Midlife Crisis

Twilight pressed a book against my side. "Pinkie won't be finished right away, so..."

I took the book, or rather, I tried to take the book. "Okay, seriously."

I gave up the attempt. "Show me how to hoof properly. This can't be how people around here work." I pawed at Twilight. "This is only good for maybe hitting someone and I don't want to do that."

Twilight's horn lit up as she took both hooves and drew them close enough to look them over from up close. "They appear to be in good... condition." She released them. "You are just entirely unfamiliar with them. A foal would figure this out during their first year of life. Technically, we're in that right now, pony-speaking."

I shook my head, not to argue, but because an ear swiveled and that felt funny. I was not used to having a pony body just yet. "Well, that gets tricky. I bet you don't really 'teach' little kids things they all figure out on their own."

"Lucky for you--" She put aside the first book and brought a second book flying over with her magic. "Sometimes, a foal needs a helping hoof, and we've made helpful books for parents to use with them, to get over such little problems. Usually, a little guidance is all you need for the foal to go on with a happy life."

"It's strange for me too." Spike chuckled softly, looming over it all. "Glad I have hands." He flexed his powerful digits. "The better option, if you ask me."

I snorted at the admittedly accurate observation, rather pleased at how readily I was picking up typical equine vocalizations. "Easy for you to say, oh mighty dragon. But I suppose relearning basic motor skills is going to happen when one changes species."

Taking the children's book in hoof, awkwardly, I had to laugh self-deprecatingly. "Never thought I'd be back to early reader fare, but desperate times and all that."

The illustrations made grasping the fine intricacies of proper hoof positioning much easier. And Twilight's attentive guidance as I slowly went through the motions proved just as valuable. Her light telekinetic touches helped me find the balance points and weight distributions natural quadrupedal gaits relied on that bipeds didn't need to worry about.

In between practice toe touches, head scratches with added wrist flick, and other foundational maneuvers, I joked about adding occupational therapy to Twilight's myriad magical specialties. But my sincerity shone through the humor - her caring patience providing a safe space to fumble unjudged through such a vulnerable growth process was a precious gift.

As basic grasps, trots, and canters began feeling less alien, I found myself embracing life's simple joys discovered by a foal but forgotten by most adults blinded by expectations of dignity - joy like a body free of chronic pains liberated into playing the fool without shame or hesitation before dear, understanding friends.

That I could close the book, knowing I could open it again later, was a moment of resplendent joy. "Thank you... That... actually wasn't all that bad." I opened and closed the book again, to show I could, and to practice. "You know, I practiced this a while."

I cocked up my right brow at Twilight.

She returned the gesture. "Not everyone can do that. You practiced it specifically?"

"Specifically," I echoed at her. "Worth the time and effort. Now I practice this." I held up the book, actually able to hold it properly. "This is already better... Twilight, even if I complain, and I will, I want to be clear I'm happy." I stood up, balancing awkwardly on three legs. "This pony body has a lot to learn, but it works. My old one was not, increasingly."

Twilight snatched the book with her magic and sent it flying back to wherever it came from. "I meant to ask. I couldn't tell... alien and all... but what stage of development were you in?"

"Age wise?" I lowered the freed hoof. "Middle-aged. I doubt our years are the same length, so I won't bore you with that."

I tapped my new chin thoughtfully trying to approximate equivalencies. "I suppose in pony terms I was somewhere between a mature adult stallion with a good chunk of life behind me but still a few decades ahead health permitting..."

I trailed off realizing with mildly dizzying implications that timetables had possibly reset with this improbable transformation. Heck, by Equestrian gauges I might now stand before them with a blank foal's slate!

Noticing Twilight scrutinizing me anew, I hastily waved a hoof. "Of course I still have all my prior memories and stuff in there either way! Just suddenly find myself lacking, uh, certain telltale markings of advancing age if you take my meaning..."

I coughed, feeling a touch self-conscious under such an inquisitive magical gaze. Still, rejuvenation had its perks, and second chances waited for no pony. Straightening, I met Twilight's eyes with building excitement at the newfound horizons spread out before these youthful hooves!

"I was about to bring that up." Twilight reached out, trailing a hoof along my front. "You are a young adult pony. You're not even finished growing, technically... Legally an adult." She tapped at her chin. "Considering there's an adult mind in there, double the reason to not worry about that. Still... It's a pony body. Human mind or not, it's stewing in our hormones. What I mean is..." She grabbed a fresh book and pushed it into my chest. "You may want to read that."

"Approaching Pony Maturity," read the front of the book. It was a book about pony puberty, starting from later foalhood right on through young adulthood. I flipped through the pages curiously. My newly functional hooves let me do that, slowly, perusing the diagrams of young colts and fillies experiencing the various changes that came with such developments.

Twilight's magic encased the book as she flipped rapidly ahead. "This."

That proved to be about hormonal changes and how that might affect the behavior of a pony. I was just old enough for a young stallion to start looking at mares. I'd get urges to do what stallions did. I might get into fights with other stallions.

