1 - Waking up for the first time, for the second time.
Everything had been blurry for a while.
I tried to make sense of my fragmented memories and mind, while the world seemed to roll by.
I remembered going for a trek through the forest on my steed, Brunjahk.
I remembered something jumping out of the brush and being thrown off his back.
And then I remembered... pain, lots of that, for a short while, and then silence.
The silence lasted quite a while, until it was filled with something new.
Noises, or perhaps, voices?
They sounded alarmed, worried and a bit scared.
Time passed and the voices changed.
They sounded more relaxed, warm and annoyingly patronizing.
The blur had been disappearing slowly overtime, and my mind seemed somewhat less like a pile of shattered glass.
But by the singing rivers of Marinduur, those voices were ridiculous! Did they think me a wee child or something?
More time passed and the voices changed again, becoming less annoying, which was a relief.
It was on a calm evening when I finally got some clarity.
The blur faded and for the first time in what seemed an eternity I felt real again, alive again.
I also felt stupendously strange.
My entire body felt... off, somehow, but at the same time it also felt completely natural.
It was an enigma I wouldn’t stand for any longer, so deciding to find out what the hell was going on, I opened my eyes.
That was my first mistake.
A barrage of colours assaulted my senses as I tried to make sense of my outlandish surroundings. The ceiling was incredibly high and seemed to be made of some kind of glistening stone. The walls seemed to be made of the same stone, though that lost its significance as the act of looking to the side to see them had made me aware of my immediate surroundings.
I was in a bed, a bright pink one, if my eyes weren’t fooling me.
Had my mind not been trying to grasp the completely preposterous proportions of my peculiar surroundings, I would imagine that I would have been surprised by that, but as it were Emotions were a tick lower on the priority list. Right below trying to keep my mind from shattering back into the abyss.
So. I was in a room with a very high ceiling of glittery rocks, and I was in a bed, ok what else?
Oh yes, and I was also a horse.
…
'Wait, Come again?'
I blinked. Bringing my hand up to my face, except it wasn’t my hand, it was a white, slightly pinkish hoof...
I repeated the action with my other hand, and low and behold, got the same result.
I blinked again.
There I sat for a straight 10 minutes trying to wrap the tattered remains of my broken mind around those observations.
My mind acknowledging after a while that, that was not gonna happen just yet, decided to probe for further information.
I slowly brought a hoof to my face, which wasn’t my face.
Soft cheeks, muzzle and the works.
While poking my face I managed to catch a curl of hair and tentatively brought it down in front of the eyes, that weren’t my eyes.
It was kind of a warm blue, and had a streak of teal in it.
'Ok.'
If you could read thoughts, you would probably be getting tinnitus from the loud and slow cranking of gears in my mind.
Said mind, still not being able to grasp the reality of the situation, suggested further investigation.
Carefully bringing my hand down to the duvet draped over me, I gingerly moved it aside, like one would peel a bandage off a festering wound.
Underneath was the body of a very small, and very disfigured horse.
Sharing the same colour as the two hooves that occupied the space where my hands should be and tinting into a slightly darker pink some places.
'Alright then.'
‘So’. My brain began as it did the closest thing it could, to considering these pieces of information.
‘Glittery stone room, pink bed, deformed pinkish horse body, Slight headache and definite shock.
anything else?’
No? Good.
And with that, my mind shut down for maintenance and I promptly collapsed on the bed.
It was a beautiful morning in the Crystal empire.
The sun was shining brightly on the crystal castle, and the resulting reflection caused a magnificent radiance to illuminate the city.
The citizens were going about their business, going to work, going to school and enjoying their days off to the best of their ability.
While the citizens were going about their morning, the royals in the castle too began to stir from their restful slumber.
Princess Cadence made a guttural grunt as she forced her eyes open. As beautiful a morning it might have been, it didn’t make up for the undeniable fact that she was just in no way a morning pony.
Smacking her lips slightly, she looked over to her husband.
Shining was laying haphazardly next to her with a comic book over his eyes, whilst making some kind of unholy sound that would be considered impressive for an Ursa Minor.
With a small smirk, she wriggled her way over to him and lazily nuzzled into his neck.
“Wakey wakey sweetie” she said lovingly, and a bit too loudly, you know, to drown out the demonic phenomenon that was Shinings snoring.
With a choked snort and a comic-book sent flying he shot upright.
“WHuaa, Wuh, wat?!” he shouted in alarm, before calming down at the sight of Cadence’s raised brow and amused smile.
“Oh hehe, sorry about that” he chuckled, scratching his neck. “Good morning”.
“Good morning, honey” Cadence giggled lightly and began nuzzling the now much calmer and less noisy stallion.
“Sleep well?” he asked, wrapping his arms around his wife and returning her nuzzles.
“Well enough, you?”
“Like a rock,” he quipped with a smirk.
They both just lied there in each other's embrace for a while. Until Cadence who was almost beginning to nod off again, noticed something missing.
