Chapter 2ish: The Sequel to the Prequel!
AKA: Look Ma, No Hands!
“Tell me, what exactly is the purpose of this?” Luna asked, prodding the young man’s cell phone with a forehoof.
“Well, it lets you talk to your friends, or send them messages, and they get them instantly, so I guess you could say that it’s kind of like a faster way of sending letters…” he replied, awkwardly trying to explain something that he never really gave any serious thought to.
“Hmmm… interesting… Unfortunately, you should know that you cannot bring it with you to Equestria.” Luna said, looking around his room and wondering not for the first time how a thinking creature could live in such a place.
“You know Princess, your face isn’t very good at hiding what you’re thinking.” The young man commented, looking over his shoulder as he packed some sheets and a few pictures of his family from a time when his life was happier.
“What do you mean?” Luna asked, blushing slightly, her blue coat hiding most of the reddish hue.
“You’re thinking that this place is a dump… I know, it’s not exactly home for me… just a place to live. Or at least it was.” He said, his smirk tainted by traces of sadness, “I haven’t had a real home in years.”
Luna walked over to his side, placing a wing over his shoulder and hugging him lightly, “I understand child… believe me, I understand. Now, do you have everything of importance packed away?” she asked, releasing him and walking over to look at the screen saver on his laptop.
“Yeah. I’m gonna miss some of the stuff online, but I mostly just lurked on Brony sites anyway, and I can’t exactly complain about missing a new episode if I’m living in Equestria, now can I?” he replied, slinging his backpack over one shoulder and standing next to Luna as she watched the electronic bubbles play across a Nightmare Night logo.
“I take it that you are a fan of our little holiday?” Luna asked, smirking and raising an eyebrow at the logo.
“Well, here it would be like Halloween, and I always loved that holiday. Plus, Nightmare night seems like a lot more fun… safer too.” He answered, scratching the back of his neck nervously.
“Safer? Nightmare Night is about scaring as many others as you can… how is that safe?” Luna asked, this time her face completely made into a mask of disbelief.
“Well, the way I see it, Nightmare Night and Halloween are both about being something you’re not normally, and having fun… but where Nightmare Night has pretty harmless pranks, and the occasional lightning bolt, humans are a bit more malicious…”
“Do not be deceived into thinking that Equestria is as peaceful as you are led to believe. There are those in every realm that will seek to hurt others for their own gain, or for their own pleasure. Luckily, they are few and far between in Equestria, especially compared to Earth, but nowhere is truly perfect…” Luna said, reassuring the young man as he started to look upset again, as if admitting that humanity was twisted was all because of him.
“Not to make this a contest Princess, but I doubt that Equestria has a problem with ponies slipping razor blades and poison into the treats they hand out on Nightmare Night.” He said sarcastically.
“You mean there are humans that do such horrible things on Halloween?!” Luna asked incredulously, her head jerking backwards in disbelief and shock.
All he could do was nod and sigh. He had learned a long time ago that humans rarely needed a reason to act cruelly.
Luna looked around the room nervously, as though by talking about it they would summon one of these terrible humans and their tainted treats.
“If you are packed, perhaps we should be off…” She suggested uneasily.
“I’m ready when you are Princess.” He said, smiling and shifting his backpack from one shoulder to the other.
“Do you wish to say goodbye? You cannot return here once we leave…” Luna asked, looking into his eyes with mild concern. “If you wish to change your mind, this is the time.”
“Princess, the only thing left for me to miss from here would be my music, and I’m sure Equestria has better musicians than what’s on the charts right now.” The young man answered, chuckling to himself and trying to purge the memory of “Friday” from his mind.
“Hmmm… very well then child…” The diarch of the night said, smiling cryptically as an idea formed in her mind and the teleportation spell once again hummed in the air around them for a second, a slight breeze surrounding them as they blinked out of existence.
As the two travelers were yanked through the dimensional rift, the spell Luna had left behind went to work. Slowly, every scrap of furniture, every personal effect left, every piece of trash and dust bunny, slowly started to fade away. Eventually, the apartment was left bare and clean, even the windows having been magically scrubbed until they were crystal clear. Lastly, the landlord would find a letter reminding him to post an ad for a vacant flat the next time he opened his mailbox.
