Brush and Face the Mane

Chapters

Did you see this coming?
Unnatural colors
You can call me LD

Did you see this coming?

1. Did you see this coming?

The person who came with the idea to have a strict deadline in the same week as someone’s birthday had to be the most evil person ever. I was sitting at the computer working on an assignment in a dark room only lighted by a single desk lamp. In just a few minutes it would be the third of May and I would turn twenty-five, but most of tomorrow I would be busy with writing a report. Not a day to get really excited about. All thanks to my habit to procrastinate everything school related. If only I had started earlier then I could take tomorrow off from work. Don’t get me wrong, I liked my classes in history. I was good at it and I enjoyed it, but I just had the feeling it was not my true potential. Since I was young I had always dreamed of becoming a dentist. There was a problem however: I failed at exact sciences. I didn’t understand any of it; it was like magic for me. I had followed math and chemistry classes but those went horrible and after a year it became clear that I had to change to another direction I liked.

I looked at the wall my desk was facing to. “Always follow your dreams!” was written on a poster of Spitfire.

“Unfortunately you can’t always do that, Spitz,” I said as a reply to the poster. My room was stuffed with Spitfire stuff. I had three posters, a sculpture, some custom toys and much other miscellaneous stuff of the Wonderbolt. The only thing that was missing was a good plushie, but those things had always been so expensive. They were when the brony community was active five years ago and they were still nowadays because they were barely found on the internet. Being a poor student, it was a choice between an awesome plushie and four weeks of food. I admit it was a hard one, but I was rational enough to choose the latter. Sure, there were cheaper – official – ones, but they didn’t look quite as nice as some fan-made ones. But needless to say, Spitfire is my best pony. The series ended at the end of season five and after that the community shrank rapidly, but I still enjoyed watching an episode now and then. I just evaded the series finale because of the terrible ending. The last scene was Discord attacking a background pony after he had defeated Celestia and the mane six. After that the credits would just roll over, leaving the fans clueless what happened next. However, I had to watch the finale again soon. It gave me goose bumps that I had dreams about it. Maybe if I watched it again my subconscious would come to rest.

I sighed deeply, “That ‘soon’ has to wait for a long time. Where do I find the time to watch an episode?”

Well there was at least one thing to look forward to tomorrow. In the evening a friend would visit. She had the same birthday as me. Or to be more accurate, there was only a quarter of an hour between us. We always celebrated it together since we knew each other. Last year was great: we wanted to make it something special as it was also fifteen years since we had met each other. No deadline could break this tradition. Maybe she would agree to watch the finale. She was not a brony, but she had seen some episodes and she didn’t hate it.

It was only ten minutes after midnight when my phone rang. I knew immediately who it was without looking at the phone. I picked up, but didn’t say anything. Just keeping my phone a little further from my ear than normal.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” was shouted really loud from the other end of the line.

I kept quiet, trying to quickly come up with a joke. “Um, sorry who’s this?” I said with a different voice than my normal one.
Now loud laughter came through, “Dude, Nate, if you want to prank me, try at least to do your best.”

“Awh,” I chuckled, “But if you tried to startle me with your shouting then I can tell you also failed, Lucy. A happy birthday to you too!”

“What gave it away?”

“Maybe the fact that you also tried it last year?”

“Really? Darn, I’m getting unoriginal. Anyway, were you already trying to sleep?”

“Nah, normally I would, but this report keeps me from going to bed. Fortunately, I’m almost finished for this night, so I can take tomorrow evening off. You know, I envy you. You don’t have any of those weeks anymore where you can’t even find the time to cook a proper dinner. My microwave probably hates me for abusing him…” I noticed that I was talking too long and it was quiet on the other side of the line.

“Uhm, Lucy? Are you still there?” but no answer came. “Must be a bad connection,” I hung up and tried to call her, but hung up again when I got her voice-mail after a short while. “Strange, must have something to do with the signal.”

I resumed work only to be distracted again by my phone after a couple of minutes. This time it was just a text message from Lucy.

“Sorry Nate that I suddenly dropped out of our conversation. My mind went blank for a few minutes. Guess I must be really tired from work and sport today. I see you tomorrow at 5pm right? Greetz Lucy”

I smiled. It was not really something for Lucy to be this clumsy. Normally she was a really energetic girl, but even she could be tired. It wouldn’t be long before I would hit the bed as well. Working the whole day on this project in front of my screen made me some kind of mindless zombie. I just needed to finish this paragraph. I looked in the corner of the screen; the clock said it was 0:25. If I hurried then I could be under the shower in five minutes. I quickly started typing…

“For five square, both for this pair”

I blinked multiple times. “Eh, what was I doing? Oh right, finishing up.” The clock was saying 0:30, but I hadn’t typed a word. “What happened?” I said with much confuse. “Wow, brain. I know you want it to call it a day, but don’t leave me hanging like that; you scare me!” I quickly wrapped up my work for today and went for a shower. It really creeped me out that I was not on this planet – mentally seen – for several minutes. Nothing alike had ever happened. Hopefully a shower would clear my mind. However, as soon as I started undressing I knew that would not be the case.

“What. The. Fuck!” I said out loud with a mixture of panic and frustration. “Great, first my brain doesn’t feel like to function anymore and now my body creates tattoos out of nowhere!” A big hourglass was pinned on both my thighs. It was really creepy how well done it was. Immediately I went under the shower, trying to wash it off, but that was false hope. Although I scrubbed fiercely, the only result was a red skin around the mark. A few options came through my mind as how this was possible, but just one was at least slightly likely. Lucy had to be behind this. I didn’t know yet how she managed, but she was the only person cheeky enough to make such a prank. It seemed that my mind was satisfied with this explanation as I felt that my panic was draining.

I did the other basic routines – brushing my teeth was a big part of it – and put my pajamas on; looking one more time at the hourglasses on my thighs. It looked really well, not like any tattoo I had ever seen. The colors were not like regular tattoos, they were really bright and vivid. A history student with an hourglass tattoo, that was coincidently fitting.

I prepared for a restless night. Knowing me, I would worry the whole night about the events that just happened. I would probably think the whole night how Lucy managed to pull this trick. The stress of the assignment was not contributing to process these thoughts.

***

Surprisingly I slept very well. The next morning I felt fully recharged. I didn’t remember that I waked up in the middle of the night. The only thing I remembered was that I had that stupid reoccurring dream of the finale again. More had happened this time, but I couldn’t recall what it actually was. It was all so vague.

I quickly made some light breakfast but without my standard cup of coffee. Normally I wouldn’t be any productive for the rest of the morning without coffee, but I felt really full of energy. I walked with my breakfast to my desktop and booted it to look whether there was some pony stuff uploaded before resuming yesterday’s work. After these five years it was rare to see something new but sometimes an artist would post some ponies.

“Wait… ponies?” Luckily I just swallowed my sip of milk otherwise I probably had to buy a new monitor because of the best spit-take ever. I felt really dumb for not recognizing the mark. I ran to the mirror in the bathroom to look at the hourglasses. It was an exact replica of a cutie mark.

“Very funny, Lucy,” I sighed. Though I didn’t understand why she had chosen Dr. Whooves. The cutie mark of Spitfire would have made more sense. Didn’t she know the cutie mark of her because of the Wonderbolt costume? But why hadn’t she used the logo on those costumes then? Though, the biggest question still was how she had done this. I had not seen her in a week and I was sure that this thing had appeared last night. Anyway, this confirmed that Lucy was behind it. She often joked that I was a brony. She didn’t mean it, but she loved to bring up the cliché that I shouldn’t be interested in a show that my little sister should like.

