Helping Aria escape a bad situation, Monochrome falls into another world where many dangers and his lost past lurks.
After helping Aria out of a back alley in Canterlot, Monochrome decides to help Aria find what she is looking for; her sisters. Doing so, they encounter the attack of Midnight Sparkle and fall through one of her portals to Equestria, changing their bodies in the process. Now Monochrome must work with Aria just to survive this 'fantasy land' as he, now she, considers it, which seems to be bent on killing them.
Foes, friends and Monochrome's lost past await discovery as they set out in search of civilisation, Aria's sisters, and a way back home.
(Human section is short. Story written in first person perspective.) (Warnings are for deliberately not graphic, mostly implied scenes, but are there just in case.)
Notes: - All chapters marked with a number and A (e.g. 7A) are chapters which show the original storyline yet have alternate versions either created or pending. - The altered chapters marked with a number and B (e.g. 7B) exist to remove the Non-Con aspect of the original story. - The altered chapters marked with a number and C (e.g. 9C) are the expanded chapters. - This set-up will allow the original and re-constructed chapters to exist side by side but not break site rules regarding posting two stories with minimal changes to chapters.
I stood by the window, peering out through the cracked glass. A few drops of rain still clung to the glass from the storm in the night. I squinted as the sun finally decided to peek through the clouds. My left eye twitched and I rubbed it with the back of my hand. It didn’t help. It never helped. Only money could fix it and here I stood, in the dusty office of a long-abandoned smelting plant, without a cent to my name.
My name? Monochrome. I got it from the combination of my skin and hair. Midnight black skin with scruffy, white hair. It wasn’t the name I was born with. I forgot that name long ago; lost to the years of wandering.
It wasn’t a surprise for me to be in this kind of place. It was the sort of building I gravitated toward, especially when I had just arrived in a new town. It was a starting point. A place to centre myself, to scavenge parts to make whatever I could to earn some money. More importantly, it was cheap. That is to say, there was no rent. All so very normal for me. Usually, it wouldn’t concern me. I would be the only mouth to feed and I’d go hungry if needed. But, now, I wasn’t alone. She was here.
I wasn’t looking to be anyone’s hero. I was just investigating something which felt off about the world. Something which felt familiar, even homely. I guess that was what drew me to the girl. She had a, I don’t know, kind of aura about her. I can’t easily explain it. I wish I could. Especially why it felt broken, like a shattered pane of glass. I turned away from the window to find her still sitting where she had since yesterday evening.
She stared across the room with nothing but a graffiti-covered wall to meet her unfocussed gaze. She had interesting hair, I’ll give her that. Purple and mint streaks. Half her hair was roughly held up in what had been a pair of twin tails. The rest of it was mussed with errant strands sticking out all over. Her clothes, similar in colour to her hair, with a little cream thrown in, were dishevelled and torn. How much was from what she had been through or simply the style she favoured was difficult to tell.
Her name… I think she mumbled the word Aria at some point. Even if it wasn’t her name, it at least gave me something to call her by. She was quiet, still very much lost in thought. Not surprising, considering how I had encountered her.
I snarled at the memories then shook my head, attempting to force the thoughts aside. That was then. Now was something else. Oddly, with the events of three days ago, Aria had not wanted to go to hospital, nor the police.
The latter didn’t surprise me. Like me, she preferred to be unnoticed by authority. The former, however… All things considered, I still felt like ignoring her refusal. I doubted she was physically all right, especially with her mental state, but it was hard to get her headed anywhere she was adamantly against visiting.
Her only request, not food, nor water. Not even money. It seemed so simple. Find her sisters.
That’s what we’d be doing today, now the rain had stopped.
* * *
“You sure about this?” I asked.
Aria gave a short nod and mumbled just one word. “Yes.”
“Okay.” I was puzzled. Of all the places she could think of, the one where she believed she might find her sisters was right in front of us. I blinked and raised an eyebrow. It was a school. A high school by the sign.
I don’t know why I was surprised. Aria wasn’t exactly an adult in appearance. Nor was I for that matter. Considering I wasn’t very tall I could pass for someone a fraction of my age.
The school itself wasn’t anything unusual to look at. In fact, it could’ve passed for being a school in any part of the state, let alone country. It had taken us a while to walk here so it wasn’t much of a shock to find the day had already started. I heard some cheering in the background and shrugged. It sounded louder than for a normal gym class. Maybe some sports carnival?
I shook my head and made my way up the steps to the front doors. Taking one of the handles, I tried to pull it open. No movement. I gave it a push instead. The door didn’t budge. I heard another cheer go up. With the door refusing to open, I grumbled to myself before turning to face Aria. She was in the last stages of fixing her second twin tail.
I gave a thin smile. At least she wouldn’t look completely like she’d had a run-in with a bear in a dumpster. And, I instantly regretted the thought. It wasn’t her fault how she currently looked. That honour belonged to a man probably trying to lay low from police at the moment. There was another cheer.
“Isn’t this a school day?” I asked.
Aria shrugged. “Think so.”
Wow. Two words together. We were improving.
With her appearance slightly improved, Aria began to look around. Her attention suddenly snapped to the direction of the cheering.
I stepped down to stand beside her. “Any idea where your sisters could be?”
When she didn’t respond, I called her name and looked at her. Her face was scrunched up with concern. The moment I looked in the direction she was staring I knew the reason. At least I could feel the reason. It was like a breeze washing over me. No, not just over my body, through it. Like rippling waves caressing me both inside and out. Yet, there was no wind. Neither our clothes nor hair were fluttering.
The ripples grew rapidly in intensity and frequency, striking through me over and over again. It vaguely reminded me of the feeling which drew me to find Aria in the first place, only this was much more intense. I swear I could taste it. I glanced at Aria. The look of concern on her face told me she felt it as well.
Then the ripples slammed into us. I staggered back from the hit. When I regathered myself, I was greeted with an intense lightshow in the sky. Out of the lightshow, emerged a… Okay, I know I haven’t had anything to eat since lunch yesterday, but did hallucinations of winged, purple female demons count as a symptom of hunger?
Looking to Aria again, I found her glaring at the demon. She then dashed forwards, running toward the demon and the area surrounding it. I shouted at her to stay but she kept going. I gave chase but lost sight of Aria around the end of a set of wooden bleachers. I heard screams and shouts erupting from the stands and felt several pulses of energy, similar to the earlier ripples as they burst around the area.
More screams erupted. I caught sight of Aria. She had stopped dead in her tracks, staring at something in front of her. The ground just beyond her feet was an oddly different colour to the rest of the running track she stood on. People were running everywhere. As I drew near, I could see the demon closer now, her mouth cracked in a nasty sneer. I reached out to grab Aria’s arm. There was another flash of light. I snatched my arm back to shield my eyes but forgot to stop running.
I crashed into the back of someone. Probably Aria. She was the only one in front of me at the time. I opened my mouth to apologise but couldn’t even hear myself as we tumbled toward the ground. I closed my eyes and prepared for impact, one that didn’t immediately happen. We just kept falling, a tangle of limbs. Wherever the ground was, we had to have passed it by now.
Falling. Falling. I could feel the wind pulling at my scruffy hair, even against the rest of my body, as we continued to tumble. The wind was so cold, I swear it was somehow passing straight through my clothes and licking at every inch of my skin. My body flipped over, forcing my face into the wind. Wow! It stung like a million needles. My eyes were watering and I couldn’t even open them to see what was happening. I felt my lungs begin to burn and realised I was gasping for a breath I couldn’t catch.
My mind started to drift. I could still feel the wind, but not the pain. It was like I was drifting off to sleep in a wind tunnel. Whatever was going to happen, I hoped it would be soon as my thoughts began to ease. Before I could black out, I had one last sense pass through my brain. Where was that ground?
Just as I lost all vision, I glimpsed an intense flash of pale blue light. Then… nothing.
I stood by the window, peering out through the cracked glass. A few drops of rain still clung to the glass from the storm in the night. I squinted as the sun finally decided to peek through the clouds. My left eye twitched and I rubbed it with the back of my hand. It didn’t help. It never helped. Only money could fix it and here I stood, in the dusty office of a long-abandoned smelting plant, without a cent to my name.
My name? Monochrome. I got it from the combination of my skin and hair. Midnight black skin with scruffy, white hair. It wasn’t the name I was born with. I forgot that name long ago; lost to the years of wandering.
It wasn’t a surprise for me to be in this kind of place. It was the sort of building I gravitated toward, especially when I had just arrived in a new town. It was a starting point. A place to centre myself, to scavenge parts to make whatever I could to earn some money. More importantly, it was cheap. That is to say, there was no rent. All so very normal for me. Usually, it wouldn’t concern me. I would be the only mouth to feed and I’d go hungry if needed. But, now, I wasn’t alone. She was here.
I wasn’t looking to be anyone’s hero. I was just investigating something which felt off about the world. Something which felt familiar, even homely. I guess that was what drew me to the girl. She had a, I don’t know, kind of aura about her. I can’t easily explain it. I wish I could. Especially why it felt broken, like a shattered pane of glass. I turned away from the window to find her still sitting where she had since yesterday evening.
She stared across the room with nothing but a graffiti-covered wall to meet her unfocussed gaze. She had interesting hair, I’ll give her that. Purple and mint streaks. Half her hair was roughly held up in what had been a pair of twin tails. The rest of it was mussed with errant strands sticking out all over. Her clothes, similar in colour to her hair, with a little cream thrown in, were dishevelled and torn. How much was from what she had been through or simply the style she favoured was difficult to tell.
Her name… I think she mumbled the word Aria at some point. Even if it wasn’t her name, it at least gave me something to call her by. She was quiet, still very much lost in thought. Not surprising, considering how I had encountered her.
I snarled at the memories then shook my head, attempting to force the thoughts aside. My nose still stung and my growing bruises ached. That was then. Now was something else. Oddly, with the events of three days ago, Aria had not wanted to go to hospital, nor the police. At least, while dishevelled and bruised, she remained clothed. I had interrupted before things could enter darker territory.
The latter didn’t surprise me. Like me, she preferred to be unnoticed by authority. The former, however… All things considered, I still felt like ignoring her refusal. I doubted she was physically all right, especially with her mental state, but it was hard to get her headed anywhere she was adamantly against visiting.
Her only request, not food, nor water. Not even money. It seemed so simple. Find her sisters.
That’s what we’d be doing today, now the rain had stopped.
* * *
“You sure about this?” I asked.
Aria gave a short nod and mumbled just one word. “Yes.”
“Okay.” I was puzzled. Of all the places she could think of, the one where she believed she might find her sisters was right in front of us. I blinked and raised an eyebrow. It was a school. A high school by the sign.
I don’t know why I was surprised. Aria wasn’t exactly an adult in appearance. Nor was I for that matter. Considering I wasn’t very tall I could pass for someone a fraction of my age.
The school itself wasn’t anything unusual to look at. In fact, it could’ve passed for being a school in any part of the state, let alone country. It had taken us a while to walk here so it wasn’t much of a shock to find the day had already started. I heard some cheering in the background and shrugged. It sounded louder than for a normal gym class. Maybe some sports carnival?
I shook my head and made my way up the steps to the front doors. Taking one of the handles, I tried to pull it open. No movement. I gave it a push instead. The door didn’t budge. I heard another cheer go up. With the door refusing to open, I grumbled to myself before turning to face Aria. She was in the last stages of fixing her second twin tail.
I gave a thin smile. At least she wouldn’t look completely like she’d had a run-in with a bear in a dumpster. And, I instantly regretted the thought. It wasn’t her fault how she currently looked. That honour belonged to a man probably trying to lay low from police at the moment. There was another cheer.
“Isn’t this a school day?” I asked.
Aria shrugged. “Think so.”
Wow. Two words together. We were improving.
With her appearance slightly improved, Aria began to look around. Her attention suddenly snapped to the direction of the cheering.
I stepped down to stand beside her. “Any idea where your sisters could be?”
When she didn’t respond, I called her name and looked at her. Her face was scrunched up with concern. The moment I looked in the direction she was staring I knew the reason. At least I could feel the reason. It was like a breeze washing over me. No, not just over my body, through it. Like rippling waves caressing me both inside and out. Yet, there was no wind. Neither our clothes nor hair were fluttering.
The ripples grew rapidly in intensity and frequency, striking through me over and over again. It vaguely reminded me of the feeling which drew me to find Aria in the first place, only this was much more intense. I swear I could taste it. I glanced at Aria. The look of concern on her face told me she felt it as well.
Then the ripples slammed into us. I staggered back from the hit. When I regathered myself, I was greeted with an intense lightshow in the sky. Out of the lightshow, emerged a… Okay, I know I haven’t had anything to eat since lunch yesterday, but did hallucinations of winged, purple female demons count as a symptom of hunger?
Looking to Aria again, I found her glaring at the demon. She then dashed forwards, running toward the demon and the area surrounding it. I shouted at her to stay but she kept going. I gave chase but lost sight of Aria around the end of a set of wooden bleachers. I heard screams and shouts erupting from the stands and felt several pulses of energy, similar to the earlier ripples as they burst around the area.
More screams erupted. I caught sight of Aria. She had stopped dead in her tracks, staring at something in front of her. The ground just beyond her feet was an oddly different colour to the rest of the running track she stood on. People were running everywhere. As I drew near, I could see the demon closer now, her mouth cracked in a nasty sneer. I reached out to grab Aria’s arm. There was another flash of light. I snatched my arm back to shield my eyes but forgot to stop running.
I crashed into the back of someone. Probably Aria. She was the only one in front of me at the time. I opened my mouth to apologise but couldn’t even hear myself as we tumbled toward the ground. I closed my eyes and prepared for impact, one that didn’t immediately happen. We just kept falling, a tangle of limbs. Wherever the ground was, we had to have passed it by now.
Falling. Falling. I could feel the wind pulling at my scruffy hair, even against the rest of my body, as we continued to tumble. The wind was so cold, I swear it was somehow passing straight through my clothes and licking at every inch of my skin. My body flipped over, forcing my face into the wind. Wow! It stung like a million needles. My eyes were watering and I couldn’t even open them to see what was happening. I felt my lungs begin to burn and realised I was gasping for a breath I couldn’t catch.
My mind started to drift. I could still feel the wind, but not the pain. It was like I was drifting off to sleep in a wind tunnel. Whatever was going to happen, I hoped it would be soon as my thoughts began to ease. Before I could black out, I had one last sense pass through my brain. Where was that ground?
Just as I lost all vision, I glimpsed an intense flash of pale blue light. Then… nothing.
That was a good sign. I had to be alive to make noise. My mind gave a kick. I could hear myself make a noise. I frowned at that then simply listened to whatever was around me. There was a faint wind, nothing like what I had fallen through. It was gently teasing at some long grasses next to my head. I know because my ear twitched at the rasping sound. It reminded me of wheat fields I had walked beside on some of my longer hikes between towns.
The wind wasn’t whipping at me and stealing away all other sounds. I shifted a little, feeling something hard and rough against the length of my back. Well, at least I wasn’t falling anymore. And I was clearly capable of breathing. I took in a deep breath. The air was cold, but not as bitterly so as the winds I had fallen through.
So, here I was, laying on my back after falling for who knows how long. I don’t know how I landed safely, but somehow, I had. I smacked my lips together a few times, simply contemplating my position. With little else to do, I decided to sit up.
I tried to do so. From my shoulders up, my body attempted to rise but quickly fell back. I tried again. Same result. I gave an irritated snort. Scratch that, I moved my arms to help with the process. However, my arms refused to move as freely as they had before falling.
Huh? Confused, I opened my eyes seeking whatever was restraining my arms. There were no bindings or clothes restricting me. My arms just refused to bend how I wanted. My arms—
I blinked several times as I tried to process what I was seeing. Thaaaat’s not a hand.
I blinked at the nub I found a few more times, wondering if I was truly seeing my limb correctly. I opened my other eye and raised my right arm to inspect it. Yep, that wasn’t a hand either. My arms were now covered in fur, the same midnight black as my former skin. The fur extended all the way down to the nubs where my hands once were.
Okay. This is weird. I turned the two nubs to face each other before hitting them together. Their surfaces were hard yet didn’t hurt when they tapped each other. Striking them together also let out a sharp sound; a clack or a clop. Craning my neck, I tried to peer past my fur-covered chest and stomach to my legs. Like my hands, my feet had been replaced by nubs which had a rim where my toes should’ve been. They reminded me of hooves.
Right, so I’m possibly going nuts. Considering everything I was learning, I felt it was time to get off my back. Without hands, I started shifting my weight from side to side until momentum tossed me over onto my stomach. Using my altered arms, I pushed myself up as if to stand but fell back onto my stomach.
Grumbling wordlessly to myself, I tried again. This time I kept my arms under me and only gently attempted to stand as normal. My body refused. It simply didn’t want me to stand on just my legs.
I glared back at my legs in time to glimpse a long stream of white fur, just like my hair, as it flicked into view from behind me. My eyes widened a little as my brain processed all that I had found and came to a conclusion, or two. Either I was in a weird form of hell after falling to my death, to which I certainly felt alive, or… I took a deep breath and let it out. I was some kind of horse.
Yeeeaaaah…
This… This was going to need further investigation.
First discovery. My hair was still white, but now it was much longer; to the point of being able to completely cover one of my eyes if needed before cascading down the front of my neck.
Second discovery. My head was very different. Much of my face now stretched out in front of me, particularly my nose and mouth. It was strange, but, with a check of my muscles and jaws, functional at least. My tongue was also extremely dextrous. My ears were possibly the weirdest part as they were now on top of my head and could swivel about to focus on any sound.
Third discovery. This was one of the stranger ones. While inspecting my sides, I found a wrap of something leathery either side of my torso… barrel? What exactly they were was puzzling. I couldn’t recall any horse having something like them. The new position of my head and longer neck gave me the chance to examine these leathery wraps from greater angles. Even from below.
And this was how I found the weirdest change I had undergone, other than becoming a horse, of course. It wasn’t the easiest thing to get a good look at as it made me almost twist my new form into knots. However, I eventually succeeded in getting a better look at something I spotted. Between my legs, just below my stomach, there were two large nipples. Considering I was a horse now, I guess they were called teats.
I frowned and felt a sudden need to look further. Twisting my body until it started to hurt my back, I caught sight of my teats again. My teats and—
And my brain seized up. It was just so… Unexpected didn’t seem a strong enough word. Nor did bizarre. With everything else it wasn’t exactly improbable. I was clearly a horse. The hooves and fur were perfect proof. Even the snooter, which was so much longer than ever before, gave clear credence to the changes I had somehow undertaken. But this?!
Apparently, I had been letting out sounds of distress as a familiar voice crackled nearby. I startled and the leathery wraps shot out from my sides. I wanted to see what they were like now, but my ears had other plans as they turned towards the source of the words, making me focus on them instead.
“You gonna knock that off? I have the biggest headache right now.”
I turned my head to look at her and found another horse laying on their side with their back to me. This one had familiar colouring in both their coat and hair… mane? I shook the thought aside and called out to the other horse. “Aria?”
As soon as the word left my mouth, I snapped my mouth shut. My eyes were wide and lips tightly clamped together. To say I was surprised would have been an understatement. The tone of my voice was so soft, its pitch far higher than I expected. The simple sounds I had emitted lent even further evidence to the truth of my earlier discoveries.
“What?” the other horse croaked, shifting in place as they rolled to try and rise from their prone position. They stopped and said, “Huh.”
There was no hint of confusion in their voice. At least they were handling the discovery of finding themselves as a small horse well. Me on the other hand… wait, I don’t even have hands. I arched an eyebrow at my mental side-track. Other hoof?
“Been a while since I’ve seen these from this angle,” the pony said, rising onto their hooves and stretching their back like a cat after a long nap. “Kinda missed it.”
“What?” I wondered aloud. If I became any more confused, I swear my face was going to break trying to express it non-verbally.
“Not that it matters to you, but I’m Aria Blaze,” the pony, Aria, replied. She shook her entire body from head to tail before finally looking in my direction.
“Guessing you’re the guy who—” I actually saw the moment her mind froze. She didn’t stay that way for long. Her mouth stretched into a sly grin and she started to chuckle. It was actually quite interesting to watch as her whole body began to shudder with her growing laughter. “Oh, this is priceless.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered. “Laugh it up. I’m the guy who helped you a few nights back. Not to mention I was trying to find your sisters at your request.”
I scrunched my snooter at her finding joy in my odd predicament. “Name’s Monochrome, in case you forgot.”
Aria let her laughter ease, but the sly grin on her face showed no signs of vanishing. “Looking like that, maybe I should call you Chromia instead?”
My head drooped and I let out a heavy sigh. “Not helping.”
Aria chuckled to herself. I crinkled my snooter at her and tried to ignore her by investigating my leathery wraps. Whatever had changed us appeared to have a very strange sense of humour; not unlike Aria herself.
Looking over my shoulder, I felt my annoyance instantly slip away, replaced by a mix of amazement and my inquisitive nature. My leathery wraps were sticking straight out from my sides. Without daring to touch them, I could see a rigid leading edge to both wraps. The leathery parts, which had been bunched up when at my sides, were now spread taught in segments from the side of my back all the way to the outer tip of the leading edge.
I blinked at my latest discovery. They reminded me of bat wings, only much larger. With a twitch of my back muscles, my new wings gave an unintended flap. Concentrating, I tried to repeat the movement. A grin began to grow on my snooter when I eventually achieved a wing movement on purpose.
Turning to Aria to share news of my latest findings, I held my tongue. She was sitting and tapping a hoof gently at the top of her chest. Her eyes were squeezed shut while her snooter scrunched. Her teeth were bared in apparent pain.
I took a step towards her and moved to touch her shoulder with a hoof as if it were still a hand. Even before I made contact, Aria’s eyes snapped open and she jerked back, jumping onto her four hooves again. Her chest was heaving with breath. Her eyes fixed on me like vicious daggers.
“Sorry,” I reflexively apologised, frowning.
Aria’s body shuddered and her head shook violently. She didn’t speak but appeared both startled and furious.
“Um, you okay?” I asked hesitantly.
Aria breathed heavily through her teeth. “Peachy.”
I felt it was pushing my luck but I asked, “You sure?”
“I’m fine,” Aria hissed, doing her best to relax her nerves and calm herself. “Just perfect only having innate magic.”
“Innate what?” I asked, blinking as I wondered if I had heard her correctly.
“Magic,” Aria grumbled. “The stuff every pony has. Duh!”
Okay, her mockery was going a little far now. A shudder of annoyance rippled through my wings and I narrowed my eyes at her. “Remember, human until a short while ago.”
Aria sat back on her haunches, threw up her front hooves and cursed the sky itself before trying to explain what she meant. “Two types. Innate, comes with type of pony or creature. Active, bent by a pony’s will to cause or create something.”
I blinked, letting my mind wrap itself around her admittedly vague descriptions. “I guess that makes sense.”
“Says the pony with more than just innate magic,” Aria muttered irritably.
I stopped trying to get my wings to fold against my sides, looked at her and raised an eyebrow in question. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve got wings, you dingus,” Aria deadpanned.
I blinked at her. “So?”
“So?” Aria parroted. “You can fly. And, judging by your type of wings, you’re a bat pony.”
When I continued to stare at her blankly, Aria muttered to herself, gave a rather dramatic sigh of exasperation, and said, “A night pony. You should be able to see at night like you can in the day.”
She gave another irritable shake of her head. “Not everypony can do that!”
“Oh,” I said, unintentionally ruffling my wings. I looked at them, then back to Aria in question. “So, do you have a special ability?”
Aria didn’t look at me but I could see her physically bristle at the question. When she spoke, she did so bitterly through gritted teeth. “Not in this form.”
She shot a vicious glare at me. “Now, shut it. Sun’s getting low and we need to figure out where we are.”
I clamped my mouth shut at the withering look Aria fixed me with before she started to wander away. I let out a soft breath and felt my muscles relax a fraction. Aria was surprisingly terrifying.
At least, now that she was a pony, Aria was so much more talkative. Albeit, a very grumpy pony. It made me wonder if she was always like this before I encountered her and she became near catatonic.
“Get moving, Dingbat!”
I startled at her anger and did my best to hurry after her. Thankfully, whatever had caused our transformations had also granted us the ability to walk on four legs without getting them tangled. When I fell into step behind Aria, I thought of my leathery wings and what Aria had just said. I frowned to myself. Was calling a pony with wings like mine a dingbat a slur in this world?
Considering how abrasive Aria was being, I decided to keep the thought to myself and continue our exploration.
So, time for a little mental compartmentalisation. Aria and I were no longer at the school. That much was very clear. Where exactly we were was very much up for debate. The sky was grey and we found ourselves in the most unusual of locations. The ground was solid, that was clear from neither of us falling through it. However, that was where its normal state ended, especially when we came to an edge.
Somehow, I wasn’t yet sure of the cause, but Aria and I had landed on the top surface of an island floating in the sky. We found this out in two ways. First, we discovered the edge, which we followed until we reached our starting point. The second was far more obvious. We could see other islands floating all around us. Above, below, across, near or far, it didn’t matter. And yet, those weren’t the strangest things.
We were no longer human. As Aria put it, we were now pastel coloured ponies. Well, she was pastel. I was still my monochromatic self. Only now, instead of hair and skin, it was fur and mane… and a tail. And for me, I wasn’t even the same gender. That wasn’t much of a sticking point but it was still rather jarring for my brain. Although, considering every other bit of me which had changed, it didn’t seem so far-fetched. Just… I was used to being male. I guess you could consider it a norm for me. Being a mare was different, besides the obvious pony bits.
By the night, my brain was a mess!
Trembling in annoyance, Aria glared over her shoulder at me and growled, “Would you knock it off?!”
I stopped slowly turning on the spot, trying to continue my physical investigations, and grinned sheepishly.
Aria shook her head, turned her attention back to our surroundings and muttered, “Nitwit.”
“Sorry,” I sheepishly apologised. I couldn’t help it. This body was new to me and I was curious about how every part worked.
“Whatever,” Aria murmured. “Now that I have your attention. You ready to help get us moving?”
I blinked at her. “What do you mean?”
Aria clenched her jaw, turned to face me, and thrust a hoof at the nearest island beyond the edge. Even further beyond the island, I could make out a mountainous outcropping with a haze of grey clouds draped around it in the far distance.
Following her direction, I stepped forward to peer out over the edge. There was an island, smaller than the one we found ourselves on. It had a grand total of two trees and what looked like a small pond of water between them. It was definitely more than here with its patches of long grass amongst the barren dirt.
I looked back to Aria. “So…”
“Ready?”
I arched an eyebrow. “Really? You did notice that big space between here and there, right?”
Aria rolled her eyes, moved close and tapped me in the chest as she spoke. “You. Have. Wings.”
I stared at her flatly. “That I don’t know how to use.”
“Then this is your chance.”
I eyed Aria, flicked my gaze back to the other island, then back to her. “And you don’t have wings. I doubt you can jump that far. How do you expect to get us both over the gap? Me carry you?”
Aria didn’t answer. She simply stared at me for several long seconds.
I felt my tail droop and my ears fold back as I cringed with realisation and concern. “You sure you want to try that?”
Aria continued to stare at me. I continued to shrink and squirm under her gaze.
“Okay,” I reluctantly said. “If you want us to plummet to our deaths, you better climb on my back.”
Aria didn’t need to be asked twice. I can’t say she was the greatest of climbers, though. Not that I was able to stand very still as she did her best to drag herself onto my back. I swear her knees and rear hooves found every tender spot in my side then back as she scrambled herself into place.
Once Aria had tried to choke me by wrapping her forelegs around my throat to brace herself and, subsequently, altered her hold to let me breathe, I glanced back at her over my shoulder and asked, “You sure you want to try this?”
I felt a prod to my sides as she squeezed me with her knees. “Get ya wings out already.”
I sighed and mumbled to myself, “Like I know how to do that yet.”
Aria shifted one of her back legs, rubbing at my sides. I shuddered as the movement sent a chill up my spine. Aria gripped me a little tighter and I felt leathery wings whip out from my sides. They snapped into place at full stretch while I still tried to recover from the chill.
“There,” Aria said. “They’re out. Let’s get moving.”
I sighed again and closed my eyes. “Our funeral.”
Not giving her a chance to bite back at my utterance, I snapped my eyes open, peered over my shoulder and started to back up a few paces. If this was anything like using a hang glider, I was going to need some speed. And speed needed room.
Aria gave me a sharp stab to the side with her hoof. “The island’s forward, dingus.”
I rolled my eyes. “You may have instant confidence in my flying abilities, but I’ve never done this as a horse with wings attached to my body before. I don’t exactly want my first day as a pony to be my last even before the sun sets.”
Aria squeezed my neck a little and gave an involuntary shudder. Maybe I had finally got through to her about my lack of confidence in what we were about to do. She leaned in close to one of my ears and hissed at me. “Never say that name to me!”
The venom in her voice sent another chill down my spine. What had I said? Why was she so mad? I can’t remember saying a name.
Doing my best to shake the moment aside, I stopped backing up and took a few seconds to steady myself for what I was about to do. I checked my wings. They were still extended and appeared ready for use. I let out a sharp breath which tapered off into a soft whistle. Come on, Monochrome. What was it people facing tough situations would usually say? No guts, no glory? Seize the day? You only live once?
It was time to see if I really could fly.
Aria dug in her heels again. Wow, she was getting impatient to die.
Fine! I scraped my right forehoof against the ground then started forward. I did my best to gain speed while keeping Aria from jostling around too much. Thankfully, my pace grew steadily as the edge came closer and closer. I drew in a breath and held it as my hooves passed the edge. My legs continued trying to run as I threw myself out into the space between islands and hoped…
My wings caught the wind, hurling us up as we approached the island. Our height didn’t exactly drop once we reached our destination. Instead, we kept on going. Aria had some choice words about the situation at that point. She also decided to make her protests physically known. Can’t say it helped.
As we passed over the far edge of our target island, she pulled my head to the side. Suddenly thrown off angle, my wings banked down. Then my nose. I wished I could say our next movement was gentle. I really did. Instead, we nose-dived.
Winds which had held us aloft suddenly whipped at our bodies. My eyes began to sting with the rushing air stabbing at them. It was oh so very familiar. Why was it that I found myself yet again falling to my imminent doom along with Aria? At least this time I could actually blame her.
Aria pulled back on my throat. I let out a strangled gurgle but her grip kept my words from escaping. Okay. Falling fast. Got… wings. Breathe. Breathe…
We were still pointed down. I could see a scattering of more floating islands, with the rolling blue of deep ocean waves further below. Aria wrenched back on my neck again. I winced. There just wasn’t enough air. My eyelids drooped. My throat and lungs were burning. Aria was screaming something, but I couldn’t make it out. My eyes closed. Sound vanished.
My body gave a jolt. Then another. Guessing we clipped an island before plummeting into the sea. Well, such is life, I guess. A third jolt. My limbs all spasmed as feeling returned to my body. I opened my mouth and air surged into my lungs. Aria was still clinging to me, but not so tightly I couldn’t breathe.
I could feel the air in front of me shift. Cracking my eyes open, I spotted the long tail feathers of a bird. It was no more than a pony length from my nose. Its body sliced through the air in front of me, disturbing it enough to keep the wind from stinging my eyes. I shook my head. The air was also strangely refreshing in the wake of the bird.
Something about this bird’s presence calmed my racing heart. My body subconsciously fell into formation with the bird, my wings and head shifting just enough to stay right behind it. Aria shifted position, her grip easing as the bird took a slight bank towards the nearest floating island. I followed. The bird angled down, I lowered my head.
We were coming in fast, but at least we had a target now. I blinked. Did the bird just glance over its shoulder at me?
“Ground!” Aria yelled in my ear.
My attention snapped back to the wider world. The top of the island was so very close. My wings shifted and I tried to thrust my feet forward, hoping to lessen the impact.
We hit the ground. Hard! My legs stiffened and my hooves dug into the earth, carving little trenches as I tried to bleed off the speed. Aria was once again trying to pull my head back. I guessed she thought it was somehow helping. Truth be told, it wasn’t.
My front hooves struck a rock embedded in the ground. My hooves went out from under me and I tumbled forward, hurling Aria from my back. I tumbled end over end a couple of times before finally flopping to a stop on my back, my gaze staring up at the clouds and other islands high above. I lay there for a few moments, giving the rattling of my brain a chance to settle before letting out a nervous chuckle. The tension in my body gave out, causing my legs and wings to splay out on the ground either side of me.
I heard the rapid flap of feathery wings as the bird landed next to my head. It eyed me for a bit, turned its beak to face me, bent forward out of my sight and gently thumped its head against mine just in front of my ear. It lifted its head, looked at me again and gave a series of clucks which sounded like it was trying to talk.
I eyed the bird, lifting my head to face it better. My brain still felt a little scrambled from the landing as I rolled onto my side. The bird hopped back a step but kept its attention centred on me.
“Hey there, birdy,” I said, trying to put as much kindness into my voice as possible. I cringed. All it did was remind me of how feminine I now sounded. Rising onto my hooves, I tried to shake off any dust from the impact and check for injuries. Seeming to have a mind of its own, my fringe flopped into place covering my forehead and most of my right eye. I tried to shift it but it stubbornly returned. Looking to the bird, I found it still watching me.
It was a decently tall bird. Including tail feathers, it was probably as long as my body from the top of my head, down to the bottoms of my front hooves. It was also incredibly sleek with a graceful mix of white and pale blue feathers. What kind of bird it was, I couldn’t say. I’d never seen anything like it before.
A grumbled, wordless curse caught my ear. I turned to the source and stopped at what I found. It was a very interesting view, I had to admit. I gave a whistle. The bird snapped its attention to me and cocked its head as if to ask, what? I would’ve questioned that if it weren’t for the more immediate scene before us.
Aria snorted to herself. Her chin, throat and chest were pressed into the dirt. Her rear was propped up on her stiff hind legs with her tail draped down her back, the end of which was tickling her nose from above. She let out a loud exasperated sigh before rising to her hooves again. After a quick once over in search of injuries, Aria shot me a death glare.
“What?” I asked, an oddly goofy grin on my snooter. Yes, I am very aware it is called a muzzle, I just don’t care. I did my best to spread my leathery wings and said, “Not like I’ve ever used these things before.”
Aria said nothing. She simply snorted, flicked her tail in irritation then turned her attention to our surroundings. While Aria was preoccupied, I let out a soft breath. All changes aside, I could note one particular thing, girls, mares in this case, definitely still interested me.
“You keep playing with the bird,” Aria grumbled. “I’ll look for another way down.”
The bird looked at me, bowed low, spread its wings, then launched itself into the air followed by a trail of glittery white powder. It swung around the island, gaining speed before aiming for Aria and tucking in its wings.
The bird swooped low over Aria’s head, the trail of soft powder landing on her scalp, covering most of her hair and snooter in what looked like snow. Aria stopped her search and snapped her head about to glare at whatever had brushed over her. Her furious eyes fixed on the bird. The bird swiftly landed in front of me, bobbed its head and chuckled.
I snorted a laugh, my eyes bulging a little as I tried to hold it in with a hoof. Aria’s fierce glare shot to me. She narrowed her eyes on me then snorted in annoyance. She plonked down on her rear and did her best to dust the powder from her twin-tails and head, muttering under her breath the whole time.
I looked at the bird. Somehow, it twisted its beak to grin up at me then cawed. I smiled at it, reaching out to rub its head with my hoof when I noticed something. The ground where it had launched from and the other spot it landed on was splashed with the same white powdery substance as had been on Aria’s head.
