Magic of the Earth

        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.