It was quite the normal day in Canterlot, especially weather-wise. The ponies at the Canterlot Weather Station made sure of that. In the castle, ponies went about their jobs; guards guarded, maids cleaned and made beds, gardeners made sure that the royal gardens looked their best, and the kitchen staff were now preparing for lunch, and later dinner. Princess Celestia was busy in court while Princess Luna slept peacefully as usual during the day. Twilight Sparkle, Princess Cadance, and Prince-Consort Shining Armor had left the castle early to visit Twilight Velvet and Night Light, Twilight and Shining Armor’s parents. Yes, everypony were busy doing their own thing.
Everypony? No, not quite. At least two individuals had some leisure time on their hands. Well, only one of them did in fact have hands; the other had hooves that tried to be silent as he stalked his object of fascination with… varying degrees of success.
Magnus was on his way to the infirmary to speak with Doctor Silverheart regarding his physical. Earlier, he felt relieved and excited at the same time, due to what he heard about his results. He was healthy, but the doctors also found some interesting things as well, and to Magnus, that could mean two things: interesting in a good way or interesting in a bad way. Due to him growing up with constant headaches, he had always been somewhat of a worrywart concerning his health.
But those feelings of relief and excitement had dissipated an hour ago, annoyance taking their place. The cause? Prince Blueblood. As it turned out, Prince Blueblood was not attracted to Magnus in a romantic or fetish kind of way. No, he was just geeking out, hard. Who could have known that a Prince of Equestria had a hobby so obscure that almost no one else had the same interest? It wasn’t that Blueblood collected written works, drawings and paintings, stories of hybrids told by ponies and other creatures that knew them that bothered Magnus, but the passion—if it could be called—and lengths that Blueblood went to. Last night after Magnus was told the truth about Blueblood, the prince refused to leave Magnus’ side, always following him, observing him, and occasionally making that squeaking sound. And of course, Blueblood wanted to ask questions, so many questions. He even wanted a lock of his hair for his collection. That was where Magnus drew the line. He was okay with Blueblood’s hobby, but dear god…
And Blueblood still wasn’t satisfied. Magnus glanced over his shoulder and spotted Prince Blueblood stalking him, tip-toeing from column to pedestal, hiding behind them while trying to be stealthy with a binocular-like contraption around his head and a camera floating in his magic. Every few seconds the flash went off, signalling that Magnus was once again caught on film. And always with that smile, the so-called “Twilight Sparkle” smile that he was sure Twilight had the copyrights to.
Attempting to ignore Prince Blueblood, Magnus eventually found his way to the infirmary. Since there were no patients in the waiting room, Magnus made his way to the receptionist desk. The mare behind the desk was busying herself with her typewriter when he approached.
“Excuse me, Miss, is Doctor Silverheart available?” The mare practically lit up when she saw him.
“Mister Powell, it’s wonderful to see you again,” she said cheerfully. “Doctor Silverheart is making his rounds right now. He should be done in a while. Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll notify him as soon as he’s done.”
Magnus thanked the mare and took a seat at the waiting area. The seats once more reminded him that he’d need to have furniture made that would fit him when he found a place of his own. Pony chairs and furniture were pretty comfy, yes, but he always felt like he was almost sitting on the ground.
Boredom quickly found him. There were no magazines here today, and with nothing to do, he began to ponder on what the future had in store for him.
First, there was finding a job. Magnus was well aware that he had to take any job he found, at least first so that he’d have an income, and later he could find a job he liked more and paid better. Problem was, there weren’t many jobs he’d had, so his work experience was rather thin. His first job was working at the bowling alley, a job he still had before he vanished from Earth. Maybe that was something he could do here? He had also helped out on a farm, but there were no farms in Canterlot. Another job he’d had was cutting, cleaving, and stacking firewood for sale, but that was seasonal. Maybe that was an option, boring as it was, and with little hopes of promotion. According to Twilight, some houses still used wood for their kitchen stoves, so maybe it could work out better here. Still, Magnus didn’t have much in the way of higher education, so his future employment did look a bit dim.
Secondly, there was the matter of finding a place for him to live. Unsurprisingly for a city made by ponies for ponies, the dimensions of the houses were ill-suited for his body type, so he’d have to either have one outfitted to fit him, or find one previously owned by a minotaur. There was also the matter of price. A house was expensive in Canterlot, it being the capital and all, so he’d have to settle for renting something until he had a chance to save up some cash and afford a loan.
The third matter on his mind was Brilliant Star. Magnus still had no idea why he made the decision to visit Hollow Shades and Brilliant Star. He had very little in common with her, as far as he knew, except for sharing an ancestor. Even the day after he had Spike send the letter to Princess Celestia, he had to sit down and ask himself ‘why’. All those thoughts and ideas he had that evening when he made up his mind could very well end up not being true at all. And still… he wanted to visit. Honestly, that evening was just full of wishful thinking, but somehow, he was glad he made his decision. He could just get it over with in a hurry if things went south.
Magnus sighed. All this thinking just made his mind wander after a while. Being ripped away from everything and everyone he had ever known could do that to a guy. Fortunately, here he had an apt distraction in the form of a pony prince that had stuck a mirror on a stick through the doors to the waiting room and was currently spying on him.
“Are you getting a good view, Prince Blueblood?” Magnus asked loudly, seeing the reflection of the prince in the mirror.
There was a long moment of silence in which Magnus saw the confused appearance on the prince’s face. “Yes I am, thank you for asking, good sir,” came the reply.
