Planes, Plans and Pony Music

Chapters

Huh...
Bad Hair Day
Doctor's Disorder
At the Hospital
Phones and Apples
Chapter ****: 25 Years
Equestrianology
I Bring The Sun
Ponies 101
PPPM: The Musical (numbers)

Huh...

“He’s WHAT?” I stare at the guardspony in disbelief.

He looks around nervously. Seeing a Royal Guard like this, flinching at every movement in the shadows, does nothing to calm me down. “I don’t have much information. Princess Twilight is gone, along with most of the remaining guard. We haven’t heard anything from Captain Shining Armor, either. They told me that Discord turned on us! We’re supposed to evacuate the city!”

Several other ponies have gathered around us by now, drowning the poor stallion with their questions. Deciding to take my leave I make my way through the small crowd. It is pure luck that I happened to be still outside at this hour and saw the guard galloping down the street. If Discord really turned there is no time to loose. Princess Twilight and the Elements of Harmony took care of him once and can do it again, but until then I don’t want to be anywhere near the action.

I stop when I see a pegasus barreling towards us. I immediately recognize the blue flight suit. A Wonderbolt! She skids to a halt in front of us and stares past me at the guard with wide eyes, panting heavily.

“Discord!... He’s in Ponyville!”

The screams and shouts from the ponies behind me give her a moment to catch her breath. Once the guard has calmed them down the pegasus mare continues, “He’s making ponies disappear. They scream and just disappear! I know he got Rainbow Dash, but he seems to be picking them off at random now. I was sent here because I’m fast and got away. I don’t know how many of the other Wonderbolts…” she trails off, sobbing loudly.

I don’t see her break down. I’m already on the way to my apartment. I really don’t want to be here when Discord returns to Canterlot. There’s nothing I can do, anyway. Just leave that to the Elements.

Princess Twilight is gone.

I know he got Rainbow Dash.

The Elements won’t save you this time!

I stop dead in my tracks. I haven’t had that feeling since the day I got my cutie mark. And I know it is right. “What am I supposed to do?” I whisper.

I reach the crowd just in time to hear the guard give the orders to evacuate.

“NO!” I yell over the panicked voices, as loud as I can. Everypony turns around to look at me and I waver a little. “No,” I continue, trying to keep their attention. “Rainbow Dash is gone. Princess Twilight might be, too. Without either of them, the Elements of Harmony won’t be enough to stop Discord.”

“Then who is?” somepony asks. He sounds like he might start crying any moment.

“I don’t know…” I remember the feeling, my special talent. It has a plan. My special is making plans, analysing situations and finding solutions, and even that special talent told me that the plan has a very small chance of success. But if it’s the best it can come up with, maybe it really is the last straw.

“We will be!” I say, a little more confident. “We will wait for Discord and we will confront him!”

I raise my hoof to calm down the cries and whimpers from the crowd. “Calm down please. I know what you think, and maybe you’re right. But I have a plan and I need everypony to help me. If you still think that you have a better chance running away from Discord, I won’t keep you.”

I turn to the Wonderbolt who’s trying to avoid attention. “I need to go to the Academy. Can you try to gather more ponies?”

“I think so…” She nods weakly.

“Thank you. I promise we’re going to do this somehow.” I want to go as soon as possible, but pause. “I don’t think I’ve gotten your name yet.”

I open my eyes. I think I had that dream again. Never remember any details, though. The alarm clock on the nightstand tells me that it’s 4:17 in the morning. If I remember right that means I’m officially twenty-five years old now, four minutes I think.

I feel myself drifting back to sleep. Happy Birthday, me…

9:40 am. I should really get out of bed. That’s what I’ve been telling myself for the last thirty minutes and so far it doesn’t seem to work. It’s Saturday, so I’m not really on a tight schedule. My brain reminds me that it is also the second of May, my birthday, and that I – being the bachelor that I am – will have to kick myself out of bed eventually.

That seems to do the trick, or maybe my phone going off does it. Always the shining example of cleverness, I made it a habit to keep the phone out of reach from my bed. That way I have to get up if someone calls me in the morning, rare as that may be.

“Wingeder,” I state my name to the phone.

“Happy Birthday, Dave!” It’s my friend Jan. He’s a brony, a grown man who enjoys watching and reading about brightly colored cartoon ponies. A lucky coincidence really, because I am a brony, too, and we probably wouldn’t know each other if it weren’t for that shared interest.

“Aww, you remembered my birthday,” I do my best to make my voice sound sappy. “And you remembered to call me Dave.” My real name is David Wingeder. David is a good name, but I prefer to be called ´Dave´ by my friends. My good friends know that, remember it and always and without fail greet me with ´David´. The German version of David, just so you know. ´Dah-vid´. With an exaggerated, drawn out ´ahhhh´.

That’s why they are my good friends. They have the same screwed sense of humor like me. Come to think of it, most of them are bronies, too. I’m pretty sure there’s a connection. Being exposed to Pinkie Pie and her friends for extended periods of time can probably do that to people.

“I assure you, it was but a slip of the tongue,” Jan cruelly crushes any hope I didn’t have. “You’d better not get used to it.” I wonder how long he planned for this conversation. Improvising is important, but it’s always better to have something prepared. We take our nonsense seriously.

“Anyway,” Jan continues. “Karaoke on Monday still stands, right? 6 pm at your place?”

“Yeah,” I reply. “Don’t forget to bring your laptop and your mics. We’ll need everyone to drown out my horrible singing.”

“You have a complex, you know,” Jan states flatly.

“I had a very difficult childhood!” I whine back. I had a very easy childhood. But between learning the text to songs on the radio as a boy and my voice finally settling on a pitch several years later, I was told a few times that I wasn’t exactly a good singer. Tough luck for them, because it sure didn’t keep me from learning more songs and singing to myself whenever I was bored.

The conversation goes on like that for a few minutes, before Jan leaves me to my breakfast. My breakfast almost always consists of the same ingredients: Two slices of toasted bread of some kind, with a bit of cheese and some sort of processed meat between them. Depending on my mood and the time I make myself another sandwich with ´Nutella´, Germany’s answer to PB&J. Seeing as it’s weekend and my birthday, I don’t have to think long before I prepare and devour a sandwich with the sweet chocolate-nougat ooze.

I put the plate and butter knife in the dishwasher (Not on top of it until I feel like sorting everything in. It took me many weeks to suppress that pesky habit). Then I go into the bathroom of my little apartment to make myself presentable for the little get-together me and my family are going to have in the afternoon. Since most of my closer relatives live pretty close to each other, and me, I can’t not have at least a small celebration for my birthday. Thankfully it really is just that: a small barbeque with a dozen relatives that I’ve known for most of my life. I’m a bit of an introvert and have never been completely comfortable on big parties.

I’ve undressed and already turned on the shower when I notice the color on my thigh. Both of my thighs, even. I twist a little to get a better look. It’s a simple, deep blue circle with thin white lines crossing vertically and horizontally to divide it into small squares, like the matrix of a blueprint.

It looks like a tattoo.

The same tattoo on both of my thighs.

Like a Cutie Mark.

Huh…

That wasn’t there yesterday.

Bad Hair Day

A lot of thoughts don’t go through my head as I stare blankly at the cutie mark on my thigh and wait for my brain to reboot. It takes a few seconds, but now I’m finally able to formulate the most important thoughts and put them in a reasonable and logical order.

I’m turning into a pony.

Is it concerning that that is my first explanation?

It’s more of a joke than a serious thought, but it actually is the first thought that comes to my mind. I read and write… a lot… and I’m pretty open-minded regarding all the things that can supposedly happen to unsuspecting people. On the other hand I know that in the end it’s just wishful thinking. In real life those things never happen. I’m fully aware of the line between fiction and reality.

I turn off the shower and walk over to the mirror and twist a little to get a better look at the tattoo. I can ignore magic as an explanation for now, but that still doesn’t explain why I suddenly have a cutie mark. There’s the possibility that all of this is just a very good prank, of course, but I’ve never actually been drunk and haven’t taken any drugs in my life. I live on my own and only my parents have another key to my apartment.

I examine the blue and white picture. That’s the strangest thing about all of this; I think I know that cutie mark! I wreck my brain for a while, but I can’t say where I’ve seen it before. Maybe it was a background character from the show or something from a Tumblr blog…

A cold draft reminds me that I’m still standing fully nude in my bathroom. The strange tattoo can wait a few more hours, right now I should get ready to meet with my family. I turn the water back on and begin the daily cleansing.

The birthday party was nice as always, if uneventful. The usual relatives were present – my parents, uncles, aunts and a few cousins – and were entertaining each other just fine. They asked me about work and I gave the usual answers, made a few jokes and resigned myself to listening for the most part. I’m just not good at small talk if people expect me to stay serious.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t tell anyone about the mysterious tattoos. I doubted that they had any more insight than I had, and it didn’t really seem very important, either. As far as I know, none of them is a brony and without me they would most likely not even be aware of bronies and the show in general.

Now I’m in my apartment again, in front of my bathroom mirror. I wanted to take another look at the cutie mark, but I can’t say I really care about that right now. What I do care about is the fact that my hair has drastically grown in the last few hours. I brush my hand through the strands of hair that almost reach my shoulders. I’ve never had hair even half that long, and I certainly didn’t have it this afternoon. The usual light brown color of my hair has taken on a noticeable light blue hint that definitely doesn’t look natural. On closer inspection I notice that my eyes have also changed color. I never paid much attention to my eye color, but I'm pretty sure that they used to be some sort of muddy green. Now they're a light blue, and the color seems a lot more defined than it should probably be.

I seriously reconsider the ´Turning into a pony´ theory. It’s not like I haven’t given the whole concept some thought already, back when the show was at its peak. With all the Pony-on-Earth and Human-in-Equestria fanfiction it was hard not to think about it at some point. Like most bronies I even had my own pony OC…

I pause. That’s where I know the tattoo from! A circular blueprint matrix was the cutie mark of my pony OC. It’s been a few years since I really thought about him, but I still remember a few things, like his cutie mark...

Wait… I look at my reflection in the mirror again. Didn’t my OC have a blue mane? Is my hair bluer than before? Longer? I lean closer to the mirror, but I can’t tell for sure if my mane is already past my shoulders. Something does seem off, but it’s not the hair…

I take a step back and the feeling gets stronger. Something is different than usual, but what? It’s at the tip of my tongue… Has the mirror gotten smaller? No, not smaller… It looks like I’m taller!

I look down and realize that I’m standing on my toes… I didn’t even notice that. This whole affair is getting kind of creepy now. I set my heels back to the floor and immediately feel uncomfortable, as if the pose is unnatural for me. Trying to relax helps to stop the feeling, at least until I notice that I’ve unconsciously raised my heels again.

This is starting to get concerning fast. Really fast, considering that none of my family said anything about my hair spontaneously changing color. But unruly hair is something I could deal with. The heel thing seems like it could be a medical condition. It’s too late to visit a regular doctor, but at the speed these changes are happening I’m not sure how long I’m willing to wait…

It’s close to midnight when I walk through the entrance of the hospital. By now my mane is a deep blue and running across my neck – literally. It stopped growing longer when it had reached my shoulders – thank Celestia for that – but once it was done growing longer, the hair itself has started to spread downwards, sprouting all the way down my neck… If it starts to move down my back, too, I might have to cut my shirt open to give it some space.

I could have waited to have that examined, even two days if the doctor doesn’t work on Sundays. The real reason I have decided to go to the hospital are my heels. Over the last three hours I have tried setting my heels back on the ground again and the results have been growing from uncomfortable to slightly painful.

“Can I help you?” The woman at the reception looks a little tired and gives my mane an odd look, but she still greets me with a genuine smile.

“Uhm, well…” I walk up to her desk hesitantly, fidgeting with my hands. This is going to be awkward. I’ve had some time to think about the best way to go about this, but my experience with hospitals is severely lacking. “I started having some problems with my feet a few hours ago…“ I point down at my feet, even though she has no way to see them from her position. “It’s been gradually getting worse, to the point where I have to stand on my toes to be comfortable.” I don’t mention strange tattoos and changing hair, because that would be stupid and accomplish nothing, best case scenario. I can get to that later, if the changes continue.

“Did you have any accidents in the last days, like twisting your ankle, or did you ever have any injuries on your leg?” That’s probably a routine question. It looks like she has already fallen back into professional neutrality.

“Nothing of the sort,” I answer honestly. I’ve probably been lucky in that regard and had almost no serious injuries in my life. I still get my share of stubbed toes and twisted ankles, but the last week had nothing like that, either. “I have no idea what could cause it.” I admit, that was less honest, but I can’t really tell her that I might be turning into a cartoon pony. I’m still not convinced of that.

“I’m afraid we can’t really do anything for you.” The woman begins clicking through her computer. “It doesn’t sound like anything dangerous and you don’t seem to be in pain. Unless you’ve been sent here by another doctor I don’t know what to tell you. You should see a GP about it tomorrow, but this isn’t a case for the hospital, especially at night shift.” She looks up to give me a sympathetic smile. “The pharmacy next door is closed for the night, but I can sell you a light painkiller for the night if you want.”

I sigh. “No, that’s alright. I don’t even feel it as long as I keep my heels off the ground. I was hoping that I could get a room for some sort of medical observation or something, but I understand.”

