Prologue…
THUD. Something just crashed into my house. A small figure approached me through the falling dust left by the impact. It was vaguely equine in shape, and seemed to have wings, which struck me as odd, as the last time I had checked, winged horses didn’t exist.
As it emerged from the dust, the first thing that struck me was its vivid green of its eyes. In combination with the deep red of its body, it was a peculiar looking creature. As it looked me up and down a thought struck me,
“I probably look pretty weird to it too!” I thought. I immediately lowered my stance, knowing that looking harmless is the easiest way to avoid confrontations.
“Well, that landing didn’t go too well…” It giggled in a definitely feminine voice. “Sorry ‘bout the wall though.”
“No problem” I replied. Then the shock of this crazy situation hit me. “I’m talking to a winged horse. I seriously need to lay off the video games…”
After a few awkward moments, the horse, if you could call something just under 5 feet tall a horse, spoke up again.
“Well, here I am talking to a weird monkey thing after crashing into its house, and I can’t try to apologise without it freaking out…” it complained. I soon wiped the look of complete and utter brainless panic off my face.
“Sorry for not being used to winged… horses? … That suddenly crash through the wall of my house at 2 a.m.” I replied in a voice laden with sarcasm. An English accent is a wonderful thing sometimes.
“I’m a pony, and sorry for being a bit cranky after going headfirst through a brick wall.” It replied, matching my sarcastic tone almost perfectly. “’Name’s Brusher, what’s yours?” it asked, without a hint of sarcasm left in its voice.
“Max.” I said, still weary of this intruder. “How did you end up crashing into my house anyway?”
“I was flying along, happy as can be, then all of a sudden I’m hit by a bolt of purple… stuff and I end up here.” She explained, I was sure it was a she now as its tone became even more feminine. “Well, that’s the abridged version anyhow.”
“Erm, did this purple stuff look like… a little floating cloud of mist?” I asked, peering over her shoulder at the aforementioned mist.
“Yes, actually…” Brusher turned around to see what I was staring at, and upon seeing the mist, she let out an incomprehensible string of words. “OHNONONONONOTAGAIN! CELESTIASAVEMELUNASAVEME! OHBUCKNO!” This string of incomprehensible sounds pretty much summed up our collective feelings as the mist suddenly hit us both like a ton of bricks.
***
Chapter One…
“Ugh, my face…” I whined, as I slowly awoke to the fact that whatever the mist had done, it most definitely included throwing me nose-first into a bookcase. As I extracted myself from the bookcase, I suddenly felt quite a few pairs of eyes watching me, so I slowly turned, and finally came face to face with something that definitely didn’t make sense.
A group of at least six of the little… pony? …things were stood staring at me. It was at this point that the orange-coloured one decided that giving me mild concussion was the best way to say hello. It was at this point I realised that among all the aches and pains that my body was reminding me about, fairly persistently, I felt a new feeling, some sort of power welling up inside me. I made up my mind, the orange one would be the perfect subject to test this power on…
I felt the power shift around my body, finding its way to my hands fairly rapidly. Just as I was about to unleash this power upon the orange menace, Brusher finally woke up.
“What the HAY just happened? My head feels like someone just dropped an Ursa on it!” Her voice cut through the red mist that was clouding my mind, and I decided that it was better to try helping Brusher than blast this orange monstrosity from existence.
“You okay down there Brusher?” I asked, never once taking my eyes off Kicker. Kicker being the name I decided to know the orange pony by until I learned her proper name and a proper apology.
“I guess.” She grunted back.
“Okay, back to removing Kicker over here from this plane of existence.” As I said this the group of ponies reeled in, what I could only assume was, shock.
“Don’t you dare!” yelled a frail looking, pastel yellow coloured pony. “You crash into our friend’s house, and then go on to threaten another one of our friends! How dare you even think something like that?!” I burst out laughing at the little creature.
“Oh that’s RICH coming from you! What could you possibly do to me?” I cackled. She just glared back, the kind of glare that could whittle down mountains and shame mighty rivers. But I had something she didn’t, by this point I had fallen so far from rational thought that this just made me laugh harder. I had some Crazy! The little pony began to sob, and that snapped me back to rational thought, reminding me of my little sister so much that I was drained of all the anger left in me.
“I’m so sorry!” I nearly yelled as I rushed to comfort the poor creature. “I didn’t mean to upset you; I just lost it when your friend belted me in the face.” I pulled the poor thing into a protective embrace and slowly calmed her down. Her friends seemed so shocked by this sudden change in my personality they stood there, speechless for the second time in as many minutes.
“It’s okay, I’m sure Applejack was just scared of you.” The little pony said, and with that she extracted herself from my bear hug.
“Yeah… Ah'm sorry for bucking you in the head,
Ah just jumped to conclusions, s’all.” She said, in what I presumed to be a southern American accent.
“It’s no big deal; I’m just sorry I scared you gals…” I muttered, passing out for the second time that day…
***
Chapter Two…
(Author’s Note: Sorry for the lacking length in these first few chapters, but I doubt you’d want to hear about an unconscious man’s exploits in “The Void” P.S. I’m English, so don’t mind the odd mad-sounding expression.)
I woke to find myself on what seemed to be a settee of some sort, with what seemed to be a small rabbit staring me in the eye. I stared right back, and I didn’t quite feel safe after seeing that rabbit’s gaze.
“Erm, you wouldn’t happen to speak like the ponies do in these parts?” it shook its head. “You know exactly what I'm saying don’t you?” a nod. “Clever little rabbit, aren’t you?” another nod. “Well, after seeing some of the animals round these parts, well, I'm not going to doubt that fact.” A look that could have almost been ‘I know that feeling’ if it had been spoken as words.
“Um, ah, are you awake?” said something with an incredibly gentle voice.
“Yes, thanks, just enjoying a conversation with what I presume is you pet rabbit?” I replied.
“Oh, Angel Bunny is very intelligent, isn’t he?” responded the voice, which by now I had worked out as belonging to the pale yellow pony from before.
“Yep.” I said as I went to stand up.
