2/1 Person - A new Perspective

by Feynna


12. Finally home for like... a week and I get friggin' cursed.

Would you look at that, I’m still alive. Hooray for me! Let’s start going over what happened, shall we? No, I promise I won’t bore you with the boring details of how I recovered. The only thing I will say is, that it was annoying to get the same sermon on Lux that I got with Sol from my little group of friends.

Yes, I know you were there, now shut up. Let me finish this part of the story first before we go out and about doing what we always do. Save Equestria and look cool doing it. As long as what happened last year doesn’t repeat itself. 

I’m way ahead, aren’t I? My bad. Where did we leave off? Ah, yes. Okay, here we go. During my trip to Manehattan that turned into an extended stay, I came across a cult causing a lot of trouble by distributing manticore venom to criminals so they could distract the police long enough to get their little ritual done.

Sadly, they managed to break the seal in the end. We were playing right into their hands and didn’t know it until it was too late. Suffice to say, I wasn’t very enthusiastic about how my methods ultimately worked against me. And it wasn’t the only time I made a screw up like that within a short time span.

The fight against the big bad Marrow the Necromancer was entirely one-sided. Which led to an ancient artifact being stolen and my female half delirious from blood loss. 

A week or so later I was finally home again. And boy, did I miss being here. The big city lifestyle just wasn’t for me anymore. Ponyville had the perfect size, the people knew each other around here, and it generally had a much less oppressive feeling living here. 

And my friends lived here, so fat chance of me moving back to a metropolis.

Upon my return, I had to listen to Twilight for days about how stupid I was, always getting myself hurt. Cheerilee gave me a punishment in the form of extra work and some very choice words of abandoning her without saying I would be gone for an extended period of time. The kids were happy to have me back, at least.

Pinkie was happy to throw me a ‘Welcome-back-we’re-happy-that-you’re-not dead’ party and life returned to normal. Well, normal for Ponyville at least. Something was always happening around here, even if it only was someone making a fuss about one thing or another.

And that brought us to the here and now. While Sol was out hunting in the Everfree, I know shocking after me swearing to never enter it again, Lux was preoccupied with getting the groceries for the week. It was just early enough to see the people setting up their stalls, so I was sure I could even get some of the imported bananas before they were sold out again.

They were always sold out after a few minutes...

That plan went out the drain as some people desperately ran back home, screaming about the witch visiting town again. And with the panic, the store owners bolted their doors shut and the stalls were left abandoned.

“No yummy fruit for me, this time,” I sighed sadly and spotted Pinkie waving Rainbow Dash inside Sugercube Corner. As she saw me, she began to motion for me to get into the confectionery, too. Well, if I couldn’t get my groceries today, I could just as well get breakfast done now.

“Hey Lux,” Rainbow said as she spotted me walking in and Pinkie dragged me over to the counter. “Where is your brother?”

“Still out hunting in the Everfree, he should be back soon,” I told her and she gaped at me. Oh, yeah. The promise of me not doing stupid stuff, shouldn’t have forgotten that already. “Don’t worry, he doesn’t go far in, just the outskirts. We’re trying to get more training in while we can.”

“Dude, I would have thought both of you would take it lightly for like... the next month at least. But... if you’re sure about this, I can’t tell you to stop,” Rainbow sighed. “I understand you guys feel like you failed somehow, but that shouldn’t mean you are useless.”

“I guess,” I said lamely back. We heard Pinkie opening the door again and this time Applejack and her sister entered the bakery. Not long after that came in Rarity and Fluttershy. Guess our Spa date won’t happen again, what a shame. I liked those...

By now Ponyville had turned into a ghost town and we all observed a woman in a heavy cloak crouching down in the middle of the street, digging out stones and dirt in search of whatever she sought to find here.

Last but not least, we had Twilight come in with Spike in tow. She was interested in why Pinkie was in the dark shop instead of outside and Pinkie pointed out that we were also here. Around this time Sol arrived, too, so our merry band of misfits was all together now. I made a wide berth around this witch that everyone seemed so interested in and I had to say, something about her gave me the creeps.

Twilight and Pinkie went over to the window and we followed along, once more watching the woman get down on the ground to rip it apart. My hairs on my neck and arms stood on end as this witch looked over in our direction and I saw the eyes beneath the hood flash a bright yellow.