I tried to wash it of one more time, but this time with some stronger stuff. I poured some rubbing alcohol on a cloth and rubbed it fiercely against the hourglass, but it got the same result as yesterday: the cutie mark intact and red skin around it.
“Darn Lucy, you used some strong stuff for this,” I was out of ideas to clean my legs. The only thing left was mineral spirits, but I wasn’t sure whether my skin would like to get that irritating stuff on it. Besides, I didn’t have it at the moment.

I put my pants back on and walked back to the computer. I searched up an image of the Doctor to confirm it was indeed his cutie mark stuck on my leg. I finished my breakfast and brushed my teeth and my hair. It had gotten quite long since it got cut last time. I usually let it get cut very short so it could grow for five a six months before I went again for a haircut. It was a great way to save some money. It was odd that it already had gotten this long. It was ‘only’ four months since I went to a hairdresser.

Without any reluctance I started working on the report. I felt great after this night and even the cutie mark couldn’t bother me anymore. Luckily I didn’t have to worry about any organization for tonight. Lucy would take care of everything. I only had eight hours to work today and the clock was ticking.

***

Out of nowhere the doorbell rang. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I was fully concentrated on my work. That thing was way too noisy. I walked to the door in the living room but saw that my roommate was about to open the door.
“For you?” he asked.

“Yeah, Lucy is coming to visit. Traditional birthday party. I hope we won’t be a nuisance”

“Nah, don’t worry. Speaking of, I have something small for you,” as he walked back to his room.

“Really? Thanks Ben, that’s nice of you,” I didn’t normally talk much to Ben. We were on good terms but we both spent most of our time in our own rooms. We only shared a small kitchen and a small attached living room. On an ordinary day we would only see each other during dinner.

The bell rang again deafening my ears. “Yeah yeah, I can hear you,” as I opened the door and met a hug.

“NATE! Happy birthday!” the small, red-haired girl literally jumped at me.

“You too,” I said with a smile. She let me go and grabbed the bag that was still in the hallway.

“Bought some stuff as promised.” She moved towards the kitchen and put some drinks in the refrigerator. Meanwhile Ben came back with a package in his hand.

“It’s not much, but I hope you like it. Happy birthday, Nate.” He handed me the gift over. It was quite heavy considering the size but it was a good indicator of what was inside.

“Thanks dude, I really appreciate it,” as a bottle of apple cider was revealed. I didn’t like alcoholic beverages much, but apple cider was the exception. I could drink it like it was water.

“No problem. Sorry, Lucy I forget to bring something for you, but that’s the advantage of a drink: you can share it.”
“It’s okay” she shrugged as she just finished unpacking her stuff.

“Who’s saying that I’m going to share this?” I grinned. “By the way, do you wanna hang out with us tonight?”
“Nope can’t. I planned an evening with some friends in our favorite pub.”

“Typically you. Try not to get too drunk. I’m not picking you up,” I said with a smile, but it was actually true. He had a bad habit of getting wasted once he was in a pub.

“We will see,” as he returned to his room.

I put the cider in the small refrigerator. Cider tasted the best if it was cooled. I had to puzzle somewhat because Lucy had bought a lot of stuff. “Gee, Lucy, how long do you think this party will last?”

“At least until sun dawn” she grinned.

“If you want to party alone. I have to get up early tomorrow for that report. I can barely even miss these hours. But let’s go to my room.”

We walked to my room while Lucy was still carrying a small bag. I was really curious what would be inside. She had said she had something big for today.

“Are you letting you hair grow?” she asked me as we entered my room. “It’s getting real long. But it fits you well.”

“Yeah, I need to get it cut sometime. Didn’t expect it to grow this fast,” I could say that her hair was also longer than usual, but she always had long hair. The difference was barely noticeable. The only strange thing was that it was more orange than her normal red. It was probably because of the limited light.

“By the way, do you know that store ‘Farm & Fleet’ in my town? You never guess what I saw there today.” She plunged onto my bed and grabbed her phone and gave it to me. “Here take a look.”

What I saw must be the best pony cosplay ever. It was a photo of a girl wearing a wig in rainbow colors that perfectly matched Rainbow Dash’ mane. Furthermore she had cyan ears that looked as if the girl had role-played Pinkie and had cut Dash’s ears. “That’s really awesome, but isn’t it illegal to take randomly pictures of people?” I was really excited about it but only Lucy would be such reckless to just take pictures of someone.

“Well, if you are wearing that then you’re asking for it.”

I couldn’t object to that, especially as it was in a place where you wouldn’t expect cosplayers. I stared a while at the photo. This had fascinated me about the brony community. There were many talented people that made awesome stuff. I had decided to give the show a chance after I had seen some beautiful drawings on deviantart seven years ago. It was also the reason why I stayed in the community after the finale.

This girl on the photo looked like the human version of Dash. It looked like it was her real hair and ears, but that was impossible. You couldn’t dye your hair that perfect in six colors and then I wasn’t even talking about the ears. But still, if she had a perfect tail too, I would have believed that Dash had come to earth in human form. “What were you doing there anyway? As far I know, you don’t have a farm.”

“Just buying your gift.”

I frowned at that answer. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted from that shop, as well as that it was not a big thing that she had talked about. Now I really was curious what was inside that bag.

“You should see your face!” She burst out laughing. “You’re getting spoiled, Nate. Don’t worry, I only had to buy some stuff for my parakeet. Well I won’t let you wait any longer so here you go. I know for sure you’re going to like it!”

I grabbed the bag and opened it. I stared in disbelief for a moment. In my hands was the thing I wanted for more than five years: the perfect Spitfire plushie. Fifteen inches tall and with goggles. I didn’t know what to say. I mumbled something, but it was rubbish.

“Mission accomplished,” I heard Lucy saying, “I got the idea after last year’s party. You told me you always wanted a plushie of that pony. After that I absolutely wanted to make one for you. Turned out it was a lot harder than I expected, especially because artists don’t put their patterns online. But practice makes perfect. Last month I finally was happy with the result you’re holding in your hands now.”

“Wow, I can’t find the words to thank you but this a new level of awesomeness. But that does mean you can make all kinds of pony plushies. You can earn some good money with this!”

“Nah, this one has to be special. I don’t want to earn money because of a present for you.”

Now I was speechless again. This was the most special and nicest thing someone had ever done for me. Lucy was already the most awesome person ever, but now there was a huge gap between her and the second person on that imaginary list. We had met each other sixteen years ago in elementary school. She had moved from North Dakota because her parents had found work in Des Moines. There was a great click between us and it was like we complemented each other. She was already confident by then while I was timid, but she was also rather reckless while I was more responsible for my age. She wasn’t the type that could fit with many people because she could be social awkward because of her overconfidence.
However, I liked that about her. We went both to the University of Iowa after high school but she stopped after four years. She moved to Muscatine where she found a temporary job in a sport goods store.

“Great, and here I thought I had an awesome gift for you, but this is nothing compared to this plushie,” I walked to my desk and picked up a small case. It looked a bit dull from the outside, but I knew she would like what was inside. I bought a pair of classy flight goggles for her, because she loved speed. Lucy was into fast sports, especially road cycling, but she also liked to push the speed of her car beyond the speed limit. She often described the feeling of wind flowing through her hair. I couldn’t understand it, but if she enjoyed it then it was fine by me. Although she didn’t do anything related to flying, I knew she would like these flight goggles. They weren’t an expensive steampunk version, but they still looked nice. I handed the box to her which she grabbed enthusiastically.

“Well, lets see what’s inside.” She opened the case. “Oh my god, these look great!” She immediately putted the glasses on. It was a strange sight to see her with those big glasses but it fitted her really well. “Wow, I can’t wait to wear these during my bike trip tomorrow. Thanks!”

I was glad she liked it. Beforehand I was sure this was the perfect present, but when I got the Spitfire plushie I started to doubt. It didn’t seem to be a fair exchange. I only paid forty bucks for it, but she made something that was easily worth two hundred dollars.

