Chapter 3

It’s the next day, and though I had protested when Twilight suggested I go back to sleep after such a short time awake, it wasn’t hard to drift off- I wonder if there was something in the drip for that, or if I was just so exhausted by the revelations of yesterday?

More curious is that I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a dream last night. I’ve not long since woken up, and I definitely can’t remember anything at all. Hard to say if that’s due to Luna’s magic or, again, something Twilight is dosing me with, but it’s still interesting to me.

“Good morning, Bookish.” She says cheerily, walking into the room and swiftly over to my bedside. Speak of the devil. “Morning, Twilight.” I greet, and when I sit up to look at her better, I see she has some sort of strange purple and green lizard following her. It looks a little stressed, poor thing. “What kind of pet is that?” I ask, and to my surprise the little lizard huffs in what I can only assume is annoyance, and folds its arms in a pout. Twilight shoots me a look. “He is my number one assistant, Spike the dragon.”

I swear under my breath, and I think she caught me because her expression settles into a scowl for a few seconds. “Uh- um, sorry Spike, I’ve just never seen a baby dragon before, in fact, we don’t--” but he cuts me off before I can finish. “--Have them at all where you’re from, yeah, yeah. Nice meeting you, but I’ve actually got some chores to do, maybe I’ll see you later.” it’s a noncommittal greeting, and his tone of voice is very much tired. I feel a pang of guilt as he walks out of the room, gently closing the door behind him, I get the impression that people treat him like this a lot.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend him…” I mumble. I expect another dirty look from her, but apparently all I earn this time is a sigh. “I know you aren’t used to things like this, but you really should work on your manners. Even if ponies didn’t already treat Spike like a novelty, that would have been really hurtful.”

I wince, and it really hits home. “Will he let me apologise to him?” I hope it could be today too, you know what they say about first impressions. Disappointingly, Twilight shakes her head. “He won’t be ready to talk with you again for a while, and I doubt you’ll still be awake by then.” She does perk up a little though, and she levitates down a plate I had completely missed earlier onto my lap.

On it may appear to lie two simple slices of buttered toast, but oh no. The toast connoisseur in me sees more: the lovely farmhouse bread toasted golden in the middle, but not the edges, the generous spreading of lovely melted butter, and it’s even cut into triangles. Needless to say, I greedily munch up the first piece, and I’m halfway through my second when Twilight speaks again. “That answers my questions about appetite and if you need any help to eat, I suppose.” she says, with a little hint of a smirk at my ravenous display. I’m too hungry to care though, and when I finish I’m offered a glass of water which I gulp down. “My compliments to the chef.” I joke. She rolls her eyes at that. “Spike made that, I’ll let him know you at least liked what he brought you.”

Awkward. “Well! Today, we have some things to settle, and we should get started right away!” she declares, and a notebook flies from the desk behind her to just in front of her face, and she pages through it before finding an empty page. “We’re going to see if you can read and write, since you’re gonna be staying.” I nod along. “But if you can’t, please don’t freak out too much?” She drops the notebook on my lap, and levitates a quill and inkwell over, dipping the former in the latter before pushing it into my hand. ‘Hello, world!’ I write, adding below it ‘My name is Bookish Velvet, can you read this, Twilight Sparkle?’ My arm’s aching after that, so I kinda awkwardly offer the quill to her, and when she takes it, I let myself drop back down into bed. I know I wasn’t so fit before this, but I guess being unconscious for the best part of 5 days has really put a strain on my body.

She’s been staring at the page for what feels like a week before it unceremoniously hurtles back across the room in her magic. I won’t lie, it's almost creepy that she can even move things she’s not looking at. I make a mental note to ask about that if a time ever presented itself. “The script, I recognise.” Twilight says at last, voice all scholarly interest. “The words though, I haven’t seen anything even a little similar to before. Sorry.”

