A Pony Masquerade

Chapter nine: lost

Celadon? PoV.

My eyes shot open and I jumped off the floor. I looked around the room, a little confused.

"Where am I?" I heard my mouth ask.

"You're at the library," a strangely familiar pink mare told me.

She was looking at me with a mix of surprise and confusion.

"What library?"

"Twilight's library," she looked concerned at that point.

Twilight sounds familiar. C'mon. Think. You know this.

The princess!

I bowed down in front of princess Twilight before standing and apologizing.

"Sorry, I didn't know I was in the presence of royalty," I said.

I was only met with looks of confusion and shock.

The pink mare's look of confusion grew.

"You... Horn, wings?" She stuttered.

"Hmm?" I replied.

I lifted my familiar wings. But they were white. Well, one was. The other was black. Wait, what? I thought I was green!

I shuffled around in a panic, trying to get a better look at my wings.

"Why are they not green?" I practically shouted.

Princess Twilight just stared. She's smart. I'll ask her.

I turned towards her and yelled, "why are my wings black and white!? I'm like an old fashioned picture book!"

Her eyes ignored my recolored wings and were pointed at my forehead. She slowly raised her hoof to point at the focus of her eyes.

My gaze followed up to the ceiling where I could see some of my mane.

"What? What are you pointing at?"

The pink mare answered.

"Oh my Celestia! You have a horn!"

I felt my forehead with my hoof, bumping into a bony structure. I can feel my hoof touching it. I have a horn... And wings... I'm an alicorn.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA'S MANE!?"

As I panicked, a burst of light shot from my horn, sending me flying backwards across the room. I hit the wall with a loud thud. My vision blurred.

My senses quickly returned.

"What the hay is going on!?"

Twilight half mumbled something before attempting to explain.

"Well... It looks like... I don't know... Could be. Umm, you're an alicorn."

"I know that!" I was panicking.

"You're not a normal alicorn."

"You don't say!" I was growing impatient.

"Well, you have wings and a horn, but your magic isn't reading any more powerful. You have a normal aura coming off of you, but it's divided between your 'unique' appendages."

The pink mare, who had been watching in silence, piped in.

"What?"

Twilight continued to explain.

"He has a horn and wings, but no more magic than if he just had enough for his wings. The magic that powered your pegasus flight has been divided between your new horn, old wings, and extra strength."

"So I'm a really powerful alicorn?"

"No, you're completely useless. Each of the traits has only a third of the amount of magic it normally has. You can't fly, your magic will come out in weak bursts when you're panicked, and you're even weaker than you were as a pegasus."

My ears drooped at the bad news.

"I don't want to be an alicorn," I said, sounding somewhat like a pouting filly.

"Fix him, Twilight," the pink pony said, giving the princess puppy dog eyes.

"I can fix him, I think. Just hold on a minute."

She started frantically searching through a pile of papers.

"I prepared a counter-spell. I have it here somewhere."

"Looking for something?" An ownerless voice called out.

A talon appeared out of thin air and seemingly sliced open the fabric of the universe. A mostly normal, if a little misshapen, head followed the claw out of the tear.

Princess Twilight rolled her eyes.

"What now Discord?"

A body of mismatched limbs climbed out of the hole.

"I just wanted to know how your little friend was doing."

He pointed towards me.

"Is he okay? He looks different," he said with a sly grin.

"Did you do this?" The pink mare asked.

"Oh, Pinkie, I would never do such a thing. Except I just did."

Her name is Pinkie. Oh right! She's one the elements. Duh.

"What did you do?" Twilight asked.

"Simple. I just altered your little spell, turned a couple pages of your notes to gravy, and erased a couple connections to other worlds."

"WHAT!?" The princess screamed, "What exactly did you erase?"

"Just Salad-Top's connection to the human world. He can only remember his pony life now," he stated triumphantly.

"FIX HIM!" Pinkie shouted with a fierceness I didn't expect from the element of laughter.

Discord looked back at me with a raised eyebrow and pointed at Pinkie with his thumb, as if to say, "you know her?"

He shrugged and snapped his fingers, and I was surrounded by a cloud of smoke for a moment. When it cleared, I couldn't feel my horn, and I could see tufts of leaves hanging down in front of my eyes.

Back to normal.

Pinkie ran up and threw her hooves around me.

"I'm so glad you're normal!"

"Umm... It's an honor to meet you, Element of laughter?"

She looked at me questioningly, tears forming in her eyes.

"You don't remember me?"

"I've never met you before now," I shrugged.

Her hair fell from its usual fluffiness to a straight, stringy mess. Tears began to flow out of her eyes, dropping to the floor.

"Oh," was all she said before trudging out of the library.

Discord watched her leave and stated bluntly, "Well that just sucks, doesn't it?"

The princess gave him a disapproving glare and he shrugged it off before vanishing into nothingness.

"I guess I'll just leave now," I said, walking out the door before Twilight could object. I know it's bad to ignore a princess, but I need to go figure things out.

Looks like it's back to the Ponyville Park. Maybe I'll go try and find Comet, an old friend.

Nah, we haven't talked in years.

I just need to go think.

I have no idea what just happened.