Goldenseed stared up, dazed and confused. He was looking at himself, along with the siblings. His confused, tired and hurt mind tried to make sense of the sight, but it couldn't. “W-what?”

“Interesting,” Beefcake said softly.

“Well, it's what he was on the inside,” Goldenseed said. The other Goldenseed.

“Who... who are you?” the real Goldenseed asked. He was slowly helped up, by himself.

“It's me, Aetherbind.”

“Ow ow ow ow owww!” he whined, holding his head. The movement of raising it made the headache even worse.

“Shhhh, dear,” Goldens-- Aetherbind said. “The pain in your head will go away slowly, here. Drink this.” A small red bottle was pushed to his lips and he drank from it. The potion within was strong and bitter, making him recoil. However, the first mouthful made his mind foggy and suppressed the pain, so he drank deeply of it. Once it was empty, it was pulled away. “How do you feel?”

“Better,” he groaned, still rubbing his head. “Did... did it work?” He felt a nagging dread in his stomach, but his mind felt so fuddled he couldn't focus on it.

“Mmm hmmm. Come with me.” He was led to a mirror and stared into it.

He stared back, except that was Aetherbind. That meant the other one in the mirror was him. His mouth fell open. His reflection mirrored the action, shaking any doubt he had away.

He wasn't an earth pony any more, he was a zebra. He had a sky blue coat, with soft red stripes and a gentle green mane, that got darker the farther it went from his body. All the medals and curls had fallen out, leaving it straight and limp. However, that was the least shocking part of his transformation. For one, his cutie mark was gone, replacing with little black marks across his flank. He also seemed to have gained, or lost, something important. “Am... am I...”

“You're a mare,” Aetherbind said softly, before quickly lunging up to cover the zebra's mouth and stifle the scream. “Blast it, child! Are you trying to get us caught?”

She, or rather he, removed the hoof after a few seconds. Goldenseed gulped. “But... I'm a mare! I... how is this possible? You said--”

“It changed your race, did you think changing your gender was impossible?”

“B-but I'm not a mare on the inside!” the once-prince whined, little tears welling up.

“Apparently a good part of yourself sees you as that way.”

Suddenly hooves enveloped the new mare from behind and she found herself pulled to Cheesecake's chest. “There there, sweet darling. There's no reason to be frightened. You wanted to be an adventurer, did you not?”

She slowly nodded.

“Then why be afraid? Are you really willing to let one month of being a mare stand between you and your dream? If it's really so frightening, we could always go to your father, tell him what we did?”

That sent a spike of horror through her. Bad enough to be a mare now, if her father found out what she tried, even worse, found out she was now a mare, she'd never hear the end of it. She'd be lucky if she even kept the throne after such an act, her father could very well give it to her sister. “N-no. I can be an adventurer still! It was just a bit... shocking.” She took slow, deep breaths. The mare holding her helped as well, allowing her to calm down and think semi-clearly. With the initial shock gone, she didn't think it would be so bad to live as a mare, it was only for a month after all. “Will my magic be affected?”

“Not at all, dear,” Cheesecake said with the gentlest of grins. “However, if this ruse is to succeed and you are to be allowed to begin your adventures, we'll still need your help.”

She nodded, and then glanced to Aetherbind. “Why does she look like me?”

He smiled back, or rather his previous body did. “Isn't it obvious? Somepony has to take your place for a month, if nopony is going to know you're missing. Would you rather having your father in a panic, searching the lands for you?”

The zebra shook her head, though once again that feeling of dread filled her stomach. She struggled to squash it. “I ummm... so does... what do I do now?”

Aetherbind smiled. “Don't worry. The potion I took will only give me your form for a month as well. Then you'll come right back, nopony the wiser. I just need a little bit of information from you before I do it.” She leaned forward and gently gripped his chin, making him stare into his eyes. “I will need to ask plenty of questions, but this will make it easier. Don't resist...”

She stared into the eyes as they began to glow green. Her eyes sagged slightly as she began to feel dazed, her foggy mind getting more and more muddled. She didn't resist, but she couldn't stop the feeling of distress boiling inside her stomach, though she tried to suppress it and avoid fighting him.

Then he started asking questions, small, minor ones. However, as cloudy as her mind was, Goldenseed struggled to answer each one, the words coming out in a little fog. He asked how far her training had gone, about the last few years. Then he asked something that jarred her from her stupor.

“I haven't seen your mother around, is she away?”

