Apple of My Eye- Ch. 15
Involuntary Incantations
AKA- Lunar Deities Make the Worst Drinking Buddies
Orion woke up with a heavy feeling across his chest… he blinked the sleep out of his eyes, and stared up at the ceiling of his room in the Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse. He could tell from light spilling through the curtains that it had to be close to midday when he woke up…… still, something seemed off…
A throb shot through his skull and he cringed as he remembered vaguely drinking the night before. Still, this was by far the mildest hangover he’d ever had to bear through. But he was still too warm.
Okay, why was he so freaking warm?
Oh right… he had a heavy blanket on…
“Well, better kick this off and see if I can’t get some more rest…” he thought to himself, closing his eyes and trying to gently shift the large blanket off his prone frame.
…. It wasn’t moving… why wasn’t it moving?
He turned his head to look down at the blanket and saw blue…
”Why am I seeing blue?” he wondered, his mind slowly processing. “Aren’t me sheets red?”
Looking further down, he realized that he had the familiar red sheets across him, and the large blue blanket was lying on top of them… Well at least now he knew why he was warm.
He stretched his wings out to try and pry the covers off of him so that he could slip off the side of the mattress.
No such luck…
“Mmphhmmm… Oree… don’t leave just yet… you’re so nice to snuggle with…” he heard from behind him.
He’d be lying if he didn’t say that the unexpected voice startled him. In fact, it startled him to the point that he fell out of the bed rather clumsily, and only barely contained what would have undoubtedly been a very, very, little-filly-like scream…
His brain shot into overdrive in a second, to try and assess the situation. There were a couple important things that it noted in that instant, and they will now be listed in order of importance…
1- The blue blanket was actually a wing connected to a certain blue alicorn…
2- The wing had been splayed out over where he had been sleeping…
3- Judging from where the sheets had been mussed up, it was safe to say that she had been spooning with him while he
was asleep!
“Wh-what the hell happened last night?” he said quietly, not wanting to disturb the mare in his bed…
Okay, his brain now had to note a fourth important thing…
4- His voice was no longer the low baritone he was used to… it almost sounded like he’d gotten younger…
He hurried over to a mirror on the wall and examined his face for any signs of some kind of age spell…
“No fucking way…” he said, his jaw dropping in shock. His hoof coming up to squish his features to make sure he was actually seeing himself… not a picture of somepony else…
No such luck. He had definitely changed… the face he saw was his… but at the same time, it wasn’t…
In place of the square-ish jaw line he’d grown used to seeing, and the longer muzzle… he saw a smaller face with larger eyes, softer features overall, and a shorter muzzle that rounded off to a smaller mouth…
“Okay…” he said shakily, trying to keep himself in control, “So I got a makeover… This isn’t too bad… a bit more feminine than I’m used to… but that’s all right?”
As he thought over the possibilities for what could have changed the way his face looked, he sat down and was alarmed to feel something… off… about the rest of him… had his hips always been so wide when he sat down?
“Oh no…. no no no…” he begged, moving the mirror off the wall and down to the floor, where he proceeded to straddle it and looked to see what else had changed.
……
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“AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
By the time that Luna had shot up from her place on the bed, Orion was already half flying, half galloping down the hall, jumped the stairs, and burst through the front door of the farm house.
“Gotta go fast… just gotta go fast…” he kept saying, his eyes flying around in his head to check if anything else had changed overnight. He took to the sky at speeds that would have made Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and most of the Wonderbolts blush. Not able to restrain the sudden burst of manic panic that seized him, Orion was soon flying at altitudes that made the land beneath him look like a quilt.
Tears had started to streak back from his eyes after the first few minutes of insane flying. He was crying partly due to the speed tearing at his open eyes, and partly due to the shock. As his brain started to register the fact that he was crying, his burst of energy was reaching its limit, and he suddenly felt like every little thing was weighing him down and threatening to cause him to fall into unconsciousness.
His strength suddenly dwindling to empty, he spread his wings and tried to land on a nearby cloud. Luckily, he found a small bank of cumulus clouds that looked friendly… he landed, partially burying himself in the fluffy material, and would have been content to stay there, quietly sobbing, were it not for the small part of his brain that was still working to maintain his sanity.
Come on now pal… it said calmly, Maybe our eyes were playing tricks on us… That mirror might have been enchanted for all we know… Hell, that voice thing might just be a thing that happens first thing after you wake up… now calm down…
Orion began taking deep breaths, trying not to hyperventilate as the tears started to slow down a little.
