The Unicorn Trap Exchange:

by Ponyess

The Aftermath: 3

I had seen her putting the boots on, before I made the second attempt with the same silver ring. Only this time the ring apparently fit, and thus slipped all the way down.

The strange thing is what came after the ring had reached my forehead. Boots developing right on my hooves, growing upwards, all the way up all four of my legs, I guess that's magic. This was the least of my problems, though. Since my horn slowly started to shrink and I lost all control of magic. I lost the very feel of it, and that's about when my horn had vanished entirely.

The tight restricting boots feel strange, but it is the least of my problems right now. I can't feel magic, nothing, it's disorienting to me. I feel strange and out of contact. If not for the boots, I may have fallen to the floor. I guess they are steadying me.

It's not as if I had merely become an earth pony. Even earth ponies have some connection to magic, just in a very different manner, and I have no experience or knowledge of it. Maybe it is just impossible to express how it feels, or how it acts. There seems to be nothing to direct such research to.

I can easily express how magic feels, since you can see the actions. You saw the coin leaving the table, and I feel the flow of magic through my horn, simple as that. Now I don't feel it, I feel numb, I guess would be the word.

I guess the boots, long as thigh stockings wasn't bothering me, though they are as tight as I could imagine them, without actually being painful. I'm not sure if I'm imagining, but I think they are pretty stiff, as if they had been actual boots of the kind you may wear on your hooves, not stockings, of the kind they look like. Though they are a particular high gloss.

Maybe the gloss of the stockings is distracting me, and possibly in all the wrong ways. I'm not quite sure I enjoy either the looks, or the feel of them, but if they help me, not to fall.

Without the horn, I can't pull the stockings off, no point even asking me to. In part, it is because they're as long as they are, and in part it is because they are as tight as they are. It is apparently part of the process, it is at least how it happened to me, and I had no idea if they had tried this out before. In a way I would have liked them to have, but on the other hoof, I hope they had not tried it out on any unicorn before. I can't quite explain why, it is merely one of these strange and irrational feelings one may have.

I know I am not quite my rational self right now, not in the state I had just found myself in. I'm usually priding myself as rational, but this isn't one of my moments. What am I do do, or do about it. I could ask for help to have the stockings off, but that was hoping the effect would reverse, if they came off. What if it is her boots, or it could as easily have required a second ring in order to reverse. In my state, I didn't feel like slipping the stockings off.

Only then something struck me, the test wasn't done yet. With hope, I will have my horn back, in order to return to my regular rational self, and regain my connection to the magic I had been born with.

“You can't even feel the ring?!” the witness spoke.

“No, it vanished with my horn!” I pointed out, in a somewhat shaky and weak voice.

“Could you express how you feel, right now, in general terms? Just for the record!” my witness enquired.

“Yes. Aside from the fact that I lost all contact with magic. I feel confused and very unsteady. As if something, something very important was missing!” I responded, in the same voice as just before.

All three witnesses looking at me with strange eyes. Making me feel all queasy.

“Would you please take off your boots?” they then asked her.

“Certainly!” she responded, as she lifted her right forehoof, and made the boot come off, then continued with her left, before moving on with her right and left hindhooves.

As the last of her four boots came off, the horn on her forehead slowly reverted and vanished entirely, but mine did not come back, and I did not regain my connection to the magic either. To me, nothing actually changed.

“Could either of you move the coin?” the witness spoke.

“No!” she pronounced, just as expected.

“No, still not a chance!” I responded with my still weak voice.

Apparently she had shown no sign of reaction on taking the boots off of herself.

“Could you slip the boots on?” the witness asked me.

“No!” I responded with a more shaky voice, after failing miserably, several times, it is as if they were repelling my hooves, I can't get close to them.

“Remains to have a second try, a second pony to try them on!” the witness spoke up.

“I can't!” my witness responded, after a failure, similar to mine.

“Wow, I never knew magic could feel quite like this!” her witness spoke up, after she had managed to slip the boots on.

“Could you remove the boots?” our witness responded.

“Yes!” she responded, after she had slipped out of all the four boots, in the same manner, boot by boot.

Once the boots were off, the horn reverted again, just as on each and every prior occasion. It was an established fact, once the boots came off, the horn and the connection reverted.

“If you try them on for a final time, before we can conclude this?” the witness called out.

“Yes!” she responded, and slipped the boots on, for the very last time of our experiment.

“If you help our assistant to slip out of her boots?” the witness stated.

“Yes, certainly!” she merely responded, before she elevated me several inches above the floor, before she slips the stockings off of my legs and hooves, one by one, right and left, front and hind legs.

I felt her slipping be back onto the floor, just as the final stocking came off of me, piling them on a small table. Then I felt jubilant, as my horn slowly grew back as hers reverted. The magic came back to me. I knew I was still fully myself.

“How do you feel?” the witness enquired, nodding towards me.

“Overwhelmed. My magic is back. I'm slowly regaining my composure!” I responded.

“Would you then lift the coin?” the witness enquired.

“Yes!” I responded, as I shakily lifted the coin, but soon gained confidence, and the coin finally under full control, as if nothing had happened.

“I guess this would conclude the experiment, and I'll extend my thanks and gratitude to you, for assisting in the experiment. Your payment will be delivered by tomorrow, as per the agreement!” the witness spoke as the left together with both of the witnesses.

Then I noticed the stockings evaporating, almost as if they had never existed. Her boots still where she had left them. They did hold the original enchantment.

I slip the ring off of my horn, before I left.