Chapter Text
We watch the sun rise on a lovely day, the camera moves away from the sunrise and turns, showing us an upper-class city. We move past a sign saying Canterlot, likely the name of this city. The camera keeps going and begins to move up to the roof of a building, and we see what seems to be a red ghost. It is a human-like figure with two sets of wings on its back. It has a pretty normal look for a human, but there are no real details in its form besides a hole in their chest in the shape of a heart. They seem to be sleeping on the roof, slowly waking up thanks to the sun.
The red ghost yawns before speaking, "Gooood morning me!" They get up and stretch out their wings; it seems to be more of a habit than a need, though. Once they open their eyes, we can see that their pupils are replaced with yellow stars.
They fly up a good bit before stopping as a roof of a dome forms above them. They poke at it for a bit, unable to get past it despite their ghostly appearance.
They put their hands on their hips and roll their eyes while leaning back in the air. "Welp, I'm still trapped." The ghost seems to take a look around, taking note of the people walking the streets below. "And there are far too many people around for me to risk breaking out with my Determination..." They move away from the barrier and just stare for a while before suddenly blurting out. "Welp, time to do a reality check for myself!"
The soul flies back down and stands on the roof before they start their little 'reality check'. "Alright me let's get started! I am y/n, I am a soul without a body. I am a great person..." They hesitated the second the words left their mouth, freezing slightly as if unsure.
They put their hand out in the air, and a black box opens up showing a stat box. Their HP is 28, their defense is ???, and they have nothing in their inventory. Their hand flinches at the sight of their LV at 3, and the EXP glitched out, showing flashing white boxes. There is a slot called 'item', and it seems to have a red X covering it. y/n says nothing for a while, just staring at the stats. "... I'm a good person... anyway! Let's not think about that! Back to the reality check." They make the black box disappear and put on a happy smile as they go back to the reality check.
"I can possess people, but I normally only ever possess people who need my help or are forced into it." They begin to float like they were leaning back in a chair while they hold out their hand and count on their fingers. "I've helped the child Frisk escape the underground and gain a family, I've helped the hero known as Link save his home, and I helped Ness and his friends save his world as well... And I was forced into Kris for a long while, but I managed to help them out enough..." They stare at the finger that represents Kris for a bit before shaking it off. "Anyway, I'm here now thanks to a strange gray door I walked through. While I'd normally just find someone who needs my help, I'm kinda trapped in this magic bubble and can't break free without hurting people."
They go through the roof and fly into a room below them. There, we see a magical orb glowing with power, on a stand in the center of the room. "Thanks to this thing, I'm trapped. I don't think the owners did this on purpose, based on the fact that I think this thing is treated like a decoration rather than something important." They rub the orb lightly, watching it gain a static effect as it reacts to their every touch. "But still, it seems to be the thing keeping me trapped here."
They push off the orb and fly through the building and head to a balcony, and start leaning on a railing. "Now I'm sure you're wondering. Why don't we just possess someone at night and try to escape? There's a reason we don't know what these people really are." y/n gestures to the people below. "They may look human, but they aren't; they are some kind a magic monster pony thing. I don't know why they call themselves ponies, but then again, why not?" They shrug as they smile down at the people below. "Anyway, the point is I don't know if they're made of magic or not, and in case you forget, creatures made out of magic tend to melt if they are... how to say... infected- contamination no... Exposed to too much Determination, yeah, let's say infected. I really don't wanna kill anyone, so yeah, can't risk possessing one of the more magical ones. Now, why don't we just possess a normal 'pony' instead of the unicorn or pegasus type? Simple answer really... One doesn't live here, nor in any of the houses I can reach, and even if they did, I can't just take one and leave this place. I need someone no one will miss and can just leave."
y/n watches as a family of ponies walks into the building next to them. They stare at the building the family entered for a while before they look away. "Well... I don't wanna pull another Kris thing. So even if we do find someone, we'll just use them to find a doll or something I can stay in... Oh wait, I should also remind myself that this world is my forever home! This world is so peaceful and nice, plus the ruler of this place seems really nice. Uh, her name is Princess Celestia if memory serves... people seem to use her name like Jesus or the gods from my old realms. It's Kinda weird, but eh, not the weirdest thing I've seen. hehe I still remember when people in that one world would say." They stand up straight, and their body shift to look like a general from Rome. "By Zeus's balls, what are you boys doing?!" y/n bursts out laughing for a while before calming down a bit. "But still, this place seems good enough for me to call it home."
