//------------------------------//
// 2 - New Identity 
// Story: First Hoofsteps 
// by Mocha 
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	God, this was a hard decision. If he left this world forever, he would be leaving Lucy behind. That would tear him apart, let alone her. He tried to imagine the anguish she would go through.
“I, um... I don't know...”
“That Luke boy really is a mean, spiteful, selfish man, isn't he?”
“Yeah, he is. Wouldn't be too upset if I never saw him again.”
“But you wouldn't if you came here.”
That was true. He thought deeply about it, then nodded.
“OK. I accept your offer.”

Celestia leaned forward, her eyes closed, her horn glowing yellow, until it breached the barrier of the screen and touched his arm. It felt cold against his skin, and he shivered, but it soon warmed up. His veins started to glow with the same aura as the princess' horn and he tried to jump back, but there was something gluing him to his seat. He was fixated on the screen, on Princess Celestia's eyes, on that gorgeous, flowing hair...
His stomach jerked and he felt himself falling, falling towards the screen, falling towards Celestia. He didn't hit his head on the laptop, though; he still fell, he fell through it, he fell into some tunnel thing. A portal, whatever. He looked behind him and watched the light of his bedroom slowly fade away, gradually getting smaller and smaller until it was a mere speck in the distance. Around him was just a blur of yellow aura, like a yellow sky at dawn, with occasional threads of cream and sparkles of white. Another jerk of the stomach and this time he could see the other end of the portal-tunnel-whatsit, a mere speck in the distance. All this falling was forcing the blood out of his head and into his feet, he felt them throbbing, he felt so... light-headed...

THUD.

It took a while for him to finally open his eyes. He squinted against the stark light around him, and tried to raise his head, but he felt too weak. He felt something strange on his forehead, a circle of solidity, so he raised a hand to check it out. It protruded a good 15 centimetres or so, and tapered to a slightly rounded point. His hands felt different, like he couldn't curl his fingers. He looked at them and his eyes widened. They were hooves. He cried out in alarm, screamed rather, then broke down into tears. He was a pony – a unicorn to be exact. He didn't want to be a pony anymore, he didn't want to be here. This was all so strange, so scary to him. He looked up, his vision ever-so-slightly obscured by his new pale-yellow muzzle, and saw Princess Celestia, his new ruler, sitting royally on her throne.
“I don't want to be here anymore,” he wept, tears streaming down his fuzzy cheeks, “I want to go home.”
“I am sorry, Mr. Reynolds, but now that you're here you can never return.”
Jay cried even harder, blubbering on about this and that and how he'll miss them.
“Chin up, my dear boy,” Celestia consoled, walking over and laying a hoof on his shoulder, “you will feel better about this in time.”
Chin up.
Jay looked up at her, expecting to see Lucy, expecting this all to be some horrible dream, but it was still Celestia.
“Now,” she said softly, “seeing as you will have to live here for the rest of your life, you might as well name yourself appropriately. What do you want to be called?”
Jay sniffed as he stood up, wiping his tears with the back of his hoof. His legs felt wobbly, he was still exhausted from the falling.
“I, um...” he hesitated. What did he want to be called? “... Comet, please.”
“I see. Any second name?”
“... Trail.”
“Alright then. Comet Trail, What do you want your talent to be?”
Ooh, tricky. He thought of any jobs he might like, but none of them seemed to apply here. He looked around, trying to find some inspiration, but there was nothing except red carpet, pillars, and grey-coat guards wearing golden armour. He then thought back to his very first seconds here, how he felt his unicorn horn for the first time.
“Magic, please.”
Magic was good at all sorts of things, right? Mastering it would be super useful.
“Very well. Hold still, please.”
Celestia leaned forward and touched his horn with hers, which was glowing again. Jay – excuse me, Comet – felt a surge of energy flow through his body. It was a sort of electricity that re-energised him, made him feel stronger, but there was also something else to it as well. He thought back to the days gone by, where he would sit and do things, and a nondescript girl would appear and talk to him with a nondescript voice... it was all very hazy. In fact, he couldn't even remember half of what went on – actually, not even that, come to think of it.
His horn started to glow with the same colour as Celestia's, a new wave of energy buzzing through its length. It was rather exciting, being able to wield magic for the first time. Then all of a sudden, a bright flash of light turned his attention to his flank, which now sported a swanky new icon. It was a perfectly spherical, vibrant orange comet with a lighter orange and gold trail that enveloped it completely; white sparkles splayed outwards from the head. It looked very pretty.
“Thank you very much, Your Highness,” he said, bowing his head.
“Not at all. Come, we have much to discuss.”
Celestia walked towards a door on the right-hand wall and turned back to face him once she realised he hadn't followed. He was still standing there, frowning at his hooves, trying to walk.
“I'm not sure how to co-ordinate myself,” he said, lifting a hoof and setting it down a few inches in front, “you make walking look so easy.”
“Oh my goodness gracious,” Celestia laughed, “how could I forget? You must not be used to walking on four legs quite yet.”
She walked over and stood parallel to him.
“If front-left is 1, front-right is 2, back-left is 3 and back-right is 4, follow this sequence: 1, 4, 2, 3.”
“1... 4... 2... 3...” Comet repeated, moving the respective legs in time to the sequence. He was getting there, slowly. Celestia kept by his side as he laboriously made his way to the door. Celestia opened it, and they continued inside.
It was a veritable palace of books in here. Nobody else populated this library, so they had it all to themselves. They sat down at a low table and Celestia, with her magic, took a book down from a higher shelf and placed it on the table in front of her. Comet shuffled over so that he could read it as she opened it to the first page.
“I'm going to teach you everything there is to know about our world, so we'll start with the laws first,” Celestia announced.
The laws of Equestria are actually very similar to our laws. No murder, no theft, no adultery, yada yada yada. It was about halfway through the book before they got to the good stuff: magic.
“You are not permitted to curse another pony under any circumstances. You must also never use your magic to tamper with a pony, for instance their personality, their appearance – unless you have explicit permission from them to change their appearance of course – or their memories.”
“Cool. Got it.”

