Wendigo

Chapters

Chapter 1: Where the Wind Goes
Chapter 3: Moonlight
Chapter 4: Guest
Chapter 5: Ward
Chapter 6: Divine
Chapter 7: Ice and Fire
Chapter 8: Lullaby
Chapter 9: Sunrise
Chapter 10: Absolution
Chapter 11: Still
Chapter 12: Crash
Chapter 13: Phantasm
Chapter 14: Simulacrum
Chapter 15: Heartbeat of the Moon
Chapter 2: Friends in Faraway Places
Chapter 16: Midnight Passion [NSFW]

Chapter 1: Where the Wind Goes

Where the Wind Goes

The underbrush stirred against my sides, but I pressed on. My bounding, uneven gallop cast me past unfamiliar plants and uneven boughs.

This place looked weird. The light was wrong, even what little filtered through the dense foliage of the trees above. The edges of shapes felt dense, almost cartoonish. Wrong, wrong, WRONG! This whole place was wrong! I’d fallen asleep in my tent, normal, after a hard day’s trek through the woods. And I’d woken up in this place, falling two stories through matted underbrush with no explanation. I’d flailed around helplessly, grasping out at branches and vines, but finding myself shearing right through them with my hands as I fell.

But when I landed. When I landed, I could see. God have mercy on me, I was more bone than man. Twisted flesh layered itself over my exposed bones, draping itself like cloth. Suspended in the top of my vision, I could see a hanging web of razor-like antlers, jutting out haphazardly. What was I? Had I been drugged? I scrambled backwards, tearing against the ground as if trying to escape this body. With a rough ‘thud’ I smacked against a tree. I didn’t understand how, but this body moved just fine. I could see my own exposed femur, but my body felt good, powerful even. I tried to stand up, wobbling a bit as I got used to an unfamiliar weight distribution. My lanky arms were long, far longer than I was used to. Teetering on my feet for a second, I lost my balance and fell onto four limbs. Pausing for a moment, I realised that this felt fine as well. Quickly scaling terrain, I discovered that I could move quickly like this. Doing so felt a little unsettling. It was too ferine, a reminder of my own monstrous form. But, right now, what I wanted more than anything was to find someone to talk to, someone who could explain this all to me. And so, it was time to explore.

This forest was bizarre. Almost as bizarre as me. There were trees that had developed pareidolia triggering facial expressions, long and jagged vines snaking out, stupefying howls in the distance like those of no animal I’d ever heard. In passing a stagnant pond, I had seen a collection of rocks that seemed almost perfect to skip across, before they shifted subtly in unison and I realised that a whole crocodile of solid stone was lurking beneath the waters. I moved more carefully from then on. This place was strange. It was magical, but dangerous.

Credit: huussii

I don’t know how long I ran through the forest. I felt I should have tired hours before, but there was an unnatural strength coursing through my body. I supposed it was only fair, I wasn’t feeling very “natural” anymore. But, as boughs dipped low and the moon soared higher, I was growing restless. I needed to get out of here. I needed to find someone.

That’s when I saw it, the little animal standing in front of a campfire. It was like a regular horse if it had been given whatever they’ve been feeding those anime-girls. The face was far too expressive, the muzzle too short, its body was orange and purple, the kind which you’d expect to find in a ball-pit. And, like in the Greek legends of old, a pair of miniature wings sat on its back. It was a pegasus.

I crept up behind it, silent as the dead as I looked to get a closer view.

Credit:mushroomdoggo

Right now, it was being held at gunpoint by another monster. I noticed, freezing as more of the campfire became visible to me through the brush. A tall, almost as tall as me, biped in a skintight spacesuit had some kind of futuristic rifle pointed at the colourful creature.

“Shi shal! Buhruh bit tal!”

“What?! Please, I don’t understand!” The little orange pony cried out, throwing itself onto the grass, hooves over its head and clenching its eyes tight to hide from the danger. It was just like a kid. In response, the hulking alien stomped forwards and hit the pony with the butt of its rifle, eliciting a scream from what I’d realised was just a tiny girl. Then, placing a heavy boot on one of the pony’s legs to keep it in place, it toggled a box on its throat for a moment, before vocalising again.

“Worthless primitive! The Empire has no need for more females!” it grunted. Laughing coarsely, it lifted its rifle and aimed at the colourful pony’s head. It was time to move.

Pouncing forwards, I closed the distance between us in seconds. Bounding on four limbs, all the black-suited biped saw of me was antler and claw sailing at it, as I extended my arms to reach for its chest. A flash of surprise crossed it, as it registered my attack all too late. I was surprised too, as I cut right through the creature, armour and all, in a single swipe. Four clawed fingers slashed, five segments of armoured alien hit the ground. I had actually built up far too much momentum. Gliding past the evil thing, I sank my other hand into the ground, digging into the dirt and using it as a fulcrum to turn. After a moment of frenzied movement, there was quiet. Only the distant squawks of wildlife and the soft crackling of the fire broke the silence.

The little orange pony stared at me; her eyes wider than I had seen them so far. Reeking of fright, her ears were folded against the sides of her head, and she was frozen still on the ground, not moving a muscle. Her eyes were fixated on me, waiting for something. I paused for a few seconds, wondering what to do. She was young, scared. I would tell her it was okay, I decided after a moment. Opening my jaw, I tried to speak to the girl but, instead of clear words, a raspy howl escaped my throat. Oh god, was that the sound of my voice?

The last straw cast upon her back, the orange pony bolted from her crouch, galloping off into the inky night of the forest and screaming at the top of her little lungs. I tried calling out to her again, a shuddering wheeze being my last interaction with her. I wanted to explain myself, to ask what she knew about this area. But, in one of my finer moments of clarity, I reckoned that chasing after the little pony fleeing in terror with my claws out probably wasn’t the best way to ingratiate myself. With a huff, I fell against the ground in dismay.

Cold blood dripping from my claws and the flickering light of the campfire lapping at my ghastly form I was left all alone once more. I was all alone.

Chapter 3: Moonlight

Moonlight

I sprinted through the trees. It was no chase. I had lost the little purple unicorn in seconds, if it had even given pursuit. My legs were too long, my vision too strong in the dead of night, my body untiring. I just ran. I supposed I needed to get away, needed to clear my head. And so I barreled past trees, hopped over boulders, shredded through nets of vines with my claws and continued moving at a brisk jog. Eventually, a pitter-patter of rain started hitting against leaves around me. I just snorted, it was just what I wanted, to be soaked and smell like wet-dog.

The moon, once my source of direction through the forest, had been reduced to a dim haze through the dark layers of clouds that had swallowed the forest around me. My jog was interrupted when, not far ahead, I heard the roar of a lion, as if from a circus. And in a temperate forest of all places. I slowed to a walk, my spindly legs treading quietly over leafy debris. Seeing the twinkle of light in a clearing ahead, I found the trees opened to a spacious glade. Hard rock and long grasses intermingled over the space. Crouching down in my approach, I was party to an impromptu lightshow as familiar black armoured forms swarmed around a massive bastardization of a lion’s head, a scorpion’s tail, and the wings of what were maybe a bat?

And, looking behind them all, I faltered for a moment. That was an honest-to-gods spaceship, even I was sure of that. The disconnect of the biped creature’s armour from our surroundings, their imperialist approach to what appeared to be the natives around here, it was clicking in. They were as foreign to this place as I was, actual aliens in a flying saucer. And, right now, they were struggling to put down a monster ripped straight out of Greek mythology, a manticore. I was entranced by their fight. They seemed surprised at the fight, showing little of the confidence that the sauntering one I had encountered earlier had displayed. When their weapons fired lasers of bright light at the manticore, they seemed shocked that it was having little effect beyond searing and stunning the beast for long enough for the next alien to blast it. Tapping their weapons like one might an unruly toaster, they had kept themselves out of the lunging manticore’s reach only by a mixture of luck and kiting the beast’s with taunting and blasts from its rear. It wasn’t pretty, but the aliens seemed to be wearing the manticore down, shot by shot. It was whining in pain from the sheer number of seared patches of fur on its body.

I reasoned that I could step in, try to deal with the aliens. I certainly didn’t like them, after all. But, after so many hours on my own, I craved even this enrichment. When so little around me made sense, being able to learn from the actions of the armoured purple things, instead of picking at their bodies, was the closest thing to understanding my surroundings as I could accomplish. Besides, their rifles appeared to be at parity to the magical unicorn’s horn beam and I was not eager to charge into that line of fire for nothing. And so, I watched and waited.

“BEAST!” A thunderous voice boomed from high above. Turning away from the purple aliens, I looked to the skies.

Credit: hunternif

It was bigger than the ponies I had seen so far. Taller, sleeker, less childish. Held aloft as if in a magical breeze, its mane was a shining sea of stars, flowing out into the night sky. I was surprised to see a horn accompanying its pegasus wings. I supposed that some ponies could combine the two traits? The orange pony I had seen before possessed neither, so maybe it was a genetic luck of the draw sort of affair?

And, over its breast and hooves, sleek armour fitted to its form. Next to the other ponies I had seen, it was positively regal. And, right now, it was descending through the clouds in my direction, wholly ignorant to the far more spectacular battle happening not across the field. Pointed directly at me, a spear hovering in the dim glow of a midnight-blue magical grip, as was similarly reflected in the pony’s horn. A look of irritated resolve on its face, it seemed to be trying to decipher my form as it glided down on its long wings. I wished it luck, making sense of myself was something I had failed at for hours on end at this point.

I stood up to greet the dark pony, my sinewy limbs nearly doubling my height as I unfurled and turned my antler skull to the sky. With a great ‘thum’, the equine landed in the dirt, the ground reverberating as a great weight settled onto it. The pony, all the while, looked unfazed.

“Hark, thou art the beast we have been warned of. The one that hath terrified young Scootaloo, one of our few friends of this era!” The pony accused with a womanly voice (she accused, I supposed), spreading her wings wide and adopting a threatening stance.

“Uuaaiht, wait.” I rasped throatily through the rainstorm, unfurling a claw and holding it up, palm extended, to try and stave off the magical being for long enough to avoid a wholly predictable series of events.

“Desist, foul creature of evil!” She yelled, keeping to the old-timey language she had opened with. And I thought that I was suffering with my speech.

Twirling her spear like a majorette with a parade baton, she angled it so that its butt was facing me. Then, with a harpoon-like speed, she shot its end towards my head. Arcing my body to the side just in time, I glimpsed the cold metal, sleek with droplets of rain, pass mere inches from my right ear. Then, just as quickly as it had been shot, the spear shot back to its owner’s side. Enough.

I was tired of the equines attacking me, it was time to set this right. Bony jaw snapping open, I let loose a ferine roar, the pitch wildly oscillating in a ghastly chorus. Darting towards the dark horse, I crossed the field between us in barely over a second. I was surprised at this display, hell, so was the pony. But that moment of hesitation gave me just enough of a lead to strike the winged unicorn with a roundhouse kick to the breastplate. Even without claws, the kick carried enough force to resound through the pony’s metal, throwing it backwards across the clearing.

“You- you dare sully the dignity of Equestrian Royalty, mindless monstrosity!?” The pony bellowed, glancing at a slight dent in its breastplate, where my bony foot had struck. It would buff out. More importantly, the pony confirmed my earlier suspicions that it was in fact a royal something or other. The tailored finery was a bit of a giveaway, when the past two ponies had just worn their furs. The royal pony spread its legs and grounded itself, a dead giveaway that it was charging up for an attack, as the purple unicorn had previously done. I bounced on my toes in turn, the rain’s chill cooling me through my body’s layer of animalistic fur.

That standoff continued for a few seconds, before I made my move. This arrogant pony would see what I was made of. Darting forwards as if I were going for a dumb charge again, I tensed my taunt legs, then leapt squarely into the air. Sailing through the sky like only a superhuman beast could. A snarling laugh escaped me, as I sailed to the pony below.

Gritting her teeth, the pony glared at me and clenched her eyes shut for a second, a bright blue hue encompassing her horn for a brief moment. Then, as my eyes shot wide in alarm, she opened her own. A brilliant, all encompassing blast shot skywards, towards me.

Credit: foxenawolf

Oh, how it burned. From my legs up, I felt my body being unmade. The raw energy burned away the flesh until I was a spiralling torso, and then not even that. I was acutely aware of it all, even if it took barely a second. But, even as my body burned away, I felt something carry on towards my opponent. A mass, something I might have described as a soul, drifted through the air, until a cloud of it remained before the pony. I could still see her, though I wasn’t sure I still had eyes. I couldn’t feel them, at least. I couldn’t feel anything, not even the rain as it passed through me. There was a soft call in the back of my mind, urging me to cease, to dissipate. It was gentle and timid, but it was so out of touch with the violence around me. The dying roar of a manticore, the levelled spear, the pony’s scowl. The fight, tumult, that was something I could focus on.

“What manner of beast art thou?” The royal pony asked me, her voice now a whisper, her head hung low, cautious.

I wasn’t following her. Not her words anyways. Her shape was something I did look at, clung to. Shape, definition, form. I didn’t have a brain, but I had a mind. I didn’t have a body, but I could still have a form. Breath in, breathe out. I reached out to limbs that I instinctively knew weren’t there, and they responded. I closed my eyes, and then I opened them.

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All around me, the choir of rain had been replaced by the silence of snow. But growing from a whisper to a scream, winds around me started to bellow, until a gale of snow and frost began to consume the glade around us. Where puddles had pooled, ice crept and lapped, rain dripping from leaves formed miniature icicles and snow piled in even the barest of amounts. And I, regarding myself, had form once more. Shaped like a great horse, my body was entirely translucent, floating above the ground. I was more the outline of a horse, than one by creation. All the while, the snow clumps sailed through me carelessly. I felt a great burning in my eyes, like torchlight hinting at an unlit bonfire. I did a little prance, then galloped with the wind as if I were an untamed foal roaming the wilderness. Changed once again, I felt a vitality, a restlessness that I had not since I was a bouncing child. I wanted to dance like the winds that howled around me, raging and cavorting about as they did.

Broken from my trance by movement not ten paces in front of me, I became aware of the royal pony transfixed upon me, her spear lowered and her attention fully drawn by myself. I stared back in kind, it was a nice change in pace.

“A windigo? But”–the pony froze for a second, confusion plastered all over her remarkably expressive face–“thy kind hath been gone for millenia.” She paced back and forth, her face a fusion, alternating at once between deep concern and eager interest.

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I tried to respond, to speak. Instead of words, an icy wind blew out of my mouth and I saw miniature snow particles form in the air from frozen humidity. I contorted in on for a moment, standing still in midair while trying to vocalise with a body that was not wholly corporeal.

While I prodded at the approximate location of where I thought pony lungs might be with a forehoof, a bright light snapped me out of my experimentation. A new beam of light, from outside our little bubble of astoundment and experimentation cast itself forwards and struck the dark pony square in its little muzzle. She let out a little yell, then shielded her face with an armoured hoof. I glanced away from the pony. Approaching, their manticore now subdued, the armoured aliens plodded towards us with a newfound confidence in their step. There were about ten in all, perhaps an even dozen.

“More indigenous”–a familiarly guttural voice bellowed–“don’t rough ‘em up too bad. The governess will want some alive for the surrender ceremony, once the techies work out how to get a line open to Shil.” Did all of the marauding aliens sound like orcs, albeit feminine ones?

I turned my full attention to the attackers. I may not like the brash pony with an aggressive streak, but I wasn’t about to let these savages burn her to a crisp, like they had with that manticore. The pony, now wholly caught off guard by the incoming group, shone her horn brighter still and formed a navy blue bubble around herself, cautiously observing the new attackers. I would step in then. This form seemed to move more by instinct, than direction. So, when I did a little shake and started prancing on air, while I’d intended to rise, I just ran with it. Charging towards the armoured aliens with soft, almost ghostly ‘clip-clops’ of phantom hoof strikes against cobblestone, I carried the full wrath of the snowstorm with me. The invaders were still primarily focused on the winged unicorn in a magical bubble when I first glided overhead. But, after I’d doubled back and they were already under a foot of snow, they started paying me more attention.

The bright lights of alien laser fire passed right through me as I danced around the group in a meandering circle. All the while, I exhaled a steady breath towards the black suits of armour. Like magic, a core of ice began building up around the aliens standing in the heart of the storm. While they screamed and concentrated fire on me, raging and frothing as they fought, the ice built and solidified until the last hand, desperately reaching to the sky, had frozen over into a block.

Moving as if in a trance, I trotted down to the ground from my track in the sky, facing towards the solid ice cube of aliens. Bringing two forehooves skywards, I saw a flash of glowing light in my eyes and I pounded down the hooves to the ground. Incorporeal though I may have been, the cube shattered into a thousand crushed cubes of ice with a resounding screech, like a skyscraper’s worth of glass all shattering at once.

With the sudden surge of power, I felt a great pang in my chest, like a beating heart. An incorporeal hoof taking a step back, as if wounded, I stepped away from the purple and black sea of ice. Winds raging around me all the while. In the centre of the navy bubble of magic, the dark pony stood, wholly unaffected by the raging blizzard.I took a step closer to her, nearing to her abused shield. Feeling another pang in my chest, I fell into a ball, curling up into the pony approximation of the foetal position as a numbness settled over my mind. I barely was aware of a layer of snow settling over my ghost, pouring matter upon the bodiless. That numbness of the mind dulled any comprehension I might have had of what happened to me in that frozen crucible, but I was acutely aware of the sensation of a clawed hand bursting through the snow, grasping at the world once more. Piece by piece, a twisted mound of antler, flesh, and bone wrestled its way once more from the snow and ice.

I had condensed into solid mass before a shell-shocked dark pony, who for a moment seemed incapable of more than staring at me. To my own amazement, I appeared as untarnished as I had been the moment I had fallen through the tree canopy. Even the tingling skin from where the purple pony had blasted me was fully healed. Readjusting to a solid form, I staggered briefly, falling to four limbs and sagging towards the ground. An intense weariness, not so different from sleepiness consumed me. Rejoining the living had not come without its fee, I realised. Looking up, I saw that raw shock was not holding back the dark horse pony thing any more. Nursing a struck muzzle, and seemingly immensely cautious of the fates that had befallen the group of ten armed warriors, the pony was beginning to build up a massive amount of power in its horn.

“He-loh” I managed with my newly restored lungs, close enough to let the words carry. Standing up again, I waved at the pony, before stumbling and falling to a knee, the kneecap crunching softly into an inch of snow.

Spreading her long wings wide, the dark pony’s eyes grew bright like the pearl white of the moon. I could swear that the moon itself, hidden behind the dense clouds of the blizzard, shone brighter with the pony’s might. Consciousness was escaping me rapidly, so it might have been a hallucination. But what stuck with me for certain was the raw power that slid off the pegasus unicorn’s body like waves from the sea, her eyes growing brighter and brighter until she spoke in a voice that brokered no compromise.

“THOU SHALT SURRENDER THYSELF TO US!”

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Unfortunately for her, I wasn’t in much shape to do anything. My body spent after the longest of nights, finally, I collapsed.

Chapter 4: Guest

Guest

I woke up in chains. Not the most agreeable start to a day, but I had recently grown accustomed to worse beginnings. Blearily, I’d opened my eyes and lifted my head, only to find myself already on my feet. Albeit, midway between falling and standing, I was being lifted by two chains, each affixed to a wrist. I blinked at the metal cuffs, experimentally giving one a tug. The metal gave a ‘clink’, like a string of wind chimes, but didn’t budge. Squinting, I saw the miniature outlines of some kind of glowing runic writing imprinted on each link of the chain I could see. More glowy magic, cool.

My breaths came loudly, filtered through a rough leather muzzle that had been affixed to my head. I felt like Hannibal Lecter, only more monster outside than inside. The leather was tough, but not terribly uncomfortable. It did, however, stop me from nibbling at my chains. Hardly my first choice, when I was fairly sure my claws could scratch at their own cuffs, but it was affixed to my face nonetheless.

I panned my eyes across the rest of my surroundings. It was dungeon-ey, but in a tiny ponies sort of way. The ceiling was far too low. A short table with a long stool sat outside my cell, as if for a guard to more comfortably sit, upon which a singular candle lazily burned, providing the space with a warm orange glow. The bars of my unit were worn and roughly cast, the black metal warped and dented from the memory of hammer strikes. It was a far cry from the sterile industrial cell doors and fluorescent lights of a human prison. And, above all else, what stood out to me was the layer of dust covering every surface. No occupants cried from their own cages, no rotation of guards patrolled the cells. The only thing that moved in the entire dungeon was a solitary drip of wax, slowly making its way down the room’s candle into its holder’s flat dish. By the table’s edge, I could faintly see a circle, about the size of the candle dish, where a layer of dust hadn’t accumulated and the table’s reflective polish still shone.

I continued looking around for a few minutes, so this was ponyland, huh? I had to say, I’d seen worse. They had a cool aesthetic going on here. I might have even enjoyed looking around these cells, were I not currently the attraction chained up. I stretched out my claws. Maybe there was something I could do about that. Shaking around my right arm a bit, I felt around with the claw of my index finger. After a bit of scratching and prodding, I felt it sink into a cavity. Success. I didn’t know anything about lockpicking, but I knew you had to stick a wire or a pin into them to open them up. A claw could do the job just fine, I was certain.

In the distance, I heard the ‘thump’ of a heavy door opening up. Soft clip-clops echoed down the hall, out of sight. My eyes shot wide. Desperately, I tried retracting my index finger, chains rattling softly as I shook about my right arm. Through the dungeon halls, I heard voices in conversation.

“-sure it turned into a windigo? When I found you, passed out with that”–the voice paused, stumbling over words–”that still in your grip, it looked just as both young Rainbow Dash and yourself said it originally looked.”

The clip-clops loudened and the voices got closer.

Credit: fuyugi

“We are certain, sister! It turned back into its current shape as our own magic surged.” I pursed my lips, as if having bit a lemon. I recognized that voice. A familiar looking unicorn-pegasus pony thing walked in front of my cell, with a remarkably tall pure white pony in tow. It took a second for my eyes to adjust to her. I didn’t know what hair-products she used, but there was not a drop of light being absorbed by her coat, it was all reflected right back to my eyes. And she was big, horse big. In stark contrast to the dark pony’s mane which twinkled and seemed to consume light around it, as if hovering in the void of space, her mane sparkled and flowed in a bright, almost heavenly pink, green, and blue. So there was some colour coordination between the two. I filed that information away for later, desperately trying to free my compromised claw from its predicament as the two ponies were entirely consumed by their conversation with one another, not even sparing a glance in my direction.

