Itinerant Kingdom

by Istaran

Chapter 2: Cocoon and change

When we finally had some privacy together, I got Wind Chaser to revert to her natural form. I found myself more at ease with her appearance this time, having been prepared for it by my ill-gotten memories, but I was more interested in checking the progress of her holes. She was in much better shape than when my former self had first met her, but I could see some new holes forming already. I sighed. Knowing why she was in such a hurry to seduce me worked against her purposes, even though I wanted her to be well fed and healthy.

"You're still a pony," she noted curiously, as I stroked her chitinous shell with a hoof.

"Shifting back and forth is disorienting, and I don't want to be caught as a human. I believe I'm the only one in the world, now, and that's kind of the opposite of the anonymity we are going for. I'll stay a pony. Consider it total immersion training. It'll just be easier to learn how to be a pony if I'm not switching back to human all the time."

"I guess that makes sense," she said, closing her eyes and enjoying my tender touches.

"Are you disappointed?" I asked before gently nibbling her neck.

She squirmed a bit, giggling, but shook her head. "I guess I'll miss the touch of your fingers, but I'll be fine without it," she pulled me over her, stroking my sides with her hooves. "I'm guessing that means I can't be human anymore either? Easy come, easy go I guess."

I thought back to when she briefly made the rounds as a human woman with pegasus wings. "You'll always be my guardian angel.~"

She giggled again, shifting back to her pegasus form to wrap me in her big fluffy wings. "You're doing this backwards, my king. You're not supposed to be trying to earn my love."

"Love is meant to be reciprocal," I countered, drawing her into a deep kiss, silencing the objection forming on her lips. With no one here to question my flightlessness, I soon had a big fluffy pair of wings of my own wrapped tightly around hers. Our little feather cacoon felt so warm, and safe, and.. loving. I just wanted to savor it, snuggled tightly with my mare. I could see she was enjoying it too, and I was glad she didn't insist on making things any more sexual than they already were.

I closed my eyes, and soon I could feel her shift subtly as she faded into sleep, sated and happy. But my own mind didn't rest. Insomnia could be a problem for me back on Earth, but here.. I quickly learned from Deus that sleep was entirely optional for us now; the nanospiders could easily manage the hormones that triggered sleepiness, and the regenerative processes that happened during sleep were now happening all day long anyways. This would be perfect if I decided to become Batman, I quickly concluded. Actually.. that wasn't as ridiculous of an idea as I had originally meant it to be. We had the durability and recovery time to be able to bounce back from threats that got more dangerous than we liked, the ability to easily mask our identities while playing 'hero', and the ability to play out one life in the day and another at night if we so chose without being hurt by the lack of sleep.

On the other hand, without our crystal tricks, Wind Chaser was currently about on par with an average changeling, and I was lacking every form of magic but shapeshifting. We had a lot of training to do before we could even attempt anything like that. I thought it would have to wait.. I didn't want to disturb Wind Chaser's sleep, or for that matter leave her warm fluffy embrace. But then I had an idea. Magic was like a muscle, or a way of thought.. exercising it did a lot to help you get better at it. Playing with Zeke's cards had been enough to reach the point where I could shift into a pony again, without the crystals, but what about pushing myself further? I needed to exercise.

So I changed my colors. And my cutie mark. Over and over and over, all night long. It took a lot of focus to make such fine changes, especially without disturbing the sleeping mare underneath me. And.. it started to get draining. It was the first time I felt fatigue and hunger from using magic. My old focus crystals ripped magic out of the air around me, and the quick burst of power to shapeshift, even completely changing form, had never been enough to really feel it. But now.. my rumbling stomach threatened to wake Wind Chaser, and I got a bit lightheaded, but I persisted until dawn's light came through the blinds. Seeing Wind Chaser finally start to stir, my resolve ran its course, and I collapsed on top of her.

---

"Drink now, child. I'll not hear no for an answer," the stark white earth pony mare with a stark black mane before me said. I knew it was Wind Chaser, but I was unclear why she had changed disguises. Or why she was so much bigger than me. Slowly I recognized the diner from the night before. My forehead throbbed in impossible places, and slowly I realized the presence of a horn jutting from it. The way it ached felt like a punishment.

