//------------------------------// // The Pony in the Park // Story: Out With the Old // by PoppyThePegasus //------------------------------// I stretched my aching back out, sighing in satisfaction from the pops and cracks of my spinal joints adjusting themselves. My arms settled at the desk again and I got back to work, fingers tapping away with trained precision from years of typing. This particular document was boring me more than usual, the dry language I was being forced to conform to only worsening the experience. Hard to achieve, but somehow, my bosses knew just how to make my job harder. I looked over to the clock in the corner of the screen. Seven PM. Only one hour left and I could clock off, smoke a cone, and collapse entirely for the night. The fatigue I had accumulated throughout had left me too distracted to do anything but somewhat blankly stare at the screen for the rest of the work day. Idle typing interrupted the silence every few moments, and I incessantly checked the clock until it finally ticked over to eight PM. Logging out of my PC, and saying goodnight to my workmates over our internal messenger, I sat still for a moment, trying in vain to recuperate some vestige of mental functionality before abandoning the attempt. Standing and shuffling drowsily over to the kitchen to seek out dinner, I smacked my arm into the rim of the door between the office and living room, grunting and scowling, the knock having snapped me back into the waking world. “Damn shoulders, ow…” The stomping of footsteps from the other room clued me in that my wife, Ada, had gotten up from bed and was awake now as well. “Hey sweetie, you doing okay? Heard a thud.” She rubbed her eyes drowsily, pushing her messy brown hair away from her face in the same motion. “Yeah, just… too big, y’know.” “Aw, I’m sorry Jo.” She spoke softly, walking toward me and taking hold of one of my hands. She brought it to her face and kissed it lovingly. “You’re very handsome, sweetie.” I chuckled, the unfortunate low tone of my voice and the words my wife used sending a pang of weird feelings throughout my body. “I’m under no illusion, Ada.” “Hey! I think you’re attractive.” She huffed childishly, winning me over almost immediately. “Sure. You sleep okay?” “Like a baby. Now, dinner? I got some burger patties if you just wanna do something simple.” “Yeah, if that’s okay, I’m just really tired after work and I wanna get an early—“ I stopped in my tracks, a much louder sound than our conversation interrupting it. The boom rattled the house, bassy and low frequencies clattering dishes and shifting our photo frames. Longer than the rumble of thunder and much more… wavy sounding than an earthquake. I span around as the sound was reverberating, noticing a bright purple light fading quickly out of view in the park next to our house. If I hadn’t just caught the end of the light fading from view, I might not have not seen where it came from at all. “What the hell was that?” “What was what?” Ada lifted an eyebrow. “Seriously? It just shook the house, how did you not—?” I stumbled to the window and looked out over the street. There! Another, much smaller purple flash, accompanied with a shorter, less wavy boom. “I’m not sure. It looked like it was fireworks, maybe, but that sound…” An explosion? A crash? None of these explanations gave me any clue what the hell that purple light was. “I’m gonna go look.” As I turned to leave, Ada caught me by the arm. “Hey, don’t just go wandering off into the night after some… weird sound.” “Ada, There might be someone hurt.” She froze for a moment before I turned and walked out the door. Guess I wasn’t getting an early night after all. “Jo, what are you doing!? Wait up!” The street was dark, only illuminated by the few dingy street lights that actually had globes installed. Half of them were turned off or blown, making it much harder to see than other places in their neighbourhood. It certainly didn’t help the mood right now, as we ran across the street in the dark, the loud smack of our shoes reverberating throughout the stillness of the night. From the volume of that boom, and the fact that it rattled every dish and object in the house, I expected more people to be checking it out, or at least peeking out their doors, but there was no-one in sight. “Seriously, you’re scaring me!” I glanced around, again checking to see if anyone else was around, but to no avail. Just as I turned to Ada to mention what I had noticed, a second, much shorter explosion sounded not too far in front of us, a bright purple flash coming from behind a nearby toilet block. Ada stared back at me and froze. “I- I saw it that time.” Cautiously, we approached the toilet block, walking slower and more quietly as we got closer. What was I even hiding from? Was that purple light from something dangerous? Something alien? Both? I took the lead, shimmying close to the side of the concrete wall of the toilets, my shoes making more noise than I wished in the still quiet of the night. Finally, Ada and I reached the corner and with my heart racing, we slowly inched our heads around. Twilight ran for her life, the sharp branches of the Everfree forest’s trees scratching at her fur, almost as if to hold her down and keep her from escaping. She daren’t look behind for even a second. Any hesitation could mean that thing would catch up to her, and then… She shoved those thoughts away, focusing on pushing her body to its absolute limit. She grit her teeth and her horn flashed, jumping her forward twenty or so feet and sending her scrambling from the change of hoofing for a few precious moments. It didn’t help that one of her wings hung limply at her side, preventing her from being able to adjust her balance as well as she was used to. Twilight was quickly back on her hooves and focused her horn again, galloping faster than she knew she could. The great bear that was on her tail wouldn’t stop for a second, and neither would she. Another flash, and she was ahead again, the crashing trees behind her quieter than a moment ago. That wouldn’t last long; she got up and ran yet again. Oh Celestia, why didn’t I listen to Fluttershy!? She told me to wait! She told me to trust her! This is all my fault! And Starlight… Luna! They… She couldn’t leave Fluttershy, or