> What am I? > by Angels > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The morning was going well for Twilight Sparkle. And by that I mean that it was normal. Just how Twilight liked her mornings. Normal with a side of organized. She was famous for her to-do lists, and today's was fairly large. But as usual, by lunchtime, the combined efforts of Twilight and her assistant spike had completed the whole list. As they settled down to down to have some sandwiches, Spike remembered something he had forgot to mention earlier. "Hey Twi! I was looking around in the basement a few days ago, and I found a whole corner of boxes and stuff. Some of it looked pretty cool! Could we open them up this afternoon?" "I don't know, Spike," Twilight said. I was going to write to princess Celestia, but that isn't for another 3 days. I suppose we could." Spike's face lit up. "Yippie!" * * * After cleaning up lunch, Twilight and Spike headed downstairs to the basement. "We really should clean this place out sometime. But some of this stuff is bigger than the door! How did THAT get in here anyway?" Twilight pointed to a large, blue boxlike thing with words on top. "Who knows, but the cool stuff's over here!" Spike was over in the far corner where the dust was thickest. "I think these may be the oldest things in the library!" exclaimed Twilight. "I'll bring them up." * * * Back in the main room, the two librarians slowly opened the old boxes. A puff of dust fills the air, causing Spike to let out a flaming sneeze. He turns back to Twilight. "That was a close one! Good thing I felt that one coming!" Twilight nodded in agreement, then looks back into the box. She magically lifts out several books and papers that look ready to fall apart. Placing these on a nearby table, she pulls out some strange looking objects. "What could these be?" Asks Spike, holding up a strange black rectangle. "I've never seen anything like this..." Twilight looks at the alien object. One side is reflective, like glass. "Oh, look! Twilight! More things!" Spike holds up a much larger rectangle. "Careful! We don't know what it is!" "Alright, sorry..." After inspecting the rest of the box's contents, Twilight looks at the books. "If I use a repair spell, I should be able to read these just fine! Repair spells take several hours though, so I'll read them in the morning!" Thanks to her self-reminder system, Twilight realizes that she is going to be late for Rarity's dinner party! She quickly casts the repair spell on the books, and then leaves. Spike decides to have a late nap. * * * Twilight returned home around nine. Being quiet so as not to wake Spike, the purple mare checked on the repair spell. It needed a while longer. Twilight gently put Spike into his bed, and settled down for a good nights sleep. * * * "Twilight! Come quick!" With a yawn, Twilight rolled over. "What is it Spike?" "Those books are repaired!" With renewed enthusiasm, the unicorn jumped to her hooves. "Excellent! I'll be right down!" After brushing her teeth and mane, she quickly trotted down the spiral stairs. Heading over to the table where she had left them the night before, she magically picked up one of the books. "Hmmm...'The Origin of Species'." She opens the small book. "Oh! A science book! But these diagrams...there not of anything I've ever seen. They look like...monkeys! Or something else bipedal...and here! Words! Hmmm...hu-man. What's a hu-man?" "I don't know. Don't you have any books about them?" Twilight shakes her hread. "No! I've never heard of them! Hold on...there's more...homo sapient. It sounds like a spell!" "A new spell? Well, c'mon! Try it out!" Spikes face lit up in excitement. "Ok, stand back!" Her horn began to glow with her signature purple magic. A low hum filled the room. A wet slorp erupted, and then a huge flash of light blinded the pair of them. And then Twilight screamed. "W-what am I!?!?" * * * Spike rubbed his eyes. "Twilight? Twilight, where are you?" He looked all around, but could not see her. "I'm...over here..." Her voice was coming from behind the green couch over near the wall. "Don't come over here! Stay away!" Her voice was shaking. "What's wrong, Twilight? What kind of spell was it?" "A...a transformation s-spell..." * * * Spike found Rainbow Dash lounging in a tree. He ran up to her, catching his breath. "Rainbow! Rainbow! Quick! Get the others! Bring them to the library!" She looked down. "Why? What happend?" "It's Twilight!" The cyan mare was gone so fast that it hurt. * * * The door to the library opened. No, it exploded inward. Five voices shouted the same thing at once: "Twilight! Where are you?!?" A small squeak from the upper floor sends them rushing up. Crouched in the corner, a quivering creature wrapped in a blanket looks at the ponies with