As Luna and the young man blinked into existence in Equestria once again, Princess Celestia was busy preparing the casting space in the royal guest suite. The ancient rite called for the subject to be in complete isolation from the time it was cast, until all the changes had taken place. As she engraved the final symbol on the edge of the circle, the boy and Luna walked into the room.
“I see we are just in time sister.” Luna noted, admiring the solar princess’s handiwork with a smirk, seeing a chance to get in a joke at Celestia’s expense. “I had thought you’d forgotten some of the older spells. You know, since you’re about as old as Canterlot and all…”
“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Celestia replied, rolling her eyes, “Do I need to remind you, sweet Lulu, that you’re only a couple decades younger than myself?”
Luna blanched a bit, and coughed nervously, “There’s no need to be rude Celly… Anyway, we need to prep him for the rite, I assume everything is set up?”
“Not quite everything Luna… just a second or two more…” Celestia responded, levitating a large blanket, a cushion, and a pillow into the center of the mystical ring on the floor. “There, now everything is ready. Did you tell him how it would all work?”
Luna blushed and started shifting her weight from one side to the other before answering sheepishly that she had forgotten to prepare him for what was about to happen.
Celestia sighed, placing one of her wings over the bridge of her snout before chastising her little sister.
“Really Luna, we’ve been over this before… if you want to dabble in a mystical rite of complete physical transformation, the subject needs to be properly prepared or they might accidentally reject the spell and be stuck in a state of complete disorder.”
“You guys have had this discussion before?” the young man asked, looking between the two royal pony sisters with a concerned look on his face. “Let me guess, Discord?”
“Not exactly…” Luna replied, looking away out of embarrassment, “I once had the idea to try and give wings to a bowl of fruit so that I could get a snack without having to get up at night…”
“So what happened?” he asked, wondering what kind of eldritch horror could be summoned by transforming a bowl of fruit.
“Well, the spell was going well… until the creatures we were using to replicate the wings on the fruit decided it was hungry…” She continued, this time her blush managing to show through her dark coat quite easily.
“To sum up a rather disastrous night, Canterlot was flooded with a new species called fruit bats.” Celestia added, never one to miss a chance at teasing her little sister. “Not to mention the other times… there was the Hydra, the Timberwolves, and the Parasprites, not to mention Cerberus…”
“I believe he gets the point sister, can we move on now?” Luna hissed, glaring daggers at Celestia before turning off to
the side and muttering to herself, “And besides, Cerberus was adorable when he was still small enough to fit through the main gates of the castle…”
“Uhhh… Sure…” he answered, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the fruit bats from Sweet Apple Acres were just ONE of Luna’s experiments…
“Very well then, child, as you know, I have watched your dreams before, and the form you take in them is what we will be transfiguring you into today. In order for the spell to be absolutely perfect, you will be placed in the middle of the circle while Celly pours a steady stream of magic into the ring.” Luna said, motioning at the small bed on the floor covering some of the magical markers.
“Normally, this spell would be taking place while the subject is concentrating on every single physical aspect of their new form.” Celestia added, “But as Lulu has noted, the pony form you take in your dreams is fairly consistent, so we will instead put you under a sleeping spell that will last until the magic has completed its work.”
This time, Luna interrupted, “While you are asleep, I will be with you in your dream, helping you to focus on your new form, as well as giving you a nudge should the magic start to deviate from what we want it to do.”
“So let me get this straight.” The young man said, trying to understand the whole procedure as best he could with his limited knowledge of well, everything they just said, “You’re going to put me to sleep, I’ll be in the middle of that circle, and when I wake up I’ll be a pony just like in my dream, which will be guided by Luna?”
“Exactly.” Both sisters answered, speaking at the same time.
“Now, if you’d be so kind as to disrobe and lay on the bed prepared for you, we can begin the transformation.” Celestia instructed, motioning at the bed on the floor once again.
“Uhhhhhh…..” The young man answered, realizing he had just been asked very nicely to strip and get in bed in front of the rulers of Equestria, His face didn’t even have time to register the embarrassment before his brain just shut down and left him with a blank look on his face.
“Sister, I’ve told you before, Humans are shy about being without their clothes in front of others.” Luna scolded, turning to the boy standing next to her and smiling, “I apologize, she does not leave this realm nearly as much as I do, but we assure you that the nudity is rather important for the proceedings.”
