After Celestia's departure, I laid in bed for a while. Twilight had moved over to the bed and just sat with me, not saying anything. I tried to process everything I'd felt from Celestia, but that proved impossible. I couldn't put into words the depths of the feelings I'd shared with her, just for that brief moment. The more I thought about it, the better I felt about my current predicament. Sure, I'd been ripped out of my life on Earth, but I was pretty sure that no one on Earth cared for me like the Princess did.

On the other hand, being in a new town, new country, new world, even, filled me with anxiety. What if I didn't fit in? I really hadn't fit in on Earth, but at least I was used to that. I had my little hobby, and that at least kept me busy. It gave me something to do with my spare time, and even a hope that I'd find some success doing it. I'd have loved for nothing more than to be able to leave my programming job and work full time on board games and pen and paper RPGs. The pay would probably be way less than what I'd made as a programmer, but I would've been happier doing it.

I looked at my hooves. Big blunt things. No fingers. I'd never be able to draw now. I looked over at all the books on the bookshelf. Those things had to get written somehow. Did they have typewriters? I looked around the room. Nothing here looked more advanced than industrial-revolution era. Then something caught my eye. There were a few pictures on the shelf. Color pictures. The looked like they'd been taken with a camera.

"Twilight," I asked, "those pictures. Were they taken with a camera?"

"Strange question," Twilight replied. "I was sure you'd ask about your new body."

"Sorry, do you want me to ask about that?"

"Well, we'll have to get there eventually, but yes, those were taken with a camera. We don't have a lot of the technology that you have in your world, but there are magical equivalents for most things."

"Ah, so is there something like the internet?"

"Sorry, I've heard the word, but I'm not really sure what that is. I know it had something to do with those screens I saw all over the place on Earth."

"Hmm, the internet is a little hard to explain. It's a communication network, but it's not just letters or voice or even video. Anyone could post to the internet, and anyone could access it, as well. It had it's downsides, but you'd be surprised how much you come to rely on it for just about everything." I sighed, "I guess I'll have to get used to it."

"I saw a lot of people watching videos on those screens while I was looking at your world. It looked amazing. I'm sorry you won't have that here."

"Video was just one bit of it, Twilight. Imagine that you could post your thoughts for anyone around the world to see. Not just your thoughts, but your art if you were an artist, or your music if you were a musician. I know this will sound pathetic, but I never really had close friends. I followed groups with interests like mine, and would even post some contributions of my own. I don't do well in crowds, but I was kind of at a remove from everyone on the internet, so I could feel like I was a normal person when I talked to people there, and when I put my games up, I could hope that I'd done something that would give other people a little enjoyment."

"I'm sorry Peter, I didn't realize."

"It's okay. How could you know I was a social failure?" I said, staring at the bed between my new forelegs and feeling my voice almost crack as I admitted my failure as a person. So much had changed about me, but I probably hadn't left my central defect behind. Maybe it was two days' worth of sleep. Maybe my subconscious had had the time to start to deal with what had happened, but somehow being a pony, even a female pony didn't really bother me right then. All I could think about was how I'd been a poor excuse for a person and now I'd probably be a poor excuse for a pony. I could feel my eyes start to brim.

"Peter," Twilight said, poking at my side with a hoof, "when I watched you, I didn't see a failure of a person. You interacted with people all day at work."

"Work's different. I can't really explain it. But I hardly ever did anything with them outside work."

"Hiya Twilight! You rang?" said a familiar voice.

I looked around and saw the pink pony walking around to Twilight and me from the foot of the bed.

"Actually, Pinkie, I didn't," said Twilight.

"Sure you did, you just didn't know it," the pink pony replied with a grin.

"Were you here the whole time?" I asked.

"Nope, just got here. I totally didn't listen in on everything the Princess told you about how you can't go back home."

"What? That doesn't make any sense," I said.

Twilight sighed, "Don't try to understand it, Peter, it's just Pinkie."