y/n looks back to where the orb would be. "If only something would let me go!..." They stare at the wall for a bit before turning back to look at the people going about their day. "None of these people can see or hear me, thanks to it either..." They jump up and fly down, standing in the middle of the street, just letting people walk through them as they speak. "These people here call themselves ponies; they seem to only separate themselves by type instead of race." They walk over to a small group of ponies nearby. "The types seem to be earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus. They all look like monsters from Hometown and the underground, but horse themed, though, except for some key things, like how pegasus seem to have wings or unicorns can do magic using the horn on their head. Earth ponies seem pretty normal, but all of these ponies seem to be crazy strong compared to humans, being able to tug carts behind them with very little effort, and all sorts of other stuff."
They take a look at everyone around them and take notice of someone wearing shorts in the crowd. "Most people tend to either have a hole or just wear something short to show off their 'cutie marks'. These cutie marks seem to just be whatever the pony is best at or loves the most. I don't really get them, but people seem really proud of their marks." y/n turns their head and sees some foals showing off their cutie marks to each other. "Most people who don't have the mark on their leg showing tend to have it somewhere on their clothing to show off their cutie mark." One of the foals shows off her shirt, which has her cutie mark on the sleeve.
y/n flies back up and goes back to the highest point of the dome. "Am I forgetting something? Uhh... basics about the ponies, who I am, how to escape, where we are, and... reminded myself to not just take someone over. We don't know if pegasus or unicorns are made of magic or not. Our best bet would be an earth pony, and they aren't too, too common around here, and I really don't want to take over a normal, good person that's just taking their kids to the capital."
y/n flies back into the building and sits down on a random chair near the orb. "Welp, guess that's it then. Time to sit and wait for the next time I need a reality check." They lean back and put their feet up on the air as they get comfortable.
We watch a time-lapse of y/n sitting in the chair, barely moving as they watch the people around them pack up to go on a vacation, not bothering to move from their chair as the family that lives here leaves for who knows how long. Nothing else happens as we watch the light move across their face as the sun sets for the day. The camera fades away for a bit, and we cut back and see y/n sleeping in that chair until they wake up to the sound of someone above them coming in through the window.
"Someone's breaking in..." They cross their fingers. "Please be an earth pony." y/n flies up and watches as, luckily, an earth pony is sneaking through this home, her face is covered by a mask, and her whole body is in black clothing.
"Yes!! Alright, pal, don't worry, I will only be in control just until I can find a good place to live and get a body that isn't a person." y/n reaches out to grab her, but the magic bubble shows up around the pony, stopping them.
"... OH COME ON!..." They scream out as they punch and smack at the orb around the pony for a while before stopping and looking at how they can hold onto the orb. "Ugh, fine, whatever. I'll just try to hold onto them on their way out and hope that works."
y/n watches from the side as the thief moves through the house. After a while of them looking around this place, they soon find the orb. They walk over to it as y/n stays back a bit, watching from the end of the hallway with a growing curiosity.
The thief jumps up with joy at the sight of the orb, barely able to keep their voice quiet from the excitement. "Yes! This will be worth so much money! I just got to grab it, and I'll be set for life! I can finally get everything I deserve!" The thief runs over to the orb, taking their mask off for a better view of the shining orb.
"...Wow, aren't you a great person." y/n rolls their eyes slightly at the pony but inches closer. "How do you plan on getting the orb, though?" They get closer at the edge of the door frame as their growing curiosity draws them near.
The pony reaches up for the orb, jumping up to try and get it, but they end up knocking it slightly, causing it to wobble side to side. "No, no, no, no, no!" the thief panicked as they tried to stabilize the orb by running to the other side and jumping there. This only causes the orb to fall over on that side. The part that his the ground shatters as the rest is covered in cracks, and the orb stops glowing as its power seems to flow out of the hole. "NO!"
y/n lets out a slight giggle, causing the pony to freeze, surprising y/n. "Oh, you can hear me? Hmm, I seem a little quiet, I haven't noticed till now..." Their voice is everywhere and nowhere as it seems to echo off the inside of our minds.
y/n reaches for their throat as the terrified pony slowly turns her head to look at the thing behind them. y/n treats this like a mic test as the pony's eyes stare in fear at the red angle like a monster behind her.
