There was moment of silence between us before Antonia continued her story.

One month ago...May 21st 2013, Late afternoon.

Samuel sat in his office going through the latest cases of a mystery illness that seemed to spring up from nowhere, a look of frustration graced his features as he couldn't make heads or tails of what the files and reports were all pointing to. Samuel's thoughts and concentration were broken by the sound of a light knocking on his office door.

“Come in.” Samuel called, not bothering to look up recognising the distinctive knock.

A woman in her mid thirties entered the room, she had chestnut brown hair that went down to her shoulders and golden brown eyes that reminded Samuel of honey. She was dressed in a blue formal button up shirt, a short grey skirt and a long white doctors coat that Samuel and the other doctors wore.

“How are you feeling honey?” Samuel asked. The woman, Antonia took a seat by the desk and took a sigh of relief.

“I'm exhausted Sam, I don't know how we are going to cope with all these people.” Antonia complained, “At this rate I'll run myself down again.” Samuel gave his wife a concerned look

“I know your trying honey but please don't push yourself too hard.” Samuel sighed, “I honestly don't know what to think about all this.” He said gesturing to the files in front of him. “These cases are just...strange, one moment your perfectly healthy, then suddenly your coughing, suffering from headaches, backaches, cramps and then 24 to 48 hours after showing those symptoms you change into some sort of horse that looks like it'll be home in a children's cartoon.”

Antonia took a look through one of the files her husband pointed to, she shook her head as she read through. Her husband was right the symptoms made no sense, there was no signs of a viral strain as all DNA tests matched a sample taken before they were changed, other family members showed no signs of the symptoms ruling out the possibility of it being an airborne strain, and the tests that came back from water samples collected through out the world came back inconclusive.

“I honestly don't know what to make of this Sam.” Antonia told her husband, Samuel gave her a worried look.

“That's just it though none of this makes any sense what so ever. Everything's came back like there's nothing wrong.” Samuel let out a groan of frustration and took a deep breath, “Anyhow do you have any recommendations on what to do with these people?”

“I do have one idea.” Antonia answered, Samuel motioned her to continue, “Why don't we turn the on site dorms into a place that can accommodate these people on a temporary basis?” Samuel gave himself a moment to think, on one hand it would help free up some room and on the other it would stop the human patients from freaking out.

“It's a temporary solution I imagine, but I think it could work. I'll suggest it to the higher ups.” Samuel answered, immediately Antonia started coughing. “You okay honey, I think it would be best if you went home and get some rest.” Samuel suggested, his voice full of concern.

“I think that would be best, I haven't slept well in the past two days.” Antonia replied rubbing her temples, “This damned headache is preventing me from sleeping. I'll see you in the morning honey.” Antonia kissed Samuel goodnight and headed out to get a taxi home.

Back to the Present...

“So that's how all this was set up.” I asked amazed, “What happened next?” Antonia just gave a small smile and continued.

Back to the Past...May 21st 2013, Evening,

Antonia lay in bed, tired beyond all relief from all the work from at the hospital. She tried desperately to get any form of sleep but despite being tired she couldn't sleep due to the headache she's been having the past two days.

She took a few pills to help her sleep and eventually drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep. Even though she was in a deep sleep Antonia's body was pulling, twisting and binding. Unaware that she was changing as her body slowly changed her hands and feet into hooves, a bump on her forehead slowly formed into a horn along side her jaw becoming a muzzle, her ears moved and stretched as her body sprouted soft white plush like fur, as her legs twisted into their new shape her body shrunk to her new size. Antonia's once human form was replaced by a sleeping unicorn mare completely unaware of what had happened to her.

Samuel relocked the front door with an audible click, he made his way to the couch and sat down utterly exhausted. He took one look at the clock which read 11:45pm, Samuel shook his head. He silently cursed the hospital manager for being such a stuck up pain in the ass. He himself found himself drifting off to sleep on the couch.

Peaceful hours passed by in silence, such peace however would be short lived once the morning came. Antonia stirred from her deep sleep, she stretched but something didn't feel quite right which she couldn't why if anything she felt very refreshed from her sleep. Not understanding what was going on she got out of bed, it then and only then did she catch her reflection in the bedroom mirror...

The peaceful morning was cut short by a loud scream and thud from the bedroom, Samuel shot up in a panic and rushed towards the bedroom, Samuel kicked open the door in his hurry.

“Antonia! Honey! What's wrong?” Samuel asked as he looked around the room in confusion, the bed had been clearly slept in but there was no sign of Antonia. The sound of someone's muffled speech caught his attention, Samuel made his way carefully towards the source of the sound.

“Honey, is that you?” He asked, before reaching over to remove the blankets. Samuel pulled the blankets off the muffling object in on swift motion, revealing the now ponified Antonia. She looked completely horrified by the result of her transformation.

“H-honey...what's happened to me?” Antonia pleaded, Samuel just blinked once and rubbed his eyes to make sure his sight wasn't deceiving him. He just couldn't believe the pony that was in front of him was his wife.

“Antonia...I erm really don't know what to say, but you appear to be some sort of unicorn.” Samuel explained with uncertainty. He sat down upon the bed trying to make sense of how this could of happened, Antonia was complaining of a headache, pains at various points of the body and coughing but Samuel just put that down to Antonia working too hard again. “Honey I think it's best we take you to the hospital as soon as we can.” Antonia just nodded in response.

