His mind was the first thing to start up once his consciousness returned to him. Went over a pseudo start-up process that went beyond him even processing the sounds, senses, and smells that hit him all at once. Even without opening his eyes, he recalled what'd happened a few moments before he'd fallen into this state, the overwhelming feeling of happiness and disbelief hitting his body all at once was too much for his damaged resolve. The sight of the beautiful flora in the Canterlot Gardens was something that he was able to recognize in an instant, with the plant life being much greener and well, alive than he was used to them being for so long. But he'd almost instantaneously lost consciousness when he saw--
--No, no. He had to situate himself first.
After a few more moments of his mind settling down, he finally took the initiative and cracked open his eyes. Immediately feeling and seeing a glimpse of a bright light slamming its way into his bleary vision before he was forced to yield in form of snapping his eyes shut once again. He reached upwards and pressed a hoof to his forehead as he shook his head from side to side before bending his hoof and using it as a cover he once again opened his eyes, letting out an audible intake of air as he kept constantly blinking the grogginess that clogged up his sight. Once he was sure that he would be able to keep his eyes from shutting at the briefest instance of light hitting him was when he finally let his hoof fall back down to his side, then he shifted his elbows up and paused at the cushiony material, slowly using force to push his body up, he could feel his elbows sink a few inches into the soft material as he pressed downwards. He pushed himself all the way up into a seated position and immediately glanced down at his body, his muzzle curling into a smile as a large purple blanket was draped over his form.
He couldn't help but seize the blanket in his grasp and press the soft fabric against the side of his face, pressing his nostrils against it and taking in deep inhalation, letting out a happy sigh as the scent of lilacs wafted around the inside of his nose before he let it fall from his hooves. He shifted his hooves and looked down at the soft material that he'd described to himself a moment ago, also recognizing it as one of the many things that he was grateful that was evolved into its finished product. The bed. Oh, how he missed beds, especially the custom-made ones that he used to keep in his room.
Though speaking of his room, this wasn't it. Not at all.
He looked up from the bed and let his eyes roam around the room for the first time, then took another look around as he slightly nodded along to himself, internally agreeing that this was fitter to be one of the many guest rooms that were held in the castle. Especially the bed now that he had that prevalent in his mind, it was much smaller than the one that he had in his quarters, though in his current state, it was albeit too large. But he could deal with that at another time, he suddenly shook his head and brushed any loose strands of rainbow-colored hair away from obscuring his vision. There were more important things that he had to address and letting himself get too deep into his feelings was going to keep him from doing so in an orderly manner.
That main important detail was immediately finding Luna, while also figuring out why exactly he was resting in one of the guest rooms instead of in his room. She was the one that most likely attended to him first before the rest of the staff was inevitably aware of anything that'd happened to him, and because he simply needed to see her once again. That brief glimpse that he got in the first place was not enough to keep his heart from wanting him to simply embrace her and never let her go. He'd made that mistake one too many times and paid dearly for them.
A hoof rubbed away a tear that'd started making its way down his cheek before he cleared his throat and moved to throw the blanket off of his legs and went to roll himself out of the bed and onto his hooves, though he was only able to successfully roll himself into what seemed to be a solid wall. Causing him to simply bounce off of it and back onto the soft covers of the mattress. Confusion was evident on his face as he rolled onto his stomach and crawled his way back towards the edge of the bed, only making it so far before his head collided with the wall once again, though this time he was able to see a flash of amber briefly flare up before just as quickly disappearing.
Why was there a magical barrier here?
He lifted a hoof and pressed it against the magical barrier, watching as the amber light flared up once again and simply kept itself centered around where his hoof was pressed against. He traced his hoof along the magical barrier and let his hoof drop back down onto the bed, the amber light leaving a trail of where his hoof touched before immediately dispelling once again.
Strange.. who'd put this here? Did he? No...
