A Riddle by Nature

Chapter 4: The End is…Neigh?

It didn’t take long to gather everything up, as we had prepared earlier. The only problem I could think of was getting the door open, but Ashley took care of it as I finished packing up.

There was a sound like an explosion near the door, and when I arrived I found Ashley standing there, with two fully formed wings poking through her shirt. She turned to me and smiled, “Turns out Spitfire’s wings are good for more than just flying.”

I rolled my eyes as I dragged several bags out the door. “Come on Ashley we must go far and I think perhaps we should take your car.”

By the time we had gotten everything loaded up, I already heard sirens in the distance, and they only got closer as we found that Ashley’s new wings made it impossible for her to drive.

“Alright Ashley, hold on tight ‘cause if the cops catch us we won't live to see night!” I hit the gas pedal as hard as I could and immediately accelerated to fifty some miles an hour the entire time Ashley was staring out the windshield in horror while squeezing the armrest so hard I thought it would break.

Unfortunately the fact that we were leaving the scene of a 911 call, and that we were leaving as fast as we were drew some attention and pretty soon we were involved in a car chase down the highway. Unfortunately there were now at least three cop cars chasing us and I knew that soon more would show up if we didn’t pull over, which we couldn't.

“You know, I never thought I would be in a car chase. I've never even really been in a car race.” Ashley was just sitting there staring out the windshield when I got an idea.

“Ashley please look in the kit for first aid and you’ll find that I've packed us a smoke grenade.”

She pulled out a brown sack tied shut with a twist tie. “What do I do with this?”

I pressed a button and rolled down the window, “Just throw it at that police car and it will get us very far.”

Ashley said “I’m not sure I should do this, I mean isn't this kind of thing illegal?”

I looked at her and said “Legal per say this is not but it’s a better alternative to getting caught!” She frowned and chucked the bag out the window and when it hit the cars window it exploded in a puff of grey smoke. The cop pulled over to the side as more and more smoke poured off the front hood and streamed onto the road. Fortunately most drivers had slowed to stop before they hit the smoke line but if they didn’t they ended up stopping somewhere inside it, I don’t think anyone crashed, but I wasn't sure.

It was almost midnight by the time I had driven out to the country, where we stopped at an old farm to figure out our next move. “Well that went…horribly, just terribly, and when did you make a smoke grenade?” Ashley asked I was looking through the cabinets to see what supplies we could scavenge.

“While you were at the grocery store I mixed up some meds and a little bit more.” I opened the first aid kit and revealed two more smoke grenades as well as a case containing an odd blue powder.

“David what’s the powder is it…poison?”

I shook my head, “No but neither will it cure pony folk for it is the powder of poison joke."

She frowned “Dave that stuff doesn't exist in this world.”

I smirked, “Using different parts from many a plant I made this dust with the joke enchant.” Ashley just sighed as I continued to forage.

“I’m turning on the TV, if it even works in this place” she grumbled.

After a few minutes Ashley called me, “David you NEED to see this!” She sounded like she was freaking out so I walked into the room and saw Ashley’s landlord on the six o'clock news.

“…Walked into this girl’s apartment to see what the thumping was and I saw these creatures there.”

The news woman asked, “And what were they exactly?”

The man looked at the woman and in a voice full of worry he said, “Well they looked like some kind of human-horse hybrid, I mean they had hooves and manes and fur all the way up their legs.”

Ashley changed the channel where a newscaster was now saying, “…half way through the car chase one of the suspects threw a smoke bomb out the window.”

It cut to a shot of a line of smoke drifting down the highway. “The smoke continued to expand for over an hour and has just recently begun to dissipate.”

Ashley turned the TV off and started to cry “W…why? My life is ruined!”

I tried to console Ashley, but she locked herself in a bathroom and I couldn't get her to come out. Eventually I just sat by the door and thought.

“I’ll stay by the door the rest of the night, so I’ll be here if she comes out to make it alright.” It was there that I fell asleep waiting. The next morning I woke up to the sound of screaming from the bathroom.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

I knocked on the door and shouted, “Ashley please tell me that you are ok? I haven’t seen you since the other day.” I realized that my accent was really thick now, in fact I sounded exactly like Zecora. I quickly realized that wasn't the only thing exactly like Zecora.

When I tried to open the door I realized that I had a hoof for a hand. I gasped and quickly looked over the rest of my body. I was completely transformed “oh great hooves, hair, coat and voice I’m now Zecora, I had no choice.” Although, instead of being broken up by the loss of my humanity I was more curious as to why this was happening to us, that curiosity just made me even more curious. “Well at least I know why Ashley screamed. Oh man she is really going to be steamed”.

I told Ashley through the door “Try to turn the lock with your jaw since your hands are now hooves, I’m guessing you saw?”

“Shut up David!” was her only reply.

It took awhile but we finally managed to unlock and open the door. When Ashley walked out I found that both my predictions had come true. Ashley now looked exactly like Spitfire, and she really wasn't happy about it. I tried to cheer her up but she wouldn’t listen to me. I frowned awkwardly at her and shook my head before saying. “Well Ashley if you want to be that way fine but this isn't just your problem it’s also mine!”

The rest of the day was pretty awkward. Ashley didn't talk at all and I started to worry about her because she’s usually very talkative, and usually even more so when she gets scared. It wasn't until the end of the day, while I was trying to figure out how to work a remote with hooves that she spoke. “David I…I’m so sorry for how I acted today, I acted like a real bitch.”

I turned to her and saw she was crying. I could tell she needed my help so I walked over and hugged her as close as I could.

“There, there my sweet little mare. While you have not acted like you should, I really can’t blame you, your reasons were good.” I could tell she was feeling a little better about our predicament and that what she really needed was time to relax so I walked up to the TV and turned it on. I immediately wished I hadn't.