearby, as she pointed a wand at a small bluebird sitting on a short table while he ate from a basket of fries. Their hair colors were right, and they had patches on their pants showing their cutie marks, but... they were all human.
And they were all white, too.
...Did not expect myself to be racist. I'd apologize, but... I never knew. Never treated anyone differently as far as I knew because of their skin color... did I?
Whatever. Rule number one, take a hike until I fix this.
I drew my calm in, closed my eyes and slowly waved my hand from left to right in front of my face. When I opened my eyes again, the scene looked almost the same, except with ponies: Rarity was now holding a tea cup of her own in her blue aura of magic as she spoke to Fluttershy, Applejack was rearing up and calling out proudly as Big Mac himself pull the cart to a stop next to her, and Twilight finished casting her spell and turned the bird orange as Spike choked on a hay-fry. Lyra and Bonbon were a bit different, though, as Lyra sat in the fashion she'd sat in the show and Bonbon was now shaking her head at something.
The key difference, though, was that I was now seeing things from a slightly lower angle. I looked down, and realized that I was suddenly standing on three legs, my right arm/leg still out in front of me. I'd become an orange pony, and a quick look at my back revealed wings. I didn't even have to look up at my forehead to know I'd made myself an Alicorn. But of course I would. I mean, they're kind of like gods themselves, right?
But I didn't like it. I'd changed everyone into ponies, and I'd forgotten to remove myself from that equation. I shook my head, but stopped and chanced a look at my flank. Why not, am I right?
Blank as the day I was born. Figures.
Whelp, being an Alicorn wouldn't help me fit in, but-
Wait, why not be an Alicorn?
...Because that'd ruin the whole point of why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm not here to be a god, I'm here to possibly learn something about living normally. I can't do that as a super-powered being, or at least as an obviously super-powered being. I need to be normal.
So with that thought, I waved my hoof a second time and stood up at the same time. Just like that, I was a human again, wearing some casual clothes. No, they don't matter, and no, I'm not describing myself. I'd prefer if you didn't know what I look like, alright? I mean, if you care, make me a standard white teenager with average complexion and fair hair, wearing whatever the heck t-shirt and pants you can think of. We good? Good.
Unfortunately, the ponies and I were not good at that particular time. You see, a few moments ago I'd been an orange Alicorn. That alone had gotten me a few stares I hadn't noticed, but nobody had cried fowl because I was at least still an equine. Suddenly turning into a human? Yeah, that didn't end too well.
Suffice it to say, everybody's attention drifted to me as the square got quiet. Nobody spoke, and even the orange bluebird gave me it's full attention.
"Fine, great, I'm totally obvious and everybody is staring at me again." I fumed, glaring around at them. "How about everybody goes back to what they were doing and pretends I'm normal? How about that?"
So everybody got back to what they were doing and pretended I was normal. Just like that. Almost like...
Like I'd forced them to. Damn it.
"...No, no, I'm weird and I know it. I'm sorry. I'm trying to stop. You can stare at me if you think you should. Act naturally to this situation, ok?" I said with a slight force of will. Then I mentally focused and reigned in my power, like I should have done the moment I'd finished changing myself back into a human.
Maybe I should discuss my power, answer a few questions before I forget. First and foremost, I'm not invincible, and I'm not all-powerful unless I act first, especially when dealing with other reality benders. My influence radiates out from me like an aura, and not even other benders can alter things within that aura. I can make it skin-deep, or I can cover a whole city in it, depending on what I'm going for. There isn't really a limit to it unless I put one, and I learned the hard way that it's well within my capabilities to completely screw up the laws of reality if I don't. The problem is that I have to concentrate to not change something when it's in my aura, so unless I'm going balls to the wall crazy with my power, I can...
Let's just say I accidentally nuked a city once. Took me the scariest hour of my life to figure out how to manipulate time to bring it back the way it was, and then another to figure out how to make people forget what had happened without blowing up everything else. I'd screwed up smaller things before, like houses or street layouts when I'd forgotten what something was supposed to look like, but... that little mistake had led me to trying out Equestria as a testing grounds to try to stop breaking things. Speaking of, a whole bunch of ponies were staring at me again.
"Uh, hi." I said with a little wave. "My name is..."
Time Stop.
What did I want them to call me, anyway? Steve? Larry? Alex? Maybe something with a little more local flavor? I rubbed my chin and thought about it for a moment or two.
Time Start.
"Bob."
Time Stop.
WHY THE F*** DID I GO WITH BOB?
Time Start.
"But my friends call me Tim the Enchanter. I guess I have a few other names, too, but Tim is fine. Anyway, how's life?"
Out of everyone in the entire square, the first pony to speak up was one I didn't know from the show or anywhere else. She was an Earth Pony with a grey coat with an amber mane, and her cutie mark was a wrench. She asked the obvious question:
"Weren't you an Alicorn just a moment ago?"
Out of all the questions, and all the ponies who could have asked, it had to be the obvious question from somebody who probably didn't matter. Swell. I was already making great waves in my own little universe, meeting key people and-
"Yeah. Yeah I was. Now I'm a human. How's your day been, anyhow?" I asked, gesturing at her.
"Uh, not bad." She answered. "I just got done adding a new room to my house, and now I'm just coming in to eat lunch."
"Nice." I said with my "Not Bad" face. "Mind if I join you? I'm buying."
"Uh, sure." She said, and the entire square watched as I walked over towards the cafe and motioned for her to follow me. I even held the door open for her as we went inside.
I figured, why not make her the most important pony in the entire universe because she spoke up first? Could I pull that off without my powers? Either way, it wasn't like I had any idea what I was supposed to be doing, except being normal. Maybe if I stuck around with normal ponies, then I wouldn't get caught up in whatever weird things my new universe would throw at me. Maybe I'd learn what everyone else felt like when they couldn't just fix whatever was happening in an instant. Not that I did that all the time, mind you; being perfect is perfectly boring. But still, changing the odds to always favor me meant that others had to lose. Plus people who figured out what I could do always got angry at some point and-
Never mind. The real reason was that I was bored and had decided to start my journey by screwing around rather than get to hanging out with the Elements of Harmony like I was probably supposed to, learning about friendship and being normal despite having awesome power.
Now, let's tempt both fate and the universe both: What's the worse that could happen?
...No, seriously. I'm practically a physical god. What really COULD happen?
...Rule number one could happen. FML.