"testing. Testing. 1 2 3. 1 2 3." Their voice breaks and cracks as the test goes on before slowly stabilizing. The pony backs up slightly as she stares up at y/n in complete fear.
'What is that thing...' The pony takes a few steps back as she puts her hands in front of herself. The camera turns to the pony's face, and we watch as y/n's hands wrap around the pony's face and body from behind her as the camera turns to black.
A red smile shows it's in the center of the darkness. "Come on, buddy.~ I need to borrow someone's body, and it's not like you're using this one for good.~"
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We watch as a pony walks up a hill and looks down at Ponyville.
The pony appears to be an older one, with eyes redder than rubies in the dark. "This place looks perfect! I can really see myself starting a life here..." They lean on a dead tree next to them. "Wouldn't you agree, Obsidia?"
They pull out a handheld mirror and look into it; in the mirror is a much younger version of the person they are watching. She is a deep purple pony with a blue and deep pike mane. The older one has one stripe of gray hair with not much else different besides demeanor, as the one in the mirror is looking up at the older one in slight fear.
The camera flashes slightly, showing a red heart in the center of the pony's body. "Oh, Obsidia, don't look at me like that. I know being controlled like this isn't the best, but I only need to borrow your body until I can get one of my own. So stop stressing, if everything goes to plan, you'll get your body back by the end of the day. That's good, right?"
Obsidia nods slightly as her eyes never leave y/n. "Ok... but I'm not gonna look like that forever, right? You didn't make me old, right?" The panic in her eyes grows slightly at the idea of being old.
"Don't worry, when I leave your body, I'll make it look normal again. I just need you to look a bit older for my plan to work. It's easily undoable, see?" They shift from a perfect copy of the mirror to the older version a couple of times.
"Alright..." The Pony in the mirror rubs their shoulder slightly while watching this.
"Now then, let's find us someone who can make me a body." The two begin to walk into Ponyville. After a bit of walking, y/n gets surprised by someone running up to them.
(art by FlashEquestria on Furaffinity. I will say this sorta style is how pretty much everyone looks in this world.)
The unknown pink pony starts speaking very fast as they jump around, y/n."Hithere!I'mPinkiePieyournewhereright?WellofcourseyournewmyPinkiesensetoldme!-"
y/n puts a hand over the Pony's mouth before speaking softly to them. "Calm down and slow down, please. I'm just here to help my younger sibling settle in." It is worth noting that y/n's voice is a near-perfect copy of Obsidia's, albeit a little more robotic.
Pinkie smiles up at y/n. "Alright, where's the little guy?" She looks around y/n a bit, trying to find the younger sibling.
y/n rolls their eyes slightly at the idea of them being that young. "They're not that young, should be just about your age now. But anyway, they're not here at the moment. I'm just getting them a place to stay while I do business."
Pinkie nods along with them. "Well... Alright, I'll be sure to throw them a big old party when they get here to welcome them." Pinkie jumps up and throws confetti in the air.
"Uh. Maybe hold off on the party for a week or so. It's been a bit of a... stressful week, and they likely are gonna want some time to recharge, you know?"
Pinkie and her confetti freeze mid-air for a bit before she grabs the confetti and stuffs it back in her pocket. "Uhhhh... Alright, I'll wait for a week or so, but I'm gonna make sure that when I can throw them a party, it'll be big and amazing for them!"
y/n smiles at her and nods at her. "Thank you, miss. Now, can you point me to the mayor?"
"Call me Pinkie pie, and she's that way and in the big, important-looking building." She points to a down path.
"Thank you, Pinkie. Have an amazing day." y/n walks off, waving at Pinkie as they leave. Pinkie waves back for a while before turning on her heel and walking off.
'I hope her little sibling is nice. I wonder what could have happened for someone to not want to party, though.' Pinkie scratches her chin slightly as she thinks about that for a bit before she walks off.
