A.N.)– EDIT: As it appears to have been a problem, let me outright state that Twilight is fully intended to come across as Out Of Character for In-Character reasons that have not been revealed yet due to the limited PoV of the story.

Anyways, on with the fic!

Urgh.

Did anyone get the number of that truck?

Ulp-?!

Sorry.. ugh… train…

Ow.

Consciousness returned to me slowly, preceded by a horrendous ache throughout my entire body. An unpleasant groan escaped me before I tried to open my eyes.

It was light out… wherever I was… where was I anyways? What’d happened…?

Oh god- did my fans succeed-?!

I snapped awake, my eyes opening quickly. I disregarded the pain that lanced through me as I lifted my head, looking around quickly.

It was my house. My room. And no one else was in here. Everything was in its place.

No one in my bed. No one nearby. No one making breakfast in a ridiculous apron. No one in the bathroom.

My heart rate slowed as I took in the details, making sure that there was no one here. Nothing was out of place, nothing was where I wouldn’t put it, no gifts littered about or sudden home-making beyond the norm… I was alone. Something still seemed off though.

It was almost like… everything was bigger than it should have been…

… oh.

I looked over my shoulder at the rest of me, and even with my blanket draped over me, the changes were obvious.

No wings. Different coat. Different mane. A quick flick of my tail under the sheets confirmed that that too had changed.

A very stupid grin spread across my face as I laid my head back down on the pillow with a content sigh. Sleepiness and the ache overtaking me as memory trickled back to me. I was free.

No more black coat, no more crimson mane and tail with black streaks, no more crimson eyes, no more ridiculous warpings of reality to make me more important… no more wings…

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m really, really happy I’m not a Gary-Stu anymore, but man, I was gonna miss flying. That shit was fun. A brief movement of my head bumped my horn against my headboard, confirming that I still had that at least, for which I was quite thankful. I really missed opposable thumbs, and unicorn magic was the next best thing.

My sleepy musings were interrupted by a familiar sound. A muffled meow.

Opening my eyes again, I looked at the source of the noise, finding Droolykins standing beside my bed, carrying his sock in his mouth. He meowed at me through the sock once again, making me smile and shift my weight to lean my head over the edge of the bed. Briefly, I worried that he wouldn’t recognize me, I probably smelled different in addition to looking different, but the cat didn’t hesitate.

He walked right up to me, dropping his sock and getting up on his hind legs, planting his front paws on my nose and looking into my eyes. I stared right back into those mismatched green and yellow eyes, waiting for the animal to make a decision. I didn’t have to wait long before he mew’d happily and slid forward, half laying on my muzzle, his front legs wrapped around it as he licked between my eyes.

I closed my eyes and stifled a giggle, my worries assuaged. Droolykins never did this with anyone else that he’d encountered, not even Fluttershy or Celestia. I also knew what the little guy wanted.

Carefully, and with a lot more strain and pain than it deserved, I lifted my head, Droolykins hugging my muzzle and coming with as he kept licking. Gently, I set him back down on the bed, and the feline let go, starting to move about as I affectionately muttered, “Lazy bastard.”

The cat meowed unhappily, taking offense to that even as he hopped onto my back. Laying on my stomach was my preferred way of sleeping as a pony… at least it had been when I’d had wings, might find something else now. Droolykins pawed at my shoulders where my wings had been, mewing plaintively at me, making me sigh, “Yeah buddy, I’m going to miss those too.”

I laid my head back down as my cat curled up on my back. My back would be coated in drool when I got up, but this was completely normal for me.

I didn’t doubt that there were things for me to do, but I was tired and in pain and my cat was comfortably purring on my back, I was going to sleep in damnit.

Sleeping in consisted of only an hour before I was up and about, my cat still draped across my back. My body still ached pretty bad, but it was tolerable now. I assessed my changed situation as I stared into my mirror.

No wings, which sucked, I’d miss those. My eyes were a dull gray-green now, as I had suspected. My mane was a messy, spikey dark brown, short and swept back. So, so much better than that ridiculous blazing-in-non-existent-updraft crimson and black mane I’d had before. My tail was short and spikey as well, matching my mane, which was considerably better. The long tail had gotten in my way so many times, and no matter how many times I’d cut it, it’d have grown back in the morning.

The GSE liked to screw me over in the little ways almost as much as the big.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t a whole lot smaller than I had been. I couldn’t tell very well at the moment, but I think I was almost as big as Big Mac, if a bit skinnier. That I hadn’t expected, as I’d been a bit on the short and lean side as a human, so being a big stallion seemed a bit… weird.

This meant that I was the perfect size to bump into everything in my home. Things were close enough that my reflexes and habits weren’t interrupted, but just wrong enough that I bonked and boinked and bashed against every other thing. The table in particular was frustrating, my face had been reintroduced to the edge of it at least five times this morning alone.

I also kept stumbling, apparently the new body didn’t come standard with new balance. I kept expecting to have wings and a much longer horn. It made a bigger difference than you’d think.

At least I already knew how to use magic already.

But my Cutie Mark… I had… mixed feelings about that. I’d disliked the Volcanic Planet that had been my GSE Cutie Mark, but… seriously? A book? With a black lotus petal design on it? I didn’t have a clue what that meant. I’d probably figure it out later, but I thought my special talent would’ve been accounting or business or science or something… not… whatever that was.

After splashing some water on my face and rinsing some of the dried sweat from my mane (ignoring Droolykins unhappy meow at getting wet), I walked into the main room once more, taking deliberate steps to avoid stumbling.

It was only then that I noticed the letter on the table bearing the royal seal.

Mother fffff… urgh, I was stupid sometimes.

I opened the letter after struggling into the chair, hitting my head on the edge of the table twice in the process. But after shaking the stars from my eyes, I read over Celestia’s elegant script.

My Little Emeris,

Cue intro theme? Heh.

I am very pleased to say that the spell appears to have worked. Your form has changed, and your magic has decreased considerably. Additionally, the others have not shown their altered behavior since the completion of the spell. I am quite certain that my little ponies are quite grateful for your self-control under such duress, as we were merely shaken, no one was harmed by your slip of control.

A weight of guilt settled in my stomach at that, I’d completely forgotten about the others in my excitement. It’d only been a few minutes since I’d really awoken, but… ugh… I felt like crap for forgetting to check… I had to apologize to everyone for that as well as the whole GSE and thank them for helping me.

An asshole I was, ungrateful I was not.

Yoda my mentor still was not, hrrrmmmmm.

At your earliest convenience upon waking, I would like a report upon your health. While I do not believe that the curse is affecting my ponies anymore, I have secluded you in your home instead of a hospital just in case—

I nodded to myself, good thinking Princess, glad you did that. Even if it was gone now, the risk that it could come back… I shuddered unpleasantly at the possibility.

