Chapter 1: Not What I Expected the Mane Six to Be Like. . .
I yawn and sit up in my bed.
'Saturday. The day of relaxation and no school.' I think, grinning.
I turn to my bedside alarm clock and read the time.
6:66
Not what I wanted to see on a Saturday, as I am an avid believer of anything that seems supernatural and similar things. I give my alarm clock a solid thump, and the time changes.
9:28
"Much better," I mumble to myself. I heave myself out of bed and trudge lethargically to my laptop. I flip open the lid and turn my 'baby' on.
She hums quietly, and the screen lights up to last night’s 'escapades'. I quickly close out and open a new internet page.
I autonomously type in FiMfiction.net to see if any of my faved stories have been updated.
Absolutely nothing in the relation to new chapters. I return to my user page and check if there are any new comments on it.
A freakishly unusual message is on my page.
It reads: 'we know what you want to do deep down inside. We have chosen you for that quality. We shall meet soon.
From, The AMS.'
It is an anonymous message, which I knew was impossible on FiMfiction, and the message itself was just as unsettling.
"And who are the AMS," I asked myself aloud.
Before another thing can leave my lips, my computer shuts down. I gasp in shock and mash on the power button. Not even the battery light flashes. I get underneath my computer desk and check my power source; it is in perfect shape.
I get back up and remember that my battery was also on full charge.
"Creepy," I mutter.
Spontaneously, my computer returns to the state in which it was in before the shutdown, but I notice the comment has disappeared. Not even a 'comment deleted' message was left behind.
I go to shut down my laptop, as I hoped I was done dealing with all this creepy shit. I shrug and turn on my TV, catching some cartoons before an episode of the second season of MLP airs.
The theme song of MLP: FiM is still the best song I have heard in my life. As the song reaches an end, and the image of the mane six and spike appears, something changes.
And not in a good way.
First thing I notice is the fact that all the ponies are becoming anthro ponies.
Then the negative changes take effect.
Rarity smiles lightly, looking directly into my eyes, even as I move my head side to side. Her smile, as I note randomly, has two protrusions going down parallel to each other over her lower lip, almost like two fangs. Her irises are more shiny than I thought possible.
Pinkie Pie's mane is deflated, and she holds a stubby little blade in one of her newly formed hands. The blade is dripping and covered in red. Her eyes have a crazed look in them, like some sort of psychotic murderer.
Fluttershy is very similar to pinkie, except for the fact that Fluttershy's eyes are more calculating, and less crazed/murderous. She holds a small scalpel, also dripping with red.
Applejack scares me the most of all. Her mane and tail look dirty and unkempt. Some patches of her fur are missing, revealing dirty, seemingly rotten skin underneath.
Rainbow Dash somehow does the opposite of the rest of the mane six. Her bust seems to be much larger than the others, and her lips are stuck in a small, sexy pout. Her tail somehow has a small form on the end, similar to a small spade, or maybe a heart. I don’t honestly know.
Twilight’s fur changes to a shiny, smooth, black sheen. Her eyes lack pupils and whites, but her irises (which are her whole eyes now) turn sky blue. She has four fangs, two from the upper jaw and two from the lower jaw. Her legs have a few sporadic holes in them, as do her mane and arms.
The new appearances of the mane six leer at me for a minute. I just sit there, frozen in place.
Then they suddenly reach towards the TV as if to grab me. I cringe, forgetting they are in the TV and I am not.
My cringe goes unnoticed as the Mane Six's arms slide through the TV screen, followed by their torsos. Their arms seem to stretch, and I feel five sets of hands grab a limb, two hands per limb. Another pair of hands grabs my torso, and I am pulled into the TV screen.
I hear screaming, and realize it is my own. I quickly close my mouth and allow myself to be pulled into my TV as if it was a Portal from the 'Portal' games.
Then everything goes black.
I wake up with a bright light glaring straight at my face. I groan and try to shield my eyes, but my arms are tied, and the same is said for my legs. I am sitting in a chair, tied to the chair I am sitting in.
