The True Sequelby Tomas LutwigChapters1: A New Beginning2 A Good Question.3 A New ResidenceDay by day1: A New Beginning“Philip!” a distant voice shouted to the ears of a young man lying in his bed. “Philip!” it called again only making him turn over in his sleep and mutter something. “PHILIP GET UP!” The voice shouted again this time right next to his head making him jolt away. Wide eyed he looked up at his mother who simply smiled sweetly down at him. “It's time to get up” She said, attempting to stifle her giggling from her son's reaction. “Okay mom” The seventeen year old said wide eyed. Waiting for her to walk out of his room, he rubbed his eyes as soon as the woman was out of sight. Reaching over, he grabbing the water bottle from his nightstand, unscrewed the cap and took a few gulps before getting up. Looking down at the small clothes pile on his small desk, he grabbed a gray T-shirt and the pair of jeans that he had been wearing for the past few days. Thinking nothing of it, he tightened the belt to make up for the weight he had lost in the summer military camp his father had decided to send him to. Having been only a couple of weeks after he had gotten out, or been 'discharged' as they called it, his hair had yet to grow back out to the preferred length, but he ignored the cold feeling on his head. Walking to the bathroom, he glanced in the mirror, shooting a disgusted look at himself before doing his business. After the normal morning ritual of brushing his teeth and going to the facilities, he walked into the living room to find his father sitting in his normal chair in front of the computer looking at the online news. “Tuck in your shirt Phil” Phil's father said in a monotone without looking away from the computer. Looking down Phil let out a sigh realizing that his father had been correct, as always, and he had forgotten to tuck in his shirt. After going through the tiresome act of tucking it in, the boy's father turned away from his computer and looked at his son. “See? Now you look like a gentleman, and a gentleman always keeps his shirt tucked in.” “Oh Jason, leave the boy alone and let him eat” Phil's mother said in mock annoyance as she walked to the table with four plates. After putting them in their respective places, she walked past her son back down the hall to her eldest son's room. “Give it up Barbara, that boy won't get up for anything in the morning” Phil's father said, relighting his pipe and taking a couple of puffs off before shaking the match out. “Just like you used to be?” She asked before knocking on the door “Mel! Mel get up it's time to eat!” After a couple more attempts, she let out a defeated sigh and walked back into the kitchen to find her husband and youngest already eating. “Mmm! These pancakes are great Mom!” Phil said with a smile up at his mother. The woman returned the smile before taking a napkin and wiping the syrup off her son's chin. “You need to start eating your food instead of trying to inhale it honey. You'll get a stomach ache like that.” Phil's Mother looked up at her husband before her smile widened, “Well at least you come by it honestly” Phil's father had syrup, pancakes, and a small amount of coffee in his beard dripping down onto his plate. “What?” he said looking up at his wife who only rolled her eyes before sitting down and starting on her own breakfast. A couple of minutes after the family had finished eating and put the dishes in the sink Mephistopheles, Phil's older brother stepped out of his room in his underwear and a tank top. His bony hips barely keeping his underwear up, he walked into the dining room to his seat and started eating the now lukewarm pancakes and eggs his mother had prepared for him. Phil chuckled to himself as he passed the dining room on his way to the living room to check on the chores for today. Phil was an odd young man. Constantly getting into others business, most of the time unintentionally, and greeting random strangers, but quite often he would go through a phase of depression, due to his lack of meaningful friendships. His parents never seemed to notice as he would stay in his room most of the time anyways. Today was different though, he felt more like sitting in front of the television and playing a bit of video games, which didn't happen often as he was not very good at the console the family owned. As he turned on the TV though, the bright colors of the cartoons grabbed his attention before he could turn on the system. 'Stupid little kid's shows' he though as he saw some kind of dragon talking to the screen. Flipping the television over to the correct channel, he popped one of his more favored games, albeit one of the harder ones, into the console and started it up. A couple hours later he threw his controller down in disgust as his character died and turned to ash as normal. “You're not very good at that game are you?” Phil heard Mel's voice next to him and jumped. “Shut up Mel, well that doesn't mean I don't like the game.” Phil said defiantly turning off the console and replacing the disk in it's case. “Fair enough” His brother said with a smirk, before walking back to his room. Without reason for staying in the living room, Phil followed his brother down the hall making a right into his room as his brother closed the door to his own room. Hearing the knob turn and the door latch behind him he let out a sigh and walked to his computer which rested at the foot of his bed on a small table. Poking the switch for power with his sneaker Phil sat down on his bed and waited for his computer to load. After a few seconds the monitor turned on with the normal Windows logo before a small pop came from the cabinet of his computer and the monitor switched off. With a disgruntled sigh, Phil slid off his bed and kneeled next to it and opened up the side of the cabinet. Before he touched any of the wiring he turned off the power to the computer hopefully to lessen the damage. Thinking of his father's technical ability with computers Phil was tempted to go out and ask his father for help, but though that his dad might scorn him for mucking up his computer so soon after they bought it. Looking around inside the cabinet for a while, Phil couldn't seem to find what the problem was and was about to go ask his dad for help, but the monitor flickered to life before he could get up. Raising an eyebrow Phil looked at the back of the computer to find the switch still in the off position for the power input. Fiddling with it for a moment, he guessed that the switch had fried making the computer shut down. Sitting back in front of the screen he moved the mouse around to find it working properly. A small light appeared at the bottom of the screen though, showing that his skype had logged on and he had a new message. Assuming it was one of the people he talked to over the internet, Phil opened the window to find an almost completely blank chat box. Down at the bottom right above the message box, he noticed a message from a person with the words unknown user as their name. The message was a normal greeting, Hello! How are you doing this beautiful day? Phil read to himself. “Well, not too bad I suppose. How about yourself?” He replied cautiously. 'Who the heck is this person?' he wondered to himself. After a couple of minutes of talking to this 'unknown user' he learned that it was actually a she, who's friend set up their account for them and as a joke used that name. Like any sensible person, she wasn't about to tell a complete stranger her name and other credentials feeling abnormally chatty today, Phil continued talking to this new person deep into the night, eventually learning more about where she lives, which was apparently extremely far away. Oh yes! It's very beautiful here! There's almost no problems, beyond the occasional mistake with the weather. Phil chuckled. Living where he did, he normally didn't have to deal with much besides bright sunlight all day which almost constantly sunburned him with his light complexion, oh the ginger curse runs strong. ”Wow! It sounds a lot nicer over there! Where I'm from they have all kinds of problems. Li-” he typed out only to have his mother burst into the room on him making him jump again. “Time for beddddd” She said dramatically shutting the door slowly before laughing and opening it back up to give her son a hug. “Goodnight honey, sweet dreams” Phil replied with a goodnight of his own and returned her hug with one of his own as well as a kiss on her cheek. His mother walked out of his room pointing at his computer and making the sign to turn it off before closing the door. Looking at his message for a moment, he deleted the un-needed garbage leaving his original message with the addition of a goodnight at the end. Well it wouldn't be that hard to get you here! The message replied before his computer flashed off for a again. Letting out an annoyed sigh, he just shrugged and let it go before getting undressed taking his shower and heading for bed. Phil awoke with a dull light shining through his eyelids and the sounds of crickets chirping, only with an odd feeling all through his body, as if something had changed yet impossible to point it out to simply one thing. The alien feeling was all through his body almost as if he had been put into someone else's body. The young man attempted to move his fingers, but nothing responded, the same response came when he tried moving his toes. Even the way he was lying felt off to him. Afraid to open his eyes, Phil tried to roll onto his stomach, only to be stopped by pain running up his right arm, or what he thought was his arm. 