---

Gregory’s first memory was of someone chanting something over him in a language he didn’t quite understand. As he continued to come back to consciousness, he could feel a tingling all around his body, and it felt as if he was floating. Listening closer, he thought he could identify the voice as belonging to someone he’d spoken to recently, but he couldn’t quite piece it together. In his delirious state, he wasn’t even entirely sure where he was.

“Looks like it’s working, Cellie,” a very familiar male voice said, “your patient’s starting to wake up.”

“Keep casting the healing spell, sister,” another voice said, “the wounds are nearly healed.”

Gregory lay still and listened closer. The chanting voice was feminine and very soothing. He felt a claw grasping his hand as a voice that filled his heart with warmth and love asked, “He’ll be okay, right?”

“Don’t worry, little griffon,” the male said, “Cellie here knows plenty of healing spells from her pony counterpart. See? Look! All healed.”

A heavy weight was placed on his chest and the same voice asked, “Gregory? Please be okay…”

Slowly, memories began to come back to him. The battle with the massive monster, being eaten alive, slicing his way out with his sword, then collapsing. He opened his eyes and found himself staring into two gorgeous deep aquamarine eyes that were brimming with tears of worry and fear. Tears that became tears of joy as the griffon flung her arms around Gregory’s neck. “Ooof! Nnng…hey there, Gabby,” Gregory croaked out as he weakly put one arm around her back, rubbing affectionately.

Gabby’s grip on him tightened and he could hear her sobbing into his neck. “You had me so worried!” she said through her sobs as he felt her wings spreading around his body. She then sat up, angry tears pouring down her cheeks as she pointed at his chest. “Don’t ever worry me like that again!” She then clung to him once more. “I’ll make you regret it…” she sniffed.

Gregory smiled. “I’ll make it up to you,” he replied as he slowly looked around, only to see three other humans around. Without the impending doom of the fight against the creature, he could get a closer look at the oddly colored humans. Two of them he recognized immediately, that being Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna, although the third one, a skinny middle-aged man with amber yellowish gray skin, stood nearby. He had light yellow eyes and crimson pupils, black hair with a pair of gray streaks on the side of his head around the ears and a thin white goatee. It took him a few seconds to place the voice and the person, but soon he realized that this had to be the human version of Discord. “How long…was I out?” he asked.

The human version of Celestia came up to him, a tired smile on her face. “Just a few hours,” she said. “You had your girlfriend here scared.”

Gregory nodded as he continued rubbing Gabby’s back affectionately, looking down at his griffon lover. “I’m sorry, Gabby,” he said softly.

“Chancellor Gregory Graystone, are you feeling well?” Vice-Principal Luna asked.

Gregory nodded, then paused when he registered just what she’d called him. He looked over at the dark blue skinned woman. “What did you call me?” he asked.

“Oh, our apologies, young human,” Luna said, “‘Tis a long and arduous tale.”

“Selene, you’re doing it again,” Celestia chuckled slightly. Gregory then noticed that this Celestia seemed to have some southern accent. It was subtle, but it was there.

“Long story short, kid,” Discord said, “the three of us are older than we really look.”

Celestia chuckled, then turned back to Gregory. “For example, my name isn’t Celestia Solaris. It’s actually Celeste Star. This is my younger sister Selene Star, and this is our old friend Kane Fox.”

Gregory’s mind was spinning from the sudden onslaught of information. He had no idea what was happening, and he’d just woken up. Discord, or Kane, seemed to notice this and looked at Gregory sympathetically. “Sorry for the infodump,” he said apologetically. “I just gave you the short version. You should rest. The nurse can bring you and your girlfriend something to eat. You feeling up to some food?”

Gregory gave Kane a nod. “I could eat,” he said. “Does this place carry cheeseburgers? I haven’t had one in a while.”

“Verily,” Selene said as she stood. “And for the young griffoness?”

Gregory looked down, but his girlfriend was still unable to speak thanks to her tears, so he looked up. “Make it two, please,” he said.

“I shall inform the chef posthaste.” With that, Selene got up and headed out, followed closely by Kane.

Celeste watched them go, a small smirk on her face. “She’s been like that since she remembered her past lives,” she said, turning back to Gregory. “Are you feeling better now? That magic spell I used is old but it’s effective against internal and external injuries.”

