I awoke on a bed of books. My eyes were crusted. I was thirsty.

I pushed myself off the pile of literature and made my way over to the small window overlooking the town. The leaves of the large oak were threatening to cover the window completely, making the room quite dim. I threw open the window and brushed the leaves away with my magic, looking over Ponyville.

I can feel their feelings towards me. It comes in the mornings and in the evenings, right before I go to bed or right after I wake. I can tell whether I should stay inside or whether it’s safe enough to go out.

Yesterday I told myself I wouldn’t go outside, for I could feel their anger in my heart. A deep throbbing.

But the Princesses convinced me otherwise, since “Princess Twilight needs your assistance.” I knew they were bullshitting me, they just wanted me to go outside and get some fresh air. I couldn’t blame them. Being cooped up in a small house for two weeks straight can take a lot out of you.

I guess my personality from Earth carried over here, to Equestria. Back when I was a Sophomore I would stay inside all summer and play video games with my internet friends. And if you’ve ever stayed inside for long periods of time you would know what I’m talking about. You just are tired. All the time.

That’s actually how this all started. This whole “teleportation” thing. Being stuck here for three years. Not being old enough to know what was happening, much less where I was or how I got there. Magic is a crazy cool thing, but it can also be crazy dangerous.

Just like Cadance found out.

She told me the whole story a week after I arrived in Equestria. We were seated in her room in the Crystal Empire, the windows thrown open, door locked, and a breeze floating through the spacious area. Her husband, Shining Armor, was on guard duty. But luckily enough even he didn’t hate me as much as other people. Maybe it’s because he married the Princess of Love.

But he was cool. And Princess Cadance was definitely cool. She actually thought of me as a friend. Being the Princess of Love taught her to have respect for all living creatures, and therefore her level of tolerance and her peacefulness were higher than anyone else in the kingdom, even Celestia.

Cadance told me about the spell.

“It was supposed to be a new breed of teleportation spell,” she started, looking at the floor nervously, her magical aura enveloping a small spoon and using it to mindlessly stir her tea. “We had never been able to teleport large groups of ponies before without significant magical strain.” She paused, going over what she had just said. Meanwhile I was trying my hardest to levitate a book from her coffee table and bring it to me. Being new to magic I was having some trouble, and couldn’t get it to move more than a centimeter into the air before the strain was too much.

The book dropped to the table for the seventh time in a row. I grimaced.

Cadance lightly chuckled. I turned to face her, blushing at my magical ineptitude. “If you keep trying that you’ll have a massive headache.”

“Then how do you do it so easily?” I asked, leaning forward towards her.

“Practice. But, only a little bit a day until your magical reserves can strengthen and grow,” she added, noticing my look that said “what do you think I was doing?”

I leaned back again, placing my hoof behind my head.

“Oh, right,” Cadance set down her tea and continued. “With the spell I had prepared, we managed to successfully teleport a group of 10 ponies to the throne room.” The pink alicorn smiled, then sighed. “Celestia wanted to try it from further away, as the ponies we teleported were directly outside the castle.”

“So you’re saying that you did the spell from too far away, and you brought me here?” I butted in, confused. “All the way from Earth?”

Cadance sighed and looked out the window, overlooking the cityscape of the Crystal Empire. “We ponies don’t know how far away your world is from ours. It could be in a neighboring planet, right here in our own solar system. Only then would it be possible.”

“Then it’s impossible.”

The Princess of Love looked up at me, quizzically.

“How? It’s the only reasonable idea of how you got here.”

“At my world, we had a large space program. We sent up all kinds of crazy satellites and spaceships ‘up there,’ and a couple of them have even exited our own solar system. We only have eight planets. And none of them are capable of supporting organic life.”

I realized that I had stood up in the middle of talking and had been gesturing with my hoof. Cadance looked down again at her teacup in thought while I seated myself on the sofa.

After a few minutes of neither of us talking, I finally spoke.

“On a side note, why does everyone here seem to hate me?”

Cadance looked up at me quizzically for the thousandth time that day.

“What do you mean? In Equestria nopony really hates anypony.”

“Yeah, I think you’re wrong about that. When I stepped out in… uh… that capital city… all the ponies on the street stared at me, then started whispering to each other. But I look like any other pony, so how would they know I’m not from around here?”

Cadance was still looking at me funny. “What? They glare at me and everything?” Still no response from the alicorn. “I can show you. I bet you 10 bits that when I step out on that street, they will stare.”

