The Weird Taste of Change

by Berry Tenebre

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Human, Adventure
Length: 21855

A man's life change for the worst when a cutie mark appears on his thighs.

Anthony Duquette, a young scientist with great dreams, gets more than he asked during his 25th birthday. After the most bizarre of daydreams, the curse that was holding his true identity got destroyed and, slowly, he turns into his real self:

A pink pony.

Spin-Off of Five Score, Divided by Four.

Part of the same storyline as :
Sarikano's Total Eclipse of the Sun;
Dusk Writer's Lunar Phases and
Buckshot2825's Experiencing the Dusk.

Cover Image by Paper_Pony.
Edited by Buckshot2825.
Chapter 6 helped by SuomiBrony.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-07-19 05:06:29 UTC

C.1 : Not-So-Surprise Party

The Weird Taste of Change

Chap 1 - Not-So-Surprise Party

“...and then, Mikias handed his enchanted sword to Jade, hoping that the poor merchant would know how to use it. Naturally, this was a big shock for the girl because she had never fought before. Unfortunately for her she needed to learn fast. The inquisition was on their way to kill the owner of the sword. She wanted to throw the weapon away and leave him to his agonizing death, but her heart ref-...”

I stopped typing on my keyboard when I heard the annoying sound of a telephone ringing throughout the house. I rose from my seat and took the nearest wireless phone, hoping to write while talking. I answered the device and went back to business.

“Hello?” I asked, hoping that it was some meaningless merchant that I could hang up on without shame. Sadly, it was an entirely other problem.

“Yo Anthony! Dude, you gotta come to the lab right now. We discovered something ground breaking!” The voice shouted through the phone. I sighed and saved the progress I made on my novel. I knew that, whatever I said, my friend on the phone was not ready to hang up.

“Seriously Jonathan, it’s my free day. I'm sure that a ground breaking discovery will stay ground breaking tomorrow.” I said in my obviously futile attempt to stay home.

“You have to come now. It’s an order from your superior.” My boss said in the background. I sighed loudly while closing my computer. I know that I couldn't argue with my boss. He wasn't heartless; on the contrary he was a kind and lovable prankster. But when he gives order, it’s an order. I stood up and on my way to the front door I stopped at my kitchen. I looked at my calendar and saw that today, May 1st, was my birthday. I shrugged it, due to the fact that I just didn't care about it anymore. To ‘celebrate’ it, I grabbed a piece of the chocolate cake I made few days ago and went outside with my coat.

On my way to the laboratory, I ate the piece of cake. I knew that driving while eating was not the safest, but I hadn’t eaten dinner, being too busy with my writing. I swear I could still hear my stomach rumbling due to my lack of time management. I hoped that this discovery was a joke and that I could stop at McDonald after.

I arrived in the lab’s parking lot and, seeing that it was full of cars, I knew that it wasn’t a prank set up by my boss to laugh in our faces. I parked in the street, placed some money in the parking meter and walked toward the main entrance door.

The building itself was fascinating. It was inspired by Greek/Romanian architecture. It also had a look of ageing, mainly due to the fact that it was an old building. It used to be a museum before my boss bought it to turn it into a research laboratory. We research viruses and diseases to find better way to get rid of them.

I opened the door of the facility and, seeing that the lights were closed and that nobody was here, walked slowly through the darkness. It must be another prank. Hur-freaking-ray~! I thought. I walked to the door leading to the main lab and placed my ear on the door, hoping to catch any sound. Luckily, the sound was clear enough for me.

“When he’s going to walk through that door, he’s going to have the biggest surprise of his life.” I heard my boss say. I sighed silently to their ignorance. I should have known that they were preparing something special for my 25th birthday. Naturally, they had to show clear signs of their surprise. A lot of cars were outside with no traces of life inside the building. They also left a trail of candy wrappers for me to follow.

I walked back to the lobby, grabbed the skeleton we called Oscar and removed him from his pedestal. “You’re going to be the first skeleton to get a surprise party, could yourself lucky.” I whispered to the lifeless skeletal body. I opened the door leading to the surprise party and threw the skeleton. This was going to be awesome.

I stayed outside as the light flashed open and a loud “SURPRISE!” resonated throughout the building. Then came the sound of confusion. I guess that the party wasn’t for Oscar. I walked inside the room and laughed at their faces.

“And that, people, is how to redirect a surprise towards the ones making it. Merci, merci beaucoup.” [Thank you, thank you very much.] I said the last part while bowing to the invisible crowd. When they realized what had happened, they all started to laugh, me included.

“Wow, Anthony, you really got us there.” My boss, Reginald, said while laughing. He patted me on the back and handed me a glass of punch. With only one sip, I knew there was alcohol in it. I shrugged and chugged the drink, feeling the burning sensation in my throat.

“Now, party-boy, let’s get the party started!” Regi shouted, getting a scream of delight from the crowd. I laughed loudly and walked toward the table. Following me was Reginald and Mark, the guy who had called me. I grabbed another glass and started talking about... whatever went through my mind.

After few glasses, I started to feel tipsy. I thanked Reginald for the party, even though I hated surprise parties; and the fact that they had hidden the party under the guise of a ‘ground breaking discovery’. Mark shook his head with a large grin.

“I actually... found something. Maybe not grown... ground breaking, but still.” He attempted to say without sounding drunk, failing miserable. He motioned to follow him, all three of us trying to stay upright with all the alcohol in our system.

We got to the private lab part where me and Mark did some other experiments not related to diseases. The room was messy, but around the workstation it was almost sterile. There were all sorts of stuff I used to see only in sci-fi or old medieval movies. Stuff like alembics and cauldrons. It almost looked like a place where alchemists would hang out.

On the table were a few pots with colored liquid in them. I stared at them with confusion. “What... why did you brought us here... for paint?” I asked Mark, staring at him in my tipsy state. He laughed and hiccuped at the same time, sounding like a pig.

“It’s not just paint. It’s... special paint... I mean special ink that, when placed on skin, it never wears off until the man cleans it with rubbing alcohol. It... will be the best temporary tattoo ink EVAR!” He said, laughing maniacally. I facepalmed and dipped my finger into the black ink. I walked toward Mark and, holding his head with my other hand, I drew a moustache on his skin. After, I cleaned my finger with rubbing alcohol and spilled the liquid on the floor.

“Now, let’s go do something more interesting than watching paint dry.” I said in a cheesy voice. Reginald started rolling on the floor laughing. Mark stared at me, emotion stuck between laughing and shocked. Reginald patted him on the back.

“Come on Mark, let’s show your ‘stache to the world.” He said, still laughing. Mark, still drunk, just let it pass and walked back to the party. Reginald just stood there and started grinning. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I knew it was related to the ink.

I went back to the drink table. I knew that I would get plastered during this party. So, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. I took another drink, even though I knew that my morning was going to be a living hell. I turned around and saw... something. I felt like if my soul was removed from my body and thrown into spectator mode.

I was floating in mid-air over what looked like an open field. I was floating behind some kind of horse. It was pink with some wacky colored hair. It, or she... I think, was running with some kind of saddle-like bag. In it was some ingredients, like a bag of flour and few bottle of milk. What surprised me was her face. It was obvious that she was scared, but of what?

Suddenly, some tall... thing appeared in front of her. The creature was silly, for the lack of better word. It had a goat-like head with each body parts different from the other. I could swear that this creature was made to entertain children due to its appearance. Before I could look at it more, the creature grabbed the poor horse.

“I finally got you, little pastry chef. You know, you actually were the hardest pony I caught. I don’t know how...” He threw her into the air. “...but you have managed to run away from me for far too long.” It raised its... arm in the air and the pony stopped falling just like that. “It’s time for you to meet your fate.” It cleared its throat.

“For Five Score Divided by Four!” The pony started thrashing around in mid-air.

“Your memories removed, your body confused!” She screamed in pain as she held her head between her hooves.

“For your insolence you must pay, cast off to a land far far away!” The pony’s legs started glowing white, like its legs were molten metal.

“To scatter everypony, thinking that I was a phony!” She stopped moving and screaming, her whole body glowing, except the head.

“Your mind shall be weak, your outlooks bleak!” Now, her head was glowing like her body.

“Forgetting everything and living like a fool,” The creature grinned evilly. “you have all lost, now no one can stop my rule!” The pony’s body disappeared like powder thrown into a gust of wind. The creature laughed like a maniac, making me jump in surprise. The sound that came out of my mouth was enough for ‘it’ to hear. It turned around and faced my ghostly appearance.

“Have fun, Berry.”

Suddenly, its body shined like a sun and I felt a force pulling me backward. I screamed when the force pushed me back into my body. I opened my eyes and saw everybody staring at me. I blinked the... dream? out of my eyes and looked around. I looked at my side and saw Reginald holding the now empty pot that used to hold the black dye.

After few seconds, I heard one guy laugh, then another. Finally, everybody started laughing. I pushed the crowd away from me and, walking like a drunk, went into the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and saw that Regi had decided to become Picasso and paint all kind of stupidities over my face. There was a moustache, stupid eyebrows and some penises on my cheek. Ooh... maturity level zero.

When I turned around, I started feeling sick. And by sick, I mean really sick due to alcohol. I walked back to the party and tried to get to the exit. Unfortunately, the crowd stopped me, laughing about the drawings. It only took few seconds and all of them were covered in puke. I pushed them and walked toward the exit. With powerful self-control, I managed to call a taxi without sounding like a drunken bastard. I waited for what looked like hours before the taxi arrived. I decided that I would call another taxi tomorrow to get my car at the lab.

When I arrived at my house, I paid the taxi driver, who was glad to see that I called him instead of driving drunk. When I entered my humble abode, I attached my coat on the rack and looked at my computer. I wanted to finish the chapter I was working on, but decided that writing drunk could lead to weird stuff.

I entered my bathroom and undressed myself. When I looked the damage Regi has done to me, I realised that he didn’t just focused on my face. On both by thigh was the picture of a strawberry flavoured cake with frosting on it. It surprised me that, even under his drunken state, he was able to paint this piece of art. I decided to clean it tomorrow, as I was too tired for anything else that night. I cleaned myself, but the tattoos didn’t wash off because of their special attribute, and fell asleep right as my head touched my pillow.

C.2 : Too Long For My Taste

Taste of Change

Chap 2 - Too Long for my Taste

The faint sound of a ringing phone pulled me out of my dead-like appearance. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt like they were glued together. I decided to leave them closed and tried to blindly get the nearest wireless phone. I used my almost non-existent energy to slowly move my arm half a meter to my left to grab the device, but still fast enough to click the talk button before the ringing stopped.

“Hello, Anthony?” The voice asked. I sloppily moved my arm towards my ear, trying to talk out of the side of my mouth. The muscles in my arm weren’t quite awake however. So instead, I moved my head to the side and placed it near the phone.

“Mmlohm...?” I mumbled through my hangover. I heard the voice on the other side laugh.

“That’s what I thought. For your birthday, you have the day off; your hangover wouldn’t allow you to come anyway.” It was Reginald, obviously. I knew that by his healthy laugh and the fact that he was giving me a day off. “Also, Mark is in his bed too. He gave me your keys so I could bring your car back. By the way, I’m bringing you some Advil. Don’t worry, you’ll feel better.” I acknowledged with a mumble.

“Okay, stay there, I’m coming.” He said before hanging up. I pressed the stop button and tried to move my arm to place the phone back. Apparently I used too much force and caused it to fly toward the back wall of my room. I shrugged it off and decided that I didn’t want to stay in bed all day, even though my body was asking to die on the mattress.

I forced my eyes open, dropping the defenses protecting me from a massive sense overflow coming from both of my ocular globes. “Tabarnak.” I swore. Though my eyelids tried desperately to close and repair the damage, I forced them to stay open. Fighting the urge to give in and close them. Unfortunately, my eyelids decided to go on the offensive. With its power, it started giving me the worst headache in the world...no, the worst migraine in the whole universe.

I grasped my head in pain, hoping that the Advil would be enough to stop this terrible attack from... myself. Suddenly, I realized that the only thing I did was open my eyes. I still had to stand up, walk and unlock the door before Reginald arrives. I sighed, my hand still on my head, and decided to do the all or nothing attempt.

