//------------------------------// // 2 - 03 // Story: Four Hooves // by destinedjagold //------------------------------// A delicious smell of food lingers in the air, mixing with the stinky smell of old books. Unfortunately, I ignore the smell, because I’ve been concentrating on the list written on this little piece of paper for almost ten minutes now. I never questioned how I was able to walk on four hooves since I first woke up as a pony, so I have assumed that everything pony-related is already written in my pony brain. Buuut... I’m wrong. I can’t read the list Twilight gave me. I even secretly asked Seri and Reykan (Sienna’s inside the bathroom, emptying her stomach, so I can’t ask her) if they could read it when Twilight wasn’t looking, but nope, other than Miss Purple herself, none of us—including Sienna, I think—can read what she wrote on this little piece of paper. This only means one thing... English isn’t Equestria’s language! Sure, I can understand them, but maybe that’s because my pony brain already knows the dialect. But since Equestrian literature doesn’t exist in this version of Equestria (maybe), my pony brain doesn’t know it. Which means... ...I’m inhabiting a random pony’s body. Le gasp! That, or I was a human who simply transformed into a pony, English is the oral language, but English isn’t the written language. I can still remember what the English letters look like, but none of these...squiggly wiggly lines match any letters in the English alphabet. ...Although this one looks like the letter ‘P’ if I rotate the paper in ninety degrees... Hm... How exactly does that work, anyway? If I’m simply transformed into a pony from being a human, then does the ‘magic of transformation’ automatically inserts pony-ponies inside my human-turned-pony brain? If I remember correctly, human brains are...heavier than that of a horse. ...Where am I going with this again? Oh well... At least the numbers still look the same, if the numbers on that grandfather clock is anything to go by. Kinda weird that the numbers on Twilight’s clock isn’t written in roman numerals though. Then again, roman numerals look like Engl— “Jay? Is there a problem?” Oh crap! That’s Twilight’s voice! Think, pony brain! Think! Uh... “T-this...paper...” I dunno where I’m going with this... I slowly look up and see Twilight staring at me blankly. She blinks. “...Are you asking where I got the paper from?” “Uh...yeah! Exactly...” I’m a bad liar when I’m nervous. Add a smile! And hope it’ll work. “Well,” Twilight says as she sits in front of me. “Paper is made from trees—” I stop myself from rolling my eyes. “—and there are plenty of trees around, and with magic,” she taps her horn with a hoof, as if I don’t know where her horn is located. “I can easily make paper!” she says with a smile. I nod. Phew... I’m glad I walked out of that one. I still am not ready to tell her that I’m not really a pony. We’re about to gather the ingredients for a potion that will let us, or her, see what caused Equestria’s change. That’s a big enough problem on Miss Purple’s shoulders to trouble herself with, so adding another weight of ‘hey Twilight, did you know I’m not originally a pony and I’m actually from another distant world where Lyra would call it heaven?’ is not a good idea... So...I might as well help her out with fixing her world first, and then I’ll ask for her help to get me back home. I just hope Equestria can be fixed... “Nah,” we hear Reykan say. Twilight and I turn our heads and see the little panther cub sitting by the kitchen entryway, his furred face looking a bit damp. Earlier, as soon as she snapped out of her trance, Twilight ‘tossed’ Reykan in the sink to clean the blood off of him—with magic, of course—while she instructed Seri on how to prepare and cook our panther cub’s meal. Reykan tried to get out of the water, but, well, with Twilight and her magic, he didn’t stand a chance. “Jay just doesn’t know what those black worms on that white leaf are.” Reykan smiles at us, completely ignoring the ‘shut up’ messages I send to him telepathically. Unfortunately, he’s not telepathic. I don’t think I am, either... “He showed me that leaf earlier, asking if I could ‘red’ it or whatever...” Miss Purple blinks at him before she slowly turns her head back to face me. “...You...cannot read that?” Uh... Um... “Er...” “That light must’ve made you forget how to read!” Twilight screeches in disbelief, looking at me in horror, complete with her ears drooped. She then stands up on her four hooves and starts to pace around in panic. “Oh no! What if I forget how to read later on, too? I-I can’t imagine what I’d do! Oh my gosh! What should I do?!” “T-Twilight...” I call, but my voice enters one purple ear and exits through the other. “Oh my gosh! I-I-I have to cast a spell on myself so I won’t forget how to read! But what spell should I cast?! Should I cast that spell I cast before that light got me?” “Twilight,” I call a little louder this time, catching her fragile attention. “You need to calm down.” “Calm down? Calm down?!” She gives me a horrified look, with a twitching eye. “I’m about to lose my ability to read! And you want me to calm down?!” I blink. “What are you even going to read, anyway?” “My research papers!” She has research papers here? That explains the lack of trees close to her tree home then... So Seri’s her source of quills? “I can’t double check and triple check them if I can’t read! And what about my notes?! My checklists! Now that I know that I won’t be worrying about my episodes too much, I can finally concentrate on researching and experimenting and—and—the preparations for the potion, but then now I’m going to lose my ability to read! What if I forget how to write, too?!” “Twilight,” I call as she starts pacing and mumbling again. “You’re being ridiculous...” Eh, I don’t think she’s listening anymore... Ignoring her, I sigh, stand up on my three free hooves and walk towards the study table with my other hoof—bent up so the frog is facing up—carrying the piece of paper. Reaching the said table, I