For lack of a better term, I woke up. I opened my eyes to find myself staring at the ceiling of Twilight's living quarters, and turned my head to look down, to find myself staring at the bed that I burned on my first arrival. I looked out the window to find that it was early afternoon. I moved one of my forelegs in an attempt to get myself up, only to find it was too stiff and achy to move.

'Well, since we can't do much movement, let's try some of that changeling magic I mentioned. Maybe you'll recover more easily if you're in a more familiar body.' Samantha thought.

'Absolutely, I wanted to try some of that first thing anyway.' I replied happily

'Ok, changeling magic works like a metal forge, so use your third eye to think of yourself like a large chunk of metal and then think of placing yourself in a furnace and reshaping yourself however you'd like. It shouldn't take long, and all that happens if you fail is you'll revert to your former shape.' Samantha explained, leaving no detail out of imaginative detail.

I did as I was instructed. My body covered in an orange flame that resembled the color of my magic, and seconds later I found myself staring at my own hand, flexing the fingers that I was so familiar with.

I was admiring how well I had replicated every little detail of my human body, until I realized something. 'Shit, I'm naked.'

'Humans need clothes, ponies don't. You weren't clothed as a pony, so you're not clothed now. Make sense?'

'Absolutely. Now I just need to cover myself and make my way back to Rarity's. She'll know what to do.'

I got up and wrapped the blanket that had covered me around my waist and started to walk out... only to watch the door open in front of me and see Twilight behind it.

"Umm... hi?" I responded to the dumbstruck mare in front of me.

"Who are you? How did you get in my castle?"Twilight questioned suspiciously.

"Is the burned bed occupied?" I answered.

She turned to look at the bed I had occupied not too long ago, suprised to find it empty. "Wait...where's Star Fire?"

"She, or rather, he, is staring at you." I replied, causing further confusion.

"From where? and what's this about she being a he?" The confused purple princess questioned further.

I found the confusion funny. "You don't get it, do you?"

"Don't get what?" She asked, glaring at me suspiciously.

"Hello, my name is Sam." I replied.

Her eyes widened. "H... How?"

I cancelled the changeling magic and dropped the blanket as well as my forehooves. I stated in the feminine voice of my pony self, "Hellmare Sun, or for future reference, Samantha, taught me changeling magic while I was gone. You wouldn't believe how much my personality has been influenced by her, and vice versa."

"But I thought she was evil! that's what Celestia told me. Besides, how did you contact her?"

"Soon after I escaped the hospital that I had been transferred to, She pulled me into some sort of inbetween realm and we talked. I think that being there actually helped me grow closer to her, because ever since then we've been able to communicate through some sort of telepathy."

"Ah, I see. What exactly was that form you took?"

"Human."

"But you didn't have fur... why is that?"

'Wait... the Equestria Girls movie featured colorized characters because they have fur? What the hell? I thought it would have been pigmented skin...whatever.' I sighed in self defeat, "Humans from my world, not the ones from the world that you're probably thinking of, are mostly hairless beings, minus the mane, the face, and some other, less appropriate places."

Twilight gave a blush when I finished. "Oh, well... Um, that makes sense."

"Yeah, absolutely. Now which way was it to Rarity's place again?" I responded sarcastically, collecting the blanket to use again later.

--_--

I arrived at the Carousel Boutique soon after I figured out Twilight's instructions. I opened the door, and found myself in the place I made my first return to Earth, minus the burned couch.

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where ev- Oh, hello Star, glad to see you're back. What brings you back here?" Rarity stated.

"Well, I'd like to place a special order, or rather, set of orders, if you wouldn't mind." I responded, with absolutely no hint of excitement in my voice. What? I'm requesting a suit from THE Rarity, how could I not be exited?

"What sort of special orders do you mean?"

"Hold on, you'll know what I want in a second." I responded as I stepped behind a fold up wall and used the changeling magic I had learned not even an hour ago. I stepped out after wrapping the blanket I had carried with me around my personal area. In the voice of my human self, I continued. "Ok, can you cloth this form? I have something very specific in mind that should resemble what I often wore in my homeland."

"Of course I can, darling! But I must ask, why the blanket?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Ok, here's why." I dropped the blanket.

