Ugh, I— what... what happened?

My mind floats through the sea of darkness around me, slowly rising to the surface of consciousness.

Gah, why does my head hurt so much? I— I've never had a headache this awful before.

The pervading silence gradually gives away to the distant sound of birds chirping, mixed in with the faint rustling of leaves in the wind. I become vaguely aware of my body lying on some sort of soft surface.

What is this? This doesn't feel like that cold stone floor of the library.

I carefully peek my eyes open, a small corner of my mind silently wishing to be greeted by the sight of my dorm room. Unfortunately, it seemed the morning wasn't finished with disappointing me just yet. Neither was it done surprising me apparently.

Huh? Where am I? This doesn't look anything like the castle's walls. This looks... well, actually normal for once, not all 'regal-y' or whatever.

No stone walls or lavish tapestries or massive paintings adorn the surroundings this time, though darkness still obscures much. Instead, the rather small room around me features a pretty modern-looking interior, like something I'd expect to see when visiting a friend's house back at home.

Back home... wait, am I—

I quickly look down across my body and am greeted by the unfortunately sight of an abundance of short, white fur.

Damn it... well, worth a shot.

I shake my head pretty hard to try and wake myself up properly, wincing though as a sharp bolt of blinding pain shoots down from my forehead. I shudder, sucking in a breath through my teeth and squeezing my eyes shut as I sense the throbbing pain make its way throughout my entire body. My forehead feels like it's on fire, like nothing I've ever felt before, even with my many years of reckless injuries playing soccer in high school.

I reach up to rub my head, but quickly halt myself before making the same mistake from earlier and smacking myself with the end of my hoof. I slowly bring my hoof closer to the center of the pain, but flinch when it hits solid material connected to my forehead.

My horn... is that what's hurting so much? I mean, I did run straight into that door when trying to escape Luna, but this pain feels different than that. Or, maybe this is how I was supposed to feel earlier and my adrenaline was blocking it out? Ugh, in either case, I probably should avoid moving my head around too much.

I slowly start to move to a seated position and wince as even more pain floods down my body. "Ugh..." I groan tiredly. "Can I get a fucking break yet? Wai—"

I pause as my ears once again register the voice of someone who is totally not me, and of the opposite sex. I roll my eyes. "I'm never getting used to this, am I? Maybe I should just pretend I'm using a voice changer?"

I take a look down and realize I'm sitting on a relatively small bed. Compared to the bed I woke up on earlier, this one is also much more standard-looking: just a bland, white mattress pad. I lean forward and look down, spotting a large, soft blue blanket laying crumpled on the floor beside the bed. Hmm, I must have kicked that off in my sleep.

My eyes widen. But I don't remember putting that on myself to begin with, someone else must have. Actually for that matter, how'd I even end up on this bed? Did... did someone really carry me here and tuck me in? I tense up briefly before relaxing. That's... really nice of them, whoever they are. Wait, what am I even doing here? How did I get here, this place looks nothing like the castle!

Feeling a little more confident in my mind's waking state, I turn my eyes around me to the room to properly inspect it. The room itself is rather dark, illuminated by a sliver of yellow light streaming through a crack in the door. With my eyes having adjusted to it, though, the room's details are much clearer now.

The bed is propped against the corner of the room, granting me a full view of the interior. Modest planks of dark wood make up the floor, with light green drywall wrapping all around the room. A small bedside table of lighter wood rests nearby with an old lamp sitting atop, and beside it, my golden crown. I blink and slowly shift my gaze to look behind the lamp. To my surprise, there doesn't seem to be any sort of power cable. Is this a... battery-powered lamp? Or, maybe it's just for decoration and doesn't work? I reach forward with a hoof towards the chain hanging from it, then pause as I remember my lack of fingers.

Okay, what's up with these designs, why is everything designed for hands when no one seems to have them?

Turning back to the room, I notice a large bookshelf much like the one back in Celestia's room, though a bit less ornate and also made of wood. The contents held within are a little messy too, with some shelves not fully filled, allowing books and loose papers to fall over each other in the empty space. To the right of the bookshelf, there's a short writing desk with another old lamp and a stand holding what looks like a small harp. More loose sheets of paper rest atop the desk.

