A Tail of Two Ponies

by Lilyheart

Chapter Fourteen: A Shrinking Lily

🥜

Don’t you ever tire of being the adoptive parent of this man-child stuck in a pony daydream?

The horse hindquarters were more sore now than they were before with the quills in them. I was hungry. Or, at least, the horse stomach was hungry, but as long as I hadn’t eaten, I ought to be hungry. I was tired. My eyes were dry, and my horsestincts told me to just lay down and curl up to sleep.

Lilyheart’s eyes, on the other hand, were sopping; little tears dripped to the crystalline floor below. To her credit, she remained silent, and looked like she wanted to hide.

Sunset’s eyes quickly softened to pity. “I-I didn’t mean…”

I lowered my head to meet Lily’s eyes. “Do you want to go?” I asked in the gentlest voice I could muster.

She shook her head and opened her mouth as though to speak, but nothing came out. She lifted a hoof, pointed it at me, and then at Glimmer. Finally, she pointed the hoof at herself and opened her mouth again, as though to make a motion like she was giving her voice to me.

“Do you want me to speak for you?”

She furiously nodded, droplets sprinkling about.

I looked up at the others and sighed. Lilyheart sank to the floor and curled her tail around herself.

“My… My sister is really sensitive. You didn’t really do anything wrong,” I said to Sunset. “I’ll take over the talking for now.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Starlight asked.

Lilyheart nodded, and quietly crawled over so she was facing directly away from everyone.

“I think that means she doesn’t want to talk to you,” said Trixie, to which Starlight merely rolled her eyes.

I took a few steps back so that I was facing Lilyheart again. “Can I touch you?”

Her milky eyes looked uncertain, but she nodded.

With a wince as pain shot through the hindquarters, I sat down and began patting her head with a hoof, not too different than she had done to me when we first became ponies. At least I could do this. If nothing else, at least I could do this. I looked back up to the others, still patting Lilyheart’s head. “Let’s get back to what we were talking about before… except I forgot what that was.” I need sleep!

Starlight and Trixie exchanged glances.

“Why don’t we go back to the part where you explain how you know so much about us if you’ve only been in Equestria for less than a day. And if there isn’t any magic in your world, how did you get here, anyway?” asked Starlight.

“Well…” I started. “That’s hard to explain. On Earth… you’re all characters, in a television show.”

“What’s a television?” asked Trixie.

“We have those on my world,” cut in Sunset. “Think of it like a mirror that can have any image you want on it. And noise, too. Even music. You can use them to watch the news or… watch fiction, like characters in a play…” Sunset looked at me oddly. “Are you saying we’re in a TV show?”

“Yes.” Lilyheart probably wouldn’t like that answer. But since you’re not going to talk, too bad.

“Trixie still doesn’t understand.”

“He’s saying that we’re basically in a book. Like we’re all just, characters. Fiction,” said Sunset, stomping her hoof into the ground. “Which is absurd.”

“Any more absurd than the fact that I have hooves, and we’re talking ponies?” I asked. “Or that there’s magic at all? I just watched Pinkie Pie break multiple laws of physics!” Taking a pause from petting Lilyheart, I pointed a hoof at Sunset. “And you’ve been to another universe… world, thing. You’ve been a different creature before. Like, how else do I know everything I know?”

“But, how?” asked Sunset. “There was no show about Equestria where I’m from. Is every TV series somehow real, with a universe of its own?”

“I have no idea!” I cried. “Yesterday morning, the world made sense. Ponies were ponies. H-h-h-h-horses were hor–and I was me! Now, I have hooves! Ponies aren’t supposed to talk, or be blue or pink! This was all just something I watched to have a little fun. Now… now I just want to go home.”

“And that’s why you came here, because you thought that maybe Twilight would still be here and would be able to send you back to your world?” Starlight asked.

“Or at least transform us back to the way we were before,” I said.

“Trixie still doesn’t get it.”

