The Right Man in the Wrong Place...

by CORACK

Chapter 13

Now I wasn't really all there, so it was distinctly possible, I had misheard Twilight. Actually, it was taking a good deal of concentration to keep my knees from buckling out from underneath me. Now that I had a second to think about it, there's no way that's what she said. That would be utter nonsense. You can't just change someone's species, what a ridiculous concept. I let out a small chuckle.

"Can you please repeat yourself?" I asked with another giggle. "For some reason I thought you said your mirror would turn me into a pony."

Of course, before Twilight could answer, Golden Dawn shattered any hope I had that either my ears weren't working or Twilight had an unusual sense of humor and a horrible timing for jokes.

"What kind of pony?" she asked, looking at the purple princess.

Twilight, of course, had a short speech prepared to answer the question. I leaned up against Golden Dawn for support as she began her needlessly complicated explanation.

"I've gone over all the notes I could find and done some analysis on the mirror itself. If a pony travels through it, they are turned into a human. Not Hail's kind of human, but the humans that live in the mirror universe. On the return trip, they are transformed back into their original body. The mirror isn't really setup for non-pony races, and if a non-pony goes through, it uses a best guess algorithm to determine what species to pick. This algorithm isn't Star Swirl's best work and definitely needs some tweaking, according to the notes I read, he was forced to rush that part of the spell and never fully tested it. I suspect that's why Spike ended up as a dog when we visited the other world. Anyway, I'm getting off track. When a being goes through, his or her original form is stored in a spell matrix that is maintained inside the subject's new body. Except, and this is important, the transformation spell only affects the pony's, or other race's corporeal form. It does not touch the internal magic of the subject. For a pony, this is important, because unlike the other races of Equus, ponies have clearly defined sub-races. As you know Golden, but Hail likely does not, a pony's race isn't determined by purely by genetics. The parents of the pony influence the outcome, increasing the probability that their children will be in the same tribe as the mother or father, but ultimately, it is the magical properties of his or her soul that determine which tribe they are born into. Hail isn't a pony, he has no inner magic at all. The mirror will have to graft magic onto his soul in order for the transformation to be successful," Twilight paused to make sure that we were still listening to her. I was, but I had only a vague idea of what she was talking about.

"In Star Swirl's time, study into soul magic was in it's infancy, the only spiritual structure that had been completely mapped out, and thus reproducible by spell, was that of an earth pony. In truth though, I haven't actually been able to find any past records of a non-pony race traveling through the mirror, nor one of the humans from the mirror universe coming to Equestria, so I can't say that a human to pony transformation has ever been tested."

"What?" I asked. Twilight rolled her eyes and dumbed it down for me.

"The spell that mirror users was designed by a pony, for ponies to travel between dimensions. While I'm not aware of a non-pony visiting from another dimension, at least before meeting you, I have been able to determine that any non-pony species stepping through from the other side will take the form of an earth pony, but it's never been tested. That is, unless they are originally from Equus, in which case they would simply return to their original form. For example, if a griffon went through the portal, and then came back, they'd revert to being a griffon, not a pony," Twilight said.

"So you're telling me that when I step through your portal, I'm going to come out as a... earth pony?" I asked, still not quite believing such a thing was possible.

Twilight nodded.

"A pony...? Like with hooves and a tail and everything?"

"Those are generally things found on a pony," Cadance said with a bit of a giggle.

"But... wouldn't it be easier to like, make me magically resistant or something?"

"Not really, that would involve modifying your existing body, while it's still very complex, it's easier to shift someone’s soul to a new body of a known species than it is to try make changes to an existing body, especially when it is of a species we know so little about," Twilight said. "In fact the only magically modified species I know of are thestrals, and Princess Luna did that spell work. I asked her about it one time and just the theory behind the changes was beyond my knowledge at the time."

"Will it be permanent?" I asked nervously. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be stuck as a pony.

"The transformation will persist as long as you are in Equestria. Once we figure out how to send you home anyway, we will need to open a portal to your own world, either with this mirror or a duplicate. At that point you'll step through and be returned to your original form."

"I need a few minutes to think," I said. I tried to sit down, so I could concentrate, but my knees finally gave out and I ended up collapsing into my chair. Part of my brain shouted at me, giving up my body was unacceptable, but another part screamed that survival at any cost was preferable to death. Twilight's talk about souls made me a bit nervous. I had never been a deeply religious person, but I had to wonder, if I did have a soul as Twilight claimed I did, and Twilight's mirror was going to alter it, would I still be the same person after I went though? I was still deep in thought when Golden Dawn sat down next to me and extended her hoof, resting it on my lap.

"What's the matter Hail Storm?" she asked. "You seemed fine until you found out that the portal would transform you into a pony."

"That's just the problem," I said with a sigh. "All this talk about souls and transformation, I'm just a bit freaked out. I thought after this, I'd be back to my old self but healthier. Will I still even be me after I go through that portal?"

"Of course you will," she said with a gentle smile. She reached up and poked my nose with her hoof. "Yes, it will change your physical body, but who you are, that won't be affected."

"But Twilight just said it would do something to my... soul," I said.

"That's what makes me so confident that you'll still be you. I might not be some magical master, but everypony knows how resilient a soul is. You can't just change who a pony... or a human is with a spell."

"She's right you know," Cadance said. "We can add the necessary magical properties to allow you to become an earth pony, but we can't change who you are. That's the strongest part of your soul, it is, for all intents and purposes, immutable."

"How is adding something different from changing me?" I asked.

"Well... it isn't a perfect analogy, but think of your soul as the clothes you are wearing. You can add a hat but that doesn't change your outfit, you're only adding to it," Cadance said.

"I'd still be giving up my humanity... I'd still end up as a pony," I said glumly.

"Hey, being a pony is great, I've been one all my life and I've got no complaints," Golden Dawn said with a laugh.

"You promise it won't make me... not me?" I asked.

"Obviously, your body will be different. Though you will gain earth pony magic, the changes will not affect any aspects of your soul that make you you. However, I must point out that addition of pony magic to your soul will permanently alter your... base species. Once the addition of pony magic to your soul is made, it cannot be undone without killing you. Ponies cannot survive being completely separated from their magic. If we can ever locate your universe, this won't actually matter. We can still transform you back to your human self if I can get the portal pointing to your universe, but on the inside, you will be a pony. If you ever did return to Equestria, you'd revert back to your pony body," Twilight said.

"That's... disturbing isn't the right word, maybe unnerving?" I said. I guess in the long run it didn't really matter, if... no when Twilight was able to find my Earth, I could still go back to being human.

"I know it's scary... but if you don't do this Hail, you'll die," Golden Dawn said, tightening her grip on me. "I... I don't want to lose you," she said in a half whisper.

"You're right," I said with a sigh. The part of my brain that was arguing for preservation at any cost had only gotten louder and louder as time had passed. I wasn't ready to die, if becoming a pony is what it took to live, I'd do it.

"That's what this ultimately comes down to. When I eliminate all other variables, the choice is pony or death and I'm not going to choose death. Being human is great, and someday, if I'm lucky, I'll get that back, but staying human, that isn't worth dying for," I said. In a small way, it felt like a hasty decision, but when I narrowed everything down, the binary solution set I was presented with made it made the choice an obvious one.

"Okay Twilight, let's do this," I said as I stood up on my own two legs, perhaps for the last time.

Twilight gave me a nod and turned her attention to the mirror. Her horn lit up with a fierce glow, magenta stars sparked in all directions. Slowly the glow began to shift until it was a mishmash of blue hues with red, purple, and green bolts of energy running through it. Beads of sweat rolled down her face and she began to tremble.

Twilight grunted as her magic began to to encase the mirror. It shimmered brilliantly and for a brief moment the surface rippled as if it was made of water. The glow subsided but a radiant beam of energy still flowed from Twilight's horn to the top of the mirror's frame. The surface of the mirror shifted slowly from a pond like surface to what appeared to be hard glass.

"The portal is still active, you can step through now. Please... hurry," Twilight said, her voice clearly strained. She closed her eyes, turning her concentration back towards maintaining the portal.

I leaned up against Golden Dawn for support, she helped me up to the front of the mirror. My own sickly reflection gazed back at me, as far as I could tell it was a solid piece of glass. I glanced over at Twilight and she gave me a nod.

"Remember Hail Storm, if you survive the transformation, you will not be in any better shape than you are now. The mirror will not heal you, only give you a new body. In fact, you might be even sicker, if the mirror itself causes any further damage as you pass through it. I will be here to render immediate aid but should that be insufficient we will be taking you directly to Canterlot Hospital," Cadance said.

I extended my hand and brushed my finger against the mirror. Even though I knew what to expect it was still surprising when my finger slipped through and vanished into the glass but not-glass surface. It was cool to the touch, but oddly not wet, sort of like sticking my finger in a pond but at the same time not. A small ripple shot out from the point of contact.

"Chevron 7 locked," I said before I pulled my hand back.

That's when things went wrong. As my hand left the portal surface the coolness changed to a horrible burning sensation. That only lasted a moment before I lost all feeling in the hand that had entered the portal.

My brief wonder at the mirror portal turned to alarm as I caught sight of my finger, the skin around the end had changed, from pale to black and cracked. It took me a moment to realize that not only could I no longer feel the tips of my fingers but I couldn't move them either. I gently tapped the end of my index finger with my other hand and watched in horror as the top of the skin crumbled to charred dust. The waxy remains of the muscle and ligaments that held the end my finger together sloughed off in a sickening pop, leaving the bone segment exposed and dangling by a thread of flesh.