“You’re on,” Cadance said, standing up on all fours.

The princess led me down the grand spiral staircase in the castle. The clopping of our hooves was resonated tenfold in the grand entryway. But I’ll admit it, I was scared.

For the past week, being outside had scared me. Not just because I was more of an indoors kind of guy as a human, but because of the looks they gave me. And the way they talked. And the way they turned up their noses in disgust and walked away. I knew something was up. Shining Armor even did it a little bit.

But on this day, I awoke with a painful sensation in my chest. I thought I was just a little sore from walking around all day, but this was different. It wasn’t physical, but emotional. And I hadn’t gone outside that day, so I didn’t know what to expect. Was I trying to warn myself? Trying to make me go back to my room and wait the day out? Do anything but go outside? I didn’t know. But I had a bet to win, a bet made with a princess. I was not going to let some heartache stand in my way.

Cadance’s magic threw open the grand castle doors and a rush of cool air greeted us, our manes flapping slightly in the strong breeze. We stepped outside.

And boy did the heads turn fast.

The Crystal Ponies glared. Snarled, kicked dust under their legs. But all I did was grin at the princess.

“What did I tell you, princess? They’re absolutely pissed for some reason.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Cadance said, shocked at the outcome. I turned to go back inside when I heard her voice calling back to me. “Wait inside, Adrian. I’ll ask around.” I nodded and closed the doors behind me. Without magic it was fairly difficult, but it seemed as though I had kept my muscle mass from Earth, too. And let me tell you, not going outside often does not mean I didn’t work out.

Forcing the doors closed took some effort, but I finally did it. I trotted back up the stairs towards the guest wing, where I would be making my stay. Normally the Royal Guards protecting the wing would be super chill with letting me waltz on in to my room, but I guess the odds weren't in my favor.

Should’a stayed in bed today.

“Halt,” one of the guards said. Their muscles tensed and their spears came together in front of me in an X shape. “You cannot pass into this wing.”

“Um,” I started, not knowing what to say. “I’ve lived in this wing for the past two days, why can’t I get to my room?” I moved forward again, expecting their spears to part, but their muscles only tensed more, as if they were expecting me to make some sort of violent motion.

“You are not like us, are you,” the guard who spoke first commented.

“No, not really, I just got here.” I was thoroughly confused now. They had let me in and out of my chambers over ten times now.

“Until you have proper clearance, you cannot pass.”

“Are you kidding me? You’ve let me though before? Why not now?” I stammered.

“Just let him through, Star Shield,” a feminine voice behind me demanded. “I need to speak with him in his chambers.”

Turning around just confirmed my assumptions. It was Cadance, but it looked as though she was unnerved.

“Very well, Princess. If you insist.” The guards removed the spears blocking my path and stood at the ready once again. I smiled.

“Thanks, guys!” I exclaimed. They glared at me, their brown eyes bearing down into my orange ones. I slowly stepped forward, testing what they would do. When all they did was glare, I picked up the pace and trotted down the corridor to the first room on the right, Cadance following in tow. The alicorn opened the door for me (a little harder than usual) and gestured for me to go first.

Once we were both inside, she shut the door, locked both the bolts, and fired some magic from her horn that filled the room, coating all the walls in a soft pink.

“What was that? And why didn’t they let me pass? And why do you look so terrible? No offense…”

“You cannot leave this castle, Adrian. Not until I say so.”

I was shocked. “What? Why?” I choked out, the words barely making it past my lips before the princess motioned for me to sit down beside the kitchen island.

“This may be hard for you, Adrian, but if you could just bear with me a-”

“I can’t go outside?! I can’t go outside! How is this okay? I need to go outside, I need fresh air, and I need to talk with peop-I mean ponies!” I sputtered, my words an incoherent stream of consciousness that was quickly losing sanity.

“Adrian!” Cadance's harsh voice brought me back to reality.

I sighed and looked into Cadance’s purple eyes. She was distraught, clearly.

“Look, Cadance, I can’t even use magic. I need to learn, which means going outside, and meeting people and learning things.”

“Adrian, you don’t need to learn how to use magic.”

“What do you mean? Of course I do! I’m a Unicorn!”

“No, Adrian.” Cadance’s eyes were sullen. She looked away from me, as if contemplating how to word her next sentence. But no matter way she could have worded it, the effect would still have been there.

“Adrian, you need to learn how to stop using magic.”

“They think you’re something you’re not, Adrian.” Cadance began, sadly. “Your magic is making them see… things. Things I cannot see.” She looked at my eyes, and saw that hers were full of fear.