I didn’t notice I retreated back to the counter in fright. What can I say, that was seriously alarming. And I felt a spike of power radiate from her right as that happened as well...

Applebloom came out of hiding from behind her sister and asked Twilight if she also saw that. Applejack, like the overly protective sister that she was, got mad at her for mentioning the name of the witch, and for once I had to agree. You didn’t go lightly around speaking the name of witches, after all. It was an ancient art, but the magic of names was something that existed here in Equestria.

Thus, an argument broke out between all of us. Pinkie was convinced that the woman was an evil enchantress, I was afraid of mentioning the name of the scary witch and Twilight insisted that there was nothing wrong going on.

I wanted to cry out racist as Rarity feinted on the idea that you could be born with a darker skin color, but I chalked it up to my friends being ignorant of the world beyond Equestria. It didn’t make it right, though.

The image of the woman being a witch was admittedly a bit exaggerated, but with her living in the Everfree Forest? Yeah, she must be either really really crazy or really really powerful. It was no wonder the people in Ponyville were all too willing to jump to conclusions about her being a witch.

It didn’t mean they had to be wrong, but I got the impression she was more of a witch doctor, instead. There were quite a few similarities to her and the people in Africa back on Earth still practicing something like that.

The ritualistic staff in her hands and the pouches hanging from her belt were also a dead give away that she dabbled more in the herbalistic nature of witchcraft, instead of the bloody kind. I guess she was a benevolent witch in that case?

I felt silly for feeling afraid of her at first. Okay, maybe it was justified because I didn’t know that piece of information, but I felt guilty for also judging her without getting all the facts. My friends weren’t the only ones capable of that, it seemed. Eh, nobody said I’m perfect and it was completely normal to judge someone based on first impressions. As long as one doesn’t let it cloud their judgment after that, everything could be forgiven and forgotten.

I felt like crying as my friends went on about how the Everfree Forest wasn’t natural in the way that the weather, the animals, and the plants all work without the input of the people in this land. It sounded completely normal to me, but I came from a planet that didn’t have the magic the people here had access to. Myself included now, I suppose.

The people got used to the idea of managing the world by themselves instead of nature. No wonder when the world was like this for longer than a thousand years. They didn’t remember a time where it was different and it was all nice and good to read about it, instead of experiencing it. Something like that could make any civilization fear the difference in what was caused by nature and what was caused by the people.

I was a good example as I first arrived in this world. I was spooked out by all the flora and fauna, which hadn’t really stopped, now that I think about it. It was so bad that I feared to go out and scavenge for food in the Everfree as I didn’t recognize even the type of trees around me. Not to mention the tree dogs of hell, fuck those.

Pinkie decided to sing to us a ridiculous song that she had written about the ‘Wicked Enchantress Zecora’ and how we will end up in her stew. Thus continued the argument about how all the stuff the woman has ever done while in Ponyville wasn’t evil and Twilight tried to convince us that she maybe wasn’t all that bad.

I felt sorry for Applebloom as she got continuously shushed by her big sister for trying to talk some sense to the adults in the room. As her teacher, I wanted to help, but as Applejack’s friend, I didn’t want to get in her way of how she wanted to raise her sister. I couldn’t decide for her, after all.

The arguments got more and more ridiculous. Pinkie made outrageous statements like ‘Zecora eats food, she must be evil’ and Twilight got fed up with her at that. Pinkie tried to make it out like she was eating it in an ‘E.V.I.L!’ way, whatever that means. I wanted to tell her that, but Applejack interjected at that point.

“Hey! Where’s Applebloom?”

“The door’s open,” Fluttershy answered and then the panic ensued. I’ll admit, I was getting fearful of what might have happened. There is no way to tell if the kid went after Zecora and I was rather reluctant to entertain the idea of Applebloom following her back into the forest. She should know better...

So, panicking like headless chickens, we all ran out while leaving Spike behind in order to try to catch up to Applebloom before she could get lost in the Everfree. Or worse... die in it. Thankfully it wasn’t that far in that we thankfully made out the form of the little child following the witch, walking at the side of that field of weirdly blue flowers. Applejack took the lead and we ran across to stop her sister from going further.

