//------------------------------//
// Confession 
// Story: Foreigner 
// by Salnax 
//------------------------------//

	It was evening. Cream Mare had brought home a salad, and the trio was sitting around the table. The two mares were chatting about something or another. Probably about the day’s events. Meanwhile, Terra ate her lettuce, silently wondering how best to share the truth.
First things first; it would probably be a bad idea to tell them everything at once. No need to freak them out. The best idea would probably to introduce something important tonight, see how they react, decide what they can deal with next, and so on and so forth. Depending on how they reacted, she could end up telling them everything tonight or just give them a hint.
The only problem was, how could she tell Aqua and Cream Mares anything?
******
After dinner, it was Lyra’s turn to do the dishes and Bon Bon’s turn to help prepare Terra for bed. Before she could be guided to the bathroom though, Terra said “La! Buh Buh! Tawk.”
It took Bon Bon half a second to put what Terra said together.
“Lyra! Terra wants to talk to us!”
Lyra came rushing to the bottom of the stairs in the dining room, where Terra waited patiently. Once she was there, Bon Bon hushed her, turning to Terra expectantly.
Lyra and Bon Bon had already discussed what would happen if Terra wanted to talk. Even though Lyra was probably Terra’s favorite guardian, even Lyra admitted that she could take up both sides of a conversation by herself. Bon Bon, on the other hand, was a much better listener. Maybe it was because her voice occasionally cracked when she was younger, making it harder to speak in a certain range. Whatever it was, Bon Bon’s ability to listen was one of the things that Lyra loved about her.
Awkwardly, Terra gestured at herself.
“What about you?” asked bon Bon.
Terra stood still for a moment, thinking. She then hopped up a stair, looked down at the floor, and hopped back down.
Bon Bon wished that she had played more charades when she was younger.
“You hopped from one spot to another?” she asked.
Terra stared at her blankly.
At least with charades, one of the ponies knows what’s going on.
Terra shook her head back and forth, presumably gesturing “no.” At least she’d picked up on some body language. She then headed over to the coat closet one room over, closed the door on herself, and opened it back up, peering at Lyra and Bon Bon expectantly.
Bon Bon thought. Terra was in a closet, and opened it to find her and Lyra. Maybe she was… no, probably not. Bon Bon didn’t understand how she felt about Lyra until much later in her life. Besides, how was Terra supposed to pick up that euphemism?
Maybe the door was the important part? All that meant was that there were two places, and Terra went from one of them to another. But what kind of places had big, dramatic doors? The only examples Bon Bon could think of were castles.
Bon Bon shared this thought with Lyra, who quietly nodded. Could Terra have been living in a castle somewhere for much of her life? It couldn’t be Canterlot, they’d notice a missing filly. And Terra had come from the south and east, so that ruled out the one in the Everfree Forest. At this point, Bon Bon’s mental list of castles was quite short, and none of the ones in her mind were nearby enough for a filly to travel from.
Meanwhile, Terra seemed to understand that she wasn’t getting through. She jumped onto the couch in the living room, pulled a pillow over her face, and popped out, knocking the pillow on the floor.
So now she had come out of hiding? Well, this would explain the reddish purple creature that she had drawn a while back. And it tied in with the door, coming out of a hiding spot.
Time to take a risk.
“Why?” she asked.
Terra looked up at the ceiling, as if trying to remember where she put some small item. 
“She must be trying to figure out what ‘why’ means,” Lyra whispered.
Terra eventually seemed to reach a conclusion. She waved her front right hoof into the air, moving it in a wide circle.
Was she talking about the sun and the moon?
Bon Bon went to a window and opened it. She pointed out towards the moon.
Terra hurriedly shook her head no. She once again gestured, this time with ever wider circles, until she was pointing at just about everything in the room.
“Everything?” asked Bon Bon?
“Excuse me for a moment,” said Lyra, rushing upstairs.
Terra and Bon Bon stared at the staircase for a moment, wondering where Lyra had gone off to. A moment later, she came tripping back down the stairs, landing on her face. 
“I meant to do that” she whimpered.
Bon Bon rushed over to Lyra, while Terra sat there looking faintly amused. In Lyra’s mouth were a piece of paper and a crayon.
Bon Bon facehoofed. Why didn’t they start with this?
