Eclipse Borne

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"Caleb! It is nine thirty-five!" a strong and stern male voice called out from downstairs. I sighed, but didn’t stop what I was doing. It was a regular complaint if I wasn't at the door by that time. That my brother and sister got it as well when it was their time to get out the door didn’t make it any easier to take.

"I noticed, Dad," I responded, a trace of annoyance in my tone as a focused on packing the last of my belongings into my bag. My laptop, ereader, cell phone and their assorted cables found shelter in the messenger bag resting on the dark green covers of the bed. My name rose up again from the first floor, this time flavoured with a hearty helping of my father’s own annoyance. Dad was a bit of a stickler for time and strongly believed in reaching 15 minutes early.

I made a quick stop by my dresser for the final quality check. My hair was brushed, and recently cut so it didn’t need much brushing. I was in the usual subdued outfit I wore to the library. They did allow casual wear, so long as it was sombre; so I had my black wrinkle resistant cotton slacks that were fine without ironing, and a two tone dark yellow and grey shirt, the yellow on the shoulders and dropping three quarters of the way down the front and back, a thick black outline separating the yellow from the grey that composed the rest of the shirt. It went well with my dark skin tone. A pair of spectacles completed my ensemble; the same genetic quirk that gave me my striking gold eyes granted weakened vision as well.

I jogged down the stairs, half fell, to be honest; taking them three, four at a time, and quickly grabbed my shoes from the stand by the door. The smell of frying onions drifted out from the kitchen, lingering in the air and served to identify what was making the sizzling I could hear coming from the kitchen. Hopping on one leg, I made my way over as best I could while fixing my left sneaker so the tongue wasn’t falling off to the side and making itself a hindrance instead of a boon.

“You are going to be late,” my father said firmly, looking away from the onions he was sautéing, the wooden spoon still shifting them around even as his attention split. Cooking was a hobby of his, as was baking. My little brother Richard, diligently chopping some sausages beside Dad, stuck his tongue out at me since our father was looking the other way. I would have hit him with something if I had something to throw at him. “I said I wasn’t going to say anything,” Dad continued, apparently ignorant to the slight hypocrisy in that statement, “and now you’re running late. It happens every morning!”

“I know, Dad,” I said, rolling my eyes as he headed for the fridge, wisely deciding not to comment on the fact that I wasn’t late every morning, or even most, content to instead open the door with my foot to grab the Brita pitcher inside with one hand and one of the cups on the counter next to it and pour myself a drink. “I just needed a little glass of water.”

“You’re at the library today, aren’t chya, ‘Leb?” Richard asked, as if I hadn’t outlined what my schedule for the week was to the family the night before. He must be going for something.

“I’m not sure if we can provide the kind of care your early onset Alzheimer’s calls for, but we will try, dearest brother,” I said solemnly to Richard, pausing to rest a hand on his shoulder after I dropped my glass in the sink. “That’s what family is for. We will stick together, thick and thin.” My solemnity broke off into cruel chuckles as Richard shook my hand off with a rough toss of his shoulders and waved his knife at me in a half threat.

“Cut it out before I cut it out for you!” Richard warned. I had been plucking on that string for a while, Julie contributing, mostly to try and get him to react badly around Dad. My only regret was that he snapped when I was on the clock.

“Richard Winston Blakely!” Dad snapped, grabbing my brother’s hand and forcing it down. “I will have none of that knife waving. If you hurt someone with that, you would not like to find out what we would do to you.”

That ‘we’ Dad mentioned included Mom; even if she has already left for work a few hours before. Unlike me, she wasn’t blessed with a late morning start time. Neither was Julie, the oldest of the Blakely kids. Richard was still in university, starting his second year come fall, and doing an online course for the summer. But that was enough on the sibling history. “Ooo; three named! You’re in trouble!” I silently teased, holding up three fingers and shaking the other one in case he didn’t read the message on my lips.

As much as I would like to linger to see how things turned out, I really did have to leave. It would take me fifteen minutes to bike to the library, and I liked having a few minutes to be able to cool off in the temperature controlled building so I didn’t start my shift breathing heavily and slightly sweaty.

“I’m getting off at six today,” I informed them as I grabbed my bag and tried to untangle my ear buds with one hand. “I drew the lucky straw to set up the Vincent Easchermann display, but they are putting it under the skylight, so I should still be able to see the eclipse. Later Dad! Later Old Man!” I didn’t wait to see what their response would be; darting out the door and into the garage. In all likelihood, that Old Man comment should set Richard off again.

“I hate it when he’s right!” I complained to myself, legs pumping the pedals hard as I sought to earn back some of the lost time my less than punctual departure chewed into. I had mixed feelings for the day. On one hand, aside from the task of moving a few tables around, setting up the display would be pretty simple. It was just a matter of following the diagrams and arranging the books and manuscripts ‘tastefully’ so people could admire the handwritten pages. After that, the rest of the day would be doing the typical restocking shelves and pointing people to where the health food cook books or something similarly mundane waited, with copious amounts of time to slack off and work on my own projects on my computer.

But there was also going to be a total solar eclipse. I had been looking forward to that for a while. I stopped pedalling and let momentum carry me towards the intersection, hoping the lowered speed would buy enough time for the light to change so I wouldn’t have to stop and wait. Back on topic; it wasn’t every year my town was in the direct track of the cosmic event. We had some of the best seats in the country. My ruse with the timing didn’t work out, so I was still stuck muttering urgings to the ticking stop light. I never did figure out why some ticked and others didn’t.

Though, now that I thought about it; they were planning to set up the display under one of the large ceiling windows. With that location, I could watch the sky from air conditioned comfort. The prickling of jealousy and injustice were banished in the wave of that thought. Planning out the logistics of doing the job and working occupied me for the remainder of the trip, and I made it with five minutes to spare, just enough to lock up I bike and get inside.

“Morning, Amanda!” I called cheerfully to the lady sitting behind the front desk.

“A little late this morning, aren’t you?” Amanda smiled back at me.

It was always about the timing with people. I wanted to sigh, but I settled for a sheepish grin. “Well, yeah. I left home later than I planned. Did Gregory change any of the plans?” I asked, Gregory being the one who made the plans for the display (and was more or less my boss and or supervisor). “Or is everything still the same?”

“No, he hasn’t made any changes,” Amanda said, but then she grew thoughtful. “Though, he did tell me to let you know that the supplies are still in the stock room. And he’s off today.” She gave me an apologetic smile. “You will be on your own with the set up. Sorry!”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, trying to make light of it and downplaying my own frustration. Perfect. I would have to carry everything up myself. At least the display cases could fit in the elevator so I wouldn’t have to carry them up the stairs. I managed to give Amanda a bright smile anyway. “I am the strapping young lad here. Such physical labour is becoming of me!”

We shared a parting laugh and I got about my work. It took me a mere moment to drop my bag against one of the bookshelves in the area I would be arranging the display, and from there I directed my attentions towards the most physically demanding part of my day.

It took me almost an hour to get everything out of the back storeroom and upstairs. While I would admit; the display would look lovely under the direct natural light that spilled in from the skylight, it didn’t mean I appreciated the amount of labour I, personally, would have to invest in the endeavour. I at least allowed myself a breather between getting all the parts and boxes up and actually working on arranging them.

Arranging them gave me time to think. In passing, that is. It still took some brain power to fit the curved table parts together to form the ring the books would be displayed in. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was the man around. In the entire regular staff, there were three males. The library was just another female dominated work force. And as much as I would have liked to work there as a career, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through an addition four years of schooling just to get a chance at it. Still, it was far better than work at the call center, which unfortunately accounted for the majority of my working hours and income.

By the time those thoughts, which were far more disjointed that I make them seem here due to interruptions from people seeking help or just having to focus a bit more intently on the placement of the display pieces, were mulled over, it was time to sort through the books. This part I didn’t want to waste too much time on. A glance to the heavens and a quick verification on my phone confirmed that the eclipse was starting within the hour. To speed my process; I pushed the boxes with the books unto the clear area the ring formed and ducked under the table after them, snapping my gloves in place.

Though I referred to them as books on a whole, it was more manuscripts and a few items considered artifacts. They were only about a few hundred years old, from back in the pre-colonial days, and preserved well enough that I wasn’t sure I wanted to apply artifacts to the ink well and quill and other calligraphy equipment, but I wasn’t the historian there.

By the time I got everything in place, I was rather pleased with my work. I went with the poles, setting the nicer more artistic looking and manuscripts aligned with the north, south, east and west cardinal points, consulting my phones useful compass app for it (and people hated Blackberries) before grouping them in a fan arrangement. The actually books, as in properly bound with a cover and not simply sheets held together, I set at the ordinal points, the artifacts at the further division points between them.

Amanda and Mary, another co-worker, found time to pass by and approved of my aesthetic tastes. That was a good feeling, I won’t lie. I still had a few minutes before the eclipse. I spent them carefully setting the glass case covers over the admittedly valuable articles. They weren’t exactly museum pieces, but you could probably sell them for a decent amount of cash to the right person. The locks on the cases were the final touch. Without much time left before the show started, I fished around in my bag for my viewing gear. A home-made, well; library-made, pinhole projector, constructed with instructions from the astronomy section, and a set of eclipse glasses.

In a way, the eclipse was both boring and exciting. It was pretty to watch, but the time it took to build up to the total eclipse of the sun was a bit wearying. Mostly; it was the silence. If life was a movie, there would be soft soundtrack building up to the moment. I even found myself mentally adding one. It was far from complex, just a few harmonized notes and a steady though simplistic beat to it. I wasn’t an artist.

Still, it made me smile slightly as I alternated between using the glasses, perched carefully over my own, and the projector I made. Which, I admit was something of a disappointment and failure. In the end I settled for roosting on a chair near the display case so I could watch the show.

It took me a while, but I eventually started questioning where the soft music was coming from. I had realized it was more than just a mental trick now, but as cool as it was that it matched the build up of the eclipse, the fact was it was against library rules to be playing your personal music that loud.

Only, I was the only one around. The only other person was on the far side of the building and had headphones on. Maybe it really was just all in my head. I rubbed my temple in mild irritation. I could figure it out later. For now, there was an eclipse to watch. I pushed the question of the origin of the sounds out of my mind for now, not wanting to miss the event. They didn’t last long and it wasn’t likely my home town would be in the perfect alignment again for some time.

It was worth it. The sky got progressively darker as the moon slowly blocked out the sun, but it was a different quality of darkness, not the same as the night or a cloudy day. I would have liked to keep watching it, but the sound issue came back to light. The… eclipse song was still going, but now there was another one. And it… was coming from behind me?

Totally confused now, I looked around. It took me a while to notice what was different. The pages, manuscripts and books in the display. It was subtle, but caused a slight twinge of terror when I noticed it. They looked the same as they did thirty minutes ago. Wait; get what I’m saying now, it makes sense. The whole room was dark and tinged in the odd orange light of the eclipse. But the stuff I set out looked like it was still sitting in a bright noon day sun.

“What in the name of all things…” I murmured, hesitantly reaching out to the case. This new sound, it was… different from the ‘eclipse song’. Just as unobtrusive, but a different tempo, or maybe that would be rhythm (I’m not sure, I did music in elementary school and that was it.) Stranger still, they were starting to sync up together, like a good mashup on YouTube.

Confused even more now, I looked up at the sun, just to make sure it was still normal, casually and subconsciously resting my hand on the display case.

The response was instantaneous. The display case flared with a brilliant orange and white light, the ring of fire around the room blazed to a terrifying red orange, the moon lost its blackness as tendrils of silver slithered across its surface.

Then the two songs screamed to deafening levels as a column of silver and red orange, accented with flames and frosty looking mists, fell from the heavens, searing through the glass and crashing to meet the display I apparently inadvertently set up into the perfect receptacle for it with a crash like a four ton truck meeting a brick wall, the library floor I stood on shuddering as if it were in an earthquake, or as it was a living thing unsettled.

I didn’t notice all that when it happened, just realized in retrospect. I did notice that it was somewhat like the rings effect from Stargate up to eleven. The mind makes strange realizations at times. I also noticed that I was slowly falling over, into a the stream of falling light and fire and mist, and into the void it was carving into the floor, and the rumble as bookshelves toppled over and slid across a floor that suddenly seemed more like the sides of a funnel than the flat surface it was to be, moving far faster than my slow motion fall towards the light.

It hurt when I finally hit it. Burned like diving into a pot of boiling water and doing the polar dip at -40 Celsius at the same time. I didn’t recall much after that. Not until I landed, in any case. I still think that was actually a good thing.

Celestia smiled warmly at those she passed in the castle corridors and hallways as she made her way to her destination. Her pure white coat seemed to glow with something a bit more magical than mere health and vitality, the mark if a sun on her flanks just as much a reminder of her power and status as her stature and ever billowing pink, blue and green hair and tail were. Long practice concealing her less than chipper state under her aura of regality and majesty. It had been a particularly wearisome day in court, and she was more than pleased to end that day’s session. So many ponies were of the idea that bringing their issues and complaints directly to the Princess was the best course of action, despite the wonderful services that were provided for them.

Of course, this was not to say she loathe her subjects. Far from it, she loved them ever so much, and was always pleased that they were willing to come to her, their ruler, for her advice. Sometimes, however, she just wished they were slightly less willing with some matters. Their Ruler did like to relax herself, and as calming as tea and cakes were, it was even better when she could enjoy it without actually needing its relaxing properties.

A lot of the current complicates also came from the Crystal Empire’s relatively recent return. As overjoyed as she was at her student’s, and her student’s assistant’s, success in aiding it’s safe return, as at her niece and her new husband in leading it, it did complicate the political sphere. Princess Cadence was more than willing to merge the Crystal Empire with Equestria and place it under its laws. Now, aside from the relations with that returned body, many of the other lands of Equis were busy sending new diplomats to see how that change would affect them, and how they could turn it to their advantage.

With a slightly frustrated toss of her head that send new ripples through her multicoloured hair and a shuffling of her wings, she chased those thoughts away. Now was not the time for that. Now was the time to put the matters of court aside. Her guard had reported that her faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, had once again sequestered herself in the castle library, not wishing to disrupt the court when she came in. A small part of Celestia wished Twilight had, but only a small part.

Still, Celestia sent word that Twilight was not to be warned of her approach and her ever loyal and dependable guard had followed the instructions to the T. Twilight was poring over what seemed to be four books lying open on the table before her, several more stacked quite high where they would be more or less out of the way. A quill surrounded with her purple magic aura making numerous notes on the sheets beside her. Considering the section of the library, Celestia glanced at a few of the spines on the shelves beside her just to confirm, her student was doing some research into old relics.

Despite her apparent size, Celestia could be quite stealthy when she wished, and no, she did not just consider herself fat. With a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, positioned so she could look over Twilight’s shoulder without casting a shadow in the light that spilled from the glass windows over head. She watched for a few moments, waiting for Twilight’s attention to be split between the books, the quill hovering absently, before commenting. “My, that certainly looks interesting, my dear Twilight.”

Her reaction was most amusing. Surprised at the familiar voice appearing, from her perspective, unannounced and out of nowhere, Twilight yelped in surprise, bouncing from her seat, upsetting the desk such that the stack of books toppled, as did the well of ink. Prepared; Celestia was waiting for that, catching the books, ink, and even the quill that fell from Twilight’s startled magic grip, in the yellow glow of her own magic. No sense in ruining all that hard work by getting all those pages ruined, now.

“Pri-pri-Princess Celestia!” Twilight stammered once her heart rate settled, sinking into a bow.

“Now, Twilight, that’s not necessary,” Celestia smiled warmly at the young unicorn, repeating an oft said comment. She motioned for Twilight to rise as she set the books back in place and covered the ink well. “What brings my faithful student to Canterlot today?”

“Oh! I was just researching ancient artifacts, particularly those said to increase a unicorn’s power, your majesty,” Twilight said, matching the smile with one of her own, her eyes twinkling with the joy of a new research topic. The enthusiasm faded a bit as she went on. “After what happened with Trixie and the Alicorn Amulet…”

“Twilight, my dear student,” Celestia said, brushing Twilight’s hair with one of her gold shod hooves. “Always so diligent. Come; let us take a walk as we talk…”

The moon was not due to be out for several hours yet, but Luna was still working. She enjoyed studying the laws of the land, she always had, and ever since her sister’s student freed her from the Nightmare that turned her insecurities into something far more evil, she had been doing her best to show her appreciation, learning all she could before she took on once again her full responsibilities as Princess of the Night.

Already she patrolled the dreamscapes, and held a Night Court of her own to take some of the demand and stress from her sister. She was ever shamed by her fall, how her sadness and envy of her sister led to it, and the rise of the greatest threat to ponykind since Discord himself ruled the land. She turned that shame into a passion to overcome her insecurities.

So she learned all she could of the thousand years she missed, and worked to adjust to the current world. Strange how her sister’s student Twilight and her friends were responsible for such change in her; not only freeing her from the Nightmare, but also working with her as she floundered, lost in the new world.

Perhaps Celestia was right. Perhaps Twilight was ready for the final test. Luna tried to accept it, but couldn’t in her heart. She had confidence in Twilight’s skills, and even loved the little one like a niece, as she had grown to love the Princess of Love Cadence, but still, her heart was still unsure on the question of Twilight being ready for the next step. She sighed. Maybe….

“By Starswirl’s Beard!” she proclaimed suddenly, staring up at her horn as pale blue sparks started dancing on its length, clearly not of her own violation. She felt magic swelling, magic of the moon, yet not of her doing.

“YOU THERE!” Luna declared to the guards stationed at her room in the royal Canterlot voice, bursting from her chambers and scaring the bejeebers out of them. “FIND MY SISTER AND ALERT HER! THERE BEETH SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE MAGICS OF THE MOON!”

“At once, Princess!” The guards saluted her, still shaken, but ever professional, before taking off on their task. Only then did Luna realize she could sense a disruption in her counterpart’s magic as well. With no other option, Luna quickly sought out her sister’s location with magic, and teleported herself.

“Princess Celestia! Your horn!” Twilight cried out the alicorn she had been talking with as gold sparks danced around her horn. “What’s happening?”

“I… I am not sure!” Celestia admitted, rearing up slightly in shock. She could feel magic building, pulling her, but she was not sure what it meant, or what was causing it. It was… as if something was accessing the very fabric of the solar magic. But if it was doing this to the solar magic; what about its counterpart?

In answer to that question, there was a dark blue flash as her sister Luna teleported to them, her own horn displaying similar effects. “CELESTIA! WHAT... What is happening?” Luna asked, uncertainty in her voice, perhaps a hint of fear in her eyes, her statement starting in the royal Canterlot before she caught herself.

As the two sisters faced each other, the phenomenal peaked. A stream of gold erupted from Celestia’s horn, lancing out to crash into the stream of pale blue that shot forth from Luna’s horn, combining into a churning prismatic orb with a shockwave that knocked Twilight back several feet and even forced the two alicorns to step back. It hovered between them for an instant; then bolted several dozen feet into the air.

Flashing once, the orb turned into a hole in the sky. For a moment, they could see another sky through that hole, a sky were the moon stood blocking the sun. Celestia, Luna, even Twilight gasped. The vision didn’t last long, for the eclipse shone red and spilled a stream of light from it, and a column of fire, mist, red orange and pale silver light to crash down through it with a wail, impacting the ground like a solid object. Both Princesses were forced to shield their eyes with their wings. Twilight and the guards that rushed over to protect their leaders were temporarily blinded.

What awaited them when their vision cleared was somewhat beyond common comprehension. Concentric rings of charred grass and soil, frost covered versions of the same, then untouched ones, with a pile of books and broken wooden frames, gently smoking from points were it was charred and fire damaged, thin mist rising from patches that looked frozen, and a creature of which they did not recognize laying atop it all.

Scars of the Moon

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Though the proverbial smoke cleared, it was still a few more moments before there was much activity from the three closest to the impact point. Celestia recovered first. Caution etched in her bearing, she took a few steps closer to the impact zone. Just what in Equestria was going on here? The residual magic alone in the area was pricking at her fur and wings. If someone had described the effects of that particular magic phenomena, for spell did not seem and adequate term for the event that took place, she would not have expected this. True, she did not quite know what she would have expected, but not a pile of slightly damaged books and that creature.

“Is everypony alright?” Celestia called out, splitting her attention from the great puzzle piled up before her with an effort of will. Luna was still standing, and Twilight was slowly getting to her feet with a confused groan. Around them, several royal guards were also getting their hooves back under them, but they made sounds of reassurance. Furthermore; a few additional guard ponies were galloping or flying over, attracted by the phenomena.

“I’m okay, Princess Celestia,” Twilight reported, accepting the aid of a pegasus that landed beside her and lent his hoof for support and trotting over to join her mentor after shaking her mane back into a somewhat acceptable fashion. “But what just happened? I don’t think I’ve ever felt magic that strong!”

“Agreed, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said, relieved that nopony was hurt by the shockwave. “I would go as far as to say, in terms of pure magical output, it might have been a match for that of the Elements.”

“Equal to the Elements?” Twilight echoed weakly, her eyes widening. Her long association with the Princess taught her many things, one of which was that Celestia enjoyed the somewhat familiar relation she had with her. As such, when the Princess used her full name, it was because she truly believed the situation was becoming grave.

“I simply cannot understand what the purpose of this spell was, or what that creature is,” Celestia said, concern in her voice. The royal guard was gathering, most being pegasus guards, but earth and unicorn guards present as well.

“You don’t have any ideas, Princess?” Twilight said, taking a few steps closer to the pile and the creature strew out on top of it, her curiosity piqued.

“Miss Sparkle, I advise you hold back,” a stoic unicorn guard said.

“Be at ease,” Celestia said, joining Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle is my trusted student, and the bearer of the Element of Magic. Few are more qualified on matters of magic. Her opinion on these matters would be most welcome. Isn’t that right, Twilight?” Celestia said, smiling down at her reassuringly. Twilight flushed from the praise, and did her best not to disappoint her, her horn glowing as she started examining the area. The guard frowned slightly, but nodded.

“Luna, what are your opinions on this?” Celestia continued, her own horn glowing as well. When her sister didn’t respond, she looked over to her.

“Luna!” Celestia said in sudden fright. She leapt, her powerful wings snapping out, turning the jump into a shallow glide that covered the distance across to her sister. At first, it was not clear what startled the solar monarch into such distress.

True, the Princess of the Moon was looking rather guarded, but after that display, few would blame her. She had her wings flared, one held between her and the impact point, half shielding her face, her left foreleg half raised in case swift action was required. But yet, she was almost immobile, save for a slight tremor in her wings, the twitching of almost unblinking eyes, and the shaky shallow breaths that wheezed in and out of her flared nostrils.

“Is something wrong with Princess Luna?” Twilight said worriedly, prematurely breaking off her examination of the scene to stand by her mentor’s side.

“I… I am unsure,” Celestia said. Though hesitant, she pressed a hoof against her sister’s shoulder and rocked her slightly. “Lulu, Sister? Speak to me… Luna!”

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Luna was not in the state of mind to comprehend her sister’s pleas for her attention. Though her body was still standing, her mind had wandered. The eclipse she saw in the sky, it through open doors in her memories, doors she would have rather left shut. Worse yet; she found herself forced to walk down those paths.

Praise Celestia; she who raises the sun! Thank you, Princess Celestia; your day is so lovely! Oh Celestial; we love you so! Celestia. Celestia. Celestia! It incensed her, the unfairness of it all. Hath they forgotten that there were two monarchs? Didst they not recall that Celestia did not stand alone when the Tyrant Discord was finally defeated? Didst they no see the rich tapestry in deep blue and purple, a pale moon proudly displayed, that hung equal with the golden hanging and its imagery of the oh so loved sun?

Curiously detached from the memory, yet still the same alicorn that paced the halls of the Castle of the Two Pony Sisters, Luna watch as her past self’s thoughts surged in frustration at the parade held for herself and her sister just hours before, each step stiff, her ears flicked backwards in anger. Ha! For all our subjects cared, it mayest well be the Castle of Celestia!

It pained her. It pained her how they forget her and what she did for them, no less than Celestia did. Her wings fell as silent tears streaked down her cheeks, both from the sorrow and desire to be loved as her sister was that her past self felt, and the regret that her present self, reliving this moment, felt. ’That’s right…’ the one reliving the moment thought. ‘It were here… here that the idea first came…’

And what if they forget me? What of my stars and the beauty of my night? My sister raises the sun to bring a warm new day, I raise the moon to bring a cool restful night, yet they only sleep, never seeing the beauty that I gifted them!

Luna’s thoughts went to her precious stars that glittered so lovingly at night, each carefully ordained, that the night sky was an unmatched tapestry. But they do not want my gift… “Nor do they appreciate it. I; who walks their dreams. Stand between them and the terrors that would plague them. Take their wishes on my own wings and lift them!”

“Luna?” a warm, though concerned voice cut into her tirade, one that became vocal without her realizing it. Celestia trotted over to her startled sister, looking at her with worried eyes. “Art thou… art thou well, dear sister?”

“Of course, I am, dear Tia,” Luna said, though her smile was somewhat forced.

“I noticed thou vanished from the banquet hall, so I came searching for you, little sister,” Celestia said, nuzzling Luna’s neck.

Luna harrumphed, though some of the tension eased away. “I…” she sighed. “They came for you, sister. Not myself.”

“They came for us both, Little Luna. Though I am aware thou are not always keen on having such attentions focused on you,” Celestia commented.

That irritated Luna, and subconsciously her wings flared slightly. So what if she was not the charismatic social butterfly Celestia was? That did not mean she was always supposed to be in her shadow. Celestia was the sun, bright and burning with warmth. She just wasn’t like that.

Watching, reliving it, present Luna wanted to look away. It was here… this was when the first idea came.

Then what… the thought that truly started it all, the one Luna didn’t want to remember, came softly. What if she, the bright sun, was in my shadow for a change?

The current Luna managed to tear her attention away. She didn’t… she hated reliving those moments. She was the Princess of the Night. The only nightmares she couldn’t chase away were her own. Even the word itself was a painful one. When she returned, Celestia broke it gently to her. How that which she once stood between, the terrors that would traumatize a pony during the night, how they became a mocking reminder of her mistake.

“Luna?” the Celestia of the past said, feeling her sister stiffen.

Sister! another voice was breaking through. The real Luna looked towards it, drawn towards the pain that was making itself known to her.

“Are you sure you are fine? Shall I call for someone?” Celestia looked from Luna’s tense wings to her eyes and then hugged her.

LITTE SISTER! Under the external influence, the memory started to break apart.

“No, Tia,” Luna said, even as the memory faded, “There be nothing for thou to worry about. I was merely caught up within mine thoughts.” And yet, where her sister couldn’t see, her eyes were clouded, if just for a moment.

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“Gah!” Luna yelped, her hoof pressed against the source of the stinging, throbbing pain. “My cheek… Thou slapped my cheek?” She said, her jaw slightly gapping. The affront was so galling she was not sure how to react.

“Forgive me, sister,” Celestia said, sighing with intense relief. “When you did not respond to my attempts to rouse you, I was forced to be more… drastic in my measures.”

Luna glared at her sister in mingled shock and outrage. Yes, Celestia looked profoundly relieved, but there was a slight twinkle in her eyes. “Thou… you enjoyed that!”

“Sister!” Celestia protested, lifting one leg from the ground. “Your welfare was my only concern! Even Twilight Sparkle was worried when you stood frozen and unresponsive for all those minutes.” Celestia’s look implied she was stunned that her sister would even thing that of her. Then she softened before admitting, “Perhaps a little.”

Luna snorted and rolled her eyes, an ear flicking in irritation. “You affections, while still leaving much to be desired, are appreciated. There is no need for you to worry; I was merely lost in a memory,” she cringed as she belatedly realized how much that statement paralleled the one that she only just recalled. She shouldered through the feeling as she shouldered past her sister.

Her concern for Luna’s wellbeing had not led Celestia to totally disregard the event that triggered her state of shock. A few ponies, only two in the armour of the guard, worked around the impact site, likely collecting various observations on the magic of the phenomena while members of the guard erect barricades around it. Twilight Sparkle was among the unicorns working, sorting through the books that had fallen with creature. Even as she watched, a pair of pegasus descended on the scene, carrying a case between them, perhaps some more equipment for the initial study.

“Celestia, where is the… the creature?” Luna asked, looking around sharply. The chill metal of the silver shoes on her hooves did much to relieve the sting of her cheek.

“With my approval, it was sent to one of the wards,” Celestia said, coming up beside her sister and looking over the impact point. With the books being moved away it was become clear that the ring like patterns were only a side effect. The real mark of the phenomena was the perfect circle within it. More than twelve feet across, it was proving to be a crater, dug out of the earth, about three feet deep. While it fascinated Celestia, Luna’s attentions were on other topics.

“I want it thrown in the dungeons,” Luna declared coolly and with finality.

“Luna?” Celestia was surprised by the sharpness in her sister’s tone. Then something akin to understanding came over her features. Celestia looked away from her sister and at the ponies working diligently for a moment. “Twilight Sparkle; please continue working with the Guard on this matter. My sister and I will return shortly.”

“Oh? Ah, yes, Princess Celestia,” Twilight said, never one to disappoint her mentor. Even before she finished, the two Princesses were gone in a golden flash of Celestia’s magic.

--------

They appeared again on one of the many balconies that could be found throughout the castle; a place where they could discuss the matter without causing undue alarm and concern among their subjects. Luna stalked over to the railing, her hooves clopping angrily, and wings flaring slightly.

“Is that not a rash course to take?” Celestia began. “From wha-”

“Didst thou not see the tear in the sky?” Luna demanded as her particular quirk of lapsing back into the old equestrian when under pressure in force as she looked off at her sister’s sun as it slowly descended to the horizon. “Didst thou not feel the force that took hold of our, OUR magic?” She whirled on her sister, tears in her eyes turning what might have been considered and angry expression into a distraught one. He voice was shaky, breaking as she continued. “Didst… Didst thou not see the moon cover the sun?”

Celestia gathered he sister up in a hug, tossing both forelegs around her and holding her close. “Hush, my dear, sweet sister. Hush.”

“But Tia… that hast only been seen once before in our history,” Luna whimpered. “Just once… when I… when I…”

“Shh…” Celestia said, covering Luna’s mouth with a hoof. “That was in the past. And you were not the only to make mistakes all those centuries ago.” Luna didn’t respond to Celestia, but some of her tension started to ease. “But, that does not mean you should judge this one.”

“Still, Tia… the sign… the magic… the creature,” Luna said, if somewhat lamely.

“They concern me as well, sister. However, as far as the trained healers could tell, it was badly injured,” Celestia released her sister from the hug and headed over to the very spot Luna had taken moments before. “Yes, it concerns me greatly. But there is little to be gained from rashly judging based on limited knowledge. Did you yourself not encounter rash judgement when you visited Ponyville for Nightmare Night?”

Luna winced at that memory. True, Twilight Sparkle had eventually helped her overcome that misunderstanding, though she did hold a grudge against Pinkie Pie for some time after that. Still, she sighed and closed her eyes. “You are right, sister,” she said softly. “But, no. No buts. I shall try to be… less judgemental. If he is not in the dungeon, where are you holding him?”

“For now, the creature is being held in a secured room and under guard while we learn more, and I fully intend to question it and glean what I can from it of its objectives and intentions. But unless it proves otherwise, it shall be treated civilly.”

Luna joined her sister in gazing at the sun, then looked down to the gardens were the guards and research team was still busy working. “I believe I should play my part as well sister.”

“Of course, Luna,” Celestia nodded, having an inkling of what Luna planned. There were two flashes, one gold, the other deep blue, and the balcony was empty once more.

-----------------------

The world was made of pain. I tried my hardest not to move. To clear this up, let’s make something clear. I’m a normal guy. Home, school and work. Normal. I’ve never been big on sports, and aside from the odd game of football (the one where you actually kick the ball, not the American one), the most extreme or active thing I’ve done is jump off stairs onto the grassy slope below it and take a swing rope into a lake. I’ve never had broken bones, nor major sprains nor pulled muscles, not even a major cut. In fact, I’ve only even been bedridden about three times I can remember.

I have never felt pain like this before. And I sure as hell never want to again.

Everything hurt. Everything.

I remember getting a burn on my hand, a small one, from a kettle, and the sharp pain of stepping on a nail once. Those were somewhat like this. Just everywhere at once. I had made the mistake of shifting my hand, and between the shooting pain lancing from my limb to core and the screaming of nerves that apparently thought they were exposed, I almost blacked out and quickly decided that stillness was the new black that season. Call me a wimp if you want, but I did not like pain.

Stillness meant that the steady pain of everything was all I had to deal with. I couldn’t even think straight. The gaps between the pulses of far less than desirable sensations, in sync with my heartbeat, were hardly enough to let me focus. After my thoughts got stuck on the idea that I couldn’t think straight, I sort of gave up on thinking hard. And I’m not kidding. I told myself ‘I can’t think straight’ about ten times before I realized I was doing it. After I lost track of the count of my breaths, I gave up on thinking much at all, focusing more on wishing for the pain to end.

Against all odds, it did. Not totally, and certainly not right way, but it was noticeable. It started with something touching my forehead. From that point, blessed cool relief started to spread through my body, soothing the burning, easing the pain, relaxing the joints as well. I moaned with relief, but before I could truly enjoy it, I started sinking into darkness again. This time though, it was into natural sleep, one where I could truly rest, not just be tortured with pain.

God, I don’t know if you’re still here, but man, thanks for answering. If you need me, I’ll be sleeping…

-----------------------

“Dammit, Caleb! Give it here!” Julia cried out in frustration as I danced just outside her reach, darting backwards each time she lunged for the package in my hand. “Quit being a dick and give me my frigging mail!”

“Tsk, tsk; such language! How unbecoming of a young lady of your station!” I scolded my sister mockingly. Across the room, Richard was laughing his heart out, so I decided to bring him in on the action. “Have you ever heard such words coming from a delicate flower!”

“If you don’t give it to me, this delicate flower’s gonna kick your ass!” Julia raged.

So I tossed it over her head towards Richard, who deftly caught it. I didn’t doubt he would. Aside from being on the basket ball team, keep away was pretty much a daily activity between the three of us.

Richard picked up on the teasing quickly, making his own observation. “I’m not sure if it’s a delicate flower or a market girl.”

“Perhaps there is still hope for her reform,” I said with theatrical concern. Weird… it felt like someone was watching.

“That’s it! I’m going to beat the crap out of both-.”

“What’s going on this time?” my father’s voice interrupted, calling out from the front door as he and mom came in, their shopping trip finished.

“Hey, Dad, Hi Mom,” Richard and I chorused. It wasn’t like they left four hours ago to get eggs or anything.

“They took my mail and don’t want to give it back!” Julia complained. I crossed my fingers. It was a hit and miss chance with Dad. He might tell us to give it back, Command (yes, capital C command) us to return it, or join in on the fun. So miss, miss and hit.

“Boys, stop harassing your sister and give us a hand with the groceries,” he said with a smile.

“Fine, Dad,” we chorused again. So; miss. I looked around a bit. It was that feeling again. Richard bounced the box over to Julia, who caught it in a less than deft manner, scowling at us.

“You know your sister lives for the care packages she gets from her boyfriend,” Dad continued.

Julia’s flustered look set us all off as Richard and I jogged out to get the dozen and half or so bags needed to hold the ‘eggs and milk’ they went out to buy. It took us a few trips, and after the first one we split the run, Richard going from walkway to kitchen, I carrying the bags from the car to the walkway.

They must have been heavier than I thought, because my limbs were burning as I got the last of the bags. I paused, looking around as the hairs on the back of my head stood on end. Bizarre. Anyway, got to get these…

… to the library. In the seamless transitions only a dream can pull off, I was lugging bags of costly manuscripts up to the library’s second floor. Everything was burning, but everything was freezing; a juxtaposition of sensations if there ever was one. Then the stairs fell away as the world erupted into churning light and I was falling, no, propelled downwards by a force that pressed against me from all sides, even the inside. Faster and faster, ever faster. Forcing my head around despite the intense pressure, I could see a light at the end rushing to meet me.

I screamed.

-----------------------

“Aaargh!” I yelled, bolting upright from the bed, covers falling aside; the air chill against my skin because of the transition from being tucked under warm bed sheets to being exposed to the open air. And my head was spinning.

“Ahhh…. Shagga…” I groaned. Right… I was dreaming. One of those rather strong ones were you don’t realize you were dreaming until you woke up. That was a dream about… yesterday, actually. Julia got mail from her boyfriend who was out of town for university.

I wanted to shake the cobwebs from my head, but I figured that would make the headache worse. Aches… right… I was in pain. The eclipse. What the hell happened? I screwed my eyes shut and tried to rebuild what I could recall. The eclipse started acting seriously bizarre, the books and manuscripts glowing, the floor warping, and then the falling.

“Gah!” This was so frustrating; I couldn't make sense of it all. I winced as I shifted my position. I was still hurting, but nowhere near as bad as I was before. “Man… this must be what clothes feel like after a tumble dry…”

That brought another thought to mind. I was too cold. And I could feel the sheets resting on my legs and under my rump. I finally started to look around. The room was a decent size; around fifteen feet by fifteen feet in total. The walls were alabaster, or at least what I thought was alabaster, pale at the highest point, darkening as it reached the floor, and the ceiling was about ten feet over my head. Wow.

There was a single window, set in the wall as far as my casual scan of the surroundings could tell, one door on the wall opposite it, framed with pillars that I would guess and say were greekish looking. Architecture was never my thing. The door was pale blue and solid looking. The bed I was on was a bit small, so I would call it a single mattress, and the sheets matched the door. Most concern to me, though, was the fact that I didn’t have a lick of clothes on my body.

I just sat in silence, staring down at the sheets, a dozen thoughts racing across my mind as the subconscious occupied itself with sorting through the images of the room for later review. The down side of a dozen racing thoughts was that it was hard to find a coherent one. All I could muster was a shaky, “What?”

A click and rustle drew my attention to the door, in time to see it swing open so I could see the deviants that were my captors. My mind was more than happy to come up with a half dozen variations, but I can tell you, none of them included a trio of animals in gold armour.

My mind stuttered, failing for a moment, but tried to make up for it by guessing at what they were. Let’s see… equines, but the sound their feet, hooves, made on the ground, combined with the solidness of said limbs (deer and goats were a bit more dainty, in my opinion). It added ponies(?), based on size. But aside from that, they were… odd. Large eyes, shorter and more defined muzzles than what I expected.

The first two in flanked the door. The one with blue fur, and grey tail and crest looked ‘normal’, the fur colour notwithstanding, but his opposite was a pure white with blue crest and tail, and wings… A pegasus… a legitimate, if tiny, pegasus. The next to walk in was just as astounding; grey with white tail and crest, and a horn on its forehead. A unicorn. A damn unicorn.

“Announcing; Princess Celestia!” the unicorn declared. Yeah… my brain hit the brakes there. It was one thing to see weird coloured ponies, and two creatures from out of legend, but I really didn’t expect them to talk, even if the accent was odd. My brain was still rebooting when a fourth figure entered.

Majestic was the word that my faltering brain managed. Pure white fur, wings and horn, bizarre three coloured hair and tail that floating in the air like it was a special effect. I even felt warm, both mentally and physically just being around her. Maybe that had something to do with the sun tattooed on her… rear. She had golden foot(hoof?)wear on her legs, a heavy gold necklace or collar thing around the base of her long neck, and a crown, I kid you know, a genuine crown (or perhaps tiara) on her head, both with a large purple gem in it. Then she spoke to me.

“Hello, Strange One.” Her voice was… lovely. It was gentle, soothing and warm. “Can you understand me?”

I did the one of the only two or three sensible things someone confronted with talking ponies and things from mythology, in a strange room and butt naked would do; gathered up the sheets to my chest and squeaked out one word. “What?”

Stranger in a Strange Land

View Online

I suppose that I should be grateful she took my little squeak to be a request for her to repeat herself rather than the expression of shock and confusion it was. “I was asking if you could understand me, but it seems that you can, which is most fortunate.”

At this point, though my brain had restored itself to relatively functional levels, there were still a few important subroutines impaired, and some were running incorrectly. Of course, parts of my mind also saw it appropriate to point out that my cell phone was gone, probably to the same place where my pants were. Not sure why I thought that was important information to remark on.

I nodded at Celes, er, Princess Celestia. I have no idea how… ponies could have their own kingdom. I did geography. As far as I could recall, there weren’t any areas left unexplored and seen by either human or electronic eyes in the sky large enough to have a kingdom of ponies with a princess. It didn’t help that the accent they were speaking was unlike any I had heard before. I had experienced a few accents. But here they were; English speaking ponies.

I realized I was getting lost in my thoughts and my gaze was wandering, and snapped it back to the princess. The guards behind her, at least, I was assuming they were guards, were being quite generous with the stern looks they aimed in my direction, so I tried to school my expressions into something akin to rapt attention. I think it came out as wide-eyes terror instead, but hey, I tried.

Celestia was perceptive, and she seemed able to read my facial expressions and body language some. “Are you still injured? Perhaps an injury to your head? Can you speak?”

See? It seemed like she noticed the outward signs of my roaming thoughts. I shook my head, a bit gingerly, since it was still hurting. The issue of talking ponies was still bothering me, but I tried to swallow it. Talking ponies might not be the main issue at the moment. Which was actually a fairly terrifying thought; the more I dwelled on it. Oh God, what if the talking ponies was the least of my issues? A dozen other scenarios played through my mind; a stroke, six kinds of mental delusions, an elaborate ploy by kidnappers, the end of the world, that I was actually dead and this was some bizarre form of the afterlife.

I started hyperventilating and the pounding in my ears intensified as my heart rate skyrocketed. The edges of my vision starting getting blurry and I could feel moisture spilling from the corners of my eyes. The voices of the others, the ponies, in the room sounded as if they were coming from a great distance.

“Perhaps this was too soon for it.”

“Forgive me, Princess. But when we heard it’s cries, we assumed it was well enough.”

“Hmm… call for the healers.”

It was around there that I passed out again.

-----------------------

They were all around me, even though the room was empty. I could feel them watching me, goosebumps all over my skin. I curled up into a ball, cradling my head in my hands, eyes tightly pressed shut, hands clamped to my ears. But they were the ghost spots behind my eyelids and the whispers in my head.

They found me again. First when I was falling. I felt there interest. And there astonishment. To torment me, they came, lurking behind my eyes, beneath my skin. Watching; just watching. But I wasn’t sure if they would be content with watching. You could only watch so much before you were driven to act. And they were watching so intently. So intently.

I huddled, drawing into myself, tighter. She walked past me, I could tell, even with my eyes shut. Around me, then away, further and further. I wanted to reach for her, but they were watching, inching closer. Dad couldn’t stop them, though he would have tried. Richard would be helpless, even Julia would be useless. Only me, just me, no one else. My voice. Cracking, strained. “Help…”

And then, there was a comforting presence. It was neither a warm one nor an all that particularly inviting; but it was simply soothing and calming. The goosebumps and whispers eased away as it surrounded me. Even as I slipped once again into a restful state, there was a question it brought with it.

“What are you?”

And for some reason, I didn’t think I had an answer for it.

-----------------------

Luna emerged from her trance, the glow fading from her horn as she blinked; senses and awareness leaving the astral plane and settling on the material. As they did, she became aware of the room more acutely; the thick purple rug she rested on, the soft evening light drifting in through the window, the shelf of books on the far wall, and her sister reading scrolls only a few feet away from her. Celestia was waiting patiently, her magenta eyes calmly alternating between scanning the scrolls suspended in her gold magic and watching Luna, waiting for her response. Luna sighed.

“It’s dreams are muddled,” she reported to the Princess of the Day.

“His,” Celestia correctly gently.

“What?” Luna said blinking with surprise, her head pulling back slightly.

“His dreams,” Celestia said, explaining her comment. “The doctors that examined him are quite certain he is, well, a he, based on his anatomy.” Celestia didn’t even blush at the implied image, though her sister slightly did.

“Very well, his dreams,” Luna said, not letting herself get distracted by those thoughts. “They are… confused. Some parts are dreams, some parts are memories, others are night terrors. They mesh in his mind, and the resulting confusion made it impossible to find the answers to my questions.”

“Did you, really?” Celestia asked.

Luna narrowed her eyes at her sister. “What are you implying? Do you doubt me?”

Celestia rolled the scroll and set it aside before answering. “No, Luna, I do not. I have no reason to think you would have gotten an answer were you have stated you have not. However, there are answers to unasked questions you may have received. Is that not true?”

Luna stubbornly held out for a few more moments, before deflating. “Fear. Fear and confusion muddle his dreams.”

Celestia sighed, closing her eyes. This event was far more complicated than she would have liked, yet she knew that it was highly unlikely for it to be any other way. Complications were the only possible result of this situation. “Twilight Sparkle has sent me the preliminary assessments of the phenomena.” Luna chirped, though her interest was guarded. “As expected, both Solar and Lunar magics were prevalent, as to be expected from something that used our horns as focus.

“But the troubling points are connected. The type of magic is an integration of solar and lunar magic in a manner she admits to being unfamiliar with–”

“Magic your student does not know?” Luna said, her eyes widening with surprised. “That is troubling.”

Celestia nodded her agreement to the point. True, she still held back a few secrets from Twilight, magic she did not want her student to learn, whether yet if at all, but the fact was that Twilight was quite well read, and more times than not learned things on her own. “She, and the others studying it, believe it to be the traces of a spatial translocation spell, or something similar.”

“A teleportation spell? Using our magic?” Luna was suspicious.

“That is by far the most trouble part. It used Solar and Luna magic, and held traces of ours, but the core magic powering it was foreign. Solar and Lunar magic not our own,” Celestia said.

“Preposterous!” Luna snapped, surging to her hooves, nostrils flaring, a hint of the royal Canterlot in her tones. “The Sun and the Moon are ours! To rip such power from them for magics such as that… NAY! It is impossible to do such a thing without us being aware!”

“As I thought as well, sister,” Celestia said. “Yet the evidence is in our gardens, and laying in one of our chambers.”

A cryptic statement, no matter how true it was. It forestalled any chance of further discussion, instead inspiring introspection and reflection on the part of the sisters, each one getting drawn up into their own thoughts. After a few minutes of that silence, Luna wrapped the scroll Celestia set aside in her own aura, picking it up and starting to read.

-----------------------

I woke up in a more gradual fashion this time. I might have nodded off again if it were not for the tingling that gripped my chest and head lightly and delicately, ripples of it spreading and contracting in and out of my extremities in a relaxed pattern that reminded me of soft breathing. The bizarreness of the sensation, though it wasn’t an unpleasant one, it what roused me fully.

Grumbling, I squirmed a bit in the bed, trying to draw the covers tight over myself. I heard someone move to one side of my bed, making a contemplative sound. Opening one eye, I glared weakly at the person who what interrupting my rest. A turquoise pony, a yellow glow around a small horn on its forehead, sat beside my bed, watching me intently. Turquoise and white, actually. There was a word for that pattern.

“GAH!” I yelled (because screaming wasn’t quite manly), flinching away and rolling off the other side of the small bed. Also; ‘gah’ wasn’t the word I was looking for.

“WAH!” the pony screamed in reply (because it was a turquoise pony and quite obviously could not be manly) and skittered a few steps back.

Personally, I was somewhat stunned from my fall from the bed and groaned a bit before freeing a hand from the tangle of sheets and pulling myself high enough to look over the bed at the pony. It was muttering something to itself, tapping a hoof to its chest a few times as it did, look just like any other person recovering from a shock.

“Puh… Puh… Pinto!” I stuttered, pointing at him. I swear, that wasn’t what I wanted to say. I was more marveling at the normality of its reaction, but the word for that fur pattern surged unbidden to the tip of my tongue, and there was no way to stop it from coming out.

“By the sun, it speaks!” the pony snapped back in an irritated and sarcastic tone. I realized that was I was calling an accent wasn’t so much of an accent as it was the inevitable result of speaking with the equine anatomy. This epiphany was mostly due to the fact that this pony had what was undeniably a British accent, or at least one from that general section of the globe. I couldn’t pinpoint it any better than that, since my experience was mostly television. Still, I realized my reaction was a bit on the rude side.

“S-sorry,” I managed, swallowing the nervous spit that had pooled in my mouth. “I’m.. I’m not used to this…”

“I would hope not,” the horse creature said. I decided it was a guy, going by his voice. It, er, he walked closer to the bed, rambling on in his accent that reminded me of one of the actors from a Doctor Who or Torchwood episode. “The residual mana from that bit of magic you did was reakingall kinds of havoc on your body. At least, as much as the healers could tell of you. The Princess had me come down and purge as much of it as I could. You woke while I was finishing up.”

He ended his little report looking down at me with those large blue eyes, still looking slightly irritated. “I can’t exactly do my task if you cower behind the cot. It is difficult working on something I have never seen before! Up, up!”

“M-magic?” I said. I had a talking unnaturally coloured pony telling me about magic. For some reason I didn’t find reason to doubt him. I slowly got up for him anyway, holding on to the sheet as an impromptu covering. “You’re… I… what are you?”

He made an exasperated sound, rolling his eyes. “Pinto ponies, even unicorns, aren’t that uncommon.” He pointed his horn at me and a soft rose glow covered it, making me flinch. “You act like you have never sense one before.”

“I… I mean… ponies don’t talk… and… I haven’t,” I admitted lamely.

“Never… seen a pony?” The pinto unicorn stuttered and floundered for words for a while, making me shift uncomfortably. He finally settled on a mixed expression I wasn’t sure how to read. Mingled suspicion, confusion with a bit of… fear? I was guessing. “I see… well, the magic contamination is gone, so you should be better off. I’ll tell the Princess you’re ready to meet with her.”

“Hey, wait!” I tried, but the pinto was already leaving at a pace somewhat faster than would be expected, muttering to himself as he did. The door to the room opened as he approached, and shut just as easily behind him. I watched him leave with mingled confusion of my own.

No time for that. It was painfully clear I was in some serious trouble. Talking ponies? Magic? Unicorns and pegasi? Winged unicorns? None of this was making sense. Standing around wasn’t going to do me any good, so I started pacing, rigging the sheet into something like a toga. I had done it for a party once, but it was harder without pins to hold everything in place, and without underwear to alleviate some of the fears of slippage.

-----------------------

A knock on the door interrupted the ruminations of the two alicorns, forcing them out of their introspections. This being Celestia’s study, she went to see who desired her time, waving a hoof at Luna and motioning for her to keep her seat.

Luna watched her sister head to the door, her typical regality in her every movement. How her sister could appear to be at such ease was beyond her. Personally, she was still conflicted with the situation.

The phenomena, as Celestia had taken to calling it, was a major magic effect. The impact, the amount of raw magic, crudely focused and released when it occurred was shocking. Even more so because she could tell it was the remnants of the real power behind the spell, yet it had been enough to carve a crater in the gardens, hurl members of the guard off their hooves and even stagger two alicorns. Luna was fully expecting that day’s session of court to be filled with people demanding to know what caused a magic burst on that scale. How did anything take, steal, that much power from them without them noticing?

Luna’s thoughts moved back to the image she saw in the sky, the sun, with the moon obscuring it. A familiar shudder rippled through her form, her ears flipping back with distaste. She didn’t let her emotions get away with her though, closing her eyes and slowing her breathing. That wasn’t her moon in the sky. Though she still felt the moon when she saw it, the link was muted. That knowledge, combined with the carefully written words from her sister’s student led her conclusions.

The magic required to move the moon and sun was beyond a unicorn, and the spell needed to do it was one the general population lost ages ago, a complex and intricate structure that thought second nature to her, would baffle most average scholars. It was silly of her to think that the creature they found did it.

Part of her couldn’t let go of it, though.

“It seems as if our guest has awoken once more,” Celestia’s voice said, cutting into Luna’s thoughts.

Luna jolted. “What was that?”

“Spell Patch’s summary. They sent a report,” Celestia responded, a hoofful of sheets floating before her.

Luna’s mind supplied the image of a pinto unicorn and his common demeanor of being slightly affronted. “The field spellsupport?”

“That is the one. He is not the best thaumatic researcher, but his instincts on spell patterns are uncanny,” Celestia said. Spell Patch had introduced new ways for joint spellwork, rather; rediscovered old ways that fell out of favour, thanks to his talent.

“He sent the thaumatic readings down to the research group, but he writes that what he sensed during the general treatment was like the mana intrusion and toxicity caused by poorly channeled spells.” Celestia sighed. “It seems more answers we get, the more questions we find.”

“Sister, it has only been a day. We both know this will not be easily or quickly solved.” Luna looked away; out through the windows, past the balcony and at the horizon. “Even I have my reservations on this matter, but concede to your point that my initial reaction was rash. But perhaps you need to calm yourself as well, sister. Your altruism makes you conflicted between wanting to protect our subjects as well as help this strange one that appeared.”

Celestia looked at her sister, not expecting that response from her, before following Luna’s gaze out to the horizon, her expression contemplative. “You may be right, little sister. Very well, I will have to speak with this one. Our first encounter was… premature, I can see that now. Looking at the reports from the healers and researchers, it was rash of me to act when I did, but perhaps now I can have a proper conversation with him. Spell Patch has proven the creature understands and can communicate with us. Only then can my decisions be fair.”

“In the meanwhile, I will be preparing for my night court,” Luna said. “I still have my doubts, but I will support your decision.”

“Thank you, Luna,” Celestia smiled, before musing out loud on her next course of action. “Perhaps it would be best to eschew the guards this time.”

-----------------------

I started taking better stock of the room than I did before as my thoughts tried to arrive at a conclusion. Since I was lacking my glasses, I had missed some of the details in the room. The paint on the wall was actually an intricate mosaic of subtle shading, almost dabbled, rather than a plain colour. There was a doorway hidden in the blind spot my previous look around held, and it revealed itself to lead into a washroom when I peeked in. It held a sink and curious trough in the rear. Judging by the tank mounted above it on the wall and the pull chain, it would have to be a toilet.

You could tell a lot about a person (or people) by their washroom. The sink was lower than I expected, as was where the tank was mounted and the dangle of the chain. I recalled the cot, and backed out of the washroom to confirm my suspicions. It was pretty low too. More suited for the height of, say, the pony that came in?

“I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore,” I murmured to myself, distress and confusion increasing in my bemused and distracted state.

“Kansas?” someone asked from behind him.

