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Prelude - The Boring Life [Edited Edition by Autum Breeze]
I am Samuel Lyons, a sixteen year-old depressed brony living the boring life all the way to March 2015. I always admired the show "My Little Pony" because of the happiness in life that was represented within it, even through the hardest of times, and because I lacked happiness.
I am a thin boy, almost six foot tall, but barely above 115 pounds. I tried everything to satisfy my hunger while also gaining weight, but despite everything I did, I was unable to gain weight in the end. I also had sleeping problems, having no dreams when I did sleep. When I wanted to escape my depressing reality, I had the motivation to listen to special audio that was supposedly supposed to help me go to sleep with a dream.
These audio things often came close, I managed to be on the brink of reality at least, seeing what my dream may have been before being pushed back by a mysterious (black and shadow-like?) figure of various forms and then found myself waking. I was never able to figure out what the figure exactly was but it always woke me whenever I began to have a successful dream.
This morning, however, I was on my way to school as usual, riding in one of my grandfather's many trucks (as usual), but as I was watching the road go by, I suddenly saw a large black shadow sweep the lane, only to be gone an instant afterwards. I shook my head and decided it was just in my imagination due to lack of sleep, as I'd never see the black figure outside of my attempts to dream and there’s no way it’s real.
I'd had a vaguely normal day at school, it was nothing special, but since I hadn't slept the night before, mostly due to my attempts at using my third eye (imaginary vision, for those whom don't know) to simulate a dream (even if only visual), but also because of the black figure ridding me of the ability to sleep, as I usually lost my feeling of tiring for a little while after a failed dream, regardless of whether my body woke up right after the figure did its thing or whether my body converted to a dreamless sleep afterwards, so the tiring feeling began to come back very soon in the school day.
However, I pulled myself together and pushed on to try and keep the day as normal feeling as I could. But, that day was far from normal, only I wasn't aware of any possible differences, other than the shadow sweep, as there were no visible differences.
Equestria, Year 998, one thousand years before Samuel Lyons’ birth date
The spell that was cast that my sister was unfortunate enough to become consumed by is beginning to have an effect on me as well, thought Princess Celestia. I must stop it before it consumes me as it did her.
What is it that you need to stop, my dearest Celestia? called out the evil soul that resided within her, with a sarcastically curiously questioning thought-communication.
You, Celestia thought back sternly.
About a week later, July 30, 998
"The spell has been completed, your highness", said a royal guard pony whom had just walked into Celestia's personal quarters (with a knock first, obviously).
"May I see this spell?" questioned Celestia, whom was in a sitting position on the side of her bed.
"Of course, your majesty." replied the guard, pulling out a fairly large scroll out of his saddlebags using a medium-green shade of magic from his horn. As Celestia read the huge spell, she began to understand specifically what it was meant to do.
The scroll consisted of a central spell that was to banish the soul to a separate universe with a ridiculous amount of duration extensions to make it last... roughly the same time as Luna's banishment to the moon, with declining effects near the end of its life.
"Everything seems to be in order, so you may leave, my loyal pony," said Princess Celestia, afterwards adding, "In fact, I recommend you leave, as I do not know if this spell will pull the souls of others within the room as well."
"It is an honor to serve you, my Princess." the guard replied, proud that he had done everything right and leaving the Princess to do her thing with the spell he had given to her.
After the guard had left, Celestia cast the spell, banishing the evil soul within her from the planet to hopefully never seen again.
Back to March 2015, Human Earth
Returning home from school, tired from both the lack of sleep the previous night and the wear and tear of the school day, I plopped on my bed as soon as I took two steps into my room, and fell asleep about five minutes later, expecting another stupid dreamless sleep.
Author's Note
And so the editing has begun. May this fiction see the light of activity once again as it did nearly three months ago now.
Chapter 16 - Rainbow Rocks Harder Part 1
It’d been about two more days since I’d awoken from the abomination that Luna claimed to be called soul merging, and I was feeling pretty good about myself. I consulted with “Mother” about living arrangements, and had managed to get myself a position in the Castle of Friendship.
America’s idea of government didn’t come off as very stable to her, and because of that she decided to not allow me to restructure the government, as well as recommend that I think over what I want to do for longer. I understood, and was honestly not upset about it. I will admit that I’m not that good with government systems of any kind anyway.
As a side note, "Mother" did finally get sick from the rabbit meat. It only lasted about a half hour though, fortunately.
Today was the day that I was to leave for Ponyville, and by now I had about three more replicas of the new clothing that I had been given. Of course, I just rewashed and re-wore my original clothing over and over, but the other stuff was still there if I needed it.
I managed to get on the train with far fewer stares than last time, possibly because the one who I told that I was a thin Minotaur spread word of me? Anyway, the train ride was about as eventless as the walk to the train. It was only when I finally achieved point destination that things started getting interesting.
The moment I walked in, I heard, “Ready, Spike?” Twilight asked.
“Ready.”
“Woah woah wait a second who is ready for what?” I butted in as they were preparing to charge into a purplish spiral.
“Umm... Fighting sirens in alternate worlds?” Twilight explained.
I knew this scene. “That’s all I need to know. May I come with?” I questioned.
“I don’t think there are any alternate versions of you there, so... I suppose?”
I did not expect to be accepted just like that... “Umm... Thanks Twilight?”
“Oh, no problem. Just make sure to introduce yourself first.”
“Introduce myself?” I looked to the right and took notice of the rest of the mane six. “Ohh. Umm, My name is Samuel, though just call me Sam. I’m the first of the humans ever known to have come to Equestria, as far as I know.”
After greetings from everypony had been passed around, Twilight resumed her plans. “Ok. Spike, Sam, you two ready?”
“Yeah.” we replied in unison, before I added, “Ready as we’ll ever be.”
And they practically charged into the portal, with me following closely behind them.
...
The portal was probably one of the wierder things I’ve experienced so far, but I still ting soul merging outranks that experience by a rather huge margin.
When I felt like I was on solid ground once again, I groaned. Not because of the experience, but rather because I felt like I was sliding on concrete. Face first.
Which actually turned out to be what happened.
“Dear Celestia Sam are you okay?” Twilight exclaimed after seeing my bout of sliding.
I pulled my face off of the pavement and took a good look at myself... Only to find out I looked the same as before. And I looked up to see a worried human Twilight standing in front of me. “I believe I’m ok, but I don’t think the portal knew what to do with me. You’ve definitely changed though.”
After giving herself a quick glance over, she responded with a blush and “Yeah. I’m guessing you knew about this beforehand?”
“Yeah, sorry. I knew a variated version of my species was what was over here and stuff.”
“No problem, just know that I’m not giving spoilers as to what’s going to happen. Just know that the thing I want to see is if I can participate in a coming event, one you should catch word of soon enough.” I explained as I lifted myself into a standing position.
“Ok. I’m going to leave you to your own tools and knowledge while Spike and I go do our thing.”
As Twilight left me to my own business, I decided to take step one of my plan.
...
The Dazzlings were casually sitting in one of the classrooms when I finally found them. I leaned against the wall next to the door and waited for the bell to ring.
When the bell finally rang, the rest of that class left, but they stayed behind for some reason. I concluded that they were using the privacy of the room to plan, and decided to walk in on it.
“Who are you?” Adagio asked, once I had positioned myself in front of them.
“The question is not who I am, but what do I know.” I countered.
“Very well. What do you know, stranger?”
I gave a smirk, this was going to be too easy. “I know what you are, where you came from, and I know your plans for this school.”
“Do you now?” Adagio questioned.
“Off the top of my memory, Sirens, banished from Equestria, plan to gather Equestrian magic in a battle of the bands that you manipulated the principles into hosting. Is that everything?”
While the other two looked surprised, Sonata’s mood seemed to brighten up significantly, “Hey, you two, we’re FAMOUS!” She squealed.
While Aria ignored her, Adagio recovered from the surprise, giving a response, “You know of Equestria. Perhaps you could help us escape this miserable place?”
“I cannot do that. What I can do, though, is give you a fair warning.” I took a quick breath for suspense before continuing, “At the rate that you’re going, you will only end up worse off than you were. If you know what’s good for you, listen to my advice. I’ll even give you a option three if you want. Option three being that you work with me to remake a fairly recent song from my land of origin.”
The trio was left speechless. Assuming they were undecided, I continued. “Before I leave,” I rose my hand and magicked Adagio’s pendant off and over to myself before they could react, “hmm, magic still seems to work for me here... Anyway,” I let it fall into my hands, and rotated it between my fingers as I inspected it, “I’ve always wondered how these worked, you’ll have to tell me about that some time.” I magicked the pendant back over and laid it on a desk in front of them, “Come to me if you make for option three. If you can't find me, just ask around for Sam.” I finished as I turned and left.
The Dazzlings trio stood there, jaws on the floor, for a good five minutes before Adagio finally snapped and set her pendant back upon her neck. “We need to find out what that kid is up to, and how he has control over Equestrian magic.”
This comment snapped Aria and Sonata out of their own stupors as they picked their jawbones back up and nodded in approval.
Author's Note
I came up with this chapter some good time ago, and never really got to it until today I guess. I got it done at least. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
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Chapter 1 - The Evil Only Celestia Knows Of [Edited Edition by Autum Breeze]
Equestria, March 18, 2015
I felt... warm. I was very comfortable in my waking... wait, my bed's never this warm...why was I warm? Had I finally achieved a non-dreamless sleep? Even better, had I managed to achieve a lucid dream, where I was supposedly able to interact with the world however I wished, even fly?
I got up and began looking for a mirror to see what I looked like... wait, I'm on the ground again... I decided that apparently I was unable to stand in this dream and began to army crawl to the mirror that I had finally spotted on the far wall. As I brought up my left hand to begin, I had expected a fleshy hand with gripping fingers... but I found instead a light-red/orange cross-colored... hoof?
So my first dream had turned out to be a pony dream, it seemed. I get up on all fours, wobbling to keep my balance in my new quad-pedal pony body, and waddle over to the now soot-soaked mirror that had seen the room's fire for some time now. I wiped most of the soot off with a hoof and took a good look at my body.
Flaming mane, kind of expected from the tingle. Light orange/red coat, already found that by my hoof. Flaming tail, expected because of mane/tail relationships. Deep orange eyes, not quite my style but okay. Flaming comet for a Cutie Mark... whoa, that's awesome. Wings and Horn? Looks like I'm an Alicorn, even better.
After finishing studying myself in the mirror, wiping new coats of soot off of it occasionally, I decided to find a way to not make my mane/tail catch everything ablaze, so as walking wouldn't spread the fire.
At the thought of that, my mane and tail almost instantly turned to an orange celestia-style flow. Ok, THAT is a cool feature.
I got lost several times, and eventually found my way to a large room with two rotting banners that symbolised the... two Alicorn sisters, Celestia and Luna? Well, at least I was able to confirm I was in the Castle of the Two Sisters, as I had seen this place quite a few times in the television show. I left the castle via the door opposite of the banners.
I looked around as I was walking the Everfree, staying aware for danger. About a mile later, my suspicions that something would attack me were true, as I suddenly found myself surrounded by a pack of Timberwolves.
I had no idea of what to do, as I hadn't learned how to use magic, was still very unsteady on all fours, much less trying to buck my hind legs, and flying wasn't an option as I hadn't figured out the wings yet.
As I clumsily dodged around the Timberwolves, barely managing to not get bitten by any of them, I heard a voice in the near distance that sounded like, "Why do we have to go to the pony sister's castle again?"
With a separate voice replying, "Because there's smoke. And where there's smoke, there's fire."
I suddenly had an Idea. The Timberwolves were wood, right? That means I can burn them. I willed my mane and tail to flame and started swiping my head around them, feeling like I looked stupid by doing so.
One of the Timberwolves attacked. Wrong choice.
I whipped my head in his direction and faced the ground. The poor wolf disintegrated as it pounced into my fiery mane.
The rest of the pack stopped and began to step backwards, apparently rethinking their actions. At the same moment, the voices from the distant became not so distant anymore as the bodies that the voices were attached to became visible. It was a purple dragon on a purple pony. Spike and Twilight Sparkle, as I knew them from the show.
The duo took notice of the hesitant Timberwolves, then at the pony with the flaming hair (me), and when they noticed the flaming hair, both Twilight and Spike widened their eyes in surprise and worry.
They just HAD to have a bucket of water, didn't they?
After running off the Timberwolves and dousing my mane in water, putting me in agonizing pain... wait, pain? That’s not supposed to be in a dream... then if this wasn't a dream, what was it? How did I get here? Especially, why was I okay with fire but hurt from a water dowsing?
I quickly thanked them for running off the Timberwolves and trying to stop a fire even though it hurt... a lot... and asked them what their business in the area was, pretending like it was my first time meeting the two (which was in reality true, but, well, TV shows nowadays for pete's sake.).
"Well, it seems the Pony Sister's Castle caught fire, and..." I trailed from Twilight's explanation and went into thought... oh crap... I forgot about the fire.
"...so me and Spike are heading to the castle to douse the flames... wait, your hair was on fire... also... wait you're an ALICORN??!?" Twilight realized as she finally got a good enough look at me.
"I-I guess?" I stuttered in confusion.
"We must get to Canterlot immediately... after dowsing the fire you made with your mane, of course." Twilight replied, further confusing me.
Author's Note
I swear, Autum works too fast. Four chapters edited within a single hour... The dedication definitely shows.
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Chapter 2 - A Forgotten Flame in a Forgotten Castle
Twilight and I were trotting back in the direction of the old castle, as I interrupted the awkward silence with a set of questions that I really needed answering, both for conformation that this really was the world of the famous Hasbro television show that I enjoyed greatly and for hopeful hints at how I had gotten here.
While I was greatly entertained by the straightforward answers that the famous main character gave me that helped me confirm that this was television-show-equestria, I only got confused yet knowing looks when I finally got to asking questions that might have helped me figure out how I had gotten here in the first place.
"Ok, so you're trying to figure out how you got here, that you know of this place but never been to it? I want to know your story, now." Claimed Twilight Sparkle, a very curious yet pushy look in her eyes.
"Ooh ooh I wanna here too!" Exclaimed Spike, saying some of the first words he had really said since they had met.
"Oh alright. I'll also tell you how I know some things about you already, but don't ask questions, I only asked my questions earlier because of the fact that I needed some serious confirmation about where I was, especially after I saw the two sisters banners in the main room of the old castle." I submitted and explained.
"Ok lets hear it." Twilight said with even more interest.
"My name is Samuel Lyons. I came from a world inhabited by humans, but not the humans of the magic mirror as I may think is your first guess. I live in East Tennessee in the country of the United States of America on the continent North America and I had an extremely boring life. I have always had weight and sleep problems, the weight being unexplainable and the sleep... Ibelieve that some sort of dark spirit had me in binds and all I ever had for sleep whenever I DID sleep was a dreamless sleep of nothingness. I fell into a huge depression that I had ended u practically destroying my life so horribly I considered suicide. After politely declining myself the right to slit my own throat for the longest time I met one of my greatest friends Greg. Greg seemed like an oddball to me at first, but of course I was also an oddball. We became great friends onward from that point and eventually I fell into one of the deepest pits of joy I think I could have fallen into. I discovered this amazing show called 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic', and watched the hell out of it." Twilight winced at the word "hell" but was too interested in the fact that a show named after something that Celestia would call her underlings to do much more, "I became a dedicated... 'brony' afterwards, keeping up-to-date with the show as much as I possibly could. I lasted about a year like that, when my fancraze decided to finally die down a bit due to repetitiveness. Afterwards I fell into a depression again, though not nearly as bad as before, due to lack of interest. That did NOT mean that I hadn't lost an interest in being interested; I really wanted to keep myself entertained any way I could, but that turned out to be a hopeless battle most of the time. Eventually I gave up, after finding nothing that could pique my interest constantly for more than a week. I am now a Junior in High School who keeps himself entertained..."
Twilight interrupted, "But you're a mare, not a colt. why would you refer to yourself as a 'him' rather than a 'her'?" After listening to the question from Twilight's interruption, I became momentarily confused... and then I looked under myself.
"Oh, umm... that... wasn't... t-t-there before I came here... Oh god..."