— but I shall visit within three days if you do not contact me.

Best of wishes, my little Emeris,

Princess Celestia

Right then, best get a message to her before I do anything else, I didn’t know how long it’d been, but the lack of intense hunger implied that it hadn’t been all that long.

Snagging a few sheets of paper, a quill, and ink with my magic, I pulled them to the desk and laid them out. I hadn’t written much since my appearance in Equestria, but my magic-written handwriting was more than decent, which meant it was better than the chicken-scratch I called writing as a human.

Except… when I put the quill to paper, it was far less… delicate… than I remembered. Despite focus and concentration, I couldn’t seem to get the quill to do as I wished with the same precision as I remembered.

Scowling, I realized that my magic-writing had been affected by the GSE. Damn.

An idea flitted through my mind that I was going to try before I just accepted my much sloppier handwriting. I set the quill aside and adjusted the paper and inkwell searching my memory for a long moment before I found the information and stored schematics I needed.

With my eyes closed, I constructed a type-writer, every screw, every lever, every pin. All the coils and springs, every piece and the basic mathematics that went with it, tension, hardness, weight, friction coefficient. And once I had it in its entirety, I held the mechanism in my mind. Being a family handy-man that actually reads the manuals had its advantages.

Opening my eyes, I stared at the paper and inkwell, superimposing the typewriter over both and putting them in the proper places.

With a grin, I cracked my imaginary knuckles over the semi-tangible typewriter of magic and force.

The thing actually worked, thank goodness, though there was a hiccup when I had to move the paper back over and the typewriter didn’t ding like I expected. The sudden departure from expectations nearly shattered the image in my head, and thus, the whole spell, but I held it together and kept typing, this time making the noises I expected on my own.

Yes, I was saying “Clickclickclickclickclick swish-ding~” But I was typing with my brain, so hush.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that not being an Alicorn means pain, and that I miss having wings already. But damn, it didn’t affect my swag at all. Damn I look good. Mares’ll still be all over me.

Best wishes,

Emeris

P.S. – I’m happy everyone’s okay, it would’ve killed me if I’d hurt anyone. I’m sorry about the slip in control, but to say the pain was indescribable is a bit of an understatement. I defer to your judgement on my readiness to join Equestrian society as well as my next step.

Nothing appears to be majorly out of place, but I will give you a full report on the changes to my physicality and abilities once I have finished my assessment. But, for all intents and purposes, the spell seems to have worked as far as I can tell.

I smiled at the letter, dashing a bit of sand over it to dry the ink. I didn’t know if it’d make the Princess smile, but I hoped so.

She terrified the hell out of me, but so had my mom, and I’d still loved her.

Rolling up the letter, I tied it closed and sent it to Celestia.

… or at least, I tried to.

I glared at the levitated scroll, somewhat irritated with myself for just expecting that spell to work like before. I’d vaporized the scrolls with magma and the ashes would reform before Celestia, much the way Spike’s fire would send her the letters. But I didn’t exactly have a magma cutie-mark anymore now did I?

With a sigh, I set about to trying other spells to send it to Celestia, I mean, it couldn’t be that hard right? I’d just written by creating a mental typewriter, what could be so much worse about this?

I hate it when I tempt fate like that.

With a sigh, I admitted defeat at 74 variations. I’d made 87 attempts, but when I’d tried to start keeping track of them, I realized I’d started repeating myself. Urgh.

I still needed to get this letter to Celestia…

… well, my original sending magic was similar to Spike’s… so why not get him to send it? I should return these books anyway… and I never did get Droolykins more food…

Right, I was… going out…

… I really shouldn’t have been as nervous as I was but… well… stupid emotions never listening to logic.

There was the learned trepidation of going out of my barrier and into the world that loved to screw with me because GSE. But while that was remnants of a habit that hopefully would fade soon, I was also worried about how ponies would react to me without that damn curse.

Taking a deep breath, I forced these fears down. There were things that needed doing, and I couldn’t, wouldn’t, wallow in fear.

Forever forward. Tally ho bitches.

Hoo boy, well, no question on whether or not the curse was broken… and on whether or not they recognized me despite the change.

‘They’ being all of Ponyville.

I was lucky to not get a glare from anyone I passed going down the street. And while the ponies avoided me a bit more subtly than they had Zecora… there was more than a little bit of simmering hostility being aimed at me. Y’know, just a teensy weensy, itsy bitsy, tiny winey LOT.

Couldn’t blame them to be honest, but… it hurt, there wasn’t any good way to say it. It hurt to be on the receiving end of such looks from pretty much everyone. Now, not everyone gave me hostile looks, but the few that didn’t were either oblivious about my presence or gave me a look that qualified as sullen rather than outright hostile. If there were any happy gazes, I didn’t notice them.

I really wasn’t feeling the love.

Still miles better than being under the effects of the GSE. That was like being stuck in the Twilight Series as Bella when your mind was still your own… only, y’know, even worse.

Yes, it is possible to be worse than Twilight, if you think otherwise then you haven’t read enough fanfic.

Fortunately though, no one actually accosted me as I trotted along, saddlebags bouncing at my sides. As I passed through the market though, I noticed Applejack manning… um… maring? I have no idea on that one… her family stand. My stomach grumbled earnestly, reminding me that I’d… le-gasph forgotten breakfast!

That actually would be problematic for me, I had a ridiculous metabolism. Meant I couldn’t really get fat, also meant I had to eat a lot and frequently. Which also meant I never needed to mow my yard. Cellulose Digestion, yeeaaahhhh!

But now? I wanted an apple. And it was a great excuse to talk to Applejack. Was I nervous and afraid? Oh hells yes. But I was far too eager to talk with her without the GSE screwing with her head and thank her, as well as apologize.

“Afternoon, Miss Applejack,” I smiled as I trotted, “I was hoping to-… ah, to…” Hoo boy… smoking hooves, “To get an apple… please,” I swallowed nervously under her glare, “And, ah, to thank you for helping break that spell…”

Her response was simple, “G’it.”

“… Applejack…?”

She leaned forward, the wooden stand creaking beneath her hooves, “Ah. Said. G’it.”

I swallowed hard, “Y-Yes ma’am…”

So I got. Specifically, the hell away. I didn’t run, didn’t panic, didn’t dash away at top speed. But I got moving.

I was confused, hurt, and a little scared. I didn’t know what I’d done to make her that angry. I just… how do you react to that? I didn’t know how I’d expected everyone to react, but I hadn’t expected that, let alone from one of the Elements of Harmony. I mean, I know Applejack isn’t the Element of Kindness or anything, but… had I really been that bad?