The woman behind the desk nods and I turn around to leave. This went… exactly how I expected, actually. It was worth the try, though. I trot out into the chilly night air and pick a direction that leads me back to the apartment. The streets are deserted; it must be shortly past midnight already.

I’ve made it a few blocks from the hospital when the wall starts to take a blue hint. Behind me the siren of an ambulance picks up and quickly gets louder. It’s coming right towards me, apparently. I don’t know why it even uses the obnoxiously loud thing in the middle of an empty street; the lights would be completely sufficient.

I move my hands up to cover my ears when the sound stops abruptly. Huh… Maybe the driver had the same thought. I turn around to watch the ambulance drive past. The street is eerily quiet after the blaring siren, almost as if there is no sound at all…

–EEEEOOOO

“GYAAARGH!” I almost fall down under the assault of the siren. That plotface turned it back on when the ambulance was right beside me! I throw my hands back up to cover my ears.

…

My ears are gone.

I panic lightly, moving my hands all over the sides of my head. My ears are gone. They’re freaking gone! The fading sound of the ambulance’s siren reminds me that they can’t be gone completely and I calm down a bit. I feel around my head again until I finally find them.

The woman at the reception is still there when I enter the entrance hall of the hospital again. I step up to her desk and she looks up to greet me. She immediately recognizes me and gives me a curious look, opening her mouth to say something. Nothing comes out. Her eyes just widen as she stares at my mane.

I brandish my insurance card with a grin, quietly enjoying the situation. With the other hand I point at the pair of large red pony ears poking out from the top of my head, and let one of them twitch for effect. “So… Can I get a room now?”

Doctor's Disorder

Five minutes later I’m standing in the small bathroom of my very own hospital room. I have a good insurance, so I don’t have to share the room, and considering my situation it’s probably better that way. By now I’ve traded my casual clothes for one of those hospital dresses, which is basically a light blue and spacy nightgown. It’s a bit chilly, but rather comfortable, and I figure I’ll have a better view if any other part of my body starts changing.

Right now I’m twisting and turning my head to examine my new ears from all sides. My hearing seems to have improved, as I can pick up on all the small sounds in the quiet hospital. I can even make my ears twitch and swivel around to hear sounds from all directions. That way I immediately notice the door of the one-bed room open.

I step out of the small bathroom to see a doctor standing in the doorway, waiting for me. He stares at my ears for a second with an unreadable face and quickly notices the way I stand, too. His expression doesn’t slip for a moment, and he seems a little sceptical.

“Mr. Wingeder, I presume.” It doesn’t really sound like a question. “I’m Dr. Kramer. Miss Ritner asked me to take a look at you. She refused to tell me a specific reason, so I hope you can fill me in.” Behind him Ms. Ritner peeks into the room hesitantly, looking at me nervously.

Wow… I must have shocked her pretty good if she is willing to leave her desk just to watch. It’s the night shift, so finding someone to stand in for her can’t have been too easy. Having her around should certainly help my credibility, so I’m glad for that.

For now, though, the doctor closes the door behind him and turns back around to face me. “Well then, what seems to be the problem? I assume it has something to do with those?” He gestures at my pony ears and comes a bit closer to examine them. “I don’t have any practical experience with implants like those, but they seem to be high quality.”

He prods them a little and I feel them twitch as soon as his fingers touch them. It’s a feeling unlike anything I’ve ever felt before and right know I could care less about the possible consequences of these changes. Lots of people would probably pay money just for a chance to poke those big cartoony ears; I’m pretty sure I would. I wonder what my brony friends are going to say about this… Another prod sends a shiver from my ears right down my spine. Nnnnngh – my first priority tomorrow will be finding someone to scratch me behind my ears.

Thankfully Dr. Kramer moves on from my ears before things get awkward – I feel like my leg could start twitching any moment. He moves on to the back of my head and ruffles through my hair. I had almost forgotten about those other changes.

“An extended hairline? Certainly unusual, even for cosmetic surgery. But I don’t judge… It’s actually some of the best quality medical work I’ve seen. Looks almost real.” He kneels down to examine the rest of me, especially the back of my legs. “I’ve noticed that you’ve been standing on your toes for a while. I’ve also noticed that… alteration to your toes. I already said that I don’t judge, but in this case I’ll have to strongly advise against this decision; from a medical standpoint just as much as from my personal opinion. If you’re attempting what I think you are, the operations would be not only risky, it might not be feasible even with the achievements in modern medicine.”

Did he find something already? I look down at my feet and let out a surprised yelp, almost jumping back. My toes are gone and instead the front of each foot has formed a line of red, hard horn. The implications are obvious: Hooves. I’m getting hooves. I stare down at them. Who knows what might be next…

Dr. Kramer seems surprised at my reaction. “Are you okay?”

Well, this is it. All or nothing, I figure. I take a deep breath and try to think of a good icebreaker. “I– It’s nothing, I was just a little bit surprised.” Dr. Kramer gives me an odd look, but at least I have his full attention. “Now, this will sound weird, but…” I hesitate, then sigh and continue. “I never had cosmetic surgery. In fact, all of this –” I gesture at my head and feet. “– appeared today. It all started with this tattoo on my thigh.” I lift part of my hospital dress to show him the cutie mark, uncovering most of my butt in the process.

The doctor sighs and walks back to the door, opening it a crack before turning around to me a last time. “You’ll understand if I find that hard to believe. If there are no real problems with the implants you should best put your clothes back on and go home. My opinion on that foot surgery still stands and I would also advise you to seek a therapist.” He opens the door the rest of the way and turns back around to see the woman from the reception standing on the other side. “Miss Ritner, you’re still here?”

“I didn’t want to believe it either, Doctor, but I’ve seen him. He didn’t have those ears an hour ago.” She shifts her eyes and shuffles around a bit. She seems to start questioning herself, actually saying that out loud. I can’t really blame her.

I watch the doctor leave through the door, Ms. Ritner stepping aside to let him pass. That’s it, apparently. I don’t think that there’s anything I can do to convince them tonight.

“Waugh!” This time I actually jump in surprise while yelping. It wasn’t exactly painful, but something just happened. My lower back feels strange and I try to figure out what it is. I can feel the fabric of the hospital dress… But it’s not the feeling of fabric on skin.

Lower back… A strange feeling like a new part of my body… It doesn’t take me more than a second to do the math.

Dr. Kramer and Ms. Ritner come running back into the room at my scream. I realize that they probably can’t see it from their position, so I turn to the side and lift a part of my glorified nightgown.

“Tell me the truth…” I ask, swishing my short, deep blue pony tail from side to side, “It just isn’t as adorable as my ears, is it?” The two just stare at my new appendage in disbelief. I cross my arms. “Well, I thought it was funny.” I manage to keep a straight face for a whole two seconds until I break down laughing. Screw consequences, I’m having the time of my life.

Ms. Ritner manages to snap out of her stupor faster than the doctor, probably because she has already seen me with and without the ears. She puts a hand on the doctor’s shoulder. He takes a deep breath and hesitantly steps forward. I feel kinda bad now, seeing them like this, like they are actually scared of me.

“I…“ The doctor grasps for words. He pauses and turns his head to the side. Finally he takes a deep breath and looks me straight in the eyes, trying hard to ignore my ears. “I’d like you to stay here for the night. I’m afraid I can’t make any medical decisions after… this... I’m going home immediately to get some rest. Ms. Ritner will arrange for someone to check up on you at 9 am, so you have about eight hours of sleep. If this is really…” He stops again to think of the right words and fails. “…It might be a long day for you, and this hospital.”

They both hurry out the door and leave me standing alone in the room for the night. I yawn and look down at the hospital bed. I really should get some sleep. My eyes drift over to the door of the small bathroom.

…First things first. There’s something I’ve put off for far too long now.

I spend the next twenty minutes in front of the bathroom mirror flapping my ears like a pair of signal flags.

I gallop back to the street where I left the others, an entourage of unicorns behind me. A large group of ponies of all kinds and colors has gathered around the fountain, swarming the few guardsponies with questions. I search the crowd for familiar faces and spot the Wonderbolt mare standing a few meters away from the other ponies. She notices my group and slowly trots over to us.

“You’re back!” She still looks timid and scared, but at least it’s a bit better than an hour ago. “I gathered as many ponies as I could.”

I point at the group of ponies behind me. “I brought everypony I could find at the Academy. We need everypony if we want any chance against Discord.” I put a hoof on her neck to calm her down. “I can’t thank you enough. You’ve been an important help.”

“The Guards said they would try to lead other ponies here, too, but…” She lets her head hang. “Nopony knows anything and everypony is scared and… and I’m scared! I can’t do this! I’m not a leader; I don’t even know why they made me a Wonderbolt. All I’m good at is… running away… and… and…” She breaks down sobbing.

I try to give her a reassuring hug, but I don’t know what to tell her. I know how she feels; I’m not a leader, either.

Rainbow Dash was a leader.

Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia were leaders. That’s why they are gone now.

...You know what to do.

I force the tears and the insecurities back. I called these ponies here. They could be an hour away from the city by now, without me. “You’ve done good.” I whisper. “I’ll take it from here.” I take a deep breath and stand up to trot over to the crowd of ponies. I flare my magic as bright as I can to get their attention and clear my throat. Everypony’s eyes are on me now. I hope I look more confident than I feel.

“Listen up, everypony! I know that you’re scared… As far as we know Discord has turned. Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight are missing, and we don’t know where Princess Luna is. We have reports that Discord used a spell to make Captain Rainbow Dash disappear, and we can only assume that the same happened to the Princesses.” I have to stop a moment for the screams and shouts from the crowd to die down.

“Ponyville is under attack” I continue. “It is only a matter of time until Discord comes back to take care of Canterlot. We are the only ones who can stand against him now.”

“Fight Discord?” somepony screams from the crowd. “That’s impossible!”

I already expected something like that. “Maybe it is impossible…” I state calmly. I raise my voice for what I hope sounds inspiring. “But we’re not fighting to defeat him! We’re fighting to bring back the Princesses!” I pace in front of the now completely silent crowd. “The only thing we know of that can defeat Discord are the Elements of Harmony. He made the bearers of the Elements disappear, but he didn’t kill them. If he did we would know it.”

I stare some of the nervous ponies in the first row directly in the eyes. “We’re going to set up an ambush and attack Discord with everything we’ve got. He will probably use that spell on some ponies… and that’s what we need.” I pause to let that thought sink in. “I have brought every unicorn I could find at Princess Celestia’s Academy for Gifted Unicorns. We will concentrate on figuring out that spell. If we can manage that we can retreat and try to find a way to bring back the Elements of Harmony and everypony else.” I turn around and take a few steps away from the crowd. “We might be the only hope for all of those ponies…”

I keep close to the wall of the building as I wait for Discord to show up. We have set up an ambush all around the central marketplace of Canterlot. Hundreds of ponies are hiding and waiting in buildings and around corners.

“Isn’t waiting just awful?”

The voice takes me completely by surprise. I jump and smack right into the wall I’ve been standing next to.

“Careful now. Any louder and you’ll ruin the ambush.” I look up and see Discord standing upside down on the bottom of the house’s gutter, leaning against the wall. “It’s one of the better ambushes even, and I’ve seen quite a few. I wouldn’t want something like that to go to waste. I just thought I should tell you.” With that he climbs into the bottom part of a drainpipe and disappears inside.

Before I can react Discord reappears in the middle of the marketplace. He is wearing a deep red, hooded cloak. “Oh my,” he proclaims mockingly, “what an unsuspiciously empty street this is. I don’t think anypony is here anymore.”

“Get him!” A few first ponies jump from their hiding places. I watch them charge at the draconequus; I know that they will be the first to vanish from his spell.

Discord jumps over the first pony, a mint green unicorn mare, and looks after her. “But Celestia, wherever are your big white wings?” He drops back on the ground just in time to avoid the attack of a pegasus. “And Celestia, where is your white horn?” He takes off his cloak and sidesteps a charging earth pony mare, pulling the cloak over her head. “Olé!” The beige earth pony stops and wriggles her head free from the fabric. Discord floats over to her to examine the mare’s face, his snout just an inch away from hers. “You’re not Celestia…”

The mare shrieks in shock as the cloak suddenly moves on its own to tie her legs together. Discord lifts a glowing claw and brings it down on her hea–

“No!” A pegasus mare slams into Discord’s side and tackles him away from his victim. They roll over the ground and end up in a heap. Discord has the mare pinned down and I recognize her as the meek Wonderbolt.

“So you want to be the first instead? Very well…” Discord touches her forehead with a glowing claw. “Five Score, Divided by Four…”

That dream again… I open my eyes and stare at the ceiling. I still don’t remember anything. Or do I? I try to concentrate on the last foggy remnants of the dream. What was it? Something about… Discord?

Ungh… I have a light headache, and all that thinking doesn’t make it any better. Maybe it’s because of that hospital bed. I rub my temple with the palm of my hand.

…

I nearly trip as I dash into the small bathroom. There it is. In the mirror I see a dusty red horn sticking out from my forehead, the same color as my ears.

I also notice another change: A normal human can not possibly grin that wide.

Squeeeeeeee

Author's Note

I realized that I haven't properly credited my prereader yet. Many thanks to DontAskForCookie for pointing out any flaws and giving my chapters the okay.

At the Hospital

I pick up my phone to check the time; 8:38 AM.

That means I have about twenty minutes to figure out magic.

