Magic of the Earth

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Prologue

Waking up can be an interesting occurrence. Sometimes, you will wake due to an external force, like an alarm clock, assaulting you with sensory information. Other times, your body itself can be the one that rouses you, filing messages of complaint up your nervous system. Still other times it can be the brain that rouses the body with false messages of alarm, such as when you are experiencing a nightmare.

Not one of these, however, were what woke me on this particular morning. No, on this morning, what woke me was a conglomeration of all three. I was practically buzzing with excitement for this day when I went to sleep the morning before, and it somehow bled into my dreams in a twisted, alarming way. I was experiencing a terrible dream, in which I had done the deed that I was planning to do on this morning. However, instead of the cheerful, happy air that I would have expected from such a beautiful, momentous occasion, the dream’s tone was full of dread and despair. Why, I still do not know, for when I finally reached the part where I would perform the momentous act, I was jolted from my dark-toned slumber by a horrific screeching noise of metal on stone. While this happened, I calmly observed that I was no longer on my bed, and was instead in the air directly next to it, wrapped in a cocoon of blanket and sheets.

This, logically, resulted in my immediate fall to the hardwood floor beneath me. In case you’ve never fallen from a bed that happens to be on a tall frame before, it hurts. Not enough to make a man weep, but enough to steal a cry of alarm from his lips. In my case, said cry of alarm was a deep-throated “Gah!” that echoed around the room. I wasn’t critically damaged, but my chest was complaining nonetheless of a stinging that afflicted my skin. Growling something about how I should get myself a wider bed, my attention was immediately drawn to the incredibly annoying noise that was shooting in from my window.

It sounded like someone was trying to test out their nails-on-chalkboard 50x emulator, and my tolerance for the sound was dropping fast. I quickly extricated myself from the knot of fabric I was bound in, fleetingly wondering if I had actually been tied up in my sleep, and immediately afterward shoved the mass of bedding up onto my bed. The sound was coming from behind my bed, also known as the direction that faced the street of the building I dwelled within. I scrambled up to a bipedal standing position, directing my body to the open window. There, directly across the street from my small residence, was a man that looked like he was trying to cut through a tile with a rotary saw.

I opted out of giving him a piece of my mind, wanting instead to start the day on a happy note, and forcibly shut my window. The noise was still there, but it was much less prominent. I found myself using my vocal chords for complaint for the second time that day, grumbling about what kind of an idiot it would take to be making such loud noise so early in the day. Thinking about time, of course, immediately made me wonder about what time it actually was. The clock read eleven sixteen in the morning, an unusually late time for me to awaken. Normal wakeup times for me were erratic, thanks to my ‘boss’, but they averaged to be somewhere in the seven range.

After that little bit of complaining and thought, I rapidly made my bed in a militaristic fashion, obliterating any and all wrinkles with extreme prejudice. My employer never allowed for me to have any objectionable form in my bedding, and I’d be dead before I allowed for myself to slip out of that habit. Again. After what happened the last time I left my blankets imperfect, I didn’t even want to think about what could happen now that I knew better.

Shaking those dark thoughts from my mind, I strolled over my abnormally clear bedroom and entered the less dark hallway behind my thick oaken door. The bathroom was my destination, and was the second part of resolving the signals that woke me from my slumber.

I quickly entered the white-tiled room, moving immediately towards the beautiful porcelain bowl that beckoned to me with a passion no lover could match. I resisted for a moment, then succumbed to my natural desires. I’ll spare you the details of what happened, but I believe it is safe to say that it was quite satisfying.

After emptying myself of the liquid waste, I washed the controllers of the deed, wanting to cleanse the rest of me as soon as possible.

First, however, I needed to look at myself in the mirror. I was somewhat concerned about my looks, and wanted to make sure nothing had happened overnight. When you’re in my line of work, there could be all sorts of random issues and changes caused by latent mistakes. There was one instance in which I completely lost all of my hair overnight, and it took a few hours to get it back in place. I raised my gaze to look into the reflective glass, and saw immediately that my fears were unfounded. Same short dark hair, same chiseled face, same emerald eyes. My gaze dropped lower, seeing no changes to my muscular chest and arms. I wasn’t some man that practically lives in the gym, my unusually powerful body was a direct result of the heavy lifting, pulling, and pushing that I did in my employer’s stead.

My eyes contained an excited gleam, clearly referencing the ritual that I, and I alone, was going to perform on this momentous day.

Today, you see, was one of the few days per year in which the entities far below the surface of the earth were releasing excess energy. That very energy is what fuel much of what my employer and I do. As such, a momentous day like this is usually one that is filled with rituals, spells, and collections. This particular ritual was one of which was designed to capture energy and put it to a purpose of collecting more.

The reason I was so excited over this is that not only does the ritual gather the energy, but it gathers it within me! My master, the only wizard on the planet, was generous enough to share his unique talent with his lowly servant of only a few years. To say that this gift was generous would be a tragic understatement, as there were many far more eligible apprentices available throughout the world.

Now, by servant, I do not mean a butler who brings the master tea and cheese cubes. Nor do I mean this as in a goon that he uses to do his dirty work. No, I mean this as in an assistant to perform the tasks he couldn’t do. He was far from a lazy man, but he did not have the time nor physical strength to move boxes of ingredients for his rituals and spells, nor did he have the time to organize the bookshelves he left as a mess so frequently.

He also didn’t have the time to cook his own meals, but my lack of skill on the subject had inspired him hire a professional cook in my stead.

In many ways, I suppose, I was like little Spike, the son/brother/number-one-assistant to Twilight Sparkle. The resemblance between our occupations was uncanny, except for the fact that I actually got paid for it as well as the fact that I am a grown man, unlike the dragon. I also lived apart from my employer at the moment, but only because he wanted to see how I would do performing the ritual on my own.

In case that little statement didn’t give it away, I was a fan of the television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The innocence demonstrated in the denizens of the world the series depicted simply warmed my heart, and was an excellent way of cheering me up on days in which I was not feeling my best. I wasn’t much of a member of the online communities, as I had little time for such entertainment. No, the only occupation I am interested in is things that actually benefit myself or the people that I work for.

Well, I suppose that wasn’t the only reason I liked the show. I liked to laugh at the flawed depictions of the thaumaturgic system in the world they lived in, seeing how little the makers knew about the real ways.

Of course, I should probably hurry about cleaning myself, instead of rambling to myself while staring at my own reflection.

I quickly performed the usual human cleansing ritual, washing the sweat that came with the night’s nightmare away in minutes. There wasn’t much that happened while I did so, the only deviation from the norm being that in my haste, I accidentally put the water to a degree of temperature far greater than I am comfortable with. The scalds would be easy to heal once I learned the spell, and there was nothing, nothing that I would permit to keep me from learning the spells my master used.

I then left my bathroom, a cloud of vapor following me, and, as quickly as I could, I strode back to my room. There were several more things I needed to do before the ritual began, including getting myself some fuel for my body. I was told to strictly eat all-plant products for a day or so before the big day, as any animal products would apparently deter the accumulation of the force I was trying to absorb. I had no idea why that would affect it, but I trusted the judgement of my master, and resolved to having some simple fruits and bread for today. I wasn’t much of a fan of vegetarian diets, but some things were just too good to give up.

After dressing myself in a bathrobe, I shot down the hallway, eager to refuel myself so that I could set up the energy circle as soon as possible. There wasn’t very much in my kitchen normally, but I had stocked up on the food I would need in the event that anything bad happened with the ritual and I was stuck in my home for a while.

Once I reached the personal eatery, I hurriedly put together a banana, some bread, and an apple for the food I would need. I then split the banana, quickly peeling it as to get the refueling done faster. Of course, I hadn’t accounted for almost choking on the thing when I shoved the entire fruit down the pipe, and I spat out a now slimy and disfigured banana. I threw the ruined fruit down my open-topped garbage bin, quickly replacing it in my hands with the bread.

I took special notice to eating it, as to prevent more wasted food. The slices were nonetheless rapidly devoured, and I grabbed the apple afterwards. To save time, I ate it as I walked back to my bedroom and finished the edible part seconds after entering. I was greeted with the faded sound of my neighbor cutting his tiles, but I ignored the noise and tossed the apple’s refuse into the garbage can. I couldn’t do the ritual in my normal clothes, be it due to lack of dramatic effect or an actual effect of the absorbing. As such, I changed myself into a deep violet silken robe, not leaving myself any other potentially disruptive articles.

After cleaning, feeding, and redressing myself in the best clothes possible for the absorption ritual, I began chalking out the design that I would need on the floor. There weren’t many known things that could go wrong, but I had no desire to find which ones I could initiate.

Once the intricate circular insignia was laid out, I placed down the three tripods that held the magic-infused gemstones in their respective places to complete the design. The moment I stepped within the center of the circle and said the words needed to spark the process, the energy being spouted from the planet’s depths would converge upon me.

As such, I stepped to the center.

I cleared my throat, readying myself for the task ahead. Any deviation, no matter how minor, from the master’s words could have terrible circumstances.

The spell that I had spent the past month studying alone appeared instantly in my mind, ready to be recited. I took a deep breath, before rumbling with my deepest voice,

“O power of the depths, all that strays

Leave your paths, your chaotic ways

Come forthwith to this vessel, soon and with haste

And remain here, till the end of its days”

The entire ritual was ready, the final word about to be spoken. Years of hopes and desires about to be fulfilled. Hundreds of beautiful spells about to be understood. My thoughts were completely on the task at hand, and I punctuated the initiation process with “Come.”

I instantly saw the gems in the tripods start to glow and levitate, and then spin themselves until the sharpest of their facets faced me directly. They then glowed even brighter, before instantly causing a slight tingle in the back of my head. The tickle grew and grew, until it became an unscratchable itch of epic proportions. Just before I thought the feeling would drive me insane, it settled into what felt like a bar of red-hot iron just behind my eyes, causing for them to water and for me to stagger in pain. The burning caused by the fiery energy accumulating within my head lessened at a painstakingly gradual pace, before settling into a not-quite-pleasant warmth.

The feeling stayed in such a state for a few moments, and just when I thought the ritual was complete, I felt the strangest feeling I’ve ever felt shot through my nervous system. It felt as if there was something slowly making its way through my soul itself, analyzing memories, feelings, and my own thoughts of how strange the feeling was. It seemed to dwell on the unprecedented excitement I’d felt throughout the day more than the rest, but that quickly changed.

It noticed the warm feeling I’d felt from all of the times I’d watched the My Little Pony show all at once, then brought both that feeling and the excitement from today to the front of my mind, then analyzed them both in detail, as if comparing the two. The entity seemed indecisive about the two in some way, and in my confusion as to what it was doing I failed to notice it had finished it’s “weighing” of my emotions. It settled once again in the warm little bar behind my eyes, leaving me even more confused as to what it had done.