Redirecting my hoof, I lightly brushed at one of the spots. Oddly, it was cold to the touch, even through my hard hoof. Leaning down to examine it, I blinked and said, “Huh. Looks like tiny icicles. Kinda like frost.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” Aria muttered, adjusting her hair a little. “Keeping it as a pet?”
“Hadn’t intended to,” I replied. The bird hopped up, fluttering a little before landing on my head. Apparently I was being adopted. The bird leaned down to continue watching me. My eyes crossed as I tried to focus on what was an upside-down bird face to me. “You want to stick with me?”
The bird bobbed its head.
Okay. “You have a name?”
Another head bob.
“And I have to guess it?”
Two excited bobs. I could feel its claws as the bird shifted a little on my head. Okay. I rubbed at my chin with a hoof. I frowned to myself, wondering what its name could possibly be. Considering what we had already seen it do, maybe something that sounded cold. Something about that felt right to me. While running through a mental list, my mouth, as usual, decided to spout something detached from thought. “Sickle?”
The bird bobbed its head rapidly at me and cawed with excitement.
Huh. It accepted the name. Maybe that gut feeling I’d had truly was right.
“Come on, bird brains!” Aria called from the other side of the island. “Let’s keep moving!”
Sickle squawked and hopped down onto my back as I trotted over to Aria.
* * *
We made pretty good progress from there. At least that was my opinion. If the islands were close enough, Aria would hop the gap herself. The longer ones, however, meant she had to climb onto my back again. She wasn’t exactly pleased with the idea, considering what happened the first time. But resigned herself to it as there was just no other way to move forward.
At least the short hops gave me a little practice for the longer ones. Sickle flew alongside me at first. When she noticed me struggling, she looked concerned. She then slipped in front of me doing her best to guide me forward. We continued on that way for what felt like hours. At least the mountainous outcropping we had seen earlier was a lot closer by the time we stopped to rest.
I did my best to lay like I would as a human, but that wasn’t very comfortable. I shifted several times until I found the best position when laying on the exposed ground. Oddly, it meant curling up like a cat. Sickle took roost on the lone branch of our current island’s poor excuse for a tree. The night was chilly. Pony fur was a good insulator. Not the greatest, but good.
I felt a little warmer when I awoke in the morning. I raised my head and blinked sleepily as I surveyed the area. I froze when I found Aria curled up against me. I didn’t move until she finally woke up. She stretched as she rose to her hooves, doing her best to ignore the fact I was staring at her.
She looked at me from the corner of her eye then turned her head away. “Don’t read too much into it. It’s cold out here.”
Her voice quavered as she spoke as if she was trying to force her grumpy nature to the fore. Doing her best to forget the incident happened, she said, “Let’s move. I’m sick of these islands.”
We restarted our journey. Hopping from island to island. Gliding together only when absolutely necessary. Breakfast was a rather strange affair. Well, strange for a human. Simply put, it was grass. The meal was rather drawn out too, considering the small amounts available on each island.
I want to say it was about midday when we finally came to land on a narrow ledge of the mountainous outcropping. I dropped to the ground for a breather. Eyeing Aria, I was sure she was just as winded. Not that she allowed herself to show it. I was definitely beginning to see how her apparent grumpy nature actually stemmed from a stubborn streak as thick and long as the mint colour in her mane and tail.
I took a chance to examine the island we had just left. Its nearest face appeared to have the exact same pattern and shape of broken rocks as the cliff beside us. Maybe it and the other islands had broken away at some point in the past. Exactly how, I was at a loss to explain, but it was interesting to think about.
Our rest came to a quick end with Aria ordering us onward. I couldn’t blame her really. Wherever we were, there was clearly no sign of nearby civilisation. At least the ledge we were confined to meant we no longer had to hop from place to place just to move forward. That was alright with me. My wings were sore from all the gliding, particularly holding them so still every time.
It wasn’t long before I heard a bellowing rumble as it echoed off the mountains beside us. My ears perked up. Okay. That was an interesting sound. Not unlike something I had heard in a few fantasy movies I had snuck in to watch over the years. I turned in time to see Aria sprint past, her hooves pounding the ground as fast as she could manage.
“Run, you dingus!” she yelled back at me. “It’s a dragon!”
“A drag—” I repeated, still unmoving. Okay. Interest piqued! I looked back over my shoulder in time to glimpse a giant winged-lizard of yore lumbering through the sky just beneath the blanket of clouds. At this distance, it appeared to mostly be a white blur. A very large white blur.
A very large white blur which appeared to be lumbering our way. Sickle flew at me, screeching and flapping in my face.
I glanced at the dragon again. It wasn’t much of a blur anymore and was definitely coming towards us. It let out a roar. I shrank at the sight. My ears pressed back against my skull. It was time to go.
I spun on the spot in search of Aria. She was so far ahead already. I slammed my hooves into the ground and bolted after her. The world became nothing more than the pounding of hooves and panting of breath as I chased after Aria in an effort to escape the incoming beast. Thankfully, Aria wasn’t the fastest on her hooves, something I would probably be cursing any minute.
“Is every day in this world as crazy as this?” I yelled, doing my best to try and come alongside Aria. Sickle was flying next to me. Now that I was moving, Sickle didn’t look so flustered about our situation like we were.
“Only if you aren’t the beast hunting some prey!” Aria shouted back. Her head was down and eyes fixed on the narrow cliff edge ahead. There was a sharp left turn coming, one which would trap us against the mountainside if we didn’t move fast enough.
Glancing back, my eyes widened and my pupils shrank in fear. The dragon was a lot closer. Its wings struck the air with a terrible whomp sound from every flap. It was so big and close. Only ocean-going cargo ships would come anywhere near to a similar size and girth.
Its huge jaws opened. So did my tiny ones. Those were some terribly fearsome teeth and a colossal tongue it had.
I faced forward. Aria was barely half a length in front of me. Keep running! Keep running! The corner was so close now. Unfortunately, so was the dragon. Its head reared back as it appeared to draw in breath.
I lowered my head and forced myself forward as fast as I could. Aria was slowing to start the corner. Knowing what I had seen, I threw my left hip and shoulder into Aria, shoving her to the side just as a chilling roar ruptured the air and the coldest, most intense blast struck my right side.
My face twisted in agony. My right front leg suddenly refused to move. I could barely feel it. Same with my right wing. I missed the next step and crashed to the ground. There was a terrible shattering sound. My right side hit the ground and I slid on it before crashing to a halt against the side of the mountain.
I gasped. There was pain. Definitely pain. But I was just too shocked to feel its intensity. From what I could tell, it was pretty well everywhere. Wait, there was also numbness. I guess that was a good thing.
I squinted up from where I lay and glimpsed the rear legs and tail of the dragon passing overhead. The top of Aria’s head bounced into view a few times. When I caught sight of her eyes, they were filled with panic and horror.
“By the deep, your leg!” she gasped. I felt her hooves nudging at my body. “Your wing!”
I blinked to myself and started to move. When the pain flared, I gritted my teeth but kept moving to at least make an assessment of what hurt. What I saw was disturbing. The dragon had truly done a number on me. My right leg and wing were simply missing. Some icy fragments remained clinging to my fur. Sickle landed next to me having just spread a frost layer over my injured flesh. Even without her efforts, the exposed flesh was clearly frostbitten.
Aria was still moving about. Something on the ground nearby made her gasp and step back. I didn’t bother to look.
Instead, I stared at the frostbitten area. The flesh looked like it had been seared. It wasn’t bleeding. My mind was a potent mix of emotions roiling together. I had been a pony with wings for about a day. Now, a leg and wing were gone. Horror was an easy emotion to pick. If this were the real world, I would have just lost my entire right arm. And whatever my right wing had been before my apparent transformation.
There was anger. Anger at the dragon for what it had done. Anger at myself for not doing more to avoid the freezing blast. Not that I really knew what I had been doing when I still had both wings. And that led to the strongest of the emotions fighting for command of my mind; bitterness. All which I had gained in finding my wings was suddenly lost. The freedom, joy, even the thrill in what little hops I had made over gaps between the floating islands. All of that was gone, ripped away with the potential I had been looking forward to in learning to do more than glide.
It was a feeling I would never have again.
“Get up!”
Aria was screaming at me. Her eyes were wide with fear and she was trying to force me onto my hooves. I ignored her. My focus was elsewhere.
In that moment, I hated that dragon. I clenched my jaw and bared my teeth. Every muscle still in my body clenched in response as I metaphorically grasped that bitter feeling deep within myself. Risking greater blood loss, I rolled onto my side so I could see the dragon as it turned in the sky to target us once more.
Everything around me crackled with energy, yet I couldn’t glimpse a single spark. Yes, I now know that it was all inside me, but, at the time, I had no idea.
I let it out in a wordless yell. From the middle of my forehead I felt the power unleash. Whatever it was didn’t release as a simple trickle. No. Instead it burst forth with a thunderous roar which manifest itself as an intense beam of blue light and energy. The power from my skull shot towards the dragon diving straight for us.
The beam and dragon crashed together in the sky above. The dragon’s dive suddenly ended when, for a brief moment, the huge beast stopped before beating its wings to press itself against the tip of the beam and force its way forward.
I was sure there were sounds around me but I didn’t hear them. I simply pressed my remaining front hoof to the ground and forced myself up, bracing myself with my rear hooves as they rose too. Panting at the strain of keeping hold of whatever this power was within my core, I lurched my head up, forcing even more of this strange energy out through my forehead. My words were not to be denied their part in the effort and strain as I screamed at the dragon, “Go a-way!”
The strength of the beam increased along with its girth in a bulbous pulse which shot from my forehead and slammed into the dragon, stopping its gradual approach and hurling it into the distance. The clouds in its path vaporised as the beam and dragon riding it shot through, creating a beacon to be seen from the horizon in any direction.
I stood there, still panting, my eyelids drooping. The beam quickly thinned as I lost hold of the energy source. The dragon disappeared in the distant sky with a faint twinkle as the last of the beam faded from existence.
I gave a weak chuckle. “Hey, look at that. Something about me that isn’t black or white.”
All jokes aside, that was the most exhausting thing I had ever done. My legs suddenly gave out. And down I went. The ground didn’t feel so hard when I collapsed onto it again. In fact, I couldn’t feel much at all. Just the weakness which suddenly pervaded every inch of my body.
I caught a glimpse of a purple and mint coloured mane before passing out.
* * *
I slipped in and out of consciousness so much, my brain struggled to make sense of how long things took to happen. At first, I only glimpsed Aria and Sickle each time my eyes fluttered open. They both looked worried but no longer as panicked like they had been with the dragon.
Later, they were joined by two more fantastic creatures. Or, maybe I just dreamed it with my energy deprived body. The first had the head, beak and wings of an eagle while the rest of its body resembled a lion. Maybe a gryphon? The other looked even more imposing as much as fantastic. There was nothing else I could call this hulking being, other than a minotaur. My brain was swirling too much to argue otherwise.
Next time my mind brushed the world of the living, I felt myself being carried. My head and limbs hung limp and bounced with every movement, yet the arms which held me were incredibly strong. I didn’t glimpse much this time. My surroundings were too dark.
Every time after, I roused briefly only to feel that I was laying on my side. The ground beneath me was hard and cold. There were sounds around me. Nothing I immediately recognised, other than the creak of wood against wood, as more than pitiful groans. Considering my present state, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the groans were my own.
My head was pounding when I finally began to properly stir. I mumbled to myself, but wasn’t sure if anyone heard me. “Remind me…not do…again…”
Just lifting my head caused it to sway. The movement was more than enough to start swirling my brain about. My eyes bulged at the pain and I quickly squeezed them shut and clenched my teeth in a grimace. “Okay. Head still bad. Noted.”
There was a murmur nearby. My ear twitched then swivelled towards the sound. Okay. There were benefits to pony ears over human ones. They could move without aggravating my aching head.
“Monochrome?” The voice was familiar, yet softer than I remembered. “You’re…”
“Ungh,” I grunted, turning my head a little. “Aria?”
I caught a heavy sigh of relief. “You okay?”
I grunted again. “Head hurts. Body weak.”
I forced my eyes open a crack. I was ever so grateful that where I found myself was dimly lit in a pale blue. At least it wasn’t too bright for me to see. In fact, the light appeared to pulse, lighting the area a little stronger every now and again but always returning to that weak glow.
“You?”
A small movement caught my eye. I raised my head enough to get a better look, doing my best not to move too suddenly. Through the blue, I spotted the side of a pony and a vaguely familiar cutie mark on the flank pressed against a couple of evenly spaced metal bars. My brain gave a kick. It was Aria. She was looking anxiously at me.
She didn’t answer my question. She just kept staring at me. I watched her swallow heavily. “You sure you’re all right? You did fight a dragon.”
She cringed as her eyes took in other parts of my body.
“That really happened?” I mumbled. I tried to brush my fringe out of the way with a swipe from my right hoof. Nothing happened. I frowned then gently turned my head to see why. My leg was gone. Aria didn’t need to answer me. The truth was right here. It had all happened.
Still looking at where my leg had once joined at my shoulder, I asked, “Aria?”
“Yeah?” she softly called back.
I blinked slowly. “Why do I feel so tired?”
I heard her let out another sigh. I don’t doubt she thought I was going to ask about my leg. “You used a lot of magic against the dragon.”
My snooter scrunched up as I struggled to understand what she had just said. “What? What are you… What magic?”
Turning my gaze back to her, I could see her still staring at me. Well, not exactly at me. Maybe at my forehead or a little higher. I tried to turn my eyes in search of her fixation. This only caused me to turn my head up until I was staring at the ceiling.
I blinked to myself. There was a brilliant lightshow going on above me. It was clearly the source of the light in the room. Beyond a set of metal bars, I spotted some kind of deep blue crystal affixed to the ceiling. Stretching up to it was a long shaft of pale blue light. The light pulsed as it was sucked upwards and into the crystal. The other end of the light… I frowned again. It appeared to be coming from my forehead.
“Aria?” I asked, eyes fixed on the ceiling. “Why is there blue stuff coming out of my head?”
Aria took a breath to steady herself. “That’s your magic.”
I felt an eyebrow shoot up involuntarily in question. I frowned again. “Thought you called me a bat… whatever.”
“Bat pony,” Aria clarified. “I thought you were. Didn’t know your mane was hiding a horn.”
“Sooo.” My mind did its best to process what it was hearing. “I’m some kind of bat-winged unicorn?”
“Alicorn,” Aria said flatly. Well, what little I could hear of her words anyway. My head was throbbing from the thoughts now rushing through it and my body still felt so very weak.
“Don’t…” I mumbled, my head swaying a little. “Don’t know… what… is…”
My head flopped back to resting on the floor. My eyelids drooped heavily. I swear I heard Aria say something but the exact words were lost on me as I passed out.
* * *
The sound of jingling metal, like a set of large keys, rattled me from my latest sleep. I shuddered at the sound which felt like it was scraping in my ears. I took a small amount of solace in the fact that my body ached a little less and my headache had eased considerably.
I gently shook my head. It only throbbed a little and didn’t leave my head spinning. Lifting my gaze, I caught sight of Aria. She sat pensively watching as someone walked along the passage in front of the metal bars, I now found to be our cages. Still a little groggy, I caught sight of a huge grey form. It was incredibly muscular, walked on two legs and had a pair of long, pointed horns on its head. At least now I could put a bullish face to the minotaur I remembered from my deluded sleep.
Clad in little more than pants to show off his muscles, the minotaur used a gauntleted fist to haul the largest equine I had yet to see along the floor behind him. Much like the minotaur, this pony was muscular in form. Its coat was hard to determine in the light coming from my horn and, strangely, it had no mane or tail.
When the minotaur dragged the pony to the cage opposite mine, I could see several thick criss-crossing scars all around the flank of the pony. With a great heave from his arm, the minotaur hurled the pony into the cell and stood in the open door. Now that he was in front of me, I could see that the minotaur was clutching the thick handle of a whip.
A flicker of light, not unlike fire, burst into existence. The minotaur snarled, drew back his whip and struck the prone pony. I watched as the pony flinched, their body turning rigid at the pain. Even their mouth flew open but no whinny escaped their throat.
“Sit and stew about your actions, Pyrus,” the minotaur growled. “You’re lucky I need you for my greater comforts.”
The minotaur struck out with the whip again.
“Don’t,” I gurgled, watching the pony flinch once more.
The minotaur spun about at my voice, drawing back his whip. I doubted he even knew who he was aiming at when he roared at me and followed through with his whip. “Shut it!”
The whip lashed forward yet again. Instead of striking the scarred hide of the strange fallen pony, it snapped between the bars of my cage. I didn’t see the strike, but I sure felt it. Considering the intensely flaring pain to my right eye, I doubted I’d be seeing much more from it ever again.
My ears caught a high-pitched yelp of pain. It took me a few seconds to realise it was my own. I truly wasn’t used to my new voice yet.
When next I looked using my left eye, my right stung too much, I found the minotaur standing in front of my cage, glaring down on me. I swear there was steam huffing from his nostrils. He reached down, grabbed me by the throat using his gauntleted hand and pulled me so close to him I could smell his breath through the bars.
The moment his gauntlet came in contact with me, I felt my body weaken and the light of the magic being sucked from my forehead dimmed.
“How dare you make demand of me,” the minotaur seethed. “I am your owner, broken Alicorn.”
I swallowed hard. It was all I could do against the strength of his fist wrapped around my neck.
“You would’ve been such a prize had I caught you before you were injured,” said the minotaur. He nodded to Aria’s cage. “Your friend there was adamant it was done by an ice dragon.”
My eye rolled enough to spot Aria. She had moved as far to the back of her cage as the chain attached to her collar would allow. I gasped at the sight of her collar and chain. How had I missed that earlier?
“Far be it for me to call a lady a liar,” the minotaur continued, his rage easing a little as he turned me to keep looking at him. “Not since I have an Ice Dragon of my very own right over there.”
I followed his finger as he pointed to a cage at the far end of the row. There I caught sight of a white-scaled lizard of some kind. It was on the chubby side but I doubted it would be taller than me or Aria. The lizard in question was firmly held against the wall of their cage by thick metal clamps. Even their mouth was firmly clamped shut.
I felt him shake me by the neck again to regain my attention. I squinted at him as I tried to focus on breathing.
“Even without you being pristine. At least your magic can still be of use in powering my ship.” The minotaur nodded to the pony in the cage behind him. “Keep up your demands and I’ll take your tongue like his. Need your magic, not your words.”
I squirmed at the threat. The minotaur then tossed me aside and I crashed to the floor, sliding a little to the bars of Aria’s cage. I lay there, crumpled on the floor, listening to the sounds of the minotaur as he slammed and locked the cage door of the pony across from me. Then I heard his hooves clopping on the floor of the walkway before he disappeared through another door. Of course, he slammed it behind him in his anger.
I coughed a couple of times, feeling my throat relax. I don’t doubt my neck was bruised, every inch he had grasped with his fingers still felt like they were there, squeezing tight.
“He was polite when we met him,” Aria muttered. “Until he got us onboard. Then he threw us in here, slapped me in chains and put that ring on your horn.”
“Really?” I rasped, my throat still stinging. Now that he wasn’t holding me, the light of my magic increased, allowing me to see Aria more clearly.
Aria nodded, finally moving away from the back of her cage.
“Felt so weak… when he grabbed me,” I said, swallowing to ease my throat.
“That was his gauntlet,” Aria explained. “Bragged about it when he grabbed me to bring me down here. Suppresses even innate magic so you can’t hurt him.”
She eyed my forehead again. “Sort of like the ring. Said it sucks out a unicorn’s magic, enough to keep them weak but not kill them.”
She sighed and pressed her back to the bars between our cages. “Just wanted to find my sisters. Happy to be back in my home world but…”
Aria waved a hoof at the cage in general. “This—”
Her voice trailed off and she hung her head.
My head drooped. I had to agree. With all which had happened to us and now being imprisoned, we were a long way from our original purpose for being together. Aria’s sisters were back home. A place I had no idea how to reach. Not to mention, if I ever had the ability to get back home, would there be anything left of me to do so without collapsing in a bloody heap?
Also, I had magic? Something which, even if I knew how to use it to our benefit, was being sucked away to a crystal in the ceiling, apparently by a ring on a horn I didn’t previously know was attached to my head. There was nothing I could do. I was in a dark cage. One of many containing other fantastic creatures of this strange world.
Maybe I should rest more? Something I doubted would be easy after the whip strike. My right eye stung and throbbed much like my head had after the fight with the dragon. I set my head down and sighed, letting my breath form a soft whistle as I closed my left eye and tried to relax.
Many meals of incredibly dry hay followed. Not in massive amounts, but at least it was something. The ring on my recently discovered horn and the crystal high above were relentless in sucking up my magic, my physical energy along with it. The hay did little to replace any of it.
Add to that was the noise. It was a never-ending hiss of rain which grew in intensity then weakened only to rise again. It was slightly muffled, so I could easy to tell it was outside. It reminded me of some of the storms I’d listened to while hunkered down in a few of the older places I found abandoned.
It lashed at the outer hull of the ship, even causing it to creak to one side away from the strongest blasts of wind. It was a storm which I could swear, whoever was steering the ship, was constantly steering us into. It was the only explanation for how long it lasted without any reprieve. It also made sleep very light, not that it wasn’t already thanks to my low energy and the throbbing of my injuries; my eye in particular.
The headache I was cultivating was set to be one of the greatest ever felt by human or ponykind in all of history.
The only benefit of the constantly raging storm was the minotaur didn’t come visiting while it continued to buffet the ship. At least, I thought it was the only benefit considering it was also freezing in the cages, even with an actual fire horse nearby. That was until I spotted a pale mass of feathers lurking in the darkness.
I braced myself against a bar of my cell, one of the furthest away from Aria. Not my fault, the cage floor provided little purchase for hooves whenever the ship lurched to a side. Setting that annoyance aside, I squinted at the mass of feathers. It was piled against the wall at the end of the walkway between the cages. What it was or how it had come to be there, I wasn’t exactly sure. I was so tired I tended to slip into sleep for a few moments, only to awake what felt like seconds later with everything going on outside.
I shivered. It was so much colder on this side of the cage, closer to the feathers. Bitterly so. I let out a shuddering breath only for it to taper off into a weak whistle. I mentally cursed myself for doing so as it stabbed into my aching head. What I didn’t expect, was for the mass of feathers to move at the whistle as well. A bird head, draped in slick, pale plumage, snapped up from the mass of feathers and stared straight at me.
My jaw fell and I let out another shivering gasp. “S-Sickle?”
“What?” came a sleepy mumble from Aria’s cage.
Sickle didn’t jump to me as she had on previous occasions, at least not at first. She appeared to be fixated on something. What it was, I struggled to understand in the gloom of our prison. But when she finally did, she slipped through the bars of my cage and rubbed her head against mine. She was an amazingly slender bird after all.
After a quick reunion session, Sickle hopped away. I frowned as I watched her flutter up to the door lock then wrap her body around it as best she could. She perched awkwardly there for nearly a minute. When she finally hopped away, I was greeted with an odd sight. In the pale blue glow given off by my horn, I caught a strange shimmer of something clear now encasing the lock.
Whatever this bird was doing, she was clearly focused on continuing to do it as she moved to the lock on Aria’s cage. I couldn’t exactly inspect the lock for my cage. It was above my head and I was rather unsteady on my feet with the storm still shaking the ship. It wasn’t until Sickle had moved on from Aria’s cage to that of the huge pony the minotaur had called Pyrus that we discovered at least what she was doing.
Aria, balancing on her rear hooves, rose up and tapped at the lock of her cage with a forehoof. She sounded just as baffled by the bird’s antics as I was. “Ice?”
My brow furrowed as I watched Sickle working on the lock of Pyrus’ cage. What was this bird up to?
Evidently, Pyrus was just as interested in these strange events. He stood watching the bird intently but didn’t utter a word. When Sickle moved away from the lock, Pyrus approached. I watched as he carefully touched the lock with his nose then immediately snapped his head away from it as if burned. He stared at the lock for a moment, then a knowing smirk graced his snooter.
The huge pony took a step back then turned on the spot. Taking care to keep his eye on the lock, he tapped a rear hoof twice on the floor, eliciting a spark from the metal. With the spark came the most terrifying thing I had seen in this world since the approach of the dragon. The entirety of Pyrus’ hoof and fetlocks, up to almost his knee, erupted in flames. My jaw hit the floor.
I watched in a twisted mix of horror and morbid curiosity as Pyrus turned his hoof about. And, I swear, I’m not making this up, it looked as if much of his leg was now criss-crossed in a spiderweb of tiny orange rivers. The things even appeared to flow from where they first appeared near his hip, all the way down to his fire-engulfed hoof. And yet, the weirdest thing was, his flesh appeared otherwise unaffected by the flames.
It was completely mesmerising. Even the colour of the fire began to change! Starting with yellow, it shifted through orange and even green before intensifying into a deep blue.
Seeming happy with the state of the flame, Pyrus drew up his leg then lashed out with his fiery hoof. It struck the frozen lock with a dull ‘crack’. It was such a lacklustre sound for what it accompanied. Simply put, the lock exploded sending fragments flying. Thankfully, none of them hit me. I sighed. Finally, something went my way in this world!
With the lock obliterated, Pyrus turned and pushed his way out of his cage. This led him to standing in front of my cage. Looking at his hooves alone, they dwarfed mine. Taking in the rest of Pyrus’ body as he towered before me, I gulped. I felt so tiny. Sure I wasn’t very tall as a human, but as a pony in the shadow of this giant, I was probably considered a foal. Seriously. Were all male ponies this big? Because he was clearly a male pony from what I could see. The only equivalent I had for him horse-wise from my human life was to compare him to a Clydesdale.
I shook my head then squeezed my eyes shut and did my best to turn away. Crack. Pyrus’ hoof smashed the lock of my cage. I opened my eyes to find him standing there with a hoof holding the door open for me.
I swallowed heavily, taking a moment to carefully rise onto my three legs. I can’t say I was graceful on them, but, with a little effort, I managed to hobble my way out to the walkway between the cages. Pyrus gave me a short nod then let the door swing shut. He left me standing there while he moved on to the door to Aria’s cage.
The whole ship shuddered with the sound of wood grinding against something. I stumbled. Reaching out with a leg I no longer had for balance, I fell and hit the floor. I lay there for several long seconds, oddly grateful for the walkway between the cages being wood instead of the metal bases of the cages themselves.
When I recovered, I found myself with my nose pointed deep into the spot I had first seen Sickle. If I had to describe what I found first, it was that the spot was absolutely freezing. Not only to breathe in, but to touch. There was a clear layer of frost covering a small part of the floor where it met the wall. The wall itself was another story. Instead of frost, the wood was coated with ice, much like my door lock. Incredibly hard ice from what I found when I accidentally knocked my horn against it.
The wood didn’t even sound like wood. Instead, it gave a dull thud similar to the sound of striking a stone. And trust me, it felt like stone, as my horn clearly let me know. This was how I also learned how sensitive a unicorn horn can be as the unintended strike left my eyes watering. Great! Another point of pain for my body. Was this ever going to end?
I heard another loud crack followed by the grind of a metal gate shifting. I turned to see Pyrus pushing his way into Aria’s cell. Aria, of course, wasn’t yet on her hooves. I spotted Sickle in the gloom nearby, her body pressed to the floor and wings spread out. Exactly why didn’t become clear until after she abandoned her task and returned to press herself against the wall beside me.
I watched Aria cringe back as fire surrounded one of Pyrus’ forehooves. He held it up, letting his flames grow as he readied himself then slammed his hoof down. His hoof struck with the terrible crack of one of his door kicks, sending fragments of frozen metal flying. Thankfully, both he and Aria turned their heads away to shield themselves.
When Aria rose from the floor, I could see the results of Sickle and Pyrus’ work. The chain attached to Aria’s metal collar now ended a few links above the floor. How did I forget about her chain and collar again? Wow this bird and pony combo was effective! I noticed Pyrus turn his head to the dragon confined in the far cell as he pushed and held open the door to Aria’s cell with his body.
I rose from the floor in an attempt to hobble toward Aria, a smile gracing my snooter for the first time in what was probably a week.
Then I heard it. My attention snapped to the exit door of our prison. A gryphon strode in then, noticing us out of our cages, abruptly stopped. The gryphon didn’t remain in place for long. He flared his wings and let out a terrible shriek from his beak. “Hey!”
Even before the next words escaped the gryphon, Pyrus had turned his back on the dragon he couldn’t so easily help now, snatched Aria up and held her, much to her sudden look of protest, tucked under his front leg. Her words of complaint weren’t what reached my ears.
“Pets esca—!” the gryphon shrieked, his head cocked to the door even as he tried to keep an eye on us.
It was the last we heard from that gryphon as a loud bang reverberated through the ship. The ship lurched violently to the side, the floor tilting dangerously. The gryphon was thrown at the nearest cage, his head becoming lodged between two bars. I tried to scrabble at the floor with my hooves but found no purchase as I skidded backwards. My legs still flailing, I peered anxiously over my shoulder. There was Sickle, perched in the middle of the ice she was spreading through the curved, outer wall of the room.
A sound like fire consuming a vat of gasoline erupted with a fwoosh! My attention snapped back to the middle of the room in time to catch sight of Pyrus, his body engulfed in flames, as he kicked off from the floor. Even Aria, who was still tucked under a front leg of Pyrus, was wrapped in flames. My eye grew wide and jaw dropped in terror, watching as the flaming mass of pony sailed past me.
Sickle screeched. I caught a glimpse of her fluttering plumage before Pyrus’ flaming rear left hoof crashed into the ice-covered wall. His leg buckled with the impact, sending cracks through the ice and the wood. The rest of his body slammed into the wall and burst straight through. Where once was wall, I could now see the tops of trees as they reached for the ship.
Gritting my teeth, I scrabbled at the floor, flailing my legs in search of purchase. No matter what I tried, I could feel myself continuing to slip backwards, gaining in speed as the ship continued to list to the side. A mass of feathers and bird slammed into my face, blinding me from everything in the room and knocking me from the floor.
With Sickle wrapped around my head, I tumbled backwards and through the hole in the side of the ship. Thankfully, I didn’t crash against the broken edges of the hole as we passed. I closed my eyes at that point, not that it really helped. We were still falling and the rain was now striking my body with a thousand tiny needles. I felt Sickle shift from my head. I bit my tongue when her talons suddenly grasped the loose hide of my neck and shoulders.
There was a jolt. I swear my tongue was bleeding now. My back probably was too as the tips of Sickle’s talons suddenly pierced my flesh. That first jolt was followed by several weaker ones. Not that they stopped my hide from stinging any less. Seriously, was this world’s hatred of my body ever going to end? It was an answer I was soon to get, not that I would like it. At least the jolts made it feel like we weren’t falling any faster.
The needle-like rain was quickly joined by the sting and crack of what felt like hundreds of sharp branches striking and tearing at me as we fell. The only solace came with the fact that they helped to slow our fall even further. Not that it was a great thing. It was honestly an eternity in my mind before we reached the ground. We landed with a heavy thump and crumpled in a heap together. Sickle and I lay there simply trying to catch our respective breaths after the craziness of what probably, in truth, lasted only a few seconds.
Please world, can I go home now? The novelty of this place is long gone.
* * *
After a few minutes to gather myself both mentally and physically, I forced my aching body to sit up, unintentionally dumping Sickle onto the ground next to me. Sickle let out an indignant squawk, ruffled her feathers at me and shot me the best glare she could muster. I leaned forward and rubbed my cheek against her head. Seriously, this bird had just rescued me for the second time I knew of since landing in this world. It was the least I could do to show my gratitude. Hopefully I would be able to thank her properly with some kind of reward.
I looked about then frowned. Once we figured out where we were, other than in a forest during what felt like a monsoonal storm. My frown deepened. We would have to find Aria as well. Not to mention Pyrus. He was the one to physically break us out after all. Not to diminish any of Sickle’s work weakening the locks, chain and wall even the slightest. She was the key hero in my escape after all.
I peered up, hoping the somehow flying ship hadn’t spotted us in either our fall or landing. I doubted anyone would spot us from above, there was too much foliage even for me to glimpse the sky. I scrunched my snooter. Didn’t stop the rain from reaching us though. The plants I could see in the pale blue glow of my horn, apparently my horn was still active, looked like nothing I had seen before.
Of course I didn’t recognise anything. This was a completely different world populated by sentient quadrupeds who could fly or fling magic, sometimes both. Even self-immolation without injury was a very real possibility. By the night, there were even what I assumed were wooden sailing ships which could fly! And here I was, sitting in a mud puddle, injured far more than I ever thought possible with a clearly intelligent bird by my side surrounded by a strange forest which kept everything rather dark.
One good thing, even if my horn was still somehow emitting light, my energy wasn’t being drained as drastically as before. No matter which way I looked, there was no trail of pulsating light shooting off in search of the crystal back on the ship. I sighed with relief. At least the minotaur and his gryphons wouldn’t be able to track me that way. Small victories in a world which was clearly against me, I guess.
“Well,” I said, shifting my gaze from Sickle to my single front hoof. “We should probably be moving.”
Standing up was a peril I wasn’t looking forward to. Pony hooves weren’t exactly the best at gripping when compared to human toes. I would even give everything beneath the stars to have fingers and hands again. At least with them, I’d be able to crawl my way out of the muck. Still, I pushed forward.
Once I was finally on my hooves, albeit shakily so, I looked to Sickle, as I hopped for my first hobbled step, and asked, “Any idea where Ari-iiiiiiiiii!”
SPLAT!
My entire undercarriage was back in the mud. I snorted in annoyance then restarted the slippery job of regaining my hooves. Now that much of me was liberally covered in mud, doing so became a far more difficult task; one which was made harder with every return to the puddle which inevitably followed.
All right, this sucks. I was already sick of landing my snooter and chest in the muck. Curse that dragon. It didn’t help that my depth perception was all but destroyed. That minotaur can go rot for all I care. It was clear that, with all I had been though, this world hated me. There was just no other way to look at it.
Also, I was sure Sickle was laughing at me.
And, just to rub it further in, the world decided to prove me wrong as a set of mud-splattered pale purple hooves splashed into view. I rolled my eye up to peer past my sopping mane. There was Aria staring down at me. It was difficult to tell what she was thinking. Her expression was rather blank as Pyrus loomed into view over her.
Just from looking at them, it was clear how they had survived the fall. Even with the driving rain doing its best to strip the muck from their coats, it was still easy to see they had landed in a large puddle of mud, not unlike my own. The remaining streaks of filth ran in rivulets from the very tops of their ears, all the way to their hooves.
I blinked at that and frowned. Pyrus, the still slightly sizzling pony, was now standing on three legs. No, he wasn’t missing a leg, he was just keeping his rear left one gingerly raised even when he wasn’t moving about.
I let loose a heavy sigh, my chin still in the mud as I muttered, “This world can rot.”
“Sounds like you’re finally seeing this place from my point of view,” said Aria. “Equestria was never kind to those it deemed unworthy of living here.”
“Nice to know,” I said, studying the very tip of my nose. It was easier than trying to get to my feet and failing yet again.
My reward for giving up on getting up? Pyrus. The stoic pony limped his way to my side. His hooves hissed whenever they touched the wet ground. I caught a glimpse of dry, cracked ground whenever his hooves rose from the mud. He was baking the ground itself with every step. Wow this horse was interesting!
