The days on the estate soon became a pattern: breakfast in the morning, training, lunch, reviews, and then dinner. I disliked how much into a rut we had fallen into, especially now that Earth could use help, but it was necessary. Even though I could cast most spells, it was their use that counted. Twilight had tried to explain the concept to me, and we found common ground. Magic was like trying to push a thread made of wool through the eye of a needle. Some had a lot of wool, others did not. Some could do it in one go; others needed many more attempts. Trixie was sensitive by nature, but her wool was short. Twilight had both a lot of wool and the required sensitivity. I lacked in both departments and usually tried to squeeze the entire ball of wool in one go through a rather small eye. The reason for this was simple: I wasn’t used to magic. Therefore, I spent one morning after the next repeating each spell over and over again. The lack of a second source of magic quickly became evident in my exhaustion.

“Twilight, I need a break….” I hadn’t even moved an inch in the last hour, but casting the same spell on the same stone was mentally more demanding than physically yet still had the same effect. Said pony was sitting behind me on a cot in the large garden and naturally had her eyes focused on a book. It hovered to the side as she examined me.

“I don’t mind,” she answered briefly and went back to her book. Good for her, sitting in the shadow. I laid on my back down on the well-trimmed lawn and observed the clouds above Canterlot. Some distance away, I could hear Dawn and Sweetie Belle playing hide-and-seek with Holly and discovered Rainbow, who was casually drifting around on a cloud. I got an idea how to get myself some shade.

“Hey Rainbow!” She jolted up and looked down in confusion. “You mind getting me a cloud as a sun screen? Please?” I saw her lips forming into a grin, and I knew that that was a no. She flew over to a small formation of clouds, caught one, and began to head in my direction at a ridiculous speed. I tried to get on my hooves, but it was too late. She came at me like a dive bomber and released the cloud. In fear of getting hit by the object, I held my hooves up, closed my eyes, and waited for the impact.

That was when it hit me. Not the cloud but a thought. If they were made of water vapour, then I should only get a cold shower since I wasn’t a pegasus, right? I opened my eyes again. The cloud was directly in front of me and had stopped, stopped by my own hooves. Astonished, I pushed it to the side and got a look at Rainbow, who had also been expecting an impact.

“Wha—? How did you…?” she stuttered and came closer to check on what had just transpired. That was when I heard an outcry of horror behind me, and I felt something pulling on my sides. Twilight, who had watched the event with interest and amusement, held me with her magic and stroked the feathers of a wing… my wing. Confused as I was, I first looked over the pair of feathered appendages growing from my sides before looking up to Twilight.

“Please tell me you tried a new spell on me…” I asked her but she only shook her head. She kept examining my wings and stroked over one with a hoof. Immediately, I pulled it in. “Hey, that tickles!” I snapped at her but got no reaction. In fact, her view now turned up to my forehead, and I somehow knew what she seeing, or rather, what she was not seeing. I began to scan the area with a hoof myself and came to the same conclusion: my horn was missing.

“I need to do some research. I’ll be back soon,” Twilight called and was off into the house. I looked after her for a few seconds before turning upright and testing my new appendages a few times.

“How did you do that? Is that some spell?” asked Rainbow, as confused as I was.

“I have no idea…” Twilight came back with tweezers, pulled out a few strands of hair from my coat, and was off again. Once more, we looked after her. “Well, at least someone is having their fun,” I remarked.

“Why one? You can fly now! That’s the best thing in the world!” Rainbow announced and made a small loop for emphasis. “Come on! Try it!

“No thanks, I’d rather stay on the ground.” She looked like someone who just had cod liver oil poured down their throat.

“How does somepony not want to fly?” It must have been a foreign concept for Rainbow.

“I have vertigo, Rainbow! I can’t even...” I looked around. “I can’t even look down from that window up there without getting sick.” I pointed at the window at the first floor of the two story building. I was exaggerating perhaps, but the three meter tower at the swimming pool was my archenemy. The blue pegasus only shook her head and pulled the cloud from before over.