“Applebloom!” Applejack called out. “Ya get back here, right now!”

Her sister stopped following Zecora and turned to us, as did the woman she had been trailing. 

“Beware!” Zecora called out with a distinct African accent. “Beware, you Equestrian folk! Those leaves of blue are not a joke.”

Her warning fell on deaf ears with the girls and I looked down at the flowers. You know what they say about colorful plants in nature. They were either highly deadly or slightly deadly. Or just beautiful, but with a warning like that? I was inclined to believe that these weren’t entirely innocent flowers. Either way, I didn’t fancy getting poisoned. Again...

This time the arguments went to how Zecora should be afraid of us instead and not we of her with her curses and whatnot. Twilight was of the opinion there was no such thing as a curse, but even I knew better than that. In a world of magic, there was the very likely possibility of them existing. I would go so far to say that there could be the chance that Celestia and Luna even knew a few just by the fact that they have lived for half an eternity.

One could even argue immortality was a curse, instead of a blessing. Celestia certainly had every reason to believe so, after she spent a thousand years alone as everything turned to dust around her.

I certainly didn’t want to be in her shoes. The mental image of me outliving my friends was sure to bring me nightmares this night. I guess there was a silver lining somewhere in that train of thought, although it was hard to see. For one thing, I would still have Spectrum, and for another, I’m sure Celestia and Luna would be ecstatic to have another immortal that wasn’t crazy or in isolation.

For all I knew, there were more than a few. Celestia and Luna couldn’t be the exception to the rule, it was unlikely that in a world where immortality was an actual thing, only two beings had such a thing placed on them.

“Twilight, I know you’re an expert in magic, but you shouldn’t discount the idea of actual curses being a thing. You fancy yourself a scholar, do you not?” I asked her and she nodded at that. “Isn’t there a saying about how a theory remains only true for so long until it gets disproven? The possibility exists that curses could be real, I’m sure even Celestia would tell you to not discard the idea entirely.”

“See, Twilight! Just what Ah was tryin’ to tell y’all. Thanks, Sol, for talking some sense for once,” Applejack was quick to support my beliefs. Even though she only used that to prove her point and ignored the other message of that it was only a possibility, not a proven fact. The slight jab towards me that she gave me was promptly disregarded... 

I had the tendency to be just as bad as Twilight when I got enthusiastic about something, like magi-tech for example. I didn’t take it personally... much.

Thankfully nothing bad happened on our way out of the forest. Applejack went back to the farm to give her little sister a thorough talking to and to ground her for the next week (probably the next month, though). Rarity, Fluttershy, and I (with Lux) went to the spa to relax, while Pinkie and Rainbow went back to work. Twilight and Sol continued on the work with the magi-tech engine, seeing that we had the time to spend right now.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully. The night, on the other hand, was anything but restful. The stupid song from Pinkie got stuck in my head and suffice to say, her appearance in my dreams wasn’t a welcome one.

It’s bad enough I have to put up with her antics even when I want a bit of peace and quiet, now I had to content myself with having her invade my dreams, too? I loved that girl to bits like the sister I never had and probably never wanted, but even I couldn’t take that much of the pink menace.

Especially as I found myself at a graveyard, her disembodied voice floating around like a specter just out of eyesight. The names on the stones around me flooded my heart with despair because I recognized every last one of them.

Applebloom. Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle.

Those weren’t even the worst ones yet. It continued on with every person from Ponyville, and my friends weren’t excluded from that list. Two names, in particular, made me lose faith entirely... 

Celestia and Luna.

Both of the sisters had a grave here in this godforsaken dreamscape. I was entirely aware that this was just a dream, but seeing all those names here on an endless row of tombs? It gave all of my fears a face.

I was afraid of losing them in the coming battles. Of losing everything I held dear. And the gravestones embodied it quite thoroughly. 

Walking for what felt like hours didn’t get me anywhere near the end. More and more names, sometimes even multiple on the same stone, greeted me. All of them held the caption of ‘The ones Sol and Lux failed to safe’.

Two of those tombstones didn’t read that, though. 

Sol, he fought valiantly but failed in his duty at the most crucial times.

Lux, she was the first to fall and ushered in the end of Equis.

At that point, I wanted it to stop, but my feet went on regardless of my wishes. There was one grave that was entirely impossible. One that in a million years couldn’t ever come true. 