The bar didn’t respond when I sent it a mental ‘ping’, so I decided it was best to leave it where it was.

The Wizard had told me to get to sleep as soon as possible as to help with the process of acclimating my body to build with the magical energies I had absorbed, instead of against them or around them. I believed him, and as such decided to take his advice in the form of a nap.

I staggered over to my bed not even caring that the expensive robe was still bound around my body. I was feeling more and more tired with every step. I was too mystified by the ritual to even notice how peculiar the drowsiness was, my master had never said anything about needing to sleep. When I reached the mattress, I flopped myself onto it with an audible whumph. I fell asleep within seconds, not so much drifting as sliding off to sleep.

During my daytime rest, I was plagued by the strangest of dreams. There were normal ones, but then there were ones that seemed to have nothing to do with me, usually surrounding the new feeling of the mental bar. I felt as if the bar was analyzing me again, but this time I didn’t care. I was far too busy exploring the dreamscape, mysteriously frequently referencing and ‘entering’ the Friendship is Magic series. There was the usual illogic that came with dreams, but the entire time the fantasies felt lucid and clear, albeit without me knowing and controlling the fantasies.

The strangest part, however, was undoubtedly how I felt during the dream. I felt as if my body was jello, and that that jello was slowly jiggling it’s way to a different shape. It was beyond strange, and it was the second time that day I felt a completely different sensation than one I had ever felt before. I didn’t really notice, but it somehow affected the dream’s form as well. The longer I slept, the more often Equestria was the subject of my mind’s rapid creations.

After a few dreams’ time ending, I slowly woke up. I felt strange and groggy, a feeling I had not felt for months due to the instant alertness charm my employer had placed upon me to improve performance. It was such an alien feeling, in fact, that the sensation jolted me awake at the feeling of it. I, while wide awake with adrenaline, still felt absolutely strange. It felt as if someone had twisted my body in shape, and it felt, above all else, fuzzy. I felt as if my skin had been covered with a suit of fine cotton balls, and I was quick to investigate this sensation by lifting an arm to inspect the skin.

I... I did not know what I was seeing. There was some flat, green fur-covered thing stuck where my hand should by all rights be. I stared at the appendage for what felt like hours, and all the while there was another, unnoticed being within my mind feeling, above all else, smug. While that thing sat there inconspicuously, I was too busy looking at the other thing at the end of my arm. There was one second before I could identify the object, one second of blissful ignorance and confusion. There was one second of realization. Then there was an eternity of one thought going through my mind, paralyzing me with shock and coursing through my thoughts with horrifying connotation, and that was a single word.

Hoof.

Chapter 1

I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. There was a hoof, nearly colorless but still an obvious green in the ominously dim light, at the end of my arm. My mind was staring at the barely visible appendage with all the terror and horror of a man who had just fallen out of an airplane without a parachute. My eyes were locked onto it for what felt like hours, my mind slowly trying and failing to escape the railroad spike of realization.

Then there was a sudden crash from an indefinable location, startling me out of my horror-induced trance and causing for something atop my head to swivel around in apparent search of the noise. This sensation bewildered me further, causing for me to blink in confusion. I, before I could engage in another terrified staring contest with my own body, asserted manual control over myself. There were three steps to dealing with magical mishaps like the one that had obviously affected my arm. The first was the identify the issue in its entirely, making sure that there was no aspect of it left unknown. All I had to do was make it through the inspection without freaking out again.

As such, I slowly blinked to clear my vision. I lifted my arm again, this time directly feeling the strange way that the appendage felt. Not only did it have that fuzzy sensitivity, but it the bone structure felt... Different. Not quite wrong, simply different. It was if if there was a join extra here, a bone missing there, and all of the others repurposed, changed in size, and shifted about. My brain, apparently, already knew how to use the strangely restructured limb. I, while taking interest in the feeling of the arm, did not let it stop me from lifting it to my field of view.

There it was, the same accursed hoof that had driven me to nearly lose control over my thoughts. I held control over my rapidly panicking emotions, forcing for them to stand to the side while I examined it. It, while obviously a hoof, did not bear very much resemblance to the one I had expected to find on a real horse. I could barely see the fur going right down to the edge of it, giving it the illusion of being the same material as the rest of my body. rapidly, I flipped the hoof over, marveling at how easily the deed was done, and inspected the bottom of it. There was a hard ring of whatever hooves are made from, then there was a strange, fleshy looking part in the center. I looked over the rest of the structure, but there didn’t appear to be any deviations from what I had already seen.

Now that I had analyzed the hoof at the end of my arm, I decided to go farther down the limb to see what was there.

What I saw was a strange, familiar version of my own arm. I won’t even begin to describe it from this angle, the curves and twists too bizarre for words. The fur, however, extended up the entire thing, past a point where my eyes could not reach.

When I realized that I could only see part of it, I tried to move my head. What happened when I did was, by far, the most dizzying experience out of the entire ordeal. I lifted my head, only to suddenly feel as if my neck was twice- no, thrice as long as it should have been. This induced a powerful sense of vertigo, and my head, perched atop my elongated neck, swayed slightly. I took control over it as soon as I could, feeling all of the strange, new muscles that lay within it. I had no idea why my head was feeling so high up, but I had no issue associating it with whatever had changed my hand into a hoof.

My comprehension growing, I slowly began to formulate a potential conclusion. The only way to test this idea would be to see the main part of my body, which my neck, as well as my other arm’s nerves, told me was lying on its back under the covers. Shaking slightly from apprehension, I slowly pointed my head to the blanket that covered my torso. Right arm raised, I slowly pushed the covers off of me. What laid beneath the sheets of warmth lay exactly what my conclusion had predicted.

The green torso of a pony greeted my vision, still wrapped in the ceremonial robe that I had fallen asleep in. The color was barely visible in the dim light of the night, the cloudy night sky not sparing one moonbeam for my sleepless exploration. My mind leaped at panic as a first response, and my breaths became short and quick. I had known this was a possibility the instant I formulated the conclusion wrought from the lengthened neck and hooved foreleg. Yet still my emotions ran rampant, every one of them screaming at me to scream, to try to escape this thing my body had been forced into. It took every ounce of willpower and reason to control them. The guidelines of magical mishaps were the rules that held my mind sane, and I mentally repeated them to myself constantly.

I needed to understand the problem. The problem was obvious, something had managed to transform me into a pony of some sort. I knew that I was a green pony thus far, I did not know what species or even what my mane color was. The next step would be to get myself a more effective light source than the cloud-shrouded moon. The light switch was located on the other side of my room, next to the door to the hallway. Is I was, if fact, a through and through pony, then walking in any posture other than a quadrupedal one would be difficult. I had no idea how to walk in such a manner, and I could only hope to learn as I went.

Getting out of bed was a more immediate challenge, as I did not want to damage myself in sloppiness. With a tentative movement, I slowly moved my hind legs out from their position on the tall bed frame, before I stopped myself. I hadn’t noticed in my panic, but compared to my normal size, I was tiny! If my bed was tall before the transformation, then it was well over twice as large now. A fall from that height could seriously hurt a lot, I would have to take serious consideration when I got off of it. I fleetingly wondered why I was so small as a pony, but forced my mind back to the task at hand- or should I be saying hoof? This transformation was so confusing, I might have to change my entire terminology when referring to myself. I shook those thoughts off, that would be a topic to pursue later.

The objective was to reach the floor unharmed. The resources were all of my bedding, as well as a quadrupedal posture that could potentially absorb the shock of a fall better than two legs could.

There were several ideas that came to mind after mapping out the problem, the first being that I could just throw my pillow down there and land on it. While that would probably work in the cartoon my form originated from, I was forced to discard that idea due to the chance that I would either miss the pillow, hit my head on the bed’s frame, or that the fluffy headrest wouldn’t be able to cushion my fall.

The next idea would be to replicate what happened the day before, and wrap myself in my blankets as padding for the fall. While this probably could have worked due to the smaller size of my body, I wasn’t going to try it. There was potential that I wouldn’t even be able to escape whatever cocoon I used, due to my lack of dexterous appendages.

There was one other rational plan I could think of, and that was to use my blankets as a sort of slide down the side of my bed. It seemed plausible at the time, and I, in all of my lopsided logic, deemed it to be the most effective course of action.

The next problem, however, would be establishing effective motor controls so that I could actually do the deed. Due to my earlier movement of my forelegs, I assumed that the nerves were all connected in the same areas, or that the body I had been changed to already knew how to move them. To experiment with this, I sent the command that would normally move my right leg forward.

Exactly as expected, the appendage moved forth from its previous location. My excitement with my successes were slowly growing, extracting larger and larger smiles from my face without my intention. The next step in the process would be to control the limbs into some form of locomotion. Using both my forelegs and the hind variation, I managed to flip from lying on my back to lying on my stomach. The posture suddenly felt much more comfortable than the one I was just in, and I was unable to resist a sleepy yawn. Grinning even wider at my successful full-body movement, I attempted another by pushing my legs out from underneath of me.

Unfortunately, I must have accidentally gotten up unevenly, for I fell to the side a second after I fully extended my legs.

The second attempt was more successful, and I managed to hold myself, dizzyingly, in what must have been a natural posture for the body I was in. The neck was much too long for my liking, and would probably take some getting used to. Hopefully, however, I would be able to get the transformation resolved before I would even need to adjust to it.

I didn’t even allow for myself to think about the possibility that the change was permanent, for I knew that only panic and desperation lay that direction.

After stabilizing myself and putting my neck in what felt like the most natural position, I peeked around a bit. The darkness of the night inhibited my vision significantly, and I instantly remembered why I had gotten up in the first place; to get a better look at whatever changes the magical accident has wrought.

I, feeling more and more confident with each passing moment, lifted my leg to take a step forward. I had never really analyzed the way ponies walked, but I assumed that it couldn’t be much different from how any other quadruped does, right?

I, to my great displeasure, was right. While ponies did walk in the standard four-legged motion, I had no idea what that motion entailed. Eventually, I settled with awkwardly moving one leg at a time, feeling like I was dragging my hind legs during the few short steps it took to reach the edge of the bed. To my great surprise, I found quickly that the edges of beds are not very effective at holding the weight of hooved sapients, and was informed rapidly of this fact by the way that the mattress bent under my body.