In the car Antonia couldn't believe what had happened, she never showed any of the symptoms, sure she had a headache but she put that down to the stress work was giving her over the past few weeks. She just couldn't figure out what to do with herself now, and was worried that her husband Samuel wouldn't want to be with her anymore. Those thoughts were immediately crushed by how reassuring Samuel was being to her.

“'Tonia, I know I've said this already but I'm not going to let go through all this on your own. We'll pull through like always.” Samuel reassured as he kissed her cheek.

Back to Present...

“My husband took me to the hospital, but alas I found myself in the same situation as every other pony.” Antonia explained, “Samuel must of spent days trying to find a way to change me back, but sadly we soon found out that the change was permanent.” I had an idea of what Antonia must have felt when she found out the change was permanent, given my own experiences.

“What happened next?” I asked.

“Well during my stay at the hospital, I soon found out about the abuse some ponies were receiving.” She continued, shivering slightly at the memory.

Flash back...June 7th 2013

It had been two weeks since Antonia had changed, thankfully the proposal to change the dormitories to better accommodate pony kind had gone through thanks to Samuel's and Antonia's effort. Sadly even though they had both made every effort to make this proposal realised, Antonia soon found herself a victim of the abuse along with others.

The sound of windows smashing could be heard through out the dormitories. Antonia upon hearing the noise just sighed, she honestly couldn't understand why people were being so horrid to other ponies for something they had no control over: if it wasn't windows being smashed it was horrid messages written in graffiti on the building, goodness knows how many times she's been called a freak, whorse or been threatened to be taken the stables or glue factory.

“Oi freak where's your jockey?”, “Have ya been ridden yet?” and “Place your bets lads the whorse is here!” were just a few of the insults and taunts Antonia had suffered over the week. She decided to call security to check out the damage and deal with the situation.

Unbeknownst to her she was being watched as she was talking over the phone to Adam the head of security of the hospital. She finished her conversation she went back to looking over the current staff rota, much to her she had came to realise that over the past two weeks some members of staff had been changed like herself. The hospital manager had decided that they would be best put to use in the newly renovated building under the pretence of making the victims more comfortable around others like themselves.

So far Antonia had 8 members of staff who had changed and 4 who were still human, Antonia was made head of this new department for however long this problem lasted. Antonia yawned, it was easily the early morning hours and she still hadn't decided how to make the best of her new staff.

Irregular footsteps could be heard from the hallway on the opposite end of the reception, she didn't hear it due to being too lost in thought. The footsteps became louder as the person making them stumbled, the door was kicked open by a man in his mid thirties his shoddy appearance and the foul smell of alcohol radiated off him like it was some sort of plague. The smell clearly caught Antonia's attention making her wince of how rank it was.

“Can I help you?” She asked making an effort to be polite. The drunk squinted at his bottle before looking in Antonia's direction, seemingly debating something.

“Tch...gunna hav ter lay off da booze.” He slurred. “Ah'm seein' talkin' horses now...” He paused for a moment as he came to a realisation then out of nowhere he smashed the bottle against the wall. “Aye now I remember! It's cause of ye fucks that them people are changin' inter freaks.” He let out a drunken laugh, “Ah know how ter deal wiv ye, tell me hav yer bin ridden' yet?” He made a lunge forward at Antonia.

Antonia panicked and jumped out of the way, causing the drunk to crash head first into the filing cabinet. Cursing he got up and threw the bottle at Antonia, out of instinct Antonia created a small white barrier using her magic. Antonia winced in pain slightly at the strain of using magic, it was little but just enough to give the drunk the opportunity to pin her down.

“Oh the fun Ah'm gunna hav wiv ye.” He slurred as he covered Antonia's mouth to prevent her screaming. In the same moment the drunk was pulled off and thrown against the wall, cursing the drunk threw a punch at his new attacker only to be blocked and fall victim to punch to the gut followed by the sound of his knee being dislocated with an audible snap from a kick to the kneecap. The drunk knelt over in the sheer pain of his injury, wincing he looked up at his attacker, Samuel just gazed down at the drunk with look of barely contained disgust and fury.

“Light's out you piece of trash!” Samuel said in eerily calm voice before knocking the drunk out with a sharp blow to the side of the head. Samuel took a moment to calm himself down before turning to his wife, he really hated getting violent but given what could have happened he'd rather get violent than let any one do that to his wife.

“Are you alright honey?” Her saviour, Samuel asked voice full of concern. Antonia steadied herself on her hooves as she got up, she was shaken up by not only what that drunk would have done to her but how rare it was to see her husband get angry like that.

“I'm fine honey, just a bit startled...” Antonia panted nervously. “Would you be so kind to call security. I'm going to go rest for a moment.”

Back to Present...

Antonia looked a little unnerved from retelling the experience.

“I wasn't the only person to be attacked like that, two members of staff had quit after repeated attacks and abuse from not only that incident but also from some of the more ignorant members of staff.” Antonia explained.

“I'm sorry to hear that, I can't understand we're getting treated like some unwanted piece of trash. Aren't we still human regardless of being ponies now?” I asked earnestly, there was a moment of silence between us.

“I'm sorry Mark but I think it would be best I get going.” Antonia stated avoiding answering my question, “I think I'll stop by to see my husband.” I could understand very well what she wasn't saying.

“I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable Antonia. Please tell Dr Weiss I said hello.” We bid our farewells, and I once again found myself alone to my thoughts. I'm positive there's more to this story...

Author's Note

Sorry for the lateness of this chapter.

Edit: extended the chapter abit, it felt abit too short in my opinion.