Terra grabbed the crayon and started drawing. The picture she created was surprisingly typical. It showed a couple of trees and what may have been a pond, based on those waves. Of course, it could just have easily been a picture of lollipops and some hot chocolate.
Lyra rushed to get more crayons. This time, she presumably did not forget how to use her legs and came down the stairs with minimal injury. Terra accepted these crayons and drew more scenes, including one that seemed to be of a town. 
Finally, minutes of furious drawing with her mouth later, Terra spread her pictures around herself. She leapt back onto the couch, grabbed a pillow, and flopped it on top of her face. Then, she threw the pillow away and stepped onto the pictures.
“So, you were in a place, then you came out and saw the world,” mused Bon Bon. There was something odd about this… hang on. That picture with the monster made it seem like it drove her away from her home. This “dialogue” suggested that Terra wanted to explore. That suggested that Terra had been okay with the monster, but had only left out of curiosity? That couldn’t be right.
Terra pouted, pushing away the pictures. She climbed on top of the dining room table via chair. Had this not been a serious moment, Bon Bon would have reprimanded Terra for doing this.
Terra once again pointed at herself. She then stomped the table and waved at the area around her.
“I’m sorry Terra. I don’t understand.”
Terra hissed. Once again, she gestured around her. This time, she stood on her back hooves, waving both front legs around, stomping on the table.
“Terra, please…”
Terra collapsed onto the table, descending into a tantrum. She screamed, eyes closed, towards the ceiling. Her legs kicked the air in front of her, as if trying to shake off some seaweed. Mucus cam out of her nose, and her face was clenched as if in pain.
Lyra and Bon Bon climbed onto the table. It creaked under the combined weight of three ponies. Lyra held the struggling Terra in her forelegs while Bon Bon gently rubbed her mane.
“We’re sorry Terra. Sh… We’re going to make things better. It will be alright”
Terra kept on wailing and kicking for a couple of minutes. Eventually, she became quiet, and kicked less frequently. She began sniffing. Finally, Terra was still and quiet.
“Poor little filly,” said Lyra. “It’s been a long day.”
“I wish we could help her more.”
“We’re doing the best we can.”
Lyra lifted Terra onto her back with her magic. The two mares carried her upstairs, going straight to Terra’s bedroom. They laid her on the bed, covered her with her blanket, kissed her on the forehead, and left, turning off the lights and closing the door behind them.
******
Terra woke up to the sun’s first rays of light peeking in her window. She was in her bed. That’s odd; she didn’t remember climbing into it last night. What had hap-
Oh.
Terra was very embarrassed.
Alright, so the talk had not gone as planned. Now what? Should she try again today? It was too soon to decide. Aqua and Cream Mares probably had plans for her. Oh yes, she was supposed to visit that Purple Mare. “Twit” or something.
It was still pretty early in the day. The sun was barely over the horizon. So what to do until breakfast…
Terra looked around her room. She had to admit, she had become quite fond of it. There was a chest of nice tasting toys over there, a bed not too far from a window, a closet to hide in when she was feeling vulnerable, and a shelf full of those books they sometimes read to her.
Mentally, Terra shrugged. Why not try to read one of them? At very least, it would give her practice deciphering the local language. Terra pulled out a book at random with her teeth. It was full of written language, with only a few pictures here and there. Terra threw it aside, and it landed crooked, bending some of the pages inside. She pulled another book out. This one was about colors. Blue and Red mixed together seemed to be Purple. However, when Blue mixed with Yellow, it became Green. Riveting.  Terra tossed this one onto the pile also, inadvertently tearing a page. The next book showed groups of objects next to symbols, page after page. Was this supposed to teach her counting? Into the pile with it!
******
On the other side of town, Twilight Sparkle was whimpering in her sleep.
******
Finally, a book that wouldn’t be a waste of time! This one had two ponies on the cover. One of them was white, with a pink mane, while the other was a deep blue, darker than the starry skies. What struck Terra as odd was that, unlike all of the ponies she’d seen so far, they had both horns and a pair of wings. Perhaps they were members of an extinct subspecies?
