Tale of Two Bronies

Tale of Two Bronies
A 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' Self-Insert Fanfiction
by milesprower06 and FenixTheFox93

Chapter 3
Ponification

PONYVILLE LIBRARY
THE NEXT AFTERNOON

For the second time in a row since arriving in Equestria, I felt myself wake up from a blackout, feeling slowly returning to my body.

But this time, something was definitely not right. My neck, my arms, my legs; all of them felt a little 'off.'

I opened my eyes, and the blurry interior of the Ponyville Library greeted me. Looking around, or at least trying to, I noticed Twilight and her five friends surrounding me.

“Twilight...?” I asked. At least my voice sounded normal.

“It worked.” she replied.

I looked down, and finally saw my body.

Hooves. Dark brown coat. And a blue and purple tail.

Moving them around, I manged to get up, and after swaying for a few seconds, stay on my feet. I always assumed it would've felt like being down on my hands and knees, but it didn't. It felt like I had an extra pair of legs that I now had to use. And as for my arms...

They felt like they were coming out of my back. My eyes widened at the realization.

I turned my head nearly 180 degrees, and I saw them. Wings.

It was an incredible amount to take in; a nonstop assault on the normal human mind. As I continued staring at my wings, I tried to move them as I would my arms. Giving them a flap, I found myself unexpectedly thrust off the ground mere inches, before landing on the floor again, but losing my balance and falling forward on my chin. Rainbow couldn't help but giggle.

“You'll get the hang of it eventually.” she told me, as I got back up to my feet.

It then occurred to me to look down to my right, where Brady was now coming too. Or rather, I assumed it was Brady. A charcoal pony lay on the ground next to me on the main floor of the library, with two shades of brown in their mane and tail, and a horn rose from their forehead.

“Brady?”

The unicorn groaned in return.

“My head...” he moaned as he came to.

Twilight's horn glowed, and she levitated over a full-length mirror, and I stared, dumbfounded at the dark brown Pegasus that stared back at me. My mane could be considered a mohawk, as it curved up and forward from the back of my neck, striped in purple and blue. My large, cartoon-like eyes were a bright teal, and it would seem that I already had a pair of glasses to go along with them. I slowly stretched my wings out, taking care not to flap them too hard. I took the time to fold them in towards my body, and out, trying my best to get used to this new body.

Brady had finally gotten enough out of his post-transformation haze that he tried getting to his feet. Wobbling unsteadily for several seconds, he had less luck than I, and promptly fell to the ground. We might as well have been foals, for how foolish we looked. Twilight went over to him and helped him to his feet. Again, he had considerable trouble staying on his four hooves, and Twilight assisted him with a levitation spell while he found his balance.

“Thanks,” he said to Twilight with a smile, and slowly made his way over to the mirror, and stood next to me. His light-and-dark-brown mane was a little less 'wild' than mine, more traditional when it came to the inhabitants of Ponyville. His eyes were a shade of tan, and he also sported a pair of glasses more suited to the size of his eyes. As both of us looked ourselves over in the mirror, we both noticed one thing:

We had no Cutie Marks. In looking back at his flanks, Brady lost his balance once again, and fell over. I couldn't help but chuckle. He managed to get up on his own, though.

"So much for not getting noticed. We'll be the only two adult ponies in town with no cutie marks. Add to that, a unicorn that can't walk, can't use his horn, and a Pegasus that can't fly." Brady mused.

He was right. When it came to blending in, we were really kinda only halfway there.

"Who knows? Spend enough time here, and you might get Cutie Marks. And I'd be more than happy to get you walking with no trouble, and I can certainly show you the ropes of unicorn magic." Twilight offered.

"And if you need help flying, look no further! I'll have you tearing through the clouds in no time!" Rainbow declared.

"I think I'd enjoy that. If I weren't risking crashing into the ground or a mountainside.” I replied.

“Nonsense. Don't worry about a thing. I know what to do, come on!” and with that she flew out the door. The others present ushered me to go with her and have a good time, so a trotted out of the library and followed the flying Rainbow on the ground as best I could. She flew out of Ponyville out to the surrounding meadows. By the time I had finally caught up with her, she was busy grabbing clouds from the sky, and bunching them together low over a lake.

“Since Flight Camp isn't for another few months, I figure this is the best way to learn.” she said. Several minutes later, there was a wide clump of clouds 20 feet above the lake. She looked down at me from them.

“Alright, let's see what you've got. Fly up here!” she told me.