I tried to recover from the sudden realisation that my gender had been changed. After I managed to pull myself together enough to speak without stuttering or silent embarrassment, I continued on, deciding to stop explaining myself and get to the last point of memory I had before I had gotten here, "Aside from that embarrasing realization," I said, blushingprobably the deepest red that was possible, "let's get straight to the point on how I got here.How I said that I've always had a sleeping problem? Well, more specifically, I believe it was some sort of spirit that wished I really NOT have a dream. I have never had a dreamful sleep since the day I was born, July 30, 1998. The best way I can describe how this... dark spirit... attacks, is that when I begin to have the faint hint of a dream, it tries to cover my entire field of vision in blackness, and then either allows me to continue with a dreamless sleep, or wakes me when it's attacked me.However, I came home from a regular school day with the intent of making myself at least feel better physically with a dreamless sleep, but rather than a dreamless sleep like I usually get, I've somehow found myself here, where causing myself pain doesn't seem to wake me and I can cause and survive fires, such as the time I woke up in a fire earlier, having no clue as to what I'd become or what happened to have me become that way." I finished, almost tiring myself with the tiringly long explanation. I looked to Twilight's side and noticed spike had fallen asleep. "That's all I can tell you of how I got here, I have told you of everything I know about my own life and how I got here. Suposedly I was in a dream... until... well... you came along and dowsed my magical fire-mane-thing in water, of which caused pain that seemed... way too real to be a dream. I am happy to leave my old depressing life, but I never expected to leave it through a neverending living-dream." I confessed with a large, yet somewhat weak smile.
"I think...I've seen a situation similar to this before," Twilight began to explain, "ah, I know. about sixteen years ago a six year old human boy that had supposedly died during an operation that was intended to save his life. as his soul was leaving his body, however,the soul of Nightmare Moon had cast a spell that would generate a new body, but had the side effect of pulling the poor kid's soul into the body with her. His innocence trapped the evil soul in a mental cage andhelped him claim primary control over the new body. The boy turned mare found his new life very hard, especially when he found out about his death and therefore inability to return to his former life. He suffered greatly after running away and being foalnapped by Nightmare Moon protesters and lost his, or rather her now, wings and horn. The loss had broken the innocence of his soul, allowing the spirit he had originally trapped free, but eventually the soul of Nightmare Moon was broken also. Due to circumstances, Nightmare Moon lost her anger towards the filly and eventually melded their two broken souls together into a single whole soul order to save the filly's life. Now the filly lives under the name of Stellar Nova under the motherly care of Princess Luna."
Twilight, after finishing her story, noticed a sparkle of interest in my eye. "Touching story, but does that provide evidence that there may only be entrance to this world via death?" I questioned, the interest in my eyes striking my thoughts "Does that mean I may have died of... probably malnutrition?"
Twilight picked herself back up, almost feeling sorry for the light orange teen mare, "I don't know, but we can go to Canterlot and get help from Princess Luna and Celestia."
"Ok, maybe they can help me assess my situation," I admitted, "so, I guess we go?"
They left the Everfree Forest on hoof, completely forgetting about the castle fire, which had ended up snuffing itself out anyway. Spike was pretty much asleep for the entire following conversation after Samuel's story. Twilight teleported him to her back swiftly, making sure he didn't shift too much and they were off.
To Canterlot.
Author's Note
Phew, had the editing mixed up and pasted chapter three over this.
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Chapter 3 - My Own Death Gives Me a Better Life? [Edited Edition by Autum Breeze]
Editor's side note: Now, the part where the main character is asleep i had to write from another perspective. It didn't make sense to use the I and my in there when the character was unaware of what was happening around her.
Author's response: Sorry, couldn't figure out exactly how to write it up myself. So I just stayed in perspective, disregarding the lack of consciousness. As long as it's written right in the end, though, right?
We had just finished walking the trail from the old castle when Spike finally decided to wake. "Huh, wha? Twilight, when did I fall asleep?" he asked, wiping the crud from his eyes.
"You slept through half of my backstory, silly dragon!" I remarked before Twilight could answer.
"You are quite right... Samuel was it?" replied Twilight questioningly.
"It's okay if you call me by Sam. Besides, I think that Samantha would be a more fitting full first name for me now that I'm a mare... however that happened," I stated with a hint of matter of fact-fullness in my voice. We all fell silent after that statement.
We arrived in Ponyville several minutes later, and I began to feel self-conscious of myself as ponies began to stare in wonder at the new Alicorn arrival walking down the street with the purple ex-unicorn. I wished I could blend in with them as I did not want the stares and, somehow, they stopped staring.
I walked up with Twilight as she looked around for me, nearly facepalming... well, facehoofing, I guess, when she didn't see me, assuming I got distracted and went sightseeing. I was standing right next to her. How could she not see me?
"Sam? Sam where are you?" Twilight spoke in a worried tone.
"I'm right here, Twilight!" I replied in response to her calls.
She looked back at me in confusion, telling me, "You're not Sam. You don't look or sound anything like her!"
Twilight’s remark caused me to look down. I noticed that instead of the light orange coat I had almost become used to seeing on myself, I had a lime-green coat in its place, and I looked behind me, only to notice I had a feather for a Cutie Mark and a completely different tail style.
When I had wished to blend in, I had unknowingly used magic to turn into a different pony. I didn't quite like the new look, especially since Twilight couldn't recognize me through it, and suddenly I was back to normal.
I noted that my horn suddenly felt something like the pins and needles you get when you shift away from a position that makes your legs go numb. That was all I could think of before I lost my balance and nearly passed out from sheer exhaustion. I had never passed out or blacked out or anything in my whole life, so I wasn't surprised when I saw Twilight standing over me telling Spike something about taking a letter for Celestia. I was exhausted from the transformation magic that I had pulled off, so I wished for sleep.
When sleep didn't come, I worried that I was in too much pain for the moment. I tried to get up, only to be successful for half a second before my hooves all went outwards and I ended up in an uncomfortably stretching position on my stomach.
I could vaguely see Twilight's surprise from me not passing out yet through my half opened eyes, only to hear her tell me the same thing verbally. I managed to get back onto my side and began to do an improvised army crawl so as to remain mobile.
As suddenly as Twilight's face of surprise and worry distorted to show even further surprise and worry due to my struggle, a large white pony with a blended pastel multicolored mane suddenly appeared next to her. Princess Celestia herself, if I wasn't hallucinating.
About five seconds later I felt a horn touch the side of my own and I suddenly felt extremely tired, finding and willingly accepting sleep after spending so much energy.
~~~~~~~
As the sleeping body of Sam laid in a freshly prepared bed, four princesses assessed the situation carefully.
"Luna, you were not the only one affected by that spell that day," Celestia started, "I was also affected by it, only I hadn't known it at the time. When the soul began trying to corrupt my thoughts and bribe me to fall into its trap, I immediately recognised it, and, knowing that I would eventually fall for its temptations if I didn't cleanse myself of it, I hired a team of the best unicorns in Equestria to develop a spell that would banish the soul from this plane of existence.”
Luna glanced at her sister, an eyebrow raised.
“The spell itself was quite simple, but for a lasting effect I added roughly a thousand years worth of duration enhancement sub-spell,” Celestia continued. “When the thousandth year hit, the spell began to weaken and I’d guess that the soul attempted and failed to take control of a newborn child, and, when the spell finally gave in completely, which seems to be what the case is, the maliciously evil soul was eager to return, but was unable to separate from its now sixteen-year-old soul-companion-prison.
The soul has created this body out of the ashes of the remains of the room I was in when I originally sent it away, not unlike a phoenix. But like before, was unable to withstand the force of the human soul that had already trapped it within a body once. And now we have this."
As Celestia finished her long explanation, the now twenty-two-year old Stellar Nova turned to her aunt and questioned, "Kinda like what happened with me. So, does that mean I get a new cousin?"
"It seems so, my dear niece." Celestia replied with a sense of happiness, partly because she didn't have to be jealous of her sister for having a daughter anymore. True, she’d always had Twilight, but now she had a daughter by blood. She loved Twilight no less, but it was something else to have one of your own.
The young Alicorn shifted in bed to find a more comfortable position in her sleep.
"Samantha doesn't sound fitting for her," Luna finally choked up the will to say. "Perhaps a new name for the Princess of the Sun's Flame?"
"Very well. We shall name her Star." Princess Celestia decided.
"Hey, what about Fire? Star Fire? Rainbow Dash would like it I bet!" Twilight brainstormed aloud.
"Very well. Star Fire seems to be a fine, fitting name for the Hellmare Sun turned good." Celestia finalized.
"The Hellmawha?" Twilight said in confusion, dismissing the thought seconds later.
Star Fire giggled in her sleep.
"Good dreams, my little Star." Celestia said as she heard the faint giggle.
Author's Note
Maybe I got the right chapter this time. Actually, I know I did, I double-checked this time.
I guess that's what I get for being inattentive.
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Chapter 4 - Fire Magic Plus Bed Equals Morning Disaster [Edited Edition by Autum Breeze]
I was suddenly jerked awake by what felt like my hair being pulled all at once with lots of force. I turned in bed to notice Twilight standing bedside with a freshly emptied bucket.
"Da hell was that for?!" I remarked in half joking anger.
"You caught the bed on fire. Seems we need to get you a fire resistant bed so you don't burn anything else," Twilight said flatly, yet hinting anger in her voice.
"Oh."
I realized I was sleeping in a bed... I last remembered worming my way around after some sort of accidental transformation spell had drained me of life force. Then a horn touched against mine... I couldn't remember anything after that.
I sat up quickly after realizing that the bed I was in was actually Twilight's bed and that she had gone and slept on the floor while being overly generous to her guest.
"Oh I didn't realize this was your bed I'm sorry Imsorryimsorryimsorrypleaseforgivemepleaseillevenworkofftheddebt!" I freaked out.
"Don't worry, it's nothing much, Star Fire," Twilight said flatly. "And it wasn’t my bed, just one of the spare beds in my castle. I have plenty, trust me. Besides, I'm sure it was only an accident."
I laid back down, staring into the ceiling. Then, I noticed something.
Giving her a questioning look, I asked, "Is Star Fire a curse word or something? What do you mean by it?"
As for the answer, I received, "No, silly, it’s your name."
I look up at Twilight, confused. "But, didn't I tell you that my name was Samuel, Sam for short? Don't you know it’s rude to give people new names without their knowledge?"
"The name was Celestia's idea," Twilight stated. "I did have a choice in the last name, though. You seemed to remind Celestia that the sun itself was a star, while I pinned together that things have so far tended to burn in your extended prescence, both me and Celestia thought Star Fire a very fitting name for you."
"Umm... thanks?" I replied, making an attempt to scratch the back of my head with a hoof. "Any news about my death in my home world? I know Luna would check upon my backstory for insurance, with her abilities and such."
"Well, yes and no actually," Twilight began, "From Luna's report, you lived with severe weight and sleep problems, and when you went to bed, your siblings thought you were asleep for the night. But when they called you out in the morning, you never came. They called several times before checking, and after vigorous shaking they decided to check to see if you were seriously even alive. Only then did they realize you were nearly dead."
"Other than the last part, how typical of them." I commented casually, a small grin taking place on my face.
Twilight shuddered at the causality that I had poured into that comment, and continued. "However, it turns out they are keeping your body alive in a hospital, where they are under the impression that you are in a coma. So if you wish, fortunately for you, you can return to y..."
"I don't have any decent family there, most of my supposed 'friends' are terrible, I was on the verge of failing High School, so I have nothing much to gain back if I were to return," I cut her off, giving strong and true reason to support my claim.
"Bu..."started Twilight, only to be interrupted again.
"I probably have far more to gain by remaining here for the rest of my life. Sure, I will have family that will miss me greatly, and I will miss them greatly too, but fact is most of the family that will TRULY miss me is the family that I've only been able to see maybe ten unevenly spread times over the course of the last five years. So even though they will miss me more than the rest, my death will not affect my life in that I couldn't see that part of the family legally if I wanted to. That's why I only went very rarely during stays at my father's house, where we could keep secret from the grandparents that I lived with and had been under lifelong custody of."
Twilight had finally seemed realized how bad me life was, even though she must have known the basics from my previous monologish explanations and from the dream report.
"I'm... sorry," she said, trying to comfort the what I’m sure she saw as a seemingly iron-hearted alicorn mare. "If I had only known this before, I would've... I would've..." Twilight failed to find words, almost to the point of crying for the teen-aged mare I’d become.
"It's not your fault," I cooed to the teary purple princess, reaching over to stroke her mane. "You didn't know because I hadn't told you of it. It’s not your fault that I keep those thoughts as far back as I can. How about we go shopping for beds?"
Twilight began to calm, and at the mention of beds, she re-realized what had happened before that lead to this conversation. "Sure, looks like I am in need of one, Star."
We both laughed at that and then we turned to head out to find stores that carried beds, Twilight leading the way.
During the trip, we also decided to look for magical inhibitors since my mane had a magical fire problem.
We had found a nice bed and a strong inhibitor, and found ourselves enjoying each other's company more and more. There were things she knew that I was interested in, there were things we both knew that we shared our own experiences to each other on them, there were things I knew that she had no idea about, of which definitely had her interest to a peak high, and then there were multiple theories on multiple things that we shared with each other.
We made it back to... whatever you would call this purple princess's place, and finally slid the fairly large bed off of our backs.
As soon as Twilight was free of the bed she pulled out the magical inhibitor and helped me strap it around my horn to where it wouldn't slip.
As soon as the inhibitor met my horn my mane fell from its usual magical glow into a normal-ish curly-ended hair that parted evenly in the middle. The non-magical form of my mane reminded me heavily of my hairstyle at home, and I instantly decided I wanted to get it straightened.
I ignored my hairstyle wishes and offered to somehow mount the bed on the bedframe for Twilight. She gratefully accepted the offer after a few insistences and watched as I calculated how I could get the bed on by flipping it over with my muzzle.
I managed to mount the bed in the right position and then used my mouth to pull sheets and such across the bed, levelling out creases with my hooves as I found them. After I made sure that the bed had been ridiculously overdone, I felt proud of my hard work.
We spent the rest of the day learning things from each other and seeing each other's perspective on other things.
It was a wonderful thing to me.
Author's Note
Edited chapter four, still wondering where my chapter two edits are. Either Autum thought Chapter Two was okay as-is or really just forgot about it. I've already had to use the webarchive's wayback machine on it once, when the skipping over it confused me. I'm letting Autum do the editing at his own pace.
Chapter 5 - Adjusting and Learning
I woke to a huge pain in the stomach. I hadn't eaten in quite a long while, so I wasn't suprised. I walked out of Princess twilight's quarter's, making sure to not disturb the still sleeping purple princess, and wandered my way around the crystalline castle, internally wincing to my stomach, until I finally managed to find my way to the food court. Several ponies were actively working in the part of the kitchen I could see from the dining room, and watched as a servant walked out of the kitchen at the same moment I sat down.
"What will you have today, Princess Star?" Questioned the well dressed pony.
"I would enjoy some fries, an apple or two, and a drink. Do you have tea here?" I ordered, pondering what kind of choices they would have in a pony cafe.
"Yes, we do have tea here. anything else?" the waiter pushed lightly to assure I got everything I wanted.
"No, that will be all, thank you." I replied thankfully.
A few minutes later, the waiter pony came from the kitchen levitating a plate filled with a form of fries tat I had never seen before and two apples with a neatly centered tea cup behind them. As the waiter-pony gently levitated the platter down in front of me so as not to spill or drop anything, I began to poke at the fries with a hoof.
I finally picked up a fry with my muzzle ( I hadn't figured out how the hoof-holding worked yet) and took a good feel to the taste. Its taste was exactly like an extra greasy McDonalds fry, and as soon as I realised that, I jammed my muzzle into the frypile and shoved as many of them as I could, not allowing myself to savor in favor of hunger.
I finished the fries, and picked up one of the apples using both of my hooves. I bit into it, and I suddenly wasn't sure wether I was biting into an apple or drinking apple juice so fresh that it had just been made from a batch of apples that was just picked. I think it was a combination of both, from the way the juice almost dribbled out of my mouth before I could gulp it down past the apple chunk still in my mouth.
After vigorously devouring BOTH apples, I turned to the tea that I originally meant to wash down the rest of the food (of which happened by the apples instead), and, deciding I was still hungry enough to drink it without hesitation to catch my breath, I took a sip. It was the sweetest, most evenly mixed tea I had ever touched to my lips, easily beating McDonald's already deliciously sweet tea by a mile!
I was done with the tea before I had realized I had started, and took the tray to the disposal area with my mouth so one of the maids could wash everything. I left the food court, thinking slightly of home, missing my fingers and the freedom of my forelegs, until an insane idea hit me.
Twilight awoke to a desperate show of me attempting to balance on my hindhooves." What are you up to, Star?" she questioned, pondering over several reasons why a pony would do such a balancing act.
"I'm stretching my muscles and combining it with balance training," I said, not stopping my act, "maybe if I do it enough, I can learn to be bipedal as a pony!"
