Don't Go Into the Everfree Forest, TDby BronyWriterChaptersIt Just Might Change YouI Don't Wanna...Going, Going....Come on Everypony, SmileOriginal EndingIt Just Might Change YouKnock, knock, knock. I cracked an eye open and glanced at my door. The fact that it was still night out told me that I really didn't want to answer it right now, but the small conscience at the back of my mind told me that it would be rude not to, since whoever was on the other side obviously knew I was here. Of course, the other part of my brain told me that said pony should know that I was sleeping, so they shouldn't bother me, should they? Eh, I figured that I might as well see what they wanted. I knew that Twilight and Co. wouldn't ever knock unless it was an emergency, and I would help in the event of an emergency. I groaned and pushed myself up before slipping on a shirt so I would be decent when I opened up the door. I opened it up and, to my utter lack of surprise, Fluttershy was on the other side. She was nervously pawing at the ground and her wings were fluttering. She was clearly nervous about something. She widened her eyes when she saw me, and, I kid you not, threw herself at my feet. "TD! Oh thank Celestia you're here!" I sighed and rubbed my temples. "What is it, Fluttershy? Not to be rude, but it's late and I'm tired, so it had better be important." Fluttershy vigorously nodded. "It is! I promise it is! Abbywing got out through a hole in the chicken coop and ran out into the Everfree Forest! I have to get her before something happens, but it's dangerous to go alone!" I groaned and facepalmed. "Okay... are you sure I'm really the best guy for this? I can't fly and I can't do any magic." "Please!" Fluttershy wailed. "Twilight doesn't get back from Canterlot until early tomorrow morning, Rainbow is in Cloudsdale for a weather conference, Rarity is up all night working on an order that she has to deliver to Baltimare in two hours, Pinkie is working with the Cakes for another important competition, and Applejack is getting ready for a trip to Appleloosa tomorrow!" Fluttershy's lower lip quivered, and I knew I had been roped into it right then. Oy. Seriously, the most hard-hearted jerk in the world wouldn't be able to resist Fluttershy whimpering at them. They say that they would, but they really wouldn't. I sighed and nodded. "Fine. I'll help you find your chicken." Fluttershy squealed and wrapped her forelegs around my legs. "Oh thank you, TD!" She released me and began hovering a few feet into the air, grasping my hand with her hooves and pulling me towards the forest. "We haven't a moment to lose! She might be in danger already!" I pulled my hand out and took a moment to put my shoes on before following her towards the forest. I half-listened to her talk about how worried she was that Abbywing, or whatever the chicken's name was, was in the forest, and how dangerous it was for her and all that, but my mind was back in bed where my body should have been. I didn't really care to go into one of the most dangerous places in Equestria after a chicken in the middle of the night, thank you very much. Still... maybe if we found the chicken and it was dead, I could eat it. I mean, it's not like she's going to do anything else with it... No, I had to focus on Fluttershy. It would be insensitive. If she dragged me into the forest to rescue it, she wasn't going to let me eat it if it was dead. She was probably going to give it a proper burial and all that. I inwardly sighed as we reached the edge of the forest near Fluttershy's cottage, and tuned back in to Fluttershy. "... and I've just been so worried about her! You know how the Everfree Forest can be!" "Uh-huh." I swear I wasn't trying to be rude. Anyway, we walked into the forest through a path through the trees that was there for some reason. Probably because it led to Celestia's old castle. Made sense to me. The moonlight shone on the ground, and I saw little chicken tracks heading into the forest. Perfect. All we had to do was follow those and get the chicken. So it's just our luck that the dumb bird had to go off of the path. I sighed and led Fluttershy through the increasingly long grass, pushing it aside every once in a while to see if we were still following the tracks. "So, you had another chicken who did this already, right?" Fluttershy vigorously nodded. "Yes! The Crusaders scared my chickens and Elizabeak ran into the forest too. She was turned into stone by a cockatrice, the poor thing!" I sighed again and shook my head. Fluttershy doesn't want her chickens going into the forest, but she has holes in her fences and she lives right next to it. Brilliant move there, Fluttershy. Your chickens go missing, then I have to go get them late at night. Yuck. I saw a thick set of branches before us, but the tracks went that way, so I led Fluttershy towards it. I began to push some of the branches aside so that the two of us could go through, and, since I was chivalrous and all, I stepped through first to make sure that nothing was waiting for us on the other end. Nothing really bad was, but the second I put my foot down, I felt a wetness soaking my leg. I grunted and noticed that I stepped in a pool of water that has gone up to my knee, and it's only the fact that I'm holding onto a tree branch that kept me from falling flat onto my face. "Oh goodness, are you okay, TD?" Fluttershy poked her head through the hole in the branches that I made. "Are you hurt?" I grimaced, and Fluttershy let me lean on her while I pulled my leg out of the puddle. "I'm fine. It's just wet is all." I shook my leg to get some of the water off of it, but I could already tell that I was going to be miserable until I could get out of those pants. My leg was already starting to itch like crazy. "Let's just find your chicken and get out of here, okay?" Fluttershy nodded and went through the hole, being careful to avoid the puddle. "Of course. We only have to... there she is!" I looked up and saw that she was pointing towards a small bush. Sure enough, there was her silly little chicken, clucking and hopping around like it doesn't have a care in the world. Fluttershy flies over to it and begins scolding it like it’s a person. I rolled my eyes, but since her special talent is animals, maybe the chicken could understand her and I just didn't know it. The chicken did hop onto her back at any rate. Fluttershy turned back to me with a smile. "We're all set to get out of here, TD. Abbywing seems fine." "Goodie," I grumbled. I moved the branches aside again and allowed Fluttershy and her dumb chicken to go through before I went through myself. We walked through the bushes and found out that the chicken did have a use: we followed her tracks back out of the forest, and given that we didn't have to spend any time looking around for anything, we were out of the forest in five minutes. Fluttershy brought her bird back to the chicken coop, and moved some heavy tree branches in front of the hole so no more chickens would get out. I was so ready to be done for the night. I had thought that I was already going to be done for the night, but I guess not. I had just finished moving the last branch in front of the hole when Fluttershy flew over to me with her smile still on her face. "Thank you, TD. I couldn't have found her without you." "Don't mention it," I grunted. "I'll hire somepony to completely build a new fence around the coop so this doesn't happen again." Fluttershy's smile faded, and her ears flattened. "I hate having to bother ponies like this." "It's nothing. Like I said, don't mention it." I scratched my wet leg, which was steadily getting itchier, and stood up. "Well, I'll see you later, Fluttershy. Take care of your chickens, okay?" * * * * I cannot tell you how happy I was to get my wet clothes off and get into bed. I mean, talk about a rough night. Sure the whole thing took probably about half an hour, but that's a good half hour longer than I wanted to spend in the Everfree Forest. I got out of my wet pants and into bed within a minute of entering my house. I was asleep probably another minute or so after that. I woke up to my alarm clock going off, and I turned it off quickly. The first thing that I registered once the ringing had died down was the fact that the leg that had gotten dipped in the puddle was itching like crazy, so I began scratching it, hoping that it would dull the itch, but... something was off. I opened my eyes and raised my hand above the covers. When I scratched my leg, I felt something... weird. Almost as if something was coming off of my leg. I moved my hand closer to my eyes to examine it and I saw something under my fingernails. Skin. I sharply inhaled and threw back my covers. What I saw made me actually cry out in fear. The skin on my leg, from the knee all the way down to the sole of my foot, was peeling. I'm not talking something like "few days old sunburn" sort of peeling, I'm talking "you can see your muscle now" peeling. I whimpered and slowly poked my leg. I could still feel it, but it itched like crazy, and I really wanted nothing more than to scratch it, despite the fact that I knew it would peel off more of my skin. I took a deep breath and tried wiggling my toes to see if my brain could still send commands to my decaying leg, and, to my horror, I found that my toes were completely unresponsive. I looked at my foot to see if they hadn't flat out fallen off yet, and I let out another shriek when I saw what was wrong. My toes were gone, but not in the way I expected. They were fused together almost completely, to the point where it looked like I just had an elongated foot. Sliding to a sitting position, I accidentally moved my leg, and more of my skin on my calf came off. I flinched back, but my mind didn't hesitate to tell me that I had scratched the itch a little bit, and scratching the itch did help. A lot. Those places where the skin was completely peeled away? They didn't itch anymore. The idea that I could stop all of the itching was... tempting. That's how bad it was. No. I couldn't do that. I had to save as much of my leg as possible, and to do that, I had to resist the urge to scratch my leg. Still, a little examination couldn't hurt, though. I gently leaned forward and bent my leg so that I could take a closer look at it. Well, more specifically the places where the skin was completely gone. Exposed muscle wasn't something that I wasn't keen on, but if that was infected then that was a very bad thing. However, closer examination of my leg revealed that the portions where the skin was gone wasn't replaced my muscle, but a light red hair. I gently brushed my hand over it, and my eyes widened when I realized what the texture reminded me of: pony fur. My skin was being peeled away and replaced with pony fur. With a yelp, I shot to my feet, subconsciously surprised that my right foot still supported my weight, and tried to think through my options. There was only one pony in all of Ponyville that could help me, and I hoped that she was back already. * * * * Putting on a fresh pair of pants to hide my deformity resulted in a lot more of my skin being peeled off, but I wasn't ready to go walking around Ponyville with my leg on full display. I limped towards Twilight's treehouse, praying to whomever that she would be there, take one look at my leg, and say "Oh, that's just a nasty case of the Equestrian equivalent of poison ivy. Not Poison joke either, something else. I can have a cure ready for that in ten minutes." Somehow I doubted that would be the case, but I couldn't help but hope. It's all I had to go on at the moment. I reached the tree house and began pounding on the door. It wasn't too early, about ten in the morning, so unless Twilight's train was delayed, she would be there. Luck was slightly on my side in that endeavor, and within a few seconds the door was opened by Spike. He gave me a greeting nod. "Hey, TD. What can we do for you?" "Hey, Spike, is Twilight here?" I grimaced and looked into the library behind him. "It's an emergency." Spike's eyes widened, and he stepped aside. "Yeah, come in! She's making some tea right now, but she should be done any minute." I walked past Spike and into the library where Twilight was walking into the main room, a cup of tea being levitated in front of her. She looked over to me when she saw me and smiled. "Hello, TD. How are you?" "Horrible. I'm—" I tensed up as the itching feeling in my leg intensified, and I subconsciously reached down to scratch it, but held back. However, I did notice one thing: the feeling was spreading. I only got wet up to my knee, but I felt the itch at my hip. I balled my fist and bit my lip. "I think I'm turning into a pony again." Twilight's eyes widened, and she quickly set her teacup down. "What?! What do you mean?!" "I went into the Everfree Forest after one of Fluttershy's chickens last night." I grimaced and sat down on the floor with my back to one of the bookshelves. "I stepped in some sort of water, and now my freaking skin is peeling off." I tensed up again as the itch got worse. "You gotta help me get rid of it. My leg is half pony already!" "Okay, come down to the basement." Twilight ran over to one of the bookshelves and levitated a half dozen books off of it. "I'll see what I can find about it. Hopefully we can get it fixed up, but we have to find out what caused it first." I nodded and followed her down to the basement after Twilight ordered Spike to hold down the fort while she dealt with me. She directed