Spectrum, a mother to all.

“Enough of this torture, my child,” her voice reached me at last. She stood beside me, looking down at the grave as if it told her a funny joke. On her snout was a smile, even though I felt like anything but being happy. How could she find humor at such a sight? “I won’t leave you, you should know better than to harbor such fears. Let them be a warning, but don’t succumb to their lies.”

“But how? This all could become a very real possibility if I fail!” I shouted at her, falling down to my knees. Tears flowed freely down on both of my faces. Hugging her front legs like I was afraid she could disappear if I didn’t keep her in my arms, I looked up to the smiling eyes staring down at me.

“You have been blessed, and yet you fret so much about a possible future. Awaken to your true potential, see what I see in you, and you will understand,” she explained, causing me to feel more confusion than closure. “I see you found a particular plant in the forest, it will be interesting to see your reaction to it upon morning, my sweet child.”

She tittered at that and redecorated our dream to the soothing void of space. This time we were in a different part of it, as I could see a planet not that far away from our position.

“Is that?” I asked and she nodded at my question. The planet Equis, it was a breath-taking sight. An atlas couldn’t do it justice. The vibrant oceans wrapped around the continents like blankets, the frozen caps to the north and south, the clouds floating around serenely, the lights in the darkened part of the world shimmering in a beautiful way, and the light of the sun framing the curvature of the world in a brilliant display of care. A care for every living being down on that planet. “It’s gorgeous.”

“That it is, my child.”

“Could we always dream of this place?” I asked her timidly.

“If that is what you wish,” she smiled. “Then I shan’t say no to you.”

Sitting up and leaning against her, I rested my head against her neck and continued to marvel at the sight of the planet I now inhabited. She nuzzled the top of my head affectionately and we stayed silent for a few more minutes.

The morning came all too soon. A ‘Have fun!’ was the last thing I heard from my Goddess before I felt weird all over my bodies. Rubbing my eyes with the back of my wrist, a jolt like no other went down the spines on both Sol and Lux.

“What the?” I asked, my voices a slightly bit more squeaky all of a sudden. The sensation of my eyeballs being more than triple the size they were before made me shiver in fear. Was I cursed? What was it that Zecora had said again? Something about the blue flowers. Spectrum also failed to hide her amusement from me during the night, so I knew something was definitely up.

My eyes beheld the hooves in front of me. The tan hooves. Hooves that were attached to me. Following the limbs up to my shoulders, or were they called withers now? No, that was the part between the shoulders at the base of the neck, right? Fuck, horse anatomy wasn’t really something I had studied and I regretted that oversight immediately.

The sensation of turning my head around way too far than what I was used to was jarring. I stared at the little pony flanks greeting my sight. On both of them were the images of my talent marks and beyond that, a ginger tail and a blonde tail swishing from side to side in agitation.

What did those flowers do to me?!

A noticeable part missing from Sol was the wings. I friggin’ lost my wings! I began to hyperventilate as panic started to claw at my mind. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t even get to stand up steadily without falling back down to the ground, only to be cushioned by some pillows I tossed from my beds during my nightmare. A common occurrence for me, I assure you. It seemed I even fell down from the beds in the night.

I whimpered at the loss of my human bodies. Whatever the flowers did to me, I hoped the effect wouldn’t last forever. If that was the case, all my training would have been for naught. I couldn’t fight like this!

“Twilight!” I gasped. She had also touched the flowers! As did my friends. Oh no, no, no, no! This was even worse if all of us suddenly turned out to be cute cuddly little ponies.

What? Don’t give me that look, I can admit that I looked cute as hell. Don’t even try to deny it, you know it’s true.

Stumbling around a lot and hitting my poor snout way too often in my clumsy attempts to go and get Twilight in the hopes that she could help me, or at least find a cure, I ended up tumbling down the stairs with Sol. I was fortunate enough to avoid the same fate with Lux. 

Down in the library part of the tree, I saw Twilight tearing books from the shelves and leaving them carelessly on the ground. She still was human at least, and by the expression she wore, she didn’t expect my sudden species change.

“Sol? Is that you?” she asked bewildered. I shook the daze away and looked at her hands. Her fingernails continued to grow abnormally long, probably disabling her from utilizing her magic.

