Chapter 2

‘Ugh… I feel like I just got hit by a train…’

Those are my first thoughts as I fade into consciousness. And indeed, it does; it’s freaking painful. I groan, my mind aching like it never has before.

“Oh, thank goodness! You’re awaking! I was just getting on the stew.” I stiffen. I don’t recognize that voice. It sounds like it belongs to a woman, though. But why would I trust any voice that I woke up to, that I didn’t know before today? My logical deduction complete, I attempt to open my eyes, but my head aches too much for that to happen. Likewise, I try to stand up, pushing at the ground with my forearms, which feel slightly wrong somehow, but after a few more seconds of near unbearable pain, I slump to wherever I’m lying. It seems soft, but also hard underneath it. I just hope that whoever did this to us isn’t a kidnapper… The odds of that aren’t looking good, though. After a few seconds of silence, I finally form the courage to say a sentence.

“Where… am I…?” I croak in a raspy voice, my throat burning from the simple motion of forming three words. It sounds slightly odd, but I’m quite sure that’s just something to do with my headache.

“I found you in the snowstorm outside. You sure are lucky that nothing else discovered you before I did,” the woman, and potential kidnapper, says. My mouth drops open.

But that- that’s not possible! I live too far up north, too close to the equator, for snowstorms to happen!

After a few moments of silence, and my mouth closing, she continues. “See, the Pegasi just HAPPENED to have a snowstorm scheduled for today, on the day of the Winter Celebration.” Wait, pegasi? But they don’t exist – and scheduling weather is only something that happens in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, right? And what’s a Winter Celebration? I mentally wave it off, though; she must be using them like a religious figure, and the Winter Celebration must just be a holiday that I’ve never heard of before. “But never mind that,” the woman says. “Open up. You need to eat.” Well, that reduces the likelihood that she’s a kidnapper by like, 15%. Most kidnappers don’t say that people need to eat.

My mouth opens, and I smell something delicious coming towards my mouth. Opening my mouth, I feel a large wooden spoon go into it. Slurping up the stew, I feel several vegetables, including broccoli, carrot, and squash, go into my mouth, and chew on them before swallowing them. The pain in my body begins to fade away. Wow, I didn’t know that something like this could ease up pain.

As if sensing my thoughts, the woman says “This is a special recipe; it helps ease up the pain in your limbs. I noticed you and your friend were both knocked out, and I’m quite sure that that would hurt. It did, did it not?” I nod at her question, but then pause.

Me and my friend? Does that mean Elliot is here? “My friend? Do you mean my brother?” I repeat my thoughts, once again in that rasp, and then slurp slightly on the stew again.

There’s a pause, and the spoon is taken out of my mouth, as I’ve finished the. “If your brother is a young, blue mare? Then yes, I suppose she is your brother, although I suppose a more appropriate term would be sister.” There’s humour in the woman’s voice as she says it. Wait, wait, wait. The person who came with me is a young blue filly? But fillies can only be blue in the My Little Pony series. I have to check this out. I open my eyes slightly, coincidentally as I smell the stew coming towards me once more.

I see the spoon, but for a few seconds, it seems… wrong. Then, I realise why.

My eyes open fully, focusing completely on the spoon, which is floating, unsupported, with a red aura around it. “Agh! Ghost!” I shout in that raspy voice. Pushing myself up, I try to jump back from the spoon, but instead fall on my back. “Owww…” I groan, my head hitting a stone-like floor, and look up at the wooden roof. The spoon retreats over my head, and I hear it hitting a wooden surface.

But then in my peripheral vision, I notice a blue lump over to the right, with a lighter blue patch on top of it… as well as a white lump going from both sides of my face to form a point in front of my eyes. I can’t see my nose either; just this lump. Experimentally, I sniff, and the sides of the point of the lump squash in slightly. Then, I hear the sound of hooves hitting wood. And above my face, a white, horselike, but slightly weird and reminiscent of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, head with red hair and blue eyes and a horn comes into view. “What, never seen telekinesis before?” the unicorn (because that’s the only possible thing that it could be) that has the voice I’ve been hearing says.

My eyes widen, then my pupils dilate. “AAAAAAAGH! A TALKING UNICORN!” I scream, sounding a lot like a girl.

“Excuse me, but could you please not be so rude?” says the unicorn, looking affronted. “And have you taken a look in the mirror lately, young mare?”

