An Interesting New Life

Chapter Three : One Year Later - Part 1 : Learning to Walk
By : The Eternal Star

About one year had passed since I was born into this new world, during which I spent most of my time inside this house in the foal cage. The only interaction I have ever had with the outside world is when either my family goes on a relaxing day in a nearby park while Ethern is playing with some other young Alicorns, when mom brought me with her to go shopping daily household or foods, or when she would occasionally bring me with her to her lab beside the house in which half part of the room is filled with bookshelves.

However, if there is one thing I managed to collect during my first year in this new world, it would be information. My mother, being both a researcher and a bookworm, would sometimes read me books about the world around me and its inhabitants, the Alicorns.

And I must say that out of all the information my mother gave me in the last year, there are three particular facts regarding Alicorns with two of the three facts being as interesting as it were infuriating for me.

The first is, that this world allowed if not encouraged the existence of herds or when a stallion is having relationships or is married to more than one mare, so long as each of the mares acknowledges and agrees that their stallion will have to divide his attention between each of them, alongside being fine at each other presence.

Not only that, but the stallion in question must be able to divide his attention equally so that none of his mares felt left behind. This allowance, acceptance, and encouragement for stallions to form herds with multiple mares is because there are imbalance in the ratio between males and females being born every year.

How imbalance you ask? Well, if in Earth it is rare to find areas where the ratio of males and females to at least one to two. Here, the ratio of stallions to mares is one to four, with some areas reaching as far as one to six. This fact makes me wonder for a moment about one thing, why did my father not form a herd when he was still just having a relationship with Mother and was not married?

He is a very capable and eye-catching stallion after all, especially with his protective, caring personality. Until I recall that at certain times in the past during some of our picnics, some mares had tried to catch Father's attention until Mother's expression quickly turned into anger and chased away those mares.

So my mother is not only a cold, silent, and quiet type of mare that once you had reached out to her. Would be very affectionate toward you, hoping that the best will always come to you, but is also a possessive type that doesn't like and approve of the mere thought of another mare trying to gather his attention unnecessarily.

The second is, that they have a more distant in-between but much longer estrous cycle or when an Alicorn mare can have foals. This estrous cycle is sometimes referred to as the 'heat cycle' due to the very hot sensation an Alicorn mares feels on their nether's region when their body is fertile and able to conceive foals, this cycle lasts for a full year for most Alicorn but only happened every one cycle which I will tell you next that one cycle doesn't equal one year.

This estrous or heat cycle mostly started when an Alicorn filly reached the age of ten or eleven cycles, but there have been cases where some fillies started their estrous cycles as early as eight cycles old. The estrous cycle would not only cause Alicorn mares and fillies to feel very hot in their nether regions.

But will also constantly feel the need to be bred by an Alicorn male with their body releasing intoxicating lust pheromones which will cause any Alicorn males nearby them to go into a 'rut' state. The 'rut' state for Alicorn males is when their stallion hood moves out of its sheats and goes into its full length and girth in preparation for sexual act or intercourse.

This state happens when an Alicorn male is feeling aroused, or when they inhale the intoxicating pheromones Alicorn mares or fillies' bodies release when they enter their estrous or 'heat' state, with the latter more often than not causing the Alicorn males to lose their control if near fertile Alicorn mares or fillies for too long.

There are, of course, some specialized brews or spells that could reduce the effect of the estrous cycles on Alicorn females if not outright stop it. But said specialized brews and spells are not recommended to be used regularly as they suppress the body natural's hormones.

If they were to be continuously suppressed then the body would soon be completely immune to it with the ones to use them regularly entering an animal-like state with their only focus in mind is to be bred by an Alicorn male until their estrous cycle stopped.

This fact is quite infuriating to me because then it meant I would have to endure this almost-torturous sensation when I was older for one full year for every cycle, which meant during this time I couldn't fully put my full effort and concentration into my research and study to revolutionize Alicorn civilization as my mind would wander on its own of how good it was to be bred, to have foals, and who it thinks would be the perfect mate for me.

Combined with the fact that I can't regularly suppress my body's estrous cycle every time it comes, because if I were to do so, I would at one point make me enter into an animal-like state in which I would pound on the first Alicorn male I saw.

Then again, I was the one to choose this new gender when I could easily ask to keep my old one, so I might as well suffer and endure the consequences of my choice as being angry at something that can't be changed is a waste of time and energy.

