Yawn

I could feel the light penetrating my eyelids, light caressing them gently as I snuggle again in my bed sheets. I felt half awake. I don't remember keeping the blinds up yesterday. Maybe I did? I always have them down though. Something felt different, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was, but I was all so tired yesterday night anyway, so I somewhat brushed it off. A few more minutes of sleep I suppose. I really shouldn't think about it too much. I still feel somewhat tired. May as well get this morning drowsiness over with a bit more sleep. But this weird feeling... what could it be?

I tried to open my eyes, the sunlight blinding me as I forced them open. I swayed my head away from the dazzling light. I remembered... I definitely did not have my blinds open last night. I roll over to the right so my eyes would be out of the sunlight. A few seconds pass so my eyes recovered from being blinded, and I try opening them again. They were barely open, and my vision was a bit blurry, but I could still see without too many issues.

This isn't my home. Am I in a dream? The bookshelves, the wooden floor, it seems familiar. This definitely is not my room. Maybe I am in a dream, but if that were the case, this one feels real. Is this what a lucid dream feels like? This place is awfully recognisable to me. And the scent too, it was earthy, but the bed sheets had a subtle sweetness to it. Those carved bookshelves. Is this... the Golden Oak Library?

The drowsiness faded little by little. I rolled to the other side, squinting as to not be blinded by the harsh sunlight.

'Whaa.. T... Twilight?' I blurted out in surprise. That is Twilight, sleeping sound... I hope I didn't wake her up. This was no doubt the Golden Oak Library. Wasn't this place destroyed in season 4? I looked at Twilight. She looked cuter in person than in the show, much cuter in fact.

Twilight twitched a little... Did she hear my utterance? Now that I think of it, that wasn't my voice... It sounded much higher pitched, but still soothing. As I was thinking, Twilight gave off a subtle yawn, slowly opening her eyes as she faced me head on.

'What in Equestria?' She bellowed, suddenly thrashing her wings as she tried to make sense of the situation. 'What are you doing in my bed?'

She was instantly awake from my presence as it seemed. I was lost for words. How would I explain such an awkward situation? What would Twilight think of me? Those wings... I guess chronologically speaking, I'm in season 4.

'I... I...'

Words were not coming out of my mouth.

'I don't know.' I muttered.

'What do you mean you don't know!' Twilight exclaimed, hardly believing my words.

'I just happened to wake up here, I have no idea why though.' I answered, trying to stabilise the situation.

I tried to get out of the bed, climbing out, but something felt completely off. I looked down to realise I had... Hooves?

'I... I'm a pony?' I muttered, confused on the floor.

I realised still have that hoodie I was wearing from yesterday. It even has some bits of cheeto dust littered on it too.

'Yeah, obviously you're a pony.' Twilight answered. 'Have you lost your memory? You're a unicorn!'

She sat on the bed, looking down adamantly into my eyes. I tried to at least sit on the floor, scrambling to stay upright. This was weird. Not a sensation I've ever felt in my life. Stay calm... just... Stay calm.

'I'm... probably not supposed to be here, am I?' I asked.

'Of course not! You're sleeping next to me! You know how unexpected it is to wake up to some random pony sleeping right next to you in the same bed?' Twilight responded in an angry voice.

'I... I'm sorry...' I sulked.

What did Twilight say... I am a unicorn? I brought my hooves up, looking at myself. I just had my dark grey hoodie on, but not the sweatpants. My legs... they were a very light grey, and same with my hooves. I suppose that's the colour of my coat. I lifted my right foreleg up above my head, touching my horn. Rock solid, as expected. I then turned my head around, peering behind to see a bright chestnut coloured tail with a pastel rainbow streak.

Hang on... Where's my butt symbol? I'm a blank flank?

'Are you ok? You seem confused,' Twilight asked, this time, different from before. She wasn't cross anymore, this time more settled down.

'I'm ok,' I answered. This dream was all too real. Now that I think of it, is this even a dream? 'Twilight... I don't know why I'm here. I was just sleeping in my bed, at my home, and I just woke up here, next to you. Am I dreaming?'

'I am 100% certain you're not dreaming, and I don't know how you got here either. Let's hope it's not one of Rainbow Dash's silly pranks.'

