2 - Searching for answers
Two days had passed. Twilight was looking more and more frantic and disheveled. She was doing her science just right, I was helping her as much as I could, but nothing worked.
A unicorn knocked once on the door and just barged in. His horn was aglow already, a short carved stick that he kept bracing against one leg with each step. I almost lost it when he turned blue eyes on me from a badly tended face. Brown fur with a dark mop of mane, he hobbled over to me and I felt his own magic wash over me.
"Nope, can’t do it. Next!" He turned around immediately and made to leave only to find the door slam shut in purple-pink magic.
"But Doctor Horse, you need to, he is suffering and all I have been able to do is tempora-" The stallion spun on Twilight’s tired demands. He looked nothing like the Doctor Horse from Ponyville, maybe he was a relative in Canterlot?
"No, what this pony needs is..." His retort was rough and it was clear he was quite used to getting his own way. What show was this again? My tongue was tugged at, mouth pulled open. Bits were poked but, amazingly, not where it was actually sore. "Give him five of these." A little tin floated out of the pocket on his normal-looking shirt, it opened to show a lot of pills.
"They are pain relievers, aren’t they?" I knew it was so and the stallion looked to Twilight and then stepped up between her and myself. "Immune suppressors and pain drugs, that was all I got. Slow it down, make it hurt less." My mood dropped further still.
"I don’t know what immune sup… they stop your body’s defense?" The stallion was sharper, at his particular field, than even Twilight. I nodded. "Then yes, that is the best we could do. Maybe miss alicorn here could do the same as your fancy medicine, but you aren’t getting better." He left the whole can of meds there, sitting on the bed as he turned and hobbled out with a soft clunking every second step.
"And I can’t even do that." Twilight’s surrender was even worse than having the doctor do the same. "Wait, this mess in your etheric net, it isn’t the cause of the problem, it would heal if your body could." I blinked a few times, not quite following her. She had explained, with glee at having a fresh student, what etheric nets were. "But what if your body wasn’t doing this, would your net heal itself? It should!"
Her wings flung out triumphantly and I looked up in confusion. "Twilight, you, you have an idea?"
Her mane and tail had lost their untidiness and I could practically see her glow with the very insight that was about to burst. "You wouldn’t be sick like this if you had a new body!" I blinked, a lot. She had been waiting for me to praise her, I guess, but I couldn’t have a new body. "What?" She sagged a touch. "Luna and Celestia have done it before, I heard they have changed a few humans."
The look on my face clearly made her slight wilting fade. She saw confusion, not challenge to her plan. "Come on, Luna is in night court, but I think she will make an exception for this. She really hates having to sit at court anyway."
Twilight grabbed me with her magic and lifted me clear of the bed, leaving me a scant moment to reach for my shirt before the world shuddered and I was blinking up at Luna from the floor of her court.
"Twilight Sparkle, what is the meaning of this?" The guardian of dreams slammed a hoof down, getting a good thud from the floor.
"It was so easy, and you can fix this!" Her wings were up again in excitement, even as the petitioner scrambled from the limelight of their audience with Luna. "If you turn Barny into a pony then that will cure them."
To say Luna didn’t share Twilight’s enthusiasm was a drastic understatement. "You interrupt our court to tell me this?" There was fury in her words but I felt something press at my mind and then.
~ relax, both of you. I want to hear this and my temper is a good excuse to clear the court~
I tried to look chastised, Twilight too, but she was failing terribly in her excitement. As soon as the last guard closed the door behind the petitioners Luna smiled. "Thank you both for that. We find our court tedious indeed sometimes."
There was a hint of warmth a a sensation of light before Celestia was there too. "Come, my sister, lets hear the report." Luna nodded and returned to the loose pile of cushions at the head of the room.
"I tried everything, including shutting down his defenses and letting them grow back completely. Oh of course I helped," she added at a raised eyebrow from Luna, "but nothing worked. The doctor you sent in was what really helped though, he confirmed what I had found. There is no way to cure a body of this, only make it easier to die slowly." The words cut me to the quick and I could see that they pulled a response from Luna and Celestia. Wait, was Twilight manipulating them? Or… "So, throwing away all the solutions that don’t work, gave me one that would. He needs a new body!"