Although, this ground-drying ability wasn’t what Pyrus had in mind for helping me. Oh, no. Instead, he bent down out of my sight. I didn’t need to see him to know what he did next. He pressed his head against my rear. My head and ears shot up in alarm. The rest of my body stiffened instantly. Okay. I’m a mare now. Even if I was a stallion this would’ve been considered a rather personal interaction.
Thankfully, his contact with my back end didn’t last long. With a strong heave of his neck, Pyrus’ head forced me forward, out of the puddle and onto my incredibly rigid legs. I don’t doubt the look on my face was priceless. The teasing chuckle from Aria told me without words. My body, even after Pyrus had stepped back into view, was still rather shocked by the whole thing. It was several minutes before my muscles even dared to slacken to any degree.
Yeah… that was something, all right. Don’t judge the newly transformed who are yet to truly become accustomed to their new bodies. Maybe you would understand if it happened to you?
Now that I was standing and away from that infernal puddle, I took the chance to look over my companions, Pyrus in particular considering I had only seen him through the gloom of the cells on the ship until now. He still had some yellow-orange fire about him, specifically licking at his fetlocks and actually in place of a mane and tail. It was an interesting look with his mostly charcoal coat.
It was about that time, when I realised I was staring and, even though it was uncomfortable, I decided introductions were in order. Not that we needed to know his name. The minotaur had said it. I frowned. Wait, that didn’t mean Pyrus was his name. It could’ve just been something the minotaur had forced on him out of spite. Much like when he had called me broken.
I turned the question to Pyrus. All I got was an emphatic nod. Pyrus was indeed his name. So, I pressed forward with my stalled introductions and gestured with my wing to Aria. “This is Aria Blaze.”
The Stallion arched an eyebrow at that.
“And her name’s Chromia,” Aria announced before I had the chance to speak again.
I caught a snicker from her and glared in return. I turned to the stallion and did my best to correct Aria. “I’m Monochrome.”
I sighed in annoyance and let my head droop along with my ears. Looking up at the stallion, I said, “Thanks, Pyrus.”
Up went his eyebrow again. His focus on me didn’t last long. I was thankful for it being so brief. His huge, muscular form towering over my rather petite one was incredibly intimidating. The fact he couldn’t speak made him even more so.
It was also Pyrus who started us walking toward what we hoped would be the edge of the forest. Well, he began walking. Aria and I simply fell in with him. Even if we were a strange little group, it was probably better for us to stick together.
What followed was a long journey. One I tried to help us through by being my inquisitive self. I know it was probably annoying, but I wouldn’t say I was used to having travelling companions on my usual journeys.
Ignoring the unusual state I was in, I was still incredibly curious about things. Whether they were the strange plants we passed or something about ponies or other creatures in general. Pyrus was his stoic silent self during all of the mental musings I decided to air.
Aria, I can easily say, wasn’t so tolerant of my continuous questions and observations. I could see it was grating on her. Her shoulders were tense, much like her jaw, and, whenever she looked my way, she did so with a scowl of annoyance. Her sense of pity over my injuries was lost long ago in the forest behind us.
As I kind of mentioned earlier, keeping company wasn’t really something I had to do very often. Normally, as with Aria when I had helped her as a human, I would say little. There wasn’t much to talk about, especially when the other person didn’t talk back. But here… everything was just too fantastical for my brain to process without voicing it to all who could listen. It was when I wanted to know more about how Pyrus could exist while emitting flames from his body, that I realised I had pushed things with Aria a little far.
“He’s a what?” I asked, wondering if I had heard her correctly.
“A Nightterror,” Aria replied. “A rare type of pony from when I was last here.”
She gave a little shrug. “There were lots of different pony types back then. Pegasi, Unicorns, Sea ponies, Earth ponies, Sirens, Alicorns—”
I frowned. “Sirens? Like the singing fish women from fantasy tales who lead men to their doom using their voices?”
The glare Aria turned on me was so horrifying it was nigh indescribable. Thankfully, between my damaged right eye and ever-weak left eye, I barely noticed it.
“More than that,” Aria spat icily.
I glanced up at Pyrus. Unsurprisingly, he said nothing. Looking to the bird hovering above my head, Sickle gave a wary chirp. I should’ve heeded their warnings. Instead, I pressed on, asking, “What makes you so sure about what Sirens were supposed to do? They’re just myths from drunk sailors bored at sea.”
“I’m one, you dingus!” Aria seethed. “Sirens use their crystals to enhance their voices and adjust the emotions of others to feast upon. We do NOT cause the doom of others!”
I froze in my tracks and quickly put my third hoof down, lest I fall. My head turned toward Aria like that of a jolting clockwork toy. The look I gave, along with the time it took for me to speak again, stole away a touch of Aria’s anger, replaced by grimacing concern.
“So, should I wait for you to ensnare me with your wondrous voice?”
Aria’s concern was instantly incinerated at what I had intended as a light-hearted jab. Why wouldn’t it be true? I was the living embodiment of myth and legend right then. Her voice lashed ferociously at me as she snapped, “I can’t!”
I only blinked a second, not realising the hornet’s nest I had poked.
“Sure you can,” I said. “That’s what Sirens are supposed to do and you just told me you’re a Siren.”
She abruptly stopped and turned her head to face me. I could see the rage burning in her eyes and the strain in her jaw as she clenched her teeth. Maybe I pushed that a little far. I had no chance to correct myself as Aria unleashed another verbal strike. “Do you see a crystal hanging from my neck? Do I look like a depiction of what ponies call a monster?”
I shrank a little from her anger. Yep, definitely pushed her a little too much. “N-No…”
“Of course not!” Aria continued to fume. “My crystal was shattered when I was last at Canterlot High by some purple Alicron in human form, named Twilight Sparkle, and her friends! It was the last night I saw my sisters! Without my crystal I’m just a regular pony! But I doubt you know what that feels like.”
I couldn’t help but cringe. “Sorry. I didn’t—”
She glared at me before stamping a forehoof. I swore I heard the ground crack beneath her, even with it still being sodden from the rains, before she spat her rage at me. “I didn’t ask for your pity.”
“I-I wasn’t trying to—”
Pyrus hobbled up between us, doing his best to keep us separated. He eyed me for a few seconds, making sure I was paying attention to him, then shook his head. I guess that was his way of telling me to keep my mouth shut and drop the subject. He was right. My head sank and my ears flattened in humility. Pyrus was absolutely right.
From then on, much of the journey through the forest was conducted in relative silence. The anger I had unintentionally fuelled in Aria was more than enough for me to take time to think about my words. When I wasn’t thinking about keeping my balance and how much my hobbling was slowing us down, of course. I stole many glances at Pyrus as we continued on. Even with his broken leg, I was still the greatest burden on our progress.
It was thoughts like that which dragged me back toward the melancholy I had endured in the cages on the minotaur’s ship. Truly, this world hated me. It was the only explanation for everything it threw at me and how much of a burden I was becoming to those around me.
By the time we reached the outskirts of a small village, not only had another day passed and my melancholy had started to spiral into darker territory, but I was so tired from having to hurl my front leg forward to stop myself falling from every step that I was now several lengths behind Aria who had stalked out ahead.
Pyrus, however, repeatedly hung back, keeping Aria in sight while trying to silently encourage my huffing and puffing self onward. I took back the idea that the ring on my horn no longer had an effect on my energy. The damage was clearly already done, for when we finally caught up with Aria and stood beside her on the crest of a hill overlooking the village, most of which reminded me of old European townships, the last of my energy slipped away.
My eyelid drooped as I swayed on the spot. I tried to steady myself by throwing out my front right leg for balance. And down I went. My eyes were closed even before I hit the ground. I was so tired that the thump of my body as it finally fell prone in search of rest didn’t even register in my mind. I simply passed out.
I awoke on a bed. I knew it had to be a bed because it was so much more comfortable than anything I had slept on since arriving in this world.
A light sheet clung to my body, doing its best to pin me to the bed. I didn’t care. I was still so tired and my legs ached from walking. And my right eye still throbbed. And my back— You get the picture. Pretty well every part of my body hurt in some way.
I shifted beneath the sheet, doing my best to try and sit up.
I heard an excited gasp and someone began to speak. “Hello. My name is—”
I didn’t hear what was said next. It wasn’t a voice I knew so I quickly pulled up as much sheet as possible to keep my missing limbs from being noticed.
There, standing just beyond the foot of my bed, was a purple pony. A mare. She had a deep purple mane with pinkish highlights and… was a Unicorn, by the horn parting her fringe. Wait. She had wings. Feathered ones tucked against her sides unlike my leathery one. So, this was what an Alicorn looked like from the outside.
I narrowed my gaze on her. “Are you a doctor?”
Her smile faltered. “Well, no.”
She caught herself and quickly made to endear herself to me. “But, I was requested to attend by your presiding doctor.”
Her smile grew even further as she stepped up to the very foot of my bed. “It isn’t every day we have a new Alicorn simply turn up in a hospital bed.”
I blinked. It was far too early and my body ached too much to be dealing with some pony trying to be so chipper as this purple one. I groaned and turned my head to the side. I could see Pyrus standing in front of a door in the corner; his rear left leg still raised gingerly to keep it from touching anything.
“Go away,” I murmured.
“Pardon?” the purple one asked.
I turned my head to face the purple Alicorn, secretly glad my hair was still covering my damaged eye.
“Look,” I said as kindly as I could muster. “It’s been a long couple of days. We’re all tired and have injuries so just let the three of us—”
And the purple one decided to interject. She seemed far too happy for me to deal with right now and was clearly not interested in anything other than what she wanted, no matter how pleasantly she was told to piss off. “Three? I’m sorry, are you counting your odd-looking bird?”
She squinted her gaze as she examined Sickle who was sitting on the nearby window ledge. “Which looks sort of like a phoenix.”
“Huh,” I grunted, looking at Sickle. “So that’s what she is? Could’ve fooled me with her icy touch.”
The door in front of Pyrus gave a click and began to open, much to the mute giant’s apparent glee.
“Icy?” the purple one began. “I thought phoenixes…”
Her voice trailed off as I caught a glimpse of Aria stepping out of what must have been a bathroom. Aria sighed to herself then turned her head and froze. Her pupils shrank as she drank in the sight of the purple Alicorn in the room.
My gaze shot back and forth between the two. The purple interloper appeared just as startled as Aria by the other’s presence. There was little chance to verbally probe the possible history between them before the purple one turned her head a little but not enough to take her eyes off Aria. She called over her shoulder to the open room door. “Girls!”
Wait. Purple Alicorn? That had been described to me before. My mind blanked as other ponies, all mares, began to saunter in. An orange-coated blonde wearing a Stetson. A white unicorn with an overly groomed purple mane and tail. Two pegasi, one butter yellow with strawberry blonde mane and tail so long they must have hampered her flying, and a cyan one with the most interesting mane and tail I had yet seen. It was an actual rainbow. Finally, a pink on pink pony bounced in. She appeared the bubbliest of the bunch, grinning joyously from ear to ear.
The pink one let out a huge gasp at the sight of me, Aria and Pyrus, while one of the others, I didn’t catch which, the pink one was so distracting, asked, “What ya hollerin’ for, Twi?”
The purple Alicorn’s horn became wrapped in a deep pink glow as she spoke and thrust a hoof toward Aria. “It’s one of the Sirens who attacked the school! Stop her!”
Gritting her teeth at being confronted, Aria took a step back. With no more hesitation, the purple Alicorn charged forward, her head down as she readied the glow of her horn. The purple Alicorn. Aria. My thoughts clicked into place and I tossed the bedsheet aside.
Pyurs hobbled as he turned to face the commotion. When he saw what was happening, he moved to shield Aria. He gritted his teeth and his fiery mane, tail and fetlocks erupted in a vicious blue fury. The purple one kept up her charge and released her magic, striking the ground in front of Pyrus as she tried to make him back away.
Aria, backed into a wall now, shook her head in fear and tried to brace herself for the coming attack. She was cornered.
Considering my difficulties in being three-legged, I threw myself from the bed, my horn sparking to life even before I hit the ground. That impact was bone jarring. I felt it ripple through every joint in my body. I ground my teeth together to force the pain aside and flicked my head to face the charging purple one. She was far closer than I expected causing me to gasp with surprise.
My magic ignited. The purple one suddenly tried to slam on her brakes, but she was too late. She crashed snooter first into a previously non-existent wall of blue light. The other ponies, having not joined their friend’s charge, let out shocked gasps. Some moved to help while others glared ineffectually at me through the shield I had conjured in alarm.
Once she was back on her hooves and she had assured her friends she was unharmed, the purple Alicorn faced my companions again, only to find me, standing crouched forward with my good side facing her, glaring darkly at her.
“What are you doing?” she demanded. “She’s a Siren.”
“I know,” I bit back. Speaking was already becoming difficult and I was also squinting with my weak eye. My eyelid twitched with the strain as I kept the blue shield up between my companions and the other ponies. The only member of our group not within my shield was Sickle who was more interested in sitting on the windowsill preening herself.
“She bends ponies to her whims and makes them fight each other against their friends,” the purple one continued. It was a warning I wasn’t interested in heeding.
I let out a ragged breath before speaking. “She has no crystal and no magic. She told me so herself.”
“She’s just trying to trick you,” the purple one declared. “Just think of what she can do with an Alicorn under her control!”
I stomped my back-left leg. It was the only one I could use for emphasis without toppling over. “She told me how her crystal was broken, making you a threat to my friend, so back off!”
The purple one flinched at that. She took a moment to study my shield as it kept us cocooned along with the bathroom. Well, at least we would be able to relieve ourselves if this drew into a prolonged confrontation. Not that time was really a help to us.
At least it didn’t take much on my part to keep the shield up. I could actually feel the ring around the base of my horn performing its task of pulling the magical essence from within me. The fact it was being used to create a shield instead of powering an airship didn’t seem to matter, so long as I was being drained. The draining itself was beginning to wear on me though.
The standoff lasted for what felt like hours, though I doubt it was anywhere near that long. The doctors and nurses stayed away for the duration while the Alicorn and her friends remained between us and the only door out of the room.
What I had hoped to at least turn into a stalemate was quickly, at least in my mind, becoming a losing battle. I was letting out deep breaths while my left eyelid drooped. The shield was using more and more of my magical essence. If nothing happened soon, my magic would fail like with the dragon attack, I would pass out and the purple Alicorn would lunge for Aria again.
It was only a matter of time.
Thankfully, something happened which not even our opponents seemed to expect; other than the purple Alicorn.
Considering everything I had been through and encountered since arriving in this strange world, the fact that what I experienced next could be declared the strangest was saying something. For through the door stepped the tallest, most regal-looking pony I had yet seen. Her coat was alabaster, while her mane and tail, a faded rainbow in colour, wafted gently on an invisible breeze.
She smiled as she approached the purple Alicorn who bowed to her and said, “Princess Celestia! I’m so glad you’re here.”
The tall Alicorn, Celestia, bowed her head faintly to the purple one and said, “Of course, my beloved student. However, your letter was vague. What exactly is the ma—”
Celestia’s words caught in her throat and her eyes widened a fraction when she noticed me and my companions. It took her a few moments to regain her composure. “Now, this is very unexpected.”
“What is, dear sister?” asked a much more commanding regal voice as another Alicorn entered the room. This one, though taller than most other ponies, was not quite as tall as Celestia. Her coat was the deepest blue, while her mane was a match for the night sky itself with its dark background and starry field which, like that of Celestia, moved on its very own breeze.
“Princess Luna,” gasped the orange pony wearing the stetson.
Sickle, hearing the voice of the new arrival, Luna, leapt from her perch to fly gracefully about her head.
“Oh,” Luna gasped, her voice a mix of surprise and joy with a hint of regret. “So wonderful to see thee, Sickle. It hath been such a very long time.”
Sickle landed on the foot of the bed and cawed happily up at Luna. Luna smiled at the phoenix before turning to the others.
“Now,” Luna declared. I was sure she was just speaking normally, but her inflections were so much louder than anyone else. “Twilight Sparkle, to what is the urgency of thine—”
When Luna looked towards us, her words suddenly failed her. Her mouth kept moving but nothing came out. She stared at my little clutch of ponies, her mouth agape, and she stepped forward.
I kept the ring directed into forming the shield around us as the regal blue Alicorn approached. When she reached the shield, I glared up at her with my weak left eye; at least I could make her out with that one. In return, Luna stared at me, actually lowering her head to my level. She didn’t seem interested in Aria or Pyrus. Just me. She appeared to be studying me, yet a glint of a tear grew in the corner of her eye.
Maybe it was a good thing I had my uninjured side to the crowd and the fringe of my mane covered my right eye.
When she finally regained her voice, she whispered a single word, “Selene?”
I stared at Luna, my shield wavering in strength as my mind shifted focus. I sucked in a deep breath to steady my words. “My name is Monochrome.”
Luna cocked her head to the side and blinked at me several times. She raised her head to tower regally over me.
“We guess,” she said, scrunching her snooter, “it is a serviceable name, just from the sake of appearances. However, it was not the one thou were gifted upon thine birth.”
“G-Gifted on bir-th?” I panted, doing my best to follow the conversation. The ring on my horn had other ideas in drawing my attention as it continued to suck my magic into the shield. My body trembled as I tried to brace myself. I only succeeded at gasping in small breaths. “What a-are—”
Celestia must have noticed my physical struggle as she interjected. “Young one, please, lower your shield if you feel it strains you so.”
“Why?” I said, unintentionally snapping at her. I tried to nod at the purple Alicorn. “Th-That one will…”
I blinked hard several times. “Attack m-my friend…”
Even though I had more to say, I watched Celestia startle in surprise at my words. She glanced back at the purple one who opened her mouth and took a breath to speak, but stopped herself as she recoiled in a guilty cringe.
Celestia sighed and turned her head back to face me and my companions. “You have my word, neither of you will come to harm. You are all safe here.”
Even with the promise, I eyed the purple Alicorn warily before daring to focus on the energy passing through my horn. The ring erupted in sparks. I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth, bracing against the pain as the sparks lashed at my face and mane.
I heard a gasp nearby but did my best to ignore it. I needed to concentrate and the strikes from each spark were already distracting enough. All I wanted to do was stop the flow of magic so I began a mental chant of ‘STOP! STOP! STOP!’.
It took several minutes of constantly thinking the same word before the shield began to weaken. By then, my mental chant was beginning to give me a headache. Keeping my eyes firmly shut, I didn’t notice anyone approach until I felt another horn touch the tip of mine. The instant our horns connected, my magic flow ceased. My muscles were so clenched against the flow that, when it suddenly stopped, I jolted forward.
“Easy now.” Again, the voice of Celestia graced my ears.
I opened my eye and found her smiling as she stood before me in place of Luna who had taken a step aside, her face gripped with concern.
Ignoring them both, I simply tried to steady myself. My head felt oh so very woozy and my body swayed in place.
With my barrier no longer distorting things, both groups could clearly see each other. Everyone grew quiet as each group studied the other from across the small divide. Unsurprisingly, my companions and I warily watched, waiting to be charged at like earlier. No one stepped to close the gap. Instead, it was Luna, who had been examining Aria and Pyrus from afar, who broke the silence.
“Thine companions are…” Luna paused as she looked over at Aria and Pyrus. “Interesting. It hath been many centuries since We have stood in the presence of both Siren and Nightterror.”
She closed her eyes and let out a breath. Her expression softened before she set her gaze on me again. A faint smile graced the corners of her mouth. “To see thou once more.”
Luna cocked her head as she appraised the side of my body facing her; my relatively undamaged side. “A grown mare by non-Alicorn standards…”
She shook her head as regret gripped her expression and breath. “We are greatly pained to have missed thy growth.”
I remained still, my mouth agape and snooter crinkled as I stared at this taller Alicorn in confusion. My left eyelid twitched as I tried to process what was happening, why this Luna was apparently familiar with me and why she was talking in what, even back on my home world, would have been considered an archaic dialect.
Unfortunately, my little moment of mental disconnection dragged on for longer than I intended and, when I noticed the rest of the room again, I found it with a thick air of expectation and silence. Everyone other than my companions were staring at me. Not that I could see Aria or Pyrus beside and behind me as my gaze flittered between the faces of the other ponies before returning to Luna. The dark blue Alicorn had an eager gleam in her eyes and—
My head darted back. Our noses were almost touching. When did she get so close? Glancing at the other ponies on Luna’s side of the room and quickly back, I sucked in a breath and said, “I’m sorry. Am I supposed to know you?”
Even as I continued to speak, I was witness to the soul crushing moment as what joy Luna had displayed slipped away into confusion. The glint in her eyes turned wary before vanishing altogether. The corners of her mouth drooped in question.
“I’ve only been in this world for at most a week,” I said. “If that is even a measure of time here. So, sevenish nights. We lost count when we were captured.”
This brought gasps from the other ponies. Luna’s eyes in particular grew wide.
I flicked my head back to Pyrus. “That’s where we met our Nightterror friend, Pyrus.”
Unfortunately, that movement of my head also brushed my fringe out of my face eliciting another gasp from my non-companions. They could now clearly see the condition of my right eye. To me, it still throbbed but there was next to nothing I could see with it.
All were speechless. I did my best to close my right eye but, as in previous attempts, I couldn’t exactly be sure I’d achieved it.
“Well, if that shocks you, then maybe you shouldn’t see the rest,” I said before turning to show the crowd the rest of my right side. More gasps and I witnessed the yellow pegasus and white unicorn faint away. The orange one removed her hat and pressed it to her chest as she hung her head.
The first to speak wasn’t Luna. She was too busy staring at my injuries in abject horror. Instead, it was Celestia whose voice graced the air with a mix of compassion and regret. “Oh, my little pony. How did you come to be in such a state?”
I explained how Aria and I had suddenly awoken in this world after setting foot on the grounds of Canterlot High School and the simple reason for us to be there; the search for Aria’s two sisters. This was followed by a brief explanation of the events which followed. As I reached the end of my tale, I only hoped it painted Aria, Pyrus and Sickle in such a good light that the purple Alicorn wouldn’t try to charge at anyone again.
Other than the purple one, the smaller ponies appeared somewhat bewildered by my story. Celestia, on the other hoof, cast a smile upon me and my companions laced in a motherly warmth with tinges of remorse.
Luna stood frozen; her eyes wide with horror. She seemed to stare through me in a manner I could only assume I took when processing my thoughts.
It didn’t last long.
The horror in her gaze quickly burned away. She lowered her head and an eruption of rage twisted her face, filling her voice with such strength that her words thundered through the hospital room. “How dare they! We shall make these vile beasts regret ever raising weapon and maw upon mine daughter!”
“Sister,” Celestia said, her voice strong, yet soothing. “Calm yourself.”
I stared at Luna whose head snapped to face Celestia; her teeth viciously bared and eyes alight with an infernal fire. Whatever she said next didn’t register in my ears no matter how loudly she bellowed. My mind was too fixated on another thing she had raged. Daughter? This pony, now the embodiment of wildly raging ferocity, actually thought I was… her daughter?
I blinked and shook my head. My mind quickly ran over the possibility and found nothing. I had never been here in all my years… until right now, of course. I’d travelled alone for as long as I could remember, never once did I recall encountering a place like this.
I chuckled to myself. The entire idea was absurd. I shook my head and said, “You think I’m your daughter?”
Luna’s rage instantly vanished at the sound of my voice. She looked at me, hesitating before giving a small nod of her head.
“Impossible,” I scoffed. “I’m a human.”
This brought a confused look from almost everyone else.
“Well, before I came here,” I clarified.
“It is far from impossible, dear niece.” It was the maternal voice of Celestia again.
I chuckled again. Now she was doing it. “How can you believe her? It’s crazy.”
Celestia, however, shook her head then settled her gaze upon me. It felt like her huge knowing eyes could peer directly into my soul. “It is not so crazy when you take account for the events leading to the disappearance of Princess Selene just over a thousand years ago.”
My chuckles kept coming. “Are you seriously trying to tell me that, not only was I born a female pony when I’ve lived my entire life as a human, but that I’ve also been alive for over a millennium?”
Not even the tiniest pinch of mirth entered Celestia’s words as she began her story. “Part of what I have to say has been embraced by historians in only the past few years as it is wrapped up in the banishment of the being called Nightmare Moon.”
I glimpsed Luna shudder and cringe at the name. Okay, there was clearly some history here. Apparently, Celestia had noticed her reaction as well. The motherly Alicorn approached Luna and tried to ease her thoughts using a rub of her head against Luna’s cheek.
“There is an easier way,” Celestia said, her voice incredibly soothing. She looked to me with a curious, hopeful gaze. “If the young one is willing, of course.”
Luna said nothing. She cautiously raised her head to peer across at me, her eyes reflecting deep pools of sorrow.
I scrunched my snooter warily.
“It would help us to understand many things and may shed light on your origins, dear niece,” Celestia explained, her eyes and smile were big and full of warmth. “We will accompany you and all we will see are your memories. Nothing more. Would you be willing to let us in?”
It was a difficult question to answer. I assumed they would perform magic in order to do it. But allowing access to my memories? I know no one can remember every second from their life, but some of the things I could recall I didn’t exactly want to share. They weren’t bad per-se, just personal.
On the other hoof, it would bring to light things I couldn’t remember. It should also make it clear to these ponies that I was just a human male stuck in a situation beyond my control. Those were some very big positives to the proposal. Ones I found incredibly difficult to overlook. Looking to Celestia again I gave my consent. This brought an incredibly grateful smile from Luna. And I was soon standing with both Alicorns.
“Considering your condition, might I recommend you lay upon the bed?” Celestia suggested.
I didn’t consider the request for long before turning to approach the bed. A strange weightlessness came over me and I found my hooves flailing for purchase on a floor which was getting further away beneath me. That was when I noticed the deep blue aura around my body. I landed on the bed then shot an accusatory glare back at the other ponies with horns. Luna, in particular, looked incredibly sheepish; her horn was aglow with magic.
Snorting my displeasure, I rearranged myself before laying on the bed facing the two Princesses and said, “Ready when you are.”
With that, Celestia and Luna approached me, lit their horns with magic then touched them to my own. The world was instantly washed away. I found myself standing in a dimly lit space. No one else was there until Celestia and Luna first spoke. When they did, they appeared in front of me and explained the truth of where we were. To my understanding, it was some kind of dreamscape. Normally the home of dreams and nightmares, over which Luna claimed to hold dominion, this one was designed to help sift through the myriad memories lodged within my mind, no matter how deeply they were concealed. I sucked in a deep breath at that but repeated my agreement to continue the process. The two taller Alicorns moved to stand either side of me, Celestia on my left, Luna to my right, in order to watch what was uncovered with me. The world before us rippled before bringing a scene into existence. I soon found myself looking into an open stone room devoid of ponies. Thick layers of dust on every surface hinted at how long it had been since any hoof had stepped on the stone flooring. At the centre of the room stood a strange pedestal with five crystal orbs of differing colours on each of its circular platforms. Unlike the rest of the room, the orbs were untouched by the growing dust. The creak of old hinges made my ears swivel and I turned to see a door partially open. What I saw next left me staring in confusion. An Alicorn filly with coat, mane and tail identical in colour to my own crept into the room. She took a moment to peer nervously back through the open doorway as if checking to see if anyone was following her. I could hear Celestia and Luna making comment either side of me. I caught a regretful sigh from Luna of her name for me but pushed it all aside. The sight of a much younger version of my current form was too captivating. The filly, Selene, whipped her head around as if she had heard Luna’s voice. Not that she could have. This was just a memory according to Celestia. We had no agency here. Selene’s huge eyes brimmed with tears. Her chest was heaving and she warily looked about again. She let out a gasp at the sight of the orbs. She spread her leathery wings and threw herself forward in a series of short gliding hops. It was only a few breaths before she skidded to a halt, almost crashing into the base of the pedestal. Still clearly worried about anyone following her, Selene used her wings to hurl herself onto the top of the pedestal’s central pillar. There she perched herself as she warily eyed each of the entrances. Letting out a shuddering sigh, she plonked her rear heavily onto the top of the pillar then turned her teary gaze to the ceiling. “Momma?” Selene whimpered. “Momma, we hope thy hear us.” I tried to be annoyed by her use of archaic speech but little Selene somehow made it endearing. Maybe it was that she wasn’t belting it out like Luna? Maybe it was her fragile pleading voice and form? In a pinch, I’d say it was the latter. “W-We miss thee, Momma,” Selene continued, her head hanging as the tears dripped from her cheeks onto the floor. “The Castle feels wrong with thee gone. Aunty, sh-she told us why thou went away. We… think we understand.” Selene shook her head. “Nights are not the same though. We-we try—” She squeezed her eyes shut and whimper-sobbed a few times. Her voice cracked when she could finally speak again. Her archaic speech fell away as sorrow gripped her tiny form. “I can’t. Momma, I need you!” I heard a choked sob to my right, where Luna stood, then felt a feathery wing settle on my back. I bristled at the touch but let the wing stay. “The face on the moon, I can’t look at it,” Selene said. “It hurts so much, Momma. Knowing you are there but can’t come back. The day still tires me, but the night… it isn’t your beautiful night, Momma. It isn’t as bright; the blanket of the sky is no longer warm.” Selene buried her face beneath her hooves and sobbed. Her voice escaped her throat as a strained whimper. “Momma? Momma? I can’t stay here. Not without you. Please. Please, let me go where I can’t see Momma bound to the moon. It hurts so much.” A tear slipped free of her cheek and fell, striking the top of one of the coloured orbs. “Momma? I miss you. Please, make it hurt less.” With a second tear, the orb began to glow. While Selene continued to cry, the other orbs joined the first in releasing their glow. The light of the orbs grew brighter and brighter until they let out a flash of light. Just as soon as the light had appeared, it vanished. The orbs, their magic unleashed, grew cold, losing their colour as they became akin to stone. A familiar white and pale blue phoenix flew into the room. She squawked and fluttered her wings when she didn’t find Selene. Sickle surveyed the room several times before perching herself on one of the stone orbs and lowering her beak in sorrow. Luna was whimpering next to me. Mumbling how it was all her fault under her breath. Not knowing the background to her claim, I tried to calm her by moving to press my side against hers, letting her wing curl about my barrel. She may have been strange many times over, but it was beyond my nature to not lend comfort to one who was clearly hurting. I looked back to the scene in front of us. It hadn’t ended with Selene’s magical disappearance. Instead, we joined her in the light which had otherwise ripped her from existence. Streaks of colour began to encircle the filly, wrapping her in a veritable rainbow of light. The world slowly came into view while Selene remained cocooned in magic. It wasn’t until we found ourselves in the long grasses of a prairie that the light of the magic began to subside. From it, a young teenage boy emerged, laying amongst the grasses. His skin and hair matched those of my human form. The biggest surprise came in the fact he was dressed in nothing but a hide loincloth. My mouth dropped open at the sight of the boy. That was a form I knew very well. I felt the breath catch in my throat. I glanced either side to Celestia and Luna. Neither was looking at me. My snooter scrunched with thought. So long as what I was seeing wasn’t being altered in any way, it was now going to be very difficult to argue against anyone who claimed I was Selene. The scene changed as the boy awoke to his surroundings, bringing forth near countless others. Each scene showed the progress of the world as the boy slowly aged. The coming of others to claim the lands. Never staying in a single place for longer than a decade, the boy witnessed many wars upon the lands on which he found himself. That revelation struck both Luna and Celestia while I watched on. To me, it was more the memory of the instinct which pushed me to move on, always urging me to seek a new place whenever others would feel more comfortable settling down and growing old. Maybe the near agelessness of my form, which I was now seeing, was a reason for it? Perhaps, on some level, I knew I was better off not watching others age while I would appear to not? It was definitely something to ponder later. Most of the time the scenes were soundless, just giving us an overview of events. The ones with sound stood out from their importance. Most prominent was the topic the young Monochrome was most asked; how was he so good at the things he did, like crafting things from random junk. I, of course, knew the answer well. I mumbled it even as I heard my human-self utter, “I can’t remember. It just comes to me.” The truth, however, was what we were watching. I had learned everything over many, many years, none of which I could now remember. That is, except for the most recent moments, culminating in the sight I had witnessed when I encountered Aria for the first time. The man I had confronted and fought to drag from her struggling form. I felt the strength grow within me, a sensation I now equated with the welling of my magic. The man was far bigger than me but what he was doing— The scene vanished with the wave of a wing from Celestia, replaced with the moment I fell into Equestria with Aria. It was soon followed by our efforts to traverse the floating islands. Even the moment I had accidentally sent Aria sprawling from my first landing attempt. Celestia’s horn began to glow and the images faded from sight as the dragon dived towards Sickle, Aria and myself. The last images were when my wing and leg were struck and frozen solid by the dragon’s breath then shattering as I struck the ground after falling. Celestia stood before me, her head bowed in thought. I felt Luna close by, her wing still protectively draped across my back. The imagery may have dissipated, but we remained within the strange world at the edge of my mind. Luna stood beside me mumbling apologies almost continuously. For her part, Celestia appeared contemplative. I, on the other hoof, found myself mentally swamped by having had so much information and emotion dumped on me from my past. It was Celestia who let the first clear words slip. “Be it human or pony, you are a very kind soul. With all you have been through and witnessed in such a long life, it speaks volumes of you personally to stand before us as you are. It truly accounts for your scepticism regarding all you have encountered since arriving in Equestria and I commend you for taking such events in stride, no matter the injuries you have incurred.” I blinked several times, still struggling to process everything I had just witnessed. My mouth began to move before my mind had a chance to catch up. “That… Did all of that really happen?” Celestia gave a short nod. “As you have witnessed. I do not envy what you must now consider. If you wish it, we will grant you time to decide what you want to do with this new-found information.” Still not fully aware of my surroundings, my mind was awash with so many memories. I bowed my head to Celestia and stammered, “I-I think I’ll need it.” I felt Luna’s wing pull me firmly against her side. My body stiffened at the gesture. Luna leaned her head down and rubbed her cheek against mine. I felt a dampness to her fur and assumed she had been crying. “We shall also give thee time,” Luna whispered, her normally bombastic voice now quavering with emotion. “All the time ye shalt need.” Luna stood against my side until the empty dreamscape disappeared and we returned to the waking world.
I stared at Luna, my shield wavering in strength as my mind shifted focus. I sucked in a deep breath to steady my words. “My name is Monochrome.”
Luna cocked her head to the side and blinked at me several times. She raised her head to tower regally over me.
“We guess,” she said, scrunching her snooter, “it is a serviceable name, just from the sake of appearances. However, it was not the one thou were gifted upon thine birth.”
“G-Gifted on bir-th?” I panted, doing my best to follow the conversation. The ring on my horn had other ideas in drawing my attention as it continued to suck my magic into the shield. My body trembled as I tried to brace myself. I only succeeded at gasping in small breaths. “What a-are—”
Celestia must have noticed my physical struggle as she interjected. “Young one, please, lower your shield if you feel it strains you so.”
“Why?” I said, unintentionally snapping at her. I tried to nod at the purple Alicorn. “Th-That one will…”
I blinked hard several times. “Attack m-my friend…” Even though I had more to say, I watched Celestia startle in surprise at my words. She glanced back at the purple one who opened her mouth and took a breath to speak, but stopped herself as she recoiled in a guilty cringe.
Celestia sighed and turned her head back to face me and my companions. “You have my word, neither of you will come to harm. You are all safe here.”
Even with the promise, I eyed the purple Alicorn warily before daring to focus on the energy passing through my horn. The ring erupted in sparks. I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth, bracing against the pain as the sparks lashed at my face and mane.
