Chapter 1: The Aforementioned Companion Combustion.

View Online

Nightmare Moon was laughing. I did it, the elements are no more, and now the night will truly last forever! So convinced was she of this fact that she let her guard down, and didn't notice the approaching voices of the new friends of the foal who thought she could beat her. Twilight turned around to face Nightmare once more, confidence filling her eyes and pulling her lips into a smile as she spoke.

"You think you can destroy The Elements of Harmony just like that?" Nightmare looked down at the young unicorn, confused by her change in demeanor, "Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here."

Suddenly, on both sides of the mare her friends filed in. Nightmare took in the sight, confused as to how those confounded stones had anything to do with the group before her. That is, until the shards of those stones glowed faintly with harmonic power, picking themselves up and flying over to the mares either side of Twilight.

She continued. "Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of... Honesty!" Orange glowing crystals surrounded her, glowing brighter. "Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of... Kindness!" Pink crystal shards drew closer to the shy mare. "Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of... Laughter!" Blue stones swirled around the pink pony, she struck a pose that would have made the Nightmare chuckle under different circumstances.

Oh you have got to be kidding me, Nightmare thought.

"Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift represents the spirit of... Generosity!" The white mare was surrounded by the deep purple remains of the shattered element, she had a slightly sad look in her eyes. "And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of... Loyalty!" Red shards encircled the pegasus.

You can't be serious! Nightmare screamed internally, but Twilight pressed on.
"The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us."

No no no, NO! this can't be happening, there has to be something I can- that's it! "You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!" Perhaps her efforts weren't for nought?

Twilight went on. "But it did!" Her mouth curved into a smile. "A different kind of spark." she turned to her friends and continued. "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all... are my friends!" Nightmare could feel the harmonic magics increasing, "You see, Nightmare Moon," the wordy mare continued, but Nightmare was no longer listening. Instead she was reaching out with her magic into the shadows, for something, anything to shield herself with; she was not about to just stand there and be banished to the moon for another thousand years!

The sixth element appeared over the group, floating lightly down over Sparkle, the presence of all six elements seemed to loosen any grip Nightmare had on the shadows, and the various things that dwell within them.

No! no no no no! Nothing on Equis can save me now! Nightmare thought as she shielded her eyes from the blinding light. Wait... nothing on Equis... it's worth a shot! Nightmare Moon reached further, much further than she had before. The magic was old, and she remembered it poorly, so it took a great deal more magic than it should have, but it was her only chance! Reaching into the shadows of the night on another world she searched with a claw of solid shadow to grasp something to defend herself with. The unlucky creature would probably die, but she didn't care, she would escape in the confusion and make a new plan. Celestia wouldn't be held for long, and with both the full set of the elements of harmony and her sister, placing her back on the moon would prove an easy feat, and she would be stuck there, alone...

Peter flopped down onto his bed, stretching slightly before getting comfortable. His dormmate was at his computer watching a show, from what he could tell, it entailed magical horses. He, Dillon, had tried to get Peter to watch it, but it simply didn't strike him as all that entertaining. He settled in for the night on his side and closed his eyes. He soon felt sleep pulling at the edge of his consciousness, he opened his eyes to make one last check of the room. Dillon had a bad habit of not locking the door before he turned in.

The first thing Peter noticed was that, indeed the door was unlocked. He internally sighed and moved to get out of bed. The second thing he noticed was that his arm didn't listen to him, and he stayed in bed. He tried the other one, no response.

Huh, well that's odd, he thought, trying to wiggle his toes, they didn't move. Is this that sleep paralysis thing I read about on the internet? Huh, cool. Never experienced it myself. He mentally smiled at the novelty, for his muscles weren't about to let him actually do so.

He looked around the room, noting that his night vision was in full swing. He could hear the sounds of everything so clearly, the dialogue of the show on the laptop, the party going students outside. I really thought art school would have less parties than the stereotype, boy was I wrong. other than that, it was peaceful.

And the article said it was supposed to be some horrifying experience, this is nice! He laughed internally. Just then he saw something move in the corner of the room. A pitch black clawed hand slowly snaked from the shadows. Oh, shit! Me and my big... thoughts?

Peter was now frantically trying to move, but the hand wasn't after him. It was heading for Dillon, still sitting at the computer. Peter was trying to scream, to warn him, but his body wouldn't listen. He watched helplessly as the hand came to rest on his roommates shoulder, drumming it's clawed fingers. After a moment it slid off him, shaking in a way that almost seemed to say 'Not this guy' to Peter's relief.

Followed up by horror as the hand turned to "face" him, it clenched a few times moving like a serpent as it stretched across the floor to him. He felt his vision blur with tears, the hand rested on his face, scratching its claws on his temples.

It shivered with what Peter thought was wicked delight and he swore he could hear faint cackling. The monster hand released its grip on Peter's skull and centered itself above his chest. It dove into his chest like it would pass through water.
What the f-?

It suddenly reared back dragging a blue and white wispy thing with it.
What in the he-!!

Suddenly his vision blurred and faded to nothing, the next thing he knew he was struggling in the giant hand's grasp as it retreated into a small glowing hole in the shadow it came from.

What's happening! Is that a portal?! Did it just rip out my SOUL!?!? He screamed, struggling to break free, he looked behind his ethereal self to see his body, perfectly still. And that was the last thing he saw before the assumed portal closed with a pop.

Nightmare Moon was pulling with all the magic she had left, hoping that whatever she had managed to grab would save her. It has to, that was the one requirement I put into the spell!

As the rainbow beam arced into the air, the claw came into Equis before her. Releasing its prize, a small white whisp, the claw disappeared.

This is it? This will save me? What even is it?

Nightmare wasn't left much time to ponder the strange ethereal object's effectiveness as the rainbow had reached the peak of its ark and was now falling down upon her. Grasping the whisp in her magic she held it before her in an attempt to shield herself.

... Where am I? Peter wondered. Before him was a pitch black horse-thing with the night sky for hair. That... that can't be right, that sounds insane. He thought, and judging by how quickly the horse-thing, Oh, it's got a horn? Unicorn-thing then? Anyway, the blinking motion is taking forever, so the world must be moving in slow motion, he thought. What ever had happened to him was weird, because he could now see in 360°, but because the human mind isn't meant to experience such things it felt more like he was able to turn his "head" in any and all directions effortlessly. He could feel light at what was currently the rear of his perception, so focusing on it he saw what was both humorous and terrifying. A rainbow was descending in his direction. The rainbow was coming from, and possibly being generated by, a group of six more, smaller horse-things. Upon closer inspection, and as the rainbow got closer, it was, fortunately, not actually heading for him, but the unicorn-thing behind him. It touched down at its feet, hooves? And began swirling around the thing. But much to Peter's chagrin, upon its third spiral upward the would-be tornado changed paths and began funneling into Peter's ethereal form, much to the surprise of everyone in the room.

Why do I keep getting targeted by all the weird things today!? Peter screamed. What the hell was that rainbow!? And why does everything taste li- He was cut off, because apparently he was unable to contain the full rainbow-death-laser-thing for very long, and he promptly exploded in a rainbow nova. As he faded from consciousness the last thing he remembered was feeling cold stone on his stomach.

The group of mares slowly came back to their senses, "Ugh, my head" Rainbow was the first to speak, followed by Applejack.

"Everypony okay?" she asked her friends.
"Oh, thank goodness!" Rarity exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention.

"Why Rarity, it's lovely." Fluttershy said in a half-whisper.

"I know! And I'll never part with it again!" Rarity said, jubilant.

"No, your necklace, it looks just like your cutie mark." Fluttershy clarified.

"What?" Rarity looked down at the gilded necklace that had found its home on her, the purple diamond shape displayed proudly. "Ooh. So does yours." Fluttershy gasped, looking down at her complimentary accessory.

Pinkie Pie bounced into view, chanting "Look at mine! Look at mine!" Clearly proud of hers, then bounced off toward the far wall.

"Aw yeah." Rainbow Dash exclaimed, with her red lightning bolt necklace on display.

AppleJack looked to the crowned unicorn, "Gee, Twilight! I thought you were just spoutin' a lot of hooey, but I reckon we really do represent the elements of friendship."

Before anyone could respond, a voice came into the room, followed by the light of dawn, "Indeed you do." said the disembodied voice. The sun rose quickly and then, in a flash of light, appeared Princess Celestia.

Everyone bowed before her, save for Twilight, whom trotted over to her teacher and received a hug. "Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I knew you could do it." Twilight looked up at Celestia with mild confusion.

"But... you told me it was all an old pony tale." Twilight said.

"I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more." Celestia countered, "I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well... Princess Luna."

All eyes turned to the blue alicorn mare, lying surrounded by shattered armor before the dais. She gasped, not meeting the princesses eyes. "It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us." The princess lied down beside Luna. "We were meant to rule together, little sister."

"Sister?" Rainbow Dash and Twilight said in unison.

Celestia stood back up. "Will you accept my friendship?" She asked, her voice hopeful.

The Elements of Harmony all leaned forward as far as they could in anticipation, causing Pinkie and her new procurement to tip over.

Luna gave only a moment's pause before jumping up to embrace her sister. "I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!"
The royals embraced with tears in their eyes.

"I've missed you, too." Celestia said, with tears of joy.

Pinkie blew her nose, followed by streams of water cascading from her closed eyes. A split second later and she was back to her usual chipper self. "Hey, you know what this calls for?" Pinkie asked with a bounce in her step, garnering everyone's focus. "A Party!!" she cheered, jumping up into the air, "for our two new arrivals! Let's go!" She said before landing and heading out the door, drawing everyone's attention to the bundle on her back.

Twilight was the first to ask. "Uhh, Pinkie?" She called to the party pony who just stepped out the door.

"Yes Twilight?" Pinkie replied from behind her.

Twilight managed to contain her surprise."Wh-what do you have there?" She asked pointing a hoof to the blanket on her back, a lock of pale blue hair poking out of it.

"Oh! Well they're sleeping, but I figured we should take them back to Ponyville!" Pinkie said in her usual chipper tone.

"Uh, who?" Rainbow asked Pinkie with a raised eyebrow and a pointed hoof.

"Oh you guys haven't met them yet, right!" Pinkie Pie put the bundle down in front of Twilight, to reveal a light purple colored foal.
they had a pale blue mane, their cutie mark appeared to be six grey full circles spaced evenly. But the oddest part of their appearance were the patches of color on their hooves, and streaks of vibrant colors in their mane and tail. "Allow me to introduce you to-! Oh wait, I should let them introduce themself, hehe~" she rubbed the back of her head.

"How did a foal even get out here?" Fluttershy asked in normal volume, for which she apologized afterward for shouting.

Rarity scooped up the strange foal clicking her tongue "This mane is atrocious! It's like its never even been brushed! and their tail!" The white mare paled and nearly fainted. "I-I-I simply must correct this!" With that she plopped the foal on her back and trotted back towards Ponyville.

The Elements of Harmony, sans Pinkie, were accompanying the princesses back to town, Twilight was busy inspecting their unknown tag-along. The vibrant splashes had faded to a degree, along with her stripes, save for two shades of purple which were as bright as ever, that alone was worrying, but what was truly concerning was the slowly growing crystal embedded in their forehead. Twilight was unsure as to how they could have gained such an anomaly, but it was growing by the minute. At first it seemed to be nothing more than another odd splash of color, but it had now progressed to a few quarter inch crystals that were fusing together and growing in thickness. No spell she used seemed to dampen their growth, if anything it made them faster.

Once the group made it back to Ponyville, they were greeted by Pinkie Pie and the party she had organized in the time it took them to get back. Fluttershy picked the foal up off Rarity and informed the group that she was going to take the child to the nurse.

Fluttershy handed the foal over to Nurse Redheart, and, after a brief explanation of where they found them, she left the foal in her care and returned to her friends.

Nurse Redheart performed a few standard tests on the foal, and had the protrusion on her head magically scanned, but from what the tests showed, they were just an earthpony with a severely underdeveloped Gaean duct. "Where did you come from?" she asked the unconscious pony.

The nurse sighed and walked out of the room. "I hope she's gonna be ok." And with that she quietly closed the door.

Chapter 2: Why Does Everything Taste Like Friendship

View Online

Peter-, he, no that's not right, I? I woke up slowly, shaking my head. That was an odd dream, and what's with me referring to myself in the third person? I heard what sounded like crumbling coming from above me, and felt something light and flakey accumulating on my forearms. I opened my eyes, and to my confusion, I saw light blue flakes of something raining from my forehead, now wrinkled in confusion, which seemed to only dislodge more of them. Oh great, someone smashed some candy on my forehead, again... I sighed, stupid college parties, friggen Alex. I grumbled.

I shifted about on my bed clenching my fingers as I yawned. I could swear I heard a light twinkling noise. I felt no response from my fingers, so I stoped mid motion, looking down at my hands, closer and clearer inspection revealed that it wasn't a blanket on my arms, those were my arms. I flexed my wrists to be certain. My arms- or forelimbs, I wasn't sure what they were at the moment- were responding to any signal I gave them that didn't go beyond the palm, and that particular muscle group also felt odd.

I shifted a bit more, worry possessing my features. That's when I noticed the position I was sleeping in. No way in hell a human could ever find this comfortable! I started, nearly toppling out of the bed when I tried to stand. I looked back over my shoulder, to my horror, I found that not just my arms had changed, my entire body was different

I began hyperventilating, clapping my once-hands to my face, only to feel pain at the action from my now-muzzle. I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I scrambled to hide myself amongst the covers. I took long calming breaths. Okay peter, okay, calm down, think about this rationally, evidence points to you no longer being human, that's bad. But! But, you're in a bed, not your bed, but a bed. Maybe people know what happened to me? It was now that I remembered the events of last night, and how there were a bunch of horse-things.

Some of those had horns, so those were unicorns right? But two of them were flying, what were those called again? Pogo...pegi... pega-sus? Pegasus! That sounds right. I managed to calm myself down in remembering some Greek mythos.

Now with a clearer head, I shook off the covers and tried to stand up again, the human way. Failing miserably I attempted to steady myself on all four of my limbs, with spades more success. I still wobbled a little, but with a bit of practice I could get used to walking like this in no time. I looked down at my forelimbs, my eyes drawn to the splashes of color on them, while my body appeared to be covered in Thistle purple fur, my left hand-foot-thing looked like it had been dipped in sky blue dye, and my right a cream orange. Curious if the pattern continued, I stuck my head between my forelegs to look at my back feet-things. The left one looked like I stepped in red paint, and the right was a purple hue.

I lifted my head, and caught a facefull of my new hair. Intially I mistook it for silver, but in truth it was an Alice Blue – Did I mention I'm an art student? – and Way longer than it was before. I raised a hand thing to brush it out of my eyes shakily, still getting used to quadrupedal balance.

I noticed that, at the end of my clinical quarters there was a mirror, so I carefully disembarked from my cushy platform and made my way over to it. Examining myself from third person made for little comfort. I found that my slate blue eyes had survived, mostly, the silvery highlights they once boasted had been replaced, from left to right, by blue and purple ones.

Emblazoned on my chest were pink and purple splashes in similar style to my legs. When I noticed that I was a bit more equine looking than I last remembered, I looked down to my hand-things. Guess that makes these hooves? I sat down on my haunches, mildly bothered by how comfortable it was. On top of my equine discovery I noticed that my hair – mane? – and new tail had streaks of faded colors in them aswell, the same as my body; 2 slightly different shades of purple, and blue for the tail, pink, orange, and red in the mane, but all of them were very faded. I look like a tye-dye shirt..., I noted bitterly. Emblazoned on my, pretty sure it's called a flank? We're six grey circles. The hell are these? I asked my head, pawing at them. They remained unchanged.

I sighed, having confirmed my senses of sight and touch still worked, I decided to do a full inventory. I took in a deep breath of air through my nose, and was nearly knocked to the ground by the intense smells that were apparently all around me, and I'm not sure what's more confusing, that I hadn't noticed them before or that my brain could pick out each one.

The flowers next to my bed in particular. They smelled quite appetizing, which worried me further. Moving on, I cleared my throat, and tried a simple, "Testi- wow." I cut off, surprised by the pitch of my voice. "Ehh, I sound wierd. Okay hearing might be a wash then, or my voice changed." Wouldn't surprise me at this point. I went back to mentally speaking with myself, because the off-putting voice that was apparently mine sounded a little too... girly.

Taste was a simple test, from smell I could all ready tell my diet had likely changed. Thanks to the flowers I had a viable subject. I pulled off a single petal, and before I could question how I had done that without fingers I put it on my tongue and chewed. I was expecting to find that the plant was disgusting, like any yahoo who took a bite out of a flower would find out. I was not expecting to be so overwhelmed by pleasant flavours.

Mind you it wasn't amazing, more like a potato chip than say, a steak dinner, but if you're expecting dirt and you get cheese crackers the flavour would be amazing too.

I sat back down infont of the mirror. Pulling my lips back revealed that I had indeed lost my canines, what I was left with was an herbivore's box shape of teeth. This, coupled with the taste test earlier, told me that I was definitely no longer omnivorous. My ears drooped at that, when I saw it in the mirror, put me off and made them droop further. Before I could get caught in that loop I turned away and practiced walking. I was not about to have tw-four left fe-hooves if I needed to make a break for it.

A few laps around the room later, a click sounded from the door. I froze and whipped around to face it. Poking it's head in the door was a white-furred pink-maned horse-thing. Their large eyes beheld me in confusion for a moment before they gasped and entered the room, "Oh young one you're awake!" She, if the voice was anything to go off of, exclaimed.

Judging by the size difference she has the right to call me such, I thought before replying awkwardly. "I, uhh, yeah?"

She nodded before gesruring to the bed. "While its good to see you up and full of energy, you've been out like a light for a week, don't push yourself." A smile parted her lips, and seemed oddly natural to see human facial expressions on a horse-thing. "Up you go missy, doctors orders."

I've been unconscious for a week!? That's so weird, it feels like only yesterday I... I, exploded? That sounds crazy... wait, what did she call me? I turned to look at her just as I reached the foot of the bed. "Uuum, what did you call me?" I repeated out loud.

The horse, I think female horses are called mares, gave me a puzzled look. "I'm sorry?"

I thought on how the medical professional could have possibly gotten my gender wrong, but thought better of correcting her. After all the other changes that I had gone through, supported by my high voice... I decided to shelve that thought for a future mental breakdown. "Nevermind," I said, jumping back up onto the bed again.

After I settled back down I decided to pry a bit of information out of her. "So, uh, miss?"

"Oh, my name is Nurse Redheart."

"Nurse Redheart, how did I get here?" Of all the possible questions this was atop the list. Find out how I got here, find a way back home.

Nurse Redheart's smile dropped only the slightest bit. "That's a bit of a difficult question, young one." She began, leaving me a bit miffed that I was being treated like a child. "Could you possibly tell me your parents' names, so I could get them over here and tell them?" She asked.

I let my posture slump a bit. How to approach this question? I was almost certain I had no parents in this world, and I was certain this was another world, what with the whole shadow claw thing and talking horses and what not.

I decided to just go with the truth. "My parents passed away a few years ago. But I can take care of myself. Now please, nurse, how did I get here?" As I half expected the mare gasped upon hearing my parents were dead. But instead of receiving information, I was pulled into a bone crushing hug.

"Oh you poor thing! To have to have gone through that at such a young age!" The nurse wept openly.

"But I said I was okay? I'm a..." How to word this? If I use the wrong term and it ends up being slang or derogatory I'll either get slapped or hugged tighter. "Big, pony..." I said carfully, seeing no bad reaction I continued. "And I can take care of myself." I stated calmly.
"It's okay little one you don't have to be brave for me, you can just let it out." The nurse said patting my back with her hoof, apparently having ignored everything I just said.

"But I-" I caught sight of myself in the mirror, tears were streaming from my eyes, and my breath was starting to hitch. "But I'm, okay with it." I said. It was almost a question, and more to myself than her.

"Honey you've been crying since I brought up your parents, I'm sorry, but it's okay." She reassured me.

Well then, that doesnt make any sense. I was never the kind who spilled tears so easily, especially when it's an old wound that had basically healed over. And yet here I was, exercising the ol' water works. Sure I missed my parents, they were my parents for crying out loud, but I moved on allready, so why was I...

I felt something shift in my chest, and somehow the tears streaming down my cheeks increased, I don't recall much of what happened after that but I know I woke up about an hour later if the sun was anything to go off of.

I opened my puffy eyes, rubbing them with my fi- oh, still hooves. Nurse Redheart had left sometime after I cried myself to sleep. Huh, I never thought that was an actual thing, I thought idly. The flower I had taken a petal off of was now in a plate in front of me. There was a note attached.
I opened it up to reveal nothing but unintelligible squiggles. I chalked that up to the whole doctors hand writing stereotype. I looked from the note, to the flower on the plate. Am I supposed to eat this?
As if in response my stomach let out a sound that was nigh cartoonish in volume.

I folded the note back up, logic was split on how to continue. My human experience told me. You don't eat flowers, are you crazy? But my experience from before told me. Well she did give us permission, we are hungry, and it does smell really good.

Mulling it over for a minute, I acquiesced, taking a bite out of the flower. If the petals were potato chips, then the flower itself was akin to a burger in terms of flavor strength and how much my horse taste buds liked it. It was very, very different from meat, but also really good.

After I swallowed the first bite, I stared down at the rest of the flower hungrily. One second later the rest of the flower was in my mouth. Upon finishing my snack I got up and stretched. My ar-forelegs screamed protest at the way I was attempting to do it, as I likely could break a bone or dislocate my shoulder doing it the human way. So I then tried stretching like a cat, that seemed effective.

Morning routine semi-complete, I set about confirming my fears. Jumping from the bed to the mirror, I made it about half way there in the leap, and nearly fell on my face. Note to self, avoid shortcuts till you have re-learned how to walk. Once before the mirror I turned around and shifted my tail out of the way. "W-well, I suppose th-that I know for sure at least..." I said, girly voice shaking. I was on the verge of tears again, so I decided to slap my cheek to pull my head out of-OW! Oh, right hooves, I just punched myself, wonderfull.

For some reason focusing on my hooves or the other changes my body went through seemed to take my attention away from the change between my legs. So I started pacing again. This would have gone on till I was tired, but I heard approaching fo-hoof steps and voices. I shot right back up onto the bed and went about looking asleep. "So she finally woke up? Thank goodness I was starting to worry she might not due to side effects of that crystal." An unkown, but strangely familiar, voice said.

"Actually Miss Sparkle, the crystal has all but broken down and fallen off, whatever was causing its growth before must have stopped. I heard a muffled Nurse Redheart say, definitely closer.

Curious I rubbed a hoof over my forehead, and was rewarded with a small pile of light blue flakes. "Is this what there talking about?" I whispered to myself. Before resuming my false-sleep, as I heard Redheart just outside the door.

"Just one second I'll see if she is awake, then you can ask her some questions, but don't bring up her-the topic we discussed," she said turning the door handle.
"I won't, promise, the poor dear." I heard Miss Sparkle say in a somber tone.

Nurse Redheart popped her head in the door, looking about the room. Eventually her eyes came to rest on me, I swear I could feel them looking at me despite my eyes being closed. The longer she looked at me, the more it made my right hoof itch, why that particular one I have no idea, but none the less it was annoying.

"Are you awake little one?" Feigning sleep was something I was good at, so was acting groggy, I exercised both. Rubbing my left eye with my wrist I opened it sleepily. "Sorry to wake you."
Deception successful, now if I could get my ha-hoof to stop itching that'd be great
"But one of the mares that brought you to us is here to see you." That snapped my attention to her fully.
Does she mean here as in the hospital, or here as in magical pony land? She opened the door fully, letting in a purple furred mare with a dark blue mane, with streaks of purple and raspberry in it.

"Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle." She said.
What's up with the names here? I looked to her flank, on it was a six pointed star with many white star shapes surrounding it. "...Hi" I said once I realized she was waiting for me to respond.

"Do you mind if I come in?" I shook my head.
I was staring hard at her face. Why does she look so familiar? I wondered. She smiled and made her way over to the bed, sitting down just beside it.

"Do you know where you are?" Miss Sparkle asked.

"I... A hospital?" I fumbled over the words. Curse my girly voice, ruining my social skills!
The mare smiled patiently. "That's right. Do you remember what happened?"

I just couldn't place her, she sounded familiar, looked familiar, but I swear I've never seen her in my-"You were at the castle." the words came spilling out of my mouth as realization dawned on me.

The mare looked genuinely supprised. "You saw me? Where were you in the castle? Did Ni-"

I cut her off, words still spilling from my mouth. "I was infront of the dark mare, then it was bright with colors. Then, when it went dark again, I exploded." I said in an even tone. Which surprised me, cause that sounds insane, like loony bin levels of crazy, and I had meant to keep that to myself.

Twilight gasped and raised a hoof at me. "You were in the middle of!" She looked at me with a very worried expression, which made my hoof itch worse, actually both my front hooves were itchy now, so I clapped them together and began rubbing them back and forth in an effort to dispel the irritation.
"It's alright, I'm fine. Everypony has a little explosion now and then~!" I said with a giggle, trying to make light of the situation. Wait Why did I say pony? Why did I giggle? And why does my mouth taste wierd?

To my itching hooves' displeasure her horror only seemed to deepen at my statement. "What!?" I felt a pressure building up in my forehead as well, today my new body just wasn't going to be nice to me I suppose.

"What what? I can't answer a question I don't understand, silly~" I laughed again, why was this so funny to me?

"Whats the matter miss Sparkle?" Redheart asked, in a worried tone.

Aw, not you too, now I've got two ponies I have to cheer up! I thought with a mental 'tsk tsk'.

"Are you okay?" Twilight half yelled at me, causing my ears to flinch back instinctivly,

"I'm okay, but could you be, a little... bleh." I turned my head to the side and stuck out my tongue. That wierd taste wouldn't go away, and I couldn't quite place it. "Sorry, I'm okay, just a wierd taste. Never eaten a flower before." I mused out loud, guessing at the flavour's origin. My statement seemed to calm them down and lessen the itch in my hooves.

"Never?" The two mares asked at the same time.
"Nope." I replied simply, "It's considered rude to the gardeners to destroy the decorations." Which was true I suppose. They seemed to accept this. "Was that all the questions?" I asked when they shared a look.

Twilight looked back at me. "Wha-no, it wasn't, could you tell me your name?" She asked, now that we were off that odd tangent.
Something dawned on me. Well crap, the name Peter, if I really am a girl, sounds really wierd. I tried to give the alias Patricia, but the thought made my hoof itch. So I started running through the list of girls names I knew till I found one that didn't bother my ha-hoof. After a moment's pause one name stood out to me, and it was by far the oddest choice, it didn't fit at all in the list, as I had never heard it before, but it seemed so... right.

"A-Argent."

Twilight had turned away from me and was asking Nurse Redheart if I had any signs of amnesia, she looked back at me now. "My name is Argent Accord." I stated, and I must say that was the best lie I ever told, because even I believed that was my name, for a second.

"Argent... it's very nice to meet you Argent." Twilight said, extending a hoof to me. I stretched out my own and pressed it to hers, after the brief contact she dropped her hoof back to the floor, I mirrored her. Nurse Redheart was scribbling something onto a chart, most likely the alias I gave them. "Well, that will be all for now. I'll be back later. Me and the girls are going out to lunch."

It's lunchtime already? I was bewildered, there no way I had spent that much time talking with her.
She stood up and smiled. "I'll be back later with a few of them, they'd like to say hello." I nodded and curled my tail around myself, that felt wierd and comfortable.

Apparently I was tired. I yawned, heard more twinkling, and said. "That'd be okay I suppose." They were looking at me funny again.

I cocked my head to one side. "What? Something in my teeth?" I asked.

Twilight shook her head and muttered. "Nothing, nothing, bye." And left with nurse Redheart.
I got another flower out of the vase, now that they were gone I was free to try and wash the taste of friendship out of my mouth. I paused mid bite. What did I just say that taste was?

Chapter 3: Guests, Tests And Surprises, Oh My!

View Online

After Twilight left, Nurse Redheart brought me something to eat. My meal consisted of what appeared to be a sandwich with flowers in it, along with a small bowl of air fried hay. The sandwich was better than my human experiences would suggest, its hard to describe. It was kinda like the vegetarian equivalent of a ham sandwich, but still delicious. And the fried hay was so close to French fries in flavour I wondered if this world had potatoes, or if hay had taken their place.

Upon finishing my meal and making sure I didn't have crumbs, I decided to practice walking a bit more. I was doing pretty swell if I focused on it. Every fifteen minutes or so, Nurse Redheart would poke her head in and tell me to get some rest. And so went my noon-time experience.

Before boredom could begin to set in, I heard a knock at the door. "Excuse me, miss Argent? Are you awake?" I heard an oddly posh voice say.

"Uh, yes?" I replied. Who is This now? My answer came in the form of a white mare opening the door. She had a purple mane and tail that she obviously put time into.

"Hello" she said, wincing slightly at the sight of me, which confused me. "My name is Rarity. It's nice to meet you."

I nodded. "The same to you. My name is Argent, but you seem to have already known that."

It was her turn to nod. "Yes well, Twilight told us a bit about you at lunch, so I thought I would stop by a little earlier than everpony else."

Rarity smiled at me, it was a smile tinged with something else. "Ok. Um, is something bothering you?" I asked, my head tilting automatically.

The tinge in her facial expression grew, even though the expression seemed to not change at all. "Why, whatever do you mean? I just came by to see if you were okay, and perhaps chat a bit?"

I nodded at her. "Okay... what do you wanna talk about?" I asked her, feeling the pressure from before starting to return.

"Well, for starters I was wondering, do you like your mane style?" She asked.

Wha? Why would she... is it cause I'm a..? I looked into the mirror, the "style" as she so generously labeled it was a tangled mess of bed head. "No?" I replied hesitantly.

Rarity's eyes gained a certain gleam. "And what of your wardrobe? Do you find it lacking?"

My head tilted the other way. "What wardrobe?" Whats the deal with clothes here anyway? Are the decorative? Represent status? Or your occupation? So far I hadn't really seen anyone wear more than a hat. "Where is this going?" I asked, even though I had a vague idea.

"Well, when you're allowed to leave I thought I could take you over to my boutique!" She exclaimed.

Aaand here's what she wanted. Shameless self promotion, got it. I cringed internally. "I dunno, I don't really like frilly, girly things." I responded before she could suggest it.

Rarity sighed. "Would you say no to me at least styling your mane a bit?"

I shook my head. "I-I don't have any mon-"

Suddenly she was right across from me, holding a hoof up to my mouth. "Its fine darling, why would I charge a pony with no bits?"

I looked back at the wall nervously a few times. "Uhh, sure then, if you're offering, I guess." She quickly trotted behind me, a hair brush suddenly appearing next to her. While I was maveling at the casual use of magic she put the brush to my mane.

"Never seen a unicorn before?" She asked sarcastically with a giggle.

I replied to the question seriously. "Not until recently, or magic for that matter." Apparently the action of having your mane brushed for you is extremely relaxing, I had to resist the strangely strong urge to coo at the feeling.

"So then I'm guessing you haven't ever used magic yourself?" She asked.

"I can use magic?" Was my response.

I could feel a quizzical look form on her face from behind me for a moment, but she moved on to explain. "But of course! Every pony can use magic. Unicorns are just best known for it. Pegasi can walk on clouds and make the weather. And earth ponies like yourself can make plants grow very quickly."

I blinked a few times. I can use magic? I thought while staring off into space. Rarity seemed to notice that and rephrased her question.

"You mean you've never witnessed magic? Not even your par-" Apparently I jumped at that, my new body not as ok with things as I was. Or maybe it was my child/pony brain? Regardless Rarity quickly changed her query. "Tell me, from what part of Equestria are you from?"

I furrowed my brow. "Where?" I asked.

Rarity paused the brushing. "Do you not remember?" Her voice laden with concern.

"No, I mean, what's Equestria?" I asked.

Apparently this shocked her, at least that is what her eyes were telling me. "You mean you've never heard of Equestria? Not ever?"

I was confused "N-no? Should I have?"

Rarity looked taken aback. "How could you not know? It's the homeland of ponies!"

I just looked at her. She continued "What about the princess, surely you've heard of princess Celestia. Even if you've never heard of Equestria somehow, you've surely heard of the one responsible for moving the sun around the sky?"

I blinked. "The princess does what with the sun?" Well, I've failed the basic knowledge test. I gotta learn when to keep my mouth shut.

I was thankful for the distraction that came next. Unfortunately it came in the form of a blue winged mare who came crashing through the open window, breaking the flower vase and generally scattering the room's contents. The pegasus groaned and opened her eyes, staring into mine. She stood up and rubbed the back of her head with a forehoof. "Hehe, sorry about that. You okay squirt?" I huffed and blew my annoyingly long hair off my face. She laughed nervously again.

"Honestly Rainbow, I can't believe you, this is a hospital!" Rarity chastised her.

"I said sorry." Rainbow replied. She offered me a hoof up, but I ignored it. Not because I didn't appreciate the gesture mind you, but because I was so new to being a quadruped that I just couldn't see getting up with three legs being better than getting up with four.

She actually seemed to appreciate that, "She seems fine, you're a tough filly aint'cha?"

I managed to keep my expression from souring, being called a child and reminded of my new gender in a single word, joy. "It'll take more than that ta keep me down." I returned.

The pegasus mare beamed at me. "Aw yeah! I knew it!"

"What'n tarnation is goin' on in here?" A country mare exclaimed as She tried to open the door, which was blocked by an overturned chair. Rarity picked up the blockage with her magic and set it back in its proper place.

A butter yellow pegasus came in through the window, not disturbing a single object in the room. "Oh my, is Everypony okay in here?" She asked in a half whisper.

"Girls what did you do?" Came Twilight's voice from the door.

Okay, it's getting a bit crowded in here I backed up on the bed. When I bumped into something that giggled I shot off the bed and stood like a peeved cat by the mirror, all while shouting. "Ah! How in th' hay did you get in here!" I shouted at the bouncy pink mare that had just, just, appeared on the bed behind me!

She was wearing the pillow like a hat. "Silly~ I came in with everypony else!" She said in a happy tone.

No. You. Did. NOT! I seethed internally.

Twilight sighed. "Well, looks like everypony is here." She looked around the space. "How about we go out to one of the waiting rooms were it will be a bit more comfortable?" She motioned for the room's occupants to follow her.

"Let's just go around the room and introduce ourselves." Twilight began. I was looking around the waiting room. It was very well furnished, and I wouldn't think twice about it if you told me this was some per-ponies' living room. "We've already met, but I'm Twilight Sparkle. I just moved to Ponyville to be with my friends and study friendship."

I nodded at her, a little unsure. Wait. Did she just say, "study friendship"? What the heck does that mean?

The orange country mare was next. "The name's Applejack. I live over at Sweet Apple Acres."

"Applejack" at "Sweet Apple Acres" hmmm? I wonder what your job could possibly be. I thought.

"Me an' ma family are apple farmers." She said to my expectation. "After you're better if'n your lookin' for a bit of excersize I could set you up with a tree or two." She offered, and the offer was quite enticing.

"My name's Rainbow Dash." The confident blue mare said.

I looked to her mane. I wonder why your parents named you that.

"I'm the coolest pony in Ponyville. I'm also on the weather team, and soon I'm gonna join the Wonderbolts!" She claimed.

The who? I resisted the urge to say, I don't need her fangirling over what sounds like a glorified weather force/and or sports team. "Awesome." I said instead.

Everyone looked to the yellow pegasus with a pink mane, which she was trying to hide behind. "Oh, my name is Fluttershy, it's nice to see your doing better." I strained to hear her, fortunately everyone seemed to hold their breath while she introduced herself. "Um, I take care of the animals in and around town." She finished barely more audible.

"That's a good profession" I complimented.

The pink mare giggled, and I looked to her. "Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie!" She held out her hoof, I tentatively repeated the action I had done with Twilight earlier, I was not expecting what felt like a mild electric zap. I immediately recoiled and shook out my ha-hoof. Pinkie was giggling and Rainbow was failing to stifle her own. "Hehehe~ joy buzzers~!" Pinkie laughed harder.

"Since when do joy buzzers actually shock you and not just, ya know, buzz?" I asked incredulously.

"What fun would that be~?" She asked between laughs.

I shook my head and sighed. "Moving on, next?" I asked.

Rarity drew attention to herself with a cough that somehow sounded sophisticated. "Once again, my name is Rarity, and I own Carousel Boutique. I make the some of the best outfits in all of Equestria." She said, proudly holding a hoof over her chest. I tipped my head to her.

Everyone's gaze shifted to me, and it took me a second to catch on. "Oh, my name is Argent Accord. It's nice to meet all of you." I said with a smile. Their gaze lingered on me still.

"Could you tell us a bit about yourself?" Twilight prompted.

"Uhh. Like what?" I asked, it had been to long since I'd done one of these.

Apparently they each had their own idea of what I should share.
"Yer favourite food?" Applejack started the train.

"Favourite author?" Came Twilight's question.

"Your favorite color!" Pinkie cheered.

"Your Favourite flavor of tea?" Was Fluttershy's suggestion.

"Your favourite sport!" Rainbow Dash asked, punching the air.

"Your favourite designer?" Came Rarity's query.

I blinked. "Wasn't expecting so many... uhh." I held my hoof to my chin, in lieu of any fingers. "So far, the flower sandwich Nurse Redheart brought me." Can't say any of my usual favourites cause they involve meat. "Mark Tufo" I answered Twilight truthfully, to her befuddlement. "I dunno, I like to make art, so I kinda like them all. If I had to pick... French grey I suppose, just because most people have no idea what it looks like." I said as Pinkie slumped somewhat at my first answer. "Favourite flavour of... My mom used to make this really good blend of Iced tea, haven't really found anything that compared since." I finished with a half hearted chuckle. "As for sports, soccer! I never could get behind any of those other ones, golf hurt my h-hooves and basketball just got a bit to hectic." I explained. "As for designers I dont really know any. So... you I'd have to say." Rarity certainly seemed pleased at that.

They each nodded at my answers in turn. Twilight posed the next quedtion. "So Argent where are you from?"

"Oh, I'm from St Marie's Idaho." I said without thinking.

They each blinked at my answer, but Twilight offered me an out. "You mean St Mare's in the Idahoof mountains?"

I nodded vigorously. Welp, thank goodness I'm a child, one that can make mistakes on a place's name.

"What's it like over there?" Rainbow asked.

Aw frick. The dang pun parody on my home town could be nothing like the original! Never the less I answered truthfully, but cautiously. "It gets a lot of snow in the winter, and it's way too hot in the summer for my liking. Fall is the best time of year." No one seemed to have any objection to what I said, so I was certainly relieved.

Nurse Redheart took this opportunity to enter the room. "Excuse me Argent, but we will need to do one last set of tests before I can let you go out." She said in a motherly tone. "Do you have a place where you can stay here in town?" She asked.

I shook my head. "I'm well aware that the hospital won't put up with me forever. But I don't really know anyone in town, as you could probably guess." I sighed. Friggin magic claw. Making my life difficult. Actually I wonder why no one has asked me how I was in the castle or why.

"Well, you could come stay at Golden Oaks with me and Spike, we have got all the books you could ever want." Twilight offered.

"If I wouldn't be a bother that be great!" I was surprised at how trusting they were of me, then again I am a child in their eyes.

"No trouble at all." Twilight reassured.

I smiled at the purple mare for her hospitality, then followed Nurse Redheart out of the room, waving to the group before I left. "So what do I have to do?" I asked her.

"Nothing scary I promise." She reassured, I rolled my eyes when she wasn't looking. "We just need to test your reflexes, see if that crystal growth is all gone, and, per Twilight's request, magically scan you for any nasty little things you might have gotten in the Everfree." I nodded, that all sounded pretty standard.

My reflexes were a bit slow, but I expected that, new body and all. The crystal patch had apparently briefly resurfaced for a bit, but was basically all gone now. And I turned out to be parasite free, yay!

After the tests I was given a lolipop against my will, she kept on insisting that the sugar was "good for my health" which seemed backwards. After that I went and gathered all zero of my things and met with Twilight outside the hospital. "You ready?" She asked.

I laughed, "yup got everything." I pantomimed tapping carry-on luggage.

Twilight sighed and turned. "Come on, library's this way."

She lives in a library huh? Interesting. I thought as I followed after her. "Where did everyone else go?" I asked.

Twilight looked at me with a puzzled look for some reason, but answered me anyway. "Applejack had to go see someone else in the hospital, her brother, Big Macintosh, apparently hurt himself and she wanted to make sure he was okay."

"Is he okay?" I asked.

She waved me off. "He's fine, he just has to take a break from work for the next two weeks." She reassured. "Rainbow apparently blew off her weather duties to come say hi, so she had to go catch up on clearing the sky." I looked up, and sure enough, after scanning for a bit, I saw a blue pegasus, rainbow contrail confirming her identity, kicking clouds. I had to stop and watch for a moment, it was kinda surreal to see.

After I shook loose of that I caught back up to her and caught the tail end of another explanation. "...ad to go back and check on the animals." I guessed that was Fluttershy. "Rarity had to go fill an order. And Pinkie Pie... I'm not sure actually, but I've got an idea." Before I could ask we had arrived. "Here we are, Golden Oaks."