The book was swift to note that generally well-behaved stallions are unlikely to get into any real fights, but it was just a sensitive time where emotions were very easy to set off. "Oh..."

Pony puberty! I was in it... "Oh... Um, sorry." I looked up at Twilight, examaning her. I didn't know nearly enough about pony anatomy to even guess. "What life stage are you in?"

"I'm an adult." She nodded firmly. "Just a step or two past that." She pointed to the book in my hooves. "I don't know how long a human year is, so I can't translate, sorry.

I was an 18-young 20 year old pony. Twilight was a later 20 to early 30 year old pony. Relatively? "I get it..."

My cheeks flushed with sudden self-conscious heat as the abrupt reminder of just what fresh biological cocktail now coursed through my new equine shape drove home. Part of me was alright with that. I wasn't actually a kid. I understood what was going on in there, and having a young body again? Worth it.

I could already envision awkward cracks in composure and judgment fueled by inopportune wanderings of the eye. At least Twilight's graceful maturity would provide reasonable counterbalance to such foalish impulses...I hoped.

I would have to hope that this Twilight, like the original, was a gentle and caring soul. "Forgive me if I do anything stupid, alright? If I do, grab a paper, roll it up, and bop me one. I'll know I did something dumb then."

Spike laughed softly. "Wow... I kinda like this guy. That's a mature take on it."

Clearly consciousness transcended simple chemistry. For whatever inexplicable reason, she still only registered as the caring scholar faithfully guiding me rather than eliciting anything so base as carnal appraisals. Then again, my sex drive was already screwed up. I barely looked at anything as a viable target, and that didn't change, even with young hormones. Was that more of a foul-up with my personality and mental makeup?

I met Twilight's eyes again easily. "Apologies for the awkwardness... I'll do my best not to make this strange." I craned my head up towards Spike. "I don't think this really applies to you."

Spike snickered at that. "I doubt it, unless you're into that kinda thing? Not my speed."

Was I just shot down by Spike? "Technically, as a human, I was bisexual, Demisexual, and operated as an a-sexual."

Twilight tapped her hooves with each word. "You can be all of those sexual things at once? That would drive me to distraction!"

Spike casually brushed Twilight aside. "This is not her specialty. She has no idea what you just said. Let me break that down."

Twilight huffed at Spike. "Please... And no pushing."

"Bisexual, David likes mares and stallions. Demisexual--" Spike counted on a large finger as he went. "David only gets interested in people he's already very familiar with." A last finger went out. "A-sexual, He doesn't get that interested, but that could just be being demi, uh... What about your friends?"

"I didn't have any friends I could reach out and touch." I turned an ear back. "It's complicated... But assume I didn't, so no friends, so nothing to Demi on, so Ace."

"Makes sense to me." Spike shrugged, understanding it all easily. "With us, Twi?"

"Mostly..." Twi cocked a brow. "Does that mean, as you get to know us, you may later find you're attracted to us?"

My face heated. "Technically, yes... Could... happen." A small part of me admitted, if Twilight made the first move, I'd be terribly unlikely to deny her. I'd just be very, very awkward... Wait, was that pony hormones talking?

I shuffled a hoof self-consciously as we moved past the awkwardness. While pony maturity clearly came bundled with its own quirks, I trusted Twilight to steer me right if lines risked getting crossed.

Glancing around the cozy library space, I felt suddenly curious about my new mentor's living situation. "So Twilight, do you live here alone or with family?"

She smiled, levitation-tidying a few piles of scattered books and scrolls. "Oh it's just been Spike and myself since we moved to Ponyville to oversee local issues, starting with running this library."

She took a deep, cleansing breath. "I never had a chance to oversee the development of a young pony, also an alien or not. It is a pleasure to fix that."

Spike snorted softly. "Don't listen to her. She just likes trying new things with books." He leaned in, breath warm like standing near an oven. "If you need an escape, let me know."

I reached up and hovered my hoof. Spike didn't resist, so I closed the space to touch him under his chin and feel his scales. They were warm, less hot than his breath, but warm to the touch and very soft and smooth. Like a snake, a very warm snake, that had wings and could set things on fire. "Wow."

Spike perked with a laugh. "Dragons are pretty great. I'm sure, uh, humans was it? I'm sure they had things going on."

Twilight twirled on Spike. "This one." She pointed at me. "Can see other worlds! They can see things they never actually encountered. They can see things they had never even imagined before that very moment!"

I chuckled self-consciously as Twilight extolled my supposed singular talent, now feeling rather ordinary under the crushing weight of her words. "Well I wouldn't say THAT exactly...sure I loved imagining and describing fantastical settings, but that's not quite the same as physically stepping into entirely new realities..."

I reached to stroke Spike's warm scales again, finding comfort in their solid yet soothing texture that assured me at least some wonders here were no mere abstraction. "Maybe unconsciously my writer's eye for envisioning has the tiniest gap to peek through," I allowed. "But nothing compared to a true unicorn's raw magical gifts like yours!"

The front door exploded open. "It's party time!" shouted a voice from outside.