I turned my body sideways, placing my hands under me. With one strong shove, I pushed my body off my bed. The result was my body hitting the floor with a loud thump. Luckily for me, I felt nothing from head to toe. For the next few hours, the only pain I would feel would be inside. And here I thought I wasn’t emo.

Slowly, but surely, I managed to stand up, although unsteady and sickened. I placed one leg in front of the other, hoping that I would not fall face first on the floor. My equilibrium was still alive and decided to help me through this conflict. It was a battle all around my body. My eyelids and brain raged against me and my semicircular canals.

I walked toward my bathroom to clean myself up a little. With pain and difficulty, I managed to look at my horrible face in the mirror. It still had Mike’s drawings of penises and stupidities. I tried to remember how to get rid of this ink from my face. I knew Mike had told me something about how to remove it. Wait, that’s right! I thought.

I took the rubbing alcohol bottle and placed some on an absorbing towel. Then I started rubbing the graffiti off my face. I was finally getting back the energy I lost during my hangover. Even though my headache was still running wild, I was in control and I tried to ignore the pain.

In few seconds, my face was finally cleaned from these obscene and crude things. Before placing the bottle back in my closet, I remembered the presence of another drawing. I dropped my pants and underpants, looking at the cake picture on my thighs.

I took the towel and rubbed my ass, quite literally. After rubbing for a few minutes, I realized that the tattoo wasn’t coming off that easily, even though the other ones came off in a few seconds. I continued rubbing until I felt irritation. I stopped and saw that the thing was not ready to come off soon, so I let it go. At least my pants would hide it.

I was cleaning what I took for the ink when I heard a loud knock on my front door. It must be Reginald. I walked in a steadier pace toward the door and opened it. I invited him inside and prepared some coffee, after taking the maximum dose of Advil possible. When we sat down at the table with the magical drink of wacky-wacky, he finally gave my keys back.

“So, crazy night yesterday, am I right?” He asked. I nodded while sipping my coffee, waiting for the pills to activate. He laughed and also took a sip. He pointed my hair. “I didn’t remember dying your hair. Did you do this yesterday night after taking a taxi?” I stared at him with a bored face.

“Ha ha ha, your joke is so funny, I forgot to put enthusiasm in my laughing. It was enough that you and Mike drew penises and cakes on my body like it was a canvas. But now, I am no longer amused.” I said with a serious face. He looked at me with confusion.

“A... cake? I don’t remember us drawing any cakes on you and I was with Mike for the whole night.” It was my turn to look at him in confusion. He pointed to my ass in a slight cue for me to show what I was talking about. I stood up and showed him the mark without dropping completely my pants.

“Wow, I mean, we drew on your face while you zoned out for few minutes, but this is too detailed for two drunk people to do in few minutes. Also, why did you zoned out? What happened?” He asked. I shrugged, trying to remember what happened. I knew I dreamt about... something, but I didn’t remember what.

“I don’t know what happened, but I know that both of you took the time to mess me up.” I said in a matter-of-fact tone while drinking my coffee. I took a look inside the cup and saw that it was half empty... or is it half full? Now I knew that my brain was still functioning after this terrible headache.

“Anyway, I’ll come back after work with Mark so we can sort all of this out. Also, I need to drop some Advil off for him too. So... uhh... see ya and good luck on your recovery.” He said before placing his cup in my sink and walking towards the door. After a handshake, he left and started walking towards his house. Fortunately for him, he lived only 30 minutes, by foot, away from my house.

I went back inside and looked at the oven’s clock. It was one o'clock in the afternoon. I should really eat something. As soon as I thought about that, my stomach decided to confirm it. I looked in my closet and took the stuff I needed to make Japanese fried rice. To add more flavor, I decided to take the chicken and the bacon I used few days ago for club sandwiches and throw it in the mix.

It took 45 minutes, but eventually the meal was completed. I took chopsticks, thanked myself for the meal in Japanese by saying ‘domo arigato gozaimasu’, then chowed down. Everything went all right until the last bites of rice.

When I opened my mouth to eat a... stickful? of the fried rice, I chewed more hair than food. Some people would find this normal, but not me. I hate, hated and will hate long hair. It simply annoys me to the highest degree. Not seeing it, but feeling it over my ear and tasting it in my mouth was the most annoying feeling.

I took the lock of hair that fell in my mouth and placed it in a way that I could see it. It was... pink. A candy pink that only belonged to an over-the-top girl’s toy. I placed the lock back in place and finished the last of my bowl. I threw the sticks in the garbage can and placed the bowl in my dishwasher.

I walked in the bathroom and took a look at the mirror. A Barbie like doll stared back at me. It took few seconds for my injured brain to realize that the doll in the viewing glass is actually me. My hair was at my shoulders and half of it was pink. By half of it, I mean that my hair looked like a barbershop pole, switching between blond and pink.

I decided to try removing the dye. I removed my clothes and entered my shower. For a good 20 minutes, I tried to scratch the dye off my head. But mysteriously enough, the pink color stayed there. After another 10 minutes, I stopped trying and decided to wear a hat. It will wear out eventually. I thought.

I raised my leg to step out of the shower bath, but tripped over the side of the bath. “Tabarnak. Why does my life suck so much right now?” I said out loud. When I stood up and walked toward my clothes, I realized that I was actually walking on tiptoes.

“That’s weird, I thought I stopped doing this since I was five.” I wondered out loud as a joke. I tried lowering my heels, but realized that my feet weren’t feeling nice to me. They decided to side against me in my internal war and stay up in a rebellious way of telling me that they are angry. I still didn’t know if I should question my sanity after thinking that my body parts were alive.

I dressed myself back up and went to my kitchen. I realized that after all that happened, it was already 3:30 pm. I wondered what I should do that night. I looked through my stores and realized that my food supply was getting low. I could go out to eat at a restaurant and go get my groceries. It would fill my whole afternoon.

I was about to take my coat, but realized that it didn’t have a hood. I wanted to hide my hair, which was growing faster than weed in a field. It was already few centimeters longer than it had been while I was in my bathroom. I knew that this wasn’t normal, but I decided to keep my mind off it until I find a reasonable explanation for all of this.

I took my old black hoodie and hid my wacky hair inside. I then took my wallet and checked to see if I had any money. I saw that I had plenty enough to buy something fancy in a restaurant and have some to buy a weeks worth of grub. I grabbed my keys and walked outside.

After waving to my neighbor, who looked at me with confusion, I entered my car and took a deep breath. It will be fine, I thought. I started the engine and saw something that I hadn’t noticed. Regi’s car was parked behind me. Through the window, I saw him and Mike talking. When they noticed I had started my car, Regi started honking at me to get my attention. I sighed and opened my window.

When it was fully opened, Reginald did the same and threw a hair elastic at me. “You were about to leave us in the dust, weren’t ya Anthony?” He said in a fake malice voice. “Well, wherever you’re going, we’re coming too.” He said seriously.

“I’m going to a restaurant.” I stated simply. He nodded in affirmation.

“Lead the way, Anthony!” He said, closing his window. I closed my window and pressed the gas pedal. In few seconds, I went from 0 to 80 km/h. I was getting annoyed by all of these transformations and Reginald’s humor was not going to help me.

I arrived at the restaurant, stopping my car and getting a good look at myself in the mirror. I saw that I looked more so like a girl now. I turned around and saw that their car was far away in the distance. I gave a quick look to the hair elastic Regi had thrown at me. I suddenly had a brilliant idea.

I opened the door to my car and put up my hair with the elastic. I removed my hood and took out my ipod. I set it into camera mode and looked at myself. I noticed that I looked exactly like a normal 25 years old woman with weird hair.

It was time for payback. Heartbreaking payback.

C.3 : From Hell's Heart, I'll Stab At Thee

Taste of Change

Chap 3

I entered the restaurant; glad for the opportunity my new costume gave me. I looked around me and saw that there were some tables left. I was about to go to one of them when I saw a sign that said, “Please hold for a waiter.” in front of me. I mentally facepalmed and waited for a representative of the resto to lead me to my seat.

Before I could find a seat, however, Reginald and Mark entered the resto and stopped behind me. I turned my head to see that they were searching everywhere for me. I giggle in my head, finding it silly that the person they were searching for was right in front of them.

When the waiter finally came for me, Regi stopped him. “Mister, have you given a seat to a man about as tall as...” He looked around and decided to point me. “...this woman? He has short blond hair with pink tips and might look tired.” I looked at the waiter and saw his slightly annoyed expression.

“I don’t know who you are talking about, mister, but if it’s a joke, please show a little maturity and stop it right now.” He said while keeping his poker face. Still laughing in my head, I mentally examined what I could do about this situation. I decided to lead the joke to another level.

“Waiter, could you give us a table for three, please.” I said, trying to talk in a higher pitched voice to make it sound like I was a real girl. Surprisingly enough, I sounded exactly like a woman. The waiter nodded and motioned us to follow him. The men looked at me with confusion, but decided to follow me.

After giving us the menu and water glasses, I took my menu and started browsing through. Regi looked at Mark, shrugging, and both started to look at their menu. After deciding what I wanted, I placed the menu back on the table and placed my head in my hands.

“So, you’re searching for Anthony?” I said nonchalantly. Both of them dropped their menu and stared at me. “Yes, I know who he is. And he wanted me to tell you a message, but only after dinner. Just to tell you, he’s not coming right now, he had to do something else.” They both sighed.

“So... if we’re eating together, want to tell us more about you?” Mark asked. Regi whacked him behind his head, whispering something about ‘not a thing you ask a woman’. I nodded, smiling at what was happening.

“Well, my name is...” I was about to say something that looked like Anthony, maybe Anny, but a name kept flashing deep in my mind. “...Berry, you can call me Berry.” I said. They looked at each other and shrugged. They must think that it’s not my real name, and it’s not... well, I don’t even know anymore.

“So, where do you work, Berry?” Regi asked. This one was a tricky one. I was about to say another made up lie, but something caught me off guard. I closed my eyes and realized that I was having a flashback, but I didn’t know where it came from. Wait, this is the exact same thing that happened to me yesterday. I realized.

When I opened my eyes, I was looked at two other ponies. The first one had a yellow-orange coat and an orange mane and the other was light blue with a mane composed of two shades of pink. By their appearance and attire, I could see that they were both husband and wife and that they were chefs.

In their hooves were papers, which I recognize as my curriculum vitae. They were looking through the pages with an incredible speed. They had been bombarding me with questions for the past ten minutes and I was hoping they would hire me. After few seconds of quick looking, the placed the papers back on the table. They looked at each other and nodded.

“Berry?” I nodded, waiting impatiently for their answer. “Congratulations, you’re hired. Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner!” At the last word, I stood up and started jumping and screaming with joy. After one or two seconds, a totally pink pony started jumping with me. I shrugged it and calmed down, happy that I had the job as pastry chef.

I opened my eyes again, only to see both men waiting impatiently for my answer. I cleared my throat and, right when I was about to give them my answer, the waiter arrived to take our orders. I ordered cheese sticks with a good ol’ cheeseburger. They both took club sandwich with a side of fries.

“So, where do you work?” Regi asked again. I gave the menus to the server and looked at the men in front of me.

“I work in a pastry shop outside Muscatine, about 30 minutes away from here. I doubt that you have ever eaten there.” I said simply. It looked as if my simple answer was enough for both of them. An awkward silence later, the waiter arrived with my cheese sticks. I was so hungry that I decided to let my girl demeanor slip away and eat like a man.

I started chowing down the sticks like a madman...woman, surprising both men in front of me. It only took one minute for my plate to be empty. Regi was looking at me like I was a psycho and Mark was laughing his ass off.

“What’s wrong? I was hungry.” I said while cleaning my mouth with the napkin beside me. Mark patted Regi, inviting him to laugh. Regi just shrugged off what had happened and laughed a bit. I decided to join the laughter and, for 30 seconds, we all laughed.

The time between the entrance dish and the desert was normal, as normal as a transvestite playing a prank on two men can be. When I received my s’more, which surprised me; I didn’t know that they actually had those here, I removed a part of the marshmallow and looked at it.

