Wind blowing through my mane pulls me out of my sleep. Rising and stretching my arms above my head, I can immediately tell something is different. For one, I’m on a large pillow instead of the hospital bed. Another thing, I just rose up onto all fours from a prone position with my legs folded comfortably beneath me, which shouldn't be. Finally, I apparently have arms—or some close analogue—to stretch.

That’s not all though. Without even opening my eyes, I have an unusual sense of my surroundings, as though something is giving me a mental picture—albeit an incomplete one—of the area around me, as well as currents of air. For example, four feet to my left, there is a hospital bed with an injured unicorn mare napping comfortably on it. Just past her, there is an open window. Anything that is downwind of me, however, is surprisingly blank.

I can even see myself in a sense, and all at once the stretching of ‘arms’ makes more sense to me. It’s not an arm that I’m stretching at all, but instead a wing. I’m back in my body then. Heaving a sigh of relief, I let a smile envelop my face. There may even be tears of joy streaming down my face. It’s all over!

A small giggle to my right—an apparent blindspot to this newfound extrasensory perception—catches me off guard. My eyes snap open as I jerk my head to face the source of the amused eruption. Unsurprisingly, the source of the laughter is the young CNA, Candy. Being in a smaller form than Lyra’s body, Candy is now a few inches taller than me, even without the cute nurse’s attire.

“It’s something else, isn’t it?” she whispers, smirking. “I know exactly how you feel. I was amazed the first time I actually felt the Wind Sight too.”

“Yeah, sure,” I reply, not quite paying attention. Yeah, it’s kind of nice having a name for a sixth sense, but that’s kind of hard to care about having a new sense when you’re still coming to terms with the fact that you aren’t inhabiting somepony else’s body any longer, and that your own body is radically different from when you left it.

“Oh! If you want, I could hook you up with crash course in flying later on,” she says, prodding me cheerfully. “It wouldn’t cost you anything, since it’s technically rehabilitation. Well, I suppose from what your friends told me, you weren’t really a pony to begin with, making it habilitation, but that isn’t the point; it’s completely covered under Equestria’s free healthcare!”

For the first time since waking up, I look directly in her eyes. “You’re qualified, right...” I jokingly ask in a forced tone of hesitation. “Nah, I kid. I’d love that.”

From the bed behind us, we both hear a pained groan. Caught up in being in my own body, I’d completely forgotten about Lyra, but a glance at the bed quickly reminds me that Lyra is pretty banged up. For the first time in I-don’t-know-how-long, I can see Lyra full-on and not just from random reflections on glossy objects or in liquids. She looks absolutely terrible—even worse than the personification of her memory imprint—and she’s glaring right at me with reddened eyes.

“I’m really happy you’ve got your own body again,” she grumbles, not at all reinforcing her statement. “Unfortunately, somepony put my body through the wringer, and I have a terrible migraine for some reason.” Lyra gestures a hoof toward the door. “Just bring me my Bon-Bon, and let me get some rest... and turn off that darn light when you go.”

Since being tossed out of Lyra’s room, I’ve basically spent what seems like forever walking aimlessly around the hospital and answering Candy’s questions about Earth and humanity. She’s a very professional pony, but she’s still got lots of youthful curiosity. She’d ask things like “What’s it like there?” or “What are your people like?” You can probably imagine how difficult it is to describe completely foreign concepts like computers—yet they have things like pulse oximeters—or automobiles when the closest analogues you have at hand are arcade machines and horse-drawn carriages and none of the relevant technical knowledge to make the technologies sound feasible.

“If there’s one thing you’ll miss the most about being human or your home, what would it be?” Candy asks, finally.

This is the question I’ve dreaded most, because I’ve given that question a lot of thought while answering her others. Through all the questioning, I’ve been able to skirt the topic of human diets and the consumption of meat, but the thing I will miss most is meat! How would she react? She’s been pretty professional up to this point, but this is like the dreaded topic in fan-fics, right?

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but the answer’s meat.” I break eye contact before I continue. “My people are omnivorous, but the majority of protein in our diets comes from animal flesh. Poultry, fish, beef and pork, we eat it all.” My eye wanders just the slightest bit in her direction. To my amazement, there’s no look of disdain or disgust. I suppose being a nurse in the capital exposes her to carnivorous beings like griffons. “They aren’t sapient there, just beasts. They never built their own cities or anything like that.”