THUD. I fell over as soon as I attempted to stand, eliciting a yelp of fear from yellow and a look of concern from Angel.
“I knew my balance was bad, but this isn’t normal,” I muttered to myself as I tried again, and again failing miserably. As I turned to as the little yellow pony for help I noticed a look that told me that something had happened to me. “I’m not a human anymore, am I?” I groaned. A shaking head from both of the other, for lack of a better word, people, in the room. “What am I?” I asked, terrified of the answer.
“R-really… b-b-big p-pony…” yellow whimpered.
“Oh… my… lord…” I responded. “Am I just a normal pony?” I asked, with some trepidation.
“Weird… w-wings and horn…” was all she managed to squeak out. “Let’s go ask Twilight…” she added once she realised that I was still the same kind creature that comforted her before.
A few minutes later we were stood in front of a giant tree that I presumed was Twilight’s home. As we entered, I saw a small green and purple streak belt across the floor in front of me, making a whimpering sound as it went.
“Hello Fluttershy, do you…” The unicorn that had addresses us from a previously unseen balcony almost fainted. “Who’s this you brought to see me?” she asked in a terrified voice.
“Erm… sorry about last time we met, but my name is Max, and I would guess that you are Twilight?” I said in an apologetic tone.
“I should buck you in the face so hard…” she retorted.
“That’s what got us into our little spat, Twilight, or have you forgotten how mad I get when I'm mildly concussed?” I snapped back. I heard a small whining sound coming from behind me. I turned and saw that, once again, I had scared yellow, whose real name is actually Fluttershy according to my logic. I pulled her into another protective hug. “Please don’t cry Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to scare you again…” “Way to go genius, your only friend in this mad place is terrified of you.” I added mentally.
“Sorry I snapped at you Max, I just didn’t know how to react when a seemingly equicidal maniac that threatened my friends turns up on my doorstep with another of my friends he is apparently protective of.”
“I’m sorry too, but like I said, Applejack did kick me pretty hard…” I trailed off mid-sentence as Fluttershy nuzzled my chest, and from the way that she looked into my eyes sent me the message loud and clear, but she said it out loud anyway.
“Don’t be mad at him Twi, he didn’t know any better, and besides, he only ever seems to worry that he upset someone.” She looked up at me just like my baby sister does back home…
“Oh no, not good, my house is in ruins, I'm missing and there is no trace of what happened, back in my world I bet everyone’s freaking out, oh no I need to get back.” I spluttered, finally realising that as long as I’m here I'm not there, at home, where I belong.
“Oh, about that…” Twilight said, “I think that you are still technically at home, but the ‘you’ at home doesn’t contain your consciousness.”
“Different body, same mind?” I simplified.
“Basically.” She confirmed
“Okay, not too bad.” I said “might as well get used to this place as I don’t want a rematch with that purple mist…” I suddenly noticed a sensation where I presumed my wings were, and decided to stretch them. Baaaaaaaaad idea. As I looked around to inspect my wings, I found that they weren’t wings at all, but six large, floating crystals on either side of my body arranged in the shape of a pair of wings. “Wow… Sparkly…” was all I could muster at that point. “I presume that my horn is the same?”
“Um, yes it is. Sorry about this Max.” A new voice said. She sounded exactly like my housemate did just before showing me another piece of broken furniture…
***
Chapter Three…
“Okay Max, nice little dream you’re having here, but I think it’s time you woke up now” I remarked mentally “Yeah, it’s only a dream, only a dream.” I replied to my mind, letting out an insane cackle as I did so.
“Sorry, young colt, but this is no dream.” said a tall, regal looking pony with both wings and a horn. Her coat was pure white and her mane was a mix of pastel hues.
“Well, I'm sat here in very lavishly furnished room that looks like something out of a fairy-tale, talking to a giant white pony with a freaky hairdo. I don’t think anything is going to convince me otherwise.” I cackled in response. I then looked down to see something that I REALLY didn’t expect; my 15 year old self. “And this just puts the icing on the cake.” I remarked, still chuckling as my mind decided what to do. I decided for it.
THUD! THUD! THUD! I had decided to once again put myself under. In case you were wondering how I was handling this new world so well, it’s simple really. My brain just said dream, and I didn’t argue. But now, with the reality of this mounting up, my mind had given up on keeping control, and so I just lost myself in a pile of emotions. Having a teenager’s body and hormones again suddenly, combined with the fact that I was freaking out really messed me up.
“Art thou conscious, pale one?” someone asked me as I was jerked awake by a very sharp horn right in my solar plexus.
“Yes, no thanks to someone’s attempt to impale me.” I said.
“We are… *cough* I mean, I am sorry for this, pale one.” said a very regal voice belonging to a deep blue-purple pony. “I am Princess Luna!” she said loudly, almost putting my eardrums through.
“Ugh, caps lock much.” I groaned to myself, still feeling pretty insane. I then noticed my vision was blurred, and put it down to the repeated head trauma.
“Do you know why you are here?” she asked, having turned the volume down from 11 after seeing me trying to recover from her last burst of caps lock speech.
“Nope.” I replied, still somewhat groggy due to a splitting headache.
“Well, my sister brought you here hoping to find out how a being such as yourself was to end up in Equestria, and to find why you threatened equicide against one of our most important subjects,” she explained, “and was just about to ask why when you proceeded to knock yourself unconscious.” She finished without the faintest indication of amusement.
“Well, if you’d just experienced 2 cases of head trauma and one not-too-pleasant magic induced nap, I think your mind would just leave you to beat some sense into your brain.” I replied in a sarcastic tone.
“I see.” She remarked, confusing me with the lack of even the slightest repercussions. “You look a lot different to how Twilight described your human form, do you know why?”
“From the looks of things, I’d say that when your sister put me under, she miscalculated and reversed the aging of my body by about 6 years.” I remarked, surprising myself with how calm I was. “Oh no, I completely forgot that 6 years ago I still needed my glasses…” I started to panic, realising that my laser eye surgery that I had done had also been reversed.