me to a nearby chair and put the books on a nearby desk. "Alright. Let's see your leg." I nodded and took off my shoes, socks, and pants, and flinched back when I saw my leg. It had gotten worse, even though I hadn't been scratching at it. My leg was now two thirds pony fur. I gingerly poked at my foot, which had begun molding into a different shape, and felt that it was a little harder than normal. It was turning into a hoof. I looked up at Twilight, who was looking at my leg with wide eyes and an open mouth. "TD, I... I've never seen anything like this before. I've never even heard of anything like this before!" Twilight levitated one of her books over to her and began flipping through it. "What did you say happened? You stepped in a puddle?" I nodded and clenched my fists so hard my fingernails began digging into my palms. I couldn't scratch my leg. I'd lose more skin if I did that, and who knew if I would get it back? No. I had to control the urge. Still... the bits that were pony fur now didn't itch. Maybe just a little wouldn't... No. I had to focus. I couldn't do that. Twilight would find something about how it was some enchanted water, and she'd cook up a cure in ten minutes and I'd be as good as new. "Tell me you have something!" I snapped after a few minutes. Twilight shifted uncomfortably and snapped her third book shut. "I don't really have much to go on, TD. I mean, all you said is that you stepped in some water in the Everfree Forest. That's too vague for me to work with." "Well that's all that happened." My left arm twitched as the itch continued spreading up to my ribs. I couldn't scratch it. It would only make things worse, and I couldn't be all pony. Maybe once I became all pony the transformation would be permanent. That was certainly an unsettling thought. I clenched my fists harder. Twilight shook her head and put the book down. "Okay, the only thing that I can think of to do is to go to where the water is, get a sample, and start running some tests on it. If I can figure out what it is then I can figure out a cure." "Whatever it takes," I said through clenched teeth. "Just help. Me. Stop. The. Itching!" It felt like insects were crawling under my skin, and I couldn't do anything about it. Not if I wanted to keep my human form, which, if my foot was any indication, was rapidly going anyway. Still, I had to show Twilight where the pool was, so I slowly pushed myself to my feet... And immediately collapsed onto the ground when a searing pain shot through my damaged leg. Without thinking, I clutched at it, tearing off more skin... but satiating some of the itch. "Are you okay, TD?" Twilight ran over to me and took a closer look at my leg. "How are you feeling?" "I don't think that I can go on an Everfree trek," I groaned. "I can't put any weight on my leg for some reason." Twilight sighed and straightened up. "Well, then I guess you have to stay here while I go. You said that Fluttershy went with you, right?" I nodded. "Well, she'll have to show me where the water, or whatever it is, is located so I can get a sample." Twilight gave me a small smile and put a hoof on my shoulder. "I'm going to help you, TD. If I can't then, I'm going to get Princess Celestia to help you." "Whatever it takes." Twilight nodded and trotted up the stairs, leaving me alone in the basement. I hoped that she would be back soon, but I had no reason to think that she wouldn't rush back as soon as she could. Meanwhile I just had to sit here and endure this rapidly spreading itch that just would not go away. It only went away if I scratched it, and couldn't scratch it! Or could I? I mean, maybe a little bit wouldn't hurt. Just to take the edge off. Just a little bit. After all, it's just a little skin. I... I have more. Author's Note First chapter of two. This is a teaser really. Next chapter it gets really good. I Don't Wanna...The itch went away mostly. It was beautiful. I mean, I lost a few fingernails and a ton of skin too, but the blasted itch was gone. That really made it all worth it to me. If I had to go back, I'd do it the same way over again. After that, I felt really tired, almost like I hadn't slept in a week sort of tired. The basement floor was as good a place as any to curl up, so I did. I don't remember what I dreamed about, if indeed I dreamed about anything at all, but I do know that I woke up to the sound of a piercing scream. My eyes snapped open and I raised my head to see Twilight standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at me with an expression of pure horror on her face. I frowned at her and cocked my head. "What's wrong? It's just a little skin. Nothing too bad about that." Twilight's lower jaw quivered, and I heard a quiet whimper from her as she shook her head. Her horn ignited, and she levitated what turned out to be a mirror in front of my face. Huh. One of my eyes was five times the size of the other one. About the same size as a pony's. My mouth was sticking out, and I knew that it was shaping into a muzzle already. I slowly raised a hand to my mouth and brushed it against the side of my face. Like before, more of my skin began peeling off, revealing the light red fur underneath. To top it off, a few of my fingers had begun fusing together. I idly poked at the fingers and tried to peel them apart by forcing my finger between the two, but I only succeeded in cracking one of my remaining fingernails in half. I clicked my tongue and tore it out with my teeth, spitting it onto the floor. No need for it, really. I shrugged and looked up to Twilight, who had tears streaming down her face. I smiled at her and took a few steps towards her on my hands and knees. "What did you find?" "Uh..." Twilight blinked a few times before slowly walking down the steps towards me. She reached the bottom and walked towards her workbench, being sure to give my discarded scraps a wide berth. "I... I didn't find anything." I raised my eyebrow and cocked my head. "What do you mean? It was kind of hard to miss. Were the chicken tracks gone? You just had to follow those." Twilight deeply exhaled and shook her head as she sat down. "No, the chicken tracks were there, but the pool you and Fluttershy claim you fell into isn't there anymore." "So..." A frown slowly crossed my face. "So does that mean that you can't turn me completely back into a pony? That I'm going to continue turning back into a human until I'm one forever?" Twilight's eyes widened again, and she spun her head to look at me like I had gone mad, which was kinda weird. I mean halting my transformation to a human and turning me back into a pony was the whole point of this thing, so... Uh... My own eyes widened, and my jaw dropped. My forelegs began shaking, and I started lightly hyperventilating. "T-Twilight? What the heck was that? Did I just say that I wanted to be turned back into a pony?" Twilight solemnly nodded and looked down at one of her books. "Yeah. I think that whatever is turning your body is..." Twilight took a deep breath. "Also turning your mind. If what I just observed is true, you're going to start having the mentality of somepony who has lived in Equestria his entire life." I groaned and leaned my head against the table. "Great. That's just freaking brilliant. No more TD then, I guess." "You'll still be alive," Twilight pointed out. I glanced up at her with a glare. "Not to get existential and all that, but if what makes me me is completely destroyed, am I still alive?" Twilight went silent for a few moments, but quickly shook her head. "Let's not focus on that right now, TD. Right now let's figure out exactly what sort of tests we can run." Twilight bit her lip and looked over to a few scraps of my skin. "I... yeah, I'll run some tests to see if there's some residue of the water, or whatever it was, on your skin still, and if there is then we'll figure out how to cure it. I'll also get a hair and urine sample, okay?" I nodded. "You got it." I walked to one of my skin scraps and took it in my mouth. Yeah, it was kinda gross, having my skin in my mouth, but I couldn't balance it on my hooves and walk at the same time, and we can't all be unicorns. That... I sharpy inhaled and spit my skin out, not even bothering to look over at Twilight who was doubtlessly horrified by it. I heard her fire up her horn and pick up the skin scrap to take over to her workbench to begin testing on, and I saw a few other skin scraps float off of the floor, as well as one of my fingernails. I grimaced and sat down on my haunches. "Don't tell anypony about that, okay, Twilight? I..." I sighed. "That kind of thing is just between us, okay? Nopony else needs to know that happened." Twilight sniffled as she levitated some beakers over to the workbench, but I saw her give a single nod. * * * * It got worse. The itch returned, and both of my hands were fused together by this point. My right foot, where this had all started, was completely a hoof. As in, if I compared it to Twilight's it would look exactly the same. I had spent the past half-hour scratching the itch, not even bothering to try to resist, and more and more of my skin was coming off as a result. Twilight glanced over to me as I was scratching some skin off of my back. "TD, stop doing that! We don't know if it can be reversed once it's permanent." I returned her look with a glare. "Look, Twilight, it itches so bad that it freaking hurts, okay? I'm going to need a screwdriver to get rid of the worst of it at this rate, so unless you have a cure now, this is all I can do to stop it!" I scratched my neck and peeled off more skin. "Besides, I don't even know how I got this stuff on me in the first place. I mean, I go to bed a pony then wake up like..." I motioned to myself. "This. You'd think that you'd be glad that I have a way to get rid of the abnormalities." "Oh, TD," Twilight whispered. She turned back to her work without saying anything else, but I could figure what was wrong. "I did it again; went into "Pony Mode," didn't I?" Twilight gave a single nod, and I facehooved. It was something that was becoming more frequent over the past half hour. I would slip into Pony Mode for a few minutes, and in those few minutes... well, it's like I had never been TD at all. That kind of frightened me. I felt a tight feeling well up in my chest as I began to realize that I might not get out of this one. If Twilight couldn't find a cure, then I would be stuck as a pony not just in body, but in mind as well. No. No, I wasn't going to let that happen. I looked up to Twilight. "Anything yet?" Twilight sighed and shook her head. "Nothing. As far as I can tell, this is just... skin. I can't detect anything abnormal about it. It's almost as if you shed it to make room for your new body." I grimaced and pushed myself onto my hooves and knees. "Okay, I'm going to go to the spot in the Everfree Forest where that freaking puddle was. If it isn't there, then I'm going to dig where I knew it was to find it." "TD, what do you think that will accomplish?" Twilight turned back to me, a grim expression on her face. "I know that you don't want to be stuck as a pony like this, but I'm not sure what to do, even if we do find a sample of whatever you stepped in." Twilight looked over to the door to the basement. "Right now I think all I can do is call Princess Celestia over. Maybe she knows something about it." I bit my lip and scratched the back of my neck. "Eh... I don't know if I'm comfortable with that. I mean, she's Princess Celestia." "TD, I know you and Princess Celestia haven't always gotten along, but she's our best bet for fixing you." "It's not that, it's just..." I took a deep breath and began tapping on the ground. "I'd hate to bother her. I mean, she's a powerful princess and I'm just a lowly pony." A small, embarrassed smile crossed my face. "Besides, I think I'd get all tongue tied around her and not know the proper things to say or do. I'd hate to make a scene. She's my princess, and I want to show her proper respect." Twilight bolted up the stairs and out of the basement. Going, Going....Wow, Princess Celestia was coming to meet me? I mean, how often does something like that happen to somepony like me? She's definitely a busy pony and... Dammit, it's happening again. I groaned and slammed my hoof on the ground, clutching at my head with the other. I was dying, and I knew it. Not necessarily physically, though I could be for all I knew, but definitely mentally. If I turned into some pony who didn't remember that he used to be a human, then there was no way that I was going to still be able to be called TD again. Of course, the most frightening aspect for me was the fact that every time my mind went back from pony, I wasn't sure if the next time it went pony it would go back again. I mean, would I fluctuate between pony and TD for the rest of my life, or would there be a point where I'd be pony forever? Probably the latter, and that... Well, Princess Celestia would fix the weird pink stuff hanging off my fur. It itched really bad. I scratched one of misshapen ears, and, with a noise not unlike a plunger being pulled from a sink, it detached from my head and my normal pony ear unfurled. I smiled and walked over to a nearby mirror to make sure that there was nothing wrong with it. There didn't seem to be. I moved it around, and everything seemed to be in order. My other ear was misshapen, but maybe... I frowned and began pawing at the other ear. I felt it separate from the skin, and knew that a little tug was all it would take to