A cold pit of fear settled in my stomach, snuggled up right beside my hunger in a dance of discomfort. I didn’t know what I’d done to make her so angry, and I was going to worry about it endlessly until I found out and found out how to make up for it. I hated it when people were angry with me.

But I could… hell… had to make it up to her later. That hadn’t been the ‘go away’ that you could power through, apologize and give gifts and hugs and whatever else to make up for. That was the ‘go away or this will turn into a brawl’ or ‘go away or we’ll never talk again’. Pony body-language was still a bit of a mystery to me, but speech patterns were basically spot on, and I knew the difference, I’d been on the wrong end of those tones often enough to have picked it up.

I knew that if I tried to force the issue now, it would only make things worse. So as loathe as I was to just… leave like this, it was the better of my limited number of choices.

So here I was, trotting away from the marketplace at a decent clip, trying not to break out into a full gallop. Briefly, I considered getting food from somewhere else… very briefly. The glares around me weren’t as… intense as Applejacks, but I didn’t feel welcome here. I was going to do what I needed to do and leave. Well, at least go home and get the fuck out of Ponyville. I just… I just wanted this to blow over.

Belatedly, I realized that whatever courage I had mustered up to go out had evaporated under the pointedly hostile gaze of the orange mare. But after a moments consideration, I concluded that I didn’t really care. Send the letter to Celestia, get food for Droolykins, leave. Everything else was icing. Icing that apparently had spoiled… or something.

… that metaphor went somewhere stupid.

Regardless, I just wanted to let this all blow over some, time heals all wounds and all that jazz. (No, it didn’t, but it would at least ease the pain enough to address it)

It took little time for me to get to the library, less than I was used to actually. Shaken or not, I usually would’ve had to dodge fanmares every step of the way to get somewhere, which thankfully wasn’t the case. It said a lot that I preferred glares and sullen looks to what I had before.

I pushed the door to the library/Twilights home, looking around for the purple mare and/or her equally purple assistant. Really, I only needed Spike, but I wanted to know that Applejack’s intense hostility was just a fluke and it would’ve been rude to enter the library without at least saying hi.

It just might have kinda sorta maybe totally had something to do with wanting to just talk with the cute mare.

Y’know, just maybe.

I erred on the side of politeness as I called out into the seemingly empty library, “Miss Sparkle?”

Silence.

Hoo boy, hoped she was here, otherwise this was going to be a bit awkward, especially since I could feel eyes upon me, “Miss Sparkle? I have a letter I need sent to the Princesses as soon as possible…” The silence was deafening, not even a creak of floorboards or rustle of paper in the breeze; I’ll admit I was more than a bit freaked out by that as I got up and leaned against the front desk. The letter was pulled from my saddlebag with my magic, my horn glittering as I set it down on the desk, looking for a quill and some ink.

If she wasn’t here, then I’d leave a note for her, I wasn’t comfortable just staying in her home when she wasn’t here, public library or not. Still, I kept talking at a decent volume to the library, in case she was here and something unusual was going on, like she was scared of me or such, “I was just hoping to make use of Spike’s fire—“ the sound of a hoof on wood cut me off, that single sound somehow managing to be extremely menacing.

Suppressing the twitch and urge to jerk my head around, I turned my head towards the sound at a more normal pace, finding Twilight having slipped in from one of the doors. Her head was low to the ground, her hooves wide, her tail swishing back and forth… even as mostly ignorant of pony body-language as I was, I would’ve recognized that stance as hostile even without the terrible glare on her face.

Doing my best to keep my stomach from plummeting through the floor, I smiled nervously at the mare, “Oh, Miss Sparkle, hi. Ah, I wanted to—“

She growled at me.

I whimpered softly, “-to send this to Princess Celestia…”

“You…” that was not a pleasant tone. I swallowed, but damn my mouth for working before I could think.

“Me-?”

Her teeth ground together, her eyes narrowing further, her horn blazing to life, “Get out.”

Twilight wasn’t as terrifying as Celestia, but not by much, mortal terror still described my feelings quite well, “T-Twilight—“

”Get out!”

I was already moving by the time the first blasts were unleashed from her horn. I’d dropped the scroll and ran, trusting my finely tuned instincts of ’Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck’ to keep me well out of the way of the power the purple mare was unleashing. There was the smell of singed wood as I ripped open the library door that I’d so foolishly closed behind me, a rather vicious blast of heat catching me in the flank for that brief pause. I whinnied as I dashed out, belatedly noting that Twilight was cursing me out, and likely had been since she’d started firing.

I hadn’t caught a word of it, and some distant part of my mind hoped it wouldn’t have given me a clue as to why she was so furious with me. The words 'You wouldn't dare-!' and 'I won't let you-!' didn't register in my mind.

This was because the rest of me was in a panic, running full tilt away from the library, focused entirely on just getting away.

So I ran.

Ponies in the town moved out of my way as I galloped, but I still ran.

Instincts, fight or flight… I couldn’t fight Twilight, I couldn’t bring myself to do so. So my instincts all said flee.

And I fled.

Away from the library, out of the town, nearly to the Everfree forest. I fled.

Eventually, the panic faded, and as it did, my hooves slowed. But as the tension and panic slowly melted away, it was replaced with a dead, empty feeling that filled much of my body cavity.

I—

Well outside of Ponyville, I slumped to the ground, panting, my sides quivering.

Emotions tumbled through my skull, muddling my thoughts, bouncing around in my head… and I let them do so for several more moments as my heart calmed down.

But the emotional turmoil didn’t settle on its own, and I had to focus, separating the emotions from one another and analyzing them, examining them and why I felt them, compartmentalizing them and segregating them, making something manageable from the mess my head was at the moment.

Fear. That was easy, I’d just been on the wrong side of one of the most powerful unicorns alive, and one of the most skilled. There was also a bit of fear that I wasn’t completely free of the curse. Or... or worse... that the curse had been inverted, that everyone was magically compelled to hate me now... I... I couldn't consider that, I just couldn't, not yet. Expected. Segregated. Set aside.

Anger. Small, but there. I didn’t know what I’d done. It was the fight part of my fight or flight, useless. Expected. Segregated. Burned and destroyed.

Guilt. Overwhelming, mostly unfounded. I was inordinately guilty for whatever I had done to anger Twilight and Applejack so much. Whatever I’d done, I would make up for it, they deserved better. Excessive, but expected. Segregated. I turned as much of it into determination to do better as I could.

Sadness. Dejection. I wanted to just lay down and cry. All that work for nothing? Two years? That pain? For nothing? Somewhat unexpected. Useless. Discarded.

Terrified anticipation. Would this trend continue? Expected. Segregated. Discarded as best I could.

Lust—

… wait. What.

…

Apparently, Twilight had been really hot, and a powerful, dominant mare had set off all of my buttons.

