Flying With New Wings

by TTV_KingPhoenixEmbers

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Human, Comedy
Length: 18859

A human finds himself turning into Soarin' while on a beach trip with his friends. Adventure soon follows. Five Score, Divided by Four side story.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with turning 25 in May. Well, at least, there shouldn't be, right? Apparently, there is. The moment I turned 25, everything changed, right as my friends and I went on a trip to the beach for the week. And now here we are, watching as I slowly turn into a pony from a show that's been off the air for several years – and having absolutely no idea as to what to do next.

I can only hope that the reports of others going through this are true… and if they are, I pray that I can find them soon. Before any more trouble finds me.

Rating due to coarse language.
Side story to Five Score, Divided by Four.
Part of the group Five Score, Multiplied By More.
Sister fic to A Riddle By Nature.
Thanks to zeusdemigod131 for proofreading.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-11-28 05:15:50 UTC

Day 2 As A Transformer

Being who I was, waking up early was fairly normal. Especially considering that I was used to it for my job. So I wasn’t exactly surprised when, despite being on vacation with my friends, I woke up at seven in the morning and started getting ready for the day. Having had the brilliant foresight to put the clothes I would wear today by the couch where I was sleeping, I simply grabbed them and went into the downstairs bathroom for a quick shower. Stepping into the wonderfully warm water, I let it just wash over me for a minute to help wake me up. When I finally started to wash, I was shocked at the old hairs that came off my head.

“Blue?” Talking to myself was one of my favorite ways to straighten out my thoughts, and at this point it was purely a habit. “My hair’s red, not blue...”

Deciding that the lighting of the shower was messing with my eyes, I turned it off and dried off quickly, before just as rapidly putting on my clothes. Looking over myself as I did, I saw that the stupid cutie mark thing was still there. Today, I was wearing a blue shirt with khakis and white socks. So more or less my usual. Glancing into the mirror, I froze at what I saw.

“What. The. Fuck.”

My hand trembled slightly as I reached up to my hair. I hadn’t been seeing things. My hair was blue. Not that it looked bad, but what the hell?! I’d been a ginger all my life, and I’d never gotten it dyed outside of a show! And yet, there it was -- a navy blue stripe right down the middle of my hair. Squinting as I noticed something happen to a clump of my ginger roots, I stared in shock as it started to turn the same shade of blue. From root all the way to tip, a small bundle of hair changed color, and as it did, my entire head of hair grew out an entire inch. It was then that I noticed it was longer and, er... poofier, I suppose is the word, than it had been yesterday.

“Holy shit.” My voice was no higher than a whisper, as I leaned in to the mirror and stared at my eyes. “Okay, what the hell is going on? My eyes aren’t green like this! They’re blue!”

After a while, I threw up my arms and stormed out of the bathroom, throwing my pajamas on the couch. It usually wasn’t this easy to get my riled up, but I knew -- I knew that my friends hadn’t done this. We weren’t really the pranking type, and when we did get into those moods, it was something relating to electronics or video games that we did. Like when I did that phantom keystroke thing to Clayton -- man, he freaked out about that! I snorted a bit at the memory.

Anyway, those were our kinds of jokes. Nothing having to do with cosmetic changes, mainly because after having been in drama club together, laughing about hair dye or make-up was pointless since we’d all done both at one point or another. Heaving a sigh, I forced myself to stand and start making breakfast for us all. I’d volunteered to do so, since I was usually the first one up, anyway.

“Mmm... what smells so good?” Andrew asked, as he came downstairs and into the kitchen, having showered upstairs not long after I did. He stopped at what he saw. “Uhh... Thomas... what happened to your hair?”

“I don’t have a fuckin’ clue. I woke up to it like this, and I know it wasn’t any of you.”

“Got that right, we were all completely asleep... but really? You just woke up, and found out your hair was suddenly blue?”

“And my eyes are suddenly green.”

He’d come over to help me finish making the pancakes and bacon, and now he stared at me to see if I was telling the truth. “What the hell?”

“That’s what I said...”

That kind of reaction was the same from both of my other friends. I didn’t have to ask to see if they were worried about what was happening to me, I could see it in how they started to keep a close eye on me. Not that I minded... I was kind of freaking out myself. Clayton had been the last one awake and the last to bring it up, and by that point at least a third of my hair had changed.

“I don’t know what’s going on!” I finally exclaimed, tossing the controller onto the couch in frustration. “I have no idea, okay?!”

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry!”

I sighed again. “Sorry... sorry about snapping like that, I’m just... scared about what might be happening to me.”

He gave me a friendly hug, remaining silent as he did. My other two friends did the same for a minute, then they pulled back. Knowing I had their back-up, despite this freaky change, was incredibly comforting. But it was still scary as all hell. Returning to the game, Andrew and I continued to play.

“Wah!” Audrey cried.

“What?” Andrew asked, before looking at my hair the way she was. “What in the...”

I just waited to hear what else they had to say. I didn’t have to ask. Having seen it myself earlier -- and still having quite a bit of trouble believing it, by the way -- I knew what was happening. Another set of hairs was changing color.

“Uhh... whoa...” Clayton decided to say simply, as he paused in eating his strip of bacon. “Thomas?”

“It changed again?”

“Yeah... you saw it?”

“It happened once while I was coming out of the shower. I saw it in the mirror."

“Ah... that is really weird to see. Wait, it grew longer, too!”

That was true. Yesterday, my hair barely reached my ears. Now, I could feel it go down to my shoulders, not to mention it was a heck of a lot thicker than it used to be. It took a minute for us all to resume our previous activities, to which we just returned to gaming. After a while, we started some Mario Party 4, deciding for some reason that it would be a good idea to go for a full 50 turns. Let’s just say that we regretted it almost immediately, because about fifteen turns in, we stopped.

“Okay, let’s take a break from this,” Audrey suggested. “It’s almost lunch time, it’s getting kinda hot and stuffy in here, and we’re obviously tired of this game.”

“...Beach?” Clayton asked us all.

The vote was unanimous. “Beach.”

I had my swimsuit hanging to dry in the downstairs bathroom, so I headed over there and quickly changed into it. Running a hand through my hair again, it felt thicker and longer than it had been over an hour ago when we’d started the game. Looking closer in the mirror, I noticed something -- I didn’t have any of my original ginger hair left. It was all navy blue now. Glancing at the mark on my butt and remembering how much it resembled Soarin’s, I realized that my hair had changed to be exactly the same as his mane. It had the same lazy swept-back look, it was just as thick and fluffy, and it was the exact same color. If I continued to change into Soarin’, it would look exactly as it did in all the pictures and on the show. I stepped out of the bathroom, sighing for the millionth time, and met everyone at the front door.

“Ready? We stopping somewhere for lunch?” I asked. “My stomach is begging for food.”

“Nah, I made a few sandwiches for us.” Audrey held up a small cooler. “That, and I grabbed one of our big bags of chips.”

“Good enough for me!” Clayton said happily, and he headed out the door. The rest of us chuckled, and I was glad to know that even though some black magic fuckery was transforming me, my friends didn’t change at all.

I easily noticed the looks I got from the various people around town, many of them curious about my hair. Once again, it only took a few minutes for us to reach our destination, going off to a more private area to try and keep people from staring at my hair too much. Having stopped by the candy store on the way, we took the time to eat our delicious salt water taffy before diving into the water to cool down from the hot day. Not being much of a swimmer to begin with, I was the first to pull out and just hang out on the big beach towel we’d brought... almost half an hour later. My skin was well pruned by that time. After another hour or so, during which my friends and I had eaten and subsequently jumped back into the water, we finally decided to head back and cook some dinner ourselves. We had the food for it, after all. Checking my phone, I found it to be half past six. Well... that explained why I was so hungry again, it was dinner time.

“Hey, Thomas...” Andrew began to say as we started to walk back. I decided to go without my shoes for now, enjoying the feeling of the sand on my feet.

“Yo.”

“Why’re you walking like that?”

The look I gave showed my confusion, as we kept going. “Like what? I’m just walking.”

“Your heels aren’t touching the ground, dude,” Clayton piped up. I noticed that my three friends were staring at my feet, and decided to look myself. They were right.

“Huh...” I looked them over a bit. They were telling the truth, I was purely on the ball of my feet and my toes. “That’s new. I didn’t even notice.”

“Obviously. Can you lower them?” Audrey asked. Glancing around, I noticed a few people looking our way, probably because of me. Stupid hair, stupid feet doing this on their own.

“Uhh...” I pushed my heels down a bit with my weight, but they refused to budge. “Maybe they’re cramped or something?”

“Maybe.”

Clayton knelt down and tried to gently pull one of my feet down flat. My reaction explained just how bad of an idea that was. “OW! Okay, no, that’s not -- OW! That freakin’ hurts!”

Thankfully, he let go as soon as he heard me, but still! That seriously hurt! It felt like trying to bend the bones in my feet and shin the wrong way, something I very carefully explained to my friends.

“I don’t think I’m putting my heels down anytime soon,” I concluded once I’d caught my breath.

“Yeah...” Clayton agreed slowly. “How are you going to wear shoes though?”

“Uhh... it’ll just look like I’m on my toes, I guess.”

Once we were back near the concrete, I quickly put on my socks and shoes, as did my friends. We didn’t waste time heading back, and along the way I did my best to ignore all of the stares and mutterings and whispers about me. As we went, hearing the words people had to say got easier, and my friends started to surround me. Almost as if to protect me from them, or keep me out of view. Not that I really noticed until we got back, I was mostly focused on why my feet were suddenly different. When we got there, being the only one with the key, I finally noticed how they surrounded me.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked as I unlocked the door and let us in. “Are you guys playing that ‘Protect the President’ game?”

Andrew opened his mouth to say something after closing the door, but ended up shutting it. Clayton had to take a deep breath first -- and even then Audrey beat them both to it.

“Uhm... Thomas... this might feel weird.”

A confused frown came over my face for what felt like the millionth time as I watched her reach a hand to my head. The next thing I know, my face feels like it’s burning and despite how alien it is, the gentle way she grabbed my right ear felt quite nice. Thankfully, she let go only a second later, and I finally realized what had happened. I had to reach a hand up to feel them myself.

“...You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Uhh... sorry, but no.”

I gotta see this. Moving to the downstairs bathroom mirror again, my suspicions were confirmed: my ears had moved to the top of my head, and were now covered in soft, sky-blue fur, looking exactly like Soarin's. My shoulders sagged, and I found myself collapsing onto the couch soon after. Tears started to fill my eyes.

“Thomas...?” Clayton began, coming over. “You alright?”

It wasn’t hard to come up with my answer. “No, I’m not. I... I don’t know what all this is about, and I don’t know why. It’s... why me? I mean, I’m nothing special!” At this point, I sat back up and let my tears flow.

My friends, having been with me since my early high school drama club days, came over and hugged me comfortingly. Their open-minded attitude and willingness to help me despite everything that was going on was beyond comforting. Of course, that was when Andrew pulled back.