“Line from a mo- GAH!” my response started automatically to the question, and quickly turned into a yelp when something large and white loomed in the edges of my field of vision. I clutched at my chest; much like the pinto pony unicorn did earlier. It was the same big on from earlier; with both wings and a horn. And a full set of golden shoes. Something, er, someone that big with metal things on their hooves should not be that quiet.

“Ah, I did not intend to startle you,” the large white horse, Princess Celestia, I recalled, said. Or was she also a pony? “But after our last meeting, I decided it would be wiser to do without the herald this time.” She looked at me in silence for a moment. “Spell Patch reported that the residual magic that was working havoc on your body is cleared away and you should be feeling much better.”

“Spell Patch?” I asked before I realized who she was talking about. “You mean the… unicorn that was here earlier?” The word tasted a bit odd in my mouth. But I realized she was right. The headache that was present the last time I woke was eased and most of the aches were gone as well. I stretched my arms and rolled my shoulders a few times. Noticing the princess watching me, I stopped and lowered my arm nervously. “Uh, thank you, um, Princess.”

“Oh that’s quite alright,” she said with a warm smile, though the way she ended the sentence sounded as if she wanted to say more. The slightly embarrassed look on her face confirmed it. “Forgive me, but I don’t know what to call you. Or what you are, on that subject,” she admitted. “It has been quite the conundrum for my sister in particular.”

I was stunned and, in a way, terrified as well. I swallowed before slowly asking another question. “You… you’ve never seen a human before? Heard of one?”

“A human?” Princess Celestia asked curiously, playing with the sound of the word like a novel new toy. “Is that what you are? No, I am afraid I have not.”

I am afraid I have not. For a moment, I couldn’t muster a reaction, just stood there, stoic, holding a crucial corner of my makeshift toga. It hadn’t been one of the scenarios my mind presented. Rather; it was; but it had been discarded as being impossible. Three episodes of Stargate and two stories of Doctor Who came to mind, and no, the implications behind them were far from pleasant. What hardly more volume than a whisper, words came from my lips. “Never heard… of a human?”

Princess Celestia blinked, as if uncertain at this response from the strange one that turned up unexpectedly and wound up under her wing. She carefully considered her response. “No, Little one,” she said softly, graceful steps taking her closer to me, a hoof tilting my head to look into her eyes. Magenta, not a colour I thought eyes outside of Japanese animation came in. “I have lived for a long time, and learn many things, but never of a human. But that same time had taught me many things, and not even I can say I recall all of those lessons.”

A part of me wondered just what she meant by a long time, but for now, that part of me was buried somewhere under my shell shocked conscious thoughts. When she saw that a response wasn’t all that forth coming from me, she prompted me for one. “Come, Little One. What happened to you? Do you remember?”

I snapped out of my fugue state somewhat, blinking a few times and staggering back, my left hand slowly rising to run over my forehead and hair. “Books… The library, I mean. I was… working in the library. Setting up the Easchermann display.” My thoughts were like molasses, both in trying to remember and in trying to stay focused, but was quickly clearing as I forced myself to put sense to them.

“I see,” the Princess said, encouraging me. I took a breath, flinching again when she spoke.

'Focus on what happened, remember it, not on the talking pony,’ I told myself. I exhaled slowly, and ran the thoughts through my head again. “The eclipse,” I said finally. Princess Celestia took a sharp intake of breath at that. I didn’t notice. I focused on one patch of the ground before me and used it as a blank slate to visualize the past. “I heard music… and the eclipse… fire or something came down from it. Light… It hit the display I set up… then I remember falling…”

Falling, seeing things flashing by, feeling pressure alongside intense heat and cold. I clenched the sheet tighter at just the memory of it, shooting Princess Celestia a look of mingled confusion and accusation. “Where the hell am I?”

She chose not to take offense to me swearing at her. “You are in Canterlot.” Confusion became the dominant flavour of my expression, and she obligingly answered the unspoken question it conveyed. “Canterlot Castle, the home of my sister and I, the Princesses of Day and Night; the capital of Equestria.”

There was little hesitation in her tone and her eyes looked honest. But I didn’t know what she was talking about. None of it sounded familiar.

“No… no, no, no….” I murmured, shaking my head, backing away from her. “This is Kent. Ontario. Canada.”

“Oh, Little One,” Celestia said softly. “I had my suspicions, from when I first felt the fluctuations in the magic, and the reports from my little ponies, and your own words seem to confirm it.” She closed her eyes, and I looked sharply at her, her pause not inspiring confidence. There was no way I going to like what she would say next.

“It would seem as if you are a visitor to us. Somehow you managed to travel from this Canada you spoke of, to our world. The traces are all over you. Twilight Sparkle suspected it, and Spell Patch verified it with his scans. You are foreign to his world. Whatever happened to you, it took you from your Canada and brought you here to Equis.”

Travel… between worlds? Foreign? Equis? From my place, home, to this one? With unicorns and ponies and pegasi and magic. I collapsed, the weight of it all becoming too much for me, slumping, defeated to the chill stone floor, staring at the patch of floor between my legs.

Eventually, it started getting blurry, and I thought something was going wrong with my vision. It was only when the first drop splashed on the stone I realized it was tears pooling, obscuring my vision. When I realized that, they started flowing freely; silent tears coursing down my cheeks, occasionally dripping to splash on the ground or soak into the sheets.

“We will work on this together,” Princess Celestia said from outside my wet and limited field of vision. “We have reasons to be involved in this as well, and will help you as best we can, Strange One.”

I sniffed hard, snorting the mucus tears generate, rubbing at my eyes with the back of my hand. "Caleb.”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Celestia asked.

“My name,” I said, this time at a more average level. “Caleb Blakely.”

“Caleb,” Celestia said softly. “Very well. Though the circumstances are less than favourable; welcome to Equis and to Equestria, Caleb Blakely.”

In For The Long Run

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It was quiet. It was pretty much always quiet. And I was getting weary of trying to find pictures and shapes in the patterned paint on the walls of the room that officially became mine after the talk with Princess Celestia that changed everything. Or should that be Changed Everything? I mused on it. “It does have more impact if I capitalize it. And I could really use a ball… bounce it off the walls… play a little hand ball. Or racketless squash…”

I sighed and rolled over on the bed. I didn’t want to sleep. The dreams were unsettling. And I didn’t want to head out. Princess Celestia had technically given me the right to roam in certain areas of the castle, but only with one of my new best friends from the royal guard.

It wouldn’t be so bad if they were less like the ceremonial guards they had at the Governor House or Buckingham Palace. Only one of them, a unicorn named Night Watch, I think it was, would talk much, and he only had night shifts. It was hard telling the guards apart, but since he was the only one willing to carry a conversation, he was easy to pick out. I suspected they used magic for uniformity among the soldiers.

Yeah, I had pretty much accepted magic as a thing by that point. After one of the unicorn guards caught me up in his telekinetic field and pulled me back from a restricted area on the second night, I got over the scepticism. That wasn’t to say I didn’t have a fair share of knee jerk denial moments.

Thinking about the shifts and nights brought another fact to mind. I’d been here in Equestria for six days. Almost a full week. It turns that my first unproductive visit from the Princess had taken place more than a day after my ‘arrival’ in the gardens. Before I first woke up, I had been in a comatose state, which likely meant the trip over was even rougher than I remembered and thought. After that, I passed out for another nine or so hours. Oh, it turns out that they use twenty-four hour days here as well. I wasn’t complaining.

It killed me wondering what my family, my parents were thinking. Did they think I was just missing? Did they think I died? I sort of remembered fire falling from the sky. Did the library get burned down? Did Amanda get out or was she caught up in it or dragged to some other world like I was?

“Shut up. I’m not helping anything worrying about the ‘what ifs’ right now!” I yelled, slapping my forehead with both hands. An action I immediately regretted. “Ow…”

The door to my room opened and a blue head capped with grey crested helm poked in. “Are you alright?”

“I am, sorry,” I sighed at the guard. “Just… airing some grievances. Nothing to worry about.”

The guard didn’t look one hundred percent convinced, but his expression did shift from suspicious to sceptical. I wasn’t sure if I should label him attentive, or just nosey. Attentive was politically correct, so I stuck with that one.

“In any case, word has been sent that you are to have an audience with the Princesses. You will be joining them for the evening meal,” the guard said. He didn’t sound thrilled with the fact, and I can’t say I blamed him. Strange dude falls from the sky and now, a couple days later, he’s having dinner with royalty? Maybe it was one of those ‘Guess who’s coming to dinner’ moments.

“Great,” I said cheerfully. Evening meal would be dinner, but I wasn’t sure how much time I had. I didn’t have my watch (another victim of the stripping they subjected me to) and there were no clocks in the room. Besides, they had been bringing my meals to the room. “How much time do I have to get ready?”

“Slightly more than an hour,” the guard said. He eyed my outfit and smirked a little. “You might want to use that time to make yourself presentable.”

On that note, he left. I had to smirk at the jab. The clothes I fell to Equestria in had not come through in perfect condition, nor had it been treated all that gently since then. When Celestia asked about my sheet toga, I managed to impart to her the importance of dress. She actually had someone put together two outfits for me. Neither fit particularly well, and neither were particularly comfortable, but they were clothes. Even if it was just a two jackets, a set of shorts that didn’t quite sit will around the middle. No, I didn’t get into the ‘men don’t wear skirts’ thing with her. I did get my glasses back though.

Um… Princess Celestia. I really needed to stop fudging her title. I just wasn’t used to thinking about leaders with their titles attached.

I chased those thoughts away and went to get ready. The washroom didn’t have a shower or bath, so I splashed the best I could in the sink, using the floral scented soap liberally before taking the more formal of my outfits out. The jacket looked nice; a rich dark blue with a white collar, but it was still somewhat uncomfortable, mainly how the neck and shoulders sat. I shrugged and pushed the thought aside.

Better than being naked. I wandered back to the main portion of the room and sat back on the bed, doing my best to stay still and calm. My thoughts would not stop racing, but I at least focused on herding them. First and foremost among them was what Princess Celestia wanted to speak of. I hadn’t seen much of her since the last meeting when I broke down in tears, which was admittedly not one of my better moments. I could understand why, she did have a nation to run, after all.

But still my doubts and insecurities had been growing over the past few days. The biggest issue was ‘could I get home or not’. I didn’t know what I would do if it was no. Or even if it was yes. How would I explain where I had been these past few days? My left leg started twitching, the agitated motion causing the cot to squeak incessantly.

Even if was possible for me to head home, would they let me? No part of me thought that travel between worlds was something cheap. Could the Princess afford to spend the kind of money, or investment, sending me home would take? It wasn’t like I was of any use to them. I wasn’t someone with power or even money. I didn’t even have any value as an ambassador or anything like that. I didn’t know how I got here in the first place, and considering the trip almost killed me from mana poisoning, something my muscles stilled ached slightly over and Spell Patch came back to check on twice so far, it didn’t seem practical.

My mental dalliance burned the time away, and before I knew it, the regular pony guard was opening the door. Earth Pony, I corrected myself. I had learned at least that much.

“Your escort is waiting,” the guard said. I followed him out and blinked nervously at the unicorn that waited.

“Hey, Stranger,” the unicorn guard said in a cheerfully familiar voice. “All ready?”

“Night Watch!” I said. A bit of the tension that had been building drained away.

“Who else do you think would get the job?” he asked in his pleasantly jovial manner. I had gotten the distinct impression that not everyone was pleased with his vocal habits, but I was glad for it. A talking guard was far less intimidating that a silent one. “Come on, then.”

He moved off at a decent pace and I was a slight bit pressed to keep up. We headed to a section of the castle I was unfamiliar with, though that did describe a lot of the castle. I didn’t bother trying to remember all of the twists and turns, but eventually he opened a set of large doors and ushered me into a small hall.

“Ah, Night Watch. And Mr. Caleb Blakely,” Twilight said, looking up. She was the only person in the room at the moment, and had three sheets of paper floating in front of her, encased in the same purple glow that covered her horn.

I grinned at the sight. Magic was pretty awesome. “Just Caleb is fine.”

“Caleb then,” she said, motioning to me to come and sit with a hoof as she packed her notes away.

“So… do you know why the Princess asked me to come, Miss Sparkle?” I asked as I accepted her invitation and took the cushion beside her, marveling at the range of movement the ponies had with their limbs. It was on par with a regular hand. I hadn’t spent much time around her really, but I had been introduced to her. She was Princess Celestia’s apprentice, pretty much, and apparently recognized as a genius in her generation.

At the time of our introduction, she had been working with the other ponies researching the place I fell. I don’t remember what Princess Celestia told me they were called, something like the Thaumatic Institute, but they were supposed to be the experts at that sort of thing. As Night Watch explained it to me later; Twilight wasn’t actually a part of the hierarchy, but her prestige was enough that she was pretty much an outside expert.

“It’s something they would rather tell you about themselves, and not my place to comment on quite yet,” Twilight said, her eyes flicking back. “And please, it’s Twilight.”

“Um… okay?” I shrugged and looked around the room. Night Watch had stayed by the door, and gave me a little smile when he noticed me looking at him. I really did prefer him over the other guards. He seems a bit more human. Well, pony? He was more relatable than the other stoic ones.

The room itself was nice, even some stained glass windows letting in some light. It seemed they really liked that style. The room was pale blue and airy, with columns worked into the wall, crystals of some sort set at the point where they met the roof.

“Where are we, anyway, Miss Spa, sorry, Twilight?” I asked.

“This is the Princesses’ private dining hall,” Twilight responded, smiling slightly at my slip with the name, but having the air of someone ready to teach.

“Oh, I see. Makes…” the implications of it hit me as I was making the polite nods and response and I started panicking. “Wait… Princesses? There are more than one? And private dining hall? Should I even be in here?”

“You are here because we invited you,” a familiar voice said. Familiarity didn’t make my reaction to Celestia suddenly speaking up from behind me any less dramatic, and I almost fell over, caught between a jerk and a jump. Twilight rising to bow didn’t make me feel any better, and I hurriedly, and awkwardly made a bow of my own.

“Hello again, Princess Celestia,” Twilight said respectfully.

“That really isn’t necessary,” Celestia smiled, shaking her head slowly at the two of us. I looked up cautiously, immediately noticing a second winged unicorn behind her. She was shorter than Celestia, with a dark blue coat and black regalia, a moon on a dark backdrop adoring her flanks.

Right… Celestia mentioned she had a sister. In passing, but she mentioned it. “Hello…. We never met. I’m Caleb.”

“Forgive me,” she said, her voice slightly deeper than Celestia, as she took one of the cushions. “I profess to having prior knowledge of you, thought you would not have that benefit. I am the Princess of the Night, the joint ruler of Equestria.”

“There is no reason to panic, Caleb,” Celestia said, finding amusement at the look of shock on my face.

“No offense, but you two… you’re the rulers of a magic nation,” I stammered. I felt uncomfortable eating around the head of my department at work. This was an entirely different class of anxiety.

“Be at ease,” Luna said, waving a hoof at me. “While we may have called her here, there is no ned for you to be distressed.”

“For now, let us simply talk,” Celestia said, picking up on were her sister left off. “To start with; how are you finding Equestria?”

I shrugged, finding the whole thing weird, but we talked. For the most part, the conversation didn’t have a direction, we just touched on topics. For instance, I was startled to find out that my wallet and the rest of the contents of my bag had made it across to Equestria with me, and many were curious about the cards inside.

I had just gotten through the blanket description of ID cards place in human society when the meal was brought in. It was something of the typical mix; a variety of breads, two kinds of berry jams, three kinds of salad, fruits, nuts and a platter of eggs. There was a side cart with some pastries for the dessert course, a tub aside them. There was a jug of water and another of a berry medley for beverages.

I still wasn’t sure how these ponies ate eggs, but I wasn’t complaining. We ate as the conversation progressed, though I had a nagging feeling that it was merely filler, bidding time to the true issue. Watching them eat was curious though, utensils and food floating over plates engulfed in blue, gold and purple auras. It made me wonder how pegasi and earth ponies used them.

I just grabbed the forks provided and eat. One think I had to give to them; the food in Equestria tasted a lot better than back at home. I always did like fruits and vegetables, but these… these were like those meals you stumble across in that special little place and would remember for years later. The first time I ate something, Princess Celestia thought I was getting sick going off the blissful expression on my face. On the other hand, a lot of their breads were drier than I liked and a lot of things had Daffodils. It didn’t taste bad, but it was a trace bit bitter. I suppose you couldn’t win it all. Twilight loved them though.

We keep the conversation going as we eat, the topic naturally moved to human foods, which mean they touched on the fact that humans were omnivores and tended to eat a lot of meat.

“The healers had expressed that concern when they first examined you,” Celestia admitted. “There was much talk about you being a predator.”

“Well…” I had to be careful how I responded to this one. I thought through my words before speaking. “Humans are omnivores, rather than predators, but yes, we eat meat. We don’t hunt them down much, not in most cultures. We raise them on farms. We don’t digest plants as well as some creatures, an issue with the cellulose in the cell walls. But we do need protein sources in our diet.

“Eggs, nuts and beans should suffice though. Some greens too,” I quickly said. I was pretty sure that eggs could supply the essential minerals meat would provide. I wish I paid more attention in the nutrition module. After that, the conversation strayed into the territory of what kinds of plants humans grew, then into the greens in the salad.

“This has been an enlightening talk, I must admit,” Luna said when we were making inroads into the dessert. “But there is another matter we need to address.”

The tub had turned out to be ice cream, a rich vanilla cream; hand, er, hoof churned. As for how it stayed so perfectly soft and child, I didn’t think much on it beside magic tub. Luna’s comment pricked my interest. Were we finally getting to the real issue?

“Is this about me? And going home?” I asked tentatively.

“It is,” Celestia said. She set he piece of cake down. “To be honest, the reports I have been receiving over the past few days have not been promising. Perhaps you would explain it better, Twilight?”

“Well… the fact is we have been getting different results based on what test we subject it to,” Twilight said, drawing a few sheets from her bag. “So far, we have evidence that it was a ritual casting. But at the same time they found cause to consider it a greater wild magic. There is evidence of it being an empathic based spellwork, but so far they found traces of at least four different kinds of empirical and mathematic spell formula entangled in the signatures we drew from the site and from your body. Each test we do seems more likely to confuse the issue than it presents a solution. It doesn’t help that the breach, that’s what they have decided to call it, has steadily lost energy and it now barely a ripple in the metaphysical substructure of the local-”

“Breathe, Twilight, breathe,” Celestia advised as I inched away from her ever so slightly. She was getting more and more harried as she spoke. A strand of her purple hair had even slipped out of place. Twilight looked up sharply, swallowing her next string of words, but nodded and inhaled. “But do you understand, Caleb?”

“I think I get it,” I said slowly. In fact, I was pretty sure did get it. I just didn’t want to. “I did a few labs in college. The research is giving you conflicting results and until you can figure out what those results mean for the experiment overall, or at least determine what factors are causing the skew, it’s pretty much impossible to make real progress in the project.”

Twilight and Luna look at me, surprised. Celestia merely had a slight smile on her face. I shrugged and tried to explain it. “I haven’t really explained anything about how schooling works in my world, but in short; I have a bachelor’s degree, which is something of an optional level of education, and I did a lot of science and research courses to qualify for it.

“But I figure the long and short of where this topic is going is that you don’t have any sure way of helping me, and might not have for a while, right?” I said dejectedly.

“Both yes and no,” Celestia said. Her look forestalled any interjection on my part, and the words died on my tongue, swallowed with the impulse to demand an explanation. “Yes, it is true that there has not been much progress made despite all the efforts, but that does not mean we cannot help you.”

“How?” I asked, desperate. I had come across many research projects in my time in university. Many, if not most of them took time that stretched into years. What was I supposed to do in the mean time? What if they just lost interest in it and just brushed it aside?

“This breach concerns us as much as it does you, so you do not have to fear the subject simply being discarded, your own fate as a result dismissed,” Celestia said, as if reading my mind. Or maybe she was just a good leader and Politian. “But even so, our offer of help is not just limited to helping you find a way home.

“Since you will be here in our world for an indeterminate period of time, Luna and I have decided to offer you residency in Equestria; to treat you as one of our subjects.”

“I’m… what?” If they wanted me to keep up with them, they needed to stop throwing these types of things at me.

“You have been in the castle for a several days,” Celestia continued. “I have had our guards watch you, and saw that while you haven’t been entirely enjoying yourself, a large portion of that was because you became avoiding the ponies that frequent the halls to avoid conflict.”

I winced slightly at that. On my first walk-around, I ran afoul of someone called Prince Blueblood. It had not been a pleasant experience.

“I have also seen you being polite with the castle staff, and civil with the guards. Night Watch here, for one, has had many good things to say about you,” Celestia smile.

I glanced over at the guard in question. He grinned at me, which got me grinning back. Looking back at Celestia, I asked another question. “Is that really enough to go off? I don’t really fit in with the locals…”

“In truth, it isn’t enough to base the decision on,” Luna said, adding her voice to the topic for the first time since she brought it up, “and there is still reason to question you, but my sister has faith in you and your intentions.”

“Thank you, Princess, both of you,” I said, shifting my leg nervously. For some reason, I felt I was still on thin ice with Princess Luna.

“I believe you could be a valuable member of our society, given the chance,” Celestia said.

You know, I was beginning to worry about that nigh-perpetual smile of hers. She was also very nice. She even let me cry on her shoulder, not that I thought about it. Not my best moment there.

“We discussed it with Twilight. Not too far from Canterlot is the small town Ponyville,” Celestia continued, my mental commentary going unnoticed. “Twilight resides there. She and her friends have agreed to watch over you. The town itself has become somewhat experienced to stranger occurrences, and should be far more welcoming than a place like Canterlot would be towards you.”

“Ponyville, Princess?” I said, trying the word on my tongue. It was like calling somewhere ‘Humanville.’ Granted, I had heard of Manstown and similar sounding places, and my home town loved naming the newer streets after trees. Still, I couldn’t help feel that she and her sisters were trying to slip me away to somewhere less noticeable than the palace. My fears about of them sidelining helping me get home came back again. I suppose one reassurance wasn’t enough to totally quell them.

“Ponyville,” Celestia nodded. “My sister and I are not trying to get rid of you. However, we do want you to have something of a life outside of just sitting around the palace, which I could not help but notice you did not quite enjoy. And you can also stay informed on the progress through Twilight.”

My eyes widened. That was seriously creepy; her answering and addressing my unspoken issues like that. “Um… sorry if this is a bit blunt, but you can’t read minds, can you?”

Luna laughed. As in; doubled-over, clutching-at-your-gut laughter. Everyone started chuckling at that; Twilight’s little cute twitters mixing with my nervous chuckles, Night Watch let out a few low snickers and Celestia laughing in a manner that still managed to leave her looking graceful and dignified.

“No, little one,” she finally admitted after the laughter died down a bit. “I simply have had much experience dealing with ponies. And individuals,” she added.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly, grinning slightly. So just insight, not more strange powers. Good, I suppose. “It’s just with all this magic and stuff… I didn’t know.”

“There is no need for you to apologize,” Celestia said.

“You won’t learn if you don’t ask the questions,” Twilight added. “It’s the only way to develop your knowledge.”

“Thanks, Twilight,” I said, feeling a bit less like a fool. “So… when do we leave?”

“You and Twilight will be taking the late train,” Luna said, whipping a tear away. “My, I have not laughed like that in some time. Twilight will help you with your belongings after this. The train leaves not long after I raise the moon.”

“I see,” I nodded. Belongings. I didn’t have much of those anymore. The anomaly of the statement hit me a moment later. “Raise the moon?”

“Of course,” Luna said, defensively. Her ears flicked back slightly and the somewhat cold expression returned. “Is there something wrong with me doing my duties as Princess of the Night? As my sister raises the sun, it falls to me to raise the moon.”

“I thought that was just a title!” I said. Was she serious? Raising the moon and sun? “But the moon… it’s a satellite in orbit… the sun is at the center of the solar system and days are from planetary rotation!”

I was flailing my arms a bit as I tried to impart my point, Twilight being forced to duck at one point to avoid being hit on the horn. I’m not sure who that would have hurt more; her horn or my hand.

“Caleb, the moon and sun don’t move on their own,” Twilight told him. “It takes powerful magic to set them in place each day. It’s part of the role of the Princesses.”

“Perhaps it would be easier if you show him,” Celestia suggested as she rose from the table. “I will take care of the minor details of the day.”

Luna looked contemplative, but nodded. “Very well, then.”

It didn’t take them long to get up from the table, and I was pretty much taken with the idea that ‘raising the moon’ was part of Princess Luna’s duties. Yes, magic, but seriously; it was the damn moon.

Night Watch sent off to inform the kitchen staff that we were finished; Luna led us to the closest balcony. The view it provided of the city was stunning, overlooking the expansive palace gardens, though not the section where I had fallen. The last rays of the sun set the towers and spires of the city in a hazy red-gold glow, the prevalence of stained glass windows making many of the building sparkle.

I found myself distracted by the sight, silently mouthing words of appreciation. The window in my room hadn’t given me this sort of view. Twilight nudged me as Luna stepped forward, her attention focused of into the distance.

“Focus on the horizon,” Twilight instructed me as Luna lowered her head, her horn glowing.

I free admit to still being skeptical at that point, but I obligingly watched.

My breath caught in my throat as the last bit of sunlight faded, and a silvery orb edged slowly and steadily into view, following the smooth motions of Luna as she lifted her head and horn skyward. As the moon rose, the night sky rose with it; a surge of darker blue claimed the sky, wiping away the light blue and orange glow of the daytime in slow and steady waves.

The glow on Luna’s horn started pulsating as the sky turned from day to night. Slowly, at first, then with more rapidity akin to someone who becomes more certain of what they wish to create should look like, stars sparked in the sky; a few spots her, a cluster over on that side, a band of faint luminesce overhead.

Her work done, Luna smiled and let her magic fade. It was a good thing too, because I didn’t think I had taken a breath since she started. I looked at her with awe.

“The Night Sky is my tapestry,” Luna said with a trace of pride, “and the night my domain.”

“Come on,” Twilight said with a trace of humour. “If you let your jaw hang like that, you’ll catch flies. We have a train to catch, and things to pack.”

I stumbled a bit as Twilight pushed me, but it was enough to snap me out of my stupor.

“Princess Luna, wow! That was… wow!” I couldn’t find the words to express my feelings at the moment. She at least seemed to get what I was trying to say though.

Magic, huh? Everything would hit me harder in the morning, most likely, but for now… For now I was hopeful.

Transitions

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“But how does your world work without magic? It doesn’t seem scientifically possible!” Twilight exclaimed, somewhere between shock and thrill.

“I never thought I’d actually hear someone in real life say the lack of magic is scientifically impossible,” I grinned at her. I understood her feelings. There was a certain euphoria in a good debate, particularly one when you were pitting your knowledge against someone else’s to the benefit of both.

With the royal connections behind us, we had gotten a private car to ourselves on the night train, even with the late hour. The train was something special. I had always thought trains were something manly. This one didn’t quite fit that. It was more pretty than manly; painted in a few bright colours, hearts worked into its body in various places. And it was called the Friendship Express. The chairs weren’t the most comfortable, being made for ponies, but it had beds inside as well, so that’s where we set up.

“Okay, let me try to explain this,” I said, closing my eyes for a moment. We had been going on the topic since the train left the station. “Remember how I told you that magic only comes up in stories and ancient myths? Well, humans are pretty curious people. When we don’t understand something, there’s going to be someone who makes up a theory to explain it. The dark clouds in the sky? People used to say the god of thunder was angry, or the rain god was sending his blessings. It depends on the culture.”

“So, the stories or gods and creatures like pegasus and unicorns are considered myths? That’s amazing!” Twilight said, clapping her hooves together. “But tell me, if pegasus are myths, and the gods aren’t real, what makes your weather?”

“That I can explain,” I grinned, getting ready to flex the muscles two semesters of earth geography built. “My planet has natural laws that govern the weather and the seasons and all those sorts of things. Weather depends on the temperature, atmospheric humidity and stuff. Clouds form from water vapour collecting around bits of dust in the air, rain comes from when clouds collect large amounts of water and gravity forces it to fall.

“Our seasons come from the planet’s rotation and its axis tilt in relation to the sun. Summer comes when the region has high exposure to the sun, tilted to the sun, winter when it’s low and tilted away.” I scowled and scratched at my head. “This would be so much easier with graphs and diagrams…”

“Your world sounds so different,” Twilight marveled.

“I can say the same about yours,” I admitted. “Tell you what, I’ll try to make you some diagrams and maps from memory later, and you can tell me about Equestria. The guards weren’t very talkative, so I’m pretty much clueless.”

“That sounds perfect,” Twilight agreed, adjusting her position on the bed. I could tell she was eager, either about learning about earth, or teaching me. Maybe it was both of them. “What would you like to hear about first?”

I thought about it, looking for the thing that bugged me the most. “What’s the deal with the different kinds of ponies? I’ve seen unicorns, pegasus, winged unicorns and normal ponies.”

“Winged Unicorns?” Twilight blinked at me with those giant eyes of her. Then she started giggling. “Oh! The Princesses? They are actually alicorns, not winged unicorns.”

“Alicorns? Okay?”

“That’s right. There are only three Alicorns; Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence. Their magic powers are far beyond that of typical unicorns.”

“So only unicorns and alicorns can use magic?”

“Yes and no,” Twilight responded. “All four kinds of ponies are magical, but pegasus and earth pony magic is innate, while unicorns can use the magic inside them to cast spells they learn. Alicorn have the abilities of all three ponies.”

I was beginning to think I should start taking notes on all of this. “So unicorns can cast any magic?”

“No, not really,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “It takes a lot of effort and study to learn a spell, and most unicorns only learn the basic telekinesis magic and a few spells related to their cutie mark.”

“And what’s a cutie mark?” I asked her. It was the first time I was hearing that term.

“You don’t know what a cutie mark is?” Twilight actually looked scandalized.

“Um… I’m going to guess it’s a pony magic thing?” I asked. “Because I have never heard of them before.”

“Your world doesn’t have cutie marks,” Twilight remarked again. I was going to pinch her if she didn’t start explaining what it was. She pointed to the six pointed star on her romp. “Every pony gets one when they discover what their special talent is. Mine represents magic. How do humans figure out what their talent and purpose in life is?”

“We just try different things until we find something we like and are good at,” I shrugged. Admittedly, not everyone did find their talent, but I really didn’t want to get into that one. “But back to the topic. Unicorns can work magic, but not all of them do, right?”

“That’s about right,” Twilight nodded. “Most develop a unique spell related to their talent. My friend Rarity, for example, developed a spell to locate gems when she earned her cutie mark.”

I opened my mouth, but then closed it again. As interesting a story as that sounded, I didn’t want to get side tracked. “Okay, so that’s unicorns. What about pegasus?”

“Pegasus magic works in two ways. The first lets them fly even with their relatively small wings. The second allows them walk on clouds, move them and interact with them and create the weather. It also makes them more resistant to weather effects than other ponies.”

“I’m not going to start doubting you now,” I muttered. Magic weather workers. What next? “And earth ponies?”

“Well, earth pony magic is more subtle than the others,” Twilight said, tapping her chin with a hoof. “but it is vital to Equestria. Earth ponies’ enhance the earth around them. A farm run by an earth pony will easily out-perform one run by any other kind of pony in quality and quantity. They are also stronger and more enduring than any of the other ponies.”

“And alicorns have all of the above?”

“That’s right, Caleb,” Twilight said.

“Thanks Twilight,” I said, scratching at my temple. “I might ask you again later, but thanks.”

“What about the different types of humans?” Twilight asked.

“Types of..? No, we only come in one type,” I laughed. “The only difference is phenotypical. Height, eye colour and shape, skin colour and so on. I’m dark skinned, but humans can be pale, light skinned, even darker than I am. Some people make it out to be a big issue, but it’s nothing really.”

“I see,” Twilight said. Somewhere between the start and end of my explanation she had pulled a notebook and quill, and was jotting down notes. I chuckled a bit. She was pretty studious, I had to give her that.

“My turn to ask a question!” I said cheerfully. “Tell me about Ponyville.”

-----------------------

“Caleb, wake up!” a voice cut into the haze of my sleep and someone rocked me roughly.

"Wazzu?" I said, jolting up, blinking blearily as I adjusted my glasses. The purple visage of an irritated unicorn slowly came into focus. I groaned and rubbed at the slight lump at the back of my head from the first time I'd been woken up. "Jeeze, Twilight... you're going to make me hit my head again..."

"You fell asleep again!" she snapped at me.

"I'm sorry," I said, trying to smother a yawn at the same time, "but it's late and you've been in some sort of hard core lecture mode."

"You asked me about Ponyville," Twilight huffed. "I was answering your question. You fell asleep three times!"

"J'accuse!" I said, pointing a finger at her. "I was asking about what the town is like. You went off on this lecture on ancient Canterlot courts, something called ‘Zap Apples’ and the effect of the economy on population growth and railway expansion."

"Well, all of that information is important if you want to properly understand the dynamics and demographics of the town in the current day," Twilight said firmly, batting away my pointing hand at her hoof, not in the jesting mood apparently. "It's rude to point. Besides, it's good for you to kn-"

"Attention passengers; our next stop is Ponyville. Our next stop is Ponyville. All riders for Ponyville, please prepare to disembark."

"We are here?" I asked, feeling more excitement than I thought I would, considering. I climbed over to the closest window and pulled back the curtain. My expression dropped when only the darkness of night and trees were visible. "Why can't I see the town?"

"The other side," Twilight said, rolling her eyes behind me.

"Right!" I said, switching sides, scrambling to the window across from me. From this angle, I could see the lights of Ponyville rapidly getting closer as the train made its way down the track. It was far darker than a city from earth would have been. The lack of an abundance of streetlights was the major contributor, and a large number of the houses were dark.

Considering the hour, on the down side of midnight, it wasn't surprising the people would have turned in for the day, but it was just a greater number than in an earth city. “That’s an entire town of ponies?”

“Founded by earth ponies, but it has long since become a place where all three kinds of ponies can live,” Twilight said, still a bit offended. “If you were paying attention to what I was saying…”

I gave her another look. She was really hung up on the falling asleep thing. I noticed she was still pretty standoffish with me too, standing a few feet away. If it was awkwardly or not, I couldn’t be sure, mainly because I hadn’t gotten that familiar with their body language yet. I couldn’t blame her. I was literally the alien in the room.

“But it’s a town of ponies?” I pressed.

“Of course it is, Caleb,” Twilight said, getting confused. She tilted her head to the side, ears twitching. “What else would it be? Didn’t you see Canterlot?”

“Saw it? Yes. From out the window,” I asked blandly. “I never had a chance to leave the Castle, not with everything that happened.”

“Oh, right,” Twilight said, realizing. “I was caught up in the research efforts.”

Silence stretched on for a while as the train hit one of the last curves before Ponyville. Twilight shuffled behind me, probably wanting to say something but unsure of what she could say. I was pretty enthralled by what I could see. The darkness meant I couldn’t really make out much of the town, or the detail of any of the buildings, but it was still enrapturing.

“Twilight… what am I supposed to do?” I asked her suddenly.

“What do you mean, Caleb?” Twilight’s hooves tapped lightly on the cart’s floor and she appeared in my peripheral vision. “You are going to be staying in my home. The Princess has arranged for a stipend for you from the Royal Treasury.

“A scroll was sent to Mayor Mare earlier today. You and I will be meeting with her tomorrow. Did you want to do something else?”

“I’m in another world. It really hits me sometimes… I’m in another world. So far from home it’s not even funny.” I pressed my hand against the chill glass of the window, feeling it tremble slightly from the wind buffeting it, looking vacantly at my fingers. I had the only set of fingers in this place. “What am I supposed to do? Just sit around twiddling my thumbs and waiting for Princesses to figure something out?”

“Oh…” was all Twilight could say.

The train station drew ever closer, and for some ridiculous reason it felt like it represented another tipping point for me. “I appreciate what the Princesses and even you, are doing for me, but I don’t know what to do for myself… I’m… ”

Twilight placed her hoof on my shoulder. I looked over at her and only found concern in her eyes and a soft smile on her face.

“I can’t exactly say I know what you are going through, but can I give you a little advice?” Twilight asked. She continued without waiting for my response. “Take it one step at a time. I’ve gotten carried away with things a lot of times before, and generally regretted it afterwards. If you don’t know what you can do, you can slowly figure it out. For now, let’s get you to my home so you can rest.”

She smiled a bit sheepishly. “I guess it is pretty late, so I can’t blame you that much for falling asleep. Tonight, you can get some rest, tomorrow we can worry about the other things, okay?”

I sighed, my shoulders slumping. “Okay…”

-----------------------

I took a hit to my manliness when Twilight got the three boxes in nothing more than an aura of her purple magic. I consoled myself with the fact that she wasn’t actually carrying the boxes, merely transporting with her skills. It was petty, yes I know, but sometimes the little things bothered a guy.

The station was more or less abandoned this late in the night, which could just as accurately be considered these wee hours of the morning. The air was cool, with only a faint wind, Luna’s sky hung lovely above us and the typical night sounds abounded; which meant it was mostly quiet aside from the occasional insect. Still, I was curious, wanting to look around the station before Twilight caught my attention.

“It’s late; but there is a chance somepony might be awake and see you,” Twilight told me. She apparently put a lot of thought into things since we got off the train.

“No biggie, though, right?” I shrugged, cutting into her statement. “If I’m going to be living here, what’s one or two people seeing me early?”

“Ponies can be very prone panic,” Twilight said, flicking an ear when I said ‘people’. “How would you react if you saw a strange creature walking around your community at night?”

“Er…” she had me there.

“Not to mention that your bipedal stance is uncommon,” Twilight said, her posture shifting a bit, her hoof making a soft tap on the wooden floor. “Most ponies would associate it with a griffon or a diamond dog, neither of which being a creature they would want to see wandering near their home at night.”

“I can see how that would be bad,” I said, eying her cautiously. The last time she got that look was when she started her discourse on the founding of Ponyville.

“If we want to settle you comfortably in the community, we need to do it with the minimum about of disruptions as possible. Causing a panic in the night is distinctly contrary to that goal!”

“I get it, I get it!” I said quickly. I made a mental note of the warning signs of Twilight’s lecture mode. Maybe I should come up with escape tactics. It would be like dealing with my Dad all over again. The Three Es; Evade, Endure or Engage. A slight twinge of sadness struck at the reminder. I brushed it aside. “Okay, so what’s your plan?”

“I’ll teleport us instead,” Twilight responded with a little smirk.

“Teleport?” I echoed, the implications of that simple statement making me overlook the cuteness of her smirk. “You can teleport just like that? Doesn’t that tak-” I stopped myself, holding up a finger at her, and inhaled. “Right. Magic.”

“I have become rather good at teleportation spells, actually,” Twilight said, dragging a hoof on the ground, looking off to the side. Bashful. Imagine that. “I can manage to get both of us as well as our luggage to the library. Even if I get a drained, I can head right to bed.”

My face split into a grin. Years of Star Trek, Stargate, Justice League and Doctor Who, and I was about to experience teleportation. Giddy? Why yes; I was. I didn’t even notice she said Library. “Don’t let me stop you, Twilight. Go for it.”

She did, setting the boxes beside us and closing her eyes to concentrate. The glow that had faded when she set the boxes down returned. A moment later, purple filled my vision and something of a harsh trilling blurred out all other sound. It felt like the ground fell out from beneath me for an instant, then my ears popped and I felt and sensed, rather than saw, that we were in another room.

The first sign was the air. The air was still, warmer with no wind, and held a familiar scent to it. He was about to place it when Twilight turned on the lights, the fixtures in the high ceiling casting their light down over the room.

“I just realized you said library,” I murmured. Recessed bookcases, each one flush with the wooden surface, lined the walls and curtain blocked what I assumed were windows. A carved bust of a horse head, looking something like the knight from a chess set, sat on a low wooden table. The strangest thing about the room was that the walls, floor and roof looked as if it were carved from the same piece of wood, the grain of the wood clearly visible and stained. Even the stairs and doorways were expertly crafted.

“That’s right,” Twilight said, though she did sound a bit on the wearied side. “This is the Golden Oak Library and it’s my home as well.”

“You actually live in a library? That’s kind of awesome,” I smiled at her.

“The Princess arranged for me to become the librarian here when I first moved to Ponyville,” Twilight said, yawning. “And technically, you live here as well.”

“Oh…”

“Come on, Caleb,” Twilight said, picking up the boxes in her magic and making me wonder just what a man was supposed to with unicorns around. “It is late, and Spike needs his sleep. We do as well, for that matter. I’ll show you to your room, and we will make a fresh start in the morning.”

I followed her as she made her way up the stairs. So there was someone else who lived here? The idea of living in a library was a bit strange, in an awesome way. “Spike? Who is that?”

“He’s my number one assistant. I’ll introduce you two in the morning,” She said happily. It didn’t take long to get up the stairs, though the lack of railings was as noteworthy as always. It was the same at the castle. The lack of hands is what I attributed it to. Not that I would normally use railings or anything, but it was reassuring to know it was there if I tripped. Twilight showed me to a bluish door and opened it with her hoof, trotting in and setting one of the boxes down inside. Another click and light filled the room.

“This is going to be your room,” she said, motioning for me to come in. “The bathroom is down the hall, the door on the right. I had Spike set out some towels for you. The bed might be a little small for you, but I think you should be fine.”

“Even if it is, it’s just one night,” I told her. I had to duck a little to get in, the door being just my size. There was a bed tugged in the corner near the window, covered with a blue spread, a lamp sitting on a small bedside table alongside it. The window itself looked somewhat old fashion by my standards, and the shapes rustling outside it looked to be the branches of a tree that grew nearby. There was even a dresser against one wall, though it was pony height. I could manage. Or find some planks to set it on. The towels she mentioned were sitting on the dresser. It even had its own bookshelf.“It looks like it will work. Thanks Twilight.”

“No, don’t mention it, Caleb,” Twilight said. She hesitated, looking around the room, as if searching for some flaw or issue. “There is a closet behind that door there. The windows unlock at the bottom, though it sticks a little.”

“Twilight, its fine,” I insisted, setting a hand on her head before I realized what I was doing. I had been avoiding getting physical with the ponies, not knowing how they would take it, but seeing her so worried sort of triggered it, like patting someone on the shoulder. I pulled my hand back. “Sorry.”

“What was there to be sorry about?” She asked, relaxing. “If there are any problems, we can handle them in the morning. It will be a busy day tomorrow, so make sure you get your rest.”

“I will, Twilight,” I said, giving her another reassuring smile.

“Well…. Have a good night,” she said somewhat awkwardly.

“You too, Twilight. See you in the morning, well, daylight,” I responded. I closed the door behind her and listened to her hoofsteps fade away. My smile faded away as they did and I leaned against the door, forehead against the wood. It was easy to fake the smiles after the actual pleasant feelings faded.

“On step at a time,” I told myself, repeating Twilight’s advice. Well, I could certainly try. Smothering another yawn, I looked around the room a bit, checking the drawers to see if they held any great mysteries (they didn’t), and fiddling around with the lamp and lights, just to familiarize myself with the way they operated. The box I ignored, dropping to the bed and massaging my feet. The lack of shoes was something of an issue. Hopefully callouses formed quickly. The sandals they had fashioned hadn’t done much in terms of being useful, aside from rocky spots.

With no further purpose in staying awake, and some apprehension about the upcoming day, I decided to call it for this wake cycle, turning off the lights and opening the window a bit so air could flow. As if accepting the thought of slumber was the trigger, weariness crashed down on me and it was all I could do to pull off my shirt. It was a bit irritating to sleep in. It didn’t take much to figure out which off the covers were too heavy and which one was just right, and sleep took me.

----------

I dreamed again. Of landscapes rushing past me, and numerous sites lingering alongside me. For some time, spindly wolves constructed from twigs and strings paces me and the platform I rode, their gait almost comical, but the splintery fangs in their mouths sharp, even if the jaw was hanging loose. Then trees; trees with trunks shaped like lightning bolts, and think canopies discharging streams of electricity like a Telsa Coil. Ponies and humans in Victorian garb paced around me, harrumphing and making sounds of haughtiness completed the haze of the dream.

In short; far more normal and less stressful than the ones I had been having.

----------

I wasn’t sure what exactly woke me, but wakefulness came slowly. First the awareness of the bed, the stiffness in my shoulder from the position I was sleeping in, the wind that was just pleasant enough that staying under the sheet was still a welcome thought. I murmured something indistinct, rolling over and drawing the covers up to my neck.

Correction; attempted to draw the covers up to my neck. Something was pinning them. A few more tugs only reinforced the futility of the action, and despite my desire to keep my eyes clamped shut so the light didn’t drive the lingering remnants of sleep away, I cracked open an eye.

The other quickly followed just to verify what the first saw. Someone, rather; somepony loomed over me. Completely pink, from her coat to the dark pink of her hair and its unnatural cumulus cloud like styling, the only variations were the large sky blue eyes that sought to stare into my soul and the wide glistening white smile that would have done the Joker proud.

Just when I thought it was bad, she leaned in closer, invading my personal space as her breath spilled over me and a strong smell of vanilla and sugar came from her like a strange perfume as her already wide grin stretched further.

“TWILIGHT!” I yelled, terrified. Pinned as I was beneath the sheets, my attempts at a tactical retreat looked more like spasms.

There was a flash of purple light and a sudden trilling as Twilight teleported into the room at my scream. She looked at the pink menace in shock. “PINKIE PIE!”

“Twilight!” a second, younger voice called as a small purple and green reptilian creature raced into the room, likely drawn by all the raised voices.

“Spike!” Twilight said, distracted from the all-important task of saving me as she look at the creature.

“SPIKE?” I yelped. That was the Spike she was talking about last night?

“Caleb!” Twilight said sternly, her head snapping in my direction. Wait, what did I do wrong? I’m the guy being held captive by this pink fiend.

“Caleb?” Spike started, sounding just as surprised as I was.

“GUMMY!” Pinkie interjected suddenly, as if she had the tie breaker to win a game, reaching a hoof into that cotton candy explosion she called a hair-do as she did, pulling out a, I kid you not, small alligator. It blinked its light purple eyes at me in turn.

Pinkie toppled over, giggling like a madman. Her giggle fit managing to roll her off the bed, and she hit the floor, her feet kicking in the air as her laughter continued. Gummy plopped down on the bed beside me and blinked again.

Faced with this absurd turn of events, I looked over at Twilight, desperate for answers. “What?”

Trot Around Town

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“Pinkie! What are you doing here?” Twilight demanded of the Pink Menace that continued to roll around the floor and giggle. For my part, I fumbled for my glasses and got them on.

“I came by the say hello, of course!” she said. “I never expected you to have something this unique sleeping in your guest room!”

“How… How did you get in here?” I found myself asking. Considering that Twilight didn’t know she was around, did she slip in through a back door or somewhere similar?

She stopped her incessant wiggling to grin brightly at me and pointed her hoof at behind me. “Through the window, silly!”

I looked at the window. Said window was only cracked. I might have been able to slip a few fingers and perhaps my hand, maybe even my arm through, but I doubted that her hoof could replicate that feat. Also of note; this was the second floor. And the ceiling of the first floor was pretty high. How in the name of all things kosher did she get in through the window?

“Pinkie Pie, please tell me why you are here,” Twilight said slowly after sighing.

Pinkie Pie stiffened, face going stoic and set, then rose to an upright position. In a way that reminded me of a lever; she simply tilted up from her prone position, her forelegs popping out when she hit ninety degrees so she could drop down on them. Physics be damned.

Magic, ‘leb, remember the magic, I told myself.

“Well,” her mechanical bearing instantly replaced once more with her hyper animated one. She skipped over to the middle of the room, her tail bouncing like a jaunty plume behind her. “I was down at Sugarcube Corner making the regular batch of pastries for the brunch rush when I got a floppy ear, itchy back leg knee, tail jiggle, nose crinkle! I’d never gotten one of those before, so I tried investigating a bit more, donning the Sherlock Hooves hat you gave me.

“My Pinkie sense told me that there was something going on at your place, and that there was also somepony new to Ponyville, so I dashed right over to make sure!” Pinkie had somehow donned a hat from those typical Sherlock Holmes costumes and pulled a bubble pipe out from somewhere, which she was currently puffing on, sending a dozen or so bubbles drifting around the room. “Now, when I noticed the guest room window open, I concluded that you had brought a visitor back with you from Canterlot. To that end, I quickly entered the room and found HIM!”

She pointed at me with more drama than even I could manage on my best day. I’m not even sure my eye could do what she made hers did. In fact, I didn’t think eyes were supposed to do what she made hers do. Of course, that explanation didn’t explain anything to me. To the contrary; it raised further questions. But for now, I kept it monosyllabic. “Me?”

“Of course, Caleb! Who else is a strange pony that I’ve never met before that has never been to Ponyville and is sleeping in Twilight’s guest bed without anypony else knowing that you were there aside from Twilight herself and set off my Pinkie Sense this morning?” Pinkie said. In one breath, at that. “Are you a hairless monkey, by any chance? Did you come to Twilight so see if she has a spell or potion to get your fur back? Because she is the most powerful unicorn I know and can do all kinds of magic!”

“No Pinkie,” Twilight said firmly. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“I know!” Pinkie said, her eyes sparkling. “Aren’t I good at it? I keep telling you all that I’m so good at being ridiculous!”

I couldn’t help it, I started laughing. I decided then that I kind of liked this Pinkie pony. She was weird and scared the crap out of me (those eyes and that grin would likely be in my nightmares at some point), but she could make me laugh.

“Okay, I’m awake now,” I said, though a yawn bubbled up at that very moment, as if trying to undermine that comment. “Good morning Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Spike.”

“Don’t forget Gummy!” Pinkie said, scooping up the little alligator with her tail.

“Crap,” I said, flinching. To be honest, I had forgotten that she left an alligator on my bed. Don’t look at me like that. Her antics were very distracting. “Er, good morning Gummy.”

Gummy blinked. Pinkie giggled again and flipped him unto her head. Gummy seemed content to sit there and observe the world from his fluffy pink throne.

“Huh, morning, I guess,” Spike said, still unsure. He got Twilight’s attention. “I’ve still got breakfast cooking, so I’m heading back to the kitchen. Call me if you need anything.”

He gave me a look that pretty much said he wasn’t sure if he could trust me, and I didn’t blame him. If my sister brought home a strange guy, I’d likely do the same thing. There was another pang as I thought about her. I shook it off. Twilight was talking again.

“How was your sleep?” she asked, keeping an eye on Pinkie.

“It was fine,” I said, wondering just where my shirt had gotten to. I didn’t fancy being shirtless about them at the moment. “Aside from the unexpected wake up call, it was fine.”

“Excellent! Then we can get started on the day,” Twilight said happily. “There are a few little things we need to get done aside from the meeting with the mayor.”

Pinkie gasped loudly, her hooves pressed against her cheeks. “Of course! We got a large order from City Hall yesterday and a note asking me to put together a Welcome to Ponyville party for a special pony that was coming to stay in town for a while! That pony must be YOU!”

I backed away from the nightmare inducing smile that Pinkie adopted again. “Um… yay me?”

“Of course, yay you!” Pinkie said, exuding enough excitement to, assuming we could find a way to harness it and convert it to electricity, power a city for a couple days. “I’m going to throw you the best party! I mean, I’ve never seen ANYTHING like you before! I’ve thrown parties for ponies, a zebra, a griffon, a cave troll, a dragon and even for my sister’s pet rock! So what are you Caleb? Where are you from? Do you like cupcakes or muffins more? Ooo! I should get more hot sauce!”

“Pinkie, calm down,” Twilight said, though in the tone of someone who knew they were fighting a losing battle. It at least got Pinkie to stem the torrent of words. “Caleb is from very far away, and he’s new to Equestria, so take it easy on him, okay?”

Pinkie thought about it for a moment, then started bouncing around the room. “Okie-dokie-lokie! I’ve got to get back to work now, anyway! So much to do for the party! It’s going to be tomorrow, by the way, so I’ll make sure you get your invitations! And it’s going to be a ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party too! Wow!”

On that note, she flashed us on last grin and bounced right out the door. I stared at it, listening to her bounces fade as she headed down the stairs, and the muffled call of ‘Bye Spike!’ and it’s response ‘Later Pinkie!’

“Was that normal?” I asked.

“For Pinkie; yes,” Twilight said with a slight grimace. “You’ll get used to it. Eventually.”

“Fun, I suppose.” Shrugging, I finally got out of bed and retrieved my shirt from where it fell after I tossed it at the dresser the night before and missed. Shrugging it on, I roughly spread the bed, which basically amounted to just tugging the sheets till they looked straight enough.

Twilight, meanwhile, had gone over to the box of my stuff. She already had it open and was lifting things out with her magic. I sighed at the invasion of privacy, but considering she likely packed it in the first place, I let it slid.

“I’m surprised you didn’t unpack this all when we got in,” Twilight said, lifting my two other sets of clothing from the box.

“It was late, and I was sleepy,” I said. I winced, looking at the outfit I had worn. It really did suffer in the trip. Twilight folded them one at a time, set the shirt, slacks and well battered sneakers on the ground beside the box. “I’m going to miss those clothes.”

“Actually,” Twilight said, giving me a quick smile, “one of the stops I have planned it at my friend Rarity. She is a fashion designer. She should be able to repair these for you.”

“Seriously? Woo!” I said with exuberance, punching the air. I know they were just clothes, but they were clothes that fit and they were clothes from home. I had a reason to be attached to them at the moment.

“We can stop in to visit after breakfast,” Twilight commented as she grabbed the stack in her magic aura again and trotted out the door.

Taking the implied directive, I followed her lead. The place was nice in the daylight, and I could actually make out the details, including the pictures on the walls. Twilight and Spike were prevalent, as were four or five other ponies, Pinkie Pie being one of them. At the stairs, the atmosphere changed somewhat, becoming a bit less personal, though still homey.

“So, Twilight,” I asked as we re-entered the room we teleported into the night before, “What’s with all the books?”

“What else would you find in a library?” Twilight asked offhandedly, though that would be offhoofedly for her. “I'm pretty sure I told you that last night, though I might have forgotten. I'm sorry if I never mentioned it before.”