The last and the most infuriating one, Alicorn requires a very long time to mature. Remember on my second day in this world when I pondered if cycles and years are two different references to time? Because cycles and years are indeed two different references to time, and one cycle doesn't equal one year. Want to know how much one cycle equals to? Apparently, one cycle in this world equals about ten years or a whole decade.

This meant if humans take only eighteen years until they are considered adults as all of their bodies have matured, Alicorns take a total of one hundred eighty years or eighteen decades until their body fully matures itself and is considered an adult.

This also indirectly means in this world Alicorn foals are expected to start developing speech or the ability to walk when they are at least four or five years old, about ten times or more than what is expected for human babies. And I refused that expectation, I couldn't wait for another three years or more until Mother started teaching me how to walk and speak as I certainly didn't want to be stuck in this foal cage any longer than I wanted to be.

Thus how I found myself trying to climb up the fence of my foal cage so that I could reach the top of it and fall to the ground so that then I could start practicing to walk on my own.

Dad and Ethern were out of the house for the time being with the former having been for two days finishing a quest while the latter was still in school for the next few hours, mom was in her lab doing her experiments.

Now was the perfect time for me to start practicing walking on my own since none of my family were at home with the closest being mom, but I didn't think she would come back for another three or four hours if I judged my time correctly.

However, my foal hooves aren't strong enough to quickly lift me. Lucky for me, the fences aren't straight vertical, or horizontal shape, but rather a mix of them with holes in between the fences that are big enough to fit my hooves.

So after I put my front hooves as tall as I could on the upper holes of the fences and lifted myself a bit, I managed to stuff my hind hooves on the lower part of the holes in the fences. From then on, it's about as simple as climbing an unconventional ladder.

After a minute of climbing, I managed to grab the top of the fence and pulled myself to stand right on it. After that, I looked down at the ground and calculated how tall it was from where I was standing before concluding that it would be quite a fall that could hurt my still fragile body.

I looked around to see if there was anything else I could use to get down before I remembered that I just climbed up the fences like a ladder, so why not just climb down to the ground using the fence holes?

'Sometimes no matter how smart I was, I would be too focused on trying to solve a problem with anything at my disposal or around me, and not looking back at past experiences of how I had even found this problem.' I thought in my mind as I face hoofed for a few seconds before begin going down to the ground using the same but reversed method of going up the fences.

It took about two minutes before I felt my hind hooves hit the ground as I had to slowly and carefully place them on the holes of the fence so that I wouldn't accidentally slip and fall flat to the ground, after that, I slowly backed away from the foal cage using my hind hooves as my forehooves are still lodged in the holes of the fence. After I had gained some distance, I pulled away my forehooves from the holes in the fence and quickly placed them down to the ground.

I did it, I finally managed to get out of my foal cage using my own power. Now here comes the matter of walking, which now that I was a quadruped magical Alicorn and not a bipedal human, pretty sure will have some new muscles that would take my brain some time to get accustomed to. I moved my right forehoof forward, before moving the left one forward just a few centimeters in front of the right one.

After that, I moved my right hindhoof forward close to where my right forehoof was, before moving the left hind forward just right where my right forehoof was. I began repeating this pattern for a few minutes before I tried to change my walking direction to the left by moving my right forehoof over my left forehoof, followed by my left forehoof moving forward-left right next to the right forehoof.

I do the same for the hind hooves too, and soon enough I find that I have taken a turn. Hey, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Feeling confident, I began walking faster and faster by the minute then I realized that by now, I had truly walked normally by the steady clip-clop sounds of my hooves. 'It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, look at me now that I just walked normally, I'm pretty sure that so-'

My next line of thoughts was cut off as my right forehoof crossed paths with the left one and I fell face first to the ground with my muzzle making the first contact, I stayed there for a few seconds before groaning in annoyance as I thought 'Right, my body coordination get poor the second I put my mind away from coordinating my hooves movement. Guess I shouldn't try walking up and down the stairs, until I fix this poor body coordination'

I then begin moving my face up so it wouldn't kiss the ground anymore, before standing up using my three hooves as my right forehoof is trapped underneath my body. After I had fully stood up, I bring my right forehoof to my still hurting muzzle as I thought

'Damn, falling face first as a pony hurt my muzzle a lot more than I anticipated. And I'm supposed to be in the rounder muzzle side since I'm a filly, I wonder how would it be for stallions and colts considering their muzzle are more pointer?'

I pondered that question in my mind to take my brain's attention from my hurting muzzle, thus reducing the pain I felt to mere background sensation. A few minutes later the pain stopped completely and I finally concluded the answer to that question ; if they fall face first on soft dirt, snow, sand, or otherwise soft material. Their pointy muzzle would just go right through it, potentially blocking the airway and mouth with foreign items or substances.