She looked around, probably searching something where she could see her reflection in. She picked up her phone, “Can you take a picture?”

“Sure.” I took her phone and went to the camera app. When I looked her in the eyes on the screen I noticed her eye color was off. “Didn’t know you had those yellow colored contacts, since when do you have these?” I asked her while I took the picture.

“Uhm, what do you mean? I don’t have any of those. My eye color is brown.” She gazed at me with a confused look. “It must be the effect of these goggles” she said as she put the glasses back in the case. “You see, chestnut brown, like they’ve always been.”

“No, actually they are still yellow. You should take a look in the mirror. It’s in the bathroom.”

She walked to the bathroom where the only mirror was, “What, how is this possible?” she muttered with anxiety in her voice. “Nate, is this your doing?”

“No of course not, since when do I have the power to just change someone’s eye color.”

“Look, that joke with that lightning bolt and stars on my thigh was funny, but it is getting creepy now. How do you those things? And what do they mean?”

“Lightning bolt? Stars? Thigh? You are not going to say that you also have a cutie mark tattoo right?” I had totally forgotten about the cutie mark on my thighs. I was getting worried. If she had the thing I think it was then I had no idea how this was possible. Lucy loved pranks, but she wouldn’t prank herself.

“Take a look for yourself”

Before I could say she didn’t need to strip here in my room she unzipped her pants and let the side slide down a little; just enough to see the bolt. When I saw the lightning bolt and the stars appearing a rush of panic went through my head. Why would she prank herself, how was this possible, who was behind this and most important why did we have cutie marks on our butts? Nothing did make sense.

“Th- That’s Li-li-lightning Dust’s cutie mark.” The panic prevented me for speaking clear.

“Who…?”

Unnatural colors

2. Unnatural colors

There was an awkward silence in the room. I stared at the cutie mark on her thigh and she probably stared at me waiting impatiently for me to answer. Finally I came to my senses. “Lightning Dust, she’s a pegasus from MLP”, I said. It was a short answer, but this wasn’t the time to give a lecture about MLP characters. “Since when do you have that mark?” I was amazed that proper sentences came out. There was so much chaos in my brain that Discord would have been proud of me. A numberless amount of thoughts went through my mind as how this was possible. No, Lucy was probably acting to push the prank a little further. It had to be!

She pulled her pants up again but kept looking at me with a very serious expression, “I saw it last night, but you know best when this appeared on my legs. Come on Nate, I told you this isn’t funny anymore.”

“Why the hell do you think I did this? To my knowledge, you’re the prankster here.” It was obvious that she was getting annoyed, but so was I. She told me this wasn’t funny anymore, but it was her who kept this whole act up.

“Like you can’t pull a prank. You’re the ONLY person that can have set this up. The fact that you know the character proves it.”

“Gee, because I’m a fan of the show doesn’t mean that I know how to tattoo a cutie mark. This requires a lot of preparation, something you would be willing to do.”

“Yeah, right. This has your name written all over it, ponyboy. How should I know the mark of that horse that is now stuck upon my legs? You’re the only friend of mine that is into this pony stuff,” she said with a raised voice.

This was getting more frustrating, I hated when she used that teasing nickname. Why wouldn’t she admit it? Was she being stubborn or was she actually being honest? I started to doubt if she really had done this. But still, there was no other explanation. I knew she was not acting, she wouldn’t go this far for a prank, but my brain couldn’t accept it. “Well, if you’re thinking that I’m the one behind this then explain why I got this on my leg!” I followed her example and pulled the side of my pants and boxer down with a jerk so that the hourglass on my left thigh was visible. Unsurprisingly it was still there; the colors were even brighter than last time I checked.

Now it was her turn to say nothing. I finally got her. I knew she was behind this. Lucy was the only one that could have planned this. But wait… why would she be surprised if she had planned all of this?

There was a change in atmosphere. The tension that had built up so quickly had collapsed in a heartbeat. The gap it had left was filled up with a depressing feeling and regret. We both realized we were wrong and that we had accused each other without reasonable thinking. I felt really stupid. “How could I have blamed her so bluntly?” went through my mind. In the sixteen years that I knew her we never had such quarrel, minor squabbles aside. This had gotten heated up like we were worst enemies instead of best friends.

Lucy sat down in a chair with her head down without saying anything. I didn’t know if she was sobbing, thinking or just didn’t know what to do. Probably the last, the situation wasn’t appropriate to talk. I stood there, still with the hourglass visible, looking at her while trying to avoid eye-contact. It was very uncomfortable setting as I had the feeling that I had to do something, but I didn’t know what. I felt an urge to apologize but I had lost all my words needed to do so. The situation lasted for five or ten minutes; I didn’t really keep a record of time. “Ugh, I acted so stupid that I could hit myself!” I thought.

“Sorry Nate,” she mumbled finally. She still had her serious tone in her voice but it sounded completely different from a few minutes ago. She looked rather dejected. “I was fed up because I was convinced that you were behind it. I was getting angry because you denied it, but I shouldn’t have expressed that anger. I just don’t know what happened. I really wanted that you were behind this, because it scared the crap out of me that a tattoo suddenly appeared without any reason.”

This wasn’t the Lucy I knew. In these sixteen years I never had seen her in this state. Nothing seemed left of the energetic and confident girl. When I was feeling down, she usually could cheer me up, but that wasn’t the case this time. That lively personality almost seemed to be a façade now.

“I… I think that also goes up for me. ”I responded with much difficulty. It wasn’t easy to come up with something to say, but that was likely also the case for Lucy. It was quiet again for a moment. We both searched for words, although one question was obvious to ask. “So… you also haven’t any idea how this happened?” I asked, almost inaudible as I was afraid to offend her again.

“No, my only explanation was that you tried to take revenge for the times I had teased you about your interest in ponies. So unless you count magic, I haven’t got a clue how this has happened.”

“Yeah, me neither.” I said with more confidence than a few seconds ago. I felt relieved knowing that she didn’t have a grudge after this argument. We both regretted that we had jumped to conclusions but it seemed that we had forgiven each other. It was best to forget it and move on. We were friends and such quarrels shouldn’t change that. “I don’t know anyone that could have done this, except Ben. But why would he drag you along with this? He barely knows you, aside from the times you see him when you are here. However, the last time you were here was a week ago and Ben isn’t the type to travel to Muscatine just to pull a prank on you. It’s an one-hour drive, which would be a waste of his time.”

“Maybe nobody is behind this. I’m not talking about something super natural, but maybe some kind of disease or mutation? By the way, how long are you going to show off your butt?” she chuckled softly. The Lucy that I knew was on her way back: the girl that grabbed every chance to joke.

I blushed and quickly pulled my pants back on. My private parts hadn’t been visible, but it must have been a strange sight for someone if he would have entered the room. “Well, there was a brony-virus when the community was active, but when you got infected it meant that you enjoyed the episodes not that you would get a cutie mark out of nowhere,” I laughed. For the first time since the appearance of the tattoo I could loosen up about the situation. It was nice to know that I was not the only target. Lucy probably had preferred – like me – to stay out of this, but it was a good feeling that we went through this together. “Furthermore, I’m not a biologist student, but I think that eating radioactive waste doesn’t even result in this kind of DNA-mutations. I have never heard of a mutation that gives you a cutie mark and change your eye-color. Otherwise there would have been a lot of bronies that already would have done that.”

“Hey, I’m only calling options. If nobody can be behind it then it could be possible that something has happened. Besides, why hasn’t your eye-color changed? Your original color is blue, right?”