get it back to normal. I gave it that tug, and both ears were back to normal. I looked down at the... whatever had been attached to my head on the floor and poked at it. I had never seen anything like it before on any of the other creatures around Equestria. Oh my gosh, what's happening to me? I groaned again and sat down on the floor to fully examine myself. If I had to attach a number to it, I'd say that I was about ninety percent pony now. My hands and feet were hooves, my skin was pretty much all gone, my face was stretched out into a muzzle, and my arms and legs were becoming thinner to match pony legs. To top it all off, I was visibly shorter. Given the rate of change, I'd be fully pony in an hour at most. Physically, at least. Mentally? Who knew? I just... wanted to take a nap. Of course, if I did I might have missed Princess Celestia's arrival, and that would have been all kinds of awkward. She wouldn't want to walk in to find me asleep on the floor. But... a little one couldn't hurt, right?" * * * * I woke up some indiscriminate time later on the floor feeling rather refreshed. I let out a spectacular yawn and pushed myself to my hooves, stretching out as I did. I looked over into the mirror and I found out something rather interesting. All of the abnormalities? Gone. I was fully pony again! That weird skin stuff? The odd ears? All of that was gone, leaving me as the light red earth pony that I was born as. I smiled at my reflection and gave it an approving nod. No doubt Twilight would be quite pleased now that I was back to normal. She did seem really worried that I was mutated like that, but now there was no need to be! I... Oh no. My eyes widened, and I collapsed onto my haunches as I stared in horror at my reflection. She could fix this, right? If not, Celestia could. Surely somepony as old as Celestia would know what I had been exposed to and would find a quick cure that would have me back to a human in no... Was she here? I heard the door to the basement open, and I shot to my hooves. I couldn't wait to show Twilight that I was all better now! She wanted a sample of what I had been exposed to, and I knew I had something that had some. Some article of clothing that... I couldn't remember what. Twilight stepped down the steps, and I saw her lower jaw quiver when she saw me. I wasn't sure why. Maybe it was tears of joy? She was glad that I was fixed without having to go through some painful surgery or something? Twilight shook her head and wiped her eyes with a foreleg before turning her head back to look up the stairs. "He's down here. He's... he's fully transformed." Twilight reached the bottom of the steps and walked to the middle of the room just as another set of hoofsteps echoed throughout the basement. I felt my stomach clench up as I could guess who it was, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I mean, I was already fixed, so maybe... uh, yeah, Celestia would know how to fix... but I was already fixed. Princess Celestia didn't need to come down. But there she was. Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria herself, reached the bottom of the stairs and looked straight at me. She had a look in her eyes that I couldn't quite figure out, but it made me nervous all the same. Still, I knew that I had to be polite. I gave her a weak smile, took a few steps towards her, and sunk to my knees in a deep bow. "Princess Celestia. It is an honor to meet you." "Oh dear," she whispered. "You are correct, Twilight. This is indeed worse than originally imagined." I straightened up and raised an eyebrow, unsure of what she meant by that. Did I do something wrong? I mean, I'd seen pictures of ponies bowing to her, so I didn't think that I did it the wrong way. She could fix me. She had to. I grimaced and alternated my glance between Celestia and Twilight. "My mind is going pony more frequently and longer. I... I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be TD, Twilight. Whatever you're gonna do, do it... do it..." My left ear twitched. Why were they looking so scared? Princess Celestia is the ruler of all of Equestria! She shouldn't be scared of anything! I flattened my ears and took a step backwards. "Did... did I say something wrong, your majesty? I'm sorry if I did. Don't be mad." Princess Celestia took a step towards me and gave me a warm smile. "I'm not mad at you, my little pony. I just need to check for something with you. It won't take but a moment." I frowned uncertainly, but she was the princess, so she would know what was best for me. She wouldn't try to hurt me, and she would... she would know how to fix me. I nodded again. "Yeah, do whatever you have to do." I turned my head towards Twilight. "You wanted a sample of what I was exposed to? I think that my... uh..." I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to remember what had gotten wet. Heck, I couldn't remember much of anything from that day. It was like... I don't... Twilight shook her head with a sigh as Princess Celestia ignited her horn, and a spell like a fine mist fell over me. I wasn't sure what she was doing, but I trusted her. Maybe she thought that I was sick in the head or something and she was trying to fix me. Maybe she wanted to make sure that the abnormalities that had appeared didn't have any lasting effects. Yeah, that was it. That made sense. I smiled at her as she maintained the spell, and, to my relief, she smiled back. She really wasn't mad at me. I hope she knew how to fix me. She powered down her horn, and the mist dissipated. I took a deep breath and rubbed my temples. "So? Can you help me or not?" Celestia stared intently at me for a few moments before quietly sighing. "TD, I don't even know what you were exposed to. The Everfree Forest holds many mysteries that even I do not know of. You say that you stepped in some water that set this off? That sounds like nothing that I have ever heard of. I cannot make an antidote for something that I do not know the properties of, and transformative magic on a permanent basis is impossible." My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. "S-so you can't fix me?" "Not until we know what you were exposed to." I growled and squeezed my eyes shut. "There is something I have that's... that has something with it. I don't know what it is!" "Do you know where it would be?" Twilight asked. I shook my head. "I don't... I don't even know what kind of thing it is. It could be at my house, it could be something I threw away, it could be Fluttershy's chicken for all I know!" "Should we search your house?" Celestia asked. "It seems the most logical place." I frowned and tilted my head. "Search my house for what?" I blinked twice and looked between the two. "I'm not hiding anything illegal in there, and I don't think that there's anything in there that led to me getting the abnormalities. I think that was just some random disease." Princess Celestia and Twilight exchanged a glance before Princess Celestia took another step towards me. "TD, you have lived in Equestria all of your life, correct?" I nodded. "Can you tell me where you were born? Who your parents are? If you have any siblings?" Wow, she was really interested in me, wasn't she? "Of course. I was born and raised right here in Ponyville. I don't have any siblings, and as for my parents, I don't... I don't..." I frowned as I wracked my brains for the answer. It was an easy question. It was my parents. The two ponies who had raised me since birth! But... I couldn't remember their names. I flattened my ears and shrank backwards. "Did whatever caused the abnormalities to appear on me affect me mentally?" Princess Celestia didn't respond. She instead walked over to Twilight and whispered something in her ear. Twilight visibly pales, even under her purple coat, and turned her gaze to me. She blinked once and gulped. "TD, what do you remember about your life here in Ponyville?" I... no... I deeply exhaled and hung my head. "Please tell me you can fix me, Celestia," I moaned. "Each time I come back, I'm scared that the next time that I go is going to be the last, that I'm going to go all pony forever." I raised my head and looked pleadingly at her. "Please tell me you can do something." Celestia took a deep breath before giving me a small, sad smile. She reached out to me and put what I supposed was supposed to be a comforting hoof on my shoulder. "TD... we'll take care of you. I know that this must be difficult for you, but..." Her sad smile faded. "We cannot fix you if we do not know what changed you." "Come on! You're Princess Freaking Celestia!" I said with a snarl. "You've gotta have seen something like this before!" I batted her hoof away and shot to my hooves. "I mean, you could just take a little bit of the water from the pant leg that got wet and..." My eyes widened when I realized what I had just said. "The pant leg that got wet. My pants got wet when I stepped in the pool! That's what I was trying to remember!" "Where are they now?" Twilight was already walking towards the door. "We haven't a moment to lose!" "They're on the floor next to my bed!" Come on Everypony, SmileI ran as fast as I could, barely avoiding some of the ponies in my path. If there was even a chance that TD could be saved, that a sample of whatever he had been exposed to was still left on his clothing, then I had to get it before it faded away. TD was right; every time he faded away was a time where he risked not coming back as TD, and if he went fully pony permanently, then I wasn't sure that I could bring him back, even if I did have a sample. I reached TD's house and pushed on the door. It was locked, but I wasn't going to let that deter me. I teleported inside of his house and reappeared on top of his bed before I hopped off and began wildly searching for anything that might be what he was describing. All else failed, I'd take his entire wardrobe and have him point out what he had been wearing. The only reason he hadn't come to begin with was that so Princess Celestia could keep an eye on him and we wanted to keep this quiet with the town. Nopony needed to know that TD had essentially disintegrated into a pony. I continued scanning the floor until my gaze landed on something, something that I think was what I was after. A pair of blue jeans lying discarded right next to his bed. I lifted them into the air and examined both of the legs. One of them was slightly damp! It was a long shot that I could get enough to figure out what had happened to him, but it was definitely a starting point. I encased it in a protective shield and shot out of TD's house like a bat out of Tartarus. TD could very well be all pony by the time I got back, so I had to hurry. I wouldn't have run faster if a Hydra was chasing me. I made it back to the library in record time and ran down the steps of the basement five at a time. Princess Celestia was sitting next to TD, who was staring intently at the floor. Both of them looked up at me when I reached the bottom step. "Did you find them?" he asked. I nodded and levitated the pants higher so that he could see them before walking over to a workbench and laying them out. I took several deep breaths to slow my beating heart before answering. "Yeah." I took a few more deep breaths. "Yeah, I did. They're only damp, so I can't say for sure if we'll be able to get anything out of them, but I'm going to try." I levitated a scalpel, a few ingredients, and a beaker over to me so that I could take a sample and maybe separate the liquid and test its properties. I could only hope that I was able to find something in time. I slowly dragged the blade of the scalpel across the edge of the pant leg, hoping to get a little scrap of it... I did not expect everything from the knee down to completely disintegrate at the touch of the blade. It... it was gone. All that was left of TD's chances of being turned back into a human was little more than dust on my table. I slowly turned my head towards TD, who was staring at my failure to save him. "I... I'm so sorry, TD," I whimpered. "I tried." TD took a deep breath and poked at the dust. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I know you did," he mumbled. "I don't blame you." "You will be well cared for, TD. Do not ever think that I will simply abandon you to this fate." Princess Celestia put a hoof on his shoulder. "You will have my support." "And I'll like it too." TD tightened his jaw and ran a hoof through his mane. "Doesn't really matter what you do, does it? I'll be dead? No more TD. You might as well tell Ponyville that you found a way to send me home, wait a few months, and then introduce me into Ponyville society." "If that is what you think would be best." "It doesn't matter at all what I think anymore!" TD snarled. He batted Princess Celestia's hoof away and shot to his hooves. "I'm not going to be me anymore! I potentially have seconds left of mental capacity! You could throw me in a dungeon and it wouldn't make a lick of difference." "TD, do not think like that!" Princess Celestia took a small step towards him. "You will not be dead, and we will work night and day to reverse what happened to you!" "But you can't." TD's expression turned into a glare. "You can't because you don't even know what went wrong. You can't because even if you did, you wouldn't even begin to know how to fix it." TD turned his back on us and walked over to the corner of the basement, where he sat down and stared at the floor. "Just leave me alone to mentally die in peace. I appreciate what you've done to help me, Twilight, but..." He sighed. "I just want to be alone right now." Princess Celestia and I exchanged another glance, and she nodded at me. I sighed and flattened my ears. "Okay, TD. Feel free to stay as long as you like. We'll get through this, okay?" He didn't respond. * * * * A pony for good. Not even Celestia could help me. Celestia and Twilight had gone up to talk about something or other after everything had gone to Hell and I realized that I wasn't going to be TD anymore, during which time I switched back again to Pony Mode. Once I switched back after a few minutes... I couldn't even bring myself to get upset about it. I was about to mentally die, but that didn't mean that I had to keep making a big deal about it. I think I was just too drained by that point. Twilight had come back down the stairs and told me that I could stay the night. I thanked her, and she gave me some books to pass the time. She must have realized that I didn't really want to socialize with other ponies right now. I can only imagine what she was telling Spike. Maybe she had just told him to go play with the Crusaders or hang out with Rarity for the day, or something like that. So this was going to be my life now. TD the Pony. TD the Pony that was, if memory served, completely complacent and submissive to Celestia. No more me. Nothing that was me made it into Pony Mode. I could accept that. I could just... live my life. Once I was gone, it's not like I would know the difference. I wouldn't remember my time as a human, and I'd be completely happy as who I was. But... that sounded utterly distasteful to me. It wasn't me, and it would never be me. There was nothing I could do about that, though. I had to just lie down and accept that I was going to mentally die, that I wasn't in control of anything anymore. Or... My ears perked up as a thought entered my head. It... it was a nasty thought, but it was a solution that I hadn't considered before. I was sure that Twilight would understand once she really thought about it. Heck, seeing as how she, Celestia, and I were the only ponies who knew about what was going on, nopony else had to know... * * * * I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off with my magic. The hot water pouring over me did me good, and it helped clear my head. I had laid out several plans for what to do with TD, but none of them seemed particularly enticing. We'd figure something out, though. I walked out of my bathroom and into the main room of the library. I looked over at the basement door with a sigh. Part of me didn't want to go down and talk to TD. He could have already been all pony, and I wasn't sure how I could handle that. As jarring as it was to see somepony who was completely at odds with Princess Celestia, that snarky, sarcastic being was TD, and he was my friend. That pony who bowed to her and was nervous about meeting her... well, I could see why TD thought that was dying. Still, I knew that I had to go check on him. I couldn't just lock him in my basement and forget all about him forever; I had to make sure that he was okay, even if I was sure that I wouldn't like what I saw. Well, I also had to clean up the fragments of what used to be TD's human form. TD pony couldn't live with that around him. I know I wouldn't want to. I took a deep breath and opened the door to my basement. My heart was pounding, and the back of my mind told me that I wouldn't like what I saw. I couldn't even call out to him. I walked down the stairs slowly, mentally bracing myself for the sight of TD's dumb smile, all hint of the human that I knew gone. I reached the bottom of the steps and let out a shriek of utter horror when I saw him. I began hyperventilating and backed into a corner, tears streaming down my face. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. I couldn't. TD was lying on the floor of my basement in a large pool of his own blood, the veins in both forelegs completely sliced open. He was holding one of my vegetable knives in his mouth, a mouth that was twisted into a wide grin. To top it all off, he had scrawled one word in his own blood in front of him. Free. Author's Note I was going to end it with him siting at the edge of a cliff and having it ambiguous if he jumped or turned all pony before he could, but then I saw Escape from Tomorrow (a movie I'd suggest despite its flaws) and decided I liked this imagery better. Original EndingAuthor's Note So this is the original ending that I had planned for this story. I know it's late, but hey, I figured I might as well show it to you guys and let you decide which ending is better. Original Ending I smiled happily as the warm Ponyville sun beat down on me, warming up my fur and giving me the energy to start up my day. I trotted in the direction of the Ponyville market so that I could pick up a little breakfast before heading off to work. Town Hall wasn't going to clean itself up, after all. The various vendors were milling about, a few still doing the final things to set up their stands, though not my particular target. Whistling a tune whose origins I couldn't quite place, I walked up to the stand of an orange earth pony selling the best apples in all of Equestria. "Hello, Applejack," I said cheerfully as I reached her stand. "How are you today." Applejack looked over to me with a smile. It looked like a really tired, sad smile. Guess farm work had been hitting her pretty hard lately. Harvest season, and all that. Maybe Big Mac was sick, or something. "Ah'm doin' okay, TD," Applejack finally said after a moment. Huh. She didn't sound okay, but again, maybe she just felt tired. I know I can look pretty down when I'm exhausted. I shrugged and looked down at her wares. "Alright, then. Well, can I have three Red Delicious, then? They do look particularly..." My ear twitched and I felt a sudden rush of... fear? Panic? Something weird. Foreign, almost. It left as soon as it appeared, though, so I didn't think anything of it. "Particularly enticing today." "Sure thing, TD," Applejack said. She took three Red Delicious apples and put them in a brown paper bag, which she hoofed to me. I put it in my saddlebag before reaching for my bit bag, but she oddly waved me off. "No charge, TD." I frowned and raised an eyebrow. "But you didn't charge me yesterday either. Or the day before that." I tilted my head. "Come on, Applejack. You run a business. It can't be good for you if you just keep giving away your apples like this." "They're mah apples, yer a good friend, and Ah say no charge." Applejack nodded as if that settled the issue. "But Twilight and Rarity and all the rest of your friends pay for their apples." "TD. No. Charge." I flinched back, blinking rapidly as I did. "Oh... uh, okay. Yeah, thanks, then. Means a lot." I began walking away. "I'll talk to you later, okay?" "K," Applejack mumbled, not looking at me. I continued walking for a moment before turning back to Applejack. "Feel better, okay?" Whatever it is that's bothering her. Yep, I knew something was wrong. The moment I said that, a big tear streaked down her face, though she quickly raised a foreleg to wipe it away. Dang, something was really off. Maybe Granny Smith had come down with something recently? pleasehelpme My ear twitched. Weird. Well, whatever the case, I'm sure it would all be okay in the end. For the moment, though, I had a job I needed to get to. * * * * "I can't do it, Princess Celestia," I moaned, wiping tears from my eyes as I leaned into her embrace. "I can't look at him anymore. I can't see him and know that, that... I don't know, that it used to be TD." I sniffled and nuzzled Princess Celestia's chest. "We failed him." "I know this is difficult, Twilight," Celestia said, wrapping her wings tighter around me. "I still have my top scientists searching the Everfree Forest for any trace of what could have done that to TD. I think we may be close." "That's not true and you know it," I whimpered. "You don't have the next clue of what did that to him. No dirt samples from the Everfree Forest are going to change that. TD's dead, Princess. He's dead, and I don't know how to handle that thing pretending to be him. I don't want it living in my house anymore! I can't constantly be surrounded by this lobotomized imitation of TD that just drives in how I c-could have done more to help him!" "Such as?" I sniffled and looked up at Celestia. "Huh?" "What could you have done to help him?" Celestia wiped my eyes with one of her feathers. "By the time he had come to you for help, he had mere hours left. You searched the Everfree Forest, you came and got me for help, and I've never seen you move so fast as when you found out that his clothes held a sample of what he was exposed to. You tried everything in your power to save him." "But it wasn't enough," I muttered. "We couldn't help him in the end." "You don't know that," Celestia pointed out. "As I said, we are working day and night to discover what he was exposed to. Should we find it, we may very well be able to save him from his fate. All hope is not yet lost." "I don't know if I can believe that." I leaned into Princess Celestia's chest and nuzzled her. "I don't know how I can handle it anymore, Princess." "I know, Twilight," she said softly. "I know." Just then the door to the library opened, and I flinched back with a whimper when TD walked in, whistling a tune that I recognized as one of his Earth songs. I quickly pulled out of Princess Celestia's grasp and got to her hooves before TD could notice my position. When TD walked into the room, he saw Princess Celestia and sunk to his knees in a low bow, as he always did these days. "Princess Celestia, it's an honor to see you again." Celestia stood up and forced a smile on her face. "And you as well, TD. How are you this lovely afternoon?" "Pretty good," TD said, dropping his saddlebag onto the table. "Just taking my lunch break." He grimaced and sighed. "Few customers at Sugarcube Corner were particularly grumpy today. Dunno what their deal was. I thought Pinkie might come out to cheer them up, but, she was just focused on baking, I guess. Gonna be busier with the weekend coming up, amirite?" "Of course, TD," Celestia said, her smile becoming a bit more strained. "So you're doing well?" "Can't complain, wouldn't help much if I did, even if I had anything to complain about." He smiled at Celestia again. "I dunno. Been pretty happy these days." For a brief second, his smile fell, and I saw something flash in his eyes. Fear, maybe? Something not right. It was gone so quickly I thought I might have imagined it. "Anyway," he said, turning to me, "I'm going to go take my afternoon walk, alright? I'll be back..." He tilted his head in a sort of shrug. "When I get back, I guess." I forced my own smile on my face and gently nodded. "Ok--" My voice cracked and I cleared my throat. "Okay, TD. I'll see you later, alright?" "Sounds good." With one more bow to Princess Celestia, he turned around and walked out of the library, whistling that Earth song again. The second the door shut behind him, I began quietly sobbing. I felt Princess Celestia's wing drape over my back, and I leaned into her once more. "We'll help him, I promise you," she said. "I will do whatever it takes." I could only continue crying. * * * * Such a beautiful day out. Should be for the next couple of days. I don't think the pegasi have any rain scheduled until next Tuesday. As such, I could see the depths of Ghastly Gorge stretching out for miles. It was my favorite area in Ponyville. I came here for my walk every day, just to walk the edge of it. It never got old looking down into the depths, seeing those rock eel thingies popping out of their caves, and whatnot. Though I did have to be careful. Sometimes I'd find myself drifting pretty close to the edge. Guess I just get lost in thought sometimes. Happened a lot when I first started my walks near Ghastly Gorge, but I guess I was becoming more aware of my surroundings, because those instances went down a lot. It only ever happened every once in a while now. Still, I found it strange that it happened at all. I mean, geez, if I did ever fall down, the drop would kill me instantly. I'd want that. I mean... wouldn't want that. Weird. I picked a nice spot and sat down, right near the edge of the gorge. I looked down into its rocky depths and nodded, impressed. I guess that's why I liked coming here. It reminded me a bit of... I... wait, what would it remind me of? There's nothing else like it in Equestria. Maybe some trip I took with my parents? Can't remember what that'd be, though, or when. Just lean forward a little bit more. Please. I can't do this anymore. Let today be the day. Today. What was today? I didn't have some appointment, or event that I had to attend, right? I didn't think so. Just a little more. Then it'll all be fine. Sheesh, this is strange. Maybe I should stop coming to Ghastly Gorge if it's going to be dangerous like this. Yeah, I think I'll do that. It's beautiful and all, but Whitetail Woods would be safer. Or just stop the walks. Relax during my lunch. It hurts. Just a little more. Got a lot to do this week. Princess Celestia has been coming by a lot. Guess that makes sense. Twilight is her student. Lean forward. For some reason, I began slowly leaning forward. If I leaned too much, I'd go right over the edge to my death. I didn't want to do that, but something told me I should. That I needed to. But that was silly, wasn't it? Ponyville was my home. Equestria was my home. Where I'd lived my whole life. I loved it here. Just a little more.