I heard a gasp nearby but did my best to ignore it. I needed to concentrate and the strikes from each spark were already distracting enough. All I wanted to do was stop the flow of magic so I began a mental chant of ‘STOP! STOP! STOP!’.
It took several minutes of constantly thinking the same word before the shield began to weaken. By then, my mental chant was beginning to give me a headache. Keeping my eyes firmly shut, I didn’t notice anyone approach until I felt another horn touch the tip of mine. The instant our horns connected, my magic flow ceased. My muscles were so clenched against the flow that, when it suddenly stopped, I jolted forward.
“Easy now.” Again, the voice of Celestia graced my ears.
I opened my eye and found her smiling as she stood before me in place of Luna who had taken a step aside, her face gripped with concern.
Ignoring them both, I simply tried to steady myself. My head felt oh so very woozy and my body swayed in place.
With my barrier no longer distorting things, both groups could clearly see each other. Everyone grew quiet as each group studied the other from across the small divide. Unsurprisingly, my companions and I warily watched, waiting to be charged at like earlier. No one stepped to close the gap. Instead, it was Luna, who had been examining Aria and Pyrus from afar, who broke the silence.
“Thine companions are…” Luna paused as she looked over at Aria and Pyrus. “Interesting. It hath been many centuries since We have stood in the presence of both Siren and Nightterror.”
She closed her eyes and let out a breath. Her expression softened before she set her gaze on me again. A faint smile graced the corners of her mouth. “To see thou once more.”
Luna cocked her head as she appraised the side of my body facing her; my relatively undamaged side. “A grown mare by non-Alicorn standards…”
She shook her head as regret gripped her expression and breath. “We are greatly pained to have missed thy growth.”
I remained still, my mouth agape and snooter crinkled as I stared at this taller Alicorn in confusion. My left eyelid twitched as I tried to process what was happening, why this Luna was apparently familiar with me and why she was talking in what, even back on my home world, would have been considered an archaic dialect.
Unfortunately, my little moment of mental disconnection dragged on for longer than I intended and, when I noticed the rest of the room again, I found it with a thick air of expectation and silence. Everyone other than my companions were staring at me. Not that I could see Aria or Pyrus beside and behind me as my gaze flittered between the faces of the other ponies before returning to Luna. The dark blue Alicorn had an eager gleam in her eyes and—
My head darted back. Our noses were almost touching. When did she get so close? Glancing at the other ponies on Luna’s side of the room and quickly back, I sucked in a breath and said, “I’m sorry. Am I supposed to know you?”
Even as I continued to speak, I was witness to the soul crushing moment as what joy Luna had displayed slipped away into confusion. The glint in her eyes turned wary before vanishing altogether. The corners of her mouth drooped in question.
“I’ve only been in this world for at most a week,” I said. “If that is even a measure of time here. So, sevenish nights. We lost count when we were captured.”
This brought gasps from the other ponies. Luna’s eyes in particular grew wide.
I flicked my head back to Pyrus. “That’s where we met our Nightterror friend, Pyrus.”
Unfortunately, that movement of my head also brushed my fringe out of my face eliciting another gasp from my non-companions. They could now clearly see the condition of my right eye. To me, it still throbbed but there was next to nothing I could see with it.
All were speechless. I did my best to close my right eye but, as in previous attempts, I couldn’t exactly be sure I’d achieved it.
“Well, if that shocks you, then maybe you shouldn’t see the rest,” I said before turning to show the crowd the rest of my right side. More gasps and I witnessed the yellow pegasus and white unicorn faint away. The orange one removed her hat and pressed it to her chest as she hung her head.
The first to speak wasn’t Luna. She was too busy staring at my injuries in abject horror. Instead, it was Celestia whose voice graced the air with a mix of compassion and regret. “Oh, my little pony. How did you come to be in such a state?”
I explained how Aria and I had suddenly awoken in this world after setting foot on the grounds of Canterlot High School and the simple reason for us to be there; the search for Aria’s two sisters. This was followed by a brief explanation of the events which followed. As I reached the end of my tale, I only hoped it painted Aria, Pyrus and Sickle in such a good light that the purple Alicorn wouldn’t try to charge at anyone again.
Other than the purple one, the smaller ponies appeared somewhat bewildered by my story. Celestia, on the other hoof, cast a smile upon me and my companions laced in a motherly warmth with tinges of remorse.
Luna stood frozen; her eyes wide with horror. She seemed to stare through me in a manner I could only assume I took when processing my thoughts.
It didn’t last long.
The horror in her gaze quickly burned away. She lowered her head and an eruption of rage twisted her face, filling her voice with such strength that her words thundered through the hospital room. “How dare they! We shall make these vile beasts regret ever raising weapon and maw upon mine daughter!”
“Sister,” Celestia said, her voice strong, yet soothing. “Calm yourself.”
I stared at Luna whose head snapped to face Celestia; her teeth viciously bared and eyes alight with an infernal fire. Whatever she said next didn’t register in my ears no matter how loudly she bellowed. My mind was too fixated on another thing she had raged. Daughter? This pony, now the embodiment of wildly raging ferocity, actually thought I was… her daughter?
I blinked and shook my head. My mind quickly ran over the possibility and found nothing. I had never been here in all my years… until right now, of course. I’d travelled alone for as long as I could remember, never once did I recall encountering a place like this.
I chuckled to myself. The entire idea was absurd. I shook my head and said, “You think I’m your daughter?”
Luna’s rage instantly vanished at the sound of my voice. She looked at me, hesitating before giving a small nod of her head.
“Impossible,” I scoffed. “I’m a human.”
This brought a confused look from almost everyone else.
“Well, before I came here,” I clarified.
“It is far from impossible, dear niece.” It was the maternal voice of Celestia again.
I chuckled again. Now she was doing it. “How can you believe her? It’s crazy.”
Celestia, however, shook her head then settled her gaze upon me. It felt like her huge knowing eyes could peer directly into my soul. “It is not so crazy when you take account for the events leading to the disappearance of Princess Selene just over a thousand years ago.”
My chuckles kept coming. “Are you seriously trying to tell me that, not only was I born a female pony when I’ve lived my entire life as a human, but that I’ve also been alive for over a millennium?”
Not even the tiniest pinch of mirth entered Celestia’s words as she began her story. “Part of what I have to say has been embraced by historians in only the past few years as it is wrapped up in the banishment of the being called Nightmare Moon.”
I glimpsed Luna shudder and cringe at the name. Okay, there was clearly some history here. Apparently, Celestia had noticed her reaction as well. The motherly Alicorn approached Luna and tried to ease her thoughts using a rub of her head against Luna’s cheek.
“There is an easier way,” Celestia said, her voice incredibly soothing. She looked to me with a curious, hopeful gaze. “If the young one is willing, of course.”
Luna said nothing. She cautiously raised her head to peer across at me, her eyes reflecting deep pools of sorrow.
I scrunched my snooter warily.
“It would help us to understand many things and may shed light on your origins, dear niece,” Celestia explained, her eyes and smile were big and full of warmth. “We will accompany you and all we will see are your memories. Nothing more. Would you be willing to let us in?”
It was a difficult question to answer. I assumed they would perform magic in order to do it. But allowing access to my memories? I know no one can remember every second from their life, but some of the things I could recall I didn’t exactly want to share. They weren’t bad per-se, just personal.
On the other hoof, it would bring to light things I couldn’t remember. It should also make it clear to these ponies that I was just a human male stuck in a situation beyond my control. Those were some very big positives to the proposal. Ones I found incredibly difficult to overlook. Looking to Celestia again I gave my consent. This brought an incredibly grateful smile from Luna. And I was soon standing with both Alicorns.
“Considering your condition, might I recommend you lay upon the bed?” Celestia suggested.
I didn’t consider the request for long before turning to approach the bed. A strange weightlessness came over me and I found my hooves flailing for purchase on a floor which was getting further away beneath me. That was when I noticed the deep blue aura around my body. I landed on the bed then shot an accusatory glare back at the other ponies with horns. Luna, in particular, looked incredibly sheepish; her horn was aglow with magic.
Snorting my displeasure, I rearranged myself before laying on the bed facing the two Princesses and said, “Ready when you are.”
With that, Celestia and Luna approached me, lit their horns with magic then touched them to my own. The world was instantly washed away. I found myself standing in a dimly lit space. No one else was there until Celestia and Luna first spoke. When they did, they appeared in front of me and explained the truth of where we were.
To my understanding, it was some kind of dreamscape. Normally the home of dreams and nightmares, over which Luna claimed to hold dominion, this one was designed to help sift through the myriad memories lodged within my mind, no matter how deeply they were concealed.
I sucked in a deep breath at that but repeated my agreement to continue the process. The two taller Alicorns moved to stand either side of me, Celestia on my left, Luna to my right, in order to watch what was uncovered with me.
The world before us rippled before bringing a scene into existence. I soon found myself looking into an open stone room devoid of ponies. Thick layers of dust on every surface hinted at how long it had been since any hoof had stepped on the stone flooring. At the centre of the room stood a strange pedestal with five crystal orbs of differing colours on each of its circular platforms. Unlike the rest of the room, the orbs were untouched by the growing dust.
The creak of old hinges made my ears swivel and I turned to see a door partially open. What I saw next left me staring in confusion. An Alicorn filly with coat, mane and tail identical in colour to my own crept into the room. She took a moment to peer nervously back through the open doorway as if checking to see if anyone was following her.
I could hear Celestia and Luna making comment either side of me. I caught a regretful sigh from Luna of her name for me but pushed it all aside. The sight of a much younger version of my current form was too captivating. The filly, Selene, whipped her head around as if she had heard Luna’s voice. Not that she could have. This was just a memory according to Celestia. We had no agency here.
Selene’s huge eyes brimmed with tears. Her chest was heaving and she warily looked about again. She let out a gasp at the sight of the orbs. She spread her leathery wings and threw herself forward in a series of short gliding hops. It was only a few breaths before she skidded to a halt, almost crashing into the base of the pedestal.
Still clearly worried about anyone following her, Selene used her wings to hurl herself onto the top of the pedestal’s central pillar. There she perched herself as she warily eyed each of the entrances. Letting out a shuddering sigh, she plonked her rear heavily onto the top of the pillar then turned her teary gaze to the ceiling.
“Momma?” Selene whimpered. “Momma, we hope thy hear us.”
I tried to be annoyed by her use of archaic speech but little Selene somehow made it endearing. Maybe it was that she wasn’t belting it out like Luna? Maybe it was her fragile pleading voice and form? In a pinch, I’d say it was the latter.
“W-We miss thee, Momma,” Selene continued, her head hanging as the tears dripped from her cheeks onto the floor. “The Castle feels wrong with thee gone. Aunty, sh-she told us why thou went away. We… think we understand.”
Selene shook her head. “Nights are not the same though. We-we try—”
She squeezed her eyes shut and whimper-sobbed a few times. Her voice cracked when she could finally speak again. Her archaic speech fell away as sorrow gripped her tiny form. “I can’t. Momma, I need you!”
I heard a choked sob to my right, where Luna stood, then felt a feathery wing settle on my back. I bristled at the touch but let the wing stay.
“The face on the moon, I can’t look at it,” Selene said. “It hurts so much, Momma. Knowing you are there but can’t come back. The day still tires me, but the night… it isn’t your beautiful night, Momma. It isn’t as bright; the blanket of the sky is no longer warm.”
Selene buried her face beneath her hooves and sobbed. Her voice escaped her throat as a strained whimper. “Momma? Momma? I can’t stay here. Not without you. Please. Please, let me go where I can’t see Momma bound to the moon. It hurts so much.”
A tear slipped free of her cheek and fell, striking the top of one of the coloured orbs. “Momma? I miss you. Please, make it hurt less.”
With a second tear, the orb began to glow. While Selene continued to cry, the other orbs joined the first in releasing their glow. The light of the orbs grew brighter and brighter until they let out a flash of light. Just as soon as the light had appeared, it vanished. The orbs, their magic unleashed, grew cold, losing their colour as they became akin to stone.
A familiar white and pale blue phoenix flew into the room. She squawked and fluttered her wings when she didn’t find Selene. Sickle surveyed the room several times before perching herself on one of the stone orbs and lowering her beak in sorrow.
Luna was whimpering next to me. Mumbling how it was all her fault under her breath. Not knowing the background to her claim, I tried to calm her by moving to press my side against hers, letting her wing curl about my barrel. She may have been strange many times over, but it was beyond my nature to not lend comfort to one who was clearly hurting.
I looked back to the scene in front of us. It hadn’t ended with Selene’s magical disappearance. Instead, we joined her in the light which had otherwise ripped her from existence. Streaks of colour began to encircle the filly, wrapping her in a veritable rainbow of light.
The world slowly came into view while Selene remained cocooned in magic. It wasn’t until we found ourselves in the long grasses of a prairie that the light of the magic began to subside. From it, a young teenage boy emerged, laying amongst the grasses. His skin and hair matched those of my human form. The biggest surprise came in the fact he was dressed in nothing but a hide loincloth.
My mouth dropped open at the sight of the boy. That was a form I knew very well. I felt the breath catch in my throat. I glanced either side to Celestia and Luna. Neither was looking at me. My snooter scrunched with thought. So long as what I was seeing wasn’t being altered in any way, it was now going to be very difficult to argue against anyone who claimed I was Selene.
The scene changed as the boy awoke to his surroundings, bringing forth near countless others. Each scene showed the progress of the world as the boy slowly aged. The coming of others to claim the lands. Never staying in a single place for longer than a decade, the boy witnessed many wars upon the lands on which he found himself. That revelation struck both Luna and Celestia while I watched on.
To me, it was more the memory of the instinct which pushed me to move on, always urging me to seek a new place whenever others would feel more comfortable settling down and growing old. Maybe the near agelessness of my form, which I was now seeing, was a reason for it? Perhaps, on some level, I knew I was better off not watching others age while I would appear to not? It was definitely something to ponder later.
Most of the time the scenes were soundless, just giving us an overview of events. The ones with sound stood out from their importance. Most prominent was the topic the young Monochrome was most asked; how was he so good at the things he did, like crafting things from random junk. I, of course, knew the answer well. I mumbled it even as I heard my human-self utter, “I can’t remember. It just comes to me.”
The truth, however, was what we were watching. I had learned everything over many, many years, none of which I could now remember. That is, except for the most recent moments, culminating in the sight I had witnessed when I encountered Aria for the first time. The man I had confronted and fought to drag from her beaten form. I felt the strength grow within me, a sensation I now equated with the welling of my magic. The man was far bigger than me. His strikes with elbow and fist upon me were wild, even as he continued to kick for Aria’s fallen body—
The scene vanished with the wave of a wing from Celestia, replaced with the moment I fell into Equestria with Aria. It was soon followed by our efforts to traverse the floating islands. Even the moment I had accidentally sent Aria sprawling from my first landing attempt.
Celestia’s horn began to glow and the images faded from sight as the dragon dived towards Sickle, Aria and myself. The last images were when my wing and leg were struck and frozen solid by the dragon’s breath then shattering as I struck the ground after falling. Celestia stood before me, her head bowed in thought. I felt Luna close by, her wing still protectively draped across my back.
The imagery may have dissipated, but we remained within the strange world at the edge of my mind. Luna stood beside me mumbling apologies almost continuously.
For her part, Celestia appeared contemplative. I, on the other hoof, found myself mentally swamped by having had so much information and emotion dumped on me from my past.
It was Celestia who let the first clear words slip. “Be it human or pony, you are a very kind soul. With all you have been through and witnessed in such a long life, it speaks volumes of you personally to stand before us as you are. It truly accounts for your scepticism regarding all you have encountered since arriving in Equestria and I commend you for taking such events in stride, no matter the injuries you have incurred.”
I blinked several times, still struggling to process everything I had just witnessed. My mouth began to move before my mind had a chance to catch up. “That… Did all of that really happen?”
Celestia gave a short nod. “As you have witnessed. I do not envy what you must now consider. If you wish it, we will grant you time to decide what you want to do with this new-found information.”
Still not fully aware of my surroundings, my mind was awash with so many memories. I bowed my head to Celestia and stammered, “I-I think I’ll need it.”
I felt Luna’s wing pull me firmly against her side. My body stiffened at the gesture. Luna leaned her head down and rubbed her cheek against mine. I felt a dampness to her fur and assumed she had been crying.
“We shall also give thee time,” Luna whispered, her normally bombastic voice now quavering with emotion. “All the time ye shalt need.”
Luna stood against my side until the empty dreamscape disappeared and we returned to the waking world.
It took a few days for all of us to be cleared to leave the hospital. For Pyrus, it meant he now sported a cast on his left hind leg. It had been somewhat funny to watch the doctor and nursing staff try to figure out how to apply the cast and even if they could do so with the fire constantly flickering up his shins from his hooves.
Thankfully, they soon learned that, so long as Pyrus allowed it, the fires he naturally emitted didn’t actually burn anyone or anything touching him.
Me, on the other hoof, despite my missing leg and wing, I was given the all clear first. Once the ring was finally removed from my horn, it was given to the purple Alicorn who had confronted us. Apparently, she was a researcher as well as a Princess and went by the name Twilight Sparkle. I rolled my eye at that. These ponies and their names, I swear.
I also made it very clear that I wanted to examine the ring myself when she was done. Now that it was no longer attached to me, I was interested to study its properties and what it could do other than syphon magic.
All distraction aside, the only real medical examinations I received were in relation to my right eye and my extreme exhaustion. The latter being a culmination of events I had encountered since arriving in this world and a side effect from the magic syphoning ring. This didn’t mean my other wounds were ignored, just little treatment was able to be given.
For Aria, the results of her tests left her in an odd mood. It wasn’t surprising though. Her fears had been well-founded. This was just confirmation. She was pregnant. Undoubtedly from the event which led to our first meeting in the human world. Aria took the news well, all things considered. Her main reaction was simply to step to a corner of the room for some heavy thinking.
Also, after reluctance on both sides, Aria was tested with regard to Twilight’s concerns. The only magical essence they found in her were her latent energies. Nothing resembling what Twilight had been worried about remained. This revelation gave rise to bitter irritation in Aria and scepticism from Twilight, most of which they silently directed toward each other whenever the purple Alicorn checked on us.
When it came time to discharge us as a group, we weren’t exactly allowed to immediately leave. Apparently, Princess Luna had left a few guards behind to watch over us. They weren’t a problem when we were in our room, they didn’t even set a hoof inside. But, the moment we tried to step through the door, the guards blocked our passage.
They said very little in the way of reason for keeping us in the room until it became clear with the arrival of Luna herself one stormy evening. My hopes sank a little at the sight of her. Her eyes were wide and filled with as much joy as the enormous grin she sported. Unsurprisingly, her gaze was fixed firmly on me.
“It is so good to see thee freed from the confines of a hospital bed, mine daughter,” Luna beamed. “We are pleased with thy decision to give Equestria a chance.”
I inwardly cringed. Yes, I was going to stay a while. See more of this world, but Luna’s exuberance was rather grating for me. In particular, the volume of her voice was somehow even greater than when she had first encountered us. Not to mention seeing her again… Her and Celestia may have shown me how I ended up in a male human form then as a mare again upon my return. But, it was just hard getting my head around my now three lives.
“We have come to escort thee and thy companions to the most respected of nearby seamstresses,” Luna declared. “Planning hath begun with regard to thine debut as the latest Princess of Equestria. As such, thine gown for the event must hastily be crafted.”
I let a grunt escape my throat then cringed as I asked, “Do we really have to? Not like I asked to be a Princess.”
I watched as some of the joy left Luna’s face. “We had thought thou wanted such things to be dealt with in the utmost of haste. ’Tis what thou stated previously.”
A sigh escaped my lips. Her archaic speech was already getting to me. “I meant being stuck in hospital. I never agreed to this whole Princess thing.”
Luna approached me, wrapped a foreleg around the back of my neck and gave a careful hug with her head pressed to my right cheek. I stiffened at the contact. Luna moved back so she could look me in the eye but kept me close with her leg still on my back. “We understand the frivolous nature of such events. However, thou must understand thy place within society. As royalty we are considered somewhat property of the public. Our subjects expect certain considerations as part of our status. The minimum being public appearances.”
Even my damaged right eye cracked open with my incredulity at such a statement. “You truly want me to be the public face for part of the royal family?”
Luna nodded. “Of course, We do.”
She sounded so sincere. And, no, I am truly not being sarcastic. I honestly doubt Luna could convincingly lie to anyone.
“You are aware I look like I lost in a head-on crash between a motorcycle and a bus, right?”
Luna blinked at me. “I… do not understand your analogy.”
Wow. I must have confused her. She actually spoke like someone from this decade.
“Think of it as her having been in a terrible cart accident,” Aria cut in.
Luna looked at her for a few moments, blinking as the concept settled into her thoughts.
“Ah,” the deep blue Alicorn said with a short nod of understanding before looking to me with a loving smile. “Thou needst not worry. Thine beauty will shine through.”
Not exactly what I meant. Why was it so hard for this mare to understand that I had absolutely zero interest in what she wanted of me. Considering, the very moment I had the opportunity to get back to the human world and my non-royal life, I was going to take it.
“Let us be off!” Luna joyously exclaimed, clearly oblivious to anything I wanted.
* * *
It wasn’t long after leaving the hospital that we found ourselves entering another building; one which reminded me of a carousel at a seaside carnival. Once inside, Luna used her magic to remove the cloak she had draped herself in along with the one she had made me wear. This mare and her mixed messages. Did my scars need hiding or not? Make up your mind! Although, it had been raining, so I guess she could have the benefit of the doubt this time.
Deciding to hold my tongue, I watched as a familiar purple-maned white unicorn mare approached our group. It was one of the mares from our hospital confrontation. She was positively beaming at our presence in the building. She quickly introduced herself as Rarity and warmly welcomed us to her humble boutique.
Strangely, very little needed to be exchanged in the way of words as Rarity had apparently been previously informed of this visit. There was also little chance to speak as Rarity was absolutely bubbling at the presence of royalty in her main parlour. I smiled hesitantly, realising that her over exuberance was oddly similar to that of Luna herself. It wasn’t long before she beckoned me to join her with an excited call, “Come! Come!”
With little chance of backing out, Rarity led me to a raised pedestal used for modelling outfits. Unsurprisingly, I was rather reluctant to go along. I looked to Aria and Pyrus hoping for help. Neither seemed interested in doing so. I eyed the exit but my hopes for potential escape were dashed when I noted the two Night Guards standing either side of the door.
What followed was possibly the most emasculating experience I’d ever been through in my life; other than my self-inspection upon arrival in this world. Poked and prodded without being able to move. Measured and remeasured… sometimes in the most intimate of places. It wasn’t long before Rarity began to drape my body in fabrics using her magic. She adjusted her work with the loose placement of fasteners.
After several minutes of this mistreatment, I glanced at the others in the room. One in particular caught my attention.
I glowered at Aria. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Her face was graced by the smuggest grin I had ever seen while a mischievous glint twinkled in her eyes. “Oh definitely.”
I sighed and shook my head. “This is what I get for helping you.”
I felt a soft whack to the top of my head.
“Please, Princess, you must hold still,” Rarity ordered, fussing with a bolt of fabric in her magic. “This gown must be perfect if you are to wear it to the announcement of your debut.”
From across the room, Luna continued to watch me, a cheeky smile on her lips and a soundless giggle at my suffering. I scrunched my snooter but did my best to regain my earlier posture.
“Not like I wanted to be royalty,” I muttered under my breath.
“And why wouldn’t you, my dear?” Rarity asked, her eyes glistening with some internal dream of hers. “You will get to rub shoulders with all the ponies of the highest class. Not to mention the balls and galas you will attend in the fanciest of dresses.”
I wanted to shake my head in annoyance so badly, but knew it would only gain me yet another scolding. It was like being treated as a child.
“You may have missed it during the whole confrontation a couple of days back,” I grumbled testily. “Until a week ago, I was a male human.”
I reared up and quickly stabbed my only forehoof at Luna for emphasis before catching myself again. “She’s the one who thinks I’m her daughter. I got no say in this.”
Rarity sighed in annoyance. “Please hold still, Princess.”
It was so hard to hold myself back and not snap at this mare in exasperation. Clearly, all she ever thought about was just the outer appearance and social standing of anyone she met. I did my best to clarify my point to her. “Don’t think you quite get it. Back where I’m from, Princesses simply exist as little more than diplomatic arm candy and baby makers. They have very little importance.”
I flicked my head, tossing my fringe from covering my right eye. “Not to mention my many scars. I doubt they will be seen as very ‘Princessy’.”
It was Luna who spoke up as she approached the modelling pedestal. “Do not fret, my beautiful Selene—”
I felt a chill run up my spine. I scowled at Luna. My voice turned cold as I spoke. “My name is Monochrome.”
Luna brushed the comment aside. “Equestrian Princesses are of greater import. We are the true diplomats and law makers of our lands and skies. In truth, it is more the Princes who are the—”
She paused as she considered her words. “Candy of arms as thou put it.”
Luna lowered her nose to beneath mine so she could peer up at me with what I was sure she intended to be a loving smile. “And do not concern thyself with the scars thou bear. Thou art still beautiful in mine eye.”
I narrowed my eye on her, my snooter curling in a nasty, distasteful snarl. I watched Luna’s smile slowly slip away before I jolted forward from a slap of a hoof to my flank. Turning my head, I watched as Aria rolled her eyes in annoyance at me.
“Just go with it,” she said. I felt my muscles relax a little before seeing a wicked grin crack Aria’s face. “Your Highness.”
Behind her I caught a glimpse of Pyrus with Sickle perched between his ears. How two creatures of such opposing elements could be in such close proximity was beyond my comprehension. What annoyed me about them was the sight of Pyrus grinning at me having clearly followed the conversation. What startled me more was I could swear Sickle was grinning through her beak as well.
I turned my back on them and shook my head, still peevish as I took my pose again at the beckoning of Rarity. Although the fashionista continued to display the outer joy of working on royalty, the frustration at my continued interruptions of her task was clear in her eyes.
* * *
It was several days later, spent forcibly confined to Rarity’s boutique by a group of Night Guards, when Luna finally decided to have said guards escort me to the capital, Canterlot. I rolled my eyes on hearing the name. This world and its puns, I swear. We had been offered to stay at Twilight’s castle. Seriously, the purple Alicorn had her own castle. But, we declined. Mostly to keep Aria away from Twilight.
That aside, it was a rather dull journey by train. Originally, Luna had asked I go by flying chariot. No, I’m not kidding. She actually said that. I considered it for only a moment before dismissing it. I may have a wing, but there’s no way I could fly if I fell.
The train was simply the second, much more grounded, option. My night pony escorts didn’t seem too concerned as I found myself sequestered in a private carriage in which they had complete control over the security. The train was quaint, even a little cutesy in design but that wasn’t really anything to complain about, even if it had a steam locomotive to pull it instead of more modern engines.
This brought an interesting thought to my mind. This rather fanciful world may have been somewhat technologically stunted, but no one I saw ever seemed to mind. I guess it was due to the fact a third of the main population had magic while another third could actually control the weather and the final third were the masters of all vegetation. They had no need for the advancements non-magical beings like humans frequently took for granted. And I was getting side-tracked again.
Brushing the thought aside, I had been joined in the private carriage by Aria, Pyrus and Sickle. Sickle wasn’t exactly a surprise. She appeared to want to keep close to me. Oddly, so did Pyrus. Before the trip, I had asked both Pyrus and Aria whether or not they had somewhere to stay.
Pyrus’ response was both characteristically silent and pointed. He gestured to one of Luna’s Night Guard, then to himself before giving me a firm poke to the chest with his hoof. Apparently, he wanted to remain by my side as my personal bodyguard or something. I asked him in so many words. He nodded firmly in response.
So, I guess I now had two beings watching over me. One, a phoenix born of ice and snow in place of fire and ash. The other, a stallion far bigger than myself, whose fetlocks, mane and tail were made of actual fire, and who couldn’t utter a single word.
That left Aria. I can’t exactly deny how abrasive she was, personality wise. In truth, hers wasn’t much different from mine. And, no matter how strange our arrival here nor her familiarity with this world, she didn’t just go running off to wherever she was from the moment we landed. She was yet to let her reasoning slip, but Aria appeared content to stick around, even before I was outed as a long-lost Princess.
It was just after midnight when the train finally came to a stop in Canterlot. The streets were mostly empty, the only noises coming from the train passengers themselves. With so few ponies around, I frowned. I had a feeling the timing wasn’t a coincidence. Arriving at the, admittedly rather spectacular, castle perched on the mountainside, without a single pony outside of their group crossing their path strengthened that theory. Meeting an incredibly joyous Luna after she leapt down from a balcony before we set hoof inside the front doors confirmed it.
I had little chance to react as Luna, grinning all the while, threw herself at me, wrapping me in the tightest hug I had ever received. Not that I’d ever really experienced many as a human. Life of a drifter, I guess. My eyes bulged as a near rib breaking squeeze from Luna’s front legs pinned me hard against her barrel. I let out a weak involuntary whimper as the air was forced from my lungs.
“Oh, most joyful of nights!” Luna bellowed. “Long have We awaited thy return!”
Letting go with her legs, I felt air rush back into me. There was a giggle nearby. One I was going to hear frequently throughout the following day. I mentally cursed Aria before Luna moved to stand against my injured side. She draped a wing over my back and, still beaming with joy, led me into the castle while her voice reached for the sky. “Come, daughter mine. We shalt see thee settled.”
From that moment on, my life was truly not my own. I stumbled often on my three legs as I was dragged about the castle by Luna and servant alike, often with my companions in tow. Apparently, even though I’d had little sleep, I was expected to prepare for the announcement of my debut. This meant grooming. A lot of grooming.
By the time I was done with being cleaned, dried, had my mane and tail thoroughly brushed, my muscles assaulted by massage therapists, spritzed with perfume, and my hooves filed and buffed to the point they sparkled, I felt like I had gone several rounds with a heavyweight boxer. Of course, Aria giggled and teased me every step of the way. Even once at Pyrus’ expense when he was asked to bathe. His only response, a quirked eyebrow as if to ask whether or not the attendant was joking.
Once declared decent, my torture moved to another stage. This was when I was brought face to face with Rarity again. My heart sank. Of course, she was here! Who else would she trust to bring her vision of my appearance to life? Several hours of preening and gown adjustments followed. By the time it was all done, the sun had been up for a while. And I was getting very hungry.
Food, however, wasn’t on the metaphorical table. Instead of a cafeteria or kitchen, I was led to a holding area where I was met by both Luna and Celestia. Like me, they were extravagantly dressed and pampered. Looking at them, I inwardly groaned. I hope we didn’t have to dress up like this every day. If so I would never get to sleep again. The two older Alicorns took the opportunity to compliment my appearance and to ask a few questions they had thought of in the days since I had last seen them. Answers weren’t always easy to give.
At a certain time, Celestia and Luna exited the holding room, leaving me to nothing more than my mental musings. I could hear much murmuring from the room they had entered but little more before Celestia finally began the announcement. Luna followed her sister’s words and soon, the door to the holding area opened and I was ushered out by a servant.
What I found myself facing left me wondering why no one had, besides grooming, tried to prepare me for standing in front of several hundred ponies. I couldn’t deny the work done by Rarity and others. The gown, cape and mane style Rarity had organised for me was surprisingly perfect. Without paying close attention, it would’ve been incredibly difficult to catch a glimpse of my scars and missing limbs. I still limped of course. There was no way of preventing that without putting me on wheels. I inwardly chuckled at the thought of gliding across the floor, my legs perfectly straight and wheels hidden beneath my gown and cape.
The announcement itself was rather simple. I didn’t even have to say a word. I just had to bow my head at a certain point. I did. The result of it, of course, was predictable. Gasps of shock joined with many a murmuring voice before the audience cheered for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The attention then shifted to me as the crowd bowed as one towards me then stood up with a joyous cry in praise of my mere existence. I inwardly cringed at that. Ponies/People praising someone for simply having been born was why I had become cynical of any monarchy back in the human world.
When it was all said and done, I was, thankfully, whisked away from the gathered press-ponies who eagerly moved forward in search of greater details. Luna, trying to fend them off, explained how the castle would release detailed statements in coming days. This at least gave me a little breathing room, a chance to rest and to figure out what I was going to do now.
It took a few days for all of us to be cleared to leave the hospital. For Pyrus, it meant he now sported a cast on his left hind leg. It had been somewhat funny to watch the doctor and nursing staff try to figure out how to apply the cast and even if they could do so with the fire constantly flickering up his shins from his hooves.
Thankfully, they soon learned that, so long as Pyrus allowed it, the fires he naturally emitted didn’t actually burn anyone or anything touching him.
Me, on the other hoof, despite my missing leg and wing, I was given the all clear first. Once the ring was finally removed from my horn, it was given to the purple Alicorn who had confronted us. Apparently, she was a researcher as well as a Princess and went by the name Twilight Sparkle. I rolled my eye at that. These ponies and their names, I swear.
I also made it very clear that I wanted to examine the ring myself when she was done. Now that it was no longer attached to me, I was interested to study its properties and what it could do other than syphon magic.
All distraction aside, the only real medical examinations I received were in relation to my right eye and my extreme exhaustion. The latter being a culmination of events I had encountered since arriving in this world and a side effect from the magic syphoning ring. This didn’t mean my other wounds were ignored, just little treatment was able to be given.
For Aria, the results of her tests left her in an odd mood. She was pregnant. Exactly how she came to be so, I was yet to learn. Perhaps she would open up in time. I didn’t push, that would be her tale to tell, if and when she was ready. It wasn’t surprising though. Her fears had been well-founded. This was just confirmation. Aria took the news well, all things considered. Her main reaction was simply to step to a corner of the room for some heavy thinking.
Also, after reluctance on both sides, Aria was tested with regard to Twilight’s concerns. The only magical essence they found in her were her latent energies. Nothing resembling what Twilight had been worried about remained. This revelation gave rise to bitter irritation in Aria and scepticism from Twilight, most of which they silently directed toward each other whenever the purple Alicorn checked on us.
When it came time to discharge us as a group, we weren’t exactly allowed to immediately leave. Apparently, Princess Luna had left a few guards behind to watch over us. They weren’t a problem when we were in our room, they didn’t even set a hoof inside. But, the moment we tried to step through the door, the guards blocked our passage.
They said very little in the way of reason for keeping us in the room until it became clear with the arrival of Luna herself one stormy evening. My hopes sank a little at the sight of her. Her eyes were wide and filled with as much joy as the enormous grin she sported. Unsurprisingly, her gaze was fixed firmly on me.
“It is so good to see thee freed from the confines of a hospital bed, mine daughter,” Luna beamed. “We are pleased with thy decision to give Equestria a chance.”
I inwardly cringed. Yes, I was going to stay a while. See more of this world, but Luna’s exuberance was rather grating for me. In particular, the volume of her voice was somehow even greater than when she had first encountered us. Not to mention seeing her again… Her and Celestia may have shown me how I ended up in a male human form then as a mare again upon my return. But, it was just hard getting my head around my now three lives.
“We have come to escort thee and thy companions to the most respected of nearby seamstresses,” Luna declared. “Planning hath begun with regard to thine debut as the latest Princess of Equestria. As such, thine gown for the event must hastily be crafted.”
I let a grunt escape my throat then cringed as I asked, “Do we really have to? Not like I asked to be a Princess.”
I watched as some of the joy left Luna’s face. “We had thought thou wanted such things to be dealt with in the utmost of haste. ’Tis what thou stated previously.”