her marefriends alone… She had to live! Another flash from her horn, and suddenly Twilight was not in the forest anymore. Instead, a gaping chasm was beneath her and she let out a breathless scream, flapping her one not injured wing, plummeting toward the ravine’s stony bed and surely her own demise. “NO!” She reached deep, deep inside herself, searching for it. Aha! Her horn filled with a power she had kept held inside, a fragment of magic from each of the royal alicorns, gifted to her when she first fought Tirek all those years ago. She had told the other princesses that a small amount of power had remained in her, but they had told her to consider it a gift, something to hold onto for a rainy day. Just then, a curdling roar pierced her ears, looking above her to see the demon bear jump after her off the cliff. Well, today couldn’t get any more rainy. Her horn fizzled to life with a rainbow of gold, cyan, royal blue, and purple, growing in brightness and intensity, culminating in a blast of bright purple magic, which smashed into the bed of the valley and tore open a magical hole beneath the two falling creatures. They both fell in, one screaming at the top of her lungs, and the other roaring with an insatiable anger. Behind them, the tear slammed shut with a deafening boom that rocked the entire forest and echoed into the night. I blinked, unsure if what I was looking at was real at all. A giant creature with a worm for a head, but the body of… a bear. And standing next to it’s still form, was a small horse… pony… thing? It was very colourful, not what most people would be used to seeing on a horse, and this one had more than just that which set it apart. A glowing spiralled horn, clearly the source of those lights before, peeking out atop its colourful mane. Two wings graced its side, though one far less gracefully than the other, many feathers being out of place and stained brown with half dried blood. “Is it… dead?” The small purple horse said, relaxing her stance, the glow from her horn dimming and eventually fading out completely. That was another thing that set it apart from normal horses. She spoke. Surely if she spoke, and in such a soft tone at that, she couldn’t possibly be a threat. I stepped out from behind the toilet block, Ada only noticing when I was already out of her grip. She wordlessly mouthed for me to stop, but amongst everything, I didn’t notice at all. “Um, excuse me little horse?” “GAH!” The equine gasped and spun around, her horn lighting up temporarily before her expression relaxed. “Oh, A human! Wait, how did you see through my perception filter spell?” She shook her head dismissively. “Never mind, that’s not important. I sure am glad to see you here!” The purple coated creature limped up to me and held out a hoof. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship!” I stared at the hoof, then at her, then back at the hoof. “Oh, um…” she put her hoof down, rubbing the back of her neck with a nervous blush. “I guess you don’t know what I am… I’m guessing since I didn’t get here through the mirror, I didn’t change to look like one of you again, but… You don’t know what any of that means, so I should just stop talking!” Twilight laughed nervously as she looked up at me. “Do you…” I started, glancing down at the injured wing of the creature calling herself Twilight. “Need help?“ She finished for me, nervously. “Yes please. I don’t really know where I am now, and you don’t exactly look like...” “Jo?” Ada said, peeking out from behind the toilet block where she had been hiding. “Ada! It’s okay, come over, she’s safe. I think…” “Oh, hello! I’m not sure if you heard before, I’m Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship!” As she nervously held out a hoof again, a twitch of pain caused her to drop to the ground before Ada could even consider accepting the hoof-shake. She lunged forward and caught the pony before she hit the dirt, lifting her up and into her arms instinctively. “Woah!” Twilight said as she was hoisted off the ground unceremoniously. “Oh, uh, sorry little horse!” Ada chuckled nervously. “You’re just so small, I kind of… uh…” She put her down again, a blush tinting her cheeks. “Ahem, well.” Twilight brushed her coat down with a hoof. “I suppose in my state, you might as well carry me. I think i might have lost a little blood when that bear swiped at me earlier and – THE BEAR!” Everything flipped. I felt a powerful something smash into the side of my head, instantly sending me into an aerial spiral. The hit left my mind blank, only the ringing of concussive force filling my head. I gasped suddenly for air as it was all pushed out of my lungs, the collision I made with a nearby tree forcing it free from my body. I fell to the floor with a thud and lay there groaning, the suddenness of the attack leaving me dazed and throbbing with pain all over. I gasped, sensation returning to my body after the initial shock, the odd angle of my leg suddenly making sense. “Oh god…” I tensed my muscles, preparing for the pain I knew to be coming. I grunted, my leg throbbing as I pushed myself off the floor. Another warping boom, and the flashes of magenta light from across the clearing told me the danger had all but passed. Twilight held the form of the giant, shaggy beast in what I could only assume was magic, a beam of magenta connecting the bear-worm hybrid to the tip of the purple ponies horn. She scrunched her face in exertion, colours suddenly emitting from her horn and spiralling around, sending sparks of blue, gold, and purple out from Twilight like a firework. With a high pitched scream, a huge magical tear opened itself in front of Twilight, and Ada lunged forward, pushing the bear through the gap with the pure strength of her arms. It’s elongated head whipped around, spraying spittle everywhere as it roared. Just as it was through, Twilight screamed yet again and the rip closed itself, severing the beam connecting her to the bear and sending it shooting back to her like a cord. The silence of the night suddenly returning was almost deafening. All that broke it was the staggered pants of Twilight and Ada, finally able to catch their breath after such a sudden and violent encounter. “Ada…” I grunted out, the oxygen still not properly filling my lungs