Squee

Before I can get to that I should probably check myself for other changes, though. I trot back to the bathroom and take off the hospital dress to examine the rest of myself.
Two more changes are pretty obvious; for one, my… well, uhm… my genitals have changed. I’m not sure how to describe it, but my genitalia are definitely different and I don’t think they are in any way human anymore. I groan. I’m not concerned with size, like some people are said to be. I don’t have anything going on, by choice, and I don’t really miss anything. Frankly, I feel that the whole thing gets in the way more often than it is of any use. Now it seems slightly bigger – probably the side effect of having equine reproduction organs – and if I turn into a full pony it will be a lot harder to cover up. The whole ponies-don’t-wear-clothes shtick seemed a lot less problematic in the show.

The second change is even more obvious and not completely unexpected: At some point during the night my feet turned all the way into hooves. Dusty red fur has spread a few inches up my legs. I raise the right hoof and experimentally clop on the tiles a few times. It makes a nice, calming sound that I could really get used to. I walk out into the bigger room to test the softer material on the floor and walk a few circles, listening to the muffled clip-clop of my hooves. I almost forget about the doctor that is supposed to turn up in a few minutes.

I quickly put on the hospital gown again and check myself in the mirror one more time. Magic might have to wait if some sort of unicorn instinct doesn’t spontaneously kick in. Still, I can at least give levitation a try before someone shows up. I focus on the tiny, prepackaged bar of soap on the sink and imagine it floating up… Nothing happens. I try concentrating more and feel for some kind of connection, or some kind of power. Staring intently at the piece of soap I try to push some kind of energy from my horn.

…

Eee–nope. Well, so much for that. I’m not sure how magic works, but apparently it’s not all that easy to learn. There seems to be more to it than just having a horn, at least. I stop to remember how magic was pictured in the show; every unicorn could learn levitation, but beyond that spells seemed to hang on their special talent. Sweetie Bell didn’t use any magic until she sometime in the last season, but Pumpkin Cake used magic when she was still a foal. I follow that line of thought to the first episode with the Cake Twins… not my favorite episode of the show, but I remember some bits.

Let’s see… Pumpkin mainly used her magic to levitate herself around next to her flying pegasus brother – I don’t know much about pony biology, but those two were ridiculously strong for their age. I can’t quite remember where the unicorn foal used magic for the first time, even though I’m pretty sure it was part of that episode. For some reason my brain always jumps back to thinking of flour. She was trying to get something she couldn’t reach, I think, one of her toys or something…

My thoughts are interrupted by a knocking at the door. I stay in the small bathroom, out of immediate view from the opening door. It might be better to let the person enter before I confront him with my… unorthodox appearance.

A new doctor wearing the stereotypical white coat steps through the doorway. “Mr. Wingeder? My name is Dr. Schulte. I was asked to check up on you.” He scans the bigger room for me, closing the door behind him. I clear my thoughts and step out of the bathroom, my hooves clicking on the tiles for the first few steps.

I have to give it to the doctor: He barely flinches and only takes half a step back. It takes him a few seconds to reign in the mix of surprise and horror on his face, though, so I’ll have to deduct some points from his score. Still, he takes it pretty well, considering that only about half of my visible body is human anymore.

I trot over to the bed and sit down on the edge, lifting my hooves up from the ground. From the experience last night my hooves are probably the safest sign for him that something unnatural is going on, so I assume that he will want to examine them first. Dr. Schulte kneels down and takes one of the hooves in his hand with wide eyes.

“They’re actually real,” the doctor whispers, tracing the edge of the hoof with his hand and lightly pulling on my leg. He chuckles. “We might have to call a veterinarian for this.”

He lets go of the leg and I stand back up, taking off the gown to let him examine the other changes. “The tattoos were the first thing that appeared, as far as I know.” I point at the cutie marks on both of my sides. “I wrote it off as a prank until my hair started to grow and change color yesterday evening. Around midnight the ears suddenly popped out of my head…“ I think of the ambulance siren and unconsciously rub the place where my human ears used to be. “Literally. Not long after that the tail popped out from my back. And this morning my hooves had turned into hooves, I found… this –” I make a vague gesture towards my genitalia “– and this.” I can’t help but grin stupidly as I eagerly point at the unicorn horn sticking out from my forehead. Not even able to make a magic spark yet, but the oversized red coat-hook still cheers me up like a new chapter of my favorite fanfic.

The doctor looks over the parts I pointed out, pulling my tail and prodding my ears and horn a little. He stares at my face for a few moments and I wonder if he found anything else. “Could you open your mouth, please?” I open my mouth as wide as I can and he takes a look inside with the small flashlight every doctor seems to have. “Hmm… Those are definitely not normal human teeth. From what I can tell those are the teeth of an herbivore.”

“Huh, that’s news to me.” I move my tongue over my teeth and feel that my canines and incisors have become blunt, completely unsuited for carnivores. I didn’t even think to check my teeth for changes. “Anything else, doc?”

“Your eyes…” he begins.

“Oh, right. My eyes used to be green. I almost forgot about that.” The light blue irises had seemed strange, but I’m still impressed at how fast the doctor figured it out. The color didn’t strike me as completely unnatural the last time I saw it, and I almost hadn’t noticed that change. Heck, between all the other stuff I’d already plain forgotten about it.

“Really?” the doctor says. “I was talking about the fact that they seem bigger than it is normal.”

“Well, my pupils do get a bit large from time to time…” I begin.

“No, I think they are literally bigger. They seem… larger than normal eyes.”

I blink. Is that another part of the transformation? The ponies from the show had ridiculously huge cartoon eyes. The implications are immediately clear to me: “I’m going to have the greatest puppy dog stare ever,” I mumble.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

I give the doctor a sheepish grin, mostly for fun – I stand by my statement. “Nevermind, just ignore me.” I stop grinning and become serious again. “Anyway, I guess you’ve come to a similar conclusion I’ve come to…”

Dr. Schulte moves a step away from me and takes a deep breath. “One or two of these things could be explained with cosmetic surgery, but this number of operations at your age would be…” He massages his forehead. “Some of these should not even be possible from a medical point of view. As impossible as it seems, these changes indicate that you might be turning partially – or even completely – into a horse.” I have to fight down the laughter at the last part. A horse! Poor, unsuspecting guy. “I’m not sure what the tattoos have to do with it, though. Are you sure that you didn’t have them before?”

Well, I can’t ask for a better cue, can I? “Actually, those tattoos have everything to do with it. And if they are any indication, I’m not turning into a horse, either.” I give him my best cartoony grin. “Tell me, doctor, have you ever heard of Bronies?”

The next few hours are a blur of examinations and questions. Several other doctors come by to take blood samples, examine my pony parts and generally ask me questions. They even brought an actual veterinarian to take a look at me and give me an estimated dozen of vaccinations against all the bugs a horse can catch. Safety first, I guess. Also, Oww…

Seeing the reactions of people and answering all their questions is fun, but even that gets tedious after a while. Either way, I don’t have another opportunity to even think about my possible unicorn magic until the traffic finally starts to die down shortly after noon. I’m sitting on my bed staring intently at the accursed piece of soap that I have by now moved to my nightstand. All those changes aside, magic still eludes me. After the hours of examination I have completely lost the thoughts I had this morning, so I’m practically back to square one. Or maybe even square zero, because now I’m tired and have a harder time concentrating, too.

There’s a short knocking on the door and another doctor comes in to distract me from my experiments. His hair is out of order and he looks a little frayed overall. “May I come in?” he asks.

I look up from the most important piece of soap I have ever personally known and squint at the doctor. “Dr. Kramer?” He looks less formal than he did last night, but I’m pretty sure that it’s the same guy who poked at my ears half a day ago.
Dr. Kramer nods absentmindedly as he looks at my hooves with wide eyes. I remember that he actually saw them when they were little than a thick nail at the edge of my feet. By now they are clearly pony hooves and red fur covers almost half of my legs. I feel a small pinch of irritation that he pays them more attention than the horn on my forehead…

“Wow…” he begins. “This is… I mean, it’s been barely twelve hours…” He stops and tries to get his thoughts back on track.

I decide to help him out a little. “I get that a lot. Just wait until I figure out how to use this.” I gesture at my horn a little stronger than I had wanted. Do unicorns have some kind of horn-related pride? Or maybe it’s magic-related… That would explain the irrational thoughts. I chuckle. I’ll be the most magically adept unicorn in town if I just manage a spark.

He finally takes notice of the red horn poking out from my blue hair… Yeesh. He comes closer to examine the base of the horn, where it fuses with my forehead, and pokes at the blunt tip a few times. I’m not sure how I am supposed to feel about that. I feel a bit uncomfortable, having a stranger just touch me there. Not uncomfortable in a sexual sense, mind you. Apparently my horn doesn’t have that kind of meaning, and I’m quite thankful for that. I try to think of a fitting fancanon; pegasi wings are often something private, even if they have no erotic purpose. You wouldn’t just let a stranger preen them for you, and a real winghug is usually reserved for close friends or ponies who are in serious need of consolation by a kind soul. Maybe the horn of a unicorn is similar. I don’t remember where I got that from, but somehow it feels right.

Maybe Dr. Kramer noticed my expression, but he finally pulls himself away from me and gives me an unsure smile. “I’m sorry, I’m not even on duty right now.” He scratches the back of his neck nervously. “I couldn’t just stay away until my next shift begins, though. I can’t even reasonably try to explain the things that are obviously happening to you. All of this is completely impossible by medicinal standards.” He stares at my ears again and I give it an amused twitch. “So since I wasn’t able to distract myself I came back to face the problem personally. I guess I hoped that my colleagues would have found some explanation for it by now, but if they did they haven’t told me.”

He turns around and walks back to the door. “As I said, I’m not on duty, so technically I’m not even allowed to do any tests or examinations on you… However, I’ve been told that they were planning to give you a break, anyway, for the next hour or two. There’s a canteen for the employees on the floor below this one. Since you have no actual trouble moving around management said you are free to walk around the hospital if you try not to raise any attention. Actually, they would ask you to wear your normal clothes to cover the changes as much as possible.” He opens the door and steps out, turning around one last time. “If you don’t mind I would like to ask you one or two more questions, if only to get some sort of closure on this.”

I set my tray down at the table, opposite of Dr. Kramer. The receptionist from last night, Ms. Ritner, apparently had a similar idea, and is now sitting next to him, watching me with a mix of nervousness and curiosity. Finding the canteen was no problem, and I managed to cover up everything except my pony ears and my blue mane. At least no one seemed to pay me any attention on the way here.

The canteen is actually for employees only. The management wanted me to eat here instead of the cafeteria for visitors on the ground floor, apparently. It makes sense, really; there’s personal freedom and then there is tempting fate. I figure that I’m not going to get better lunch anywhere else in the hospital, so I can’t complain, either.

By now I would be surprised if most of the doctors and other employees hadn’t heard of my unique case yet. Almost everyone stares at me at least once, though I’m not completely sure if it is because of my ears or the fact that I’m definitely not an employee. Or maybe it’s the strange way I walk; not because I have to keep my hooves inside my shoes, but because I had to tuck my tail into my jeans, which is not a tail’s natural habitat.

I look down at the tray in front of me. Ms. Ritner insisted on treating me to lunch and I never offer much resistance against free food. Rather atypical for me, the tray is dominated by a big salad, next to a serving of pasta and a red apple. I usually prefer my green stuff in small to mediate doses, but today I just have a craving for salad and overall vegetarian food. The smell of grilled meat on the other hand just gave me a queasy feeling in my stomach. I trace the rows of blunt teeth in my mouth with my tongue… Who knows if I can even eat meat anymore?

Scanning the tray once more, I can’t help but feel that it’s missing something. “Duh… I forgot to get something to drink!” I facehoof and stand up again, pulling my wallet out as I walk towards the counter. No need to bother Ms. Ritner for something like that. I buy a coke and watch the man behind the counter remove the crown cap of the bottle for me.

…I make it about halfway back to the table before I trip.

Maybe it was the whole hooves-in-shoes deal, or maybe it happened because my legs have gotten an inch shorter, causing me to step on the leg of my jeans. Either way, I trip and – flailing my arms – instinctively let go of my drink to keep my balance.

What follows is a long second of disorientation. I flail my arms, trying to get both of my hooves back on the ground. For a moment my brain focuses on the falling glass bottle that is already spilling the first few drops of cola, before it snaps back to the task at hand. I finally manage to set my right hoof beside the left one and stop flailing my arms to take a deep breath. The whole room is staring at me.

I look down to see just how much of a mess I’ve made. With some luck the cola didn’t hit my shoes or anyone else’s clothes and I’ll only have to clean the tiles. I just hope the glass bottle didn’t break.

The bottle did not survive falling to the ground…

…Mainly because it didn’t fall to the ground.

I stare at the bottle of cola floating in front of me, about two feet off the ground. It is held in the air by a soft blue glow. A few larger drops of cola are dancing around the top, encased in the same glow.

Completely ignoring the stares from everyone else in the room I experimentally imagine the bottle floating to the left. It follows my thoughts. I’m completely engrossed in the experience. I even manage to get the drops of cola back inside.

Floating the bottle back into my waiting hand I finally look around at the other people in the room. No one says anything. If it weren’t for the pots and the fryer in the kitchen next door, you could hear a pin drop.

I think furiously. This is an important moment; whatever I say next should be some sort of statement for future generations.