Gregory nodded, trying to sit up, but with Gabby still clinging to him it was hard. Seeing this, Celeste came over and helped Gregory into a sitting position, giving him a better look around the room he was in. It looked like a small hospital room with several other beds separated by white curtains. There were fluorescent lights on the ceiling that illuminated the area as well as a desk nearby with a cabinet full of what he could only guess were pill bottles. There were monitors over each bed and one small window next to his bed that looked out over the ocean. He looked out and saw the island they’d just left. It looked so peaceful that it seemed impossible that there’d been a battle there with a massive monster.

He noted that the light outside looked like a sunset so he turned back to Celeste. “What time is it?”

“Nearly sunset,” Celeste said. “You’ve been out for a few hours.” She moved to grab a nearby chair and sat next to his bedside. “I imagine you have several questions?”

“More like several hundred,” Gregory replied with a small chuckle, “but the first and foremost is how the others are? The griffons, dragons, changelings and my other friends? Zecora, Starlight, Gilda, Gia, Gallus, Daenerys, and Lady. Surely there’s not enough room on this ship for everyone.”

“You’d be surprised, actually,” Celeste chuckled. “Yes, your drake friend can’t exactly fit onboard, but there are rooms available for everyone else. This cruise wasn’t fully booked.”

“Gotcha,” Gregory said, running his hand through Gabby’s plumage. The young griffoness was slowly starting to calm down, but she was not any closer to easing up on her grip. “I’ve gotta say, it’s strange seeing humans with such…unusual skin and hair color.”

“I know,” Celeste agreed. “I wasn’t always like this, either. I used to have a less colorful appearance too.”

That piqued Gregory’s interest. “‘Used to’? What happened?”

“It’s a long story,” Celeste began, “but the short of it is that we were once part of a society of humans from the American Frontier who were magically transported to the…Dragon Lands, that’s what it’s called now. We were called Nova America and for decades we lived in peace with the dragons. Then, for some unknown reason, some ponies arrived and cast a spell, calling us a danger to the world.”

“Do you know who they were?” Gregory asked. “Were they led by someone with a wizard’s hat and cape?”

Celeste closed her eyes and remained still for a bit. After a while, she shook her head. “No, Star Swirl and the other Pillars weren’t there.” She opened her eyes. “I don’t know who those ponies were, and if I don’t know, then it’s a good possibility the Princess doesn’t either.”

“Fair enough,” Gregory said.

“As I was saying,” she continued, “they used three strange crystals to send us to Tartarus. When we showed up there, our villages and cities were with us. We weren’t exactly in the best position to keep living down there. We had no sunlight, so our crops would start to die off quickly, not to mention the fact that there were giant predators. We did have drakes with us, and they and their dragonriders were pretty instrumental in finding us a new home. We actually found a very old looking floating island in the middle of nowhere.”

“Atlantis,” Gregory said.

“You’ve heard of it?” Celeste asked.

“We’ve been there before,” Gabby explained.

Before Celeste could reply, Selene and Kane came back in, each holding a white ceramic plate, each with a steaming cheeseburger and fries along with two glasses of water. Celeste put a tray on the bed and both plates were put on it. Gregory took a bite, and a shiver ran down his body. He hadn’t eaten a burger this good since he’d first left Earth. When Gregory had swallowed his first bite and was wiping his mouth, Celeste took the opportunity to say, “What’s Atlantis like now? My group didn’t stay around for too long after we began to change.”

“It’s an amazing city, from what little I saw of it,” Gregory explained. “There were lots of novans there, and it seems like they’re really self sustained.”

“When we arrived there, the city was abandoned,” Kane said. “but it looked like it hadn’t been empty for long.”

“Indeed,” Selene said without missing a beat. “We were safe there, but not before our beloved drakes sacrificed their lives in order to protect us. Their dragonriders changed into a new form. Red skin, black hair, forked tail, wings, basically demonic.” She looked at Gregory somberly. “Seeing your drake brings me nothing but joy, though. My sister and I would have been dragonriders if those ponies hadn’t cast us into Tartarus.”

“We lived in the city for a few years before some of us began experiencing some sort of mutation,” Celeste said, reaching up and running a hand through her multicolored hair. She looked at the parts in her hand, sighed, and let it fall loose. Gregory couldn’t help but think about how incredibly beautiful Celeste really was. “Those of us who weren’t turned into those demons began experiencing the transformation you see now.” She pulled her sleeve up to reveal her light magenta colored skin.