place the paper on it and stare at it as I sit down, but nope, I really can’t read it. “Are you...ignoring me?” Twilight suddenly asks from behind. I shrug. “Well, you were ignoring me, too...” I turn my head over my shoulder and I see her staring at me with wide eyes and mouth agape. My ears droop. Eeyup, I guess that was rude of me to just...leave her. “Sorry about that, Twilight.” She shakes her head with a sad frown. “It’s... It’s fine. I know I ramble a lot at times, but, but... You can’t read? What if I won’t be able to read, too? And write, as well? I—” There she goes again... “Deep breaths, Twilight,” I interrupt her. Twilight blinks at me with her mouth hanging open, her next words probably suddenly stuck in her throat. She closes her mouth before she slightly shakes her head, and she then takes deep breaths to calm herself down. “Is Twilight pony really this weird?” I hear Reykan say. Seri laughs merrily from the kitchen. “Hahah, yes. You’ll get used to it. Anyway! Your...um...” A pause. “...meat stew is ready.” “Horay!” I turn my head to look at him. Reykan is jumping in place by the kitchen’s entryway, his attention on the swan inside. “So what’s a meat stew? Is that what meat is called when...uh...‘cooked?’ And is it as tasty as the plant food we had? But instead of plants, its rabbit?” “Erm...” Seri wobbles out of the kitchen, wearing a forced smile but her eyes show signs of disgust and discomfort as she wobble-carries the steaming bowl with gloved wings, heading towards the study table beside me with her head leaning way back to avoid the steam from the bowl, and with Reykan eagerly following her close behind. “I...sure hope so?” She places the bowl on the table in a respectable distance from me. “Cool!” Reykan jumps by the table beside me with a wide, excited smile, his tail wagging as he eyes the steaming bowl on the table above him. “It smells really, really good, too! It’s definitely gonna taste great!” His twinkling eyes then shifts to me. “Books! Gimme books!” Twilight levitates a wooden stool for him to sit on. “I wonder why we didn’t use a stool instead of books when you first arrive here...” Reykan eagerly climbs and stands on the stool. I shrug. “Meh. We probably overlooked it in the previous ‘act.’” “The previous what now?” “You should add that to Pinkie’s great big list of life’s mysteries,” I say with an amused smile as Reykan now stands on his hind paws, his front paws on the table and his gaze and drooling open jaw lock on the steaming bowl. “She has a list?” I hear Twilight ask from behind. “A mental list, I take it?” Seri winces. “Reykan is adorably cute right now, but...” After another wince, the swan wobbles away from the drooling panther cub and stands by Twilight’s side. “Cooking meat is...um...” I hear her whisper. “...a very...how shall I put it?” “Don’t worry too much about it, Seri,” I hear Twilight say. “You’ll get used to it.” I swear I could hear Twilight’s teasing grin from that line. I blink. Wait... Twilight sounds like she’s used to preparing meat— “Hey!” Seri says, probably pouting. “That’s my line!” Damn, Seri. What was I thinking just now? Eh... “So...” I say, still staring at Reykan, my ear slightly twitching after hearing the cub’s growling stomach. “Are you going to eat that or no?” I hear Twilight’s magic working from behind me and see Reykan’s bowl glow in a faint, bluish light. A few seconds later, the light disappeared, and the soup appears to be not-too-steamy and not-too-hot anymore. And then Reykan attacks the bowl. I quickly cover the paper with my hoof and move it away from the messy eater as I hear Sienna’s pained groan from upstairs. “Ungh...” Sienna groans again, making me turn my head to look at her. She slowly walks down the steps, her head hanging a little low. She sniffs the air, her features lighting up, if only a little bit. “Mm... That smells good...” she says with a small smile as she finally climbs down the last step. “What is it? I could eat something after that—” she pauses, her emerald eyes growing wide. I blink and turn to Reykan, who is looking at her with a furless rabbit leg sticking out from his jaw. “Want shome?” Aaand Sienna disappears back into the toilet upstairs, Twilight and Seri wincing from her departure. Reykan shrugs before he faces his bowl again to continue eating. “N-nice to know that the sound-proofing spell is still working in there,” Twilight chuckles lamely. Ignoring Reykan’s noisy eating noises, I turn to look at Miss Purple, who regards me with a blink. “So... The list?” Twilight blinks again before she frowns. “...You honestly cannot read it, huh?” I sigh a sad sigh. “No...” Twilight sighs as well. Seri blinks, shifting her gaze from the two of us. “List? Cannot read?” Another blink. “Ah!” she squawks. “The black worms on that white leaf Jay showed me earlier?” Twilight rolls her eyes as she turns to her. “They’re not worms, Seri. They were—” “Ah,” the swan suddenly says with a frown. “They’re not? No wonder I couldn’t eat them.” Twilight continues, probably choosing to ignore her remark. “...They were my hoofwriting, and I wrote a list of the ingredients that we need for this plan of ours.” “You mean ‘magic writing,’ right?” I ask. Twilight ignores my remark as she faces me. “Is your memory good?” I blink. “I...think so?” She nods her head. “I need six items to make the potion, but you’ll only need to gather four items, since the other two items are close by, and I can get them myself with no trouble at all.” She looks back at the stairs. “We should probably wait for Sienna to come down.” I nod my head. “All right.” I blink. “Wait...” “Hm?” Twilight looks back at me. “You said the other two items are close by, right?” Twilight nods her head. I...already know the answer to my question... “...Does this mean the other four are...located far from here?” Twilight smiles a small, shy and nervous smile. “Eheheh... Uhm... About that.” I blink. Her cheeks redden a bit as she looks away. “I...don’t know where to find them in this world.” I feel my ears droop along with my frown.