Pony Detective

Chapters

Ch.1: The Beginning
Ch. 2: A Strange Visitor
Ch. 3: Equestria
Ch. 4: Lost
Ch. 5: The Truth

Ch.1: The Beginning

This is the story of the most recent events of my life.

I am Nolan Cote, a private detective, self employed obviously. Strange name, right? I’ve had strange parents. My mother thinks that she is a psychic and my dad was a police officer. It sounded normal, until the day of his death while out on patrol. I still don’t know who killed him, and I have been helping mom cope with his death for a while. After that, I went into the detective work.

I’ve been working on small crime cases for the last six years. It pays well, and I never do find myself without a warm meal every night. I am twenty seven years old, caucasian, with dark chocolate brown hair and eyes.

It all started with a phone call, around 9:30 P.M. I was closing down my small, paper cluttered office when I heard the old antique phone ring on my desk. I lock my front door, and make my way through scrap paper lying on the floor to my desk near the window. I was raining outside.

*click* “Hello?” I say into the receiving end of the phone.

“Hello, this is Nolan, correct? The detective?” The voice sounds feminine.

“Yes, Nolan speaking. I’m afraid I am closing down now, if you could just call tomorro-”

“Please, this is important, my-”

“Look, miss, I’m busy all night with paperwork. The police department will have my ass if I don’t finish it.”

The woman at the other end begins to sound desperate. “Nolan, it’s my daughter. I can’t help her alone and the police don’t believe me!”

I raise an eyebrow at the statement. “They don’t believe you? Why, what did you say?”

“I said that my daughter was kidnapped by a pony.”

I sigh, another nutjob prank calling my desk again.

“Alright, miss, time for me to go-”

“Please! You have to believe me, no one else will!”

I pinch my eyes, frustrated with the woman at the other end who is clearly off her rocker. “Miss, please don’t waste my time. I mean come on, a horse kidnapping your daughter? What kind of lunacy is that?”

“I’ll pay you handsomely for you to at least look into it!”

I look out the window, observing the small town I live in with a bit more interest. Well, pretend to give a crap, and receive money, but how much?

“How much?”

“A thousand.”

Whoa, okay, yes! This will pay off your bills that are stacking up in the filing cabinet and let you live comfortably for a while. All I have to do was humor a crazy lady who keeps saying that her non-existent daughter was kidnapped by a horse, and make her feel like I’m getting somewhere.

“...Alright, fine. I’ll come by your house by tomorrow. Address?”

The lady at the other end lets out a long, held in breath. “Oh, thank you! My address is...”

A half hour of information collecting later, I finally say. “Alright, thank you miss. Your name is...?

“Christina.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow, Christina. Sleep well.”

“Thank you again, detective.”

I place the phone back on its base, and lean back in the chair. What the hell am I doing? I’m probably placing this woman further into her dementia, and for what, money? Boy, what kind of hero am I?

I take a breath, and slip out of my coat, leaving it on the back of the chair. I head to the door to the right of my desk, open it, and step inside. My office doubles as my home, and this room was my bedroom. In the corner is my single bed, nightstand with a digital alarm clock, and a mirror over it. It’s small, but it does its sole purpose. To accommodate my sleeping self.

I slip on some nightwear, just some grey cotton pants and t-shirt, and slip into my bed.

“...Stay away.”

My eyes shoot open before they close, and I sit up immediately. I heard an unfamiliar voice. Was it some people outside? It wasn’t muffled, but it was still hard to hear. I slowly lay back into bed, and sigh. Maybe I am going crazy too, like that lady. I close my eyes, and eventually drift to sleep.

I dreamed of colors.

A large assortment of colors, ranging from the rainbow, and some that I didn’t even recognize. This continued, with a quiet, droning white noise in the background. Eventually, the corners of my eyes start to blacken, leaving a white circle in the middle of my vision.

A scene starts to replace the blackness. The room I was in was filled with large, complex computers, keyboards, clipboards, pencils, pens, research notes, and pictures of small, familiar looking creatures. They reminded me of horses, but they are smaller, and more oddly shaped. What struck me was that they were colored, in a pastel style. They had huge eyes, big heads that don’t proportion well with their bodies, and larger than normal hooves. Some of them even had wings and others had horns on their head. Some didn’t have either.

They were pretty colorful, and there were a lot of them. And I mean a lot of them. They were plastered with clear tape on the computers, walls, and floors. Some of them were drawn on the actual walls. I started to feel very uncomfortable with the whole situation, as whoever drew these obviously was obsessed by them. Even a child could figure that out, with or without detective skills.

The white circle in the middle of my vision started to take shape, and it seemed to be bordered by a circle of metal, occasionally having a glowing gem along it, each with a different color of the rainbow. They changed colors constantly, keeping the light from disappearing. What is this?

“Impressive, isn’t it?”

I manage to finally move my eyes beyond what is in front of me, and turn. A scruffy looking man with short, jet-black hair and brown eyes stood before me. He had an old, stained scientist lab coat on, and a name-tag that read “Benji Froman”.

“What-” I began to say, but Benji raised his hand to silence me. I did, whether or not I wanted to, I didn’t know.

“It seems you have been placed in a chain of events that will end with an uncertain ending, mister Nolan.”

“Who are you, what are you?”

“Well, assuming you didn’t already read my nametag, I am Benji. I work on the secret project assigned by the U.S. government to locate, and create a bridge, to alternate planets. Don’t get me wrong, we only want to find life and communicate. But...”

He looks forlornly at the light behind me, taking a breath.

“Someone in the team thought differently. He was always a troubled one...”

I take the moment to ponder on what the scientist had told me. The U.S. government was, apparently, aware that life existed somewhere, and now had access to create rips through space to get to those places of life. Wonderful. Wait, did he say someone had other plans?

“Who?” I say.

Benji looks at a desk that is completely covered in the horse creatures. “That would be Denn. We only knew that part of his name. He now calls himself ‘Dark Light’. Makes no sense to any of us why he chose to do that, but then again he is insane.”

Dark Light, or in the dictionary a different name for ultraviolet light that can reveal substances and invisible ink writing (I should know) via a dim purple glow. Huh. Maybe...

“That name is pretty contradictory. I assume he knows what he is doing is wrong, but thinks he is quite the ‘bright’ man, correct?”

Benji grins. “I see why they picked you, detective.”

Someone picked me?

“‘They’? Who are ‘they’?

“Nevermind that now,” Benji exclaims. “I don’t have much time, so listen closely. You need to find Dark, and kill him.”

Whoa, okay, what?

“Excuse me? Kill a man? What are you, nuts?”

“It’s the only way, Nolan. If there was, I would go that route. Maybe there is, but I am blind to it.”

“Why should I do it? This is none of my business.”

“Quite the contrary, Nolan. You see, you were brought into this world to save another. The beings that brought you to me made sure that you survived to today, so that you could stop Dark.”

I begin to get a bit angry. This conversation is moving to unknown territory. “What beings?! This is preposterous! Another world? What does it matter?”

“Because if that world ends, this will too.”

I suddenly feel a cold breeze come up from behind me, and Benji forms a terrified look on his face.

“W-what?” I say, nervously.

I turn to be face to face with a pony. It has a moving, distorted black mane, and it’s fur is covered with a deep, dark purple. It’s eyes are glowing red as it looks into mine. “This is what the princesses think that can stop me? Hah!” Its voice is deep, and monstrous.

“Princesses? Wha-”

“Silence, human! Lest before I turn you into goo. This may be a dream, but I can still cause damage to you.” The insane pony looks past me, towards Benji. Its eyes grow a brighter red, and Benji screams out in pain, collapsing. This is then my turn to be terrified.

“Wha- what did you do?!”

“Are you that daft? I killed him!”

My heart begins to speed up, and the dark pony backs up towards the light. “You mere mortal cannot stop me. I will give you one chance, stay away, and your death on this plane will be painless. Come after me, and I will make you die a slow, agonizing death.” It laughs at me, and steps into the light, disappearing.

I turn to Benji, kneeling over and feeling his neck. No pulse, he is definitely dead. Damn.

I suddenly realize this may actually a dream. “What am I getting worried about? I’m dreaming, this isn’t real, so this isn’t an actual dead body.” My growing sense of logic finally catches up to my conscious mind, and I begin to wake.

I open my eyes, back in my bed. I sit up slowly to prevent myself from getting sick from the sudden movement, and reflect on what I remember from the dream. I realize that I don’t exactly remember too much, and I sigh at my lack of memory when I realize that my door was being beaten by a knuckle for the past few minutes. I get up, and hastily throw on some clothes. I step out into my office, place on my coat, and head for the door.

I open it, and am met with one of my friends, and sometimes partner in crime, Chris.

“Hey man, mind if I come in?”

“Sure, but did you have to come by so early?”

“It’s 12:00, Nolan.”

Crap, i’ve been sleeping in? That’s a first.

“Ah, damn, musta’ slept in. Yeah. come in.”

I side step out of the way, and finally become conscious of the mess of papers and other office appliances on the floor.

“Sorry about the mess.” I say as Chris walks by. In full light I finally see his red hair and hazel eyes. A rare gene pool this man was created in. He walks past, and shoulders back up his jacket.

“Just like the movies in here!” He says with a grin.

I look around my office, noticing how much it does actually represent a gloomy detective office in the old 90’s films.

I grin a bit, humoring Chris. “‘Suppose it does, I try my best.”

Chris laughs a bit, and sits down in the visitor chair in front of my desk. I close the door, and head over to sit in my chair.

Chris is digging through his coat pockets as I sit down. “What’re you here for, Chris? Just visiting?”

Chris looks up after he is done, taking out a folded document. “Nah, came over to give you this,” He hands over the document to me, and I unfold it open to be greeted with a plethora of incomprehensible symbols and letters typed out onto the paper. There are no paragraphs, no pausing, no periods, and no commas. Whoever wrote this is either horrible at proper grammar in writing, or did this is a hurry.

I skim over the words and look at Chris. “What is this? It’s all written in weird symbols and scribbles. All typed out.”

Chris shrugs. “Dunno, some labcoat guy at the store I work at told me to give this to you. Don’t know why he didn’t just go to you in person, but eh. Don’t worry, I checked it for booby traps.” Chris joked.

I look over the symbols. “You have any idea what it says, if it says anything at all?”

“Not a clue, though when I was looking at it myself, some weird ass looked at it and put his fist up, waiting for me to bump it, apparently. He called it a “brohoof” or whatever. Look it up on Google, or something.”

I start to contemplate at what Chris said. Brohoof. Hoof. Lord.

I pull up my computer, and open up the search engine. I type in “brohoof” in the search bar, and hit enter. My screen filled with results, and I clicked on the dictionary entry on it.

I read outloud, “Brohoof, friendly gesture between one ‘brony’ and another in the form of connecting knuckles, or hooves. Hmm.”
I continued to read on. “Originating from My Little Pony, cult children's T.V. cartoon.”

I go back to the search engine, and enter in My Little Pony, and the first suggestion related to my search was as such, labeled My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Created by Hasbro.

Hm, well alright then. I continue on the research of the term ‘brony’ when I realize that I am not the only person in the room.

“Oh sorry, according to here, loads of grown men watch this show, which is meant for little girls.”

“You kidding me? That’s fucked up.” Chris says with a slight disgusted look on his face.

“That still doesn’t explain the weird symbols.” I reply.

“Maybe, in the show for translation problems, that’s what the characters write in?”

“Possibly, i’ll look into it. Thanks for the paper, i’ll see if I can’t translate it, if it even means anything.”

Chris nods, and gets up from his chair. “Don’t let me catch you turning into a brony, Nolan.”

I grin. “As if, Chris. Once done, I’ll leave it to the manchildren.”

Chris laughs, and leaves my office.

I frown a bit. The ponies in this show look exactly the same in the dream I had. The same eye shape, the same coloring, the same body distortions, and more. They are identical. And the pony that I saw, that threatened me in the dream, looked similar as well, just in a more three-dimensional way. This is getting creepy.

A few hours later, around 3:15 P.M., I get up from my desk, and boot down my old computer. I look at my watch to discover it’s time to go visit that odd lady that called me last night. I picked up my car keys on the coat rack and head out the door, locking it behind me.

The building my office is located in is rather old, made in the early 1900’s. It was a repurposed apartment block, now office complex. A rather old and not quite packed office complex. It’s the reason why I chose the place so I could get peace and quiet. As I walk down the small and green carpeted hallway, I pass by a couple of windows, looking out to the street below.

The town I live and work in is sort of a city, but you won’t be seeing any skyscrapers. It’s an old town, with old ghosts living in its buildings. The streets are wide, and brick paved, and the street lamps are based off of those old oil lamps from back when. Store fronts dominate the front of the buildings, and the occasional pedestrian walks by, breaking the illusion of the old town.

I wave bye to the attendant of the building, an old and cranky lady that I never bothered to remember the name of. I push open the glass door, and step outside. The rain had stopped from last I checked, but the clouds in the sky refuse to clear, hiding the sun. My car was down the road, in a parking building with only two floors. I head down there, and find my car in the back of the building, first floor.

It was relatively new. Not like those fancy cars that run on electricity. It has a traditional shape to it, but the name of the brand never seems to click, so I cannot remember the name. I don’t exactly care, considering that I am not much of a car person, but at least it gets me where I want to go.

I click the ‘unlock’ button on my key, and the drivers side of the cars door unlocks, allowing me to swing it open, sit, and shut it. I reach for the key slot when I heard someone talking.

“...You can’t be serious?”

“Does it look like I’m joking!? I saw a damn horse just drag a poor girl down the street!”

I look out the back window of my car, noticing two men in long button coats walking down towards the back of the parking area, where I am.

“That’s outrageous!” says the man on my left. “A horse? What time is it, the 1700’s!?”

“That doesn’t matter, last week the freaky little creature just dragged her down the street, and into a dark alley! I could have sworn it looked at me, and when it did, oh boy, I felt a cold breeze fly by. The town is cursed, I tell yah.”

“Just because of a few disappearances, and a horse dragging off a girl, doesn’t mean the place is cursed. Go back to your science fiction novels, mate.”

“Ah, screw you!”

The men hop into a black four seater next to mine, and I pretend to fumble with the keys so they don’t find out I was eavesdropping through the window. They eventually drive out of the lot, and I sigh. Those men didn’t sound insane, and the case I was on certainly fit the bill of what they were talking about.

I turn the key into ignition, and look at a sticky note I wrote the woman’s address on. I memorize the address, and pull out of the garage, heading down the road towards her house.

When I arrive at the destination, I get a good look at the house. It is a two story victorian suburbs house. Recently built, probably had ten years under its belt. I park in the driveway to its attached garage, and turn off the car, stepping out. I take a quick look at the neighboring homes, and walk up to the door, knocking on it.

A muffled “One moment, please!” comes from inside, and I shuffle my feet to stand upright. Eventually, the source of the voice reaches the door after a few minutes, and it unlocks, unveiling a woman.

She had blonde, straight hair with brown eyes and a forced smile on her lipstick-smeared lips.

“You must be the detective?”

“Indeed. May I come in?”

She looks behind herself, revealing to me that she was expecting someone to be behind her, and that she was either hiding something, or was severely paranoid. I frown as she takes a moment before she turns back to me.

“Uh- yes, yes! Please come in, head to the kitchen down the hall, I’ll get you some coffee.”

“Thank you, miss.”

I take off my hat, and place it on a rack next to the door. I take a look at the hallway, examining the red and pink carpet on the floor, the shoe closet, and so forth. Once in the kitchen, I sit myself down at a marble table, dominating the center of the room, next to a sliding door heading out into the backyard. To the right of the table, a granite topped counter, along with a dishwasher, and sink, along with a modern oven, sat unused, seemingly all day. The counter shows signs of use, and looking at the remains of the food prepared, the most recent food the house owners had were vegetables. They eat healthy, I suppose.

The woman eventually walks into the kitchen, and heads for a cabinet next to a stainless steel fridge, reaching for coffee bags and a water pitcher. She heads over to the coffee machine next to the sink, below the window that reveals the backyard, and pours the water in, along with the bag. She turns it on, and the machine slowly begins to create warm coffee.

I form a smile on my face when the woman looks at me. She is kinda pretty.

I attempt to break the silence. “So, if you don’t mind, could I ask a few questions about your missing daughter?”