"That's me!" laughed the pink pony. "Now, since you're here for good. You're a new resident of Ponyville. Also, I just met you, and there's only one thing to do about that!"

"Huh?" I said, frowning.

"A party!" she yelled, throwing her hooves up as confetti suddenly streamed from nowhere."

"Where did that come from?" I asked.

"Like I said, it's just Pinkie Pie. And she better clean up the confetti this time," said Twilight, with a pointed look at the pink pony, still holding her front legs up over her head with a big smile on her face.

"Uh, thanks Pinkie," I said. "But I'd rather not have a party."

"Why not?" Pinkie asked, her expression quizzical. "Everypony loves a party."

"I just... Crowds tend to make me... They make me uncomfortable. I don't like parties."

"Oh, no crowds. Hmm, I can work with that," said Pinkie, suddenly stroking her chin with a hoof. "Here's what's gonna happen. The party's on hold until you get settled in a little. However, as the local, and only, Pinkie Pie, I hereby reserve the right to throw a small party for you. No crowds. Promise."

"Okay," I said, still dreading what might come of this.

"Oh yeah, before I go," Pinkie said, walking over to Twilight. She leaned over, whispering in the purple pony's ear for a good while. Twilight's eyes widened a little as she looked at me, then she nodded.

Finally, Pinkie headed for the door. Just before she got there, she turned around, "Oh, and Peter, I totally want to try out some of your games, you should work on making some of them again here in Equestria."

How did she hear that? I asked myself. Then it hit me, "Wait, really?"

"Sure, silly pony. I love games. In fact, everybody loves games. I bet a lot of ponies around here would really like to try some new ones." With that the pink pony spun and disappeared out the door.

"What'd she say to you, Twilight?" I asked.

"She was just reminding me of something," Twilight answered, grinning at me a little, before turning her gaze down to the floor, where she noticed the large pile of confetti still littering the ground. "Pinkie! What did I say about the confetti?"

"Sorry, Twi," came the pink pony's voice, drifting through the door from downstairs, "I'll get it later."

"That pretty much means, 'No, she won't get it later'," grumbled Twilight, before turning back to me. "Okay then, Peter. I think it's about time to get you out of that bed."

"Okay," I said, looking at my new hooves. I guessed it shouldn't be too hard to at least stand up. I carefully started sliding over to the edge of the bed. I can only imagine how silly I looked, a neon yellow pony with a bright red mane, hanging a back leg over the edge of the bed trying to find the ground. When my back leg found purchase, I wasn't sure whether I should try the other back leg or the front leg on the same side. I decided on the other back leg, I didn't think horses walked sideways too well. As I turned, my other back leg found the ground, and I was now two legs on the ground, with my chest still resting on the bed. I tried to back up and drop one front leg to the ground, but as I was craning my head around and trying to watch my back hooves, I managed to bend it too far back, and instead of setting down on my hoof, I stepped down onto the joint above it.

I bobbled for a second, and heard Twilight exclaim, "Careful!" before losing my balance and tumbling all the way over. The strange thing, though, was that it didn't hurt at all. I mean, I didn't fall over very much, but I'd at least imagine that something would sting, falling down as a pony. I saw a purple glow and felt Twilight's magic pick me up, turning me over and letting my legs hang down. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said, "didn't hurt at all, actually."

"Lucky earth pony," she grinned. "I'm going to set you down now. Just get your hooves under you and stand for a second. Okay?"

"Sure." With that, Twilight slowly lowered me to my hooves. I made sure to get all four rightside down. Then the glow faded and I was standing on all fours, like I'd done before. I looked at Twilight, and tried to take a step. One forehoof picked up and set down. Then the other. Now I was stretched, forehooves too far out front, back hooves too far out back. I probably should've moved one of the back ones before the other front one. This was seriously weird.