“It is not like it was we who froze those strange magi in a block of ice, punishment though they might have deserved for attacking us so unprovoked.” The dark pony bobbed her head back and forth as she walked closer to my cell, as if imitating someone else talking, “We have listened tirelessly to your explanations that we are ‘to try and make friends first’ with strangers,”–shooting a deadpan stare behind herself–“though it would have been nice if they had tried the same with us when we met. If the creature had been a pony instead of a ravenous beast, I might have owed it thanks for defeating them while they struck at me.”

The blue pony perked up, as if remembering something.

“Oh, and we must remember to send a squadron of guards down to the Everfree to investigate the camp of those bizarre purple bipeds. We do not think they were dragons. There were bright lights and vents that were similar to the air-of-conditioning that you introduced me to yesterday, it all looked like powerful magic! I am certain it is related to these ‘holes’ you mentioned before.” The dark pony beamed at her idea, seemingly thrilled at being able to help out her sister’s work. The white pony nodded absentmindedly, but looked distracted, furrowing her brow.

“Yes, that. My faithful student had informed me of how dangerous the beast seemed. And, now, it has apparently killed an entire squadron of hostile war-mages.”

“Yes! It was spectacular in doing battle, sister. Verily, it did real battle with us! I hope we keep it! Perhaps outside, in the guard’s training yards? If I am to be given a real sparring partner that can last for more than a few seconds, it will free up an entire troop of extra soldiers for our military to fight with on the front lines.”

“As I told you yesterday and the day before, sister. There are no frontlines, we have been at peace with the gryphons and the dragons for hundreds of years now. Having you rough the guardsponies up every now and then is”–the white pony waved a hoof around for a second, searching for a word, before settling and placing her hoof on her sister’s shoulder–“good practice! Let’s keep your practice-buddies in place for now.” The blue pony slumped a little, but gave no complaint.

“Perhaps we can just leave it in the badlands.” The white pony continued, while I wrestled with my stuck claw as quietly as I could. “It is clearly not a native creature to the Everfree Forest, afterall. I have far too much on my plate right now to deal with this. My schedule has me meeting with Dragon Lord Torch in the dragonlands tomorrow morning and you know how he can get. I should have just enough time to teleport it out into the wastes and come back in time to make it to the dragon throne.” At this, the dark pony perked up again.

“Oh, would you like me to join you, sister? The dragons may look tough, but you know they’ve never scared me.” At this, the dark pony put on a smirk, looking up to her older sister. She, in turn, looked conflicted for a moment, before shaking her head.

“No, Lulu, it is best to keep one of us in Canterlot, in case of an emergency. Besides, Torch mellowed out considerably these last two centuries. Mostly, he’s just loud these days. How about you use today as an opportunity to meet some more ponies in the capital? Network a bit as a princess?” Despite nodding, her sister seemed dejected. I was amazed by how expressive these ponies’ faces were, especially since we weren’t even of the same species. And, Lulu, was it? Did I finally have a name to put to the pony?

“If you say so, sister. At least let me”–the dark pony’s horn glowed and a set of keys flew to her side as she walked to my cell–“escort you and the creature to the castle’s entrance.” Finally, the two ponies were looking at me. Me, with the claw of my right hand still firmly wedged in the chain’s locking mechanism. I froze up, tensing. Not good, not good.

“He-loh” I rasped, rotating my left hand in the approximation of a wave.

The blue pony was frozen mid-motion, a look of shock on its face.

“Sister.” The snow white pony’s gaze was bearing through her sister’s skull, right into me.

“Tia, there was no indication that-”

“Sister!”

The dark pony gave her sister a wide-eyed stare. Reflected through the long muzzle of a pony, the white sister gave her sister possibly the most exasperated stare I had ever seen before. After a moment of unanswered silence, she pointed her hoof at me.

“It can talk!?”

Chapter 5: Ward

Ward

There was silence in the dungeons. An entire moment dedicated to me trying to not exist, and two sisters boring holes into one another with their eyes. I think the white one was the victor, with how the dark pony (is her name Lulu, I’m still not sure?) lowered her head and looked abashed. Looking sour herself, the pearl pony slumped.

“Well,” she sighed, “I can’t drop it in the badlands now.”

A second passed, then the white pony’s back straightened like a ruler and she rose her head high. I saw her eyes shimmy up and down for a second, as if unused to looking this high up at people.

“Creature, I am Princess Celestia of Equestria. You are already familiar with my sister, Princess Luna.”

Her composure (Princess Celestia’s composure, I mentally corrected myself) had changed in an instant. While maintaining her general matronly air, she had dropped the casual friendliness for a disposition of bland personability. It wasn’t offensive to me in any way, but it was an odd character trait that had been executed with such mechanical precision as to suggest that it was done on an extremely regular basis.

Examining me with that fixed neutral precision, she glanced over my restraints, a claw still lodged in one. Pausing for a moment, I saw her horn light with a brilliant golden hue, and I felt a wave of relief course through my right hand as the index finger was freed from the lock’s opening. Looking into my warped face, she seemed to decide on something.

“I quite dislike keeping sentient beings in chains. However, my dear student Twilight Sparkle has informed me of some of your activities in rather detailed writing. I assure you, I have immense faith in her judgement. As it stands, pending further investigation by the crown,”–she raised an immaculate hoof to my mouth, speaking volumes of unspoken judgement–“the muzzle stays on and the chains remain.”

“Whoo ihh Twhhylah Spahrkrr?” I winced, flinching at the sound of my own voice. If it was half as grating to them as it sounded like to me, it would be a miracle if they could even understand me.

Princess Celestia blinked at the question. “Twilight is the purple unicorn you met in the Everfree Forest. For years, she’s been my personal protégé. She is”–She wavered for a moment, as if losing the words she wanted to say mid-sentence–“a model Equestrian citizen.”

I wanted to say that the purple pony, this Twilight, had attacked me. I wanted to get combative. However, the rational part of my brain reminded me that I was currently chained in the dungeon stronghold, before a pair of diarchs who had proven individually capable of causing me great harm.

Instead, I was silent as Princess Celestia walked right up to me.
“You will, unfortunately, have to remain here for at least the coming day, as I will be out of country and my sister has royal duties to attend to.” Celestia shot a fond glance to her smiling sister, who joined her in front of me. “Now, Luna’s night is deep and I would have gotten to sleep several hours ago, had this incident not occurred. At least”–a faint glimmer of a smile crept across her face–“I will be able to get some rest now that you are not headed to the badlands. Sister, the nation is yours. Could you be a dear and close up the creature’s cell again?” Celestia finished, nodding to her sister. Then, in a brilliant gold flash, the white pony disappeared to who-knows-where. Somehow, this seemed to not surprise Princess Luna. Teleportation, this was something the ponies could do? I grimaced, realising how much I had underestimated their combat potential.

Luna took two steps back, then paused by the cell door, glancing to me and my cosy home on the wall. It was strange, seeing her wide eyes. When she looked at me, I wasn’t sure which one of us was getting left alone. With soft little clip-clops, she pirouetted and turned back towards me.

“Thou art rather dangerous, to have challenged us and fought as thou hast. We should keep thee nearby, for the safety of our ponies, until our sister returns.” She cautiously decided, nodding along with her decision a moment after she had spoken it.

Standing in front of me, her horn erupted into a roaring blaze. I flinched, turning my head away. When, instead of being beamed in the face again, I felt the uncomfortable upwards tug of the cuffs against my hands slip away, I opened my eyes. Tentatively at first, my eyes shot open as I saw the runes on my chains dance and flash, while the physical metal links between the chains melted and severed themselves from their bearings on the wall. Held aloft in Princess Luna’s grip, the two segments of chains melted together, until they were fused into a single set of cuffs. As the metal cooled, new runes wrote themselves onto the metal, lazily drifting across the crude craftsmanship.

However surprising it was to me, it seemed to be of no concern to Princess Luna, who had already begun walking away, beckoning me to follow her. I gave pursuit, eagerly stretching my legs as I walked by her side. Princess Luna smelled like cinnamon, I realised, detecting something other than candle smoke for the first time since I’d woken up. Making our way to the small dungeon’s exit, Luna led the two of us out, ducking her head as she made her way out of the narrow-exit. As I followed, I realised that there was a guard on the other side of the door, standing stock-still in their guarding. Upon seeing me, they gave a rigid salute to Princess Luna.

Credit: theparagon

“Your Highness,”–the pony entered a deep bow, their trojan looking helmet nearly sweeping the ground–“would you like the prisoner to be escorted to a new location?”

“That will not be necessary, good guardspony. The prisoner is perfectly safe with us.” She shook her head, sending waves through her flowing mane.

Waiting for her to move on, I watched as Princess Luna stood awkwardly for a moment.

“Tis- tis a beauteous night, tis it not?” She asked, lifting a silver-tipped hoof to the full moon.

“Of course, your Highness.” The pony answered bluntly, before then sparing a brief glance at the night sky.

Silence again.

“Will thee be spending time out of the castle this evening with thine friends or family?”

The guard looked confused, then gave Princess Luna a salute.

“No, your Highness. I am on guard at this location until noon tomorrow.” After a second of thought, the guard looked at the princess again. “Did your Highness want to reassign me to a different position?”

Luna seemed to shrink in on herself, stammering that it was fine, then speed-trotting away as quickly as she could while maintaining some semblance of respectability. I winced, that was rough. Doing a little long-legged skip, I chased after the pony who was supposed to be keeping watch over me. Even if I wanted to escape, which I was fairly sure at this point would actually be counterproductive, I don’t think I could have lived with myself if I’d hurt her self-esteem any more than she’d just hurt it herself.

I found her around a corner in a long empty hallway, having folded her little legs under herself once she was out of sight, just living on the ground now. She seemed out of it, not even noticing me as I walked up behind her. Smiling, I leaned in until I was practically breathing down her neck.

“So, Phrincess”–I voice growled from just behind her head–“I was hhophing to spend the rhest of this evehn-ning with my newh pohneh fhrend?” That was almost intelligible, I was getting better at controlling these vocal cords.

Jumping to her feet without a lick of coordination, Luna’s wings shot wide in surprise at the intrusion into her personal space. Hitting my abdomen like a punch, I was caught off guard and winded by the peculiar appendage, which toppled me off my feet and caused me to land on my ass beside Luna. Those feathery things were stronger than they looked.

Looking down at me, Luna shot me an annoyed glare, until my words seemed to register with her.

“Huh, spend the evening with-? Right, yes. Of course, prisoner,”–she seemed to tack on that last word only as an afterthought–“keep up with me.” Forcing her head high, as if she hadn’t just been a loaf of bread on the ground, she marched off down the long corridor. Smiling, I followed. After a few seconds, I noticed her glancing behind herself, towards me, every now and then. She seemed to be making sure I was still with her.

With a few minutes of walking in relative silence, besides the occasional clank of metal as a guard saluted, we reached a room with a tall, grainy door. It was dark oakwood with a crescent moon motif on it. Placing a hoof on the wood, the door was still for a moment. Then, a thick web of glowing lines spread out across the door’s surface. After some rumbling, the lines faded and an audible ‘click’ could be heard. Giving the door a light tap, Luna entered the room as the door swung seamlessly in, almost impossibly well oiled.

Horn glowing, a book levitated to Luna’s side, alongside an honest-to-gods quill and ink. I couldn’t even mock the technology, it looked really cool. Settling in on a comfortable looking seat, Luna turned her attention to me.

“Alright, creature, we have some work we need to finish right now. It should not take too long, so please let us finish it uninterrupted.” I just gave her a nod.

Glancing at what she was actually looking at, I managed to get a good look at the title, illuminated in candlelight. Embossed in golden letters, it read: Modern History of Equestria, Vol. 1. She was, as far as I could see, just scribbling notes into the margins.

Artist: yakovlev-vad

I shrugged off the peculiarity. More importantly, there was a pony seat across the room. Shaped for a pony, it was more like a long ottoman, or a couch. Sinking in, I smiled. It was comfortable too. Warm candles lit the room, the scritch-scratch of Luna’s writing filled the silence, and ornate windows were a portal to the sprawling landscape outside and the full-moon. Pulling my cuffs into a more comfortable position, I sank in.

This was nice.

Chapter 6: Divine

Divine

Equestria, that’s what they’d called this place. I mused to myself, hovering by the edge of Luna’s tall windows into the countryside below and the night sky above. I wasn’t sure how they’d managed to achieve it, but the ponies seemed to be getting by just fine without light pollution obscuring their heavens. The haze of a galaxy and its multitudinous stars, each one visible, littered the inky blackness. I briefly hunted for Ursa Major, maybe Polaris. Something that could point me north, maybe ground my reality in a position I knew. After a minute of scanning, I snorted. It wasn’t there. Or, at least, the stars were not in any configuration I could recognize. I was in the great unknown.

“Alright, that is done.” I was startled out of my daydreaming by the slap of a closing book, and Luna’s announcement behind me.

Turning, I saw Luna floating her book over to a desk while making her way over to investigate my preoccupation. Seeing that I had been looking out to the Equestrian Night, a smile crested over her features and her eyes lit up like I had just brought up her favourite hobby.

“Oh, thou enjoys the scenery?” Luna did a little prance to a balcony door overlooking her chambers. I walked over to her as she pressed the doors wide open, stepping out onto the overlook. I felt a flash of cold across my skin as I stepped out into the night air. Princess Luna, for her part, seemed fine. It was that layer of soft pony fur, I supposed.

Luna looked up to the stars for a second, tilting her head as if evaluating them. Turning away from the balcony to face me, she pointed a hoof out to the distance.

“Wouldst thou like to see the city from afar?” She asked, spreading her wings. The dark plumage puffing out, her wingtips stretched from rail to rail of the balcony. My eyes shot wide.

“UUuuAaahhhhhh!” I screamed, held a thousand feet above the ground in the blue aura of Luna as she swooped and glided on a wind-current. I had never thought myself to have vertigo, but this was really high up. Steadying my breaths, I tried to focus not on the absence of any surface below me, but on the blue magic holding me aloft, Luna’s magic. Luna was carrying me. I glanced at the blue pony. She was doing jaunty little turns as she flew, trying to enjoy the process of flying. This was normal to her, she was capable up here. A wave of tension left my body.

Eventually, Luna took us in a gliding circular descent, having found a patch of grass that she wanted to land on. Landing with far more grace than the first time I had seen Luna crash into the ground, she gave a slight flap of her wings just before she touched down. Like a petal landing on the surface of water, I don’t think even the grass she landed on noticed her arrival.

Relaxing her horn, I felt the magic keeping me held aloft. For the second time that night, Luna dropped me to the floor. Catching myself on the ground, I took a second to catch my balance, spindly legs flailing out.

When I evened out, I actually took a second to look around and wow. Luna had taken me to a rocky outcrop overlooking the princesses’ palace-capital. I had seen that it was high up, but the city was impossible. It looked like a Disney-castle jammed into the side of a mountain, but way bigger than anything they could ever build and at ultra-high resolution. Amidst a swirling sea of stars and auroras in the sky, its myriad of torches shone like a beacon in the night. No strips of pavement and streetlights crisscrossed the landscape. Instead, you could only pick out the smallest of outlier settlements and the capital in the inky blackness that had settled over the light. Clawing their way up to the heavens, the shapes of distant mountains could be seen only through the blanket of stars that their outlines blotted out. Breaking my focus, I saw Luna shifting forwards, taking a step towards the capital. Turning her head, she looked back to me.

Credit: blvckmagic

“Beautiful, is it not? This is something thou did not get to see when we carried you to our sister’s castle. Was it worth the flight, creature?”

“Brihan.” The voice was foreign, but the name was my own.

“Pardon?” Luna cocked her head.

“Brihan Pohrter, my name.” I rasped.

“Brian Porter, you say?” She smiled warmly, “We suppose that thou can not be called a creature any more. Not many creatures have names that they prefer to be called.”

Silence reigned for another second as I took in the landscape some more. “Luna,”–the pony looked at me–“it was worth it.” She beamed.

“We are glad to hear that. Canterlot, this new castle is”–like a switch flicked, her face darkened and her smile faltered–“not a part of Equestria that we can claim any credit for. But, our night sky, it is good to see that the ponies of the land can still enjoy it, even now.” A fondness worked its way back across her face, but it was subdued.

I looked at Luna for a second, wondering how (or even if) I should try cheering her up. This land, these changes, had brought on so many questions that I was often left at a loss. Even trying to make sense of the smallest of things seemed to only pose more questions. Luna was a bundle of such unspoken words. Why did she speak like that when her sister did not? Why was she only a princess, if the government seemed to revolve around her and her sister? What was her relationship with the pony capital and why did she feel so detached from it? Like cosmic comedy, after finally finding someone who I could talk to and determining the right questions to ask to start building the foundations of understanding of this place, I was left with an overpowering sense that I shouldn’t pry right now, that Luna really didn’t want to talk about the subject that had so obliterated her mood. And, however much I wanted to understand these strange ponies around me, I didn’t think that finding out was worth hurting Luna. In some strange way, I had begun to care about her feelings. So, I settled instead for another question on my mind, of the topic that had brought her joy, instead of sadness. Why did she call it her sky?

“Yourh sky?” I tentatively probed.

Just as I had hoped, Luna took the question well. With warmth in her eyes, she examined me. Beneath the antler skull over my face and the muzzle over that, I felt the little pits of my eyes meet hers.

“We suppose that thou might not have ever learnt, Brian.” She gave emphasis to my name, making sure to call me it instead of creature. To be honest, I appreciated the gesture. It was good to remember that I was something besides this monster. I was Brian, BP. “But we are Equestria’s Princess of the Night. The night is our demesne, the moon our crest. Each night, we shepherd it across the night-sky and give all beings of Equus the serene darkness in which they might fall asleep. In our sister’s day, they may frolic and laugh.” She regarded me with a strange stare that I could not quite place. “Except for thee, we have noticed. Slumber does not seem to lay claim to you. Our night grows long and thou clamour not for rest.”

I was caught off guard by the raw audacity of the statement. Looking me dead in the eyes and without a hint of deception, she had stated that she was both capable of moving the celestial bodies in the sky and that she did so on a regular basis. This is exactly what I had meant in my assessment that asking any questions in this bizarre land only seemed to lead to a dozen more pressing questions. Had I heard the words from anyone besides a magical pony on a magical planet, I would have put on a sweet voice, agreeing with them and making for the exit with due haste. I was accessing a mental bank of credit, mortgaging the sheer volume of disbelief inducing events that had occurred to me in the last day for a sliver of faith in Luna. Finding that she was still staring at me with that odd look, I tried to word a question as neutrally as possible.

“You said that you lift the moon?” I didn’t want to explicitly challenge her, but my emphasis made it pretty clear that more explanation of this would be much appreciated.

“Yes, we do it every night. It will be time to trade places with our sister soon enough. Well, actually”–she closed her eyes tight, concentrating on something internal–“rather soon indeed.” She looked to the castle in the distance. “Perhaps it is better that we skip the flight on the way back. Best not to keep our sister waiting. She has demands enough of her schedule this day.”

Spreading her hooves wide in body language that I had come to associate with horned ponies displaying frightening levels of power, Luna’s horn began to glow bright. With a great ‘pop’, the idyllic countryside disappeared, replaced by the castle exterior. In a moment, we had been teleported to a patio alongside the palace walls, with open-aired columns and a roof above. I would have admired the immense power on display, to have moved us so far in a moment, except that a great heaving in my gut consumed my attention instead. Leaning on a pillar for support, I saw Luna walk away from the palace walls, towards the open skies and moon above. Sparing a glance to me, she lowered her head and gave a supportive wince

“Apologies, that can happen during teleports for those with a sensitive sense of balance. It usually only happens the first few times.” Giving me a second to put myself together, she made eye contact with me to see if she had my attention. “Now, let me show you what it means to be the Night Princess.”

Inhaling, closing her eyes, then exhaling. Luna began channelling power into her horn. She kept going, until her head was a veritable bonfire. Opening her eyes, I saw her fixate on the moon, high in the sky as it was. My jaw dropped wide as I saw her magic glow arc out towards the heavens, towards the moon itself. Grasping it in Luna’s signature blue glow, she wrangled it like a cowboy with a lasso, pulling it down and below the horizon.

Credit: santagiera

Cold air blew through the columns, striking across my fur. I felt goosebumps rise across my skin, but all I could focus on was the moon, enveloped as it was by that blue glow. Luna’s horn only settled when the moon had fully slipped below the horizon. Huffing, Luna took a step away from the patio’s precipice, sat down on her rear, and waited expectantly. After a moment, an orange hue hit the clouds from the other side of the skies, out of sight. The sun had indeed swapped with the moon, transferring ownership of the skies to the day-cycle. My mind felt shattered. Luna took notice.

“Very few ponies get to see this up close, Brian. Thou shouldst count thineself lucky.” She tittered to herself, beaming at my awestruck expression.

What kind of world was I in?

Chapter 7: Ice and Fire

Ice and Fire

I liked to sit down with a good book every now and then. Maybe a wild fantasy story about another world. If I enjoyed it, I could watch afternoon change to evening, then watch evening change to night. Watching the time of day change was nice. I was comparatively less experienced with being a part of activities that quite literally brought morning from night.

Luna, trying to help me, gave an explanation about alignment, alicorns (which was apparently the name for the unicorn-pegasi things that herself and her sister were), and ‘cutie-marks’. I confess, it all flew over my head. The raw, visceral shock of seeing a planetary body being carried was a bit too much for me. Luna might have asked me a question at the end of her speech, because she was staring back at me expectantly.

For once, I felt my warped body and my human mind were in perfect alignment. Because, rather than try to parse through what I’d seen with Luna, I heard a bubbling ‘gurgle’ from my waistline. It seemed that my stomach was making its intentions to the world clear.

“Thou art hungry, yes? Shall we-” Luna froze. Absentmindedly, she scraped a forehoof over the ground, a sign of anxiousness in horses. She took a glance at my jagged teeth, as if having forgotten that I was an- to be honest, I wasn’t even sure what I was. Was I an obligate carnivore now? Could I still eat plants? “Right, thou shalt require bodies in thine diet. This is”–Luna touched her jaw, nodding after a second–“something that the royal chefs should be able to do. We believe that a bit of offal is kept frozen within the palace for visiting gryphon dignitaries.” Seemingly remembering something, I felt the blue glow of Luna’s magic over my face. “Thou shan’t be needing this, we don’t think.” Oh thank god, the muzzle was gone.

While Luna led me away, I put a mental pin to ask about gryphons later. There was no way that this place shared even more mythological parallels to Earth. I would almost rather them be snail people, or some political breakaway region of ponies. The bizarre parallels were too grating. Right now though, the more feral part of me was salivating at the thought of eating food. I was feeling gluttonous and really wanted to deal with this at the dinner table, instead of around the next corpse I smelled. Terrifying though it might have been, I wasn’t sure what I might do if I saw a rat-cadaver right now. Or, worse still, if I might enjoy eating it.