She begins to say something, but then stops herself. “O-Of course! Ask away, i’m listening.”

My mouth twitches to a frown for a split second. but I continue. “When was your daughter taken?”

“On wednesday, around 2:45 P.M. She was walking home when the... pony thing came from an alley, and bit into her shirt neck, and dragged her off.”

“How do you know this?”

“A few witnesses told the police, who told me.”

Seemed alright. The file I got from a few friends in the force sent me the whole interrogation. According to the file I read three times, the story fit.

“Okay, do you know why the... ah pony took your daughter?”

“No, she was always a quiet one, never got into trouble. This would be the most least expected thing to ever happen.”

“Do you know what the pony looked like?”

The woman thinks for a moment, and stares out the window.

“Well, I don’t know, the thing moved too fa-”

“Mom?”

A new and lighter voice reverberates from the stairway, and the woman turns pale. I go to get up, but the woman puts her hand up, saying nothing, and heads towards the voice.

I am not sitting down when for some reason the daughter has returned- or even existed -so I get up and try to follow without her noticing. I stand in the hallway, hearing the two mumble to one another. I could not hear what they are saying, so I lean inwards, trying to get a look. The woman is blocking her daughter from view, and I could barely hear the conversation.

“...I told you to stay in your room...”

“...I didn’t know it was...”

“...back to your room, i’ll be up...”

After they finish talking, I notice something that threw me off guard.

A swish of a maroon colored tail.

My eyes go wide with astonishment as the daughter comes into full view when she heads back for the stairs. Or rather, it isn’t the daughter, but a small, and unreasonably adorable, pony.

It had a light purple-pink fur covering its body, and its mane was a pastel maroon, along with its tail. It’s eyes were really large, making little sense as to how it fit in her head, and her head was slightly too big, throwing off the proportions of the body. What made the least amount of sense, was that this creature had wings.

It flapped them subconsciously at her sides, causing a light breeze heading towards my legs. I finally showed myself to the two when I say out loud, “What... the hell?!”

The woman and the pony both went wide eyed, or really the pony’s irises shrinked to pinpricks. I finally noticed how large her irises were before I showed myself.

The woman turns to me, and stutters uncontrollably. “Uh, uh.. uh-uh...?”

I really wanted answers. “What is that?”

The pony was slightly irritated by being called ‘that’, and spoke. “Hey! I’m right here!”

I jumped when it talked, expecting it to be incapable of the action. “Wha- it can talk!?”

“Of course I can talk, i’m not stupid or anything!”

The woman looks at the pony, and says, “Ashley, shh!”

‘Ashley’ looks at her supposed mom. “It’s too late mom, he saw me.”

The woman begins to tear up, and I try to calm down at the sight. I look towards her. “Who is this...?”

The woman tries to reply through her sobbing. “My... my daughter...”

“This obviously isn’t your daughter ma’am, who or what is it?”

“She... is my... daughter...”

I look at her sad face, realizing that she isn’t lying. I look towards the pony, who is looking at the carpet floor with a saddened look on her face.

“This... is your daughter?” I try to confirm.

The woman continues to sob, and I kneel over the pony.

“What happened...?”

The pony looks up, and looks into my eyes with her large turquoise eyes.

“I don’t know... I got caught by this shadow with its teeth, and it dragged me into an alley... next thing I knew I woke up in the forest outside of the suburbs... like this...”

I reach out and touch the apparently human girl turned pony, and the woman screams,

“NO!”

She reaches out, and pulls my arm away after I touch her.

“What, what is it?”

“Did it hurt?”

“What hurt?”

“When you touched her...”

“Uh..”

When I touched her, all I felt was the extremely soft fur on her back.

“No...?”

The woman went wide eyed, and backed away from me.

“No... not you too...”

“Uh, what? What, is something wrong with me?”

The woman sobs even more, and sits down on the staircase.

“You’re already becoming like my daughter...”

I start to get really worried, as I look at my hand that touched the pony. I ask about what she meant, but she just continues to sob, and mumble about how there is no help, and more.

I look towards Ashley, the pony, and ask, “What does she mean, ‘be like you’?”

She has a look of empathy on her face. “I’m sorry.”

I’m starting to become really frightened for my health.

“What is happening to me?”

“You’re going to turn into something like me, a... pony... thing.”

I stand up, and fall onto my ass. I can’t stand up. This has to be a lie, this is literally impossible. How can I be turning into one of this tiny creatures? I don’t feel any...

Immediately the thought subsided when I noticed I started to form a headache. I hold my head, the pain growing stronger. Throughout the severe, and thought blinding headache, my whole body tingled. The top of my forehead began to throb painfully, and I could vaguely make out something was... poking out of my head...

I felt the area around there, finding a long, slightly ridged horn sticking out of the top of my forehead. I groan in pain, and then giggle. “Heheh... heh.” and with that, I passed out cold onto the floor.

Nothing happened in my subconscious in the last few hours, as I woke up to the sound of a T.V. news station broadcasting the local news. I open my eyes, and squint at the unfamiliar surroundings that I find myself in. It looks like a small living room, and the roof above is slanted into a triangle going upwards, forming the roof from the outside.

I sit up, scratching my chin as I look around. I was laying on a rough, red couch. The room was carpeted with grey and to my right was an electric fireplace. To my left was a smaller, similar couch, and up front, leaning against the wall, was an old fat T.V. with the average male news anchorman saying something about an alert...

I rub my temples, groaning. My head hurts... what happened? I was with the mother- Christina was it? The daughter... was it just a dream? My head felt lopsided, so I fought against gravity to keep my head up while I tried to figure out what happened. The lopsided feeling never went away, and then I felt a slight sensation at the top of my head.

Oh...

It wasn’t a dream then.

At the top of my forehead was a pale tanish colored horn. Slightly a bit stubby, but it was there.

I felt the alien appendage with my left hand, trying to find if it is real, and not just taped or glued onto me. I highly doubted that anyone would have had pranked me, as I began to remember what happened. There was a horn on my head, and- wait, what’s up with my hair?

My hair seemed to be many shades brighter than what my usual hair color is. It is now a light brown, and upon further examination of the strands of hair in my face, it is MUCH longer than before. Hair doesn’t grow down into your eyes in a few hours, this is getting scary for me and my sanity.

I get up. I need to find a mirror. When I took a few steps, it felt like my legs were jello, they felt as though they were not strong enough to carry my weight anymore. Never the less, I kept moving.

It seemed as though I was still in Christina’s house, as I walk into the kitchen, which is directly connected to the living room I woke up in. The coffee that was in the making was done, but no longer warm enough for any sleepiness to be banished. I sigh, and set my eyes for anything that seemed like a bathroom.

When I headed for the stairs, I find Christina sitting on the staircase. She looks up at me, then the horn on my head, then back at me.

“You’re awake then?”

I felt very awkward, and replied, “Uh- yeah, i'm awake.”

She forces a smile, then stands. “I’m very sorry, this is really unexpected... are you going to be alright?”

I take a moment to think. According to what my memory tells me, i’m being turned into a small horse. Not just any horse, though. This horse, or pony, is cartoony, sentient, and very colorful. And judging from what I saw... I’m not turning precisely into what Christina’s daughter looks like. There is a horn on my head. That’s just the start...

“I’m not sure, miss- er Christina, I meant. How can I be alright, when I have this,” I point to the horn on my head, “sticking out of me?” I say, though which when I look back upon, I said it in a bit of a rude tone.

“I’m really sorry, detective. I wish I could help, but I don’t know what is happening. I’ve even started to see my neighbors turn into these things.”

I look up, with confusion on my face. “You mean this isn’t just me, or your daughter?”

She frowns as she look towards the door leading outside. “Yes, it looks as though the whole neighborhood is turning into... ponies.”

I look out the styled glass in the doorway, staring out into the empty streets of the neighborhood. “And your daughter? How is she?”

“She is sleeping now, though I can only wonder how she can deal with it.”

“How old is she?”

“Sixteen, Nolan. May I call you Nolan?”

“Yes, that is fine.”

She nods, and heads for the kitchen. I take one more glance at the street, and take my hat off the rack, and place it on my head. Might as well just pretend, eh? The hat is slightly lopsided from the horn, but it hides it well enough. I walk towards the kitchen after Christina.

I sit down in a chair at the table. I begin to formulate questions in my head. Just because I am turning into a mutant thing doesn’t mean I am going to stop my investigation.

Something dawns on me, as I look at Christina. She seems normal enough. She did also say that the neighborhood is pretty much ponified now, but why not her?

“Christina, I must ask, why aren’t you a pony, like your daughter?”

The mother makes a frown, and seems to be lost in thought for a few minutes. I sat there, waiting for her reply.

“I... don’t really know. I felt sensations of a loss of my center of gravity and all that, and sometimes I find myself on the floor, but... I don’t know. I guess it’s different for everyone, how fast it is?”

That would explain why I am not a quadruped pastel pony right now, at the very least.

“I suppose...”

I suddenly remember the strange little note written in symbols in my coat pocket, and I reach into my coat to grab it while Christina washed out the coffee machine. I look over the ‘letters’ and finally decide to ask. “Do you know what this says, miss Christina?”

I show her the letter, and she looks over the paper. “This looks familiar, when my daughter was at school before this started she wrote these things on her english papers.” She chuckled. “She failed the paper, even when she said it was proper English.”

I look at the paper, then think about what Christina said. “May I see your daughter, then? This could be important.”

She looks unsure of herself, but nods anyway. “She’s just upstairs, second door to your left, down the hall.”

I get up, and nod to the mother as I push the chair in, and walk down the hall to the stairs. Once up, I follow her directions and find the door to Ashley’s room, which was closed. I push it open quietly, and step inside.

The room wasn’t really a typical sixteen year old girls room. It was slightly smaller than my own office, and had a window at the back. To the right was a closet that stored all of her clothes, which didn’t really fit her anymore, and to my left was a desk with a laptop on it. At the far left corner was a bed with purple flower blankets on top, and a floral covering sticking out at the bottom. On top of the bed, under thin layers of blankets, was Ashley.

She seemed to notice me walk in, and raised her head to meet me. “What is it, i’m trying to sleep...”

I take a few steps in, leaving the door open and holding the paper in my hand. This was a bit surreal, trying to talk to a creature that was fully aware of me, and could talk. I almost forgot why I was there to begin with, but snapped out of it and said, “Hello, Ashley, is it? I’m Nolan, private detective. I am here to figure out why this is happening to you...”

“It’s happening to you too, you know that, right?”

I frown, upsetted of being reminded of the alien object that is connected to my head under my hat. I shake the thought aside, and continue. “I’m here to ask you a couple of questions, or rather, to help me with a clue that I found before I came here. Does this look familiar, in any way?” I show her the mass of symbols on the paper, and her eyes seem to scroll through them.

“Yeah, it’s a note. For you.”

“What does it say?”

“You mean you can’t read? How did you get through school?”

That caught me off guard a bit. She seems to think that this is just normal english writing. How odd.

“This is written in symbols that I, nor your mother, understand. You wrote like this a while ago, and we can’t figure out what it says. Only you can read it, so can you please tell me what it says?”

She sighs, and leans her large head in, scrolling over the letters with her large eyes.

“Nolan, I hope you have figured out how to read this, for this is important. I can no longer write in our language, as this is now what I have come to know as Equestrian, a native language used in a far off world called Equestria. By now, I hope you have figured out what this is, and what is happening. Your world is being converted. It will start with your town, and soon the whole world will be in this new land. Dark Light wants to bring the whole world down on top of Equestria, destroying the old world, and bringing us to theirs. I don’t know what he plans to do with us there, but I can tell you that it will end with bloodshed. He is insane, and he has special plans to deal with the rulers of Equestria. When you read this, I will be dead by the hands of Dark. You have the chance to stop this future of happening, for us, and for them. Like I said, it will start for your town. There is no stopping it, but it will bring you to him. Find him, stop him, and most importantly, make sure he can’t do it again. You know what that means.

I wish I could have warn you sooner,

Benji Froman,

Ph.D in astrophysics, and bluespace.”

I sit down in a chair next to the bed. Benji... I remember that name. He was in that dream I had yesterday... So he was real... and he is dead. Shit.
Ashley the winged pinkish purple pony looks to the side of the paper, and squints. “There is more on the back, detective.”

I look at the back of the paper. It seemed as if nothing is there... but...

I flip the paper over for her to see, and she looks over the invisible letters.

“P.S. You must meet somepony. She was from Equestria, and seems to know quite a whole lot. Look for her at the alley to the old movie theatre.”

“Somepony? Who talks like that?” Ashley complains, and I frown for the umpteenth time today. At least I have some kind of lead now.

“Thanks for the help, Ashley. Don’t give your mother too trouble, okay?”

The small pony rolls her eyes and scoffs.

I grin and walk out of her room, back down the stairs, and head to the kitchen. Christina was still there, washing out the coffee basin in the sink.

“It looks like I am done here, i’ll see you later Christina. Have a good day.”

She looks up from her cleaning and smiles warmly. “You too, detective. Be safe.”

I nod, and head for her door, back outside. I open my car door and when I was about to sit down, I felt a pang of pain from the top of my head. I hit my horn on the top of the door when I sat down.

“Agh, shit...”

My hat fell off during the event, revealing my horn. I quickly swiped up my hat, placed it on my head, and bent down to prevent that same thing from happening again. The pain continues however, but after a moment, it just feels like the horn is vibrating. I reach for my keys, only to find that they were floating in my face, covered in a tanish glow.

I spasm and slightly scream from the sight, I thought my keys were possessed by a ghost or something. It just floats there, covered in the dim glow. I calm down, and poke my keys floating in mid-air. Suddenly, as soon as I touched it, my horn stops vibrating and the glow fades, dropping the keys into my lap.

I look at my keys with new interest. I take one and two together, and then realize, “Did... I do that?” I shake my head. “No, that will be a whole new set of weird.” I rub my temple, feeling a slight headache. I’ve had enough for today, so I pick up my keys and turn my car into ignition, and drive my ass out of there.

Back at my office, I place my hat and coat on the rack near my door. My headache had gotten worse on the way here, to the point where it was vibrating in pain. I groan, and trip into the pile of copy paper on the floor. My leg spasms, kicking my door shut, and I begin to feel tingles throughout my body. My hands force themselves into a sort of cup like form, forcing the tips of my fingers out in front of me.

I could have sworn I heard strange, alien laughter form in my head as my fingers began to merge together, forming one big, single digit on both hands. Soon, my nails began to form over this new digit, completely covering it in its material. I scream in terror as my shoes break in half as my feet enlarge, and my toes begin to merge together as well, along with my nails forming over the single digit on both of my feet.

I was ready to crack, screaming at the top of my lungs as my skull begins to grow in size, and my mouth is being forced forward into a small muzzle. My screams grow high pitched, as something in my throat began to rearrange my vocal chords in the most painful way possible. Something is happening here, more than being turned into a pony.

My eyes grow large to accommodate my large head, and soon enough my body began to shrink at an alarming rate. During this, the laughter continues, and bright, pale tan fur began to form over my entire body. My hair grows down all over my face and back of my neck, in bright brown/blonde hair. Soon after, the bottom of my spine cracks, and muscle and hair grow out just above my expanding butt, forming a tail. My voice starts to lose its power as it cracks under much use. Finally, enough was enough for whatever decided to wrack pain and suffering upon me, and I lay there in the aftermath of what just happened.

I pant from pure exhaustion as I lay there, trying to ignore the whole ordeal. I suddenly became aware of something even more wrong with me. Something was missing...

Oh god no.

I became fully aware of the fact that there was a painfully large amount of emptiness between my legs.

Nononononononononononono...

I giggle in insanity in a high pitched, girly voice, and pass out on the floor.

Ch. 2: A Strange Visitor

...

“...is she okay?”

“...went into a coma...”

I was half conscious, lying in my bed. I could not hear anything going on around me as I lay there motionless. I could barely make out muffled, quiet voices coming from somewhere near me, but at this point I was incapable of actual thought. I was probably losing my mind right now, and I didn’t even know it.

“...she’s moving...”

I felt alright at the moment, like nothing happened. Nothing at all happened. Nothing.

“...waking up.”