That sucks. I wasn’t great at foreign languages at school, and now I have to relearn written english? Or, hmm. “What’s your language called, anyway?” I say. No use wallowing in small things for now. At least the letters are the same, thank god. “We call it Equish, but in other lands it’s just called Pony,” she explains. “Other lands?” I think aloud, and she smiles. “I see you’re curious! There’s the Griffon Kingdom to the East, and the country of YakYakistan to our North…” is that a hint of a frown on her face? “Nothing really lies in the badlands to our South, oddly enough, but there’s apparently an Empire of sentient bipedal cats far to the West!”

“So probably four languages.” I muse, and Twilight nods. “I guess that’s not bad considering each country at least sounds like it’s home to its own race. So what, we’re in the kingdom of unicorns right now?” She groans, and ‘facehooves’, I think? “I can’t believe I missed another thing… You remember seeing Princess Luna, right?” Really, Twilight, you need to ask? How could I not remember that? “While I only have a horn, she also has a pair of wings. She’s what we call an Alicorn, a divine combination of all pony traits.” I had actually kinda written that off as some sort of queen thing, like in insects, oddly enough, but I’m glad to be getting the real reason. “She embodies the strength and fortitude of the Earth Ponies, the flight and agility of the Pegasi, and the wit and magic of the Unicorns.”

I whistle in amazement. “She’s kind of a big deal then, I take it?” Twilight scoffs at this, and I swear to god I can see twinkles in her eyes as she carries on her impromptu speech. “Nothing compared to her older sister, Princess Celestia! She uses her incredible wisdom to rule the nation, and her great magical power to raise and lower the sun every day!”

That definitely makes me skeptical, but there’s not really any scenario here where I gain anything by questioning this. If she’s doing her best impression of the wizard of oz (in glorious technicolor) and I attempt to expose that with my science-y knowledge, which may I add I have no way of proving, I can foresee in my future a very short meeting with lions and tigers and bears, oh my! On the other hand, Luna apparently can traverse dreams, and if her sister can raise the sun, I don’t think I really want to do anything that might be considered an insult to one or both of them.

I listen pretty intently as Twilight lavishes Celestia with praise, but as she goes on and on, I decide that I prefer Luna more and more. I am a little confused with the continuity of the stories when she goes back and explains about this one time Luna tried to take over the kingdom, before hastily glossing over the actual details of that, saying something about her and her friends and the ‘magic of friendship’, before launching straight into another tale. God, she really is gonna keep going with these stories, isn’t she? I close my eyes, deciding to let her stories wash over me and lull me to sleep.

-

“Bookish Velvet. A wonderful name, with wonderful reason behind it. I must admit to having been curious as to which of the names you’d pull from inside the chaos of your mind, and I am glad you did not disappoint.”

I jolt to attention. I’m standing in a blank white space, and in front of me is the familiar face of Princess Luna. I can’t help but compare her soft features to some of the stories Twilight has told me, and it’s hard to reconcile the past with the Alicorn I can see in front of me. “Quite. Though, if my sister had shared your hesitation, I imagine I would be regarded as much greater a monster. If any stood to regard me at all.” Mind reading, right, right, I’m dreaming. Hah, does that mean…? Luna snickers. “Indeed, my sister’s faithful student quite literally put you to sleep with boredom.” I get a laugh out of that, and Luna joins me.

I pull the chair back, and sit down. Luna takes her seat across from me, and levitates a few bread rolls from the basket in the middle of the table onto each of our four plates. “But hey, I like the name too. And don’t go sharing round the rest, some of those deserve to have died in highschool…” I cringe at the thought, and Luna winks at me. “Your secret is safe, human.”

‘Human’. Hearing her call me that irks me for some reason, so I take a few steps down the ladder, and pull out a different book. It’s the one that has the thaumographs in it, and once I’ve climbed all the way down, I pin them to the wall opposite Luna. I try and think of what I was gonna say next, but I’m finding it hard to focus on the images, and I frown, shaking my head to try and clear the fog. “Allow me to help you with that.” calls Luna, and the world is coated in a deep blue aura for a moment before everything comes into crystal clear focus.

