Welcome Home

Howard watched as the small alicorn stumbled through the caves. Tell tale signs of an innate skill with pyromancy started to

emerge in Twilight as they both approached their destination. It started small, a couple wisps of smoke from the mane, tail, and wings. Some sparks coming from the stub of her horn. Her coat going a few shades darker as the heat started to pump carbon into

the hairs. It wouldn't last for long but it was a nice sneak peak.

A few strides later and the duo had found themselves at the first milestone in the cave: mana flooding. The process was simple, flood the invading body with ridicules amounts of arcane energy. The flooding would kill the physical body of anyone who walked through it in a matter not dissimilar to radiation poisoning. Oh, and the flooding part wasn't a metaphor, their was literally a waterfall of pure energy that had to be stepped through to progress further.

“Careful,” Howard started, “point of no return in about five feet. The first of three so called trials is in front of you. And before you ask what it is, have you ever heard of mana burns?”

Twilight appeared to think for a couple seconds, “Yeah, thats when a unicorn losses control of a spell and the residual energy left comes into contact with the skin, resulting in a burn.”

“Correct, now, imagine that, but about two thousand times worse. The residuals from a spell are just specks of dust floating in the air, what is in front of you is a veritable waterfall of pure arcane energy.”

The concept terrified Twilight. What the strange man described sounded close to walking through lava with nothing but a hopeful thought. The average mana burn encroached on a third degree burn. Though, if this could get her home she could get her revenge on that bitch Chrysalis... had she just thought that? This place was getting to her, she had to get out soon. Steeling herself Twilight started walking forward.

When the manafall first hit her it didn't feel like anything, just a dull tingling. As Twilight kept walking into it the tingling started to grow in intensity. Soon Twilight was crying in agony as she felt her skin start to peel and crack, harden and shatter, liquify and fall off. Twilight had a hunch that this was what it felt like to be trapped in the center of the sun.

“Don’t stop! Keep going!” The words of encouragement from the man did nothing to help her, but it did reminder her that she had, in fact, stopped half way through the waterfall. Painful as it was their was a sense of exhilaration as the mana from the manafall was absorbed into Twilight. A few more steps and Twilight finally got out of the manafall, of course that only meant that her raw skin was exposed to the air and dust in the cave. Twilight stumbled when she felt a whole different kind of pain from before, she felt itchy everywhere.

“Just keep walking, the pain will pass in a bit.”

“Wha... how did you...?”

Howard kept an eye on Twilight as they walked the second leg of their journey. This was always an interesting process to behold, it was also the least painful which was a plus. The manafall had two main functions: the first was to burn and rot away most of the physical body, which it appeared to have done magnificently if the stench was anything to go by. The second was to provide the being with enough energy to replace that which was burned away with, how to say... a body that conducted mana flow better.

The walk from the first to third trial was a long one. It gave the initiate enough time to gain their new form. “So Twilight,” Howard said, “When we get to the end of this tunnel you will need a new name.” Glancing over to the unicorn he saw her looking in his general direction, more than likely a sign to continue. “Names hold a large amount of power if you know how to use them. No one in the... it’s getting annoying to try and keep an air of mystery, sorry...” Howard coughed, “No one in the city will try to control you using your name but the same cant be said for the mages outside of the city. I’ll give you a while to come up with one.”

Twilight nodded, stumbled, and collapsed. Sighing, Howard sat on a nearby rock and waited, and waited, and waited. This process, while the most interesting also took a while. Well, a while in mortal terms, in immortal terms it was a metaphorical blink of the eye, and being an immortal Howard was happy to wait. A minute passed, than an hour, than five hours, a week, three weeks, two months. It was becoming winter when things finally got interesting.

Rousing from his meditative state Howard watched as the mana in Twilight’s body started to come to the surface. It was slow at first, fire always is, embers started to spark off the bones of Twilight sparkle. A purple and orange glow started to weave its way around the bones, knitting mana infused muscles that pulsed and sent out the occasional jet of steam or fire. It reminded Howard of an equine version of that one creature that the humans in that one dimension seemed to be scared of, the big tiltan or something along those lines. He would have to bring Twilight there sometime.

Thin sheets of fur started to form on the body before being burned into a crisp as new fur took its place, getting stained black in the process. Barbless feathers started to poke out on the lumps of flesh known as wings, giving them a porcupine look. The quills sat their for a second, smoking. All at once the quills burst into violet flames, along with the places where a mane and tail would be.

Twilight started to stand up, stumbling a bit, looking around with her now featureless, and hornless, face. She started to move a bit erratically, panicking. Howard saw this as as good a time as any to step in. Telepathy was pretty much the only way to talk with each other in the city considering no one had ears, so Howard decided that an early start would be good for the alicorn.

‘Testing testing, 123, can you hear me Twilight Sparkle’

The body in front of him stopped convulsing.

Their was a slight pause before... ‘You idiot! You never told me my entire body would melt! That is the kind of thing you tell people!’ Well their was that infamous pyromancer temper. ‘I still can’t see either! First that bitch Chrysalis kills by little brother and transports me here, then I get ample time to have an existential crisis while everyone outside that damnable forest toddles about with their daily lives, a couple days latter those ffffffucking hairless apes come and beat me half to death while disabling my magic and making me blind, and to top it all off you,’ She says while pointing a hoof at Howard (note to self, she has good magic sensing abilities) ‘Don’t tell me about the whole, oh, I don't know, MELTING THING! Seriously I thought it would be the pain of the mana burns and then you would heal me afterwards, I never knew there would be MELTING!’

She seems to enjoy ranting at me in unreasonable volumes thought Howard, still trying to get used to the ringing in his ears. Howard let her rant for a few more minutes, mortal ones this time, before putting hand to Twilights face. She took this moment to notice the distinct lack of horn on her head and lack of face on her face. This started another rant on how she would never perform magic again and how Howard had ruined her life and how she would be an outcast if she ever returned home.

‘Calm down Twilight’ It didn’t seem to get through, perhaps if he tried again, ‘Twilight... Twilight... Twilight calm down.’ Nothing. Perhaps sudden kinetic impact will work, Howard slapped the panicking mare in front of him. A shocked silence filled the air as Twilight put a hoof to her face. The silence lasted a bit longer, and finally when he was sure he had her attention Howard started again. ‘Now then, the reason you cant see yet is because it was your eyes that received a majority of the damage in your little scuffle with those mercenaries.’

Twilight thought for a second before nodding. ‘I suppose that makes sense.’ She said in a much more manageable volume. Twilight took a few minutes to consider something.

‘How do you know my name?’