“Hm, good question. I think Doctor Whooves has blue eyes, but I’m not sure about it. I have to check it on the internet.”
“I have no idea who you’re talking about, but I assume it is the pony that has that hourglass cutie mark. Not fair, I have to walk with these weird yellow eyes that make me look like I suffer from jaundice.”

I wanted to comment that your sclera and not your iris turns yellow when you suffer from jaundice, but it didn’t really matter. I walked to my computer to look up a picture of Doctor Whooves. If I was correct then it would make sense that my eyes didn’t have changed color. My pc was in stand-by so after I had hit a key to wake it up from its nap, I walked to the bathroom to check my eyes. It always took a minute to get my pc out of stand-by.

I stood in front of the mirror. Nothing seemed off in my eyes, but on closer inspection I noticed that the iris had become slightly darker. At least my color was still natural instead of that yellow tint of Lucy. I hope it wasn’t permanent for her; she would get some strange looks with it.

There was one thing that caught all of my attention when I looked more closely in the mirror. My hair had grown extraordinary long, but more importantly it was changing color! A couple of blue and white strands were mixed in my blonde hair. If I was alone at this moment I probably would have panicked because of this discovery. It still freaked me out to see my hair-color change, but it was less bad now Lucy was here. She probably had the same thing as I remembered that I noticed that her hair was more orange earlier this evening. I had thought that the color in her hair was off because of the light. My room was only illuminated by two weak lamps, so it was pretty dark. It still was creepy to see you hair change from one shade to a total different one, but it was still explainable, right? Someone just used us as victims for the ‘best’ prank ever. It could even be some kind of practical joke for a television show. Something like: ‘Let’s see how people react to body transformations’ or anything in that direction. “It would become really weird when we would grow a tail.” I laughed at that thought. That definitely was not going to happen.

I walked back to my room. I saw that Lucy was already in front of my computer, searching for a picture of Lightning Dust. I let out a sigh of relief that I had put safesearch on this morning. Sometimes I set it off to watch a broader spectrum of pictures. That was me and my twisted mind, but I wasn’t a clopper or something. I just enjoyed sometimes a little sauce with my daily dose of ponies.

“It doesn’t seem that our eye-color is the only thing that had decided to switch color,” I said as I turned on more lights and picked a chair and sat down next to Lucy.

She turned to me. I could see a little shock of surprise when she noticed my hair. “I assume you didn’t dye your hair in that short time that you were away. But wait, does that mean my hair has also changed?” She stood up and ran to my bathroom. My mirror had never seen so many visitors in a day. It was not like I stood hours in front of the mirror to perfect my appearance.

“Great, what’s next? Does my skin turn green or something?” I heard her saying cynically. She came out of the bathroom.
I had to admit that that goldenrod shade in her scarlet hair actually did look great. It was no big dramatic change so I didn’t have to get used to it. It matched very well with her new eyes. Quickly I tried to think of other thing as I remembered a very seductive picture of Lightning Dust I saw last week. My brain tried to play tricks with me again. “Well, whoever, or whatever caused this, he did his homework. Lightning Dust suits you really well.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she grimaced. “Well, I have seen some pictures of her. Rainbow Dash is still the coolest pony, but I guess she’s okay. At least she seems to be an athletic pony. It could be many times worse as I had for example the looks of that purple bookworm pony. What’s her name again? Ugh, I despise her.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Lucy was the exact opposite of Twilight. She hated books and study, except when it was sport-related. I still wonder how she ever managed to stay four years at the university. I guess physics had enough practical application. It was ironic that her best friend was a history student: a study where practical work is ruled out. I think Lucy would be much more interested in my study if we replayed some historic battles, like what they do in a LARP.

“By the way, I also saw a picture of that Doctor Whooves, but he has a brown mane. Does he dye his mane or something? You are getting a blue and bluish white mane and you hair seems much longer.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too when I saw it in the mirror. I forgot that there are also other ponies with an hourglass cutie mark. I think the prankster used Colgate instead of the doctor. That would make a lot more sense as Colgate is a dentist pony, at least in fanon.” I saw that Lucy gave me a puzzled look. “Uhm, let me show you a picture of her.” I walked back to the computer and searched for a picture. It was annoying that I first got pictures of toothpaste tubes instead of the pony. You would think that Google knows that I’m a brony and not a toothpaste fanatic after all those years.

“Say, why don’t we watch an episode or two. Then you can see who Lightning Dust really is.”

“Fine by me. Now that I know where this mark comes from, I’m curious about that pony. I mean, if I have her cutie mark I have at least the right to know how she is. As long as you don’t fangasm constantly.”

“Can’t promise that,” I said with my tongue stuck out.

“You’re incorrigible,” she chuckled. “Before we’re going to watch an episode, do you mind if we first eat something? I’m getting hungry.”

My stomach growled. It wasn’t a surprise as it was already half past eight and we hadn’t eaten anything. Time sure flies when you’re busy with pony stuff. “Yeah, that’s a better idea. Now I know that I had promised to cook, but do you mind if we are doing something else? Ben is still in his room and I’m afraid that he will see me. He knows that I’m a brony but he is going to think that I’m too obsessed with it if he sees me with this hair, saying that this is some kind of unhealthy fetish. I’m not in the mood to explain why I have bangs of blue and white hair.”

“Awh, but your spaghetti is legendary, even though it’s vegetarian,” she said as she tried to put a disappointed look, but she failed horrible because she couldn't keep a straight face. “But what do you propose? I can’t say that I look normal.”

“Let me introduce you to the wonderful combination of pizza and pony episodes.”

***

We agreed to order pizza. It was easy, quick and the chance that I had to see Ben was minimal. I decided that we first had to watch ‘The best night ever’ and ‘Hurricane Fluttershy’ because they would give a peek of Spitfire's character. If we would immediately have watched ‘Wonderbolts academy’ she probably thought that I was crazy about some stupid cliché drill sergeant stereotype. The pizzas arrived halfway the second episode. The pizza guy gave me some strange looks but he shrugged it off when he received his tip. He probably had seen more strange things in his career as delivery boy. I quickly ran back to my room afraid that Ben would come out by chance.

I resumed the episode and while we were eating we were fully engrossed in the episodes. ‘Wonderbolts academy’ was over before I knew it, but I had already placed two new episodes in the playlist. The first one was one from season four where Dash becomes a Wonderbolt. A pretty cool episode as it contains a lot of character development, but the best episode was the other one. It was an episode in the fifth season. Rainbow Dash was now promoted to be one of the captains. It was one of my favorite episodes because of many reasons, but the most important one was that Dash shows why she became a captain as she did something very noble. She flies to Lightning Dust’s house to give her another chance. She encourages Lightning to reapply for the Wonderbolt program. Lightning still holds a grudge against Dash and she shouts that it was all her fault. If Dash hadn’t shown up at the Wonderbolt academy then it would be her who was a Wonderbolt. She was the better flier, she pushed herself harder and she was the lead-pony! Yet this foolish rainbow pony became a Wonderbolt! She was the reason why she was kicked out of the program. It’s a touching scene, Lightning even cries. Something you would not expect from her considering ‘Wonderbolt academy’. Dash however shows her real capabilities as new captain. She says she never meant to crush her dreams; she only wanted to show that she needed to work on her recklessness. Not because she wanted to show Spitfire that she was the better pegasus, but it created dangerous situations. She could harm ponies if she wasn’t more careful. She had to admit, she was angry with Lightning back then because her friends had almost died while Lightning just shrugged it off as nothing, but after the accident with Gilda, she didn’t want to lose another friend. Dash even says – although she hated to admit it – that Lightning can surpass her if she just keeps in mind that it’s not always about pushing yourself. Lightning Dust stands dazed after that speech. The episode ends with Dash who offers her a hoofbump. Lightning hesitates but gives one back with a small but genuine smile.