The sight I was greeted with was that of a tree. A tree with a door in it. A tree/house mix, complete with windows and several balconies. Oh, Golden Oaks, I get it! These ponies sure do like their on the nose names. Twilight opened the door and I followed her in. Alright, I think this might actually be a nice place to live, but why is it so dar-

The lights suddenly flicked on, revealing way to many ponies shouting "Suprise!"

And indeed I was. I nearly fell over with panic. Pinkie bounced over, literally. "Hey Argent, this is your Welcome-To-Ponyville-And-Glad-You're-All-Better Party!!" She cheered, causing everyone in the room to give their own. "Do you like it?" she asked. After a moment, I nodded. The crowd cheered again and the party roared to life. I sighed, the sound being drowned out by the music and general party noise.

Scratch that, this will be as difficult as I initially thought.

Chapter 4: Dream House and Growing Pains

View Online

The party ran right into the night. And it would have kept going if Twilight hadn't made the case of my being a child that needed, bleh, her rest. After it finally ended I got introduced to the library's other resident, Spike.

"Dragon!?'" I near-shouted supprised.

"Yup, Spike is a baby dragon." Twilight giggled. I stared at the purple lizard, apparently dragon.

If any doubts about this being a fantasy world remained, they've just been shattered. I thought. "And he's your assistant? How does that work?"

Spike answered my question. "I mostly clean up after her research sprees. But she also dictates notes to me that I usually forward to Princess Celestia." He said proudly.

I nodded. "It sounds like you've got a very important job." I felt a yawn coming on. "So, where am I gonna be sleeping?"

"I have got a guest bed up in the loft. Follow me." Twilight gestured out of the main room, I followed her. Once upstairs, Spike went over to what appeared to be a dog bed. "Well, this is where you be sleeping. If you need anything don't hesitate to wake me." Twilight said.

I nodded and she gave me a nuzzle. As unexpected as it was, it wasn't bad. Do these ponies accept people fast or what? Oh, the whole child thing. I can't believe I keep forgetting that, what with the whole size disparity going on. With that thought, I hopped up onto the bed. "G-goodnight." I wished her and Spike, the latter already asleep.

"Good night, my little pony." Twilight replied. Before turning to her own bed.

Getting comfortable took longer than it used to, but I think I found a mostly normal position. Twilight turned out the light with a quick application of magic. I could feel that odd pressure again but it was gentle, soothing even. I closed my eyes and for the first time since coming here, drifted off to sleep naturally.

"...What the hell?" Is all I could muster for the wierd sight I was greeted with. Water was flowing uphill, shadows seemed to go whichever way they wanted despite it obviously being mid morning. Some trees were raining like stormclouds, half of them were doing so in reverse. " I know I'm in a fantasy world with magic now. But this is an affront to logic," I stated.

Suddenly the color pallete changed. Nine out of ten things within view swelled with one of six bright pastel colors, orange, two shades of purple, pink, red, or blue, before fading back to the original colors. Said affected objects started making sense again. It wasn't perfect, the one river was still flowing backwards, but it was easier to look at.

"All signs point to this being a dream. And if it is... then I'll have a baseball bat behind me." I attempted. Turning around I saw said requested item leaned up against a raining tree. "Alright, at least I can still manipulate the dreamscape with relative ease." I walked over to the river and poked a ha- "Aw, come on, I can't even be normal in dream land?" I sulked. My now bright orange hoof was submerged in the river's surface, dyeing said color into the water.

Curious, if not disappointed, I lept into the river with a splash. I could, as expected, breathe just fine, but looking downstream I saw my personal rainbow of colors bleeding into the water. I trotted the river bed, marveling at the deep sea ecosystem my brain had placed on it. Once the water had apparently gone full circle I floated out of the river onto the shore. Looking at it now I could see I had a nice technicolor stream flowing throughout the dreamscape.

"The oddest things since coming here, I swear." I mumbled to myself. After a time of watching the rainbow waters drift by, I went and searched for a good hill. I uprooted the trees atop it and set them about turning themselves into workable two by fours. I then flattened out a sizable chunk of the hill's crest with the power of dreams.

"That group there." I pointed a hoof at a group of trees that had yet to bend to my will. They each plucked themselves out of the ground. "Form a door. And the frame of a house, I'll go get some stone for the foundation and bricks." Each of the trees "nodded" before de-barking themselves.

I trotted over to some exposed boulders, suprised by the speed at which I was able to, either my walking skills were improving or it was more dream logic. I hoisted up the boulders in my pseudo-grasp and had them shave themselves down into workable sizes. Next was clay for the bricks. I put my front hooves in the river and had a good few blobs of the stuff just float to the surface. Said blobs then floated and molded them selves into the proper shape. Waving my orange hoof at them they each caught fire, soon the finished blue glazed bricks floated over to my build site.

The foundation had finished laying itself, next the pre-assembled walls and frames slotted into place. Each of them growing nails, screws, and such to hold together with. The bricks all began forming along the outer wall of my self building house with a satisfying drumming noise, after they were done there, they stacked into a fireplace, the mortar binding agent just simply leaking into existence. Paint seeped up from the ground around my hooves and slathered onto non-existent walls, which simply formed beneath the layer. The roof set itself down gently atop the structure, sprouting shingles like rapidly growing plants.

For glass I simply walked up to an empty frame, blew onto it, and wiped away the fog with a rag, clear glass set in place like it had always been there. The bare structure was nearly complete, with the chimney spiral staking to poke out the rooftop. I took one last look inside the structure from the doorway, before hinging on the heavy wood rectangle and closing it. I gave the brass knocker one good use, then opened the door. Furnishings had appeared in all the areas I had desired. Pleased with my work I sat down on the couch and clapped on the fireplace.

"Alright, now what do I do?" I asked my empty dream lodging. "Sleeping in a dream is pointless, but what do I do to pass the dream time? For all I know I'll wake up any second, or I'll spend the next few dream hours in here." That's the problem with dream time, you never know when it will end. To make certain my efforts weren't wasted, I spent what felt like an hour memorizing every nook and cranny of my house.

Afterwards I went and uprooted one of the raining trees. "Might aswell make use of you." I said to it, planting it outside the kitchen window while having all the necessary pipes sprout from the ground to give my home running water.

For electricity I touched a stone sliver to the purple patch on my chest and watched it turn into a similarly colored crystal. I set it up in a lantern looking thing and gave the order "Zap." The crystal roared to life, now a vibrant yellow. Small arcs of electricity were dancing between it's surface and it's metal container. "Hehehe, oh this thing would be perfect for a mad scientist lab." I chuckled. Future plans for my basement made.

I yawned and stretched. "Huh, must be about time to get up then." I looked to the sky to see that the square pixelated sun that got ripped from a video game had nearly set. An unfamiliar moon was cresting a far off mountain. I headed to the front door of my house, pleased to see that the lights were now powered. I reared back onto my hind legs and punched a circle next to the door knob lightly, it flared with blue and green hues in the form of a key. The knob turned and I walked lazily into my house. Closing the door behind me and kicking it with a back hoof. A circle on this side of the door glowed in red and orange tones in the shape of a closed padlock.

Satisfied that my dream house was secure, I curled up on the armchair and waited for wakefulness.

Luna

The princess of the night was perlexed. When she had first returned to the castle she was simply ecstatic to be able to dreamwalk again, but apparently she had used far too much magic as the Nightmare to attempt to do so. It disheartened her to no end to know that the ability to once more soothe the nightmares of her ponies was finally feasible once more, only to have it yanked out of her reach.

The next night she was able to reach as far as the bounds of Canterlot. And on the next she could reach farther. In three days time she was able to reach all of Equestria if she strained, and in that night not a nightmare was to be had for anypony. She payed for it the following morning but it felt so good to help out again that she didn't care.

On the forth night she noticed a new dream among the masses, but this one was off. A presence of a kind was there, but the dream was empty, and she was unable to create one for the foal no matter how much magic she used. She noticed that the empty dream remained throughout the day, that worried her, so she made a note to check on the dream every night. On the seventh morning, the empty dream finally collapsed, and Luna knew that the young dreamer had woken up from whatever had induced such a long sleep.

At the end of the day, just before Night Court she noticed the familiar presence of the empty dream, but this time it was more.

They're actually dreaming tonight. she thought. The alicorn decided to blow off Night Court this time, it was not as if any pony had come to see her anyway. When Day Court ended, the remaining petitioners decided to wait for Celestia's ears the next day, rather than bring up their grievances and proposals with the other princess.

This night, when she came to the empty dream, it felt alive. It did not appear to be a nightmare, but she decided it would be worthwhile to meet this new dreamer.

What she was met with, was a rather common dream for a foal, even if the colors were a little dulled. A vast stretch of land with sparse clumps of trees here and there, a few rivers stretching through the low lands of the landscape. The animals it housed belonged in water yes, but a river no.

It would seem this young dreamer had also mixed together clouds with a few of the trees. Not everything made sense, but again that was rather common in dreams, even more so in those of foals.

The princess of the night soon found the young dreamer. She was voicing her displeasure at the dream. Before Luna could alter the dream to one she knew foals usually enjoy, the area was filled with magic. She watched as many of the various quirks of the dream leveled out. The child then summoned A wooden rod behind her leaned up against a crying tree. "A dream conductor? Those art rare 'mongst the earth ponies." The princess of the night was delighted to find a kindred spirit.

She watched as the young dreamer experimented with their control of the dream. She watched as the young foal turned the colors of the river to match her highlights. She doth look familiar. the diarch thought. The filly exited the vibrant waters and cantered over to a hill. Luna watched in awe as the apparently experienced dream conductor flattened the hill and had the trees tear themselves apart, stones shorn into slabs. "The young mare dost have incredible control, and at such a young age!" she delighted.

She watched as the mare instructed lumps of raw clay to form into perfect bricks. Before lighting them ablaze as naturally as a natural born unicorn could do. She watched as the materials the little filly had gathered were all put into place, a house forming without a might of wasted effort.

The princess marveled at the filly's use of the water tree. She gasped as the filly made a mana crystal from simple stone. She gawked at the filly, whom layed a basic lightning spell into the crystal like she knew it by heart. "This filly is most wondrous, I simply must converse with her!" Luna decided.

But, before she got a chance, the filly went inside. She made to enter the house after her but saw a powerful warding spell activate upon the door, all the windows turning dark to ensure privacy. "Is this filly truly not a unicorn?" Luna marveled, saddened that she wouldn't get to meet the new dreamer this night, for she felt the waking world pulling the dream to a close. "Mayhaps another night, little one." Luna promised before the dream collapsed.

Argent

I woke up with a yawn, which came paired with that odd twinkling sound. I shook my head to wake myself up faster. I looked sleepily across the room, towards Twilight's empty bed. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and stretched.

After a bit of wandering, I found Spike and Twilight in the kitchen. "Mm...morning." I yawned again, something smelled good.

"Good morning Argent, did you sleep well?" Twilight asked, her eyes fixed onto Spike as he made what smelled like pancakes.

"Mhmm, I built a house." I replied. I squared up with a chair and hopped up on-"Ow!owowowowow..." I cried, clutching at the throbbing pain radiating from the front of my skull.

That seemed to get the attention of Twilight and Spike, as, when I could next see without too many stars in my eyes, they were standing over me. "Argent! Are you oka-" Spike trailed off. Twilight was looking at me with a shocked expression. "Twilight, what's that on her head?" Spike asked in a different worried tone.

"I..." She began. "I don't know.

"Wh-what?" I asked, trying to clear my vision and keep my voice under control. They shared a look before Twilight popped a mirror into existence beside her. Taking it into her aura she floated it in front of me. What I saw was a three inch light blue crystal protruding from the center of my forehead.

Chapter 5: Discovering New Things.

View Online

"Argent, come with me," Twilight requested. I nodded and she turned to the drake. "Spike, make her a plate of pancakes and bring it to the basement." I stumbled after the mare. My vision was still a little blurry from tears and pain. Said pain was also ruining any attempt at focusing on my walking. Pain that I had earned by clipping the damn crystal growing out of my forehead on the underside of a chair.

After the third time I tripped, I suddenly felt myself covered in a warm glow that then picked me up and brought me to hover beside Twilight. "Are you okay?" She asked. I rubbed my eyes and nodded, she apparently didn't believe me, as she shook her head and set me down on her back gently. "Hold on for just a little while, my little pony. We will find out what's going on." She reassured. We reached the bottom of the basement stairs, entering a room where all manner of machines were strewn about.

Twilight set me down on a cushion, taking the piece of my painful protrusion that I had apparently chipped off in my attempt to sit on a chair. She set it on a Petri dish and put that into what looked like a mini CAT scanner with a screen attached. The machine whirred to life and strange symbols appeared on the screen. Twilight's eyes narrowed as she sifted through the information. A scroll popped into existence next to her and she compared the screen to it. "Hmmm." Twilight came over to me. "Alright Argent, I'm going to need a sample." She said. I clutched/held-my-hooves-over the crystal rooted in my cranium.

Twilight winced in response. "No! no, not from that. Just some hair, a little blood." She said in calming tones. I lowered my forelimbs uneasily. She lifted a single strand of hair from my mane and cut it with some magic scissors. She then grasped a needle from a nearby table and drew an amount of blood. She ran each of these through a different machine. She compared the symbols that the machines spat out against the scroll and the screen. The "Hmmmm."-ing intensified. Another scroll popped into existence, this one sealed with a wax version of the mark on her flank. "Hmmmmm." She repeated once more. Before her eyes widened. "Th-thats almost like..." She turned back to me.

"Argent I need you to do me a favor." She layed down on her barrel, eyes level with mine. "Can you stand up?"

The pain had dulled greatly, to the point that I felt confident in my ability to walk again. "Mhm." I nodded.

Twilight smiled. "Great, I just need you to step into this thing here and stand still, alright?" She gestured to a magi-tech contraption that looked big enough to fit a per-pony inside. I nodded and stumbled over to it, stepping inside once I was sure of my footing. "Alright, im just going to turn this on, it's goiing to make a few noises, some lights, and then it will be done, okay?" I nodded, sniffing, finally getting my emotions back under control.

She flipped a switch on the control board and turned a dial. A blue scanning light that looked like it came straight out of a sci-fi movie moved up and down the pod, it turned purple after moving past my ears and came back down again, resting on my shoulders. It repeated the smaller scan three more times before turning green. After scanning a similarly sized section about my feet, turning red, it powered back down.

"All traces of the Gaean duct are..." Twilight murmured, comparing all the papers and test results. "So then that would make you a... And that would be your... but that can't be."

"T-Twilight. What is it?" I asked. Twilight glanced at me, checked everything again, then turned back to me.

"Well..." She began, "it would seem that you're a unicorn." She sounded as though she wasn't believing it herself. But the tests were, apparently, conclusive.

"... what?" My voice still had a tremble, so it didn't get across the tone I wanted. ...what? Why? How? I thought I was supposed to be an earth pony?

"Well, it is unkown if you were for certain an earth pony before, these results certainly dispute that, but the fact of the matter is, you're most definitely a unicorn now. Even if your horn is a little, odd." Twilight said, scrutinizing the crystaline growth.

I reached up to gingerly touch a hoof to it, rewarded with a dull lance of pain, I winced. "Ow. Its... I have a- I'm a... what?" I looked to the unicorn, specifically her horn, then to mine. "But why is it, so different?" I asked.

"I... I don't know." Twilight said, astonished. "Tell me, do unicorns usually have horns like this where you're from?" I shook my head in the negative, simply avoiding the fact that I'm not native. "I'm going to have to write the princess about this, she will know what to do."

Spike opened the door and made his way downstairs. "Spike! Take down a note." Twilight began, not taking her eyes off of me. I looked down at the plate of pancakes that had just been set before me. Spike took a piece of parchment and quill from nowhere.

"Dear Princess Celestia.
"In my last letter I mentioned that the filly that we discovered in the Everfree has recovered, but she has come to an unusual state. While she seems to be healthy in a broader use of the term, where before we believed her to be an earth pony, it has come to light that she may actually be a unicorn. But the trouble with this is the fact that her horn grew from nothing to 3 inches overnight, and is comprised mainly of crystallized DNA and magic, as opposed to standard unicorn horns."

Twilight paused in her dictation, what sounded like glass cracking in reverse drawing her attention. She stared in amazement at what was apparently my horn replacing the chipped matter it had lost.

"Furthermore the horn seems to be able to repair itself in a matter of minutes. I'll be sending over a copy of the results from her tests. I request if you know anything on this subject to help us understand these troubling changes.
"Your faithful student,
"Twilight Sparkle"

Upon finishing the letter Spike rolled it up and blew green flames upon it. Burning it away and sending a small plume of smoke out the door, seemingly on a mission.

"So, what now?" I asked, confused as to why Spike burned the letter he spent the time to write down.

Twilight smiled reassuringly. "Now we wait for the princess to respond, and you eat your breakfast."

I looked at the pancakes, the fork, and my hooves, I know I've already pulled feats of dexterity that should be impossible with these things, but I wasn't willing to risk looking like an idiot. "How long do you think that will take?" Surely this princess had to be a busy mare.

"It depends really, this is a rather urgent matter, so it shou-" she was interrupted by Spike belching, out a... A letter?
How does that w- magic, chalk it up to magic and spare my sanity

"Ah, see? Now then, let's see what she has on the subject!" Twilight took the message in her aura and unrolled it.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle.
"While I am happy to hear that she is healthy, I regret to inform you that I have never heard of a tribe of ponies with crystal horns.
"I have gone over the results on my end and see no reason to take drastic measures to remove it, and if she truly is a unicorn, it would be cruel to do so. Please keep us updated on the child's well-being.
"Princess Celestia.
"P.S. my sister can't help-""... oh whoops, wasn't supposed to read that part."

Twilight turned to me. "Well, I suppose you're just a unique case then. If you'd like I could try and teach you a bit of magic." She offered.

"I... sure." I said, looking down at my pancakes. I pressed my hoof to the fork and lifted, surprised that the fork came with. To test how much pressure it could take I started cutting into one of my three pancakes.

"Hey, its gonna be okay. Both me and the princess both confirmed that the cr- I mean, your horn, isn't hazardous to your health. You just learned the hard way, like most unicorn foals, that it can hurt really bad if it gets hit." She said putting a hoof on my withers. "You've just gotta be more careful with it, that's all." I nodded, only half listening.

Wonderfull, I'm not a guy anymore, but I still have a crippling weak spot that anyone could easily exploit. I sighed, sticking a piece of pancake in my mouth.

Twilight smiled, patting my shoulder. "I'm gonna run a few more tests on what I all ready have, you enjoy your breakfast." With that she turned back to her equipment.

After I finished my delicious pancake breakfast that I couldn't properly enjoy, I went back upstairs to see spike cleaning the dishes. Not wanting to converse at the moment I headed back to the loft and stared out the window. I let time pass for a while like that. Eventually Twilight came back upstairs. "Hey..."She began, getting my attention out of the window. "You doing okay?"

"I'm fine, I just wasn't expecting this." I said with a sigh. "This week is just full of firsts and I was not prepared."

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, I can understand that. You woke up in some strange place and the next thing you know you're told you are a unicorn now? You are sure you weren't one before by the way?" She said, but only scratched the surface of my own list.

"Believe me, I was most definitely not a unicorn before." I stated.

Twilight nodded. "I can see how that could be stressfull." She said sitting down beside me. She placed a hoof on my withers and continued. "But my offer still stands, I would be more than happy to teach you magic."

I nodded. "Since I'm a unicorn now, it'd certainly be helpful to know."

"It's more than just helpful, its the birthright of unicorns! It's a way to express yourself and your talent!" I smiled at the twinkle in her eyes.

"Well, before you get me to sold on the idea we should probably make sure I Can use magic, right?" I said.

"Oh but I did! I ran the full battery of magic conductivity tests on the chipped piece and have confirmed that it should work just like any other unicorn's." She said proudly.

I blinked. "That's what you were doing all this time?" At Twilight's affirmative I smiled at her. "Thank you."

"Alright my little pony, let's get started!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Wait you mean right now?" I asked at the sudden start.

"Well yeah. There is no time like the present! Also do you have anything else to do right now?" She inquired. I glanced back out the window, it must have been about ten in the morning.

"No, I dont. Alright, so what's first?" I asked, ready to learn a new skill.

"First, just do whatever you think you should. The way you think of magic should help me get a baseline on where about you are." She picked up a quill from the study and placed it on the floor a meter away from me. "All you've gotta do is make this move, and we'll go from there. It's easy." She picked it back up with her magic and put it down again to demonstrate "It's the most basic spell a unicorn learns, and the one they use most often."

"Okay." I said calmly, I focused my eyes on the feather. Holy crap! I'm gonna learn magic! This is going to be fun. I tried the first thing I could think of, simply willing it to move. If I had expected my very first attempt to work I would have been disappointed. I looked to Twilight. Whenever she uses magic her horn lights up, how do I get that to happen? I closed my eyes. I let my focus drift to my horn, any sensations I felt from it, anything I could think of as magical.

At first there was nothing. Come on, think, she said it was easy. Then again she was born here, I was raised in a world without magic. But she also said my horn should work like any other. I shook my head to rid myself of the circular argument.

I felt an itch in the front of my barrel beginning to grow but ignored it. Instead focusing on all the things outside of myself. I imagined the loft, and where the beds would all be. I imagined where the windows were, where the quill was, and where Twilight was. I slowly edited my mental picture of the room to house finer details. Once I felt I had a clear enough picture, I reached out with what I thought to be magic. I could feel something, it was a faint, but I could feel something happening around the base of my horn. I tried to grab the quill in my metaphysical grasp but nothing happened.

"No need to rush, just feel it out." Twilight said.

Twilight.
I turned my mental map to focus on her. I could imagine a faint purple glow coursing throughout her body and coming to a brighter focus around her horn.

Is that magic or am I imagining it? If I could just copy what she does.
I turned the view onto myself. I could see a faint blueish glow, similar to Twilight's, but weaker, and less focused. Hers was like a nervous system, mine was just a muddy blob. Suddenly, I could feel this light as it passed through my horn, before flowing back into the reservoir. The more I focused on this image of myself, the weirder it got, there was something else there, something like the magic I could feel, but it was different.

I decided to let my mental map go back to focusing on the quill. Just, magic it into happening. I tried. Once again no luck. My subsequent attempts were met with as much success.

"It-its all right if you can't get it. Do you want me to give you some pointers?" Twilight offered.

"No, just let me... lemme try just one more time." I requested. One last attempt, just do it. Move the feather. nothing. Budge It just a bit. A nudge will do.
The magic wouldn't focus in my horn. Come on! Just use your magic! the feeling of magic swelled, and I could hear the noise magic made when it danced around a unicorn's horn. A smile parted my lips as I heard Twilight gasp. I reached out with the suddenly working magic and grasped the feather. I attempted to turn it over, opening one eye a crack to see. My horn was indeed lit up, the magic I was using was more of a deep periwinkle color than the sky blue I was imagining. The feather was also wrapped in the same magical glow, I watched as the quill slowly turned, little by little, nearly end over end, and failed. With a pop the magic stopped and the feather fell back to the floor.
"Aww, I was so close!" I bemoaned.

"No no, that was great! You did it!" Twilight congratulated.

"But I didn't even get it to flip over." I said, defeated.

"But the point of this exercise was to have you move the quill even a little bit. Honestly for your first time using magic the fact that you got more than a few sparks from your horn is quite good. Especially since you weren't even born a unicorn." She said.

"So what was like that for you?" I asked.

Twilight took a moment before responding. "Well, my special talent is magic, I was born a natural at this." She said, turning and gesturing to the mark on her flank.

"Oh."

"What about you?" She asked.

"Huh? What about me?" I asked, confused.

"Your cutie mark, how did you get it? What's your talent?" She clarified.

I, however, was only more confused. "My what now? What's a cutie mark?"

"It's the mark on your flank. You really don't know?" She asked, a little supprised.

"This thing's called a cutie mark? That's odd, I thought it was just more of my outlandish patterning." I admitted, pawing at the mark agian.

"So, you don't remember getting your cutie mark? Perhaps you were born with it?" Twilight hypothesized.

For some reason, the thought of lying to her and saying, Yes I was indeed born with it. like a normal person would when they are given an out, just made my hoof itch. So instead I went with a sort of half truth. "For as long as I have been a pony yes." That passed the hoof-itch test.

"That's interesting, I've heard of some ponies being born with their cutie marks, but its very, extremely rare." Twilight rubbed a hoof under her chin.

"Can we get back to the magic lesson?" I asked, knowing two things. One she is a rather wordy mare, if the library is anything to go by, and I didn't need a lecture on butt marks right now. And two, if she thought too hard on the subject I'm sure she could find a few holes to poke in my story, even if it wasn't very long yet.

"Oh sure!" Twilight went on to explain the basics of magic. Said Basics took the remaining morning and subsequent few hours. Most of it went over my head, and at the end of it all she gave me a bunch of assigned readings. While I wasn't overly happy to be given homework again, it was for magic so I was okay with it.

I found a cushion to lay my equine form on. I think I'm adapting to this way too fast, but it spares me my sanity so I'll just let that slide.

I opened up the first book. And stared at it. I turned a few pages. Then I went to the next one on the stack, and the next, and the next. "Crap..." I stared at the alien symbols on the page before me. First I get taken to another world, then I'm turned into a fricken pony, then I chipped my brand new horn on a chair which hurt like hell, now I find that I can't even read!? This can't get any worse. I grumbled.

"STAMPEDE!!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

I grumbled. You never say things like that, and yet I did. I stacked the books and headed outside to see an oncoming cloud of dust. "Yup, that's a stampede alright, "I observed. The town was in panic. Twilight came up the stairs and ushered me inside. Once she left, I simply came back outside again.

I just caught sight of Applejack and a dog coming up either side of the herd of cows currently bound for Ponyville. I watched as the mare turned the herd away from town with some very impressive mouth lasso skills. The town was cheering, Applejack reared back and rode off into the sunset. My back hoof itched as I watched her leave dramatically. What kinda random western insert stuff was that? That was awesome and I definitely need to thank her somehow, I should go be helpful to her in anyway I can. I thought, nodding.

Chapter 6: Dreamventures Two; Dreameeting.

View Online

I trotted off in the direction I saw Applejack go, intent on being useful. But I was stoped in my tracks, picked up, and drifted back over to Twilight. "Where are you going?" She gave me a smile.

"To thank Applejack. I've gotta." I replied.

"Well then you can help us! We're going to throw her a party."Twilight said enthusiastically.

"Alright That sounds like something I can get behind." I wiggled in her magical grasp.

Twilight giggled and put me down. "Alright. First things first though. Let's head back to to Golden Oaks and have spike get dinner ready. While that's happening we will continue your magic lessons."

"How is magic going to help us thank applejack?" I asked her.

"What do you mean? If you knew more about magic you would be able to help her a lot more than you think." Twilight gave me a raised eyebrow. "I understand that you grateful to her for saving the town, just like everyone else, but you seem almost overzealous in your want to thank her."

I moved to counter, only to pause. Why am I so keen on thanking her? I've only met her once! "I-I guess so." That's just weird, ugh, friggen pony/child brain. "So, what's next for magic?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Well, how far into those books did you get?" She asked.

"Uhh... well... I didn't even get to start the first one when the stampede happened." I said, happy to have a valid excuse.

"Ah, that makes sense, well it doesn't really get in the way of our current plans, but you will have to know some of what those books hold if you wanna learn any advanced spells."

Aww, I was looking forward to things like fire magic though... "So what is next?" I repeated.

"Next is just more basic levitation practice, to help you get the feel for magic better and to work out you magic source."

"My what?" I asked, but before she could answer a thought dawned on me. "Wait, is that what all those purple lines I saw earlier were? They were your magic source?" I flipped back to my mental vision and looked to twilight.

"Uhh ye- wait, you can already sense magic?" She asked in an even tone.

"Uhm, maybe? If that's what I'm seeing then yours are very clean pathways that look kinda like a nervous system, or maybe vascular, that connects to your horn. Where as mine is just a mess of the stuff free floating around." I offered. In my mental vision I saw her jaw drop, I opened my eyes to see that it indeed had.

Twilight held me in her gaze for a moment. "The things this filly does and doesn't know..." She muttered to herself. "Well, I wasn't expecting you to pick up the magic sense ability so quickly, since you only just recently became a unicorn, but that certainly does give us an edge in your studies." Twilight led us back to the loft. "Alright same exercise as before, lift the quill." Twilight said as the item floated lazily back over to us.

"But first watch me do it. Watch how my magic behaves when I do this spell." She instructed. Letting the quill rest on the floor.

"But how should I- oh, duh." I closed my eyes and looked over to Sparkle, she turned her head to me. "Am I going to be able to learn to do this with my eyes open? I mean I-that that would be extremely convenient." I stopped myself when I realized something. Being able to see all around you even with your eyes closed is a very useful skill. Huh, maybe my super crisp mental vision is left over from the time I spent as a spirit ball? Or what ever that was.

"Yes you will, but for now you going to have to make due with just this." Twilight said before turning back to the quill. "Now watch closely." And I did, I saw as magic rushed around her magic veins for a moment before her horn lit up. I glanced over to the quill to see she had picked it up and was twirling it around in a similar fashion that I had attempted earlier.

"See the little symbols in the spell?" She asked.

"What symbols? All I see is, wait." I saw tiny little squiggles and lines floating around her horn. "Ah yep, there they are. I took a step closer and observed the symbols in finer detail.

"Think you can copy the spell?" She asked me. I took another moment to memorize the placement of the runes before nodding. "Good, it's your turn then." I saw the magic die down and heard the sound of magic stop.

Weird to think that magic itself has its own noise. I thought before turning my head to the feather. "Alrighty, take two." I flipped my mental vision onto myself again and began tracing the symbols I had seen in Twilights spell into my own, after I drew the last one- how am I even doing this?- I saw my blob of light blue magic shift and heard magic begin to form around my horn.

I cast the magical aura onto the quill. This time picking it up was a lot easier. I opened my eyes and looked to my horn, it was alight with sky blue magic. So I did get the color right? Why was it periwinkle before though? I shelved that for later and moved the feather around a bit. While I could now pick up the thing, it didn't do exactly what I wanted it to. It would spin and twitch on its own.

"Great! Your already doing much better than this morning!" Twilight praised.

"But it won't stop twitching." I told her. She looked to the quill and then back to me.

"Your not making it do that?" I shook my head, and the spell popped like a soap bubble at that time.

"And it's gone. Why does it keep failing like that?" I asked, disappointed in my abilities.

"You just ran out of magic, that's all. You did just become a unicorn, and your still just a filly, so you just don't have very much yet. The more you use your magic though, the more refined the pathways will become, you'll expand your source and use the magic you have more effectively at the same time" She explained.

"Oh, well that's disappointing." I said. "How long till I can try again?"

"Not too long, but I think we are going to be done for the night, let's go have dinner, Spike should have it done by now."

We had a delicious meal, the main dish a vegetarian version of a BLT, along with more of that air fried hay that I learned they call hay fries, sometimes it's just that simple.

After I finished my drink Twilight gave her next instruction. "It's about time for you to head to bed." Twilight said, looking over at the clock.

"What? Why should I go to bed? It's not even that late!" I insisted. Twilight just rolled her eyes.

"If your staying here with us then you going to have to go to bed at a normal time, I won't have you burning yourself out." Twilight countered. I moved to argue, I wasn't tired in the least, if anything I had way more energy than I should have had.

But then I realized just how much of a child I would sound like. Alright, fine. I'll play your game, rule number one is don't piss off the teacher after all. It was about time I stopped just rolling with what the world wanted me to do anyway, I could go about things calmly and rationally. weather I like it or not, I am in a child's body, if I over work it I'll just be miserable. I agreed to Twilight's, and my own sound reasoning.

"We can pick up on magic study first thing in the morning." She offered.

"Okay, I'll see you in the morning then I suppose?"

"Good night, my little pony, I have a bit of reading to catch up on." Twilight wished me. "And you too Spike, I'll see you both in the morning." With that she excused herself from the table and made her way to the library.

Me and spike headed up to the loft, he settled into his dog bed and was out like a light. Isn't that degrading? Putting a sentient being into a pet bed? Either that or Im putting way to much thought into this, or perhaps I'm using human logic where it simply doesnt apply anymore? I sighed and I later down on my bed. I noticed the position I found most comfortable to sleep in and sighed. "Deffinetly doesn't apply anymore." I mumbled as I drifted off to sleep far faster than I thought I would.

Luna

Luna was sitting through another empty night court. It was disappointing, though she got to raise the moon as part of her royal duties no one seemed to expect much of her past that. She stretched her wings when she felt absolutely sure no one was coming. "Perhaps we shall walk the realm of dreams." She spoke.

She departed for her chambers. "And perhaps we shall chance upon our new dream conductor." She spoke in the empty hallway. As she walked she gazed out the windows at her night sky.

She layed down on her royal sized bed and departed the waking world, the goal to meet a certain filly in mind.

The lunar princess calmed any and all nightmares she came across as she searched for a particular dream. Once she found it she quickly hopped in to see what the burgeoning dream conductor was up to.

Luna found the young filly bucking a tree, but now she had a rather unique horn. "Mayhaps she is the young filly in the care of our sisters student?" Luna said from out of earshot of the filly. She did remember that a note concerning the foal had been sent to Tia that morning.

Luna giggled at the cartoonish way the tree broke apart as the filly delivered a final kick. Blocks of tree, and even the leaves fell as cubes. She watched as the filly took one of the sections of tree in her magic and tore it apart into four equally sized blocks of sodden planks, then into a single wooden structure with a three by three grid atop it's surface. She proceeded to place all of the disassembled tree onto the grid and they were once again refined into planks, and some of them into sticks. She then combined some of the sticks with a fragment of stone from the previous day.

Tis somewhat astounding she has kept the dream from last night to this. Luna thought.

The items layed upon the grid combined into a rudimentary shovel, and she repeated the process, this time with two extra stone fragments. This created a miners pick. She placed the spare items into her saddlebags that appeared at her need for them. She then put the pick into a belt loop, and with the shovel in her aura began searching around the flatlands.

Luna followed the filly, still invisable. She looked at her cutie mark and to the tools she carried. Mayhaps she wishes to be a miner in the future? She thought, regarding the six grey circles.

The filly stabbed the shovel into the dirt, creating a perfectly square one cubic meter hole in the terrain. She picked up the left over soil and continued to dig. Eventually she struck stone and she swapped her tools. After three more perfect cubes of stone she fell slightly into a cave.

The filly peered around the darkness, she trotted over to a small vein of some material and began swinging her pick. The mined area broke leaving what was quickly becoming the usual cubic meter. The filly took the dropped items in her aura and a few sticks from her bags.

Combining the items resulted in a flash of light as Luna's eyes adjusted. The filly placed a torch near where she made her entrance to the cave and explored, another torch in her grasp. Every so often she would place it on the wall and pull it away, leaving an identical copy afixed to the wall.

The filly mined a large amount of stone, as well as anymore coal she found. Eventually she came across a vein of ore, and broke her tool upon finishing the vein of it. She appeared satisfied with her work and made her way back to the surface by mining a spiral staircase.

As the young dream conductor made her way to her abode Luna made her decision. Enow of this waiting, we are eager to meeteth the young one! But mayhaps we shouldst dawn a disguise? Luna constructed the appearance of a young pegasus filly, whose coat matched her own and mane was a light blue. She made it to match the aproximate age of the one she intended to meet. She placed herself behind a tree before becoming visable.

She stepped out of the shade of the tree as the sun set, and trotted towards the house with a bounce in her step. But just as she was about to enter the clearing she heard a gurgling noise and heavy foot falls approaching from behind.

Argent

I had constructed a furnace and was watching my iron smelt. As soon as I had three pieces I built a replacement pickaxe. Everything I crafted was a touch more blockish than their real life counter parts would be. More of a realistic mix of minecraft and the actual items, but I actually liked it. I had one more piece of iron in ha-hoof and was waiting on the second one for a sword when I heard an earsplitting scream of terror. I shook of my surprise and pulled the freshly finished iron ingot out of the fire. I slammed the ingredients onto the crafting table and was out the door before it even finished crafting. The new blade trailing behind me in my aura.

I ran at a full gallop in the direction of the now quieter but still just as fearful screams. I brought the sword up beside me, blade forward, ready to strike. I came upon the scene of a light blue pegasus child backed up against a tree, shivering with terror. Slowly approaching her was the realistic/pony version of a zombie, and I must say, its quite a bit creepier. I rammed into the side of its barrel and sent it flying back a few block-meters?-a good dozen feet away. I sent the sword forward after it. The zombie flashed red with each slash my blade inflicted, after three it fell over and dissapeared in a puff of smoke.

I stood in a defensive position in front of the filly, casting my gaze this way and that, my breath heavy. Okay, that was alot scarier than I thought it would be. I thought. I turned to the pegusus. "Hey, it's okay now, the zombie is gone, but we should get inside, it's not safe out here." I told her sliding the sword into a sheath on my flank that I don't remember making. The pegasus nodded and I guided her back to the dream house. I should come up with a better name for it than that. A separate train of thought went as I made sure we made it back to the house incident free.

After I locked the door behind us I turned to the filly. "Did it get you?" She didn't answer. I bumped my hoof against hers and she jumped. "Hey! Hey, its okay, were inside, no monsters." She looked about frantically. "We're safe I assured her. She seemed to calm down a little bit. where Did this girl come from? Is this my pony brains version of a villager? I thought. "Do you have a name?" I asked her.

She swallowed. "L... we are Night Strider." She responded.

I smiled warmly at her over my shoulder, I dug around in the fridge and willed any and all meat products out of existance. I grabbed six beetroots and a bowl before coming back over to her. I put said items on the crafting table. I pa-hoofed? her the finished stew. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

She bent down and drank the stew, I could see the tension melt off her to a degree. "That! Th-that wast a member of the undead. What wast it doing here?" She asked in a slightly raised voice.

Why is she speaking in such an archaic..? Okay she has to be a villager, no one talks like that, or maybe... I thought. "Well, before we get to that, where are you from?" I asked her, just to be sure.

"We hail from Canterlot." She said.

Okay? I don't remeber ever hearing that one. Two options here, my brain made a horse pun on Camelot, or that's am actual place in... it's not earth is it? I know the country is Equestria but what's the planet called? I shook my head. Not important, were back at fity fifty territory now. Well, occupants of dreams will actively deny that the world around them is a dream sooo...

"Okay, you know that this is a dream right?" I tested. She cocked her head at me but nodded. Alright, now we're in seventy five percent in favor of her being real. "Alright, well, that thing wasn't real, it's just kinda based off this popular game where I'm from, the whole dream is actually."

She- Night Strider, didn't seem to know how to take that. "Tis not real? Tis but a game? What kind of game involves the undead?" She asked, looking at me shocked. "The game was no where near as realistic, the zombies and other mobs were little to be afraid of." I assured her. Something rammed against the front door, causing night strider to jump. "Scrap thats alot scarier like this." I said, startled. I turned from the door back to the filly now hiding under the cushions of my couch. "I'll go deal with that guy before he busts my door, you stay here okay?" She nodded and I turned to the door. It was breaking at about a fifth of the pace a normal wooden door usually would. I readied my blade before a thought occurred to me. I had the time to act on it so I walked back over to the crafting table and made all my remaining wood into fences. I pulled the stack of items apart with my magic. If only it was this easy in the waking world. I mentally sighed while putting the stack back together.

I charged a spell in my horn as I stood before the door. Once I felt it powerful enough I poked the lock spell, the door came crashing open a second later and I released my spell into the zombies neck. With a sickening crack the putrid creature flew away from the house. The shuffling sound of feet quickened my haste in my next task, I launched the stack of fence posts out the door and spread them around ths house, each one expanding to full size upon being placed, the barrier erected itself around the house. I slammed the door shut and locked it when I heard the familiar noises a spider makes in the game.

I went around the house, looking out every window to make sure I hadn't misplaced any fence or left a hole in the line. Finding none I breathed deep and let out a satisfied sigh. I made my way back to the living room to find Night Strider. She was shivering while staring out the window, following her gaze I quickly understood why. A giant spider had crawled around the outside window and was looking straight back at her. I closed the blinds and launched the spider off into the sky with a similar spell I had used on the zombie. "Nothing can get in here you know, we're perfectly safe now." I assured her.

She gave me a disbelieving look. I sighed. "Yknow what? Come with me, I know how to get rid of these things." That turned her look of disbelief into hope. I led her into one of the bedrooms. I gestured her over to one of the beds on the inner limits of the room. "Lay down on that and close your eyes." I instructed, while doing so on a bed opposite the one I face her.

"How- does thou really believe us capable of getting any sleep after witnessing that?" She said incredulously.

"You don't have to." I corrected her, "You just have to lay down and close your eyes for five seconds."

She did so reluctantly. After she closed her eyes a began to count the seconds out loud. Upon "five." the light levels visibly changed.

"When she opened her eyes again. And wore an odd expression, I explained. "In the game you can skip the night by sleeping in a bed, it takes about five seconds. And most monsters, zombies and skeletons burn in the daylight." I stretched and jumped down from my bed before continuing. "Also spiders don't attack during the day." She looked vissably relived so I lead her back down stairs. I heard some more shuffling through the walls and stopped just before the stairs. "There is just one thing we have to worry about though."