scared eyes. "Help me..." > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy is the first to react. "T-twilight? Is that you?" She walks over and strokes her mane. The creature shys away from her touch. "Yes. I am Twilight Sparkle. I found these books..a-amd there was a spell, and t-then I turned into..." Her words dissolve into sobs as she brings her hooves up to her eyes. She quickly pulls them away from her face. "What?! What are these things?" She wiggles her new appendages, her eyes widening in amazement. "What are these things!? They look so delicate!" She looks at her friends. Their expressions were a mix of awe, wonder, and in Rarity's case, horror. "Twilight?" "Yes Rarity?" "Where's your horn?" Her non-hoof shot to her forehead. "What? My horn? It's gone?!?" Needless to say, there was a bit more screaming to be had. * * * It took over half an hour to calm down the thing that was now Twilight. During that time, Spike got kicked out of the room at least twice. "Humph. Fine! I'll go somewhere else then!" He headed back down, and the first thing he saw was the book with the spell in it. He picked it up and began to read. * * * "Now listen here sugarcube! I'm sure that whatever magic that was can be fixed just fine by the princess! Just calm down!" "I...I suppose your right, AJ. I'm sorry everypony, but I'm just scared." Spike came bursting in at that exact moment. "Hey look! This book has lots of information about hu-mans and it says-" Twilight cut him off by grabbing the book out of his claws. "Ah ha! Good! Why didn't I think of that? Thank you Spike!" For a moment, the book just sat there, Twilight not knowing how to use her appendages properly yet. Then, she pinched the cover between two of them, and lifted. "Oh my! Dexterity! And precision!" She eagerly turned the next page, and began to read. The others quietly left, now that Twilight was intently studying. They decided to take turns staying in the library for now. Fluttershy, being first, went to the couch for a quick nap. > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3 It was well past lunch when Fluttershy woke up. Instantly, she was alert, dashing up the staircase to check on Twilight. She knocked on the door so quietly she could barely hear it herself. "Twilight? How's everything going? Are you ok?" The door opened a crack, and an eye could be seen looking out. "Yes, I'm alright. But I do need something." "What's that? Are you hungry?" "No, but you need to take this to Rarity, please. It's very important." Several sheets of paper were pushed out of the crack. Fluttershy looked them over. They looked like...some sort of clothing, but not any she had seen before. "Ok. I'll be right back." Twilight closed the door, crawling back to the bed. She climbed back up, wrapping the blanket around herself with her...what were they called...fingers! Yes, fingers on her hands! She picked the book back up. After she had figured out enough to know that humans wore clothes all the time, she had measured her new body's dimensions, and then extrapolated appropriate 'normal' clothes. 'I hope Rarity finishes those fast! I'm cold without fur!' She turned the page. This book was extremely helpful, telling her all sorts of things about humans. She had finished 'The Origin of Species' hours ago, only one chapter being about humans. This book, titled 'General Encyclopedia', was much more thorough. "Hands...fingers...arms...Feet! Feet: humans walk on two feet, unlike many other mammals...Humans walk upright? Without a tail?" She read for a minute more, then carefully crawled off the bed. Putting her 'feet' flat on the floor, she used her hands to support herself. Slowly, she extended her knees, rising. The only thing that stopped her was the ceiling. Or, more specifically, her head hitting the ceiling. She toppled over onto the bed. "Woah, woah!" A determined look on her face, Twilight stood up again, this time in a part of the room with a higher ceiling. "I...I did it!" Standing upright, she looked around her room. It was disorienting, seeing everything from twice higher than normal. She quickly sat back down. "Alright! Now, on a humans foot there are toes. These resemble fingers but are..." * * * A soft knock announced Fluttershy's presence. "I got the clothes for you." Twilight opened the door, extending her hands. "Thank you! Perfect!" The Pegasus hoofed the pile of clothes to her. "If you need anything, I'll be right downstairs." Twilight closed the door, pulling the book closer to herself. She found the page with the entry on 'Human clothes'. There were also several diagrams. "So my hands go here...and my feet go here...but this goes on first..." * * * Rainbow Dash was just arriving to take over for Fluttershy, when Twilight made it down the stairs. Unlike the first