“Hey, could you stand up and turn around for a minute?” He asked. We gave him a look of ‘now’s not the time’ and he just rolled his eyes. “This is important. Just do it.”

Sighing again, I did as he asked while the other two backed up. Clayton’s face was the only one in my vision, and I was confused by the look he gained. Glancing at the oven’s clock, it read as almost seven.

“Sorry about this,” Andrew said, as he sort of reached down the back of my now-dry swim trunks. I say ‘sort of’ because it was really only the very top that he went for, so it wasn’t that awkward -- until he tugged slightly.

“Gah! What the fuck is that?!” I twisted my back as much as I could to take a look, and my jaw dropped. “I have a tail now?!”

Audrey sighed sadly for me. “I know it’s kinda pointing out the obvious at this point, but... I think you’re gonna keep changing until you’ve become 100% pony.”

I nodded silently, still rather shocked at this newest development. Now that it had been pointed out to me, I was completely enthralled by it. Taking it from Andrew’s hands, I took a moment to remove it completely from my trunks. The thing felt just as soft and silky as my hair. Well, it would probably be more accurate to call that a mane now, but still. Both of them were colored a navy blue, and rather long at the moment. This newest creation was able to reach past my knees, and my... mane went down to between my shoulder blades.

I had to take a few minutes to adjust my pants and undies to have a hole in the right spot for this thing, changing into them and hanging my trunks to air out in the bathroom again. Now that I was aware of its presence, I could feel it, and I did not like how it was being crushed by the clothes. Which is why I’d cut those holes, and now I fed the new appendage through them. Once that was all done, I found my friends starting up Mario Party 4 to play exactly where we left off, and I jumped in immediately. Anything to get my mind off these stupid events was fine with me. Unfortunately...

“Okay, this is not working,” I complained as I squirmed on the couch a bit.

“What’s not?”

“This stupid thing is making it impossible to sit normally.”

“So move it.”

I blinked at that, before facepalming at my stupidity. My friends laughed, and it made me smile a bit. These guys always knew how to cheer me up. It’s kinda why we were all best friends in the first place. To be perfectly honest, I expected it to be somewhat confusing and difficult to move the tail without using my hands. Let it be known that I was taken completely by surprise when I flicked it aside and into a more comfortable spot without even really thinking about it. They seemed to notice, mostly because of my facial expression. And maybe because my newly transformed ears perked up. Which, by the way, felt incredibly freakin’ weird.

It’s one thing getting a tail. It’s another having ears that twitch to every sound and move to relate my emotions, especially when they turn sideways just to hear things better. They even flattened on their own when the music from the game was a bit too loud.

“Dude, that looks really weird,” Clayton commented with a bit of a chuckle.

I just shrugged as we fell right back into our game mode. Which more or less meant “screw reality, let’s focus on the pretend world instead.” Sitting on the coffee table in front of us was a serving of hot dogs, potato chips of various kinds, and soda... you know, typical gaming food. In this case, it also doubled as our dinner for tonight. By the time we finished the remainder of our 50 turn friendship-destroying game, it was just past eleven and definitely my bedtime. So without further ado, I bid goodnight to my friends, and took the bed Andrew had used. It was his turn to sleep on the couch tonight. Once I’d adjusted my pajama pants to make room for my new tail, I quickly found myself falling asleep.

The nightmare from two days ago filled my mind almost immediately...

Don't Say It

I could hear voices. Not voices in my head, I mean real voices. Groaning, I buried my head into my pillow a little more and tried to return to the Land of Nod. My ears flattened, trying to ignore what I was hearing. Unfortunately, it didn’t work worth a damn. I groaned as the sound of talking, although quiet, refused to let me go back to sleep. I blinked my eyes open, only to squeeze them shut from the light.

It’s way too bright... I grunted as the light from the window, now that I noticed it, was blinding me through my eyelids. “Celestia, turn your sun off, would you?”

I curled up away from the window and into the wonderful shadows. I let blissful sleep slowly take over once more.

Wait. My eyes shot open. What did I just say?

“Oookay... I think I’m taking this whole transformation thing a bit farther than necessary.”

Deciding that I didn’t need to sleep anymore, I oh-so-carefully slid out of bed. And subsequently smashed my face into the floor. Thankfully, I didn’t fall all that far, so it didn’t hurt that much. The bad news was that it still hurt.

Oww...

Pushing myself off the wooden floor, I struggled into a standing position. Then I fell forward again, but this time I caught myself. It was at this point that I decided looking over my body would probably be a good idea.

“Oh... that explains that.”

My entire body had finished changing over night. There wasn’t anything about it that resembled the physical form I’d lived with for the past twenty five years. My ears sagged slightly as I realized that. It’s not that it was unexpected -- quite the contrary, really -- but it still sucked. This is not what I wanted for my birthday. And yet, here I was, stuck as this... Pegasus. Admittedly, he was one of my favorite characters from the show, but seriously? Heaving a big sigh, I took note of all the differences as best I could without a mirror.

Wings? Check. Hooves? Four of ‘em, check. Tail? Check. Mane? Also check. Mane looking its best? ...Check later. Guy parts? Check. Thank Luna. I mean, I knew Soarin’ was a stallion, and it was still weird having those things change the way they did, and -- wait.

I just thanked Luna for that. Luna. Earlier I’d asked Celestia to dim her sun. I’d mentioned yesterday that my mind seemed to be changing, but this was just stupid. I could understand the desire for more pony-like foods over meat and such... but changing my attitude and how I deal with things in general? That’s going a bit far... but, just like all the other changes, I didn’t have a choice. Sighing again, I slowly stood up from where I sat on my haunches and went about relearning how to walk. The wood floors creaked slightly under my weight, but they did that normally anyway. Glancing at the bed across from the one I’d used, I noticed it was empty. As was the one in the room across from me. It took me some time to figure out how to move my legs just right so that I didn’t pratfall, but I have to admit that it was a lot easier than I had initially thought. Once I was confident that I could stumble down the stairs without pain, I slowly approached them and very carefully started down them. As I did, my ears flicked slightly towards the voices I’d heard. They were coming from the living room.

“How far along is he now, Andrew?”

“It’s complete.”

“Ugh. I wish we knew why this was happening.”

My friends were talking about me? Curious about what they were saying, I stopped where I was on the stairs and listened. I could hear Clayton’s heavy sigh from where I was, and the subsequent squeaking of the couch springs.

“I hate not knowing the reason for all this.”

“I think he hates it most. He cried about this a couple days ago, remember?”

Audrey spoke next, “I’ve been close to doing that myself. I mean, there’s nothing we can do to help him with it!”

“I know what you mean,” Clayton agreed. It sounded like he was tired for some reason. “All we can really do is hug him and be like, ‘Don’t worry, we’re still friends!’ But I want to do more to help him, and we can’t!”

“It’s really annoying,” Andrew commented. “What a birthday, huh?”

“No kidding.”

“It... makes me worry that I was the reason it started,” Audrey said quietly.

I frowned. Why would she think that?

Clayton apparently had the same thought. “Why would you think that?”

“Well... I was the one who made and gave him that plushie of Soarin’ on his birthday. I... I know we agreed early on to not show we were worried for him, just so he wouldn’t freak out more than he already was, but... I still feel like it’s all my fault.”

“You had a hard time keeping that in, huh?”

I’m not sure what compelled me to move at hearing that, but I found myself walking over to them and catching their attention. “You didn’t need to do that, you know.”

They seemed surprised for a moment, before realizing that I was eavesdropping. “You heard all that?”

“Some of it,” I shrugged. “From when Andrew told you that I’m... this, now.”

“Sorry...” Audrey said quietly.

I gave her a smile. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”

“But it could be! I mean, you didn’t have that stupid mark until after I gave that to you!”

I shook my head. “No, it appeared before then.”

“...Wait,” Clayton started. He picked up where I was going with this pretty quick. “You mean when you spaced out on the way here?”

“Yeah, I think it started then.”

The three of them nodded a bit at that, although they looked a bit confused. Audrey looked like she was about to say something, but I spoke first.

“And... guys... thanks for... for being so supportive. It’s... it means a lot to me.”

“No problem, dude. It’s the best we could do,” Clayton said.

“Which is still incredibly stupid, by the way,” Andrew huffed. “I mean, really? I know it was really hard on you, but... not being able to help in anyway other than not showing how much we were worried sucks.”

I gave a wry smile, “I know how that feels. The same kind of thing you feel when someone’s in the hospital and all you can do is hope and wait.”

“That is exactly how we feel,” Audrey agreed. She sighed again. “I’m so, so sorry this happened to you...”

“Like I said, it’s not your fault. I’m just thankful that you guys stuck around and didn’t call the cops or anything.”

Clayton smiled slightly, “There wasn’t any point in doing that. It’s not like they’d be able to do anything.”

“Aside from drag me to some lab for whatever experiments they’d come up with...”

“And that is something we were not going to let happen.”

I gave him a grateful nod and walked over to the fridge. It took me a moment to figure out how to open it with hooves instead of hands, but once I did, I grabbed myself an apple and immediately started chowing down.

“There’s some waffles left over on the table for you,” Andrew commented. “Need help?”

“Maybe. Let me try doing it on my own first.”

I spent a minute or two just munching the delicious apple, before tossing the core in the trash. It took me a moment to scramble onto the chair at the table, but once I did, I spotted a plate in front of me and several waffles on a big platter in front of me. Oh, how I wanted to chow down on them...

“Have you guys already eaten?” I asked. I didn’t want to take more than my share.

“Yeah, we’re all good.”

I nodded and grinned, using a hoof to drag the platter over to me. I had to sit there for a moment on how to do the transfer of food from platter to plate, before just using another hoof to push some over. Considering how much my stomach was grumbling, despite the apple, I decided to go with three to start. All of which I very carefully poured a satisfactory amount of maple syrup on. It was then that I thought of something: how was I going to eat it without making a mess of myself? Damn, I wish I was a unicorn.

“Here,” Clayton said, holding out a fork with a zip tie.

Grinning, I let him tie it to my right foreleg, with enough space to cut it off later. Not another second was wasted as I cut off a small corner of the pile of waffles, and shoved it in my mouth.

“Mmm... fanks!”

During the next five minutes, my friends watched, chuckled and laughing, as I proceeded to absolutely annihilate the small stack of waffles on my plate. When it was empty, I finally took a deep breath.

“Hungry?” Andrew asked with a chuckle.

I was about to respond with a ‘no’, but then I paused. Then I grinned again. “Yes.”

I grabbed the rest of the waffles and proceeded to eat them as well. It wasn’t until they were completely gone that I was finally satisfied. With a pleased sigh, I relaxed in my chair and very carefully manipulated the fork on my hoof out of its bindings, before placing it on the plate. I then wiggled the zip tie off my leg and set that on the table as well.

“Okay, now I’m full,” I said. Then I burped. “And there’s the proof that I am.”

“...Jeez, you were really hungry, huh?” Audrey said. Glancing at them, I chuckled at the looks they had on their faces.

“Obviously. Thanks for cooking, guys.”

“Uhh... yeah, no problem...”