She looks thoughtful after a moment. “Well, I can’t say your reasoning is the best, but you do what’s in your nature, right?” she says cheerfully. “It’s not like you’ll be completely out of your element.”

I look at her, agape. “It’s not like eggs are that big of a stretch, but still...” Shifting my wings anxiously, I look away. “A hayburger just doesn’t compare to a nice steak... or even a tuna sandwich!”

Two hooves grab me gently, and suddenly I’m staring into Candy’s violet eyes. “I love tuna sandwiches!” she exclaims. “What? Pegasi love fish!” She must be reading my confused look. “Oh! You probably didn’t know if you were living with an earth pony and a unicorn, but pegasi often complement their diet with fish and other seafood. It’s kind of hard to graze on grass over large bodies of water, if you catch my meaning.”

Pegasi can eat fish. Sorry, this is kind of shaking my world here. Pegasi can eat gosh-darned fish! I don’t think I could be more elated to hear this news. So what if I wasn’t much of a seafood person back on Earth? This is as close as being told I’ve won the lottery as I’ll ever get!

“Please tell me this hospital has a cafeteria,” I say flatly.

“It does.”

“Now, please tell me you have tuna sandwiches there.”

“We do...”

With that, I tackle Candy to the ground in a great big hug. Screw hayburgers! I’m having tuna! “Take me there, please!” I whisper excitedly into her ear. “If I can have a tuna sandwich, I will officially be the happiest pony in this hospital, and you will become my all-time favorite pony outside of the Royal Family!”

Suddenly, a thought strikes me and I can’t help but roll off of her, breaking out in hysterical laughter. I mean seriously, imagine how this looks from the outside. One young mare has the other young mare pinned to the floor, whispering passionately in her ear about fish. I doubt anypony in Equestria would get the point—or would they?—but it amuses me like you wouldn’t believe.

“C’mon, get up you silly filly!” Candy whines, prodding me in the side. “If you keep rolling around on the floor howling like a loon, I’m going to get you fitted for a straitjacket.”

“Alright!” I giggle some more as she prods me just underneath one of my splayed wings. “If you keep doing that I’m gonna pee all over the place. You don’t—literally and metaphorically—want that on your hooves, do you?”

Candy quite hurriedly pulls her hoof away at the mention of urination. I don’t blame her; nobody likes walking in someone else’s pee. “Fine, just get up so we can get a some food in you,” she says, smirking. “I’m pretty sure half of this wing heard your stomach over your laughter. You’re probably delirious with hunger; that’s the only way to explain this outburst.”

If only she knew I’ve always been this screwy. She might just drop a load in her drawers, were she wearing any. “You’ve never met a mare named Pinkie Pie, have you?” It’s not a question so much as it is an appraisal. At any rate, she doesn’t take the conversational bait.

Over lunch and the buzz of the cafeteria, I once again find myself in conversation with the young mare. We’re nothing alike, but still I find myself interested in what she has to say. Somehow, we went from discussing lunch to discussing the future. I remember asking her what she planned for her life. At the time, I already knew she strove to be a nurse, but I was genuinely curious where she wanted to go from there.

After telling me how she wanted to go into pediatrics—not unsurprising given the cutie mark of a teddy-bear holding a candy-cane and a stethoscope—she turns the question on me. I honestly don’t know how to answer it. I’ve only just gotten my body back, and it’s still sinking in that I can’t ever go home. I haven’t even given my future in Equestria a single thought.

“I dunno, Candy,” I mumble to the table after trying to think about it for a few moments. “I’ve been so busy trying not to lose my mind for the last five days that I didn’t even give it any thought... I mean, if push comes to shove, I can always fall back on my writing...” My voice begins to hitch as my thoughts begin to flow. “B-but I’m not sure I can even f-f-focus on my own happiness w-when there’s a family out there mourning a f-foal that I still can’t help but b-blame myself for the loss of.”

It’s only as I finish my stuttering mess of a rant that I realize that the cafeteria has gone deathly silent. Not only is it unlikely that everypony heard that last part, it’s practically impossible given how quietly I was speaking. Looking up, I see Candy prostrating herself toward the doorway. Ominous...