'Dear lord' He thought, his heartbeat picking up to a frightening pace. 'What is going on? What's going on?' He questioned mentally, horrified of what he might see when he opened his eyes. Phil laid there, simply feeling what he assumed was grass against his now dulled skin. The feeling as the breeze went by even felt like something was covering his body, like he had finally grown body he had assumed was his sign of being an adult male, but it covered his entire body. He had never been a brave young man, even back into his teens, but the fear was starting to eat away at him as frightening ideas came to mind. Finally growing frightened enough, Philip opened his eyes only to see what seemed to be a normal calm forest. Having been trapped in his image of where he thought he was, he finally noticed the coolness of the breeze blowing past him. Swallowing hard, Phil lifted his head with a strained effort, as his head seemed to weigh more. The world around him slowly turned to what seemed to be normal, as the trees around him stood tall. Biting his lip, he slowly turned his head to look at his body. Time seemed to slow around him as his new form came into view. What appeared to be a gray coat adorned the body of some kind of quadruped, it's closest resemblance being to that of a horse, but too.. rounded. A long pale blue tale splayed out behind the hind legs, and in his peripherals he could see a similarly colored mane hanging down the back of his neck. Some kind of marking lay on the flank of his hind leg as well, but his mind was unable to comprehend what he was seeing and the image just seemed almost a blur as his head involuntarily fell back to the ground with a dulled thump before his eyes closed and his vision was encompassed in darkness. 2 A Good Question.“Hey!” A voice from what seemed to be miles away called to Phil. He could only respond with a groan from the now splitting ache coming from his head. “Hey! Are you alright?” The voiced seemed to be growing closer, but it's almost as his brain was unable to understand what the voice was saying. “HEY!” A shaking jolt forced Phil to open his eyes only to have them blinded by the light of the sun. A silhouette was over him and he could hear the voice of a girl. “Oh my gosh! Are you alright? It took me forever to find you! I can't believe I was so stupid. Why in the name of Celestia would I attempt a transportation spell so quickly!?” The silhouette said before stepping out of his view leaving the sun to finish it's work in blinding him. In a feeble attempt to block the light, he lifted his arm in front of his eyes, but they grew wide as he saw the appendage come into view. Attempting to sit up, Phil felt a pain in his back as his new body was not meant to bend in the way he attempted to make it bend. Lying now on his back, Phil could only stare at his hooves in shock as the female rambled on about some kind of school and a library. “Wh-where am I?” he questioned quietly out loud, before slapping his hooves over his mouth. His voice had deepened significantly, to the point he could just barely recognize it. Removing his hooves, he uttered a quiet “H-hello?” before replacing them over his mouth.'What's going on?' he questioned mentally, almost as if expecting an answer, but one never came. Phil ended up trying to roll over on his stomach again, this time folding his hooves beneath him. The area around where he was seemed to be a small glade with a small flower patch not far from where he was sitting, if you could call it that. Phil watched the, by assumption female whatever race they were, walk back and forth talking to herself as if attempting to debate on what she should do. Her coat was a snowy white color, while her hair was a lighter shade of silver with a turquoise stripe running through it. A horn stuck out from the middle of her forehead giving her the appearance of a unicorn. “Shine, what are you doing out here?” A new feminine voice sounded off behind the mare standing not too far from Phil making both of them freeze in place. “Oh! Um, nothing Gem! Just practicing a bit of magic!” The mare replied, the fear evident in her voice. “Well maybe I can help?” The voice said again, the mare still standing before Phil, in a feeble attempt to hide him. “What're you hiding there?” The voice asked much to Phils despair, only for the mare to lean to the right. “Nothing, nope nothing to hide here.” The mare tried, but some kind of large lizard jumped around her. The lizard paused as it looked at him for a moment staring at him before straitening up, it's red scales glittering in the light with two red fins on either side of it's head as well as a pair of small curving horns to either side of what appeared to be a row of small spines going down it's back and ending at it's tail. A small smirk fell across it's face revealing two rows of sharp teeth, before it turned to look at the mare. “You didn't need to hide him from me! I mean you could've just told me you had a coltfriend!” The lizard said making Phil's eyes go wide. The mare looked at the small lizard-like creature for a moment before a smile came to her face and she rushed to Phil's side. “Yes! My Coltfriend!” She said nuzzling him, much to his confusion. “Just roll with it” she whispered in his ear, but he could only stare at the lizard. The small lizard turned and started walking away and as soon as it was out of view the mare broke away from him and brushed herself off. “What... What happened?” Phil asked, his new voice still alien to him. The mare looked up at him and scratched her head. “Well, I don't really know myself. When I attempted to teleport you here last night, I had assumed the spell failed, but early this morning my magic started acting funny almost as it wanted me to go here” She said, “Well, as you probably know, Unicorn magic is hard to predict when you're not controlling it, so I followed it knowing it could be leading me almost anywhere. In the end I found you lying in the grass here.” Phil gave a her a confused look, but worry was eating at him as the mare tried to explain. “I don't really know where you're from, or how I could send you back... Sorry.” She finished only for Phil to lay his head in his hooves. “Now what do I do?” he asked, feeling scared and alone. With a sigh the mare sat back down next to him. “Well, I doubt it's any consolation, but you can live with me until we find a way to get you home. I'm Starlight Shine by the way.” She said before angling her head so she could see one of his eyes. “What's your name?” Phil wasn't listening to her though, having a breakdown muttering to himself “What am I? Will I ever see my family again? No, this can't be right, no, no I was supposed to be going back to school this week...” The two of them sat there for a good while, Phil trying to cope with the sudden change before Shine brushed away his hooves and grabbed his face. “Hey, calm down, I know it's hard to deal with now, but we'll get you back to your family, alright? Just don't lose hope.” She said, trying to calm him. Phil nodded before holding a hoof up to his head. “Sorry, I just lose it sometimes... I never was very brave and then this happened” He said, “What was that creature by the way? The talking lizard?” Shine laughed for a moment before realizing he was serious, “That was my assistant, her name is Gemstone. I know weird name, but I was still a filly when I named her. She's a baby dragon” Phil let out a sigh and rubbed his temples for a moment, 'Alright well, I'm talking to a unicorn, am a horse myself' He felt at his head for a moment and his hoof bumped into a horn 'strike that a unicorn as well, and this one has a baby dragon as an assistant, well I'm probably dreaming' “So...” Shine said after Phil's lack of talking. “What is your name anyway? Where are you from?” Phil turned to her and looked her in the eyes for a moment before letting out a sigh, “My name is Phil Ralgas, I'm from a place, that...” He found himself struggling to think of the correct word. “More or less it's extremely far away from here” He finished finally holding a hoof out for emphasis. “Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, though I wish the circumstances could be better” Shine said getting up. “For now, lets get back to town. Canterlot is pretty big, so you may want to stay close.” Phil nodded, but was having a hard time