Between my work and play both in Canterlot and in Ponyville, life was pretty fine although I still hoped for some good news regarding the portal. Twilight had used a complex spell that reintegrated the four broken mirrors, restoring them to their previous physical states. Unfortunately, they were all now just mirrors. The enchantment that turned them into portals to another world could not be similarly repaired, nor any useful trace of it be found. Magic-wise, we were back to square one. Twilight was researching as much as possible into the creation of portals, but it was such an obscure and arcane art that she was making little headway. The craft of making mirror portals had not been taught for centuries. The reference materials Twilight could find were lacking, even in the restricted sections of the Canterlot Archives and in the now fully catalogued but only partially explored library in the Castle of the Two Sisters. The purple alicorn explained that mages of great power would enchant their personal tomes to combust when opened by any pony else after their death. Only trusted disciples would be taught a portion of the secrets within. After a time, the only ponies remaining with the lost knowledge were the Royal Sisters. So unless Star Swirl the Bearded returned from his mysterious exile, Twilight was stuck trying to reinvent a lost art. I stopped asking for updates when it became apparent that the alicorn was struggling to give me any positive news. If she had a breakthrough, I was sure that I’d be the first to be told.
I was determined to not let that get me down though, so I made every effort to enjoy myself. The work was fulfilling, and my personal life enjoyable. I had it a lot better than several human acquaintances that I had known back on Earth, and I wasn’t going to be hypocritical and whine about my circumstances here in Equestria. Yes, this world was pretty nearly idyllic. However, it’s a pity that I didn’t follow up on Twilight’s cram session by reading more of its history.
The first we knew about the world-shattering disaster that was encroaching upon my happy life was a telegram from Baltimare. We had lost contact from a couple of small towns recently; ponies who had been dispatched to investigate had failed to report yet. The reason only became clear when the message arrived from the telegraph office. It read:
‘EMERGENCY STOP CENTAUR STEALING MAGIC FROM ALL PONIES STOP SEND HE—’
The telegram was abruptly cut off. Hopefully, the operator had not been killed while trying to warn us, but Twilight did not reassure me with the alternative.
“We are creatures of magic, Mark. Without it, we weaken and eventually die. Right now, there could be hundreds or even thousands of helpless ponies just lying around too weak to help themselves. If they don’t die of magic-deprivation, they could die of thirst or exposure.”
“What kind of monster would do that to innocent ponies?”
“The worst kind,” Twilight replied with a grim set to her face. “I seem to recall an old tale about a magic-stealing monster long ago. I’m going to check the records.”
While the alicorn was gone, Trixie called an emergency meeting of the nobles and the high-ranking military commanders. She also sent a telegram to the Crystal Empire to warn Cadance and Shining Armor about the threat. I made a note to myself that if we got through this peril, I was going to get some smart ponies together and invent the telephone. Equestria could not be forced to rely on the few who were skilled with telegraphic messaging to bring timely messages to the authorities in the future.
By the time Twilight returned, General Forthright had given orders to dispatch troops to Baltimare. When I queried what they could do against an enemy who could steal their magic, he stiffly asked me if I intended to just lie down and wait to be conquered. That shut me up quickly. I knew next to nothing about military tactics, and if nothing else, they could buy time for the rest of us to come up with a better plan. Certainly, some scouts could get back to Canterlot with some detailed intel that would help with that.
“I know who we’re up against, and it’s bad,” Twilight announced when she returned. “Centuries ago, a centaur named Tirek and his brother Scorpan came to Equestria to take its magic for themselves. If his brother had not grown to appreciate Equestria’s ways and warned Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Equestria could have been lost. However, between the three, they overcame Tirek and banished him to Tartarus. Now it seems that he has found a way to escape, and this time we didn’t get any forewarning.” Twilight finished in a somber tone. “Tirek doesn’t just take a pony’s magic – he ingests it to grow in power. If he’s reached the point where he’s draining the population of an entire city, he may already be too strong for any of us to cope with.”
“Stronger than even an alicorn?” I asked incredulously.
“I fear so. At this point, I believe that if Cadance and myself together with the Guild of Mages were to combine our magic, we might have the power to overcome him. It depends on how quickly Cadance can come here and how much magic Tirek steals before then.”
“Hopefully General Forthright’s troops can get Tirek to waste some power… if they don’t end up feeding him even more,” Trixie said sourly.
