"...What did you do?" The cyan pegasus kept staring at the dark form. It looked like a pony, but its body wasn't colored solidly.

The unicorn tried to catch her breath. The spell she had used, had taken all her strength and she barely could keep up the magic-light on. "I.. I used a spell... An ancient spell..."

"What the hay kind of a spell turns a monkey to a zebra?!" The pegasus yelled, the shout echoing along the Ghastly Gorge.

"Human..."

The pegasus gave an angry and frustrated huff. "Whatever!" She moved closer to the laying unicorn, confusion and anger mixing together in her voice. "What kind of a spell is that!?"

Twilight closed her eyes, giving small sigh. "A... A forbidden one..." She regretted doing it. It had been a split-second idea and she hadn't thought it completely through. "Black Magic."

Just hearing the two words made Rainbow's spine crawl. "If it's forbidden, then why did you do it?"

The unicorn was left silent. She really didn't know why. Right after she got her thoughts together after Jonathan's unbelievable revealment, she had immediately thought of this particular spell. She had read about it once before, when she found it from the basement. It had been hidden behind the back wall of the basement's bookshelves, covered in years and years worth of dust. "I don't know why."

Rainbow had moved next to the striped form. She definitely hadn't expected Jonathan to change to a zebra, but there was something more concerning in her mind. "Twilight!" She supported herself with her wings, as she put her healthy hoof under his nose. "He..."

"He isn't breathing..."

***

"Twilight?"

The unicorn was staring to the far distance, her horrified mind going through a hell of emotions.

"Umm, Twilight?"

Her ear twitched slightly, but she didn't care. Nothing mattered to her right now. Except one thing, one emotion.

"Twilight?"

Regret.

"Twilight?"

The purple unicorn snapped her head towards the speaker. "WHAT?!"

Fluttershy eeped in fear and slowly backed away. "I... I j-just w-w-wanted to ask you, a-are you o-okay?"

"Okay?" Twilight said levelly, and stared in the frightened eyes of the pegasus. "Okay?!" She stood up from her chair and approached the scared stiff pegasus. "Am I okay?!" She shouted, receiving a quiet whimper of fear from Fluttershy.

"I almost killed him!" Her shout echoed throughout the halls of the Ponyville clinic.

Silence ensued, as Twilight continued to glare at the cowering pegasus. The sounds of sobbing broke the purple unicorn from her trance. Twilight realized she had just shouted at the kindest pegasus in Equestria, at her best friend.

"I'm..." She now felt even worse. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy." Twilight extended her hoof to comfort her friend, but the pegasus backed away. The unicorn lowered her hoof in defeat. "I'm sorry..." She turned her back at the sobbing pegasus and slowly walked away, tears of regret falling down her cheeks.

***

"Twilight?" A soft but firm voice asked.

The purple unicorn recognized the voice, it was a matter of time before She came to talk to her.

"My faithful student, are you alright?" The majestic alicorn stood next to her student, head lowered to the same level of the sitting unicorn. Twilight had come back to the same hill, where Jonathan had told his story, just few hours earlier.

The purple unicorn lowered her eyes towards the green and chilly grass. She wasn't alright. She already felt awful after Jonathan's life-story, she felt even worse now after she had almost killed him. Not to mention shouting to Fluttershy. Twilight closed her eyes, her lips curled to a frown and tears started to flow down her cheeks.

Celestia sat down next to her student, and took her into a warm, motherly hug. "It'll be alright." The alicorn whispered to her sobbing student's ear.

For a time that seemed like eternity for Twilight, they just sat there, both embraced in a warm and comforting hug. The purple unicorn let out a sniff. "I'm sorry..." She whispered.

"For what?"

"For..." She bit her teeth together and took a deep breath, trying to fight off another series of tears. "For using the forbidden transformation spell."

Twilight felt her mentor tense up at the words, but relaxed quickly. The unicorn hugged her teacher tighter. "I'm sorry..." Her lips quivered and she broke out to another series of sobs, resting her head on the warm neck of the alicorn.

Celestia knew the spell; what it did, how it affected the recipient and what it would cause later. "I forgive you, Twilight." The after effects of the spell were everything but good. Her student must have not known those facts, otherwise she would not have used it.  "I forgive you..."

After seeing how her student had reacted to Jonathan's condition, Celestia hoped she could do something. Seeing her favorite student suffer was one of the worse things she had experienced.

"I heard what happened between you and Fluttershy."

"I..." Twilight choked up, unable to talk through the storm of emotions.

"She understands, and I do too."

The purple unicorn felt a weight lift off in her chest. She sniffed and pulled her head back to look her mentor in the eyes. "How about Jonathan? Will he be okay?"

Celestia lowered her eyes. She knew Twilight had done it just because she wanted him to forget all those bad memories and emotions, to let him start a new life here in Equestria. The spell wiped the recipient's memory completely, leaving only the portions that make the person like he is. Memories shape what we are. In this spell's case, it forcefully blocks out the memories, leaving them to shape the person deep in the person's subconscious.

It was a very risky, and thus forbidden, spell. Even Celestia Herself could not perform it without the risk of killing the recipient outright. She was amazed how Twilight had managed to do it, but she was Her favorite student after all.

"Princess?" The purple unicorn called, the alicorn seemed to have lost in her thoughts.