I hopped off the chair and went to grab the plate in my teeth to put it on the counter. Clayton beat me to it, though. Thanking him, I moved towards the couch, before remembering something from yesterday.

“Oh... right...”

Clayton glanced at me, “What?”

“You got your computer?”

He raised an eyebrow, but nodded and sat down on the couch next to me, machine in his lap. With a few directions, I guided him to the same article that I’d read and commented on yesterday. I noticed that Spitfire had responded recently, too. I snorted at what I’d read.

“Gee, thanks for the warning.”

Andrew, looking over Clayton’s shoulder from over the couch, glanced at me. “You did that?”

“Yup. Yesterday afternoon. I said I’d head out to find her.”

“Why?”

“To be honest, I’m not really sure. I... well... I’m not sure how to explain it.”

“Saw the ponies and couldn’t stop yourself?”

“Something like that, yeah. I recognized the Pegasus as Spitfire, Soarin’s boss, and I just felt like I had to somehow let her know I was out there. So... I did.”

There were a few nods at that, and Clayton closed the browser. “You’re going to fly there, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Do you know how?”

I paused at that. He had a good point -- I wasn’t sure how to work my wings right now. Glancing over my shoulder at them, I wondered just how I was to open and inspect them. Tracing the barely-visible lines of the tendons in my back, I could see where they led to the wings and which muscles seemed to control them. Focusing on those areas, I twitched the muscles there, and was pleased when I saw my feather appendages move as well. Satisfied that I knew which muscles to use, I proceeded to very carefully open them. By which I mean, they snapped open and one of them smacked Clayton in the face.

“Ow!”

“Sorry!” I turned to him and watched as he rubbed his nose, where he’d taken the hit full-force. “I’m sorry! Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine... just got me by surprise that’s all.” He pulled away his hand from his nose, and I gave him look-over.

“No bleeding... sorry about that.”

“Seriously, it’s fine. You didn’t know it would happen.”

“I was trying open them slowly, but nooooo...”

The three of them chuckled a bit, and after moving to a spot where I wouldn’t harm anyone or anything, I began practicing how to open my wings properly. It didn’t take me nearly as long as I thought it would to get it down to the point where I could curl the limbs and use them to hold things. My friends suggested us going to a spot nearby where I could practice my flying, but they didn’t know where. Thankfully, I did. It was only about five minutes away by car, so it wasn’t far at all.

Those were the longest ten minutes of my life.

I have never wanted to get out of a car so badly before. The moment I had finished directing them to the large hill that we would be climbing, I was the first out of that stupid thing. I ignored my friends’ laughter, and led them up the steep, mile-long hill. It curved around a bit, before finally coming to rest upon a place known as Cape Disappointment. Despite the name, it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. It’s called that because this is where Lewis and Clark ended their journey across the United States. It stands about a mile above where we parked, and it houses an old abandoned WW2 bunker, where soldiers kept an eye out for the Japanese during that time.

“Wow,” Andrew said. “I know you’ve mentioned this place before, but I didn’t think it was this awesome.”

I smirked as they stepped up to the empty gun turret in front of us. The thing was empty -- aside from rainwater and wildlife -- and measured about thirty feet across, and about three or four feet deep. The dead center of it was where the turret itself sat, and that part’s at least a yard wide. There were concrete and metal barracks that led to another turret nearby, and this was where I planned to learn how to fly. With all the soft grass around the area, it would be perfect. I was going to stay away from the edges and just focus on hovering for now.

“So how does this work?” Audrey asked. “Aside from the ‘flap your wings like crazy’ part.”

“I’d say it’s more of ‘flap my wings in a precise and controlled manner’ sort of thing.”

In essence, that is just what I did. Now, admittedly, my wings were somewhat large, so I had a big space between me and my friends. Looking them over a little more closely than I did before, I finally noticed the ridiculous amount of feathers that were in each of them. The primaries were large, and dominated my wing in terms of numbers. I could feel the breeze blowing over them, as the wind shifted its current ever so slightly around them. And let me tell you -- that feeling was undeniably, unquestionably, absolutely amazing. The only thing that I could think to do next was to flap them.

So, I did.

Squeezing my eyes shut to focus, I raised my wings -- and brought them down with as much force and speed as I could. Now, from that moment, I’m not sure what exactly happened. I remember bringing my wings back up for another flap, and felt myself leave the ground... and the next thing I see is... well, it’s something like a movie theatre. Except rather than an actual movie, I’m watching through my eyes and senses as my body moves almost on its own. I could sense another mind encompassing my own, having taken over. It took me a minute as I watched myself quickly take off for the wild blue yonder.

“Whooo!” My voice cried joyously, whooping as “I” went through various tricks over the hillside.

Soarin’. I realized with a jolt. Soarin’s controlling my body! When did he -- how -- what?!

I don’t know if he knew I was still aware of him controlling what was my body, but despite that... this was still the best thing ever. Flying, I mean. It was... it was... indescribable. Seriously. There is absolutely no way for my to explain, in mere words, how it feels to be flying like this under my own power. Well, Soarin’s power... no, wait... ah, screw it. Finally, after almost five minutes of doing the best thing I’ve ever done, I finally landed -- and realized that the real Soarin’ was still in control.

“Heh,” Soarin’ chuckled, grinning wide. “Been a long time since I flew like that without my suit and goggles.”

“You have flight goggles?” Audrey asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, it’s standard-issue for ‘Bolts.”

That was their tip-off that I wasn’t actually in control.

“Thomas...?” Andrew began to say, coming closer slowly.

I could feel the confusion Soarin’ felt at being called that. “Uh, what? My name’s Soarin’.”

They glanced at each other. “Uhh... what happened to Thomas?”

His confusion grew, and I decided to see if I could converse with him from our shared mind.

They mean me.

He jolted a bit, wings unfurling slightly. It takes him a bit to realize that it had come from inside his head, and turned his focus there. I could go into the details, but long story short, I convinced him to step out of the spotlight and let me take back control. I shook my head once it was done. If I focused, I could more or less feel him in the back of my mind, lurking there and watching. Oh, well. I’ve become an exact physical copy of him -- albeit with my flanks a tad rounder than I remembered seeing in the show -- so having the mind come with it wasn’t all that surprising.

Having him able to take control out of the blue like that, however, was very surprising.

Holding a hoof to my head I gave my friends a wry smile, “Sorry about that. The real Soarin’ sorta showed up there for a moment.”

“The real Soarin’?” Clayton confirmed. I nodded. “What the hell.”

I nodded again. “Well, I’ll be, uh, ‘talking’ to him later... but at least I know how to fly now.”

“How? I mean, he was in control, right?”

I smiled and explained what I’d experienced, making sure to prove my point by hovering over them. After another minute, I finally breached the subject that we needed to talk about.

“Guys... about that article comment I made...” I started to say. “I... I really need to... find her.”

They looked at me for a moment, watching my expression and my reaction. Andrew was the one to break the silence.

“It’s that important to you, huh?” He asked quietly.

“Yeah... it is. And it’s important to Soarin’, too.”

He nodded, “Are you going to take anything from the beach house with you?”

“I was thinking of taking a bag, my phone, some of the apples we’ve still got, and my wallet. Not much more.”

“Alright. How about we meet there, you grab your stuff, have a quick lunch, and... we’ll see you off.”

I agreed to this, and flew towards the town. Seeing as I simply went over all the bothersome traffic, I was there first. It took a good few minutes for my friends to catch up and open the door. I’d given the key to Clayton, since I was now stuck with hooves. I was pretty hungry from my flights, and ate quite a bit of food. For lunch it was sandwiches, and for me, a few filling veggies. Afterwards, I stuffed a small messenger bag with the items I was taking, before meeting my friends on the front porch. We stood there in silence as the sun sat overhead.

“I... I guess I’ll see you guys later,” I finally said after a good five minutes of silence.

Audrey gave a sad smile. “Yeah... see ya, Thomas. Keep in touch, okay? Stay out of trouble.”

I nodded and licked my lips a bit. Then I jumped up and grabbed her in a tight hug. I did the same for my other two friends, before flying high into the air. I gave them one last look, wishing severely that it hadn’t come to this -- but I’d told Spitfire that I’d meet up with her. Not to mention going into town like this was impossible. So, it was simply better to leave... but it certainly wasn’t easier.

Not by a long shot.

I hope Spitfire’s where she said she was, I thought, trying to keep my mind off my overwhelming sorrow. It was like trying to fight the tides with a broom. And I hope Soarin’ can explain to me what’s going on here... because I don’t know if I can do this sort of thing again.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts as I flew off, that I didn’t notice a few flashes from the people on the ground. I just hoped that the rest of this stupid journey thing wouldn’t be so hard.

I hate good-byes.

Dude, YOLO

I'm surprised I got this far this fast, I mused as I relaxed for the night.

Rolling over onto my stomach, I looked over the edge of my cloud-bed and looked at the area below. I had decided to simply fly west, and I currently found myself above the Mount Saint Helens area. It had seemed like a good place to hide, since it was fairly remote. There were a few houses and buildings a few minutes away, but not so close that a lone cloud sitting still in the sky would get their attention. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do tomorrow, especially for food. I’d already eaten half of what I’d packed with me. At the moment, however, I was really, really worried about something else that had occurred while travelling. I wasn't sure if it was a big deal, but it kept --

"Hey, Soar!"

I looked to the familiar orange Pegasus that lighted down next to where I lay back on a small cloud.

"Oh, hey, Spitfire."

"What're you doing out here so late?"

I smiled and turned my attention back to the skies above me.

"Just relaxing after a long day of practice. Something wrong?"

She shook her head. "No, I was just doing some paperwork and had to deliver some of it to you. When I didn't find you in your office, I got a little worried."

"Ah. Well, I finished the paperwork you gave me earlier, so I came out here to chill."

"Which involves what, exactly?"

“Just a bit of stargazing.”

She chuckles, “You’re a hopeless romantic, you know that?”

I grin, “I can’t help it! Princess Luna’s night sky is awesome!”

I shook my head sharply, trying to get the vision out of my head. They were happening with a growing frequency that, quite frankly, frightened me. But simply having them wasn’t the scariest part for me. It wasn’t that they were clear enough that, if I hadn’t been aware of them, I would mistake them for an actual memory of my own. I sighed as the last of the most recent memory/vision/whatever faded away. Rolling onto my back and letting my wings spread out to be more comfortable, I watched as the clouds above me moved out of the way. A smile spread on my lips as I saw the half moon. Surrounding it was all the stars of the night sky.

“Luna does a better job with the constellations...” I muttered to myself.

I didn’t even bother to correct that, because from that last memory, I could tell that it was true. Don’t get me wrong, the sky above Earth was very nice, especially at night. The stars and the constellations were always a joy to look at. It just... wasn’t the same. Stars that simply come out at night, and were difficult to see as long as I was in or near the city, didn’t hold the same beauty as a night sky that had a caretaker. Especially one like Luna. I mean, I’d only really seen about five minutes worth of Equestria’s stars, but even with that little I could honestly say that it was far more visually appealing than Earth’s.