“Sorry guys. I didn’t want to interrupt your lunch.”

That will do. I pat myself on the back mentally. That will do…

Phones and Apples

I stare intently at the object on the nightstand, waiting for it to make any kind of movement. This time I will be prepared for its tricks. I will avoid the unavoidable fate that I know this object undoubtedly holds for me. Its innocent act won’t fool me another time.

The rest of lunch was… less hectic than expected. I still had to eat my way around dozens of questions, mind you, but they were polite enough to let me be polite and eat swallow my food before I talked. I told them what I assumed about the transformation and what I knew about the things I assumed; Equestria, ponies and basic magic.

I even tried my hoof at some more magic, though I’ll admit that it didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. Now I didn’t have any problems sparking my magic again… Once I knew what it felt like, simple levitation was almost laughingly easy to recreate. Alas, levitation is not the same as holding something in your hands – and don’t believe anyone telling you otherwise, because either they never had magic or they never had hands. It isn’t all that difficult to grasp, really, but it’s still something you need to practice.

At the level I was, using knife and fork was pretty much impossible – I accepted that fact before I could make too much of a mess. Drinking was definitely possible, after a few painful attempts in which I almost chipped some teeth with the glass bottle.

However, the real treat came at the end of the meal.

I had saved the apple for dessert while I dug into my pasta and a surprisingly tasty salad. It wasn’t anything special. Just a normal, boring apple. Not too small, but not exactly large either.

Apparently I was now able to devour a normal, boring apple in two bites. And the first bite wasn’t very big.

Celestia, what a taste. I don’t know how I lived all my life without it, but I pity every one of you omnivorous humans. In hindsight my reaction was probably slightly exaggerated, but I had gotten a delicious treat when I was expecting… an apple. I realized that ponies being herbivores didn’t mean that they missed out on anything. If my new body was actively motivating a vegetarian lifestyle like that, I couldn’t care less about meat.

A little later I even got to use my new magic for a prank. One of the assistants from the canteen’s kitchen had apparently missed out on my magic shenanigans and I decided to try out the infamous three-step-plan: Go up to counter -> ??? -> Profit

In this case “???” stood for persuading the guy to give me six apples for free, if I could juggle them all at the same time. If they fell down I’d have to buy and pay for them, obviously. The others in the canteen probably figured out what I was planning, because they kept quiet long enough for me to take the six apples and float them in a circle around my outstretched hands.

He took it pretty well, all things considered. I suppose he had heard of my case already, like every other worker in the hospital had by now. It probably helped that no one else seemed surprised and some where even laughing and giving applause.

Either way, I got half a dozen apples for free to take to my room while I would wait for whatever the doctors had planned for me.

I snap out of the short flashback and shake my head to clear it. Looking back at the nightstand I realize that the round object is gone. All that is left is a sweet, slightly sour aftertaste in my mouth. I blink as my eyes lose focus again. Then I fall sideways onto the bed.

“Uuugh…” I groan, holding my stomach. “Seven apples are too many apples…”

A few hours later I’m sitting on my bed again, looking down at my hooves. The fur has made its way up my legs and they look a lot more equine now. It’s gotten harder to walk, since my knees seem to be wandering upwards, too – that’s what the doctors told me. They made a few tests on my magic, but didn’t get any results aside from the obvious observations. I’m not surprised, really. I don’t think they’ll find any scientific explanation for telekinesis soon.

I pick up my phone and unlock the touchscreen, staring at the back of my hand in the process. The nails on my middle fingers are larger and thicker than before and are starting to turn red... It’s not exactly hard to figure out what is happening. I should try to find out if I can use a touchscreen with my magic.

I scroll through the list of contacts. Should I tell my parents about this? Well, obviously I should, but I don’t want to do that over the phone. The doctors told me that my voice has changed over the day; not too much, but enough to sound noticeably different. I hadn’t even noticed, and even after they told me I can’t tell the difference. Besides, it might be a better idea to wait and see how far these changes go. It seems that I’m going all the way, and judging from the last hours it can’t be too long until that happens.

Another name on the list catches my attention. I dial the number and wait, holding it to my ear.

“Schütze!” a voice announces happily. I yelp and quickly pull the phone away from my ear. Improved hearing and Jan don’t mix. I should have expected that.

I compose I rub my ear and make sure to hold it a bit farther away this time. “Hey, Jan, how’s it going?”

“Dave, is that you? What’s up, man? You sound strange.”

Right, new voice… I let out a badly faked cough and try to cover up. “Uhm, yeah. I got a bit of a –” I do another, more believable cough “– sore throat. Nothing serious.”

“Okay… So, what’s up?” Jan asks.

“Right.” I decide to get back to the matter on hand as fast as possible. “Say, do you have time? There’s something I need to show you.” If there’s anyone I can show this to, it’s a fellow brony. Maybe bounce some ideas off him as to what is happening.

“Sorry, brony,” Jan replies. “I’m at my cousin’s, helping him sort the junk in his storage. I don’t think I’ll get out of here in the near future.”

“I have yet to see you actually helping!” I hear a voice in the background quip.

“Anyway, I don’t think I’ll make it today. I’ll just see you tomorrow.” He pauses for a second. “We’re still doing that right? As if a sore throat would keep you from singing. I don’t think anything short of short of spontaneous combustion would,” he adds jokingly.

Karaoke… I almost forgot about that. “Yeah, we’re still doing that.” I reply absentmindedly. I hesitate as an idea starts to take form in my head. It’s either a great idea or a really bad one. “Actually… Why don’t you invite a few more of your brony friends?”

“Are you sure?” There’s a short pause. “Well, okay. I think I know a few guys in the area I can ask. Any particular reason for that change of plans?”

“You could say that… Not going to tell ya though.” I stick my tongue out at the phone.

“Spoilsport…” Jan mutters.

“Oh well, I’ll just see you tomorrow then,” I say. “Give my regards to your cousin.”

“Dave sends his regards!” Jan shouts to someone.

“Ask him to send me some actual help instead!” comes the muffled reply.

I chuckle and end the call. Tomorrow should be interesting. I take an apple from the nightstand and give the remaining two a scrutinizing stare. I’m sure that I had five of them. I look down at my empty hands in frustration and poke at a last remaining seed in my mouth with my tongue.

When I see Discord starting to cast his spell on the poor earth pony I do my best to keep it together. There’s nothing I can do for her. I have to stick to the plan if we want to have any chance at winning. The mare was aware of the risks and she was still one of the first to charge, putting herself in the front line.

I cast my spell and in a second the mental turmoil falls away, becoming a faint background static. My eyes glow with magic, the same light blue color as the magic beaming from my horn. My mind is completely focused on my surroundings, taking in every last detail and analyzing it. This is the last of the three spells I know. Clearing my mind and boosting the analytical part of my talent.

“No!” A pegasus mare slams into Discord just before he can cast his spell, interrupting him and tackling him away from his victim. They roll over the ground and end up in a heap. Discord has the mare pinned down and I recognize her as the meek Wonderbolt.

“So you want to be the first instead? Very well…” Discord raises a claw that glows bright with magic. He touches the mare’s forehead with it and begins to chant. My brain automatically focuses on his spell to find out as much as I can.

“For Five Score! Divided by Four!”

“Score”… I’m sure I’ve heard that before, but I can’t remember what it is. Some form of measurement, most likely.

“Your memories removed, your body confused!”

“Memories removed”… Does the spell have some kind of amnesia effect? But the ponies disappear, don’t they? Maybe it’s a metaphor for removing the memories about the pony, by removing the pony itself. Or maybe it is directly related to the “bodies confused” part… whatever that might mean.

“For your mistakes you must pay”

That one seems pretty self-explanatory. We lowered our guard to Discord and he took the opportunity to attack when we didn’t expect it.

“Cast off to a land far far away!”

Is that what happens to the ponies? But what good would it do Discord to just send them somewhere else. It’s only a short-term solution, and it doesn’t fit with the rest of the spell.

“They broke through the Gate, Fear, Anger and Hate!”

A gate… The gate of Tartarus maybe. Didn’t Celestia and Discord go to fight a creature from Tartarus? Did Discord break down the gate to release the creatures of Tartarus?

“Your mind will be weak, your outlooks bleak!”

That doesn’t sound good at all. This curse gets worse and worse. Are the weak minds literal or metaphorical?

“Forgetting everything and living like a fool,”

So definitely amnesia. Discord sends ponies away and takes their memories. It still seems an overly complicated solution and prone to backfiring.

“Equestria is lost, now darkness will rule!”

With a last flash of light the pegasus’ fading silhouette completely disappears and her screams die down. Discord stands in the middle of the plaza, brushing some dust of his nonexistent sleeve while dozens of ponies watch him fearfully from their hiding spots.

I file the last of the information away. Discord’s spell is apparently quite painful. It must be a powerful and difficult spell if even Discord needs a mantra to keep it up, though it might just be that he is casting it on hundreds of ponies.

And that’s all the information I’ve gathered when I feel my own spell slowly falter. Keeping it up for any longer would be an unnecessary strain. A small part of me voices a concern, but it is already too late. The spell fizzles out, my eyes lose their magic glow and I feel the familiar moment of disorientation as my brain slows down to normal speeds.

Then I’m hit by the wave. All the emotion comes back to the front of my mind at once; Fear of Discord’s spell, disappointment that I wasn’t able to figure out more about the spell, but most of all rage.

Discord used his spell on her of all ponies! The Wonderbolt who flew all the way from Ponyville as fast as she could… Who was there to encourage everypony right after seeing her own teammates disappear… Who stood up to the very thing she was utterly afraid of and sacrificed herself to save another pony from Discord.

I’m halfway across the plaza before I realize that I’m galloping full charge at the draconequus. Discord raises an eyebrow at me as I jump at him with a battlecry, my horn flaring with all the magic I have.

I open my eyes, blinking against the rays of morning light coming through the windows. I remember the whole dream this time. Discord had turned and was attacking Canterlot. The rest is still a little blurred, but that’s more because I’m still half-asleep.

I yawn and shake my head to get through the sleepy fog inside my brain. I roll over to sit at the edge and brace myself for the morning. A glance at the clock on the wall tells me that it’s… something. I blink and try to focus. Half past ten. That explains why I’m so tired. I don’t know how I managed to sleep for more than eleven hours straight, but sleeping in never helped me get into my morning routine.

I groan and stand up. Time to check for overnight changes. I take a step towards the bathroom.

The floor rushes up to greet me and I find myself lying flatly on the ground, my forelegs spread out in front of me.

“Owww…” I let out a whine, slightly muffled by the fact that my muzzle is comically pressed against the ground.

Chapter ****: 25 Years

I had the most curious encounter today. A unicorn stallion approached me on the middle of the street this afternoon and we ended up chatting for a while. He told me he was some kind of professor, though he wouldn’t reveal what his profession was. Still, scholars approach me from time to time to ask me questions, or for my opinion on their theories, so that wasn’t necessarily what made this occasion more or less noteworthy than others. This particular stallion acted rather peculiar and made nonsensical remarks from time to time that seemed to hold quite a humor to him. What really caught my interest, though, was what he said to me just before he disappeared in the crowd.

“Ponies always see Chaos as the same thing as Disharmony, and the opposite of Harmony. The truth is that Chaos is neither black nor white. It can never truly be Harmony, but just the same will it never truly be Disharmony. If those are the two sides of a coin, Chaos is not on one of the sides nor its edge; rather I believe that it is the one who watches the coin. It might choose one side or pretend to do so and actually work for the other. In the end though, Chaos will never be good or evil, it will lean towards one side at best.”

I’d like to believe that this was just another trick of the Serpent, but the thoughts still chip away at my mind. This pony seemed completely honest in his words. Whether he knew something I don’t or was only made to believe so, I don’t know. A good night’s sleep will help me sort my mind. There are more important things to ponder, such as the strange stellar constellation that is beginning to form. I will approach Luna about that. She is the Princess of the Night, after all. Though I can’t help but notice her demeanor has taken a hint of aggressiveness as of late…

From the long-lost diary of Starswirl The Bearded’s late years, recovered and donated anonymously to the Canterlot Archives in the 1003rd year of the Summer Sun Celebration

Discord looked around the deserted streets of Canterlot before him. A red tint in the eastern sky announced the arrival of a new day, but the sun refused to actually rise into the new day, hiding just below the horizon.

Discord sighed and snapped his claws, giving the sun the push it needed every day anew to start its way across the sky. It made a short leap to make up for the lost minutes and then settled at the barely noticable pace it would keep for the next twenty three hours, until somepony – or someone – could help her into the morning sky once more.

The Draconequus heaved another long sigh and dropped down onto the scarred stones of the plaza, unceremoniously landing on his back to stare up at a small white cloud floating overhead. The fight had taken a lot of his energy, and he had been bruised and battered faster than he could regenerate even at his full power. Even the average peasant pony, spoiled from their cushioned life in Canterlot, could give some mean bucks if Harmony was on the line.

They were still not strong enough, of course. Not nearly strong enough.

Discord slowly got back to his mismatched feet with a groan. He wasn’t even in the mood for his usual antics right now… Celestia knew that happened rarely enough.

Celestia…

The ponies who had fled from him were probably all over the place by now. With some luck they would come across each other and regroup soon. There were a lot of dangerous creatures and… things… out there.