… not expected. Segregated. Set aside to puzzle over later.

There were various other errant thoughts and emotions in my head, but little else was relevant to the situation and merely muddied the waters. Like, ’Man I want cookie dough ice cream’ or ’Laying on grass like this tickles in weird places’. So like I said, nothing relevant.

That set aside, I did my best to formulate a measured an intelligent response to the situation.

Run away screaming was going to be Plan C.

I had two data points of the hostility, one of them rather extreme, that’s called a coincidence. It made me uneasy, but I had to keep moving forward, hoping for the best.

Because I still needed food for Droolykins. And all I could do was hope that Twilight sent the letter after she calmed down from her rage. Once I’d accomplished the former, I could work on figuring out what I’d done and how best to make up for it. Considering how furious Twilight had been with me… I’d probably be visited by Celestia to check up on me before I could get a letter sent if the lavender spellcaster didn’t send the one I’d left behind.

Thus, Plan A: Go to Fluttershy’s, get Droolykins food, go home.

If(Fluttershy.Emotion == Hostile){
Run to Canterlot, speak with Celestia, because something is screwy
}
Else{
Go home and think
};

Coding jokes, gotta love’m.

The little hovel/cottage/hobbit hole was quiet as I approached. Well, at least relatively. The animals were milling about, making their usual amount of noise, the smell was still bleh, and everything was idyllic.

Really hoped I wasn’t about to crash the party.

My ears swiveled reflexively at a distant sound. Ah, Fluttershy’s singing, there she was. With a small, hopeful yet nervous smile, I walked towards the sound of her voice. I briefly considered just calling out to her, but after a moments consideration, I put myself between the door and the sound of her voice before speaking, “Miss Fluttershy?”

There was a brief moment of dead silence before I heard the expected, but still barely audible ‘Eep!’.

A yellow and pink blur suddenly tore around the house and nearly slammed into me, making me rear back reflexively. I nearly kicked out at the blur before I restrained my hooves and dropped back down, shying away some. The Fluttershy-shaped blur ‘Eep!’ed again, pulling back and stammering apologies.

A traitorous part of me was inordinately grateful for her fear rather than fury. I crushed that down as I stammered out my apology, “I-I’m sorry– I… I’m sorry about startling you and the whole mess that-… just… yeah…” I trailed off lamely. Whatever I’d had planned to say had died in my throat as the emotions, the guilt, all suddenly slammed into me at once, “I’m sorry about yesterday… so sorry…” I clenched my eyes shut, tears slipping out, “I wasn’t strong enough to resist you, and if Celestia hadn’t… I… Fluttershy, I’m so sorry…”

“I-…” I heard the pegasus’ hooves touch down softly on the ground, “I-… I think you should leave…”

Her words, as soft and gentle and unsure as they were, cut at my heart like a knife, “… I can’t—“

“What-?!” she squeaked in a mixture of fear, disbelief, and a hint of anger.

The words tumbled out of my mouth, I knew she wanted me to leave and I would! But I still had something to do and I didn’t want her to think something strange, “I mean not yet! I can’t leave yet because I didn’t finish what I had to do yesterday and I mean the original task not the other thing,” my face was red, “I mean I… just…” I clamped my jaw shut, forcing the words to stop as I steadied my breathing, “I… I still need food for Droolykins. I have the money to pay. I’ll leave you alone after that.”

“O-Oh…” there was an awkward silence after that, and I cursed my own inability to speak, feeling unbelievably awkward and unable to think of something silly to break the tension, “I-I’ll go get that for you, just… I’llberightback-“

The yellow pegasus was gone in a blur, and I sighed, letting my flank fall to the dirt. I was tired, emotionally and physically. The day’d barely started and I was this bad off. Urgh. Briefly, I lamented my lot in life before tossing such musings aside as unnecessarily emo. There was a low buzzing that suddenly ceased, my horn suddenly heavier. I opened my eyes to find a bright green and red hummingbird had settled on my horn.

I probably looked silly with my crossed eyes staring at my horn, but whatever, “Sorry buddy, I’ve already got a pet, and he’d probably try to eat you if I brought you home too.”

The little bird ruffled in offense, making a small warmth pool in my chest as I smiled sadly at him, “Sorry little guy, not going to happen.”

He (and it was a he, I recognized the feather pattern) shook his head, and I realized that wasn’t what he’d been on about, whoops. He began to gesture with his wings, pointing and squeaking angrily, well, chirping’s probably the proper word, but he was so small that it was basically squeaking. It took me a few moments, but eventually I figured out what he was saying.

I sighed, my head and eyes dipping, “Sorry, yeah, I know. I promise… I won’t hurt her. I never want to hurt her. I… can’t promise I won’t scare her though… sorry… that—… I don’t think I have any control over that…”

The bird, mollified, nodded his head affirmatively, with a definite sense of ’You’d better.

Rolling my eyes, I gave the little guy an equally little glare, “Now g’toff my horn. It’s not a perch.” He squeaked indignantly at me, but I just raised an eyebrow. Eventually, he fluttered off of the magical focus with a huff, flying off towards the rest of the animals Fluttershy was treating. I didn’t know why this little guy was here but-

A small gasp and dull thump drew my attention, making me leap to my feet and turn my head towards the source of the sound, finding Fluttershy and the large (for her) bag that she’d dropped in front of her. Her eyes were wide and her jaw agape, after glancing on the other side of me to be sure there was nothing big and scary on that side, I turned back to her with a raised eyebrow, silently asking what the problem was.

“Y-Your cutie mark?! What-?” the mare was suddenly beside me, and I nearly jumped, reflexes almost kicking in before I viciously suppressed them, keeping myself in place as a pair of hooves rested on my side, blue eyes staring at my hip, “What happened?”

I blinked at her curiously, my face slightly flushed at the close study of what amounted to my ass. I looked back over my shoulder, trying to see what she was looking at. I was surprised to see a large burn over my right flank, covering up much of my cutie mark on that side. It took only a moment for me to connect the dots. Ponies were rather… protective… of the cutie marks, and I had to admit that even I had a certain amount of attachment to that horrid one I’d had before despite everything. Twilight had glanced me with her magic, and it’d left the burn. And I’d just forgotten about the mark because it didn’t seem to hurt much.

Experimentally, I moved the leg, cringing ever so slightly as the skin of the burn bunched from the movement, “Ah… that…”

Fluttersy was suddenly in my face, “What happened?”

I coughed awkwardly, “A misunderstanding—” Foooo… that was a rather intense look, it actually made me pause, considering what to say next. I didn’t want to throw Twilight under the bus, I liked the purple mare, even after two years of dodging seductions and aphrodisiacs, “I… ah… not everyone has been as… nonconfrontational… as you.”