‘This whole country is mad,’ Magnus thought. Either that, or Discord had pulled off some pretty sneaky mental magic. The draconequus could probably do stuff like that.
Locked in his own thoughts, Magnus was pulled back to the present by a familiar voice. “Magnus, good to see you again.”
Magnus looked up, seeing none other than Doctor Silverheart standing before him with a smile on his face.
“Doctor, good to see you again,” Magnus replied and stood up. “I heard about the test results coming back, and frankly I’m a bit anxious to hear what you guys found out.”
The doctor nodded. “Straight to the point, I see. Very well, come with me to my office. No sense in beating around the bush.”
The doctor led the way through the corridors while Magnus followed, and soon they came to the doctor’s office. His name was on a brass plaque on the door. As soon as they stepped in, Magnus felt like he was transported to a doctor’s office on Earth. There was a desk and chair at the far wall, filing cabinets, a shelf with books, two chairs for his guests or patients, an exam table, and charts on the wall depicting pony skeletons as well as internal organs. And finally, on the wall behind the doctor, rows upon rows of diplomas and awards.
“Now then,” Silverheart said as he took his place behind the desk. “Please, take a seat and we’ll begin.”
Magnus crouched and was about to sit when he suddenly froze and slowly turned his head towards the door, narrowing his eyes. “Just a moment,” he said and walked over to the door as silently as he could, even going so far as to hold his breath in order to keep noise down. At his desk, Doctor Silverheart looked confused at his patient’s strange behaviour.
When Magnus reached the door, he carefully got down on his knees and lowered his head until it was about the height of a pony’s head.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” Magnus screamed at the top of his lungs while simultaneously banging the door with both of his hands, making a terrible racket. Nearly at the same time, a frightened scream came from the other side of the door, followed by the sound of somepony falling over, then scrambling to get up, evident by the frantic sound of hooves upon marble floor, and finally, the sound of somepony running away as fast as they could.
Magnus grinned as he stood up. “Got the lil’ shit.” He turned to the doctor, who remained seated, but now looked a bit frightened, judging by his appearance. “Prince Blueblood,” Magnus said. “He’s been stalking me since last night. He’s got a thing about hybrids, and by the looks of it, alien hybrids like me.”
“I… see?” the doctor replied after a few moments. “I… well… I thought you were having a fit or... never mind. Please sit, and we can begin.”
Magnus took a seat and waited while Doctor Silverheart rummaged through his drawers, finally extricating a huge folder which he placed on the table. If that folder was all about him, Magnus thought, then the doctors must have had a lot of data to play with.
“Well, I can safely say that this is the most interesting medical journal I have ever read. You are most interesting, both inside and out. Trust me when I say, you have baffled both doctors and experts in many fields.”
“How so?” Magnus asked.
“I shall show you in but a moment. For now, let’s start at the beginning.” Doctor Silverheart opened the folder and flipped through the first pages. “When the first results came in, we all believed that a mistake had been made, so we ran the results again. The tests came in with the same results as before. Let’s start with your blood type. You are AB positive.”
Magnus nodded. How many blood tests had he taken over the years? Too many to count, but not once had he been told what his type was. He did know that AB positive was a rare type, though.
“And we are compatible to you.”
Magnus blinked. “What?”
“We are compatible to you. Should you ever need a blood transfusion, you can receive pony blood.”
Magnus shook his head. It shouldn’t be possible, but lately, many things that shouldn’t be possible had in fact proven to be so. “How?”
“We don’t know,” Silverheart began. “You don’t look like us, we have very few similarities, you are—biologically speaking—different from us in most ways, yet your body can accept pony blood.”
“That… That is unbelievable,” Magnus mumbled in surprise. Surgery of any kind was something he hadn’t taken into account when he came to Equestria. Who knew what could happen to him in the future? Still, he felt a certain kind of safety in simply knowing this.
“It really is.” Silverheart nodded. “Blood transfusion is a relatively new procedure, invented around forty years ago. Pony blood will not work on other races as the differences are too great. But you? It’s simply astonishing. It shouldn’t be possible due to the vast biological differences.
“However,” Silverheart continued, his former gleeful voice dampened, “you can receive blood from us, but you can’t donate blood to ponies. There are some strange things with your blood that the haematologists can’t pin down. It’s… well, a mix, really. Some of it is clearly pony-related, but the other parts are unknown to us. Our best educated guess is that it is solely human in nature.”
Magnus merely nodded, well aware that no pony doctor had ever studied a human’s anatomy before. Educated guesses were the best they could do.
Silverheart flipped over to a new page and cleared his throat. “Let’s see… Oh yes, this one. Your fecal, urine, intestines, and stomach acid samples also returned some interesting results. It would seem that you have been in contact with ponies enough to pick up some of the same bacteria that we have in our stomachs and digestive system. Your intestines are also similar enough to ours that you can safely eat and digest everything we eat, even plants.”
“I can eat hay and flowers?” Magnus asked.
“I’m sure you can, but you told me that they don’t taste good. I can only guess that your taste buds are unchanged. Pity, rose petals are perfect after dinner treats,” Silverheart said with a sad shake of his head. Magnus already suspected as much; his changes were internal as well as external. It would be silly if they weren’t.
“Next, we have your ears. Now, you’ve already guessed that your changed ears are more like the ears of a pony than human.”
Magnus touched his fingertips to his ear, feeling its texture. It felt like skin and cartilage, but a bit more flexible, and there was a miniscule layer of very fine hairs on it that was nearly invisible. “I guessed as much.”