"I'm not sure you'll get very far with that, but good luck." Twilight said sheepishly.
"I'm geting pretty good at this, I feel like if I get my hind legs adjusted to move back farther and more easily, maybe I can do it," I explained factfully, pausing as I fell backwards, "well, I might have to design a hindhoof extension modeled after the Human foot's length, but that's all I'd really have to do for the stainding part."
twilight watched as I flipped myself back over and began another attempt. Curious, Twilight asked, "The 'standing part'?"
"Oh, right," I realized Twilight didn't know of my idea yet, " I am going to make a functional model of fingers that I can attach to my forehooves alongside the attempt to walk on my hindhooves alone so i can do daily activities as i would have before while I learn how to use my magic for levitation."
The idea of long jointed fingers on a pony gave Twilight a shiver, "Can we not remove the inhibitor during the day while you're consciously aware of the state of your mane and tail? You can figure out and learn magic faster, especially levitation magic." She brainstormed aloud.
Stopping my balance practice, I told her, "I like the idea. Where do we start?"
Twilight unstrapped the inhibitor, watching as my magical aura swooped back over my hair just as quickly as it had gone when the inhibitor was first applied. She levitated a relatively small book from a bookshelf in the corner and laid it in front of me. "Try imagining that this book suddenly fles upwards and hovered." Twilight said, looking back and forth between my horn and the book, waiting to see any form of magical aura form on either side.
I closed my eyes, visualizing the room around me within my imagination. I focused on the book that lay in front of me and imagined it floating upwards. Letting my twisted imagination take over, I then imagined a pair of eyes and a mouth growing out of the spine of the book.
My imagination made twilight disrupt my focus with an "eep" that hinted something had happened. I opened my eyes to notice the book had actually grown a face on its spine and was attempting to attack Twilight's leg using its cover to move around and slap, a cute yet venomous growl radiating from its mouth. Twilight cast a spell that returned the book to normal, then looked up to me, an expression of confusion and horror covering her face.
"Sorry, I have a twisted imagination." I said, undazed by the events I had just caused.
"I... can see that," Twilight comented, levitating the ex-monster-book back to its place on the bookshelf, "maybe you should try to keep the twists uncurled."
"Yeah, I should probably watch myself. At least I know how to do basic levitation now?" I said, trying to change the topic to focus on what I HAD achieved.
"True, " started Twilight, "but you still need to imagine with your eyes open, Star."
"Not a problem," I stated, "I had plenty of time to practice my imagination back in my world when I was extremely bored."
Twilight taught me how to do different things using different situations that I could conjure within my imagination. When I had finished her entire basic training program just before nightfall, she was very suprised at my learning curve, showing it off with a comment, "Do you realise that you have completed what normally would take a unicorn several years to finish? You are learning this even faster than I did when I was a filly, and even I took about a year to finish basic training after I began learning magic! You must be my new rival in magic, you have to be! I've never met such an easy magic learner as you, not even myself!"
As Twilight rambled on about my rapid success, of which was undoubtedly achieved by the ridiculous amount of time in my childhood I spent just sitting and imagining different things to keep myself internally busy, I found that I was very tired from a day of constant magic usage and trotted up to my little burn-bed and purposely faceplanted into it, falling asleep moments later after I positioned myself comfortably.
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Chapter 6 - Attempting to Meet the Other Bearers
Living Hell
I woke up in the burned bed and, forgetting I was a pony, as I had done multiple times throughout the last few days, sat up on the side of my bed in a humanisque fasion and stood up on my hind legs only to fall backwards onto my bed and groan in the memory that I wasn't a bipedal creature anymore. I had been adjusting to life with Twilight and Spike, with occasional visits from the Sun and Moon Princesses, and I was actually feeling happy about myself, something I hadn't felt for a long time.
I turned back over on my bed, and stretched my legs out in a refreshing manner, before I decided to actually get up and sneak out of the door, watching to make sure I didn' wake up the still sleeping Twilight as I levitated the door around on it hinges silently. I was getting better at controlling my magic, and I was also getting better at condemning my twisted imagination from my magic.
I was just finishing my meal of juicy apples and hay fries when Twilight approached me, silently, and stood behind me until I turned around and practically jumped out of my seat out of instinct, then blushed when Twilight tried to stifle a laugh.
"I think it's time you met my second cousins," Twilight started after calming herself enough to talk, "you need a larger friend circle than just me and the other princesses."
"Second cousins?" I asked, confused.
"We all used to be just very close friends until we all got one blood sister in common," she stated, clearing up my confusion, "her name is Stellar Nova."
"Stellar Nova? I think you've mentioned that name before, supposedly as another human from my old world who had her soul dimensionally transferred or whatnot like mine." I stated, pulling from vague memories of around the time I first bumped into the purple princess pony, "By the way, we never did make it to Canterlot like we planned, did we?"
"Yes, I believe I have mentioned Stellar Nova before, and, no, we never made it to Canterlot. But Spike's fire magic sent letters to the princesses and they teleported here personally, so I don't believe we need to go to Canterlot anymore, that is, unless you want to go." Twilight answered truthfully.
I got up from my seat and we started walking to the door of the crystalline castle. "So what about your second cousins?" I asked politely, breaking the odd silence.
"You'll see," she started, "you said you watched some kind of 'Television Show' about us."
Realizing who she was talking about now, I spoke higher than I should have, feeling disbelief. "So this Stellar Nova girl became blood sisters with ALL THE BEARERS OF HARMONY??? Ow, I think I bruised my own eardrum."
Wincing from the volume I had produced, the purple princess stated, "Yes, Star, she did that."
Distracting myself from the conversation to rub my ears and figure out our location, I noticed that several ponies had stopped and looked to the source of the voice, several more staring from windowsills and open doors. I shied and looked down at the ground, embarresed by my own voice.
Soon, we arrived at a house that looked not unlike a colorful gingerbread house with a concave-ish roof. I stopped to look up and admire the unique archittecture of the building until Twilight yanked me inside.
As soon as we entered the building a pink blur was practically instanly atop a suddenly fallen but unsuprised Twilight. "WherehaveyouBEENTwilightI'veneverbeensolongwithoutyouthatisbeforewefirstmetatleastbutthat'sbesidethepoint." the pink blur spoke so fast that word spacing was practically nonexistent.
"Are...you ok, Twilight?" I asked, shock and confusion flooding my face, "You look a little... down."
Admiring my little joke, I watched as the pink blur slowed itself enough so that I could tell that it was a pony. "Pinkie Pie, I presume?" She turned to face me, but before I could continue, the pink logic defying pony had already gasped in sudden excitement and ran off so fast that I couldn't even see where she went.
"Expect a party in a few days, Star," Twilight began as she stood back up, "she's definitely throwing one it looks like."
"I can tell." I said flatly, sighing, feeling defeated by the pink pony despite that there was never a battle to be defeated in.
We left Sugarcube Corner and decided to have me meet Rarity next. "I hope Rarity doesn't start using measuring equipment on me the moment we walk in." I said, not wishing to get stuck in an awkward fashion situation anytime soon.
"Don't worry, Star, I'll try my hardest to discourage her if she does." Twilight replied assuringly.
We arrived at Carousel Boutique, and again I stopped in front of it and admired the unique architecture. Twilight picked me up in a field of levitation and gave me a look that seemed to say "We don't have time to admire architecture if you want to meet my friends."
When I realized that she had actually said that, I replied with a simple "Sorry."
She dropped the levitation field and I fell a half a foot to the ground, almost falling over. We entered the beauty shop and were greeted by a suprised Rarity. "Oh, um, Twilight, I haven't seen you for quite some time.. what have you been up to? And who is your friend? A new Alicorn, to say the least!"
As Twilight explained my situation for me, I noticed a very plush couch and went to take a seat on it. Overhearing the not-exactly-private conversation, I found myself interested in what the fashionista had to say about me.
"So, Star Fire is a similar case to Stellar Nova's case?"
"Yes, and from what I could gather from Celestia, that form is what Celestia would have looked like had she fallen victim to the evil spirit within herself and became what she told me would have been Hellmare Sun." Woah, that information was new. When did Twilight get this info?
"Oh my, that sounds serious. How did Celestia Banish the soul without banishing herself, though?" Hmm? Rarity, good question.
"She said the soul's aura felt similar to the aura she felt during the Nightmare Moon incident, and, when she recognized it, she had a team of the best unicorns she had at the time to develop a spell to banish it from this plane of existance." Twilight was bringing up information to Rarity that I had never heard, and now I was very interested.
"And?" Rarity pushed her purple friend.
"They developed the spell quite quickly, and Celestia cast it. It worked at first, but the spirit returned a few days later. She then calculated the spell's longevity to figure out how many duration subspells she needed for it to last roughly the same amount of time as Luna's banishment." Ok, Twilight, what happened next?
"What happened next?" Rarity asked, saying exactly what I thought.
"Well, from what Luna was able to figure out, the spirit was supposedly unable to exist in any world until the spell began to weaken. The spell began to weaken when Luna's banish ment from the moon ended and sent powerful waves of dark magic across multiple dimensions. Although unable to do anything at first, the soul had finally managed to enter the plane of existence that Star was born in. When Stellar Nova was born, she accidenally sent more waves of dark magic across the dimensions, making the evil spirit strong enough to posess smaller beings and such. However, it overestimated its own ability and attempted to take control of a newborn human child, failing in the process, and trapping itself within.
"The spirit seems to have gained the strenth to travel back to Equestria, but it seems that it will be forever unable to shake the primary control that Star Fire will always have over the body.
"Maybe, if Star Fire can learn to control the spirit, she can force herself to travel between the bodies of both worlds. However, this is just a base theory and I'm not sure if there is a way to control it." Twilight finished theorizing with a sudden inhalation that indicated she had said everything in one breath.
"Wait," I started, my head perking up, "so you're saying that I could be a possible link between worlds? If I learn magic, do you think the ability would carry over? What about all the other questions that I have but can't ask with words?"
They looked over in suprise as they realized that I had been listening in the whole time. "I.... guess?" Twilight finally responded after a brief recovery.
"Oh my god I can become a world famous magician back home! Any tips for communicating with the soul of Hellmare? Sorry I have a bad habit for listening in. Sorry,carry on, act like nothkng ever happened..."
"Well, it's only theory, and the theory also relies on the possibility that the soul is able to regain the lost power more quickly than before. If the theory holds true, you might find yourself back and forth between your bodies/worlds until you enforce com,and upon the soul of the Hellmare." the purple princess explaimed with a seemingly all-too-much amount of thought, though I did always find myself preferring long hard explanations so I didn't mind.
"So, theoretically, my magic ability should carry over? Even pegasi flight magic?" I questioned, "Awesome, I could be the world's first person to take off in a flying squirrel suit!"
"Yeah, sure you will. Also, what do you mean exactly by 'flying squirrel suit'?"
"It's a special suit that people can wear to glide down from high places, such as aircraft. It gets its name from a species of squirrel that does the same thing with similarly fashioned flaps from treetops." I replied, not thinking about the millions of questions I brought up in the two mares' minds, and the millions more from Twilight specifically.
"Wait, humams have flight? Aren't they supposed to be a flightless species?" purple princess questioned, "Nevermind that, what I'm saying is that roght now your original body is alove without a soul, and the soul of Hellmare could at any time do the same with this body amd return to your old world. I cannot say dor sure that it will happen, but I'm more worried about when than if."
"Are you criticising time?" I gave her a mockingly angry glare, "It doesn't matter, I'd say go for it, even if my pony body falls face-first into the street, go for it."
With all my focus working on the wording of that sentence, I lost concentration on the ability to hold back the fire of my mane and allowed the couch I was lying on to catch fire.
Rarity's eyes widened to the point where I swpre that they poppes out pf her head, then, with a burst pf blue magic, the cpuch was soaked and I was in roaring pain.
"Damn it, I always get the water treatment; I just wish this body would agree to it less fucking painfully though!" I blurted through the silent pain.
"Allergic to water, I presume?"
"Yep, stings her like an angry hprnet's nest, it seems."
"Oh, I'm incredibly sorry about that. Maybe next time you could teleport her away from the fire bedore I dowse it?
"Sounds like a plan."
The duo of Element bearers noticed when the thrashing on the floor stopped as the body pf Star Fire went limp.
A few pokes and prods and an aura check later they confirmed that hellmare had committed the first random body change of what they knew would become many.
"What a comvenient time to do such a thing; hellmare must have been listening in from her soul cage. Let's hope that hellmare will fall to the judgement of the soul it is trapped within." Twilight finally replied after several moments' thought.
"I just hope that Star's time here didn't arouse trouble at her home world; things might go terribly for her if they suspect badly pf the unwaking body." Rarity said with a hint of sadness mixed with worry in her voice.
Author's Note
NEXT TIME on Living Hell (POSSIBLE SPOILER, SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS I WRITE IT): Well, shit happens, and the diagnosed mini-coma that Samuel finds himself sleepimg in a hpspital ned over doesn't help. However, the basic telekinesis that Twilight taught him does carry over worlds, and becomes a great aid in his escape from the hospital bed that he had been cuffed to after a bit of thrashing from waking up back in his home world. I wonder just how well this two-body-two-world thing will work out. I'm not completely sure how I'm going to implement the flying; I'm thinking that when he thinks of wing related muscle movents and/or tensimgs a pair of ethereal wing will form on his back through his clothing. Hmm, guess I'll habe to work out the ideas as I write the next chapter.
I say that we close up this chapter after two long weeks of writee's block on what to do with some parts of the chapter and call it a night.
See you next chapter!
Also, this story was in hiatus for those two-three weeks due to amother work I wamted to work on in the background. However, a sudden show of support was offered to me by the original writer of Living Nightmare, Autum Breeze, and the sudden motivation to bring the story out of hiatus was too great for me to ignore. Hopefully soon you should expect some quality editing help from a quality book-artist (Because the word "writer" just isn't quite fancy enough).
Cheers!
Chapter 7 - Home With Perks
The pain from the water faded away. I stoppes thrashing; I didn't feel the need to anymore as I wasn't in pain. Immediately after I stopped, I noticed that I wasn't in Carousel Boutique anymore; I was in a bed. With clothes. With wired suction cup things on my chest. with a heartrate monitor. With doctors holding me down to keep me drom thrashing any more. Human doctors. Flesh and blood human doctors.
I'm in a hospital, I thought, probably Sycamore Shoals hospital; it's the closest one. If I'm in a hospital, that must mean that time passes while I was in Equestria. That couldn't mean anything good. Does my telekinesis function here?
I focused on a small object that I considered unnoticable, and made an attempt at what Twilight had taught me on telekinesis. It flew to an exact spot that I pictured it flying to and fell back dowm as I let my focus slip out of relief, then looked up at the still silent doctors. "He's awake, but he's violent. Lock him down until he calms." came a voice from behind one of the paper-ey surgical masks.
The team of doctors silently complied and pulled bed-cuffs out from hidden seams in the hospital mattress. "You're not serious, are you? Forst day back in my own world and I get treated like a hospital criminal. I bet Satan himself would have a shit-eating grin if he saw this." I replied.
"Patient shows signs of delusion. Mental therapy may be recommendable." the lead doctor reported.
"And here we are, more damned therapy. As if every Friday wasn't enough of that shit."
The team of doctors simply ignored that comment and finished binding my limbs with the once-hidden bed-cuffs.
After I was sufficiently bound, they slid the key imto a nearby drawer and ledt me to myself. They didn't know I could break the laws of physics, they thought I was stuck like this. That was my escape plan. Using Telekinesis, I pulles the drawer open, almost ripped it off of its hinges accidentally, and took the said key. with my ameature ability, I, albeit with lots of wobbling and a bunch of misses, unlocked each cuff.
As I got up, an idea came into my head. If I could just open the window and glide down... but I don't have wings anymore, right?
At that moment, I felt a ruffling on my back. I walked over to the bathroom and looked into the mirror, to see myself with a pair of etherealistic wings protruding the hospital gown I was wearing. Perfect, I thought, now to find the window latch.
Several seconds ;ater I found and used the twist knob mechanism that held the window in place. Pulling the window inward, I found myself staring into a night, feeling rather warm. Hmm, the weather must've turned back around while I was gone.
I decided to travel home first; I definitely wouldn't make it until about 9:00 in the morning, with the distance I had to cover, but I felt it would be worth it to go there and get real clothes, my trusty old red jacket, amd my Shield along with earbuds. Maybe I could listen to some of my Gramatik tracks, maybe some Haywyre, I didn't care, maybe I could get more progress in on my Terraria save. Clothes were more important than entertainment though, so I decided I'd get my clothes on before envying the power of android.