“I can help with that,” said a third voice, belonging to the other royal sister, “I am sorry I put your body under too much stress, but it’s the least I can do to fix your eyesight.” A blinding flash and another splitting headache later, I could see again.
“Thank you, Princess… hmmm… Sunshine?” I joked. “But seriously, I really couldn’t see, and I’m grateful for you fixing it.”
“I’m sorry I can’t do more to help you, but aging isn’t one of my strong points. And I’m called Celestia, by the way.” She replied, chuckling a little. “Now, to work out why you ended up here…”
***
Chapter Four…
“So that’s how Twilight sparkle ended up bringing me here.” I finished my story for the Princesses.
“I told her to get that Library some magic dampeners…” Princess Celestia fumed; making her mane and tail flow faster than they had been before.
“It’s okay Princess, she didn’t actually remove me from my world, just my mind, and created a copy of me here.” I said, desperately trying to save the little unicorn from the sun Princess’ wrath. “I don’t mind, just as long as…” Suddenly, it felt like my shoulder blades were ripping themselves out of my back “AAAAAGH!” I screamed through the crippling pain. Luna was the first to react, grabbing me with her magic so I didn’t hit the floor
“Max?! Are you OK?!” she shouted, but her voice was… different? Less regal, somehow? Then it clicked.
“Y-You’re Brusher?” I asked through gritted teeth, only succeeding as the adrenalin hit me.
“Yes, I am…” she replied “I didn’t want to be a Princess all the time, so I created a second body for myself that I can go anywhere in.” Needless to say, we were stunned. Then my shoulder blades finally won the struggle.
“HOLY SHIT!” I screamed as two huge gouts of blood sprayed from my shoulders, rendering all three of us unable to move from shock. Surprisingly, I didn’t black out, but instead stood back up. “That… hurt…” was all I could say. I felt the tingling sensation that I had first felt when I moved my wings as a pony, and tentatively looked over my shoulder. Sure enough, there were two crystalline wings attached to me. “Ah, that’s new…” I said, stretching them. Celestia’s jaw then proceeded to detach itself from the rest of her face, and Luna fainted. I rushed over and grabbed her before she hit the ground. “Well, I guess that I’ve found out what that power I was about to hurl at Applejack was… wait, where are the blood stains?” I asked no-one in particular as Celestia still hadn’t regained use of her lower jaw. Then I noticed the crystals were a particular shade of red… “Oh bugger” I said, and then a crippling burst of laughter hit me as I saw Celestia trying to regain her composure.
“Hey! That’s not funny!” she said back, joining in with my hysteric laughter after ‘hitting’ me upside the head. We woke Luna, who joined in after me and Celestia only just managed to explain what had transpired when she was unconscious. “I think that you just earned yourself a house somewhere, my friend!” Celestia said, still chuckling as we recovered from the previous hilarity. I then got a sense of a second body around mine, and decided to probe it with my mind
POOF! I suddenly felt my centre of gravity lower, and my viewpoint rise slightly.
“Wow Max that was impressive!” said ‘Brusher’, who was stood next to me “You even managed to transform me!” Celestia was stunned by her sister’s second form, a small Pegasus pony with light red skin and bright green eyes. Her mane was still pretty much the same save for it was a bit more purple than normal “Hmm, coat colour is a bit off though…” she muttered to herself.
“It looks nicer in that shade of red.” I said, nudging her shoulder slightly. She giggled, having become much less… uptight than before.
“It seems you are a fifth kind of pony Max; and one I never expected to see again since… since…” Celestia said, suddenly sobbing. Me and Luna went to comfort her.
“It’s ok Tia, it’s all ok…” Luna said, shifting back to her normal form as she hugged her big sister. I joined her, and the three of us sat there, together, until Celestia stopped crying. “What’s up?” Luna asked, concerned by her sister’s unusual display of sadness.
“He’s… he’s just like father…” Celestia said, still sobbing slightly. Me and Luna looked at each other in shock. “I don’t wanna talk about it…” Celestia said, so Luna and I decided not to probe further, having both been shocked by the revelation that I was potentially more powerful than the both of them combined. Celestia walked to her bedroom, and me and Luna accompanied her as far as the door.
An hour later, me and Luna were sitting together in Celestia’s court giving her time to recover from such a huge emotional shock. Every person that came to us asked where Celestia was, and we just gave the same answer,
“She needs some time alone right now, and we hope you understand” this worked for every pony. Except one; Prince Blueblood.
“I simply must speak to aunt Celestia, my dear aunt Luna” he whined like a little girl, or filly for that matter.
“I’m sorry Blueblood but she really needs time alone right now, she’s just had a very large emotional shock.” Luna replied, trying to soothe the petulant prince.
“But Luuuuuuuunaaaaaa…” he whined. It took all my self-control to stop me from shutting him up.
“Listen, Blueblood, I know you really want to see Celestia but I don’t think she’s…” I started to say before a refreshed looking Celestia interrupted me.
“It’s okay Bluey, Aunty Celestia is here now.” She teased, a huge smile splitting her face. Needless to say, Blueblood was not impressed “It’s okay guys, I can take care of this now.” Me and Luna both breathed a sigh of relief as we walked into the private gardens…
(Author’s Note: the chapters are starting to get a lot longer now, so I’ll just be uploading them one at a time. The story is finally picking up some sanity, and now I can really start to write. Allons-y!)
***
Chapter Five…
'Brusher’ and I had decided to go into Canterlot to get me used to pony life. After a little while in the palace gardens we set off into Canterlot, but only after having made my wings and horn invisible through a cloaking spell. We visited a load of shops, and eventually ended up outside a little pet shop.
“I think you should get a pet Max, it’d give you something to keep you company when I’m on ‘business’.” Brusher said, nudging me suggestively.
“Brusher, how could you imply something like that!” I said, mock scolding her. She just giggled. We entered the shop and my eyes instantly stretched wide open. “That’s a lot of animals.” I said, gawping uncontrollably.