Rarity gave the most ridiculous blush at my indecency. "Oh... Umm, that's... nice, I guess."

"The blanket would have made it harder for you to measure me up anyway, so it's probably for the best that you know what you're up against before it's too late, correct?" I said, holding back a blush of my own.

"Well, I suppose that's true. Anyway, what do you have in mind for me to make?" Rarity questioned, forgetting the indecency and causing the blush to fade.

"Well, got a paper and pencil?"

"What's a paper and pencil?"

"parchment and quill then?"

"Ah." Rarity floated a piece of parchment to me alongside a quill and inkwell. I snatched the quill and paper in one hand and the inkwell in the other.

"Ok, you're about to see a style that I doubt you've ever come across, considering you only usually wear any form of clothing for more formal occasions." I stated, my sense of excitement taking a peak.

"Oh, that sound interesting. I would love to see what your everyday clothing looks like."

I proceeded to draw my signature crimson red jacket along with a pair of similarly crimson red sports shoes, a plain medium grey shirt, and a regular pair of denim pants. Since I was using a black and white color palette, mostly dependant on how much ink I let onto the paper, I pointed out different colors as well as materials using arrows and words.

"My, your drawing skill is absolutely fantastic! Your attention to detail is unmatched! Those appendages on your forehooves work wonders with fine tuning. What do you call them, anyway?"

"Thank you for the compliment, Rarity. And to answer your question, these are hands, not forehooves, and the appendages attached to them are called fingers." I explained.

"I wish I had fingers, they'd be excellent for making designs with!" Rarity stated.

"Think of what they would look like on a pony body." I told her, not even looking up.

Rarity put a hoof to her chin, probably trying to come up with a way to make fingers not look bad on a pony. After about fifteen seconds or something like that, she gave up. "Oh, dear, you're completely right, I don't know what I was thinking."

"You were putting your designs ahead of you. You're really dedicated to your job, aren't you?"

"Yes, I cannot deny that I've lost many night's sleep to either stay on schedule or get an order done sooner."

"Ok, I'll make a request that you try to not lose sleep over these clothes. I'm a sufficiently patient guy, so you have no need to worry about it."

"Ok, I'll try to not lose sleep over it."

"Good. Also, here's what I have in mind." I capped the inkwell and slid the parchment to Rarity's feet. "I can craft you a mannequin, if you need. I'm sure that my form won't fit the ponnequins very well."

"Oh, you don't need to do that, but it would make it a lot easier if you did."

"Ok, got some sheet metal? A hammer?"

Rarity floated said materials and equipment out of a nearby drawer. "Absolutely. I always keep some in stock for the occasional jewelry request."

I took the hammer and metal. "Good. Now let's build a Mannequin."

--_--

An hour later, I found myself staring at a crude Human shaped piece of metal. "It's basic, but I got all the appendages, as well as sensory input like ears and nose."

Rarity took a good look over it. "Why, not only are those hands of yours good for drawing, they do metalworking too! I usually don't see anything close to this quality created without magic or heat! You've truly outdone yourself with those fingers."

"I... well... um... Thanks, now where do you want the thing?"

"Over there, if you wouldn't mind." Rarity pointed to a wall with several Ponnequins lined up around it. "Are you sure you can carry that? Your human body looks... fragile, to say the least."

I picked the Mannequin up by the stomach and walked over to said place and lightly dropped it, resulting in a small clang. "Yeah, I was an underweight, always had been. For familiarity's sake, I kept the underweight form. Besides, I drink so much dairy that breaking my bones is practically impossible. Ask my old school bullies, they'd know, they tried to twist my arm till it broke, and whille my skin was painful due to the stretching and twisting, They never did manage to break my arm."

Rarity was taken aback when I mentioned the bullies. "Oh, oh my, I didn't know."

I walked back over to Rarity and dispersed the changeling magic, stating to her in my pony voice, "Don't worry about it, it's all in the past, before I had the raw personality that I have now. I changed for the better, and I'm better than ever. I was the overprotected kid. Hell, overprotected doesn't even scratch the surface of it. I didn't even know what sex was until I was twelve. I didn't have a life until I was fourteen. But now, at sixteen and a half, I have all the friends I could ever want, a personality that I can only describe as 'Awesome geek', I have an excellent drawing skill, I can write books with the right inspiration and ideas, my imagination has no limit, I can write basic code for a computer, I repair computers, I know my way with electricity pretty well, you name it, I can probably do it at least somewhat."