The voices are becoming more clearer now as I regain consciousness. As soon as I felt my nerves reactivate, I am met with the most alien feeling ever. My body didn’t feel right at all. What happened? How long was I out?

“...Ugh...”

A new voice comes out of nowhere, feminine. A woman is here as well? She doesn't sound well. Soon enough, I feel myself vomit on the floor, as my sight has been restored. Everything seemed much more... well wider in my vision. I could see a lot more than I used to. Must have ate a lot of carrots, heh.

“Oh, jeeze, you alright? Anything broken anywhere, headaches, pains?”

I look up to see a man in a doctor's coat, who looked pretty like the average generic doctor, except much older. Probably 50 or something. I can’t think straight right now. I squint at the doctor, not saying anything. What’s he doing here?

I look for the other source of the voice, finding my friend Chris, sitting in my visitors chair. He must have brought it into my bedroom. How did I get in here again? More importantly, when did I get home...?

I become aware of how oddly shaped my nose was. Did I hit it against something? Is it broken?! Oh no, that can’t look good. At least I could see more, otherwise this might have been a problem with seeing. I bring up my hand to me head, and immediately after I get a great knock in the head.

“Ow!”

The feminine voice yells out. Where is that girl? She sounds really young. Someone hit me, I guess. The doctor? Probably not. God, my head...

“It seems as though you went through that whole ordeal rather quickly miss.”

The doctor is looking at me, but is talking to the girl. Was she behind me? I turn my head around, surprised by how flexible it was all of a sudden.

The doctor frowns, and snaps his fingers, grabbing my attention.

“Over here miss, could you please tell me your name.”

Well, excuse me! Did that guy just call me a girl!? That bas-

“What? I’m not a-”

I slap my hand against my mouth, which both felt very odd. I look down to find that my hand doesn’t have any fingers, and is covered in some kind of peach white hair. What the hell, what happened? Where is my hand- WHOA!

I lift up both my, or rather lack of, hands and examine them closely. They are completely gone, left with some kind of hard covering over where they are supposed to be. I look them over, and clap them together.

*clop*

I flinch at the sound, and I become very frightened as the recent events that happened began to fill back into my head. I got home... was it home? I had a large headache and then...

Ohhhhhhhhh shit.

I remember entering my apparent home, and the massive headache that was taking over my body. I remember the painful sensations of the event, my hands turning into these things, my body shrinking, the hair, the...

Oh no.

My oversized eyes turn to pinpricks as I turn my head to view my lower body. It’s a fur covered small torso, connected to four limbs created for quadruped creatures. The ends I finally realize were hooves, and I notice the still very light brown tail sticking out of the bottom of my spine. And something is pressing against my...

I scream, finally forming into my mind what I have become. The doctor and Chris get worried, and get up to try and calm me down, but I can’t really register what happened. What did happen was that I got turned into a pony, one of those little creatures from what I suppose came from the show, but that just isn’t enough for whoever orchestrated the whole ordeal, no no, they went and took away my manhood as well.

I’m a girl.

I’m a fucking girl.

I continue to scream as the two still very human men try to calm me down, which only made me worse. This was way too much for me to handle. Something began to vibrate at the top of my forehead, and suddenly a flash of light fills the room, sending any small objects and the two men flying onto their asses. I freak out again, finding this whole situation to be the most terrible and terrifying thing ever.

Chris gets back up and heads back towards me, attempting once again to calm me.

“Miss, please! We want to help you! Calm down so we can!”

I take several hyperventilated breaths, and push myself further against the wall, on my bed.

“What’s going on!?” I say in a painfully high pitched voice.

“You’ve turned into a pony, miss! Please, we can explain if only you calm down and listen!”

I pant from the exhaustion from getting all worked up for the past six minutes. Or maybe more? I finally bring myself down to shallow breaths, and lay down haphazardly on the bed. I don’t know how to sit upright, or at the very least comfortably.

Chris takes a breath, and smiles warmly, making me feel a little better. The light brown locks of hair hang in my eyes, but I didn’t really care at the moment. I look around the room, and look at the digital clock. 9:38 A.M... Was it tomorrow, or longer?

Chris drags the chair over, and sits back down, and the doctor gets back up, and bends over me on the bedside.

Chris finally says, “Okay... now that we’ve calmed down, can you please tell us your name?”

I frown. I look into my head and search for what was supposed to be my name. What... was it? I can’t remember! I frown deeply, double checking. Wait! Is that it? It sounds... really odd. But it is filed under “name” but it doesn’t exactly sound like a name. More like a title. Oh well, it’s something.

“Uh... I think... Mystery Glass?”

Chris frowns. “She’s accelerated pretty damn far into it, doctor.”

The doctor frowns, and takes out a pen from his coat pocket. He turns, and grabs a clipboard from my nightstand, and writes down a few sentences.

I get a bit mad at myself. I knew that wasn’t right... and yet it felt like it is. I look at Chris. I know him though...

I say out loud, “I know you...” towards Chris, who leans back in interest.

“Really?” He says. “From where?”

I raise my hoof up, but frown. Where did I know him from? I can’t even remember too much anymore. I feel those tall, pointed ears on top of my head fold down. I don’t like this, and yet it feels like I should be like this. This is really confusing.

I put my hoof back down, and look around the room.

Chris nods, and continues with his questions. “Why are you here? We found you laying on the ground, passed out in my friends office.”

A flash of a memory takes place in my mind, repairing my lost thoughts. ‘Friends office’...

“Who’s your friend?”

“Nolan.”

And then I got a headache.

At that moment, I was washed over with all of the memories, down to who I was, or who I once was. I remember the phone call, Christina, the pony daughter, the note, and the horn on my head as well.

I groan from the flood of memories, and faceplant my head against the soft blankets of my bed. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It never was.

Chris pats my back, and I get a sense of how large they are and how small I am. It’s like getting shouldered in the back by a strong dude, it hurts a bit. His hand is a bit larger than I remember.

I bring up the courage to use this feminine voice and say, “Chris... i’m Nolan.”

Chris goes wide eyed from that sentence. “What? B-But your a girl! You can’t be Nolan, and last I checked, he was perfectly fine... two days ago...”

Chris stands up, and heads towards the window near the door leading to my office, and stares out it. The doctor sits on the bed, with an interested look on his face. I don’t really like that face he’s got on right there, it made me nervous.

He speaks up after a while. “How interesting, this is a strange transformation! It seems that people are becoming mares more often than stallions! I’d say one out of every three people that transform are male. Fascinating.”

I look up at him analyzing me. This guy doesn’t get out too often to know that being turned into a girl is a lot more traumatizing than anything else. Then again, i’m a fucking horse, but that doesn’t mean I would have dealt with it worse as a guy.

“Don’t remind me, whoever the hell you are. This is a lot worse on my end.”

The doctor begins to protest, but Chris stops him. “Doc, just go back to the clinic. I’ll call you when something new comes up.”

Doctor Rude, Ph. D. huffs at his frustration, and leaves the room, heading back outside.

I look at Chris, who looks back to me.

He speaks up. “So... you’re really Nolan? My friend?”

I nod, staying silent for now.

“...Shit.”

He comes back towards my bed, and sits down, clasping his hands together while balancing his arms on his knees. “That explains a whole lot. I’m really sorry this happened to you, Nolan. I should have went for you sooner.”

I look at him. “What do you mean, ‘sooner’? Was there a way to stop this?”

He bites his lip, and says, “Well, not exactly. I went to the doctor when I showed symptoms, and he managed to formulate a temporary vaccine that slows down the process. It feels like my head is holding back the whole transformation. Still, I still got my fingers for longer.” He grins, but realizes his mistake as I look down at myself, and my own lack of fingers.

“Oh, sorry Nolan.”

“It’s alright.”

We sat there for a good five minutes, wallowing in pity and despair. It feels like my whole life was taken away, and has been replaced by a more confusing, complex life that involved having no hands, standing on four limbs, being a girl, and a whole lot more. I felt my tail slide under my body when I shuffled a bit to get more comfortable. Ughhh.

Chris looks up at my discomfort, and gets up. “Something else changed a bit when we found you. You were under your coat and hat, and when we tried to move them out of the way, they shrunk down.

He heads back into my office, and comes back with a small tan overcoat with a hat. He says, “I’d imagine you’d want to wear something.”

I nod, suddenly being aware of the fact that I am completely naked, even with the fur is still felt weird for me. I gladly accept the small clothes, letting him help me put them on. The coat wasn’t long enough to cover up my backside, but it was better than nothing. The hat had a hole at the top, allowing me to slide my horn through to keep it comfortable to wear.

I’d imagine I looked adorable at the moment, which only made me feel more exposed. I look around, and notice my mirror over my bed. I stand up awkwardly on all four, and turn around to look at my face. What I met with in the mirror made my heart stop in shock. I was subconsciously expecting me, but instead I saw a pony’s face, with large bright green eyes. It looked back at me in shock with its muzzle wide open in a human like open frown.

I sit down on my hind legs, sighing. I better get used to this.

Chris went to to say something, but I interrupt him.

“How long was I out again?”

“A-about two days, why?”

I remember the back of the note Ashley had read to me, which I couldn’t see. It had mentioned I was supposed to meet someone... I think it said I had to meet someone from that Equestria place? What were they doing here? They wanted to see me, personally?

I speak up, “I need to meet someone, can you take me there in your car?”

Chris get up, assertiveness in his voice. “Hey, now hold on! You just woke up! You need to... wait, shit. The doctor did say that going back to sleep after a coma was a bad idea, bu that doesn’t mean you just go and jump back out there! And what’s with that horn on your head? I haven’t seen anyone with that anywhere!”

I look back at Chris, already hopping off the bed and getting the hang of quadrupedal movement. “You mean, no one else got this?”

Chris says, “Yeah, that light you made really scared the shit out of me. It knocked us both down.”

I lift up a hoof to feel the horn, though I can’t really feel much since the material that covers up my actual hoof makes it hard to feel anything. It sits there, pointing up at an angle. “Huh, the research I did on the ponies a few days ago did say there were unicorns. I would have expected there would be more... you sure it’s just me?”

Chris frowns. “You mean this is based off those ponies from that kids show? How can you be sure?”

“Because remember that note in those weird symbols you gave me before this all happened? I got it translated, and it said that this is about Equestria, and hold onto your pants, the end of both our and their worlds.”

Chris’s eyes go a bit wide from that big fact being plopped onto his shoulders.

“Th-the end of the world?! Both worlds? You mean that Equestria, that cartoon place, actually exists?”

“Yeah, and someone wants to do something to ours, and destroy that world.”

Chris brings his hand to his head, processing what I just said.

“You’re kidding... right? That’s impossible! Even if this world did exist, how would he do it?”

I step up towards the door. “Because this guy is insane. Not only that, he has powerful... well magic.”

Chris laughs. “Magic? This isn’t some fantasy tale.”

I look up at him, feeling pretty damn stunted from how tall he was compared to me. “Chris, i’ve miraculously transformed into a talking cartoon pony, who possibly has control over such magic, and the whole town is turning into similar things. I’d say anything that made sense is now no longer a base on how the world works.”

Chris went to go say something, but stops short. “You... have a point. Still, how can someone stop him?”

“You mean how will I stop him.”

Chris looks down at me with a look like I’m the one here who is insane.

I say back to him, “Look Chris, I know what to do. Something out there... is watching me. I can feel it. Let me go out and try. Either way, we’re probably going to die.”

Chris sighs. “I never said I was going to stop you from trying.”

I smile at Chris, who goes a bit red faced. “Thanks a lot, but I still need your help. I need you to drop me off at an alley, i’ll give you the directions.

Chris frowns, but nods, and we both walk/trot out of my office, and outside.

The weather outside was quite nice. There were barely any clouds out, and the sun was shining brightly. It made me feel a bit warm under all this fur plus the coat combo, but it didn’t bother me. The bricked streets were reflecting the suns glare in a dim red/orange as we walked over to Chris’s car, and got inside. He opened the door for me in the back, and I hopped in.

I gave Chris directions to the apparent alleyway the contact was supposed to be at. It was the only alley in town, considering all the buildings were connected, mostly. Chris stops the car a few feet away from it, and looks back at me. “You sure about this?”

I look back at him. “Positive.”

Chris nods, then says, “It’s weird talking to you, Nolan. Should I even call you that now? It feels weird, because nothing about you besides the coat and hat reminds me of you, you're not even... well... a guy anymore.”

I frown at Chris’s comment. “Just call me by Mystery, or Misty maybe. That make you feel better?”

Chris still looks a bit confused, but nods. “I guess that’s fine. Sorry, this is all too weird for me. I hope I will see you later, Nol- Ah, I mean, Misty.

I cringe at the name slightly, but nod. “You too, Chris. See you later.”

I push open the unlocked car door, and close it by pushing it back in with the side of my head. It was rather easy to do, because my neck was pretty flexible. Chris revs up the engine, and drives off down the street, turning left, and disappears.

I look towards the alley. Were they even here anymore? They probably expected me a lot earlier. I may have missed them. In any case, I walked over to the alley, my small coat slightly being rustled by a soft breeze. It felt pretty nice out here.

I trot up the the entrance, and look in. It’s not that dark in there, but I could barely make out some corners of the alley. I swallow, and step in.

“Who are you?”

I jump at the sound of the sound of the voice, which sounds like a male, but a little off.

A brown pony steps out of a corner shadow. He has a darker colored, spiky like mane. He is wearing a strange little green tie that connects to a white dress shirt neck collar.

“Uh, are you the contact?” I say.

“Why, are you Nolan?”

I am slightly intimidated by the stallion. The dark alley isn’t exactly helping to calm down.

“Y-yeah, or I was...”

“Close enough.”

He somehow managed to grab my shoulder with his hoof, and leads me further down the alley. We take a left, down a much more narrower path which I didn’t see before when I came in.

As we walked down the path, I look at the creature. It didn’t look like a girl.

I speak up. “The note I got said that I would be expecting a... well a female pony from Equestria.”

The brown pony with the tie smiles. “Ah, that would probably be my friend. I didn’t think that that human scientist had met me. I’m more of the talker.”

“And your friend is...?”

“Just a moment, we’re almost there.”

Soon, we are met up with a small road, obviously less used by the town since the roads and buildings were covered in vines and grass. The sky is not visible, as it seems a concrete ceiling was placed over the whole place.

“How did all this greenery grow down here with no sun?” I ask.

The brown pony looks down the street, and then the other, then says, “I don’t know, when I got here the place was like this.”

I look around with interest on my face. I look back at the pony. “Who are you?”

He looks back at me. “Well, I go by many names. My assigned name is Time Turner, though your kind tends to call me Doctor Whooves. Odd name, i’m not really a doctor. Though I rather like it.” He says with a smile.

Doctor Whooves. Sounds like that guy that rides around in a time machine disguised as a 1950’s police box, Doctor Who. I’d suppose this pony’s name is only just one of the many reasons why people call him th-

As we walk down the street, I lag behind thinking about how he got those names, when I noticed that Time Turner had a strange little picture on both sides of his flank, both of which are colored in pastel colors to resemble an hourglass with sand both at the bottom and the top, which in turn has sand frozen in time falling to the bottom. This isn’t what I expected, though I guess I should have figured from my research on the topic.

“Hey, uh, what’s up with those hourglass tattoos on you?”

Time Turner stops, and looks back at me, then at the hourglass on himself. “Ah, you don’t know? That’s called a Cutie Mark, don’t ask me why it’s called that, I don’t know myself. It shows off a pony’s special talent. Mine, obviously, is time.”

I create what I think is a confused look on my face, and ask, “Why do you get these things?”

The brown pony just laughs. “Oh, don’t be silly, we don’t do that. It just appears out of nowhere on our flanks when we discover our talent! It’s truly a magical moment, and it is also a benchmark to live a healthy life!”

“Huh.” I say, blatantly.

The pony somehow adjusts his tie with his hoof, and walks down the brick path. We take a left at the end, only to find a dead end, with a rather large oil street lamp in the middle of the road.

Time Turner looks around, and yells out, “Ditzy! Where are you? I’ve brought our late acquaintance here!”

Shuffling out from a trashcan, a grey pegasus comes out carrying what looks like a rather large blue bag. “C-coming!” She is balancing on her hind legs, carrying the bag with her forehooves. Just as I predicted, she trips over, and drops the bag onto the ground, revealing a plethora of different flavored muffins, mostly blue berry.