Luckily, instead of prowling around for corpses to feast on, Luna brought me to a tiny dining hall and briefly summoned a member of the palace staff to her side. I was pleasantly surprised when, not ten minutes later, half a dozen ponies came pushing carts of food out into the room. It looked like the kitchens were always bustling in a castle full of people. Unveiling platters, a vast array of dishes were at hand. There were hors d’oeuvre, grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese on crackers, some kind of pasta, a whole bale of hay, scrambled eggs, and a particularly fragrant saucer of offal in some kind of sauce. Luna, for her part, was wheeled a small salad of hay, leafy greens, and tomatoes. She began nibbling on the salad appreciatively, before shooting an inquisitive look. Needing no more prodding, I reached for a grilled cheese sandwich.

It was all so good! I couldn’t help myself, jumping from dish to dish in a mad fervour. The grilled cheese had had tomatoes inside and was browned perfectly. It was delicious. The scrambled eggs felt like they were filling a void that had been dug in my soul. The cheese and crackers were a delight to the senses. Any fear that I’d had over only being able to eat meat or bodies was dispelled immediately. Even the bale of hay got shovelled into my mouth. Hell, I wasn’t even sure that I could digest it, but my body loved every second of shovelling it into my mouth. More than the food, it was almost like the expression of excess and gluttony was what fueled me. I was halfway through demolishing the delicious saucer of entrails when I noticed Luna watching me closely. With some force of will, I paused eating, slurping up my last organ. Nodding appreciatively, Luna pointed to the meat.

“The pegasi of yore once jubilantly caught fish from rivers, competing over who could do so at the greatest of speed. The odd bit of protein to supplement their diets is not the strangest of things to us.” Luna surveyed the mess of scoured plates. “But thine hunger is for far more than entrails and carrion, we see. Even at the peak of the Gryphonic-Kingdoms era, gryphonfolk rarely hunted larger sport than hare or fish. For all their warmongering, they preferred cleaning up kills left by the more numerous monsters of that period.” Luna eyed me intensely. “Thine body wert made for hunting, for battles. Brian Porter,”–Luna paused, shifting uncomfortably as she tried to voice her question–“willt thou do us the honour of sparring against us?”

My eyes shot wide, looking at Luna as my food was forgotten. She wanted to fight me again?

“Of course, we intend to place no pressure on thee.” Luna assured, wilting as she tried to backtrack. “If thou dost not wish, we-”

“Noh magic beams.”

Though I felt a sort of certainty that this was going to get messy, seeing Luna’s genuine joy made it all worthwhile in my eyes. Calming herself after a moment, she coughed into a hoof and looked deep into my eyes.

“No combat magic it is.”

Luna had assured me that the guards wouldn’t have any problems with us sparring on their training yard, when we’d walked onto it. In any case, the place was empty. All we really needed, after all, was the wide grassy field in its centre. The grass was fairly well trimmed. I wasn’t sure if they cut it or if the ponies just nibbled at it every now and then. Whichever it was, the field would do just fine. In the distance, sand pits, obstacle courses, and running tracks laid. But I was here. Lifting my claws, I counted the two of them there. And Luna was standing in front of me. Win or lose, this setup was all I needed for showing her how I fought.

“Thoust no idea how starved we are of fighting partners.” Luna beamed, lifting her spear, “There are scarce few elder-drakes awake that could give us a good fight these days, and half of them want nothing more than to settle on top of a mountain and discuss bygone days with us.” She started trotting towards me, twirling her metal spear all the while. “Our sister could offer us a true challenge, though she insists we not be seen fighting one another! ‘Tis wholly unfair!”

Credit: renderpoint

Luna stalked closer, her head lung low. Her muscles looked taunt. Primed, just like her spear. She seemed more like a cat hunting a mouse than an equine. I wasn’t sure if it was supreme overconfidence in my body’s fighting ability, the belief that Luna wouldn’t hurt me too badly, or whether this warped form had wholly corrupted my sense of self-preservation, but I didn’t balk at the challenge. Instead, spreading my claws wide, I invited the attack.

“Our sister’s guards are eager to assist us, thou dost understand. But we need more, a challenge. A battle, like we remember from our youth.” She paused for a moment, looking wistful. “We thank thee again, young Brian, for agreeing to spar with us.”

“Happy to helph, Phrincess” I rasped

“Luna” She corrected with a smile.

“Luna”

With that, her fighting stance reaffirmed itself and I ducked my body low. We were each waiting for the other to move. A second passed, then two. On the third, I sprang. Gaunt though I might have looked, these legs packed quite a punch. As I shot towards Luna, she brought her weapon in front of her, pointing upwards to the sky. My intended slash towards her midsection fell flat as I discovered that whatever metal the shaft of her spear was made of could stand more than space-armour. With a pathetic ‘cling’, the hand scraped against the impenetrable wall that was the spear held in Luna’s magic. Snarling like only a monstrosity could, I kicked out against the dark blue pony. Blocking with a forehoof, Luna caught the full force of my foot against her own hoof’s armour. She was strong too. Striking out, she threw a punch against my foot, pounding into my leg like a train and unbalancing me. Shoot. Before she could capitalise and bring this first round to a wholly unsatisfying conclusion, I threw myself away from her and levelled my body on two feet again. She had four legs and a prehensile spear. That was surprisingly difficult to work around in the mindset of a biped.

Making use of the distance I had created between the two of us, Luna’s spear burst towards my direction. In a rapid flurry, it gave a dozen slight, rapid thrusts at my face. I felt Luna was holding back with these, but each one still got closer to my head. I didn’t think that there was any point in trying to block, as my previous experience had highlighted that the spear was held in such powerful telekinetic grip as to make it the oft-referenced “immovable object”. Instead, I was forced back, step by step, away from Luna. She was in complete control of this situation. Limiting herself to not blasting me in the face with magic clearly wasn’t enough to make this a fair fight. But, with each step further from Luna I got, I was starting to think that that didn’t mean I couldn’t win.

With a twist of magic, Luna’s spear flipped upside down. Seemingly, it was intended for use as a cudgel against me in Luna’s apparent victory. Instead of staying on the backfoot and letting it bash me blue, I reached out for the spear. Grabbing on to it, I pushed off of it like a swimmer kicking off of the wall of a pool, using the extra momentum of the kick to rush away from the spear and directly towards its unprotected wielder, Luna.

Caught off guard by my rush, Luna tried bringing her spear back to her side. I could hear the air whistle at the metal’s flight, like a bullet bound for me. But she was too late, I reveled. I was already upon her. Raising a claw high in the air, Luna’s eyes shot wide as I bounded the last step between us. ‘Thip’ was the sound I heard as a blooming pain shot through my left shoulder. My charge stalled as my body found itself skewered onto the end of a spear-tip. Huh, it looked like she had had enough time to call back her spear. Luna, below me, was lowering an armoured hoof that she’d used to try and shield her face. A look of relief blossomed across her face, mixed in with some concern she seemed to be showing for my impaled shoulder.

In a moment of senselessness that I wasn’t sure I could entirely call my own, I felt a part of me reason that the battle wasn’t over yet. She hadn’t said that we were to duel to first-blood, after all. A burst of energy coursing through me, I pushed forwards, impaling myself deeper on Luna’s spear. Luna, wide eyes and mouth opening to shout out something, was exposed. A lackluster claw-swipe was a swipe nonetheless. Striking across her peytral, my claws found no purchase in the mysterious black metal. But, shearing across the metal with a whining scrape, the claws caught a glancing cut across the flesh of her breast. Huffing as Luna shot back with a yelp, I hazily examined my right hand, droplets of blood trickling off the tips of the claws. Alright, I had actually scored blood against her this time. Sure, she hadn’t been using her battle magic, but she had been treating me like a real opponent from the get-go. And all this trade of blood had cost me was, I looked at my left shoulder, impaling myself on a spear. My fangs gnashed in delight.

Luna wasn’t immune to the awe of blood dripping down my claws, ears folded back and shrinking away.

“A-alright creature, you have-” Luna was cut off by an explosion of light and sound behind me, bathing the dark pony in fiery orange light.

"MONSTER!"

Credit: yakovlev-vad

Soaring high in the heavens, led by a duo of guardsponies, a shining golden chariot was left abandoned in the sky. Its enraged once-occupant was currently hurtling in my direction in a blinding fireball. Her voice, loud enough to deafen the gods, must have been enhanced by magic.

“You would dare attack my sister?!”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I tried moving, wresting myself off of the spear that her sister had used to defend herself from me with, my claws still damp with Luna’s blood.

“I granted you leniency, trust. Let me show you what you deserve.” Her horn grew an ever-brighter inferno.

Oh god, I’d seen that before. Grabbing the spear’s shaft, I shimmied and lifted myself up off of the tip. The howl of the equine comet above kept a slurry of adrenaline pumping through my bloodstream. Falling to the ground, I made a mad dash away from Luna, trying to dodge whatever Princess Celestia was going to try hitting me with. One step, I pushed through grasses and laid my foot on a stone. Two steps, I sank a foot into the muddy water of a puddle. Three steps, I was consumed by orange light.

I had become more familiar with the sensation of disintegration than I would have liked. In a way, it was serene. I could see so much of my surroundings still. I could hear without the pounding of my heart in my ears. Luna screaming my name, rushing at Celestia. Guards swarming out of the palace and to the field, frenzied by the call of their sun-princess. The cloud of my essence, pooling once again. I felt the call once again, to slip away into nothingness. And, once again, fighting and conflict grounded me to this world. The chaos of scrambling soldiers, the burning rage of Celestia subsiding to confusion when met with Luna’s tears, the memory of pain flashing across my body in the moment before it burnt away, I was grounded by the chaos of the world. It was a strange thing, but when I reached out to feel the roiling hot blood of so many frenetic souls, I felt a great chill in the cloud I called a soul. It felt good. I pooled my consciousness into it, remembering shape, remembering mind, remembering being. I opened my eyes. I was whole again.

Credit: yargoelster

To Celestia’s surprise, and to the shouts of a few dozen guardsponies, I’d rejoined the world of the living. As I whinnied in anger, heavy clouds formed on the wind and snow fluttered through the air. As Celestia’s horn began lighting up once more, and ponies began closing in, Luna jumped in front of me, putting a barrier between Celestia’s horn and myself. My mind felt hazy, but I was cognizant enough to appreciate the gesture. Celestia was lucky, I could freeze her. Freeze her in a block of ice. Instead, I walked to Luna’s side, standing as her icy companion.

“Tartarus below, listen to us, sister! We brought him out here ourselves to spar with us! Thou shall not hurt him!” Luna

“Sister, that is a windigo!” Celestia’s horn dimmed, possibly only out of shock at hearing her sister’s defence of the monster by her side. I whinnied an icy breath.

"Thou shall not hurt him!" Luna brokered no compromise. Celestia, in turn, seemed shocked by Luna’s defiant stance on this.

The ghostly horse inside me, the windigo wanted to rampage. It wanted to dance and bring frost to these tumultuous, unharmonious beings before me. The snow had begun to gather on the ground, while the breaths of the dozens of guardsponies clouded and fogged before them. Even now, I could see the soldiers struggle to maintain a grip on their metal weapons as they absorbed the chill. At their forefront, a cautious Princess Celestia stood, no longer the incarnation of rage she had once been.

“Brian, it is okay. Thou art safe now.” Luna had sidled up close to me, fixing me a reassuring smile. It was relaxing, however fake the certainty it tried to convey might have been. I could barely believe her. She’d really looked at a ghost and tried to say “Everything will be alright!”. Unconsciously, my wispy body nickered, which might have been some approximation of a laugh. She was ridiculous….

Sinking into the snow below, my body reformed once more.

Chapter 8: Lullaby

Lullaby

There was silence as I pulled myself out of the snow. Only light crunches could be heard as I put weight on the icy powder. Pushing up against the ground with my arms, I was briefly blinded by light as my head broke through the snowy crust. The clouds had dissipated and sunlight was streaming onto the snowflake-dusted training field once more. No pony made a sound as I stumbled to my feet, a light powdering of snow sliding off my shoulders and down my back as I carried myself upright through the snowbank.

I looked at the stunned congregation. Guardsponies stood loosely and the princesses were wordless. All the while, I panted quietly in the snowdrift. God, that process was disorienting. Feeling a wave of dizziness pass through me, I tried desperately to cling to consciousness while wading through the snow. Throwing my spindly legs wide, I tried to lower my body as I lost my sense of balance. The last waking thought I registered was the feeling of my head impacting the snow once more.

It was dark. I was surrounded by an inky void that might have seemed like space, had there been a single star. I was standing, but on no floor. I was not flying, but felt no fall. I was breathing, but felt no air. Only this lingering, unpopulated existence surrounded me. Grimacing, I tried to sit down and collect my thoughts. Surprisingly, I was wholly able to do so. My spindly legs folded cooperatively under me, a femur clicking against a patella. Finding the circumstances to be relatively relaxing (or at least not immediately distressing), I tried to focus on what this place might be and how I could get out of here. I remembered getting blasted by Celestia, then Luna calming me down while I was that thing, a windigo, they had called me. I was mulling the word over when I heard a voice in the void.

“Brian!” There was a pause, "Brian!" Was that Luna calling me?

I shot to my feet and span around, looking for her. Behind me, in the distance, I saw pinpricks of light forming. They were far and dim, like tiny stars. But they were growing in intensity and getting closer. Then, at their heart, I saw her.

Credit:Idoartz

Bringing stars to space, art to the void, I saw Luna trotting in my direction, her mane of constellations billowing in her wake. She had seen me and, with a great grin, rushed in my direction.

“Brian, thou art here! ‘Tis excellent!”

“Luna?” I looked at her, then did a little spin, trying to make sense of my surroundings. “It is you, right? Where are we?”

“Thou art dreaming, Brian. Thou didst collapse and, thine body wert carried back to the palace after”–she grimaced, looking away from me–“thou turned back into a living being.

“I’m dreaming?” I asked incredulously. I wasn’t a lucid dreamer and this was all a bit much to take in. Jolting, I fixated on Luna, exclaiming “wait, you can go in dreams?” She was apparently the princess of the night, after all. I had seen her lift the moon. Was this just another facet of her power? Luna, for her part, just nodded energetically with a wide smile. She did seem to love it when people showed an interest in her nighttime abilities.

“It is so, Brian. This place is the manifestation of thy dreams. In these places, everypony has space to actualize their imaginations. They can create anything or be anyone.” Luna explained, lifting a hoof. Without a lumen of light in her horn, I watched an apple appear in her hoof, which she proceeded to take an appreciative bite out of, nonchalantly. “Thou didst cease to be, Brian. We saw your body turn to ash. Art thou”–Luna winced–“alright?”

“I’m fine.” I answered, patting myself as if to be certain. “Are you okhay?” I motioned to Luna’s general chest area and the peytral she wore over it. Luna’s cheeks burned bright red at the reminder that she’d been cut as well.

“We are perfectly fine, thine claws did not cut us deep. Our sister keeps a box of ‘bandage aids’ in her room and she did tend to our cuts.” Luna looked down at her fluffy chest and, furrowing her brow in concentration for a moment, made four pink heart-shaped adhesive bandages appear on her chest in the approximate area where I remembered cutting her.” Seemingly satisfied with herself, Luna shot me a sidelong glance, “‘Tis usually good sportsponyship to end a duel after blood has been shed.”

I felt a bit embarrassed, but decided to try and play my moment of mindlessness off, “Sure, after your bloodh was shed, maybe. I am”–I did a quick wave of a hand, gesturing from my legs to my head–“a bit harder to damage.” Truthfully, that momentary loss of sensibilities was terrifying to me, as were many changes that had come with this body. But I wasn’t sure how to even begin addressing them, let alone try to deal with them.

Luna snorted, but conceded the point with a roll of her eyes. “We suppose thou art thick-skulled.”

I gave a half smile to her retort, “I’d have stayed further away from your sphear if it was not held in youhr magic. I shuppose it caught me off guard since I said, ya’know, no magic.”

Luna’s eyes shot wide and her ears quivered for a moment, before she puffed out her pink-bandage covered chest and reaffirmed herself.

“The Canterlot Academy of Magic has classified telekinesis as lifestyle magic for over a thousand years. We agreed to no battle magic, no battle magic.” She was really stressing the minutiae here.

Luna looked indignant for a moment, but quickly collapsed in giggles. Conjuring a tower of pillows into the void behind her, she did a quick jumping loop up in the air and landed belly-first into the makeshift bed, which accepted her like a cloud. Just enjoying herself for a moment, Luna took a second to calm down. Sighing, she leaned upwards and looked at me.

Credit:raikoh

“All of the stallions we have interacted with are guardsponies who just agree to whatever we say. It is infuriating.” Luna huffed, “if we are agreed with when we are right and agreed with when we are wrong, then we had might as well always be wrong! Thou art a breath of fresh air, Brian.” I just chuckled with her.

“You shaid this was a dream? That I couldh be anything?” I queried after a moment, peering around.

Luna looked at me inquisitively, tilting her head.

“Thou can conjure or be anything thou canst imagine.” Luna answered softly. I was limited only by my imagination?

I opened and closed my mouth twice, bobbing like a fish but finding no words to say. Regarding the palm of my right hand, claws and all, I brought it to my face and delicately brushed at the skull above it. I could imagine it. I could remember it all so vividly. I dropped to my knees.

Like water flowing out of a cup, I felt the shape of my form fundamentally change. It was not a gristly mutation, no crunching of bones and stretching of flesh. No, instead I just noticed parts of me existed that had not before; and parts of me didn’t, ones that I had never had. I was shorter, weaker, less stretched. No claws tipped my fingers, no fangs my mouth, no horns my skull. A shuddering breath escaped me and I felt tears form in my eyes, I was human again.

“B-Brian?” Luna was behind my shoulder, a full witness to my transformation. I couldn’t focus on her though. I could still remember it all, I could see it so clearly. I jumped to my feet, the proper body proportions were welcome for the sense of balance they gave me. Spreading my arms wide, the dreamscape shifted. Suddenly, we were on a rocky Vista, overlooking a vast, undetailed wasteland. Then, a dense forest stream, light flooding in between treetops. I rolled my arms, changing the landscape to my childhood home, the door left inviting and open. Finally, the terrain roiled and soaring skyscrapers burst out of the land, swallowing the scenery in an ambiguous human metropolis. People, people like me stood frozen in imaginary tasks invented by my mind. I huffed, imaginary air filling imaginary lungs. Then I turned to Luna.

“Human, this is what I used to be, Luna.” I announced, no growling slur of my ghastly form polluting my speech. “This is what we look like, this is the planet we live on.” Luna was still wordless at my sudden transformation.

“Brian, thou art- thy people are-” Stumbling over her words, Luna took a step towards a nearby hotdog stand and marvelled at the people around it.

“We’re not monsters.” I insisted, speaking over her. Running a hand through my hair, I marvelled at the sensation that had once seemed so natural to me. “We’re people, this isn’t what we’re supposed to look like.” I waved a hand at Luna, only to shrink away as I found it warped and clawed once more. Shouting, I stumbled back away from the appendage, tripping over my feet and falling on my back against the pavement with a thud. All around, rumbling filled the metropolis. It was like a thousand tunnel borers were all surfacing at once under the city. Luna spread her wings wide in agitation, and turned to face me.

“Careful, Brian!” She called out, trying to take my attention away from my arm. “Thy mind is turning this realm into a nightma-” Luna was cut off as the bit of pavement she was standing on, hotdog stand and all, collapsed under her. She plummeted into an inky void. All around me, the city was collapsing. Towers were tumbling like dominos or collapsing in on themselves. Great spidery rifts spread across the streets, leading back into that formless void.

Pulling my legs up under me on the floor as the metropolis imploded, there was a warmness in my heart. Luna didn’t have to worry about me. I knew that I was still in here, if only in my dreams. The floor fell out from under me.

I woke up on a bed.

Chapter 9: Sunrise

Sunrise

The first time I woke up in the magical pony land, I was horrifically transformed in a forest. The second time, I found myself bound in a dungeon. This time, the third time, I was sprawled out in a plush bed. If there was a contest, I knew which nap was winning it. Sitting up, I found that my claws had poked little holes in a duvet that had been placed over me while I was sleeping. Through little slits, tiny down feathers poked out. I set the cover aside daintily, stepping out of bed while trying to do as little damage as possible.

Seemingly confident in my damage mitigation, I stood up proudly. Hearing a jostling choir of ‘clings’ above my head, I looked up, only to find that there was a sudden weight bearing down on my skull. It was on my antlers, I realised.

Turning in a circle, each movement produced that same choir of clicks. I looked desperately about myself. In the corner of my eye, I saw movement. There was not a stranger in here with me, it was the synchronous shifting of my reflection in a mirror. Steadying myself so that I didn’t topple over, I shimmied over to what was a full-length floor mirror for ponies. Oh god, please no. I winced at the sight before me, my misshapen head ducking low enough to be seen. There was a golden chandelier with dangling glass crystals thoroughly lodged on my head.

As I flailed about, there was a sudden knock at the suite’s door. Honestly, it was a solid ‘thunk thunk’, like a horse trying to be spiderman up a wall. I panicked for a second, desperately trying to look above my own head and get the chandelier off of me instead of answering the door and asking for a moment like a rational person. Admittedly, I wasn’t feeling in a particularly intelligent state of mind at the time.

As I jostled around, looking to dislodge my impromptu hat, the door opened up, revealing a unicorn stood in the doorway. I could tell it was a mare, they had a fairly recognizable facial structure. She was dressed head to toe (hoof?) in what was without a shred of doubt the most functional and least sexualized french-maid uniform that I had ever seen. Forever embarrassing me, she was the very first pony who didn’t react to me in abject horror. Instead, she wore the most soul-crushingly nonplussed deadpan, staring at me as I froze. Towering high in the room, practically scraping the ceiling, I stood stock still with my head fixated on the pony.

Perhaps she was able to detect my raw mortification at the situation under my antler-skull. Pausing for a second to survey the room, her horn lit with a subdued cream glow and the ornate chandelier twisted for a second before lifting cleanly off of my head. With a bit of floating, it clicked via a hook back onto the ceiling. Turning back to me as I shielded my antlers with a hand, the pony gave me a curt nod.

“Good evening. You are ‘The Porter,’ yes?” I opened my mouth to respond, but the pony didn’t skip a beat. “You have slept through the afternoon. The princesses have requested that you join them for dinner in the royal dining hall. Please follow me.” In a fluid movement, she turned around and started walking through the halls. Dipping my head low under the doorway, I made to follow her.