I picked up one of my back hooves, bracing myself so that I wouldn't slide with just one attached to the ground, and moved it forward. Solid contact. Then the other one. After a minute, I was now one step away from where I'd started. I hung my head.

"Hey Peter," Twilight said, "Why don't you come take a look at this?" She'd moved over to the bookshelf, where she had a box. She held it up, and suddenly, I really had to see what was in the box. I looked at my hooves, still planted on the ground, and then back at that box. I was sure that whatever was in that box was amazing. I could almost imagine a golden glow coming from it, like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.

Suddenly, I was in motion. I was halfway across the room before I realized it. I didn't even care how I was doing it, I just needed to get to that box. Just as I could finally see over the lip of the box, I caught a flash of purple from Twilight's horn. I looked into the box to see... a pinecone. Just a pinecone. I looked at it more closely. It still had some dirt on it.

"Twilight," I said, "why is there a pinecone in the box, and why did you want to show it to me?"

"Sorry, Peter. It was a spell called 'Want It, Need It'. You were thinking about walking way too hard. I just needed to distract you a bit."

"Distract me?"

"You walked over here by yourself, without even thinking about it, right?"

I looked around, "Yeah, I did. How did I do that?"

"Foals are born knowing how to walk. You're a pony, so you know how to walk. You just had to let your instincts get on with it without thinking too hard about it. You were trying to think your way through one hoof at a time. You don't have to do that, really, you just need to walk." Twilight said this last with a grin. "And I should know, I'm the queen of overthinking things. Well, maybe princess of overthinking things," she giggled.

"Huh?"

"Nothing, just a little joke. Now, let's get you moving around. I'd like to introduce you to a few ponies, but I'd bet you'd like to do that without falling down in the process."

"Um, yeah. You're right."

The next two hours were if not grueling, then at least embarrassing. Twilight was right, as long as I wasn't thinking about it, I could walk just fine. As soon as I started to think about what hoof was going to go where, though, I was on the floor. Still, this earth pony body was good for something. No matter how many times I fell down, it didn't hurt. The worst that happened was that I made my eyes water when I pitched straight forward onto my snout one time. That one didn't even hurt, really, it just stung a bit. If I was human, I was sure I'd have broken my nose.

Finally, I was walking sort of passably. Well, I was walking perfectly fine when I was distracted by something. On the other hand, when I was thinking about it, I looked like I was about to topple over at any second. Which, to be fair, I was.

"Okay," Twilight said, "big challenge time. Let's try to get you downstairs."

"Stairs?" I said. "I'm not sure I'm ready for that."

"I understand, but you have to get down there sometime. Besides, that's where the bathroom is, and I'm sure you're going to need it at some point."

Bathroom, oh yeah. The whole 'learning to walk' thing had distracted me marvelously, but I was going to have to deal with this whole pony thing, and the female thing pretty soon, because as soon as Twilight had said that, I'd realized that I definitely had to go.

"Uh, yeah, Twilight. I think I'll need that sooner, rather than later. Sorry."

"Oh," she said, "Umm, do you think you can try the stairs or do you need it like right now?"

"I think I can try the stairs," I said, already heading for the door. I got there and looked at the doorknob. How in the world were hooves supposed to work that? I looked back at Twilight, "Um, little help here?"

"Sure," she said, from where she was watching me. The handle then lit with a lavender glow that matched her horn, and the door opened. I could see the stairs curving down the side of a wall. No railing. Great. I looked back and couldn't see Twilight anywhere. "Wait for me, I've got to grab something," I heard Twilight call from around the corner. I looked down, I could do this. One hoof down, check. Next hoof down check. Back hooves, shuffle up. Next step. It was going okay until I needed my back hoof to get down the first step. I hit the edge of the step, slipped, and wound up taking the rest of the stairs rolling tail over teakettle all the way.

"Twi, are you okay? I heard a..." I heard a voice rapidly coming closer and then pause. "Oh, you must be Peter. Are you okay? That looked nasty."