after my collision with that tree. “Are you okay?” “I… Think… So…” Ada stuttered between breaths. The pony beside my wife looked down, grunting again as her horn glowed and pulled her wing up to her side. The small amount of dried blood on her wing simply dissolved and fell away as her feathers righted themselves. She stood there glowing for a moment before she sighed and released the wing, stretching it out to test its mobility. Was that… healing magic? “Twilight? That’s your name right?” I called out weakly, the purple horse also breathing heavily from the strain she had just put herself through. “Y-Yeah. Princess of… oh forget about it.” Twilight breathed heavily before perking up and walking slowly over to me. “I’m so sorry I put you in danger like this. Jo, was it?” Twilight offered a smile and held her hoof out to me once more. This time I smiled back at her and shook it. “Don’t mention it. Though, if you’d like to make it up to me, some of that… magic stuff might be cool right now. I sort of…” I trailed off, gaze drifting down to my broken leg. “I mean, I don’t know if you can heal a broken leg or whatever. I’m pretty new to this kinda thing…” “Of course! It’s the least I could do. Just hold still for a moment, this might tingle.” Twilights horn lit up and a soft lavender glow enveloped my broken leg. At first, her warning of tingles seemed to be mostly accurate, as the broken leg moved around, bones seemingly righting themselves under my skin. After a few seconds, however, the tingle turned to an itch, turned to a burn, and turned to the most searing paid I had ever felt in my life. “Ah! Stop, please stop!” I screamed, overwhelmed in pain, and the glow dissipated from my leg, dropping it to the floor in a painful thud. “Argh, god damn it!” “Jo!” Ada pushed the princess away, sending her sprawling for a moment until she gained her composure. Ada looked over my body rapidly, eyes transfixed on where the break was. “What did you do to him!?” “Sorry! I’m sorry!” Twilight yelped, stepping even further back from us. I looked down at my leg, now seemingly healed of the break it had before, but burning in pain on the surface of my skin. Some sort of glowing purple residue was seemingly left behind on my leg. I leaned forward and brushed at it, attempting to fling it off, but it stuck like glue to my hands, burning them too. “What is this stuff? It feels like it’s burning my skin off!”  I whimpered, the pain overwhelming me. My mind started to go blank, filled with nothing but the searing on my skin. “It... It shouldn’t have stuck to you like that! That’s magical residue, and it usually just fades away after I cast it, why isn’t it—“ Twilight stopped as the glowing residue started to seep into my foot, sending more wracking pains throughout my leg and body. I screamed at the suddenness of the pain, clutching at it in hope for it to do something, anything at all to get this pain to stop! She stepped tiptoed back and forth for a moment before reaching forward and brushing the residue off me physically with a hoof, sending it into the grass. It fizzled out and sunk into the floor, the glow eventually disappearing. “Oh Celestia I’m so sorry! I was only trying to help, I didn’t—“ “Twilight, it’s okay. I forgive you.” I interrupted her, still wincing a bit from the pain but controlling myself enough to calm down the princess. I held out a hand and put it on her withers, the princess stopping her nervous fidgeting for a moment and looking appreciatively at me. “I don’t think you did this on purpose, and it does actually seem like you healed the break.” I stood up, tripping slightly only for Ada to rush to my side and help me keep balance. “Well, as long as you forgive her…” she looked apprehensively over at Twilight. “I can forgive her too.” “Thanks sweetie.” I kissed her on the cheek. “Now, I really want to get inside please.” “Most definitely. Lead the way?” Twilight smiled nervously and motioned for us to continue. Once we were inside, and properly situated on the couch with some water and fruit brought out by Ada sitting in front of us, I finally let out the tension I had been holding in me since we first heard that boom. Neither of us touched the fruit, but we all were pleased to have some water to bring us back to life, proverbially. Twilight was a little bit of an odd sight, sitting on the couch next to me with a disposable plastic bottle held between her front hooves. She sipped tiredly at the water, still catching her breath and recovering. I did the same, the ordeal we had been through being more than enough excitement for my year. She was definitely not the kind of horse I was used to seeing, her eyes slightly more forward and bright than those of a regular horse, not to mention the horn on her head and wings on her side. Her hooves looked very similar to an earth-dwelling pony's, the smooth keratinous nubs fading into fluffy fetlocks and fuzzy fur, but it seemed she was able to manipulate them in a far more prehensile way. My leg twitched and I looked down at it. The magic residue had left some weird green colouration on my skin, which left me feeling incredibly uneasy. I wasn’t going to put any extra pressure on her right now, but I was going to need answers when Twilight had recovered a bit. Ada re-entered the room, having finished cooking the burger Patties we were going to have earlier. Luckily I preferred veggie burger patties, as I wasn’t sure if horses ate meat, let alone magical horses from another world. “Oh my, thank you, Ada! Twilight grinned, the burger levitating toward her in a purple glow. “Hay burgers are my favourite.” “I think these are mostly beans and other plant stuff, not, uh… hay.” Twilight wiped her mouth with a napkin, smiling as she chewed.  “It’s delightful anyway.” She set the burger down and finished her mouthful. What Twilight said before had left me infinitely curious. “What does hay actually taste like, Twilight?” “That’s right, of course humans don’t eat hay.” She giggled. “Well, it’s kinda sweet and earthy, but you can make it into plenty of things! Burger patties, fries, or even just fresh is nice sometimes.” “Oh wow.” Now I was even more curious. Did hay taste the same to humans as it did to ponies? Or was it something about pony biology that made it taste good? “Thank you both. For helping me before, for letting me take refuge here, and for being so welcoming to me even though I hurt you.” She looked toward me sympathetically, placing a hoof on my hand. “I know this is all very confusing.” “Yeah, we don’t exactly have…” Ada looked Twilight up and down. “Unicorns? We have horses here on earth, but they don’t look like you at all.” “Ponies. And me specifically, I’m an alicorn. Wings and horn and all.” Twilight corrected with a blush. “You said something when we first met… about a mirror?” “Oh, yes! The mirror that links our worlds together. It’s disguised as a statue in front of a local school, Canterlot High.” Canterlot? That much be a joke. “I don’t think I’ve heard of that school before. What state is it in?” “Um… Equestria? I think? Oh gosh, I wish Sunset had taught me anything about her world before I left.” The young alicorn gripped at her face in frustration. “Well,” Ada said, tapping through her phone with precision and speed “it doesn’t look like there’s a Canterlot or an Equestria in our world. It keeps trying to ask if I mean “Camelot” or “Equestrian”, but neither of those are places. Or at least, not real ones.” “But… that can’t be possible! Unless…” Twilight pondered for a moment, glancing at me and Ada. “What… fur varieties do you have over here on “earth”?” “Uh, well humans don’t have fur, but we have all kinds skin tones.” “Any blues?” Twilight asked nonchalantly. “Huh?” ”Oh, you know, blue, lilac, green, the regular varieties.” “Uh… I don’t think so. Maybe if I had jaundice, or frostbite, but human skin varieties don’t come in anything super bright like that.” Twilight pursed her lips and look off contemplatively, tapping one hoof against her chin. “I’m going to assume that this isn’t Sunset Shimmer’s version of this realm. Come to think of it, knowledge of magic is far and wide in sunsets realm, and I’ve cast it on her before. It never burned her, nor left behind residue that strong.” She glanced over to my leg, her eyes widening slightly. “And I’ve never seen it do this before.” “Wait, what did it do?” “These marks… the green splotches on your leg. I’d use my magic to diagnose it, but there’s no telling what kind of adverse reaction you could have to that.” She tapped her chin again in thought. “I’ll have to monitor it, make sure that it’s not injured.” “Well, it feels fine now.” I replied. “I can still feel the lingering sting from before, but the bone seems to be all fixed.” “I’m not convinced that this isn’t something more serious.” She turned to face my wife. “Sorry, Ada, but I’m going to need to stay here while I figure out what is happening to him.” I cringed a little at the last word she used, but said nothing. “That’s okay, Princess Twilight. Thank you for helping Jo in the first place.” She looked on nervously, trying and failing to keep her eyes off my magically affected leg. “I know you’ll try your best to fix… whatever this is. Just don’t make it worse.” “It could be nothing,” Twilight added “but it could also be something. I’m not sure, I just want to make sure I didn’t… I don’t know, give him some kind of magical disease.” “Do… do those exist?” I nervously asked. “Not as far as I know, but it’s been theorised, especially when magic interacts with non magical things. You seem to be a non magical creature, correct?” “Yeah. Magic doesn’t really exist here, beyond parlour tricks and sleight of hand, but that’s illusion, not magic.” Twilight giggled. “I’m meaning like the type of magic you saw me use before. But if we can confirm your species isn’t innately magical, then that helps us narrow down possibilities.” She added with a nod before yawning widely. “Speaking of which, I think I may have kind of sorta exhausted myself doing all that magic before. Is there somewhere I can sleep?” “We have the couch down stairs, or our bedroom up stairs.” Ada mentioned, standing up to retrieve a throw blanket and pillow for Twilight. ”If you don’t mind sleeping on an old mattress, I can set you up in our room?” “Thank you, but the couch should be fine.” Twilight smiled lightly, which soon turned into a loud yawn. “Ooh, sorry everypony, I think I gotta hit the hay. Thank you again for helping me back there. I promise you, we’ll figure this out.” The night was turbulent. Dreams of my body warping and being ripped apart, skin dissolving from the effects of the magic residue. Losing Ada and our new friend, Twilight, to that bear, back for revenge. I shook my head, clearing the memories from my head and the half length curls from my face. I looked to my side at Ada, still soundly asleep. She and I had met at school together and remained together ever since. We had lots in common, and she really was such a great friend to me. I chuckled, thinking back on what Twilight had called herself last night. The Princess of Friendship. Was that even a real thing? Sounded almost like a made up title you’d give yourself to sound important, but what did I know. It’s not like I had much experience with the subject. I let out a sigh and looked down at the sleeping Ada. At least I had her. I squinted, something on her hand catching my eye. A darkened spot on the tip of each of her fingers. It was very subtle, but the skin there was definitely a deep blue hue. Something nagged at the back of my memory and I threw the sheets off, staring down at the place Twilights magic residue had seeped in last night. The green had gotten substantially further, now almost covering the entire front half of my shin. I instinctively gasped a little and froze, not sure how to proceed. Eventually, I reached a hand forward to feel the green spot and— Oh god, what was that? More coloured splotches had spread on my now outstretched hand, presumably also from the small amount of magical residue that stuck to my hand when I was trying to brush it off. I collected myself and slowed my heart enough to reach forward again and feel at the spot on my leg. My hand came into contact with it and felt… wonderful. What!? Why did it feel so soft? It was almost like a plush toy, felt and velvet combined together to create what was just the most incredible sensory experience I had ever felt. I pulled my hand back, almost sending myself into a panic from shock at the experience alone. My heart was beating