I was speechless. A couple minutes ago I was fretting over how I wasn’t able to make a book lift off a coffee table, and now I was being told that I am always using magic. No, not just magic. Dark magic. That Cadance couldn’t sense. My eyes went to the window. Dark storm clouds were growing outside, and the coolness of the sudden change of weather was permeating the room. I shivered.

“Then how can I learn to stop it?” I inquired, my brain full of jumbled words and sentences. “You’re making them see things. Things I cannot see.”

“Hallucinations.”

“Making them angry.”

“They are afraid of their own safety. They think you are trying to kill them.”

“They will kill you, Adrian.”

I snapped back to reality. Cadance was silent. The window was closed. The room was cold.

I was dying inside. I had a problem that I couldn’t fix. And it was hurting the carefree, friendly ponies around me.

“Trying to kill them.”

“Hallucinations.”

“They will kill you.”

Back on Earth, I avoided conflict as much as possible. When my parents were mad at me I wouldn’t talk back, or argue, or make valid statements to make them see their errors or to leave me alone. I would ask how I could make it right. How I could fix things. When my girlfriend of three years decided to leave me for another guy she had known for a month, I didn’t ask why, or get angry. I asked how I could fix things. And when I couldn’t fix things, I broke.

I couldn’t fix anything here. And I was breaking.

Pretty soon I was lying on the floor, crying. Cadance was standing over me, attempting-and failing-to comfort me.

“Sh… Adrian, it will all be fine. We’ll work through this together.”

“I need to find out what’s wrong with me. What am I doing? Who can tell me?”

“There is one pony who lives in Ponyville. She is the Princess of Magic. She may be able to diagnose your condition.” I stopped crying and wiped the excess tears from my cheeks as I stood up.

“Where is she?”

“She is also an astronomer, she could find out where your home planet is in relation to Equ-”

“Where is she, Cadance.”

The alicorn stopped talking and looked down.

“The Ponyville Library. It’s inside a large oak tree. But please, go at night. I don’t know what these ponies could do to you.”

“I do,” I said over my shoulder as I stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room. Stopping at the coffee table I tried to raise a book off the table again. I failed.

“And that is…” Cadance started, trotting towards me. The look on her face told me she was waiting for me to finish my sentence.

“You already told me.”

“Trying to kill them.”

“Hallucinations.”

“They will kill you.”

Cadance sat down beside me on the couch and put her hoof around my shoulders. We sat there in silence for a while. Just enjoying the gathering storm clouds outside my window. The different shades of gray, the colors of the sunset as the sun dipped below the clouds in the distance, casting reds and oranges into my room. But then a shadow flew in front of the window. An opaque shadow.

A Crystal Pony.

She stopped and looked inside. Upon seeing me, her eyes widened and the next words that pegasus said were muffled by the glass but still very clear:

“THE MONSTER IS TRYING TO KILL THE PRINCESS!”

I looked at Cadance.

She looked at me.

“Screw waiting until sundown,” I said, standing up. “I need to go. Now.”

I grabbed a saddlebag from the hangar next to the door and threw it over my back. Cadance slipped some food from my refrigerator into it, and opened the door using her warm pink magic. I nodded to her, and she smiled.

“Be careful, Adrian.”

I turned my head back and smiled. Then I was out the door.

-=Third Person=-

Cadance stood near the window, gesturing “NO!” over and over again to the group of Pegasi throwing themselves onto the window in an attempt to crack it. At first only a few splinters of glass appeared. The Princess of Love watched in shock as the bruised group of Crystal Ponies made crack after crack, spider-webbing out from the center of their assault. The banging on the locked door didn’t exactly help either, considering Cadance’s locking spells went directly to her main source of magic, her horn. Which meant she had a splitting migraine.

She realised that either the guards on the other side of the door would break through, rendering her unconscious and labeling Adrian as the doer of such an act, or the window would break, possibly hurting her in the process, which would also be blamed on Adrian. But she had to buy him as much time as possible. Muttering an incantation under her breath, new pink auras sprouted from her horn and coated the walls in a warm pink glow. Then she took cover underneath the sofa just as the glass shattered.

The Pegasi smashed into the ground with enough force to make the ground shake and Cadance scream as her incantations broke, sending guards flying in through the door, spears at the ready. She had to act.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re here!” she blurted out, coming out from underneath the sofa and standing on her legs again. She fought back the pain in her forehead and managed to smile.