"I hope the princesses are alright..."

All the flying that I’d done earlier that day was catching up to me, and I found my eyes drifting shut. The last thing I saw as sleep finally took me was the moon and the stars, and they moved to fill my dreams.

When I finally woke up, I found that I had rolled over onto my stomach at some point, and was even drooling a little bit. Wiping it up on a foreleg, I wondered what I would do for breakfast. All I had left from yesterday was a few apples, and I wanted to save those for when I was in the middle of flying. I had my wallet and some cash that my friends had withdrawn for me, so I could always go into town and get something. Not that doing so would be the smart thing to do, but --

“Uhh, Soarin’?”

“Yeah, Fleetfoot?”

“What’re you doing?”

I grinned deviously. “Messing with Spit’s coffee.”

She shook her head slowly. “That is definitely not the smartest thing you’ve ever done.”

“Ah well, buck it. I mean, YOLO, right?”

Fleetfoot couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Not in this case. What have you put in there already?”

“A pinch of pepper, some hot sauce, and a little bit of salt so far.”

“Gross.”

“That’s the point. Now are you gonna just stand there and watch, or are you gonna help me out here?”

She got a thoughtful look on her face. Considering that we were all currently waiting for the show to start in thirty minutes, with Spitfire outside the team wait room talking to our manager, there wasn’t much else to do right now.

“Sure,” She finally grinned. “What else were you thinking of dumping in this?”

Yeah... that was definitely notthe smartest thing I’ve ever done. Fleet and I were doing post-practice laundry for weeks.

Even though I was a bit upset at the sudden appearance of the memory-thingy, I couldn’t help but chuckle. Especially one part of it, mostly because it reminded me of my favorite Achievement Hunter. Looking at my nearly-gone food supply, then back at the nearby town...

“Ah, well, buck it. YOLO~!”

With that, I dove down towards the small town and landed just in front of the grocery store. As I walked into the building, it was very easy to notice that quite literally everyone froze and stared. Having been a member of my high school drama club, I was alright with being stared at like this. Besides, at the moment, I was hungry, and as a result I seriously did not care what they thought about me.

I was able to somehow drag a basket around the store, and grabbed a few cheap, pony-safe, travel-sized snacks. Mostly Clif bars, a few small apples, things like that. The people there were still staring. Again, not that I cared. Couldn’t be bothered. Maybe later. As I went up to the cashier, I made sure to just stare at him myself until he started to actually ring up the items.

“Uhh... that’ll be $15.72...”

Nodding, it took me a moment to pull out a twenty from my wallet and hand it to him. I grabbed the plastic bag in my teeth, containing the wonderful-smelling food and my change, before high-tailing it out of there. Once I had landed on another cloud, I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“Okay, that was definitely not the smartest thing I’ve ever done... but it was so worth it to see their faces!”

I shoved the items I’d gotten into my little travel bag, making sure to keep the plastic bag for something in the future. Not sure what, but something. Hey, it’s good to be prepared. I’m sure that I got on the news with all the camera phones that exist, but again, I no longer cared. Why should I? If someone doesn’t like that I’ve become a pony, they can get over it. It’s none of their business, after all. Although, something tells me I’m probably going to end up either being thrown into a psych ward, a cage for experimentation, or if I’m lucky, I’ll end up on Saturday Night Live as a guest.

...That actually seems like a good idea. Maybe I can convince Spitfire and Zecora to do that with me or something. It would certainly help dispel any fear or whatever the world probably has of these sudden transformations. Well, either way, I had no idea where that show was recorded, so it probably wouldn’t work. Not to mention I needed to meet my captain in Illinois soon. Well, soon-ish. I wasn’t in a rush, after all.

“Soarin’, hurry it up!”

I sighed and turned to see Rapidfire standing in the locker room. The impatient look on his face told me everything I needed to know.

“We’ve got to get going now!”

“Rapid,” I began to say, rolling my eyes as I continued at my own pace. “We’ve got an hour until we meet at the bar with the rest of the team. Relax.”

“Yeah, and then we gotta go pack for tomorrow’s trip to Manehatten!”

I smirked, “Already done.”

“...What. When’d you do that?”

“This morning before practice. I’ve only got a couple things left to put in my bags tomorrow morning.”

“How come you’re always ready to go and relaxed?!”

“Because I always take my life one. Day. At. A. Time. I’ve said it before, dude.”

“You’re a Wonderbolt, Soar,” Rapid said, facehooving. “Going fast is what we do.”

“Most of us, anyway. Living one day at a time is a lot easier.”

Huh. Apparently Soarin’ and I lived life with quite similar attitudes. Well, I’d gotten that from the previous flashback-like visions I’d been having for the past two days, and after this last one, I was starting to believe that maybe that personality that had taken over back with my friends... wasn’t his mind. Someone might say that it’s all a coincidence, but I don’t believe in those.

So either Soarin’s mind came with this body transformation thing -- which was looking less likely the more visions I had -- or...

I was Soarin’.

That thought made me stop in midair, flapping to stay in place. After a moment, I found a cloud to sit on for me to logic my way through this. Starting with similarities between me and him.

We both loved pie. Not enough for me to be worried about splattering one by dropping it -- a memory of that one Grand Galloping Gala flashed through my mind -- but enough for it to be my favorite food. Specifically, homemade apple pie.

We both loved to take it easy. With life in general. Certain things we worked hard on, like for Soarin’ it would be flying for the Wonderbolts. For me, it would be my job... so we were similar in that respect as well.

Wow... just a couple of things so far. They were small, insignificant things... and yet, as I thought about it, it just made me think that perhaps it was true...

Perhaps I hadn’t turned into Soarin’.

Perhaps I had returned to being Soarin’.

And for some reason... that thought was strangely comforting...

Wonderbolts On The Rise

Most people -- and probably ponies, too -- would question their sanity if they had the kind of realization that I just did.

And I’m fairly certain that they would turn themselves into the psych ward if that very same realization was strangely comforting.

But I wasn’t exactly one-hundred percent sane anyway, so I just shrugged off those worries. Especially because it made sense. Well... to me, at least. Mostly because as far as I could tell, there wasn’t much else that explained everything that had happened recently.

Shaking my head free of these thoughts, I continued my flight east. I needed to catch up with my flight schedule: find Spitfire before the end of the world. Or something like that. Whatever. Either way, it would take some time to get to my destination, probably another day or two.

I’m gonna need to keep an eye out for sources of water and food, I noted. With this long of a flight ahead of me, I’m gonna dry up fast.

Perhaps I could find some friends or something to team up with? It would certainly make it easier to get across the country. I had hoped that I would be able to get to Rockford, Illinois pretty quickly, but I’m not flying at the same speed as a commercial airliner. Those things fly at an altitude of 30,000 feet and an average of 150 miles per hour.

There is not a chance in Tartarus that I can fly like that without crashing and burning. Probably literally. And neither of those is currently on my Christmas wish list, thanks.

...Speaking of which, do I still need to send one to my family if I’m a pony now? A look of interest crossed my muzzle. I think I’ll have to edit it, though... no more video games for me. Stupid hooves.

I slowed my flight a bit and glanced around at my surroundings. More specifically, I looked at the bland land of Idaho below me. And by ‘bland’, I of course mean, ‘absolutely nothing of interest within sight’. God, this place was dull... no, wait, there was something over there.

“Oh.” I halted and turned back in my original direction. “Fuuuuuck that.”

It was the Idaho Air Force Base. Considering my actions back in that Mount Saint Helens grocery store, I don’t think going near that would be wise. Sure, it had been kinda stupid to go shopping like that in the first place, but getting into the air space of a military base?

That wasn’t stupid. That was suicidal. So there was only one real response: nope! Not happening!

Once the base was out of sight, I slowed down from my panicked flight and gave a relieved sigh. Looking at where I was now, I noted that my high-speed tactical retreat had led me right into Montana’s western border.

...This was going to be a long flight.

1234567890987654321

“Final-fucking-ly!” I cried to the open skies as I spotted the sign of my destination: Rockford, Illinois. “Took long enough!”

There were a few things that I learned on my way over. First: flying under your own power and getting to see everything along the way was awesome. Second: doing so was exhausting. My plan is go to sleep and not wake up until Christmas... or at least wake up to a great, big buffet. Slowly making my way over to a nearby cloud, I collapsed onto it with a relieved sigh, letting every muscle relax. The only other major problem aside from my exhaustion and hunger was the location of Spitfire.

“Ugh... I should find her before I fall asleep...”

My muscles protested loudly as I stood back up and launched myself back into the air. I didn’t know much of where Spitfire was, except that she was supposedly close by and hiding in a forest. Which, with a quick glance around, wasn’t hard to spot. Heading over to the only forest area that was nearby, I kept an eye out for my companion. Which, considering how brightly colored she was, it wouldn’t be that hard to spot her.

And as a matter of fact, it wasn’t. Grinning as I spotted Spitfire, I landed nearby.

“Oh thank Celestia I finally found you!” I sighed gratefully. “Ugh, that flight sucked. Please tell me I can take the rest of the day off...”

“Soarin’!” Spitfire greeted me cheerfully with a smile. A very familiar smile. “Glad you made it, soldier. And not in bad time, too.”

Another familiar face popped up behind my old friend -- the face of a zebra.

“Soarin’, you remember Zecora, right?”

“Greetings, Soarin’, and how do you do?” Zecora greeted. “Spitfire was very worried about you.”

“Yeah... I don’t remember you just yet.” I gave the friendly zebra an apologetic look. “Sorry. I’ve been getting flashbacks for a couple days now, but I haven’t gotten anything involving you. But I’ll take your word for it that I know you.”

Zecora stroked her chin in thought. “If you want I can fix your memory issue. A simple potion and your lost memories ensue.”

I thought about it for a while, sitting down as I did... before shaking my head. “Thanks for the offer, but I’d rather let them come naturally. It’s more... exciting, I guess.”

Zecora simply smiled and nodded, understanding where I was coming from.

“So, Soarin’, how have you been the past few decades, anyway?” Spitfire asked casually. “I got to keep my gender, but Zecora here wasn’t so lucky.”

Zecora looked away, but the blush on white fur was pretty obvious. I winced in sympathy for her.

“Ooohhh... sorry to hear that. My gender didn’t change, so I got lucky there. Other than that, it’s been a pretty easy-going couple of decades.”

She shook her head. “It is fine just please do not remind me, I am still trying to put that behind me.”

I smirked along with Spitfire, who spoke next. “Alright, now that you’re here, Soarin’, we can figure out what to do next. Oh, by the way, I saw the newscast of your little stunt at that store. It wasn’t a bad idea, so I decided to pull off my own stunt, but with a slightly bigger audience.”

I listened carefully and grinned as she explained what she did.

“Slightly bigger audience? Spits, I got on the news!” I paused as I thought about it. “...Well, you probably did too, so how about we call it a tie?”

Then I put my hoof to my chin and thought about what we could do next.