Silverheart continued, “And then there’s the hair covering your arms and legs. It is nearly identical to the coat on the body of your average pony, if just somewhat thicker and longer. It isn’t unusual for some ponies to have a longer coat, but yours is above average length and thickness, and is quite similar in structure to the hair on your chest and head. Technically speaking, it isn’t a coat then, just normal body fur.”
Magnus nodded, not wanting to discuss semantics with him. Body fur, body hairs, what was the difference anyway?
Silverheart flipped over to a new page, and immediately his smile grew wide. “Aha, now these are interesting. I’ve been looking forward to this.” Using his magic, Silverheart levitated a set of X-ray photos out of the folder and held them up to the light of the window so that Magnus could see them. It was easy to see it was a human skeleton. The first one was his skull.
“Your cranium,” Silverheart said as he got out of his chair and trotted up to the window. “Come, see for yourself. See any changes?”
Magnus walked over to the X-ray and studied it. Although not a doctor, he could easily recognize differences between a normal human skeleton and his own. “Yeah, the base around my horn is thicker than a human skull. It should be somewhat uniform in thickness all over.”
“It’s called the foundation; it’s the base of the horn,” Silverheart explained. He picked up a small pencil and pointed out the base itself and the horn. “As you can see, the thickness helps support the horn. It is very rare for unicorns to fracture the skull. Sometimes, it’s the horn itself that either breaks or cracks.”
“And this looks normal, in my case?”
“It does. The thickness of the base is normal compared to your size and it doesn’t even come close to your brain. Your horn and base are perfectly normal,” Silverheart assured.
Next up, Silverheart levitated another X-ray, this one being Magnus’ hand. “My hand. I’ve been wondering what happened to it,” Magnus said, leaning closer to the X-ray. He immediately noticed an increase in the mass of his finger bones. Additionally, there was another mass surrounding his finger bones, all the way up to his knuckles, but this mass was almost completely solid. Even the smaller bones in the hand and wrist had grown thicker. “Aren’t bones supposed to turn up somewhat translucent on X-rays?” he asked. Maybe Equestria had some kind of different X-ray procedure compared to Earth?
“They do,” Silverheart said with a nod. “The ones in your hand did not. We suspect it has something to do with the way you transformed when you came to Equestria. But this also explains why you said that your legs felt heavy, and I imagine you've felt the same way about your arms while you were in Ponyville.”
Magnus’ head snapped to the doctor. “How did you know?” Almost every night, Magnus went to bed feeling a bit tired all over, especially his arms and legs, and on those days he walked a lot or did manual labour, he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
Silverheart smiled. “I figured it would. Let me explain.” He pulled out the rest of his X-rays of Magnus’ arm, all the way up to the shoulder, and held them up to the window. “Your hand, lower arm, upper arm, and shoulder. Notice the increase in bone thickness. Does this look normal to you?”
Magnus shook his head. The bones of his arms had grown, judging by the X-rays. Even a large part of the bones in his shoulder and back had grown thicker. “No, it doesn’t. They should be thinner. What does this mean?”
“The radius, the ulna, the carpals, and the humerus—their thickness isn’t consistent with what you told us. They shouldn’t be this thick. This is not normal.”
At hearing that, Magnus felt uneasy.
“And here we have your legs.” He held the X-rays of Magnus’ legs up to the window. “The femur, the tibia, the fibula look thicker too, don’t they?”
Magnus nodded. “And longer too, especially from the heel and to the bottom of my hooves.”
“That’s because you have hooves. According to what you told us, you were plantigrade before and now you are unguligrade. The bones commonly found in primates’ feet are gone, replaced by pony counterparts. But look at the knee joints and the pelvis too; where the femur connects to the pelvis. There’s significant thickness, much more than what we would expect of somepony your size. All of your joints are the same; much stronger and much more robust than what is necessary. These are clearly meant to support somepony that’s heavier and larger.”
Magnus nodded while examining the areas mentioned by Doctor Silverheart. Truth be told, he had no clue what the hell was going on with him. Something had changed, big time.
“What… What does this mean?” Magnus dared ask, not once tearing his eyes away from the photos, visions of bone cancer and rare diseases floating around in his mind.
“I have a theory,” Silverheart said after a few moments of silence, peering up at Magnus with an unsure facial expression. “But… it is outlandish. The only ponies I’ve told are Doctor Crimson and Doctor Moon. They support my theory as well, but… honestly, we are in uncharted territory here. This is educated guessing.”
“As long as you can offer me even a remotely viable explanation, I’m willing to roll with it,” Magnus quickly stated. Just looking at the photos and not knowing what was going on with him, he felt the need for a doctor to calm him down and tell him everything was going to be okay.
Silverheart took notice of his agitated tone of voice and nodded. “Okay, this will sound strange, but just listen.” He then walked over an anatomy chart hanging on the wall depicting a pony skeleton with the names of the various bones on it.
“A pony skeleton,” Silverheart began, using his pencil to point it out. “No matter the tribe, all are very similar, even though pegasi and bat ponies have hollow but very strong bones. There are differences, of course. It’s common knowledge that of the three main tribes, pegasi are usually just a bit smaller and lighter, unicorns grow a bit taller and often have a somewhat slender build, and that earth ponies are the tallest, strongest, and physically speaking, most durable of all. This, however, isn’t always true, as ponies of mixed tribes can have traits of both. For example, there are pegasi with earth pony fathers or mothers that can grow tall and exceptionally strong.”
A brief image of an extremely muscular white pegasus stallion in Ponyville came to Magnus’ mind.