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'Alright, Obsidia, looks like this will be pretty easy.' y/n speaks in their mind, allowing Odsidia to hear them.
'Yeah, but where are you getting the money for that?'
y/n giggles slightly before patting their pocket. 'Your wallet.'
'What!?' Odsidia screams, clearly not happy about being robbed.
'Girl, we both know you would have lost a lot more money and possibly jail time if I let you get caught. I won't be taking any more from you, so don't worry. Call it the price of breaking that orb.'
'Ugh, fine! Whatever, just hurry it up! I want my dang body back!'
y/n let's out another soft giggle as they head into the mayor's office. "Um, hello, I'm here to-"
The Receptionist cuts them off with a blank face. "She's already ready for you. Just head in there, and your meeting can start."
This catches y/n completely off guard. "Wait, really? How did you-"
Once again, the Receptionist cuts them off. "Word spreads fast when someone new is moving in. Now run along, the mayor's waiting for you." She points her thumb at the door as she looks at y/n with a less-than-amused face.
"Uh, alright. Thank you." y/n nervously walks past the Receptionist, not looking her in the eyes.
y/n walks into the office and sits down. "Um, so-"
The mayor cuts them off the second she notices them here. "Don't worry, I already know you're setting up your sibling and stuff. All our homes are filled, so we'll need to build a new one for them. The starting payment is going to only be 300 bits; the rest can be worked out over time."
caught slightly off guard by how fast that was, slowly reached into their pocket. "Oh uh, ok. Here you are." And hands over the money. "Thank you for this-"
"Yes, yes." The mayor waves off the thanks and looks at them with a serious face. "Now I do just have one question. Why are you leaving your younger sibling here?"
"Oh, uh, it's not too important. They just need somewhere to stay while I deal with stuff, and don't worry, they're not too young, they can take care of themself just fine."
The Mayor raises an eyebrow. "...If you say so... Now they'll be staying in the Golden Oak library while the home is built."
"That's fine, they like reading anyway. Now then, if you do not mind me asking, is there anyone in town good at fabrics and stuff like that in this town?"
That confuses the mayor a good bit. "Well, yes, Rarity at the carousel boutique is great at making clothes if that's what you're looking for."
y/n ignores the confused look on the mayor's face and gets up to leave. "Thank you, have a nice day."
"You too, dear." Mayor Mare watches them like a hawk, clearly suspicious about the strange Pony.
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'So far so good, huh?' y/n thinks with a smirk
'I don't know. She seemed less than happy with us. She was staring at us like she wanted to rip our head off.'
'Yeah, but you won't be here long enough for her to do that, so no point in caring what she thinks about us.'
'As in letting me have my body back, right?'
'Yeah, of course. I'm not killing you, don't worry.' They finish their chat in their own mind right as they walk into the carousel boutique. "Hello? Are you still open?"
"Yes, yes, give me a second, I'm helping a friend." We take a look at who's speaking and see she's giving her friend a makeover.
(art by FlashEquestria on Furaffinity again.)
(art by FlashEquestria on Furaffinity again and again.)
"Oh, it's no rush, don't worry."
"I'm done anyway. Now, how can I help- oh, it's you." The pale pony stops mid-sentence as they seem to stare at the two in one. The yellow pony in the chair covers her mouth in shock, in a poor attempt to hide a gasp.
"You know me already?" y/n tilts his head, surprised by that.
"Word spreads fast in a town like this. Now what is it you want?" The pale Pony seems to dust their hands off slightly as they give a rather judgmental look, and the Yellow one seems to nervously stand behind the pale one.
y/n rubs the back of their neck as they give a weak smile. "Ah... Well, actually, I was hoping to make a special request."
The pale one raises an eyebrow as the other tilts her head slightly.
"Well, I was hoping you could use your skills at making clothes to make a doll of sorts. We need a life-sized doll of a unicorn."
The pale unicorn's face twists in disgust, but she gets cut off before she can say anything.
"It's not what you think." They panic slightly. "Listen, our mother... isn't here, and we don't have anything left worth burying. We just really need something to bury that isn't just memories, ok?"