"What is 't?" She asked.

"Creeper, weird green monster about as tall as a ma-are." I caught myself. "They dont burn in the day, and like to sneak up on you and explode."

"They what!?" She screamed. "As long as you don't get too close they do little more than stare at you. Now before you freak out I need to know if you are a good flyer." She gave me a puzzled look but nodded. "Great" I said, leading her to the balcony. "I need you to fly around the house quick and tell me whats out there. As long as you stay about level with the peak of the roof nothing will get you." She shook her head vigerously. "Please?" Again met with a no.

I sighed and poked my head out the window, nothing came into view. "I'll do it, but I'll hold you responsible if a section of my house blows up." I jumped out the window and landed onto of the fence, I made a quick circuit of the house and found no offenders. For the sake of the child's sanity I pulled up the options menu and set it to peaceful mode. "Alright it's safe now, they won't come back for another seven days." I said. Fudging with the mechanics of my game/dream world was easy, but I would like to keep it truer to the original, if I could manage it I would get this filly used to the game so I could set it back to normal mode. It's always more fun playing with more people after all. That is if she is here the next night.

"Art thee certain?" She asked, not coming into view.

"Yes. You know you can't really get hurt in here don't you?"

"...yes" she glided down to the ground before me, her face growing confused. "How art thee doing that?" She asked me. I looked down at my feet to find my hooves a couple inches over the fence I was standing on.

"Oh, fences are a block and a half in game mechanics, but only a block tall in visual, so your left kinda floating above a fence if you stand on it." I explained.

"But wherefore? Yond doesn't make any sense." She said, still looking through the gap between my hooves and the wood.

"I don't know it just does this. Moving on, do you know how long it will be till morning?" I asked her.

"The time to transpire before dawn? I doth, wherefore?" She asked.

"I just want to know roughly how long the dream will last, it was quite enjoyable right up untill the monsters showed up."

Night Strider put a hoof to her chin. "'Twill beest about... five hours till the sun shines again."

"Well, more time passed than I thought, but anyway, I'm going to be heading back into the cave to get some more resources, your welcome to join me." I offered.

Night Strider thought it over for a moment. "Before I concur, thee might not but bid me two things." She said tapping the ground twice.

I took a moment to decipher her words before answering. "And those are?"

She tapped the ground again. "First thee shall giveth me thy name." She tapped it once more. "And second thee wilt bid me the rules of this game" I smiled.

"My name is Argent Accord." Huh, I meant to say Peter there. "And the rules well." I I froze the day/Night cycle and started on the long explanation.

"...and tilled soil will only stay hydrated when it is within four blocks of a water source block. Moving on next we ha-"

"Enow!! For what reason is this game so complex!? Writeth it down on a scroll so yond we might reference the rules at which hours tis behoveful!" Night Strider shouted.

Chapter 7: Playing Games

View Online

After giving Night Strider a copy of the rules of the game, the edited version I might add, I had to completely change the whole farm animals section, and don't even get me started on converting keyboard and mouse controls to basically VR. I was able to leave chickens as they are at least. I got her kitted up with a full set of stone tools.

We went back into the mine. I mined another good chunk of stone, along with some diorite. I came back to Night Strider hitting the same block over and over again, the cracks disappearing after each hit. "At. Which. Hour. Shall. This. Break!" She said after each hit.

"Hitting it hard doesn't do anything, you just have to hit it alot, like this." I walked over to the piece of iron next to the one she was failing with. I held my pickaxe sideways and tapped the tip against the ore lightly and repeatedly until it broke. "See?"

"Yond doesn't make sense! Wherefore wouldst light taps unearth the material better than valorous swings!?" the pegasus complained, throwing her pick across the cave.

"Well, in the game itself... actually, do you want me to change it so that will work?"

"Yes!" She demanded getting in my face.

I pulled up the options menu and clicked one that doesn't normally exist. "There, mine any way you wish." I told her, magic-ing her pick back to her. "I'm going to go look for some andesite, makes a lovely accent to smooth stone, perhaps I'll find a dungeon?" I said loud enough for her to hear, but I was really just thinking out loud.

I had a fun little mining adventure, got a ton of iron and even some gold. When I came back to the section of the cave I had left Night Strider in it had been expanded ridiculosly, I could see dirt above and wooden scaffolding – the old version, not the new block – lining the the lower floors.

"Well she obviously figured out crafting tools, cause there is no possible way she could do all this with one pickaxe." I headed back up to the surface, inventory full.

I found her flattening out the top of a large hill a little ways from my house. She would run at a full gallop in straight lines with a stone shovel to the earth, when it broke the filly would run back where she had stabbed a great many shovels into the ground, it looked mildly akin to a flower. On an already flattened section of the hill she had a bunch of chests chalk full of cobblestone and other resources.

"Hey, whatcha building?" I asked her, she paused in her digging to answer.

"We art to build a structure to house ourself and to keepeth our own things." Night Strider informed me.

I looked around the partially cleared lot. "Exactly how big of a structure will this be?"

"Twill be a simple abode, nothing much larger than thy own." She replied.

I nodded and looked to the sun, realizing I never actually turned the day night cycle back on. "Uh, how much time has passed?" I asked her while re-enabling the flow of time.

"We doth not knoweth, alloweth us see." She closed her eyes before answering. "The morning did start three hours ago."

"Wait as in the sun rose, or when most peo-ponies wake up?" I asked for confirmation.

"The latter." She provided.

"Oh, well I overslept, I better get up." I stretched and began the process of restarting my brain.

"Already? But our construction has not hadst the chance to begin." Night Strider said, disappointed.

"Well I'm sorry about that, but I have things I gotta do, don't you have things you need to wake up for in... Canterlot?" I almost forgot the name of the town.

"Thou art correct, we suppose." She said, putting her shovels away.

"Alright, I guess I'll see you tommarow?" I asked.

"We shall see would we hast the leisure time." Night Strider said. I nodded and went back to my house. I barely had the time to shut the door before I left the dreamscape.

I woke up on the floor. "... Since when am I a restless sleeper?" I asked, I stretched and grasped the fallen blanket with my magic, moving it back onto the bed, while I was at it I might as well make th-
The magic fizzled and popped, and the blanket fell back to the floor.

"Ah, right. Awake now. Darn." I sighed and went downstairs. I found no one in the library or in the kitchen. I checked the basement to no avail.

After making a full round of the place I came to the conclusion that my hosts were not home at the moment. "Kinda wish I knew my way around town now." I made my way back to the kitchen and noticed a piece of paper next to a sandwich. Opening the note I found that it made no sense. "Figures, I'm going to have to teach myself how to read." I looked to the bottom of the paper and found what I assumed to be Twilight's name. I quickly memorized the characters, hoping the pony alphabet would be easy enough to figure out with some reference point.

"Alright, go wander about the town, or learn how to read. No, I'm going to go wander." I decided, but my stomach took the opportunity to remind me that I hadn't eaten yet. So I sat down at the table and ate the sandwich they left for me.

After breakfast I left Golden Oaks. I trotted through town in a Southerly direction, passing a store that had a feather and couch on a sign, I assume it was some kind of general store. It was relatively busy in town despite it being the weekend, I think it was the weekend anyway. Ponies were hanging decorations on the their homes and storefronts. I politely greeted any pony who said hello to me, but some of the mares were gushing over my relatively new "cuteness" a bit much for my liking.

I took a left at the decorative fountain and was greeted by the sight of a gingerbread house. I stared at it, blinked, and rubbed my eyes. The image remained. My face scrunched up a moment before I stopped and continued my orientation with town. Approaching the gingerbread building revealed many cookie and cupcakes, and what ever other things a bakery might sell. I think it's a store? I didn't want to check to be sure.

Continuing East past the gingerbread store I came across a rather large round building, there was alot of traffic here, and I could see Twilight talking to a light greyish amber coated mare, who's mark was that of a scroll tied up with a blue ribbon. Having found out where my host was I continued on, wandering aimlessly. Eventually I just synched up with the traffic of the town, looking for landmarks so I didn't get lost.

I wound up making a full circle of the town, and I walked passed a building styled like a purple bigtop tent with mannequins in the windows. Oh hey I think that's where Rarity works. I found myself in a park south of the big round building I thought was the town hall. Seeing the park was chalk full of fillies and... what's a boy horse called again? I've only heard the female term used recently. Anyway, seeing as the park was full of giggling, playing, children I decided it would be best to head back to the library and sit myself down with a book and try reading.

I turned around and was met with a yellow filly with a red mane, all to close to my face. "Hi!" She said in a heavy southern accent.

I am ashamed to admit that this scared me and I took a few steps back. She didn't seem bothered in the least by this and continued. "My name's Apple Bloom! Are ya new around here? I haven't seen ya in school."

Why would I be in school with a little kid? I thought. A kid, whose on eye level with me... how do I keep forgetting I turned into a child? I sighed internally. When the filly didn't leave and just smiled at me wider I decided to answer her, it's the polite thing to do after all. "Yes, my name is Argent, I uh, just came to Ponyville. I'm staying with Twilight Sparkle at the library."

"Oh! That's nice! So is that the reason your not in school? Cause Twilight's been teachin ya?" Apple bloom asked.

Well that is true I suppose. I thought before giving my reply. "Yes, Twilight is teaching me."

Apple Bloom did a little hop. "Cool! She's super smart! Oh hey, what's that in your mane? Some kinda decoration?" Apple Bloom asked reaching out a hoof at my-

I lept back a few steps. "I-i-its my horn, please don't t-touch it, it's very, uhhh..." I stammered, remembering how much it hurt to clip it on a chair, I was not about to let it get casually touched by a hoof, I don't wanna know what that would feel like.

"Oh! Sorry about that. I didn't know you were a unicorn. It's a pretty horn! I didn't think that they could look like that." Apple Bloom, complimented me? Trotting closer. "Are you one a those crystal ponies?"

"Uhh, y-no?" I said unsure.

"Anyway, do you wanna play a game?" She asked me, her eyes sparkling.

Yes, that's exactly what I want to do, play a children's game with children. NOT. I thought, but my what I said came out a bit more politely. "I dunno, I kinda have to head back ho-" I stopped quick when her expression flipped on a dime to depressed. "I mean I'd love to play a game! What do you wanna play? Tag? Hopscotch? Hide n' Seek?" I asked, rapid fire. I don't like seeing kids cry, and I felt like if I tried to shake her she might end up going down that route.

She brightened right back up. "Hide an' Seek sounds fun! I'll hide and you come find me!"

I sighed, a mixture of disappointment at what I had roped myself into, and relief at the kid being happy again. "Okay, how long should I count for?" Giving kids a longer time to hide was the norm back home.

"Ten, ya silly!" She said.

"Alright then." I closed my eyes and began counting down. I heard her bolt off in the direction behind me. I sighed after finishing the count down and scanned the park methodically. I noticed her in the first few seconds in a bush, her giant bow was sticking out, but I made an effort to let her think she did a good job. I counted out 53 seconds, don't ask me why cause I don't know, and then wandered over to the bush, feigning ignorance of her presence.

She giggled when I peered around the park, which brought a smile to my face. I tapped her on the shoulder. "Found you."

"Darn! I really thought I had you." She stomped a hoof in mock anger. I giggled at the display, and then mentally cursed the fact that I had. "Alrighty then, it's your turn Argent!"

"Alright, start counting." I looked to a bench off the way. "I know where I'm hiding." She grinned, taking the bait. I ran full tilt to the bench and slid under it, making as much noise as possible before I even heard "three". I then snuck over to a nearby tree and climbed it using more impossible feats of grip. I curled up near the top, biting my tail to bring it out of view, just as Apple Bloom finished the count down.

"One! Ready or not here I come!" She giggled and trotted lazily over to the bench. "Found y- huh?" I stifled a laugh at the bait being taken. She then began to search the park at random, I could feel my excitement building. Why am I so into this? It's just hide and seek. I didn't really care though, it was, for what ever reason, fun. Perhaps I just needed to take a break after all the weird things that had happened recently?

The sun was on the descent now and Apple Bloom sulked by my tree. She turned to leave, but then put a surprisingly powerful kick into the trunk of the tree, shaking it, and me out of my hiding spot. I sat up and rubbed my side.

"Found you!" she giggled.

"Ow, your stronger than you look." I had to give her that. "What gave me away?"

"Hehe, your horn was glowing." She said helping me up before I could question it.

Traitor! I thought to my crystalline growth.

"But that was a good spot!" She complimented.

"Yup, that's the thing, ki-foals never look up." I thought about it for a moment. "Except maybe for pegusi?" They could fly after all.

"You wanna keep playing? I've got a good spot this time!" She insisted.

I thought about it for a moment. "Ya know what, sure. Why not." I closed my eyes and began counting.

I spent the afternoon and the start of the evening playing games with the filly, enjoying in the simple pleasure of playground games. I'll probably mentally berate myself for giving into my inner child, possibly, but it's not a bad thing after all. I was in the middle of stumbling away from Apple Bloom, if I'm not focusing on my movement I tend to trip, and focusing on out manuvering an energetic child tends to split ones focus, when Twilight came by.

"Argent! Are you here?" She called, I skidded to a halt and fell over. The mare locked eyes with my mane, which I had to blow out of my face. "There you are! Didn't you get the note we left you?" She asked while looking me over.

Crap. "Uhhhh. Sorry?" I tried.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "It was nothing, just that we would be out for a little bit. But when we got back home and you weren't there we were worried. We've been looking for you all afternoon."

"I'm sorry, I saw you earlier. I just wanted to get a feel for the layout of the town." I said.

"Howdy Twilight, Argent and I was just playin around." Apple Bloom came to my aid, for some reason.

"It's alright Apple Bloom, no one is in trouble." Twilight said to the filly. "But you can't just go running off whenever you want, what if you got lost?" Twilight said, but all I really heard was an insult to my sense of direction.

Twilight looked at me with sympathy. "I know you must have been bored, what with not having any friends here in town and all, but there are lots of children's books in the library you could have read." My face scrunched up before I could stop it. "Now come on back, we have a magic lesson to do."

With that I said goodbye to Apple Bloom and followed Twilight back to Golden Oaks. We excersized my magic once more, she said I was improving but I hadn't noticed any real change. After a quick meal I went to bed, ready to get back to playing games with a certain dream pony.

Twilight

Once Argent had drifted off to sleep Twilight went back down into the basement. She flipped over a blackboard and resumed her research on the filly. She felt a little bad about keeping this from her, but scaring the poor girl wouldn't help anything.

The blackboard had several anomalies listed; from her color change in magic to how the splashes of color in her mane, tail and body would all brighten to coincide with her change in demeanour. To her unique horn makeup, and to how when the filly yawned a tiny rainbow would form for a moment.

"Where did you come from?" Twilight asked the blackboard, tapping chalk against her chin.

Chapter 8: A bad Apple Week

View Online

"...look sugercube, I really don't need no help." Applejack insisted. Ever since she had shown up and dragged away her award at the party she had just seemed, out of it. So naturally I came out here to Sweet Apple Acres to assist her in any way I could.

"Please! I really wanna help!" I begged. For the past hour I had been following her around the orchard trying to make myself useful. But AJ wasn't having it.

"No means No!" the orange mare said, bucking a tree.

"Why not?" I said in a pleading tone, giving her my best attempt at puppy dog eyes. For a moment she faltered, but I wasn't sure if that was because of the exhaustion or if I had succeeded.

"I don't need no help Argent!" she said, sterner than before.

"C'mon! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c- " I pestered her, not taking no for an answer. She cut me off.

"Alright already! Go get me some apple juice, that's how you can help!" the country mare shouted. With that I was off like a rocket, back towards Sweet Apple Acres central.

AppleJack

I watched the filly take off back towards her home. "Now then, back ta buckin," I said walking over to the next tree. As I heard the apples fall into the waiting baskets a voice cut in.

"Here you go Applejack!" Argent said, with a bottle of apple juice held in her blueish purple magical grip.

"Th-thank ya kindly." I said, taking the drink.

"What next?" The filly asked me, all too eager.

"Listen Argent, don't you think you've done enough fer today?" I asked her.

"Nope!" Argent replied.

I sighed. "I've got work to do, can you, maybe go back home?"

"But..." she began, but I cut her off.

"It would be mighty helpful." I countered.

Argent sighed. "... Alright, I guess I'll head back for today." Argent moped her way out of the orchard. I got back to my long day of Apple bucking.

I blew out a breath. "Back ta work."

Twilight watched Argent leave early next morning. The dull red stripe in the filly's mane and her rear hoof were now bright with color. Twilight had tried to convince Argent to stay home for the day with no luck.

Argent

I set off the first chance I got to go and help Applejack. Because I really have no reason not to. I thought.

I stumbled across a sky blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail. She was in the process of constructing some wooden abomination. "Hey Rainbow, whatcha building?" I asked the pegusus.

"I'm making an awesome stunt platform!" Rainbow Dash explained over her shoulder. "You wanna help?"

"Yes! Very much so! Just tell me what to do!" I cheered. Finally, at least someone here wants my help!

Rainbow laughed. "Just pass me things when I ask for them, don't want you getting hurt." Rainbow said. I slumped a little, but I could see why she said that and nodded.

"Understood!" I said, with a completely unnecessary salute. I took anything from nails to two by fours in my periwinkle magic and passed them to the stunt mare.

After about three hours the platform was complete. Rainbow Dash gave me a hoofbump, only a little awkward on my end, and asked me if I could go find Applejack for her.

"Will do, be right back with her!" I promised and made my way back to Sweet Apple Acres.

I found the farm mare had dozed off under a tree. "Hey Applejack! Rainbow Dash is looking for you," I said, trying to get her attention. But Applejack continued to snore. "Applejack?" I asked, getting closer."Applejack? Hello? Did you hear me? Applejack? Applejack?" I poked the mare in the barrel. She continued to snore.

I huffed. Putting all my focus into the task, my light blue magic managed to knock an apple out of the tree over AJ and drop it on her. Applejack finally woke up.

"Huh!? Wha-?" The orange mare blinked unevenly and shook her head.

"Hey Applejack, Rainbow Dash said she was looking for you." I told her.

"Huh?" She looked up to the sky and her eyes widened. "I'm late!" She took off like a punch drunk bullet, me close on her heels. I watched her run into not one, not two, but four separate trees, at full speed. I tried my absolute best to keep her from acrueing any more head trauma, but it was surprisingly difficult.

We eventually reached Rainbow, who was tapping her hooves impatiently. Applejack made apologies and I got a good look at the thing I helped build. A two story platform over a seesaw/low grade catapult. After hearing what Rainbow expected this thing to do Applejack climbed the tower. I had to voice my opinion to Rainbow Dash. "Don't you think we should have put a ladder or maybe stairs in the high dive?"

Rainbow looked at me funny. "What do ya mean? It takes like two seconds to get up there." She said dismissively.

"For a pegasus." I countered. Applejack made the first of many off target landings. I winced. "Also, wouldn't it have been easier to build an actual catapult for this?" Rainbow Dash held a hoof up to her chin in thought.

"Nah." She waved me off. I tried to slow down AJ's next miss, but I don't think I'd did much. "Applejack, what the hay is going on? I mean, I thought I was working with Ponyville's best athlete!" RD complained.

"You are. I'm okay. Really. I-I have an idea. Watch this." Applejack put her hooves to the other end of the board and pulled it down to the ground with some strain. Rainbow gave her a deadpan look. "Oh... Maybe not. Okay, one more try. I'm sure to get it this time." Applejack stepped off the platform, letting the other end hit the ground with a thud. A dazed Rainbow Dash tried to get Applejack to wait, but the farm mare was all ready falling, on target this time, onto the other end of her teeter totter, launching the poor mare skyward with no control.

"Applejaaaaaack!" Rainbow Dash Doppler-ed.

"Yer welcome!" AJ shouted at the rainbow projectile rocketing away from us. She trotted off in the direction of the orchard.

I looked between the country mare and the fading contrail. "...I think I'll head back for the day." I glanced skyward every now and then on my way back to the library.

Twilight was giving me more magic excersizes the next morning on the balcony. "Feel the air currents. Now once you have a good idea of it, try giving them a little nudge." She instructed. Twilight is a pretty good teacher, I must say. I haven't bitten the bullet and told her I can't read the native language yet. Trying to figure it out was proving less than feasible, given the 36 different characters I had run across so far, and I have no idea if some of those are peculiar pony punctuation or not.

I could feel the mild breeze we had today, it was pretty much perfect summer weather, it wasn't even all that hot. I reached out with my magic, trying to adjust one current, just a little. I could hear my horn alight with magic and-

A thump sounded from the railing, startling me, setting off what was apparently, a totaly normal magic burst. As I focused on calming down my raging horn while Twilight conversed with our uninvited guest.

"Can I help you?" Twilight said, mildly annoyed that our lesson was interupted, a sentiment I shared in, as I blasted the door with uncontrollable magic.

"I think somepony else needs your help." A winded Riinbow Dash said.

"Applejack?" Twilight asked.

"Yep." Rainbow confirmed, putting extra emphasis on the P. She slumped down on the railing and closed her eyes. Twilight went back inside, presumably to go have a talk with the orange earth pony.

I had a few things to ask RD though so I stayed behind. "Uhh, how did you not gain control over you flight after being launched? And were you up in the air all night?"

"I did get back under control, and yes, in a way." Was her response.

"Uhh? Care to explain?" I still dont see how she got that much force out of a see saw.

"After getting launched by AJ I landed in a cloud and decided to just take a nap." She provided.

I blinked. One, that sounds very lazy. Two, "How?"

Rainbow gave me an odd look. "What do you mean 'How?' All pegasi can walk on clouds."

"Oh, right." I said. I forgot about that.

Rainbow decided to slump back down, either too comfortable, somehow, or to lazy to move.
I'm leaning towards the latter.
I decided to head back inside and hang out with Spike for a while.

Spike and I were in dead lock in a chess match. I was measuring my next move carefully.

"Well?" Spike said confidently.

"Shush!" I hissed, staring at my remaining pieces. I had managed to remove both his knights, several pawns and a bishop from play. The problem was that he had seen my queen strategy coming and had removed her from play, along with several other pieces. I picked up a pawn in my magic and moved it into a defensive position. Board games make for great magic control exercise. Spike's smug grin grew wider and my own expression fell as he put his claws onto his remaining bishop.

"Che-" he started, but a magical pop interrupted him.

"Spike! Argent! Need your help! Come on!" Twilight shot off before all three of us were wrapped in the light purple glow of Twilights magic. With a disorientating twist and pop we were somewhere else. I struggled to keep my breakfast down while Spike and Twilight, seemingly unaffected, were trotting off in the direction of a tent that had been set up outside the gingerbread structure, I learned that this place was called Sugercube Corner durning the award ceremony. Dozens of ponies were laying on hospital beds, looking a little green around the gills. One in particular, Pinkie Pie, had actually turned a sickly green.

"We came as soon as we heard." Twilight said to nurse Redheart.

"Oh thank you, Twilight. We need all the help we can get." The sickly ponies were moaning and groaning for all they were worth.

Egh, looks like a bad case of food poisoning. I thought.

"Oh no! What happened?" Twilight asked the nurse. Spike was sniffing what I thought was a particularly nasty looking cupcake, it looked like it had been left out for days.

"It was a mishap with some of the baked goods." Nurse Redheart explained, but Pinkie spoke up.

"No, not baked goods, baked bads!" She moaned.

"Applejack." Twilight concluded.

Spike walked up to her with a bunch of the nasty cupcakes, taking a huge bite out of one. He offered one to Twilight. "Want one?" A worm wiggled out of the breading. Twilight teleported away, I however didn't have such a luxury. Spike turned to me, still offering the item.

After helping all we could, me and Spike headed back to the library. I ended up losing the game of chess, but I was doing much better at old maid, or as they called it here, old mare. I had started with the old maid, but my poker face had translated well to my new body, even if I was straining to hold my cards up in my magic grasp. I had passed it off in the first turn, and Spike's attempts at passing the card back to me were very obvious.

I won the first three hands before we decided to change games again. My magic petered out in the middle of a game of Crazy Eights, so I had to switch to using my hooves.

Just as I was about to totally win – definitely, no question, he definitely wasn't about to beat me – we heard a loud rumbling and Rainbow Dash shout once more.
"STAMPEDE!!"

"You can't be serious." I muttered as I left the library, once again a cloud of dust being kicked up by something was approaching town. What came into town was dozens and dozens of bunnies of all colors. I really struggled to keep from saying "awww~!" And I'm not one hundred percent certain I was succesful. It's just so cute! Watching townsponies flee in terror from a giant heard of bunnies, some are even fainting! It's priceless!

Fluttershy came into town trying to convince the Lagomorph invaders to leave back to their burrows. Twilight happened upon the scene, three ponies passed out in the street, Fluttershy trying to talk to bunnies, and me, I'm ninety percent sure I was gushing like the girl I now am over the bunnies. Did I mention bunnies?

One of the ponies spoke up. "The horror, the horror!"
Another one took her turn. "It was awful." She insisted.
"A disaster. A horrible, horrible disaster." The third one finished.

I broke out into laughter over their reaction to the bunnies while Twilight scanned the town for damages, but all one could see was bunnies had taken up residence in Ponyville. "I don't get it." Twilight said.

"Our gardens, destroyed!" One mare, I think her name is Lily, said.
"Every last flower, devoured." A red mare bemoaned.
"By... by... THEM!" The final of the trio pointed a fearful hoof at the bunnies hopping around town, specifically the one residing on my head. I was beaming.

"Oh my. Oh... Please stop, little bunnies. Oh no! Please, let's go home. Oh my goodness." Fluttershy was trying her hardest, and I certainly wasn't helping.

"All right. Enough is enough." Twilight 'ported out once more, heading for Sweet Apple Acres if I had to guess.

In the mean time, BUNNIES!! I giggled with delight as I played with the adorable fluffy balls of cute.

Eventually Fluttershy convinced me to help her get the creatures back to their homes and I was glad to help, after about an hour of rabbit filled fun.

Twilight came back and rounded up everyone and took us back to AJ's, apparently the orange apple farmer had finally caved and agreed to let us help. I was set up with three trees to rid of apples. I could only manage a single Apple at a time with magic, and my kicks had no real power behind them. I tried climbing up into the tree and was spades more successful in filling my baskets. It was still one at a time, but it was nowhere near as taxing. I managed to do a total of ten trees before Applejack called.

"How about y'all take a little break? I got some fine apple juice waitin' for ya!"
I disembarked my current tree and made my way over to the picnic table with everyone else.
Applejack sighed . "Girls, I can't thank you enough for this help. I was acting a bit stubborn."

"A bit?" Twilight challenged playfully.

"Okay. A mite stubborn, and I'm awful sorry. Now, I know the town gave me the Prized Pony award, but the real award is having you five as my friends." AJ was pretty good at being sappy.

"Phew! That applebucking sure made me hungry." RD said.

Spike reached behind him and pulled a plate out of nowhere. "And I've got the perfect treat." Spike insisted showing off the disgusting half eaten cupcakes from before.

"Eww!" Me and Pinkie said in unison. I had narrowly managed to escape sampling the things before. "Spike, I threw those all away. Where'd you get them?" Pinkie asked.

Spike was far to nonchalant in his answer. "From the trash!"
I punched myself in the mouth accidentally at that.

Curse you hooves... I thought as all the other occupants of the table repeated what Pinkie and I had all ready expressed.
Everyone left the table and Spike insisted that we try them, we did not.

Chapter 9: Tours of Town & Troubling Transformations.

View Online

"Curses, we hast received the crone again!" Night Strider complained, causing me to chuckle, or rather giggle, my voice is to high for proper chuckling. Me and the pegasus filly were hanging out in the newly constructed gaming gazebo, it was a very simple design, but it has this awesome central table with all kinds of games stored within, and a glass roof. Apparently these Equestrians weren't very good poker players, even a child could spot their tells.

This last hand I had decided to take the obvious bait and held onto the old maid for the duration of the hand, till the last pair was to be made. At that moment I took my winnings. "Better luck next time hun~" I said mockingly.

"Didst thou just issue a challenge to us?"

"Dunno, did I?" I replied, a smug grin on my face.

Night Strider's wings bristled and she huffed. "Oh, tis so very on!" She retorted, slamming a hoof onto the table.

"Alright, Night Light, the usual stakes I presume?" Night Strider plopped a few gold bars onto the tables betting section, I placed the same amount. I shuffled the cards and put them in the special stand, it dealt them out evenly to us. I wound up with the old maid, but that wouldn't last long, I placed the first pair down, followed by the pegasus.

"We shalt aquire... this one!" She took a four of hearts from me and slammed it down with its partner.

Luna

Yond is't! We has't hadst enow! This filly shalt learn of our prowess at games! Luna vowed. She dropped the handicap she had given the child and played for real.

I'll just let her win this time. She wanted to use all this gold to make some pretty intricate decorations for her house, so it would be rude to just take it all, but I have to make her think she wins fair and square. I thought I purposefully retrieved the maid from my opponents hand. Oddly enough they still call them 'hands' of cards, wonder why.

After a few turns I noticed a major improvement in Night Strider's skills. I lost by a land slide. "So, you were holding out on me, eh? Didn't take you for a hustler." I said with a sigh.

Night Strider flinched. "We... We didst not aim to fell thee, or make the game unfun."

"You didn't, but next time neither of us will be pulling punches." I stated. Night Strider agreed to that and I put the deck away.

"So then, what activity shalt we partake in next?" She asked me. I shrugged, then remembered my shoulders aren't built for such an expression anymore and repeated the pony version.

"Dunno, up to you Night Light." I offered.

Night Strider pouted at me. "We wish thee wouldst not refer to us in such a way."

"Why not? It's just a nickname, friends give them to each other all the time. And with how much you hang out in my dream/our shared dreamscape, or what ever it is, I think I'm allowed to call you such." I countered.

"Fine then, we shalt dub thee Genta!"

I blanched at her choice. "What, why?"

"Doth thee like it?" I shook my head. "Then thee has't thy answer!" She finished.

"... Fine, its only fair I suppose. So Night Light, what game shall we play next?"

"How doest a game of War sound, Genta?" she drew out the Nick name. I could feel my ears snap in annoyance.

I retrieved the deck once more. "You've got yourself a game, Night Light." I returned.

After a few more games, we broke about even on the betting pool. Night Strider wound up taking the better half back to her miniature fortress of a build. I began the process of waking up and said good bye to her.

I was greeted by the sight of Twilight. She was scribbling down words into a notepad while running some kind of scanning spell over my hooves.

"Uhh, hi there." I started.

Twilight jumped with a gasp, dropping her clip board.

"Whatcha doin?"

"Uhhhhhhhhh..." She looked side to side nervously, "...hhhhhhhhhhhh..." she dragged on for far to long for her not to be fishing for an answer. "...hhhhh, nothing?" She wore the most forced smile in the world, and I say that sitting in magical pony land.

I mentally pinched the bridge of my nose, an expression I greatly missed, along with snapping, golf claps, and giving certain individuals the middle finger. I sighed. "Whatever, so what's on the agenda for toaday?"

Her expression brightened. "Well, you've been steadily increasing your skill with basic levitation, but learning some of the more advanced spells could speed that up, have you read 'Cosmo's guide to Magic for Foals' yet?"

Crap. "Uh, no. I still haven't read, any of them." I admitted.

Twilight deflated. "I see... I suppose you just don't find reading enjoyable?" She guessed at. I quickly moved to correct her.

"No! I mean, its not that its just that I-" I stopped short. Am I actually going to admit that I can't read any of them?

"That you what?" Twilight asked.

I took a breath. "I can't... I can't read them..."

Twilight looked to me, aghast. "You... you can't..."

"I just, never... It's not the language I-"

"You can't Read!?" she interrupted me. "Come with me, I am going to teach you."

"..."

"What?" she inquired, turning back to me.

"Nothing, just not the reaction I was expecting."

"Well I'm not about to just not let you experience one of the greatest pleasures known to ponykind! Now come on."

I nodded and followed her to the library. Dozens of books flew off the shelves, Twilight looked through each of them in a second. She piled up the ones that did not meet her standards. She sat me down next to her on some cushions. The book she had selected was obviously a children's story book, the cover art made it obvious. She also popped a chalkboard into existance.

"Now then the first letter of the alphabet is..."

"Why are there so many characters..." I complained, my forelimbs draped over my skull.

"Because the original script of ponies was lost during Discord's rule, he made a total of one hundred sixty three and a half different characters. One for every single different way a sound could be said, and different ways it could be read based on the rest of the context of the sentence." Twilight explained. "Furthermore, after his defeat, the princesses slimmed down and standardized the alphabet to a minimal forty two characters, and the modern version was slimmed even farther down to a simple thirty six."

"That was rhetorical..." I bemoaned.

"Oh, uh, sorry. Well anyway, now that we have covered the basic alphabet, we should move onto some basic words and spelling." Twilight cleared the board and began anew.

Learning Equish script took far less time than I thought it would, aside from the extra characters for sounds like 'th' 'sh' and such, it was only a matter of matching up the Equish characters to my native ones. It would take a bit of practice to properly memorize them all, and I was not exactly overjoyed to have to.

I was extremely thankful that the grammar was the same, given the shared spoken language it made sense, but given that an apparent lord of chaos overhauled the written language, I'm thankful that he didnt switch it to Spanish grammar.

I scribbled down notes on the Equish alphabet, matching each character to my Latin alphabet. With this I might be able to attempt reading.

"I can't believe your school never taught you how to read." Twilight sighed as she finished writing, "The filly played with her friends." "And whats even more confusing is that you seem to be well read!"

Eh, moderately anyway. "I just didn't learn Equish there, we didn't cover it in class."

"It's the most common language in the world!" Twilight stressed. A knock at the door drew the purple mare's attention. She looked back to me. "We will finish up the lesson later." The purple mare went to the front door, me on her heels.

Because I don't really have anything to do. It's not like I really know anyone in town, I thought. Another knock. Twilight magic-ed the door open a few paces before she reached it.

"Hi Twilight!" A familiar country voice said. "Is Argent home?" Apple Bloom asked. The filly peeked around Twilight's legs. "Oh Argent, hi!" She said, bouncing past Twilight and stopping in front of me. "Do ya wanna go play some more?"

I just had to say that... I shook my head. Child, playing, no thanks. I gave Twilight a look, look that says 'I really dont want to do this, help me!'

Twilight responded with, "hmmm, I dunno. We were in the middle of a lesson." My expression brightened immensely once Apple Bloom turned to face Twilight, with a look that was almost assuredly the opposite of my own. "But, I suppose we could just cut the lesson short, you girls have fun!" Mine and Apple Bloom's expressions flipped, and the filly started bouncing again.

"Alright! Hey Argent, where do ya wanna go? Do ya wanna go ta SugarCube Corner? Or the park? Maybe we could go down to the river?" She suggested in a rapid fire manner.

"Uhh." I looked to Twilight for help, but she had already left. Crap, I'm stuck hanging out with the child, aren't I. I sighed. "You pick, I still don't know much about Ponyville."

"Well alright! Follow me." We wandered around town, occasionally stopping so she could give me a bit of information on the stores we passed. We did end up going to Sugercube Corner, and Pinkie bought us each a cupcake. I'm not overly big on sweets, but I can't turn down something someone bought for me. The cupcake tasted largely how they did back home, but something about it was just, better. Can't really explain it.

Upon exiting the establishment we were nearly run over by an orange blur. The blur sounded nigh motorized and was definetly some kind of pony , but any further details were unreadable to me due to the high speeds.

We were left struggling to breathe in a cloud of dust. "Who, cough, who was that?" I asked my tour guide.

"I dunno, but they need ta watch where their goin!" Apple Bloom shouted after them, but the offender was far out if earshot by now. "C'mon Argent, we 're gonna find em and give em what fer!"

Why though? I thought these ponies were like, really friendly. "uhh, I dunno. They probably didn't mean to do that. I think we could just leave her be." Apple Bloom gave me an odd look that I couldn't quite place. "don't you have a few more things you would like to do today?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

Apple Bloom immidetly brightened. "Oh yeah! Follow me." The yellow filly lead me south west of the library, down the road to Sweet Apple Acres.

"We going to your house?" I asked. Apple Bloom shook her head.

"Nah, some place else." We turned right almost a minute into the trail, a red structure I had passed a few times on my way to Applejack's place coming into view. It was a simple rectangular structure, complete with one of the bells that old school houses had.

... Wait a minute! "Is this the school!?" I backed away. Hissing like a cat.

"Yeah, what's the matter?" Apple Bloom asked, clearly confused. "I know school ain't the most popular place an' all, but you're actin kinda funny."

"I served my time! No way am I going back to grade school."

"What's that supposed ta mean?" She asked me, clearly more confused than before.

I kept backing up till I bumped into something. I looked over my shoulder and up. I saw a moderate cerise coated mare. Her greyish harlequin eyes staring down at me. "Hello little pony, what brings you to the school today? Are you perhaps transferring in?" She asked.

"Nope!" I shot off like a rocket back into town. I nearly ran over anyone in my way, the fact that they were at least twice my current size didn't matter. I didn't stop till I was safely back inside Golden Oaks. I was breathing heavily while propped up against the door.

A confused Twilight came to the front door. "Argent? You're back already? What's the..." She locked eyes with me. "What happened!?" she shouted at me like I had lost an arm. I tilted my head to the side, catching sight of light blue flakes falling to the ground. I brought a hoof up to my forehead, feeling a rough stub rather than the three inch thing sticking out of my head. I ran past Twilight, looking for a mirror. Once I found one I was met with my visage staring back at me. I looked up to see that my horn was about half the size it usually was, and it was crumbling like dry crackers.

"I-I... what happened?" I asked the room. Twilight caught up to me, looking more worried than before. "I... I didn't even notice..m" I said, turning to face her. She put a hoof on my withers before pulling me into a bone crushing hug.

I don't feel particularly sad, and my reflection showed that I looked more surprised than anything, so why the hug? I blinked. Oh wait, is this because of that whole' magic is a unicorns birthright' thing? That makes sense, loosing ones horn pretty much stops any and all attempts at using magic ever again, but mine grew back really quickly before didn't it? "Is, is this permanent?" I asked her, my horn still sheading dead flakes.

"I'm not sure, but I'm going to figure it out." Twilight promised.

Once more I found myself in Twilight's basement lab, my horn the cause of both visits so far. A jar of my horn flakes – That sounds like some kind of cereal I could buy here, huh. – was going through the scanner. The decay of my horn had stopped, leaving me with a rounded nub that barely passed a quarter inch in length.

Additionally, I was stood in that same scanning machine I was in last time, it had finished it's pass over my horn region and had moved onto my hooves. "A Gaean Duct!? But, but, but..." Twilight trailed off.

Isn't that the thing she said I didn't have last time? "Does that mean I'm not a unicorn anymore?" I asked her.

She gave me a look before going over all her papers again. "It would seem... wait." She started the scanner again. It must have spat out different numbers because she stared at the results disbelievingly. She re-scanned me again and again. By the end of my fifth scan I was able to see the end of my horn poking into my vision once more, and the scan stopped coming back green around my hooves.

Twilight was comparing the veritable mountain of paper the overworked machine had spat out. "So, what's the diagnosis doc?" I asked, trying to put a bit of levity into the situation.

"You are still a unicorn." She assured me.

Oh good, well at least my body has finally settled on what it wants to be. Now the-

"But," she cut off my thoughts, "for a time you had lapsed into being an earth pony. Each time I re-ran the scan your tribal attribute for earth ponies shrank, and the one for unicorns grew." I looked up to my horn, it still wasn't full length, but it was still growing.

"Those would be my horn and this Gaean Duct thing you were talking about?"

Twilight nodded. "It would seem that, for a short time, you transformed back into an earth pony, but the reason why I am not yet sure of. Tell me what you and Apple Bloom did today, it could be the key to this mystery."

I put a forehoof to my chin in thought. "We didn't really do anything though. All we did was visit Sugarcube Corner and visit the school." Twilight was writing on a chalk board.

"There are no known spells for changing a pony's tribe, and illusions wouldn't show up on the scans so vividly, so it has to be some kind of unkown or new spell? Or perhaps it has to do with her origins?"

"Twilight?" I asked, but she wasn't listening. My stomach growled, and almost on cue, Spike descended into the basement, serving tray in hand.

"It doesn't make sense." Twilight muttered, tapping the chalk on her chin. "A pony's tribe doesn't just change, it woudnt be possible." She had absent mindedly picked a sandwich off the tray and was taking bites between thinking out loud.

Fairly certain I wouldn't be able to figure this out, I followed Spike back up the stairs. We had dinner and I worked on understanding Equish. "Just leave the science to the scientist, it would all just fly over your head, you are just an art student, one that nearly flunked out of the sciences at that." I said while staring at a page uncomprehendingly.

Despite my saying so, I continued to ponder the question. How could I not? I mean, it's a pretty big question after all, and it very much concerns me. I rolled onto my back, blowing the hair out of my eyes. All I did was hang out with Apple Bloom. Nothing else happened. Apple Bloom, I was around Apple Bloom, all afternoon, Apple Bloom, the earth pony... Can't be. Can it?