A sigh escaped my lips. Her archaic speech was already getting to me. “I meant being stuck in hospital. I never agreed to this whole Princess thing.”
Luna approached me, wrapped a foreleg around the back of my neck and gave a careful hug with her head pressed to my right cheek. I stiffened at the contact. Luna moved back so she could look me in the eye but kept me close with her leg still on my back. “We understand the frivolous nature of such events. However, thou must understand thy place within society. As royalty we are considered somewhat property of the public. Our subjects expect certain considerations as part of our status. The minimum being public appearances.”
Even my damaged right eye cracked open with my incredulity at such a statement. “You truly want me to be the public face for part of the royal family?”
Luna nodded. “Of course, We do.”
She sounded so sincere. And, no, I am truly not being sarcastic. I honestly doubt Luna could convincingly lie to anyone.
“You are aware I look like I lost in a head-on crash between a motorcycle and a bus, right?”
Luna blinked at me. “I… do not understand your analogy.”
Wow. I must have confused her. She actually spoke like someone from this decade.
“Think of it as her having been in a terrible cart accident,” Aria cut in.
Luna looked at her for a few moments, blinking as the concept settled into her thoughts.
“Ah,” the deep blue Alicorn said with a short nod of understanding before looking to me with a loving smile. “Thou needst not worry. Thine beauty will shine through.”
Not exactly what I meant. Why was it so hard for this mare to understand that I had absolutely zero interest in what she wanted of me. Considering, the very moment I had the opportunity to get back to the human world and my non-royal life, I was going to take it.
“Let us be off!” Luna joyously exclaimed, clearly oblivious to anything I wanted.
* * *
It wasn’t long after leaving the hospital that we found ourselves entering another building; one which reminded me of a carousel at a seaside carnival. Once inside, Luna used her magic to remove the cloak she had draped herself in along with the one she had made me wear. This mare and her mixed messages. Did my scars need hiding or not? Make up your mind! Although, it had been raining, so I guess she could have the benefit of the doubt this time.
Deciding to hold my tongue, I watched as a familiar purple-maned white unicorn mare approached our group. It was one of the mares from our hospital confrontation. She was positively beaming at our presence in the building. She quickly introduced herself as Rarity and warmly welcomed us to her humble boutique.
Strangely, very little needed to be exchanged in the way of words as Rarity had apparently been previously informed of this visit. There was also little chance to speak as Rarity was absolutely bubbling at the presence of royalty in her main parlour. I smiled hesitantly, realising that her over exuberance was oddly similar to that of Luna herself. It wasn’t long before she beckoned me to join her with an excited call, “Come! Come!”
With little chance of backing out, Rarity led me to a raised pedestal used for modelling outfits. Unsurprisingly, I was rather reluctant to go along. I looked to Aria and Pyrus hoping for help. Neither seemed interested in doing so. I eyed the exit but my hopes for potential escape were dashed when I noted the two Night Guards standing either side of the door.
What followed was possibly the most emasculating experience I’d ever been through in my life; other than my self-inspection upon arrival in this world. Poked and prodded without being able to move. Measured and remeasured… sometimes in the most intimate of places. It wasn’t long before Rarity began to drape my body in fabrics using her magic. She adjusted her work with the loose placement of fasteners.
After several minutes of this mistreatment, I glanced at the others in the room. One in particular caught my attention.
I glowered at Aria. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Her face was graced by the smuggest grin I had ever seen while a mischievous glint twinkled in her eyes. “Oh definitely.”
I sighed and shook my head. “This is what I get for helping you.”
I felt a soft whack to the top of my head.
“Please, Princess, you must hold still,” Rarity ordered, fussing with a bolt of fabric in her magic. “This gown must be perfect if you are to wear it to the announcement of your debut.”
From across the room, Luna continued to watch me, a cheeky smile on her lips and a soundless giggle at my suffering. I scrunched my snooter but did my best to regain my earlier posture.
“Not like I wanted to be royalty,” I muttered under my breath.
“And why wouldn’t you, my dear?” Rarity asked, her eyes glistening with some internal dream of hers. “You will get to rub shoulders with all the ponies of the highest class. Not to mention the balls and galas you will attend in the fanciest of dresses.”
I wanted to shake my head in annoyance so badly, but knew it would only gain me yet another scolding. It was like being treated as a child.
“You may have missed it during the whole confrontation a couple of days back,” I grumbled testily. “Until a week ago, I was a male human.”
I reared up and quickly stabbed my only forehoof at Luna for emphasis before catching myself again. “She’s the one who thinks I’m her daughter. I got no say in this.”
Rarity sighed in annoyance. “Please hold still, Princess.”
It was so hard to hold myself back and not snap at this mare in exasperation. Clearly, all she ever thought about was just the outer appearance and social standing of anyone she met. I did my best to clarify my point to her. “Don’t think you quite get it. Back where I’m from, Princesses simply exist as little more than diplomatic arm candy and baby makers. They have very little importance.”
I flicked my head, tossing my fringe from covering my right eye. “Not to mention my many scars. I doubt they will be seen as very ‘Princessy’.”
It was Luna who spoke up as she approached the modelling pedestal. “Do not fret, my beautiful Selene—”
I felt a chill run up my spine. I scowled at Luna. My voice turned cold as I spoke. “My name is Monochrome.”
Luna brushed the comment aside. “Equestrian Princesses are of greater import. We are the true diplomats and law makers of our lands and skies. In truth, it is more the Princes who are the—”
She paused as she considered her words. “Candy of arms as thou put it.”
Luna lowered her nose to beneath mine so she could peer up at me with what I was sure she intended to be a loving smile. “And do not concern thyself with the scars thou bear. Thou art still beautiful in mine eye.”
I narrowed my eye on her, my snooter curling in a nasty, distasteful snarl. I watched Luna’s smile slowly slip away before I jolted forward from a slap of a hoof to my flank. Turning my head, I watched as Aria rolled her eyes in annoyance at me.
“Just go with it,” she said. I felt my muscles relax a little before seeing a wicked grin crack Aria’s face. “Your Highness.”
Behind her I caught a glimpse of Pyrus with Sickle perched between his ears. How two creatures of such opposing elements could be in such close proximity was beyond my comprehension. What annoyed me about them was the sight of Pyrus grinning at me having clearly followed the conversation. What startled me more was I could swear Sickle was grinning through her beak as well.
I turned my back on them and shook my head, still peevish as I took my pose again at the beckoning of Rarity. Although the fashionista continued to display the outer joy of working on royalty, the frustration at my continued interruptions of her task was clear in her eyes.
* * *
It was several days later, spent forcibly confined to Rarity’s boutique by a group of Night Guards, when Luna finally decided to have said guards escort me to the capital, Canterlot. I rolled my eyes on hearing the name. This world and its puns, I swear. We had been offered to stay at Twilight’s castle. Seriously, the purple Alicorn had her own castle. But, we declined. Mostly to keep Aria away from Twilight.
That aside, it was a rather dull journey by train. Originally, Luna had asked I go by flying chariot. No, I’m not kidding. She actually said that. I considered it for only a moment before dismissing it. I may have a wing, but there’s no way I could fly if I fell.
The train was simply the second, much more grounded, option. My night pony escorts didn’t seem too concerned as I found myself sequestered in a private carriage in which they had complete control over the security. The train was quaint, even a little cutesy in design but that wasn’t really anything to complain about, even if it had a steam locomotive to pull it instead of more modern engines.
This brought an interesting thought to my mind. This rather fanciful world may have been somewhat technologically stunted, but no one I saw ever seemed to mind. I guess it was due to the fact a third of the main population had magic while another third could actually control the weather and the final third were the masters of all vegetation. They had no need for the advancements non-magical beings like humans frequently took for granted. And I was getting side-tracked again.
Brushing the thought aside, I had been joined in the private carriage by Aria, Pyrus and Sickle. Sickle wasn’t exactly a surprise. She appeared to want to keep close to me. Oddly, so did Pyrus. Before the trip, I had asked both Pyrus and Aria whether or not they had somewhere to stay.
Pyrus’ response was both characteristically silent and pointed. He gestured to one of Luna’s Night Guard, then to himself before giving me a firm poke to the chest with his hoof. Apparently, he wanted to remain by my side as my personal bodyguard or something. I asked him in so many words. He nodded firmly in response.
So, I guess I now had two beings watching over me. One, a phoenix born of ice and snow in place of fire and ash. The other, a stallion far bigger than myself, whose fetlocks, mane and tail were made of actual fire, and who couldn’t utter a single word.
That left Aria. I can’t exactly deny how abrasive she was, personality wise. In truth, hers wasn’t much different from mine. And, no matter how strange our arrival here nor her familiarity with this world, she didn’t just go running off to wherever she was from the moment we landed. She was yet to let her reasoning slip, but Aria appeared content to stick around, even before I was outed as a long-lost Princess.
It was just after midnight when the train finally came to a stop in Canterlot. The streets were mostly empty, the only noises coming from the train passengers themselves. With so few ponies around, I frowned. I had a feeling the timing wasn’t a coincidence. Arriving at the, admittedly rather spectacular, castle perched on the mountainside, without a single pony outside of their group crossing their path strengthened that theory. Meeting an incredibly joyous Luna after she leapt down from a balcony before we set hoof inside the front doors confirmed it.
I had little chance to react as Luna, grinning all the while, threw herself at me, wrapping me in the tightest hug I had ever received. Not that I’d ever really experienced many as a human. Life of a drifter, I guess. My eyes bulged as a near rib breaking squeeze from Luna’s front legs pinned me hard against her barrel. I let out a weak involuntary whimper as the air was forced from my lungs.
“Oh, most joyful of nights!” Luna bellowed. “Long have We awaited thy return!”
Letting go with her legs, I felt air rush back into me. There was a giggle nearby. One I was going to hear frequently throughout the following day. I mentally cursed Aria before Luna moved to stand against my injured side. She draped a wing over my back and, still beaming with joy, led me into the castle while her voice reached for the sky. “Come, daughter mine. We shalt see thee settled.”
From that moment on, my life was truly not my own. I stumbled often on my three legs as I was dragged about the castle by Luna and servant alike, often with my companions in tow. Apparently, even though I’d had little sleep, I was expected to prepare for the announcement of my debut. This meant grooming. A lot of grooming.
By the time I was done with being cleaned, dried, had my mane and tail thoroughly brushed, my muscles assaulted by massage therapists, spritzed with perfume, and my hooves filed and buffed to the point they sparkled, I felt like I had gone several rounds with a heavyweight boxer. Of course, Aria giggled and teased me every step of the way. Even once at Pyrus’ expense when he was asked to bathe. His only response, a quirked eyebrow as if to ask whether or not the attendant was joking.
Once declared decent, my torture moved to another stage. This was when I was brought face to face with Rarity again. My heart sank. Of course, she was here! Who else would she trust to bring her vision of my appearance to life? Several hours of preening and gown adjustments followed. By the time it was all done, the sun had been up for a while. And I was getting very hungry.
Food, however, wasn’t on the metaphorical table. Instead of a cafeteria or kitchen, I was led to a holding area where I was met by both Luna and Celestia. Like me, they were extravagantly dressed and pampered. Looking at them, I inwardly groaned. I hope we didn’t have to dress up like this every day. If so I would never get to sleep again. The two older Alicorns took the opportunity to compliment my appearance and to ask a few questions they had thought of in the days since I had last seen them. Answers weren’t always easy to give.
At a certain time, Celestia and Luna exited the holding room, leaving me to nothing more than my mental musings. I could hear much murmuring from the room they had entered but little more before Celestia finally began the announcement. Luna followed her sister’s words and soon, the door to the holding area opened and I was ushered out by a servant.
What I found myself facing left me wondering why no one had, besides grooming, tried to prepare me for standing in front of several hundred ponies. I couldn’t deny the work done by Rarity and others. The gown, cape and mane style Rarity had organised for me was surprisingly perfect. Without paying close attention, it would’ve been incredibly difficult to catch a glimpse of my scars and missing limbs. I still limped of course. There was no way of preventing that without putting me on wheels. I inwardly chuckled at the thought of gliding across the floor, my legs perfectly straight and wheels hidden beneath my gown and cape.
The announcement itself was rather simple. I didn’t even have to say a word. I just had to bow my head at a certain point. I did. The result of it, of course, was predictable. Gasps of shock joined with many a murmuring voice before the audience cheered for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The attention then shifted to me as the crowd bowed as one towards me then stood up with a joyous cry in praise of my mere existence. I inwardly cringed at that. Ponies/People praising someone for simply having been born was why I had become cynical of any monarchy back in the human world.
When it was all said and done, I was, thankfully, whisked away from the gathered press-ponies who eagerly moved forward in search of greater details. Luna, trying to fend them off, explained how the castle would release detailed statements in coming days. This at least gave me a little breathing room, a chance to rest and to figure out what I was going to do now.
It had been a few weeks since I had arrived in Canterlot and I was yet to be able to leave the castle, let alone the wing I was gifted by Luna. The wing itself was useful. It helped to keep both Aria and Pyrus nearby. I lay on my bed. The curtains of my room remained firmly shut keeping everything in darkness. I knew I was brooding. I just didn’t care.
I was used to wandering wherever I liked. Here, I was cooped up and gradually slipping into melancholy. Being a Princess was about as bad as I expected. It definitely lived up to being an incredible bore. Unlike Celestia or Luna, I didn’t have any particular job to do, not that Luna hadn’t tried to include me in her work. There was nothing I could do to help so I just wasn’t interested. So here I lay, bundled up in blankets in the dark.
The door burst open, surprising considering it reached to the incredibly high ceiling above and I already knew how heavy it was to move using only my front hoof. I inadvertently hissed as light spilled in from the corridor beyond. Maybe I was actually part bat, what with my leathery wing and all?
There was a pony figure silhouetted in the doorway. Their rear legs tapped down having clearly been raised to buck the door open. The pony turned about, their hooves clacking loudly on the marble floor, before stomping into my room. There was a determination about their posture as they stalked straight toward my wallowing fortress, a.k.a. my bed.
It was an enormous structure, far larger than I would ever need. Even if I was still a human and I had stretched out with my arms above my head, neither toe nor fingertip would touch the foot or headboard. It was rather plain in design compared to Luna’s which resembled an upright crescent moon. Even so, the mattress was incredibly soft and the blankets oh so warm.
And my side-tracked thoughts came to an abrupt halt the moment those deliciously warm blankets were stripped away from me and I found myself snooter to snooter with a rather miffed looking Aria.
Her first words dripped with venom. “Get up.”
I did so, hopping up to sit on my surprisingly plush pony posterior. Didn’t matter that I was royalty and she wasn’t. If someone tells you to do something in the manner Aria just did, you tend to jump to it as if you were in the military and she were your commanding officer.
“You done wallowing in self-pity yet?” Her tone didn’t change.
I raised my eyebrow in question. “Self-pity?”
Aria’s face twisted into a mocking snarl. Even her voice took on a teasing, nasty air. “I never wanted to be Princess. Look at all my injuries.”
Her face quickly reverted to her earlier scowl. “Everypony has scars, idiot. Just most are on the inside.”
My ears flattened at that.
“And most don’t shut themselves off in their rooms like a mopey teenage human.” Her final three words were each punctuated by a jab to my chest from Aria’s hoof.
I hung my head and mumbled something under my breath.
Aria leaned closer, turning an ear to me even as she kept an eye fixed on mine. “What was that?”
I repeated myself, a little louder this time. The unintended whine to my voice didn’t end up helping Aria’s mood. “Not moping.”
“Then what do you call sitting on your bed in the dark for the past two weeks after learning that you are one of the most important and special ponies in all of Equestria?”
Aria’s growling voice was starting to grate in my ears.
“I didn’t ask to be a Princess,” I said, returning Aria’s glare.
“And that’s whiney moping talk.”
I sighed and looked away as I gathered my thoughts. When I faced Aria again, she still looked so furious. I didn’t even know why. So, I attempted to explain myself. “I’ve been trying to get my head around this whole—”
I waved my wing about as if gesturing to the room with a hand. “Princess thing. It’s a lot to take in. A lot to understand. I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do with myself now.”
“And that needs to happen in a dark room all alone?” Aria accused.
I turned my head away. “Maybe.”
Glancing back at Aria, I could see she was preparing to unleash another scathing rant. I cut her off. “Until two days ago.”
Aria caught herself, retracting her words before they became another tongue lashing.
I nodded at the small wooden box on my bedside table. There was a small stack of unbound papers sitting beside the box. “That purple Alicorn sent me the ring and her findings.”
The fire in Aria’s eyes appeared to cool a fraction as she narrowed her glare on me.
I pressed on. “I’ve been trying to figure out how it drew out my magic when I was wearing it. Twilight Sparkle found that the crystal itself resonates with magic but was at a loss as to how it did so. Other than the resonance factor, it appeared to be just a normal looking blue jewel.”
Aria raised an eyebrow. “That true?”
I nodded. “It’s a puzzle. My mind likes puzzles. It really likes finding solutions to them. Also building things to make the lives of others easier. In this case, I want to understand how this ring works and see if it can be made to help ponies in some way.”
Aria’s expression remained cold. Her eyes, on the other hoof, were a mystery of swirling thought. It took her many long seconds to speak again, but when she did, she turned her back on me. “Even so, you need to be out of this room more. Go think on it outside or something.”
I could only stare blankly at Aria’s tail. It was a nice tail… and rear. Not that I was paying them much attention. I was simply stunned at the change in Aria’s voice. Sure, it was still on the harsh side. That was understandable, she had just been yelling at me. But, her tone seemed warmer somehow.
Blinking myself back to reality, I noticed that Aria had hopped down from my bed and was starting for the door. That was when a question I had wondered about since learning more about Aria’s nature shot to front and centre of my mind. I couldn’t help but air it.
“Aria?”
I watched as she bristled and stopped at my call.
“You say you’re a Siren,” I said.
Aria peered over her shoulder at me. Her gaze was so fierce I swear she could have pierced my body many times over with her eyes alone.
She didn’t speak. I didn’t need her to as I pressed on. “And Sirens are meant to have magic related to their singing voices.”
Aria ground her teeth together and growled, “Be very careful what you say next, princess or not.”
I blinked and sighed to myself, not really listening to the venom in her voice. “How come I’ve never heard you sing?”
It took her a while to compose herself as she bit down on her rage. “Same reason you can’t fly or Pyrus can’t talk. Part of me was broken by somepony else.”
“I meant without your crystal.”
Aria shook her head. “It isn’t something you want to hear. Don’t dig yourself a bigger hole. Don’t need to be pissed at another Princess over it. Just drop it.”
“I know it’s a touchy subject but I was thinking,” I said. She was still glowering at me. “Your magic comes from the emotions of others, right?”
She turned on the spot to face me. The stance she took was a clear challenge and a warning. “What are you getting at?”
“What kind of emotions?”
“What?” Aria bit at the word and lowered her head like a bull ready to charge.
“What kind of emotions were involved?”
She scrunched her snooter and growled, “Not that it’s any of your business, but anger, jealousy and hate. And, the way you’re going, I might even try tapping my own to use on you!”
I turned my gaze to the floor. “Sorry. I know I push when I shouldn’t.”
Aria eased her stance and lifted her head. She raised her snooter and scowled at me. “Fine. Get to lunch.”
With that, Aria stomped out of my bedroom, her hooves sounding like cracks of thunder before she stepped into the corridor and slammed the door with a loud ‘boom!’ Sitting on my bed, shaking at the ferocity of my… I really struggled to know if she was my friend at times. I shook my head to get my mind back on track. It was amazing watching Aria do things with her hooves which I now used magic to accomplish.
I let out a shuddering breath. My head drooped while my shoulder remained stiff. She was definitely a force to be reckoned with. One I should learn to not agitate so much, unintentionally or otherwise.
I eyed the bedside table and the box which sat upon it. The box had sat there since its arrival two days ago. Next to it sat the report from Twilight Sparkle. Her notes were incredibly meticulous, yet surprisingly easy to follow. The only problem was, she hadn’t been able to crack the problem of how the ring worked. The difficulty of the problem at hoof only spurred my mind onward. In fact, it was becoming the only thing I could think about. Particularly one passage from Twilight’s notes:
Like any crystal, the one used as part of this ring is usable as a magical conduit. Exactly how is what I have yet to determine. Through controlled experiments, I was able to determine the ring and crystal act in tandem to draw out the magical essence. Whether this is the crystal having an influence on the ring or the design of the ring acting on the crystal is unknown at this time.
Something about the word ‘design’ continued to irk me for some reason. Exactly why was still lost to me and that annoyed me even more. I lit my horn with essence and reached out with my magic to bring the box to me. Oh, it was so useful tapping into the muscle and magical memory of Selene. By far it was the most useful element I had encountered since arriving in this world. The best part was being able to walk and study something at the same time. Especially useful when wandering the halls of Canterlot Castle.
I want to say I didn’t bump into anything on my way to the dining hall, but I’d be lying. Walking distracted wouldn’t be a smart thing for a normal pony, doing so as a pony with such balance issues as mine on three legs… Yeah, I should do things smart from now on. I truly was sorry about the two vases though.
I think the castle servants were secretly relieved when I finally made it to the dining hall, took a seat at the table, then gently set the box in front of me.
There were others at the table, appearing as blurry blobs of varying colours in my limited peripheral vision, but I didn’t really pay them much mind. They were talking about things, probably even directing their conversations my way, but I was too distracted by the box in front of me to really notice.
A plate of food was deposited in front of me. I only regarded it for a moment before using my magic to open the box, exposing the ring to the world. Then I stared at it, pondering its shape as best I could without touching my magic to it. I didn’t need it syphoning my magic again and wildly dispersing it about the room. I still remembered scorching one of my curtains yesterday when I tried to wrap the ring in my magic and the crystal randomly discharged.
The memory wasn’t entirely useless though. Armed with a better knowledge of my magic than when the ring had first been forced onto my horn, I could now feel and even see the magic as it entered the ring. Just over a second later, I had witnessed the magic passing through tiny grooves in the body of the ring itself. These miniature pathways channelled the magic into the crystal where it gathered in strength before discharging.
It had been a wonder to behold. And something I was very reluctant to repeat. The incident still left me with questions. Questions I continued to ponder as I absently raised a fork-load of some green vegetable to my mouth, my attention still thoroughly fixed on the ring.
Something sparked in my mind. I paused. My fork hanging in mid-air.
What if I could reverse the pathway? With the magical resonance of the crystal… My eyes grew wide as the pieces finally clicked into place. My fork fell from my magical grip, landing with an obnoxious clatter on my plate. I snapped the box shut, snatched it up in my magic and I pushed my chair back with a loud scrape on the floor. There was a protest from someone but I ignored it as I hurried out of the room.
I had it. I had the base concept. The ring. It was a pathway and direction for magical essence all in one. The crystal was similar to the one Aria described. When attuned to specific magic, the crystal was like a syphon, pulling said magic from a source. The ring was the conduit. It was all like circuitry back in the human world.
A knowing grin split my lips and a chuckle of triumph escaped my throat as I hurried onward.
* * *
I locked myself in my room for several days. I don’t doubt it annoyed other ponies, but I was like a dog with a bone. I had to know. I had to understand exactly how the pathways in the ring worked. If I could understand that, I could try to reverse it.
The only pony I allowed in was Pyrus, and even that wasn’t for the first three days. Not until I had an idea of how to move forward. Pyrus was a crucial part, at least I suspected he would be. He was clearly in tune with the element of fire. Although it wasn’t the point of this experiment, we were going to discover just how fine his control of the element he could muster.
I only left to pilfer some books and other materials from the royal library which I then left to lay open, scattered seemingly at random, on my bed. They took up all but a small spot I used for sleeping. A number of the books covered similar topics; crystal and gem stones, magical fields, beginner’s guide to magic, and other such material. There were even a couple on pony anatomy, Unicorns in particular, but there were some covering the other races including Sea Ponies and Sirens. The latter was a very old set of scrolls which may have led to the head librarian threatening me with harm if anything damaged them in even the tiniest manner.
Apparently, being a Princess didn’t protect me from some things after all.
It wasn’t the only problem I encountered, especially in the early days working with Pyrus in manipulating semi-molten metals. What we were trying to craft through use of Pyrus’ fire affinity and my magical object manipulation, was to copy the pathways I had mentally mapped from the minotaur’s ring.
What happened was… did I mention the semi-molten metal part?
My magical skill was only so good and I struggled to keep the gooey metal contained. Let’s just say some of the more liquid parts managed to drip free. And gravity being the jerk to junior pegasi and pretty much everything else that it was, the drips had only one way to go. Straight down. It may have been alright if it had just hit the open floor but I wasn’t that lucky.
My eyelids twitched in dismay as flames began to grow in front of us. Oh yay. We set my rug on fire.
Of course, even though we put it out… Okay, Pyrus put it out with his fire manipulation. Still, the servants eventually noticed the damage. This brought my Aunt’s right-hoof pony, Kibitz, down on us. Then Celestia and Luna themselves.
So, that’s how I was allowed access to more, as Celestia put it, suitable premises for such experimentation. It was an old, disused blacksmith’s forge which dated from the time the castle was under construction, tucked away in a corner of one of the castle gardens.
I stared at it in dismay. It looked like the nook of a building, carved into the foundation rock of the castle, hadn’t been used for anything more than storage in centuries. And, as punishment for burning the rug, it was up to me and Pyrus to clean and fix it up to a working state. Sickle was also on hoof to lend a claw, however, most of her help boiled down to supervising from a perch. Usually the rafters.
I was also banned from borrowing certain materials from the library. This lasted for about a day before my protests ended up frustrating Kibitz enough to assign a scribe to copy what I needed onto scrolls of much less historic value. Some had to be passed by Celestia for permission to replicate, but I saw it as just another brick in the path to my ultimate goal.
My first success came after three months. It wasn’t helped by being repeatedly made to visit the royal physicians. Apparently, Luna and Celestia decided at some point that my injuries were bad enough to require frequent check-ups. These appointments did little more than annoy me and waste my time. And, by the time my first success was achieved, not only was I well acquainted with the royal doctors, especially one Doctor Stitch, but I was probably just as knowledgeable about my physical structure and nervous system as the doctors themselves.
Their biggest concern was one I had for years before becoming a pony. My left eye. The one I had considered the worst until a whip robbed me of sight from the right. With the constant checking and re-checking by the doctors, it was clear that my sight was deteriorating, especially now that I was so reliant on that eye to see. It was a constant worrying niggle in the back of my mind, but one I had little hope of ever being able to conquer. Magic could only do so much.
With that sobering information, I continued on in my works with Pyrus. At least he was finally out of his cast by now and appeared much happier.
Now, that first success I mentioned. It was possibly the most important one. There were a lot of technical terms and magical forms involved with what I created with Pyrus in our little forge. What it boiled down to was the first support for a crystal with pathways which drew in magical energies from the wearer’s natural surroundings. This energy was stored within the crystal ready to be transferred to whatever it was connected to, be it a pony or something else entirely.
It was a major step, but it proved the theory I had formed at that lunch a few months prior. Next, now that we could make these little magical capacitors, as I referred to them, we had to narrow down what we would use them for. The first path I wanted to head down was to help Aria. Not that I told her I was doing so. The second path. That didn’t come to mind until one of my visits with Doctor Stitch.
Doctor Stitch was going over the potential prosthetic legs I had to choose from. I felt my heart drop at the few options available. All of them were basically solid limbs with the simplest of joints for knee and ankle. All they were really designed for was supporting a pony when standing. Maybe a little in stepping, but not very much.
I sighed at the thought of having one strapped to my shoulder. It was then that, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something through the observation window. I turned away from Doctor Stitch’s fake leg showcase to peer out at the room beyond.
It was a familiar room. I passed by and even through it on most visits here. There were two rows of beds, one on each side of the room. Most beds contained a resting pony. These were some of the few privileged to glimpse my injuries. Not even the press ponies were allowed to know my conditions. Not that there wasn’t constant speculation. Particularly about my prospective love life. I frowned to myself. Some things were universal, be it here or in the human world. Gossip and speculation, especially about the members of royalty, sold magazines.
Those thoughts aside, the ponies in this room were military. Emphasis on were. All had suffered terrible injuries. Most were partial or total limb or wing amputations. The wingless, like me, were being prepared for a new life on the ground. Those with missing limbs would eventually be brought to this room to peruse their options as I was now. All were to return to relatively normal lives.
But there were a few amongst them in far more difficult conditions. Those with spinal injuries. I had no idea what would be used to aid them in future and what quality of life would be afforded to them. Did ponies even have an equivalent to wheelchairs?
Observing these injured ponies was so dispiriting. But, for whatever reason, my mind kept drifting back to the magical capacitors we had made. It was actually bugging me. I couldn’t put my hoof on why.
My brow furrowed and my snooter scrunched in deep thought. From my studies into magical conduits and the unintended knowledge of the pony nervous system I had gained from my previous hospital check-ups, I knew they both flowed in similar ways. Particularly in Unicorns.
For some reason my thoughts wandered to a couple of the science fiction movies I had snuck into in the human world. Not exactly medical science, humans didn’t have magical manipulation and power sources. But they had imagination and a strange obsession with robotics, something which was a more advanced version of the creations I had put together to earn some money as a human.
Of course, my mouth started moving even as my brain had yet to reach its conclusions.
“If I can create something to help a permanently paralysed pony to walk as if their accident had never occurred,” I said. “Would you assist me in other projects to help otherwise permanently injured ponies?”
Doctor Stitch’s eyes were filled with pity as he looked me over. “Princess. I understand your motivations, but I am not one who works in miracles. I deal in procedures and facts. The only time where magic is even involved is with the surgeries themselves.”
It was the answer I expected, not the one I wanted. I pressed further. “And if I can achieve it?”
Doctor Stitch was quiet for a moment. He then let out a sigh, hung his head and shook it. “If it were even possible, I could consider it.”
My eyebrow kinked up in hope.
“Just know, you will not be allowed to view patient records. Although, I can grant you access to standard medical volumes as you need them,” Stitch stated while rubbing his chin with his hoof. “Remember, hope can be a wondrous thing. Just know that hope more often than not leads a pony to outcomes with no worth.”
With that oh so jolly declaration, Doctor Stitch stepped past me and moved on down the corridor. I was left to begin my pondering. I scrunched my snooter and hardened my gaze. It wasn’t exactly a no. With a short nod to myself, I turned and headed out of the hospital.
After two more months of intense experimentation and design alterations, I carefully closed the lid on a long box with my magic. I closed my eye and let out an exhausted sigh. I looked to Pyrus who stood looking over our incredibly clean workbench and gave him a smile. Pyrus, being his usual stoic self, nodded once in return.
“Ready to show them what we made?” I asked.
Pyrus nodded again.
Cradling the box in my magic and floating it beside me, it was a little longer than my body, I started out of our forge, saying, “I’d like to see what Celestia and Luna think. We’ve probably kept them all in the dark longer than intended.”
I know it wasn’t his fault, but when he nodded slowly so many times in succession, Pyrus reminded me of a big, flaming drinking bird desk toy from the human world.
We left the forge together; Pyrus keeping a pace behind me as usual. After so many months, it no longer annoyed me with how protective of me he seemed to be. He really took his self-imposed guard role very seriously. Him working with me on our little projects probably made it easier for him to keep me safe.
First stop, the throne room. It was decently empty, other than the usual guards of course. Next was the dining room. The chairs were empty and the serving staff were busy making sure everything was perfectly clean and presentable for whatever the next meal was. Stepping back into the corridors of the castle, I frowned to myself. I know I’m not the greatest at keeping track of time, especially when I’m busy, but I was sure I hadn’t missed that much of the day.
Frowning with thought as I walked, I wandered the stairs and corridors of the castle, moving higher and higher in search of the other princesses. When I was about to give up and go look for Aria instead, not a wise thing of late, her pregnancy was getting to her, I heard a heartbreaking sob.
I instantly halted, my ears twitching every which way until they honed in on the sobbing. Moving as quietly as I could with hooves on such hard floors, I crept up to one of the nearby doors with a sliver of light coming from a narrow gap alongside the door handle. Not daring to announce my presence just in case this was no one I knew, I turned my ears to listen in.
“Oh, Lu-Lu.”
All of my attention snapped to the door. I knew that soothing voice. After all, it had been used on me many times since first meeting Celestia in the Ponyville hospital. It was just as comforting now as it was back then.
The sobbing continued.
“You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself,” Celestia’s voice soothed from beyond the mostly closed door.
The sobbing eased enough for another voice, one which rasped through a throat aching from the throws of emotion, to pass through the fractionally open door. “A thousand years, sister.”
My head darted back and my eye grew wide. The voice belonged to Luna.
“We have shed our tears over countless days with little sleep,” Luna continued, struggling to fight back her sobs. “Stared at the stars of our sky night after night. We have mourned an eternity. To see her once more, we were so over-joyed, we could not think. We saw, we hoped we had been granted a second chance. But, she does not know us. Each time we pass we do so as strangers, the sting to our heart is like a spear. Were we not punished enough in our banishment? Are we to live forever alone, never to share life with even our progeny?”
If Celestia answered her sister’s pleas, I didn’t hear her. I backed away from the door, my breath catching in my throat. Even my damaged eye was open wide with what I had heard.
Luna…
I looked to the door again. My mind whirled with the memory of our every interaction. My aggressive nature to her upon first encountering her. Yes, my mood at the time was warranted by the attempted attack on Aria. But not at Luna. That was Twilight’s fault, with maybe a bit of Aria thrown in. They had a history which Aria was still unwilling to fully share.
Luna, on the other hoof, when she looked at me that first time… Yes, she had been shocked, but not by my injuries. She was seeing one who so greatly resembled her long-lost daughter. It took a journey inside my mind with both her and Aunt Celestia to ascertain the truth.
My head drooped as my mind followed a tangent, as was its most frequent wont. Celestia. I had my head around her. It felt comfortable to consider her as an Aunt. She just felt so accepting and kind and warm and caring. I had never had a bad interaction with her; not that I’d had any with Luna. It was just easy to think of Celestia as an Aunt, maybe even every pony’s Aunt.
But Luna. I can’t deny her being very similar to Celestia in many ways. Especially towards me. She had shown me kindness and compassion. She was the one who had lashed out when seeing my wounds and scars for the first time. It had been an abrupt, abrasive change. Looking back on it though, I could see how, as a parent, her reaction could be justified.
Abrasive was a good description for Luna. Whether she intended it or not, she often came off in such a manner to the ponies around her. Not just to me. But, watching her, it was possible to see how she was struggling, with the world around her as well as my presence.
I had learned the tale of Nightmare Moon. Not from Celestia, but one of the guards. They liked to gossip just as much as the castle maids. Knowing that, it helped to appreciate Luna’s actions. She and I were very much alike. We were both suddenly thrust into worlds we didn’t fully understand. Simply left to flounder as we struggled to find our place.
That was probably why she was so quick to try and thrust her love onto one so similar to herself. But was that to me? Or, was it to the daughter she saw me as? Selene. The body I was still not exactly comfortable with. A filly a thousand years misplaced. One so struck with pain and grief, she had made a wish to leave this world behind.
Her memories still lingered. Initially locked away, I can now call on them when needed. It wasn’t something I enjoyed doing. Her memories came wrapped in the raw emotions she had yet to tame as one so young. And anything to do with her mother… with Luna…
I shook my head. It was always the most difficult to deal with. The huge part of my waking self which was Monochrome, a male human, often swamped and overwhelmed the remnants of Selene, the young filly. This mind and body had been through a lot since it had been in its original form. Now, neither form felt at home in the skin of this, I’m guessing, young adult mare. It was one thing both of my selves had in common. They were both very out of place.