“But even with these differences, pony skeletons remain almost identical. Look at the hind legs on the chart; the tibia is almost half the thickness of the hind leg while the femur is just slightly thinner. The forelegs are the same; the cannon bone is almost half the thickness of the foreleg while the radius bone is thinner.”
Magnus listened intently while Silverheart explained, his eyes following the pencil pointing out the mentioned bones. He couldn’t see the pattern forming yet.
“Now look at the X-Rays, Magnus. Do you see?” Silverheart pointed out the skeletal images. “Your bones have changed, going from thinner bones to thicker ones.”
“I see that! Get to the point, please! Is there something wrong with me?!” Magnus snapped, his patience fraying.
Instead of responding with the professionalism of a medical expert, Doctor Silverheart exclaimed with a smile on his face, “Not at all! Your skeleton simply mimics ours! It’s basic hereditary biological traits, nothing more! Key areas of your skeleton clearly mimic that of a pony! Thicker bones in your arms, thicker bones in your legs, just like a pony!” Silverheart paused to catch his breath and continued in a far softer tone. “Your body has adapted to be like ours due to your pony heritage, and because you are larger and heavier than us, your bones and joints have grown sturdier during your transformation in order to compensate for the extra weight that should be there if you were a pony more than three times the size of an ordinary pony. But you are only part pony, but it doesn’t matter because of your biology. Your body tried to emulate that of a pony anyway. That is why your bones are so much thicker; biological traits.”
Magnus stared at Silverheart in silent disbelief. The unicorn nearly trembled with excitement. Slowly, he turned to look at the X-Rays and the chart. Silverheart’s theory sounded like something out of a comic book or perhaps a sci-fi novel in the context he presented it in, but in the end, it made some manner of sense when he thought back to the population on Earth. Like a child born to parents of different races, the child’s appearance would not be dominated by a single race, instead being somewhere in the middle. Another example being very tall couples sometimes having tall children. Max was a prime example to that; his father was just over two meters tall and his mother around 190 centimetres tall.
However, with the evidence suspended in magic in front of him, no one would brush Silverheart’s theory aside without giving it a second thought. It could explain why his legs had felt heavy, and why he lost his breath ascending the astronomy tower several weeks ago. His body was simply not used to the sudden extra weight. He nearly slapped himself for forgetting such a basic yet obvious explanation. He had been looking at himself in the mirror every morning for weeks, and not once had it occurred to him.
“Do you believe me?”
Magnus turned to Silverheart after several long moments spent examining the anatomy chart and his X-rays, comparing notes so to speak. “It sounds crazy and biologically impossible compared to everything I’ve learned from biology classes in school and from everything I’ve ever read. Yeah, I believe you.”
Silverheart exhaled slowly and nodded. “I know it sounds pretty far out there, but let’s face it; we’re walking on uncharted grounds here. Not only are you alien to us, but you’re also a hybrid, and one has never been examined before. What I propose is concluded from observation and educated guesses from a doctor’s point of view.”
“And how sure are you of this theory? What evidence do you have? I mean, what of other hybrids?” asked Magnus.
“I asked myself the same question after I received the reports, and on a hunch I decided to ask a primatologist at Canterlot University. While the primates that live in Zebrica and those on your world might be quite different, I found enough similarities in skeletal structure to support my theory, at least slightly. And Princess Celestia herself told me that the last known hybrid, a hippogriff born to griffon and pegasus parents, did look quite bulky and almost unnatural compared to ordinary hippogriffs.”
“What do you mean by ‘ordinary’?” Magnus asked, very confused at the terminology used. He remembered Celestia mentioning that hippogriffs were very rare, but if so, then how could hippogriffs be ordinary?
Silverheart gave Magnus a questioning look. “Oh, you didn’t know about ordinary hippogriffs?”
“No, are there more than one type?”
“Of course. There are natural born hippogriffs called ordinary hippogriffs, and there are hybrid hippogriffs. The natural born ones live somewhere far to the south, according to Princess Celestia, and they are a species in their own right. The offspring of griffons and ponies are called sometimes called false hippogriffs, and they are so rare even Princess Celestia can only remember a few of them throughout her life. Generally speaking, they are simply called hippogriffs, due to them looking nearly identical to the natural born ones, with a few exceptions of course.”
Magnus nodded while taking a seat. While the revelation of hippogriffs was new to him, it wasn’t what he focused on. Instead, it was the fact that Silverheart’s theory was in fact, quite sound, as long as he disregarded everything he learned back on Earth. Looking back to the pony skeleton chart, Magnus found it difficult to disagree to the doctor team's findings. Ponies had pretty thick bones compared to their small, light bodies. And as far as he knew, the gravity of Equus was pretty much the same as Earth’s. Maybe it was just some fluke of evolution that made their bones thick; less chance to break something and increasing the chance of a long life. Mother Nature was a strange artist sometimes. The age of the dinosaurs was simply her Deviantart stage, but what were Equestria then? Her surrealism stage? Considering Discord, yes, most likely.
While staring at the chart, Magnus was suddenly given a steaming hot cup of coffee from Doctor Silverheart. Taking it gingerly, he blew on it and took a small sip. Where did the doctor get it from? He didn’t have a coffee maker in his office.
“Feeling a bit better now?” Silverheart asked as he took his seat behind the desk.
“A bit, yeah,” Magnus replied, taking a moment to calm down. “It just… It feels weird, you know, to hear of all these changes and not feeling much different. I’d expect to feel different, move different, walk different, but it all just… it feels natural, despite all that’s happened to me.”
