Walking down the corridor with Snow Blossom and the guard, I study the structure around me. It curves slightly inwards as far as I can see, such that I cannot see the end. It seems like nothing I’ve seen in this city has any right angles or sharp geometry. To our right, we pass countless identical doors, the only straight line on them being where they meet the floor. Each one starts to bend inwards slightly right from the bottom, gradually increasing in gradient until the 2 outer edges meet together in a smooth arch.
The floor is made up of hard marble tiles, which subtly bend to follow the curve of the hallway. A soft, yet thin carpet runs along the middle, with segments branching out to join each door. Between every door, there is a large plant pot containing a plant of which I have no experience to comment on. They look like any ordinary generic plants, with only a few bearing flowers. An unlit torch bracket is placed above each of these, although the bright light filtering in through the open archways along the left-walls is more than enough to keep the room pleasantly lit, while also letting in the fresh outdoor air.
I slow to a stop and make my way over to one of the arches to take a proper look outside. The view is absolutely breathtaking. We seem to be really high up, probably in the mountains since I can see a thin cloudlayer below us. Craning my neck over the edge, I look down at the courtyard below. There’s only a thin strip of green between the building and another drop, with only open-air and the ground far below visible beyond. Peering closer, I can make out a number of ponies milling around, smelling flowers and examining statues. I never realised my vision was this good, I shouldn’t be able to see all that detail at this distance.
I tear my eyes away from the view and refocus on the ponies accompanying me. Snow Blossom looks curiously back at me, while the pegasus guard stands impassively to attention. I almost want to ask why there’s a guard with me, but I’m afraid I already know why and don’t want to be reminded. I pass a brief smile over to them before resuming our journey.
It’s not long before we reach a set of shallow steps which Snow Blossom directs me down. Further inside, there seems to be much more activity. For one, there are quite a few guards down here. A pair guarding the bottom of the staircase we emerged from and a few others standing to attention at the ends of corridors. We pass a range of ponies hurrying to-and-thro as we make our way to the cafeteria. Most seem quite busy and run by us without a glance, although a few do stop and wave with a few even casting curious glances at me. I’m a bit nervous with all these ponies about, but a quick glance over my back reassures me that my wings are sufficiently hidden. Not that it matters that much, I’m sure at least some of these ponies will know by now.
It’s not that long before we make it to a cafeteria. I’m already starting to feel quite a bit hungrier from that walk here. I’m sure it wasn’t that far, yet it still feels like I was walking for much longer. Not because I’m hungry, but more because of how surreal this place feels. My stomach growls as I see tables through the open doors. Our guard nods subtly to the guards either side of the cafeteria entrance as we enter, before making his way to stand in a corner somewhere; probably so he can have a good view of the whole room.
As Snow leads me towards the servery, I can’t help but notice how empty the cafe feels. There is still the odd pony sitting around with their meal dotted around the room, but I suspect that they might be keeping the room empty on purpose.
“So… Jonathan(?)… is there anything on this menu which catches your fancy?”
The menu in question is once again written in that language I don’t recognise, I hope this doesn’t become a problem. I stare intently, trying to determine if there are any similarities I could use to piece together its meaning, but still I draw a blank.
What should I do? I don’t want to simply tell them that I can’t read their written language, but I guess I’ll have to do it at some point. Snow Blossom seems to take my extended silence as indecision and luckily saves me from my dilemma.
“Not sure Jonathan? Would you maybe like a daisy sandwich, or maybe a nice hayburger?”
Hayburger? I suppose since ponies are vegetarians, they probably don’t eat meat, but hayburger? Really? Neither of the options she gives sound like proper food. I suppose that since I’m a pony now, I’ll probably have to get used to pony food. I raise my nose and take a whiff of the scents wafting out from the servery. Not much of it smells particularly appetising, but I can sense some normal food among the mix. Is that apple? Wow, this pony nose is better than I thought.
“Umm, could I get some apples Miss Blossom?”