I landed fromthe impossibly ill-equipped glide after thimking things over and broke into a full run in the direction of the parking lot. I had an idea. I could use my telekinesis to break in and steal a car, and use that as a means of temporary transportation home. I'd take care of it at least, return it when I'm done. Maybe I'll ride it a bit hard.... ok I'm probably going to ride it very hard.... but I'll make sure that it doesn't get a scratch from the ride.
I foumd a suitable car of some random make/model, unlocked it from the inside, and, after I got comfy in the driver's seat, used telekinesis to punch in all of the locking pins in the ignition keyhole. Starting it up, I set it into reverse and backed out with relative ease.
As soon as I was backed out, I set it in drive and floored it.
The engine gave off a triumphant and powerful roar as the RPM's made the tires squeal. I was yanked forward and instantly knew that this was going to be a fun ride. I pulled out across the street in a traffic clearing and floored it as I got into the middle lane to avoid what traffic there was at night. My eyes darted between the road and the speedometer, counting the speed every second.
20, 40, 55, 65, 70, 80, 90, 110, 125, 135, 140, 150
I did have a permit and knew the laws of the road, but I felt like I didn't need to care anymore since I would never truly be jailed anyway; I wasn't exactly bound to this body, and I knew of several good hiding places that would work well even when I went back to Equestria.
I sped on until I reached my elementary school, Hunter. I quickly parked the stolen vehicle in a casual spot and started a hike up a road that I knew well from a combination of biking and permit practice in my grandmother's minivan. I decided to go the backroad route since it had trees that would cover me if anyone came by, with a grandfather going to work specifically in mind.
I was about a fourth of the way when I heard a familiar engine roar in the distance. I knew that sound, and I knew that the sound meant that I'd soon have to duck and cover amonf some trees. The sun was about halfway over rhe mountain that was the edge of the horizon, and the shades of blue had been brightening slowly to an almost cyan shade, with a subtle gradient into darker blue facing away from the sunlit sode of the sky.
I cowered behind a nearby tree as my grandfather drove one of his many, MANY ford trucks past and made sure to scope the tree as his perspective of it changed with angle. After he finished driving off, I slipped away from my cover and began to make my way home again.
I finished my walk home to find noone there, being as they had each gone to their seperate jobs now. I walked up amd fabricated some locksmithing telekinetics to open the door, and, seeing everything was mostly the same as it was on the day I left, I made my way to my room. My shield was charging, ,y clothes were still in a neatly folded stack, everything was normal.
I had clothed myself and grabbed my shield and earphones, alongside an ultra sharp knife, and walked back outside feeling refreshed and comfortable. I had stuffed the hospital outfit in the closet so as to not be noticed and made sure I locked the door back. I was prepared now, I only needed to find a hideout. I sat on the steps of the porch, pulling my shield out of my jacket pocket and getting on Facebook Messenger. I found Tyler Carrier in my friends list and began the chat.
"Bro, need you to help me hide, broke out of hospital, no time to explain, will show you some cool shit though."
"Ok"
"I need you to pick me up, I'm at my house, spent all morning hiking up here, pretty sure that the stolen car is probably on the news right now."
"Bro thats some serious shit man"
"Just come and get me. I'll show you shit that defies logic. The most accurate description I can give is 'magic'. I can lift your truck with it if you want a good example."
"Whatever man ill see it when i get there."
"Ok. I'll see you in a few"
Tyler arrived in his black Chevrolet S10 anout fifteen minutes later. He stepped out of it to see his door seemingly close itself after being engulfed in an off-shade of a banana-ish yellow. "The fuck?"
"Yeah, I'm supermam, I just closed your door with my MIND, bitch." I approached him and showed off my ethereal wings as he found himself staring in disbelief, "Meed to see me fly? All I can really do right now with these things is glide, but still."
"Where the hell'd you put the smoke and mirrors?" Tyler replied, disbelief definitely visible in his eyes, "I know that has to be fake as hell."
"Nope, not this." I lift his truck with telekinetics, "Proof enough?"
"Lift me." my disbelieving friend commanded, "Then I'll try to believe it."
"I'll throw in a teleport too," I started as I telekinetically lifted a suprised Tyler into the air, "but you might want to be ready to feel like shit, I'm still adjusting to the teleportation myself."
I teleported to the back yard with my friend, whom was now kneelimg over amd trying to not let his dinner spew. "We can go whenever you're ready, and by the way, thanks for skipping school for your friend. It means a lot to me."
"No... problem... Next time you teleport, please don't bring me with you." Tyler said as he recovered and regained his balance.
I walked my half sickenes friend back to his truck and let him go about halfway, when he seemed to be walking steadily again. We got in the truck and I turned it around using further telekinesis. I felt a magic headache coming on from overuse, so I decided that defying logic could wait a little longer as we traveled.
I explained exactly what was going on to Tyler as we were sriving back to his house. Being a jack of all trades for this world and a learning magician prince/ess of comets in another made almost no logical sense to the guy. Especially the magic part. I made all references to Equestria sound human and didn't mention the gender change so as to not make his understanding be worse than it already was.
"Any way thay I can see this 'Equestria'?" Tyler questioned at the end.
"Not unless your aoul becomes a prison for an evil spirit frm Equestria,, such as what my case seems to be."
"Damn son that's a lot of shit to take in."
"I know, right? I caught a building on fire with my magic trying to figure it out."
"God Damn!---"
"I stood in the middle of the fire and didn't burn."
"How the fuck did you manage to do that?"
"Supposedly the form I take there is a a-sort-of-god that relates with ridiculous amounts of heat and flame."
Before Tyler could reply to that, I was suddenly out cold.
"Sam? Bro? You with me? God damnit Sam."
After a bit of shaking, Tyler finally figured out the situation, "What the hell am I going to to with his body while he's gone?" Tyler questioned out loud to himself.
Author's Note
Here we are, a human world chapter, written in about five hours with minimal editing along the way to eliminate mistypes. I couldn't think of anything for the characters, whom are both completely based upon real life counterparts under the same names (hint, one of them is writing the book right now! Jack of all trades fits my description pretty accurately; Writer, Algebra Ace, Learning in Auto body, something above average gamer, PC hardware specialist, PC software specialist, basic blueprint designer, realistically accurate stencil artist... the list goes on.)
Me and Tyler were just arriving at his house when I suddenly felt... off. I felt like I was being pulled from myself unexplainably. The sensation felt rather tiring, and it caused me to droop my head in sudden lack of energy. Then the world went black, and I felt myself losing contact with my body. This must be what the realm in-between looks like. I guessed.
Everything was black. That is, until an off-grey square of ethereal bars conjured in front of me. "Hello, dear imprisoner. If you have been paying attention to your new friend, I am sure you know who I am."
"It wasn't my choice to become your prison, and I'm sure you didn't willingly allow it, either." I stated, noting the form within the cage was made up of matte-shaded black ball of swirls, "I'm sure you've pulled me here to request freedom, but I cannot give that to you. I'm sure that you've noticed that your personality is an impersonation? I know that tone of voice, as I use it myself. your personality is taking after my own, and I'msure my own personality had seen influence from you. We very well may be twins in personality after sixteen years. I'm sure that the personality we share shall cause us to be inseperable. I hope that you understand my reasoning behind this, as well as the other reasonings that you should already know." I replied, using my natural ability to explain things with ridiculous detail.
With the same painstaking ability of explaination, the spirit of the mare of helll stated, "I assume you have already taken a realization as to what you, no, both of us, have become? I am impressed, I didn't think you'd take as much grasp to my sense of logic as you did. I knew this development might happen soon after I had failed to force my will into the control mechanisms of your body, but I didn't know that you'd take so long to gain a true dark side, and I was further suprised to see how quickly you adapted it to suit you. I was most suprised by the development of friendship afterwards. Currently, your friend is dragging your soulless body to a secluded area near his home. But I'm sure you could guess that he shook it and everything before deciding to do so."
"Well, that takes care of hiding on Earth for now, I guess." I replied, "But if I'm going to keep the body alive, we're going to have to make daily back and forth trips to go hunting and survive. Also, I need to ask, which one of us came with the painstaking explanations? It's always a hellhole to try to work around them."
"I'd say I didn't think of keeping the body alive, so thank you for that reminder. I'm sure that next time we won't have a hospital to keep it." Hellmare reasoned, "However, I'm sure we can work out a way to control both at once. It would require that I control one of them, though. I'm sure that you don't trust me with that after hearing what I can do with my... no, our evil, but just like my evil has affected you, your innocence has affected me. I know everything you know, and I share most if not all of your personality traits, so I would make an accurate imposter while you're off in Equestria."
"I don't doubt your logic with the blending of personalities, and while I may not have complete trust in you, I will trust you in this. However, I think that you should have a new internal name to match the personality change. How about, since you've practically become a me, you should share most of my name? However, I will have the first name be 'Samantha' rather than 'Samuel', since you originated as female. Is it a deal, my dear Soul Sister?"
The dark sphere changed to a form that resembled a female human with a similar, if not the same, body structure as me with longer hair and a pair of breasts, with my signature red jacket that I'd torn the cuffs off of sitting on it... her shoulders. "I like it."
"Then it's settled. On a side note, you look good in that form." I replied offhandedly, "Any way we can do that in the real world? That would be awesome."
"I do know some changeling magic, I'm sure it can be done. But first I need out of this cage."
"True, true. But how?"
"I don't know, you tell me."
"Well shit."
"Does that mean we go back to the original plan?"
"Uhh, I guess? At least until we can get you out."
"Well that sucks ass."
"Indeed. Should we goback to Equestria and feed that body or should we go back and eat?"
"We should go back first, I'm sure an immortal alicorn can live without food."
"Good point."
"I'll stay in your head and be your second personality, I guess. Think of it like insanity, only sane."
"Works for me, I've always wanted a distinct voice in my head."
Without a second thought, the duo went back to the physical dimension of Earth.
-_-_-_-_-
I regained awareness of my body to find that I'd been covered in a sea blue tarp.
I tried to get up, but the tarp resisted my efforts.
'I think he tied it down', replied Samantha, 'Try crawling out.'
'Ok', I responded, crawling like I had been recommended to, 'you know, this voice in my head thing is going to take some getting used to.'
'I know, right? I'm still getting used to the idea of it myself. It feels wierd to be talking to my prison'
I got up and wiped the dirt off of my clothes, and took in my surroundings. I was under a fairly small covered patio with several items of assorted junk lying around in a non-orderly fashion. I knew a basic layout and sizing of the house from watching the background in previous Skype chats with Tyler, but I had never actually been there, so I decided I'd occupy myself with some hunting while I built up the courage to knock on the door.. I noticed a decently sized wooded area, if not a full-blown forest, not far from the well-kept property line. I walked over and studied the area for wildlife. To my suprise, I had actually found several small animals such as rabbits and especially insects, but most suprisingly, I had found a deer. I decided that the deer would be too much for me to eat, and with no way to store the meat, it would be a waste. I decided to go for a meaty rabbit instead. After determining the best rabbit to go for, I unsheathed my knife and picked the rabbit up with telekinesis.
'I'm still impressed with how well your magic carried over.' Samantha commented, 'I was almost sure that humans couldn't wield magic all that easily.'
'Have you met technology yet? I'm sure that technology can do magics of its own.' I gave reply sarcastically.
I brought my attention back to the rabbit and knife, and, using more telekinesis, I stabbed the rabbit through the eye into the brain, assuring an instant and near painless death. I held the rabbit up head over heels and began to skin it. Being unsteady as I still was with my telekinesis, the cut was jagged and varyingly deep.
I managed to get the skin off with fair difficulty, and ripped its guts out to fall on the ground. Using as fine of a form of telekinesis as I could, I pulled most of the blood out of the meat. Then, trying to forget about the stench presented by the raw bloody material on the ground below he floating rabbit, I concentrated into my third eye and imagined the meat sizzling and baking to perfection. As planned, the meat began to cook and was pretty well done all the way through before even a minute had passed.
'The process was sickening, but it was worth it, brother'
'That was actually my first time, you know.'
'I know, remember, I've been watching through your eyes ever since you were born.'
I rolled my eyes. 'Yes, I know.'
I enjoyed the magically cooked rabbit away from the bloody mess and made my way back to Tyler's place. When I made it back, he was sitting near the tarp. He had definitely noticed.
He took notice of my appearance and instantly replied, "Damn bro you left me. Then you left me again. God damn you left me twice without returning in between. What the hell were you doing anyway?"
"I was trying to not be a freeloader." I replied, showing no hint of emotion.
"How?"
"I caught killed gutted and cooked a rabbit with magic and knife." I replied, keeping a stoic expression as well as tone.
"Oh what the hell."
"If you don't mind, I'm going to get back under that tarp and have my alternate soul take me back to the other world. I'm sure my body there needs tending to as well."
"WHAT the hell. Whatever, I'm outta here."
Tyler went back inside in the direction of what was probably none other than the room I had seen many times before over skype. I made a quick and low army crawl back under the tarp and quickly found a comfortable position.
'I'm ready, sis.'
'Ok, but before we go, can I ask you why you and your friends are all assholes to each other?'
'We entertain ourselves with the sarcasm.'
'Oh. Very well then.'
I closed my eyes and allowed the odd and tiring feeling of being pulled from my body take me over as I made my way back to Equestria.
Author's Note
I... I have nothing to say about this chapter. I want to say something, but I have nothing... wierd. Anyway enjoy the chapter and next chapter WILL be an Equestria chapter I promise. not like I can break that promise from the way I ended this chapter... but anyways... Also I'm not sure, but I feel like the story has lived up to the gore tag by now, via rabbit mutilation.
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Chapter 9 - Changeling My Life for the Better
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.
I finally made it back to the castle after my special request from Rarity and finding a job at a restaurant after... some unique meat-happenings, and went directly to the personal quarters to try to figure out the possibility of transferring objects across dimensions. I wanted this for primarily entertainment reasons; my Nvidia Shield had been a practical second arm to me for more than a year. I also wanted to see if I could get away with swapping bodies to negate the use of changeling magic, but I felt that was of lesser importance.
(AN: I'm writing a chapter about trying to collect the same device that I'm writing this story on. Irony is a killjoy sometimes, am I right? Also, shield.nvidia.com if you don't know what it is by now.)
I lay in bed, thinking over and trying possible ways I could try to bring things over. 'You could try willing it to come with.' 'What about just hoping for it?' 'Well, that didn't work, what if we tried it again?'
After several suggestions from Samantha and several ideas of my own, 'DAHH I give in god damnit!'
'So you don't want to take my first real suggestion I presume?'
'WHAT? Those were just flukes???'
'You know I have to mess around with you sometimes, even if to just waste your time.'
'You're going to dig yourself in a hole one day doing that shit.'
'I know, I know. So, ready to learn how to bring your stuff here?'
'Yeah, whatever, just don't be bullshitting me this time.'
After a short trip to my earth/human body, 'Ok, how do I commence bringing my shield?'
'Ok, hold it in your hand, and imagine that it's a part of your soul while I bring you back.'
'Gotcha, shouldn't be too hard considering it's like a sixth limb to me.'
I did as instructed and Samantha pulled me back into what I have come to call the in-between, where I found my shield somehow still in my grasp. "Well, it worked halfway. Let's do the rest of the way now."
"Ok, I've never tried doing this all the way across, so expect something to not go as planned. Having said that, do you still want to try?" Samantha replied, a hint of worry in her voice.
"Absolutely. I'm sure that the worst we could do is mutate into a pony-human hybrid or something" I answered, a hint of sarcasm in my voice.
"Then I guess it's best that we get this over with."
Samantha brought me the rest of the way, where I expected to find myself lying in bed with my devices lying (or falling) somewhere nearby.
However, that never happened. I found myself still standing, but on two legs. In fact, I still felt the clothes on my back. I opened my eyes and looked around, discovering that, to my suprise, I was still in Twilight's bedroom, and I was standing on the bed that I had caught fire to on my first night, and, oddly, I was still human, and my feet were placed on either side of the limp form of a light-orange alicorn mare... wait, that looks familiar...
I was standing over the soulless form of my Equestrian body! In my human body no less. "The fuck did we do, Samantha?"
'Like I said, expect some wierd side effects to happen.'
Unfortunately, the sound of my voice caused a sleeping form of Twilight to wake, and she sat up and gave me a confused expression, all of which I noticed in my peripheral vision. "Star, what are you doing?"
"Remember when I showed you my human form using changeling magic?"
"Yeah, why?"