Nothing could have prepared me for that sight, and I let out a scream of pure terror. In my panic I nearly tumbled back down off of the mirror's pedestal, clutching my hand to my chest in hopes that I didn't damage it any more. I would have fallen completely if not for the quick reaction time of Golden Dawn, she caught on the way down and helped me back to my feet.

"He needs to go through, all of him, for the spell to work," Cadance said with worry clear in her voice. "His hand was exposed to the magic of the spell but the partial transformation was reversed when he pulled it back out. That much magic exposure is going to kill him!"

"Hail Storm, step through," Golden said, her voice filled with worry, but I was too much in shock to move. She repeated herself, with more urgency than before. It was just enough to kick my brain into gear.

I tried to lift a leg but it was like trying to move a mountain, my body sagged under enormous weight as I struggled to push forward. I managed half a step before my body gave out and my vision started to darken.

"Hail Storm!" Golden Dawn shouted again as I felt consciousness being to slip away. I fell over completely, hand outstretched towards the mirror. Golden Dawn bent down and wrapped her forehooves under my belly, she lifted up and I felt myself rise up off the floor.

There was a sensation of movement as I felt her rocket towards the mirror.

"You can't go in with him, it's not safe!" I heard Cadance yell, but it was too late, I felt the cool ripple of the mirror's surface again as we plunged through, together.

There was another sensation of burning, but different this time, it was followed by a pain that was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Every part of me was in agony, as my body was forcibly reshaped into something else. An instant later all pain ceased, leaving nothing but the memory. All that remained was a sensation of movement, I was falling, but somehow I had no idea how long that had been happening. The pain I had experienced seemed like it had happened only seconds ago, but also a lifetime. I fell for an eternity, or maybe for not time at all. I couldn't move, talk or even scream. Nor could I see myself, the only thing visible was a brilliant light in the distance, growing closer at an indeterminate pace.

Did I die? Is that the cliche light at the end of a tunnel?

I refused to accept that possibility, but there wasn't anything I could do except continue move towards it. If I still had a body, I had no control over it. Except... except I could sense something. Someone else with me in this void. Golden Dawn. I don't know how I knew it was her, but I did. She was still there, her hooves wrapped around my non-existent chest. She had carried me into the mirror and we were moving through this place, whatever it was, together.

I didn't have any more time to think about it because the trip ended with a flash. There was light everywhere and it touched everything. It was bright, painfully so, and I closed my eyes instinctively. Then the feeling of falling returned for a second as Golden Dawn and I came flying out of the mirror. We went down in a pile of hooves, legs and tails.

"That's... hmm. I was concentrating on keeping the portal up, what happened?" Twilight asked.

"Golden Dawn carried him through the portal," Cadance said.

"I see," Twilight said.

There was a clopping of hooves as one of them walked over to us. I struggled to move, I wanted to get up, but things weren't moving correctly.

"Hold still Hail Storm, this will make you feel a little... strange," Cadance said gently, laying a hoof on... some part of me.

One of my eyes crept open just enough to see her looking down at me. Her horn lit up and everything tasted blue as her spell wrapped me in a magical glow.

"Oh thank Celestia, the damage isn't as bad as I feared," Cadance said as her spell continued to work it's magic. "We still need to get him to the hospital, we aren't out of the woods yet but I he will make it. I just need to get some more experienced eyes on him..."

My eye fluttered shut as she kept talking but I wasn't paying much attention to the words. Sometimes, I'd catch a sentence or two, but I'd forget what was said as quickly as I heart it. I felt Golden Dawn disentangle herself from me, it was almost enough to make me try to open my eyes again but then another surge of magic hit me and that plan went right out the window as I lost completely control of my body.

"He's in stasis now, let's get him to Canterlot General," Cadance said. Her voice was distant, muted.

Something important had just happened but I was having trouble concentrating on what. Memories of the last few moments that were crystal clear began to go fuzzy. I think Cadance had just hit me with a spell, but that didn't make sense. Magic hurt me, she wouldn't do that... Oddly, I felt no pain, instead I just felt... relaxed. It was like I was half awake, wrapped in a warm blanket. I could hear the ponies in the room talking but their words were just so much noise. The last thing that slipped through my mind before I dozed off completely was something about hooves.

---

I stepped through the mirror, there was a sensation of disorientation as I popped back out the way I had gone in. Something had gone wrong, terribly wrong. I looked down and cried out in terror. The terrible burning that had washed over me had taken its toll. My clothes were burned away and I could see every inch of my skin charred to a black crisp. I took a step, the slight tremor of movement enough to start a chain reaction. Layers and layers of burnt and cracked skin dissolved away like ash in the wind. I could see my intestines, with no skin to hold them in place they started to unravel, cascading out of my stomach and onto the floor. I tried to grab them, to hold them in but my bony fingers couldn't quite latch on as more and more blood and guts spilled out in a puddle around me.

I looked up desperate for help even though I knew that it was too late. Golden Dawn stood only a few feet away, I reached out towards her and she screamed as the last bits of flesh on my hand melted away and the bones dropped to the floor. I tried to close my eyes and wait for the end, only to find that my eyelids themselves had already dissolved into nothingness. There was a gurgling noise as I tried to scream for help. I was forced to watch as my body slowly began to collapse on itself, the last thing I saw was one of my eyes as it fell out of my skull and dropped down with a splash into pool of blood beneath me.

"Hail Storm."

My heart was beating a mile a minute, I felt cold and sweaty and my breaths were coming in short panicked gasps. I heard a voice call out again, it was Golden Dawn's.

"Hail Storm can you hear me?"

Golden Dawn's muzzle was the first thing I saw upon opening my eyes. She looked... different. The best way I can describe it is that it was like every other time I'd seen her it was without glasses and now I was wearing them for the first time. At least that's what I thought, my eyesight wasn't bad enough for glasses so I'd never had the experience before. Her face seemed sharper, her goldenrod coat seemed more vibrant than I remembered, everything just seemed more detailed. The worry etched on her face quickly distracted me from the unusual experience. A second later she noticed I was awake and her expression shifted to relief.

The gruesome scene I had just been part of, it had been nothing but a dream. Slowly the feeling of dread melted away as my heart rate returned to normal.

"You were screaming," she said, still looking me in the eyes.

I felt my face heat up, nightmare or not, I'd never known myself to scream out in my sleep before.

"I think... I think I had a nightmare," I mumbled under my breath and then let out a long yawn. The details of the dream were already fading away, something about burning and... I don't know. Whatever it was, it was gone, the only remnant was the speed at which my heart was pounding and even it was beginning to slow. Another yawn escaped my mouth, I felt tired, more tired than I ever had felt before.

That's when I noticed something else, how I had missed it when I first opened my eyes, I wasn't sure. There was a grayish violet patch of... something extending out in front of my face. It was a bit too close to focus perfectly on and too large to be my nose. It followed my eyesight as I turned my head back and forth.

"Do I have something on my face?" I asked as I reached up, my arm felt like lead but I wanted to figure out what it was. A second later I let out a painful yelp as I clocked myself in the nose.

Golden Dawn struggled in vain to hold back a snort as I tried to figure out what my nose was doing several inches farther away from my face than it should have been and why my hand had caused it so much pain. Except, as I caught sight of it, it wasn't a hand. Hanging in front of my face was a hoof attached to what was very clearly a pony leg.

I moved my arm up and down and watched the leg mirror the mirror my commands. There was a moment of confusion, but as the pony leg continued to mimic everything that I was telling my arm to do, the truth dawned on me.

"WHAT THE HELL?" I screamed.

"What?" Golden Dawn asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Pony leg!?" I shouted nearly as loudly. I tried to point at it with my other hand, but that just brought a second leg into view.

"Oh shoot, Cadance said you'd have some memory loss, what's the last thing you remember," Golden Dawn asked.

"WHAT THE HELL?" I said again, now staring at two forelegs.

"Hail Storm!" Golden Dawn said loudly, while placing a wing on my shoulder... I hoped. "What's the last thing you remember?"

I fought back the panic and tried to concentrate.

"I... we were in the dungeon. Twilight burst in and said she had a solution. Everything's a bit... unclear. We followed her somewhere, I don't remember the trip, but I remember another room. There was something in it... a mirror?"

"Do you remember anything else?" Golden Dawn asked.

"She... to save me she had to send me through the mirror. It was... some sort of magical portal. Except sending me through... it would turn me into a pony? That's not right? Is it?" I asked.

"Afraid so," Golden Dawn said with a sympathetic smile.

"But... that means... Holy shit, she turned me into a pony." I said out loud echoing my inner thoughts as they came to the inescapable conclusion. I couldn't remember any of the details, but there were bits and pieces... Fragments of memory bubbling to the surface. Twilight talking, the portal lighting up, horrible pain, and for some reason, the taste of blue.

"Not a bad looking one either, I might add," Golden Dawn said with a wink.

I felt my face heat up a bit at Golden's teasing, then slipped my hoof back under the sheet. I wanted to get a good luck at my new body so I pushed it off to the side. I glanced downwards and let out another yelp this time in embarrassment; scrambling for the sheet I tried to pull it back over myself as my face reddened even more. Getting a grip on the sheet now that I lacked fingers proved to be a bit tricky and I got more and more flustered as I tried to grab the sheet only to watch it slip off my hoof. Giving up, I wriggled back and forth until I finally managed to partially cover myself. My valiant effort to cover myself had taken a lot out of me. I panted as I struggled to catch my breath.

"What the hay was that?" Golden Dawn asked as she watched me scramble about the bed.

"I'm... not... wearing... any... clothes," I said, stretching out each word as I attempted to hold my cover in place.

