• Published 21st Oct 2014
  • 36,072 Views, 3,715 Comments

My Life as a Bipedal Quadruped - Snakeskin Ducttape



Our hero finds herself in a strange world, and in a strange new form. Maybe this could be a fresh start, you ask? The thing is that she wasn't aware she needed one.

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Glow Blue. (Alternate, homage-title: The Color Of Magic)

Author's Note:

Be warned: this chapter contains thpoilerth for the comic.

Phat cred to local cosmo-homie, Topaz Moon. Thanks, space-gangsta.

Long, long before recorded history, fire had been revered by humans as something supernatural. It could fend off wild predators, cook food and captivate an audience. It could heal, it could wound, it could destroy, it could renew. And as humans long ago set their gaze on distant lands, they had to rely even more on fire as they moved away from their ancestral continent. For warmth, light, and comfort.

With early humans having witnessed fire do such remarkable things, it was no wonder that fire had been revered as if it was magic. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some part of the human brain that was hardwired to regard that oh so common chemical reaction as something mystical.

However, there is one very old concept that hadn't been granted nearly as many supernatural traits like fire, but which also filled a vital role in the early days of mankind, still used in modern day and would probably remain so in the foreseeable future. Like fire, it was vital to humanity’s survival as they trekked across the vast lands of their home planet. It kept them safe, and warm, and had been part of human's everyday life since before civilization. And I was enjoying it right now.

I put my hoof on it and adjusted it. ‘Sometimes, a nice blanket really helps.’

And it really helped. Having the basics covered did wonders for the human psyche, at least as far as I could remember from school.

I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I really ought to get some sleep, however. After the initial excitement of arriving in Equestria, my old habits were starting to kick in, which included worrying during sleepless nights as that meant tough days at work. Despite being safe and sound I was feeling anxious about my situation. I know Twilight probably felt guilty about putting me in this situation, and it was nice of her and her fellow princesses to help me. But even so, I had been granted a lot for very little.

Despite the classical aesthetics in Canterlot, it was obvious that this was not antiquity, where a privileged few enjoyed life at the expense of a massive slave population. No, like where I came from, this was a land of surplus where means and resources were distributed to avoid poverty and starvation. And so I had expected some aid from established agencies, like foster care or something since apparently I'm young enough to be considered an orphan around here, and things of that nature.

I did not, however, expect a suite at a castle my first night outside of a hospital. And that's where my anxiety came from, as well as my desire for sleep. I was never very comfortable with the idea of just being given things for nothing, and the only way to repay my benefactors were to take any responsibilities I was given seriously, even if, according to Twilight, the issues of establishing contact between Earth and Equestria would remain purely academic for what could be a long time.

‘So yeah, it's probably nothing worth worrying about, since it's not a pressing matter. Just relax. The princesses are probably busy so you have plenty of time to get your sleeping patterns in order. Which, by the way, they're fully aware are not normal at the moment.’

Having stopped myself from getting a stomach ulcer for the moment, I rolled over and tugged at the bed curtains in order to see the starry night sky through the very large window that took up a significant part of a wall. I had never slept in a bed with curtains before. It was cozy.

I was lying there when I heard a clank in the distance. It didn't seem important, just like someone either dropped a metal tray down the corridor, or a very large tray several corridors down, but I felt the sensation of my ear swiveling towards the door and then swiveling back. Only one did, and I assumed that it was because the other one was pinned beneath me.

Figuring that I could have a relaxingly educational moment by trying to familiarize myself with my new form, I tried to swivel my ears independent of sound or mood. It didn't seem to work.

I tried something similar to a trick I learned when I was a kid, when I managed, by focusing my eyes on the tip of my index finger and slowly touching the bridge of my nose, to become cross-eyed at will. I felt confident I could technically still align my muscles the same way, but the trick just wasn't the same when one eye was artificial and didn't follow the other very well at the best of times. I rolled over to my other side again, and with one of the bedposts being behind me, I used the super-equestrian(-by-Earth-standards-but-obviously-mundane-by-Equestrian[the realm, as opposed to the genus]-standards)-flexibility of my foreleg to tap a bed post behind me and sure enough, my ear swiveled to locate the sound.

I took note of the sensation and concentrated. After only a few tries I could move my ear back and forth. ‘Well, that was easy. Twenty more minutes and I could probably do this with both ears independently and in every direction. I guess this is nothing special around here.’

I rolled over again to look at the rich night sky. I had seen pictures of the stars as seen near the equator back home of course. But even that paled in comparison to the soft light and the comforting purple tinge that radiated from this alien heaven.

I was musing about how fitting Twilight's name was and whether the purple tinge actually came from the sky or if it was the result of ponies around here being at least partially nocturnal, which didn't seem unlikely considering how large their eyes were, when suddenly fatigue gripped me. ‘Ah, here we go.’

-

I awoke to the sound of hooves clopping on tiles. Or rather, a minute awareness of the world around me mingled with a very deep state of sleep, and I perceived something which seemingly several moments later my brain registered to be the sound of hooves, which was also muffled by a carpet.

I think we're all familiar with this situation. In visual media it's often relayed with a close-up shot of eyes of the character the story currently focuses on, then a distant sound is heard, often a disembodied voice that's gradually becoming clearer as the eyes of aforementioned characters starts stirring. As is often the case, my own experience was cut short by a sudden and unpleasant sensation, but luckily not by a bucket of cold water or a punch to the face as often happens in fiction. No, I was simply startled by having the face of a horse very close to mine.

So I was shocked into a fully awake state and involuntarily tried to give a startled cry just before this fully awoken state was reached, which resulted in the startled cry coming out as a vaguely displeased sounding groan. Further bizarre was the fact that a part of my brain that wasn't startled chastised other parts for such a reaction in a world inhabited by talking ponies. As this was happening I instinctively splayed back my ears to avoid having them nibbled on.

‘Interesting contrast between the reactions there, dummy.’

It was unlikely that the majority of my mental scrambling showed on the outside, as the pony simply cleared his throat into a hoof and stood at attention. He was wearing armor identical to the expressionless guards I had seen yesterday with the same sky blue mane, and his coat was white with a slightly dull purple tinge to it.

"I'm sorry for startling you, madam. But I have been ordered to inform you that breakfast is about to be served if you would be interested in sharing it with the royal sisters," the pony said in a confident sounding voice. As I was trying to get my bearings he started looking nervous and suddenly added "I am also to deliver a gift to you from the esteemed Lady Rarity."

"Uhuh," I started and looked around.

‘Breakfast... morning... you have breakfast in the morning. It's morning now, I guess. Guard here, have breakfast. Also, gift.’

I tried picking myself up from my pillow and wobbled a bit. "What gift?" I asked, and woke up more thoroughly as I realized that the duvet had fallen down and revealed my chest.

‘Coat, dummy. And there's nothing to cover, anyway.’

"An... accessory," the guard stated. "To cover your injury which, and I'm sorry if I'm speaking out of turn here, Madam, I would appreciate if you could conceal."

I looked at him for a few seconds before registering that I still didn't have a prosthetic eye and closed my right eyelid. "Right, thanks for the reminder. What do you mean, 'an accessory'?"

I noticed the guard's wings as he opened up one of them and retrieved something from beneath it with his mouth.

It was an eyepatch. Not one of those black leather patches you see in pirate movies, nor a huge band-aid, but a white, soft looking textile variant with a three-point attachment. "Would this be to your liking?"

Many things are in favor of the idea of covering up a gaping hole in your head and few things are against the idea. I groggily blinked the sleep from my eye and said, "Uh, sure."

The guard placed the patch in his hoof and held it out to me. "Would you like some assistance?" he asked.

I managed to mutter, "yes, please. Just gimme a moment," between a double yawn. I stretched and tried to shake myself awake. "Alright, go ahead," I said and shuffled closer to the edge and sat up straighter.

The guard placed the eyepatch over my eye after I leaned my head back, or up, with my new anatomy. He then maneuvered the elastic strings through my mane and started tying it to the back of my head with his mouth, which I would have liked to see. ‘So, are there going to be introductions? Is it inappropriate for military personnel to pursue familiarity with officials, at least the rank and file? Also, doesn't “rank and file” originally refer to the placement in a combat formation? Do they have muskets around here? That term might be meaningless if they don't. I wonder if I'm watching too many history documentaries.’

The guard was stiff and shaking slightly and my mane was no doubt causing some problems, so it was time consuming but he eventually finished fastening the eyepatch and when I leaned my head forward again I felt it press against my head. I tried opening my eye and gave it an experimental tug with my hoof, but it was placed firmly enough to not fall off just like that, and it didn't feel like it was digging into my skin but resting snugly like an expertly placed bandage. "Feels good, thank you," I said.

He looked at me for a moment before averting his gaze, seeming lost on how to respond. I considered simply asking him if there was anything else, but he was starting to look flustered and instead I decided to help him out by holding out my hoof for him and saying "Gabrielle Desrochers."

This made him recover and tried shaking my hoof with his right before catching himself and using his left hoof instead. He wrapped his considerably larger fetlock (I had just remembered that term and I was pretty certain that it was the right one) around mine and cautiously shook it. "I, uh, name's Armor, private in the Canterlot Royal Guard."

Amazingly enough it seemed like I was the socially smooth one in the room and decided to accept the responsibility of that at the moment. "A pleasure to meet you, Private," I said.

"Uh, the, erm, the pleasure is mine, Madam," He said.

Once more, it seemed like he had run out of things to say before his business here was concluded. I thought back to what he had said recently and pressed the conversation forward. "Did you mention something about a breakfast, Private? Or Armor? What should I call you?"

He jumped and looked a bit sheepish. "Oh, yeah, did you want to have breakfast now, madam? And I think it would be best if you called me 'Private'. And, uh, to that I should add that I have no relation to the Captain."

"Now seems like a good time as any to have breakfast. And do you share a name with your Captain?" I asked.

"Yeah, Captain Shining Armor. Like I said, no relation. So, I'm to escort you to the dining hall, madam."

"Thank you, Private," I said and waited a moment for Armor to act, which he didn't. "Ehm," I said and gestured in his direction before continuing. "Proceed?"

I noticed that Armor looked very nervous before he answered. "Aah, I'm sorry, madam, but would you like to be moved to the dining hall in your wheelchair?" he said. I looked at the wheelchair standing halfway between the bed and the door, briefly wondering if it should be returned to the hospital soon.