“H-huh?” she asked, shaking her head. The fog seemed to fade and Aetherbind's eyes stopped glowing. “We don't... talk about her.”

The now-earth pony nodded, smiling. “I see. I think I've gathered enough to allow me to pretend to be you for as long as we need. Hows your head feeling?”

“Fine. It's... it's better.” She stared in the mirror and smiled. The more she thought about it, the more she figured it wouldn't be so bad. She didn't really feel awkward now that she thought about it and her legs were a bit shorter, so she didn't feel nearly as clumsy when she stood or walked. Her magic would be fine and she didn't have to deal with new wings or a horn, so there was not much new for her to get used to. She felt her confidence rise. “I think I'm good.”

“Wonderful. Now, we'd best prepare you for your trip.” Aetherbind's eyes glowed for a moment as a small pouch flew out of her bag. She spilled out the contents onto the bed. A small pearl, and an assortment of bronze, silver and gold bits dropped onto the covers. “Now, do you know how to properly use money? Haggling, and all that?”

She nodded quickly. “O-of course! I can do it no problem.” Fortunately, her father had taught her such things when she was younger, though it was namely for when he would be called on to determine the prices of objects and if somepony had a legitimate case for being swindled. She'd never actually haggled herself, though. “What's the pearl for?”

“This is a magical pearl. When activated, it will allow us to speak with you. All you have to do is hold it to your ear when we speak, and we can talk. Make sure you hold onto this. Understand?” She saw a strange gleam in the stallion's eye as her stomach did another jump.

She nodded rapidly, before Cheesecake scooped everything back into the bag and frowned. “You're going to want to lose the crown and... other things. Adventurers wear clothing to fight, not look pretty. Well, at least at first.”

The three then proceeded to dress her up, giving her a small, gray robe similar to an initiates. However, as opposed to the mundane robes she'd worn before, she could feel magic in the robes, sliding along her body like electricity and making her stripes tingle. They even had a wand they gave him. “Where did you get these things?”

“Okay, do you think you'll be okay on your own?” Aetherbind asked, smiling at the zebra and ignoring the question. “Once you're gone, you'll only have a month. However, if you're scared that you can't do this, we can go to your father and--”

“No! I... I'm ready!” Goldenseed said defiantly. “I can do this.”

“Good. Now, hold still.”

She went still, even holding her breath. Aetherbind grinned and his eyes glowed once more as a red scroll levitated out of their bags.

Goldenseed stared intently at the scroll as the letters on it came to light. As the final letters glowed, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her skull, shoving her forward. Then the world around her disappeared. She felt her body evaporate as she was pushed into the magic streams that flowed through the world. Dazed and confused, she tried to focus as she tumbled through the magic, her body lost in its flow and careening wildly through the world. The pain in her head grew stronger and stronger, soon making her fight to maintain consciousness.

It came to an end as harshly as it started. She was jettisoned back into the real world, landing with a pained groan and burying in a snow pile. Her head felt as if her skull was cracked and she saw a few droplets of blood on the snow around her.

It took her a few seconds to realize she was not only surrounded on all sides by snow, it was daytime. The sun was blinding, its light reflecting of the sea of white around her as more of it fell from above. She started to stand, but everything hit her at once as her head exploded with such pain she blacked out for a few seconds. When she recovered, she was laying on the ground on her side, the falling snow having started to bury her.

With a pathetic burst of energy, she reached into her money pouch and pulled the pearl free, shaking so badly she could barely hold it. However, when she held it up to her ear all she heard was static.

She let out another whine, before sliding it back inside. She gripped her wand in her mouth and slowly used it to prop herself up. It snapped after a few seconds, sending her tumbling forward into the snow, and gashing her cheek against the jagged wood.

Goldenseed let out groan, before rolling back over and trying to get to her hooves. More droplets of blood were covering the snow and, to her horror, she realized it wasn't just a minor headache. Her head was bleeding, heavily. Even through her muddled, dazed state she knew how dangerous wounds like that were.

She closed her eyes and reached out a hoof, drawing on the magic of the land to cast a quick, healing spell. Pain shot through her skull, alighting it like fire as she collapsed once again, the world disappearing in a white hot flash.

Author's Notes:

Hey all. Sorry this chapter's a bit short. I expect the next few to be pretty long, so I didn't wanna over whelm the next chapter. If anyone's curious why I had his transformation this way, it's because this story is kind of an expansion of a short joke story I had in mind, involving fantasia. It's just evolved into this. Hope you like it.