"Neither am I?" Golden Dawn said tilting her head in confusion.

"..." I held my hoof up in the air while my mouth hung open dumbly, I couldn't think of any legitimate response. She was, of course, right. Most ponies wore nothing pretty much all the time, and none of them ever seemed to care. What little they did wear seemed to mostly be for fashion, or as part of a work uniform. It hadn't even occurred to me that after getting turned into a pony I'd be walking around naked like the rest of them. That was going to take some getting used to. I let out a sigh of defeat and kicked the sheet half off myself.

"Is this a human cultural thing, like with sharing a bed?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Yeah..." I said with nod as I felt my face light up with embarrassment.

That caused Golden Dawn to start giggling which only made me turn redder.

"This isn't funny," I said grumbling.

"Oh but it is, funny and adorable."

I wanted to be mad but any sort of strong emotion felt too exhausting. I was still breathing heavily and my body was screaming at me to go back to sleep, but I wanted to find out what was going on.

Trying to steer the conversation in another direction, I spoke up. "Why do I feel so tired?"

"Cadance said that as the healing spells continue to work on your body, you'd be in a weakened state, it will wear off in a week or two," Golden Dawn said.

"What happened to my clothes?" I asked, as I contemplated how I was going to get off the bed and not fall on my face. I kept my vision firmly locked on Golden Dawn, I wasn't quite ready to be forced to acknowledge that I was now a small horse.

Small alien horse... drifted across the back of my mind.

"You uh, kind of destroyed them. Human clothing isn't really the right shape or size for your new body and they were shredded when you exited the portal. Twilight found some stuff scattered about the room, probably from your pockets. She's got it stashed away somewhere for safekeeping."

The only things that should have been in my pockets were my wallet and my keys. The phone I had left in the truck's glove box since I couldn't read anything on it and outside of the car charger I had nowhere else where I could recharge the battery. Actually that reminded me, I had no idea where the truck was. Asking about the truck would give me a precious few more seconds where I could ignore the new body I had acquired.

"Another random question... What ever happened to my truck?" I asked, I finally managed to shift myself into a position that I hoped would allow me to get off the bed without getting tangled in the sheets, falling over and making a fool out of myself. I took a moment to look around the room and almost let out a whistle, assuming I could still do that with my new mouth shape. Extravagant was the proper word, expensive looking furnishings, marble flooring, and a truly massive window that overlooked what looked like a large city below. Based on that observation, I assumed I was somewhere in the castle.

"It's still in Ponyville, Twilight sent a letter to the mayor, letting her know to leave it alone and somepony would be by to pick it up eventually."

I nodded in acknowledgment then returned my attention into the task of getting out of bed. Trying to sit up like I would if I was still in my old body didn't seem right. Ponies were amazingly flexible for being a creature that shared the same basic shape with a horse so I could probably do it, but I had a pretty good idea what would happen if I tried to walk on my rear hooves. It mostly involved falling flat on my face and maybe Golden Dawn laughing a bit.

That's why I had turned myself over onto... all fours. I had seen Golden Dawn get out of a bed before, I just had to try to emulate that. It's just that doing so would be a lot like trying to fall out of a bed and land on my hands. Not exactly a comfortable thought for a former human.

Golden Dawn saw me getting ready to get off the bed. "Hold up a second," she said. She opened the door and trotted into the other room, returning with a wheelchair.

"The nurse left this in case you were unable to walk," she said.

I eyed the chair.

"Do my legs not work?" I asked suspiciously.

"No but Twilight said between the weakness caused by the healing spells and having a whole new body, well she thought you might want to use the chair."

"Unless it's medically necessary, I don’t want it. I'm going to have to learn to get around as a pony at some point."

"Alright," Golden Dawn said reluctantly. "But let me know if you change your mind."

I shimmied around and got myself pointed in the correct direction then slipped off the side of the bed. I caught myself at the last second, face inches from the ground. I stepped forward and felt my rear follow. It dropped down until I was standing on the floor on all fours. Something on my sides jostled as I hit the floor.

"Why are you looking at the ground?" I heard Golden Dawn ask. I felt my ears swivel towards the sound of her voice which totally threw me for a loop and distracted me enough that I almost forgot to answer her question.

"I... don't know?" I said a moment later, while moving my head upwards.

Pony necks are way longer than human necks, and quite a bit more flexible. I was standing upright but my mouth was so close to the floor I could eat off it. Which, I guess made sense, I'd seen ponies snack on grass before. Slowly I lifted my head up... and up... and up... and up. At it's highest, I gained an impressive amount of height. I still felt... shorter than I had been but it wasn't as bad. Now that I had gained mastery of moving my head around, it was time to look at the rest of my body.

"Wow, ponies necks are really long. This is... well... weird doesn't seem strong enough, but I'll settle for that for now," I said as I began to turn look at my back. "And so flex..." I stopped mid-sentence.

"Golden Dawn."

"Yes Hail Storm?"

"There are wings on my back."

"Yeah, So I know..."

"Wings. On my back," I said as I stared at one of them. It was folded up along my side, but was still clearly visible.

"Yes, I know," she said. "We were surprised too. Do you remember Twilight telling you that you'd end up as an earth pony?"

"Um no, everything's before and right after the mirror is still kind of hazy, but if she did, she was wrong."

"Well, you were supposed to end up as one. But... well, you fell and you weren't going to make it through the portal. I picked you up and flew into it. Twilight could probably explain the whole thing in exquisite detail but, the short version is, my pegasus magic kind of rubbed off on you."

"Oh... are you okay?" I asked. I had no idea how this transformation thing worked but I didn't want to find out I had hurt her somehow.

"Yep, I'm fine, I was a little tired after I went through, but I was completely back to normal after a couple of hours."

"Good. And thank you. Like I said, I don't really remember most of what happened but it sounds like you saved me once again."

"I'm considering starting to charge a fee," Golden said brushing up against me with a friendly bump.

Of course, I wasn't really prepared for that, stumbled sideways a bit before I caught myself.

"Whoops, sorry about that," Golden Dawn said as she trotted over along side me.

"No worries, I'll just deduct a portion from your payment. Now, I guess I better get to figuring out walking."

I took an uneasy step forward. Then another. It was slow going but I made some small progress as I concentrated on walking forward. My front legs felt like they had a similar range of motion as my arms had before, but my rear legs bent differently and my first few movements of them were clumsy. The exhaustion didn't help things, just standing up was proving difficult.

I fought the urge to climb back into bed and forced back a yawn, instead I took a few more steps forward. They were shaky and slow and I nearly stumbled. Golden Dawn inched closer, gently brushing up against me. It wasn't much but it offered me just enough support to steady myself. I turned and gave her a smile of thanks.

"If you need some more support you can hold onto me," she said.

I looked at her, then down at my hooves, though I appreciated her offer I wasn't sure how I could take her up on it.

"Um... how? I don't exactly have arms anymore, if I throw a foreleg around you, I'll fall over."

"Use your wing silly," she said with a laugh. "Wrap it around my back."

I was so busy trying to walk that I had already forgotten about my new appendages. I tried to open one but it just sat there, resisting my efforts.

"I don't know how to move it," I said with a bit of embarrassment. "I've suddenly gained two more limbs, I can feel them but I my brain doesn't know what muscles to move to open them."

"Hmm, I have an idea," she said.

Golden Dawn backed up a step or two and then reached up with her hoof, I felt my wing extend outward as she gently pulled it away from my torso. She raised it up and down a few times, which let me feel exactly what was moving. I was about try moving it myself when she sat down, then used one forehoof to hold my wing open and reached upwards slowly with her other.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

Golden Dawn said nothing but an evil grin spread across her face. Her hoof reached under my wing, where it connected with the rest of my body and then I almost fell to the floor as I erupted in uncontrollable laughter.

"Hahahahahah... st... haha...st... haha.... stop!!!!" I choked out between laughs. I felt my wing reflexively try to fold back up, in an attempt to guard against Golden Dawn's invasion of what was apparently an extremely ticklish spot on a pegasus' body. She wasn't about to show me mercy though, and kept my wing spread wide as she continued to torment me for until I collapsed to the floor, unable to stand her assault any longer.

"What... was... that...for." I said as I struggled to catch my breath, I had been laughing so hard there were tears in my eyes.

"I felt your wing try to close," she said with a smirk.

Golden Dawn was right, between her moving my wing up and down and the reflexive movement of the wing itself, I had gotten a good feel of how they moved. I wasn't going to be flying anytime soon, in fact the idea of leaving the ground terrified me. Still, I could at least manage uncoordinated flapping now. More importantly, at least for the time being, I was able to rest my wing over Golden Dawn's back

My initial impression of pony wings, back when I had first seen them, was that they were delicate and far underpowered to lift something the mass of a small horse. Now, having wings of my own, I could feel the powerful muscles in it, easily bearing a good portion of my weight. In fact, even struggling to stay awake, it felt like I had Golden Dawn in a bear hug.

"I'm not squeezing too hard am I?" I asked.

Golden Dawn laughed.

"Not even close, don't worry, you won't hurt me. I'm glad that worked, you're going to have to learn to use those wings eventually," she said with a smile as we slowly shuffled forward.

I turned my head to face Golden Dawn. "So what exactly happened after I stepped through that portal?" I asked while leaning up against her.

"Twilight and Cadance brought you to the hospital, you had an entire team of ponies working to repair the damage done to your body. Thankfully Cadance was able to stabilize your condition long enough to get you there. Some of the doctors were worried that you might not make it but I knew you weren't going to give up. It took several days of treatments to get you in a completely stable condition. If I understood Cadance correctly, most of the damage is either fixed or will be fixed as the spells finish up repairing the damage. That's why you feel so weak, you're past the critical stage and in recovery mode now. Cadance had you moved here so she and Twilight could keep a closer eye on you, we're in the castle in one of the guest apartments."