“Well... hmm...” What should we do next? “There’s always... no... well, we could always be guest stars on The Daily Show or something.” I jokingly suggested. Then I paused. “...Actually that sounds like a good idea. I mean, I’m certain there are other people turning into ponies, right? And there are probably people and government officials freaking out about it being a disease or something? Then why don’t we convince some talk show to guest star us, and make a public service announcement or whatever about how this isn’t a disease, and that we’re not a threat?”

“Well there are definitely other ponies out there; the Elements of Harmony and the other Wonderbolts for sure. As for The Daily Show, I was thinking the same thing, but there are two flaws with that plan. First, we can’t exactly drive to... New York, right? And two,” Spitfire pointed to Zecora at this point. “She can’t fly, and I’m not leaving her behind.”

I blinked and shrugged. “Then don’t. We can fly with her. As for her stuff, we’ll just figure something out.”

“Don’t worry, I have a bag for my potions and brews, since some of those are too dangerous to lose.” Zecora replied just before trotting off. “Now my supplies I’m going to pack, and then we can leave once I get back.”

Spitfire grinned, “Well that takes care of that. Next stop, New York City!”

I grinned in return. “And back to being the world famous Wonderbolts!”

An entire two days of flying passed to go from Rockford, Illinois to New York City, New York.

...Why is it called that, anyway? I wondered as we landed on a roof to plan our next move. Naturally, the first idea came from The Boss.

“Why don’t we just bust into his office and ask him to interview us?” Spitfire suggested. “I mean, we’re kinda famous already.”

Zecora sighed. “We don’t want to scare him if we can help it, and if he calls the guards, we’ll be in deep shit.”

I just chuckled. “Sounds like your kind of plan, Spits. How about we just do this the same way I did the grocery store back in Washington?” I gestured towards the building where they filmed the show. “We don’t need some elaborate plan when we can just waltz in the front door and give them guests to interview for an episode that will bring in a ton of money.”

“I mean, come on, what’s more interesting: a news channel showing off a couple YouTube videos of me and Spits being seen in public, or Jon Stewart himself interviewing us? And especially after we walk in and say that we’re there to do exactly that.”

Spitfire blinked at my suggestion and thought it over. Then she grinned. “That’s exactly what we’ll do! Then maybe we can find the Elements. Or even better, the rest of the team!”

Zecora laughed. “Well then if we’ve got a plan, let’s do this. For this is a chance we cannot miss.”

So with that, Zecora hitched a ride on Spitfire again as we flew down to the building and walked right in. I smirked as people stopped and stared. Some even dropped their cell phones.

“Hi,” Spitfire greeted the receptionist. “We’re here for our interview.”

I chuckled slightly, and it grew as she grew rapidly impatient. “Hello? Two Wonderbolts and a witch doctor here? I know this isn’t usually how to schedule an interview, but my agent’s still in Equestria.”

It took that long for the security guards to snap out of their shock and to start approaching. What happened next can be described very shortly as Zecora getting them to leave us alone. Something about how we came in peace and all that... oh, wow, just thinking that made it seem so cliché.

“You two were on the news, weren’t you?” The receptionist asked, glancing between Spits and I.

Spitfire grinned. “I was in Rockford.”

“Washington state, for me.” I answered casually. I was giving my hoof more attention than the people in front of me at this point. “Now, miss... Julie, allow me to explain why giving us an on-air interview would be a good idea. First, the number of viewers you’ll get. Just think about it. What’s more interesting: a politician talking about something going on overseas, or three real-life ponies that more or less qualify as aliens from another dimension? Not to mention the fact that the live audience that will be here eventually will be all the witnesses you’ll need.

“Second, money. Aside from the ridiculous amount of viewers you’ll get just from having all of us be on this show, you’ll be raking in more money than before. I mean, really; just imagine how many people will do whatever they can to get their hands on this footage.

“Finally... you’ll get to do something no other talk show has done yet. You’ll get the chance to broadcast video of ponies that just happen to resemble those from a cartoon and just happen to actually be real. And of course, it’ll be a perfect chance for us to prove to you -- as well as everyone in the world -- that we mean no harm. That all we want to do is go home.”

As far as I was concerned, it was pretty solid reasoning -- and all because it was true. I don’t know about Spitfire, but all I wanted to do was find the other Wonderbolts and go home. To Equestria. I watched as the receptionist slowly reached for the phone on her desk.

“Mr. Stewart? You need to come see this. Yes, it’s important.”

The Interview

You know those reality shows on MTV where they show the characters, and it sometimes shows them in those backrooms with the comfy chairs and couches and they’re chatting? Yeah... that’s just a TV set. The three of us currently sat in one of the backrooms. I think it might’ve been some sort of large walk-in closet at one point. At the moment though, we were currently just waiting to be called on set for the interview we were no doubt going to be getting.

...Or the producer was going to walk in with some FBI goons at his sides. Whichever comes first.

Glancing at my comrades and friends, I noticed that Spitfire appeared to be somewhat tense. She might’ve also said something, but I had completely missed it, being too lost in my own thoughts on what was going on. I was about to ask what was on her mind, but that was when the door opened. Standing there in the opening was, as expected, Jon Stewart and a bunch of other people carrying clipboards. I smirked at the look on his face.

Spitfire stepped forward, ignoring the group’s expressions. “Hello, Mister Stewart. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts. This is Soarin’, my second in command. And this is Zecora, my -- ” She seemed to pause as a thought came to mind, a sad look crossing her face. “My... friend.”

I could only hope that she was alright and wonder what had occurred to her before she trotted over to the man.

“You know, I’ve always been a big fan of your show.”

Despite my slight worry for her, I could only chuckle. “Don’t go all fanfilly on him already, Spits! Give him a second to recover!”

I smiled as she chuckled and continued. “So are you gonna interview us to see if we’re good enough for your show, or are we already in?”

That seemed to snap him out of it. “Uh, sorry. When someone told me there were talking horses in the building and asking to be on the show, I thought they were joking.”

“Nope, no joke! We’ve been looking to get an interview with you for a few days now, actually. And we’re ponies, not horses.”

“Alright.” He shrugged and grabbed a chair, taking a clipboard from one of the assistants, muttering a quick thanks. He took a minute to write a few things, before returning the clipboard and whatever was on it. “So here’s the deal. With everything that’s been happening recently, like that incident in Canada, we were originally planning on just playing a prerecorded interview with Lady Gaga.”

I couldn’t help but wince slightly and chuckle. “Ohh... how did that go?”

He smirked and shrugged. “Could’ve been worse. Now, the show starts in an hour. Is there anything you three need before then?”

Spitfire smirked, and I just knew what she was going to say. “Yeah... how good’s your wardrobe department?”

I rolled my eyes. “Spitfire, go easy on them, we don’t have to go all out with this. At least, not for what we wear or anything. I mean, getting the Wonderbolt flight suits back would be nice, but we could probably get away with just our uniforms. You know, like the one shown back in season three.”

“Good point. And don’t talk about Wonderbolts Academy, okay?” She turned to one of the assistants, going on to explain how to look it up.

“Oh!” One of the assistants in the back says. “You mean those military-like uniforms you wore in Wonderbolts Academy, and the one Soarin’ wore in that one snapshot in the Canterlot Wedding?”

I blinked before chuckling. “Looks like we got a fan among us, Spits. I’m gonna go ahead and congratulate you on holding back.”

The young man blushed a bit and rubbed his neck. “Uh... I just... got into it when I watched it with my little sis...”

Spitfire walked over to him, “Don’t worry, I don’t think anybody will make fun of a brony or pegasister ever again after this.”

He smiled and promised to deliver the designs to the costume director, giving us a warning of the impending measurements that they’d need. Shortly after, he left with everybody else to get the show ready. It took a few moments for that warning to process properly.

“Oh! Oh.” I made a face at the thought. “That’s gonna be... awkward...”

Zecora chuckled. “It’s times like these that make me glad, that I already found what clothing I had.”

“Well.” Spitfire smiled. “That was easy.”

Zecora nodded, smiling as well. “Yes, probably thanks to Soarin’s argument. And I haven’t seen any government.”

“Yet,” I warned. “They might arrive during the middle of the show.”

“Well I have a surprise for the government folk,” Zecora said. “A pouch full of poison joke.”

I frowned. “Okay, two things. One, where did you even get that? Two, no. If you throw that at them, it’ll just prove their point -- that we’re something to be afraid of. We’re here trying to prove them wrong, not give them another reason to go after all of us.”

Zecora looked away, a shameful look coming over her eyes. “One, I mixed up plants in the earlier days. And you’re right, I’m sorry I fell back on old ways.”

I gently placed a hoof on her shoulder. “It’s alright, this is a fairly stressful time for all of us.”

It took a few moments for Zecora to speak again. “Thank you Soarin’ for your understanding, and also for how well this situation you’ve been handling.”

I shrugged. “I got my panicking out when I started transforming. Decided it would be too much of a pain to panic anymore afterwards.”

“Well, now that we’ve got that cleared up,” Spitfire started, smiling. “We can move on to the next challenge which is -- ” She turned and looked at the door -- “wardrobe.”

Just like I had predicted, the entire process was, indeed, awkward. First there was the fact that the designers had a hard time getting past the fact that we were actually real. Then there was the part where they didn’t know that Pegasi wings are incredibly sensitive. So... yeah, it was awkward.

“Okay...” Spitfire began to say once they’d left. “I’m pretty sure fitting back in Equestria weren’t that awkward.”

“Hopefully it means we’ll be going on soon.”

“Yeah... how do you think the audience will react when we go on?” Spitfire grinned rather deviously. I could only do the same.

“Ten minutes to showtime!”

“Thank you, ten!” I paused as I realized I called that purely on reflex. “Uhh... it’s something I picked up here in drama club.”

“Why Soarin’, I didn’t know you were into the fine arts!” Spitfire teased.

I just grinned as we headed out towards the costume rooms. We ended up simply skipping the stage make-up. Fur and all that. We did, however, end up getting a quick grooming instead. It took a good few minutes struggling into the uniforms -- well, for me, anyway. Not long after, we were waiting off-stage for our cue to enter stage left.

“You two excited to be revealed to the world?” Spitfire asked.

“Yes, in fact I’m quite excited, that we are about to be spotlighted,” Zecora said.

“It’s just gonna be a bigger audience than what I’m used to,” I shrugged. Then I grinned. “I wish I could see my friends’ faces when they see this, though!”

My ears twitched slightly as I tuned in to Jon Stewart, hearing him start to wind up his introduction of us.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as you know from the news and various videos on YouTube, there has been a rather strange phenomenon occurring around the world. There have been eyewitness accounts of ponies being seen. Whether or not these accounts are real is still up for discussion. Or, at least, they were until earlier today, when three ponies arrived here and made a very convincing argument to guest star on this show tonight. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Spitfire, Soarin’, and Zecora!”

With those words, the three of us trotted onto the stage calmly. The audience’s applause grew only louder as we took our seats.

At least they haven’t called for our hanging or some --

“What are you idiots clapping for?!” Some man stood up in the rows further back. He glared and pointed at us. “These... these... things are a danger to us all! If we stay here, we’re all going to become one of them!”