He slowly started to walk north, fading into the foreground as he did. The Crystal Empire was a good ways off. Hopefully the news of his attack hadn’t reached them yet; Discord didn’t feel like he could put up with that kind of complications right now.

Roseluck slowly peeked around the tree into the clearing before she trotted out from her cover hesitantly, gesturing for the other ponies to follow. It had been three days since Discord had attacked Ponyville and wiped out every pony that wasn’t quick and lucky enough to escape. Since then refugees from all corners of Equestria had travelled Canterlot-wards, only to find the capital deserted. Wandering around aimlessly they had formed small groups, which met up to join larger groups until only a single group of several hundred ponies remained.

How Roseluck had become the unofficial leader of the ponies she would never know. Just a week ago she had been selling her flowers in a small store near the center of Ponyville. Now they had to ration their last couple of roses between a mass of hungry ponies.

She glanced back at the unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies, who were staring back at her expectantly. What did they expect her to do? There was no place left that they could consider safe from Discord anymore. Neither the Princesses nor the Elements of Harmony had appeared to confront the draconequus, and she could only assume that they had already fallen to his spell. She shivered as she thought back to her rival, Carrot Top, screaming in agony as she had slowly faded away under his magic. Nopony deserved such a fate.

Roseluck fought back the tears welling up in her eyes. How could they ever have trusted Discord! That wretched abomination had just waited his time until they had turned his back to him, and then…

She took a deep breath and looked back to the line of trees that marked another part of Whitetail Woods. In the distance she could see the silhouette of Smokey Mountain. She stared at it blankly for a few seconds until her brain had processed the actual meaning of that view.

Smokey Mountain was located to the north of Whitetail Woods, generally speaking. But they had been trying to go west, towards the coast.

Of course it wasn’t enough that they were hungry, tired and homeless; now they had to get lost, too. Could this get any worse?

A faint buzzing sound and a few panicked shrieks from behind her snapped her out of her thoughts. She whirled around to see a group of black, bug-like creatures rising from the trees. Before she could fully process the ambush the front row of the attackers fired a volley of green magic towards her. Changelings! Why were they back? And why now of all times? She was completely static as she stared wide-eyed at the projectiles of green fire flying at her face.

A wall of golden magic suddenly appeared between her and the attackers, shielding her from the fire. In a flash of light a unicorn stallion teleported in front of her, stepping slowly past the other ponies towards the changelings. His horn glowed in a golden light as he addressed the attackers, who had stopped their advance to give the newcomer confused looks.

“Don’t think for a moment that I will let you harm these ponies. You have exactly 9.42 seconds to get lost. After what you’ve done I would say that is quite generous of me.” He took an offensive pose and lit his horn even brighter.

The changelings stared at him in confusion for a second before they made a complete turn and made their escape, shoving and slamming into each other as they tried to get away as fast as possible.

The stallion turned back around with an angry huff and began to relax a little. Roseluck could see that he was an older unicorn with brown fur and a greyed out mane that had streaks of lighter grey running through it. He had small bags under his warm, light grey eyes and a short-trimmed beard around his mouth. He was also wearing a greyish blue jacket and a green bowtie, but Roseluck could still make out his cutie mark, a white paper scroll sealed with a red and yellow wax seal.

“T-thank you.” She hesitantly approached the stallion. “I don’t know who you are, but you really saved our hide. I don’t know if we could have defended ourselves against those changelings.”

The unicorn flinched. “Those weren’t– Nevermind, we have to get going. I know a place where you are safe.”

Roselucks eyes widened. “You do? Can you lead us there?” The stallion just nodded and started walking north towards the mountains. Roseluck galloped to catch up with him and fell into step beside the stallion. The rest of the group followed, as they always did. “Oh, I’m so happy we found you! Thank you so much–“ She blinked. “I don’t even know your name yet. My name is Roseluck.” she held a hoof out to him.

He bumped her hoof and continued walking, his eyes fixed on the mountains again. “I’ve been called many names. Some call me ‘The Lance’, others just call me ‘Q’…” He chuckled. “…It’s an inside joke. Around these parts I like to go simply by ‘The Professor’.”

Roseluck glanced at the stallion's cutie mark again. At least the last name made a bit of sense. “Okay then, ‘Professor’… If you actually know of a safe place I don’t care much about that.” She looked up ahead. It seemed like he wanted to lead them to Smokey Mountain.

Roseluck raised her head to examine the cave they had entered, slowly trotting forward. It was not very high, but wide enough that several ponies could walk next to each other. The walls were flat black stone, smoothened by centuries of water running down. Still, the cave wasn’t damp in the slightest; the air was comfortable to breath and the ground was dry and hard.

The Professor was waiting for them a little further down the cave, where it made a sharp left turn. He didn’t look the least bit exhausted, the serious but otherwise neutral expression still on his face. Roseluck couldn’t help but feel slightly impressed by his self-control. The entrance to the cave had been near the base of the mountain, not very high, but the walk from Whitetail Woods had taken them the better part of a day. Even if he wasn’t as tired as most of the other ponies in their group, he was without a doubt still feeling fatigue. He didn’t show any of that though and stood as tall and expressionless as a Royal Guard.

She joined the stallion at his spot near the wall and they watched the masses of ponies trot past them, barely awake anymore and slurring their hooves across the ground with the last of their power. Some of the earth ponies, who had a better stamina than the other two races, were already carrying sleeping colts and fillies. Roseluck herself didn’t feel any better than them, tired and barely able to keep her eyes open.

“Are you sure we’ll be safe from Discord in this cave?” She didn’t turn her head away from the refugees to ask the question. Tired as she was, it didn’t seem worth the effort.

“We will be save here, at least for some time,” the stallion answered. The last few stragglers trotted past them. “You should go after them,” he said. “I still have one more thing to do out here.”

Roseluck didn’t even think to question his motives as she followed the other ponies around the corner. After a few steps the corridor led into a larger cave; most ponies had already dropped to sleep wherever they were standing. A few others were still chatting in small groups or looking back at her. It took Roseluck a moment to realize that the cave had no other exit beside the one they had entered through.

That couldn’t be right. The cave might be safe at the moment, but a pony would easily find it with a little luck, and Discord would probably not even need any luck if he was actively searching for them. With that many ponies crowded together, he might be on his way already.

She turned around and trotted back into the small corridor, more than a little nervous. Maybe that Professor pony had an easy explanation for this. Maybe he had just led them to the wrong cave and another one was located just a few steps away from this one. Or maybe… she gulped as a sudden feeling of dread overcame her.

She couldn’t just lose her nerves because of some wild speculation. The unicorn stallion wasn’t a bad pony. He had saved her from the changelings, after all.

…Right?

She was almost at the corner now. The stallion hadn’t come after them yet. He had said that he wanted to take care of something. Roseluck hesitantly took another step.

The bright light washed over her before she could register it. For the fraction of a second everything was a void. A place where light and Darkness didn’t exist. Even Roseluck herself seemed to cease to exist in that moment, nothing more than an abstract concept thinking about itself.

Then the world returned. Roseluck was standing right where she had been, her brain trying to catch up with itself and the miniscule amount of time it had skipped.

A sound, right around the corner snapped her out of her stupor. Her legs resumed motion before her brain could order them to. Before she knew it, Roseluck was past the corner, facing towards the exit of the cave.

No three feet away from her the unicorn that had called himself Professor lay on the ground, unmoving and with closed eyes.

The Professor, as he had called himself, watched the earth pony mare disappear around the corner. Between all the ponies in this cave he was probably the only one who knew what danger they were in. Their land was no longer their own, yet they would have to survive in it for a whole 25 years. Those last remaining ponies were really the most unlucky souls in Equestria.

But he was still around, too. He could help them. He had spent much thought on the problem until he had finally come up with this plan.

The unicorn walked up to the corner of the cave, where an old and comfortable armchair was slowly shifting into existence in the middle of the corridor, just outside of the view of anypony in the second part of the cave. He climbed into the armchair and sat down in a strange pose, the same pose a human would take on such a piece of furniture. A newspaper appeared in his hooves and the unicorn opened one of the pages in the middle, trying to look as casual as possible.

When practicing Chaos Magic, a good symbolism could be worth just as much as a well-chosen mantra for any other type of spell. The unicorn could already feel the magic flowing through him, beginning to take form around him.

He directed more magic into the spell, forming it and weaving a counterspell into it to negate the effects when the time came. Almost all of his remaining energy was going into the spell now. He had spent more than he ever thought possible in those last three days.

With a blinding flash of light the spell took effect.

A small cave in the side of a large mountain ended in a smooth wall of green crystal. In front of the wall the statue of a unicorn, carved in stone, was sitting on a stone armchair and reading a stone newspaper. Every last detail, from the hairs in the statue’s beard to the single pages of the newspaper, was carved to perfection, making the unicorn look almost alive.

A small flake of stone broke off of the newspaper. Another, slightly larger chip of stone followed.

Pieces of the armchair crumbled and fell off, turning into dust and from dust into nothing before they could hit the ground. Cracks appeared on the statue’s grey skin. Only small pieces of the newspaper and the center of the armchair were left as the cracks widened all over the unicorn’s body to reveal brown fur and grey hair.

The last traces of stone blew away in a breeze that didn’t exist. The unicorn swayed for a short moment before he fell to the ground unceremoniously.

“–or? Hey. Professor?”

The unicorn let out a tired groan, trying to roll away from whatever was poking him in the side. He didn’t want to move yet. Maybe if they asked him next week…

“Professor, what happened?” There they went with that name again. Couldn’t they just leave him alone? He hadn’t felt this exhausted since… ever, actually. It must have been over a millennium since he had to seriously exert himself at all.

“What happened? There was a bright flash that… Well, I’m not sure what it did…”

With a flash of light the unicorn was back to his hooves. He flinched and grimaced, putting a hoof up to his horn. Too much magic, too fast. He would need a while before he was back to power.

That wasn’t what was important, though. He made his way to the cave’s exit as fast as he could on his shaking legs, ignoring the confused questions from the earth pony mare behind him. He barely noticed when she stepped next to him on the ledge outside of the cave.

The land outside was not the land they had left. The ground was scarred, burned and twisted. To their right sulfur steamed from small geysers all over the plains. To their left dark storm clouds dominated the sky, completely blocking the light and covering the land beneath them in deep night. The forest in front of them – bright and friendly Whitetail Woods – was only a memory of its former glory, twisted trunks of dead trees and beneath them darker shadows than were natural.

Discord the unicorn let his view wander over the ruined land. This is what they had done to Equestria in twenty-five years. Their country needed heroes more than ever. He could only pray that they were prepared.

Equestrianology

I slowly pull myself back onto the bed and rub my nose. That could have gone better. Now that I’m sufficiently awake and in pain, I remember that walking already didn’t go very well the last evening. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. At least the numb pain in my muzzle is already receding, at surprising speed even. I’m actually quite lucky, considering that I fell flat on my face. I’m not bleeding and the sting wasn’t too bad.

Thoughts begin to form as my brain falls into working speed. It’s a new morning, and I’ve apparently slept in. Looking down at my forelegs I realize that I indeed have forelegs now… Strong pony forelegs, covered in red fur and with hooves at the end. I’m probably going to miss having hands eventually. Craning my head around I realize that my whole body is that of a pony now. It seems that the transformation process has finished overnight – at least I hope that nothing else is going to happen to me anymore.

The first thing I do is take off the hospital gown that I’ m still wearing (in the broadest sense of the word). Ponies don’t wear clothes, after all, unless they’re going out or something. The gown is far too large for my new body, except for the hole at the top, which is barely wide enough to pull the whole thing over my head. I manage, though, and after a moment I simply roll off the bed onto the floor again. I press my front hooves against the ground and get into a sitting position, steadying myself with my forelegs. The whole thing would probably be highly embarrassing if I wasn’t so convinced that I look utterly adorable the whole time.

Keeping the balance as well as I can with my forelegs, I manage to stand up to all four hooves. Now comes the tricky part; walking. My first instinct is to walk the same way I would crawl as a human – lifting both right legs slightly and slurring them forward for the first step. There is a short moment of gravitational uncertainty as my body ponders whether to fall to the side or not, but I manage to set my hooves on the ground again in time. The next few steps get gradually easier, but somehow it doesn’t feel right. I try to remember how ponies walk; I’m sure it has come up in a few fanfics at least, written by people who know something about horses or did a bit of research.

I think that I remember something about moving each leg individually, but for the love of Princess Twilight’s Impenetrable Book Fortress, I have no idea how that is supposed to work. The muffled clip-clop of my hooves on the carpet quickens, even though I’m pacing around the room at the same speed as before. Looking down, I see my left hind leg set down on the ground just as my left foreleg begins to rise, then the process repeats on the right side before staring on the left side again, and so on.

I watch my legs go through that cycle for almost a minute before I remember that I had originally planned on going somewhere. I walk into the bathroom and am immediately greeted by the sound of hooves on tiles and my face in the bathroom mirror. Rather literally even, as my face is almost the only thing I can see. The edge of the washbasin hangs only slightly lower than my shoulders, so my neck and head are about the only things I can really make out in the mirror. I look almost exactly like the ponies from the show; my head is rather large, compared to my body, but not so much that it would look unnatural. I still have my red ears poking out from my blue mane, now at the top of the pony head they were designed for. My muzzle is slightly blockier than those of the mares from the show, hinting the fact that I am indeed a stallion, and my eyes are freaking huge! They seem to have grown another bit and now I have big soulful cartoon pony eyes, perfect for staring up at things with while whimpering. My pupils are now so big that you can make out their light blue color from twenty feet away.