"Yeah I guessed that much, so how many days did I lose this time?" I asked.

"You've been unconscious for ten days. There was a nurse here earlier, she removed the last of the medical equipment. You were kept in a magically induced sleep up until this morning, but since you were going to be waking up, it wasn't need it anymore. She's actually supposed to be back very soon to check up on you again."

"Well that's good," I said while trying to take another step forward. Golden kept up alongside, providing me with needed support.

"Going anywhere in particular?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think I need to go to the bathroom," I said.

"You think?" she asked.

I glanced down at the empty space between my forelegs. "Not everything's in the same place anymore!" I said with both embarrassment and exasperation.

"Well it's that way," Golden said, turning a little red herself, as she jostled me into a turn towards one of the doors. "I'll help you to it but you're own your own once you're inside," she said, making a face. "I'm guessing no, but you want to use the chair?" I shook my head no and leaned up against her as we inched across the room.

Like the bedroom, the bathroom was overly extravagant in addition to being huge. The tub alone was larger than the entirety of the bathroom back in my old human apartment. Golden Dawn helped me into the room and then exited, closing the door on her way out.

I shuffled over to the toilet and reached for my zipper out of habit, nearly falling over when I unbalanced myself by lifting a forehoof. This was going to take more than some getting used to. It was while I was facing the toilet that I realized I had no idea if stallions took a leak standing up or sitting down. The whole situation was embarrassing enough, I wasn't about to ask Golden Dawn and in all actuality, I wasn't confident enough with my new body to rear up and lean against the wall. That left sitting down, so I slowly turned myself around did my best to balance myself on the seat. That wasn't actually so bad, sitting down like that was more or less close enough to how I'd sit on a toilet as a human. I looked down, curious about my repositioned parts, I hadn't really gotten a good look at anything when I was flailing around earlier. I goggled.

Well... all that's... bigger

Moving on from that bit of strangeness, I took care of business. I got back up, then turned to the large mirror that hung over the counter where the sink was. I took the few steps over to it with a tad bit more confidence than the last few. Unfortunately being able to see anything but my head and insanely long neck would require me to left myself and lean up against the counter. Again, that meant balancing on my hind legs, something I knew ponies could do but I, obviously, had no practice in as a pony. Lacking a good sense of balance for my new body, I misjudged the jump up and fell over backwards, landing on my back on the hard stone tile with a thud.

"You okay in there?" I heard Golden Dawn ask from the other side of the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered quickly. I didn't want her to come in and see me sprawled out on the floor like a drunk turtle, stuck on its back.

"I'm glad she didn't see that," I mumbled to myself while I took a moment to catch my breath. I picked myself up off the floor, ignoring the protests that my body was making, I tried again.

My second attempt went much more smoothly and I managed to get my front half securely resting on the marble counter-top. I reached forward, turned the sink on and washed my hooves as best as I could. Finishing up with that, I turned my attention to the mirror. It was the first good look I got of my new face. A violet grey pony stared back at me, mimicking my every movement.

"This is unreal," I said to myself, watching the pony's lips move in synchronization as I spoke. My new face was completely alien to me, everything was different, even my eyes had shifted from a dull green to a brilliant gold. Like every other color I had seen since being transformed, it seemed far more vibrant than I would have thought possible. My dirty blonde hair was now gone, replaced with a pale grey blue mane that had a single silver streak running through it. I turned away from the mirror for a moment to inspect my tail. It matched my mane perfectly right down to the streak. When I realized what I was doing, checking my tail color, a shiver ran down my spine, as my brain began to come to terms with the entirety of the situation.

Tail, hooves, wings... wings... wings!? My brain got stuck in a loop on that last one. If I had to pick one aspect of my transformation that stuck out, that had to be the weirdest one. Sure, parts of me had changed shape, size or location, or gone away entirely, but wings... That was something completely new. They had no human equivalent. Slowly, still in a state of shock, I lowered myself off of the counter.

I turned my head and gave my body yet another once over. Besides being much farther away than I was used to, something struck me as unusual as I looked at my rear. It took me a moment to figure out what was so different about it. In the end it wasn't that it was a pony butt, though that was new too, it was the blank coat, devoid of a cutie mark. I'd never seen an adult pony that didn't have one before. It seemed... empty somehow.

I guessed it made sense though. The way cutie marks were explained to me, a pony had to discover themselves in some fashion to earn their mark. I wasn't a pony so I never had that discovery happen. Still thinking about my species change, I tried to walk over to the door just to trip over my hooves as I shifted back to walking like a person out of habit. I went down with another thud, but this time the door opened and I saw Golden Dawn peak inside.

"I'm fine! Just... well I guess walking isn't automatic." I said as I stood up. "If I think about what I'm doing, I can move, but the moment I stop paying attention I switch back to the way I used to walk, which doesn't work as a pony. My hooves get all tangled up and down I go."

"Twilight said she had some issues when she turned into a human," Golden Dawn said sympathetically. "Maybe you can talk to her for advice."

"I'm surprised I haven't seen either of our royal friends this morning," I said as I shuffled out of the bathroom.

"They do have a country to run," Golden Dawn said with a laugh. "Twilight stopped by with the nurse, which was only about half an hour before you woke up, she mentioned that she and Cadance had a very busy morning but they would be around for lunch. If you hadn't woken up by 10:00 I was supposed to go get one of them."

"What time is it now?" I asked.

"I think it's almost 10:00," Golden said. "There's a clock in the other room, we can go check."

The guest apartment consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small, but cozy, living room. We made our way to the living room and I collapsed onto a couch that looked far too expensive for me to sit on. Golden climbed up and sat down next to me. A quick glance at the clock confirmed Golden's guess was accurate, it was just a few minutes before 10:00. Next to the couch was a coffee table with one empty plate and a second that had a half eaten breakfast sitting on it.

"I uh, kind of ate some of yours," Golden Dawn said rubbing the back of her head before pointing at the second plate.

"Do you want the rest of it?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I was hungry or not yet, just kind of sleepy.

"Nah, I'm good, you should probably eat something though. It's been awhile since you've had real food."

"I suppose you're correct," I said as I moved closer to the plate.

Just as I was about to reach for my food, I heard knocking on the apartment door.

"Come in," Golden Dawn said.

The door opened up and a pink unicorn walked in. From the bandaid cutie mark I gathered she was the nurse Golden Dawn had been talking about. She saw me on the couch and immediately scolded me for getting out of bed without waiting for her to return, then Golden for letting me get up. After the stern lecture about the importance of taking it slow ended, she ran though a number of checks to make sure that I wasn’t having any issues. She gave me a slightly more detailed summary of my condition that Golden had been able to provide. It was only when my stomach made a loud rumbly noise during one of her checks that she asked if I had eaten anything since waking up.

When I told her no, her horn lit up and the half eaten breakfast floated over to me.

"Make sure you eat this whole thing, you're going to need extra food until you have fully recovered," she said. With a quick application of magic my breakfast was reheated and the aroma of fresh pancakes filled my nostrils. Like my vision, my sense of smell seemed to have gotten an upgrade in the transformation and it wasn't a moment later that I felt a tiny bit of drool dribbling down my lips.

"I'll let you eat in peace. I'll be back tomorrow morning to check on you again," she said, excusing herself.

I reached down, picked up the fork and knife and began to cut a piece of the pancake. A moment later the sweet flavor of maple syrup drenched pancakes danced on my tongue and I savored the taste before going for a second bite. It was while I was cutting my next piece that I realized I was holding my utensils. I stopped and stared, as I realized I could feel a slight pulling sensation holding them against my hooves. I put the fork down on the table and poked at it but it didn't stick to my hoof until I consciously tried to grab it. I set it down then picked up my plate, set that down, picked up the empty plate, set that down and picked up a glass of water, took a drink and then finally picked up the fork one more time.

"Having fun?" Golden asked with a snicker.

"I don't think my brain can take this," I said, giving her a half lidded stare. "Nothing about ponies makes any sense, I'm going to be in a constant state of confusion until Twilight figures out how to get me back to Earth."

"It's actually kind of neat, how the simplest things amaze you," Golden Dawn said. "Your face fills with wonder, it's almost like the expression a pegasus foal has the first time he takes flight. You wore it almost constantly during your first week in Hoofston, it's nice to see it again."

"Great, so I look like a baby?" I said rolling my eyes as I took another bite.

"It not a bad thing, it's actually kind of cute," she said, her cheeks colored slightly a moment after the words had left her mouth.

I shifted in my spot and felt my wings twitch as I tried to get comfortable.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" I asked, changing the topic.

"We can just hang here till lunch." Golden Dawn said. "Do you have any questions? It's not every day that you wake up a different species, and I figure you're still probably trying to get comfortable in your new body."

"If I talked about everything running around in my brain right now, I think we'd miss lunch, and dinner, possibly tomorrow's breakfast," I said before stuffing the last piece of pancake in my mouth.

"Pick a few things?" she said with a shrug.

I went over a short list of questions, most of them revolving around what was going to happen next and what, if anything, I needed to know about being a pony. The pony questions were my main focus, Golden was right, it wasn't every day you woke up as a new species.

Did I need to know about any special dietary needs? As far as I had observed ponies could eat pretty much the same things I had eaten as a human, minus the meat but I didn't want to make any assumptions and eat something poisonous accidentally. I had no idea the proper terminology for half of my new body parts, and calling them by their human names in conversation might get me some strange looks. Was I completely immune to the harmful effects of magic now? Golden Dawn answered most of them, though for a few things she said that I'd have to ask Twilight when I saw her at lunch time.