I didn’t have the heart to make conversation with the maid pony, instead following silently and observing our surroundings as we made our way through the castle halls. Their beauty was a good way of diverting my focus away from recent blunders. With halls of stone, but ornate decorations of ambiguous age, the princesses’ palace looked like what fantasy tried to sell noble European life as, all without the dysentery and plague. Every few metres, a torch sconce kept the halls lit, even though daylight still streamed through the numerous windows and light features. It was perhaps most impressive that the ponies had been able to reach the developmental capacity to make something this beautiful, but hadn’t fallen into dull, sterile modern building design styles in the process. Eventually, climbing higher and higher in the palace, we made our way to a room flanked by double doors. Behind the oak, I could hear faint shouts and laughter. Guards stood at its entrance, who both nodded curtly at the maid, but otherwise gave no discernable reactions.

“Presenting The Porter at Their Highnesses joint command.” The maid intoned, as if in an oft-rehearsed ritual.

“Presenting The Porter!” The pair of guards called out while opening the heavy wooden doors. I was guided inside by a firm hoof to my back and, upon crossing the threshold, found the doors closed behind me.

In stark contrast to the rigid scene outside, the mood inside the room was decidedly raucous. At either ends of a dining table, I could see both Equestrian princesses sitting over plates of food. A lonely pair of empty bottles on the floor suggested that the wine I saw Luna pouring into her cup was not the first one to be filled this evening. On the far side of the room, an inviting fire roared, fresh logs having recently been tossed into its maw. And above the fireplace, elaborate tapestries hung. They depicted various ponies and bizarre mythological species all dining at this very same table, Celestia appearing in each decoration. Keeping the room lit, numerous sconces and candelabras kept warm flames illuminating each corner of the room. Showing care to not tear up a nice rug underfoot as I moved, I made my way to the dining table.

Credit: lunarcakez

“Brian!” Luna shouted, noticing me and lowering her drink, “Thou hast arrived! We were just talking about you. Take a seat!” With a quick flash of her horn, a stout stool appeared in the middle of the table, between the princesses at either end.

As her seat was consumed by a golden glow, Celestia cantered backwards. Turning to face me, she adopted what appeared to be an earnestly penitent face.

“I owe you an apology.” I was somewhat caught off guard by the admission, but tried to nod gracefully and moved to take my seat. I knew that Celestia had caught me in a rather compromising position, shedding blood with her sister. Still, hearing some semblance of regret for the ensuing firestorm was nice.

“Thou dost, sister!” Luna chimed in as I sat down in front of my plate, leaning over her side of the table and bringing a hoof angrily down on the wood. Seemingly reigniting some previous argument, her sister’s exclamation angered Celestia.

“However, I do not owe you anything, Luna. I told you explicitly, lock the creature up and spar with your guards. How was I supposed to react to find it lunging at you, half impaled on your spear, your blood on its claws!”

“And we have told you, sister, we are our own pony and can make decisions for ourselves! We expect you to trust us to have things under control!” Luna shouted, going red at the cheeks, “Are we not coruler with thee? Are we trusted so little that we can’t decide what to do with a single pony in our dungeons?”

At this, Celestia’s face fell. Her wings lowered, almost imperceptibly, and the fight seemed to die within her. “No, of course not, Luna. You know I trust you. It’s just that”–Celestia drooped further still. Turning away from Luna, she suddenly became very interested in a lit candelabra by the wall of the dining room–“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Luna sagged. Just like that, it seemed like the argument was over, at least from my point of view. Leaving her seat, she wandered around to Celestia’s side of the table. Her sides rustled as one of her long, dark wings extended and reached over Celestia. Sidling by her sister, she held the larger white pony in her embrace. “We just ask that you trust us, sister.” Burrowing her muzzle next to Celestia’s own, I watched as Luna tenderly nuzzled her sister. It was very cute. Pulling back, Luna asserted, “Besides, we are a good judge of character! Dost thou remember that time thee said we wert a good ‘people watcher?’” There was a moment of silence.

“When did I say that?” Celestia stared blankly at her sister, who bristled at the lack of recognition.

“Twas during the very first pan-gryphonic peace negotiations with Equestria!” Luna burst, “When their warring tribes united under the spire crown? We had thought thou might remember too, though it seems thine focus weret wholly on courting the affections of that King Grover throughout that summit.”

Maintaining a porcelain face that couldn’t be said to betray a modicum of emotion, Celestia just kept a thin smile, tactfully avoiding her sister’s accusation, “That would have been eleven-hundred years ago, Luna.” She tittered into a snow-white hoof. Leaning into her sister’s dark wings, Celestia consoled her sister, “You are still a good people-watcher.” Luna rolled her eyes, but accepted the embrace.

“Anyways, Brian!” Luna gestured to me, “A different world, Celestia! Just like we told you, we saw it in his dreams, he is not from some undiscovered tribe in the southern cat rainforests. We witnessed a city! It was larger still than thy photographies thou showed us of Manehattan!”

“Right, Brian,”–Celestia gave my name a taste in her mouth, trying out its pronunciation–“it looks like your story is rather complex, so I will try to hear you out. Luna mentioned that this isn’t what you usually look like. She told me that you were something called a ‘hyuooman. Is that right?’”

“I am, or was a humanh, yes.” I responded after a second of self examination, “This world is not my ownh.” Recognizing that Celestia might misinterpret my actions again, I raised a claw, palm out, and stressed, “I’m not here to invade or hurt anyone. I don’t really knowh how I was brought to Equestria myself.” Celestia seemed to have a bit of an overprotective streak when it came to her ponies, so I wanted to make sure she didn’t see me as a threat.

At my words, Celestia seemed to soften somewhat. A sliver of tension escaped her brow, making her eyes seem that much less firm. Whether it was what I had said, or that I had felt the need to say it, I wasn’t sure. She seemed to keep her cards close enough to her chest. Pointing to my untouched plate, she implored, “Eat, please. You are not in trouble, Brian. Again, I feel the need to apologise for hurting you, however well you seem to have healed from the experience. I think that you understand there was a misunderstanding between myself”–she directed her porcelain white hoof to Luna–“and my sister.”

As I attacked a wheel of cheese, Celestia looked to court the opinion of Luna wordlessly. Slightly rotating her head, a modicum of power pooled in her horn. It left a thin golden line where the tip of her horn had been. With her head’s minute rotation, a thin circle that was roughly the shape and size of a ring was left hovering briefly in the air. Keeping my eyes focused on the sisters while my head was down by my food, I saw Celestia’s and Luna’s eyes connect. As Luna gave a slight nod, Celestia turned back to me.

“You mentioned that you were not sure how you came to Equestria, Brian. I can not make any promises or offer any remedies at this moment, but I should inform you that we believe your situation may be related to an ongoing matter of national security.” Celestia announced in a diplomatically ambiguous tone.

I immediately forgot my food, focusing entirely on her as she spread her hooves wide, gesticulating, “Now, I understand that your contacts in Equestria may be rather limited at this time, given the circumstances, but I still ask that you kindly not mention what I am about to tell you to anyone outside of this room without my express permission. Can I trust you to do that for me, Brian?” Celestia asked, looking deep into my antler skull. I nodded eagerly, at the edge of my seat.

“Of chourse,” I rasped.

With a shallow nod, Celestia continued, “Over the last week and a half, there have been a limited number of isolated incidences of ‘holes’ opening up across Equestria.” Celestia stressed the word hole in such a way that implied it was anything but. Did she mean that I was related to these holes? “They appear to be some sort of magical phenomenon which have brought objects or fauna from outside of Equestria to our shores. There was some speculation that some of these ‘holes’ might have been leading to locations outside of Equus entirely, though we currently know of none. With your testimony”–she nodded in my direction–“those theories may have just been validated.”

A dark look flashed Celestia’s face and she noted, “There is a recorded instance of one of my little ponies going through a hole. She is currently who-knows-where and separated from her herd. Two more ponies suffered injury when a yet-unknown beast came through a portal and charged at them.” Celestia took a swig at her drink, then angrily magicked her cup back to the table with a little more force than it should have had, slamming loudly. Celestia didn’t seem to notice.

“It goes without saying that I am treating this as a national emergency until I know what is causing harm to my ponies and it is dealt with.” Resting her head on a hoof wearily, her hair trailed down her forehoof in long strands. With a sliver of exhaustion in her eyes, she looked at me.

“The sooner we work out what is endangering my ponies, the sooner we can look at sending you safely back through these holes. You came through one of these things, there may be ways you can be of assistance in solving the crisis. It goes without saying that the crown will happily provide you room and board, no more scavenging through the wilderness. Will you stay on castle grounds and cooperate with our ongoing investigation?” Celestia implored, the outlines of desperation crossing her expressive face for the first time. I realised, to some surprise, that the threat to her ponies was really messing with her. She didn’t seem like the kind of person to break down very easily. I barely waited a moment to respond.

“I’ll helph however I can.” I nodded. I think I would’ve ended up saying yes even if the offer to render me aid hadn’t been made, but Celestia had also come at me with a very appealing deal. For all the pain they had caused me, I was thankful that I had decided to stick around and hear the ponies out. They seemed like nice people, once you got past their skittishness. A flash of relief crossed Celestia’s face, before she caught herself and returned to her usual porcelain neutrality.

“Excellent, I am glad that’s sorted. Now how about you tell us a bit about this Human planet? We are always happy to learn more about unmet allies.” Celestia shot a soft smile at me, which I returned in kind.

“It was easier to visualise in the dhream Luna put me in, but Humanity lives on a planet called…”

At some point in my storytelling, as it wound down, Celestia reminded Luna that sundown was approaching and that she needed to prepare for night court. Saying a quick goodbye to the two of us, Luna levitated a chocolate chip cookie to her mouth and then teleported out of the room, cookie and all.

After Luna had left and it was just the two of us in the room, there was a moment of silence before Celestia inhaled slowly, then let out a bristling snort through her nose. Standing up from her seat once more, Celestia began trotting towards me. With each step, her practised mask began falling away, until she was scowling directly at me.

Credit: OkSara

“We need to talk.” She urged, her face uncharacteristically stony and hard.

“I thought we were chlear about the fhight.” I growled, standing up and leaning back against the dining table. Celestia positioned herself to force me back against the table.

“This isn’t about the fight, this isn’t about portals, and this isn’t about your background. Not right now.” Celestia started, leaning minutely closer to me with each word, “Despite my best efforts for a whole year, Luna hasn’t reached out and made any new friends. It has become evidently clear that somehow, she has connected with you. What I am saying is”–Celestia looked conflicted for a moment, carefully considering her words before returning to her stern gaze–“do not do anything to hurt her.”

The threat made, I watched as Celestia’s horn exploded into a gold aura. Flinching, more at the mare behind the magic than from the spell itself, Celestia disappeared in a flash of teleportation.

Finding myself alone before a fading fire, I let loose a held breath.

Chapter 10: Absolution

Absolution

I had been given leave to explore my new home. Celestia had, presumably, retired for the evening now that the sun was down again. Luna, meanwhile, seemed to be in the middle of her workday in what I understood was “court”. I would have to find a library sometime and work out exactly how this hodgepodge of a government worked. Celestia and Luna seemed to be co-ruling with their sun/moon thing going on. But I hadn’t seen anything so far to suggest that they weren’t individually absolute monarchs. It was a little confusing. If this had been Earth, I would’ve been sure that one would have tried to overthrow the other. I guess that colourful ponies just don’t have struggles like that.

Instead, I had some free time to explore around the castle. When Luna took me outside to look at the city from a distance, I had suspected that there was something magical going on in its construction. Just a bit of walking around the palace had basically confirmed it. Ponies seemed to subscribe to the Seusian design philosophy of just putting stuff in places, surroundings, supports, and verticality be damned. This whole city was one earthquake away from being ousted as the floating island it really was, I was certain of it.

I didn’t find a library in my walking. I suspected this to be a consequence of how gargantuanly expansive this castle really was. To my benefit, I didn’t seem to experience natural sleep. Truthfully, these days, I experienced nothing that could be described as natural, but that’s neither here nor there. I did find a number of interesting locales in my travels though. It was amazing how many mess-halls a palace full of ponies required, though I was happy they were being cared for.

In an otherwise unremarkable hallway, I had found a singular guard stood watch by an unremarkable door. Interested, I had approached and tried to enter. In a good sign, the guard didn’t stop me. Though they had been able to mask any strong reactions to my appearance, my interest in the door did elicit a quizzical look from them. Walking inside, I found out why. It was an empty, barren changing room of lockers for pony gear. On the other side of a room was a metal grated door that led to the training field outside where I could make out the outline of a circular ring of dead, frozen grass. It was where I had been vaporised by Celestia. I scowled, leaving the area to the watchful eye of a still confused guardspony.

A few hours later, my final stop would be at a rather secluded escape one floor up. Opening a stout doorway to the outside, I found myself bombarded with an array of smells, some sweet, some earthly. To my amazement, there was a working botanical garden up here. From various planters, at least a dozen expansive columns of flora spewed out from their confinement. More impressive still, I saw a variety of crystals suspended above the rows of said plants. As chromatic as the ponies of the castle, the crystals seemed to shimmer and glow with magical light. Above huge leaves that seemed like they belonged in a rainforest ‘Folium Everfreetus,’ a light blue crystal seemed to materialise a haze of miniscule water droplets. And, above a series of oddly shaped cacti, a yellow crystal burned with a parching heat.

Wandering for a few minutes, transfixed as I was by the magic working in tandem with the flora, I made it to the end of a full row of plants. Where plant life ended, an overlook of the pony city below began. With a safety railing leaning over the side, one could look at the streets below and the vast expanse of blackness that stretched into the distant countryside. And, to my surprise, I found a rather sullen princess of the night leaning over the railing in front of me. I froze up, wondering if she had teleported in front of me and was waiting to do some dramatic announcement or reveal. A second passed, then two. I realised she was actually just brooding in this garden, as unaware of me as I had been of her a moment ago.

Credit: Irusu

She was leaning over the safety rail, just looking down at the quiet streets below. It was a nice view, but I wasn’t sure what she found quite so interesting. The botanical gardens were cooler, in my opinion.

“Good evening, Princess,” I opened. I was worried that, if I tried to back away at this point, she might hear and see me creeping away from her without saying hello. Conversely, if I got closer without announcing myself, she might be put off by the misshapen monster creeping up on her in the middle of the night. These things were a fragile balance.

Neck cracking, she did a jolting spin of her head at my vocalisation, her eyes shooting open.

“Ah!” Her wings shot wide, “Brian,”–recognizing my lumbering self, she exhaled softly and her wings relaxed–“‘tis thee.”

“I didn’t expect to run into you during my little wander about.” My voice sounded like grating concrete. She fixed me a small smile; it didn’t seem sincere.

“This vista is almost always empty. We usually come out here when we wish to be alone.” Luna sagged, splaying herself loosely over the railing. Stood behind her, I froze. That was a hint if I had ever heard one. I didn’t want to interrupt her alone time.

“Apologies, I will get out of yhour hair then.” Turning away from Luna, I made to head back into the maze that was the botanical garden.

“Wait”–Luna shouted, making me freeze in my tracks–“we did not mean that- apologies. Thou art most welcome to stay with us, Brian.” Oh, I realised. She was really just that bad at interacting with other people. Well, it was nice to know that she and I were still on good terms. These ponies were emotionally charged and seemed to flip between extremes frequently and, honestly, it was becoming a bit more than I could handle.

Strolling over to Luna, I did a little vault over the wall she had chosen to lean on, dangling my legs over the edge towards the cityscape below. Looking down, I could see over the cobblestone streets. Dim lanterns hung, burning into the night. It was a strange contrast to human cities, which would be brightly lit and bustling well into the early hours of the morning. There was always someone booked for a 3AM flight. To my side, Luna turned her head towards me.

“We heard news from young Scootaloo during this evening’s court session.“ Luna began, fondness seeping through her voice at the mention of the little orange pegasus, “She said she was doing well and was curious about the beast that she heard the princesses ‘made friends’ with.” Luna’s horn glowed and a short, colourful letter magicked itself into existence, before poofing away just as suddenly. Murmuring, mostly to herself, Luna noted, “We suppose our sister’s apprentice must be talking to her friends about thine situation.”

I just smiled, nodding at Luna. Rumbling throatily, I commented, “I am glahd she is safe. That thing in the forest was going to kill her, before I killed it. I think it came through one of your ‘holes’ too. It was the same as the others that I fought and definitely not from Equestria.” I absentmindedly kicked out my legs over the drop, thinking about my first moments in Equestria.

“If you speak to her again, tell her”–I faltered, noticing a claw in the corner of my vision–“tell her that I am sorry for scaring her. I just wanted to keep her from harm and I didn’t mean to… I didn’t mean to do what I did to that thing’s body.” Turning my head to the side, I mumbled, “I just don’t have good control over my instincts right now.” Snorting through the nostrils of the antler skull over my face, I turned back to Luna.

“I am not sorry about this Twilight Sparkle though. ‘Scootaloo’ was a child, but the purple unicorn came at me firing spells. She attacked me, then you attacked me, then your sister. I know I’m”– I waved a hand over my body, twisted bones, warped flesh, patches of scraggly fur, and all–“hideous, but I just want the chance to prove myself to people, ponies.” I corrected myself. “I want to show them that I’m not a monster.” Luna nodded at my words.

“Thou hath done well by the ponies around you.” Luna concluded, following a moment of reflection. Glancing at me and then turning back to the city below, as if to check I was still here, she spoke softly, “When Twilight Sparkle did tell us of thee eating the creature that assaulted young Scootaloo in the Everfree Forest, we worried that thou”–she paused again–“wert simply hungry. We are glad that it was not so. It is a noble thing to protect ponies.” She paused, letting the last word hang, “We took an oath to do the same, once.” The moon hung high in the sky; Luna looked up to its dotted surface.

“We art old, Brian. Thou know’st this. But we think thou might not know our story, our failure.” Abruptly, Luna changed tone, as if an experienced storyteller, “Once, in the past, we did covet the attention of all ponies. We were overtaken by jealousy and rage at our sister, convinced as we were that she had stolen the attention we believed we deserved from ponykind. We assumed the name ‘Nightmare Moon’ and threatened to block out the sun, to make Equestria like this”–she panned a hoof over the empty streets–“forever. It was only by our sister’s use of an ancient weapon against us, sealing us in the moon for an entire millennia, that we wert stopped. And, upon our return, that blinding anger was stripped away from us before we could cause any more harm.” She paused, looking down. An aura of defeated resignation consumed her. “Now thou understands what is only spoken behind our back, that we art a monster.”

My eyes widened at this. Luna had led a rebellion against her sister? And she had tried to remove the sun from Equestria? A night demon being banished for a thousand years for trying to remove the day felt like the opening of a pagan myth, instead of the lived experiences of someone standing right in front of me. I had questions, concerns, but Luna seemed to be seriously struggling with herself right now and I really didn’t think it was a good idea to push her away.

“Thine anger at the treatment thou hath suffered this far is with merit, Brian. For misunderstandings surrounding noble deeds, persecution hath faced thee. Next to us, thine acts wert saintly. Thou art far more deserving of forgiveness than we are, regardless of how our sister decides to treat us.”

Luna’s ears folded back against themselves, and she held her head low. Pushing herself off of the rail’s precipice and turning her back to me, she began walking along the side of the overlook, always keeping the city below in sight.

Credit: Venusal

“Most despicable of all,”–Luna fixated on the empty streets–“we hath not changed. We still look out at our subjects and wish that they would see us and they would care about us. But, night after night, our court is empty. Our guards humour our crown, but only because we are our sister’s kin. By candlelight, our ponies sleep. Our own sister treats us as if we are a bird in a cage, to be noticed and cared for, but never free. We art alone.” Luna had started to breathe heavily and her cadence had become snappy, pitched, panicked.

“That yearning, that envy clings tightly to us still. We are still the pony we once were. Every day”– a light ‘plip’ sounded on the ground and, looking to Luna, I saw her watery eyes reflecting the night sky as she shook–“we have to tell ourselves to not feel jealousy towards our sister and to love her dear, but it hurts. You walk it so effortlessly, but this world is not the one we left a thousand years ago. We art even more isolated now than before our sister banished us. And we fear- we fear that will never change.”

“Luna, I’m sure-” I tried to interject, but Luna was determined to keep demeaning herself and spoke as if I wasn’t in the room.

“Our ponies will always know who we art and we know they wilt never forgive us. They will always know of the wickedness inside of us, how we failed our oath to protect them.” She was openly sobbing now, with tears streaming freely down her face and her nose running uncontrollably. She opened her mouth, ready to start speaking again through the tears.

Credit:Lattynskit

Rushing her, I forced my arms around Luna’s barrel and held her tight, her bristling blue fur trying to escape around my arms just as her limbs tried and failed to do as she flailed in my grip. Whatever she had been planning to say was cut off by the modicum of resistance the broken pony in front of me was trying to put up against my hug.

“Don’t talk like that. It’s not selfish to whant people to care about you. You won’t spend the rhest of your life alone.” I growled, “You made me care about you and you’ll find others that like you for who youh are.” I hugged her tighter. Nearly a full minute passed until she stopped fighting it and went limp in my arms. Finally, she had calmed down. A burst of blue magic, which she had thankfully never used to blast me, cleaned up her face and my fur, though she immediately jammed her muzzle back into my body’s patchy fur sections.

“We didst not ask thee to stay here for emotional support,” Luna mumbled into my shoulder, hugging me back, “but we thank you still.”

She was going to be okay. We could give each other second chances.

Chapter 11: Still

Still

Two days had passed since I met with Luna in the palace’s magical botanical gardens. Since then, things had been quiet for me. I hadn’t been summoned for any dinners and, critically, I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Luna. I could start conversations with the various palace staff, though they seemed to be staying as strictly professional around me as humanely (was it still humanely if they were ponies?) possible. I was prone to start a riot if I walked into the city below, so I found myself doing a lot of exploring and reading. Oh and the things I read. There was so much I could say about the things I’d been able to read once I’d gathered the clarity of mind to ask one of the castle’s semi-permanently unoccupied guardsponies where the library was. Major pony metropolitan areas included the likes of Fillydelphia, Las Pegasus, Neighagra Falls, and Manehattan. Why did half of all pony cities have names that sounded like bad pony puns of Earth cities? I must have spent half an hour just staring at the Equestrian map in befuddlement.

Not for the first time, I worried that I was only courting more disastrous realisations by trying to seek answers about this place. I had hoped to find some sort of grounded writings in between the pages of books, but pony writers described all things science as if it were just another subsection of the world’s innate magic. I learned, for instance, that steam engines were a thing and that ponies did in fact have the technology for trains. But that same knowledge was conveyed in a line which described a steam engine as being a gaseous thaumaturgical core. I had to put the books down after reading that.

I had to say, it was hard to stay away from reading with neither a body that tired naturally, nor a single directing influence on me those two days. In some ways, the time alone was kind of nice. So much had happened to me in the two days prior that I really just needed some time to process what had happened, no, what was still happening to me. It was all a lot. I was coping, I reckoned. I mean, I was coping, but I was coping.

