//-------------------------------------------------------// MLP: Friendship is Magic (Reincarnated) -by Wayward Shadow- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue: Being Reborn //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue: Being Reborn Whoever wrote that song about how wishing on a star doesn’t change who you are, well, let’s just say that that is complete crap. To be fair, when I wished on that star years ago, I never expected the wish to come true. That wish was about getting a second chance at life with some of the perks of my previous life and the memories connected to them. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a dark place with none of my previous memories. I’m not sure how long I was in there, but after an unknown while, I was born. Yes, the wish basically reincarnated me into an infant just before birth. And the crazy thing was that I was human before, and now I was a wolf/pony hybrid. Being held in my pony mother’s hooves, I felt safe, protected. When my wolf father came up to me, sniffing my face with his cold nose, I giggled in my baby voice, batting harmlessly at his snout with my wolf-like paws. He licked my face in response, causing more giggling and snout bopping. My father pretty much gave me a feeling of safety as well as a feeling of levity. “Lupin!” Pony Mom said with a smile. “Stop teasing him!” “Ease up, Moonshine,” Lupin said in response. “He loves it. Besides, you may be his mother, but I’m his father and he should know about, understand, and love both of his heritages.” “Okay,” Moonshine said, cuddling me more. She then turned contemplative. “Lupin, what should he be named?” “Well, I think his name should follow your name pattern,” he said. “He may have wolf blood, but I think having a pony name should help him fit in some social circles.” “Hmm...What about Moonshadow?” She asked me and Lupin. I smiled at the name and Lupin nodded and gave me another lick. “Moonshadow. My beautiful son. You will be a great hybrid in the future, I just know it.” She began to rock me, lulling me into sleep. Now, that was the first few minutes of my new life. While I’m sleeping and such that comes in my future, I’ll give you descriptions of me and my parents. My mother, Moonshine, is a dark blue unicorn with white hair. As her name sounds, she makes and sells alcohols. From common beers, to exotic wines, there is no alcohol she doesn’t know about. My father, Lupin, is a wolf with yellow markings that mother met while exploring a forested area around Mount Canterhorn (the mountain Canterlot is built on/in). She was exploring it for her favorite flower (the moonflower), when she bumped into him. She was scared at first, but after he saved her life from a manticore that was coincidentally in the area, she took a liking to him. When my grandparents on my mother’s side learned of her liking of a wolf, they were close to disowning her, but she brought father to them and locked all three in a room. That forced them to get to know each other, getting a better view of him and his personality. While they personally didn’t like the idea of a unicorn associating with a non-pony, they allowed her to keep him as a friend. Anyway, I am a type of wolf/pony hybrid. I’m green with a lighter green mane and tail tip. And speaking of tail tip, I have “paws” instead of front hooves, and my tail is a wolf tail, which explains how my tail tip is a lighter green color. I have a horn, thanks to my mother, but my parents found out that I have special magic focal points in special lines all across my body. No matter which focal point I use, they all glow a turquoise color. These “focal lines” come from father, since his magic is more passive. With me having controlled magic abilities from mom, those focal lines can be used just as well as my horn. Another ability I picked up was the ability to stand up on my hind legs and walk as a biped. With my paws, I could easily live like that. How I learned that and what side of the family I got the ability from was a mystery to my entire family. Now, when I was four in my new life, I had a somewhat negative experience with a few other foals in town. They picked on me for being a wolf/pony hybrid. It probably didn’t help that my wolf side of me allows me to eat meat. I’d be eating some fish at lunchtime at school, when then this gang of bullies would come up, steal my fish and play keep away until the fish was a mutilated pile of fish guts, dust, and dirt. It got so bad that I ended up skipping school once out of shame for being what I was. However, a little pep talk from mom, dad, and my grandparents kinda got me out of my state of depression. I’m not gonna quote everything they said, but the main point they told me was to not focus on what I couldn’t control. I was born as what I am. I had no control over it and nopony can or should make me feel bad for such. After that day, I pretty much ignored bullies whenever they stole my meat or picked on me being born as I was. After a while, they stopped and noticed how despite my consumption of meat, I’m civil and kind to ponies. Now they’ve become my best friends and I can’t live without them. Heck, they tried meat and proved that ponies can eat meat without getting sick. The scientific community looked closer into this and found that eating meat is possible, but not needed, making a new market for exotic meats for ponies