“How can I help youse two?” said the shop keeper in an odd accent. He was a small stallion, much smaller than any of the others I had seen. “Wants a pet to prepare for havin’ a foal?” He joked, making Brusher blush wildly. I took it well and chuckled, making her blush even more. This made her concentration slip for a second, and she lost her grip on the cloaking spell.
“Bollocks.” I said waiting for the shopkeeper’s reaction. He took it extremely well.
“Hey, ya look like one of them fancy alicorn sisters!” he remarked. “I’d guess that you’re one of the sisters, missy.” He continued. Luna let her transformation spell go, nodding her head. “It’s okay, ya know, I'm not gonna tell no-one what your disguises are.”
“Thanks” said Luna, shifting back into Brusher and cloaking my horn and wings. Throughout the entire conversation I had been looking around the shop, and a particular pet had caught my eye. It was a large green bird, reminding me of a hawk, but it was a bit too… fluorescent.
“How much for that green bird over there?” I said motioning towards it with a hoof.
“Ah, the Fell Phoenix? About 100 bits, he’s been here for too long now as nobody wants a demon pet.” The shopkeeper said, retrieving the bird from its cage.
“Could I borrow some… bits…? Please Brusher?” I asked realising that human currency would be of no use here.
“Of course, but do you think that I could have some of your native currency as well? I want to know how your people trade.” She replied.
“Of course… oh bugger, it’s in my pocket…” I said. Making frantic movements to tell Luna what I needed to do.
“Ah well, we’ll just have to get it when we get home.” She said, saving me from my own stupidity. She handed the money to the owner and we left with a weight off our hearts and a pet for me.
A little while later, we arrived outside a bar that Luna went to often. As we went in, I suddenly decided on a name for my new pet, ‘Illidan’. (A/N: I did just go there.)
“Here we are, the music isn’t too bad and it’s a nice atmosphere.” Brusher remarked as we entered, and as soon as we had found a nice place to sit, the DJ suddenly had a request from, what looked like, a pair of twin brothers. The DJ put in their CD and hit play. I looked at Luna in shock as I heard a very familiar song, one from back home.
“How the hell did they get that track?!” I said to Luna. She looked at me a bit oddly.
“It was made by Skoltex, it only came out last year.” She said, as if it was common knowledge.
“Then why is it the exact same as a track by Skrillex back home?” I said, confounded. She shrugged, and I just gave up and relaxed to the music, but then an idea popped into my head, “I need to go to the bathroom…” I said. Luna pointed at a door over the other side of the room.
I went into a cubicle, and as soon as I was sure there was no-one else, I changed back into a human and pulled my phone out of my pocket, smiling happily when it was the phone from back when I was 15. I put it out of reach for a second, and after changing back to my pony form, I reached out my wing and picked it up, placing it on my back. Once I had done that, the cloaking spell re-established as Luna realised what I had done, and I walked back into the club, and once the twins had finished their number, I walked up to the DJ and asked if she could play a couple of the songs on my phone, and she happily obliged. She happily flicked through the songs until she found one she liked the look of, and using her magic managed to plug my phone into her decks, and once again hit play. As the song began to play, one of the six ponies from my arrival looked up to see me and the DJ chatting.
“Hey! Nice choice Lyra.” Said the cyan Pegasus when she finally arrived at the decks. “Not bad for your first time performing without your lyre.”
“Hehe, thanks Rainbow, but it was on his phone,” Lyra said, pointing at me.
“What’s it called buddy?” Rainbow asked, her rainbow coloured mane flashing in the light.
“Loyalty,” I said with a wink “I thought this place was familiar! I’m in my little pony!” I remarked mentally as everything started to come back from my teenage years. “Hope you like it!” I said as I wandered back to Luna. Dash was stunned completely, and couldn’t move.
“What did you do to Rainbow?” Luna asked. I chuckled at my little joke;
“Just told her the name of the song.” I said. We stayed at the club for most of the night, and I got to know Dash once she recovered from my little joke. That was the best night of my life, in Equestria or otherwise; Apart from Illidan managing to get drunk somehow. I’m looking at you, Rainbow Dash…
***
(Authors Note: Max’s birthday is the 22nd of March, and it’s around 10:00am, just to clarify the issue, although he is technically 22 now, his body was 16 just before Celestia came back after the ‘Revelation’. You’ll see what I mean in a bit.)
Chapter Six…
“You awake yet Max?” a voice broke the peace of my sleep. I opened my eye slightly to see who it was that woke me up, and I was staring right into a pair of bright green eyes.
“Ugh… my head. Thanks for not using your caps lock voice to wake me up Luna…” I muttered, not wondering how she was so close until she spoke again.
“Thanks for last night Max, it was the most fun I’ve had for years…” she said softly, cuddling up to me. My face flushed and memories of the previous night shot back into my head when I figured out what she meant.
“Wait… we… you’re a princess… oh god…” I stuttered, before remembering what day it had been, “Today is the 23rd of the third month, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Yep, the month is called March” she giggled.
“Thanks for the best birthday ever Luna.” I sighed happily “And I didn’t know you had the same month structure as us humans.” Luna was beaming at the news, and she switched back to her ‘Luna’ body. “Luna, does this make us, you know, a couple now?”
“I wouldn’t mind that…” she sighed in her more regal voice. “I wouldn’t mind at all. Oh, I really think we should tell Tia about us being a couple.” She continued, slipping back into her more relaxed voice.
“Then it’s decided, we’ve got a princess to find! Come on!” I jumped out of bed, surprising her slightly. I walked around to the other side of the bed and pulled her out. We ended up as a giggling heap on the floor, and somehow she wound up on top. She didn’t say anything, she just stared straight into my eyes, and then she lowered her muzzle to mine, and kissed me. It wasn’t a particularly long kiss, but it spoke volumes. It filled my heart with a feeling of purpose and joy like nothing else ever had. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this mare. Suddenly, everything felt… right. Like it had before my best friend was diagnosed with cancer. I sat by his hospital bed every day, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. His parents had seen how much it hurt me to see him suffer, and when he finally passed, they had been there to keep me out of the depression I was spiralling down towards. I was only 19, but his parents wanted me to make a speech at the funeral because I had been there in his time of need, whenever his family wasn’t there. It had almost destroyed me, but Luna… she fixed all that now, she made me feel that spark of life again, just as he had when we were kids…
“Are you okay Max?” she asked, seeing my eyes becoming teary.