getting up. While somewhat like walking on all four legs as a human, walking as a unicorn, or whatever he is, was proving to be difficult. After a few moments, he had gotten the basics down though he was still shaky. Panicking as Shine was looking at him oddly he smiled warily “I guess whatever got me here took a lot more out of me than I thought” With a roll of her eyes and a sigh, Shine walked over next to the stallion and smiled “You're quite troublesome Phil” she said in mock annoyance “here lean against me at least until you get your bearings strait.” As the two of them walked the path back into town the forest was starting to come to life with the sounds of animals scurrying around and birds chirping that for some odd reason was not heard back in the open glade. “Hey Phil?” Shine said after a couple of minutes of walking. Phil had been paying attention to his hooves while walking so the sound of the mare next to him speaking startled him slightly, “Yea?” he answered once his heart had slowed down. “Sorry for teleporting you here. I couldn't really tell you what made me decide I needed too, but...” she trailed off. “It's alright, as long as we can find me a way back home, and preferably something that will make me human again, there's not really any harm done.” He said, muttering the part about humans. “I just hope my family doesn't worry once they notice I'm gone” “Philip! It's ti-” Phil's mother called from the kitchen only to be interrupted by a thundering crash coming from the direction of her son's room. Thinking only on the safety of her youngest son, the mother cleared the table she had been setting, flying past her eldest's room who was now looking at his brother's door worriedly from his own doorway. Opening the door in a rush, the woman was greeted with a ruined pickup truck. The driver, obviously incapacitated, or possibly dead, hung lopsided from his seat blood dripping from under his baseball cap. Barbra's eyes were more focused on the small arm pinned underneath the pickup surrounded in blood with what seemed to be the ruins of a crumpled bed encasing it. A high pitched scream came from her throat before she jumped for her son's arm. “PHILIP! Can you hear me??” She screamed her grip on the arm. With no response coming from the appendage tears streaming down her face, she tried again, this time squeezing harder “Philip!” she cried only for her husband to place a hand on her shoulder. Despaired she looked up at her husband, but he could give no support only shaking his head as tears formed in his eyes. 3 A New ResidencePhil woke as the sun shone in through the window and onto his eyes. With a stretch and yawn he rolled over, pulling the sheets up higher on his shoulders. Starlight Shine has let him borrow the guest room in her house, though a rather reluctant Gemstone was asked to give up her bed. “Time to wake up!” A loud voice yelled from the other room making Phil open his eyes quickly wondering what was going on. The loud clatter of what seemed to be a pan and a spoon or something of the like was banged together as well only making it that much harder to return to the sweet embrace of his mind and dreams. The newly changed stallion could only assume it was Gemstone as Shine had talked to him quite a bit on their walk back from the small forest near Canterlot, one revelation being that she was not by any means a morning pony. The banging carried on accompanied by vocal attempts to awake the mare which only convinced Phil that he would not be going back to sleep. Falling out of bed, being still not completely accustomed to the new appendages he had been given, he slowly got up and made his way to the restroom for a shower and to use the restroom. As he arrived to the door that Shine had indicated as the facilities, a final loud clatter was emitted by the residents of the room next to him, presumably of the pans, pots, or otherwise being thrown across the room, quickly followed by arguing voices. An annoyed knock was heard from the door, but had just barely found what he could assume was the toilet and was now in the middle of using it as the door opened with an annoyed Shine who just stood there looking at him for a second before shutting the door. After finishing his business, he quickly left the vicinity of the bathroom leaving it to the other rather annoyed female, seeing if he could find something to eat instead. Gemstone was sitting at the table eating what looked like a large purple gem, which shocked Phil, as the largest gem he had ever seen was most likely the small sapphire that his mother wore around her neck at times which wasn't even a tenth of that size. The small dragon noticed him staring at her and took the gem out of her mouth with a look of confusion. “What? Never seen a dragon eating before?” she said sarcastically to which he replied with a shake of his head. With a roll of her eyes the small dragon started explaining how a dragon's diet consisted mainly of gems, though they can eat normal pony foods like hay, flowers, and the other things ponies eat. “Seriously, how far did you live if you've never seen or even heard of dragons before?” she asked finally finishing her rather long explanation. Phil scratched the back of his head for a moment “Well, I've heard of them before, but I've never seen one. I mean there's the old legends from where I'm from but...” he trailed off as Gemstone gave him a disbelieving look. The small dragon rolled her eyes before turning back to her breakfast. “There's food in the kitchen if you want something” she said pointing towards room adjacent to the small dining room, before biting into the gem with a loud crunch. Phil headed over to the small room Gemstone had indicated, finding the normal looking kitchen. A small walk in pantry near the opening to the dining room, a fridge placed up against the wall to the stallion's right, a small oven opposite of that and a sink built into the counter of the far wall. While looking clean, Phil could tell it had been well used by the small stains on the tile near the oven and the dishes that rested in the drainboard. What sounded like someone behind him clearing their voice made him turn around and back up to find Shine standing there with a bright smile on her face and a slightly damp mane. “Whacha hungry for?” she said walking towards the oven. Phil stepped back to the sink shaking his head and shrugging. “Whatever you make I'll eat” he said right before a perfectly timed growl from his stomach. Shine giggled for a moment before grabbing a pan and some pancake mix. “Alright then!” She said with the smile still on her face. As she started cooking the smell of the breakfast started wafting through the house. Phil looked around eyes finally falling on the strange picture on the mare's flank to which he scratched his head. The picture was of a large sphere with a star in the middle of it and what looked to be smaller stars swirling out from it. Phil scratched his head with a puzzled look on his face before looking back at his own flank to find a completely different picture. His depicted an open book with one of the pages being turned. “Huh” He said to himself only for Shine to speak up “Hey Phil, can you grab me 2 cups of water?” she asked, her horn glowing and the cabinet opened with a measuring cup surrounded with the same light her horn was surrounded in levitated out and onto the counter. Phil looked at the cup suspiciously before grabbing a hold of it and shaking it. Coming to the conclusion it was not alive in any way, he filled it with some warm water to the 2 on the cup and gave it to Shine who poured it into a bowl and mixed it thoroughly before pouring it into the oiled pan with a slow hissing as the mixture hit the pan. “Hey Shine?” Phil heard himself asking to which the mare replied with a “Mmm? Yes Phil?” “What's that mark on your backside mean?” he asked honestly to which the mare put down of the utensils and looked at her backside, “You mean my cutiemark?” she asked before looking back up at Phil who simply nodded. “Well, my special talent is magic, though I am drastically less skilled than Princess Celestia's protege.” She explained, “It has quite an interesting story behind it too!” Shine chuckled flipping a couple of pancakes onto a plate next to her. “I had always been a natural talent at magic, picking up things that normal unicorns would take weeks to study though in minutes. The only problem was I was a stupid savant, if you understand my meaning. The only other thing I was relatively good at was cooking, everything else I tried I failed miserably at. It was only a matter of time before my wealthy and snooty parents decided to put me into The Princess' school. Well it wasn't a week or two in before I got my cutiemark for...” she trailed off putting a hoof up to her chin. “ I believe it was either I accidentally teleported a desk across the room, or I turned the teacher's coat a shade of maroon with a sneeze. Reguardless, I was one of the