After the flood of questions began to die down, I turned around and looked at my bare backside again. "So, no cutie mark I noticed, but that makes sense."

"I'll admit, It is a bit jarring," Golden Dawn said with a noticeable shiver, "to see an adult pony with no mark."

"Well humans don't get cutie marks, getting one at random wouldn't really make all that much sense." I said.

"Yeah, I guess. You'll just have to earn one the old fashioned way," Golden said.

That made me pause for a moment, would I even be able to "earn" a cutie mark like a real pony? It's not like I thought I needed one but just the idea of whether or not it would be possible for me to get one something to think about. That and what would it be? From my understanding, a cutie mark was a visual representation of a pony's special talent. Golden Dawn's piston was pretty obvious. It didn't take long for me to realize she was a whiz when it came to machines. The ease at which she picked up on how the engines in my truck and generator ran and how easily she'd been able to disassemble and reassemble the later had impressed me to no end. Was I good at anything like that? All my skills had taken practice to learn, was it different for ponies? Did they magically acquire a skill at birth and then have to discover it? Or did it take years of practice and learning for them too and that act is what earned them their cutie marks?

"So, did you have any other questions?" Golden said after I failed to speak up.

"Oh sorry, got distracted thinking about cutie marks." I said.

"You aren't the first pony for that to happen to."

"No, but I'm probably the first human," I said with a smile. "Or I was? I'm not really human anymore." I gave my wings an awkward flap.

Golden Dawn nodded in agreement.

"Except... you were right, I was worried before that I wouldn't be me anymore. Well I don't feel any different, on the inside I mean. The outside, yeah that's changed, really changed, like I'm still trying to come to terms with how big of a change it is. But as far as I can tell I'm still me, still the same person I always was so I guess I'm still human, but also a pony...? This is getting a bit more philosophical than I'd like, I'm going to talk about something else now."

Golden laughed at my rambling, it was a joyful sound that quickly spread its warmth and happiness to me and I joined in. After it died down I put my hoof on her foreleg.

"Thanks for sticking around. It means a lot to me."

"You're my friend Hail, I couldn't just abandon you," she said giving me a hug.

I heard the clock chime, it was quarter of noon. I noticed Golden looking at the clock as well and she let out a cute gasp when she realized what time it was. She quickly stood up and then helped me up off the couch.

"We've got to get going, we're supposed to be on the other side of the castle," she said. "It's a bit of a walk, last chance for the chair."

"Nope, not happening," I said stubbornly. I needed the walking practice.

She lead me out of the apartment. I wanted to walk alone, without her support, but after the third faceplant, Golden Dawn insisted that I at least let her help me. Inwardly I wondered what a cutie mark with a special talent in being a klutz would look like. I knew that it would take some time to get used to, but so far, coordinating three sets of limbs was giving me a headache, sometimes I moved a rear leg when I should have moved a fore leg, sometimes I moved a wing, I kept getting everything mixed up. It didn't help that I felt as weak as a newborn foal, my legs felt like lead and I was worried about falling asleep mid stride. None of that changed the fact that I would have to learn if I was going to be spending any significant time as a pony, so I wasn't about to let Golden push me around in a wheelchair while my legs still worked.

"It will be quicker to cut through the courtyard," Golden said as she turned down yet another hallway. I'm glad she knew where we were going because I was lost already.

"I'll just keep leaning on you," I said, trying to pick up the pace. Mostly, things worked fine if I kept my concentration but the moment it slipped my hooves would snag up on each other. At the same time, I was trying to glance around at where we were going. For one, I wanted to be able to get around on my own if I had to but also, this was the first time I had been anywhere near this portion of the castle.

Before being transformed, most of what I had seen was a dungeon, the rooms where all my tests had taken place in, and the room I ate in. That last one was the only room that had an outside view and it was not one that I appreciated. I hadn't really gotten to look around, certainly not at these nicer areas and my inner child was giggling with delight at being in an actual real castle.

Sure it was a magical pony castle, but that still counted. Massive stone walls spread out in all directions as far as I could see. Large arches formed walkways between the visible section of the outer wall and the towers that stretched far up into the sky. A large cobblestone track around the outside of the courtyard but the inner portion was covered in grass. A number of small gardens sprang up around the base of the few towers we were near, the rest too far away for me to get a good look. We shuffled past a large fountain decorated with a statue of a massive pony. She wore a crown, a golden sun adorned her flank and her wings stretched out forever. I had never been to a castle on earth but this place seemed enormous. The courtyard we were walking through now could easily fit at least 20,000 ponies in it.

We finally got to our location and Golden turned us so we could head back inside. A pair of guards dressed in shining armor stood at a door. They saw us coming and opened it up letting us out into a large garden. The walls I had thought were the outer ones were apparently only an inside set.

We followed a path across the garden until we reached the other side. There was another set of doors, leading into a new section of the castle. Once inside, Golden Dawn lead me down a hallway and then we took a left. Two more corridors and we finally reached a door with two guard ponies standing outside of it. One of them asked for Golden Dawn's name, after she gave it the pony nodded and opened the door, letting us in. Twilight and Cadance were already sitting down at the table inside. There was also a white stallion with blue hair sitting next to Cadance. I was pretty sure I hadn’t met him before. They looked up as we entered the room.

"Hello," Twilight said with a friendly wave. "I'm glad to see you up and about. I'm sorry neither of us could stop by earlier and check up on you but it's been a pretty hectic day at the castle."

"That's alright, I had Golden Dawn looking after me," I said returning her smile.

"I don't think either of you have met my husband yet," Cadance said. "This is Shining Armor."

"Cadance and Twily have told me all about our visitor from another dimension, it's good to finally meet you," Shining Armor said extending his hoof. I put out one of mine, carefully balancing on the other three and shook hooves with him.

"Twily?" I asked.

"Just a nickname for my little sister," Shining Armor said as Twilight blushed a little. Shining then introduced himself to Golden Dawn and we sat down at the table.

Over the course of the meal, I brought up a few questions that Golden Dawn had been unable to answer. I was glad to find out that I now had more or less a clean bill of health. Even the damage I had done to my ears back in the mine when I killed the overgrown spider seemed to be healed, the constant buzzing that had been plaguing me was completely gone. The way Cadance explained it, the spells had already done most of the major repair work, but they still had some things to finish and the rate at which they worked was slowing down to bring my new body back into it's natural state. While they were active, they drew energy directly from me in a similar way normal recovery would, but highly concentrated.

Cadance confirmed that the weakness I was feeling would go away. She warned me that process would be gradual at first as the healing spells made the final repairs and gradually began to fade, but there would be a sharp change as they collapsed entirely. She estimated I'd be back to normal in two weeks. Twilight also reassured me that the transformation had completely taken care of my issues with magic. As long as I was a pony, I had nothing to fear about long term damage.

"Oh, there was something I wanted to bring up," Twilight said after we finished eating. "After you were transformed into a pony, I was able to take a look at the translation spell, the one that lets you understand us."

"Yeah, you had mentioned that you thought it wasn't working correctly or it was different or something?" I asked.

"Exactly, and now I know why. First off, it’s a much older version of the spell, which is saying something since the one the mirror uses is pretty old itself. Secondly it’s being held together with a patchwork of chaos magic. That's why it didn't fail completely when you were in the suppression field. This is definitely Discord’s work. I’m just not sure how it happened. He had to deliberately cast this spell on his portal for it to function. I can’t think of any reason he’d do that unless he knew someone was going to come through it. In any case, I can remove the enchantment and cast the newest version of the spell on you if you’d like."

"Does that mean I'd be able to read and understand English again?"

"Sure does, with the latest updates to the translation spell it will switch you back and forth between modern Equestrian and English as needed. That way you won't be thinking in one language and speaking in another. I always found that a bit confusing."

"How will that work exactly?" I asked.

"Well the default language will be Equestrian, but if you happened across somepony who spoke English, you'd be able to understand and speak it to them. Or if you pick up a book written in English, the spell will switch automatically. It can even handle doing English and Equestrian at the same time."

"That sounds pretty handy, I don't think I'll need to be speaking English anytime soon but being able to read the dials in my truck again, and all the books I've got stashed in the trailer will be great," I said. "When can you do whatever it is you need to do?"

"Right now," Twilight said as her horn lit up. I felt a tingling in my head as it was surrounded by her magic for a moment. I almost flinched as a brief pulse of panic ran through me. Every other time I had been exposed to a spell it caused me no small amount of pain. What if Twilight had been wrong and I wasn't immune?

It turned out that my fears were unfounded as less than a second later the magical field disappeared, without even a tiny bit of discomfort.

"All set Hal," Twilight said.

"You... you said my name? Or at least my real nickname instead of Hail."

"The newest version of the spell handles name translation much better than the old one. What's your full name?"

"Harold Storm," I said.

"Har-old... hmm sounds a bit strange." Twilight said.

"Oh wow, well that's better than any other pony's attempt," I said. "I kind of thought it had something to do with names but since I don't know how magic works, it was just a theory. Any idea why every pony I ever talked to pronounced Hal as Hail?"

"Hal?" Golden Dawn said slowly, as if testing the word to see how she liked it.

Twilight's horn lit up. "Say those again, I'm going to analyze how each version of the spell is handling the translation."

"Hal, not Hail."

Twilight laughed as the magic surrounding her horn winked out.