“Mmmm. Marshmallow. Soft.” I said before throwing the thing in my mouth. Reginald looked at me in confusion. I smiled, seeing that they didn’t get the reference.

“Uhh, obviously...” Mark said to my statement. I shook my head.

“Let me quote the Blair Witch Project in peace.” I winked at Mark and, I swear to god, he blushed. This was when my mind finally came back to reality. I dropped my s’more and raised my head slowly to look at Reginald. I saw that him too was blushing.

I stood up and turned around in one violent movement. “I really got to go. You can keep the s’more.” I quickly said. When I started to walk away, Mark stopped me.

“Wait, no need to pay for your dinner, I have it covered.” He said while placing a piece of paper in my pocket.

“Thank you, Mark.” I started walking away while waving my hand. “See you one day, call Anthony to get my phone number.” I said before running away outside the restaurant. I entered my car, turned my key and, like when I came there, went from 0 to 80, trying to run away from that place. Seeing that it was a straight road, I searched in my pocket for the paper Mark gave me. It was his phone number. My joke went waaay too far... what the hell happening to me?

When I arrived at my house, I locked the door behind me, placed my coat back on the hook and immediately ran on tiptoes toward the bathroom. What I saw in the mirror was... I had no words to describe it. I removed the hair elastic Reginald ‘gave’ me and let my hair flow. It was completely colored into a barbershop pole of pink and blond. Also, it now looked long enough to be a girl’s hair.

The thing that creeps me out more than the hair is the... things lurking in them. They were... ears? I started poking the little flesh and fur things poking out of my hair and realized that I felt every sensation from them. I looked to where my ears were normally located and realized that it was flat and... earless.

While having a staring contest with myself in the mirror, trying to figure what the hell was happening, I started to feel an itchy sensation in the base of my spine. I scratched myself, but the itch kept coming back. I looked in my closet and grabbed my hand mirror. I removed my pants and placed the mirror in such a way that if I look at the wall mirror, I would be able to see my back through the reflection of the hand mirror.

What I saw blew my mind. I dropped the hand mirror in my shock and turned my head to physically see the thing I just witnessed. Attached to my back, plugged to my coccyx, was a real tail made of real hair. My mind drew a blank as all rational thought left me.

In my head, I could feel all the nerves controlling my new ears and tail. Like a keyboard, I pressed the ‘move tail left’ button and the tail... my? tail surprisingly moved like a normal tail would. The other side was working too, as well as my ears. They were detecting every sound coming from any sources around my house. I swear I could hear my neighbor’s dog bark even though he’s on the other side of the street.

“Quesque c’est sa? C’est donc b’en weird...” (What is that? That’s so weird.) I said in French, due to the fact that I was alone in my house. I started to feel light headed. Physical reconstruction was against the law of mass conservation and the energy required to do any transformation is way too much for a single person to handle. The problem is, against all odds, I had just raised my middle finger to a lot of science laws.

I decided to take a walk under the dark sky. I looked at the nearest clock and saw that it was 8:10 pm. I took my coat and placed the cap on top of my ‘way too long for my taste’ hair. I unlocked the door, went outside and locked it behind me; hoping that nothing weird would appear. I started walking, but an uncomfortable feeling of having my... tail in my pants surfaced. I sure hoped that this feeling would stop.

The night air always felt like a blessing to me. It was cold, but inviting. The night sky was also pretty interesting. Stars are the things that are in largest quantity, if we talk about solid stuff. There are more than 5x10^42 stars in the observable universe, which is only a part of the entire universe. If I hadn’t been a biologist, I would have been an astrologist.

I started walking toward the park, the cold air going through my lungs. I grabbed my coat with both my hands and pulled it around my body. Even if the night was beautiful, it’s still freezing cold. I knew that this walk would be short.

When I arrived at the park, however, I wished I had stayed home that night. A group of 3 men, obviously drunk, were hanging out at the entrance. When they saw me, one of them started whistling while the other started shouted that my ass was beautiful. I decided to ignore them and turn around. What I didn’t know, however, is that drunken people could be fast, even though they are not stable at all while running.

“Aww, come on girl. You come here and you don’t even give us a little treat.” The hairiest one of the bunch told me. Wow, subtlety really is your special talent. I thought sarcastically. The men started circling me, one of them started cracking his fists.

“Well, you only have one choice. The only thing you need to do is to enjoy it. Boys, grab her.” He ordered his friends. They tried to grab my arms, but I dodged them.

“Laissez moi tranquille, bande de trou de cul.” (Leave me alone, gang of assholes). I shouted at them. They looked at each other and smiled evilly. They tried again to grab me, but failed.

“Oh, the girl is speaking fancy. I’m going to tell you again. Suck it or we’ll beat you and force you to do it.” He shouted, and for the third time, they tried to grab my arm. One of them succeeded, but I managed to dodge the other.

“I said LEAVE ME ALONE!” I shouted. I contorted my free hand into a fist and manoeuvred myself into a punching position. As my fist flew towards the man a large amount of power rushed through my arm. It felt like if a surge of energy was coursing through it. When my fist collided with his face, I noticed that my fist was more powerful than normal. The knockback was enough to make him fly few feet, effectively knocking him unconscious.

I turned around and looked into the terror filled eyes of the other two drunkards. I could see fear into their etched in their expressions. “Grab him and run... or else.” I said before raising my fist in the air. "From hell’s heart, I’ll stab at thee!” The hairy one grabbed his friend and both of them ran away.

I quickly ran to my house, unlocking the door and running in. After locking it again, I stared at my fist in surprise. Did I really just knock somebody in one punch? Even I was surprised, but after all that happened, I decided to shrug it off as an effect of the ‘transformation’.

I started to feel the effect of exhaustion taking over my body. I left my fist alone and walked towards my bedroom. I removed my clothes and tried to find a position where my tail wouldn't be such a nuisance. It only took few minutes before I fell into Morpheus’ arms.

C.4 : Cue Insanity

**Taste of Change

Chap 4

Cue Insanity**

I raised my eyelids, which seemed heavier than normal for whatever reason. Must be my imagination. I thought, slowly trying to reload the memories from the previous days in my brain. Pony transformation and incredible strength were two things that tried to reload, but were blocked due to the silliness of the situation.

With a strong will I raised my lazy skin up from my comfy mattress and pulled it towards the bathroom. I really should get myself a cup with ‘I hate mornings’ written on it. Slowly, but surely, I managed to make my way to the holy grail of ‘wake-up’ therapy; the shower.

Before even testing the water, I removed any tissue on my body and jumped in the bathtub, causing a loud BANG! My mind didn’t register it correctly, analyzing it as an over exaggeration of my tympans inside my ears. I opened the valve, liberating the sweet feeling of hot water pouring over my skin. Unfortunately, the water was a bit too hot for my fragile human flesh, causing a bigger shock, and more pain, than expected.

“Oh tabarnak, ça c’est mon ostie de chance.” (Oh sh**, that’s my f***cking luck.) I swore as my mind was finally booting up properly. That’s when my senses loaded tail.nerve through brain.exe, and my mind finally let the transformation sink in. All of this input only caused a small headache. Hurray, just my luck.

I started moving underwater, trying to get the waking fluid everywhere. Still, something didn’t feel right. When I looked at my feet, however, the thing that felt wrong was in front of my eyes... well, not there. The fact that I can see my new hooves was one thing, but being able to see them without any ‘obstacle’ was another. The only thing that I could see was... a blatant hole.

My mind literally ceased to function. Think of it as a mix of the blue screen of death, the spinning beach ball of death, the red ring of death and every other death error, except all throughout my brain. My mouth was so opened that bees could build their nest attached to one of my teeth. Ironically my body was frozen in place, despite being under hot water.

“But... but... but...” Those were the only words being able to process. My vocal chords acted like an airport after 9/11, only allowing important people to go. Thinking about this made me wonder something. ‘But’ is the most important word I can think of!?

When I finally regained control of my motor skills, I slowly grabbed the soap, still staring at the... thing that mocked my masculinity. I swear to god... WHAT THE F*CK IS HAPPENING?! I started rubbing the soap over my body, still staring at the same place. That thing that I’m not going to name is like a light, and my eyes are like bugs.

I wanted to keep my hand away from it, but I knew that I would need to clean it one day. I tried to remember what I learned in my sex class, which I totally didn’t sleep during. I knew that I need to clean the outside, a bit inside and, for my personal sake, not touch the ‘love button’.

I closed my eyes and let my mind do the job. Let’s... just spare the details. I finally got out of the shower, still shocked from the sight I had gotten inside. Screw my new hooves, that va- NO, that thing is the worst possible... thing. I dressed up, feeling the lack of something in my pants. I knew that I would need to refresh my wardrobe, but if the transformation turns me into a pony, that wardrobe will be useless.

I walked in the kitchen, still mentally rebooting. I hoped that the surprises were over after everything that happened. Hearing the clip clop of my hooves reminded me that it wasn’t the end of this. I knew that I had to find a way to know everything that happened, so the surprise of discovering it would not cause me a mental reboot. Before doing this, however, I had to fill my belly.

I was starting to lick my lips at the sight of food, but even that simple task came with another sign that I was not myself anymore. My teeth were completely flat. I lost my incisive and canines, leaving me with molars. I sighed loudly. Well, there goes anything related to meat. I wonder if eggs count as meat. I thought as I searched around for veggies to eat.

“Quesque je ferais pour bouffer du foin ou d’la luzerne.” (What would I do to eat hay or alfalfa.) I said to myself. I didn’t realize what I said, however, because I was too busy looking throughout my food closet for said food. Finding nothing, I suddenly drew a blank. What was I searching for again? I looked and saw some breakfast sausages. Looking at them woke up some memories hidden deep in my brain.

I was standing in Sugar Cube Corner, preparing some cupcakes batter for... cupcakes! I was mixing the mix after pouring the milk when I heard a sound behind me. “Hey Berry!” Said the voice behind me. I turned around and saw a little pegasus filly behind the window. I stopped mixing and waved at her.

“Hello Breezy! How are you doing? Wait, aren’t you supposed to be at school?” I asked her. She giggle and stuck her head in the shop.

“Cheerilee got sick after staying outside too long under the rain yesterday. There are rumors that a stallion was supposed to show up for a date and never appeared.” She started to laugh, but my stare made her stop quickly.

“You know that it’s not polite to laugh at others sicknesses.” I scolded her. She laughed awkwardly and scratched behind her head. “Don’t worry, anyway, you might want to go see your friends. I have to work.” I told her.

She nodded, but was looking beside my head. I turned around, but saw nothing. She started running away, quickly saying ‘Yeah, okay, bye.’ I shook my head with a smile. Fillies these days. I thought. I trotted back at my bowl and saw that I talked so much that some of the ingredients were already starting to show up as brown spots in the mix. I shook my head and blamed my imagination. I mixed the batter, placed it in some mold and started the cooking part.

After the cooking process was over, I took the now hot cupcakes out of the oven. I looked at them and, again, saw that they looked delicious. I grabbed one of them and, seeing that they were right at the correct temperature, I took a bite of one. There was a weird aftertaste, but overall it tasted really good. I ate the whole thing before the door behind me opened in a loud bang.

“BERRY, DO NOT EAT ANY OF YOUr cup... cakes.” My boss, Mrs. Cake, was standing in the doorway, gasping her lungs out. I was licking my hoof for any trace of cupcakes while she shouted. She ran toward me and grabbed me away from my cupcake tray.

“Hey, I never thought you hated my cupcakes that much. You just have to tell me and I leave my job. Sheesh.” I said with a smile to the alarmed mare. She shook his head and, while walking on two legs, dropped every cupcakes in the trash can.

“Uhh... Berry... It’s kind of my fault... Please don’t hate me!” I heard from the doorway. I could see a yellow pegasus hiding her face, trying to take less place possible. I, however, was confused.

“Why do you say that, Fluttershy? I don’t think that my ‘horrible’ cupcakes were your fault.” I told her, staring at Miss. Cake. They both shook their heads.

“While you were talking to Peachy Breeze, Rainbow Dash flew in and dropped something in your mixing bowl.” My boss said. I turned my head and looked at the shy pony.