Wait... this isn't a dream. No. That's what they always say. There was no way that this could be real. I'm a human, not a pony! Equestria isn't even real! It's just a fictional world! Something wasn't right though... maybe the pinch test would check whether I am still asleep or awake, but I had hooves. Maybe if I tried using both hooves to create a small pinch spot on my rear leg... Ouch! This is real alright... Wait! This is real?

'B... But that's not possible... This is a made up world... By Lauren Faust...' I muttered in disbelief.

'Do you want something to drink? Maybe something to eat? I've never seen your face in Ponyville, are you new here?' Twilight asked. She didn't seem to notice me saying anything, at least I hope she didn't.

'Yes, to the food,' I responded. 'You could say I'm new here.'

'Oh, what would you like? A daisy sandwich? Muffins? What about some of Pinkie's cupcakes?'

'Pinkie's cupcakes? They sound rather tasty...'

'I've never asked, but what's your name?'

I panicked for a quick second. A name? I never thought about that... I can't use the name Riley here.

Reasons
1. That's a human name.
2. That's a (mostly) male name. I've been Rule 63'd.
3. May as well assume a new name, since I'm a pony.

'Distant Haze,' I replied. What a boring name... On second thought, I should've named myself something, lets say, 20% cooler... Something like Fizzle Pop Berry Twist, but that's already taken, nor should I assume the name of a background pony like ~~Colgate~~ Minuette.

'Just call me Hazel.'

Actually, that kinda works. My coat's somewhat close enough to the colour of a distant misty haze of a winter forest, and hazel's close enough to the colour of my mane and tail. Cool, I suppose that all works out in the end, and it's also a human name as well. Double win!

'That's a pretty name,' Twilight said, this time in a neutral to borderline cheerful voice. 'I'll be heading downstairs, come along.'

Thank goodness, or else I'd probably be banished to the moon... No, that would be too extreme. Now that I think of it, something else has been bugging me a bit. This hoodie's been a bit uncomfortable, especially as it drapes on my back. It felt like it was catching on something, and restricting some kind of movement. I should take this thing off before I go downstairs, but I don't have hands as of now. Ah, I know! Magic! I tried to focus on my horn, imagining picking up the bottom of my hoodie, but nothing... Not even a spark was emitted. I turned to using my hooves instead, trying to get under the bottom of the hoodie so I can pull it over my head. A little while of fumbling turned out to be a great success. Operation: Take off my hoodie is a success.

A sudden wave of freedom embraced me. Something felt super breezy. I turned back once again, this time in shock. W... Wings? I... I'm an alicorn!?

Cream coloured, radiant alicorn wings. I sat there in shock. Out of anything I could've been turned into, I'm an alicorn... Am I supposed to be some kind of princess? No. Absolutely not. Twilight didn't even recognise me at first... And looking at my stature, I'm no bigger than Twilight herself. I'm seemingly just an average mare, who happens to have both a horn and a pair of wings. Still, I have achieved freedom. I slowly unfolded them, holding the tip of my left wing with my hooves. These feathers... So soft and so luscious, subtly iridescent in the morning sunlight.

'Are you coming down?' Twilight shouted from downstairs, still setting up the table.

'Uuh, yes,' I answered loudly, 'be there in a bit.'

Should I tell her I'm an alicorn now, or hide it? Should I be honest about everything? Or should I just keep it a secret? I... I don't know. Curse you brain, why aren't you working? Regardless of trying to hide it or not, I had no idea how to put that hoodie back on without using that useless horn of mine.

'Huh?' exclaimed Twilight in disbelief, 'Y... You're an alicorn?'

I jerked back, trying to fold up my wings and knocking myself over into the bookshelf behind me as I created a gush of wind in front of me. Teardrops formed as I turned over, sobbing into my forelegs. Those were not tears of joy, those were tears of despair. What would Twilight say? Of course there's no fifth alicorn in Equestria. Such a great moment, being able to physically see Twilight, but now, all seemed to be lost to me.

A sudden warmth embraced me. I opened up my eyes, looking up to see Twilight wrapping her wing around me.

'You should go downstairs and eat some of those cupcakes, they'll definitely cheer you up,' She assured. 'We can talk about everything once you feel better.'

Thank God... No... Thank Celestia that she's not cross or even questioning my existential circumstances. I could see in her eyes and her sweet expression that she only wanted to help, even after that initial feud.

Twilight, you are the bit of magic I needed in my life.

