Shifted

Luna groaned and winced, her eyes fluttering open to look at a plain white wall. She turned her neck cautiously and looked around the small room, quaint crossed her mind. Nothing stood out, there were no medical devices, and she got the feeling it was a foals room as she rolled to her other side and nickered in exhaustion, a hoof covering her muzzle in embarrassment.

A princess doesn’t nicker, winney, or graze she recited to herself.

A sound caught her ears and her attention as she moved to sit up, a dull pain aching her sides. The door opened and a creature she couldn’t even explain stood at the threshold. ’Woah, there,’ it spoke into her mind directly, ‘stay down, lass.’

“Ugh,” she struggled to get a knee under herself and stay up, “I am no lass. I am Princess Luna-”

‘Whoever you are, you need rest. I have worked on many equines in my years,’ the creature said, it’s six eyestalks looking at her from what seemed to be a scientist labcoat holding more of it’s body in, ‘but none so exquisite as you. My assistant will be along shortly and we can have a proper conversation.

Luna frowned. “I would appreciate that you stay out of my mind and memories…”

‘Ah, I hear you asking for a name. Doc Blue, they call me. I think it is a human musing, since my stalks are green. And no, I am not edible,’ he mused and shook in silent laughter, you’re the first equine to not think that first.’

“I am the first of many, it seems,” she huffed, lying down, “and you are the first of your kind I have ever seen.”

’And perhaps the last,’ he mused again, ‘my kind were slaves and sold, traded, and thrown away. I was bought by a mercenary, bent on global domination... it died. Now, I live and work here as medic for dee-bee’s and as town mechanic.’

“What is that?”

Ah, an interdimensional being. Dee-bee, for short. Ah, she arrives.’

The doorway was cleared by Doc Blue and a young woman ran in, panting. “Sorry, Doc. I had, to see a cat, on Clover Avenue.” The creature moved two of it’s ‘eyes’ to the woman and a tense few seconds passed. “Yes, sir,” she snapped to attention, “ma’am, my name’s Ariel. Pleased to meet you, your highness. I’m here to bridge the communication gap between you both.”

“We were communicating fine, Ariel,” Luna blinked and lay her head against a pillow, “and where is Raul? I believed him to be my knight.”

“Oh-ho-ho?” Ariel winked, “A knight in shining armor to save you, by chance?” Luna blushed while three of the eyes looked at Ariel now. Ariel winced. “I’m sorry! Sheesh. A talking horse dee-bee and now I’m the one in trouble?”

“I am a pony. Horses live near Saddle Arabia, among other places far outside my homeland.”

“He said the reason we have to talk through me is that your mind is too chaotic and he can only talk to you and no one else while he’s talking with you.”

Luna’s head rose. “I am not chaos, I am harmony… or at least, I was.”

“No, he doesn’t mean your magic mumbo-jumbo,” Ariel sighed, “he means your mind is busy. He is a psychic, not mage. There’s a difference here.”

“Oh? And what may that be?” Luna asked sarcastically, expecting a clever retort from the young woman.

Luna lifted from the table and her legs instinctively began to run, trying to grasp anything as she was levitated from bed to the ceiling where her hooves were placed firmly. “He can change the laws of physics for a little while with concentration. You can do it permanently with your magic and never have to worry about it again.”

The ability stopped and Luna rolled midair, landing on the bed and bouncing once to the floor, the bed broken behind her.

“Yes,” Ariel said with a nod, “don’t jump in the house again. You weigh more than you look and it’s exhausting to fix things.” Luna used her left hoof to scratch her mane as she apologized. Doc Blue walked past her and placed two long shoots on the bed and several fine tendrils emerged. “While he fixes the bed, ya wanna get somethin’ ta drink?! … Sorry, my manners, yeah yeah. Would you care for some milk or something, Your Highness?”

Luna looked from Doc Blue to Ariel and smirked, her ears listening intently to the area before she spoke. “Nay, water shall suffice.”

Ariel snickered. “Then to your knight in shining armor?”

Luna frowned again. “Shining Armor is the captain of my sister’s royal guard. He is not… oh,” she blushed, “you mean, Raul. Yes, We wouldst enjoy seeing him. Is he well… Where is Our barding and mine shoes?”

“Sheesh, you do talk funny. Raul has them. He’s been watching your stuff since we stripped you. And before you get mad, whatever you did to appear here burnt you outta magic in your armor and whatever.”