time she made the journey, she was standing upright, shakily placing one non-hoof in front of the other. As she made it to the bottom, Fluttershy jumped up in the air flying over to hug her. She had been cheering the whole time (not that anypony could hear her.) "Good job Twi! You did it!" Twilight was now wearing the shirt and pants made for her by Rarity. They really went that different from normal clothes, just bigger and shaped more upright-ly. She carefully made her way over to the couch, sitting down, but still upright. "Hello Rainbow." The speedster shook off her amazement and flew over to sit next to her. "This is so cool! What's it like?" "Well, I have these hands, and on the hands there's fingers. See?" She wiggles her fingers. Rainbow is transfixed by the digits. "And humans only walk upright! Without a tail!" At this, the cyan mare laughed. "Wow. They must be really clumsy!" "From what I've been reading, they are pretty good with balancing. It's not a matter of size, its a matter of weight ratios! It's simple! Without a tail, humans must..." Rainbow Dash was asleep in ten seconds flat. > Chapter 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight sighed. Why did she even try? Of course Rainbow wouldn't listen! She was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. Spike rushed to keep anypony from seeing Twilight. "Oh! Hello Lyra! And hello Bon-Bon! How may I help you?" "Well, Bon-Bon and I were wondering if we could talk to Twilight. We need help on a spell, and seeing as she's the best at magic, we were wondering if she could help." Spikes mind sprinted to supply excuses. "Well, you see, Twilight, um, isn't feeling well! She's got a horrible cold and can't come out! It's so bad, she can't even use her magic properly!" "Oh that poor thing! I hope she gets better soon! But at least Lyra and I can look around for a book to help us? It's a baking spell." Spike cringed. Food-related spells were in the back room with Twilight! "Sure, why not? I'll just be right back..." He ran as fast as his little purple legs could carry him. He looked in at Twilight, motioning to get hidden. Painfully slowly, she stood up and began making her way to the stairs. But it was too late. A pair of gasps could be heard behind Spike. He turned. The expression on Bon-Bons face was complete disbelief. But Lyra's face showed joy. Pure joy. "Oh. My. Celestia. A human! A real live human!" The sea-green mare pushed past Spike, galloping to the now petrified Twilight. "Where did you find it? Can you talk? What do humans like to do? Are humans like most po-" she was cut off by a loud 'hey!' from the couch. "Don't wake me up when I'm napping! You know I hate it when anypony wakes me up! What were you thinkin...oh horsefeathers." Lyra started right up again. "What's your favorite color? What food do you like to eat? Are there more of you?" Spike looked into his mentors eyes. She nodded. Holding up her hand, she silenced Lyra. Whether this was because Lyra understood that she needed to stop or because she was transfixed by the hand itself, we will never know. "I am Twilight Sparkle." Lyra's eyes twitched, rolled, spun, popped, shrunk, widened, closed, and then got as big as hubcaps. [A/N: Not that anypony other than her even KNEW what hubcaps were.] After a moment, she looked back up. "Magical mistake?" Twilight nodded. "Yes. Spike and I found a box of ancient manuscripts and books down below the library. I repaired them, and read what looked like a spell from one of them. And then, I transformed into this! And I don't have magic!" "Yeah, but who cares?" Twilight's face nearly burst. "WHO...CARES?" Lyra pointed her hoof at Twilight's hand. "Fingers! Who needs magic when you have fingers?" Twilight considers this. "They are pretty useful... But hold on! How do you know there called fingers? And how did you know I'm a human?" Lyra laughed. "I've been studying humans for years!" Bon-Bon interrupted. ."And driving me insane in the process!" Lyra chuckled. "Yeah...it's a hobby of mine..." "Obsession!" "Whatever!" Now it was Twilight's turn to have big eyes. "Years? But how? I've never heard of them once!" "A lot of the evidence is scattered throughout our mythology, but once upon a time, humans roamed this land! I could bring my books and stuff over if you want." "Yes! Yesyesyesyesyesyes!" The sea-green streak exited through the open door, closing it inadvertently with a gust of air. Bon-Bon huffed and followed. "Spike! This is fantastic!." Twilight's face was lit up like a star. "I can study humans, and write a paper on them, no, a whole book! Think about it! I have a chance to observe a different culture in first pony!" Her eyes took on that look. Even in another body, Spike would recognize that look anywhere. "Oh boy, here we go again..."