I've dealt with his kind before, people who are terrified of offending the handicapped to the point of almost ceasing to function in their proximity. But I realized that I shouldn't blame him too harshly. I'm a high-ranking official, at least on paper. And judging by the guards yesterday his specialty might not include much beyond standing still. "Yes," I said and gave him a small smile, as I've found that those are better in situations like this than bigger ones. "Would you like some pointers?"

"Oh, madam! I couldn't ask you to-" he said before realizing that things were not proceeding expediently as they were. "Yes, please," he concluded and hung his head slightly.

"Well, it's quite simple, Private. You see that thing?" I said and gestured to the wheelchair; Armor looked at it and nodded. "Help me get into it. It's as straightforward as it sounds."

He turned back to me and hesitated. "Do I, uh... Pick you up, Madam?"

I put on a mock thinking-face and slowly nodded. "That would be a very sensible approach, Private."

"Okay," he said and inspected me like I was a canyon he had been charged with building a bridge over. "So, I uh. I just uuh," he mumbled while experimentally shooting out his hooves and pulling them back while considering how to best carry me.

I performed a spectacular roll of my eye and threw of my cover before simply saying in a firm voice "Private, pick me up and put me down in the chair!"

The startled Armor sprung into action. He shot his forelegs under me, picked me up in them while he took off with his wings, and carried me to the wheelchair in flash. Before I knew it, I found myself gently placed in the wheelchair with an eye open wide in surprise.

I blinked my surprise away before turning to Armor. "Very good, Private. I take it you've done this before?"

The guard looked shocked at what he had just done but my words and rageless expression slowly calmed him down. "Ah, yes. All part of basic training, madam."

I nodded, my thoughts about the soldier having been raised. "This next part seems easy," I said helpfully.

"Oh! Of course, madam," he said and started wheeling me towards the door.

"So," I said as we proceeded down the hall and through a pair of open doors where two other guards nodded at us. "Is 'madam' the proper way to refer to someone in my position?" I asked Armor.

"Uh, yes, madam," Armor said. "Unless it displeases you."

I considered this for a while. ‘It makes me sound old. But as a pony, I apparently have to actually grow old before I'm even considered anything other than young so I guess that's maybe not an issue...

‘“Madam”... A title, referring to someone important. Who probably has a high opinion of herself.

"Private," I said.

"Yes, madam?" Armor answered.

"I would prefer it if you did not refer to me that way."

"Are... are you sure, mada- uhm, miss?"

"I'm sure," I said firmly.

"Well. If you insist, miss," Armor said hesitantly.

"If it helps I can reserve the right to change my mind, Private," I said.

"Yes, ma- miss, certainly."

We got to a flight of stairs and Armor stopped in front of them. He was probably right to be apprehensive about this since they were pretty significant and a quadruped might have difficulty smoothly wheeling someone down them. It could probably work, but it would have to take time and if he for some reason had to let go there wouldn't be much I could do to stop myself from tumbling down the steps.

We both looked around but there were no guards in sight right here. In fact, though there was a faint sound of kitchen activity in the distance, this part of the castle was very quiet at the moment. I figured the time of day was to blame.

"Figures," Armor said dejectedly.

"Don't like the idea of going away to ask for help?" I asked.

"Well, no, ma- miss," he said.

"Why isn't there anyone else here?"

"Shift change," Armor said. "Give it a few minutes and you'll never have noticed that it happened."

"Okay," I said. "So we'll just wait a few minutes."

"If you think that's best, miss," Armor said hesitantly.

"... Why don't you want help with this?" I asked. "I definitely need help with this."

"I'd, erm... rather not say, miss," Armor said and looked to his horseshoes.

"Okay?" I said slowly, looked around, and thought for a moment. "So, how about you pick me out of this thing, fly me down there, and then go back up and get the chair?"

He perked up at this before looking apprehensive. "I... would not want you to feel undignified when I leave you down there, miss."

Thinking back to the past few days when I had suffered (still suffering, actually) from what could be described as acute narcolepsy and magical incontinence, needed help to relieve myself in the bathroom, and being lugged around by giant dogs like a ragdoll, I confidently said, "Private, I have no problem with you leaving me for a few seconds a mere flight of stairs away."

"But- Yes, miss," Armor said and picked me out of the chair, spread his wings and glided down the stairs before gently sitting me down, facing the base of the stairs. He then flew up the stairs, grabbed the wheelchair by the handles with his hooves, and flew down with it. Or he would have, but the handles slid off the bars when he was about two steps down and the chair came crashing down the stairs.

It was headed in my direction and I quickly rolled over to my stomach to get some leverage to push myself to my left, hoping that I didn't have to go some other direction to avoid being hit by a renegade wheelchair.

"Miss Gabrielle, watch out!" Armor shouted in panic, dropping the handles and flying down after the wheelchair to try and grab it. I bent my head back and tried to determine where the chair was going to land. It wasn't easy and only having one eye certainly didn't help, but I took my chances and jumped, sort of, to my left.

It turned out to be the right choice as the wheelchair slammed into where I had been a moment before, the smaller wheels in the front coming loose and the axle of one of the larger ones bending somewhat. I let out a sigh of relief before Armor landed beside me. "Miss Gabrielle! Are you alright!?" he asked in a panicked voice as he started turning me over with his hooves and inspecting me everywhere, almost, while flapping his wings to stay aloft just off the ground so that he could use both forelegs while one of the handles, (hoofles?) gently bounced down beside us.

"Yeah. I'm fine," I said, but it did come a bit disoriented as I was turned over so that Armor could check me for injuries.

He finally seemed happy I wasn't gonna keel over in his forelegs before gently putting me down. He took a step back and slowly let out a deep breath before bowing his head and saying "Miss Gabrielle. My negligence almost caused you serious injury. With your permission I will collect my commanding officer posthaste; he will help you determine any disciplinary action."

I blinked in surprise before looking at the chair lying on its side. I could tell that the thing wasn't heavy. Had I gotten it flat on me I suspected the likely result would be an angry bruise or two, maybe a slight concussion if it landed squarely on my head. I looked back at Armor, who hung his head in shame. "Armor," I said slowly. "It was an accident. I don't want anyone punished for this."

Armor looked up at me. "This... was a most shameful display, Miss Gabrielle. It would be appropriate to let this be a lesson for me."

I raised an eyebrow at this and shook my head at that somewhat bizarre idea. "Are you saying that you wouldn't learn from this without punishment?" I asked in disbelief.

"I, uh," Armor said hesitantly. "It would be... unbecoming for a royal guard to commit such a mistake without any."

He seemed pretty set on this but an idea struck me. "Well, Private Armor. It is my opinion that you acted admirably and I would be offended should someone be punished for that. I reject the notion that you should suffer for appropriate action. Now, I feel that the matter of breakfast is more pressing, take me to the dining hall." I said, with as much conviction as I could muster, channeling my inner archaic era bureaucrat.

Armor looked stunned for a moment before answering. "Of course, miss."

He picked me up like earlier and we slowly flew down the halls of the palace, getting strange looks from any guards we passed by. Even if we were only two feet off the ground, it still felt a bit exciting to actually be flying even though it was not very unlike a wheelchair. It was slightly mitigated by the fact that I was held like I was on the cover of a cheesy romance novel. I very pointedly did not put my foreleg around Armor's neck.

We weren't going very fast, which I assumed was because Armor was terrified that he was going to drop me. "You seem nervous, Private," I said when we were in a long corridor outside the hearing range of any guards, which, by the way, were the only inhabitants around at the moment. The staff must be busy elsewhere and perhaps residents weren't up yet.

"Uhm, I am, miss."

"Because what just happened?" I asked.

"Yes, miss."

"Still not over the idea about punishment, Private Armor?"

He paused for a moment before answering. "No, miss."

I tried imagining myself in his (horse)shoes. ‘If he's supposed to represent the royal guard, it would indeed be unbecoming to almost cause an injury on a newly arrived official. His peers are supposed to be very proud of their work and any mistake would reflect poorly on them as a whole.’

"If it's any consolation, Private, I could have a word with your commanding officer some time."

"I," he hesitated before continuing. "Of course, miss."

"Preferably before you do."

"Yes, miss." He seemed to get lost in thought before speaking up. It would have to be a short conversation as we were nearing the dining hall I had been in before. "Would you allow me a question, miss?"

"Shoot."

"Aren't you upset, miss?" he asked.

"About the wheelchair?" I asked back.

"Yes."

"Not really, nothing happened" I said. "I might be if it's gonna be a regular thing, though," I added.

"I... I will do all in my power to prevent that, miss!" he said with conviction.

"Well, how can I doubt anyone who's that convincing?" I said as we went through the doors into the same dining hall as yesterday.

Around the table was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, together with Applejack and Fluttershy, all sitting in the same spots as yesterday. Celestia and Fluttershy sported bathrobes with their hair done up in simple ties, and interestingly enough, Fluttershy's robe had some trimmings and embellishments, while Celestia's looked outright plain. They looked up and gave us surprised looks when we entered.

"Good morning, Gabrielle," Celestia said as she set a teacup she had been levitating down on the table. Apparently, breakfast had just started. "I see you've found an expedient mode of transport."

I leaned my face away from Armor's, as the amount of heat his had started radiating felt worrisome. "The wheelchair broke its bonds and claimed freedom in a spectacularly short lived manner," I said as Armor gently put me down on a chair he apparently picked at random. I ended up in the one Redheart had occupied yesterday. The rest of the ponies around the table gave me questioning looks. "I mean that it fell apart on the way here and crashed down the stairs. And, good morning, everyone."

The rest of the assembled ponies responded while Armor hesitated beside me. I gave him a casual smile, then he bowed to the princesses and flew back the way we came.

"Well," Luna said, and I noticed that an opossum was sitting on the table beside her and nibbling on a piece of pastry. "That will simply not do. A proper mode of transportation will need to be acquired."

"I'll put Kibitz on it," Celestia noted as she levitated her tea back up to her mouth.

"What happened?" Fluttershy asked as a pony who had apparently moved up very quietly beside me started laying out a collection of vegetarian foodstuffs in front of me and pouring me a cup of tea.

"Private Armor was wheeling me through the halls when we came to the stairs in the middle of guard change. I suggested that he fly me down first and then fly the chair down. But the handles came loose mid-flight and the chair tumbled down the stairs," I said as I lifted the lids of various little cups in front of me and inspected the food.

"Good thing you weren't in it," Applejack noted.