“Just apples?”
I nod
“Are you sure you only want apples? Why not a hayburger? How could anypony turn down a hayburger?”
“Sure I guess… but can I also have those apples?”
I mean, there’s no point putting off the inevitable, I guess I should try their food since I am a pony now, but I don’t really know what to expect from it.
“Why don’t you go find yourself a table, Jonathan, and I’ll bring over some breakfast.
I wander off a short distance and find a table in a corner away from the other ponies before climbing carefully into a seat. My pony body is quick to find a comfortable seating position, but my blanket disagrees and piles up at the bottom of the chair. I freeze up, but when nopony takes any notice, I let out my breath. My back is facing a wall and there’s little chance that any pony would notice me here. I don’t know that I can comfortably keep my wings hidden from this position and I don’t want to actively draw attention to them by constantly trying to keep them covered. Although I should probably try to find some way to obtain a cloak that won’t just fall off.
It isn’t long before Snow Blossom comes trotting over with two plates floating alongside her with a faint green aura around them. A sandwich (with white flower sticking out) lands at an empty space opposite me where she easily seats herself. While what looks like a burger filled with dried grass lands in front of me alongside some apples. These are then followed by two glasses of water.
While Snow is quick to float her sandwich up to her mouth, I take some time to examine my food closer. The burger buns look pretty much the same as any regular bun, while the hay kinda looks like… regular hay. I cautiously lean forwards and take a small nibble at the hay. Unsurprisingly, and a bit disappointingly, it tastes disgusting. I resist blanching from the taste and turn my attention to my apples. Tentatively, I prod one with my hoof. How do ponies do this? I notice that Snow has set down her half-eaten flower sandwich to watch me with some curiosity.
Carefully, I wrap my foreleg around the bottom of the apple and, once satisfied that it won’t fall out, I raise it up to my mouth and take an awkward bite. Pony mouths are weird shapes, biting is weird. Luckily, the apple tastes edible. More than that, it tastes delicious, better than any apple I’ve ever tasted. I quickly finish off the apple, using my tongue to twist it round in my hoof to clear the core, before clumsily dropping it over the plate with the uneaten hayburger.
Snow has resumed eating, but continues to watch me with curiosity. Upon noticing me noticing her, she lifts a hoof to point at her faintly glowing horn. Oh right, magical unicorns in magical pony land use magic. And since I’ve also got a horn, I guess that makes me a magical pony too. Uh no. Even if I wanted to touch magic, I have no idea how, and I have no desire to learn either. I assume it’s the horn which they use since that’s the glowy part and not all the other ponies have horns. If they can live without, so can I. I simply give her a non-commital shrug and move onto my next apple.
I manage to finish it in record time, although Snow’s expression is somewhere between worried and confused, but I choose to ignore that.
“Jonathan, are you not going to eat your hayburger?”
I’m still a little hungry, but there’s no way I’m eating that hay. Although… I haven’t tried the bread yet. I bite the bun off the top of the burger and hungry pull it into my mouth. Yay, at least the bread’s good, better than normal bread, but still not on par with the apples. Snow raises an eyebrow when I brush the hay from the burger to reach the bottom bun.
One bun later and my throat is a little dry, so I bring my attention to the glass. Luckily, it’s a slightly conical cylinder so I can wrap my hoof around the bottom without it slipping through my grasp. Setting down the glass with a sigh, I notice Snow glancing between me and the hay.
“Don’t you want to eat your hay?” she asks in a confused tone.
“No thanks, I don’t think I like hay.”
I give another shrug. Snow Blossom remains in a contemplative silence, likely trying to get her head around how a pony could not like hay. I mean sure, I’ve got a pony body now, but it’s not like any of my tastes have actually changed. I wonder what else stayed the same? I haven’t really seen myself in a mirror yet, and neither do I want to. My voice, now that I think about it, does seem the same if not a little higher. But it’s still distinctly my voice and still masculine. Now that I think about it, weren’t all the alicorn ponies females in the show?