“Can I ask why?” he answered, still in too much shock to really feel embarrassed.
“Well, as your body changes, the clothes would restrict in various locations, and your brain would subconsciously reject the changes. Not to mention what would happen if your wings decided to flex only to be stopped by your shirt. It is simply easier to be wearing what you will in your new form, and in the case of ponies, that is to go without clothes.” Luna explained very matter-of-factly, still missing the young man’s obvious discomfort at being told to strip in front of the Diarchs.
“If it will make you feel more at ease, we can turn around while you disrobe and crawl under the covers. Comfort is important after all.” Celestia offered, already turning around and placing her wings over her eyes.
Luna quickly followed suit, though the fact that she decided to face the only mirror in the room made him a bit uneasy to say the least. Seeing no other choice, he stripped down as fast as he could manage and practically flew under the plush blanket offered. He even decided to ignore the fact that Luna had giggled not too quietly as he nearly tripped stepping out of his boxers.
“Are you ready?” Celestia asked, turning around with her wings still over her eyes.
“As I’ll ever be, I suppose…” he answered, lying back on the pad in the circle and taking stock of how his body felt
one last time before the spell began.
“Then we will start immediately.” The solar diarch said, her horn igniting the circle around him, and his entire body suddenly weighing him down as he drifted off into sleep…
The wind roared around him as Orion pulled into a spiraling dive towards the glistening lake below, the stars reflecting off it like a mirror, and the moon looking like a spotlight shining from the depths. As he pulled the turn in tighter to the point that he could feel a dull ache in his wings, and his eyes were watering from the wind tearing past him, he became aware of another presence joining him in his flight. Orion ended his dive and leveled off, alighting on the shore of the lake and turning to look at the other pony that had joined him.
Princess Luna landed right next to him, cantering around him and laughing merrily.
“Oh my, I haven’t had that much fun with another pony in their dreams since I made Pinkie Pie believe she was a giant, sentient cake.” She said, still giggling to herself like a school-filly. “When you wake up and learn how to truly fly, we must do this again.”
“Heh, I think I’d like that Princess. So this is a dream?” Orion responded, “Weird… it feels so real…”
“Yes, certain dreams often have that effect on others… I think that’s why I spend so much time here to be frank. The lines between what is real and what is fantasy are so blurred that most do not realize that they are dreaming when they are here. And it lets me see my subjects at their best.” Luna replied, settling down and sitting on the ground looking out on the lake.
“Really?” he asked, “I would have thought visiting other’s dreams would get embarrassing… I mean, aren’t there dreams that are kind of… personal?”
“Oh… yes well… there are those…” Luna stumbled, muttering and blushing slightly, “But it’s not like I haven’t seen those kind of things before…”
“Then why do you sound so embarrassed by the thought of seeing somepony else’s private...... dreams?” Orion asked, chuckling at the lunar princess’s awkwardness.
“Oh do be quiet… remember, you’re in my realm right now, and if you manage to tick me off, I have a thousand years worth of dreams about living on the moon that I’m sure would be more than a little unpleasant.” Luna warned, shooting her companion a pointed look, though still smiling off to the side.
“So if this is a dream, should I assume that I’m still asleep in the tower and being changed?” Orion asked, getting a bit more serious at the prospect of offending Luna and spending time on an unwanted trip to the lunar body hanging overhead.
“Correct. Right now, you’re undoubtedly being transformed into your new form, but don’t bother thinking about what the process entails.” Luna said, smiling at him warmly and standing up again.
Seeing his skeptical look, she frowned in annoyance and explained a bit more, “Seriously, do not bother trying to imagine what it’s like… I’ve seen the process a few times and it never gets any less weird. Human to Pony hasn’t been done before either, so I can only imagine how odd you must look right now in front of Celestia…”
“By my fiery flank, what the buck is THAT?!” Celestia cried out as the sheets she had lifted to check the spell’s progress were released from her magic’s grip and settled back on the sleeping form of the young man, “That’s what humans look like without clothes?! How the hay does he even keep that thing protected?!”
“Why did I just get a chill up my spine?” Orion asked, turning to look at Luna as they walked across a bank of clouds overlooking the lake, “And why are you laughing?”