My gaze narrowed with that thought. My two selves.
If Selene had awoken in Monochrome’s body, undoubtedly, she would’ve felt out of place. Or would she? If she had never been shunted aside in order to live as a human male, then my memories as Monochrome would have been her own. And, whatever form they had reached by the time she had returned to this world, would they be any different from Monochrome’s if she had been unable to remember the hundreds of years she had lived in my place?
My eyes widened again. Was Monochrome really a shell for Selene and not, as I had assumed without access to our shared memories, the other way around? Were Monochrome and Selene really so different?
I grimaced at the thought, not the topic exactly, but the fact was making my head begin to hurt. I eyed the box still floating in my magic. I would try to talk these thoughts through with somepony later. There was something I still needed to do. I nodded to myself, turned and headed back down the stairs.
* * *
Arriving at the hospital with Pyrus in tow, I want to say Doctor Stitch was happy to see us, even eager to comprehend the amazing creation we had birthed into the world. That was far from the case. Apparently, he had never expected me to make good on my proposal from a few months ago.
Seeing this, I took it as just one more challenge to face. One more mind to convince.
I opened the box. There were the carefully drawn diagrams and instructions on several pages of paper. Each one was sequentially numbered. I lifted the papers with magic and set them aside with reverence. Everything in this box was so very important. With the papers out of the way, the box’s velvet inner lining came into view along with the prototype.
It looked like a thick black centipede. Its length was made up of several individual solid blocks, reminiscent of vertebra. They were linked together by a black conduit and had four thin, needle-like legs jutting out underneath each segment. Every constructed vertebra was backed with a small, empty slot designed to fit some of the smallest magical capacitors Pyrus and I had crafted.
Lining the length of the box, either side of the prototype, were a series of magical capacitors held in their very own soft slots to keep them safe. Everything was here. I set about explaining how it was to work.
Some of what I said clearly interested Doctor Stitch. The more radical parts, however… Let’s just say he was deeply concerned. He made his concerns very clear. And trust me, I shared them. After all, in order for this completely unproven, highly theoretical system to work, it would need to be grafted to the back of a pony. The needle-like legs would be burrowed deep into their vertebrae where they would tap directly into the pony’s spinal cord.
Considering it would run from the base of the skull to just above the tail, if it failed to work as planned, the pony would, at best, be incapable of moving ever again. At worst, damaging the spinal cord even further. I knew the risks. Whoever was to have this done to them, it could very well kill them. They could go under the knife and never wake up.
Unsurprisingly, Doctor Stitch rejected the proposal outright.
I was crushed to say the least.
I returned to my room with the prototype and, against Aria’s previous threats, slipped into melancholy once more.
Four days later, there was a knock on my door. Truthfully, I was expecting Aria to enter and chew me out again. That didn’t happen. Instead of Aria, it was Celestia who came to see me. I braced myself for a discussion about Luna. After all, it was the only reason I could think of for her visiting me. That also didn’t happen.
What she said left me in a strange state. She had come to speak with me about my prototype. I showed it to her and explained how everything was to work. She listened intently, taking in everything I had to say, even the risks I had taken into account. With everything disclosed, she sat for a while in quiet contemplation.
When she next spoke, she did so with very measured tones. She also explained why this had all come to her attention. I won’t deny that my discussion with Doctor Stitch earlier in the week had been heated. Apparently, trying to argue the merits of what I had made with Doctor Stitch in the observation room of the wounded soldiers’ ward wasn’t the smartest thing to do when our passions and concerns took hold.
The ponies of the ward had overheard us. And then Celestia dropped her bombshell. One of the ponies, a soldier who had been crippled in a changeling attack, one with no feeling below his shoulders, had made a request of the hospital staff. The request didn’t sit easy with the staff, so they said the former soldier would need higher approval for such a procedure than they could grant.
Well, this pony had connections to the former Captain of the Guard in Canterlot who was married to the Princess of the Crystal Empire, who so happened to be the adopted Niece of Princess Celestia. Funny how things work sometimes. My mind didn’t exactly grasp the reality of the situation straight away. Instead, it focused on the fact that this all meant I had a cousin.
Huh. I would have to look into that when I had a little time and better focus.
Seeing I had missed her point, Celestia moved to make it very clear to me. The former soldier was requesting that he be allowed the chance to have my prototype attached to him. I blinked at Celestia many times. I was dumbfounded. Celestia explained that the pony in question was aware of the risks. He was also aware that, without something as drastic as this experimental surgery, he was staring down the bleak path of a short miserable life.
Celestia allowed me to think things over. Even if the pony was fully accepting of the risks, I still understood that this was his life my prototype was going to affect. My agreement was somewhat reluctant. My mind from that moment until the day of the surgery, even up to the final minutes before, was constantly going over every detail of the procedure, making sure I had truly thought of every possibility.
Thankfully, Doctor Stitch, who had agreed to perform the operation personally, also drilled me on every aspect. He even advised on a few tweaks, specifically the permanent magical removal of any and all hair along the patient’s spine. Considering my prototype was a mostly external device, it was probably best for it to not have fur between it and the skin. Also, the prototype would be thoroughly sterilised using magical means.
There was one condition, however, that I had to agree to. I was not allowed to view the procedure. After all, I was not a certified medical professional. But, as luck would have it, I would be visiting the hospital that very same day. Not for myself, but in support of Aria. Her pregnancy was moving along and she was starting to show. I was probably the closest thing she had to a family member while her sisters remained somewhere in the human world.
Aria wasn’t enthused about her situation. There was no way anypony should dare to question her on it, not like one attending nurse did. In the nurse’s defence, he wasn’t privy to the cause of Aria’s pregnancy before hoof. Once Aria was done with him, however, he clearly knew. In great detail. Perhaps he would be more sympathetic to patients in future?
Sitting with Aria gave me a chance to settle my nerves. I also became her sounding board for whatever was on her mind, not to mention her proxy when she became too difficult for the staff to handle. This did mean I was in the room and at her side when Aria learned more about the foal growing within her. One of Aria’s rarely spoken of fears was put to rest as a result. She was having a foal, not a human or some hybrid thing. A genuine foal.
We would have to wait and see if it would be a Siren, but at least Aria was able to relax a little after that. She was still abrasive, but that was just a part of her personality. A part that I was very used to by now.
We left the hospital not knowing how the procedure had gone for Lucky Buck. That was the former soldier’s name by the way. Yeah, I know, very ironic to be called lucky with his injuries. To ease my worries, I spent more time with Aria, Pyrus and Sickle. It was good to know that our little group of lost ponies was still able to draw strength from each other when needed. Even if that meant being yelled at by Aria to keep us on track.
It wasn’t until two days later, when I returned to the hospital for one of the regular examinations of my left eye’s deterioration that I learned of the results regarding Lucky Buck.
While walking to the examination room, I happened to pass a nurse who was busy moving alongside a white-furred Earth Pony stallion in a hospital gown. The Unicorn nurse attending him was giving the stallion lots of encouragement and praise for each, admittedly shaky, step he was taking.
Initially, I passed it off as yet another patient undergoing physical therapy. It wasn’t until I caught a glimpse of a familiar black spinal replica running from skull to tail with a border of exposed skin that I realised what I was seeing. I stopped dead still and stared. I know Lucky didn’t deserve the gawking nature of my gaze, I just couldn’t help it.
Doctor Stitch found me in that very same spot. Apparently, I was now late for my appointment. When he saw what had kept me, he didn’t seem annoyed but ushered me to the examination room anyway. I was virtually speechless for most of the appointment. It had worked. It had actually worked. Sure, Lucky was now beginning the process of learning to walk again, but he had the chance to actually do so compared to the bleak outlook he was previously facing.
Pyrus, Doctor Stitch and I had succeeded. For me, the feeling was indescribable. Probably why I struggled to speak. Doctor Stitch, however, was not so lost for words. I doubted he ever would be, even if some of them he would now have to eat. I didn’t lord it over him, I didn’t see the point in being smug. In any case, it was Doctor Stitch who summed the situation up best.
“Your first miracle, Princess,” he said, smiling at me. For once his use of my title didn’t sound condescending, or pitying. “Any others you have in mind?”
My mind, always working, turned its focus to the other former soldiers of the ward. And, perhaps, even a little wider afield. I cleared my throat and forced myself to speak. “I have a few ideas.”
Outside of the select group with spinal injuries, Rock Cracker, the steel grey Earth stallion, was my first volunteer for prosthetic limbs. Unlike me, he was missing both hind legs. As a result, he was stuck in a wheel belt, this world’s solution to a wheelchair I assumed, in order to move anywhere. It had been more than a year since he had been able to work at the quarry after an accident with a fully laden wagon.
Of course, to my frustration, I was not the one to perform the operation. It was once again to be carried out using the direction I had given to Doctor Stitch. Thankfully, this one was a success. It brought the total to twelve and we kept on going.
Without being allowed to do anything on the surgical side, despite Doctor Stitch now admitting my knowledge to be, in part, greater than that of most resident doctors, I was forced into the role of research and development. At least I knew the surgery side was in very capable hooves. I just wished I could be more involved with every aspect from start to finish, especially with all I’d had to study and learn to integrate my creations effectively.
As we moved past thirty successful procedures, be they spinal or leg based, I began to turn my attention to other areas. Prosthetics for fillies and colts which could be adjusted as they grew. Keeping the components sturdy and mobile enough yet adaptable was proving difficult. The, as yet, highly experimental wing replacements, for which testing was always going to be difficult. And a couple of more secret projects I was keeping close to my chest.
It was hard to believe what we had achieved in the ten months since I had landed in this world. But that didn’t stop me from looking for another challenge to conquer. This led to me keeping very odd hours, often with little sleep. I soon developed an addiction to green tea. To this day, I still secretly blame Celestia for that one. After all, she was the one who introduced me to it. Unsurprisingly, my growing list of bad habits were beginning to take their toll.
After yet another examination of my left eye, Doctor Stitch was forced to talk to me in his most stern voice after many months. My eye was deteriorating rapidly. Not that I hadn’t noticed. My default setting for it was now a narrow squint and, even then, things were difficult to make out. I’d knocked back glasses soon after arriving in Equestria. What was the point in wearing them when one eye was already useless?
It was then that I finally relented and let another pony in on one of my secret side projects; not without swearing Doctor Stitch to complete secrecy first. The reason I had never spoken of it before was because of its extreme level of risk. If the leg replacements were a risk of three out of ten, and the spinal grafts were a nine, this project was off the scale with regard to medical technologies and skill either here or in the human world. Where previous prosthetics tapped into the nervous system, these ones required probes to be inserted directly into the brain.
What needed such drastic surgeries you might ask? Only the complete replacement of eyes along with their optic nerves.
This proposal left Doctor Stitch staring at me in a mix of horror and awe. I knew why he would be so worried. I’d pondered it many a time I struggled for sleep. For whoever this surgery was performed on, it would be an all or nothing procedure. Not only could it end with the patient being left permanently blind, there was also the drastically high probability of damaging the brain or killing them.
To even suggest it be trialled on me, a member of the Royal family without it being perfected first, was laughable at best.
This was not something to consider lightly and, if anypony else even knew I was working on it, I doubted they would allow me to continue. I had ideas, even rudimentary plans in the back of my mind. I had not dared to make a prototype as that would involve Pyrus’ help, and his help only came with thorough explanation of every outcome. In this case, he would know I intended to use it on myself and he would instantly balk at the prospect.
I smiled faintly to myself. I loved his protective nature, but this would kick it into a gear I would be unable to overcome.
With my plans now aired to another secrecy-bound pony, I was able to return to my work with Pyrus. We had more prosthetics to craft and needy ponies were waiting. At least I had some solace with my failing eyesight, I could still feel the minute structure of things I wrapped in my magic. Honestly, it had only come about from working with the pathways in the magical capacitors.
The down side, of course, was once I could no longer see, I would be unable to transfer my plans for others to use or explain to Pyrus. Once I was blind, there would be no further advancements of my works. At least not by me.
Unsurprisingly, dwelling on what my mind saw as my inevitable future enveloped in darkness soon dragged me back down into melancholy. One which, thankfully, Aria didn’t berate me for. Even she was starting to come to terms with what I was facing.
* * *
I did my best to work through my growing depression by forcing myself into my creations. A month had passed and I sat at my worktable, squinting with my only functional eye as I tried to review the latest potential patient’s list of needs. I could barely see now. It was so very frustrating, but I tried to not let it show.
I hated that whip strike from that minotaur for what it had done to me, but I didn’t regret daring to interfere with him. Pyrus may not have been able to speak, but he was a good friend and loyal bodyguard. He now spent much of his time sitting with me. Aria had also chosen to spend this time resting on my bed. She was incredibly frustrated with the later stages of her pregnancy, but also wanted to be as close as possible to the ones she felt safest around. Not that she’d ever put voice to the thought.
One morning, however, Aria entered my room, her face gripped with worry. At first, I thought it was in regard to her unborn foal. Aria said otherwise, adding the reason for her concern. Celestia and Luna wished to speak with me. They didn’t tell Aria why, only for us to attend the throne room immediately.
I sighed and shook my head. It may have been brought to my attention by Aria, and she may have mellowed somewhat as her pregnancy continued to progress, but a message from Celestia and Luna was still just that. It was a call which must be answered yet would drag me away from what I would rather be doing.
Yes, I am a Princess, no matter how much it still irked me, but I tried to make it clear that the royal court was their business, not mine.
Celestia always made sure to point out how I was living in the castle and using its facilities in order to craft the limbs I made. I always countered with the point about how Luna wouldn’t let me live anywhere away from the castle; not even in the village with Celestia’s prized student who also happened to be a Princess. Not to mention, thanks to a little investigation into a certain Alicorn adoption and her subsequent marriage, I was now vaguely related to said Ponyville Princess. Twilight, the one who kept her grudge with Aria warm for whenever we met.
Celestia of course countered my counter with the fact I should spend more time with my mother and share in what she does to help all of Equestria flourish. I hated that argument. Even though I understood now how I had ended up in the world of humans, it didn’t help remove the memories of centuries spent there thinking I had a human mother somewhere in my hazy past, although, now I knew otherwise.
And yet, I always caved to the request. Always.
So, I wrapped my cape around my body to hide most of my injuries and, with Pyrus and a rather pregnant Aria walking either side of me, I sullenly abandoned my work to join Celestia and Luna at court. When I arrived, I found both older Princesses sitting on their thrones. The usual orderly queue waiting to approach the Princesses was nothing more than a large milling group of seemingly random ponies. None of the usual nobles appeared to be in attendance.
As I made my way to stand with Luna and Celestia, the murmurs in the court grew quiet. I squinted and frowned at the reaction. Usually my appearance garnered hushed whispers or gasps of shock; the latter from the sight of my scars or missing leg, especially once the press-ponies had finally discovered them and spread word around the entire country. This was something else.
“Greetings, daughter mine,” Luna beamed at me. My eyebrow rose in question at this. She was just a bit too happy. Then I caught it. She wasn’t smiling with her eyes. Remembering what I had overheard her saying to her sister, my tail drooped. It was hard to deny, no matter how unintended, I was ignoring her. I would need to speak with her soon and try to help set her fears aside.
Luna tried to usher me to sit upon a throne I had mostly refused to use. It was smaller than those of Celestia and Luna. Sitting beside Luna’s throne, mine was plain in appearance while those of my Aunt and Mother were adorned with their cutie marks. It wasn’t neglect which led to my throne being plain, there was simply no mark on my flank for it to bear. Truthfully, it was of little interest to me. My projects were far more important than seeking a mystical butt tattoo.
So, at Luna’s insistence, I took my place at her side. Once I had settled myself and adjusted my cape to cover my missing limbs, yes there was no longer a need to do so but old habits were hard to shake, I looked out upon the rest of the court. I blinked and narrowed my gaze at what I saw just to know I wasn’t mistaken. If my eye wasn’t fully failing me, I was certain there were well over a hundred ponies in attendance. Maybe close to two hundred.
By the night, what was this about?
The court began with the reading of our titles and the gathered ponies bowing to each princess in turn. I’d been through this before. When the initial formalities were passed, Kibitz, in his role as speaker, called for requests from the audience.
Somepony raised their hoof and they were brought forward. I stared at the pony in question. There was little way for me to not recognise him. He looked so proud standing before the thrones in his stiff military stance. He raised a hoof in salute to us then bowed after he was acknowledged. His short-cropped mane made it easy to see the top of his spinal graft. My breath caught in my throat. This was Lucky Buck.
“Your Majesties and Highness,” Lucky Buck began, his voice as strong as his stance. “I come before you, as a representative of former soldiers injured in battle, to pay my respects to those we so willingly served and protected. It has always been an honour, despite the injuries which have forced many of us to retire.
“I also come, as one of those so gifted with a second chance, to formally thank those who were instrumental in many of us walking again. In particular, we former military ponies wish to extend an offer to her Highness, Princess Selene, to form her very own voluntary guard in honour and gratitude for what she has so kindly given to us.”
Lucky turned to me and bowed again. Other military ponies I remembered helping moved forward to stand in line behind Lucky and raised their hooves in salute.
I was dumbstruck. I was still unused to having others bow to me or single me out for praise, but this group in particular… I was struggling to make sense of it.
I caught a movement beside me and turned to find Celestia and Luna watching me. Both were smiling. After a couple of silent moments, Celestia spoke up. “Dear Niece. It will be for you alone to accept or decline such an offer. Simply know that all who wish to volunteer have passed re-enlistment requirements and have proven themselves more than capable for the role.”
My eye widened at that. Re-enlistment requirements? That must mean they were all— I peered as best I could at the former soldiers, even leaning forward on my throne to get a better look. They were all recipients of my prosthetic creations and they were all deemed capable of returning to fully active service. This was a far more positive outcome than I could have ever dreamed. My jaw fell and I stared forward incapable of speech.
There was a chuckle from beside me. It was Celestia again. “I believe our young Princess has been rendered speechless.”
She wasn’t wrong. Thankfully, Celestia spoke on my behalf.
“We thank you for your most generous offer, soldiers,” Celestia stated. “You will be contacted with her Highness’ response once she is better capable of making a judgement.”
Lucky saluted again. “Of course, your Majesty.”
With that, I watched as the former soldiers filed away from before the thrones and returned to their places amongst the audience. I closed my eye and let out a shuddering breath. This was surprisingly exhausting. When I opened my eye again, another familiar stallion had taken the place of Lucky Buck. It was Rock Cracker. And he was joined by two young fillies and a mare. All knelt in bow to us before rising for Rock to speak. As he did so, the mare, clearly his wife, did her best to keep the rather excited looking fillies, their daughters, from getting out of hoof.
“Your Highness,” Rock said. “There are few words which can show our gratitude for what you and those working with you have given to us.”
He looked to the fillies and gestured for them to move forward. They did so, smiling somewhat sheepishly as they stood in front of their father before the Princesses of their lands.
“Thank you, your Highness,” the two fillies recited as if they were addressing a teacher or guest in a classroom with one voice. I caught some softly cooed awws from beside me as we watched the fillies be wrangled by their mother before their father returned to speaking.
“We are but humble ponies, like others you have helped. Ones you wouldn’t bat an eye at if you were to pass us in the street. But, you saw something more in us. The gifts you have granted us, without cost, we can never repay,” Rock Cracker stated. “Just the chance to provide for our families and join with them in their active lives. It brings a stallion to tears.”
There were a few sniffles in the audience. Apparently, Rock Cracker wasn’t the only one to feel such emotions.
“As such, if it isn’t presuming too much of you, your Highness,” Rock said. “I and others you have helped would like to make a request.”
And I was blindsided yet again. What was with this group of ponies? I started to understand when others baring my special prosthetics stepped forward, mare and stallion alike. Making a quick count in my head… Yep, my hunch was right. These were all the ponies my designs had helped and passed through rehabilitation. The others assembled in the audience were probably their families.
I blinked at the crowd. So many ponies from so few. It was overwhelming.
My thoughts were quickly broken as Rock Cracker restarted his speech.
“And, although we truly wish for you to continue your work, we have noticed the toll it has taken on you, our Princess,” Rock said.
That was interesting. They considered me their Princess. I wasn’t doing this for love or devotion. I only wanted to help and this was the best way I had found to do so. Even in the human world I had an affinity for devices, gears and mechanical things. But here, it had gone in a direction I had never dreamt possible.
I shook the thought aside and peered forward. Rock was still talking. I had missed some of it and something about his tone made me think I shouldn’t miss what came next.
“—no other pony understands the risks of these procedures better than we ponies you have helped,” Rock stated. “And so, your Highness, we, to who you have given so much, beg of you. Please, before the next pony you help, take some time to grace yourself with your gifts for, not only do you deserve and need them, but we wish you to see the fruits of your talents and works for many years to come.”
My head snapped back, startled. The audience of ponies, the ex-soldiers and regular citizens, along with their families moved as one. They straightened themselves then bowed. I stared at them, the whole crowd, in utter amazement. Amongst them were the first fifty, fully accepted by society, no matter the look of the prosthetics which were now integral parts of their bodies.
“Please Princess,” the crowd begged as one. Nearly two hundred ponies. All who were now capable of living their lives as they once had, because of me, Pyrus, Doctor Stitch and his team. So many talented ponies coming together to help others and there I was at the centre of it all. My designs and creations. In a perfect world, they wouldn’t be needed. But they were needed and, so long as I could wield them, blind or not, my skills and talents with crafting these prosthetics for others from gears, metals and crystals would be forever at their disposal.
I felt a little funny in that moment. Like a tingle rushing out from my heart to the furthest reaches of my body. I smiled at the feeling. It was comforting yet decisive and left me feeling oh so warm. Looking at the audience, I noticed the court was a little brighter than earlier. I rose from my throne, feeling my cape slip to my right, uncovering my flank and tail.
Ignoring my cape, I said, “I will do as you wish.”
The looks of adoration on the faces in the crowd, as the ponies rose from their bows, suddenly became wide-eyed amazement. I frowned. Something had happened in that split second. The world had changed in such a way that all in the court were left speechless, save for a single older stallion whose voice rang out in awe.
“To witness it,” the stallion gasped. “The earning of a Royal Cutie Mark!”
“Such a wonder,” gasped a mare, after rediscovering her voice.
I didn’t see who had spoken. I was too busy turning my head to inspect my flank. I caught a glimpse of Celestia and Luna in that moment. Both appeared just as stunned as the crowd. Their eyes were on my flank.
For there it was. A cutie mark. MY cutie mark. It was strange looking until you understood it. A series of different sized gears, springs and rods, with a blue crystal at its core, formed the shape of a metal heart. It was the mark which eventually earned me the nickname Gearheart.
In that moment, I truly felt I had become a pony.
* * *
It took a few days for word to reach me of how anypony had even an inkling of an idea that I had been making plans regarding my eyes. I had to laugh, even if the source had broken an oath to a patient under his care. It was Doctor Stitch. He let his worries slip to one of our patients when they asked about me.
This led to the word getting to the ex-soldiers I’d helped. By the night, those ponies were gossips. Eventually, they formed a proposal and brought it to Luna and Celestia at a closed session of court. Of course, I had missed it! I so rarely attended. Sneaky, sneaky ponies.
It wasn’t helped by the next many days being a blur to me. There were celebrations regarding me gaining my cutie mark. The words of those two ponies at court that day were prophetic. It was a rare occasion for a princess to gain her cutie mark when already crowned. I did my best to play my part in the festivities, but I really wanted to get back to work.
When I did, there was so much to do. Most of which was incredibly intricate; finely crafting the magical capacitors to not only act as the power source, but as the focal lenses as well, took the most precise care I could muster.
There were other hiccups along the way, including getting the eyes to take the appearance of regular day ponies’, as well as having the ability to switch to the slitted pupils of the bat ponies. Less said about the work of the brain probes the better. Even before the procedure to insert them into my skull they were giving me a headache.
We eventually ironed out the kinks and the day of my surgery was fast approaching. I know I had fears regarding the procedure. What rational pony wouldn’t? Sure, I was the reason others had undergone similar surgeries regarding preparation of limb prosthetics. But this was to be the first to include the replacement of an entire sense with one of an artificial nature.
Whether it was fear of the outcome or fear of losing a chance, it was more than likely the driving force which led me to that door. However, it didn’t help me to step through it.
The door in front of me was just that, a door. A portal to another room. A passage from place to place. Yet this door and what lay beyond had my stomach churning with worry and anxiety. I breathed deeply, held it, then let it out. It was an act intended to bolster my resolve and ease jumping nerves. It didn’t help.
Neither did the fact I couldn’t knock on a door without nearly falling over. Being a tripod in a world of quadrupeds wasn’t exactly an easy thing, even with magic. Thankfully, somepony had left their feather duster on a nearby side-table.
I wrapped it in my magic, brought it to the door, sucked in my breath, then gently tapped the butt of the duster against the door. It took only a moment for the door handle to ignite in blue magical essence, a colour so similar to my own. The handle turned. I quickly returned the feather duster to the side-table, clearly a maid must have been missing it, before the door swung gracefully open and I was beckoned forward by a familiar strong voice.
“We bid thee enter.”
I didn’t move. I was still holding my breath. I also knew I was hesitating.
Letting my breath out, I cautiously stepped into the room. I had been here before and I knew it to be similarly dim in its lighting to my room. The domed ceiling was enchanted to show the stars in the heavens above, even when the sun was shining like it was at the moment.
This was Luna’s room. It was late in the day and, as I expected, she was lounging on her bed reading a scroll as I limped my way over to her.
As I neared, she lifted her gaze, set aside her scroll and gave me the tired smile of a pony who had only been awake about ten minutes.
“Evening, daughter mine,” Luna greeted guardedly, as I came to a halt in front of her. “We congratulate thee upon gaining thy cutie mark. All ponies rejoice upon their achievement, as should thee. We are happy to have witnessed the event and are grateful to have been included.”
I inwardly groaned. That had been weeks ago and it wasn’t why I was here, but… I caught myself. I had been doing it again. I had ignored her unintentionally. I mentally cursed myself and forced a smile onto my face. I hoped it was convincing. She sounded so melancholy already and what I was here to do probably wouldn’t easily improve her mood.
Luna returned a stiff smile. There was only regret in her eyes though.
I sighed and braced myself. This was probably the hardest conversation I ever had to start in my life. I knew it needed to happen but I still wasn’t sure of how to go about it. I’d been so focused on the idea of coming to speak with Luna, I hadn’t actually crafted a way to do so once we were face to face.
Luna blinked at my hesitance. While her eyes were clearly awash with roiling emotions, her face remained calm and resolute. It was so difficult to read. I cringed at my quickly faltering resolve and accidentally blurted out the exact thing which was on my mind.
“Did you really mourn for a thousand years?” And I was suddenly mortified. Stupid runaway mouth.
Luna’s head darted back as if physically struck. She parted her lips to speak but hesitated, taking a moment to study my face; her eyes squinted out her question even before she posed it. “Thou… overheard us?”
I gave a small nod, not daring to return her eye contact. “Not intentionally. I was coming to show you both my prototype.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t know you were already in deep discussion. I was just looking for you and Celestia.”
I glanced up at her. Her expression appeared cold as she gazed down on me. I felt so small in that moment. My body involuntarily scrunched up as much as it could to show it on the outside. Then the words I had been struggling to say, since the day I understood what I had been doing to Luna, slipped from my lips. “I’m sorry.”
Luna blinked at me, her eyes widening in surprise. She moved to speak but I pressed on. My voice trembled at first, but gradually eased as the words continued to flow.
“I’m sorry if it felt like I’ve been ignoring you,” I said, lowering my head as I spoke. I felt so ashamed to have made her even think it was true. “Since arriving in this world, I’ve been through so much. Even learned things about myself I never expected. It has been a lot to come to terms with.”
I slowly shook my head from side to side. “I now understand the relationship we once had, I never meant for you to feel otherwise. Everything is such a mess. I still don’t fully know who I am now, in this world or amongst the humans. Again, I’m sorry. I never knew how much my lack of acknowledgement was hurting you.”
Given a chance, I would have rubbed at an elbow to try and settle my nerves but… one front leg and all. Also, with that very same chance, I probably would have bolted from the room already.
For her part, Luna remained silent. She watched as I shifted uneasily under her gaze. She remained the image of perfect regal posture while her mind digested my rambling words. I can’t say they were the greatest words or very well put together. But I meant them, no matter how messy they were.
Luna’s reaction wasn’t to speak. Instead, she shuffled back a little on her bed, opening up some space before lighting her horn in her magical glow. It didn’t surprise me to be wrapped in her magic and lifted from my hooves. She had done so before. I did, however, shrink back in her grasp as she drew me closer before setting me down on the mattress in front of her.
Letting her magic fade, I remained standing before her. Being at eye level with her while she lay on her stomach truly showed how much taller she was compared to me, even when she wasn’t standing.
“Please,” Luna said, her voice as soothing as she could muster. “Sit.”
I did as told. My flank hit the sheets and— I froze. Oh, the feel of those sheets against my fur. They were so very slippery as they caressed what little I let make contact with the bed. My expression must have been strange as Luna suddenly arched an eyebrow in question. Even without a response, she set the thought aside, centred herself with a calming breath, then began to speak.
“Thou had no need of apology,” Luna said. “Although unintended, we can see thy act was beneficial.”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I had been holding and my muscles began to release the tension which had gripped them. My whole body flopped but I caught myself before crashing face first into the bedding. Even if the feel of the sheets was oh so very enticing.
“It has pained us to know, now that we are together once more, thy no longer need us for so many things,” Luna stated. “To have been forced apart from thy life, losing all chance to see thee learn and grow into the mare thou hast become, it hast been an agony bordering on torture.”
My head dropped at her words. Even though I was so removed from remembering the time of being her daughter, the pain she spoke with and which gripped her eyes, face and soul engulfed me. It wrapped around my heart and throat then squeezed until I curled in on myself.
Then I felt it. Beneath my chin. It was a soft touch, but one which brought me back to the confrontation. Opening my eye, I glimpsed the thick flight feathers, deepest blue, stretched out to gently lift my chin. Following their guidance, my eye met hers. Luna was so close to me. Smiling a weak, sorrowful smile. She raised her other wing and gently brushed my fringe aside, exposing my damaged eye.
She didn’t flinch or recoil at the sight. Instead, a single tear slipped free and down her cheek. Her focus, though, was on me. Her smile and gaze were just as soft as the feathers of her wings. And, as she spoke, it felt like she was cradling me with her voice and words even as she slipped out of her archaic dialect.
“Selene,” she said. “Monochrome. Whichever name you prefer. Know that I love you. Know that I have always loved you. Even in my confinement, when tormented by that creature, my mind was on you. Were you safe? Were you well? Had you grown into a better mare than I?”
She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “For when I returned and you were not there, I was heartbroken. I thought you were forever lost to a time long ago. For you to stand before me that day in the hospital, to see you once more. Alive. It was like I felt my heart ready to burst with joy. You were not lost after all. Then, seeing your injuries—”
Luna clenched her teeth and screwed up her face in anguish. “I knew I had failed you. In that moment, I wanted to bring about justice for your pain as much as I wanted to hold you and protect you from further harm. A mother’s desires, I understand. But, to hear how you no longer remembered this world, my love, or even your name… my hopes and heart were torn again.”
She sighed. Her breath gently rippled my facial fur and mane. “Seeing your memories, they at least brought understanding. But, they didn’t ease my pain. Seeing all you went through, my being a silent witness who couldn’t intercede, it brought back so many memories of my confinement. Of my desire just to help and guide your path.
“Your Aunt wasn’t wrong when she said you have a good soul. What I have seen you do for the crippled and the maimed of our Equestrian population, it makes my heart soar. You are beautiful in form and wondrous of heart. So giving, freely, of yourself. You may not believe it, but you inspire so many through your actions and deeds. Those who know of you strive to make themselves better, even as you have against your own limitations.
“It hurts me to know, this could be the last time I ever get to gaze into your eyes and know that you can see me in return. Just know, whatever results may come of the surgeries you will soon undertake, I and many others love you. We love you just for you being you.”
With that, Luna fell silent. Her head drooped and her eyes remained closed as tears slipped free to dampen her cheeks in thin silvery streaks. I studied her, squinting as usual. I idly wondered if I would need to ever again after the procedure. I brushed that thought aside and focused on Luna.
After listening to her, I could definitely say I understood her reactions to my presence. Time has never been kind to anyone. Clearly those who are magically immune to its grip of entropy and decay were still susceptible to its grasp upon the heart, mind and soul. For Luna, it was the lost chances of love for a daughter she left behind long ago.
For me, the toll was my memories. Every moment I had spent with her and upon this world before leaving had been denied me. As had much of the time I had spent living amongst humans, as one of them. Already, that felt so long ago. Knowing what I did now did little to help in coming to terms with myself. Was I Monochrome or Selene? I had mentally debated this before.
Clearly, to the ponies here, I was Selene. I know why. It made sense. But Monochrome couldn’t just be swept aside, there was too much of him still within me to let go. Instead, I was a mix of the two. Whatever the outcome, it didn’t actually matter now. I was me. An orphan of one world with a mare of this one so willing to accept me as her own. A mother. It was something I could never remember having before. Maybe I could give it a chance?
I leaned forward. It wasn’t much of a movement considering how Luna still held me, but it was enough to slip my head beneath hers and press my cheek to her neck. I felt her stiffen momentarily at my change of position. Apparently, she wasn’t expecting me to move. It soon passed and I heard her let out a contented sigh. I felt her melt around me, wrapping my body in her wings and front legs even as her head came to rest against my neck.
“If you can give me time,” I said, risking the nature of our embrace by broaching a topic which remained in the corner of my mind. “I would be glad for us to get to know each other again. There is just something I need to finish first.”
Luna sighed and I swear I could feel the joy and love growing within her. “If that is what you need, then time is what you shall have.”
We sat together for several minutes, just drinking in the presence of each other. Mother and daughter. This was our moment. It was our time. Eventually, though, we had to break our hold. Luna had to prepare for her nightly duty and I still had things to do in readiness for my big day.
My eye snapped open as a thought struck me. I doubt Luna noticed. Pulling back, I had to ask, “Can I also ask a favour?”
Luna smiled warmly and gave a small nod. “You need but ask.”
“Before I came to Equestria, I was helping Aria search for her sisters. We hadn’t got far when we fell from the human world,” I explained. “Considering Twilight Sparkle’s distaste for Aria, I doubt she will agree, but I think she may have a better idea of where they are than we did. I—”
Luna cut me off. “I have seen much in her dreams. I cannot say it ever showed the three you refer to in the greatest of lights.”
My brow furrowed. “Aria’s personality may be an acquired taste and her methods unusual, but she has been nothing other than a friend to me. I was hoping to grant her wish if possible.”
Luna frowned with concern. “I cannot say it is the greatest idea. These Sirens were not sent into exile without good reason. Their magic—”
It was my turn to interject. “If they are in the same state as Aria, their magic is no longer a threat.”
By her expression, Luna remained unconvinced.
I pushed a little further. “I also hear reformation isn’t uncommon here.”
Luna’s head dropped. I quickly moved to hug her and, being careful of our horns, pressed our foreheads together. “Sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“It is okay, daughter mine,” Luna said. She gave a sigh. “If it is what you wish, I will see to it Twilight is instructed.”