“Soren, I had really hoped you would not blame yourself for what has transpired.” Before I can turn my head to gawk at the doorway, I hear Princess Celestia’s voice call out. It sends a shiver through my spine for no discernible reason just thinking that she’s here to see me. “You won’t ever be happy with that sort of attitude.”

I really don’t know what to say to this. Is she trying to tell me ‘Don’t worry; be happy’? Am I really stuck in some sort of faulty logical loop? My throat is completely dry now, in spite of the nice, moist tuna sandwich in my belly. “Be that as it may, your Highness, I can’t help but feel the need to do something for them, even if they’d rather never see me again.”

In spite of the fact that all eyes are clearly on Celestia, this disturbing feeling of all eyes being on me just won’t leave. Then, as if someone threw up a signal flare, all the doctors, nurses, and patients in the room suddenly have somewhere to be. Every mare, stallion and foal file neatly out of the room until only the Princess and I remain.

At this point, Princess Celestia makes her way over to the table, and plants herself across from me. “I understand that being displaced from your own world has shaken your very life to the core, but you mustn’t allow your bad experiences to condemn you to misery.”

I look at her weakly, ready to break off eye-contact at a moments notice. With a hitching sigh, I ask, “Your Majesty, is it really true that not even you or Luna can depetrify a pony after the creature that caused the infliction has been killed?”

A sad look of world-weariness takes hold of the Princess’s face. “Sadly, we cannot, my little pony. The magics behind a cockatrice’s glare are too primal and chaotic for even an alicorn to cure.” I could swear there’s almost this unspoken implication that Discord could fix it. “My sister, niece and I are not as infallible as my subjects would so like to believe.”

“I know, Your Highness,” I reply softly. “Nopony could have predicted just how strong Chrysalis was. That wasn’t your fault.”

She gives me this questioning look, no doubt wondering how I knew, before letting out an embarrassed laugh. “Yes, that is one of my most shameful moments,” she says softly. “Nopony should watch helplessly as their charges are used for food.”

Part of me compels me to nuzzle and comfort her, but a hard-coded respect for her—another hoof-me-down from Lyra, no doubt—won’t allow it. “So there’s no cure then?”

“Sadly, no.” Her tone of finality is disheartening. “Our top alchemists and magi have struggled to find a way to resolve this and many other magical ailments for centuries, but to no avail. The search for this particular cure has long since been abandoned.”

Alchemy... There’s an interesting little tidbit, but what form is Equestrian alchemy—potions and the like, or a conversion and manipulation of matter a la Fullmetal Alchemist? “Princess Celestia, forgive my otherworldly foolishness, but is it safe to assume that alchemy can best be summed up as potion-making?” The Princess looks at me curiously, but ultimately just nods. “Is the study of alchemy something only unicorns and zebras partake in, or are there alchemists of all races?”

“Alchemy is a much less magic-intensive study, relying more on the innate magical properties of ingredients than the alchemist’s own magical nature,” she explains in a soft, seemingly practiced tone. She probably uses this same voice when teaching her apprentices. “Unrestricted by the user’s nature, alchemy is a popular choice of study for non-unicorns who wish to become scholars of a magical realm.”

What am I even thinking? She said it herself that many have tried for centuries to uncover the cure to petrification and failed. Why would I expect to accomplish as an alchemist what they could not? The best I can do is provide an... unequine point of view. Surely my human nature can’t just solve anything. Still, if I can make even the least bit headway, my work could become the basis on which future alchemists could find a cure. Wouldn’t that be enough?

“Ah sister, you have found her!” a voice intercedes before I can begin voicing my thoughts. Unsurprisingly, for nothing really surprises me these days, a quick dip into Wind Sight reveals Princess Luna standing in the doorway. “I had been hoping to speak to her in regards to her recompense before her discharge.” The dark princess trots contentedly toward the table and takes a seat beside her counterpart. “What have the two of you been discussing?”

Celestia turns upon her sister with a rather worrisome smile—is this where the Trollestia meme really comes from? “Why sister, I do believe she was just about to ask to study your most favorite of magical disciplines.”

Luna turns her eyes to me with a curious look before returning her attention to her sister. “She wishes to learn Tulpa?” she asks, rubbing her chin with a hoof. "I'd have thought she'd be more wary of delving into having entities inside her head."

“No, sister,” replies Celestia in a flat voice. “Alchemy, remember?”