"So that's kind of funny. It just so happens that "Hal" is close to the pronunciation of the Equestrian word "Hail" The spell thought you were deliberately saying a word in Equestrian and didn't bother translating it. The spell can't pick up the intent of other speakers so when they said what they thought you were saying, it translated back to the word ‘hail’ which explains why you heard everypony mispronounce your nickname."

"Well what about my last name, Storm?"

"Storm might be your last name but it's also a word for weather event. The english word Storm also sounds nothing like the Equestrian word so it just translated straight."

"The mystery has been solved I guess," I said.

"So, um Har-old, what do you want us to call you?" Golden Dawn asked.

"That's a good question. Hail Storm isn't my name but... I never really liked Harold and after a month of Hail Storm, well it's kind of grown on me. Plus it does seem more like a pony name and... well..." I trailed off, looking down at my new body.

"If it counts for anything, I like Hail Storm..." Golden Dawn said. I thought I caught the slightest tinge of red on her cheeks as she turned away. Was she blushing?

"It is a good strong name", Cadance said.

"I guess Hail Storm it is," I said with a shrug.

"Great, well now all that's left is making sure you can read and understand your old language," Twilight said with a smile. "Oh I know how we can confirm it."

Twilight's horn lit up again and a small box floated up from under the table, it glided over and landed in front of me. I lifted the top and looked inside. My wallet and keys were sitting inside. I reached in and pulled them out, then with a bit of a struggle, I opened the wallet and got my license out.

"It's working!" I said happily as I read my license. It took me a minute or two of fumbling but I managed to get the license back into the wallet and then put it back on the table. I looked at the two items then down at myself, how was I supposed to carry them around?

"I'm going to need something with pockets," I said mumbling to myself.

"We can head down to Canterlot Market and get you some saddle bags," Golden Dawn said.

"That works, uh if I'm allowed to leave the castle?" I looked at Twilight and Cadance.

"Of course, you don't need permission or anything, you're a guest here not a prisoner," Cadance said.

Golden Dawn stood up, and I followed, without thinking I tried to get up on my rear hooves and promptly fell over.

"I would think having four legs would make me more stable, not less," I said as I stood back up.

"I know how you feel," Twilight said. "When I went to Earth, the whole time I felt like I was about to fall over. I don't know how humans manage to move around on two legs so quickly. I don't know if you've got it worse or better, four legs does provide more points of contact but there's more to get in the way if you don't know what you're doing."

"Humans, well we move their arms to help balance themselves, it isn't required, I mean I could walk without moving my arms, but allowing them to move feels more natural. If I'm not paying attention sometimes I'll try to move my forelegs as if they were my arms swinging back and forth. If that happens in the middle of a step it throws me off balance, but it's not just that. I've got an entire extra set of limbs now," I said extending my wings slightly. "Sometimes I move the wrong one, or the right one at the wrong time."

"My wings had a mind of their own when I first got them," Twilight said knowingly. "If you aren't opposed to it, I have an idea. I can talk to one of the doctors who were working on your case and see if we can get you enrolled in some physical therapy. There are trainers that help other ponies learn to walk and fly again after serious accidents. That should be able to help you. I wish I had thought of that instead of letting Rainbow Dash try to teach me how to fly." Twilight gave a slight shudder.

"That sounds like a good plan, " I said with a nod.

"I'll talk to somepony today and let you know when you can start," Twilight said.

"Maybe we should skip out on the market for now?" I asked Golden Dawn.

"I guess, I was hoping I could be the one to teach you to fly, but somepony trained for stuff like this will probably do a better job." Golden Dawn said.

"That's okay, I don't think I want to leave the ground anyway," I said with a small shudder. The thought of being high up in the sky made my stomach churn.

"Are you ready to head back to our room?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Yeah, I just have to get all this stuff," I said looking at the pile of things in front of me.

A thought popped into my head and I grabbed the keys and wallet and put them back into the box, then picked it up with my mouth. I'd seen plenty of ponies carrying things on their backs and trotting around. Not once, even when it should have fallen off, had I ever seen anypony drop something. It stood to reason that if they had magic grippy hooves, then maybe they had magic grippy backs. I turned around and placed it on my back, opened my mouth, the box rested there perfectly. Smiling with pride, I took a single step backwards and felt the box shift, then heard a thud as it landed on the ground, dumping my keys and wallet on the floor.

"What gives? I've seen plenty of ponies carry things like that, don't you have like magic balancing powers or something?"

Golden Dawn burst out laughing, "What gave you that idea?" she asked.

"Because I've never seen anypony drop anything before and nothing about your race makes any sense." I said, rolling my eyes. "Wait, did I just say anypony?"

"Yes, though technically you were saying it before also, you just didn't hear what you were saying correctly. Now that the spell is fixed you should hear the same thing as everypony else. To answer your other question, no ponies don't have magical balancing,” Twilight said with a smirk. “We just have regular balancing, and it takes practice to do that."

"Darn."

"I'll carry it back to the room for you," Golden Dawn said and she picked up my stuff and placed it on her own back.

---

We arrived back in the room and I immediately sat down on the couch, panting from mild exhaustion.

"Hey Hail Storm," Golden said, taking the spot next to me. "I've got to talk to you about something."

"What's up?" I asked after I caught my breath.

"Well first, let me ask you something, what do you plan on doing while you wait for Twilight to try to find a way to send you back to Earth?"

Now that I wasn't on the verge of death anymore, the truth hit me and hit me hard. All my energy had been focused on not dying and I hadn't even begun to think about the future. It had been almost six weeks since I had woken up in the Badlands. Back on Earth I must have already been declared missing. I had most certainly lost my job and my rent was overdue. How much longer would it be before I was declared dead? At what point did it stop making sense to even try to return home? A small voice in the back of my mind asked me if I had already crossed that point but I ignored it.

"I... uh..." I tried to think of something to say, it was almost like I was in one of those interviews and the guy asks you where you see yourself in 5 years. I didn't have a plan that far out past get home if I could. When Golden Dawn saw that I didn't have an answer planned she spoke up.

"You don't have to come up with anything right now, but you should start thinking about it," Golden Dawn said. She stretched her wings out and let out a cute little yawn. "So, while you think about that, I've got a few things on my mind. First now that you're doing better, I need to go back to Hoofston."

It was a simple statement and it made perfect sense, she had a job back down in Hoofston and she's already spent weeks away from it helping me get through a very trying ordeal. Still it didn't sit well with me, she was my closest friend in this crazy magical world and I didn't want her to leave. Worse still, what would happen if Twilight did figured out a way to send me home while she was gone. I'd never get to see her again, never get to say goodbye. That thought formed a dark pit of unease, deep in my chest.

"Like now?" I asked with a mixture of nervousness and sadness.

"I think it would be best if I headed out at the end of the week, I checked the schedule earlier this morning, there's an express train that I can catch that's headed to Hoofston."

"Oh..." I said with a sigh, I felt my ears drop down as my lips twisted into a frown.

"I've got to... " Golden started to say before she noticed my reaction. "What's the matter?"

"Will I see you again? I mean I know you've got to work but Hoofston is far away and I'm not sure if Twilight is going to want me to leave Canterlot, in the off chance she does find something out about me going home."

"Of course you will silly!," she said, tousling my mane with her hoof. "I do need to get back to Hoofston but I'm not planning on sticking down there too long."

"What about your job?" I asked.

"Well that's the thing, you know about my engine, I can't keep working on it down there. Hoofston is great because it gave me the privacy and time I needed to get the prototype working but it's too remote, too out of the way. I need to move closer to Equestria's industrial centers. I've actually been planning this for a few months now, if I hadn't met you I might have already moved. But you showing up threw everything for a loop."

"Heh, sorry about that," I said sheepishly.

"Oh don't worry, I'm glad it happened, to be completely honest, I had kinda gotten stuck in a rut back in Hoofston. I was making progress on the engine but I was ignoring my friends, I never went out and did anything, just sat around and worked on the engine."

"I know that feeling," I said with a sigh. "The last few years of my life on Earth I had less and less time for others, my schedule was just too damn busy."

"Well then, it's a good thing we met each other, for both of us," Golden Dawn said with a smile. "Anyway this is why I wanted to talk to you first. Originally I was going to head for Detrot, it's about 500 miles north of here, just west of Neighagra Falls. It's the center of some of Equestria's largest industries, but with you here, I'm seeing a few unique opportunities and I'm not sure if heading for Detrot right away is the best of plans anymore."

"What kind of opportunities? I asked.

"Well two things really. One is that I'd still like to take apart your truck and see how it works, not just the engine but as much as I can get my hooves on. I'd even be willing to pay you for the trouble, if I can duplicate that thing, I could revolutionize Equestrian transportation. But that's just first."

"Go on," I said.

“Well, this goes back to me asking if you have you given any thought to what you'd like to do now that you're kind of stuck in Equestria. I interrupted you before, so I'll re-ask the question, have you?” Golden Dawn asked

“Not as much as I should have,” I said hanging my head. “I know one thing, I’m not going to be satisfied sitting around the castle, waiting for Twilight to find me a way home. The problem is, the scope of everything has changed now. It could be years before I get back to Earth, it could be never. It’s no longer a question of what am I going to do while I wait, now it’s a question of what do I do with the rest of my life.”

“That is a tough one, and you don’t even have a cutie mark for guidance,” Golden Dawn said. “How do humans normally figure that out?”

“If I ever learn, I’ll let you know,” I said with a joyless laugh. “I hadn’t even thought that far ahead back on Earth. I was going to school and I knew I wanted to get a job afterward, but doing what? I had only a vague idea. Most of the higher tech stuff that I thought was interesting probably won’t exist in Equestria… I don’t suppose ponies have robotics?”