Now let’s take this slow… we went out drinking at that party last night… for all we know, we did NOT shtup Luna… She may have just been playing the best friend and trying to make sure we got home safely…
“But I’ve never had a friend sleep in my bed and SPOON ME!” Orion argued out loud, glaring up in an attempt to see his own mind for a face to face discussion.
….. Okay… so there’s that bit of weirdness… but hey, remember what we learned about body language here? It might be harmless!
“Fluttershy said the whole 'putting your wing over someone else' thing was only for couples!”
And ponies you’re protecting… Come on now, Luna brought us here, she probably just feels responsible for what happens with us… now stop freaking out about that and give yourself a once over. For all we know, you got shitfaced and got a tattoo instead of a cutie mark.
“I don’t think they have tattoo parlors here…” Orion pointed out, glaring at a small cloud man he’d constructed in order to talk to an feel a bit less crazy.
Just do it smartass.
“Fine…”
He scanned his legs, sides, and wings, breathing a sigh of relief that he had avoided the, admittedly small chance, of a new drinking tattoo or some kind of hand related cutie mark. He wasn’t even sure why he would have wanted a hand related cutie mark, but hey, whatever.
“So that’s at least one less thing to worry about… what next?”
Check your hair. Make sure you didn’t get it cut into anything goofy.
“It’s a mane… and I don’t think anything happened to it…”
Shut up and check… you remember the time you got that reverse mohawk?
“Got it, got it…” he grumbled, shaking his head and feeling the full weight of his long mane waving around him. He even checked to see that his tail hadn’t changed overnight. Luckily, both parts checked out.
Okay then… so we know there’s a couple possible reasons that Luna might have snuggled up to us last night… and there’s nothing screwy going on with our coat, mane, or tail… what next.
“We could always check to see if we’re COMPLETELY crazy… you know, apart from the whole talking to a cloud man thing…” Orion suggested.
…. Good point… I think Pinkie might be wearing off on us…
Eeyup…
Did you hear something?
“Nope… So… should we check now?”
Are you going to scream like a filly again?
“No… I don’t think so…”
Then now is as good a time as any to check.
“Okay then…” Orion said, taking a deep breath and bracing himself. He laid himself out on the cloud, his wings spread out to
stabilize him as he reclined and looked down his stomach…
…
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...
…
“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” He screamed again, this time at least a bit more in control… though he still screamed like a little school filly…
Then again, any male would probably have the same reaction to waking up and noticing a few VERY IMPORTANT pieces of him were suddenly nonexistent.
“Whe-he-he-here are they!?” he cried, planting his face in the cloud next to him and sobbing openly… “What did I do to deserve this?”
Hey now… I’m sure it’s nothing too awful… I’ll bet one of the unicorns in town knows a spell for something like this…
“I’ve been castrated you fucker!” he yelled, kicking the head off the cloud man, tears now literally pouring down his face. “They didn’t just walk off! I must have done something horrible!”
All of a sudden, an image of him trying to make a move on Luna in a drunken haze popped into his mind… he could just see it now… him pushing and leaning on her, trying to get some of that hot alicorn action… and her turning him down. Then he decides to just see how far he can push her, and her blasting him in anger, taking his manhood away as a lesson!
If she castrated you, then why would she have been snuggling up to you this morning? He heard, the logical part of his brain unhindered by the decapitation of the cloud man.
“Th-that doesn’t matter… the point is I’m a horrible person and I should just die!” Orion howled, his emotions running all over the place. He felt afraid, angry, remorseful, sad, and terrified all at the same time…
Come on now… get a grip on yourself… let’s just think now… what else could have gotten you like this?
Rather than answer himself of course, Orion continued to cry into the cumulus pillow he was currently hugging close. As was his right… And so he stayed for about a good thirty/forty minutes, alternating between sobbing, gently crying, and yelling out
“Why me, oh gods, I didn’t even get a chance to use it half as much as I wanted to”……
Finally, after calming down a teensy bit… or perhaps considering jumping off the cloud to the ground below (it was about fifty-fifty at that point, give me a break!), he looked down and happened to see a large patch of bright blue flowers near a tree line.
What are those? The logical part of his mind wondered, and why do they look so familiar?
“I think I’ve seen those……” Orion murmured, “………Oh fuck! Are those……”
He spread his wings and glided down to the edge of the flower patch and looked a bit closer… He had definitely seen these somewhere before.