“Then it’s time you conquer your fears!” she announced and suddenly picked me up and put me on the cloud. Surprised by her strength and the fluffy feeling in my stomach, I failed to realise what she had planned for me. The cloud, with me atop, picked up speed, and within an instant, we were a few hundred meters above ground. It didn’t take Rainbow to prevent me from escaping – the sheer height did that job. With a scream, I fell back on the cloud and desperately clung to this weirdly solid construct of water vapour. My screams were accompanied by Rainbows giggles as she kept on accelerating. We flew one round after the other around the estate when all suddenly there was a hard stop. The forces of inertia still applying, I instantly made a forward roll and ended up with only my forehooves grabbing the cloud, twenty meters above the ground.

“Rainbow! Bring him down now!” I heard Twilight shouting, and I could see my driver was hanging in her purple aura. She only gave a sigh and began to slowly but steadily push down the cloud. Barely had it gotten it within a more acceptable distance when I let go of it and pushed my body on the ground.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou….” It was all I could say as I hugged the dirt.

“Rainbow! What were you thinking?! We don’t know what had caused the effect. What if he had suddenly changed back?!” Twilight was frantic, but I wasn’t sure if it was about me getting injured or over almost losing a test subject. I decided that it was the former.

“Calm down, Twilight, I had it all covered. If he had fallen off, I would have caught him…” she flew a few small loops around the fuming unicorn “...just like that!”

“Darn it, what’s going on out here?!” AJ came through the open patio door and looked honestly confused. “I thought I had heard Dawn screaming.” That statement was too much for Rainbow, who was now rolling on the ground, laughing like mad. Twilight ignored her and stepped over to me.

“You alright, Light?” Still breathing heavily, I nodded and turned my head back so I could see AJ upside down.

“I think that was me.” I told her, and seeing as her expression changed, she probably noticed something missing.

“Okay, what in tarnation is going on here, sugarcube, and where is your horn?” Unable to give her an answer, I only looked over to Twilight, who could shrug her shoulders.

“I haven’t analysed the samples yet.”

“As you can see, we are working on a problem. Until then, I need to get used to these…” I tried to move my wings but nothing happened. Wondering, I stood up and realised that I was lacking both horn and wings. “Twilight... I’m starting to panic here…” She pulled some hair from my coat again with a bit more force this time.

“Sorry, no time for the tweezers.” With that, she disappeared into the house, again.

“So… you are an earth pony now?” AJ remarked and took a closer look.

“Looks like… from unicorn to pegasus to earth pony. I hope it doesn’t stay this way.” AJ gave me the evil eye.

“So you’re saying that being an earth pony is bad?” I wildly shook my head and held up my hooves in defence.

“Nonononono, not at all. What I meant was the changing. You know that I don’t care as long as I got be with you….” True story. I never had magic in my life before and flying was out of question.

“Ugh…” Rainbow shoved a hoof in her mouth. “Way too cheesy. I’m gone, taking a nap.” I couldn’t care less what the troublemaker had to say and gave AJ a kiss.

“I hope Twilight finds out what’s wrong with me….”

I spent the rest of the day as an earth pony and quickly realised that it helped to have access to magic every now and then. Moving the faucet or shower was way easier with magic than with hoof or mouth, just like all the doors in Canterlot. The main population consisted of unicorns so it was understandable that the doors were made for them. I could understand why Rainbow preferred flying through the library’s window over opening the front door.

Pinkie even wanted to throw me a party, a first-unicorn-then-pegasus-now-earth pony-party to be exact. Cadance, however, had some sympathy for my troubled soul and asked Pinkie to delay it until Shining Armor was cured. The next big challenge was now ahead of me: lunch. Rainbow, for whom the word etiquette had no meaning, was eating like a pig, to put it mildly, but that didn’t seem to bother the others. Twilight and Cadance ate with knife and fork aided by their magic, just like I did before, while AJ ate with her mouth from the plate, one bite at the time. The little ones had taken their food outside for a picnic. Carefully, and with the aid of my tongue, I managed to pick up one of those fried flowers and place it more or less in my mouth. The first five times the desired food had always fallen back on the dish, something AJ observed with a smile.