I tried to stand up, wings spread out to try compensate for the lack of balance. My humanly bipedal instincts kicked in, making me stand on only my hind legs. My wings and forelegs were fully spread, trying to keep balance, but alas, success was not achieved, leaning too far forward to keep my balance. Thankfully, my hooves hit the ground gracefully. A minor wave of embarrassment flowed through me, causing me to blush ever so slightly.

Something about being on all four legs felt... oddly comfortable. Still, it felt alien to me, but I could get used to this, I hope, but there was an obstacle in my path. Those... Stairs. 'Composure,' I thought, 'Composure.' I put my right foreleg forward, stepping onto the first pair of stairs, and then my hind legs. It was a bit wobbly at first, but it felt oddly natural to be walking like this. I suppose it's something with the physiology of being a pony. Alas, I walked down the stairs one at a time, slowly but steadily, getting more and more familiar with this new pony body of mine.

As I approached the bottom, the table was in full view, along with all the books that were littered around the library. Ah, the nostalgia of the Golden Oak Library. It just felt so homely, and so inviting, the earthy, wooden smell stronger at the bottom. No wonder Twilight got sick of the castle in Castle Sweet Castle. There is such a nice, warm aura here. The table was set up neatly by Twilight... and those rainbow cupcakes...

Twilight followed, walking up to the table, telling me to sit down opposite her. It was a small table and all, but it suited the environment quite well. I slowly walked up, eyeballing the cupcakes. They. Looked. Delectable. Sitting down, I nearly rolled back, barely saving it by instinctively using my wings to regain my balance. Having these wings is quite nice honestly, odd as it seemed at first.

Now, for the tricky part... How am I supposed to eat these cupcakes. I don't have hands, so I can't really grab them, but maybe with two hooves I could at least somewhat grab them. I grabbed one with both my hooves, but it was somewhat slipping. I don't think I'm using enough pressure to hold onto it, but any more than that, it would squish these cupcakes. Still, I persevered, using a slight bit more pressure to hold the cupcake, bringing it up to my mouth. Biting in, all I could taste was sugar. Sweetness was overloading my taste buds. Typical Pinkie I suppose...

'You know you have a horn, right,' Twilight remarked, pointing to her own horn.

'I don't know how to use magic.' I answered, 'Or else I would be using it already.'

'I can try to teach you how to at least levitate things. Every unicorn should be able to do it.'

'Oh, thanks, so how do I do it?'

'Well, I don't really know. It's very natural to me since I've been studying magic for a good chunk of my life, but when I first started out, my parents said to focus on something, and imagine it following where you look,' she explained, effortlessly levitating her sandwich.

'Focus and imagination... I got it.'

I may as well try it on a cupcake. Remembering what Twilight said, I glared at the second cupcake, imagining it floating. A heard a small spark being emitted, and a faint white aura around the cupcake, but it wasn't levitating. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough? I concentrated on the cupcake, thinking of nothing but it floating. This time, a more intense, golden aura enveloped the cupcake, and it worked. It was levitating. First magic lesson: Success. However, it drained the energy out of me, causing me to drop the cupcake onto the floor. Still, Twilight was softly clapping her hooves, happy at me for performing magic for the first time.

'Great work Hazel,' she cheerfully applauded, but she turned into a more serious tone. 'But, since you're an alicorn, you will need to learn to control your magic too, there is no knowing how much magic potential you have.'

'I can barely levitate anything, what makes you think I have all this magic potential?'

'Well, you just started learning magic, right? Or relearning magic, though I've never known of any unicorn who has forgotten how to use magic.'

'True true.'

'Anyhow, we alicorns embody the characteristics and magic of all three pony tribes: The earth ponies, the pegasi, and the unicorns. You should have much more magic potential than a normal unicorn.'

'Not surprising,' I commented, already knowing this information. After all, I've watched this show for the past 10 years, but still, hearing Twilight explain it to me personally is something to die for.

Third cupcake is the charm I suppose, focusing on the last cupcake that laid before me. This time, getting that golden aura to envelop the cupcake was considerably easier, though still slightly strenuous. I started to imagine it slowly floating towards me. I started to concentrate on the cupcake less and less, instead focusing on the direction of where it was floating towards. I opened my mouth up wide, trying to catch the floating cupcake mid air. I bit into it, the sweetness of success rushing into my mouth. The cupcake remained floating, this time without me thinking about it. Have I mastered levitation already? If so, that was quick... way too quick.