“No, that’s fine,” I said, my town vague and distracted. I fall out of my dimension from inside a library, and end up getting to stay in another library? Was this some strange irony? A joke the multiverse was playing on me? Twilight said something and I muttered a response. Maybe I should just write off all coincidences as magic. Or maybe I should find out just how magic actually worked before I got myself in trouble because of ignorance. What if I caused some magic explosion by touching something every kid here knows not to touch? Now I wasn’t so confident about leaving the library.

“Caleb!” Twilight’s voice cut through my introspection like a knife. A knife helped with a hammer of a hoof hitting my chest. Well, a bit of an exaggeration, but she did hit me.

“Oof! Gah… Jeeze Twilight,” I gasped, rubbing at the sore spot.

“You zoned out on me! You just mumbled something in response to my last four questions,” Twilight said, looking frustrated. “It’s almost as bad as back on the train when you fell asleep. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” I said, rubbing my chest, pouting. It hurt. I realized we had reached the kitchen and dining area while I was distracted, standing beside a table set for three. “I just got a little caught up in my thoughts.”

“You’ve said you were ‘fine’ to everything I asked you,” Twilight said, looking at me with an expression I couldn’t read. “Sit down and tell me what’s wrong.”

I sat down, pulling out one of the low stools from under the table for my use. Spike was at the stove, his attention split between the pot he was tending and our discussion. I scratched at my scalp as I thought about what to say.

“It’s not that anything is wrong. I mean, aside from the obvious stuff we’ve been over. Right now, I’m just worried about today. Not all of the ponies I met at the castle took kindly to me, and I don’t know what to expect from the ponies here in Ponyville.” I looked up at her, grinning slightly. “My intuition tells me that Pinkie Pie wasn’t what I could base any assumptions off.”

“Well… no, she’s not. She’s just Pinkie Pie,” Twilight admitted. “There’s no one else like her.”

“Thank Celestia for that,” Spike commented, carrying a tray laden with goods. Grinning, I rose to give him a hand. The heavenly smell of cheese and mushroom omelettes hit me as I set the plates on the place mats and organized my thoughts some more as Spike put some jars and a bag of rolls on the table. A jug and three glasses floated over, curtesy of Twilight’s magic.

“Aside from that,” I shrugged as I sat again. The omelette was calling to me, whispering ‘Caleb, Caleb, eat me. You know you want to.’ “I was worried that I’d touch or do something stupid and get myself hurt because I don’t know how magic works.”

“Don’t worry,” Spike said, picking up his fork. “Twilight is about the best with magic I’ve even know, aside from the Princesses. She can help keep you out of trouble.”

“Also; going out will be good for both the locals and for you,” Twilight said, blushing slightly as Spike’s praise and trying to hide it by opening a jar and smearing some of the fruit spread side on a roll. “We don’t know how long you will be around, but they need to get used to you, and you need to get used to them too.”

“Sure,” I muttered in a noncommittal fashion, cutting a chunk of out of my omelette and lifting it from the plate (the melted cheese stretched tantalizingly.) When it inevitably reached my tongue, my eyes widened. “Spike… you are an amazing chef! This is just as good as some of the stuff I got at the castle, if not better!”

“Thanks!” Spike said happily. “Twilight is a horrible cook. So it was either learn how or suffer. Some of the cooks at the castle actually taught me.”

“Well, you definitely learned well,” I said, digging into my food some more. Across from Spike, Twilight was somewhere between indignant and abashed. ‘So, she’s sensitive about her cooking skills. Valuable information. I don’t know what it’s valuable for, but it’s valuable.’

The rest of the meal was mostly small talk. The comment about Twilight’s cooking opened the door to more stories form her fillyhood (Hah! I was getting the terms!), and I found myself in a position of being forced to reciprocate with childhood in return, lest I made thing awkward. We got the discussion of what exactly I was and how I came to be squatting in their home out of the way with Spike as well, even a bit more talk on food. Twilight managed to get me to try a dandelion, and it was actually pretty good. But the meal eventually did finish and Twilight shuffled me out the door.

Do you remember your first day at a new school? The hyper awareness that had all your senses pricking, the feeling that everyone was watching and judging your every move and action. That was what I was experiencing the moment Twilight, a set of saddlebags on her back, and I stepped out of the library and into the wide and exposed public.

There were dozens of multi-coloured ponies making going about their business, most on the ground, but here and there some took to the air instead. They didn’t all stop and gawk, gasping in shock and marvel, but it didn’t stop me from imagining that they would.

Twilight was already trotting off. “Come on, Caleb. We are going to stop be city hall first, then we will head over to Rarity’s, stopping at Applejack’s stall on the way.”

“Joy,” I muttered, jogging to catch up. “By the way… when were you planning to tell me we were in a giant tree!”

----------

As it was, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. There was some staring, and some muttered comments which I did not attempt to eavesdrop on at all. I think what helped was that I slipped into my ‘customer service’ shoes, smiling and telling everypony who came close enough good morning. Everyone knew that monsters didn’t smile and say good morning. Super Villains, maybe, but not monsters.

Even the meeting with the mayor, called Mayor Mare, which I really hoped was a nickname, too much alliteration and predestination in it otherwise. Celestia named me a minor ambassador in the letter she sent to the Mayor, which surprised me, though not as much in retrospect. I was a visitor from another world, the only one available to represent said world, at that. After a few more questions, she gave me a formal invitation to the party being thrown in my honour, the one Pinkie mentioned after her version of a wake-up call.

All in all, far better than I imagined. My luck was apparently running when we headed to the next stop on Twilight’s schedule.

“The horror! The horror!” A high pitched voice broke out as we made our way down Market Street, cutting into the rich history Twilight was giving me of Ponyville’s open market. I was quick to trace the voice; a mare dramatically swooning in front of a flower shop.

“It’s a monster!” another mare that was in the vicinity called out, swooning as well. A third mare screamed shrilly and followed suit. I never before thought I’d see a case of contagious swooning.

Twilight was right when she said ponies were panicky creatures. At the disturbance, a few other mares in the area started panicking and racing about. There were less stallions in the mix, but they too started galloping, though I would like to think it was more to console and protect the mares than in panic.

“Oh, for the love of…” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes once she slipped out of the daze the unexpected chaos caused. With a snort, she stomped a hoof on the ground. “Daisy! Rose! Lily! Get up and stop making foals of yourselves. There’s no reason for all this fuss!”

It took a moment, but one of the prone pony mares cracked open her eye to look up at Twilight. “There isn’t? But look at it. It’s so tall and strange!”

“We went through this with Zecora. You should know better than to judge somepony like that,” Twilight said. Hmm… was that lecture mode I sensed coming?

“Put it’s not a pony!” the pink one said. Well, pink with a bit of red to it. I was going to have to expand my colour repertoire if I was going to spend much more time here. All these multicoloured ponies.

“No excuse!” Twilight said firmly. “You should be ashamed of yourself! Think about how he feels, walking down the road and suddenly having ponies fleeing in fear for without cause. Is that anyway to treat a visitor?”

“Take it easy on them, Twilight,” I said, stepping in. The ‘it’ thing was bugging me, but I didn’t want to sic Twilight on them. That would be an abuse of trust and friendship. “I’ll admit I almost ran screaming when I first saw a pony.” Granted, there was the matter of my being mostly bedridden and suffering from what I think might have been a concussion that stopped that, but details, details.

“So, Hi. I’m Caleb,” I said to her with a slightly strained smile. “And I’m a guy, so lay off the ‘it’ please. Just a bit irritating.”

She looked at me with wide eyes, then visibly swallowed. “H-hello Caleb. My name is Lily.”

“Nice to meet you Lily!” I said cheerfully, extending my hand to her. Still nervous, she met it with her hoof and we shook. The other two workers had abandoned their pretense of being unconscious and watche.

My charming, if I do say so myself, smile and greetings managed to win them over some, at least to the point where they were willing to apologize for the yelling. All three had flowers for their cutie marks, probably the same ones as their names; Lily, Daisy and Rose. The pale yellow one, Rose, even gave me a small bunch of flowers. I was touched. Even better; a lot of the other ponies that scattered had come back, however hesitantly.

“Well ah’ll be,” a feminine Southern American accented voice spoke up from behind us as I waved at the flower girls as they, embarrassed at their actions, put back order to the wares their drama upset. “Ah ain’t never seen somepony calm those three down like that before.”

“I’ll admit that didn’t expect him to get through to them that easily either, Applejack,” Twilight commented. “I didn’t think they would cause that much trouble either.”

Applejack was the name of those other person, pony, Twilight wanted to see before going to Rarity’s place, if I recalled. So after one more smile I turned my attention to them. Standing beside Twilight was an orange mare, apples on her flank, her blonde hair done up in a pony tail, with was a bit odd, and not just the issue of how she managed that with hooves, a Stetson sitting on her head.

“Howdy,” Applejack said energetically, extending a hoof. When I took it, she proceeded to subject my joints and muscles to a stress test. Surprisingly; they passed, even if they were throbbing and somewhat in pain. I think she might have considered it a hoof shake though. “When ah heard about some strange critter in town, ah never thought it would somethin’ like you. So what’d you say your name was?”

“Caleb,” I supplied. How did a pony get an accent like that? How was there no one else with an accent like that? “And you must be Applejack, right?”

“Darn tooting, ah am,” Applejack grinned. “Ah gotta say, ah ain’t never seen any critter than looks like you. Maybe if you shaved of all the fur from a diamond dog…”

“No, ma’am, not a dog,” I said. I really needed to find out what these diamond dogs were. “I’m a human guy. Um… Do I need to outline what a human is?”

“Ah’m a guess they look like you, huh?” She said, giving me a smirk. Yep. Applejack and I would probably get along.

“Right you are,” I said, grinning back. “Twilight’s taking me to see her friend Rarity. Want to tag along?”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind a visit from you as well, Applejack,” Twilight added, supporting the idea.

“Sorry y’all, but ah still got mah stall to tend to.” Applejack said with a slight shrug. It was a bit odd on a pony, and it involved dipping the head a little. “Had to leave Applebloom to watch it when all the commotion started up, in case it was somethin’ ah needed to buck.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it without comment. I was pretty much one hundred percent certain I misheard or misunderstood her.

“Anyway, it was nice meeting ya Caleb,” Applejack said. “But ah should get back before Applebloom’s friends find her and get another harebrained scheme going.”

“Same here. Have a good day,” I said as she trotted off. I turned to Twilight after she left. “So that was Applejack.”

“That’s right,” Twilight said. “She basically runs Sweet Apple Acres with her brother.”

“So, farmgirl? Um… Farmmare?” I asked.

“That’s right. The Apple Family grows the best apples in all of Equestria,” Twilight said proud of her friend’s accomplishment as she trotted off, forcing me to pick up the pace to keep up. At least we were leaving the starers behind.

I was not going to believe that she had a stereotypical farm accent because she worked on a farm. It would be like… like… I fail at knowing a lot of stereotypes.

“I didn’t expect you to handle Lily like that,” Twilight admitted after a moment. “Those three are pretty nice, but they panic really easily.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I treated them like anyone else with a problem in customer service. Smile, be polite and directly address their issue. They did calm down faster than I expected, not that I’m complaining. Giving me flowers was a bit weird though.”

“Why? They gave you a sample of their goods to snack on by way of an apology,” Twilight said, looking back at me. “Their wares are rather good.”

“Wait… this is a… snack?” I said, stumbling slightly.

“Well, of course.” Twilight said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “They just didn’t realize you can’t eat many flowers. Why, what did you think it was?”

“I thought… I mean… you know what? Never mind,” I sighed. This was going to take so much getting used to. I didn’t even know if it was worth the trouble. “You can have it when we get home.”

“Caleb, you’re a bit strange,” Twilight chuckled.

“You have no idea.”

----------

I was speechless. Rarity’s place of abode and residence was not was I expected. I did think the name, Carousel Boutique, was a bit a tad bit on the pretentious side, but I didn’t expected it to be an actual carousel, as in the carnival type, that apparently fell into a vat of radioactive pretentiousness. And it was so… blue and purple. I think it was two stories tall, but it was hard to pick out windows from the gaudy décor, so there might have been a third. The worse part? Twilight seemed completely oblivious to it.

It was possible to become jaded to that much gaud. God, give me the strength I need to persevere, I prayed silently, following Twilight.

She had already knocked when my feet finally received the memo to move, and someone inside was calling out. “Coming, I’ll be with you in a moment, darling!”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think this will take too long,” Twilight said, ushering me in. Inside was almost as bad. It was even more purple than the exterior, and there were several pony shaped mannequins in the large room, though I suppose they were ponnequins. Some of them were dressed in elaborate dresses, more of the same hanging on racks. They looked well-made, mind you, just rather flashy. The middle of the room held a stage with a large mirror behind it, what looked like a change booth nearby, a staircase hidden behind them.

To be honest, the ponnequins made the carousel image worse. There were a lot of puns in this place. With nothing better to do, I wandered over to the changing booth.

It was obviously a dressmaker’s business place. I was beginning to worry about why Twilight brought me here. The sound of hooves on flooring snapped my attention to the curtains that partially concealed one wall. I didn’t have an eye for horse flesh. I think I’d only seen one horse up close in my life time. But I had been around these ponies for a couple days now.

This one either was fabulous, or thought she was. I instantly thought of some of those actors and fashionista on the red carpet on TV. Even without others to compare it to, it was clear her mane and tail were well styled, her white coat looked carefully treated, and she wore make up; eye shadow in the least.

“Welcome to the Carousel Boutique,” she said grandly as she swept into the room. She gasped, made quite a show of it, actually, when she saw Twilight. “Twilight, dear! Why didn’t you let me know you were coming to visit! I would have prepared tea! Did you bring Spikey-wikey with you?”

Oh God… professions gave you accents here. It all made sense now. The librarian spoke properly, the farmer had a country twang, the fashionista sounded like a, well, fashionista. There was no other explanation.

“Sorry, Rarity, but no,” Twilight said with the slightly strained smile of someone dealing with a very passionate friend. Twilight pointed in my direction. “This time, I’m here for some help for him.”

Rarity turned, noticing me for the first time, and promptly shrieked. “Good Heavens Twilight! Is that a diamond dog? And just what is he wearing?”

I really needed to find out what a diamond dog was…

Too Many Revelations for One Day...

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Have you ever gotten yourself in a situation that, even in retrospect, you weren’t clear on the details of? That’s pretty much what I was going through at the time. I’d somehow gotten stripped down to my boxers (thankfully I was wearing them) and was being intimately introduced to a variety of her tools, all darting about me, encased in pale blue auras, a faint trilling in the air as they moved with precise and controlled movements.

It was the most terrifying and impressive display of magic I had seen so far. Even more so because Rarity was casually chatting with Twilight and myself, examining my original outfit, and magically taking notes with a small pad and quill suspended before her. All at the same time.

“Though speaking ill of others is most unbecoming of a lady, I must say that whoever designed that hideous outfit you were wearing was a quack!” Rarity declared as her measuring tape snaked its way around my waist. “And with these fabulous garment to use as references at that! I simply cannot believe that the Princesses would have someone so lacking in talent and passion in their employ.”

“To be fair, it was a rush job,” Twilight said.

“There is no excuse!” Rarity said, the original tape measure making its way down my leg, a second measuring my crown for some reason. “Don’t worry, Caleb dear. I’ll be sure to properly dispose of those horrid things for you.”

“About that, Miss Rarity-” I started, only to be cut off by the fashionista unicorn.

“Rarity is fine, Darling,” she said graciously, waving a hoof in my direction, flipping her hair with a casual toss of her head.

“Well then, Rarity, I need those clothes. I know you ponies don’t wear clothes all the time, but humans do,” I told her. Twilight had given her the cliff notes of what I was while Rarity had been enthusiastically stripping me of my modesty.

All of her implements stopped, drawing back from me as she gasped, her eyes widening. For a moment, I thought I had scared her, but it was shock, not fear. When she did manage to find her voice, it was almost breathless. “Humans are always clothed?”

“Pretty much. Aside from swimming and in really hot times, most humans wear a top and a bottom, like the ones I came in,” I explained. “It’s partially protection from the weather and environment, no fur and such, and largely cultural for modesty. Shoes too, I suppose. It’s possible to get the soles of your feet hardened enough that you don’t need it, but when you grow up with them, it doesn’t happen.”

“Sweet Celestia… imagine it!” Rarity said, positively gushing. The tools started up again, though this time most of her attention was on the shirt, pants and shoes I came in. “Think of the fashion industry in a society like that! I don’t even recognize some of the weaving in these fabrics! And that, boxers, you called them?”

“Yeah… it’s a type of underwear,” I said. Uncomfortable subject. I noticed that Twilight had started taking notes too as well. Lovely. Two women and the topic of fashion. Lord give me strength. “It’s… on the south side of the limit of modesty. Pretty embarrassing really. You aren’t supposed to show other people your underwear, not unless they are your doctor or really close friends…” They didn’t seem to get it. “For kids, children, their parents. For adults… generally Lovers…”

Twilight blinked then looked away, blushing. Rarity’s cheeks got red as well, but before I could even hope to ask for something to give me a shred more decency, she crushed the hope. “Nonsense! From this point on, I am your fashion designer!” Rarity declared. “The first human in Equestria? I will create the best possible ensembles for you! For that, I need to get the best possible measurements.”

“But it’s really embarrassing…” I tried.

“What is a little loss of modesty now in return for the best later?” Rarity said, a ruler rapping me on the nose. “Now, tell me about the fashions of your home.”

“I didn’t really pay much attention to that. A lot of men don’t,” I admitted to her. I just wanted to leave. I hated shopping for clothes. Getting measured for them was worse. “A lot of the industry is automated, using machines and such, but designers do put a lot of work into things and can make a lot of money off it. I generally went for thing I liked. Colours, fit of suits, dress shirts, polos, jeans… They would have a lot of fashion shows different times of the year, designers showing off their work and stuff. I never watched any.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll create a line for… IDEA!” She suddenly declared, getting a glowing smile and bright eyes.

Involuntarily, I took a few steps back and looked at the door, considering making a break for it, modesty be damned. For all the cheer in that expression, there was no way that idea of hers was going to end well for me.

“Twilight! Bring him to my studio!” Rarity commanded.

In Carousal Boutique, no one can hear you scream.

----------

Okay, so I might have exaggerated a bit, but still; I was there for two hours. Two hours, trapped in a room with an ‘inspired’ fashion designer, and a librarian who I thought would have been on my side, but betrayed me once she realized Rarity coupled her designing session with an intensive attempt to dredge every possible thing I knew about fashion out. All the while hurling bolts of fabric, a half dozen scissors and scores of pins at me.

By the end of it, I was considering swearing off going anywhere near her store. In the very least, I wasn’t going back to her inspiration room when she was ‘in the zone’, as she put it.

On the other hand, she did a miraculous job on patching up my original outfit. I was speechless when she pulled it out. I hadn’t even realized it was one of the things she was working. She even turned down payment, claiming it was a gift, and that the ideas I’d given her were more than enough to cover it. Honestly, I never realized how much I knew about fashion, but I suppose you can’t live for over two decades without learning something about the clothes you have to wear.

There was another bright side of her refusing payment. Celestia had arranged a stipend for me, most going to Twilight to help her offset the cost of my bed and board, with a bit left over for a bit of pocket money. I just had no idea how to actually access it.

“Oh, we are going to stop by the bank and withdraw a few bits for you,” Twilight said when I raised the issue with her. “It’s the next stop on our schedule.”

“Wouldn’t it have made more sense to stop by the bank before going to Rarity? What if she asked for payment?” I commented. It seemed like poor scheduling to me. Getting money should be before heading to a store. I nodded at a stallion who was looking curiously at us as we walked past him.

“Believe me, Caleb, I know Rarity. She might be a bit dramatic and caught up in her work, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a more generous soul than her,” Twilight said cheerfully as she lit up her horn, pulling a scroll, quill and ink well from her saddle bags. “She would be the last to charge a friend for something like that.”

Equestria’s culture was different, I had to admit, something I mused on as I followed, Twilight. Even the fact that she was willing to house and look after me though she barely knew me was telling. The unicorn in question was humming happily to herself, murmuring about the items on what looked like a check list, ticking off a few items.

“Oh, lovely…” I groaned after taking a closer look at it.

“What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to go to the bank,” Twilight said, her eyes darting between the list and I. “Or is it that you don’t want to meet the rest of my friends? I promise they are nice ponies.”

“That’s a checklist, right?” I didn’t know why I didn’t expect it. It made sense, after all.

“Of course,” Twilight said, now even more confused.

“I can’t read it; I don’t know what the characters mean,” I admitted. That they spoke what I considered English, and they considered Equestian, was a fluke; a most fortuitous fluke, admittedly, but still a fluke. They didn’t have fingers. They had hooves and magic. Why would they write in English? Or even use the Latin characters? I slowly let air hiss through my teeth as I run my hand over my head.

I could see the wheels turning in Twilight’s head as she processed it. “Of course, how could I have over looked that? All those books that you came over with were written in a strange form of script no one could recognize.”

“Do you realize what this means Twilight?” I asked her, massaging the base of my neck, trying to put some order to my thoughts.

“What?”

“I have no idea. I was hoping you did,” I said lamely. Not really much I could do about it. “Actually… you could help me start learning how to read Equestrian later.”

“Really? You want me to teach you?” Twilight asked, coming to a full stop and giving me a curious look.

“Sure. I figure you can at least set me on the right track,” I shrugged, stopping as well since she’s the one who knew where we were going. “Besides; it gives me something to do aside from sitting on my hands all day.”

Twilight legitimately squeed and clapped her hooves together. It was adorable. “Don’t worry, Caleb. I’ll come up with the best lesson plans for you. Soon, you’ll be reading like a local! Of course, I’ll have to consult some of the material in the library… maybe a quick stop by Cheerilee to get her opinion on teaching someone in your situation…”

Twilight was a very thorough mare. By the time we got to the bank, she had made an annotated checklist about two feet long. Maybe I would have been better off checking through the kids section of the library and looking for a picture book.

Our business at the bank didn’t take much time and involved her handing a metal disk to the teller, requesting a sum, and a short wait before he returns with a small jingling sac. Fifty bits richer, Twilight led us off on the next leg of our quest, once again enamoured with lesson planning.

For my part, I took up people watching. Well; pony watching, giving to their inclination to the exclusive terms. Culture was a strange and wonderful thing. It seemed the rumours of the earlier walk around had gotten around, as most of the ponies looked with curiosity, rather than confusion and fear, and no one else started yelling about the horror and swoon at my lovely visage.

All in all, I was feeling better about things. I suppose having a bunch of coins jingling to your beat helps. I’ll be honest though. I have no idea what happened next. One minute I was happily humming, interspersed with teasing jabs at the distracted Twilight just to irritate her, the next something solid hit me from behind and I was desperately trying to save myself from wiping out spectacularly.

Fortunately, I’d fallen off my bike a few times well, and the roads of Ponyville were more forgiving than the asphalt and cement of home. Still, it hurt like dickens. I rolled over in time for my second ‘in your face’ encounter with a pony of the day. This time; it was a pegasus, cyan blue, a shocking mane that literally held every colour of the rainbow and glaring red eyes as she stood on my chest, pinning me.

“So you’re the mutant diamond dog that’s been going around town and making ponies faint!” she yelled in my face, her voice sharp, her hoof jabbing at my face. “Not so tough now are you, are you, huh?”

In most situations, the thug slash bully routine would have normally warranted either a dose of snark from me, or counter taunting. In this case, however, the surge of nausea and pain in my chest was pressing. It happened just as I started to get defensive, opening my mouth to either snark or curse, whichever way the coin landed, only to turn into a gasp as something blared in my head, pain lanced through me, jolting out from my chest to my limbs. The sounds cut out abruptly, and the nausea passed a moment later without me hurling my breakfast, but the pain decided it like me and hung around. The spasm from the aborted gag reflex only made the pain worse at that, adding disorienting poundings in my head in sync with blood flow.

I grimaced, jaw clenched to hold in a cry of pain, body writhing. I had no idea what was going on, only that it hurt a lot. I think I must have blacked out for a moment, because the next thing I clearly processed was something yellow, pink and flusters murmuring ‘oh dear’ over and over as hooves worked over me, Twilight’s accusing voice telling off someone. Go sic ‘em, Twi.

“Are you alright?” Ah, miss yellow and pink noticed I was back with her. The pink was from her generous mane, the yellow from her coat. Her blue eyes were brimming with concern. It would have been adorable if I wasn’t having a flashback to the Pink Menace herself. What was with these mares and standing over me?

“No…” I groaned as the pounding did it’s best to keep my thoughts from flowing smoothing and uninterrupted. I took a few shallow breaths and focused on the view, which was mainly the mare and the sky, and worked around the pounding, managing to get words out in between the almost wince worth pulses of pain. “My head… is pounding… and my… chest feels like… something dropped… on it.”

“Sorry Caleb!” Twilight said, suddenly coming into view. She looked somewhere between upset, shamed and worried. “You’re still recovering your sickness. The next thing on our schedule was Ponyville Hospital to refresh the healing spell that was cast on you, but I think Rainbow Dash might have triggered a minor relapse.”

“Oh my, he was injured and Rainbow Dash made it worse?” the yellow said, gasping a little. “Is there anything I can do to help? I brought my treatment kit with me when Rainbow Dash told me about the strange creature in town, in case I could lend a hoof.”

“I… have a healing… spell on me?” I’m pretty sure my expression as confusion and horror. The pounding was settling, but still a nuisance.

“Of course,” Twilight said. “It’s the basic treatment procedure for the kind of injuries you had. A low powered spell that boosts the body’s natural healing. And I’m afraid not, Fluttershy. This is internal tissue damage. It’s not so easy to treat.”

“I didn’t know, okay!” the cyan one with the crazy hair darted into view, her wings somehow keeping her afloat despite their small size. Pegasi were just awesome like that. At least I had names to go with the faces now. “I just got angry when I heard some jerk was messing with my friends!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy said. “Shame on you; attacking this poor injured critter!”

“Wah?” Rainbow said, her jaw dropping.

“Just help me get him up and to the hospital,” Twilight said, her horn glowing. I could feeling something tugging me upright, and I went with it, rather than fight it. Fluttershy helped push me up as well and gave me some support, which was good since vertigo almost had me on the ground again.

“I think… I’m good,” I murmured. “And I’m new… to all this… Tell me if… I’m still hurt next… time Twi…”

“Sorry,” she said, blushing.

----------

Thankfully, the hospital had gotten word from Celestia about me and my needs, so there wasn’t too much drama when I turned up. Rainbow Dash stuck around, flitting around nervously and trying not to look at me directly. Probably embarrassed. Fluttershy suddenly started panicking half way to the hospital and made little eeps and meeps, hiding behind Twilight as if she were suddenly afraid of me.

It was awkward enough when we were getting to the hospital, but now that we were sitting in one of the outpatient rooms, her huddled in the corner trying her best to pass as a trembling anatomy display of a cringing pegasus made me feel guilty. The glares from Rainbow Dash didn’t help either. See seemed like the type not to like hospitals, going off her attitude.

Long story short; between Fluttershy’s meekness, Rainbow Dash’s glaring and Twilight’s nervousness, the level of awkward in the room was far too high for comfort. So I tried to break it. “How is it that you can have heart monitors and still be using wagons? This is pretty much the same as a hospital back home. It’s like an anachronism.”

“Anawhatnow? You’re an egghead, aren’t you?” Rainbow Dash accused me.

“Huh, what? Um… I guess?” I shrugged, thinking about it. There were a lot of random things I knew about. It came from wasting a lot of time and credit hours in university. “But It doesn’t really make sense to me. Thatch roof houses, wooden wagons and a modern hospital with lights, heart monitors and nurses with stethoscopes and all the other trappings of the trade. ”

“I don’t really see what the issue is,” Twilight said, tilting her head to the side. “It’s true that Ponyville recently build this new hospital, but it’s still just what you would expect for an average facility.

“Not that there is anything wrong with this hospital, it’s actually much better than what you would expect in a community of this size, and their staff is very skilled, but it’s not quite up to the standards of those in places like Canterlot."

“I am pleased you think so highly of us, Miss Sparkle,” an amused male unicorn chuckled as he entered the room, a clipboard and folder held in his magic, hooves clicking on the tiles. One of the aforementioned stethoscopes rested on his neck, and he actually worse a white shirt and tie, a close-fitting lab coat over it.

“Doctor Horse! I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to offend you!” Twilight stammered as Rainbow Dash smothered a snicker.

I had a smile on my face as well, though part of that was for his name. Hey, it could have been worse. With the trends I’d seen, he could have ‘Doctor Feel Good’ or something. And to be honest, that sounded like an unfortunate name with creepy connotations.

“Don’t worry about it, Miss Sparkle,” Doctor Horse said to her, his primary attention on me. “Mister Blakely. It’s lovely to finally meet you.”

“Likewise? Do you know me from somewhere?” I asked.

“No, only the files that were sent down from Canterlot,” he chuckled. “They were most interesting. I did expect you today, but judging from your company, I assume it’s not for the regular renewal of the healing spell?”

“No, someone decided it would be a good idea to slam into me from behind,” I responded blandly.

“Hey! I’m not the mutant Diamond Dog that’s been going around town!” Rainbow Dash said defensively.

“She never apologized either,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Um… he’s more a strange monkey,” Fluttershy’s faint voice added.

“Human, actually,” I corrected her. I didn’t let myself get drawn into a side discussion. “Anyway, Twilight thinks it might have caused a relapse.”

“He was experiencing spasms and blacked out for several seconds,” Twilight said, expanding on my statement. “His episode lasted about fourteen and a half seconds, shortly after Rainbow Dash hit him from behind and pinned him to the ground.”

Fourteen and a half seconds? When did she time that?

“That does sound serious,” Doctor Horse said. He looked over me, hooves checking limbs and even peering into my eyes. “Miss Sparkle, Miss Dash, Miss Shy, if you would allow my patient and I some privacy?”

When they left, the examination got a lot more personal. For the second time of the day I was down to my birthday suit and being looked over by a unicorn taking notes. The weird mix of magic and tech showed itself again in that examination. Spells seemed to replace things like X-Rays and MRIs, but he drew blood using the type of equipment I would expect to see, even if it was a bit older looking and hoof optimized. Throughout it, he asked me questions, getting me to expand on the symptoms and the pains I felt in the ‘episode’, and getting what was considered normal health conditions for humans. I told him what I could remember.

It was just Twilight and Fluttershy left when the examination was finished, Rainbow Dash apparently having ‘better things to do than sit around in some lame waiting room’. Her words. She did leave a rough apology for me. I had my clothes back on and was just waiting for Doctor Horse to come back with his results. I was pretty sure Twilight was too.

Fluttershy had one of her own when she came in too. She didn’t look at me directly, instead looking at my feet, her long pink mane obscuring her face. “Um… I’m sorry I called you a monkey and a critter… I heard about you in town and thought you might be a sick animal so I went with Rainbow when she said she would look for you. Twilight told me a little about you, though.”

“Meh. No worries,” I shrugged. She really was cute and sweet. Even if I had to strain to hear her. “It was still better than being a called a diamond dog. You’re going to have to show me a picture of those when we get back, Twilight.”

“I’m not sure how anypony would consider you a diamond dog,” Fluttershy said, peeking out from under her hair.

“They somehow did,” I smiled weakly. “But thanks. I appreciate it. Besides; you were out to help me. Can’t ask for better than that.”

“So you aren’t upset?” Fluttershy asked softly, shrinking a little more.

“At you? Heaven forbid,” I grinned. Then I paused, making a show of pulling at my chin. “At Rainbow Dash, on the other hand… maybe.”

The meaning of the gesture was lost on the pony, and she looked up with a pleading look, flapping her wings so she was at my eye level. “Oh dear, please don’t be upset at her either. She is just a very loyal friend and doesn’t like when anything threatens her friends. She only overreacted.”

“Don’t worry, he’s only trying to be funny,” Twilight said to her, coming to my defense. At least she got human mannerisms.

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy, I’m not all that mad at Rainbow Dash either,” I insisted. “Just a bit sore. By tomorrow I’ll be over it, mostly.” And probably trying to come up with ways to get back at her, but that was a different matter.

“Okay, that’s fine. I just hate seeing my friends being mad at each other,” Fluttershy said, sighing with relieve. “But I really have to be going now. It is getting late and my animal friends will need their meal.”

“Sure, Fluttershy,” I said. Friend? I was her friend now? We just met. Still, it was somewhat nice that she considered me a friend. “I’ll see you again sometime.”

“Fly home safely, Fluttershy!” Twilight added.

The yellow pegasus trotted off rather than flying off as I expected she would, leaving just Twilight as my company. He looked at her. “Animal friends?”

“Fluttershy is something of a veterinarian. She takes care of a lot of the wildlife in the area, and also helps manage the local pet adoption services,” Twilight said. “Her home is filled with all kinds of animals that she takes care of.”

“That’s pretty impressive. She seems rather shy for that though,” I commented, idly tapping my legs on the tile as I waited for the good doctor to return, wishing the bed were high enough for me to swing my legs.

“She is, but she has a surprisingly strong will, and a heart to match,” Twilight said, brightening at her friend’s accomplishments. “Her kindness is second to none.”

Doctor Horse’s return took away the chance for me to respond, a coincidence for which I wasn’t exactly ungrateful. I beamed at him. “Will I be fine, Doc?”

“Everything checks out, Mr. Blakely,” Doctor Horse said jovially. “And the information you provided has been added to your files for late reference. As for you current health; you are well on the road to a full recovery. Most of the major stresses and tears to your tissue and organs have recovered nicely, mostly of the fractures to your bones were already patched up, and they have since healed over nicely. In a few more days you shouldn’t be feeling any trace of soreness of any kind.”

“Thanks Doc,” I said, inwardly marveling over the capabilities of magic.

“As for today’s episode, it was not a relapse,” he pulled out a chart with his magic and tapped a hoof on it. “It was in fact a good, if painful mark of recovery.”

Twilight made for the chart but hesitated, looking at me as if asking permission. I shrugged and nodded. I was in her care, so technically she was my ‘guardian’. Besides, she was working with the group of researchers that first helped me, so maybe she could make better sense of the information than I could. Seeing my nod, Doctor Horse allowed Twilight to look over the charts.

“Simply but, you suffered a magic backlash,” Doctor Horse explained. “When threatened by Miss Dash, your instinct was likely to draw on magic, unfortunately your mana channels weren’t ready, some still recovering and others still developing.”

“My mana-what now?” I asked. That couldn’t possibly be what it sounded like.

“Mana channels. They are the mediums that allows for proper use of magic,” Twilight said distractedly as she reviewed the charts. She looked up and gave me a strange look. “I thought you told me humans don’t have magic.”

“We don’t,” I said firmly, hopping up from the bed. “It’s probably just some weird effect from the treatments I’ve been getting. So I’m fine, Doc?”

“As I said, yes, you are,” Doctor Horse said, his brow furrowed with a trace of confusion, “though I would like to see you again in a few days; to check on your progress.”

“Then that’s all I need to know,” I replied. “Come on Twilight. I’d very much like to head back and start on those lessons. I can’t say I went to another world and go back home without learning something useful about it.”

“But Caleb, are you sure that-” Twilight started. I didn’t let her finish.

“Yep, I am,” I said, sounding more chipper than I felt. For some reason, the idea of having magic chilled my blood. I don’t know why. I’d have to spend some time figuring it out, but for now, I wasn’t entertaining the idea. “I’ll see you again in two or so days, Doc!”

We made a bit of small talk on the way back to the library, but not about magic. Twilight tried, but I changed the topic every time she was getting to that issue. Silence carried us back.

Questioning Magic and a Mare in my Dreams

View Online

Spike was confused by the attitudes around the table come dinner. We left breakfast cheerful and joking with each other, and now I had grim tint to my bearing and a curt undercurrent to my words, and Twilight was shooting furtive glares and frustrated looks at me, the majority of the sounds coming from utensils hitting the plates. Nothing like the banter we had going earlier.

There were a few words exchanged. Twilight and I saying a few words on my language lessons, Spike letting her know who came to the library in her absence. Small talk. Very strained small talk.

Aside from that, the meal was amazing. Pasta in a rich tomato sauce and chunks of mushrooms that I was hard pressed to tell apart from real meat. It even came with garlic bread. The dragon had a gift. I toyed with thoughts of how you would go about starting a business in Equestria.

“Okay, I can’t take this anymore,” Spike said suddenly, dropping his fork with a clatter. “What happened with you two today?”

“We did the paperwork to get my status recognized by the mayor. I already told you that Rarity fixed up my clothes and is making me some more.” He had noticed them when we got back and commented. I went on with my brief, and selective, review of the day. “I don’t plan on going back their when she’s in her ‘mood’ again though. I don’t think my heart could take it.”

“I met Applejack, Rainbow Dash, um… Fluttershy and a couple other people. Ponies. sorry. Twilight didn’t remember to tell me that I should be careful since I’m still a bit banged up on the inside so we swung by the Doc when Rainbow tackled me. Oh, the flower girls started a minor riot. The three ponies that work at that flower shop. I think one’s name is Daisy? It was about there I met Applejack. Fluttershy was with Rainbow. Strange girls, both of them, but nice.”

“Doctor Horse found out that Caleb has magic, and he’s being stubborn and not accepting it,” Twilight said, pointing out the thing that she thought was most the most important discovery of the day, which was also the one I was stubbornly working on ignoring.

“Caleb can use magic after all?” Spike asked, looking at me with bright eyes. “That’s pretty awesome! What can you do? Dragons are pretty magic, but aside from being resistant to magic and breathing fire, it’s not much.”

“Humans don’t have magic,” I said firmly, and probably with more force than I needed. I don’t know why, but it was important to me, that point, but I went on. “Magic is only in fairy tales, legends and shows on television. Stories. It’s not real. It’s just stuff made up by people back in the days before science could explain how everything worked.”

“Caleb; a lot of legends and stories are based on fact, just changed and altered a bit throughout history,” Twilight said, looking me dead in the eyes. “Who is to say that everything bit of folklore and every legend was just told to explain something unknown? What about things just forgotten or ignored? From what you have told us, your world isn’t so different from ours that those factors wouldn’t be the case there either. Three years ago, Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon were just legends, stories told to scare foals until she was proven to be real. Even Discord, for all he did, was just as much legend as he was a fact to most ponies. The Crystal Empire was not in any legends and it’s real.

“Caleb, just because it’s unexpected doesn’t mean you should deny it,” Twilight said, her tone softening from the slightly frantic pitch it had taken. “And you can be putting yourself at risk by doing it. Look what happened today. You didn’t even know you had it and you managed to hurt yourself with it. Even if you want to reject your magic, which I don’t think you should, at least learn about it so that doesn’t happen again. What if it is worse next time? Or, and I hope not, someone else gets hurt? It’s irresponsible and foalish of you to do otherwise.”

I closed my eyes and exhaled. I wanted to ignore them, I really did, but Twilight made sense. She was proving to having an annoying habit of doing so; making sense, that is. But stubbornness and being contrary came naturally to me, and I kept my expression neutral even as I ran those thoughts through my head.

“Caleb?” Twilight said, tentatively, her voice hesitant. She was probably wondering if she went too far. The cynical and self-critical part of me muttered that she hadn’t gone far enough.

“I’m going to grab a few of those beginner level books and give them a quick read through before bed,” I announced, getting up suddenly and not acknowledging Twilight’s speech at all. Irresponsible and foalish. Dammit Twilight. “I’ll see you both in the morning.”

----------

Up in my room, as I looked through the equestrian version of an ABC book, I wondered why I did it. It was rude, it was disrespectful to both of them, and it was sort of jerkish to left the dishes to them too. Irresponsible and foalish. A fool and a child. A negligent fool and a child at that.

“Dammit, Twilight,” I murmured. She hit all the points on the head. They were tons of legends on earth that had some basis in fact. And who’s to say magic wasn’t one of them. Even in the legends magic was something that was rare and declining. He thought about the urban fantasy stores I read frequently, were technology happed to be the route of development humanity took, rather than magic.

I knew exactly why I was so adamant to refuse the possibility of magic, human magic, anyway. It was getting close to the last straw. Already, everything single thing around me had changed. I was literally in an alien world, probably an alien reality. Before I Rarity did her miracle work on my outfit, my body, and I suppose glasses, were the only things I had left that said ‘home’. Home didn’t have magic. Accepting the magic was pretty much the same as accepting that even who I was, what I was, was changing into something alien.

I licked the inside of my jaw, holding back the tears, covering my eyes with my free hand. It was getting to me. And I didn’t have anything to talk to about this that could understand. It had been a week now. A week in this weird world of magic and talking ponies, and now the universe decided that the last thing I could hold to, everything I thought about myself, was to betray me. It was a betrayal, I couldn’t see it as anything else. Twenty two years, a lot of those pretending to having magic, much like a lot of kinds and folks with over active imaginations did, and only now, when I’m trapped in ponyland, does my body say, ‘by the way, dude, magic! You tots have it’?

“I can’t focus,” I muttered to myself, setting the book aside with a scowl. The childish pictures were somewhat annoying anyway, even if I knew they were pretty much exactly what I needed at the moment. There was still the box of stuff I never got around to looking through.

I shuffled across the floor, barefooted since I left my shoes downstairs, though somewhat conscious of the possible of splinters, picking up the box and carrying it back to the bed so I could search in comfort. I idly wondered what could be in it as I opened it, rolling my eyes when the first thing was the other article of clothing they had made for me at the castle.

“Joy, joy untold,” I sighed, picking it up and tossing it beside me. The next was a sheet; also not worth of much wonder. What I found underneath it though inspired mixed feelings. Longing, disbelief, shock and restrained excitement, to be precise.

It was a bag. A wide mouth covered with a flap decorated with black and blue strips, to zippered pockets hidden in the strips; one larger than the other, the word ‘Tracker’ stitched into it. My bag. The same bag that I had carried to work with me a week ago before I ended up falling into Equestria.

It looked just as battered as I felt, marred with numerous burns, the strap more than half gone, charred at the broken end, but it was intact. Carefully, I lifted it out. I could feel the contents inside, specifically the shape of my laptop, and a pang of homesickness mingled with the excitement that had taken a dominant place in my emotional state.

As much as I was reluctant to set aside and resist immediately tear it open and check the safety of my belongings, I did anyway, turning back to the box. Fortunately for my nerves, there wasn’t much left in it. The contents of my pocket from that first day, it looked like. House keys, my MP3 player, my wallet and my cell phone. The last was almost totally out of charge. Mechanically, I tilted the box and shook it, making sure nothing was left in it, and set it back on the ground. With a deep breath, I turned to the bag.

It was with almost reverent motions that I unclipped and opened it. My laptop was there, as was my ereader and external hard drive. The sandwich I had packed for lunch was gone, but that wasn’t much of a loss. My umbrella was there as well, along with my solar charger. I checked the pockets. All my cables and connects were present as well, even my clip on sunshades.

My stuff. My stuff. I never thought I would see them again. I’d dismissed them as just one more thing lost. I carefully pulled out the laptop. For the most part; it was fine. It looked a bit battered here and there, a few things had popped out of place and alignment, but they popped right back in. Should I? Was it wise? I swallowed and opened it. The screen was fine, thankfully; no cracks that I could see.

“My baby…” I murmured as it lit up when I hit the power button. As much as I would love to load up a show or something, I shut it back down, setting it aside.

“So… is this a sign or something?” I asked no one. Right on the brink of a breakdown due to losing myself, I find all these other things to anchor me, to remind me of home, what got left behind.

Irresponsible and foolish, indeed. To put self and others at risk because of fear. Wasn’t it a dream to have talents and abilities, magic of one’s own? A dream that had been around for years, one renewed each and every time the pages of another book opened to tell it’s stories? Why run from it and not embrace it?

Et tu, Subconscious? Take Twilight’s side, why don’t you. I sighed and collapsed on the bed, staring at the ceiling, searching for patterns in the whorls in the living wood as my thoughts continued to swirl about. Humans could have magic. I had... I still found it hard to admit it. What the fact meant, and what.. it could do, I had no clue, nor any idea where to start. Correction, I had an idea of where to start; a little purple pony that was adamant that I acknowledge my… magic.

I swallowed and put a false grin on. “Buck up, leb,” I said softly, trying to bolster my own spirit. “It’s a dream come true. You’ve got something people fantasized about for years, centuries even. You’re still you, even with… it. That won’t change just because you have a skill you didn’t know about before.”

It sounded horribly false, but it was a start. I tried to imagine myself hurling fireballs and calling lightning from the sky like mages in video games and books. Only to get images of friends and family, their faces twisted with disgust and horror as they recoiled. Damn it subconscious, who’s side were you on?

I looked up suddenly. Weird, for a moment it was like I heard something. Listening carefully, I picked it up again; the soft taps of hooves on the floor. Twilight coming to visit me, perhaps? They drew closer, then stopped at the point I calculated was just by the door. Silence held for a while, and I held my breath, trying to be as still as possible. The clops started again, but they were heading away this time.

I sighed and picked up the MP3 player. It was too soon to apologize to Twilight, and she apparently thought it was too soon to confront me again as well. Sure, I could tell myself that I was a stupid jerk about it, but I was still having trouble admitting, accepting the possibility that I had… magic.

In the morning… right now I had a few children’s book to flip through, and music to listen to. I set the autoshut off on the MP3 player for an hour and put it on shuffle, laying back on the bed to read until I fell asleep.

----------

‘Why does it scare you so much? Accepting something new doesn’t change who you are,’ my old school guidance counselor said kindly.

She was one of the people outside of the family I would turn to for insight and advice, and considering the situation; it was something I really needed. We were sitting in a room that reminded me of Canterlot Castle, but furnished for humans, a few bottles of water on the table between us, as well as a bowl of sweets. ‘But this isn’t just something new… this is major. I never showed any signs of this before I got here. This world is amazing, I’m not denying that, but…’

‘But what, Caleb?’ she asked, a concerned frown on her features. ‘True, you never expressed your gift before, but just like how someone might not know they can float in water until they end up in a pool, maybe this place is just what you needed to realize your gift.’

‘But what if I don’t want it!’ I snapped at her. The room darkened somewhat. ‘People don’t like different. I get weird looks when I go to some places just because I’m black, more when they see my eyes! But this?’ Something flared around me, and I could feel a slight burning in my chest, throbbing in my head. ‘This is the kind of thing that gets you killed at worse, locked away at best!’

‘Don’t let your fear make your rash,’ she said soothingly. ‘It is a gift, one you need to learn about before you can really make the best of it. How can you fear it, if you don’t know what your magic can do?’

‘I DON’T HAVE MAGIC!’ I yelled, the denial response coming out with me fully intending it. Images flashed around the room, of friends and family shunning me because of it.

‘You can’t lie to me, you know you do, and you already have an idea why,’ she said, even as the images surrounded me, each one making me tremble and shake. ‘Don’t deny it. Admit it, embrace it, understand it, use it.’

Her shadow fell over me, darker than it had right to, but the hand on my shoulder was warm, but did nothing to ease my distress.

‘Don’t run from this fulfilment of a fantasy. Learn about it, then you can work from there on what you do with it.’ She pressed down on me. ‘You this world, a world filled with magic, now you have your own.’

I snapped my eyes open as the images were joined with garbled speech. I could hear them muttering, things like freak, unclean, monster, worthless... I buried my head in my hands and yelled. ‘You think I want this place infecting me!?’

‘Is that really what you think?’ It wasn’t the voice of my guidance counsellor.

I looked up to see a dark form step through the images, the spectres that surrounded me, and they fizzed out, turning to dust that wafted away before it. Slowly, it resolved into the dark blue form of someone I knew, but didn’t expect.

“Princess Luna?” as I said it, the sound and clarity of the world changed. For a moment, I could feel the slight pressure on my head I recognized from when I was trying to hold on to a lucid dream, then even that faded. I looked around as the rest of the images were dispersed by a gust of wind, and the room returned with the comforts it offered. “This… is a dream?”

“It is,” Luna said, looking somewhat impressed. “I am the Princess of the Night. Part of that entails traveling the dreams of my subjects. I am impressed you realized the nature of this realm so quickly.”

“I have lucid dreams sometimes, I recognized the feeling when you showed up,” I said, blinking. That was all a dream? Man, that was… different. My guidance counsellor was gone too, leaving just me and the alicorn princess of the night alone in the room. “You’re really here?”

“That I am,” Luna confirmed. “Dream walking is one of my abilities and gifts.”

Well I’ll be damned. I just looked at her. “No joke?”

“Ah, I’m sorry?” Luna said hesitantly. “Your jargon escapes me.”

“Mah’sa… you’re really here,” I blinked. I reached out to pinch her, but she batted my hand away with a wing.

“I do believe that is unnessessary,” she said firmly.

“Sorry,” I said with a sheepish grin. The princess of the night was in my dreams. And wow, that sounded far dirtier than I thought it would be.

“Was that your family?” She asked me suddenly, looking off vague in the ‘direction’ the images had been chased.

“Yeah, it was,” I said, a trace bit of longing in my tone.

“You miss them.” It was her observation, not a question.

“Considering I might not see them again, unless I get really lucky, yeah,” my voice cracked slightly. I didn’t want to imagine them that way, judgmental and filled with hate. I wanted to remember them as they were. Loving and caring, getting into the minor little spats that made family both a pain and indispensible. “God, I miss them… It’s only been six days, but… more than you can imagine.”

“You would be surprised,” Luna said, so softly that I wasn’t sure she actually said anything. She looked back at me. “So, is that really what you think?” She asked at a normal speaking volume. “An infection?”

I grimaced and took a seat, looking for a way to stall. I picked up one of the sweets from the jar, the kind in the predominantly red wrapping, green at the single twist that closed it, gold spots on the red making the whole thing look like a strawberry. I really liked those, particularly the filling inside it. I offered it to her. “Sweet?”

With a wry smile, she took it in her magic, which made me wince slightly, considering the cause of the dream, the aura deftly unwrapping it and popping it in her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise, as if she hadn’t expected it to taste as nice as it did. “A most lovely confection,” she said. “But not enough to distract me.”

I groaned and took one of the candies for myself. “Can’t blame me for trying…”

“Is that really what you think?” she asked again, still sucking on the little treat. “That your magic is an infection?”

“How did you know about it?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

“My sister’s pupil is most diligent,” Luna said calmly. “She sent word shortly after it was discovered. As well as word that you were… reluctant to accept the reality of your magic.”

“I’ll bet ‘reluctant’ was the word…” I muttered. She did take a while to get back when we got home and Spike and I were in the kitchen. Then she called him away for a few moments too… Clever minx.

“I believe ‘stubborn’ and ‘hard headed’ were her terms of choice,” Luna smiled. “But you have yet to answer my question.”

“Fine,” I sighed. There was no getting around it. “In a way… I do.” I grimaced again. “I’ll admit, ‘infection’ is a bit much, but… I never had magic before. Now all of a sudden, after I’m here for a while, BAM!” Luna flinched a little. “Magic out of nowhere…”

“That’s not all, is it? Or even the real reason.” Luna was pretty insightful. I watched her pick up another two of the sweets and unwrapped them before popping them in her mouth.

I didn’t want to admit it, especially not to the really powerful alicorn princess that could raise the moon and walk dreams, but it was still my dream. “I’m scared. I know, told and realized it myself, that I’m about as far from home as I can get. And I can be reasonable about this. I know I’m not likely to get back home for a few more weeks, unless I’m lucky…”

Frig. I was starting to cry again. I whipped then off on my sleeve. “It just got to be… too much.”

“Stubbornness is a trait ponies share as well,” Luna said with a strange expression on her face. “Still, are you willing to accept it? Not rashly reject it?”

“Hell… Not like I have another choice,” I chuckled without a trace of humour. “Twilight came up with a pretty good idea, a concept that could be a theory that I pretty much agree with. My world’s… magic...” I still tripped over it, even there, in a dream in my head. “But it’s just really rare. And I ‘lucked’ out. Yay me.” I rolled my eyes and looked down with a depressed sigh.

“Do not fear the unknown,” Luna said, extending a wing and using it to tilt my head to look up at her. “It is easy for fear and mistrust to get the better of you. From there, it is even easier for you become lost in your darker emotions, even when your intentions are not inherently bad.” Her expressions sadden some. “Often, that is when it is more likely.

“Instead of locking yourself away, were the turmoil and darkness can fester, and feed on itself and grow, let others in. Trust those around you to help. Already you have at least one ready to assist, and from what she wrote, you have a few more that may be willing to lend you a hoof if you need it. If you think it is getting to be too much for you to bear alone, let them help carry the burden.”

“But what about when I don’t understand? I don’t even know why I’m here,” I whimpered. It was hard enough finding a purpose and real goal back home, but now, in an alien world?

“I cannot tell you why, or what will happen. Nor can I promise it will be perfect. But I can promise that the sun will always rise in the end, and the moon at night. So there is one good thing you can depend on,” Luna said with a slight smile.

I consider it, then nodded. One step at a time. I could do that.

“And where do you intend to go from here?” Luna said, nudging me to taking that step.

“I… I need to apologize to Twilight,” I sighed. Couldn’t she just leave well enough alone? “And add ‘Magic Lessons’ to my list of things to do.”

“It is a good start,” Luna said, standing and spreading her wings. “I look forward to hearing good news from you.”

“Hold on,” I called as she started to take flight. She paused, settling back on all four hooves. I shifted my jaw nervously. Bah. It was my dream. She was visiting. I gave her a quick hug. She was softer than I expected, her coat aiding in that fact. “Thank you.”

She stiffened slightly, then relaxed, briefly covering me with a wing. “You’re welcome.”

----------

Morning seemed to come right after Luna left. One good thing about rooming in the tree was that a lot of the sun’s rays were blocked, so even the morning light was reduced to pleasant illumination. Unlike the day before, I woke on my own, without the intervention of anyone else. Come to think of it, it had been a while that I wasn’t woken up for someone else. When I was in the castle, the staff seemed to take a certain pleasure in waking me for the mornings.

I rolled out of bed and set my feet on the ground, immediately regretting not wearing my shoes indoors when the chill floor hit it. Maybe I would make use of the sandals they had made for me back at Canterlot. My mood shifted when I remembered the dream, far more clearly than most any other dream I had had.

“So… dream walking is a think now,” I muttered as I ran my hand over my hair, a motion long since ascended to habit. I needed to apologize to Twilight, and I had no clue what to say. Well, with Luna playing Santa Claus, and Twilight’s love of sending mail, she would know if I didn’t, and I really felt I should anyway.