Chapter 10: A Quick Visitation

View Online

Twilight stood in front of her chalk board, adding to the list of things strange about this filly.
"-changes tribe?"
"-Unkown element common throughout the body
"-potential new species?"

She slammed her head onto the table. "She doesn't make sense..." Twilight complained. She took up a quill in her magic and began writing a letter to the princess. Normally she would have Spike write the letter for her, but because he had become Fast friends with Argent, she decided to keep the information between just her and Princess Celestia, lest he clue the young filly in accidentally.

"Hey Twilight," I greeted. It looked like she hadn't slept at all last night. Her mane was frazzled and she had bags under her eyes. "Got a question for you, regarding magic." That statement seemed to rejuvenate her as much as a cup of coffee is stereotyped to do.

"Ask away!" She said cheerfully.

"Okay, what do you know about dream magic?"

Her expression twisted into lecture mode. "Well, the history of dream magic predates the formation of Equestria. The very first spells used in regards to dreams were made to ward off nightmares. Further research into dream spells was deemed 'frivolous' for two hundred years later. A network of spies under Princess Luna's command had developed dreamwalking after her own ability, to be used as an information network. The use of dreams for such a purpose was later banned after the incident regarding..." I zoned out for a moment.

I like learning, don't get me wrong. Especially when it came to magic, it was fun, new, exciting, and most importantly, fricken Magic! but when Twilight gets like this, I can't help but zone out.

"...and strange as it seems, you have to be careful when that happens or it can cause problems in the real world."

I feel like I just missed something important.
"Twilight, can I refine my question?"

"It also- huh? Oh, yes."

"Okay, I was wondering more specifically if there was a way to keep a dream open, like after you wake up."

"Oh! A waking dream spell? Why yes there are a few of those. If you would like, I can have Spike pick out a few books on the subject. Spike!" Said baby dragon bolted into the room. "Could you find Argent here a few books on dream spells?"

"Sure thing!" Spike went around the room with a ladder and pulled three choice books off the shelves. "Here ya go. Let me know if you need anything else."

I took the books in my magic, surprised by the weight of them. Twilight and Spike smiled at me before exiting the room. "You better appreciate this Night Light." I muttered to myself.

I heard a knock at the door, and, seeing as I was the only one home, I went to answer it. Of all the ponies I thought might come by, Apple Bloom was not one of them. For some reason, the yellow farm filly looked a bit sad. "Uhh, hey?" I said.

"I'm sorry Argent, I just thought it would be kinda fun goin ta school with you is all..."

I blinked. What's she talking about? Apple Bloom began moping away from the door. "Wait, are you talking about why I ran off like that?"

She turned back to me. She still looked a bit down, but now confused was added to the mix. "Uh, yeah?"

"I didn't just run off because, because I didn't want to go to school." I lied. "It was something kinda... medical."

"Medi-huh?" She asked skeptically.

"Well... come with me." I motioned her in. "So the thing is, I'm not like most other unicorns." I told her as we passed the basement door.

"And?"

"Well..." Using my magic, I picked up the jar full of my horn flakes, and the older, chipped-off piece. I held them infront of Apple Bloom. "These, were my horn yesterday." I spun the jar for emphasis. "And that, was the tip of my horn a few days ago." I held the crystal bit up to my horn to show off the identical structure.

Apple Bloom scrutinized the items disbelievingly. "Really?"

"Really," I said honestly. "Why? You gonna ask me to chip off a piece to prove it? I can tell you that kinda hurts like falling down a flight of stairs, that are covered in taks." I said sarcastically.

"Of course not!" Apple Bloom shouted at me. She looked closer at the chipped piece. "Yer doin magic, so yer definitely a unicorn, but if that jar of, stuff was yer horn yesterday... what happened?"

"I'm not really sure." I admitted. "That's part of the reason I'm staying with Twilight, so we can find out why I'm so different."

"That... kinda makes sense, I s'pose." She regarded the items. "So, what now?"

"Uhh... I have, no idea. Honestly I didn't think this far ahead." An awkward silence started to set in, me and AB each looking around a bit nervously. I took the moment to realize I led a child into a basment labratory. After that little thought, I moved the awkward moment upstairs.

Neither of us had said anything for a solid five minutes, and were just ocasionally glancing at eachother before finding something else to look at. Wow, I did not realize I was this bad at talking to kids. "So, uhh, how is school?" nailed it... Ugh I sound like my uncle...

"Its, alright. I guess. I mostly just hang out with Twist. But there are these girls, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, that are a might prissy."

"Uh-huh." Oh Jeez, now I don't even sound like I'm listening... oh wait, I'm commenting, so I'm not listening. Tuning back in now. I hadn't missed anything, as far as I could tell, as she was looking around the room again.

Before either of us could fumble with the conversation further, we heard a crash from the library. "That sounded... oddly familiar." I voiced. Investigation revealed that every single book had been knocked out of the shelves, and a familiar sky blue pegasus was partially burried. "Huh, okay I have got to ask, does this happen often?"

"No! Maybe." Rainbow Dash said something about this being some kind of "toughness training."

"Uh-huh." I said, giving her a deadpan look.

"Anyways, where's Twilight? I heard she was looking for me and Fluttershy." RD informed me.

I began trying to place books back where I knew they belonged. "She went over to Fluttershy's." I told her, placing a book on stars back on the top shelf. "I'm supposed to head over to them later, you'll probably catch her there." All said and done I put up a total of 20 books, which is not much in the grand scheme of the library, but hey, I saved Spike a little bit of work.

"Alright, I guess I'll go see what she needs, later!" Rainbow said as she zipped back out the window.

"I should probably get goin too, later Argent." Apple Bloom excused herself.

"Bye!" I called after her. "Now then, back to readi- oh, right..." I spent the next twenty minutes sifting through the book piles for the ones I was using.

I had gotten out the saddlebags Twilight had given me. So I guess these are the horse equivalent of a back pack? I miss having arms, and hands, and fingers... I sighed as I packed the books. I opened the door and trotted out into town.

I met, rather quickly, with the orange blur again, but this time it was a head on collision. I felt something hard press against the front of my barrel and lift me off my f-hooves. It winded me, but I was apparently made out of some pretty stern stuff. I opened my eyes to see a child/foal sized scooter on top of me.

"Ow kay then, that happened." I lifted the small vehicle off my form, then looked for the driver. Three feet away from me was a light brilliant gamboge coated pegasus filly with a moderate cerise mane. That's orange and a darkish purple respectivly for non art students. "Are, you allright?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I'm good." She began as she got up and dusted herself off. She took a glance at me and returned my question, a little bit more worry in her tone.

I followed her gaze up to my horn. The end had snapped off. " Oh what the horseapples!" And what the hell does that mean!? I picked up the fragment of my horn and tucked it into my saddlebags.

The filly was giving me a very concerning look, she seemed about three seconds from running and getting help. "I'm fine, I guess. If pattern serves, that will grow back in about half an hour." I mitigated. This seemed to do nothing to quell her worries. "Seriously, I'll be fine. I'm an odd duck, I know, but trust me on my own health at least."

"What do ducks have to do with anything?" She asked me.

I sighed. "Nothing. Now then, what's your name? And why are you the fastest moving thing I've seen next to RD?"

"My name's Scootaloo, wAIT YOU REALLY THINK I'M THAT FAST!? YOU KNOW RAINBOW DASH?" She shouted, buzzing with excitement. Literally, her wings were vibrating.

"Uhh, yes and yes?" I responded, not sure which question I should be concerned with.

"THAT'S AWESOME!" Scootaloo exclaimed, hopping into the air and hovering for a moment.

"Uhh, tone it down a bit?" I asked her. I tried moving the scooter over to her with my magic, only to hear electric buzzing. I received a snap of pain and a mild electric shock. "ow, again. Sure now I feel you... So uh, I should get going now. Gotta meet with Twilight and RD over at Fluttershy's." I regretted mentioning the specifics of my destination the moment they left my mouth.

"Your going to to see her right now?!" She had toned it down a bit like I had asked, but not enough.

"Yeah? Wh-"

"CAN I COME!?"

I sat back on my haunches and held my hooves to my ears, followed by pantomiming lowering the volume. "Yes, if I can keep some of my hearing during the trip."

"Sorry." She righted her scooter. "So what's Rainbow like? Isn't she awesome?"

"She is very fast, and loyal, a good friend. At least that's what Twilight tells me, I've only met her twice, and both times ended up scattering everything in the room."

"Oh, she is Awesome isn't she?" Scootaloo apparently didn't hear the end of my thoughts on the mare. "I wanna be just like her!"

Please no, I can only take so much blunt force trauma. "Well, your doing good so far, she and I met the same way you and me just did." I said, giving her a mild glare as I said it.

"Really?" She ignored the negative implications entirely. "Cool!"

I felt the first shift accompanied by the sound of reverse glass breaking. Looking up revealed that my horn had regained a few centimeters. Shaking off the pressure this usually caused I moved toward Fluttershy's cottage, now in the company of one Scootaloo.

Scootaloo droned on and on about how much she admires Rainbow. I smiled and nodded politely, but it was getting a little old. My sides were getting a little sore, probably from the walk, or perhaps a combination of the walk and getting run over?

Just as we passed town hall another high pitched voice called out to us, more specifically, "Scootaloo! Hey, where are you going? I thought we were gonna hang out today? Who's that with you?"

"Oh, heya Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo waved to the approaching light grey unicorn filly. She had a grayish mulberry mane, with pale, light grayish rose streaks and pale, light grayish harlequin eyes. "Me and- I never actually got your name, sorry." Scootaloo said, turning to me.

"Eh, no problem. My name is P- Argent Acord." I corrected myself before I could make that mistake. The name Peter is still an odd name here, better keep using my assumed name.

"Nice to meet you! Hey whats with the busted crystal on your head?" Sweetie Belle asked, as she tapped it with her hoof. My horn sputtered and sparked in response. Sweetie Belle recoiled at the display of broken magic.

"Ow..." I said automatically as a small wave of pain radiated from the damaged extension of my skull. "Yeah, that's my horn. Could you uh, not do that?"

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! I didn't know! It's just I've never seen a unicorn with a horn like that!" She apologized profusely.

Another few centimeters added themselves back to my horn. "Nah, it's fine, most pe-ponies assume its some kind of decoration at first. Plus this isn't the first time it's been broken, and it heals quick." I waved her off. "So, you two are friends?"

Sweetie Belle seemed confused by my extreme nonchalant attitude about my broken horn. "Yup, we met back when Nightmare Moon showed up." Scootaloo informed me.

Nightmare Moon? Sounds like an odd name, even given pony standards. My hoof itched like a mosquito had burried itself inside it, but I smiled and nodded, as if I knew the event that she spoke of. "Anyway, nice to meet you two."

"So, should we get going?" The unicorn filly asked me.

"Uhh?" I began.

"Yeah! Come on Sweetie Belle, were going to go see Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo invited.

I... don't care, I can just dump the kids on her when we get there. "Fine, let's go."

The group now three strong, we made our way down towards Fluttershy's. Scootaloo had taken the lead on her scooter, leaving Sweetie Bell and I to trot behind her. It was a slow walk, with trees either side of the road.

"So, you're the unicorn filly staying with my sister's friend?" Sweetie asked me.

I looked the filly over. "You're... Rarity's sister?" She nodded. "Then yes. I am in fact staying at Twilight's." I confirmed.

"Neat! I heard you're having trouble with magic, is that true?" She asked.

I saw no point in denying the fact. "Eh, a bit. I only just started using magic after all."

"And why is that?" Scootaloo asked, having slowed back down to our pace enough to converse.

"Well I- actually, you should probably just ask Twilight. She can explain it better than I can, besides I believe we are here." Just across a tiny bridge was a small structure. It had a very natural looking roof. The surrounding trees were littered with bird houses. It certainly looks like where a caretaker of animals would live.

We walked the path, a path that contained several bunnies. Despite my extreme adoration of bunnies, that I've had since a young age – the first one – I somehow managed to keep from stopping. We approached the door of the cottage, the top of the odd half door design was left open. I could hear the voices of Twilight, Rainbow, and barely audible Fluttershy discussing something, but couldn't make out any words.

I knocked on the lower door. "Fluttershy? Twilight? I'm here."

The door section was wrapped in a familiar purple glow and swung open. "Hey Argent, glad you could make it." Twilight greeted. Her gaze drifted upwards to my repairing horn, then to the ones in my company.

"Yeah, I may have run into some tag alongs on my way over." I said, turning to look specifically at Scootaloo. The orange pegasus was whistling innocently.

"Well, come on in you three." Twilight motioned for us to follow. We were all sat around Fluttershy's living room. Scootaloo was sitting next to Rainbow Dash, and I was sat between Sweetie Bell and Twilight. My horn had made a full recovery and I was magic capable again, so I was able to take the drink offered to me by our host.

"So, what are we all doing here?" I asked the mares. Mentally I checked off the children in the room. Scootaloo had come along to meet RD, and Sweetie Bell just came along to, I dunno, hang out, I guess?

"Oh, well, I'm going to be out of town for a few days, so I wanted to make sure you were well looked after." Twilight explained, nodding to Fluttershy.

Yup, that's nice and all, but I'm not to thrilled about being treated like a kid... Yet I haven't done anything about it... let's try. "Uhh, not that I don't appreciate your sentiment, but before I found myself here, I did in fact take care of myself. For years." I tacked on for added emphasis.

Twilight shared a look with her friends before replying. "We know Argent, but I would still rather leave you here with Fluttershy. Plus, someone told me you like bunnies." She finished in a knowing voice.

I felt my face heat up a little. A small white bunny hopped into the room, I could feel a girlish squee building the longer I looked at it. "F-fine." I turned sharply away.

"Then it is decided." Twilight said.

"Hold on, if that's the case, why is Rainbow Dash here?" I asked.

"Oh, uhh. Well, I thought that if you didn't want to stay here I could have Rainbow take you over to her house." Twilight supplied.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Really?" I'm supprised I was able to get her to squirm under my gaze so much.

"Uhm, pardon me. Argent, I think your going to enjoy staying with me for a few days. You'll get to meet all the animals, and you could help me with feeding the chickens, and checking on the squirrels, oh, it's going to be so fun." Fluttershy said in her hushed, but excited voice.

I won't lie, this actually sounds like it will be interesting. I got up off the couch. "Alright." Twilight sighed like she dodged a bullet. "So exactly how long will I be staying here?"

"Just a few days. Spike and I are just making a quick run over to Canterlot," Twilight said, standing up. "You girls have fun!" She wished us, teleporting away in a pulse of magic. I once again slumped at being included in that generalization.

"Welp, I'm gonna get outa your manes, later!" Rainbow excused herself, Scootaloo followed her out.

I turned to the remaining guest at my side. Sweetie Bell returned the look. "Yeah, I should probably get going soon, my sister is going to wonder where I am." She said her goodbyes to Fluttershy and left.

And so the shy mare and I were left. I picked up the glass I had been given earlier. "Good tea." I complimented.

"Glad you enjoyed it." She returned.

No more conversation came after that, we just looked at eachother now and again. I got out one of my books and returned to my seat. Eventually Fluttershy excused herself to go check up on her animals. I read for a few minutes and memorized the spell structures the tome held. Soon I noticed that a small white rabbit holding a carrot was looking me over. I contained my emotions and regarded the rabbit that struck me as male for some reason. "Hey. What's new with you?"

To my surprise the bunny shrugged. I suddenly felt a lot more selfconcious about fawning over those other bunnies earlier. "So, you help out around here?" I guessed. The bunny nodded. "Cool, I'm sure she appreciates the help." The white bunny gave me another once over and nodded, before hopping away. what just happened?

I yawned. Apparently sleeping on your side, or perhaps I slept wrong, as a pony is not comfotable, as I was a bit sore this morning. In last night's dream I had talked it over with Night Strider, she seemed extremely surprised that I was figuring out dream magic, and even more so that I had succeeded in casting it the night prior. It had knocked me out like a light because of how much magic it drained, but for the next few days the shared dream thing we had is going to be staying open twenty four seven. I also told her that I'm going to be returning the game to normal mode the following night.

I stretched to try and aliveate the discomfort and walked to the door to head down to breakfast. Rather than swing the door open as I had so kindly asked it to, the wooden surface remained still. Due to grogginess I failed to notice it in time, and my nose got better acquainted with the door.

"Ow, uhh, that wasn't quite how that's supposed to go." I told the wooden panel. "Did that spell take more magic than I thought? Or maybe it's a constant drain? No, I thought I set it up so that I would only have to recharge the circle every so often. So why?" Normally, failed magic will fizzle out, not just not happen all together. I spun back around to the foot of the bed and retrieved a hand mirror from my bags.

The item revealed that my horn had lost any kind of shine it had before. It looked dull, and flakey around the tip. Touching a hoof gently to the base revealed that I couldn't really feel it either, just the skin it was loosely attached to. "Alright then, this happened before, so am I an earth pony now? The horn didn't completely just die last time, so... egh, whatever, maybe after this I'll know for sure what exactly causes this and I can just stay as a unicorn."... I can't believe I just said that out loud, with a straight face... even if my voice is diffrent.

I shook my head and opened the door the manual way. I saw the end of my horn flake away like pixie dust. huh, I wonder if those are also a thing around here? Are humans even a thing around here? How did I not ask this question sooner? I felt the muscles in my sides suddenly twist and knot, and since my focus was most decidedly not on my walking, down stairs, I found myself missing a step and doing a faceplant on the bottom step. The crumbling remains of my entire horn rolled away from me, stopping at a certain yellow mare's hooves.

"O-oh m-my g-gosh." she whispered. What followed was an adorably low volume scream.

I stood back up and tried to calm her down, telling her I was fine, but she flew out the door, or rather, an open window, screaming Twilight's name. I hobbled after her, the knotted muscles hindering my movement. I tried flexing the knot out, but felt something else instead. Looking over my shoulder, I was completely dumbfounded by the small crystaline prostrusions I saw. "Are these... wings?"

Author's Notes:

Dun dun dun! chapter ten!
That was a close one, I almost didn't get it out in time to keep with my minimum schedule.

To answer little Argent's question; yes, yes they are.
But! I don't know what kind. Jasperr Hart's vote is on crystalline dragonfly wings, but I think simpler crystal pegasus wings have their appeal as well, as do ribbon wings.
That's why I'll be making a poll for everyone to vote on tomarrow. Feel free to leave suggestions on types of wings today, and I'll add them to the options.

P.S.:
I'm wondering if you all would enjoy a bonus chapter, explaining a little bit about Argent, and how she works.

Also also, I'm planning on fixing the cover art, I forgot a few things, like a certain thing that should be on her flank, the first time. So recommend things for that as well!

Special thanks to Jasperr Hart and gerandakis for putting up with my frazzled upload schedule.

Chapter 11: Wing Worries

View Online

"These are not comfortable." I noted, opening and closing the crystal fans attached to my sides. "How would these even work?" I asked Twilight. Fluttershy had not succeeded in flagging down the mare, but after she passed the task onto Rainbow, it took no time at all to get her back to town.

"Could you repeat that motion?" Twilight ignored me. Her face was glued to the screen of yet another scanning device, measuring something about my new appendages.

"Is-is this normal?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight had asked the shy pegasus to come with us, since then she hadn't been allowed five feet away from me.

"Eh, probably not, but I'm used to the whole 'lab rat' routine." I answered her.

Twilight was doing the whole mad science bit. Comparing papers and dropping crystal fragments or dust into beakers. "Entirely new muscle structure developed in less than a day, wing sockets made almost exclusively from crystal. Fully developed magic circulation throughout the entirety of the limbs... How. Did. This. Happen!? And what is this mysterious component in her physiology?" Twilight demanded answers from her equipment.

"She will calm down, eventually." I assured Fluttershy. I walked out of the scanner over to what was becoming my post testing relaxation cushion. I looked over my shoulder. Attached to either of my sides were four consecutive crystal "feathers," each a little smaller than the last. I could open and close them, but they seemed far to small and rigid for actual flight. Then again... I looked over to Fluttershy. The wings of pegasi in this world aren't exactly aerodynamic. Does that mean I could actually learn to fly? I smiled at the possibility. What guy hasn't dreamed of flying under their own power before?

Spike came down the stairs with a serving tray he made for Twilight. I absent mindedly flared my magic to take a snack from the tray. There was a flash, as a new light source appeared behind me, and then I shot off my cushion. I could see the room spinning and flipping around me. "WHAT THE HELL!?" I screamed. I felt sick. Then I found myself glued to a wall, some force on my back willing me to go through it.

After everything stopped spinning and I was sure I wasn't going to throw up, I opened my eyes. First off I was upside down, and the basements contents were scattered, apparently I made quite a mess while I was tossed about like a ragdoll with a jet pack. Three faces were looking up at me with worry. A light blue glow was coming from the wall behind me. I turned slowly to see new additions to my wings. Six glowing magic triangles had more than doubled my wing span. Two sprouting from the space between each crystal pair.

"Uhh... guess that answers my question?"

"Oh dear, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked me, drawing closer.

"Fascinating..." Twilight muttered, a quill writing furiously beside her.

"I'm just gonna..." Spike began, wrapping his claws around one of my forehooves. "... try and getcha down." He pulled, I didn't budge.

He pulled a bit harder, I slid toward the ceiling. "Uh, Spike? Maybe you should..." Twilight was cut off, as Spike pulled with all his might. I was yanked away from the wall, but my wings were still pulling me, so we both wound up being pulled up to the ceiling. "...be careful."

"How do I make it stop?" I shouted down to the mares. Spike was holding onto me for dear life, and his claws can be sharp in such situations.

"Just think about slowly dropping back down." Fluttershy said, inaudible.

"Try closing your wings?" Twilight guessed.

I folded the wings closed. I rolled off the ceiling. It wasn't as strong but I was still being dragged around. I flared my wings and re-afixed myself to the ceiling. "Nope! Try again!"

Fluttershy flew up to my level. "Calm down, you just have to think about slowly dropping back down." Fluttershy tried, but I could still only barely hear her.

"... Wait, are you using magic?" Twilight asked.

I checked, sure enough, the spell I had tried to use earlier was still active, and taking way more than it should. ... Oh, no horn, wings. I realized. "Uhh, yep." I called back down.

"Try turning it off." She suggested. I did so before anyone could argue. Immediately I felt the drain stop, the glow from the magic extensions vanish, and myself falling, Spike in tow. I flailed the crystal fans, though now they provided no lift. Our rapid decent suddenly slowed down, at the same time I felt something I hadn't paid much attention to suddenly pull taut. I looked back to see Fluttershy, my tail in her mouth. "Th-thank you." I told her as we touched back down.

She spat out my tail. "It's no trouble." the mare assured me.

I looked at Spike, whom was still gripping my hoof. He laughed nervously and let go. "So, can I go back to being a unicorn? As tempting as the power of flight is, it's just not worth doing that again, anytime soon." I asked Twilight. Surely she has figured out the trigger to me changing, what did they call it, tribes?

"Well..." Twilight began, "While I have figured out the trigger for your odd tribe swapping behaviour, I do still have to head to Canterlot for a few days."

"But, what if that happens every time I try to do magic? For the past few weeks I've been a unicorn! I got really used to using magic to pick things up in lieu of hands." I countered, not realizing my slip up.

"Hands?" Spike asked.

"I realize that this might be a challenge for you, but if you can overcome it, you'll be better off in the long run." Twilight said, picking Spike up in her magic and setting him on her back. "Now I'm sorry, but I've got a train to be on. Lock up for me, would you please?" She didn't wait for an answer, instead popping away in a teleport spell.

"Ugh... I guess I'm stuck like this for a while then..." I bemoaned. Fluttershy rubbed a wing over my withers.

"Hey, it's not so bad. Being a pegasus is fun! And flying is amazing."

"Yeah, I know. It's not like I'm in a completely alien body." I quipped sarcastically. I flexed the crystal appendages. "Why is it always crystal?" I wondered aloud. I collapsed the fans and folded them to my sides. "The new muscles just feel like a cramp. I'm not wired for six limbs." I complained, apparently not stopping.

"Argent, calm down, you'll get used to it. And if you don't, Twilight will be back soon." Fluttershy tried to calm me down.

"I-! I... yeah, sure." I felt my mood rapidly improve, for some reason. Oh well, welcome change. "I'm still not using these things till I have a basic understanding of them." I clicked the crystals shut tightly for emphasis.

"Alright, well, let's head back to my home, most of the animals haven't had their breakfast."

The walk back over to Fluttershy's was surprisingly uneventful, no head on collisions, or inquisitive kids. Just a nice walk through town. It was refreshing. Helping feed all the animals was also a pleasant experience, I only launched into a sickening spiral once, and it wasn't a long lived one this time. It turns out that every single animal at Fluttershy's possesed human – Should I be saying pony now? – or nigh human intelligence. Thus, the morning had passed, and I found I hadn't eaten anything yet.

After a quick brunch, I went back upstairs to the room I was staying in while Twilight was away. "Okay then, time for a quick check up." I said to the empty room. I closed my eyes and turned my focus to my magic. Where once there was just a blob of magic sloshing around my form, relatively defined pathways now were, or rather three sets of them were. The veins that flowed from my source to just shy of my horn, even if it wasn't present. There was a second set of veins that wound up from my source and into my second shoulder base, as well as thinner lines that ran into my hooves. "Oh, that's why those pathways were there, odd. At least I know why they exist now." The third set was larger trails leading into an area just shy of where my hooves were. Is that where the gaean duct is supposed to be? Weird, are these always here? Even if I'm not the tribe they belong to?

I rolled over and blew out a breath. "I'm taking all of this extraordinarily well. I mean, I'm not the kind of guy to freak out over things, but this seems like an appropriate time to do so. Then again, the alternative is freaking out, and possible insanity. Yeah... I'm good with being calm then." I made to stand up, but ended laying back down on my stomach.

I layed motionless on the floor for a few minutes, unsure how I should pass the time. I looked over my shoulder and gingerly willed my wings open, then clicked them shut. "Not that way, that's for sure." I rolled over onto my back. "Reading about magic has lost all appeal at the moment, as it would just taunt me... and I don't want to go outside." I sat up and sighed. "Boooooored... stupid child body, and or brain. Not being able to apreciate doing nothing... that or I actually am bored." I honestly couldn't tell what were my normal reactions, or my new body's anymore. Is that a bad thing?

"Maybe... I should take a nap? Hang out with Night Light in the dream realm? No, I don't like the idea of needing a nap, even if I am a child. Secondly, we might not even have a shared dream anymore since I'm not a unicorn anymore." The possibility saddened me. Its fun to have someone to play games with... my games, not these children's games those fillies want me to play. I got up off the floor. "Maybe I'll go geek out over bunnies, I could use the time to not be thinking." Deciding that this would be the best course of action, I went back down stairs and outside. Shortly after, I found a group of bunnies and turned my brain off for a few hours.

"...and she truly just grew wings you say?"

"Yes Princess Clelestia, I've never seen anything like it, and I've never read about any ponies changing tribes before," Twilight explained to her mentor. "Is it possible?"

"Perhaps, although there has not been a case like this as long as I've been ruling this country," Celestia said. "But if it is the case, we shall ease her into the role, rushing things would only scare her."

"I don't know if she would be ready for that. From what I've seen, despite how polite she acts, she doesn't seem to enjoy socializing too much, especially with fillies and colts her own age."

"Yes, that may be a problem. You said that she lost her parents? And had been wandering the Everfree since then, fending for herself?" Twilight nodded. "Yes, I can see how she could have developed some trust issues, the poor dear. Well, I can think of one solution, but she is not going to like it."

"And that would be, Princess?" Twilight asked.

"Um, excuse me, Argent?" Fluttershy attempted. I giggled like a madman, hearing nothing. The group of rabbits I had found were extremely okay with me playing with them, and I was having an absolute blast!

They're just so cute! And fluffy! And huggable! And... I was currently under the small pile of rabbits, grinning like an idiot and wings buzzing with happiness. Literally, they were vibrating. It sounded like a dragonfly buzzing but deeper, and louder.

Argent? Could you- hey, are you listening?"

A bunny hopped off my barrel and landed infont of me, it's nose twitching in that absolutely adorable way only a bunny can. I squeed. Wrapping my forelimbs around the white and brown patched bunny and giggling as the other rabbits were tickling me with there noses.

"Argent!" Fluttershy 'shouted', still got my attention though.

I froze, slowly rolling onto my stomach,y face burning from embarrassment."Y-yes?" One of my bunny companions hopped onto my head, the other two snuggled into my forearms, that helped a great deal.

"Are you having fun?" she asked, back at her regular volume.

"I uh... yeah." I admitted, though I'm sure she had gathered as much. Looking down only gave me a facefull of adorable cuteness, forcing a smile onto my face.

"Well, it's all well and good that you are enjoying time with the animals, it's nearly sundown." Flutterhsy warned.

"Oka-wait what?" I looked to the orange sky. "But, it only felt like an hour..." I thought aloud. Fluttershy smiled at me knowingly, and looked like she was going to say something. "I know, I know. 'Time flies when you are having fun' and all that, but still, how did I not notice the colour of the sky change?" The bunny on my head put it's face into my line of sight. Oh, that makes sense.

"Come on inside, we'll have dinner."

On cue, my stomach growled. Why does my digestive system have a sense of comedic timing? "Sounds good." I bid my bunny acquaintances goodbye, and followed the butter yellow pegasus into her home. The white bunny from the prior day actually helped Fluttershy prepare the meal. I gained a new respect for the bunny named Angel that evening. The meal itself was a tossed salad with flower sandwiches.

As was becoming pattern, The meal was greatly enjoyed by my vegetarian tastebuds, and I stuffed myself with as much of the food as I could. I excused myself and headed to the stairs. Partway up, I realized I would have to, well, relieve myself. Always am unpleasant experience, as it served to remind me of the absence of a certain part of my anatomy.

After that minor thing, I went up to my lent room and layed down on the bed. "Mmeh. Maybe Night Strider can provide a decent distraction, or flying lessons?" I reached out with my magic to turn out the lights. I immediately cut off the magic, the burst of lift thankfully only enough to move me off the bed a few feet. "Those are needed." I stated, clicking the crystal opendages closed once more. I turned out the light manually, and layed down to go to sleep.

Chapter 12: Dreams 3; Some Free Time

View Online

"Mwahahaha!!" some one cackled as I entered the dream realm.

"Uhh, do I have mods installed or something?" I did a mental check. "Hmm. No just the ponyfied mod that was force installed, and the minor rule change overhaul I did. So then, this is either a new dream, seperate from my normal one, because of my lack of horn, or..." I strapped on my iron sword, and left the safety of my house to investigate.

"Night light? Are you out he-," I turned my head to the left and caught a facefull of the new addition to the landscape. "Well... that wasn't there before." A little ways away, right were Night Strider's house used to be, sat a gigantic castle. The bricks were tinted blue, and a giant silver moon was emblazoned on the gates. Standing on a high balcony, a small winged shape was reared back, swinging their hooves and laughing maniacally. A random lightning bolt struck behind the castle, finishing the look. "Night Light?" I muttered squinting at the laughing form. "Holy crap. When the hell did you build all this?" I shouted up to the dark blue pegasus. The castle was Huge! I counted 7 floors, in the smallest tower.

"Bow before us!" Night shouted in an impossibly loud and carrying voice. She laughed some more, apparently not having heard my question.

I sighed and closed my eyes. "When I open my eyes I will be right next to her." I muttered to the dream. Opening my eyes revealed that I had indeed appeared behind her. I tapped her on the shoulder, startling her.

"AH! How didst thee penetrate our defenses!?" she shouted at me.

"Ow... thank goodness this is a dream, or my hearing would be shot..." I shook off the verbal cannon fire. "Uhh, this is still a dream you know? Appearing wherever I want is a simple as saying presto," I reminded her. Night Strider blushed at the obvious answer. "So, like I asked you before, when did you have the time to build all of this?"

The pegasus filly staightened up. "We hadst little in the form of responsibilities the present day, so we fortified our domicile!" At this point she finally took a good look at me. "Hold on, we remember thee being a unicorn, so what art the strange formations on thy sides?" She inquired, pointing with a hoof.

I answered the question by opening the crystal fans. "Yeah, they do look a bit different from the standard model, but apparently these are my wings."

"Surely thou jest." She smiled at the perceived joke.

"No seriously, right now I'm a pegasus. Apparently, since coming to Ponyville, my tribe has been changing between earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus. I think it has something to do with me being close to a member of one of those tribes." I explained.

Night Strider stared at me. "Truly?"

"I'm not lying," I responded. "This is what I look like in the real world at the moment."

"..." she stared blankly at me.

"...Night Strider?"

"..."

"Are you okay?"

"...Thou art truthfully a pegasus now." She said, low, but surprised.

"Uh, yeah?" I answered, even though it sounded more like a statement than a question. "I know that's unexpected, but, can I ask you something?"

"So thou art the one that our... wast the change painful? Art thou stuck in this form? Canst thou take to the skies?" She asked in rapid fire, poking my crystal additions with a hoof.

This reminds me of someone...
Night Strider pulled open one of the fans and held her spread wing up against it for comparison.

"So tiny, doth these provide sufficient power for flight?" She wondered allowed.

"No, yes? I don't know, last time it happened I had little to no control." It took me a moment to decipher her archaic way of speaking to answer her questions. "No it wasnt particularly painful, although the new muscles are either in a constant cramp or my brain isn't wired to use them properly. No, I'm not stuck like this. Well I am, but it's only temporary."

"But these art so bawbling, they should not be able to lift thee off the earth." She looked closely at the crystal structure that made up the solid part of my left wing.

"Well, that's not my entire wing there." I said, catching her attention. I backed away a step and put the tiniest bit of magic into my wings that I could. The energy feathers suddenly flickered into existence, I adjusted the power output to keep them visible, but not provide much more lift than a helium balloon.

Night Strider stared at my wings with amazement. "Well then, thou art quite the peculiar one." She poked my foremost magic feather with one of hers. My feathers buzzed and faded a bit, but otherwise acted like a solid. She grasped it with a hoof – I still dont know how that works – and pulled lightly on it. It made a squeaking noise, and I felt a shiver go up and down my spine from the stimulation.

"I uhh, that feels... weird." I told her. She immediately let go and took a pace back. We stood there awkwardly for a moment. I let my wings power off. "So, uhh..." my unplanned sentence died right there. I looked around at the castle I was now in. "Uhm, awesome build you've got here."I complimented.

"Thy sentiments art appreciated." She returned. The silence threatened to grow once more. Fortunately, another lightning bolt decded to strike, right in Night Strider's replacement-sheep – white balls of fluff that walk on two legs and have really curly hair – pen . "No! Muffin!" she squeaked, taking off and flying down to assess the damage. I followed her, going down the stairs.

When I got there, Night Strider was holding the ball of wool dramatically in the rain, it was burned and barely breathing. Wow, if this game didn't get alot more emotional after it got realistic... "Is, Muffin? alive?" Night Strider nodded, on the verge of tears. I pulled out two pieces of iron, crafting some shears. "Good, this will only take a second."

She looked up at me like I was a monster. "Nay! we shalt not allow thee harmeth our Muffin" she clutched the dying creature tighter.

I barely managed to keep my expression stoic. If that sentence was uttered at any other time, it would be hilarious. I pulled the fluffball out of her grasp, working my shears into its fur. I then planted it's face into the grass and held it there. Night Strider was crying as I held her back. Moments later, the sound of munching could be heard. Muffin's head bobbed up and down a few times, A perfect square of grass disappeared as all their fluff re-grew in an instant. The storm finally cleared up, as Muffin stood up, looking like nothing happened.

"...wha-?"

"Silk walkers eat, and heal off of, grass." I cut her off. I dropped the singed wool blocks. "What did you think I was doing?" I asked her with a raised brow.

"But! You... the struggling, and face in the ground... sharp!" She babbled.

"I'm sorry? But you are harder to understand than usual right now." I didn't get why she was freaking out. "You make it sound like I was trying to kill them."

"We bethought thee were doing that!" She shouted at me, hovering in the air.

"Why would I kill your pet?" I cocked my head to one side. "Anyway, back to an important point, are you like, an aspiring architect or something? This castle looks amazing." The whole nigh-palace had this almost authentic feel to it. And the level of detail, it was something only someone who, either builds castles, or lives in them could reproduce. And the courtyard alone was at least one hundred blocks in diameter!

"No, we simply..." she began, but stopped short.

I turned to face her. "You what?"

"We, uhh, we spend a lot of time in the Canterlot palace! So we took inspiration from the architecture of yond grand structure!" She explained.

It didn't seem like she was lying. "Okay, so are you like, one of the noblemares' daughters? Perhaps a child of some of the staff?" If I remember correctly, Canterlot is the capital of Equestria, and the palace is where the diarchs live. I had to imagine it wasnt just open to the public to loiter about in.

"Uhh. Ou- our sister, erm works in the palace?"

Why does that sound like a question? "Does she, or does she not?"

"She does!" Night Light said with certainty. I certainly couldn't tell if she was lying, but it sounded like she believed it.

I don't know why I got so journalist there, it's not like Night Light has been Lying, or otherwise hiding the truth from me.
"Anyway, I meant to ask you a question a little while ago." I said, getting the conversation back on track. "We have a few 'hours' of dream time left before the sun sets, mind giving me a flying lesson?"

"Nay! Hold thy wings coequal! Stand ho! Turn! Thy tail!"

Asking Night Light for flying lessons was, decidedly, a bad idea. This was the thought that crossed my mind as I suddenly, and half expectedly, turned over and made the thirteenth furrow in the earth."Ow... good thing this is a dream... I would surely be dead by now otherwise."

"Thee aren't listening at all! We told thee accelerate, but soft! And bank hath left!"

"Yeah... sorry about that, it's a little hard to decipher archaisms at sixty miles an hour!" I shot back.

"This is the traditional Canterlot dialect! We has't not learned thy modern ways of speech."

"Modern?"

"Uhh..."

How is it I'm not the strange one in this situation? "Whatever, let's drop this. How do I keep from shooting off like a cannon ball?"

"As we told thee before, to gain height thee simply send minute amounts of magic to the zephyr field of thy wings. To turn, thee twist this group of feathers here, and tilt in the direction thee desirest. To wend foreward, thee straighten this group here, and shunt charm out these feathers here. But the most important thing to remember, most of thy mobility in flight is a result of actually flapping thy wings, not thy, powered gliding, odd method thou art employing." She explained, pointing to sections of her outstretched wing as she spoke.

Now that I wasn't hurtling through the air, I actually had the time required to decode her instructions. "Wait, that still doesn't make any sense! What's the Zepher field, I am not normally a pegasus you know? And it's not like I took pony biology in school. I don't know these things." I retorted.

"... Oh, our apologies. We didst not know thou were unschooled."

"What? No, I went to school!" I stated.

"Wherefore art we yelling?" Night Strider asked in a half shout.

"I, don't know..." I took a long breath. "Lets just call the lesson here, this is more complex than magic, and that's fricken magic." I closed my eyes, willing my appearance to change while I did so. When next I layed eyes on the dreamscape, the knotted muscles of my wings were gone, and my horn had returned. "Wish it were that easy in real life... Okay, so how about I just switch the game back to normal mode? You can get a taste for combat, and the art of skillfully lighting fire to your undead foes." I giggled like a psychopath.

"Thee... doth not speak of things as a filly shouldst." She said warily.

"Thank you!" I replied cheerfully. "For that matter, neither do you. Part of the time you sound like your new to games, part of the time you're a hustler, more often still you sound like an archaic college professor." I got a good stretch out of my simplified back muscles. "Anyway, you should probably light up anywhere in your castle you don't want things spawning, mobs appear on top of blocks that fall below a certain light level.

"The dungeon!" She zipped off, torches flying out of a nearby chest and into her bags.

"Heh, a peacful builder going into normal mode for the first time, never do have everything mob proof. Wait did she say dungeon?" I trotted after her, curious.

Descending the stairs brought me into a dark floor of Night Light's fortress, the sound of torches and lanterns attaching to blocks echoing off the far wall. I cast a light spell. "Ah, hello again my friend, I did miss your magic." I sighed. I walked over to one of the cells. It too was accurate to one you would see in a medieval castle. Cell after cell, empty. "What does she plan to put down here?" I wondered aloud. It was at that point that I came across a larger wooden door, with one of those eye sliding things, far above either of our heights. "Did she just build this to be accurate? It's starting to seem impractical." I pulled the door open, my eyes went wide at what I saw. The entire room was littered with medieval torture devices, although, most were altered to be pony versions. I laughed. "And she says I don't act like a child." I closed the door and went to help in the brightening of the dark portion of her dungeon.

After we had gone through her entire castle, we made our way to her lavish chambers to relax. "Jeez, exactly how much free time did you have?" I joked, nudging her upper foreleg.

"E-enough." She said sheepishly.

"Hey, I'm not trying to be mean, this place is amazing but to put this level of detail, in every room. Either you're hiding a horn under that mane of yours, or you had quite a lot of time." I said. The first bit was sarcastic, but she seemed to pale at the suggestion. I waved it off. Nah, from what I've seen, no one individual has the traits of multiple tribes at the same time, at least if myself and what I've seen of Ponyville are anything to go by. "So, did you ever get to figuring out armor crafting?" I asked her. This part of the game I hadn't paid much attention to, because it was so simple. But when I tried to make an iron chestplate I realized that the shapes that the crafting table spat out wouldn't quite work with me, due to the difference between bipeds and quadrupeds, as well as, well size.

