mun·dane [muhn-deyn, muhn-deyn]
adjective
1.
of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven; worldly; earthly: mundane affairs.
2.
common; ordinary; banal; unimaginative.
3.
of or pertaining to the world, universe, or earth.
Something had changed. It was as if the natural order of things had shifted. It was the most obvious for the pegasi, who experienced almost a drag or a pull to the ground, as if for that split second, their wings stopped working. The unicorns who had been using magic at that moment reported loss of concentration and a pain similar to that of a brain freeze. It was considerably less noticeable for the earth ponies; the most extreme case reported was tripping at that exact moment.
The residents of Ponyville were confused. Thankfully, nopony had been hurt, and there was no considerable damage to anything dropped by the unicorns. Still, many were concerned it would happen again and they wanted answers. “Earthquake?” one voice suggested. There were murmurs and nods throughout the crowd. They all seemed to except this answer, and the crowd dispersed, going about their daily business.
It was a beautiful day. It seemed like it always was, and today was no exception. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping. If one were to look at the horizon, they would think they could see forever. This all changed in that one moment. I wasn’t extremely noticeable, but if you were to take two pictures of Ponyville, one before, one after, and hold them side by side, you would say the one after was a little bit darker. This would make all the difference.
For Jammer, everything was okay. He opened his eyes and saw the usual earthy sky, blue like it always was. But as he sat up he noticed something new and exciting. It had worked. He was in Equestria. Ponyville, to be more specific. Near it, to be more specific than that. He was on a hill, sloping directly into Ponyville. His dreams had been achieved.
He decided he wouldn’t go right in just yet. He would scare all the ponies away. He had run through in his head what he would do when he arrived, but none of his simulations consisted of him waking up outside Ponyville. In some of them, he fell from the sky. In some of them, he blinked into existence. In other still he hadn’t ever been human at all, but a pony the whole time.
Sadly, this was not the case. Here he was, very human, thumbs and all. That didn’t matter though. He was here; he had arrived in his heaven, his nirvana, his wonderland, his utopia, his paradise, his Valhalla, his rapture, cloud nine. He had successfully escaped his old life.
He frowned at this thought. What was his old life? He lived in a suburban environment, and though, not everyone knew everyone else, most everyone knew about ¾ of their neighbors, which was still pretty good. His family was an average income, middle class family. His mom worked at a bank and his dad was a telemarketer. He had a sister, Ruth, who was eight, but she mostly kept to herself.
He went to school and put effort into learning. He got B’s in his honors classes. He had a small group of friends that he would eat with, and they liked him. He knew most of their names, too. At home, he had a two year old laptop, which he used slightly more than would be considered healthy. His parents had been concerned, but they knew he was around the technology-addiction age, and checked in on him regularly. They did love him after all.
None of that mattered now. He was here, and here was better. Here you didn’t need to learn everything your brain could possibly absorb. Here, your true talent would be recognized, and you could use it to make the world a better place. Here, no one would be racist, or judge you, or be mean to you, or laugh at you. Here, there was no evil. Here they created things and made things with their imagination. Here your friends-
His thoughts were interrupted by a sizable raindrop hitting his brow. He sighed. It still rained here. He had found a single flaw to this place. He laughed to himself. He should probably find shelter soon, or he’d “catch cold”, as his mom would say. He frowned once more, and looked around.
He noticed the sun, seconds before it was blanketed by clouds. Celestia’s sun. Several hours had passed since he had arrived, all of which he had spent thinking to himself. He almost cursed, but stopped himself. He didn’t do that kind of thing. That wasn’t how he rolled. He looked over at Ponyville. He was surprised what he saw.
Residents of Ponyville were panicking. Flight was now impossible. Their wings simply weren’t enough to pull the pegasi up. They were too heavy. Those who were in the clouds were able to use their wings to slow their descent, to only some avail, as they were still getting banged up and bruised as they hit the ground.
Magic was still working, not nearly as well as before, however. To non-unicorns, magic had been described as grappling on object, like pushing it with your mind. Some of the smarter unicorns had discovered that it would only work if they imagined grasping it, like you would with a claw or talon. Ponies didn’t have claw or talons.
Celestia had left to find the elements as soon as she learned she was unable to pick up a quill. She had come alone, and her flight had been shaky, more of a glide than anything else, but she was more practiced than any other living pony, and it worked. She did not think she could return under the current situation.
At her presence, ponies immediately calmed down. Some were still feverishly asking her questions, but she shushed them. By her look, it seemed as if she was going to give a speech. Sure enough, when the mass of ponies had quieted down enough, she began to speak.