“Who?”

“Fluttershy, it doesn’t matter—“

“Who?” I swallowed, meeting her stare. Her stare tried to compel me, her voice velvet coated iron.

But damnit, I cared for Twilight, and I wasn’t going to throw her under the bus. Those blasts were painful, but the only reason the burn was that big was because the beam had hit at a shallow angle, “It’s no worse than a welt Fluttershy. It doesn’t matter.”

She scowled, but I met her gaze. I was not going to back down on this.

Suddenly, she poked the burn on my flank, and I nearly jumped, wincing and flinching away. It stung pretty bad now that my attention had been drawn to it, but eesh, ow, it was somewhere on the ‘Fffffffffffuuuuu-‘ end of a first degree burn. Her question was considerably more pointed this time, “Who?”

But I didn’t back down, meeting her gaze with my own, “Fluttershy, I’m not going to tell you,” there was no hesitation, though I did look away from her to grumble to myself, “I almost certainly deserved it anyways.”

A look crossed her face that I couldn’t identify in the least before she looked back to my flank, her hoof tracing the burn, “… maybe… but you don’t- I mean, I never thought you'd—“ the edge of her hoof traced across the edge of the burn, making me flinch in spite of myself, this seemed to startle Fluttershy out of her train of thought. “Oh! Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to-! I-I’ll go get some salve for that! I’m so sorry, I’ll be right back oh I’m so sorry I’m so sorry—“ She was still apologizing even as she flew off to get aforementioned salve.

I blinked confusedly before shaking my head, an affectionate smile on my muzzle. Crazy mare. Cute as hell, but crazy. One moment she was afraid of and/or angry at me, then she was concerned and angry at whoever had hurt me, and now she was apologetic and scared again and rushing to tend to me.

… damnit, even here I liked the crazy ones.

… damnit.

The soft yellow pegasus suddenly reappeared, hugging a jar of— *sniff* — aloe. The mare set down the jar, murmuring soft, soothing words that blended together in my ears even as she took some of the aloe on her hoof and began to gently spread it over the burn. The goopy mess made me shift the leg uncomfortably, but her words kept me from flinching. Somewhere in there were apologies about the pain and for being so forward in her treatment… neither of which she really had to apologize for.

Crazy mare, cute mare, also very, very good at what she was doing.

Now, I was a bit uncomfortable with this, but I didn’t say anything because A). I’m an admitted pervert, and seriously, would you complain that a female hot enough to get roped into being a super-model was touching your ass? And B). I doubted she realized that if you didn’t know better, it’d appear that she was fondling my flank.

Still, it was over soon, her hoof pulling away from my singed cutie mark. I hoped I wasn’t blushing as the mare looked at me, her voice very soft, “There, all better,” a small smile crossed my face, her concern over another being basically overrode every fear or issue she had, it was sweet, if a bit strange, “You’ll come back if it’s not better in a few days? I mean, if that’s okay with you Gary—“

In spite of myself, I flinched at that name, making her eyes widen, “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean— Is there anything I can do-? I didn’t put the wrong thing on or—“

Belatedly, I realized that she had no idea what the issue was, and gently if quickly put a hoof over her mouth before she could work herself into a tizzy. Her eyes blinked rapidly at me in confusion as I organized my thoughts to try and explain something that I myself didn’t intellectually understand.

“That’s… that’s not actually my name…” she looked at me in confusion and curiosity, “It’s… it was something to call me… I didn’t want my name to be associated with… with what I was… what my curse made me… I…” I stumbled over my words, taking my hoof from her mouth and placing it back on the ground, “I didn’t want my name said the way… I didn’t want to hear ponies say my name with that mindless worship…”

“O-Oh…”

“It’s… yeah…” I looked away, irritated with my inability to communicate, “I… heh…” an amused, if slightly bitter thought crossed my mind, “I haven’t even introduced myself to anypony except the Princess…” an even more morose thought followed, slipping free before I could shut my traitorous mouth, “Haven’t even really met anypony… just the fake personalities that the curse made me talk to…”

I felt the pall of depression try to settle over me before shaking it off, and meeting her pitying and sad eyes. I cursed myself, damnit, now she probably felt bad, gah, not my intention, stupid runaway mouth. With a sigh, I turned away, opening my mouth again to ask about the price of the food and skedaddle…

… but a yellow hoof extended into the periphery of my view, causing my head to turn back to the pegasus in confusion.

Her face was hesitant, and her mouth worked soundlessly for several moments before a resolute look came over her, and her extended hoof straightened, her blue eyes meeting my dull green ones, “H-Hi. My name’s Fluttershy…”

It took only a moment for comprehension to dawn on me, but when it did, I smiled a stupid little smile, my face heating up in a combination of embarrassment and joy as I turned my body and extended my hoof to meet hers, “And mine’s Emeris. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

A stupidly happy warmth spread through my chest as she beamed at me. All the pains of the day, the glares, the worries, the fears and turmoil, it all fell away at the simple gesture. What had been a lead weight in my gut was suddenly a pink cloud of warm and fuzzy cotton candy. And even as we stopped shaking hooves, I wanted to prance around giddily squee-ing, but I suppressed the urge, if only just. Her voice was soft and caring as she asked, “Feeling better?”

“Heh… much… thank you…” though as I gave her a small, if immensely grateful smile, something niggled in the back of my brain. Something other than my usual inability to come up with what to say in moments like this.

The large bag behind her, kinda sorta maybe totally sparked my memory.

“So…” I trailed off, glancing at the large bag, “How much do I owe you?” I gestured at it with my horn.

The yellow pegasus blinked in confusion before glancing back, realizing what I was talking about, “Oh! Oh, um, eig-eighteen bits… if… if that’s okay with you…” and there it was, right back to the excessively shy and polite demeanor.

Like I said, cute, but crazy.

Smiling affectionately, I pulled the appropriate bits from my saddlebag. Could I have haggled? Sure. But I trusted Fluttershy to not try and mess with me, and I didn’t really have any experience with haggling because the GSE had made it pointless. I’d had to try to pay people for their services, which had been quite frustrating. The businessman (business-stallion?) in me had ground its teeth at the concept of free things.

It was with little effort that I levitated the large bag up onto my back. Though the term large was a bit relative. For Fluttershy, it was quite big (mare could lift more than she gave herself credit for), but even accounting for her withdrawn demeanor and body language, I was surprisingly larger than her.

That… actually surprised me. I’d hypothesized that I’d be almost as tall as Big Mac, if notably leaner. And from actually comparing myself to Fluttershy, it seemed rather likely that the estimate was dead on. I was nearly a head taller than the shy mare, and probably weighed almost twice what she did.