This, unfortunately for my dignity, resulted in my immediate slip and fall to the floor for the second time this week. This time, however, I had not a cocoon of padding to cushion my fall. Fortunately for my head, I managed to land on my side this time. The wind was still knocked out of me. It took a second or two of frantic wheezing to suck the lost oxygen back in, but by the time it was done I had, somehow, automatically scrambled to my hooves. While I marveled at the mysterious, involuntary reaction, I became aware of the fact that I -completely unexpectedly- had a tail. The tail must have been rather long, for the way that I became aware of it was an intense pulling sensation on my tailbone. This, logically, meant that I must be standing on it. When I lifted my hind legs, however, the pressure didn’t release. If anything, it worsened.

After a bit of stumbling slowly and blindly, I finally figured out that I wasn’t standing on my tail, it had simply gotten caught in one of the drawers my bedside table had. It wasn’t very hard to release from the latch once I figured out which nervous command controlled my tail -not the hardest thing to figure out, when it’s constantly being pulled on-, and I was back to “normal” a few seconds later.

It took a few moments for me to register the fact that I had just managed to move an appendage that I had only had for a few minutes, but when it did, my grin and confidence grew even further. I could handle this transformation, even walking wouldn’t be too hard to do at this rate. I was quick to remember how ponies in the show walked in my cleared, happy head, which was much simpler than the slow, inefficient way that I had been doing it on the bed. They moved the legs in opposite pairs at a time, meaning that the right foreleg and the left hind leg had to move in unison. When I did so, I was pleasantly correct, the way that the legs moved felt much more natural than the way I was doing it, I just had to work on keeping my hooves parallel to the ground. Tripping over myself as a quadrupedal being would be much more embarrassing than as a biped, what with how I had twice as much stability, plus a tail!

The next step, literally, was to move the other pair. Paying attention to keeping my hooves in a natural formation that I wouldn’t trip over, I repeated the motion with the first duo. Unfortunately, I tripped myself this time due to an unexpected object barring my path in the near-lack of light. Getting back up was simple, I didn’t even think about the motion as I did it. It was almost as if I had been able to do the motion my entire life. I, thoughtlessly acting on human investigation methods, placed my right forehoof on the object that had tripped me initially.

The object did not however, seem to feel like much of anything. I could feel that there was an object there with a smooth texture, but I must have lost much of the nerves when I changed. The letdown wasn’t much, but it still dulled the sharp clarity of my happiness. That didn’t faze my investigation long, however. I could still feel the shape of the offending item.

After running my hoof down it a few times, I figured out that it must have been one of the tripods used in the absorption ritual. I didn’t know how it had fallen, but I suspect that it was the cause of the crash that snapped me out of my horrified trance earlier. When I realized this, I actually felt so thankful for the trio of golden poles that I had to manually stop myself from kissing the thing.

If not for the fact that I still wanted to investigate the rest of the effects of this incredible change, I probably would have just curled up right there. I have no idea why, but something about being so close to the magical-gemstone-bearing stand was making me incredibly drowsy. The part of my mind that didn’t want to fall asleep was telling me to get off of the tripod so that I could actually turn on the light. I, being the wise person I was, listened to the advice of my logical side, and stood up.

The second my hoof was off of the metal, I instantly felt alert again. The sleep-inducing stand no longer appeared inviting, but instead it looked sinister, like a witch temptress without her disguise. My legs needed no further motivation to skedaddle away from the room’s center.

Unfortunately for my original intent, this placed me farther than ever from my target, the light switch. Rapidly, I began to mentally go over the possible less direct routes to the far wall.

The left wall, to my knowledge, was clear of things for me to trip over, but I might run into my dresser while I do. That was probably my first choice, but in order to get past the dresser I would need to come very close to the northwest tripod.

The right wall was where I stored all of my books on the floor, due to me having a lack of bookshelves. It would be a maze to go through in the dark, especially at my current height, but it was another possibility.

The third and final option would be to just charge straight through the magic circle, avoiding the sleep-inducing tripods. It was probably the riskiest option there was, for who knows what could happen if I managed to run into one of the other tripods? I could burst into flame, turn into a cow, or any other amount of terrible effects. I might even blow up the entire planet, because of some unknown reaction between the pony body and the magic infused within the tripod’s gemstone and gold plating.

That last one is quite unlikely, you know. A soft, obviously feminine voice suddenly rang through my head. The voice, though brief in her statement, instantly brought forth shock at what could possibly be talking inside of my head. What if this transformation had put some sort of a mind control spell on me? Mind control was terrible, it would make me kill my family and try to take over the world, while I was completely innocent! Or maybe it would just perfectly impersonate me, just to spite me and let me live as a prisoner in my own skull for the rest of my life! Oh no, what would I do? What could I do?

Stop panicking so much, it will get you nowhere. I’m not here to take control of your brain, if anything I’m here to assist it. The voice said again, apparently trying to calm my strangely jumpy mind. I’ve only been here for a few hours, but even I know you’re not usually like this. Is there something troubling you? It continued, leaving me asking myself the same question. Why was I being so prone to mental freakouts? This was very unusual for me, I have a clear and methodical mind most of the time. Did this transformation also affect my brain? Maybe ponies were just more jumpy than I was, and was just another effect that would be resolved when I corrected the change.

Regardless, I attempted to communicate with the telepathic being by uttering softly “Who, er, what are you? How did you get into my head?” The second I uttered those words, I noticed something wrong. Something was very wrong; my voice was much higher and much less powerful than what it was supposed to be. I felt my eyes widen in shock as my right hoof reflexively shot up and covered my mouth. My mind was too slow to comprehend what could have caused the new voice, instead only setting into shock once again. Why was I doing this so much?

The being inside of my head, however, didn’t seem to notice my change in voice. Instead, she just plowed along, answering my questions while, somehow, managing to transmit a sigh mentally. I’m here because you asked me to come in, and it’s quite nice in here, compared to dying out in the vacuum of space. I won’t be leaving.

She paused momentarily, giving me a few seconds to digest what she had just said. She, somehow, very effectively dragged my attention to her own statements. What did she mean, I had asked her in? I hadn’t sent out any sort of call for some mysterious entity to take residence within my head, I had only performed the absorption- Oh.

Finally getting it, I see? I’m the mental representation of the magic that you so happily absorbed yesterday.

Now that was confusing. Ignoring the panic-inducing vocal changes, I quickly uttered “But he never said anything about it, er, you being able to talk,” half to myself, half to the magical voice within my head.

That is correct, I manifested myself according to your personality. It’s possible that your master’s power never spoke to him, seeing hidden aspects of his mind that would reject it. Now, before you ask any more questions, know this; I’m not going to answer any more until you have a look in the mirror. I’ve already had a look at the enchantments in the golden gem-bearers while you slept, and the only enchantments they carry that can affect you is that sedative one that you already discovered. You’ll be perfectly fine if you just trot across the room, just don’t give in to the sleepiness if you touch one.

I gladly withheld my questions, not wanting to hear the distorted abomination that had replaced the function of my vocal chords.

If the voice was to be truthful, which I believed it was, I could just walk across the room with ease, provided that I didn’t fall asleep on the way there.

As far as I knew, the magic entity was fully dependant on my existence for its own survival. Because of this, I also knew that it wouldn’t do anything to kill me. Because of that, I deemed it safe to trust the voice.

Walking became easier and easier as I tried to avoid stumbling across the room. Despite the magical voice’s words, I still avoided the tripod by a wide margin. I never actually touched any of the others, luckily enough. After about a minute of careful walking, my face came into contact with the wall. I, not even thinking, tried to walk backwards, and promptly fell on my rump.

Rubbing my face with my hoof was actually much more soothing than you would expect for it to be. Maybe it was the lack of oily skin, or maybe it was just the more sensitive face, but comforting my face after that brief excursion along the surface of the wall was almost as comfortable as the lying down position I had discovered earlier. It took a bit more willpower than would be expected to stop doing so.

I stood up again, intending to get back to work in getting to the light switch. I wasn’t quite sure where I was in relation to the door, but I did know that the light was about a foot from the left side of the door frame, and about four feet from the floor of my room. If I was to find the light, then I would have to find the door. And if I were to find the door, then I would have to follow the wall. As such, I got off my behind and repositioned myself to press my side against the wall. In the dark, away from the dim shaft of cloud-shrouded moonlight, I would need to hold myself to the surface in order to find the door frame’s decorative shape.

After a few seconds of blind movement, I found the door exactly where it should have been. However, when I put my hoof against the wooden portal, I was unable to find the handle. Just how small was I as a pony? I tried rearing back of my hind legs, using my left forehoof against the door as support. To my relief, I was able to find the knob with little difficulty, as it was just above my eye level when in my quadrupedal stance.

With that success leaving me feeling greater, I awkwardly crab walked along the wall until I reached where I expected for the light switch to be. The switch, as I knew from memory, was about a foot higher than the door handle. That would be harder to reach, and I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to push the button.

Fortunately, I was, in fact, tall enough to reach the light switch. I hesitated momentarily, as if somehow asking myself whether I truly wanted to see the world before me. What else could have changed in the world around me? I pushed those thoughts from my head. I was the never the bravest of men, but if I was to be so cowardly to hide from the image of my own room, then what kind of a person would I be?

Instantly, my world was flooded with light. I had not accounted for my eyes needing to adjust to the light difference, and the amount of white filling my eyes was nothing if not overwhelming.

Once my eyes had adjusted to the bright overhead lighting, I instantly became aware that everything, everything I could see at least had changed in one way. Everything looked different, colors much brighter and more saturated than could ever be natural. The world looked similar to, but not quite exactly like, a cartoon. Everything still held texture, but the world was much more dramatic in appearance. Another differing aspect was that everything held an outline, varying from obvious to barely noticeable.

All in all, the change was dizzying. Was this how all ponies saw the world? Perhaps the technicolor world of the show was more probable than I had originally expected.

When you’re done marvelling at the room you’ve lived in for the past month, would you please hurry to the mirror? We both need to see how you look now. The voice suddenly cut in, interrupting my stares. I shook my head to clear it, then turned around to face the door. The door handle was a sideways brass stick, fortunately for my pony body. I really did not know what I would do if I was unable to open the door.

The handle was easy to manipulate open, all I had to do was push down with one hoof and push the door out with the other. As soon as I had done so, the hallway became visible.

The hall was dark, but not too dark due to my room’s excess of light spilling out to illuminate it, albeit dimly. The door to the bathroom was ajar, greeting me only with darkness inside; the bedroom light did not reach this far. My mind was feeling only dread at what I would find there, scared of what the mysterious magical voice was so set on me seeing in the mirror.

Once inside, the lights were easily activated. My capacity for anticipation was rapidly approaching maximum, I had to get this over with soon. My body shaking with a dangerous cocktail of fear, anticipation, curiosity, and dread, I reared up on my hind legs, and opened my eyes to see what lay within the mirror.

The Wizard sat on one of his many comfortable, throne-like chairs, a slight grin adorning his pale face.