“Poison Joke!” he exclaimed, taking a couple steps away. “But wait… those only grow near the……” He began to say before gazing up at the suddenly ominous looking woods in front of him.
“The Everfree Forest… But how the hell did I get all the way out here? I’d have had to fly across the whole town to get here from the farm!”
Well you DID tear across the sky like a doped up comet…
“Oh yeah… wait… did I get into some Poison Joke last night?” he wondered, looking around to see that the Town Hall was just barely visible from the section of the woods he was at. “I know I do some stupid stuff when I drink… but did I manage to get here last night?”
It would explain why Luna was sleeping in your bed… maybe she wanted to magic the Poison Joke off of you?
“No… There’s only the one cure for Poison Joke… and the only pony that knows how to make that potion is Zecora.”
Then why don’t you go find Zecora and get her help?
“You mean walk into a forest we only know from the show, which is only PARTLY factual, to find a zebra that lives in an isolated cabin, all the while avoiding whatever kinds of monsters live in said forest?”
…… Well I didn’t say it was a GOOD plan… but it’s better than nothing right?
“Maybe I should go back to town and see if one of the others will help me… Twilight might be able to whip up the potion.”
Yeah, but do you really want to be known as “that guy who lost his EVERYTHING to a plant”?!
“……… Aren’t you supposed to be the logical part of my brain?”
I’m allowed my moments to be emotional… I work hard all the time! …Okay, some of the time… But still I don’t need you criticizing me!
“I’m not criticizing you! Relax… let’s go see if we can find a path or something to Zecora’s place…”
And so, the slightly schizophrenic pegasus began to search the tree line for any possible opening. As luck would have it, he didn’t need to really bother looking all that hard. He rounded a corner of particularly dense foliage and ran smack into the forest’s resident zebra… headfirst… and yes, it hurt.
“Oww! What the- Ohmygosh… I’m SOOoooo sorry about that Zecora. I was looking for you actually. Are you alright?” Orion exclaimed, shaking his head and looking up at the tall Everfree denizen in mild shock and awe.
“Well hello there my darkened mare, what brought you to me on this day fair?” Zecora asked, apparently unfazed by the accidental collision.
“Wow… you really speak in rhymes… cool. Anyway, I need your help. See, I think I might have fallen into some Poison Joke last night, and I was wondering if you could help…” Orion explained, his brain stopping dead in its tracks as it registered what the zebra had said.
“Did you say… Mare?” he asked, Orion’s eyes growing huge with worry.
“I’m sorry if I was too frank, but please, feel free to check your flank.” She responded, motioning with a hoof towards Orion’s rear.
He stood there, his face somewhere between confusion and fear. He turned his head around to examine the back half of his body, (which was surprisingly easy with an Equestrian body...) and flicked his tail to the side…
For the third time that day, Orion found himself screaming… luckily, this last one did NOT reach Ponyville. It did, however, nearly deafen a certain Zebra that was standing within three feet of the blast radius.
“I take it then, by your scream…” Zecora mumbled, massaging her head to try and work out the wall of sound she’d just been subjected to, “That things are not as they would seem?”
“No!” Orion wailed, tears streaming down his face, “They’re not! I woke up and thought I’d been castrated… now I find out I don’t have anything TO castrate! Oh gods…. What happened to me?!”
“Calm yourself, my winged friend… we’ll find a way to fix this in the end.” Zecora said, sitting down next to the crying mare, and pulling her close with a hoof for comfort. “Now, come with me dear, to my hut, we’ll soon find out just what is what…”
Orion sniffled and stood up with the potion maker. If anyone could help him now… it would be her…
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They had been working in Zecora’s hut for awhile now, Orion having explained his/her story… or, at least what could be remembered… Zecora had given him/her a quick once over to confirm that the pegasus was in fact completely female in form, which hadn’t been as awkward as one might think, and Zecora had started work on a couple brews that might help restore him/her to his/her original sex.
……Okay, you know what, we’re just going to use female pronouns with Orion for now… because the whole him/her, he/she thing is really weird…
“So… just what do you think might have happened?” Orion asked, shifting awkwardly in her seat, where Zecora had put her to drink a potion that would soothe her nerves, and ease the shock.
