Home Sweet Universe!

Home Sweet Universe!

*POOF*

After an extensive intergalactic teleportation trip, we were back in my world; my room, to be exact.

“Whew! Wow, does it feel good t’ be home again…” I said as I looked around the area as though I hadn’t seen it in months.

“That’s great and all, but…” Twilight began breathlessly. “Don’t get too comfortable yet; I still have to turn you back into your human form…”

“Aww, shit…”

“Oh… right…” I meekly mumbled as I began trembling in fear of the intense pain I was going to have to endure throughout the process. Her horn lit up as she prepared to cast the reverse-transformation spell on me. I moved so I was in front of the unicorn, stood straight, and closed my eyes in fright. “Oh, man, this is gonna—!” I was interrupted as I was shot with a beam of magic and instantly transformed back into my human form on all fours. My hands, my feet, everything! All back to normal in the blink of an eye. I even grew back to my original size and my clothes and hair were back to the way they were before I got pony-fied. I turned to check if I still had a tail, but I saw that even that was gone. I was completely shocked, to say the least as I sat. “…Hurt…? Wait, what? But… how…?”

“For some reason according to the spell book I was reading, reverse transformation works MUCH faster than the initial process.”

“But why didn’t turnin' back hu—AAH!” I said as I moved to sit down, only to feel sharp stabs of pain in my chest. “What the…? I don’t get it. Is this a side effect of the spell?” I asked as I poked various spots on my chest for more specific areas of discomfort. I found them the second I poked the sides of my torso, and cringed in agony.

“That’s odd… I thought I’d fixed up any potential injuries you’d have once you were transformed…”

“Now that I think of it…” I began with a strained voice. “…this is more likely Pinkie Pie an’ Applejack’s faults… Remember when Spike kicked me in my sides in the Canterlot library and I said that it still hurt?”

“Hmm… Oh, yeah! But other than that, you seemed perfectly alright… I don’t understand why you’d be in so much pain now.”

“I don’t get it either… Maybe the way pain is received by a pony is different than the way humans receive pain, even though I was a pony when I sustained these injuries… I can only assume that turnin’ back t’ human gave my body its original tolerance for pain. How long did it take Rainbow t’ recover from that broken wing again?”

“About a week or so. After that, she was back to flying around like she’d never broken it.”

“That doesn’t make sense… You ever been injured before?”

“Oh, plenty of times! I’ve had flowerpots, anvils, and pianos dropped on me, I’ve fallen down stairs, had doors slammed on me, and I’ve even been stung by a swarm of angry bees! That was all in one day just because of me denying the validity of Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense, too. In just that one day, I’d estimate that I’d had every bone in my body broken except my neck… I’ve been injured a lot more than that, though… What?” I just looked at her like she was absolutely crazy. My mouth and eyes were wide open as I tried to fathom how anyone could survive all of that.

“Um… how are you even ALIVE, much less WALKING after all that???”

“I don’t have a clue myself. But those injuries healed in a matter of hours at the most, and I didn’t even have to use my magic. The way in which injuries like those heal never seems to be consistent. Either it takes a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days, no matter how severe the injury may be. How long would it take a human to recover from those types of injuries?”

“Well le’ss see… Havin’ a flowerpot dropped on you: Maybe a week at the most if it hits you in the head. An anvil or a piano? Instant death. Not such a pretty picture either…. Maybe a few months if someone is lucky enough to survive it. Even then, there ain’t a guarantee of a full recovery. Doors bein’ slammed on someone? Well, I’m pretty sure you know first-hand how well a human takes a door t’ the face…” she laughed. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d-a prolly recovered from that in a few days, but the cut and the sprained wrist would’ve lingered around longer… but bein’ stung by a swarm o’ bees? If you ain’t allergic, then the stings could prolly go away in like a couple weeks. If you are allergic… I’m pretty sure you’d be as good as dead. Recovery time in this world is VERY much consistent, too.”

“Wow, humans sure seem fragile here…” she assumed.

“Generally, yea. I mean, jus’ look at my hand for example,” I said as I showed the unicorn the palm of my right hand to reveal a small four-pointed star-shaped scar near the upper left corner on the top hand line.

“Wh… what is that?” she asked as she looked and placed a hoof on my hand to feel it.

“A scar, my dear lavender unicorn. I had it since I was little, an’ ALL I did was accidentally get my hand vertically cut open. If my memory serves to recall, it took about a month t’ heal, I was able t’ see inside my hand for two weeks, an’ I was left with this pretty little decoration ever since it healed. It hasn’t changed at all since it got t’ this point. I even got a few more on my arm. All of ‘em jus’ from cuts and sores, too. I’m shocked t’ see that you don’t have a scratch on you, considerin’ what YOU been through…”

“Now that you mention it… Even I don’t understand how scars are left on ponies. Some ponies I’ve seen have permanent scars, but it’s usually very rare. Hay, I’d even expected myself or even Rainbow Dash or Applejack to earn a few of them by now.”