so hard, it threatened to jump right out of my chest. What was happening to me that was making my leg feel so… incredible? My heart was fluttering, a feeling I was not at all expecting to be filled with. Touching that spot was so calming, relaxing… I shook my head, there were more important things to think about! Twilight might not have all the answers, but since my condition was advancing, she might have more insight on it. Not to mention that experience I had felt while touching it… surely Twi would have something to say about that. Twi? Gosh, snap out of it, Jo. You only just met her, it’s not really appropriate to go around shortening her name. But… she could still be a friend. I didn’t have to push Twilight away, like I did everyone else in my life. I squinted my eyes and stood up, attempting to divert the road my thoughts were going down. Twilight was already awake as I went down the stairs, apparently making herself comfortable in the kitchen and humming loudly as she levitated things around. I was about to call out her name when a batter coated  spatula floated into my head, shocking me slightly and causing me to lose my balance. I held my hand out for purchase but found none as I tipped backward. Hearing a high pitched yelp from Twilight as I fell, I braced my body for an impact… that never came. I slowly opened my eyes only to see a soft purple glow enveloping me. I gasped and struggled for a moment, expecting the burning sensation that I had felt all throughout me last time, only for it also to never come. “Uh, Twilight?” “I’m so sorry, Jo!” She lifted me the rest of the way to my feet with her magic, a second glow covering my vision and brushing my forehead clear of spilled batter from the spatula. “I was trying to make you both some breakfast with what was in the cupboard, to make it up to you for your help, I didn’t mean to end up hurting you by—“ Suddenly her eyes widened and she gasped in shock. “Jo, I used magic on you!” “I know!” “The residue just dissipated? And it didn’t burn?” “Not this time, apparently.” “Fascinating…” Twilight began looking me up and down. ”Speaking of which, I thought you might have something more to tell me about this.” I said, pulling the pant leg of my pyjamas up to reveal the now spreading spot. Wait, had it gotten larger since I woke up? Twilights attention was immediately transfixed on my leg and she circled around me, humming and hrring like a true scientist. “I gave it a touch before, and I thought you should know, it was… kinda weirdly soft and nice. Velvety.” I jumped a little as Twilights hoof brushed the front of my shin, tracing the area of skin which was now coated in green fuzz. ”Hm, funny.” Twilight chuckled. “It feels just like—“ Her expression fell blank, besides her slowly widening eyes. Suddenly, I felt myself hoisted into the air with a purple glow. “Woah, holy— jeez Twilight! Put me down!” I yelled, to no avail. “I get that you can use magic on me now, but that’s no reason to just do it whenever!” We entered the front room of the house, where our couch was, where she plonked me down unceremoniously, pushing me to lay down and swivelling the nearby pedestal lamp over my leg. “Whas’goin‘on?” I heard Ada say from above, making her way down the steps and into the front room with them. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Twilight perched over me, intently inspecting my illuminated and furry green leg. “Everything okay over here?” Twilight didn’t respond, her eyes intently fixed on a fine strand of fur she had plucked painlessly from my shin when I wasn’t watching. “Is that… oh damn, it got bigger?” She glanced over Twilights shoulder at the growing patch. “Yeah. It’s fine, doesn’t hurt or anything, but I still have no idea what’s up with me.” I said, glancing down at Ada’s hands. The blue had definitely spread down her fingertips since I saw them this morning. “As I thought.” Twilight interrupted us, swinging around to look at Ada. “It’s pony!” “Uh… what’s pony.” Ada blankly stared at the alicorn who was now grinning ear to ear. “I figured it out! The patch on your skin is growing pony fur! This must be some kind of reaction to the magical residue being absorbed into your skin. It makes sense, what with this world being adjacent to Sunset Shimmers, humans would be similarly transferable between pony and human forms when exposed to enough Equestrian magical energy, which is what I imagine triggers the change when travelling through the mirror, an—“ “Twilight, please! Slow down. Can you please explain this in like, the dumbest terms possible. Pretend you’re talking to literal children over here.” Ada interrupted her ramblings with a hand over the pony’s snout. Twilight lifted a hoof up to push Ada’s hand away, but instead snapped to attention and lifted the hand toward her face. “It’s happening to you too!” “What!?” Ada wrenched her hand free and stared at the blue on her fingertips. A soft fuzz had begun to accumulate around the blue patches, just as it had done on my legs and hand. “Okay, explain please.” Ada shoved her nervously jittering hand back into Twilights face, causing her to reel back and scrunch up her nose. “Like, now please. I’m gonna have a panic attack if you don’t explain what’s happening right now.” I stood up and held Ada close in my arms, feeling her shaking subside a little in my embrace. “It’s okay, honey. I’m here.” I stroked her hair, feeling a few weak sobs come from her as she rocked back and forth. Twilight walked up beside her and put a hoof on Ada’s leg. Ada turned from me and smiled at the small purple impossibility before us. “I’m sorry all of this happened, but as I promised Jo, I promise the same to you. I’ll figure out what’s happening to you two, and I’ll fix it.” Twilight reassured us, accepting the hug we both gave to her. “Now, for the explanation. You might want to sit down for this.” Twilight said, leading us toward the couch and sitting up next to us with a small hop. “This is still just a theory based on what very little information I have about your condition, so please don’t take this as a definitive answer.” “Okay… I’ll try” I said, my heart racing as I swallowed my anxiety. “In my world, there exists a mirror that takes us to the world I was mentioning before. Sunset Shimmer, a