The story seemed to be a creation myth. Apparently, these two ponies were either responsible for the sun and moon or were anthropomorphic personifications. They watched over the regular ponies until the dark blue one became upset for some reason, and had a radical makeover. Using the power of magical gems though, the Sun Pony shot a rainbow at the moon pony, sending her to the moon. To this day, the Sun Pony watched over the regular ponies.
This was the stupidest creation myth Terra had ever heard. 
Time for another book. Based on the cover, this one seemed to be about the mythical “hms” Aqua Mare loved to go on about. Opening the cover, Terra discovered that the book was primarily composed of illustrations, but had decent sized blurbs of text below. Apparently, this was a book that sought to inform without speaking down to her. Terra appreciated this.
Based on the pictures, Terra was even able to piece together a bit of a story. Apparently, sometime and someplace else, there was an entire civilization of “hms.” If Terra was deciphering the text correctly, the proper term was “humans.” They lived in cities and towns like ponies, grew crops on farms, and lived lives a lot like ponies. Other than their bizarre appearance, even by Terra’s standards, the only fundamental difference between humans and ponies was that humans wore clothing more often than not. Sure, humans seemed incapable of flight or magic, but at the end of the day, they were fundamentally similar to ponies.
For a moment, Terra felt very envious of a mythological creature.
As she progressed through the book, Terra noticed that there were no ponies. Either the author wanted to focus exclusively on imaginary creatures, or humans and ponies never coexisted.
Terra speculated about how humans could have become popular in ponies’ stories. In retrospect, it was obvious. Invent a creature that looks distinct, but is fundamentally similar to ponies. For all of their imagination, ponies seemed to believe that every creature had four limbs and a head attached to a main body. Even with a full third of their population having wings, it never occurred to them that a species could have six legs. These humans would then be the subject of folklore and morality tales, letting parents teach their foals the difference between Right and Wrong. Aqua Mare probably never got the memo that these things weren’t supposed to be real.
Finally, Terra began to reach the end of the book. It appeared that the humans had all sorts of faults. They fought, polluted, extracted resources, and so on. The usual stuff that destroyed species in these stories. Only a couple of pages left.
The last page showed a ship sailing across the ocean, headed into the sunrise. Or maybe it was the sunset. That really didn’t matter. What really horrified Terra was the ship itself.
It was entirely white. Not just the sails, but the main body appeared to be made of a white, metal like substance.
The White Ship.
Was it just a coincidence? Or could this be it? Could the “humans” be real?
Were they the Tazmily?
******
Lyra slipped out of bed. Bon Bon was going to work late that night, and needed to sleep in advance. She quietly walked into Terra’s room to wake her up, only to discover the young filly practically swimming in books. They formed a mass that nearly swallowed her, as she flipped through pages at a regular pace, apparently browsing the pictures. Terra seemed too busy studying to notice anything around her, including Lyra.
Lyra smiled. Terra couldn’t even read and she was already a budding scholar! And if she was busy doing this, it meant that she probably wasn’t dwelling on last night.
“Good Morning!” said Lyra.
Terra leapt a few inches into the air before realizing that it was only her. Before Lyra could carry on, Terra grabbed a couple of books in her teeth, climbed over the lowest part of the pile, and clambered over to Lyra.
Lyra accepted the two books with her telekinesis, holding them in the air as she studied them. The Legend of Nightmare Moon and The Story of Humanity? What did these books have in common?
Terra snatched The Legend of Nightmare Moon and quickly flipped it open to a picture of Luna. She pointed at the picture, looking at Lyra expectantly.
“That’s Luna,” said Lyra. “Luna. She raises the moon,” she explained, pointing at the moon in the background.
Terra seemed to be struggling to say something. She tried pointing at the picture of Luna, and then pointed at Lyra and herself.
Lyra didn’t get what Terra was trying to say, so she pulled a Children’s Atlas out of the pile of books. Flipping open to a page showing the Canterlot region, she pointed at the Capitol.
“Luna is there” she slowly said.
Regardless of whether this was what she asked, Terra seemed satisfied with this explanation. She then grabbed The Story of Humanity, and looked at Lyra expectantly.
“I don’t know,” Lyra answered. She thought that humans wandered the Ponyville area, but even she had to admit that humans, though once common, had gone somewhere else.