During times that night fell and the majority of guards drifted to sleep, I found that the guard’s training field was a nice place to jog and test my body’s capacities. The nuanced balance of a body as warped as mine was something I was having to manually rewire, though I was becoming more confident with the extent of my abilities. I would glance at exposed bones every now and then and wonder how it all worked, but I could move quickly enough, jump high enough, and punch hard enough that I was willing to overlook the whys and hows for now. Barreling across the running track, I had wondered, every now and then, if I would run into a beaming Luna, looking for a rematch after our last bout. As much as I didn’t want to start another fight with her, I was finding myself rather lonely at the lack of her presence this last day or so. Somehow she had become a welcome part of my stay here.

During one twilight wander, while the sun dipped low and the moon rose high, I found myself walking around the edge of a hedge maze. I kept pacing, wondering where the entrance was. The thing itself was rather huge. I had figured it would be a good way to kill an hour or two while the day ended for the ponies on a regular sleep cycle.

Built into the side of the mountain, as opposed to hanging precipitously off the mountain’s edge like much of the city, the garden around the maze had a more natural feel than much of the palace and surrounding districts. Every dozen or so metres, sculptures of jubilant looking ponies could be seen on pedestals, often with instruments of their work in hand. It was tasteful, in a national remembrance sort of way. Very pony-esque, I thought.

Finally sighting shrubbery arches, I found the entrance to the hedge maze. To my annoyance, it was not far from where I had started searching. I had done almost a full loop of the course and it was right here all along. While I was grumbling internally, one of my emaciated feet hovered over grass as I froze mid-step. There was something I hadn’t seen during my first circle of the maze nearby now, standing by one of the numerous statues. Princess Celestia, brilliantly white as always, was looking markedly subdued in the muted haze of sunlight. I supposed that she must have just finished up a workday, seeing as day court would be over and the sun was dipping low. Just in front of the mare was the stony artistry of a patchwork chimaera of creatures. She seemed fully focused on the bizarre piece and, with her back to me, showed no sign of having even noticed my presence at all. I was more interested in making conversation after so many one-word conversations with guardsponies than I was with avoiding the somewhat caustic white mare, so I made my way over to Celestia.

Credit: Drbdnv

“I dohn’t see you out and about very often.” I called out the greeting to Celestia from a respectful distance behind her. Her back was still turned to me as she looked at the statue. Unlike Luna, she seemed wholly unfazed at my approach. Neither a hair on her head moved, nor a muscle on her body twitched.

“I love my little ponies, though their concerns have a way of monopolising my time.” Celestia cheerily elaborated. Apparently finished looking at the statue, she gave a little hum and turned her head to me. I could feel those purple eyes looking deep under the antler skull over my face.

“Do you know anything about Discord, young Brian?” She asked with a tilt of her head.

It was an odd question. Shifting the weight of my body from one leg to the other, I considered where she might be going with this.

“What, tension between ghroups?” I probed, wondering if the magical pony princess in front of me was about to start an angsty rant about how I didn’t know the true meaning of worldly strife. But no. Instead, she gave a short shake of her head.

“Not quite. That word’s original meaning has long since lost any significance to these lands. Now and forever, it seems we are inseparable. No, Brian, I speak of Discord the entity.” Celestia looked deep into the statue in front of her. Pointing with her hoof, while turning her head to me, Celestia explained, “Discord is the spirit of chaos and disharmony between life. Once upon a time, over a thousand years ago, he ruled the lands that would become Equestria. That was before my sister and I deposed him and took our places as guardians of ponykind. His power is immense, his goals are undefined, and his methods vary by the second. This form”–Celestia traced her hoof gently across the side of his jawline–“is the singular thread that keeps him grounded as an entity in reality, instead of him just being an incalculable force of nature. It is only through this body of his, that has he been able to be sealed away, guaranteeing the safety and loving harmony of my ponies.” Celestia closed the speech with a short smile, devoid of any warmth.

I groaned internally. There were more ageless demigods to deal with. And this one seemed capable of blowing up the castle on a whim. I blinked. Celestia was looking at me now.

“So, what happened to Discord? Where is he now?” I questioned, my curiosity burgeoning. If he was such a threat, I’d have to look up the ex-ruler in the history books. Celestia shot me an odd look, turning back to the commemorative statue of his defeat.

“Discord is a spirit of chaos. Dungeons can’t hold those, Brian. I needed- all of ponykind needed a way to stop him from so much as snapping his fingers. It wasn’t easy, but there was a time when harmony itself responded to me.” Celestia gave the stone statue a light tap with the side of her hoof, glancing at me. Surely not.

Celestia looked around the tranquil garden, elaborating, “From there, it was just a matter of finding him someplace that would be safe from chaotic influences, while still providing enrichment in his surroundings. Most ponies don’t know this, but the Canterlot statuary garden was actually the first piece of our capital to be built. It was simple back then, just some hedges, flowers, songbirds, and Discord, secluded on a mountainside. Everything else came later. We still try to get musical performers and tours passing through here, so that he has something to watch.”

Celestia’s explanation continued, but I was transfixed by the chimeric creature, frozen forever in a stony prison. What a way to end up. The castle dungeons were so empty and out of use. My mind focused on Celestia’s ability to petrify people. Discreetly, I looked around the statuary garden at the numerous frolicking ponies on display. The sun hung low on the horizon.

“Do you often turn your enemies to stone?” I probed cautiously.

Celestia turned to me. With pursed lips and steady gaze, she gave no response, only staring into my eyes eerily. All around us, the numerous ponies immortalised in statuary seemed to loom taller, each casting longer shadows on the ground. I was about to step backwards, find some pretext with which to excuse myself. Suddenly, breaking her icy demeanour, she gave a gentle titter, holding a hoof up to her mouth.

“Your expression is hilarious,” she giggled to herself, turning back to the garden. “Did you really think that all these”–Celestia waved a hoof across the assembled statuary–“were petrified just like Discord?” I was too caught off guard to respond. The idea of Celestia keeping a petrified menagerie of ponies and beasts seemed to be a real side splitter to the mare in question.

“No, just Discord, I’m afraid. Besides, the power to turn even him, let alone anyone else, has been out of my hooves for almost a milenia now. No, he is other ponies’ problems these days, bless Faust.” Celestia took another glance at the statue, the smile on her face fading somewhat.

“I don’t even particularly hate the man. And I know that he doesn’t like being trapped in stone.” Celestia trailed off, looking deeply into the asinine face of the chaos spirit. It was forever locked in an alarmed yell, arms outstretched as if trying to ward something off. Exhaling softly through her nose, Celestia turned away, “It is a shame that he has had to stay in stone. All these years, it would have been nice to have someone nearby who understands how slow the passage of time can be.”

Celestia let the words hang in the air for a few seconds. All the while, I let centuries-old drama play out before my eyes, not daring to interrupt.

“Now and then, I considered opening his cage, reaching out to him. Chaos and harmony working together for all of ponykind,”–Celestia looked wistful–“wouldn’t it be the ultimate proof of the power of friendship?” Suddenly, as if Discord had personally slapped her in that very instant, Celestia shot the statue a burning glare. Pawing at the ground with a hoof in frustration, she accused, “But he is too dangerous! The elements rejected me, I was all alone. Was I supposed to risk my little ponies?”

As quickly as it came, that spark of fire seemed to die within Celestia.

“Even now, with my sister at my side and my student ready to protect her friends, it is still not time. It is still not safe enough. These holes plaguing my kingdom, they threaten my ponies. I could not, can not, risk him making the situation worse.”

In my mind, an unspoken question burned.

“So, why tell me all of this? Did you want to stress that you could seal me up in stone too? Lock me away like Discord if I was a threat to your ponies?” I accused, angling my head low and my antlers higher, ever so slightly.

Celestia was silent. Craning her head, she looked away from me and off into the hedges of the garden. Still facing away, she gave a soft exhalation through her nose before she began speaking.

“I know you do not like me, Brian. I misjudged you as a person and that has coloured our relationship up to this point.” Celestia paused for a moment, “Twilight, my student, sent me a thirty-page report detailing the two minute exchange between the two of you. Moreover, yesterday morning, Luna was tripping over herself trying to tell me about your story and the first few hours you spent in Equestria. Though I would have preferred to determine those details with you in the secure setting of the Canterlot dungeons, my hoof has been forced on that front. Luna has chosen to put trust in you. Because I value her input and because you have done nothing to betray that trust so far, I have been honouring that decision.”

Still fixated on the distant hedges, Celestia continued, “Twilight’s and Luna’s stories seem to match up perfectly. I do not have any reason to believe that you intended to hurt Scootaloo or my student. On the contrary, it seems that you took several deliberate steps to protect my ponies.”

“So why the focus on telling-” I started, before being interrupted by Celestia, who raised a hoof. Finally, she turned her head back to me.

“I don’t want to threaten you, Brian. I don’t think that you need to be threatened. Right now, I want to talk about Discord.” Celestia clarified.

Celestia’s words caught me off guard. I was silent, giving the princess room to explain. But, instead of jumping into dialogue, she took a quick glance around us to make sure that there were no observers. Lowering herself to the ground, Celestia folded her hooves up on themselves, turning into a pony loaf and snuggling up in the grass. Once she was nice and comfortable, she began her explanation.

Credit: Zachc

“I had thought that Discord might have been the culprit behind these portals. On the rare occasion he feels like it, he can play long games with ponies. You will rarely see a spirit of chaos hold a plot together for decades, but Discord has had centuries in stone to just watch some of his schemes come to fruition. Even more so than the raw chaos of his reign, the lingering presence of his work can be the most devastating.” Celestia’s tone shifted, as if she was telling a story to a group of students, “Across the sea, in Zebrica, there was a village on the plains was fed by a porous aquifer. Burning water, I later learned they called it. It was a miracle for the whole region. Zebras would flock to try it. I myself only learned of the settlement when I found out that it had been swallowed by the earth. All at once, the entire village collapsed into a gargantuan sinkhole. It fell almost forty feet. I arrived to help assist with recovery. Only when I arrived did I learn what had happened. Discord, on a whim, had turned the towns groundwater source to lemonade. Over three centuries after his imprisonment, the lemonade had eaten deep into the town’s limestone foundation, right up until the support for the settlement just gave out. If Discord had still been around, I’m sure he would have teleported in with an arrogant snap of his fingers, just like he always did. He would have turned everyone’s fur into little parachutes, or put balloons on every buildings’ foundations and called it the floating lemonade town. But I’m not Discord.” The last sentence was followed by a slow exhale by Celestia.

Shaking her head sadly, Celestia continued, “When I got to the remains of where the village had once been with a recovery team, it was all gone. Only a handful of zebras who were foraging outside of town when it collapsed survived.” A sliver of weariness flashed in Celestia’s eyes.

“For two weeks now, I’ve been looking for a hint of his influence. Chaos magic present where holes have opened, a breach in the seal of his statue, some hypnotised ponies doing his bidding, I’ve searched for everything and more. I’ve come up empty. These holes may be causing lots of chaos, but I can say for sure they are not a plot of any chaos spirits, so I’ve lost my best lead. You want to know why I brought up Discord, it is to make it clear that I might not necessarily have all the answers right now. I could use an ally in this.”

Celestia turned her head to me, a pensive look across her expressive muzzle. Huge though she might have been for a pony, she had to look high up to meet my eyes while she sat on the ground. A rumble forced its way through my chest, the monstrous equivalent of a humming. Joining Celestia, I crossed my legs and sat with her on the grass.

“So, what are you proposing?” I asked, leaning towards her..

“You and I started on poor footing. I would like to try and make amends. In my eyes, you are the first pony who looked like a real threat to Luna since she came back into my life. I did not show you the Equestrian spirit of friendliness that you deserved, coming to our lands.” Celestia looked conflicted. Dipping her head onto the grass, she admitted, “I don’t dislike you, Brian. I just want you to know that I love my sister. I’d do anything to keep her safe.” Pulling her head up, Celestia recomposed herself, adopting a thin smile.

“I am no longer worried that you might hurt Luna in any way.” Celestia’s face held that damned expressionless benevolence that I couldn’t read into. Laying out her plea, she continued, “We could do a lot of good working together, instead of being combative. Can we agree to put the past behind us?” Rustling under her fluffy white barrel, a hoof was offered to me. Celestia was giving me the pony equivalent of a hand to shake.

The memory of Luna’s surprise at being cut filled my mind. In my mind, I could see it as clear as day. There was Celestia’s fiery visage as I turned from her sister to her. The glow on her horn like a solar flare leaping from the sun. I remembered the fiery inferno that consumed me. All the while I stared blankly at Celestia’s pristine white forehoof. Closing my eyes, I sighed.

Her fur was soft.

Chapter 12: Crash

Crash

When Celestia retired for the night, the ensuing evening passed fairly quickly. Sleep might not find me, but I still found it nice to curl up in bed with a book to whittle away the evening. “A beginner’s treatise on magicking” was fairly interesting, even if most of it passed over my head.

I had barely noticed that the embers of morning had started to stream through my bedroom window when they first arrived. What did snap me out of my trance were the solid knocks at my bedroom door. They were resounding ‘thunk thunk thunks’ that I knew could only come from a hoof’s strike. Having grown in experience, I reflexively called out “Just a minute!” Then I ducked under my room’s chandelier, peeked sadly at my own reflection in my room’s mirror, and opened my door. Standing impassively, a familiar brown unicorn was stood in my doorway. She gave a polite bow, in which I could swear she looked from my horns to the untouched chandelier behind me.

Straightening out again, she puffed up to relay her message, “The Porter, you are summoned to the twin thrones by Her Majesty, Princess Celestia. I have been instructed to guide you to the throne room as a matter of utmost urgency.” I raised an eyebrow. Finally being summoned by the princess, was I? I nodded. The book in my hands, long since forgotten, was gently tossed onto my bedside nightstand.

“Well then. Please lead the way.”

I’d had the time to visit many areas of the castle in my wanderings. With that said, one area I had never even gotten close to was the throne room. Around the clock, a cadre of unflinching guards stood watch over the grand double doors to the throne. I wasn’t sure which creatures the doors to the throne room were made to accommodate; however, I was in no rush to meet them. The ponies were easily enough for me on their own.

My brown unicorn handler came to a halt in front of the throne room guards. Giving a short, mechanical bow, she pointed a hoof at me and announced, “at the request of Her Majesty, Princess Celestia, The Porter.”

This satisfied the door guards, who assigned two ponies to each titanic door. Slowly, to the suffering of the door hinges, the doors were cast open, revealing the Equestrian throne. My unicorn handler having departed, I walked past the threshold and into the bright room beyond alone. A light ‘click-click’ could be heard as my clawed toes impacted against polished tiles.

Inside the frankly enormous throne room, rows upon rows of stained glass art pieces lined the room’s walls. On the east-side of the hall, sunlight streamed through the works, which appeared to be of ancient battles, treaties, or celestial bodies. The coloured glass cast its long impression on the ground, making me step through the window projections of a gryphon carrying a halberd, the Equestrian moon, and then a trio of hooves joined together.

On the far side of the room, a pair of thrones sat. One seat was red with a dark blue trim, against the backdrop of the moon; the other seat was red with a brilliant gold trim, placed against the backdrop of a blazing sun. I struggled to wonder whose throne was whose, but I think I managed to work it out. Of far more importance, I saw Luna standing before the thrones with her back turned towards me, engaged in conversation with Celestia who was currently sat on her own throne. By Celestia’s side, a light grey unicorn with a clip on tie around their neck and their black hair up in an orderly little bun was taking notes on a levitating clipboard, nodding at Celestia.

I hadn’t taken a single step forwards before one of the door guards had bellowed across the long hall, “Announcing The Porter!” I winced, those guardsponies had a set of lungs.

Why did they call me the Porter? Did they think that “the” was part of my name? In response to the guard’s announcement, I was briefly the object of attention in the room. Celestia, who I was near-certain had already noticed me as soon as I had walked in the room, turned her head to me. Luna, meanwhile, did a surprised seeming turn on her hooves to stare at me with wide eyes. Quickly breaking eye contact as soon as I established it between us, she turned to her sister and I couldn’t see her face any more. Now that I noticed it, she wasn’t wearing her normal lunar peytral across her breast right now. Was she woken up from her sleep and brought here?

“Good morhning, Luna.” I greeted with a smile and a small wave. It was nice to see her again. I knew she must have a lot of duties as a princess, but it was nice getting to see her around.

“Ah, Brian,”–Luna rubbed her right forehoof against the front of her left forehoof, briefly becoming a pony tripod–“thou art here as well.” There was a moment of silence in the busy room while a hint of rose began to blossom against Luna’s cheeks.

Credit: Silfoe

She looked embarrassed. Was this about the last time we spoke? It’s not that I hadn’t noticed that she and I hadn’t run into each other over the last two days. But, right now, it was glaringly obvious that she was avoiding eye contact with me. I tried to look at Celestia for some sort of affirmation of my observation or commentary on her sister’s actions. Instead of assistance, her face was that plastic mask of smiling tranquillity that it always seemed to default to. Great.

“I summoned him as well, sister.” Celestia gave a nod to her sister. Welcoming me, Celestia greeted, “And thank you for coming, Brian. You’re just in time for the explanation I was about to give Luna. The Canterlot Royal Academy of Magecraft believes that they can detect the raw magical presence of hole appearances reverberating through arcane ley lines, though we still have no understanding of their spellcraft’s signature.”

“‘Tis not much use to know that they are happening, sister.” Luna grumbled, “We know they are happening, ‘tis a crisis.” She glared blankly at her sister, doubtlessly wondering if this was worth having her schedule upended over.

“Thaumaturgy has come a long way, Luna,” Celestia chided lightly. Gesticulating with a hoof, Celestia jumped back in, explaining, “with a bit of work from nationally cooperating mages’ guilds, we have been able to triangulate the rough positions of holes across our nation. Nowhere do we have such clarity as in and around Canterlot. By courier, I was recently informed that”–Celestia leaned towards us–“two holes had recently appeared simultaneously in the proximity of the capital.” Celestia let the words hang in the air for a moment.

“I shouldn’t need to tell you what an opportunity this represents. We will be able to analyse the hole’s magical signatures before whatever sorcery holding them together has had time to degrade. With any luck, it will become clear what is causing these holes to appear and we can shut down the process before more of my little ponies are hurt.” Celestia leaned back into her throne, sighing quietly.

A grin crossed my features. Finally. I was getting what I’d been waiting for. This had the potential to be an answer to why I had entered this blighted existence, a return to human form, and perhaps even resolution to my estrangement from Earth. Wishing for everything all at once might be a bit optimistic, but I had a goal, something to strive towards. Now, more than ever, I needed something grounding me. As distant as I was becoming from my human form, I needed a ubiquitous reminder that I could, that I was close to getting it back. I shut my eyes, remembering the dream Luna had put me in. I remembered hands, a body, a real face. Opening my eyes, my teeth glinted in a terrible grin.

“This sounds great, how can I help?” my voice scratched as I looked up to Celestia on her throne.

“I am splitting you two into teams, each with a contingent of the Royal Guard. You will go to the two locations, and focus on capturing the magical signatures so that we can focus on the elimination of further holes.” Celestia leaned into the ear of the light grey unicorn with a clipboard, whispering something. With one final nod, the unicorn scuttled off, her clipboard levitating out of the room beside her.

“Luna, there are reports of a sighting in Ghastly Gorge. I would like to send you along with a squadron of pegasi to investigate. You know how to avoid disturbing the quarray eel nests. If there is anything that came through, help it get out of there safely if it is friendly. If it is a monster, subdue it.” From the side of her eye, Celestia shot me a glance, appending, “If you’re sure that it’s a monster.”

Shuffling under her pillow seat, Celestia turned ever so slightly to face me. Giving a short nod of her head, her ethereal mane rippling with the movement, she implored, “Brian, you already have some experience in the Everfree Forest. I am sending you to investigate the site the guild reported in that area.”

Back to the Everfree? Well, I wasn’t sure what a quarray eel was or how to rock climb in a gorge, so I supposed that this was probably the better fit for me. Celestia looked apologetic.

“I understand that this is rather short notice. However, the Canterlot mage’s guild reports that these magical anomalies are more recent than we believe any we have previously encountered were. Brian, you will have unicorns with you who will be able to scan for magical signatures. Luna,”–Celestia gave her sister a short nod–“I trust you can perform the analysis on your own. I am very interested in knowing more about these anomalies’ magical signatures, before their magic has had time to dissipate.” Putting her hoof back down, the golden horseshoe over Celestia’s hoof struck the ground with a gavel-like ‘clang.’

The forest (the Everfree Forest, I had learned) was exactly the same as I remembered it. I mean, the flora and distant furtive wildlife were completely different. But it still had that foggy, oppressive atmosphere. The twisting winding roots, the branches that seemed to grab at you, and the omnipresent feeling of being watched? Those were all just as I remembered them. Trees, even if of a different breed, still reached up to the sky and matted together, blocking out the sunlight.

Pulled by a score of pegasi, three teams of golden chariots had hastened us to our eventual destination of the forest. It was an experience. Soaring high in the sky while clutching the front of the chariot with a claw, the wind billowing in my face, I felt like Apollo carrying the sun in my wake. Spread out across the three craft, twelve ponies in all had accompanied me.

It looked like we wouldn’t have the privilege of landing directly on our destination. The chariots slowed down and descended in winding arcs like a plane would, before a flat enough stretch of land before the forest. They were like airplanes that needed a landing strip, treetops just wouldn’t suffice. My ears popping as we neared the ground, I was sent briefly airborne as we jostled against the ground. The pegasi seemed like they were trying their best to make the ride smooth, though there was only so much you could do without stabilisers on your wheels.

We set down not ten metres away from the looming treeline that marked the beginning of the Everfree Forest. Unlike the crisp, clean breeze of the skies above Canterlot, the air here was musty and damp, laden with the scent of moss and organic decay. I breathed in deeply, taking in the scent, before jumping off the chariot and feeling the dirt beneath my feet. In the periphery of my view, I noticed my retinue twitch with the sudden movement. I suppose it would have been optimistic to think that these ponies I had no relationships with wouldn’t have been scared of me. I’d give them a minute to collect themselves and get ready for the trip. Sinking into the grass, I rolled my shoulders, relieved at the freedom to move around again. Meanwhile, the ponies buckled clasps, brought a handful of lamps from one of the chariots, and levitated a map from one of their saddlebags. The map, which appeared to be some approximation of the forest, was more cartoonish than most of the ponies I had seen around here and had far more space empty and blank than filled in. In some of that blank paper, there was a red X marked, doubtlessly our destination. It seemed we were headed into uncharted territory.