It Just Might Change YouKnock, knock, knock. I cracked an eye open and glanced at my door. The fact that it was still night out told me that I really didn't want to answer it right now, but the small conscience at the back of my mind told me that it would be rude not to, since whoever was on the other side obviously knew I was here. Of course, the other part of my brain told me that said pony should know that I was sleeping, so they shouldn't bother me, should they? Eh, I figured that I might as well see what they wanted. I knew that Twilight and Co. wouldn't ever knock unless it was an emergency, and I would help in the event of an emergency. I groaned and pushed myself up before slipping on a shirt so I would be decent when I opened up the door. I opened it up and, to my utter lack of surprise, Fluttershy was on the other side. She was nervously pawing at the ground and her wings were fluttering. She was clearly nervous about something. She widened her eyes when she saw me, and, I kid you not, threw herself at my feet. "TD! Oh thank Celestia you're here!" I sighed and rubbed my temples. "What is it, Fluttershy? Not to be rude, but it's late and I'm tired, so it had better be important." Fluttershy vigorously nodded. "It is! I promise it is! Abbywing got out through a hole in the chicken coop and ran out into the Everfree Forest! I have to get her before something happens, but it's dangerous to go alone!" I groaned and facepalmed. "Okay... are you sure I'm really the best guy for this? I can't fly and I can't do any magic." "Please!" Fluttershy wailed. "Twilight doesn't get back from Canterlot until early tomorrow morning, Rainbow is in Cloudsdale for a weather conference, Rarity is up all night working on an order that she has to deliver to Baltimare in two hours, Pinkie is working with the Cakes for another important competition, and Applejack is getting ready for a trip to Appleloosa tomorrow!" Fluttershy's lower lip quivered, and I knew I had been roped into it right then. Oy. Seriously, the most hard-hearted jerk in the world wouldn't be able to resist Fluttershy whimpering at them. They say that they would, but they really wouldn't. I sighed and nodded. "Fine. I'll help you find your chicken." Fluttershy squealed and wrapped her forelegs around my legs. "Oh thank you, TD!" She released me and began hovering a few feet into the air, grasping my hand with her hooves and pulling me towards the forest. "We haven't a moment to lose! She might be in danger already!" I pulled my hand out and took a moment to put my shoes on before following her towards the forest. I half-listened to her talk about how worried she was that Abbywing, or whatever the chicken's name was, was in the forest, and how dangerous it was for her and all that, but my mind was back in bed where my body should have been. I didn't really care to go into one of the most dangerous places in Equestria after a chicken in the middle of the night, thank you very much. Still... maybe if we found the chicken and it was dead, I could eat it. I mean, it's not like she's going to do anything else with it... No, I had to focus on Fluttershy. It would be insensitive. If she dragged me into the forest to rescue it, she wasn't going to let me eat it if it was dead. She was probably going to give it a proper burial and all that. I inwardly sighed as we reached the edge of the forest near Fluttershy's cottage, and tuned back in to Fluttershy. "... and I've just been so worried about her! You know how the Everfree Forest can be!" "Uh-huh." I swear I wasn't trying to be rude. Anyway, we walked into the forest through a path through the trees that was there for some reason. Probably because it led to Celestia's old castle. Made sense to me. The moonlight shone on the ground, and I saw little chicken tracks heading into the forest. Perfect. All we had to do was follow those and get the chicken. So it's just our luck that the dumb bird had to go off of the path. I sighed and led Fluttershy through the increasingly long grass, pushing it aside every once in a while to see if we were still following the tracks. "So, you had another chicken who did this already, right?" Fluttershy vigorously nodded. "Yes! The Crusaders scared my chickens and Elizabeak ran into the forest too. She was turned into stone by a cockatrice, the poor thing!" I sighed again and shook my head. Fluttershy doesn't want her chickens going into the forest, but she has holes in her fences and she lives right next to it. Brilliant move there, Fluttershy. Your chickens go missing, then I have to go get them late at night. Yuck. I saw a thick set of branches before us, but the tracks went that way, so I led Fluttershy towards it. I began to push some of the branches aside so that the two of us could go through, and, since I was chivalrous and all, I stepped through first to make sure that nothing was waiting for us on the other end. Nothing really bad was, but the second I put my foot down, I felt a wetness soaking my leg. I grunted and noticed that I stepped in a pool of water that has gone up to my knee, and it's only the fact that I'm holding onto a tree branch that kept me from falling flat onto my face. "Oh goodness, are you okay, TD?" Fluttershy poked her head through the hole in the branches that I made. "Are you hurt?" I grimaced, and Fluttershy let me lean on her while I pulled my leg out of the puddle. "I'm fine. It's just wet is all." I shook my leg to get some of the water off of it, but I could already tell that I was going to be miserable until I could get out of those pants. My leg was already starting to itch like crazy. "Let's just find your chicken and get out of here, okay?" Fluttershy nodded and went through the hole, being careful to avoid the puddle. "Of course. We only have to... there she is!" I looked up and saw that she was pointing towards a small bush. Sure enough, there was her silly little chicken, clucking and hopping around like it doesn't have a care in the world. Fluttershy flies over to it and begins scolding it like it’s a person. I rolled my eyes, but since her special talent is animals, maybe the chicken could understand her and I just didn't know it. The chicken did hop onto her back at any rate. Fluttershy turned back to me with a smile. "We're all set to get out of here, TD. Abbywing seems fine." "Goodie," I grumbled. I moved the branches aside again and allowed Fluttershy and her dumb chicken to go through before I went through myself. We walked through the bushes and found out that the chicken did have a use: we followed her tracks back out of the forest, and given that we didn't have to spend any time looking around for anything, we were out of the forest in five minutes. Fluttershy brought her bird back to the chicken coop, and moved some heavy tree branches in front of the hole so no more chickens would get out. I was so ready to be done for the night. I had thought that I was already going to be done for the night, but I guess not. I had just finished moving the last branch in front of the hole when Fluttershy flew over to me with her smile still on her face. "Thank you, TD. I couldn't have found her without you." "Don't mention it," I grunted. "I'll hire somepony to completely build a new fence around the coop so this doesn't happen again." Fluttershy's smile faded, and her ears flattened. "I hate having to bother ponies like this." "It's nothing. Like I said, don't mention it." I scratched my wet leg, which was steadily getting itchier, and stood up. "Well, I'll see you later, Fluttershy. Take care of your chickens, okay?" * * * * I cannot tell you how happy I was to get my wet clothes off and get into bed. I mean, talk about a rough night. Sure the whole thing took probably about half an hour, but that's a good half hour longer than I wanted to spend in the Everfree Forest. I got out of my wet pants and into bed within a minute of entering my house. I was asleep probably another minute or so after that. I woke up to my alarm clock going off, and I turned it off quickly. The first thing that I registered once the ringing had died down was the fact that the leg that had gotten dipped in the puddle was itching like crazy, so I began scratching it, hoping that it would dull the itch, but... something was off. I opened my eyes and raised my hand above the covers. When I scratched my leg, I felt something... weird. Almost as if something was coming off of my leg. I moved my hand closer to my eyes to examine it and I saw something under my fingernails. Skin. I sharply inhaled and threw back my covers. What I saw made me actually cry out in fear. The skin on my leg, from the knee all the way down to the sole of my foot, was peeling. I'm not talking something like "few days old sunburn" sort of peeling, I'm talking "you can see your muscle now" peeling. I whimpered and slowly poked my leg. I could still feel it, but it itched like crazy, and I really wanted nothing more than to scratch it, despite the fact that I knew it would peel off more of my skin. I took a deep breath and tried wiggling my toes to see if my brain could still send commands to my decaying leg, and, to my horror, I found that my toes were completely unresponsive. I looked at my foot to see if they hadn't flat out fallen off yet, and I let out another shriek when I saw what was wrong. My toes were gone, but not in the way I expected. They were fused together almost completely, to the point where it looked like I just had an elongated foot. Sliding to a sitting position, I accidentally moved my leg, and more of my skin on my calf came off. I flinched back, but my mind didn't hesitate to tell me that I had scratched the itch a little bit, and scratching the itch did help. A lot. Those places where the skin was completely peeled away? They didn't itch anymore. The idea that I could stop all of the itching was... tempting. That's how bad it was. No. I couldn't do that. I had to save as much of my leg as possible, and to do that, I had to resist the urge to scratch my leg. Still, a little examination couldn't hurt, though. I gently leaned forward and bent my leg so that I could take a closer look at it. Well, more specifically the places where the skin was completely gone. Exposed muscle wasn't something that I wasn't keen on, but if that was infected then that was a very bad thing. However, closer examination of my leg revealed that the portions where the skin was gone wasn't replaced my muscle, but a light red hair. I gently brushed my hand over it, and my eyes widened when I realized what the texture reminded me of: pony fur. My skin was being peeled away and replaced with pony fur. With a yelp, I shot to my feet, subconsciously surprised that my right foot still supported my weight, and tried to think through my options. There was only one pony in all of Ponyville that could help me, and I hoped that she was back already. * * * * Putting on a fresh pair of pants to hide my deformity resulted in a lot more of my skin being peeled off, but I wasn't ready to go walking around Ponyville with my leg on full display. I limped towards Twilight's treehouse, praying to whomever that she would be there, take one look at my leg, and say "Oh, that's just a nasty case of the Equestrian equivalent of poison ivy. Not Poison joke either, something else. I can have a cure ready for that in ten minutes." Somehow I doubted that would be the case, but I couldn't help but hope. It's all I had to go on at the moment. I reached the tree house and began pounding on the door. It wasn't too early, about ten in the morning, so unless Twilight's train was delayed, she would be there. Luck was slightly on my side in that endeavor, and within a few seconds the door was opened by Spike. He gave me a greeting nod. "Hey, TD. What can we do for you?" "Hey, Spike, is Twilight here?" I grimaced and looked into the library behind him. "It's an emergency." Spike's eyes widened, and he stepped aside. "Yeah, come in! She's making some tea right now, but she should be done any minute." I walked past Spike and into the library where Twilight was walking into the main room, a cup of tea being levitated in front of her. She looked over to me when she saw me and smiled. "Hello, TD. How are you?" "Horrible. I'm—" I tensed up as the itching feeling in my leg intensified, and I subconsciously reached down to scratch it, but held back. However, I did notice one thing: the feeling was spreading. I only got wet up to my knee, but I felt the itch at my hip. I balled my fist and bit my lip. "I think I'm turning into a pony again." Twilight's eyes widened, and she quickly set her teacup down. "What?! What do you mean?!" "I went into the Everfree Forest after one of Fluttershy's chickens last night." I grimaced and sat down on the floor with my back to one of the bookshelves. "I stepped in some sort of water, and now my freaking skin is peeling off." I tensed up again as the itch got worse. "You gotta help me get rid of it. My leg is half pony already!" "Okay, come down to the basement." Twilight ran over to one of the bookshelves and levitated a half dozen books off of it. "I'll see what I can find about it. Hopefully we can get it fixed up, but we have to find out what caused it first." I nodded and followed her down to the basement after Twilight ordered Spike to hold down the fort while she dealt with me. She directed me to a nearby chair and put the books on a nearby desk. "Alright. Let's