This year’s magical accumulation ritual had gone just as expected, refilling his internal arcane storage, and boosting the maximum by a small margin. While the level of power the man held was formidable, it was barely a quarter of the massive lake of energy he was about to accumulate. Three new magic users, all of which had just drawn in the level of arcane energy that only pure, new players in the great game of magic could. Three new magic users, all of which he would be bringing to his fortress later that morning.

Three new magic users, all of which he was going to absorb and add to his soon to be gargantuan supply of power.

“Derrick, Jacob. Construct a one way wormhole exit. Expect guests.” He said, addressing the two servants that stood at the end of the room.

“Yes, Master.” They said simultaneously, before turning and exiting through one of the many corridors that branched off of the room.

The Wizard let out a low chuckle, standing up and walking through a different corridor. All that was left was to choose which of the three he had appointed to feed him to go after first.

The Enchanter rose from his throne. When all three had been devoured, there would be none that could stand before him. He would become a god in the eyes of mundane men, the greatest nations of the world would fall before his feet. A sinister chuckle escaped his lips, a crimson glint flashing across his eyes. There was little left in the grand plan he had begun decades ago, but a few days of tense patience until he would become so powerful that the sun itself would crumple at his feet.

He walked slowly forth to the door at the end of the throne room, the giant, solid gold portal opening without a thought before his strides. Only darkness greeted him past the frame, and he welcomed the black with open arms. His small frame faded away quickly, the silent laughter playing behind him long after he left.

Chapter 2

No. That can’t be. This is impossible. There was no way this could be right. All of these were thoughts that held the highest priority in my mind moments after looking into the mirror. I was beginning to freak out, and this time I had no way to console myself. I was an observant person, often rather quick to pair visual prompts with their corresponding mental knowledge. Unfortunately for my peace of mind, this skill, which would normally be of great assistance with my desires, had come back directly in reverse with malicious intent.

When I opened my eyes and examined ‘my’ head, I originally saw nothing unusual about it, aside from the fact that it was obviously pony, and not human. The first thing my eyes were drawn to were my eyes. Instead of the green eyes I had had as a human, I now had gigantic pupils, and irises that looked like they could have been fabricated from pure gold. The face was green furred, a sort of bright plastic green that one would expect to find on a lego baseplate. The sloppy mane above it was long, but the bangs were barely kept out of my vision. If I looked up far enough, I could see them in my vision directly. The mane’s color was that of a forest green, similar to that of the coat but and darker.

After about a second of staring at my face, taking in the image, I noticed several anomalies. The face overall looked soft, and not just because of the fur. This confused me for a moment, and I stared at it even harder to try to figure the puzzle out. It was then, less than a second after I began to squint, that it hit me. There was a reason that the face looked so soft, one that was obvious to the point that it should be slapped sharply for not being more subtle.

There was one and only possibility that it could bring, one that shoved splinters of boiling iron into and through my mental defenses, shredding them and sending me spiralling into the terrible cycle of yet another mental breakdown. I could feel my peace of mind liquefying and collapsing beneath me, like a catwalk suspended above a vat of acid suddenly losing all connections to the edge. I fell then, into the turbulent whirlpool that led only to madness. There was no ladder, no rule that I could cling to in the maelstrom, all I could do was try my best to keep my head above the water until by some chance someone could rescue me.

On no you don’t, you’re not spiralling into madness on my watch. The voice ran through my head, sending a titanium wall directly into the path of my orbit. I was instantly able to pull myself out of the water, reasserting control over my own mind far faster than I would have been able to by myself. The second I fixed myself, however, my mind instantaneously leaped to the cause of my freakout in the first place. This time, however, I managed to hold myself together. There could certainly be worse things than this, right?

Stop being such a wimp about this, you’re avoiding directly thinking about this change and you know it.

What did this voice want from me, to go outside and scream about this for all the world to hear?

No, but I do want for you to admit it to yourself.

Admit it to myself? What good would that do? The change was obviously there, and-

Do it, now you’re just indirectly denying it.

As much as I wanted to continue to argue with the voice, I knew in my heart what she said was true. I was denying it to myself, not letting myself believe it below the surface of my thoughts. The obvious reason for the softened features was that they were those that were not found on male ponies. As far as the face, -and voice, as my mind connected instantaneously,- told, I now held the body of a mare.

This change was... disturbing, but it had lost the icy bite of shocking. Overall, it really just made my mind uneasy, but I could live with this. Really, that freakout but a few seconds ago was rather dramatic, being trapped as the opposite gender for a day or two at most wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. I mean, this wasn’t half as bad as it could be if I was stuck like this permanently. Once I had gotten Master’s help, the detransformation back to human would be a breeze; he could correct magical mishaps like these with barely a thought. Sure, I had never seen any that were this complete or violating, but that wouldn’t be a problem.

Until I was able to fix my form, I might as well explore what this body had to offer. I hadn’t finished looking at myself in the mirror before I went careening into the boar’s eye, I hadn’t even been able to tell what race of pony I was. I hoped I was a pegasus, being able to fly would be amazing. I mean, sure, I was afraid of heights, but I could get past that if I knew that I would be able to catch myself if I fell.

My thoughts faded away as I focused my vision back in. I was glad nopony had seen that little episode, I must have looked so embarrassing when I fell into my own thoughts. My gaze flicked back to my face. Now that the analytical side of me was satisfied, I actually took in the face as a whole. I probably should have expected it from the combination of pony and female, but when you put the entire thing together, my face looked, to put it bluntly, adorable. I wasn’t going to be blasting people with diabetes, but I did feel a smile creep onto my face just from looking at it. Maybe I was being a bit full of myself, but if I were to be stuck as a female pony for a few days, then this is what I would want to look like.

Of course, me being cute didn’t answer the question of my race. My eyes shot up to my forehead, looking for a difference in the color there. From what I remember, unicorn’s horns matched the color of their coats. I wasn’t sure if that was because they were covered in fur too, or if the horn was just colored that way, but if I was one, I was about to find out.

Well, I was either a unicorn or an alicorn, for adorning my crown was a spiral centerpiece, matching my coat but having no discernible texture. To check it via touch, I lifted my right hoof to feel it. It didn’t feel like it had anything fuzzy on it, but it was surprisingly sensitive for being so hard. It may have felt like a bone, but it held just as many nerves as my face did.

Unlikely though it may have been, I hastily spun my head around to check my back for anything there either. There was no such luck, I wouldn’t be raising the sun anytime soon. I did, however, see my tail. It wasn’t too long, from what I could see, but it would take quite a bit of brushing to get the thing cleaned, if I actually wanted to indulge in such behavior. I probably wouldn’t, but you never know, right?

From my current position, I wasn’t able to see most of my flanks, meaning that I didn’t know whether I had a cutie mark or not. I doubted that I would anyway, I’ve never actually found any sort of calling as a human, I just did what I loved to do; helping Master shape the world to the ways he desired. Maybe I would find it, maybe not. A few days isn’t very long for one to find their destiny.

I pulled my head back to the mirror, to look for any other changes. There were a few, like the ears perched atop my head, quivering at attention in whatever direction noise came from. My teeth were also changed greatly; I didn’t have any canines anymore, among other things. There were probably some more, but I wasn’t paying very much attention to that. This was due to a thought that had occurred to me, and that was to, er, check my underside to confirm my shifted gender.

I’ll spare you the details of what was down there, but it was definitely not human, and definitely female.

So, what do you think? The voice rang through my head. I spoke out in reply “Wha-” Before hastily clamping my hooves over my mouth again. Unfortunately, due to my posture, this unexpected lack of support led to me falling forward. Picking myself up was quick business, I didn’t want to lie on the bathroom floor that I hadn’t cleaned for a while.

Might I suggest we go back to your bedroom? It’s cleaner in there, and you’ll have more space, She said, a reasonable suggestion. I nodded in response, not even realizing how useless the gesture was to a being that lived in my own head.

Once I was back in my room, I sat down in the best way I could, trying several positions before settling into one similar to one you’d see a dog in. It felt a little degrading, but it was still comfortable and there wasn’t anyone here to see it but myself and the voice. Come to think of it, I would probably need to come up with a name for her. Just calling her The Voice gets grating after a while.

I knew we’d come to this eventually, but I did not expect it this soon. I have a few names that sound good, would you like to hear them? She said, as if reading my mind. I am reading your mind. She replied to that thought, her words heavy with the air of humor. Back to the subject at hoof, I have four names I have thought up. The first is Alyssa, which is obviously human. The second is that of the Greek god Eris, which sounds like a good one regardless of meaning. The third is Arcana, an obvious play on words of my composition and origin. I still like it, though. The fourth is a pony name, the one that belongs to the showmare that played the antagonist in one or two episodes: Trixie.

That was a lot of names to choose from, but I immediately ruled out Trixie. I didn’t like either of the episodes she starred in, for reasons I won’t go into now.

Eris, while a good name, was much too similar to Discord. I didn’t like Discord. He was funny as a cartoon antagonist, but now that there was a chance he was real, then he was a terrifyingly powerful selfish jerk.

Alyssa was a good name, I had had a friend that bore that name before. Still, it didn’t hold enough of an air of mysticality for it to fit a mysterious voice in my head that was somehow related to my transformation into a unicorn.

Arcana was the logical choice, be it by elimination or just by it being superior to the others.

I fought past the voice that still held the frozen bite of shock in it, managing to say “I think Arcana is the best choice.”

Very well, then I shall bear the chosen title. The newly named Arcana said, before continuing with Now, as I was trying to ask you earlier... What do you think of the new body?

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I obviously still wanted my humanity returned to me, but I was satisfied for now with what had been given to me.

I hope so, all of the details were based off of your own preferences, Arcana said, sending me into confusion.

“D-Did you... Did you change me into this?” I stuttered slightly, trying to get some clarity. Indeed I did. I chose the greatest compromise based on your greatest desires. What was she talking about? I didn’t want to be a pony, did I? I liked the show and all, but the thing I had always enjoyed most was watching and fantasizing about the magic Master performed. I had never said that I wanted to give up my chance at magic for this.

You haven’t given up magic. I just added something extra to satisfy you even more. Really, the ponies, as well as your master’s magic, are really all you were interested in. I did not have nearly the power to actually send you there, that would take more energy than even what the beasts of the underworld can hold.

Well, this was embarrassing. I felt my face heat up as I said, holding back a flinch, “You mean that those are all I’ve been interested in? I like other things, too!”

Yes, but most, if not all of those are things I wouldn’t be able to act on. Really, what else was I to do with that much extra power? I wouldn’t trust you with that much, not yet. She replied instantly, not even pausing to think about what she would say.