"He’s awake. Let’s acquaint ourselves with him, okay, every pony. And rarity. . ." Applejack's voice says.
"Yes, darling?" Rarity's voice says, sounding almost singsong.
"Don’t bite him again" Applejack replies, deadpanning.
'So that why my neck felt damp, yet also kind of crusty.' I think blearily.
"Well I had to keep you from biting him, dear. You almost went feral for the second time this week." Rarity replied matter-of-factly. I whimper and cringe silently.
"We could just kill him now," depressed Pinkie voice said. "But then he couldn’t help us."
"Why would you want to kill such a handsome specimen, Pinkamena?" a sultry voice says. I could loosely associate that voice with Rainbow Dash. The question was followed up with a sultry chuckle.
I frown.
"Look at that, he's frowning. We should at least move the light so he can see his surroundings," Fluttershy voice said. The arguing ponies went silent, and I heard Rarity gasp in surprise.
"Fine, but don’t blame me if he doesn’t like what he sees, Fluttershy." Twilight's voice rings out of the silence.
The light is moved enough so I can see the room if I look around, but I am technically blind, as my eyes had adjusted to the bright light in my face, compared to what looks like pitch-blackness surrounding me.
As my eyes slowly adjust, I see six forms standing in front of me. Two have wings that are tucked in. two have wicked-looking horns sharp as needles at the tip. All six have ears on the tops of their heads. All six look humanoid. One set of ocean blue eyes glowed from the darkness, staring at what I guessed was the dried blood on my neck. Other than that, I could currently make out nothing else.
I try to speak, but I don't make a sound.
Twilight chuckles and says, "I cast a spell on you that prevented you from speaking, and in a roundabout way, screaming for help." Her eyes glow fluorescent green for an instant before fading back to the normal green they seemed to be before.
"Girls, quick conference." Twilight says urgently. The girls turn around and start whispering to each other. Considering how silent this room is otherwise, I hear every word they say.
"Girls, my control ability had no effect on him!" Twilight whispers.
"That’s a good thing, right? Other changelings cannot steal him from us, ruining our plans in the process" Fluttershy noted quietly.
"Yes, twilight, that is a good thing. Fluttershy is right" Rarity whispered.
Twilight sighs and whispers, "Fine, but if he turns on us at any time, he'll be eliminated and replaced with another, albeit less qualified candidate."
Through the whole short conference, my heart had been pounding and my palms had started to sweat in nervousness.
I constricted my esophagus shut and pushed air towards the constriction, planning on making something happen to allow me to speak again. I accidentally opened the constriction a little bit, and grunted forcedly.
You know how when you get angry, and your face gets red from the blood you push into it? That’s what I was doing.
As I pushed as much blood as I could to my head, I felt something not of bodily origin in my throat shatter without sound.
All the air is expelled from my lungs with a sudden whoosh, and I nearly black out. I lower my head and try to keep as much blood as I could in it.
I cough and pull as much air as I could back into my lungs, exhaling with a shudder.
"Ow, that hurt" I mutter. Thankfully the girls didn't hear me.
. . . Wait a tic. I spoke?
With that realization, I started to pull against my bonds. They have a little give to them, which perfect for an escape. I smiled.
I began to struggle against the bonds holding my arms to the chair, twisting and pulling my arms free of the magical ropes.
The magic rope around my right wrist is dispelled as I pull my hand out of it.
I use my right hand to tug on the rope around my left wrist, stretching it just enough to remove my hand from it.
'Now the hard part,' I think, knowing that freeing my legs without making any sounds will be damn near impossible. I notice a stone . . . thing on the floor that I could use to beat on the bindings around my ankles. I get down on my hands and knees and reach for it.
"What in Equestria are you doing?! And how did you get your arms free, darling?" Rarity exclaims. I look up in the direction of Rarity's voice and see that I am on the floor in the middle of their conference.