“There are any number of things that could have caused this, Poison Joke, Hearts Desire, or even Hidden Bliss… In any case, I would not fret, my special brews will fix you yet!” Zecora answered, hurrying between the various shelves around her hut and the various small cauldrons she had ringed around the fire pit in the middle of the floor.
“I’ve heard about Poison Joke… but I didn’t think Hearts Desire worked that way… and I’ve never even heard of Hidden Bliss…” Orion replied, her nerves relaxing slightly for the first time all day. What time was it now anyway? He wasn’t sure of a lot of things, but he was pretty sure that he’d gotten at least Luna’s attention that morning with how he’d escaped the Apple farm house.
“A tricky thing, that Hearts Desire… It can do any number of things, from good to dire. If you sought better insight in the female mind, that flower may have put you into this bind. As for the Hidden Bliss, the only thing I can say is this… It is a plant that must NOT be played with, else you’ll find your whole world gone forthwith…” Zecora responded, smiling as a small cloud of green smoke billowed from one of the cauldrons, shortly followed by a blue plume of smoke from another, and a shower of red sparks from a third.
“Wow… I didn’t think there were that many dangerous plants in this land…” the grey pegasus commented, dragging her hooves along the floor and trying not to imagine what would happen if none of the potions worked.
“The plants themselves are not so bad.” Zecora interjected, working furiously on the last cauldron. “The trouble is not letting the effects drive you mad.”
As she finished giving out this last piece of enigmatic advice, the last cauldron began to boil over with purple bubbles that soon disappeared in the tongues of fire lapping at the bottom of the iron pots.
“Now quickly come, and try this one.” Zecora motioned, having scooped out a ladle full of the purple potion into a small wooden cup, “It’s the trickiest potion, and easily overdone…”
Orion took the cup and downed it in one gulp. She had been afraid of what it would taste like, but was pleasantly surprised to taste something similar to vanilla… then the aftertaste kicked in, and she dropped the cup, writhing on the floor, her insides on fire and her vision blurring.
Zecora stood there, watching for any tell tale changes, frowning as Orion got back to her hooves, with absolutely nothing changed in the slightest…
“This is not good, but now we know; Hidden Bliss is not the cause of your woe. Come quickly now, and drink this draught, it is something of my own craft.” Zecora instructed, shoving another wooden cup into Orion’s hooves, this time filled with the green potion still billowing out a small cloud of smoke, “While these potions may yet cure, they must be taken with your body pure.”
“So wait… if I try one of these cures and it doesn’t work, then I have to drink this green stuff to make sure that the other potions don’t hurt?!” Orion asked, her voice taking on an angry edge as she downed the newest brew… at least this one was about as abrasive as milk…
“That’s what I said, was I not clear? Or perhaps you simply could not hear…” Zecora answered, trying to change the atmosphere to one of friendly banter.
The unexpected sarcasm from the usually calm Zebra was enough to make Orion laugh a little bit and ease the tension some more. She had to admit, once you got past the whole experience of waking up in a new body (again) it wasn’t so terrible… She still wanted to change back to normal, but it wasn’t as scary with a calming presence like Zecora around.
“Okay… what are we going to try next?” she asked, handing Zecora back the wooden cup.
“Next up is something rather new, a cure for Hearts Desire is this next brew…”
Again, Zecora handed her the cup filled with the red brew, Orion drank, and again, it had a pleasant taste. Unlike the last potion however, this one neither burned nor had an aftertaste that kicked her in the back of the teeth… It didn’t do anything
in fact… Orion was just left sitting there on the ground, blinking and waiting for something to happen.
Zecora frowned again. This was the second cure, and it had also had no effect… There was only one last thing to try, and then they were out of options…
“Well, that one was rather a bit of a letdown, I’d rather hoped that would take away your frown…”
“Well… there’s always the chance this was just Poison Joke, right?” Orion asked hopefully, unable to read Zecora’s expression as she turned around got another cup of the green purifying solution.
“Come my friend; let us still hope… there’s always the chance that it was Poison Joke.”
“You know that one didn’t exactly rhyme…” Orion pointed out, taking the green potion and slugging it down while Zecora glared at her.
Ignoring the snide remark about her manner of speech, Zecora spooned out the last resort, the Poison Joke cure, and handed it to Orion.
She took the cup in hoof and looked into the blue contents, silently begging whatever powers there were that controlled Orion’s life for a bit of mercy. She even went so far as swearing off drinking if it worked.