“What did it do to you, Princess?!” one of the guards asked, wide eyed. Cadance was confused. There was nothing wrong with her coat, her mane was more or less okay…

“Stay back!” the guards commanded, pointing their spears directly at the alicorn’s chest. She was afraid they would do something drastic. Cadance whirled around and faced the Pegasi, who had also begun to back away towards the window.

“What’s the problem, Star Shield?” the princess questioned, turning back to the guard in charge.

“I SAID STAY BACK!” Star Shield shouted, his eyes blazing with fear and fury. The guards gripped their spears tighter. Cadance started to move forward towards the guards in a welcoming manner.

“Please, Star, you can tel-”

However her statement was cut short from a blast of blue magic emanating from Star Shield’s horn. The blast caught the alicorn in the chest and she was thrown backwards across the room.

All Cadance could do was watch in horror as she hurtled out of the window on the 20th story and plunged towards the ground below. Her chest was burning and her horn was about to explode, but she summoned every last bit of magical energy she had and made one last spell.

“ArrrRRRGHHHH!”

A shout and a flash of pink light.

Star Shield looked down from the window to where the mangled, distorted Princess Cadance had fallen. He hoped he had made the right decision by forcing that monster out the window. The tentacles, the teeth, the blood, the suffering. He had no choice.

Star Shield sighed. He saw no body at the bottom of the courtyard, and the only evidence that any magic had been used at all was the grotesque flash of sickly green light that had teleported the princess away.

“The monster is not here,” Star Shield began. “But we have to find it before it can hurt anypony else. We cannot let what happened to Princess Cadance here happen to any other pony.” There were nods of agreement throughout the assembled group of guards.

Star Shield turned back around to face out the window and just managed to make out a fast-moving blur of orange weaving its way into the Everfree. “You see that, men? You three,” he said, pointing a hoof towards the Unicorns in the group, “can you teleport us over there to intercept it? I fear it is heading for Ponyville.” The Unicorns nodded in unison and began the spell. The guards huddled together as a blinding flash of white light engulfed them. Then the guards disappeared.

I shook away my memories and closed the window. Today felt good. I would be safe.

I stepped away from the window and looked over the attic where I had spent at least ten nights of my life. It was dark, dusty, and a little bit disorganised. I guessed that Twilight’s OCD hadn’t really touched this room since it was really only used for ripped and broken books, Spike’s little getaway spot, and my sleeping area when I was unable to leave Ponyville.

I pushed my pile of books to the side and sneezed as a large dust cloud came to meet my nose. Then I opened the hatch leading into the attic and threw down the ladder, making as much noise as possible. If I accidentally scared Twilight in any way, there would be painful repercussions. Plus, I had been intentionally avoiding the subject of what my magic would make the ponies see. And I didn’t want to take the chance that Twilight wouldn’t react negatively to a horrible looking monster jumping down from her attic.

“Morning, Twilight,” I shouted as I descended the ladder, making sure I pushed it back up to its proper place in the attic once my hooves were set on the floor.

“Hey, Adrian,” Twilight said brightly from downstairs. “Come down here, I have something I need to show you.”

“Sounds important,” I mused, beginning to make my way down the stairs. Another voice caught my attention. It was lower than the other girls, which could only mean one thing…

“Hey, Adri! What’s sha-oh my Celestia!” Rainbow Dash blurted from the bottom of the stairs. I froze.

“Is it bad?” I asked, scared. If I had felt great this morning but the ponies were surprised about something, that could only mean one thing. I looked horrid to them.

The first time a pony ran away was a week after I fled the Crystal Empire. I had made it to Ponyville, and under the cover of night I was able to slip into the Sweet Apple Acres apple grove and make a little home for the night in a random tree.

Once morning had come, I made my way into town. I didn’t feel nearly as bad as the day before, but I felt like something wasn’t… right. Three fillies were playing in the street with red capes, making drawings in the dirt with long sticks that a whitish one with purple hair was waving around with her magic. I knew that these weren’t exactly the people to ask for directions, but there was no one else on the street.

“Hello?” I coughed, hoping to slowly draw their attention so they wouldn’t scream.

An orange one looked at me and went wide-eyed. Then she was gone in an instant, pulling the whiter one with her. All that was left of the two fillies was a fleeting dust cloud. I sighed. The way they galloped away like that, it hurt me.

But then I noticed something else. The last filly hadn’t run. She was still standing in the middle of the street, cape over her shoulders. She cautiously trotted over to me, eyes meeting mine. I looked at her for a moment.