“Yeah,” I answered. Lux was still fighting with the stairs. Twilight followed my gaze to my female half and continued to gape at me. “You’re a... pony? Both of you?”

“Thanks for the brilliant observation, my dear,” I shot back, my sarcasm showing in the posh tone of voice. “What gave it away, the muzzle? The hooves? Perhaps the smell?”

“Don’t get snarky on me, mister,” she said, giving me a small glare. I apologized for letting my frustration out on her, but she understood the feeling. Both of us were cut off from using magic and Sol was permanently grounded for the moment.

To be honest, I would miss my magic more than my wings, seeing that I still was abysmally bad at utilizing them. Beyond gliding and hovering, I haven’t got the hang of climbing in altitude yet. My guess was that I lacked the proper instincts. It would be a tedious process of getting there, although I was optimistic to get there one day.

“Have you found anything yet?” I asked her, grimacing at the storm that went through here. She went to answer me, but Spike spoke up before her.

“It’s a curse! Twilight won’t believe me, Sol.”

“Because it’s not something that is real, Spike! We need a cure for whatever caused this, not a book about the supernatural. That is purely based on fiction!” she shot back and rolled her eyes. Spike gave me a shrug at my raised eyebrow.

“Have you even looked into the book?” 

“Sol, we can’t waste time with going through a book about nonsense! At least from you, I expected better,” she told me. I rolled my eyes, grumbling about her stubbornness. Whatever, it’s not like I’m the expert in magic here...

I might have grumbled about that, too. With not so kind words... It’s frustrating that she couldn’t even entertain the idea that this was quite possibly a curse and not something else.

Pinkie arrived just as I managed to get down to the ground level of the library with Lux. Her tongue stuck out of her mouth, swollen so far beyond what I thought was physically possible, causing her major trouble with speaking. She tried to say we had been cursed and Spike played the guessing game. Not very successfully, at that.

Around then we heard a series of crashes and Rainbow brought down the door to our library, her wings continuing to beat against the air even as she was buried halfway in a mountain of books.

Rarity arrived next, hair sprouting from every surface of her body, but unlike me, hers was long and shaggy. Both Rarity and Rainbow agreed with Pinkie that we have been cursed by Zecora.

“Ah hate to say Ah told you so, Twilight,” Applejack’s squeaky voice reached us. Her voice was way more squeaker than mine. She was sitting in a pocket of Applebloom’s attire, showing us how small she had become. “But Ah told you so!”

Would you look at that, she was even more incapable of defending herself than I was. Fluttershy was the only one of us that remained unchanged. And as she fussed over me, I could tell she wanted to hold me in a hug against her chest and never let go. I was small enough to be carried around like that, unfortunately.

“There doesn’t seem to be a thing wrong with her!” Rarity complained, spitting out the hair that got into her mouth as she spoke. 

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. “Are you okay?”

But Fluttershy refused to speak. That obviously gave me the feeling that something was wrong with her voice. Was she mute now? I don’t know... the blue flower seemed to make each one of us bad at what we were good at, in which way would Fluttershy be impeded by that?

Twilight couldn’t work her magic, I was beyond any ability to fight, let alone walk steadily, Rainbow’s wings worked against her, Applejack was too tiny to work at her farm anymore, Pinkie couldn’t speak without making a mess (and that girl loved to talk), Rarity was too much impaired by all the hair getting in the way to work as a seamstress, and Fluttershy refused to speak for some reason.

You know, it was almost funny what this curse did to us. Twilight’s fingernails looked creepy, though...

Then, at the insistence of Applejack, Fluttershy spoke with the deepest voice I have ever heard. The only one unaffected in our little group now were Spike and Applebloom, but both of them never got into contact with the blue flowers. Spike because he didn’t go into the forest with us and Applebloom never touched those flowers as she followed Zecora and got carried out of the forest on Applejack’s shoulders.

Spike made fun out of all of us, so Twilight made him look through the books as punishment. Can’t say I was sorry for him, he was asking for that with his behavior. Rainbow, on the other hand, had another idea on how to lift our curse. By raiding the place of the witch in the Everfree...