Snow Blossom distracts me suddenly from my thoughts.
“Jonathan, the doctor wanted me to bring you to see him after breakfast. It’s important that we get you a checkup to make sure that you’re healthy. Are you fine with that?”
While I’m not particularly interested in going to see a pony doctor, I doubt I’d realistically be allowed to put it off for very long, if at all.
“Sure, I guess I’m fine with that.”
“Good, come along and I’ll take you there. I promise it won’t take too long.”
And with that said, Snow Blossom got up, casually floating our used plates and glasses back over to the servery hatch, before making her way towards the cafe entrance. I made to follow, hopping down from the chair, but stopped when I remembered my blanket. I used my teeth to tug it quickly over my back and once I was confident it was settled, made to follow after Snow. The guard in the corner quietly fell into step behind us as we made our way out.
I think you missed a 'not' in there, otherwise he seems to contradict himself.
This is definately interesting. If his tastes didn't change to reflect his new form, I wonder if he's still an omnivore. I've seen that approach used a few times, the other ponies reactions to it is usually entertaining.
11336793
Thanks for the catch, I'll fix that now.
Imagine giving someone a sandwich and they just take the bread. What that pony must have been thinking had me in stitches.
I sense some tense times at the dinner table with whoever takes him in.
11336800
"Let me get a steaksandwich with no steak."
I wonder for how long they will leading him by the muzzle, and finally come clean why they brought him in and why at the castle of all places, it's obvious he is a pony of interest; through it could still be under the assumption that he is a barely teen colt so they rather want to try to keep him calm and a little time to adjust to the environment before actually start pressing him for questions. I wonder who is that mare that is leading him, a royal guard, a intelligence agent, a special social worker, or just a maid servant with special privileges or even all of the above, none of them are mutually exclusive; they might really want to try to to get any overpowered beings to be on the side of Equestria, and especially the crown, by making them feel welcome there, especially if they are still young and impressionable. I wonder how they located him in the first place and immediately woke up in the castle without even being woke up while being , I bet he was already located magically put to sleep in the allay by an agent, not city guard, I don't think sleeping spells are in the usual repertoire of your run of the mill guard. And considering that they didn't ask him to cooperate with them first I have my suspicion that it won'T be completely be benign intentions that he was brought in, they are hoping to being him to their fold and promise him privileges if he agrees to go along with the education they already have planned for him before he even woke up.
There are few neat ideas that male alicorns are omnivorous or eat more meat in their diet. I have only seen a few Fics with that concept which is a neat difference in the gender of the pony. The question is do female alicorns eat meat? Not as much or not needed as the males. With other species, males are always set to being stronger than females but not as flexible or fast as them. Magic can depend on how much you train but they have a bit more of a buff with their magic and can easily pull more spells faster than females but that only comes with training since they aren't learning a spell within an hour or day. Like with any other learning technique it takes time to learn the Piano.
What I mean by stronger is more of the muscles like they can fly longer distances, pick up much heavier objects, good sense of smell for hunting prey, or even be able to sense magic air around them. I have read stories with the concept of the Royal Sisters being able to sense something in the magic around them, so I won't be surprised if it's the same. Not that I am saying they are all OP!! Everypony has their talents which not everypony can grow a garden or cook for example Celestia can move the Sun because that is her talent but can't act on stage because it's not for her.
I always like the idea of Male Alicorns being wild nature ponies where they don't live in houses or civilizations just out there in the fields, forest, or landscapes just enjoying a day of being a wild pony.
This wasn't made in a day I've seen how the community writes the male alicorns over the years and this has been a common thing for most stories or not. We need either more of them or at least hope some stories get completed.