I slowly levitated the rest of the cupcake back onto the table with a very wide smile on my face. It was the smile of success. Still, I knew I had a long way to go with magic. After all, the only magic I know is levitation.

'So, I woke up hearing some pony shout my name, was that you Hazel?'

'Uh, yeah? I mean, I was a bit shocked seeing you up so close and all... I was just surprised, like you were as well...'

'Oh, yeah, sorry about me freaking out as well, surprises can really startle any pony I guess. Were you not a pony before you woke up today?'

'You could say something like that, I suppose.'

'So... Hazel, where are you from?'

'I don't really know,' I replied, stuttering... How am I supposed to answer a question like that?

It would just be better to keep my mouth shut about the real human world. Anything I say now may have Twilight questioning her existentialism. My heart started to palpitate, each second passing as if it were an eternity. Even though this is just an imaginary, false reality, it is still real. I know it.

'Do you not remember where you came from?'

Should I lie? Yes. Honesty will not work in a moment like this.

'No, I don't really.'

'Oh...' Twilight sighed. 'Have you maybe lost your memory?'

Sorry Twilight, I just can't say anything about my world. I do not want you to open Pandora's Box, and I can't just say that I'm from a dimension where you are just a character from a cartoon show made for girls.

'I'm not sure. I don't particularly remember anything before today.'

Alas, I tried to levitate the remaining half of the cupcake, this time somewhat naturally. I didn't have to focus to levitate it anymore, but I need some practice with spatial awareness and coordination. I tried to peel the wrapper off. Slowly does it. As the cupcake separated from the wrapper, I levitated slowly towards my mouth, biting the cupcake whole. Magic.

'Twilight, thanks for the cupcakes!'

'No problem, it's the least I can do,' Twilight replied, this time with a cheerful tone.

'Thank you, Twilight.'

'I know you might not remember, but are you by any chance from another world? I'm just too curious.' she asked curiously, rubbing her hoof on the ground in a small circle.

'Yes, but I don't know anything about that world. I just know that I'm not from this world.' I answered, noticing Twilight's slight disappointment.

'And you magically appeared in my bed, out of anywhere... That's odd. I do know of another world, but the portal only opens every 30 moons, and only through that portal you can travel between the worlds.'

Ah, the mirror portal from Equestria Girls. I know a certain mint coloured pony who would like to jump through that portal...

'But you appeared out of nowhere. I don't know of anything like that happening to my knowledge. Actually, how do you know my name if you lost your memories?' She added.

'I'm not too sure, I don't particularly know how I do. I don't think all my memories seem to have been forgotten. I still remember my name, and I do remember sleeping in bed yesterday night, just not here.'

But the truth is, I remember everything. Twilight, sorry for the lack of honesty.

'Well, I do know a little about memory erasing magic, but I don't know of any ways to recover wiped memories. Either it was due to magic or somehow you forgot everything.'

Twilight was thinking hard, hoof on her chin. 'I'm afraid there's no way I can think of to help you regain your memories.'

'Oh...'

Well, that's not really an issue, is it? It didn't feel great to be lying to Twilight, but I gotta do what you have to do to keep secrets secret. Existentialism really is one hard topic to process... Especially now, am I living in reality, or am I living in imagination?

'I suppose you don't have anywhere to stay for the night, right?'

'What makes you think I do?'

'You can stay here with me for a while if you'd like. I can set up a small bed for you upstairs next to mine. You don't snore, do you?'

'I dont think so...'

'Just be sure that there will be a small dragon who also stays here. His name is Spike. He's my number one assistant. Actually, he's my only assistant.'

Ah, that small purple dragon. Why did I forget about him? Maybe it's because of his lack of presence for now. I'm going to take a wild guess and say he's going gem hunting with Rarity, or doing morning errands. I don't know what time it is exactly right now, but judging from what I saw upstairs, the sun was quite high up in the sky, probably late morning. Twilight doesn't seem to be the kind of pony to sleep in late... Maybe it's just a characteristic of how the day-night cycle works here.

'I'll be in your care. Thank you, Twilight.' I answered, trying hard to keep in tears of joy.

Author's Note

I just had to write about the Golden Oak Library, just to pay homage to it. It's still my favourite location in the show.