“There were a few of us who actually started to…see other memories,” Kane said. “Celeste and Selene were two of them. There was another who saw herself as something called a changeling called Chrysalis, but poor Kathleen couldn’t handle it.”

“She…couldn’t take it, and she…” Selene’s breath caught in her throat and she looked down.

Kane came up and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “It wasn’t your fault,” he said in a calm and gentle tone.

“I should have seen the signs of her discontent and fear,” Selene said. “I failed her.”

Kane and Celeste exchanged a look, then Kane gently led the now crying Selene out. Celeste turned to Gregory. “Sorry about that,” she said, “she and Kathleen were close. They were…very similar.”

Kane led Selene out of the room, holding her close and whispering quietly to her. Gregory and Gabby watched them go before Gregory turned back to her. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. Are you okay?”

Celeste nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll be alright.” She began chuckling. “I’m just still trying to get used to having all these memories reintegrated into my mind.”

Gregory looked at the chuckling Principal, then watched as her expression became somber. She looked down at her hands, then sighed. He watched her slumping down in her seat, although in his mind she looked like she was acting very old. Older than whatever age she really was. “You okay?” he asked instinctively.

Celeste jumped a bit, then looked back down at him. “Ah, that remains to be seen,” she said. She held up her hand and Gregory watched as it began glowing. “I’m a lot older than I look, Mr. Graystone. I’m just now beginning to remember my past few lives while living in this world. And I have memories that I believe belong to my pony princess counterpart. Not to mention it seems I have some magic of hers.”

Gregory brushed his hair behind his ear, briefly taking note that his ear felt off, but he was more focused on Celeste. “Are you saying you know everything Princess Celestia knows?”

She nodded. “Princess Celestia Solaris,” she said. “I don’t know how that’s even possible, and that scares me. All of this is terrifying me.” She hugged her body and shivered. “I’m just a damn teacher. This life I’ve lived as Principal Celestia has been the best life I’ve ever lived. I’ve been with my sister, I’ve been shaping young minds and helping them graduate into the real world, and much more.”

Gregory looked up at the worried looking human with concern. He may have hardly known this woman, but she was human, like him. Not that he wouldn’t try and help a non-human who was going through this, but he felt almost called to try and comfort her. Slowly, painfully, he tried to sit up only for Celeste to quickly vacate her seat and place her hands on my shoulders. “Rest, please,” she said in a warm and reassuring tone, “the healing spell I cast will only work best if you don’t move around too much. You need until tomorrow morning to recover.”

Gregory nodded and lay back, but not before reaching out and putting a hand on her arm. “I may not understand what you’re going through,” he said, “but I can listen to you if you want. And if not me, then maybe your sister and Kane?”

Celeste, to his relief, smiled ever so slightly. “Thank you, young man,” she said gratefully, “I appreciate your concern. But right now, I think you should get some more sleep.”

He looked down at the bed, his mind a jumble of questions. He didn’t feel too tired. “I don’t know if I can sleep right now. I’ve got a lot of questions.”

Celeste nodded. “I understand, young man. Perhaps answering some of them will alleviate your tension.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Gregory said, “I wouldn’t mind hearing more about what happened to you. If you’re okay with sharing. I won’t ask if it makes you uncomfortable.”

Celeste shook her head. “I don’t mind. Just let me sift through all this information so I can remember it all.” She leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes and saying nothing for a bit. Finally, she continued. “After we were transformed, we lived in Atlantis for about five more years, but eventually those of us who had changed felt a sudden urge to leave. It was only an inkling at first, but the more it grew the harder it was to fight. We might have stayed longer had the others not started to mistreat us.”

“Mistreat you?” Gregory asked.

Celeste looked at him, a haunted look in her eyes. “We weren’t perfect back then, Gregory. Far from it. We may have had a great relationship with the dragons, but they told us many stories about other races in our new world. Especially the ponies. When we started to begin looking like them in color, the former dragonriders began to become afraid of us. There were some who tried to be friendly with us, but most weren’t.”

“I guess that made the decision to leave easier,” Gregory said.

She nodded. “We left and found a new home in one of the…well, Tartarus is strange. There are these large pillars everywhere with large entryways. We looked in some and found different environments We eventually found one we liked and began building a town. That’s when we met Star Swirl.”