"Mmhm," I mumbled and nodded, my mouth full of pear.

"Doesn't explain why he looked so nervous though," she continued.

I swallowed down and continued. "He thought he messed up and seemed afraid I was gonna get hurt when the chair landed next to me. By the way, where are the others?"

"Twilight should be up soon, Pinkie Pie is in the kitchen and Rarity and Rainbow Dash are still sleeping," Luna said. "By the way, Tiberius, introduce yourself to our guest."

The opossum hopped over to me across the table with a piece of pie in its mouth, which it, or he, I guess, judging by his name, took out and offered to me.

"Uuh." I thought quickly before accepting the gift and quickly offered him a raspberry in return, which he in turn took and started chewing on. During this distraction I quickly pushed the piece of pie I had received behind a saucer, out of Tiberius' sight. "A pleasure to meet you, Tiberius," I said, taking care to put some token formality in my speech when addressing an apparently royal animal companion.

He didn't seem to notice my stunt as I stuck my hoof out and gently rubbed it against his ear, which he leaned into for a bit before hopping back towards Luna. I only just noticed Fluttershy giving me a smile from across the table.

"How are you finding Equestrian cuisine, Gabrielle?" Celestia asked as I heard the clopping of hooves approach us from the entrance.

This got Applejack's attention; though I got the feeling she didn't want it to show. I was getting over my habit of the same cereal every morning quickly enough. And fresh fruits, nuts and berries together with some nice, if slightly rough bread was all well and good, so breakfast was not a problem. In fact, it felt a bit like combining open air freshness with the comforts of a house. "Invigorating," I said as I turned to see the new arrival.

It was Twilight, who was sporting bed hair and an unfocused look in her eyes. She yawned and said, "Good morning, everypony."

"Good morning," I responded, together with the rest. Though Celestia added "Twilight" afterwards.

Twilight started saying something, but was interrupted by another yawn before continuing "Sorry if I'm flanking in on the conversation, but speaking of Equestrian cuisine. Gabrielle, I would like you to stick to eating things that you know both ponies and humans can eat."

"Well," I said. "Ponies back home are non-sentient... no wait, non-sapient animals who, as far as I know, walk around and eat grass. Which I'm not keen on trying out."

"They eat it raw?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah. So you guys do eat grass?"

"Yeah we do. But it would be mighty strange to not cook it first. If you're gonna tell Rarity that, do it when you're ready to take care of somepony fainting," Applejack said.

The rest of the ponies sniggered a bit at that before Twilight continued. "So, yes, Gabrielle. It might make the dinners here seem a bit plain but so far I would like you to stick to things that are compatible with both ponies and humans."

"Okay, but why?" I asked.

"Well, yesterday I was looking over some of my own notes of transformations, and I realized that while you might have been transformed into a pony, I'm not entirely sure that your gastric bacteria and digestive enzymes have as well," she said.

"Oh," I said, realizing the implications.

"So," Twilight said. "Until we can get some more information, it would be best if you refrain from sharing food with other ponies and things like, uh... kissing."

Love and romance had been pretty far away from my mind. I thought back to how I was recently carried in the arms, or forelegs, of what I assumed was a young, strapping, able-bodied, and brave stallion. In uniform, no less.

Nothing tingled, though. "Got it," I said while taking a piece of sandwich and started pouring myself some tea.

"I'm sorry," Twilight said.

‘Wow, that must be some sort of record for how long we've had a conversation without her apologizing.’

"If it does turn out to be an issue, I'll fix it."

"Mhm," I said while trying out some tea. I had never had tea before but it was really nice. No wonder Brits are so into tea, they must think we're all stupid to not do this as well. "Not really an issue," I said while setting the cup down.

"You might think so now," Celestia said with a knowing smile.

"I do, and keep my formerly adult status in mind when I say that."

"I'll let my statement stand," Celestia said with a smile. I paused, if this was a battle of wits then it was definitely Celestia: 1, Gabe: 0.

"Well," Applejack said. "Keep what I said about Rarity doubly in mind if you plan on telling her that."

"Uh, sure," I said before changing the subject. "Anyway, what's on the agenda for today?"

"I am having Kibitz arrange a spot in my schedule where you can tell us about your world," Celestia said. "But it won't be today. My schedule is full and I would like Luna to join us."

"I carry out my royal duties without such a crutch," Luna said haughtily as she reluctantly chewed on a piece of rough bread. Twilight shot Luna a slightly frightened look.

"Indeed," Celestia said. "And you might turn out to have a pretty busy day yourself, Gabrielle."

"I do?"

"Yes, if you're interested, an ocularist will be available today."

The eyepatch was nice but having a prosthetic eye might have a comforting effect. "I am," I said gratefully.

"And Twilight has volunteered to instruct you in teaching some magic," Celestia continued.

That got my attention. I turned towards Twilight and she gave me a shy smile. "Well, I uh, I'm looking forward to it," I said. And I really was. Just the thought of being able to move things with your mind had me almost a bit giddy.

"Great!" Twilight said. "I hope you're well rested. It's kind of taxing for young unicorns to first use magic."

My ears drooped. ‘Okay, good to know they do that before I tried playing poker as a pony.’

"Didn't sleep well?" Celestia asked.

"Well... I slept fine, just not very long, I think."

"Breakfast at this time was not mandatory," Celestia said and smiled with a raised eyebrow.

"I know," I said. "It's just that after Armor woke me up I didn't think I'd be able to go back to sleep. Not to complain of anything, but I was a bit surprised to wake up with him standing over me like that."

"Oh, yeah, by the way," Twilight said. "You might not be used to pegasi yet. They have a pretty relaxed way of regarding personal spaces and private abodes. That's good to keep in mind, especially when you meet a Cloudsdale native."

"With exceptions, of course," Applejack said. Fluttershy nodded her head slightly.

"I hope you were patient with him," Celestia said. "He's new."

That explained a few things. Before I could respond, the doors where the kitchen staff had came from yesterday shot open and Pinkie Pie bounced out towards us, somehow balancing a tray on her back as she did so. "Good morning everypony!" she exclaimed loudly.

The tray was covered in pastries, and starting with Princess Celestia and going clockwise, Pinkie Pie started hoofing them out to us, saying "one for you" every time. When she reached Princess Luna, she instead said, "And since you've been warned to watch your cholesterol, Loony, I've made sure to make your's the one super duper bestest cupcake I can."

Luna's scowl could probably freeze a volcano, but Pinkie Pie absentmindedly shoved a piece of the cupcake into Luna's mouth and bounced away. The expression on Luna's face spoke of a fierce internal battle before finally mellowing out into one of exasperation. She chewed her cupcake and said, with a sigh "We hath never been more conflicted about a pony than that one."

-

I found myself hanging across Fluttershy's back as we made our way through the castle and into the gardens. Apparently, foals riding around on the back of adult ponies was pretty much analogous to how human kids rode around on the shoulders of human adults. But I had to be sprawled over Fluttershy's back as I didn't trust myself to keep my balance with only my left limbs.

I was told that Rainbow was the one that carried me when they found me in the forest, and that she was so strong that one could treat her back and wings like a bouncy castle, but she was fast asleep this morning. I hadn't hung around dedicated athletes a lot but spending a lot of time sleeping is imperative for peak physical health.

‘Well, who has to worry about missing out on life cause of sleeping when you're gonna live for centuries?’

"So where are we going?" I asked.

"The ocularist is here and Rarity wanted to see the process," Twilight said. "Unless you mind."

Getting fitted for a prosthetic eye wasn't all that fun, but it's not exactly embarrassing or anything. "Nah, I don't mind. In my experience it's just not very exciting," I said and shook my head.

"I have half a mind to go get Rainbow Dash as well," Applejack said. "Being invited to the castle and then spending all your time sleeping just don't seem right."

"Again, where are we going?" I asked.

"Oh, sorry, we were just gonna go get Rarity," Twilight said.

We reached a door which Twilight knocked on. After a moment a frazzled looking Rarity with curlers in her hair and a sporting a bathrobe opened the door. She let out a gasp as she saw us. "Have I missed it!?"

"Missed what?" I asked.

"Your appointment, dear," Rarity said.

I turned my head to face her so she could clearly see the eyepatch she made, it otherwise being obscured by my mane. "Nope. Thanks for this thing, by the way. It's really comfy."

"Oh, thank you, darling," Rarity said with a smile. "When is your appointment?"

"We're going there now. I'll get somepony to bring some breakfast there for you," Twilight said.

"Right, just one moment," Rarity said as she closed the door. Mere seconds later she emerged with the bathrobe and curlers gone. "Let's go."

A short walk later we found ourselves in a foyer, and I was starting to wonder how long it would take to learn the layout of this castle, because it wasn't where we came in through yesterday. Redheart was standing there with a brownish yellow earth pony stallion with a light green mane and cutie mark of some sort of metal instrument I couldn't identify, who was looking around himself intently. Redheart, on the other hand, looked part wary and part exasperated.

"Good morning," Redheart said as we approached. "No wheelchair?"

"No wheelchair," I said from Fluttershy's back. "It couldn't handle the pressure."

Redheart tilted her head. "You need a new one?"

"That might be for the best," Twilight said. "But don't worry about that, we'll take care of it."

"Well, if that's the case," Redheart said and turned to the stallion, who hadn't given any indication on having noticed us. "Prism, this is Gabrielle Desrocher," she said and gestured towards me before following up with introductions of the rest of the present ponies.

The stallion finally seemed to come back to reality and quietly walked up to us and started punching everyone's hooves. I held up my own as I figured that this was just another kind of greeting. When he was done he said, "Prism Cut, a pleasure."

We all looked at each other, a bit confused by his slightly uncanny but not offensive behavior and not really sure what to say when Redheart spoke up. "Prism, Gabrielle is the filly who needs a new eye," she said helpfully.

Prism paused and then said, without a hint of irony, "Of course, I will begin measuring. But I will need to see her eye socket."

I reached up and started pawing through my hair, trying to find the knots that held the string together.

"So, maybe we should go find an empty room to do this in?" Twilight asked Prism.

Prism didn't respond at once, instead, he looked like he was winding up for a dramatic pose before simply letting it out and saying, "No."

I gave up on trying to find the knot in my mane and instead just peeled the bottom of the patch up to my forehead.

"No?" Twilight asked.

"No, I need to see her eye in action," Prism said. "I need motions in order to measure."