Great idea, I have to say. Great. Fucking. Idea. Let’s go to the possibly not so innocent benevolent witch that could kill us with a few words or worse. I didn’t know what could be worse than her killing us for annoying the heck out of her, but I’m sure there existed at least one thing that was worse than death.

Thus, once more the dispute whether this was a curse started up again. The only ones in our group that agreed Zecora had nothing to do with this were Twilight and me (although I wasn’t entirely certain about that). Nobody noticed that Applejack and her sister were gone before it was too late.

Some panicking later about whether or not someone had stepped on the tiny Applejack, we were on our way to Zecora instead. I’m sure Applebloom went to her to try and fix this. She was the kind of person that wanted to fix her mistakes on her own, and what better way to fix our little situation than ask the one that gave the warning about the blue flowers in the first place?

At least I got the hang of walking around on all fours as long as I pretended I was crawling around as a human. Wasn’t entirely similar, but it got me to move in the right way. Going faster than a trot was a bad idea, though. 

On the way over to Zecora’s, we found our missing friend minus her sister. She was left to fend for herself all alone on a branch and if it weren’t for Rainbow flying around all wacky and out of control, we would have never found her. At least we were the ones that got to her first, as I didn’t want to entertain the idea of timberwolves or a manticore getting a quick snack out of her.

As we found the abode of Zecora, I felt relieved that it was not a gingerbread house like in the old fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. That just solidified my view of her being a benevolent witch doctor.

Any witch not living in a gingerbread house earned herself a plus in my book...

The girls didn’t share my view, though, as they looked through a window I was too short to reach now. I poked Fluttershy’s leg once and she held me up so I could see what all of them were getting so afraid of.

In the middle of the room was a cauldron with bubbling liquid inside, on the shelves were vases and bottles made of hardened clay filled with all kinds of herbs, masks hung up on the walls all over the place, and I even spotted an old traditional dream catcher hanging on the door to her home.

Zecora entered the room and the girls around me ducked out of view for a moment. We returned to observing the woman in the room and listened to her speaking foreign words as she worked on the brew in the cauldron.

Pinkie was upset she stole her song and forced Fluttershy to sing for her. Unamused, the demure woman spoke monotonously the words we heard just the day before. Pinkie did her little dance, but I got fed up and left the group to speak to the witch doctor in her hut before she noticed us spying on her.

That would give her the wrong impression, for sure. So, to prevent that, I knocked on her door and waited for her to open it. Needless to say, she was surprised to find two little ponies sitting on her doorstep.

“Hey, we need your help. Do you know what happened to us?” I asked her. “My name is Sol, and that is my sister Lux.”

“A warm welcome to you,” she began smiling down at me. She stood aside so I could come in. “I know of a cure if you wait for that brew.”

Not a minute later, one tiny Applejack riding a rare Rainbow Dash mount arrived to wreck the home of Zecora. I guess that was a premature end to my hope of returning to normal today. Leave it to the stubbornness of my friends to ruin our chances of being cured in a timely manner. 

Whatever they heard, Pinkie somehow managed to convince Twilight that curses actually existed and that Zecora was the one behind all of this. I didn’t have it in my heart to correct her on that, seeing that she actually managed to change her mind on that. That didn’t make it Zecora’s fault, though.

Zecora had all the right to get mad at my friends for blaming her, they did just barge in accusing her and destroyed half of her home. The fact they thought Zecora had done something to Applebloom got quickly debunked as said girl stood in the door with a shocked look at the mess caused by my friends. Her expression wasn’t missed by anyone in the room.

“What in Ponyville is going on here?” she asked. Applejack was glad to see her safe and sound, but that still left us with Twilight as she stood defensively between the kid and Zecora.

After another debate whether curses were real or not and us explaining that the blue flowers were behind all this (even though I was still of the opinion curses and hexes still had a very likely possibility of existing), Zecora and Applebloom explained that the flowers were called Poison Joke. The contact with one of the flowers was enough for them to affect someone with their ‘poison’.

The joke was that it made us useless, I guess.

Twilight wanted to know from where Zecora knew the cure for it and I had to avoid to groan out in misery. Of course, the only book in the friggin’ library she refused to look into was the one Spike pointed out. She misinterpreted the title, or just didn’t read it past the first word (or thoroughly enough), and didn’t bother with it because she judged it based on its cover.