“I somehow gained a newfound respect for earth ponies,” I said as I swallowed down the flower. It tasted similar to bilberries. The flowers generally tasted like berries. On bread, they were like jam and honey; while fried, they now now tasted more akin to french fries with a strange ketchup dip. The hay fries, as a garnish, on the other hand (or hoof), were tasteless. However, they gave a fine aftertaste of something akin to woodruff.

“Too bad it had to come down to this to realise that, sugarcube,” AJ replied and took another bite from her dish.

“You know that I spent the majority of my life without magic. I mean, the interactions with the world, like doorknobs, the shower handle, those things. I can grab simple things with my hooves but other things just won’t work.” Twilight swallowed and coughed slightly.

“Those things were actually intended for unicorns only. The differences in technology came from the time when the three tribes lived separately,” the walking lexicon explained.

“My mother often told me about those dark times,” Cadance added. “She was traveling with Celestia back then, and she had seen a lot of suffering. It was understandable, though, as no pony trusted the next after Discord’s thousand year long reign of chaos.” I became uneasy as Cadance spoke about the dark past of Equestria. I got reminded of the dark ages on Earth, with the only exception that history took a turn for the good here, whereas on Earth war was still an everyday occurrence as people still didn’t trust each other.

The table became silent for a while. “Already a theory on what happened with me, Twilight?”

“Mmm.” She gulped. “A rough one. I told you about your DNA a few days ago.” I nodded. “Half your DNA is Celestia’s, so it’s from an alicorn. The other contains parts of Changer, simply because you two were the same person, and something else that I have never seen before. My assumption is that it’s the alicorn segment that interferes with the unknown one. Did you do something unusual this morning? What were your thoughts when it happened? What spells did you use?” I reflected on that.

“The last spell I tried to cast was a solar beam and thought about… actually, I thought about the runes. It still takes me a lot of concentration to cast these spells. You know I was pretty tired and barely had any magic left. But the trigger was the cloud that Rainbow wanted to throw on my head because I imagined it to be a solid block, rather than water vapour.” I looked at Twilight, she looked back, and I think we had the same theory.

“Albia!” we said simultaneously.

“She created both Celestia and Luna, both powerful enough to command the heavenly bodies that were also their special talents,” I finished the first thought.

“And since the same DNA is also in you, it amplifies your special ability. You can change objects, or in this case your body. The material is available since an alicorn is amalgam of earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn,” Twilight concluded.

“But how can I control it? I ain’t got a horn anymore to use magic.” Once more, I touched my head. I had somehow gotten used to that horn.

“You actually changed from a pegasus to an earth pony without a horn. If we find the trigger, then you should be able to control the changes.” Suddenly, the chair under me got pulled away. What surprised me more was the lack of gravity that followed.

“What was that supposed to be, AJ?” Said pony now standing behind me pointed at my side. I turned my head and saw a blue wing with white tips flapping autonomously, the same on the other side. That was also what prevented me from falling on my rear. “What the actual….?”

“Ponies do by default what they can do best. Since transformations are your talent, I thought I’ll give it a try, sugarcube.” Both Twilight and I looked at her with astonishment. “What? Yer doing as if I never said anything smart before,” she answered, slightly offended.

“It’s not that. I just know that it would have taken days for us two to discover this. If you know a lot, you think complicated. Sometimes it helps if someone with less insight of the mater brings you back to the basics.” A wisdom that my teacher for software programming had beaten me around my head. “You are not stupid, AJ, and no one thinks that. You just have a different field of expertise. I bet you know more about trees and plants than me or Twilight.” Said pony was about to protest but decided to let it go.

“It’s nice that you see it that way.” I pulled the chair back under my rear but my wings suddenly disappeared, and I felt a familiar tingle on my forehead.

“Hey, my horn is back!” I screamed in delight, and almost instantly, knives and forks came into my direction.