“Rainbow came to my house and took the nearest bag of animal food. It contained some meat sausages for Mr. Bear.” After doing 1 + 1 in my head, my eyes grew wide and I started feeling sick.

“Don’t tell me you ate one...?” Mrs. Cake asked. I nodded slowly, trying to get a grip on the table. My face started to turn green in a more cartoon like fashion. Both mares ran to help me walk.

“We need to get her at the hospital. She’s going to get really sick with that meat in her system.” Wait, I ate... ANIMAL MEAT. I still don’t know how I missed this info, but it was the thing that made me faint.

I grabbed the perfectly fine sausages and dropped them into my garbage can. Just the sight made me sick. It doesn’t make sense. It was only an hallucination. Not... a... memory. My head started to hurt from all these mindf*cks.

Seeing that there was nothing tasty and vegetarian laying around my house, I’ve decided to go eat at a restaurant. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw that, with a bit of work, I could look like a normal human being. Sure, I had to hide my tail, which was pretty uncomfortable, but it was nothing like hiding my head. If I looked closely, the side of my head was only bare skin, due to them moving up.

I grabbed a classic Canadian fur hat. Lucky for me, it was cold outside so there was a good reason to wear this hot hat. I looked at my wallet and saw that I had just enough money in it for a breakfast. I wish I still have some cash in my bank account.

I grabbed my keys and went to my car. I let my body control my movement while my mind was busy choosing where to eat. Screw McDonald’s, even their salads have meat in it. Wait, can I eat eggs? Yeah, I think. Anyway, let’s just remove any fast-food, they don’t have good breakfast. Why not go to a classic, Subway. I’m sure there is some veggie and egg subs. After tracing the way in my mental GPS, I pressed on the pedal and drove toward the nearest Subway.

On my way there, however, I saw something really weird. A woman wearing a hood was going to a gas stop. What was weird, however, was her appearance. Even though I shouldn’t be the one to judge people by the looks, her peculiar appearance was quite special. Her mane was light blue and she had some bumps on her lower back. Is that another transformer? The image of a robot appeared in my mind. Arg, pony transformer.

Anyway, the sight only lasted for a few seconds. I’ve decided to continue driving and shrug what I saw. I would have stopped and asked the girl about these signs, but I hated talking to strangers. Think of it like a small case of agoraphobia. Also, if it was all a coincidence, I would look like a dumb*ss asking her if she had a tail.

After this, nothing really happened during my ‘trip’ to Subway. I got out of my car and, keeping my hat as tight as possible, and entered the small restaurant. Luckily for me, the line was short and I was not attracting any attention. After ordering the most vegetarian meal they have, shit had to hit the fan.

“Hey Berry! How are you doing?” A man asked beside me. I turned only to see one of my co workers from the lab wearing a cloak. Ooh, mysterious.

“What did you call me?” I asked, trying to sound as masculine as possible, unluckily having a hard time with it. He looked at me with confusion.

“I called you Be... uhh, I mean Anthony. Don’t you recognize me?” I tried to remember his face, but I never had a good memory for faces. “It’s me, Peter, from the lab. We’ve been working on cancer research together.” The light on top of my head lighted. Oh, that guy.

“Oh, yeah, North. I remember you... well, I do now. So, what’s up these past days?” I said with annoyance in my female voice. I had wanted the simple task of ordering a sandwich to take as less time as possible, but I had to bump into somebody I know. Oh Murphy, I f*cking hate you.

“Well, since your b-day, I’ve been feeling strange, but except that... Wait, how did you called me... whatever. Hey, you really were wasted back there.” He said in a slightly hyperactive manner. I slowly nodded, grabbing the plastic bag containing the sub and paid the cashier.

“So, what are you doing tonight, Berry?” He asked. I’ve decided to ignore that silly nickname he gave me. I sighed out loud. I had one chance to get rid of him, and I had to take a courageous step to say it.

I approached his ear and whispered something. “Look, I know what is happening and why you’re wearing a cloak. If you leave me alone while I’m going through this, I will not gossip on how ‘eau de cheval’ (Odor of Horse) is your new fragrance.” When he heard that I knew his secret, his eyes grew wide. To prove to him that I was on his side, even if I almost told him that I would shout his... our secret, I raised my hat to show him my ears. I could see his muscles go loose.

“Look, even if you don’t want it, we’re stuck with the same... thing. How about we go to my house or to your's and we could look more into this.” He started following me while I walked towards my car. When I opened the car door, he stopped me. “Look, I know you’re the kind of guy... girl that likes to do stuff alone, but you can’t survive like this without help. ”

I closed my eyes and tried to get rid of my anger. “Look, I need to think, to sort all of this out. I could use your help, but later. I got your phone number, I’ll call you later. I promise.” I said calmly, hiding my face behind my hair. Wow, these are useful to hide emotions. Finally a use for my hair.

I waved him goodbye and entered my car. D*mn, that took way longer than intended. Now, let’s go back and eat. I started my car and returned back to my house, leaving Peter behind, hoping that nothing would happen. Luckily for me, Murphy was out of juice and I managed to get to my destination.

When I entered my house, I set the sub on my table and prepared myself to eat. Suddenly, the top of my hooves started feeling itchy. I can’t believe I’m actually referring to my feet as hooves. I’m starting to become insane. I raised my pant leg and saw that there was pink fur going up over my keratin . I started to scratch it so hard that some of it fell off. I’m gonna clean this… fur after eating.

Right when I sat down, however, somebody knocked at the door. I sighed, stood up, and walked to the door. I looked through the door eye and saw that it was Reginald and Mark. I was about to open it, but realized that I looked like a freak with my animal ears and hooves. Much to my surprise, Regi impatiently turned the knob. I ran at full speed toward my food closet, slightly opening the door to see what would be happening.

Both men entered my house, looking around. They must be looking for me. “Anthony, where are you?” That’s what I thought. I looked at them searching around for me. They looked high and low, but never thought that I was hiding with the food.

Reginald, after five minute of fruitless search, stopped at my little pile of fur. He grabbed some of it and looked at it under the light. “What’s wrong, Regi?” Mark asked. My boss took a Ziploc from his pocket, emptied the bread crumbs from it and grabbed few samples of pink fur.

“I found some hair on the floor. It’s weird, but it’s the same color as Berry’s hair.” He said while placing the bag in his pocket carefully. Mark, confused, stared at him.

“What about her, she seemed like a kind woman.” I giggled at the statement. Oh boy, Mark, if you knew the truth, you wouldn’t say stuff like that. Reginald, however, shook his head.

“Mark, what I’m gonna say is only an idea. Remember the day we went to the resto with her?” He asked him, who nodded in answer. “In the car, SHE had a hood on. We might have mistaken her for Anthony. Since that day, Anthony is nowhere to be found. He doesn’t show up at work and the only thing in his house that is weird is a pile of pink hair.” Mark’s eyes grew wide. Don’t tell me…

“Don’t tell me…” Mark said, following my thoughts. Reginald nodded with a sad emotion on his face.

“That cute and kind woman did something to Anthony. The only thing I need to do is decode the DNA on these and compare it to the national database and bam, we find whom to blame.” He said. I facepalmed silently. Again, my friend, you’re over thinking it. Well, I can’t blame him. Sti- wait, if he decodes the DNA, he might know what happened to me. Still, I don't want to show him my mane... hair.

They both left, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I cleaned what was left of the fur on the floor and took my laptop. While eating, I browsed the internet, trying to find anything related to what was happening to me. The only thing that came up in Google that looked serious was a message sent by a mysterious man called We Are The Meta.

“To any whom it may concern,

So, have any of you who are reading this post have a cutie mark appear on the side of your legs recently? I could definitely use some as I appear to be turning into a pony. Any help is appreciated.

Sincerely Needing Help,

We are the Meta”

Wow, this is exactly what I was looking for. I am not the only one! Wait… obviously that I’m not the only one, Peter is one too. I wanted to type a small message to that Meta guy, but I had to create an account. After typing random info, I was finally able to write messages as ‘BerryFrost’. Even my online names are getting corrupted by this transformation.

“Dear We are the Meta,

As I can see from your post, you have those weird tattoo thingies on your sides. I’ve been lucky because it took me at least a day to know what those were; even finding the proper name was a pain in the butt.

Anyway, we should really get in contact. Let’s just say that, as a man, I don’t like to boast my new pink mane, if you know what I mean.

Hope you answer soon.

~BerryFrost

P.S: If you speak French, everything will be easier :3”

I sent this as a private message to this guy, hoping that he has answers to my nine thousand and one questions. If he has only questions, I’m sure this number will grow up exponentially. Who am I kidding; I’m sure he’s in the dark as much as me.

I finished my Subway and cleaned the mess of lettuce and green pepper I made around the wrapping paper. At least, I always ate like an animal. Nothing is gonna change there. After cleaning the whole thing, I placed my laptop back at its place. I looked at the clock and saw that it was few minutes after noon.

What should I do this afternoon? That’s when I remembered Reginald’s visit. I had to stop him from analyzing my new DNA. That could really place us in a dangerous situation... well, mostly me. If I remembered correctly, it took around four hours to decode and at least an hour to browse through the world database to compare the results last time.

I looked at the clock again and grinned. Their lunchtime is in about 30 minutes. I’ll just have to sneak in during that time and steal everything related to this. This was a foolproof plan… not really. I was going to raid alone a lab full of scientist in broad daylight. Well, maybe not alone. I thought while looking at my phone.

Let me jinx it,

What could go wrong?

C.5 : Mission Mane Hair

Taste of Change

Chap 5

I drove my car in silence, reviewing the plan again and again in my head. It was next to foolproof, but like every plan I made, it only has a 10% chance of succeeding. I mean, entering a location incognito with flashing pink hair and a tail is not the best way to tackle any problem, but it was my only solution. Plus, it is broad daylight, I can't go on the roof. I can’t wait for the night either because it would be too late.

I sighed, “Why can’t anything be easy in life?” I wondered while drumming on the steering wheel. The music playing through the radio was helping to lower the stress, but only a bit. It was an adventure that I had to do with tact and with patience… but I had to go fast too.

While drumming, I’ve decided to sing what was playing, but realized that my voice was off. While I could sing it on key with a deep voice, I sounded more like a woman than a man. “No, don’t tell me I’ll have to change my voice too. Why is everything so complicated lately?

As I parked on the road in front of the lab, I thought about the last few days. “What is going to happen tomorrow if I survive? Will I turn all the way to… whatever I will turn into, or is it going to stop like a bad internet song?” I said, remembering that old website called Youtube. It got deleted because Google ruined it.

I came out and took my dark trench coat and backpack out of my car. If I had to infiltrate this place, I’ll do it with style. I placed my coat on my body and made sure that my… interesting body parts were safely hidden under it. I took out a hair elastic from my bag and attached my hair with it.

“Test, test, test.” I repeated, lowering my tone a little to imitate my old voice. Seriously, it’s hard to imitate a voice, but how about the voice OF ANOTHER SEX! “Hey, my name is Stra-, I mean Anthony. Arg, why am I failing at saying my true name. Anthony, An-tho-ny, Be-rry… GAH!” I shouted, getting the attention of some other people. I looked around and waved at the others. I’m sure that they thought I was crazy, but I didn’t care.

I crouched after my failed attempt saying my own name and opened my bag. Inside is some spy gear straight from movies like James Bond or Mission Impossible. I closed it and placed my hood on. Looks like it’s time for operation ‘Mane Hair’... I’m sure that there is a better name for this.

I placed the bag under my coat and locked my car door. I wonder when I will realize that all of this crazy stuff is real and fall into a psychotic breakdown? Ehh, it’s future me’s problem. Looking through my car window, I tried to hide anything else that escaped my sight.

“Hello Reginald, it’s Berry… Uhh, I mean Anthony. You took my hair and you shall give it back.” I said using my best imitation. I giggled, satisfied of what I’ve done. I’ve gone insane, but I will enjoy this insanity before reality crash head first in my face. I heard the siren that alerted the employees that it was lunch time. “It’s go time.”