“So, thy saved, ahem, y-you took my armor off because?”

“Because you might have had an injury and we couldn’t scan you. Too much interference.”

“Ah, I see,” Luna said following Ariel into a main room where Raul sat in a corner, guarding her affects, “Raul,” she smiled and trotted to him, offering him a nuzzle, startling him awake.

“Gah! Luna?! You’re okay!” he hugged her neck tightly. “I owe you one for saving me and I’m sorry I kicked you.”

“I can attest I’ve had worse,” she replied as she stood up, backed away from him, and her horn flared to life, her armor flying around her body and interlocking itself. “I do not feel safe here, Raul. Everyday has attempted to take my life or injure me in some way. I have never been chased by a rock before.”

They shared a short laugh. “Me neither, to be honest. I’ve been shot at by a giant plant, though.”

Luna winked. “As have I. Now, where are we and where to next?”

“The town of Babbling Brooke, named after a crazy old woman who talked herself to death,” Ariel added, “and that armor is gonna get you killed, you need an upgrade,” she waved a finger from Luna’s head to tailed armored body.

“You are mistaken, this is enchanted armor capable of deflecting the mightiest blasts and sharpest weapons.”

“Magic resistant, I know. I’m not a mage but I can feel the power and so can every other person in town. It’s a magnet for magical entities and this rock monster probably just smelled your armor. Another thing,” Ariel said leaning against the doorframe separating the main room from the hallway.

“There’s another issue here, ‘Princess’,” Ariel mocked, “you emit too much magic too. That hair of yours, as amazing as it is, screamed to the locals when you arrived that living magic had arrived. If you can’t mask your powers you’ll be hunted constantly for-”

“We understand,” Luna interrupted, “thy needn’t condescend to Us, me.” With a sigh her horn shimmered and her mane changed from ethereal to a long blue mane of hair that lay limply by her side, her tail replaced by the same hair. “My mane is a reflection of my power over the sky. Here, on this world, I can feel and see that if I were to intervene in the heavens that the results would be disastrous.

“My ponies have long since mastered maths and sciences of the likes that would boggle your mind, girl,” she replied snidely, “and I have used them to deduce this world to be a small part in a larger mechanism-”

“Blah, blah, blah. The horse is smart, good job,” Ariel said in a bemused tone, “that armor is calling to every monster and dee-bee in a dozen miles. Turn it off, please.”

With a grunt Luna dispelled her armor. “Better, child?”

“Child? You’re what, twenty years old? I’m nineteen, not exactly a big difference, granny.”

“Granny?!”

“Ladies! Please! Just, calm your titties and chill.”

Both females shot Raul a glare. “Apologize to Us at once.”

“Yeah, that was rude.”

Raul sighed. “Chica, you’re amazing but… ignorant about this world. Ariel, you’re a hothead. Both of you need to put away your differences and get along or this’ll be a long day,” he yawned, “longer than this ese wants. I got almost no sleep watching that armor you just magicked away so I’m gonna put my head in this here helmet and get some sleep and if you wake me up with fighting, I’ll say something that’ll make you both best friends.”

The females looked at each other and blinked. Then laughed as Luna approached Ariel. “He is correct. Our disagreement is poorly founded. I apologize for insulting your age.”

“And I’m sorry for all that stuff, too. So, are you really a princess? What’s that like?”

“Yes, I am in charge of my ponies and the night itself. The moon does my bidding,” she said proudly, “even if it only rises and falls in the eternal mechanism,” she smirked, “over the past few hundred years of my life it has been fairly well, save for my thousand year banishment, that is.”

“Woah, wait!” Raul sat up, “you’re fifteen hundred years old?!”

“Well, technically I am older still, but yes, I look well for my age?” she smiled hopefully.

“Wow, you’re kinda hot for an old lady,” Ariel said sending Luna into a blush, “and for a horse.”

“I am a pony, and I am experienced, not old,” she lifted her chin indignantly.

“I know that feeling,” Raul mumbled.

The humans chuckled as Raul laid back down on the couch. “Okay, my bad. I’m a sniper and weapons expert. At least that’s what they say about me, I just pick up a gun and know how to shoot it, nothing to it. Hey, wanna fire some shots?”

“I do not drink, Ariel, but I thank you for the offer.”