Silverheart nodded slowly. “We are very much at home in our bodies. Even the change you went through couldn’t change that. Technically, you’ve been two different beings in your life, the first before you came to Equestria, and the second after you came here. But that is no reason to worry, as long as you’re healthy. And should something happen, well, I am here to help,” he concluded with a friendly smile.
Well, Silverheart was a good doctor, well spoken, and knew what to say in order to allay the fears of his patients, and that was all Magnus needed to hear. But they weren’t done yet.
Picking up Magnus’ journal with his magic, Silverheart said, “Your journal contains several more secrets I have to show you. It is interesting, and I promise you, they are all harmless. Interested?”
“Need you ask?” replied Magnus. It was safe to say that after all he’d heard so far, he was more than willing to listen to the rest.
Silverheart chuckled. “That’s the spirit.” He picked out the X-ray of his hand, giving it to him. “You see this greyish mass around your fingers?”
Magnus held up the photo of his hand, clearly showing the bones of his hand. When he looked closer, he noticed something that appeared almost completely white on the X-Rays. Whatever it was, it was much denser than bone.
“You mean this mass around my finger bones?” Magnus asked, looking to the unicorn for confirmation.
“Yes, now look at this X-ray of your hooves.”
Silverheart gave Magnus another X-ray, from his knees down to his hooves. His legs had increased bone mass, same as his arms and fingers. Several of the smaller bones in his feet were completely gone now that he had hooves. Some still remained, but had shrunk to the point that they no longer were in contact with the bones that were once next to them. Whatever function they once had was probably no longer relevant. Magnus reasoned that it was probably because of the many generations separating his pony ancestor and human ancestor, thus the bones were probably even smaller long ago, but had grown larger due to more human genetic material replacing pony material since then. He had never felt any pain in his hooves either, thus he concluded that maybe they were supposed to be there for some reason after all.
The next point of interest that caught his attention was his hooves. He walked on where his toes once were, now turned into a solid hoof. Basically, the soles of his feet had elongated, adding additional height to him, at least a good foot or so, giving him an almost gangly appearance.
In the middle of his hoof, there was a roundish shape of some type that he didn’t recognize. “Is it this thing?” Magnus said, pointing out the area.
“No, that is the ‘cushion’. It contains blood, and help ponies when we run. It acts as a pump, pushing blood from our hooves to our legs and to our hearts, and then back again when we run. It circulates blood faster, bringing with it oxygen much faster than our heart alone can do,” Silverheart explained. Now this was news to Magnus, and he began wondering if his hooves were the same. That might explain the boost of speed he had the day he ran from Rainbow Dash, or it could simply have been adrenaline-fueled panic.
But alas, Magnus didn’t find anything else of interest. “I give up. I can’t find anything unusual. A little help, please?”
“The mass around your fingers,” Silverheart paused, looking at Magnus. “It’s keratin, the same material that make up our hooves.”
Magnus looked down, and for a second, he just stared. Then he looked at the X-ray of his hand, then back to his hooves again. His eyes locked onto the thick keratin that made up his hoof. In his mind, an equation took shape.
‘Feet = hooves. Fingers = hooves + fingers - parts of the hooves...’
“My finger bones are surrounded by keratin?”
Silverheart laughed and shot Magnus an amused look. “Your hands tries to be hooves. Isn’t it strange?”
Magnus shook his head and leaned back in the chair with a smile borne of surprise and relief on his face. Although he was curious about the report and what they found out, he could scarcely believe his changes were so extensive.
“Wait.” Magnus held up his hand. “If I have hooves, or rather, remains of hooves in my hands, how do you explain my fingernails?”
The doctor took a deep breath, bobbing his head from side to side in thought. “I don’t know, really. Honestly, at this point, my guess is as good as yours. However, the keratin in your fingers is not the normal type you’ll find in your hooves. Bone, you see, is usually just a little bit porous, but in your case, the keratin and bone have melded together and become nearly solid.”
Magnus held up his hand, opening and closing his fist. He felt no discomfort at all, nor pain. In fact, it felt quite natural to him, despite the thickness of his fingers. “So… my finger bones are tougher than ordinary bone?”
“Pretty much, yes. I doubt you’ll have to worry about breaking a finger anytime soon. Not that I want you to try it!” Silverheart hastily added.
“Wow…” Magnus flexed his fingers, tapping a finger over his knuckles. He could feel the sinew going underneath some kind of shell, as if a shield covered it. Another mystery to his body. At least it wasn’t dangerous to his health. “This is actually pretty cool.”
Silverheart nodded and returned to the journal. “Now, this next part concerns your magic. Tell me, have you practiced it while in Ponyville?”
“Oh yeah, Princess Twilight taught me a new spell, and I’ve been practicing levitation as well.” To say he practiced was an understatement. When he wasn’t practicing, he mostly sat with his nose in a book, reading to his heart’s content. There was so much to learn, so many techniques, literally a race’s entire study of magic to learn from. Numerous times while in Ponyville, he wondered how far he could go compared to unicorns who had lived their entire lives with magic.
“Oh? How did it go? Any improvement?”
“Well, I can levitate a small pebble for maybe half a minute to a minute by now, but I feel completely drained afterwards. The spell she taught me makes my horn shoot sparks; I can cast it four or five times before I have to take a break.”