If they are on hard ground, however, depending on the force of the fall. It could result in some bruises or bloody nose, and at the very worst destruction of the jaw and bones in the muzzle alongside damaged nose and airway that would affect the overall ability to breathe significantly.

Huh, I guess there is some advantage in being a mare physically like what I just concluded before since the effect of falling face first wouldn't be as severe as that, or would require much more force behind the fall.

After that, I put my right forehoof back to the ground and sighed in annoyance as I thought 'This is gonna be harder than I thought, of course walking with your mind fully focused on coordinating your hooves' movements is gonna be easy. The real problem comes when your mind isn't focused on it, this is gonna take a few hours if anything I remember about body coordination is correct. '

I looked up at the analog clock on top of the door and saw that the shortest pointer was close to number one while the longer pointer was pointed at eleven. 'That's weird, if I remember it correctly my brother would come home from his combat academy somewhere ten or fifteen minutes after half past twelve. What's taking him longer th-'

My thought was cut off as I heard a few knocks from the door to the house from down below, followed quickly by the sound of it opening and closing alongside rapidly closing beats of hooves. My eyes widened in surprise for a moment before I refocused my mind and quickly walked to the foal cage with my mind directly coordinating its movement as I thought

'I can't allow my brother to see me walking right now, that would lead to a lot of unnecessary questions and attention alongside my parent discovering that my mind is older than my body is'

Now that I had stood right before my foal cage, I put my right forehoof on the second lowest holes on the fences before lifting myself a bit so that my left one could reach the third lowest one. I put my right hind hooves on the lowest hole, I lifted myself slightly up again before I moved my right forehoof to the middle holes on the fences and put my left hind hooves right on the hole beside my right forehoof.

From then on, it was just a matter of repeating the same pattern as I climbed up the fences of my foal cage. As soon as I reached the top, I quickly began climbing down the fences to my foal bed as I heard the hooves beats of my brother closing in. I managed to finish the climb down and lay on my back just in time when my brother burst through the door and went straight to my foal cage as he said.

"Hello there little sis! Your big brother Ethern here is back and he is sorry that he's late to come back home as he had something else to take care of first, you must be so worried as to why your favorite big brother isn't here with you don't you? Will you forgive your brother here for his lateness?". He enveloped me with his magic and brought me out of the foal cage and closer to his face, then stared at my face with a worried expression as he waited for my response.

'Colt, I didn't even remember that you exist ever since you left home to go to school this morning after breakfast, so I didn't give a fuck of what's making you late to come back home so long as you did come back home, aren't injured and/or in sad mood. Also, I think I could start to forgive you by you putting me back on my foal cage first!'

I thought in my mind as I rolled my eyes and sighed in increasingly more often feeling of annoyance at my brother's social and active personality, which contradicts my more reserved and quiet nature. After my brother saw my response to his question, he was about to say something before it was cut off as we heard a flashing sound coming from behind him, followed by the neutral-stern voice of my mother as she walked into the room and said.

"Well, well, well my colt Ethern. I think you have got some explanation to do, how about you put your little sis Critic back in her foal cage first before answering Mom's question?" My brother's eyes widened in horror as he gulped before bringing me back to my foal cage gently, before turning back slowly with a sheepish and strained smile plastered on his lips when he saw Mother standing in the doorway with cold, neutral piercing gaze as she directly stared at his eyes.

' There we go, thank you Mom for saving me from this overjoyed bundle of social activeness who is about to start another long rant about how was his school day, how much fun we are gonna have when I had grown up more, and other bullshit that honestly sound foreign to my reserved nature.

Now you're in trouble, Colt ' I thought in my mind as I let out an actual chuckle upon seeing my mother walk closer to Ethern with his hooves began to tremble in fear at my mother's piercing gaze and advances.

I watched in glee as Mother stopped her walking as she now stood right before my brother, her gaze slowly descended to meet with my brother's face as she asked in a cold-neutral voice "My colt, Ethern. Care to explain to your mother here you're later than your usual time to come back home for more than half an hour?

Are there any other school activities or is there something else you need to take care of first? If so, then why don't you call your worried mother here that her colt is gonna be late to come back home?