Giving my wings a good flap, I felt myself get lifted off the ground. It was still an unexpected rush, enough of one that I forgot to flap them again, and immediately fell back to the ground. Having only gained five feet on my takeoff, I managed to stay on my feet.

“Um, I'm not sure how gravity works in your world, but you have to keep flapping them.” Rainbow told me.

“I know, I'm just not used to having wings.” I replied. Trying again, this time, I stomached the upward rush and kept flapping, and likewise, kept ascending. Not knowing how to slow or balance my ascension, I again lost my focus, and was high enough up where I went into a dive, and went face first into Rainbow's cloud collection.

At least I had gotten up there. After giggling momentarily, Rainbow helped me to my feet, and I now had to get used to standing on clouds.

“Hmm, how to explain this...” Rainbow said, tapping her chin with a hoof.

“It's like this; you're flapping too hard. Look, watch.” Rainbow stretched her wings out, and gave them a light flap, and lightly lifted a few feet up off the cloud. Rainbow kept this light flapping constant, and hovered above the clouds.

“See, just...lightly. You're flapping them like...like...”
“Like a Pegasus who doesn't know how to fly.” I said.
“Right” Rainbow said with a giggle. “Well, give it a try.”

I stretched out my wings again, and gave them a light flap; lighter than I thought would be required to take off, and to my surprise, it worked. I felt myself gently leave the ground, and keeping the pattern steady as best I could, hovered alongside Rainbow. It was then that I had an epiphany; that Earth's physics didn't apply to some aspects of Equestria; like wings on a horse.

“Alright, you're getting it!”
“So what's next?”

As Rainbow got ready to move on to the next step, I couldn't help but wonder how Brady was doing in his opening minutes of being a Unicorn.

PONYVILLE LIBRARY

“Hmm, how to best explain it...try to think of it as another pair of legs, and not arms.” Twilight suggested, as Brady struggled to stay on his feet yet again.

“That's pretty much the problem. It's getting used to a whole other pair of legs, that has to work in tandem with the pair I'm used to.” he replied.

“Well, I'm sure you'll get it the same way everypony gets it.”

Brady stared blankly at her in response.

“Practice.”

“And my horn? Will I be able to use magic?”

“That, on the other hand, will require active teaching, and I'd be happy to show you some basics.” Twilight said, walking over to a bookshelf and browsed through the books, her horn glowing as she searched for the one she wanted.

“Ah-ha!” she said, telekinetically pulling a book from the shelf, and showing it to Brady.

“Born With A Horn, All The Basics To Levitation for Unicorns. Catchy.” he replied, reading the cover.

“I'm not sure how good of a reference this will be for a human-turned-pony but-”

Twilight was cut off as Brady's horn began to glow, and the cover of the book opened to the first page. It surprised him as much as it did her, as his eyes widened, the glowing ceased, and the book fell to the floor.

“H-how did I do that?” Brady asked in surprise.

“I don't know. How did you?”
“I just...just thought about opening it. It felt like my fingers just reached out and opened the front cover.”

Twilight looked down at the book on the floor, and then back up at him.

“Try it again.” she suggested.

And so he did. He thought about mentally reaching down with his arms, grabbing the book with his hands, and opening it up. In going through that mental process, his horn glowed, and mimicked his mind, the book floating up to him, and opening up.

“That's...amazing, how fast you learned how to do it!” Twilight said, ecstatic.

“I didn't learn anything, though. It just feels like...that the horn is an extension of my arms and hands.”
“Well, then that should prove easier to grasp then.” Twilight concluded, as Brady wobbled on his hooves again.

“Good thing too, because you're going to need to focus on staying on your feet.” she said with a light giggle.

“Well, levitation is one thing. What about, you know, actual magic? Mustaches, turning rocks into top hats, those kind of things.”

“Heh, you're as excited and anxious as I was when I first started learning. True, levitation and item manipulation is the easiest kind of unicorn magic. Actual tricks and teleportation are harder. But it all comes down to mentality. It's all about concentration.” Twilight said, her horn glowed intensely bright, there was a flash of light and a pop, and she vanished.

“Like this.” she continued, appearing on the other side of the room, on Brady's other side, startling him, and causing him to lose his footing again, but he managed to catch himself this time, replanting his front hooves on the library floor.

“And I think you need to get walking down before you delve into magic tricks, don't ya think?”

“I'm a fast learner.” he replied, and began to trot around the room, uneasily, but stayed on his feet. Twilight smirked.

“So you are.”