dear friend of mine, lives in that world with her human classmates. Now, this world clearly isn’t the same as that world, but it is adjacent to it, magically.” “Okay, I think I follow so far…” I scratched my head nervously. “However, when we travel through the mirror, it changes our forms to be more acceptable to the dominant sentient species of your world.” “So not dolphins?” I grinned, only receiving silence from the other two. I stayed silent as well. “Humans. When I opened that world gate, it didn’t have with it any of the magic that changed me when going through the mirror, so I can only assume that’s why I’m still an alicorn. This world, however, doesn’t have any magic.” No magic? “How can you tell?” Ada asked. “It’s in the air. Well, it usually is. I can’t feel any magical power here, which might make… certain things a little harder.” She turned a little and began to rub her chin in contemplation. “Ah!” She span back around. “No distractions! So, this world, no magic.” I nodded. “When I tried to heal you before, the magic residue wasn’t properly able to dissipate into the magicless atmosphere and collected on your skin. You, having no natural magic, took all of it inside you and it’s not gonna leave.” “Oh. So like, you just gave me radiation poisoning?” “No!” Twilight squeaked. “Nothing so dangerous as that. If my theory is correct, and it usually is, you’re going to eventually be covered in this fur, and you’ll look just like me. Well, obviously not just like me, but you’ll be a pony.” “WHAT!?” Ada shot up, her eyes gaping wide.  “We’re gonna look like… YOU!?” “Yeesh, I know I’m not conventionally attractive…” she pawed at the couch with a hoof. Meanwhile, I was sitting there, my heart racing and my mind going ever faster. No way. No god damn way. Something was bubbling up inside me. A strange, indescribable feeling. My chest felt warm and excited, a strange rush of endorphins entering me. What had Twilights words done to elicit this? “I have work tomorrow!” Ada whimpered, sitting down heavily next to me and holding me for comfort. “Am I just gonna like, start growing a horn like you in the middle of my shift? My manager would kill me!” I hugged her back, and tightly too, but not out of panic. Something else was going on in my head, something about this that I didn’t understand, but it made my skin tingle, and my new patch of fur stand on end. My fur. My. Fur. It was mine. I had fur. I could feel the worry in Ada, and sympathised with her, but I could not convince myself to stop my heart from beating faster and faster. I felt a smile creep onto my lips, but dispelled it before anypony noticed. I cleared my throat, consciously lowering my volume and pitch to make my words seem less… excited. “So you know how to fix this?” Twilight nodded. “I do. It’s complex, and involves a couple of chained reality hops so we can first reach our world, and reverse your condition before taking you back here using a correct form of world gate.” “That sounds… How long is this change going to take? I can’t be a god damn pony.” Ada gasped in desperation, looking up from her hands. Is it really… that bad? “I can only assume, at the speed it’s growing at right now, that the process will take around a week. Jo was exposed to more magic than you were, so maybe faster for him. It must’ve been when you were helping me push the bear back through the portal that you were exposed.” “Great. Last time I help anyone ever.” Ada sighed and planted her face back into her hands. The strange, awful feeling in response to her words remained. “I’m sorry, but I have more bad news.” “Really?” Ada asked incredulously. “Worse than turning into a pony!?” Twilight and I both winced, she clearly hurt by Ada’s words as well. She didn’t have to say it like that, especially after all Twilight had done for us so far… “Err…” Twilight continued “Well , as I mentioned before, this world doesn’t have magic. When I came here, I used a massive amount of magic to open that portal, and pushed myself even further when I opened it again to send that creature back to the Everfree— where I was before I came here.” Twilight explained, pawing nervously at the couch. “All ponies generate a little bit of magic in their bodies; it’s why Equestria’s air is so filled with it, but we also benefit from the magical air, helping us recharge our reserves faster. Usually after using a spell that size, and under Equestrian atmospheric magic, I’d need a few days to recover. Maybe a week at most.” “Wait.” Ada shuddered. “What are you trying to say.” “Well, for me to have any chance of helping you, I’m going to need my magic to recharge enough to open another Worldgate. I need my lab, equipment, and lots of reserve magic. None of that’s here, and since I’m going to need it, I’ll need to take you to Equestria with me. Temporarily.” “What does that have to do with your magi—“ I stopped. “Oh gosh, how long is it going to take for your magic to recharge enough to open that portal up again?” “It may take up to a month.” “A MONTH!?” Ada shouted, and I winced away from her at the sudden volume and anger in her voice. “I can’t do this! I have work! Friends! Family to see! I promised to help my cousin move next week!” Twilight chuckled with a nervous smile. “Um… that’s a month here. Once we get to Equestria, I’m not even sure how long it might take to reverse your condition.” “SCREW THIS.” She shouted and stormed into the office, slamming the door behind her angrily. I stood there with Twilight in silence. I hadn’t seen Ada show that kind of anger since her step dad visited. I shifted my gaze to the short princess beside me and offered a weak smile. “I’m sorry, Twilight, she… can get like this sometimes. I’ve learned that when she does, she just needs time alone to think.” I said, glancing at the closed door nervously. I wanted her to open up to me, let me into her heart fully, but sometimes it felt like a blank box. No way to tell what was inside without actually doing something about it. “No, Jo, it’s my fault. I should have found out a way to break this to you both more softly, I can’t imagine how horrible you must feel right now.” A tingle in my chest. I said nothing about it again. “I’ll be fine, I think Ada’s taking it… far worse than me.” “It’s still my fault this is happening