A thought occurred to me – a truly desperate thought. “Umm… I really, really hate to suggest this, but might not there be someone who can match Tirek in sheer power? And by that, I mean Discord?”
Twilight looked shocked. “You can’t be serious?!”
“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of sending just him, but he’s terribly fond of Fluttershy. If she accompanied him to try to persuade Tirek to give up his plans, maybe his protectiveness of her will keep him focused. And if things go bad, his chaos magic could trump Tirek’s.” And, of course, make him look good in Fluttershy’s eyes as a bonus.
Twilight stomped a hoof, making the entire castle tremble. “No! I won’t risk Fluttershy on such an outlandish plan. Discord has done little since his release into her care to convince me that he would really be interested in helping us. He is simply too unreliable. The risk is too high.”
I arched an eyebrow at the alicorn. “Higher than letting this Tirek monster come here and steal everyone’s magic? At least his actions are unambiguous.”
“Are Discord’s any less? After all, he did stand by and do nothing when the plunderseeds invaded, despite knowing their origin.”
“I know, but he helped when pushed to do so. Also, he didn’t take an active role in opposing us as he might well have done so. Like I said before – he’s mischievous, not evil. A thousand years ago, he didn’t have someone to give him bounds or a reason to care. Now he does.”
I got a lot of stares from everyone in the room, some dubious, many disgusted, none enthused including myself. I shrugged. “I admit that I’m grasping at straws here, but has anypony got a better plan yet?”
“Yes, actually,” Twilight said. “I’m going to go to the Everfree Forest with my friends and try to retrieve the Elements from the Tree of Harmony.”
“And what if the tree won’t relinquish them?” I pointed out.
Twilight grimaced. “Let’s just keep Discord as a last resort, okay?”
As much as they disliked the idea of asking the Lord of Chaos, the alternative was worse, so it remained under consideration. Frankly, I was rooting for Twilight to succeed too.
Word came back by dragonfire that Twilight and her friends had failed to retrieve the elements. I wish I could say I was surprised, but that particular McGuffin had been played out already. Desperation led them to try my idea, and to the surprise of everyone (and me too, a little), the butter yellow pegasus had persuaded Discord to help. Trixie and I could only wait and hope for good news.
Everything had gone wrong. We didn’t know what was said, but the centaur had been undeterred. Discord had promised to keep Fluttershy safe and take down Tirek by himself if negotiations failed, but instead, they had both been drained and imprisoned. The follow-up by the ground and aerial troops was a farce. The crystal recording brought in by a pegasus scout described how the ponies fell helpless without most even getting close to the monster. Ranged weapons might have been of far more use, but Tirek rarely stayed still in one spot for long, giving the military no chance to bring in their artillery, such as it was for this era.
Then the situation just got worse. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity insisted on trying to rescue their friend, and Twilight wholeheartedly agreed with them. At least she managed to get them to wait until Cadance and Shining Armor arrived via the Crystal Express. Telegrams had been sent ahead so that the track between Equestria and the Crystal Empire could be cleared for the high-speed locomotive, and the royal train pushed safety limits to get to its destination in half the usual time. The two alicorns, Shining, plus all the most powerful unicorn mages had left to confront Tirek. Equestria might have been better off if they had never done so. Although they put up a strong fight, Tirek quickly whittled down their numbers until even Twilight was overwhelmed. The scout who reported the disaster to Trixie barely escaped the rout.
I wished that had been the last of the bad news. The scout had also learned that Tirek was headed for Canterlot to steal Celestia and Luna’s magic now that his power was great enough to overcome theirs. He apparently hadn’t heard that they were missing, or chose not to believe, preferring to think that they had gone into hiding to avoid him. It didn’t matter – he was coming here and all that stood between him and total domination of Equestria was a faux alicorn with some fancy stage magic. Imagine my shock when said pony declared that it was her royal duty to defend her little ponies. I would have been proud of her too, but this was no time for heroics.
“Trixie, we have to retreat. We’ve got to fall back and try to make plans to defeat Tirek. He’s looking for the Royal Sisters right now, not you. You staying to meet him is pointless and will likely get you killed.”
“No!” she retorted grimly. “This is the Great and Responsible Trixie’s place. She will not shirk her duty!”
I grabbed her and started dragging her toward the balcony. “It’s called a tactical retreat, you stubborn mule!”
“Unhoof me, Shark Stairwells!”