As slow as I can muster, I force myself off the bed and onto all four legs. I wobble a little bit, feeling the blood rush to my brain and back, and my headache briefly intensifies before things settle down.

I take a step forward, and the wood below gives off an obnoxiously loud creak. I cringe and freeze up, half expecting someone to come barging in through the door. After many seconds though, no other sounds but the rustling of leaves outside pervade the air. I sigh in relief and walk over to the desk, giving the pages a look.

This is... sheet music. Very familiar clefs and notes dotted the papers. I recognize sharps and flats, crescendos, time signature, key signature. Four sharps, is that E major? Ew. And in 6/8 too, whoever is writing this is a complete menace. I examine it a little closer. Still... for an alien planet, this place has an awful lot of similarities to back home. I glance at the small harp. I know it has a different name, but I just can't place it. One of its strings appears to have snapped.

A chill breeze brushes against my left side, and I turn to see a half-open window. The curtains are drawn back, so I approach it cautiously in case of anyone spotting me. It looks like I'm on the second floor of this house, window facing a long field with sparse trees, blanketed in the dark of night.

After a few seconds, it registers to me that I've been subconsciously crouching. Oh, wow, this room is short. I turn to glance at the door behind me. Everything's a bit shorter than it was in the castle. Though... all those other ponies were much shorter than me too. Is the castle specifically built with my height in mind or something?

I face the window again and crouch lower, turning my gaze up to the sky. As before, the same unfamiliar starry sky greets my eyes, and I sigh tiredly. Can't I just wake up in my room already...

I stare up the stars some more, marveling at their beauty. Normally, such a sight would require a trip far out from any residential area because of the air and light pollution. To be able to see them from a house window... I feel my mouth curl into a faint smile.

I blink. Ugh, what am I doing, the other princess already knows I'm a fake. There's probably whole ass military force hunting me down right now! I whisk around and make for the door. Its round door knob elicits a scoff of annoyance from me, so I carefully slip the tip of my hoof into the crack of the door and gently pull it open. The room is bathed in yellow light, the source of which happening to be right where my dark-adjusted eyes had been staring at.

Ack! Damn it. I shake my head and stare at the wood floorboards for a few seconds, letting my eyes adjust to the light, then glance around. A wall sits on my left, donning a standard wall lamp and a large, framed photograph of two smiling ponies. One is a mint-colored unicorn with a light green mane, and the other is a yellow mare with a purple and blue mane. I glance at her forehead and side, failing to spot the usual wings or horn. So some ponies can't either fly or use magic? Damn. Or maybe there's another way that I just can't see. Anyways, I guess this house must belong to these two? Where are they?

On my right is a hallway leading to two doors. My instincts tell me it's probably another bedroom and a bathroom. Besides, the doors are closed. I glare at their obnoxious, rounded door knobs in frustration before facing forward. A balcony and stairs leading downstairs lie before me. I approach the edge and peer down, my sights narrowing in on what has to be the front door. It's shut as well, but thankfully the handle looks a bit like those elegant, longer ones from the castle that I can push on to rotate.

I make for the stairs immediately, but I freeze right on the edge as a realization strikes me. What... what is running going to do for me now? What am I supposed to do? If I manage to escape Luna and the guards, what then? Do I keep running and hiding, living on the streets?

I— I can't even do that either... This is... this is the body of this nation's princess. Or at least, one of them. Everyone knows who I'm supposed to be, and pretty soon, everyone will know who I really am once Luna emergency broadcasts this news on national TV or something. I can't hide from everyone, and I certainly can't hide out in a forest, not with these... hooves. Our opposable thumbs are the second best thing going for us, and now I don't even have those!

I turn around and gaze back into the bedroom, my eyes shifting to the bedside table where my golden crown rests. I let loose a breath I didn't realize I was holding in.