He turned to the other side of the bed and crawled over to test whether or not it was also blocking him from there, being met yet again with the same magical barrier flaring up whenever he touched it. He squinted his eyes and looked over towards the foot of the bed before picking up a hoof-full of the blanket and tossing it over to that side to see if it were any different. Though he was disappointed to see it flare up once again.
He needed to get rid of it. But he really couldn't rely on his horn at the moment, even if Harmony was gracious with giving him his magic, it was still dangerous for on to practice said magic with a shattered horn. Though he didn't have to push that risk as there were multiple ways a magic user could tap into their magic, although it was just a tad bit more difficult to get a hang of, it was just as effective. Also with this barrier seemingly being much less powerful than he assumed it was, he was sure that this way would most definitely work.
He let out a small exhale before shifting himself over to where he originally physically met the barrier, brushing away another mess of hair from his face, he raised a hoof up and pressed it flat against the barrier once again. He reached into his central pool of mana and focused on a small droplet of it and channeled it through his arm, the sensation was always a curious thing.
The mana stopped just around the coronet of his hoof and he twisted his fetlock around and drew out a hoof-sized circle on the barrier, he closed his eyes and let the magic pulse outwards from his arm before opening them and removing his hoof from the barrier. He let out a small sigh and dropped his arm down, no longer focusing in on his pool of mana as he watched the barrier flash the same amber color before it shifted and glowed a bright gold color, his magic having overtaken the one making up the barrier.
He smiled as the barrier pulsed one final time before it crackled and collapsed, leaving a field of strange yet familiar feeling magic hovering around the bed he was sitting, causing him to raise an eyebrow at the familiarity before getting out of the bed.
His steps were wobbly as his rear hoof was caught in part of the purple blanket on the bed, causing him to stumble as he shook it off of him. He was able to stabilize himself after a moment of struggle and walked towards the middle of the room, the feeling of carpet against his bare hooves was pleasant. He would've stood there for longer and reveled in the sensations but his attention was quickly caught by the reflection of himself across the room, causing him to trot over towards it and stop to stare at himself. Taking in the sight of how far he'd fallen.
He took a step back from the mirror and twisted his body around so that he could take a look at his profile and the rest of his features easily. A small sigh came from him as he did so.
He would've thought that Harmony would've done something to make him look more.. presentable. But he quickly shook that thought out of his head as he turned back to face the mirror and look at his facial features, focusing on that instead of what Harmony could've done for him. He had no right to complain to Harmony now that it'd given him a second chance at things.
Lowering himself down onto his haunches and reaching both hooves up to feel at his face. It'd been such a long time since he was able to look into his own eyes, the vibrant purple color that had once been so filled with vigor had long since dulled out, leaving them a depressing grey. Another sigh left his muzzle as he traced along the sides of his face, the telling of lack of proper intake was visible with how gaunt he looked. He was certain that the reason he didn't look any worse than how he is now was because of his alicorn heritage.
It wouldn't be a surprise to him if his little ponies no longer recognized him as an alicorn. He'd severely shrunken in height and weight and wasn't even sure that he could revert that. It was something that he would have to look into once everything was settled.
He looked at his wings and gave them a test flap, wincing as the muscles tensed up along his back and as many different-sized feathers slipped out of place and fluttered down onto the ground. He shook his head and furled his wings back along his back, pushing off the ground and getting back onto his hooves he stepped away from the mirror and took another look at the room. His eyes landed on the door to get out before he went to approach it. If his memory served him correctly then he would be able to efficiently navigate around the castle to clear things up since there was bound to be a substantial amount of questions and concern over his rather sudden and haggard appearance.
But he would have to stop by Luna's room before anything. Just to make sure that..
He came to a stop as his ears flicked upwards and the fur along his back rose. The feeling of static all around his body suddenly flaring up was a clue in as to what exactly was happening. The sheer amount of magic being displaced in the natural mana field into one location was very telling as to what exactly it was.