But then Night Strider said she wanted to make some armor out of all the gold she won at the gaming gazebo, so I decided to let her make the rules for armor crafting.

"We didst, the helm is nearly completed, and the leg guards are developing nicely, although it didst take a time to set up a proper work station." She pulled out an unfitted helmet to show case.

The base material was silver, with cobalt alloy reinforcement. It was created with a pony's shape in mind. The engravings and crystals set into it gave it a very regal feel. "Dang, that looks amazing." I leaned in closer to appreciate the detail.

"Does it not?" Night Strider said, proud of her handiwork.

"Can you show me the ropes? After you're finished with your set, that is."

"Rope? What binding art thee refer- oh! Thee meant how to forge like this, correct?" I nodded. "Ah, then we wouldst happily teach thee."

"Great! It would be good to have a set once I flip the game back over to normal mode. Oh that reminds me, I should probably go make an enchanting table. Do you have any diamonds or obsidian?"

"Volcanic glass? our apologies, but we doth not has't any of yond."

"Oh well, let's go on a quick mining trip then!" I teleported back to my own house. "...darn, now this place doesn't seem as cool." I complained, looking around the structure I built on my first night in Equestria. "Oh well, I have an idea on how to fix that." I said to myself, as I had forgotten to take Night Strider with me. I retrieved the only three diamonds I had found, just as my front door swung open.

"How malapert! thee suggest to us we shalt gather materials together, and then thee depart without us!" She yelled at me.

"I'm not leaving yet, I had to go make a certain tool before we can harvest obsidian." I informed her, placing the diamonds in a row at the top of my crafting table.

"What tool art thee constructing with such precious gems?" She asked, looking over my shoulder.

"Just a pick." I told her, placing the sticks that would act as the tool's handle. The materials melted together into my new digging implement.

"It seems to be such a waste, but tis a might pretty to behold." The dark blue pegasus said.

"Nah, if your talking about a waste of diamonds, I believe the saying goes 'never waste your diamonds on a hoe', but this definitely looks better here than in the source material."

"I am unfamiliar with this phrase, shouldst we ask our sister about it?" She asked innocently.

"Uhh... no. That wouldn't be a good idea. At least not without the context of this game." If that is a term here, and it likely is, then it woudn't be the best idea to have a child ask her older sister what that means..."Anyway, let's get going," I retrieved a few empty buckets from my chest. "We have obsidian to gather!" I declared, hoping to get her attention off of that reference. As the filly went to retrieve her tools, I went around to the tree I had planted opposite my kitchen. "I think I'll call you, weeping wood, or maybe soak oak?" I asked the tree, deciding the name of a brand new species of tree was a little tricky apparently. Regardless I placed one of the buckets under its leaves, allowing it to fill up while I waited.

"Hail! We return." She greeted.

I failed to hold back a laugh. "If you do start using a modern dialect, never change what you just said."

"In what way wast yond humorous?" She demanded.

"You can't expect me to explain my sense of humor, that kinda takes away from what makes it so funny!" I nudged her in the shoulder. "C'mon, let's go." I motioned for her to follow me, as my bucket of water floated alongside.

We soon reached where our cave entrance had been, I say had been, because now a massive quarry had replaced it, about fifty blocks down, and the neighboring mountain. "Uhh, so, that castle wasn't the only thing you built while I was gone, but you also made a realistic stone quarry? Why?"

"W-we did need to obtain all of the stone from somewhere, and we didn't want to cause a sinkhole or landslide, so..." She explained, circling a hoof in the dirt.

"You would win every building competition back home." I sighed. I peered around the hole, looking for any exposed lava. "So, is there any magma around here, or?" Night Strider pointed to a section of her mine. "Ah, good then." I dug in my saddle bags. "Let's just... head on down." I chucked a green, semi-tramsparent orb in a large arc with my magic.

"What wast that?"

"Just a little something I picked up in a dungeon I found. L-ater." The blue green glassy object impacted the stone and I vanished from her sight. I watched from the rim of the lava pool as she looked all around. When she eventually laid eyes on me, I waved her down. "It's called an ender pearl, you throw them, and wherever they land, you are transported to." I explained when she was within earshot.

"Where didst thee obtain such an artifact? And for what reason wouldst thee waste it on such a simple feat?" She was gathering up the shards of the smashed pearl.

"They are actually pretty dang common, in normal mode." I brought up the bucket of water. "Now then, let's make some obsidian." I dumped the bucket's contents onto the edge of the lava, from the initial pour came an unending flow of water that expanded across the molten surface in a semi-blocky fashion. The bubbling lava hardened in an instant, hissing as the molten sources became the purple blocks we came here for. I also dipped my remaining buckets into the lava that was outside the waters touch, giving me around twelve buckets of lava in total. I placed them all haphazardly in my bags.

"Is yond not dangerous?" Night cautioned.

"Nah, it's fine, pretty much anything you put in your bags are unable to change states." I set about tapping the obsidian with my pick. "This uh, could take a while. Obsidian is the second strongest object in the game."

"V-volcanic glass? Is of yond durability? Why?" She looked at the blocks of once-lava disbeliveingly.

"Yeah, I don't actually know, that is a bit odd when you think about it." The first block broke, falling into the lava below it. One thing that's nice about being stuck as a pony, even in my dreams, I can pick up the blocks before they destroy themselves with magic. For the next ten minutes I sat on the edge of the lava pool, gathering the remaining obsidian, I saw no reason to leave any of it behind. Night Strider took the opportunity to gather other materials.

"We has't gathered our metals and gems. did thee obtain yond which thee did seek?"

"Yup, now let's head back and make an enchantment table." I grabbed a pair of ender pearls and handed one to her. "Make sure you're braced for when it lands or it will hurt a little."I warned before chucking mine in the general direction of our houses. Night Strider looked at the pearl I gave her uncertainty, before throwing it as hard as she could in the same direction.

So, how long doest it take for-" was all I heard her say before the scenery changed.

I spun around to see my house. "I did not expect to actually get this far, neat." Before I could do anything else, the sound of something shattering, followed by a pony falling on her face from lack of balance, came from behind me. "Uh, you okay there?"

"Th-that, wast far worse than regular teleportation." She complained, standing on shakey legs.

"I told you to brace for it," I said, helping her up. "Come on, we've got a thing to make. Or rather I do, but I think you should see it."

"Very well." We entered my house, I immedetly made my way to the book shelf.

"Now, I wasn't thinking about any particular books when I put this here so... " I pulled a green covered tome from the shelf. "Yup! Completely blank, perfect." I tossed the book at the crafting table, along with four of the several obsidian I had gathered. "Hmm, outa... Hey Night Light? Did you find any diamonds while we were down there?

"We didst. Why?"

"Can I borrow two? It'll be a worthwhile investment I assure you." I tacked on when she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Fine." She said with a huff, tossing the gems my way.

"Thank you~" I placed the cornerstones on my table, finishing the object. "Now we just need." I pulled all the books off of one of the shelves, scanning through each one to make sure that every single book was blank. "Some of these."the stacked books, and wooden planks I sandwiched them between, melted into bookshelves. "Can worry about fancy structure later..." I muttered as I made my way outside. The table went down, the book on it's face picking itself up and flipping open. "Functional table, check." I placed a two block tall ring of bookshelves around the table, and waited for runic shapes to fly from them to the enchantment table. "Check. Levels, check, all that remains is, lapis." I willed a single piece of the blue stone out of my mining chest. "Ready to go." I floated my diamond pick over the table, crushed the lapis over that, and placed my hoof over the tables edge. Three lines of unreadable text lit up on the pages of the book. I tapped one with my horn – an odd choice looking back, that felt even weirder – and watched as the tool took on an ethereal shine. I held the tool between my hooves. "I got, unbreaking two, fortune one, and efficiency one. Not bad for a first enchant!" I laughed.

"That wast an odd ritual, from what school of charm doest it originate?" The pegasus that I forgot was beside me inquired.

"Hmm? Oh, I dunno, but you wanna give it a go?" I step out of the way and swept a foreleg in the direction of the table.

"Eh, mayhaps another time. Tis near the morning, and thee shalt have to be off."

"Good point, let's head back then." A spell of little conversation passed in the way back to her castle. I found I had little to say till we were just outside a door. "So, what are you going to be doing?"

"Our sister shall likely beest concerned at our staying asleep for an entire day, so we shalt meet and converse with her." She explained, pushing open the door and walking inside.

I followed her. "That makes sen- you have a throne room?" I asked the little pegasus, whom was comically undersized for the chair in which she sat.

"Of couse!" Was her only reply.

I took a good long look at her. Allright, that is the last straw, time for another nickname. I could feel myself being pulled from the dream, so I left Night Strider with one final goodbye. "Later, Princess." I finished with an exaggerated bow. The look of surprise and horror on her face made me wake up crying I was laughing so hard.

Chapter 13: Fluffy Filly Filler Fun

View Online

When I woke up I was in the middle of sidesplitting laughter. "Oh my god, that was price... uhh." I found that I was currently viewing the ground, not the floor, but the grassy hill on which Fluttershy's home sat. "Since when do I sleep walk?" I disloged myself from the window sill I was bent over, my muscles protested immedietly. "Ow, ow, ow... how long was I failing to sleep like a cat?"I asked, my back raised to mimic my prior position and lessen discomfort. Deciding that asking the room any more questions would yield no answers, I did a quick, painful stretch to get my muscles in workable order. I picked up on an annoying tinkling noise as I did so. Switching on my magic sense revealed that my horn was still missing. "Aw man... I forgot about these stupid things." I forced the crystal fans closed so I wouldn't jingle like a windchime when I walked.

A tapping at my door sounded. "Uhm, excuse me, Argent? I'm sorry if I woke you up, but breakfast is ready," the door whispered.

I gave the speaking door a funny look, taking a step toward it, my back clicked and my ribs screamed pain. I fell over and contorted to lessen my pain. "Oh wonderful, perfect even! Now I need a chiropractor... joy." Silence reined supreme after that, with me lying on the foor, my face covered in my hair. "... Ah frick. Fluttershy?"

"..." nothing but the sound of the breeze coming through the open window.

"Fl-"

"yes?" I heard faintly from the door.

"Oh good, can you come in here and help? I messed my back up."

The door slowly swung open, followed by the sound of hooves approaching. "Oh my, are you alright?" the obscured yellow pegasus asked me.

"No, I woke up in the window sill, and threw my back out." I informed her.

She gasped. "Oh, you poor dear, can you stand?"

I sighed. "Apologies if I seem a bit snippy, but do you think I would be laying on the floor, like this, with my h-mane in my face, if I could get up?" I said impatiently.

"Okay then, well, would it be alright if I fixed it?" she asked in the sweetest voice possible.

"Err, is this the 'kiss it and make it better' type deal, or actual treatment?" From what I had gathered during my short stay here, I figured it could easily be either.

"Trust me?" she inched closer, I think, I still couldn't see due to the light blue fluff in my face.

Why avoid answering? I thought. Despite my better judgment, I felt compelled to give my assent. "Fine." I felt myself get lifted off the ground and wrapped in a hug. ...Thats it? Wonderful, I mean, I know nothing about pony anatomy or magic or any of it, but I am almost certain that a simple hug will not fi-

Suddenly the forelegs around me tightened, and I heard my spine pop from the base of my tail to my neck, afterwards I felt like jello. I still couldn't see anything, thanks to my mane, but I was put on top of something Super soft, like, what people imagine sleeping on clouds would feel like. My god this feels amazing. I thought. I'm not entirely sure what happened after that, but I'm ninety percent sure that it would have killed me if I was still human. The next time I could think straight was during a relaxing massage. Fluttershy was humming some song, which seemed strangely familiar for some reason, I felt my ears snap to attention to analyze the melody. Fluttershy must have seen my ears perk up, because she had a question for me.

"How in the world did you build up so much tension? I've never seen anypony this bad before." she asked, working a muscle section around my wings.

Could it have something to do with me being a biped, learning how to work a quadruped body? I thought, I really wanted to ask this question, even though I was fairly certain the answer would be a simple 'yes', the problem would be all the questions that would bring up afterward. I don't know if these ponies have Looney bins, but I don't want to end up in one. But... on the other hoof, this is a world of magic, and we came here through magic, probably, so maybe my situation has a few parallels? We- I, will have to ask Twilight about the possibility of a multiverse. Frick I'm starting to talk like Princess Nighty Light. I opted for the far safer question. "What am I lyyyyyyying on?" My words got stretched when she changed muscle groups.

"oh, it's nothing, just a low hanging cloud." she helpfully informed me.

Wait a second, that couldn't have been what she said. "Uhh, a cloud?" I asked for confirmation.

"Yes."

I blew my hair out of my eyes and made to confirm it myself, sure enough, Fluttershy had somehow brought a cloud into the room and set me on top of it. I gingerly poked a forejoof into its pillowy surface, it deformed around my hoof. "...How?" Is all I could manage.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean?" Fluttershy came around to my view, apparently done sorting out all the problems I had accumulated.

"How... am I on top of a cloud?" seemed like a good place to start.

"Well, you are a pega- oh! That's right, well, since you are currently a pegasus, I assumed you could cloud walk like any other pegasus, and I was right, so, here you are."

"Uhhhh..." I replied, processing the information. "...hhhhhh..." That... only answers like half of my questions, but my God! it's sooooooooo soft! "...hhhho, kay then." I finished, pounding both of my hooves into the fluffy awesomeness I was currently resting on, I was rewarded with a satisfying 'poff' noise, and tiny bits of clouds floating away from the craters I made. I hopped off before I could get too into playing with the cloud. Once my hooves touched the ground though, I found out that I was still comprised of about sixty three percent jello, and immedietly fell over.

"Careful!" Fluttershy cautioned, a little late. "You had a lot of knots I had to work out, so you might feel a bit wobbly for a few seconds."

"Yeah, I notice- holy crap, I feel so..." I couldn't quite put it to words, but I'm fairly certain I heard myself giggle. All the soreness in my muscles and other aches that I hadn't even noticed, were gone. I was left with the all encompassing feeling of bliss, and like I had just been remade from scratch, out of way better parts! "Oh this is nice~ I could probably just lay here like this all..." I was cut off by my stomach making sure I remembered it. "...or not." Fluttershy giggled at me, cute as that was, it was still at my expense.

"Well, it's probably a bit cold now, but we have food downstairs." I was led down the wooden trip hazard. Fluttershy simply glided down, but me having no acceptable experience with flight, I was left to measure each step, or at least, I thought I would have to.

"Holy crap, walking actually feels natural, what did she do? And can I get it done regularly?" I practically flew down the stairs, the motions automatic, like I had actually been a quadruped all my life. "I must have actually been a ball of knots. I wonder?" I opened up my wings, and stretched them skyward, no discomfort to be had, they felt natural, well, as natural as an extra pair of limbs can feel, but still quite nice.

For breakfast, Chef Angel had prepared gourmet quality pancakes, some blend of fruit, berry, and I believe flower, smoothie to drink, along with a flower omlet with garnish. I must say, if the food tasted this good back home, there would have been a lot more vegetarians.

After the meal, I pestered Fluttershy to no end, trying to help with every little thing. She went along with it at first, but eventually started coming up with excuses. She never outright said no, she is too kind to do that, but I could tell I was starting to bother her. Maybe I should let her be, but, she kinda fixed pretty much all of our immediate problems, so I kinda owe her, was the thought I went to sleep on.

For the first time since I had met her, Night Strider was absent from my dream. I Couldn't quite sit myself still, or set myself on a task while in the dream, so I left the game, and went back to the original dreamscape I had seen in my first dream. I had simply copied the landscape and moved it to the game, so "logging out" was simple enough.

I yawned. "Odd that I'm tired in a dream." I mused stepping outside my house, the considerably rounder landscape refreshing to see, there was one problem however. The main river, normally dyed just about equally in my highlights, was predominantly red, as was most of the landscape, almost every single flower, tree leaf, and bush, were red. I turned my face to the sun, also red. "What the heck is going on now?" I demanded answers from the red world around me. When it was evident nothing would change, I decided to head back inside, crack open a book, and relax. It started raining, and a random bucket full of red water drenched me before I made it to the door. "Well that's annoying," I muttered, brushing my hair out of my eyes. Once inside I willed my fur dry and pulled a book from the shelf, finding it blank. "Oh, right. Well then, how about we plan on how we can help out Flutters?" I asked myself, I agreed, and "we" set about devising what we could do to pay Fluttershy back till Twilight got back in town.

Fluttershy woke up early in the morning. She had to, so that she could have enough time to check on all of her animal friends. She looked about her room with sleepy eyes, before getting out of bed and making her way to the door. I have got to check on Argent for Twilight to, she seems to think that something odd is going on with her, but I think she seems like a pretty normal filly, well mostly. the yellow mare thought. She stretched her wings before opening the door, ready to start the day.

"Hi Fluttershy!" Argent greeted her. Causing the poor mare to squeak and leap back in suprise.

"O-oh, Argent, you startled me," said the pegasus, lying on the floor.

"Ssorry about that. I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to help around here, to repay you for being so nice and all," the filly said earnestly.

"Uhm, okay, well, I suppose you could help with a few things. Wait, how long have you been out here?" Fluttershy asked her.

The foal closed her eyes as she thought of the answer. "About... two hours I think? I couldn't sleep after a while, but I didn't want to wake you." she explained.

"uhm, okay..." Fluttershy said, Argent's behavior seemed a bit odd to her, but at least her heart was in the right place. "So, uhm, I'm going to go check in on everyone, could you maybe take some feed out to the chickens?"

"Can do! Be back in a jiffy." Argent said, taking off towards the coop. Fluttershy picked herself up and glided out to greet all of her animal friends. She greeted all of the songbirds first, checking up on all the baby birds that had hatched a few days ago. Next she moved onto the squirrels, and raccoons. Followed by the tortoise, and mrs. Grizzly. Just as she was about to turn and say good morning to all the amphibians that live at the stream, she caught sight of the filly that was following her.

"Done! What next?" She said, all too eager.

"Uhm, nothing for now, but thank you." Fluttershy replied.

"Okay."she said.

Fluttershy greeted three more animals before turning around again, the filly was still following her. "Did you need something?" the mare asked politely.

"No, I just wanna be around if you think of something you want me to do." the filly said.

"Uhm, alright." Fluttershy continued her routine. She made her way to the chicken coop to check in. "Hello Elizabeak, how are you girls doing?" the chicken clucked a response that Fluttershy understood as.
"Well enough, but that peppy girl needs to stay away from our eggs."

"Don't be like that Elizabeak, she just wants to help." Fluttershy told the hen, with a warm smile. Elizabeak turned her head.

Fluttershy continued to converse with the chickens. Is that something she can actually do? Is that a special "pegasus" thing, or just a "her" thing? What are the rules on animals being allowed to speak? Does it just depend on how horse-like they are? Because apparently cows and sheep can talk. Why does this world continue to make no sense? I wonder if she has anything else for me to do. Despite all of these questions, I waited patiently for her to ask me to do something, I did kinda owe her big-time for that massage. Her conversation with the bird started to run long and I could feel the need to do something slowly rise.

I was a little disappointed in my new impatience, as I had to leave Fluttershy and try and do something productive. I sat down and started using my newly sorted out wing muscles, attempting to get flapping them down to second nature. Even if I don't plan on using them, it would still be helpful knowledge, should I need to use them. Compaired to when I just got them, I could now manipulate my wings with relative ease, though I still had a ways to go.

It was boring, but at least I felt like I was doing something. When I inevitably drew my self-taught flying lesson to a close, I went back to where I had last seen Flutterhsy, but she had apparently finished her talk with the hen and moved on. Shoot! She might have had something for me to help her with, and I just left! I chastised myself, running all around the property in search of the mare, to no avail. I made the circuit another two times before my search devolved to just being silly, looking under pillows and couch cushions inside, and underneath rocks outside.

I paced back and forth outside the front door. "Okay, think Petent,
She is obviously not on the property anymore, you would have found her by now. So, she most likely went over to one of her friends places. I know where Sweet Apple Acres is, as well as the Carousel Boutique, I don't actually know where Pinky lives, nor RD. Maybe I should head over to Applejack's first? But if I go that way and she was at Rarity's, I'll have just walked past her, but if I go to the boutique and she isn't there, I'm worried I'll be roped into a dress." I shivered at the thought. I don't care if this world made me a girl for some reason, no way am I going to be caught in a dress! I stomped my hoof for emphasis. "Focus Pergent, back on track. There is also the option that she went to Rainbow's or Pinkie's, and that would cause a snag in finding her, and its not like I could ask any of the animals where she went, unfortunetly. I began drumming my forehooves impatiently. Just then Angel hoped up to the front porch, some piece of paper rolled up in his paws. He held it out to me, soI took it, thanking him for his efforts. I went back up to my temporary room and fetched my reading key from its position as a bookmark. After a few minutes I had the thing translated.

Argent
I got a letter from Rarity, saying how Opalecence, her cat, was acting up again. I'm sorry that I stepped out without mentioning it to you, I hope I didn't upset you or anything, sorry.
I'll be back in just a short while, so please just hang out there okay?
I'm sorry if this bothers you, really, sorry.
Fluttershy.

"Huh, well, if she doesn't want me to leave, I guess I'll stay here. But now what do I do?" I asked myself, sitting down on the edge of the porch. I stared up at the clouds in the sky for a solid two minutes before I had an idea. "I have one of those in..." I quickly stood up and raced to the top of the stairs, taking a flying leap onto the cloud still in the room. I rolled around on the heavenly soft object for an unkown amount of time. Eventually I started pulling the edges of the cloud up and sculpting them into shapes, simple at first, but then I made a cloud bunny, followed by another, and another. A dozen or so cloud bunnies floated around the room, me a giggling mess at the center of the faux-rabbit swarm, hugging two of them into my chest. Hours must have passed as I admired my handiwork, because the next non cloud bunny filled thought I had, was when I was sitting in the dream house.

"When exactly did I fall asleep?" I asked aloud. I flipped back to the game side of the dream, to see if Night Strider was anywhere to be found. My search turned up no hints of her presence, at which I shrugged. "Guess she has something important to do? Maybe she is staying up late studying for school." I guessed, she did look about school age, if she didn't sound it. Finding nothing better to do tonight, I switched back to my unicorn appearance and left my house, ready to throw in my attempt at one-upping Princess Nighty Light's castle. I built a dirt tower seventeen blocks into the air, replacing the top of the stack with a piece of smooth stone. "This will make a good starting point." I nodded.

Fluttershy came home About one hour after lunchtime. She had expected Argent to run up and greet her, based on how the filly was acting that morning, but she was nowhere to be seen. However, as the butter yellow mare entered her home, she heard a faint noise coming from up stairs. Following it, cautiously, back to its source, the room she had put Argent up in, the mare gave the door a puzzled look. The noise was easier to make out now, it was gleeful giggling. "Hello?" Fluttershy tried, but the light purple filly didn't seem to hear her. The pegasus opened the door a crack to see what was going on, to be greeted with a sight that was a little bit adorable. "Aww" she said, watching the filly roll around on the cloud Fluttershy had forgotten to remove. The filly had also apparently torn off about one third of the clouds mass and shaped them into cloud dolls, in the shape of bunnies, which were floating all around the room, save for the three or four in the filly's grasp. I guess she is very fond of bunnies. Fluttershy deduced.

The mare decided that she would leave Argent to play until she got bored. This didn't seem to happen, the filly played upstairs for hours, and past the sunset. Fluttershy was going to go bring her up a quick meal before sending her to bed, when the nigh constant noises of a happy child stopped. Fluttershy checked in on her to make sure everything was okay, to find the the filly had fallen asleep, using her cloud bunnies as a pillow. The pegasus mare closed the door as quietly as possible before heading to bed herself.

I woke up early again, and seeing how the moon was just setting, I figured Fluttershy would still be asleep. She didn't seem to take very well to how I greeted her the prior morning, so I decided I would go and try to make myself useful elsewhere. I tiptoed – hoofed? – down the stairs silently, making my way to the kitchen. On my way there, I caught sight of Angel coming in the front door, waving goodbye to someone, he turned and saw me. After a few seconds of just staring at eachother, he narrowed is eyes at me, swiped a paw over his mouth, and pointed up the stair with the carrot he was always carrying.

Uhh, what? I thought, replaying the motions in my head a few times, before it clicked. "Don't tell her?" I guessed, pointing in the same direction he had? He nodded. "Uhh, okay, I won't." I promised him. His eyes lost the hostile look and he smiled. I internally squeed over how cute that was, before asking him a question. "Would you mind helping me make breakfast for Fluttershy? I want to pay her back for being so nice to me."

he paused for a moment before nodding, and leading the way to the kitchen. Angel bounced up onto the counter, swapping out his carrot for a wooden spoon. He flipped through a cookbook, pointing to a picture once he found the desired recipe. Even though I can't understand animals the way Fluttershy apparently can, Angel was quite fluent in pantomime, so it was easy enough to receive instructions on what he wanted me to do, especially with the book right there. He guided me through the process of creating waffles, I've made them before, but the pony version called for a few different ingredients. Afterwards he tossed up a salad, and I did my best to make some iced tea. After all the prep, we put the waffles onto a plate, covered by a mixing bowl to maintain the temperature of them. Everthing was moved out to the table, the sun was just peeking over horizon when we finished. Fluttershy showed no signs of coming downstairs anytime soon, so I continued to practice my wing motions, it turns out that overnight I had forgotten most of the progress I had made yesterday, and had to re-learn it again. Once I had tired of that I went outside.

I had just came back inside after feeding the chickens, again, when Fluttershy came downstairs. She had not asked me too, but she let me yesterday, so I figured there would be no problem. "Good morning Fluttershy!" I greeted her. She jumped, and hovered, a little bit, apparently I must have surprised her.

"Oh, good morning Argent, you startled me, I didn't think you would be up so early," the mare replied.

"Sorry about that, but Angel helped me make Breakfast for you." I said, passing her and leading the way to the table.

"You made breakfast, for me?" she asked, surprised.

"With Angel's help, I'm not exactly a wiz in the kitchen, but I think things turned out pretty good." Angel was on top of the table, and lifted the bowl off of the plate, revealing the still steaming waffles.

Fluttershy gasped, in a happy way. "You did all this for me?" she asked, looking out over the meal the bunny and I had prepared.

"Of course! Think of it as a thank you, although I feel like I should still do more, for putting up with me these past few days, as well as for that massage earlier."I said, hopping into a chair.

"I don't know what to say! Thank you both, so much!" the pegasus said, pulling me out of the chair and into a hug, I waited patiently for it to end, then got back into a seated position. Fluttershy took a bite out of one of the waffles, and I waited eagerly for a response. "They are very tasty." she said, taking another bite. Assured that we had done a good job, I thanked Angel for his help and we each went to eat our own breakfasts.

After we finished our meals, a nock at the door grabbed my temporary host's attention. "Who is it?" she asked as soon as she was near enough to the door.

"It's us." A familiar voice said.

I zipped over to the door in an instant, my wings buzzing with exitement. "Twilight! Spike! I shouted, throwing my hooves around the two before I knew what I was doing.

"Why hello Argent!" Twilight greeted, wrapping a singular hoof around me with a laugh, Spike had quickly gotten tired of the hug and was worming out of it. "Did you miss us that much?" The purple mare said, a smile on her face.

"Heh sorry about that" I apologized, relishing my grip. "Things have been rather nice lately, so I guess I'm a little excited."

"That's quite alright Argent, it's actually reliving to see you acting your age. So did you have fun at Fluttershy's?" She inquired.

"I'm no-Yes! Clouds are amazing! And Angel is a really good cook and- oh yeah, I have a few questions for you." I cut off the recounting of my stay.

"Would you mind answering one for me first?" She asked, a face of intrigue looking down at me.

"Of course I wouldn't mind!" I hopped into the air, wings stretched and buzzing. I have no idea why I am acting like this, but right now who cares!

Before she could voice her question, she caught sight of Fluttershy, and went to talk over my stay with her, I suppose. "So, Spike, how was Canterlot?" I asked.

"Oh it was pretty good, I wasn't allowed to go with Twilight when she discussed things with the princess, but I got to hang out in my home town. Next time we go, you should come! There is this doughnut shop, best in all of Canterlot, it's called Doughnut Joe's."

"Sounds like a plan. I haven't really had anything in the way of local pastries, so that would be awesome."

"Hey, did you dye you mane?" Spike asked me.

"Uhh, no? Why?" I turned my gaze skyward, I didn't see anything different.

"Because the stripe in the middle of your mane seems, brighter." Spike remarked, getting a really close look at it.

"I don't know what to tell ya," I replied. "At this point, it really wouldn't surprise me if my colors decided to start shifting, I mean, I have wings right now."

"That makes sense, I guess." Spike said. Tapping a claw on my wings. "Did you ever figure out how to fly with these?"

"Eh, not really, but I have managed to stop rocketing off every twenty minutes, hey do you need any help around the library when we get back? I would be happy to help." I offered.

"Really? That would be great! Cause we stopped by there before coming over here, and the place was a mess! Books were everywhere!" Spike waved his arms in the air for emphasis.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. "Sorry about that Spike, Rainbow stopped by before you guys left for Canterlot, and I just didn't know where everything went."

"That's alright, its not your fault." Spike said, patting my head. The action caused me to flare my wings and freeze, giving him an odd look while I rebooted. "Uhh, sorry about that?" Spike tried, I remained motionless.

"Is everything okay out here?" Twilight asked, taking note of my impression of a garden gnome.

Spike waved his claws in front of my eyes, poked me in the fore arm-area, and whistled in my ear. "I think I broke her.

I was having a mild internal feud. Why!? Why would he do that? I screamed.

It is most likely an expression of gratitude, you told him the truth and he attempted to reward you. my brain replied, as if that was obvious.

For a child Maybe! I'm a grown man! Not to mention I have known these guys for about two weeks, and that's not an action I would let some of my closer friends do!

They perceive us as a child! And you liked it, don't lie. my brain retorted calmly.

This would have gone on for longer, but I could feel my lungs starting to burn, so I broke off the argument. I sighed, slumping down. "Argent, are you okay?" Twilight asked, all too close to my face.

"I'm fine!" I shouted, scrambling back. "Just, losing an argument... with myself..."

Twilight nodded. "O...kay then," she turned to look at the yellow pegasus over my shoulder. "Thank you for taking care of Argent while we were gone."

"Oh, it was no trouble Twilight, she was a wonderful house guest," the butter yellow mare assured her friend.

"Well, I suppose we should head back home, see you later." Twilight, turned back to us. Fluttershy waved us off as we headed back towards Golden Oaks. It felt like I hadn't been there in a while, even though, in reality, it was just three days.

"So, you know the ruler of the country? What is she like?" I asked Twilight.

"Oh she is amazing! She thought me magic personally, and she is kind, warm, intelligent, and so wise! She is the pony who let me stay here in Ponyville and study friendship." She continued to gush over her apparent mentor.

There is that thing again. "Okay, what exactly do you mean by, 'study friendship?' What's there to know?"

"You really wanna know? Oh, where should I start?" Twilight asked, clearly excited.

"Uhh, can you give me the abridged version?" I didn't want her to be disappointed, but I also didn't want a lecture on friendship of all things.

A story is what I got instead, she told me how she wasn't exactly a very good friend before coming to Ponyville, and how Nightmare Moon attacked on the Summer Sun Celebration, threatening to bring about eternal night. She told me how she set out with Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie into the Everfree Forest to stop Nightmare, and how she came to realize how truly wonderful the magic of friendship was along the way. Her words not mine.

"So was Nightmare Moon that dark colored mare with the reptilian eyes?" I asked, trying to piece together that odd scene I saw when I first came to Equestria.

"Indeed she was, but me and my friends used the Elements of Harmony to defeat her, and free Princess Luna, although we didnt know it was the princess at the time," Twilight informed me, as we reached the front door of the library.

"Time to get to work." Spike reminded me, he made the motions of rolling up his sleeves, which only served to confuse me.

"Oh yeah, I promised Spike I would help him clean up," I told Twilight, following after the baby dragon. "Finish the story later?"

"Perhaps. Alright, let's get those books back on the shelves." Twilight said. I didn't know she was going to be helping, but I wasn't going to complain. It took about three hours to reshelve all the books, with Twilight unbending the pages with her magic, while me and Spike put away most of them. When all was said and done, it looked like a library again, and not like a tornado had torn through the place. "Good work!" Twilight said, looking between Spike and me. "Now then who is ready for lunch?" A loud grumbling noise sounded, and for once it wasnt me, but Twilight who answered her own question. We went out to a local restaurant for lunch, Twilight ordered for me, something I would have been against, but the menu we had to order from had been done in a fancy font, or something, so I was unable to read it at all. I had a daisy sandwich, Spike had a large plate of hay fries, and Twilight had a slightly larger daffodil sandwich, with a small order of fries.

After lunch, we went back to the library, Twilight got a letter almost immedietly after we got inside, leaving me and Spike to entertain ourselves. While my wings had mostly crumbled away, something that turned a few heads at lunch, my horn had yet to actually grow to a usable length, so I was still stuck with using my hooves.

Spike and I were discussing what game to play when Twilight came into the room. "Argent, guess what?" She prompted.

I shared a look with Spike before answering. "I don't know, what?"

"All of the arrangements have been made, so tomorrow we are going down to the school to get you enrolled!" she cheered.

"... Oh no."

Chapter 14: the Breaking of a Dam

View Online

"No."

"No?" Twilight asked, surprised.

"Please no." I corrected myself.

"Why not?"

"Because." Wait a second, that sounds like what any other child would say, elaborate! "Because I'm already academically proficient." I didn't make it all the way to college for nothing!

"Oh really? Would you mind if I put that to the test?" Twilight asked, with a clearly skeptical expression, no doubt taking my prior illiteracy into account.

"Yes! Please, anything but-" I coughed and composed myself. "rather, I would gladly take a test to prove my knowledge, as opposed to going to class."

Twilight pulled a chalkboard into the room with her magic, while Spike retrieved a few comics from the shelves and retreated upstairs. "We are going to start with math. She scribbled on the chalk board some very sloppy- Wait, those are Actual numbers here, arent they?

There were two sets of identical characters; a simple hoof shape, with another over top and at a slight angle, with a simpler curved line and arrow between them. On the end of the equation was a circle with two curved lines orbiting either side of it. "...Uhh," I began, Twilight was halfway through an "Aha!" When I cut her off. "Now you wait! Given the fact that I couldn't read your wierd pony script, what makes you think I can read pony numbers? Could you please just list out the basic ten numbers, zero through nine, and what add, subtract, multiply, and divide look like?"

Twilight mulled it over for a moment, but complied with my requests, drawing fifteen symbols on a separate piece of parchment and passing it over to me, I retrieved a quill from my bags with my now fully regrow horn. "Ah, magic, it's nice to have you in the waking world again... now then!" I quickly scribbled my human numbers next to what I assumed to be the pony equivalent.
The pony One was just a horseshoe shape.
Two was two horseshoe shapes layed over top each other.
Three was also a horseshoe shape, with a line out the bottom and two dots.
Four looked like Spider-Man, or possibly a cat, if I'm being honest.
Five was a minimalistic wing.
Six was two unicorn horns crossed.
Seven was a sprout of some kind.
Eight was a crescent moon.
Nine was a depiction of the sun.
Funnily enough, zero was just zero.

"So then, what you have up on the board is... really? You tried to get me with two plus two? That's four." I dropped the quill in disinterest. "You're going to have to try harder than that."

Twilight proceeded to take me up on my challenge, giving me some tougher, by comparison equations;

9+4=
10+34-3=
2×3=
And lastly, 4+8÷2=

"Those would be; thirteen, forty one, six, and six, wait no, thats wrong, eight. Seriously this is basic math here, I already passed algebra and geometry, which I'm fairly certain they don't teach at the local elementary school." I let my expression turn to one of boredom. Twilight proceeded to test my knowledge in said areas of math, which I also passed.

"Have I proven myself yet?" I asked, passing her my current sheet of questions. She skimmed through them, seemingly disappointed, supprised, and happy at the same time that I was correct in my answers.

"Yes," I pumped a good into the air. "In math, we haven't gone into anything else yet."

"Come on, shouldn't this be enough? Fine, what's next?"

"History." Twilight said, flipping the board over and floating a book off the shelf.

"...horseapples," I muttered. "Wait, can't I be exempt from this one? Since I'm not local and all?"

"The Idahoof mountains are pretty far out there, but they are still part of Equestria, so no." Twilight shot me down, cracking open the textbook.

I tried, I really tried, but despite all of the similarities between good ol' Earth and Equestria, the history was completely different, I didn't even deserve an F for my deplorable performance.

"So what if I don't know the history? That's a good enough reason to stick me in a room with twenty kids for the better part of a say, every day? I could easily learn all that by simply reading the relevant books here." I pointed out, flimsy an argument as it might be.

"Next, Equish." Twilight said, ignoring me. She retrieved another book, flipped through to a random page, and wrote down a word on the board. She repeated the process a few times."Please define these terms."

I passed easily enough on the words I was familiar with, but I only got about half the wierd ones right by guessing, and I only got partial credit for "zephyr field" for saying "it has something to do with the wings."

"Next up, foreign language."

"They teach that at elementary school here? That was middle school at least back home! High school definitely."

"They do, now then," she passed me a book, opened her own and spoke what was, if the cover of my book was anything to go by, "Prench." I checked my letter sheet, not a misreading on my part, and not a typo according to the unicorn mare.

Needless to say, because I took art class rather than a foreign language class for my fine arts credit, I failed.

"Song." Twilight said, changing gears quickly.

"Song? Singing is a required subject in school?" I asked, disbeliveingly.

"Of course it is, why wouldn't it be?"

Now I know your messing with me. regardless I had to participate, if singing a jolly tune would keep me out of gradschool, so be it. It was at this time that my new voice became extremely apparent, not that I had not noticed, it was simply the fact that I could no longer hit the low notes I used to before, and could hit such ridiculously high notes now, that made it so painfully obvious. It was a struggle at first, the singing voice I now possessed kept throwing me off, but after a minute something just clicked and I sang no problem.

"Are you done yet? I would like to be." I was resisting the urge to plead, but I had a sneaking suspicion that the asinine approach I was taking would get me nowhere.

"I am."

"Grea-"

"You didn't pass."

aww for fu-

"While your mathematics abilities a far beyond what we were expecting, you don't know a thing about basic history, your singing did improve after a moment, but it was still pitchy at the opening of the song, you also didnt seem to know any common or popular songs. Your vocabulary is above standard, but you are missing several basic key terms that I know that they should have taught you. All things considered, you still need to go to school." Twilight summed up.

"Oh come on! Is there any particular reason your so hellbent on sending me to school? Why can't I just be taught here, in the library, away from children?" I begged. I honestly have no real problem with school, I might even go so far as to say I enjoyed it, but my time in elementary school was not exactly fun.

"I'm sending you to school so that you can get a proper education. As much fun as it would be to take on a student of my own and teach her everything I know, you need to socialize with fillies and colts your own age," She sighed and put on a gentle smile. "It won't be as bad as you are expecting, I promise, honestly they are just foals, how bad could it be?"

You did not just ask that! How could you be so naive as to ever use that phrase!? "Whenever someone asks that, it always turns out horrible, it's like, the number one thing you do not ask, for fear of the wrath of the universe showing you, exactly how bad it could be."

"Oh please, that is nothing but superstitious nonsense." Twilight waved me off. "Now then, let's make sure you are going to have everything you need for school."

I sighed, dragging my hooves after her. "I am strongly against this."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but it's all been set up by the princess, so you are not working you way out of this."

Really? It's a friggen royal decree that I attend school? "I find it highly doubtful that a pony I have never met would care if one child didn't attend public school, let alone the ruler of the entire country." I complained.

"Don't say that, Princess Celestia cares about all of her ponies." Twilight assured me, filling my saddlebags with school supplies.

"Class, I would like to meet our new transfer student, she came all the way from the Idahoof mountains!" Miss Cheerilee motioned for me to enter the classroom.

I quickly erased all signs of discomfort form my posture and expression. I can't believe they're forcing me to do this... I internally sighed, while standing before the mass of children, most of them looking at me with interest.

"Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?" The moderate cerise mare promted.

egh... "Hi, my name is Argent Accord, it's wonderful to meet you all!" I said, fully embracing the child persona.

"Now then class, does anyone have any questions for miss Accord?" A great many hooves went up into the air. "Applebloom." The teacher said, pointing to the familiar face in the crowd.

"What's yer favourite color?"

"French grey." I repeated.

"Oh, me, me!" An orange filly said, shaking her extended forlimb.

"Scootaloo." Cheerilee shifted the class' attention to her.

"What was it like living in the mountains?" she inquired.

"Cold in the winter, hot in the summer, and spring was always late. Other than that, not all that different from here." Exept for the difference in population and what not.

"Sweetie Belle." The earth mare selected.

"Why did you move out here?" the final familiar face asked me.