Regretting sleeping in my close, I put my belongings back in my bag, slipped the book I was reading into the rear outside compartment, and clipped everything shut. Until I could get the strap replaced, I would have to carry it by the handle, which would a bit less convenient, but still more than manageable. I left my room and only stopped by the bathroom to relieve myself and freshen up with a bit of cold water.

All the while, I had a mantra muttering under my breath. “I have ma-magic. I have ma-a-agic. I ha-have magic. I have mah-magic...” It was still hard to admit it, traces of the same fear that had been prevalent in the dream still lingering.

Twilight wasn’t in the dining area or the kitchen when I checked, but Spike was, sitting in the sunlight and munching on something. It was clear from the look he gave me I wasn’t on his Favourite People List at the moment. “Morning, Ca-”

“Wait,” I said, holding a hand up to stop him. I exhaled, my shoulders dropping. “I owe both you and Twilight an apology.”

“Is that so?” he said guardedly.

“Yes, it is,” I said, nodding. “I acted like a jerk last night when Twilight was just trying to help me out. Both of you agreed to put up with me for who knows how long, and the first evening I cause a fuss because I’m and idiot and I over reacted.” I heard hoofsteps behind me, so I decided to go all in. “Fact of the matter is; I got scared and panicked, and took it out on the people who tried to help me. Neither you nor Twilight deserved the attitude I gave you. And it was beyond rude to storm out like that and even leave you to do all the clean up after that great meal you cooked. Can you forgive me?”

“I dunno,” Spike said. He looked behind me. “What do you think Twilight?”

So I was right, she did walk in shortly after I started. I turned and found her staring at me with a measured expression. “Well?”

“I’m sorry for acting like an idiot,” I said.

“And?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Um…” I ran things through in my mind. “It is irresponsible and foolish of me to try and pretend I don’t have magic?”

She appraised me for a moment more before lunging forward, wrapping her forelegs around me in a hug. “Good enough.”

Now it was my turn to stiffen before relaxing and letting it happen. I hugged her back. I only had two, well, three if you counted that time Celestia hugged me, four if you counted Rainbow Dash ramming then pinning me, ponies from which to draw my conclusion, but they were nice to hug. “Thanks Twi.”

“So,” she asked when the hug ended, and she moved us towards the table, “what changed your mind?”

“Partially your mini-lecture,” I admitted, “but before that, what are you eating Spike?”

I had just gotten a proper look at it, and it seemed like it was a pretty big glassy rock or something of the sort.

“It’s a topaz,” he said easily. “My sapphires are still aging, so I had to make do with this.”

“Dragons… eat gems? I thought that… never mind,” I said. I added that to the ‘Because Magic’ list of phenomena. “Anyway, I thought about your lecture, was honest to myself, had a bad dream and had Princess Luna turn up and slap some sense into me. Did you know she could Dream Walk?”

“Princess Luna slapped you?” Twilight asked in shock.

“No, she just talked some sense into me,” I laughed. “But did you?”

“Of course. It is one of Princess Luna’s abilities, and duties as princess of the night,” Twilight said with a nod and a slightly learned tone. She sat down across from me. “There are two things I want from you before I accept your apology fully though.”

“Um… okay?” I said, a bit crestfallen.

“First; what do you plan to do from this point?” Twilight asked as her expression once again became grave and level.

“I… I need help. Lessons, I suppose,” I sighed. I did say I was accepting that I had magic. “Luna suggested asking you.”

“I know,” Twilight said smugly. I stared incredulously. “She sent a letter this morning.”

The little minx. I held my hands out, admitting defeat. “Okay, you win that one. What’s the second one?”

“Well,” Twilight looked at Spike, a twinkle in her eye. “You have to cook us breakfast.”

Magic Lessons

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That morning will forever be remembered as the one upon which a local librarian forced an appointed ambassador to make breakfast for her assistant and herself (I made a stir fried vegetables, mushrooms and green peas to go with more rolls and fruit spreads because that was the best I could come up with on short notice with what they had). Twilight started on my language lessons during the meal, using the labels on the jars.

It was far from the easiest thing I had ever done, but I had a crutch in the sense that I already knew the spoken language, so it was mostly learning the new symbols and the sounds they translated to. It would be easier when I got around to making a key for it.

Spike volunteered to do the dishes since I cooked, so that was one less thing to worry about. Twilight had prepared a lot more material for my lessons, both sets of lessons, actually. She had already started putting some things for the magic lesson together from the night before, despite my bad attitude on the subject, and the letter from Princess Luna only made her more eager to get things ready. For the language lessons, she was adamant that I be able to read if I was staying with her.

“For now, we will focus on teaching you the characters so you can at least understand basic Equish,” Twilight said as we cleared the table for Spike. We couldn’t let him do all the work.

“Wait, Equish? As in Equis; the name of the world?” I asked, confused as I stacked utensils in a cup. Behind me, Spike started running water off the cookware, rinsing them off. “Is there only one language here?”

“Well, the dialects and scripts differ, but for the most part, the language is the same. It came around two thousand years ago after Discord’s reign. The name Equish just stuck. Particularly in reference to the spoken portion,” Twilight reported as she levitated the last of the dishes to the counter. “It has changed a good bit since then, but most historians and linguists place its origins around that point in time.”

I didn’t respond, mostly because I was torn between three things. First; Equish and English were about the same age, and combined with the fact that it was the same spoken; it raised all sorts of questions. Secondly; the way she said discord sounded like it was something more than just their local version of the dark ages. Call it a hunch. And finally; I could hear it. A twinkling song that came from Twilight and the dishes she was levitating.

It was a melodious song that caused a strange feeling at the base of my skull that rippled part way down my spine. I recognized it. Well, as much as you recognized classical music when you heard it. I watch spellbound, almost in a literal sense, as she finished up, the song ending when she set the last plate in the sink.

“Okay, we can use the rear reading room for…” Twilight noticed me staring at her. She blinked and ducked her head a little, ears flicking. “What is it? Do I have something on my muzzle?”

“I heard… and felt that,” I managed. I felt a weird grin tugging at the corner of my mouth.

“What?” Twilight ran through about five facial expressions in three seconds. Confusion, realization, shock, amazement and eagerness. “Of course, it makes sense. Doctor Horse did say that your mana channels were developing. I did hypothesize you would have spell casting potential, and this confirms it.”

“Um… what? What confirms it?” I shook my head to clear the little daze I had fallen into.

“I don’t what’s she’s talking about either,” Spike commented over his shoulder form his little step stool before the sink.

“You have magic sensitivity,” Twilight said, positively gushing as she trotted past me. “Whether it is simple sensitivity or a fully developed awareness, we will have to determine, but this will make the lessons a lot simpler!”

Her excitement bred trepidation in me. I might be ready to accept that I had magic thanks to Luna’s assistance, but still, I was allowed to be hesitant. I grabbed my bag and chased after her, tossing a quick ‘later Spike’ at the dragon. Twilight’s Lecture Mode. Nothing stronger in the verse.

“Twilight, I know I asked you for help and all, but can we, um, take it slow to start with?” I didn’t quite plead, but there were hints of it in my tone.

“Don’t worry, Caleb,” Twilight reassured me. “I might have gotten a bit… excited there for a moment, but I remember that you are from a place without magic. I only planned to teach you how to keep yourself from letting your magic surge under regular conditions, as it did yesterday when it reacted to Rainbow Dash.”

She had really prepared the reading room for me. Several books were neatly stacked on the table, most looking like they were for children, judging by the front covers I could see. There were also pencils, quills, inks and sheets of scrolls on the table. She also had a small standing board set up with a stack of paper clipped to it, diagrams already drawn on the front sheet. A chalk board was standing in the corner, ready to be called into service. She motioned me to take the large of the cushions, and I did, already fielding a question at her.

“My magic reacted to her?” I asked, secretly proud that my voice didn’t crack too much on the word magic.

“It did. Rainbow Dash has high innate magic levels for a pegasus, enough that when she tackled you and tried to hold you down, you reacted,” Twilight explained. “More than just flinching and clenching muscles, your magic surged as well, ready to try and protect you from what you perceived as a hostile threat.”

“And… that’s bad?” I assumed.

“Far from it!” Twilight said. She pulled the chalkboard closer with her telekinesis, another soft song starting up, continuing as she snatched up a chalk in the purple glow, though the song shed a lot of volume. She quickly sketched out a diagram; a crude representation of a bipedal and another of a winged quadruped. “Basically everything in Equestria has some internal magic, living and non-living alive, whether through innate magic, or simple natural magic picked up from the environment. In living things, this inherent magic tends to suffuse the being, and acts to somewhat isolate the being from external magic.

“Generally, it is too weak to do much aside from prevent basic mana infections, but it exists nonetheless,” Twilight was getting into full lecture mode. I sighed and started taking notes on one of the scrolls. It was somewhat interesting though. She smiled when she saw my initiative and went on. “In the case of those with active or even semi-active magic traits, their magic tends to push itself to the outer limits of the being to protect the individual. That’s what happened to you. Only, too much was pushed out at once and cause your reaction.”

She added arrows pointing from the center of her sketches towards to outside and sketched another outline within the confines of the shape. On the bipedal one, she made the arrows large, a few sticking out past the outline.

“Right…” so it was basically a magic immune system, in a very crude analogy. And I had a magic anaphylactic reaction? “But what can I do about a subconscious reaction? I can’t exactly stop it.”

“No, but you can learn what your limits are,” Twilight said. She moved to the diagram on the large sheet of paper. The graph had a multiple lines, following, roughly, the same curve. “Most unicorns learn through childhood after their first few times using magic how much mana they can let flow passively, actively and when straining.” She pointed to three curves on the graph. “I’m going to teach you how to reach your magic and let you do a few simple mana flow exercises just to get you used to the feeling.”

“What kind of exercises are we talking about?” I asked her.

“Similar to breathing exercises,” Twilight said. She set the chalk down and demonstrated. The glow started on her horn again, though all I could hear was a simple tone. The glow brightened for a moment before diming and repeated that cycle a few times. “I am not casting a spell, simply charging magic in my horn and letting it ebb and flow.”

Her horn stopped glowing as she finished the demonstration, and gave me a contemplative look. “Unicorns use their horn as a focus, but we don’t know what your focus is at the moment, so for now we will work on internal magic. It will follow the same principle.”

“Okay,” I said with a small smile. I was actually starting to get a bit excited about this. “So what do I do?”

“You reach for- oh, right,” Twilight ducked her head sheepishly. “I forgot that you don’t know how to use any of your magic yet.”

I raised my eyebrow at her. “That’s kinda the reason we are here, you know.”

“I know, I know,” Twilight said, ear flicking. She thought about it. “I got it! I can perform a minor mana link with you.”

“A what?”

“Don’t interrupt,” she said, nodding to herself. “I can send a small amount of magic into you, and you can use that sensation to locate and identify the core of your own magic when it starts to push back and press against mine. It should be pretty simple for you to get the basics of magic flow after that.”

“Um…” I looked at the second paragraph I wrote. “Considering what you said about inherent magic…”

“It will be using the natural reactions to invasive magic for you instead of against you,” Twilight said in that same reassuring voice.

“But… the last time,” my hands shook a little, remembering the stabbing pain when Rainbow attacked me.

“That was probably your first time using magic,” Twilight said, putting a hoof on my shaking hand. “This time won’t be like that.”

“Promise?” I winced. I sounded like a little kid afraid to go to the dentist. That was how shaking up the magic thing made me. On one hand; it was awesome. That I could learn magic was amazing. On the other; I’d suffered from mana poisoning, ended up passing out for a moment the day before because of my own magic, and that wasn’t even touching on the injuries I got crashing in this world. On top of that; there was still the fact that my modern upbringing still insisted that magic was real back home. And reminding myself that I wasn’t home anymore was just depressing.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Twilight recited, waving a hoof in front of her chest, extending it outwards, then closing an eye before pressing her hoof over it.

“Okay… what was that?” her weird little routine dragged my thoughts out of the spiral.

“A Pinkie Promise,” Twilight said. At least she explained it, rather than assuming it answered itself. “It’s a solemn vow between friends. Breaking a friend’s trust is the fasted way to lose a friend forever.”

“FOREVER!” someone interjected suddenly from the doorway. They whirled and spotted Pinkie Pie, a stern expression on her face. It quickly melted away, leaving a bright smile. “Hi Twilight. Hi Caleb!”

“Pinkie Pie, I didn’t expect you here,” Twilight said hesitantly. “What brings you by today?”

“Invitations!” Pinkie declared, pulling two silver envelopes from her mane. “One for you and one for Caleb and I already gave Spike the one for him! Caleb’s ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party is today at the City Hall, remember.”

“I even have it on our schedule,” Twilight nodded.

“I already got an invitation from the Mayor,” I pointed out.

“Now you have two!” Pinkie said as if it were the best thing in the world.

I rolled my eyes and opened the envelope, yelping when a burst of confetti hit me in the face. My glasses saved my eyes, thankfully, but I was reduced to spitting and coughing to get the bits out of my mouth.

Of course Pinkie Pie was laughing her head off. I sighed heavily and grinned wryly. “Okay, I’ll admit that was pretty funny.”

Pinkie gave me another happy smile before bouncing towards the door. “Make sure you turn up at the party!”

“She is the most random woman, er, mare I’ve ever met,” I remarked to Twilight after Pinkie left.

“She is a good friend though,” Twilight commented. She bumped me with her shoulder. “Feeling any better?”

“Yeah, actually,” I admitted. Laugher really was a good medicine. “I suppose we should get this started before I lose this present state of mind.”

“I understand that feeling,” Twilight said with a quiet laugh. She shifted her position and prodded me towards the cushion. “I need you to sit down comfortably to start,” Twilight instructed. I obligingly sat. “Now, try and focus on the sensation of my magic. It is hard to really describe it, and I’m not sure if you will sense it the same way a unicorn would, but you will know it when you feel it.”

She lowered her head and touched her horn to my chest. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore most of what my senses where telling me. I cut out the sound of Spike walking around, the wind outside the window, the cushion under me. I even tried to ignore the pounding of my heart and the rhythm of my breaths. Instead, I focused on the point where Twilight’s horn was pressed against me, and the steady sound I was learning to associate with magic.

It was a while before I found it, something stretching out from where her horn touched me. It was… warm. Warm and soft, but strong, purple and… spicy? I tilted my head curiously. It had a taste. Or something I was interpreting as a taste. I opened my eyes and suffered a dizzy spell as my perspective drastically shifted from inward to outward once more. “Twilight, I-”

“Concentrate, Caleb,” Twilight chided, not looking up at me.

“But I can feel it. It’s…”

“The way the mind interprets the abstract of the sensations from magic by mixing pre-established comprehensions based on the five basic physical senses,” Twilight said, probably anticipating my concerns. “I can help you work through it all after we finish this exercise.”

“Oh. Okay,” I closed my eyes again and got myself back into the mindset. “Ready.”

“I’m starting to put it in again,” Twilight said.

I flinched as tendril of Twilight’s magic pushed into me. Suddenly I was proofing TARDIS/Wife/IDRIS right. I seemed so much bigger on the inside. I could feel my thoughts swirling around; sparks of light and areas of warmth and cold, sensations in the ‘air’ I moved through the expanse of my being.

I think it was because of Twilight’s magic I could feel all this. I ignored the feel of the rest of my body and tracked the invasion of Twilight’s magic. There was a pulse and my world shuddered as Twilight’s magic increased, questing more forcefully. “Not… not so fast. It’s too much.”

“Oh, sorry,” Twilight said. A sense of embarrassment rushed from her. “I forgot it was your first time. I’ll go slower, but it should be much longer.”

“It’s starting to feel really weird,” I muttered, shifting uncomfortably. Her warmth was starting to feel uncomfortable as it pressed deeper.

“Almost there, just a little deeper,” Twilight encouraged. “I’m going to push a bit harder so get ready.”

Three things happened at about the same time as Twilight’s magic flow pulsed and got stronger. First; Twilight either hit what she was going for, or my magic finally decided that the intrusion of her purple mana was hostile enough to react to. There was a sudden pleasurable surge from my core, and I both saw and felt a green glow well up and push back against Twilight’s magic, clenching down on it and pushing, trying to force it out. I grunted and gasped, unable to hold that reaction in as my eyes snapped open, the inner perspective and outward world mingling for a moment.

A comforting melody whispered in my ears and not-unpleasant ghostly sensations danced down my spine and arms, and across my chest. Intuitively, I knew what it was, like something that’s been having around your room forever but you never really took the chance to examine before. My magic. My Magic.

Oh, and there was a thump and a supressed snort of laughter in the doorway. Twilight flinched and yanked her head back, the stream of magic snapping uncomfortably, the mana she left behind swirling around inside me for a moment before my own… contained it? I wasn’t sure. I’ve have to ask her about it, but it burned for a moment, like heart burn or too spicy food, then it was soothed.
Twilight was looking over my shoulder towards the door with a look of complete embarrassment on her face. He half turned to see what was going on. A red faced light purple blue pegasus mare, wings fully extended for some reason, stood in there; the book she had apparently been carrying on the ground before her, the source of the thump, Spike beside her and trying to hold back a laugh.

“Ah, so sorry for interrupting! You just keep doing what you were doing,” she said, a curious expression on her face. “I can get this book tomorrow!” She dashed out before Twilight’s cry could reach her, leaving my lavender instructor red faced and Spike snickering.

“Well… that was awkward,” I said with a strained expression, thinking back about how all that looked. That was… pretty much in the top ten list of most awkward moments someone walked in on me.

“No, no, no! I have to clear this up before it gets around,” Twilight said, dancing on her hooves. There was a sharp and complicated sound and she vanished with a flash that I instinctively flinched away from.

I looked at where she stood moments before. Teleportation spell. I experienced it before, but never saw it from the outside. A few moments passed before I started chuckling.

“You okay?” Spike asked. I shifted so I could look at him, noticing the book that the mare dropped in his hands.

“Nah, I’m good,” I said, grinning, “It’s just…”

“What?” Spike dug.

“I’m just wondering if I could learn to teleport,” my grinned stretched even wider.

“Weren’t you just last night yelling that you didn’t have magic?” Spike scoffed. “Now you want to cast high level spells?”

“Back home we have a saying; I’m only human,” I snorted at him. I was still scared, and I was still uncertain about it all, but I also felt my magic. It didn’t feel like something bad. Or something I would hate. That let the ideas of being able to cast cool spells come back. “I’m allowed to change my mind. So who was that, anyway?”

“Cloud Kicker,” Spike said, padding into the room and dropping a scroll on the table. “There’s no way Twilight’s going to be able to catch her, but it will be a few minutes before she gets back.”

Well, since I had a bit of time to myself, I pulled out my ereader to pass the time. The scroll might have been interesting, but with my whole ‘inability to read Equish’ think and the fact that it was sealed.

“Hey, what’s that?” Spike asked as the screen lit up.

“This… this is human engineering.”

-----------

So, Introduction to Magic lessons where derailed by Introduction to Human Technology lessons. It started with Spike, and only took off when Twilight got back, bemoaning the fact that Cloud Kicker, as Spike predicted, evaded her attempts to catch her. It turned out that they had not been able to figure out how to work my devices. Considering that they were designed for nimble fingers and not large hooves, I wasn’t all that surprised. It did, however, mean that Twilight was beyond curious as to what they all were.

It turned out there was a force as strong as, if not stronger, than Twilight’s Lecture Mode. Her curiosity. Question after question, from what powered it to who made it work to how prevalent it was in my society, what it was used for. I tried my best to answer all the questions, but she was wearing me down. Eventually, even Spike’s fascination was worn down by Twilight’s quest for knowledge and I was desperate for something to distract her.

“You know Twi,” I said as she wrote down my overview of microwaves (I’m not sure how we got there either), “This would be better if I could write it all down for you, or maybe even magically transcribe it.”

“What? I…” she surrendered with a sigh. “I suppose you’re right. It’s close to the party time and you haven’t gotten any better ay controlling your magic.”

“You kinda did run off when you were teaching him Twilight,” Spike commented.

“Point,” I said, aiming a digit at Spike. “Not to mention that when you came back you just got super interested in human technology.”

Twilight blushed. There was no denying the evidence though. Three scrolls of notes. She had initially been upset when I refused to run the laptop for more than a few minutes, but explained that it had a limited charge and I didn’t have a means quickly recharging it. On the other hand, I did learn that Ponyville had a power grid, albeit a somewhat limited one, the combined by magic and power from the hydroelectric dam outside town. Still, I wasn’t about to just stick my devices in it when they might fried from incorrect voltages.

“Oh, and the Princess sent you a scroll! It’s on the table under your notes,” Spike said, suddenly recalling what he had first come into the room about. He yelped as a purple glow encased him and yanked him off the cushion he had been reclining on.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Twilight demanded, dropping him and searching through the sheets with a flurry of hooves and magic. She almost tore it open in her haste. She visually calmed after reading it.

“I did, you were distracted by the compewter,” Spike grumped.

“Okay, everything is fine,” Twilight said, visibly calming as her eyes flicked across the sheets of papers, ignorant of the somewhat concerned look I was giving Spike, and the smirk he was sending back. “The Princess sent an update on the research efforts on the phenomena as well as some elaboration as to what your official role and title entails. A good thing too, considering the likelihood of that question being asked at the party.”

“So… what have they found out?” I asked tentatively. I didn’t let my hopes get up, pretty much resigned to hanging around Equestria for a while. But I was still curious.

“Not much more, unfortunately,” Twilight sighed. “They did collect some more readings on the residual energies in the area, and are charting the patterns of the ripples in the metaphysical aether in an attempt to identify a pattern.”

“Sounds fun.” More motivation to learn both magic and Equish; so I could actually comprehend what she was talking about, and skim those myself. “You said Celestia send a job description as well?”

“Princess Celestia,” Twilight corrected, glaring at me. “And yes, she did.”

“Sorry, sorry,” I said, raising my hands in defence. “We don’t have much in terms of royalty back home, and even then the titles are generally only used in formal settings. So what and I expected to do? And no, I’m not going to answer questions about Human Royalty right now. You still haven’t finished up the magic lessons you started and the party isn’t long from now!”

“I… fine,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. She totally had been about to ask about human royalty. She handed most of the sheets to Spike. “Can you put these on my desk in the basement please?”

“Sure thing, Twilight,” Spike said cheerfully, snatching them and heading off with them. Twilight had already gone back to reviewing the job description.

Long story short; Princess Celestia afforded me some minor power. As the officially appointed ambassador and liaison, I had the authority to be involved most projects and plans as it related to interactions between Earth, Equis and their respective inhabitants and was the representative for humans. Of course, I was the only human, so I really only represented myself, but I did give me the right to stick my nose in the breach projects and get access to certain otherwise restricted areas, even visit the Princesses if I wanted to.

It also came with some leeway on legal matters. It wasn’t diplomatic immunity or anything near that powerful, but enough breathing room so he didn’t get arrested or charged for doing something wrong or breaking some law or taboo he didn’t know about. On the other hand, it came with responsibilities. I was in charge of furthering and fostering a cultural understanding between humans and ponies. Which Twilight gleefully pointed out meant I got to answer all her questions since she was named the Equestrian Liaison. At least I was able to counter with the fact it also meant she needed to finish my magic and language lessons so I could do my ‘job.’

I suspected the lessons on how to moderate the mana flow were a bit more intense than they needed to be in retaliation. Still, seeing my hands glow with my own magic more than made up for it. Even with the ribbing about the fact that I looked as excited as a little filly. We didn’t start on learning any actually spells, not yet, but the exercises did give me a change to get the feel for moving mana around, if crudely. We didn’t have time for much more than that before Twilight hustled me to the party.

----------

I had forgotten about my limited wardrobe and had been despairing about wearing the one outfit I had another day, worse considering that it was in slight need of washing. Rescue came in the form of Rarity, who delivered the first outfit she prepared for me about thirty minutes into my lesson, promising several more before heading to help the last minute touches at the party herself. Surprisingly, though apparently to no one other than me, it was amazing.

As such, I arrived at the party dressed fashionably in a burgundy suit and a white shirt. It was the first in a long while that I have a tailored suit to my name, and I was fiddling with it all the way to the Town Hall. Twilight and Spike accompanied me, the latter perched on the former’s back rather than walking on his own.

“Its fine,” Twilight said as I fiddled with the white pocket piece. “Leave it alone.”

“Sorry,” I said with a slight grin. “But Rarity is amazing. I thought she was just scary, but man… She even got pockets in usable places.”

“I told you that she is the expert when it comes to fashion,” Twilight said, appreciating the praise for her friend.

“What part of Rarity is scary?” Spike asked, surprising me with how upset he sounded about it.

“Seriously?” I asked he, raising an eyebrow. Around us, a few other ponies seemed to be heading in the same general direction we were. None of us were really paying them much attention as we walked. “Maybe the part where she dragged me into the backroom and stripped me down for measurements? Or the part where all the scissors and pins and stuff were flying around the place?”

“She was in total control,” Twilight chastised with a toss of her head. “Her ability is impressive, actually.”

“She does that all the time,” Spike added. “It’s just pins and scissors.”

“For you maybe,” I muttered, thinking about what those implements could do to my delicate flesh. “Not all of are blessed with a natural layer of armour. Or even fur.”

“Your problem, not mine,” Spike shrugged from his perch.

“Nice to see that you’re so understanding,” I deadpanned at him. “What would I do without you?”

“Exactly,” Spike grinned. That had us both chuckling as we finally arrived at the hall. Twilight sighed wearily as she opened the door to admit us.

I never did get a look at the reception hall when we stopped by the day before, most of our time being in the administrative section of the building to meet with the Mayor. Even so, I could tell the room was transformed from what it would have been.

“Pinkie and Rarity must have consulted on this one,” Twilight marvelled. Having met Pinkie, I had half expected the place to look wild and flashy, with lots of bright colours, balloons, streamers and possibly confetti, considering the invitation she so cheerfully gave me earlier.

Instead, it was almost classy. Sure, there were balloons and streamers, but they were of the sombre sort, with cool colours and placed with flowers to add atmosphere rather than hype. There was soft music coming from various speakers in the room, and the tables with snack food on tables scattered around the room was impressive; neat pastries, fruits and vegetables in neat sizes, though larger than what I’d call finger food, maybe hoof food? There were bowls of punch around as well.

“So, do you like it?” Pinkie suddenly spoke up from beside me.

“Gah!” I yelped, flinching away and bumping into Twilight, which in turn knocked Spike off and unto the ground. “Don’t do that!”

“Sorry, but I saw you looking around and nodding. I was going to do a regular Welcome to Ponyville Party, but the Mayor told me that you were some sort of fancy ambassador and I remembered the garden parties Rarity would go to in Canterlot and those times the Princess would come and visit and what Twilight wanted us to do when she got all ‘Aaaah’ and panicky, so decided to make it more like those than my usual ‘Weee!’ and ‘Yay!’ parties. The Mayor wouldn’t let me have everyone yell surprise either, so we get to mingle instead.” Pinkie smiled at me as if she hadn’t just reeled off at about five hundred words a minute. “So do you like it?”

“I… it’s… It’s nice, Pinkie,” I sighed with half of a grin on my face. “It’s pretty impressive, actually.” I glanced at her flank. “So… parties are your talent?”

“Yep! Ponyville’s best party planner; that’s me!” She said. She looked behind me and noticed Spike on the ground glaring. “Hey Spike, why are you just lying around like that?”

Twilight giggled and pushed me into the press of ponies so I could introduce myself. To be honest; I wasn’t the best person with names and faces. It took me a while to learn new people well enough to recognize them on site. Add to that the fact that it was a whirlwind of new faces, complicate it with the issue that they were pony faces, and you ended up with a low chance of me being able to remember who everyone was.

I also found out that ponies could be pretty direct and blunt. As we made our way around the floor, I got a lot of questions. A lot of them the same thing; what and who I was, where I was from, what my cutie mark was, why did I scare the flower girls, and why I wore clothes were the more common ones. Twilight even took the opportunity to have me meet with your friends again.

“Good evening everypony,” the Mayor finally said from the raised platform that took up much of the space of one end of the hall, finally bringing the mingling to an end. “I trust by now you have all gotten a chance to meet the human ambassador from Canterlot? This celebration was thrown in his honour.”

She chuckled slightly at her, admittedly poor, joke. “Now, for the benefit of those who either didn’t get to chat with him, or didn’t ask the right questions, I’ll have him come up and introduce himself and tell us a bit of what he will be doing while here.”

She was putting me on the spot. Dammit, I hated being put on the spot. With dozens on eyes focused on me, I didn’t really have any other option than to go with it. I nudged Twilight and whispered quickly. “Come on, you’re coming with me.”

“What? Why?” Twilight whispered back, startled.

“You’re pretty much my assistant here; you can’t leave me hanging in case I do something stupid. Now come on.” With that, we made our way through the crowd and up to the stand the Mayor surrendered to me. Looking out at the multi-coloured forms didn’t make me any less nervous, so I gulped and jumped right into it instead of delaying.

“Good evening everyone,” I greeted. “As most of you know by now, I’m Caleb Blakely, and I’m what you call a human. Humans and Ponies haven’t interacted before, so I’ve been appointed as an ambassador and diplomat. Basically, I’m here to learn as much as I can about Equestian society, culture and life on a whole and, with the help of Twilight, help you understand humans in return. So pretty much building relationships between humans and ponies.”

There was a sudden bark of laughter, accompanied by a few chuckles, giggles and snickers from one section of the crowd. The pony that laughed first looked a lot like the one who had stopped by the library earlier. I sighed. This is going to be a long night.

An Interlude: Reflections

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The party had been five days ago. Aside from trying to crush Cloud Kicker’s rumours, it had gone off pretty well. For the most part, those that showed up were those that were interested in meeting me or had neutral opinions. Only a few mutters reached me, which of course meant that about ten times as many were unheard, but it wasn’t universal hate and I didn’t manage to make a fool of myself, so that was a plus.

I chewed on the end of my pen lightly, staring at the well-crafted notebook that rested on the desk before me. We hadn’t found any desks that could fit me comfortably in town, a; of them being too low for my legs to fit under or around with anything near comfort. I’d placed an order with the carpenter to have one made, but until that was ready I had been making do with putting a couple pieces of lumber under a regular one.

It had been hardcover books first, but when Twilight found out… Anyway, it was lumber liberated from the structure of an empty crate I found in the basement. But on the matter at hand; I’d decided to start a journal. I would have much rather to have been typing it, but the solar charger could only provide so much juice to the laptop. I thought about it, shrugged and just started writing.

Entry 1 Initial Musings
As much as I’d rather this sound more professional, it’s not quite there yet. With practice it should improve though. I’m hoping to make this part personal reflections and part professional comments. Just because I was given my ‘job’ casually doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be doing it. It's been a few days since then, and I've been working on making sure I can pull it off. Part of the reason I suppose is that it's honestly boring just learning languages each day. The magic lessons are cool and all, but it's limited because I can't read any of the reference material, and since my 'Human' magic has been proving to work a bit differently from regular 'Unicorn' magic, I really need them. So working on my job and title give me something else to do.
To that end, I’ve actually started reading my old text books from my geography classes. In order to save my back (and lessen the rest to my future self), and save a couple hundred dollars, I had gotten digital versions for as many class texts as I could have, and I wasn’t one to delete files often. Still ~~arnt~~ aren't. I pretty much had every power point, assignment and note document for my classes between my laptop and external. It's why I had and external.
When Twilight found out I had actual books on them, educational ones and not just the novels I had originally mentioned, she dove at the laptop (and me, considering it was in my lap at the time), that I thought she would break it (and again; me).
If it wasn’t for Lyra she might have. Thankfully she was able to hank me out of the way. Right; Lyra might be a musician, but she did some dabbling in cultures and mythology in school alongside her music. She was pretty interested in human culture and came to help with the research. She was a good source of information on the other races of Equis.
Still, Twilight’s ~~been~~ gotten even more motivated to learn written English, and is already doing pretty well with it. It irks me, it does. I’m still only able to pick my way through paragraphs, often fallng back to using my translation keys when it came to Equish (I wrote up a quick thing a on a little flip book I made), and that’s just the common script. There are still the other two to learn. At least pegasus runes seem simple enough. It’s High Unicornian that’s I’m dreading. It’s one of those ‘characters represent syllables’ languages. Some 200 to learn. I’m not looking forward to it. Maybe there is a spell that I can cheat with… Still, I’ve been picking up faster than I thought I would, and even Twilight has been surprised.
I’ve started reading Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, the first in a series of ~~books~~ novels about a treasure hunter and explorer. I think she is something ~~like~~ akin to a local version of Indiana Jones. Considering I never got around to reading the former back home, it should be an interesting challenge and learning experience. Practice makes perfect, after all.
On the topic of magic; I’m doing pretty well, actually. By which I mean I haven’t really done much more than make my hands and eyes glow. Speaking of eyes… mine changed. They used to be a brownish gold, weird but still normal looking. Now? There are a vivid gold gold. Somewhat like Lyra’s, actually. Twilight theorized that it’s because of my magic. She’d worked out a rough hypothesis about the connection between eyes and magic, but never got a chance to work on it, apparently.
I planned to see if I could nudge her back to it, but long story short; she thinks that the non-standard eye colour was always because of my magic and magic potential, but without a magic rich environment, there wasn’t much for it to react to. Equestria was overflowing with magic though, so my eyes became brilliant as a result. It somewhat did explain the vibrant colours o Equestria. Hopefully my reaction was limited to only the eyes and didn’t expand to include things like hair and skin colour. There were only so many changes I could take… Though, if it means I can ditch the glasses, I wouldn’t mind that much.

In regards to the Breach project:
Not much has changed on that front. The research is slow and has mostly shifted into theoretical magic that far above my head. It is mainly motivation to learn the language more. I also plan to visit the site sometime in the near future. As new as I was to this whole magic thing, I needed as much tactile (that’s the right word, right? Gotta ask Twilight) exposure as I could get before I could understand it fully. It doesn't help that the whole 'different magic' thing makes it harder for her to explan it to me.

Luna’s showed up in my dreams three times since the first time. I think she’s still somewhat reserrved towards me, but we are growing on each other. She’s somewhere between the senior who’s trying to help and the school prefect. Horrible analogies, but they work for me. It’s like she’s not that she’s not… commanding or regal or anything, it’s just that she started loosening up a bit. And I feel like it’s as if she thinks I might go wrong or something if I’m not carefully shepherded, like I'm a delinquent or something. It was sort of annoying the first night, but she did help me though the dream I was having. She got to meet my family, in a weird way since it was just my memories of them, and we had some more sweets before she left. We just talked the second time, exchanging facts about her world and mine for a few minutes before she had to move on to other dreams. Apparently walking in ~~people's~~ pon~~ies~~y's dreams is part of her royal duties.
...
I miss them. It’s not like I wasn’t thinking of moving out when I had save up enough money, or maybe if I got a better job, but moving out didn’t translate to skipping over to another reality. Right now all I had were the pic---

“Hey, Caleb,” Spike called from my door. I jumped a bit, having been taken up in my writing that I didn’t notice him in the area. “You okay, up here?”

“Uh, yeah. I was just writing some thoughts down,” I said, looking over what I had written before turning in my chair. “So… sup?”

“Sweetie Bell stopped by to say Rarity will be finished with your full order by this afternoon and you can stop by and pick them,” Spike said as he looked around the room. “What happened here?”

I made a slight sound of confusion and looked around the room to see what had gotten his interest so. Several maps of the larger towns in Equestria, as well a large map showing all of Equestria, another one of the Crystal Empire and a less detailed one showing all of the neighbouring regions covered one wall. I’d purchased them the day before. Classroom worthy banners with the various characters and glyphs of the local written languages, as well as common words and simple phrases hung closer to the roof, and I had added their English counterparts to go with them. Those I got from the store that carried both toys and school supplies.

Here and there simple anatomy charts, crudely relabelled, were present, as well as a poster showing the two Princess, another from the Crystal Empire and a few promoting the Royal Guard and the Wonderbolts, the foal’s books I’d taken up from downstairs scattered in untidy piles against the wall or on shelves. Over all, the room was a confusing mess.

“Right, you haven’t been in here in a while,” I grinned at Spikes confused look. “I’ll trying to learn as much as I can, so I raided the Town Hall for what they had on Equestria in general, hit a few stores with Lyra’s help and got most of this.”

“So why aren’t there any about dragons?” Spike asked grumpily, folding his arms on his chest. I couldn’t tell if he was pretending or serious.

“I.. they didn’t have anything in the Town Hall. Someone, a er… Glossy Stroke said they had some posters from the Dragon Migration but they were sold out and haven’t restocked yet.” I shrugged. “I can get one when they do if it really bugs you.”

“Nah, I was just messing with you,” Spike laughed. “Anyway, you want some lunch before you go? I made a salad I plan to take to the next picnic. There’s enough for you to have if you want.”

I hesitated, looking back at my journal. The aborted thought completed itself. Right now, all I have are pictures and memories. Luna says that when it’s loved ones, sometimes that’s enough, but I still feel empty inside. Worried.

“Sure, I could use a snack,” I said, closing the book, my eyes flicking up to the paragraphs above it that mused on the Breach. I could finish it later. I could work on it later. As we left the room, Spike nudged me.

"Isn't that one Daring Do?"

"Ugh... It's a long story...” I said, shaking my head slowly as I closed the door behind me. “We met Rainbow Dash when we were leaving the story with the Wonderbolt's poster..."

“The Solar Court is now in recess!” the strong voice of the herald announced, carrying itself across the room and out into the halls were others had gathered, hoping to have a moment of their Princess’ time. Most of them were those who came to open court, those was scheduled times already taken in and dealt with. Celestia sat, waiting as her diligent staff ushered the grumbling representative of her most recent case out, watching and listening without fully paying attention to the acts that had long since become commonplace to her.

It only took the slightest bit of focus to speak with her counselors and aids, hearing their words and responding with the expected replies as she made her way out of the Hall, the entourage shrinking until it was merely her aide Kibitz that remained walking down the corridor.

“How does my schedule fair?” Celestia asked when they were finally alone.

“Surprisingly clear, your majesty,” Kibitz responded promptly. “Your meeting with the weather council was postponed on account of, well, the weather.”

“Really now?” Celestia asked, a slight smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, taking the time to nod at one of the guards stationed on their path. “The irony of that is quite amusing.”

“It appears that due to an error at the weather factory, an unscheduled storm front was released and is heading to Northern Equestria. The council had to return to Cloudsdale to deal with the repercussions.”

“As unfortunate as that accident is, I do believe that gives me an additional hour to myself,” Celestia commented.

“It does, your majesty,” Kibitz confirmed. “Now, I had considered moving the review of the new legal propositions from the Manehattan-”

“Nonsense, Kibitz,” Celestia said. “I know how much effort you put into keeping my schedule in order. Rather than forcing you to work around this cancellation, I will just have to find my own means to pass the time as I suffer though this sudden change.”

“But, your majesty!” Kibitz called out to her as Celestia’s walk became a trot, leaving the stunned aide behind.

“No need to fret, Kibitz!” she called back. “I will be easily found in the case of an emergency.”

It wasn’t often that Celestia had that much time to herself in the day. She already knew how she was going to spend it too. The return of the Crystal Empire and its Library brought with it classic literature, some she hadn’t laid eyes on in over a thousand years, and others she never had a chance to read when they first emerged. There was still a large stack waiting for her.

With a lovely pot of tea and some of those delightful donuts from Joe, the time would be gone far sooner than she would like, but it would be worth it. She didn’t expect to find Luna in the private kitchen at that hour. Yet, there she was, looking somewhat disheveled with her mane in less than perfect condition, her crown crocked.

“Ah, good afternoon sister,” Luna yawned, her tone slightly irritable, a steaming mug held in her magic’s grasp as she sat at the small table. This wasn’t anything like the private dining room they hosted the human and Twilight in several days past, or anything like the Castle Kitchens.

It was a simple room, no place to fix a full course dinner, but adequate for them to prepare a light snack or repast when they needed to, or even a small meal for themselves without calling down to the kitchen. Sparsely equipped, it was little more than a few cupboards, an ice box, a few kitchen essentials on the modest counter space and a small table with a dark green table cloth.

“Luna, I didn’t expect to see you up this early,” Celestia said, warmly greeting her sister. A little bit of magic got the fixings for her tea from the cupboards.

“In most cases, I would not be, not willing,” Luna grumbled. “There’s nothing better than a princess of the night unable to rest contently because of bad dreams.”

Celestia paused in her work, teapot and tray hanging still in the air, and shot her sister a look. “Nightmares?”

“Nightmares? Far from it,” Luna scoffed. She rolled her eyes. “The Dreamwalker having Nightmares of her own? The shame alone might be my downfall. There are merely troubled dreams.”

“I see,” Celestia let the response hang in the air. A quick spell heated the water in the pot, sending wisps of steam curling away from it before she dropped the tea leaves in to soak. Her books and donuts forgotten, she looked at her sister as the silence stretched on.

Luna held out for some time, tension building and the only sound being her periodic sips of her mug the soft murmur of the wind outside the window. After the first few minutes, the clinking of metal on ceramic joined the ambience as Celestia poured and mixed her tea. Luna narrowed her eyes at her sister and sighed. “You have plans to do that for a while, don’t you.”

“I am free for another two hours, yes,” Celestia said implacably, inhaling the scent of her tea before taking the first sip, making soft sounds of appreciation. “If you like, I could stare at you in a mildly disconcerting and disapproving manner.”

Celestia demonstrated, lowering the cup, giving Luna a slight frown, her eyes holding a trace of disappointment. Luna chuckled, some of the tension seeping out of her wings. Pleased that her sister was loosening up, Celestia pressed the point. “You can talk to me. Tell me what has been troubling your sleep.”

Luna sighed again, this time in surrender rather than frustration. She dropped her head, resting her chin on the table. “To be honest, it’s Caleb.”

“Luna, I thought we put that silly mistrust behind us!” Celestia scolded, actually scolded her sister and co-monarch.

Luna lifted her head, taken aback at being scolded like a foal. “I have, sister. In fact, I have learnt much of his world and the life he left behind from visiting his dreams, and taught him a lot about ours. I can see that his arrival here was nothing more than chance and misfortune borne from his ignorance of his own abilities.”

“You have been visiting his dreams?” Celestia asked, a small smile on her face.

Luna snorted at her. “Despite what your student has been sending in her letters of how cheerful and adapting he seems, he misses his home and family far more than he admits to those around him, and that longing leaves him with painful dreams. I merely help ease the pain.

“The turmoil in my own dreams… are bad memories,” Luna continued, changing the direction of the discussion from their unexpected visitor turned diplomat back to herself. “While I’ve accepted that Caleb’s arrival had nothing to do with my own fall, it still brought the memories back; fresh in my mind. They are what have been troubling my slumber.”

“Luna… has this been happening since he first arrived?” Celestia asked, chiding herself inside for not seeing the signs of her sister’s distress before. As much as she hated to be reminded of it, the last time she overlooked Luna’s pain had been in the years leading to her becoming Nightmare Moon, the same event that was causing her current pain.

“Ever since the Breach first formed when his magic bridged with ours,” Luna confirmed softly. “Seeing his world’s eclipse merely gave a face to the anxiety that had been building in the moments before it appeared.”

“That… that is quite a lot to take in,” Celestria said, worry in her tone and her eyes flicking around the room as her thoughts sought an anchor. “You said his magic bridged with ours? I know I felt the foreign solar and lunar energies, but still…”

“I had them confirm it, comparing the charts produced shortly after his arrival with those Twilight provided from his preliminary examination in Ponyville,” Luna said. She finally remembered the mug before her and took a sip from it, grimacing at the tepid temperature. A soft gold glow came over it, and soon it was sending steam into the air again. She nodded her thanks at her sister before continuing.

“It was very faint, but it traces of his magic were mixed with the lunar and solar energies that first made the breach. It only makes sense. Willingly, knowingly or not; he was the trigger for whatever means brought him here,” Luna said, looking out the window vacantly.

“I see,” Celestia remarked. “So, has he been made aware of his involvement in what brought him here?”

“No, not yet,” Luna said. “Not officially. I believe he suspects, from the tones in his dreams, but he has not been told. It is in the reports, but was hidden in the jargon and formula. He’s grasp of our language is not that strong yet.” She took another sip before commenting in an almost offhanded manner. “I have been using dreams to teach him, but it is still slow going at the moment.”

“You have?” Celestia smirked. Luna’s eyes widened when she realized what she said, but she shook off her sister’s remark with a toss of her mane. Celestia let it pass and moved on. “Still, I don’t see how that alone was enough to cause your distress. From what you have told me, you have seen there is nothing to fear from him, and have even been looking out for his well-being. The letters I have received from the Bearers have mentioned good things about him as well.”

“Nor have any in Ponyville had reason to fear him in their sleep,” Luna nodded slowly. There were a few nightmares with him in involved, but those were born from the fear of the unknown, rather than the fear of him, personally.

“Then why?” Celestia urged.

Luna sighed. “Do you remember the morning… the morning I finally surrendered myself to the urgings of my darkness and became Nightmare Moon?”

It was Celestia’s turn to grimace. “I do, sister.”

“I admit to not having the clearest memories of the time immediately surrounding that time, but something about his arrival… I suppose nostalgia can be applied,” Luna said thoughtfully.

“I don’t understand,” Celestia admitted.

“Something about the magic in the air felt faintly familiar, and it has been what haunts my dreams, reminding me of my time as Nightmare Moon…” Celestia moved to offer physical comfort and support, but a hoof and sweep of wing from Luna warded her away. “No, I am the Princess of the Night. Among my duties are warding the dreams of our subjects from the beings that would prey on them and helping them overcome their fears. Something like this is a trial I will overcome as well.”

“Luna, there is no need to be so… independent about this,” Celestia said slowly. “I can help you with this.”

“There is also no need to cuddle me, sister,” Luna responded sharply, rising from the table. Her expression faded as she yawned, however. “Still, I think I’ll see if I can perhaps get a few more hours of rest before it’s time to rise the moon for the night. If you would excuse me, sister?”

Celestia merely nodded as Luna took her mug and left, still yawning as she turned and disappeared around the corner. Celestia sighed. “Dear sister. I hope your stubbornness does not become your undoing.”

Her former plans were long since forgotten by this point. Her books and donuts hardly qualifying for even a passing thought. Instead, they ran on her sister’s issues. Simply pressuring Luna would serve no purpose, not unless getting her angry was her goal. No, that would not do at all. What Luna needed was friends at the moment, ponies around her to give her support. But those close to her were all in Ponyville.

Celestia smiled as an idea came to her. It was approaching a week since Caleb left Canterlot. She could use him as an excuse to invite the Bearers to visit the castle. A few hours might help calm Luna’s thoughts. Should it turn out that Luna overcame the issue on her own, she was still curious to hear from Caleb how things were going for him, in person rather than just from one of her student’s missives.

Topping out her tea and taking the cup with her, she left to locate Kibitz and see about scheduling some time for this visit.

Home was in sight, and Richard found his steps lagging. Not because he didn’t want to go home. It had been a long day and lounging in bed would be great. No, it was the first few moments of arrive home that would be the hard part.

Two weeks had passed. The first week had been the hardest, each day longer than the one before, distracted with the constant hope that the next notification, the next call would be with the news they wanted, and fear that it would be the one they dreaded the most, only to force themselves into fitful sleep before repeating the cycle. The second week brought numbness to the situation and a sense of vacancy as the lack of news stretched on, and the fact, no matter how gently it was presented, that each day whittled away at the possibilities of hope and the joyous end they wanted.

Worse were the interviews and questioning from the police. It was a necessary evil on one hand, a thoroughness that could only serve to help them, but it was like pressing the edge of a knife into the open wound each time. Necessity did not make it any easier to bear. The media was unbearable. Never before had he had such empathy for the families that requested privacy in their time of pain. The cameras aimed in their direction, flashes of light and microphones thrust at them did nothing for them. If the authorities were the doctors digging into a wound to see if it were infected and to treat it properly, the media were the torturers, forcing the wounds open and bearing their pain for the world to see.

It didn’t matter to him that this was the most sensational case their region had seen; a young man vanishing without a trace, the room he was last known to be in looking like a small tornado tore through, hundreds of pounds worth of books and wood missing, the sky light shattered, a charred circle under it. All somehow accomplished within the less than five minute window it took the other employees to rush to the floor. He didn’t care about how amazing the story way. All he wanted was for them to leave, take their news vans and go and not come back.

The novelty and hype of the situation had worn off for those outside the family and the interest in their conditions and states had died off with it, something Richard was grateful for. It was bad enough that they were going through it without it being constantly brought up by those around him and being probed for questions.

The alarm system beeped thrice, announcing his presence as he opened the door. “I’m home.”

The house dim, the curtains over the windows having not been opened and still drawn. The only sound the faint murmur of voices likely from the set running. He pulled his shoes and left the shoe rack, noting that his father’s set was absent. Shifting the rest of his bag on his shoulders, he trudged towards the family room. The sounds of the television grew more distinct as he drew closer, though the volume was low, making it hard to make out what was being said. Steeling himself, he ducked in.

“Mom, you in here?” he asked, more from custom than necessity as he found her easily enough. Her hair was still combed and styled as it had been that morning, even though she had changed from her work outfit to something more casual. The prim style was at odds with the defeated and lost air that hovered over her, staring at the television though it was clear she wasn’t processing a word or flicker of it. A picture frame was held tight in her hands. He knew the one; the entire family smiling, he, his sister and Caleb laughing and giving each other rabbit ears.

His mother looked up with surprise and managed a smile that didn’t quite break the weariness in her eyes. “Hello Richard. When did you get home?”

“Just now, mom,” Richard said with a weak smile of his own.

“How were your classes? Do you need dinner?” she said, rising from the couch, setting the picture frame beside her.

“No, mom, I’m fine,” he said quickly. It was the coward’s way out, but he didn’t want to linger. Little things would set her off, crying silently again, and the awkwardness would leave him confused and lost. He tried to avoid it, retreating to his room and brooding on it on his own, even if the fact that he and Caleb shared that trait just made the grief harsher. “I had a late lunch. I’ll just go up and work on my assignments.”

“Oh, okay then, it will be in the fridge for you then,” She said weakly.

Richard hesitated, than gave her a hug before leaving. It left him feeling worse, but there was little more he could do than that. He booted up his computer and tried to loose himself in his work. An hour later there was a rap on his door.

He forced himself from his fugue state and opened it to see who was there. “Hey, Dad.”

“Schoolwork?” his father asked. Richard nodded. His father looked at him for a moment more. “How are you doing?”

“Fine,” Richard said. “How was your day?”

Is father closed his eyes. He had been scheduled for a meeting with the lead investigator that evening. “Still nothing.”

A missing person case with no real leads at all. Even the security tapes had been a bust. The building had them for the entrance ways, predominantly. Aside from the static that mysteriously affected all the cameras for a few dozen seconds, nothing suspicious could be found. The security system logged the usage of the doors, and it lacked evidence as well. It was like he fell off the face of the planet.

Richard looked away from his father. “All right then. I’m going back to work.”

“I see,” his father responded. He’d taken the responsibility of dealing with it for the family. The few reporters who were still interested. The visits from and with the investigation teams. The mail and calls from curious people in the populace. Even the offers from sensational writers and tabloids. He stood between the family and those that still insisted on harassing them.

Richard didn’t envy him at all. He made as to close the door, but his father stopped him.

“Richard… if you need to talk…”

Richard started before scowled slightly. His school’s counsellor had made the same offer a few times. Why did everyone think he needed to talk about it? His brother was missing. His sister hardly did much anymore aside from work, not even her regular parties. His mother was shell shocked and his father was trying to be the family hero. He narrowed his eyes. “No, I don’t.”

He closed the door and got back to his assignments.

Tell Me About It

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I was working my way through the Daring Do book. Even Twilight had been shocked at my progress at learning Equish, but there was no denying the fact that I was more or less capable in basic Equestrian. It was fun watching her eye twitch and her hair getting frazzled and my skills developed in leaps and bounds over a handful of days. I told her I was just that good.

It did scare me a little at how fast I was learning, but considering magic’s existence in this reality, Spike’s ability to send and receive mail with dragon fire, Pinkie Pie and the weird celestial mechanics of the world, I was willing to just smile, nod and accept it. It helped me sleep better at night. That and Luna’s visits. She was still unwilling to let me test my resistance against the creatures that roamed the Equestrian dream realm and stopped by to maintain the dream ward or something like that. Back on topic, I was just getting to the good bit of the story, when Ahuizotl had us strapped to the altar, the Tribal Ponies at read and was making his cliché villain threats making offers of perverse power when someone pounded on my door.

Right, I should mention that I had dozed off during the reading and the story blending with my dream, me playing the part of Daring Do’s anthropology specialist co-adventurer. Or whatever the study of pony society and culture would be. The Daniel Jackson to her Indiana Jones, both strapped spread eagle to a stone altar as the big bad gloated over us, only I think I was a pony in that dream. It was hard to remember when you were jarred awake.

Now, at the moment my room was my sanctuary. Twilight gave me one of the reading rooms to use as an office (though no one aside from herself, Lyra, another unicorn named Golden Script and an earth pony named Ivory Scroll really came to see me), and I had set up a schedule of working hours. Twilight had insisted. Anyway, it was outside my office hours, and it was too early for a meal. The regard for my privacy Twilight allotted was very much appreciated. There were still times that I didn’t want to be constantly surrounded by ponies.

I’d love to lose myself in a regular movie or binge on one of the TV series on my external, but Spark Stone and Bolting, two of the more inventive and creative workers with the city’s power company, were still working on setting something to convert the local power grid into something my devices could run off, and the poor solar charger had its circuits full with keeping my ereader and MP3 player running.

Fearing some emergency or some disaster related to the Breach Project, I almost tripped over myself to get to the door, my Daring Do forgotten and sent flying in my haste. In retrospect, I blame the book and dream for my overreaction; getting into the story and its drama bled over into reality. I did trip just shy of the door, the culprit the shirt that had fallen off the rack and I swore I was planning to pick up, only managing to keep myself from falling by grabbing the door handle.

“What happened?” I demanded as I yanked the door open. I looked with confusion at the mare that had accompanied Twilight. “Lyra?”

“So that’s what you look like under your shirt,” Lyra commented, eying my bare chest with a smirk as my eyes widened. “Are those teats?”