[It is,] Deus informed me. [But also a necessity. You passed out from overuse of your magic. To make that explanation plausible, it was necessary to change your shape. However, as you were passed out, you were unable to change your shape through magic. So I assembled a horn shaped protrusion of bone for you. It lacks the magical organs required for horn magic, and instead contains vital training organs.]

I groaned as I slowly sat up, grabbed the terrifying green sludge in a glass and started to slowly drink. [Vital training organs?] I inquired.

[It has special nerve bundles which generate pain until you recover enough to shapeshift it into a proper horn. This will help you remember not to do this again.] Deus responded impassively before proceeding to do me the disservice of listing the contents of the sludge I was drinking. In short it was a top ten list of high calorie foods from the pony diet run through a blender together. I think Deus silently blocked the message from my brain telling my body to lose said lunch.

"And this is why running off and skipping school is such a bad idea, dear child of mine," Wind Chaser started. "I understand you were picked on, and that is why I am willing to let you try another school, but you really do need to learn the basics like any other foal. For example.. ponies derive their magical energy from the food they eat. Ponies who use too much get hungry and tired, but those who push past that.. can lose their magic forever. Do you understand?"

I groaned my agreement, finishing the slush. Wind Chaser hadn't grown, I had been forcibly shrunk by Deus, as well, losing nearly a third of my mass in the process. It had served as necessary cover, but I realized it was problematic in its own right. I was a scaled down stallion, not a proper colt, and the differences were pronounced enough to be noticeably by anyone paying attention. I looked more like a midget than a child.

When Wind had paid our way, we took a different road, my feet plodding along heavily behind my 'mother'. As much as I hadn't wanted to go with this ploy, my current state was proof that I really did need it. When we were around a few bends and well out of sight of everyone, Wind Chaser shifted into the form of a colt, a more natural looking version of my current state. Pure white, blank flank, with a slightly bluish shimmer to his main and a gleaming pearly horn. I struggled to draw the power, but I finally managed to match the look before Wind Chaser resumed her previous identity.

"We'll go by 'Clean Sweep' and 'Blank Slate'", she suggested, walking at an angle for a moment to show off her broom and dustpan cutie mark, before straightening back out. "I'll get some temporary work cleaning, while we get you into the local school. Don't worry about being a magicless unicorn. At your apparent age, most unicorns are lucky to produce a few sputtering sparks."

She went over some more details, switching to silent communication as we passed some strangers on the road. I went along with it, trusting her judgment more than my own right now. I was reminded of Bardrick again, the retired griffon soldier that had nearly gotten around to training me. According to him it was more common sense he planned to train me in than fighting.

The road seemed to stretch on forever, broken up by the occasional diner where we fed and inns we passed by, but just as the sun dove below the ground, and the moon ascended to take its place, we came upon the sleepy little town of Citrus Hills. We hurriedly acquired shelter for the night and settled in.

There was no foreplay or shapeshifting this time; we simply lay with my back to her, and her hooves wrapped around my smaller frame. I could feel her eyes on me as she kept a quiet vigil through the night, as if waiting to catch me burning myself out again. I felt my resting body continue converting the day's meals into energy, both physical and mystical. I closed my eyes and focused on the process, feeling it at work for the first time. It wasn't like the crystals.. this power was a part of me, and I was finally aware of it! It felt.. green was the best I could describe it. It felt like changeling magic, of course. It felt like the mana from those 'Forest' cards Zeke had leant me. It did not at all feeling like flying, like the surges of energy my crystals had poured into my wings. I had hoped getting my magic flowing better would help me regain my flight, but it was becoming clear it wouldn't be so simple.

I rested but I didn't sleep. There was something in the back of my mind that told me sleeping would be dangerous.

Comments

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

I am enjoying the story. It's nice to see a slice of life / learning story where the protagonist isn't being waited on hoof and hoof by main characters.

[Istaran]

5862028 Thanks!
If it helps, the inhabitants of Ponyville and Canterlot in particular are quite unlikely to show up in this particular story at all, as the protagonist is particularly keen on not having any interactions with them.

[Wind of the Skies]

well now i feel like i have made a mistake. which i have i apologize for my outburst. i would delete the comment but this site gets wonky when you use dial-up internet.