first to get my cutimark in the class which made me drastically popular. This frightened me as a young filly to the point where I would stay inside at recess and would eat my lunch alone on purpose.” Another three pancakes flipped onto the plate before she poured more of the batter into the pan. “Well after a couple of weeks the other students noticed that I tried to stay away from them, and started teasing me during class, spitballs, notes, the normal 'teacher's pet' comments. Notably by two young colts, one being Starlight and Crescent Moon. Well long story short, I made no friends, besides Gemstone and the teacher, and stayed away from the rest of the class.” She finished, “Hmm, a lot less interesting once I think about it, but I never really told anyone besides Gemstone when it was happening.” The mare flipped the last three pancakes onto the plate before levitating half the stack to another plate beside it and giving it to the stallion behind her. “Here you are” she said as the second plate flew over to him and floated there for a moment before he grabbed it with a hoof. Shine walked back into the dining room, followed by an increasingly wobbly Phil. The two of them sat down at the table with Gemstone finishing her breakfast to Phil's left and Shine sitting strait across from him. A small bottle of a semi-transparent brown liquid slid across the table to him, sent from Shine who had already poured it over her pancakes and started eating. Much preferring pancakes with maple syrup himself he poured a reasonable amount onto his before setting it aside. As breakfast went on for the two, Shine looked up after a few moments “So Phil, I told you how I got my cutiemark, what's the story behind yours?” She asked one of her brows raised. The question made Phil stop for a moment as he swallowed his mouthful of pancakes. “I honestly don't know” he said scratching his head. “I was simply reading a really interesting book one time and this odd feeling came to me that I would like to work with books for the rest of my life.” Shine stopped, “Hm! Never heard a story like that, usually it some kind of crazy life changing... thing, that happened in their life. Good to see someone else is rather normal.” She said with a smile. Phil started eating again, thinking to himself. 'Well it wasn't exactly a lie.' He remembered back when he was younger something like that happening, without the whole 'getting a cutiemark' behind it. After breakfast, Shine and Gemstone told him that they would be out of the house for a few hours, he couldn't remember if it was for work, school, or something else. They did tell him though that he could look through their small collection of books if he wanted too, and that it was in Shine's room. With a shrug, Phil opened the door into the mare's room only to be rather surprised by the 'small collection.' A large bookcase lined the far wall, only leaving space for the bed, and was filled with books. “Heh” the stallion chuckled to himself. “Looks like I could get used to this place” Day by dayMy Little Pony is a creation of Hasbro, All Rights Reserved. Starlight Shine and Gemstone had a relatively simple day, at least for the two of them it was simple. Shine's job was relatively simple as she worked for a small cafe inside of a bookstore, herself being the 'cook' though her job consisted mainly of making the coffee instead of actually cooking. Gemstone on the other hoof was one of the waitresses who took orders from the patrons of the small establishment, though in some cases it proved quite difficult, being only a couple of hooves tall. The two were alright though, with Shine trying to pool most of her earnings towards getting into Canterlot College, and Gem keeping up house payments with her's as well as whatever else Shine could surrender. Even with the seemingly lowly jobs they kept up, and in only a couple of weeks time Starlight Shine would be able to pay for the admittance into school so she could finally get the job she'd always wanted. A magic teacher. Gemstone tapped the small bell on the counter pulling Starlight out of her mind. “We need two coffees and a large cookie.” she said hastily. The mare nodded, getting her mind back into the game. Grabbing two cups and putting them near the coffee pot before pouring the brown liquid into the cups with magic and dashing over to the small food heater they had, or as she liked to call it the 'Keep warm', and grabbed one of the large cookies from the bottom rack and wrapped it up as she levitated the coffee to the counter then took the cookie itself to the counter ringing the bell. After a second one of the other workers took the order and read the card before placing the small meal in front of the two patrons who had ordered it. Shine heard Gemstone's voice from around the other side of the thin wall that separated the waiters and waitresses from the cook's area. “Ah, welcome back Sargent Cold Cuffs, the usual?” the young dragon's voice rang out which was quickly followed by the stallion's calm voice. “Yes please, and you can just call me Cuffs, Gemstone, I've told you that enough” he said with a chuckle. Before Gemstone had time to ring the bell and give Shine the order a large cup of decaf, a small half sandwich, and a brownie was there almost spinning from the speed. Gem gave the smiling mare a knowing look before taking the order and walking back to the patron. Shine giggled to herself remembering the stallion's Sky blue coat, dark blue main, and aquamarine eyes. She just wanted to swoon thinking about the stallion! Once again though, a ring from the bell took her mind away, this time it being one of the other male waiters who gave her an order. Bustling off again Shine filled the order and gave it back, her thoughts always returning to the stallion of her dreams. Phil sat in a large pile of books, most of them closed though the one directly in front of him was open and he was staring at it intently. Though Shine had offered her library, which at first glance looked extensive, most of the books in it were magic text books, and other school books of the like. Phil was lucky enough to of found a few history and anatomy books, almost all of them looking relatively untouched by the mare that owned them. 'Well as it seems, this 'Princess Celestia' banished her sister to the moon after an attempt to keep the world in perpetual night... Heh, kind of drastic' he thought chuckling to himself, until he read a recent addition to the book scrawled in a the bottom saying that Luna or Nightmare Moon, had returned from her banishment only to be reduced to the Princess of the Night once more with the Elements of Harmony. 'How odd, how does a horse survive on the moon?' He thought to himself before closing that book and looking back at the anatomy book he had been dreading from looking at for a while now. 'Lets hope they think nothing of it...' he thought, opening the book. Starlight Shine found Phil laying in the middle of her bedroom floor, surrounded by different books, tongue lolled out to the side snoring when she arrived back home. A roll of her eyes and a chuckle escaped her before she nudged the stallion awake. “C'mon now time to wake up” She said softly. Slowly Phil's eyes cracked open revealing the mare, after a few seconds of looking at her he got up shutting his mouth and wiping it with his leg. “Sorry about that, I guess I lost track of time” He said, still obviously extremely tired. The stallion got down and grabbed one of the books in his mouth before putting it back on the shelf where he assumed he got it. Continuing this pattern until he had gotten most of the books. “Were you in here all day?” Shine finally asked an odd look on her face. The last book in his mouth, Phil obliviously opened his mouth saying “Yes” as the book fell to the floor. Shine looked down at the blank cover and her eyes widened and she picked it up with her magic and pulled it towards herself. “Where did you get this?” she said opening it and looking through the pages for any changes. Phil, who had been bending back down to pick the book back up, stood back up “The bookshelf. I've never seen a book with a blank cover like that beyond the drawing books back home so I was wondering what was in it” He said “Never got to reading it though...” A sigh of relief escaped the mare as she closed the book and levitated it on top of the shelf. “Well then, please just don't get into that one” Gemstone walked to the door and looked inside “Welp, I've got dinner going, you two may want to get ready” she said looking at Phil. The two of them nodded before Shine headed for the door. Phil started to follow, but Gem got in his way and looked at him for a moment before stepping aside with a smile on her face. As Phil stepped by her he could of swore he saw a slight blush playing on the small dragon's cheeks, but it was probably just his imagination. 'Always see weird stuff when I wake up in the middle of the day...' he thought to himself before heading to wait at the bathroom door for Shine to finish.