I walked toward the main door glancing at the cars to preoccupy myself. Surprisingly enough, I was able to name all my co-workers who owned them. So let’s see…Mikey, Maroun, Nat, Kev, Liam, Jules… wait… I looked at a long van. It looked like something you would see in the movies with the words ‘free candy’ pasted upon it. I wonder who owns this van? I’ve never seen it before and it’s pretty noticeable. It’s probably just a visitor.

I entered the lab, watching each and every step I took. This was the moment where my act would be put under the eyes of the people watching me. I guess that’s how Shakespeare felt before any of his play. “Good or bad, we shall knoweth now!” I arrived at the security window, the only way in unless the guard is absent.

When the guard saw me, he didn’t recognize me at first. “Uhh… are you here for a meeting with somebody or…?” He asked me. I laughed with my fake deep voice and took my ID card out. He looked at the card with surprise. “Anthony, is that really you? Reginald told us you were kidnapped by some crazy pink lady.” I sighed in annoyance.

“It’s not a crazy girl, it’s my cousin,” I said in a monotonous voice. He backed up a little, a bit ashamed of what he said. “I’m sorry, it’s just that Regi and Mark broke into my house and immediately assumed the worst.” I sighed again.

“I know I should have ignored Reginald’s claim of kidnapping and stuff. I’m sorry for that. Anyway, you really should see Regi about stopping these rumors.” He pressed the unlock button, letting me pass. I thanked him and turned around to leave. When I reached the door, I heard him whispering something into his walkies-talkie. Using my new super-hearing powers, I could hear “He’s here.”, but took no notice of it.

In front of me was a crossroad. The door in front of me would lead me to the lunch room where I had my party last time, on the left was the lab where I got the fake skeleton and on the right was another lab. If I would go forward, I’m sure that I would let my cover blow by being stressed. Keeping pink hair and a feminine voice hidden from people who knew you for years is kind of hard.

I looked around for a solution. There is only two ways to go through. The normal way… I turned left. ...or the spy way. I walked forward, but before entering the lab, I entered the janitor’s closet.

I took my all-around key and unlocked the door, entering the smallest room in the building, but it was the easiest way to enter the air vents. I closed the door, hearing the lock going back in place. It’s Hollywood’s time to shine now.

I took my multi-shape screwdriver and found the right one that I could use to remove the grid. I tried to turn the tool to remove the screws, but my fingers were starting to feel numb. It’s not the right time for the transformation to remove my fingers. After struggling for few minutes, the path was open for me to go inside.

When my head was inside, however, that I realized how dumb of an idea it was. In the movies, air vents were cleaner than a room occupied by an OCD freak, but in real life, it’s dirtier than toilet bowls after a vodka party. After coughing my lungs out multiple times, I was finally able to position myself in a comfortable position to move. I also realised that my legs started their transformation too, because I was able to bend them in some awkward positions due to the new location of my knees.

“Urg, I know I wished for some action in my life, but this stinks.” I said to myself. I started to crawl forward through the dust and spider webs. I sure hope they don’t turn on the ventilation. I wished. I did my best to distribute my weight so that I didn’t create that much sound.

After a minute or two, I found another exit leading out of the cafeteria’s ventilation. I looked under to see if Reginald was eating and thus not in his lab. When I looked, however, I saw Peter and his trench coat talking to some of the employees. I was too far to hear anything, but I saw him point the lab. Why is he curious about the lab… why is he even here?

I ignored the people and continued forward. Using my mental GPS, I knew that I had to go right. It was hard to move because, for some random reason, the more I went on, the dirtier it became. Hollywood, you lying… thing. It took about five minutes before I arrived at my destination.

I took out my tools again, but it was even harder to unscrew the grate. Well, my fingers are now dead. By reflex, I looked around to see if anybody was looking, but obviously I was alone. I placed the screwdriver in my mouth and used my tongue to turn it. It’s… actually easier to do it, but the taste is dusty.

I grabbed the grate right before it fell and pulled it inside the vent. I looked out and stared at the surroundings. Seeing that it was empty, I jumped out and fell on both my arms and legs, like a ninja. Step 1, done without problems. Step 2, ac- Before I could finish my thoughts, some weird rope flew around me, locking my arms to my body.

I struggled to escape, but another rope came out of the shadows tied my legs together. My newly high-placed knees started to make my standing position more painful by the second. I placed my restrained body parts on the floor, making me look like a four-legged animal. It felt almost… normal to stand like this.

Sadly, the feeling was short-lived, as another rope hog-tied me like an animal about to be cooked over an open  fire. The strain placed on my spine was painful, but less painful than it would be normally. I guess it’s all going to end tonight… or start, if we look at it from another angle.

Seeing that I was out of the fight, four men disguised in protective clothing came out of the shadows. One of them was dressed in a tuxedo, but kept a little bag full of rope and goodies to his belt. He must be higher-ranked. He walked over me and smiled.

“Finally a victory. I’m sure our boss will be happy after our little failure at capturing the moon prinzessin. I wonder how you three could fail at such a simple mission, really. These are einfach humans.” The man, or whatever he was, grabbed me and placed my attached body on his shoulder. The sudden movement made me lose my shoes, showing my new hooves to the world. Wait, I never saw those ones before.

“Anyway, here is your payment.” He said to… from my angle I couldn’t tell who it was. I wondered who would sell me to those creeps. It only took a voice to make me know who was the cause of this.

“Thank... you, gentlemen.” I heard Reginald say with slight hesitation. Then, there was a sound of a briefcase opening and then closing. It was obvious that my head was worth a lot of money, but why?

“I guessing you don’t want to wage that money on a game of Pai Sho? Since we could play at my house, you’ll start. The guest always start.” I joked, laughing internally about that game I’ve found online, where I’ve got a custom unused table for.

One of the men placed a gag on me, cutting me off from my only source of freedom. Well, it’s official. I will not play Pai Sho, Shogi or Chess anytime soon. “Shut up, you filthy pferddefrau. Soon, you’ll reach the end of your transforming trail an-”

“What is happening here?” I heard another voice shout a bit farther than the others. This one, however, I internally thanked god or whomever was looking over me for for his arrival. It was none other than the other pony-boy, Peter.

Reginald, however, was not happy with him entering the scene. “Peter? I clearly stated that nobody is allowed to enter this laboratory under any reason unless they found the pink haired lady. She’s here, so what do you want?. What are you doing here?” He said angrily. The target of this rage didn’t make a sound.

“I thought I heard somebody I knew, but it was only a hallucination, sorry.” He explained. The man holding me moved beside somebody whom back looked like it belonged to Regi. He grabbed his head and pulled it near his mouth.

“Do I need to get rid of him?” He whispered in his ear. Reginald shook his head rapidly.

“Look, ask what you want and leave us.” My ex-boss ordered. Peter made disapproving sounds. I wished I could see more, but my sausage-like position really didn’t help.

“Few questions actually, why did you bring some pink mane hair with a smile on your face?” Did Reginald looked as happy to find my hair in my house. Wait, he didn’t know that it was mine. I raised my head a little bit and managed to see Regi’s pink cheeks.

“It was… what I needed to make an experiment. Now, can you leave me be so I can finish it?” He said with even more annoyance than before. Run Peter before Reginald loses his cool.

“Another thing, who is this girl?” My… savior? asked. Ouch, that injured my masculinity, thank you man. Reginald grabbed my mouth violently and looked deep into my eyes. I think he’s making sure my gag is on. Does he knows something that I don’t… or maybe something that he’s hiding?

“It’s just a simple girl who happens to be related to my experiment. Don’t mind her. Anything else?” His voice was borderline shouting. Peter laughed at his ex-boss.

“One last thing, can I go poof?” He asked. I wondered why he asked that, but what happened after was as surprising. I saw some kind of smoke ball rolling under us and releasing it’s thick gas. Was it Peter who did this? Why would he do that? It’s so obvious that it’s painful to think for a reason why he did this.

To add to the surprise-shake, he just appeared in front of me, like he had teleported. “Shh, I’ll lead you to safety.” He whispered loud enough that only I could hear. He removed my gag, but I coughed at the sudden air increase. Yet, I knew that it wouldn’t work.

“Look Pete, grab the keys in my pocket and run.” I tried to say peacefully, but knowing that this diversion wouldn’t stay up for long, I didn’t want him to stay and get hurt.

“What do you me-?” He started to ask, but was cut off by my feet hitting his face due to a quick turning mercenary. The impact made him fly backward, but for some mysterious reason, he did an aerial backflip and… flew right before the boss of the gang.

“I’m sorry Berry.” He said, looking at the man. He used his new super speed, grabbed my keys and ran away from the door. Seeing that I was looking at the door, I said one last thing before they managed to place the gag back.

“MY LAPTOP, NORTH!”

V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V

“MY LAPTOP, NORTH!” I heard behind me. I continued to run, though, pushing away anybody that would come between me and the door leading to the parking lot. I didn’t know who these mercenaries were, but I knew they were looking for… people like us. And from the soulless look of their eyes, I know that Berry is in danger. I must act intelligently.

When I arrived, I turned left and used my new hovering abilities to get to a higher ground. I just need to follow them and calculate a strategy to save her. Still, what did she meant by “My laptop?” I asked internally. Making sure that I couldn’t be seen, I waited patiently for my targets to arrive. It only took about half an hour until they came out of the lab.

“Let’s just get to the hideout. I’m gonna do to this pferddefrau what I wanted to do to the princess. I predict a lot of gory stuff, wunderbar.” The head man said to his crew, still holding his prize. Why is he holding her right in front of everybody else?

“Boss, do you really think this illusion will trump them all? I don’t want to hear screams of fear.” The one on the left asked. The boss sighed and spun around, forcing Berry to kick him in the face.

“Obviously, dumm person. As long as no menschen pferd looks at us, we’ll be all fine. Luckily for us, the only one around ran away like a little baby.” He said before laughing maniacally like a cartoon villain. The trio went to their car and, after throwing their load violently inside the trunk, started to drive away. Using the maximum of my new found speed, I bolted for my source of transportation and followed them.

After about ten minutes of driving, we all arrived to their hideout, which was hidden under a house located near a mall. Sadly, it was ten minutes in the opposite direction of Berry’s house which meant that it took more than forty minutes to go from here to it. Why can’t anything be easy? I need vacations. Now knowing where to strike, I’ve decided that it would be a suicide mission to go alone. Maybe I can go to her house, go see what she was talking about, maybe raid her food closet, then come up with a plan. I sure hope that she is okay.

Doing just that, it took 40 minutes of long and stressful driving to get to where I wanted to go. The only thing that was interesting was the music that was playing at the radio. It was a rock and roll special. At least I can stress under the sound of The Beatles.

I took the keys out of my pocket and unlocked the plastic and metal door, opening it. I took a look around for the sake of nostalgia, it’s been a really long time since I entered this place. On the table were leftovers from Subway, which I knew were from this morning, and the laptop was left open. If she is letting me enter her private device, then let’s do it.

I looked at the page she was looking at. It was a website I’ve never heard of, but it was some kind of forum. She was looking at her personal messages last time she was on. the only thing that was on the page was a message sent earlier today to some guy called ‘We are the meta’. From what I could gather, he or she was supposed to be one of us. I hope the mercenaries haven’t caught them too. How to I reach them?

I pressed the ‘new message’ button to write a follow up to Berry’s message. I guess I’ve used everything she owns already, might as well go the full mile and use her username on this website. I hope she don’t mind me calling out for help. I stretched my numb arms and started typing.

“Look wearethemeta, my name is North Wind and I’m Strawberry’s friend. She got captured by some crazy german soldier mercenary… thing. If you really are in our camp, please find a way to contact me. Add me  on Skype or whatever program you use, please answer. Skype name : PeterMartineau1”

While pressing send, I hoped that he would get the message on time. I couldn’t imagine what the man could do to her. I sure hope that it’s painless, that it wouldn’t kill her. My eyes widen when I realized what I thought. Nonono, she is alive, I know it.

I raised my arm to clean the sweat off my forehead, but what met my noggin’ was a bit fluffier. I stared at my arm in disbelief when I saw it covered in blue fur. How did I miss this? How did the mercs miss this?

I used my fists to remove my shirt, because my fingers were now disconnected from my nerve system. I’m starting to fear what’s going to happen. I looked at my body to see that about three quarters of it was covered in the same fur-like material as my arm. With all that’s happening, I’m sure it’s real fur.