The rest of us looked confusedly at each other, except Rarity who had an expectant look on her face, until Redheart spoke up. "Prism here won't be using a mold, he's actually a gem sculptor. But he's skilled enough for the job."

"Oh, I know a fellow artisan when I see one!" Rarity exclaimed excitedly while Prism interrupted his inspection of his surroundings to shoot her a small smile before continuing.

"Okay?" a confused Applejack asked Prism. "So what's gonna happen now?"

Prism did that strange winding up thing again as he seemed to consider his answer. "I shall create art, and it shall imitate life," he somehow exclaimed with a normal speaking volume. "And so, I shall observe life. We shall go where I can take in life and its details," he said while slowly rising in a dramatic pose.

Twilight, Applejack and myself looked confused while Redheart rolled her eyes. Rarity, however, took in Prism's words with interest and unexpectedly, from what I could see, Fluttershy seemed to do the same.

"Prism," Redheart said. "Just tell us what you need, in plain language."

Prism wound down to a normal stance and looked a bit sheepish. "I just wanna see your socket in action for a while so that it'll be as nice as possible," he said to me in a much more casual manner.

"... Oh," I said and opened my eye. "Well, go ahead and look."

He put a hoof up to his chin and hummed as he looked intently at me. "Alright, I've got the shape down, but to make it great, I wanna, just, see you go through life for a while."

"Go through life?" I asked. "I was expecting to sit still for a while right now."

"Oh! Hey!" Rainbow Dash's voice suddenly sounded from above. We looked up to see her hovering above us. "We could totally tell Gabe the stories about Nightmare Moon and Discord and stuff."

"Have you been there for long?" Twilight asked.

"Yep!" Rainbow said casually, and before anyone else could say anything, Prism spoke up.

"Tales of adventure from the heroes of Equestria? Yes, excellent suggestion," he said.

"Adventures? Heroes of Equestria?" I looked around at these magical ponies, so like the ones walking down the street yesterday, in confusion.

"Might wanna get Pinkie Pie," Applejack said. "She won't wanna miss out on this. Then again, she probably already knows."

-

We were sitting on some cushions out in the royal gardens. It was a nice place, and some rustic outdoor furniture and checkered wood fences with honeysuckles clinging to it made up a quiet corner of the garden with a single, old-school street lamp, which wasn't lit now in the middle of the day. All in all, it seemed like a mix between a patio section and stylishly cozy garden in an old Parisian suburb. Or something like that.

"I feel like I'm skipping out on work," Redheart said as she nibbled some of the pastries that Pinkie Pie had brought.

I would've wondered how Pinkie, and anyone who're friends with her, could be anything but obese, but my brain seemed to be leaking intellect from all the bizarre tales I was being told. I was having real difficulty in believing half of these crazy tales. Which is really saying something, coming from someone who've recently been turned into a unicorn filly.

"So," I started, indicating that I wanted some clarification while trying to figure out how to formulate the question. "The Dreamscape is an actual place, on the moon, which you once lassoed with Applejack's rope, brought it closer to Equestria, anchored it to a tree stump, and then you funambulisted across the rope to reach the surface?"

"That's right," Twilight said. "We went to the moon. As for if the Dreamscape is an actual place, you should ask Luna about that. But please try and phrase it tastefully, she's a bit sore about some parts of this story."

"She's not the only one," Rarity said, lying belly-down on her cushion while covering her face with her hooves. "Can we please get this story over with?"

I couldn't really blame her, Rarity's part in this tale was equal parts flattering and embarrassing.

"Well I hope you have another one," Prism Cut suddenly chimed in. His voice surprised me, soon after we got here he had gone quiet and simply studied me closely, which I stopped paying attention to after a while, barely registering how he sat and scribbled on a small notepad with four different painting utensils in his mouth. "You made such wonderfully living expressions, Gabrielle."

"Yeah! I've almost gotten used to your eye by now," Rainbow Dash said to me. "It's barely disgusting at all."

"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy chastised while the others looked disapprovingly at her.

"What? I'm saying that she's not creeping me out. That's a good thing, right?" Rainbow Dash said and shrugged, a gesture which I found amusing on equines.

‘Oh, pony wants to play, eh?’

"I think you've got it all backwards, Rainbow Dash," I told her.

"What? How so?"

"It's not my eye that's been creeping you out, it's the lack of one," I said and leaned forward while putting my hoof under my empty socket and stretched it out a little more than facial muscles alone could.

Rainbow Dash recoiled and looked away. "Okay," she said. "Maybe it's still a little creepy."

"At least you're honest about it," I said with a slightly smug smile.

"Hear that, Applejack?" Rainbow said triumphantly. "What do you think about empty eye sockets?"

Applejack managed to both aim a scowl at Rainbow and aim a cringe at no one in general at the same time. "I reckon it's mighty disturbing. I don't like the thought of losing an eye."

"I think you'd be okay, Applejack. I haven't done any farm work in my life but you get used to having one eye fast enough," I said. And I believed what I said, especially here in magical pony land where eyes are tougher than buffalo hide and your spare was almost armored in comparison to back home.

"Can I borrow that thing?" Rainbow said and gestured to my eyepatch. I shrugged, pulled it off and hoofed it over.

"I'm just glad that I haven't had to and probably never will. Now legs, those I don't think I could manage without," Applejack said while Rainbow strapped my eyepatch over her closed eye.

‘Working a farm one-eyed doesn't seem impossible for a pony. But two-legged might be different.’

"Hmm," I said. "Do you have any prostheses around here?"

The ponies around me looked down at this, their ears drooping, except Prism, I noticed, who seemed to be sketching something with one of the four different colored charcoal pencils in his mouth.

"Well, we did, but..." Twilight started after a while. "I read up on this. Medical magic has advanced so far in recent centuries while physical dangers and threats have been on the decline that making prosthetic replacements is something of a lost art."

I thought that actually sounded promising. "So, it's been done before? Were they any good?" I asked.

"Actually, yes," Twilight said and perked up a bit while seven pairs of ears slowly rose.

‘Ears go up.

"I haven't seen any, myself, or course, but from what I could dig up they were pretty impressive."

"Okay, cool," I said jovially.

"But," Twilight started. "I'm not sure anypony knows how. I don't even know if I know where to start if I tried making a prosthesis."

‘Ears go down.’

I looked up into the blue sky and swiveled my head a bit as I considered this. "So, you're saying that it's possible. And even if no one can pull it off, magic seems like a pretty good replacement."

"That's a very nice attitude you have there, Gabe," Redheart said and gave me a small nuzzle.

‘Aaand up again.’

"I kind of had to learn to appreciate the things I had after the accident," I said.

‘Whoops, ears down.’

To try and swing the conversation back on a happy note I nuzzled Redheart back. "Thanks for all your help, everyone."

Cue lots of smiles. ‘Ears. Once more, into the fray. Wait, I mean sky.’

Some people's hair can detect predators and stand up on end when they sense one sneaking up on them. Mine does the same with awkward silences. "So!" I said, before it could descend like a big, embarrassing halibut. "How's it coming, Prism?"

"Splendidly," Prism said, his attention entirely taken up by his scribbling and sounding a bit disinterested, and finished a few sweeps across his notepad before looking up at us. "More stories," he said and took another bite out of a pastry and fixed his gaze on me again.

"Okay, uh, Crystal Empire next," Twilight said and she and her friends started telling the tale.

-

"I look way cool in an eyepatch," Rainbow said from up in the air. We looked up towards her as we slowly strolled through the royal gardens, she was hovering in front of the statue of an armored pony and admiring her appearance in a large, polished bronze shield.

"Oh, uhm, just be careful not to fly into anything, Rainbow. You don't have any depth perception," Fluttershy said and then let out a terrified squeak and then turned towards me, lying across Redheart's back. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

I waved my foreleg casually. "It's fine," I said, noticing how Prism, who had been obscured by Fluttershy, peered around her to look at me.

Rainbow swooped down in front of me and Redheart, who's back I was currently on (giving Prism a new obstacle), and said, "Hey! You ever flown before?"

"Not on hor- Uh, pegasusback," I said.

"Want to?"

"I," I started before thinking for a moment. "Yes, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. I'm having a lot of problem hanging on to things as it is right now."

"Oh, well Twilight's gotta have some spell to help with that."

"I do, actually," Twilight said. "But I think Scootaloo would be awfully jealous if she's not the first you do this with. Besides, maybe it can wait for a bit, it looks like Prism wants your attention."

We all turned towards the stallion in question. "Yes, I am ready to create," he said in a confident tone. "How would you like them to look?"

"Them?" I asked.

"Your eyes," he said, not really clarifying anything. "I know how to shape them, but how should I paint them?"

"I only have room for one," I pointed out, uncertain.

"At a time, yes," he said and nodded. "But you have the opportunity to change an appearance that most ponies do not, I simply assumed you would seize that chance."

Rarity looked shocked and said, "Why that's- " before realizing something and instantly mellowed before continuing. "... A good point, actually. Asymmetry is bold, but can be so delightful when done right," she said and turned to me. "Bold like your hair, darling," she said before turning towards Prism. "Oh, we shall of course need one that matches her eye, and one that matches her hair, like sweet sunset rays gracing a calm dusk, and one that matches her coat, soothing, like a stroll down a garden in the night, watched over by Luna's stars. And one that's..."

I tried to keep up with Rarity's poetic descriptions of my appearance, each one apparently a commission for a hoof-made eye, but after a while I turned towards Redheart's head and gave her a questioning look to which she just smiled and shook her head in a "don't worry about it" sort of way.

Prism just looked at Rarity patiently and nodded every time a description was finished. After a while they turned towards me and Rarity asked "do you have any wishes, dear?"

"You covered that pretty early," I said.

"Right," Prism said. "I'll start with the one matching your left eye, then I'll probably send the other ones in bulk. And unless there's anything else, I'm off."

He gave us all hoof pounds again and walked off towards the gates of the castle.

"Strange stallion," Applejack said as we looked in the direction he left.

"He's an artist, and supposedly really good at what he does, being strange seems to come with the territory," Redheart said. "No offense, Rarity."

"None taken, darling."

Rainbow flew up in Twilight's face and asked, with a smile, "So what spells were you talking about?"

"Oh it's just a stick-it-on spell. It attaches things and ponies to each other so that they can't lose contact."

‘Hm, I wonder if Twilight's into the kinky stuff?’

Rainbow Dash looked excited at this. "Cool, so why haven't you told us about this before?"

‘And her.’