Rarity perked up to the words of assurance. "Well, it seems you've become quite a handyman in many areas to say the least. I would love to hear more, but as it is, our chat has to come to an end, as I have some work to do. I have a special order that I want to get to work to."

"Very well, notify me when you finish, ok? I'm going to eat something and then go back to the castle and settle in for the night, and maybe try to figure out how to bring items back from my home world. I would ask if you would care to join me but I know you want to get to the challenge I've put up for you, I can see the eagerness in your eyes. I guess I'm off now, See you tomorrow?"

"I suppose. Goodbye."

I stepped outside to find myself bathed in the light of early in the night. I began walking back to the castle while on the lookout for a restaurant. About halfway back, I found my destination. I walked in and took a seat, soon finding a waiter standing next to me with a menu.

"What is it you would like to drink, ma'am?" 'Ma'am? Oh, right, I'm not exactly male in my pony body.'

'You forgot that already? Idiot.' "I would enjoy a sweet tea, as well as a griffon menu."

"But you're a pony, are you sure?" The waiter asked questioningly.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm a special case. I may be a pony, but I'm pretty sure that the most I can do is get sick." 'Ha! Like that's gonna happen, after all the burgers I've eaten as a human.'

'You got that right, bro.' "Very well then, I shall be right back shortly."

The waiter went into what was probably the kitchen, and came back shortly after with a different menu. "Your Griffin menu, as requested."

I took the menu with my magic. "Thank you kindly."

The waiter left again. I opened the menu and scanned the contents to see if there was anything I wanted. Bird? No. Snake? No. Rat? No. Cat? Why- nevermind, no. Rabbit? Ok, I can work with that.

A different waiter, namely a Griffon, came out of the kitchen and gave me an odd stare. He seemed to shake it off and came up to me with a cup of tea. Setting the tea on the table, he questioned, "Have you decided yet?"

"Yes, actually. But first, can I ask if you cook the products before you serve them?"

He looked surprised by the question, but answered anyway. "No, we do not. Why do you ask such an odd question?"

"Salmonella." I stated, causing him to cock his head to the side a little, "where I come from, there's a bacterial disease called Salmonella that seems to been too often found in our meats. Also, it adds a certain crunchiness to it. I doubt that there are any salmonella problems here, since you don't cook the meat, but I like it better cooked anyway."

"Interesting indeed. Ok, so what have you decided on?"

"I want Rabbit. make sure to skin, gut, and bleed it, I don't like intestines and blood. Also, this may be an odd request, but I want to personally cook it, I know how to get it cooked just right."

The griffon waiter seemed to be surprised to no end, and it was almost funny to watch his reaction to my requests. However, he trudged on, respecting everything I had to say. "Very well, if you wish to cook it, then the kitchen is right over there. Since you are making such an unusual request, however, I will allow you to eat for free, in exchange for a taste of your result and instruction on how to make my own if it turns out to be a swell meal like you say. And, since you are going on to such odd terms with this restaurant, you may know me as Mr. Spicy Meal. I run the place."

Now it was my turn to be surprised. "Wait, I've been speaking to the manager the whole time? Well then, I guess it's my turn to be surprised."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He replied sarcastically, realizing the joke was on him. "Well, seems we've hit a bump on the formality, I guess."

"I'll say." I replied, "Well, are we gonna make this rabbit or what?"

He led me into the kitchen and grabbed a live rabbit in his talons from what appeared to be a small cage. "What do you need for this?"

"All I need is my magic and a knife with a cutting board that I can bloody." I replied morbidly.

"Ok, you'll find that over there." He pointed the one free talon at a corner that featured a smooth surface and a cutlery set.

I took the rabbit out of his talon with my magic and held it out over the surface. I took a knife from the set and...you know, stabbed it through the eye, slit its stomach, ripped the guts out, pulled of the skin, got all the blood out, everything I did last time.

When I had the meat cooked nicely, I snapped off a leg and tossed it to the griffin manager. "Eat up, you won't regret it."

