From the Outside In

by DarkParable

Chapter three: In which we come to find that there is adjustment to change.

Crevan had dreamed of some seriously strange things... Stranger than fiction one might say. He'd been dreaming of what life would have been like if the world was populated not by people, but by machines. Needless to say he had to conclude that things would have been a bit too logical for any sane human mind to handle, after all the logical conclusion is that a world run by logic alone would be illogical in and of itself, Say what you will, but it was a rather sound argument, or so his dream told him in any case. Shaking off those clinging thoughts and dreamy cob webs the boy turned colt sat up and scrubbed at his eyes, blinking the sleep from his eyes.

There's something to be said for his state of mind that he did not immediately notice that he was not only some place different, but some THING else entirely. He felt good, which was a bit of a surprise to him considering that he'd felt like someone had been pounding on his limbs every night for the last month or so. The fact that he wasn't in pain put a smile on his face. A smile that quickly turned into a puzzled, if pleasantly surprised, expression upon realizing he was not only free of pain, but that he'd rubbed his face. He could move his arms... Move them normally at that. Snapped awake by this sudden clarity he looked down at himself, expecting to see his hands whole and unbroken. He wasn't expecting to find his arms ending in hooves, or that most of his vision when he simply looked down was taken up by his nose... Well this couldn't be right... Couldn't be right in the least. "Must be dreaming." he muttered to himself as he rolled out of bed and flopped to his belly as his hooves slipped on the floor. "Ompf!" was all he had to say on the subject of what it feels like to belly flop marble tile.

Somethings could only be seen to be believed and the fact that one has gone and turned into a pony was one of those things. The gentle pain was enough to ensure that Crevan no longer thought all this a dream. Instead he thought it kind of annoying trying to get to his hooves. He felt he must have looked something like Bambi for that old Disney movie, all legs and awkward because of it. In truth he wasn't far off as he basically tap danced himself upright. It took a good five minutes of clattering around and making a surprisingly rhythmic amount of clattering noises for him to finally get the knock of standing as a pony. When he tried taking a step however he slipped again and wound up catching himself with his wings. He'd flapped on pure instinct when he felt himself slip and had wound up on the bed again, confused as to just how he'd gone and done that.

Sighing softly he gave up on moving for the time being and paused to actually take stock of things. Okay so he was a pony... A pegasus to be exact... Almost a dream come true, but for his inability to walk right. He turned his attention away from his blood red self and to the room around him. His jaw dropped. He'd never seen something so splendid as this. The walls and floor were pure white marble, the eye-stinging brightness of that broken here and there by large banners hung here and there that depicted various things. Ponies farming here, unicorns working some great spell there, some pegasi working the weather over yonder. The bed on which he lay was no less grand than the vaulted room, Four posted, king sized, and silken sheets that left his new found fur tingling pleasantly as he sprawled out in a more comfortable position.

That feeling was what snapped his attention back to himself. How in the nine hells had he turned into a pony, and where in Gaia's name was he. He didn't have to wait too long for answers once again, and that in turn made him wonder if the universe had some cosmic sense of comedy, always answering questions promptly when it knew it would be slightly annoying. "Finally awake I see..." came a soft voice from the door set into the far wall. There, standing framed by the large dark wood grained door, was Luna. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped again, drawing an amused smile from the princess of the moon. "Careful... You might swallow a parasprite if you keep your mouth agape as such." she said, prompting Crevan to immediately snap his mouth shut. It didn't stay that way for long as he caught sight of Celestia walking past behind her sister, apparently sneaking off a piece of cake. "Uh... wh- wha- whe-.... HOW!?" exclaimed the rather shocked pegasi.

Luna smiled softly at him, stepping inside and shutting the door behind her with a little whisper of magic. "Calm yourself Crevan, all will be explained as soon as Tia is done stuffing her face... Or sooner if you'd prefer." she said, chuckling quietly at the fact that he nodded his affirmative to her statement. "We decided you deserved something special for everything you'd been through, and it wasn't a decision made in haste so don't think this was done on a whim." she spoke calmly, plainly, more like Crevan remembered from the show, and that did a great deal to calm him down. He figured he was either totally nuts now, or this was actually happening. "We've watched you for awhile now, watched how you would go out of your way to be kind despite how you were treated for being who you are. Your fellow humans breaking you was what broke our hearts little one, and we could not allow you to suffer for being different any longer... So we brought you some place more suited to somepony like yourself." Crevan remained silent for a long while, not quite sure what to say. When he did finally speak it was heavy with unasked questions, but heartfelt all the same. "I... Don't think I can thank you enough..." he said, his eyes twinkling with barely contained emotion. As Luna looked into them she noted something odd. Crevan's eyes, had changed slightly. Sure they looked enough like anypony's. but the oddness came in the form of color. His right was the same icy blue it had always been, the other was nearly as dark a red as his fur. The princess mentally shrugged it off, chalking it up to one of those quirks that comes with such complex magic.

Several hours later saw Crevan out and about, the princess having show him the proper way to move with four legs instead of two. He had been properly introduced to Celestia, and found her to be just as amazing as the cartoon had made her out to be. She had however set the ground rules for him. He wasn't to tell anypony that he'd been human once, after all humans were a myth here, not to mention that he'd likely be labeled a loony. Secondly he'd been made to change his name. They'd eventually settled, Luna, Celestia, and himself, on the name Red Wyne. He rather liked it actually... Certainly suited him better than Crevan ever did. The third rule was the simplest, enjoy himself. He was told he'd be sent to Ponyville once he'd gotten the hang of being a pony. Cre- no, he corrected himself, Red smiled as he thought of just what this would mean for him. A new start at life and a bright one at that. The pegasi smiled smiled softly as he half listened to some old guard explain to him how his wings worked, totally spaced out as he was he at least got the gist of it.

Author's Note:

I've decided I'll update anyways... Not finishing something drives me up a wall.

Crevan is an old Gaelic name, if my memory is functioning properly anyways, that means fox.

Comments

[Scipio Smith]

after all the logical conclusion is that a world run by logic alone would be illogical in and of itself

DAMMIT SPOCK! How can you be so, so inhuman?

Ahem.

Another nice chapter. On one hand I sort of wish that we'd actually seen more of Crevan's virtues in the human world rather than being told he was very kind to everyone, but on other hand I can see that too much immersion might have made his utter lack of regret at being transformed into a pony and taken to Equestria seem off, so on the whole I think you got the balance more or less ok.

I wish you'd actually shown more of his interaction with Celestia, because I prefer her to Luna, but that's a personal thing.

Keep up the good work.

[DarkParable]

2642797 I want to thank you most kindly for being the soul voice of encouragement and reasonable advice I've gotten on this site. Glad you're enjoying the story and I do intend to include Celestia more at a later date, I just felt a bit of comic relief was in order after the first chapter, no?

Also, as a side note Luna was actually the one who pressured her sister into bringing Crevan, or Red if you prefer now, into Equestria. Wasn't sure how clear I was when I wrote that in ch2... Writing this late at night while running on caffeine and my normal insomnia probably makes for some interesting logical leaps... Like if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then peanut butter.