“Ahahahahahaha! I’m sorry, but I think it’s better if you didn’t know what I just heard back in the waking world.” Luna said, tears streaming down her face as she walked alongside her new friend.
“Okay then… that’s not creepy at all…” Orion commented, stretching his wings out a bit, marveling at the fact that they could feel so connected even in this dream world. The sun’s rays peeked over the mountains in the distance, but never completely came up.
“Hey Luna, if this place is all an illusion, why do my wings feel so real?”
“Hmm? Oh, that… well, at this point, your body has gone through the initial changes, so right about now your form looks like a bald earth pony… the next physical change should be the growth of your wings, then the last thing would be your coat. This is actually about when I should be helping coax you along mentally.” Luna said, a far off look in her eyes as she seemed to be gazing through the fabric of the dream world and actually seeing what was going on in the tower where he slept.
“Heheheh… would you do me a favor please child?” she asked, apparently having seen something that she found amusing.
“What do you need Princess?” he replied, confused about why she was laughing.
“When you wake up, please tell my sister that it’s improper for her to peek on others while they’re asleep.”
He blanched at Luna’s request, realizing what was probably happening while he was unconscious. “She isn’t…” he choked out, blushing furiously.
“Never again! I’m never helping Luna with one of these spells ever, ever, ever again! I swear that if she tries this spell again in my presence I'll drop the sun on whatever she's fooling around with! And WHY the BUCK DID I LOOK A SECOND TIME?!” the Princess of the sun wailed, jerking the sheet back over the hairless, prone pony that was starting to grow two pointed, bony nubs from in between its shoulders.
Shuddering, Celestia muttered to herself, continuing the flow of magic into the runes on the floor, which had turned from a yellow to a bluish color as the spell reached the halfway point, “Looks like the lovechild of a bald chicken and a…… I don’t even know…”
“She did. I have to say, it’s rather amusing to watch her reaction.” She answered, smiling like a madmare before composing her face once again and turning to face him full on.
“Now, back to business, your wings are starting to sprout, but for them to grow in at full strength, you’ll have to concentrate on what it feels like to go through the motions of flight.” She instructed, her horn glowing slightly as the world below them spun and finally settled with their cloud hovering over a gorge filled with jagged rocks.
“And how do I concentrate on that?” he asked, face blanching as he looked over the side and imagined what her answer would be.
“Like this…” Luna said, pushing him over the side and sending him hooves over flank to the deadly chasm below.
As Orion fell to the ground below, Luna could clearly hear a variety of expletives and rather amusing combinations of swears spew forth from his mouth. Finally, he managed to stretch his wings out and pulled out of the fall and into a controlled glide. This did not however, do anything to curb his tongue, as he continued shouting and swearing until he had flown to another cloud below the one Luna now occupied alone.
“Such language… really, it’s like I’m surrounded by sailors on shore leave.” Luna noted with a wry smile.
Somewhere along Equestria’s southernmost edge, on a ship rolling in the waves of the Maredeterranian Sea, a pony called Shore Leave got a chill up his spine.
“CAPTAIN! I think a storm’s comin’ in!” he called out from his post atop the Phoenix’s Nest.
“What makes you say that?!” Captain Aye Patch hollered back, “It’s been nothing but clear sailing the entire time we’ve been out here!”
“Something my mum used to tell us! When you get a chill up yer back, either trouble’s on the way or someone’s talking about you!” Shore replied matter-of-factly.
“Then I guess we’d better batten down the ship, ‘cause there ain’t a soul out there that thinks you’re important enough to talk about!” Captain Patch retorted sarcastically, rolling his one eye and returning to his cabin to chart the next leg of their course back to port.
“Damnit Luna, you scared the shit out of me just now!” Orion yelled up, catching his breath while he rested.
“No need for that kind of language now…” Luna scolded gently, touching down on the cloud beside Orion, “It was necessary to give you enough of a shock so that you would stretch and move your new wings in the waking world. Otherwise you might never be able to fly in your new home.”
“Well… still… ugh… I have to say thank you now don’t I?” he said, holding his head in his hooves and rolling his eyes.
"Hmmmm... That would be nice, but after cussing me out on the way down, I think I’ll settle for an apology.” She responded, laughing at him softly.