Her horn lit up, but I was ready for that. I gave the horn a sharp rap near the base as I had been taught in unarmed combat lessons. Trixie yelped in pain and stopped resisting for the moment, and I brought her out onto the open deck. “Climb aboard,” I ordered her.
“What? No! I’d rather face Tirek than ride you again!”
“Well, I have no intention of that happening. Your safety is my primary concern, not to mention mine. Suck it up, Princess, or I’ll do this the hard way.”
Trixie glared at me furiously but I didn’t give an inch. Eventually, she growled and said, “Fine! But Trixie will have words with her impertinent vizier later.”
She climbed onto my back, making no effort to spare me any pain from her hooves. I ignored that and waited until she said she was ready. I checked the power band around my fetlock – about 80%. I had been letting it build up in anticipation of possibly needing the extra power. I was going to make good use of it now. I took off like a cannon shot.
Weeks and weeks of practice had improved my flying skills, but they were still woeful in comparison to most pegasi. I had just the one advantage – with all that extra magic behind my efforts, I was fast and my new power band regulated my output. As long as I didn’t have to deviate from a straight line, I could just about match speed with any pegasus short of Rainbow Dash. Of course, when your destination approaches at that same crazy speed, it’s just a trifle terrifying. Trixie’s screams were extra loud this time. I don’t know why – she got to teleport to a safe stop. I settled for being slowed down by the foliage of a copse of trees before tumbling to the earth. Remarkably, it turned out to be one of my less painful landings, and I hastily righted myself and cantered off to rendezvous with Trixie. We had to find the mayor of Ponyville and start planning our next move.
Sometimes I thought that the citizens of Ponyville had gotten way too blasé about all the dangers that their village had dealt with. While there had been a number of panicked ponies who locked themselves away in their houses, a huge number of them were here in the town hall hotly debating with Trixie about how to deal with Tirek without their heroes. I sat in the back listening to them suggest lame ideas and ineffectual defenses, but as I couldn’t come up with anything better, I chose to keep my mouth shut and try to think.
“Do ya know what happened to mah sister, Mark?” came a familiar young voice.
“And mine too?!”
“And Rainbow Dash?!”
I looked around to see Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all looking at me expectantly. I couldn’t bear to tell them the whole truth. “They all went to confront Tirek but they failed to stop him.”
“What are you going to do now?” Sweetie asked.
“What am I going to do? It’s not up to me. I just give advice and try to protect Princess Trixie. I just don’t know what anypony can do against a monster like Tirek.”
“Maybe Zecora might know a way?” Apple Bloom suggested.
I gave her a sad smile. “I’m not sure what one zebra can do to a magic-eating centaur.”
“Zecora doesn’t use magic spells though. She makes potions,” Scootaloo pointed out.
“They’re still magic though,” I replied.
Sweetie Belle spoke up, “Twilight says Zecora’s magic is totally different from pony magic.”
“Besides,” Apple Bloom said, “some of her potions are just natural ingredients prepared in a special way.”
My eyes widened as I was struck by a revelation. Tirek consumed raw magic, but Zecora’s potions were of a totally different nature. We could have been going about this the wrong way the whole time! “Girls – I think you might have just turned this battle around. I’m going to visit our resident shaman right now.”
The three fillies cheered and clopped their hooves together. “Yay! Cutie Mark Crusader Monster Fighters!”
# # #
I don’t know how Tirek found out that Trixie had gone to Ponyville as I had not informed anyone of my intentions to come here, but perhaps someone had seen us depart. Whatever the case, a scout had spotted the giant centaur headed our way. I say, giant, because apparently draining the magic of all those powerful mages, two alicorns, plus one draconequus had caused Tirek to grow considerably. I prayed it wouldn’t affect my plans.
I had spent the evening brainstorming with Zecora, and she had stayed up all night preparing a very special potion. Of course, it was untested, but we had no choice but to hope that it worked as desired. The trick was going to be administering it, and considering how ineffective the Equestrian military had been, that was by far the weakest factor in my plan. The most terrifying one was that I happened to be the optimum pony to deliver it, and that was because of my little secret. Fortunately, Tirek was just as ignorant of it as the citizens of Ponyville, and I intended to make the most of it. I just hoped that I wasn’t killed trying.
Trixie and Mayor Mare stood beside me. It hadn’t been easy persuading the mayor and the towns’ ponies to go along with my idea, but when Trixie threw the weight of her authority behind me, that had cleared the way for my plan.