Btw it's been nice so far sorry for not talking about your story
Edit: I forgot to say what little human will face... It's going to be strange for the ponies to learn that he can't read and so far, even though he can understand what they are saying doesn't mean he would understand all the words. The eating scene is funny for the pony to see this young teen colt to be picking at the hayburger. I kind of wonder if they know he is an alicorn? Like Mix-Up said they are setting everything up for him to relax and not freak out. Poor colt will be a filly magnet if he goes to school... wait worse if word gets out. Run colt!
Edit 2.0: The story got that fire mark. Congratulations!
Edit 3.0: Thinking it over about comparing male animals and how they act I forgot they fight over for dominance or stay away from each other to not fight over who is stronger. It's true Alicorns are meant to be very few in numbers so it's ultra-rare for a male alicorn to pop up. I wonder if there would be legends since most of the time, we do see images of Alicorns in old tablets in the G4 show so it would be interesting what the lore would be for the male alicorn.
Now thinking of it... Tarzen comparison makes sense
this is a pretty neat story so far
Don't worry about it. Take the time to create new chapters!
Thanks R-P for another great chapter.
I kinda feel like Jonathan is not thinking about what he wants to do. Like, he has goals (kind of), but no real plan on how to get what he wants. He wants to find out where he is, but he also already knows where he is. He wants to find out how he got there, and if he can go home; but at the same time he doesn't want to talk to ponies and he wants to leave the city. Which makes me wonder how does he expect to find out these things if not through ponies? I kinda feel like if he ever managed to run away and leave the city, he'll take two steps outside the walls and go, "okay, next step, talk to a pony and ask abo- shit." and realize he isn't going to be able to scry the information he needs from a patch of grass.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the ponies thought Johnathan was on the spectrum based on how he's been acting so far.
11336800
Some people wake up and choose violence, he woke up and chose to inflect bafflement.
Wings and a horn and he wants nothing to do with any of it? Good grief, I'd be trying to fly and cast spells every day if I could since being able to fly like the birds and use magic has always been the stuff of dreams and fantasy. Not using them, especially as an alicorn, would lead ponies to think he's defective-- physically or psychologically.
(useless trivia: alicorn is also the term for a unicorn horn)
11336908
So instead of adding edit 4, I will reply to my comment. I remember talking about this idea with others before about Equestria facing major political issues with a male alicorn being found from the risk of the government having to change to setup him up as king while the Royal Family like BlueBlood and Royal Sisters could lose their titles. There is one fanfic I read where the Princesses are forced by law to marry the Male Alicorn which yes both of them since only one was found which was this story It is kind of like your story. I recommended checking that out but back to the topic the idea would be the Princesses would not like this at all because it would give nobles a chance of a lifetime to change things that could undo Celestia's hard thousand-year work and could risk a bad path for Equestria. Nobels would more likely fight tooth and hoof to get their daughters or mares to marry the Male Alicorn because think of the power and influence they could have... Also, the hairs would more likely be Alicorns which we don't really know like Cadence and Shining Armor ever had more kids after Flurry and if they were Alicorn or not.... You don't need to add a romance tag you can write funny scenes of Joan trying to get away from the crazy fillies
Anyways, not many writers have explored that because it's like a really neat plot for the story that can impact all of the Equestria and the world. You know... Since there hasn't been any mentions of the Princesses It would be totally funny that they did get kicked out when somepony found him and they were just following the law Just imagine being the human to wake up finding out you been "forced" to be King over a nation of colorful ponies and didn't mean to kick out the royal family.
It's up to you how you want this world building to be like after all a Male Alicorn will change the landscape without his say or doing.
is
I wonder how they're all going to react knowing that he's a male alicorn with no cutie mark. I don't know Prince Blue book is going to hate that he got royal status but he doesn't have the symbols of l
Royalty. Well just one random coat can reach alicorns status just by being nothing.
11337305
Specifically, alicorn is the *material* unicorn horns are made out of. Horns are just horns.
Tracking for now… though I’m not feeling it. The long description says he isn’t mentally a child yet no evidence to the contrary.
11337893
I think that I mean he won't have difficulties controlling his emotions. Feel free to let me know if there is anywhere where you think he does start acting too annoying or childish.
