Another pointless meeting, how long has it been already?

Celestia took a quick glance towards the big window to the right of her throne, and tried to measure the time by checking the sun's position in the sky.

Four in the afternoon.

A small, barely noticeable grin appeared on Celestia's face. She looked down towards the noble who has been wasting her time for half an hour complaining about his 'financial crisis'.

"… I am making enough sacrifices already. My butler's butler had to fire his butler's butler. And one more thing-"

"Oh look at the time, it seems day court is now officially over. I'm afraid we'll have to end this talk this instance, Golden Watch."

Golden Watch 'humphed' in irritation and bowed before leaving, not noticing the scowl sent by Celestia to the back of his head.

Once he was out of the throne room, two guards positioned near the doors closed them shut, officially signaling the end of the court.

Celestia sighed and raised her hooves to rub her aching temples. It was mind-boggling seeing so many nobles complaining about the most mundane of 'Problems'. It was quite disheartening, really. Canterlot was the capital of all of Equestria, a beacon of friendship, and yet everywhere she looked, Celestia only saw greed, selfishness, and lies. It was thanks to Fancy Pants and the Sparkle family that Celestia hadn't completely lost hope in her ponies. Fancy Pants was an extraordinary pony, an example to all the good things a noble can do. And the Sparkle family, or more precisely, Twilight Sparkle, had proven that nobles can be warm-hearted as well. After all, Twilight Sparkle is a noble.

"Twilight…" Celestia muttered. Oh how she wants to look at her former student and see the curious little filly once again. To hug her again like they used to back then. Even to lightly scold her when she did something naughty, like dye her mane green.

"But she's a grown mare now," Celestia had to tell that to herself time and time again, as much as she wanted to be with Twilight once again as a student and mentor, and maybe, just maybe, as mother and daughter.

Celestia sighed again, this time, adding more sad hue to it. Her guards, after years of serving their princess, sensed her sadness. It was subtle as a leaf falling onto the water's surface. But every leaf leaves behind gentle ripples. And these ripples did not escape their sharp senses.

"My lady," said the guard to her right with a hushed voice, as if speaking any louder will cause him some great grief, "do you want some tea to be delivered to your private quarters?"

"That would be nice, yes," Celestia nodded the guard off and watched him leave the nearly empty throne room through a back door behind the throne. She looked around the spacey room and observed its occupants, all of which were her guards. Oh how she wanted to just pick one up and mother the life out of him, they just looked so cute standing still. Thankfully, Celestia resisted that random urge and stood up from her seat.

She allowed herself a few more moments of gazing before walking towards her private quarters. Maybe a nice, calming tea is just what she needed.

Once out of her guards' sight, Celestia let her regal mask falter as a deeper frown graced her serene face. It was at that moment that she heard laughter.

"Come on princess, let's go, let's go, let's go…"

Celestia turned around just in time to see a transparent lavender filly zip pass her. The filly stopped and looked behind her.

"Are you coming princess?" she asked impatiently.

"Yes Twilight, just relax a little, I'm not that young, you know," said the princess. But it wasn't Celestia.

And then, a white alicorn trotted into Celestia's view. She too, was slightly transparent. The small filly hugged the princess and then trotted alongside her until they simply vanished.

Celestia shook her head and rubbed her eyes. She opened them to see the empty hall again.

'Tea, definitely tea…' she thought to herself.

Celestia rounded a corner and entered into the private part of the castle, where the princesses, as well as a few ambassadors, resided.

Celestia finally reached her private quarters and slowly opened the doors into her massive room. There, on the small table near the fireplace, was a cup of tea and a steaming tea pot. Though the want for tea had long since died, Celestia took the cup and the tea pot with her magical grasp and poured some of the light brown liquid.

Once the first sip of tea reached her taste buds, the dam broke and she began to sob, her mask of serenity and peace completely shattered.

Oh, how she wanted a foal to be hers, how she longed for the feel to be needed as a mother and not as a ruler, how she craved for the words 'mommy' to be directed to her.

It was during lonely moments like this the Celestia really lets herself go.

"Ahh, that was a good sleep." Adam yawned and rolled to the other side of his bed "But more is needed," he said sleepily.

Today was Sunday, he was alone in his house, and he just had a great nine hours sleep.

A little annoying dinging sound interrupted Adam's peaceful daydreaming. He lifted his head from his soft pillow and turned to look at his measly phone.

He just got an E-mail.

With his plans to stay in bed now ruined because he was awake and alert, Adam decided to turn on his laptop that was conveniently placed on a desk next to his bed, and read his E-mail.

"Is this another ad from Ubisoft? Getting tired of their shameless advertising…" he mumbled angrily. Though unlike his predictions, it was neither an ad, nor a notification from all those attention whores on Facebook. Instead, it was a private message.

"The fuck? Who is this [email protected]?"

What an odd mail. It was an invitation for a private beta test of a new MMO game.

'The pony chronicles' or something along these lines.

"Hmm, interesting. Why not."

Adam clicked the link below the message and it directed him to a site.