My neck is several inches long now and really flexible, obviously the neck of an equine. Paired with my huge eyes I have about 400° vision. By now I’m covered in red fur from head to hoof, as far as I can tell, but to my surprise it looks like a single wall of red. I have to lean in closer to the mirror before I can make out individual strands of short hair, arranged in a way that makes it almost impossible to see them individually if you’re not actively trying to. In other words, I look almost drawn, exactly like the ponies from the show. I lean away from the mirror, grinning. I’m kinda glad to see I really look like a cartoon character and not just some real-life adaption.

Looking down I notice that I had unconsciously planted my hooves on the washbasin to get closer to the mirror. It holds up, so I figure that I haven’t gained much weight from the transformation. I’m a pony now, but I’m also smaller than before, probably not nearly as big as some hardworking earth pony like Big Mac, either. What’s more interesting is that despite earlier experience I can apparently stand on my hind legs just fine. Testing confirms that I can stand like that for a few seconds at least, a bit longer if I’m moving and practically as long as I want if I have something to stabilize myself and keep my balance with. It gets a little uncomfortable after a while, but since I’ve learned the horse gait I’ll likely be moving on four legs, anyway.

There’s a knock on the door and Dr. Kramer comes in, looking me over once. “You have a visitor,” he says with a slight smirk.

“Okay, I’m here. Now what’s so interesting about this patient? I swear, if this is just some omigoshomigoshomigoshOMIGOSH!” A young human, in his early twenties, has walked through the door. He is a little over seven feet tall – as far as I can tell from my new height – has long blond hair and is wearing an unassuming pair of glasses. He has some visible freckles that kind of remind me of Applejack, and he is staring at me with wide eyes, squealing. I realize that for the first time I’m on the receiving end of a full-blown fangasm.

The guy calms down a notch and carefully steps closer, reaching out at my head with a hand. “Wow, this is… Where did you even… I mean…”

I take almost a whole second to ponder whether I should play nice, or have some fun. I wait for him to make a move, inspecting his hand with what I hope comes across as a confused and apprehensive look. He slowly reaches for my mane and I flick an ear, barely able to keep my poker face as his hand immediately flinches backwards. Letting him try again, I wait until his hand is on my forehead, brushing lightly through my mane and poking my horn.

“Now didn’t your mother teach you that it’s rude to touch somepony’s horn without asking?”

The look on his face is priceless as he jerks his hand back, stumbling and almost falling backwards with a surprised yell. “I-It can talk?!”

“Yes, he can talk,” I correct with a smirk. “And you’re lucky that I have no idea if that counts as sexual harassment or not. Now, I believe that introductions are in order.” I look at him expectantly.

“U-Uhm, Tarascha.” He automatically holds out a hand, no doubt still trying to work out everything that is happening.

“Tarascha? That’s an unusual name. Not that it’s a bad one.” I look down at his still open hand and then back up at him, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s what I normally go by.” Tarascha follows my gaze and looks at his hand for a second, before he catches my hint and balls it to a fist.

I smile and give him a hoofbump. “Well, nice to meet you, Tarascha. I’m River Road.”

I blink once. That’s not what it says on my ID. I hadn’t really thought about it, but obviously I had also come up with a name for my OC, back when I first made him up. It always bugged me that I couldn’t think of a name that sounded… pony-er, I guess.

Tarascha gives me an odd look. “River Road? That’s an un–”

“–unusual name for a pony, I know,” I groan, facehoofing. “I’m well aware of the irony.”

“Sorry, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that there’s a real Equestrian pony standing right in front of me.”

I drop down onto my flank. “Better?”

“Ha Ha, very funny.” Tarascha gives me a crooked smile. Then he raises a hand to his forehead again. “I’m talking to a pony. I… I hoofbumped a real unicorn.”

“Sooo… You’re a brony, huh?”

He looks back down at me. “You know about bronies? Come to think of it, where did you come from, anyway? And why are you here?”

“That’s my cue, I believe.” Doctor Kramer speaks up from a corner of the room, by the door. “Mister Wingeder here came to the hospital two nights ago with a tattoo, a pair of pony ears and some rather ridiculous claims about how he got both. I have to say, he had a knack in convincing us of those claims.” He shows us a folder, probably with my medical information of the last two days. “Long story short, and as far as we know, only a few days ago he was a normal human being just like us.”

“Whoa, really?” I nod, still grinning. “I can’t believe I missed all of that!” he groans.

“I figured you’d feel that way,” Doctor Kramer states, turning to address me. “Tarascha is an intern here at the hospital and apparently our resident brony. I didn’t really know that until everyone in the hospital started talking about you, though… Anyway, after someone told me about it, I arranged for him to get assigned to you.” He smirks as Tarascha’s eyes go wide. “Don’t get ahead of yourself now; we still have some paperwork to do, you need to look through Mr. Wingeder’s files and you’re still going to help with other patients, obviously.”

“Speaking of…” I say. “What’re the plans for me today, Doc? I know it might come a bit out of left field, but I have some plans for this evening.”

“Actually, there’s not much we can think of anymore. We’ll take another blood sample and probably another physical now that the changes seem to have stopped. After that you’re free to do as you like. You’re not in any danger, as far as we can tell, and we already have trouble going through all the new information.” Doctor Kramer turns to leave, looking over his shoulder one more time. “Tarascha, you have five more minutes before it’s off to work for you.”

“Aww.” Tarascha watches him leave and turns back to me with an excited squeal. “Squeeee. This is too awesome to be true. You’re an actual unicorn, you’re… Omigosh, can you do magic?!”

“The most powerful unicorn around.” I announce proudly, lighting my magic and levitating the pillow from the bed over. Tarascha stares at the floating object and my glowing horn with wide eyes. “And I can totally understand Trixie right now. Magic is totally awesome.” Talking to another brony almost makes me even more giddy than I was when I first figured out magic.

“Whoa, that’s… What else can you do?”

I grin and begin flipping and flapping my ears about. Magic is undeniably awesome, but this is still a close second. Tarascha watches me for a moment, entranced by the wiggling and waggling. I notice his hand reaching out at my left ear hesitantly and smirk. Waiting until the hand has almost reached my ear, I scrunch my face in concentration and light my horn.

“What the–?” Tarascha yelps in surprise as a light blue glow envelopes his hand. I concentrate harder and the magic spreads up his arm and further, quickly engulfing his whole body. I give a mental yank (a feeling as strange as it sounds) and he lifts off the ground a few inches, rotating until he stops upside down, his face right in front of mine.

I stick my tongue out at him. “Sorry, pal. Our lawyers are still figuring out what counts as sexual harassment here. We don’t want things to get awkward, do we?” I turn him back around and set him on his feet again.

“Are you ser–“ he notices my grin. “Of course you aren’t. Well, I’d better get back to work before I lose my sanity or the boss decides to give me another pop quiz. I’ll see you later, I hope.”

“Hey Tarascha!” Against his better judgment he stops in the doorway and turns his head to look back down at me. For a second his face shows confusion before he suddenly bursts into laughter and stumbles out into the hallway.

I look after him and close the door with my magic, just barely suppressing a laugh. On the top of my head my ears are still doing the Caramelldansen.

“Well, six O’clock, my shift’s officially over now.” Tarascha is leaning on the doorframe, looking at me expectantly.

“Alright! Just let me grab my stuff and we’re ready to go.” I jump off the bed and levitate my phone, my wallet and my old clothes over, draping them over my back.

There really hasn’t been a lot of tests today, so for the last few hours I had time to ponder some of the deeper mysteries of my life, one of those mysteries being, for example, how to get home. Just as important was the question if I had enough drinks and snacks for the additional guests I had for some reason told Jan to invite, and where the next pony-friendly discounter in this city was.

In the end I had convinced Tarascha to drive me home, stop somewhere on the way to do my shopping, spend the rest of the night with a dozen complete strangers, and possibly sing songs about love, friendship, and a gradually decreasing supply of buckets of oats. What he got out of this deal would probably remain a mystery to most people.

I stop when an obstacle suddenly blocks my way. Stairs. The bane of newly transformed ponies, if I am to believe a couple of internet strangers with good to average grammar skills. Whether they’re right or not, tempting fate like this would be pretty dumb.

“Is everything alright?” Tarascha looks back up to me from the landing below.

I give him a confident smile. “Just having some problems with human infrastructure. I’ll manage, though… just give me a little room and watch the show.”

Tarascha raises an eyebrow, but takes another step back. I take a deep breath and concentrate on my magic. My horn starts to glow and I can feel the room around me just as much as I can see it.

I focus on the stairs and concentrate; a blue glow lays itself over the steps, forming a smooth ramp. I carefully set a hoof on it, making sure that it’s solid. Grinning at my success, I trot down the ramp onto the landing where Tarascha is waiting.

“Ta-dah!” I strike a small pose, as much as that’s possible with the space I have. “My first personal spell; I practiced while you were out doing your doctor stuff.”

“That’s… a spell to make ramps?” Tarascha gives me a curious look.

“Not just ramps…” I gesture at my Cutie Mark, the deep blue circle, white lines dividing it into squares like a blueprint matrix. “The spell is part of my special talent. I can align them into walls, stairs, ramps, whatever. Once I’ve gotten back to my old skill, that is.” I pause, lifting a hoof to my chin. “At least that’s what I think… I don’t really remember anything from my life as a pony, but for some reason I ended up as an OC I made up a few years ago. Even the Cutie Mark fits.”

“Huh, that’s something…” Tarascha follows me as I make my way down the next flight of stairs, and then another one. Casting the spell really gets easier with every use. “What’s more important though, how do we get you back to your apartment? We can use the back door to get to my car without raising too much attention, but I’ll still have to drive through town to get there, and stop somewhere to get those party supplies. And I’m not sure you’d even fit in the trunk of my car, so you’ll have to take the backseat…s.”

I stop to sit down on the floor, back against the wall, to cross my arms and nod sagely. “I’ve thought about that… Have you ever seen one of those scenes in cartoons where the talking whatever has to pretend to be a stuffed animal?” Tarascha nods.

I open my eyes and glare ahead angrily, at the world in general. “Well, I might have turned into a cartoon pony, have strange dreams and have possibly been sent here by Discord himself… But Celestia strike me if I let sitcom clichés take over my life! People will just have to cope.”

“That’s a lot of stuff,” I exclaim happily, floating the shopping bags over to the table and levitating everything out while Tarascha closes the door behind us. I chuckle. “It’s not a Pinkie Pie Party, but it’s going to be memorable regardless.”

Strangely, there wasn’t a single complication during the drive. I did keep my head down, but it was still surprising how little attention humans seem to pay their surroundings.

The next hour is spent preparing, not that there’s really that much to prepare; putting some drinks in the fridge, dividing the snacks into some bowls and placing them on the tables. Tarascha is taking care of the bushel of apples I had him buy – I still don’t trust those treacherous treats.

After I’ve finished setting up my laptop for Karaoke, I retreat into my bedroom to leave the rest up to Tarascha. I want to surprise my friends, not give them a heart attack, after all. It doesn’t take long until I hear the doorbell, and I lean against the door to listen.

“Hey hey, Davi– …who are you?” I immediately recognize Jan’s cheerful voice.

“Ah, hello. I’m Tarascha. Dave invited me over for this. He’s still making some preparations, but he should be with us in a moment. Is that all of you?”

“Tarascha, huh? Well, I’ve heard worse names, I guess. I‘m Jan, this is my cousin Michael, and George and Sandra are also part of our group.” The doorbell sounded again. “Aaand that should be the last one. Dave told me to gather some more people, but I only found one other guy over Bronies.de. Not even sure what he said his name was, actually…”

“Probably a good thing, too,” Tarascha jokes. “It would get a little crowded in here, with even more people. Hey, come on in, River should be out any second.”

I facehoof, groaning into my hoof, before take a step back to open the door.

“River? That name sounds familiar, but…” Jan’s voice comes from the hallway outside the living room. I trot around the corner, giving my best winning smile at the group of people standing in the doorway.

“Just say it, Jan. It’s still a stupid name, even for a pony.”

There’s a lot of commotion, obviously, after I made my grand entrance. Everypony’s poking and staring at and squeeing over me. I’m not ashamed to admit that their reactions were probably less intrusive and fanboyish than my own would have been in such a situation, but unlike hypothetical-Me the five of them were strongly outnumbering pony-Me.

It took a while to calm them down, and another while to explain everything, and then another while to calm them down again. I demonstrated my horse-gait-walking skills, my magic skills and my apple-munching skills. Then I demonstrated my Karaoke skills, and by Luna’s night, I don’t think I’ve ever scored that high in a Karaoke game. I even got everyone to join in, even the ones without microphone, at almost every song.

It’s already getting late as I’m standing by the couch, watching the others go into yet another round of “Winter Wrap Up”. I blink. It’s not actually everyone standing around the TV. That other guy Jan invited isn’t with them… What was his name again?

I notice something move from the corner of my vision. Something pokes against my head from behind and I immediately feel my thoughts lose their focus. My legs turn into pudding as I sink to the floor, letting out a weak moan.

I only barely register the song coming to an end and everyone turning around to look at me. Using the last of my strength to turn my head I see the guy Jan invited, standing behind me and staring at me with wide eyes.