“My little ponies, it appears as if we have a problem.” This elicited nervous laughter. “I can assure you I am in the process of getting things under control. It appears as if we have no serious injury, and we are still breathing. I request that you return to your homestead and send only one pony out for supplies each day. In addition, I request that everypony remain calm. We are facing an unknown threat here, and I have faith that you can all handle this in a civilized manner. Thank you.”
It had been a little rushed, but it would do for now. Celestia accepted the cheers from all around her, and doing something she had never done before, with a nervous glance towards Canterlot, simply walked off towards Twilight’s house, the rain soaking her all the while.
Jammer was worried. Something was wrong. Ponies usually filled the sky at all times, even, he assumed, during a rainstorm. This was not the case. The skies were empty, but the town was buzzing with activity. He noticed a crowd gathered, as if they were watching something. A play maybe? The town was filled to the brim with all three races. What was going on? Some new villain? Did he do something? No, he couldn’t have. He began to walk, deciding to follow the circumference of the hills surrounding the town.
It was hard running a bakery in the same town as Sugarcube Corner, but Sweet Tooth sure could try. It was his special talent after all. In order to shake things up, he tried a new recipe every week, and sold a lot of bread and many scones, which he was proud of. His mind was elsewhere as he rolled the dough. He was an earth pony, and had not noticed anything strange that entire day, besides a lack of customers.
He didn’t notice anything wrong for around seventeen seconds. He looked down, and saw his hooves were moving back and forth, getting nothing accomplished. The dough had been pushed out of the way. This was odd. He usually didn’t need he put much effort into making bread. His cutie mark was a rolling pan. Something was going wrong. Unless he was actually concentrating on the basics of how to make bread, it didn’t happen. As soon as his mind shifted elsewhere, so did the dough. He grunted in annoyance and actually concentrated on his job for once, recalling from memory exactly how to make bread. It ended up a bit flat, but edible.
Jammer was now officially freaked out. Many ponies had returned to their homes, but the ones he could see still trying to work their jobs were failing miserably. They reminded him of Ruth, trying hard to do something and getting frustrated at her lack of ability. If she was determined enough she would then go read something online (using his laptop, to his annoyance) and try again. He shook her out of his head and looked back.
Some ponies were trying to water the many plants around Ponyville, but were spilling liquid all over the ground. Some were trying to put up a new building, but every part added would clatter to the ground. Some looked off into the distance, as if they were deep in thought about something they had not thought about for a very long time, and actually did what they were trying to do successfully. These ponies were not common.
Jammer sat on the ground and watched his left thumb go back and forth to calm himself down. He looked up at the sun to see how much time had passed, and could barely see it peeking out from behind a cloud. It was frozen in place. The sun had stopped moving. Jammer guessed it was around four at this point. He shivered. The rain had let up a little, but now it was raining and snowing at the same time. He moved under a nearby tree and curled himself into a ball.
Chrysanthemum tried to live a normal life, but it was hard with a fugitive in her basement. She had returned home from her florist job one day to find a griffon raiding her refrigerator. She stood in shocked silence until she was tackled to the ground. “You tell nopony. I live here now. You bring food. I don’t hurt you. Deal?” Chrysanthemum nodded. “Good. I’m Slyth.” And that was that. She learned over time that Slyth was an escaped convict from Baltimare, but she never discovered the crimes committed.
She was ecstatic at first to return home to an empty basement. No more buying twice the food she needed and recieving weird looks! Then she became a little sad. Chrysanthemum had always been kind of a quiet one, and didn’t really have any friends. Slyth was the closest she got. She smiled. She would make new friends. Ones that weren’t convicts. At least she would have an interesting story to break the ice with. She tried to levitate her cup of water off the counter, but it didn’t work. Hmm.
The few non ponies that were in the town were gone. Most didn’t even notice, but every sapient being that was not a pony had disappeared. All the animals were still around, but they were taking care of themselves, more so than usual. They could get food on their own now. That wasn’t a problem. The problem was what the bigger ones were eating.
Jammer was now crying. This was his fault. By coming here he had triggered something. He should have known it was a bad idea, but he couldn’t resist. When he read the article online about astral projection, it sounded perfect. He could leave without going anywhere. He waited until he got home from school the next day and tried it. He lit a candle, took a deep breath and flopped down on the bed. His sister wouldn’t be home for another half hour, so she wouldn’t be a distraction. He closed his eyes and just existed. He was surprised when he felt himself leaving his body. This was it. He concentrated on Ponyville and-
He shot up. His coming here had caused everything to go wrong. He would have to fix it. He needed to leave. His life was good enough. It wasn’t perfect, but he had wind and hills and earth and sun and kittens and happiness and joy. These things were here too, but they were better back home with his family and friends (who he would now make a huge effort to remember the names of every single one) and all the other humans. He didn’t belong here.