I stood up awkwardly on my mysteriously smaller legs and wobbled toward the nearest mirror. My legs are starting to kill me, I thought while looking at the reflecting glass. I stared at my new face with surprise and some… satisfaction. My eyes were larger and far more blue than last time I looked at myself. My hair was longer than this morning. I hope it’s not going to grow longer, I want to look masculine.

As I turned around to leave, I took a glance at my back, only to see something sprouting out of it. I’ve decided to stop and keep looking at them. Are those… wings? Am I turning into an angel? I poked them to see if I would get any reaction. I guess I found what is gonna replace my fingers.

With my legs now killing me, I quickly made my way back to the laptop and sat down on the couch with a happy sigh. I took the device slowly using my palms and placed it on my legs. It’s time to look deeper into this guy.

I looked around their profile to see if there was a way of communication that was more real-time than PMs, but it was only containing the basic information required for a simple profile. I sighed, rubbing the sides of my head. Today was the worst day of my life, what could make this night worst? Let me jinx it… SURPRISE ME, WORLD!

I stood up to go get something to drink, but my center of gravity shifted and I was forced on four legs. To my surprise, both my arms and legs were about the same length. Well, I’m officially between human and circus freak. Why did I even challenged the world? I know I’m going to get my flank kicked.

I trotted, still creeped out by my appearance, to the fridge. Inside, I’ve found some natural orange juice, some carrots and a piece of frozen pizza. For whatever reasons, the carrots seemed more appealing than the fancy piece of dough. Following my guts, I grabbed the bag of orange cigars and poured myself a glass of OJ.

I can safely say that, for the first time ever, I actually liked carrots more than anything else. What is happening to me? I asked myself while I placed the drinking glass on the counter after drinking it. I looked through the window to see that it was sundown. Wow, the day flew by really fast. I don’t think I’ll stay awake for long.

I made my way to her bedroom. I hope you don’t mind that I sleep in your bed, Berry. I removed my pants, only leaving my underpants. I closed the lights and took place under the covers. Closing my eyes only one thought remained. Please, be safe, Strawberry.

V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V

Her screams echoed along the hallway leading underground. The constant sound of something hard hitting flesh was filling the ears of the guards taking care that nobody entered the location of the sounds. Sometime, the rhythm of hits was only broken by the screams as the wet sound of skin ripping under the stress of the beatings.

“Now that we’ve finished with the french baton, how about we do it my way, little pony? Lightning and fire!” A german voice asked after the hallway fell in silence. Following his question was a little high voice coming from his target.

“N-no… please…”

C.6 : Descent Into Insanity (Dark) BTE

This is the 'before the editor' version. I wanted it to be out asap.

Chapter 6

Descent into Madness

What was this feeling inside of me? Fear? Anger? I didn’t even know myself. That last day passed like a blur, actually. As if I were drunk on adrenaline during the whole thing. Wake up in my room and poof, inside a laboratory getting kidnapped by a crazy scientist. Who said life had to be boring?

At first, when I felt the cold feeling of steel touching my skin, I thought I finally awoke from that dream my bothersome imagination tortured me with. It was obvious that all of this was a dream. A human turning into a colorful equine sounds like a plot for a game ranked around 1% on Metacritic.

So, following that logical train of thought, I’ve decided to find a reason why I’m stuck in someplace that has cold steel as the floor. It’s not everywhere that such a commonly used material is used as a floor. Places that do use it either use it because they were cheap or because the government was funding them… yeah, cheap in general.

Thus, I started making a mental list of places where cold ageless metal is used as flooring. That list came out with the incredible amount of one: it would have to be a cage. The question now is ‘why a cage?’ it’s not like I was an animal or anything. Even if my brain was trying to promote its idea of me being something that is excluded from humanity, I kept telling it that it was impossible and that it should check the newspaper for a new job.

Naturally, I could just open my eyes and answer each and every question that I’m asking myself, but there was a simple fact that kept preventing me from such a menial task. I was actually scared of what was behind those eyelids. Such a simple fear preventing the movement of muscle.

Behind those dark curtains were two realities. One of which makes obvious sense and the other straight out of the twisted mind of a chubby 16-year-old McDonald's employee working to become a game designer in Quebec. Why so specific? I don’t even know myself; I guess that’s how I’m made.

Either I was enclosed in a cage, surely in a mental institution where they thought that my sleepwalking was something to be scared of, or I really was what my brain was trying to push forward and met with the terrible fate of the animal control. Still, I’m not an animal… right?

So, all I have to do is to gather up my courage and open the veil enclosing my mind and expose my currently vulnerable state to the universe. It was a simple task with a simple payoff, but the metaphorical wall that was standing in front of me as an obstacle wasn’t really helping.

I raised them slowly, happy that my body was still intact after the shock I felt during that ridiculously long nightmare. Through my slight opening, I could barely see around me, but just enough to answer some questions that I asked myself earlier.

First, I was indeed in a cage.

Second, I was indeed on some cold steel.

Third, I indeed had a pink snout… wait.

That last realisation sent a signal to my eyelid. They closed harder than anything that can close in the universe. That sight was enough to place my body in some weird emergency state that I’ve never been before. Kind of like when you get a deja vu, but with something horrible that happened.

Right now, I was sure that my brain is scolding me for not listening to it… and even then, I will not bow to the pink pony overlord. I WAS A HUMAN, GOD DAMMIT! I was not a damn pink pony, my imagination must understand that fact. That fact that is laying there, in plain sight, every time I looked in the mirror. My humanity is not something to drop jokes upon.

It was during this moment I wished I had a brain switch to turn my imagination on or off. This way, I could be sure that nothing was going as an obstacle between me and reality. Still, if it was a figment of my imagination like it OBVIOUSLY was, I mustn’t let it stop me.

It took some negotiation between me, myself and I to unleash the locks holding my eyelids closed. Naturally, to prevent anything bad happening to my psyche, part of my brain was against the plan, but something worse could come and I wouldn’t see it.

Then, against all odds, I managed to open my eyes to the world of steel and light surrounding my laying body. I could still see all of what I’ve detected earlier. Meeting my vision was a cage, steel and the pink blob at the bottom of my vision.

I felt better now that I mustered the courage to open to my fate. Still, my rational side kept bothering me about that stain hanging low in my field of view. Thinking that it was something from inside the cage sticking on my nose, I started moving my facial muscles to get rid of it. Seeing that my lazy attempt of removing it proved to be fruitless, I’ve decided to do something more radical.

I tried to move my arm, but was met with something preventing me. I turned my head to look at my arm which was laying on the same steel as my noggin’, but was met with a pink stump looking like a big middle finger to my humanity. There was also a chain attached to it, preventing any movement.

It was a surprise, even a shock to my internal Ministry of Rational Affairs. While three quarters of my mind converted to the pink empire, there was still a secluded group trying to suppress the constant screams of my brain trying to explain the situation. Why was I picturing my psyche as a government? Why not?

I pushed my numb body away from the cold steel floor and, seeing that my chain wasn’t long enough, stayed on all four. I needed to find out what the hell was going on. I mostly wanted to know my physical situation. Was I still insane as a pony or rational and human? I knew I wouldn’t get any answer if I just stayed lying down, trying to weave a protective mental bubble with parts of my sanity.

I wanted to find anything to pinpoint a location before diving into the discovery of my body, which I think would be a mental crippling experience, but was met with a whole load of nothing. Of the four walls surrounding me, there was three that my OCD wouldn’t bother with, being simple plain steel walls that were stereotypical for cages.

For the last wall, which was obviously the one with the steel bars, I was met with a rather… special surprise behind the blockade. While the wall was a mix of eggshell white and… milk white, nothing else could give me info on my location or the time. Still, there was a mirror staring at my body, giving me answers to every asked or unasked question.

Instead of pairs of legs and arms, I was met with four identical hooves.

Instead of two small eyes with a calm smile, I was met with giant scared globes and a shaking muzzle.

Instead of small unaligned blond hair, I was met with a flowing pink and yellow hybrid of a mane.

Instead of a man standing proudly over his 5 foot 8 inches, there was a frail little pink mare shaking from fear.

I wanted to back off, to go away from what people call the reflection of the mind, but quickly felt the chains holding my physical body in place. The image was like torture. All of it  going against the deep encryption hard-wired in my brain. It wasn’t my reflection… I was sure of it.

Still, any movement that I took, it would do it. Why was it doing that? It wasn’t supposed to follow me… it wasn’t me. At every second passing by, my mind was slowly getting corrupted by what I now considered the truth. I started to lower my head, every confused emotions jumping around whining inside of me like kids on ADHD without their precious chocolate.

I screamed. The only way that I could show how angry, lost and sad I was screaming at the top of my lungs. Not only that, but I started to flail my legs around. Behind the scenes, my mind was trying to find a solution, mostly on how to regain control of the now uncontrollable body.

The sudden increase of sound coming from their main prisoner alerted whoever was walking by. Somebody arrived in front of my cage, but I couldn’t recognize any specific characteristic. I was too busy trying to shout my way out of this nightmare.

Was the man talking? I didn’t care. I only wanted my old life back. A simple wish for a simple man… or mare. Even as I was wailing in a mix of emotion, I was still think about this ordeal. I became a pony and there was no way around it. Still, denial was in the human nature.

The man opened the cage, and it was at the same moment that I regained a particle of sanity. I looked behind me and saw that this wailing and flailing almost pulled the chains out of their walls. My animal instinct kicked in and I knew that it was my last chance.

When the man lowered his hand to hold my snout, I concentrated all of the energy made available by my recent mood milkshake and punched the man right in his face. The strength of the flying hoof was strong enough to rip the chain apart and collide with his face, launching him on the other side of the cage.

The vibration of my chain breaking resonated with the steel wall, making the other chains more fragile. It was when my animal instinct took over. If somebody would see me at this moment, they would see a red eyed mare with smoke coming out of her nose. Funny… but scary.

I launched forward, breaking everything that was holding me in place. I jumped out of the cage and went… somewhere. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew that wherever I went, there would be an exit.

I quickly realised that I was going the right way when goons started to block my path. I didn’t know how, but I managed to quickly get passed them. Did I injure them? Did I kill them? I didn’t know. My memory was only recording about one centimeter around my body and it’s about limited to my thoughts.

I looked up and saw exactly what I was looking for. Upstairs was a door with artificial light shining under it. I could hear the sound of modern life behind that wooden barricade made by members of humanity. All of me was agreeing on one thing : finally I can be free.

That’s when I felt it.

I never felt something like this before. At first, I felt an impact on the side of my body. Then, it was the electricity running through my body. My muscles tensed up, locking in place like wooden rods. That attack quickly erased any hope I had at the time.

I blacked out.

V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V

I woke up with a feeling of poking on my side. While my brain was awake, however, I didn’t want to open my eyes. It was the same feeling I had minutes ago when I woke up in that cage. This time, I didn’t felt anything cold under me. More like something warm and fuzzy, like a thick carpet.

I started to feel more poking, but this time, on my head. I wanted to open my eyes and finally stop this annoying feeling, but after all of what happened; my mind didn’t want to take another chance at exposing myself to this world of agony.

As I weighed the pros and cons of waking up, I felt the impact of a stick on my ribs, startling me and making my recoil in pain. I opened my eyes and raised my head, only to see people looking at me, happy that their little plan worked. I knew they were talking, but I couldn’t hear them. Either it was because all of these injuries made me deaf, or it was… because I was simply a dumb animal.

When they saw that I woke up, one of them motioned with his stick for me to stand up. As somebody that has the right to freedom, I refused to act like a trained animal and stayed on the ground. Anyway, while standing up felt comfortable for my badly positioned legs, the carpet felt cuddly and inviting.

I felt another impact on my ribs and heard a cracking noise. Seeing that I had to listen to them, I stood up, receiving a round of applause from whoever was around me. I felt disgraced and angry at the display. I was forced to do their biddings at the threat of breaking my ribs.

But isn’t it the fate that is waiting for me as an animal?

Then, the leader motioned me to follow him. I could have stayed there, my legs looking like lamp poles in a city, but I knew that it wouldn’t be healthy to receive another hit near my belly. So, I’ve decided to follow the new rule that I just learned and listen to him. Listen to every order he ask me to do.