Hefting a bit to shift the weight on my back, I looked back to the pegasus, “Fluttershy… I…” the words, whatever it was that I’d meant to say, died in my throat. I closed my eyes, gathering my thoughts, knowing she was looking at me curiously, “I just wanted to say… I’m sorry, for everything. And again, thank you.” I meant it, with all of my heart. Even something as small as this… it was like a deep breath of air for a man that had been drowning.

Gray-green eyes met deep blue ones, “If there’s anything I can do to make up for the effects of that curse, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“A-Alright…”

It felt awkward, but I honestly had no idea what to say after that. So this is how Twilight felt in episode one… so, with as gentle of a smile as I could give, I turned and started walking off, bag of cat-food over my back. I called over my shoulder, “Hope to talk to you later Fluttershy.”

She seemed to try to stammer out something, but eventually settled on a barely audible, “Bye…”

So it was with a small smile, my day the best it’d been in almost two years, that I left Fluttershy’s cottage, headed towards my own.

Once well out of sight of the animal-care center that Fluttershy passed off as a home, I let out a squeal of happiness, prancing about giddily before giving a little hop.

Said hop dislodged the sack of food from my back… which promptly fell on my tail rather hard.

Obviously, I addressed the situation with the appropriate level of decorum required for such a painful surprise of having ones tail nearly tugged off while completely alone. Cussed that bag out damn good before replacing it on my back.

I might’ve been hungry, tired, achy, emotionally drained, and a general mess. But it’d still been the best day I’d had in a long time.

This situation called for Metallica!

… what? Hard rock made me happy.

... damnit, I forgot that I didn't have any music like that.

But good mood is ongoing! Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and desert you!

…

Fuck, I just rick rolled myself didn’t I…

Damnit.

I sighed, staring down at the disgruntled feline in front of me, “Hello Drools.”

“Meow.”

“Yes, that’s your food.”

“Meeooowwww.”

“Well, I would, but you’re kind of in the way.”

“Meow.”

“No, I’m not feeding you first. I’ve had a rollercoaster of a day. I’m just as hungry as you are.”

“Mrr?”

“I didn’t get breakfast either, and you haven’t been dodging angry females.”

“…”

“… Drools, did you get out the disco ball?”

“Mewww…”

“…”

“Mrowr!”

“Did you at least clean up afterwards?”

“Meow!”

Shaking my head, I waved a hoof at the little feline, “Alright then, good enough, now move so I can feed us both, ya little fuzzy bastard.”

Droolykins stuck his tongue out at me, but spun on his back legs and headed inside as well.

Could I have forced my way past the little guy? Sure. But I loved him, and he’d been blocking the doorway.

If you’ve ever had a pet do that, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Still, I was home again.

Yay!

I shrugged my back, dropping the bag of food down onto the wood floor as my horn lit up and I focused my magic, grasping the needed utensils with practiced ease. Bowl, lettuce, daisies… nah, roses, this was a special occasion, bread, mayo, mustard, etc. etc.

It was going to be my first proper meal in Equestria… or at least, what I was going to consider my first proper meal in Equestria.

As unrealistic as it was, I kind of hoped that I’d be able to just ignore the past two years of the curse… but the reactions of not only the townsfolk in general, but Applejack and Twilight in specific, busted that hopeful myth. I still... I was still worried that the spell had somehow been inverted, but... that couldn't have been the case, or at least... it wasn't very likely considering how Fluttershy had reacted... still, I'd bet that Twilight had good reasons for reacting that way, I just didn't know them yet.

Nodding to myself, I pushed the concerns aside to address later.

And there was hope. Fluttershy was willing to at least give me a chance. I know I know, Element of Kindness and everything but… it was hope. More than I’d had in a good while. And it was a solid hope, rather than a tenuous ‘Well, I made some progress’ kind of hope. I focused on that rather than all of the work and difficulties that likely lay ahead of me.

For focus on the depressing bits would lead to sadness. Sadness led to depression. Depression to anger. Anger to rage. And rage to the No-Yoda-Was-Not-My-Mentor side.

But first, food. Much easier to be content when you’ve got a full stomach. Bread and circuses and all that.

Yay!

I could still cook. Even after two years of forced vegetarian dieting, I still wasn’t used to not including meat in a meal. Guess I was a bit too much of a carnivore at heart.

Ug, caveman want meat?

Regardless, the rose-petal salad tasted damn good.

Still, I didn’t really have much to do. I didn’t dare go back to Ponyville with the risk of Twilight still being on a rampage so high, that shit was scary. Droolykins was fed, today was actually one of my off days for exercise, I didn’t want to read the books I’d gotten on curses and blessings and spells, and tending what little garden I had would take very little time…

And yes, I was an egghead. But while I normally would’ve loved to read spellbooks and learn magic, I’d been studying blessings and curses and counterspells and reality calcification for two years straight damnit. I’m done with that mess for a while. I am officially burned out on studying anything in those fields of magic, just… no.

So this left me at an impasse, I honestly had little idea what to do. I briefly considered organizing my gifts, but I’d done that two weeks ago and I didn’t store perishables there…

If you couldn’t tell, my existence had been ever so exciting while cursed. The kicker? I preferred that dull mess to the constant propositions, fights, dominance plays, reality warpings, and terrible horrors from the Beyond that being a Gary-Stu came with.

Because seriously, it’s cool the first few times when you beat up a Cthulu-rip-off, after that it’s mundane, and eventually it gets tedious, and in time, it just gets horrifying. Not because of the sanity breaking, but because the GSE never cared about the background ponies. It only cared about main-characters like me or maybe the mane six. Everyone else could be slaughtered, raped, mutilated, or mentally broken, and obviously a monster has to attack somewhere first…

Before we go any further, really consider the implications.

Every week that the GSE went unchecked, a monster appeared, but unlike Power Rangers or Godzilla or any of these other things with Kaiju… there are actual casualty figures. You actually have to see the mares and stallions broken and shattered, bloody in the street or gibbering in horror. The orphans, the destroyed lives, the broken homes… all that was real, and it had happened every week until Celestia and I had figured out how to localize the effect to my general area.

All those deaths... because I just existed...

I think we had been only a month away from Celestia impaling me on her horn…

… and I would’ve let her.

…

Ugh, those morbid thoughts aside, thankfully those times were long gone, and even if the curse bounced back, I could still suppress that effect. That had been the whole point of studying Reality Calcification after all.

Regardless, I was nearly done with brunch before an idea came to me for my tasks for the day: To figure out what skills I still had after such a… vicious… unweaving of the GSE. But, before I started, I rooted through my desk and files to try and find the list I’d made of my abilities under the GSE compared to an approximation of my human skills as a reference.

I will note again, I had been very bored in my self-imposed semi-exile. Normally, I would’ve left that as a mental checklist rather than writing it all down.