"I got dragged along." I chuckled at my own stupid joke. "I dont really know why im in Ponyville, but I guess I am sticking around for the foreseeable future." I got a few odd looks for that answer, but Cheerilee moved right along.

"Silver Spoon."

"Why is your mane so messy?" She asked with an unfriendly smile.

"Because I really don't care what it looks like." Both Silver spoon and a magenta filly seemed displeased with my answer.

"Diamond Tiara." Cheerilee called on said magenta pony.

"What is that thing on your head?" She asked, clearly indicating the crystal rooted in my skull.

"Just a unicorn horn."

"No way!" The filly exclaimed disbeliveingly, "I've never seen a unicorn with a horn anything like that!"

"What purpose would lying about this serve me?" I asked her. I pulsed my magic just to prove it, re-ordering all the pieces of chalk on the black board based on length. There were murmurs of awe amongst the non-unicorn population of the class, and looks of bewilderment from the rest.

"Peppermint Twist?"

"Why doeth your horn look like that?" The filly asked with a lisp.

"Complicated and not really sure." I said dismissively.

"Actually, that is a great question Twist. You see, Argent is a very special kind of pony, her horn is completely unique amongst the unicorn population! While she can do everything a normal unicorn can do, her horn is a little more fragile than average, so she has to be careful."

Can this be over? I am getting pretty sick of being the center of attention, I thought, noting the growing sense of vertigo. I waited for the teacher to explain all of my "special rules," Eventually I was given my seat, a corner desk near Sweetie Belle and another unicorn I did not know. Fortunately, class starred with math, and, other than having to translate the symbols in my head, I didn't have to pay any attention to it, so I was allowed to internally sulk at my situation. I wouldn't dare challenge the universe, not again, this is just one thing after another, leading to this crappy outcome... I'm gonna try something when I get back to the library.

Recess was called, something I completely forgot was part of early school scheduling, not wanting to interact with any of these miniature horses, I left the classroom, walked straight over to the tree in the yard, and with a minor application of magic, walked straight up its trunk. I came to rest at the very top of the tree, looking up at the clouds. Dang it... now I miss clouds, the one immediate good point on becoming a pegasus.

"Hey! Argent!" Some filly called up from below, I looked down to them, revealing there identity to be Apple Bloom.

"Yeah?" I said, disinterested.

"You wanna play tag with me and Twist?"

"Yeah, c'mon! It'll be fun!" The light amberish grey filly said beside her.

Once again a sense of nausea cept up on me. "I really don't feel up to it,"I let myself plop down into the leaves. "You two have fun without me."

"But, we thought, y'know, since you're new and all... you would want to make some friends." Apple Bloom said, disheartened.

"...It's not that I don't want to play," I lied, stuffing my now itchy forehoof further into the tree. "I just, am a little worn out, new school and all." A half truth, which didn't seem to bother my hoof any extra.

"Oh, I understand... well, you feel better soon." The two of them walked off.

I feel like I could have handled that better... meh. I can make it up to them later, when I'm done with this sour mood. I concluded, rolling over to stare at the clouds. I saw Rainbow rocket by and deliver a finishing blow to a cloud, along with a few other pegasi, so that was pretty neat. This must be the weather team, eh? Interesting job. So, now that I was staring at a much less crowded sky, I took note of the fact that it didn't hurt to look at the sun, another odd little difference this world held.

"Well well well, if it isn't the new transfer student, what's the matter? Got no friends, little miss wierdo?" Came up from below.

...The hell? More confused than anything, I looked down on the light magenta filly from earlier, accompanied by the filly I believe was Silver Spoon.

"I heard she got kicked out of her old school because she looked So funny." Silver spoon said to the other one, I could not remember her name.

Incorrect, I specifically said I was dragged here. I smiled and snickered at my joke.

"What's so funny?" The magenta earth filly stomped. "Did you hit your head climbing up that tree?"

Are these supposed to be bullies? "Do I know you?" I asked her.

She gasped like I had insulted her family. "You should! I'm Diamond Tiara! Daughter of Filthy Rich!" She screeched.

An interesting name, I assume he is loaded? "I'm sorry I didn't catch that." I layed on the sarcasm thick, my hoof didn't register the lie. Oh! Another loophole! "Well, what ever your name is, you go have fun." I said, putting on the biggest smile I could.

"How dare you! You are going to regret that!" Silver spoon shouted on behalf of her friend.

"Are you going to climb up here and make me?" I asked in a taunting manner. "No, if I'm gauging you about right, you will try to do something more clever, do live up to my expectations, girls." They stomped off in a huff. "Well then..." I said quietly, "rebuffing a pair of bullies' attempts could be interesting."

Cheerilee came out moments later, calling all the students back to school. I floated down to the ground and trotted back to my seat, a note was taped to my desk. It was a little surprising that they were trying this quickly.

Meet us in the bathroom after school or everyone will know!

Is all it said. Know what exactly? "Argent" has no past to exploit, and I find it extreamly doubtful they know anything about me. I laughed, magically pulling all the ink off the piece of paper. Math class was resumed, so I spent my time folding the paper into an origami swan, it didn't look the best, but when I was done with it, I used the magically removed ink to give it eyes and finer detail. After that I pretended to pay attention. The magenta filly and her friend stared daggers at me whenever the teacher had her back turned, I smiled back at them, as was polite to do.

The bell rang for lunch and I quickly ate mine, half a sandwich and some sliced apples. Unfortunately the food did nothing to fill the pit in my stomach. Did I eat something bad? I wondered.

School let out almost immedietly after lunch, something I was not prepared for, but a pleasant surprise non the less. Cheerilee let us know that tomarrow we would be having history class, one I would sadly have to actually pay attention to. I saw a certain pair of fillies make their way to the bathroom together, confirming my suspicions on who left the note. I paid them no mind however, simply glad that this hadn't been a nightmarish experience. I quickly left the school grounds before anything could challenge that, making my way back to Golden Oaks.

"Welcome back Argent, did things go as bad as you thought?" Twilight greeted me in the doorway.

"Against all odds, it wasn't horrible. Here I made a thing." I said, fetching the paper bird I made during class.

"Wow, this looks great!" Twilight said, taking the offered origami object into her magical grasp. "You've got some real talent here." She said, inspecting the thing from several angles.

"Not really no, it just seems like good practice for magic control." I dismissed her praise.

"Do you have any homework?" She inquired, placing the imitation bird onto a shelf.

"Math, do I really have to do this?" I asked, slinging my bags upstairs. "I mean, I'm fairly certain I would learn leagues more from you, here at the library, than at the school."

"Well, I might be able to make a curriculum custom just for you, it would do you good to hang out with fillies and colts your own age."

"Oh, so you are putting me through this for my social life, wonderful." I griped, laying down on the library floor. "I miss clouds..." I mumbled.

"Now Argent, I know it can be hard to make friends at a new place, but you just have to try a little bit, I know that there is at least one filly who would love to be your friend." Twilight attempted to comfort me.

"Yeah, no thanks." I dismissed. "Don't get me wrong, children can be great, but I don't see myself being able to be actual friends with any of them." Because I'm not a kid myself and all... screw it. "hey Twilight?"

"What is it?" She layed down next to me on a cushion.

"You know anything about multiverse theory?" I probed, testing the waters around this subject.

"Oh certainly! Like how there is an infinite number of Equis', and how they can vary from the tiniest detail, to being the complete opposite, is that what you mean?"

"Right. Now as a hypothetical question, would it be possible to, say, travel between two different universes?"

"I believe so, there are stories about the princesses exploring other worlds with the help of spells made by Starswirl the Bearded, why do you ask?"

"Just curious, now lets say that a, pony, got taken from the world he called home, into one where, dragons and ponies switched places. Would the world change that pony into a dragon?"

"That is, well, that is certainly an interesting question. Let me think... Assuming that the forces of harmony in the dragon world were as strong or stronger than the pony world, I suppose it is possible, but it would require that the world interprets the pony's magical signature as a dragon in that world, as well as a rather large amount of magic."

Alright then... so then world travel is possible? "What is a magical signature?"

"It is basically a fingerprint for your magic, and how the world can tell what you are."

"What if, something other than a pony, who came from a world with absolutely no magic at all, accidentally traveled to Equis, would they even have a magic signature?"

Twilight looked taken aback at the concept. "A world without magic? I had never really thought about that..." papers appeared around her. "A world without magic? Hmm."

About the time she started writing things down, I figured out the conversation had died. Well, I learned a few new things today. I left the mare to her Science-ing and went to the shelves. "Now then, to find a reference for magic signatures, and world travel."

Soon after the filly left Twilight, she came out of her theories and took notice. She retrieved the most recent letter she had gotten from Princess Celestia, re reading it's contents.

Dearest Twilight Sparkle
I have my best ponies on the job, but as of yet, no mention of Argent Accord having ever lived in the Idahoof mountains has been found, nor of a filly matching her description.
I implore you to keep this information from her, and keep a watchful eye.
I would like to believe she is telling the truth, but one can not be to careful.
Princess Celestia

This, along with her random levels of knowledge, and her questions... It couldnt be, could it?

I put the book back on the shelf. "Well, that right there is a lot to absorb, I did not think there was that much to know about magic signatures. My eyes hurt." I had found three books on magical signatures, but I could not find even a single book on world travel, multiverse theory, dimensional travel, not even any fiction on the subject! I flopped down on a cushion. "Hard to belive Twilight doesn't own at least one copy of everything... Frick I miss clouds, this is becoming a curse." I complained. Curling up on the inferior cushion. I sat there for a while, unsure of what to do with myself. "Might as well get it out of the way." I pulled my bags out from upstairs with mild difficulty, and set about doing my homework. Simple as it was, it was still time filler, even had to do it twice! Because I forgot to use pony numbers in my answers. Glancing outside, I saw that I still had hours before I would even want to go to bed. Plus Night Light might not even be there still. Dreams are just less fun without her. I sighed, scanning the bookshelves for something to occupy my time. "Man, I need to take up a hobby, this sucks." I punched the cushion. Time ticked by, at a snails pace.

"...I wonder if pencils are a thing here?" My thoughts wandered. That magenta filly, what was her name? Was a little annoying, at least school is easy though. Although, I am in friggen elementary school again, which sucks. I miss college, even my crappy room mates, and the parties. I wonder what happened to me back there? Am I dead? Well that's no fun to think about. The room started towering over me. Worried, I quickly got up to find Spike, he is usually good for a hand of cards.

But unfortunetly he was nowhere to be found in Golden Oaks, apparently he went to help out at Rarity's. Twilight was busy pondering a world without magic, apparently, so I was left with nothing to do. "Hmmm, maybe I could wander around town? But meh, I really don't want to go outside... I wonder if magic tv is a thing?" I banished the thought from my mind, given how it went the last time, I had no desire to let my thoughts wander. I went upstairs and paced about the loft, mulling over what I read on magical signatures. "I wonder, what exactly mine says?" I turned my magic vision on myself, then applied the spell that those books referenced. It took a moment to come into view, but when it did I was given two lists, in comprihensable english no less!

One was the long version, and I could not find the bottom of the list. So I opted to check the short version.

Argent Accord.
Female.
Age: eight.
Tribe: unstable, unicorn.

Okay then, it is nice to know what age I am supposed to be, but otherwise, that is all stuff I all ready knew, but does this mean that the world actually thinks Argent Accord is my name? I can't tell if that is a good thing or not. On one hand, it means people can't call me out on it being a fake name I guess, but on the other hand, does that mean Peter isn't my name anymore? That doesn't feel fair. I felt my stomach twist at the possibility of my losing yet another thing that made me who I am.

"My name is Peter Westmoore," I said quietly, it didn't irritate my hoof, like most lies I said aloud did anymore. But does that mean I simply believe it, or is it still true? Wonderful! On top of everything that I've been forced into, now I have nominally brought on an identity crisis! I spiralled downward. Oh, just perfect, that is exactly what I needed...

I paced harder, ignoring the discomfort mounting in my stomach. let's check the list, shall we? Ripped from everything I thought familiar, from the world in which I reside, down to my own body and gender? Check! Regressed in age to the point of being forced through school? Check! My very name might not be my name anymore, and there is nothing I can do about it? Check! I could very well be dead back home? Check! I was panting at this point. I mean what the hell!? Why in the name of all that is good do I have to go through all this horse shit? I stumbled and fell onto the hard ground, my insides in knots, I had broken into a sweat. "Why!? Why me!? What did I do?! Why? why? Why?why? Why..." my vision blurred with tears, and I shook, suddenly feeling very cold. "What the hell did I do?" I wept, laying on the floor, feeling isolated, until I felt my stomach lurch, I quickly stumbled to the bathroom, heaving over the toilet. My breathing was ragged quick gasps, tears streaming down my face. "I just wanna go home..."

Author's Notes:

Welp, there you go! Argent/Peter finally had that breakdown that they've been shelving for later, Yay! To bad I don't really know how to write one, as I have never experienced one myself. I can't wait to see what happens next, cause I have no idea, the characters have run away with my story.

For those of you who are wondering, this is my version of pony numbers

And then Zero is just Zero, no fancy symbol required.

Now then, some of you have been complaining about the fact that Argent/Peter still hasn't told anyone about their origins, to this i say, I'm sorry that you find this section of the story so unenjoyable, and if you aren't willing to be patient for a few more chapters, that s fine, I'm sure that there is plenty of Fic's on this site that you will enjoy. Now then, onto the issue, I have a time line, a time line that is greatly flexable, but there are still certain events that I still do not want to move, in relation to the show's timeline. I've all ready got bits of season two planned out, and I plan to take this story all the way through season nine, so this will be a multi year project. I have been putting off a certain episode, accidentally, and will try to push that one forward, but in the mean time, the next chapter has plenty of Luna shenanigans for you, and someone being truthfull.

I hope this explains why things seem so slow, and that I can continue to write how the story wants me to.

See you in the next chapter.

Chapter 15: Minepranks

View Online

"Argent? Are you in there?" Twilight asked through the door.

"...No." I croaked out from my position on the floor. My head was pounding, and my guts were still trying to wring themselves dry.

"Are, you okay?"

"N-" I was interupted by another round of dry heaves. "...N-negative..." I mumbled into the bowl of what had been my closest companion for the past half hour.

"Argent, I'm coming in." The purple mare informed me, I heard the lock click with magic before the door creaked open.

And how exactly would I stop you? I thought, wiping my mouth clean before getting back onto the floor. My movements were shaky, and hard fought, it had been a while since I had gotten sick, so I had nearly forgotten how bad my reaction to being sick was.

"Oh, you don't look so good." Twilight said, hurrying to my side and rubbing a hoof on my back.

The word is pathetic, I look pathetic, which matches how I feel. I curled up tighter, not saying anything.

"Do you want a glass of water?" She offered. "Or maybe some medicine?"

"I don't think I could keep either of those d-" my throat squeezed shut, but nothing threatened to come up. "down..."

"Oh, I'm sorry, do you need any help?"

"No, no. I just wanna lie here and feel miserable for a little while." I laughed weakly and forced a smile.

Twilight didn't seem convinced. "I'm going to contact the hospital, don't go anywhere." She said while standing up.

"W-wasn't planning on it."I folded my forelegs under my chin for some support. "God I hate being sick." Twilight left, and I lay on the floor shivering from the aftershocks of losing my lunch. My eyes felt heavy, and I had little strength to keep from falling asleep.

I groaned, rolling over. "I still feel like I got hit in the stomach with a rubber ball out of a pitching machine." I complained, crawling off the couch and under the coffee table. I lay there in my dream home, basking in my misery. "Ahh, so is this what I was putting off? This sucks..." several minutes went by. Just as I was starting to get used to my crappy condition, three solid knocks came from the door.

"Hello? Art thee present Argent?"

"Night?" I said, mildly surprised that she was even here.

"Indeed, t'is I." She confirmed, fiddling with the doorknob till it came open. "Thee doth not appear in good health."

"Is that Archaic for 'You look like shit?' Cause that's what I feel like." I was not up to the task of deciphering her speech at the moment.

"Thou hast most certainly looked better." Night Strider said, putting a hoof to my forehead. "How long hast the been like this?"

"However long I have been asleep plus about thirty minutes," I told her. "What are you even doing? This is a dream, it's not like you could actually check to see if I have a fever."

"We... we forget, sometimes." She admitted with a blush.

"I would love a bit of disconnect from my body at the moment, you know anything about how to do that?" I inquired, not really expecting an answer.

"We apologize, but we hast not the remedy for thine ailment. What hath reduced thee to such a state?"

"Uhhh. I dunno, maybe I caught a bug at the school, but no one seemed sick." I rolled over. "This sucks."

"We understand thy meaning. Being bedridden can beest unpleasant for a filly thine age."

"Unpleasant is not the right word. Extreamly annoying, that covers it better. And it is mostly because, I will simultaneously want do do something, be unable to do something, and not want to do anything." I forced myself to stand. "I'm gonna go find a cloud to lie on, you wanna come?"

"Pardon?"

Stepping outside revealed that we were in the regular dream, meaning i didnt have to worry about game rules keeping me from interacting with clouds. I yanked one out of the sky, and flopped down on it. "Ahhhh, so soft," I wiggled into its surface, resulting in everything but my head being burried in the cloud. "Dreams are nice." I sighed.

"Thou art quite fond of clouds art thee not?" Night Strider said, jumping onto my cloud's pillowey goodness.

"How could I not be? This is the softest thing I have ever felt. I realize that you are a pegasus, and therefore have always been able to experience this, but this is brand new to me." My headache was already on the mend.

"Fair," She admitted, curling up on top of the cloud. "One's first time experiencing a cloud is rather pleasant." She did a circle like a dog would, flattening out the surface, then layed down again, cooing like a bird.

Oh, my, god! That was adorable. I squeed, my face twisting into a massive smile.

"What?"

"That was fucking adorable!" I said, way to high pitch.

Night Strider's face turned from blue to red. "E-e-excuse thee!? What didst thou say?! We bethink not thee know what that word means!" she stammered.

I felt my own face heat up. "No, no! Not that, I know what it means, it is just-! It is also an expletive where I am from, although it is frowned upon." I know I have gotten comfortable around her, but I just swore infront of a child! This revelation was not enough to make me want to move from my cloudy embrace though.

"Thou jest!" She shouted, slamming her forehooves into the cloud. The cloud, true to form, made a "poff" noise, as the scattered cloud matter floated away from the impact zones.

The child in me wanted to giggle, but the adult that felt crappy at the moment decided against it. "No, I'm serious."

"And they teach this to children!?" Her wings flared out that I imagined telegraphed how appalled she was.

...fuck it. "No, they don't, but as one gets older, one looses their reservations about saying such words."

"How could th- wait, pardon?" She looked back to me with a raised brow.

"Ima go ahead and say that I can trust you, since you've never lied to me." Her mouth clicked shut and she cast her gaze skyward. Also, there is only like a fifty percent chance you are actually just a figment of my imagination. "So here goes, I'm not from around here."

"Thee hast said this before, how thou art from the Idahoof mountains."

"Yeah, that isn't quite true," I admitted. "Truth is, I'm not even native to Equis. I'm actually from a world called Earth."

"Er, thou art 'pulling my leg' as the foals say, yes?"

"No, I'm not, and I feel too much like shit to make this up. I was a nineteen year old college student, and I was human."

Night Strider said nothing for a long moment, most likely wondering if I was lying or not. "Thou art, telling the truth?"

"Yup, scouts honor, or whatever." I never actually was any kind of scout, but meh.

"But how didst thee come to beest on Equis, and as a child?"

"Magic I assume, I mean, that is a thing here, unlike back home. There was this claw, made of shadows and a drop of nightmare fuel, it dragged me out of my body and used me as a shield against a rainbow." Huh, it sounds wierd when you say it like that.

Luna

Luna felt bad for the filly, she had come to trust Luna with her most valuable, and suprising, secret, when she herself had not been truthful with her. "Argent, we must be honest with thee." Luna began, readying to drop the illusion that the filly had become so friendly with. It sounds as if she hath already divined the truth anyway. but before Luna could reveal herself, Argent faded from the dream world, suprising them both. "Somepony must have woken her... shouldst we inform our sister?"

The first thing I noticed was that I was no longer encased in clouds, rather the wooden floor of the bathroom I had passed out on. How I noticed this before my pounding headache I am unsure. The third thing I noticed was the light pressure on my shoulder, and some whispering I couldn't make out. I opened my eyes, and was rewarded with blurry vision and three quick stabs of pain from my crainium. "Ow..." I croaked. The soft pressure on my back started moving back and forth.

"..ts oka... rgent... r alri..." the voice drifted in and out of focus, or my hearing did, likely the latter. It felt like I had swallowed sawdust, resulting in a coughing fit when I swallowed. "...u okay?" Twilight asked.

"Eeeuughghh..." I groaned, emphasizing my misery.

"That bad huh?" I could hear the sympathetic smile in her voice.

"What time is it?"

"A little after six, Doctor Horse is on his way over."

"..." I have never heard a more on the nose name in my life.

The doorbell went off, signaling his arrival. "That must be him, come on." Twilight left the room, heading for the door. I slowly sat up, noting that I had all the energy of about three houseflies to work with. My hooves slid across the wood as my legs shook.

"Oh, what fun..." is all I could think of when I got to the stairs. "Nnnnope, I'm waiting here, or there will be more than one reason for me to see a doctor." I layed back down, leaning against the wall. I could hear vague mumbling from downstairs, and could make out that it was Twilight talking with some guy, but nothing beyond that. I lay there, focusing on breathing, eventually I heard foot steps coming up the stairs, it sounded like four different people, until I remembered that I'm not dealing with humans, but horses.

"Hello again Argent, I apologize that we had to meet like this, again." Came the guy's voice.

I lifted my head to look at him, he was a brown unicorn stallion, with a darker brown mane and tail, amd some medical equipment screen tattooed to his flank. "I uhh, don't know you."

"Well, that makes sense, I was the doctor in charge of your care when you first arrived in Ponyville, though I never did get a chance to see you when you were conscious." He explained.

"Well, okay," I saw nothing wrong with his story. "What is required for a diagnosis?"

"That's a big word, did miss Twilight teach you it?" He said in a congratulatory tone you use with children, I registered it as condescending.

"I'm not five," I snapped. "So could we hurry this along? My head is killing me."

"Very well, could you stick out you tongue?" He asked, pulling out one of those tongue depresser things with his magic.

The following tests consisted of; taking a flashlight to my eyes, listening to my lungs, and taking a cheekswab. Followed by running that sample through some portable medical device.

"Well, it looks like she is a little low on sugar, I'd recommend upping the amount of dessert she gets with her meals."

Did he just say I needed sugar? "What happens if I don't get enough sugar?" I inquired.

"Hmm? Oh, well, sugar is an important part of a pony's diet, without it your teeth could rot, or result in you feeling sick, as well as other side effects."he explained.

That seems, So backwards.

"Is that all?" Twilight asked.

"Well, nothing else is physically wrong with her, perhaps it's nerves?" He guessed.

"What is there to get that worked up over? She is a filly for Celestia's sake."

I am now inclined to find that likely. I thought. The doctor discussed the matter of my health with Twilight for several minutes, but after the first two the constant noise was curb stomping my brain, so I left. I slowly went down the steps, a little more sure of my footing than earlier. I wobbled into the kitchen, found the bag of sugar, filled a glass about one eighth full of sugar. Next I went to the fridge and retrived a few apples, I would have just gone for apple juice, but there currently was none. I pressed as much juice out of each apple as I could, funnling it into the glass. Fun fact, magic is sucky when you don't feel well, so doing all this required immense amounts of focus that I was fairly certain I did not posses. Once the fourth Apple was rendered a withered husk, I stuck a spoon into the glass and mixed thoroughly. I carefully brought the over-saturated mixture down to my level, and stuck a straw in it so I could cease the usage of magic. I took small sips of the super saccharine concoction, it was horribly sweet, but surprisingly to my liking.

The only thing that could make this better is if it was fizzy like soda. I thought. I curled all of my limbs up underneath myself and continued to take miniscule amounts of the sweetened apple juice.

Moments later Twilight came into the room, with Spike on her back. "All right Spike, we just have to make some simple sugar cookies for- oh!" She gasped, taking in the mess I had made of the kitchen, then me lying on the floor with my drink, which had already made me feel leagues better. "Argent, I didn't expect to find you in here."

"What are you drinking?" Spike asked.

"A diabetic coma." I joked. Spike and Twilight exchanged looks, shrugging. "Way to much sugar, diluted in juice." I sighed.

"Is it, good?" Spike asked, looking skeptical.

"Better than I thought it would be." I replied, taking another sip.

"Are you feeling any better?" Twilight inquired, cleaning up the mess I made.

"Yes," I said. "Sorry about the clutter."

"It's alright, but once you are done there, we better get you into bed."

I mumbled an affirmative. After I finished of my super sugary solution, I worked my way upstairs, now working with the energy levels of as sleep deprived college student, whom has foregone coffee. Huh, I guess sugar might actually be essential to my health, but that still sounds weird. I crawled into my bed, getting as comfortable as possible on it's non-cloud surface.

"Do you want a story before bed?" Twilight offered, micro managing the covers I had so lazily thrown over myself.

"No, how old do you think I am?" I said, offended.

"Ehehe, sorry about that." Twilight appologized, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Meh, your fine, ish teh t'ought t'aht counts." I yawned. Twilight gave me an odd look. "What?"

"I'm gonna do some things in the lab, just call if you need me." She said, giving me a nuzzle.

The sound of Spike snoring punctuated Twilights departure. "... I am getting too comfortable here." I rolled over and shut my eyes.

I came back to the dream world to find that I was once again in the game, and that Night Strider was not in the immediate area. "I guess she switched us back, but does that mean she already saw? Darnit, I wanted to be there to see her reaction!" I sped outside, looking for a trace of the pegasus, I spotted her standing atop the tower of her castle, a point I was now on level with. I snagged a cloud in my magic, and used it to glide over to her. "Hey Night Light, how's it going?"

"..."

"Nighty?"

"...how?" She asked, her gaze transfixed on my house.

"How what?"

"How, is that staying up there?" She pointed with her wing.

"Oh, that!" I turned around to take in the sight. "It's just a couple floating islands, not that weird in this game." I had picked up the chunk of hill my house resided, and just raised it into the air, then built a few more islands from scratch around it, at varying heights.

"But, but tis made of regular land! how couldst it stay afloat if it be not comprised of cloud!?" She shouted at me, finally turning away from my little archipelago.

"Like this," I placed down two dirt blocks, then broke the one below it. "Tada~!"

"Thou art using magic to make a fool out of us!" She poked the block with a hoof.

"Nah, that would be less fun than watching your reactions, you can do this too ya know, it's just how the physics of the game work."

"Truly?" I nodded, she dug into her bags, then placed down two blocks of stone, in mirror fashion to what I had just done. "Interesting."

"Now then, I'm going to go get some resources, see ya in a bit." I chucked a pearl back at my house. Night Strider looked like she wanted to talk a bit more, but I had just had an idea pop into my head. I ran over too my misc chest. "Alright then, now, what to name it?" I said aloud, taking a paper slip in my magic, along with a lot of iron.

The next step was getting back over to Night Strider's castle without being suspicious, getting caught would only ruin the surprise after all. Fortunately, she gave me an in, a cloud squished up against the front window of my house, with equish writing in it.

Argent,
We believe that we must speak about that which thee told us earlier the present day.
Please return to our home swiftly, we shall be waiting in the court yard
Night Strider.

"Sounds like a serious topic, but it would also be the perfect opportunity." I tucked the item into my bags and kicked the cloud mail out of existence. I pearled into the castle, and applied the item to Night Strider's favourite not-sheep. I chuckled quietly to myself as Night alighted down next to me.

"Hello." She greeted.

"Hey, what's up?"

"We... would like to know if what thee said was factual."

"Ah, that makes sense, even my magic signature disputes my claims." She nodded. "Well, the answer to that is yes."

"Even that of the shadow claw? That as well is accurate?"

"Indeed. Why? Do you know something about that bit?"

Night Strider looked away, as if she was unsure if she should tell me. "...We doth. Twas a spell derived from Starswirl the Bearded's research, and dark magic."

"That sounds evil and illegal."

"Quite right, that twisted spell was created to bring forth a powerful barrier, to weather the blow from which its user couldst not survive, but nothing is said of it abducting fillies."

"Well, you just said it was dark magic, so it probably didn't get much attention after it was banned, so I doubt anyone really knows anything about it."

"Well yes but we- no thou art correct, little is known of its structure or usage, it hast been cast but twice."

"Including mine?"

She nodded. "If thou art truthful."

"So, what happened last time?"

"Nothing, the user still hath fallen, while tis a nigh perfect form of defence, it can only block one single strike, and from one direction."

"I'll have to ask Twilight about this, or maybe it'll be the focus of tomorrow's history class, that sure would be convenient."

"Tis unlikely, we doubt that they wouldst teach foals of such a gruesome battle."

...Why do you know it then? I shook my head to banish the question, No, she is being helpful, if I push the wrong buttons she might leave again, and not come back."Do you know anything on world travel? If possible I would like to go back home."

"We... regrettably do not, we payed little attention to such a subject after the mirror."

"Mirror?"

"It is, not something to worry about, we doubt it would bring thee to thine homeland." She said, stuffing her hoof in the dirt.

I am filing that away for later anyway~ "Well, allright, do you know anyone whom might be able to help me get home?"

"If thou agrees, we could ask our sister about it."

"Uhhh, sure." She cast her gaze downward, and was shifting uncormfortably. "Is something wrong?"

"We... we apologize that thee were ripped from thine home, we... know what that feels like." She rushed in and hugged me, tears in her eyes.

That... is not right, children should not be taken from their homes, especially if it was anything like my experience like she is implying. "Are you, okay now?" I aksed.

"We are, thank you."

"Well then, I think that should just about do me for serious conversations."

"We agree entirely, shall we play a game?"

"Sure, how does monopoly sound?"

"We hath never played, as usual." She gave me a smile.

"Hey, it's just more games from home, don't blame me."

Two hours later

"I can't believe she beat me on her first try." I mused, flipping through an empty book, filling in the bits of story I could remember. "I mean, there is beginners luck, and then there is hustling, which she has done before. I wonder if there is a pony version of Monopoly, what would it be called? Monopony? Ponopoly? Eh, I guess I'll ask someone in the morning." I said, turning to the next page.

ArrrGENT!" someone screamed in rage, and I only knew one person who could yell that loud.

"Better get ready." I smiled, stuffing cotton into my ears and casting a muffling spell.

Night Strider came crashing through the door with a ball of cotton in her forelimbs. "WHAT HATH THOU DONE!? WHY IS MUFFIN UPSIDE DOWN!? WHY CAN'T I TURN HIM OVER!?" she screamed, meanwhile I was laughing my ass off.

Chapter 16: Schoolin

View Online

I rolled out of bed, a smile still plastered to my face, Night Strider didn't take the prank overly well. I stretched, noting just how much better I felt today, it wasn't perfect, but it was leagues better than the prior day. "I'll probably gave to go to child pris- I mean school..." I mumbled, making my way downstairs and to the kitchen. My nose led me to Spike, or rather, what he was cooking, he was grilling some local white flower like eggs.

"Good morning Argent, sleep well?" he asked over his shoulder, while turning the fried flowers over.

"Yeah, any chance I can skip school today, on account of not feeling one hundred percent yet?" I asked, carefully getting into the empty chair next to Twilight, the mare looked like she had been up all night, and was nursing a cup of coffee.

"No, you are going to have to go to school," she said, her exaushtion evident in her voice. "You should be feeling fine by the time you get to school." She leveled a sleepily stare at me just over her foreleg.

"Sigh," I pronounced exageratedly. "It was worth a shot. Anyway, what's on the menu today?"

"Fried daisy, sunny side up, toast amd jam, and for you, some super sugary juice." Spike said, placing a plate infront of me, along with a similar concoction to the one I made the prior night.

"Thank you, this looks delicious, as always." I said, floating a fork down into the yellow center of one of the flowers, before stuffing the whole thing in my mouth.

"You're welcome!" Spike replied, placing down Twilight's plate infont of her, before retrieving his own gem covered plate and sitting down at the table.

"It still seems odd to me that you eat gems, are they good?" I asked, eyeing the crystals that would have set me up for life back home.

"Heck yeah they are! Hay is nice and all, but gemstones are where it's at for a dragon." He explained, taking a bite out of one like it was candy.

I stared at the bite mark he made in the crystal. "So odd... What does a sapphire taste like?"

"Well, it varries," he said, tossing the rest of the gem in his mouth. "A lot of gems come through Canterlot, but the ones that get dug up from the mountain itself tend to taste like plums, but kinda not at the same time, and the ones around Ponyville taste like blueberries!"

"Frick, now I kinda wish I could try some." Why Did I have to get stuck as a pony, a dragon would have been way cooler... I slumped.

"Well, as far as I know, only dragons have the ability to eat gems, sorry." Spike apologized, shoving another handful of tiny assorted precous stones in his maw.

"Eh, nah, thats fine, honestly all the food I've been having lately has been way better than normal, I don't think I'll be too sore that I can't try gems." I waved him off and rolled out of the chair. My desicion to literally roll out of the chair was an obvious mistake, as it took me far to long to recover from the botched landing. at least I didn't re-introduce my face to the floor.

"Off to school with you now, you don't wanna be late." Twilight said happily, the caffeine having apparently kicked in.

"Yes I do~" I called back into the kitchen, just barely catching sight of her rolling her eyes. "Ugh... here we go." I sighed, magicing on my saddle bags, I had to smile at the fact that I could do this. At least I got magic out of this deal. I stepped out the door and walked into town, about halfway to school I had the idea of ditching, but my plans for that were dashed when someone behind me spoke up.

"Heya Argent! You wanna walk ta school together?" Said the filly with a country accent.

I let my head droop to the ground and sighed. "...sure Apple Bloom, why not..."

"Great! How was yer morning? Mine was good, we had Apple pie for breakfast!" Said the yellow coated farm filly, completely missing my obvious foul mood.

"Uh huh." I replied not paying attention. I spied the other two fillies I knew by name ahead of us, Scootaloo was on a scooter, idly chatting with Sweetie Belle with her wings pushing her along. Welp, I don't wanna go earth pony before the entire class, soooo, introduction time I guess. "Hey Apple Bloom, I would like you to meet some ponies."I changed the topic, quickening my pace.

"Huh? Alrighty." She said, trotting back up beside me. I placed myself next to Sweetie Belle, as to keep my crystal noggin extension.

"Hey Argent, how's it hangin?" Scootaloo greeted.

"Could be better, how is it going with you two?"

"Great!" Sweetie Belle replied with a bounce. Scootaloo nodded in agreement.

"Good to hear, hey, do you two know Apple Bloom?" I prompted, to which they shook their heads. "Well, allow me to introduce you then, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, this Is Apple Bloom." I gestured to the yellow filly walking behind me.

"Hi!" She greeted with a wave, which the two returned.

"You're Applejack's sister right?" Sweetie Belle asked her.

"Yeah! And You're Rarity's sis?"

"Mmhmm!"

The three of them slowly eased into a conversation, and I took a half step closer to Sweetie so that my horn wouldn't start flaking away. Introduction successful, now even if i am forced into school I can just stick next to this one, and I can keep my horn. Plus, these three seemed like they could make good friends. I smiled to myself, retreating inward to go over pony symbols, so as not to make a mistake in class.

I might not want to go to school, but history class, should be at least a little interesting, maybe. I thought as we passed the doorway into the school house. The group split up and went to their respective seats, and I slid my bag under my own. Silver spoon and that one filly were glaring angrily at me, and it took me a moment to remember the fact I had ditched them yesterday. I smiled back at them return, shifting in my seat to get more comfortable.

"Good morning class." Cheerilee greeted upon entry.

"Good morning miss Cheerilee!" The room parroted back.

"How is everypony today?" A couple students took their turns telling the teacher how their morning was going, and then it was onto the day's lesson. "Alright little ponies, today is history class day, and we are going to be focusing on when Equestria first encountered diamond dogs."

Half of the room gave a sigh, but I actually found the subject of an alternate world's history interesting. I would simply rather learn it in the privacy of the library, rather than in this pond of prepubescent ponies. What the heck is a diamond dog anyways? A dog made out of gems? How have dragons not hunted them down yet if that is the case?

"Diamond dogs are a subteranian species, and they love collecting gems, their innate magic allows them to practically swim through the earth."

Cherrilee took a moment to kick the wall behind her, prompting the rolled up picture behind her to extend, showing off what looked like the bull dog version of a werewolf. "Diamond dogs were first encountered a little more than twenty years after Equestria's founding, but they were actually living here long before us! When first we Equestrians encountered diamond dogs, they were immediately hostile, foalnapping ponies to be slaves, or worse, food, unicorns especially, because they could use there magic to easily find their coveted gems. Princess Celestia tried to reason with the Diamond dog's leader, or Blood Alpha, but they would not listen, and so the great subteranian wars broke out. Most of Equestria' s military at the time, was comprised of Pegasi, whom were known to get claustrophobic in the diamond dog's underground tunnel systems, so for a time, it seemed that the Diamond dogs would win the war. Fortunately, the princesses, with the help of Starswirl the Bearded, developed a spell to nullify the Diamond dogs' abilities, and forced them to come up to the surface to fight, where the pegasus military had a major advantage, thanks to their ability to manipulate the weather."

I just ate up all of this information, from what I had gathered so far, I was starting to think that this world never experienced any kind of greater conflict, so it was refreshing to hear that they had gone through at least one war. Then again, maybe it is just the primitive part of my human psyche that enjoys war.

"...years later the battles finally stopped, with Princess Celestia banishing the cruel Blood Alpha to Tartarus, liberating the Diamond dogs to find a more peacful existence. The princess gathered the survivors of the conflict into a northern part of the continent, giving them plants that could supplement their carnivorous diet, and giving them the freedom to do as they wish, so long as it fell within the treaty between the two nations. Any questions?"

Sweetie Belle easier a hoof. "Why is it that they like gems so much?"

"Well, none remember the original reason as to why diamond dogs started collecting gems, but one of the more popular theories is that they were once enslaved under the dragon race, and that they would offer up large piles of gems to appease their masters."

That... is a rather interesting theory. I thought, tapping a hoof on my chin in thought. I stiffiled a yawn as the bell rang, people were always giving me funny looks when I yawned for some reason, so I had gotten into the habit. I meandered my way outside, when I was suddenly surrounded by three fillies.

"Hey Argent, do you wanna come play with us?" They said in sync.

"Uhh, sure?" I guess they really did hit it off. I was practically dragged outside, and into a game of tag. Apple Bloom was it first, and I just focused on sidestepping around whomever got tagged. The farm filly quickly got tired of trying to catch me and instead discreetly tapped Sweetie Belle on the barrel. The unicorn then ambushed Scootaloo, who then used her wings to speed up her run after me all over the yard.

I'm not much of a runner, or at least I didn't used to be, after finally building up some muscle memory, I found that my new body had considerably more stamina than my old one, I still wasn't very fast due to my stature and inexperience, but I could turn faster than the motorized mini horse that was after me. I was able to keep the chase going for a solid three minutes before my lungs started to burn, so I totally let the pegasus tag me, in no way was I suddenly startled by anything and tripped, that didn't happen. After I was tagged I took a few seconds to catch my breath, then zeroed in on my target, the fellow unicorn.

From what I had gathered, she was the one with the least stamina out of the four of us, nor was she very fast, making her easy prey. She put up a valiant effort, but I out-maneuvered her, she immedietly went about tagging me back, and the chase continued. When next I caught her, I quickly ducked out of the way of her return tag, and made my way up the tree, I was only able to get up to the lowest branch without magic, but that is still more than I expected.

Sweetie Belle made a few futile hops at the tree, and I couldn't help but smile back down at her. Her face turned to one of disappointment, and then determination as Apple Bloom trotted up beside her, wearing a mirror expession. The two of them bumped hooves, and then Apple Bloom bucked the base of the tree. The whole upper area of the tree shook violently, I'm still amazed at how much force she can impart from a single blow, with no windup or anything. Needless to say I was thrown from my perch, and Apple Bloom poked me square in the forehead. She and Sweetie Belle shared a nod before breaking out into giggles, soon enough Scootaloo joined in. The laughter was apparently contagious as I had an immensely hard time not throwing my own voice into the mix, fortunetly the moment passed as the bell rang, signalling everyone to return to class.

"That was fun!" Cheered Apple Bloom.

"We make a good team!" Sweetie Belle added.

"That was awesome!" Scootaloo threw in her two bits, wings buzzing.

The three of them bumped hooves in what I assume is some kind if high five replacement. I thought they would get along. I smiled, rolling off my side and to my feet, dusting myself off.

"We should hang out all the time!" Sweetie Belle suggested to the orange and yellow fillies, whom cheered back their agreement, they all bumped their hooves together in the air and held them, giggling.

I sighed at the sight contentedly. Welp, glad I could bring those three together. they turned to look at me expectantly. "...what?"

"Come on, aren't you gonna join?" Scootaloo prompted, pointing at the joined hooves with her wing.