“Why don’t you run away like your friends?” I asked, hoping to play the SOB story card in order to get some sort of information out of her.

“Mah big sis’ told me to be strong in the face of danger, or something like that,” she cautioned, meeting my gaze with her big orange eyes.

“Danger?” I asked, confused. “What’s dangerous around here? The sky is blue, the grass is green, it seems alright to me.”

“You. You’re dangerous.”

I took a step back. But then I remembered what Cadance had said, and I lay down on the ground. She was right. They did think I was trying to kill them. Which meant that those two fillies would bring their parents. And then no more Adrian Decimus. Their hallucinations were getting the best of them. I needed to figure out why.

“How am I dangerous?” I began. “To Princess Cadance, Celestia, and Luna, I’m just an ordinary pony like you, or your friends. Look, my coat is gray, my mane is orange, I don’t have a cutie mark, what’s wrong with me?”

“Your coat is gray?” the filly asked. “To me it looks ripped. Worn down. You have tentacles comin’ out of yer legs. Yer mane is a mess, and it’s not orange. It’s green. And yer mouth is dripping with some red stuff. Yer teeth are long.”

I reeled back. Was that actually what she saw or was she just joking with me? “Why do you see yerself gray and orange when everypony else sees you as a horrible monster?”

“I don’t really know,” was my truthful reply. I sat down on my haunches and played with the dirt. “But I know that I’m not trying to do anything. Cadance said it was dark magic that I was unintentionally using. Some days it’s worse than others.”

“Worse how?” the yellow filly asked, sitting down next to me. She stared into my eyes with those big orange ones.

“Yesterday I was in the Crystal Empire,” I began. “But the guards and Pegasi drove me out. They thought I was trying to kill Cadance, when all we were doing was hanging out in my room. She doesn’t see me as a horrible monster, she and the other princesses see me as an actual pony. With a gray coat and orange mane. Same way I see myself. They drove me out.

“I ran. I don’t know what happened to Cadance, but I hope she and Shining Armor are alright. I got into some altercations along the way with some guards, but they were dealt with. When I got here it was midnight. There was no one else around, which was a good thing because I probably would have been driven out of Ponyville for looking like that. But now I don’t feel as bad as yesterday, which is probably why you're not running away, screaming to your parents.”

“Ah don’t have parents,” the yellow filly said. I looked at her.

“Well of course you do! Everyone has parents,” I started, trying to make sense out of the situation.

“Not me. I live with mah Grandma, big sis’ and brother. But that’s all.” The filly’s eyes were becoming droopy and sad, and I feared she was about to cry.

“What’s your name?” I asked her, causing her to look up.

“Apple Bloom. What’s yours?” The filly smiled.

“Adrian.”

“Adrian? That’s ah funny name.” Apple Bloom looked at the ground and smiled. “What does it mean?”

“I don’t think it means anything,” I answered truthfully. “I think that my parents just gave it to me because they thought it was cool. I don’t think it needs to mean anything, does it?”

“Sure it does!” Apple Bloom shot up from her seat on the ground. I cocked my head to the side in a questioning look. “Mah name is Apple Bloom, and Ah live on Sweet Apple Acres! My sis’s name is Applejack, and my brother’s name is Big Macintosh. And my grammy’s name is Granny Smith. We’re all named that because we are all apple farmers! Have been for generations.” The yellow filly turned around and gasped. “Wow, I guess you were right!”

“About what?” I asked, confused for a second time.

“Yer coat! And mane! It’s gray and orange! Still looks super scraggly and scratched, and your teeth are still really long, but it’s gray and orange!” A weight was lifted off my chest.

“Really?” I asked, looking at myself. “I look the same to me…”

“Not to me,” Apple Bloom said matter-of-factly. “Now, what did you come to Ponyville fer? Apples? Books? Sweets? Clothes?”

“I’m looking for a pony named…” I fished around in my saddlebag until I pulled out a folded piece of paper with a name written in horrible handwriting. “... Twilight Spar… Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle. Do you know where she is?”

“‘Course Ah do,” the filly replied. “Everypony knows everypony here. She’s the librarian. And one o’ the Elements. Same with mah sister!” I was impressed. This filly really knew her stuff. Or maybe everyone around here did. I really had no idea how many ponies this town held. “What do you want with Twilight?”

“Cadance told me she could help me find out what I’m doing to make all this dark magic appear,” I answered truthfully. “I need to figure this out before it gets out of hand.”

