Canterlot castle had gone to sleep, and being the unsleeping creature that I had been turned into, I was still wide awake. Moonlight filled my room, and to my surprise, Luna was no longer printed onto the moon's surface. While I was practicing telekinesis, the Summer Sun Celebration and it's events must have come and gone. I know now for certain that Twilight Sparkle is in Ponyville.

At least I won't have to worry about tripping her over, though I imagine Celestia will tell her about me in time.

I had sat my rock on the clean tiled flooring of my room in the castle and sat in front of it, my horn glowing gold. First, the rock was lifted with my magic a few times, then rotated and lifted, then rotated, lifted, and moved somewhere else in the room. Just a little bit of exercise before I was ready to try something.

I knew little of magic, but thanks to the show, I had 'sat in' on some magic lessons, primarily those of Starlight Glimmer, when she was teaching Trixie Lulamoon. In the episode where the mane six go to Manehattan Escapes, Starlight Glimmer made teacakes, while Trixie was trying to turn something into a teacup.

My eyes bore into the rock as I tried to remember Starlight's words, though I know I likely won't remember them perfectly.

'What does your teacup look like, what shape is it, what color?'

I want to turn this rock into a lilac colored plate with a picture of Celestia and Luna on it. I visualized the plate in my mind, took a deep breath in, and shot a bolt of magic at my rock.

Only for the magic to fall right off of it. My horn de-lit in disappointment at my failure.

Though, shortly after, a determined look grew on my face as my horn re-lit. "Oh well, I've got all night to practice."

2nd attempt, nothing of note.

10th attempt, the rock wiggled a bit, but that was it.

17th attempt, the rock doesn't even wiggle anymore.

23rd attempt, nothing of note.

I took a deep breath, "What am I doing wrong... Maybe this spell is just too advanced for me right now."

I looked down at the rock and got an idea.

"Or Maybe I'm just not using enough magic..." I braced myself and forced more magic into my horn, it began to glow brighter and brighter.

I aimed my horn at the rock and visualized the plate again in my mind.

With a ZAP, nothing happened.

"Damn it."

I sat down and looked up at the ceiling for an answer.

The ceiling offered nothing, of course. Beyond, a purple dome shape with four dark purple rapports, lined with golden diamonds.

It was at that point I decided to stop practicing for now and finally wash up. The dirt stuck between my feathers were becoming quite bothersome.

The room Celestia gave me came with a bathroom attached, thankfully, and it was far more luxurious than I deserved. The bathtub was the size of a small swimming pool, I could only imagine the type of parties that would often be had in baths so big. Noticing a large full body mirror against the wall, I decided to approach it and look at myself.

Before me stood an average stallion of Equestria, with wings and a horn. My fur was golden, with a moderately long tail and a short mane, both primarily light gold, with a strand of darker gold strewn in. I took note of my eyes, and their light gold color.

Standing up on my hind hooves, I puffed out my chest and flexed my forehooves to make my muscles more prominent. I'm not sure how I felt about them. I'm more of a loner than a jock, so having muscles just seems weird to me. I wonder how strong I actually am, or if these muscles are just for show.

Standing like a human gave me a perfect view of my lower half, and all therein. I was big, even for a horse. I'm just thankful I haven't felt anything from down there since I arrived. Could only imagine singing down the street, full-mast.

Practicing with my magic, I grab the hot water handle of the bath tub and gently turned it on, before looking back at the mirror and spreading open my wings. Filthy, that's what they were, filthy. Dust caked my feathers like a layer of powder. Rearing them back, I flap a few times and immediately fill my lungs with dust from the resulting blast.

Shaking away the dust and coughing to get it out of my lungs, I turned back to the tub and peered inside. It was still empty.

"Oh," I looked at the drain, and noticed that I forgot something. "Would have probably helped if I put the stopper in, huh?" I then levitated the plug over and firmly placed it into the drain.

Water quickly began to fill the tub now that the water was forced to stay, and I began looking around the rest of the bathroom. There were numerous different bottles of soap, some for washing your body, some specifically for your mane and tail, some specifically for just your mane or tail, and some for your hooves. I also found a few wonderfully folded towels.

Princess Celestia didn't say anything about what I was and wasn't allowed to use, so I just grabbed two towels and a few bottles of soap before slowly getting into the tub.

I stepped one hoof in. It burned for a while, but pain was good for me, so I hissed and allowed myself to get burned. Two hooves, four hooves, the pain was mounting.

"Ahh," I let out a pained sigh as I laid down in the hot water. My body was beginning to get used to it, and soon it didn't hurt.

In the beginning, I laid a hefty dose of soap on my hooves and scrubbed them each thoroughly, before moving on to my tail.

I asked myself how I was supposed to wash my mane, there's no shower head, or something I could use to carry the water and pour it out onto my head, so I just held my breath, shut my eyes, and dunked my head into the water.

Once I was certain I got it all wet, I shot back out from under the water and quickly lathered my mane with shampoo. My hooves made it a bit difficult, and yeah, I probably could have used magic, but oh well, clean is clean.

Back, chest, and lower region were next, each were thoroughly washed, and quickly the bath ran rampant with suds.

It then occurred to me, how was I supposed to rinse my mane if I was surrounded by soap debris?

I had to bite the bullet and put my head directly under the faucet. With closed eyes, my head was firmly placed beneath the boiling faucet and the water burned unpleasantly.

I wanted to scream, but I held back until I was sure that no more soap was in my mane. With it done, I pulled back and quickly got out of the tub, where I promptly fell back onto the chilly floor.

Steam wafted off of my body as my limbs were sprawled out, a content smile overtaking my features. With a flick of my horn, I lifted the stopper out of the drain and let myself cool off in the nice silence that followed.

Before I remembered that I forgot to wash my wings, and promptly facehoofed.

The night would be over soon.

Author's Note

It turns out, I can't draw ponies to save my life. I used Ponylumen's 3d pony creator for this. It's as close to Aurum's appearance as I can make.