Lyra grabbed a piece of paper and crayon sitting nearby and drew a circle. In the middle, she wrote a big question mark. She and Bon Bon had tried to use this symbol to show uncertainty in the past. Perhaps it would work now?
Much to Lyra’s surprise, Terra grabbed the crayon in her mouth and crossed out the question mark. She then opened up The Story of Humanity to the final page, with the legendary White Ship. Lyra already knew about the White Ship, of course, but doubted the story’s credibility. How could an entire species fit on a single ship? But for the first time, Terra seemed to be passionate about humans. She grabbed the paper, flipped it over, and began to draw a new picture.
Sensing a breakthrough, Lyra rushed to grab more crayons. With them, Terra drew a scene of a shoreline. Her version of the White Ship resembled a canoe, but what struck Lyra were the simply drawn human figures walking away from the ship on the land.
Terra reached for another piece of paper, drawing the same coastline, but with different figures. The ship and humans were gone, replaced by ponies, including a blue and gray one that was probably Terra. She placed the picture directly on top of the original, further demonstrating their similarity.
Terra looked straight up at Lyra. She pointed from herself to the picture.
The meaning was clear.
Terra believed she came from where the humans went.
Lyra didn’t know what to make of this. On one hoof, this was potentially a huge discovery in the history of Anthropology. On the other hand, why would Terra believe this?
“Tazmily,” said Terra.
“Taz-what?”
“Tazmily” repeated Terra, pulling out the original picture. She pointed at the book. “Hms.” She pointed at the White Ship, and then at the picture. “Tazmily.”
“Tazmily?” asked Lyra.
“Tazmily,” Terra confirmed.
From the sounds of it, humans went on a White Ship, ended up somewhere else, and became the “Tazmily.” Maybe that was another word for pony? If so, that would suggest that the humans had somehow changed into ponies.
Most Equestrians would immediately discard this notion. However, Lyra was no ordinary Equestrian, as many would attest.
Lyra pointed at Terra and asked “Tazmily?”
Terra raised an eyebrow, but shook her head. “Tss” she replied.
“Huh?”
“Tazmily,” said Terra, pointing to the picture. “Tss,” she said, pointing at herself. And, reluctantly, she pointed at Lyra and said “Pony.”
It was time to wake up Bon Bon.
******
Bon Bon pointed at Terra.
“Tss?”
Terra nodded.
She pointed at herself.
“Pony?”
Terra nodded again.
The implication was clear. But maybe Terra just misunderstood the word. Perhaps she thought “pony” only applied to mares and stallions? Or maybe… Bon Bon didn’t know. But if Terra really understood what she was saying…
“What in Celestia’s name is a ‘Tss’?” asked Lyra.
Terra didn’t necessarily understand the words, but it was obvious she understood the basic meaning. She stood up and walked over to the windows, closing the curtains. Meanwhile, Bon Bon closed the door to the room. It was obvious that whatever Terra was going to show, she did not want it to leave this place.
Terra lied on the ground in the middle of the floor and covered her eyes with her forelegs.
“You don’t have to worry,” said Lyra, laying her hoof on Terra’s back.
Terra looked up, stared at Lyra for a moment, and shook her head. She pointed at the two mares and covered her eyes again.
“You want us to cover our eyes?” asked Bon Bon.
Terra pointed at Bon Bon’s face, and then pointed at herself. She then made a facial expression that was reminiscent of the time she drank Lyra’s salt water.
“Terra,” said Lyra, “you don’t have to worry. Nothing you tell us today is going to change how we feel about you.” She walked over to Bon Bon, and the two mares stood side by side, smiling at their adopted daughter. 
Terra stared at the duo in disbelief, and gave the rare genuine smile. She gestured for them to sit down, which they did obediently. Terra then closed here eyes and began to breath slowly.
******
Terra didn’t know how to feel. On one hand, everything was about to change. Of course she was terrified by what could happen next. But at the same time, she was feeling something else. The same feeling you got when you had carried a load for miles, and it was time to finally put it down. It was not a feeling of being relaxed; that would come later, if at all. 
It was a feeling of finality. Like she was finally able to make a stop on her journey. And although the journey would undoubtedly continue, this was, one way or another, a moment that she would look back to for years to come.