I blinked up at her, then over to the other two princesses. "We hardly think a few pokes is en-" Luna began, starting to argue for more time.
"Luna, you can use the spells, both of them. But not so far this time just… a little ways back." Celestia's words were soft but even Luna would stop and listen to the least of them.
Twilight beamed.
A familiar sickness poured through me as the world tore for a moment, dark magic flaring around me. Twilight's support was gone, as was the guard. And Celestia. And the huge room.
"You have some choices, human." Luna's voice was back with it's cool strength, tugging at my mind and making me look up to her. We were in a dark room, the walls and ceiling looking like a field of stars in a dark, cloudless night. So did her mane. "Earth ponies. Strong, dependable. Unicorn, frail of body but not of will. Pegasi, free as the wind and just as capricious sometimes."
Small images, like holograms but… real, danced around. The forms of the ponies changed with each phrase she had spoke. One came to my mind though, one of the fine bat-winged pegasi that had been Nightmare Moon's minions. It's image instantly warped the little pony in front of me, showing me something much different and yet still adorably cute.
"Lunar pegasi?"
I was nodding until something came to me and I looked to my hands.
"But you will miss those. We have heard that unicorn magic can replicate them." The little dark winged pony changed. The wings pulled in and, from their forehead, a horn rose. My eyes were wider. "No flight, but we think you would like this better and, with one boon, we can grant it."
I turned to her, wondering what the boon might be. My nod was sure, though. Her and her sister's implication was… well, I would have put up with anything.
"And we will take some years from you, as my sister has allowed." Her words confused me a little but as her horn glowed and darkness surrounded me I didn't care.
"WAIT!" Celestia was there, standing over us, her brightness fighting a stalemate with the darkness of the room. Luna's magic still wrapped me, I had a sense that if she actually stopped I would be in a worse state than I am now. "This one, a human stallion." I nodded. "Your etheric energy is twisted. You are neither… explain!"
Her words tested me, I couldn't figure some of them but the implication the few I understood made me nod. "I… I never really felt anything, toward either. They are just bits and make no real sense to me." Puffed a little with Luna's magic, I felt a touch bold. "I could try… the other?"
~she cannot hear this, but yes, you could. It would change the boon we ask~
I felt the same pressure as before as the words just came into my head, the pressure eased after a moment, like there was some kind of bubble to pop at their first entry and now the way was clear.
Celestia nodded. "But know this, once chosen, the change will not be undone. For better or worse you would be-" her mouth curled into a deeper smile as she saw the little lunar unicorn standing there, now subtle hints betraying tells of a feminine gender. Softer features, slightly longer lashes and, likely, a million other little things that I am sure I was not pony-enough to notice. "You would be her. Are you sure."
The tears that flowed now weren't fear, they weren't self-loathing. I nodded and the world went quiet and numb.
"Lulu, I really was just trying to make sure she was going to be-" Celestia was trying to calm a fury of darkness above me.
"You peeked, you had to, she didn’t take any persuading for this form, she pushed US!" Luna felt like a force of nature above me with her anger. Then I saw there was something else odd. Between my eyes, just toward the bottom.
"Uh, hello?" My words were hesitant but got an immediate reaction from both alicorns.
"You’re awake." Luna smiled as she spoke, revealing care and. I blinked up at her with not a shred of fear from her and laughed.
"Now you have unhinged her." Celestia said simply. "She is your problem." The darkness of the room returned as my tears smeared the dots of start into lines.
"You mock us?" Luna asked, sounding more inquisitive than hurt. I was shaking my head, the giggles and laughter unable to be stopped. "Then what?!"
It was the first time I heard the Royal Canterlot Voice. It stunned me from my laughter long enough to lean over and nuzzle the dark hoof before me and say a few words. "There’s no pain." My laughter started again but was suppressed enough when a smiling Luna rubbed an ear with a hoof. "Thank you!"