“The Bearded?” Gregory asked.

“Yes,” Celeste said. “He told us he was a pony, which we didn’t exactly take too kindly to, but when he told us about himself, we started to become friends with him. He couldn’t exactly go home for a while, so we put him up with us. He was a bit nervous, but since he was stuck with us until the portal back to Equestria opened again, he got to know us.” She chuckled as she shook her head. “I’ve got to tell you, if I had to describe him, I’d say he initially had a stick up his ass.”

Gregory almost coughed up the food in his mouth from what he heard, but he and Gabby simply kept listening. Celeste smiled a bit, then continued. “He would come back from time to time when the portal opened, bringing us some gifts of food and seeds to help us with our growing town. When the portal was closed, we would talk through some magical journal. Unfortunately, we began to experience raids from some of the local monsters in our new land. When Star Swirl heard about this, he came back with an idea for us. It wasn’t something we all liked, but he suggested that we head across the ocean of the strange land we found ourselves in. He told us he would help, so we began building a large ship with weapons to help us combat any dangerous sea creatures. The plan was that we would take the horse statue with us so Star Swirl could come with us and help, but…he never came.”

“What happened?” Gabby asked.

“His last message to us said that he had to go off with his friends to fight some danger to Equestria,” Celeste said, “but he never wrote back again. Now that I have the memories of Princess Celestia, I think I can put the pieces together. He went on a mission, like he said, but he never returned. He and the others went missing. However, he did leave instructions to send something through the portal. We got that box and inside was…something we could use to apparently help us find a new homeland.”

“What did he give you?” Gregory asked.

She pursed her lips. “A magical artifact that did actually help. When we used it the way Star Swirl told us to, the sky changed and we saw land. That’s where we settled. That was the beginning of our world over one thousand years ago.”

“And you were there for that?” Gabby asked as she took hers and Gregory’s now empty plates away and set them on a nearby table before getting back into bed with her lover.

Celeste nodded tiredly. “Yeah, but Selene, Kane and I were the unlucky ones.”

“What do you mean?” Gregory asked.

Celeste looked wearier now as she continued. “When we were…connected…to our counterparts on Gaia, our lifetimes became longer. Since the three of us were connected to immortal beings, that’s what we got. Ponies and other species on Gaia apparently live longer and age at a slower rate than normal humans do, so they gained a natural lifespan that somewhat mimics theirs.” She turned to the two. “Those high school students who came on this trip with us are all much older than they look. I know what humans their age are meant to look like, and they look younger.”

Celeste began to waver a bit, leaning down and holding her head. Gregory turned to Gabby. “Help her,” he whispered.

Gabby got out of bed and helped Celeste to a nearby bed where she lay down, clearly overwhelmed. “Thanks…” she whispered tiredly.

“Of course,” he said, feeling suddenly exhausted himself. However, before he could do that, there was something on his mind. “Hey, Celeste?”

“Yes?” She looked a bit surprised by Gregory calling out her name.

“Do you have a mirror? I want to see what my face looks like.”

Celeste nodded, then turned to Gabby. “Miss, in that purple purse over there is a small handheld mirror. Could you find it for me?”

“Sure,” Gabby said as she walked over and began rummaging through the purse. She pulled out a handheld mirror from a nearby purple purse with an all-too familiar yin-yang sun on it. She opened it and held it up for him to see. Gregory looked over his new light blonde hair and his bright purple eyes, the Targaryen makeover as he’d called it earlier.

What he didn’t think the Targaryen’s did have were the new pair of elongated pointed ears he now possessed. He reached up and traced their contours, looking very confused. Celeste must have seen this because she said, “When you were brought on board, you already looked like that, minus the green stuff covering you.”

Gregory looked at her, then back at his new ears. He looked slightly slenderer in the face as well, although that could have been something unrelated to his current transformation. “First I become blonde with purple eyes like my drake, then I get elf ears?” he asked nobody in particular. “What’s next, some kind of skin color change?”

Celeste gave him a reassuring but tired smile from her bed. “There is some strange magic within you, but I don’t believe you’re in any danger. The magic is minimal, but it’s there. I don’t think you’ll become like us.”