"Yeah," I said, trying to twist and get myself right side up again. "Sorry, but I've got somewhere I have to be." As I finally got my hooves under me and looked up again, I stopped in my tracks. Standing before me was a little purple dinosaur, with a green ridge on his head.

"Hi, I'm Spike," he said, extending a clawed hand.

"Um, nice to meet you," I said, raising a hoof without thinking about it.

"So where do you have to be?" he asked, shaking my hoof in his hand.

"Erm, bathroom." I said, looking away.

"Oh," he snickerd. "It's right over there, see that bookshelf with all the red covered books on it? That doorway, to your left."

"Thanks," I said, setting my hoof back down and starting across the library at a pretty good pace. I did have something else on my mind, after all. Behind the red shelf was a little hallway, and to the left I found the bathroom. Fortunately, the door was open. I nosed it closed and looked around. It was like a Japanese toilet, just a porcelain trench in the floor with the flush mechanism at one end. Okay, this couldn't be so hard, right?

That part wasn't bad, actually. The handle on the flush could easily be operated with a hoof. The hard part was getting out again. The door had another doorknob on it. Definitely not hoof-friendly. I tried nudging the knob with one hoof. I really didn't want to put my mouth on the bathroom doorknob, so I tried the other hoof. That didn't work either. Like the first one, it just slid off. I sighed, hanging my head. This whole world was filled with ponies. I wasn't sure about that door upstairs, but there had to be a way for regular ponies to use the bathroom door, right?.

For the first time, I held up one of my hoofs and took a good look at it. I found my leg was a lot more flexible than I expected, and I was able to turn my hoof over and look at the underside. It wasn't all solid hoof, like I'd expected. The hard part kind of surrounded a softer fleshy-looking part in the middle, towards the back. Maybe I could get a little grip with that.

I held up my hoof to the doorknob again, this time trying to slot the edge into the depression in my hoof. I could suddenly feel the cold metal against the fleshy part of my hoof. It was weird after not feeling anything from my 'hands' for a while. Carefully, I tried to spin the knob. I had my hoof on the side and was trying to drag it down and spin the knob by friction. It started to turn, and then I felt it slip. I reset my hoof. Just a little harder this time. The knob turned just a bit more before slipping.

"Peter, are you okay in there?" I heard Twilight call from the other side of the door. "I know it's embarassing, but I can if you need help..."

"Fine. I'm fine!" I called back. "Just give me a second." Third try. Hoof up, pressed on the side of the knob, I could feel the metal of the knob. This time I just couldn't let it slip. I pressed into the doorknob with my hoof so it wouldn't slip off, one more turn, and the knob slipped again.

Okay, last time, I thought. Hoof up, I pressed it harder into the side of the doorknob, only to feel the whole knob give way, breaking off and falling to the floor. I looked at it blankly. Damn it, damn it, damn it, I couldn't believe I'd just done that.

"Peter," I heard Twilight calling, again, "what was that?"

I sighed heavily. "Twilight, I just broke your door. Could you let me out, please?"

The little dinosaur was giggling as Twilight and I walked back into the main room. I'd been a bit distracted before. How many bookshelves did this place have? "This place looks like a library," I said.

"That's because it is," said Twilight.

"Uh, why is there a bedroom upstairs, then?" I asked.

"That's my bedroom. I live here."

"You live in the library?" I asked, before something occurred to me. "Princess Celestia said that I'd been asleep for two days. I didn't mean to put you out of your bed."

"Don't worry about it," said Twilight. "The Princess knew when you should be waking up, but we had a few friends help watch you, just to make sure nothing happened. I roomed with Pinkie Pie for a couple days, Spike here has his own room downstairs, so he stayed here, and Princess Celestia stayed at Fluttershy's. No harm done."

No harm done, I thought. "Sorry about the bathroom door, again."