“Okay!” Twilight said with a nervous smile and faint blush. “That’s enough of that, thank you! Caleb, we need to talk. But… after you get ready.”

In case you were wondering about why Twilight was blushing, it wasn’t because there was anything between us (Boss and assistant romance clichés were cliché,) only that in the discussion of our discussions on social conventions and nudity we had I somewhat over compensated trying to get her to understand why that little session with Rarity the week before made me so uncomfortable. Now she had a bit of a skewed perspective on the matter.

“Can’t we do it right here?” Lyra asked Twilight, looking past me and into my room.

“Do… what, exactly?” I said, with a weak and somewhat terrified laugh, trying not to think about how suggestive Lyra’s comment, combined with Twilight’s blush, was. Trying and failing badly.

“Well,” Twilight started.

“Wow… you’re kind of a slob,” Lyra commented. “Your room is a mess.”

“Hey! I take offense to that,” I protested, snatching my shirt off the floor and stifling a yawn as I looked around my room, taking in the piles of books and papers. “This is organized chaos. I know where everything is. Mostly.”

“Can we focus here?” Twilight snapped. “Lyra, you and I will head down to Caleb’s office. Caleb, please get dressed and meet us there. We need to talk.”

“About?” I asked.

“When you get there,” Twilight said, silencing Lyra with a hoof before teleporting both of them away.

“Okay… weird,” I shrugged, and sniffed the shirt and tossing it aside. I needed to do laundry soon. Between the lack of public transportation and air conditioning, and the need to walk everywhere, I went through my limited wardrobe quickly. I would probably need to commission a few more sets of outfits from Rarity soon. Casual outfits. Rarity might have expressed joy about humans and wearing clothing all the time, but what that really meant hadn’t quite sank in with her. She made me a slew of formal outfits, but very little casual wear.

Or I could learn to teleport to cut out the walking. Both, actually. Twilight could say what she liked about it being a precise spell with a moderately high mana cost, but I’d seen her use it more than once to avoid taking the stairs.

Changing into a new shirt and freshening up in the washroom, I was door to my office in a few minutes, in time to hear Lyra quizzing Twilight on my teats. I groaned with a shudder before entering. The two mares were sitting not on the regular chairs in front of my desk, but by the padded ones closer to the chimney. One of them had apparently dragged my specially made human sized chair from behind my desk so it sat resting near them. “Okay, if this discussion is about those, I’m leaving.”

“No, it’s not,” Twilight said as she glared at Lyra over the saddlebags she had been sorting through.

“I’m just curious,” she said defensively before giving me a slightly predatory look. “He wears clothes all the time so there’s a lot about his anatomy that ponies are dying to know.”

I took my seat and rubbed at my temple. People had warned me that Lyra could get obsessive about topics. When I asked her, she admitted to getting a bit caught up in some of her side classes in school. “Lyra… for the fifth time, I’m not stripping for you mares anymore. Blame Rarity and Twilight for that. In fact, I’m pretty sure Twilight has notes on the subject.”

“You got to see him naked? And you didn’t let me know?” Lyra said, glaring at Twilight.

“No! That was before we established proper boundaries of what was acceptable and not in regards to studying human culture,” Twilight said hotly, flushing slightly. She looked at me, well, turned to me, looking at the ground. “I’m really sorry about that, by the way. I didn’t realize how awkward it was for you.”

“I would very much like to move on from this topic,” I said, closing my eyes. “Shall we?”

“But I want to see you naked too,” Lyra protested.

“Shall we?” I repeated, my voice a bit more strained this time as I dug my thumbs into my temple. They had warned me that Lyra could get a bit obsessive when it came to her research projects, but when had seeing my naked body made that list?

“Fine,” Lyra said a bit dejectedly. “This isn’t over though.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said gratefully. She looked at me and I could almost see the thoughts getting organized in her head. “You’ve been in Equestria for over two weeks now, and you’ve been the Ambassador for your people for a little over half that time.”

“Yes?” I had no idea where she was going with this.

“Well, you’ve done a lot to share about your world, even between your language lessons,” ah, there was that twitch I loved to see from her. She didn’t let it stop her though and kept barreling on. “You have even given us fifteen to thirty minutes every other day to show us images, videos, entertainment and music forms of your world on your lap top even though it’s power is finite and difficult to recharge.”

“I saw how much Celestia put in the account as the first month’s bursary. I like her, I’m not going to get paid that much for doing nothing,” I responded. Besides, between reviewing the lessons of the day, whether language or basic magic theory (we still hadn’t gotten to practical), and reading Equestrian literature in order to get familiarity with what I was learning, I didn’t have the time to use it for personal past times anyway. Rarity in particular loved the shows and got inspired by every outfit she saw.

“Look, Caleb,” Lyra interjected. “We are learning a lot of your world, but we don’t know much about you. You’ve been avoiding telling us about yourself and your life directly.”

“What? No I… I…” my retort died as I ran the days through my mind. Wow… I really had been. I mentioned my family here and there, and where I worked, but I really hadn’t told them anything personal. “It’s… different from humans. We tend to build our relationships with a lesser emphasis on history…” Yeah, it was a weak argument. “I guess you want to change that?”

Lyra nodded but let Twilight make the actual response. “A few nobles in Canterlot have been making complaints about the royal funds being funnelled into the breach research and into your post, as well as the suddenness of your appointment.”

“Well, I did drop in uninvited,” I quipped.

“This is serious,” Twilight glared at me, not appreciating my levity. Lyra rolled her eyes and snickered slightly.

I held my hands up in a show of submission. “Fine. Fine. No more quips.” Out loud.

“Either way, I, that is we, want to create a profile of you, your background and add it to a report of your works so far,” Twilight explained, drawing out a familiar parchment from her bags. It had come via dragon fire the day before. “Princess Celestia requested you to visit her in a few days, so it would be a good idea to get this done before then to quell some of the more irritated complaints.”

“You want to make a profile on me? Like a biography?” I made a face. There were several reasons what that idea didn’t sound enticing. Aside from laying bear so much about myself, there was the idea of so many peo-ponies reading it, and having to suffer through another one of Twilight’s questionnaires…

“Not a full biography, just have you answer a few questions and compile them into a short report after,” Twilight said. Then she smiled. “I promise that when we get through with this I’ll give you your first practical magic lesson.”

“Really?” I knew I was being bribed, but honestly, this was Twilight finally let me move past the reading stage and do something. I could probably give a first year university lecture on the nature of magic from all the theoretical lessons she’d been giving me. I had a stack of parchment up in my room of all the notes I’d taken. And I was slowly translating them to Equish as practice. Just because I was developing the language skills distressingly quickly didn’t mean I skimped on the practice.

“My main concern was your practical lessons leading to a magic surge. With the levels of magic you have, and the fact that your magic operates somewhat differently from unicorn magic, I was hesitant to risk it,” Twilight admitted. She gestured to Lyra. “Having another unicorn here will help mitigate the risks some.”

“I’ll what?” Lyra asked, looking skeptical.

I looked between Lyra and Twilight, chewing my lip. Magic surges were in the theory lessons. They were common to foals just coming into their magic and was pretty much an uncontrolled release of all their magic. They could have dangerous results. With adult level magic behind it, a surge from me could very well be devastating. “Fine. You get to ask your questions and I get to learn how to really use magic.”

“Yes!” Twilight said happily, clapping her hooves together before pulling a stack of parchments from the bags.

“Wait… what’s all that?” I asked.

“I made a list!” Twilight said gleefully, her eyes sparkling. “It comprises of the most common questions a stranger would like to know about some, whether another stranger, a person in power of a popular face of society.”

“Normally I would complain, but with your bribe,” I groaned. Practical magic lessons. Have gotten past my little stubborn fit, the idea of tossing around Magic Missiles and using Wingardium Leviosa flittered about my mind like a golden snitch.

“It’s not a bribe. It’s a perfectly fair contract exchanging services, one beneficial to both parties,” Twilight said a trace stuffily, sounding offended.

“Sure it isn’t” I sighed, skeptical. “Just… what’s your first question?”

“What is your full name?” Twilight asked happily, her quill hovering over the page. “You explained the patriarchal structure common to your world and the naming conventions. But you never told us what your middle name was.”

Well, that one wasn’t too bad. “Vincent. Caleb Vincent Blakely.”

“Does it mean anything?” Twilight asked.

“Yes and No. A lot of names have meanings, based on the language they originally came from, but most are just pleasant sounding words and letter combinations. In part of the world, most people just pick names because they sound nice. I did find out the meaning of my names though,” I admitted. After a lecture on the significance of naming in some other cultures, I set about finding what mine own was.

“Caleb means Devoted Heart or Faith. Vincent means ‘to prevail’, or ‘to conquer’. The last name isn’t as important, but it means ‘Dark meadow’.”

“Devoted Heart? That sounds like a good name for you,” Lyra said, grinning broadly.

“Um… why? I don’t get it,” I said, grimacing at her slightly. Devoted Heart sounded a tad… feminine.

“Think about it, you are putting all that effort into what you think an Ambassador should do just because you don’t want to make the Princess’ endorsement of you seem like a waste,” Lyra commented. “You’re putting your heart into it because you care. Devoted Heart.”

My jaw opened, hung like that for a while and then closed since I had nothing to say in retort. I know Names were a thing in Equestria, but... no... it was not supposed to apply to me... “Well… you’re… green. No more psychoanalysing for you.”

“Devoted Heart is a lovely name,” Twilight said, either ignorant of or ignoring the look I was giving her. “It’s filled with meaning and, as Lyra said, it does fit you.”

“It’s a mare’s name,” I ground out, massaging my forehead. It sounded like the name of someone from a crappy pony romance novel. No, I had read any of them, but a decent adventure story had ‘Daring Do’. It wasn’t hard to postulate from there.

“It’s gender neutral, actually,” Twilight said helpfully.

“No further comment from you either,” I grumped at her.

Lyra stuck her tongue out at me and chuckled. “How old are you anyway?”

“Twenty two in a few weeks,” I responded after that typical mental hitch as I recalled my age, making a face back at her. “Actually, how old are you guys? I was horrible at guessing ages of other people, humans, much less ponies.”

“I’m twenty five,” Lyra responded, “so not that much older than you.”

“Lyra and Applejack are the same age, actually,” Twilight supplied. “Big Mac is twenty seven, Rarity is twenty four, but her birthday is coming up as well. Fluttershy is the same age you are. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are both twenty, and I’m nineteen.”

I looked look at Twilight in surprised. “Wait… you’re nineteen? And you have professionals in the Thaumatic Institute, the place responsible for magical research, conceding to your expertise?”

“Well, I do study a lot,” Twilight said bashfully, shuffling her hoof on the floor.

“Twilight is pretty much one of the most talented unicorns of her generation,” Lyra chuckled. “She just doesn’t like anyone realizing that fact.”

“The hay…. Damn Twilight… I mean; just damn…” I tried to imagine what it would be like having some of the leaders in a field come to me for advice at that age. I couldn’t.

“Can we get back on topic?” Twilight said, looking back at her sheets with a faint blush. “I suppose I already have most of the answers to the physical appearance questions already…”

“How did you get that scar under your chin?” Lyra asked as Twilight set a sheet aside.

“I had a disagreement with a cat that insulted my mother’s honour,” I answered truthfully. “It was a decade or so ago. I was a different man back then, but even I could not stand aside and let a feline escape with such an offense against my dame. The battle was swift and brutal. The feline was successfully imprisoned, but not without spilling my honourable blood.”

“Ha, ha,” Lyra said, though she was grinning. “But what really happened?”

“I was ten or eleven, and my uncle’s cat shredded my mom’s shirt. It didn’t like it when I tried to put him in his carrier,” I said, stripping the embellishments and rubbing at the two pale marks under my chin. “I got a few scratches, but these are the only ones that scarred. Probably because I kept picking at the scabs.”

“Caleb! That’s unhygienic and unsafe!” Twilight gasped, looking up from her sheets.

“Like I said, ten,” I shrugged dismissively.

We got back to the questions, Twilight asking me the more academic ones like things about personality and habits, Lyra weedling me for childhood stories, like the time that same cat trapped me in the bedroom for two hours. My uncle's cat was evil. And big.

“Okay, education wise, you mentioned you went to university?” Twilight asked.

“Yep. Five years of it actually. Four and a three quarters, technically” I responded. Five horrible years. Schooling was a very annoying part of life. “I could have finished in four, but I spent my first year floundering about figuring out what I liked. Did some biology, sociology, philosophy, photography, even some chemistry because I thought working in a laboratory would be fun.

“It was to be honest,” I admitted to her in a reminiscent manner, “But the fumes from the chemicals gave me migraines. I finally settled on geography half way through my second year. Graduated with a major in Geography, and minors in Biology and Library Sciences. I did enough courses that I qualified for them so I thought; why not.”

“Minors and Majors?” Lyra asked. “Your world’s education system sounds complicated.”

“Could you explain that a bit more,” Twilight asked. So I did, going into the credit system and the value of degrees verses diplomas. Personally I thought it was little more than the ability to blow half again more hot air since you never used half the stuff you spend years learning in the field and learn the other half actually working in the field, but it was to satisfy Twilight’s Curiosity. Last time she all but tied me down to get her answers.

“So every human in your world goes through that?” Twilight asked, sounding excited about the prospect of that much learning.

I didn’t share that enthusiasm. I loved learning the stuff, hated tests. “A lot of people, but not all of them choose to.”

“What about your family?” Lyra asked. “Did they do that too?”

I think my feelings must have shown on my face because Lyra instantly wilted, her eyes widening and her eyes splayed back. “Sorry, if you don’t want to talk about them…”

“No. No… I should,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. I relieved memories with Luna about them. I could manage to talk about them. I organized my words before speaking again “Dad has a Doctoral Degree, that’s about eight to ten more years of studies past what I have, it goes Bachelor’s, Master’s then Doctor’s. Mom has a Master’s in Business Administration. Julia, my sister, was, is in Law School. Richard started Computer Engineering last year.”

“What was, is your relationship with them?” Twilight looked a little nervous about that slight mistake she made, but considering I did the same thing, I wasn’t going to hound her about it.

“We’re pretty close, but me and my siblings have a love hate relationship going on. We love each other so much we can’t help but getting into spats,” I smiled sadly, remember the fact that the last exchange I had with Richard was one of those teasing and mocking back and forths.

“Aw, you aren’t LBBFFs and BSBFFs?” Twilight asked, looking up from her note taking.

“LB… WHAT?” I asked. The acronym, I missed most of it, but I was suddenly thinking about LGBT and that was not cool between siblings.

“It’s a Twilight thing,” Lyra groaned, facehooving. Facehooving was hilarious, even if I was still waiting for some pony to poke out their eye doing it. “It’s… Little Brother and Big Sister Best Friend Forever. It’s something she and her brother do. I think she calls her sister-in-law BSLBFF.”

I looked at Twilight, who was a slight bit huffy at the moment, with a trace of disbelief. “You’re kidding, right?”

“She even has a song for it!” Spike’s voice said suddenly. I’m proud to say I didn’t jump. Much.

“Oh, hey Spike,” I said, still cool despite the flinch. His grin showed he had seen the flinch. I can’t help it, I’m somewhat easy to startle though I recover quickly. I’ve willing to laugh at myself about it anyway. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“I just got back from Rarity’s.” The Spike said as he entered the office proper. He had the tea trolley with him, bless his draconic soul, laden with a tea pot, a few cups and bowls of salad. “The Crusaders asked me to ask you if you were going to crusade with them today.”

“I don’t now…” I mumbled, rocking me head thoughtfully from side to side.

“You’ve met the crusaders?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, I met then alright,” I said, my eye twitching slightly as I remembered the sight of three fillies leaping at me, yelling ‘cutie mark crusaders human something!’ “Fillies; white unicorn, orange pegasus, yellow earth pony, always having some crazy idea as to what next to try to get their cutie mark? They apparently decided to try getting in something human related. They’ve been following me around for half a week now.”

Twilight tried to hide her laughs and looked like she was constipated. Spike hid his with a cough. Lyra didn’t bother hiding it. I scowled at them. “You laugh. Yesterday they tried for Human Catchers, then Human Medics, and finally Human Ambulance Services.”

Twilight connected the dots first and looked at me with shock mingled with accusation. “You told you got that limp from falling! You said it was nothing.”

“Yes. Falling. Because three fillies chased me up a tree,” I grumbled, snagging the bowl from the cart.

“You let them chase you up a tree?” Spike chortled, rocking on his heels. “How did they manage that?”

“Honestly… I don’t know…” I grumbled some much, munching on a leaf of lettuce. “The ride to the hospital was fun though. Scootaloo and that wagon of her’s are pretty awesome. I might have felt my heart stop a few times when she got some air, but it was cool. Their plans scare the bejeebers out of me though.”

I reached for the cup of tea and caught Twilight’s eye. “Did you know they have blueprints for a wooden submersible for their underwater explorer’s cutie mark, and are only holding off because they haven’t collected enough pine needle sap?”

“I admit, some of their ideas can be a bit much,” Twilight started.

“A bit? Try extremely,” Lyra cut in.

“Much? It’s more like Excessive, Twi,” Spike said, holding out a cup for her.

“Well, yes,” Twilight admitted, taking the cup in her magic. “We’ve been trying to tell them that their marks will come from doing something they are already good at, but they would rather try everything.”

“One of these days they are going to destroy half the town,” I sighed, rolling my eyes. And I’d be there to say ‘I told you so.’ Judging by the nods from Lyra and Spike, I wouldn’t be the only one being proven right when that day can around. “But enough on those three. Any other questions for me, or can I finally get to the good stuff?”

Twilight sighed at my eager expression and looked over the sheets. “I did have a few more questions in relation to your psyche and outlook, to show that you aren’t all that different from anypony else… Lyra, why are you smiling like that?”

“I want to see the human magic too,” she said brightly.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Spike grinned, hopping unto one of the chairs, sticking around for the lesson as well. “He hasn’t been able to do much more than make his hands and eyes glow.”

“I love you too, Spike,” I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

“Caleb! I warned you not to practice magic without me being around,” Twilight chastised.

“I’ve only done it a few times,” I said defensively. “It’s not one of your light spells, but the glow helps me see better when I’m going to the bathroom at night.” Twilight continued to grumble. “See? This is why you need to teach me. What if I went to the bathroom one night and blew up because I tried to glow a little and find the light switch? That would be so sad.”

Twilight snorted at that one. “You don’t need to exaggerate.”

“But Twilight, think about it!” I said, slipping into a familiar accent and adding a bit more dramatic flair. “The ambassador of the humans hurt by his own magic. It would be the Worst. Possible. THING!”

“Okay, you’ve made your point.” Twilight laughed. “That was a good impression, by the way.”

“No it wasn’t!” Spike said in an irritable fashion. “Rarity has more grace and refinement to her speech.”

“If she had a little less she would make me the tee shirts and cargo pants I want,” I grinned teasingly at him. The grin took a slightly fear tinged edge to it. “No offense to her though. I like her. She’s nice and talented. She just scares me when she gets into her ‘Zone’ and wants me to model for her.”

“I don’t get it,” Lyra admitted, looking between my expression, Twilight’s embarrassed smile and Spike’s smug look. “Why would that scare you?”

“Right… I never did tell you that story,” I realized. I shrugged. “Long story short; it involved her work studio, being naked and lots of flying sharp objects in the air around me.”

“Okay, you have to give me the detail,” Lyra grinned, clapping her hooves together.

“Twily! Don’t we have some magic lessons to do?” I said, changing the subject with about as much subtlety as a bull in a china shop. Believe me, I was there when Moorgan was looking for a tea cup for Daisy Jo. He almost put Lacey Finish out of business. He would have if it wasn’t for the anti-shatter spells they laid over their inventory. Apparently because it happened fairly often.

“Don’t think changing the subject gets you off the hook,” Lyra muttered. “I’m going to make a list of all these things you’re avoiding.”

“And I’ll keep avoiding,” I nodded with a pleasant smile while still facing Twilight. “So what will we be doing Twilight?”

“We will review some of the basic theory with a small demonstration,” Twilight started, slipping into her lecture voice again. My smile fell a little, and she smiled as she noticed it. “Then we will get you to try it for yourself. Does that sound okay?”

“It sounds perfect!” I said, more than just a bit giddy. “Should I grab my notes?”

“Go right ahead. Lyra, Spike and I will clear a bit of space in the mean time,” Twilight said.

I was out the door from the second syllable. Racing back to my room and ignoring Twilight’s yell of no running in the library, it didn’t take me long to rummage through my magic resources pile and locate the note book I had been using in the theory sessions. See; Organized chaos. I grabbed my pen and pencil from the desk and jogged for the door, only to turn back and grab my cellphone and the stylus I rigged. I would have Spike take some picture of it. For posterity sake. Too excited to hold back now, I raced back. I had some magic to work.

Magic Show and Tell

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I was breathing a bit heavily when I got back and retook my seat. Spike had been relocated behind my desk, and the small table I had shifted against the wall to make an open space between myself and the two mares. I got into note taking position. “Set to go. Teach me your secrets, great one.”

Twilight chuckled again. “We’ll start with the demonstration. For Lyra’s sake; how did you describe your magic sense?”

“It’s primarily interpreted as a sound, musical, but there is also a faint tactile sensation linked to it, with impressions of colour and test coming after that. The more I focus, the more defined each aspect becomes.” It was practically a recital. Twilight had me come up with a set description of my sixth sense as part of the theory. Personally, I thought it was of a sixth through ninth sense, being certain each feeling was something different, but Twilight neither confirmed nor denied it.

“That sounds different from what I know,” Lyra admitted.

“Caleb’s magic is similar yet distinct from unicorn, even Equestrian magic. It operates similarly in many ways, from the passive aura that all magical creatures possess, protecting them slightly from outside forces, magical and to a lesser extent physical,” Twilight explained to Lyra. “On the other hand, his natural magic aura is less stable than a unicorn’s, shifting and churning slightly even without outside influence. In that way, it’s somewhat more volatile.”

“I think is a result of the lower magic levels of my world,” I added. “Different way of casting than here were magic is pretty much everywhere.”

“Right now, though, we want to try and get Caleb to perform a spell,” Twilight said, nodding to acknowledge my comment.

“Yeah, so how do we do that? Because I don’t really get your magic formulas and what they mean.” I tried but didn’t have the right frame of reference. They were both much cooler and much worse than chemistry and physics formulas. And I just didn’t know how to make my magic do what the formulas said it should be doing.

“I have a theory of how to introduce you to what the formulas mean,” Twilight blushed slightly as she passed me a scrap of parchment. “It is one that wouldn’t work with just theory alone.”

I smirked, making a noncommittal sound in the base of my throat as I studied the paper. It was a spell formula, written by hand, er, horn. It wasn’t very long, just a few symbols and only one balance. It was annotated in Twilight’s horn-writing, with English characters.

“That’s the formula for the basic levitation spell,” Twilight explained, answering my question before I could voice it. “Most unicorns have never seen it, since it comes naturally to them, but I want you to take note of the sections before Lyra casts it.”

“Oh, you want me to cast it so he can sense what it an active formula feels like!” Lyra realized.

“That’s right,” Twilight grinned. She pointed to her saddle bags. “If you don’t mind?”

Grinning, Lyra nodded, and a golden glow encased them. I focused on her, moving closer so I was sitting beside her, watching the light of her horn, carefully listening to the sounds of the spell being cast. She blushed slightly as she lifted the bag, held it for a few moments before moving it in a circle as Twilight directed, finally setting it down on the other side of the room.

“So, what was that like?” Lyra asked me.

“At first I thought the sound was simple, but it's… deceptively complex,” I admitted, trying to sort through what I felt. “It has a very short sequence of beats that repeat, and a few other chords underneath those that shift and change... ugh... I'm not a musician; I don't know how to describe it properly...”

“Don't worry,” Twilight said thoughtful. “You said there were a few beats with some background complexities, correct?” I nodded. “The beats are likely the core of the spell formula.” She trotted over to me, a pointer in her magic, the same song, just in a different voice, on the edge of my senses as she indicating segments of the formula on the parchment. “Those would be these sections here. The other sounds you sensed were the spell variables that dictate the location, velocity, force and resistance of the spell’s effect.”

“Those are somewhat outside the basic spell formula, created as the intent of the magic is put through the matrix the formula creates.”

"Sure," I shrugged. "You're the expert here."

She positively preened at that, but then unfortunately slipped into lecture mood again as she reviewed the theory. "There are four main factors to all spell casting. First; having magic. By that I mean being able to tap and utilize a mana source at will. Unicorns have magic at their disposal naturally, but there are ways to get around it if you try hard enough. Zecora, for example, uses her skills to take the natural magic from objects and ingredients and uses them in her zebra magic. Alchemy and potion making works the same way."

"Having magic, right," I said, scribbling on a new page my note book. Twilight tended to get upset if I didn't take notes even if we already covered it, and always brought up that one time I fell asleep in her lecture on Ponyville history in the middle of the night on the train. Besides, this was interesting, considering it was leading up to practical casting.

“Wait… didn’t you say only unicorns cast magic? Zecora is an earth pony,” I pointed out.

“Zebra, actually,” Twilight correctly. “And she doesn’t actually cast magic spells. She is a shaman. She influences magic and guides it rather than directly casting it.”

“Sounds like…” I couldn’t remember the word I was looking for so went with something else, “technicalities, but whatever. What’s next?”

“Secondly, you need to have the Intent. For simple spells like levitation and light, being able to imagine the result you want is enough. The formula is so simple that it organises itself based on what the unicorn already sensed from others around her, which is why most have never seen the formula I gave you. More complicated spells start calling for spell formulas to define what the result will be. The spell formula constructs a matrix and defines the mana flow and the final propagation of the matrix's output. A spell formula can be a rhyme, each word being attributed to a concept and metaphysical shape of the final effect, a spell circle or some otherwise defined structure. I could give you a full list if you want,” Twilight looked at me hopefully, her purple eyes sparkling.

"Spell... formula..." I murmured. I remembered some of this stuff from the books I had taken and managed to labour partially through. As for her eyes, I was slowly developing a resistance to the witchcraft of a mare’s stare. I snapped my fingers. Semantics! That was the word I was looking for earlier.

The other three occupants of the room gave me odd looks. Spike spoke up. “What was that for?”

"Nothing important,” I said quickly. The moment had passed. “And no... I'm trying to get levitation down, I can learn the rest later... Wait... can you cast without the formula?”

“You can,” Twilight said slowly. “Spell formulas help to regular the power and potency of a spell, and reduce the damage it can cause if it fails or goes out of control, because it sets up a framework.”

“Like an explosion in a container,” I reasoned. “Or... a river through a dam. Even if it gets out of control, the bottle, or dam, helps keep it contained. At least more than if it didn't have them.”

“There’s also the fact that it’s hard to get magic to do what you want without a formula directing it,” Lyra added. “Pretty much every other time just causes you to burn mana uselessly, sometimes even damaging your horn from the feedback.”

“That's right. It's were the third aspect comes in. Aside from Magic and Intent, you also need Will. Will is the belief in the ability for the spell to work, as well as the driving force you give the magic you are channeling. In general, spell can't work unless you start feeding it the magic it needs, and a spell formula can be flawed if you doubt it. Magic is a sensitive force and can be corrupted by the wrong mindset. If you don't have a prepared spell formula, will can substitute, but then you would be dealing with the raw power of the magic and spell with no protection for yourself if your focus slips.”

“Wait, wait wait…” I said, holding up my pen. “That unicorn foal at Sugarcube Corner. Pumkin, I think her name is. I saw her doing all sorts of power stuff. Like flying that one time.” Crusader’s leaping at you was terrifying. A baby unicorn flying at you was horrifying. Those eyes…

“Actually,” Twilight said, a hoof at her chin, “There is a theory that Will based magic is how newborn and young unicorn foals are able to produce such fantastic magic effects. With their younger minds, there is little to confound their mindset aside from the present desire, so they can cast spells that would normally be of a high level.”

“I read that paper,” Lyra nodded. Twilight looked at her with surprise. “What? Did you think just because my cutie mark is a lyre I never look up magic research? I’m always looking for ways to play better. Anyway, they proposed that when a unicorn’s mind starts to develop and expand, their will isn’t strong enough to power the crudely defined intent.”

“So the more you think, the harder it is to do it freestyle,” I nodded, jotting that down. It made sense. “You have to keep your focus.”

"That’s right. Focus is the last factor.” Twilight looked pleased that I stumbled on it on my own. “It's both mental and physical. You have to concentrate on your magic to work a spell. How much concentration depends on the spell itself. Simple levitation hardly takes any concentration at all, while a barrier like the one my brother can cast might start failing if you don't keep some of your awareness on it. A physical focus is what you use to safely manipulate the magic energies without hurting themselves.”

“So are we ready to have Devoted here give it a try?” Lyra asked.

“Devoted?” Spike asked, confused.

“Don’t ask,” I groaned. “But seriously. Practical time.”

“That’s what we are planning to do. Unicorns focus their magic through their horns,” Twilight did a little flourish of her head to bring attention to hers, “ and Zecora manipulates external magic with her hooves, but she might be an exception. I have never really researched her magic. We know you can safely channel magic, so that's no problem. I believe you use your hands, however.”

“Hands really are amazing, aren’t they?” Lyra mused, looking at mine with a strange expression. “They let you do so much, even without magic.”

“They are pretty cool, aren’t they?” I said happily, dotting my last 'i' and crossing my last 't' with a flourish. I teasingly flicked her ear and she pulled her head back, startled, before joining in on the laugh Spike and I were sharing.

“Pay attention,” Twilight said sternly. “We are supposed to be practicing.”

“Sorry, sorry. Carry on,” I said, waving my hand at her. Twilight looked mollified and looked around the room contemplatively, then walked over to the fireplace and started rummaging in the chimney with a hoof, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth, ears flicking as she searched about.

“We practice with a chimney?” I asked. “How is that…” My thought cut off when she pulled a red and blue ball out from inside the chimney. “What the actual... you keep a ball in your chimney? Inside the room you gave me as an office? Isn't that... sorta unsafe?”

“I don't,” Twilight said defensively, her tail flicking with nervousness. “But Pinkie does. For ball emergencies.”

“Ball… emergencies…” I looked over at Lyra. She merely shrugged.

“Pinkie Pie,” Lyra said. As if that answered anything. Spike was grinning for some reason.

“Pray tell, do I want to know what a ball emergency is?" I said after giving my temple a good rub. When it came to the Pink Menace, it was pretty much a 50/50 shot if you wanted to know. Either you did, or you really didn’t.

“Well... the last time Cerberus ran off from guarding the gates of Tartarus and I had to use a ball to lure him back to his post,” Twilight said.

“...” My jaw hung open for a while.

“You're going to catch flies,” Twilight commented, rapping me on the nose with her pointer. Spike’s laughter increased. She set the ball in the middle of the room and put a book beside it. She cast a glance at Lyra and my positions, then adjusted the spacing between the two objects. “The ball is easier to target, being yielding in case you put too much pressure on it, and being a sphere, making enveloping the tactile field around it a simpler task.

“Lyra, I’d like you to use your levitation on the book,” Twilight instructed. “Caleb, if you would put your hand near Lyra’s horn I’d like you to try to mimic the spell as best as you can.”

“I can try,” Caleb said, positioning himself as instructed by Twilight. He flexed his fingers a few times and held his hand a few inches from Lyra’s horn. “Okay. Ready. I think.”

“You think?” Lyra asked, pulling back so she could look over my hand.

“First time allowed to try and cast a real spell here,” I glared back at her. I wagged the index finger of the hand she was supposed to be under. “Now get back in place so we can try this.”

“The theory is sound,” Twilight interjected. “Even the projected errors are mainly Caleb’s attempt to replicate the spell failing.”

“You aren’t exactly inspiring confidence,” Lyra muttered with a weak grin.

“Come on, Lyra,” I pleaded. “Just because Twilight is horrible at reassurance-”

“Hey!” Twilight protested, frowning at me. Lyra chuckled.

“You are,” Spike said, rolling his eyes. “That was just horrible.”

“But despite that, I really want to try and work some magic and you want to see some human magic.” I tried bribery. “I’ll buy you something if anything goes wrong.”

“Fine, I’ll hold you to that,” Lyra hummed happily, getting back into position. “Ready Twilight.”

“Then you can begin.” Did Twilight sound a bit… huffy? Nah… She wasn’t petty like that to hold a grudge over the comments about her poor reassurance skills. Anyway, I shifted my attention to the glow around Lyra’s horn and the simple beat I interpreted it’s spell formula as.

The book rose across the room, and I distantly heard Twilight telling Lyra to keep it steady. My focus stayed on Lyra’s magic, the world around me fading out as I ignored everything else. Music was the easiest way to describe my sense, but I was starting to realize it wasn’t quite the right description either. Spell formula became patterns in the mana flow as a spell was performed. I could almost see Lyra’s magic, though visualize might be the better term.

Gold magic played across my senses, ringing with Lyra’s unique signature, tangy and tingly, unlike Twilight’s warm and spicy one. I could see the patterns, the ways the mana was channeled and turned in the spell. I reached for my own magic and tried to match it, but I was still having trouble actually getting my magic to do more than just flow around.

I think Twilight said something, but I wasn’t sure. I kept my focus on the spell weaving attempted. This was supposed to be the simplest of spells, I should be able to pull it off. So I dug a bit deeper, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, what was different between my magic and Lyra’s.

The annoying thing about magic was that it got more and more complicated the more I focused on it. There were more… patterns and arrangements under the basic spell. I slipped back into that inner void as I tried to match my magic to her’s, yanking and tugging at my mana flows as what I interpreted as an increasingly complex pattern unfolded before me.

No… don’t try to mimic it, it’s too complex for that. Take some, sample it and impress it on your magic, Memorize it then Recall it. Right. Twilight said my magic was different from a unicorns, more volatile. I was approaching thing from a unicorn’s point of view, not my own. The three times I could remember using magic were more forceful. Clamping down on Twilight’s and pressuring it back out with similar and greater force, flaring in response to Rainbow’s aura, and the faintest memory, the one I didn’t tell them; feeling that power falling from the sky and it crashed into the library, harnessing it.

I had skimmed some of Twilight’s higher level magic books. I didn’t understand them, but I realized I unconsciously made a spell circle of some sort when I set up the display, and the glowing pages were components primed with my passive magic, magic that grabbed whatever it was the eclipse made and took it in.

So I did that.

I heard a faint cry of shock, felt it ripple through Lyra’s magic as I used the magic connection to subvert the levitation spell, and another two from further away. Twilight pushed me away from a shaken, wide-eyed Lyra, I could feel her magic pressing against my chest as I was forced several feet back. The portions of Lyra’s golden aura was dragged along, tugged away by green tendrils of my magic.

I hit the ground with a thump, tripping over my feet as I was pushed away. Confused, I stared at my hand, gold an green aura’s mingling around it, feeling Lyra’s signature tingling at my fingertips. Still slightly dazed from the abrupt transition from my headspace to the real world, I couldn’t find my voice.

“What did you do?” Twilight demanded, head lowered and her horn still glowing as she held a spell charged ready to be unleashed on little notice.

“Lyra, are you okay?” Spike asked, no less confused than anyone else in the room.

“I think so,” Lyra said, sounding a bit woozy. She even looked a bit unsteady on her hooves.

“What happened?” I finally managed to ask, still focused on the glow. The green was eating away at the gold, and I felt Lyra’s signature fade away, and my own magic taking up attributes of the far more complex pattern I found under her spell.

“You should be telling me!” Twilight said, her aggressive stand easing some, perhaps since I seemed as confused as they were, but her horn not dimming. She narrowed her eyes at me. “You were unresponsive for over a minute. Lyra couldn’t stop her mana flow, even after she cancelled her spell. It was like you locked it in place.”

My aura had finally faded and I scratched absently and slowly at my arm, feeling a bad itch starting. “I… don’t know. I was trying to copy the spell and…”

“Well, you did,” Spike said, pointing a claw to the center of the room. Beside the books were pieces of red and blue rubber. “Your magic surrounded the ball and just popped it.”

“I did that?” I didn’t remember getting the spell after all that effort. The itching started spreading, crawling up my arm and into my torso and I looked down irritably and I realized I could still feel my magic flowing inside me. My vision slowly took on a green tint as magic caused my eyes to glow from within.

“Is something wrong Caleb?” Twilight asked.

I couldn’t quite make out the details of the magic patterns I was hearing. But they sounded like the one I found under Lyra’s spell. And it was growing stronger. I started panicking as green spots started spreading over me, the itching and crawling sensation increase in intensity.

“Twilight, what’s happening?” I asked desperately. She was the teenage magic genius in the room. My magic continued to go wild, out of my control as it started cascading, building up inside me. What was normally a comforting feeling within had become a searing pressure, crawling painfully through my body. My view was slowly becoming more obscured as the green glow intensified.

“He’s having a magic surge!” Twilight yelped. I saw her move to stand between Lyra, Spike and myself. In the confines of the room, there wasn’t much room for them to move around. A flash of purple was the last thing I saw before my vision completely filled with brilliant green light.

My body started experiencing spasms, painfully hitting my head on the ground at one point. The brilliant glow and ironic lack of vision as a result of its brightness completely disoriented me as uncontrollable twitches continued. I felt the ground fall away. Everything burned as my magic surged, until all I could feel was that hybrid of pain and numbness that came with an injection, except it came from everywhere.

It was only by the blessings of all things sweet and holy that the peak lasted only a second before everything stopped, like a thread tugged too hard. Magic fizzled around me in little eddies I felt more than saw since I could barely make out anything as my pupils tried to adjust from the light. I hit the ground with a solid thump, apparently having been suspended into the air on my magic waves. Which was actually pretty awesome. I just needed to work on the landing.

Sore and numb, my body feeling like it had been auditioning for a punching bag then ladened down with bags of sand, my head was pounding and my back felt like something decided to use if for a short Riverdance. I was pretty sure I hadn’t felt that beaten up since… ever, actually. I was probably worse when I first landed in Equestria, but I was unconscious the whole time.

My eyes finally recovered enough that the sploshes of bright colours resolved into pony shaped blobs and the spots resolved into the eddies and sparks of residual magic I had been feeling. Blinking slowly, I let my eyes get themselves back in gear.

“Okay… I officially suck at magic,” I groaned, my throat feeling like gravel. This was the third time I did anything near a real spell, counting my crash landing, this attempt and the reaction to Rainbow. Okay, so that last one wasn’t a spell anymore than my little night light tricks were. But the other two.

“Ca… Caleb?” Twilight asked tentatively. It took some effort, but I focused my attention at her. For a moment I wondered why half the room had a purple tint before realizing I was under a magic barrier. Twilight and the others were outside it, and considering the scorched nature of the flooring within it, I could see the logic of it. Magic Surges were not good for housekeeping. I didn’t get the confused looks on their faces.

“Yes Twilight, I will get up in a moment… just give me… five more minutes to nap.” I really wanted to nap. Magic fatigue from the surge most likely. I shifted my arm and noticed it was still green from the magic. Oh joy. I rolled my eyes then froze in shock.

“Caleb… are you okay?” Twilight asked slowly. I opened my mouth slowly, but the only sound to issue out what a high pitched whine as I tried to process the green appendage sticking out of at the top of my field of vision. That whine continued until I ran out of air, but that didn’t stop my lungs from trying to keep it up, air or no air.

“Oh, ponyfeathers!” Twilight said quickly, dropping the barrier and quickly rushing over to kick me in the ribs, forcing me to abandon the panic squealing and making me cough instead. At least it got me breathing regularly. Lyra was a short distance behind her, Spike following but still holding back.

“Twilight… why do I have a horn?” I asked in a high pitched squeak, fighting to get my stiff limbs moving, which only brought up another fact. “Twilight, why do I have HOOVES!”

“I don’t know!” Twilight said, starting to panic as much as I was. She looked at Lyra, who looked back at Twilight, since she was the one who was supposed to have all the answers to things like this. “I don’t know!”

Twilight’s panic made my panic worse and I started hyperventilating. I turned into a talking pony… I turned into a talking pony… I TURNED INTO A TALKING PONY!

Naturally, my eyes rolled in my skull and I collapsed, passing out.

----------

“Power… this magic is power.”

What..?

“Power not like the rest. Magic alike yet different.”

It was void with colours swirling all around. And someone was talking.

“Learn to use it, control it, master it.”

I felt the ground under my feet, and a drab featureless surface expanded outwards. A mirror stood in front of me. Shown in it I was a hash up of what I expected and why I glimpsed before I passed out. Green skin, not Lyra’s pale powdery green, mint green I think it was, but a darker green, a horn jotting from my forehead.

It was a dream. Thanks to Luna, I had learned to realize when they were happening, not that it was hard in this case. I suppose this was my subconscious telling me something? Of course, that same skill let me realize turning into a talking magic pony wasn’t a dream. Oi…

The mirror was strange though. An ornate frame, with dark gems set in it, reflecting nothing but that strange hybrid image, not the chaotic environment. around me. I blinked and the image changed. His skin was a darker and more drab green, his eyes a paler gold, his outfit a more formal take on what I had been wearing.

“Magic Surges are the start, a taste of true skill. Learn it, not recoil from it,” It said, shifting back to a normal reflection when it was done.

“Sure… mess around with the thing that turned me into a GOD FORSAKEN PONY!” I yelled at myself, my subconscious. My dreams were ripping off the Dresden Files. Lovely. The mirror flickered again and the other me returned.

“Humans fear the unknown, then face it and tame it.” My subconscious looked faintly smug before it flickered back into a simple reflection.

“You are an idiot. Capital I; Idiot!” I snapped at my reflection. I was arguing with myself. It was a dream, those types of things made sense there. “I admit, once I got over my hardheadedness about it, the idea of magic was awesome. But this? No way, no how, just no. Give me one good reason why I should. I dare you!”

“Because it is the way home. Riding magic brought you here. Learning it might take you back.”

I stared blankly at the mirror, the gestalt image a simple reflection once more. Somehow I knew it wasn’t going to come with another comment. I punched it, the reflective surface only rippling as if it were fluid.

“Your dreamscape is in turmoil,” a familiar voice commented from behind me. Hoofsteps followed it, in typical dream logic and something like a cold breeze brushed across my skin/fur. Dreams. Their logic was odd.

“Hey Luna,” I sighed. There wasn’t much point to ignoring her. Having acknowledged her, her reflection showed up in the mirror as well. “You should have called. I would have cleaned up some, got some treats ready.”

“If you can manage flippancy, I assume you are recovering your state of mind,” the Princess of the Night, Dreamwalker and Darkstalker said, sounding relived.

“I… suppose? I’m not sure, to be honest. Had a chat with the subconscious for one.” I turned and shrugged at her. Something occurred to me and my brow furrowed. “Wait… what are you doing Dreamwalking this time of the day. Or have I been out for a long time? Am I in a coma?”

“No, Caleb,” Luna smiled, bopping me gently on the head with a wing. “It has been little more than an hour. Young Twilight sent a letter to my sister informing her of your accident. It seems you suffered a somewhat spectacular Magic Surge and transformed yourself into a unicorn using a powerful spell unknown to Celestia’s apprentice.

“Between the shock of the revelation, the strain of the spell and the mana fatigue, you passed out, startling Twilight and Miss Lyra Heartstrings. When we found out, I came to check on your wellbeing,” Luna explained for my benefit. “I suspect some of the turmoil we see here is due to mana damage and will rectify itself shortly. My presence will help in that regard.”

“Great. I managed to mess up that bad, huh? Lovely.” I sighed again and moved to rub my temples, only to hit the horn. I tentatively poked at it before groaning. Pointed up in a vague gesture, I had to ask. “Still a pony out there?”

“As far as we are aware, yes,” Luna nodded. She shrugged her wings, and action that seemed rather casual for a princess of a nation. “As I said, it was quite spectacular. I suspect Twilight will be able to devise a counter spell for you.”

“Thank God,” I muttered. Realizing how it sounded, I hastily tried to apologize. “Not that ponies are bad or anything but-”

“There is no reason to panic,” Luna laughed. She cocked her head as she picked up one of those signs only she was aware of. “I am well aware that you aren’t a pony, and unexpected and unwanted transformations are quite unsettling. It appears you will be waking shortly. I will tell Celestia that you are fine.”

I wanted to ask about her experience with unexpected transformations, but I filed it away in the ‘Later’ list. “Thanks for the visit though, Luna. I might not have reacted well to waking up… Still might not, but it should be better.”

“In that regard… let me leave you with a gift.” Luna’s horn glowed softly, magic quickly running and collecting at the tip. A small white marble drifted from it and into mine. I admit I shuddered and flinched slightly at that, something Luna had the gall to chuckle at.

“Ow… that sort of smarted,” I rubbed at the horn. “What was that?”

“Just a bit of knowledge of how to use your temporary new form. As humorous as it would be, it will not do for you to flop about like a newborn.”

I rolled my eyes at her, but smiled. “Thanks Luna. Extra sweets next time you visit.”

“I shall hold you to that,” Luna said, spreading her wings and flying upwards as the dream frayed.

----------

“He’s coming around!” someone said as I stirred. I tentatively opened on eye and saw the living wood ceiling of the library and a portion of a horn. I opened the other, blinking a few times before looking around. I was still in my ‘office’, lying in the sitting couch. A mare was nearby, white coat and a pale pink mane. I knew her, having met her the day before. Nurse… Redheart.

“Didn’t I tell you not to get into any more trouble?” she said with mock sternness.

I carefully raised my left arm. A green foreleg ending in a dark hoof responded instead. I closed my eyes and let out a shuddering breath. Easy does it. I managed a sheepish grin at her. “To be fair, the trouble got into me, this time.”

She snorted and started packing up a kit as Twilight and Lyra came into the room, one carrying books in her magic, the other a small box held in her mouth. Twilight spoke up first. “Caleb! I’m so glad you’re okay! When you fainted I had no idea what to do!”

“Not so loud please,” I winced. I felt my new pony ears press against my skull. I really hoped Twilight would be able to work out a counter spell before I got a chance to become acquainted with all the nuances of pony anatomy. Speaking of which... Yep. I was naked under the covered. I suppose that made sense to them, just not so much to me. I shifted the blanket for a bit more protection.

“Sorry,” Twilight said in a softer tone.

Lyra dropped the box on the table. “I had Bon Bon make this up for you. It’s a recovery box. All of the best post- injury, sickness, pain, break up and or other mishap sweets in one container.”

“Thanks Lyra,” I murmured, distracted by the pony ears that kept flicking around. It was annoying and distracting. I wanted to rub them or rub my temple, but considering I was waiting for someone to hurt themselves facehoooving, I didn’t want to be my own victim. “Um… dare I ask where my clothes are?”

“They weren’t exactly made for a pony,” Lyra said, rolling her eyes. “They were tangling you up so we had to get them off you.”

“You should be fine from this point,” Nurse Redheart said to me as she was buckling her saddlebags around her barrel. “Barring further incidents.”

“So there is nothing else wrong with him?” Twilight asked.

“As far as I can tell, he is a healthy unicorn,” Redheart confirmed before tipping her head in my direction. “Unfortunately, that’s the problem since he should be a healthy human. But as far as medicine is concerned, he would have been checked out already. Hardly an injury on him aside from the bruises and fatigue. It won’t hurt to keep us at the hospital appraised, though.. You do plan to get this remedied?”

I nodded vigorously. “So much yes.”

“Well, I expect to hear from you in the near future,” Redheart said in her cheerful bedside manner. “Have a good day.”

I waited until I heard the front door open and close before I looked over at Twilight. “Please tell me you can fix me.”

“I… I believe so,” Twilight said.

“You hesitated there,” I pointed out.

“Honestly, you created a new spell in your Surge, and I’m still trying to determine the details of it, but I can tell it is an active spell, so I only need to break it,” Twilight said, this time with more confidence.

“That’s all?” Lyra said, rearing back before letting out an exasperated puff of air. “Everything will be fine. It won’t take any time at all. We’ll have you back on your own two feet by the end of the day. Nothing to worry about at all.”

I stared at Lyra in abject horror as she uttered the words that were likely to be a curse. There were just some things you didn’t, ever say. Never. Before I could stop myself I swung my arm, foreleg, up and hit myself in the face.

“What? What did I say?” Lyra asked, baffled as to why I was glaring at her.

It's Never Just One Thing...

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I stared at the reflection before to me. Twilight summoned a full length mirror from somewhere, apparently teleporting it in if I had read the patterns right. Either way, I contemplated the visage with an open mind and a flat expression. The forest green fur I expected, having seen it before I passed out and since waking up. I was pretty sure it was forest green. I'd have to ask them later to make sure. The dark hooves were unsurprising for the same reason. General appearance wise; I looked like the typical unicorn stallion; slightly leggy, small barrel, average sized horn, and it looked like the athletic build I had slowly been developing carried over. My eyes were still the Equestria gold, though pony sized, which was a bit distracting.

What I didn’t expect was the mane and tail. I’d never been able to grow a proper afro, mostly because of the weird manner in which my hair grew, curling tightly and kinky, not getting loose and poofy. I had never considering growing dread locks. Until now, apparently. While not all that long, thick black and gold locks still hung from my head, my tail having the same look, though its locks were maybe twice that of my manes.

I looked like the Jamaican flag ponified. I sighted and dragged myself away from the image. I didn’t have much trouble with walking, surprisingly. The gait of a pony wasn’t all that different from crawling on hands-and-knees, even if the leg posture was odd, but mainly it seemed like it was part of whatever spell I subconsciously cast. Low Level Morphological Familiarity Impression is what I dubbed it and Twilight scribbled it down. It was my bizarre spell, I got to name its benefits. It wasn’t perfect though. I has tripped and almost hit my head when I thought too hard about walking, and being startled seemed to turn it off as well. Not to mention the stairs…

Still, it was convenient, which was why I was waiting for the library to catch fire or something. Magic tended to work like that. Like nigh-immediate return karma. Especially once you took Lyra’s utterance of one of the Cursed Phrases into consideration.

Speaking of Lyra; she was still hanging around, watching me from her sprawling post on the couch, grinning slightly.

“And what’s your problem?” I asked her testily, my tail shifting subconsciously and a faint blush setting it. Pony or not, I was still naked in front of a female. Old habits die hard.

“Nothing,” Lyra said, her grin widening and a slight musical tilt to her tone. “You make a good looking stallion.”

I stared at her, jaw hanging slighty. “I… what?”

“You look good. Not quite hot, but attractive enough. You would clean up nicely,” Lyra said, expounding on her observations. “I couldn’t tell when you were human, since I didn’t know what they were supposed to look like really, but it works for you.”

Nope. Not going there. I left the room and the dangerous waters, ignoring the clipplity clops my hooves made on the floor. Honestly, how did any pony manage to sneak around with these things? “Twilight! Made any progress yet?”

“I was just joking around!” Lyra laughed, following me. I ignored her and headed for the basement. Of course, with my new enemy the stairs standing between me and Twilight’s secret laboratory, I was forced to holler down at her from the open door.

“Twilight! You down there?” I got my answer in the form of a burst of purple light and the telltale pattern of a teleportation spell, scaring the heck out of me. The LLMFI was disrupted by it and my legs sprayed randomly, pitching me over.

Lyra caught me on her shoulder before I had another introduction to the ground and giggled. “Now Twilight, I’m not sure this is what your mother meant when she said you could have stallions falling for you if you tried.”

“Shut up, Lyra,” I grumbled as I let myself remember how my feet were supposed to work. Stupid hooves, stupid coat. Gah! “Please tell me you have something for me Twilight.”

“Well…” Twilight said evasively.

“Don’t give me that!” I snapped, snorting and stomping a hoof on the wooden floor. “Come on! You’re the student of the great and powerful Sun-Riser! You’re the child prodigy that the magic institute is will to accept research advice from! You have to have something!”

“Easy there, Caleb,” Lyra said, sounding a bit worried.

I turned on her. “And you! You! Don’t tell me to take it easy!”

“Hey! Don’t yell at her or Twilight!” Spike said, sounding pissed as he came up from the basement.

“You!” I whirled on him, the rush of energy ready to lash out at the new target. Only to dwindling since I had nothing to rage on him about. Sure, he had been in the room, but so what? It had been Twilight’s idea and Lyra’s magic… Okay, so maybe I didn’t really have any reason to be chewing into them either. My frustration built. “Gah! Fine! Just… give me something. Please. Fix this.”

“What’s wrong with being a pony?” Twilight asked.

“The part where I’m not?” I responded, cocking an eyebrow at her as I dosed the comment with sarcasm. I think I felt one of my ears, the left, I think

“Well, aside from that,” Twilight said, dismissing it as if it were nothing. “The spell effect itself is impressive. I haven’t been able to detect any sort of unraveling or degradation around you, nor can I find any obvious spell patterns on you. The spell’s thoroughness and subtly are remarkable! To think this complex of a transformation spell was born from an uncontrolled mana surge!”

“Ah, Sparkle?” Lyra said slowly, noticing my eye twitching as Twilight continued to talk, gently shifting so she was partially between us. I think Spike might have shifted as well. “I don’t think that’s the most reassuring thing you could have said.”

“Listen to the green mare; there is wisdom in her words,” I ground out. I was trying not to give into the urge to reach over and shake the absentminded researcher until she started talking about the really important issues at hand.

“What? Oh…” Twilight finally seemed to have noticed the look in my eyes. “Sorry. I did get a bit carried away in the data. Don’t worry, between what I could pick up during your surge, the residual spell patterns in the room and what I pulled from your horn, I’ve been piecing together the formula details of the spell you used.”

“That sounds wonderful. Now; what did you find out?” I asked with a very forced and false sounding sincere tone. Lyra didn’t look convinced. Actually, none of the three did.

“Well… that it is a very complex spell with little to no degradation and mana loss?” She said in a shy and nervous manner. My eye twitched again and the sound of someone charging up a spell reached me. I connected the dots when I felt heat building up from my new forehead accessory. Twilight started talking hastily. “It’s only been a few hours. Hardly enough time to do proper research into the effect, Caleb! Just because I haven’t found anything doesn’t mean I won’t.”

Spike was talking at the same time and planted himself before Twilight, growling at me, little tongues of fire sparking. “Who do you think you are? Don’t you dare threaten Twilight! She’s doing the best she can to help you and this is how you act!?”

“Easy Caleb! Take it easy! Your magic is reacting!” Lyra was saying, worried eyes flicking between my horn and my face, her ears splayed back. “Calm down before you do something stupid you regret!”