“So, we ready to head in?” I asked our little assembly now that they had sorted their gear out and were gazing worriedly at the ominous treeline.

Nods and a series of “Ready,” responses were my answer. Anticipation welled up in me.

The Everfree awaited.

Our walk through the forest was quiet, eerily so. My first hike through these woods had been characterised by large to moderately sized wildlife either evaluating me as a snack or darting deeper into brush as soon as they noticed my light footfalls. But now, travelling in the midst of the metallic ‘clip-clops’ of a troop of guards, it was as if the forest itself recognized us as a foreign entity and was isolating us. Instead of a wildlife exhibition, ours was a trudge through muddy roads and over ill-tended paths. Our only direction was through the dim orange crystals glowing in lamplight, small groups of moths fluttering around the glass exteriors. From one lamp to the next, we walked. Through the fog, the hazy twinkle of more lamps could be seen, strung up under mossy, decaying wooden lamp posts.

Credit: Huussii

As we crossed over a bridge consisting of no more than two planks over a stream, one of the pony guards, a pegasus, lifted a wing into the air. Their ears twitched a bit and our convoy came to a halt, as if this were something to watch over. Wondering if their oversized pony ears had heard a wolf or some other predator, I did a slow rotation on my legs, eyes poring deep into the dark corners of the woodland. Simultaneously, I sniffed at the air, knowing my nose (or lack thereof, I suppose) had warped with this body and seemed to have become adept at hunting prey. But the woods were calm and I couldn’t smell anything downwind, just the dampness of the pollen-laden air and the smell of fish from the stream. Curiously, I looked back to the contemplative pegasus. Still, the other guards seemed fixated on him. I was about to break the silence and ask what we were waiting for when the pegasus in question unfroze, looking up and pointing a hoof away from our path.

“This way is south, we must head deeper into the woods.” He announced with enough raw-confidence that I was willing to take the magical horse at its word that it could tell the planet’s polarity without a compass. Could pegasi detect the world’s magnetic fields? Was that a thing birds did? I thought about it for a second. Was that a real fact, or was I making stuff up in my head? Another moment passed. The ponies in front of me, avoided an innocuous blue flower over the grass in front of us like it carried the plague. I followed their example. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me.

“So, pegasi can tell which way is north? What is that, magic, biology? I figure youh don’t have a compass shoved up your ass.” I growled, looking towards the pegasus in question.

There was silence for a second. With a lingering hint of trepidation, the guards glanced among themselves. I knew they still saw me as an outsider. Instead of one the pegasi answering, I saw a rough-shod normal pony, (an earth pony, I recalled from my time in the library) turn their head towards me. Hornless, wingless ponies were apparently their own species of pony, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns were all apparently equal. The best qualities of all three of them combined together into the demigod-like alicorns, like Celestia and Luna. It was a bit to take in, but good to have an understanding of. This earth pony, with a shaggy beard, gave a terse nod.

“Aye, laddie,”–the gruffest most exaggerated pony voice answered me. I wasn’t sure if the accent was supposed to be Irish or Scots, but I felt either would be offended by the pony’s existence–“them pegasi have the ken to see north, feel it on their wings, ya’know? I dinnae about this beoology stuff, but it’s the magical strength of a pegasus’ body, ay? Ye just hang tight now. The pegasi will take us to where we need to go, the unicorns will do their fanceh magicking, and ye can step in if any beasties come to make a snack out of us all the while. It’s like Hearth’s Warming Eve, everyone working in harmony, sure it is ‘tisn’t it?” The pony turned back to the path ahead, nodding at his own last statement. I just blinked. I maybe caught half of what he said, but the sentiment that the ponies had it in hand transferred well enough. I voiced my thanks and carried on.

The lit path slowly fading into the fog behind us, we continued along the forest stream. Walking over rocky shores, the trickle of water and the crunching of pony hooves sinking into gravel became the sound of our journey.

After what was probably half an hour of uninterrupted hiking, the treeline abruptly fell away. Here and there, lonely smouldering stumps stood, baren logs inundated with a fresh layer of rain. On the wind, I could smell the lingering acrid smoke of small chemical fires. Ahead, the tree line had been utterly decimated. Soil was uprooted, trees ploughed over, and the sky opened. Towering above it all, the gutted remains of metal behemoths were lain strewed about the landscape.

I knew immediately what I was looking at, a spaceship. Or, at least, pieces of one. It had obviously come down hard. Like broken bones, jagged metal had been extruded and torn in the ship’s crash, warping and breaking away into separate sections as the vessel struck the forest. In the path of the crash, a clearing of barren dirt had been made where the main body of the ship had torn across the ground, before settling in front of the stream we were following. It was hard to say whether the ship had landed at the edge of the stream or redirected it in its entirety with its vast bulk.

Credit: Wojtala

As I stood in awe at the raw destructive force on display through the spaceship’s violent crash into the forest, I was shook out of my daze by movement in my peripheral vision.

There were figures emerging from the innards of the ship.

Chapter 13: Phantasm

Phantasm

Our party went still as the strange figures emerged from a hole in the ship. Instead of a hatch or an airlock, their silhouettes were emerging from an open rend right across the side of the ship. It was like an open scar, matted in debris and upended vegetation. This was it, it was time to see who we would be attempting to welcome into this bizarre ponyland.

Cresting the rim of the ship’s tear, I could finally see the shapes of the spaceborne pioneers as they moved outside and sunlight illuminated their forms. To my dismay, I immediately recognised the black armour and purple bodies of the first creatures I’d met coming into Equestira, the ones that had threatened the little orange filly and then attacked Luna. An even dozen had stepped outside and were roughly gesticulating in our direction, while I could see even more behind those in the shadows beyond. Unconsciously, I’d clicked my tongue in an angered ‘tch’ sound.

“What, what’s the matter?” One of our parties unicorns, an orange mare, asked, having noticed my reaction.

“I know these things, they’re hostile.” I responded, not looking away from the aliens, watching for one of them to try and pull out a weapon. The ponies with me looked from me to the distant brutish purple aliens. From their pursed lips and sceptical glances to each other, I could tell what they thought of my assessment.

“Look, I don’t know about the history between you and these-,” the same orange unicorn started to say, before I cut them off.

“They attacked princess Luna.” That shut them up real quick. Apparently attempted regicide wasn’t high up on their ‘things that can easily be brushed off’ list. Slowing down, the loose party regrouped into a tighter, more orderly cluster of guardsponies. Just like that, their movement towards the ship seemed more tactical, more cautious even. The human in me wanted to call the behaviour herd-like, as if they were grouping together at the threat of a predator.

Ultimately, it seemed that the word of the princesses was still dominant and that we were obligated to attempt to parlay. I wasn’t optimistic, my previous two interactions with this group still fresh in my mind. However, they hadn’t already started firing at us with their laser guns, so maybe miracles could happen. We were approaching the ship from the side of its impact, about a football field’s worth of space between us being nothing more than brown soil, torn up in the violent touch-down. From the ship’s breach, a string of the purple aliens continued to trail out, pointing and talking amongst themselves, but making no hostile overtures yet. Eventually, it seemed like their entire party had stepped outside into the light. About twenty five in all, their group was nearly double the size of our own.

As we neared the ship, the tall purple bipeds started to make their way down the side of their own ship, towards us. Staring at the aliens, I absentmindedly started to think about my lost human form. These things were close to human, but had just enough differences to trigger dissonance in my head. They were far too tall, far too muscular, and they had tusks poking out of their mouths. They could almost be described as humans, but only almost. I was still alone.

As I watched the alien’s descent to us, I found myself perplexed at their gait. It seemed, and I had no other way of describing it, off. Their steps were wide and uneven, like a toddler trying to balance themselves. They lacked coordination, or any sort of the physical acumen that their bulging muscles might have suggested. I frowned more the longer I stared at them. I supposed that I hadn’t seen them moving much the last two encounters of ours. Their focus seemed to be on firing those laser guns of theirs instead.

Finally, we’d reached the beginning of the vast metal spaceship. Great twisted steel girders scattered around us. We were at the intersection of three microbiomes. The metal husk of the downed spacecraft, the forest that it was currently pressed up against, and the desolate plain it had carved out of the earth. Hopefully, with their ship most assuredly totalled, these creatures would recognize the severity of their situation and be more amenable to talks. I wasn’t in much a mood for fighting right now.

As our two parties came within talking distance of one another, we came to a natural enough stop. Taking the lead, a helmetless grey pegasus stallion with a blue and white mane that reminded me of colgate more than anything stepped forward. From the little heart emblem on his chest, to the deference the other guards seemed to show him, I’d come to the conclusion that he had authority over the small guard troop here. Putting a hoof to his breastplate, he gave a shallow diplomatic bow.

“We are the Canterlot Royal Guards, operating under the orders of Her Majesty, Princess Celestia. Our orders are to investigate this area and perform some minor, non-destructive magical tests. We also have been asked to render aid to any outsiders to our lands, if they will receive us.”

“Ah, we wouldn’t want to get in the way of the Royal Guard.” The alien at the head of their group commented. Smiling stiffly, they testified, “This was our hot air balloon, you see. Its cables snapped and we landed here.” Levelling an arm to their crashed ship, they pointed with a balled up hand, instead of a finger. “We are diplomats. The rest of our delegation is searching for berries in the forest. We would like to be taken to meet the Pony Princesses when the rest of our crew arrives back.”

No, no this was wrong. Every fibre of my being was screaming out to me that this situation was off, and I was inclined to agree with my intuition. They were patently the same armoured purple species that I had encountered during my first sighting of a pony and my battle with Luna. But they behaved nothing like the ones I saw, with none of the disposition, movement, coordination, aggressiveness, or advanced tool use. Hell, I didn’t think these ones had a clue what they were holding in one of their hands. With their head towards us, as if to make sure we were watching, one of the aliens had what I was fairly sure was a blowtorch in one hand and was using it as a hammer to pound against what appeared to be some sort of remote into the metal wreckage of their ship. Another had taken some sort of computer console outside and was loudly vocalising the eating of leaves off of it like a folding table. It was like the caricature of activity, without any of the sense or purpose of it. And somehow, none of this seemed to have tipped off my pony compatriots that something was wrong.

Case in point, the grey pegasus in charge just smiled carelessly and nodded at the alien’s words.

“Well, these are unusual circumstances,”–he affirmed, looking up to the enormous metal wreck–“but I can say that the Princesses are always happy to receive friendly delegations. Once our work here is done, I’ll personally-”

“No,” I interjected, cutting off the pony mid sentence. I wasn’t sure what this farce was, but I wasn’t going to let it continue. For the first time, the aliens seemed to regard me as a person, instead of a pet or pack beast. Again, it was strange, since I was far closer to their own biologies than the ponies, even in this warped form of mine.

I glanced at the spaceship the aliens had emerged from. The massive engines to the rear, the hatches that sat unused, the lingering scent of chemical fires and seared plastic. Lies, all that they had said so far were lies.

“That’s not a hot air balloon and you’re not diplomats,” I asserted, wholly unconvinced by whatever scheme this was. In the corner of my eye, I could see my company dismaying over the wrench I was throwing into their cut and dry diplomacy.

“We came from across the sea to-” the lead alien tried clarifying before I snarled dismissively.

“Who are you really and what are you planning?” I demanded in a scratching growl, hoping to get something from the aliens, even if it was just their species name and an admission that they came here in a spaceship.

Instead of making the purple space orcs open up, they all froze, fixating on me. There was a moment of silence, before the one who had been speaking to me actually hissed. Like a switch had been flipped, all of the aliens dropped whatever they’d held in their hands and they joined the lead alien in hissing territorially. Caught off guard, I didn’t even know how to respond to the sudden shift in tone until the alien at the head of their group combusted in a brilliant flash of green flame. I stepped back, eyes wide at the sudden combustion, wondering if one of our unicorns had initiated an attack without my knowledge. But, just as quickly as the flames appeared, a black hoof pushed out of the green fire and the inferno dissipated.

Standing in the spot the purple biped used to be was a jet-black equine. But, instead of fur covering it, matte chitin clung to its surface, like a bug. On its head was a crooked horn, shaped differently to the spiralling point that accented the unicorns. Thin, almost gossamer like wings flittered on the bug pony’s back. A lizard-like frill accented its head, just above the deep, pupilless orbs that served as its eyes. And, strangest of all, golf ball sized pockmarked holes accented its legs and tail, giving it the appearance of something that had been drilled right through. Though it shared the shape of a pony, it barely looked like a functioning organic organism at all.

Credit: Jewellier

These concerns all became secondary as, with an aggressively high pitched ‘scree,’ the bug rushed directly at me, fangs bared. Low to the ground, its wings buzzed menacingly as it shot like a wasp. Breaking out of my stupor, I pulled together just enough awareness to try and swat the bug out of my way with a backhand.

Locking its sharp jaw around my arm, the feral shapeshifter tried to cling onto my arm and immobilise me with its sudden strike. Instead, the sheer force I put into the swatting backhand caused it to fly off me, tumbling roughly back into the dirt. Like a bug, it was lacking in the way of mass, though it seemed to be made out of a very hard exoskeleton.

Unfortunately, as I watched the bug pony roughly skid back and tumble over the dirt, my eyes were inevitably drawn back to its colleagues, which had also been replaced by black insectoids. All of which appeared markedly more comfortable in these forms. Not five metres of dirt separated our groups, golden armoured ponies up against insectoid bugs.

“Celestia above, what are those things?” The lead pegasus with their blue-white hair asked, alarmed. My mouth twitched in the brief direction of a frown. If even the ponies didn’t know what these were, the chances of learning anything useful about my opponents looked sparse.

As the question went unanswered, there was silence in the air for a moment. Neither side looked like it wanted to initiate, until the nervous twitch of a pegasus’ wings caused a bolt of green magic to fly from the horn of one of the bug ponies towards the Royal Guards.

“For Equestria!” The ponies bellowed, galloping forwards. Unicorns held back in support, firing off beams of magic and conjuring up magical shields around the earth ponies and pegasi. The latter two, meanwhile, charged directly towards the enemy in a grand assault. Their hoof steps were a cascade, like the rumble of thunder.

“For the Swarm!” A chittering screech called back, drowning out the sound of Royal Guard hooves. Launching into the air, several of the bug ponies dive bombed into the Royal Guards with their horns blazing in front of them like a comet burning up on atmospheric reentry. Crashing against the golden armour, even the sturdy earth ponies were getting knocked out of formation. Other bugs were sitting back, firing off comparatively weak looking bolts of green magic from their curved horns. The frailest of their bunch just hissed menacingly towards the guardsponies, darting in and throwing punches when they thought they had an opening. I smacked one such bug aside when they thought they could get a cheap strike in at my side.

Both sides were doing a number against each other. The ponies were better equipped, better trained, and were keeping a stronger formation against the bug ponies. But the bugs were making up for their seeming frailty with savage determination and a numbers advantage. This was going to get messier the longer it continued. I had to step up, do more than hold the line with the ponies. I was strong. I was strong enough to shred through and decimate the strange insectoids; that I was certain of. But, balling my claws into fists, I reckoned that I might just be strong enough to end this one without killing anybody.

Rushing ahead of the earth ponies weathering dive bombing bug ponies, I bolted forward and started laying waste to the bugs. Predictably, the lone target outside of formation made me an immediate target for the bugs and five immediately rushed in to bring me down. With a weighty kick, I sent the first one to reach me sailing away to the far treeline, where it collapsed, unconscious.

Credit: Askbubblelee

All over my back, I could feel the beating of hooves, the blasting of magical bolts, and the scraping bites of sharp insectoid maws against my tough skin. I could hear my guardspony cohort calling out to me, shocked that I had charged directly at the bugs. But still I flailed around, shoulder checking, slapping, and kicking at anything stupid enough to get in my way. The bugs were trying to bring me to the ground, I could feel their raw desperation. But they just didn’t have the strength or force behind them to subdue me. Shaking, more and more bugs found themselves careening to the ground, more often than not being punted across the field.

What the bugs had originally seen in me as a straggler prey target was quickly becoming the anchor upon their backs, weighing them down and killing the momentum they needed to effectively break the guardsponies. With as much of their force as they needed to keep me occupied, the remaining bug ponies were finding themselves easy targets for the Royal Guards.

All across the barren dirt field, the bugs were either bruised, beaten, or unconscious. Each bug that I threw off of me found itself slammed into the ground and disoriented, but had no compatriot to take its place. The tide of battle had become overwhelmingly obvious at this point. Instead of a reckless charge into the pony lines, the remaining ambulatory bug ponies held back a cautious distance. Turning their head to the sky, one of their number let loose a distressed ‘scree’ to the sky, seemingly an order for general retreat. Some limped, some flew, some exploded into the forms of small rodents in flashes of green fire and scurried off into the woods.

Credit: MysticalPha

Stepping over the bodies of unconscious bug ponies, a trio of hardy guards made their way over to me. An earth pony, the grey pegasus in charge of this guard cadre, and a pink pegasus. For all their toughness, the earth pony seemed to be having a tough time keeping conscious, leaning on the grey pegasus’ barrel. The pink pegasus, meanwhile, seemed transfixed by the scratches and bruises matting my body. From their demeanour, the wary caution that the guards had shown me earlier had been replaced by a grudging respect. And at their centre, the commanding pegasus looked roughed up but managed to fight through it, looking up to me.

“That was reckless”–the stallion (Was he an officer? I needed to look up how the pony military worked some time.) grunted, wincing from a purple welt across their jaw–“but you saved our flanks out there. Thanks.”

“Anytime,” I rasped, nodding.

Their piece said, the trio kept trotting, looking to bandage up any of their allies that had open cuts.

At the edge of the dirt, by the forest, I saw one last conscious shapeshifter. Head turned back watching us, they seemed pensive about something. Were they worried? A number of their fallen companions were still scattered around, maybe they were leaving behind a friend? Noticing my skullen face watching them, they finally turned away, galloping into the dark treeline.

Credit: Viwrastupr

As the last bug pony slipped away, the battlefield was finally still.

Reaching a spindly arm up to my back, I hissed at the feel of bruised flesh and shallow cuts. Wearily, I sighed. It was over.

Chapter 14: Simulacrum

Simulacrum

For all the effort we had gone through fighting for it, it was ironic that our unicorns didn’t actually need to touch the crashed ship. Instead, the point they were interested in was at the beginning of the dirt field where the ship had touched down. The shipwreck only represented the final resting place of the metal titan that had barreled through the hole, not the hole itself. It was sensible, if a little irking.

I don’t know if there was anything I could say about the ponies scanning for magical signatures. To me, I just saw three unicorns form up in a triangle and magick together some concentric circles between their glowing horns. I had nothing to contribute to or learn from the magical ritual taking place before me and I found myself restless next to the gargantuan spaceship nearby. Ultimately, one calling won above the other.

Jokingly, I told the blue and white maned pegasus guard watching over the unicorns to scream if they needed me. I don’t think he took it as well as I’d hoped, but I was already headed for the ship.

Into the aching tear the bug ponies had come in from, I jumped and scampered up sheer edges, before pulling myself over the brim. The insides were dim. They’d have been darker still if not for sunlight streaming through the odd fissure in the hull. The skeleton of an emergency lighting system clung to the ceiling. With the condition of the ship, it looked like not even that had managed to fire. However, pawing into the darkened corridors, my mind was fixated on something else entirely.

I could smell them the moment I entered the ship’s musty halls, bodies. Led by my nose like a cartoon character floating through the air in the direction of a pie, my antlers scratched and whined against metal walls as I pushed through corridors. Had the ship not been built for hulking orc-people, I doubted I would have even been able to fit inside without tearing through the hull. Here and there, a splatter of blood could be seen on walls and panels of the ship. Always, the stains pointed to the front of the ship. No stain had a body next to it.

Onwards I went, bony limbs clicking and snapping as the monstrosity that I’d become bent and folded its way forward through the crashed ship. The ship had planted itself face-down in the dirt, so I could feel the descent I was making, lower and lower towards the front of the vessel. Finally, I reached what could only be described as the helm of a spaceship. Dim and grey, rows of lights sat unpowered and broken operation terminals laid unmanned. The room’s only light stemmed from the dense glass at the front of the ship, where a thin layer of gold darkened what little light was coming in from the forest outside.

I’d have liked to have stood and marvelled at the miracle of technology before me. I might have mused about how different it was to a Star-Trek bridge. I could have waxed on about how much more plain and clinical it was, how much less flashy it was. But no, my undivided attention was on a long purple tarp laid over the tip of the ship. Unlike the technology that had lain still since its crash, this had clearly been placed afterwards. Back cocked like an alert beast, I gingerly pried a claw under an edge of the tarp.

With the tarp pulled back, I could see them. Bodies, a full crew’s worth laid in the pile. There were no bullet holes, no decapitations, no burn marks. Each one had suffered blunt-force trauma, vitals slammed into hard surfaces. Fractures decorated their bodies, some with a trickle of blood running down their suits. The bloodstains on walls facing the front of the ship, these fractures, it clicked for me. These aliens must have all flown and slammed around the insides of their own ship when it crashed, killing them instantly. I knew the kind of whiplash you could get in a car crash if you weren’t wearing a seatbelt. I didn’t want to imagine how bad it could be in a spaceship.

Absentmindedly, I found my mouth watering, looking at all the corpses. They were not decomposed yet, fresh. Before I even had time to realise it, I found myself leaning towards the cadavers. Jolting back in surprise at my own actions, I hurriedly shoved a hand in front of the bony protrusion that made up my nose, blocking myself from sniffing at them.

Panging in my chest, I felt a flash of weakness course through my body as I rejected the debauched hunger. Caught off guard, I stumbled back. Warily, I looked at the pile of corpses, holding tight the hand over my bony nostrils.

After a moment of contemplation, I gingerly laid the tarp back over the pile. It was the most dignity I could leave them in, especially with the risk of my condition. Making haste, I moved to escape the bridge. I cast one sorrowful look out behind me as I stepped out. This was a bad place for me to be.

Besides, there was work to be done in Canterlot.

Flying back to Canterlot on the faithful trio of golden chariots that had brought us to the forest’s edge, this time we were laden with a few extra guests. Bound in the guard’s law-enforcement cuffs, six unconscious bug ponies were riding along with us, split between the three chariots.

Our guests certainly made us popular at the castle. For once, I found myself not at the centre of attention. Amazed onlookers, I heard in whispers, speculated about whether a new species of pony had been discovered. That that was even in question, I thought, said a lot about how absurdly varied ponykind seemed to be.

The paths of my guards and I diverged as they left to deposit the castle’s new guests in the dungeon for questioning. Chipperly, and with some hoof bumps, I said my goodbyes to my guard cadre. And so, one at a time, they started lifting up bug ponies and carrying them like sacks of potatoes for the dungeons.