“Trixie can wait,” quipped Starlight before looking back at me. “It just so happens I’ve been experimenting with magic to try and open a portal to other worlds. But, I haven’t had much luck.”

“What about turning us back into… ugh. I can’t say the word. Sunset, can you?”

“...Humans?”

“Yes!” I shook a hoof. “Why can’t I say it?! Or h-h-h-h-hooves! Ugh!”

“I’m not sure that would be a good idea,” said Starlight. “If the magic that brought you here is anything like the one that used to connect Equestria and the world Sunset is from, then transformation is part of the process. Anything I do to affect your form here, could affect your form there.”

“You could try turning me back after! Please!” I begged. “This isn’t my body. I’m going insane!”

“What’s so special about being a…who-man, anyway?” asked Trixie. “We’ve been ponies the whole time, and we don’t have any problems with it.”

“You were born as ponies! I wasn’t! I…” I looked down at my hooves. “Please.”

“Well… I can try to undo any magic cast on you,” said Starlight.

I nodded.

Her horn glowed, and I felt myself surrounded again by her telekinetic touch. It was almost like being dipped in room temperature water, if water could somehow lose its wetness. It was this odd sensation somewhere between eerie and comforting; each little hair of the horse coat felt the touch, like a brush hovering just over the skin. I could feel it, but I couldn’t.

And then it ended.

I looked frantically down at myself. Still hooves.

“That’s… weird,” said Starlight. “I sensed a lot of harmony magic on you. Like, a lot. But nothing that changed your form. You should have an expert look at you, but, as far as I can tell, you’ve always been a pony.”

As if to cement the fact, a whinny escaped from the horse mouth as I tried to process what she said.

“I’m sorry,” said Starlight.

“That’s okay. Lilyheart and I will just go to Canterlot. That’s where Twilight is, right? I’m certain she’ll have a way.”

“Both Twilight and Starlight have been trying to find a way to send me back home for the past month,” Sunset cut in while waving a hoof.

“And that’s a world that we know was saturated with Equestrian magic,” continued Starlight. “That world was intricately tied to our own. If what you say about your world is true, the only tie it has to this world is from this… TV series. I’d have no idea where to even begin. And while I’m not going to stop you from going to Twilight, neither would she. I’m sorry.”

“Discord, then! He can send us back! He can do anything! Where is he?” I shouted.

“He kind of just comes and goes as he pleases…” said Starlight. “He’s not a tame draconequus.”

“We’ll go to Fluttershy. She’ll know how to find him. Or at least get his attention,” I turned around, the bothersome horse tail wagging back and forth. Until it caught on something. I looked down to see Lilyheart holding it. Her face was dry, but her eyes were a little red. And she was shaking her head.

“Wh–why?” I asked.

Her face wrinkled into a frown and she opened her mouth, but no words came out. Lilyheart then closed her eyes and then began mouthing silent words.

“I can’t understand you,” I said. “Lily, let’s go. Starlight can’t help us.” Andrew, I would like nothing more than to fix you and take care of your every single problem, but this is too much right now!

But she only clutched upon my tail tighter, still shaking her head and mouthing what I suspect was a “No!”

“Don’t you want to go see Fluttershy?”

Her eyes shone for a moment, but she tapped the floor with her hoof and mouthed what looked like “Here!”

I sighed. “Can I at least go for a walk? I’ll come back.”

After a moment, she removed her grip. How did you even hold the tail to begin with?

“Thank you,” I said as I briskly trotted out, the hooves clattering on the floor. I pushed the doors open with my head and raced down the steps.

I felt at least a little better the moment sunlight hit the horse coat. The bustle of the ponies from the town filled my ears, and the occasional birdsong. I raced around the far side of the castle, so that no one, or no pony, would bother me. Canterlot immediately came to my sight, far off into the distance.

Stupid! Stupid! What am I doing! What am I supposed to do!? At least I wasn’t the one who hurt Andrew this time. That’s for you to figure out, Sunset.