The unicorn's face quickly switches from disgust to slight guilt and a bit of remorse. "Oh, I'm so sorry for judging."
"It's no problem, I know how that sounded at the start. Now then, do you think you can make it?"
"Well, maybe. I've never made something like that before..."
The yellow and pink pony speaks up slightly. "I could help you make it."
"Are you sure, Fluttershy? This seems a little intense for you."
"Yeah, I can handle it, Rarity, don't worry," Fluttershy said softly.
"Well, if you're sure... then we should be able to do it." Rarity smiled and patted Fluttershy's back.
y/n suddenly bows at them, surprising both ponies slightly. "Thank you dearly for helping us have something to bury. It means everything to us."
"It's no problem, deary, really." Rarity said, rubbing the back of her neck.
"D-Don't worry about it," Fluttershy added.
"Great. Now here." y/n gets up and reaches into their pocket before handing Rarity a piece of paper. "This is what we'd want her to look like. It isn't too much, but it's enough. Now, how much do I owe you?"
Rarity grabs the note and looks it over; her hands shake slightly as she reads it. "Oh uh... Don't worry, I'll do this for free, honey. Call it a gift for misjudging you."
"Thank you so much again. Please drop it off at the library when finished." y/n smiles dearly and bows once more before turning to leave.
Rarity nods and shows the paper to Fluttershy as y/n goes out the door.
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Our pov switches to the outside of the library, and we see that it's now sunset. Inside, we see y/n setting up a bed before pulling out the mirror once again.
"Looks like everything has gone to plan. Depending on how fast those two are, you'll be getting your body back in no time," y/n says to the mirror with a smile.
"Thank Celestia for that," the real Obsidia says with great joy in her voice. "I can't handle not being in control of my own body anymore!"
Just as she says that, there's a knock on the door.
"Wow, that was some great timing." y/n smirks at that. "Looks like it's time to give you your old body back in just a bit."
y/n heads to the door and opens it, only to see the two from before at the door holding a big bag.
"Hello again. Uh, here you are." Rarity says with a rather nervous smile as she hands y/n the bag. "I hope it's good enough for the funeral. There were a few mistakes while making the arms and legs- but we fixed them the best we could."
"Don't worry, I'm sure it's perfect. Now then, I'm gonna have to go get my sibling. I just finished setting up their little home, and I need to bring them over." y/n walks forward past the ponies and takes that bag with them.
Fluttershy reaches out and grabs their arm. "Uh, can you tell them they can always talk to us?- If they want to, I mean." Fluttershy looks away a bit, a little nervous.
y/n turns back and smiles at them softly. "I will. Thank you for your help. Truly, you two are the best for helping us. I will make sure my sibling knows you're the nice people who gave us a body."
Fluttershy smiles at them with a somewhat confused face as they walk off, as the sky turns to night. Rarity smiles at Fluttershy before tapping her shoulder, getting her attention. They seem to talk about something, but we can't hear them as they both leave to likely go home.
The camera cuts to black, and we end up back on that hilltop, y/n drops the bag right next to that dead tree from before. "Looks like it's finally time, dear. Let's look at my new body.~" y/n opens the bag and pulls out some of the stuffing before pulling out a gray doll.
"Not bad, I can easily color and dress this up pretty easily, not bad-" y/n finishes pulling out the doll and sees that it is, in fact, really short. "..."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my goodness! You're so short!" y/n's mind fills with laughter as Obsidia loses it at the sight of the doll.
y/n rolls their eyes, ignoring the laughter. "I guess we didn't write a height... Well, it's better than nothing."
They throw the doll onto the tree. We see that the doll has bangs covering its eyes and a pretty basic hairstyle that y/n can customize using magic. The rest of the body seems to just be a soft, doll-like body, just with stitches exposed around most of the body, excluding the hands and face, likely thanks to the fact that those spots would likely be covered by formal clothing. The arms and legs seem to have a few extra patches of stitching, likely the mistakes Rarity was talking about. Its face has button eyes and a sewn-on smile. Looking into the bag, we see there are a few different outfits made for the doll, all in black.
y/n grabs and rubs the doll's face slightly with a slight smile. "Hehe, it's nice to have a face that doesn't belong to someone else." They rub the cheek of their new face for a while longer before their face goes deadpan as they back up. "Time to get this started. As a slight heads up, Obsidia, this is gonna hurt a lot."