OUTSIDE PONYVILLE

Meanwhile, Rainbow had managed to teach me the basics of ascending and descending, so I could control myself in flight. The feeling was exhilarating. To quote Rainbow herself...

I liked it. A lot.

“You're not half-bad, Jake!” Rainbow complimented, “To be honest I figured you'd be like Fluttershy was at Flight Camp.”

“I was, for a few minutes at the beginning.” I countered, with no offense to Fluttershy, who was a fine flier by now.

“If you'd like to keep practicing, I have a few weather jobs to do around town.”

“I'll tag along, see how interesting a job on the Weather Patrol is.” I replied, following her away from the lake.

“Nothing to it, really. Every week, Cloudsdale sends me the weekly forecast for Ponyville, and it's my job to get everything ready. Sometimes I use help, other times I can easily do it myself.”
“Yeah, I'm guessing the sunny days are easy, and the overcast days are harder.”
“Not harder, but longer. Thunderstorms take awhile to orchestrate. Have to be sure there's not too much rain in the clouds to cause a flood, and have to have a good amount of thunder and lightning in there too.”

'Not bad for a Flight School dropout.' I thought to myself.

“So what do you do? I mean, what's your job back where you come from?” Rainbow asked me.

“Oh, me? I'm a truck driver.”

“Oh! Those flying moving vans! And you told me you never flew before!”
“Except they don't fly where I come from. And the ones I drive are a bit longer than traditional moving vans.”
“No offense, but if they don't fly, it sounds boring.”
“I guess it can be dull, at times.”
“So what does it involve?”
“I'm told where to pick up a load, where to take it, how to get there, and how long I have to get it there.”
“What?? They tell you how to get there, too? You can't choose your own way? Wow, you don't have any freedom in your job! What about after you've delivered the load? Then you can go where you want, right?”
“Not usually. Most of the time, they have another load already planned and ready to pick up.”

Rainbow shook her head.

“I'd find a new job if I were you.”

I shrugged.

“It puts food on the table, and I'm good at it. Yeah, granted it's not as exciting as flying, but I enjoy it.”

The mention of food caused my stomach to rumble. And although I had only been up for half a day, learning the ropes of flying had taken it's toll on my energy, and after a meal, I had the feeling I'd be ready for bed, seeing as the sun was already beginning to disappear below the horizon, and I was hoping for the first uneventful night here in Equestria. Just once, I wanted to wake up normally. Not with a stomachache, and not as another body I'd have to get used to. Yes, I was looking forward to tonight.

“By the way, where are you gonna sleep tonight?” Rainbow asked me, picking up on my train of thought.

“I guess wherever I can, either Sugarcube Corner or the library.”
“Pfft, forget that. You're a Pegasus now! Come on, you can stay at my place. My couch is the most comfortable batch of clouds you can imagine.”

PONYVILLE LIBRARY

Twilight had just finished sorting through a stack of books, while Brady came down the stairs for a third time.

“I think I'm getting it!” he proudly exclaimed.

“I told you. Practice makes perfect.”

Brady descended the last step, placing his hooves on the first floor again, and looked over at a box of books next to Twilight, as she finished her sorting.

“What are those books over there?” he asked.

“Hmm? Oh, those are my last books to come down from Canterlot. Problem is, I don't have anywhere to put them currently. I've been meaning to get another bookshelf built for my room upstairs, but I haven't gotten around to it.” Twlight explained.

“Well, I've dabbed a bit in carpentry back home. I'd be more than happy to put together a bookshelf for ya.”
“I couldn't ask you to do that. You're here to enjoy yourself, and see what Equestria's all about.”
“And who says a little work can't be enjoyable? I'd happily do that in return for learning a few magic tricks.”

Twilight relented.

“If you really want to, absolutely. But you'll most likely have to wait until tomorrow to go get everything you need.” she said, motioning to the starry night sky that now hung over Ponyville.”

Brady let out a yawn, and Twilight began ascending the stairs.

“You can stay here if you want. I have a second bed up in my bedroom. First, I have to send a letter to Princess Celestia, letting her know what's happened here. I'm sure she'll be interested, and will want to meet the two of you.”

He nodded, and followed her up to the second floor. He hopped up onto the bed adjacent to Twilight's, and much akin to Rarity, slipped underneath the covers, and plopped his head down on the pillow with an exhausted sigh. It felt good to be accustomed to this new body.

And likewise, was looking forward to our first 'full' day in Equestria tomorrow.

He took one last glance at Twilight preparing a scroll and quill for her letter, and drifted off to sleep.