I hugged her as tightly as I could. With only one foreleg it was far from being as bone-crushing as any Luna had bestowed upon me. “Thank you.”
I lay on the table, staring up at the viewing area. The lights weren’t on me yet so I could see the few ponies who had been allowed to witness my operations. After all, these would be the first eye replacements ever installed along with the attachment points for both a leg and wing, so there was interest in the medical circles.
The wing I was yet to craft. They were difficult to perfect and I refused to let any night pony or pegasi have replacements without thoroughly testing the base designs myself. The eyes… I had originally intended for them to be given to the test patient one surgery at a time. That was before I learned I would be that very first patient. After all, one of my eyes was dead. The other wasn’t very far behind.
This was to be all or nothing. I didn’t care. Either I would wake up with functional eyes or I’d be blind, just like I would soon be without the operation.
My attention returned to the ponies in the viewing area. Princess Celestia and Luna were both there. As was Twilight Sparkle, much to my surprise. I wasn’t exactly friends with my fellow young Princess. Perhaps she was here simply for the medical experience. My gaze shifted and a small smile graced my snooter. There was Aria. Even at this late stage in her pregnancy, she had come for support.
Doctor Stitch smiled down at me. “Last chance to back out, your highness.”
“I’m staying put,” I replied, which earned me a nod from him.
I watched as the glow of magic emerged from Doctor Stitch’s horn. He used it to adjust the mask over his snooter before tying it in place. I then felt his magic pass through my hair. Seconds later, I knew why. My fringe was pinned back to keep it out of the way, allowing access for the operation as well as for those watching to catch a rare glimpse of my dead right eye. Not that I would need to hide it after this anyway.
Doctor Stitch nodded to ponies out of my view and a breathing mask was floated into place over my nose and mouth. I breathed deeply from the mask as I heard a nearby pony begin to count backwards from ten. Nine. Eight.
My vision began to blur. Not helped by the lights above the operating table suddenly being aimed directly at me. Six. Five. Wait. Where was seven?
That painfully bright light, bleeding out to swallow everything in my peripheral vision, was the last I would see with my damaged and failing eyes as I mentally slipped away from the waking world. Threeeee…
And I was out.
* * *
The light of the surgical room was oddly prophetic, for I found myself in a completely white space. There was nothing really to this place, not even background noise. It was oddly familiar, kind of like the dreamscape Luna had crafted so she and Celestia could dive into my deepest memories shortly after we first met.
I momentarily wondered if this void had an echo to it and, if so, would it work with any sound or word, or just very specific things. Before I could test the idea, however, I turned to find Luna sitting watching me. Her eyelids hung low and her shoulders slumped. She had the saddest yet somehow pained smile on her snooter.
Exactly why she looked at me in such a way made little sense until I looked down at myself. There were no hooves, nor fur to be seen. In their place, clothing clung to my body covering much of my skin. I recognised the clothes. They were the same ones I had been wearing before falling into this world.
The even greater marvel, my hands. That’s right, hands plural. I stared at them. Letting my fingers do their own thing. Without seeing myself in a mirror, I guessed I didn’t look much different from when I was in the human world. It was as if my transformation and none of my injuries had ever happened.
Pulling my attention from my body, I looked to Luna. She was still watching me with that same sad smile. She was also still the Alicorn I had come to slightly know while living as a pony. Looking at my hands again, I asked, “Is this real?”
Luna sighed. “What thou see is as real as thy mind makes it.”
I frowned at that and eyed Luna again while my hands were busy inspecting my shoulders and chest. Yep, all human male. “So, this is a dream?”
I didn’t mean for it to sound like an accusation. I really didn’t. Luna, however, flinched as if she were struck.
“We…” Luna’s head drooped and she looked away from me. “I am not fond of seeing those I love in pain. I am also not interested in watching what is being done physically to you. This is a form you are clearly familiar with, thus I assumed you would be more comfortable like this.”
Her eyes turned to regard me. She was probably trying to gauge my reaction. I can’t say I had much of one. Gender stereotypes are terrible in that regard. After so long being male, even now after eleven months a mare, I still struggled to shake off the stupid instruction of having to keep emotions and thoughts to myself.
Luna kept going. “I would rather help you in the best way I can. In a way no other can. By keeping your mind from any pain you may be feeling. Even if it means hearing a voice to which I am so unaccustomed.”
I blinked at that. It was such an unexpected comment, but something I could understand. After all, outside of viewing my memories, Luna had never heard my male voice before. I pressed my hand to my throat then tried to clear it a few times as if there was something blocking me from speaking.
When next I spoke, my words were so much softer as they were cradled by the voice of a grown-up Selene. “How is that?”
Luna stared at me, surprise swirling in her eyes. She started to smile wistfully. “Thank you. You didn’t need to.”
I shrugged. “Been getting used to it after so many months. I’m almost a stranger to my human voice myself now anyway.”
Luna nodded then turned her head away, looking off into the blank white distance. I stepped up beside her then sat down next to her, my somehow not missing right arm reaching up her back to the base of her skull. There, my fingers danced, digging in deeply as they scratched the back of Luna’s head and behind her ears.
Luna let out a shuddering breath. It sounded like a cross between a sigh unexpectedly released to the world and a purr not unlike that of a cat. The look she gave was one of ecstasy.
“Such amazing appendages humans have,” Luna said, leaning her head, along with her body, against me. “I am beginning to understand the stranger dreams of one particular pony obsessed with such things.”
I gave a small smile. “Fingers are amazing things. Having had both, I can certainly say they are far more versatile than hooves.”
“Indeed,” Luna smiled.
“Meh, they’re only useful if you’re stuck as a human.”
My attention snapped away from Luna to the owner of the new voice. I couldn’t help but smile at what I saw. It was Aria standing over us. Not pony Aria, but her human self. Draped in the clothing I remembered her wearing when we met; not a blemish from the attack anywhere to be seen. Neither was there any sign of her rounded stomach. I guess that’s just how memories and dreams work.
“A thousand years is a long punishment.” I knew both Luna and Aria would agree, but didn’t expect Aria to stare at me as if I had grown a second head.
Aria’s lips curled up into a trembling smile, her shoulders began to shake as she started to laugh. “Seriously, dingus? That body with that voice? Doesn’t work on you.”
My cheeks erupted with warmth. I turned my head away and gave a snort. I heard Luna clear her throat.
“I gifted mine daughter with the form she was most used to upon being here,” Luna explained. “She kindly chose to speak with her beautiful voice as I am not accustomed to her human one.”
Aria snorted and continued to giggle. “Still the strangest thing I’ve heard come from a man’s mouth.”
I shrank further into myself and Luna appeared to grow beside me. It wasn’t until I caught sight of my arm… Correction, my front leg. That I understood why. I quickly looked myself over. I was my tripod pony self again.
I felt Luna’s head drape over the back of my neck as she moved to embrace me. I shot a glare at Aria, daring her to make comment. I heard and felt a soft snicker from Luna. A blue aura engulfed Aria before plucking her from the ground. Aria tried to protest and fight against the magic surrounding her, but it was no use. Luna clearly wanted to bring Aria over to our little cuddle session and nothing was going to stop her. This was her realm after all.
Aria was still a human when she was spun around in the air and plopped onto her rear right between me and Luna. Luna didn’t let go of her magic.
“Considering your condition, little Siren,” Luna said, wrapping a foreleg around Aria and pulling her close for a hug. I watched Aria bristle at the contact. “You should be taking things easy.”
Aria, realising she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, scrunched up her face and snorted in annoyance.
“Not the cuddly type, I see?” Luna continued. “When your foal is born, you’ll realise you don’t get much of a choice in the matter.”
Luna shot me a grin with a sly twinkle in her eye. “Selene was very much a cuddler after she was born. All foals are. They like getting close with their mothers.”
Luna wasn’t letting my embarrassment ease anytime soon. Adding to it, she wrapped her other foreleg around my shoulder and hauled me into her cuddle with Aria. A now very pony and very pregnant looking Aria. Apparently reminding someone of their true form in this dreamscape pulled them back into that state.
Honestly, whether Aria was in her human or pony form didn’t matter to me. She was still beautiful. Not that I would dare voice it right now. I simply took this as a rare chance for us to be smooshed together in the hooves of Luna. I felt myself grinning. Pudgy pudgy Aria. Don’t doubt she’d try to kill me if I actually called her that right now.
Aria let out an irritable breath. “I know I agreed to come here and, you know, keep Chromia company during the operation, but this touchy-feely stuff wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
I had little chance to roll my eyes at hearing the name Aria was still trying to force onto me when Luna pressed my cheek against her own. By the soft grumble I heard, I was certain Luna had Aria smushed against her other cheek.
“But you are both so adorable together,” Luna grinned.
And I swear my heart stopped. At least my body froze in shock. Was Luna implying… My head turned rigidly on my neck as I tried to face her. Did she…? I shuddered. No. She couldn’t. All I could see was Luna smiling, a mischievous glint to her eyes. I let out a breath. Thank the night, she was only teasing. Probably from the fact Aria and I had returned to this world together and had helped each other adjust to the changes we encountered along the way.
Somehow the brightness of the void increased with a flash of light. Pulling my gaze away from Luna, I found Pyrus standing in front of us. As stoic as ever, the fiery stallion simply looked down at the pile of three ponies Luna was trying to turn us into and raised an eyebrow in question.
With one of Luna’s hooves wrapped around my throat as she tried to keep me close, it was Aria who called out for help. “A little help here, flame bro?”
Pyrus simply rolled his eyes then grinned. I caught a glimpse of Aria’s hope of escape die at Pyrus’ reaction. She completely flopped in Luna’s grasp.
My ear twitched as Luna’s breath tickled it before she whispered, “Chromia?”
My shoulders fell along with my hope. Was I never going to be free of that name?
“Cute,” Luna said, nuzzling my cheek. “But I much prefer Selene.”
A wave of relief washed over me. I looked across at Aria, squirming a little to move Luna’s foreleg so I could speak. But, before a word left my lips, Aria suddenly became strangely transparent, then disappeared entirely. Luna’s other leg flopped to her side, her gaze fixed on Aria’s former location.
“She woke up,” Luna observed.
My heart sank as I stared at the spot where Aria had just been. Now, even in this place, she was only a memory. I felt a wing slip over my back then pull me close. I leaned in against Luna’s side.
“Such an abrupt departure,” Luna observed.
I looked up to see her frown in thought.
“She didn’t appear ready to leave.” Luna’s frown deepened then her eyes widened and a smile graced her snooter. “I don’t envy what she is beginning to go through now. No mare ever would.”
She turned her head to me and smiled. “It is not something which can be done while sleeping, otherwise, I would keep her from her pain as I am with yours, mine daughter.”
And, the reason for Aria’s sudden vanishing act finally struck me. She was going into labour. Luna’s words, only spoken moments before, suddenly caused my body to clench in sympathy for Aria. It wasn’t something that I, even though I now could go through it myself, overly wanted to endure myself. I cringed. I don’t doubt Aria was at her most volatile right now and I wasn’t there for her to take it out on.
I looked sheepishly up at Luna.
Luna’s smile didn’t fade but I watched as she closed her eyes and turned her head skyward. “A new soul enters the world this day. May its life be long, blessed and filled with love.”
I felt Luna hug me tighter then rest her muzzle across the top of my head.
“Soon she will learn to love another as I love you, mine daughter,” Luna said wistfully, her voice vibrating against my scalp. I let out an exasperated sigh but didn’t bother to struggle as Luna wrapped her other foreleg around me to hold me close. What was the point in fighting her? It was just easier to let Luna bask in a maternal moment she had been denied for so very long.
Truthfully, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the moment. Even if Pyrus was still here watching us. Despite her strange nature and the exuberance of her strength, Luna was incredibly warm and comforting to hug. Gradually, I let my body relax and sink a little in Luna’s hold.
We stayed that way for a rather long time. No one said anything. Pyrus smiled as he watched us before eventually moving to lay on the ground with his body curled around us against our backs. It was when the intensity of his body heat disappeared that I was pulled from a state of semi-slumber.
I inwardly chuckled at the thought of sleeping within a dream but it was the only thing I could compare to how relaxed I felt in that moment.
Frowning, I did my best to twist my neck enough so I could look for Pyrus. My frown deepened when I couldn’t see him and found the brightness of the area around us diminished. I turned my concern sharply on Luna.
She simply pulled back, smiled at me and said, “My dear Selene. It appears our time here is at an end.”
Luna leaned forward and I felt her kiss the top of my head. When she spoke again, she did so with a slight hitch of worry in her throat even as she began to fade from view. “Even if it fails, we shall still see each other in our dreams. I love you, daughter mine.”
Then, she was gone.
I swallowed hard and let my gaze fall to the ground in front of my hoof. “And I love you, mother.”
As with Luna and Pyrus, not to mention Aria before them, the dreamscape around me faded away, filling my head with darkness.
* * *
I awoke to darkness. Not much of a surprise there. But at least I woke up. That and I was able to think, so the surgery must not have scrambled my brains too badly. My ears definitely still worked. I could hear everything going on around me; the conversations, the hoof steps, the squeak of wheels, rattling of metal carts. You name it, I heard it. So, yay, still alive and with a functional brain in my noggin.
I didn’t bother to turn my head when either a nurse or Doctor Stitch spoke to me. Benefits of pony ears. Can’t say I didn’t lean towards the softer speakers, however. Not that Luna could ever be accused of having a soft voice. She was also one of my first visitors. Not surprising. Raising the moon and casting the sky with myriad stars could actually be done from anywhere. Her ability to check on me, that was a little tougher to do away from where I was.
So, I listened to everything Doctor Stitch said. There was nothing really surprising. All had gone as expected, although it had dragged on a bit longer time-wise. The team wanted to be sure everything was exactly as planned, I couldn’t begrudge them that. They were working on a member of the royal family after all.
Yeah, so, no unexpected problems. It was now up to me to be ready for my bandages to be removed. Considering my new eyes didn’t have to settle and adjust like a transplanted pair of organic ones, Doctor Stitch was unsurprisingly eager yet slightly hesitant to remove my bandages.
What surprised everypony in the room was when I said no. Many wondered if I was worried about the outcome, whether or not it had worked, and were trying to talk me through my fears. Truth be told, I was concerned in that regard. But it wasn’t the reason for my hesitance.
I turned my head to where I knew Luna was. Whether she was sitting or not, I had no idea. “I want to see you, but I want to see Aria too.”
“Oh,” Luna said, her voice tinged with momentary surprise. “Of course.”
There was a silent exchange between ponies in the room before Doctor Stitch spoke. “It is outside visiting hours for non-family members in the maternity ward.”
I did my best to frown.
“But,” Doctor Stitch continued. “With what you have been through, who you are, and your relationship to the patients, I can see it being feasible.”
I smiled and uttered my thanks. I was lifted from the bed without a hoof touching me. I don’t doubt it was Luna who supported me with magic. Any chance to carry me about in such a manner and she was all over it. I was then deposited into a wheelchair. I’d been surprised they existed in this world after seeing ponies using wheelbelts. Then I realised wheelbelts were the replacement for crutches, not wheelchairs. It all made sense now.
Once in the chair, I was pushed through the hospital. As before, so many sounds. But, now they were joined by numerous scents. Most of which were the acrid aftermath of antiseptics. The smell of which clung to my nostrils and refused to let go, even after we arrived at my destination. Curse my pony sense of smell. It was far greater than that of a human.
Once in the room and the door shut, Doctor Stitch moved to my side and began to adjust my bandages. There was no greeting from Aria, nor a question if I was ready, Doctor Stitch just went ahead with his task using the magic of his horn.
The bandages slid upward. I could feel them pulling back my unruly fringe and holding it at bay like a makeshift headband. I squinted at the light. Everything was blurry for several seconds. I could hear the soft whirring as my eyes adjusted to their first usage. It was a sound I was going to have to get used to, it was one I would live with for as long as I wanted to see.
Thankfully, my mind adjusted to the input from my new eyes and their sensors imbedded in my brain quicker than the eyes themselves to being used for the first time. Everything was so crisp in appearance, it was so hard to believe what I was seeing, even as my eyes adjusted to limit the brightness. It was such a little thing, one other ponies would take for granted. It was also one of the aspects I had spent so much time on.
I blinked at the world I before me. The clarity was such a jolt from the blurriness I had endured for so long. Tables and chairs were no longer fuzzy blobs but had the sharpest of lines, be they made of metal or wood. The upholstery of a chair. To see the minute stitching which held together an intricate pattern I would have never noticed before. It was just fascinating.
I blinked. In the moment of darkness afforded to me, I wondered if what I had seen wasn’t real. Simply a cruel joke crafted by my mind to tease me into thinking I had succeeded, when in fact, upon opening them again, I would see as poorly as before. Or worse, not at all. The blink ended. The sharpness of the real world around me remained.
I frowned. I could feel my skin and fur push against the dull metal points which were now permanent fixtures above and beside my new eyes. They were something else I needed to get used to. Not like I could just have them removed. They were integral to the functionality and eventual servicing of my eyes. There were only four in total on the front. One near each temple while the other two would forever come close to touching just above the inner edge of both eyes.
I didn’t need a mirror to know what they looked like, black metal triangles with tiny circles in them denoting the ends of screws which held them firmly to my skull. They weren’t the only ones. Two more were set into the base of my skull either side of my neck. My neck felt colder around them, also a little lighter. As expected, the medical staff had needed to permanently shave some of my mane to accommodate them. A very small price to pay.
There were others on my body along with connection points. My eyes weren’t the only things operated on after all. With such an opportunity in going under the knife, I’d added attachment points for my future front leg as well as my wing. Saved having to undergo future surgeries. At least while I was still as small an Alicorn as I was.
I blinked again. My eyes faintly whirred. The sound came from something all others would take for granted. Something I never would again, for in the brief moment my eyes were closed, my pupils would expand in the darkness only to shrink again when exposed to light once more. Normal eyes adjusted to this all the time. Semi-mechanical ones like mine, however, made tiny noises with each movement. Again, I didn’t mind. I could see.
Speaking of seeing, I should probably be paying attention to things in the room other than the furnishings. And by things, I meant ponies. With only Aria’s coat as reference for clarity from our arrival in this world, I wasn’t exactly prepared for the sheer vibrancy of colours I was suddenly faced with viewing.
This was a smorgasbord of every colour and hue I could ever have imagined. They were so much more than the smears I was used to seeing. Even black and white was so much crisper now, more defined than I could ever imagine. And, considering the nature of pony coats and manes in this world, this was candy for my eyes.
Many anxious faces were staring at me, but I made no comment. There was just so much to take in. Many ponies I recognised, they were now far more splendid than I could previously tell. Especially Luna’s tail and mane. Just… Wow! I had been entranced by it before. Now? I repeat. Wow!
I blinked at her, nodded and smiled. The concern in her eyes momentarily grew then melted along with the tension in her face and body, transforming her visage to one of beaming joy mixed with relief. Doctor Stitch and others moved about in my peripheral vision, but I paid them little attention. Undoubtedly, they wanted to know my condition, but I was just so busy drinking in everything I saw to remember to announce the success.
It was difficult to pull my attention away from Luna. After all, she wasn’t the reason I was in this room. That was reserved for the pale purple pony I arrived with. Looking at her now, she was just as stunning as I remembered. Although, she did look incredibly tired. And… I looked closer. Was that a genuine smile on her snooter? I think it was. It wasn’t reserved for me of course. No, it was directed at the bundle she was cuddled with.
It was a little bundle Aria had worried for several months about keeping. Considering how it had come to be created in the first place, it wasn’t surprising she’d had reservations. By the look she was giving it however, I doubted she would ever pass it to another pony. Even if it turned out to be just a regular pony.
I blinked again. So came the faint whirring.
There was Aria. She looked so happy. Finally noticing my gaze, Aria shifted her bundle a little. The first glimpse I caught was the tufts of predominantly purple mane with streaks of deeper purple. This was a foal with a thick mane of hair. It took a bit of angling my head to see the coat. When I saw it, I found it to be a soft red. The colours weren’t exactly complimentary, not every pony was so gifted in that department, but we were going to get used to them.
The foal wasn’t the only unfamiliar face I met in Aria’s hospital room. The other was one of a bubbly adult mare who was doing her best to hog what little attention the foal could give. She was also the one who let the foal’s name and gender slip as she was so busy smiling and cooing.
The foal was a filly. Her name, Crescendo Rise.
The mare in question was of pale blue coat with mane and tail of light blue and deep blue. She was also one of the few ponies I had ever seen to wear their mane in, what this world poorly continued to name, a ponytail. Yep. Even after almost a year of living here, this world of ponies still managed to jar my brain from time to time.
This mare, I soon learned, was a fulfillment of two promises; one from me, the other from Luna. I would need to thank Luna later for coming through for me, albeit reluctantly. For this was one of Aria’s sisters. Found by Twilight Sparkle and brought to Equestria in time for Crescendo’s birth. Her name, Sonata Dusk. She was rather scatter-brained when compared with Aria, but, it was a welcome nature when it came to dealing with a newborn foal and becoming an Aunty.
Like Aria, Sonata was missing her harmonising crystal. Not that Aria would be to suffer its loss much longer now that Crescendo was born and not at risk of what I intended. But that was for another time. Worries I could mull over once the joy and excitement of Crescendo’s arrival had calmed.
And, if you were wondering what I thought of Aria now that I could clearly see her again, I’ll tell you. She was still absolutely stunning. Having a foal did nothing to change my opinion of her. In fact, it mellowed her a little. Her harshness didn’t just disappear though. The antics of Sonata repeatedly proved that.
* * *
My leg.
Did you know that, when you are the one to craft something for yourself, you can do whatever you want with it? Even make it out of military grade metals? Well, you can. You can even make things that no pony else would dream of.
Take, for instance, my grippers. They were my cheekiest addition to my leg and one of a kind as nopony else knew how to use them… Maybe Aria or Sonata would… Or Twilight for that matter. My grippers were equivalent to fingers and extended out from slots around the outside of my hoof. And I was side-tracking my mind again.
Although they were mostly a comfort for me, giving me a chance to hold things like I would as a human, they did have another benefit. They didn’t take the use of my horn in order to function. This meant they could handle objects which were particularly susceptible to the direct touch of magic. In particular, some of the most refined magical capacitors I crafted with Pyrus.
These special capacitors took a lot longer to craft as they were not intended to be used in the slot of a prosthetic. They were also to be used differently. They still had a tell-tale golden base and ring to them, but they were also far bigger than any I had previously made. The crystals themselves had to be taken from rocks embedded in the floating islands. Not an easy thing to do with the potential of dragon attacks along with the lack of flying ability. Despite my preparations, I was still without a wing.
Throw in the fact I didn’t even want to risk the procedure they would be used in until Aria was no longer pregnant. Their function was entirely theoretical as I had no example Sirens to learn from. I didn’t actually start making the first one until Crescendo was a few months old.
I still remember walking into Aria’s room in the castle that bitterly cold morning. Aria was bundled up in a blanket, looking the grumpiest I had seen her in weeks, while she watched Sonata roll about with Crescendo on the floor. I had to admit, I was cold enough to revert to using capes again. The only reason I could reach with regard to Sonata never feeling the cold was her bubbly nature. Yes, there was a mean streak hidden within, but I only glimpsed it on rare occasions when she felt Crescendo was being put in danger by somepony, even by Aria; only once was I her target.
Thankfully, Pyrus was with me that morning, so some of the edge was taken off the chill. Much to Aria’s reluctant joy. She eyed me from her blanket cocoon then went back to watching her daughter.
“Dingus,” she said by way of greeting.
I was so used to her calling me by it, I no longer considered it an insult. Honestly, I reacted more visibly when she called me Chromia instead of Monochrome, but here I am getting side tracked again.
“Looks like Crescendo’s having fun,” I said, setting a box on the edge of Aria’s bed before letting go of it with my magic.
“Think my nitwit sister is enjoying it more, as usual,” Aria muttered. “Honestly, she’s a bigger child than my nine month old.”
“Aria!” Sonata protested and shot Aria a glare. Whatever anger Sonata was trying to manifest didn’t have a hope of flaring out at Aria as Crescendo threw herself at her Aunty again. This left Sonata with only one option; roll around and giggle on the floor while trying to tickle her niece.
“Like I said, nitwit child,” Aria stated, her attention shifting to the box now on her bed. “And that is?”
“Something special,” I said, raising my mechanical hoof. Using my grippers, I opened the box then carefully picked up its contents without letting my magic touch it.
“This right here is one of a kind,” I explained, holding up the capacitor which was nearly as large as the base of my hoof. “It’s taken a lot of research with help from often reluctant princesses to design, but Pyrus and I have finally finished crafting this very special magical capacitor.”
I looked from the crystal to Aria. She didn’t look very impressed. Just cold and grumpy.
“So?” she asked.
“It was hard to make because it needed to work with the energies given off by specific emotional states instead of latent magic found in the surrounding environments like with our usual creations,” I continued to explain. “Had a little help in that department from some of the recently reformed Changelings. Particularly in finetuning it to specific emotional groups.”
Aria narrowed her gaze and scowled. “Meaning?”
“Well,” I said, moving to stand in front of Aria. “It’s all a bit theoretical still but it should…”
I caught myself and shook my head. “You know what, why don’t we try it?”
Aria blinked and eyed me sceptically. “We?”
I tried to give her my best, friendliest grin. “By we, I mean you.”
Aria’s expression remained the same. She even pulled the blanket tighter around herself as I neared her.
Seeing her hesitance, I sighed and said, “I need you to put out your chest and sing.”
Her expression darkened dangerously. I was about to try and explain further when Pyrus brushed past me to stand over Aria. He reached out and placed a hoof on her shoulder then stared into her eyes. Whatever silently passed between them apparently did the trick. Aria let out a reluctant sigh then turned to face me again, much of her anger tempered in her gaze.
“Get on with it,” she said, brushing aside her blanket and standing on her bed. “Before I change my mind.”
I glanced at Pyrus to give him silent thanks, but he was still staring at Aria. Turning to her, I drew in a deep breath and held the crystal up, just short of her chest.
Aria steadied herself, grumbled in annoyance then drew in a breath before her attempt. What came forth, I can’t say it was great. It was definitely out of tune.
Aria cringed at the sound coming from her throat. With it came a huff of irritation. Whether it was from having to perform when not wanting to, the sound she knew was terrible, or seeing the folded ears of the ponies around her, it was difficult to tell. But one thing was clear, Aria’s resolve was waning.
I pressed the capacitor to her chest and said, “Keep singing.”
Aria’s ears scrunched down against her head but she pressed on, her voice growing in volume.
As she continued to sing, the blue crystal began to glow as if reacting to the presence of the Siren. Not to be outdone, a purple aura, not unlike the colour of Aria’s coat emerged from her body, outlining her form completely.
Aria forced herself to keep singing, even while her face contorted in disgust at her voice.
The glow of the crystal and that of the aura surrounding Aria washed against each other like the tide steadily rising up a beach before seeping into each other much like seawater into sand. Once the crystal’s light had mixed completely into the purple of Aria’s aura, the cracking, croaky tones in the Siren’s voice slipped away leave nothing but the purest sound I had ever heard.
Entranced by the beauty in my ears, I let my hoof fall. The capacitor remained in place, its golden back having melded into Aira’s chest. I smiled as I listened, watching dreamily as Aria’s aura faded from sight.
Aria’s shoulders slumped as the strength of her voice began to wane. The moment she ended the note, Aria flopped forward. Both Pyrus and I were already there, hooves raised to hold her steady. She was panting for breath, her entire barrel heaving. I frowned as worry crept up on me. Had I miscalculated in some way? Was the magical drain the capacitor created somehow greater than expected?
My fears eased a little when Aria let out a shuddering breath.
“That,” she said weakly, “was interesting.”
Aria then raised her head and pressed a hoof to her throat. She hummed to herself, testing the basic tone of her voice before letting out any word with musical strength. The consistent sound she made caused her to jump and gasp in surprise. She blinked a few times, mentally judging herself before drawing in a deep breath.
After only a moment of hesitation, Aria let out a single note. Starting softly, it quickly gained in strength as Aria realised that it wasn’t cracking or faltering. Apparently eager to test the limits of her discovery, Aria’s note slid through an enormous range of octaves, both up and down the vocal scale before finally coming to an end in the same soft way in which it started.
I was surprised when she let out a soft sigh. How did she still have breath to spare after that? Then I saw it. And when I did, I felt the weight and anxiety I had let build while preparing for the moment of gifting her the capacitor lift from my body. She was smiling. Aria was smiling. I had made Aria happy. I felt oh so warm in that moment of realisation.
Aria turned to me. Her eyelids drooping with a tinge of exhaustion. Attaching the capacitor had clearly taken a lot out of her, but the results I doubt even she would argue with.
“Just a warning,” I said, restarting my earlier explanation. “Princess Twilight Sparkle had a hoof in making this.”
When I saw Aria’s expression darken, I rushed on. “Specifically, in the theoretical side. With the help of changelings, it was crafted to work from the brighter emotions of ponies and other beings. Not the negative ones your previous crystal fed upon, as Twilight put it.”
Aria’s head drooped along with her expression. She nodded but said nothing.
I didn’t exactly disagree with Twilight regarding it, but it was something Twilight had been adamant about. Without such a change, she had threatened to have her and her friends act against Aria. Even have her banished to the world of the humans with her broken singing voice again.
Looking at Aria, having witnessed the joy she had taken in the return of her singing ability, I found it hard to not accept the compromise we had reached. Even if it had been done and agreed to before Aria knew. I felt a ball of guilt begin to grow in my stomach the longer Aria remained silent. After all, I had attached the capacitor to her without giving her all of the facts and letting her decide if she wanted to proceed or not.
Thankfully, it didn’t last long.
Aria turned to me, smiled and said, “Thank you, Monochrome.”
She pressed her hoof to her new crystal capacitor and said, “It is against a Siren’s nature, but maybe nature can change.”
I blinked at that. An incredibly mature comment I doubted Twilight had ever heard come from either Siren when she had encountered them. Truly, had Twilight even known them? Had she taken the time to learn of their struggles and give them the chance to change their path instead of brutally ripping away a part of themselves? A part of their very nature as sentient creatures of Equestria.
I shook the thought aside. This moment wasn’t about Twilight Sparkle and what she had done. It was about the opportunities being offered now. I smiled as I watched Sonata return Crescendo to her mother’s grasp. Aria cuddled Crescendo close and, although clearly drained from the experience of magical re-invigoration, began to hum then softly sing.
Crescendo smiled and giggled at her mother’s voice. And Aria’s new crystal began to glow.
That was what Cloud Streak tried to instil in me from day one. Cloud was another recipient of my prosthetics. She was also the first Pegasus to enter the Gear Guard, the voluntary group of injured soldiers whose lives I had helped transform. It was difficult to say no to the soldiers, so I had accepted their offer on one condition. Pyrus would be my main protector. This was changed to state when on the ground once Cloud Streak arrived.
Neither of us could fly at first and Cloud was far worse off than me. Both of her wings had been amputated, the result of an horrific crash which had left gash-like scars across much of her body. The pattern it formed brought her the call sign, Flying Zebra. Initially, my part in learning to fly was to be secret. As such, my call sign became Gearheart.
Eventually, I discovered that squads often gave call signs to those they regularly protected, including royalty. Celestia’s was Daystar, while Luna’s, unsurprisingly, was Eclipse. Princess Cadance, my adopted cousin, was Heartbreaker, and Twilight Sparkle had the unenviable name, Booknut. I still don’t think I want to know why.
As we both had issues and ground to cover, Cloud and I trained together, even before officially having our wings attached. We also collaborated on the designs with one of Luna’s bat pony guards. Together, we came to craft two kinds of wings in two basic sizes based on gender and pony type. It was a tough process, but it paled in comparison to what came with actually using them.
Practice with Cloud was one of the only times Luna relented in her desire to keep me at the castle. She agreed that we needed a place to work in secret. This came in the form of the little known Shadowbolt Testing Grounds. This was the specialist base of the Wonderbolts where night flyers trained day and night without the hindrance of the sun to blind them. It meant the building was huge in both length and height, yet it was tucked away in the Badlands where few ponies dared to go.
It was also home to the construction of a special project I wanted to personally oversee. It had taken some effort to get it here from the far south, especially as it lacked any form of propulsion, but a bulbous island now floated alongside the testing grounds. I had taken my time in selecting it, it needed to be perfect after all. Completely barren and uninhabited, the island was now being reshaped and fitted with the facilities needed for my future plans.
I smiled as I gazed upon it. This would become my mobile hospital. Able to travel to wherever needed, it could come to the patients in greatest need instead of forcing them to travel to Canterlot. I even envisioned it visiting other lands on missions of mercy. Staffed by medical teams who volunteered their time, I could foresee this flying ship, the Wings of Artemis as I called it, becoming a beacon of hope within the borders of Equestria and beyond.
The speciality, of course, bring mobility back to those crippled and maimed.
Luna was happy. After all, she was patron of the Shadowbolts, much like Celestia was patron to the Wonderbolts themselves. To start with, Cloud struggled with the constant low-light and darkness of the training area. This improved when she was granted special goggles which allowed her to see through darkness, even fog.
We trained hard. Well, actually, Cloud refused to ever take an easy route. It hurt. Every single time we finished training, I swear I discovered muscles I didn’t know I had and all of them were complaining bitterly about being used in such ways. It was worth it though. With Cloud pushing me and herself to our very limits so frequently, we not only clawed ourselves back into the skies, but also developed what would become the training techniques for ponies who literally needed to earn their wings in order to fly again.
Cloud’s work, ethics and dedication impressed me so much that I had no problem handing the leadership of the Gear Guard aerial unit to her; affectionately known as the Steel Wings. Lucky Buck having earned the leadership of the ground force shortly after the guard’s formation. The Gear Guard itself became a common sight around the castle in Canterlot, much like their considerably larger sister forces, the Night Guard and Day Guard.
Oh, the freedom I felt with flying. It was so much greater than the short hops I had taken after arriving in Equestria, only to be cruelly grounded later the following day. My injuries could no longer deny me, but one pony did her best to try. It was why I found my way to her door one cool morning. I know she had been up all night, but so had I and I had a bit of a point to prove.
I knocked on the door with my replaced right leg. Oh, the usefulness of it. I often caught myself fantasising about replacing my other legs to match. I doubt Luna would have been thrilled with the idea so I left it as just a thought. Speaking of Luna, I entered her bedroom to find her standing on her balcony. Her horn was alight with magical essence as she eased her moon towards the horizon and the end of her work for the night.
I watched and waited patiently. Luna always seemed the more melancholy of the two elder princesses. It was something I understood intimately. After all, it was her blood which pumped through my veins. I had asked her once about my sire. I learned that, unsurprisingly, he had been a bat pony in the Night Guard. A great soldier whose life was lost before my birth. One of many losses Luna and I had suffered, often mutually, throughout our years.
When I had watched her hang her head in thought with her back to me for long enough, I extended one of my gripper rods from the end of my right hoof and tapped the ground. The click of my gripper on the floor caught Luna’s ear. She was smiling even as she turned her head to me. She gestured with a wing for me to join her and I did so. We sat side by side, only a sliver of a gap between us, watching as the muted colours of yet another of Luna’s perfect nights slowly faded with the encroaching light of Celestia’s dawn.
Luna sighed. I glimpsed her head as it drooped in sadness. Wanting to head it off, I leaned close and nudged her side with my shoulder. She eyed me without turning her head. I grinned at her, gave a flutter of my wings then nodded my head at the sky above and beyond the balcony. Luna lowered her eyebrows as if to say no. I nudged her again, this time with my replaced wing. It was even stronger than my normal wing; harder too.