He closed his eyes and thought of his bed. He opened them. Equestria. He pinched himself. Still Equestria. “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” He could not leave Equestria. He cried out in frustration. He needed to get home.
Turbine was used to the wind in his face. Not like this. This was a special foreboding kind of wind that meant bad things to come. He had felt it the night he lost his parents to a thunderstorm, and he felt it now. He was no longer what he was born as. He was born with two beautiful, golden wings. Now they were nothing more than bumps on his side. All around town he had noticed wings and horns receding. Guess they were useless now anyway. There went his dreams of being the first cloud painter. He had it all planned out. He found that if you moved the clouds in just the right way, they formed into a certain color. He could use this. His paintbrush cutie mark would finally make sense. No longer. Oh well. He decided he was hungry.
The earth ponies didn’t get the magnitude of what they were facing until now. It felt like their connection to the earth had been severed with a rusty saw. Many were dizzy, confused, disoriented and spinning. Many could barely walk. Considerable amounts of the crops died within the course of a few hours. At least what felt like a few hours. Celestia had lost control of the sun. If this continued, nopony would be able to eat. They would all starve.
Jammer sat in silence. For once, his head was empty. He couldn’t think of anything else to think of. Just the sound of wind against him. The ponies were changing. Not only did they lose their wings and horns, but their cutie marks had disappeared. If people weren’t panicking before, they certainly were now. Many were running around curled up. The storm wasn’t helping to calm them down whatsoever. That wasn’t all.
Their physical appearance was changing too. While before they were very rounded and bouncy in appearance, so to speak, now they were not. One might say they appeared rigid, or maybe too, I don’t know, realistic? In any case, Jammer found it unnerving and wanted to go home even more.
Their colors were changing too. In previous times, the entire spectrum was covered, and ponies’ colors were as unique as snowflakes. Now, a certain sameness covered them all. There were shades of brown and white and black, and some rarer ones, such as yellow. They looked at themselves and others in shock. This was not who they were.
Some tried to communicate, but it was getting difficult. The way their newly formed mouths were working, speech was nearly incomprehensible, but that didn’t stop them from trying. Some were writing in the dirt, trying anyway they could to get messages out.
Jammer was done crying. He just stared. Even now, they weren’t giving up hope. Some stood there, mindless. Many were still trying their primitive communication, getting out their final goodbyes. Then they just stood. Jammer had learned something. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it would affect him all his life. He would never again question whether or not average was good enough. He yearned for average. Average was just a mixture of good and bad, and the bad only capitalized the good. He would enjoy that good, that small bit of good. He was ready to go home. And he disappeared.
Twilight Sparkle was always ready for tests. This was a big test. It was a test in doing things without magic, and keeping ponies calm, and keeping the bonds between friends strong. She didn’t lose her magic as fast as the other unicorns. It took some concentration, but as soon as Celestia walked in thought the door, rather unmajesticly at that, she knew she wouldn’t give up. When Spike vanished, she was sad, but she kept working. Her friends arrived and cheered her on. She used her magic to frantically look through books until her horn disappeared. Even then, she manually looked through until she could stand it no longer. At some point, Rarity and AJ went off to find their families. Celestia went out to calm the townsfolk. She couldn’t think straight. Her remaining friends were just standing there. They looked wrong. They weren’t even the same color. She could barely tell them apart. It was kind of disturbing. She noticed a change in her own hooves. This was bad. She tried yelling out to her friends. No dice. Her mouth wouldn’t work the way she wanted it to. This was it.
It was a calm existence, one of an animal. She could walk around and eat the hay scattered around town. She wasn’t worried. Sometimes there would be a noise, and she would run away. Sometimes she would see other ponies, but they weren’t really ponies anymore. She didn’t care. She liked hay. One day she saw something that interested her. It was a familiar face. When she used to look up, she would see this face. It was a colorful face, but now it was dull. It made her sad. Something came to mind. A thing. A thing to do with her mouth. She tried it. “Friend.” It came out like “Fuh-er-rend.” The other “pony” looked at her. She thought for a moment. Then: “Ferrand.” She was happy. They both started chanting “Far-und! Frynd! Frond!” the surrounding ponies gradually joined in. The sky was just a little bit brighter. She felt happy.
Twilight was clawing out of her on mind. Slowly. She was not dead.