“Hey, Shiny, where is Flurry?” Cadence asked with a curious and ever so slightly worried expression.
“Oh Flurry? She’s sleeping in her own room. She said something about feeling a bit hazy last night and something about how my blow-horn impression really wouldn’t help much in regards to that,” Shining answered, eyes flitting back and forth ever so slightly.
Cadence raised her eyebrow a bit and gave Shining a deadpan look.
He instantly succumbed. “Okay, okay, she said that she had a headache and that I sounded like an angry fart machine when I slept!”
Cadence gave him a serious look, for like 5 seconds, before breaking into snickers.
Shining joined in shortly after, and for a moment they just enjoyed each others company.
Nothing lasts forever however, so with a stretch and a yawn Shining crawled out of the bed.
“Welp, I’m gonna go ask the cooks to get started on breakfast!” Shining beamed and sent a little air kiss to Cadence before heading out. “You two just come down when you’re ready!” He shouted from the hallway.
With the room and the warm bed now all to herself, Cadence was on the precipice of succumbing to the unmerciful claws of sleep again. But through sheer determination and will, she managed to slump her way out of bed. Clunking down to the floor with an audible thud, she made her way over to a mirror and set to work making something decent out of the thing that could be mistaken for her mane.
Okay, it wasn’t that bad really, her mane looked fine enough. Cadence just had the privilege of being one of the ponies with a bedmane that resembled a porcupine more than anything else.
After a short while of making herself somewhat presentable, which by most ponies standards was probably more than they would do for the Grand Galloping Gala, she walked out the door and down towards her daughters room, feeling much more awake after her little morning ritual.
She reached the doors of her daughters room and put her ears up against them.
It was a bit of a redundant thing to do, as the doors were considerably thick, and her daughter didn’t actually sound like an angry fart machine when she slept, but it was a habit by now.
Hearing nothing she opened the doors quietly and tiptoed over to the little filly.
Flurry Heart was still sound asleep, though she seemed to have thrown off her covers during the night.
Cadence just watched her for a bit. She was ridiculously cute when she was sleeping, no loud snoring, a tiny bit of bedmane, probably got that from her mother, and this serene little smile.
‘Well, as much as I could just keep watching that cute little face, we probably shouldn’t keep Shining waiting too much longer right?’ Cadence thought to herself and carefully picked Flurry Heart up with her magic.
Flurry had grown up quite a bit since she was a foal, and was pretty big even for a filly her age. Sadly this meant that Cadence couldn’t cradle her anymore, but it didn’t stop her from cuddling up real close with her.
Sitting down near a mirror, she placed Flurry down in front of her and gently began brushing her mane.
After a minute or two of this, the sleepy filly slowly began to wake up.
“Good morning, Flurry,” Cadence said with a smile.
Flurry, still quite drowsy replied with a groggy, “gm-morgningg.”
“Did you sleep well?” Cadence asked, still fixing up the filly’s mane.
“Mmgn -” Flurry yawned a mighty yawn “- no... not really, no.”
Cadence looked a bit surprised at that. Flurry usually slept quite well, took after Shining on that front.
“Oh, How come?” - Cadence put away the mane-brush and brought out a smaller brush for her coat, and went to work with it - “Did it have something to do with that headache Shining told me about?”
“Mrgn,” Flurry replied intelligently, “Just had a nightmare, I guess.”
Now that was definitely strange, Flurry hadn’t had a nightmare in years, at-least not anything to warrant unjust sleep.
Cadence stopped brushing and scuttled a bit closer to comfort the filly, practically enclosing her with a hug. “Do you wanna talk about it?”
She couldn’t see Flurry’s face, but she felt her tense up ever so slightly against her skin.
Flurry muttered something that could have been an answer, if it could have been understood as anything other than unintelligible mutters, that is.
“It’s okay if you don’t wanna talk about it, you know, but I’m here if you do” - Cadence resumed her brushing, though she was almost finished by now - “Though it always helps me to talk with somepony when I’ve had a nightmare,” she said in an assuring tone.
“I… You’d laugh if I told you,” said Flurry in an admittedly much more comprehensive, if not, quiet voice.
Now where did that come from? “What if I promise I won’t laugh?”
The Little, big, filly seemed to ponder that for a few seconds before slowly nodding into her mother's chest.
“I… It sounds right silly, but I dreamt that I was this wee little pinkish horse thing, in some sorta strange glittering rock cave or something” - Flurry shivered - “And I was laying In this bright pink bed, and I had bluish hair and I...“
Flurry had stopped mid sentence as she had made the mistake of looking up at her mother while trying to explain.
Cadence tried to suppress a giggle the best she could, but didn’t quite succeed, “Well ok, you’re right sweetie, that is a bit of a silly ‘nightmare’.”
Turning Flurry around so she could see the mirror, she put down her brushes and gave a satisfied nod. “But hey! I’m sure it’s nothing a pair of your favourite strawberry waffles with extra maple syrup wouldn’t fix, right?” Cadence smiled, content that they were both presentable and ready for a good wholesome breakfast to start off the day.
