Dangerous Game

I walked down the abandoned street, surveying all the empty houses around me. How I ended up on this street, or what the purpose of my arrival at the street was unknown to me, only that I was just there. I was wondering aimlessly down an abandoned street in the middle of god forsaken nowhere, yet I didn’t seem to be bothered in any way.

After about fifteen minutes of silently walking, something finally came into sight. I stared at the unknown object for a few seconds, then identified it to be a weird box about the size of a briefcase. I cautiously approached the box, soon getting close enough to determine it to be made out of a wooden material. I finally reached the box, then crouched down next to it. Running my hand along the top of it, I took note of the smooth quality of the wood, my curiosity slowly building until I gave in. I  lifted the cover off the box and peeked inside.

Inside the box, was a pair of simple flight goggles and a scroll. I glanced at the goggles, then grabbed the scroll and opened it. Something was written in a strange language, and was also written in extremely elaborate cursive. Looking closely, I could finally at least decipher the fancy cursive.

ఒక మంచి అభిప్రాయాన్ని పొందడానికి ఈ గాగుల్స్ ఉపయోగించండి.

నేను మీరు ఏమి చెయ్యాలో ముఖ్యమైన ఏదో మీరు ఈ రహదారి కనుగొనేందుకు మిగతావారికి పాటు, ఉంది. నేను మీ స్వాధీనంలో 500,000 బిట్స్ నిలబెట్టాయి. ఒక వైవిధ్యం: మీరు ఈ ఒక విషయం కోసం బిట్స్ మరియు మాత్రమే ఒక విషయం ఉపయోగించడానికి. మంచి కోసం ఈ ప్రపంచాన్ని మార్చండి. మీరు మీ సొంత వ్యక్తిగత లాభం కోసం ఈ డబ్బు ఉపయోగించి గుర్తించారు ఉంటే, అది తీసివేయబడుతుంది మరియు మీరు ఇంటి పంపబడుతుంది, మీ మెమరీ కనుమరుగవుతుంది. మీరు ఒక తేడా మేకింగ్ విజయవంతం, మీరు అందంగా రివార్డ్ చేయబడుతుంది.

శుభాకాంక్షలు,

ప్రిన్సెస్, Celestia

I stared at the writing on the paper for a few moments, unable to process what was written on the paper.To me, it looked like someone had used random scrawlings to write a message, only leaving one legible phrase at the end: Celestia. My mind kept drifting to the goggles in the box,  and soon I had the goggles in the palm of my hand. They felt cool, and made of a soft, brown rubber material. I carefully observed the goggles for a few seconds, the strange urge to put them on starting to creep into my mind.

I held them up hesitantly for a few moments, then exhaled deeply before placing the goggles on my head and over my eyes. Surprisingly, the goggles fit perfectly fine on my head, and looking through them helped vastly to improve my vision. I looked around the street in awe at the enhanced details for a few moments, until the shape of a strange creature appeared in one of the house windows.

The thing seemed to be equine in nature, with very light blue fur, brilliant green eyes, and a black mane. It stared at few moments, giving me a look of what looked to be neutrality on it’s face before suddenly vanishing. Before I could react, a strange sense of drowsiness fell over me. Seconds later, the world went black, and I passed out.

~~~

The sounds of birds chirping pierced the shroud of darkness that was unconsciousness. I clenched that darkness for a few moments, trying hard to keep it, but the annoying sound of the chirping birds continued to break through my consciousness. Finally giving up, I cracked my eyes open, and looked around.

I was located in the middle of a rather large, grassy field on the edge of a rather dark forest. Looking up, I saw a blue sky with a few puffs of occasional cloud. I took a few moments to collect myself, then breathed out a sigh of relief. “Jesus Christ, that was an incredibly realistic dream!” I said quietly to myself, as I felt myself start to regain wakefulness.

Once I had regained full control over my body, I slowly rose to my feet to stretch my body. However, my legs were quick to give way underneath me, and I fell flat on my face. “Fuck!” I shouted, startled at the sudden give of my legs. I lay there in a crumpled heap for a few moments, then started to get back up when I noticed something rather shocking.

A soft blue muzzle was sticking from my face, almost giving me a heart attack as my eyes locked onto it. I quickly swapped at it with my hand, only to realize something even scarier. My hand was no longer a hand, but a hoof.

I opened my mouth to release a string of curse words, but quickly closed it again. While waking up as a horse was shocking, I knew the stupidest thing to do was to panic. Taking deep breaths, I let myself cool down before getting on all fours. It took a few moments to figure out how to walk with my new horse body, but when I did, I looked at the forest, and spotted a small puddle on the edge of it.

I started sprinting towards it, reaching it a few moments later. Peeking into the pond, I noticed that the equine I had become looked exactly like the one from my dream. I had the same black mane, green eyes, and light blue fur. Looking at my body, I noticed two wings on my back. I extended them experimentally for a few seconds, trying to get a feel for them, then folded them back to my sides.

Adding two and two together, I figured that I had somehow become the horse thing from my dream, and I had been sent to someplace I had no knowledge of. So many questions ran through my head, yet I had so little answers to those questions. I determined that the first thing I should do was move along the forest edge until I came across a landmark of some sort. With my goal set in mind, I breathed out deeply, then started trotting along the forest.