And besides, I just... I just can't do that. I shouldn't. I'm supposed to be one of this country's rulers. I don't know where the real Princess Celestia is, but she's certainly not here right now. I already know my home would descend into madness if our president just suddenly disappeared, and we don't even rely on him to apparently raise the fucking sun, if I were to interpret that literally.

I have to go back somehow. Maybe I was brought here by some secret government program of theirs, which would mean they'd be my only way of getting home. And maybe they could figure out where Celestia herself really is. But Luna looked like she was ready to end me on the spot.

I feel my ears droop to the side of my head as my gaze blankly falls to the floor. I don't know what to do...

I turn back around and look down the stairs, covered in the same varnished wood as the floor. There's a wooden railing along the edge, but what use they are for creatures that walk on all fours is completely beyond me. The more I look down, the higher it seems to get. I just barely got used to walking with hooves normally today, and now I gotta deal with stairs too??

I take a deep breath and tentatively lift my right foreleg, inching it at a snail's pace over the first step. My back legs are, well, further back, so I'm inevitably going to be leaning forward a whole lot once both my front legs hit the stairs. I think one of my forelegs will have to be two steps down for me to even bring my hind legs forward, ugh.

I keep my foreleg hovering there for probably a whole minute, trying to calculate all the possible ways to not break my neck on the way down. Maybe if I try going down sideways? That'll still risk me tipping over and falling on my side. I glance downwards to my left side. And I don't know how fragile these wings are. Oh! Maybe if I go down backwards, so my center of gravity isn't leaning forward. I'm pretty sure that's how I went down stairs as a baby, right? I turn around and—

A door clicks open.

My eyes widen and I instinctively stumble backwards, only for my back legs to hit nothing but air. "Shit!" I yelp as my balance goes straight out the window. The world spins around me as I'm sent tumbling painfully down the stairs, hitting every step along the way. Even as my head and legs and sides bang against the floor, wall, and railing, I can't help but let a single silly thought slip through my brain.

Thank god these stairs aren't marble like the castle's floors.

Finally, I crash down at the base of the stairs with all four legs completely flailed out, my sight blurry and spinning, but thankfully not filled with any golden, pearly gates in the clouds. "Ugh... at least it was quick..." I shake my head and lift it slightly.

In the entrance of the front door stands the same mint-colored unicorn from the earlier photo, her wide, golden eyes transfixed on my own. Her horn glows with a faint, golden light. and what looks like a filled, paper bag hovers beside her, wrapped in the same colored aura. She stares at me, unmoving, her mouth frozen open mid-gasp.

I stare back at her.

She stares back at me.

I stare back at her.

She stares back at me.

I stare back at her.

She stares back at me.

I blink.

"Princess!" She cries out, snapping out of her trance. The door behind her briefly glows as well before slamming shut behind her. The paper bag floats onto a nearby table as she rushes over to me. She reaches out to me, but pauses hesitantly. "I— uh—" She drops into a hasty bow like the guard from before did, then comes closer and offers a hoof, much like someone offering a hand. I stare at it for a second before reaching for it with my own. Her hoof curls tightly around mine in a manner not like how any hoof should curl, but it gives me the anchor to pull myself to a seated position on my haunches. She looks at me in concern."Are— are you alright?"

I scoff. "No." My eyes widen as I notice her flinch slightly, realizing I might have put too much into that. "Sorry, it's been a rough morning for me already."

She tilts her head in confusion. "But... the morning hasn't started. You... haven't raised the sun yet, Princess."

Again with the sun, so casually too. It makes absolutely no sense, but maybe Princess Celestia really can raise the sun. At this point, I don't know what to believe anymore, I just got attacked by my apparent sister who can fly and throw giant beams of energy around like out of a comic book. With my head no longer spinning, I look down at the unicorn before me and realize that I am, in fact, looking down at her. She's small. Everyone's small. Even sitting down, she's shorter than me. She'd probably come up to my stomach normally. And look how big her eyes are. Can I pe—

"Princess? What's going on? And... why are you looking at me like that?"

I blink. "Oh, shoot, sorry. Got a bit lost in my thoughts. Um..." I glance around again at the cozy little home I've found myself in. "So... how did I get here?"

