Chapter 1: Into The Rabbit Hole
I was floating accrues a sea of tranquillity, nothing to disturb me and noting I had to worry about. It was blissful.
I knew full well that I was asleep, but after the rough week I had been through a good sleep in was what I deserved. I kept dipping in and out of conscience, and whenever I did I would glace towards the clock in my room. I knew there was something I had to get up for, but whatever it was It could wait.
Ring, Ring!
“Ah Jesus!” I shouted as my body jerked forwards, you see this would be fine if my body was lying flat but as I was sleeping at an angle my head quickly collided with my bedside table, resulting in the rest of my body falling off the bed and being covered by my quilt. The phone went off again but sounded much worse than it actually was due to the rapidly developing headache I was getting. I reached over to the phone without looking and held it against my ear “hello” I said.
“Dude where the hell are you?” the voice on the other side said.
The voice was familiar to me but my sleep deprived brain wouldn’t connect the dots fast enough “Uh I am in my room.” I replied.
“kyle its half ten you were supposed to be here half an hour ago get your ass here now” and with that the phone call disconnected I glimpsed at the screen to see who it was to see in bold letters my friends name James on the screen, along with around fifteen un replied texted. All with the same basic principle of him asking where the hell I was.
Shit there was something I was supposed to do today but what the hell was it? I thought to myself as I got up. The world around me was a slight blur due to the developing head ace, I reached over to my bedside table to grab the paracetamol I usually left on there, and walked out the room as I swallowed a few.
Inside my bathroom I had a good look at the red mark that was on my head, I was able to hide it under some dark brown hair “I seriously need to get that cut sometime next week” I said to myself before taking a good at myself. My usually green eyes were bloodshot, along with some dark rings under them due to lack of sleep. The rest of me was in order the spots on my face were going slowly now that pubery has had its run, which is something I am very proud of to be done with. The hormones and mood swings were no problem, it was mostly the voice breaks, they were fucking annoying.
Re-entering my room, I proceeded to get myself dressed and ready for whatever I was going to be doing today, some memories returned to me about James planning something, but I still couldn’t fully remember what I was supposed to be doing today. Walking out of my room I put on an old pendent while brushing my hand across a similarly old photo.
Walking down my stairs I heard a thump in my mother’s bedroom.
Dam she’s drunk again, guess I should tell her where I’m going to cover all basses.
“yea mum I’m spending the day with James, I will probably be back before dark.”
I waited on the stairs for a response, just before I turned around to enter her room before I heard
What sounded like a muffled ok.
Right not drunk, just hungover I guess it’s a step up. Oh well at least I don’t have to put up with it.
I continued on downstairs walking towards the dining room putting on some shoes and my coat, feeling across my pockets I felt all the usual items I keep with me. Grabbing an apple as I walked out my front door, on a day that would change my life.
Around ten minutes later I finally rounded a corner that put James house into view. And there was James, standing outside. Walking up to him “hey, wadup freckles’ I said as I threw the now apple core into a bush. As you know its bio-degradable.
He looked over to me, scanning up and down he said “you’ve completely forgotten what where doing today haven’t you.” I nodded. “Right well I guess I can bring you up speed. Last week while you were drunk you said that we should do something together. After thinking hard, and throwing up you then came up with the plan of us three going hiking together, you then proceeded to attempt to set fire to a tree while singing I don’t want to set the world on fire, before promptly passing out after realising the so called lighter you were using was your phone.”
So that’s the reason my phone smells like birch.
James then continued, “Right seeming as you walked here you have also forgotten how we were getting to our destination.”
“well I was goanna go with the eagles.” I replied, knowing exactly what he meant
“look let’s just walk to your house, I will text Ryan saying were goanna be late.”
We continued walking towards my house, each of us making idle conversation until we both returned to my house and jumped in my car.
“kyle are you sober you look kinda out there?” James asked
“Uh yea I believe I’m sober, I haven’t had a drink since Sunday I believe, I just didn’t get much sleep last night.” Or the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that.
Driving to Ryan’s house was uneventful with barely any traffic. The weather was nice but I was getting a feeling it was going to go south later.
“well here we are, I don’t understand why Ryan had to move away it just made things difficult for everyone.” I said
James looked over to me after putting his phone in his coat, “well his old house was rented, and the lease on it had ran out, and his neighbours went the best to live with.
I rolled my eyes looking over to his house as he had just walked out his house. Rolling down my winnow I called out “what’s up ginger nut.”