"What you're looking at isn't changeling magic this time. If you need proof, look down at my feet... err, hindhooves, if you want to use pony anatomical terms."
She looked down as I had instructed, "What in tarterus... the hay did you do?"
I pulled out my shield, holding it up in front of her, "I brought some homeworldly items, and apparently this is some sort of side effect of it."
"I...impossible." Twilight stuttered.
"About as impossible as me getting here in the first place, if you think about it."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. What should I call you when you're like that?"
"Just call me by the name I gave you when I first got here. Sam. Samuel Hayze Lyons, if you want the whole thing." I turned to walk out the door, "And I'm going to go out to Canterlot and discuss how we should deal with this to Celestia, maybe I can move my bodies and such between worlds or something. Wouldn't it be interesting to see a princess of Equestria also be a human prince of Equestria and a dimensional ambassador all at the same time? That is, assuming that my alicorn body renders me as one of the co-rulers of Equestria that is."
"Sta... Sam, I do admit that it would be an interesting to watch you do such things, and yes, I do suppose that your Alicorn body does give you princess... and prince statuses. But I'm not sure how it would work out in the long run. Go have your chat with Celestia, I'm sure she will want to hear what it is you have to say."
"Yeah, because why not? Also, I'm doing show and tell for part of it, mostly to do with the stuff loaded into the thing I waved at you earlier."
"What sort of things do you have loaded into that... fancy black brick?"
"Let's see... Music, Games, Videos..."
Twilight instantly perks up when she hears 'music', "So you have a band in there? How'd you fit a band in there? What the hey, how'd you even fit the instruments into it? That alone defies logic. How do you defy logic? Are the band members your slaves? Does your world support slavery? Oh my god... wait, I'm overreacting. Please explain this before I blow my top."
"Audio is created by movement of theair, correct?"
"Yes."
"And if you get a surface to vibrate just right, you can create a tone, and the pitch of the tone depends on how fast you vibrate it, correct?"
"Ye... wait, does that 'shield' thing of yours have some sort of automated version of that?"
"Precisely." I pull my shield out and flip the top, going into my music and looking through until I found a personal favorite, Gramatik - Street Bangerz Vol. 1 - Sumthin', "Here's an example of one of my favorites. If you ever get the chance to meet another human from my dimension, expect them to have a completely different taste in music, usually more violent and not as smooth." I started the song.
The song played with Twilight listening intently to it. When it ended, Twilight broke the silence. "That was... different, that's for sure, and maybe a bit... no, very repetitive, but it was still enjoyable. Anything else?"
With that, I got the biggest grin on my face. Eminem - My Name Is would be an excellent song to show off, that song's a classic to me, no matter what anyone tells me. I quickly found it and put it up to be ready to play. With the biggest grin that I could put up, I replied, "This song is a classic to me, no matter what anyone tells me. It comes closer to the style of music that I menioned earlier, but it's still more laid back. I doubt you'd take kindly to some of the gruesome lyrics, but it's still good, even in its own way." I started the song.
As soon as the song started and got past the first chorus set, Twilight immediately looked disgusted at the nine inch nails line. When the song ended, however, she had a horrified look plastered upon her face.
"I assume that I shouldn't give you the chance to listen to the worse stuff?"
"It was... an admittedly catchy tune, but..." Twilight shivered, "Who would want to stick nails in their eyelids, much less try to convince kids to do the same... Who'd want to do any of that stuff? That's horrible!"
"I admit, yes, it's not the best song when it comes to not saying gruesome things, but it's still good to me in it's own way. It's acually pretty funny of a song, especially when you've grown up to know that most of the stuff said in most songs is complete and utter bullshit stories, sometimes even intended as a joke."
Twilight was taken aback, "A JOKE? Why would you joke about gruesome things like THAT? Nevermind, go talk to Celestia while I work up the frame of mind to comprehend this insanity."
And so I turned to leave via window. I summoned the ethereal wings so as to glide down, but was interrupted. "Sam, does your version of humans posess magic?"
I instantly knew she was referencing the wings I had just summoned. "Umm, not normally? I kind of do as of my first dimensional switch, but I think it was likely a side-effect of both being in an alicorn body and learning magic with it. Otherwise humans of my dimension absolutely do not possess magic. Humans have pretty much always survived using technology. My shield here was actually one of the numerous results of technology. Think of it this way, the spears that the guards carry around this place were invented a thousand years ago, and the bows and crossbows that are definitely in the armory have been outdated for at least two hundered. To be frank, our combat technology goes as far as to fire thousands of small metal projectiles every minute at speeds impossible for a crossbow to match with far greater accuracy using explosive powders and automated projectile loading systems. Our wartime technology is infinitely worse, as we could literally flatten a city by the drop of a radioactive bomb called a nuke. Let's just say that you don't want to get on really bad terms with any of the countries on Earth."
Twilight just sat there on the side of her bed, a look of amazement and horror set up on her face. "Well, I... I'm glad we got you... instead of a violent warmonger such as you describe most people as being."
I waved a hand so as to push the thought away, "Most people aren't actually warmongers, Twilight. In fact, the warmongers actually scare themselves out of going to war most of the time due to the high possibility that either side can just drop a few nukes and be done with it in a snap."
"I guess that's good, then."
"Yeah. I gotta be off, I want to get over to Canterlot before midday."
"Ok, I hope your chat... and show and tell... with Celestia works out better than what part of it you had with me did."
"I hope so too." And I was off, choosing to run rather than take the train. What? I needed the fitness, even if it does make me be much later than I wanted to be. It looked to be about the same distance as from my home to my elementary school, and I could walk that distance easy, so I could walk it no probs, right?
Author's Note
This weekend's chapter, done on the spot! Still don't have any editors, but that shouldn't stop me from being creative, hmm? Besides, from the looks of it, most of what the editors will be editing is event holes and pace shifts. I don't think that pace shifts are going to be a problem until the action comes in, whenever it comes in, but until then, I'm taking it slowly and fleshing up the character as well as the environment. I get the feeling that I probably did an accidental PoV change to third at least once, but I haven't gone back to look for it. If you find it, if it exists, then please do tell! Otherwise, I hope that I can make the run interesting, as well as the conversation with 'Tia. From what I've got planned at this moment, and that plan might end up compleely diiferent by the time next weekend hits, the run should be eventful and ridiculously tiring and the chat with Celestia will get... heated, at the minimum. Besides that, enjoy!
EDIT: Updated the insert video here points to actually have the relevant videos.
Chapter 11 - My Clumsy, Stupid Self.
So, I haven’t slept in either form for more than twenty four hours. But I don’t feel that tired, so I guess that this Alicorn magic stuff coursing through my body makes sleep a lesser requirement. I spent half the night trekking my way to the base of the mountain of Canterlot, or as I’m going to nickname it until further notice, Mt. Canterlot, and the sun has just started to peek the horizon. I’m currently at the base of the mountain, and according to my Shield it’s about 7:05 in the morning, and seeing as the sun began peeking only a few minutes ago, Celestia must have some sort of obsession with being on time, even though she’s had more than a thousand to grow lenient about timing. I’m with one goal right now, and that is to Get up to Canterlot and speak with Celestia, preferably before midday hits on the Earth time system. I don’t know what sort of clock system ponies use, or if they use any sort of clock system, so I shall keep human time references to myself until further notice.
I’m staring upwards at the city, pondering how I should get up there. Should I find the train and hitch, or should I climb?
‘You walked this far, surely you can climb.’ Samantha answered inside my head.
The logic denied any argument. ‘Ah, what the hell. Why not?’ I replied.
So, I found a reasonably sized edge on the stone, and placed my right hand on it. I looked upwards and found another, but I could barely reach it, so I heaved myself up to grab it, but before I could register what had happened, I found my left hand, no, my whole me flying an approximate twenty feet in the air. I felt my heart leap in my chest, not unlike that sensation I always got when riding a good roller coaster, as I began my descent.
“Shit shit shit SHIT!” I screamed as I fell, landing on the ground with a hard thud, “Oh my god... Wait where’s the pain? THE FUCK AM I NOT HURTING FOR?” I had recovered unusually quickly, and hadn’t felt an ounce of pain from the landing.
‘Hmm... Super strength, ethereal flight that I can’t do much more than hover with, some ridiculous pain tolerance, the ability to use magic, and apparently either hard bones or quick recoverability. I could get used to this. Hmm...’ I trailed off in thought as I regained my rationality.
‘Since you can’t do much with the wings outside of gliding, maybe you could use the strength to try to jump to Canterlot, and if you fail to make it all the way, you can glide.’ Samantha brainstormed.
Again, the logic of the idea fared no argment, so I agreed to try it. I got into a squat and jumped as hard as I could. My heart leaped in my chest again from the momentum, but I resisted it. Soon enough I found my head making concussions against the bottom of a slight ledge that stuck out of the city. I managed to only fall about an inch or two before I recovered and stuck my arms out over the sides of the ledge, grabbing the top. I pulled myself up, making sure to not fling myself like last time I did that, and found myself staring at the back of a white fancy building.
‘Your logic does not fare argument, sis. I’m glad that we got a good sense of that.’ I replied in thanks to my twin soul.
‘Sometimes I wonder how you survived without more than a personality link with me.’ Samantha retorted sarcastically.
Keeping the internal conversation serious, I returned the comment with ‘Likely because I didn’t have many life or death situations back then other than the suicidal thoughts I had in my pre-brony depression.’
‘Good point. We should probably get moving, we don’t want to waste the last four and a half hours we have left unless we can, and the castle and the market district are probably close to each other, so we can waste a little time when we find that area.’ Samantha finalized.
Looking around, I found an alley beside the building I was behind, and proceeded to get to the main road through it. That is, until about halfway though it, when I found myself on the ground with a hooded figure on my chest.
“Give me all your money and possessions or you will die a horrible death.” the hooded figure claimed with venom in his voice. Great, a robbery. Nice to know that Equestria has to deal with a petty crime rate as well as... Tirek and Nightmare Moon to name a few.
“Ah, I just walked for half a night and did a sort of super jump to meet the Princess and all I get is a robber? I guess that a human like me isn’t seen as much of a threat. I would commend your judgement, if it were anyone else. But me? I have power not unlike that wielded by the mares of your triarchy, in similar amounts as well. There’s also the fact that I don’t have a single bit on me, nor any valuables other than the casual clothes on my back that I got for dirt cheap in my homeland.” I replied nonchalantly.
“You’re bluffing. A puny... whatever, like you, couldn’t have that sort of power. Impossible.” He spat, denying what I had just said.
I brought my hand to the nape of his neck and pinched the skin under the fur, lifting him by that grip as I rose to my feet.
“Ow ow ow ow ow ow stop that hurts! Put me down! Owwww...”
I dropped him, causing him to land on all fours with a stagger, before he brought a forehoof to the back of his neck to attend to it wih a rub. “Not only do I have immense magical power, I come from a race of normally non-magical beings. These beings are determined to be able to do anyting they wish, and have made many advancements without a trace of magic. Surely you don’t want to see your hometown be destroyed by a human weapon that’s made history with its ability to obliterate citis and leave them, as well as the area around them, less habitable than the Everfree for years afterwards?”
“Y-your bucking bluffing!” he retorted, the venom he once had shifting into terror.
I looked behind the terror-shaken pony to see a small metalworking station that just so happened to be there and levitated a small and long iron brick, most likely a piece for a small dagger or something, towards me. “Is this bluffing?” I put my hands beside each other in a grip on it and bent it to an imperfect right angle.
“N-no!” and with that, the nameless stallion ran off.
The deadpanning stare I had been giving the stallion quickly erupted into a manic grin. “He thought... heh... I was gonna... heh... nuke Canterlot! Hahaha! Oh my god, that brought tears to my mental eye.” I burst out into an uncontrollable laughter fit over the joke. Admittedly it was not funny for both parties, and most of what I said was sadly in truth, but it was still funny.
I recovered from the laughter, and tossed the iron boomerang aside, pulling my hood up and walking out from the alley. Maybe if I had my hood up I’d pass as an unusually built Minotaur as I made my way to the castle, which was in plain sight mostly due to it’s size. I definitely wanted to be early, and I wanted to be before midday, so I rushed a little. I pulled out my shield and checked the time, and found it to be about 8 A.M., which meant I had plenty of time before midday. However, I was too eager to meet Celestia, I just wanted to get to the castle and speak with her, there was much to discuss, and possibly have mild fangasms or something over, about Equestria. Of course, I was more of a general brony rather than a favorites chooser, but who said I couldn’t fangasm over everything in general?
It took another half hour to make my way through the city and find the market district. Obviously, there were shops all around the city, the metalworking stand being a good example, but the market district had much more. There were shops, stands, restaurants, and... ponies staring at me. All of them, at me, just because I entered the vacinity. The roads were only with occasional ponies coming to and from their houses, so it wasn’t much of a problem. But here? The roads were much more densely packed, even if not to the point of a traffic jam of ponies, and they were all staring at me. Maybe the market district wasn’t going to be as great as I imagined.
I quickly made my way past, soon finding myself in front of the gate to the castle grounds. There were two unicorn guards on either side of the gate, each staring at me attentively. “State your business, odd being.”
I injected eloquence into my voice as I spoke, “I must have a chat with your sun princess, Celestia. I have important matters that I must discuss with her.”
“Very well, I shall seek approval with her as my co-worker watches over you. I will return momentarily.” one of the guards stated, trotting through the gate to supposedly approve my audience.
“Geez, are all guards like that?” I stated out loud, much to the other guard’s amusement.
“Yes and no, it’s a sort of... unofficial requirement. The Princesses and ex-Captain, as he’s been a prince for the Crystal Empire for a little over a decade now, Shining try to dissuade the formal part, as well as the silence even if provoked part, but we’re trained to use stoicism. I remember being stationed near Sugarcube Corner back when I first got the job during a party that Princess Celestia herself attended, and one of the Element Bearers, as they’re called, Rainbow Dash I think it was, attempted to provoke the door guards to at least talk, but the... Other parts of the unofficial requirement took place. Oh I still remember the lecture that Shining gave them when he found out about it... a lecture about publicizing... you better believe it was funny. Only about half of it made sense and part of the lecture was based on pony voice box biology, a biology subcategory I didn’t even know existed until that day.” the guard explained with a manic grin.
“That’s... interesting.” I stated speechlessly.
“Yeah, that definitely was an interesting day of my life, still remember it clear as day... and speaking of day, look who’s coming back with your answer.”
The guard that had left was approaching rather quickly. When he was in talking distance, he quickly stated, “You may pass. The princess is rather eager to meet you. Please make your way to her quickly, I’m not sure why but she is... very eager to meet you for some reason, so as to restate.”
I wasn’t shocked to hear this... I suspected that Twilight may have had something to do with that. I’ll have to consult her later about that. “Great. Also, what happened to formalities?”
“Does that matter? Anyway, the hearing chambers are straight ahead, though I suspect that she may take you somewhere more private if her unusual lack of stiocism says anything.”
“Well that’s disturbing... anyway, I guess I should be on my merry way. oh, and other guard, I like you. What’s your name?” I said as I began to walk the path to the hearing chambers.
“Cranial Conundrum the scatterbrained, at your service.” He replied.
“Wow... you have an interesting name. I would get a nickname if I were you. By the way, Samuel Lyons, or Sam for short.” I told him.
“I hope your conversation goes well Sam!” he almost yelled as I left.
I wonder what ‘Tia’s got in mind for me? Sounds like it could get really bad...
Almost as bad as me nearly tripping on a well-placed rock. Thank god I was always a natural for balance, possibly due to years of running around on wet floors.
Author's Note
No, this is not a teaser to a sex-tag-requiring chapter. But it is something that Sam is gonna not enjoy . But it won't be a CeleSam (or Salestia) sex scene. And yes, when I was a kid, I'd take every chance I could get to put on a fresh pair of socks and go do stupid stuff on freshly mopped floors.Sometimes I didn't even wear socks. Anyways, as a side effect of doing that, the last time I remember falling was at least seven or more years ago? I've had people purposely trip me, with nothing to grab in front of me, and I barely even stumbled in most cases. But I never fell.
You know what? It's about freaking time that I got this chapter out; and I had to deal with a combination of demotivation, distraction by other stories (I read and am reading a LOT of stories, nearly all of them above 25,000 words, most of them in the 100,000+ words range), school, AND losing all my progress to get it. thank god I made that giant spoiler on my blog; I used that to write a chapter that was vaguely similar to what I had before. Except that I'm pretty sure I put more detail into this version than what I had done of that version. So yeah, I did that. End of story. No, not the story that this AN is in. Whatever, I'mconfusing myself. Maybe I'll get more chapters done more quickly in the future; I don't know.
