The True Sequel

Phil 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”