Chapter 16 - Promises Made
*Nyx’s P.O.V.*
At the end of school, Miss Cheerilee gave us a math assignment. I noticed Joshua seemed happy at this. Math must’ve been his favorite subject in school. Soon we all left the schoolhouse, and Joshua, the other crusaders, and I went over to the clubhouse.
“Okay everypony,” I said after we all sat down, “what Joshua is about to tell you all cannot leave these walls. You all promise?”
“I promise,” Twist said.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” the others said, reciting and performing the Pinkie Pie Promise. Joshua looked confused at that.
“What was that?” he asked.
“It’s a Pinkie Pie Promise,” Apple Bloom said, “Whenever somepony makes a Pinkie Pie Promise, they have to keep it no matter what. We don’t want to lose your trust buddy, because losing a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend forever.”
“FOREVER!!!”
We all jumped at the sudden shout. There was Pinkie Pie staring at us sternly through the window.
“Pinkie Pie?” Joshua asked confused.
“Hi there Joshie!” she said returning to her happy attitude.
“You heard us?”
“I always know whenever somepony makes a Pinkie Promise,” she said, “And you can trust me that I’ll keep it too if you tell me what you’re about to say.”
“You promise?”
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she said reciting her promise.
“Okay,” Joshua said standing up, “Last night, while taking my shirt off, there was this bright light that appeared on my forehead. When it went away, I took off my shirt all the way, looked in the mirror, and there was a unicorn horn on my forehead.”
“There was?” Sweetie Belle said.
“Where is it now?” Scootaloo asked.
“Twilight made it invisible with her magic,” I explained, “It’s still there, it’s just invisible. Show them Joshua.”
Joshua then placed a hand on top of his invisible horn, and everypony there went wide-eyed.
“Sweet Applesauce!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.
“Did it hurt when it appeared?” Twist asked.
“No,” Joshua said shaking his head, “Princess Celestia came in last night to look at it, but she said she didn’t know why it appeared, and that I was turning into a pony, but I don’t want to be a pony.”
“Don’t worry buddy,” Scootaloo said placing a hoof on Joshua’s hand, “We’ll all be here for you. We promise not to let this conversation leave the clubhouse.”
“My lips are sealed,” Pinkie said, “See you all later Crusaders! Hope you feel better Joshie.” She then bounced away from the window, humming to herself.
“How does she do that?” Joshua asked.
“It’s just Pinkie Pie,” Apple Bloom responded flatly, “You’ll get used to it.”
“We need to get going and see if Twilight has found anything,” I said.
“Plus we’ve got that math assignment to do as well,” Sweetie Belle added. So we all went our separate ways back home. Joshua and I entered the library to see Twilight and Spike still looking through the books. Twilight noticed us coming in.
“Oh I’m sorry you two,” she said, “I must’ve lost track of time.”
“It’s okay Mom,” Joshua said, “I understand.”
“Did you tell your friends about you know what?” I asked.
“Yes, except for Pinkie Pie, and they promised they wouldn’t tell anypony else. I couldn’t find Pinkie Pie though.”
“She found me, Joshua, and the other Crusaders actually,” I explained, “We told them and they promised not to tell either.”
“Good, good,” Twilight said, “Well, so far we still haven’t found anything about why Joshua’s horn appeared.”
Just then, the spell that made Joshua’s horn invisible wore off and it reappeared. Joshua let out a sad sigh.
“Don’t worry Joshua. We’ll figure out how to fix it,” Twilight said rubbing his cheek with a hoof. Just then Spike started making a gagging sound. He then burped and a rolled up scroll appeared. Twilight caught it with her magic and unrolled it.
“What does it say?” Joshua asked. Twilight cleared her throat and read:
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
We looked through the Canterlot Archives and we think we have a lead on to why Joshua is going through his transformation. It might be something we can use to reverse the transformation, but we will have to look into it further until we are certain. For now, just do your best to help Joshua any way you can, and keep me updated on any further incidents Joshua has with becoming a pony.
Your fellow princess and mentor,
Princess Celestia
“Well Joshua, Princess Celestia thinks she may have found something, but wants to make sure it’ll work before trying it on you,” Twilight said.
“Okay,” he said showing a small smile.
“At least we’re getting somewhere,” Twilight added, “Now why don’t you and Nyx go do your homework?”
I nodded my head and led Joshua upstairs. There we worked on the math assignment Miss Cheerilee gave us. Soon after finishing his assignment, Joshua went to sit on our bed.
“Are you gonna be okay?” I asked him. He looked up at me and had a sad frown.
“I don’t know Nyx,” he said to me, “I just really hope Princess Celestia fixes me.” He then laid down on his chest looking at the clock in the room. I then finished up my assignment, trotted over to him, laid down next to him, and placed a hoof on his back. He turned to look at me and I gave him a sad smile.
“It’ll be okay little brother,” I said, “You know we’re all here for you right?”
He nodded at me and sat up. I did the same, and we hugged each other.
“Thank you Nyx,” he said. We held our hug for what felt like hours, and I could feel Joshua relaxing in my embrace. “I hope what Princess Celestia found works,” he added after we finished our hug.
“Me too,” I said, “You wanna get a snack from the kitchen?”
“Sure,” he said nodding.
Music:
A Piece of Peach - Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX
The Afternoon Streets - Kingdom Hearts II
Poor, poor Joshua. Just hold on little guy, I know that Celestia and Luna will be able to help you.
I know that Joshua is the last human from earth and the only human on Equestria. Is this the reason Joshua wants to say human? If he keeps changing in to a pony, will it be a compleat change or just parts of him? He has a horn, can he do Magic?
Keep up the good work you are doing on this story. Hope to see a up date soon.
Dragonfox
3114042
If I might hypothesize, he may wish to stay human because being human is a portion of his identity. Further his own human body is probably one of the few physical reminders of who his birth parents were and he probably wants to protect his memories of them. Not to mention depending on how the transformation goes, he may or may not have muscle coordination with his new limbs and magic. Not to mention it can be a matter of it being forced upon him rather than being given a choice.
If you recall the Architect's Speech from the Matrix Reloaded, the reason the first form of the Matrix failed was because despite creating a paradise for the humans trapped in it's illusion, they had no choice over their actions, and rejected a seeming paradise because of this lack of choice.
Poor Joshua, after he was finally over of his troubles, new one comes.
3113950 i don't see what's so bad about turning into a pony eh must be just me
How do I make my words italic like that, I've been trying to get it like that on most of my stories.
3116394 There should be an italicized letter I button. You click that and you'll get these symbols small lowercase I's in brackets. You place what you want to italicize between them to get them italicized.
3116462 I click that button all the time, but none of my words ever get italicized.
3117545 Did you read this section of my previous comment?
3117551 Yes but between what?
3117566 Between the symbols that pop up when you click the italicize button.
3117569 Yes that's what I'm trying to tell you, I click that part that I want to get italicized, then I go click that button, the symbols pop up, and I put the symbols where I want them, but whenever I click the publish button to look, my wordsare still not italicized.
3117583 I'm not sure how else to put it. That's the best I can give you right now. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
3116394 Highlight the text you want italicized and hit Ctrl+I, or surround them with (i) and (/i) tags.
(replace ( ) with [ ] )
For bold and underlines, use "b" and "u", respectively.
18# oooo
The feels!
3114042
Humans would rather have the choice of endless pain than be forced into paradise.
I actually hope that Joshua becomes a pony.