1: A New Beginning“Philip!” a distant voice shouted to the ears of a young man lying in his bed. “Philip!” it called again only making him turn over in his sleep and mutter something. “PHILIP GET UP!” The voice shouted again this time right next to his head making him jolt away. Wide eyed he looked up at his mother who simply smiled sweetly down at him. “It's time to get up” She said, attempting to stifle her giggling from her son's reaction. “Okay mom” The seventeen year old said wide eyed. Waiting for her to walk out of his room, he rubbed his eyes as soon as the woman was out of sight. Reaching over, he grabbing the water bottle from his nightstand, unscrewed the cap and took a few gulps before getting up. Looking down at the small clothes pile on his small desk, he grabbed a gray T-shirt and the pair of jeans that he had been wearing for the past few days. Thinking nothing of it, he tightened the belt to make up for the weight he had lost in the summer military camp his father had decided to send him to. Having been only a couple of weeks after he had gotten out, or been 'discharged' as they called it, his hair had yet to grow back out to the preferred length, but he ignored the cold feeling on his head. Walking to the bathroom, he glanced in the mirror, shooting a disgusted look at himself before doing his business. After the normal morning ritual of brushing his teeth and going to the facilities, he walked into the living room to find his father sitting in his normal chair in front of the computer looking at the online news. “Tuck in your shirt Phil” Phil's father said in a monotone without looking away from the computer. Looking down Phil let out a sigh realizing that his father had been correct, as always, and he had forgotten to tuck in his shirt. After going through the tiresome act of tucking it in, the boy's father turned away from his computer and looked at his son. “See? Now you look like a gentleman, and a gentleman always keeps his shirt tucked in.” “Oh Jason, leave the boy alone and let him eat” Phil's mother said in mock annoyance as she walked to the table with four plates. After putting them in their respective places, she walked past her son back down the hall to her eldest son's room. “Give it up Barbara, that boy won't get up for anything in the morning” Phil's father said, relighting his pipe and taking a couple of puffs off before shaking the match out. “Just like you used to be?” She asked before knocking on the door “Mel! Mel get up it's time to eat!” After a couple more attempts, she let out a defeated sigh and walked back into the kitchen to find her husband and youngest already eating. “Mmm! These pancakes are great Mom!” Phil said with a smile up at his mother. The woman returned the smile before taking a napkin and wiping the syrup off her son's chin. “You need to start eating your food instead of trying to inhale it honey. You'll get a stomach ache like that.” Phil's Mother looked up at her husband before her smile widened, “Well at least you come by it honestly” Phil's father had syrup, pancakes, and a small amount of coffee in his beard dripping down onto his plate. “What?” he said looking up at his wife who only rolled her eyes before sitting down and starting on her own breakfast. A couple of minutes after the family had finished eating and put the dishes in the sink Mephistopheles, Phil's older brother stepped out of his room in his underwear and a tank top. His bony hips barely keeping his underwear up, he walked into the dining room to his seat and started eating the now lukewarm pancakes and eggs his mother had prepared for him. Phil chuckled to himself as he passed the dining room on his way to the living room to check on the chores for today. Phil was an odd young man. Constantly getting into others business, most of the time unintentionally, and greeting random strangers, but quite often he would go through a phase of depression, due to his lack of meaningful friendships. His parents never seemed to notice as he would stay in his room most of the time anyways. Today was different though, he felt more like sitting in front of the television and playing a bit of video games, which didn't happen often as he was not very good at the console the family owned. As he turned on the TV though, the bright colors of the cartoons grabbed his attention before he could turn on the system. 'Stupid little kid's shows' he though as he saw some kind of dragon talking to the screen. Flipping the television over to the correct channel, he popped one of his more favored games, albeit one of the harder ones, into the console and started it up. A couple hours later he threw his controller down in disgust as his character died and turned to ash as normal. “You're not very good at that game are you?” Phil heard Mel's voice next to him and jumped. “Shut up Mel, well that doesn't mean I don't like the game.” Phil said defiantly turning off the console and replacing the disk in it's case. “Fair enough” His brother said with a smirk, before walking back to his room. Without reason for staying in the living room, Phil followed his brother down the hall making a right into his room as his brother closed the door to his own room. Hearing the knob turn and the door latch behind him he let out a sigh and walked to his computer which rested at the foot of his bed on a small table. Poking the switch for power with his sneaker Phil sat down on his bed and waited for his computer to load. After a few seconds the monitor turned on with the normal Windows logo before a small pop came from the cabinet of his computer and the monitor switched off. With a disgruntled sigh, Phil slid off his bed and kneeled next to it and opened up the side of the cabinet. Before he touched any of the wiring he turned off the power to the computer hopefully to lessen the damage. Thinking of his father's technical ability with computers Phil was tempted to go out and ask his father for help, but though that his dad might scorn him for mucking up his computer so soon after they bought it. Looking around inside the cabinet for a while, Phil couldn't seem to find what the problem was and was about to go ask his dad for help, but the monitor flickered to life before he could get up. Raising an eyebrow Phil looked at the back of the computer to find the switch still in the off position for the power input. Fiddling with it for a moment, he guessed that the switch had fried making the computer shut down. Sitting back in front of the screen he moved the mouse around to find it working properly. A small light appeared at the bottom of the screen though, showing that his skype had logged on and he had a new message. Assuming it was one of the people he talked to over the internet, Phil opened the window to find an almost completely blank chat box. Down at the bottom right above the message box, he noticed a message from a person with the words unknown user as their name. The message was a normal greeting, Hello! How are you doing this beautiful day? Phil read to himself. “Well, not too bad I suppose. How about yourself?” He replied cautiously. 'Who the heck is this person?' he wondered to himself. After a couple of minutes of talking to this 'unknown user' he learned that it was actually a she, who's friend set up their account for them and as a joke used that name. Like any sensible person, she wasn't about to tell a complete stranger her name and other credentials feeling abnormally chatty today, Phil continued talking to this new person deep into the night, eventually learning more about where she lives, which was apparently extremely far away. Oh yes! It's very beautiful here! There's almost no problems, beyond the occasional mistake with the weather. Phil chuckled. Living where he did, he normally didn't have to deal with much besides bright sunlight all day which almost constantly sunburned him with his light complexion, oh the ginger curse runs strong. ”Wow! It sounds a lot nicer over there! Where I'm from they have all kinds of problems. Li-” he typed out only to have his mother burst into the room on him making him jump again. “Time for beddddd” She said dramatically shutting the door slowly before laughing and opening it back up to give her son a hug. “Goodnight honey, sweet dreams” Phil replied with a goodnight of his own and returned her hug with one of his own as well as a kiss on her cheek. His mother walked out of his room pointing at his computer and making the sign to turn it off before closing the door. Looking at his message for a moment, he deleted the un-needed garbage leaving his original message with the addition of a goodnight at the end. Well it wouldn't be that hard to get you here! The message replied before his computer flashed off for a again. Letting out an annoyed sigh, he just shrugged and let it go before getting undressed taking his shower and heading for bed. Phil awoke with a dull light shining through his eyelids and the sounds of crickets chirping, only with an odd feeling all through his body, as if something had changed yet impossible to point it out to simply one thing. The alien feeling was all through his body almost as if he had been put into someone else's body. The young man attempted to move his fingers, but nothing responded, the same response came when he tried moving his toes. Even the way he was lying felt off to him. Afraid to open his eyes, Phil tried to roll onto his stomach, only to be stopped by pain running up his right arm, or what he thought was his arm. 