She moans out in disappointment, “Awwwww...Horsefeathers!” and sits up, revealing her face.

Okaaay... what?

Her eyes are a kind of golden honey colored, but thats not what got me. Her eyes seem to be pointing in opposite directions, her right eye pointing to her bottom left, and her other to the top right.

I whisper to Time Turner. “Is... she alright? Her eyes are a bit funny.”

He whispers back, “Nah, that’s just Ditzy being herself. This happens sometimes, but goes away.”

She stands back up on four hooves, and walks over to us.

Time Turner looks back at the bag Ditzy spilled, and comments, “Ditzy... where did you get all those muffins?”

Ditzy just smiles. “I got them from a bakery down the street in this town! They had a lot! They didn’t accept bits, though, but they said that they are giving out free muffins to test out a new recipe. I took all I could hold.”

Time Turner just adjusts his tie, awkwardly, and then Ditzy looks to me.

“Hi there, what’s your name?” She says to me.

“Uh...”

Time Turner helps me by saying, “This is our friend Nolan, but it seems we were a bit late. He has turned into one of us already.” He looks at me, looking me up and down. “Also a bit of a difference in gender as well, but that was expected.”

I frown at his comments. Even after I deal with this, I am not sure how long it will take to get used to being referred to as a girl. I hope that at least I will be turned back into a guy when this is over.

After getting over the mare’s eyes, I see her flap her wings a bit, letting me know that she is a pegasus. She also has one of those ‘cutie marks’, but it seems a bit less obvious as to what it is. It’s an assortment of bubbles, in the same art style as Time Turner’s cutie mark.

Ditzy frowns in sympathy, and says, “Oh... sorry to hear that. Will you be okay?”

I raise a hoof to push the conversation to the side. “I think I will be fine as soon as this is over, thanks.”

I continue, “Now, I heard that you had information that I need?”

Time Turner says, “Well, that, but also can help you travel in between the worlds on my ship.”

I look towards Time Turner. “Ship? Is that how you got here? How fast is it?”

Time Turner grins. “Actually, it doesn’t move at all, but it travels through time and space, so it gets there pretty much instantly.”

I whistle, impressed. “Wow, how advanced are you ponies?”

Time Turner just shrugs. “Really, it was just handed down to me after a while. I can’t even remember how long it was ago. Just me. I fixed it’s cloaking device. Right now, it’s disguised as an everyday object. Go ahead, try to guess where it is!”

Challenge time. I look around the area, taking in the details of the area. I try to find anything out of the ordinary, things that don’t belong or don’t fit in well with the area. I look back down the way we came. It wouldn’t be down there, it was too narrow, and cluttered with the usual trash. Normal.

I look at the buildings surrounding us, each one abandoned and dark with broken windows. The whole place smelled of trash and old concrete, and the only thing keeping the place lit up is the oil lamp in the dead center of the area. Wait.

Looking at the oil lamp, it seems rather clean. Very clean. The whole area is covered in grime, but this lone street lamp seemed to be much more muck free than anything else. Almost as if this wasn’t here only until recently.

I point at the oil lamp. “That doesn’t belong here. Is that it?”

Time Turner laughs in joy. “Haha! I doubted your capabilities, but it seems genuine! Yes! That is my ship, hehe, ah you’ve got me a bit giddy!”

I smile, with an accomplished look on my face. Never doubted myself for a second, i’ve been doing this for six years.

A bright light fills the room briefly, and I feel a bit tingly in the back for a moment. I go wide eyed from the sensation, and yelp in fear, letting out a high pitched “Eep!”.

The light fades down, and a mark glows on both the sides of my flank. Color replaces the white light, showing off a magnifying glass with a wooden handle, with a black, bolded ‘?’ in its glass.

Everyone, including me, stares at the mark on my flank in fascination. Ditzy just stares with her mouth agape, but Time Turner speaks. “You... got a Cutie Mark...? But that’s impossible, no transformee was, or is, never supposed to get one! How could that happen?”

Time Turner trots up closer to me, and my backside, which starts to make me feel a bit nervous. Just when I was forgetting about what was back there. He examines the mark closely, and exclaims, “This is truly a real Cutie Mark. Not sure how you feel right now, but in our world this is a great thing to happen!”

I nod, a bit of red forming on my cheeks. How that happened, considering it’s hidden under fur, I don’t know. Time Turner catches this, and backs off. “Uh- s-sorry.”

I just look down at myself, trying to forget it. I shouldn’t really feel this flustered.

I stare at my new ‘Cutie Mark’ on my flank. This is just getting even better, now I have a picture of what I do best on my flank. First the horn, then the body, and now this. I feel like an alien. But for some reason I felt... well happy about it. It’s odd, but it felt like I was complete. At least a little bit.

I shoulder my coat back into its position, and tilt my hat a bit. At the tilt, I finally remember the horn sticking out of my hat. Right, I was supposedly a unicorn with magic. One that has no idea how to use magic. I thought.

Ditzy claps her hooves together, in the best way ponies can resemble clapping. “That was amazing! I don’t know how that happened, but congratulations!”

I nod in embarrassment. At least she’s quite friendly. Bubbly. Maybe that is what those bubbles mean? Even for me, it’s hard to tell.

Time Turner hums for a moment, contemplating, but eventually comes back to us from whatever universe he was in. “Alright, let’s get going, shall we? I will answer your questions, and tell what you, and us both, have to do.”

“Okay...”

Time Turner and Ditzy turn to the oil lamp. It was quite wide, up close, and when I joined them in front of it, I noticed a thin line to the right. Time Turner takes out a key, and inserts it into a lock that I hadn’t noticed. He unlocks the door, and it opens outward, forcing me to back up a bit.

We all step inside, and what we saw defies all logic. The inside of the ‘ship’ was much larger than the outside, breaking the laws of space. In the middle was a strange little ‘computer’ thing that had a whole bunch of buttons, keys, knobs, turn wheels, and more. In the middle of the computer was a slightly translucent cylinder, with what looks like strange pistons inside. It looks like it is currently off.

The entire chamber was in a dome like shape, with large lights inside circles all over the dome, lighting the place. We were all standing on a grille walkway, and when I looked down into the darkness under us, I saw a jumble of cables, some connected and some just laying there, and strange little crystals glowing green that are hooked up to the base of the computer in the middle.

I looked around in fascination at the nonsensical feats of technology in here. “Welcome, to the Equestrian version of the TARDIS!” Time Turner says in a dramatic tone.

Meanwhile, at an earlier time...

“Ashley Fine, I am a human girl, sixteen of age.” I say into the mirror. After the detective left my house, with that flashy horn on his head, I just rested, watching the ceiling and thinking over what I just read to him.

I usually tell myself over and over again in the mirror to remind myself of who I am. Ever since this happened, I started to forget who I was, which scared the crap out of me. My whole diet has changed, and now I am forced to eat nothing but fruits and greens. I could eat meat, but that would end up with me vomiting on the floor and generally just hating the taste, smell, touch, and everything else.

I stared into my newly colored eyes, now a shining turquoise, and force a smile. It was two days since the detective left my house, and my mom had started to change as well. She’s a pegasus too, like me, and turned into a bright purple one as well. Same hair as me, same eyes as me. At least she could still look like she was my mom from the similarities.

I repeated the phrase in the mirror, trying to nail that into my head, until my mom knocked on the door, or rather bumped her new hooves into the bottom, obviously having trouble walking. “Darling, come out. You’ve been in there for hours, c’mon let’s go watch the news.”

I sigh, and whisper the phrase one more time before I head for the door. I bite down on the knob, tasting the metal it’s made out of, and turn my head to open the door. My mom stands there on wobbly knees, but nudges her head towards the stairs. I follow her down (while helping her from falling) to the living room where the T.V. is still broadcasting the news. The man on the T.V. wasn’t a man though, it was a normal looking cartoon pony. No wings, and certainly no horn, like that detective. He had a grey coat, with a much more darker shade of grey for a mane and a single white stripe in the center, going along his mane rather well.

The T.V. pony says, “All over North America, this pony plague has infected towns, rural areas, and large populated cities. Doctors all over the continent have been creating a vaccine that slows down the process, but not stop it. For those that have yet to be infected, or are in stage one, we all advise you to go and get a vaccine while the doctors look for a permanent cure.”

The grey pony stops, gulping down saliva. He looks nervous.

The news continue while we sat on the floor awkwardly. I managed to get comfortable on my hind legs, while my mom was sprawled on the floor, on her belly. It was kinda funny, but I dared not laugh. She wouldn’t find it so funny.

After an hour, my mom somehow passed out from over exerting herself all day trying to get all her chores done. I get up, letting her sleep it off. I was heading for my room when, out the door, I saw a strange little gray pegasus pony with a shade of bright yellow mane. What struck me was that she had a picture of bubbles on her... ah, backside. She seemed rather odd to me, and I made a choice.

I looked back into the living room to check if mom was still asleep, and sure enough, she was. I headed back to the door, and stepped outside, looking for the grey pegasus. She was heading towards town. I followed her down the street, trying not to be noticed. Eventually, she trotted up to a bakery, and looked up into the window advertisements. From my angle, I saw her with a big open smile, and her eyes shifted into a... for a lack of better words, ‘derpy’ position.

I look at her, and found this to be the most funny thing ever. I stifle a giggle under my hoof, and she walked into the bakery. I waited, and soon she came out carrying a large sack of muffins.

Okay, now this lady is just asking to be laughed at. This is textbook funny. Still, she seemed like she didn’t belong here to me, so I kept following her, remaining out of sight. She walked down a familiar path, and before I know it, she turned down into the alley the black pony took me down into. I hesitated, thinking that the pony that took me was still there. I figured he would have left by now, and I really doubted that this funny pony lady was an evil minion.

I followed her down the alley, and she took a left down a rather narrow path, which I had trouble hiding in while I followed her. She never looked behind herself, so that kept me hidden. We soon arrived into a large, underground street, it looked like. The roof was concrete, and the only lights were lit oil lamps that created a soft orange glow. The walls were old, broken down storefronts and apartments, lining the whole path. She kept following it, and I followed close behind, staying hidden once again.

She turned left at a dead end, into a shorter, more wider path that led to a complete dead end, with nothing but trash cans, litter everywhere, and a blue, wide oil lamp. Next to the lamp stood a brown normal pony, wearing a green tie with a white dress shirt collar attached to it, wrapping around his neck. This guy didn’t look native, that’s for sure.

He didn’t seem to notice Ditzy, as he was inside the inner workings of the oil lamp at the side. I didn’t know oil lamps had to be repaired, let alone for it to be filled with complex technology. In the pony’s hoof, he somehow was holding a strange thin device with a blue bulb at the end of it. It glowed brightly, emitting a high pitched buzzing sound. He held it up to some broken wires, at they mended together automatically. Wow.

I decided to hide behind a trashcan, and watch these strange ponies work. The grey one entered an abandoned building, very close to my hiding spot. I could have been spotted if it weren’t so dark behind the cans.

The brown pony reached behind himself towards his behind, where another picture, similar in art style of the grey pony’s bubbles, sat. It was an hourglass, with sand in both the top and bottom. He apparently had pockets back there, as he placed his device into that weird little pocket that didn’t even seem to exist, and pulled out an old fashioned watch, with the chain and cover, made of gold. He looked at it for a second, then put the clock back. He walked off into the alley, leaving me alone.

I got up, and went over to the oil lamp. The machines and wires looked positively alien, and really high tech. I looked them over for a brief time, only to hear shuffling in the abandoned building where the grey pegasus went into. She’s coming back! I had to find another hiding spot, the trash cans were too close. On the oil lamp, I noticed a lock and a very small handle underneath it. I pulled at it with my teeth, and just as I suspected, it was a door. I pulled it open, and stepped inside, closing it behind me. It locked, leaving me trapped inside.

When I turned, I was expecting a cramped, dark little cylinder. What I got was a large dome, with lights in little portholes, a computer in the center, wires, circuits, buttons and levers, everything you would expect from something straight out of a SyFy movie. I was purely amazed by everything in here, but I immediately went to go find a place to hide myself in. There was a hallway, leading to labeled closets that spanned far off into ridiculous distance, each one labled with four numbers. ‘1921, 1922, 1923, 1924...’ and it kept going. I decided to hide in 1922, which when I entered, it was filled with a bunch of old fashioned clothes. I hid in there for a while.

After about 20 minutes, I heard about three sets of four legs trotting against the floor, just down the hall in the main chamber. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but after a moment, I finally heard: “Welcome, to the Equestrian version of the TARDIS!”

Author's Note

Chapters from here on out can and will differentiate on who is talking, so I will put labels on to stop any confusion.

Ch. 3: Equestria

Ashley:

I was sitting in that closet for a good half hour, passing the time by examining the clothes that were hung on clothes hangers and folded on shelves below them. Each and everyone of them were labeled by month, and every single one of them were old fashioned. Polka dotted dresses, overalls, striped suits, and more. They looked like they belonged in the 1900’s, but they were oddly shaped. They looked like they could fit me, in this pony body, with the sleeves positioned towards the ground, and the suits were lacking pants.

The silence and soft mutterings from outside were broken, when I started to hear foo- er, hoofsteps coming towards my room. Soon, I heard a voice coming from that direction, presumably from the pony walking over.

“Bathroom... wow this hallway is long!”

I didn’t recognize the voice, it wasn’t the manly voice that yelled out something about a TARDIS either. Is this what this place is called? What does it mean?

The pony or whatever lady walked off, further down the hallway. I sigh in relief, and stand up on all fours. Time to see if I can’t get out of here. I lean onto the door, pushing on it. It doesn’t budge, and I realise that on the inside, I have to pull. Time wasted, I grip the door knob with my teeth, turn it, and pull it inward slightly. I look out the crack in the doorway, checking the right side of the hall. No one. I pull it open a bit more, and look down the hall the pony lady walked down. No sign of her. I smile and walk out into the hallway, and turn to the exit. Before I could get going, though, I bump into something, and am met with a green tie.

“What’re you doing here?” I back up to see the brown pony in full view. Crap.

“U-uh, um, I got lost?”

The pony in a green tie just looks at me with unbelieving eyes. This isn’t going to end well...

“Doctor? Who’s that?”

The grey pegasus pony walks down the hall, from where the main chamber was. She has a frown on her face, and her left eye seems to be drifting a bit. This time, it isn’t funny, but terrifying. What were they going to do to me?

“We have a stowaway in our closets, Ditzy. Who are you?”

“Uh, i’m Ashley.”

“Well, Ashley, I don’t think you want to stay here. Things are going to get a bit interesting in about...” The pony labeled by who apparently is called Ditzy as ‘Doctor’ reaches for the watch in his weird butt pocket and looks at the gold watch. “Five minutes, twenty three seconds.” And with that, he puts it back in the pocket.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Nothing you need to worry about, miss, come on.”

“Ashley?”

A third voice comes out from behind me, and I turn to see a white pony with a horn on her head. A unicorn. She’s wearing a small tan overcoat and a similarly colored hat on her head, with a hole at the top to allow room for her horn, and covering her very bright brown hair.

I say, “Do I know you?” though when looking at the pony’s clothing, something tells me I have seen her before.

“It’s me, Nolan. I came by your house a few days ago?”

I squint my eyes at the pony. “...You’re that detective? But... you’re a girl!”

‘Nolan’ looks down, cringing. I realise that this may be a touchy subject, and change it. “How’d you get here...?

Nolan(?) looks back up at me. “I’m trying to get information, it’s my job.”

I say “Don’t you think that recent events are a bit more important than detective work?”

“What I’m doing is important. Believe it or not, it involves the end of both ours and these pony creature’s worlds. I think I can try and stop it.”

I blink. This lady is nuts. Or guy. I don’t know, this is hurting my oversized head.

The guy labeled as Doctor reaches for his watch for the second time in the last few minutes. “We can explain later, or maybe not, but right now we don’t have a lot of time to talk. In about one minute, three seconds, the Cloud horde will be here to try and stop us. We have no choice but to set course to Equestria.”

I exclaim, “Whoa, what? Cloud? E-Equestria? What’s going on here, Nolan?”