Twilight shrugged. "I don't know, I'm not sure it's ever been relevant. Why are you so interested?"

"Like you said, Scootaloo might want a ride. I could show her some pretty cool moves if I didn't have to hold on to her."

"Aaw, that's so sweet of you, Dash," Pinkie Pie said.

Rainbow Dash looked like she wanted to complain about that, but she didn't have time before I asked "Who's Scootaloo?"

"My number one fan," Rainbow Dash said and held her chest out, looking pleased with herself.

"She's a filly back in Ponyville who's best friends with mine and Rarity's little sisters," Applejack said.

"And they've formed a club to try and get their cutie marks," Redheart said. "And Ponyville's a lot more interesting for it, with everything that implies."

"I've got a picture, if you're interested," Applejack said, pulling off her hat and retrieved a laminated photo from it.

She held it up to me and I saw three fillies, a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony, frozen in a frolicking-like hug against a farmland background and looking at the camera with intensively genuine smiles covering their entire faces.

I couldn't help but smile, myself. They seemed to be putting their entire essences into being happy together.

"That there's my sister, Apple Bloom, and that there's Sweetie Belle, with Scootaloo in the middle," Applejack said. She didn't point at any of them but it was pretty obvious who was who.

"They're just so adorable, aren't they?" Fluttershy asked, silently having appeared right next to me.

"Mhm," I nodded. "And the saturation just... intensifies everything."

Applejack looked at the picture. "I didn't use no fancy camera for this," she said in a confused tone.

I shook my head. "I don't mean just the picture, it's just that everything about Equestria just seems so happy and colorful that I half expect the clouds to have smiling faces on them."

"Ooh, that would be neat!" Pinkie Pie said. "Can you put smiles on the clouds, Rainbow?"

"Hmm, yeah, but I think it's against regulations to do that on public weather clouds. At least within city limits," she said.

"Are there less colors where you're from," Twilight asked me.

"Seems so," I said and gave this some thought. "Maybe it just seems that way since it's been lousy weather where I live for a while now. And the fact that ponies around here have really vibrant colors."

"Well if you had lousy weather, why didn't you just get up there and start kicking clouds?" Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No wings and no magic, Rainbow. Remember?" Twilight asked her.

"Oh, right," Rainbow said and stumbled a bit as she touched down.

"But that's a bit strange, humans in the world I went to had pretty much the same colors as here," Twilight said.

"Really?" I asked. "You were a purple human?"

"Yeah," she said with a shrug.

‘Hm, that would've been interesting to see.

"What colors do humans have where you come from?"

"Uh, from very dark brown, almost black, to nearly white when it came to skin color, and hair color pretty much the same except that it often is black," I said.

"What about ponies where you're from?" Rarity asked.

"Pretty much the same as humans, now that I think about it. Except it ranged from actual black to actual white."

"How... drab," she commented with a touch of disappointment in her tone.

"Compared to here I'm inclined to agree. That and all the expressive eyes makes every single pony I've seen here so far look cuddly and cute," I said.

Rainbow scoffed. "I'll have you know that if anypony thinks I look cuddly or cute is just thinking that because they can't handle the awesome awesomeness of being near Rainbow Dash."

‘This degree of consistency is almost admirable in itself.’

"No. You look just as cute and cuddly as everyone else, Rainbow, believe me," I said.

Everyone around me looked amused, except Rainbow who was starting to look flustered and started hovering above the ground again. "Nu-uh!"

"Yes you do," I said, my voice being just the right amount of dismissive. "Pinkie, agree with me."

"I agree with Gabe!" Pinkie exclaimed while bouncing in place,

"That's not true," Rainbow Dash said and crossed her forelegs in a sulking gesture.

"When I was a kid, our neighbors had a cat that chirped when anyone would pet it. Trust me, I know cute," I said and everyone looked amused at Rainbow's expression.

"You're all against me," Rainbow sulked.

"Aw, you can handle it, tough girl," I said and waved my hoof dismissively.

‘Whoops, she's probably a good bit older than I am.’

"Well, sure I can!" she said and perked up. "I haven't got a fan club for nothing!"

"Speaking of which," I said. "Your sisters and Scootaloo are trying to get their cutie marks?"

"Yeah," the ponies said in confirmation. "And amazingly enough, they haven't increased my workload by very much," Redheart said. "By the way, Gabe," she whispered to me. "You can close your eye now."

‘Oh, right.’

"Those things that shows what you're good at?" I asked.

"Yes," Twilight said. "Which you already have. Oh, and please don't rub it in their muzzles if you meet them."

‘Watch the innuendo, Twilight. It involves little girls.’

"I... Didn't even know that it was a thing you rubbed into people's... muzzles,"

"Well, young ponies are often really proud of their cutie marks when they get them. Some ponies thinks it's embarrassing to be a late bloomer, or the Cutie Mark Crusaders do, at least," Twilight said.

"The Cutie Mark Crusaders?" I asked.

"These gals," Applejack said and waved the picture before putting it into her hat again.

"I didn't even notice when I got this," I said and gestured to my flank with my head.

"Really?" Rainbow said. "Because you had it when we found you."

I looked back at my mark, same rhombus-shaped gem with the same contrails as before. "Huh."

"It must have appeared right before we found you," Twilight said. "That's good, because unicorn magic is often closely tied with their special talent. If you know your special talent it'll be much easier for you to learn magic."

Now it was my ears' turn to droop. "But I don't know about any special talents."

Twilight looked surprised by this. "You... you don't? I've never heard of..." she said before trailing of. "Well we, we might have some clues to go on, since you already have your cutie mark."

"What clues?" I asked.

"Did you notice whether you had it when you first came to Equestria?" Twilight asked.

"No, I first got a good look at myself in the forest," I said. "I didn't have it then."

"And since we presumably found you not long after you lost consciousness, there's a pretty small window of time where you would've gotten it," Twilight reasoned.

"I... guess you're right," I said.

"So what exactly were you doing before you lost consciousness? If you don't mind sharing the story again."

I shrugged. "No, I guess it's fine. So more story time, then?"

"Seems that way, dear," Redheart said. "Maybe we should go somewhere so that it doesn't look like we're loitering."

"Ooh! I'll go get us some lunch," Pinkie Pie said and shot off somewhere while we started sauntering away.

"What kind of lunch is she talking about?" I asked.

"More of the kind we had earlier, I would reckon," Applejack said.

"Does she do this a lot?" I asked.

"Do what?" Rainbow asked.

"Hand out pastries," I said.

"Yeah, pretty much all the time."

"How can anyone not get fat from that?" I asked.

"Pastries make you fat!?" Rainbow and Rarity asked in shocked unison.

-

After receiving a lesson in which diets do and which diets do not make magical ponies gain weight, which didn't make any sense to me, we found ourselves in a more appropriate story telling area.

I was learning how to sit up like a pony without falling over, too. Which was good, because the pitying cringes I got from my audience whenever I did was making me uncomfortable.

"... and that's pretty much it," I said.

"Okay, that gives me something to work with," Twilight said and stared off into the distance. "Okay," she said a after a while and rose up to leave. "I think I have an idea. Would you excuse me while I go fetch some things?"

‘I never turn statements into questions like that, do I?’

"Alright," I said.

"Oh! Are you gonna go fetch super-weirdo sciency things? I'll come with!" Pinkie said as she started bouncing after Twilight as she left for the castle.

"So do you think I'm ready to give magic a try, yet?" I asked Redheart.

"How have you been feeling?" she asked.

"Okay, actually. That thing when I passed out happened twice last night but I've been feeling fine so far since that."

"Then it should be fine, I'm sure it's not dangerous anymore, at least," Redheart said comfortingly.

I looked down in the ground and smiled.

"Looks like somepony might actually be looking forward to being a unicorn," Rainbow said.

"'Somepony'... Yeah, I guess so," I said, still smiling slightly. "Still feels weird, though, being a pony. A filly. But at least learning to move my ears wasn't very hard to do. Maybe this won't be, either," I said and made a demonstrative flop with my left ear. "Still having problems with my tail, though."

"Must've been strange, not having no tail," Applejack said and Fluttershy whipped hers around her and started petting it reassuringly.

"Not really." I said. "But judging from that book I borrowed yesterday, it seems most people here, not just ponies, have tails."

"Please don't take this the wrong way, darling, but are you saying that you can't move your tail?" Rarity asked.

"Nope, since I never had one before."

"And there was no magic on Terra?" she asked.

"Not as far as I know, and if there was I think we would've noticed." I said. I would've pointed out how we don't really call it “Terra” back at home but I suspected that there would just be a bunch of confusion if I started calling another word for “the ground” my home planet. ‘Although, come to think of it, doesn't “Terra” mean “earth”?’

"I see. Applejack, perhaps a demonstration is in order?" Rarity said.

"A what now?" Applejack said.

"A demonstration, darling. I'm not sure dear Gabrielle has seen what ponies can do with a little practice."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Rainbow!" Applejack said, bending her head back and used her tail to grab her hat off from her head.

Rainbow Dash took off from the ground and caught Applejack's hat in her own tail after Applejack threw it like a frisbee and then tossed it back. "Hah! I'm getting used to this one-eyed thing," she said.

I stared in disbelief at the display and tilted my head a little. "How? Oh, of course, magic," I said.

"That's right," Rainbow Dash said and set down beside me. "It takes some practice, but anypony can do it."

I looked back at my tail, trying to find a way to move it, but no results.

"So how did you learn to move your ears?" Rainbow asked. "Twilight said that humans can't do that."

"That's actually not true, it's just very difficult. Something about, uh, separate nucleus in the brainstem, but I can't remember," I said and almost didn't stop myself from waving my foreleg dismissively, which most likely would have resulted in my muzzle assaulting the ground. "And I learned to move my ears, these ears-" I gave a demonstrative flop "- last night when I heard something and they moved on their own."

"Huh. Okay," Rainbow said pensively and scooted a bit closer to me and then backwards a little.

Not sure what to make of that I instead turned to Rarity. "So, is it hard to learn magic?"

"Well, that's a somewhat... broad question, darling," she said.

I felt something tickling the sensitive hairs inside my ear and flopped it down before turning and seeing Rainbow whistle innocently while looking up in the sky and folding her wing in again.

"But basic magic..." Rarity continued. "- the type most commonly used, is often easy enough to learn."

I felt a bit distracted by Rainbow tickling my ear again but I wanted to hear this.