Luna’s smile half faded as she suddenly had a very clingy young mare wrapped around her leg in a hug. "This is unseemly and…" The hoof rubbed my ear again and it twitched. It was then some more things started to inform my once human mind that this body was odd.
I looked at one leg as I managed to pull it up in front of myself. "I am a pony? A real live pony?" I giggled more but didn’t laugh. Not only was there no pain, but I wanted… I needed…
I didn’t think, I jumped off Luna and started to race around the room. I WAS A PONY! The fifth step was my problem. The first few had worked because I didn’t think about them but as soon as I felt new muscles work, felt for them and tried to make them work how I wanted, I was sunk.
Luna had her turn to chuckle as I face-planted right into a big pile of cushions. "Celestia wouldn’t let us wind your clock back as far as… others. But we went further than she told me. You are a young mare barely past her growing times. Your life, the life you missed, is ahead of you and, our boon lies there somewhere."
I looked up at her with wide eyes and realised something else. No glasses! My clothes were in a heap where I had been changed. I suddenly felt very, very naked. "Eep!" I burrowed under the stack and hid. "I… ponies aren’t naked are they?"
Luna laughed a little more and stepped carefully over on long legs. "No, we are never naked so long as we have fur, mane and tail. But in some places, a little decorum is suggested." Luna’s magic picked up one pillow after another, hefting them away from me and finally leaving me exposed. A mirror appeared, hovering around and I felt my ears swivel and perk as I was suddenly interested in the mare in it.
Dark body-fur, a little thicker in places than what other ponies had, parted here and there to reveal a deep purple under it. Her mane, I thought, was black but as Luna turned the mirror it flashed deep blue and her ears twitched, the little tufts of fur at the tips looking adorable. I smiled and she smiled, revealing teeth that were… "It is not considered polite for a lunar pony to show off their teeth, unless something displeases them." I looked up and nodded to Luna. The mare’s mouth closed a little to just an obvious smile. The mirror panned around and down and I could help but frown. No cutie mark? But ponies got them when they were young.
Luna was quick to divine my confusion. "You have not found your special talent, yet. Do not try and force that, it will come." The reassurance was so nice that I returned to watching, the cute little horn on the mare’s head, with no magic-colour to it. "But we think that will need some work. We cannot have an adult unicorn not knowing how to use her horn." I nodded. The last thing I noticed of her, were the sky-blue eyes, I almost got lost in them.
Something started to swirl in the back of my mind. Something strange. It wasn’t pain, it wasn’t shock. It was sensations, a myriad of them. They felt odd, not wrong and, when they insisted I try and make sense of them and they washed over me something tilted in the world and I was looking in a mirror at my own reflection.
The mare was me.
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Not a solution I won't say I didn't consider. I guess with so many humans willing to take the option the drama about the transformation spell is all gone. But Luna should be happy about another Lunar pony.
...Wait, so Luna DIDN'T tell her she wants the character to be part of a breeding project BEFORE turning him into a mare? She doesn't think that it might be a little important to tell them that? It's not as if that would be a pretty damn big factor into a decision, no.
Sorry, but this breakneck passing isn't helping. The chapter is called searching for answers to a problem introduced last chapter, by the end of this one, it was already resolved and seemingly without careful consideration from anyone involved. And, well, I'm not going to say without complications, because future is uncertain, but...
I don't feel any tension so far.
6824525 First of all, thank you for reading and commenting :)
The intrigue from Luna and her boon is something that will be explored as things unfold.
As for pacing, yes, I have a problem with it and it is one damn hard thing to get 'right'. To be honest I wasn't even sure about posting these. Regular chats with David and diving face-first into his Silver Verse stories reminded me how much I enjoyed writing as escapism. The problems I describe here are real, blah blah life sucks. I wrote this for myself, for needing to just not think about the real world. I cried for my fictional self, even as I wrote it and it helped. I will see what I can do about the pacing, but I fear it will never be slow because my perception of the world around me, my filter of it, doesn't seem to want to work slow.