Not ten steps away, I found myself face to face with Luna of all ponies, talking to some people I hadn’t seen before. She must have finished up her trip faster than me. At least she didn’t have any bug ponies carted behind her, lucky. Walking up to her with a smile, I gave my greetings to the night princess.

Luna looked at me curiously for a second, as if concentrating on something else around me, more than me myself.

“Welcome back, my beloved!” Luna suddenly burst, a wide smile consuming her face. I froze, caught off guard. With an oppressive cheeriness, Luna continued, “how was thou trip outside the castle. I hope you enjoyed yourself?”

I froze at her greeting, before chuckling lightly. I supposed we were close enough now to rib each other like that, but damn if that wasn’t a spicy joke to start off with. I hadn’t known that the awkward pony had it in her, but it was nice to see her opening up a bit more.

“Nice to see you too, Moonbutt,” I rasped, glancing up to the castle’s peaks and back to Luna. She was just staring at me blankly.

After a moment, her gaze shifted behind me. The last of the bugs we brought back to the castle were being carted to the dungeons, still out cold. For the very first time, I saw Luna’s face so plainly wearing that tranquil mask that Celestia often adorned.

“Ah, thy returnest from battle! And what strange creatures thy have done battle with. But tell me, there are so few, did you kill the others?”

I mean, there weren’t that few. We’d brought back six of the twenty five or so attackers who hadn’t managed to escape into the woods. Any more and we would have been straining the chariots anyways. The princesses had been around longer than the guards, they’d probably know what we were looking at. I wasn’t sure why Luna expected a bigger group though, she-

First with a glimmer of doubt and then with dawning horror, it struck me how off Luna was acting. The bug ponies, the same ones I had just brought back to the capital, had approached us in the shape of the purple aliens, pretending to be them. A pit of dread formed in my stomach and I saw Luna’s impostor twitch oddly.

“Hey, Luna,”–I asked slowly–“how about we go visit your sister, report back to her together?”

Celestia would be better at dealing with this than I could be. Besides I could do with some backup. And it wouldn’t do to be seen attacking a princess in the castle again.

“Hmm,”–the thing impersonating Luna put a hoof to its chin pensively, as if seriously considering my offer–“we think that some food sounds good after such a long trip out of the city.” For a split second, I saw her eyes flick to the guards accompanying her. Casually, subtly, they were making their way around my back, boxing me in. Eyes lighting up in mock glee, ‘Luna’ focused on me, proposing, “hey, dear, I just had an idea. There’s this great cellar nearby that has a restaurant in it! It’s really cosy and rustic. How about we go there and get a meal together?”

My mouth twitched. It looked like my hand was going to be forced here. The Luna fake was watching me with barely concealed wariness now, could she tell I knew? I was at my breaking point. I had to move quickly.

Lunging, I grabbed for the fake’s neck. With a single swipe, my right hand found itself curled around the imposter’s throat. Claws out, the left hand hung menacingly in the air, an implicit threat against the grappled pony.

“What have you done with Princess Luna?!” I snarled roughly, my eyes burning pits of anger.

“~Stick around and find out yourself~” not-Luna trilled without a modicum of the concern that my claws around her throat should have conferred on her.

With a grin that was altogether too wide and too vindictive on Luna’s usually soft face, a sickly green power crackled across her horn like a bolt of lightning. With all the speed of electricity arcing across metal, I barely had time to question the raw audacity of the shapeshifter’s play before an electrifying jolt of pain struck me right between the eyes with a thunderous ‘crack.’ All I could see was white for a moment. Shouting out, my hand released her neck and I stepped back, shielding my face.

When I lowered my arm, I found myself standing in a sea of green flames. All around the courtyard, servants, guards, seemingly unrelated passerbys, everyone was enveloped by transformative flames. Shit, I was really wishing that I had stayed with my guard entourage.

A pit of black in the burning ocean, Luna’s dark form stood stoically, still untransformed.

“You’re still conscious. That’s impressive!” she laughed, nearing a cackle. Like a flickering heart in the sea of flames, a green flash of fire consumed her too. From the inferno, I heard a bizarre dissonant two-toned buzzing voice titter mockingly, “it is rare enough I get caught. Nopony has ever discovered me so quickly. I’m almost sad to see you go.”

[Theme of the changeling queen]

As the bright green flames died down, a new pony stood where Luna had once been. Unlike the more diminutive bug ponies, this one was closer to the size of Luna. If the other bugs were drones, this one was a Queen. Sleek, black, and with a sharpness to her form, she practically radiated regality. Atop her head, similarly to the moon and sun peytrals that could often be seen across Luna’s and Celestia’s respective breasts, a tiny black crown clung to an unusual head of hair. With a twisting horn more warped than most of my own body and long gossamer wings by her barrel, she looked to be the analogue of the ponies’ Celestia and Luna. And, right then, she was staring at me with the smugness of an opponent who’d already thought they’d won.

Credit: Rusty3x3

I’d prove her wrong. The bones of the antler skull over my head clicked and snapped as I snarled. Closing the distance between us in a second as my spindly legs tore up the ground, the queen got an eyeful of the fangs lining the interior of my antler skull while I pounced through the air towards her.

Her pupils shrank to pinpricks moments before my jaw snapped against the place in space her neck had occupied a second ago. In a flash of green light, she had vanished. The ‘pop’ behind me was a clear enough indication of where she’d moved. Before I even had time to turn my head, a dozen bug ponies were upon me. With their little fangs, they were biting and grappling me. If they managed to hold on, they were punching too.

Despite their efforts, a cocktail of adrenaline was numbing any pain response I felt. Brutishly swatting three shapeshifters out of my way with a hand, I sunk a claw into the ground, pivoted, and charged towards the queen again. Maybe the rest of them would go down if I beat her. Rampaging savagely with four limbs to the ground, I felt a handful of bug ponies peel off my back with the sudden burst of movement. The queen teleported again, this time still within my peripheral vision. Like a falcon, my skull snapped to its prey.

“I don’t have the energy to waste breaking you in, beast. More important targets await. Submit, or I will be forced to put you down,” the shapeshifter queen warned in that quavering hum of hers. She was trying to project confidence, but I could hear her voice wavering, betraying the facade of control.

Not that her words could have done much to bring me to a halt. Already, a wave of shapeshifters had cascaded over me, clinging desperately onto the furred patches of this warped body. But their punches, bites, and desperate magical bolts couldn’t halt the frenzy I was working myself up to. Writhing, I turned my head over my shoulder, finding a group of fearful blue orbs staring back at me. Snarling, I clawed at my back, at the mass of black bugs weighing me down. A few were smart enough to jump off as my claws neared them, though I was still rewarded with the slicing of claws through meat and a satisfying trickle of green blood between the grooves of my fingers. The flow of blood, the scent of the meat I had deprived myself of, the adrenaline of battle, they were all combining together to place me in a frenzied trance of battle. Slash, snap, shake off the bugs, hunt their queen.

Abruptly, while I was scraping another wave of the seemingly endless bug ponies off myself, I felt a searing pain punch through my back and out my rib cage, leaving a crater where my heart had been. Staggering, I fought to keep standing, especially as the swarm of bug ponies continued their assault on me. Turning unsteadily as the emboldened bugs nipped at my hands and brought me falling to my knees, I saw the bug pony queen, wisps of magic still thrumming along the length of her horn.

Credit: Zigword

As her magic ebbed, the last thing I saw was a wide eyed queen standing in front of me, her horn steaming ever so slightly. It seemed like she was still unused to killing things. Then, my vision was finally consumed by the pitch-black blanket of bug ponies swarming to protect their queen.

As I felt my body die, a profound feeling of starved dryness crept through my limbs. Bones turned to powder and flesh desiccated. In a matter of seconds, I felt myself detach from my body as it blew away like unnatural dust in a breeze. Awkwardly, as if still expecting to be pummelling a body, the shapeshifters backed away from the empty dirt. Once again, I found myself an amorphous cloud, a haze of something that was not. Before me, I saw a disgruntled queen trying to compose herself for what must have been an unsuspected snag in her plans.

“I’ll have to apologise to the pony princess for breaking her toy,” the bug queen spat, almost resignedly. “A shame he was too strong to pod, that one had some powerful emotions coursing through it.”

Running a hoof through her hair, the queen started hissing at her subordinates.

“Get the rest of the emotion bags bound to the wall quickly. I won’t feel safe until the sun princess is in a pod,” she ordered, pointing a hole-filled hoof.

The bug pony queen, with her back turned, didn’t see me. But I saw her. Like a nostalgic memory of childhood, I remembered what seeing felt like. I remembered what a body felt like. And, with all the determination that a soul without a brain could conjure, I clung to my sense of being against the voices telling me to let go. No, I had something else to focus on. Because, just in front of me, the tumult and disharmony was like a clattering and banging of metal pans in front of an old man drifting off to sleep. With the bug pony queen in my eyes, stepping back into a world of form was all too easy.

Credit: tarajenkins

I was certain I was real again once the shapeshifters started hissing and pointing at their queen. Her face, a mask of triumphant pride, shattered into dumbfounded fear as I circled around her. I was near-certain that if the chitinous queen had had goosebumps to raise, she would have. If not for fear, than for the lifeless cold that followed in my hoofsteps.

“Underhive below, what is that?” the dulcet twin tones of the queen hissed, backing away from me.

I had no response to give her but an icy breath and barely the presence of mind to even muster that much. Looking upwards, I found myself trotting on the air, soaring up two stories above the courtyard and all the bug ponies in it. All around, condensation formed on windows and the chill of air bit into flesh.

Launching themselves at me with their tiny wings, the slim bodies of bug pony drones trying to protect their queen sailed right through the ephemeral form of a windigo. The bugs' frail green blasts, equally, found no target in my body. I didn’t focus on their attacks. No, the frantic buzzing of a hundred drones, somehow, reminded me of the howl of hail in a snowstorm. As my prancing continued, the bright skies over the castle turned dark with a twisting, nebulous overcast. The wind howled like spirits long gone and ice was cast from the sky, invading every opened window sill.

Down below, I could see the bug queen staring up at the sky in alarm. Hissing something incomprehensible at a number of her cohort, she tried running out of the courtyard, towards the throne room. No. I felt an indescribable urge to speak something but, instead of words, a haunting whinny echoed on the breeze. Far below, the queen and all of her drones were frozen in her tracks as a layer of ice began creeping from their hooves and up their legs. The prance continued.

Diving low as ice crept up to the bug ponies’ necks, the distant echo of ‘clip clopping’ hooves could be heard as I trotted millimetres above the icy ground. Like the purple aliens before, I felt the consuming urge to shatter the bound ponies struggling in icy prisons. I exhaled an icy breath. But, staring at the bug queen, I remembered Luna. I needed the bugs if I was going to find Luna. A pang shot through my chest. It was a familiar feeling, like the warmth of a beating heart. Consumed by the sensation of heat, I found myself curling up into a ball, drifting downwards into the ice.

As I sank into the ice and snow, I glimpsed a brilliant flash of gold cut into the stormy clouds overhead.

Chapter 15: Heartbeat of the Moon

Heartbeat of the Moon

Groggily, my aching limbs pulled me out of a snowdrift for what I prayed was the last time. Make no mistake, I was happy to still be walking the land of the living. But, whatever process I was undergoing to recreate my body was leaving me drained like I had just run a triathlon. The muscles dragging me to my feet protested their every movement. The elongated bones that stretched my malformed body writhed under my skin, as if I were experiencing the worst growing pains a pubescent teen could experience. Most debilitatingly, the blood rushing to my head demanded each moment that I collapse to the ground and let unconsciousness take me once more. It took every modicum of control I had to bite through it all and keep moving. I hadn’t won just yet.

“Chrysalis!”

Ahead of me, there was commotion in the castle courtyard. Celestia had arrived at the scene and was currently stalking menacingly towards the still ice-bound bug queen. Like an aurora lighting up an arctic sky, her make billowed before her, hovering over the banks of snow and ice. Celestia’s face, so often a mask of placid peace, was displaying outward anger directed at the bug queen. Seemingly knowing that this was an omen of ruin, the queen in question had taken to wordlessly snarling at the sunshine alicorn and straining her neck as she tried to eke out a millimetre of space in her icy prison to make an escape with.

Credit: Animalstamp

Most eye-catching was Celestia’s brilliant horn. Alight like a bonfire, the keratinous spiral cast a golden beacon of light up to the heavens. Piercing into the murky darkness of the snowstorm above, I realised that the sun princess was calling out for reinforcements.

From the mere handful of Royal Guards which had been present at my awakening, a growing tide of ponies were storming into the castle courtyard to a thundering clatter of hooves. Galloping like trains with hooves, bulky earth ponies were tirelessly charging from castle courtyards in droves. Circling Celestia’s beacon like moths to the flame, flocks of pegasi were making sharp descents before striking solidly against the snowdrifts to kill their falls. And all across the courtyard, polychromatic flashes of light signified entire squads of unicorns teleporting to the scene, magical shields bursting into existence as the battlemages grouped up and solidified their foothold on the courtyard. The Royal Guard had come in force.

Credit: Andyfirelife

Allaying the bug’s numbers, the tide of guards seemed unending. With two or three Royal Guards to each shapeshifter of the swarm, the battlefield was quickly locked down. Between Celestia and the bug queen, any questions of who was the strongest had gone right out the window with Celestia able to summon an army of soldiers at the drop of a hat. Just like that, the shapeshifter’s numerical supremacy had summarily been lost, and then been reversed in the guards’ favour.

Celestia, her head still dipped as if hunting the trapped bug, finally spoke out. Gone was her regular matronly tone, replaced instead with an icy spit.

“Queen Chrysalis, you’ve returned after all these years. I wish I could say it was a pleasure. Why has the changeling hive left the badlands?” Celestia glowered, making no secret of her disdain of the bug encased in ice.

Noticing my worn state as I came closer to Celestia, a number of guards attempted to halt me and perform a medical checkup. Forcing my way towards the changeling queen without looking away from my quarry, I brushed off the guards. I couldn’t stop now. If I stopped moving, I’d collapse. I wasn’t done yet.

The drive behind Celestia’s interrogation spluttered out as I staggered in front of the mare, breaking her concentration and causing her to turn her attention to me, instead of the bound bug. Like a rock scraping across a washboard, each of my breaths came to me in rough, haggard gasps. Spindly arms sinking into the snow to prop me up, I crunched lightly through the layer of snow and heard the faint ‘click’ of claws against the stone underneath. All the while, I was getting closer to the queen.

“Unless you”–I gasped deeply with each word, lifting my right arm out of the snowbank and levelling its claws dangerously close to the ice covering the bug queen’s, Chrysalis’ breast–“want me to do to you what you did to me, you’re going to do exactly what I tell you. Where is Princess Luna?” I growled, composing myself for long enough to properly enunciate the demand.

At the raise of my claw, the ensemble of guards and the sun princess had briefly moved in to hold me back. But, with the mention of Luna’s name, their momentum had abruptly halted. They hadn’t known, I realised, that Luna had been impersonated by the changelings. Breaking the calm, the courtyard was suddenly a flurry of movement, as if the hornets nest had finally realised it had been kicked.

All but one pony was frenzied, that is. Just to my flank, Celestia’s ears had drooped and her eyes were shrunk to pinpricks.

“Luna.” The word hung in the air, all at once a scream of terror and an exclamation of loss.

The changeling queen looked me up and down, trepidation in her eyes. Glancing at Celestia, as if to see whether she’d step in and stop me, the bug was left wanting. After a moment, self preservation won out. The bug nodded at me, always keeping an eye on my claw.

“I podded her myself. The grand hive has set up a base here. The princess is”–the queen hissed, exposing her teeth and glaring down at her breast–“she is in the palace’s wine cellar.”

The wine cellar. I knew where that was. Nights of listlessly wandering the castle’s halls had left me nothing if not familiar with the palace’s maze. My face locked in a snarl, the claw that had sunk into the ice trapping Chrysalis was pulled roughly out of the frozen cage. From the tip of my middle finger, a singular drop of green blood fell to the snow. It went near unregistered by me as I cleared the courtyard with a bounding leap to the exclamations of several guards.

Shooting across castle hallways in a scampering four-limbed dash, my movement was more beast like than human. Bones clicked and scratched against floors and walls. Had I been any more lucid, I might have questioned how I was moving so quickly while so exhausted. Instead, the antler skull I called a head was fixated on the trace scent of heady oak barrels.

Finally reaching a solid door that stood wholly unguarded, I forced the dense wood open with a solid body-check. There was not a hint of the lucidity required in me to fumble with doors, locks, and handles right now. With a dry splintering crunch, the latch was obliterated and the door slammed open. The air was dense here with the earthy and fruity aromas of wine. Beyond the cellar door, stairs led down into the musty stone cellar that I vaguely recognised. But something was wrong. Piercing the darkness below, a soft green glow interrupted the usual darkness of the cellar, its source just beyond sight.

Not missing a step, my barrelling charge through the door had me clearing the staircase in a single leap, breaking my landing against the stone floor of the cellar below. That’s when I saw what the changeling queen had meant when she described a “base” having been set up in the castle.

To the end of the room, the walls of the cellar had been covered over in some sort of dense phlegm like substance. The inkling of a grander lair, a hive, had been laid here. Cutting into the darkness of the room, a singular gem sat in the centre of the room. Encased in green goo, it was functioning much like the pony lights, illuminating the hive in a muted glow.

The most disturbing part of the hive was not the walls or the floor however. Suspended from the ceiling, Numerous pony silhouettes hung upside down by web-like strands. Trapped in cocoon like mummified wrappings, a sludge of glowing green goo surrounded each pony form. In the lime glow of the gem, I could see each pony twitch occasionally, as if in a deep sleep.

Credit: Boomythemc

Sensing movement, I saw a singular changeling latched on to one of the cocoon pods. Midway through a spin, their fanged mouth was open, puking a dense green film over the pod in question. Noticing me, the blue orbs in their eyes shot wide and they tried desperately to sever the tape like mucus trapping them against the cocoon. A moment later, they were slammed unconscious against the wall.

Pawing through the cocoons, I saw that a whole host of ponies, nearly two dozen, had been bound already. Guards, servants, bureaucrats, and finally a princess. Luna was here. Floating serenely in the goo, her face was a mask of placid contentment.

Clutching the bottom of the cocoon sac, I sliced across its underside like a lame to bread. Along with a rush of cascading goo, I caught the unconscious night princess as she fell towards the floor. Gently lowering her to the ground, I watched as Luna began waking up. Jolting in a start, her hooves rushed to her mouth as she evicted a litre of green slime from her throat, joining the rest of the goo on the floor below. Gasping lungfuls of fresh air, Luna took a second to compose herself. Meanwhile, I stood still, struggling to keep myself upright.

“What- what happened?” Luna groggily asked the floor, coughing a residual drop of slime out of her throat. Turning, she looked up to me.

Rushing forward, I scooped Luna into a tight embrace. The residual slime rolling off of her fur and coating my arms was kind of gross, but all I could focus on was how glad I was to see her safe.

“You’re okay now,” I reassured the soggy pony, stroking a hand along her back fur.

“Brian, what art thou-” Luna breathed airly before trailing off. Looking slightly dopey with wide eyes, she just stared up at me. Creeping up her face, a tomato-red blush shone under her dark fur. She just stared at me expressively for a moment, hugging me back. I found myself fading towards unconsciousness, clutched in Luna’s warm embrace. Suddenly, Luna’s wide eyes and blush morphed into a raging red face. Her hug turned into a push as she shoved back from me.

“Foul changeling!” Luna boomed. Horn sparking with a sudden jolt, I was blasted back by an uncoordinated raw wave of magical force, knocking me into the oddly organic wall that the changelings had coated the cellar with. Rubbing my head with a wince, I saw a well of hurt blossom in Luna’s face. Lips parting to show her clenched teeth, the night princess hissed, “how dare thee toy with our affections!”

Too mindless to incinerate me with her magic, Luna launched away from her cocoon, and arced through the air towards me. Before her, a vengeful hoof was outstretched, ready to cave in my skull. Stepping forwards, I closed the gap between us. Intercepting the night princess’ hoof in my right hand, the left caught Luna by the small of her back and pulled her close to me, as if we were waltzing. The punch hurt my palm, but sensations were feeling dulled to me in this stupor and I didn’t want her to be able to lash out at me.

“You’re alright, Luna. It’s me,” I murmured in her ear. She seemed dumbfounded by my hand and its ability to have caught her punch.

“Thou art no changeling.” Luna’s eyes shot wide, whispering, “‘tis really thee, Brian?”

Blearily, as if still in a trance, Luna turned her head up to me, still bound in each other’s arms. Wide eyes gazing innocently up to me, she seemed transfixed by my face. Like a sea of constellations, her twinkling mane flowed behind her. Slowly, her eyes shuttered and closed. Catching me completely off guard, Luna leaned in to me and planted a soft kiss on the lips of my antler skull, which I somehow felt.

What? Where had that come from? A thousand thoughts were swirling through my head and it was quickly overwhelming the last bit of task-oriented concentration I was using to keep myself conscious.

As if finally realising what she did, Luna froze up. Blushing furiously, her wings shot out with enough power to force a whip like ‘crack’ through the air. Flying back from me, Luna’s lips pursed together contemplatively. Under slimy, matted fur, her barrel rose and fell steadily with each breath.

Credit: Fensu

The image of Luna’s face burned into my brain, that is when I finally blacked out.

Chapter 2: Friends in Faraway Places

Friends in Faraway Places

“On’t oroh. Dohn’t oh. Don’t go.” I pleaded of the fading fire, its former occupant long since gone. The musculature of my face was so different from what I was used to. Enunciating words was a struggle, but one I was trying to overcome. And so, I practised speaking sentences until the embers of the campfire faded to glowing coals and the only thing illuminating my haunting form was the beaming moon. Perhaps it was better that way, that I didn’t have to look at myself very clearly.

“Uant ooh eeeeeh yurh frenh!” I was trying to say that I wanted to be the little ones’ friend. They could use one, I reasoned, shooting a glance at the armoured thing and its now cloven weapon. I could show them that I was to be trusted and, maybe then, I could work out something for myself.

Some dark part of my psyche knew I was lying to myself. I could “do something” about this? I raised a clawed hand up above my head to the moonlight. I was lost, I was certain that my stretch of the wood had no pegasi lurking about in it, and I was a monster. The best I could hope for was that I was hallucinating in a mental asylum right now, awaiting drugs that could bring me to some semblance of sanity. I dipped my head sullenly, hallucinations never felt this real…

“Wanth ooh eeh yurh friend!” I gave it another shot. There wasn’t all that much else to do. For some reason, this body of mine didn’t seem to tire out in the evening. Was I experiencing cosmic jet lag, or did bony monstrosities just not get sleepy? I couldn’t sleep, and what point was there in trying to reach out and communicate with others when I couldn’t string a sentence together. What else was I to do? It wasn’t like I had a riveting conversation partner. I snorted, looking once more at the biped that had tried to kill the little orange pony.