You didn't even go to your mother first when you did come back, I was worried for minutes there when you didn't return home in your usual time. I was just about to call the combat academy for the whereabouts of my colt when I heard you burst through the door of the house after knocking a few times. "

My brother then said in a slightly trembling voice under the cold and piercing gaze of a mother, " M-mom, I-I'm sorry that I-I was late to return home a-and forget to call you that I was gonna be l-late to come b-back home. Y-you see, today in the academy my class had a test regarding what type of weapon each of the students is gonna excel at as their future training depends on what kind of weapon the student excels at.

I discovered during the test that I excelled at using medium to long blades as I had no problem slashing my target and blocking normal attacks with it, alongside didn't have as much problem as using other types of weapons. So because of that, I was classified as an in-trainee swordmaster."

After hearing Ethern's answer, Mom had a questioning look on her face as she asked in a curious yet stern tone "Oh, is that so my colt? So you had a knack for swords and are classified as swordmaster just like your father was?

This means you will have a combat style and weapon choice similar to your father, though he's no longer a swordmaster as now he's a swordgrandmaster. That's still didn't answer my question, Ethern. Why. Are. You. Late?"

Seeing that his attempt at trying to change the topic of conversation failed, he took a few calming deep breaths before saying in a now less-nervous tone "Well, Mom, after school when I had just stepped out of my class. I was approached by some of my classmates who had the same protector class classification as me and was asked if I would like to join them in their training to increase their blade mastery in one of the training grounds.

I at first declined their offer since my priority was going home first, but they kept pressing me to join them and said that it wouldn't take my time for too long. After some consideration, I agreed to their offer and was about to call you that I would be late to home, but after seeing my agreed response. They quickly dragged me to the training ground and I guess I kind of forgot about it until our training was finished."

After hearing Ethern's answer this time, my mother's features softened for a moment before it quickly changed into a scowl as she said in a stern voice "While I must admit there is some merit in doing activities with your classmates, that still doesn't excuse your forgotten of calling me first that you're gonna be late to come home.

After you took off and put away your training armor and sword, alongside eating your lunch. Go inside your room, you're grounded for the rest of the day"

Upon hearing that he was grounded for his mistake earlier, my brother's expression turned into annoyance as he said "Oh come on Mom!".

Before he was silenced by mother saying in a cold-stern voice "No excuse my colt, you're grounded for the rest of the day. Now take off those armor and sword and go eat your lunch in the dining room before it went cold". After being silenced by my mother's words, my brother just sighed in acceptance and walked out of the room, grumbling quietly all the while.

Now that my brother had left the room, my mother's attention turned to me as she said "Well my little filly, Critic. Just like your brother having his lunch at the dining table, it's time for you to have your lunch. Now come here my little filly".

She then enveloped me in her magic as she sat on the bed with her lying on her side, she brought me closer to her teat as I accepted my fate of still being bound to my mother as her baby Alicorn for the next few cycles.

A few hours had passed since my brother was scolded by his mother for not telling her that he's gonna be late to come back home as he was training his blade mastery with his classmates. During this, I had multiple times climbed outside my foal cage to train my hooves' movement coordination when mother was busy downstairs, while Ethern was still locked in his room as the effect of him being grounded.

Now the time in the clock showed to be half an hour past six and I decided that right now would be another perfect time for me to train my ability to walk in this quadruped form since both mother and Ethern were showering on each of their respective bathrooms. Before Mother went to shower, she had washed me up first which is quite unusual since she would usually clean herself alongside cleaning me.

That is until I heard her moaning quite loudly in my parent's bathroom which is located a few meters next door to the room where I was on, it was at this point the reason she decided to wash me first before cleaning herself because she needed some 'personal time' with her body.

If I consider how often my parent sexually engaged in each other every night after they cast a silence spell zone on my foal cage and the room as a whole, especially when my father returned from his quest... yeah, my parent was quite sexually active.

But anyway, after I had climbed up the fences of my foal cage and climbed down till my hooves touched the ground. I then walked outside the room because mother had forgotten to close it before she went to clean herself and have personal time with her body, I was greeted with the now familiar sight of the second floor of my house.

It's not much different than your average second floor of the house with the exception that the entire room is made of you guessed it, purple-oriented alongside blue crystals.

The other things on this second floor are my brother's room and bathroom across the stairs in the middle of the second floor, some potted plants on each corner of it, a few paintings of beautiful nature surroundings on some of the walls alongside one painting of my family smiling at each other with mother still pregnant with me on the first wall you would see upon walking up the stairs.

On each side of the stairs is guarded by crystal fences to ensure no one accidentally falls down the stairs, talking about stairs. This is gonna be my final test for the day to truly see if my hooves will have fine movement coordination even when my mind isn't directly controlling its movement.