As I followed him, I realised how weird I felt. All of this felt wrong. All of this felt painful. It was like if I was stripped of any power I had and forced to follow a higher up. Like black people in the past. Like kids in factories in China. Like slaves in history.

But isn’t it the fate that is waiting for me as an animal?

I followed him like he was holding a leash around my neck. Yet, I was doing this in free will. Well, as much free will as an animal has. In front of me was the leader, who was not even looking back at me. He looked sure that I wouldn’t run away, as if I were a trained little puppy.

Behind me were two goons holding the unholy sticks. The sticks that were preventing me from the great escape. Yet, why would I escape? The only thing stopping them from hitting me was to do what they tell me to do. I was sure I would receive something else besides hits. Maybe even a bit of freedom.

As this is the fate that is waiting for me, now that I’m an animal.

They led me to a room where color was a foreign word. It was a large room with immaculate white walls. Nothing on them could help me differentiate this room from any other. There was no window to look outside… and now that I think about it, if there were stairs, then we are underground. There were no pictures, paintings or decorations to give some warmth to the room. It was almost like those rooms in prison for… misbehaving prisoners.

That’s when I clicked. One light, no windows, iron door with rusty hinges. That place was going to be where I was going to be kept. I wasn’t claustrophobic, but I cared a bit about my future. I turned around to look at the door and my possibilities, but it seems that it was considered as an attack and received two hits in my face, one per goon. I fell on the floor near the chains, my face bleeding.

I cried. This was too much. At first, it was my mind that was broken… now it’s my body that was getting attacked. I looked up with tears and I saw the master laughing before scolding the goons. He crouched and started petting me, wiping the tears off my face.

Maybe… being an animal is not so bad…

I closed my eyes and let my mind drift off. After all that I’ve been through, I owed myself some rest. I didn’t know how long I was stuck in this living hell, due to the lack of clocks, but I knew that it has been more than a few hours.

I was glad to fall asleep after all that I’d been through. Surprisingly, I knew that my master would protect me. I don’t know why, but I trusted the chief of the goons. Is it because he petted and… ‘protected’ me? Was he the guy with the taser rod? All of these questions flew over my head as I slowly fell in Morpheus’ arms.

I felt something going around my hooves as I tried to find peace, but I didn’t really care. I trusted that man who was supposedly standing over me. A man who attacked me and mostly chained me… I guess I really was stupid and gullible.

Like any other broken animal.

V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V

After leaving the realm of sleeping, I’ve decided to stay on the floor with my eyes closed. It was still the same ordeal as before. I didn’t want to open my eyes as I was way too injured to suffer anymore damage. Maybe if I kept my own consciousness away from reality, I wouldn’t occur the wrath at what was waiting for me.

I suddenly heard a sound near where I was laying. It didn’t sound like the walking cycle of my master, which consisted of the hard tap of work boots on these floor. This time, using my new animal ears, I could hear the faint noise of light shoes, almost like slippers, sliding on this white stone floor.

I knew that I didn’t had to worry because my master would prevent anything that could happen to me. Sure, I didn’t feel him under my head, but maybe it was because he was gone eating. That when I realized that I was so hungry right then.

Yet, I couldn’t decide when to eat. Deciding was no longer in my abilities.

When the sound of shoes stopped right near me, I calmed myself. Why should I be scared? I did nothing wrong, so nothing bad should happen. That’s how karma works, right?

Being relaxed didn’t help when I received around 1.5 million volts on the side of my head. I would have been knocked back a few meters if it wasn’t for the chains that was holding me still. While pain coursed throughout my flesh and bones, my mind was hard at work trying to find out why I was attacked again. Was I a bad animal for them? I did nothing!

He then tased where I was hit earlier, getting a scream from me. While that spot was still fragile from the impact of the rods earlier, more than a million volt racing through it should do the job of breaking the endorphin wall and tickle the pain trigger.

I managed to open my eyes slightly as I was laying on my back from the force of the impacts. I could fully see from the right one, but the left eye must have been swelling from the attack. Using my flexible neck, I managed to see the giant black bruise on my rib cage and could see something out of place, broken under the skin.

Then I saw the man, whom I recognized as the german who kidnapped me at the beginning of all this mess. He was holding two rods that looked ready to attack and his face was a mix of disgust and anger. He raised both arms and I prepared for impact.

For about five minutes he didn’t stop hitting me, sending an inhuman… or inpony amount of volt coursing through my body like track horses, each hoof stomp destroying more and more my muscles and organs. It was painful, but after a good minute, I couldn’t feel anything. I guess that voltage can remove any sensation in a body, or my endorphin generator exploded and released all of its content in my blood.

In between the initial screaming and hitting exchange between the german and I, I heard some words that explained the situation. The words sounded faint, my ears still injured by whatever injured them earlier, but I heard some things that can be linked together to form an explanation.

I heard ‘rampage’, ‘killed’, ‘men’, ‘dead or alive’, ‘contract’, ‘suffer’.

I could be silly and say that ‘during contracts, rampages of dead or alive men killed something’, but I knew better. With some intelligent links, I managed to deduce that I actually killed some people when I went berzerk. Now, he was avenging them because he could kill me and the contract would still stand. Still, he would like to make me suffer instead of ending me.

His reasons made sense, and he’s a human so violence is a second nature, but I was the one at the end of the lightning stick and it didn’t felt good. An understatement would be that I was in deep poop, but I knew that I was deeper than that and in something more disgusting.

I didn’t know what happened, but he stopped after five minutes. I guess he was either tired or I looked about dead. While I couldn’t feel anything, I still felt relief that this was all over. I knew that nobody could save me now. Whoever I used to call master forgot about me and I didn’t have any friend who knew about me getting kidnapped. And Regi? Bah, I should forget anything about this traitor.

I closed my eyes and sighed. This was it. I was all alone in what I think is a pool of blood. I was passed the breaking point, both physically and mentally. One more hit and I could die, one more mental assault and I would faint. I heard the sound of something rushing in the room, but I didn’t care. I literally hit rock bottom.

And that bottom was comfortable, yet cold. Like that cage where it all started.

I relaxed, letting everything flow away.

Letting my fears go away.

Letting my pain flow outside.

Letting my heart stop beating.

C.7 : Typing with Hooves (BTE)

(BTE = Before the Editor)

~Happy Birthday, Story! June 29th 2013~

So, I was about to leave when suddenly BANG, the cart went through a wall and disappeared through the other. You should have seen the faces of my bosses when that happened.” The mare in front of me said while making exaggerated movement with her arms.

“Did they pay for the reparation?” I asked to the pink mare who sat down for the first time since she started her story. She took a sip of her drink before giggling.

“Obviously. I don’t think there is an insurance company that protects against cart smashing.” She giggled again, melting my heart. It has been officially two months that I've been hanging out with Strawberry the baker and I already knew that I would stay with her longer.

I continued to look at her while she started another story about her crazy life in Ponyville. Since she grew up in Manehattan, she never had the same amount of craziness a born Ponyvillian would have. Still, even if her stories would be considered normal occurrences in my life, hearing her talk with that sweet voice of hers was enough to make me stay and listen.

She stood up again to express with movement what she was saying, allowing me to get a closer look on her upper body. Unlike normal mares who always made sure their weight was at the same level everyday, she didn’t care, making her look a bit pudgy. Still, that additional weight was normal for a mare surrounded with cakes and chocolate the entire day.

Also, that weight made it so her flank was round and plentiful. I could grab it, unlike slim mares who only had skin and bones. She was also the kind of ‘all natural’ mare, preferring to have no make-up or fancy clothes, which was a bit different from Manahattanians who like their ‘satin’ robe.

“And then, out of nowhere, a piano fell right beside me. From what I heard, it happened only once in the past and it injured the town’s librarian. Plus, it was from the same mare! Shouldn’t the delivery service know not to repeat the same mis-” That was when I heard screams in the distance.

We saw dozens of ponies run away from something in the street beside where the little cafe we were standing in was. We both knew that, from the amount of ponies having the same reaction, what was there was truly frightening.

“I’m afraid we have to cut this da- late dinner short.” I said, almost spilling out my true intentions to her. Luckily for me, she didn’t hear my slip of tongue. “We should get home before this thing gets up. When this will be over, do you know when we’ll be able to eat together again?”

She started grabbing her stuff and, when she was finished, she smiled at me. “I would be glad to finish this dinner another time, but there is something that you must answer first.” She told me. I looked at her confused, quickly motioning her to continue.

“Knock, knock.”

This turned my confused look even more confused. That was not a question. That wasn’t even a proper sentence. “This isn’t the time for jokes, Berry.” I warned her, fearing that the scary thing would catch them off-guard.

“Knock, knock.”

This time, it angered me. Does this filly even understand the meaning of the word ‘danger’? Even if I knew I would regret it, I answered anyway. “Who’s there?” She grinned evilly, like if I just gave her the final piece required to open a vault rumored to be full of treasures.

Out of her mouth came the sound of somebody knocking at the door. This sound startled me. The fact that she recreated to perfection the sound was astounding. Still, I knew that this was fishy as she continued to make the sound.

*knock knock*

*knock knock knock*

*knock… knock…*

=====

I slowly woke up to the sound of somebody knocking on the door like a mad man. Who would knock like this at such an early hour? I turned my body, only to see that it was about 11 am. Well… who would still knock non-stop for such a long time?

I lazily rolled out of the bad, willfully falling on the floor. Sadly, I fell on something I totally forgot I had. The feeling of pain coming from my tail travelled my spinal chord right in my brain, which lead to one of the most unmanly pained sound I ever made.

I opened my eyes, now awaken by the adrenalin flowing through my bloodstream, only to see what I could only compare to the resolution of an IMAX screen. My field of vision, who was at the level of a cone when I fell asleep, was now a perfect 180 degree view with graphics set to Ultra.

“Wow…” I simply said, that simple word representing what my brain was trying to tell me in multiple paragraphs. I would have continued to marvel at the simple act of staring at a wall if it wasn’t for the still constant knocking at the door of Berry’s house.

This was the moment where I snapped. Forgetting the fact that, since my eyes changed resolution and that I was now looking at the bed like if it was a tower, I was now 100% pony, I stormed off toward the entrance of the house, the continuing sound slowly hammering my eardrums to a pulp.

“OKAY, UNLESS YOU’RE THE BUCKING LANDOWNER, PLEASE STOP KNOCKING AT THE DOOR.” I shouted right beside said door. The knocking stopped, much to my pleasure, but the voice I heard from the other side caught me off-guard.

“It’s me… Reginald.”

It was him, the traitor who helped the Russians capture Berry for money. The bastard who used to by the best boss I had ever. I went from angry from the knocking to downright infuriating that he was actually showing his ugly traitorous face at her last victim’s humble abode.

I unlocked the door and opened it, showing a man who looked ten years older than he really was. His eyes were bloodshot, his shirt was stained with sweat and tears and his hair was disheveled. He looked like he didn’t sleep at all. His appearance alone made my rage go away and, due to my new rewired brain, made my feel concern.

“R-Reginald? Are you alri-” I asked before being caught… in a hug? Reginald was practically crying in my fur, his leg on the floor to allow an easy grab. When the surprise of the act passed, I started patting him on the back, trying to get him to calm down.

“I… I didn’t know Peter, I didn’t.” He told me between sobs. I stared at him in surprise. This man, evil evil man who sold my friend for green paper, was feeling guilty of his act after all that happened. I simply couldn’t believe it.

“Why, Reginald? Why did you do this to me? Why did you do this to her… to Anthony…?” I asked, trying to suck out his true intentions. I knew that his psyche was frail and that it was the right moment to get the truth.

“They… they lied to me. When they arrived, they explained that Anthony was kidnapped by this woman. He showed me proof of that. Pictures of a kidnapping. A pink haired girl grabbing the man with malice flashing in her eyes like a crazy puppet out for blood.” He shivered, trying to stop the tears from leaving his eyes.

