CSI: Equestria

Chapter two: Waking Up

 Mac shifted his shoulders, and felt what he was lying on, but didn't open his eyes. In fact, he regulated his breathing, so that anyone listening or watching would think he was still asleep.

With no small amount of surprise, he noted that he was lying on a forest floor, and he opened his eyes, slowly getting to his feet as he did so.

His eyes shot upon when he found his legs; more accurately, his knees. They bent in totally the wrong direction, and Mac braced himself for an explosion of agony. None came, and Mac decided to take a better look around.

His hands and feet had both been replaced with hooves, and his skin was a battle-ship steel gray. His hair, or mane, as he supposed, was a shock of surprisingly blue hair.

The bigger surprise, however, came when he looked over his shoulder and found a big, beautiful, steel-gray pair of wings.

The biggest surprise came when someone shrieked. It sounded distinctly like Hawkes, who Mac remembered was at the crime scene with him.

Shrugging, he headed over to where he head the noise come from, and found Sheldon Hawkes, albeit one with bright green skin -- coat, as Taylor corrected himself-- and neon pink mane, and sporting a horn, which he was rubbing and glaring at a tree as though it had insulted his mother.

"Hello Sheldon," simply said Mac, and the doctor turned and sighed, his face looking remarkably liked the human-form Hawkes he had known just a few short minutes ago.

"Stella's over there," he responded, sticking a hoof in the air to indicate the direction, as he continued, "and she's got a pair of wings just like yours. I, however, got a lovely horn. Now lets go wake her up, and find out whoever lives here, and we can be on our merry way." Taylor detected a hint of something in his voice, at the end. Was it derision? Confusion? Anxiety?

Mentally shrugging it off, he tried to carry on walk on two legs, but instead stumbling, not falling only by the din of his wings flaring out and abruptly flapping twice.

To Hawkes' amusement, Mac was hovering above the ground, his gray wings brushing the trees to either side.

"Well, that's new, even for you, Mac," stated a familiar voice, in a sardonic tone, as she emerged from the densely packed underbrush.

"I'd like to state that I don't think this is a mass hallucination, or an extremely advanced simulator. It is my belief that we have actually been transported, somehow, to an alternate world where the dominant species is ponies," he finished a serious look on his muzzle.

"thanks, Sheldon, now we just have to find the locals," stated Mac, as he took a closer look at Stella. She was a brown color that reminded him of the brunettes on earth, and her mane and tail was a vibrant orange, with a darker red streak.

"No problem, now we should likely--" Hawkes was cut off by a shriek, and the team looked at one another.

"Sounds like someone's in trouble," Mac said.

"Better go help them," Stella responded, and the other two nodded, and set off in pursuit of a second scream.

Within twenty seconds, they had found a group of three younger horses, or ponies, in a small clearing, as well as something that shocked the team into silence.

Snarling furiously was a wooden dog, standing at head height, and headed straight towards the young ones.

"Well this is new," said a dumbfounded Stella, as she stared a the dog. It's head snapped towards them at the new noise, and it snarled again, growling.

This time, it charged, and while Mac and Stella went into the air, Hawkes was left on the ground. The timberwolf charged at its only target left, the neon green doctor.

With a shout and horrified expression from the fillies, the dog charged.

Mac, unable to leave his friend behind, dove at the dog and kicked its neck, wishing he had some sort of weapon, but his hooves would have to do.

The wolf's neck gave a sickening crack, and it's luminous green eyes faded. It slumped to the earth, whereupon it dissolved into a pile of sticks, leavin nothing to indicate it had ever existed except for a pile of wood and the memories of the six present ponies.

"Thanks folks, but ya might want te be careful, those timberwolves usually attack in groups of three," said one of the fillies, just as there was a rustling from the trees. Stella flew down, albeit more than a little awkwardly, and peered in, ready to move away at a moments notice.

To everyone's surprise, they heard the rustling move away, and a second patch of forest twitched, only to move away. Mac could have sworn he saw one of the wolves grinning slightly as they retreated.

"We better going before more of those timberwolves come," said one, a unicorn with white coat and a purple mane.

"Do you know where your friends are?" Asked Stella, and the younger ponies nodded.

"Lets go then, I'd rather not stay here much longer than necessary, his forest is starting to creep me out." Requested Hawkes, extracting a mix of surprise, confusion, and suspicion.

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Lindsay frowned, wondering where everybody was. Normally, there would be at least a few people, and she was sure Adam was supposed to be here, but there was a suspicious lack of people.

Peeking into Ross' work area, she noticed something was terribly wrong-  the box they had found on the horses chest was out in the open- not in an evidence bag.

Making a mental note to berate the young man for what he had done, she used a latex glove to put in in a bag, and then turned to the phone.

On her way there, her eyes accidentally fell upon the results of the x-ray Adam had ran prior to his mystical disappearance. After that, her eyes, attention, and jaw all fell off a metaphorical cliff, picking themselves up at the bottom and wondering how to get back up.

Rolling her eyes, she reached for the phone and dialed first Mac, then Stella, then Hawkes, then Danny. Finally, Danny Messer picked up, and she began talking.

"Okay, Danny, I have something. Neither Mac, nor Stella, nor Hawkes are responding. I was looking at the scans Adam ran, who magically disappeared as well, and they say that is nothing but pure energy in it. I th--" she was abruptly cut off when a solid blue light emanated from the energetic box.

She faintly heard Danny yelling, and then everything was nothing.

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