Above me on the rooftops, about twenty pegasi waited to take off and attack Tirek, ostensibly to defend Ponyville, but in reality, so I could study how Tirek reacted. They were under no illusion that they had any hope of stopping the centaur, and in fact, it was possible that they would be drained of their magic before even reaching him, but they had volunteered anyway. They were already heroes in my book. If all went well, they would not have to cope with their loss for long. I just hoped that they didn’t try anything foolish that would get them hurt before being rendered helpless.
“Tirek has reached the checkpoint,” announced Cloud Kicker from her vantage point on a nearby rooftop.
I checked the power band one last time. It was ominously dark with only a thin red line across the center indicating that I was near the limit of my capacity. I was going to need every drop of that excess magic today. “Okay, everypony, Operation Stop That Centaur has begun,” I spoke loudly for everyone to hear. “I’m going to reveal my ace in the hole now. Only the Element Bearers and a select few others know of my secret, but I’m entrusting it to you now.” I took the bottle of poison joke potion that I had tucked under my wing and took a swig of its contents. I felt the effects take hold and my pegasus senses expand. There were gasps of surprise and mutters from perplexed ponies.
“Your Highness!” exclaimed the mayor. “How… why…?”
The mare had prostrated herself before me. I sighed but wasn’t surprised. “Mayor Mare, please get up and look at my cutie mark. It hasn’t changed. I’m still Mark Wells and although I look and sound like Celestia, I assure you that I’m not even a real alicorn. I’m not a princess, but I can fool Tirek into thinking I’m the one that he’s looking for. Trixie – please put those patches over my cutie marks now.”
Despite my words, the mayor and the other onlookers still looked doubtful even as Trixie applied the patches bearing Celestia’s cutie mark that I had fetched from Rarity’s boutique. Respect for the royal alicorns was very deeply ingrained. It didn’t matter as long as they did their part.
“Cloud Kicker! Begin your team’s attack now!”
The pegasus shook herself and refocused on the job. “Let’s go!” she shouted, and a flock of the winged ponies rose to join her in a charge towards the lumbering monster.
Those pegasi were not a military unit, but as members of the local weather service, they were used to working as a team. The makeshift weapons they carried were for appearance only and they had no real expectations of damaging the centaur with them. From the reports of previous encounters with Tirek, I knew approximately how close they would get before he started ingesting their magic, but before they reached that distance, they split into four sub-groups and powered off in different directions. Thus when they got within range, Tirek could at most face two of the groups. It did little good. Tirek merely laughed as he saw them attack.
“More foolish ponies come to feed me!”
He opened his mouth and started to inhale. The pegasi in his sights immediately started faltering. I’d advised them to make sure they weren’t too high above the ground when they attacked so that the fall would not be far when they lost their flight magic. Thankfully, they had taken my advice to heart, although I still winced as I saw them hit the turf. It took only a few seconds for them to be drained, but in that time, the two remaining groups had closed in. One hit high with pitchforks and crowbars while the other hit low with axes and mattocks. I thought that maybe they had actually accomplished something and my hopes soared for a brief moment, but Tirek merely grunted, his gigantic form nearly impervious to their attacks. He quickly drained the magic from one retreating group before turning to do the same to the last group before they could get out of range. Our first offense was over almost as soon as it had begun. I had learned what I needed to know though, and unfortunately, it was bad. I had hoped it would have taken longer. Right now, I dearly wished that Twilight was here so that she could teleport me into range, but she and all the unicorns capable of that had already succumbed to the centaur, and Trixie could barely teleport just herself maybe a hundred yards. Of course, if the alicorn had been here, I’d get her to deliver the secret weapon and I’d stay safely back with everypony else. But no, I had to do this the hard way.
Tirek stopped just outside of town and looked around. “Come out Princess Celestia, Princess Luna! I know that you’re cowering here among these puny ponies. Come out, give me your magic and I’ll spare your subjects.”
Yeah, like anyone really believed anything Tirek promised. That was my cue though. I spread my wings and lifted off from behind the concealment of a hedge. I did not charge at him as the pegasi had done. I approached as if I was acceding to his demands. Tirek noticed me and he smiled nastily.
“Wise move, Celestia. Your sister had better follow. I will not settle for one alicorn’s magic.”
I kept my steady approach but answered Tirek to try to buy time. “Luna is nearby and will come soon enough. Just do not harm My Little Ponies!”