"Though learning to do more than miniscule magic is often associated with getting your cutie mark, and since you already have yours, I reckon you won't have a very difficult time, darling."

"So what does-" I was interrupted by more tickling and questioningly looked back at Rainbow Dash, puzzled at her childish behavior, before turning back to Rarity, "What does basic magic include?"

I felt another tickle which I instinctively tried to wave away with my ear. "I think this could take a while," I heard Rainbow whisper in Applejack's general direction.

"Arcanokinesis is the most common of unicorn magic," Rarity said. "Using it to practice your special talent is a good way to practice using it in everyday life."

I felt Rainbow tickle my ear again. I looked back at her and again she transparently pretended that nothing was happening. I shot a questioning look at Redheart instead, who just smiled at me and reassuringly pat my back with her hoof.

"Like how?" I asked Rarity.

"Well, my special talent is fashion. And when I got my cutie mark, around your age, it was suddenly just so easy to do anything cloth related: aiming needles, precision threading, using a sewing machine and so on."

"And-" I started before feeling Rainbow tickling my ear again. I turned back to her. "What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Oh, nothing," she said and extended her wing again and started tickling my ear with a primary.

"Why a-" I started before seeing my tail give a flick across the ground. "Uh?" I asked, sounding like a real intellectual.

"Finally," Rainbow said. "You're way too patient for a filly."

"What do you... " I trailed off. I focused my eye on my tail and tried doing that thing again, but didn't have much luck.

I didn't notice Rainbow's wing as it extended and started tickling my ear again. This time I felt my tail flick annoyingly and I was alert enough to register the sensation more fully.

"... Did you mean to do that?" I asked Rainbow.

"Yeah, I figured that might've helped." she said. "A friend of mine back at junior speedster told me that us ponies flick our tails when we're annoyed. I never realized that until she showed me like this."

"Oh," I said and managed to give a little horizontal wave with my tail so it lazily swooped across the ground. "Well, uh, thanks for annoying me, I guess."

"Hey, anytime," she said with enthusiasm.

-

After some more talk about basic magic with Rarity, Twilight and Pinkie Pie came back. They had apparently set up a way to figure out my special talent in a room in the castle. So once more I found myself on Redheart's back as we we're making our way back into the castle.

"Ugh! I wonder if I can pass a royal decree to not move the instruments around, this was taking longer to find than it should have," said Twilight.

"Or you could just order somepony to go get you the stuff," Rainbow noted.

"I don't know," Twilight said hesitantly. "I'm still not very comfortable with ordering ponies around."

"But passing decrees that basically say 'don't touch stuff that I wanna use' is okay?" Rainbow asked, amused.

"That was supposed to be a joke," Twilight said. "Anyway, I've set up some things to test your thaumatic resonance in a few likely scenarios, Gabrielle."

"Gabe. And please note how real a science in one world shares terms and names with a make-believe one in a another world;" I said.

"I- excuse me?" Twilight said.

"I mean that I can make a pretty good guess of what 'thaumatic resonance' mean even though magic is a myth back home."

"I... I will make a note of that," Twilight said. "I have some ideas as to why this is but I'm eager to look through Starswirl the Bearded's notes on different universes. Perhaps that would explain why all the different peoples in all the different world's I've seen all speak Equestrian."

"That's what you call this language right?" I asked.

"Yes. Hmm," Twilight said and looked pensive. "I wonder if there were different languages in the other worlds and there's a magical explanation to why we hear it as the same one."

"If so, then it translates reading as well," I said, remembering that I had a light study session yesterday. "Uh, let's see... Applejack!"

"Yeah?" Applejack said.

"What do you call a fish with no eyes?" I asked.

"What has that got to do with anything?" she wondered.

"I just wanna see if the wordplays I know still work."

"Okay, then," she said and thought for a moment. "Alright, tell me."

"Pinkie?" I said and waved my foreleg invitingly.

"FSH!" Pinkie hissed to Applejack.

"What are-" Applejack said, paused, and groaned. "Yeah, that works."

"Haha! Good one!" Rainbow Dash said and gave me a hoof bump. I could even see that Fluttershy and Rarity found it at least somewhat amusing.

"Alright, we're here," Twilight said and we entered a room with some tables and three cushions.

"You forgot to bring seating for everypony," Rainbow Dash noted.

"Nope!" Pinkie said happily. "Gabe doesn't want an audience, but she doesn't wanna tell us to go away so I figured that we would by ourselves."

"I..." I started, appropriately puzzled.

"Oh!" Rarity said. "That's thoughtful of you, Pinkie. Who's the third cushion for?"

"That's for Redheart. Gabe likes being around her," Pinkie said confidently.

"Then with your leave, darling," Rarity said to me, not a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"I," I said again, still confused, before shaking my head. "What?"

"Oh," Pinkie Pie said, looking shocked. "It wasn't right?"

"What wasn't right?" I asked.

"That you would be uncomfortable with having lots of ponies around when trying to use magic."

"I, hadn't really thought about that," I said.

‘Well, I guess that it's a lesson that’s irrelevant for everyone except one and she probably already knows it.’

"Well, It seems a bit rude to, uh, dismiss people who came to visit me."

"Oh don't worry about that, darling," Rarity said. "We're in Canterlot! We shall find plenty to keep us occupied, I'm sure."

"Well, okay then. But now I feel a bit awkward for keeping you from doing that," I said.

"Don't worry," Fluttershy said. "It was our pleasure."

"Yep," Applejack said proudly. "Always enjoying making friends."

"That's right," Rainbow Dash said. "Alright, let's leave them to it."

The five of them started filing out of the room, leaving myself, Twilight and Redheart in the room. "Uh, Rainbow!" I called out.

"What?" Rainbow asked and looked back.

I wordlessly held out my hoof and after a few seconds she caught on. "Oh, sorry," she said and removed my eyepatch and hoofed it over before flying out after the others.

Redheart walked over with me to a cushion and gently put me down on it while Twilight started adjusting parchments and quills on the table. The eyepatch was tied a bit too wide and I carefully started undoing the very standard knot that tied it up.

It was still a bit of a challenge though, with a hoof that I couldn't see the fingers on, or whatever you're supposed to call them. I was about to start using my mouth when Redheart gently took it from me and untied it before starting to attach it to me. "So if Pinkie is to be believed, and she has a knack for these things, you're comfortable around me and not other ponies?" she asked.

"Kind of, I guess. I also don't want to send people away from where I'm a guest and when they're here for me," I said.

She cocked her head and studied me for a bit. "If that's simply the way you are, then there's nothing to be ashamed of."

I gave her a dubious look back. "That sounds a bit like being proud of your flaws."

"There's more to it than that. And not wanting to surround yourself with ponies at all times isn't a flaw."

"... It still doesn't sound nice. And if you ponies are as social as you seem, then there could be a lot of situations like this," I said and looked away.

"You have to make friends eventually," she said, with a slightly pleading quality.

‘Yeah. What would be stopping me, though?

‘Oh, you know what's stopping you. You don't have to watch all that many movies or read all that many books to know what. I could've self-diagnosed myself even if I was a little kid.

‘It had hurt. So much I sometimes thought I wasn't gonna be able to live through it.

‘It still hurt.

‘But I had been told this before. I can't go on like this forever.’

I looked back at Redheart. "Like you?"

Redheart smiled and put a hoof on my back. "Yes. I just hope I'm not the only one. I have to go back to Ponyville soon."

"Yeah, I don't want to keep you, and everyone else, here forever."

Redheart's expression took on a strangely stern quality. "Well, I'm glad you're gonna live here in the castle with the princesses and that you've made friends with the element bearers. Because they might help with something I told you yesterday that obviously didn't take."

I was a bit confused by the seriousness in her voice. "What was that?"

She looked me in the eye and told me again. "You're not a bother, Gabrielle. Remember that."

I felt some conflict about that statement, and the years-long, grueling trials that was regaining control of my life and not relying on an ever-changing stream of professionals with varying degrees of unfamiliarity.

I felt that right now might not be the best time for serious soul searching, but I finally let my head rest on the cushion and accepted that this would be a tough matter. Redheart put her foreleg around me comfortingly and nuzzled my head a bit.

‘I did it. I finally did it. I learned to live by myself again. I had a nice enough place. I had a job, I was good at it. I was even respected by my colleagues. I can do anything. I am independent, free, smart, and tough.’ After a while I let out a sigh. ‘And I could really use a hug.’ I closed my eye and nuzzled Redheart back.

‘Oh, drama.’

"Okay," Twilight said. "We're good to- oh, sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

‘No pushing my new friend away! Being embarrassed at this would be childish. "You didn't," I said.

I couldn't tell but I was pretty sure that Redheart gave a smile at that, but she didn't say anything.

After a while, though, it was enough. I opened my eye and looked at Twilight. "Alright, let's see if I can learn to move things with magic before Redheart goes back to Ponyville."

"Oh, yeah. We haven't been keeping you from your job, have we?" Twilight asked Redheart.

"Since this case is anomaly stamped, I have quite some leeway in that area," Redheart said. "But I'm still heading back with the rest tonight."

"Well then!" I said and forced some enthusiasm into my voice. "Let's get to it. If that guardsman, or uh, stallion that helped me with the wheelchair this morning has to help me use the lavatory, I suspect he might have a nervous breakdown."

"Uh," Twilight said and then moved on when I waved the point away. "Alright, I've set up some things here." She gestured to a low table with various knickknacks. Among them were a feather, a book, some small bowls with different colored powders in them, and an arcane looking device that looked a bit like a mix between a juice press and a kerosene lamp, with a crystal of some sort in the middle, some knobs and buttons, and hooked up to an old-school continuous data printer (I was sort of familiar with these, with hospitals rarely willing to upgrade computer equipment unless absolutely necessary).

"Now, do you know what 'arcanokinesis' is?" Twilight asked me.

I had actually never heard that term before today but I made a guess. "The ability to move things with magic?" I suggested.

"Correct," Twilight said happily. "It's a very basic unicorn magic, pretty much every unicorn uses it daily. It's also commonly the first magic a young unicorn like yourself learns."

I shook my head. ‘I don't know what's weirder, that I'm a little kid or that these ponies are like, sixty or older.’

"Okay, sounds like something I wanna learn."

"Good! It's a very good spell for measuring magical energy, since a unicorn's magical prowess determine the weight and size of things you can control, how many things, how fine your precision is, and so on, and there's really no known limit for how powerful it can become."