I still had my head fixed on the screen after the credits had rolled over. I was drawn back to reality however: “Darn, Nate. Can you warn me next time when you show me such tear jerker,” I heard from next to me.

I wanted to ask what she meant, but when I turned to her I froze in shock. It was expected but it still was a big difference. Her hair, or should I say mane, had changed rapidly after we had noticed the chance. Almost nothing was left of her original scarlet hair. You could only faintly see that her original color was red, but the dark goldenrod color was dominant now and she even had the saffron bands. Her hair looked more like a wig for a Lightning Dust costume than her own original hair. Before I could comment on her new mane, bangs of pure blue and periwinkle hair came in front of my vision. There were no traces left of my own original blonde hair. It startled me and I let out an almost girly squeak. It was already odd to see hair in front of your eyes that you weren’t used to, but the unnatural color enhanced that odd feeling. The hair didn’t care about that; it just hanged there, blocking half of my vision.

“Did it startle you? Did you expect something else?” she said with a smirk. She undoubtedly was entertained by my little squeak.

“Yeah whatever. What did you mean by tear jerker? It’s a touching moment, but it wasn’t that sad. Normally you make fun of such moments in movies,” I said while I tucked the bangs behind my ears.

“I know but this was a truly sad scene. I could understand the pain of Lightning like I have been through something likewise. I’m really glad that Dash and she decided to be friends again in the end.”

“Wow, Lucy, calm down! You talk like you’re Lightning Dust. You may look like a human version of her, but it’s just a cartoon. You don’t see me expressing some kind of fetish about toothbrushes.”

“It’s kinda lame now that I think about it. Still Lightning has got my sympathy, maybe even competing for best pony with Dash.”

“You’re sounding like a brony,” I chuckled. “Well, there is one episode left where Lightning Dust appears. Want to see that episode too? I promise it isn’t a drama episode.”

“How about the series finale? I think I have seen it and now that I think about it, Lightning Dust made an appearance there. If I remember correctly, it was at the very end of the episode.”

She was right. The series finale ended with Discord attacking Lightning Dust and Colgate. The person who did this to us must have seen the finale too. It couldn’t be coincidence that we both had the looks of two background ponies with whom MLP strangely ended. But what did he or she wanted to reach with this? Did he want to see a brony freak out about these changes? But Lucy wasn’t a brony. The only theory that explained everything was that Hasbro wanted to make a huge publicity stunt to announce that MLP would continue. Giving two persons the appearance of ponies would certainly attract the attention. Although this theory would explain everything, it didn’t make sense. Hasbro wouldn’t choose just random people to turn in to human versions of ponies. I couldn’t wait when this would be over and I finally would know how and why all of this had happened.

“Okay, we will first watch the other episode with Lightning and then we will watch the finale. A great ending for this mini-marathon.” I searched both the episodes in my pony episode folder. At the same time my hair moved again in my vision. “Ugh, how can people live with such long hair?” I was tired to tuck my hair behind my ears each time it got in front of my face. With every little movement I made, the blue and periwinkle hairs danced in front of my eyes.

“Here, take this.” Lucy grabbed a hair tie out of her pocket. ‘This should help.”

“You don’t expect me to wear a ponytail, right?” I already looked ridiculous with these unnatural colors and a ponytail would just accentuate the weirdness of this haircut. A guy with long blue and white hair tied in a ponytail, it wouldn’t get more androgynous.

“Suit yourself, but it’s a simple solution for your hair problem.”

“Fine… but can you do it? If I do it, it will look even more stupid.”

As the episode started she pulled my hair back. “Awh, it looks cute on you.” I didn’t know if she was serious or that she was teasing me, probably the last one.

The first episode was somewhat similar to ‘Wonderbolt Academy’. The episode focuses on Rainbow Dash trying to help Lightning Dust. She has difficulties with finding her shape. She is constantly afraid that she pushes herself in the wrong direction and thus she holds back. But Lightning is not the only one who has problems. Dash is the supervisor for the whole group and she can’t show any bias to anypony. She has to push the cadets as a drill sergeant but she thinks that Lightning needs a special treatment. Both struggle with their problems and they start to doubt their capabilities, but in the end Spitfire helps them. She says to Dash that they are friends and that her job shouldn’t be a reason to break up a friendship. Her job requires being harsh, but it is with good intentions. Lightning will understand that. Lightning gets the advice that she shouldn’t be afraid to show her talents. As long as you show that you’re willing to improve, other ponies will give you feedback instead of bashing you. It requires practice to be a great flier, but it also requires a lot of practice to know how to show that talent. The end of the episode shows that Lightning Dust passes the program and becomes a member of the Wonderbolts.

The finale is only two episodes after this episode. I hoped this would end the dreams about the final that kept bugging me. I was again fully engrossed by the episode. Discords betrayal made me somehow angry as he was the responsible of this horrible ending. He and Celestia fight a hellspawn from Tartarus. Celestia takes a hit after a pretty awesome battle. When Discord teleported to her and when he pushed Celestia over the cliff I felt a certain rage building up. But that rage is transformed into some kind of fear when he talks to the camera and reveal his plans. I felt like Discord was threatening me. After this scene, Discord moves to Twilight’s place and surprises her with a magic attack: leaving nothing left of Twilight. After that the credits are shown.

Wait, what? Where was the scene that Discord attacked Lightning and Colgate? It should be right after Discord vanished Twilight from Equestria. Two days should have passed and Discord first attacks Colgate. Before he can cast a spell on her, Lightning Dust attacks him, trying to protect the citizen but she is no match for him. Lightning disappears just like Twilight, leaving Colgate trembling in fear. A flash surrounds her en then the credits should have appeared.

“What the hell! Where is the rest of the episode?” Lucy shouted. “Check the vid length, Nate. You probably have downloaded an edited version.”

“No, it’s actually twenty-two minutes long.” I said while I quickly searched for a stream. I found multiple, but all of them ended with the Twilight scene. “Darn, Hasbro must have cut that scene. They probably thought that Twilight’s disappearance would have been a better ending.”

“Well that sucks. How are we supposed to watch that last part now?

“Don’t know. The original version should be somewhere on the internet, but it may take some time to find it.”

“Meh, don’t bother. You can show me another time. I think it’s time to hit the road. It’s almost midnight and I have a one-hour drive ahead. I don’t want to waste my free day tomorrow. And you’re also busy with that report tomorrow.” She walked to my door grabbing her jacket and bag.

Suddenly a fear crept in to my body. It was a very uncomfortable feeling. Was I afraid to be alone with these changes? I thought that I had my panic under control, but I couldn’t ignore this anxious feeling. But why did I only feel it when I knew that Lucy was about to leave? It wasn’t like these changes were affected by Lucy’s presence. I tried to comfort myself with the thoughts that I always could call her and that the hair was probably the last thing that would change, but it didn’t help: I still was afraid.

“Uhm, Lucy. Could you stay here this night? I know this sounds weird but I’m…” I was in a pickle. I expected some lame joke from her if I continued but luckily she looked serious. “I am scared to be alone with these changes.“

“What’s the matter, Nate?” she said with a worried voice. “Are you feeling alright?”

“I don’t know. All of a sudden I’m feeling really uneasy. My mind fears these changes will continue.”

“Relax, Nate. What could possibly happen? Humans don’t have tails or something. Well, I would like to stay if that makes you feel better, but I don’t have any stuff with me and don’t you have to work on that report tomorrow?”

“No problem. I worked hard today so I have a little extra time to waste. Furthermore, I have a sleeping pad, spare blanket and most important a spare unused toothbrush.”

“You and your dental care obsession,” she grinned. “Well then it is decided: it’s a sleepover. But don’t expect me to make it late. They expect nice weather tomorrow and I want to take advantage of it by going cycling.”

