"Ugh, what just hit me back there?" Arcane muttered to himself. He felt as if he had just woken up from sleep, despite not having any previous memories doing while conscious. In fact, the last thing he remembered was...

'The portal...' Arcane thought. Everything suddenly crashing down on him. The mission. The new dimension. The Elements. The recruit then sighed absentmindedly. He raised his hoof to rub his forehead in order to concentrate. However, Arcane instead felt multiple squishy digits contacting his, from what he could tell, fur-less face. At this, the recruit raised an eyebrow in surprise. He slowly removed his hoof, only for the odd digits retract as well. When Arcane made the connection, he quickly placed his hoof in his vision, only to not see a hoof at all. Instead, he saw a beige, fleshy appendage. There were five digits that varied in size, attached to a circular base. The closest thing Arcane could compare this to were claws, but the appendage in front of him clearly wasn't that. It was fleshy, like when a pony would scrape their hooves on a rock and some fur was removed, and the digits didn't have long or sharp nails.

'What the... What happened to me?' Arcane thought. Soon after, the recruit tried to move the small digits on the appendage. Oddly enough, the action seemed to come natural to him as the digits moved and flexed with ease. When he turned the claw-looking appendage around, the recruit saw his cutie mark, an arcane circle, as well as a patch of blue skin the color of his coat. He then checked his other forehoof, which was miraculously the same.

'Good, don't have to worry about having four different appendages.' Arcane thought in relief. 'Speaking of...'

The recruit looked to where his back hooves would be, but instead saw another two appendages akin to his forehooves, except the circular base was longer and the digits were smaller. Once again, he could flex them without problem.

"Okay, at least I'm somewhat normal. I still have one head, two forehooves and two back hooves. Could've been worse." Arcane told himself. Though, thinking of the transformation simply brought him to another thought; why did transform in the first place? However, the recruit pushed that out his mind.

'I don't have time to think about that. I need to get up and start moving.' Arcane thought. He awkwardly placed his two front appendages in front of him and his two back appendages behind him in order keep his body off the ground, like he would as a pony. It felt extremely uncomfortable.

'This doesn't feel right.' Arcane thought. 'My back shouldn't back hurting this much and my front hooves aren't stable. Maybe this isn't how I move in this body. How about... like this?' The former unicorn stood up on both back appendages, like how he remembered creatures like dragons would. Oddly enough, this position felt a lot more comfortable to the recruit.

Now that he wasn't concentrated on his body, Arcane looked at his surroundings. It was a field, filled with grass. There wasn't nearly as much flowers as what he was used seeing, but he wasn't one for observation. To the north, he saw a small city, similar to Manehatten, on the horizon. Looking down, he saw his two saddlebags, a bit dirty but otherwise fine. He bent down to picked them up, wrapping his fingers around the band that connected the two bags. When Arcane tried to bring them up to his face, they slipped from his grip. The recruit sighed.

"Guess, I'm not used to this body." Arcane said to himself. "Hmm... maybe I can use levitation?"

He concentrated to his inner reserve of magic. Keeping his watch on the saddlebags, he saw them slowly ascend, with the familiar blue aura surrounding it.

"That's good, I can still use magic. At least I'm able to protect myself." The former unicorn muttered. He brought the two bags to his shoulder level. The recruit began to walk to towards the city, which he found much easier than he would have thought, while levitating the saddlebags next to him.

'Time to get a move on.'

Arcane had been walking towards the city for around ten minutes. Nothing of interest happened during the walk, though the recruit did notice that the flora diminished a bit the closer he got the town. When he finally made it to the front entrance, however, the former unicorn heard a faint sound, accompanied by some small static.

"hello, hello, Hello!! Can you hear me!?!" Arcane immediately recognized the gruff yet soft voice of his instructor.

"Yeah, I can hear you." Arcane responded, but with confusion inching into his voice. "But how exactly are you talking to me? Aren't I in the other dimension?"

"Remember that gem the Princess gave you?" Rusted asked. Arcane slowly reached to his ear and, sure enough, he felt the small emerald. The former unicorn nodded, before realizing the instructor couldn't see him. He lightly blushed but quickly replied with a 'yes'.

"Well, she ended up giving a gem to me and some other ponies to contact you during your mission 'cause the Princess doesn't always have time to talk to you. Right now, she has Day Court, so I'll be talking to you for the time being." Rusted explained. The recruit smiled.