Why stairs? Because it not only accounts for coordinating your hooves' movement but also makes you ensure that every step your hooves take is in the right place as one wrong step could cause a pony to fall down the stairs.

Anyway, now that I was standing right before the stairs that led down to the first floor of the house. I took a few deep breaths and ensured myself that I could do this and that even if I failed, I could still rise back up again and try it again and again until I had done it. I moved my right forehoof on the first step of the stairs before moving my left right forehoof on the second step, all the while keeping my head stable to not put too much weight in the front of my body,

After that I moved my right hind hoof to the first step and moved my right forehoof to the third step all at the same time, I then moved my left forehoof to the fourth step while at the same time moving my left hind hoof to the second step. Now that I had gotten the pattern, I just needed to do it repeatedly and preferably, as fast as I could because I was running against a timer.

For the next few minutes, I managed to slowly but surely begin to make my way down the stairs. I almost fell when my right forehoof took the wrong step halfway down, but my left forehoof was quick enough to step on the next step. Preventing me from falling down the stairs which I'm sure would be quite a painful experience considering my body is relatively still fragile.

After another few minutes, now my right hoof takes the final step down and this is it. I had finally finished my first time walking down the stairs in this new world in the body of a quadruped, I perfected my finish by fully moving all of my hooves one by one from the stairs to the first floor of my house.

During the entire ordeal my head was set on the first floor and not even a moment of glancing up or down, so when I moved my head up I noticed that now I was standing just a few meters away from the door that led outside the house.

I looked left of my position to see the kitchen room of my house which amusingly looked similar enough to modern house kitchens back on earth, there's two stoves, a kitchen sink with two dish racks on each of its side, a crystal blue double door fridge, alongside a few cabinets on the walls with a few on the grounds.

The only thing that makes it different is the complete lack of electricity, as every electronic item I just listed before is powered by crystals. Someday when I had grown up more, I needed to study these crystals, every day I saw what these crystals could do and it amaze me to no end.

I looked to my right and saw the living room, it's a few meters wide with three long blue sofas with a few white pillows that surrounded a red huge table, below the table were a few cabinets that I had seen someday to be filled with drinks and food.

On the walls behind the sofas were two big-sized bookshelves that would come in hoofy if I were to learn to read this world's languages, the floor in the living room is covered by one huge single aqua blue carpet that is pleasant to the hoof when stepped on.

All in all, my house is quite complete with behind the living room was the armory room where my father and brother would store their weapons and armor when they weren't using it, I couldn't see it from my current position due to my sight being blocked by the huge stairs, but I'm interested to inspect that room later on.

Behind the kitchen room is the dining room which is quite efficient since it means right after my mother finished her cooking, it will be served right at the dinner table. Again, from this position, I can't see the room since might sight was blocked by the huge stairs that led to the second floor of the house.

But anyway, enough about explaining the details of the house as I'm sure either Mom or Ethern would finish their shower soon. I quickly turned my body again so I would face the stairs, and began walking up the stairs using the same pattern as before. Due to already knowing what step each of the hooves should take, I managed to reach the second floor in just about five to seven minutes.

I was overjoyed at the fact that my quick learning side was resurfacing back up again, however, my joy was short-lived as I soon heard the sound of a door opening coming from my left. I looked in the direction of the sound and saw that my mother had finished her showering, I heard the hoof steps as she began walking out of the bathroom with a towel in her magic judging by the sparkling sound I heard at the same time.

Seeing this, I reacted by making a quick gallop to my parent's bedroom toward my foal cage, before I began climbing the fences of my foal cage as I heard the steady clip-clops of my mother's hooves closing in.

Just as she pushed the door open, I managed to climb back down to my foal bed and lay on my back, I began acting like a foal who had just woken up from her sleep as I let out a fake yawn and set my sight on mother's incoming form.

As she stood before my foal cage, she looked at my form with cautious and wondering eyes as she said "That's weird, I'm pretty sure I just heard somepony else galloping just moments ago. Yet my colt Ethern still hasn't finished his showering and my little filly Critic obviously can't be the one galloping. Then whose hoof steps did I just heard before?"

Mother then walked away from my foal cage with her expression remaining cautious, no doubt she had thought that there might be an intruder in our house judging by the fact she checked every hidden part of the room and cast spells that I'm sure scanning the room for any intruder using invisibility or other similar spells.

I let out a sigh that I didn't realize I was holding as Mother continued her scan of the house and walked out of the room. Well, I guess now I can cross off the 'learn how to walk and don't get caught' part of my to-do list.