Somepony was teleporting. Strange. There wouldn't be probable cause for somebody to just up and teleport into a room that he was in without reason, not even Luna would've pulled something like this. Well, in this era. She was passed the point of teleporting into his room and dumping a bucket of milk over his head and all over important documents.
Either way.
He quickly took a few steps back and briefly turned his head away as the familiar-sounding crackle of magic filled the room. He noted that the magic had a familiar feel to it but didn't dwell on it as he could sense more than one ponies now inhabiting the room with him, causing him to shake away the effects of the bright display of magic and attempt to put on one his usual smiles before turning to address the ones that.. that.
He found himself at a loss of what exactly he was looking at and it seemed like the sentiment was shared between the two that were currently staring at him with different mixtures of shock and confusion on their faces. The smile that he tried to keep on his face immediately slipped off and was replaced by slightly widened eyes and parted lips. No thoughts came to his head other than confusion over who exactly he was looking at. They were both alicorns, sure, but he only recognized one of them, which was Luna. But was at a complete loss because the other one was... well.
It was him.
Or at least he thought it was him because there were not many alicorns that.. well, there weren't many alicorns in general and the last time that he checked, there weren't any females version of himself running around. But he couldn't help but feel something familiar emanating from her.
Luna seemed to be the one that held a more minuscule feeling of shock and instead was the first one to snap out of her stupor and break the silence between the three of them, by turning and looking over at the female version of himself. Regardless of the silence being broken, the two of them held eye contact with each other.
"Sister, we told thou that it wasn't just another one of your fan club members sneaking into the castle dressed as thou self." was what Luna said to other him. Glancing back over to him before looking over to the bed that he woke up on moments ago. "He was able to collapse the barrier that thou set up to keep him in, surely thoust mind has been changed? A better fit would have been in the dungeons with the rest of the changelings.." she remarked with a small huff. "Especially with this one making such an egregious effort to replicate thine appearance."
Sister? what did she mean sister? He was her brother, they didn't have any other siblings besides the two of them...
He was taken aback by the sheer aggression towards him, causing him to falter in his staring contest with his opposite self and instead look over to Luna "w-what?" internally wincing at the sound of his voice after all the years of keeping silent. "A changeling? what would make you believe that I'm a changeling? Lun-" though he was unable to finish his statement as she was quick to silence him. It was the same effect when he tried again "Luna I'm you-"
"I have no patience for your kind, changeling." she lowered her head and he instinctively took a step back as she charged up a particularly powerful spell from her horn, his ability to sense when magic is being displaced flaring up once again as she narrowed her eyes at him. Though was stopped as the other version of himself placed a hoof upon Luna's withers, causing her to stop charging the spell and instead look up at her. "Celestia?"
Celestia? Is that what her name is?
Celestia shook her head. "I don't believe them to be a changeling, Luna." she finally said. Her voice was much deeper and more mature than he sounded at the moment. "I feel something about them that feels.. familiar," she said while turning her attention back towards him. "It might just be the way that they are a haphazardly mirrored version of myself, but I am not so sure that your concerns will come to fruition."
A million thoughts started running through his head as Luna looked up at Celestia with a glare as she removed her hoof from her and moved to approach him, causing him to have to strain his neck upwards at her as she got closer. A surreal feeling filled him as she stopped a few feet in front of him and tilted her head as she looked down at him, to be the one being looked down at with eyes that oozed a sense of comfort, it just caused his wings to twitch nervously.
"Now.." she started. "I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister" she motioned with a hoof and Luna reluctantly walked up next to her. "Princess Luna, We share the duty of ruling Equestria."
"Who might you be?"
Her words repeated in his head.
'Princess Celestia.'
'Princess Luna.'
'Co-rules of Equestria.'
He looked at their waiting faces and looked down at the ground, sighing before lifting his head back up "M-my name is...Solaris, Prince Solaris."
"Co-ruler of Equestria.."