"Twilight..." Her student had tried to do what her heart had said. The way she did it however, had been the wrong one. "Jonathan..."

"Jonathan doesn't have much time."

Her eyes widened in the climbing fear. "W-What do you mean?"

"The spell's effects will kill him in a year."

***

Jonathan slowly came to on the hospital bed. Giving a tired grunt, he forced himself to a sitting position, which felt slightly unnatural. "Where am I?" Puzzled by the situation, he moved his hand to scratch his head, only to feel something hard hit his head. "What the...?" He looked at his black hoof, and black and white forearm. His eyes widened.

He couldn't remember anything. Absolutely nothing came to his head, as he tried to dig his memories for what could have caused this. His personality and identity was left intact, and that identity belonged to a human.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

In panic, he rolled himself off the bed, hitting the hard clinic floor with a thump.

The door of the room opened and Nurse Redheart galloped inside. "What's wrong?" She looked at the bed. The sheets were gone and she heard some odd ruffling sound.

"Wh... Wha..." Jonathan whimpered in shock on the floor, tangled in the white sheets of the bed.

When this new patient arrived last night, they said they didn't know his name. They said they had found him from the bottom of Ghastly Gorge, unconscious and not breathing. How he had gotten there was a complete mystery.

Looking at the zebra frantically moving his hooves, Redheart feared he had suffered brain damage from the lack of oxygen. "Hey? Are you alright?" She asked softly, moving closer to the panicked zebra.

Jonathan stopped trying to move his arms and feet. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the snow-white pony. "Wh.. What did you do to me?" In fear, he furiously tried to move himself away from the white pony, his hooves banging and sliding on the tiled floor. "Wh... Who are you?"

Redheart cocked her head in surprise. She had seen zebras before; or one zebra exactly, but she did know who ponies were. Lowering her head, she applied a warm smile. "Shh, don't worry. You were brought here last night unconscious." She said softly. "You weren't breathing. We took care of you. You are safe here." The nurse pony tilted her head slightly. "I'm Nurse Redheart. May I ask what's your name?"

The zebra had calmed down, Redheart's soft voice had that kind of an effect on ponies. She had become a nurse for her ability to talk and calm patients down. It was a great gift and highly appreciated skill in the profession.

He took a small look on himself, the contrast between the black stripes and the white fur seemed slightly mesmerizing. "I'm..."

He turned back to look at the white earth pony. "I'm Jonathan."

Redheart took a step back in shock. The Jonathan she knew was a human, from another world, who mysteriously had ended up here. Now a zebra claims he has the same name? If it was really Jonathan, how he didn't remember her? If he was really a zebra, he wouldn't ask 'what did you do to me'. What had happened to him?

"Why you look so horrified?" The zebra asked, sounding afraid.

Redheart gave herself a mental shake. "Your name just sounded familiar, sorry." She rarely lied, but now she felt it was necessary. "I have to ask Twilight about this..."

Jonathan didn't really believe her answer, but he concentrated his thoughts to get familiar with the new body, shoving the feelings of fear and shock away. "Okay, so left hand is left front-hoof..." He slowly managed to untangle himself from the sheet. "This is going to take a while to get used to." He said to himself.

He still felt horrified by the fact he was a zebra. A four legged, striped horse. However, he also felt slightly intrigued, despite the sudden transformation and complete memory wipe-out.

The white earth pony kept looking at the zebras efforts to turn himself on his stomach. She was still trying to understand what could have happened to him. It had to have something to do with magic, which caused more concerns. "What side effects it had? What would it cause in the long run?" She pulled the clipboard from the slot at the end of the bed. Going through the initial examinations, she didn't find anything out of normal. He was healthy. He was a zebra at its peak health and condition.

She however couldn't resist an amused snicker as the prime-condition zebra fumbled on the floor, trying to get up.

"What's so funny?"

Redheart wiped the grinning smile away. "No-nothing." She knew why. Learning to walk on four hooves was natural to ponies and zebras alike; but to a human that has been transformed to a zebra, it was probably going to take some time. "Let me help you."

The nurse pony helped Jonathan to get back on the bed. He had already got hang on how to move his extremities, but it would take a lot of time to learn to walk, or even stand. Jonathan sat uncomfortably on the bed, glancing at the white earth pony. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." She gave him a small smile. She turned to leave, only to remember one thing at the door. "I know somepony who could help you with that."

Jonathan raised a brow, as if he didn't know what she had meant.

"Apparently the lack of oxygen caused you to lose the ability to walk. I know a pony who can teach you to walk again quickly and efficiently." Redheart gave an amused huff. "Or 'in lickedy split', like she would say."

"I'd appreciate that, thank you." Jonathan gave a small smile to her. The thoughts of his sudden transformation still hanging over him like a dark cloud. "I have to learn to walk first..." It sounded horrible to him, having to go on without knowing what happened to him, but somehow, he felt good. A small part of him didn't want to know. He felt nice in this new, but foreign body and the residents here seemed caring and nice. Why'd he go and ask mad questions, when he could just live on?

"I'll tell her to come see you tomorrow."

Redheart closed the door behind her. Jonathan was left alone in the silent room. Not feeling like sleeping, he started examine his new body; how it moved, how it felt. The tail in particular was an odd sensation.

"This is going to take a while to get used to..."

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