'Dear lord' He thought, his heartbeat picking up to a frightening pace. 'What is going on? What's going on?' He questioned mentally, horrified of what he might see when he opened his eyes. Phil laid there, simply feeling what he assumed was grass against his now dulled skin. The feeling as the breeze went by even felt like something was covering his body, like he had finally grown body he had assumed was his sign of being an adult male, but it covered his entire body. He had never been a brave young man, even back into his teens, but the fear was starting to eat away at him as frightening ideas came to mind. Finally growing frightened enough, Philip opened his eyes only to see what seemed to be a normal calm forest. Having been trapped in his image of where he thought he was, he finally noticed the coolness of the breeze blowing past him. Swallowing hard, Phil lifted his head with a strained effort, as his head seemed to weigh more. The world around him slowly turned to what seemed to be normal, as the trees around him stood tall. Biting his lip, he slowly turned his head to look at his body. Time seemed to slow around him as his new form came into view. What appeared to be a gray coat adorned the body of some kind of quadruped, it's closest resemblance being to that of a horse, but too.. rounded. A long pale blue tale splayed out behind the hind legs, and in his peripherals he could see a similarly colored mane hanging down the back of his neck. Some kind of marking lay on the flank of his hind leg as well, but his mind was unable to comprehend what he was seeing and the image just seemed almost a blur as his head involuntarily fell back to the ground with a dulled thump before his eyes closed and his vision was encompassed in darkness.
2 A Good Question.“Hey!” A voice from what seemed to be miles away called to Phil. He could only respond with a groan from the now splitting ache coming from his head. “Hey! Are you alright?” The voiced seemed to be growing closer, but it's almost as his brain was unable to understand what the voice was saying. “HEY!” A shaking jolt forced Phil to open his eyes only to have them blinded by the light of the sun. A silhouette was over him and he could hear the voice of a girl. “Oh my gosh! Are you alright? It took me forever to find you! I can't believe I was so stupid. Why in the name of Celestia would I attempt a transportation spell so quickly!?” The silhouette said before stepping out of his view leaving the sun to finish it's work in blinding him. In a feeble attempt to block the light, he lifted his arm in front of his eyes, but they grew wide as he saw the appendage come into view. Attempting to sit up, Phil felt a pain in his back as his new body was not meant to bend in the way he attempted to make it bend. Lying now on his back, Phil could only stare at his hooves in shock as the female rambled on about some kind of school and a library. “Wh-where am I?” he questioned quietly out loud, before slapping his hooves over his mouth. His voice had deepened significantly, to the point he could just barely recognize it. Removing his hooves, he uttered a quiet “H-hello?” before replacing them over his mouth.'What's going on?' he questioned mentally, almost as if expecting an answer, but one never came. Phil ended up trying to roll over on his stomach again, this time folding his hooves beneath him. The area around where he was seemed to be a small glade with a small flower patch not far from where he was sitting, if you could call it that. Phil watched the, by assumption female whatever race they were, walk back and forth talking to herself as if attempting to debate on what she should do. Her coat was a snowy white color, while her hair was a lighter shade of silver with a turquoise stripe running through it. A horn stuck out from the middle of her forehead giving her the appearance of a unicorn. “Shine, what are you doing out here?” A new feminine voice sounded off behind the mare standing not too far from Phil making both of them freeze in place. “Oh! Um, nothing Gem! Just practicing a bit of magic!” The mare replied, the fear evident in her voice. “Well maybe I can help?” The voice said again, the mare still standing before Phil, in a feeble attempt to hide him. “What're you hiding there?” The voice asked much to Phils despair, only for the mare to lean to the right. “Nothing, nope nothing to hide here.” The mare tried, but some kind of large lizard jumped around her. The lizard paused as it looked at him for a moment staring at him before straitening up, it's red scales glittering in the light with two red fins on either side of it's head as well as a pair of small curving horns to either side of what appeared to be a row of small spines going down it's back and ending at it's tail. A small smirk fell across it's face revealing two rows of sharp teeth, before it turned to look at the mare. “You didn't need to hide him from me! I mean you could've just told me you had a coltfriend!” The lizard said making Phil's eyes go wide. The mare looked at the small lizard-like creature for a moment before a smile came to her face and she rushed to Phil's side. “Yes! My Coltfriend!” She said nuzzling him, much to his confusion. “Just roll with it” she whispered in his ear, but he could only stare at the lizard. The small lizard turned and started walking away and as soon as it was out of view the mare broke away from him and brushed herself off. “What... What happened?” Phil asked, his new voice still alien to him. The mare looked up at him and scratched her head. “Well, I don't really know myself. When I attempted to teleport you here last night, I had assumed the spell failed, but early this morning my magic started acting funny almost as it wanted me to go here” She said, “Well, as you probably know, Unicorn magic is hard to predict when you're not controlling it, so I followed it knowing it could be leading me almost anywhere. In the end I found you lying in the grass here.” Phil gave a her a confused look, but worry was eating at him as the mare tried to explain. “I don't really know where you're from, or how I could send you back... Sorry.” She finished only for Phil to lay his head in his hooves. “Now what do I do?” he asked, feeling scared and alone. With a sigh the mare sat back down next to him. “Well, I doubt it's any consolation, but you can live with me until we find a way to get you home. I'm Starlight Shine by the way.” She said before angling her head so she could see one of his eyes. “What's your name?” Phil wasn't listening to her though, having a breakdown muttering to himself “What am I? Will I ever see my family again? No, this can't be right, no, no I was supposed to be going back to school this week...” The two of them sat there for a good while, Phil trying to cope with the sudden change before Shine brushed away his hooves and grabbed his face. “Hey, calm down, I know it's hard to deal with now, but we'll get you back to your family, alright? Just don't lose hope.” She said, trying to calm him. Phil nodded before holding a hoof up to his head. “Sorry, I just lose it sometimes... I never was very brave and then this happened” He said, “What was that creature by the way? The talking lizard?” Shine laughed for a moment before realizing he was serious, “That was my assistant, her name is Gemstone. I know weird name, but I was still a filly when I named her. She's a baby dragon” Phil let out a sigh and rubbed his temples for a moment, 'Alright well, I'm talking to a unicorn, am a horse myself' He felt at his head for a moment and his hoof bumped into a horn 'strike that a unicorn as well, and this one has a baby dragon as an assistant, well I'm probably dreaming' “So...” Shine said after Phil's lack of talking. “What is your name anyway? Where are you from?” Phil turned to her and looked her in the eyes for a moment before letting out a sigh, “My name is Phil Ralgas, I'm from a place, that...” He found himself struggling to think of the correct word. “More or less it's extremely far away from here” He finished finally holding a hoof out for emphasis. “Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, though I wish the circumstances could be better” Shine said getting up. “For now, lets get back to town. Canterlot is pretty big, so you may want to stay close.” Phil nodded, but was having a hard time getting up. While somewhat like walking on all