We all were very much not amused by that. The next time something comes up like this, I will fucking force her to sit at her desk for hours reading the thing until she could recite it in her sleep. Perhaps I should have listened more to Spike and looked through it myself, so I wasn’t entirely without fault here.

Zecora explained to us what all the decorations meant to her as the girls asked about their little observations of the ‘creepy’ masks. I didn’t find them that creepy, but I was more open-minded when it came to things like foreign cultures. Her chanting over her brew? That was a nursery rhyme, go figure... It did sound very intriguing, in my opinion. Perhaps we could sit down over some tea and she could tell me more about Zebrica. I was interested in how similar it was to Africa.

She assured us she could mix up the cure again, but she was missing some ingredients, one that could be bought in Ponyville. Without further ado, we promised the woman we would try and convince the people that they need not fear her. I was pretty optimistic that if we just showed the town that she was just a normal person like you and me that they would come around and be the welcoming neighbors I knew they were.

“Maha’we!” Zecora incanted while she tapped the ground with her staff and we all looked on as power surged through the room and all the stuff littering the ground got fixed up again while everything returned to their proper places. Well, besides the liquid now staining the ground.

She was seriously powerful, I was glad she didn’t decide to make an example out of us while she was mad at us.

While we made our way back to Ponyville, we saw the flower sisters cause a fuss again. Those three had a problem, man. They panicked over the littlest things at times.

In the end, we had the town apologize for how they treated Zecora and got her the ingredients she needed. She would be back in town the next morning so we all could soak in the cure at the spa.

Needless to say, my dear mother was having her fun with me this night. It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep and once I was within the dream realm she greeted me readily with a hug a bit too tight for comfort.

“To see you in this form warms my heart,” she grinned, nuzzling my manes in glee. “Perhaps we shall have you looking like this in our dreams from now on?”

“I...” stuttering a bit at the overly exaggerated show of maternal instincts from her, I was unsure of how I should answer to that. So I just blushed deeper in embarrassment and failed to raise my voice loud enough to give a coherent reply.

“Speak a bit louder, won’t you?” she said, eyes twinkling in mirth.

“Okay, you win! I like this form, happy now?!” I shot back, my face redder than a tomato. “I like how my fur feels snuggled up against you and how nice it feels to nuzzle you back, okay? It makes me feel closer to you than my human bodies could ever be.”

“You don’t have to be so indignant about this, you know?” Spectrum, no, my mother told me. It was like I was just denying myself from having a family again after not remembering the one I had on Earth. If it meant I had this amazing being as my new mother? I’m sure my old one wouldn’t fault me for that.

I got a feeling of understanding of how those people in reincarnation stories could just readily adapt to their new family so easily. Their previous lives were just memories to them once they started their new lives, just like Earth was just a memory to me now.

It was for the best that I didn’t cling to this half-forgotten image of the person I used to be and embraced my new life here to the fullest.

“So, I gotta know, what happened to the bracelet? I didn’t have it on me as I woke up like this,” I inquired. Spectrum glanced down at my wrists where they normally were.

“My dear, this form of yours is saturated in the magic of the world. The bracelet was more of a focus if anything to bring your personal armor out along with the weapons you found in the Everfree Forest beneath the castle,” she started to explain. “Someone like me, an actual pony as you find yourself as, doesn’t need such a silly thing. Try to summon them. You might be yet surprised, my child.”

I did as I was told and found that it was actually way easier than I feared it could be. Normally I always touched my bracelet for this but just ordering my armor to surround me was enough. They formed perfectly formfitting around my pony bodies. The weapon on the other hand, or was it hoof now? Anyway, the weapons themselves were still the same size they were when I was human.

It seems like those were meant to be wielded in my human forms. Not surprising, really. They were forged by human hands to be used by human hands. That just left the question of where this armor came from. So, like the little curious pony that I am, I asked Spectrum whether she knew what the armor actually was.

“Your armor is a very piece of your being. As I brought you to this world and remade you into what you are, I gave you this small boon as my champion. Wear it with pride, for it is literally you that protects you from harm,” she told me. “It was a difficult process to interact with reality as I am now, but for you and my world I would gladly do so again.”

“I read about how they worshipped three different beings for the blessings that you gave them in that museum in Manehattan. How could they just abandon their belief of you like that?”