I couldn’t help but sigh and let one of my hooves slap my forehead in my annoyance. “No, you won’t.” The microphones the backstage crew had hidden in our clothes and clipped to my uniform’s collar picked up my voice quite well. Not sure how it was hidden on Zecora.

“But --”

“No. It’s not going to happen unless you meet a few very specific requirements. First of all, if you were not born during the first week of May, then you are fine. Second, if you are did not turn twenty-five during that time, then you are fine. And finally, if you do fit those requirements but you have not changed at all yet, then it’s not going to happen to you. Ever.”

With those words, the audience stared at the man. He grumbled as he sat back down, and Jon Stewart finally spoke.

“Well, with that out of the way, let’s begin the interview, shall we?”

“Sounds good to me,” Spitfire agreed. It was obvious to me that we were both glad the FBI hadn’t shown up yet.

“Okay, well, it’s a rather obvious question, but... you three are talking ponies from a television show for little kids. Would you mind telling us a little bit about yourselves?”

“Guess I’ll start,” Spitfire said. I smirked, having had a feeling she’d jump on this chance. “I’m Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts, one of the fastest fliers in Equestria. I’m from Cloudsdale, and when I wasn’t performing or on a mission for the princesses or training new recruits, I was either with friends or family, or just hanging out in Cloudsdale or Los Pegasus.”

I chuckled, “Sheesh, Spits, give ‘em your whole life story while you’re at it, why don’t you?”

She rolled her eyes, smirking. “Alright Soarin’, why don’t you tell these fine people a little bit about yourself?”

“Brag about myself? If you insist!” I grinned. “Alright, seriously, I’m from Cloudsdale as well. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it’s a floating cloud city in Equestria. No, I’m not kidding, Mr. Stewart. A floating cloud city. I’m co-captain of the Wonderbolts, making me one of the fastest fliers as well. I tend to just take things easy as much as I can, because outside of flying for the team, I’m too lazy to work harder than necessary. That’s... pretty much it, really.”

The host motioned to Zecora and said. “And you miss?”

She smiled and began. “The name Zecora is how I am known, and in the land of Zebgypt I was grown. A land far beyond the Everfree, it was never very appealing to me. And, after some incidents I’d rather not mention, I came to realize destinies intention. I traveled forth from the place of my birth, and crossed many, many miles of earth. Until I reached Equestrian soil, and there for ten years I did toil, in the Everfree, hidden away, from the ponies I met on my very first day. They feared my appearance, so it would seem, or at least that’s what I gathered from their screams. Until a little filly by the name of Apple Bloom, came to me ignoring what the others did assume. And she was the one who helped them all see, that there was nothing evil about me. And since that day I lived in peace, until I got sent here, at least.”

There was a short pause after her speech. Then the audience, including that one guy from earlier, broke into a loud and enthusiastic applause.

“Okay,” Jon Stewart said, stunned. “That... was amazing. Do you always talk like that?”

“If to my rhymes you refer, then they are normal I assure. I can’t seem to stop them even if I try, but then again, why would I?”

I smiled as I watched this happen. It reminded me of watching the show and seeing --

“So you just got off another Equestria-wide tour! How do you feel this time?”

I grinned at the reporter interviewing us after our last show for the season. “How I always feel: awesome!”

“And what do you plan to do now that it’s over?”

“Do the same thing we always do, of course. Continue flying.”

I rubbed a hoof against my temple, annoyed slightly by this sudden flash of memory. I was able to return my focus to the interview in time to hear Jon ask about what it meant to be Wonderbolts.

“Well,” Spitfire began. “We’re a part of Equestria’s military, think along the lines of the air force, but we’re more of a sports and air show team. Kinda like those Blue Angels I’ve heard of.”

“Yes, that’s their name. And I believe you gave a little air show over Rockford, Illinois, correct?” Jon asked. I smiled.

“I guess I did, I just thought the publicity would be good,” Spitfire shrugged.

“Actually, can we pull that footage up on the screen?”

Immediately, the boss’ video of her aerial maneuvers were on the big screen behind us, and finished with some polite applause from the audience. I chuckled.

“Of course you ended with writing your name in the air. Never could resist that little trick, could you?”

She just smiled. “When you find something that works...”

Jon smiled and continued. “Zecora, what did you do back in Equestria?”

“Back home in Equestria I was a brewer of herbs, and I made to enchant them with Zebrican words.”

Our show host was confused. “So you were something like a witch doctor?”

Zecora just smiled patiently. “I understand where everyone keeps getting that notion, and yes I am a maker of potions.”

And then came the question that everyone had to have been waiting for. “Alright... and now for the obvious one. How did you get here?”

Spitfire looked away. “That certainly is the million bit question, isn’t? Well, I’d hate to disappoint.. Zecora, if you would...?”

Then our friend pulled out a small pouch and dumped its contents. Shortly after, a green mist filled the air, and quickly gave the viewers a visual explanation of what had happened -- along with Spitfire’s commentary.

She talked about how Discord had warned Celestia of the incoming demon, helping fight him, and then subsequently turning traitor...

And shortly after starting to banish us all to this world. I barely paid attention as the memories of those times -- having already returned to me -- consumed my attention.

“For two decades and five years,” Zecora said, to finish the presentation up. “We have hidden in plain sight, many guessed that we used to be humans -- and they’re right.”

There was a stunned silence among the audience at that. So I decided to speak up. “She’s not lying. Hardly a week ago, I was human myself. And I’m fairly certain that there were a lot of other ponies out there who could testify to the same thing.”

“Yeah,” Spitfire agreed. “If we’re right, then everyone who was banished, has spent the last twenty-five years as a human.”

“And who were you when you were human?” Jon asked.

From the silence, I could tell Spitfire hadn’t expected this one. So Zecora spoke instead.

“While I don’t know what’s on either of my friends’ minds, I’d rather not answer questions of this kind.” I didn’t even have to look to know she was a bit embarrassed by the question.

“Eh, I’ll answer,” I shrugged. “I was going through college back on the west coast to be a video game designer. I’m a huge gamer. Grew up on the SNES, and I haven’t looked back since.”

“I’ll go next.” Spitfire volunteered immediately after. I snorted, smirking. “I was just working some part time job when this started. At the time I was considering enlisting, and I practically grew up with David --”

I didn’t know who David was, but I’m sure everyone here could guess. She thankfully realized what she’d said right away.

Our host looked confused. “Who’s David?”

Spitfire looked nervous about this, but Zecora just sighed and spoke up. “Since everypony else shared, I guess it’s down to me. I won’t say much, but my name used to be David, you see.”

The discomfort on Mr. Stewart’s face was obvious. “That’s a boy’s name, though, isn’t it?”

Zecora was equally uncomfortable as she looked away from the audience. “Yes. The name’s male, and while it seems unfair, the truth is my transformation made me a mare.”

“Well, this is Discord we’re talking about here,” I mentioned. “I’m sorry it happened to you, but keep in mind: chaos is what he does. It’s who he is. So really, unfair though it is, it’s kinda what he’d do...”

Thankfully, that seemed to help calm everyone, and Zecora spoke again. “It’s alright. I’ve accepted this, though strange. But I beseech you, can the subject please be changed?”

Jon seemed to accept that as a good cue, thankfully. “What is it that you hope to accomplish now that you’re ponies again?”

Okay, now this is where I just couldn’t keep quiet. “I don’t know about Spitfire here, but I’m going to find the rest of the Wonderbolts and the rest of my Equestrian friends. I haven’t seen them in twenty-five years, it’s about time we get together for a good, old fashioned party!” I paused. “And to find a way back to Equestria, of course. But that’s after the party.”

Spitfire smiled. “That’s pretty much my plan too.” Zecora just nodded, smiling as well.

“Okay, but... how?”

I couldn’t help this one either. As a natural nerd, my sarcastic side was well honed because of the internet... and now my eyes were half-lidded at this question. “Really?” I fanned out my wings. “Really?”

Jon chuckled. “Alright, I earned that one. Now, one last question before we’re out of time: how will your family and friends react.”

This was a question that was a bit harder for me to respond to... but not by much. “Well... I don’t know how my family will react, but seeing this will probably be a nice way of getting started. As for my friends, those that didn’t watch me transform, will probably have already told my other friends.”

Spitfire was just as calm as I. “My family either know already, or probably suspect what happened. They did show pictures of us on the news as well as my apartment.”

Zecora, however, did not seem so calm about this one. She frowned, explaining. “My father will most likely be freaking out, and as for my mother that part I doubt. She always managed to keep a calm head... and... she always did want a daughter to tuck in bed.”

Jon nodded calmly. He paused for only a moment, before turning to the audience. “Thank you for your time, ponies, and I hope you succeed in your goals. Unfortunately, that is all that we have time for today, ladies and gentlemen. So I say to you all, farewell, and have a good night.”

The show ended with thunderous applause as the cameras were shut off, and while the audience slowly shuffled out the exit doors, we went backstage.

To the Beach!

Today was just like any other day. It wasn’t bright outside, the air was a bit chilly with enough moisture to be easily felt by the hair on one’s arms. Especially since it was raining, which made it all the more obvious. Not that I cared, this was normal for this city. I mean, it was so normal for it to be raining here, that I wasn’t even wearing that big of a coat. More accurately, I wasn’t wearing a coat at all. A short-sleeve shirt, to be exact.

“Hey, Thomas.”

“Hey, Clayton. So who else is going?”

“The usual guys.”

I followed him into his apartment, having walked the short distance between mine and his. Since we had been born and raised in southwest Washington state, he didn’t question my red short-sleeve shirt with beige pants and tennis shoes, despite the rain.

“So you got everything? We’re taking your car, right?”

“Yup. Need any help?”

“Yeah, can you grab the box over there?”

“Sure, I got it.”

I snatched up the small, heavy box. A few years ago, I might have huffed a bit at the weight, but lately I’d been really working hard at staying in shape and eating healthy. A lot of us had been, and it had all started because of a little challenge we’d made a couple years ago.

“Alright, is that everything?” I asked as I shut the car doors.

“That’s all of it, let’s head out.”

We hopped into the car, and I started up the engine after buckling up. It took me a moment to set the music on my phone, plugged in through an auxiliary cord to play through the car speakers, before I finally shifted into reverse and pulled out. Clayton groaned at what he heard.

“Ugghh... brony music? You’re still into that?”

I grinned. “Yup!”

“Dude, that show’s been off the air for years!”

“Bleach has been off for just as long, and you still listen to that music.”

“...Touché.” We both laughed at that. “But seriously, why are you so devoted to it? I mean, I know you love Pokémon just as much, but I haven’t seen you talk about that much lately.”

I shrugged as I merged onto the freeway. “I dunno, I still really like that series, but for some reason, I’ve been getting more and more into the brony stuff lately. I’m not sure why.”

Clayton gave me a look. “What, did you suddenly revert back to college years?”