“Guys…” I wheeze. “Ear scratches are officially on the Yes-list now.”

Author's Note

Tarascha is a cameo for my most loyal Follower, Tarascha... uhm, yeah.

The mysterious, soon-to-be-named not-villain is a cameo for another friend, MP3Jack.

Also, I apologize if the second half of this chapter seems a little short and rushed. It gave me some really annoying writer's block, so I might have tried to get to the next part before I waste any more time.
Rejoice, though, for the next chapter will finally feature the first of the long awaited songs.

I Bring The Sun

Disclaimer: This chapter features a rewritten song. There's a link to the original at the corresponding point of the story, and there's the video in the Author's Note. Feel free to choose whichever option seems convenient to you. :twilightsmile:

I open my eyes, slowly getting to my hooves while my brain begins its waking up routine, reminding me of things my sleep-addled mind should remember before I start the day.

1: You’re back at your own home.

2: You’re a pony.

3: You didn’t even start cleaning up last night.

4: Ponies don’t usually walk on two legs. Don’t walk on two–

5: Ow…

I rub my muzzle with both front hooves. This waking up routine is getting a bad habit. Standing up to four hooves this time I make my way into the living room.

“Ah, you’re awake. I was considering if I should wake you up.” Tarascha is standing by the table, cleaning up the last of junk from the party with a wet rag.

6: Tarascha stayed here for the night.

“You’re still here?” I make my way around him and into the kitchen to fix myself some breakfast. “I thought you’d be back at the hospital by now. Don’t you have, y’know, a job there?”

“Eeyup.” Tarascha throws the rag into the sink and grabs one of the leftover apples from last night. “That’s why I’m still here. I’m supposed to make sure there are no further changes or side effects. I’m also supposed to drive you to your parents’ house. They live in the countryside, right?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Yeah, my grandparents used to have a small farm. But why do you want to drive me there?”

Tarascha moves to take a bite from his apple. “We figured it would be easier for you to visit your parents out there for a while than live all by yourself in the city… Hey!”

I grin sheepishly, levitating the apple back to him and grabbing another one for myself. “Aheh… sorry.”

I’m sitting on the backseat of Tarascha’s car again and staring through the side window, watching the landscape rush by. I haven’t really been out of the city for a while, and it’s nice to look at the forest and the fields stretching between the small villages. It’s kinda relaxing, too. A couple of horses are grazing on a field right by the street, not even looking up at yet another car driving by in their daily routine.

They look content.

I turn my head slightly to look after them feeling even more relaxed.

It must be nice, not having to worry so much.

My thoughts are getting a little sluggish. I’m probably still a little tired. This whole turning-into-a-pony thing must be wearing me out more than I thought.

Isn’t that just what I am now? A horse, nothing more. I don’t need to Someone messed with the street sign again.

I blink, then shake my head and look out of the window again. The car is waiting at a crossroad, with a direction sign pointing to the nearby towns. Someone changed one of the letters in the name of one of the towns, probably from a surprisingly competent mix of boredom and intoxication.

The car starts moving again and I turn my attention back to the landscape. What was I just thinking about? I already forgot…

I sigh. Curse my short attention span.

“A-are you sure this is a good idea?” Now that I’m actually outside my parent’s house, I’m starting to get my doubts about this.

“Hm?” Tarascha looks up from his phone at me. “Oh, it’ll be fine.”

I raise an eyebrow at his sudden disinterest, but unlock the door with my key anyway. “You’re probably right… I still have a few hours before they come back from work, at least.”

“…Oh, I think that’s them.”

I freeze, my hoof still on the handle of the open door. From inside I heard the voice of someone I’m quite sure is not part of my family.

“Hello, Mister Wingeder,” Doctor Kramer greets me with a smile. “I took the liberty to call your parents; I did my best to prepare them for your… Well, you know. They’re still skeptical, but I suppose seeing you should fix that easily.”

I stare at him blankly for a moment, until Tarascha puts a hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of it. “Doctor Kramer told me about this yesterday… He figured it would be easier if you had some officials to back you up on this.”

I blink at him a few times, then shake my head and hesitantly trot around the corner into the living room. My parents are sitting at the table, staring back at me. There’s another man I don’t recognize, though I feel like I’ve seen him before somewhere.

“Hey Mom, Dad…” I clear my throat, trying to get rid of that dry feeling that comes from all the nervousness. “Do… do you mind if I stay here for a few days?”

“…David?” My parents stare at me like they’ve seen a talking horse. I nod slowly, not breaking the eye contact.

No one says anything for a while. Finally my mother starts to chuckle, then laugh. “When we told you that you could try to be whatever you want…” She shakes her head in disbelief. “That was definitely not what I was thinking about.”

I trot across the street onto the fields, humming to myself. That went a lot better than expected. Luckily my parents already knew a few things about MLP from back when I annoyed them with the show all the time. Combined with their penchant for fantasy books, they were at least open-minded enough to accept the possibility that I am their son.

I look at my new ID, floating alongside me. The man I didn’t recognize revealed himself to be a government official who visited me at the hospital the day before to take a look at me. Obviously informing the authorities was one of the first things the hospital did after taking me in. I must have something special about myself, because I haven’t heard of anyone getting their ID in such a short time. But here it is, showing my old name, my new name, my new species and a picture of pony-me to everyone.

I levitate the card back into my small, makeshift saddlebag, something I put together using a regular bag and two belts. It’s not really good, or very functional, but it’s not uncomfortable and a place to store my stuff. From the same bag I then levitate my phone and a set of earplugs. Everyone agreed that it would be best to give my parents some time to recover, so I decided to take a walk around the few pieces of land our family still owns, a mix of fields and forest.

I fiddle around with the earplugs some more, trying to fit them into my new ears. I’d like to find a position that makes them stay in place and doesn’t blast my ears off, but it seems that just one of the two would be an achievement.

I stare at my phone for another moment. Somehow I don’t really feel like listening to music right now… Celestia knows that happens rarely enough. I put the phone back and look around. Lots of empty space, nopony to be seen…

I hum to myself a little. I’ve always liked singing to myself, so why stop now. Ponies sing all the time, right?

I hum a few lines, unaware of a distant guitar sounding through the air.

The mare was lying under a tree, staring blankly ahead. Everything was over. She had lost her home, her life, even her friends and family!

…Or at least she assumed that much. None of them would want to talk to her now. They wouldn’t even believe that she really used to be their friend, their daughter…

And why would they… She was some kind of animal now. No, not even a real animal; real horses didn’t have those… things, growing from their backs.

She sniffled quietly. Maybe she should just give up. Let go and accept that she was a… whatever it was that she had turned into. Just stop fighting, stop running and–

The mare’s ears perked up and she raised her head, looking around in confusion. There was something in the air. She wasn’t completely sure what it was, but…

“I bring the sun, do-dn-do-do
I bring the sun, and I say
It's all right”

The mare scrambled to her hooves hastily, almost tripping over the new appendages she still wasn’t used to. She could definitely hear somepony singing. She didn’t want anypony to see her like this.

But… For some reason she felt like all wasn’t lost yet. The singing was… nice. It invited her to join in, sing along, look for whoever was singing.

The mare hesitantly took a few steps towards the voice.

“Little ponies, it's such a lonely time without you,
Little ponies, I will be waiting for you here

I bring the sun, do-dn-do-do
I bring the sun, and I say
It's all right”

I trot across the field, almost skipping. It’s been far too long since I’ve done this, just singing out loud and nopony for miles who could hear me. I wouldn’t mind if somepony did, but it always seemed like people would be annoyed by my random singing rather than applaud. I… do admit that I’m probably not always completely in key… But I don’t care. If they wanted to hear something more harmonic they always could’ve joined in themselves.

I don’t actually think about all those things as I climb a small hill. I only think about the song and the next line I’ll have to sing.

“Little ponies, there shines a light in everypony,
Little ponies, it’s how your friends are always near”

I stop at the top of the hill, looking around and singing my song to the fields and the forests that stretch everywhere. In the distance I can see another small town, but I don’t remember its name. Right now I don’t really care, either.

“I bring the sun, do-dn-do-do
I bring the sun, and I say
It's all right”

The mare looked around frantically. The singing had stopped. There was still… something in the air, but it was impossible to tell where it was coming from, or if it was coming from any direction at all. Where was she supposed to turn now? After following that song she was even more lost than before.

“Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...”

The mare’s head snapped to the right. There it was again. But who knew how long it would stay… She had to hurry.

“Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...
Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...”

She was galloping as fast as she could now, weaving through the trees, her hooves clopping over roots and dry ground. Up ahead the forest seemed to end.

“Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...”

A barbed wire fence marked the end of the forest. The mare could see it clearly even though it was still a good ways away. She couldn’t stop, though. The song could end any moment. She had to keep running.

“Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...”

The mare leaped right in front of the fence, bending her knees. She jumped, pushing herself off the ground with all of her power. The wings on her sides unfurled instinctively, giving a small flap. The line of barbed wire rushed past below her.

I’m still standing on the hill, eyes closed and my head turned towards the sky. The spring sun is shining on my face, warming my fur.

“Little ponies, I feel the fears and doubts retreating
Little ponies, give me a sign if you can hear.

I bring the sun, do-dn-do-do
I bring the sun, and I say
It's all right

It's all right”

I slowly lower my head as the feeling of music fades. My eyes are still closed, the sun is still shining and I’m letting out a relaxed breath.

I pause. Something seems off. I slowly open my eyes and turn around.

A pony is standing at the foot of the hill. A pegasus mare. She has lime green fur and her mane and tail are a light purple – or maybe it’s more of a deep pink – with a few small, silver grey strands of hair. Her Cutie Mark shows two arrows, one in the color of her fur and one in the color of her mane, twisting around another.

We stare at each other for a moment. I’m not sure if she recognizes me. I only know that I recognize her, even without her Wonderbolt outfit. Aside from the ponies I know from the show, she might be the only pony whose name I know.

“Barrel Roll?” I whisper.

Author's Note

Ponies! Now officially pluralized.
And songs! Well, one song.

Ponies 101

“Barrel Roll?” I whisper.

The pegasus mare keeps staring at me with wide eyes, completely speechless. Finally she speaks up, hesitantly. “W-who are you? What are you?”

I blink once. “I’m a unicorn… I thought that was obvious from the-“ The mare flinches as I speak up again and I’m hit by the realization I should have had a lot earlier: I’m a brony, but that doesn’t mean everypony else who was transformed is one. “You… Do you even know what happened?”

“I have no idea!” The mare collapses on the ground, breaking into tears. “I… I’m not actually a horse, or whatever we’re supposed to be. I used to be a human! Y-you have to believe me!” She almost jumps at me, but still seems to be a bit afraid of me.

I take a step towards the mare, doing my best not to frighten her. “Hey… Hey! No crying…” I lie down in front of her and looks her straight in the eyes. “Listen; I was a human, too, a few days ago. Now I’m a pony. That doesn’t mean the end of the world. I still have my friends, my family and my home. You’re still the same person, aren’t you?”

The mare sniffles and looks up at me, wiping her nose with a foreleg. “How can you say something like that… Look at me, I’m some kind of strange horse! Nopony’s even going to believe me that I’m a human. How am I supposed to live like this?!”

I flinch a little at that. It is understandable, but I still find it hard to believe that somepony would really feel so strong about these changes. I inch a little closer to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. “I know you’re scared and that you might not know what is happening, but that’s no reason to go and say something like that. Your live isn’t over and some people would give a lot for what you have.”

I stand up again and gesture for her to follow me. “I know some people who can probably get you a new ID to help convince people of who you really are. I’m not saying that it’s going to solve all your problems, but it’s better than just sitting here and moping around.”

“Wait!” the mare shouts as I turn around to walk ahead. I stop and give her a questioning look. “It’s just… what was that name you were calling me earlier?”

“Huh? Oh, that. It was just something I remembered… I think. That pony you turned into… I think her name is Barrel Roll.”

“Barrel Roll…” The mare looks down in thought. “That name feels… familiar. But why?” She shrugs and stands up. “You’re right, though. If you can really help me, I’m right behind you.”

I watch my parents and Barrel Roll observe each other with cautious interest. I had invited Barrel to lunch, and my parents had made a vegetarian lasagna to accommodate our new eating habits. The poor mare had immediately dug in like she hadn’t eaten in days. She had also quickly given up on using a fork and is now trying to eat directly from the plate without making too much of a mess. To show my solidarity I’m not using my magic, either… That, and because it’s fun.

“So… There’s more of your kind, apparently,” my mother speaks up. “Do you have any idea how many people might be going through this?”

“Not a clue…" I reply. "If there is more than just one, though, chances are there are a lot more than two, too. I’ve been having some weird dreams and if they’re any indication there’s going to be at least a few hundred ponies running around.”

“Weird dreams?” Barrel Roll looks up from her plate, her lime green muzzle covered in spinach. “I’ve been having one of those, too! Something about a big city of ponies and some creepy patchwork monster. I thought they were just nightmares that came from turning into a pony!”

“That was Canterlot, and Discord…” I look at the others with a serious expression. “I didn’t really have a way to confirm that before, but I think that we’re talking about more than just dreams. This might have actually happened over in Equestria.”

“And what do you plan on doing, if that is the case?” my father asks.