Only thing was that, Flurry Heart wasn’t ready. She wasn't even close.
A shocked expression spreading across her face as she came to the realisation, that it wasn't a dream.
And so with that, Flurry heart let out a panicked Girly scream.
though in her defence, she actually did let out a very manly scream. She just happened to have the body of a filly, while doing so.
The filly’s scream startled Cadence quite a bit, as she let out a surprised yelp as well.
Flurry continued screaming, whilst backing away as quickly as possible from Cadence, as best she could with her fumbling legs and outstretched wings.
“Flurry! Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Cadence called out with panic and worry etched in her features.
The filly didn’t stop until she felt herself bump into something, which prompted her to look to the side.
That’s when she saw her wings, enormous as they were. The doctor had suggested that she might grow into them with age, but as no one really knew anything about naturally born alicorns, it had been a guess at best.
She stared at the strange, huge appendages for a moment, and then slowly her voice began to rise into a scream again.
This time Cadence was ready however and began carefully walking towards her daughter.
She didn’t understand what had the filly in such a panic, but whatever it was, she was going to do her best to help her with it, she just needed to calm her down enough for her to tell what was wrong.
She was a few steps away from flurry, gently trying to assure her that everything was ok, when Flurry must have felt that she was getting a little too close for comfort, as a golden light sprung to life in front of her, cutting off the corner with the frantic filly inside.
The barrier itself seemed to only have stressed out the already panicking filly even more, as she opened her mouth to scream again, though it was completely muffled by the golden barrier this time.
Cadence was at a loss of what to do, but knew that she had to do something fast, this had the starting signs of what could potentially lead to a magical surge and even with her inhibitor gear, those didn’t usually end well.
Thinking through what she could do, an idea, that should have seemed rather obvious in hindsight, made its presence known.
With a light blue glow from her horn and a flash she was on the other side of the barrier in front of Flurry Heart. She quickly swept her into a hug and tried to calm her down. “Shh, there there sweetie, it’s okay, you’re okay,” she softly cooed, while petting her back gently. “I’m here, you’re ok.”
Flurry struggled to get free for a while, but eventually began calming down.
Cadence just continued to hold the little filly, saying assuring things as she felt her calm down more and more.
After a while Flurry Heart was just sitting still, leaning into her mother for comfort.
It felt right, somehow. Even if her mind was still screaming at her about how everything else was completely wrong.
Strange sensations, memories, and other things she couldn’t even begin to describe, bombarded her mind from all angles and left her with no reprieve.
It was too much, all the emotions that the shock had numbed the previous night, were washing over her like a flood now.
And so she did the only thing that felt right at that moment.
Hearing a quiet sob Cadence peeked down at the filly in surprise.
She could feel her coat moisten a bit as the filly sobbed quietly into it.
A worried frown on her face she held the filly a little closer with her wings and began humming a little lullaby.
They sat there for long moment, though it seemed longer still to the both of them.
The barrier had faded and flurry had stopped crying after about the 9th minute.
“Better?” Cadence asked gently with a small smile as she looked down at Flurry Heart.
Flurry was just about to look up at Cadence to answer, but stopped abruptly, after realising something strange.
She was, kind of better…
But… how?
why?
Cadence’s coat, though a bit moist, was warm and soft, and the little lullaby she had hummed was calming. She didn’t know why, but for some reason it made her feel safe… somehow.
The oddly familiar, witchcraft using, hair brushing, pink coated horse who was hugging her. Made her feel safe…
Flurry’s breathing steadily became more frantic the more she thought about it.
Something was wrong, something was very wrong.
She should have no idea where she was, but at the same time the room she was in seemed eerily familiar. She shouldn’t be calmed by the appeasing acts of some strange horned pegasus, but at the same time she couldn’t help but to lean into her for comfort.
She shouldn’t even be here. Why was she here, why was she a pegasus?
More and more questions flooded her head, as her mind went into a frenzy.
Cadence began getting worried when flurry hadn’t answered or said anything for more than a minute. The fact that the filly seemed to be breathing kind of erratically didn’t help either.
Just as she was about to ask what was wrong, she felt herself surrounded in some kind of aura.
She wasn’t a horse, she wasn’t here, this had to be some kind of hallucination or fever induced nightmare. It just had to be. It couldn’t be real.
No.
Just no.
As her mind reached one single conclusion she let out a bellow letting Cadence and quite possibly everyone in the castle know exactly what she thought.
“NO!”
Cadence cringed at the sheer volume of the shout before being thrown out of the room and landing with a gentle thud, outside the doors.
She heard a slam as the doors were shut closed and a low hum as a golden light encased them.
And with that, Cadence was left to wonder and worry, just what the hay was going on.
Confused and slightly dazed she tried the door just to make sure, before quickly heading off to find Shining and Sunburst.