I caught her attention fully this time and nodded more insistently to the sky. I wasn’t ready to accept a no for an answer. Keeping my gaze fixed on her, I rose to my hooves. Remaining low to the ground, I partially spread my wings and ruffled them before nodding to the sky again.
Luna’s response? She closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. Just when I thought she might reject my unspoken invitation, she leapt to her hooves and spread her wings. With a competitive grin now cracking her snooter, Luna threw herself skyward. I had to roll my eyes, she was easy to bait. A heartbeat later, I hurled myself after her.
I could feel the many ever-watchful eyes on us as I caught up to Luna and moved into formation two body-lengths apart, our stomachs and hooves facing each other. We rose higher and higher, spinning in the twin coiling shafts of a double helix, our tails acting as our contrails. The morning sun burst into view over Canterlot as we reached our peak. We tucked our wings and peeled backwards, falling away from each other before lazily freefalling back towards the ground, gaining speed at a tremendous pace.
With the castle gardens growing in clarity at our rapid descent, we snapped open and flared our wings. We swooped over the tops of the hedges and topiaries before arcing upwards again. I stole a peek at Luna as she flew beside me. Her smile was so free now, there was a glint of excitement in her eyes. When she noticed my gaze, I gave her a wink and pushed on ahead of her, giggling to myself as I went.
I banked hard as we rose, pulling in close to one of the castle towers. I looped around it then shot across the rooftops to the next, only rising in height to clear the next level of castle roof as I aimed for the next tower. I glanced back. Luna was right on my tail, grinning all the while. Coming to the final tower, I wrapped in close to the stonework, spiralling around it, rising higher and higher, leading Luna on a merry chase until we reached the top and burst for the sky.
I flared my wings and flopped backwards, turning down and away with Luna moving to my side. It was such a wondrous feeling, flying through the crisp morning air together. It was amazing being able to share the sky with each other and put on an impromptu display for the early risers in the city. The joy was clearly evident on both our snooters as we aimed back towards the same castle balcony.
Our flight ended where it began. Only now we sat leaning against each other, laughing as we both tried to refill our burning lungs with bursts of air. It was a moment in which we didn’t need to speak to understand each other. We both knew this was a ritual we were building, one where, even though we were caged as royalty, we could still feel free and bond on the winds above the city we were both coming to see as home.
* * *
I drew in a deep breath as we came in to land. There was no sky chariot in the Gear Guard, I respected my volunteers too much for that and they respected my desire to fly amongst them in return. It was only members of the Steel Wings with me for this journey. The ground members were busy elsewhere, working alongside Luna and her Night Guard.
The journey to the icy reaches of the farthest south was too difficult to traverse on hoof at great speed. I had learned that well when I arrived in Equestria. We had skirted the region of the floating islands and now found ourselves at the treeless edge of the great ice fields. Cloud Streak landed with me. She was still concerned with what I wanted to do. She even tried to dissuade me as I squinted and scanned the surrounding area.
I was having none of it. Maybe if she had been with me the first time, instead of Aria, she would understand. She was worried, I knew that. This mission was dangerous, I couldn’t disagree. It was her job to raise concerns with me, even when I was the cause of them. The thing is, no matter the danger or how foolish it was, I needed to do this. I wanted to know something and, after just under two years of living in Equestria, I felt I deserved my answer.
It didn’t take long for our presence to be noticed. Sickle snapped to attention on my back. Unlike Pyrus, she was the one bodyguard I would never be able to lose while in the air or on land. She was also just a whistle away when needed.
My ears swivelled forward as they caught a sound I had almost forgotten. It was the heavy, repeated whomp of huge leathery wings thumping the air into submission with each pounding stroke. I looked up and suddenly, there it was, breaking through the darkest clouds, leaving trails of cloud vapour in its wake.
Its giant form appeared to lumber towards us through the sky, growing larger and larger with every wing beat propelling it forward. When it neared us, the dragon banked hard, performing a low and slow circle around us, its eye always on us, before flapping its wings in several quick beats to slow itself. It raised its body, flaring its wings and projecting its feet forward as if to strike us, but didn’t.
Instead, the massive beast, clad in glistening white scales, landed heavily right in front of me. The ground shuddered and groaned beneath its huge feet. Even a stubby small toe of this dragon was bigger than any pony I had ever seen; yes, including Celestia.
I swallowed hard and heard the clink of metal wings and armour next to me as the dragon’s thick neck coiled down, bringing its enormous head to where we might have a chance of being heard or snap its jaws around a pony appetiser. The dragon let out a throaty rumble and fixed a single eye on me in particular.
It was here. As was I. We were finally face to face. A chance to speak and gain an answer. All I had to do was open my mouth. I drew in a bitterly cold breath, suppressed a cough and faced one of the literal monsters of my past.
* * *
I had flown with the Steel Wings back to Equestria under the shadow of night. After all, it was our favourite cover. From there, we met with the relay members of the Night Guard. They had found what I was looking for and were awaiting our arrival. The sister guards of metal and darkness would work as one this mission.
I stood on the edge of the cliff. The dense confines of the Everfree rustling below. I frowned as I thought back to my meeting with the dragon. He had given my answer. It… wasn’t as I expected, though explained a lot. It didn’t bring back my losses, though, these days I would argue that every one of them had been worth the pain. We struck a bargain and parted without conflict. We had something to do, honesty to prove.
Luna greeted me. She was dressed for battle. Myself, not so much. I had another question to ask and the best way to draw out the one with the answer was to appear vulnerable. I wouldn’t be alone; Luna and the heads of the Gear Guard would never have allowed it. At least they agreed to wait out of sight until the right moment. So here I stood. Pyrus and Aria behind me, Sickle on my back. We were together. Considering what we were about to face, it was very fitting.
We waited for several minutes on those barren, wind-swept clifftops before we spotted something hugging the edge of the cliffs and the Everfree. Once the speck was spotted, it didn’t take long for it to come into view.
I heard Pyrus crack his hoof against the ground. Glancing back at him, I could see the rage welling within as he bristled at what he saw. There was all the confirmation I needed. After all, I had never seen much of the ship apart from my cage and its surrounds. I had been unconscious when taken aboard after all.
Turning to watch as the ship approached, it reminded me of a mix between an early dirigible and a wooden galleon from the golden age of piracy in the human world. The fact I had lived through both eras was still incredibly strange to me. The huge balloon, probably made of canvas, was tethered to the ship by many thick rope lines. The only real alteration, from what I saw as a genuine mishmash of technologies, were the two strangely shaped metal shafts which stuck out from either side of the ship and ended in what could be considered huge paddles of some kind.
With the ship in sight, Pyrus ignited his element, engulfing much of his form in vicious flames of blue and green. He could be a flashy flaming Nightterror when he wanted to be. Sure as the night, I wasn’t going to stop him. Not to be outdone, Aria called upon the magic drawn in by her blue crystal. The essence wrapped around her, enveloping her pony form before growing far greater in size.
When she next emerged, Aria was enormous. It was the first time I had seen her true form and I had to say it was stunning. As purple as her pony coat and radiating with her essence, she towered over us, a mix of pony and aquatic beast. This was no pithy mermaid of human legend. Aria was a Siren of Equestria through and through. The form she took, that of the legendary hippocampus; her new crystal embedded within her chest.
I was suddenly really glad Aria had given Sonata a little time for Aunt and Niece bonding with Crescendo. The foal may not be ready to witness the true wrath her mother could bring just yet.
So there we stood. A delectable platter of rare creatures, with Pyrus acting as a beacon, just waiting for these trappers to come for us.
The ship turned to come alongside the cliff. We were just too rare an offer to ignore. As it slowed, the crew of gryphons we could see keeping check of the deck and rigging, ran out the gangplank. Its end landed just this side of the cliff edge, leaving a gap between the rocks and the side of the ship.
None of us moved. We were a form of bait after all, even if it was just to lure out the minotaur in order to speak with him. We didn’t have to wait long.
The bipedal bull emerged from his cabin, a fine cape draped from his shoulders, masking much of his body from sight. We had seen it before. We knew how strongly built he was. After all, he often wrestled his prey into submission, only using his gauntlet when absolutely necessary.
His expression appeared neutral as he stepped from the gangplank. He stopped in front of us in order to examine the prizes he was no doubt preparing to claim. A smile cracked his lips and he gave a chuckle. “What a surprise. Three pets who escaped their cages come willingly back to me.”
Aria snarled wordlessly.
“Oh, quiet yourself,” the minotaur said, an air of control to his voice and posture. “I knew what you were even if you only now show it.”
He held out his hand, the one covered in the gauntlet that neither of us could forget. “Now, are you going to step aboard willingly, or do I have to tame you all once more?”
Pyrus stamped a hoof and Sickle screeched.
I, on the other hoof, remained calm. I lifted my gaze to look the minotaur up and down. Somehow, in the gloomy, close confines of the ship well over a year ago, he had appeared threatening. Maybe it was just how out of it I was during that time which twisted my memory. Or was it that I had stood in the presence of far more immense creatures more recently. Just, out here, on this open clifftop, and even though he was still taller than me, he didn’t appear as intimidating.
The minotaur’s smile faded when neither of us moved. “Come now. We all know how this will end. You know what I will do if you don’t comply.”
“We know,” I said, finally answering his challenge.
“Then get aboard already,” the minotaur said, his voice hardening at our lack of movement.
“Thing is, we know what you have done,” I continued. “Most would demand you be punished for your crimes. My family definitely would, also my friends. I, on the other hoof, have a simple question. Why?”
The minotaur blinked several times, somewhat surprised by the question. His face shifted into a scowl and he raised his voice to the level we remembered he used just before lashing out. “You ask me why? Why I use unicorns for the easily tapped magical essence? Why I imprisoned you? Why I keep all I conquer in cages? Seeing what you have done to yourself, I thought you would be smart enough to figure it out.”
I shook my head. “I know your reasoning for those crimes. There is one, however, which I could never bring myself to understand.”
A large shadow quickly passed overhead. The minotaur squinted as he tried to figure out what I alluded to.
“You see,” I said calmly. “You have taken many from their homelands and forced them into servitude. Yaks, gryphons, sea ponies and many others. Even me. An Alicorn.”
I shook my head. “Perhaps you don’t seem to understand how badly you erred in capturing me and syphoning my magic. I stand as one with Siren and Nightterror. The lost races of Equestria past. I the lost Alicorn.”
I squared my shoulders and declared, “My name is Princess Selene Chromia, leader of the Gear Guard. Daughter of Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria, leader of the Night Guard and Goddess of the Moon. Niece of Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria, leader of the Day Guard and Goddess of the Sun. And here I stand, simply to repeat my question. Why?”
The shadow fell on us again, except this time it remained in place, only to grow rapidly in size.
“A smart minotaur like you,” I said. “Why, in the names of my Mother and Aunty, would you ever kidnap the granddaughter of an elder ice dragon?”
At the end of my question, I braced myself, letting the gripper rods of my metal hoof grasp the ground firmly. A second later, the owner of the shadow slammed down onto the ground with me still standing beneath its broad chest, between its thick legs.
I smiled at the minotaur who now stared up at the massive dragon. His pupils had shrunk to pinpricks and his mouth hung open in wordless terror. He glanced at me. I was still smiling while the dragon drew his huge head back. “Just asking for a friend.”
The dragon thrust his head forward, opened his enormous maw, of which even his teeth were bigger than the minotaur, and let out a thunderous roar right in the face of the minotaur. To his credit, the minotaur stood tall as the blast of air ripped at every inch of his muscular form. When the roar abated, I could hear the gasps trying to escape the minotaur’s throat.
“His name is Bleak, Elder Dragon of the Southern Ice and King of all within his domain,” I stated, taking the lull in noise as a chance to speak. “He’s also rather angry with you right now.”
As if to prove my point, Bleak bared his viciously serrated teeth while his throat emitted a low, menacing rumble.
“Can’t say many others aren’t, either.” I turned my head and gave a nod. Where once only Luna had stood on the peak of the mountain, a swarm of her Night Guard bat ponies took to the sky accompanied by the Steel Wings. The ground forces, Gear and Night Guard alike, rose from their divots in the earth, tossing aside their camouflage and illusions, standing ready to swarm in from the sides when ordered. “I suggest you stop your poaching of other species, step aside, free every one of your captives and we can all leave peacefully.”
This was a show of sheer numbers. Something we all doubted the minotaur could counteract. For our forces, that may have been foolish. For the minotaur waved his gauntleted hand and his flying ship turned to face us. I blinked. Those two massive, oddly shaped poles attached to the sides of the ship… They were huge crystal syphons! Ones which could dwarf a house each in size and they were aimed directly at us.
The unicorns of both groups were the first struck. The moment they brought their magic to bear, it was latched onto by the ship’s syphons which drank in everything it could pull. The bat ponies and pegasi did their best to board the ship, but the crew of loyal griffons engaged them in the skies. The Earth Ponies found themselves ineffective until the Steel Wings flew in to hoist them skyward, held between their legs, before depositing them on the deck. This led Lucky Buck to command the efforts of the boarding party.
Bleak had a difficult time. I could see it in his eyes. He just wanted to lay waste to the ship itself from the outset, but couldn’t. Sure, there was no one to truly oppose his might other than the ship itself. What stayed his claws and fury was not knowing where on the ship his granddaughter could be. If he acted too rashly, she could be injured. So, our greatest, most formidable weapon was reduced to latching onto the stern of the ship to keep it from escaping. Which brought the griffons against him and he was soon a large part of the fight for the ship with Luna actually moving to assist him against what Bleak consider feathered mosquitos.
For us on the rocky cliff, facing the minotaur was no simple thing. He still wore his gauntlet and could suppress any magic which came his way. Even, as Pyrus knew well, through direct touch. This kept both of us and Sickle at a good distance. Aria, on the other hoof, wasn’t so willing to concede ground. She was revelling in her return to her true form and took the fight directly to the minotaur.
It was an awesome sight to watch. Aria was far greater in size than the minotaur but he still held his own. Fists and hooves clashed again and again. Both combatants roared in frustration and exhilaration, even when they came together in fierce grappling. That was probably Aria’s greatest mistake. Every time he managed to grasp Aria with his gauntlet, we glimpsed a moment where the minotaur’s strength managed to surpass her own.
Only swift strikes with her tail were able to free Aria long enough to regain her composure. Feeling she was losing control of the fight when she should have already won, the next time they clashed, Aria sunk her teeth into the shoulder of the minotaur. This only led to the minotaur wrapping her in a headlock and dragging her to the ground.
The magic restraining ability of his gauntlet was just too much for Aria to counteract. Her tail thrashed ineffectually as she continued to try and strike at him with her hooves. I clenched my jaw as I watched my friend be brought down by that infernal gauntlet, knowing I couldn’t strike him with just magic.
A thought flashed through my head. While we watched Aria struggle to bite at the minotaur, I latched onto my errant thought even as I watched her strength failing her. I could see it in the slits of her eyes as she fought on. We had to do something. It was in that moment that my thought became a plan.
“Aria! Hold him!” I don’t doubt Aria hissed back something snide. I simply didn’t catch it as I turned to Pyrus. “With me, big guy?”
Pyrus scraped a flaming hoof at the rock, leaving a fire-filled gouge in its wake. I lit my horn with essence. And we began our charge.
“Just like with the forge!” I yelled.
Of course, Pyrus didn’t respond. He couldn’t talk. He didn’t have to. His mere presence spoke volumes.
It took a lot of restraint on my part, no doubt Pyrus felt the same. We both wanted to help Aria, but this would take some finesse. We definitely had the skills, we just needed time and focus.
While I let my magical essence build, Pyrus was becoming one with his element, oozing fire from every pore. The flames he began to emit in that moment licked higher than the castle gates back in Canterlot but that didn’t stop him. He pressed on, feeding his flames more and more.
Soon, the raging inferno Pyrus had unleashed dwarfed any I had witnessed him conjure to date. It took me a moment to gather myself and shake off a twinge of fear I felt. Projecting my magic out towards my friend, I slipped it amongst the flames, taking great care to not engulf and snuff it from existence. Instead, I infused it, melded it with my magic, letting both coil and burn as one, growing in intensity until we both felt the time was right.
Pyrus shot me a hard gaze. I returned it with my own. We nodded at each other and focused together. The magically impregnated fire we had formed flickered as it tried to escape our control. We didn’t let it. Nor did we stop it. Instead, we channelled it, conjuring a single path for it to take. The magic and flames were all too eager, they wanted to consume.
Instead of unleashing the entire ball in a column of utter destruction to scorch the minotaur from the world and Aria along with him, we allowed it to take a more… fitting form. The fire lashed out, sizzling the air as it raced at the minotaur in the form of a burning whip. It would have been easy and rather poetic to return the favour he had granted my eye, but that wasn’t our target. He also had a natural shield against magic.
The minotaur wrenched his syphon gauntlet from where it had been trying to rip Aria’s crystal out of her chest and thrust it out to ward off our attack. The funny thing is, a device well-made will only ever do its job, and his gauntlet did just that. It latched on to my magic and began to draw it in. He laughed at our attempt. He had direct access to my magic now. I snickered in response.
It was only as the mix of magic and flames wrapped around his gem and gauntlet that the minotaur started to realise his mistake. The fire, once out of contact with Pyrus’ body, no longer contained the magical essence of a Nightterror. Pyrus had superheated his flames so much before releasing them into my magic that, by the time they wrapped around the minotaur’s gauntlet, it had barely begun to cool.
That was when we learned that the minotaur could fear something. Our infused fire overwhelmed the gold of the gauntlet, stripping it of its pathways and magical channels, and freeing my magic from being syphoned to play its part. I didn’t so much take the gauntlet from the minotaur, I twisted it instead, binding it to his flesh. He screamed at that. A single terrible scream to repay all the cries he had wrenched from the captives he considered his.
I wasn’t done. Neither was Pyrus. We had done this so very many times by now, we could do it in our sleep. I set the template amongst the metals, tracking magical pathways this way and that. The crystal would remain. It was too important to cast aside. Pyrus began the cooling process. His flames may have raged but there was no heat for them to cast. Then came the finale, the one step nopony outside our forge had witnessed until today.
In flew Sickle, a trail of frost chilling the air in her wake. With one arm still competing with Aria and the other in utter agony from our attack, the minotaur could do nothing to even swat Sickle away as she wrapped his hand and forearm in layer after layer of frost. The gold hardened, locking the minotaur’s hand in place. As Pyrus and I released our hold on his arm, Sickle flew back and perched amongst Pyrus’ fiery mane. She even gave the minotaur a side-eyed glare as if to prove a point.
Aria, fury in her eyes, jabbed a hoof into the minotaur’s chest then slammed him to the ground, sending out a shockwave to rival the one Bleak had made upon landing. The minotaur was down, pinned beneath Aria’s hoof. She leaned her head in so close to his head, her breath ruffled his fur. She exposed her teeth to him and growled, “Puny bull.”
With the minotaur out of commission and the wing of the Night Guard keeping the gryphons occupied, Bleak took hold of one of the ship’s huge syphon’s in one hand, dug the claws of his other hand into the stern, and made wish. He ripped the magic syphon from its housing, crushed the shaft of it with his claws and tossed the wreckage aside. He shifted his hold on the ship, forcing it onto the clifftop to try and tear at the second syphon.
The Steel Wing moved in at this point and, with Cloud Streak taking the lead, used their wings to slice through the ropes holding the gasbag to the ship. With its ability to take to the skies crippled, all that remained to do was round up the gryphons and any other ally of the minotaur.
For his part, the minotaur just sat staring at his hand, his face twisted in agony and horror. His most beloved creation worked against him now and could never be removed, save for slicing off most of his arm. We had tried to do things diplomatically. He had been warned against continuing his vile poaching. Instead, he decided to attack.
In return, we took everything but his life, that was his to deal with. His captives were being assisted from their living nightmare, his glorious ship, smashed beyond repair. What remained was now being sifted through by the Night Guard. Nothing was to be left behind but the minotaur. For me and my companions, what we had done, that which we were forced to do, in order to save and protect countless others, was not to be revelled in. This was his repayment. He could only blame himself.
After all was said and done, the two dragons, elder and young, stood before us again. Gratitude was given, promises of future deals made. Most of which came from Frostbite as Bleak struggled with the pony tongue, although I suspected he was mostly putting it on to avoid appearing to grovel to such tiny creatures. At least Frostbite was clearly grateful.
Without wings, Frostbite had to hitch a ride back to their homelands on her grandfather’s head. With a wave of hooves and claws along with the heavy buffeting from Bleak’s wings, the dragons took to the sky. While members of the guards continued to round up the gryphons, we watched Bleak fly until he faded into the horizon. With neither dragon around to hear me, I decided it was time to ask a question about something I found odd.
“Sooo,” I said to nopony in particular. “Frostbite?”
“Trust me,” Aria said as her form shifted back to that of her pony self. “Her name is far more threatening in the dragon tongue.”
“Huh,” I said, chuckling a little.
“What now, dingus?” Aria muttered. She really didn’t care about my princess status. Which was good. Neither did I.
“I just realised,” I said, smiling. “I never did learn his name.”
Aria blinked then scrunched her snooter. “Who? The minotaur?”
I nodded.
“Do you really care?”
I shook my head and grinned. “Nope.”
Aria rolled her eyes, turned her back on me and started to walk away. “You really are a nitwit.”
My grin faded into a dreamy smile as I watched Aria wander off. That flank and tail. I heard a snort above my head. I quickly shook my head a few times and turned to find Pyrus with Sickle still perched on his head. Both of them were giving me their versions of sly grins. I felt my cheeks warm. I coughed and looked away from them. “Oh, shut it!”
They didn’t stop grinning. I’d wondered if anyone had ever noticed the extra attention I paid to Aria at times. I guess, now I had my answer. At least neither of them could actually tell anypony. I spotted Luna approaching in her armour. Her on the other hoof…
I did my best to prepare for my mother’s arrival, hoping I didn’t come across as too over the top or cagey enough for her to suspect my thoughts.
Luna said nothing. She simply came to stand by my side then turned to survey the progress of our guards and the breakdown of the ship. I watched her mane as it billowed on an actual wind this time along with my own. It was soothing to watch the stars in her mane.
“We feel we must gift thee with advice, daughter mine,” Luna said, still staring into the distance.
I raised an eyebrow at that. What was she talking about?
“If thine heart is truly set upon her, thy must take heed. A Siren hath never been an easy conquest.”
I blinked then froze. My face suddenly began to burn with embarrassment. I felt a wing wrap over my back before pulling me against Luna’s armoured side. She nuzzled my cheek and said, thankfully in a soft voice, “It is a mother’s right to embarrass her daughter when it comes to the affairs of their hearts. Especially when we see your dreams.”
I let my head droop and I did my best to shrink my body as much as possible. Okay. Others had noticed. Right. And I was hyperventilating. Come on. Calm. Calm. I can handle this. At least Aria didn’t— Wait. Even thinking things seemed to be tempting fate on this topic at the moment. Knowing the three around me were acutely aware of my thoughts about Aria, I did my best to stiffen my stance.
“Please say nothing about this,” I hissed warily through my teeth.
I caught a full smile from Luna who still held me close. “If that is how thee wish it, our lips shalt remain sealed.”
She peered over at Sickle and Pyrus. “All of us. We do not need the newsponies to know of anything before time.”
And my heart sank. I’d forgotten about that. Now I really hoped I had managed to hide this part of my private life better than I had around a certain phoenix and ponies. If I hadn’t, well, the magazine headlines I could imagine made me shudder.
On the topic of Sirens, a while after we returned from the meeting with the minotaur, I was able to observe Sonata’s progress in bettering herself. She was clearly more happy-go-lucky compared to Aria and, with the efforts she had put into setting up her mobile taco business, she was definitely more focused on her work now than her darker actions when living in exile. The fact she was introducing the many races of Equestria to her favourite foods from the human world, catering to carnivore and herbivore alike, brought her endless excitement and happiness.
Not to mention, it gave me, although I could no longer consume meat without being violently sick, a taste from my human life. Even eating meat wasn’t worth the risk of what would happen to my prosthetics if I underwent the transformation back into a human, so having such a place in Equestria was a blessing I could never overlook.
Sonata was also clearly enamoured by her niece, often going out of her way to steal Crescendo away from Aria in order to fill the foal with as much joy as possible. Eventually, I reached my decision with regard to Sonata. Unlike with Aria, I consulted my Aunt and Mother with regards to my intentions. Unsurprisingly, they had their concerns but, considering how Aria had resisted returning to her older ways since regaining access to her magic, they were willing to give Sonata the benefit of the doubt.
It took a few more days to craft, but Pyrus and I were able to present Sonata with her attuned crystal, just like Aria’s. Sonata celebrated by taking on her hippocampus form in order to embrace as many of us as she could to share in her glee. Aria grumbled about her sister’s exuberance, but did her best to let Sonata enjoy herself. Crescendo even laughed at her Aunt’s monstrous form. She didn’t seem to care that she was part of a very different family.
Shortly after, Sonata closed her taco wagon for nearly a week and disappeared. No one knew where she had gone until her abrupt return. She just rocked up one day with the biggest smile on her snooter and a rather scary gleam in her eyes. At her side was a rather dejected looking pony of yellow hide and the most voluminously curly orange mane and tail I had ever seen. This pony, I soon learned, was Aria’s other sister. Adagio Dazzle.
Aria wasn’t massively enthusiastic about Adagio’s arrival. As I eventually discovered, they tended to butt heads quite often. Adagio was also not impressed with the offer Sonata had made in order to bring her here. That was to work for her at her taco business in order to prove she was worthy of regaining her full abilities as a Siren. Unsurprisingly, Twilight Sparkle, when she visited, was also rather vocal about Adagio even being considered for a path to redemption.
Aria’s mood brightened when she learned that Adagio would be working under Sonata’s control. The natures of the three Sirens, Twilight had warned about, were always there, just below the surface. But now, they were more interested in prodding each other than taking out their frustrations on the worlds and the people and ponies they believed had crossed them in some way. Again, Crescendo helped to temper their wilder appetites simply by being the cute foal and, eventually, filly she was.
In fact, as the years went by, Crescendo’s growth into a full-fledged mare, and subsequent reveal as a Siren, was one of the few things I had to judge the passing of time. I was definitely afflicted with my mother’s agelessness, not that it wasn’t already apparent from my life in the human world. The Sirens didn’t age either. In fact, the only ones I had such close contact with, outside of castle staff and my guards, who aged were Pyrus and Sickle.
Sickle aged much like Aunt Celestia’s pet phoenix, Philomena. The only difference being her return to a state of soft, powdery snow instead of smoky ash. A few hours later, she would emerge as her spritely self again, fully rejuvenated and ready to show her majesty to the world. This happened every decade or so and I soon became accustomed to her cycle.
Pyrus, however, was a different story. He aged much like any normal pony. His gait became slower and coat gained flecks of silver. The fire within him also tempered with time, making for the strange sight of him acutely feeling the cold in his later winters. It was painful to watch our beloved friend slowly succumb to the ravages of time while we so easily shrugged off such things.
It was, of course, a part of our curse, Alicorn, Siren and Phoenix alike. We would let others into our hearts and watch them pass in what we could consider the blink of an eye. For me, Pyrus wasn’t my first. I had lost members of the Gear Guard before him. Pyrus, however, was the closest friend I was yet to lose. I can’t say I was ready for it when the time came. I knew I never would be. I simply had to accept it.
That was why, on one morning, when I found him staring off into the distance. I asked Pyrus if there was anything he wanted to do. He was so old at this point, he struggled to walk long distances, and the fires of his mane and tail where barely more than embers in our memories. With many a miss-stepped question, I eventually deduced that there was somewhere he wanted to go.
The Gear Guard gladly leapt at the chance to honour Pyrus’ final request. What surprised me was that, not only did Aria, Sickle and Luna wish to join us, but so did the Night Guard. Even Celestia would join us with representatives of her Day Guard. They would attend his final day when we reached our destination, remaining in the castle until then to keep the country running.
And so, we set out. To where, we didn’t exactly know. Only Pyrus could direct us. This was his journey. We were only there to help him see it through. Our time on land wasn’t long. At Pyrus’ urging, we soon left the shores of Equestria to sail above it all on the Wings of Artemis. Considering our number, even the largest creatures of the deepest waters stayed away.
The unicorns and pegasi amongst the Gear Guard came into their own in the skies above the seas. Their magics, innate and active, kept storms away and wind in our sails no matter where Pyrus pointed. It was odd. Even though we were on a pilgrimage which would end with death, our journey was incredibly peaceful. Not unlike Pyrus himself.
Eventually, we came across the place Pyrus had been longing to see. At first, we wondered why he wanted to visit such a place. Then, it dawned on me and others as well. Pyrus was a Nightterror. He was a pony attuned with the element of fire. Looking at it with that in mind, it was fitting for him to bring us to an active volcano.
On the voyage and before it, he had struggled to walk. The moment his hooves sank slightly into the ash of the beach, the vigour of his pace was renewed. With his focus on the peak, Pyrus pushed on. Those with wings flew in his wake. The rest, including myself and Luna, used magic to protect our hooves from the heat beneath the ash.
Pyrus drove himself up the hillside. I was secretly glad it was a small volcano and not some mountainous craggy peak. It didn’t mean Pyrus never stumbled. When he struggled to rise from his third such fall, I moved to one side, while Aria took the other. We pressed ourselves against the sides of his barrel and helped Pyrus in returning to his feet. He was shaking, his hooves trembling and breathing ragged. Seeing his desire, Aria and I lent our strength to our friend, doing our best to help him step after step up the hill.
We were sweating by the time we reached the crater’s edge at the peak. I knew I was, and I could feel it on Pyrus’ hide. It had taken a lot, but we refused to let Pyrus fail his climb. It was what he wanted. We were simply there to lend a shoulder. It reminded me of several phrases I had heard in the human world. They all boiled down to helping your friends walk when they could no longer do so themselves.
We stopped at the edge. Well, we did, Pyrus only paused. We weren’t exactly sure as to why we were here and, even if he could tell us, I doubt Pyrus would have let us know what we were about to witness. Instead, Pyrus turned to Aria and embraced her. He gave a gentle headbutt to Sickle who now perched herself on my back. Even she could feel what was coming.
Pyrus turned to Luna and Celestia, who had joined us at this point. He nodded in gratitude to them, both elder Princesses returned it with low bows of their own. The embrace he then gave me was the strongest I had received from him in many years. It was also the longest. Again, I didn’t know what was going to happen other than Pyrus was close to ending his time with us. My throat clenched at the thought and my tears threatened to fall. Yes, my eyes had been replaced, but my tear ducts remained.
When he finally released me, I gritted my teeth and let out a whimper. Pyrus just looked at me, a faint smile on his snooter. He then reached out and tapped a hoof beneath my chin, lifting it to keep my head high. He touched his hoof to my chest, just over my heart, smiled again, then turned to face the simmering caldera.
Then came the most alarming thing I had ever witnessed. It was so shocking, Luna and Aria lurched to my sides in order to hold me back.
Pyrus stepped down the inner slope of the caldera. I was so shocked by his actions that my voice froze in my throat. I wanted to scream at him. I couldn’t. I wanted to order my guards to stop him. No order came. In the last moments, as he stepped amongst the simmering surface, his hooves slipping into the lava itself, I needed to run, to fly to him and carry him to safety much as he had for me the day we reached Ponyville.
I watched in horror as Pyrus’ shoulders dipped into the glowing, superheated goop. Maybe he had sensed my distress. Maybe he just wanted to see us one last time. All I know is that, before his head disappeared, he turned to us and smiled.
I fell. Sobbing. My heart ached for Pyrus, the fact this was how he had wanted to go and that I had enabled him, it felt as if my chest was being squeezed in a vise. Luna and Aria held me close. Even through my tears, after Pyrus had disappeared into the lava, I witnessed the members of all three guards show their respect. They stood or hovered about the entire caldera, all with a hoof raised in salute to one of the longest serving guards to ever stand beside their ranks.
After that, many of the gathered ponies returned to the ship. I, however, was not ready to move. Aria remained. I could hear her next to me. She was struggling to keep her throat clear. Sickle tried to nuzzle my head a few times. She was joined by Luna.
My mother tried her best to comfort me. After all, she had been through such passings of loved ones before. It was all just so hard. I sat at the edge of the volcano’s rim for a long time. Thankfully, though active, the volcano was docile today. Maybe it too could feel the loss we all shared and granted us our time to grieve.
The lava plorped a couple of times. I raised my head to find a few bubbles growing from the lava. The sound came when they grew so big they ruptured in a disgustingly gloopy burst. One after another, slowly moving from the middle of the caldera to the edge in front of me. I sniffled but felt my tears ease. It was just too interesting not to watch.
The final bubble was less a ball of air than a bulge of lava itself. It rose up like the bubbles before it, but it must have been over a shallow point near the edge as it struggled to burst. It even looked like it was reaching for the edge of the caldera. When the tension in the lava bulge became too much, it tore apart at the uppermost point nearest to me. My mouth fell open at what I saw next. The head of a small pony pushed free of its lava sheet. It shook its head to loosen a few splatters of molten rock from between its ears.
The pony pushed on, pulling its hooves free before dragging the rest of its body out along with it. Once free, the lava slipped back into the caldera while the pony looked back at it. Squinting at the pony, I was able to determine it to be a colt. The colt shivered as a breeze passed over the peak. He turned his head and closed his eyes.
With the cutest sound I had heard since Crescendo was small, the colt sneezed so violently, his mane and tail ignited as he almost threw himself into a forward tumble. I stepped free of my mother, my attention fixed on the colt who was busy figuring out a few things about moving. That and how fun it was to find his tiny fetlocks aflame.
When he looked at me, I froze. Staring at the colt in awe. This tiny pony, born of fire, oh how I wanted to wrap my hooves around him. Particularly around his familiar coat, which was cooling to a charcoal grey. My voice was weak, my crying had scoured my throat after all, yet my words still ran ahead of my thoughts. “P-Pyrus?”
The colt’s ears swivelled at my voice. His head snapped to face me only a moment later. He looked up at me, his eyes squinting as he cocked his head from side to side; studying me. Then, when he felt he was comfortable with what he had so far learned, the colt scrunched his little snooter as he let his jaw move about.
Eventually, he looked at me and returned my question with one of his own. “C-Chromia?”
I gasped at that. Part of me wanted to groan at hearing the nickname Aria had foisted on me. The same part cursed Aria for ever doing so as I was sure she was mocking me about it even in her mind. It wasn’t a very loud part of me though, as I moved forward to embrace the little colt Pyrus had become. I marvelled at Pyrus as he lurched into my forelegs to receive an embrace. Thankfully, he was as cool to touch as he had normally been.
Another small part of me revelled in the joy at hearing his voice for the first time. Although it was young, at least it had returned along with his life, somehow rejuvenated in the depths of the molten earth.
We learned much of the Nightterrors from Pyrus after that. They were ponies of fire. As with the other few remaining Nightterrors, Pyrus had existed since primordial Equestria. Birthed from lava, they helped to craft the land itself before returning to the volcanoes to replenish themselves. Like the phoenix. This was why Sickle attached herself to Pyrus. Though they were of opposing elements, they were kindred spirits.
For Pyrus, his longevity suffered from the same loss as the Alicorns. Something for which I was now incredibly grateful. We were so alike. Our forms, if not our friendships remained very much like ourselves, eternal.