“I am now I have you…” I whispered, holding her close. She sighed happily, and climbed off me so we could go find her sister.
As we trotted through the castle, I felt a sudden urge to change back to my human form, so I did. When I did, I remembered why I wanted to. Luna turned around when my hoofsteps stopped, to see me digging through my pockets.
“Got it!” I said when I finally fished my wallet out of my pocket. “Oh, completely forgot that I was flat broke at 16…” I said as Luna came over to see what I was doing. “Just trying to find that money you wanted to look at, but I don’t have the right wallet. We normally use little slips of plastic with a magnetic strip that can be scanned. That allows them to take money straight out of the bank.” I explained “Aha! Got it!” I exclaimed when I found some change in my wallet. I held it on my palm for Luna to see.
“Ooh, just like bits, but what are all the different sizes and shapes for?” she asked sifting through the mound of copper and silver I held on my hand
“I’ll tell you later, Lu. But right now we need to find your sister.” I said, dumping the coins into my pocket for easy access later. We continued walking through the castle, and I switched into my pony form so I didn’t embarrass her by not being a pony, and I noticed that my wings weren’t floating crystals anymore, but crystalline wings like those present on my human form. I put one over Luna, and she snuggled up to me. We walked like this all the way to Celestia’s bedroom. When we arrived, Luna did exactly what I didn’t expect her to do; walked up to the door and start pounding it with a hoof yelling
“Tia! Wake Up! We have good news!” she was certainly putting her caps lock voice to good use then, and didn’t my eardrums know it…
“Five more minutes Lulu!” Celestia replied with the same amount of ear-splitting volume.
“TIA! UP! NOW!” Luna finished the argument. From the other side of the door came grumbling sounds galore as the sun princess shuffled to the door.
“What did I tell you about waking me up just after I’ve raised the sun Lulu?” Celestia said.
“If you can do it while fast asleep why are you so moody Tia?” Luna said.
“I had to do the moon last night too.” Celestia answered flatly. “I’m only kidding, I know you two were having a good time.” She joked, trying to lighten the mood. “So, what’s the big news?”
“Me and Max are… well…” Luna was blushing the brightest shade of red I’ve ever seen someone blush. “Erm… well… we’re together now.” She said, looking at me for support.
“Wow… that was fast…” Celestia said, slightly shocked. “Hehe, I can’t say I disapprove, he is such a nice young stallion. But, there is about a 1900 year age gap…” Celestia said, trying to unsuccessfully hide a chuckle.
“In alicorn years I’m his age!” Luna said petulantly “And besides, he’s basically an alicorn too!”
“I know, I’m just messing with you Lulu, you’re exactly the same age.” Celestia said, letting out a pent up laugh. “At least, my magic says you are.” She finished.
“That’s good enough for us!” I said, grinning like an idiot.
“Oh, Max, remember when I said you’d earned a house somewhere?” I nodded. “Well, I bought you one in Ponyville! I guess Lulu could go with you if you're really serious about being together.” Celestia said.
“Really? Thanks a lot big sister!” Luna said, becoming Brusher again so she could show her emotions better. She flung her forelegs around Celestia, almost knocking her down with her enthusiasm. “Come on Max, we need to pack!” Luna said as she detached herself from her big sister and latched onto me.
“I suppose.” I said, but upon suddenly hearing a strange sound, I spun around to find Illidan sitting next to a bright red phoenix. He flew over and landed on my wings, which weren’t cloaked anymore. “Hey little buddy, how you holding up after last night?” He mimed throwing up, making me laugh. “Gonna have to get Rainbow back for that, aren’t we?” He squawked in agreement.
“Come on Max! I'm really excited about moving somewhere new! Oh gosh, Tia, are you OK doing moon duty?” Brusher said, so fast it was almost incomprehensible.
“I’m fine doing it little sister; you go enjoy yourself with your coltfriend.” Celestia chuckled. Brusher squealed in delight and dragged me out of the door towards her bedroom…
***
Chapter Seven…
Having packed Luna’s belongings into a nondescript trunk and loaded it onto a carriage that Celestia had lent us for the trip to Ponyville; Luna and I relaxed together as four royal guards pulled us through the streets of Canterlot, as to attract as little attention as possible, the royal guards having not donned their armour for the first leg of the trip.
As we followed the road down into Ponyville, we passed rolling apple orchards, beautifully constructed buildings and lush meadows.
“What a beautiful place, I’m glad your sister bought us a house here.” I sighed, holding Luna close. “Still not as beautiful as you…” I sighed again, nuzzling the top of her head with my muzzle.
“Thanks Max” she replied. “I wonder how the Elements are…” she said, drifting off into thought. We finished the rest of the journey in silence.
We arrived in Ponyville sometime during mid-afternoon, and the guards showed us to our house. Luna then decided that we should get something to eat at Sugarcube Corner. She led the way, and we received surprisingly few odd glances, considering my wings and horn were on display. I did, however, manage to walk straight into somepony as I completely forgot to look where I was walking. A familiar sobbing sound reached my ears when I managed to remove my face from the dirt, and I turned to see that not only had I managed to trip over Fluttershy, I had also managed to catch her wing in such a way it had broken.
“Oh, I'm so sorry Fluttershy, I didn’t see you there…” I said soothingly as I carefully picked her up off the ground and rested her on my back “Let’s get you to a hospital so we can get that wing fixed up, eh?” I continued. “Brush, we got a problem over here!” I called to Luna, who immediately turned around to see a sobbing Fluttershy being cradled gingerly by my wings. “I messed up and tripped on her wing and now we need to get her to a hospital.” I explained.
“Okay, it’s this way if I remember…” she said, leading the way off without a second word.