Chapter 12 - Not What She Expected
I had opened the doors to the hearing chamber, only to find the white face of Celestia just inches from the door with a manic grin. She took notice of me when I stepped around the door enough for her to see, and the grin faltered slightly in what I could only guess to be disappointment. By now I’m for sure that Twilight sent a letter ahead of me, but I suppose that she didn’t mention my original form, only my name. Celestia expected my pony form, I suppose?
“I see you have made good time today, Samuel.” She started.
“Yes, I found out I could scale mountains with a jump on the way. I used to not be able to do anything close to that.” I replied in self amusement.
“It must be an effect of the alicorn magic that I can sense within you. But I do not recognize the body or any magical extremities. In fact, I am only able to tell that you are the recently discovered alicorn is by the magical signature. Could you explain this?” Celestia wanderd aloud.
“I’m not entirely sure how this works myself, but it has something to do with another soul or something within me that I’ve come to know by the name of Samantha. This is the body that I had before any of this stuff happened. I experimented with the dimensional thing more recently, specifically seeing if I could bring items back with me, and it seems I brought my body with me too when I did that. Now, why are you so eager to meet me?” I explained.
“You’re not alone.” She stated. As she let time sink it in, she nudged me to a seat. “You see, nearly twenty years ago, a young boy had died in your would, only to be bound by unfortunate coincidence and be revived momentarily after in the body of Nightmare Moon, and raised as a daughter of Luna. I feel that you are following a similar, yet more fortunate path.”
“So you’re trying to claim me to be your son? Or... daughter? Or whatever?”
“No, what I am saying is that so far, you haven’t died, been consumed by the hatred of another’s past, or been tortured physically by those who despise that past.”
“And that’s worse than living ten years being nearly constantly bullied in school, as well as living with my grandparents of whom one is a con artist and the other is a child abuser only held back by the threats of my father,and living another three in severe depression after finding out several things that said grandparents had retained from my finding out for those first ten years of my life, then forcing myself to forget about that depression using distractions for another three years?”
“I didn’t know this. I am not an omniscient being, and therefore I cannot know everything. But I am sorry.”
“No need for apologies, you cannot know someone’s past unless you lived it with them. And my past has shown that while ignorance is most definitely bliss, as signified by those first ten years, knowledge can allow an easier grasp on the real situation. Where I’m from, the real situation has been devastating wars and death several too many times.”
Celestia’s face paled at the mention of war and death. “Well, I guess it’s easy to presume that your kind has a thing for fighting themselves? Not unlike the violent Minotaurs of Tauria.”
“That’s only half of the truth. Where I’m from, we are also highly innovative and have caused technology to advance extremely quickly. Give me an example of the best non-magical technology that you have around here. I guarantee that my native technology can outmatch it or outperform it easily.”
Celestia considered my challenge. After a moment,she replied “We have motorized ground carriages as a high priced luxury item.”
My grin faltered, but only slightly. If they had motorized carriages, they were somewhere in the late 1800’s era on technology at best, it seemed. “Our motorized carriages are fairly cheap and most can reach speeds of 100 Miles per hour, and the more expensive ones fare even better. We even have a racing league setup where several of some of the highest end vehicles, which can reach speeds higher than 300 Miles per hour I think, race on a smooth track.”
“Airships?” Celestia challenged.
“Stunt planes, MACH Jets, and Public air transit.”
“Crossbows?”
“Pistols, Rifles, Sniping Rifles, SMG’s...”
“Telecommunication?”
“Wireless Phones, Internet, Video Chat, Computers.”
“I do not have a clue what most of those are, but I feel like I’ve lost.”
“Well, I can show you most of them in due time, and a version of one of them right now. Specifically one of the things I mentioned to combat telecommunications.”
“Show me.” She almost demanded.
I pulled out my shield, and yanked the headphone plug, sticking the extra wire back in my pocket. I opened it to the home screen and showed it to her. “This is an example of a portable version of a computer. We aren’t in the other world, so I can’t show you things like the internet, or some of the services it provides, but I can show you some of the offline functionality.”
“Show me.” She stared at the small device with intensely curious eyes. Almost creepy.
“Let’s start with some sort of music.”
“You mean to be able to play music from that measly small item?”
“Yes. Now hold on while I find something good. I want to impress you.”
I turned around to stand next to Celestia, adjusting my grip on my Shield as I turned so as to keep the screen in her view. I started tapping around the screen to find some music, and I settled with...
Celestia stayed silent through the entire song, swaying to the beat of the song playing on the treble-y speakers. When it finished, she turned to me with a dreamy look in her eyes.
“What?”
“That music was wonderful, what else could this thing achieve?”
“If we had internet here, I could access a worldwide database of practically infinite information by the search of a keyword or two and the press of a button. Or I could play several types of games on it ranging from classic board games to games only made possible by the existence of technology close to this level.”
“I think Twilight would never get over such a possibility. I hope that you haven’t told her much about that thing yet.”
“I played a song or two for her before I left for here, I definitely disturbed her with the last song. Of course that song would probably freak anyone with a peaceful mindset if they listened to the lyrics.” I gave a some sort of wicked grin.
‘Yeah, and it was fuckin’ hilarious.’ Samantha butted in. She always finds the best time to butt in on my life, doesn’t she?
“Oh dear, I hope you don’t have her looking for a mental hospital to apply you into.” Celestia replied with an amused grin.
“If she does, there’s no way I’d allow myself to even get pulled there. Anyway, when I first came in, you mentioned something about a Nightmare Moon daughter of Luna something before we spun off topic?”
“Ahh, yes. I am sure you would enjoy her company, as well as she yours. Shall I take you to meet her?”
I shrugged, “Why not?”
“Very well, just follow me and we shall arrive shortly.”
Celestia walked down a nearby hallway, and I followed suit.
I broke the near silence with a question. “Celestia, why have I been able to learn unicorn magic so easily? I thought it would be harder to learn than it has been for me.”
“Regular unicorn magic is limited by power, of which builds up with growth and training. The alicorn variation, however, is limited only by imagination. So, if an alicorn wills their imagination, they can cause nearly anything to happen due to magic.” She explained.
“I suppose that explains the reason why my first levitation made the book I levitated grew eyes and bit Twilight.”
“We usually classify that function of alicorn magic as chaos magic. In Discord’s case, he grew addicted to the chaos element of alicorn magic and his body twisted as a side effect. Then we had to petrify him for a while. But with the help of Fluttershy, we’ve helped him tame his addiction fairly well.”
‘That explains alot about the origins of Discord before the show, I guess.’ I replied mentally.
“Well, you should be able to trust I won’t do anything like that intentionally.” I assured.
“I hope not. Anyway, we’re here.”
We were standing in front of a black door with a crescent moon engraved in the middle. Her personal living quarter, if I had to guess.
“So... I knock?” I questioned.
“Go ahead.” Celestia assured me.
I knocked.
“Who in Tartarus is trying to wake me at this hour?” a muffled voice from the inside responded.
“Someone new, Stellar. Come out and meet them.” Celestia replied in kind.
“Ok, whatever.” I heard some ruffling inside before the door swung open.
The black face of what was undoubtably Nightmare Moon poked out and stared at me a second before they widened and her jaw loosened and let her mouth hang open.
She stayed like that for several seconds, before I turned to Celestia. “Did my appearance break her?”
She was still staring. “I’m not sure... Let’s give her a moment.”
She stayed like that for a few more seconds before shaking her head and turning to Celestia. “Is he real?”
“As real as you or Celestia. Why wouldn’t I be? Stellar, was it?” I replied in Celestia’s place.
“Stellar Nova, yes. But how? Dimensional travel is only possible under certain circumstances, such as my circumstances with when I died at coincidental timing seventeen years ago.”
“For me, I fell asleep after an unusual day and got pulled here in a different body, and have since found myself able to do several new things as well as find out numerous things about myself I never knew. And the way it happened for me I never died, instead I have two bodies that I can switch between and use for dimensional travel. Don’t ask me for specific details, I still haven’t entirely figured it out yet.”
“Umm... ok? Sounds more confusing than the story of how I got here.”
“Trust me, I’m confused as all hell, all I’m doing is working with what I’ve been given, and I’m not entirely sure how I’m managing that.” I deadpanned.
“As long as it works, I suppose. But how did you manage... well, bringing your Earth form here?”
“Some kind of side effect that happened when I tried to bring Earthen technology back here with me.” I replied, still in a deadpan.
Damn, I’m on a deadpan roll today. If I keep this up, I might be able to make a new username on the internet based off of the word emotionless and have a legit reason to use it.
“Oh, and what may you have brought back with you that caused it?”
“A small form of computer.”
“Hmm? you mean one of those huge box things that I remember from my life as a human?”
“When did you leave?”
“I think that it was 1998 or something in Earth years.” Stellar answered.
A sudden connection pieced in my head.
“Wait, that can’t be right...that’s my birth year.” I wandered aloud.
“What?”
“Huh?”
“Ok, you two, I’m sure we’ll figure out everything in due time.” Celestia interrupted.
“Yeah, sure. I need to shower and wash these clothes anyway, that hike pulled a lot of sweat out of me.” I finalized.
“Ok, I guess we’ll see each other again later?” Stellar questioned?
“Oh, definitely. We have a coincidental year to discuss at least.”
“Maybe some other things too, but we won’t know until we get to them, I suppose? Also, I want to know more about the functions of this... small computer you said you brought with you.”
“I suppose I could arrange that.” I replied, “Celestia, could you lead me to a shower?”
“Sure,” Celestia replied, “I know I didn’t mention it before, but you do smell fairly... what word could I use for it? Ripe. Yes, you smell ripe. Now, follow me.”
I followed silently the whole way. We arrived at what I supposed was a guest bedroom, and she opened the door for me. “Please, make yourself at home. And clean yourself as well, of course. You are welcome to stay as long as you like.”
“Thank you, and while I would normally take you up on that offer, I’m not sure if my human self will catch your bed on fire like my alicorn self would. Or whatever you would call this two body arrangement thing.”
Celestia gave a light chuckle, “I’m sure that it you weren’t running around with your hair on fire back in your home dimension that you won’t be doing the same here in that form.”
I gave a grin. “Ok, but if you find this room on fire in the middle of the night or something, that’s on you.”
“Deal.”
As Celestia left me to my business, I went into the fairly sized bathroom that was included in the offer and took a good look at myself. Something I hadn’t done in this form since my last “normal” morning.
What I saw surprised me. Instead of the overload of acne and uneven sideburns, I saw a smooth face with an even sideburn mustache beard combo. As well as perfectly shaped hair- altough it was all shiny with sweat and grease. I suppose that saves a lot of future combing. I turned to the shower and started to organize it, to notice that my fingers looked different. I brought them in for close inspection, and found that the knuckle creases had seemed to tile and stretch into someting not unlike the twist design on a unicorn’s horn. Well, that explains how I’m doing magic, I guess. Alicorn magic is changing my body apparently. Hey, at least it’s making me look good, rather than the acne covered anorexic geek I used to look like. Hell, now I can kick ass and look good doing it if I wanted. Maybe I can go back and help America win the war against Isis or whichever war they’re fighting right now. Hell, I don’t know, maybe Russia’s rebooted the Cold War or something. I don’t keep track of this stuff.
Anyway, I took a shower. What of it? I’m sure there’s nothing to say about that. All I know is I got out and found all my clothes folded on the bed... I could swear that they were actually sparkling, where they were so clean, I guess. Even my jacket, which usually never gets close to clean, had the white thermal material inside turned actually WHITE and the red wasn’t stained and uneven like it’s always been. Damn, I need to learn how ponies wash their clothing so quickly and thoroughly.
Not much to be said, I dried, applied my boxers, placed my other clothes on the floor next to the bed, sat my shield on top of them, and I snuggled into the bed a little and fell asleep moments later. Wierd, I never fell asleep anything near that easily back home. Oh well, I should enjoy it since it happened.
Author's Note
Yes, I'm a Gramatik Fanatik, if you haven't figured that out from me using mostly his music for most of the music referencing parts. I have been ever since I found out about him. Why not have the fictional version of me be a Gramatik Fanatik as well? I did start writing him during the time not too long after I became one, and he's written into the same time period, so why not? Also, yes. Yes, I finally updated this story. I'm sure that some of my readers (of the few that exist) have wandered whether my story had died yet or not. Nope, yackaro's not a dead writer yet, just a very distractable one. Like, seriously, who wouldn't want to distract themselves with a new-old self-assembled budget gaming computer? I sure would, and did. Also, I've sort of moved into my father's living room for the summer, so I had some trouble with getting that set up. The bedrooms are highpile messes, so for now they're out of the question. Anyway, I found myself suffering an insomnia spell with nothing to really do, so I pulled out my gateway and started thinking. And managed this. And when I managed this, I went to save it, and I found another attempt to start out chapter 12 that I didn't finish. I read over it and... I don't know what I was doing when I wrote that, but I swear I wasn't thinking straight. What I had typed in there confused the hell outta me. But whatever, as long as I can type up something that works in the end in some form or fashion, I'm ok with it.
Chapter 12.5 - The War of My Dreams
I was on a street. I was carrying guns. Specifically, two pistols in my pants pockets, one for each hand, a scoped rifle in my backpack, with a shotgun and two SMGs of some kind fitted in with it. I also had ridiculous amounts of ammunition for each weapon weighing my backpack down even more. But I wore it as if it were weightless to me. I was approaching a city. The city had walls guarded by... Minotaurs, I think? The minotaurs weren't as armed as I was, but they appeared to be armored. Nothing that could stop a metal bullet, in any case if I needed to do so.
I got close to the city, and the minotaurs took notice. Not five seconds later, and I suddenly found the sky tainted with the shadow of several arrows. Arrows that seemed to be coming directly at me.
And then it stopped.
"What is this you dream of? Is it war? Death? Hatred? Or, perhaps a prophecy." A female voice spoke up behind me.
I turned around to see Princess Luna staring at the frozen scene in front of her. "Why not all of the above?" I questioned sarcastically.
"Perhaps, but we may not know until time comes to pass." Luna remarked.
"For my first actual dream ever, I find this scene awesome."
"Your first... dream?"
"Yep, first I've ever had. Kind of ironic, considering the capability of my imagination."
"Ahh, I see. but what makes a scene of approaching death... 'awesome', as you describe it?"
"I have my own weaponry that could easily combat theirs." I pulled out a pistol and an SMG and shot them side by side at a random spot, causing the ground to disrupt from the bullet impacts.
Luna Stared back and forth between the two weapons in my hand and the packed groundfrom the numerous bullets. "Surely such a weapon exists only here."
"I assure you that these are dream replicas of real weapons."
"Hmm. If you do not jest, then I wish to see such weapons applied in real life at our crossbow range." Luna demanded.
"Wait, you have a shooting range? Perfect, I've always wanted to practice with guns. I'll hold you up on that. As soon as I can get the weapons, that is."
Luna nodded,and replied with a serious tone, "Please, do not allow such weaponry to be used or replicated by anyone. At best, our enemies will be better armed. At worst, Others will start war because of a higher chance of success."
"Only unicorns and races with slender fingers or claws could use such weaponry without extensive design changes, so I'm fairly certain that if this technology goes public, you won't be in much danger. However, I will keep any who wish to steal or replicate them away as well as I can. Not that they'd ne able to use them without duplicating ammunition as well."
"Ahh," Luna remarked, "Morning is approaching, I shall see you at the breakfast table?"
"Absolutely. I guess I'll see you in a few. And, uh, good morning to you."
Luna chuckled, "Good morning to you as well."
Author's Note
I felt like doing a Luna moment short since I ended the last chapter the way I did. I typed this on a phone, and while I tried my hardest to correct any mistypes from the virtual keyboard, I may not have gotten everything. I want to try to make this chapter tie in heavily with some future chapters, to be something like a prophecy/foreshadow. I may not actually do it, depending on how it might disrupt the flow of the story, but I at least want to have the possibility.
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Chapter 13 - Discussions, Guns, and a Worried Grandmother
I woke up, feeling rather refreshed. I hadn’t felt very... clean recently, I’d been feeling like an overused sweat towel for a while, and the change in comfort was gladly accepted.
I silently applied the clothes that I hadn’t worn into the bed with me, not counting the jacket, and a thought came to mind.
‘The hell is the dining area?’ I thought. I hadn’t been at the castle for much more than an afternoon and night, which I had slept through most of, and was escorted by her majesty for the rest, so I didn’t know jack about the layout.
Samantha butted in. ‘Like hell if I know. You know this place as well as I do.’