She raised the cup slowly to her lips, taking a deep breath… and then Zecora pushed the bottom of the cup upwards and poured the contents down Orion’s throat…
She sputtered and coughed, rolling around on the floor as the potion shot down her throat. It felt like her insides were being frozen over, and her hooves started to shake and her teeth chattered.
“W-what w-was th-that for?!” she asked, getting to her hooves shakily and glaring at the zebra who was watching her closely.
Zecora shrugged, “You were taking too long to drink, so I merely helped you over the brink…”
If it weren’t for the sheer audacity of her response, and the weirdness of the situation, Orion was pretty sure she’d be nursing a grudge… As it was though, there were bigger problems on her plate… namely, the fact that NOTHING had changed about her in the slightest.
“It would seem that we were both quite wrong. Your trouble is not of plants, but magic strong…” Zecora said, shaking her head and wrapping Orion in a comforting hug, “I do not know what ails you so, but do not despair and give in to woe. There is a mare in Ponyville with great magical strength, she may yet be of aid, and will help at any length.”
“Thanks Zecora…” Orion said sadly, her eyes shining with new tears as she started to realize that her chances for fixing everything were falling. “I really appreciate the help…… I’m pretty sure I’d still be walking around the edge of the woods crying if I hadn’t bumped into you…”
“Think nothing of it my newest friend. I’ve confidence it will all be right in the end…” the zebra assured her, walking them both to the door, “Now, I’ll see you safe to the treeline, but from there on out, you must try not to whine…”
Orion laughed at the small display of ‘tough love’, and nodded in agreement, the two mares setting out from the hut and heading back towards Ponyville.
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“Ah’m tellin’ ya’ll, he ain’t anywhere near the west side a town!” Applejack yelled, butting heads with Rainbow Dash.
“And I’m telling you AJ!” Rainbow shot back, “He’s not anywhere near the orchards or the lake! So quit trying to double check! We’ve already got ONE pony who has to triple check her lists, we don’t need another!”
“Uhhh… I know that he’s not anywhere near my cottage or the Everfree Forest…” Fluttershy added, the tension between her two most competitive friends making her shake with fear a little bit. Luckily, Big Macintosh was there to lean on.
“He wasn’t anywhere between the Hospital and here.” Twilight added, frowning as she crossed another section of map off. So far they’d covered about 2/3rds of the town and the outlying area looking for Orion. Luna herself had instructed her guards to scan the areas further out in case he’d run off faster than they realized. Unfortunately, none of them had come back yet, so they had no way of knowing what the results of that search were…
Rarity came galloping over to the small group outside the Town Hall, trying to catch her breath and informing Twilight that he hadn’t been seen all morning in the shopping district, the spa, or the area of town around the boutique.
“I even went door to door and showed them pictures of him to make sure.” She explained.
“How did you get a picture of Orion? He hasn’t exactly sat still for any photo shoots that I know of….” Twilight noted, eyeing her fashionista friend suspiciously.
“Yes well… I may have accidentally set up a hidden camera just before I had him try on that vest… I wasn’t expecting quite the show he gave us, but there were a couple of appropriate shots that I was able to use to help search for him…” Rarity admitted bashfully.
Twilight just frowned and added a small note to the bottom of her map, reminding her to talk to Rarity about her slight voyeuristic tendencies at a later date.
Pinkie Pie came bouncing over, hopping around the group and telling everyone gathered that she’d checked everywhere from Sugarcube corner over, and had found neither hide nor hair of the grey stallion.
“It’s SOOO weird too!” She exclaimed, finally having stopped hopping long enough to take on a serious expression, “I even checked all my best hiding places for Hide and Seek, and he wasn’t there! I mean, I know he’s not me, but still, he had to know SOME good hiding places, and I couldn’t find him in ANY of the good ones! He wasn’t even under the bridge hiding away like a troll or anything!”
Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow all held a hoof up for Pinkie to stop talking, but nothing stopped the pink menace until a dark blue aura wrapped itself around her muzzle and stopped the stream of chatter.
Everyone in the group turned around to see Luna walking up to the group. She was still in her more inconspicuous form, but the Princess still commanded an air of respect. Still, she was lacking her usually confident attitude, and looked not unlike a mother whose child has wandered off. Her head even hung low with fatigue and worry.