"Sure. Thanks, by the way."

"No need to thank me, kid. Anyways, give me the run down of what's happened so far." Rusted told to the recruit. For the following 10 minutes, Arcane proceeded to tell him what had happened since he woke up. Mainly the species change and the city in the distance.

"Oh, so not much has occurred? Good, couldn't have you in a deathmatch the second you got there." Rusted chuckled, before resuming. "Anyways, I have to go soon, gotta go wake up the new recruits." Arcane frowned a bit.

"Oh, okay. Do you have any suggestions on what to do?" The recruit asked.

"Suggestions? Well, I say you should try meeting the locals. If they're nice, ask them for some clarification on where you are. If not..." Rusted trailed off.

Arcane smirked. "Run?" The instructor chuckled though the gem.

"Yep. Stay strong for now, 'kay? I'll get back to you as soon as I can." Rusted said.

"Alright, talk to you later, I guess." Arcane farewelled.

"Bye." Arcane knew he had left, as he could no longer hear both him or the small amount of static in the background. He instinctively placed his hand on the gem on his ear before letting his hand drop his side. Arcane then walked into the city.

'Oh, Celestia, can they PLEASE stop looking at me?.' Arcane thought in annoyance. So far, he hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary in the town. There were multiple buildings and skyscrapers, like what one would see in Manehatten. Of course, all of the brands were unrecognizable to him, but that wasn't his primary concern. His main concern, and current source of exasperation, was the hundreds of eyes watching him. Some were looking at him in wonder and amazement, while some stared in fear and disgust. The former unicorn sighed but took this time to observe the form of these humans.

All of the people there had the same appendages as he did, except they all varied as size, which was to be expected. The main body, which was the part that he didn't look at, was relatively the same as his pony body. Oddly enough though, every single one of the humans watching wore clothes. It wasn't a matter of nobility, as the humans watching didn't look like they were that rich. Arcane guessed that it was just a part of their culture.

"Hey there freak, you'd better get out of my town." A irritating, male voice broke him out of his musings. Looking towards the origin of the sound, Arcane saw another human, smaller than he was. The boy wore blue T-shirt and shorts.

"Really? Why exactly am I a freak?" Arcane asked in genuine curiosity. He was sure that his appearance was the same or, at least similar to the rest of humans in this town.

"Lying won't get you anywhere, freak. I'm pretty sure normal people don't have floating bags next to them or glowing hands." The boy rolled his eyes before staring at Arcane with a smirk. "So will leave peaceful or will I have to kick your butt first?"

The former unicorn didn't have to look to his side as he was already aware of the saddlebags to his side. However, Arcane did check his hand to see if his hand was glowing. Sure enough, the area where his cutie mark was surrounded by his light blue aura.

'Is my cutie mark acting like my horn?' Arcane mused. 'Guess that would make sense, since I don't think I have a horn on this body.' Arcane looked up from his hand to eye the boy in the black clothing.

"Are my bags the problem? You can just ignore those, I can't use..." Arcane patted his left hand with his right. "...these at the moment." The boy just growled.

"No, freak. My problem..." The boy reared back his fist. "...is with you being here!!!" The boy's fist made contact with the former unicorn's face. Although the punch only caused Arcane to flinch, it did cause his magic to falter, thus making his saddlebags fall to the ground. The former unicorn swiftly picked up the bags with his magic right after.

"Oh? So your bags stop floating when I punch you? I guess that makes things a lot easier for me!!" The boy roared and reared back his fist once again, before letting it fly forward, expecting another clean hit.

However, a blue aura, one that he recognized from Arcane's bags and hand, suddenly surrounded his fist. Attempting to move it, the boy found that he was stuck in this position.

"What the heck, freak!?! Let me go!!" The boy shouted, desperately trying to remove his hand from it's blue prison. Looking up, the boy saw Arcane rubbing his hand on the spot he punched.

"Look, kid." The former unicorn's voice made the boy shiver internally. "I understand that you might be scared, but you're starting to annoy me. Now, I am going release your hand, and you will not try to punch me. Understood?" The boy nodded gingerly. "Good."

The aura surrounding the boy's hand slowly dissipated, and he was soon free. He flexed the fingers of his hand.