‘That tells me jack shit. Thanks for the tip.’
‘No problem, I can pull a tap dance just as well if you want.’
‘Shaddap, let’s go wander.’
‘Ok, fine. Whatever.’
Pushing the door open and walking out, I took to walking down the right side. I decided that if I took every turn I came across, I’d make it somewhere. So, that’s what I did. And eventually, that’s how I roamed around a corner... and bumped my nose... right into the face of the sun goddess... and broke it sideways doing so.
But the broken nose went quickly unnoticed, almost as if it were never there, and Celestia broke the silence, “Up and about, Samuel? I would have taken you for a late riser, but I have been wrong before. I was just heading for breakfast, care to join me?”
“Hmm... I would, actually, if there are carnivorous items on the menu. I can and do eat plant foods, but it’s not the only side to the human diet.”
“Omnivorous, I see? Yes, I’m sure that we have such options on the menu. It’s not uncommon to see a griffon of the government branch of Griffonia around here, so I have the chefs keep livestock for them.”
With that, Celestia went, and I followed. A question brought up by past experience came to mind as we were walking.
“Do they cook the meat?”
“Come again?”
“Do they cook it, like, as in, put it in an oven or on a frying pan?”
“Why would we cook meat?”
“If you cook it right, it tastes better, and it usually cooks most toxins and diseases out.”
“If you say so.”
“Mind if I go disturb the chefs while I prepare a rabbit for myself?”
“Go right ahead.We’re just about to arrive in the dining hall anyway, the kitchen is a door away from that.”
“Thanks!”
And with that, we passed through a door into a decently sized room, with a long array of neatly sidled tables topped with a white and blue colored vinyl cloth. The dining room, I could easily guess. By the way, did I not break my nose on Celestia's face earlier? I could have sworn I did.
I spotted a pair of spring closing double doors near the end, and assuming that it was the kitchen, walked through them. Several chefs turned to look at me, some with confused looks, others with looks of slight fear.
“It’s ok, I’m only here to cook my own meal. I was informed you had the ingredients, but didn’t serve the item. I have Celestia’s approval for it if you need.” I explained.
The confusion left, but a slight tinge of fear remained.
“Now where’s the livestock I was informed of? As well as a knife and a wastebin?”
One of the more confident chefs answered. “Animals are in the greenhouse, which is out the back door and to the left. The wastebin is in the corner and the knives are in that knife block mounted on the wall.”
“Nice, Thanks.” I replied, going to pull out a knife.
I found a rather sharp knife with a wavy blade to settle with and stepped outside with the wastebin, to turn to the small glass-roofed half-high-walled shed to my left. Animals of all sorts were grazing through the plant life inside, leaving me wondering how the ponies kept their own food levels up when the carnivorous menu was constantly consuming it.
Waving the thought aside, I searched the ground inside for a fairly sized rabbit, and when I found one, I magic’ed it over the half-wall and carried on with what had began to become my regular preparatory habit - Skin, Gut, Cook - over the provided trash can.
I used magic to do a microscopic cleaning of the knife, and came back into the kitchen carrying the meat in my magic and the wastebin and knife in hand. After going over the knife in the sink to reassure the staff that it was clean, I reseated it into the knife block and moved the trashbin to the corner. With that done, I took the rabbit meat out of my magic and carried it into the dining room with me, leaving the chefs with a thanks.
“That doesn’t smell nearly as bad as what our carnivorous guests normally eat.” Celestia replied when she spotted the lump of cooked meat in my hand.
“Yeah, I don’t much like the smell of raw meat myself. To each their own, though. I guess.”
“Hmm,” Celestia began, “All of my ponies who tried meat the way it’s served currently have always gotten sick. Do you suppose that your meat might be more edible for ponykind? You did say something along the lines of ‘cooking out diseases’ earlier, if I’m not mistaken?”
“A possibility? I’m not entirely sure I would recommend it, though.” I replied uncertainly.
“I don’t suppose I would, either. But for a test, may I have a slice? Any illness is on me, so don’t worry.”
I ripped off a piece and lay it next to an egg on her plate with my magic. “I’m not sure, but since you seem to eat eggs, I actually think the meat may be edible. An egg is an unborn bird, usually a chicken in culinary arts, correct?”
Celestia stuffed the meat in her mouth, either hiding disgust or not finding any. “Hmm, yoo mae fbe currekt...” she stopped to finish consuming the rabbit, “Excuse my manners, I tend to do that at table discussions, and I may actually ask you for that recipe later, I found the taste to be rather... unique in a good way. I still don’t know about side effects, so I may not hold up to that.”
“I predict that you’ll probably get a case of indigestion at the worst, but I cooked it to what I’ve found to be my personal point of perfection. Well cooked, but not burned.”
“Hmm, why haven’t you eaten yet, then?” Celestia questioned.
“Other than the piece of test meat, I could ask the same of you, Princess.”
True to each other’s word, both of our meals remained untouched. “Caught up in the discussion, I suppose. Let’s eat then, talk another time.” Celestia answered for both of us.
---~:~---
After we finished our meals, I stood from the table. “I have two promises to keep, and I plan on keeping to both of them today. I have to go collect some home world items for one of them. Could you escort me back to my room so I can pick up the rest of my stuff before I go?”
“I suppose, may I ask what you need?”
“Luna snooped in my dream last night and saw human weaponry, wants me to prove it exists. You can attend the crossbow range with her if you want.”
“Ahh, I think I will.”
“Then hurry up and escort me so I can get my stuff before I leave to get the weaponry.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
So I followed behind her as she led me. I wasn’t doing anything otherwise, so I decided to let myself zone out. I thought of the things that advanced weaponry would allow for me to do. I could settle wars in other countries, I could painfully disable criminals like the one I had encountered on my way here, I could... go mad and mass murder everything... become a contract assasin... damn, at least I know that I wouldn’t do horrible things such as that, I’ve never been that sort of person, even in video games like GTA. I guess that’s why I never completed story mode in any of those games.
We arrived at the familiar door of the room I had taken for the night. “I suppose I’ll see you at the gun range later?” I questioned.
“As a specific citizen of ponyville would say, eeyup.” Celestia mocked, conjuring a chuckle from me.
“Ok, I can accept that answer,” I commented, “See you later.”
As she left, I closed the door and collected my belongings.
‘I think we’re ready, sis.’
‘Ok, try to focus on something in your hand like last time.’
I pulled my shield out of my jacket pocket, and focused my will into bringing it with me.
‘Got it.’
‘Ok, I’ll take you straight to this time.’
With a moment of blankness, I found myself suddenly standing in Tyler’s backyard once again. This wasn’t where I needed to be, but as long as I was back, it wouldn’t take too long to get anywhere, especially with my new leg strength. If I could scale a mountain with a jump, who said I couldn’t run at high speeds without much effort?
I pulled out my shield and opened Google Maps- thank god I keep the local area map saved to the map cache -and set it to my home. It was Saturday, so no doubt my grandmother would probably be home. Oh well, she couldn’t handle me now anyway, so I shouldn’t worry.
I looked at the blue line on the map as I began to run down the roads it represented. I must have been running ridiculously fast, because the wind hit my face like a whip and the traffic going in my direction seemed to whizz past... backwards. Needless to say, it didn’t take long before I recognized the streets enough to put my shield away, and even less time to make it back home.
Surely enough, my grandmother’s van was parallel parked in its usual spot in the gravel, but I’d been missing for what, a week now? So at least I could assure her that I lived, and wasn’t in danger anytime soon.
I walked up to the door., pulled the screen half open, and knocked. *Thump, Thump, Thump* The floor was always weak, I know the sound. The thumping stopped about five steps later, and the door opened slightly, only to swing the rest of the way.
“SAM!” she shouted, pulling me into the tightest hug she could without straining her joints. She wasn’t a great parent; far too restrictive, worried too much about minor things. But better her than my grandfather, whom would have yelled at me and possibly have attempted to beat me, depending on how willing he was to break his truce with my father.
I pulled her off of me as gently as I could, “Yes, I know you’ve been worried, just know I’m probably doing better now than I’ve done in years, no, my whole life. I’m here to take my backpack and a few assorted weapons, to keep a promise and also to help protect myself if necessary.”
Seeing her in tears was not uncommon if she worried more than somewhat. She was in tears, again. This didn’t affect me in the slightest; she would have to get over it.
“But why, Sam? You snuck out of a hospital just after recovering from a coma, came here and took stuff when I wasn’t here, and you haven’t been seen since! I’ve been so worried about you...”
“Yes, that’s what you do, I know from experience. Rest assured, I’m in a perfect situation, solving physical problems that I’ve had my whole life, and severing the ties to the mental problems. I’m better now than any of those psychiatrists or therapists you forced me to attend could ever have made me. Heh, I could probably pick you up with one arm using this new strength.” I explained, pushing past her to grab the items I’d come for.
The crying had stopped, replaced by confusion. “But you don’t look any stronger, what makes you think you could do something that ridiculous?”
I was in the back bedroom by then, sorting through the mess of rifles, a few shotguns, occasional pistol, and rare SMG, “Just think of it as something magical, like in a movie.”
I’d already picked out a pump shotgun, and had sorted through the rifles and found one that looked like it could shoot to a half of a mile. Now for the pistols and SMGs. Any pistol would work, as long as I could find two of the same model, for symmetricality purposes. SMGs if I could find any two, I’d be fine with that. But one would work fine, I guess. I knew of at least one that he kept, so I would search for it surely.
My grandmother had decided to shut up for a few, but she wasn’t held quiet forever. “So, you’re leaving again? Are you going to come back at least occasionally?”
“Yes, I’ll be back here and there, but I can’t ensure I could make a fixed schedule for it.” I answered.
“So, you’re not going to be living here anymore. I guess I won’t have anyone to fuss at anymore.”
“I guess not.” I agreed. I found the SMG in the gunpile, and laid it out next to my other two chosen weapons. I had about five different pistols laid out, none of a similar model. I knew I didn’t want a revolver pistol, so I left those lying whenever I found them.
“Oh well, I assume you want to take clothes as well?”
“Oh yeah, I would’ve run out of a single pair of clothes soon anyway.” I joked, pulling out a matte black pistol that matched one of the five other pistols perfectly, even down to the color. I stuffed both pistols into my pants pockets on either side. “Looks like I’ve found what I needed. I’m sure Estill won’t notice the missing weapons, he has too many anyway.”
If I haven’t mentioned before, Estill is the name of my grandfather. Eileen the name of my grandmother. However Estill gets no title due to his abusive personality and Eileen has the title of “Mom” to me, because of how she worries about me even more than she does for her own children, including my father. I suppose that she’s just trying to make up for letting two of her three children become druggies. My aunt Sonya is probably the worst, at least my uncle Anthony tries to get away from that life.
“He doesn’t need them anyway” Mom joked.
“You could say that again, half the pile in this room purely consists of guns.” I said, in complete honesty... I’ll even draw it for everyone to see.
[AN: I’ll draw it when I get the chance. Just know it’ll be right here when I do draw it.]
“Anyway, if you need me, I’ll be in the living room doing my sweepstakes.” Mom told me.
“Ok, I shouldn’t be much longer.”
I went to my bedroom, which was still untouched to my suprise- I would’ve guessed that the police would’ve searched it for Missing Person evidence or something by now. I grabbed my good old backpack- a heavy duty multipurpose hiking bag that had managed to last me for a whole year without any sign of wear- best bag I’ve had in a long time. I went back and stuffed the rifle and shotgun into the main pocket- I half zipped it because they poked out of the top- and the SMG fit into a side pocket chamber down, leaving the handle sticking out backwards for quick access if need be.
After stuffing several sets of clothes into the secondary pocket, I decided I was ready to go. “I’m gone, I’ll see you again soon mom! Oh, I think I’ll take the bike as well.” I said to the woman on the plush living room couch.
“Just... Stay safe, and out of trouble.” she requested, putting her laptop aside and standing, to see me off, I guess.
“No problem,” I promised as I stepped out of the door, “Neither is hard for me right now.”
“Ok,” She said, following me out, “As long as you can keep that promise.”
“That I will.” I said, pulling my white mountain bike out of the high brush beside the wooded porch.
As I mounted the bike and rode off- in the 8th tire gear and 3rd pedal gear because I found the thing so much easier to ride- I ended up pushing so hard I spun the back tire on the road and left a smoke trail as I sped down the road. Next stop, Ammunition shop. I can probably conjure money and a fake ID out of thin air, so it shouldn’t be too much trouble unless the ‘probably’ part takes on a negative side. Then I guess I can still rob it and wipe the cashier’s memory or something. My shield says it’s about eleven in the morning anyway, so I have plenty of time yet. Just noticing, my shield is still on full charge. Hmm, maybe it has something to do with constant magical exposure. Whatever, works in my favor in the end.
Author's Note
I felt like writing a chapter, so I wrote a chapter. Who knows, if Celestia doesn't get any serious illness from the meat, she might just try to encourage ponies to go slightly more omnivorous. And the griffons will definitely have a new food choice once the word about 'cooked meat' spreads. And Luna might be awe'd by the power of human weaponry, or possibly be scared shitless on the inside by the power of such weapons. She won't know for sure until she sees them in action, though. So many things could go so many ways, it almost physically causes my head to spin! Anyway, We shall see next chapter I suppose.
Chapter 14 - Guns, Puns, Fun, & Faceplant
I arrived at a gun shop according to directions on my shield. It didn’t look like too much, but I guess as long as you keep the weaponry and its ammunition well organized, you wouldn’t need much space unless you had severe overstock. I tested my theory with ID and money conjuration, and to the release of a breath I didn’t realise I was holding, I conjured a small pile of hundreds and a random ID. “Nicholas E. Johnson,” I wonder what part of my imagination came up with that? Who cares, I can use it to get bullets, so what does it matter?
After walking in, I pulled out the weaponry I had and laid it out on the table in front of the clerk. “I need ammunition. I’d say... twenty five clips for each pistol, five fifty round clips for the semi, and fifty shots each for the shotgun and rifle. Can you do that for me? I can pay any price.”
“I guess ya can... if I have all’a that in stock. Uhh... Le’me go check the stock first.” The guy said, in the all too common thick southern accent that plagued about half of town. He returned after about half a minute, looking rather disappointed. “I can get ya all ya need for th’ most part, though we only have two o’tha semi clips.”
It was still more than enough. I wanted the SMG mostly to show off more types of weaponry, anyway. “I can deal with that. How much?”
He pondered my question as he sorted through the register to get a total. “Les’see... about one sevn’ty five, for the cheap stuff. I think it’d be well over a thousand if you got tha high quality stuff.”
“Either will do, I have enough money that it doesn’t matter.” I commented. “Go ahead and get me the expensive stuff, don’t tell me how much it costs, I don’t want to know. It’s not like I’ve always had this kind of money. And it’s not like I always will. So I’m going to spend it carelessly while I have the chance.”
“Very well, then.” he returned to the stock room and remained for a little bit before he came struggling out with a heavy pile of selective ammunition. “These should all work with your guns, I had a look at the model numbers, I know what stuff they all take.”
The pile of metal and encased flammable powder slapped against the table loudly and gracelessly as he dropped it.
“Cash and ID, please.” he requested. I held out the freshly conjured items to him, and as he took them, I turned around so as to not see the price. I’m sure I didn’t want to know what it was. “Your change, Mr. Nicholas?”
“Keep all the change, you need it more than I.” I replied nonchalantly. Obviously, I could conjure millions in seconds, and I’d probably be spending most of my time running around in an alternate dimension that didn’t support or exchange US currency anyway.
“Uh... Umm... A mighty thank you, sir. I couldn’t be more grateful. Umm... Take care now, y’here?” He replied nervously, unsure of what to think of my generosity.
“Will do. Spend that cash wisely, now. It’s not like that stuff can just pop up out of thin air.” I joked. ‘And the joke has a whole new meaning around me.’ I thought.
I piled the weaponry back into my backpack, and sorted through the ammunition and put it all in respectively organized places- half the pistol ammo on each side pocket, SMG clips in the rear pocket, buckshot boxes in the secondary pocket, rifle ammo boxes in the primary. I was set.
With a final wave of goodbye to the clerk- who looked about to cry of joy towards my good deed- I slung the now quite heavy backpack onto my back with ease- Alicorn strength made it look and feel a lot easier than it would have looked if I hadn’t had it. Anyway, I walked out and proceeded to my bike to ride off. After I was sure nobody was going to see me, I pulled the mental signal. ‘Ok, I think we’re good, let’s go.’
And not with a moment’s notice I was back.
Over my limp pony form.
On the burned bed.