About 10 minutes later we entered the hospital, and all it took was one glance at Fluttershy’s wing to get the doctor fussing.
“Oh Fluttershy, what’s happened now?” he asked, while bandaging her wing.
“Max tripped over me, it was an accident.” The doctor looked at her, boring into her with his gaze. “Honest Dad, it was an accident!” she squealed as the pressure of the gaze mounted.
“I believe you dear.” Said the old earth pony, as we stared at him in confusion. “Her mother was a Pegasus, by the way.” He said, and everything fell into place. Fluttershy let out a squeak as he pulled the bandages tight. “There we go. Now you go straight home and don’t move that wing!” he said. “It’s not as badly broken as Rainbow Dash’s was, but its broken in a way that we can’t do anything for it, and being laid up in bed would just grind the bones together.” he explained to the three of us.
“How did you know just by looking, that it was broken in a weird way?” I asked the pale yellow earth pony.
“A mix of experience and a bit of fatherly instinct, as this isn’t the first time this has happened to poor Flutters…” he explained patiently, obviously having expected the slew of question coming at him. “I’m supposed to have finished by now anyway, so I’ll walk her home.” He finished, and with that he and Fluttershy walked out of the door.
“Didn’t see that coming.” I remarked to Luna.
“Eeyup.” Said a third, previously unheard, voice. I turned to see a large red pony stood next to Brusher. He was quite tall and bore a strong resemblance to Applejack, but obviously didn’t have her speed as he had a large mark where something had fallen on him. He then waved at the receptionist and walked out of the waiting room.
“Was he…” I pondered.
“Yep; he was there the whole time.” Luna said, answering my unasked question. “Let’s get to Sugarcube corner. And please don’t trip over anypony else on the way there.” she joked.
“Okay Brush, let’s get going…” I said, and we walked out of the hospital and back into Ponyville.
We arrived at Sugarcube corner with no more incidents. As we entered, a shocking pink pony ran towards us, and the look on her face told me that she wasn’t happy.
“You…” she growled, “You’re the one that threatened AJ aren’t you?” she continued, freaking me out.
“How did you…” I said, starting to back away. She lunged for me, her poufy hair suddenly turning straight. “You don’t want to do this…” I warned her.
“Oh but I really, really do!” she cackled, a large knife appearing in her mouth as she lunged again. I had learned how do walk and move my wings in my pony form, but I only knew self-defence as a human. I finally thanked my Dad for going through them self-defence drills with me. Having only just dodged the last two slashes, I switched into my human body, and that was when things got interesting.
(A/N: listen to this, it gives the fight more of the pace I wanted.)
We bounced around the store, scattering ponies left and right, and trading blows. I finally had got to breaking point, and slamming my wings down as hard as I could, I created a shock-wave that sent the crazy pink pony flying. She just came straight back at me.
"Max, jump!" yelled Brusher, as the psychotic little monster charged again. I jumped, just avoiding the blade as it flashed past my face. I brought a wing down on the pony, flipping it over. As I stood over it, I pointed the sword-like edge of my wing towards it's throat.
"You really want to carry this on?" I threatened. The pony responded in kind, kicking me in the chest with a free hoof, sending me sailing towards the door.
"I could keep this up all day, Bitch." the pony finally answered, hitting me with another kick which sent me through the door. She rushed out after me, and she would have impaled me with her knife if I hadn't whipped my legs around, sending her tumbling across the road, and launching me into the air. I started to flap my wings, and after a few dive-bombs had the pony pinned again.
"Either you stop now, or I swear I will slit your throat!" I screamed in her face, letting my rage boil over. She tried to kick me off once again, but as I went to end her life, a familiar voice ripped through the screams of the onlookers.
"Stop this NOW!" yelled Princess Celestia, who looked about as pleased as wolf that has had its dinner taken away. "What the HAY is going on here!" she continued, but I refused to let the pink pony go.
"Sorry Celestia, but this little piece of shit tried to kill me!" I shouted back. Celestia was stunned at having had not only her guest, but also her only link to her father threatened.
"Pinkamena Diane Pie! You'll be lucky to come back from the moon at all!" she screamed, letting all of her pent-up emotions out. Everyone outside at the time started cowering as soon as this was said, fearing for their lives after seeing the Princess scream at full blast. "Twilight, get yourself here NOW!" she yelled once again, and once she had a secure grip on Pinkamena, I stood up and joined her. "How did you let this happen!" she demanded of Twilight, who had walked up to us with a deathly pale face after seeing her long-time mentor and friend in such a fit of anger. "That letter said to tell everyone that Max was friendly, and not to hurt him!" Celestia said, pointing to a large gash down the side of my face that I hadn't noticed. as the blood ran down my face, I could feel it, and it felt like it was still a part of me. I probed this feeling as I had done with my pony body, and the blood started floating away from my face, crystallising as it went. A few seconds later, there was a long red splinter of crystal was floating in front of me. It slowly grew into a broadsword as more and more blood poured out to it. Celestia and Twilight were too interested in their argument that they only noticed when I grabbed the sword, and fell over from blood loss...
***
Chapter Eight...
After ten days in hospital, the staff finally decided I had recovered from my blood loss. They discharged me with a clean bill of health, and I walked out of the hospital, where Brusher was waiting for me. Surprisingly, there were six other ponies surrounding her. As we walked to our new home, the six ponies shared their stories with us, leaving when we were passing their houses. Rarity, the white one I didn't recognise immediately was a seamstress, and a darned good one at that. Rainbow was a member of the weather team, who took care of the weather for the town through lord-knows-what mind-fuckery. Applejack worked on the big apple orchards, and Pinkie was an employee at Sugarcube corner. She sure did give one hell of an apology as well, but I swear I heard her mutter something about cupcakes... Twilight was the town librarian, and her assistant was a baby dragon called Spike. Fluttershy was the closest thing to a Vet that Ponyville had, and looked after all the animals in the surrounding area. As we finally said goodbye to the six of them, we arrived outside our new house.