Not bad, definitely going to watch this.
6824206 The reason for calling in science-pony and a doctor was that they were reluctant to use such a spell. Celestia is a smart pony, Luna too, they had probably already guessed that changing the body completely would 'cure' the uncurable. They just didn't want to make it the hammer for all problems.
Haha, even the great House couldn't solve it.
The unended statements were slightly....
(pun intended, not meanly though) A little more explanation at the start about this mystery "text" character would help or a slightly longer conversation between them might add some more context as I wasn't real sure what was going on. But otherwise I'm liking this.
I see the influence of David Silver's stories. I see it so much I feel there's no need to read this after having also read those.
6920727 If you didn't like them then sure. If you had read the description you would have seen that this is based off his stories and I have been doing collabs with him.
Oh, and thank you for leaving a reason for the downvote, all too often I see them just appear and wonder why.
I... can't follow this. I don't mean as in not tracking the story, I mean I cannot tell what is going on from one moment to the next. Through most of this chapter I had no idea what was going on, and I'm certain that I'm still missing a lot after re-reading it a couple of times.
I get the feeling that this story is going to be entirely incomprehensible if one has not read the entirety of David Silver's work. Which I have not. Don't get me wrong, I loved the first story, and the second was great. But the third lost me due to wide spread automatic acceptance of the main character's ideas.
6946015 These chapters were mostly setup. I didn't want to write too much story about a person with a horrible disease going to Equestria. I live that every day of my life. I wanted to write about ponies and how adorable they can be :)
Interesting story but I go totally and completely lost at some points.
So, if I'm following this correctly, a transgender human, suffering from... cancer? Something else? Was sent to equestria, and is now a mare?
7169855 An autoimmune disorder, things like MS where your immune system attacks your body as well as diseases and slowly breaks it down, my dad has MS, but luckily he got onto suppressants quickly so he wasn't effected as much, now he just has to keep injecting the medicene into himself every three days and he's pretty much fine. Although there are varying effects of the disease what he had was pretty minor, but it can make people go blind or paralyse them by attacking the muscles or eyes, and it's incredibly painful.
7169855 Well, this is shamelessly a self-insert fic. In my case, not transgendered but asexual. As for the disease in question, it is crohn's disease. Not fun but the deal was I had to write it as ME going to Equestria, so there it is.
7178175 With crohn's, effects will 'flare up' very quickly when medication is stopped. Basically a handful of immunosuppressents and GI-specific anti-inflamatories are my breakfast every day, failure to take them will result in a lot of pain and basically me getting worse and worse until bad infections can and will kill me. If I were in remission when I went to Equestria? Well, I might be fine for a few years, but I am not in remission at this time (nor at time of writing the story).
Wat...
7178489 wait, you have this illness?
7245651 Yes. David challenged me to do a 'so you go to Equestria' story in his world, I went, with all the good and bad that came with me.
is..." His
Miss Alicorn
and then heard,
~Relax,
I couldn't figure some of them out, but the implication of the few I understood made me nod.
sex.
questions should have question marks
revealing care and...and what? Will the world ever know? Tune in next bat-time...
her," [it's a speech tag]
7246996 Thanks again. I will note, my writing has improved, a lot, since the start of this (holy crap that was only a few months ago). Around 1/3 of the way through this story I swapped from first to third person. While I love writing first person, I don't think I handle it quite well enough.
Bat wings are way cooler...
7381965 well, she could cast wings on herself once she learns how.
at least it's a better TG reason than "Silver Verse",
(and there was something implied about Celestia wanting him female because his aggressiveness? as a male))
(he got a infusion of magic from Luna in preparation for TF, and twilight "discovered" he had more female than male magic and she and celestia talked? convinced/bullied him he should be better off female!
7688502
Or make some metal/magic wings
i thought he'd become a changeling oh well
The word choice is quite confusing and ambiguous at times.