Nolan says “Just... yeah just call me Mystery or something similar like Misty. It gets weird calling me that. Like Time Turner said, we don’t have much time. Looks like you’re stuck with us for a while.”

He kind of just insulted my whole sex, but right then I didn’t care. Something was going to happen, and I felt too scared to start an argument over it. I follow the three ponies over to the main chamber, and soon the place began to shake.

Time Turner says, “Oh no, they are already here! Thirty seconds early, this isn’t supposed to happen...” he continues to think out loud as he begins to press, turn, and pull various controls on the main computer in the center of the room, with the cylinder in the complete center. It begins to glow a bright green, and a loud ‘vrrrwoorp’ fills the room, reminding me of an extremely old and broken down car refusing to start up.

The whole room shakes violently, and soon enough I lose balance and fall onto the floor, onto my side. I close my eyes tight as I hear a loud, surreal screeching kind of sound, and I start to feel sick to my stomach. What. Is. Going. On?!

The whole room stops shaking soon after that thought. I open my eyes once again to see everyone on the floor, the room in complete silence. I get back up on my hooves and take a look around. Everything seems just as it was before.

The Doctor gets up, and heads over to a monitor on the central computer. Ditzy is laughing her head off, for some reason, and Nolan/Misty (ugh) gets back up as well after everyone else, adjusting his/her hat. “Where are we?”

The Doctor looks at the image on the screen, and smiles. “Well, we have some good news at least. We’re in Equestria now.”

I walk over next to the Doctor and look at the image. It’s completely in black and white, but just looking at it makes me feel like I am watching a cartoon. Nolan trots up next to me, and Ditzy finally calms down after the ordeal. Nolan speaks up. “Where in Equestria?”

The Doctor squints at the screen, looking for landmarks. “Seems like we’re on the outskirts of the Everfree forest.”

“And that is?”

“It’s an enchanted forest that has some weird magic floating over it. We still don’t know what it is, even the clouds floating over it are acting weird, but turn back to normal after their fly over.”

The Doctor pushes a button on the monitor screen with his hoof, and the screen goes blank. “Why don’t we go see the real thing instead of what’s on the computer screen?”

Nolan/Mystery Glass:

Before we found Ashley in the closet, Time Turner told me mostly everything about Equestria, it’s equine inhabitants, and a bit on the situation.

“Dark Light has created his own magical minions called the Cloud, which are a dark representation of ponies. They are generally weak, but are strong in numbers. They travel in groups, and are quite chilling to look at. Right now, they don’t attack ponies that don’t meddle in their master’s plans, but we are, so they are looking for us.”

The Cloud sound like a creepy problem that’s in store for me, and these two as well, since they are helping me. I felt kinda bad, but they said they are used to this kind of stuff. How could you get used to the fact that something in the universe wants you dead, and relentlessly hunts you?

I’ve sampled a bit of Ditzy’s leftover muffins. It’s been three days, and my stomach has caught up with my head. I scarfed down about five muffins before I realised that nature was calling.

Great. Now I have to deal with this again.

Ditzy gave me directions to the ‘little mare’s room’ down the hallway where they keep the assortments of clothing from previous generations, so they fit in with the crowd in that timeline when they are visiting. Time travel. Like things couldn’t get any more complex in this world.

The buildup was excruciating, which just made my embarrassment worse. This is going to be hard to do. I heard some shuffling from one of the closets, but didn’t care as I was about to let the gates open right there if I didn’t keep moving. The bathroom didn’t have a toilet, instead it had this strange urinal in the floor. Didn’t they have these way in the east or something?

Details set aside, it was a situation that I would not be caught dead in public. I certainly thought it would be hard, but the floor urinal made it 100% easier than I thought.

I was heading back down the hall when I saw a familiar looking pony with Time Turner. Ashley. Things got a bit hectic in the end, and now she is stuck with me for a while. I’m no babysitter, but times like these are when you have to do things that life throws at you.

Throughout that teleportation through time and space, I was about to lose my muffins. Falling all over the place, and tumbling small appliances, and finally the huge bump at the end. I swallowed back down my lunch and check with everyone at the computer.

“Why don’t we go see the real thing instead of what’s on the computer screen?” Time Turner said.

The four of us went over to the door, and Time Turner pushes it open with his head. Me and Ashley squint our eyes at the bright sunlight as we all step outside. Ditzy takes in a large breath, and exhales. “Finally, fresh air. How do you humans live with all that smog?”

I look at Ditzy after my eyes adjust. Does she seem a little... two dimensional? I can’t really tell, but the colors everywhere seemed a lot more brighter than what I am used to. “We get used to it...” I say to her.

Ashley stares at the vibrant colors, and looking around all over. We are in a lightly forested area, and the only sign of civilization, really, is a tree house in the center of a small clearing. Every tree seems to be an apple tree, with apples growing out of each tree. Like I said, things look a lot more two dimensional, and pastel colored. This is really weird.

Ashley notices the tree house as well, and says, “Who’s is that? That tree house?”

Time Turner looks up at the house, and makes a panicked face. “Oh dear, not those three...”

Ditzy just pats him on the back with her hoof. “Aw, c’mon Doctor, they are just three little fillies.”

“Yes, yes, but that apple one scares me.”

“Hey!”

A girly voice echos from the tree house. “What’re ya’ll doin’ at our clubhouse?”

Three heads poke up at an open window. One with a couple shades brighter purple mane, with orange fur and wings, one with yellow fur, red mane and a rather large pink bow, and another with a brighter purple and pink mane with white fur and a horn sticking out of her head.

The filly with the pink bow in the center squints at Time Turner. “Aren't you that pony ah sold apples to long ago?” I recognize that accent as a somewhat southwestern accent, from America, perhaps.

Time Turner goes a bit wide eyed, and adjusts his tie with a hoof. “Ah, erm, nope! I think you’re thinking of someone else, little lady!”

The three heads disappear from the window sill, and Time Turner takes a breath of relief. Ashley looks back at the treehouse. “You’re scared of that little girl? Not so tough, are you?”

Time Turner says “She can be intimidating when forcing apples in your face in a bad situation, especially since her big sister was right there.”

“Who’re you two?”

There is that accented voice again. The pink bow filly was under my muzzle, and I hadn’t noticed her walk up to all of us. Even Time Turner, who jumped slightly from her sudden appearance.

I look down at her orange wide eyes, and say “Oh, uh, I’m... Mystery Glass, and this is my assistant... Maroon.” I looked at her mane and immediately came up with the most cheesiest name ever, on accident. I’m pretty sure she gave me a stink eye before I looked back at the filly, who now has both her friends behind her. The white coated unicorn says “You don’t look familiar, are you new to town?”

“Ah, well kinda. I’m working on a detective case righ-”

“Wait, wait, girls? Check the list. Did we have detective work on our list?”

The orange pegasus takes out a large scroll of paper, and it falls out in a long list, rolling across the ground up to my front hooves. “Think so, right here, number three hundred and fifty five.”

“Aww...” The pink bow filly looks a bit crestfallen.

I get a bit nervous, these fillies are really organized for being so young. Ditzy walks up to me, and whispers into my ear, “They made a group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They are really desperate to get their cutie marks.”

“Really?” I say back to her.

“Hey, lady, if you're new in town, we could give you a tour!” The orange pegasus says, in a raspy voice. She probably yells a lot, which caused her to have a slightly altered set of vocal chords.

I fake a smile. “Oh, no thanks, I think I can find my way around, i’ve got Time Turner here to he-”

The pink bow filly yells out “Ah-HA! You are that pony ah sold apples to! Did you like them? Hm?”

Time Turner yelps a bit, and runs off. Ditzy yells out after him, “Doctor! Come back!” and runs after him. I sigh. So much for that then. The white fur unicorn says, “So... change your mind about that tour?”

I roll my eyes, and accidentally make a smile on my face. “Okay, okay. What are your names?”

“Ah’m Applebloom!”

“I’m Sweetie Belle!”

“And I’m Scootaloo!”

They all say in unison “And together we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

A tone louder and I think my ears would have started bleeding. I blink, and look at Ashley, who cupped her ears with her hooves, and is balancing with her chin on the ground. I poke her with a hoof, telling her it’s over, and look back at the three. “Okay, so where to?”

“This here is m’ah home, Sweet Apple Acres! It’s a family ran business that sells apples and other crops to town, keepin’ them fed.” Applebloom says, and waving dramatically at the whole place. It sure seems like it’s acres long, with huge fields of apple trees, wheat, and others. I could see a rather burly looking red stallion plowing an empty field with a heavy looking hand plow. From my position, I could see his cutie mark, which seems like an apple from all the way over here, but green.

Applebloom noticed me staring down at that field, and squints up at me. “Hey, miss, you gawking at mah brother down there?”

I step out of my trance and look down at Applebloom, registering what she said. My eyes turn pinpricks for a moment, and red decorates my cheeks. “Wha- Oh, no, no! Just admiring the fields!” Again, flustered. I’m not sure if I should even feel this. For some reason, I felt... ugh, okay let’s just avoid that topic.

Applebloom sheepishly grins at me. “Uh-huh!”

“Really!”

“Whatever you say, Mystery!”

I look at Ashley for help, but she just shrugs (or attempts to) and stifles a laugh. What a terrible child. We follow the three fillies as they giggle to themselves down the path towards their home. “We should introduce you to the Apple family, strangers.” Sweetie Belle says. Ashley finally breaks her silence and says, “Sure, i’d love to meet them!”

I whisper to Ashley. “Ashley, we can’t just go play the meet and greet game. We, or I, have things to do.”

She whispers back, “Then go, i’ll be taking a tour with these funny little ponies.”

“I can’t just leave you here...”

“Fine, if you’d like to stay, you’d better get used to slow days. Some people like to have social lives.”

I roll my eyes at her. She’s trouble, I keep thinking, but continue to follow along the ‘tour’. We come up to a decent looking farmhouse, and step inside. The place smelled of apple food, everywhere. The oven is cooking something apple related, apple juice on the counter, cider in the fridge, apples, apples, apples. I’m starting to feel like apples are a favorite here.

“Applebloom, your back early!”

An orange pony walks up from the hallway leading around the house. She has a blonde mane and tail, with a tan Stetson hat on her head. Her mane is styled and tied up with a band to make a rather long ‘pony tail’ and she has three red apples on both sides of her flank, her Cutie Mark.

She walks up to us. “Ah see you brought some friends. Howdy, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo.”

“Hi!” they say at the same time. Applebloom points to the larger, more ‘orange’ pony. “Mystery Glass, this is my older sister, Applejack. Applejack, these ponies are Mystery Glass and Maroon.”

“Howdy, strangers. Y’all new to town?” She tilts her stetson hat at me with her hoof.

I look at Applejack with interest. The research I did involved six ponies labeled as the Elements of Harmony. It looks like I just met one of the six, Applejack, or the element of Honesty. She can’t tell a lie, or at least lies very poorly.

“Uh, yes, we just arrived. Pleasure to meet you, miss Applejack.” I say, and nudge ‘Maroon’ with the joint in my arm I had no name for. “Ow, hey- oh yes! Nice to meet you!” she says. Applejack looks at her then back at me with interest. “That your little sister, or...?”

“She’s my assistant. I’m on a rather important investigation.”

“Oh, that so? Ah assume y’all are detectives?”

“Yes, we are.”

“Figured from the clothes you’re wearin’ there. Kinda old timey, don’t you think?”

I frown. “Who’re you, the fashion police?”

She laughs. “Naw, that would be Sweetie Belle’s sister, Rarity’s job. She’s the towns fashion designer. She’s really good at it, ah tell yah. Anyways, what’s a sleepy old town gotta do with your case?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. I can’t go into too much detail, but something is afoot here, and I need to get to the bottom of it.” I say to her, in a serious tone.

She stifles a giggle. “Lighten up, will yah? The hardboiled detective type doesn’t really suit you, missy. It’s kinda cute.”

I get a bit angry with Applejack. Maybe she is a bit too honest. I scrunch my face up in frustration, and say, “Hey! I’m not cute, i’m a detective!” Ashley just starts laughing, and the three fillies in the room join her. Applejack smiled down on them, and i’m just standing there fuming. This wouldn’t be happening if I was still a guy, I thought.

Everyone calms down, including me in the end. Applejack offered us apple pie, straight out of the oven. Ashley and I accept, and we awkwardly sat at the table the best we could and ate. It was the best damn apple pie I have ever tasted. While we ate, we heard hoofsteps outside the door, and in came the big red pony from the farm. I immediately became fully aware of how silly I looked, with my head stuffed into pie, and started worrying about how I looked. Then I noticed my thought process, and instantly regretted brushing back my locks of hair and sitting straight up, with crumbs still on my face.

Ashley noticed my odd behaviour, and so did I. Why am I worrying about this now, when I was fully aware of stuffing my face in just a few moments ago before he...

So this is what it’s going to be then. I’m attracted to stallions. Just brilliant. Now I am ever so changing mentally now. I think of a human guy, but just sit there with nothing happening. Yep, just stallions. Male horses. Horses. God dammit. My cheeks were blazing now, and I try to hide it by adjusting my hat subconsciously. No one noticed, except for Ashley, who kept quiet.

Applebloom points to the painfully attractive stallion and says, “Ah, Mystery, this is our soft spoken brother, Big Macintosh.” The big guy nods at me, and I feel a twinge in my stomach. At least that’s what I told myself. Applebloom continues, “Big Mac, do you want a slice of apple pie before you head back out?”

“Eeyup.” he says, his voice deep, but friendly. He takes a slice, places it in his mouth, then heads off towards whatever is in the hallway. He comes back, not finding what he wanted, and nods to me and Ashley one more time before he leaves out the front door. I suddenly feel instant relief, and sit back comfortably.

We eventually finish our pie, and apple juice that came after. Ashley and I get up and head for the door, saying thanks for everything. It was getting late, the sun was setting outside. Applejack says “You two got a place to stay? Y’all are welcome to stay the night here!”

I just look back at her and say, “It’s okay, is there an inn in town, or something?”
Applejack frowns. “Yes... there’s that bar ran by that odd mare in the town center, you could check there. You sure you don’t wanna stay?”

“Positive, I don’t want to be much of a burden to you, Applejack. Hope to see you soon.” I say, and head out the door with Ashley. Applebloom exclaims as we head out: “The Cutie Mark Crusaders will meet you in the morning to complete the tour!” along with the other two yelling out “Yeah!”

As we near the road leading to the town, Ashley says to me, “Why didn’t we stay there? I’m pretty sure the Apples have warmer beds than a bar in town.”

I say back to her, “Because, like what the Doctor said, the Cloud are looking for us, and ponies that are fighting Dark Light. If we stay there, the Cloud will come after us eventually, and not only will they hurt us, but the whole family. We should just keep to ourselves.” Ashley looks down for a moment, but nods. “I guess you’re right.” she says.

The moon was in the sky by the time we reached town. It looked quiet, in the moonlight. We could see from the hill the town center, with a circular building dominating the center as the Town Hall. Ashley mutters something to herself, but the sounds of crickets and other nighttime bugs and animals muffle her voice, so I didn’t hear her.

We reached the town in a few minutes, and headed blindly in the direction we remembered where the Town Hall was. The roads were wide, and paved in dirt, and delicately grown bright green grass. There were barely any proper paved roads anywhere, which made sense, as they probably didn’t have cars here, but maybe carriages. Then again... would it be socially acceptable to be pulled around everywhere by other ponies? We’ll have to see in the morning.

We eventually found the correct place, one of the few buildings that still had candles lit inside. I push the door open, still unlocked, and let Ashley inside before me. She squints at me before heading inside first, which made me think I did something wrong. Inside, a plum colored pony with a darker shade of the same color mane is standing behind a counter. From looking at the signs, she sells various kinds of fruit beverages. Though the money prices are odd, as they are counted in ‘bits’. I guess it’s the money used here.

I say to the pony behind the counter, “Uh, hello? We were told we could go here for rooms to rent out?” My girly voice that I started to get used to echoed in the room, and I look around at the sparsely occupied tables and chairs. There were a couple ponies enjoying their own strange fruit drinks, but the place was otherwise empty.

The plum pony says, “Oh, hello. You don’t look familiar... anyway i’m Berry Punch, good to meet you. Yes, I do let ponies rent rooms upstairs. Interested?”

“That’s what I came here for, yes.”