The doctor nodded. “A small improvement, that’s good. We got the result on your magic back from Doctor Sparkling Star. This is what she had to say, and I quote:
“The patient’s thaumatic levels are subpar for a unicorn of his age. This is clearly attributed to him never before being exposed to magic at all, and never having a chance to train or use his magic. At current level—0.3 - 0.5 on the thaumatic scale—he is no stronger than a foal between the ages of 1 to 2 years. With proper training—concentration, focus, and motivation—he should regain normal levels within a year or two and should suffer no permanent ill effects.
“The chances of the patient experiencing surges are still unknown. When asked about particular types of surges in his kind (human), the patient was unaware of what a surge was and explained that his kind did not experience any, magical or otherwise. As surges are more common in foals and very rarely in teenage ponies, and virtually non-existent in adults, I believe it is safe to assume at this point that the patient, at age twenty-seven, will not experience surges at all.
“Thaumatic tests, scans, and analysis of his horn and thaumatic paths through his body returned normal results. No obstructions, deviations, or imbalances were detected. It is therefore my professional opinion that the patient is—thaumically speaking—at normal health.”
Silverheart put the journal down. “In other words, your magic is normal, but very weak at the moment.”
“Oh thank God! I was getting used to this,” Magnus said with a sense of relief, and made a show of lighting up his horn. It glowed as normal.
Silverheart looked up to his horn. “I can imagine, as can most unicorns throughout Equestria. How you have lived the entirety of your life without magic, I can’t even begin to imagine.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at his magical aura. “It seems as if a small part of the white in your magic is fading. I remember it being much brighter before.”
“It does?” Magnus looked at his reflection in a mirror on the wall. Indeed, the white ribbon of magic around his horn did seem a bit faded compared to how it had appeared a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t something he usually would pay attention to, knowing full and well who it came from, and that was why he mostly ignored it. Now that he thought about it, the sensation that came with using magic had also faded somewhat.
“Yes, but that was bound to happen. Princess Celestia said something about it being a gift of some kind, but she wouldn’t elaborate further, simply saying that it was a private matter.” Magnus nodded, thankful that Celestia hadn’t mentioned Star Swirl.
Silverheart hummed a bit as his eyes scanned the pages before him. “Very well. Let’s continue, shall we? Let’s see… Musculatory system is responsive and normal, as far as we can tell, your nervous system is also all clear, lungs and heart is in order, according to what you could tell us… And… that’s all.” The doctor looked up at Magnus. “You have a clean bill of health. Nothing wrong with you at all.”
Magnus felt the proverbial weight lifted off his shoulders as he sagged in his chair with relief. Healthy. That was it. He was healthy. A simple word that meant more than its weight. No more incessant headaches pounding in the back of his skull ever again and no more worries about his mixed heritage. He was quite literally as healthy as a horse. He couldn’t help but sigh and smile as the final yoke was pulled away from his shoulders.
“Relieved, I take it?” Silverheart asked with a knowing smile.
“Yes, I’ve spent so much time thinking about all of these,” Magnus gestured to his hooves and horn. “That I couldn’t help but think that something would be wrong. It’s been gnawing at me like you wouldn’t believe it.”
“We all think about our health sometimes, some more than others. It is a normal concern. You are not different in that regard, especially when we consider what you’ve been through. And taking care of your health is something you should also consider, especially in the future.”
“What do you mean?”
Silverheart stood up and walked around the desk to stand next to Magnus. He tapped his leg with a hoof. “Your increase in bone thickness and the fatigue you feel from it. I take it you didn’t feel it back on your home world?”
“No, I was… well, not an athlete, per se, but walking for hours didn’t cause me to feel tired that easily.” He could work for an entire day and could still pack his bag, hike up into the forests and mountains, and pitch his tent near a suitable lake or river for the weekend. While not a strong man, Magnus was well aware of his strong legs and ability to walk for hours in both rough and even terrain.
Silverheart hummed. “You’re carrying additional weight now, remember that. If you led an active lifestyle before, I believe that you will now find it a bit hampered. In order to improve your leg muscles, arm muscles, and stamina, I recommend training.”
“You mean going to a gym four times a week?”
“No no, that would be a bit much so soon. No, I’d say… go for a long walk each day, familiarize yourself with how your new limbs work. Swimming is a good way to exercise as well. Your arm muscles and leg muscles all work together when you swim. Running is also good exercise and it helps build stamina, but I would recommend waiting with that until you are confident in your trot, canter, and gallop.”
Magnus nodded slowly. Training would certainly benefit him in a number of ways. He had never gone to a gym before in his life, and all his physical exercise came from his outdoors adventures. Still, a long walk each day was something he could certainly manage, and swimming wasn’t a problem for him.
“I’ll take your advice to heart, Doctor. I can’t join a gym yet because I don’t have the finances for it, but a long walk each day, I can manage just fine,” Magnus said, to which Silverheart gave a satisfactory nod.
“Good.” A short pause followed as man and pony looked at each other. “Well, there is nothing more for me to say about your journal or general health; we’ve gone through it all.”
Magnus gave a short nod and knelt in front of the doctor and held out his hand. “Thanks, Doctor Silverheart, for everything. You’ve helped me more than you know, once again.”
Silverheart hooked his foreleg around Magnus’ hand and the two shook. “It was my pleasure.”
***
Through marble hallways, Magnus walked back to his room in silence. There was much on his mind, though hardly any of it was negative. Instead, it was all a strange mix of curiosity concerning his body. Sure, he had given his new limbs much thought for weeks since he came to Equestria, but the fact that he felt very much at home with hooves and horn and pointy ears and fur, made him forget about them very quickly.