******
A loud SNAP came from Terra’s body. Bon Bon whimpered and Lyra screamed as Terra’s head fell limp. But this scream turned into a silent, horrified expression as the head continued to move. It was seemingly dragged down Terra’s neck by an invisible force, leaving only a sort of stump behind.
Meanwhile, Terra’s hooves seemingly exploded, as sharp blades burst out of them. The blades were arranged so that each one was sticking out 90 degrees from the next blade over, meaning that there were four blades per hoof. They clawed at the ground, thumping at the carpet as they elongated to about a hoof’s length each.
Terra’s head continued climbing down her torso, until it reached her the area around her gut. The gut slowly began to suck the head in, mane and all, until only her nuzzle was left exposed. 
But the changes kept on coming. Terra’s legs grew longer, pushing her body up, until her own weight pushed her back down. Meanwhile, the fur around her body began crawling back into her body, leaving a nude exaggeration of a pony behind.
And the worst was yet to come.
Suddenly, what appeared to be greenish-brown worms burst out of Terra’s body, in dozens of locations. These worms began slithering around her, climbing in and out of the holes they made, until her entire body was covered by them. Some of the worms, no, tentacles waved in the air, as if blindly searching for something.
Only a few changes were left. The mouth still hanging from Terra’s tummy stretched into a circle lined with pointy teeth. Her entire body twisted as it gained radial symmetry, pushing the legs into their proper spots. The skin on her legs became thicker and cracked, and soon resembled nothing less than brownish-gray tree bark.
Finally, where Terra had been standing, was now a hideous creature, of a variety never before seen by a pony.
Lyra and Bon Bon stood frozen to the floor, staring at where their Terra had been. The creature was its legs, wiggling it tentacles about. A noxious odor began to fill the room, as if something nearby had recently died.
“T-Terra?” asked Bon Bon.
The creature stood in place, entirely still for an instant. Despite its apparent lack of eyes, it seemed to stare at the cream-colored mare before it.
Lyra, meanwhile, was deep in contemplation. She stared at the floor, almost afraid to witness what Terra had become. But then, she looked up, staring Terra in the ey- tentacles.
“Tss?” she asked.
“Tss” replied Terra.
And to think that they were due at Twilight Sparkle’s in a little while.
DING DONG!
The trio jumped simultaneously. The following landing of a dozen legs at once shook the room.
“Oh horseapples!” cursed Bon Bon, rushing downstairs to answer the door. “Lyra, try and help her change back!”
“Oh-okay” Lyra replied, with no idea what to do next.
******
It was shaping up to be quite the morning, Twilight Sparkle thought to herself.
“I just have to keep cool and collected, and explain things as well as I can,” she muttered.
The door in front of her opened up, revealing a surprisingly distressed Bon Bon.
“Oh, hi,” whispered Bon Bon, as if worried to see Twilight for some reason.
“Hi,” replied Twilight, wondering how Lyra and Bon Bon were going to take this. “I’m sorry to do this, but I need to cancel my appointment with Terra today.”
“Really?” asked Bon Bon. “I was thinking that this might not be the best day for us either. I mean, not that this is a bad day, but it isn’t a good one, so it’s a good thing you came over telling us this you know, even if it’s a bit inconvenient, not that you’re inconvenient, of course not, that would be rude of me to say, and-”
“Hang on,” said Twilight, noticing something in the air. She inhaled deeply.
“Bleh! What’s that smell?”
“What smell?”
“You know, that one that’s like something died in here”
“Oh, well, there’s no smell at all. I mean, there is a smell, but nothing at all to be concerned about, it’s only-”
“Twight” said a voice in the background.
Bon Bon turned around to see little pony Terra, back to “normal,” with Lyra by her side.
“Oh, hi Terra and Lyra! I was just telling Bon Bon here that I wouldn’t be able to make our appointment today. Is that okay with you?”
Lyra and Bon Bon gave each other a long look.
“That sounds alright,” said Lyra. “We have family business to attend to anyway.”
“Alright then,” said Twilight “Good by-… what is that smell anyway?”
“Terra,” answered Lyra.
“What?” asked Twilight.
“WHAT?” thought Bon Bon.
“She made a bit of a mess in the little filly’s room. I think it was something she ate last night. You know what bad lettuce can do to the digestion.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Well see you three later!”