“Okay, it’s ten bits a night. Twenty for two.”

“Erm...”

I realize that I don’t exactly have any of these ‘bits’. I really should have thought thi-

Inside my coat pocket, I notice a lump that’s been there for who knows how long. I reach back to my coat pocket with me teeth, and pull out a small dark blue purse, with gold lining the top to lock the opening in place. How did that get there?

I awkwardly look at Berry Punch, then at Ashley, who is looking at me funny once again. I open it up with the best of my ability with my hooves and inside... is a lot larger than I thought it would be. It’s filled with a decent amount of gold coins. I pull a poker face and reach in with my hooves subconsciously, actually grabbing them somehow with my hooves, and place twenty of the gold coins on the counter. “I think... that will do. Right?”

Berry Punch looks at me the same way Ashley is doing, which makes me a bit nervous. I really should never accept undercover cases. My poker face is trained, but not good enough to pull it off without people looking at me funny.

She brushes the coins into a jar under the counter, and nods with a smile, losing that suspicious look on her face. “Yes, it will. It’s just up the stairs, second door on the left.” I nod, and Ashley says, “Thank you, miss.” We walk towards the stairs, and head to the second door on the left. Inside was a cozy little room, with two fluffy beds in either corner, with a window in between them. Through it I can see the building next door, it’s lights currently out.

I take the bed on the right, and Ashley takes opposite. We barely said a word to each other before Ashley just blows out the lights, plops herself on the bed, and turns her back towards me, her wings twitching slightly.

This is going to be a long night.

* * *

I am awoken by the sound of many hooves clopping all over the place. Outside, downstairs in the main shop, everywhere. I find myself with my legs and arms tucked under my stomach, with my hat on the floor and my coat slightly off to the side of my body. I must have had a restless sleep, I thought as I fix my coat, and stand up from the bed onto the floor. I put on my hat, and realize that the room was one pony short. Ashley was gone.

I checked the whole room, even under the beds, and no sign of her. Not even a note left behind, no trace of her even being here. I adjust my hat to my horn, and head for the door. I rush downstairs, and trip over my hooves, surprising the owner and a dark blue pegasus stallion. I mumble the words “Sorry” and head for the door without saying goodbye or thank you to Berry Punch, and just rush outside, looking left and right for a maroon colored pegasus. No sign of her.

I ask some passer by's about if they saw a maroon colored pegasus, a little bit shorter than me, no cutie mark. They all either said, “No, I haven't, miss.” or along the lines of “I wish!” which startled me. Things could be worse. Then again, I don’t want things to get any more worse than what’s already happening.

“Heya Mystery Glass! Where’s your partner?” said a familiar, young voice. Applebloom.

“Applebloom! Oh thank... did you see A- Maroon anywhere? I woke up and she was missing from her bed!”

“I can’t say f’er sure. I’ve seen a bunch of ponies walking around, the crowd was thick with colors.”

I start to go into a bit of a panic. “You sure? Where are your friends? They could know!”

“Ah told them to meet up at the statue, but they never showed up.”

“Okay... come on let’s go look for them.” I say, and we both walk into a random direction, beginning the search.

Ashley/Maroon:

Well, I can’t say this was the most interesting night of my life, but it certainly was the most uncomfortable. During the night when Nolan fell asleep, I got up and looked out the window. The only lights on now were just the bar and the light of the moon outside in the sky. It was really pretty, the colors were much more vibrant than back home.

All I could really see from where I was the building next door. No movement inside the window. I kept hearing Nolan snore over the night sounds that are muffled by the walls. Does he even know that he snores? It’s starting to get annoying. I decide that enough is enough, and I sneak out the back door of the bar, without the owner seeing. She was face first on the floor, passed out.

The night air was the most fresh I have ever smelt. No pollution, no smell of far off car smoke, just dirt and flora. Nice and quiet, just the way I like it.

And then the night was spoiled when I saw something horrifying. A pony was walking down the alley towards me, but it wasn’t a pony at all. Up close, it was shimmering in a black fog, with no facial features. The only thing on it’s face were two bright white eyes, staring at me. It tilted its head towards me, examining my whole body.

“Uh... hello?” I make the mistake of saying.

Once the words were out, it’s eyes shot a deep red, and it pounced at me. I yelped in surprise, and jump out of the way, my wings working overtime in an effort to keep balance. To my surprise, the creature disappeared, and what was left was just black smoke, which was flying into the air, and away.

And that is when I let my guard down.

I took a sigh of relief at the wrong time, and a huge cloud of black came swarming at me. I tried to scream, but the cloud of black was covering my mouth, muffling my voice. I struggled and struggled to get free, but the cloud of smoke was just growing tighter around me. I felt my body being lifted upwards, and sent out flying over the city at ridiculous speeds. The G-force and the grip on me was crushing my lungs, and soon I found myself passing out.

But that’s not all.

Before I passed out, I saw a sky blue bolt fly by me, and come back to crash into the cloud. I was released, freefalling, near blackout, and pretty much felt like dying there. The sky blue bolt of color came over me, and caught me in mid air. Just before I passed out, I saw powerful, blue wings attached to the back of a pony with every color of the rainbow in its hair.

Ch. 4: Lost

Back on Earth...

God damn, this was one terrible week.

My name is Chris. I live in a very old town in the U.S., that I really don’t want to name right now, as it, probably, no longer exists by the time someone reads this. It’s been about five days since the transformations happened, and the government sent actual military soldiers and scientists to come and contain what they call a ‘pathogenic virus’. This virus tends to turn people into cartoon ponies. Magical cartoon ponies.

I don’t know who actually started this freaky outbreak of the virus, but apparently my friend, Nolan, who tends to be called now as Mystery Glass, seems to know about everything about it. Three days into the outbreak, he wanted me to go drop him off at the towns only alleyway to meet a pony who, apparently, was from a whole other world. A world that shouldn’t exist. This world was supposed to be all colors and script writing by a bunch of normal people working for a company called Hasbro. Who knew that the world exists. For all I know, maybe other worlds exist too that are on T.V.

I was one of the few that got a ‘slow down’ vaccine that slows the process of the virus. Really, it only slowed it down by about two days. Now here I am, on four legs and covered in red fur and, guess what, a dark red and pink striped mane. At least i’m still a guy. I’m worried about Nolan dealing with his own, without permission sex change. I’m surprised he brushed it off pretty well, but something still seems pretty off. He literally told me to call him by a girls name, without hesitation. Sigh.

The military isn’t getting any slack either. When they tried to contain it, they only caught it themselves. I gotta say, it was a mixture of hilariously funny and cute to see these small creatures in U.S. military clothes and guns strapped onto their necks. Slightly jarring, as well. Never the less, it started to spread all over. Canada and Mexico announced that they were closing their borders to the U.S., and all other countries forbade immigration to the U.S. until the situation was under control. Of course, thanks to unknown reasons, they still caught the virus. It’s like the Black Plague all over again, except everyone is turning into ponies instead of dying, as well as it spreading beyond borders. It’s wildfire.

I probably shouldn’t have been surprised when the whole town was encased in a huge pink bubble.

Back in the present, day five, I was doing my best at walking back to my home after going out to the grocery store, which was surprisingly still open, and buying a whole new stock of food, either greens or fruits. It was on my back, and I didn’t really even feel the weight back there. I guess being a normal pony had its advantages too. Or at least as normal as you can get.

During the ‘walk’, The town shook for ten seconds, and then the bubble flew over head, encasing the town from front to back in that amount of time. Pony people were screaming, but I just stood there with my mouth agape at the scene. I first thought it was the military, pulling another grand master scheme to see if they still can’t contain it, but then I realised that, well, military can’t just magically pull over a giant pink bubble over the town in ten seconds flat. Especially without hands.

Then the ground shook once more, and my mind was blown.

I ran down the street, heading towards my house, which was at the end of town. The ground was still shaking, but I managed to keep my balance all the way there.

We were in the air.

The whole town was lifted off the ground, leaving an upside down dome of ground under us that was pulled from the earth itself, and lifted into the air. I stared at the ground that was slowly disappearing below us as we were lifted beyond the cloud layer, and finally stopping. I collapse onto the ground, my hooves folding under me. I just sat there, staring at the clouds below me.

This week just never gets better.

Back in Equestria...

Ashley:

What a crazy dream...

I was waking up on top of a really soft couch, under a blanket. I must have fallen asleep while watching T.V....

I sit up, and am hit with a huge wave of pain in my back and underside. I reach behind myself to massage the pain away, to find that I had two large, feathered lumps in my back.

Oh... so it wasn’t a dream.

My wings were cramped from sleeping on them for who knows how long. I stared at my technicolor hooves, and sigh. This nightmare will never end.

Now where am I?

I looked around the room, which looked really fluffy. The floor looked like it was made out of clouds. Sports equipment, soccer balls, tennis rackets, and more were scattered around the floor. Whoever owned this place, was both a sports enthusiast but also was really lazy, or as most lazy people would say, ‘never had the time to clean up’.

I had to say though, blue was a favorite color. Everything had this weird look to it, and what I meant about this, it that everything had this tint of sky blue. I sat up properly, and looked along the walls. There was a poster that had three ponies flying at what looked like remarkable speeds in these blue and yellow skin tight suits with flight goggles on. It looked really inspirational, with storm clouds behind them, and at the bottom of the poster, it said in emblazoned letters, “Wonderbolts”.

I guess they are a... group of really famous athletes? It certainly looked like one of those posters back home, featuring football players and other sporting people.

There was a window at the far wall, and I jumped off the couch to walk over. The floor felt like I was walking on a soft blanket that was being held at four corners to support me, so it didn’t sink into my weight and let me fall through. It felt really good.

I stepped up to the window, and see nothing but clouds. I could see the ground from here, but I was so far up that it was faded from loose clouds. I was up in the air. And then I realised that I was in a house floating on top of several clouds. Rainbows were connected here and there from cloud to cloud. It was the most colorful thing I ever saw. I could have puked rainbows at that point.

Then I heard hoofsteps from behind me, and the illusion was broken, instead replaced with fear. I turn around, and am met with a cyan blue pony with seven different colors in her hair, mimicking a rainbow. She had this ridiculous grin on her face as she trotted up to me.

“You sleep like a log, sister. You feeling alright from last night?”

Last night. I start to remember the shadows that tried to pluck me from the ground and carry me to who knows where. I remember rainbows. She must have saved me from that cloud of black.

I hesitate to speak. “I-I’m fine. Uhm, who are you? Where am I?”

The rainbow pegasus widens her grin, and expresses something I know too well. Ego.

“You haven't heard of me? The fasted flyer in all of ponyville? Hay, in the whole world?”

I pick my words carefully. Or not. “No.”

She frowns at my serious answer, and says. “You must be living under a rock, or something. I’m Rainbow Dash!” she says this like it meant something, but I just stand there. She starts to flap her wings and, to my amazement, actually starts to lift off the ground. I thought that those tiny things were incapable of lifting up anypony’s body. She zooms past my head, hitting 0 to sixty in a second, making me sick from the effect. She lifts off into the sky through the window, leaving a streak of rainbow in her wake.

I was amazed by how well this pony could fly. The rainbows were what flipped my brain over. She was going so fast, that her rainbow tail left behind eye shadows in full color. It was the most colorful and beautiful thing I have ever seen. Ever since I got here, all I saw was colors, but this just is near impossible to describe.

After the color lightshow, Rainbow Dash flies back into the room through the same window, sending a blast of cut air my way, blowing back my hair. She lands perfectly on the cloud floor, and ruffles her wings before placing them back on their sides. Wow.

I stutter out words. “W-wow... how do you do that?”

She grins at me once again, and says, “Easy! I’m just awesome!”

I notice that my mouth was agape is astonishment, and I try to regain my composure. “Uh...could you...”

She looks at me with her sparkling purple/pink eyes. “Yeah? Spit it out then.”

“Teach me how to fly?”

She kind of looks at me funny, with a face of disbelief. “You mean you don’t know how to fly? Did you go to flight school?”

“Flight school?”

She facehoofs. “I don’t know where you came from, but I guess I can give you a couple of tricks to get you going.”

I smile in excitement, letting out an unsuppressed, unattended squee. She rolls her eyes, but still holds a smile. Throughout the next few hours, Rainbow Dash teaches me the basics of flight. Constantly flap your wings in a steady rhythm, burn the tempo into your mind, and don’t misjudge the power of your wings. According to her, wings are really powerful tools of flight. They can lift a pegasus into the air in one full flap of them both. I still don’t understand the basics of how such small wings can lift such large bodies, but I didn’t care.

Flying was the best thing ever.

For a long time, I didn’t know how hard it was to stand, walk around, and more. Gravity was non-existent when in the air, letting me go as far up and down, left to right, forward and backward, anywhere as far as I wanted. When I landed, gravity took effect again, and I collapsed onto the ground in a heap. I felt like an anchor was wrapped up all around me.

When I first actually took off, however, it was surprisingly easy to master. Even Rainbow Dash was surprised at my first attempt. She said that most ponies that didn’t learn to fly, and just started out, tend to have trouble even getting off the ground. It just felt natural to fly.

In any case, it was an interesting few hours, until a familiar looking unicorn decided to grow her own weird butterfly wings and yell at me.

Nolan/Mystery Glass:

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

For one hour, one full blasted hour, no one seemed to even have a glimmer of an idea where Maro- Ashley was. Applebloom decided to go and check back at her farm, and left me alone in a bustling small town full of technicolor cartoon ponies with magical properties. Great.

I gave up for the first time in many years. I just felt depressed. She was my responsibility, and now she is probably in a ditch somewhere, scared out of her mind or worse, taken by the Cloud, which I have yet to even see yet. I headed back to Berry Punch’s fruit drink bar, and order a simple apple cider. I’ve mastered the weird way of holding things with your hooves, as it turns out, you can actually bend the hooves to cup them in it. It feels like holding something without thumbs.

I sat at a table nearest to the window next to the entrance, sipping at the sweet and slightly tangy apple cider. Holy crap, is there alcohol in here? It caused me to feel a bit buzzed. Good thing I can hold my cider we-

What?

Where did that come from?

As far as I know, I never had any apple related drink ever since I was a kid. I look back at the time when I first tasted apples, the freshness, the whole bright red apple, grown from cared apple trees at the farm, I can remember the yellowish magic that was blanketed over it.

Okay... now I know something is wrong. I don’t think I was ever eating an apple via magic. The farm? I don’t remember any farm... except what my brain is telling me. I think of the farm that I apparently bought the apple from. It had a sign, labeling it as... Sweet Apple Acres.

No... no that can’t be right.

“...miss?”

There is no such thing as a farm back home that was called Sweet Apple Acres. There was the one here that was called that... but I remember something. An old green pony, an orange filly, her older brother...

“...miss, are you alright?”

I remember my father, a slight off white/yellow tinted coat of fur, unicorn, buying my first apple from the older lime green mare... what was her name? Granny... Smith? I think that was it. She was a kind mare. Taking care of these children on her own, my father said.

“Miss!”

I yelp in surprise, breaking from my weird mixed memories. Were they memories? I can’t think about it right now, as there seems to be a purple unicorn waving her hooves in front of my face. I reacquire my posture in the altered chair, and look at her. She has a mostly deep dark blue mane, with a small stripe of purple next to a larger hot pink stripe. Everything else is purple.

She looks concerned, and says, “You seemed to be lost in thought there for a while! I just wanted to ask, you have a strange aura of magic around you. I have not seen anything like it before, what is it?”

I blink at her. “Uh... magic? I don’t see anything...”

She looks at me like i’m trying to hide something. “You don’t feel it? That’s strange... you seem to be a bright pony though. My name is Twilight Sparkle, by the way. May I say who you are?”

I awkwardly answer her. “Oh, well, i’m Mystery Glass.”

She nods with a smile on her muzzle. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mystery Glass! Could you stop by my tree for a minute, I want to see what this magic is. It seems really powerful! Did you do it? What does it do?”

I just answer her blatantly. “I didn’t do it. I can’t even use magic.”

She giggles at me. “Don’t be silly! You’re a unicorn! All unicorns can use magic. Are you saying you don’t know how to use it?”

“I guess.”

“That won’t do! Tell you what, i’ll lend you a few books on basic spells, and how to control magic. I kept most of my textbooks ever since I was a filly in magic school. Follow me.”