in the first place. Gosh, I’m such a horrible princess.” She planted her face into her hooves and sobbed. I shuffled closer to her and put my arm around the shaking alicorn. “You’re not. You’ve done everything you can. I don’t blame you for being chased by… what was that thing?” “A MindWorm. That bear wasn’t the creature we were fighting, that worm had attached itself to the bears head and taken over it, making it attack us. Poor thing didn’t know what it was doing.” She sobbed again. “And I almost killed it! Fluttershy would never have forgiven me.” Fluttershy? Must be one of Twilight’s friends. “All that aside, it’s not your fault.” I said, unconsciously stroking her mane. “I’m sure being a pony isn’t all that bad.” “I mean, I think it’s great.” She said with a chuckle and wiped an eye free of tears. “I have so many friends who love me, and two wonderful marefriends. I have a teacher who trusted me to work alongside her as a princess, spreading the joy of working together throughout Equestria and beyond!” Her tone picked up toward the end, the smile on her face growing to almost outshine her tears. I smiled too, her joy almost contagious. To be honest with myself, the stuff she described sounded pretty great too. “Plus, I have magic! All ponies do, so I can only assume you will too.” She smiled at me and heart picked up the pace yet again. That did sound great! What kind of magic would I have? “You mentioned that you’re an Alicorn pony specifically before. Does that mean there are other pony varieties?” “Oh of course! There’s winged pegasi, horned unicorns, and the robust earth ponies! Alicorns like me are far rarer, mostly being princesses or other powerful ponies who achieved a great magical feat and were transformed into an alicorn. I was actually a unicorn before I got wings.” She said, a proud yet anxious smile on her lips. My mind raced with possibilities. All of those sounded so wonderful… “Ooh, I have an idea! If you don’t mind, Jo, I’m going to scan you with my magic.” “Sure! Uh, what are you looking for?” I responded as her horn began to glow, coating my entire form in a thin pink glow. I giggled embarrassingly as the magic passed over me, tingling behind my ears and in other such miscellaneous places. “I’m trying to see if I can detect what kind of— aha! Well, Jo, looks like you’re going to be a pegasus!” Another jolt, that strangely happy warm washing over my body. “A P- Pegasus? They have…” my mind wandered, the possibilities of what I might look like rushing through my head. Soft feathered wings, keeping my body warm and giving a distinct silhouette to my form. Spreading them wide and stretching out, the beautiful pinions shimmering in the sunlight. “You’ll look like me, minus the horn.” She tapped it once for emphasis. “Pegasi can control the weather, too! That’s the magic I was able to detect within you just then. I’m sure you’ll make a fine stallion.” “Stallion?” The word was familiar; I knew it had something to do with horses, but not exactly what. “Oh, that’s just the word for a male horse.” Suddenly, the joy I had been holding in my heart this whole time was dropped like a stone, and my thoughts came crashing back to my harsh reality. Of course. I was still a man. That wouldn’t change, even though the rest of me would. “I… did I say something wrong?” Twilight placed her hoof on my hand, moving closer to me. “No, it’s…” how could I tell her? How could I tell anyone? I had only just discovered it within myself recently, and the burning desire at the back of my brain scorched like a wound. I couldn’t bear the burn any more, and this outlet felt like exactly what I had been searching for. “I’m fine, I just— I… I wanted to… god, I don’t know how to say it, I… being a… s-st—- I don’t even know how to put it into words. I’m not… comfortable. With the way I am. My body, it just feels… It’s complicated.” “Jo, I… if it’s something about what I said before. About you turning into a “stallion”? If you’d allow me to be blunt, I have a friend who is just like you. She was born a colt and later transitioned to be a mare. I’m sorry if I’m overstepping my boundaries, but the way you were talking about it sounded just like how she described her feelings.” “No, you’re right.” I nodded and I swallowed a huge lump of anxiety that had been building in my throat. I was finally going to actually say it instead of keeping it all inside. “I’m transgender.” I sobbed, the relief spreading through me as Twilight pulling me in for a hug, stroking my back with a hoof. I wrapped my arm around her, accepting the gesture of kindness wholeheartedly. I was so happy to finally have told someone. Somepony. My gaze drifted anxiously toward the door, trying to imagine what my wife’s reaction could possibly be. I just wish the one I told first could have been Ada. “I won’t tell Ada, if you’re worried” The princess said, following my gaze but keeping her hug with me close. “I’d never do anything make you regret confiding in me.” I smiled and shook my head, sniffling my tear clogged nose. “I have no doubts.” Twilight smiled again and put a hoof on mine once more, her presence and words comforting enough to me that— Wait She placed her hoof. On my hoof. My right arm jerked upward and I focused my attention on the tip of my ex-hand, wiggling the solid beige lump which comprised my now-hoof. Twilight gasped and held her own hooves to her mouth in surprise. “Did I— did that happen when I scanned you before?” “I mean, you’ve been casting magic on me since I woke up, so I wouldn’t be surprised if all that was accelerating the process.” Twilight giggled. “You sounded like me just then.” SLAM. The door to the office smashed open and Ada stumbled out, hiding her hands underneath each armpit. “Twilight, please.” She sobbed. “You have to make it stop.” Ada pulled each hand out slowly, revealing, like mine, that each hand had begun to change. Hers, unlike mine, looked far less advanced, her fingers only now cartoonily disappearing into her hands like a balloon filling out and losing all its creases. Huh, so that’s what it looked like when it was actually happening. Ada swung her gaze to me, looking me up and down angrily. “Jo? Why are you not angry!?” She pointed a vestigial hoof at Twilight. “She’s doing this to us!” I stood