possible. The craziest part of my life came when I turned 8. It was at that moment when my human memories returned to me. Those memories pretty much made me a genius at a young age. Oddly enough, alongside memories, my human appetite came along...and let me tell you, my hybrid body at age 8 was slightly smaller than an average male 8 year old. Add a human adult appetite, and my weight pretty much skyrocketed. My sudden increased appetite got the attention of various doctors and physicians. After a month of examining both my new appetite and comparing it with a standard pony appetite, they found nothing wrong. Heck, when they did an advanced check on my now big belly that came with the appetite, the found that my added weight did no damage to my body. My lungs could breath just as easily as if I wasn’t fat; my blood vessels were not compacted, nor clogged; my nerves weren’t uncomfortable or pinched; heck, my muscles adapted to the change in weight to the point of me being able to move as if I wasn’t fat and I can lift two to three times my own weight. Weight and appetite aside, my practically genius level intellect got my parents to sign me up for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Since I was part unicorn, I fit enough of the criteria to be allowed in. The day I turned nine was the same day I was to perform the entrance exam. Little did I know that that day would change my life and the lives of 7 others. Author's Note I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I came up with the idea fairly recently and managed to obtain permission from Inflatable-Xwell on Deviantart to use the likeness of his character, Xwell. Please comment if you have a need to. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1-1: The Exam Day //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1-1: The Exam Day Today was the day. Not just my birthday, but the day of my entrance exam into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. However, it was slightly soured by the fact that Dad had work at the same time of my exam. “Are you sure you can’t come?” I said as I rode on my father’s back while he was preparing himself for work. “I don’t want you to miss out.” “I’m sorry, Bud,” he answered, his sadness easily visible on his face. “Ever since you practically introduced a new food commodity, I’ve been quite busy hunting, helping keep the general supply up.” Dad chuckled a bit. “And to think, a primarily herbivorous society and race get so excited about meat consumption that you’d think they became omnivores.” I laughed as well, sliding off of his back and plopping my rump on the ground. “That is rather funny,” I said, giggling all the way. “Well, I hope you have a good day then.” I stood up, bipedal, and gave him a hug. Dad raised one of his legs and hugged back. “I hope you have a good day too, son,” he said. “And remember, pass or fail, you mother and I love you. Kay?” To that, I nodded with vigor. With a smile, Dad stepped out to do his job. Turning back towards the main interior of the house my family lived in, I heard Mom working in the kitchen, seemingly slaving away cooking more food than an average pony family could consume. The keywords being: ‘average pony family.’ When I had pretty much introduced the ability to eat meat to ponies, they pretty much jumped at it like it was the next best thing since sliced bread. We received a lot of money from Dad hunting and butchering the stuff, which we saved. When my human memories and appetite came ‘back’ to me last year, it added an additional expense for the family so I can eat as well as my body should, so that saving came in handy. Thankfully, comparing the amount spent on my appetite against the money Dad makes, it isn’t too big of a deal. Besides, if all goes well and I get into the school, my bigger lunch portions will come from the school, meaning that the money that goes to feeding me a big lunch can go into savings or into little splurge moments for Mom and Dad. Back to reality, I fell down to quadruped and trotted into the kitchen. I took a whiff of the cooking fumes and gave a content sigh. “Finishing up my last home lunch, Mom?” I asked, trotting up beside her. “You are correct...mostly,” she said, pulling the large spoon out of the pot she was working on. “Your last home lunch was yesterday. Today, either before or after the exam will be your first school lunch.” She added a few chopped carrots and celery to the pot and went back to stirring. “This is your victory feast.” “Slight disappointment, but good things come to those who wait,” I said, standing up and hugging her. “I was hoping for either you to be there, or the possibility of having my stew for lunch, but hey, I can’t have everything that I want. Mom giggled at my nonchalant response to the disappointment. “While it is scary, it is also relaxing that you turning eight was also a maturity beyond your years,” she said. “I thought I made it clear in the therapy that the maturity came from those memories that are mine, yet aren’t,” I said, falling back down to quadruped and giving her a slight bump. “Besides, if you want, I can whine and complain like you probably expected.” “Please don’t?” She asked, while kissing my forehead. “Now, be careful as you head to the school. I love you.” She went back to cooking as I trotted to the door and left the house. As I started trotting towards the school, I met up with one of my friends, Sour Sweets. Sour Sweets is a bright yellow unicorn with cherry red mane. He is also a very unique pony. Outside of being one of the bullies when I was younger, his taste in candies are different from most ponies. He prefers his candies to be sour, and with how few ponies agree, he learned how to make candies of the sour variety. When him and I became friends, he got me “hooked” on lemon hard candies. “Hey Sweets!” I called out to him, waving with one of my paws. He trotted up to me and gave me a bag of those lemon hard candies, which I instantly ate right there. “You know, I’m not sure why, but I think you’re trying to spoil me.” Sweets looked away with a ‘I didn’t do it look.’ “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, whistling a bit afterwards. “You’re worse than my grandparents,” I said teasingly while nudging him with my elbow. “I mean it. You give me those candies every chance you get, and they borderline stuff every bit of food they can get a hold of.” “Teasing aside, what have you got planned for your birthday today?” He asked, pulling out another bag of lemon hard candies, which disappeared as quickly as the last bag. “Primarily, the entrance exam for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” I said through the candies. “Secondarily, doing as I always do. Eating more food than an average pony goes through in their lives and generally be a fat and happy hybrid.” “Of which you are the best at,” Sweets commented, giving me another bag of those addictive candies. “What about you?” I asked through that bag of candies. “Oh, I’m going to be doing the entrance exam for a cooking school that is oddly right next to the school you’ll be going to,” he said. “Maybe that school provides the lunches for my soon to be school,” I guessed. “If so, I hope I get more of your candies with my lunch.” “If that is the case, I’ll see what I can do, but no 100 percent guarantee of that happening,” Sweets said as we arrived on the street. “Well, pass or fail, I’ll see you after our exams.” He then trotted to his school while I stood up and walked to mine. Entering the school lobby, I was greeted by the receptionist. “May I help you young sir?” “I’m here for my entrance exam,” I told her. “My parents couldn’t be here to support me, but they told me to tell you that my application code is (51042).” The receptionist picked up a clipboard and looked through it. “Moonshadow?” I nodded to her inquiry. “Welcome to the school then. I’ll guide you to the exam rooms.” She lowered herself from her chair and trotted down a hallway, with me following behind. “Before we get there, tell me a little about yourself.” With a shrug of my shoulders, I humored her. “Well, I’m the first and probably only wolf/unicorn hybrid. That itself comes with a lot of health firsts and oddities,” I told her. “Of course, if you’ve read any of the news at the time, roughly four years ago, I ‘discovered’ the fact that ponies can eat meat.” The receptionist did a double take in shock. “So you’re that colt?” I nodded. “Well, I have to say, what you did, regardless of purpose, shook the world. When I’m not busy helping lost students or keeping track of records, I look into politics and the fact that many ponies are willing to hunt and/or eat meat changed the Griffin Confederation’s view of ponies.” “What did they think of them previously?” I asked, actually curious. “They thought that we ponies are spineless herbivores, more likely to run from a fight than embrace it,” she said. “After many ponies seemed to conform to an omnivoros lifestyle, they’ve actually started look upon us with respect. Now, I don’t believe myself as an expert on politics, but from what I could read, you prevented a war between Equestria and the Confederation.” “Wow!” I said, legitimately surprised. “Small and simple acts bring about great things.” “Huh?” The receptionist said in confusion. “What was that?” “Oh, I’m not sure if my application mentioned this, but my psychologist believes that I’m a reincarnated, 20-something individual in a youngster’s body,” I explained as simply as I could. “Is that even possible?” She asked. “We live in a world where magic is an everyday occurrence,” I said, levitating a random piece of garbage I found as I walked behind her. “I’m pretty sure reincarnation exists in some way, shape, or form. And no, Dark magic wasn’t used. Last thing that happened before I was reborn was me wishing on a star?” She looked at me with a skeptical look, then shrugged. “Well, if you believe that, I won’t tell you any different.” She then stopped, almost getting me to trip over her. “We’re here. Just step inside and wait for when your name is called.” I walked in and sat down on one of the waiting seats, right next to a lavender filly with her mussel in a book. While waiting, I took a moment to examine the filly beside me. Well, in actuality, I examined the book she was reading. The cover said, ‘Magical Theoretics and Facts.’ I chuckled a bit at the advanced book being read by the young filly. “I don’t mean to offend you miss, but aren’t you a little young to be reading such an advanced book?” I asked her. She looked up at me, slightly annoyed at being interrupted, which quickly turned to curiosity. “What are you?” She asked, genuine curiosity in her voice. “And isn’t being that big unhealthy?” I burst out laughing, falling out of my chair in the process. “Oh, I like how you turned that one on me,” I said, standing up and wiping tears out of my eyes with my paws. “Oh, while you would be right for an average 9 year old colt, I’m not average. Also, I’m a wolf/pony hybrid.” “Wow!” She said in excitement and interest. Just as she was going to start asking questions (as I’m sure she would have), I placed my paw over her mouth, keeping her quiet. “If you read advanced magic theory books like an average foal reads picture books, then may I recommend a few medical articles?” I said to her. I told her the articles in question, then said, “By the way, my name’s Moonshadow. What’s yours?” “Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “That’s a nice name. It sounds fitting of a filly of your caliber,” I complimented. Twilight blushed at the compliment I gave. She went to speak, but two doors in the room opened, a voice calling on a hidden intercom. “Twilight Sparkle, Room A. Moonshadow, Room B.” Walking away while Twilight lowered herself from her seat, I said, “Well, I hope to see you again after our tests.” She nodded and trotted to her test room as I walked to mine. Upon entering, I saw a setup of an unbloomed flower in a flowerpot on a small table in the center of the room. Just off to the side was a long table with three unicorn ponies sitting at it, like a panel of judges on a cooking show. “Hello, Moonshadow,” the right judge, a middle aged, grey stallion, said. “I’m Professor Theory, and these are Professors Greenhouse and Photon.” He gestured to the green mare and white stallion, center and left respectively. “It’s nice to be here,” I said with a respectful bow. “Now each test isn’t required to be admitted into Celestia’s School,” Professor Photon explained. “It is just to show us how much each applicant has yet to learn and can learn about magic use.” “And your test is to make this moonflower bloom in broad daylight,” Professor Greenhouse said, pushing the room’s curtains aside, flooding the room in sunlight from outside. “You may begin,” she said, turning over an hourglass. After I recovered from the sun shock, I examined the flower up and down. I wasn’t an expert in botany, or gardening, or whatever it’s called, but I could tell something about the plant by looking at it’s shade of green. Moonflowers are meant to bloom at night, meaning that their leaves were slightly darker to catch the moonlight. However, that meant that if it was in direct sunlight, it could absorb too much light and be overwhelmed, killing the poor thing...if magic wasn’t a factor. I took a deep breath and charged up my magic, carefully structuring a type of light filtration spell over the flower’s surface. My hope was that I could filter the light that touches the plant so it can simulate moonlight. Afterall, moonlight is just reflected sunlight of a limited scope. I felt a slight tingling on my flanks as I was finishing the spell and the flower started to bloom. Fate, however, decided to play a prank on me. I heard an explosion far outside the window, startling me and causing my nose to hit the flower center as I jumped and looked out the window. I saw a rainbow streaking across the sky as I looked out the window. Another explosion sounded off, this one came from the other testing room. “The school needs to be evacuated!” A school staff member yelled out from the door. “Another student is suffering an accidental and overpowering magical surge!” The professors rushed out of room as fast as they could, with me running behind with the moonflower and it’s pot in my paws. Once we were outside, I collapsed at the edge of the gathered student crowd, never having ran as fast I did in bipedal fashion. As I was catching my breath, I started to feel a bit funny. It started at my nostrils and seemed to spread through the insides of my body until it reached my rump and then the feeling spread to the outside of my body. When the feeling stopped I took a little sigh of relief. “Oh my gosh!” “Is he blowing up?!” “What in Celestia’s name is happening to him?!” I tilted my head to the side in confusion at these comments that the students made. It wasn’t until I looked at myself that I understood their comments. I was swelling up. I quickly laid down on my belly, not wanting to get stuck in an uncomfortable position if I got so big that I was immobilized. The swelling kept going until I was about four feet around (by my estimate, compared to my ‘standard’ two foot frame), and my arms, legs, and neck were sucked into my body up to my paws, hooves, and chin (all respectively). When my swelling was done, I did some experimental movements, exercises, and even a magic scanning spell I picked up at one of my doctor appointments. From my personal testing, I found out that my swelling was a result of an allergic reaction, and despite how ‘violent’ the reaction was, the only harm (if it could be called that) was general immobility and limited movement of my paws, hooves, and head. Much like with my above average weight, my swollen state wasn’t harmful either. I heard more comments from the crowd, now with more than just students and staff of the school. With some difficulty, I turned my head towards the crowd and said, “Don’t worry about me! Just an odd, allergic reaction!” Almost immediately after those words left my mouth, a few paramedic ponies came up to me, looking me over and scanning