"Uhh..." I began, internally wincing as their expressions began to fall. "Why not?" I gave in, adding my own light purple forelimb into the mix. Afterwards we had to quickly make our way back into the building, the fillies ahead of me throwing around the idea of forming some "secret society," of which I was sure would stay hidden for all of two minutes. I sat down at my desk, ready to get back to learning about gem hoarding canines, when I noticed another piece of paper had been set on my desk. This particular one read,

We know who you really are!

In bold lettering. I grinned at the note. Once again, very much doubt, but maybe I should humor them this time? Nah! I did a repeat of what I did the prior day, removing the ink and practicing my origami skills, or rather attempting to. I felt, and heard, a fizzle, followed by a mildly painful pop, as my magic failed, blue flakes rained down In front of me. huh, alright then, no magic for a few minutes. I assessed the damage to my horn, finding that only the very tip was at all brittle, and had exploded like a party popper when I fired up my magic. I then checked my sides, no new sparkly bits were growing. so I must have spent too much time around Apple Bloom then. I nodded, suddenly aware of the quickly fading feeling in my hooves. So instead of practicing magic control, I paid attention.

The remaining portion of class spoke of how the blood alpha was replaced by the far tamer sounding pack alpha, and boring political exchanges between the two peoples in the following years. After school let out, I started up my paper folding exercise while walking. I was joined by the yet to be named secret society, and they chattered around me while I repurposed the note I was left.

"-cha workin on?" I caught Apple Bloom ask.

"Nothing, just a bit of magic control practice." I replied, putting the finishing folds on my paper rabbit. I couldn't find a use for the ink this time around, so I just re-applied it to the inside of the paper in a big blob.

"That's cute!" Sweetie Belle comented.

"Thanks." I said, staring at my ~~handi- magic work?~~ craft from all angles to see if I left anything out. "It's kinda hard to do these from memory." I mumbled.

"Well, I would say it looks awsome! Maybe it's your special talent?" Scootaloo said, now atop her scooter.

"I should probably write down the instructions while I still- sorry what?"

"Your special talent! Like what your cutie mark says." Sweetie Belle supplied.

"I dunno, I'm not overly fond of oragami, it's just something I did when I was... younger, it's good dexterity practice."

"Oh, well what is your special talent? I've been staring at yer cutie mark, and I don't really know what it's supposed to be, I was wonderin if it was six step ore-ay- gom-ee." Apple Bloom admitted, poking me in the flank..

"Origami, and no, this thing here is just a handful more than six steps anyway. As for what this thing represents, I dunno, this thing has been here since I came to Ponyville, and I have no idea what it is supposed to mean." I said, placing the bunny in my bags as we passed town hall.

"What's a 'hand'?" Scootaloo asked.

"Uhh, nothing, it's just an expression me and my family used." I quickly said, hoping that would kill that line of questions.

"Oh, well okay!" Apple Bloom said for the group.

Speaking of groups. "Do you know what you are calling your "secret society" yet?"

"We're throwing around a few names, but we don't really have a goal to focus on yet. I gotta head on over there, see you girls later." Sweetie Belle informed, turning in the direction of Rarity's.

Oh bite me, don't call me that... I glared after her, but she didn't turn around to see it. "How bout you two, where do you live?" I inquired.

"I live North of here, gotta be heading out too," Scootaloo said. "See you all tomorrow!" She shouted as her wings propelled her land based craft forward at ludicrous speeds.

"I can keep goin fer a while." Apple Bloom said, catching my attention.

"Alright, let's keep going." We walked in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the bright scenery of the town.

"... How is yer horn doin?"

"Hmm?"

"Yer horn, I saw it kinda fallin apart durin class." She clarified, a concerned expression on her muzzle.

"Oh, that, it's fine, magic capable and everything." I assured her.

"We didn't... play to rough durin recess, did we?"

"What? Oh, no, no you didn't, it's nothing to be worried about, promise." I said with a smile. Though if we are here for much longer, it will start acting up again...

"Jus' tell us if were bein to rough on ya, alright?" She said, looking me square in the eyes.

"Sure, sure."

"Promise?"

suppress the eye roll! this, is, genuine, CONCERN! "Promise." I said as seriously as I could with my new girly voice.

"Well alright then, see ya tomorrow!" Said the filly galloping off in the direction of the massive Apple farm.

Isn't tomarrow the weekend? Did I agree to something without realizing it? I thought, pushing open the front door of Golden Oaks.

"Welcome back Argent, have a good day?" Spike greeted, a giant stack of books wobbling in his grasp.

"Passable." I said in a haughty voice before snickering. "Need any help with those?"

"Nah, I'm good, this is actually lighter than the last load." He said, plopping down the comparatively shorter stack next to the others surrounding Twilight.

"What is she looking for?"

"Princess Celestia gave her a few assigned readings." The baby dragon explained.

"Oh, alright then. How long has she been at this?"

"Since you left."

"No breaks?"

"Not one."

"Well, that certainly shows commitment." I said, digging my latest origami project out of my bag and setting it down on the table infront of her, she didn't seem to notice at all.

"Welp, I'm gonna go read up myself, you know where any history books on diamond dogs are?"

"Third row on the left, three from the top." Twilight said absent mindedly.

"Thanks." I said to no one in particular, walking strait up the wall to the suggested level.

"You already got that good at gravity spells?" Spike asked, suprised.

"Track record says I can do this for about twenty more seconds, so I would say no, I'm not that good at them." I said, scanning the titles of the shelf, removing a few and floating them down to the library floor.

"Well I would say it's still impressive, since you didn't use magic before this." Spike complimented.

"I really don't think I'm that good, since the literal embodiment of magic is sitting over there." I gestured, trotting back down to the floor, the spell cut out just before I could re orient myself, so I ended up closely observing the woodgrain of the floor. "And then, there is that." I finished, not getting up.

"You ok?" He asked, setting down another monolithic stack of books next to Twilight.

"Sunshine and rainbows friend." I replied, pulling my horn out of the floor, carefully. "How do I fix that?" I sighed.

"Twi will get it later, when she gets out of 'the zone.'" Spike assured me.

"Allright, well, ima go read, have fun with what you are doing." He nodded as I made my way upstairs. I plopped down on my bed, a total of three books in tow. "Alright, topic of interest, go." I halfheartedly cheered.

Chapter 17: Feeling the Need...

View Online

"Alright, now if I just put this symbol here... a couple lines here... and provide power..." for a moment, nothing happened, then there was a fizzling sound, and my horn lit up, a small, blob of magic forming just a little bit in front of me. I moved the viewpoint around the room until the spell revealed my desired target, Spike's secret gem stash. "Alright! It works, but the picture is a bit fuzzy, did I copy it wrong?" I looked between the spell structure in the book, and the one I had just cast in my magic vision, looking for any errors.

"Hmmm... no, it looks like I did it right, so why does it look like that? Maybe some element of the spell has been lost to time?" I guessed, scanning the page on which the spell sat, it was an old book, so perhaps some finer print had simply worn away. "This is the spell that they mentioned in the Diamond dogs history book, but the range is so limited that it hardly seems useful. Am I missing something? Or has magic just improved that much since then?"

I tapped my chin in thought. "Perhaps one of those magic guides Twilight gave me can help me spruce it up a bit?" I switched spells to one that simply provides light as I looked under my bed, scanning the titles of the books. "Magic for Foals, no... Innate Abilities of the Three Tribes, nope... Magic Tricks for Parties not that one... ah! Here we are, Magical Compendium: Volume three, I think I remember there being something about search spells in here..." I said as I dragged the book out into the light.

"Now let's see here..." I flipped through the pages till I found the section titled Tracking and Detection Spells. "Perfect! Here we go."

Tracking spells got their first major upgrade by the scholar Trace Element,

Yet another spot on name... "Well, that answers one question."

when he introduced the three criteria that are now found in any modern detection spell; Precise search sub structures, the blacklist, and refined control runes.

"Alright then, let's just start up a new structure then." I muttered as I snatched a blank piece of paper and started scribbling down the basic structure of the gem seeker spell. "So I need to add this whole sub structure from the graph in its own circle here... The range is set by these runes here and here... with these between them... apply these changes to improve the efficiency... and, done! Now to test it." I copied it over in my magic vision and cast it. Unlike the prior version this one lit up immediately, and when I had it over Spikes gem stash, it was less like looking through muddy water, and more like the wall simply didn't exist, just the field of my magic that tinted the pile ever so slightly more blue. "Awesome, now with just a wee bit of fine tuning this can be used practically!"

What I was left with was a total three ring array, chalk full of symbols I only half understood. It was twice as big as the original spell, three times as complex, yet took around twenty five percent less magic to maintain. I took a moment to commit the spell to memory, then turned to leave, it was around dinner time if my stomach was as punctual as it had been in the past. I stopped mid step, because a purple mare was staring at me with stars in her eyes. "Uhh..."

"You built a spell all on your own!" She cheered, taking a few steps towards me.

"...hhh. what? No, I just put together pieces from the books over there." I dismissed with a flick of my tail in the direction of where I had been. ...I didn't mean to do that, controlling a tail is wierd.

"You found an old spell, modified it with modern techniques, and got it to work on the first try!" Twilight said, holding the scrap of paper I had drawn the spell on infront of me.

"Yeah?" I said cautiously, lifting a foreleg in a defensive position.

Suddenly the world's hold on me loosened as my vision was tinted by Twilight's magic, I was yanked into a hug seconds later. "I'm so proud!" She said, nuzzling my cheek.

Feh, more pony clinginess! I squirmed to free myself of her grasp, but alas, magically charged hugs are much harder to break. Quick change the subject! "Uhh, hey, did you finish those readings the princess gave you already?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, not yet, I'm on break. Spike told me you were home and I wanted to ask how your day went." She set me down, allowing me to take a few calming breaths.

"It was, fine. History was actually interesting, hence why I went and started reading up on the history around diamond dogs, which is how I found the old spell and got here."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Did you make any new friends?" She said knowingly.

"No."

She tilted her head in confusion. "But Spike said-"

"I introduced a few fillies I knew to eachother, but I didn't make any new friends."

"Oh, well who are they?"

"Applejack's sister, Rarity's sister, and an orange filly named Scootaloo."

"Do you enjoy hanging out with them?"

"Meh?" I tilted my hoof back and forth in a 'so-so' manner. "They're okay to be around I guess, but I think they might have inducted me into their secret society without my knowing."

"Sounds like your day was pretty busy today, when did you have time to make this?" She inquired, floating a paper figure into view.

"On the walk back."

"I would say your skill is improving." She complimented.

"These things still aren't at the level I used to do, anyway, what are we having for dinner?"

"We are having hayburgers."

Is hay just in everything? "Sounds good." I said, closing and piling up books I was using.

"Do you have plans for the weekend?" Twilight inquired as we made our way to the kitchen.

"I think I agreed to something, but I will probably just stick around here and read."

"Err... I'm glad that you are enjoying reading, but, if you made a commitment to your friends, you really should go meet them."

"But it's so cozy here!" I complained. "Plus I'm not even sure I actually agreed to anything, or if it was just part of an automatic good bye, they might have just realized that tomorrow is the weekend," I backed up my argument.

"Well, I suppose that could be true... but would it hurt to make sure?"

"They didn't set a time to meet them, or any particular location, so how exactly do you propose I do that, wait outside all day?"

"Well, no, that wouldn't be very practical... but I could confirm for you." She offered, sitting down at the table.

"...huh?" I was not prepared for that.

"Sweetie Belle is Rarity's sister, and Apple Bloom is AJ's, so I could just confirm when the playdate is supposed to be." She said, levitating over a glass of water to go with her meal.

"Oh, uhh. You don't have to do that, I'm fine sticking around here really."

"Nonsense, I'm not about to just stand by and let you go through your entire foalhood without friends, I all ready did that, and looking back, I could have had a much better time if I had just went out to play once in a while."

I tore a chunk out of my hayburger to avoid furthering the conversation, prompting Twilight to dig into her own meal. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the flavour of the vegetarian patty, I had already tried hayfries, but the way this thing was prepared made it taste wildly different. I could taste the pleasant flavour of hay, and a taste of something so close and so vastly different from the flavour of beef, but there was also the ketchup, which is easily ten times better than any mass produced brand back home, cheese, pickles, lettuce. All in all, it was an amazing dish, and I had devoured it before I realized it.

Why is pony food so friggen amazing? I wondered, happily munching on my fries. The meal continued uneventfully, and I excused myself. It wasn't untill I had put my muzzle on the pillow that something occurred to me. What has Night Strider been up to? She has had plenty of time to get me back for dinnerbone-ing her sheep. Now I'm a little worried.

I came back to my being in Night Strider's castle, muffin was waddling around the room, on his feet. "Aww, she figured it out? Oh well, nametag pranks aren't exactly high effort pranks." I shrugged. "Wonder if she got me back yet?" I trotted outside to the balcony to find out. From this distance my house looks fine, plus I don't really get the griefer vibe from her. I Thought, nabbing a dreamcloud to float over on.

Peering over the edge showed no signs of the landscape being deformed in any way. "Maybe she just hasn't gotten back on yet?" That idea was quickly tossed in the trash once I came into close proximity to my place, a large quantity of the structure was replaced with mushroom blocks. All the grass was mycelium, my walls were stalks, the roof was red mushroom caps, and so on. "Oh, okay then."

"Hah!" Shouted the pegasus beside me, I had no clue when she climbed aboard my cloud, but it made for a good startle.

I was ashamed of the loud "eep" that escaped my mouth. "D-dont, do that!" I shouted back, but she didn't seem the least bit fazed, she was currently wearing a rather smug look. "...What are you so proud of?"

"Thou hast a most adorable scream."

Dammit, in hindsight, it was kinda cute sounding, unfortunetly. "So, what possesed you to fungus my home?"

"Tis revenge for Muffin!" She said with a raised forleg in my direction.

"Yeah, I knew that, but why mushrooms?"

"Oh, we found an isle consisting of these materials, so we thought it wouldst make for excellent revenge." She informed, an adorable "evil" cackle finishing her thought.

"Cool, I suppose it isn't bad for your first prank in this game." I complimented, hopping off the cloud to see if she messed with the interior at all.

"Not bad? This is a marvelous prank!"

"Sure sure." I placated, running my wrist against the surface of my house, it was leathery and cold, not to mention all around wierd. "Egh, that needs changed back, immediately." I shivered.

"Thou only says that to make us feel better... as if thine pranks are better than ours." The pegasus grumbled.

"Is that a challenge? Cause I have no qualms about starting up a prankwar with you."

Night Strider plopped down on my couch. "Thou wilst most assuredly loose."

"Okay, prank war it is!" I booped her muzzle, which she apparently took great offence to. I went panning my next strike for the rest of the night, while Princess Nighty Light simply watched from various pieces of furniture while I fixed my house.

"Hey, where is Argent?" Scootaloo asked.

"I dunno, Twilight said she wasn't at the library, so I figured she musta come to meet us here." Apple Bloom supplied.

"Well then, where is she?" Sweetie Belle looked around, trying to catch sight of me, but I had a low tier concealment spell cast, plus I was in the bush right behind them.

This is gonna be great! I quietly chuckled, rubbing my hooves together in anticipation.

"Hey what's this?" The farm filly asked, picking up an envelope.

Targets finally noticed the package. my ears swiveled forward automatically while I waited for them to open it.

"'Rattle snake eggs?' Is this for real?" Scootaloo asked, a note of worry in her tone.

"Only one way to find out!" Sweetie Belle lifted opened the envelope with her magic, relieving just enough pressure that the surprise could make itself known. The package let out a loud buzzing noise and shook in the filly's grasp. The three screamed in unison and bolted under the nearby bench in the blink of an eye.

Unable to stand it anymore my forelegs gave out, and I tumbled out of the bush, laughing all the while. Several seconds of unchecked mirth passed as the fillies put two and two together.

"Hey!"
"What's the big idea?"
"That wasn't funny, y'know that?"
They each said angrily at me.

"Are, are you sure it's not a little bit funny?" I said between giggle fits. I got three separate glares, that very slowly turned into smirks.

"Fine, it was a little funny to watch these two freak out over that." Sweetie Belle said, with a small giggle.

"Alright! I got a laugh, I'm happy," I made my way over to them, sitting atop the bench. "So, what is it that you wanted to do today?" They shared a look before scampering out from underneath their temporary shelter.

"Nothing too special, just hang out." Scootaloo said for the group.

"Alright I'm game, what comes first?"

"We could go play at the lake." Sweetie Belle offered, but I had little intention of getting into any large bodies of water, anytime soon.

"How about heading over to SugarCube Corner? They just got their order of apples a little while ago, they're sure to have lotsa tasty apple goodies!" AppleBloom suggested.

Definitely that one! Although perhaps not right this second...

"Oh! What about a downhill race? full of action and stunts!" Scootaloo said, punching the air a few times.

"But wouldn't that take a little bit to set up? I mean, unless you mean on foot, er, hoof, then aren't you the only one with a vehicle?"

"Who said we would do it right away? I can set up the course while you girls set up your own rides, plus I have a wagon back home that one of you could borrow."

"I kinda like the sound of that." AppleBloom said.

"Me too!" Sweetie Belle agreed.

"Well then, sure, I don't see a problem with that." At least It's not something like tag or hind n' seek.

"Then it's settled, I'll start putting together a course on the north side of town, you guys will get to build/modify/borrow your own wheels, and we will meet back here in about an hour, sound good?" She asked, holding her hoof out, The other two fillies were quick to give their assent, pressing their hooves to hers. They looked at me expectantly.

This feels familiar. I lightly touched my own appendage to the hoof-hold-thing, "Alright, let's do this."

"Yeah!" all three of them cheered, dashing off in different directions.

"Now then, who can help me build a soap box car?" I wondered aloud, trotting back to the library. I highly doubt Twilight could actually help, AJ will definitely be helping her sister, Rarity is out, I don't know if Rainbow could help build anything stable, I feel like if I went to Pinkie Pie the car would somehow be made of sweets, Fluttershy probably can't help me... huh, I really dont know that many people.

As I opened the door, I was greeted by Spike on his way out. "Hey Argent, decided to stay home after all?"

"No, gotta build a soap box car for a race, is Twilight home?" As much help she will be...

"Nah, she went out to the park to read."

"To the park, to read a book?"

"Yeah, anyway, I gotta go pick up some documents from town hall, good luck with your thing!" He waved and hopped out the door.

"... But I thought... why the park?..." I babbled for a solid minute before getting myself back under control. "Well, I guess I'm on my own then, let's see if I can scrounge up some wheels."

After about ten minutes, I was able to find a wheel that looked like it came off a shopping cart, and one that looked more like the top of an end table. I was also able to find some spare metal dowels, which I welded together into a simple frame. It took a minute to get such a pyromancy spell to work properly, but I got it done.

Thirty minutes later and I had what was essentially a big wheel, reinforcement spells that may or may not function properly were set about the craft, a cushion was roughly affixed to the back, and because I could not find a way to make pedals work properly, I attached a wooden block to the front, that had its gravity pulling forward when powered. "This thing ain't pretty, but it should work, maybe..." I got my contraption out the door easily enough, since it was sized for a child. "Time for the maiden voyage." I plopped down onto the seat, and stuck my forehooves into the steering mechanism. I touched my horn to the front bar, just over the wheel, letting a connection be made, and let a steady trickle of magic enter the wooden block. The foremost part of the craft vibrated, then shimmered faintly with my magic, and as I amped up the amount of power it had, the wheel slowly began to turn.

Once I was up to walking speed, I tested the steering, learning onto my left hoof made my rickety craft lean in that direction but also tuned the front wheel, prompting a sharp turn, which nearly toppled me and the vehicle. "Well, I could work on the balance a bit more, but I've only got a few minutes to get back, time for a trial by fire." I swallowed and tripled the amount of magic in the propulsion spell, bringing us up to a trot. The ride got progressively less wobbly as I got used to it, and simply learning how much I could and could not turn the wheel made a load of difference.

When I did get there, I was the last one to arrive. Scootaloo was drumming her hooves on the handlebars of her scooter, Apple Bloom was cloudwatching in what looked like a modified wagon, and Sweetie Belle was on a chair, just a chair that had wheels.

"Finally your he- what is that?" Scootaloo asked, pointing at my two wheeled monstrosity.

"Uh, I did my best?"

"Are you sure it's even going to hold up at high speeds?" Apple Bloom asked worriedly.

Depends on how high... "I've enchanted it to hopefully be able to survive being dropped down a mountain, so yes." I said, cutting off the magic flow propelling me forward.

"Doesn't that get taxing, just pulling it along like that? I mean, I only planned on using magic on mine to turn." Sweetie Belle demonstrated.

"No, it's just a gravity spell, I'm not using levitation or anything."

"Twilight's got you learning gravity spells?"

"Yeah?"

"Enough magic mumbo jumbo talk, let's get to racing!" Scootaloo passed out helmets, which was the only reminder I had that I was on an experimental vehicle without protection of any kind.

"Thanks," I took said helmet happily. "So, where does this course start?" I asked while clicking together the chin, or in this case, muzzle strap.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Was all I could Say while looking up the cartoonishly steep, yet apparently regularly trafficked, dirt path.

Chapter 18: ...The Need for Gravitic Acceleration!

View Online

The sound of thunder echoing from town hall shook me out of my stupor. I tore my gaze away from the cliff and to the sky.

No rain, so why did... probably magic.

"C'mon slowpoke!" Scootaloo shouted from her place half way up the hill. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were casually walking up just behind her. I shook my head and powered up my craft, but decided to walk it up the hill, thorougly surprised by how easy a time I was having walking the up nigh vertical surface.

What am I, a tiny horse or a mountain goat? were my thoughts as I crested the hill and lined up with the other three. "Err, whats the go signal?" I asked the orange filly who suggested this.

"How about 'three two one go?'" Scootaloo asked, looking at me with a raised brow.

Right, children, the simple answer is usually correct. I nodded dumbly.

"Racers! On your marks!" She announced, for whatever reason the other two gained a thoughtful look, but quickly shook it off. "Get set... Three! Two! One-GO!" She took off, her wings propelling her down the incline with a cloud of dust. While I was coughing, Apple Bloom turned around and mule kicked the front of her wagon, getting her moving.

Sweetie Belle scooted her chair forward slowly, "c'mon, c'mon!" Was her mantra till gravity took over.

I took one last look over the edge, swallowed, and powered up my pseudo-engine. I won't lie that I was absolutely terrified as I went down that hill, nor will I lie about the sheer exhilaration I felt at the same time. After that initial hill the rest of the course expanded before me, Sweetie Belle had overtaken Apple Bloom for the moment, and Scootaloo could only be tracked by dust and the buzzing of her wings.

I channeled a bit more magic into the spell, and caught up a little, but I had to back off of it a bit, as the craft threatened to tip end over end. Note to self, if you intend to keep this thing, make it a little longer. I let natural gravity help me pick up speed after that, and slowly I came even with the farm filly's wagon. I was beginning to wish I had access to a normal bike, but it probably wouldn't have worked overly well with my new equine shape, I shifted my center of gravity back and added a tiny bit more into the spell, pulling ahead of Apple Bloom. She gave me a competitive smile, and gestured ahead, the course had a rather sharp turn, forcing me to let off the gas pedal, so to speak. Apple Bloom took the opportunity to overtake me, pulling a leaver and rapidly decelerating, pulling around the inside. watching this happen a mere three feet away from me pointed out a crucial detail.

I don't have any brakes!

With this little detail now in mind, I made to just keep in the back, and not let my speed go up to much. I might have stopped altogether, but we were still going down hill, and I still didn't have brakes. Mentally kicking myself for not putting such an obvious necessity on my craft, I practically cut off all magic and just coasted down the hill, happy to be the back of the pack. After we came out of the turn the road flattened out and became mostly straight, swaying back and forth a little. I couldn't help but feel ever so slightly more safe, and decided that maybe I should at least try to compete. There might be no chance of me beating Scootaloo, but I don't see why I can't come in second.

A few moments pass, and I'm neck and neck with Apple Bloom again, and this time I pass her no problem, to which she gives her cart another buck and shoots a few wagon-lengths ahead of me again. I am almost certain that does not physics! Me and her struggled for third off a while, the two of us somehow passing Sweetie Belle and her wheeled chair.

It was at this point in the course that seemingly random wooden siderails began to appear, blocking off traffic and ensuring we didn't run some poor individual over. Just ahead of us we could see Scootaloo, grinding on one of these rails, style points aside, it was clear that she had been doing this every other railing, and had lost considerable speed because of it. Another sharp turn, and I find that our course leaves town, Ponyville is a river adjacent town – or perhaps it has a moat or something, I don't get out much – it has bridges that easily account for up to two lanes of traffic across the water, the problem lies in the fact that the race course doesn't go to the bridge, but runs parallel.

Just before the drop into the river sits a ramp, one that Scoots uses to easily clear the gap, Sweetie Belle suddenly shoots past me and the earth filly, the ramp wobbling under the awkward weight of her chosen vehicle. Apple Bloom quickly turns around again, putting in enough power into her kick to bend the metal outward – which immediately snapped back to its original shape like it was made out of rubber – and sending her flying across the gap. One of the supporting boards of the ramp must have come loose from all the use it was getting, because when I ascended the rickety structure, it snapped flat with the ground and I was sent to the cold river.

I gasped and leaned back hard, tilting my vehicle till I was staring at the sky, my tail touched the water. That is a wierd feeling when you are not expecting it. I paniced, and experienced what any young unicorn does, a magic surge. The wild magic finds a nearby outlet, the enchanted wooden block glowed like the sun. "Oh sh-"

Rainbow dash set down on the cloud, happily pushing the lumps out with her hooves. She does two circles, and then settled into its soft surface; textbook napping cloud. The pegasus let's out a soft coo and closes her eyes. Her ears flick to attention a few seconds later, swiveling to better catch the sound. The mare let's out a grumble and opens her eyes, lifting her head, she starts scanning around to see who is interrupting her peace and quiet. Whatever it is, it's it's getting closer.

"...iiiiiiii--" something erupted from the cloud she was on and shot straight past her, she just barely recognized the shape of a foal on some... thing shooting off into the sky."--iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..."

"...what the buck?"

I finished giving my opinion on my current situation about three seconds ago, since then my accent had leveled out, as well as the light levels. I was now hugging the frame of my sky piercing ridiculou-cycle as it just sat there in open air, no longer going up, but still forward.

I let out a nervous laugh as I adjusted my grip. "Its... it's probably fine! The spell slowly weakening and is now level with the pull of the panet! So I just have to wait for it to weaken a bit more, and float back down to-" I heard a fizzle and a pop, I looked up up at the only thing keeping me afloat, as the magic in it sputtered and ceases to function.

"Oh you son of a b-!"

Rainbow Dash finished recollecting all the cloud matter and packed it all in the whole in her napping cloud. She looked around cautiously, then settled down into it. Just as she was about to lay her head down, it was back. She looked over the edge of the cloud, not spotting anything, then slowly cast a glance up.

--iiiiiiiiiiiiii--!!!!!!" The projectile landed in another cloud with a massive 'PWOMF' scattering tiny fragments of it and shooting a wooden and metal glob out the bottom.

"What the buck?"

I squeezed my eyes closed when I started falling, I felt a sudden impact, but whatever it is I hit was just so spongy that it just absorbed the the force. I dont know where my wheels went, but they slipped right past me. I cautiously open one eye. "...huh?" My vision was a little blurry from my eyes watering, due to my sudden conscription to the Equestrian Space Program, but I can't see anything but blue and white. I wipe my eyes with a fetlock. "What am I...?" I press my forehoof farther into the thing supporting me. "Kinda feels like a..." I blink three times and stare in amazement at the cloud I'm on, this is mainly surprising due to the fact that I don't have wings right now!? I stumbled and fell over, my surprise is quickly overridden by the fact that I am now lying on the softest thing in the entire world, my heartbeat retreats from my ears and I pull a chunk of the cloud up with my hooves. "How am I even --"
Flap

Flap

My ears homed in on the intruding sound, allpwing me to focus on the subjects words aswell. "...gent? is that you? What are you doing up here?" Rainbow Dash asks me. I roll my head back and look at her.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

We stared at eachother for a little while, she then touched down on the cloud. "Are you, good here?" I nodded hesitantly. "Then I'm gonna go get Twilight."

"Okay." With that she took off, rainbow contrail showing me that she made a Beeline straight for the library. It's really hard to be worried when the softest substance known to man, or rather, ponies is holding you aloft, but it's also hard to relax when you know for a fact that it should not be able to do so.

I carefully shifted positions to a more comfortable one, and prepped another gravity spell, just in case. Once I was sure the cloud wasn't about to drop me at any moment, I crawled over to the edge of the cloud and watched the final leg of the race. I was a little disappointed that I had checked out this early, cause this final leg of the race was when it apparently got interesting, with jumps, a half pipe, and all manner of stunt stuff. Scootaloo, of course, won by a landslide, Apple Bloom coasted past the finish line, and Sweetie Belle limped up to the end, apparently she exhausted herself magically, even just turning. They celebrated their winning placements for a minute but then started staring down the track. They spoke amongst themselves for a moment, then Scootaloo started racing back along the track.

What is she-? Oh, right, probably wondering what happened to me.

As she got closer to where I unintentionally bailed on the race, she suddenly went off course, probably spotting something. I turned to follow her trail, and she came up about twenty feet east of my cloud, a straight line from the ramp. She stopped next to my missing vehicle. I was wondering where that thing went.

She took off her helmet and looked around, I tried waving to her but she didn't spot me. I pawed at the cloud for a moment, weighing my options.

On one hand, this is kinda the perfect opportunity to pull some kind of prank on her, since I have the element of surprise.

But on the other hand, I've already pranked her today, and pulling another one might be a bit overkill.

Screw it. "Up here!" I shouted, catching the filly by surprise. She turned her attention skyward and gave me a look of utter confusion. "Hi."

"How are you up there?" She called up to me.

"I don't know," was my simple reply. We exchanged glancse for a few moments. Then the other two racers came to check up on the winner. They asked her something in conversational volumes, so I couldn't hear what they said, but I could guess as Scootaloo's reply was to just point a hoof at me.

"What are ya doin up there?" The farm filly asked.

"Nothing much." Is that the only question people know how to ask right now? I sighed to myself.

Rainbow Dash came back with a confused Twilight staring at the clouds, when she spotted me she asked the most sensible question, and I was quite thankful for the variation. "What are you doing up there?" Not...

"That is the question of the hour isn't it?" I snarked, eliciting an eyeroll from the magic mare.

"Hold on, I'll get you down." Rainbow offered. She picked me up under the barrel and slowly glided down to the ground. Upon my hooves touching the earth, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, and collapsed onto my side.

"What happened?" Twilight asked, rainbow Dash excused herself to go hang out with Pinkie Pie.

"Well, we here having a good-natured race, and it was rather fun!" I began, feeling with my magic until I found my lost bike thing. "But, I figured out pretty quickly that I forgot a rather important safety feature on this thing, then the ramp over the river collapsed-"

"It did?! I thought I made it rather surdy." Scootaloo interrupted.

"- then I had a magic surge, which overcharge my gravity engine, which sent me into the sky faster than a two stage rocket." I was given quizzical looks for my analogy. I have got to figure out how to hold my tongue on subjects like that.

"O..kay, but, how did you wind up on that cloud?"

"I don't know, is there some kinda spell for that?"

Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought. "Yes, I do believe that there is a cloudwalking enchantment, but it is highly unlikely that a magic surge would cast such a difficult spell."

"Unlikely or not, I was on a cloud, the horn on my head says that I shouldn't be able to do that, without specific magic," Nothing else made sense to me, so it had to be that. "Do you have some kind of spell to see if I have an enchantment on me, or do we have to go back to the lab?"

"I do have something that will work, it's a bit simple, but it will make you glow green if you've got an acitve magical effect that isnt normal for a unicorn, basically, if you have an enchantment on."

"Good enough, scan away."

Twilight light up her horn, and a rippling sensation crawled over my fur as the magic enveloped me. After a few seconds my vision tint was charged from purple to green. "Well, I guess that settles it, you currently have the cloudwalking enchantment on, it normally lasts about three or four days, but since the one on you was the result of a magic surge, it could last mere minutes or longer, it will wear off eventually, but I wouldn't get used to snuggling up in a cloud unless you've got some wings around for safety."

I caught the double meaning and gave her a nod. Although I did wonder briefly why it was that we weren't just telling people about my tribe switching wierdness, I understood that it was a bit odd, but it would probably be easier in the long run.

Then again, it could make me the target of some shady group for being able to harness the powers of all three tribes. Probably not, that's likely my human, conspiracy-prone brain, meh.

After that little incident, Twilight took my bike home to review the enchantments I had put on it like some kind of impomtu magic homework assignment, and I was left in the company of three fillies.

"So, how about we head over to Sugarcube Corner and celebrate my awesome victory?" Scootaloo sugested, reminding me that I was hanging out with a bunch of kids at the moment.

I rolled my eyes at her and gave a nod of consent, and we all made our way back into town, the orange mare preening herself over her skills. Once we were sat down at the table, AB gave our order to Mrs. Cake. I was sat next to the group's resident stable unicorn, and was across from the winner herself. The co-owner of the bakery came back with a few plates of apple pie, and a fritter for each of us.

I happily scarfed down the apple pie, but for whatever reason, I was really in the mood for mint icecream, I don't have a clue as to why, as my favourite flavor of frozen treats is death by chocolate.

"Hey, you gonna eat that?" I looked up to see Sweetie Belle looking between me and my remaining snack, and I was getting similar looks from the other two occupants of the table. I sighed and grabbed the the treat in my magic, ripping it into three equal pieces and floating a small bite to myself.

"Nah, you can have the rest, I insist." I said, plopping my little bit into my mouth. "Hmm, pretty good, too bad I'm not all that hungry at the moment." I said as I floated the remaining thirds over to each of their plates and looked out the window, returning to my thoughts of a pint of Ice cream.

The scene that is Ponyville was calm and relaxing from my vantage point, and every now and then someone/pony would walk by the window. Pinkie Pie pronked by with Rainbow, the pegasus sporting an evil grin, knowing those two, I shudder to think of what they could do together, not that I would know, the only two of the group I've spent any time with were Flutters and Twi.

Another minute went by, the fillies around me throwing around names for their secret society. I had tuned out the conversation from the get go, but it seemed that they had decided on the goal of finding their special talents. Apple Bloom threw out the possible name of "Cutie Mark Crusaders" and the other two members agreed.

As the sun began its descent, Sweetie Belle excused herself from her newly formed club to go spend some time with her sister. With her left my guarantee to keep my horn where it was, so I had to leave as well. The whole party seemed disappointed that it had to disband, and they put in their best puppy dog eyes to drag a promise out of me to hang out tomorrow.

I dropped in the library after a few minutes of walking, and was greeted by a certain dragon with the hiccups, I asked him what was going on, and he said that Rainbow and Pinkie pranked him eariler.

"Anyway, why are you wearing that?" He asked me, pointing at my noggin.

"Huh?" I looked up, to see that I was still wearing the helmet that Scootaloo had lent me. "Oh, I guess I just kinda forgot it was there." I undid the strap and placed it near the front door to be returned tomorrow. The sound of muffled snickers brought my attention back to a mirthful dragon.

I sighed. "It's standing on end, isn't it?" Spike broke out into full blow laughter. Helmet hair can't be that funny. "Whatever, I'ma go take a shower then."

I trotted right past him and kicked the bathroom door shut. I quickly switched on the water and hopped into the shower. Sighing contentedly as my long blue hair was plastered to my neck. "Maybe I should just chop this all off... it'll be a hell of a lot less trouble."

Author's Notes:

Boy oh boy did this take a while! I'm sorry about that, I completely missed a week!

I have a good reason though! Well sorta... I fell into the bottomless pit of which one can not escape, your only hope of finding you way back is to simply let yourself fall and hope it gets bored with you...

I found like ten Fic's and couldn't stop reading.

No wait! That's not all, I promise! I've been working on three other stories! I don't have them published yet, and my editors don't even know about them... but... I have just had a busy time of it, okay? I'll see if I can't crank out a chapter n' a half per week, that should keep this story afloat, meanwhile I just work on these other things in the background... until I find them worthy of your time.

Anyway, enough excuses! Back to writing!

Chapter 19: Let Us Hope This Isn't A Regular Thing.

View Online

I got up, still half asleep as I finished my little convo with Night Strider and refreshed the spell, a tricky thing that, splitting your attention between three tasks.

"We see not the humor here, tis twice thou hast tageted our muffin in thy pranks." I got the vague feeling she was pouting, but couldn't quite see it anymore.

"What? You didn't like playing a friendly game of hide and seek?" I smirked, rubbing my semi solid dream shoulder against hers. Meanwhile in the real world, I stumbled into the bathroom and started to brush my teeth, then stopped, finished recharging the dream spell, then set about a new task. A morning brain can not handle that many tasks, I was kinda surprised I had been able to do as much as I had so far.

"Thou made him invisable! And turned him and his kin loose! We nearly lost him." she stomped. I giggled, in both the waking realm and the dream. "TIS NOT FUNNY!"

"yaah sure, whatever you say Nighty Lighty."

"Thy nicknames art steadily dropping in quality." she deadpanned with a roll of her eyes. "We will get you back for this Genta, make no mistake."

I finished preserving my dental health for the morning. "Looking forward to it!" she grumbled and left, so I set about waking up fully.

"What's her problem I wonder?" I mumbled as I left the bathroom. Breakfast was a bit on the simpler side this morning, consisting of a bowl of some kind of cereal and a glass of orange juice, and a muffin that I felt I really didn't have room for, so I took it with me for a snack. Then I began to peruse the shelves for the subject that would take up my interests for the day; Alchemy.

Not the boring potion alchemy from games like skyrim, the fun kind where you take two things and mix them together, into one thing that is hopefully greater than the sum of its parts, that kind! I had formed some experiments to try out after hearing about the subject at dinner the night prior.

I spent ten minutes learning how to cast the simple fusion spell, and nearly half an hour memorizing every detail of the reverse spell, I was not going to be making any irreversible mistakes.

"Let's see, how many spells do I actually know?" I asked myself and began scribbling down a list. "There's TK, as well as dream modification, stabilization, extension, preservation... I couldn't figure out dream walking." I scratched out that particular listing. "Gravity is iffy... oh! Gem search. Uhh, I did get that welding spell to function, but that wasn't really down that pyromancy tree, it was more like I just put so much raw magic into the metal that couldn't do anything but melt... actually I'm lucky it didn't explode." I scratched the side of my head, which was behind my ear as a pony, with my quill – a far more enjoyable enjoyable action as an equine – as I tried to figure out some more spells I knew how to cast safely. "Durability enchantments? I still dont know if those things functioned." I rested my head on the open book. "I really don't know all that much about this stuff... well I haven't been here very long, oh well."

I pulled a few choice books off the shelves with my improving TK. "I guess I'll just have to learn." I dropped all the books in a nice four high stack and wrapped them in a singular TK field, and hauled them into the kitchen. "Who better to learn from than... you." I said as I layed my eyes upon a certain purple mare whom had just finished her own meal.

"Hmm?" She gave me a questioning look.

"You got time to teach me magic stuffs?"

She frowned at my wording for a second, but then glanced up to the ceiling in thought. "I suppose I do, any particular spell your having trouble with?"

"Eh, I didn't do to well with the whole welding spell yesterday, but that's not really what I'm interested at the moment. I would rather get a better grasp on some new tricks like; teleportation, magical barriers, bag of holding enchantments, that kinda stuff." I passed her the list of spells I know, and the stack of books I would like to add to it.

"Hmm, well I suppose I could try and teach you some of this," she said as she looked through the stack of books. "But, you might not be able to learn all of this, if it doesn't line up with your talent that is." And judging by the way she even brought it up, she thought at least some of it probably wouldn't.

I looked back at the mark on my rump that supposedly dictated my skills. "What is that even supposed to be anyway?"

She ignored that particular question, and instead picked up the paper I had passed her. "Dream magic?" She asked, in the middle of looking over my list of known tricks. "You actually were able to cast dream magic?"

I retook the seat I used at breakfast and shrugged. "Yeah, it wasn't that hard to figure out honestly," although I did have to tweak the formulae of some of the spells ever so slightly, just so that it lined up with how dreams usually work, in my experience. I left out because I didn't feel it important.

"Dream magic is quite complicated and those who can cast it are a little rare, even I am having trouble with it..." she mumbled something at the end i couldn't quite understand.

"Really? But... it didn't seem that complicated, aside from dream walking and sleep inducing spells anyway, I haven't had any subjects to really test those on."

"Err, we can test those later, for now, are you sure you want to learn all these?"

"Yeah, I wanna try something, but I need to be able to know the required spells before I can, plus learning magic is just cool." I explained.

"What's this you're wanting to try?" She inquired, her cutiosity piqued.

"A couple things, but nothing worth mentioning." I waved her off.

"Very well." She sighed, giving up rather easily.

The next few hours were filled up with more magic studies, and having someone who specializes in magic explain the ins and outs of spells makes absorbing the information just go that much faster. Most of the time anyway.

"... okay, gold being an excellent material for enchanting I get, but why would it be better than silver?"