up, placing one of my hoof-hands and my other still human hand on her. She jerked away, looking down at me. Wait, down? Wasn’t I taller than her? “Your hand! It looks even worse than mine!” “Ada, please stop, you—“ “No! Look at your leg, it’s also gotten worse!” I looked down at my leg, still visible from my previously rolled up pant leg. My foot was in a similar state to Ada’s hands when she came out of the office, slowly changing before my eyes. It had almost finished morphing fully into a hoof when it came to a halt. “Woah!” I said, a smile threatening to show on my lips. “Why are you so nonchalant about this!?” Ada screamed. “I can’t— Jo, you’re so selfish.” Pacing around the room, Ada smacked her leg against the coffee table. “Damnit! Damn, crap, argh!” She clenched her leg, leaning down and grunting heavily in pain. “Ada, please, you have to calm down.” She stopped, whimpering and sobbing on the spot. Eventually, exhausted, she stood up and stumbled over to the couch, sitting down with a thud. “Ada… do you… still want to hold me?” She glanced up at me and then down to my changed hoof. Apprehension. “S- Sure…” she nodded, and shuffled over slightly on the couch to give me space to sit next to her. I sat next to her almost as apprehensively as the stare she was giving me. “Ada,” Twilight started, “I know this is scary. No doubt Jo is dealing with the same thoughts right now,” Was I? Did I really fear this as much as Ada did? “But I promise you, this is all reversible. I was changed into a human once when I travelled between Equestria and the other human world. Magic is… well, magic! It can do a lot of things, including changing the shape, form, and biology of creatures, as you’re experiencing now.” “That doesn’t fix the fact that I have work.” “Hmm…” Twilight tapped a hoof against her chin. “I can possibly create a small illusion spell. It will make your boss just sorta forget to think about you. It won’t make him forget about you completely, your absence just simply won’t register to him.” “Yeah, well it better work, cos if it doesn’t, then I’ll be coming back with no job.” “I did this once before to go see a Sapphire Shores show when I was supposed to be studying,” Twilight giggled with a wink. “Trust me, my mum noticed nothing.” “Okay.” Ada nodded, standing up and pulling away from my grasp. Did she want me near her or not? “I need… I need to lie down. I can’t deal with all of this right now.” She turned and noiselessly walked out of the room, this time walking up stairs and closing the door to our room calmly. Twilight and I sat in silence, the dead air starting to become awkward after not too long. “Are you okay, Jo?” Twilight said, “I know this is all so hard to deal with, I wouldn’t be upset if you hated me for this too, I deserve—“ “Twilight,” I interrupted. “I’m not… I’m not upset. I’m not mad. In fact, I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts all morning, but I think I might be… excited about this.” “Wait, really?” Twilight deadpanned. “After how your wife was reacting, you’re really okay with all this?” “I’m worried about her, I really am.” A frown creasing my brow. “She’s been very distant from me in general, and I’m scared that this will push us further apart.” Twilight nodded and looked intently, waiting for me to continue. “I know this is a lot for her. Hell, if it weren’t for how disconnected with my gender I feel, maybe I would feel the same as her. But, I just don’t.” I stated flatly. It was a weird feeling, to be expressing such raw emotions in such blunt terms. Twilight showing up, and this whole situation surrounding us, had somehow brought all of my previously hidden thoughts to the surface. “The way she talks, about friends and work and everything. I just can’t relate with her. I feel like an alien in my own body.” “Oh, Jo, I’m so sorry, I can only—“ she stopped herself, ears perking up in recognition before lowering again in embarrassment. “How thoughtless of me, I should have asked! Do you want me to call you anything different? I know many trans ponies go by different names than the ones their parents gave them.” I sat still for a moment, only having recently considered the thought. “Well,” I started, “W- What kind of names do ponies use?” Twilight grinned in acknowledgement. “Usually, ponies are named through a process called a naming dream. It’s something a parent has when they’re pregnant with their foal. Princess Luna would be able to explain it better, but I’ll try my best.” I nodded for her to continue. “It usually comes in the forms of visual metaphors that the parent can interpret in the way they like, but it’s ultimately up to the parent what the foal is named. My mother told me that I was named Twilight Sparkle as a combination of my mothers name, Twilight Velvet, and her naming dream where she saw beautiful stars sparkling above her.” “I wish I had been named like that. I was named after my Uncle, who kinda just hates me now and won’t speak to me anymore.” “Now sounds like a perfect time to change it then.” She smiled at me warmly. Another soft tingle in my chest, my mind now racing with possibilities. I had always loved flowers, and without acknowledging it, my mind had been subtly thinking about names I would prefer to have. In fact, there was one name I had already spent hours thinking about. “How does… P- Poppy sound?” I suggested, and Twilight instantly clapped her hooves happily together. “Poppy! I love it! You know, I have a few friends in Ponyville who I’d love to introduce you to! Rose, Lily, and Daisy run the local florist, and I’m sure they’d be excited to meet another flower pony.” She said, emphasising it with a wink. My heart filled with warmth once again, even just thinking about what Twilight had suggested. Friends. A new place. People— no, ponies who loved me and wanted me to actually be there. “D- Did I say something wrong?” Twilight lowered her voice, placing a reassuring hoof on my shoulder. Was I…? I brought my hoof to my face and cleared away the tears I only just realised had begun to stream down my face. “No, Twilight.” I smiled through the tears, returning her gesture of comfort with my own hoof on her shoulder. “I’m crying because… I think, for the first time in my life, I feel like… I might be able to feel like myself.”