I felt really relieved now that I knew that she would stay here. The fear in my mind subdued. The only problem was that my whole planning was messed up. I said that I was ahead of my schedule, but that wasn’t true. I had planned to work the whole day on my project, but that had to wait. It was future Nate’s problem.

Author's Note

-I have written two chapters now and I have noticed that I could use a proofreader. I know there are mistakes in these chapters, but I can't find them. It would be great if someone read a chapter before I publish it. If you're interested don't hesitate to contact me.

-I will probably update in two weeks. I tried to write this in one week but that is not possible. Guess I'm a kind of slow writer.

You can call me LD

3. You can call me LD

I was in a dark library filled with endless rows of bookcases. In the distance I could see a faint light glowing. I walked a little further towards the light and a desk became visible. There was a dusty book on the desk and as I approached it, the book flipped open by itself. I could read a few words on the pages, even though there was only a dim light. “Five score, mind, chaos, human” were the only words I could recognize, the rest of the lines were gibberish. Here were only a few words but they still made me very nervous. Suddenly I got the feeling that something bad could happen any moment and I looked anxiously around me. The darkness made it seem like the shelves were leaning towards me. I needed to leave this building now! Everything in the room seemed harmful. I sprinted out of the room paying no attention to the book that was floating behind me.

It was only slightly brighter outside. There were no streetlights, but the moon and stars shone brightly enough. It was a big difference from the dusty library but my anxious feeling remained. What did I have to do to put my mind to rest? I didn’t know what the source was of this unpleasant feeling, only that it was related to those words.

In the distance, a flash of light became visible. It looked like it was shot at me. I tried to outrun it, but it was much faster than me. Just before it was about to hit me, a green and yellowish aura reflected it. The aura gave me a feeling that I was safe instead of the nervous feeling I was experiencing. I slowed my pace and looked behind me. The anxious feeling returned as soon as I saw that the aura had faded away with another shot of that beam. Suddenly I heard a maniacal laughter close by. My mind told me to run, but it was no use. No matter how far I ran in any direction, the laughter seemed to be everywhere, surrounding me. The bright light came again – but it didn’t hit me, it enveloped me, making me dizzy and sleepy. I wanted to scream, but nothing came out of my mouth. I couldn’t fight the sleepiness and my eyes were slowly forced shut.

I woke up with a start, breathing heavily. I sat a few seconds upright in bed before I realized I was laying in my bed. This was one of the scariest nightmares I ever had. The whole dream seemed so real. My mind was still filled with feelings of fear. I looked around my room. There was nothing out of ordinary about it, just the messy ponified room as always. There was no creepy light that was chasing me, only a little sunshine that was shining through the curtains.

The only thing that was off was the empty sleeping pad next to my bed. Lucy wasn’t the person to awaken early. If she didn’t set an alarm she could easily sleep for ten hours per night. I looked at my phone to see it was only half past nine. She should have laid there on the pad snoring, considering that we went to bed somewhat after midnight. I wondered where she would be.

Almost on cue, she walked into the room with two plates of pancakes. I only now noticed that it smelled very nice in the room. The sweet scent drove the feelings of the nightmare back to the crypts of my mind. Lucy was wearing one of my hoodies which was odd, considering it was too big for her. On top of that, it was May and it was appropriate weather to wear shirts. It didn’t do a very good job hiding her hair as her saffron hairs were still visible.

“Hey, good morning Nate. I knew I heard something,” she said while she offered me one of the plates on which three pancakes were piled.

“Uhm… good morning.” I gave her a strange look. “Did I make that much noise?” I moved to the edge of my bed. I had only been awake for several minutes and I was still in my pajamas, but I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth in these pancakes. They looked delicious and I was quite hungry. I didn’t bother to dress up first; I wanted to take a shower anyway.

“Well I think I heard it because of, how should I put it, without you freaking out? Well there is no use in hiding this.”
She slowly removed the hood of the sweatshirt, revealing two greenish ears poking out of her mane which was messy because of the hood. “I think this is why I hear so well.”

I stared at them with my jaw dropped while I slowly moved my hand to the top of my head behind my temples. My fork fell out of my other hand when I touched a fluffy thing poking out of my head. From what I felt it could be fluffy brain slug, but I still thought rationally. It had to be the same thing as Lucy had, but this one was probably blue.

“Oh you’ve got to be KIDDING me!” I let out in an angry shout. My panic made me angry as I demanded an answer to the question how all of this was possible? Getting a tattoo of a cutie mark: possible, changing hair color: unlikely but possible, changing eye-color: very strange but still possible, getting pony ears: just impossible! All of the changes until now could be explained with dye and a couple of colored contacts. It didn’t matter how the prank could have been carried out, it had to be something with dyes. That was the only explainable theory until now. But now my ears had moved to the top of my head. No trick existed to change someone’s anatomy. Even plastic surgery couldn’t give us these ears identical to the show’s. At least, that was what I thought. As far as I knew there were no bronies that had had an operation to give them pony features but there certainly were bronies that would like to.

“Unfortunately, this is not the worst thing,” she said stirring me out of my thoughts. These words got my attention; what could be worse than pony ears? But I knew what was coming as soon as she moved her hand to her rear-end. When she took the colorful and hairy appendage out of her jeans I felt lightheaded and my vision blurred.

***

I opened my eyes with a slight headache. I was lying in bed in a strange position like I suddenly had fallen asleep. The sun shone in my room giving it peaceful and warm ambience like nothing had happened. I saw Lucy was in front of my computer, still with my black hoodie on, but with the hood off. The turquoise ears that poked out of the mane remembered me of what had happened. I turned my head to look behind me. A big lump was in my pajama pants hiding the thing I was terrified by. It was painful to have it stashed away in my pants so with much hesitation I pulled the blue and periwinkle tail out of my pants. Although the hairs felt smooth, the thing filled me with disgust. I wished it wasn’t a part of me, but I had control over it and I could wag it like a dog. The realization that it all was real was too much for me. My spirit broke and my eyes welled with tears. I had resisted the panic from all these absurd changes, convinced that it all would become clear in the end. But now I got desperate: no explanation was tenable now. What evil magical force had decided to give us slowly all these pony features and what could we do to stop it? Was it my faith to live the rest of my life as some kind of mutant? My mind couldn’t handle all these uncertainties.

I lay there sobbing with my eyes closed when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Lucy. “So you’re finally awake, sleepyhead,” she said with a small friendly smile on her face. I didn’t say anything. How did she manage to cope so well with these changes? She behaved like she had lived her whole life with a tail and pony ears. Her initials weren’t LD the last time I checked.

“Look, I know you’re freaked out by this tail. Believe me, I was in the same situation when I woke up this morning. I think everyone would react this way.” She pulled me up, forcing me to sit. She sat down next to me with her eyes fixed on my eyes, still with her hand on my shoulder. Her friendly smile was gone. It was kind of intimidating but it also gave a protected feeling. “The problem is: we don’t know anything about it; when everything will be back to normal, supposing that everything is going to revert. We can’t do anything against it. You can sit and ponder about it resulting in nothing but more doubt or you can ignore it and try to live like it’s an ordinary day.”

I didn’t care what she had to say. I couldn’t just accept these new body parts. They felt alien and they shouldn’t be there. I was a realistic man of science and I had learned that humans have neither tails nor pony ears. I couldn’t throw an objection against the laws of biology and act like getting a fucking tail was a normal, thing like it was some change from puberty.
“We even don’t know how far these changes continue,” she continued, “I doubt the possibility but maybe we will even become full…” she stopped mid-sentence.