After a few registration processes and entering the beta key accompanying the private message, Adam clicked the download button and installed the game.

To his surprise, the game took only a few minutes, minutes in which he read a little about the game. It was original. Instead of choosing a race and a class separately, the available races had different set of skills.

It was peculiar, and a little suspicious. Adam was no stranger to MMO games and beta testing. His laptop might be old but it was manageable. The fact that this random dude just gave him a beta key raised a few red flags in Adam's mind.

Once the download and installation process was complete, Adam ran a few virus tests to make sure he wasn't downloading any viruses into his laptop. The results came back clean and Adam took a sigh of relief.

He closed all the open windows on his laptop and double clicked on the game's icon. The screen went black for a few seconds and then started to play a cinematic to give a bit of exposition. Adam didn't pay much attention since he was still rather sleepy, and went straight to the character creation.

True to the game's name, the characters were all ponies, and the variety wasn't that impressive.

A limited choice between a unicorn, a pegasus, and a simple pony.

The game detailed each race and their unique abilities. According to the game; Unicorns were basically mages, pegasi (what a weird plural name) were all about stealth, and simple ponies were warriors.

"Ahh, the classic choice between a mage, a thief, and a warrior," Adam mused. It was a simple choice really. "Mage it is…"

Adam clicked on the unicorn symbol and was directed to the character appearance. It was slightly more detailed than what he would expect from MMO games.

He decided to go with a young unicorn. Light mocha coat, black mane, and green eyes, somewhat similar to his real life look.

After the creation part was over, it was time to test the game itself. Adam clicked the launch button and the entire screen went black again. Only this time…

So did his vision.

Adam groaned as his senses slowly returned to him. He felt weird all over his body, and he felt really fatigued all of a sudden. He slowly opened his eyes, his vision still somewhat blurry.

"Oh man, what the holy fu~… The fuck happened to my voice!"

Suddenly, Adam was alert once more, only this time there was a small panic accompanying his new state of mind.

His voice was not his own. Sure, he's the only one who spoke but it wasn't his voice. His voice was deeper and more masculine, right near the end of puberty. Now though, his voice sounded higher pitched and child-like, something that terrified and confused Adam at the same time.

Adam tried to stand, but as he stood up he felt his center of gravity pull him down again and he fell. Adam groaned yet again and tried to stand on his knees instead. His hands felt like they were clutched to a fist only more… naturally. He wanted to rub his eyes to alleviate some of the drowsiness, but the moment his hand touched his face he recoiled in shock.

He felt fur.

Slowly, his vision returned and Adam risked a glance at his own hands.

Only they were gone!

"Wh-what's happened to me?!" Adam stammered. Instead of hands, all he saw were two light mocha hooves. He slowly lifted his left hoof and examined it closer. He started rubbing his face with the hoof. His hoof apparently.

His entire face was messed up!

"What the fuck!" Adam all but yelled. His face was not his own, it felt slightly longer and was covered with fur. A small lock of black hair sailed into his vision and Adam looked at it intently. At least something remained from his real body.

A small tickling sensation brought Adam from his thoughts. He felt it down his butt. He craned his neck to look behind his back…

And saw a tail.

At this point, Adam was hyperventilating and curling into a ball of panic, clutching his eyes shut. He had hooves, tail, and the general shape of a pony. It wasn’t beyond weird, it was maddening.

Adam was too busy being panicked that he didn't notice the pegasus guard landing near him and looking at him worryingly.

"Umm, excuse me *cough* sir, where are your parents?"

The gruff voice of the guard snapped Adam out of his small mental breakdown.

'Oh thank god, maybe I can ask someone for help, yeah, I'll just ask him… to…' Adam opened his eyes, expecting to see a man. Instead, he saw a winged pony clad in golden armor. His mouth moved though no sound could be heard. Slowly, Adam rose from his position and carefully backed from the pegasus.

The guard, sensing the young colt was probably about to bolt, quickly took a step backwards. He took off his helmet in what he hoped was a calming gesture and gave the colt a weak smile.

"I'm not gonna hurt you little fella. Just tell me your name and I'll help you find your parents," he said soothingly, trying to defuse the situation. Years of training taught the guard to read body language and he could see how tense the colt was.

The guard took one step forward.

The colt didn't move.

Feeling a bit more confident, the guard took a few more steps, and stood mere inches from Adam.

Adam, for his part, was petrified. Here he was, in a strange body, looking at a supposedly mythological sapient creature. Was he scared?

You can bet your sweet ass he was.

So, being the rational and sensible human/pony thing that Adam was, he did the only reasonable thing at the moment.

He punched the guard in the face and ran like a little bitch…

Author's Notes:

Hey guys, just testing an idea that got stuck in my head for a while. It's also something to let you guys read while I'm working on rewriting 'The elder brother'. And don't worry, I'm also working on 'Half pony, half human, the perfect daughter'.

Also, don't forget to thank Monsieur Connoisseur for editing this chapter. You did a great job you magnificent bastard!

Have a nice day, cheerio...