“I can’t say I’m familiar with that term,” Golden Dawn said. “I could always use a good engineer to help me out. In fact I intend to hire quite a few ponies. You do have more experience with engines than any other pony on the planet, except maybe me.”

Now there was an idea, Golden Dawn was right, even though wasn’t an expert on diesel engines, I knew enough about them to give me a pretty large advantage over other ponies. On top of that, working with Golden Dawn meant I wouldn’t lose contact with her. She was my closest friend in Equestria and I didn’t want to lose that to distance.

“You do raise a good point, and I think I’d enjoy working with you…”

I was about to say it was worth a shot, but something stopped me. I can’t explain it, but it was like something in the very core of my being said, ‘no, this isn’t right for you.’ I paused, to collect my thoughts. If that wasn’t to be my path, then what would be?

“That face you just made says you’re having second thoughts,” Golden Dawn said.

“I… I don’t know. Thinking about working with you sounds great. Thinking about working on engines… they just…” I trailed off.

“Just not your passion?” Golden Dawn asked.

“I… yeah, I mean… well I guess a better way of saying it is transportation just isn’t my passion, I’ve never been a huge car guy. Kind of strange for someone going into mechanical engineering now that I think about it…”

“Why did you choose mechanical engineering?” Golden Dawn asked.

I could tell by the tone in her voice, she wasn’t questioning my decision, instead she was trying to help me reach a reason.I thought back, back to when I first decided to go to school.

“It was the work I did, in Rick’s shop…” I said.

"Working as a gunsmith right?" Golden Dawn asked.

“Yeah. I enjoyed that, I probably didn’t need to go to school to do something like that, but I figured I’d find something else that was similar, but where I could work a steady job at a big company. Maybe even work for one of the big gun companies, design new stuff. That would be cool...”

"So, start one." Golden Dawn said.

“Excuse me?”

“Start your own company. Make guns. You did that with Rick right?”

"I did… and I did learn a fair amount working there, but it's a skill I haven't used in a while. Even if I could get my hooves on some tools that were similar to what I used, which I doubt, I'd still be only a little better than an amateur and I don't know if I could build anything with these." I said waving one of my front hooves in the air.

“You won’t know unless you try,” Golden Dawn said. “I loved that bolt action rifle, I’d buy one off of you.”

"Well, the rifles Rick and I put together were a bit different that the ones I showed you, they were break actions and though I've done repair work on everything from a bolt action to a semi-auto, I've never built anything from the ground up by myself. And that isn't even getting into manufacturing ammunition."

"I thought you had equipment to do that in the truck?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I sort of do, it's for reloading, but I've only got so much powder, primers and bullets, once they are gone, I can't make any more. Well maybe the bullets, lead casting is easy enough I suppose, but I know nothing about making smokeless powder or primers. Black powder is about as advanced as I can get and even that I know what it's made from but I've never actually made any."

"So you find other ponies who do. You've got enough bits from your expedition with Kitchen Sink to rent out, or even buy a building and hire some ponies. Look I know it will be a lot of work but hear me out. If you can find somepony that can handle the chemical side of things, you get them to work for you. You don't have to do all the work yourself. Heck hire me out and I'll help you build parts. I'd also be glad to teach you how to use your hooves. I've got a machine shop, though I admit it is a bit outdated. I can't put a huge amount of time into it but I'm going to need to make money on the side to pay for my engine work, especially after I leave Hoofston. There's too much competition up here for me to make good money as a train mechanic."

"I suppose I could. I might not be confident enough with my hooves to do any delicate work but I do know the mechanics. I could design thing things and work with other ponies to get them built." I said nodding slowly. This was actually starting to sound like an good idea. Not only that but a fun one.

"Exactly, I think you can make a ton of bits, you'd basically be entering a market with zero competition."

"Would there be that much of a market? How many ponies would even want to buy a gun?"

"Look there's no guarantees but I think you could create a market. For one thing competitive archery is one of Equestria's largest sports. And your rifles can out shoot any bow I've ever seen. You could try to market it as a target shooting device. There is also a reasonable portion of the population that own weaponry, especially on the border towns. Any pony that feels the need to carry something for self defense would be crazy to not switch to a gun, they'd make crossbows and regular bows obsolete as weapons instantly. You might even be able to secure a military contract, sell them to the Royal Guard."

"You know, you could have basically cornered this market yourself, you've already got schematics on one of my rifles," I said.

"Yeah but I wouldn't do that to you, besides guns are neat but engines are my passion. Though if you decide you aren't interested, I might end up trying to balance the two things later down the road because I'm not going to ignore a license to stamp bits forever."

"Well, I suppose it's worth a shot," I said. "But all this is going to have to wait till after my physical therapy. I'm not going to try to make any business deals until I can walk without tripping over my own hooves."

"You know who you might want to look up? Kitchen Sink, he should be back in Canterlot by now. It might be worth finding out where he gets his weapons from, if you talk to somepony already in the business maybe you can find some contacts or even find a partner to go in with you. Just don't give away any information without setting up a business contract first. Most ponies wouldn't try to screw you over but some ponies are scum, they'll see the same opportunity that I see and they'll try to take it from you."

We talked for a bit longer, discussing possible business plans but exhaustion started to creep in and I felt my eyes drooping lower and lower as Golden continued to talk. I must have passed out entirely because the next thing I knew I was waking up. I was still on the couch, Golden Dawn had curled up next to me, snoring quietly with her wing draped over my back.

It was an adorable sight and her wing on my back felt nice. As comfortable as I was, I felt myself begin to drift back to sleep. The nap hadn't really made me any less tired, and bundled up against Golden Dawn was extremely relaxing. Alas, it was not meant to be for a moment later there came a knock at the door.

Golden Dawn stirred, and her eyelids slowly fluttered open, she raised her head and looked directly at me.

"Uh, Hi," I said, looking deep into her magenta eyes.

"Hi," she replied softly, as a light blush crept up on her cheeks.

There was another knock at the door and I realized I was staring at her, I shook my head as she stood up, walked over to the door and opened it up.

"Hello," Twilight said, stepping into the room. "I don't know if you've eaten yet but I stopped by to invite you to dinner if you haven't."

"Oh huh? What time is it?" I asked looking at the clock. It was nearly 7:30 at night. "Oh no we didn't, we kind of fell asleep."

"Well I just got done with court. Shining Armor and Cadance are still busy but if you'd like to join me you are more than welcome to," Twilight said.

Golden and I both nodded in agreement, and we followed Twilight to the dining room. Spike was there waiting for us. I hadn't seen the little guy in a few weeks so I asked where he had been. I was surprised to find that he had been staying with a pony named Applejack in Ponyville. He told me that he and Twilight normally lived in Ponyville but Twilight had temporarily moved to Canterlot while she was helping run the country. Spike helped Twilight run the library back in Ponyville so he had taken to staying with friends so it could remain open while Twilight was away.

Speaking of Twilight, she let me know that she had found a trainer to work with me and I could start my therapy the very next day. I asked her about leaving Canterlot and she said that she had no problem with it, though it might be best to stay close by in the off chance she found a way to send me home.

"You are of course welcome to stay in the castle as long as you like, I know you probably don't have a way of supporting yourself financially and I'd be a terrible princess if I let you end up on the streets," Twilight said.

"Would it be okay if I got a job?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, of course. Did you have anything in mind?" Twilight asked.

"Um I don't know yet, I've been talking about a few things with Golden Dawn," I said. I wasn't too sure how the princess would react if I told her I was looking at becoming essentially an arms manufacturer. I'd have to ask Golden Dawn about the legalities of it later, I didn't want to end up breaking any laws.

Golden Dawn shared her plan of heading back to Hoofston, if all went well she'd be getting back to Canterlot roughly when I was finishing up physical therapy. After dinner we headed back to the room and since I was still feeling weak, I decided to call it an early night and went to bed.

Comments

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

Freaking. Epic. Next thing you know, he'll be the founder of Colt Firearms LLC.

[Snowfyre]

yay! XD

[EliDog]

8030822 If you haven't already, you should join the human in Equestria group. If human turned pony isn't your thing then when a human story comes up, it'll show you "Name Of Story by Author (posted by ______) [Human in Equestria]/[Human turned Pony/other]" Something like that anyway, then you can avoid it without even reading the description.

[TheVaultDoor]

8044086 That is a horrible pun

I love it

[CORACK]

8044163

I didn't even know how to add stories to groups when I first posted this, so it wasn't in that group at the start.

[EliDog]

8044537 heh heh... ooh didn't know that now I just feel silly.

[CORACK]

8044121

8044086

Based on both of your comments last chapter, I knew you'd be happy with the outcome.

[CORACK]

8044562

I bet not as silly as I felt when a reader pointed out I could add stories to groups.

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

8044256 why, thank you. Although, puns are the only kind of joke I've really taken a crack at.

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

8044574 indeed I am. Now, we move onward! The Cutie Mark Crusaders are going to flip. Ha ha!

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

8030822 not to nose about your business, but Project Sunflower is an exceptionally good read. Depending on your likes and dislikes, I might be able to point you to some wonderful stories. That is, if you want.

[The Spy of the Tiger]

I had never been to a castle on earth but this place seemed enormous

Speaking of castles, you can rent one in France for less than the cost of a Manhattan apartment.

[The Spy of the Tiger]

I might end up trying to balance the two things later down the road because I'm not going to ignore a license to print money forever.

Sort of strange how Golden Dawn said that, since Equestria uses a coin based currency system and I don't remember Hail talking about American paper money. Dawn would probably say something along the lines of "stamp money" because of the metal coin thing.