“We become what? You don’t really think we’ll turn into full ponies, do you?” A new wave of anxiety overwhelmed me. The thought that the transformation wouldn’t stop certainly had passed me, but I had ignored it, although a theory had nagged me. Now that Lucy had brought it up, I couldn’t stop think about what would happen if we were full ponies. What would become of us when we were ponies? Humans that had turned into animals surely didn’t have a place in society. On top of that, we would stand out with our pastel colored fur. I shuddered at the thoughts and new tears filled my eyes with all these questions.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought that up. But I don’t rule out any possibility after these bizarre events. Now that it has turned to this point, everything seems possible, don’t you think?”

I said nothing, incapable to speak properly. I knew she was trying to reassure me, but she only made it worse. Maybe she could handle this situation with her confidence, but I couldn’t. I stood up and walked to the bathroom, leaving Lucy alone on the bed.

“Colgate, wait-,“ she said, but I closed the door and locked it. I didn’t know why she called me by that name, but it was most likely another part of the change, and food for a lot of new anxious thoughts. I could hear her curse herself. She had good intentions and I shouldn’t have just walked away, but I needed time to think. A lot of time.

***

Before I got dressed I looked at my body to see whether there were any new changes. Whilst I was showering I noticed my toes looked different. My middle toe looked like my big toe and vica versa. It was also much more comfortable to stand on my toes. I guessed that it wouldn’t be long until I had to walk on the nail of my middle toe. It was also kind of hard to stand upright with the extra weight of the tail constantly bringing me out of balance. I couldn’t find any further changes during the inspection so I put my clothes on. It was quite a struggle to fit my half equine feet in my shoes. My heels didn’t want to make the ninety degree bend. I forced my feet in my shoes, but I couldn’t say it was comfortable to walk.

I left the bathroom and saw Lucy once again in front of my computer. I was wondering what she was doing all these times on the internet. She noticed me and turned around. I could see that she was very wobbly. For the second time in twenty-four hours, her wall of confidence had opened; showing a girl who had a lot of trouble with social situations that she had handled wrong. In the past she would just shrug them off, but recently she really cared about them. Her behaviour reminded me of a certain pony.

“Are- are you feeling better?” she said with a insecure soft voice.

“A little. I’ve thought about our situation. I have given up my attempts at finding a logical explanation for all of this. It is impossible and I have accepted that.” I answered indifferently. I felt depressed, but the panic of these changes had faded away. Lucy was correct, though she had brought her advice clumsily. It was no use in whining about these changes if we didn’t know what had caused them.

“So… you’re okay with the changes?”

“I say I have accepted it, not that I like it. I just have to endure this process and hope that everything will return to normal as soon as possible, although I doubt that will happen.”

“How so? Being a pessimist won’t help in anyway,” she said with a much stronger voice than just moments ago.

“No, I’m not trying to be a pessimist, but I have an idea that would link the dots, although you have to make some very idiotic assumptions.” I sat down and I grabbed my unfinished plate of pancakes. They weren’t warm anymore, but they were still tasty and I was even hungrier than earlier this morning. “This is going to sound very crazy and farfetched, but listen to the whole story okay? This would explain everything.”

She nodded, “We have a tail, nothing is farfetched at the moment.”

“And the newest addition: we walk on our toes, but that’s a problem for later.” I saw her quickly glance at her feet. Apparently she hadn’t discovered the half-hooves yet. “First let me ask you a question. Does the sentence ‘For five square both for this pair’ ring a bell?”

“I can’t say that I remember ever hearing that, but it sounds familiar. Is it some famous line from a speech or song or something?”

“I don’t know where it comes from, but I woke up with that line in my head this morning. The fact that you also remember it vaguely is some proof for my theory. I’m almost afraid to say it, because it sounds so stupid, but it may be possible that the show is…” I paused for a moment. This thing had bugged me since the nightmare of last night, but it was such afoolish thought. Although I had some arguments, I couldn’t believe it myself. “Well I think the show may be real in some kind of alternative universe.” I saw Lucy’s face change into an expression of pure confusion.

“Nate, please.” She facepalmed. “I know you’re a fan of the show, but can you leave your obsessions out of this and think serious about this?”

“Listen, you promised me to listen to the whole story right? I’m not saying this because I’m a brony, besides, do I need to remind you that I hate these changes?” She quickly withdrew her facepalm and continued listening. I saw in her expression that she was taking this with a grain of salt. “It is a very big assumption, but I think somehow the character personalities are slipping into our minds. First, you’re showing traits of Lightning Dust; you are feeling a lot of sympathy for Lightning during a sentimental scene while you normally laugh about those scenes. You not only act like you were there at the Wonderbolt Academy, but it’s like you’ve experienced that situation yourself. You also act totally different in social awkward situations, but let’s forget that. It isn’t really easy talking about our quarrel, is it? Second, recently I’ve had a lot of dreams of the series finale. I have forgotten what those exactly were about but I had a nightmare this night and I remember some parts of it. It felt like I was in Equestria and moreover, it felt natural like I have lived my whole live there. I can hardly believe that these changes and those dreams are a coincidence. Furthermore, you just called me Colgate. Considering the situation we were in, I suppose that wasn’t a joke.

“So with these mental changes I think the pony personalities are slowly invading our minds and as a side effect we get the features of that pony. To be clear I haven’t got a clue why these ponies are trying to overtake our brains, but at least this explains why we are turning into ponies.”

A silence followed as Lucy tried to digest all of the aspects of this idea. She didn’t look like she was convinced. Finally she said, “Sorry Nate, I don’t mean to offend you, but I find those half-baked arguments. That nightmare you got is obvious. I got a similar one, –that’s the reason I awoke so early– where I had the feeling I was flying like a pegasus. It is probably because we had our minds full of these changes when we went to bed. These changes are also the reason why we behave so different. We both have gone through a lot of stress the past twenty-four hours. It is not strange that that stress affects our attitude. I have to agree that I don’t know why I called you Colgate, but a slip of the tongue is not a reason to think that a whole fictional universe is real. Maybe we will act more like the ponies we are becoming by some kind of magic, but that doesn’t mean that those made-up personalities are real in an alternative universe.”

She had a point. I had tried to convince her, but her counter explanation did make more sense. My theory was based on some random thought that had made me look with a tunnel vision. “I guess you’re right, but I will store this theory in my back mind. It still could be possible and like you said, with these bizarre changes everything could be possible.”

“Well suit yourself.” She rolled her eyes. “In the meantime, we have to think of some kind of plan to decide what we will do when these changes continue. I think we need to stay as long as possible out of the spotlight, but at a certain time we will be forced to go outside. I have a job, you have college, we both have a monthly rent to pay and I think close people will get worried and search for us if we lose contact with them for a long time. Frankly, I have no idea for a solution for this, so do you have any idea what we should do now?”

I hadn’t an idea what to do either. Should we just wait for these transformations to happen? We could still go outside without standing out too much as long as we wore enough covering clothes, but I didn’t know how long that would last. I couldn’t think of anything to cover my hands if they would become hooves or how I should cover a horn if that would grow out of my skull. It would be best to make some preparations as long as we could do it, but where did we have to start? My room was not suitable to lock ourselves up for a long time. It was only a small room and more importantly it would only be a matter of time before Ben would see us. Even if we didn’t use the kitchen, he would make sure whether I was okay if he didn’t see me for days but still hearing things coming out of my room.

My eyes drifted off to inspect the room even though I knew what it contained. I had lived here for five years now. My vision focused on the plushie that Lucy gave me yesterday. I hadn’t had the time to look at it properly, let alone give it a proper hug. My eyes grew wide when I picked it up.

“Of course!” I let out with a loud shout out of nowhere “Lucy, do you still have that photo you showed me yesterday? With that girl in Farm & Fleet.”

“Eh, sure, where do you want to use it for?” she said with a startled face.