“Are you referring to my firstborns?” she asked me, her eyebrow raised up a bit.

“Wait... those actually existed? Unicornia, Pegasus, and Terra?” I shot back flabbergasted. Would you look at that, the history was accurate to some degree, after all! And they were her first children?

“My, my. You think they are dead?” she tittered. “While they might not be able to move around freely anymore, I assure you your siblings are still out there, upholding some of the seals. As is their duty now.”

“Siblings?” I asked bewildered. I wasn’t sure how much exposition I could stand for today.

“Why, of course, they are. What did you think? That you were my first child I sent down to the world below us?” mom shook her head in a mock disappointed way. “Technically, you already met two of your other siblings, did you not?”

“Wait, what?” my voice failed me. She couldn’t mean Celestia and Luna, right? Please, don’t tell me my first interaction as the little sibling was to punch my big sister while freeing the other.

“I must say, it was quite humorous to watch how you first introduced yourself to her after your very first adventure,” she laughed heartily. “My, I’m interested to see how she will react once she understands who you truly are. I will get the popcorn ready in that case.”

I groaned in despair. What did I do in my previous life to deserve this? Which god did I piss off to make my life this complicated? It was bad enough I was technically a demi-god by all rights and means, did I have to have such a weird family now? A small smile worked itself onto my faces despite my best efforts to hold my glare at Horse God, but it was a futile effort.

This family might be weird, but it was my family. I could deal with that, I suppose.

“Sooo... if Celestia and Luna are my sisters, why do I have their talent marks? Well, as close to them as they are with these weapons superimposed on them. What’s up with that?” I wanted to know. Nay, I needed to know. Both of these already caught the interest of my friends as I couldn’t exactly hide them in my pony forms. Sure, Rarity knew of them but didn’t ask any further questions about them.

“That is a complicated story, my dear. Believe it or not, but Celestia and Luna’s marks were based off of another mark entirely,” Spectrum answered me. “Your essence, or what you might know as the soul, is a very old one. I’m sure you are aware of the concept of reincarnation, yes?”

I gave her a nod. And... she was right, it was a very complicated story. There existed a man and woman, long in the past now, that taught Celestia and Luna how to fight, alongside an old wizard by the name of Starswirl. It was weird of hearing about these past versions of me, those mighty warriors that safeguarded the land as Celestia and Luna were just mere children at the time. Spectrum sent the sisters down to Equis as their next guardians and both of them were found by Starswirl. He was their instructor in everything magic, while Moonlight and Sunfire taught them how to fight.

The tale of my hidden past wasn’t a happy one, though. As was customary at that time, war arrived. And with that war, came death and destruction. That first war with Grogar? That was the first time I had died and with him being a necromancer?

Let’s just say, my nightmares about turning out like Sylvanas weren’t just figments of my imagination. Both Moonlight and Sunfire were forced to raze the planet to the ground, the fallen heroes meant to protect turned against the very people I was trying to keep safe.

I’ve been granted a second chance. A second chance that I won’t squander this time around. My mother was glad to see the resolve in my eyes for it meant I didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of a past version of myself.

That just left one question.

“If Sunfire and Moonlight were two separate entities, what happened to make me like this?” I asked and dreaded the answer. There were a million possible reasons for how this could have happened and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“I think that is a question for another time, my sweet child,” she told me gently and gave me a sad look. I had the feeling she wouldn’t be telling me this anytime soon. My vision began to fade as I was slowly pulled out of the dream realm. So I just sighed and gave her one last nuzzle as goodbye for now.

Necromancers, Seals, half-god siblings, and me, a reincarnated soul as old as dust and dirt. Nothing could surprise me anymore. And if there was anything left to surprise me, I was reasonably sure that I would be beyond the ability to care at that point.

My life turned into a crappy teenage novel and I was okay with it...

At least today was the last day of the weekend, so I had no work to worry about. The only thing to look forward to was the visit from Zecora.

It was nice to have my normal, human bodies back.

Turns out I had no clothing on, though, which got me into an embarrassing situation with the girls and the spa ladies. Also, everyone saw my tits, so yeah... They wouldn’t ever let me live this one down, huh? As long as only my friends saw me naked, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.