I gave another shrug. He did the same and turned his attention back to the road, pulling out his iPod and headphones in order to listen to his own music for a while. We had a couple of hours before we reached the beach, where we would be spending the week with a few friends of ours. It was exactly the kind of birthday celebration that I wanted -- some time with my closest friends.

“What’s the date?” He asked suddenly. Glancing over, I spotted the calendar open on his music player. “I had to reset my iPod because I had to update and it was jailbroken.”

“Ah. It’s...” I had to pause to think backwards. It's how I kept track. “May first.”

“Thanks.”

I nodded, and we lapsed back into silence, letting our music fill it for a while. As had been planned, we swapped seats halfway to the destination, since it was still a bit early today. Like we’d agreed, the driver got to select the music. A few minutes in, a song came on that was rather loud, and it made me groan in frustration. I was trying to take a nap here!

“Could you turn it down a bit?” I asked tiredly.

Clayton looked at me, as we reached the point of being only half an hour away. “Did you not sleep well last night?”

“No, I had this weird nightmare that woke me up halfway through. I wasn't able to get back to sleep.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t know.”

Thankfully, he turned it down enough for me to easily get somewhat comfortable and fall asleep in the car again. Unfortunately, I did not get as long of a nap as I wanted, as I jolted awake.

“Augh!”

Clayton’s attention snapped to me. “Dude, you alright?”

I took a few deep breaths and licked my lips a bit. Glancing at the clock, it looked like I’d been asleep for only ten minutes, and we were about five from our destination. Taking a sip of the soda I’d gotten at the gas station, I finally formulated an answer. “Sorry... sorry, didn’t mean to freak you out. It was just...”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

Strong gusts of wind.

“YOU SON OF A --”

Pure, raw, unadulterated speed.

For five score, divided by four --

“Thomas? Hey! Thomas!”

I blinked at the calling of my name. Frowning slightly, I looked at my friend. Why was my door open? Were we there? Taking another glance around, my brow furrowed further. How’d we get here so quickly? Last I’d checked, we’d been a few minutes away. A couple of our friends, Andrew and Audrey specifically, were there as well and giving me equally worried looks.

Audrey was the first to speak, “Are you alright?”

For a moment, I could have sworn that I saw a row of Wonderbolts fly overhead, trademark smoke contrails included. “Yeah... yeah, I’m fine. Just spaced for minute is all.”

What else was I supposed to say? ‘No, I just had a flashback to something that never happened and I just had a hallucination about the Wonderbolts flying over us’? Yeah, no, that’s just an invitation to be sent to the rubber room, wrap-around jacket and all. I stepped out of the car right away, just to put on the show that I really was perfectly alright. Glancing inside the vehicle, I noticed it had yet to be unloaded, and moved quickly to start that. It would help assure them that I was speaking the truth. With all of us working together, it only took a few minutes. We were glad we didn’t have to pay for our stay, since an old friend of mine owned this house and had been willing to lend it to us for the week. Once we’d gotten that all done, we convened in the living room/kitchen area.

“So what’s next on the agenda?” Audrey asked. “Since we’re all here now.”

“Better question: who’s sleeping where?” Andrew inquired. “I noticed that there’s only three beds upstairs.”

I shrugged, “We’ll just take turns sleeping on the couch. There’s enough extra blankets and pillows for it. I’ll use it tonight.”

“Okay.”

“Alright, now what’re we going to do?”

Clayton spoke up first, “I say we get our swimsuits on and head over to the beach! We can get some swim time in before night fall!”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Andrew agreed, heading upstairs to change.

I went upstairs as well, going into the other room to change. I had my stuff stored in the room with only one mattress, while my friend went into the one with two. Scratching my thigh a bit as I grabbed my swim trunks, I started to change into them. Noticing that my hand was still scratching that area, I looked to see just what had gotten my attention -- and froze at what I saw.

“What the...” I twisted to get a better view of this new hallucination. As I did, it bent along with my skin. “Ooookay...”

Looking at my other side, I saw that it was there as well. Calling for Clayton, I waited for him to get upstairs, holding my pants up as I did.

“What?” He asked, then raised an eyebrow at how I seemed ready to strip. “Seriously?”

I rolled my eyes. “Did you do something while I was out earlier?”

“Uhh... what am I supposed to have done?”

I lowered the pants slightly, only enough to let the strange tattoo show. It was a yellow lightning bolt with wings attached on both sides. Turning, I showed that it was on both sides. It made me think of a cutie mark, actually.

“No way, I was still driving. I didn’t touch you until we got here.”

Looking at him, I could tell he was being honest. I sighed. “Alright... but that’s weird as hell.”

“What, you got it, didn’t you?”

“Hell no. I got better things to spend my money on, you know that.”

He snorted, “Yeah, Magic cards.”

I grinned. “Yup!”

Andrew peeked through the doorway. “Sorry, heard you from the other room. You got a tattoo?”

“Something like that... now get out, I gotta change.”

They shrugged and headed back downstairs. I stared at the cutie mark-like tattoos and sighed again. I’m not sure how or why these stupid things appeared, or why they were exactly like Soarin’s, but they were there now. More than that, they were absolutely perfect. Having seen many tattoos -- both temporary and permanent ones -- before, those don’t have such clean, sharp edges. Even the colors were usually slightly washed out, even when freshly made. But this... this was absolutely perfect. The edges were sharp, pristine. The colors were bright and vibrant. And like I’d found earlier, the flesh around it was completely smooth, which was probably the weirdest part. For any tattoo, the skin would bulge slightly where the ink had been placed, or if it was fake, the ink would be easily distinguishable from the skin around it. In my case, it was like the mark was flesh, and not tattoo ink. Once I’d gotten my swim trunks on, I headed downstairs to find my friends ready to go.

“So you got a magic tattoo?” Audrey asked, looking amused.

I rolled my eyes again. “Apparently... c’mon, let’s go. I’ll figure out this stupid thing later.”

The three of them accepted that, and we headed out to walk to the beach. It wasn’t far, and we weren’t gonna stay too long. It was close to dinner time, so we were gonna stop by someplace afterwards and just buy something. Once we’d had our fun in the cold Pacific Ocean water, we stopped at a small restaurant. Looking over the menu, I thought about getting the burger or hot dog like my friends, but they didn’t appeal to me the same way they did a day ago, and I’m not sure why. I ended up ordering one of their healthier, smaller sandwiches.

“I thought you’d have gone for the hot dog or something,” Andrew commented.

“Eh, just not interested in it, really,” I said. Then the little desert menu caught my eye. “Besides, I’m saving space for one of their slices of pie.”

We got a laugh out of that, and decided to move on from that and talk about how things were going for all of us. We talked in our usual former drama club member fashion. Meaning in a very animated and cheerful way, without bothering other customers, of course. Once I got my slice of apple pie -- which was absolutely delicious, by the way -- and the others had their ice cream, we headed back to the beach house.

We spent a few minutes sharing presents between each other. I was the only birthday boy today, but I got a couple things for everyone else anyway. They’d questioned me at first, and I’d simply told them that the opening presents part should be something we all do... besides, all I really got for them were White Elephant gifts. I mean, Andrew got a rubber-band, Audrey got some string, and Clayton got an empty box. What? They laughed. As for me, I’d simply asked that they just do whatever -- but Audrey’s gift was awesome.

“Whoa...” I grinned at her as I opened it. “A Soarin’ plush? These are so expensive! How’d you get one?!”

She smirked smugly, “I didn’t buy it.”

“But then how did -- no way. You made it?!”

“Yup!” Her grin was infectious.

“Dude, can I see that?” Clayton asked, and I nodded, handing it over. The thing was small, small enough to just barely be bigger than my hand -- but the detail was incredible. “This is amazing, Audrey!”

“Well, I’ve been making plushies for a while now, so I decided to make one for you.”

“Thank you. Seriously, this is just... holy shit, this is amazing.”

“I just had no idea you’d get his bloody cutie mark,” Audrey commented.

I shrugged. “Neither did I, but whatever. Good timing, I suppose, because now these two actually know what Soarin’ looks like.”

Andrew chuckled, “Yeah, the two most sane people in the house, the non-bronies.”

We all laughed at that. After a bit, we cleaned up and put on the newest Nintendo console. We played a game or five of some good, ol’ fashioned Super Smash Bros. 64, we finally got ready for bed. Pulling the blankets up to my chin as I lay on the couch, I couldn’t help but wonder about my new mark... and about what I’d heard and seen when I’d “spaced out” earlier.

What was happening? And why was it happening to me?

Mom, I'm Sick, I Can't Go To School

“Fleetfoot? FLEETFOOT!”

She didn’t answer. She wasn’t there anymore. There was nothing left of her.

“Whoops, sorry about that! Looks like poor Fleet’s gonna have to take a rain check on your next show! Heh heh heh!”

My jaw clenched. My teeth ground against each other. I turned to the monster that floated in front of me, a mismatch of various creatures. Fleetfoot was gone. Rainbow Dash had left to help her fellow Elements fight, and hadn’t returned. Rapidfire had vanished first. Lightning Blitz hadn’t been far behind. Blaze and Surprise had tried to take this freak on together, and had been sent away as well. I don’t know if Spitfire was alright, last I’d seen she had been off to help elsewhere in Equestria.

“What did you do?”

The monster only grinned. “Had my fun, of course. What does it --”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?”

That infuriating grin only grew wider. “I removed them, obviously. Can’t have annoying pests like you getting in the way, can I?”

My blood ran cold at his words. “YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

I charged at full speed, intent on making him payfor what he’d done. The next thing I know, it felt like my body and mind were being torn apart at the seams, and I can just barely hear his next words. Words of power.

“For five score, divided by four -- ”

Bolting upright, I found myself looking around and feeling rather confused for a moment. Then it finally dawned on me as I glanced at the clock. It was early in the morning, about six-thirty. And that stupid nightmare had woken me up. I don’t know why it had to do with the Wonderbolts. Maybe something about how I was turning into Soarin’ or something like that.

Speaking of which... As I thought about it, I decided to do a quick check-over and see what else had changed overnight.

When I saw it, despite having partially expected it, my eye twitched. My feet were gone. Completely. There was absolutely nothing about them that were human anymore -- they were hooves through and through. There was even some sky-blue fur creeping up from them. So far, it reached up to just past my ankles. Very slowly bringing them closer, I somewhat timidly touched them. Let me tell you, they felt weird. The fur on them was soft as silk and just as smooth. The strangest part of it all was that, for some reason, they also felt like they belonged. And I am not sure why. Once I was done staring at and poking my new transformed feet, I checked for any other changes, and noticed what was definitely the weirdest one so far. The one between my legs. Now that was way weirder than suddenly having hooves, and I am not going to describe it. It’s way too strange having that change all of a sudden. At least I was still male. With a deep breath, I very quietly grabbed my fancy smartphone -- which in this day and age of 2020 is the iPhone 8 -- and opened it to the web browser.

I wonder if there are others going through this shit, I thought as I went to the Google search bar. I doubt it. I mean, this is probably some really freaky, really long dream or... uh...