I ignored her question and grabbed her phone. I quickly scrolled down through her gallery of photos. There it was, the photo of the girl with the perfect Rainbow Dash cosplay. I had wondered how it could have looked so real, but now I knew it: it was because it was actually real. “Here take a look, does she remind you of someone?”

“Uhm, no? I have no friends that are interested in cosplay. How should I know her? I barely know anyone in Muscatine; I only live there for a year now.” She gave me a confused look, she got a little annoyed because I was so vague.
“Let me rephrase it, does she remind you of something? The ears, the hair or I should call it mane and the color of her eyes. She isn’t cosplaying; she goes through the same thing as we do!”

Now it was Lucy’s turn for her eyes to grow wide. She was astonished by my induction. “But- but that would mean we are not alone! We have to find this girl, assuming she is still a girl and not a mare. She most likely knows more of this whole case! If we find her, she could tell us what is happening to us.” Her ears perked up comically giving away she was full of energy for this new plan.

I had to agree that I also was enthusiastic to have something to do in preparation of the coming days, but there was a slight problem. “But, that would mean we have to move to Muscatine the next days. I can’t leave this place with that deadline for the report coming closer with every passing hour.”

She blinked several times. She was probably dumbfounded by my sentence and confirmed that with a facepalm. “Geez, get your priorities right, Nate! Do you want to hand in a report called ‘The rise of communism in Equestria’ written by M. Colgate?”

I wanted to argue against it but I couldn’t find any good arguments. I grumbled somewhat under my breath but started to pick some stuff needed for some days away from home. I had worked so hard on my report and now all that effort would have been for nothing because I was changing into a character of a show I had already put so much time in. Fate had to be the biggest troll ever.

***

It was a one-hour drive to Muscatine from Iowa City, but it wasn’t a comfortable one. My tail reminded me constantly that it was a nuisance to find the right spot to sit. Lucy had less trouble with it. She had her tail out of her pants. It could move freely as long as she wouldn’t lean against the seatback. I however refused to show my tail so openly. The new part of my body still disgusted me, but the tail suited Lucy strangely well. The colors of the soft hairs matched her mane perfectly. It was like I had never seen her without it. The lustrous, fluffy appendage sometimes moved in a spasm, giving away that we didn’t have full control yet of our freshly formed muscles.

In the meantime my tail sent another shot of pain to my brain. I cursed the stupid ugly thing. It was already following me everywhere I went. It was like a stalker who never gave up his prey. Did it had to be literally a pain in the ass on top of that? I guessed it had won the war though. I capitulated and pulled the thing out of my pants. Physical torture seemed more agonizing than mental torture at that moment.

I noticed that we were steadily lowering speed and we weren’t driving in a straight line anymore. I turned to Lucy who had dreamy expression on her face. I didn’t know where she was with her thoughts but it certainly wasn’t on the road. “Lucy! I hate to pull you out of dreamland, but unless you want to cause an accident I recommend you focus on the road.”

“Hm? Oh sorry,” she shook her head coming back to real life. “Those horses at the side of the road are distracting me,” she said while she still turned her head again to the right, obviously ignoring my comment to focus on the road.

I looked at the horses that stood there in the pasture. There were quite a lot mares there in the field. I counted at least thirty of them. Some of them were grazing through the grass and others stared at us, looking what kind of evil thing disturbed the peaceful setting. I had to admit, they looked kind of attractive. I imagined myself standing there between the horses. It was a very serene setting: no worries, just enjoying a meal of grass with my fellow horses in the shade of a tree. There was enough space to run around if I wanted to; the pasture was at least forty acres big. There was probably a strong stallion nearby on top of all of this. Turning into a pony didn’t seem so bad anymo-

“Wait… what the HELL am I thinking?” I shivered at the thought I would stand there as Colgate. If I would become a pony I certainly wouldn’t end up as a part of a farmer’s livestock. That would be wrong on every level. I lived my life as a human for twenty-five years and I did not intend to dump my old life to become a farmer’s property or a little girl’s pet.

I blinked before I noticed we were drifting off the road. There were only a few feet between us and an incoming tree. In the fraction of a second I couldn’t shout anything to Lucy anymore before the crash. I only could close my eyes as a reflex and fear for the worst.

Luckily we were driving slowly and the impact was limited. Actually the shock of the realization that suddenly a tree blocked the way had made it look far worse. We were only driving at something around ten miles per hour. After the impact I immediately opened my eyes. Before us stood the big tree, which hadn’t moved an inch. Some leaves had fallen on the hood of the car. The engine was still running.

I turned my head to Lucy. Her head lay unconscious on the steering wheel. I quickly shook her at her shoulder, but she didn’t respond. I feared that something grave had happened so I rapidly took her wrist to take her radial pulse. Fortunately, nothing seemed off. I breathed a sigh of relieve. Such a hit couldn’t have knocked her out; she even was wearing her seatbelt. I figured out that it had to be a result of the fear of suddenly seeing a tree incoming. She must have come back to her senses in the last moment before the crash.

I was about to step out of the car to check the damage when I heard a groan coming from behind me. Immediately I sat back and looked at Lucy. “Ugh, where am I?” she said with a weak voice.

“Lucy! You’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“Wait, Discord! That stupid, cheap monster.” She ignored my question. I frowned; Discord was an unusual insult for a tree. “A real mare fights only with her hooves and wings; she does not rely on dirty magic. Now where has he teleported me to?” She hadn’t noticed me yet. Her head was not pointed at me and apparently she hadn’t heard my question.

“Uhm, are you feeling okay?” I didn’t understand any of the drivel she was talking about. Her ears twitched in reaction to my voice. She finally seemed to notice me.

“Oh sorry, umh… creature? Can you understand me?” She said the last part of the sentence with a pause after each syllable, like talking to a three years old kid . It sounded very denigrating. I hadn’t a clue what she wanted to reach with this nonsense. If this was a joke then it was a horrible one.

“Lucy, can you at least try to make sense?”

“Lucy?” she said with much surprise. “I think you are confusing me with somepony else. My name is Lightning Dust, best flyer in Equestria! But you can call me Lightning, or LD if that’s easier for you. Now, do you know the way to Canterlot or Cloudsdale? I have some unfinished business with a foolish draconequus. So stupid thinking he can just beat a Wonderbolt. Sorry but I’m not giving any autographs.”

Did she really think she was Lightning Dust? Did she have some kind of amnesia because of the crash? This was ridiculous; she couldn’t have lost all her memories. Her twenty-five years of memories just up in thin air because of a crash; that was insane. I needed to get her back to real life. Let her remember she was a human and not a pastel colored pony.

“Lightning Dust”– It was really strange to say that to your lifetime friend, –“don’t you think that something is the matter with your body?” I didn’t think it was a good idea to confront an amnesia-patient with reality, but this way she had to remember that she was a human.

“Oh? Do you know me? Well I have to say I’m pretty famous as Wonderbolt. But what do you mean? Is there something off with my hooves, wings or mane?” She moved her hands to each body part she mentioned like it really existed for her. I couldn’t believe her; she acted like she was physically already a full pony. She hadn’t hooves or wings but yet she observed them.

There was a short silence. Lightning – darn, even I was starting to call her Lightning – didn’t say anything and I tried to come up with a new thing to let her remember she was a human. A voice broke the silence. It was a voice that released a stream of hope in my veins.

“Nate? What happened?” she blinked. “The last thing I remember was that we slammed into a tree,” she said, again with a weak voice like she had awoken just now.

“I-I think you just confirmed my theory,” I answered slowly after a pause. I was so happy that she was back, but I couldn’t believe it myself what had happened. But she was back, that’s what really mattered.

Author's Note

This one took me way too much time. I was busy with school stuff and I got ill in the meantime. I don't know when the next chapter will come out. I hope at the end of July.

Many thanks to Hywel and Robertsolution for proofreading this chapter.