I really didn't have anything to reply to that with, her argument was so sound. That didn’t stop my mind from trying, though. In my search for a good comeback, I realized something. She had said that the level of power to reach... whatever planet the ponies were on would take a massive level of power, but she didn’t say it was impossible. What did he mean by that? “Wait, you said that it would take a lot of magic to reach Equestria, not that you couldn’t. Could you explain what you meant?”

Where else would I have obtained the schematic for your body? I couldn't have come up with this all on my own, you’re not smart enough for that, especially when you’re using up a good portion of brainpower for your own little adventures to dreamland. It took a bit of searching, but I found it in the archives of the underworld, where it was probably collected from telepathic communications between their land and ours.

So there was probably a real Equestria then. It must have been far off, though. Probably several galaxies away or something, I wasn’t one to study the heavens. Wait, if there was a schematic for a pony’s body, then surely there was one for a human one, too?

There is, or... Was. When I searched for it, all I was able to find was this monstrosity. Arcana brought up a image of what looked like a troll from mythology, though with obvious human features. It looked as if someone had deliberately tampered with it, though. Instead of looking natural at all, it had the air of a doll of clay that someone had hastily put back together due to accidentally breaking it, with only a rough idea of what it looked like in the first place.

I can change you into this instead, if you like it more. Arcana said, with the obvious tone of sarcasm. How can an aspect of your own mind be sarcastic to you? I didn’t know, I was new to everything about it. It was a mystery for another time, though. It was the middle of the night, or was it? I checked the clock. 6:23. That meant that the sun would be coming up soon, so soon that I could probably see the sky lightening outside if I wished to see it rise. Well, I suppose that meant that there wouldn’t be any going back to sleep for me. I had woken up and functioned on less sleep than this, a day of waking up earlier than usual wouldn’t kill me. Take it easy, will you? You wouldn’t want to be causing any harm to the brand new body I made for you.

Yet again, Arcana left me with no response. How was she so good at that? I dismissed the thought.

Instead, it was time to experiment. The voice I had was still giving me issues, so I might as well start with that, right? The first test to test was test. As such, I said “Test.” My voice was a bit more rounded than that, though, I expected. So I moved on to the next test, which was “This is a test, with unicorn magical ponies.” I got a better feel of it now, it sounded sort of like a soft, slightly rough voice. I couldn’t really describe it any other way, other than to compare it to the six ponies everypony knows. It wasn’t as soft as Fluttershy’s voice, but certainly wasn’t as high as Pinkie Pie’s, it was somewhere in the middle. If anything, it sounded most like a softer Applejack, minus the accent.

Well, I now knew what my voice sounded like. One thing I noticed, though, is that the ice that came with using the vocal cords receded every time they were brought into action. Maybe I was just getting used to them? I really didn’t know. My voice was the first thing I thought of, now it was time to explore the other parts of my body. But which part?

After a minute of careful eenie-meenie-miney-moe, I decided to examine my ears next. I had noticed that they moved around seemingly of their own accord, perhaps to get the best audio on whatever they focused on? They were sort of easy to control, and I had them facing every which way in moments.

The tail was the next change selected for inspection. It acted like an arm of sorts, swinging while I walked and being able to react to nervous commands. I wasn’t sure of how I felt about it, but I suppose it was a good cover for any indecency spawned from not having any clothing.

That brought me to the next thought; How would I react if a male pony showed any attraction to me? I mean, the chances of finding another of my type of pony on Earth were astronomically small, and I seriously doubted there would be any humans that liked ponies in that way. I suppose horses were the greatest threat in that respect. Staying away from any ranches to keep any potentially embarrassing situations became a priority.

Wait, why do I even need to worry about that? With the amount of food I have built up in my house, I’ll be able to stay safe at home for days if need be. Even the toughest of magic to undo wouldn’t take that long for Master to dispel. So why was I bothering thinking about it?

It’s entirely possible that the transformation isn’t rever-

“Yes, it is.”

You didn’t even let me-

“If it is magical in nature, then Master can fix it. You’re a part of my own head, Arcana! Why don’t you understand this?”

I just think you shouldn’t disregard the possi-

“If you keep trying to convince me otherwise like this, I’m just going to stop listening. What right do you have to question Master’s power?”

I know what is and what isn’t about magic, fool! There are rules and restrictions, just like any force of nature. The chances of him being able to fix this are very-

“Nope, he can do it.”

Will you stop being so childish about this!? You’re setting yourself up for massive dis-

“Not listening.”

Arcana wisely shut up after that, any statements she could have tried to make would be a waste of her intangible breath. Who was she to question Master’s supreme power and generosity? He would do anything to secure the happiness of his most faithful servant!

Well, that argument had just left me in a bad mood. I wouldn’t be able to think about the rest of the transformation in a good way until I got out of said mood, so I turned my thoughts to the one thing that always left me in a good one; Food! Actually, this was probably a good place for me to test my new species’ diet. Judging by the new teeth, I was an herbivore, but I didn’t let that get my hopes down. If there was a possibility that I could still eat meat after this, then I would be very pleased.

Then I realized that I wouldn’t be able to find out about this at all, for I didn’t have any meat products in my kitchen’s stock anyway. I would have to find out later... But for now, I would have to make do with fruits, vegetables, and bready things. Unless ponies were secretly carnivores, and all of the supposed vegetarian food from the show was actually made directly from animal products. That would be a bit creepy, but I seriously doubted that that was the case. Fluttershy would not be able to stand that, unless everypony but her was in on the secret...

I disregarded that particular train of thought, that was going nowhere. My mind didn’t usually ramble on like that, I was probably just tired. Food would help with that too, especially sugary food!

I went outside of my room, pausing to flick the light switch for the other side of the hall on. The walk down to the kitchen was uneventful, though not much can happen in just a few feet.

Now, as for the food, I think I had stored something sweet to celebrate this day...

Aha! There was a bag of cinnamon cookies up near the top shelf of the refrigerator. I probably shouldn’t eat that first though, they surely wouldn’t be very filling. I turned my gaze to search for other options. There were a few more bananas on the counter, and some of that celery certainly looked tasty right about now...

About a minute later, twelve stalks of celery had been consumed. They were delicious. Now, onto the fruit...

How on earth was I supposed to open this accursed skin!? I couldn’t just peel it like I normally would, knives were useless in my hooves, and my front teeth were not sharp enough to even scratch it! What, did I have to learn the ancient secrets of the banana peeling spell? Surely there must be some way to cut it.

I sighed. There wasn’t any use continuing this, I would just have to wait for Master to fix my body. A thought struck me as I stared at the kitchen, and my mind instantly brightened. Sure, I couldn’t eat that particular fruit. But would that stop me from eating a certain other sweet, tasty treat? The cookies at the top of the refrigerator would be easy to open! The bag was just a simple paper bag, the kind that the bakery I visited used. It wouldn’t be impossibly to open, like a certain fruit. I glared at the banana, as if attempting to force it open via sheer will. That, unfortunately, failed.

I opened the refrigerator door. There it was, at the peak of the cliff. I grinned and reached for it. Wait, why couldn’t I pick it up? It was right there, and I was certainly tall enough to...

Curse this accursed pony body and curse the accursed magic that put me in it! Even when I stood on two legs instead of four, I was just as short as a twelve year old. Why couldn’t anything go my way today? Did the universe decide that this was the day to screw up my life for no reason?

Wait a minute; I was a unicorn, wasn’t I? Surely I could use my new magic to grab things out of reach. Even the youngest unicorn ever shown on the show was able to do just that from an early age. It couldn’t be that hard. All of the fiction I’ve read that had the main character use magic usually described it as forcing your will on an object, and the magic kicked in there. Of course, I doubt that was how it actually worked. Unfortunately, since I was supposed to be learning it from Master later today, I had absolutely no clue as to just how to start it up.

Wait, hadn’t Arcana said she was the mental embodiment of my magic? Surely she would know how to do this. Of course, since we had both been pretty rude to each other a few minutes ago, I doubted she would actually want to speak to me, much less help me.

Quite contrary to what you seem to think, I am perfectly okay with that.

“Huh? Why?”

I’ve realized that while your happiness is essentially my happiness, you can’t always get what you want, nor completely stop things from coming. I’ll still catch you if you fall, but I’m not going to try to make you do as I see fit.

Her happiness my happiness? That sort of made sense, being the same brain and body and all. Then I narrowed my eyes, “You just want those cookies too, don’t you?” I asked.

...Yes

Aha! I knew it.

“In that case, why don’t we form an alliance against the things that we normally cannot do alone? You help me do... Magic, I guess, and I help you do things that a being that is inside of another’s head can’t do. What do you say?”

Sounds like a good deal to me.

“Good. Now, how are we going to get that bag down here?”

I propose that we begin by attempting to find a working form a levitation.

“Hmm... Maybe we can try using magical force to move the object?”

Okay, what do you want to test it on first?

I looked over the room. There was just about one thing that stood out among the rest, and that was the Banana I had had so much trouble with earlier. I grinned, then said “How about that banana over there?”

An excellent target. Alright, let’s test this out.

Arcana somehow activated a sense I had never felt before, and describing it to someone who has never felt it before is quite impossible. The closest I can relate to it that it is like having another appendage sprouting from your forehead, except that that appendage goes everywhere, nowhere, and is invisible. My head hurt just from trying to think about what it would have looked like.

She did something akin to kicking with the magic, and the banana reacted instantly. Instead of moving, though, it instantly started glowing bright red. It wasn’t some magic red glow, it was the red glow that you get when metal gets hot enough. That couldn’t be good.

“Um, Arcana? Is my magic supposed to look like a burning ember?”

No, it isn’t. You should probably move.

I promptly ran to the hallway, but was stopped when a strange noise resonated through the room. It was a dull sound, and the only thing I can compare it to is the sound that comes from trying to move a spread out blanket through a lot of air quickly. I paused, then turned around see what made it. A magic doorway had inexplicably opened in my wall, with glowing red sparks coming off of the edges. What was this? Was this Master’s grand entry?

“My loyal servant, I have arri-” Master managed to get out after entering through the door, before promptly being cut off by the banana exploding. It went off in all directions, and I can assure you right now that hot banana does not feel very good when it is covering your face.

“Well, I expected for you to try using your magic before I arrived, but I didn’t expect a faceful of whatever this is.” Master said, before casting a spell and condensing all of the hot goop in the room back into a semi solid form in the sink. This included the banana on my face, for which I was quite thankful for. My face was still hot though, but I suspect for a different reason. That was really embarrassing, I managed to mess up that badly as my first spell, in front of Master! I dove behind the kitchen’s tiled island. There was no way I was letting Master see me like this, especially after humiliating myself like that.

“What was that?” Master said.

