I winced at the rays of light sneaking in through the hospital dorm window, it was a bit too bright for my liking. I stirred and got up, craning my neck as I did so and stretched out letting out a yawn. I looked towards Sunshine sleeping away peacefully in her bed and Shane was still out cold. I chuckled a bit he always was a heavy sleeper.

I was still shrugging off the rest of my tiredness, and I wondered briefly about that weird dream I had last night. I made my way to the dorm bathroom, the soft muffled clopping of hooves hitting the carpeted floor.

"Hmm? Did I have a growth spurt or something?" I thought to myself, I noticed that everything seemed a bit smaller than they should be. "Must be more tired than I thought..."

I did my usual morning routine...until I stopped to look at my own reflection. In the mirror I saw a pony who looked just like myself, same color eyes, same color mane and the same confused expression. I knew that it was definitely me in the mirror, so why did I feel something was off with me? It took a moment to realize what exactly what was wrong...
I was standing upright for a start, and from the looks of it I was back at my original height of 5 foot 9 inches. My chest felt heavier than it should be, and when I went to rub my eyes I realized I had hands again.

I looked down again, while my original human body had always been a bit on the slim side. I wasn't sure if I should be amused or bemused that I had a slightly wider hips and backside, but given the fact I was standing upright on hooves of all things I guess I should be surprised. It wasn't uncommon for me to over hear some woman pass me by and mutter something about me having a cute butt in the past, but this was ridiculous. Whatever I had changed into would be best described as a hybrid of my human and pony form.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked myself. I looked back in the mirror I still had my fur, my horn and my ears on the top of my head. I checked behind me to confirm my tail was still there and it was, a quick lazy sway told me it was indeed my tail. If anything was different my cutie mark had changed slightly, the gear hadn't changed, but was joined by additional two gears interlocked with it, and the space where the heart and cross was had been filled with a red heart with a gold trim around it.

"Why did my cutie mark change?" I wondered confused, "I thought this thing couldn't change once you got it." It just came to my attention that I felt totally naked, plush blue fur or not.

"...Um Shane?" I called out. Shane stirred from his sleep and let out a loud yawn.

"Uh-huh...yeah Marcia?" He answered tiredly.

"Could you get Dr Weiss...and some clothes please." I asked him embarrassed.

"Uh sure." He asked, "What's up, and why do you need clothes?"

"..." I hesitated for a moment, "Shane...I'm currently butt naked..."

"So?" Shane replied, "You don't have anything I haven't seen before, or have you forgot about that." I blushed at those memories.

"God damn it Blondie!" I yelled at him through the bathroom door, "I'm standing upright on my hooves here." I tried to explain.

"..." Shane raised a brow, "I didn't know we could do that?"

"Shane..." I said losing my patience, "Last time I checked I wasn't taller than 5ft tall, standing upright, had hands, had boobs on my chest, and a slight bubble butt! Get. The. Doctor. And. Clothes. Now!" I could hear Shane gallop off out the room and down the hall.

"That dumb-ass..." I sighed, and it finally clicked what Shane had said. "Oh dear god I fucked my best friend..." A flash of the memories went before my eyes...wait those weren't my memories, but rather those of that girl from my dream. "Just what's happening to me? Why do I have her memories as well as my own?"

A flash of a hooded man entered my mind, I don't know why but there's something very off about him.

"Did he do this to me?" I wondered.

"Mommy?" Sunshine asked through the door, "Are you okay? Where's daddy?" I winced slightly unsure how to answer, I looked around looking for something to cover myself with...

"Ah-hah!" A towel caught my eye and it was large enough to cover me, I wrapped it around my body. It wasn't much but it would have to do.

"Um...daddy went to get the doctor honey." I answered, "Something seems to have happened to mommy...I'm coming out now, so promise me you won't be scared okay?"

"'Kay!" Sunshine replied.

I came out of the bathroom, embarrassed. Sunshine just stared at me in shock, not sure of what to say.

"Mommy..." Sunshine finally spoke, "What happened to you?"

"I don't know..." I answered pulling my daughter into a hug, "I woke up like this..."

It was quiet for a few moments, until we were interrupted by Shane coming in through the door accompanied by Dr Narcissa and a smaller white unicorn with wings. They both looked at me both in shock due to my appearance.

"By the stars..." Dr Narcissa spoke, "Just what happened to you!?"