A blush creeps across the darker sister’s face as realization strikes her. “Oh!” she says. “Yes, well, that makes much more sense.”

Frankly, I’m not sure what’s happening. Is this some sort of inside joke that I’m missing? Is Celestia roping Luna into a really strange prank? I am so woefully confused now. “Um... Tulpa? What?”

Again, Luna flushes crimson—no easy feat for a pony a nice dark shade of blue—and quickly looks to me. “Never you mind that,” she instructs hastily, drawing a derisive snicker from her sister. “So, you wish to study alchemy?” I nod, suddenly finding myself drawn into her gaze. It’s almost as though she can see my thoughts, which I realize isn’t that absurd a thought given my last venture into the dreamscape. “Your motivations seem honorable enough—even noble—but in your own words, tell me why either of us should sponsor you.”

I can’t help but raise an eyebrow. There’s the hanging implication there that she’s already come to a decision and is just waiting for me to come to the same conclusion she has. “For one, you yourself mentioned recompense. That in itself implies a debt on your parts. Instead of repaying me monetarily, you could easily convert that debt into an education. Even if I cannot cure petrification, you have a bright young mind in the field of alchemy, and I come out with some transferable job-skills,” I offer, smiling as I watch Luna’s own smile grow. “Who knows what fun I can create?”

The two sisters look rather satisfied as the converse among themselves in private. By conversing in private, I mean that they must be speaking telepathically or something, because they’re just staring into each other’s eyes. Maybe their consciousnesses have left their bodies and they are now conversing on some private plane of existence. I really don’t know. They’re just... staring at each other!

Finally, Princess Luna lets out a sigh of relief. “That’s two birds with one grain, I suppose.” She turns back to me. “If you truly wish to become a scholar and practitioner of alchemy, we can certainly arrange that as your recompense. That will not only cover the remuneration for your troubles, but it also takes care of the quandary of your living arrangements, as you would be provided a dormitory at the university here in Canterlot.”

“What of the knowledge of Equestria that I lack but will undoubtedly need?” I ask, wholly serious. “Certainly Equestria has some sort of Graduate Equivalency Degree that I would need to take before attending the university, but I can only learn so much on my own in a short period of time.”

Surprisingly, Luna is not the one to answer my question. Instead, Princess Celestia angles her head downward to stare at the table. “That will not be a problem,” she says in that same sad tone that Twilight spoke in just yesterday. “Twilight will be taking a... sabbatical from her friendship studies to return to Canterlot for lessons of her own.” Oh. Oh! Now Twilight’s sorrow makes so much more sense. “I can arrange for her to tutor you for your education certification.”

I really don’t know what to say. I mean, Twilight is being taken away from her friends for an extended period of time as a result of her involvement in what has happened. It’s kind of disheartening to realize that my presence has irreparably altered the life of somepony I once idolized. “I-If she would have me...” I mumble. Raising my voice to a more audible level, I ask, “If she must return to Canterlot, might you permit her one last extended gathering with her friends, and Lyra and Bon-Bon? Lyra and I have something I think all of you should see.”

Celestia seems taken aback by my consideration for her pupil. Perhaps she still expects me to be angry with Twilight—I don’t know. The point is that I’m clearly showing unexpected generosity or kindness. “Consider it done, Soren.”

“No your Majesty,” I say softly. “I can’t be Soren any more. If I am to be a citizen of Equestria, I need a proper Equestrian name.” I glance at Luna and smile. “Thanks to you, Princess, I have one.”

The Princess certainly seems to have caught my drift. “From this day forth, let it be known that the human Soren Friedrich is no more,” she says in mock officiality. “In his place will forever stand the mare Silver Script of Canterlot.”

Author's Notes:

Well, this is the final 'chapter' of the story. I really had a blast writing this chapter, and almost put myself into hysterics at one point in writing it.

Don't think that this is the 'end' though. There's still an epilogue for me to write for you all.

It's probably no secret to most of you that I'm planning a sequel to this. In spite of the fact that at some point along the line Soren/Silver stopped being just me—or maybe because of it—I've become really fond of her. At some point early on in the story, I knew this would be a good jumping point for the creation of an 'Original Character'.

Another character that I've grown rather fond of writing is Candy. Yeah, she had a tiny part in the long run, but she was just really fun to write, you know?

Story wrap-up in the next chapter, folks.

Re-edited 12 July 2017