Twilight laughed, which got Spike giggling again, "This is like the fifth time you've apologized for it. Don't worry. We'll have someone fix it tomorrow. Just remember that you're a lot stronger than you used to be."

"Yeah, I'll have to get used to that," I said. I still couldn't believe how easily that doorknob had broken off. "Still, how do ponies deal with those doorknobs? These things," I said, holding up a forehoof, "aren't really good for knobs."

"That leads us to our next lesson," Twilight said with a smile. "You can mostly walk. We'll work on the stairs later. Now for what I was getting when you decided to try the stairs on your own. Good thing you're earth pony resiliant, by the way."

Twilight motioned for me to stop, and walked across the room to a table, where she grabbed a ball. Just a little smaller than a plum. It looked rubbery, and bright blue.

"Okay, now," she said, holding the ball up in a forehoof, "sit down and then hold out one hoof."

It took me a few seconds to get my rear end settled. That was a lot more complicated than it had been as a human. Another thing to get used to, I thought. Once I was sitting, kind of like a dog, I held out one forhoof.

"Good. Now think fast!" she said, as a purple glow covered the ball and it launched right at me.

I didn't have time to think, I just reached for the ball before it could hit my head and caught it. It took a split second to realize that I had the ball attached to my hoof somehow. As soon as I thought about it, the ball dropped onto the floor.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Wow, she really doesn't know anything about being a pony, huh?" said Spike, who'd been watching us from the side of the library. I winced at the 'she'.

"Spike!" said Twilight, sharply. "He doesn't know anything about being a pony. How could he. He was human until just a couple days ago. They don't have magic at all."

"Twi, why do you keep saying 'he'" Spike asked, apparently obvlivious to the stress Twilight had put on the word.

"Spike, zip it!" Twilight said.

"It's okay," I interrupted with a sigh. "I'm going to have to get used to it. Besides, it's accurate now, right?"

"What do you mean it's accurate now," Spike asked, as he realized what I meant. "Oh wow, really? That's... that's actually kinda icky. Why would you do that, Twi?"

Suddenly the lavender pony's head dropped and her ears drooped. "I really didn't mean to, Spike, but now there's no way to fix it. So that's just how it is. Could you give us some time, please? I feel like I need to talk with Peter a little before... well, I just feel like I need to talk with him, okay?"

"Sure, Twi. I'll be in my room," said Spike, before heading out of the main room.

"Peter," said Twilight, after Spike had left, "I know I said it before, but I'm so, so sorry."

"It's alright, Twilight," I said.

"No, it's not alright. You should want to do something to me, get back at me somehow for what I did. You should be angry, and you're not, and I did that, too. I took away everything you had, brought you to a new world, and I made you not mind that I did it to you. That's the worst part. I took away some base part of you and filled it up with a pony," she said through tears that were starting to creep down her muzzle.

"What do you mean? Have you played with my mind?" I asked, shocked at what she'd just said. I thought I'd been taking this well just because I'd 'slept on it', but now... Had my mind been altered somehow?

"No, not like that!" Twilight said, with a sniffle. "But yes, there's a reason you've basically accepted the 'new you' far too quickly. I realized it when the Princess explained what had happened. Your spirit, your aura, however you want to call it, looks just like an earth pony mare. That's what you are now. I didn't make you a human in a pony mare's body. I made you a pony mare with human memories."

"I don't understand the difference," I said.

"The Princess told you that a transformation spell wouldn't be permanent, right?" Twilight said.

I nodded.

"That's because your spirit is now a pony mare. When we do a transformation spell, the transformee always feels strange, because their spirit hasn't changed. That's because their spirit doesn't match up with their body anymore. It's there, saying, 'This isn't right'. Except for you, your body matches your spirit, so at some level, something's telling you this is just what you're supposed to be, that everything's okay. Except it's not okay, because I did this to you, and now I can't fix it."