She turns around, and then I notice something I never seen before as of yet. Not only did she have a horn, but also wings. She had both of those weird little limbs sticking out of her. I get up and follow her, astonished by her extra limbs on her back.

She begins to talk as we step outside and start heading through town. Ponies look our way in interest, looking at Twilight with a confused but star struck look on their face, then at me like i’m one lucky mare. Okay...

We reach a really tall tree near the plaza, that seems to have been repurposed for living inside of it. From the looks of it, it was hollowed out, built on, and furnished. Strange place to live, as it is very unique from the building style of all the other houses. Out front it has a sign that has nothing written on it, but instead an open book, blank.

“I lived here for a while, still do actually, before I was turned into an alicorn.”

“A-Alicorn?”

She looks back at me, with a skeptical look in her eye, then worried. “Sorry... but have you bonked your head? Everyone should know what an alicorn is.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what it is.”

Twilight sighs, and turns around to face me. “An alicorn is a rare and magical race of ponies that lived thousands of years. Alicorns are created to rule over pony kingdoms and huge cities, as they are the most powerful and influential ponies. Celestia chose me, her faithful student, to become the princess of magic, my element of harmony.”

Oh, that’s right. Celestia was the ruler over Equestria, and all the ponies that live in it. She has a sister as well, Luna, I believe. She was banished to the moon after she became Nightmare Moon, a second personality that is a basic villain, wants to be the supreme ruler, do it her way, etcetera. Huh. I didn’t know those ponies were an actual race, not just powerful ponies.

Twilight continues to walk towards the tree, and I follow. Her horn glows purple, and so does the doorknob on the door, which opens up gracefully. We enter the tree, and I see books literally coming out of the walls. The walls were carved into bookshelves, and there was no space where a book isn’t. Some books are piled up on each other as well.

Twilight speaks up. “Spike! Where are you?”

A slightly rough but young boy’s voice echos from upstairs. “Arggh... Twilight?”

I go wide eyed when I see a tiny dragon walk to the stairs heading down towards us. “W-whoa! A dragon?!”

Twilight grins at me, making me nervous. “Don’t worry, Spike is just a baby dragon. He can’t hurt a fly, even if he wanted to. Spike, could you collect Basic Charms and Magic for Beginners?”

Spike looks at me briefly, then back at Twilight, who says, “Yes Spike, it’s for her.”

The baby dragon called spike drops down the stairs, and I see him completely. He has purple scales, and green sharp eyes. He has fangs sticking out of his mouth, and his stomach is a leathery light green. He has these green half circles on his head, that follow down his spine and tail, as well as lime green whiskers sticking out from the back of his cheeks.

He grabs a rolling wall ladder with his clawed hands and drags it over to a bookshelf casually, climbs up the ladder, and picks out a book. He climbs down the ladder a few steps, and pulls out another book, stacking it on top of the other. He climbs back down, and hands Twilight the books. “Here you go, Twilight. Who’s she?”

“Spike, I’d like you to meet our guest, Mystery Glass. Mystery, this is Spike.”

I stare the baby dragon with slight fear in my eyes. He stares up at me. “Geeze, you look like Fluttershy when she sees a fully grown dragon.”

Twilight frowns at Spike. “Spike, don’t be rude.”

Spike frowns at Twilight, then at me. “Sorry.”

I finally say, “It’s alright, it’s uh... good to meet you, Spike.”

“Likewise!”

Outside, I hear a loud obnoxious sound and two ponies yelling and chasing after it.

“<:: aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa ::>”

“Get out of the way! Move!”

“Doctor, it’s heading for the forest!”

“Oh no you don’t!”

Everyone in the room looks at the door, and I head over to look out the window. I could vaguely see what looks like a rusted gold upside down trash can with a plunger and egg beater on its front moving towards the Everfree forest, pursued by none other than Time Turner and Ditzy.

They disappear before Twilight and Spike join me at the window, and I just blurt out. “Huh, that’s something you don’t see everyday.”

Spike shrugs and Twilight walks over to the two books on the floor. Her horn glows a sparkling purple, and so do the books which in turn start to hover above the ground. Surprised, I just yelp in slight terror from the unfamiliar talent. Twilight looks at me like i’m an alien, which I guess I would be. No time to explain that, though.

Twilight opens the books with her sparkling magic, and the “Magic for Beginners” floats over to me. Twilight says, “You should start with this. It’s elementary, so it should be easy to understand. Just follow the instructions, and-”

Before she could finish the sentence, I read the first few pages alarmingly fast, and understood the basics quickly. What it said, is that I had to focus on the space where I horn is, and not be the magic, but command the magic. It’s like a separate mind in my head that does what I tell it to do, and soon enough the book, and several other small objects near me started to glow a bright pale yellow, and float above the ground. I could faintly feel my own horn vibrate from the strain.

Twilight looks at me with fascination. “Interesting, it took me a week to master just floating one object, but you're doing it like it's second nature. Are you sure you don’t know how to use magic? It looks to me you’ve been doing it since you were a filly.”

I look at her with confusion. I do remember something. Magic, it was hard to learn, I wasn’t very good at it, but for some reason I was good at... revealing things.

Reveal.

My horn sparks a bright light, and suddenly several multicolored hoof shaped prints are seen everywhere. The most prominent were purple ones and smaller, three toed purple ones. I could see yellow, white, cyan blue, and several other colors in there as well. All of them hoof prints.

Twilight and Spike look at the floor with interest, Twilight looking quite impressed, while Spike looked terrified from the massive amount of colors. Twilight looks at me with a smile on her face. “Amazing! What kind of spell is this? All these shapes look like hoofprints, did you make it yourself?”

I did, when I was practicing levitation, I accidentally mixed the wrong kinds of elements together-

Wait, what am I remembering again? Magic? I never used magic in my life, up until now.

Yes you have.

I didn’t

Oh, yes you have.

Shut up!

Nah, I don’t think so.

I noticed I fell onto the floor, holding my head with me fore hooves. Twilight was standing over me, hovering behind her was a glass of water, and Spike was nowhere to be seen.

I look up at the strange sight known as an Alicorn and say, “What happened?”

She looks at me filled with concern, but then happiness. “You’re awake! I thought you went into a coma from the massive amount of magic you were emitting.”

“Excuse me?” I say, confused once again.

Twilight moves out of the way for me to sit properly, and she places the water next to me. I’m on a bean bag chair, with a table next to it. She turns to me, and says, “Well, you started muttering about practice, and you started to glow slightly. You looked like you were in a lot of pain, so I casted a Disperse Magic spell. You fell over, out cold.”

I sit back in the chair, surprisingly I could still sit like a human, but I had to be slouched back so my back had to be what I was sitting on. Did that really happen? I wonder what Ashley-

Ashley!

“Oh no, I forgot!”

Twilight was heading towards the kitchen when she turns with concern on her face. “What is it? What did you forget?”

I get up from the bean bag chair, and look out the window, looking at everything I could. “My assistant, Maroon, is missing. I woke up and she’s gone. Have you seen her?” I say, as I turn to face Twilight.

She frowns at me, and she lifts up her left fore hoof and taps it on her chin. “Well, Rainbow Dash said she rescued somepony from a cloud of black, and said she was taking her to her cloud. Could that be her?”

“What did she look like?” I said.

She continues to tap her chin, then raises it up for a second, then puts it back down when she says. “Maroon colored, wings, kinda smaller than you. Messy hair as well.”

My eyes go wide. “That’s her! Where is this Rainbow Dash’s house? I need to get to her, her and Rainbow Dash are in danger.”

Twilight looks a bit worried. “Danger? Is that cloud coming back?”

“Possibly, and more would too. Wait, did you say she lives on a cloud?”

Twilight nods. “Most pegasi live in Cloudsdale, or live in cloud houses. You’re sure are quite the alien to our land, aren't you?”

I cringe at the alien word, and panic slightly. Did she know? She can’t be, but could be suspicious from all my questions. Horsefeathers. I say, “Just tell me how to get there.”

Twilight bites her lip. That’s not good. “Well... first off it’s made of clouds. Only pegasi can walk on clouds. Second, it’s in the sky, so you’d need either a balloon or wings to get up there. Unless...”

“Unless what?” I say, impatient.

She looks at the assortments of books in her walls. “A long time ago, when we went to Cloudsdale with Rainbow Dash, I set up a few spells to help us walk on the clouds temporarily. I could help you with the cloud walking, but the transport I can’t. No balloons are available today.”

I stomp my hooves. “This is really important. There has to be some way.”

She picks out a book from the wall, and looks through it. “There was a spell I found that can give a pony huge butterfly wings, but I’m not too sure if it’s safe to use anymore. I only used it once, and that was when I was just the average unicorn. I don’t know what will happen with this new power, and if I can even cast it after all these months.”

I look at the book she’s reading, and then outside. This is too important, I have to bring her back to safety. “Just do it, i’ll worry about any side effects.”

Twilight shuts the book, and turns to me. “Are you sure? It could backfire, and you could be blown out of the tree to who knows where.”

“Again, just do it.”

“...Alright, if you say so.”

Twilight plants her hooves to the ground, and closes her eyes. Her horn glows a bright purple, and a stream of blue flows out of the tip. Then another. It flows slowly but flowingly towards me, then starts to spin around me in a double helix formation. It soon envelops me whole, into a big cocoon of blue. I feel my back tingle, and I hear a loud *bang* from outside the cocoon, then it all goes white.

…

I stand there on top of a black scorch mark, and Twilight opens her eyes, astonished. “It... it worked!”

I look behind me, and see large, colorful butterfly wings on my back. I could feel them, and I could flap them down to precise movements. I was in a trance from all the colors, I continued to flap them, and felt the ground below me fall away as I float into the air. I break the trance, and panic from the lack of ground under my feet, and I fall to the ground. Twilight was really happy about her work. “I can’t believe I did that with no practice! It’s perfect! I got to write that down somewhere!” and she hurries to get parchment with ink and a feather.

I just ask, “Where is her house?”

She looks at me with a twinkle in her eye. “What? Oh, Rainbow Dash’s house, it’s just outside of town, you won’t miss it. Nice to meet you!” and with that, she is lost in her research notes. I head for the door, and step outside with the large butterfly wings filtering the sun’s light everywhere, forming green and pink and blue and so many more colored light everywhere. I begin to flap them, and take off. It was surprisingly easy. Maybe that spell gave the ability to temporarily know how to fly? Ah well, time to get to what’s at hand. I flap them rhythmically, and head towards the huge cloud with a house and rainbows all over it.

The floating island was encased in the pink bubble, and the human ponies were frightened. The bubble began to thicken, turning deep enough to no longer be translucent. When the town screamed, so did others on the other side, as the floating land was transported to a whole new world.

Just right above a little town called Ponyville.

Ch. 5: The Truth

Yelling at someone you barely know tends to have consequences.

I made it to Rainbow Dash’s house using these very colorful and large butterfly wings Twilight gave me with that spell she conjured up. When I got there, Ashley was having fun with this colorful pony named Rainbow Dash, and was flying around with her wings. For some reason, I just got really angry when I saw that.

I felt really bad afterwards, but it went along the lines of “Why did you go off on your own?!” and something like, “I can’t believe you are enjoying this! Don’t you know that you also have a mother that is probably wondering where her daughter is in the middle of a world ending crisis!?”

And she was crying. Rainbow Dash started to puff up and get angry with me, before wondering how the hell I had butterfly wings, but then something happened.

A bright pink flash of light was cascaded over the whole region, enveloping us in its bright light. Everyone on the cloud in front of my was dead silent, and I turned my body in mid-air to see what just happened.

A town was floating on a rock, encased in a pink bubble. To top it all off it was a familiar town.

It was my town.

I whispered to myself, “What in Celestia’s name...?” and a brief flash of realization hit me. It’s starting. My world is starting to transfer over into Equestria.

Rainbow Dash looked at the town in awe and slight terror. “W-What is that?” She asked.

I reply back, “A chunk of planet Earth.”

She blinks at the town, then back at me. “Earth? You mean the ground?”

I shake my head. “No, like I said, planet Earth. It’s where I come from. The end has come, Ashley-”

Ashley yells at me in anger, “This is all your fault, you ass!”

I place my hooves down on the cloud, hoping that Twilight used that cloud walking spell, and sure enough, she did. I stood on the cloud in front of Ashley, with Rainbow staring at the floating city from another world. I say directly at Ashley, “I had nothing to do with this, it’s Dark Light’s fault. I need to stop him, and I need you to go home, to find your mother.”

She flaps her wings in anger. “I can’t just go back now, you... besides, there’s a pink bubble over the entire town, and my mom’s in... there...”

She flaps her wings harder, and starts to take off at a remarkable speed towards the floating city. I call her name, to try and stop her, but she ignores it and continues to fly towards it. I shake my head in frustration.

Rainbow Dash looks towards me, and says, “Who is Dark Light? Is he the one who’s done this? And those black clouds, too?”

I look at the ground far below me. “Yeah, he is. He wants to crush your world and bring mine to yours.”

She gets slightly irritated. “Your world? Who in the hay are you supposed to be then? An alien? You’re a pony though, look at you!”

My head begins to ache. I shake it to get rid of the pain, but it doesn’t go away. It’s still there, and I soon start to hear a faint white noise in the back of my head. I say towards Rainbow, “I can’t really explain that. I need to get going, do you, ah... know where I can find a pony that has seen more of the forest?”

She facehoofs, and says, “Well, the only two ponies I know that go to the forest often are Zecora and Fluttershy, but Zecora actually lives in the forest. Your best bet is Fluttershy, but she is... well not the most social pony. Her name pretty much explains her whole personality.”

I sigh, and look down at the ground below once more. “And where is her house, then?”

“Tree, actually. She lives in a tree. It’s just outside of town, next to the Everfree forest. You can see it from up here, actually.” She points towards a tree with a dirt path leading to and from the town, in a small clearing surrounded by other trees. I nod at her, and nosedive off the cloud towards the house.

Really shouldn’t have done that.

When I was getting closer, I lost control of the wings on my back. I should have noticed when I started to sink slightly in the cloud that the spell was wearing off, but I didn’t notice. The wings on my back began to fall away, and I was thirty feet off the ground when it happened. I fell into a rather painful series of thorn bushes, and fell unconscious from the massive amount of pain.

…

I had a dream.

The dream was rather blurry, but it was a dream nonetheless.

I was young. I was with my dad, but was it my dad? It was a unicorn pony, similar to the way I look but much more... macho, I guess. He had blue eyes, though. They weren’t mine, they were my mothers eyes I took from the gene pool those two made.

We were at the celebration for Celestia to be visiting town. What was it for again? I can’t remember it well... and then it happened, that part where I got lost from my dad. I was lost in the crowd of ponies, and I couldn’t see where I was going.

Something happened. Everyone was gasping and screaming, and a pony... with blue armor that was as dark at the night, with wings and a horn at the same time. I was terrified, she was laughing about eternal night, and I was grabbed by a random pony. Who ever they were, they dragged me out of the crowd, and I could see my dad looking for me, yelling out for me in the terror.

“Mystery!”

That voice... it sounded like my real dad’s voice... but my dad was dead, it couldn’t be...

“Um... miss?”

I couldn’t take the sight, I was trying to scream out for my dad, but either I couldn’t or my voice fell on deaf ears. No one heard me, and the grip on my was tighter when I yelled out. I looked at my captor, or rather her hooves. Was it a her? I can’t tell, but it felt like it. I could see the scene slowly shrink away, and we were outside.

“U-uhm, are you awake...?”

Outside was just dark. It was night, or maybe it was day? It was still all too blurry for me to make out, but one thing stood out from a corner near the building where the scene happened. It was a dark purple pony, with a blackened horn on its head and a deep red stare. The monster terrified me, and when I yelped, he looked directly at me. My surroundings were fading to white, and the hooves that had me were morphing... into hands. My hooves were switching as well, into these five digit creations, and I was out of it. I couldn’t move any more. It was like something was taken...

I woke up after a soft slap in the face by an irritated looking little bunny. I blinked from the sudden light in my eyes, and looked at the bunny with a hint of anger before it faded. I was in a blanket on a long and soft couch. The walls of the room were made of cut wood, and the floor was carpeted by a large round rug. I barely noticed the yellow pegasus next to me who was being so quiet until she muttered, “Er, hello...”