In the Castle of Friendship.
Long walk again? No, it would be a bike ride this time.
No... wait, I think I might be able to teleport there, I can picture the area in my head now...
Just imagine that I’m there...
And... I’m there? No, here? Hmm, I didn’t expect it to be that simple...
Oh, wait...
“God damn it I feel like puking now...” I explained out loud.
Before I gave a few dry heaves.
After I recovered from that, I triumphed to myself, ‘HAH! That STILL did not break my no-puke streak!’
I looked around to take in my surroundings, and found I’d teleported back into the guest bedroom. Figuring I had nothing better to do anyway, I dismounted my bike and stepped out to see if I could wander my way to the range.
Needless to say, wandering got me nowhere, and by nowhere I mean I was in a maze of hallways with no idea where I was in it.
“Back already, Sam?” I turned around to see Celestia finish addressing my arrival.
“Yeah, but I can’t figure out these halls. If not redesign the layout, somebody needs to at least label directions to key areas.” I deadpanned.
“After a few centuries, you’ll figure out your way around, I’m sure.” She joked.
“Not funny, miss princess pony. Now where’s the range? I’ve spent what feels like half an hour trying to find it now.”
“Just follow me again and you’ll find yourself there soon enough. Those things sticking out of your saddlebags and pockets are the weapons in question, correct?”
I pulled out one of the pistols and held it out to her for a moment before pocketing it again.. “Yeah, I got a few different types so I could show you different traits brought on by different designs.”
“Hmm, I grow more curious the more you speak of these weapons. We should hurry along, I’ve already informed Luna of your intentions and Stellar came with to have that discussion you promised. They should both be at the range by now.” Celestia informed.
“Ahh, I can hit two birds with one stone then.” I joked.
“Please don’t use those jokes in public, other ponies might find them sickening.” She deadpanned.
For about five minutes, silence settled as we made our way. “So, anything from the sudden carnivorous intake you had earlier?” I questioned.
“Suprisingly enough, no. I’ll have to look into the idea of herbivore compatible meats sometime.” Celestia seemed to slightly brighten to the idea, “I know my ponies want to live alongside animals, but more recently, the animal population is getting out of control, not even the griffins can keep it under control. Maybe pass it off as a mystery food, and ponies will eat it unknowingly?”
“I don’t know,” I claimed, “rumors about it could spread easily. Especially if chefs decide to not keep quiet about it. Maybe restrict the preparing to griffin chefs? They are carnivorous, so they shouldn’t find preparing meat dishes disgusting like a knowing pony would.”
“Hmm, yes, that should probably work. but food discussions aside, we’re here.”
“Why have all of our hallway conversations ended so abruptly?”
“I don’t know, maybe ask the destination?”
“Whatever.” I deadpanned.
We walked through the door that we had stopped in front of, to find both night princesses had been staring at the door waiting for us. “We have expected...you? Sam, you look much like you did in the dream from before, could it have been actual prophecy we witnessed, like I guessed?”
I shrugged, “I’m sure it wasn’t prophecy. Besides, I’m an SMG short to match the dream. Well, I guess I show you what these things do in real life?”
“Whatever you say, Sam. I’m sure we are all eager to see the performance of human weaponry.” Luna finished for me.
I pulled out the pistols and slapped clips into each one of them from my backpack. “These are called pistols. Most pistols are balanced between range, rate of fire, and accuracy.” I found a woven target and aimed at it, staring over the top of the chosen pistol to assure my aim. CRACK! CRACK! I unloaded two shots into the target, both hitting somewhere around two or three inches off center.
I pocketed the pistols, and reached back to pull out the SMG and a corresponding clip. “A Semi Machine Gun, or SMG for short, usually has a very high rate of fire, but most lack enough range and accuracy to do much damage from a distance.” I stuck the clip in, and flipped the safety. PUPUPUPUPOWWww. I put in somewhere around five shots, and only one of the bullets came within three inches of the center.
After re-locking the safety and pulling the clip, I stuffed it back in to grab the rifle and two bullets for it. “Most rifles are slow to reload, but if you are looking to cover long distances and cause serious damage, they tend to be the best for the job. President John F. Kennedy was assasinated by a single bullet from one. Didn’t have time to scream, if the history books tell me right.” I loaded a bullet. Aimed. POWWww... dead center. Loaded the second bullet. Aimed. POWWww. I could see light spilling through the center of the target by the hole in the center I’d made with two bullets. Hmm, maybe I’m being such a good shot because of the alicorn strength... and a sharper vision, maybe? Ahh, I care not.
“No magic... I don’t see magic in these ‘guns’, yet they could cause so much chaos if it were in the wrong hands. They’re like Discord. In the right hooves and care, Fluttershy being the example, he can be good in his own ways, but if he’s made friends with the wrong beings, Tirek being the counterexample, he can cause great harm. The only difference being that They’re magicless ranged weapons instead of a corrupt and misshapen alicorn, and they don’t have wills of their own.” Luna explained, probably more to herself than anything.
“Well, look at it this way.” I started, “They can be used by both sides. While deadly, the deadliness spreads to whoever is in front of them, and if both sides have them, then it isn’t a one-sided fight unless one side doesn’t entirely know how to use their own. While premature death happens alot due to the wars that humans have, it usually doesn’t come without a fair fight.”
“Do they really fight... that much?” Stellar had interjected.
“Yes, unfortunately.” I answered, “But never without reason. Be it freedom, religion, disagreements, you name it, it’s been fought over to the death at least once I’m sure. Also, I’m sure that seven billion people is enough to ensure that SOMEBODY will still be alive no matter what.”
“Humans crave sex that badly?” Celestia wandered aloud.
“CAN” I interrupted, immediately grabbing her attention. “Can, not do. Some not at all.”
She brought on a blush that looked just adorable on her figure. “Sorry, I was thinking aloud, sorry.”
“If that was thinking aloud, I don’t want to know what you were thinking silently.” I interjected.
Celestia flustered, and Luna and Stellar looked about to break in laughter. “Sister... for a milennia old mare... you put thought into...” aaand the dam broke.
The Night Princesses were both literally rolling on the floor from laughing so hard, leaving Celestia with an almost blue face, and me with an uncomprehending stare. “I’m not entirely sure why I started that...” I trailed off, “I’m sorry, Mother. Th...” I caught myself, and Celestia gave me an odd look.
“Uhm... Slip of the tongue?” I questioned.
‘It goes deeper than that, you idiot. Maybe soon you’ll find out.’ Samantha interrupted in my head.
The laughing had gone quiet now, all of the princesses were staring at me. “What? It was a slip of the tongue, nothing more, I’m sure.”
I then saw Celestia’s eyes water. “Do you really...”
‘Damn it, you have to know. And I’ll kill myself if I have to just so you know... my memory.’
Then something just... clicked. I felt like giving her the “Mom” title was just... right. Like she had always been since... I was banished from her body over a thousan... wait, what the f-?
--~--
Samuel was unconscious before he hit the ground. Celestia was in tears as she ran up to him. “Sam? Are you ok? Sam? Uhh... Stellar, grab a medic, I think there’s something wrong with... our prince.”
And Samantha was sacrificing herself... for the knowledge that her host needed. She knew she couldn’t work like this for much longer, the bodies would cast her out by rejection, and without her, or at least her knowledge and ability, her host would lose track of his own life in confusion. She felt truly happy for the first time in her life as an outcast soul. She was sacrificing herself to help the man she’d become nearly one with, and she couldn’t be happier to.
Author's Note
Samantha was too hard to write, and in a way, Sam and Samantha were already one. So with her soul and her memory being forced/absorbed into Sam's, that makes Sam a prince by soul-birthright, and we can confirm the reason that Celestia was so eager for a first meeting by the reaction to the new title. And being a prince with otherworldly weaponry and interdimensional ability, he's got a lot of responsibility. Also, he grows wings on his human form. I'm really just writing on a whim for the time being, and I'll probably stay that way at least until I get all the kinks and details worked out.
Chapter 15 - Peace and Order
‘You know what I knew in life now, so damn well put that to good use.’ Was the first thing I thought when I woke. It was warm and comfortable, being cuddled into mom like that... The fuck?
This isn’t my mother... this is Celestia... the mother that birthed and the one that raised me are in another dimension entirely, so I couldn’t fathom how I’d made the mistake... epecially since I first met hernot that long ag... wait, is over a thousand years a long time? What the hell? Ok, I’m going to try to make sense of this.
First thing I thought when I woke up was knowing what I knew... or something... In Samantha’s thought-voice? Did she do something to me? ‘Hey, Samantha, I got a question.’
There was no response. I thought it weird, at first, but as I pondered over the waking thought more, I realized what had gone down. I was at the range, reasoning over bad jokes, then something clicked in the apology. Then as I tried to reason it off as a weird slip, Samantha said something about memory and death, and then... nothing. Had she sacrificed herself just to give me memories? So far, all evidence pointed to yes. But all I had gotten from it was a thousand year old handful of small memories that enforced me to hand over another copy of the title “Mother.” Maybe that’s all there was to give? No, wait, there’s something more... the sensation of directly passing through dimensional barriers? Ok, maybe I could reverse engineer that memory to find a way to keep in contact with my Earth family... and that’s it? Well, I would almost say that it was for nothing, but I feel like everything I know from it is exactly what I needed to know, at the same time.
Speaking of knowing, I know the sensation of my clothes. I don’t feel anything but my boxers, wonder where they are...
Who cares, I’ve got a furry mom to cuddle with and leftover drowsiness to top it off.
That mom thing is going to take some getting used to...
--~--
I woke up some unknown time later to find that the sun was rising and the living body pillow I’d cuddled against for the night had left me. Ahh, I can’t return to my childhood all the time, right?
I could still clearly remember the confusion I’d had when I woke up in the middle of the night, and it stressed me to think of how such an occurence was possible.
I flopped onto my back from my side, only to jump back onto my side from a painful sensation. Silently, of course, because I’ve spent years teaching myself to take pain silently so as to not disturb others.
After the pain subsided, I turned my head to the side and noticed feathery protrusions poking out of my backside. “Wings? The hell? I’m pretty sure that normal people from Earth don’t have wings.” I said aloud to myself. They were really just stubs with feathers poking from them, for the moment, but they would grow to full size in time, probably. Speaking of Earth and normal people, how am I going to go back without further magic training? I know I’ve mastered the basics, imagination and all, but I don’t know how to cause something by memory of a sensation created by it... Who knows how long that would take without special training.
Without Samantha, I wasn’t going home. If ever, it would be a long time of magic training. Damn, I know there were a lot of people - family included - that I didn’t care too much for, some even hated, but what about those that I did care for? My freinds? The good half of my family? Hell, if it takes a long time for me to get back, if at all, I bet that at least some of them would be dead by then, died of age or drugs or disease... Ok, probably drug overdose if anything for some of them, but still. Damn you Samantha, you’ve stuck me here.
After I finished sulking in my personal discovery, I decided I would do best if I got up and wandered around. After all, if I smother in depression, I’ll go into a rage and smash something up. I’ve done it before, and if I do it now, I’ll probably be knocking mountains down with my fist.
I found my clothes, beside a pair of new clothes that looked to be some sort of fancy white suit fitted for me, all nicely folded and stuff. I picked the white suit up and saw on the upper left side of the jacket, a pattern of the sun was sewn in, and what I could only guess to be wing holes cut out in the back sides. I picked up my shirt and jacket to notice wing holes had been modified into them as well. I suppose that Somebo... pony’s been busy. I’ll stick with my old clothes, though.
I walked out of the room with just my pants after failing to get my wings through the shirt, and with a hunch of where I was, I turned around to see confirmation on the sun design carved into the door. Yep, the room of the sun goddess. Mom’s room. Whatever.
Fortunately, there were two guards on either side of the door. Good, ask for directions, no wandering this time. “Uhh, I’m looking for Celestia I guess? I have no idea how to get anywhere in this glorified maze, so I need help, I guess.”
One of them put on a mischevious smile. “Looking to get back to work on her?”
Ohh, Cranial Conundrum got assigned at bedroom post, what a coincidence. “No, it’s not like that, and I’m fairly certain I was out cold until about fifteen minutes ago anyway. No, you can’t spread rumors. If you do I’ll tie you up and use your ribs as a... ‘drum’ set.”
“Ohh, name puns. I like it, I might just have to ‘Sum’ up the worth of that one.”
“Very well. One thousand divided by three. What do you think the answer would be?”
“Uhh... I don’t know?”
“Give up that fast? Wow, it’s not like it’s that hard to say three. The answer is three hundred thirty three point three three three abunchathrees.”
“You’ve blown my mind.”
“No, I obliterated it. There’s a difference.”
“Whatever. You want to see the princess? Let’s go already, then. No talking, you’ve already given me enough to think about. Why there can be so many threes, for example.”
I can see where this guy got his name. Like, really, I’m pretty sure I broke him on the inside with that equation.
--~--
Without a word spoken, we arrived at the dining room. Celestia was poking at an egg with a downcast expression, with Luna and Stellar both looking worriedly in her direction. “Uh, good morning, I guess?”
As expected, I turned all heads. And the sight of me brought Celestia out of her mini depression. Well, more than that, actually. She abandoned the fork-hole ridden eggs in an attempt to run up ad crush me, that I unfortunately failed to avoid. “Oh, thank the higher powers you’re finally awake. You worried me... you worried me SO MUCH when you passed out, I mean... I mean...” and there comes the tear train. Seriously, people need to learn to be stronger on the outside. I know I will miss my friends from Earth, but I’m gonna cry on the inside. Ooh, looks like she’s able to talk again. And she’s loosening the death grip as well. Maybe I can speak aloud now that my lungs aren’t squeezed into a paperwad... or would it be a lungwad? “No matter anymore, you’re awake now.”
“Well, how long did Samantha’s thing knock me out for? And in that case, what was it that she even did to me?”
Luna, poking into the conversation, answered. “You have been for about three days now. As of what she did to you? I contacted her remains during your sleep, and what was left of her at the time told me this; She has been slowly merging her soul into yours since she was able to, and with the merge came emotion. When emotion directed you to title my sister as mother, and you had no clue why, she decided to speed up the process, causing a temporary destabilization in the merge. What remains of her, you ask? You are one with her, in all ways knowable the same pon... err, person, I suppose you would say.”
“That explains the entire shooting range incident, then. And maybe why I have a fresh pair of undeveloped wings poking out of my back and making it impossible to put shirts on?”
“The wings have to do with the physical changes from the alicorn magic produced by your soul due to the alicorn shell that you abandoned in Twilight’s castle.”
“Oh yeah, I should probably go and get that back.”
Celestia butted back into the stolen conversation, “Yes... Anyway, we do have a new Prince on our hooves, what title should you take? Know that whatever title you take, I’m not going to let my child slack. So choose wisely.”
I pondered this; the thought of being a prince of Equestria made me giddy, and I wanted to make the best of it for everybody. I don’t want to be a sir greedyhands, no. I want to solve all the problems this place might have. Maybe even attempt to restructure the government? Yes, that’s what I want to do. “I know what I should be prince of.” I monotoned.
“Hmm?” As Celestia took audible interest, Luna and Stellar leaned in as well.
“I think... Peace and Order. I want the most peace Equestria can get, and I can most definitely organize an effective law enforcement as well as a military and guard. I studied some into modern armor back at... what used to be home, I guess,” I winced a little at the thought, “and I guarantee that I could prepare a design that wouldn’t be much heavier or restricting than a suit or dress, yet provides the same protection as full body heavy metal armor. I can also do a variant on pistols with mouth based triggers and a rate of fire based on how fast a pony can chew, with huge ammunition clips mounted to the user’s back, similarly to a quiver. I’ll keep the gunpowder levels down so the bullets don’t travel at lethal speeds for the law enforcement. I have a government structure from home I want to test out as well, maybe make it a sort of small government structure in some random city to start with to see how ponies can handle it.”
They all pondered my thoughts for a few seconds, before Celestia broke the silence. “It seems you have many ideas that you would like to apply. I will not stop you in this pursuit, as long as you use your position for good, and not greed. I admit, we could most definitely use a peace officer and military. The King of Tauria, Stronghorn, has been threatening us recently, and at the current rate, he may wage war with us. I understand that you likely come from a nation that specializes in fighting, among other things from what you have shown me, and maybe you could relate to him better than we. and your new form of government, I’ll have to hear of its structure first.”
“I guess I can see what I can do about this Stronghorn guy, and if you want to know about the government, it’s based upon the idea of ‘power to the people’, and is called a Republic...”
Author's Note
And that's how Sam attempted to plagarise the American Government, I guess.