I sat for a minute, watching Twilight cry on the floor. Part of me wanted to be angry, but I couldn't. I still felt like me, but she was right, some part of my had been telling me this whole time that I should be going nuts. I wasn't human anymore. I wasn't even male anymore. I was a neon yellow pony with bright red hair. I had hooves, not hands and feet. I had a tail. I was apparently very strong and very hard to hurt, which was good, but still far different than the old human me. But all of that wasn't bothering me much at all. And now I knew why.

I walked over to Twilight, and put my forleg over her shoulders. She looked up at me for a second, eyes brimming, and looked away again. "Twilight," I said, "do you know what a good Samaritan law is?"

"No," she replied, quietly.

"A good Samaritan is someone who tries to do the right thing, to help, not because they have to, or are obligated to, but because they feel they should. A good Samaritan law is a law made to protect someone who genuinely tries to help, because sometimes in trying to help, we do harm. For example, say someone saw a person get into a car crash, just like I was in, and the person in the crash was very hurt. The person who saw the crash tries to help, and they may even end up saving that other person's life, but they wind up losing their leg. Now maybe a trained doctor or nurse could have saved the person and not caused them to lose a leg, but a good Samaritan law gives the person who tried to help legal protection, so the person in the crash can't come back later and say, 'You saved my life but you cost me my leg, so I'm going to sue'."

"Would someone really be that selfish?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, it's happened," I said. "I think, that whatever else happened, you tried to help. You did what you could, and things didn't turn out perfectly. I think you'd be covered by a good Samaritan law."

"Peter, it's one thing to be legally protected, but I still hurt you. And when you say you forgive me, all I can think is that it's because of what I did to you."

I stopped to think again. Why was I so alright with this? Would I have been okay with what happened if I didn't have this pony spirit, or aura, or... I'd really have to ask Twilight to explain this thing to me. But whatever this thing was, it was the bit that was saying, 'You're right just like this'. More to the point, did it matter?

"Twilight," I said, "I used to hang out with some Zen Buddhists, sit zazen with them. Eventually I quit, but I always wished I hadn't. Anyway, they're some pretty together people. One of the big things is that who you are, your consciousness, what makes you, is always changing. Every second of every day, new experiences are changing that. If you asked me a question now, as opposed to ten minutes ago, would I give the same answer? No one knows, because that ten minutes of experience might change the answer I give, even if it's not directly related to the question. Now what I know is that I forgive you, the me who's here right now. The thing is that this is the only me that exists. The other one is in the past, not here anymore. So whatever he might have said, this is what I say right now. I've already forgiven you. You need to accept that.

"One last question: if it had worked out any differently, if your magic hadn't made this body, this 'spirit' or what have you, would I be alive now?"

"Well, I don't know," Twilight answered.

"It sounded like there was a 'but' that you missed there."

"Well, probably. I've still got no idea how this could've happened. It shouldn't have happened, according to what I know. So... I dont' think so, if it hadn't happened this way, then you probably would be..."

"Okay, then. Even if there were some consequences, I still count that as a good thing. I'll deal with the new me. And honestly, the old me wasn't that much to write home about," I said with a grin.

"Thanks, Peter," Twilight said, tears still in her eyes. "I still don't know how you can accept everything. I don't think I could." She looked around, and lifted the ball back over to the table with her magic. "I don't think I want to do any more lessons right now. Do you like to stargaze?"

"Huh? Just look at the stars, you mean?"

"Yeah, I think now would be a great time to just look at the stars for a while."

"Why not?"

I turns out that going up stairs is easier than going down them. Twilight had a balcony attached to her bedroom that had a telescope and a couple benches. We didn't say much for the rest of the evening. Both of us were probably afraid to spoil the moment. It was a nice night: clear and brisk, with hardly a cloud in the sky. In short, a nice night to watch the stars turn across the sky.

Author's Notes:

Well that wound up sort of deep at the end, huh? Such is life.