The smaller winged unicorn gave me a funny look, as if she was trying to read me or something.

"Interesting...but still what is she?" The alicorn thought to herself. I shot her a dirty look without realizing it.

"Why don't you actually ask me instead of going into my mind uninvited!" I mentally scolded her, "I'm not very fond of strangers coming in and messing with things they shouldn't! Now GET OUT!!!"

"By the sun..." The alicorn took a few steps back in shock, Dr Narcissa looked at the alicorn with a confused look. "She just kicked me out of her mind..."

"What!?" Dr Narcissa exclaimed, "How could she do that?"

"I-I apologize Ms...Geary was it?" The alicorn apologized, "My name is Tia, I'm Serena's older sister...I didn't realize you could feel me read your thoughts."

"No...it's alright..." I replied, "I'm not sure how I did it myself...I don't know what's going on with me right now...At least you aren't some guy in a hood."

"I see..." Tia replied, hiding the fact she knew who I was referring to.

I just stared at the two in front of me, I couldn't say exactly why but something felt...off about them. No foreign would be a better word to describe them both, but it wasn't in the bad way. In fact I couldn't feel any malice or bad intentions from them.

"So...just what is going on here?" Shane asked.

"Well, everyone who was turned into a pony was human once right?" Serena stated, "So I wonder is what we seeing here a reversion, or a cross between the two forms."

"Sorry I was delayed Serena did I miss...anything..." Dr Raines took one look at me. "What the hell?" I took one look at him, something felt wrong with the way he was staring at me...I couldn't say why but he felt familiar to me in all the wrong ways.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME AND MY DAUGHTER!!!" I screamed fearfully, crawling away until I was up against the wall with nowhere to go. Dr Raines took a few steps forward trying to reassure me nothing was going to happen. "I-I SAID STAY AWAY!!!" The next thing Dr Raines knew he was pinned up against the opposite wall by a faint barrier pressing against him keeping him in place. Another two barriers sharpened into makeshift spears hovered above me threatening to impale him if he dared come any closer.

"Dr Raines I think it would be best if you would leave..." Serena urged him, "Marcia please stop what ever you are doing and we'll make sure he'll never bother you again."

The barrier and barrier-spears faded away and Dr Raines fell to his knees trying to get his breath back.

"I-I'm sorry...I don't know why..." I apologized, "But you remind me of something that messed with my memories a while ago."

Shane took one worried look at me, and then one at Dr Raines...He could of sworn he saw a flash of a hooded man in his place.

"Raines..." Shane growled out, "It would be best if you leave right now..."

Dr Raines was surprised at Shane's sudden outburst towards him, but he got up and left without a word.

Dr Narcissa managed to get me some clothes and led me into another room to ask me some questions about what had happened to me. I answered them all as best I could, I even told her about the strange dream I had the previous night, about that hooded man who messed with my memories, and how I had both sets of memories now.

"I've taken the liberty of contacting your parents Marcia, they should be here with in a few moments time." Serena stated.

"Thank you..." I replied,

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you feel right now?" Serena asked.

"Body aside?" I answered, "I feel like I'm who I should be...as weird as that sounds."

"Hmm..." Serena wondered, "I wonder if your current form was your own bodies attempt to revert you back to your original form."

"But how though?" I asked, "Why did i end up as some hybrid between the two?"

"My theory...if your dream was anything to go by..." Serena hesitated, "Is that you took on this form because while something had messed around your memories, your original sense of self had become so strong to be overwritten by what was done to you, but couldn't revert back fully so instead of getting rid of the implanted memories you absorbed them instead."

"..." I thought for a moment, "It would explain why I feel...whole right now. I still have her memories Serena...of how happy she and Shane were, was it selfish of me to take that happiness away, even if it was a lie?"

"I can't answer that Marcia." Serena admitted, "But I know what it's like to have something you love ripped away like that."

"..." I was quiet for a moment, "Part of me still loves him you know...It's a feeling that wasn't mine to begin with, but one I can't forget. As much as a dumb-ass he is, he's my dumb-ass."

"I fell in love once along time ago..." Serena trailed off.

"What happened?" I asked.

"He passed away..." Serena explained, "He died saving my life...he said that even if he lost everything I was the only thing left that was important to him."

"I-I'm sorry to hear that." I apologized.

"Don't be..." Serena trailed off, "We only knew each other a couple of months. A couple months I'll never forget...I think I'm the only one who remembers him."