"Isn't it wonderful!" Brusher said, and I realised that we had never actually been in the house for longer than it took to dump our belongings. As we looked around the house, we noticed a strange thumping coming from the wall. Then there was yelling over the thumping.
"LYRA! I know you're excited to finally have become a DJ but please for the love of Celestia stick to your Lyre at home!" there was the sound of hoofsteps coming up to the wall and then the voice continued yelling "Sorry you guys had to come home to that!" The hoofsteps then faded away as our neighbours finally decided to turn their music off; allowing my eardrums to recover.
As we finished unpacking our belongings, I noticed that Brush had brought all her 'Royal' jewellery.
"Hey, I didn't think you'd have brought all of that with you." I said, walking over to her. "After all, you won't have to do anything too royal around here, right?"
"Well, if we finally decide to tell everyone who I actually am, I'm gonna need it." she said.
"I guess that's a good enough reason. But where are we gonna keep it?" I asked, assuming it was valuable.
"Its fine there, its only made of painted iron. It looks fancy, but its more practical that way." she said, gesturing towards a shelf she put them on. "Speaking of paint, this place needs a makeover." I groaned, and Illidan echoed me from the other side of the room. "Lets go pick out what we want!" she was practically bouncing at the thought of making our house a home.
"That went better than expected." I said as we walked out of the store where we had bought everything we needed. We had decided to go with white walls, with black and purple fixtures. It was her idea to make the ceiling look like her night sky, and it turned out quite well after a liberal dose of magic. I had decided to claim the basement as my own, and thus it ended up being striped with black and fluorescent green, giving it a very computerised look. Illidan approved of all these decisions, apart from the purple cushions on the settees, which he sat on, unmoving, until Luna had blasted them a deeper shade of purple with her magic. It actually looked a lot better, and Illidan was being quite smug about it, cawing loudly. After we had finally finished decorating, we noticed it was around 6 pm, and Brush had decided we were going out for a meal.
We were looking around Ponyville when Brush saw a restaurant she liked the look of. As we went to enter, we heard shouting coming from inside.
"You... you hit me? My face has been defiled by your common touch!" I instantly recognised the snooty, stuck-up voice. Blueblood.
"Common? COMMON?! You DARE call ME common you foalish, disgustingly pathetic excuse for royalty!" screamed another voice. Blueblood ran out of the restaurant, a huge red mark on his face where he had been hit by a pretty vicious punch from somepony. Rarity came out after him, looking like she was about to commit murder. "You better run, and if I ever see you here again, you'll regret it!"
"Rarity? What happened?" I asked.
"That pig of a prince insulted my friends, insulted my favourite restaurant, and then dared to call me common!" she raged.
"I know how you feel, just be confident that aunty Celestia will be having words with her favourite nephew." I said, chuckling slightly as I remembered my first meeting with Blueblood. Rarity just looked at me with confusion in her eyes. "Hey, do you mind if we join you?"
"Of... of course not! I haven't even placed my order yet." she stuttered, leading us to her table. As we sat down, the waiter asked for our orders. we placed them, and when they arrived I realised that every time I had eaten in Equestria I had eaten as a human, and I was stuck in the awkward situation of not knowing how to eat. Brush realised that as well, and we shared a look of confusion as to what to do. A look of dread crossed my face when I realised that I either had to be fed by Luna, which wouldn't turn out well as she would have to transform, or eat like a pig. I decided on a third course of action, and excused myself from the table. Its not as if anyone would mind, would they? I took the plunge and shifted forms to my human body. I walked back into the main area of the restaurant, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, and it was working until Lyra saw me...
"Look Bonnie, I told you they were real!" she squealed in delight, pointing at me.
"Lyra, I know you're excited but could you leave the poor lad alone? I think he wants to get back to his meal." the mare sitting next to Lyra said, giving her friend a smack upside the head. Lyra looked at me sullenly as I walked back to my table.
"I guess Lyra finally got her proof..." Rarity sighed as I returned. The food arrived about 30 seconds after I sat down, and as we ate, I was so grateful at that point that ponies shared many things with humans, including their cutlery. My meal tasted as good in my human form as it had looked to my pony form. We finished our meal and paid the waiter. As we walked out of the restaurant, Rarity noticed that I had dropped a small amount of my meal on my trousers, and that somehow prompted her to ask if I needed any extra clothes.
"Max, darling, do you have any other clothes to wear?" she asked.
"No, and these aren't exactly the trousers I would have chosen to wear if I was going to a new world." I said, looking down at my black suit trousers, which I wore instead of jeans. "I also need some shirts, as this one isn't liking having two extra holes ripped in it." I concluded, noticing my shirt had begun to fray around where my wings were.
"Okay, you can come to my boutique tomorrow morning so I can measure you, and get your preferences on what you would like." she said, trotting off towards her aforementioned boutique. We carried on walking, and by the time we arrived home night was about to fall. As we entered our new home, I wrapped my arms around Brush, and pulled her into a bear hug.
"Thanks for being so understanding about my predicament Lu, I don't think I would have been able to pull that off without you." I said, and she brought her muzzle to my mouth and kissed me. When she broke the kiss, she looked into my eyes.
"Thanks for accepting me after my dubious history." she replied.
***
Chapter Nine...
A few months had passed, and we had adjusted well to our new home. Nightmare Night was coming up quickly, and Luna was in a bind over what to do. Appear as Nightmare Moon to play with the kids, or be Brush and enjoy herself. We decided that she should make and appearance as Nightmare to entertain the kids, and then spend the rest of the night as Brush. We asked one of the Guards from the palace to secure some supplies for us, as we wanted to treat the kids this year, instead of only terrifying them senseless.
It was the big day, and Luna was terrified of messing up and scaring the kids too much, and I decided to sit in the front row of seats in front of the podium where Nightmare would be announcing her "conquest" of Equestria, only to have the magnificent sun princess save the day and cast down the terrible Mare in the Moon. We started making preparations, helping her fit her false fangs etc., and once we had finished I left to round up the kids. Pinkie was with the kids, which wasn't surprising because of her sugar addiction. As we found our seats, the mayor started making her usual speech, only to be interrupted, as planned, by a mysterious cloud. Nightmare Moon appeared on the stage, and the smallest of the children shot onto my lap, looking like he had seen the rider himself. Then Nightmare Moon decided to start her speech, shooting a sly wink in my direction.