The hooves kicked the grass as I walked. But that wasn’t by accident. I made the hooves kick the grass. Like a child dragging their feet. Were these really my hooves? I was the one controlling them, did that make them mine? My family used to own horses. If it was our horse, did that make its hooves, our hooves? Nobody would ever say that. But nobody had ever been turned into a pony before.

Before today, I was me. The line between my soul and body didn’t matter; my body was a part of my soul. My humanness was an intrinsic part of who I was. If this body is a pony… does that mean my soul itself was transformed, too? Did some part of me die when I came here? Am I even Matt Koning anymore? Was I ever? The stupid line from Romeo and Juliet popped into my head, “Would a rose by a different name smell as sweet?” Or something like that. I hated Romeo and Juliet. That’s not love; that’s just two teenagers with hormones and a priest who ought to have known better.

But until yesterday, I never had asked these questions. Not really. I was Matt Koning, and that was a part of me that I thought no one could ever take. Just like my humanity. Just like my home. Just like Diana. Just like my dad. Just like my uncle. Tears immediately began dripping down my face. Or the muzzle. Whatever!

Have you considered that what you’re feeling is what I felt everyday?

That couldn’t be true, could it? You were still human. Even if you had a feminine soul or whatever, it couldn’t have been that hard. How can you be so content and happy at the expense of your humanity? But if this is what you suffered… then it was more than I ever imagined.

Eventually, I came to pass a small copse of trees. Suddenly, all of my confusion, all of the pain of years of loss came out in a single moment.

SMACK! I could feel the surface of the bark. If I had hit that hard with my hands or feet, I certainly would have bruised them. But horse hooves were sturdy and strong. Which meant I could use more strength without getting hurt.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

Balancing myself on the hindlegs, I struck the trunk repeatedly like a boxer. Just like Punch-Out! Even if he was the worst Smash character.

Right jab. Right jab. Left jab. Right hook. Left jab.

This feels human.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! BONK!

“Ow!” Pain shot from my head. An acorn dropped to the ground, and I looked up to see a squirrel shaking its paws like an angry New York cabbie who didn’t get tipped.

“Oh. Heh. Sorry. I guess it’s hard to collect nuts when somep-p-p-pony is hitting the living daylights out of your home like that. Can I use one of the other trees? Why am I talking to a squirrel?”

“The better question is why you’re talking to yourself,” said a voice from behind me.

“Trixie?”

“Your sister asked me to follow you. Well, not so much asked as much as grabbed my hooves and wouldn’t stop shaking me and pointing until I agreed to follow you,” she explained while taking a seat. “Why me, I have no idea.”

“I’m… surprised she thought of me.” And I have no idea why she would choose Trixie, either.

“Don’t siblings normally think of each other like that?” she asked. “Or do they not do that in this… Teeveeseers world of yours?”

“One of my brothers did. The other moved as far away from me and the rest of the family as soon as he could. But Lilyheart isn’t…” I slowly trailed off. I didn’t want to bother explaining that. “Sometimes she’s the most selfless person I know. And sometimes, she’s the most selfish.” Oh. That was worse. That was way worse! “I shouldn’t have said that. Never mind. She’s my friend. And you’re right that siblings and friends ought to look out for each other. Just please forget I said anything. She would be very hurt if she heard what I said!”

Trixie only looked at me quizzically. “Um… Okay. That sounds… complicated.”

“It’s my responsibility. I… I don’t want to talk about it.” That’s right. My responsibility. That’s what I decided before. No, Discord, I’m not tired of taking care of my friend. Not yet. I am Samwise.

“When do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

I looked at her with a smile. “When will you wear wigs?”

“Huh?”

“Thank you, Trixie. You helped me remember something important.”

“Huh? I mean, of course the Grrreat and Pow–”

I shot my hoof into her mouth, something which didn’t seem to please her very much. “I get the point, Trix. Let’s go back.”

Trixie forced my hoof out of her mouth. “You dare place your hoof inside the Great and Powerful mouth of Trixie?”