I ponder the question for a moment. “Well, if anypony can really stand against Discord, it would be the Princesses or the Elements of Harmony. I don’t think there’s a lot two normal ponies like us can do, but we can still try to help.” I do my best to wipe the green stuff from my muzzle with a napkin and stand up from the table. “I talked to Dr. Kramer and he’ll try to get you a new ID, so all that’s left for us to do now is training! Follow me, Barrel Roll!”

“I’d really prefer if you called me by my real name…” Barrel Roll huffs, following behind me.

I stick my tongue out at her. “Too bad, then, because I like that name.”

“So, what exactly did you mean when you said ‘training’?” Barrel asks as I lead her back to the field where I found her.

“Flying, for example,” I reply nonchalantly. “Have you learned how to fly yet?”

She stops and gives me a skeptical look. “You’re joking, right?”

I turn around and point at my noggin. “This is my serious face. If I was joking it would be my pokerface, which isn’t much of a pokerface at all… What I’m trying to say is that I don’t have a good pokerface and that I’m not joking.” Barrel Roll probably thinks I’ve gone crazy, but the truth is that I’ve been crazy all along, for a long time.

“You can’t be serious! I’m a horse! Pony… whatever. Sure, I got wings,” – her wings twitch a little in response as she turns her head to look at them – “but that doesn’t mean that I can fly! It’s just physically impossi– What are you doing?”

A light blue aura surrounds Barrel Roll and lifts her a few inches off the ground. She squeaks a little as I levitate her closer to me, smiling at her.

“The magical talking unicorn says you can fly. Don’t question the magical talking unicorn.”

Barrel just stares at me with wide eyes. “B-but that’s…”

“Basic unicorn magic.” I set her back down as carefully as possible and am relieved to notice that her first reaction isn’t trying to back away from me. “You’ve turned into a cartoon pony, with wings. You have to stop being so surprised by everything.”

Barrel shakes her head. “Okay, you might have a point there.” She gives me a defeated look. “So, flying… How am I supposed to do that? I haven’t even figured out how to move these wings at all.”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan.” I put a foreleg around her shoulders and start guiding her up a hill.

“That sounds like I should worry even more, actually.” Barrel looks at me questioningly, but trots along.

I lead her to the top of the hill and put a little distance between us. “I figured we could try it the same way I learned to use my magic. If that doesn’t work we’ll have to think of something else.”

“And how did you learn that…?” Barrel looks down at her hooves just in time to see the glowing blue panel beneath her hooves. She’s standing on the lower end of it, right at the edge, while the rest of the panel leads upwards in front of her.

“Without warning.” I concentrate on my magic and mentally slam down on the other end of the ramp, causing it to swing around quickly. With a scream Barrel Roll is catapulted several feet into the air, tumbling head over hooves. However, her fall is stopped when she instinctively spreads her wings and gives a few strong flaps to steady herself.

She breathes heavily, keeping herself in the air with slow wingbeats. After a moment she has calmed down enough to stare down at me with wide eyes. “Are you crazy?! W-what was that for?”

“I-I’m sorry, but I had to take you by surprise, or it might not have worked. I was prepared to catch you before you’d hit the ground.” I feel kinda bad about it now… I can see tears in her eyes and she looks like she’s about to start crying. I’m confident that this was the easiest solution, though, and I hope that being able to fly will make up for it.

The pegasus sighs and looks around herself. “Well, it worked alright. I’m flying.” She pauses and I can see the realization grow in her expression. “I’m flying… Ohmygosh, I’m actually flying! I- Whoa…” She flaps her wings harder and almost loses her balance, but manages to rise higher into the air, laughing. “Look at me, I’m… Ahahahah, Woohoooo!”

I watch and grin as she flies in circles over my head, then dashes straight ahead for a while before dashing all the way back. Barrel Roll is laughing all the while and probably having the time of her life. Turning to my saddlebags, I pull my phone out and scroll through my music list until I find the song I’m looking for. No idea if she can even hear the music up in the air, but it just seems to fit.

I levitate the phone over to a nearby fencepost and turn around to focus on my own training. There’s another spell I’m itching to learn, and I’m going to try until I’ve figured it out or run out of magic.

“Look at this, I can literally stand on clouds!!!”

“Do we really have to do this?” Barrel Roll is sitting on my bed, watching me as I try to connect my laptop with my TV. The wireless revolution did not make this any easier.

After completely exhausting ourselves outside and eating some meat-less dinner, I suggested to watch a selection of MLP episodes. I managed to convince her that it would help her to better understand a lot of things about ponies, but that doesn’t mean that she liked the idea of watching a show for little girls.

“If you want to know what is going on, this is as much information as any of us can hope to get.” I turn to the screen as it finally shows the same image as my laptop. “Now just sit back and try to enjoy the show.”

“I get that I might have to watch that show, but do we really have to watch it in English, too?” Barrel groans.

I raise an eyebrow. “You are aware that you’ve been talking English for most of the day, right?”

“…What?”

“We’re having this conversation in English right now,” I continue. “It happens whenever we are alone… It took me a while to notice and I think it has something to do with that transformation, but–“

“Oh god, you’re right.” Barrel is staring down at her hooves. “I thought this was just a physical transformation, but… but what if it has been messing with our minds, too? Am I even the same person anymore? I…”

I put a hoof on her shoulder and shake her. “Stop that! You’re talking in a different language, that’s no reason to freak out like that. At least it’s a language we actually know.” I sigh. “Sorry, but… There’s nothing we can do about it, anyway. All we can do right now is sit down and wait for some sort of sign to tell us what is going on. And for now the only thing we have in that regard are these episodes.”

Barrel lets out a defeated sigh. “You’re right… Just start that video and let’s get it over with.”

I click play and the first episode starts. I already made a list of which episodes she needs to see the most. We’re starting with the Nightmare Moon ones, obviously, then move on to “Return of Harmony”, “A Canterlot Wedding”, “Magical Mystery Cure” and “Princess Twilight Sparkle” before finally watching the last episode of Season 5…

“Is that the opening song? Oh Celestia…”

“River?”

“Mm-hm…”

“Are you still awake?”

I turn around to face Barrel Roll – not that I could actually see her in the dark. After the last episode from my list had ended it had been fairly late, so I pulled out my spare mattress and let Barrel Roll sleep in my bed.

…Or not sleep, apparently. “I am now… You can’t sleep?”

I hear some rustling as somepony moves around under their blankets. “I keep thinking about that last episode. It’s hard to believe that we are turning into ponies because some strange patchwork monster cursed a couple of fictional characters in a cartoon.”

I stare at the part of the dark that hides the ceiling. “I know. And I always kinda liked Discord, too… After the Season 4 opener I really thought he had been reformed. So much about that, I guess.”

For a moment everything is quiet and I wonder if that mare woke me up just to fall asleep on me a moment later. After a minute, though, I can hear something that sounds like quiet sobbing.

“It’s just… What if we can never turn back? What if we have to stay like this for the rest of our lives? Or if we completely turn into these ponies, physically and mentally? I… I just…”

I squirm out of my blankets and stand up, with my forelegs the edge of her bed. “Hey. Hey, don’t say things like that. We’re still ourselves and we’re going to find a solution to this before that happens.” I stare into the dark, trying to see if my words had any effect. From the sounds of suppressed crying it doesn’t seem like it.

I lean back a little and try to think of something else to say. Everything I can come up with sounds hollow if I don’t know more than anypony else about this.

I close my eyes and hum a few notes as an old song comes to my mind. Music might not actually solve problems, but it always helps.

My ears twitch a little as my voice seems to split into more than just one tune, but I don’t stop.

Hey, look ahead
All fear and dread
I want to take off you
Hey, don’t be scared
I will be there
To help you along
To help you stay strong
I will guide you

I’ll be there, anywhere
Anywhen, I’m here
I’ll be there
You’ve got nothing to fear
I’ll be there, just say the word
There’s no need to be scared
Don’t be afraid
Of the next day

Go to sleep
I will keep
You safe and warm
Go to sleep
There’s no need
For alarm
Go to sleep, I’ll stay with you
And whatever we’ll do
Never be afraid
Of the next day

‘Cause I’ll be there, anywhere
Anywhen, I’m here
I’ll be there
You’ve got nothing to fear
I’ll be there, just say the word
There’s no need to be scared
Don’t be afraid
Of the next day

Don’t be afraid
Of the next day

I let the last few notes fade out and listen. The only thing I can hear is a slow and steady breathing. I carefully lower myself to the ground and crawl back under my own blankets.

The mare was watching the marketplace from the roof of a nearby building, trying her best to stay hidden. She was in way over her head with this. That unicorn had taken the lead and told them the plan, but she had no idea what she was actually supposed to do… There was no way she could make any difference against that monster. Despite her rank and her training she felt completely useless in this situation.

She sighed. Just like always…

With a flash He appeared in the middle of the marketplace. He was wearing a deep red, hooded cloak and openly looking at the ponies hidden all around the marketplace. “Oh my, what an unsuspiciously empty street… I don’t think anypony is here anymore.”

“Get him!” The mare watched as a few first ponies jumped from their hiding places and charged at the draconequus; she knew that they would be the first to vanish from his spell.

Discord jumped over the first pony, a mint green unicorn mare, and looked after her. “But Celestia, wherever are your big white wings?” He droped back on the ground just in time to avoid the attack of a pegasus. “And Celestia, where is your white horn?” Taking off his cloak he sidesteped a charging earth pony mare, pulling the cloak over her head in one fluid movement. “Olé!” The beige earth pony stopped to wriggle her head free from the fabric. Discord floated over to her to examine the earth pony’s face, his snout just an inch away from hers. “You’re not Celestia…”

The mare watched, trembling, as the cloak suddenly seemed to move on its own to tie the earth pony’s legs together. She watched Discord lift a glowing claw and bring it down on the earth pony’s hea–

“No!” By the time she had realized that she had jumped off the roof she was already halfway across the plaza, and the next second she found herself slamming into Discord’s side, sending them tumbling over the ground, away from his victim. The next thing she knew was that the monster had her pinned down on the stones, grinning at her from above. He seemed to have grown twice as tall as before and behind him she could only see darkness, illuminated by lightning strikes.

“So you want to be the first instead? Very well…” The mare could only stare in terror as Discord raised a glowing claw and began to slowly lower it towards her head. “Five Score, Divided by Four…”

Something shifted in the air and a blue wall suddenly burst out of the ground in front of her, blocking her view from Discord. Looking to her sides, she could see the same walls all around her, cutting her off from everything else. She turned around to find another wall behind her, as well as one above her. There didn’t seem to be an exit to the room she was in.

...But it also meant there was no entrance for that monster.

A light breeze ruffled her feathers from behind, moving along her wings, mane and tail and through the soft grass around her hooves. The mare looked down at the green grass swaying slowly in the breeze, then ahead at the endless fields in front of her.

She looked around in confusion, unable to find any remnants of… whatever it was that had been there. She couldn’t quite remember what it had been.

The mare closed her eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again. She was standing at the edge of a cliff now, the waves of the ocean crashing against the rocks. She took a small step forward, looking down at the sharp rocks poking out of the sea.

The mare jumped.

The wind caught in her wings as she weaved between the rocks, almost guiding her through narrow passes and around sharp turns. What was it she had been thinking about?

It probably didn’t really matter.

I watch the sleeping pegasus mare for a moment before I cancel my spell completely and quietly retreat to my bed. I’m not sure if my magic actually did what I thought it would do, or if it did anything at all, but whatever nightmare Barrel was having seems to be over.

I pull the blanket over my head and close my eyes. I talked to my parents, met another pony, learned a new spell and maybe even found out something new about my magic. All in all, I’d say that today was a good day.

And I’m sure that tomorrow will be even better.

Author's Note

This chapter was written in two days' time after I found out that today would be the birthday of this guy. and since he is a fan of this story, this is my birthday present to him.
He makes some good music that you could check out over at his YouTube channel. He is also writing on a Hearth's Warming story, his first fanfiction, and from what I've seen of his writing you should definitely look out for that one.

So Happy Birthday, Flux.

PPPM: The Musical (numbers)

Here are the lyrics I wrote for the songs in the story, in chronological order, with links to the songs they were based on. All the songs you see here will be used in the story (eventually). I said there would be singing ponies, so By Luna's Convenient Book-Incinerating Spell, there will be singing ponies.
Yay.

I Bring the Sun (to everypony)

I bring the sun, do-dn-do-do
I bring the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little ponies, it's such a lonely time without you,
Little ponies, I'd like to know if you are near

I bring the sun, do-dn-do-do
I bring the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little ponies, there shines a light in everypony,
Little ponies, I will be waiting for you here

I bring the sun, do-dn-do-do
I bring the sun, and I say
It's all right

Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...
Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...
Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...
Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...
Sun, sun, sun, rise at dawn...

Little ponies, I feel the fears and doubts retreating
Little ponies, give me a sign if you can hear.

I bring the sun, do-dn-do-do
I bring the sun, and I say
It's all right

It's all right

Don't be afraid

Hey, look ahead
All fear and dread
I want to take off you
Hey, don’t be scared
I will be there
To help you along
To help you stay strong
I will guide you

Go to sleep
I will keep
You safe and warm
Go to sleep
There’s no need
For alarm
Go to sleep, I’ll stay with you
And whatever we’ll do
Never be afraid
Of the next day

Don’t be afraid
Of the next day

A True, True Friend (Escape Version)

“It might work… I’m gonna try to get them back to normal, but I need your help.”