Oh no, he saw me? I must have not been fast enough to catch him distracted. I pressed myself even tighter against the wooden surface. With any luck, he would miss my small green form, and go upstairs instead. I silently prayed that he would find something else to look at.

“Are those what I think they are?”

His voice came from the direction of the refrigerator. Was he getting into my cookies? I peeked my head out from around the island, and looked directly into his legs. Then I turned my head up. He was looking down at my head. We stared at each other for a while.

The silence was finally broken when he said “Well this is a surprise. Did he manage to summon a unicorn with his first magic?”

My eyes widened. I didn’t expect for him to think of that. As it was, though, I shook my head.

“Um, actually this is me, your servant. I somehow did magic last night, and it got out of control, and for some reason it turned me into a girl unicorn, so I woke up and freaked out and went downstairs to eat something but then I tried to use magic on the banana and it exploded and-”

“I understand. Do you need my help fixing it?”

He surprised me with how rapidly he caught on. That sentence was really incoherent, and I was just making more and more of a fool of myself.

Suddenly, Master chuckled. “I probably shouldn’t be laughing at your predicament, but I must ask, are all unicorns this adorable when they blush?”

I was blushing? I didn’t even realize that. Okay, have to find a way to fix this. Thinking of something other than what was embarrassing me was one way. I quickly changed the subject of my thoughts back to what they should be, the problem at hand. Or was that hoof? I mentally shook those thoughts off. That could wait.

“Y-yes, I do need your help. I have no idea how to fix this myself...”

Master looked thoughtful for a moment. Then, he grinned back at me. “I do have an idea. I’ll have to go back home, but perhaps it will work.”

“Okay, should I go with you?”

“Actually, I have a better idea.”

What was he talking about? Could he fix my body right here?

“It’s much too early for you to say goodbye to that body, I think.”

What was he talking about?

“You,” He paused, massive tension filling the air, “Are coming with me!”

With that, he grabbed me behind my neck, and my confused struggling was unable to free myself. He pointed at the wall, and a hole opened there, the inside looking exactly like outer space. He threw me into the mysterious portal, and in the second before I left his sight I let out a scream of confusion and anger. I hadn’t thought I had it in me to do so, screaming is not something I have ever done since I was a small child.

Of course, I wasn’t thinking of that at the time. I was rapidly contemplating my predicament, my panicking mind jumping from conclusion to conclusion. What in the world had caused for this sort of thing to happen? I hadn’t done anything wrong, had I? Maybe he was punishing me for the banana explosion earlier. Or maybe he heard somewhere that Unicorns tasted really good, and wanted to-

That is enough! He wouldn’t eat his most faithful servant, and you know it. Not even the worst humans in history would do that. He probably just wants to bring you back to his home to examine you. I doubt he’s ever seen a unicorn in the flesh before.

I tried to reply, but no sound came out of my mouth when I spoke. I didn’t have any time to think about this, as a light suddenly approached in the void. Was it another doorway? Yes, maybe I could get some answers!

As I shot out of the space-place, I realized that I was going at the same speed as I was when Master threw me. Unfortunately, this means that I took quite the tumble when I hit the floor of wherever I ended up. When I stopped moving, I groaned and slowly started to pick myself up.

That didn’t last long, though. The instant I was on all fours and started to open my eyes, I felt a slight stinging sensation on my neck, and something cold started to flow rapidly from there. It felt like my body was going to sleep, except that I wasn’t lying in my nice, warm bed, and was instead lying on a cold stone floor. Wait, when did I fall to the floor? I didn’t remember that. Oh hey, was I moving? My head felt really funny, like it was covered in cotton, except that that was the fur so maybe I had suddenly grown super fuzz fur and...

Huh? Was I falling asleep? I did feel really tired all of the sudden, and if you feel tired then you should go to sleep, right?

Wait, you’ve been drugged! Don’t fall asleep, I’ll try to get this stuff out of you!

Oh, Arcana was in here too? I forgot about that. Arcana should probably go to sleep too, if she was in my head then she must be tired. I tried to say “Hey Arcana, go to sleep,” but it came out something like “Hay anca, golep feep...” before I succumbed to the dark clutches of sleep.

“...Find me a book on mythical creatures, unicorns especially. This one could be instrumental for many magical rituals. Jacob, I want you to take her to a holding cell, reinforced class one. Keep her away from the other creatures, I don’t want to lose my rarest find yet.”

Master’s distinct voice faded into hearing. Oh, had I woken up? When did I fall asleep? I remembered going downstairs, then a banana exploded, and... Oh no, where was I? I heard Master’s voice, but that could be anywhere.

Wait, don’t open your eyes yet.

Huh? Why wouldn’t I do that?

If they still think you are sleeping, then they probably won’t use that sedative on you again. Do you have any idea how hard it was to get that out of your head?

I shook my head in response, then realized what I had just done.

Idiot! Now we won’t hear any of their plans!

“I think she just moved, she might be waking up. Quick, do you have any more tranquilizer?”

“No, sir. What should we do?”

“A spell should work. Hold her still for me.”

My eyes shot open, just in time to see Master charging a light in his palm. I immediately started to struggle, I didn’t want to go to sleep again!

This was futile, though. Immediately a pair of powerful arms grabbed me tight, and I could only move my head. Master walked forward, and all I could do before he touched me was scream. That scream didn’t last long, and a soft blue light covered my eyes, instantly causing for me to fall into dreamland once more.

The world faded into view once more. This time, I held perfectly still, not even breathing, as I woke. I heard nothing, and felt nothing but a cold floor beneath me, so I opened my eyes. I was in some sort of dungeon, complete with black steel bars, brick walls, brick floors, and brick ceilings. There wasn’t even a doorway! I picked myself off of the floor. My entire body was cold, which was probably a testament to how long I had been lying there. Once I was standing, I looked around the room. There was, in stark contrast to the rest of the room, a gleaming white toilet in one corner, with a sink as well. That was probably what was expected to be my source of hand washing and drinking water, actually. A low-lying cot was stationed in the other corner.

Master always had been a bit of a clean freak, but putting things like this in a dungeon was just weird. Speaking of him, why on earth was I in a dungeon in the first place?

He probably wants to perform tests on you, Arcana stated calmly, as if she were merely talking about the weather.

Why would Master perform tests on me? Did he need to check something out before he changed me back?

He probably isn’t going to change you back, you know.

Not this again...

“Arcana, I told you! Master will fix this. He probably just needs to get some components of a spell or something.”

“Actually, I’m afraid your imaginary friend is correct,” Master said, suddenly appearing on the other side of the bars. I jumped back in fright.

“W-what do you mean, Master?”

“I mean that I’m not turning you back into a human. Even if it were possible, I wouldn’t let such a glorious opportunity go to waste.”

“Opportunity? What are you talking about? This is a curse, not a blessing!”

“Ah, but you see, You happen to have been inexplicably transformed into a magical creature that has not been alive for several thousand years. And that certain magical creature has a certain magical appendage that is very useful.”

I did not like where this was going.

Master pulled a book out of nowhere, then flipped to a page, then turned it around to face me. I could barely see in the dim light, but the picture on said page seemed to be a fancy chalice of some sort.

“What is that supposed to be, some sort of magical wine glass?”

“Not quite, but close. When a specific liquid is poured into the glass, it undergoes a unique change. Do you know what that change is?”

Master was looking almost gleeful at whatever it was he was thinking.

“Er, no?”

“The change is that it gains the property to make any human of a certain level of magic completely immortal. Not even Mosquitos will be able to harm me.”

“Okay, but what does that have to do with me being trapped in a dungeon?” I asked, curiosity overwhelming any negative feelings towards Master.

“Have a closer look at the picture.”

He brought the book lower to the ground, allowing for me to see the image with more clarity. The design on the cup was really quite pretty, It had lots of magical runes and strange designs. That is, I thought it was beautiful until I looked at the handle. It was short, it tapered slightly, and it had a very distinct swirl to the design. All of those properties were shared by a certain magical appendage that adorned my skull.

A look of horror appeared on my face, and I scrambled backwards a few feet before falling on my rear. Master watched me for a moment, then launched into dark, obviously insane laughing. I sat there as he walked away, I couldn’t even move. Why would Master do this to me? I hadn’t done anything wrong to him, had I? What was I supposed to do? What could I do?

We will do the only thing we can do.

Escape.

Chapter 3

“No, that wouldn’t work either, Arcana. I can’t fit down that pipe, and even if I did, I would probably drown,” I said to Arcana, softly enough that only I, and thus she, could hear it.

Maybe you should try slipping through those bars again, they really don’t look that close together at all!

“Come on, this is the sixth time you’ve suggested that! I told you, no matter how many times we try, we won’t be able to fit,”

Well do youhave any brilliant ideas, then? The only idea you’ve had thus far is that we somehow knock out a guard through the bars, and steal the keys from him. Master probably isn’t stupid enough to give the guards the keys unless they need them, anyway!

I sat and thought for a moment. What could I do to get out that we hadn’t thought of yet? Master was too meticulous in his cleaning inspections to leave anything I could use to get out in the cell. The bed was an air bed, the toilet was securely bolted to the ground. The sink was the same, but I could barely even reach it. There was nothing I could use to pick the lock, break the lock, or slip through the bars.

Then it hit me. I was a pony, wasn’t I? But more specifically, I was a unicorn! With magic! Surely he wouldn’t be expecting for me to be able to use magic against his dungeon.

“Hey Arcana, you control my magic, right? Maybe you can try and use that spell you used during on the banana back at home on the bars or something!” I exclaimed as quietly as I could.

Are you sure that’s a good idea? When we did that, the banana got really hot and exploded. I’m pretty sure that very hot metal shards flying everywhere probably hurts a lot more than banana.

“You’re probably right, maybe we should try something else. Maybe we should see if we can trip the lock with levitation,”

Are you sure? We were trying to test levitation with the banana incident. Do we have anything we can test it on that isn’t a banana?

“I don’t know, maybe we can try the lid of the-”

“Sorry to cut your discussion with yourself short, but I think you might want to pay attention to me for a moment, dear,” Master’s voice suddenly came out from the hallway.

I was already in the back of the room, but I backed away anyway. He wasn’t already going to take my horn, was he? I hadn’t even had a chance to escape yet!

“It’s come to my attention that you seem to have a habit of whispering to yourself when you think you are alone. This brought to my attention that you can somehow, despite being a magical green horse, you can talk. This is a problem, you see, for you being able to communicate means that you can cause distraction, which is definitely not something I want during your operation. Not only that, but you could cause for some of my servants morality problems! I just can’t let this go on, you see? I’ll have to just fix your voice, so you sound like you should. Hold still for a moment, please.” He said with a motion of the hand.

Wait, what? He was going to take away my voice? No! I was not going to let that happen!