I looked at the strange device on the table. "And how do you measure magical energy?"

"With that very device," Twilight said. "It can pick up a large number of different magical resonances, both faint and strong. This is currently set to sense unicorn magic."

‘Resonances, eh? Yeah, I know about those.’

"So, you said you did magic in the Everfree Forest?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah. That thing with seeing magic, doing something with a twig, and then the magical nova thingy," I said and gave what I said some thought. "I don't know if those things are called anything, if they're spells or whatnot."

"I don't think they were spells, it sounded more like sorcery," Twilight said with a thinking face.

"And sorcery is not the same as spells?" I asked, confused.

"Mostly no," Twilight said. "They're magic, but they're not spells. Not everypony can do actual sorcery, either."

I raised my eyebrows at this. "Really?"

"Yeah, but even those who do tend not to rely much on it."

"Why not?" I asked, understandably curious about this seemingly exclusive ability.

Twilight was silent for a while as she worked on how to best describe this. "I guess I misspoke earlier. All ponies, not just unicorns, can perform sorcery, but not all can do so in a more than miniscule amount. Sorcery is a form of raw magic. If you're untrained but powerful enough, you can use sorcery instead of spells to influence the world around you."

"And the reason why those who can don't rely on it?" I asked.

"Oh, there are several, the main ones being that it's unreliable, unpredictable, and difficult to control. The results can sometimes even be dangerous and leave you absolutely drained. Like what happened to you," she said.

"Okay," I said. That was indeed a very good reason to not go nuts with sorcery. "And what are spells, then?"

"Spells- ," Twilight started, and I noted how much she seemed to enjoy this " -are carefully constructed forms of magic. They are more difficult to learn, but luckily not as difficult as they are to create. Arcanokinesis is something of a middle ground between sorcery and spells. Think of it as sorcery, but one that is fairly easy to control and with the safeguards of a very simple spell."

"Hmm," I said. "I'll try, but it's all very... abstract, right now."

"Then let's give it a shot," Twilight said. "See that feather?"

I nodded, it was brown and white, so I assumed that it came from a bird and not a pony.

"Imagine that your horn can channel magical energy, and that you can control that energy to influence the physical world. Because simply put, that's exactly what we're gonna be doing."

‘Alright, channel chi into your horn or something?’ I closed my eye and gave my horn a poke to emphasize its existence. ‘Equilibrioception, right? Or would that be proprioception? Anyway, channel, channel, channel.’

"Open your eyes, Gabrielle," I heard Twilight say.

"Gabe," I said and decided to let it slide that I strictly speaking can't do that in plural. As I did I, though, I recoiled a bit.

"Nguh!" I involuntarily said. At the top right of my vision was an ethereal blue swirl that disappeared as soon as I tried to shake it away.

"Oh, Gabrielle," Twilight said in an amused voice. "That's nothing to be afraid of."

Redheart just gave me a warm smile and put her hoof on my back again.

"I figured," I said. "I've just never seen anything like that before."

"Well, I've only seen unicorn fillies look excited at doing magic before, I've never seen one scare herself with it."

I felt like crossing my arms. "Hmph. And I'll bet you didn't embarrass yourself any when you turned into a human."

Twilight's face went red at that. "Let's just move on," she said.

‘Oh?’

"Yes, let's," I said with just a hint of a smile.

"Alright, now try that again, but this time, keep your eyes open and try and will the energy to the feather and use it to bite down on it."

"Bite down on it?"

"Yes, like I said, arcanokinesis is like a mix between sorcery and a spell, just imagine you want to move the feather with your mouth like you'd usually do, but do it with your magic to create a form of mnemonic device to help you form your magic into that form at will."

After a moment, I realized the reason of her wording and was about to point that out, but Twilight beat me to it.

"Oh, right," she said sheepishly. "I remember humans didn't use their mouths to move things very often. Okay, imagine you're using a hand to, uh, what's the word? Grip it!"

That made a lot more sense to me, and gave me a pretty strong hint of how Twilight might've embarrassed herself as a human. I tried again. As I channeled energy into my horn, I again saw the upper corner of my vision come alive with a rich blue swirl. I hadn't seen this back in the forest, I had my eyes closed the whole time and just perceived all those swirling shapes and colors.

I, for a lack of better term, reached out and gripped the feather and it became enveloped in a blue glow.

"Good!" I heard Twilight said, but I kept my eye fixed on the feather. "Now try and move it around."

I did so, and it lifted a few inches off the ground. My feeling of elation was held in check somewhat by my concentration.

I tried moving the feather around and the blue glow carried it back and forth and in different directions. ‘Well, first step wasn't so hard.’

I felt that I had a good amount of control over the feather, but I was concentrating pretty hard. I tried scaling my concentration back. This didn't make the glow disappear, but after a while it started to feel like I was trying to do precision work while drunk. The feather moved, but not exactly the way I was trying to. After a while I set it back on the table and let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding.

"That was very good," Twilight said. "I was afraid that since you've only been a pony for a few days, your magic might be underdeveloped, but that's clearly not the case."

"That took a lot of concentration, though," I said.

"But not nearly as much as it would take for a filly even younger than you. Don't worry, I suspect that you'll become proficient in this in no time," Twilight said.

"Nice," I said with a smile.

"In fact, we could get a pretty good estimate on how much raw magic you have with this arcane power measuring device," Twilight said enthusiastically and pointed towards the strange looking device.

"Okay," I said, unconvinced. "How does it work?"

"Oh I'll just adjust it to the general type of magic you'd like to try and then you just use that kind of magic on it," Twilight said.

That sounded simple enough. "Okay, I've only tried moving things and doing that thing with the twig in the forest."

"Okay," Twilight said and lit up her horn. She adjusted the knobs and buttons on the device before continuing. "There, now just try and lift that crystal in the middle. Give it as much as you can without hurting yourself."

I did just that, but instead of lifting off, the crystal started glowing from within in the color of my magic and the printer jumped into life and started chugging out a stream of papers.

"Do I just keep this up or..." I trailed of, uncertain.

"Yes, please, at least for a few more moments," Twilight said, eyeing the printouts.

After a while, Twilight said, "okay, you can stop now."

I did, and started breathing in heavily. It didn't warrant any real panting, but I suspect that it would have if I kept it up.

As Twilight read the printouts, Redheart put her hoof on me again, I didn't notice that she had removed it. "How do you feel?" she asked.

"Fine. It... it felt like a short sprint, not long enough to really tire you out," I said before almost grunting at the pang of emotions I felt at that. "Which I haven't felt in ages," I continued in a low voice.

I felt Redheart pat me wordlessly, grateful for her presence.

"Okay, I think I have a pretty accurate read on how much magic you have. And good news, it's looking pretty advanced," Twilight said.

"Uh, how advanced are we talking, here?" I asked.

"A few years ahead of your time, perhaps. You might raise the eyebrows of a few teachers but nothing that special." She seemed to register what she said about a second after she had said it. "Oh! I'm sorry, that was a poor choice of words! I didn't mean-"

I raised by hoof and stopped her and gave her a small but genuine smile. "Don't worry, I'm actually kind of relieved." That was the truth. Neat abilities were one thing. But if I had vast amounts of untapped potential waiting to be unlocked... well, that would have implied things. I had learned to enjoy a tranquil lifestyle with sitting around as a central feature, I don't think I would appreciate being some sort of chosen one. I suspected that saving the world while in a wheelchair would be interesting to see, but mostly grueling to do.

"Okay?" Twilight said, sounding a bit confused. "Well, we have arcanokinesis down, and we still haven't figured out exactly your special talent is."

I looked at my cutie mark. "A gem," I commented dryly. "Not really sure what to do with that."

"Me neither, but I have a few ideas. Sensing magic around you like you said you did in the forest is an extremely helpful skill when it comes to weaving enchantments, and gems are hooves down the best material to hold enchantments. So I went and got a few and ground them down to test a theory," Twilight said.

"Gems? You ground down gems?" I asked, figuring that I should probe a bit before getting shocked.

"Yes," Twilight continued like this was the most natural thing in the world. "A sapphire, an emerald, a- which one is this?" Twilight asked herself as she pointed out the small bowls with colored powder in them.

"Whoa, are you grinding down precious stones for testing a theory?" I asked, shock held back by disbelief.

"Yes?" Twilight said, confused.

I stared at her with my eye wide for a moment. "Isn't that expensive?" I asked.

"Not really, I mean they're not free, but how so? Are they expensive on Terra?" she asked.

"Uh, yes. Very," I said. "We don't call them 'precious stones' for nothing."

"Oh, lucky for Spike he's not living on Terra, then. He eats them," Twilight said happily.

"Oh yeah, your kid dragon friend," I said and Twilight nodded.

‘Gryphons, minotaurs, unicorns, dragons. I wonder when the sirens are gonna show up.’

"So, I would like you to try lifting a pinch from one of these bowls and see if that feels any different," Twilight said and gestured towards the bowls.

"Alright," I said and did the thing again.

I tried picking up a pinch of the slightly red dust and lifting it into the air. I felt my control improve, as if earlier I was trying to do something half-asleep and this time I was wide awake. I formed the small amount into a ball and shot it around in the room, almost casually compared to the last time.

"Very good!" Twilight said and I carefully dumped the dust back in the bowl. "This is going great. Now, can you try and sense magic again like you did in the forest?"

"Okay," I said.

‘Alright, this time, project your consciousness into your horn.’

Once again, I sensed the world in what could only be described as a pleasant explosion of shapes and colors. I looked around and saw the gentle brook of magic that was Redheart, and the bright glow that was Twilight.

Redheart looked pensively at me and gave me a gentle prod with her hoof before I said, "you look worried, Redheart."

Redheart looked taken aback. "You can see me?" she asked.

I was confused before I realized that my head was still resting on the cushion, aimed away from her with my eye closed.

I stopped what I was doing and was yanked back into what I could only describe as “normal unicorn mode”. "Yeah," I said. "I didn't realize that my eye was closed."

"Well, strictly speaking you weren't looking at anything," Twilight said. "It's just that of all the mundane senses, sight is the one most ponies tend to interpret magic as."

"Oh, yeah. I guess it was a bit like a mix between sight and perhaps hearing, like echolocation. It's a bit strange to be able to see through things that... aren't transparent," I said, struggling to describe my experience. I had never used my vocabulary to discuss magic before.

"Yeah, it takes a while to get used to," Twilight said. "Alright. Try it again, and 'watch' me weave a simple enchantment into this gem."