A moment of awkward silence passed between us, each lost in our own thoughts.

"Hey this is crazy thought, but if this happened to me because of my memories were tampered with. Does that mean it'll happen to everyone else to?" I asked.

"I really don't see why not." Serena answered giving the idea some thought, "Human kind does have the habit of adapting rather quickly."

"Mark?" A woman's voice was heard as the door opened, "Is that really you?"

"Mom?" I answered hugging my mom, "Yeah it's me."

"What happened to you?" She asked, "How did you change? Are you really my son?" The questions never seemed to stop coming out of my mother's mouth.

"Yeah it's me mom." I answered, "I'm Mark no one else, thought I guess Marcia would be more appropriate considering my gender."

"Why didn't you change back fully?" She asked a little upset.

"...I don't think I can mom." I replied sensing her worry, "I'm getting the feeling that I'm stuck like this for good." This seemed to upset my mom a bit but she just smiled.

"I guess it's a small price to pay then for having my son remember who he truly is." Mom stated, "The doctors told me about the changes to your memories."

"Mom..." I said solemnly, "I still have those memories as well as my own original memories." My mom's eyes widened.

"Then everything you did and said..." Mom hesitated, "I caught you a while back...with Shane..."

"Yeah...I know." I replied embarrassed, "I guess things are going to be awkward between us for while...it's going to be weird having a boyfriend..."

Cillen was pacing back and forth in the apartment he, Luna and Celestia shared. He was wondering how Marcia had undone his changes to her memory, from his point of view it shouldn't have been possible.

"It's funny isn't Cillen." Celestia had asked as she entered the room, "You can erase and change memories as you wish, but can't change a person's very sense of self. I wonder if the girl had some outside assistance? I would imagine it would take another sentiment to undo what you have done."

"No..." Cillen had growled out angrily, "What I've done can't be undone with out my consent as far as memory altering goes, unless the original self was restored...some...how..." A look of realization washed over Cillen's features. "That interfering time manipulating witch!" He roared, "This must have been her doing!"

"Oh?" Celestia exclaimed, "Explain."

"It's like writing something on paper with a pencil, you can erase it and change it but there will always be some imprint of the original there." He explained, "What that witch did, if it was her...was bring the girl's original self forward in time from the moment just before I made the changes, then the original overwrites the copy but retains the changes made."

"That doesn't explain her current form though." Celestia asked, "And what if it was the girl's own doing?"

"It would be her own power..." Cillen guessed, "...She's unable to become a Memoria, or rather just being around her is like poison to them."

"Interesting." Celestia thought to herself. "And how would you know this?"

"Because it's the same thing that happened to Luna when she became took on a human form." He continued, "It'll happen you, your friends and everyone else who lives on this planet."

"What!?" Celestia exclaimed, "Why?"

"It's that witch's damn influence." Cillen explained, "You saw that warning, this is what she meant."

"How?" She asked curious.

"I control memories, she controls time..." He said simply, "She can control time in any shape or form she wishes to...including speeding up the evolutionary clock."

"..."

"Marcia didn't change because she reverted back to something close to her original form, she changed because she was forced to evolve." He continued, "When evolution occurs it's usually in response to a threat to the survival of a species. In this case it's in response to the Memoria...and myself. Pluto is taking the changes I made and refining them into the perfect defense."

"You're that much of a threat?" Celestia asked.

"..." Cillen remained quiet for the moment, "I'm not the first Memories Sentiment, I'm the second."

Celestia narrowed her eyes, but said nothing.

"I killed my predecessor, the one responsible for attacking your world and mine..." He continued, "He was the one who created the Memoria."

"!!" Celestia took a few steps back.

"I'm as much as a threat to you as the Memoria are..." He said turning to her, "My predecessor could create Memoria by extracting the memories of others, corrupting them like a virus then deleting the original...I can do the same thing...or rather something similar."

"Then all the memories you changed!!" Celestia shouted, "Do you plan to do the same to this world!"

"No...I didn't erase the original..." He said calmly, "Or rather i can't."

"Why not!" Celestia said through gritted teeth.

"Because I asked the time witch to erase that ability completely." He reassured her and laughed, "I know how dangerous I am, do really think I'll allow that sort of power go unchecked?"

Author's Note

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and the two biggest revelations to the story.

• Silent out