Reference materials and experimental data before me, I was geared up to run through a full spectrum skill-test. It’d probably take me a day or two to get through all of the tests again, but I’d have a comprehensive understanding of what had the breaking of the curse had changed. I was a little excited.

… okay, a lot excited. I loved testing and pushing my limits, and this was a wonderful opportunity to do both.

… squee!

Reviewing my notes over dinner the next day, I was… hm… I didn’t know how to feel about the results. For the most part, I didn't care about the loss of power, but still, a part of me would miss being horrendously overpowered.

For one, I’d lost a significant portion of my physical strength… but not as much as I would’ve expected considering the change in size. Now I couldn’t lift boulders four times my size… but I could still lift a boulder twice my smaller size. Which worked out to about a 35% decrease in physical power coupled with a 30% decrease in mass. My hypothesis was that I still had Earth Pony magics or genetics or however it worked inside of me to give me the disproportionate strength to mass ratio. Celestia had specifically stated that the spell would only burn away one of the three…

My speed had decreased disproportionately in the other direction, pegasi magics apparently increased ground speed.

I didn’t have any good way to test my resiliency that didn’t involve being far more emo and masochistic than I was, so I’d leave that for later. Ideally, much later. As in, never. So let’s scratch that one off hm?

My eyesight had worsened, and my night-vision had gone from ‘Hah! Who needs infrared?!’ to mediocre. Once again, I was left-eye dominant, my right eye being kind of crappy.

Surprisingly, scars analogous to ones I’d had as a human had appeared. While cursed, my coat and skin had been perfect, but now? All of the little nicks and scrapes and returned. I was actually happy, they were reminders of where I’d been, my past, and assurances of who I was.

The biggest one was easily the long one down the center of my chest, remnants of an open heart surgery, it looked more impressive as a horse though, going down most of my barrel. There was a jagged scar on the underside of my chin from introducing it to a concrete step, that had required stitches. There were the occasional old burns along my forelegs, reminders of times when I’d reached into an oven wrong, or had grabbed something ridiculously hot in the kitchen.

Frustratingly, all of the little stupid scars I’d had on my right hand had decided to settle in a ring of white scars just above the hoof proper. Because, y’know, none of them could’ve been on the hoof itself. And they were stupid scars, like ‘Whoops, I hit a piano while running by it and now I’ve got more scars on the hand’ scars. My right hand just liked to remember every little nick and scrape it’d gotten.

Surprisingly, my hooves were a dark purple, which while it looked silly against the paper I was using, thankfully it didn’t clash with my coat or mane. I didn’t know if purple could clash with green, but I was just glad it didn’t look bad.

I hadn’t noticed it in the morning, but my beauty mark was back as well. Yes, I had a beauty mark, right under the corner of my left eye. Yes, I’m still a guy, screw you.

My horn had a slight curve to it, which Droolykins found endlessly amusing for some reason, and liked to lean up against it while resting on top of my head. Much like he was right now. He was draped over top of my head, doing his best to fall asleep and coat my mane in drool.

Cue sigh.

I loved the little guy, he was unbearably cute. But he could be a major pain sometimes. At least he was no Angel. Urgh. No evil bunnies thank you very much.

Running a hoof along the sheet in front of me, I compared my preliminary test results to those I’d done before. It was only the first round of testing obviously, but it’d give me a rough estimate of how my skills compared to my GSE baselines.

You see, while affected by the curse, I’d been good at anything I’d put my mind to, but I’d been the best whenever I was in direct comparison or competition with somebody else. For example, I was a good cook, but if I got into a cook-off with somebody, then my food would be orgasmic.

I’m not kidding by the way, and it’s not as awesome as it sounds. That kind of food is more tiring than tasty, and it’s horribly addicting in the way that really concentrated crack cocaine is. I shuddered unpleasantly at the memory.

But from glancing at the test results, it seems I’d regressed to my old, human levels of skill.

On the subject of cooking, I could still do so! Yay! It wasn’t exactly five-star restaurant anymore, and it honestly wasn’t even as good as I had been as a human. I’d learned from my mother and grandmother, and while I retained good, down home cookin' like cornbread… way too many of my old delicious recipes required meat or things you get from meat… making them all useless. Damn. Could still make a mean pasta though.

While under the GSE, I’d been an amazing seamster, even when not competing with Rarity. Far better than I had been as a human at least, where I’d been, at best, competent. But now? I lacked the magical dexterity to sew with any modicum of skill, and the only sewing machine I’d memorized the components of was too complex for me to imitate the way I had the typewriter. So, quite unfortunately, I’d lost almost the entire skill to my decreased magical dexterity. Damnit.

I scratched that one off of the list.

Now, without the GSE influencing ponies’ minds, they’d hopefully stop gushing about my designs. They weren’t that good. They were simple and functional, and occasionally I made one that was elegantly simple, but usually? They were just… meh. Though the point was moot, I couldn’t sew anymore.

I mean, seriously, ponies, it’s a vest. Rarity’s disasters look better than that.

My mathematics skills hadn’t deteriorated, but they hadn’t been improved by the GSE either, so no real loss. Check.

Most of my house-keeping skills hadn’t been affected by the GSE in the first place, so again, no loss. Check.

It was hard to gauge what had happened with my rapport with animals after such a limited exposure (one bear and a small pride of manticores), but while I retained a good understanding of what they were trying to tell me, I’d lost the magical effects entirely. I’d always been good with animals, but with the GSE, I’d been practically telepathic and could basically mind-control the animals. That was thankfully gone. Check!

As a side note: My wrangling skills were still above my original human levels, but this was very, very easily attributable to being disproportionately strong. It’s a lot easier to wrangle something big and dangerous trying to eat/gore you when you can pick it up with your teeth and shake it like a rag doll. Check.

Another side note: Bear fur tastes horrible. I had to dab the quill in some ink to scribble that in one of the margins.

My construction skills were mostly in my head, like my mathematics and sewing designs, so were mostly unaffected by the GSE in of themselves. Now, how ponies perceived my designs and constructs probably would have changed, but I didn’t have a way to check that yet. Still, check.

However, that brought me to my magical skills.

Despite what some people might tell you, I wasn’t exactly a Wizard when I was a human. Hint: If someone was actually telling you that with any amount of seriousness? Call an insane asylum, because as far as I’d known, magic didn’t exist. I hadn't been exposed to magic while I was human.

And here I was, levitating a cup of tea over to me with my mind with a cat draped over my head, all while I was a talking green unicorn. Life likes to screw with ya, y’know?

It actually kind of sucked though, because I couldn’t know how much of my magical skill was due to the GSE and how much was actual skill. It’d been kind of depressing that all the skill I had as a spellcaster might’ve been from this stupid curse, no matter how much I told myself otherwise. Now though? I had a point of comparison.