“I don’t know why, but at the time, I asked no question. Yet now, I’m wondering where did he get those pictures. Also, the angle of the camera was way off. I looked at the pictures again and… I saw how fake they were.” He started to tear up again. “How could I miss those details? Also, why am I crying? I am a man!” I hugged him tighter and he finally stopped his crying.

I pushed him a bit to see his face. His eyes were even more red than before, but luckily for him, most of his tears were absorbed by my coat. That last part brought much disgust. “You really should go to the bathroom and clean yourself. you look like a spawn from the tartarus.”

He laughed for the first time in the time in the conversation.This was quite the relief to hear that sound coming from his mouth after all that happened. “Yeah, sure. Where is the bathroom?” He asked, cleaning the last remaining tears from his eyes.

“Oh, it’s quite easy.     First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. You can’t miss it.” I explained in a ‘matter of fact’ voice. He looked at me, not digging the reference.

“Stop joking with me. Why the fuck is it!?” He shouted, obviously not realising it. I backed up and cringe at his tone and voice, making him see the consequence of his actions. I pointed right beside us. He looked at the open door leading to the bathroom. “Oh… sorry. Be right back.”

He stood up and left, leaving me on the floor, fur flooded with tears. I was still in shock about what just happened, but I was happy that Reginald understood what he did. Still, I hoped that he understood and that it was not an act.

I would have stayed on the floor if it wasn’t for the telephone ringing near me. I slowly stood up and grabbed the phone. At first, I thought it would be an easy operation. Press talk, place it on my ear and voila! Yet, not having fingers make trying to press a centimeter squared button with a huge keratin hoof as hard as splitting two of those those small lego slabs I had in my youth.

Sadly, I was not able to open the phone in time, making me hope that Berry had an answering machine.  I slowly placed the wireless phone back on it’s charger. I suddenly heard the shower bring opened. I hoped that Reginald would feel better after that. I didn’t want to be guilt tripped the entire time he would be with me.

As I was wondering what to do, I heard a beeping sound coming from Berry’s PC. Curious, I looked at the screen and saw that Skype had a notification coming from a certain ‘We are the Meta’. That’s when I remembered the message I sent yesterday.

We are the Meta: Hello?

We are the Meta: You awake yet?

I looked at the messages, surprised that I’ve got an answer. The first message came from late last night, but the other message was the one that caused the sound notification. I placed myself in a position that would help me write an answer with those large rocks attached to my arms.

PeterMartineau1: yes who are you

My OCD started screaming at me, whining that there was neither capital letters or punctuation, but I knew that it was already long and tedious to write something on such a small laptop keyboard with hooves without much mistakes.

We are the Meta: The person you contacted last night about a "Strawberry Frost"

PeterMartineau1: oh sweet luna, i reaslly need yoiur heslp

I stared angrily at the screen. My last line was written horrible. I tried again, failing again.

PeterMartineau1: typklng with hooves is hsard

We are the Meta: I can imagine. I guess I can consider myself lucky haha.

PeterMartineau1: har haf, what pony hsvd you turmed into

We are the Meta: Well, you kind of swore to me a second ago.

I stopped for a moment, trying to understand that last line. Did I swear on the head of somebody in the last two minutes without realising it? I looked at earlier in the chat and saw something that froze my blood for some reason. Was I speaking to the Luna I unconsciously swore to? That’s when I remembered who she was.

PeterMartineau1: waikt, oh nkmerciful, m9ik sorry princes

We are the Meta: Yes! Fear my wrath! You shall now be sent to the moon for swearing about me!

I started to panic. Knowing what she was able to do and her backstory related to the nightmare war, being sent to the moon looked like my next destination if she would ever find me. I started to type like a madpony to change Luna’s mind.

PeterMartineau1: ohn pldeasde prk ess, dl nt do it

We are the Meta: …

We are the Meta: You know that was sarcasm, right?

I stared at the screen in disbelief. I knew that I was really gullible, but at this level? I started to laugh in relief. I was going to live!

PeterMartineau1: ... obvkioudly

We are the Meta: Hard to tell with your difficulty typing.

Hooves, I couldn’t care less about them… wait, that means I do care about them. I hate you American slangs. I slammed my head on my desk, realising that it was more painful that I thought.

PeterMartineau1: slorry princedsd

We are the Meta: It's fine.

We are the Meta: Anyways, what was this about a kidnapped pony?

PeterMartineau1: she tried to save her secret by inmfiltratimng a lab and it swsds a trap

For the first time since I’ve started talking with Luna, I’ve laughed at a line I wrote with those two bricks I call hooves. By saying it out loud, I realised how nonsensical it sounded. She tried to save her secret by im-filtra-timg a lab and it sw-is-dis a trap. Sweet Luna, I wished she could understand anyway.

We are the Meta: Hmm, she should have just left it alone. With the condition she was probably in, I don't see why she thought it was a good idea.

That was a good question. Why did she even thought that it was a good idea. She was already on Reginald’s watchlist. She jumbed into a shark pool and expected to come out alive.

PeterMartineau1: me neither4, now , she kis captured sn d i nmeed help.

We are the Meta: Well, I'm not sure how close I even am to you. What city or town are you in?

PeterMartineau1: muxcxatine

PeterMartineau1: lows

Behold, the new mayor of the city of Iows in the country of Muxcatine, North Wind the pegasus. May the crowds roar his name as he walks in his office made out of some figments of my imagination.

We are the Meta: Is that a Russian town?

For the record, I facehoofed at the moment I read her answer.

PeterMartineau1: obviuslyt

PeterMartineau1: jusd

PeterMartineau1: us

PeterMartineau1: muscatune

For the second time, I slammed my head on my desk. How hard was it to write Muscatine without making any mistakes?

We are the Meta: ...Muscatine, Iowa?

PeterMartineau1: yhddyerd   yes

After three tries, I finally managed to write something looking like an affirmative word. For others, it might look like the lyrics for the intro of some underground reggae song. You know, when the singer spouts some random words, trying to make us think that it is 100% Jamaican reggae, but actually sounds like random keystrokes printed then recited loudly.

We are the Meta: I am tired, of all these motherfucking coincidences in this motherfucking town!

PeterMartineau1: wnst dl you ean

‘What do you mean’. Also, it could be interpreted into ‘What did you learn’ and other random stuff that looks like it. Luckily for me, Luna actually had the patience to decrypt my mysterious citations.

We are the Meta: Basically, I met my long-lost sister here in Muscatine right when she (used to be a he) was visiting a friend for their own birthday party.

PeterMartineau1: wolw

I was genuinely surprised. Seemed like silly ol’ Muscatine was having a tourist rush… wait, used to be a he? Does that mean that Berry wasn’t the only one to endure genderbending? I shook my head. It wasn’t the time for trivial questions like that. I had to ask her if she would be able to help me.

PeterMartineau1: ... wkjll youhelkpo md

Well, I hope that sounded like a call for help.

We are the Meta: If I'm reading this correctly, then yes, I most definitely will.

I started writing my thankful response to her when the door to the bathroom opened, startling me. I totally forgot that Reginald was actually using it and that made my last line almost unreadable, mostly due to it being my hooves slapping down in surprise o random keys.

PeterMartineau1: thdn, yoim mnr\]\\

PeterMartineau1: olopds

“Hey Comet, have any clothes I can borrow since I don’t think you’ll need them soon?” Regionals asked, holding a towel around his waist to hide his privates. I grown in annoyance at, again, a pet name.

“Look, can you PLEASE start calling me by either my human name or pony name. Don’t try to find pet names or else you may regret it.” We both looked at each other and sighed. “Look, this isn’t my house, remember? I’m sure B- Anthony wouldn’t mind. His bedroom is to your left.” He nodded, his face showing no emotions as he walked toward his destination.

I looked around, trying to find something that I could use to facilitate my writing. Luckily for me, I spotted a pencil few meters away from me. It’s diameter, being at least ten times less than a bulky hoof, will really help.

That’s when I realised I had no fingers to handle the pencil with. I thought about holding it with my wrist, or whatever it’s called in pony biology, but it was actually a bit painful. So, in the end, I’ve settled with the most senseful idea I’ve had in a while. I would use my mouth to write on my keyboard.

After a long minute, I’ve finally been able to write my answer to the princess.

PeterMartineau1: pencil usage activate

PeterMartineau1: youll need my address

It wasn’t perfect, but it would temporarily satisfy my OCD. There was still the problem of the ‘shift + key’ punctuation, but beggars can’t be choosers.

We are the Meta: I would like to go straight to wherever she is, as it'd be quicker, but I feel I should talk to you first. Go ahead and send it.

I slowly and painstakingly wrote my address on the chat. I realised that it took a great deal of concentration to type with a pencil. I was only able to focus on the keyboard and nothing else.

PeterMartineau1: 2200 5th avenue; here is my address. i dont know their exact address only where it is

We are the Meta: Okay, I'll see you in anywhere from 25 to 50 minutes.

PeterMartineau1: why such a difference

I was able to start the final line using my entire pool of concentration, but as I was finishing it, Reginald came out of nowhere and scared the living daylights out of me. Even if he was just asking what I was doing.

In my surprise, I dropped my pencil on some keys and it rolled on others, making a beautiful mess of gibberish. It didn’t help that I was slamming my hooves on the keyboard while arguing with Reginald on the topic of personal space.

PeterMartineau1: anyway, see yaslkfahsfdshalkfhksdlfhvbdskf\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

“So, are you gonna tell me what was it?” He asked again as I was closing Skype.

“It was somebody who is going to help us in our… Russian situation.” I simply said while placing the portable computer on it’s table.

“And you think that this random guy will help us?” He asked, the tone of his voice showing distrust.

“Well, considering that I will be assisted by the one who started said problem, I guess I can’t fall deeper than I already am.” I realised how evil I sounded when I said that. Reginald recoiled of my mean words and I immediately regretted it.

“L-Look, I’m sorry Reggie. I-I didn’t mean-” I started before being cut.

“No, you are right. I did a mistake and I’m assuming it.” He sighed before slouching on the sofa and grabbing the remote. “I trust you on this one. I sure hope that you know what you’re doing. While you prepare the place for the visit, I’m gonna watch some idiot box.”

I stared at him in shock. “So you’re just gonna sit there… doing nothing. Not even asking who I was bringing home or even proposing some help?” I asked the lazy man. He shrugged before switching on another channel.

“You’re no longer a baby horse. You can invite whoever you want and I wouldn’t care. Plus, you said it yourself. Even if it’s Anthony’s house, it’s more yours than mine.” He laughed before turning in on a rerun of old Spongebob Squarepants episode.

“Well, this isn’t some ‘whoever’ that we are inviting, but royalty. More precisely, it’s no other than Princess Luna, goddess of the Moon and the princess of the night.” I stopped for a moment. “How do I even know this?” I whispered to myself.

“Okay, so a bigger horse with a tiara is gonna barge in and help us fight a Russian crime lord. What is she gonna do? Remove her tiara, scream ‘Moon tiara action’ and throw it like a frisbee toward him, thinking that she is a space scout or something?” He explained, making me wonder where he was getting all of that.

“She’s not a horse, she’s a… Okay, you know what? I’m done with this. Just sit on your lazy ass and do nothing while I prepare something to impress Luna and convince her to help us.” I glared angrily at him. He showed me a thumb up.

“Attaboy!” My face turned into a pretty dark shade of red. Still, even facing such immovable mental wall as Reginald, I knew that losing my cool was the worst thing to do.

“I prefer having her on our side, considering that she has total control over the moon. You know? Moving it, making it rise or fall… using it as a fancy prison for traitors who sent a pony to the slaughterhouse.” I warned him. He paused for a second, his hand still in the air with the remove.

“Are you… being serious?” He asked in a shaky tone while looking at me. I nodded before returning to my cleaning duties. Without looking, I heard a long sigh and saw a shadow looming over me. Suddenly, a hand grabbed some cleaning liquid from the cabinet under me.

“Thank you for helping me, Reginald.” I simply said before leaving to clean Berry’s room.

Reginald grunted before saying what I knew was his last words for the hour. “We better save Anthony, or else I don’t think I could survive with the guilt of letting one of my friend be treated wrongly by some random douchebag. I hope you know what you’re doing… North.”

“You’re not the only one hoping that what I did was the wisest decision, Regi.”