I shot to my left, dodging a little white ball of magic as it flew from his fist. It hit the toilet instead, and somehow triggered the flusher. However, unlike what anyone would expect, the flush sounded like a horse! A really strange, wet, drowning horse, but a horse! Was that what he was going to do to me?

Laughter burst out from behind me, the same insane laughter that I had heard from Master earlier. I whirled around, just in time to catch a faceful of white magical horse voice.

Idiot! He hit you while you were distracted!

Master was still laughing.

“I can’t believe- Oh that is too- It hit the toilet!”

I tried to speak, but all that came out was a horrendous distortion of my voice!

“What’s the matter? Horse got your tongue?” Master paused his laughter just long enough to let out that taunt.

Unfortunately, I fell for it and tried to retort before I realized what I was doing.

If it were possible to kill someone with laughter, you would certainly have escaped by now.

I held my tongue, settling instead for a glare directly at Master’s mirthful face.

This didn’t have the effect I wanted, though, as instead of his head burning away from eye lasers, he just looked at me, then turned away.

“I’ll let you go and talk to yourself now, little horsie. The rest of the chalice should be ready in a few hours.”

He turned, away, then started walking away. At the last moment, he stopped and turned his head towards me, looking at me for some reason. He didn’t say anything though, and he left after a few seconds.

Well, you got any ideas?

I glared at the air in front of my forehead.

Oh, right. I can still understand you, even if your voice is... Different. It really depends on what you intend to say, not the actual words.

“Wait, so you can understand this?

Loud and clear. If anything, he just did us a favor. Now you can talk to me all you want, and he won’t be able to hear our plans.

“Be that as it may, we should get this fixed as soon as possible. It’s humiliating!” I paused for a moment, before continuing, “Speaking of plans, what should we do about getting out?”

I think that the levitation idea is a good one. Maybe we should try a different way about getting things to move.

“What do you think went wrong with the banana?”

I think that the push I gave the banana caused for it to become excited, and thus hot, to the point where the water inside evaporated and tried to escape. We may want to go about a less direct way about it instead.

A less direct way to move an object? That could work.

“Maybe instead of trying to push it, we could try pushing air into a sort of platter and use that!”

The air would probably become immensely hot, to the point where trying to get it to hold a shape would melt the walls.

Okay, maybe not that then.

“Perhaps we could somehow get whatever force caused the heat to hold a shape and surround the object with that.”

I have no idea if that’s even possible, and it would take far too long to figure it out.

“In that case, why don’t we just try breaking the lock?” I grumbled, irritated that none of my ideas were working.

That might work, actually. Horses have really strong kicks, right? Try that.

Well, it was worth a shot. I doubt Master would leave me in a room with a weak lock, but it was entirely possible. I walked across the cell, then aimed myself at the little metal box, then turned my head. Was this really a good idea? What if I hurt myself or something?

If you don’t try, then I’ll be dead, and possibly you as well. Do it!

Arcana was right, Master probably wouldn’t keep me alive after he got his immortality. I steadied myself, took a deep breath, then bucked.

The effect was immediate, in two ways. First, I heard a loud clang, then a creak, so I assumed the door was open now. The second was that the hoof that hit the metal hurt a lot now.

“Ow ow ow ow ow...” I let out, hopping around on three legs like a trio of clowns trapped in an extra large straightjacket on pogo sticks. Then I realized that I should probably be making a break for it now, and ignored the pain while I shot out of the cell.

Once I was out of the cage, I looked around, looking for the best means of escape. To my left was a long hallway with bizarre blue torches that shed watery light, leading to a stairway down. Probably not where I wanted to be, as from what I could tell, the prison was underground. I swung my head the other way, eyes focusing on anything that moved. There didn’t seem to be any guards at the moment, which meant that Master had probably taken whoever was assigned to me somewhere. Maybe to try and figure out what it was I was plotting against him, though that would probably be unneeded after the bang of the lock’s destruction. That brought me back to the world, and reminded me to look for a way out.

The other way down the hall was lit by the same torches, but led instead to a soft curve that passed beyond my view. A curve that, most importantly, had rapid footsteps rushing down it.

They’re coming! Hurry down the other way!

WIth that I shot down the other way, clattering hoofsteps noisily echoing down the tunnel. When I reached the stairs, though, I uselessly tried to stop and avoid falling. I tumbled down for a few seconds, before coming out of it rolling onto my hooves. I stumbled a bit, but continued running.

The torches on the walls seemed to be of a different color now, more a sinister purple than a cool blue. Perhaps this was merely an indicator of depth, perhaps it meant something more significant. This tunnel seemed much longer, and I let my mind slip into the rhythm of running. On and on I went, the bricks of the walls blurring into grey lines as I ran past them. I kept running until I could no longer bear the pain in my hoof. After a second or so of failure to decelerate properly, I crashed into the ground, tumbling over and over until finally I stopped, panting wildly and feeling my legs shake with pain as I lay there. I could afford to rest for a minute, I must have been running pretty fast; it would take them a little while to catch up.

What are you doing? They will catch up in moments! Get off of the floor!

I groaned, then tried to lift myself up. Unfortunately, trying does not equal succeeding, as I discovered in this case. My legs felt like they were made of lead, hot, hot lead that hurt. I tried again; no such luck. I tried again, harder this time. My legs twitched a little.

This is bad, really bad. It looks like you’ve worn yourself out completely. We need to find some way to hide so you can recuperate or something.

“No, I just need,” I paused, trying to push myself up once more, “to get off of the ground. We gotta get away from Master,” I said, strained from trying to mentally beat my legs into working with insults. Why wouldn’t these stupid things work? I needed something to help me get out of this mess, anything! Heck, if my obnoxious neighbor with his constant yardwork showed up, I would be more than pleased. I’d never judge him for his skirting the line of noise pollution laws again.

It looks like there is some sort of branching hallway to your right, a ways up the path you’re on. See if you can get up, then head for it.

“That can wait a little, I think my legs are feeling a little better. Maybe I can stand if I wait a while longer,” I reasoned, hoping to whatever deities that may or may not exist that Master wouldn’t catch up very soon. He wasn’t an athletic man, so running as fast as I did would be very hard for him to pull off, and he certainly could not for as long. At least, I hoped so. It seemed that he had been hiding a lot of stuff from me. I had never seen that disturbing, evil side of him before, who knows what he could have been capable of? I had to get away from him as soon as possible, even if it meant making my legs hurt even further by walking on them more. It would have been helpful if the ground wasn’t the same hard brick the walls were, though. Ponies were certainly not built for running on stone.

After a minute or so of laying on the ground, I decided to try again. It seemed that at least a minimal level of energy in my legs had been restored, for I was actually able to get off to a slightly shaky standing stance.

Are you feeling better now? We should really get moving.I didn’t respond, I didn’t need to.I took a shaky step forward. My hooves still hurt, but they were usable now. As soon as I could confirm I hadn’t ruined my ability to make coordinated movement due to overusage of my brand new limbs, I started moving. The little opening in the otherwise flat wall was close now, so I could see that the inside of it was just as strangely lit as the light outside of it. The light was a peculiar shade of pink this time, instead of the violet of the magical torches outside of it. I wondered briefly as to why he used torches in the first place, as most of Master’s castle was lit using industrial lamps set into the ceiling.When I peeked into the branching hallway, I could see that it didn’t go too far. It was significantly tighter than the passage I had been running through, but not small enough to induce claustrophobia. The fact that I was several feet shorter now probably helped with that.When I had gone a little ways into the hallway, I realized that the torches were getting fewer and farther between. This, logically, was causing for the light to get worse and worse. As a responsible person, I promptly sat down to consider the possible dangers that may have been down there.Fortunately, I couldn’t think of any. Shrugging weirdly as a result of being a quadruped, I stood up once more to continue walking. After a few seconds of walking only slightly slowly, I came across a dead end. A slight display of despair crossed my mind and face, for I feared that I would not be able to find another possible escape route in time. However, Arcana had other ideas.Wait. He wouldn’t have created this hallway for nothing, would he? There may be something concealed here. Can you reach one of the torches? We should shed some light on this matter.I could not, in fact, reach any of the torches, as was revealed by several attempts to jump up and grab it. Defeated once more by my short stature, I went back to the dead end, in hopes of finding another way of possibly identifying a way through. Perhaps there would be a hidden door? Even if there was seemingly nothing to be found there, I would have to keep trying at it. I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Something did seem a little off about the wall at the dead end, though. Perhaps this wouldn’t be the end for me.Kick it.“What?” I asked in surprise, not sure of what Arcana was talking about.Kick the dead end. Not too hard, in case it really is a dead end, but I suspect it might be a false wall. See where the walls meet? You can see the slight difference in texture. Now that Arcana had said that, the difference in the walls became obvious. there was a faint white undertone to the whole thing, and it looked as if it were dustier than the rest. Whatever it was made from, it was not the same as the walls around it, despite looking so similar.Stop thinking about it and just kick it already. We’re wasting time here.“Are you sure? I don’t think my hoof has recovered yet,” I said, grimacing at the thought of another hard collision with a solid object.After a strangely long pause, Arcana replied, her voice quiet.Do you want to escape or not? I can understand that you might be reluctant to get away from your master, but there isn’t anything left for you there. He’s different from before, he’s no longer a friend. Even if you have lingering feelings, we need to save ourselves before we can do anything else. We need to live, if only to warn others of his treachery. Come on, kick the wall. We’re going to have to take a few chances if we’re going to get out of here.“Arcana, I-”Save it. We can discuss it when we’re safe. For now, kick the wall.I kicked the wall. The wall, which was now revealed to be made of plaster, now had a pony-sized hole in it. Unlike the hall behind me, the area behind the wall didn’t have any of the fancy magical pink torches in it. It was totally dark, aside from the light that got in around me. After being momentarily stumped my my predicament, I had a small stroke of genius. I pulled my head back out of the hole, then reared up and performed a strange sort of punch at the wall. This was actually effective, and another hole appeared above the one I had already made. The light that came in through it was brighter, so I could actually slightly see the room beyond a little. It was much bigger than the hallway, but not too big for me to see the other side. The walls, the flooring, and the ceiling were all the same well sealed stone bricks that the rest of the dungeons were made of. It was difficult to see anything on the other side, though, so I punched the plaster a few more times.Across the large, circular room, which was entirely empty aside from dust and a small pedestal in the center, a smallish hole was dug. It looked like it would have been uncomfortable to go through for my old stature, but perfectly fine for me as I was now.However, my attention was not long on the hole in the wall, for the pedestal in the center drew my attention. It wasn’t made of the same stone as the floor it stood on, it looked more akin to rusty steel. The light was still too dim to make out the details, so I walked into the room and approached the center.Upon closer inspection, the rusty platform was just a rusty platform. However, there was a couple of tools on it. One was a telescope, one was an old oil lantern, and the other was a short spear. I didn’t have any use for the telescope or spear, so I pushed them aside to inspect the lantern. It obviously hadn’t been used in years, it looked ancient. However, I could still see the wick intact inside, and the oil was probably still there too. It would be perfect for exploring that hole in the back of the room, but I didn’t have any matches or anything I could use for it.However, I did have a smarter mind inside of my less smart one, who I could consult for matters like these.“Hey Arcana, can you think of any way to light this?” I asked.I don’t see how you don’t. Here, I’ll do it now.Suddenly, my horn was aglow with yellow light. I felt a gentle pushing sensation, and the wick started glowing red. Within seconds, it burst into flame, flooding the room with yellow light. With a nod of gratitude for Arcana’s help, I got a little closer to the lantern, then picked it up with my mouth.With that, I got down from the platform and made my way to the hole in the wall. Upon close inspection, it appeared to have been dug using a drill from the other direction. This was most likely a good thing, for that would mean there was an entry point for the driller, and an escape route for me. With my hopes high and a light to guide my way there, I walked into the tunnel.