“Well, with you ponies around, it never gets boring.” Cadance laughed.

“You really had to run to your mom at once?” We all stood outside in the garden and watched as the sun was slowly setting, waiting for my mother and Luna to arrive. After our little discovery at the dinner table, Twilight of course had to immediately send a letter.

“Of course! If somepony can help us with this issue, it’s the princesses.” She was right. We had tried for the entire afternoon to control my ability, but aside the trick with the chair and the occasional ‘surprise’, we hadn’t reached far. Since we couldn’t rely on these tricks, a different solution was necessary. “Also, what’s so bad in calling for help?” It was actually a pretty good question. Maybe I wanted to accomplish something myself. Ever since I had gotten here, I had always gotten help with everything, but that was only a superficial excuse. I couldn’t explain it myself why I was so mad about it.

“Forget it…” Twilight rolled her eyes before we spotted our arriving guests on approach to the estate. From the settlement at the mountainside, which stretched down to the valley all the way to Manehatten, one had a nice view on the castle above, from where two spots were coming in fast. If you were to run the distance, it would take about half an hour, but for the two royals, it took just a fraction of it. So they were on final descent shortly after and were standing now in front of us in the gardens.

“Good evening, everypony,” Celestia greeted us with a smile.

“We wish ye a good evening as well,” Luna added and passed over the estate.

“You too a good evening, mother.” Cadance stepped closer to Luna and both nuzzled each other. I greeted Celestia by bowing to her and gave Twilight the primacy of hugging her mentor.

“What’s the matter, Light? You don’t feel like greeting your mother with little more love?” She turned to me as she let go of Twilight. I ignored her statement and went straight to the point.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not in the mood today. We are here for something else, right Twilight?” She nodded and Twilight stepped closer.

“At the moment, Light is once more a unicorn, but if we let him buck a tree…” Twilight’s horn flared, and an apple tree shot out from the ground. She had used that spell the entire afternoon. It wouldn’t hold for long, but for the sake of demonstration, it was enough. I moved over to it and struck out at it. Although I had practiced, not a single apple came down on the first try. I struck it again with more force, and this time the bark splintered and all the apples came raining down. They looked delicious but sadly were inedible. Celestia and Luna both observed and nodded at me as I stepped back to the others as an earth pony again.

“He can control it subconsciously, but without the motivation…” Celestia motioned for silence and nodded to Twilight that she had understood.

“This ability is quite impressive and I agree with your observations.” Probably those featured in the letter. “It is certainly an enhancement of his talent caused by the DNA we both share. I can even tell you why it doesn’t require magic to change forms, only to maintain it.” I perked up at those words. “We alicorns, which also applies to Light, live for as long as our magic source is sufficient.” Since that constantly produces new ones, they were as good as immortal. “The shapeshifting is caused by your soul, and your body reacts. As long as there is enough magic, you will be able to change forms.” That explained why I would change back to a unicorn eventually. The capacitor was empty.

“I think I have an idea on where to apply to get this thing under control.” I couldn’t move my soul like I used to be, but since I was able to see and feel it, I should be able to influence it.

“It would be of a significant tactical advantage to master all forms.” We turned around to Shining Armor, now standing at the door to the garden.

“Honey, you should be staying in bed,” Cadance said and hurried to him.

“I’m fine, thanks sweetheart,” he assured her and turned to the other royals. “If we are going to enter this other world, it would be a big benefit for us if he could fly and to control his ability.” Celestia nodded in agreement.

“The next hearing is going to be next week. Keep preparing, everypony, so that I will not have any other choice but to approve of this endeavour.” That was the main reason for our daily meetings in Canterlot. By now we had most issues addressed.

“These provisions have been made. That’s why AJ and I will head back to the farm tomorrow,” I said as everyone looked at me. “She’s missing her family and is going to be away for a potentially long time, so she should be spending as much time with them as possible. I will, of course, keep training.” Their smiles of approval were all I needed.

Author's Notes:

Oh look, a chapter.

Thanks to LtcWest for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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