Talent Trouble

by kyttypony

Chapter One: Equestria?

Chapter One: Equestria?

Ben

Eve

Maya

Credit goes to xXFIODRAGONXx on Deviantart for the bases.

Eve blinked her bleary eyes open. Whaa? Normally when she teleported it was a bit disorienting, but now…ugh, she had a headache… She attempted to rub her head to try to get the pounding sensation out of it, but everything felt wrong. Her head felt different, her hand was completely nonexistent, and she still had a headache.
“Excuse me?” a voice came from somewhere, regal and commanding. She knew who that was…
She tried to stand up, but everything was all wrong and she collapsed. “I’m sorry, King Samantha, I didn’t know you were coming to North Village today…”
The voice sounded utterly confused. “What?”
Eve looked around the purple room until she found the source of the voice. “Hey…you’re not King Samantha…you have a crown though…And you’re a – a thingy. Like a unicorn and a pegasus mixed together…Did a unicorn and a pegasus meet at a love spring and the stork brought you? And so, did…did all the Magicians and King Samantha go away, and they made you King, like Imbri the nightmare? She wasn’t human, either, but she got to be king…” Her rambling trailed off. She wasn’t thinking as clearly as she would normally like to when speaking with royalty.
The unicorn-pegasus thingy spoke. “How do you not know who I am? I am Celestia, Alicorn of the sun, ruler of the ponies of Equestria! I have no idea what you’re talking about, but who are you, who are your friends there, and what are you doing in my room?”
Eve blinked. “Wha?”
Looking down, she saw that she was on the top of a pile. Underneath her was a tan thing that was like a unicorn with no horn, a pegasus with no wings, a pooka with no chains, or…something. Also a silvery unicorn. She also noticed that she now, apparently, was purple and had fur and hooves. Wait, what? Panicked, she turned back to the thingy. “What happened to me?!”
Celestia frowned. “What are you talking about? You look just fine to me.”
“Do you have a mirror?”
“…It’s over there…”
Eve shakily stood up on all fours – she was an equine now, she couldn’t go on two feet without falling, that was why she fell earlier – and stumbled over. She gasped. What had happened to her?! She was a purplish-blue-furred unicorn with a lavender horn. Her mane and tail were the same blonde color as her hair, and she still had her blue eyes, though they were much larger. She whirled around to face Celestia, although she crashed into and broke the mirror as she clumsily spun. “Look at me! I’m a purple unicorn!”
“…Okay, what were you before?”
“A human!”
“What’s a human?”
Eve stared at the alicorn disbelievingly. What? What’s a human? This ‘Celestia’ was crazy! “Wait. You mentioned something earlier. What’s Equestria?”
Now it was Celestia’s turn to be confused. “How do you not know what Equestria is? It’s where we are right now!”
“No, we’re in Xanth!”
“What’s Zanth?”
Eyes widening in horror, Eve realized what had happened. Her talent had been acting weird after she drank from that pool – she had brought something she hadn’t even been touching with her. Now it must have taken the three of them to a whole different place entirely. But then, it couldn’t be Mundania, since magic didn’t work there and there weren’t any unicorns. So they were in a place which they had never heard of, ever, and didn’t seem to have anything at all to do with Xanth. She turned from Celestia to the two ‘ponies’, now starting to woozily wake up. So those must be Ben and Maya!
“You still haven’t answered my questions, you know.”
“I’m Eve, those are my brother Ben and my friend Maya – I think Maya’s the unicorn, because she had black hair, and the other one’s mane and tail are the color of Ben’s hair, and the eye colors are about the same – and then…I guess I’m…standing?”
“How did you get here?”
“I teleported.”
“Why did you teleport here?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t even trying to.”
“How do you teleport by accident?” Celestia was confused.
“Maya made me sneeze.”
“What does sneezing have to do with teleporting?”
“When I sneeze, I teleport to somewhere entirely random. Except I still stay in Xanth, I just go somewhere else in it. Except my talent wasn’t working right and I went here instead of somewhere else in Xanth.”
“What’s Zanth?” Celestia asked again.
“You mean Xanth. It's where I’m from.”
“Sorry. Zanth. What’s a talent?”
“What?” Eve asked incredulously.
“What’s a talent?” Celestia repeated.
“Um…your talent is…your talent, I don’t know, it’s something you can do that no one else can.”
“Oh, like what ponies’ cutie marks mean?”
“…What’s a cutie mark?”
“The mark on your flank. See, like the sun on mine, or the…what is that?...on yours.”
Eve turned in circles, trying to see her ‘cutie mark.’ She finally caught sight of it through the corner of her eye. “That? Huh! That’s what Ben says it looks like when I teleport.”
“So, it does seem that they are related, then.”
“I guess so.”
“Hey, wha? Were you guys saying something about me?” Eve and Celestia turned to see Ben, shakily standing and blinking at them. “What happened?”
“My talent wasn’t working right and brought us here. And apparently turned us into ‘ponies,’” Eve told her brother as she glared at Maya, who was yawning and sleepily running a hoof through her mane. “And it wouldn’t have happened if SHE hadn’t stuck that bark under my nose.”
The accused pony stuck out her tongue at Eve. “Why don’t you just bring us back?”
“I already tried that!”
“Did you?”
“Look, I’ll try again!” Eve focused on North Village, willing herself to teleport there. She put more and more effort into it – but nothing happened. “See?”
“Whoa! Your horn glowed!”
“What?!”
“That’s what happens when you use magic,” Celestia sighed. She turned to the window. “Okay, I really have to make the sun set right now.”
“What?!” the three former humans said in unison, disbelievingly.
“…” Celestia closed her eyes. As her horn glowed golden, the sun began to descend in the sky, the shadows stretching in the twilight.
Maya took a step forward. “Wait!”
The sun halted its progress. “What?” Celestia sighed.
“Can I try?”
“Um…” Celestia didn’t really know how to respond to that. Only an alicorn could raise the sun, a unicorn certainly couldn’t…
“Pleeease?”
Eve and Ben shared a glance and a knowing smile. If Celestia thought their friend couldn’t do it, she was in for a big surprise…