My thoughts derailed rather quickly. Having put in a very generic ‘Turning into a pony’ phrase as my search requirements, the first thing that popped up was a Facebook post. My eye twitched. There were dozens of hits for this! The second one was an official article, even! What the hell?!

“Ooookay...” I muttered quietly. “This is just... what in the name of Luna...”

That name passed my lips and I didn’t even think about it. At least, not until a moment later where I sighed and just clicked on one of the links. What I saw made me freeze as I saw the headline and opening photo.

Captain.

I only skimmed the rest of the article, all my attention was on that first image. It showed a lady sitting at a table, with a mane that was unmistakable to me. I could recall the first time I’d met her, even... wait, no I couldn’t! I dropped my phone on my bed and put my face in my hands.

What’s happening to me? It took almost all my willpower to hold back the tears that threatened to spill again. Now even my mindis changing? I’ve never met Spitfire in my life!

The very moment I had that thought, I could practically feel an alarmingly large portion of my mind rebelling in response. It stated that, yes, I did know Spitfire -- and I knew her very well. And yet, from everything that I’d experienced in the last twenty-five years of my life -- which was my entire life at this point, by the way -- I had not once met her. After a few minutes of an internal struggle on just what this meant, I shoved it aside just to keep the headache at bay.

Let’s see if I can get some attention myself with the internet...

Smirking a bit, I went to work. It took me almost half an hour to word it just the way that I wanted. In short, it told the world that I was rather rapidly becoming Soarin’, and looking for anypony else -- yes, I actually wrote anypony -- that was going through the same thing. Specifically, another Wonderbolt. Even more specifically, the captain of said team. Glancing at the clock, I noted that it was almost seven, and decided to head downstairs with my phone in my hand and only my pajama shorts and a white undershirt on.

“Morning, Audrey,” I greeted as calmly as I could.

“Morn -- holy shit, Thomas,” Audrey commented from where she’d glanced away from the cooking bacon.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, the hooves are weird and all, but --”

“Not just that. Your eyes are big.”

Oh. Taking yet another look in the downstairs bathroom mirror, I found she was right -- my eyes were ridiculously big. The green in them was even more pronounced as a result, and they were far more expressive as well. Deciding to not mention the other change that had happened overnight, I returned to the kitchen.

“Well, aside from all that, want some bacon?” Audrey asked. “Only one for now.”

“Sure, thanks.”

I’m not sure what happened. One moment I was taking a bite of what should be delicious bacon -- and the next I’m spitting it out into the trash can. A few days ago, this stuff was absolutely amazing. I mean, it’s bacon, for crying out loud! What happened to change that? My best friend was giving me a worried look.

“Are you alright?”

I had to rinse my mouth with some water before responding.  “Y-Yeah... I’ll be fine. But what did you do to that bacon? It tasted horrible!”

She took a piece and bit into it. “What are you talking about? They’re perfect.”

The look I gave her said it all. It took me a moment to realize that it wasn’t the bacon at fault here. “Oh... dammit. Of course the next thing that changes is the fact that I can’t eat meat! I should've gone by how it smelled weird, but I thought that was something else."

Audrey winces sympathetically, “Ouch. That sucks, dude.”

“Yeah... I’ll get over it,” I said. Shrugging, I tossed the rest of my bacon and grabbed an apple instead. Hm, maybe I can get an apple pie somewhere, that sounds good right about now. I facepalmed at that thought. “Ugh, I forgot about that changing, too...”

“What?”

“My mind.”

She gave me quite the confused look. “How the hell does that work?”

“I don’t know! The same way all these other things work? I just know that it’s happening! And I know I’ve said it a million times already, but I seriously wish I knew why.”

Audrey sighed as she finished making the bacon and pancakes, putting them on serving plates on the counter. “I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this. It’s really not fair for it to happen on... your... uh...”

It took me only a moment of seeing where she was going with that line of logic. Finishing off the apple and tossing the core, I frowned as I thought about it. The more I did, the more I realized my friend was right -- it had all started on my twenty-fifth birthday. Come to think of it, it had begun at the exact minute that I was reported to have been born. I’m sure someone out there would call that a coincidence. Not me. This is just too weird and too real for it to be so easily explained.

“Hey guys, what’re ya makin’? It smells good...” Clayton said as he came downstairs. Then he saw me where I now sat on the couch. “Okay. So what else is new?”

I gave him a quick run down, or at least started to. Part way through, he came over and asked me to open wide. I momentarily thought about asking why, but decided that with what was going on, it would be easier to just do so. Enough time passed for Andrew to come downstairs and grab a piece of bacon.

“Your teeth have changed,” Clayton said at last. “I mean, I’m not an expert, but they definitely don’t look human.”

“Explains why I couldn’t eat the bacon,” I sighed. My two friends gave me confused looks and I explained shortly, grabbing a couple pancakes.

“Doesn’t explain the furry hooves, though.”

I chuckled at Andrew’s statement. “That’s because they’re completely different from my teeth.”

We all shared a laugh at that. They stopped when they watched me more or less devour my flapjacks, both of which had plenty of maple syrup. My only excuse was that I was hungry. Oh, and that the horrible taste of bacon needed to get out of my mouth. Not that I mentioned that part out loud, these guys would punch me or something.

Is there a store that sells some alfalfa out here? I mused as I cleaned up my dishes. Then I facepalmed before explaining to my friends. “I just wondered if there was a place here that sold hay.”

There was a couple of chuckles, but other than that, we moved on. It was decided that we would stay inside today. Or at least I would. No point in going outside as a freak of nature. Not that we were going to be bored or go hungry anytime soon. After all, we’d stocked up on snacks of all kinds and we had plenty of games to keep us busy.

“I didn’t mention it earlier, but now that I think of it,” Audrey began as we finished playing some Borderlands 2 co-op. “You were up pretty early, Thomas.”

All I could do was shrug. “I had a bad dream and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

“Again?” Clayton asked, as he started working on lunch. He made sure to keep my new dietary habits in mind. “What was it of this time?”

I tried to remember. Really, I did. But I could only draw a blank. Resting my head on my hand, I thought back, but no matter what I did, it escaped me. Well, most of it did, anyway.

“All I remember is flying, really,” I shrugged. “Flying as Soarin’ and being really, really mad at somepony.”

“Okay, first, you just said somepony,” Andrew started. He paused as he shuffled his Magic deck for our first game of the night. “Second, do you remember how mad you were?”

“I was pissed. I’ve never felt that mad before. I was... charging at someone, and I think I was mad enough to beat him to a pulp.”

Audrey raised an eyebrow. “Wow. I’ve never seen you react like that, so it must’ve been something really bad.”

I could only shrug again as I pulled out my phone, deciding to check on that post I’d made. It took me awhile to scroll to it, but once I found it, I froze. There was a reply -- and it was from Spitfire, no less. I didn’t waste another second and immediately started to respond.

“Soarin’ here, boss. I don’t have my wings just yet, but --”

“OW!” I cried, dropping the phone as I grasped for my back. “What the fuck!”

“What? Are you alright?” Andrew asked, stopping what he was doing and giving me his full attention. The other two did the same.

“No, I’m not alright!” I couldn’t help but snap at him. This freaking hurt! “My back’s splitting open or something and it hurts like hell!”

The three of them came over. Clayton was the one to gingerly lift my shirt up. He met resistance near my shoulder blades, and it made me hiss a bit at what I felt. Apologizing, he pulled it away and they all took a look. The resulting silence was not comforting.

“What? What is it?” I asked, a bit panicked.

“Uh... does it still hurt?”

“Not really.” Thank Luna.

“Uhm, well, not sure how to say this, but uhh... you’re growing wings.”

What? Okay, I knew that Soarin’ was a Pegasus, but still! I dashed to the bathroom mirror for the millionth time that week, and with a bit of back-twisting yoga, I was able to see that they were right. There, right between my shoulder blades, were two little wing nubs. As I stood there, my jaw dropped as I watched them grow. The feathers were small right now, but still! Standing there and watching as two wings appear on a formerly normal human body was just freaky. Especially since it was my body that this was happening to. Very carefully pulling the shirt back down -- and once more gritting my teeth as the fabric caught on my wings for a moment -- I went back to the living room.

“Clayton,” I began to say, sitting at my seat and leaning over the table. “Could you, uh, cut a couple slits for them? I’d rather not have them be crushed by my shirt.”

He grabbed the scissors and a marker. It took him a moment to mark where on my shirt’s back to cut and how much, but thankfully it didn’t take too long. When it was finally done and I was able to get them out from under that damn fabric, the sigh of relief I let out happened on its own. I hadn’t wanted to say anything, but they’d started to hurt a little from being so tightly pressed.

“Thank you, that is so much better,” I said gratefully.

“Alright, dude, stand up. Let’s see what else is new now.”

I did as asked. “Like what?”

“Well... I wasn’t paying much attention to it, but now that I’m listening, your voice is different.”

“My --” I stopped and put a hand to my throat. Audrey was right. It was deeper than it used to be. Right now it was somewhere along the lines of a bass, and I’ve always been a baritone. “Okay. That’s definitely new.”

“At least it doesn’t sound bad,” Andrew said. “It sounds pretty cool, actually. You’d probably sound really good back in Men’s Choir.”

I smirked, “Probably.”

We took a few minutes to do a once-over. Having ignored it since earlier this morning, I was rather surprised to find that the cyan fur was all the way up to my hips now. Speaking of which, as I stood there, I found it rather awkward and difficult. Apparently that area was shifting to allow a more equine stance than the bipedal one I was currently using. With that taken care of, Clayton returned to making lunch, and the rest of us sat back down and resumed shuffling. Well, Andrew and Audrey did. I had a reply to finish making.

“Scratch that. My wings just grew in (which really hurt, by the way). They’re too small to get any lift, and I can’t move them yet, but I’ll fly over as soon as I can. I promise. I’ll find you, Spitfire, and we’ll figure out what’s going on.”

Once the post was made on the article’s comments section, I moved on to the salad Clayton had put before me. Thanking him, I started to eat. Started to. The fork just wouldn’t stay in my hand. Focusing, I found that I had a rather difficult time making my fingers obey me the way they used to. If one finger closed, they all did, and even then they felt stiff and unresponsive. It was almost like those times they’d gotten really cold, and when I’d flex them they were still rather numb. Once our late lunch was finished, we returned to our games and our hangout time. Anything to take my mind off these stupid changes.

By the time dessert had rolled around -- for which I was able to convince Andrew to go get some apple pie and devoured half of it on my own -- the fur had really progressed up my body. It was up to my neck and replacing my beard fuzz. Plus it was all over my hands. Not that it was a bad thing, considering how wonderfully soft it was. If it wasn’t attached to me, I’d wish that I had a blanket or something this soft and warm. According to my friends -- and the mirror -- my eyes were bigger than before, almost full pony-size. My nose and mouth had started to jut out into a muzzle even. Just barely, but it was definitely there. When we’d finished our delicious dessert, we had a couple more games of cards before I retired to bed early.

This whole week had been exhausting, and I was seriously hoping that it was all a dream at this point...

Were it so easy.