see your leg." I nodded and took off my shoes, socks, and pants, and flinched back when I saw my leg. It had gotten worse, even though I hadn't been scratching at it. My leg was now two thirds pony fur. I gingerly poked at my foot, which had begun molding into a different shape, and felt that it was a little harder than normal. It was turning into a hoof. I looked up at Twilight, who was looking at my leg with wide eyes and an open mouth. "TD, I... I've never seen anything like this before. I've never even heard of anything like this before!" Twilight levitated one of her books over to her and began flipping through it. "What did you say happened? You stepped in a puddle?" I nodded and clenched my fists so hard my fingernails began digging into my palms. I couldn't scratch my leg. I'd lose more skin if I did that, and who knew if I would get it back? No. I had to control the urge. Still... the bits that were pony fur now didn't itch. Maybe just a little wouldn't... No. I had to focus. I couldn't do that. Twilight would find something about how it was some enchanted water, and she'd cook up a cure in ten minutes and I'd be as good as new. "Tell me you have something!" I snapped after a few minutes. Twilight shifted uncomfortably and snapped her third book shut. "I don't really have much to go on, TD. I mean, all you said is that you stepped in some water in the Everfree Forest. That's too vague for me to work with." "Well that's all that happened." My left arm twitched as the itch continued spreading up to my ribs. I couldn't scratch it. It would only make things worse, and I couldn't be all pony. Maybe once I became all pony the transformation would be permanent. That was certainly an unsettling thought. I clenched my fists harder. Twilight shook her head and put the book down. "Okay, the only thing that I can think of to do is to go to where the water is, get a sample, and start running some tests on it. If I can figure out what it is then I can figure out a cure." "Whatever it takes," I said through clenched teeth. "Just help. Me. Stop. The. Itching!" It felt like insects were crawling under my skin, and I couldn't do anything about it. Not if I wanted to keep my human form, which, if my foot was any indication, was rapidly going anyway. Still, I had to show Twilight where the pool was, so I slowly pushed myself to my feet... And immediately collapsed onto the ground when a searing pain shot through my damaged leg. Without thinking, I clutched at it, tearing off more skin... but satiating some of the itch. "Are you okay, TD?" Twilight ran over to me and took a closer look at my leg. "How are you feeling?" "I don't think that I can go on an Everfree trek," I groaned. "I can't put any weight on my leg for some reason." Twilight sighed and straightened up. "Well, then I guess you have to stay here while I go. You said that Fluttershy went with you, right?" I nodded. "Well, she'll have to show me where the water, or whatever it is, is located so I can get a sample." Twilight gave me a small smile and put a hoof on my shoulder. "I'm going to help you, TD. If I can't then, I'm going to get Princess Celestia to help you." "Whatever it takes." Twilight nodded and trotted up the stairs, leaving me alone in the basement. I hoped that she would be back soon, but I had no reason to think that she wouldn't rush back as soon as she could. Meanwhile I just had to sit here and endure this rapidly spreading itch that just would not go away. It only went away if I scratched it, and couldn't scratch it! Or could I? I mean, maybe a little bit wouldn't hurt. Just to take the edge off. Just a little bit. After all, it's just a little skin. I... I have more. Author's Note First chapter of two. This is a teaser really. Next chapter it gets really good.
I Don't Wanna...The itch went away mostly. It was beautiful. I mean, I lost a few fingernails and a ton of skin too, but the blasted itch was gone. That really made it all worth it to me. If I had to go back, I'd do it the same way over again. After that, I felt really tired, almost like I hadn't slept in a week sort of tired. The basement floor was as good a place as any to curl up, so I did. I don't remember what I dreamed about, if indeed I dreamed about anything at all, but I do know that I woke up to the sound of a piercing scream. My eyes snapped open and I raised my head to see Twilight standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at me with an expression of pure horror on her face. I frowned at her and cocked my head. "What's wrong? It's just a little skin. Nothing too bad about that." Twilight's lower jaw quivered, and I heard a quiet whimper from her as she shook her head. Her horn ignited, and she levitated what turned out to be a mirror in front of my face. Huh. One of my eyes was five times the size of the other one. About the same size as a pony's. My mouth was sticking out, and I knew that it was shaping into a muzzle already. I slowly raised a hand to my mouth and brushed it against the side of my face. Like before, more of my skin began peeling off, revealing the light red fur underneath. To top it off, a few of my fingers had begun fusing together. I idly poked at the fingers and tried to peel them apart by forcing my finger between the two, but I only succeeded in cracking one of my remaining fingernails in half. I clicked my tongue and tore it out with my teeth, spitting it onto the floor. No need for it, really. I shrugged and looked up to Twilight, who had tears streaming down her face. I smiled at her and took a few steps towards her on my hands and knees. "What did you find?" "Uh..." Twilight blinked a few times before slowly walking down the steps towards me. She reached the bottom and walked towards her workbench, being sure to give my discarded scraps a wide berth. "I... I didn't find anything." I raised my eyebrow and cocked my head. "What do you mean? It was kind of hard to miss. Were the chicken tracks gone? You just had to follow those." Twilight deeply exhaled and shook her head as she sat down. "No, the chicken tracks were there, but the pool you and Fluttershy claim you fell into isn't there anymore." "So..." A frown slowly crossed my face. "So does that mean that you can't turn me completely back into a pony? That I'm going to continue turning back into a human until I'm one forever?" Twilight's eyes widened again, and she spun her head to look at me like I had gone mad, which was kinda weird. I mean halting my transformation to a human and turning me back into a pony was the whole point of this thing, so... Uh... My own eyes widened, and my jaw dropped. My forelegs began shaking, and I started lightly hyperventilating. "T-Twilight? What the heck was that? Did I just say that I wanted to be turned back into a pony?" Twilight solemnly nodded and looked down at one of her books. "Yeah. I think that whatever is turning your body is..." Twilight took a deep breath. "Also turning your mind. If what I just observed is true, you're going to start having the mentality of somepony who has lived in Equestria his entire life." I groaned and leaned my head against the table. "Great. That's just freaking brilliant. No more TD then, I guess." "You'll still be alive," Twilight pointed out. I glanced up at her with a glare. "Not to get existential and all that, but if what makes me me is completely destroyed, am I still alive?" Twilight went silent for a few moments, but quickly shook her head. "Let's not focus on that right now, TD. Right now let's figure out exactly what sort of tests we can run." Twilight bit her lip and looked over to a few scraps of my skin. "I... yeah, I'll run some tests to see if there's some residue of the water, or whatever it was, on your skin still, and if there is then we'll figure out how to cure it. I'll also get a hair and urine sample, okay?" I nodded. "You got it." I walked to one of my skin scraps and took it in my mouth. Yeah, it was kinda gross, having my skin in my mouth, but I couldn't balance it on my hooves and walk at the same time, and we can't all be unicorns. That... I sharpy inhaled and spit my skin out, not even bothering to look over at Twilight who was doubtlessly horrified by it. I heard her fire up her horn and pick up the skin scrap to take over to her workbench to begin testing on, and I saw a few other skin scraps float off of the floor, as well as one of my fingernails. I grimaced and sat down on my haunches. "Don't tell anypony about that, okay, Twilight? I..." I sighed. "That kind of thing is just between us, okay? Nopony else needs to know that happened." Twilight sniffled as she levitated some beakers over to the workbench, but I saw her give a single nod. * * * * It got worse. The itch returned, and both of my hands were fused together by this point. My right foot, where this had all started, was completely a hoof. As in, if I compared it to Twilight's it would look exactly the same. I had spent the past half-hour scratching the itch, not even bothering to try to resist, and more and more of my skin was coming off as a result. Twilight glanced over to me as I was scratching some skin off of my back. "TD, stop doing that! We don't know if it can be reversed once it's permanent." I returned her look with a glare. "Look, Twilight, it itches so bad that it freaking hurts, okay? I'm going to need a screwdriver to get rid of the worst of it at this rate, so unless you have a cure now, this is all I can do to stop it!" I scratched my neck and peeled off more skin. "Besides, I don't even know how I got this stuff on me in the first place. I mean, I go to bed a pony then wake up like..." I motioned to myself. "This. You'd think that you'd be glad that I have a way to get rid of the abnormalities." "Oh, TD," Twilight whispered. She turned back to her work without saying anything else, but I could figure what was wrong. "I did it again; went into "Pony Mode," didn't I?" Twilight gave a single nod, and I facehooved. It was something that was becoming more frequent over the past half hour. I would slip into Pony Mode for a few minutes, and in those few minutes... well, it's like I had never been TD at all. That kind of frightened me. I felt a tight feeling well up in my chest as I began to realize that I might not get out of this one. If Twilight couldn't find a cure, then I would be stuck as a pony not just in body, but in mind as well. No. No, I wasn't going to let that happen. I looked up to Twilight. "Anything yet?" Twilight sighed and shook her head. "Nothing. As far as I can tell, this is just... skin. I can't detect anything abnormal about it. It's almost as if you shed it to make room for your new body." I grimaced and pushed myself onto my hooves and knees. "Okay, I'm going to go to the spot in the Everfree Forest where that freaking puddle was. If it isn't there, then I'm going to dig where I knew it was to find it." "TD, what do you think that will accomplish?" Twilight turned back to me, a grim expression on her face. "I know that you don't want to be stuck as a pony like this, but I'm not sure what to do, even if we do find a sample of whatever you stepped in." Twilight looked over to the door to the basement. "Right now I think all I can do is call Princess Celestia over. Maybe she knows something about it." I bit my lip and scratched the back of my neck. "Eh... I don't know if I'm comfortable with that. I mean, she's Princess Celestia." "TD, I know you and Princess Celestia haven't always gotten along, but she's our best bet for fixing you." "It's not that, it's just..." I took a deep breath and began tapping on the ground. "I'd hate to bother her. I mean, she's a powerful princess and I'm just a lowly pony." A small, embarrassed smile crossed my face. "Besides, I think I'd get all tongue tied around her and not know the proper things to say or do. I'd hate to make a scene. She's my princess, and I want to show her proper respect." Twilight bolted up the stairs and out of the basement.