Something snapped, the building aura dispelling with a flash and an audible pop like a blown bulb, the lingering heat in my horn slightly uncomfortable against my forehead, worse since it was being directly conducted. Suddenly, everything was in perspective. I was overdue for some more weirdness to happen. Considering all the stories I had been told about life in Ponyville and the adventures of Twilight and her friends, I was pretty much overdue for a visit from the crazy happenstance fairy.

“You’re right! You are ab-so-lutely right!” I declared as a slightly unhinged grin spread across my equine muzzle. I turned slowly, moving one pony leg at a time and struck out for the door, humming a song from The Sound of Music. My sudden change in demeanour took them off guard and I could feel three sets of eyes boring into me as I left.

“Where are you going?” Spike demanded, still sounding pissed about my yelling at Twilight.

“I got a hankering for a cinnamon roll!” I responded cheerfully, not even looking back as I pushed the door open and strutted out into the bright sunshine. I sang a few modified lines from the song I had started humming.

“ ‘What will this day be like?’ I wonder.
‘What grand disaster'll strike?’ I wonder.
It should be so swell to be out and about and free,
I should be thrilled and so happy,
But not with what's happen to me...

I actually made it further than I thought before someone ran up to catch me. It didn’t even bother me that they had cut into my song. Lyra’s trot slowed to match my walk, and she looked worriedly at me as I kept on humming. I had half expected it to be Twilight going on about why I should stay in the library were she could keep tabs on me, but life (and my magic) kicked me in the teeth and by all this pure I needed a cinnamon roll and spiced milk to make it all better.

Mommy Kisses would be good too, but mom was…

I shook my head with a whiney to abort that thought. At the moment I was off kilter enough as it was without piling more regrets on it. Lyra finally broke the silence. “You okay, Caleb?”

“Lyra, Lyrah, Leera, Li-He-ra,” I spoke cheerfully, playing with the sounds of her name. “I turned into a pony!” My voice got high pitched and cracking on that one, actually sounding like Sweetie Belle for a moment, though still cheerful. “Of course I’m not okay!”

“Oh…” her hoofsteps faltered slightly. I kept my eyes focused ahead to remain undistracted. Lyra sounded a bit depressed when she spoke again. “Sorry about the teasing, I thought it would make you feel better. Guess it didn’t.”

“No, not really,” I said, still cheerful.

“Your eye is twitching again,” Lyra commented.

“I know!” I said with a relish. I was in a very dramatic mode. “That’s why I’m going for a cinnamon roll! It will make everything all better before everything goes wrong!”

“What? What makes you think that everything will go wrong?” Lyra said, hesitating as she tried and failed to see the logic.

“Because everything has been right up till now, and since I turned into a pony, two more things will go horribly wrong today, so I’m getting a cinnamon roll to prepare!”

“How would a cinnamon roll help?” she tried, catching back up to me. Ah, she was weak, if simple things like that threw her.

“How wouldn’t a cinnamon roll help?” I countered.

----------

The doors to Sugarcube Corner rang as we entered. Or rather, the bells above the door did from the force I swung it open. I loved this place. The air was rich the smell of pastries, goodies and things generally too sweet to be anything but a guilty pleasure, but too good to be had that rarely. And they made glorious cinnamon rolls. The most amazing ones I had ever tasted.

“I have come for cinnamon rolls!” I declared grandly, starting patrons. “Cinnamon rolls dripping with frosting and served with spiced milk!”

“You have come to the right place!” Pinkie responded, for it was she who manned the counter. And then she gasped. My perceptions blurred and my sense of direction was momentarily upset as Pinkie left the counter, grabbed my hand, er, hoof and Lyra’s dragged us to a table and planted us there. “Wow Caleb, I didn’t know you could turn into a pony! Wait, no…” she gasped again. “You’ve come for Emergency Support Rolls! You poor thing!”

Still dizzy from the transition from door to table, I could only yip when a mess of pink hair filled my vision and she embraced me in a crushing hug. “Don’t you worry, I’ll make you up some special!”

“Wait, how’d you know it was him?” Lyra demanded, grabbing her tail in her magic before she could leave.

“How couldn’t I, Silly Filly?” Pinkie giggled. “I didn’t get any new pony twitches today, but I got the ‘Friend is feeling really conflicted’ sense and a doozy! So when the new pony turned up, I figured it wasn’t really a new pony, even if it wasn’t a spy like Rainbow Dash would thing. Has she called you a spy yet? She will! Anyway, he still sounds like Caleb, he doesn’t have a cutie mark, and only Caleb asked for cinnamon rolls like that. See? Easy Peasy.”

Lyra looked dumbfounded as Pinkie bounced off to get my treat.

Unfortunately for me, Pinkie manage to break my mood, and reality set in. Turned self into pony? Check. Yelled at people trying to help? Check. Paranoia about what will go wrong next? Check? Cinnamon Roll to bury the pain? In progress. Refuge in Audacity? Uncheck. I let my head drop unto the table with a thump, rattling the little bowl with sugar and other complementaries. "Ow..."

Lyra stared at me for a while not saying anything while I listlessly stared back , a vacant expression on my face. Wait… muzzle? My listless expression became a wistful one as I moaned. Lyra apparently had enough with the silence. “Okay, what’s up with you?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I responded blandly, giving her one of those looks that said ‘really?’ “Didn’t I just go though the whole ‘I’m not a pony, I don’t want to be a pony’ thing with Twilight five minutes ago? I’m pretty sure you were there. You were the mint mare standing off to the side.”

“I’m not talking about that part. That part I can get. Sorta,” Lyra said, waving a hoof dismissively. “And Sparkle really didn’t have much tact explaining it. But I’m talking about what happened after that. And cinnamon rolls?”

“Ah…” I let air hiss through my teeth. “That was the act of a desperate man trying to make everything seem better by making it… It’s a rush of emotions thing. The stress got to me. And you can get rid of stress temporarily by pretending it doesn’t exist. Didn’t expect it to wear off so soon though…”

“And the cinnamon rolls? And milk?” Lyra asked.

“I like cinnamon rolls. And every other day or so I stop by and get one from here. With a flavoured milk. Banana, chocolate, Pinkie even made blueberry for me once. For all her crazy, she’s a plain awesome cook,” I said, shrugging slightly, though it was more of a roll of the shoulders.

“Aw, thanks Calie!” Pinkie said, popping up with her always impeccable timing to put two steaming cinnamon rolls with lovely looking glaze and icing on the table along with two glasses of foamy milk. “These two are freshly baked!”

And she was gone just as quickly as she arrived. Having been a patron of the store for over a week, I didn’t bother worrying about it. ‘It’s Pinkie’ really did apply to most things she did. I grinned weakly at the mare across from me. “Honestly, it beats drinking. A cinnamon roll a day keeps the worse of the fears away.”

Lyra didn’t say anything, just made a contemplative sound and picked up her utensils with her magic and started cutting off a piece of the roll and stuffing it in her mouth. Her face lit up and she started talking through a mouthful of pastry. “Wuw! Dezz ar’ gud!”

I looked at her before looking down at my plate, flanked by a fork, that I lacked the hands to us. “Oh come on…”

“Hmm?”

“How am I supposed to eat this with these hooves?” I complained. I poked at the fork with my hoof, trying to figure out how to pick them up. I’ve seen ponies pick up stuff in their hooves before. Twilight mentioned something about a tactile telekinetic foci in the hooves… then went on to sprout theory about the nature of the tribal magics again.

“I don’t know if you are coordinated enough to use your hooves,” Lyra after she swallowed. “Use your magic.”

“You know that implies I actually have control of it. Last time I sorta blew up. And turned into a pony,” I deadpanned. Maybe I should just eat it like a dog or cat would. But then icing would get on my face.

“Heads up!” Lyra said suddenly, tossing her knife at me.

“What the frick!” I yelped, ducking, expecting the knife to hit me. I held my cringing pose for a while before I realized nothing was hitting me, nor did I hear the sound of the knife hitting the floor. What I did hear was the faint pattern of a spell. Hesitantly I looked up. Lyra was grinning at me across the table, the knife suspended in the air with a green glow around it. “Wha..?”

“You might not like it, but you are a unicorn now, and Twilight has been drilling you with spell theory for a week,” Lyra said. “I figured I could get you to cast the basic levitation spell if I forced it. You did cast it before you surged.”

“Well… Fancy that…” I murmured.

“Just so you know, I’m going to call you Devoted Heart until we get this sorted out,” Lyra added.

That caused me to lose focus and drop the knife. “Wait, why?”

“Because Caleb is a weird name for a pony. A human, fine. A sheep or cow, sure. Not a pony.”

“Come on, it’s a girl’s name…”

“It’s not. It’s a nice name. Powerful.” she said confidently. Then added with a sly grin, “and gender neutral.”

“Fine. You’re paying for this though,” I grumbled. “I forgot to grab my bits before leaving.”

Lyra rolled her eyed but gave vague agreement before she pushed the knife closer. “Sure, whatever. Now let me try and help you with that.”

----------

I was clumsy as hell, but I managed somehow with Lyra’s coaching. It was hard to describe how it felt holding utensils in magic. Somewhat like phantom sensations and a pressure on my brow as I struggled to maintain the feeble glow of my magic. But I ate my cinnamon roll, gosh darn it and it was splendid, and I only got a little bit of it on myself. A straw at least spared me from struggling with the glass and the potential disaster that held.

One of these days I needed to look into the pony petroleum industries to see where they got their plastics and oils from, and how it compared to human mining. The oil industry was a big issue back on earth, and with how concerned ponies were with the environment it would be interesting to see how they balanced it.

I was working my way through the last bit when a rather pressing need presented itself. Actually; it had been building for a while, but long practice has made it easy to ignore up to this point. No longer. The large glass of milk hadn’t helped. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I might be worth it to wait until Twilight found a solution, but since I had no time table on that… “Lyra?”

“Yes Devoted?” she responded, sipping her milk.

“I… kinda have to go,” I said.

“Finally stallioning up and going to apologize to Twilight?” Lyra asked. She had pointed out a few minutes before I did need to get over myself and go grovel and kiss Twilight’s hooves and seek clemency for my earlier actions. She might not have said it in those exact words though.

I said I needed more time. I found it hard to pull a one eighty like that. But that was unimportant. “No, not leave, go.”

“Go? Oh; Go!” Lyra thought about it for a while, her eyes widening when she finally got my facial expression. “Then go if you need to. You should know where.”

“Well, I don’t know if… I know how,” I admitted. Lyra laughed. Burst out in a full-on belly laugh that started attracting attention from the other patrons in the store. I could feel the heat in my cheeks.

“You know what, forget it. I’ll figure it out,” I muttered and got off my rump and stalked off to the restroom.

I’ll admit, it took a while to figure out how to work the new plumbing, and it didn’t help that Lyra knocked on the door offering to hold my hoof. Sometimes I wondered about that girl. Mare. That mare. Still, I was man, and I could figure out how to work the common element.

Lyra was still chuckling when we left, ignoring my glare as she bounced down the street, reminding more of Pinkie. “You are an evil mare.”

“It was pretty funny when Pinkie offered to show you how it worked if you were having trouble,” Lyra said, wiping a tear from her eye.

“A very evil mare,” I reiterated, my cheeks still red. Noticing we weren’t heading back to in the direction of the library, I questioned Lyra. “So where are we going now?”

“Sparkle will need time to get over your little quarrel, and you need time to pony up like a typical stallion,” Lyra said, managing to subdue her laugher.

“Man up,” I grumbled, not willing to yield to the pony vernaculars. Still, my glare downgraded into a glower, as I considered the point Lyra was making. Yeah, I suppose I could use a bit of thinking time to get a level head and actually keep it. I had pretty much accepted being in Equestria, and it was a pretty cool place, and even got a job out of it. But I never imagined becoming a pony. Speaking of, I glanced over at Lyra, it was the first time I was on the same level as the ponies, only having an inch or three on her, though I did get a bit more length to worry about.

Things looked a bit different from this angle, to be honest. Not a whole lot, but enough that I could tell when I started looking for it. Speaking of noticeable things; the ponies in the area seemed to be giving us odd looks. Maybe pairs of green unicorns were noteworthy? I spotted one of the flower girls, Daisy, pulling a cart of flowers and waved at her. Her response was a bit restrained and somewhat on the confused side.

“Hey Daisy,” Lyra grinned.

“Hello Daisy,” I said in greeting. “How is business coming along?”

“Quite well,” Daisy mumbled. “I’m sorry, but have we met before?”

“What? Of course we have, I- oh, right,” Of course she didn’t recognize me like this. “We’ve met, but I didn’t look like this. I’m-”

“Devoted Heart,” Lyra helpfully, interrupting me.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Devoted Heart,” Daisy said, smiling at me.

“Okay, first off, Lyra; no. Bad mare,” I said, my glower once again upgrading into a glare as I half turned to jab a hoof in her direction, only tripping slightly. Lyra stuck her tongue out at me. “Secondly; I’m Caleb, the human guy that’s been around, calls out to you mares every morning. It’s post… magic accident. We are working on it.”

Daisy’s eyes widened and she started to inhale. I quickly covered her mouth with my hoof. It was an acceptable thing to do. I’d seen Twilight do it. “Ah, ah! No yelling out ‘the horror’ or anything like starting a panic! Okay?” When she nodded, I moved it.

“Sorry,” Daisy apologized.

“Don’t want the attention, Devoted?” Lyra asked innocently.

“Not helping, Lyra,” I said, grinding my teeth slightly. Wow… I never noticed how flat they were compared to my human ones before.

“It’s going to be hard to avoid attention considering you don’t have a cutie mark,” Daisy pointed out. “It was the first thing I noticed about you, Devote-, sorry, Caleb. A lot of ponies have noticed it, actually.”

“Ah, that explains the looks,” I murmured. “And Pinkie had commented on it too.”

“An adult without a Cutie Mark is… I’ve never heard of one,” Lyra admitted. “Not outside of stories anyway.”

“It’s really terrifying, in a way, to look at,” Daisy said, looking at my blank flank with mingled apprehension and awe. “Like a Nightmare Night story.”

“Makes you wonder if something can steal the thing that makes you special, or if he was cursed to search endlessly for it,” Lyra said. At my expression she grinned. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”

“It really does have that air of mystery to it,” Daisy agreed. Okay, two grown mares staring at my ass was a bit concerning. My tail flicked in an attempted to try and cover it, which only set them giggling.

“Okay… that aside,” I said, rolling my eyes. Save me from women, because I just couldn’t get them, not the human ones, much less the pony ones. And they were so many of them here. I only knew about ten, maybe fifteen stallions, most of them in passing. “Do stallions seriously call them Cutie Marks?”

The giggling got worse. I waited them out, watching the ponies watching me, or rather watching my flank. Seriously. It was getting very distressing. Why did I leave the privacy of the library again?

“Some do, a lot of them call it Flank Mark, Destiny Mark or just simply Mark. It helps them hold on to their stallionness.” Lyra gave me a bright grin.

“… I can’t tell if you’re punking me or not,” I admitted after a moment.

“So where are you off to?” Lyra asked Daisy, happily ignoring me. Daisy looked as if she didn't know what I was talking about, which she probably didn't.

"Pranking," I added for her benefit. She made a little 'oh' of understanding before giggling once again (those giggles were starting to get to me) before responding to Lyra.

“Well, I was picking some wild flowers in the White Tail Woods when I noticed some strange lights and odd winds.” Daisy shuddered at the memory. “It was so cold. There wasn’t any wind anywhere else, and I had never seen those lights before, so I took what I already gathered and was going to let Twilight know about it. Unusual magic is something she is good at.”

“Ah, well you see,” Lyra started. I sighed and waved a hoof to make her stop talking.

“No, it’s fine. Something that might bug the town is more important than my issue.” Okay, maybe not to me, and damn that took a lot of willpower to say, but it was ‘right’. Lyra looked at me with a small smile. I didn’t try to read into it. “Daisy, you go tell Twilight and let her know that Lyra and I are going ahead to take a look at it in the meanwhile. Tell her she can… work on my thing later and that… I said sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Daisy asked.

“She’ll know,” I said quickly. No need to get into the reason why with her. “Can you tell us where you saw the lights?”

It didn’t take long for Daisy to pass the information along. To Lyra, that is. I might be able to find my way around Ponyville without much issue, but the lands outside town were a different matter altogether. I managed to keep the pleasant look on my face, muzzle, until Daisy was on her way again.

“I blame you for this, by the way,” I said, once we were moving again, a destination in mind.

“For what?” Lyra asked.

“This how issue. Mysterious lights in the forest? Weird chill winds?” I sighed. This was going to drag on forever. I should have just shut myself up in my room like a proper brooding victim instead of going for Cinnamon Roll.

“How is that my fault?” Lyra said, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

“What did you do?” I echoed in disbelief. I started quoting her. “Let’s see… ‘Not ca- GAH! Sheesh…” I tried making an air quote and only stumbled, barely managing to keep from falling. “Stupid hooves… But saying things like what can go wrong and everything will be fine is giving the universe a direct invitation to mess with you. At my expense in this case.”

“That’s crazy,” Lyra snorted.

I stopped walking and just looked at her. “Really? You are a mint green pony with a magic horn that lets you cast magic spells and there is a picture magically imprinted on your flank talking to a guy that fell from another dimension or reality, we haven’t decided which term is correct yet, who’s temporarily stuck as a green… forest green?” I asked. I wasn’t the best at colours. Lyra nodded. “A forest green blank flanked unicorn.”

“Okay, so what’s your point?” Lyra asked.

“That was my point,” I responded, walking off again. Maybe I should try a trot? I did, tentatively, and was pleased to find that the… um… LLMFI (I hadn’t gotten a chance to write it down yet; hooves and all) still held out. “Your bar for scepticism shouldn’t be so high.”

“Okay, now you’re just being paranoid,” Lyra said, trotting after me.

“Sure, call it paranoia. I call it wary. This is the land of magic after all,” I shot back.

“Puh-lease. What’s the worst that could happen?” Lyra asked again.

I swear to you; the second she said that three small fuzzy anti-personal ballistic projectiles slammed into me, knocking me not only off my hooves, but bouncing at least once off the road before crash landing into the relatively soft bushes. When the world stopped spinning, three sets of eager, shining faces were beaming down at me.

I knew those faces. The avatars of Chaos, Mayhem and Confusion. Hidden under a façade of cute filly forms and cunningly disguised as the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Why Lyra? What did I ever do to you!” I bawled to the sky as they all started speaking at once.

“Wow mister! Ah nevah thought it was true!” Apple Bloom said eagerly.

“How’d you manage to get so old widdout getting a cutie mark?” Scootaloo demanded.

“Ooo! You should join our club! We can help each other get our cutie marks!”

“I was joking! I didn’t think you were right!” Lyra said, staring at the fillies pinning me to the ground with obvious shock.

“Don’t tempt the universe!” I yelled back at her, trying to coordinate my way out from under the fillies. “Old Human Proverb: Trouble comes in Threes!”

Instantly, I realized my mistake. I looked back at the fillies and only saw the face of evil. Old Human Proverb with a New Human Twist: Speak of the Devil and he shall appear, tempt the universe, and it runs with it. Trouble comes in threes. No one said the last trouble had to be alone.

“Human?”

Forest Mystery

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“Please, Mr. Caleb!” Sweetie Belle pleaded, her watery eyes eroding my will.

“Ah know ya ain’t a pony, but you can help us find our special talent anyway!” Applebloom said, adding her own eyes to the assault.

“I dunno,” I had said, trying to retreat, fearful of the warnings I had gotten about the group. “I’ve got stuff doing and I’m not really the best person… I’m not even a pony. I’m a human, we don’t get cutie marks. And I said drop the mister.”

“That’s the awesome part!” Scootaloo insisted. “You can help us out different from everypony else. With your human per… per…”

“Perspective,” Sweetie Belle supplied.

“Yeah, that!” Scootaloo nodded. Thankfully she was too ‘tough’ to actively try the cute eyes approach. She was cute enough without trying. Damn, this was why these three got away with things.

“I’m not joining your club,” I said firmly.

“Then what about being a consultant?” Sweetie asked.

I barely got out of becoming a crusader when they tried, and that was when it wasn’t possible for me to get a cutie mark. Looking up at their eager, or in Scootaloo’s case; demanding and accusatory, faces, I didn’t think I was weaseling out of this one.

“Who are you, mister!” Scootaloo said, jabbing her hoof at me. Rainbow Dash would be proud; she molded Scootaloo into a mini version of herself. “What do you know about humans and why don’t you have a cutie mark?”

“It would help if you didn’t stand on me,” I grunted at them. Finally realizing they were using me as a foot, no, hoof mat, the fillies scampered of with hasty apologies. With their weight gone, I managed to get myself back on my feet. I gave myself a quick once over to make sure I’m not bleeding or injured in anyway. That passive magic protection thing really was useful. Unicorns and humans might not have one as potent as pegasi or earth ponies, but Lord knows the number of spills I’ve had would have torn my palms up pretty good otherwise. Back to the matter at hand, I glared at the three apologetic fillies.

“Didn’t your parents ever tell you not to recklessly toss yourself at peo- ponies? I could have been hurt!” I demanded.

“Well, there was that time when we tried to get our hoofball cutie marks,” Sweetie Belle squeaked softly.

“An’ that time when we tried fer our tackling cutie marks,” Apple Bloom added. “Ma sister was mighty upset when she found out about it.”

Right, it was always the cutie marks with them. I’m surprised they didn’t tackle each other to see if they could get a cutie mark in both tackling and being tackled. Yeesh… what if they gave me a cutie mark in being tackled? I’d been at the receiving end of their ‘affections’ quite a few times this week. “As I’d expect them to be,” I responded to the, every bit the responsible adult. “It’s not right to go around tackling.”

“We said we were sorry, mister,” Scootaloo said grumpily. “What’s your name anyway?”

Well, crap basket. I looked over at Lyra, who was being somewhat uncharacteristically silent through this all, then back at the curious crusaders. For some reason, letting them now I was, well, me, didn’t strike me as a good idea. They badged me enough when I wasn’t able to get a cutie mark. “I’m… Devoted Heart.”

Lyra burst out laughing. Apple Bloom gave her a weird look. Sweetie Belle smiled at me. “Nice to mean you Mister Heart,” Urgh. I could feel my manhood being assaulted. “What are you doing in Ponyville? I’ve never seen you before. Did you just move here?”

“I’m… part of the group that’s studying humans,” I sighed. No, I wasn’t lying to little girls. Shame on you for insinuation that. “And just ‘Devoted’ is fine.”

“You’re trying for your cutie mark in human-stuff too?” Apple Bloom asked eagerly.

“Anthropology,” Sweetie Belle corrected. I raised my eyebrow at her, surprised that she remembered the word. I’d only mentioned it to her once.

“Whatever,” Scootaloo said, waving her away. “So did you mean Caleb? He’s the human it’s all about!”

The next few minutes were… interesting, as I got to hear all about myself from the perspectives of three fillies. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to take it. They did seem to think I was pretty awesome, so that was a plus. And they also thought I was weird, but in a good way. As they continued to unknowingly regale the subject of their spiel with their opinions and observations, I was alternating between faint blushes, confused looks and glaring at Lyra who was having far too much fun with things.

“As interesting as this is girls,” I said, interrupting them as they started on my computer, “Lyra and I have something we need to do.” We were nearing the edge of town proper, on the street that would lead out into the White Tail Woods so we could poke around and try and figure out what Daisy had seen.

“What’s so important here in the woods?” Apple Bloom asked, looking past Lyra and I as if the answer was waiting just down the road.

“Well, Daisy said she saw and felt some strange things when she was picking wild flowers, so Devoted Heart and I thought we would look into it since we didn’t have anything major doing,” Lyra said.

“Maybe we shouldn’t…” I started, recalling the impulse issues this trio was known for.

“What sort of things?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Nothing for-” I tried.

“Lights and sounds,” Lyra said, tilting her head and shrugging slightly. “Oh, and a chill.”

I facehooved; grunting when I hurt my muzzle again. “Why, Lyra, why?”

“Weird stuff in the woods?” Scootaloo said, turning to her compatriots and grinning broadly again. “You know what that means?”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS MYSTERY INVESTIGATORS YAY!”

Sweet Lord my eardrums. Even my vision swam for a moment. The three fillies ran off before I could react. I glared at Lyra, to which she replied with a sheepish grin. “Whoops?”

“Ugh… come on, let’s see if we can find them before they do something disastrous or get into some major mess. Hopefully it will just be tree sap.” I didn’t hold out much hope. Admittedly, in the short week I knew them they had managed to get themselves covered in tree sap four times, two of those occasions in the same day. But this was different. There was something weird happening in the forest, and they were living breathing weirdness seekers. They had a sixth sense for it. Suddenly worried, I trotted off.

“I really should have known better with those three,” Lyra admitted as she matched my pace. “I’ve never actually done much with them, but I hear all the stories.”

“Yeah, well, retrospect,” I grunted at her, stumbling slightly when I tried to increase my pace. It seemed like the LLMFI still has some bugs in it at the higher speeds.

“Don’t worry,” Lyra said. She quickly continued when I shot her another glare. “Not tempting fate this time. The Crusaders, from what I heard, are actually pretty capable fillies. And Apple Bloom has been taking martial arts classes. She’s got talent.”

“Ponies have martial arts?” I asked, stumbling again.

“What did you think I was doing on Thursday nights?” Lyra asked with a wry grin.

Huh. Lyra was a martial artist. Learn something new every day.

----------

White Tail Woods were far more extensive than I first realized. By this point, I was hoarse from yelling for the girls, and even Lyra was getting a bit frazzled after tripping over her fourth root. I was keeping count. It was currently four to twenty seven. There was a reason my ha- mane was filled with bits of plant pieces. To make matters worse, there was some sort of… miasma in the air. The deeper they went as they searched, the more the woods like the edges of the Everfree.

“How could they have disappeared that quickly?” Lyra moaned. “They didn’t have that much of a head start on us!”

“You ask me like I know,” I retorted. I snorted with frustration. As if turning into a pony wasn’t enough, now I was searching through the supposedly safe forest looking for the three most reckless kids in the entire town while keeping an eye out for something that scared a mare that regularly visited the area. While vague, the description of the lights and sounds Daisy described were all we had to go on, and to be honest, the feeling was starting to get to me. My tail and ears wouldn’t stop twitching and itching.

“This day started so normal,” I started to complain. “Just like all the other days that came before. But instead of being home, reading books, studying lore, the world’s conspiring to damn me more and more!”

“Caleb! Lyra!” a familiar voice called out to us. Our heads pivoted towards the sound together, and Twilight appeared just a few feet away in a flash of purple light and the pattern of teleportation magic, Spike on her back, saddlebags around her barrel. “What’s going on? Daisy told me about strange things happening here in the woods.”

“Twilight!” I said, tossing my forelegs around her neck in a hug. “I am so so glad to see you! Please tell me you can cast a locator spell to find the Crusaders or something!”

“Hey! Careful!” Spike said, clutching Twilight’s mane as my sudden action almost knocked him off his seat.

“I might be able to… wait, what’s going on?” Twilight said, confused. “And why are you hugging me? Not that I don’t feel appreciated by it.”

“The Crusader’s heard about the weird things and decided to try and get their cutie marks in being mystery investigators,” Lyra said as I let go of the confused mare.

“What else is new,” Spike muttered.

“Can we call it unknown effects or something,” I asked, trying to regain my dignity. “Just saying ‘weird things’ sounds rather… crass. Anyway, they ran off and we lost track of them. I didn’t even want them to come…”

“I’m sure they are fine, Caleb,” Twilight said, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “They play in these woods all the time. I really don’t think there is anything here that they wouldn’t be able to handle.”

“I’d be more worried about whatever they finds them,” Spike said in running commentary.

“Aside from whatever it is that scared Daisy in the first place,” I muttered, flicking my tail. The worse part? The pony form was starting to feel slightly less awkward, which was all kinds of wrong. I just wanted to get this sorted out so we could get back to sorting out the first issue. I wanted my pants god dammit!

Twilight looked around nervously. “I suppose you are right about that one.”

“Not to mention the stupid creepy vibes I’m getting just from hanging out here,” I muttered.

“What?” Twilight and Lyra said in stereo.

I raised an eyebrow at them. “You’re kidding, right? You don’t get that horror movie chill just from being here? Like scary story shudders?”

“No, I’ve just been looking for the Crusaders and the lights,” Lyra admitted.

“Seriously?” I looked at her with a gobsmacked expression. Had I just been imagining things this entire time?

“Is that why your ears have been acting up?” Lyra observed. She laughed nervously. “I thought it was a nervous quirk so I didn’t say anything.”

“You look like Pinkie when she’s getting one of her Pinkie Senses,” Spike pointed out. “And sorta stupid.”

“Bizarre… maybe I’m just-,” Twilight cut me off as I glared at Spike. I was doing a lot of glaring today.

“Wait, I want to try something,” Twilight said. She lowered her head slightly and wrinkled her brow as she focused. I heard a quick staccato beat of magic and she hit me with a pulse of purple light.

“Oi!” I yelped, flinching back, though it didn’t do anything more than rush over me in a quick ripple of warmth and pinch at my horn. Damn that was a weird feeling. I swatted at her with a hoof, which she managed to avoid since I was neither that coordinated nor really trying to hit her, before rubbing vigorously at the annoyance of a horn.

“Sorry,” she said, before firing off another spell. One thing I had learned while doing the theory of magic; Twilight was amazingly good at it. Extremely good. When she cast her spells, half the time I could hardly follow, not just the complexity, but the speed. She would blow through the patterns before I could even really hear them. Even the teleportation spell would normally have a casting time twice, if not three times as long and take much more focus if anyone else did it. She could pull it off while walking and talking.

I snapped out of my little reflection when Twilight suddenly gasped and reared up, throwing Spike from her back unintentionally, something he protested. Even after she got all four hooves back on the ground she was shivering slightly.

“What was that for?” Spike demanded testily.

“Sparkle?” Lyra said uncertainly.

“You okay Twi?” I asked, snorting slightly as if that would help ease the itch on my horn. I wanted my fingers back...

“Caleb, have you been actively trying to sense magic?” Twilight asked me, pulling herself together with a faintly visible effort.

“No, didn’t think I needed to,” I responded, confused. My paranoia was kicking up a bit. True, I could hear regular spells easily enough, but our magic theory opened my eyes to ways I could actively ‘listen’ out for magic. It was the difference between hearing the twinkle and song of a levitation and hearing and recognizing the beats and patterns that defined the spell. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“I… it seems as if your magic sensitivity is far more potent than I realized. It actually explains a lot…” Twilight shook her head. “Anyway, I want you to actively do it.”

“Why do I feel like this is… YEE!” I had started to open up my awareness as I spoke, and my comment got cut off in an unmanly squeak as shivers ran down my spine and I recoiled from the mix of dissonance and… I couldn’t quite pin it down aside from it felt extremely distasteful. I quickly clamped down on the sense as much as I could until it was back to just the chills of a horror movie. “What… the hay was that?”

“Your magic sensitivity is higher than an average unicorn, even greater still than of an earth pony. I believe it’s because of its volatile nature. While pony magic tends to stay confided within our bodies when not being used actively such as for flying, interacting with the earth or spell casting, yours constantly ripples and surges in and around you.” Twilight looked thrilled as she warmed up to her subject. “I noticed it when you would try to get a feel for spells around you, and again when I just scanned you. While there is an influence of unicorn style magic radiating from your horn, there are still tendrils and ripples of your regular magic seeping out from underneath it. It allows it to react and interact with any ambient mana far easier than a pony’s aura would, which lets you sense magic easier.

“In fact, I think only alicorns like Princess Celestia and Luna would have a greater passive magic sense, since their ethereal manes would operate much like your rippling aura does! This explains so much about you,” Twilight was working into a fully fledged discourse. Pulling out a quill and parchment from her saddlebags she actually started taking notes. “Of course, this is probably a response to the low mana concentrations in your own world. It would also explain why your didn’t react well to initial treatments. Your internal magic, already strained from the passage here, was under constant pressure from the high mana environment of Equestia until you adapted.”

“Um, Sparkle?” Lyra said. She always used Sparkle to refer to Twilight’s more academically driven side.

“That’s it! You early records did show that the nature of your magic changed slightly over the first three days. It was probably assimilating the local mana and adjusting to fit it as much as it could. If you consider Clover the Clever’s seventh and eight theorems on Adaptive Magics and Starswirl’s notes on the Evolution of Inherent Thaumatic Identities alongside the propositions of forced mana reconfigurations…”

“Twi… we kinda…” I tried.

“No, wait, I need to write these down! If only I had my Thaumatic Scanner to give me a more precise reading,” she said, lost in a daze.

“TWILIGHT!” Lyra, Spike and I yelled at the same time. Twilight started and blinked.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly.

“Yeah, well, whatever. What does it mean?” I asked her. “What’s with that… whatever it was I felt?”

“And why don’t I sense it?” Lyra asked.

“No offense, but you don’t the magic sensitive, or know the detection spell, to pick up on it, Lyra.” Lyra looked a bit cross, but fumed in silence. Twilight looked deeper into the forest. “But I can tell you this… There is something unsettling in the woods today…”

“Lovely… as if things weren’t ominous enough,” I muttered.

“Spike, take a letter,” Twilight instructed the dragon, levitating her writing equipment and a clean sheet towards the dragon. “I need to send a message to Princess Celestia.”

“Shouldn’t we let the others know about what’s going on?” Spike asked, snatching the supplies from the air. “Like Applejack and Rarity. They’d need to know what’s going on with their sisters.”

“I’ll have the princess sent them a message,” Twilight said. She still had an uneasy look. “I don’t like the feel of whatever this is.”

-----

Once the message was dictated and sent off, we were delving into the forest again, this time going straight for the heart of the weird magic we sensed. Especially, as Twilight pointed out, that the Crusaders weren’t likely to go anywhere else aside from the center of whatever trouble was going on. The really disturbing part was the way the woods warped the further we got. The idyllic and otherwise unremarkable forest was slowly changing.

The canopy was thicker and darker, casting strange shadows an all that was below it, the trees themselves looked sickened, the bark darkened in places, stained in others, a few oozing yellow sap. Strange plants started to spring up around the roots and even stranger noises echoed through the branches. It didn’t take us long to find the odd lights flickering among the trees that Daisy reported and the chill winds. The latter seemed to be the start of the same sort of pony-uninfluenced weather the Everfree had, the former a ‘Coronal Discharge of Concentrated Atmospheric Mana,’ according to Twilight.

They were actually somewhat pretty, once you got past the creepy factor the location gave it.

Celestia had sent a message back that she was informing the Crusader’s families, and also sending a team of pegasi and unicorns to aid us. As much as I would like to wait for the backup of the strapping royal guards, even I agreed that we couldn’t risk letting the Crusaders wait that long. Hence our journey into the unknown. Twilight was loving it. In an academic fashion.

“I don’t believe it… the White Tail Woods are… are turning into another Everfree Forest!” Twilight marveled. “None of these plants are natural! And they all grew without the influence of Earth pony magic!”

“It still weirds me out that you consider that natural,” I muttered.

“Twilight,” Lyra said slowly, “You could try to sound less happy about this.”

“What? Me? I sound happy about this?” Twilight said, stumbling slightly.

“You k-kinda do, Twilight,” Spike said nervously from his perch on Twilight’s back, looking around with trepidation. He yelped when a pair of glowing eyes ignited in some branched and a harsh bird’s caw sounded.

“Well, this is astounding though! It’s not quite wild magic. Similar, but not the same,” Twilight said as her eyes roved all other, taking everything in. “We might be looking at the same sort of phenomena that caused the development of the Everfree Forest! Think of the academic progress, the knowledge we can glean from this!”

“Research later! Danger now!” I insisted. I was tentatively letting my magic senses work. I might not be able to actually cast magic yet, but I had learned how to work the ear/eye/nose that let me detect magic. While it was still giving me a cold feeling at the base of his skull and the feeling of the discordant magic was making my skin crawl and fur itch, and giving me a headache on top of it.

“I think we are getting closer to the center of whatever this is…” I announced. Tracking the magic was my job, since I was Mr. Sensitive. I was so thrilled to have that honour. I shuddered again as another weak pulse rippled through the mana I was sensing. It was like slime running over me. “I really don’t like the way this feels, and would really love to get out of here…”

“Just hold on,” Twilight said. It was true, what they said about a minute of real life experience being better than an hour of practice. I had gotten a better grasp of sensing magic just from exploring this place than I got from all of Twilight’s lectures and classes. Doesn’t mean I wanted the experience though. “We’ll be out of here soon.”

“It’s just getting a bit too… chaotic for me to handle comfortably,” I said, hissing a little. Dammit. If I was to go on this sort of adventure, I’d rather do it in my own body, rather than this pony one. It would be one less thing to worry about. My legs were throbbing from the times I tripped, distracted with focusing on the magic sensing as I was.

“Chaotic?” Spike said, looking at me suddenly. “You don’t think?”

“No, it’s not Discord,” Twilight said. “This magic feels nothing like his. He’s reformed, remember? It might be a type of Chaotic Magic though.”

Twilight’s natural magic prowess and muscle had proved to be enough for her to withstand the effects of the unknown magic phenomena. For Spike, his natural draconic resistance to magic was working in his favour. My non-native magic aura seemed to have some resistance to it as well, and more or less slipped through it, causing the unsettling feelings I had been getting just because it couldn’t match it properly.

Lyra had it the hardest. She had started feeling faintly dizzy and woozy after about five minutes. Twilight had started using a weak barrier to protect her, but strength of Twilight’s magic barrier was enough to cause the local mana dissonance to intensify and amplify the associate magic radiation, which started causing me to feel the effects of it and made strange sparks on Spike’s scales. Somehow though, Lyra found another solution. A weak harmonics spell; something she would normally use when singing casually or tuning her instruments. It rebuffed enough of the phenomena that she could continue.

Twilight had taken my description of the magic feeling dissonant and chaotic contemplatively. She admitted that while I It only made our efforts to find the Crusaders all the more vital.

“Twilight! Over there!” Spike said suddenly, grabbing her mane and frantically pointing. He leapt off her back and ran ahead of us, though we weren’t too far behind once we saw what he was pointing at.

The three fillies we were looking for; curled up and still under a tree.

“Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!” Twilight called as she ran. Lyra was close behind her, though I followed more slowly. Twilight was checking their vitals, if I remembered my pony first aid Fluttershy taught me correctly, starting with Scootaloo. “This is not good… I think they are experiencing mana poisoning… it’s still mild though.”

“So they’ll be okay?” I asked as I tried to figure out how to do the same to Apple Bloom while Lyra took charge of Sweetie Belle. My hoof… I could feel through it, but I was too unfamiliar with it to really know what I was feeling. So I used my muzzle, trusting my nose to be a bit more sensitive. She was breathing, though a bit raggedly, and her heat beat seems a little slow, but I wasn’t sure.

“Mista… Devoted?” Apple Bloom asked weakly. “And Miss… Lyra? What y’all doing here..?”

“Shh,” I whispered to her. “Rest for now. We’ve got you.” Damn, I didn’t know what to do in this situation, really. Still, she closed her eyes again and seemed to slip back in a lack of consciousness. I really hold it was just sleep and not a coma or something bad like that.

“We need to get them out of here,” Lyra said quickly, picking up Sweetie Belle and putting her on her back. “This place was affecting me, an adult unicorn, I don’t want to think about what it’s doing to them.”

“Twilight, you think you can put up a shield around them?” I asked.

“I can, but wouldn’t that cause-” Twilight started.

“The mana dissonance to intensify, yes,” I said sharply. “But Lyra’s trick is weak and only give a buffer. These three are kids. I’ll deal with the headaches and I think Spike can handle being sparkly.”

“Sure can,” Spike confirmed. Twilight swallowed nervously and nodded. A moment later, a pale purple aura surrounded the three fillies.

“Sa… saaa…” I hissed as a wave of nausea washed over me and my head felt like there was a troop of river dancers with spiked shoes going wild in it before taking the show on the road and trooping randomly across my body. Wincing, I screwed my eyes shut for a moment to adjust. When I opened them again, all three conscious people were looking at me in concern. “I’m fine. Mostly.”

“We have to get these three back to Ponyville,” Twilight said.

“Yeah,” I said slowly, nodding, but then I stopped and shook my head instead. “Wait… no.”

“No?” Lyra echoed. “We have the Crusaders, we need to get them to the hospital.”

“True, but we already came this far, and we are pretty close what feels like the core,” I explained. I exhaled slowly, trying to figure out how to deal with the pain the radiation of the dissonance mana was causing. Man I wish I could use one of those barriers, but barriers cast by external sources interfered with intrinsic senses.

Then why not cast it yourself? the though came. Why didn’t I try and cast it myself? Telekinesis was just a matter of copying the spell pattern I sensed. Twilight said my magic worked in subtly different ways.

“Caleb, it’s better we come back better prepared for whatever is there, no matter how close we are,” Twilight said firmly.

“We would be putting the Crusaders in danger if we keep pressing on,” Lyra added. “We can find a way back after they are taken care of.”

In the end, it was Lyra’s argument that convinced me. “Fine,” I conceded. I’d try the spell when we returned. “Help me pick up Apple Bloom and we’ll get going.”

----------

The Crusaders would be fine. The doctors and nurses at Ponyville General took charge of them as soon as we brought them through the doors, and tried to take charge of us as well, though Twilight managed to get us out of being forced to stay with nothing more than a quick check for injuries and, in my cause, a sharp rap on the muzzle from Nurse Redheart for putting myself in danger just hours after the last incident.

Wow, that certainly put it in perspective. My life just wasn’t normal anymore, was it?

Twilight shuffled us straight from the hospital to the Library. Summons had already been sent to the other Bearers of the Elements of Harmony (which was quite a mouthful, to be honest) in the form of the guards Celestia dispatched. Twilight split them between keeping ponies clear of the microcosm forming within the White Tail Woods and making the calls.

“It was a stupid move to pull back without learning more,” I reiterated as I watched Twilight assemble supplies for our second trek into the formerly tame woods, Spike perched on a table nearby. “What if the thing is getting worse, which it most likely is? It’s going to be even harder to get there.”

“I know that,” Twilight said irritably as she swapped out some of the contents of her saddlebag with the new items they assembled. “Spike! Can you look for my set of Etheric Resonance shards?”

“On it!” Spike said, hopping off his seat and running over somewhere.

“Then why do it? I get that the Crusaders needed out of there, but we could have pushed a little further,” I said, stomping a little. Twilight didn’t say anything, pulling two books from the shelves and scanning their contents. “It would let us be more prepared. So we have a better idea of what’s actually causing the dissonant mana radiation in the place.”

“The wellbeing of the girls was more important,” Twilight said firmly.

“Fine. I’m still going to be saying ‘I told you so’ when this goes south,” I grumbled. Actually, I remembered something I was avoiding. “Twilight; one more thing.”

“What?” She asked, getting a little frustrated.

“Sorry,” I said. She blinked. “About earlier, I mean. I’m still upset that you were enjoying it so much, but I still shouldn’t have yelled and stuff. But you do get caught up in things and lose sight of the issues and goals a lot of times.”

“You got that right,” Spike said, returning with a wooden case.

“It’s about time you ponied up,” Lyra added, following Spike into the room. She was sucking on a candy, probably picked it up when she stopped to let her roommate, a mare named Bon Bon, know what she was up to.

Twilight smiled slightly as she took the case and added it to her saddle bags. “Apology accepted. And I do get carried away sometimes. It’s actually one of the reasons I wanted to come back. I realized you would rather be human again if you were to help out on this matter.”

“You got that right,” I muttered. Then the implications of what she said hit me and I gave her a wide and hopeful grin. “Wait, you figured it out?”

“I did,” Twilight nodded happily. “It was actually pretty simple, once I paid attention to the spell structure. The morphic component you used was-”

“Theory later, just tell me how to change back,” I said, interrupting her. “We have things doing, remember?”

“Fine,” Twilight huffed. “It goes back to your magic sensitivity. You just have to focus on your own magic and personal aura, like you did when I performed the minor mana link.”

Nodding, I planted my haunches and closed my easy. It had gotten easier to slip into that meditative state; since it had literally being about the extent of the practical Twilight had let me do all this time.

“You should sense a passive spell aura around your magic. That is the spell pattern you made. It’s self-sustaining in the sense that it does not need and active mana source, it passively draws from you. You only have to disconnect it to reverse the spell,” Twilight said. “It shouldn’t be hard. It should be just pulling back the magic it is taking.”

It… was pretty obvious. In a totally easy to miss way, if that made sense. Rather than the regular ‘song’ of my magic I’d grown used to, it was like someone messed with it slightly. The patterns were subdued and another one that seemed remarkably similar was there instead, playing off it. It was still there, just somewhat covered. It was hard to fully wrap my mind around it. Either way, I reached out and found the core of my magic, and the places where its pulse was feeding the rhythm of the pattern around it, and pulled it all in.

Holy Hannah it hurt. It was like disconnecting it caused my magic to flare up, celebrating its emancipation from the bindings of the transformation spell. I was forced out of the introspective trance as my awareness was taken up with bright green light, a thousand jabbing needles and every nerve yelling at once.

Thankfully, it was only for an instant.

“We need to work on how you sever mana connections,” Twilight’s slightly amused voice commented.

“Maybe he just likes almost blowing up,” Spike said.

I opened my eyes, still half blinded from the flare, and managed to glare at him. Since I was still alive, it must have only been nine hundred and ninety nine needles. The room was slightly more disheveled than before, probably the burst of magic released when I ended the spell. I groaned slightly and rubbed my eyes. With a hand blessed with fingers.

“Twilight… you are brilliant!” I cheered. My precious hands, how I missed you! I scrambled to my feet, pressing a hand to my head from the mix of wooziness from getting up too fast and the sudden return to normal height after a few hours without it.

“Any side effects?” Twilight asked.

“Nope!” I said. Aside from lingering numbness, but fingers! I wiggled them a bit some. Actually, I took three steps over to Spike and gave him a dope slap, making him yelp. “That’s for saying I looked stupid in the forest, by the way.”

“Dude!” Spike scowled, rubbing his head.

“As if that hurt,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Alright! Time to get going, Twi!”

“So that’s what you look like naked,” Lyra commented suddenly. “Not bad.”

Forest of Terror

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It was a minor complication, honestly not that important, but it was jarring when I noticed it in the mirror. The spell did have a side effect, or at least a minor change that slipped past the metamorphic matrix’s collapse when it the spell was dismissed. How I didn’t notice it bouncing around as I moved was beyond me. My hair. It obviously wasn’t a mane anymore, as in it didn’t run down my neck reaching for my spine, but…

It was still in dreadlocks. And still a mix of gold and black. I didn’t notice it until I tried to scratch at an itch and hit the thick mess of hair getting in the way. First the brilliant gold eyes, now dreadlocks and two toned hair. And it seemed to be natural. Well, as natural as a magical pigment change could be. But as far as I could tell, it went all the way to the roots and the strands I plucked looked the same, aside from the colour.

Magic… was confusion. It was no wonder people started abandoning it in favour of science. “Just how difficult would practicing magic be in a place without much of it?”

“Damn… Right. No time to focus on this right now,” I chastised myself, shaking my head and exhaling explosively, getting momentarily distracted by the locks bumping around. Yep; a lot of getting used to. I wasn’t going to cut them off. I always wanted locks. Or an afro. At least, so long as it wasn’t dangerous.

But back on topic. We had a forest to get back to. I didn’t have much in terms of exploration supplies, or experience, but I donned the thickest pair of pants I had, emptied my bag of most of its contents and restocked it with a rope and knife from Twilight’s stock room. I slipped my cell phone into my pocket and grabbed a broomstick from the closet to serve as a weapon.

The rest of the group was already waiting downstairs; all five bearers, decked out in the magic jewelry that apparently held phenomenal cosmic power, as far as the stories I’d hear claimed, Lyra, Spike and two Royal Guards. Wait… five?

“Calie’s ready!” Pinkie suddenly yelled from behind me. I’m proud to say that I didn’t fall down the stairs. I merely leaped to cover the last six steps in a single bound and landed rather gracefully.

“Pinkie, you are either the best thing for my heart, or the worse,” I said, trying to calm my ticker down.

“Aw, you say the nicest things,” Pinkie said, hopping down the stairs cheerfully. “Nice hair.”

I groaned inwardly and joined the group proper, deciding not to worry too much about that one. Instead, I could focus on Twilight and minor argument she was having with Spike off to the side of the group.

“But I want to help, Twilight!” Spike was saying, glowering at Twilight. Lyra was with the other bearers and the guard while Twilight was occupied, giving them her point of view of what we had encountered on the way there, going by the snippets of the conversation I was catching. I lay the broomstick across my shoulders and moseyed over to the clashing pair

“I know you do Spike,” Twilight said with caring tones. “But I would much rather you say here and take care of the library.”

“Take care of the library? No way!” Spike explained in frustration, slashing a hand through the air. “I’m coming with you.”

“No Spike! It might be dangerous,” Twilight countered.

“No, it’s definitely dangerous,” I added. Twilight shot me a grateful look. “That’s why it’s a good idea for Spike to come.”

“What!” her expression shifted from gratitude to shock.

“Really?” Spike said at the same time. “Awesome!”

“No, not really,” Twilight said firmly, glaring at me. “There is no way I am letting Spike come with us. He’s a baby dragon!”

“He’s a fire breathing magic filled reptile with scales that naturally repel the worse of the effects of the forest,” I pointed out in a level tone. “Best case scenario; he’s an extra set of eyes that won’t need to be covered by your shield. Worst case scenario; his fire breath is an asset and a direct line to Celestia.”

“Princess,” Twilight said, automatically correcting me, her frustration clear in the manner in which her eyes shifted back and forth.

“Just be prepared to book it if things turn sour, and otherwise listen to what we say,” I said to Spike, patting Twilight on her head lightly. Spike nodded and ran off to grab something. Bending down, I whispered softly in Twilight’s ear.

“You’re worried about your little brother, I get it,” I said. I still worried about my folks. “But he’s growing up. He’s fourteen, going on fifteen. Still young, I know, but he’s told me about the Crystal Empire, and the changeling attack and the raid on the diamond dogs and more. He’s also a young dragon. He worries about you too, and you underestimate what a baby dragon can do.”

“But what if he gets hurt? I’d never forgive myself,” Twilight whispered back with a little whimper as Spike stopped, sharing something with Rainbow Dash.

“He says the same thing about every adventure you and your friends have,” I told her, looking directly into her eyes. It was slow coming, but I could see the realization and concern spark in her eyes. “Just believe in him, just like how he believes in you. You’re not that much older either. You’re just nineteen. Your parents probably worry all the time too.” My parents were probably freaking out. I gave her a quick squeeze. “But you still do it. And he wants to help.”

Twilight was quiet for a while. “Okay…”

“We spent enough time talking!” Rainbow Dash declared, zooming up to hover near the ceiling. “It’s time we got going already!”

“Now hold on, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said, taking a few steps forward and glaring up at the impatient mare. “We can’t just run off willy nilly into this. ”

“No, she’s right, AJ,” I said. At least there was someone else who though we should be doing something rather than just lolling about. Then again, this was Rainbow Dash. She was probably just impatient. “This is weird magic effects in a forest that ponies regularly go to. And your sister’s already been affected by it. It’s dissonant magic, it affects people and makes them sick to the point of passing out, Twilight has a barrier spell that can protect you from it, there is a core. That’s what we are going for. To zappa the core with those fancy necklaces of phenomenal cosmic power.”

“What he means is that I hope using the elements of harmony on the source of the dissonant magic will undo the effects and revert the forest to its natural state, much like what happened when we used them on Discord before his reformation,” Twilight said, shooting me a glare, clearly disapproving of my callous rendition of the plan we, as in Twilight, Lyra, Spike and myself, put together. And by that, I mean mostly Twilight. My contribution had been pretty much limited to ‘why don’t we just cut it off at the source?’ The magic-babble it produced was mind boggling.

“I must admit I am quite ready to use the elements on whatever ghastly thing has turned the White Tail Woods into such a travesty!” Rarity declared with almost venomous passion. She hmphed when we looked at her with mingled expressions, refusing to look ashamed as she flipped her hair back. “My sister is in the hospital because of this, you shall have to forgive me if I am somewhat more passionate about his endeavour than you would expect.”

“Alright fillies, you heard the lady!” Pinkie suddenly said in the mannerisms of a cliché drill army general. She had pulled the appropriate hat out from somewhere and was marching back and forth before us.

“Not all of us are female,” I interjected, pointing at the royal guards, Spike and myself. A slight lifting of the eyebrow was the only change the stoic expression of the guard on the left allowed. I could totally understand why Dash had tried to prank them when they came to town.

“Oh! Thanks, Calie,” Pinkie said, her chipper and cheerful self again before getting back into character, glare and all. “Fillies and colts, we have a weighty task ahead of us! We don’t know what’s really out there! We don’t know what to truly expect! Now, I want to see your serious faces! Like ‘Grrr’!”

Dash, Spike and I got right into it, giving impressive snarls. Applejack snorted and tilted her hat to shade her eyes a bit, which was admittedly fairly intimidating. Fluttershy merely meeped and hid behind Twilight and Lyra, the latter laughing and the former rolling her eyes. Rarity narrowed her eyes and leveled a stern expression at Pinkie. “I am a lady, it would be most undignified for me to growl.”

“Okie Dokie Lokie!” Pinkie said, tossing her hat aside. “Ready to go Twilight?”

“Alright Ladies… and gentlecolts… we have a forest to save,” Twilight nodded.

----------

It was official; the area’s effect was expanding. It was slow and irregular, but the guards who had been watching the edge confirmed it moved almost two thirds of a meter in the two hours it took us to get back. I didn’t like the sound of that progression. I liked it less when Twilight did some of her fancy mathematics and gave us a better picture of what that meant.

“We have to hurry,” Twilight said grimly. “We will try to get as far as possible before I cast the protection layer over you. That way, we can get a more precise sense of bearing between the side effects prevent Caleb from seeking out the source accurately.”

“No, cast it from now,” I told her.

“But wouldn’t that-” Lyra started.

“Trust me, just cast it,” I said. Time to see if my intuition was right. It worked for telekinesis and for somehow creating a species transformation spell. The last one I was actually proud of, now that I was past the ‘Oh God I’m stuck as a pony’ fear. A barrier should be somewhere between the two in difficulty. And much closer to the first on that scale.