Instead, he focused on the fact that he was finally healthy. There would no longer be countless doctor visits that spanned the range of modern healthcare: from neurologists to allergists. No longer would he be forced to swallow pills that contained some of the world’s dangerous opioids just to get through the day, only to have to switch to something stronger when his body invariably built up an immunity.
But now? Oh, how he loved knowing he didn’t have to take any more god-damned pills.
He finally came to the VIP quarters where his own room was located. Knowing that Princess Celestia was busy, he didn’t want to bother her. Neither was Twilight, her brother, and her sister-in-law back yet, having been told that they would be out of the castle most of the day, as the siblings’ usual duties kept them away from their parents most of the time and now they wanted to spend some family time.
Walking into his apartment, he shut the door behind him and took a look around, making sure he was alone. He then walked into his bathroom, undressed until he was naked as when he was born and stared at his reflection in the mirror.
It was a mix of the familiar and certainly humanoid parts, but also the unfamiliar. There was no way anyone would think he was wearing special effects makeup or animatronic parts; he looked way too realistic for that. The way the fur on his arms and legs all laid in a uniform direction, the transition from copper-coloured fur to human skin, his pale horn, his ears, and of course, his hooves.
He held a hand up to his face, making a fist and slowly opening it. The way the skin moved, how the sinew pulled taut and relaxed, how the muscles tightened. Touching a finger to his other hand, he felt the bones underneath the skin. Hard, unyielding, his thick fingers had not lost their dexterity. He could still pick up a grain of rice or a needle from a flat surface without trouble.
He moved up to his wrist, where his fur began. Thick and long copper fur at the wrist, but not coarse, almost like human hair, just denser. Further up, the fur growth was a bit shorter and at his elbow formed a tuft of hair. His upper arms were relatively hairless, but the thick bones he possessed made him look stronger than he actually was. And finally, his shoulders. He hadn’t noticed before, but after feeling around a bit, he felt as if his shoulders and shoulder blades were also thicker. Turning his back to the mirror and looking over his shoulder gave him all the proof he needed.
He moved onto his ears. Not quite human, but not quite pony either. He had pointy ears, almost making them look like pointy elf ears. They were also softer than normal human ears. Perhaps the cartilage in pony ears and human ears were different.
He sat down on the toilet lid and began investigating his legs. Ponies did indeed have thick legs compared to their Earth counterparts, and this trait had been passed down to him. His hooves were hard, as expected, and the soft part under his hoof was still ticklish. His long fetlocks had the same colour as the rest of his fur. Up to just under his knees, the fur was of uniform length, about half an inch or so, and very thick and dense.
Standing up again, Magnus looked at his own reflection once more. Strange as he looked, he was at peace with his own appearance. After all, it could have been worse.
“Ah, isn’t it strange?” a voice suddenly said. Magnus spun around, hearing the voice behind the shower curtain. He pulled it to the side, finding none other than Discord himself in the bathtub, wearing a pink frilly shower cap, scrubbing his back with a scrubber, a rubber duck looking like Princess Celestia in claw, and the tub filled to the brim with checkered-pattern soap bubbles and what smelled like used engine oil. Magnus rushed to his clothes, covering his crotch with his shirt.
“Discord, you asshole!” he shouted.
“Tut tut, little brother! Language...” Discord calmly said. “What would Celestia and Luna say, hmm?” he smirked. “Now, as I said, it seems you’ve reached a certain age, haven’t you? Completely normal one day, and the next day you wake up to find out all manner of things have happened to you. Hair growing in new places, magic sprouting from you, exploring your body—”
“Get the fuck out of here, you son of a bitch! I’m not interested in playing your games! This is a bathroom and that means private time! I was alone here and then you appear out of frickin’ nowhere while I’m naked, you goddamn perverted jackass! Get out!”
Despite Magnus’ righteous anger, Discord was unimpressed. All he did was climb out of the tub, pull the drain plug out, and began drying himself off with water that somehow solidified when he pulled it out of the showerhead. “Now now, little brother, mind your temper. It doesn’t suit you.”
“I don’t care! Get the hell out!”
Discord merely smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. “No, I don’t think I will; you have such potential for fun and entertainment in you. Now what could I do to liven up the place. Any ideas?”
“Yeah, crucifying you!” Magnus protested, slinging a few verbal abuses at Discord while he was at it.
Despite the swearing, Discord stood with a talon under his chin, facing the human while insult after insult was thrown his way. None of these were very effective; after all, Discord had watched Magnus for several days now and had understood his potential for foul language. That in itself wasn’t very entertaining or chaotic, but there were other things that could get a reaction from him, and Discord knew exactly what card to play.
“You don’t find it odd that you desperately clothe yourself all the time while most ponies do not?” Discord mentioned in an oddly casual way while smirking even harder.
“Clothes are part of human culture, you snake-like shit, and it’s none of your business! Now get the hell out before I drown you in the toilet!” Magnus threatened the best he could. Still not effective.
Resting his arms on where his hips were presumably placed, Discord said, “I think it is time for another lesson in cultural integration, don’t you think? How about removing all of your clothes, hmm? Learn how to be a pony, what do you say?”
The second after those words left Discord’s mouth, he snapped his fingers and a loud pop sound came from Magnus’ private area. He looked down and the shirt was gone. Not only the shirt, but his underwear and pants were gone too.
“There you go; all your clothes are gone, even the ones in your dresser. How about… a day walking around as a pony. Get you a bit closer to your roots,” he suggested while showing off his honest-to-god helpful smile and patented Halo of Honesty above his head.