Comments

[Sage Probo]

Xanth and ponies. Now I want to see more.

[xDan]

You need to use the "Crossover" genre tag and the "Other" character tag.

[Moowell]

I clicked immediately after seeing "Xanth". When the first word in the description is "Eve", I immediately think of the Magician whose talent is knowing everything about an inanimate object after touching it. At first glance, I'm a bit miffed it isn't her. I'll give it a read though.

EDIT: Sorry about judging it before I started. Anyways, I like the premise. It's something that could legitimately happen to a Xanthian under the circumstances. Favorited, and I look forward to seeing what you do with the story.

[kyttypony]

2229821 What book(s) are Eve in? I didn't know there was already an Eve there...

2229688 I already used the Crossover tag, and I used the Original Character tag, not the Other.

2229579 Chapter 2 is in progress

[xDan]

2230557
All I saw was the Human tag when it was first submitted. Furthermore, when using characters from another franchise, the Other tag is used. IIRC you're using characters from the Xanth universe unless they're original Xanth characters.

[kyttypony]

2230576 All Xanth characters in this are my own.

[Moowell]

2230557
She was notably in Faun & Games and Jumper Cable. She's also a minor character in several other books.

[kyttypony]

2230678 I haven't read those yet.

[Moowell]

2230703 It's a long series.

[kyttypony]

2230713 I know that.

[Sage Probo]

I wonder if you will include Humpfrey xD

[kyttypony]

2231006 I don't know if he should still be alive or not. I mean, yeah he has the Fountain of Youth, but he might not want to use it after he overdosed...

[Sage Probo]

Weeelll.... I doubt that, Humpfrey would still use it, after all, he is the wizard of a hundred spells, and he keeps growing his collection. But not the young grumpy one, the old grumpy one

[kyttypony]

2234106 Of course the old one. ...And you're right. Although I don't know if he'll be in the story any more than just being mentioned in passing.

[catluvr2]

2229821 I clicked right after seeing Xanth as well. BROHOOF