four legs as a human, walking as a unicorn, or whatever he is, was proving to be difficult. After a few moments, he had gotten the basics down though he was still shaky. Panicking as Shine was looking at him oddly he smiled warily “I guess whatever got me here took a lot more out of me than I thought” With a roll of her eyes and a sigh, Shine walked over next to the stallion and smiled “You're quite troublesome Phil” she said in mock annoyance “here lean against me at least until you get your bearings strait.” As the two of them walked the path back into town the forest was starting to come to life with the sounds of animals scurrying around and birds chirping that for some odd reason was not heard back in the open glade. “Hey Phil?” Shine said after a couple of minutes of walking. Phil had been paying attention to his hooves while walking so the sound of the mare next to him speaking startled him slightly, “Yea?” he answered once his heart had slowed down. “Sorry for teleporting you here. I couldn't really tell you what made me decide I needed too, but...” she trailed off. “It's alright, as long as we can find me a way back home, and preferably something that will make me human again, there's not really any harm done.” He said, muttering the part about humans. “I just hope my family doesn't worry once they notice I'm gone” “Philip! It's ti-” Phil's mother called from the kitchen only to be interrupted by a thundering crash coming from the direction of her son's room. Thinking only on the safety of her youngest son, the mother cleared the table she had been setting, flying past her eldest's room who was now looking at his brother's door worriedly from his own doorway. Opening the door in a rush, the woman was greeted with a ruined pickup truck. The driver, obviously incapacitated, or possibly dead, hung lopsided from his seat blood dripping from under his baseball cap. Barbra's eyes were more focused on the small arm pinned underneath the pickup surrounded in blood with what seemed to be the ruins of a crumpled bed encasing it. A high pitched scream came from her throat before she jumped for her son's arm. “PHILIP! Can you hear me??” She screamed her grip on the arm. With no response coming from the appendage tears streaming down her face, she tried again, this time squeezing harder “Philip!” she cried only for her husband to place a hand on her shoulder. Despaired she looked up at her husband, but he could give no support only shaking his head as tears formed in his eyes.
3 A New ResidencePhil woke as the sun shone in through the window and onto his eyes. With a stretch and yawn he rolled over, pulling the sheets up higher on his shoulders. Starlight Shine has let him borrow the guest room in her house, though a rather reluctant Gemstone was asked to give up her bed. “Time to wake up!” A loud voice yelled from the other room making Phil open his eyes quickly wondering what was going on. The loud clatter of what seemed to be a pan and a spoon or something of the like was banged together as well only making it that much harder to return to the sweet embrace of his mind and dreams. The newly changed stallion could only assume it was Gemstone as Shine had talked to him quite a bit on their walk back from the small forest near Canterlot, one revelation being that she was not by any means a morning pony. The banging carried on accompanied by vocal attempts to awake the mare which only convinced Phil that he would not be going back to sleep. Falling out of bed, being still not completely accustomed to the new appendages he had been given, he slowly got up and made his way to the restroom for a shower and to use the restroom. As he arrived to the door that Shine had indicated as the facilities, a final loud clatter was emitted by the residents of the room next to him, presumably of the pans, pots, or otherwise being thrown across the room, quickly followed by arguing voices. An annoyed knock was heard from the door, but had just barely found what he could assume was the toilet and was now in the middle of using it as the door opened with an annoyed Shine who just stood there looking at him for a second before shutting the door. After finishing his business, he quickly left the vicinity of the bathroom leaving it to the other rather annoyed female, seeing if he could find something to eat instead. Gemstone was sitting at the table eating what looked like a large purple gem, which shocked Phil, as the largest gem he had ever seen was most likely the small sapphire that his mother wore around her neck at times which wasn't even a tenth of that size. The small dragon noticed him staring at her and took the gem out of her mouth with a look of confusion. “What? Never seen a dragon eating before?” she said sarcastically to which he replied with a shake of his head. With a roll of her eyes the small dragon started explaining how a dragon's diet consisted mainly of gems, though they can eat normal pony foods like hay, flowers, and the other things ponies eat. “Seriously, how far did you live if you've never seen or even heard of dragons before?” she asked finally finishing her rather long explanation. Phil scratched the back of his head for a moment “Well, I've heard of them before, but I've never seen one. I mean there's the old legends from where I'm from but...” he trailed off as Gemstone gave him a disbelieving look. The small dragon rolled her eyes before turning back to her breakfast. “There's food in the kitchen if you want something” she said pointing towards room adjacent to the small dining room, before biting into the gem with a loud crunch. Phil headed over to the small room Gemstone had indicated, finding the normal looking kitchen. A small walk in pantry near the opening to the dining room, a fridge placed up against the wall to the stallion's right, a small oven opposite of that and a sink built into the counter of the far wall. While looking clean, Phil could tell it had been well used by the small stains on the tile near the oven and the dishes that rested in the drainboard. What sounded like someone behind him clearing their voice made him turn around and back up to find Shine standing there with a bright smile on her face and a slightly damp mane. “Whacha hungry for?” she said walking towards the oven. Phil stepped back to the sink shaking his head and shrugging. “Whatever you make I'll eat” he said right before a perfectly timed growl from his stomach. Shine giggled for a moment before grabbing a pan and some pancake mix. “Alright then!” She said with the smile still on her face. As she started cooking the smell of the breakfast started wafting through the house. Phil looked around eyes finally falling on the strange picture on the mare's flank to which he scratched his head. The picture was of a large sphere with a star in the middle of it and what looked to be smaller stars swirling out from it. Phil scratched his head with a puzzled look on his face before looking back at his own flank to find a completely different picture. His depicted an open book with one of the pages being turned. “Huh” He said to himself only for Shine to speak up “Hey Phil, can you grab me 2 cups of water?” she asked, her horn glowing and the cabinet opened with a measuring cup surrounded with the same light her horn was surrounded in levitated out and onto the counter. Phil looked at the cup suspiciously before grabbing a hold of it and shaking it. Coming to the conclusion it was not alive in any way, he filled it with some warm water to the 2 on the cup and gave it to Shine who poured it into a bowl and mixed it thoroughly before pouring it into the oiled pan with a slow hissing as the mixture hit the pan. “Hey Shine?” Phil heard himself asking to which the mare replied with a “Mmm? Yes Phil?” “What's that mark on your backside mean?” he asked honestly to which the mare put down of the utensils and looked at her backside, “You mean my cutiemark?” she asked before looking back up at Phil who simply nodded. “Well, my special talent is magic, though I am drastically less skilled than Princess Celestia's protege.” She explained, “It has quite an interesting story behind it too!” Shine chuckled flipping a couple of pancakes onto a plate next to her. “I had always been a natural talent at magic, picking up things that normal unicorns would take weeks to study though in minutes. The only problem was I was a stupid savant, if you understand my meaning. The only other thing I was relatively good at was cooking, everything else I tried I failed miserably at. It was only a matter of time before my wealthy and snooty parents decided to put me into The Princess' school. Well it wasn't a week or two in before I got my cutiemark for...” she trailed off putting a hoof up to her chin. “ I believe it was either I accidentally teleported a desk across the room, or I turned the teacher's coat a shade of maroon with a sneeze. Reguardless, I was one of the first to get my cutimark in the class which made me