Tirek’s horns flared and suddenly three bubble cages appeared. I recognized Fluttershy and Discord in one; Twilight, Cadance, and Shining Armor in another; while the remaining Element Bearers were in the third. They all looked ghastly from the effects of being drained of their magic.
“Your fellow alicorns and friends are still alive. Give me your magic and they will stay that way.”
I nodded as if agreeing and kept approaching him. Tirek opened his mouth and I knew what was coming next. “NOW!” I screamed, surprised at the sheer volume that I managed.
A dark cloud in the sky above Tirek suddenly shot a massive thunderbolt straight down at the centaur. He howled in pain and anger before his horns lit up. A ball of flame appeared between them and he fired a huge blast at the cloud, dissipating most of it. Fortunately, the pegasi that had carefully and surreptitiously maneuvered it into place before triggering it on my signal had already taken off at top speed to get out of range.
Meanwhile, I had poured on all the acceleration that my Celestial body could produce. I had to take maximum advantage of the ambush because Tirek wouldn’t be distracted for long. Sure enough, I hadn’t even closed half the distance between us before he started turning to face me again. He began to power up once more, but just before he released his magic firepower, I dodged to the left. The beam of energy missed me by only a couple of yards and blew up something behind me, but I had no time to look at what it was. My new flight path turned him away from Ponyville, hopefully sparing it and the helpless citizens from being blasted.
From that point, it was a matter of me frantically ducking and weaving, barely avoiding being fried several times but getting ever closer. I silently thanked Rainbow Dash for all the practice that I had gotten with her that gave me the familiarity with this body to enable it to perform at its best and keep me alive. Just a bit nearer and I could use my weapon. Then I got careless. I failed to consider a physical attack, and his gigantic palm slapped me out of the air. I tasted blood before I hit the ground and rolled. If I hadn’t been a pegasus, I’d probably be a broken mess, but I was stunned long enough for Tirek to grab me in his massive fist. He drew me up to eye level, laughing at my misfortune.
“You should not have done that, foolish alicorn. Now I will take your life after I have taken your magic.”
He opened his maw and I immediately felt power being sucked out of me. The worst thing though was that my forehoof was trapped in Tirek’s grasp and so was the secret weapon that it held. I screamed in pain as it felt like my soul was being ripped away.
Abruptly, Tirek stopped ingesting my magic. He furrowed his brow and looked at me closely. “What is this? Your magic doesn’t taste right, almost as if it isn’t alicorn magic at all. Not quite pegasus magic either.”
I didn’t know magic had a taste, but I’m glad it did because he quit just before I was drained completely. I had to stall him. Maybe I could get him to monologue. “Even if you drain my magic, you'll never win, Tirek. The Magic of Friendship will defeat you.”
Tirek laughed uproariously. “Friendship? Let me tell you what friendship has done for Equestria.” His free hand gestured to the floating prisons. Tirek continued. “Friendship caused all of your friends to selflessly attempt to challenge me. All fell before me and gave me their magic.” He frowned. “No, Princess – their sacrifices were in vain. The truth is what I learned from my brother ages ago. Friendship is weakness. And now, for opposing me, all your friends will watch you die, Princess.” He opened his mouth to suck in my remaining magic.
I heard Pinkie Pie's voice cut through the air. “That's not Celestia!”
Everypony looked at her in horror and gasped.
Tirek stopped and turned to her with a scowl. “What do you mean?”
Pinkie Pie pointed a hoof. “That's just a white unicorn mare with a mane dye job. I'm 99% sure.”
Tirek opened his fist to examine me closely and I sprawled on my right side on his open palm. His eyes narrowed as they studied my form.
Pinkie brightened. “Oops! My bad! That’s Princess Celestia, alright!”
“No matter, for her magic is mine!”
He started inhaling my magic again, but I was free to move at last. Thanks, Pinkie! Before I could be rendered helpless, I struggled to my hooves. Directly under the stream of magic that was being pulled from me, I hurled the small ball that I had been holding all this time into his face. The glowing magic that enshrouded it was drawn into his maw along with my own and I saw its magic shell dissipate just as it entered Tirek's mouth. I was elated for mere moments before I keeled over to my left as the last of my magic was ripped from me. I felt like I had run a marathon or two and was now weak as a kitten from exhaustion, but that wasn’t the only effect I noticed. I was a small stallion once more.
