The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

Chapter 3

Back to square one

Books…Books…and more books.

There were several stacks of books circled around a hospital bed that was currently occupied by one Ridge Mountain. Over the past several days Ridge had become friends with his nurse Circus Ringer, and through this friendship learned of a library that was just across the street from the hospital. Upon hearing this information ridge had asked Circus to acquire him some books on Alicorns.

Originally circus was confused as to why ridge would want information that pertained to Alicorns, but the doctors at the hospital had concluded that it had been a burst of magic that followed a botched teleportation spell that caused Ridge’s crash and horn lengthening. So with this information Ridge had asked Circus to find him books that had any information about Alicorns, so he could find a spell to shrink his horn. While it was true that Ridge wanted the books to shrink his horn, It was only a half truth. Ridge also wanted said books to learn of any spells that could transform a normal pony into an Alicorn.

“Trans-matter teleportation…No…Soul Switcher…No…Gender Bender Flipper…uhh?...definitely not” Ridge Said.

Ridge inwardly groaned as he finished yet another book, casting it aside to add it to the growing pile that surrounded his bed.

“Any luck with finding anything to help your problem” Circus asked as he entered the hospital room.

“No not really, the only thing I could find that was even within the hoofpark was a potion that could cause a unicorn to regrow a severed horn.” Ridge said deflatedly.

“Well that certainly doesn’t help you now does it” Circus chuckled.

But before Ridge could even give his rebuttal Circus threw a small container onto the bed next to Ridge.

“W..What’s this for?” Ridge said as he looked at Circus with wide eyes.

“Well… you said that you need to get your horn shorter and a figured that will do just the job.”

“Y..Yea but I didn’t want to resort to using a hoof-file!” Ridge said exasperated.

“You said yourself that you couldn’t find anything else to help…” Circus pleaded.

Ridge just sat there in silence, his mind going over what circus just said. Yea it would shorten his horn, but it would hurt like buck. Ridge looked at Circus trying to think of anything else he could do, but Circus just shook his head with a pained expression on his face.

“O..Okay.” Ridge said defeated.

“Do you want me to help you with it?’

“N..No” and with his mind made up for him, Ridge slowly removed himself from the bed and made his way over to the bathroom.

When Ridge closed the door the first thing he did was remove the blanket from around his waist and stretch out his wings.

“ahhh…finally freedom.”

It had been several hours since Ridge had the opportunity to flex his muscles that controlled his wings, But that freedom was short lived as he realized the task ahead of him.

“Ugh…Might as well just do it now and not drag it out.”

Ridge reached under the sink and pulled out a small towwel and rolled it up, to give him something to bite down on.

“O..Okay just do it and don’t look back”

With one final determind sigh Ridge ever so slowly he brought the file to the tip of his horn and gave an exploratory scrape.

“Hgggnnn…Ohh..mee…nuck” But he didn’t stop and gave it another scrape.

“Ohhhhhhhh”

By this point tears were streaming down his face to mix with the powder from his horn, and this formed an ugly yellow paste that clung to him. So Ridge continued scraping back and forth for several minutes trying not to scream into the towel as much as he could.

Several agonizing minutes later, and several trips to the toilet to void his stomach, Ridge finally set the file down on the edge of the sink. The tears had been stemmed for the time being, but the damage had been done. Ridge stepped back from the sink to look at his Ponyself in the mirror, and the sight that greeted him was one straight from a horror-film. Most of his coat was covered in a fine misting of horn powder which gave him a ghostly quality, and where his tears had ran rivulets on his face it looked like somepony had thrown flower onto his face.

“well at least I look like a normal unicorn now…”

As ridge turned his head from side to side to inspect his hoof-work he heard a light knocking coming from the door, then the very worried voice of his new friend.

“E..Everything okay, can I come in?” Circus asked.

“Yea…I’m fine, just let me shower off  first though.”

With the deed done all Ridge wanted to do was to put this incident as far behind him as ponyily possible. He trotted over to the shower, and without a thought turned it to the hottest possible setting and slowly got in making sure to leave his bandaged hoof outside the water. Sure it hurt, but he wanted to make sure none of the dust would remain within his coat. Slowly Ridge began to lather himself in the small soap that the hospital provided. As he rinsed he began to think about what he had just done to his horn, and how it probably would never be the same again.

“Wait…Hang on a moment!!!”

As ridge dropped the soap to swim around in the water below him, he remembered the book that had the potion to regrow a severed horn.

“Well at least all is not lost.”

Feeling immensely better than he had the past several days, Ridge turned off the water and stepped out of the shower and turned toward the mirror to once again admire his newly cleaned coat.

“Okay, maybe I can finally go out in public.”

Ridge slowly unfurled his wings to their full length then said

“But, I still have to wear that stupid blanket.”

Just behind the bathroom door, Circus had heard the shower stop and decided upon his ponyself to look at his friend and see how well he was doing after he had to file down his horn. Slowly he turned the knob with his mouth and stepped through the steam that wafted into his face and froze in place at what he saw before him.

Ridge felt the cold air on his back and turned around to see the shocked expression of Circus staring at him through the doorway.

“C…C…CIRCUS!!!”

“I…I…CAN EXPLAIN THIS!!!”