After what must have been hours of walking through the long, twisty tunnel, I finally reached what was either an abnormally flat dead end, or an exit sealed off with plaster. After a couple of headbutts, which managed to poke a nice hole to see through in the wall, I found that the tunnel lead directly to the storage facility of Master’s castle.I was behind a couple of boxes, with a couple of yards to spare. Were I still human, I would have scolded myself for leaving so much wasted space behind the boxes. As it was, though, I was quite thankful for my own oversight.That didn’t mean I had any idea as to how to escape from the prison of boxes I was in, though. The boxes were stacked high, and were probably full of dangerous, volatile magical materials. I never really asked what Master stored in the boxes. He always told me when to be careful with them, and that was all I needed.Look, over to your right. you might be able to squeeze out from between those two boxes.I nodded, then walked over to it. She was right, there was a nice, narrow passage that I could fit through. The warning signs were a little worrying, but I fit down it just fine. Once outside of the second secret passageway, I found myself in the main hallway of the storage facility. The lighting was back to the familiar industrial fluorescent lights that I had spent the past twelve years of my life working under. I had no time to bask in their brilliance, though, because now that I knew where I was, I needed to formulate a plan to get out of Master’s castle.The most obvious route would be through the work area that was just a couple hundred feet away, because the entry hall and gate tunnel was just past it. For that matter, the only way to get to the main entrance from here was through the work area. However, if Master wasn’t already sending guards to chase me through the tunnel, then he would have them on alert throughout the castle. I would have to be careful, and not let any of them see me. If they did, I could count on having dozens of darts in my rear and a place in the dungeons again.With that in mind, I slowly, sneakily walked towards the way into the workroom, only to stop after a few steps. I had forgotten, stealth would be impossible on the concrete floors of the castle.“Well, in that case,” I murmured to myself, then took off at speeds that would make an elephant proud. Moving stealthily was impossible because of the loud noise my hooves made on the concrete, but moving quickly was certainly within my grasp. I shot through the workroom, alarming several assistants that were preparing a table for something.“Stop that horse!” one of them cried out, before realizing that neither he nor his colleagues could catch me, stopping, and running off while screaming, “I’ll get the guards! Keep it here until then!”Unfortunately for him, I barreled right through the skinny other two like they were nothing. I laughed as I ran for a moment, though it was hard to breathe and laugh at the same time. I kept moving anyway, even when I felt a weird stinging pain in my leg as I left the room.Now I was in the entry hall, the only room in the work area of the castle that used prettier lighting than the industrial lamps. There were three golden chandeliers here, illuminating everything with fake green candles. The entry hall was long and straight, the only object in the way of my gallop was the unmanned receptionist’s desk at the front. I ran around it easily, now the only thing between me and freedom was the gate tunnel.The gate tunnel was a hundred foot long tunnel occupied by three state-of-the-art gates. The first one I had to go through was the safe gate, a massive, 3 foot thick metal door that would normally be used to guard a bank. Fortunately, it was designed to keep things out, not in. I just had to pull the giant level and it opened.The second gate was a little more complicated. It was less of a gate and more of a giant doorway. Once I went through that, the whole facility would know where I was, if they didn’t already. It didn’t matter, I went through it anyway. Air raid alarms immediately started blaring, letting the whole castle know that there was an ‘intruder’ that got past the second gate.The third gate was a massive, heavy door that was very well disguised from the outside. I would have to open it from the control box on the side.The controls were simple, two buttons, one for open, one for close, and the key was already in the lock. I pushed the green open button, and the huge door started creaking open.Suddenly, the door past the first gate slammed open. Eight guards, all armed with tranquilizer guns streamed in, followed by Master, who was red in the face and looking terribly out of breath. I had to hesitate for a moment before I could push the ingrained impulse to help him away.A second later, after Master had caught his breath, he yelled out to his guards.“After her! Catch that unicorn!”I, of course, did not hesitate to spin around and shove myself through the hole that was barely tall enough for me to fit through. If I had been any larger, they would have caught me before I could squeeze through.Outside of the castle was a forest of giant redwoods, with little in the way of smaller trees and bushes. Master had always loved the way that he loved the way that California’s redwood forests looked, so he built his base of operations in the middle of a State park. When I asked him about the issue of park rangers and hikers discovering the castle, he simply laughed and explained that the way he kept the base hidden was by a combination of excellent camouflage, video cameras, and the fact that nobody would be looking for a secret magical underground castle in the middle of the forest’s most traversed area. Hiding in plain sight, he called it.However, this also gave rise to another problem. Because I didn’t have access to the camera sentries he had set up in a six mile area around the entrance, there was no way for me to know when an early morning tourist, hiker, park ranger, or worst of all, hunter, would be near me. I would have to get away from the camera-covered are as fast as I could, while also avoiding detection by any other people walking by.It wouldn’t be an easy task, but I had Arcana on my side. If I needed, I could try picking up a log or something and set it on fire to deter pursuers. Besides, it would be good for the forest, right? I had read somewhere that redwoods can only reproduce when they are set on fire. Maybe they only scattered their seeds when they knew it was the last hope for their kind?I turned around. The giant First Gate was still slowly opening, the stone and dirt camouflage was incredibly heavy. I had a good half a minute before it would be large enough for them to get through.That meant I had to get going. I quickly scanned the area in front of me, before determining that it wouldn’t matter because of the lack of smaller vegetation anyway. I took off at a run, moving as fast as I could. The ground was less even here than the stone corridor, but it was also softer and nicer on my sore hooves. In the early morning’s darkness, I couldn’t see very much at all. The best I could do was avoid the redwoods and any strange rises or falls in the terrain. I ran and ran, not knowing how far I would need to move to escape the six mile radius area of detection. They would know where I was until I got out, and they would be able to catch up quickly. They didn’t have to run nearly as haphazardly as I was, they could just take the straight path, guided by the technicians in the castle that were following my every step with their cameras. I would have to keep moving and keep moving fast.As I ran, I was startled out of my determined trace by a shout behind me. A quick look over my shoulder blinded me, because of the headlights that were shining in my direction from the Jeep that the guards were chasing me in. A couple of darts whizzed by my head as I looked onwards, revealing that they were also trying to gun me down with tranquilizers. I picked up my speed in response, hoping to reduce their chances of hitting me.This wasn’t enough, though, because they were still gaining on me.As I blasted past a stream, I took a moment to have a sudden, genius idea. If I could cross the stream, they wouldn’t be able to follow me in their jeep. More importantly, though, I would be out of range of the cameras. The six mile area was bordered by several creeks, so if I crossed one I would be free of the guards’ rather unfair advantage.Obviously, I went down to the creek at the nearest opportunity. The stream was deep, but it wasn’t wide. There was a tiny beach on the other side, with an animal trail leading up the steep hill. I wasted no time in leaping into the water, which I quickly came to realize was cold. I could barely move, but the adrenaline going through my system was enough to keep me going.The water at the center of the creek was the deepest, and the fastest. I had to swim hard against the current just to make it to the other side.It was over soon, though, and a few seconds after getting through it I was out of the water and on the other side. I had barely started to climb the trail when I heard a roar, and looked to my side to see the jeep fly over the riverbank and straight into the water. The guards were still shooting at me, and still missing. To my left, I saw a curious skunk suddenly fall over, as a dart hit it in the side. The jeep was in the water and sinking, as the guards scrambled to save themselves from the powerful current, their target forgotten in the blur of self-preservation. I was alright with that.I kept moving, and eventually reached the top of the hill. It was just starting to become daytime, the first streaks of color reaching into the sky, barely visible through the thick leaf cover of the redwoods. I sighed, and started walking. I had a long day ahead of me.

“Johnson, what’s the status on the hunting party?”“They lost it, Master. She escaped through cunning use of a creek.”“That’s a problem... I expected them to catch her easily. It doesn’t matter, though, she’s possibly the most predictable person on the planet. We should have no problem tracking her down again. Is the Jeep alright?”“Ah, well, if we can get it out of the water, it will be.”“Don’t tell me they tried to pursue her through a stream in a Jeep.”“According to this report, sir, that’s not quite what happened. Apparently they didn’t see the stream until it was too late to keep it from flying into it.”“Bah! Tell them they’re on recovery duty. I will not have my favorite car ruined by such idiocy.”“Right away, sir.”The wizard was angry. Not only had his only known path to eternal life been snatched out from underneath of him, but he had lost his Jeep, too. If he had been born a more spiteful man, he would have ordered the teams to find the unicorn and torture her for this. The Master, though, was not a spiteful man. He always had a backup plan, made just for instances like these. Besides, eternal life could always wait a few weeks. After all, the wizard was not an old man. he still had a good sixty years left on him. Instead, he could go through with the plan he had originally had. Only two newbies had been stripped of their power, but that would be enough to initiate the second phase.The Master stopped walking. He had arrived where he needed to. The hallway had originally been blocked up by plaster, but the idiot unicorn had seen fit to change that. It was alright, though. The platform hadn’t been damaged, and that was the only part that mattered. The wizard reached over to the platform, stopping only inches from the old steel. A horrible grin adorned his face, the grin found on all evil men when the ultimate power is within their reach.He touched the steel, then muttered something under his breath. The metal started to glow red.“Let today be remembered,”The platform started to fold into itself.“As the day that Naster Smith,”The platform was now in the shape of a giant drill.“Changed the world.”The drill plunged into the stone below it, sending sparks flying and causing a powerful, terrible sound that was not quite strong enough to drown out the maniacal laughter coming from the man standing before the glowing hole.