“How about I just settle for not cussing at you again?” Orion offered sarcastically.
“I could just throw you in the dungeon when you wake up.” Luna reminded him, “But no, I shall think of something, don’t worry. Now, you’re transition is almost complete, just a couple things left to do to focus you on your new body… what color would you say your coat is?”
“Uhhh… a darkish grey I suppose?” Orion guessed, looking at his foreleg.
“Alright, if you could please focus on that color in your mind for a little bit………… Excellent, your fur is growing in, next should be your mane, the style can be altered once you wake up, but right now we just need to think colors. What would you prefer?”
“Well, I always thought purple and black mixed nicely… kind of striped like this?” Orion said, gesturing to his tail, which carried a royal shade of purple mixed in with inky black in a rather pleasing combination.
“Hmmm… That does look good on you…” Luna noted, nodding her head approvingly, “Just focus on the way those colors look, the way the hairs blend from one to the next almost seamlessly… I’ll focus the magic to replicate the color as best I can for your mane………”
After a few moments of silence, or rather, Orion being quiet while Luna’s horn hummed with power. Finally though, the magic coming from her horn died down and she looked at him with a wild grin plastered on her muzzle that could have given Pinkie Pie a run for her bits.
“I think you’re going to like the results.” She said, wrapping one wing around his withers and pulling him close, “And thank you so much for agreeing to this. I can already tell that we will be good friends!”
Orion tried to hide his blush, which was helped slightly by his coat, but not by much, “No problem at all Luna… I mean, you’re giving me the best gift anyon- anyPONY could ask for.”
“Regardless, I wish to tell you something in private, and I trust that you can keep a secret.” Luna said, removing her wing from him and giving him a bit of space.
“Sure thing Princess, what do you need to tell me?” he asked, cocking his head to the side in wonder, his mind already coming up with a dozen unlikely scenarios for any hidden motives the lunar diarch may have.
“Part of the reason I have brought you to this world, and have even given you a new for is because I need some help… You see child, believe it or not, I still have difficulty with Equestria the way it is… A millennia of banishment would leave anypony out of touch, but I am a Princess, and I cannot relate to my own people anymore… Never mind making true friends. That is part of the reason I have brought you here... You are from a world much harsher than this one, you are jaded and hurt, but in you I still see a spark of hope... You remind me of myself in many ways, and I would very much like it if you would be my friend and my confidant.”
At that point, Orion’s eyebrows had shot up so far they were practically floating in midair.
“You will have your own life in Ponyville as promised, but I would like somepony to talk to about the world, another to share my feelings with that can help me see my home anew, and I wish for somepony else that can appreciate my work and can get others to see its beauty the way that you do... I do not need a student to write me letters like my sister does, I need a real friend. Will you help me?”
Luna confessed all of this to him, her voice cracking, a stream of emotion spilling forth and tears brimming in her eyes.
There were no words exchanged for a moment, he was too stunned to speak in the face of such trust and pure emotion. Finally, when he had processed everything, he nodded mutely, trying not to cry along with the Princess… HIS
Princess…
She cried out happily, clapping her forehooves together and pulled him into a nearly bone crushing hug. When she finally released him, he started gasping for air and muttered something about knowing how Fluttershy felt, which rather killed the mood a bit, but still got a giggle from Luna.
“Well then, I believe that it is about time you woke up… your new form awaits, and I wish to see your face when you look in the mirror for the first time.”Luna said, standing and igniting her horn, a flash of light encompassing them both as he was pulled from the realm of dreams and into reality.
His eyes fluttered open and he was greeted by darkness. His entire body was covered with the plush cover, and for the first time, he was struck by the sheer size difference between humans and ponies. Where he had just barely fit on the pad when the spell began, he now had plenty of room to stretch out and not worry about falling onto the floor. After noting the difference in size, he remembered that he was now without that most basic of human traits, hands. He eventually found his way out from under the covers, but before he could begin examining his new body, he found his field of vision occupied by two giant turquoise orbs. He blinked. And they blinked back.