[Comnislasher]

Luna "ability" to manipulate stars are totally and purely fanon. And even if she able to move stars and galaxies light from them won't reach pony-Earth for thousands (or in some cases millions) of years.

[Kevin Lee]

8044593

indeed I am. Now, we move onward! The Cutie Mark Crusaders are going to flip. Ha ha!

[CORACK]

8045097

Luna "ability" to manipulate stars are totally and purely fanon.

Were you referencing something in an earlier chapter? The prologue perhaps? In any case, yes, you are correct, there's no reference in the show to her moving stars, it is fanon. But as this is an alternate universe fanfiction... I think I'm safe with rolling with it.

And even if she able to move stars and galaxies light from them won't reach pony-Earth for thousands (or in some cases millions) of years.

Sort of yes, sort of no. Yes, if she just physically moved a star 1000 light-years away, it would take 1000 light-years for the star's apparent position to change. Even something like the pony's sun (assuming it's around the same distance from their planet as our own sun is) would take a little over 8 minutes before anything was noticed...

Except, in the show, we've seen the sun move directly, with no delay at all (first instance that comes to mind is when Twilight moved it in Twilight's Kingdom Part 2) Off the top of my head, I can think of 2 ways this would work.

1. The magic used to move celestial bodies moves them in the past, just far enough back so the move is seen happening in real time.
2. The magic used to move celestial bodies moves them, and all the light coming from them from point of origin of the spell all the way back to the object itself, thus updating the visible position in real time.

[Comnislasher]

8045392

Off the top of my head, I can think of 2 ways this would work

Or it could work like this :).

[CORACK]

8045404

Yep, there's that too. Personally, I'm not a fan of a tiny artificially controlled magic sun, so you'll never see it crop up in any of my stories.

[CORACK]

8044726

That speaks worlds to the overpriced nature of Manhattan apartments.

8044791

I feel like I had this discussion already. I think my editor pointed this out, I agreed, and I simply forgot to change it, I'll circle back when I have a chance.

[Comnislasher]

8045443
Oh well, everyone have their own headcanon.
Anyway, sorry but can't make beyond prologue. Not big fan of insane power-up. And Luna. Kinda like Celestia more.

[CORACK]

8045455

Anyway, sorry but can't make beyond prologue.

Ah ha! So you are in the prologue, your posts are showing up in chapter 13, hence my confusion.

Not big fan of insane power-up.

I wouldn't call it insane, but yeah, I liked it best when Celestia and Luna were unique, the only two alicorns and when they appeared to be way more powerful than we've seen on screen in later episodes. Completely fair though, as everyone likes their own things, but I will point out that Celestia and Luna don't show up again, the prologue only sets up the state of things for the rest of the story. You won't run into any super-powered Celestia / Luna rushing in to solve problems in the blink of an eye.

And Luna. Kinda like Celestia more.

Honestly, I like them both more or less equally. As Celestia put in in the show, "We were meant to rule together, little sister." So to me, the sisters are at their best when they are working together, whether that's dealing with ruling over Equestria, or managing the heavens, or anything else.

[Comnislasher]

8045491

Ah ha! So you are in the prologue, your posts are showing up in chapter 13, hence my confusion.

Comment systems made in such a way that if you don't put comment on specific chapter it's automatically assume that you comment last one avaliable.
In same time if you don't put comment on lastest chapter you never receive notification on answer.

[CORACK]

8045498

Good to know!

Anyway, thanks for giving the story a shot and for the feedback!

[Comnislasher]

8045510
I would hardly call this a feedback.

Honestly, I like them both more or less equally

It's not like I hate her with passion or something but because of this whole "best Princess" nonsense and because people like to paint Luna in positive light while simultaneously slander Celestia... My feelings toward Luna start to becoming more and more cold.
And considering that Luna here at start of the story receive quite the power up I assumed (wrongly it's seem) that story would be mostly about her.

[CORACK]

8045571

Alright, conversation then

I think one of the reasons I like Celestia and Luna portrayed as so powerful in fanfics is because they get walked over in the show so badly (especially Celestia)

And considering that Luna here at start of the story receive quite the power up I assumed (wrongly it's seem) that story would be mostly about her.

Nope! It doesn't even have much of the mane 6 in it.

[Hein des Nisseroi]

Fragments of memory bubbling to the surface. Twilight talking, the portal lighting up, horrible pain, and for some reason, the taste of blue.

What does blue taste like?

[Comnislasher]

8045972

I think one of the reasons I like Celestia and Luna portrayed as so powerful in fanfics is because they get walked over in the show so badly (especially Celestia)

I'm think that Sisters (and especially so Celestia) suffer from acute case of Worf Effect. It's a fast and easy (and cheap) way to show us that villain are Serious Business.

[CORACK]

8045977

If I'm ever turned into a pegasus, grievously injured and then subject to a magical spell designed to sedate / preserve me until proper medical treatment can be had, I'll let you know.

[CORACK]

8046021

Exactly, I almost said "they get worfed so badly". As a TNG (and Star Trek in general) fan, I'm quite familiar the Worf Effect

Celestia ran the country for ~1000 years until Twilight came along, watching her be completely incapable of dealing with anything time and time again is mildly infuriating even though I know why the writers are doing it.

[CORACK]

8046037

Thanks!

[harts fire]

a vary interest chapter and looks as if some vary sounds plans are being made for a life.
love the reference "Chevron 7 locked," witch leads to a story I am following and rather enjoy.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/280666/stargate-shangri-la
yep I will be keeping a close eye for new chapters.

[CORACK]

8046467

love the reference "Chevron 7 locked," witch leads to a story I am following and rather enjoy.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/280666/stargate-shangri-la

That one's in my too read list

[harts fire]

so jut wondering when you will add the M tag and the sex tag or will you just imply as things happen??

[CORACK]

8046621

I have no plans on changing the rating of this story.

[Lancerlot]

8044086
Perfect! As long as nobody confuses "armament" with human arms, because "Colt Fireforelegs LLC" is just plain weird.

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

8045977 much like flaxseed bread, with a hint red chili pepper.

[Eris Dis Harmonia]

8047297... You make a valid point.

[Mr Swanky Hat]

An error in translation is the best reason I've seen for taking up a pony type name.
Loved stargate. Want to watch it again

[Sensei Wu Wei]

Binge read this. You have a new fan.

[CORACK]

8048412

I wished they'd port SG-1 to bluray

An error in translation is the best reason I've seen for taking up a pony type name.

Glad you liked it

[CORACK]

8048425

Thanks! I hope I can keep you hooked throughout the whole story!

[Switch Gears]

I like this story man nice work :D

[CORACK]

8056031

Thanks! Glad you are enjoying it.

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

I've managed to catch up. I was rather surprised you did go with a pony transformation, as I was just under the impression that would be a temporary thing if it ever did come about, mostly because of the title and how long the story went with him as a human.

That said, I enjoyed this twist and look forward to the propagating changes now that he isn't just "passing through", so to speak, but can stay and go to various locations and also collaberate with Golden Dawn properly. I love ponification stories that explore cultural and physical differences between humans and ponies, and this story hasn't disappointed in that regard so far.

[CORACK]

8056801

I've managed to catch up.

Not anymore, chapter 14 just went up a short while ago

That said, I enjoyed this twist and look forward to the propagating changes now that he isn't just "passing through", so to speak, but can stay and go to various locations and also collaberate with Golden Dawn properly. I love ponification stories that explore cultural and physical differences between humans and ponies, and this story hasn't disappointed in that regard so far.

Awesome, glad you are enjoying it!

[Death Pony]

I usually strongly dislike stories that stick a human tag on them and then ponify the guy soon after, but not only does this not come across nearly as contrived and cliché as it does in most of those stories, but he's still going to be bringing human thoughts and innovations to the world of Equestria instead of just saying, "Remember that human person you liked in the story? Screw that noise, here's a pony now and they're totally going native to boot!"

Interested in seeing where this goes.

[CORACK]

8058685

Honestly, I see this as a tag limitation. There's no "Human -> Pony" tag. There's just a "Human" tag and that encompass any story that has a human, including where the human stays human and where the human turns into a pony (or other creature)

[VikingOtaku6]

8044537 Golden Dawn, Hail Storm, and Chemical Pone could work together, and design Equestria's first Battle Tank...

[AzureShade]

I only had one real gripe about this chapter.

The whole soul thing. My response when Twilight mentioned it would have been, "What makes you think I have a soul O.o? Humans are souless. At least, we don't have any evidence we have souls."

Or words to that effect. I have yet to see a story that involves both humans and souls NOT assume humans automatically have a soul. I don't understand why that's a basic assumption that's consistant across the board.

With ONE exception, kinda. Was a pony story with no humans in it where Twilight told Rainbow Dash she doesn't have a soul. Rainbow got pissed and thought Twilight was being tribalist, and Twilight was like, "Rainbow . . . NOPONY has a soul, that includes unicorns too." Rainbow was like "Oh . . . so wait, I don't get a afterlife!?" "Of course not, there's no such thing."

Queue Rainbow wearing safety gear and being more safety concious by the end of the story because she wanted to live as long as possible XD.

[Always Breakfast]

8374961
I dunno. If the magical talking space alien super nerd princess says the soul is one more tangible, measurable, manipulable medium for the crazy magic I've already been seeing for the last two weeks, and that she's going to encode an extra species into it by ripping a loop-de-loop in spacetime so I don't disintegrate from radiation poisoning in the next few minutes, and that this plan was based on exhaustive research of that one time she underwent the same process to become my species instead and flirted with a bland hominid guitarist, I gotta say I'm probably gonna take her at her word.