The armoured thing, its purple flesh was splaying out of its shredded armour, no longer contained. It really didn’t look so different from a human, once it was freed of its armour and you saw its succulent flesh. My ears twitched as I heard a light pattering from below me, and I realised that trailing drops of saliva were pitter-pattering against the ground, originating from my own mouth.

Gods have mercy on me, I wasn’t thinking about…? Slowly, tentatively, I lowered my maw towards the still corpse. Dagger like teeth hovered just over the ripe flesh. Ever so slowly, I extended a salivating tongue to just get a taste.

Time escaped me in my reverie until I heard a twig snap behind myself. Turning my bony neck around in a wide arc, away from my feast, I greeted the newcomer with my skull.

Credit: xxmarkingxx

Ponies, more ponies had come to visit me. The haze of gluttony fading fast from my mind, I quickly became coherent enough to realise how compromising the position I was in looked. As they stepped into the clearing, the moonlight shone down upon a trio of ponies, these ones bigger than the little orange foal I had saved earlier. A purple pony with a horn (a unicorn?) took the lead, brilliant violet and pink streaks accenting her otherwise purple mane. Given how the other two ponies stood behind her, she seemed to be in charge of this little group. To her left, an orange pony with bright blonde hair and an honest to gods cowboy hat stood. She didn’t have a horn or wings, but I had seen Earth horses put a dent in metal, and she seemed as capable. Finally, a sleek rainbow pegasus flitted back and forth, keeping herself agile and shying away from being in one place for too long. I could see them, but they could see me. I opened my jaw to say hello.

“Celestia’s light, it’s eating that thing!” The purple pony shouted, preempting me.

My pointed skull bobbed about, looking between the ponies in various states of shock and disgust. I needed to explain myself quickly. I took a step closer.

“On’t oh! Don’t go!” I rasped, the teeth of my bony face clattering against each other with each word. I was vaguely aware of a chunk of ambiguous purple meat sliding off one of my teeth and slapping wetly against the ground.

“Stay back girls!” The purple unicorn with highlights in her hair shouted, splaying her four hooves out in determination. I watched in fascination as she swung her head, as if cracking a whip and her unicorn horn started glowing a bright purple, briefly illuminating the terrified faces of her friends from the darkness. Was this a thing unicorns could do?

Suddenly, like a firehose spraying, brilliant purple light erupted from the pony’s horn, washing over my face in a tide of raw, painful energy. A ghoulish howl escaped me, shrieking into the night and briefly silencing the beasts of the forest. It hurt, it hurt. I could smell lightly burnt flesh and hair, the malodor was made all the worse by the knowledge that it was my own burnt body.

Credit: MLP Movie

“That didn’t knock it unconscious!” I heard the purple pony bleat, while I hissed and shielded my charred face with a claw, “Rainbow Dash, go to Spike now and have him contact the princesses!”

“But-” I heard one of the ponies protest, still hiding my face behind a claw.

“Now!”

Lowering my claw just in time, I saw the rainbow pegasus shooting off into the sky fast enough that a rainbow contour was left in her wake. Giving me no time to appreciate the spectacle, the purple unicorn started charging another blast. I let out a low groan as the stinging of the first shot reminded me to avoid a second. This encounter had run its course, I had to get out of here now.

The night was deep, the forest thick, and my body didn’t tire. The last I saw of the ponies was them flinching as I bolted away with a speed that belied my body’s size, before I turned my head and made my escape into the woodline. Sliding in between trees, the underbrush around me was briefly lit as a bright purple blast of light shot just over my shoulder, striking a tree in front of me.

I whined softly, clasping at my face as I disappeared into the night.

“Beeh Peeh” I whimpered, hopping over a log. That hunger, that gluttonous haze that consumed my mind was still there, but it had been sated for now. I repeated the line to myself, it didn’t define me. I could make this better.

“BP” I grunted, finally happy with the word. I still had my name, I was still human.

Chapter 16: Midnight Passion [NSFW]

Midnight Passion [NSFW]

Consciousness came back to me in the void. Laying flat, splayed out on the floor in the same position I had collapsed from exhaustion in, I was alone. Twitching, my eyes opened up, only to find me in that familiar inky void. There was nothing to see out there, but it was different from being in a pitch-black room. I, for instance, could be clearly seen. It was as if I instinctively thought of my body as something that existed in light, even if no source was casting it.

My mind felt a little foggy but I could piece together what this was, the dreamscape. I walked across the blackness for a moment, though the gesture felt futile. If the place I had walked from was identical to the place I arrived at, had I really moved? Concentrating for a second, I materialised a circle of stone bricks underneath me, like a town square. Around the edges, I placed some plinths; but I made nothing more. Since my run in with the changelings, I was done with grand illusions. After what felt like a few minutes, during which I had settled onto a plinth to contemplate the moments before my sleep, I heard a noise. It was a gentle crackle, like the snap of kindling in a fireplace.

Turning, I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

“Brian!”

Descending through the void, I saw the night princess gliding gently down towards my dream construct. Like a feather, she landed in the centre of the circle before folding up her wings and bowing at me. I was still a little cautious, though far more optimistic. This one knew my name at least.

“Yes! Tis so. Allow us to remind thee. When we first met in the dungeons, thy claw was lodged in the cuffs around thine wrists.”

Face darkening, I turned away from Luna for a moment in my embarrassment. “It’s good to see you too, Luna.” She just smiled, nodding.

“We do not fault thine caution. This was likely the most reassuring of ways we could address thee. The art of dreamwalking hast only ever been known by us and our most trusted acolytes. And, since our return, sister has told us that the skill has died out. We can safely say that, in here, thou art free of changeling deceptions.”

“So, what happened?” I asked, eager to know if a battle was still raging on while I slept.

“Thou will be gladdened to know that the changeling queen is safely in the dungeons. Her name is Chrysalis and she is known to our sister and us.” Luna grumbled, rolling her eyes. With a snort, she fumed, “we would have done worse to her than freezing, had she given us a chance. But, when we did arrive to the gorge, we found their damned queen waiting in ambush and every nook and cranny filled by her damned brood.”

The dreamscape briefly shifted. In the sky shone a rendering of a pony's point of view which had to be Luna’s. The viewer was at the bottom of a great crevice in the earth, easily two hundred feet deep. All along the stony walls, a great swarm of changelings were frozen mid-crawl to the onlooker. There were enough to have painted the grey stone black, easily three hundred just in sight. In the periphery of the still shot, I could see a familiarly long, crooked horn glowing brightly. Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the frame faded back into the night of the dream.

“We know thou canst get hungry after waking up like this, so we have told the palace chefs to begin making a feast to commemorate thine feat of valour over the changeling queen,” Luna said, forcing a smile onto her face. She was avoiding the elephant in the room. After a second of looking at her, I pushed the question.

“What about the kiss, Luna?”

Luna’s ears flicked with trepidation and a blush worked its way over her cheeks. She was having trouble looking at my face.

“Right, that,” Luna noted, rubbing her left forehoof against her right. “Well, you see, Changelings feed off the emotions of other species. We understand that the pods they put us in were designed to both immobilise us and inflame all of our emotions for the purposes of feeding. We acted without thinking,” Luna asserted, putting a hoof down in the dreamspace.

“But they were your emotions?” I probed, looking at the evasive pony.

“Thou hast been the only friend we have made in Canterlot. We art the night princess, something to be either feared or scorned for our sins. Thine acceptance fostered a lot of feelings in us.” Luna looked away, ashamed. Exasperated, she stressed, “thou wert also an outsider to Equestria, just as we are. In your militancy, we saw a facet of our past we didst remember fondly. The stallions of today are not like those of yesteryear. All of ponykind has grown soft in our sister’s long peace. ‘Tis only natural that we would see a sort of kinship in thee!”

Stomping in a circle, Luna was working herself up. Pointing a hoof at me, she accused, “then thou didst fight the changeling queen to save us! Did thou think that that would mean nothing to us? That we would just continue on? Proclaim ‘Oh, huzzah, Brian. Now the chef shall prepare thee a special meal.’ Of course it meant something to us!” Luna was glaring at me now, her fuzzy ears were perky and alert, twitching occasionally. In defending her actions, Luna had worked herself up to a visible anger.

“So, when you kissed me, you were thinking about how you felt about me?” I asked, somewhat dumbfounded. I was a monster. I don’t think that I could show that kind of affection towards myself.

“We do not wish to talk about the kiss any longer, Brian. It is not important.” Luna’s brow furrowed and she turned her head away from me icily.

“Please, Luna,”–I started, trying to make eye contact with the night princess–“I just want to know what your feelings are-” I was interrupted mid-sentence by Luna slamming a hoof against the dreamspace with an ethereal ‘crack’ reverberating through the nothingless around us.

“‘Tis irrelevant, for they are unreciprocated!” Luna snapped, pacing irritably towards me. Glaring, she leaned at me with her wings extended behind her, like a pointer dog hewed at its target. I felt anger welling up in me. She was being unreasonable and trying to sideline discussing her feelings and it was making her difficult to talk to.

“And what if they’re not unreciprocated?!” I shouted, pushing back against Luna angrily. “What if”–I stalled, realising what had been said. Winding down, each word was spoken with less force until I was barely above a whisper–“those feelings are not unreciprocated?”

Luna’s eyes shot wide open and her ears did a full reversal, straining back against her head. Like the breaking of glass, a great ‘crack’ echoed across the dreamscape. Breaking away the dream shattered into pieces that fell away into void with the roar of a rushing stream and the chimes of broken glass.

And then I woke up on a bed.

I took a moment to collect myself. I was in the castle suite the sisters had lent me. That was- that was good. I found it hard to focus with what I’d said to Luna so fresh in my mind. I liked her? I mean, she was great, definitely my favourite of the ponies. But had I really spent that much time thinking about ponies in that way? Okay, she had a crush on me and I had a crush on her. That was pretty big, but could we-

My thoughts were cut off by a sudden bright flash of light in the room. Standing in the centre of my suite, under the chandelier, stood the night princess in question. Eying me provocatively, she trotted over to me slowly as I stepped over the side of the bed.

“Thou likest us?”

Thoughts swirled around my head, all the reasons to say no. The differences of our species, my tenuous existence in this world, the shortness of our relationship. There were so many reasons to box myself in and push away the pony. Finally, I worked up the determination to speak truthfully.

“Yeah, I like you, Luna.” I think I surprised myself there. But still, the words kept flowing.

“I think you’re pretty, I think you’re smart, and I know you’re strong. I like that you know me for being more than this monster,” I answered, lifting a bony hand, claws and all, between us. “It hurts me to think about you not getting the love and attention you deserve. I want to get to know you better and learn more things to like about you.”

The lust induced sultriness in Luna’s eyes died for a moment. Extending her wings, she rushed my chest and buried her head in it, hugging me tight.

“We like thee too, Brian. We like thee. We like thee, and we really feel the need to lay with thee right now.” She wasn’t talking about napping.

The changeling goo seemed to be affecting her hard. I was starting to worry about whether this could be called consent right now. Maybe it would be better to try another time. Putting a hand on Luna, I pushed her back from me and looked into her face.

“I like you, Luna. But I don’t want you to feel compelled by anyone else else to be with me.” Gently, I cupped the side of Luna’s muzzle in a hand. Staring in my eyes, Luna blinked and shook out of my caress.

“No, we want this, Brian. Changeling goo can magnify existing emotions, but not create new ones. This is just the”–Luna waved a hoof in the air, searching for a word–“shove that made us realise how we felt. We also apologise if it has also made us testier than usual.” Luna bowed her head, a soft wince of embarrassment crossing her face.

“It may have taken the infernal Changeling Queen’s meddling for us to see it but…,” Luna trailed off, looking away with a blush. Head dipping ever so slightly and with a flutter of her ears, Luna angled her head back to me. “If thou wilt have us,”–Luna pleaded breathily, eyes locked firmly with my own–“we would be appreciative if thou couldst assist us with this burning passion that hath been hoisted upon our body.”

The words hung in the air for a moment as Luna just looked to me with her lidded eyes, searching for a response. Leaning in, I gave Luna a soft peck on the tip of her muzzle. I wasn’t sure how the bony jaw of a stag was able to approximate a kiss, but I didn’t care right then either. Neither, apparently, did Luna. Lighting up like a Christmas tree, her beaming face was the last thing I saw in the room before her horn blazed and teleported us both into a dimly lit room.

[Horse sex warning. CTRL-F your way to “12345” if you wanted to skip that.]

It took me a second to adjust to the light. We were actually somewhere I remembered, Luna’s bedchambers. Only, now the blinds were drawn. Was it daytime? Did Luna prefer the vista to the night sky? In any case, only a handful of small candles illuminated the room. It was as soft as I remembered, resplendent with cushions and beautiful fabrics. Luna had teleported us immediately over her bed, the satin sheets of which we gently fell onto.

Oh my god, we were really going through with this. I felt nervous, a lifetime of taboos crashing against me all at once. But then I saw Luna, absentmindedly trailing a hoof through her hair as she watched me from the other side of the bed. She needed this right now and was struggling from the changelings. I wanted to help her out. I liked Luna. And, really, that was enough for me.

Sidling up to Luna, I reached around her back to the metal peytral over her neck. I had never been good at unlatching bras but, thankfully, the metal accessory came free on the first try. Bringing it up and over Luna’s head, her mane was lifted and then spilled out freely over her face as the ethereal strands settled back down. Gently, I brushed a hand across her face, clearing the floating strands out of her eyes and revealing her warm smile. With a muted glow of her horn, the peytral, her tiara, and the four horseshoes on her hooves floated across the room and landed gently on top of one of her side tables.

Biting her lip, Luna leaned against me and pushed me into the sheets. Happy to let her take the lead, I fell back onto the bed, grinning wantonly at Luna. With a carnal need, she nuzzled her way into my fuzzy groin, hunting for something. Feeling her brush around, sent tingles through my pelvis. I had, as any man would, checked once or twice to see what my package looked like in this new body. But my crotch was one of the numerous areas on this body that was covered in dense fur. Also, I was fairly sure that my old penis had been replaced by a sheath. I had been around enough animals to know what that meant. There was no way to see what I was working with until it was ready to come out. Honestly, I never expected that I would be seeing it. But, oh man, feeling Luna’s head between my legs was getting me worked up.

Feeling a rush of blood to my pelvis and sensations from a limb that I had never perceived in this body, I pushed up against the bed and looked to a triumphant Luna, her eyes wild with lust-intoxication. And, firmly in her grip, my- damn. Like a stuffed bear, Luna had a girthy deer cock in her grip, one that was attached to me.

“Oh, ‘tis your member? We are glad that our bodies are not so incompatible.” Luna trilled, eying up her prize.

“It wasn’t”–I paused–“always like that.” Humming, I suggested, “maybe you can get me naked in one of your dream visits.” If we could find a way to get me to sleep naturally, anyways.

“We would like that,” Luna cooed, seemingly distracted by something. “But right now, we would prefer to get thine member nice and wet. Dry entrances are not nearly as pleasurable.”

Running along the length of my penis, Luna’s rough tongue started slathering saliva along the member, stimulating me all the while. Swirling her tongue, she was making sure to taste every inch of it. A low moan escaped me before I started shifting. There was no reason for this fun to not be mutual.

Luna, laying on her side, seemed surprised when I shimmied beside her. We were different species and this wasn’t a porno shoot. When I stuck my face in her sex, it wasn’t some high intensity two people above each other 69. Rather, it was just two people laying on their sides and enjoying the experience of exploring one another’s bodies.

Starting with a long lap against her labia, I moved on to suckling Luna’s clit, which she gave an appreciative hum for against my penis. It was interesting to look at the differences between a human and pony vagina. The shape was largely similar, but the ponies seemed puffier, more elongated, and had a large vulva. Furthermore, the small perky breasts that sat just above Luna’s vagina were near impossible to miss. But, feeling Luna’s hindlegs squirm against my assault on her clittoris, I decided that our two species were similar in all the ways that mattered.

A thin layer of pre had trickled out of my cock and Luna was busy applying it around the shaft with her tongue. For someone who had apparently had a thousand-year dry spell, she was doing incredible work with that mouth of hers. Looking up to me sultrily, she maintained eye contact while lathering my cock. God, that was doing it for me.

Her breath hitching, I felt Luna take in the heady musk of my cock one last time before pulling back from it. Giving one last sucking kiss to the nub of her clit, I leaned back and looked to Luna.

“Thou, ah, knowest what thou art doing with thine tongue,” Luna complimented breathlessly. “Thou could have finished us off and dealt with the changeling’s goo if we had let thee. But thine member is ready and we wouldst still like to feel thee inside.”

Using my chest as a wall, Luna pushed back from me with a forehoof and fell back against the headboard of her bed, leaning on her pillows. Wrapping her wings around her hind hoofs, she lifted them in the air, revealing her puffy pink sex to me. Holding herself in that supine position, tiny quivers shot through her legs while she waited for me to ravage her. Silky eyes watching me, Luna’s horn lit up and along the edge of her engorged sex, the vulva pulled back a bit and revealed her tempting depths.

“What art thou waiting for, Brian? Will our noble knight not ‘save the princess?’” Luna husked wantonly. Letting her magic ebb, the glow around her slick vagina faded and it snapped back to place, the fleshy mound jiggling slightly with the movement. When Luna smirked, I realised that she had seen my obsession with her sex.

Rather than shirk or try to fumble an explanation, I leaned into it. She knew I wanted her, I wanted her. Sinking a hand into the pillow beside her head, I loomed over Luna. My cock knocked at the entrance to her vagina. Biting her lip, Luna opened her mouth to tease me more. Instead, I pushed through her folds with a long thrust and Luna made a strangled noise of pleasure. My thrusts were slow and long. Pleasure was building up in me and I wanted to enjoy the moon princess for as long as I could.

After the third stroke, Luna’s wings puffed out against the bed and she pushed herself up to lock around my back, still impaled on my cock. Independently of me now, she was stroking my member with long, steady thrusts, as if savouring each one. Each time she slid back down my cock and my balls slapped against the twin moons of her ass, she seemed to grow more and more dishevelled.

“Oh BUCK, BUCK YES!” Luna shouted, throwing herself against my waist. We hadn’t been going long, but she was getting really into it. She was so deep in the motions that I didn’t even know how to move without killing the pace of her long strokes. On the tenth stroke, Luna let out an unintelligible, keening whine before her legs buckled and she fell back against the bed.

Ears perking up as if suddenly alert, Luna’s shaky legs flailed against the soft bed and she tried to stand up and turn around to face me, as if presenting herself.

“Are you okay?” I questioned quickly. I looked to Luna’s for some sign of discomfort, but she was hiding her face under that flowing mane of hers. Why had she stopped so soon? Gently, I continued, “did it hurt you at all?” Luna brought her head up and turned to me, lust burning in her eyes.

“To ask”–Luna panted hungrily–“if we were okay after that. Thou art terribly considerate towards us, Brian.”

Luna slid forward numbly, falling onto the bed with a tremble of her hindlegs. Her bubbly rear in full view, I could see her sopping pussy drooling all over the satin sheets. Vulgarly, her vagina’s lips twitched open and closed, as if winking at me.

“We had thought thy kind might cum more prominently,” Luna said penitently. “Apologies for our not pulling out after the fifth thrust, we know thou must still be sensitive. Thine glorious lance inside of us did feel so good, our body did not want to stop.”

She thought I would cum after five strokes? I mean, she felt good. No, she felt great. Sex with Luna was doing a lot for me, but I was still rearing to go, as evidenced by my rock-hard erection.

“We are sorry for being inconsiderate. Thou mustn’t think we usually go so far overboard or are some kind of sex-goddess,” Luna explained, panting and hanging her head forward.

“Luna.” I interjected, trying to draw her attention to my twitching sex.

“It is just that it has been over a thousand years, you see. We really-”

“Luna.” That snapped her out of it. The night princess looked towards me owlishly.

“I still haven’t cum yet,”–Luna’s eyes wandered down to the girthy erect cock by her sex, glistening from sexual juices, and she did her best impression of a fish–“so if you are happy to continue, I’m still ready to go.”

Luna was frozen, fixated on the twitching cock hovering over her vagina. Collecting in the corner of her mouth, I saw a bead of drool drip against the sheets, escaping her notice.

“What kind of stallion can–” Luna trailed off wordlessly, transfixed by the cock.

Independently of their head’s lust-drunk ramblings, Luna’s legs pried themselves wide once more, arousal running down the fur of her hindlegs. That was all the answer I needed. Clutching Luna tight, I shoved my tongue into her lolling mouth, wrestling in her mouth. Sucking on her tongue, I felt her jerk in my grip as my sex prodded at her drooling entrance. Out mouths still locked tightly to one another, she let out a muffled mewling cry as I thrust deeply back into her well lubricated vagina.

Eyes rolling up, Luna was shaky, almost unresponsive as I wrapped my legs around her hindhooves and started a vicious pounding assault on her pussy. As I flattened her G-spot, the most Luna could manage was desperate seductive begging for more when we left each other’s mouths for air. And the pounding continued and continued. I had no frame of reference for what a mare who expected no more than five thrusts was experiencing under the assault. But, if her incoherent ramblings and the violent shakes that periodically consumed her legs were any indication, she was having an above-average experience.

Feeling fire pooling in my abdomen, I pistoned harder and harder into Luna’s depths. My pace becoming varied, I was losing myself in the motions. A low groan ripping through my throat, it felt like shockwaves of electricity were shooting through my legs. One thrust, two thrusts, on the third, I buried myself deep inside her. Like a firehose had been turned on, I felt a torrent of cum flood into her waiting pussy. A wave of dizziness overtook me and I had trouble focusing on anything but the pleasure I felt, lodged inside the stunning mare beneath me.

“Fuck, Luna. I love you so much.” I hissed, instinct telling me to hilt as deep as I could while my seed was spread.

After a few seconds, the tide ebbed and I was left huffing deep breaths, a sheen of sweat covering my body. Gathering the presence of mind to look down at my lover, I saw that Luna was gone. Turned on her side, a look of utter contentment was held on Luna’s face. Chest rising softly with her breaths, soft exhalations puffed out of her cute little nose. Leaving my member lodged inside her, a soft trickle of cum dribbled out of Luna’s pussy as the steel-like rigidity left my penis.

[12345]

Settling in against Luna’s back in the big-spoon position, my arms snaked around her fuzzy barrel. I didn’t think I could sleep, but I definitely needed a moment. And, after catching a whiff of Luna’s cinnamon-like smell, there was nowhere I wanted to be more right now than by Luna’s side.