***
It was lunchtime and Princess Celestia sat alone in the dining room, a valuable break in order to have lunch, a cup of tea, and clearing her mind before taking on the rest of her duties for the day. This consisted of hearing petitions from her ponies from across the kingdom. No problem was too small for her to listen to and give advice, and it just so happened to be Princess Celestia’s favourite duty of the day. While the life of a princess was sometimes a lonely one, meeting with her little ponies was one of the highlights of the day.
Celestia had just filled her cup with lemongrass tea and taken her first spoonful of tomato soup with bread when the doors to the dining room flew wide open and Discord ran in—not flew or floated or teleported—but ran, closed the doors behind him while grinning from ear to ear. He stopped at her table, heaving for breath while chuckling, then looked at her.
“Good afternoon, Celly, lovely day, isn’t it?”
Celestia gave him a curt nod. “Good afternoon, Discord. It is indeed a fine day. What, may I ask, brings you to interrupt my lunch?” She wasn’t angry—after all, this wasn’t the first time Discord barged in on her. Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and even court had been interrupted by him in the past, and she knew better than to lecture him. It would be a futile effort. Fluttershy was the only one who could talk some sense into him.
Discord gave a half-hearted bow and took a deep breath. “I apologize, but this was the closest room to seek refuge in.”
“Refuge? From what?”
“WHERE ARE YOU!” a voice roared just outside the doors, loud enough to make Celestia nearly jump from her seat.
“That,” Discord said and laughed.
The very next moment, the doors were kicked open, and in the doorway stood Magnus, a white shower curtain wrapped around his waist, armed with a spear, and with a look of absolute fury on his face.
“There you are!” Magnus exclaimed with a manic grin while hefting the spear onto his shoulder. “Now stand still, this will only take a day or two,” he stated with an oddly calm tone of voice.
It didn’t take Princess Celestia more than a second to figure out Discord had done something to Magnus, but what he did was a mystery. “Discord, what have you done?” she asked with a sense of urgency in her voice while Magnus advanced on him, running a finger over the edge of the spear.
“Oh, just a bit of brotherly bonding, as brothers do,” Discord explained as he moved to stand behind the princess, his paw and talon resting on her withers. “And please don’t move, I’m trying to escape, but also give him a fair chance to catch me, not that he ever will, but I like to keep him believing he can.”
Then came the sounds of galloping ponies from behind Magnus and five guards appeared, four of them armed with spears, and one without a spear.
“There he is!” the unarmed guard said, pointing a hoof at Magnus. “He stole my spea—Princess Celestia!” As one, the five guards bowed their heads.
While Princess Celestia didn’t respond, she had already understood what had transpired: Discord had teased Magnus, Magnus lost his temper, chased after the Lord of Chaos garbed in only a shower curtain (for reasons unknown), stolen a guards spear to exact his revenge, and then Discord led Magnus to her dining room with five guards, and here the final scene was meant to unfold.
And still Magnus was advancing on Discord, a raging grin on his face. “Come here, pal, gonna show you something.” Magnus pointed the stolen spear at Discord.
“Go right ahead, little brother, but where will I go; here, or here?” Discord replied, moving from Celestia’s right side to her left side. “It would be so easy to run from you, now that you carry a bit of extra weight. You are so slooooow.”
With a furious scream of frustration. Magnus ran forward, spear raised over his head like a club, moving to Princess Celestia’s left side. Discord was already on her right side and made his escape from Magnus’ reach. The guards also sprang into action, trying to restrain Magnus, but none of them were a unicorn and so they could not get a grip on him.
But Magnus would not give up and attempted a leap over the table, trying to get closer to Discord. Sadly, he had not tied his shower curtain skirt tightly enough, which resulted in him accidentally stepping on it, untying the weak knot tied to it and falling over the table. In but a moment, he was up on his hooves again, and in his mad dash after Discord, he managed to step into the edge of the soup bowl, launching its contents into the air, half of which landed on Celestia while the other half landed on him.
Discord was already out the doors, laughing so hard he was wheezing, with Magnus running after him armed with a spear, screaming obscenities, completely naked, and his back and flanks covered in tomato soup while being chased by five guards, one of them commanding Magnus to return him his spear or be prosecuted for stealing from a member of the Royal Guard.
And just like that, the dining room was empty again, sans Princess Celestia. Her mane covered in tomato soup, a shower curtain covering all the food at the table, her tea spilled, and down the hall she heard the voices of two trouble makers growing fainter as they got farther and farther away.
“Get back here, you prick! I’m gonna turn you into a rotisserie chaos noodle!”
“Gotta catch me first! You know, running is good exercise for you, now that you’ve packed on a bit of weight!”
“You’re gonna lose weight too after I’ve flayed you!”
“Oh, you want my skin? Speak with Rarity, she can probably make you a Discord Costume for Nightmare Night! Who knows, maybe it’ll be all the rage for fall fashion!”
“Ever Heard of Vlad the Impaler? Why don’t you stop and I’ll show you a bit of human culture?”
“Give me back my spear!”
“Look, little brother? You’re integrating so well! Your shower curtain is gone!”
“...”
“...”
“AAAAAARGGH!!!”
Silence fell over the dining room once again, leaving Princess Celestia with a bold new red colour to her sunlit mane and a ruined table of food, covered by a shower curtain. For a moment she just sat there, looking forlorn at the ruined soup she had been looking forward to, and her tea, now dripping onto the floor.
She sighed deeply. “It is nice to have long term visitors at the castle; things have been silent of late.”