drastically popular. This frightened me as a young filly to the point where I would stay inside at recess and would eat my lunch alone on purpose.” Another three pancakes flipped onto the plate before she poured more of the batter into the pan. “Well after a couple of weeks the other students noticed that I tried to stay away from them, and started teasing me during class, spitballs, notes, the normal 'teacher's pet' comments. Notably by two young colts, one being Starlight and Crescent Moon. Well long story short, I made no friends, besides Gemstone and the teacher, and stayed away from the rest of the class.” She finished, “Hmm, a lot less interesting once I think about it, but I never really told anyone besides Gemstone when it was happening.” The mare flipped the last three pancakes onto the plate before levitating half the stack to another plate beside it and giving it to the stallion behind her. “Here you are” she said as the second plate flew over to him and floated there for a moment before he grabbed it with a hoof. Shine walked back into the dining room, followed by an increasingly wobbly Phil. The two of them sat down at the table with Gemstone finishing her breakfast to Phil's left and Shine sitting strait across from him. A small bottle of a semi-transparent brown liquid slid across the table to him, sent from Shine who had already poured it over her pancakes and started eating. Much preferring pancakes with maple syrup himself he poured a reasonable amount onto his before setting it aside. As breakfast went on for the two, Shine looked up after a few moments “So Phil, I told you how I got my cutiemark, what's the story behind yours?” She asked one of her brows raised. The question made Phil stop for a moment as he swallowed his mouthful of pancakes. “I honestly don't know” he said scratching his head. “I was simply reading a really interesting book one time and this odd feeling came to me that I would like to work with books for the rest of my life.” Shine stopped, “Hm! Never heard a story like that, usually it some kind of crazy life changing... thing, that happened in their life. Good to see someone else is rather normal.” She said with a smile. Phil started eating again, thinking to himself. 'Well it wasn't exactly a lie.' He remembered back when he was younger something like that happening, without the whole 'getting a cutiemark' behind it. After breakfast, Shine and Gemstone told him that they would be out of the house for a few hours, he couldn't remember if it was for work, school, or something else. They did tell him though that he could look through their small collection of books if he wanted too, and that it was in Shine's room. With a shrug, Phil opened the door into the mare's room only to be rather surprised by the 'small collection.' A large bookcase lined the far wall, only leaving space for the bed, and was filled with books. “Heh” the stallion chuckled to himself. “Looks like I could get used to this place”
Day by dayMy Little Pony is a creation of Hasbro, All Rights Reserved. Starlight Shine and Gemstone had a relatively simple day, at least for the two of them it was simple. Shine's job was relatively simple as she worked for a small cafe inside of a bookstore, herself being the 'cook' though her job consisted mainly of making the coffee instead of actually cooking. Gemstone on the other hoof was one of the waitresses who took orders from the patrons of the small establishment, though in some cases it proved quite difficult, being only a couple of hooves tall. The two were alright though, with Shine trying to pool most of her earnings towards getting into Canterlot College, and Gem keeping up house payments with her's as well as whatever else Shine could surrender. Even with the seemingly lowly jobs they kept up, and in only a couple of weeks time Starlight Shine would be able to pay for the admittance into school so she could finally get the job she'd always wanted. A magic teacher. Gemstone tapped the small bell on the counter pulling Starlight out of her mind. “We need two coffees and a large cookie.” she said hastily. The mare nodded, getting her mind back into the game. Grabbing two cups and putting them near the coffee pot before pouring the brown liquid into the cups with magic and dashing over to the small food heater they had, or as she liked to call it the 'Keep warm', and grabbed one of the large cookies from the bottom rack and wrapped it up as she levitated the coffee to the counter then took the cookie itself to the counter ringing the bell. After a second one of the other workers took the order and read the card before placing the small meal in front of the two patrons who had ordered it. Shine heard Gemstone's voice from around the other side of the thin wall that separated the waiters and waitresses from the cook's area. “Ah, welcome back Sargent Cold Cuffs, the usual?” the young dragon's voice rang out which was quickly followed by the stallion's calm voice. “Yes please, and you can just call me Cuffs, Gemstone, I've told you that enough” he said with a chuckle. Before Gemstone had time to ring the bell and give Shine the order a large cup of decaf, a small half sandwich, and a brownie was there almost spinning from the speed. Gem gave the smiling mare a knowing look before taking the order and walking back to the patron. Shine giggled to herself remembering the stallion's Sky blue coat, dark blue main, and aquamarine eyes. She just wanted to swoon thinking about the stallion! Once again though, a ring from the bell took her mind away, this time it being one of the other male waiters who gave her an order. Bustling off again Shine filled the order and gave it back, her thoughts always returning to the stallion of her dreams. Phil sat in a large pile of books, most of them closed though the one directly in front of him was open and he was staring at it intently. Though Shine had offered her library, which at first glance looked extensive, most of the books in it were magic text books, and other school books of the like. Phil was lucky enough to of found a few history and anatomy books, almost all of them looking relatively untouched by the mare that owned them. 'Well as it seems, this 'Princess Celestia' banished her sister to the moon after an attempt to keep the world in perpetual night... Heh, kind of drastic' he thought chuckling to himself, until he read a recent addition to the book scrawled in a the bottom saying that Luna or Nightmare Moon, had returned from her banishment only to be reduced to the Princess of the Night once more with the Elements of Harmony. 'How odd, how does a horse survive on the moon?' He thought to himself before closing that book and looking back at the anatomy book he had been dreading from looking at for a while now. 'Lets hope they think nothing of it...' he thought, opening the book. Starlight Shine found Phil laying in the middle of her bedroom floor, surrounded by different books, tongue lolled out to the side snoring when she arrived back home. A roll of her eyes and a chuckle escaped her before she nudged the stallion awake. “C'mon now time to wake up” She said softly. Slowly Phil's eyes cracked open revealing the mare, after a few seconds of looking at her he got up shutting his mouth and wiping it with his leg. “Sorry about that, I guess I lost track of time” He said, still obviously extremely tired. The stallion got down and grabbed one of the books in his mouth before putting it back on the shelf where he assumed he got it. Continuing this pattern until he had gotten most of the books. “Were you in here all day?” Shine finally asked an odd look on her face. The last book in his mouth, Phil obliviously opened his mouth saying “Yes” as the book fell to the floor. Shine looked down at the blank cover and her eyes widened and she picked it up with her magic and pulled it towards herself. “Where did you get this?” she said opening it and looking through the pages for any changes. Phil, who had been bending back down to pick the book back up, stood back up “The bookshelf. I've never seen a book with a blank cover like that beyond the drawing books back home so I was wondering what was in it” He said “Never got to reading it though...” A sigh of relief escaped the mare as she closed the book and levitated it on top of the shelf. “Well then, please just don't get into that one” Gemstone walked to the door and looked inside “Welp, I've got dinner going, you two may want to get ready” she said looking at Phil. The two of them nodded before Shine headed for the door. Phil started to follow, but Gem got in his way and looked at him for a moment before stepping aside with a smile on her face. As Phil stepped by her he could of swore he saw a slight blush playing on the small dragon's cheeks, but it was probably just his imagination. 'Always see weird stuff when I wake up in the middle of the day...' he thought to himself before heading to wait at the bathroom door for Shine to finish.