While as an Alicorn, I had full access to all ten circles of magic, now I had to seriously push to hit the eighth, the Lunar Circle. Not entirely because of a lack of skill, but also a lack of raw power.

My magical reserves had been reduced immensely. It’s hard to convey it precisely, as magical reserves are difficult to quantify in the first place. It’s like trying to quantify your stamina. Some people have more than others, but while you might be able to run for hours, start biking and you might tire out in half of one. But there was no doubt I’d lost a lot in both power and reserves.

Out of most of the schools of magic I’d “mastered”, I’d only retained bits and pieces. Theorems, the occasional spell, it varied. Mind you, I use the term ‘mastered’ unbelievably loosely. I could have ‘mastered’ a school of magic within a week of study. To be honest, I think I only reached a high Apprentice status, which, while impressive, is far from mastering, no matter what the ponies who administered the tests would say.

I mean heck, I barely knew the terms for the schools of magic. I'd been more concerned with finding stuff dealing with breaking my curse than theory or whether what I was learning was an evocation or necromancy spell.

Lasers? Gone. Sad-face at that, because come on, lasers.

Almost all of my magma magics were either lost to me, or required more power than I had. This really shouldn’t have surprised me.

I’d lost my powerful illusion magics, though I’d retained the basic ones, images, lights, minor sound generation. Not a huge loss, I hadn’t really been enamored with those magics in the first place.

I’d retained many of my telekinetic ‘tools’. Constructs of will and thought that emulated physical tools. The typewriter had been a more complicated version of the same thing. But for some reason, I’d lost my crowbar. Couldn’t figure out why, but it dashed any dreams of being pony Gordan Freeman. Could still be pony Green Lantern though, heh.

My higher circle barriers had been lost to me, but my formulaic barriers had stayed with me. They were still difficult, but if I could visualize the formula and its graph from first principles, I could create some really solid barriers. My best, the Madelbrot Fractal, seemed like it might actually be able to stand up to Twilight for a time. Looked weird as hell as it’s based heavily on the 3D model of the Madelbrot set, but it was probably the strongest barrier I’d personally created. It was really hard to maintain though, so that was being kept in reserve for hopefully never.

Surprisingly, I’d lost all of my active transformative magics. I’d studied them for several months rather ardently to try and make myself appear less… eeeuuuuggghh… but my magic resistance made it difficult, and even after I’d overcome that, it turned out that I reverted to the red and black alicorn form the next morning no matter what. It just hadn’t been worth the effort it took to look different.

Could still turn Droolykins’ fur neon pink though. He was going to be so pissed when he woke up.

That was for keeping me out of my own house, little snot.

My levitation had been depowered heavily. Could still lift as many things as I could focus on at one time, but the upper limit of Newtons I could apply to a single object had dropped considerably. This meant that I couldn’t pick up as large of an object, nor could I move them as fast, so no more animated avalanches of doom for me.

I smiled at the pages, setting them aside and gathering up my plates, taking them to the sink.

There were only three fields of magic that I felt I truly had mastered: Blessings/curses (Actually the same field of magic surprisingly), Countermagic, and Reality Calcification. I’d spent the past two years studying them extensively, and if I had mastered anything, it was those fields.

Those had been the best chance to break the curse that I’d been under, and I’d focused extensively on them. Might’ve been completely useless in hindsight since Celestia figured it out first, but I didn’t regret it. Sure, I'd dabbled in a variety of black magics, but I'd retained only the most basic principles, no actual spells.

While the first two are rather obvious (though traditional Equestrian magics don’t really support our concepts of blessings or curses), Reality Calcification isn’t exactly self explanatory. To try and skip past the extensive mumbo jumbo and physics needed to understand the field, it basically a subset of Reality Warping magics, being a way to shut down any transformative or reality warping magics in the area as well as counteract those that were already in effect. It had been originally designed to mitigate the damages Discord had caused to the world.

My curse, the GSE, had been primarily Reality Warping effects applied to the minds of ponies and the world in general. Stumbling upon this fact is what made it possible to localize the monster-spawning effects of the GSE, as well as lower the strength of the infatuation-field.

I was very, very proud that I had lost not one iota of my ability, skill, or power in any of the three fields. Which meant that, aside from the Princesses themselves, I was quite possibly the greatest master in those fields alive.

… and, admittedly, ego aside, Twilight would probably kick my ass in them too, but still.

What? I did have an ego, and I liked being really damn good at things, who doesn’t? My problem had been how little effort it’d taken under the GSE, the overwhelming amounts of power I’d had, and the fact that I couldn’t just… interact with ponies without them going stupid on me.

I’d have been fine with just ditching the reality warping effects of the GSE, but while I told myself I wasn’t sad to see the excessive amounts of skill and strength and talent I’d had go away, some part of me was really going to miss it.

That and wings, because fuck, flying was awesome.

A knock at the door drew me from my musings, interrupting my dishwashing.

I’ll admit to blinking in confusion before heading to the door. The only ponies I knew of that could breach my barriers were Celestia and Pinkie Pie. Celestia because she was a Sun Goddess, and Pinkie because Pinkie Pie.

If that’s not a good enough explanation for you, then I don’t know what to tell you.

While I didn’t think it’d been three days since the spell had been broken, it was probably Celestia. Still, I took no chances, readying a concussive force spell and a simple recursive barrier before opening the door.

A blink, and then I looked up the chest of stark white to meet violet eyes. Wow, Celestia was tall.

“Evening, Princess-…” another blink before I swallowed, backing away beneath the intense gaze, “Um… what… what did I do wrong?”

“We have much to discuss with you, my little pony,” I thanked whatever gods there might be that her voice was merely controlled and not angry. But… we…?

I leaned my head around the mass of Equestrian royalty/divinity to find a nearly as large dark blue form right behind her.

Princess Luna.

I had both of the rulers of Equestria outside of my home at the same damn time.

Fuck.

Author's Notes:

So there it is, pseudo cliffhanger. Yes, Luna and Celestia have a decent reason for both being there at the same time.

This chapter ended up more exposition-heavy than I’d intended towards the end, but I felt it best to get that out of the way now rather than trying to spread it out everywhere. I did my best to keep it at least somewhat interesting, but it’s an info-dump, so I’d be happy to get suggestions on how to make it less… info-dumpy.

Also A). Not everypony is horrendously hostile to Emeris. B). The hostily has a rather good reason to be there. And C). Applejack and Twilight have reasons for seeming OOC.

If you dislike the story, I’d love to hear why. Please comment and tell me what you dislike about the story. Telling me what sucks helps me improve far more than telling me what’s awesome does.

Anyways, until next time!

Autobots, roll out!