“Believe me, I already regret it,” I said while wiping it on the grass. Warm and slimy. Ew.

“Blahhhh!” Trixie frantically ran her own hooves rapidly over her tongue.

As we walked towards the castle, I stumbled a little in weariness. Trixie looked at me oddly. There was a gentle breeze, but the sun was warm. If it weren’t for how cartoony it all was, I’d find it all beautiful.

“I’m fine,” I told Trixie with a flick of the horsetail.

“You look like you’re about to fall over, but you’re fine?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Ohhh-kay. Right,” she answered in a voice that clearly said she didn’t believe me. “You remind me of her.”

“Who?”

“Oh, no one,” said Trixie. “Just a friend who likes putting every responsibility imaginable on her shoulders and even if she asks for help, it’s only after she’s tried every possible way to do it herself first; as though she thinks that somehow we’d all think less of her if she would ask a simple favor every once in a while instead of filling her plate with so much tasks she never has time to hang out and no matter how many times she learns this lesson she still keeps doing it.”

I grumbled. “And you remind me of… my sister.”

She rose an eyebrow. “Just because we’re both blue unicorns hardly makes us similar. Trixie would never be put to silence by a mere glare!”

“Unfortunately.” I shouldn’t have said that.

“What’s unfortunate?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I answered.

Trixie frowned, clearly unable to figure out what I had meant. “Why did you think your sister and I are so similar?”

“I’d rather not say. It would be… mean.”

“Mean? How could… oh, I see! You’re right! Any comparison to the Grreat and Powerful Trrixe would be unfair to those less powerful.”

And that’s exactly the sort of thing Andrew would say, even though both of you are irresponsible, have egos so fragile you can set them off with a pinprick, can be obsessive about something to the point of lunacy, and are both infuriatingly needy. Still, at least An–Lilyheart can be–

“Although, everypony is great and powerful in their own way,” said Trixie, adjusting her cloak with her telekinesis. “It’s just sometimes hard to see at first. Unlike with me, of course.”

Who are you and what have you done to Trixie?

“Just something I’ve learned in my many adventures and travels throughout Equestria,” she finished.

“Like with the Ursa Major?” I asked.

“Ursa Major!? Where!?” Trixie shrieked, and suddenly a puff of smoke enveloped us both.

My throat immediately went dry and I began coughing. Once the smoke cleared I looked back and forth to find Trixie gone. But an odd rattling came from the tree above. Looking up, I found her, terrified and hugging a branch.

“Uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” I said. “There’s no Ursa Major. Or minor.”

“Scared? Trixie is never scared! Of course there’s no Ursa Major! I was just checking how well my smoke bombs worked. Heh, see! You had no idea where the Vanishing and Reappearing Trixie was!”

“Right…”

Author's Note:

In boxing, at least, there's no such thing as a left jab or right jab; a jab is only from the left fist, and while the basic equivalent from the right is called a cross. But Robin wouldn't know that, so, right jab and left jab it is.

Has anypony else ever found themselves unable to speak after getting a glare or being shouted at? If you have, please let me know. Because I've never heard of it, but it's happened twice to me before.

Special thanks to amazing proofreaders Raiss and Ashel!

Comments

[Raiss Icewind]

While I'd offer a comment on this chapter, I'm sure you are familiar with what I wrote. As for others to read my thoughts on the chapter, sorry, I don't remember what I said and what I do remember might be spoilers.

That said I can say, yay chapter! It's been a while.
And I can say for the authors note I haven't been subject to a glare that's intended to silence. I've been glared at before, but it's usually accompanied by words.
Silenced by words tho happens frequently, but it's not me being unable to speak, more like I have nothing to say if I'm being shouted at because clearly they don't want to listen.

[Lilyheart]

11900702
That's pretty much exactly what you said before.
Also, the fact that you and Ashel both you experienced something similar certainly makes me feel better. Good to know I'm not crazier than I already am.