“Are you sure, Caleb?” Twilight asked.

“Tick tock expansion,” I reminded her. Twilight nodded and turned to the others.

“Okay… this will feel a bit strange…” She closed her eyes and her horn started glowing as she prepared the spell. I quickly focused my magic senses on her, ignoring the feelings of disease and followed suit, clasping my hands together. It wasn’t as clear as the direct contact, but I could still hear and feel the spell pattern. I quickly discarded the sections that felt external to the spell, recognizing them as the portions that let her cast it on multiple targets.

Just cast it. Well what did you think I was doing? Jeeze, my intuition could be annoying. I still followed it though. It felt like cold ooze crept over me, quickly crawling down my arms and reaching my torso before spreading to the rest of my body. The moment every inch of my person felt the cold, it warmed, tickled and faded. I could still hear the pattern humming in the back of my mind, so I knew the spell was up and running. I actually did it.

“Caleb?” Twilight’s voice broke my concentration.

I blinked and grinned at her. “Yes, Twi?”

“Did you just cast the barrier spell?” Lyra asked, looking at me with something like confusion.

“I believe I did,” I grinned at them. Rarity looked somewhat shocked. Pinkie Pie clapped her hooves and cheered. The other three mares merely looked confused, unsure how to react. The royal guards looked stoic. They were good at that.

“But… how?” Twilight asked.

“Luck, intuition, non-standard magic sense? All of the above, likely,” I said. I tentatively opened my senses fully. I smiled. The horror movie feeling was still there, as was the dissonant magic, but it was akin to standing under an umbrella verses being in the direct rain. You could feel the rain in both cases, but the umbrella didn’t get you wet.

“I… we… We’ll talk about this later,” Twilight said. “For now, let’s go.”

“But do we have to?” Fluttershy asked softly. I was surprised she held out this long. “It’s dark and scary it doesn’t look like it particularly wants visitors…”

“For pony’s sake,” Dash exclaimed. She leapt over and bumped Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Look, we know it’s bad in there. They told us that much. But that’s why we have to go. The weather teams already found a rogue cloud forming over it!”

Fluttershy only whimpered and hid behind her mane some more.

“Imagine of you had to live in there!” Pinkie interjected suddenly. “It so super scary that I don’t know if I could still stay in there!”

“My animal friends! Oh dear, I didn’t think about them!” Fluttershy gasped.

“I’m sure they are okie dokie, lokie!” Pinkie said. “They only got their homes turned into a dark and spooky scary place that looks like the Everfree forest.”

Fluttershy quickly trotted to the front of the group. “We have to hurry and fix this so my friends can get back home, everypony!”

Pinkie looked back at us with a smug smile. Huh. You know, the more I learned about Pinkie, the more I was glad she never used her powers for evil. Malicious evil, that is. Her pranks were an acceptable evil. We actually had to hold Fluttershy back, in her new determination to reach the goal. On the bright side, while the forest had gotten more foreboding, it hadn’t quite gotten more dangerous.

That didn’t mean I loosened my grip on my impromptu staff any, only that we were jumpy and wary of all the shadows. We didn’t even have much conversation aside from my hushed comments, occasionally ensuring we remained on course and the periodic checks to make sure everyone remained together. Even with the protection spell Twilight provided the very atmosphere was oppressive.

The canopy was even denser now than before, and I could swear the vines were actively coiling around the trees. In fact, I didn’t need to swear. I took three pictures with my phone and compared them. The vines were slowly curling around the trees. Pinkie had started half humming and half singing a song as we progressed, something about giggling at ghosties from the snatches I could get of the words.

Twilight, Rarity and the unicorn guard that accompanied us provided use with three points of illumination, both a blessing and a curse as it held back the otherwise engulfing darkness and shadows, but also made the shadows between the trees worse. It also startled the strange things that the dissonant magic had birthed.

I held in my hands what, for the life of me, looked like a grass type crobat. It was dark grey and had glowing indigo eyes, but it had four knife-like wings and two stubby graspers attached to a small oblong body. The wings seemed and felt like a leathery leaf. The feet were vines and thorns. The fangs and teeth too. The body was like a dense fuzzy seed pod. A swarm of them had erupted from a small cave in the ground and scared us. Between the reactions of Rainbow, Twilight, Spike, Apple Jack and the Guard, we knocked a few out of the air. My own swings had hit nothing but air.

“So… is this normal?” I asked the group on a whole.

“Well I sure ain’t never seen anything like ‘em before, sugarcube,” Apple Jack said cautiously. Spike and RD were taking turns poking at one of the stunned ones.

“I… kinda looks like a bat,” Lyra said. Helpful.

“They are like fruit bats!” Pinkie Pie said in her typical exuberance. “They are bats, but they are fruit too! Or maybe they are seeds.” She leaned in and glared at it, prodding it with her hoof. “Seed Bats doesn’t sound as good though.”

“Ick, Caleb darling, could you not dangle that… thing so close to me?” Rarity said before moving closer to where Fluttershy was huddling. “It’s a horrid thing.”

“Okay… guards?” I asked, seeing if they had anything useful. They shook their heads.

I shook my prize at Twilight, her horn glowing as she studied a sample of her own. “Your opinion?”

“I think… it’s indigenous. A magical creature born from the magic that is taking over this forest,” Twilight said slowly. “This is bad, This is very very bad! I have to let the Princess know right away!”

“Mind telling us while yer at it?” Apple Jack asked.

“These things are like timber wolves. A magic construct creature created by the location,” Twilight said, pulling out her ever present stationary. “It’s been less than a day and somehow this place has created, or influenced the birth of, its own creatures.”

“So it’s definitely getting worse,” I said, tightening my grip on the broomstick.

“Then what are we waiting for?” RD exclaimed again. “Twilight, Caleb! You two eggheads know where the thing we need to hit with the elements is, right?”

“Vaguely, we have a general idea,” Twilight said, finishing up her scroll.

“Then point which way and we can get moving!” she insisted.

“Lyra… am I an egghead?” I asked her.

“Yes,” Lyra said without hesitation.

“Okay. Egghead says...” I closed my eyes and pulled up the sense I was following, keying in on the strongest source, letting my hand settle in the direction. “That way.”

“Then let’s get going!” Rainbow said, landing in front of Twilight and poking her.

We ran. It was more of a sustained jog, but we picked up the pace. It was pretty clear we were heading in the right direction though. The trees had faces. Actual faces, not just the mental trick. The underbrush had to be blasted back through a combination of the magic from the unicorn guard and Twilight, with Lyra and Rarity helping Pinkie, Apple Jack and I beating back the sides as the vines were even more active this close to the center.

Rays of magic and blunt objects were the name of the game as we all tried to focus on getting to the center and not focusing on the fact that the forest was fighting back rather effectively. What has started as a vine or two slipping back out into the path cleared has escalated into a full on Attack of the Foliage.

“This is ridiculous!” I yelled, swinging my stick hard to snap the ends of two vines as they reached out for me. They started thrashing madly for a few moments before their sap and fluid in them drained and they fell limp. I was just glad the broomstick was solid enough to bash through these with enough force behind a swing, and that the vines themselves were somewhat fragile enough to allow it.

“Ridiculous ? This is fun!” Pinkie said, skipping from place to place, each hop managing to bring her hooves down on some of the vines. Behind me, Rainbow was using some form of pegasus martial arts to tear into them. Apple Jack was having no troubles at all. Farmer vs Plant . Rarity had pulled out two larges shears and simply sliced anything that came close to ‘sullying her pristine coat.’

Twilight and the guard kept up their magic attacks; flashes of purple and peach light coming from their direction, the occasional beam lancing out from behind my field of vision. The second guard mainly guarded Fluttershy, who admittedly wasn’t doing much more than avoiding the vines. Not everyone could be a fighter. Lyra on the other hand… She was using a mix of hoof strikes and magic to rip the vines apart.

“Is this really the time for chatter?” Twilight yelled, sounding frazzled.

“When else am I gonna find myself be in the middle of a tense situation that lets me make quips?” I tossed back. I over extended on a swing and staggered, loosing my balance. A vine shot out and snagged my leg, yanking me the rest of the way.

My vision danced for a moment as I crashed to the ground hard, the improvised staff almost falling from my grip. I hardly had time to process that before the vine started dragging me off. Of course, I reacted like a man.

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!” Seriously. Mutant plant tentacle in a dark forest was dragging me off. This was either going Audrey II or Hentai. Both of those were bad ends. Very, very bad ends. I tried swinging the broomstick at it again, but the angle was horrible and there was hardly any power behind the blows. Two more vines lashed out from the darkness of the rushing underbrush, one catching my hand, the other wrapping around my other leg.

“Oh dear lord I’m not dying here!” I yelled. My magic swelled, yelling with me, but all it did was bolster my body enough that the vines pressure didn’t crush me. I didn’t know enough to do anything more than that instinctive response. Even the barrier wasn’t a physical one, it was just one to keep the dissonance off the person it was layered on. But my panic had caused the shield to fail, and the chaos in the air from the fight worsened the local dissonance, and it was crashing down on me, my head pounding, and I struggled for every breath.

I don’t know how it happened. I less than ten seconds, I went from cocky to fearing death. It was all I could see coming for me. My mind was scattered, thoughts running from family to the princesses to what I had planned to make for dinner that day. My magic bucked and shifted, somehow moving into that focused state, yet one that was focused outward rather than inward. I could feel the vines pressing on me, not just physically, but through my magic touching it.

It was filthy. Slimy. Like being millimetres away from electrified befouled bog water. Out of place. I wanted to recoil from it, but it had me.

“Calie’s in trouble!” I heard someone faintly over the buzz of my magic and the dissonant aura it clashed against. My vision shifted to that pseudomagic sight, the darkness shifting to strange colours and forms that I really didn’t have time to try and make sense of. It was hurting my eyes and edging into epileptic seizure territory on top of everything.

“No!” The voice rang with a magic I recognized. Something changed. The chaos I was seeing suddenly calmed, like a rushing stream dammed off, the surging colours stabilizing into natural and somehow background greens and yellows, though streaks of wild colour still lances through it. Something caught my free hand and held on. Still panicking, I shot it a glance.

From my prone position, it loomed over me. It was equine in shape, but I was seeing and hearing the magic in its being and voice as it spoke, and I know it. Hell, you could argue I knew that magic intimately. I did, well, steal some of it just a couple hours before and mesh it into my own. Lyra’s form wasn’t the green of her coat, but a soft, somewhat translucent and faded gold of her magic and eyes, a network of sharp gold coursing through it, pooling in her eyes glowing like the soft lights parents leave out for their children, a shaft of brilliant gold marking her horn.

“You can’t have him.” Her voice and magic thrummed together and her gold magic danced through the air, darting towards the vines binding me. They looked at bad as they felt. Like crappy CGI from the seventies in an HD movie. Or an awesome HD effect in a crappy CGI movie from the seventies? My mind was muddled and fuzzy. Her magic was like a crisp clear sound in the chaos, like a power stringed solo that would have been fit for any top orchestra.

The vines were suddenly caught in spasms and ruptured, their sap spraying over me, spattering both the fluid and the vile magic. Lyra yelled, screamed, sang. I don’t know. Maybe all at once, and launched herself into the fight once more I really wished I had the time to watch her skills a bit more, but I was still trying to recover, to get the vile sap off me and staggering back onto my feet so I could take advantage of reach and the slight edge being a biped afforded. I probably wouldn’t even have made it if it wasn’t for Spike.

Twilight and the guard’s magic hadn’t slacked. Lyra had gone full power on the vines. Spike did as well.

Spike was a beast. Pausing for a moment to make sure I didn't collapse, he charged in. Green and purple churned in a complex cage or network of minute deep purple and silver-black magic strands like chainmail as I watched him, his natural magic a roar that I had no trouble translating as dragon, even as much as it sang out of his youth. Was that was a dragon looked like to this new... magic sight/hearing?

He had been using his fire breath sparingly. It was, technically, a finite resource, and he didn’t want to strain himself and be unable to use it if and when we really needed it, nor did he want to set the place on fire. He didn’t need it. He had claws and a tail that could dig through dig with little effort. His jaws and teeth treated gems like candy. His scales could withstand both intense pressure and heat and he apparently belly flopped into a pool of lava from the high board once.

The vines didn’t stand a chance. The battle ended soon after. As I regained my breath, I could feel the vile magic on and around me, and my own magic swallowing it, soundly slightly like cries of indignation and faint traces of sunshine and moonlight. I grabbed my stick once more, and brought it down on any vine I could reach that still moved.

I didn’t have much more of a role to play at that moment, but I watched the others. Lyra hit the vines with her spell/cry, causing them to pop like balloons. Pinkie, a shining form of pink with blue and yellow within, darted about the place, snuffing out traces of the out of place vile magic with snare drum-like hoofsteps. Apple Jack was golden orange and red, radiating a soft deep feeling and tone that the ground responded to, like a slow heart beat, as if the earth itself was responded to her, though lethargic.

Rainbow hurt to look at. She seem to be wrapped in a spectrum of colours that sliced through the dissonance in the air with her quick moments, the vines seeming to be stunned when she hit them, each blow disrupting the magic pumping inside them, a wild beat hidden under that cloak of colours. The unicorns were like Lyra. Forms of purple, peach and pale blue with pillars of brilliant versions of the same colour on their heads, their magic singing strong and loud; Simple pitched notes for the rays Twilight and the guard launched, the familiar sounds of the levitation spell, though the more complicated sounds of it’s workings lost, coming from Rarity. Spike was like a fireplace, flames and popping stones.

The steady drums of the earth, the wild rushing voice of the sky, the rhythmic patterns of magic itself, and the crackling flame and mineral. The small battle field was filled with the sounds of the three tribes, native magic fighting the invader. The last of my energy was fading as I realized what was missing. Two voices. This close to unconsciousness, without the regular mess of thoughts, instinct and impulse could identify the magic signatures I had unconsciously been sensing every time I met these ponies as easily as I could with my normal eyes.

Two were missing. I struggled to keep myself upright, leaning on the staff. Where were they? My awareness opened again and even against the jarring dissonance of the background that rattled my bones, I could feel them. Lyra and Spike noticed something was off with me and came over. I could make out their mouths moving, but I couldn’t here them, my focus elsewhere even as my mind started shutting down as my magic strained.

AJ’s sombre and steady beat that was stable like the soil and vibrant like a plant in bloom, Pinkie’s wild somehow sustained crescendo backed by a more uncertain rapping, Lyra’s strings and tingles, The unicorn guard who’s name I really should learn like a blossom with a soft hymn, Rarity’s gentle hum that accented itself, Rainbow’s wild and racing stanza, Twilight’s peppery yet well modulated recital. Two were missing.

Twilight joined them, the pillar of purple light that was her own pulsing in different shades as her magic quickly sang out something I couldn’t recognize and my own weakly resisted. Lyra was beside her, the golden pillar on her head strobing, my magic, once connected with hers, faintly trembling in response. Pinkie was behind me, her snare beat rapping out concern, AJ and RD lingering and watching, yet they didn’t seem to notice either. My head still spun, I could feel the tang and tingle of Lyra’s touch on my chest, the warmth and spice of Twilight on my head. But they were missing the important thing.

My consciousness gave up and the blackness crashing in, bringing silence with it, though one thought was the last to fade. Fluttershy... the other guard... where were they

Forest's Heart

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Darkness. I was falling into it. All encompassing, suffocating darkness.

Stillness. It clenched me, tighter and tighter.

My body was sluggish, even thought came difficultly.

Silence grew. I couldn't hear the voices anymore. Five songs hummed, barely perceptible, at the very edges of my rapidly shrinking sphere of awareness, a sixth, just like the rest, all by muted away.

Fleeting warmth spread from my mouth and burning pain down my throat and into my chest. Then darkness and stillness again. It repeated, but I couldn't hold the thoughts to count or tell.

Was this... dying? Or thing else?

The humming left. The fleeting was gone. Only darkness. Stillness.

Fear.

Something moves. It whispers, urgent, calculating.

Then... Clarity.

Gold fragmented the darkness like bolts of lightning. Just as powerful, sudden and fleeting.

Clarity fades, but the darkness isn't as heavy. The whisper sighs, I think, but it is lost in the rumble that follows. Familiar.

Gold strikes once more, this time closer to me. The rumble. I place it. Like strings.

The darkness remains, but it isn't suffocating, it just is. I can hear the voices once more.

Gold flashes, and I'm struck this time, and the world slams back down on me.

“Gah!” I yelped, jolting up before dropping somewhat painfully back to the hard ground.

“Caleb!” or some variation on it erupted around me as I gasped for air and something else. Lyra, Pinkie, Spike and the rest are crowded around me, their expressions worry mixed with concern. Even the guards, which was a startling change from the stoicism she had before.

Wait... she? How'd I know that?

I panted, trying to get air and that other thing into my starved lungs and body. The gems on the mare’s chests and Twilight’s head seemed to glow ever so faintly with each gasp. Speaking of Twilight, her horn was glowing, and I could hear a muffled spell going, though the headache made it hard to pin down what it was. Someone threw themselves on my chest, holding me tightly. I recognized the fur and mane.

“Don't do that! Are you okay?” Lyra demanded.

“Ah, ah! Not so loud, head aching,” I grumbled, trying to push myself upright. I did a quick inventory of my sore and somewhat abused body before looking around. Relief was the general feeling I got from the group. Admittedly, Rainbow was trying to hide it with her scowl, and Rarity was being a tad to dramatic, but that was normal.

“You gave us quite the scare,” Rarity said. Behind her, the remaining guard was watching the perimeter vigilantly, Spike split between keeping an eye on the surrounding and an eye on me. Just past them, something shimmered slightly, indistinct ripples hanging in the air.

“Ah… I think the vines cracked my shield, and I burned through too much magic trying to fight them off. Those things are seriously messed up,” I grumbled, staggering to my feet. “What’s with the,” I motioned vaguely at the weird effect, which I realized was a sphere as my survey wrapped up, “bubble?”

“Ya sure your fit to be up and around?” Applejack asked. “You were right out of it for a while.”

“Fit as a fiddle in need of some sprucing up,” I said, dismissing her complaints. “I’m just going to need a whole lot of rest after this. Twilight; bubble?”

“I modified the shield slightly,” Twilight said, still looking at me with concern. “You had pretty much used up all your magic. I did it to make a small area free of the dissonant magic’s effect.”

“Neat,” was my simple reply.

“Neat? Neat! Lyra had to give you a mana infusion! Your heart had stopped beating!” Twilight exclaimed. “Lyra even tried the CPR you taught us and it didn’t work! You. Were. Dying.”

I opened my mouth then shut it again. “What?”

“Caleb. You had the equivalent of a magic flare twice today, sustained a transformation spell for over an hour, sustained a shield against a harmful thaumatic energies, had that shield overloaded and was directly exposed to something akin to a toxic magic force,” Twilight was getting frantic. “Your body systems were shutting down! I.. I don’t even understand how that’s possible! It was the same result a unicorn would go through after experiencing severe mana starvation or degradation! But you said there wasn’t magic in your world! You’re not a creature with inhe-”

“Twilight!” I interjected, trying to keep my own head from spinning at that information. “Later! We can talk about it later!” With the rest of the stuff I’d been putting off that day. “For now, I think I’m good. Fluttershy and that other guard.”

“You… right, more pressing concerns, yes, yes,” she said.

“We noticed their absence after your collapse,” the unicorn guard reported. I nodded, as she spoke, half looking inward at the green glow of my magic. It was there, smaller than before and for some reason it surrounded a cluster of gold, with multicoloured flecks dancing around it like bugs around a bulb. Lyra’s infusion?

Jeeze, I almost died… in a stupid forest… why the hell did I go there anyway? I exhaled shakily and realized I missed pretty much everything the guard said. So I just nodded.

“Look, Caleb’s up. Those things took Fluttershy. We have to go get her!” Rainbow said, flapping in irritation. Twilight wasn’t so easily convinced.

“Caleb… are you sure you are okay? I…” Twilight hesitated.

“My magic is decent enough at the moment. I can run the shield on my own without issues for a while more.” Fairly certain, anyway. Now I was taking guesses and risking my life. Seriously. This was just the day for all this crap. “I’ll just make sure to stick close to… Spike and Lyra. They’ve got mad skills.”

“Mad... skills?” Rarity echoed. “Forgive me, Caleb, but that simply sounds.. crass.”

“Prob’ly cause it is. Pinkie told me you have rapping and gangster stuff here,” She had once rapped for me. Never. Again. “It falls under that. But basically, I can depend on them, and they aren’t an integral part of the plan. We need Fluttershy and we can’t abandon the guard.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll watch him, right Spike?” Lyra said firmly. She was still lingering by my side.

“Right. Leave him to us,” Spike said, hitting his chest with a fist.

I inhaled, and carefully reached for my magic to cast the spell again. I bit back swears as it the shield kicked in again, burning pinpricks all over and in my hands.

You strained your mana channels again. No! Really? I never would have noticed. Yeesh, those things were never going to heal at this rate. I gave Twilight a weak smile. “Let’s hurry.”

Twilight nodded nervously, but dropped the bubble. Nothing happened. Which was a good thing. It meant my spell was working. Look at me, three whole spells under my belt now; unicorn form, levitation and magic protection coating. The guard took the lead and we moved quickly down the trail that was apparently left when Fluttershy and the other guard were taken away.

The fact that it was an obviously a drag trail eliminated any desire for conversation, and I kinda felt bad that I was the one limiting our speed at the time. Twilight had taken over the sensate duties, flatly stating that she wasn’t going to tax my magic any more, and that the only reason I was still going with them was that leaving me or sending me back was riskier.

I just shrugged. My magic (honestly, how casual I was getting about saying ‘my magic’ was starting to get a bit concerning, but considering the life, death or magic situation I was in, I was also somewhat understandable) felt… off for some reason, I didn’t want to put too much of a strain on it.

What worried me was the total absence of the vines that had been attacking up before. The path was, admittedly, still has foreboding and disconcerting as before and littered with unnatural plant life, but there were no further direct threats against us.

I was about to voice my concerned when we burst into a clearing. The center of all this mess, most likely. The large glowing sort of gave that way. It was a scar of wavering brightness on the thick gnarled trunk of a tree, about fifteen feet up. The tree itself was massive; its branches high above us, maybe two, three stories of clearance all together, the trunk big enough around it might give the treebary and run for its money. Unnatural grows littered the trunk; huge leaves, odd fungi and bulbs with their own faint glow, and a mess of vines carpeted the area.

Oddly enough, the dissonance didn’t seem any stronger. In fact, it felt weaker here.

“Woo…” Rainbow exclaimed. “This place is so awesome… like something from a Daring Do book!”

“I think I found where the fruit bats came from,” I murmured, pointing to the clusters that hung dangling from the branches. There were maybe a dozen bats per bunch, with a couple dozen clusters at various stages of development.

“This is… this is unbelievable!” Twilight said in a hushed whisper. “That anamoly on the tree is what causing the aberrant magic effects! Considering the ambient levels are lower here, this is perhaps the core of the disturbance?”

“Twilight, while I know you can get all caught up in your fancy talk about magic an all, I don’t quite like the fact that we’re all standing on a mess a the same vines that knocked Caleb out just a few minutes ago,” Applejack said, nervously shifting her footing.

“And now I’m worried too,” I chuckled nervously, looking down as well.

“These don’t seem… active,” the unicorn guard commented.

“Over here!” Pinkie yelled out suddenly. I don’t think any of us noticed when she ran off, but then again, we never did, so it was normal. She was bouncing by a small cluster of large grows that resembled fly traps or other predatory plants for my tastes. Why did I have to be right about the Audrey II thing? We hurried over. Especially when it became clear that Fluttershy and the guard were caught in them.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight called out as the galloped over.

“No worries! I’ll get them out of there in no time!” Rainbow exclaimed, racing over.

“NO!” The yell came from Spike or all people.

“What do ya mean no?” Applejack demanded. “You better not tell me you want to leave them in there!”

“The minute we drag them out of there, this tree might attack again!” Spike warned. “It happens all the time in comics!”

“Spike, dear, this isn’t a comic,” Rarity cautioned.

“No, he’s right,” the guard commented. She looked around nervously and lit her horn in precaution. “We should probably prepare for retaliation.”

“Wee… more fighting. Just what I always wanted.” I grumbled. At least I had my broomstick. If this was going to happen regularly, I needed to learn an attack spell or some kind.

“You think it will be as bad as before?” Rarity asked, hefting her scissors again.

“Worse,” Lyra suggested, pointing at the bat clusters overhead and then again at the vines below us. “They have the advantage.”

“Then we’ll just have to be ready for a party,” Pinkie said, checking the barrel of a large cannon and pulling old bits of plants from it. “A big party.”

“Again. Jo- Where the hell did you get that from?” I asked softly. The only reason I didn’t demand was because my jaw had dropped. A legitimate cannon. Pinkie had a legitimate cannon. It was about as big as she was. With a floral decal on wheels.

“I’ve thrown parties here before,” Pinkie said, her tone and expression unsettlingly sober. “It used to be really pretty and nice. Lots of flowers and butterflies. This is one of the Forest’s Kings. Wedding receptions, graduation parties, coltfriend-marefriend things. So I left my old party cannon here in case of emergency gatherings.”

She shoved something into the barrel with a solid sound. She glared around the area. “Now it’s all mean and scary. Good for Nightmare Night, but that’s about it. I’m gonna throw it a ‘Sorry You’re Now a Scary Forest’ Party it will never forget.”

“Let it go,” Spike whispered to me, noticing my each twitching and my jaw working. He snickered a little before speaking up at a more standard level. “Just be ready for something to happen.”

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, nervously tightening my grip on my staff.

“We get them out and use the elements,” Twilight said, her horn starting to glow as she prepared to do just that.

“That’s a lovely idea, but a horrible plan,” I said quickly, holding out a hand before her horn.

“What?” Twilight said, offended.

“First off… what is that scar thingie?” I asked her, pointing to the Glowing Mark of Obvious Bad Things.

“I am confident it’s a fissure, a small tear similar, but much weaker than the one marking were you entered Equestria,” Twilight said, glaring a little at my use of the word thingie to describe it.

“Then why isn’t it all Crazy in Canterlot then? That one is huge compared to this one,” I pointed out. I really hoped this wouldn’t take too long. My headache was still around.

“I haven’t heard of anything quite like this happening there,” Rarity added.

“That one is mostly contained. The amount of mana that it channeled to get you here scarred it, so little to no magic can flow through it. This one…” she looked at it. “It’s smaller, but a side effect, something like a stress formed tear rather than the semi-deliberate rift that you made.”

“Um… I did apologize for that, right?” I asked. All this blame seemed to be coming on me. “Because I honestly didn’t know that would happen.”

Twilight smiled slightly. “It’s letting foreign magic it. It… it caused all this to happen to the forest.”

Okay, that wasn’t good. I pulled some crap together and hoped it would work out. “Rarity, you and Lyra get ready for these vines to start moving. Unicorn Guard, you and Rainbow keep an eye on the bats. Twilight; deal with the breaking. AJ and I’ll help you catch them and try to wake Fluttershy up. Spike, you’re rear guard. Anything that gets past our forwards, you slash or toast. Once she’s up, we zappa the tear. Everyone got it?”

“Sound,” the guard admitted.

“It’s not ‘zappa’,” Twilight complained. Lyra swatted her.

“Got it,” Lyra said, giving Twilight a look. Applejack and Rarity nodded while Spike echoed her.

“Wait, what about me?” Pinkie asked.

“Good. Twilight? Get them out.”

Twilight’s horned glowed again and a matching glow overtook the two Audrey II traps. It took a moment, but she forced them down and pried their jaws open. Applejack and I quickly dragged the sap covered ponies free before Twilight’s magic faded and the jaws slowly closed again.

The response was slow, but it came. The thing with plants; they don’t have vocal chords. An animal would roar or even moan to show irritation. This did nothing. It took a while to realize that the rustling we heard was more than just the wind in the leaves. The vines we stood on didn’t move, but new ones burst out of the brush line that defined the clearing.

“Pinkie?” I asked. She squeaked. I pointed outward. “Party.”

She squealed happily and brought her cannon to bear. There was a bang and party supplies launched out, confetti and streamers and party hats tearing into a swath of vines without abandon. It was a general call to action. Slowly, the other Audrey II traps oriented on us, their own vines reaching out. With a wild yell, Rarity matched them. Not just with her shears, but with a tape measure she used like a garrote; actually severing stems from the pressure she applied.

“AJ! How’s the guard?” I asked.

“Alive but out of it!” she replied. She scowled at the plants as they tried to move on her.

“Twilight!” I yelled as Lyra and Spike acted like my guards; the former hitting a Audrey II trap with rapid hoof strikes that stunned it, the latter roasting them with fire. Fluttershy was whimpering in my grip. Her breathing was shallow, and her pulse slow. “Do you have a spell that could maybe give her a pick me up?”

Shrill cries came from above us, accompanied by the sound of breaking branches. The unicorn guard immediately started firing blasts upwards and Rainbow let out a war cry and was off. Shadows danced as flying forms darted between us and the light source. The fruit bats were ripe.

Okay, that was a pretty bad one. Still true. Twilight hurried over and pulled off one of her quick spells that I couldn’t follow and Fluttershy’s element flashed. Slowly, she stirred, blinking her large eyes. She yelped as a few more bangs announced Pinkie’s continued assault.

“That’s for ruining a popular party venue!” Pinkie yelled, laughing like a madmare.

“Easy Flutters!” I said, keeping a tight grip on her. The head of an Audrey rocketed past us, the victim of one of Applejack’s powerful kicks.

“Fluttershy! Thank Celestia you’re okay!” Twilight exclaimed. “How are you?”

“Twilight? Caleb! Oh dear,” Fluttershy said looking between us worriedly. “The vines… I was’t paying attention… they grabbed me and-!”

“Easy, Flutters,” I said, brushing her mane soothingly. Twilight looked over my shoulder and blasted something I couldn’t see. I spotted a vines inching towards Fluttershy’s tail. I whacked it a few times with my broomstick. It twitched, so I whacked it a few more times. “Twilight, can you do the thing with the elements? Zappa the tear?”

“I need everyone together! And a little time!” Twilight said in a panic, not even getting worked up about the zappa this time, looking around at the chaos of battle. Rainbow was darting around knocking fruit bats out of the air with quick strikes. Rarity was yelling something about ‘daring to ruin Fluttershy’s perfect coat’, Applejack literally bucking the heads off the Audrey IIs. Between her work, and that of Spike and Lyra, the was a decent zone free of them. Pinkie was having fun blasting vines with her cannon and had most all of them at bay.

“Hey!” Until they managed to snag it. Three more vines joined in wrapping around the cannon’s barrel and wheels and tried to pull it away. Pinkie pulled back. “Take your smelly vines off my cannon you vile dirty plant!”

There was a brief tug of war before two more vines joined in and yanked the cannon from her grip, dragging it into the brushline. Pinkie looked devastated. “You big meanies!”

“Rainbow! We need a distraction!” I yelled loudly.

She dove and wove through the bat swarm and the vines and hovered a few feet from me. “What kind?”

“Big! We need time to zappa ”

“No worries! Time for a Rainblow Twist!” Say what you wanted about Rainbow’s ego, she was skilled. In no time at all she whipped up a miniature tornado that sucked up vines and fruit bats alike. It was the first time I had seen that kind of use for a pegasus’ weather control.

“That mare is mad!” the guard yelled as the tornado’s wind pressure tugged at us. I hooked my legs around a root and held on to both Lyra and Fluttershy. Spike dug his claws into another root, Twilight hugging it further up. I couldn’t see what Rarity and Applejack were doing, but I spotted Applejack’s hat fly by. A moment later, it was engulfed in a blue glow as Rarity caught it and pulled it back.

“I believe this is yours!” Rarity’s voice yelled out.

“Thank you kindly!” Applejack called back.

“The word you want is AWESOME!” Rainbow declared, darting over to us as the tornado ran on its own momentum.

“Girls! Positions!” Twilight ordered. In a moment they gathered around her, and the elements started to glow.

I’ll admit, I had been skeptical about the power those trinkets were supposed to have. No offense to them, but Twilight got all giddy about my magic awareness, but I never felt, saw or heard a twitter from them before. Until that moment.

It was like the world sang. Each gem glowed individually, and the power building from them gently lifted the mares into the air. Something in me fluttered in response to it. A shared aura of white built around them as bolts of magic lanced out from the individual gems before the glow became too bright for me to look at directly.

“Don’t look at the light!” the guard yelled out needlessly. We were all already shielding our eyes.

The dissonance of the area seceded to the power they were generating, until only its cry alone could be heard. As the melody of the magic peaked, a literal rainbow sprouted from the sphere of light, rising to the canopy above us, before arching and crashing into the scar on the tree.

The terrifying part? Nothing happened. Power flowed, the magic a physical force on my skin, deafening. The scar resisted. It’s glow resisted the rainbow, keeping it a foot or so from actually reaching the scar. It was steadily pushed down the tree trunk, leaving a charred trail to mark it’s progress, but the scar, the tear itself remained.

The elements alone can’t properly seal it. It needs your touch as the one who breeched it.

“Lyra!” I yelled.

“What?”

“I’m gonna do something really stupid!” Before she could react, I ran at the scar and the beam of magic. Impulse and intuition had been doing a lot for me lately. It earned helped me work out the levitation spell. It got me the simple light spell I worked out before Twilight started teaching me properly. It cast the shield spell. It even found the off switch for the transformation spell.

And now it was saying jump at the scar so the magic of the elements could work on it. So I did. Lyra was yelling behind me, as were the conscious guard and Spike. I ignored them. The elements wouldn’t last forever.

‘God… if you can hear me in this reality… please don’t let this kill me.’

I thrust my hand out, past the glow and touched the scar, my magic flaring. The tear ripped open, doubling, tripling in size, then the glow was streaked with green tendrils of magic that sprung from my hand and arm, and it shattered. The Rainbow crashed into it, and I blacked out for the third time that day.

Weird. I could taste skittles this time.

A Little Chat Over Tea

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I ran my tongue over my teeth as I blinked at the shifting blackness around me, but the taste of skittles wasn’t coming from there, even if it was still lingering. “The Rainbow of Light tastes like Skittles? That’s the lamest... urg...”

“It’s our own bad pun,” my voice commented from the darkness. A moment later, my subconscious double appeared again, dressed in dark tones; black hoodie over a grey turtleneck and black slacks. At least he wasn’t an anthro-pony this time.

“Our magic just acts weird like that,” a third copy of my voice pointed out as another shape coalesced. I blinked at Devoted, and he shrugged at the unspoken question etched on my expression. “Subconscious space. The rules are odd here.”

“Okay... before I get into the obvious question...” I said, holding up a hand at the two of them. “What’s with the darkness?”

“You just got hit by the Rainbow of Phenomenal Cosmic Power,” my double said with a roll of his eyes. “That was a whole lot of magic. You blacked out momentarily. Right now, it’s a ‘thoughts are racing’ moment. We don’t have much time to talk, but we can talk.”

“I figured that part out,” I grumbled. “I mean, why is it this black emptiness? No! Don’t pull the ‘empty headed’ line. It’s your head too.”

Devoted snickered, but assented anyway. “It is the subconscious. You haven’t given it a definite form.”

“So...” I said, raising an eyebrow. I waved my hand vaguely. “If I just imagi.... uh...”

My hand was suddenly occupied by a tea cup. I set it down on the cherry wood table we sat around, my subconscious double and I both in three piece suits, his black, mine grey, and seated in comfortable chairs. Devoted had a suit of his own much like those Rarity had shown me, his own seat more of a lavishly cushioned stool. The room we were in was sizable, pictures of various important moments and people of my life on the wall between rich curtains. The table even had sweets, both candy and pastries, to go with the tea.

“Nice, isn’t it?” my double smirked, cutting a small bit from the cake in front of him.

I just groaned and grabbed a cookie, pointing to each of my subconscious representatives. “Second things second. Vincent. Devoted. And names out of the way... why am I taking a moment to talk to myself? I must be going crazy...”

“Everyone is crazy, some just hide it better than others,” Devoted commented, holding his tea cup in his magic. “But again; we were hit with the Element’s power. It seems to be fixing up all the little dings and dents we got, straightening a few crooked lines... must be since we have a good heart.”

“Mostly good,” Vincent chuckled. “But more importantly; you understand what happened, right?”

“Not really. Just jumped at the impulse. You know how it is. Take that extra slice of cake, go with the blue shirt, leap in the path of a beam of powerful magic,” I admitted with a shrug. If we were going to rip off Dresden, I might as well sass myself. “Nothing special.”

“Normally I’d banter back, but time and essence and such. It would eventually get from the hindbrain to the fore, but with this little bridge in place, we can put it on the table ahead of schedule,” Vincent said. He pointed to the glowing point that hovered on the table.

I was pretty sure it wasn’t always there, but this was a mental projection. It was mutable.

“Our magic reacted to the scar. And you know why, don’t you?” Vincent asked.

“You could just lecture me,” I muttered. “The scar, the tear, actually, was from how I got here. Whatever trace of magic that was keeping it open knew mine, so broke the... aura? The Aura around it, I guess. Between that and the Rainbow Zappa, it sealed the tear.”

“Gold Star,” Devoted said, clopping his hooves together. He got up and poked my chest. “You feel burning, right?”

“Actually... yeah,” I hadn’t realized it until he mentioned it, but my chest was getting uncomfortably warm. I noticed something else. Devoted had a cutie mark. I couldn’t make it out, but there was something on his flanks.

“That’s the power of the Elements pumping through us. Remember what Twilight said about our magic trying to mesh with the local one since Earth hardly had any? Well, the Element’s Power is working on it. Harmonizing our magic with Equestrian and Pony Magic.”

“What do you mean pony magic? And how do you have a cutie mark?” I demanded.

“Sometimes I wonder why he’s in charge...” Vincent muttered. “The Elements are aligning all the magic in us. Human, Earth, Equestrian, Pony, probably some of the dissonant one that was messing us up...”

“Wait, wait, wait, Pony?” I held up a hand to stop him. “I know I pulled off that transformation spell, but that was just because I managed to...”

“Now you’re getting it,” Vincent said, smirking smugly. He gestured at me. “Finish the thought.”

“Because I managed to somehow steal a bit of Lyra’s magic...” I said slowly. I had just been an impulse. Something had just said ‘do it’ and I sorta did. My breathing got a bit more ragged as I realized something more. “And she gave me that mana infusion... I was running on mostly pony magic...”

“Intuition,” Devoted said happily. “Everything up to this point has been following gut instinct and impulses. It’s what we’re good at. We think ourselves in circles sometimes, but we follow our heart in the end. We’ve been doing it for years, don’t you think? Just like jumping into a Rainbow Beam of energy on an impulse to try and fix something we caused.”

“Indirectly,” Vincent amended. “Caused indirectly.”

I slumped in my chair. “So... you’re telling me you got a cutie mark when I got hit with the Elements?”

“Or at least the potential for it. Haven’t actually seen our flank yet,” Devoted shrugged. “But it feels like it.”

“They are going to kill me when they find out…” I murmured. My other sides didn’t need to ask to know I was making reference to the crusaders.

“Our time’s running out, and you’re not going to remember all of this clearly, but this is important,” Vincent looked me directly in the eyes. “Something else is in here.”

“You two?” I tried.

“Something else,” Vincent said. The walls were starting to fade away. “It fears Luna/The Princess. It retreats/hides when she arrives/visits.” The words became less clear and more conceptual as consciousness returned.

“Let her tell the… her… princess… find it…

-----

“Caleb!” someone was shaking me. Rather violently, to be honest. “Don’t you dare die on me!”

“GaaaaAAAaaaah…” I groaned, trying to bat the person away. “Enough with the shaking… not a bobble head…”

“Caleb!” Something mint green crushed me in a bastardization of a hug.

“No crushing, Lyra!” I groaned, trying to break her hold. Behind her, the other members of our little forest expedition were lurking. The bearers looked weary, likely from the feedback of using the Rainbow of Phenomenal Cosmic Power. The guards and Spike were there too.

“You’re awake!” Spike whooped, punching the air. Others had there own expressions of relief. I mostly tuned out their comments, looking around. Still in the forest, and still under the tree, so no waking up in a bed or, worse, the hospital this time. Definite improvement. The place didn’t seem quite as foreboding and, I let my senses go unfocused for a moment, my attention on the magic one, yep; definite improvement there too. Still sounded and felt a bit off, but much better than all the other times.

“Okay, what did I miss?” I asked, trying to get up as best I could with Lyra still holding tight. My entire body felt a bit warm, as if I were laying in brilliant sunshine on a summer day.

“You jumped into the blast from the elements!” Spike exclaimed.

“It was an extremely stupid thing to do,” Twilight added.

“Hey! It worked, didn’t it?” I said as Lyra finally let me up. I felt well rested and, frankly, on the top of my game. I flexed a few joints to be sure. Huh. It was like I was all healed up. I looked looked at my hands as I flexed them, only to yelp when a faint ripple of rainbow light flashed across them. “What the hay?”

“Finally noticed that, did you, dear?” Rarity asked. I stared at her in confusion. “You’ve been positively aglow with the most fabulous colours since you were caught in the blast.”

“Your eyes have a rainbow glow to them too,” Fluttershy added softly.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Rainbow admitted in a somewhat reluctant tone.

I blinked slowly. “Okay, seriously, what happened?”

Twilight trotted over, her horn glowing. The rapid rhythm of her magic was lost on me, though I could feel it tingling over my body. Actually… even my magic signature sounded different. It was still, what I knew, just remixed? Okay, horrible analogy. More like… comparing your voice before and after it changed? Magic puberty? Welp… worse analogy.

“You were hit with the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight started explaining.

“More like a really really close near direct hit,” Pinkie added.

“Well, yes,” Twilight said, glancing at her. “Anyway, I’m not quite sure what you did, but it was like you broke whatever was holding back the elements. After that; there was a shock wave of harmonic energy, much like what happened when Discord’s magic was undone when he broke free a year ago.”

“It knocked you back,” Lyra picked up.

“You got like ten feet of air!” Spike added, having come up to stand beside me. “It looked like it really hurt when you hit the ground too.”

“Really?” I rolled my shoulders tentatively. “Because I feel great. Might have blacked out a bit though. Don’t remember anything after I touched the scar and got hit by the sweet rainbow of magic.”

"Now, now. Rainbows are spicy, Calie," Pinkie chided me.

“I’m glad you do, I really am,” Twilight sighed, finally ending her spell. She looked a bit too relieved. “From what I can tell, the Elements affected you like a powerful restoration spell, both on your physical and magical conditions.”

“We don’t all speak egghead,” Rainbow said, coming to a landing beside Twilight.

“It healed my injuries and magic,” I translated for those less familiar with magic jargon. I tilted my head at Twilight. “So why do you sound so relieved? What were you scared of?”

“Well…” she swallowed. Everyone was looking at her now. Twilight huffed, then sighed. “Fine. Your magic, while not harmful, has a much stronger influence of chaos than standard magic.”

“Hold up, Sally,” Applejack butted in. “You mean to tell us that Caleb here has the same magic like Discord? And ya never mentioned it?”

“What? No!” Twilight said, waving a hoof. “Caleb’s magic isn’t like Equestria magic. But his natural human magic is closer to chaos than our natural magic is. It makes sense, considering how it seems to operate.”

“What about the forest?” The female guard asked.

“I… it feels much less malevolent now, but it’s still chaotic… I fear it might be stuck like this,” Twilight admitted. Now there was a sobering thought.

----------

We didn’t linger in the forest. The ‘tear’ was closed up and sealed properly. The crazy aggressive vines had been destroyed by the harmony shock wave. Most of the oppressive and malignant magic had been wiped away. The fruit bats still remained, though they seemed less aggressive. The ambient magic still had a dissonant and wild feel to it. Rainbow even admitted that the air flow felt somewhat like the Everfree’s.

Still; we succeeded.

The mayor had arrived at the library, as was a representative from the weather team and the town’s land resource department. Twilight and the two guards were meeting with them in the main room for a debriefing of the event. Her ‘closed’ sign hung in the library’s window, though not many ponies were surprised. Not when most of them had seen the rainbow coloured shock wave dome as it did its magic.

The rest of our forest expedition group was gathered in the back, debriefing ourselves with tea and cookies. Lyra looked like she had just finished going a few hours at her lyre. The other girls seemed much the same and weary on top of it. Spike was rubbing at his throat ever so often and sounded hoarse when he spoke. He had taken honeyed tea. We all looked like we needed a long go in the spa.

As for how I felt? I wasn’t sure. Sure, I felt about as mentally tired as the others looked, but physically? I was a bit hyper; itching from pent energy. The rainbow effects had faded shortly before we reached Ponyville hospital to get everyone checked out, but the full body warmth still stuck around. Even as we nursed out tea and cookies I was fidgety in my seat, twitching my leg like crazy trying to burn through some of the energy. Even worse? I had a nagging feeling I was forgetting something important. Like I was supposed to tell someone something.

After a while, my fidgeting got to the others.

“Consarn it, Caleb,” Applejack sighed, exasperated. She waved her hoof at me. “Can’t ya hold yourself still? I’m getting plum worn out just watching you. You’re worse than Pinkie after a tray of cupcakes.”

“Frosted cupcakes!” Pinkie added, focused on balancing a stack of cookies on her nose before tossing them into her mouth with a clever flick of her muzzle. Spike and I applauded her antics and she responded with a giggle and a little bow.

“But she does have a point, dear,” Rarity, who had been sitting beside Pinkie, said as she rolled her eyes at the display. She did, however, have a faint smile on her face. I groaned at her. “None of that now. But you have been quite antsy. Even Rainbow Dash is calmer than you are.”

“Hey!” Rainbow protested, looking up from her Daring Do book. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m not sure if I should be offended by that,” I admitted after a pause.

“Hey! Is it ‘pick on Rainbow Dash day’ or something?” Rainbow grumped, going back to her book. Spike smirked.

“Of course not. A lady does her best not to offend,” Rarity said, taking a dainty sip of her tea. “Unless, of course, the situation calls for it.”

“Oh har, har,” Rainbow said, but she was smiling.

“Are you sure you are okay, Caleb?” I flinched slightly when Fluttershy spoke up next to me. Of the group, I interacted with Fluttershy the least. Not just because she was shy, but because she tended to linger in and around her cottage. I didn’t exactly see Applejack and Rarity that often either. She nosed the tray with the kettle and tea bags closer. “Maybe some more tea?”

“I guess? I already feel bad that I don’t feel bad, not with how banged up you all are,” I shrugged, rocking a little in my chair. “And I think, nah, I’m pretty sure more sugar is the last thing I need right now. Even if I’m a bit hungry.” How long had it been since I last ate? The cinnamon roll? This day had just been dragging on and on.

“Well… maybe you just have too much energy,” Lyra offered.

“I think we all noticed that,” Spike said softly. All that fire power really did take its toll on him.

“No, I mean magic energy,” Lyra said, shaking her head. “Twilight did say the effect of the elements were restoring your magic levels. Maybe you need to use it up a bit.”

Sometimes I still got a knee jerk twinge on the magic thing. Stupid, I know, especially after the events of the day, but two plus decades verses two weeks. I considered Lyra’s point, my legs swinging under the table. “You think that could be it?”

“Won’t hurt to try,” Lyra said. Her horn glowed and she set a cup before me.

I shrugged (I was doing that a lot lately), and held my hand out at the cup, reaching for my magic. Three beats for the telekinesis… then my thoughts shape the intent… A glow slowly built around my fingers as the spell played in the back of my mind. For a moment, the intent of levitation the cup was pushed aside in favour of the glow.

“I think that’s evidence for my theory,” Lyra said smugly. Not that I blamed her. My magic was green. A nice green. It was still green, but there were multicoloured sparks flowing in it as well. “Start burning off some of that magic,” she instructed.

“But it’s pretty,” I grinned sassily at her. I twitched my finger anyway, and the glow replicated itself around the cup. The spell pattern suddenly became a lot trickier to manage as I tried actually lifting to cup.

“There you go, you look like you’re making progress,” Rarity said warmly.

“Some,” I mumbled, trying to stay on top of the magic. How is it I could sense delicate magic effects and pull off a complex shield spell on the wing but couldn’t manage a simple levitation? The glow started flaring, the multicoloured sparks dancing wildly within it. “How do you unicorns run around doing this all day?”

“Maybe ya might consider pulling back there, sugarcube,” Applejack said as the cup started shaking in the air.

“No, I got it,” I insisted. I narrowed my eyes and started mentally locking down on the spell pattern. Have you ever tired getting a song out of your head? It was something like that, except I was letting the song in and trying to push certain parts out at the same time. I licked my lips.

“Um, maybe Applejack is right,” Lyra said as the shaking turned into a vibrating wobble.

“No, no, I got it!” I insisted. Stupid spell. I am your master and creator. You shall obey me! I pushed the spell a little harder, and it imploded. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the ‘spell structure falls apart’ kind of implosion, but instead the ‘telekinetic aura suddenly and quite violently contracts’ form of implosion, a flash of prismatic light, heavy on the green, flaring brieftly.

The cup shattered tea splashed almost everywhere. Lyra and Spike, having recognized the warning signs and having previous experience on top of it, ducked and thus avoided being caught in the slash zone. Pinkie pulled an umbrella out from somewhere, covering Rarity and herself. Fluttershy ducked behind me. Rainbow and Applejack were both seating outside of the range.

Basically, I was the only one to get hit.

“Bwuahahahaha!” Rainbow burst out, falling off her cushion. The other ponies in the room started laughing as well.

“Well, I can’t say you didn’t warn me,” I grumbled, reaching for a tissue to dry my face. Thank God it had cooled off.

“I never want to have to do that again,” Twilight sighed as she came into the room. She stopped and looked around. I suppose finding six ponies and a dragon all laughing at a human as he dripped from hair and face was a confusing scene. “What’s going on?”

“We are trying to use up the excess magic Calie got packed into him!” Pinkie said cheerfully. “It’s all sparkly and pretty too, but I don’t think colts like it when things are too sparkly.”

“I see,” Twilight said, though she still looked confused. She raised her eyebrow at the pile of ceramic fragments on the table. “Er… Is that, rather; was that one of my tea cups?”

“Sorry… I still don’t have the telekinesis spell working right.” I poked at the piles a bit. It wasn’t a difficult spell! It wasn’t like I… I grinned. “Eureka!”

“Europa!” Pinkie chimed back, even as Rarity and Fluttershy flinched from my sudden exclamation.

“Eureka?” Twilight took a seat at the table to my right and poured herself some tea.

“It means I got it,” I said with a wave of my hand. That wasn’t that important. “I forgot I had one other mana intensive spell.”

“What… you mean your pony form spell? That did eat up a lot of magic,” Lyra said with a grin.

“Hold up, pony form spell?” Rainbow interjected. She stared at me, an expression shared by Applejack and Rarity. “Since when did that happen?”

“Since… this morning? I should probably name it properly.” I shifted in on my seat, partly from the urge to fidget and partly from the intense scrutiny. I frowned as something processed belated. “Wait… did you say ‘Europa’, Pinkie?”

“What?” Pinkie asked innocently.

“I, I mean… but... You know what? Nevermind.” I dropped the tangent and focused on the spell issue, throwing a disbelieving look their way. “You didn’t know? We talked at the hospital for a bit after we dropped off the crusaders!”

Gears turned in their heads as the three mares made the connection. I covered my ears as they yelled. “That was you?”

“I’m sorry, but who was who?” Fluttershy asked meekly. Right she wasn’t there.

“Long story short, I accidentally came up with a spell to turn myself into a unicorn, got a cinnamon roll from Pinkie, and got attacked by the crusaders before they ran off and got into trouble in the White Tail Woods. We had to rescue them before we figured out how to change me back,” I summarized the grand adventure of the day in about fifty words or so for Fluttershy. “Actually, considering what I’ve heard about Ponyville, I was due for something dramatic.”

“You’re the unicorn that saved mah sister?” Applejack said, still stunned. At least she was articulate. Rarity looked as if she was one foot into a swoon, making incoherent sounds while Rainbow’s jaw had just about dislocated itself.

“Seriously… how did you not know that? I still have the same hair. It carried over for some reason,” I said, exasperated.

“To be fair, we never did have a chance to fully explain that part before we headed back into the woods to try and solve it,” Twilight admitted.

“How many blank flank stallions would you expect to find?” Spike muttered.

“Be that as it may,” Rarity said, having regained her composure. “It was most gallant of you to rescue them.”

“Even if you did complain most of the way there,” Lyra quipped, Pinkie joining in her snickers.

“It ain’t no laughing matter, Lyra,” Applejack said sombrely. “Caleb, ya went out of yer way to save mah sister and her friends. Ah already knew you were a good pony, er, human, but ah can’t thank you enough for that.”

“You’re way more awesome now, dude,” Rainbow said, a soft smile on her muzzle. It looked completely different from the arrogant one that was her normal expression.

“Well, you see…” all this was suddenly making me uncomfortable. “Look, I just couldn’t leave them there.”

“And ya didn’t have to go after ‘em personally either. They probably owe their lives to you and Twi and Spike and Lyra,” Applejack stated.

Twilight, Spike and Lyra joined me in the ‘awkward moment’ club, blushes warming their cheeks. I would admit, I had something of an ego at times, and I liked praise as much as the other guy, but this kind? People thanking me for saving lives? I didn’t know how to properly respond. Pinkie gave me an enigmatic smile as I tried to change the topic. “Anyway, I still have to burn off this extra magic.”

“Still weird he’s gotten into the magic thing after his tantrum when he first found out,” Spike grinned.

“Or is so willing to use this spell. He looked sorta broken when he came to get his roll,” Pinkie added. Rainbow looked like she was going to say something more on the ‘saved our sisters’ issue, but Rarity caught her eye and shook her head.

“Hey,” I protested, grateful they were letting the issue drop. “I was caught off guard! This time I’m prepared.”

“I’m not so certain that is safe,” Twilight said, her cup hovering in the air. “We still don’t know exactly what the elements did to you.”

“It’s fine,” I said dismissively. It was weird, but my magic sense was almost eidetic. I could remember the patterns of spells I experienced fairly easily. Or at least dredge up the memory of the spell rather easily. I was beginning to think I was more sorcerer than wizard, leaning towards instictive magic rather than studied magic. A faint glow formed in my eyes as I pulled up the feelings and memories from the flare up. Hopping off my seat, I took a few steps back so I could have some space to cast.