"For the third time it just is. Gold just has a naturally high mana storage capacity, and is easier to lay enchantments in, at the cost of being less durable. Other metals like copper or tin are to rigid in structure and have lower capacity, and iron outright refuses to store any mana. Silver is actually a good second choice, as it is similarly accepting of complex glyphs, rune structures, and enchantments, but has a low mana capacity, but when combined with certain gemstones to increase its natural capacity, it actually is about on par with gold, but it's higher effort and mixed material requirement make it less desirable." She explained once more.

I sighed and checked my notes. "Okay, you have told me that already, how is it so much more superior?"

"Come now, that's like asking why Earth Ponies grow the best crops," she dismissed like ideas the most obvious thing in the world.

"..."

"Why do-"

"Are you serious!?"

"Yup."

She let out an exasperated breath and flipped over the chalkboard, she began pacing back and forth as the chalk in her magical grip scribbled out a basic diagram of an equine. "Earth Ponies are naturally attuned with Equis, and all the life it brings, this includes agriculture, their magic source is directed into the soil and just helps the plants grow, it's simple!" She punctuated with a stomp, the pony equivalent of slapping the table, I think.

I shook my head and tried to get the conversation back on track. "Okay, how did we even get over to enchanting?"

"From defensive magic, we started discussing why your durability runes failed, that's how we got onto a material's natural affinity for enchanting."

...Right, okay. "uhh, can we get back to that then?"

Twilight nodded, and flipped the board over once more, the thing must have been enchanted itself, as it seemed to have more than just two sides. "So we covered the basics of how to make an effective barrier, so, pop quizz!" I slammed my head into the floor... cushion. "How do you defend against fire bassed attacks?"

"Two ways, one, either make a thicker shield, with the forward facing surface permeable, but drain the interior of oxygen, the fire will suffocate in seconds. Option two, sow in the counter element into the shield, that being water or ice."

"Correct, next question, a pegasus unleashes a lightning bolt on you, what means of protection do you take?"

"Ground the shield, make a lightning rod away from yourself, or just put up a thick enough wall of air."

"Ehh, Passing grade, last question, a purely magical blast, how do you deffend?"

"Just a powerful basic shield, the magic in the shot will cancel out an equal amount of the barrier, so it's not perfect." Before Twilight could give me a grade, a thought appeared. "Maybe..."

"Hmm?"

"Well, I don't know if it would work buuuuit... okay, what if instead of a shield, you put up an unpowered shield array, with the center of it being designed to absorb ambient or incoming magic, and it converted that energy into a shield? Then you put forth minimal effort and mana, and any subsequent shots fired at you are either canceled out by the amount of energy you stole, or bleeds over and recharges your shield a small amount, so your opponent really just ends up fighting themselves."

My theory earned me a wide smile. "Very good, when did you read through Advanced and Alternate Forms of Protection?"

"Uhh, I didn't? I just thought that might be an interesting look at it?... Although, there would be limits on it, like how quickly you could draw it up, so it's better to have it ready ahead of time. Plus, there is limits to how fast such a magic structure would be able to convert the hostile magic back into usable magic, so some of the attack might be able to hit you if it's powerful enough, you could just layer it and link all the drains back up to the shield output, but the more layers you add, the longer it would take to draw it up, and the bigger it is, the harder it is to move with, so it would end up being stationary..." I trailed off, trying to figure out how to best structure the spell so it would be combat effective, but with my rudimentary knowledge of magic, I doubt I could.

"Well, congratulations you passed! The verbal test anyway, the practical test might prove a little bit more challenging, but I will save that for later." All open books surrounding us closed in unison, and found their places in the shelves.

"Why?"

"Because three little fillies are waiting for you." Twilight informed me with a tilt of her head.

I followed her indication and saw that, indeed, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom were standing in the doorway. "Oh, hey girls." I greeted them. Did I forget they were coming over or something?

"Hey, we met up at the park, but you weren't there," Scootaloo replied, "What's up with that?"

"Uhh, I couldn't remember setting up a meeting place and got caught up in magic studies?" Will they buy that?

"Oh, well that makes sense!" Sweetie Belle said happily.

"So what'chu wanna do today?" Apple Bloom prompted.

"Err, I don't know, do you have any ideas?" Twilight got up and left the library, flipping a sign as she left. The three girls all shrugged and made the universal 'I-don't-know' noise. "You want to just wander around town then?" They shook their heads. I sighed and stretched like a cat. " then, what?"

"We were wondering if you had any ideas as to how we might get us some cutie marks." AB admitted.

"Uhh, I don't, sorry, but I don't know the first thing about them." They all visibly saddened at my statement. "I mean maybe we have a book or two on it here!" I quickly amended, but that didn't seem to brighten their mood very much.

"But that's boooriiing." They moaned in unison.

"Then what?" They shrugged, I sighed. "Well, what do you think your marks would be?"

"Huh?"

"Aren't they supposed to be a representation of your talent? Have you tried that?"

"But how do we get one if we don't know what our talent is?" Apple Bloom asked dejectedly.

I quickly scanned through the shelves, nabbed a book and read the title, "101 Fun Things to do for Filies and Colts, read through this and see if anything sounds fun, I'll be right back." I told them as I plopped the heavy book down infront of them.

"Where are you going?" Scoots asked, catching me half way to my destination.

"Bathroom." I said as I closed the door.

As I made use of the facilities, I let my thoughts wander.

What is with all of this talk about Cutie Marks? Are they really so special? Huh, I never did cyeck and see what Night Strider's is.

As soon as I finished up my business, I made my way over to the sink. I think there is a fault in equine hygiene, I thought as I washed my forehooves, I glanced up at the mirror and stared at my mane. Odd, I don't remember brushing this morning. Come to think of it, I don't remember having to do that since I came to Equis, weird, I thought I would have to do that more with how long it is.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Cave Explorers!"

The declaration startled me and I fell over. "Way to go Peter, you let children scare you...what did they just say?" I heard a thundering of tiny hooves, and the front door slam. "... Ah shit!" I scrambled for the door leading back into the library, to see no one but Spike, whom was grumbling about ponies picking up after themselves. "Hey Spike, uhh, you didn't happen to catch where those three were going, did you?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah, they said that they were going to go spelunking in the Ghastly Gorge."

"Uhh, which way is that?"

"Crap, oh crap, oh crap!" Was my continuing mantra as I ran full tilt out of town, casting my gaze about frantically to try and spot them. As I ran past Carousel Boutique, I ran into Rarity, literally.

She groaned and began frantically smoothing out her mane, and dusting herself off. "Argent, watch where you're going, you could have hurt som-"

"Sweetie Belle! Cave! Gourge! Help!" I cut her off, taking a moment to catch my breath. "Sweetie Belle and her friends are going to Ghastly Gorge!"

"Sweet Celestia!" she exclaimed in a totally justified way. "Go fetch AppleJack, I'll find Rainbow!" She ordered. I nodded as we bolted off in different directions.

I came up on the farm, gasping for breath. I found the farm mare I was seeking bucking apples out of trees, like normal. "AppleJack!"

AJ startled, and missed the mark on her kick, scattering apples on the ground instead of in the three buckets around the tree. "What is it sugarcube?" she asked, righting her stetson.

"Apple Bloom is on her way to Ghastly Gorge!"

Before the orange mare's expression could even change, a rainbow blur zoomed into the farms airspace. "Hurry up you two, we gotta go stop em!" Her message delivered, she took off in the direction of the ravine. I dashed after her. Soon after, AppleJack came up beside me, picked me up by the scruff of my neck – a truly odd feeling, mainly because it's so alien, but it wasn't painfull, it was actually mildly comfortable for some reason – and tossed me onto her back, she then sped up quite a bit as we made our way to what I thought of as certain doom for the children.

The sight we came upon did nothing to calm my nerves, Rarity was at the bottom of the gorge, standing defensively over the CMC, while Rainbow was flying distraction around what looked like three of the offspring of a morray and a subway train. Applejack set me down a safe distance and pulled a lasso out from underneath her hat. "Wait here," she commanded in a calm but stern voice.

Naturally, after she turned around and ran to the edge of the ravine to help, I stood up and began thinking. "Alright, how the hell do we get the kids away from Satan's runaway aquarium?... magic?"

Of course magic! Now what spell? A shield? seeing the massive red... thing, crash into the solid opposite wall of the canyon and then through like it was made of sand threw that idea out the window, and set it on fire. Gravity spell? No, that would leave them out in the open too long, plus I'm not sure I could cover a wide enough area to lift the four of them out of there. What else do I know? I started knocking my hoof against my noggin to bring forth some ideas, but my limited repertoire was not exactly combat ready.

The sight of AJ somehow successfully lasso-ing one of the eels and holding it still for a good minute seemed to give the kids enough courage to make their way towards the natural incline on my side of the canyon. Then AppleJack was sent flying across the sky, hitting Rainbow on her way, and taking them a good distance away. The eels turned their eyes on their prey, and I did the first thing that came to mind. "Hey! Up here uglies!" a very stupid idea, but it worked, their attention was grabbed successfully. "N-now what?" I stuttered as the three bodies of impending doom slithered up the wall to tower over me.

Think quicker dumbass! What is every conciveable spell you know!? Alchemy don't work on living things, and I'm pretty sure turning them into one giant three headed thing wouldn't stop them from turning you into paste!

The newly dubbed eel known as necktie, because he was still wearing AJ's lasso, bore his teeth at me, and dove. I let out a ~~girly~~ manly... screw it, I screamed my head off like a little girl and I launched myself to the side with a quick burst of re-directed gravity to push me out of the way faster.

Gem search is useless! Defensive magic is useless! These things would probably just reflect a laser! "Fucks sake!" I screached as the trees beind me exploded into the air, following necktie's resurfacing from the ground, effectively surrounding me.

Dream magic woudnt do anything against these things! Why can't I get that out of my head!? They're still... awake... shit.

The biological bullet trains reared back, as I hastily prepared a spell that I had not yet had the chance to test. "This better Fucking Work!" I shouted as my horn glowed, a bubble of blue forming around me. "But how much power- All of it!" I figured I might as well go all in for this, it could only go two ways, and I wanted to put as much of the odds in my favour as possible.

The eels began their descent upon my small form, and the bubble of magic around me rushed out to meet them, as it passed each of their heads, I poured every last drop of magic into the spell. The eels slowed down, their eyes lost their predatory focus as my magic began to work it's way into them. And then they all fell, displacing the earth around them, covering me in dirt in the process. I didn't dare moove, shivering in terror, and mana depletion, probably. A wave of relief hit me when I heard the lumbering giants begin to snore, like chainsaws. I promptly fell over, stiff legged, and started breathing heavily to try and calm myself down. After a minute, the things showed no signs of waking, so I crept through the tiny gap between ones open mouth, and the body of another, then I took shaky steps over to the edge of the ravine, but it appeared empty. "D-d-did they m-make it out?" I wondered aloud.

The entirety of the CMC popped up over the edge right infront of me, scaring me half to death – not that hard I was already there – we all let out a shout, and I once again found myself on the ground. "Argent!" The three fillies yelled, encircling me.

"Are ya ok?!" The earth filly shouted in my ear.

"Did they get you, are you dead?" The little unicorn shouted.

Scootaloo gasped dramatically, but I'm pretty sure she was serious. "Are you a ghost!?"

...That doesn't make any sense...

Rainbow Dash came rocketing back, hauling AppleJack in her forelegs. "Where did those stupid rock snakes go?" She demanded upon setting down the orange mare, and took up a rather human looking fighting stance.

Rarity voiced her concerns. But I think I blacked out for a second, magic deprivation makes it kinda hard to think, and I was running on less than one percent at the time. I raised a leg, and motioned behind me. "...magic... Knocked them out... very tired now." I wheezed. Muffled suprised voices said something back, all over top of eachother, but I couldn't make them out.

I sat up and rubbed some dirt out of my ears. "eugh, I need a shower now... or a nice bath." I looked around and did a head count, all seemed accounted for. "Is everyone else okay?"

"...e're okay sugarcube, but what do ya mean you knocked them out?" The voice I believe belonged to AppleJack asked. I felt myself hoisted into the air and spun around by magic, probably Rarity's, and a tiny trickle of the stuff sank into me, letting me think just a little clearer.

"Uhh, just that?"

"How?" Rainbow asked with a mix of disbelief, relief, and shock.

"Magic, put them to sleep, much like I'm going to be now," I helpfully informed them, and then made an impromptu visit to the dream world.

"What is thine ailment?" A familiar voice asked me.

I curled up around myself tighter and grumbled. "No... sleepy time." I shooed them away.

"Thou art already dreaming, now speak." She deadpanned at me.

"Huh?" I opened my eyes slowly, but soon took note of how I wasn't feeling sore. "Wha?" I mumbled dumbly.

"What didst thee do to come here at this hour?" Night Strider asked again, I'm pretty sure it was the third time she asked me that.

"Uhh, what?"

"Have thee hit thine head?" She asked testily.

"Oh, uhh, no."

"Wouldst the explain then?"

"I knocked out three giant trains with teeth."

Chapter 20: so THAT'S why you don't look them in the eyes!

View Online

A note got smacked into my window, held there by a low hanging cloud. I sighed as I got up from my couch to go see what it said. "Really gotta figure out a better mail system..." I snagged the envelope from the fluffy delivery cloud and pushed it back up on its way. "Now then..."

To the Lady of Locomotive Lullabies,

"Eugh... I think I preferred 'Genta',"

Thou art cordially invited to Our Castle Moon Beam, to participate in a grand adventure!
We hath seen strange creatures in the night, unlike any other, so We wouldst set out on a quest to find their origin.
Sincerely,
Night Strider.

"Seriously, you even Write Old Timey? We are getting dangerously close to the last straw here missy, I think it's about time I teach you modern terminology," I vowed to my nonexistent audience, while sticking the paper in a furnace and cooking up some "pork" with it.

The cloud ride over was annoyingly slow, but that's what happens when you use a simple spell to turn a cloud against the wind that only ever blows in one direction. I should probably implement a slightly more dynamic weather system. soon enough the Castle turret was within Jumping distance, so I did just that, and let the cloud resume it's migration across the sky box.

I found Night Strider hammering away in the armory/forge room, shaping what looked like fore-grieves. "Good morrow Princess Nighty Lighty, we hath art arivethed to partake in thine most excellent questeth," I say with a smirk as I purposefully butcher the ye old accent.

I am rewarded with a frown and a half lidded stare. "Thou would do well to not disrespect our way of speaking."

"Whatever dost thou meaneth?" I say cheerfully, placing a forelg over her shoulders. "Art mine wordseth noteth quiteth righteth?" She trembled with silent fury, and swiveled her ears away to attempt to rid herself of my nonsensical babbling. "Thee hatheth to pointeth out mine errors if I ameth to-eth improveth, no?"

She turned to look at me, her eyes practically on fire with rage. I opened my mouth to apologize, but she stuck a wad of "leather" strips into my mouth. "If thou art to mock me, thou shalt receive a fitting punishment."

I rolled my eyes and spat out the make-shift gag. "Im not making fun of you... okay I was, but I wasn't doing it to be mean, just a bit of good natured ribbing between friends?" I explained, hoping to avoid whatever scheme she was cooking up.

I swear, sometimes, she just gets this look in her eyes, like she is older than she is letting on...

"Fine, but We shall still teach thee a lesson for this transgression." She huffed, looking like the rather adorable pegasus filly she was.

"That's fair I suppose, now then, what's this quest you wish to embark on?"

"Ah yes, at night we hath heard a whispering in the halls of our castle, and through the windows we has't gazed upon deep purple eyes yond vanish in a blinketh, we wouldst wish to know of these creatures, and their origins"

Sounds like endermen, hmm... pony pun... Endermare? Ender-pony? "Yeah I know what your talking about, they're called endermare, I can help you get to their domain, but we would have to stop off somewhere else first."

"Where wouldst that be?"

"You'll see, but first we need gear, armor, weapons, oh, and a fair amount of obsidian."

"More volcanic glass? Doth thee need another enchantment table?"

"No, we're making a portal," I said dismissively, turning around to head back to my aircapeligo, so I could grab my mining gear.

When we emerged from the mine, the sun had set. Our haul consisted of seven emeralds, a stack and a half of iron ore, some redstone, sixteen diamonds, an unknown amount of gold that Nighty was hoarding, and fourteen obsidian, we didn't a really need that much, but I prefer to have the corners filled in.

Nighty was pouting again, and refusing to look at me because I wouldn't explain any of the details around the End, or the obsidian portal we would soon build. After minutes of silence, I turned to face her fully, and she was still dead set on the path we were walking, I caught a glimpse of lighter colours on her flank that reminded me, I still hadn't checked what her mark was.

Night Strider's Cutie Mark consisted of a silvery crescent moon, wearing a sleeping cap, with some bluish cloud cover in the lower third, obscuring part of the moon.

the hell does this mean? Is she good at bed time stories or something?

I would have actually asked her but the second I opened my mouth to do so, something... vwoops, garnering our collective attention. Standing just ahead of us was a tall, lanky equine creature, slowly tromping about, cloaked in floating purple particles. It turned to face us, a grass block in its jagged jaws. I tried to avert my gaze, but Nighty stared at its deep purple eyes in wonder. I was then given three weeks of nightmare fuel as it's mouth drew back, and it's upper skull stretched upwards, a deafening angry scream eminating from its gaping, tooth filled jaws. It charged us, Nighty screamed.

Note to morning self, check bed sheets, this kinda stuff is what causes accidents.

Night Strider shot her crossbow at it before I could warn her, and just as the arrow was about to pierce its leathery hide, it vanished, leaving it's signature purple cloud to pull together and dissipate. I grabbed onto Nighty and dragged her into a one block tall crevice. Once again I was treated to a reminder that the dream worked differently than the game, as the nightmarish thing threw itself at our hidy-hole violently, screeching. It then dropped onto its side and started crawling in after us, carving into the loose soil with its elongated outstretched limbs, it's head shaking with unbridled fury.

"Holy shit!" I breathed, swinging my iron sword infront of me defensively. I barely nicked it's forelimb, eliciting a cry of anger as it dissapeared again. I grabbed onto the equally scared pegasus filly and switched from unicorn to a pair of wings. Feathers made of light burst from my new appendages as we dragged eachother into the sky. Fun fact, endermare's can teleport into the air, and are about twelve levels of horrifying. The lanky teleporter was now grappling onto us, taking away pretty much all flight control, we ended up crashing on the bank of a river, the long legged thing writhing in the sand to free itself.

In a moment of realization, I grabbed an empty bucket from my bags and filled it at the rainbow stream. The thing teleported again, and it's head shot up from the sands, getting a yelp from both of us, and a hefty kick in the face from the natural pegasus. I ran up to the thing and slammed the pale of water down on its bruised face.

It began screaming anew, this time in pain, it tried desperately to rip the bucket off, so I swapped out my wings and held it on with magic. The thing eventually stopped struggling, and simply disintegrated into purple flakes of energy, dropping three ender pearls.

After a few moments, the power of speech returned to me. "...N-nope, no, nuh-uh, hell no!" I said, still shaking. "Fuck to that, no!" I scooped up the orbs, opened up the options menu, and set the world time to day, and the game to peaceful.

"I'm not dealing with that, no way in hell." I grumbled, using command of the dream realm to place us safely in castle Moon Beam.

"Wh-wh-wh-what was that!?" Nighty stammered.

"Fuck no!" I screamed back. "We're done here, we will not be going to hell today, Thank you, enjoy a more peaceful dream!" I turned off the game and took us to the regular dream scape.

I flared my horn, reinforcing the happy nonsensical nature of the dream, and squashing any fragments of nightmares that had decided to ride on our recent encounter. I plopped down on the couch and just went limp, slowly letting my tension leave my body, after a minute of this not working, I summoned up a half dozen bunnies, and kept one in my forelimbs.

Night Strider followed my example and summoned her wool ball, Muffin. "What was that?" She asked once more in a much calmer tone.

"That was an endermare, and I was not expecting it to be that... intense." I chocked out, and added another dream bunny to my hug, another one curled up on my head at my subconscious request, aiding in calming me down. "Im not eager to get back into that right now, are you okay not going back to that game for a few days?"

She nodded rather vigorously, and hugged her puff ball a little tighter. Moments pass as we each indulge in our comfort giving balls of fluff, before Night Strider decides to break the silence. "So, thou know how those art supposed to behave, yes?"

"Yeah... their supposed to teleport around passively, until you look them in the eye, then they turn hostile. They will always teleport away before a projectile can hurt them, except for firework rockets. They have a violent allergic reaction to water, and will avoid it at all costs normally. They are three blocks tall, so hiding under a two block ledge is supposed to keep you safe, I guess that changed when the game became a dream." I shuddered, amassing more comfort bunnies.

Relative silence hung in the atmosphere for a few dream minutes, then Night Strider faded out of the dream, followed quickly by me.

I woke up before anyone else at Golden Oaks, before sunrise even. I wobbled into the bathroom and filled up the tub for a nice relaxing bath, and hopped in. I let myself be completely submerged within the calming waters, I'm not sure how long I lied under the still surface, but I have a feeling it probably wasn't very long. When I came up for air, I was no longer alone in the room, Twilight was at the mirror using her magic to brush her teeth.

Well that's a rather mundane use for physics-be-damned.

"Hey," I greeted her softly, she still jumped at the news that she didn't have the room all to herself though.

"Ah-rgent? Oh, what are you doing up so early?" She said, wiping down the now spit covered mirror.

"Eh, meh. I just woke up early." I parted my wet mop of hair. "What about you? What are you doing up before dawn?"

"Could you not sleep, was it a nightmare? Was it about that incident with the Quarray Eels? You know I said you could wake me if you were having troub-" I stuffed a wadded up towel into her jabbering mouth with my magic.

"I told you before, I haven't had a single nightmare about that in the three days since it happened." It probably helps that I know my way around dreams, with or without magic.

She gave me a scrutinizing look, seeing if I was hiding anything from her, but gave up and gave a muffled sigh. "Mmff mrr...." She spat out the towel, and cleared her throat to stop my snickers. "Alright, I'll believe you, I'll just ask Princess Celestia to ask Princess Luna to check on you." she mumbled something at the end there under her breath, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"Soooo..." I said to get her attention. "Like I asked before, what's got you up so early?"

"Oh, well I found an interesting spell yesterday and I just couldn't wait to try it, although I will have to wait till Spike is awake."

"Oh, do you need a volunteer? I can help," I offered, while trying to gauge a pony's response to nudity, I had already figured that it wasn't exactly frowned upon, but getting out of the bath? That I didn't know the proper etiquette on.

"Oh, well that's very nice of you!" She chirped, before exiting the bathroom, leaving me alone once more. "I'll be in the library when you're done," she informed me as she closed the door.

"Okay." I then pulled up the plug on the tub, used my magic to hold a towel around myself, and shook like a wet dog, I then stared intently at the mirror through my damp long hair, waiting. After three seconds of being left alone, my hair just kinda snapped into my new default style, dry as a bone. "Well now, that was... wierd." I shook my head and quickly brushed my teeth, then went to meet up with Twilight and aid in whatever magic spell she was attempting.

"Alright, so then, what's this trick?" I asked, hopping down the last step as I came up behind the mare I was looking for.

She turnee to face me and gave me a worried look. "Uhh, you sure you want to help with this one?"

"Yeah, wait, is it dangerous?" I asked, wondering why she was being so weird about this. "If not than yeah."

"Its, not dangerous, just... ok, please hold still." She said as her horn lit up.

I mentally shrugged and just froze in a comfortable position. I felt, and saw, a feint magical tingle focusing around my muzzle.

What's this gonna do? Give me sharp teeth, that would be cool... but I don't feel it messing with anything in my mouth, so that's out. If this in going to give me lipstick I swear to god-

There was a tug, an influx of magic, and then I was sporting a white mustache, scratch that, a mustache that matched my current hair color, with little desaturated highlights to boot. When the spell finished, I lifted a forelimb and lightly tugged on the end of it, it was firmly anchored to my lip. "Huh." I twirled it a bit, Definetly stuck to me.

Sure, now I can get some decent facial hair, not before when I was...

"I have no idea how to feel about this," I admitted, looking into a mirror with mild confusion. "How long does it last?"

"Only for an hour, but I can get rid of it if you don't like it."

"Hmm..."Well, as interesting as it is to finally have one, it just looks weird on me... from an artistic perspective.

"Yeah. That's probably for the best." I sighed "Well, does that count as a succes? I have no idea if that is what that spell was supposed to do."

"Yep, that brings my total up to twenty five." She said with a small laugh, most likely at my odd appearance. The mustache on my lip vanished as quickly as it appeared, and leaving me a little itchy.

"Twenty five what?"

"Magic tricks."

I gave her a funny look. "I coulda sworn you had more spells than that under you hat."

She rolled her eyes at me, as if I was the one spouting nonsense. "I do, I said magic tricks. spells that don't have very much purpose or use." She explained.

"I can think of three uses for that one right there." I said with a head tilt.

"Oh yeah?" She said in a challenging manner. "Prove it."

"Disguise making, hair restoration, and spying inconspicuously."

"One and three are basically the same thing." She said, narrowing her eyes at me. I returned the gesture, and then she burst into laughter.

Uhh, what? What was so funny? I wandered into the kitchen now thoroughly lost. I poored myself a bowl of cereal, and continued to try and figure out what she found so humorous.

Spike came downstairs a few moments later, and greeted me with a yawn. "Moni'g Ahgen'." He waved.

I yawned back a greeting. Damn you, yawning chains. Twilight came in then, catching the tail end of the yawn, and giving her morning hello to the baby dragon. Spike began making a proper breakfast of himself and Twi, while I got up and rinsed out my bowl. "So, anything interesting happening today?"

"Eh, not really, the girls and I were planning on meeting up later at Sugercube Corner, I have forty three possible activities planned, and my enchanted saddle bags packed for any such scenario." Twilight said.

Oookay then, someone is a little too prepared for the day. "What about you Spike? Got any plans?"

"Nah, I'm just gonna make some gem cookies, read some comics." He waved his claws in the air, in the manner of someone who really has no plans for the day.

"And you are going to school." Twilight killed my mood, prompting me to drop my head onto the counter.

jeez, she's like a fricken nanny. "why?"

"Don't give me that missy," Another slam. "Your magic has been recovered for thirty six hours, forty three minutes, and forty two point three seven six seconds! You aren't getting out of it today."

Like a nanny with a stop watch... I sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll have to go then..." I said, lifting my face off the counter and turning around to go pack my bags.

I wonder just how the kids are gonna greet me today, will they have heard about the incident at the the ravine? Will they be curious as to why I was gone for so long? Will they even care?
... ah frick, do I care!?

I quickly knocked my head into the wall on my way up the stairs, to get my thoughts back in order. "Those three I could understand... maybe, but the whole school? I must not be right in the head."

or anywhere...

With that depressing thought I stuffed my bags with scattered papers and walked them down to the front door. Then I found a nice comfy window facing cushion to watch the sunrise. Sunrises on Equis are really fast, the moon dips down just beyond the horizon, and then the sun comes up, just to the side of it, the light dances on the morning dew, creating sparkling rainbows with the thin fog, it's mildly breathtaking, I have to admit.

"Time to get going then." I sighed, pulling my gaze away from the scene beyond the glass.

Chapter 21: A Stroll Through the- Oh What Now?

View Online

Allright, let's see here... I thought as I floated my bag's contents in front of me.

History homework check, assigned reading check, lunch, looks good. Extra books that Twi sent with me for the entire class.

I hefted up the stack, and replaced it within the confines of my bag.

Thank God for gravity magic, can lift far heavier things than TK, even if it's not as fine control.

"Argent, are you ready to go?" Twilight called from downstairs.

Guess That's my cue. I strapped on my packs and hopped down the stairs with semi-practiced ease. At the bottom of the stairs, I came across Twilight practicing spells on Spike, I stayed for an extra few seconds to see a black mustache sprout from his upper lip. With my curiosity sated I stepped out the door, but not before grabbing the helmet I had yet to return. I started making my way to the school house right afterward.

I expected to run into one or more of a certain group of fillies on my way there, as one or two of them usually found me and walked with me there, as had been the case so far, but aparently, today I would get to walk in solitude.

'This is nice, just me and my thoughts for once, well that and the charming little town I am in.'

I smiled and put a little more spring in my step, taking a deep breath of the clean air.

'I never did take a second to appreciate how clean the air is, did I? There is no car fumes, cigarette smoke, nothing! just freash air, unlike back home... wonder how it's going back there... I was really looking forward to that marvel movie, now I'll never know how they beat that purple guy... Aww, now I'm sad again!'

My walk had slowed to a crawl, and my head was hung low, ears drooping to further exhibit my current mood. I took a deep breath and sighed, then began looking around for a distraction, anything, or anyone to get my mind off of thoughts of home.

I found one, it came in the form of a unicorn mare pulling a wagon up not too far from the park. Her horn briefly glowed and some wooden blocks found themselves between the wheels. Then, a massive stage unfolded from the left wall.

'Ah, the latest usage of Physics-be-Damned. An interesting one, its either pocket dimensions, or size altering enchantments, perhaps a mix of both?'

My curiosity thoroughly piqued, I nonchalantly trotted over, and got a better look at her. She was sky blue, with a silvery mane and tail, her cutie mark was that of a sparkling magic wand. She was wearing a purple cape, and floated a matching hat out of her trailer, she spent a few seconds fussing over the supports of her stage, and finnaly turned around.

"Oh, hello there little filly, come to watch the best magic show of all time?" The mare asked, adding a little flare.

"Mmm, possibly, what kinda magic?" I asked her, glancing back at my saddle bags for a moment. Indecision filled my mind for all of two seconds.

'Screw it, I'm ditching.'

"Stick around, and you shall witness the feats of the Great and Powerful, Trixie!" Tiny fireworks flashed behind her as she rolled her R's.

'I find this distraction acceptable.'

"Cool, so like, stage magic n' stuff? Sounds fun."

"It is more than simple illusions, The Great and Powerful Trixie is one of the strongest mares in all of Equestria!" More fireworks punctuated her sentence.

"Heh, awesome, look forward to your show then, when's it start?" I asked, finding a comfortable location, front and center near the stage.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie, shall be mistifying the ponies of Ponyville in twenty minutes."

"M'kay I'll find myself a spot then." I placed myself a few paces away from the stage and got comfortable. Trixie went back to setting up her stage, and I pulled out a book to idly thumb – hoof? – through.

The book turned out to be one on history, specifically the gryphon wars. It was unfortunately at a foals' reading level, so I didn't get any interesting details, like siege engines or battle formations, but in the thirteenth year of the prolonged conflict, Equestria managed to gain the support of Zebrica, the home land of Zebras. Together with the shamanistic race, they were able to force the warlike gryphon's into a ceasefire, and eventually a treaty to end the conflict.

"Greetings denizens of Poniville! I, the Great and Powerful Trrrixie have come to grace your town with my arcane feats of Wonder!" The showmare shouted from her stage, drawing in a crowd. "Come and be amazed, witness the prowess of the strongest unicorn in all of Equestria!" She reared back and little magical fireworks sprang up from behind her to add flash and flare to her statement, drawing 'ooh's and 'aah's from the gathering crowd.

I rolled my eyes good naturedly at her claims. 'Obviously just trying to grab attention.' during my eye roll, I discovered that I wasn't the only one to skip school, the two guys, Snips and Snails, were eating up Trixie's boasts, and we're staring reverently up at the stage. The CMC had taken up position around me. Looking farther I discovered the entire class, save for Silver Spoon, and that one filly that I actually needed to memorize the name of – seriously at this point it's getting ridiculous – were present, even the teacher! Cheerilee was smiling up at the stage off to one side of the gathered audience.

Trixie wowed the audience with a few basic stage tricks, Like escaping a locked trunk, Pulling an enraged Angel out of her hat – that one got a surprised squeak from the... oddly enough present Fluttershy – and showering the crowd with flowers from the tip of a wand, All while claiming to be the most powerful unicorn in the country.

Apparently not everyone agreed with how the mare was running her show, as AJ, Rainbow, and Rarity began to speak over the general noise of excitement, voicing their opinions on her boastfulness.

"Well, well, well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience. Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Do they not know that they're in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?"

Rarity blew a raspberry. "Just who does she think she is?"

"Yeah! Since we all know that Twilight here is—" Spike began, but was cut off by Twilight shushing him.

'Hold on, when the hell did those two get here?! Are they gonna be mad that I ditched class?'

"What? What's wrong?" he asked her.

"You see how they reacted to Trixie? I don't want anyone thinking I'm a showoff," Twilight whispered back to him, shrinking down out of the crowd in a manner very similar to a certain pegasus.

As Twilight shrank away, Rainbow shot up above the crowd, and made air quote motions with her hooves. "So, 'Great and Powerful Trixie'. What makes you think you're so awesome, anyway?"

'And now we're going off script, I wonder if she has enough flexibility in her routine to deal with this?'

Turns out, she did, as she responded to the question nigh instantly, with a spoonful of smugness. "Hah, why, only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded ursa major!" She reared back, while more of her magical fireworks sprang into existence behind her.

This must have been an impressive feat, as several ponies in the audience murmured their disbelief, none were more vocal then Snips and Snails, though.

Trixie then went to explain her claims in what can only have been a modicum of more detail. "When all hope was lost, the ponies of Hoofington had no one to turn to, but the Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in, and with her awesome magic, vanquished the ursa major and sent it back to its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!" Her story was accompanied with wireframe illusions, and teeny tiny fireworks for the figure representing herself.

The two colts bought the story hook line and sinker, and proceeded to sing her praises, and how she was the most magical unicorn in the whole town. "No, all of Equestria!" Snips finished off.

"How do you know? You didn't see it! And besides, Twi—" The dragons lips were replaced with a zipper, and promptly fixed shut by Twilight's horn.

'Ooh, that's neat, I'll have to learn that one.'

Trixie laughed haughtily. "It's true, my enthusiastic little admirers. Trixie is most certainly the best in Ponyville." No one but Snips and Snails seemed so ready to accept this claim. "Don't believe the Great and Powerful Trixie?" She laughed. "Well then, I hereby challenge you, Ponyvilleans. Anything you can do, I can do better. Any takers? Anyone? Hmm? Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived!?" Yet more conjured pyrotechnics accompanied her query.

'Okay, now we're getting a bit pretentious'

The little dragon agreed with me, as he manually unzipped his mouth and pleaded with Twilight to have her deal with the mare. For whatever reason, Twilight wasn't having any of it, perhaps competing wasn't in her nature? Or perhaps she didn't like showing off. But suddenly, Trixie called out to the section of the audience Twilight was in. "How about you?" Twilight gulped nervously. "Well? How about it? Is there anything you can do that the Great and Powerful Trixie can't?"

Twilight stammered, but just before she could get her voice under control and up to a normal volume, Trixie refined her query. "Well, little hayseed?"

AppleJack rose up to her hooves, brimming with annoyance. "That's i-!"

"HEY!" the shout rang out with surprising volume, cutting off AJ and giving the showmare pause, the crowd turned to look at me, I ignored most of the attention I garnered, and pointed a hoof at the silver haired magician. "No name calling! You want to talk yourself up? Fine, but when you start putting down the audience, you've crossed the line. There are limits." 'Honestly, isn't that the first rule of buisness? Don't piss off whoever pays you'

Everyone continued to stare at me, and an uncomfortable silence began to permeate the atmosphere. I coughed awkwardly. "I mean, if you really want to challenge ponies to a sort of contest, shouldn't you do it in a more official capacity?" I actually heard crickets.

"Well, and here I thought you were enjoying the show, by all means, if you think you can do better, get up here and show Trixie what you've got."

"No thanks."

The confident smirk fell of the mares face for a moment, and she sputtered for a moment before I continued.

"You issued a challenge, and if you want to have a little contest, then we're doing it right." I turned around and addressed the librarian. "Twilight," I began, she flinched and looked at me with a mixture of nervousness and pleading. "You've got a rulebook for this somewhere right?" Her eyes lit up at the alternate venue I had supplied, she nodded and excused herself to go get it from Golden Oaks. "AJ, Rainbow, Rarity, you three were the ones bashing her show to begin with, so you'll be the competition, and anypony else who wants to showcase something their good at is welcome too."

"I, Buwha? hold on just a seco-" Trixie apparently did not have enough flexibility in her routine for the direction I was taking it.

"Surely the Great and Powerful Trixie isn't scared of a little contest?" I baited.

"Yeah!"

"You're strong enough to beat an Ursa Major!"

"You can beat a few ponies easy!" Snips and Snails were surprisingly, and perhaps unknowingly, helping me make my point.

"B-b-but I..." She protested.

"Come on, we'll make a whole thing of it, I'll ask around for possible prizes for the winner."

"We shall offer an all expenses paid trip to the Ponyville Day Spa." A blue mare with a pink mane spoke up from the crowd, a nigh identical colour swapped version of her was standing next to her, nodding in agreement.

"And we can offer a discount on shakes." Mister Cake offered.

"I can whip up a prize or two." A stallion near the back spoke up. He was a bronze color with a silver mane and tail, despite his young age, his eyes were a bright shade of gold, and he had a cutie mark of a basic chalice style trophy with a chisel.

"Then it's decided, we meet back here in an hour or so, to give everypony enough time to think on their routine?" I asked, the majority of the audience nodded and dispersed. when everyone had left I turned around to find a rather displeased looking Trixie.

"Hey, uhh, sorry about, kinda, stealing the show..."

"Trixie can't believe this! Why would you go and ruin her show?" She stomped indignantly.

"I said sorry, but first off, you're the one who challenged the whole town, and where do you get off insulting the audience? Surely this isn't the first time you've had hecklers at a performance?"

"Trixie has amazing powers, and has always shown those ponies their places for interrupting her show," the mare practically growled out.

"Eesh, alrighty then, so, can we do this professionally? I mean, if you are as good as you claim, then you can win this little impromptu contest easy, Plus this will give you another avenue to show off, won't it?"

She huffed and stomped off into her wagon, slamming the door behind her.

"Ah, okay then, well, I guess I'd better go get ready." I walked off in the direction of the library, when I caught sight of five of the six mares I knew best, three of them complaining to the other two.

"-And can you believe how self centered she is? You'd think she was some stuck up noble." Rainbow whined.

I stomped a hoof on the cobblestones to get their attention, but it was drowned out by Rarity picking up the lull in the conversation. Annoyed, I quickly zapped a noise amplification rune onto the floor and stomped again. It rang out like a gunshot. "You three, I need to have a word."

"Argent? What the hay was all that about, goin and settin up a big ol' contest? Ah' appreciate you buttin in, but some of those ponies have jobs y'know."

"Now you care about other ponies' jobs?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelimbs and narrowed her eyes at me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Not much, just referring to how the three of you didn't seem to mind ruining her show."

"But she was so high and mighty, she just went on and on about how great she is and-"

"She's a traveling stage magician, you're supposed to play yourself up a bit in show biz, it's called a persona, or whatever the word is here... Point is, you three were terribly rude, I'll agree to the fact that she wasn't the nicest, but she could have had a bad time even getting to Ponyville, and if you weren't enjoying the show, you could have just left."

Rarity went to retort, but thought better of it, and walked off, probably to get ready for the contest. Rainbow and AJ were quick to follow her example. I sighed and sat down next to the remaining two mares.

"Hey Pinkie, I kinda also ruined her show by starting this whole thing, you think you could throw one of your 'Welcome to Ponyville Parties' for her to make up for it?"

"Sure can! I'll get started right away!" She pulled a notebook out of her mane and started scribbling down ideas, holding the pad in her mouth and the pencil in the weirdly prehencile curl of her mane, and idly bounced away.

I turned to look at Fluttershy, she meekly look back at me. "Did you get Angel back?"

"Uh-huh, he wasn't to happy about the whole thing. She just picked him up out of the field and used him in her act, without even asking if he wanted to join."

"Well, at least you got him back, I'm going to go figure out something for the contest, I assume you won't be entering?"

She nodded. "Okay, well, I hope to at least see you in the audience, something tells me I don't know what I'm getting myself into."

[Meanwhile]

With a popping noise and a flash of light, Twilight Sparkle appeared just a small way away from Trixie's stage. "Okay, I found the book on Improvised contests and I, Where did everypony go?"

That Time I Became a Friendship Bomb

by Carmine Craft

Chapter 1: The Aforementioned Companion Combustion.

Chapter 2: Why Does Everything Taste Like Friendship

Chapter 3: Guests, Tests And Surprises, Oh My!

Chapter 4: Dream House and Growing Pains

Chapter 5: Discovering New Things.

Chapter 6: Dreamventures Two; Dreameeting.

Chapter 7: Playing Games

Chapter 8: A bad Apple Week

Chapter 9: Tours of Town & Troubling Transformations.

Chapter 10: A Quick Visitation

Chapter 11: Wing Worries

Chapter 12: Dreams 3; Some Free Time

Chapter 13: Fluffy Filly Filler Fun

Chapter 14: the Breaking of a Dam

Chapter 15: Minepranks

Chapter 16: Schoolin

Chapter 17: Feeling the Need...

Chapter 18: ...The Need for Gravitic Acceleration!

Chapter 19: Let Us Hope This Isn't A Regular Thing.

Chapter 20: so THAT'S why you don't look them in the eyes!

Chapter 21: A Stroll Through the- Oh What Now?