I looked at her with confusion. Where was I? Where was my dad? Who was...

I think back at the dream I had, which I just then realised that it was indeed a dream. That never happened... but it felt so real, even the blurriness was somewhat realistic. I realised from the blurriness that it was because I was crying. The entire dream, I was crying. Why?

I was so lost in my thoughts that the bunny gave me a quick slap again to bring me back into reality. The yellow pony eeped softly, making my heart jump from the timid behaviour. I look at the bunny once more, and look at it with a bit of scorn. He just rolls his eyes, and hops off the arm of the couch.

The yellow pegasus finally speaks in a louder tone, but not by a whole lot. “Excuse me, but... who are you? You fell into those nasty thorn bushes outside...”

That’s right, I fell out of the sky when that spell wore off. I can remember the horrific amounts of pain from the fall. It’s gone now, and when I look at myself I am covered in bandages and my clothes seem to be missing, my coat and hat. I take a around to find that they are hanging in tatters on a rack in the far end of the room, near the door. I sigh. That coat and hat were my favourite.

I forgot again about the yellow pony, and I look back at her, who is looking at the floor, glancing back up at me. I finally say, “I’m Mystery Glass... who’re you?”

She stops looking at the floor and looks back at me. “Oh! Uhm, i’m... Fluttershy.”

My mind wanders back to the cloud with the rainbow pegasus. I was supposed to look for a Fluttershy, wasn’t I? But for what? I can’t remember...

“You-you hit your head really hard, miss. Are you okay?” Fluttershy says.

I raise a hoof to my head, realising that it’s just covered in bandages all over the place. My horn was sticking out of it all, feeling untouched by and harm. I say, “Yeah... I feel fine now. Did you help me when I fell?”

She nods slowly, and glances at nothing in particular, then back at me. “Uhm, do you want a dandelion sandwich? I was making a few before you fell out of the sky...”

I nod before thinking. Last I had a meal was when I was with... who? Argh... my head was killing me, I couldn’t think about the past, at least not yet. Fluttershy headed towards an open kitchen, and takes two bread slices with flowers filled in it with blades of grass. She holds it on a plate, in her mouth, and walks over to me. I actually manage to, without much thought, pick up the sandwich with magic. It floated in front of my face, making me a bit uneasy. Should I be eating grass and flowers? I knew I was a pony, they are herbivores, but this was just an insult to culinary arts.

I took a bite out of it, not even caring that I was just eating grass and flowers, with a bit of wheat in there to top (and bottom) it off. I just ate it, grinding up the plants in my mouth with all these molars that make up my teeth. Worst off, I just didn’t seem to care. Like it was just fine and dandy to eat grass. Normal.

God, what’s going on with me?

Fluttershy made what could have passed as a smile, but it was an unsure smile. Yeah, this pony was real shy, alright. She said after I manage to actually eat the whole thing, “How did you fall out of the sky?”

I swallow the last of the grass and a few petals and look at her. “I... uh, had wings for a bit before it wore off. It was a spell... what...” I began to start to piece together my broken mind, and started to remember the whole reason I was here in the first place. “Oh, Fluttershy, do you have at least a basic idea of the Everfree forest?”

She blinks at me, and shivers a bit from the mention of the forest. “U-uh, well, actually...”

I say, a bit impatient, “Well? Speak up, this is a bit important. I need to find someone, someone really dangerous, and I need to know if you saw a shady looking pony going to and from the forest. I’m just asking.”

She breathes a little faster, and says, “I-I don’t... Zecora might know, she’s the one who- EEP!”

The whole tree shook violently, and Fluttershy zips under a nearby table, placing her hooves over her head and getting as small as possible under it. I get up instantly, and look at the front door, the window at the top of it was pitch black, I couldn’t see outside. I was a bit woozy from the wounds that are slowly healing, but I manage to keep myself standing.

A thick black fog starts to flow slowly through the window, and flow out onto the floor. Fluttershy makes a quiet sound of terror and I back up slightly from the blackness that started to flow out onto the floor. It started to rise, and take shape. They took the shapes of featureless ponies, with no mane, no tail, nothing too incriminating. They just had ears and bright white eyes, which turned yellow when they looked at me.

I stood stock still, observing them slowly move towards me, and Fluttershy. They tilted their heads at me, with those glowing yellow eyes, and then one of them decided enough was enough, and its eyes turned red. It jumped at me, and I couldn’t move. There was only a flash of light.

I closed my eyes from the intense amount of white light, and I could hear a high pitched, screeching sound come from in front of me. I open my eyes, and my horn was vibrating severely. It was glowing yellow, shooting out white beams of light all over the place. Oh, Celestia, what’s going on?

The red eyed dark pony was nowhere to be seen, and the other one looked at me with red eyes, but they showed not hate, but fear. A black smoke began to collect at the spot where the dark pony was, but it didn’t form a terrible abomination, no, it began to turn a bright white, forming another whole body. The remaining black smoke pony retreated back outside, returning into the smoke form, and screeching loudly. The whole tree shook once more, and it began to swirl around the tree.

The white light began to fade, revealing features. A short, but styled light brown mane, a horn, and blue eyes. The coat of the pony was a yellowish white, and a tail formed in the back, the same color and style as the mane. It was a stallion, from the shape. Finally, a cutie mark showed up on his backside, which formed in a pastel art style, a brown flannel deerstalker cap and an old styled smoking pipe, which emitted bubbles from the smoke release.

The pony grunted in pain as he tumbled onto his stomach, and look up with blurred eyes at Fluttershy, who was near screaming terrified, and then at me. He looked at me for the longest time, and I looked back. He looked exceedingly familiar...

The black swirling cloud outside was screeching again, and a deep, menacing voice boomed out:

“NO!”

The cloud of black zoomed in once more, grabbing hold of the familiar stallion. His eyes grew terrified, and he look at me with the most caring eyes I have ever seen. I looked back at him, tears forming in my eyes.

I know this pony...

The smoke enveloping him began to snake up his whole body, and before it covered his head, he looked me, his eyes filled with tears. He said only one thing.

“Mystery... my daughter...”

And the cloud covered his head, dragging him outside with the swirling cloud at the speed of light, smashing the door open. My heart was torn at the scene, and I jumped to go to grab him before it was out, but too late. The swirling cloud of black was leaving, and heading back towards the Everfree forest.

I was laying there, with my right forehoof out in front of me, the rest facing the other way as I laid there on the floor, staring out the door my dad just left through. He was my dad, I just know it... my... oh my...

My head hit the floor, my face filling with tears as they also streamed down my face. My dad... alive... but he... no...

Fluttershy came out of her hiding spot, and sat down beside me, patting my back and saying comforting words. I just kept weeping. This was all too much. I lift my right forehoof and smash it against the floorboards in anger.

I need answers, I need to talk to my mom, if she even is my mom. I understand the whole situation now, the dreams, the choosing, my unexplained dad's death, my mother dealing with magic... something about me wasn’t right.

I need to find my mom, and not only that...

I’m going to kill that son of a bitch Dark Light.

I was pacing around the room in frustration after a few hours. Fluttershy was watching me walk back and forth for a while before she gave up and went towards what I assume was her bedroom.

I pieced together the information I collected from the dreams, and from what happened in reality. From what I can presume, the dreams were not dreams at all, but memories. Deep inside my brain, they were there from the start. In truth, I needed someone to confirm my suspicions. I need to see these princesses, whoever they are.

I can’t get up to my floating town from here, I don’t have wings. Nor do I think that I could even get a second helping of that wing spell, that would just end in disaster once again. I already know that, from where the Cloud go after they try to attack, to the Everfree forest, which I suspected for a while.

Fluttershy came back into the main room after a moment, and said, “Are you going to be okay...?”

I shake my head. “I wasn’t okay to begin with.” and then my eyes flashed in realization. “Wait, Fluttershy, do you know where I can find someone that... well is a princess? This is a lead I need to take.”

Fluttershy glances around cautiously, like the Cloud could be back at any minute, then says, “I only know four princesses. There’s Twilight, Cadence, Luna, and Celestia.”

Celestia? I’ve noticed that I began to start to say that instead of God, so this could be the most important one. “Where can I find Celestia, then?”

Fluttershy blinks quickly. “Oh, well, she’s usually up in Canterlot, with Luna. She’s really busy though, all the time.”

I look out the window, up at the mountains in the far distance. A huge castle with a town at the bottom of it sits on a platform at the near top. “This is end of the world scenario, Fluttershy. She has to listen. Good to meet you.”

And I open the door, but then I glance at my tattered clothes on the rack. Oh, right. That’s a minor problem. I don’t need them, but...

Fluttershy notices i’m looking at my swiss cheese coat and hat and says, “You could take that to my friend Rarity’s boutique. She could fix them for you, if you want...”

I use magic to levitate the coat and hat onto my back, and look back at Fluttershy. “Thanks, i’ll head over there. I thank you again for helping me, when I fell back there.”

Fluttershy nods with a smile, and I nod back. I head out the door, and follow the path back to town.

So, along the walk back, I looked back at the memory that just happened very recently. That pony... was apparently my dad. But he was a pony. He called me Mystery, the pony name I took on when I got here. Did he get trapped here? No, that can’t be right. That wouldn’t make any sense. He would have never recognised me as this.

I need to find my mom, at least I know that she’s human. I’ve never felt so unsure of who I am ever like this before. I walked on, looking down at my hooves as they walked in a perfect pattern. I never would have guessed I could adapt to this way of life so fast. Ugh... I think back at my childhood. I was a nice kid, at least that’s what my mom told me. My dad... he was killed by a criminal.. right? It was six years. Six years... I can’t even remember anything before that. Not anymore...

Before I knew it, I was walking through the plaza of town. I look around at the shops and houses. Back to the plan. I need to get to Canterlot, but it looks so far away. I could never get there before things got worse. The floating pink piece of land was floating dangerously close above the town, forming a slight tint of pink on everything.

Suddenly, I see a flash of gold come from the sky as I looked up. It was heading towards the town. The closer it got, the more I could make out. It had gold borders and stylised decoration, but the main body was marble white. It was being pulled by two large stallion pegasi, wearing golden armor, sort of like the ancient roman armor, with the fur that lined the back of the helmet. Hah, that’s kinda silly, actually. It’s supposed to be a war horse mane, at least from what I heard.

It was getting closer, and then I realised it was going to land. I moved out of the way to let the beautiful carriage take land, and then it circled the plaza once. It, surprisingly, stopped near me. One of the burly pegasi looked at me with an intimidating stare, and I shrink back slightly. He says, “Are you the mare Mystery Glass?”

I look up at him and nod. He motions to the carriage he and his friend were pulling with his head and says, “The princesses want to see you. It’s an honor to meet them. Get in, we’ll take you to the castle.”

I blink away my confusion and hop into the red velvet seat. It was really comfortable, until the two pegasi nodded at each other and started to take off. I almost fell out when the took off. They were going pretty fast, and we almost hit the bottom of the floating island that was my town. The castle was coming up close, as we got nearer to the castle. I only just realised that I dropped my coat and hat back down in the town. What the hay, that won’t sit well with me. We can’t just turn around and go back for it though. I hope thieves are a rarity here.

When we got close, I started to consume the detail and overall beauty of the castle and the town below it. It was all bright and colorful, and the color white was frequent. We were flying up to a tower in the castle, and it has a telescope sitting out on an open balcony. Before I knew it, I was pushed off by some unknown force, probably one of those stallions, and I fell right onto the balcony. It didn’t hurt, but it was rather rude.

I get up, and look around. It was quite the open space, with a few luxurious furniture laying here and there. I looked over the balcony at the scene below, and wow, was it a view to remember. I could see the majority of the whole town below, and even the entirety of Ponyville in the far distance, along with the big pink bubble.

“You got here fast.”

I yelp in surprise, and turn around to see a tall, but very beautiful pony. She, along with Twilight, also has wings and a horn, but her horn was... well, I guess longer? I hope that’s not innuendo around here. This could get awkward.

I look up at her in awe. Her hair was long, and flowing. It had a few different stripes of color in it, pink, blue, green, and a brighter shade of blue. Her coat was white, but if you looked closely it would have a very subtle shade of pink in it. She wore these weird forms of jewelry, with golden boots and an amulet with amethyst in the center, along with a crown on her head to top it off.

She looks down on me, and speaks in a sort of motherly tone, “You must be Mystery Glass, correct?”

I just nod slowly, my mouth agape a bit. This was like meeting a celebrity, but I barely even knew much about her. She smiles at me, and turns around, motioning for me to follow. I follow behind her, but not too close. She makes me feel a bit uneasy, but in a good way.

We walk inside of the tower, which seems to be a huge library. Books fill the shelves all over the place, and ladders to climb up and collect the hard to reach ones. The entire room looked like it was made of blue tinted marble. The tall and beautiful lady looks down at me again and says, “Do you know who I am, then?”

I look up at her, a name appearing in my head instantly. “Princess Celestia.”

She nods, and says, “Correct. I knew that you would come look for me, so I sent out my fasted carriage to go and collect you. I hope I wasn’t an inconvenience?”

I shake my head, quick to reply. “N-no, of course not! In fact, I was just planning to go here myself!”

She frowns for a moment, but then says, “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Mystery Glass. I’m here to help you. In fact, i’m also going to help piece together your family again.”

“Excuse me?” I say, and then I hear a familiar voice call out from a table near a large, oval shaped window near the corner.

It was my mom. She’s still human, too.

She was a sort of elderly woman, but not old enough to not be able to run for a good while. She was fourty five, with brown, slightly grayed hair and eyes. She was wearing her usual weird pieces of clothing, the robes and that colorful turban on her head. She never took off that turban, not even once, for every single time I visited her.

She looks at me with a sad look in her eyes, then says, “Nolan... or really, Mystery.”

I walk up to her, and try to say something, but she interrupts me. “Save your thoughts for later, dear. I have something important to tell you.”

I close my mouth, and sit down on my haunches, listening closely. Celestia stands further back, watching the scene go down. My mom says to me, “Mystery... do you know my name?”

I open my mouth to answer. Of course I know her name! It’s... its... what? What’s her name? How could I not know my own mothers name?

She sighs. “Of course... I never told you. You see, dear, I’m not supposed to look like this. This is just a way to hide us, from that evil pony, Dark Light. I’m sure you had heard of him?

I stay silent, nodding, and she continues. “In truth, the father that you had on Earth, wasn’t your father at all. Just a fake that I made up to make you believe that you really had a life there.”

I blink. I can’t be sure what I was supposed to feel, but I let her continue. “Your name isn’t Nolan. It never was. Your real name is Mystery Glass... and mine is really Magic Orb. Fitting name, for my line of work, huh?” She chuckles to herself, and I just sit there listening to what she is saying, not even thinking, just absorbing her information.

She continues once again. “In any case, your real father is called Private E. Glass. The E. stands for Eye, in case you were wondering. I kept my maiden name when we married. We still loved each other for ages, and then we had you.”

I could feel a headache coming on, but I don’t show it. I let her keep talking. “You were the most perfect baby in the whole world... and we raised you well. But then...” She began to look towards the window, and I could hear a quiet sob from her. “Then that terrible pony showed up, and took your father away. I never saw him again...”

She wipes away a few tears from her eyes, then looks back at me. “I guess I should tell you then...” and she began to untie the multi colored turban on her head. As it fell, I began to see what she hid under there.

It was a horn. She had a horn on her head.

Her body began to blur, and morph into a whole new shape. Her fur was cream colored, so was her horn. Her mane was a deep dark brown, and her eyes grew large, and emerald green, like mine. Her hair began to style itself into looped bangs, and her mane was curled up into a bun at the back. Then a mark formed on her backside, which was again pastel styled, but it was a crystal ball.

She looked at me, and said. “Mystery... you're not really supposed to be human. You were born as a pony. Look at yourself. This is the real you. “

I raise my forehooves up to my face, the headache pounding in my head. Me? I was born like this, a long time ago? This is the real me? I stare at the hooves like they were not there a second ago, and fall onto my back. My mom gets up from her chair and looks down at me, and Celestia walks up from behind her. Celestia says, “It’s true, Mystery. You were never a man called Nolan. You are Mystery Glass.”