'Great going, Anthony. You just screwed yourself by interrupting their meeting with the purpose of grabbing the metal object which was apparently in the middle of their meeting. Fuck. . .' I think. I give a weak smile to them and recede from the middle of their meeting. I set myself up exactly as I had been before I had broken out of the bonds around my wrists.
"Feel free to bind me again," I groan. The six ponies look at me then at each other.
"You cancelled my voice-cancelling spell, and then you freed your arms. Until you fell over in our sight range, we had no idea of your escape," Twilight said, grinning.
I grin sheepishly. Twilights horn lights up and I feel the bonds around my ankles dispel.
"You passed the first test," Twilight says triumphantly.
I stand up and ask, "This was just a test? Are you kidding me? Seriously? If this was a test, how many more do I have to do?"
"Exactly fifteen more, Anthony Zieno. When you are ready, meet me and my friends back here in my basement. By the way, our group is called the 'AMS', or 'Alternate Mane Six. Rarity is a vampire. Rainbow Dash is a succubus. Applejack is an advanced zombie. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are psychotic killers. Last, but certainly not least, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am a changeling," Twilight says, pointing at the individuals she describes.
Each pony walks up to me and greets me in their own way as they are announced.
Rarity holds out her hand, and I feel compelled to kiss it in a gentlemanly manner, which I do.
Rainbow winks at me as we shake hands gingerly. Her hand feels like the smoothest silk woven into living flesh. I can't help but blush a little when she winks at me.
Applejack lethargically plods over, slaps her clammy, half-rotten hand into mine, and holds my hand in a death grip as she shakes my hand slowly. I am extremely scared; I almost start to hyperventilate right then and there.
Fluttershy nods in my direction, not looking at me. Pinkie does the same, except she looks fiercely into my eyes, as if she were gauging my abilities.
"It's nice to meet you all," I say dully.
"Until you feel ready for your next test, shoo! Go anywhere in Equestria you want to go . . . And to blend in with ponies a little easier, I have been perfecting a spell to make your features more pony-like." Twilight says.
Her horn lights up and her aura envelops me. Excruciating pain courses through my face and tailbone, a small itch permeating everywhere else.
My hands instinctively raise to my face, either to massage the pain away or to protect my face from more pain. Either way, I don't know. The pain hurts too much to think clearly. I groan and fall to my knees.
After a full ten minutes of the pain, I was lying in the fetal position, tears falling freely down my face. Twenty, I was just whimpering and crying.
Slowly, the pain recedes over a lengthy amount of time. After the pain is all but a dull ache, I sit up and rub my eyes.
. . . Wait a second, something doesn't feel right. I keep my eyes shut, and I slowly drag my hands across my face, feeling the alien bone structure of it.
'It feels . . . furry . . . and . . . elongated’ I think, confused. I open my eyes, holding my hands in front of my face.
"What the fuck? My hands are fucking blue!" I exclaim. My hands are blue. A comforting steel blue, to be exact.
Something brushes against the seat of my jeans and look over my shoulder to see an ultramarine blue tail with a streak of white through the middle. My hair falls over my eyes, seemingly the same color as the tail I saw behind me. I push my hair- no, mane out of my eyes
"Very dashing, Anthony, if I do say so myself." Rarity says, complimenting me.
Rarity magicks a mirror in front of me and I almost scream.
I look like an anthro pony. I have the mane, the tail, and the furry coat. I see I have not a horn or a set of wings.
"Hmm, an earth pony . . . it'll have to do" I mutter.
"There ain't nuthin' wrong with bein' an Earth pony, Anthony." Applejack exclaims. I choose to ignore her comment.
"You know, I always wanted to see Canterlot in person," I think aloud.
"Here is an Unlimited Anywhere ticket for the Friendship Express. Just show the conductor this ticket, and say where you want to go. He'll handle the rest." Twilight says, handing me a golden ticket.
'I wish there was some chocolate to go with this,' I think. Twilight leads me out of the library basement and then outside. She directs me to the Train Station and I go on my merry way, waving farewell to the AMS.