me. Their frantic scanning and worried faces eventually evolved into simple questions and only a few odd looks. After all was said and done, the paramedics administered a dose of allergy relief potion, which almost instantly ‘slimmed’ me down to my ‘normal’ size. The whole ordeal got me exhausted really fast. With no visible or heard objections from the paramedics or any of the crowd, I laid down on the ground and fell asleep. I started hearing some voices at the edge of my consciousness. That started to get the rest of my senses working and I felt like I was laying on a carpeted floor, and I recall falling asleep on a cobblestone road. I jolted awake, only to be greeted by a loud, “SURPRISE!!!” I ended up jumping up in fright with a scream and I grabbed the ceiling lamp. It took me a few seconds to calm down, but when I did, I got a better look around the room and I’m not sure what two national celebrations had a party child and left it at my house, but it looked awesome. After getting myself off the lamp, I was told that the party was a triple victory celebration, a triple cutie-cinera, and my birthday party. Me, Twilight Sparkle, and Sour Sweets had all gotten top marks in our entrance exams and all of us had gotten our Cutie Marks in the process. My Cutie Mark is a crescent moon on a flower stem. Twilight’s is a pink starburst with seven small sparkles around it. Sour Sweets’ is a candy swirled lemon/lime dripping onto a pile of sugar. As for our academics, well, Princess Celestia herself gave us the good news and much more. I was offered to be tutored by Professor Greenhouse, personally. Twilight was to be taught solely by the Princess. And Sour Sweets was offered an apprenticeship from the head chef at the castle. Overall, life was good. Author's Note This took me a while to get written. Hopefully you notice, but I tried to make sure the points of time when Moonshadow was walking as a biped and was trotting as a quadruped was conveyed in the way I was writing. For example: If it says he was walking, he's in biped position. If it says he was trotting, he's in quadruped position. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1-2: Curious Cultivation //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1-2: Curious Cultivation The next month was very interesting for me and my friends (Twilight included). Aside from learning from our respective teachers, we found out some interesting things about our bodies in relation to our talents. Twilight’s body was a veritable magic Super Saiyan. If magic had power levels like Dragon Ball Z, then Twilight’s is ‘OVER 9000!’ Sorry, I had to do the reference. Sour Sweets’ body turned out to be just as ‘weight absorbent’ as mine is, as something like that comes with the territory of being a cook and candy maker. However, he takes a bit more time to himself to exercise and keep in shape, so most weight he gains ends up just making him bigger in a muscular sense, but not like a mega-bodybuilder. He still has a bit of a belly, but not as much as I do...and this fact of him being more muscular with a belly is years down the line, so excuse me for getting ahead of myself. Now as for my body...well you already know quite a bit except the allergic reaction inflation/swelling. It took me a bit of work with some doctors and Professor Greenhouse, but we managed to figure out that my allergy is, ironically, moonflower pollen. With that knowledge, a more personalized version of the allergy relief potion was made for me, and one doctor even made me a recipe for an allergy reaction potion for the kicks and giggles. I was also issued a gas mask for when I’m working with moonflowers. That aside, Professor Greenhouse decided to work on plant based spells, and potions. The lesson structure was one day learning, and four days of application. During those four days of spell and potion application, we also talked various subjects, ranging from our personal lives to philosophy. Heck, once we discussed how real and possible reincarnation can be. “What brings this up?” I said through the somewhat muffling effect of my gas mask as I applied the moon filter spell I developed a month earlier on the moonflowers in the school greenhouse. “The school receptionist told us what you told her,” Greenhouse said while watering some other flowers. “Most teachers dismissed it as preposterous and you were just messing with her, but I’m actually curious about it.” “I never took you for someone curious about something like that, given your name,” I commented, moving away from the moonflowers and moving my mask above my face with my paw. “Let’s start with what you think before I tell you what happened.” “Well, most magic theorists think reincarnation is a form of Dark magic,” Greenhouse said, setting down the watercan she was levitating and led me out of the greenhouse to a small kitchenette just inside the school from the greenhouse. “Tea?” I nodded. She poured us both a cup and then continued talking as we sat down at a nearby table. “So how Dark magic could be used in such a way is a Dark magic user uses a ritual that allows his or her soul to transfer into a new body on the ‘death’ of their previous body.” “That can be a way it can work,” I told her after taking a sip of my tea. “The way that I know of is more of a case of worthiness or fate. Someone good dies and they are granted a new life in a random way, or