'Well then, if I can't punch you...' The boy silently pulled back his leg. '… I'll just kick y-' Suddenly, a hand firmly gripped onto the boy's back, causing him to lose concentration and yelp in surprise. When the boy turned around, he gulped. Behind him was a young woman. She wore a black leather jacket with a black shirt underneath, along with an obsidian-colored skirt. She carried a white purse with gold highlights and her hair was a light caramel. However, her face was stern.

"oh god, H-Hi Miss Lauren!!" The boy stuttered in a panic.

"Toby, I believe that to be enough. You've caused enough trouble. Now, I'd recommend you get going home, or your parents will be getting a load of this 'incident'." Lauren warned. Toby whimpered and began trudged his way to his home, his head down in shame. When Toby was completely out of seeing and hearing range, Lauren sighed.

"Sorry about that. The kid can be nice and all, but he can be a pain sometimes." Lauren said to the former unicorn.

"Don't think much of it. He might of just been surprised by the... you know." Arcane explained, levitating the saddlebags in front of himself in order to specify what he meant.

"Yeah, probably. Speaking of..." Arcane interrupted Lauren's line of speech with a smile.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you about later."

"Sure!"

"Cool, anyways, are you that kid's babysitter or something? He was scared of you for sure but you aren't his mother, so...?"

"Yep, I've been babysitter for about 2 months already." She said, before another thought smacked into her. "Oh, I just noticed, I didn't get your name yet! You mind telling me what it is?" Lauren asked curiously.

At this. Arcane began to contemplate. From the name two names from this world that he has world, being 'Toby ' and 'Lauren', a name like Arcane Art would definitely be considered unusual. But then again, he wasn't exactly capable of coming up with name that fits this world on the fly.

'Besides, I've got nothing to lose.' Arcane thought.

"My name is Arcane Art." The former unicorn introduced himself.

"Arcane Art? Really? That's your name? Man, how old are you? Four or five?" Lauren stated, giggling between her words.

'...Nothing except my dignity.' Arcane Art sulked internally. Externally, he was currently pouting with a light blush across his face.

"Well, it's what I choose to identify as." Arcane muttered. At this, Lauren shrugged.

"Ah well, my name's Lauren, by the way." Lauren said.

"Oh, okay, Lauren. Well, it was nice meeting you, but it's time that I leave. I've got some pretty to do." Arcane said, turning his body so that he could face the opposite direction of the human woman.

"Like?" Lauren asked.

"Things. I can't really specify," Arcane told Lauren, trying to not have to explain every last detail.

This, however, caused Lauren to frown. "But didn't you tell me you were going to tell me about you levitated your bags. Doesn't this have to do with that?" Lauren inquired innocently.

Arcane didn't even bother to turn around. "How did you know that?"

Lauren grinned. "You just told me."

When Lauren heard Arcane groan, she laughed out loud. A minute later, when her laughter died down, the former unicorn simply stated:

"I'll tell you later, okay? I need to explore this place. See ya." Out of nowhere, Arcane let out a huge yawn. "Maybe after I sleep."

"Hey... where are you staying exactly?" Lauren asked. Arcane completely froze. "I mean, you obviously aren't from here, if you were, then you'd know where you are and you wouldn't have to explore."

The former unicorn let out a huge sigh before collapsing to his bottom.

"I guess I'll be sleeping on the floor tonight." Arcane moped. However, his hand was suddenly gripped by another, pulling him up from the ground.

"Nonsense!! I'll book you in the guest room for one night, 'kay!?" Lauren announced happily. The former unicorn looked at the woman in surprise.

"Really? I just met you today though." Arcane stated in confusion. He was grateful for offer, but they were practically strangers. Well, stranger friends. They just met but they got along rather well.

"What are friends for!!" Lauren said simply, literally dragging Arcane towards the eastern part of the city. "C'mon, hurry up!! We don't want you falling asleep on the streets, do we?"

Arcane chuckled. "Guess not. Oh, and Lauren?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"It's no problem. Really, it isn't."

"Oh, and one more thing."

"What's that?"

"Is your jacket made of leather?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Artificial?"

"No, it's real... Arcane? Oh God, Arcane, stop vomiting, it's freaking disgusting!! Damnit, don't get it over my bag!!"

Author's Note

Sorry about the delay. Exams and all. Anyways, got this chapter as soon as possible right after the fact! Hope you all enjoy!!

By the way, as a side note:

Lauren's name was taken, from well, Lauren Faust

Toby was a bit different, but before he got named, he was only called The Bo~~y~~

That's it for now!!

kthxbai