//------------------------------// // Mind Gazing. // Story: What's going on, and why do I feel fabulous? // by Ditz //------------------------------// It had been 1 hour when I finally managed to wrest control of Rarity’s body and gotten us out of the place, Jacquelynn wasn’t too happy either as she had waited the whole hour in the changing room (her fault, of course), I was saved by my stomach growling, an action that had quickly allowed me to take control. “Happy now?” I complained to her while trotting, careful not to bump into anyone. “I already said I was sorry! Besides, you know I can’t resist the spotlight!.” I groaned at her excuse, but I didn’t care much for it, what I needed was food in my stomach, the fact that I hadn’t eaten since the previous morning hadn’t helped at all. “If I remember correctly, Rarity can’t eat meat, correct?” Jacquelynn began, reminding me of my previous mistake, I gulped at the mention of that word, and by word I meant meat, having eaten it I had realized that I could actually eat it without remorse, but I didn’t want Rarity to develop the taste for meat, she might just become like Pinkie in that Cupcake- “Nick, please stop that.” she pleaded sounding a bit nervous. I realized that I had been thinking out loud and face palmed at my lack of discretion, the face palming didn’t do Rarity any good in hindsight. “Just forget it.” Rarity sighed after wincing in pain. “Yeah… She can’t eat the juicy, meaty, delicious meat…” I licked my lips looking forward to the day I could eat it without the dangers of a (possibly) crazed pony to be worried about. We made our way to a fast-food eating area where we sat (in my case, awkwardly, what with the pony body and all) on some chairs and looked around, I gazed upon the many different stands, trying to find the right place for us (and by us, I mean me, myself, and I). I felt a kick to my leg and glared at the source, Jacquelynn just nodded and got on her feet. “Okay, I am going to get you some sort of salad, shouldn’t be too hard, meanwhile, I’ll leave you guys to talk a bit.” I thanked her with a smile that was missed thanks to the fact that she was already gone. ‘Hey, Rarity?’ I began the nervous conversation in my head. “Yes? What is it, Nick?” she replied calmly, I felt confidence fill me up, she hadn’t snapped at me, a good sign that was. ‘I’m, well… Really sorry about what I said earlier today, I don’t know what I was thinking.’ my honesty surprised the both of us, but still, I felt a gasp escape her mental lips and remained silent, courage begin seeping right out the window with that. “I forgive you. I mean, you did try to cheer me up after all, and by taking such a risk.” she chuckled slightly while looking at her reflection, I was surprised to be able to see it the human figure, but I chose to ignore it, she knew her magic and all. ‘How much longer will you last?’ I chuckled slightly at the double meaning but quickly got back into the conversation by adding. ‘your illusion I meant… heh, heh…’ Surprisingly, she chuckled at my thinly disguised attempt for a joke. “Even I can appreciate some adult humor from time to time, darling.” I blushed slightly at her bluntness an act which brought a giggle from the mare. Her laughter subsided as quickly as it began, leaving a sudden silence in the air. ‘What’s wrong, Rarity?’ “I… I remember…” she said, but I couldn’t make any sense of her random ramblings. ‘Know what?’ “Why I’m here!” she said with a reserved tone. I became ecstatic at the information and was about to ask when she began once again. “I’ll tell you when we are in your house, it’s kind of an odd story…” I was about to object, but I had been rudely interrupted by a rude person who (not) surprisingly enough, turned out to be Jacquelynn. :”Here you go, it’s not much but it’ll do.” she put an opened plastic container that contained what I liked to refer to as “rabbit food”, I nearly refused to eat it, but my stomach growled at my efforts, I chose not to make the little tyke mad, and dug in, I chewed quickly trying to keep the feel and texture of the alien food out of my taste glands, but to no avail, but to its credit, it didn’t taste half bad. “Well, what do you know?” I said and shoved my snout into the plate. ------ “How was I supposed to know the illusion wouldn’t cover that!?” Apparently, Rarity had done the spell for me to use my magic as hands, but using my snout? Of course not. “It was a minor miscalculation on my part, I must admit.” Rarity said embarrassed. We pulled into the parkway 30 minutes later, I relaxed as soon as I took my 7th step into the house, and by relaxed, I meant just fell flat on the floor. “Hey, Nick, try moving the tail to the side.” Jaquelynn requested, and not really realizing it, I complied. but quickly realized the error of my action and put it back in its place. “You just won’t learn.” I tried groaning, but instead, a chuckle came out to Rarity’s dismay. “Are we going to talk, or what?” she began quickly changing the topic, I nodded in agreement and filled Jacquelynn in to the whole situation. “That’s great! Go ahead Rarity.” she sat on the couch waiting for Rarity to begin, but she never did. “This is for you only, Nick, and I think showing you might be a