“Thanks.” I say. I gesture to images four and five as I turn to face her. “What I was wondering, Luna, was if I’m even still human. I mean, I know I’m becoming a pony, but what does that make me right now? Am I gonna wake up one day fully transformed? Is this gonna get all kafkaesque? I know I can’t go home, but I wonder if I even should, after seeing this…”

She starts a slow walk towards me, and wears a thoughtful expression. “While I cannot definitively tell you, Twilight would undoubtedly be able to answer your question. But I don’t think you mean it in an entirely literal sense, do you?” She’s right of course, she’s good at being right. Quite like Twilight, in that regard. “It’s an interesting question, I agree. You were beckoned to cross a threshold, and now wonder if, crossing it again, you will become who you once were when you stood there last.” There’s a wistful smile on her face, and the world around us jarringly lurches, and a myriad of doors melded together now covers on each wall. “But deep down, you know that you cannot cross the same threshold twice. It is a tragedy we all must face, at some point in our lives... I’m sorry that this wasn’t the answer you wanted, but I do not think it right to lie to you after what has happened.”

I lean up to the wall, and slide down it to a sitting position. Knowing the answer, but not liking the one I’d been given, that was irrevocable in the same way, I suppose. I jump, feeling something warm and fluffy push against my face. She’s nuzzling me- does she feel bad, or just want to comfort me? I can’t say I mind either way. I stroke her head, and she cozies up to me a little. A light scent of lavender hangs over her, one that I hadn’t been able to notice before, and I breathe deeply of it, and relax.

But although my body is loose and relaxed, my mind still races. I’m going to be completely transformed, at some point. I’m stuck here, with no way of contacting my family or friends again. Surely at some point I’d be written off as missing, presumed dead, and my parents would probably-- No, I don’t want to dwell on that right now, so I retrace my thoughts. Transforming, I can live with. It sounds far from ideal to have no fingers or thumbs, but, if I’m lucky enough to be a unicorn, I could learn to move things with my mind like Twilight.

If nothing else I’m sure I would at least be able to make a decent income as a tutor or teacher of maths again, after some work. I could save up some money and explore this magical world, which seems to be pretty idyllic from what stories I’d actually been listening to. Yeah, I’ve lost a lot- a moment of silence for my computer, please- but in a way, coming here might even be an opportunity to change for the better.

I sit still, after thinking through that. The Princess’ warmth is comforting, and knowing that someone went to such lengths to help me, no matter what my body ends up like, means a lot to me.

“I am glad you do not hold any resentment for me.” She says, after a period of comfy silence. “I had worried that you would come to hate me for bringing you to equestria, but for you to be so understanding, I-'' Was she crying? Luna clears her throat. “I could scarcely believe that you held me in such high regard, that you even considered me to be your savior…” I guess I did think of her like that, a little at least. I’d take her over some high-and-mighty sun princess any day, that’s for sure.

Luna chuckles, but it turns into a yawn half way through in the most adorable fashion. “You must forgive the brevity of our parting, but I require my rest- and so do you. I hope your tomorrow is a pleasant one.”

I nod, suddenly feeling very sleepy. “Bloody dream magic…” I slur, before remembering myself, and quickly add “But, uh, thank you, Princess, you sleep well too.” I can’t tell if she was smirking or frowning at that, but that’s like, at least a 50% chance of having accidentally made Luna smile, which I guess I can take.

“I shall return you once again to a dreamless sleep. Sleep well, Bookish Velvet.” She says, and I can’t even think up a response, as the words simply drift alongside me, peaceful, and still.

Author's Note

Another chapter done! I’ve had some trouble with moving the story along without rushing to an absurd degree, but I think I’ve found a good pace for now. Next chapter is written but not fully edited, so expect it any time within the next week, and once again I hope you’re enjoying it so far!