Going, Going....Wow, Princess Celestia was coming to meet me? I mean, how often does something like that happen to somepony like me? She's definitely a busy pony and... Dammit, it's happening again. I groaned and slammed my hoof on the ground, clutching at my head with the other. I was dying, and I knew it. Not necessarily physically, though I could be for all I knew, but definitely mentally. If I turned into some pony who didn't remember that he used to be a human, then there was no way that I was going to still be able to be called TD again. Of course, the most frightening aspect for me was the fact that every time my mind went back from pony, I wasn't sure if the next time it went pony it would go back again. I mean, would I fluctuate between pony and TD for the rest of my life, or would there be a point where I'd be pony forever? Probably the latter, and that... Well, Princess Celestia would fix the weird pink stuff hanging off my fur. It itched really bad. I scratched one of misshapen ears, and, with a noise not unlike a plunger being pulled from a sink, it detached from my head and my normal pony ear unfurled. I smiled and walked over to a nearby mirror to make sure that there was nothing wrong with it. There didn't seem to be. I moved it around, and everything seemed to be in order. My other ear was misshapen, but maybe... I frowned and began pawing at the other ear. I felt it separate from the skin, and knew that a little tug was all it would take to get it back to normal. I gave it that tug, and both ears were back to normal. I looked down at the... whatever had been attached to my head on the floor and poked at it. I had never seen anything like it before on any of the other creatures around Equestria. Oh my gosh, what's happening to me? I groaned again and sat down on the floor to fully examine myself. If I had to attach a number to it, I'd say that I was about ninety percent pony now. My hands and feet were hooves, my skin was pretty much all gone, my face was stretched out into a muzzle, and my arms and legs were becoming thinner to match pony legs. To top it all off, I was visibly shorter. Given the rate of change, I'd be fully pony in an hour at most. Physically, at least. Mentally? Who knew? I just... wanted to take a nap. Of course, if I did I might have missed Princess Celestia's arrival, and that would have been all kinds of awkward. She wouldn't want to walk in to find me asleep on the floor. But... a little one couldn't hurt, right?" * * * * I woke up some indiscriminate time later on the floor feeling rather refreshed. I let out a spectacular yawn and pushed myself to my hooves, stretching out as I did. I looked over into the mirror and I found out something rather interesting. All of the abnormalities? Gone. I was fully pony again! That weird skin stuff? The odd ears? All of that was gone, leaving me as the light red earth pony that I was born as. I smiled at my reflection and gave it an approving nod. No doubt Twilight would be quite pleased now that I was back to normal. She did seem really worried that I was mutated like that, but now there was no need to be! I... Oh no. My eyes widened, and I collapsed onto my haunches as I stared in horror at my reflection. She could fix this, right? If not, Celestia could. Surely somepony as old as Celestia would know what I had been exposed to and would find a quick cure that would have me back to a human in no... Was she here? I heard the door to the basement open, and I shot to my hooves. I couldn't wait to show Twilight that I was all better now! She wanted a sample of what I had been exposed to, and I knew I had something that had some. Some article of clothing that... I couldn't remember what. Twilight stepped down the steps, and I saw her lower jaw quiver when she saw me. I wasn't sure why. Maybe it was tears of joy? She was glad that I was fixed without having to go through some painful surgery or something? Twilight shook her head and wiped her eyes with a foreleg before turning her head back to look up the stairs. "He's down here. He's... he's fully transformed." Twilight reached the bottom of the steps and walked to the middle of the room just as another set of hoofsteps echoed throughout the basement. I felt my stomach clench up as I could guess who it was, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I mean, I was already fixed, so maybe... uh, yeah, Celestia would know how to fix... but I was already fixed. Princess Celestia didn't need to come down. But there she was. Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria herself, reached the bottom of the stairs and looked straight at me. She had a look in her eyes that I couldn't quite figure out, but it made me nervous all the same. Still, I knew that I had to be polite. I gave her a weak smile, took a few steps towards her, and sunk to my knees in a deep bow. "Princess Celestia. It is an honor to meet you." "Oh dear," she whispered. "You are correct, Twilight. This is indeed worse than originally imagined." I straightened up and raised an eyebrow, unsure of what she meant by that. Did I do something wrong? I mean, I'd seen pictures of ponies bowing to her, so I didn't think that I did it the wrong way. She could fix me. She had to. I grimaced and alternated my glance between Celestia and Twilight. "My mind is going pony more frequently and longer. I... I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be TD, Twilight. Whatever you're gonna do, do it... do it..." My left ear twitched. Why were they looking so scared? Princess Celestia is the ruler of all of Equestria! She shouldn't be scared of anything! I flattened my ears and took a step backwards. "Did... did I say something wrong, your majesty? I'm sorry if I did. Don't be mad." Princess Celestia took a step towards me and gave me a warm smile. "I'm not mad at you, my little pony. I just need to check for something with you. It won't take but a moment." I frowned uncertainly, but she was the princess, so she would know what was best for me. She wouldn't try to hurt me, and she would... she would know how to fix me. I nodded again. "Yeah, do whatever you have to do." I turned my head towards Twilight. "You wanted a sample of what I was exposed to? I think that my... uh..." I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to remember what had gotten wet. Heck, I couldn't remember much of anything from that day. It was like... I don't... Twilight shook her head with a sigh as Princess Celestia ignited her horn, and a spell like a fine mist fell over me. I wasn't sure what she was doing, but I trusted her. Maybe she thought that I was sick in the head or something and she was trying to fix me. Maybe she wanted to make sure that the abnormalities that had appeared didn't have any lasting effects. Yeah, that was it. That made sense. I smiled at her as she maintained the spell, and, to my relief, she smiled back. She really wasn't mad at me. I hope she knew how to fix me. She powered down her horn, and the mist dissipated. I took a deep breath and rubbed my temples. "So? Can you help me or not?" Celestia stared intently at me for a few moments before quietly sighing. "TD, I don't even know what you were exposed to. The Everfree Forest holds many mysteries that even I do not know of. You say that you stepped in some water that set this off? That sounds like nothing that I have ever heard of. I cannot make an antidote for something that I do not know the properties of, and transformative magic on a permanent basis is impossible." My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. "S-so you can't fix me?" "Not until we know what you were exposed to." I growled and squeezed my eyes shut. "There is something I have that's... that has something with it. I don't know what it is!" "Do you know where it would be?" Twilight asked. I shook my head. "I don't... I don't even know what kind of thing it is. It could be at my house, it could be something I threw away, it could be Fluttershy's chicken for all I know!" "Should we search your house?" Celestia asked. "It seems the most logical place." I frowned and tilted my head. "Search my house for what?" I blinked twice and looked between the two. "I'm not hiding anything illegal in there, and I don't think that there's anything in there that led to me getting the abnormalities. I think that was just some random disease." Princess Celestia and Twilight exchanged a glance before Princess Celestia took another step towards me. "TD, you have lived in Equestria all of your life, correct?" I nodded. "Can you tell me where you were born? Who your parents are? If you have any siblings?" Wow, she was really interested in me, wasn't she? "Of course. I was born and raised right here in Ponyville. I don't have any siblings, and as for my parents, I don't... I don't..." I frowned as I wracked my brains for the answer. It was an easy question. It was my parents. The two ponies who had raised me since birth! But... I couldn't remember their names. I flattened my ears and shrank backwards. "Did whatever caused the abnormalities to appear on me affect me mentally?" Princess Celestia didn't respond. She instead walked over to Twilight and whispered something in her ear. Twilight visibly pales, even under her purple coat, and turned her gaze to me. She blinked once and gulped. "TD, what do you remember about your life here in Ponyville?" I... no... I deeply exhaled and hung my head. "Please tell me you can fix me, Celestia," I moaned. "Each time I come back, I'm scared that the next time that I go is going to be the last, that I'm going to go all pony forever." I raised my head and looked pleadingly at her. "Please tell me you can do something." Celestia took a deep breath before giving me a small, sad smile. She reached out to me and put what I supposed was supposed to be a comforting hoof on my shoulder. "TD... we'll take care of you. I know that this must be difficult for you, but..." Her sad smile faded. "We cannot fix you if we do not know what changed you." "Come on! You're Princess Freaking Celestia!" I said with a snarl. "You've gotta have seen something like this before!" I batted her hoof away and shot to my hooves. "I mean, you could just take a little bit of the water from the pant leg that got wet and..." My eyes widened when I realized what I had just said. "The pant leg that got wet. My pants got wet when I stepped in the pool! That's what I was trying to remember!" "Where are they now?" Twilight was already walking towards the door. "We haven't a moment to lose!" "They're on the floor next to my bed!"
Come on Everypony, SmileI ran as fast as I could, barely avoiding some of the ponies in my path. If there was even a chance that TD could be saved, that a sample of whatever he had been exposed to was still left on his clothing, then I had to get it before it faded away. TD was right; every time he faded away was a time where he risked not coming back as TD, and if he went fully pony permanently, then I wasn't sure that I could bring him back, even if I did have a sample. I reached TD's house and pushed on the door. It was locked, but I wasn't going to let that deter me. I teleported inside of his house and reappeared on top of his bed before I hopped off and began wildly searching for anything that might be what he was describing. All else failed, I'd take his entire wardrobe and have him point out what he had been wearing. The only reason he hadn't come to begin with was that so Princess Celestia could keep an eye on him and we wanted to keep this quiet with the town. Nopony needed to know that TD had essentially disintegrated into a pony. I continued scanning the floor until my gaze landed on something, something that I think was what I was after. A pair of blue jeans lying discarded right next to his bed. I lifted them into the air and examined both of the legs. One of them was slightly damp! It was a long shot that I could get enough to figure out what had happened to him, but it was definitely a starting point. I encased it in a protective shield and shot out of TD's house like a bat out of Tartarus. TD could very well be all pony by the time I got back, so I had to hurry. I wouldn't have run faster if a Hydra was chasing me. I made it back to the library in record time and ran down the steps of the basement five at a time. Princess Celestia was sitting next to TD, who was staring intently at the floor. Both of them looked up at me when I reached the bottom step. "Did you find them?" he asked. I nodded and levitated the pants higher so that he could see them before walking over to a workbench and laying them out. I took several deep breaths to slow my beating heart before answering. "Yeah." I took a few more deep breaths. "Yeah, I did. They're only damp, so I can't say for sure if we'll be able to get anything out of them, but I'm going to try." I levitated a scalpel, a few ingredients, and a beaker over to me so that I could take a sample and maybe separate the liquid and test its properties. I could only hope that I was able to find something in time. I slowly dragged the blade of the scalpel across the edge of the pant leg, hoping to get a little scrap of it... I did not expect everything from the knee down to completely disintegrate at the touch of the blade. It... it was gone. All that was left of TD's chances of being turned back into a human was little more than dust on my table. I slowly turned my head towards TD, who was staring at my failure to save him. "I... I'm so sorry, TD," I whimpered. "I tried." TD took a deep breath and poked at the dust. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I know you did," he mumbled. "I don't blame you." "You will be well cared for, TD. Do not ever think that I will simply abandon you to this fate." Princess Celestia put a hoof on his shoulder. "You will have my support." "And I'll like it too." TD tightened his jaw and ran a hoof through his mane. "Doesn't really matter what you do, does it? I'll be dead? No more TD. You might as well tell Ponyville that you found a way to send me home, wait a few months, and then introduce me into Ponyville society." "If that is what you think would be best." "It doesn't matter at all what I think anymore!" TD snarled. He batted Princess Celestia's hoof away and shot to his hooves. "I'm not going to be me anymore! I potentially have seconds left of mental capacity! You could throw me in a dungeon and it wouldn't make a lick of difference." "TD, do not think like that!" Princess Celestia took a small step towards him. "You will not be dead, and we will work night and day to reverse what happened to you!" "But you can't." TD's expression turned into a glare. "You can't because you don't even know what went wrong. You can't because even if you did, you wouldn't even begin to know how to fix it." TD turned his back on us and walked over to the corner of the basement, where he sat down and stared at the floor. "Just leave me alone to mentally die in peace. I appreciate what you've done to help me, Twilight, but..." He sighed. "I just want to be alone right now." Princess Celestia and I exchanged another glance, and she nodded at me. I sighed and flattened my ears. "Okay, TD. Feel free to stay as long as you like. We'll get through this, okay?" He didn't respond. * * * * A pony for good. Not even Celestia could help me. Celestia and Twilight had gone up to talk about something or other after everything had gone to Hell and I realized that I wasn't going to be TD anymore, during which time I switched back again to Pony Mode. Once I switched back after a few minutes... I couldn't even bring myself to get upset about it. I was about to mentally die, but that didn't mean that I had to keep making a big deal about it. I think I was just too drained by that point. Twilight had come back down the stairs and told me that I could stay the night. I thanked her, and she gave me some books to pass the time. She must have realized that I didn't really want to socialize with other ponies right now. I can only imagine what she was telling Spike. Maybe she had just told him to go play with the Crusaders or hang out with Rarity for the day, or something like that. So this was going to be my life now. TD the Pony. TD the Pony that was, if memory served, completely complacent and submissive to Celestia. No more me. Nothing that was me made it into Pony Mode. I could accept that. I could just... live my life. Once I was gone, it's not like I would know the difference. I wouldn't remember my time as a human, and I'd be completely happy as who I was. But... that sounded utterly distasteful to me. It wasn't me, and it would never be me. There was nothing I could do about that, though. I had to just lie down and accept that I was going to mentally die, that I wasn't in control of anything anymore. Or... My ears perked up as a thought entered my head. It... it was a nasty thought, but it was a solution that I hadn't considered before. I was sure that Twilight would understand once she really thought about it. Heck, seeing as how she, Celestia, and I were the only ponies who knew about what was going on, nopony else had to know... * * * * I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off with my magic. The hot water pouring over me did me good, and it helped clear my head. I had laid out several plans for what to do with TD, but none of them seemed particularly enticing. We'd figure something out, though. I walked out of my bathroom and into the main room of the library. I looked over at the basement door with a sigh. Part of me didn't want to go down and talk to TD. He could have already been all pony, and I wasn't sure how I could handle that. As jarring as it was to see somepony who was completely at odds with Princess Celestia, that snarky, sarcastic being was TD, and he was my friend. That pony who bowed to her and was nervous about meeting her... well, I could see why TD thought that was dying. Still, I knew that I had to go check on him. I couldn't just lock him in my basement and forget all about him forever; I had to make sure that he was okay, even if I was sure that I wouldn't like what I saw. Well, I also had to clean up the fragments of what used to be TD's human form. TD pony couldn't live with that around him. I know I wouldn't want to. I took a deep breath and opened the door to my basement. My heart was pounding, and the back of my mind told me that I wouldn't like what I saw. I couldn't even call out to him. I walked down the stairs slowly, mentally bracing myself for the sight of TD's dumb smile, all hint of the human that I knew gone. I reached the bottom of the steps and let out a shriek of utter horror when I saw him. I began hyperventilating and backed into a corner, tears streaming down my face. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. I couldn't. TD was lying on the floor of my basement in a large pool of his own blood, the veins in both forelegs completely sliced open. He was holding one of my vegetable knives in his mouth, a mouth that was twisted into a wide grin. To top it all off, he had scrawled one word in his own blood in front of him. Free. Author's Note I was going to end it with him siting at the edge of a cliff and having it ambiguous if he jumped or turned all pony before he could, but then I saw Escape from Tomorrow (a movie I'd suggest despite its flaws) and decided I liked this imagery better.
Original EndingAuthor's Note So this is the original ending that I had planned for this story. I know it's late, but hey, I figured I might as well show it to you guys and let you decide which ending is better. Original Ending I smiled happily as the warm Ponyville sun beat down on me, warming up my fur and giving me the energy to start up my day. I trotted in the direction of the Ponyville market so that I could pick up a little breakfast before heading off to work. Town Hall wasn't going to clean itself up, after all. The various vendors were milling about, a few still doing the final things to set up their stands, though not my particular target. Whistling a tune whose origins I couldn't quite place, I walked up to the stand of an orange earth pony selling the best apples in all of Equestria. "Hello, Applejack," I said cheerfully as I reached her stand. "How are you today." Applejack looked over to me with a smile. It looked like a really tired, sad smile. Guess farm work had been hitting her pretty hard lately. Harvest season, and all that. Maybe Big Mac was sick, or something. "Ah'm doin' okay, TD," Applejack finally said after a moment. Huh. She didn't sound okay, but again, maybe she just felt tired. I know I can look pretty down when I'm exhausted. I shrugged and looked down at her wares. "Alright, then. Well, can I have three Red Delicious, then? They do look particularly..." My ear twitched and I felt a sudden rush of... fear? Panic? Something weird. Foreign, almost. It left as soon as it appeared, though, so I didn't think anything of it. "Particularly enticing today." "Sure thing, TD," Applejack said. She took three Red Delicious apples and put them in a brown paper bag, which she hoofed to me. I put it in my saddlebag before reaching for my bit bag, but she oddly waved me off. "No charge, TD." I frowned and raised an eyebrow. "But you didn't charge me yesterday either. Or the day before that." I tilted my head. "Come on, Applejack. You run a business. It can't be good for you if you just keep giving away your apples like this." "They're mah apples, yer a good friend, and Ah say no charge." Applejack nodded as if that settled the issue. "But Twilight and Rarity and all the rest of your friends pay for their apples." "TD. No. Charge." I flinched back, blinking rapidly as I did. "Oh... uh, okay. Yeah, thanks, then. Means a lot." I began walking away. "I'll talk to you later, okay?" "K," Applejack mumbled, not looking at me. I continued walking for a moment before turning back to Applejack. "Feel better, okay?" Whatever it is that's bothering her. Yep, I knew something was wrong. The moment I said that, a big tear streaked down her face, though she quickly raised a foreleg to wipe it away. Dang, something was really off. Maybe Granny Smith had come down with something recently? pleasehelpme My ear twitched. Weird. Well, whatever the case, I'm sure it would all be okay in the end. For the moment, though, I had a job I needed to get to. * * * * "I can't do it, Princess Celestia," I moaned, wiping tears from my eyes as I leaned into her embrace. "I can't look at him anymore. I can't see him and know that, that... I don't know, that it used to be TD." I sniffled and nuzzled Princess Celestia's chest. "We failed him." "I know this is difficult, Twilight," Celestia said, wrapping her wings tighter around me. "I still have my top scientists searching the Everfree Forest for any trace of what could have done that to TD. I think we may be close." "That's not true and you know it," I whimpered. "You don't have the next clue of what did that to him. No dirt samples from the Everfree Forest are going to change that. TD's dead, Princess. He's dead, and I don't know how to handle that thing pretending to be him. I don't want it living in my house anymore! I can't constantly be surrounded by this lobotomized imitation of TD that just drives in how I c-could have done more to help him!" "Such as?" I sniffled and looked up at Celestia. "Huh?" "What could you have done to help him?" Celestia wiped my eyes with one of her feathers. "By the time he had come to you for help, he had mere hours left. You searched the Everfree Forest, you came and got me for help, and I've never seen you move so fast as when you found out that his clothes held a sample of what he was exposed to. You tried everything in your power to save him." "But it wasn't enough," I muttered. "We couldn't help him in the end." "You don't know that," Celestia pointed out. "As I said, we are working day and night to discover what he was exposed to. Should we find it, we may very well be able to save him from his fate. All hope is not yet lost." "I don't know if I can believe that." I leaned into Princess Celestia's chest and nuzzled her. "I don't know how I can handle it anymore, Princess." "I know, Twilight," she said softly. "I know." Just then the door to the library opened, and I flinched back with a whimper when TD walked in, whistling a tune that I recognized as one of his Earth songs. I quickly pulled out of Princess Celestia's grasp and got to her hooves before TD could notice my position. When TD walked into the room, he saw Princess Celestia and sunk to his knees in a low bow, as he always did these days. "Princess Celestia, it's an honor to see you again." Celestia stood up and forced a smile on her face. "And you as well, TD. How are you this lovely afternoon?" "Pretty good," TD said, dropping his saddlebag onto the table. "Just taking my lunch break." He grimaced and sighed. "Few customers at Sugarcube Corner were particularly grumpy today. Dunno what their deal was. I thought Pinkie might come out to cheer them up, but, she was just focused on baking, I guess. Gonna be busier with the weekend coming up, amirite?" "Of course, TD," Celestia said, her smile becoming a bit more strained. "So you're doing well?" "Can't complain, wouldn't help much if I did, even if I had anything to complain about." He smiled at Celestia again. "I dunno. Been pretty happy these days." For a brief second, his smile fell, and I saw something flash in his eyes. Fear, maybe? Something not right. It was gone so quickly I thought I might have imagined it. "Anyway," he said, turning to me, "I'm going to go take my afternoon walk, alright? I'll be back..." He tilted his head in a sort of shrug. "When I get back, I guess." I forced my own smile on my face and gently nodded. "Ok--" My voice cracked and I cleared my throat. "Okay, TD. I'll see you later, alright?" "Sounds good." With one more bow to Princess Celestia, he turned around and walked out of the library, whistling that Earth song again. The second the door shut behind him, I began quietly sobbing. I felt Princess Celestia's wing drape over my back, and I leaned into her once more. "We'll help him, I promise you," she said. "I will do whatever it takes." I could only continue crying. * * * * Such a beautiful day out. Should be for the next couple of days. I don't think the pegasi have any rain scheduled until next Tuesday. As such, I could see the depths of Ghastly Gorge stretching out for miles. It was my favorite area in Ponyville. I came here for my walk every day, just to walk the edge of it. It never got old looking down into the depths, seeing those rock eel thingies popping out of their caves, and whatnot. Though I did have to be careful. Sometimes I'd find myself drifting pretty close to the edge. Guess I just get lost in thought sometimes. Happened a lot when I first started my walks near Ghastly Gorge, but I guess I was becoming more aware of my surroundings, because those instances went down a lot. It only ever happened every once in a while now. Still, I found it strange that it happened at all. I mean, geez, if I did ever fall down, the drop would kill me instantly. I'd want that. I mean... wouldn't want that. Weird. I picked a nice spot and sat down, right near the edge of the gorge. I looked down into its rocky depths and nodded, impressed. I guess that's why I liked coming here. It reminded me a bit of... I... wait, what would it remind me of? There's nothing else like it in Equestria. Maybe some trip I took with my parents? Can't remember what that'd be, though, or when. Just lean forward a little bit more. Please. I can't do this anymore. Let today be the day. Today. What was today? I didn't have some appointment, or event that I had to attend, right? I didn't think so. Just a little more. Then it'll all be fine. Sheesh, this is strange. Maybe I should stop coming to Ghastly Gorge if it's going to be dangerous like this. Yeah, I think I'll do that. It's beautiful and all, but Whitetail Woods would be safer. Or just stop the walks. Relax during my lunch. It hurts. Just a little more. Got a lot to do this week. Princess Celestia has been coming by a lot. Guess that makes sense. Twilight is her student. Lean forward. For some reason, I began slowly leaning forward. If I leaned too much, I'd go right over the edge to my death. I didn't want to do that, but something told me I should. That I needed to. But that was silly, wasn't it? Ponyville was my home. Equestria was my home. Where I'd lived my whole life. I loved it here. Just a little more.