A small topaz hovered in Twilight's purple magic before being set down on the table. "Alright," I said.

Once more I projected myself into my horn and took a quick view of the world around me. Two guards were marching through the halls outside, their hooffalls muffled by the carpet and a small bird was perched on a windowsill in the neighboring room. I turned my attention to Twilight and the topaz. The gem felt different than the other objects around me. It had a gentle glow which wasn't swirling around.

The bright glow of Twilight's horn was intensified with more swirling colors which gently shot out towards the gem. The glow in the topaz now started to swirl like the living things around me, and Twilight was shaping it.

I observed on in fascination. The glow from Twilight's horn was stirring the glow in a few simple patterns and subtly changed the colors, and it didn't seem like it was going to slow down either, it just kept flowing on and on. After a while, the topaz lifted off from the table and started hovering about one foot in the air.

"That's it," Twilight said and I de-projected myself. "That was a simple levitation enchantment." Twilight gestured towards the floating topaz. "It's just like a spell, but an enchantment tends to last for a long time, sometimes indefinitely, and this is much easier to do with gems than most other material."

I looked back at my cutie mark again. "Okay, cool," I said.

"Now I want you to try it," Twilight said.

"Really? Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, and you can try doing that while sensing magic, it's probably easier that way."

"Alright," I said and projected myself again.

The gem was floating in the air, colors still swirling gently in a never-ending loop. I saw Twilight reach out and calm the small current so that the colors muted and settled back into the gentle but still glow it had earlier, the topaz dropping to the table.

I reached out and prodded the gem with my magic, and it felt like a small pool. I imagined my magic as a finger which I dipped into the pool and started moving the colors around with. They settled back almost immediately, though, and I instead tried to stir them quickly before pulling my magic out of it in order to not interrupt the flow. I tried to imitate what Twilight had done earlier but didn't manage to copy it completely.

It was fairly similar, though, and after a while the topaz started to move. It started rocking back and forth and pretty soon it was rolling around the room, making clacking sounds as it did.

I de-projected myself and gave Twilight a shrug.

"Not bad," Twilight said and I felt some pride build up inside me.

Redheart and I looked at the topaz as it rolled across the floor in determined fashion before encountering a wall and stubbornly tried to march on. It looked kind of funny.

Twilight's magic picked it up and floated it over to us, where it kept rolling around in the air. "Your very first enchantment," she said. "Would you like to keep it?"

I eyed the topaz for a bit. "I don't know, I imagine listening to that would get old after a while."

"Alright then," she said and wiped the enchantment. "Like I thought, your special talent is enchanting."

I gave a smile at that, instantly seeing how that could get useful.

"Now I have one more test," Twilight said and brought forwards the different cups of ground up powder. "Try tossing these."

"Tossing them?" I asked.

"Yeah, gems obviously react strongly to your magic. I want you to try and toss these and see if you have any preferences."

"I... try and lift them all at once?" I asked, not really wanting to misinterpret this.

"That's right," Twilight said. "Just give them a good shove."

"Alright," I said. I powered up my horn and looked at all the different little bowls. Their contents practically inviting my magic and it felt so easy to just get a grip on all of them at once.

Then I imagined that they were a Magic: The Gathering collection that I had grown sick of.

And then I flipped the table.

The magic I had been struggling to lift a feather with made the different dusts shoot into the air like a fountain, and one near the middle shot like a ball and impacted the ceiling before starting to descend like an expensive mist.

Twilight conjured a magical shield around us like an umbrella before bringing the bowl that had contained the blue powder to her and read a small plaque on the side. Then she looked at me and my cutie mark, then back at the bowl.

"Lapis Lazuli," she said with a smile. "Should've known. Oh! And I have to let Kibitz know!"

I let out a yawn and Redheart said. "I think that's enough magic training for today."

"I think you're right," Twilight said. "Impressive work today, Gabrielle. You definitely don't have to go to magic kindergarten."

"Gabe. And thanks," I said.

‘Shouldn't that be "magic fohlengarten"?’

"I could give you a few books that you could read up on now that you can use magic on your own, there's lots of practical exercises in them, too," Twilight said.

I gave her a smile, a mild fatigue catching up with me. "Thanks, I'd like that," I said as Twilight started packing up everything.

‘Things are really looking promising. Being a unicorn is actually really cool, I thought to myself, pleased with how the day went. I haven't been this eager to study before in my life.’

A thought struck me. "... Twilight?" I said.

"Yes?"

"You're gonna give me books on magic?" I asked.

"That's what I said."

"Which I have just performed?"

"... Yes?" Twilight asked and stopped to look at me.

"And I have been transported to another world, spoken with aliens, met incredibly powerful and old beings that can control stars, and been transformed into another being, myself?"

"... When you put it like that, you seem to be handling it very well," Twilight said after a while and gave me a concerned look. "Are you alright?"

I gave her a very genuine smile. "I don't remember the last time I felt this good."

‘Hah! Suck it, Lovecraft!’ I thought with an internal smirk.

-

"As you can see here, Lady Gabrielle, this movement aid features key components made out of lapis lazuli, visible to make magical control easier. Judging from Princess Twilight Sparkle's assessment of your abilities, you could very well regain independent movement with this construction within weeks or even days," the unicorn said.

I looked up at him. Kibitz, as had introduced himself, was an older stallion with a cutie mark of an old pocket watch, small glasses at the edge of his muzzle, with a burgundy waistcoat and a somewhat flat head with a mane that began somewhere on his neck and carefully trimmed sideburns. It had the effect of making it seem like he had very high widow's peaks and he managed to speak with very small movements of his mouth, so that the only visual hint that he was speaking was that his large mustache bristled.

"I... don't know what to say," I said, lying across Redheart's back, as Kibitz and Private Armor stood next to the comfortable looking wheelchair. Its structure covered by a layer of the ultramarine material, very much like my coat. With Princess Celestia and Twilight with friends stood next to me, looking at the chair with interest.

"Well, perhaps you would like to give it a try?" Kibitz suggested.

"A short one, in that case," Redheart said. "We don't want a repeat incident."

"Oh I doubt there's a danger," Twilight said.

"I do as well," Redheart said. "But there's no need to be reckless."

"Very well, a short one it is," Kibitz agreed. "Private Armor has been appointed to help you in such an event that your magic is insufficient, should you agree."

I looked at the nervous guard who had enough self-consciousness to give an affirmative nod. "Hey, Armor," I said and gave him a wave.

"Good afternoon, miss Gabrielle," he said back, sounding almost humorously stiff.

Redheart walked over to the chair and carefully helped me sit down in it. I looked at the gem inlays in the chair, reached out with my magic and pushed forward.

The chair smoothly rolled forward and I tried breaking the movement, which also worked like a charm. Or a spell. "Wow," I said in a small voice. "This is great,"

"We are all most pleased that you think so, Lady Gabrielle," Kibitz said.

"Uh, you can skip 'lady'," I said.

"If it pleases you, miss."

"Excellent, Kibitz," Princess Celestia said. "And on such short notice. Please pass on my gratitude to all relevant parties."

"Oh, yeah, and mine," I chimed in.

"Naturally," he said.

"Well, I'm glad you appreciate this, Gabrielle," Princess Celestia said. "It pains me to see somepony struggle so."

"Your majesty, I'm... not sure how to repay this, and everything else I've gotten."

"You don't have to repay anything, but I plan on learning about your world, and I hope you will help me do so," she said.

"Of course!" I said, eager to show that I wouldn't just take things like this for granted.

"I don't wanna cut anypony off, here. But we should get going if we don't wanna miss the train," Rainbow Dash said.

"Of course," Celestia said. "Until next time, my little ponies."

"Sure thing, Princess," Rainbow Dash said, completely oblivious to Rarity's disapproving gaze.

"See you soon, Twilight," Applejack said and the rest chimed in.

"Yes, see you tomorrow," Twilight said.

"You're not going?" I asked.

"Yes, but I'm waiting until tomorrow," she said. "Spike can watch the library in the meantime."

"Why are you waiting until tomorrow?"

"Because I want to learn about your world too. It's actually kind of my royal duty," she said.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow, Twilight," Rainbow Dash said before turning to me. "Come visit someday, whiz kid."

"Oh, indeed," Rarity agreed with the others. "If your aptitude in enchantments are as Twilight describe, you simply must let me make use of them. Imagine the garments we could make with it!"

"Yeah, that actually sounds pretty great," I admitted. "See you later."

Redheart looked expectantly at me and I extended my foreleg invitingly. She walked up and gave me a warm hug.

It was a bit ruined when six other ponies joined in, but I didn't let that bother me. Today was a too good of a day.

"See you later, Gabe," Redheart said and then left for the door with the rest of the ponies and walked out into the late afternoon sun.

"Well, Twilight, your old room is as you left it, with quills and paper in abundance," Celestia told Twilight.

"Thank you," Twilight said. "I'm looking forward to hearing about Terra tomorrow, Gabrielle."

"I hope It'll live up to your expectations," I said. "I'm feeling a bit spoiled, getting all these things and attention."

Celestia looked at me with a serious expression. "Gabrielle Desrochers, while it warms my heart that you appreciate the things given to you and that you are adjusting to life as a pony, do not imagine for a moment that my desire for you to teach me of your world is a way to alleviate any feelings of debt."

Both Twilight and I looked at Celestia, my surprised expression inviting her to continue. "You already understand this, Gabrielle. Establishing a connection to Terra could be, would be, one of the most pivotal events in living memory. It is something which has to be done right. Do not dismiss your importance in this."

"I," I started, not really sure what to say. "Yes, your majesty."

"And so it pleases me that you're taking this request seriously," Celestia said in a warm voice.

"Thank you, your majesty," I said, finding her words very comforting.

"Now, I plan on having supper soon. I imagine that you're eager to study the books that Twilight has promised you, but would you all like to join me for supper before you do?" Celestia said to me and Twilight.

"Of course we would," Twilight answered for us.

"Well then. Private Armor, if you would be so kind as to help Gabrielle into the dining hall? I would like you to join us. And you, Kibitz, I want to double check my schedule," Celestia said and started making her way to the dining hall.

I looked at a flabbergasted looking Armor as the two princesses and the royal scheduling advisor started moving away. After a moment, Kibitz turned around and shot Armor a disapproving look and cleared his throat, whereupon Armor sprung into action.

All in all, I felt that this was a very productive day.