“I’m sure noth-” I quickly shifted where that sentence was going, “-ing all that untoward will happen. You even said the spell wasn’t bad.”

“I didn’t say that!” Twilight said, worried.

I was already ‘recalling’ the magic patterns for the unicorn form. For a moment, there was a… well, echo was the best I could say, in my mind as I ‘reached’ for the pattern, as if there were more patterns than there should have been, but I pulled the pattern up and started matching my own magic to it.

“I don’t think he’s listening,” Spike commented with a sigh as a glow started building around me.

“He forgot about his clothes too,” Lyra chuckled.

Wait… what?

The cacophony of the spell taking effect filled my ears for a moment as the glare of the spell blocked my vision. The pattern in the spell hit a quick wild rushing beat and my own signature twisted to match it. The pain of numbing needle jabs and muscle spasms went by much faster this time. The speed was probably why there was a disorienting and mildly nauseating lurge just before the spell’s glare flashed out of existence.

I could faintly hear multiple voices as the ringing slowly faded from my ears. Ears flicked in response and four limbs were on the ground. It was a familiar sensation and I blinked as the room came back into focus. Yep, the mares were all staring again.

“He really does like almost blowing up,” Spike commented teasingly. I snorted in his direction.

“Not my fault the spell is flashy,” I grumbled, shaking the kinks out of my new legs and swaying the tail slightly; only slightly because it was mostly caught under my pants. I’d admit, having a tail was weird, but the fun kind of weird. “Probably should have gotten undressed first…” I sighed, but grinned at Twilight. “See? Nothing to worry about.”

“Caleb,” Twilight said slowly, faint fear in her tone, “you don’t have a horn…”

I looked up, expecting to see the same green keratin spike I did last time. When I couldn’t find it visually, a hoof rose to grope about. For some reason, I wasn’t panicky, just curious. Actually, I had an idea as to what had happened. A little introspection confirmed my hunch, my magic's pattern was quick, light and trilling. “Okay… maybe I spoke too soon…”

“Caleb, you don’t have your horn…” Lyra sounded shaken as she repeated Twilight's observation.

I mumbled agreement and fumbled a moment, trying to get my shirt off. It wasn’t easy, but it was loose enough that a bit of struggling got me out of both my pants and the shirt. Should I worry about how quickly I adopted to the clothing optional mindset? Anyway, now free from their confines, I smiled weakly at the others in the room, spreading my new wings. “Mazel Tov! It’s a pegasus!”

Rarity hit the ground with a thump.

Wings Itch

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“This was why I warned you not to act so rashly!” Twilight chided as she probed at me with her magic, her horn glowing as she lectured. Fluttershy and Spike were busy tending to the fainted Rarity, having moved her to the couch. “Honestly! After all the trouble we had just getting you to accept your magic, and the grief you caused, you act so wild and careless with it!”

Tuning out Twilight wasn’t an easy thing to do, but I tried anyway. She was worse than my dad sometimes. Applejack, Lyra and Pinkie hung back, watching us with mixed expressions. Focusing instead on my magic, I tried to work out the same answers Twilight was looking for. I… didn’t like what I was finding. I was still churning with extra power, my personal melody accompanied by a complex and ‘loud’ pattern that was clouding my ability to pick out details, almost masking my magic signature itself.

I concentrated a bit more, moving from the ‘audible’ state to the deeper inner one. Multicoloured streaks were racing through the green glow of my inner being, flashes and sparks of colours that weren’t supposed to be there. Cringing, my ears were assaulted with the foreign rhythm and the streaks and flashes left conflicting signals; a chemical like heat, a frosty chill, a spicy smell, a sour taste on my tongue and itchiness. Sometimes my magic sense was just plain confusing.

I was pulled from my focus by some nagging ghost sensation. I blinked irritably as my awareness moved back to the regular spectrum, the colours and sensations of the inner lingered for a moment before getting lost as standard vision reasserted itself. Something was still causing a str-

Right… got wings…

I glared at Rainbow Dash as she pulled on my new appendages; extending them and ruffling my feathers with her hoof. I’ll be honest; I never really expected that phase to be literal one day. I tugged my wing from her, a stray feather drifting from it, and folded it against my side with a trace of irritation. “Cut it out, Rainbow! It’s pretty distracting.”

“Got to make sure they are in good condition,” Rainbow said, pointing at the green feather floating to the ground. “Your feathers are a mess, even if you’ve got decent wings. You won’t get any good wing power from them if they are like that.”

“Your wings are in a state,” Fluttershy agreed quietly.

“Rainbow… I’m not sure how to break it to you, but I really don’t plan on flying with these anytime soon,” Rainbow looked scandalized at my grumbling claim. I ignored her and gave Twilight a plaintive look. “Twilight… I can’t find the structure for the morphing spell.”

“I’m not surprised… I can’t figure it out, either,” Twilight grumbled. The glow on her horn and the accompanying patterns cut out. “You just have too much interference going on at the moment and the spell itself seemed to have changed from the first time you used it. I’m surprised you even managed to cast a spell with your magic like that.”

I started hyperventilating. Lyra took Rainbow’s place at my side and laid a foreleg over my back. Fluttershy shot a look at me, but Rarity was coming around and held her attention. Lyra glared at Twilight. “Twilight: why do you sound so darn calm about this? Aren’t you saying that Caleb’s stuck as a pony?”

“WHAT?” I was too busy hyperventilating to make out which voices in particular contributed to the chorus.

“Lands sakes! Caleb’s stuck as a pony?” Applejack exclaimed as the commotion started.

“Sweet Celestia…” Rarity looked as if she wanted to swoon again.

“Oh, I can see why you’d think that, but no,” Twilight said, shaking her head. She was remarkably calm considering the state of the room. “He’s only stuck like that for a while.”

I paused on an inhale and looked at Twilight. The others did too, calming enough to let confusion colour their expressions. Spike motioned for her to continue. “Meaning?”

“Oh, sorry,” Twilight took her seat and reached for a cookie with her magic. “The reason I was trying to tell Caleb not to use the spell was that it wouldn’t work the way he wanted. True, it might use a lot of his magic, it issue right now isn’t solely having too much magic, it’s having too varied a magic in him, as well.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Fluttershy whispered into the silence that followed. I exhaled heavily and started gasping and coughing for air. Lyra patted me on the back and helped me to a seat, one of the pony ones. I slumped into it gratefully.

“How to explain this simply,” Twilight murmured, pouring herself some tea. “Okay. Normally a pony has a single type of magic in them. Their own magic, determined by their tribe.” Lyra, Spike and I nodded. Rainbow exchanged a glance with Applejack and shrugged. Rarity looked a bit on the confused side herself. Pinkie was just smiling.

“Now, Lyra gave you a magic infusion when you suffered the mana starvation,” Twilight continued. “Normally that wouldn’t be an issue for anypony, but Lyra’s magic is pony magic, specifically unicorn magic. Mana starvation tends to be a unicorn only affliction, but common side effect with an infusion in the rare case when a non-unicorn needs it is mana turmoil while the types of magic mix. In your case, it was an extremely foreign form of magic. Your body would take a while to… I suppose ‘metabolize it’ is as good a term as any. Did you find using magic a bit difficult right after?”

“… Oh! I thought that was just me straining my magic again,” I admitted. Made sense, I suppose.

“Using ‘magic’ that wasn’t fit for your system caused interference. Now, the elements did the same thing, only magnified. It gave you a massive infusion of magic,” Twilight continued. “It drew magic from what it had access to; the Elements of Harmony themselves, the girls and I, as well as the environment.”

“And that magic was Equestrian, some of that forest chaos, and three flavours of pony with a dash of dragon…” I winced, the picture being painting coming into startling clarity. “No wonder I can’t sense anything properly.”

“You’re speaking egghead again,” Rainbow commented.

“I got to admit, all this unicorn and magic talk is a mite over my head,” Applejack agreed. “Any chance the two ah you could explain it so the rest of us can make sense of it?”

“Calie’s magic is all mixed up and scrambled inside like the glitter in a snow globe and he can’t see anything through all the pretty little specks of glitter until they settle down!” Pinkie grinned cheerfully, having pulled an actually snow globe out to demonstrate.

“Um, Pinkie, I don’t know if…” Lyra started and trailed off uncertainly, looking at the globe that inexplicably had a small model of me in it. I decided I wasn’t going to ask. Lyra did, pointing a hoof at the ball. “How? When? Actually; why?”

“Try not to dwell on it, darling,” Rarity advised.

“That’s… actually fairly accurate. Simplified, but accurate enough,” Twilight nodded, hardly missing a beat. Spike shook his head and muttered something I missed. “Not only does he have a lot more magic in him than he is used to, there is the matter of the diversity of said magic. Caleb casting his spell basically shook his magic up again, which likely exponentially increased the period he’ll have to wait before his body fully accepts the magic it has contained in it.

“We had a similar experience the first time we used the elements. It was why we passed out,” Twilight added. She looked at me contemplatively. “The only thing I don’t understand is why he turned into a pegasus.”

“Blame the elements,” I spoke up. “I think I have a version of that spell for all three tribes now. I just… picked one when I started casting. The moment it started, I heard more a pegasi’s signature than a unicorn.”

“We really need to sit down and discuss your magic sense some more,” Twilight said longingly.

“I’d run, if I were you,” Rainbow teased, smirking at me. “Fly, actually. Otherwise she’ll catch you.”

Twilight huffed in annoyance. “Rainbow, please. I’m not that bad.” She took a sip of her tea before continuing. “I’ll at least wait until he’s rested little more.”

“Ooo! You could him a head start,” Pinkie giggled. “Like tag! We could play in the park!”

“Visiting the park would be nice,” Fluttershy admitted with a delicate smile. “I could tell my animal friends about what happened in the forest.”

I stared at them in confusion. Weren’t we just a little bit concerned about my issue? I said as much. “Not to be self centered or anything, but… I’ve got a little problem and all.”

“All we can do is wait, right?” Spike shrugged again. His voice was still low and sounded a bit ragged. “We might as well get comfortable an- urk!” He gagged suddenly and yanked up a scroll in a wisp of green fire. It hit the table and bounced as he whimpered, tears in the corner of his eyes. “Oww… It’s even worse when it happens while I’m talking.”

“You poor thing,” Fluttershy crooned. She embraced him tightly. “I’ll fix you some more tea!”

Twilight snatched up the scroll as Fluttershy flew off to the kitchen. My wings twitched and started to itch again as I watched her fly off. These wings were going to get annoying fast. The ‘turning into a pony’ part wasn’t as annoying as I thought it would have been, probably because I did it deliberately, but the wings were like an itch I couldn’t reach. I shuffled them irritably.

Was it weird that I was concerned that I wasn’t concerned I was a pony? Jeeze; that would have been an impossibility yesterday! And this was my second time in about thrice as many hours. Though, to be honest, I’d been getting a lot of practice in believing the impossible. Falling between worlds, having nightly chats with a dream walking princess, finding out you had magic… Still, a man had to have standards, a line.

Somewhere…

“It looks like we will be heading to Canterlot in the morning.” Twilight’s sudden statement, having finished reading the letter, jolted me out of my musings.

“You will,” Spike muttered under his breath.

“We all will,” Twilight corrected. She smiled and set the letter aside, though her tone was still on the serious side. “The princesses would like to meet with us about the situation in the forest. They are sending chariots to pick us up at daybreak.”

“Daybreak?” Rainbow complained. She landed and used my back as an arms rest. “Aw man, that’s early. And it’s just about sunset now!”

“No kidding,” I agreed, raising an eyebrow, not even bothering to remark on Rainbow’s actions. The Princesses weren’t wasting any time. Granted, a formerly idyllic forest turning into the newest Everfree was a major incident.

“Does all of us include me too, or can I sleep in?” Lyra asked, disinterestedly.

“Everypony that was there,” Twilight continued.

“I get to meet the Princesses?” Lyra’s grin threatened to split her face. I’m surprised she didn’t get whiplash from that one eighty. “This is going to be so much fun!”

“Didn’t ya meet them at the wedding?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“No, that was in passing. I was there for Cadance. Then the whole changeling mind control thing,” Lyra said waving a hoof dismissively. “This is going to be a proper meeting. Meeting the princesses!”

“In the morning? Oh dear, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to put together a wardrobe in time!” Rarity exclaimed. “I need something chic and avant garde!”

“Um… she does realize Princess Luna and Celestia don’t care much for all the frills and such, right?” I asked Rainbow softly, leaning towards her ever so slightly.

“She does,” Rainbow muttered back. “She just doesn’t care.”

I couldn’t help but snicker, one that seemed to infect Rainbow, since it set her off too. Rarity glared at us over her shoulder, which only set us off more, and sound we were laughing openly.

“Hmph!” Rarity said, tossing her mane in an offended manner. “Someponies might do well to learn more about fashion and the impact an impression will make, particularly on the elite.”

“Rarity, I stayed in the castle for a few days, remember,” I retorted as I struggle to get the snickers under control. “And I’m from a society that wears clothes all the time. I don’t need to worry about the impression.”

“Ooo! Ooo! I have an idea!” Pinkie leapt out from behind Rainbow and I as she made her exclamation. “Why don’t we have a slumber party!”

“Say what now?” Applejack commented with a raised eyebrow.

“That way, we’d all be here in the morning and we wouldn’t have to run all over looking for everypony in the morning so we won’t be late!” Pinkie chattered on excitedly. “We can have party games and smores, pillow fights and tell scary stories!”

“It could be nice,” Fluttershy added on the tail end of the conversation. “I’d like to go and tuck my animals in for the night first, but…”

“That would be more efficient,” Twilight remarked. She started to pace thoughtfully. “It would save us a few minutes to get ready in the morning, and everypony would be in a central location. I do have enough beds, if some ponies don’t mind sharing. And it would be fun to have another sleep over. Right, Applejack, Rarity?”

The two blushed for some reason but laughed at the same time. And inside joke I guessed. Applejack chuckled as she trotted over. “I suppose we did have a fine time, last time. And I wouldn’t be against doing it again. The crusader’s are doing fine and are in good hooves with Nurse Redheart… Sure thing, Twilight. ”

“Well, I would have liked to have picked up a few supplies from the boutique to work on a dress,” Rarity started, but she paused to glare venomously at Rainbow and I again when we started snickering. “As I was saying, I would have liked to, but another stay here would be fine.”

“Sounds fun,” Lyra admitted.

“And you, Caleb?” Twilight asked me.

My new wings flared slightly in surprise. I glanced at them with mixed feelings before turning my attention to Twilight. “What about me? I live here…”

“Precisely. It wouldn’t be nice for me to just have a party without asking my roommate,” Twilight smiled.

“More a boarder, but yeah, it’s fine,” I shrugged. Sounded like it could be somewhat entertaining. At worst I could grab Spike and hide in the basement with comics, snacks and soda.

With my ‘approval’ given, everyone got moving, most heading home to grab what they needed or leave word with family before returning. Spike got himself another cup of tea and occupied the seat and comic Rainbow vacated while Twilight cleared the table with ease.

For my part, I got the book I never did get to finish and tried to find a comfortable spot to perch myself. I did take a moment to check if my magic had settled down, but it didn’t seem any better than it did earlier, and I was quick to pull out and snort, an ear twitching irritably. Waiting for my magic to recover enough to change back would be much more tolerable with something to distract me from the actual waiting part.

Sheesh. My Magic. I idly wondered if I qualified as a hypocrite, considering my one eighty on the topic.

“Something wrong?” Twilight asked, looking up from her own book and quill. I hadn’t realized it, but it had turned into a miniature reading club the moment the rest left. I wasn’t quite sure what that said for us.

“No, not really,” I sighed. “Just… do you know how long… I mean, how long do you think it will take before I can actually undo this spell?”

“A few hours if my estimates are right,” was her detached response, quill still going. “Six optimistically, maybe as much as sixteen, but eight or ten is a conservative estimation. Based on how fast your thaumatic balance restored itself following Lyra’s infusion.”

“Wow,” Spike commented, looking up from his comic.

I stared at her blankly. Six to sixteen hours? My mouth moved silently a few times before my voice kicked in. “WHAT? That- that’s practically the rest of the night! Hay-that’s pretty much until tomorrow! A whole day like this?”

“Yes, Caleb, I know that,” Twilight deadpanned. She set her book down with a sigh. “Your body is trying to work through a lot of magic at the moment. The amount of power the elements poured into you is above the capacity of most unicorns. I’m happy that you are fine despite that, but using a metamorphic spell that modifies your magic signature on top of an already irregular and tumultuous mana source only exacerbated the issue!”

Twilight tended to draw on more complex terms when she was getting frustrated. I was getting frustrated too. “Why didn’t you..? Gah…. Up to sixteen hours? Come on… Anyway to make it happen faster?”

“No. You are going to quietly do nothing. No more magic until your body sorts itself out!” Twilight enunciated each word clearly. “Is that clear?”

“Fine, enough with the angry mother routine!” I groaned and collapsed on my back, limbs, all six of them, seven counting the tail, splayed. “This sucks!”

“Really? You don’t seem to be having much trouble with it,” Twilight commented, still a bit huffy. She was actually kinda cute like that.

I really didn’t want to explain to her that I was questioning my lack of difficulty with being a pony, or the alternating ‘magic is awesome’/‘Um… magic’ mentality I seemed to have, so I changed the topic. “What are you reading?”

Twilight blushed and looked away. “Slumber parties 101. I’ve only had a chance to use it once.”

“I know you’re not likely to be able to use all of that tonight, right?” I chuckled as I rolled over and got my hooves under me.

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I can’t plan out the most effective use of the time we have,” Twilight huffed as I peeked at the book myself.

“You know, I never really had a sleep over either. Wasn’t a ‘guy thing’,” I said as I read the open page, curious as to what ponies would do for their sleepovers. So far, they looked a lot similar to what I’d seen in shows. Last time I had a sleep over it was a three day Mario Kart tournament on dorm with guys taking shifts playing, getting food and sleeping.

Dorm rooms reek enough without a dozen or so guys crammed in it for three days playing video games and not showering.

Twilight shared the story of the first sleep over she had with Rarity and Applejack as I eventually took over the book, the antics they had gotten up to leaving Spike and I in stitches. Twilight was embarrassed about how out of it she had gotten, but that only made it all the more hilarious for us.

“It wasn’t that funny, you two,” Twilight grumbled in an offended tone as she arranged the extra blankets and pillows she pulled from the store room about the large living room. We decided on making it more of a sleeping nest arrangement with the number of people involved.

“Nope, it definitely was,” I giggled, a stack of pillows balanced on my back, only held up by the expanded base my wings allowed for. No, I wasn’t questioning it. “Spike?”

“Definitely fun,” he agreed with a wide smile, a folded blanket in his arms.

“What wasn’t funny?” Lyra asked as she came in, Fluttershy on her tail and a pair of bags floating in her magic.

“Nothing,” Twilight was quick to respond.

“Just that Twilight here was once so distracted by trying to figure out what instructions a book had that she didn’t notice a whole tree that crashed through her window,” I snickered. It struck me that I could hardly even make out the sound of Lyra’s magic. I chalked it up as yet another side effect.

“Really?” Lyra burst out laughing as well.

“That’s just how a Sparkle do. Nothing is more important than the book,” I said solemnly. Something large, soft and patterned hit me in the face. Stumbled back with a squawk of surprise, I tripped over my hooves and ended up half buried under the pile of pillows I was carrying. “Wha..?”

“You were asking for it, mister,” Twilight huffed.

“Of course you realize, this means war,” I frowned. I snagged a pillow and whipped it towards her. Of course, I had no aim and it ended up hitting Lyra instead. She was just as surprised as I was when I got hit and her bags hit the ground with a thump. “Um… oops?”

I wasn’t sure where Fluttershy vanished to, but Lyra was less than amused, and an eye twitched. Two pillows floated into the air, clad in her magic. “It’s a good thing pillows are light...”

I squeaked and ducked into the pile as Lyra tossed them at me, scrambling behind a chair after they hit with soft thumps. I peaked over the chair and aimed my best puppy dog eyes at them. “You wouldn’t hit an unarmed and impaired man, would you?”

I had to dodge the two pillows that sailed at me.

“Pillow fights are a traditional part of sleep overs!” Twilight declared gleefully. “It even says so in the book. What kind of pony would I be if I ignored the books?”

So I set her off and she was holding my quips against me. Only one thing to do. “Spike! Please say you’re on my side! I’m new to hooves! I need help!”

“What’s your offer?” Spike asked with a smirk.

“Dude! Don’t leave a bro hanging!” I pleaded. I grabbed on of the pillows at my hooves and chucked it their general direction.

“Fine, not like my Dragon Code would have let somepony in distress be ignored,” Spike grabbed a pillow and, scrambling over my back, posed on the back of the chair as he brandished it. “Sir Spike the Brave will assist you!”

He got knocked off with a well aimed pillow, quickly followed by Twilight’s cry of, “sorry, Spike!”

“Some help you are!” I griped, snagging another pillow in my mouth and hurling it with as much power and accuracy as I could. Twilight actually had to dodge with a yelp. Lines were quickly drawn in the room. Chairs, tables and couches were moved to make crude fortifications, and pillows filled the air.

Rarity and Applejack returned together, but decided to join the fight as their own force rather than picking an existing side. Rainbow joined us shortly after with a saddlebag on her back, and zipped out, only to return with Pinkie on her side, the latter having brought her own stockpile of pillows. A four-way war that was both exhilarating and confusing erupted. The horse head statue in the center of the room was the prize, and as of yet no one had claimed it.

“Fort Dude will never fall!” I declared, ignoring the fact that we were definitely on the loosing side of the battle. Between the fact that I didn’t quite know how to pony, LLMFI or not, and Spike being a baby dragon, we didn’t have the fire power. Fluttershy had eventually turned up stuck on our side when the final field was set, but her throws didn’t have any power behind them.

Faced with the power couple of Rarity and Applejack, the shocking accuracy of Twilight and Lyra, and the insanity that was Pinkie and Rainbow’s tactics, the only reason we were still standing, as it were, was the wall that formed from all the pillows they hurled that we couldn’t return. They were working together just enough to pin us down.

“Surrender to the SparkleSong!” Lyra yelled.

“A noble dragon will not yield!” Spike countered with a thrown pillow. I was so proud of the little guy.

“Then maybe for Fabulousity?” Rarity crooned.

“Oh, well, anything for-” I snagged him and muzzled his response. He glared at me and I glared back.

“Not even!” I yelled. So what if they were picking on me side? “Fluttershy! Now!”

“Um… okay,” she said before throwing a pillow with an adorable grunt of effort. It fell short and was claimed by Pinkie.

Yep. Maybe surrender was the right move.

“Surrender and you’ll get cupcakes!” Pinkie squealed. “But… you’ll still get cupcakes even if you don’t! Because really, why wouldn’t I give you cupcakes?”

“Incoming!” Rainbow yelled, just before another three pillows found their mark. Pinkie waved jauntily at us as Fluttershy hid again. No matter. We more or less appointed her Princess of the Fort more than anything else.

Yep. With the three other factions against us, Fort Dude was destined to fall in short order.

“Spike…” I said slowly, our cobbled together Fort shook under the assault.

“Yeah?”

“We go down heroes.”

“You have an idea?”

I did. And I whispered it to him. He blinked, then grinned. “Definitely awesome.”

“I guess you two have a plan?” Fluttershy asked, rubbing her arm. “Is there anything I should do?”

“Not much, Flutters,” I said, bumping her shoulder. “Leave it to us. Just run right behind me.”

“You three give up yet?” Applejack called out to us. “Or are we gonna have to drag you out of there?”

Spike saluted Fluttershy. “It was an honour!”

“Agreed,” I nodded. And then we ran out yelling.

“For the Princess of Fort Dude!” we yelled. Well, Spike yelled, I sort of mumbled. Spike was on my back with a pillow in each hand, and I had a pillow pressed under each wing and a third in my mouth.

Spike hit the pile of pillows that had collected with his fire and they vanished in a wisp of smoke and ash, that quickly whisked over to Lyra and Twilight. An express delivery that buried them as the mound of pillows reformed.

“No way!” Rainbow exclaimed. Spike struck leapt off my back and struck out with the pillows like a dual wielding samurai. I hurled my pillows quickly at the three remaining mares even as the counter attacks came. I managed to hit Rarity. I saw two pillows score solids on Spike. The others were aimed mostly at myself and maybe Fluttershy. I took them all, dramatically falling to my ‘death’ and allowing Fluttershy to snatch the prize, darting back to our Fort with it before the others could properly react, stunned as they were.

She poked her head out a moment later and exclaimed in her soft voice. “Yay!”

The room was quiet for a moment.

“That… was… awesome!” Rainbow laughed from her position on the ground.

Spike laughed as well. “I can’t believe that worked!”

“Super genius!” I declared, waving a hoof in the air. Someone hit me with a pillow.

“I thought fer sure you three were out of it,” Applejack laughed as she and the others gathered in the center of the room.

“Quite the gallant act,” Rarity complemented, helping me up. “Such a stallion! Both of you!”

“Ah, sucks, it was nothing,” Spike said bashfully, kicking at the dust. He coughed a little. “Might need more honey tea though.”

Twilight and Lyra dug themselves out with magic and joined us, Twilight giving Spike a hug. “That sending was rather ingenious.”

“Caleb suggested I mail you and Lyra the pillows. I didn’t think it would work that well,” Spike admitted. He coughed a little. “Sending is way easier than receiving.”

“I can’t believe it worked at all,” Lyra admitted begrudgingly. “I really wanted to win.”

“Yeah, it just means Spike, Fluttershy and I don’t have to help clean up,” I grinned, shuffling my wings. The room was pretty much a disaster in the aftermath of our game. Particularly the pillows piled and scattered about. “I can’t believe Twilight had this many pillows…”

“I can’t either,” Twilight admitted as she looked around. “It’s a bit out of hoof.”

“You can never have enough pillows!” Pinkie cheered as she brought out the cupcakes and milk for us to share.

Twilight didn’t look as if she particularly agreed. “Maybe I should take a proper inventory of the number of pillows in the library. Not now though. We’ve pretty much used up all of the time we had if we hope to get a good rest before heading to Canterlot.”

“Aw, I was hoping to tell ghost stories,” Pinkie sighed as she distributed treats.

“Well, I would like to do one itsy bitsy little thing first,” Rarity admitted.

I raised my eyebrow at her and I took the offered treat. It was small enough that even without hands I could manage to eat it. “And what’s that?”

“Your wings, darling,” Rarity stated, pointing at one. “They are simply dreadful. Rainbow is quite right in insisting they be taken care off.”

“Thank you!” Rainbow exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air. “I even brought over my preening kit for you to use since you don’t have one. My wings itch just looking at you!”

“Wait, don’t I get a say in this?” I protested. I was even getting used to the itchy irritation coming from the wings. Sorta. Okay, it was bugging me even more now that she mentioned it.

“Of course you do, Caleb,” Rarity remarked. “But we still insist!”

“But there are other sleep over things…” I tried lamely, backing away from the two. “And it's getting late...”

“We have enough time for one more activity,” Twilight smirked.

“And if ah recall, makeovers are one of them sleep over things too,” Applejack retorted with a wicked grin, blocking my retreat. Wait, didn’t Twilight mention Applejack had been forced into a frilly dress? Was this some weird revenge?

I tried something else. “But there are… stuff like true or dare!”

“I dare you to let them fix up your wings and feathers,” Spike quickly interjected with a smug grin.

“Et tu, Spike?” I whined, being assaulted from multiple fronts. I didn’t even have anywhere to flee up!

“It’s like your prize for winning,” Pinkie cheerfully added. “No need to clean up AND getting pampered by pretty mares.”

“Sleep over special makeover,” Lyra giggled.

I sighed. There was no beating these mares. I tried to recover as much male dignity as I could, which wasn't a lot. “Fine, whatever. On one condition! I expect another cinnamon roll for this.”

E.D. Phone Home?

View Online

I contemplatively chewed a mouthful of hay as Rainbow, Pinkie and Applejack watched. Rainbow, ever the impatient one, couldn’t help but press. “Well? How is it?”

“Spike! I need the notes I assembled for the meeting with the mayor!”

“On your desk!”

I looked at her, eyebrow raised as I chewed a few more times before swallowing. They had decided that since I was a pony for the time being, I had to try hay. “Fine, I guess? I mean, it wasn’t bad, but not what I’d call my favourite thing. This is what Spike and Twilight shovel down at restaurants?”

“Oh no, I think I need more flash cards! I haven’t finished putting together the prompts for everypony’s opinions on the events!”

“This here is just yer basic breakfast hay,” Applejack explained. Her plate had held a larger serving than my own had, but aside from that, the oatmeal, pile of eggs, muffin and serving of fruit had been the same. She, Pinkie and Spike had teamed up to cover the meal. “The one they give ya at restaurants is a different type.”

“They roast it or spice it up too,” Rainbow interjected as I washed it down with some water.

“I wish I had been able to take better reading on the nature of the magic but I didn’t have the time! Spike—”

“It’s on your desk too! In the folder on the right!”

“And then there are the different kinds of grass and such they make it from,” I nodded. I’ll admit, I had been confused by the hay thing at first, but clarity continued to be gained on the topic. So it had been an enlightening meal.

Oh, and Twilight was freaking out about the trip now that our ride was almost due. Spike trumped into the room and collapsed on a chair. Twilight, a pair of bulging saddlebags on her back, was not far behind.

“All done freaking out?” I asked innocently. Twilight shot me a look. I grinned as she took a seat. “Twilight, Celestia and Luna are nice people. You know that. No need to be freaking out. Everyone else has finished getting ready, Lyra even went back to sleep after eating and is out in the front napping.”

“She’s what?” Twilight asked, incredulous.

“Yes, napping. Until the chariot arrives for us,” I said, wings shrugging. “Even Rarity has her dress and everything. And she’s the only one wearing clothes. We are ready.” Twilight’s expression suddenly went smug. “What?”

“You said you are packed?” Twilight asked. “Even you?”

“Yep. Got my phone, laptop, a book to read on the way, even that de—,” I glanced as Fluttershy and changed my word choice, “—withered fruit bat and some vine pieces I found in my book bag.”

“Funny, I thought you’d take clothes,” Twilight grinned.

“Aren’t you the one who always says ponies don’t need clothes?” I rolled my eyes.

“Ah, but don’t you plan to turn back in a bit?” Twilight commented. I blinked at her. How the hell did I forget that? The others laughed as I raced out to add a change of clothes to my bag.

----------

“Were you not the one who chided me for casting my suspicion against young Caleb?” Luna softly commented, a slight smirk on her face, as her sister paced worriedly across the hallway. “While there may be cause for fear anew, is this really reason to doubt him?”

“No, it isn’t doubt for him that trouble me, Luna,” Celestia sighed, forcing herself to stop. The morning light spilling in from the window did little to chase the lines of worry from her face though. “It’s actually fear for him that troubles me. I care for all my ponies, even if they aren’t quite ponies themselves. But there is so much that has been happening around him in such a short period of time.”

“To be plucked from your own world and thrust into another, faced with facts that force one to re-evaluate your own self and self-image, to have your own form altered,” Luna’s smiled gained a somewhat sad edge as she joined her sister in gazing unfocused through the patterned glass. “Perhaps that is why I was able to relate so well with him, despite his not being a pony.”

“He has managed surprisingly well, despite it all,” Celestia added, touching her sister’s horn with her own in a comforting gesture. “Better than many of our ponies would have.”

“Then why do you dread for him if you acknowledge his strength? Even my own concerns that his fears and woes would lend to a vulnerability to the darker forces that still lurk in the dreamscape were unfounded.” Luna couldn’t help but let a touch of pride at her newest friend’s accomplishments colour her tone. True, her early visits had been motivated by suspicion, but the latter were from a combination of budding companionship and concerns that he would be preyed upon. “He is strong. Stronger than I initially thought of him.”

“It’s not his strength that I doubt either,” Celestia sighed. She looked around the room, at the numerous stained glass windows, reminiscing slightly. “It’s his destiny. Our nation is on track to great change and great challenges, but it seems Caleb’s fate is becoming more intricately tied to it the more time passes.”

Luna hesitated. “For the sake of clarity, assume I do not follow your thinking.”

“The current stage of Twilight’s journey is nearing fruition, and the same can be said for her friends,” Celestia remarked thoughtfully as she unconsciously started moving again. “At times I can see glimpses of their greatness when I look at them. Do you not as well?”

“I… I must admit that I do. While I still believe it is too soon, I cannot deny the signs are there.” Luna acknowledged reluctantly. It had been something of a sore point between them—Twilight’s trials. “Even my dreams seem to bear omens for it. But what does that have to do with young Caleb? True; even races without a cutie mark are still touched by destiny, but he is not even of this world.”

“Are we still sure of that?” Celestia murmured. Luna raised an eyebrow.

“Sister?”

Celestia signed explosively and spread her wings. “You read as well as I Twilight’s report on what happened. The mars on the veil of our world, they are linked to him, if not of his own violation. And the elements themselves have accepted him despite his otherworldly origin. Did they not attempt to evict the Whisper in all prior the encounters? Until they at last succeeded when Twilight and her friends freed you from your rage and jealously?”

“You were shaken when you read that Caleb had been struck,” Luna recalled. She eyed her sister in mingled concern and shock. “You feared they would have banished him as they did Sombra.”

“Instead, they may have tied him to Equestria. To the bearers themselves,” Celestia let her wings fall. “Perhaps I am worrying too much, making a non-issue into one.”

“Perhaps,” Luna echoed, though her response wasn’t as confident as she would have liked. There had been something different about Caleb’s dreams when she brushed them the night prior. Something she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. Not something she could merely attribute to his transformation spell. It was something that changed since his visit to the forest.

“We will see when they arrive, Sister,” Luna said, speaking with more confidence than she felt.

----------

I honestly forgot how impressive the castle could be. Of course, I spent most of my time in Canterlot more or less holed up in my room, so there was that. I wonder what they did with my own room. It was definitely different trotting through the castle compared to walking. For one, everyone was at eyelevel. And things were actually set up to be appreciated from the level I was at.

I nodded at the guards as the girls chattered on. Spike had decided that I would make the better steed and abandoned Twilight for the time being. He didn’t weigh that much, though someone riding on my back was weird. I let him be though. Twilight had accessed my magic situation and determined that it should be fine for me to try and shift back, but I felt it was more important not to at the moment.

Just a feeling.

The guards opened the doors as we approached. “The Princesses are waiting for you.”

“Thank you, sirs,” Twilight said, leading us in confidently before the doors were closed behind us.

Celestia and Luna were conversing softly with each other, but they both looked up with a smile when we entered. Celestia was the first to greet us. “Good morning everypony. I am pleased you were all able to make it.”

“Shucks, it was no problem, princess,” Applejack said lightly. “Ain’t all that early anyway.”

“For some,” Lyra grumbled.

“Should the truth be told; we would have rathered it be under less distressing circumstances,” Luna admitted.

“Distressing? We kicked flanked!” Rainbow extolled, leaping into the air. When she realized all the eyes in the room were on her, she sheepishly landed. “I mean; princess.”

“Yes, you quick actions were paramount in bring a dangerous situation under control,” Celestia said with a warm smile not balking at giving commendation. “And all before it could escalate into a true threat. Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy; you’ve proven on numerous times to be heroes, but Spike, Lyra and Caleb, you three stepped up as well. I am proud of you all, my little ponies.”

The responses ranged from Fluttershy’s I couldn’t help but smile a bit smugly. Say what you want about me not being local or technically one of her little ponies, this was the mare that ruled a nation and raises the sun daily.

Luna eyed me curiously. “On that topic, you make a quite an impressive stallion, Caleb.”

I grinned sheepishly. “Thank you, I guess?”

“Unfortunately, it seems as if the tear you repaired and the remnants of the breach your arrival made are connected more directly than we would have believed.” Luna’s statement shifted the atmosphere of the room. “The breach has been active once more.”

“That’s not good, is it?” I asked.

“Is it anything like what we encountered in the White Tail Forest?” Twilight asked quickly. From the corner of my eye I noticed the other mare’s subtle shifting to a more ready position.

“Be at ease,” Celestia said soothingly. “It has been contained by the precautions we already had in place.”

“But we would like to hear your opinions and perspective on your encounter in the forest,” Luna added. “We had hoped to adjourn to a more causal setting and talk about your experiences. Perhaps over a light meal.”

“Ooo! That sounds like fun!” Pinkie exclaimed. “It’s like a second breakfast!”

“No need to overdo it, Pinkie,” Rarity chided before smiling at the Princesses. “That sounds, lovely, Princess Luna.”

So it was that we found ourselves in the same dining room I often shared meals in during my stay in Canterlot, just talking about what we encountered and how we felt as we snacked on dainty little sandwiches. Celestia and Luna asked a few questions, drawing more information, pertinent or not, from us as we spoke. It was a while before everyone’s recollection was shared.

“Wild Magic might be an apt description of what emerges from these tears, indeed,” Celestia said thoughtfully. She cast a look in my direction. “I only hope there are not too many more of these tears across Equestria. No, I am not blaming you, Caleb, only stating facts.”

I grinned awkwardly, Celestia pre-empting my protest. Luna was looking at me for a different reason. “So you believe you have a spell for each of the tribes?”

“I think so,” I nodded.

I turned my perception inward. Everything seemed to have settled down. The extent of the brightness was beyond what it had been, which I hoped was only the higher magic levels Twilight predicted. I could easily pick out the ‘spells’ I knew, little nodes hovering, for lack of a better word, around my core. The new clarity I had was astounding. With a mere thought each one was ringing with the promise of what it could do. The shield spell, three transformations, a rough telekinesis spell.

I was a bit concerned about a few of the others I never noticed before and couldn’t quite make out. They were ‘deeper’, again for lack of a better word, than the other spells were. Two of them reminded me a bit of Luna and Celestia’s magic, for some weird reason. Another seemed like a gem just out of reach. A fourth was like a wisp of smoke, a fifth like a flickering shadow and light, a sixth like-

“Caleb!” Luna’s voice snapped me out of the daze. Blinking, I realized everyone was staring at me, concerned.

“Caleb, are you okay?” Lyra asked.

“You seemed to have gone into a trance of some form,” Twilight added.

“Is there something wrong?” Luna added.

“No, no, I’m good,” I said, waving off their concerns. “It’s just that I took the first good look since my magic calmed down and I was surprised at how… clear it was. But your question, I have a spell for unicorn, pegasus and earth pony. None for your nocturnal pegasus though.”

“And those all spawned from the elements?” Celestia asked.

“Building on the template your magic surge created,” Luna proposed.

“Sounds about right,” I nodded.

“It’s remarkable,” Luna commented. Her horn glowed and she motioned at me. “If I may?”

I nodded, figuring what her intentions were. A moment later I felt her magic rippling over me, and my feathers ruffled. “Tingly…”

“For all intents and purposes, you truly seem like a fit and attractive stallion,” Luna remarked, making my cheeks tint, tilting her head curiously.

“He’s had surprisingly little difficulty using the form as well,” Twilight added. “His movement and control, even ability to use the inherent magic of his form have been shockingly natural.”

“He even used unicorn style levitation when he was a unicorn,” Lyra added.

“And even if he refused to fly,” Rainbow spat a little, “his wings are pretty good, considering he’s a human under it.”

“Is that so?” Celestia asked. “Most transformation spells have a most complex structure to allow for that, and would still require somepony to serve as the base of the pattern transferred along with the transformation.”

“That may partially be my doing,” Luna admitted.

“Wait, what? How?” I, okay, not quite demanded, but it was a bit more forceful than merely asking.

“Did you forget? I gave you a small spark when you had your flare,” Luna smirked, a twinkle in her eye. “That was a collection of muscle and subconscious memories of how a pony body operates. Considering I provided them, it’s likely you would find controlling the magic in your earth pony form just as natural. In fact, you could likely fly should you attempt it.”

“Really?” Rainbow grinned at me.

“So… it wasn’t just my spell being that good?” I whimpered. Luna laughed at my expression.

“I must say no,” she said between giggles. “Still, your spell is quite adaptive if it integrated the gift I gave you so thoroughly. For the sake of curiosity, do you think you could mimic an alicorn’s form?”

“I… I… what?” I stammered; slack jawed. The expressions on the other’s faces ranged from shock to gobsmacked. Twilight was the outlying—she looked intrigued with the idea.

Celestia spoke up. “It would be interesting. Is it possible?”

“No!” I said quickly, shaking myself out of my daze. Alicorn? Wasn’t that like, demigodhood? That was one beehive I was not willing to poke. I’d need a few more months, preferably years, of getting to know my magic before I tried something like that. “I mean, no. I don’t think so. I got the unicorn spell from Lyra’s magic and the other two from the elements. So no… And I don’t think I can run them all at the same time either!”

I added the last bit as Pinkie raised a hoof. “Aww… but I thought mixing them together like a layer cake would make it work!”

“And alicorn is more than a layer cake, Pinkie,” Twilight groaned, rubbing her nose bridge.

“That’s correct,” Celestia agreed. “While we have the magic of all three tribes, an alicorn is something more, a true blend and harmony meld.”

“Like a chocolate almond raspberry cake?” Pinkie asked. “All good on their own, but put them together and it’s ever best-er! Like Black Forest cake! But that’s only two flavours… Marzapan? No… that’s still two… wow, this is harder than I thought!”

“Can we not make more cake comparisons?” Rainbow groaned.

“Okie-dokie!”

“While I’m sure my sister would prefer you did,” Luna smirked, earning a slight look of irritation from Celestia, “it is not an issue of importance. And that route is a potentially hazardous one.”

“Hazardous?” Lyra asked.

“Actually, considering the manner in which Caleb’s spells operate, it might even be deadly,” Twilight added.

“Of course it would,” I sighed, slumping unto the table. Twilight looked apologetic. I waved a wing at her. “No, no. It’s just been that kind of a… few days. Go on.”

“Well… with how drastic your spell subverts and reforms your metaphysical and physical form, without a precise balance between the spells, it could result in a dangerous, even fatal shift.” Twilight swallowed nervously when the princess’ attentions focused on her. “Then there is also the fact that while the spell doesn’t draw on a lot of your magic while it’s maintained, far below the amounts your naturally restore, there is a large draw at the time of casting, and using three might be cubing the requirements, rather than just being additive.”

“… Yep. Not trying that,” I reaffirmed. One thing after another.

“Moving away from that distressing topic,” Luna said smoothly taking control again. “Your pony form is, as I mentioned, nigh without flaw. Even more effective than my own transformation spells. Do you think you may be able to acquire a cutie mark?”

It was like I was struck with lightning and I bolted upright.

“Dude! What’s that for?” Spike yelped as my wing smacked him in the face.

“Luna…” I said distractedly. I couldn’t believe I forgot it happened.

“Princess,” Twilight corrected.

“Princess Luna,” I said, looking at the mare in question. He—I—had been right about one thing; it did eventually make it to the forebrain, even if it needed a prompt. But hindsight was tossing a lot of things into suspect. “Is there anything that can… enter your dream and head? I mean, aside from you?”

“There are a few,” Luna replied, the curious eyes of the others, excluding Celestia, of course, on her. “They are rare, but most avoid preying directly on active dreamers, but I have never noticed any around your dreams.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m pretty sure I… er… how to explain this?” I said, fumbling uncertainly. Where did I start? The more I thought about it, the more worried I got.

“Calm down and relax,” Celestia advised, floating a cup of tea over to me. “Take a few breaths and then let the words flow.”

I nodded and put a leash on my fears the best I could, gulping down some of the tea. “Gah! Hot!”

“Oh dear,” Rarity gasped, bringing a hoof to her mouth. “I don’t think he realized it was still that hot.”

“Gak… okay… I’m fine… alright… I got this…” I said, waving off Fluttershy, who looked ready to come over to me.

“You sure, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” Mostly. My tongue was smarting a bit. “Okay… I remembered what happened when I got hit with the Elements.”

“Hold up, didn’t you get knocked out when that happened?” Rainbow demanded.

“Kinda? I… ended up in an empty dream field and met with me and myself.” Their looked of disbelief annoyed me. “I’m not kidding! Another me. Two of them, pony and human. Devoted and Vincent.”

“You called a pony version of yourself Devoted?” Lyra snickered.

“Shut it…” I grumbled at her. Again with the stupid name.

“I see,” Celestia commented before Lyra could retort. “My sister and I were actually discussing your experience with the Elements and what they may have done to you. It seems they assessed you, and forced a self assessment. You quite literally had a chance to meet with yourself, an unveiling.”

That… would explain the details in the room that formed. There were a lot of memories on those walls. Celestia smiled at my expression. “Did you learn anything?”

“Actually, I did. I learned a lot, or at least realized a lot about how my magic works,” I admitted. I shook my head from the tangent. “Anyway, they were the ones to point it out to me and told me to mention it to you, Luna?”

Luna was doing her best to glare a hold through me, the groves in her horn glowing pale white and her eyes glittering. I started backing away, her soft voice stopped me. “How long?”

“I’m sorry?”

“How long?” Luna repeated slowly. “How long has this been going on?”

“I guess… for most of my time here?” I mused. I glanced down at my tea thoughtfully. “If it wasn’t for Vincent pointing it out, and your visits helping me realize what a dream felt like, I wouldn’t have noticed. But… I’ve had a lot of short dreams that I realize weren’t natural ones, as if something was affecting it. And there were a few thoughts and ideas I had that… I’m not sure were mine or not.”

There were a lot of times since I was practising magic that something said ‘just do it’. Sure, my magic ran on impulse, but was that really me speaking, or something else? “Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m really freaked out about it.”

“The Whisper…” Luna exhaled. The glow cut off abrupt. “I am sorry, but I must take my leave.”

Luna got up and quickly left the room, her billowing tail vanishing through the doors that quickly shut behind her. Celestia watched her go sadly, while the rest of us were just confused. Rainbow spoke up first. “Um… what just happened?”

“I’m afraid my sister is facing some sad memories,” Celestia admitted.

“I guess it’s something to do with that Whisper thing she mentioned?” Applejack asked.

“The Whisper’s story… is a long one,” Celestia said slowly. “Neither of us know where it came from, but we have seen evidence of it throughout the ages, moving from target to target, sometimes staying with one pony for years. Many ponies were driven to madness by it. Others to horrible actions.”

“But Princess, how did you find it?” Rarity asked.

“It eventually learned how to hide, but it was a few centuries before it was fully able to conceal its influence,” Celestia said with a sad smile. “We had though we defeated it at first, but then it reappeared…”

“What kind of horrible things?” Fluttershy asked softly.

“Too many to list, my little pony, but more concerning was that not all of it’s targets turned bad.” Celestia sighed. “But we found traces of it in some of the best and worse ponies we have known. Starswirl for one had its subtle mark, though we found it after it left it. But so did Sombra.”

“Sombra!” most of the others yelled. I say most because Twilight instead yelled, “Starswirl!”

“But what impacts her the most is that the worse that the Whisper led to.” Celestia paused for a moment and the anticipation built. “Nightmare Moon.”

-----

A stress headache was building and I kneaded my temples wearily. Decades. The Whisper had been in Luna’s head for decades, influencing her thoughts and emotions, fueling her frustrations and suspicions until the powerful Alicorn snapped.

Driven by years of pent up resentment magnified by the Whisper’s work, Luna used her negative and darker emotions to amplify her magic and power, transforming into Nightmare Moon. In a way, the Whisper’s intention backfired. Though blinded by her anger, she was no less canny, and found the Whisper, trapping it in a Dream Prison within her despite still lashing out.

Nightmare Moon, being Luna’s Empowered form, was strong than I, forcing me to turn the elements on her. For a fleeting moment the elements linked our minds and I realized that for all the Whisper’s twisted words, it had not been wrong in how I treated her. The Thousand Years was the Elements Punishment on all of us. Luna for letting her despair drive her down a dark path, the Whisper locked away with her as the Elements, improperly wielded, could not banish it from her, and myself, to be isolated to from the sister I loved yet spurned.

I had hoped that the Whisper was lost following my sister’s cleansing, but seems we were wrong about that…

After all the revelations and worries, I took a walk of my own. It was relaxing to be back in my human body after too long, and I aimlessly retraced some of the paths I had taken back when the Castle was still my place of residence, eventually ending up in the courtyards. Confused a bit exhausted, I found a tree to sit against.

I could see why Luna was upset. Something that did that to her suddenly turning up in one of your friends? I was considering asking her about it, but two things were working against me. First off, I wasn’t sure I wanted to bring up the bad memories any more than I already had. Then there was the fact that I hadn’t seen her since she rushed out.

So I was banking on the fact that I had only been in Equestria for a few weeks so I wasn’t likely to go insane. Celestia confirmed that the Whisper worked on its victim for years before the effects started showing. According to her, it was years before Starswirl started messing with spacetime.

That was the other part that worried me. The Whisper tended to push people towards that type of magic. Starswirl made time spells and apparently a dimensional banishment spell in his later years. Sombra rigged his entire kingdom to phase between dimensions when he lost. A few lesser know ponies did their own things too. There was apparently an earth pony that made a pool that instead of traversing dimensions pulled a flawed and temporary copy into yours.

Then insert me into the equation. A guy from another world arriving by the very same make this Whisper had been trying to get people to work out. A guy that caused scars across this world’s aether. A guy with a ‘key’ to the magic residue clinging to those same scars. A guy who seemed to still have the basics of the spell he used to throw himself between worlds imprinted in his magic.

“Caleb?”

I looked up, wiping tears from my eyes which Lyra looked on in concern. “Hey, Lyra. Didn’t I say I needed some time by my self?”

“You did,” Lyra said as she sat down beside me, facing the same direction I was. “But I decided it would be better you have a friend with you.”

“Really…” I deadpanned. “A friend is going to help?”

“You just found out that a freaky forgotten evil spirit has been haunting you,” Lyra pointed out. “You really think I would leave you alone right now?”

“Yes, the same thing that caused Luna to flip from ‘protect my subjects from the things that go bump in the night’ to ‘Omnicidal Maniac’,” I commented bitterly, pulling a knee to my chest and twiddling a finger in the air. “A little friendship? What’s that gonna do?”

“A little friendship is what let Twilight and the others flip Princess Luna back,” Lyra grinned. I opened my mouth but closed it reluctantly. Lyra continued. “It also defeated the spirit of chaos, helped reform him later and patched up the hole in reality in the forest.”

“Fine! You’ve made your point,” I groaned. Jeeze. I couldn’t even mope properly. Which was a good thing, I guess. Sometimes you really needed someone to break you out of a funk. Or at least help hold your head over the water. “Friendship can solve all sorts of issues here. Whoopie.”

“Glad you see it my way,” Lyra laughed, bumping my shoulder playfully.

“Where are the rest of the girls and Spike anyway?” I grumbled.

“Still in the room talking with Princess Celestia some more,” Lyra replied. “I told them I would keep you from doing something stupid.”

“Cheeky. Now that you’ve ruined my brooding session,” I sighed, rolling my eyes at her, “I suppose you have something you want to do?”

“Maybe,” Lyra teased.

“Lyra…”

“I want to see the breach.”

“Huh?”

“The thing you came here through,” Lyra waved a hoof in the air in a vague wavering line. “I want to go see it.”

“Sure,” I shrugged, pushing myself upright. “Not like I have anything better to do… I should actually check up on it myself. See if it feels anything like the forest did.”

“Lead on, Devoted,” Lyra grinned.

“Shut it…”

-----

“I’m sorry, but this is a restricted area,” the guard said for the forth time. The princesses really improved the watch on the breach. A wall had been build around it from plant life, but I could sense the magic energy thrumming from it. More surprising to me was the fact that it wasn’t the twinkling I’d come to expect from unicorn magic. I had to focus a bit more to pick it up, but it was a steady beat. Earth Pony magic?

But back to the guard. There had to be a way, oh, right! I smirked at him. “You know who I am, right?”

The guard blinked. “Of course. Caleb, human ambassador.”

“Perfect! Then you should know I have full access to all research relating to the breach.” I pointed to the entrance behind him. “Which includes the breach itself.”

He blinked but sighed. “Okay, fine. But what about her?”

Lyra was grinning excitedly beside me, a grin that only widened when the guard nodded in her direction. I grinned too. “Miss Heartstrings is my assistant.”

“I’m sure she is,” the guard muttered, rolling his eyes. He did step aside though. I thanked him and we slipped in. They wall of topiary hedged in a small clearing, various tents set up, each one protecting some piece of equipment or another. There were a few ponies who looked up at us in surprise, but I focused Lyra’s attention on the thin rippling line in air above us.

“So… is that it?” Lyra said, sounding disappointed.

“It’s a crack in the sky,” I said with a bit of incredulity. “What were you expecting?” I grumbled a bit and opened up my magic senses. After a few moments of focus; I was able to find something in the air, but it was much fainter and less abrasive than the one in the forest. Since it seemed louder in one specific direction, I wandered towards it.

“The one in the forest was a glowing mark, something like that. All dramatic like,” Lyra proposed.

“Celestia did say this one was contained,” I commented distracted. It was weird, the sound was strongest in one particular area, and just moving from one side to another had noticeable effects.

“I guess boring means safe,” Lyra sighed. She looked at my antics curiously.

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear,” one of the unicorns said, walking over nervously. “But where you involved with the Forest Incident?”

I smiled slightly as I caught Lyra’s slightly haughty expression in the cover of my eye. She nodded at him. “We both were.”

“How exciting!” He quickly started chatting with her, trying to get as much information from her as he could. Her expression quickly shifted from pride to confusion and finally frazzled distress. I snickered and pulled out my phone to take a few pictures of the breach.

“It’s not picking it up as well as I’d like, but maybe I can fiddle with it on the laptop…” Actually, I hadn’t put the pictures I took in the forest on the computer yet either. Since then was as good a time as any, I booted it up and started turning on the phone’s connectivity, kept off to preserve as much battery as I could.

“Caleb, help?” Lyra said plaintively. Glancing over, I burst out laughing. Three more ponies at surrounded Lyra and they all seemed to have a strong professional interest in her at the moment.

“You wanted to come,” I snickered. My laugher died in throat when I spotted the notification on the phone. One that I hadn’t seen since waking up in Equestria. A pop up alert with warning.

Mobile Service connection weak. Calls may not be possible.