* * *

Now to practise magic. Comet and Celestia stood facing each other.
“I want you to imagine your magic. Imagine it flowing through your horn, then push it out and stretch it to become a basic shield.”
Comet closed his eyes and concentrated on his horn, feeling the ebb and flow of his magic up and down its length, feeling it wind through the grooves that spiralled from its base to its tip. He pushed against the magic, feeling it trickle out of his horn, escaping into the atmosphere. He stretched it, feeling the resistance, and the silky-smooth, slippery texture of it in his mind. He opened his eyes and saw a whole lot of yellow.
“Very good!” Celestia praised, “Your talent really is magic. You can unfold your body now.”
In his effort to perform magic, he had bent in half. He chuckled as he stood up straight.
“On to a simple spell,” Celestia remarked, “read what's on this parchment, and remember it as you push the magic out of your horn again.”
She handed (hoofed?) him a scroll with cursive writing on it. It was so cursive that it looked like the letters were from an entirely different alphabet. He could read it easily, though.
I cast away the darkness
As I shine the light of love.
A golden light shone like a bright torch from the tip of his horn, that got bigger the more he thought of the spell.
“Try giving that light to me,” Celestia suggested.
Comet flicked his head forward, sending the light drifting toward Celestia and hovering just in front of her nose.
“Excellent.”
They practised some more basic magic, like simple levitation, recalling of objects from Comet's personal pocket dimension (that would come in very handy), changing states of objects, from solid to liquid, from liquid to gas, and back.
“Now that we've got that out of the way,” Celestia said, “let's visit your new home. It's in Ponyville; perhaps visit the library sometime to see Twilight Sparkle, my other student.”
Celestia lead Comet outside and down the steps, turning left at the bottom and coming face-to-face with the Royal Chariot, a grand throne-like carriage made of gold pulled by muscular guard pegasi. Celestia climbed onto it and Comet squeezed in next to her; the seat wasn't quite wide enough to comfortably fit two ponies, so they had to make do with the unicorn practically in the princess' lap.
“Take us to Ponyville, please,” Celestia instructed. The guards nodded. They took a running start, the carriage wobbled (making Comet uneasy) and they were off. Next stop: Ponyville.