"My little sun loving subjects! How wonderful it is to see you again!" She started at full volume. "Welcome to the eternal night I promised so long ago. Now you will never see your precious sun again! Now, it is time to welcome your..." She was interrupted by a flash of light as Celestia flew into her, knocking Nightmare down, and pinning her there.
"Can't keep me down, Nightmare! I've banished you once, and I can do it again!" Celestia shouted, her horn glowing really bright as she banished Nightmare to the "moon", in this case our front room. A mighty cheer went up from the crowds, and everyone slowly filtered away from the stand and back to the candy. I went back to the house to find Brush sat with the little foal who had sat on my lap, but there was something a bit different about him. As I approached them, I noticed tears streaming down his face.
"What's up little guy?" I asked.
"Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon... c-came up to me and t-took my candy." he said between massive sobs. I could see from his size he was a lot younger than the other foals.
"I think we should get you home, don't you? Here, you can have some of our candy." I said soothingly, filling his little bag with sweets. Me and Brush walked with him towards his house, when the two fillies who had stolen his sweets walked up to him and demanded more. "What do you think you're doing, bullying this little guy?" I said, in as threatening a voice as I could muster. "Why do you need to take his sweets when you have your own, eh?" The foals looked at me with as much hate as they could find, and walked off. As it turned out, we were right outside the little guy's home. After hearing the commotion, his parents came out. after me and Brush had explained what the fuss was about, they took him inside and thanked us for being so kind to him. Me and Brush set off back to the house, but on the trip home a gang of large pegasi lumbered up to us.
"What do you want?" I asked, lowering my stance slightly.
"Her." the largest replied, lumbering towards Brush, who managed to jump out of his path.
"Fat chance, bozo!" I said, slamming my hoof into his face as hard as I could. He yelped in pain, and the rest of the gang advanced upon us. "Shit." was the only thing I said, shifting back into my human form, and surprisingly my sword appeared in my hand. I suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline as my body prepared to fight. Then the shit hit the fan, big time. One charged at me, and I managed to slide my sword between his ribs before he could but his vicious looking brass hooves to use. I saw one of them go for Brush, so I charged and ran him through, feeling his blood run down the blade. I was so enraptured with the raw power his blood was giving me I didn't notice that the ringleader had got back up. By the time I noticed he was there, it was too late. He brought both his forelegs down on the back of my neck, slamming me to the ground. I couldn't move because of the huge amount of pain signals overloading my spinal cord, and I saw him advance upon her, the remainder of his gang following suit. (A/N: Stop the music.) As they started to surround her, she was becoming more and more agitated, until she flipped out, becoming Nightmare Moon once again, but this time, it wasn't a joke. She had become the aspect of eternal night for real, and lighning lashed from her horn, daring the gang to come any closer.
"Nopony threatens me, and nopony EVER threatens my Max!" she screamed, unleashing a huge wave of lightning and dark energy which ripped through the thugs. Her anger was more terrifying than I had imagined sweet little Luna was capable of. The only ponies still awake happened to be the bearers of Harmony, and they all came rushing towards the sound of Nightmare Moon's scream. As they arrived to the scene of carnage left by Nightmare, they saw her bending over me, pouring her energies into me to try and heal my injured spine.
"Bring me... the sword... and blood..." I gasped to her as my lungs started to give in. She levitated the sword towards me, and found a corpse that wasn't flash dried by her lightning. As the sword touched my hand, I felt the leaking life force of each of the dead thugs around me. I drew it into myself, using it to heal my wounds and repair my spine. Twilight and her friends finally decided it was safe to approach as Luna lost her terrifying visage and became the princess of the moon once more.
"Luna?! I thought you had been transported to Canterlot, why are you still here?" Twilight asked, her normally calm face a mess of panic and fear.
"Sorry it had to come out like this, but you guys need to know now." Luna sighed. "I'm actually Brusher, and have been living here in Ponyville with Max for the past few months." The Elements didn't know what to make of this newest development, but a certain black-robed skeleton had arrived to carry out his duty. Everyone stared at him in shock as he drained the last remaining life force out of the corpses, and left with nothing more than a 'well done' to me and Luna.
It was the morning after, and the royal guard had been and cleaned up the mess during the night. There was a knock at our front door, but Luna didn't look like she was in any state to answer it. I went downstairs and opened the door to find none other than Celestia on the doorstep. I let her in, knowing exactly why she was here.
"Why?" was the only thing she said. It was all she really needed to say.
"They tried to... r-r-rape Luna." I stuttered, barely managing to hold myself together. Celestia looked back with horror in her eyes. "There was nothing else we could have done, they could easily match us for speed so we had to fight back."
"But, did you have to kill them?" she asked, still horrified by her little sister's ordeal.
"Yes, they were armed, and one almost killed me. I managed to heal myself though." I replied, shuddering as I remembered what happened. Celestia was stunned, and had to take a second to regain her composure.
"But what happened to do that to them?" Celestia asked, referring to the flash-dried corpses.
"When the leader broke my neck, Luna lost control and became Nightmare Moon." I said, worrying about what Celestia would do to her. "Please don't hurt her, she was only trying to protect me!" I said, throwing my arms around Celestia as the tears that had been welling up broke though. Celestia just sat there and hugged me back, until I stopped crying.
"It was obvious that the gang were at fault Max, I won't hold you or Luna responsible." she decreed loud enough for her guards to hear. "And thank you for protecting my sister, you're the best thing to happen to her in a long time." she continued quietly. Luna had obviously been woken up but the commotion, and came downstairs to find out what was happening. She didn't say a word as she saw her big sister holding me, she just walked over and joined the hug. We sat there until Celestia had to leave, then I made us something to eat. That day, we did nothing. We sat together, quietly comforting each other. Eventually we drifted off, and fell asleep in each other's embrace.