better idea.” I was about to argue, but I soon felt myself being pulled inside my own mind, farther than I had probably gone before. ------ The first thing I noticed was that I had my eyes closed. I opened them and the first thing in sight was Rarity looking at me, I slowly looked around the area and realized that I was standing in the boutique that I had seen in my dreams the night before. “Why am I here?” I asked confused, I stared at her but she only fidgeted in place. “I… Want to show you what happened, will you let me?” it felt odd to hear our identical voices, but my attention was focused upon Rarity’s suggestion. “I think I’ll take you up on the offe-” I hadn’t finished the sentence when Rarity suddenly vanished, but what had been most odd was that I was standing in the middle of a street… In what seemed to be Ponyville. “What?” I looked around absorbing my new surroundings, I nearly trotted towards Fluttershy’s cottage, but I was distracted by a pair of ponies having a discussion. “Please Twilight, it’s a small favor, for me?” I looked at the source of the voice and saw myself, or rather, Rarity talking to none other than Twilight Sparkle herself. I could have died and not had any regrets, except maybe not meeting Johnny Yong Bosch. “Fine! But no promises, I’m not even sure how the Princess did it the first time, and even if I did, I don’t think I can do that, it‘s a higher level of magic after all.” Rarity followed Twilight as they continued their small talk, and I followed behind, curious as to what their conversation could mean. I trotted at a brisk pace, gazing upon the sights of Ponyville, I assumed that this was the memory Rarity wanted to show me, but being a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me, I looked at the different ponies walking around. I saw Lyra accompanied by Bon Bon, Big Macintosh selling apples in the market, I even got to see the CMC doing one of their stunts, the highlight of course, was watching Rainbow Dash kicking clouds, although she seemed agitated for some reason. The giant tree that posed as a library (that in my opinion is a disaster waiting to happen) finally came into view a couple minutes later, and both Rarity and Twilight made their way in, I followed suit and found myself surrounded by books, but seeing how I wasn’t an egghead, I ignored them “Okay Rarity, what’s the reason for this?” Twilight began. “Well, I… Have always been curious to… See other dimensions, and their fashion! Imagine! The improvements we could make here in our world’s fashion...! Yeah!” I kept my ears open to it, but couldn’t really understand her random request. “Well… I may have something…” the vision blurred and I found myself surrounded by stacks of books precariously balanced in place, with Twilight and Rarity showing signs of unrest, clearly visible by their messy manes. “Alright, I found this one spell. We can try it out but hold on, I need to tell Spike.” Twilight left the room, leaving Rarity by herself, as soon as she was out of sight, Rarity rushed to the book and began casting the spell they had found. “I will see to it myself!” was the last thing she said before the memory blurred and I found myself standing in the boutique once again, the real Rarity standing in front of me silent. “What was that all about?” I asked confused. “How I got here, of course.” she said laughing weakly while holding her hoof. “Is there something you are not telling me?” I asked the suspicious acting mare. She fidgeted in place but didn’t comment any further. “What are you hiding?” she only flinched at the question, but still remained silent. I had my suspicions about what had happened, but there was nothing I could use against her, choosing to just get back to the topic, I dismissed the issue. “Fine. How does this help us in any case?” she seemed thankful that I didn’t inquire any further, but a frown filled her face. “I… Really don’t know…” “What!?” I stared at her flabbergasted, the last hope of getting my body back gone. “I-I’m sorry, I acted rashly…” she apologized but I wasn’t gonna have it. “Of course you did, I SAW. Seriously, what’s next, you breaking your Pinkie promise?” I finished for no reason, I just wanted to annoy her by that point. “Oh… About that…” I noticed her shudder a bit before continuing. “Nice singing.” she giggled awkwardly but showed no actual remorse. “I thought Pinkie was all over you guys whenever a Pinkie promise was broken?” I noted not really caring whether she had broken it or not. “That might be, but we are in a completely different dimension, I don’t think th-” the ground began shaking causing us to fall on our flanks. “What is going on!?” we both yelled in unison. “Nick! Where are you!?” a familiar voice called out of nowhere. “Jacquelynn?” at the mere mention of the name, I felt myself black out. ------ “Nick!” I woke to find myself being shaken by my withers. “W-what… What’s happening, why the roughness!?” I asked her shaking myself off her grip. “That!” she pointed behind me and I slowly turned around to find a pink hole in the middle of the air. “FOREVER!” I felt Rarity gulp at the back of my mind, and I honestly couldn’t blame her, I could recognize that voice anywhere. “May Celestia have mercy on your soul.”