He did so after staring and drooling at it for who knows how long. He must've really been into the smell... "This is... fantastic! Why have I never cooked meat before, it's simply the best thing since the ban on fake meat back in Griffonia!"

"Fake meat? you mean that junk they make out of high protein plants?" I questioned in-between bites, "Good god that stuff is nasty, I don't see why they actually called it 'fake meat'."

"Yeah..." Spicy replied after he finished his leg, "You know what? I'm going to offer you a job here because of this. Whaddya say, partner?"

As realization struck, I got the biggest grin I'd had in a long time. "Absolutely, I would love to work here. I may have a princess material look with this female alicorn getup that was thrown on me when I first arrived, but on the inside, I'm an honest, hard working man."

"Excellent, I love it when I get a hard worker on the job. What do you mean by 'when you first arrived'? Are you implying that you aren't actually female? Can you tell me what you mean?"

"Absolutely. I learned a form of changeling magic recently, and with it, I've been able to recreate my former self down to the smallest detail, so it will be a lot easier to tell you than it otherwise would be. But first, a towel." Spicy tossed a towel from nearby, "Now turn around, my... personal items are quite visible in this form." He complied and I changed, slinging the towel around my waist. In my human voice, I continued, "Ok, turn around now."

"Dear Celestia... the closest thing I've ever seen to you is a Minotaur. Though you do look quite fragile, not to mention thin. Is that normal?"

"No, my former body was actually fairly underweight, and I made this body that way for familiarity's sake. I did, however, drink way too much dairy, and that resulted in me having never broken a bone. I designed this form to be accurate to my former body down to the smallest detail. Even though I look thin, surely my muscles couldn't lift twenty pounds, you'd guess, but I'm actually able to lift a forty pound weight with one arm, even though I do struggle with it."

"That's... impressive, for such a fragile body," Spicy thought aloud, "You know what? You should lift me to prove yourself."

"How much will I be lifting?"

"Oh, I'd say around sixty or seventy, I am hollow-boned, you know."

"Ok, I doubt I can, seeing as I struggle with forty, but I'll try."

I started by trying to pick him up with my back in an arch. That didn't work. I crouched on my knees and stuck my arms under him. That almost worked. I bent my neck down and got all the way under him, using my arms to make sure he didn't fall off of my neck and shoulders. I lifted him easily like that... who couldn't, honestly?

"You did it, partner." He said after I let him back down, "That's quite a feat on its own for a body that thin. Still, forty pounds is a lot to pick up with one of those arms, I'd hate to meet a human bodybuilder on bad terms."

"Yeah... definitely watch out for that, it might actually happen one day, you never know. Also, this form is actually a rough representation of my original body, so the strength may not be accurate." I stated, dispersing the changeling magic, "I gotta head back to the castle, Twilight's probably worried. when do I start?"

"Mondays through Fridays, from seven thirty to three. Today's a Friday, so you got two days."

"Ok." I replied, handing the towel back to him, "See you around."

"See ya on Monday."

I left for Twilight's castle so I could rest my body and learn how to transfer Items from my home world to here.

Author's Note

I definitely went dialogue about this afternoon! Also, this is the longest chapter I've ever written to date as of when I wrote it. I don't know, I guess I wanted to lean back after what happened in chapters prior. I mean, sneaking out of a hospital and stealing a vehicle to get halfway home, then breaking a sneaky sweat to make it the rest of the way and break in to grab your clothes and devices, then having a friend pick you up and take you into hiding? THEN meeting the person, or in this case, soul, that caused all this to happen in the first place? I would want to relax, that's for sure. Also, I changed the cover art today, I'd like to know how I did. I drew it in pencil and scanned it in a printer, then went into GIMP and did some serious resizing... Apparently when a printer scans @600DPI, it's gonna give you some insanely huge image, like, I mean seriously, it was so big that 4K wouldn't be enough to see the whole thing @pixel to pixel 100% zoom. Well, enjoy this weekend's chapter!

EDIT: I edited the chapter so that the characters use the correct terms when swearing, as well as a few details here and there and some spelling mistakes that I honestly thought weren't spelling mistakes. apparently suprise isn't how you spell surprise and I still have trouble with the ei-ie phenomenon.