The centaur's voice rumbled like a mountain avalanche. “WHAT DECEPTION IS THIS?”
I started thinking quickly as Tirek was probably on the verge of killing me as he had promised. “You fiend!” With a monumental effort, I lifted my head and glared at him. “Is this your idea of a sick joke?”
Tirek pulled back then tilted his head slightly. “Uh ... Nooooo?"
Oh, thank the stars! I had managed to derail his train of thought. I struggled to sit up. “Not only do you steal the magic from all of My Little Ponies, but you also transform me into this?” I paused to stare where the cutie mark patch had been ripped off of my right flank in my struggles. I gaped as if seeing it for the first time and then turned back to stare daggers at the centaur. “And what did you do to my cutie mark? And where's my beautiful horn?”
Tirek looked decidedly uncomfortable now.
“Uhhh....”
I scraped together enough energy to yell at him as I tried to stand up. “I was also a mare! I swear to Faust, Tirek! Where are my—”
“We’re done here,” said the centaur as he dropped me.
I yelped in surprise as I fell the remainder of the way to the ground. I extended my wings, but without any magic, they had little effect, barely slowing my plunge. I landed next to a copse of trees that had been denuded of their leaves by one of Tirek's blasts, hitting the ground hard. I cried out in pain, but at least I hadn’t been killed by the fall. That condition looked as though it would quickly change as Tirek raised a hoof to stomp on me. Helpless, I cringed and waited for the blow.
Instead of oblivion, I heard a loud gurgling emit from the monster’s belly and he bent over, clutching at his torso. I started to smirk. “What’s wrong, Tirek? Ate something that disagreed with you?”
“Be quiet, fool! My power is boundless! I will not allow– *hurk*.” Tirek’s hand flew to his mouth as his cheeks bulged. A colorful viscous effluvium squirted from his nose. He wiped his face with the back of his arm and growled. “What have you done, wretched worm? You shall—” He doubled over, slapping one hand over his mouth again and plugging his nose with the other. The lurid spew squirted out of his ears instead, his eyes as wide as saucers. He heaved again, this time clamping his hands over ears and clenching his jaw trying to hold it in. He failed utterly and a gusher of rainbow-hued vomit poured out of his mouth… and onto me. There was no stopping it now. Time after time, Tirek puked and the waves of multi-colored liquid kept inundating me. However, each time he disgorged another flood, I noticed that he shrank in size. He was regurgitating all the magic that he had consumed which had given him his huge form. Zecora’s special potion that had been the core of my secret weapon was doing its job admirably.
I felt my magic gush back into me and I tried to stand up. I was knocked off my hooves again by yet another torrent of the disgusting vomit as Tirek shrank even more. It kept coming faster and faster and I closed my eyes to endure it. Then I noticed that something was wrong. My power was still growing, and I suddenly realized that my faulty pony form was packing in the raw magic at a prodigious rate. I felt my body surge and when I opened my eyes, I was Marklestia once more. If that had been the only thing that happened, I would not have been worried, but the magic-infused effluvium that coated me was pouring its power directly into me. I looked at the power band around my fetlocks and saw it had already passed through the red stage and was about to hit fully black! I leapt to my hooves to try to get away from the danger, but my hind legs skidded on the slimy fluid and I fell. As I tried to get up again, my body surged with the pent-up power and I yelled in pain and fear. It grew worse, – I felt an agonizing wave of heat sweep across my body and I knew I was about to die. I threw back my head and screamed as the pain grew unbearable.
Abruptly, there was a release of pressure and the landscape lit up as power gushed out of me in a rainbow torrent from my horn. My useless, non-active appendage was suddenly a fully functional conduit for the excess power which streaked up into the sky and spread out in rings as far as I could see. The magic was returning to its true owners. As for me, everything faded to black.
Waking up was a surprise. I thought for sure that I was going to die from the magic overload. Somehow, I had been saved that fate. I noticed that some ponies were washing the nasty spew from me and that it had lost its colorful look. The magic had been drained from it completely. A pity the physical remnants didn’t disappear too. I saw a scrawny centaur only about twice my size now not far away. He was bound with magic-absorbing bonds that prevented Tirek from regaining his lost power. Judging by the look and color of his face, he wasn’t yet recovered from the emetic that I had administered. The townsponies apparently had no problem restraining him once he had puked up all his stolen magic.