That was news to him, but before he could say anything, he felt the wave of exhaustion passing over him again. Yawning, he looked up at her again. “Thanks for healing me,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” Celeste said, yawning as well. “Sorry for not…being able to tell you more…I’m so tired…” and with that, she instantly fell asleep, a slightly more peaceful expression forming on her face.

Gregory looked at her, smiling tiredly as Gabby pulled the covers over her body then rejoined Gregory in bed. His view of Celeste was obscured by the worried but relieved face of his girlfriend. “You should sleep,” she said.

“Good idea,” he said, wrapping his arms around her as she buried her face into his chest.

The two lay in silence for a bit, giving Gregory time to look once more at the sleeping Celeste. He felt really bad for her. She had some serious shit thrust upon her and it was stressing her out. He could resonate with that, at least somewhat. Having over two thousand years of memories thrust into your mind would be hard for anyone to handle. After a bit, Gabby said, “Is she pretty for a human?”

Gregory looked down at her, finding that she was looking up at him with curiosity. “Yes, I’d say so.”

“Even with the hair and skin color?”

Gregory smiled a bit, then reached down and stroked her plumage. “Yes, even though she has light pink skin and multicolored hair, she would be considered very pretty.”

Gabby looked over at her, then back at Gregory. “I wish I could look like that…”

“You don’t need to,” Gregory said, “because you’re beautiful already. Incredibly so.” And he meant it.

Gabby smiled, then gave him a kiss before pulling the covers up. “You should get some sleep, sweetie,” she said gently.

Gregory nodded, feeling his eyelids grow heavy. Soon, he too was asleep.

---

When Gregory fell asleep, Celeste slowly opened her eyes. She sat up, reached over, and put her hand on his forehead to make sure nothing of the small fever he’d had remained. She sighed in relief when she felt nothing but his normal temperature. Removing her hand, she went back and lay back down, keeping her purple eyes on him. She smiled a bit, as in a way she found him handsome. There was a determination in his own purple eyes, a desire to protect those around him. She knew the feeling; she held onto the same desire throughout her entire variety of lives.

The door opened and Selene came back in alone. Seeing Celeste in bed, she rushed over and knelt. “Sister, you are unwell!” the light blue woman said worriedly.

Celeste shook her head. “Just exhausted, Selly,” she said reassuringly. “I’ve never used magic before today. I just need some rest.”

Selene breathed in relief, then looked back at the sleeping Gregory and Gabby. “How are they?”

“Gregory needs the rest more,” Celeste said, “and I assume his companion Gabriella needs it too. She’s never been away from him since he was brought here.”

Selene nodded. “I understand,” she said. “Such an unusual coupling, don’t you think?”

“More unusual than you and Kane?” Celeste teased. Selene’s face went red and she began sputtering denials, but Celeste stopped her. “I’ve seen how you look at him and how he’s been looking at you lately. You two have grown close in this lifetime and in a few others as I recall.”

Selene looked at her sister with a guilty expression. “But…you had a history-”

“Shut up, Selly,” Celeste said with a wave of her finger. “Kane and I ended things on good terms long ago. His sudden stony attitude wasn’t his fault. He and I just sort of...drifted apart. We’re good friends now, nothing more. If you really have feelings for him and he for you, then I say go for it. He clearly has feelings of his own.”

Selene gave her sister a thankful look. “Thank you, sister.” There was a moment of silence before Selene stood, walking over to a nearby table with several of the articles that had been found on Gregory’s person. One of which was covered by a dark blue towel. She removed it, revealing a small horn. Picking it up, she held it up for Celeste to see. “Sister, do you suppose that him having this means anything?”

Celeste yawned and shrugged. “It may,” she said, “and it may mean what Star Swirl told us all those years ago. The ending of our world or worlds as we know it.”

“Should we not confiscate it from him, then?” Selene asked worriedly.

Celeste shook her head. “Put it back down and cover it back up,” she said. “I don’t know why Star Swirl was so cryptic when he talked about the Gjallarhorn when we used it during our crossing to our new land, but I don’t think he meant that our worlds would be destroyed.” She yawned again.

Selene placed the horn down, covered it, and was quickly by Celeste’s side. “Forgive me for disturbing your slumber, sister,” she said.

“Narry an issue,” Celeste said teasingly, “but I could use a nice nap…”

Selene nodded. “I will leave you to it,” she said as she stood. “Sleep well.”

Celeste nodded in response, muttered a “Goodnight…” and soon was truly asleep.

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