“She lives in the Ponyville Library, in the huge oak tree. Few blocks to the North and ya should get there in a jiffy!” I smiled at Apple Bloom, who smiled back.

“Thanks, Apple Bloom.” I started to leave, but then I turned around. “If your sister asks about me, can you just say that I mean no harm to anyone?”

“Sure thing!” Apple Bloom said, running in the opposite direction. “I gotta get home anywho, I got some homework ta work on. See you later, Adrian!”

No one bothered me on the way to library.

“No, you don’t look bad at all!” Rainbow Dash remarked, flying up to me and touching my coat. I cocked my head, confused. “Yo Twi, stop doing your egghead stuff and check out Adri!”

“It’s not ‘egghead’ stuff, Rainbow. It’s actual wo-WOAH!”

“What’s going on…” I asked quietly to no one in particular.

“You don’t look half as bad as yesterday!” Rainbow remarked. “Your coat is ripped and stuff, and your teeth are real freakishly long, but you’re not drooling blood from your mouth anymore and your tentacles are gone!”

“Damn, really? This is awesome!” I was elated. I smiled down at Twilight who smiled back. “Does this mean that all this is just running it’s course?”

“I don’t know yet,” Twilight answered, grabbing some papers off the desk with her purple aura. She flew them over to me and I grabbed them in my own orange aura, bringing them to my face. “Those are letters I sent to Luna and Celestia. Still haven’t got a reply yet.”

“Gotcha,” I muttered, reading the letters over. They were merely diagnostics on my current health and condition, as well as an attached chart of what I looked like on each day of the month. “Can you see a pattern in the days?”

“Nope. Totally random,” Rainbow explained over my shoulder. “‘Egghead’ over there and I have been studying these for an hour.” Twilight glared at Rainbow, then sighed and continued her work. “Nothing weird, except for the whole ‘scary as buck’ thing.”

“Right…” I said, disappointment evident in my voice.

“Hey, don’t feel so bad,” Twilight said. I turned my attention over to the purple alicorn who had begun pulling books off the shelves and levitating them over to the desk. “You don’t look half bad today.”

I nodded but the force of the diagnostic had already taken its toll. I descended the rest of the way down the stairs and sat down on the couch.

“Speaking of which, Twi, I got something to ask you about,” Rainbow started, flying over next to the princess and looking over her shoulder. Twilight turned her gaze to Rainbow, as if asking her to continue. “Some Pegasi in Cloudsdale were giving me some weird looks as I came over here this morning.”

“This is the first time you’ve spoken with me in person in a while,” I mused, laying back on the couch and gazing up at the ceiling. The rings in the massive tree made natural concentric circles on the roof. “Twilight does on a mostly daily basis, but she never really converses with any ponies on the street since she started helping me. Have you gone out recently, Twi?”

“No,” the purple alicorn answered. “I mainly just teleport to the throne room. There aren’t many ponies there, so I haven’t noticed anything changing.”

“Good. If you don’t want them to give you bad looks, keep away from me or any other pony for a week.” Rainbow looked at me, then yawned.

“Right, because if I hang with you then your magic rubs off on me. Got it,” the Pegasus said. “Alright. Cool. But I gotta dash, so see you tomorrow, Twi, and see you in a week, Adri!”

I waved and Twilight did too. Then the Pegasus was gone.

Turning back to Twilight I gave her the same message.

“Don’t try going outside for a while, Twi. You’re just asking to be mauled.”

“Got it,” Twilight responded, still working on her notes. “You’re heading back to Canterlot today, right?”

“Eyup,” I answered, standing up and stretching my legs. “I should be good to go outside, but I don’t really want to make the trip on foot. Plus I haven’t mastered that teleportation spell yet and I would probably send myself to Tartarus. Would you be cool teleporting me to my apartment there?”

“Absolutely. We’re making progress, motherbucker, this is progress!” Twilight came close to me, and I looked into her deep purple eyes. I smiled. She grinned. “Alright, hold on to your horn.”

“I know the drill,” I said, bracing myself. Twilight laughed.

“‘Course you do.” Twilight stepped back and her horn lit.

Next thing I know I’m in the middle of my apartment in Canterlot, in front of the mirror. For just a second I saw my long teeth, matted and cut coat, and long, sharp horn. Then it all flashed back to reality. My dull gray horn, my short teeth, my clean coat, and my blatant lack of Cutie Mark.

This day was going well.

Author's Notes:

This chapter was combined with the two following chapters and renamed.