As Twilight ran off from the Heartstrings residence, she couldn’t help but think that the three of them were hiding something. She mentally shrugged it off. It couldn’t be anything compared to the secret she was keeping at the moment.
******
Phew.
“How did you do it?” Bon Bon asked Lyra.
“I didn’t do anything really. Terra just... changed back. Only this time, it was quicker, and there was a bit of a flash.”
“A flash?”
“Of light I mean.”
The two mares looked at one another and then at the strange filly they adopted.
“Terra,” asked Lyra, “Mommy and I have to talk about things. Do you promise not to make too much of a mess while we’re in our room?”
Terra gave Lyra a blank expression.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Lyra pulled Bon Bon upstairs and into their room. The duo lied down on their bed, staring at the ceiling.
“So why am I ‘Mommy’?”
“Well, I obviously wear the pants in the family.”
“You’re not even employed half the time”
“You knew what you were getting into becoming lovers with an artist.”
Silence
“It’s funny,” said Lyra.
“Hmm?”
“I always thought I was going to be the freakiest member of any family I became a part of. What with… you know…”
“You still are the freakiest member of the family dear. Terra’s alternate form as a terrestrial tentacle monster doesn’t change that.”
“So we’re both cool with it?”
“Celestia yes.”	
The two lied on their backs for a few more moments.
“If anything,” said Bon Bon, “I’m happy now.”
“What?”
“Oh sure, this is going to create problems. But it already has. Now we’re just better equipped to deal with them.”
“What gets me is she has no eyes or ears when she’s like that,” commented Lyra. ”How weird must it be to see and hear things for the first time in a world where everypony else is an old pro?”
“I suppose that’s one of the reasons she can’t talk well.”
The two mares turned to face each other. Much to their mutual surprise, their loved one was smiling. 
******
Terra sat on the living room floor, looking down at the carpet. She was not thinking about what Aqua and Cream Mares were talking about. She was not wondering what they told Purple Unicorn earlier. And most of all, her mind was not focused on the likely end of this peaceful stage of her existence.
Nope, she was not thinking about any of that.
At all.
Suddenly, she heard a door open from upstairs. It was them. Well, it was time to see how badly they would react.
The two mares trotted down the stairs, rushed over to Terra, and embraced her from either side.
And with that, Terra stopped worrying about what would happen next.
******
The household spent the remainder of the day at home. The trio played games, cooked sweets, and tried dancing. Terra turned out to be terrible at all three, but she didn’t mind.
It was one of the best days of Terra’s life. She had risked everything in revealing herself to these two mares, but it had gone better than she dared to hope. They seemed a bit frightened at first, but as soon as somepony came along, they rushed to her side immediately. And now they were spending a full day with her, just to let her know she was welcome.
Going to sleep that night was easy for Terra. It had been another exhausting day by any stretch of the imagination, and she was ready for a peaceful sleep.
As she slowly closed her eyes, Terra never even noticed the mark that appeared on  her flank.









Note: At this point in the story, Terra’s Linguistic development is similar to a 1 ½ year old. She understands her name, can distinguish between different tones of voice, recognizes speech easily, and has a vocabulary of about a dozen words. However, she is still very limited. Her vocabulary is almost entirely composed of nouns, she lacks the appropriate words for most of the objects in her environment, is incapable of forming sentences, and is incapable of following direct commands.
Furthermore, much of her behavior is also reminiscent of small children. Most notable is how she loved to put things in her mouth, though that has been deemphasized as she’s learned about normal behavior. Her eating paste a few chapters ago was a fun gag, but shows how culturally ignorant Terra is, even after weeks in Ponyville. Unlike a Human in Equestria story, where the stage of life is the same and only the shape of the players differ, Terra has to metaphorically adapt to a brand new medium.
However, Terra is simultaneously very intelligent, especially for what appears to be a foal of her age. She’s already proven herself capable of abstract thought, empathy, problem solving, rational decisions, and so on. If anything, she’s at least on par with a teenager.
So imagine if you’re a teenager with the communication abilities of a young toddler. You have the intelligence and imagination to write a novel, but lack the ability to even tell anybody what its title is.
Yeah, I’d throw a temper tantrum too.
Oh, and it looks like Terra is opening up!