Her eyes widen and her body tenses up. "Princess, I promise you, I had nothing to do with it!" She begins to sputter out. "I have no idea wha—"

"Woah woah woah!" I interrupt, raising my forelegs up comfortingly. "Calm down, you're not in trouble or... whatever. I just want to know how I got here. In your house."

"Oh... okay." She sighs in relief and visibly relaxes. "That's what I was saying, though, I don't know. An hour ago, I was practicing my lyre downstairs when you teleported straight into my living room. And it wasn't even a normal teleport like when Twilight does it. It was so bright and loud, and it sort of... pushed everything away. Including me. Hard." She rubs one of her forelegs.

I wince. "Uh, sorry," I mutter guiltily. Ah, so it's called a lyre. Wait, why am I focusing on that, did she just say I teleported?! And that someone else can do it too? This place just keeps getting crazier and crazier.

Seeming to not hear me, she continues. "I thought it was some monster attack, but when I saw it was you, I freaked out even more! I mean, the sun still wasn't up for almost an hour past the normal time, again, and then you of all ponies suddenly just appear in my house?! And you looked all beat up too, I was so worried! So I cleaned you up a little bit, then moved you upstairs to my bedroom. I waited a while for you to wake up, but eventually I started to get hungry and... I had forgotten to restock the pantry, so I left the hallway light on for you and went to get groceries. Thankfully a few ponies decided to open their stands early anyway. Or... not early, but just at the usual time, even with it still dark out. Then I... came home to you at the bottom of the stairs."

"I—" I begin, but pause, not sure where to start. "Thanks. For helping me." I smile at her, and that seems to warm her up a little. "Uhm... what might your name be?"

"Hmm?" She tilts her head. "Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings? I— I was one of your students at your school. I was one of Twilight's earlier friends before she moved here?"

Twilight. Twilight. Twilight Sparkle? My, uh, 'faithful student' from that letter, right? "Ah, yes, sorry, it must have slipped my mind?" Lyra blinks. I'm doing my best here, give me a break, eesh. A thought occurs to me, though. "Why didn't you tell anybody about me? You know, about the missing princess in your house?"

She shrinks a little. "I, uh, probably should have, right?" She smiles sheepishly, then looks down with a sigh. "Sorry, I just, I dunno. I guess I was scared somepony would think I had something to do with it, like I kidnapped you. I mean, the sun staying down for way longer than normal, and then you magically turn up unconscious in my living room?! I don't think anypony would buy that, and I... didn't want to risk it. I'm sorry, Princess."

"No no, you're fine." I wave off with a hoof. "I don't think I would've risked it either, to be honest." After several seconds of silence, I turn back to her. She stares at me with a perplexed look, her head tilted. "Uh... what?"

"You sound... different."

My eyes widen. Immediately, I feel my heart race again. Is my real voice coming out somehow? That can't be, I don't sound anything like myself."Um... in what way?"

"Your voice is different." Lyra continues, standing up. She takes a step back, looking a little more worried than before. "Well, no, your voice is fine. But... the way you're talking right now. It's too... casual. I've never heard you talk like this before, even when it was just you and Twilight."

Really? Same thing with Luna, again? How am I supposed to mimic the speech of someone who I have no idea how they normally talk to begin with?!

"Sorry, I'm just tir—" I begin, but freeze. What the heck am I doing? Am I really going to try to keep the charade up with this random pony when the other half of this country's ruling body is well aware of the truth already? And is probably sending guards after me as we speak? What would the point be in the long run, I'm already caught. And I hate having to constantly lie. Ugh.

I can't do this anymore.

"Fuck it."

She blinks. "Wha— huh?"

I sigh. "I'm not her."

"What do you mea—"

"I'm not Princess Celestia."

Author's Note

Sorry for the heavily delayed chapter! I was getting heavily blocked by work combined with many other things stressing me out.

With many of them handled, we are back!! I'll be returning to my original 1-2 week schedule! I also might release/start another fic that's been hanging in my mind, but that's still up in the air haha. Woooo!