My eyes widen. “Young… mare?” I ask.

“Yes, of course; why do you ask? Do you not know that you are a mare?” the unicorn says, a look of confusion flashing upon her face.

No… this can’t be… This just can’t be! It’s not possible! Turning into both a horse and a mare at the same time? That’s, that can’t be, possible! I look down at my body, my chin touching my chest, and parting the fur which I just noticed has grown upon my skin. Where normally there would be a thing, I see nothing. No, no, no no no! I didn’t want this to happen! And my parents, I’ll never see them again, never, ever, ever! Even if they won’t recognize me, I want my parents back! But, just before I would begin crying, I shake my head. ‘No. Don’t panic. Just remember what the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy says, and don’t panic,’ I think. It helps me calm down at least a little.

‘Alright. This means one of three things. A: I’m in Equestria, and some wormhole sucked me and Elliot in while we were hugging, while in the process transforming us into a white and blue mares. B: I’m dreaming. C: I’m in a world like the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic world, and all the ponies just look weirdly like the ponies from the show.’ I frown slightly. ‘But B is out, considering I’ve felt pain before. Also, Occam’s Razor dictates that if there are two possibilities, which there are, then the one which is the least likely is not true, and the most likely one is true, no matter how unlikely it is. And I’m pretty sure that there wouldn’t be just something that looks like a pony from My Little Pony on a different planet. So that just leaves option A.’ I grin a little at my deduction

But I do notice two feathery things along my sides. ‘Cool, that means I’m a Pegasus,’ I think, in an attempt to take my mind off of the . Bringing up my white fur-covered arm, I flinch, as I see a hoof. Yes, not a hand, but a hoof. Yet another reminder of my loss of humanity… Then, I poke at the thing on my side.

I giggle slightly. ‘Hey, it tickles when I touch it.’ Then, I try to move it.

It inches out a tiny bit… then stops. But then, I shake my head. ‘Not now, Isaac; this isn’t the time to be messing around! This is the time to find out why you’re here, and what happened to you. And don’t panic. You have to get back to your parents.’ Then, I look back up at the unicorn.

“Are you done playing with yourself?” she asks. I nod, if a bit sheepishly. She smiles. “That is good,” she says.

“Can I have a mirror please?” I ask slightly quietly. It seems that this raspy voice is the one I’ll be having for quite a while now, so I might as well get used to it… I don’t think that I will be able to get used to being… female, though.

The unicorn thinks for a second, then nods. “Sure. Just let me retrieve it.”

As she trots off, the sound of her hooves hitting the floor breaking the silence, I examine the roof. It looks rather hodge-podge, and mixed together with many different types of wooden planks. ‘Huh, that’s a surprise. I would think that Equestrian architecture was more modern than that,’ I think. Then, looking over to the left, away from the blue lump that is most likely Elliot (who is going to have a surprise when he wakes up., I see a door, and a window, with a snowstorm raging outside of it. The walls are wooden, and cracked in various places, with haphazardly-placed planks over where I would assume there are gaps in the woodwork.

Then, I hear her trotting back over. “Here,” she says. “Oh, and I never told you my name, did I? It’s Fauren.” Huh, her name is Fauren. That’s rather unique… It’s pretty cool, too.

I push down on the ground with my front hooves, marvelling at the angle which I’m using them (they seem more like arms than legs) then use my back leg muscles to propel me forward, into a forwards position. Then, shuffling my lower flank around, I rotate towards Fauren. While I do this, I ask her “Is there a possibility I could see the Princess about this?”

There’s another pause. “I… don’t believe that Princess Palladium would be happy to see one such as you.”

Princess Palladium? This must be before Princess Celestia came, then, or at least before she became Princess. ‘But what did she mean by ‘one such as you’?’ I think.

But as soon as I finish shuffling around, I see what Fauren means. And all the calmness that I have gathered within the last few minutes is shattered.

No. This isn’t possible. I’m just seeing things.

Those aren’t purple eyes.

That’s not a horn on my head.

My hair isn’t pink.

I’m not an alicorn.

But I know, deep down, that I’m not just seeing things. I know the faceof the pony looking at me from the mirror.

I’ve seen it in a lot of pictures. It's on a lot of fanfiction covers as well.

It’s the face of a younger Princess Celestia.