it just happens to whoever fate decides...and no Dark magic is involved.” “How sure can you be about there being no Dark magic involved?” “My psychologist did intensive scans on me, and ruled Dark magic out and came up with the other two theories I just stated.” Greenhouse looked at me with contemplation, but shrugged and sipped her tea. The next day was technically a free day, but I took that time to tend to the school greenhouse and testing some spells I made on or with some of the plants I was allowed to do so. Mostly the moonflowers, but a few other flowers were fair game. I was testing an air filtration spell on my nose and mouth while around some of the moonflowers when the door into the greenhouse was slammed open. The sudden noise caused me to botch my spell and jerk forward, nose first into the moonflowers. “Not again!” I quickly galloped past the greenhouse visitor and to a small grassy spot I liked when I wasn’t at home, studying, or experimenting. “Note to self: make sure visitors knock before they enter the greenhouse,” I muttered to myself as I puffed up like a balloon. When I reached my four foot size, I saw Twilight and Sour Sweets walking around the greenhouse from its front. “Oh, I’m sorry Moonshadow,” Twilight said, galloping over to me and attempted to hug my bloated form. “I should have knocked, and now the Princess is gonna scold meandsendmebacktomagickindergardenand-” I quickly held her lips closed with my telekinesis. “Twilight, don’t sweat it,” I told her. “It’ll take a lot more than you surprising me and getting me bloated up to get on her or my bad side.” I let go of her lips and she gave me a bright smile. “So, what brings you guys to my little slice of Canterlot?” “Well, we were hoping to invite you to go bowling with us, followed up with some Donut Joe’s, but…” Sweets trailed off. “Well, I’d love to come,” I said, with some excitement. “But I do have a choice for the two of you to make.” I grabbed my strap bag from the greenhouse with my telekinesis and brought it to me. “We can do standard bowling at League Pin’s Place, or Twilight can test some of her magic skills and make some ‘giant’ bowling pins and use me as the ball at the Canterlot playing fields.” “You trying to ‘throw your weight around,’ buddy?” Sweets joked. “Not the phrasing or meaning I would use, but yeah,” I answered. “I’m just trying to have fun while benefiting the group in terms of education, lifestyle, and/or health...that and I think Twilight is enjoying the hug currently.” “You saying that you’re trying to lose weight?” Sweets snarked. “Uh, my weight isn’t going to be a concern for me, as far as the medical research says,” I told him. “I was actually referring to you.” “What?” “You’re taking up a profession where you are around, and probably eating food frequently,” I said bluntly. “And unlike me, the extra weight from that won’t be like mine. You’ll have to strengthen your body in order to even have the amount of fat I have and not suffer health complications.” “He’s right, you know,” Twilight agreed. “Alright! Enough,” Sweets said, somewhat embarrassed. “Let’s get some ‘giant’ bowling pins made.” “Yippee!” Twilight excitedly yelled, galloping off, presumably to go find some bowling pins to enlarge or something nopony would mind being transfigured into giant bowling pins. I looked between her retreating figure and Sour Sweets before asking, “Does she know where the playing fields are?” He nodded. “Alright then. Time for me to test a few things to see if I can move.” I lit up my magic and tried to lift myself up with my telekinesis. While I couldn’t lift myself, I could roll myself. I briefly tested rolling without magic, but I lacked the muscular momentum or whatever to do it. So, magical rolls at a slow pace was the way to go. As Sweets and I made our way to the playing fields, we chatted a bit about the past month, ponies stared at me rolling down the street, and he snuck me more lemon candies. “It’s hard to tell, but I think those candies actually taste better than what you made before your apprenticeship,” I complimented him. “Different recipe?” “Same recipe, higher quality ingredients,” he replied. “Of course, I’m surprised you can tell. Whenever you eat the candies I bring you, you’re like a vacuum.” “Well, I get more flavor at once if I have all candies in my mouth,” I said through the candies in my mouth. “I don’t eat them for the calorie content.” “And I thought that was all you did!” A stubborn bully called out to me from across the street. “Go suck on a juice box!” I shouted back. When Sweets and I got out of earshot, he gave me a questioning look. “Why do you do that?” He asked, shaking his head. “Eh, I find it funny that bullies decide to drag ponies down so they feel like they’re up higher,” I said. “So I just egg them on a little. I know it won’t stop them, but it’ll be interesting when they become adults in only physical form.” “You’re evil, you know that?” “Don’t tell the Princess,” I joked. “She’ll probably take that too seriously.” We both laughed at that joke as we arrived at the playing field. A few minutes after we arrived, Twilight showed up with 12 ears of corn that she quickly transformed and enlarged for our use. After a good hour or two of rolling and being rolled, I drank my allergy relief potion and made my way home with a box of donuts. Author's Note Took me a bit, but I hope you like.