As for me, I was still Marklestia and a pseudo alicorn which, judging by the nearly reverential way the Flower Sisters were bathing me, everyone still thought I was. After this performance, I guess I was going to have a very hard time convincing them otherwise.
Upon noticing that I was alert once more, Roseluck asked with much concern, “Are you okay, Princess?”
Yep. I was screwed. Still, I had to try. “I’m feeling fine now, thank you, Roseluck, but I’m no Princess.” That might have sounded more convincing if it didn’t come out in Celestia’s regal tones. I needed to get my reversion treatment soon!
“You’re awake, Dowser! The Great and Concerned Trixie was worried about you!”
I turned to see Trixie looking uncharacteristically uncertain and distressed. I got to my hooves, careful not to knock over the mares attending to me. “Thanks, Princess, but it seems a magical vomit bath was the worst that happened to me,” I replied with a grin.
Trixie frowned at how flippantly I was treating the situation. She lifted a hoof and started poking me in the chest. “Don’t you dare do something so insanely dangerous again. Trixie needs her stallion and Equestria needs its Grand Vizier!”
“Yes, Princess,” I replied meekly, happy to get everything back to normal again. I don’t think even the faux alicorn realized how close to death I came. I wasn’t eager to repeat the effort; I might not be so lucky next time.
A shout drew my attention to a flying purple alicorn coming in for a landing. Apparently, Twilight and everypony else had recovered their magic and been freed.
“Mark! What happened?! How did you vanquish Tirek?!” She paused as if just realizing something. “And why are you in that form in front of everypony?”
“Long story, Twilight, but basically I gave him a tummy-ache.”
The alicorn mare blinked in incomprehension. “You what?”
“I’ll tell you later. The important part is that Tirek is defeated and everypony has gotten their magic back. And I have the horn-ache to prove it.” Actually, that was the first time that I realized that my horn was indeed feeling painful. I had just thought of it as a headache until then, but it was definitely focused in that appendage. That was very odd because, up until now, it was an insensate part of my Celestial form. I was really just a trumped-up pegasus despite my appearance.
Apparently Twilight also found that extremely strange. “Why would your horn be hurting?”
“I suppose it’s because of all the power that I released through it after soaking it up from Tirek’s puke.”
“That shouldn’t be possible. Lean down, please.”
I lowered my head and she touched her horn to mine as she had once done some months ago. I felt a distinct momentary thrill of energy and Twilight jerked back.
“I don’t know how, but your horn seems to be fully functional now. My diagnostic spell detected a completely normal unicorn matrix within it.”
My jaw went slack with shock. “Does this mean…?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, you’re still not an alicorn, but it seems that you can take in and utilize unicorn magic now. You can’t feel any affinity for the earth, can you?”
Having briefly been in Twilight’s alicorn form courtesy of Discord, I knew exactly what she meant. “No, I don’t. And I certainly don’t feel like I’m alicorn-level powerful either.” At least, not now that I had released all that power. “So, what am I now? A unisus? Pegacorn?”
Twilight laughed. “What you are is my laboratory subject for the next few days!”
I gulped. Crap. No good deed goes unpunished. I really wanted to be plain old Mark Wells again.
There was a flare of power and suddenly I was a green stallion. I blinked in surprise as Twilight and Trixie gaped at me. “Huh? That’s new.”
Before we headed off to Twilight’s place, I secured a promise from Mayor Mare to keep my secret and ask the rest of the citizens of Ponyville to do the same. I suspect that she still doubted that I was not an alicorn, but as long as nopony blabbed, I was satisfied. As we walked back into town, I noticed all the ponies whom I had met and become familiar with over the weeks resuming their normal lives. I suddenly realized that I knew them all by name by now, or at least most of them. I saw one nondescript earth pony whom I wasn’t familiar with entering an alley and an equally ordinary unknown pegasus fly out of it later. Odd. I suppose I couldn’t know everypony yet. As we turned a corner, Twilight stopped so abruptly that I barged right into her in my distracted condition. Her earth pony strength anchored her to the ground and I bounced off her, nearly falling over.
“What happened to my home?!” Twilight wailed.
The poor library tree was reduced to little more than a stump, a slightly singed Owlowicious perched on a remaining broken branch. The sole power blast from Tirek that had gone Ponyville’s way had hit the purple alicorn’s home with extreme prejudice. I was hit by two conflicting emotions: sympathy for my friend’s loss of everything she held dear, and terror at the memory of the blast that had passed just feet away. That could have been me!
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