11337899
Ah…
That makes sense. I once read a fic where the body talked back. At. First I thought the man was possessing a filly but nope; the author seemed to think it was perfectly normal for a body to mentally talk back. I’m still vary concerned about him…
11336908
I mean in my fics all ponies are omnivores. Then again Gen 2 which featured ponies eating hamburgers is ancient forgotten history in mine.
11338178
I definitely like G2. But yes I remember the meat 🍖 there
Can you imagine Snow Blossom's reaction to him requesting a steak?
11338445
I don't think they will even understand what a steak i unless they get meat eaters regularly. Or at all really.
I was so interested in the topic of this fanfic that I even read it through a translator. One thing that worries me is that the main character ended up in the castle too quickly, thinking that he was running away from the guards.
11337370
Sorry to bust your bubble dude, but I doubt it would happen such scenario. To begin with no one would support his clam, from the highest noble to the lowest peasant, no one would know who he is and has no birth right to the throne. Next even if he was somehow Celestia's and Luna's disappeared elder brother, the the courts Parliament and nobility would pick him to rule instead because all their legitimacy is tied to Celestia, an dear deity that control the sun who ruled Equestria for over 1k years, ponies in the country have only know her as ruler, and would all just as soon brush whatever rules/laws that mention that the unknown alicorn, with no support treasury to back up, or simply remove it, or just amend their charter. Even the most cut throat ambitious nobles wouldn't try right away that unless Celestia crews up at something that is unforgivable to the population and even then no of them would be certain how to just dethrone her with the fact that she controls the fucking sun itself. And even then, if you managed to assassinate her there are other ponies in line with far more public credibility and support then he would which would probably had destroyed the whole country in the process.
That new alicorn would never get to rule without a bloodbath before he gets to the thron.
the only possibility that could happen, aside from marrying Celestia as her prince consort, is if the entire royal line some how 'disappeared' leaving the country without a figure head and what ever is left of the nobility scrambling to find someone that is an unknown and an alicorn, or something that look like one, and pass him off as a forgotten branch of the royal linage as a cousin or nephew to Celestia, and make sure that his claim is only assured by what ever noble is controlling him.
that was a awesome story so far but can u port it over to human filly colt section
11339004
I could see him being used as a figurehead in a rather bleak situation by a greedy noble. Whether a noble goes out of their way to make it so is another matter.
11338764
If Celestia was planned for a big role he needed to arrive anyways. The disturbing part is how they found him, never woke him up and still don't seem to care where he came from; or questioning him at all (the nurse/maid pony asking a name don't count). They don't seem to be confining him to his room so his maleness is not unusual nor alarming to the sisters.
Another way to say "it was abrupt and contrived" yet kinda creepy in how good the guards are at foalnaping.
11339146
agreed
just found this interesting so far
11339068
If this story is in a group, that is because someone else added it. I will still check if there is a group it was added to in the wrong section and see if I can move it there, but I haven't got any experience with group mechanics.
I definitely would be asking some questions about how I got there by now. But I guess Jonathan is playing his cards more close to his chest
11339547
There's also a fair chance that Snow doesn't know.
Then why did you suggest a hay burger?
11358692
Snow suggests a hay burger as she sees Jonathan not making a decision and hay burgers are often popular among ponies. However, Jonathan's tastes have not updated with his pony form.
He decide's to take a chance on the hay burger anyway since it's his first pony food and he doesn't know if his tastes have changed for pony food or not.
11337179
The lack of direction is obvious from the beginning, when the author still couldn't decide on the main character's gender after writing the entire first chapter.
11374713
True. I went into this with very little planning. But the story is gaining an actual plot and direction further in. Yet I still plan to keep it to small scale slice-of-life stuff.
I always like the Idea of a Male Alicorn since they don't really exist in MLP.
Hmmm… this is nice. Just the fluff I need to get sleepy before bed. I like it.