"HAHAHAHAHA- wait what?" She responds with a confused voice, unaware of what they mean by that.
Without any warning, their body starts to convulse and shake as it falls to the ground. She starts to cry as a red form begins to slowly rise from their chest. Obsidia stops convulsing as the red heart shape escapes her body fully and hovers above them. After a bit, it launches itself into the doll. After another few seconds, the doll stands up slowly on its plush legs. The doll looks at its body for a bit before it snaps its non-existent fingers and starts to float before being wrapped in a red film. A flash of light happens, and the doll now looks like your average pony, just with red eyes that get covered by the bangs; they haven't bothered to change the hairstyle yet. They slowly float back to the ground, and we see they are naked, but in the same way a doll is, no extra parts.
"Wow, I don't think I've ever been able to have a body to call mine. This feels amazing!" They look down at their Barbie doll, looking under the side. "Hmmm... eh, whatever. Not like I can do anything about it... I wonder if-"
They take a look at their hip and see that they do have a cutie mark. Their mark is a copy of their soul with a yellow star in the middle and a few smaller stars around it.
"Yeah, that tracks." They rub the mark slightly before snapping their fingers, and another red film covers them, and poof, they are covered in very comfortable clothes, but it is of note that y/n seems to be covering their cutie mark instead of showing it like most other ponies. "Ah.~ That's much better."
They hear a groan and look down at Obsidia. "Yeah, sorry about that, but that's kind of just how that works. On the bright side, you're not old anymore and have your body back."
Obsidia is still gasping from the shock and pain of having a soul basically rip its way out of her. "That was horrible!"
"Yeah, we've been told." y/n rubs the back of their neck and lets out a nervous chuckle.
Obsidia slowly gets up, still a bit weak from shock. "Ugh... Can I please leave now?"
"Well, you can leave now. Sorry for having to borrow your body to get one of my own."
Obsidia looks at them, clearly angry about all this. "What's stopping me from just rating you out, huh?"
y/n's eyes soften slightly at Obsidia and let out a heavy sigh. "I thought you might try something like that, so I marked your soul. I don't like taking people's free will, but I made it as small as I could. Don't worry, it won't do anything big; it is made to just prevent you from talking or writing about what happened."
Her eyes widen in shock as she panics. "So I can't talk about how you-... How you- Huh..." her shoulders slump down as she stares at them in shock.
They nod a bit in somber understanding. "Please understand, I mean no harm to you at all, but this is my one chance to have a life of my own. You never have to speak to me again or stay here. All I ask of you is not to ruin my first chance at true freedom."
Obsidia looks at y/n for a while, just staring at them, neither mad nor sad, no longer just... indifferent? "Fine... but please never bring me into this little life you're making for yourself again."
y/n nods a bit before turning back to the town. "No problem, remember to stay out of trouble." They begin to walk away, but turn back with a soft smile. "Oh, and by the way, if you ever need anything, feel free to ask. We're going by the name y/n if you ever find yourself looking to cash in a favor."
Obsidia nods at them before turning to leave Ponyville, while y/n turns to head back into it. Neither bothers to look back at the other as their paths separate for now.
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As y/n walks back to the library, they notice a lot of ponies watching them walk home and whispering to one another. Whenever they try to look at one of the gossiping ponies, they look away.
'Hmm, seems everypony is talking about my little situation... Well, whatever rumors they are talking about likely won't reach us. The whole dead mother thing and being abandoned by my 'sister' should be more than enough for people to not want to talk to us directly about my past or anything. That means I shouldn't have to stress about my back story too much,' they think to themself as they look around at the people around them. 'I'm just fine with not having to deal with the people problems until I figure out the rules of this new body of mine.'
They head into the library without looking back at any of the ponies who whisper about them. "Welp, I got a body, and I get to have a clean-ish start. This is pretty much the perfect start for me."
They lie in their bed and get ready to sleep. 'Time for my first ever night of sleep in a body I can call my own.' And with that, they slowly fade into sleep as the night takes hold of their soft body.