“Hm. Lucky you—OOH!” I winced and clutched my side as I tried to move up to my bed. I painstakingly, yet hastily moved up onto my bed and lay flat on my back. “Oh, right… the Pinkie-Jack wounds…”

“Pinkie-Jack?” Twilight inquired with a giggle.

“Hah, yeah… they both had a hand— err, hoof in this,” I said as I lifted my shirt partway up and felt my sides again to find the areas around my upper abdomen somewhat bloated and extremely sensitive to the point where simply trying to sit up was nearly impossible. It was like I spent an entire day doing over nine thousand crunches. “…but I think… Applejack takes the cake for most brutal Heimlich maneuver. If there was a next time, I think I’d nominate Fluttershy to help me if I was chokin’…” I joked again. It helped a little that I was able to get a couple of giggles out of my unicorn friend.

“Yeah, you keep joking. Maybe I’ll sneak Applejack over here one day after I tell her what you said…” she jested back.

“Hahahaha—Ow, it hurts t’ laugh…”

“Here, let me fix you up,” Twilight offered as she climbed onto the bed next to me and lit up her horn to cast her healing spell on me. The fact that there were no lights on and that it was night time made Twilight’s glow that much more fascinating as she used her spell. My torso ignited into the most wonderful purplish-pink aura I’d ever seen as I felt soft, warm tingles throughout my body. The spell was working like a charm as I felt the pains in my sides melt away into oblivion. When Twilight was done, she let out an exhale and lay her head on my belly.

“Thanks. You okay there?”

“Yeah, just… a little tired is all. I don’t think I’ll be able to transport myself back home right now…” she took on a look of worry. “I just hope Princess Celestia won’t be angry with me…”

“Hey, that reminds me… she said I had to go back as soon as possible… but she DIDN’T say YOU had to…” I slyly informed.

“Nice loophole, Ty, but I don’t thi—!”

“Come on… what’s a little extra time together gonna hurt?”

“Ty, I—!”

“Pleeeease? Besides, I still owe you a baked treat. Plus, I’m sure you’ve been missin’ this…” I said as I ran a hand down from the top of her head all the way down her back. She let out a satisfied moan of pleasure.

“That’s a cheap trick…” she tiredly said, getting comfortable as she climbed up onto my chest. “…but fine, I’ll stay JUST a bit longer.”

“Hooray…!” I whispered as I began to rub the lavender mare down.

“Hmm, you’re just lucky I like and missed these rub-downs…”

“You sure it ain’t my charmin’ personality?”

“…I’ll just leave that to your speculation for right now... I’m exhausted...”

“Fine… sweet dreams, Twilight Sparkle…”

“Good night, Tyshawn…” she replied as she leaned forward to kiss me good night before laying her head down. I’d have thought that I being human again would’ve made her become hesitant about doing such a thing. But then I just guessed she was tired and maybe let herself get lost in her own enjoyment of the massage. Soon, I heard Twilight snoring lightly as she went limp on me, prompting me to stop rubbing her. I began slowly, but surely losing myself to intense waves of lethargy as I struggled to keep my eyelids open.

Even so, I began to mull over Princess Celestia’s choices as to what Twilight and I were allowed to do or what not to do. I replayed my conversation with the Sun Goddess in my head over and over again; her fearful premonition about my world based on an event in her own, why she was so hasty as to deliver such a harsh judgment upon me even though she said herself that she sensed no evil intent in me, given that she knew next to nothing about this world, and even why she didn’t trust me to keep quiet as long as I remained a pony in Equestria…

Was it possible that even a deity like her could actually let her lack of knowledge get the better of her? That she was… afraid of me because I was from somewhere she’d never been in all her years, to my knowledge? Why was it that that ONE scenario scared her so much that she pinned me as some sort of suspect? The more I pondered it, the more it seemed like… like she was hiding some important details from me. Why didn’t I ask her to elaborate? Why did I let her intimidate me into agreeing with her? How could I let Twilight down like that? The possibilities of Princess Celestia’s motives combined with my feelings of regret for not trying harder to argue my case overwhelmed my already-fatigued and addled mind as I drifted off to sleep. I was at least thankful that Twi managed to tire herself out so she could stay with me a bit longer. At first, it was because I was able to spend at least one more day with her, but after a little alone time with my thoughts, I realized that we needed to talk… badly…