“Eeek!” he screamed, in a completely manly way that could not have ever been confused for a newborn puppy having its paw stepped on. He felt a tug emanating from his shoulders and looked back to see wings flared and looking exactly like they did in his dreams. Dark grey feathers the same shade as the fur now covering his sides and just about everything else that he could tell. He stood up, his center of gravity shifting from what he was accustomed to, but that was probably normal since he was now on four legs instead of two. Most of his weight was now on his front half, which would explain why ponies always seemed to struggle to stand upright…
“Oh sister, didn’t I tell you he’d turn out well?!” Luna said excitedly, sidling up next to the older alicorn.
“Yes Luna, I have to admit, it was not a pretty process on this end, but I can’t argue with the results… How do you feel child?” She responded.
“I feel… a little off balance honestly…” he responded, “but really good too.”
“That would be because your system was cleaned out during the transition. Everything foreign to Equestrian soil was purged, and the energy was put towards growing things like feathers, fur, bones.”
Celestia noticed his face blanche noticeably as Luna kept talking, “I believe the details are upsetting him a bit Luna… Maybe we could just show him the mirror now?”
“Oh fine… but I still like talking about the process…” Luna groused as her magic grabbed the mirror off the wall and hovered it in front of him so he could fully appreciate his new looks.
He had no concept of what was good looking in this new world, but he had to admit to himself that he wasn’t bad at all… The grey fur of his body was interrupted slightly where the color changed to a deep black that ringed the front of his muzzle, and his fetlocks were shaggy with black hooves peeking out. While he almost certainly wasn’t as large as Big Mac, he wasn’t tiny either. He still stood at about the same height as Luna, but it was hard to judge with that horn of hers.
The biggest surprise for him though, was his hair and his eyes… on earth he’d had a rather short haircut, and eyes that couldn’t fully settle on grey or blue… Here though, his eyes were a deep shade of green that he had only ever seen in cats, and his hair, which was normally curly to the point of breaking combs, was now straight and down to his withers, and it was streaked with royal purple and inky black just like his dream… He was literally living his dream!
“I take it that you like it?” Luna asked, materializing behind him as he held a hoof up to his face and poked his cheek, the image in the mirror copying him perfectly.
He nodded dumbly, spreading his wings, barely having to think about it for them to respond. He tucked them back to his sides as best he could before turning around to look at the rest of him. The first thing he noticed was that his tail looked like a recoloring of Fluttershy’s, and his flank was indeed blank…
“We’ll give you some time to rest now; the magic should still be working on finer details inside your brain, making sure the right connections are there for your wings to let you fly among other things. Please feel free to browse the castle if you have to get out, and we’ll post a guard at your door to help you in case you need it. We’ll see you tomorrow child.” Luna said kindly, wrapping a wing around him once again and nuzzling him gently before standing up to go, along with her sister.
“Wait…” he said, staring after the two royal sisters. “Thank you both for everything… I mean… this is just…”
“My little pony, it was nothing at all. We live for the happiness of those under our protection. When Luna chose you, you became protected by both of us and the whole of Equestria just like anypony born in this world. Now please, do not feel you owe us anything.” Celestia said, interrupting his fumbling attempts at a proper thank you.
“And besides, I can always find something for you to do should you continue to press the point.” Luna joked, grinning and winking at him as a blush crept across his muzzle.
“Now if there’s nothing else child, we’ll leave you be until tomorrow, you will have much to learn before we can send you out on your own after all.” Celestia said, turning and opening the door to the room.
“Orion” he said, blurting out the word so randomly that Celestia’s magic faltered with the door handle for a moment and both sisters looked at him confused. “My name here… a human one won’t fit… but there’s a name… one I would hear in my dreams when I was flying… Orion Borealis…”
“Hmmm… that is a good name… The hunter and the northern lights. Though here in Equestria, their roles are more commonly considered to be the guard and the lights of friendship… that name suits you, Orion.” Luna remarked, smiling softly at him and turning once again to the door, “Goodnight then Guardian of Friendship, we shall see each other in the morning…”
With that, the sisters of the Sun and the Moon left, and Orion went back to examining himself in the mirror.
“Heheheheheh…… oh man, I wish my mom were here for this…Look Mom! No hands!” he said to himself, giggling like a lunatic as one of Luna’s night guards stood outside the door.
“Great…” Aegis Shield said, rolling his eyes, “Another crazy pony in the castle… you’d think we had enough madmare’s around here between the Princesses and those girls from Ponyville…”