“None of my guards have found him yet,” she informed Twilight, who scribbled out the outlying areas of the town, in response, “But it hardly matters at this point… too much time has passed now…”
“I’m sure he’s fine Princess…” Twilight comforted, “He’ll probably be on his way back soon… Just what happened to him anyway? You still haven’t told us…”
“It is not something that is easy to say Twilight Sparkle… It was a grievous error on my part in the first place, and even though I swore that I would fix it, the time is drawing near that I will be powerless to fix the wrong I have done to him…” Luna answered, shaking her head. “If he ever comes back, he may not even forgive me!”
“Ah’m sure it ain’t that bad Princess…” Applejack said, wrapping a hoof around the lunar deities withers comfortingly. “If it was all that horrible, then Ah’m pretty sure Ah’d remember something.”
“That is the POINT!” Luna roared, stamping her forehooves on the ground in frustration, “You were in such shock that you collapsed as well! I’ve made one enormous mistake after another and it’s ALL MY FAULT!”
“Don’t say that Luna…” a calm voice said from just outside the circle. It had an almost melodic quality to it, but the entire group felt like it was familiar all the same…
They turned as one to see the grey body, wings, and excessively long mane of none other than Orion. But just as quickly as everypony seemed to be ready to celebrate, they all noticed other things… the smaller frame, the wider hips… and the face! This wasn’t the same pony they all thought… was it?!
“Hey guys.” Orion said, smiling uneasily and raising a wing in greeting. The tension was only broken as Rainbow plowed into the grey pegasus and slammed them both to the ground.
“What the HAY dude!” Rainbow shouted, “You disappear, come back, and now you look like a mare! What happened!?” Rainbow yelled, hugging her friend before dropping them both back to the ground, half angry at her friend, half glad to see them back, half confused by the changes…. Yes she realized it was three halves, but she’d never been that good at math.
Orion took a deep breath and began to explain everything from the moment she had woken up, to the flight back to town, where she’d only found everypony because she’d heard one of the townsfolk complaining about the search party at Town Hall being stupidly loud.
“So that’s what all that screaming was about?” Twilight asked, apparently unfazed by the fact that one of her friends had effectively woken up to a surprise sex change.
“That’s all you’re curious about?” Dash interrupted, waving her forehooves wildly at Orion, “Look at him! Her! Whatever! Twi, this is some serious stuff right here!”
“Is this what ya’ll meant by screwin’ up big time Princess?” Applejack asked, looking to Luna, who had been remarkably quiet up to this point.
“Indeed it is….” She admitted, walking over and nuzzling Orion, “I am so sorry for having put you through all this Orion… I truly am… I cannot do anything now but hope that you will one day forgive me…”
She then went on to explain the particulars of what had happened after Applejack, Orion, and she had left the party the previous night. She even went so far into detail as explaining that the spell could only be cast on a conscious subject, and that his fainting afterwards had prevented her from amending the problem right there.
“In truth, I had meant to be awake when you awoke this morning, but I gravely underestimated how late you would rise Orion…” she said, “I am not used to being awake in the daytime, especially after having consumed as much moonshine as I did the previous evening. I ended up sharing the bed with you in the hopes that your rising would be enough to wake me up as well…”
“Hold on there…” Applejack said, interrupting, “You mean to tell me that you two shared a bed in MAH house?!”
“And what do you mean his ‘rising’?” Dash asked, glaring at the Princess. Her piercing gaze mimicked by Rarity, and to a lesser extent by Pinkie Pie.
“It’s just another way to say that when he woke up, so would Princess Luna.” Twilight explained, wanting to avoid any misunderstandings as easily as possible. “But Princess, if all we need is for Orion to be awake, can’t you just cast the counter spell on him now and fix this?”
“That is part of the reason that I cannot but beg for your forgiveness Orion…” Luna said, lowering her head in shame. “The spell has a small window of opportunity in which one may cast the counter spell. This is part of the magic meant to refrain anypony from abusing it for their own ends. If the subject is not changed back within 12 hours of the initial casting, then they are stuck like that for an entire celestial year…”
Orion, who had been quiet up to that point, and who had thought that the day had given up any nasty surprises it had to offer, found herself unpleasantly surprised yet again…
“…… A CELESTIAL YEAR?!” she yelled, everything in sight suddenly growing fuzzy and spinning dangerously. The ground suddenly felt like it gave way and Orion collapsed in the street, causing the six mares and Big Mac to rush forward and make sure that their friend was alright.
“Perhaps I should have mentioned that a celestial year is one calendar month…” Luna noted bashfully.