Comically in our old tradition he replied “Shut up you vegetarian pitiful excuse for a human.”
That chant had been our meeting call of years now. Me and Ryan had a passive aggressive friendship with each other, it never got too bad it was just normal for both of us. James on the other hand found it childish and that we should have dropped said childish names when we finished school, but then I would always reply to his argument by saying “well I will have you know that some of the strongest bonds out there are bound by violence, and our violence towards each other is just strengthening our bond as a whole.” He would then call me childish.
Even though I was the oldest of us three.
“you guys do know I’m not actually ginger just blond” Ryan said pulling me out of my nostalgia trip, before I hastily replied, “yea and what’s next, the moon isn’t made out of cheese.”
Ryan was now in the back seat of the car and I had just started pulling off as he put some headphones on “I’m just goanna take a quick nap, had a really bad night’s sleep.” He said before leaning back down.
I looked over to my left to see James pondering over his phone. “so, going to be telling me were going?”
“K and B woods, here I got the route on my phone.” James said showing me the list of directions to get there from where we are.
“James that’s like two hours away from here, I’m certain that there are plenty of woods with hiking routs in-between here and there.”
“well yea there are, but if you had paid more attention in geography you would know that these are some of the oldest woods in England, that are open to the public. To think we would be walking past trees that could have been around at the same time as the most influential people that have ever lived on this planet. I mean who wouldn’t want to see those trees.”
“I have no idea who wouldunt want to see that.” I sarcastically replied.
“just drive.” James said
The drive to the site was uneventful. The chat in the car was just idle ramblings’ about how we were doing. I kept telling James it looked like it was going to rain later, but he reassured me by showing the weather reports for the day were clear and the absolute worst we were going to have was a slight drizzle. But I still believed it would heavy rain. James then started to ramble on about the history of the forest, but I just blocked him out and resisted swinging all of us into a oncoming lorry or something of the same magnitude.
“all right now that we are here you get Ryan up and I will go and get some route maps from the ranger.” James said as he walked out the car.
I took a minuet to click my back and stretch and look over to Ryan, whom was fully out of it. And had a small amount of drool over my seat. “ah seriously man, you know what just for that.” I said as I pressed my hand on the car horn, resulting in a loud noise, making Ryan jump up only to wind himself against the seatbelt.
“ah seriously, that bloody hurt.” Ryan said in-between breaths.
“come on sleeping beauty, we got some dirt so see.” I said exiting the car.
Taking a look at my surroundings the trees surrounded the semi-gravel car park we had entered. The entire area looked like a mixture of green and brown, giving the entire area an olden vibe and a freshening feel to it. Taking some deep berths’ even the air seemed to be cleaner and freshening, making me happy as it was certainly an improvement to the constant greys of town, and the metal smell that was always constant at work. Looking over I saw James returning form a small wooden kiosk holding some folded maps in his hands.
He then proceeded to unfold one of the maps. “right I talked to the guy, there are six main routes we can take, all being roughly the same distance, but going in different directions before leading back here. He said route five has a temporary change to it due to some archaeological dig going on. I personally recommend route four as it takes us into some of the oldest parts of these woods.” James informed us wile tracing the different coloured lines on map symbolising the routes.
“eh whatever let’s just do route four then, it looks interesting enough.” I said with Ryan grunting in agreement while eating some crisps.
James then led us to the post that started the route into the woods. And so we started our journey.
An hour or so later we were still walking. “so Ryan how’s life been, haven’t been able to talk to you much over the last months.” I asked to try and relive the even increasing boredom from seeing nothing but trees and the occasional rock. Even the sky was gone now, covered over by the thick canopy.
“eh good I guess, I’ve been trying to get a small part time job, to help with paying for traveling in-between home and collage. Unfortunately, I just can’t seem to find a job that suits me, I know if money ever does become a problem I will just have to see work as a necessity and no matter how much I hate it I will just have to git my teeth, But for now, I just don’t want to get stuck in some desk job were every day is the same as the last. How about you, I never saw you as the engineer type.”
I understood where he was coming from, it was quite different from what I was expecting. “well its going better than I expected, it makes me happy to use my skills to help create. Rather than what the rest of my family wanted me to do.”
“What was that?” James asked, listening in on the conversation.
“well its apparently tradition in my family to join the army, everyone wanted me to sign strait up when I was old enough, just as my dad and brother had. That’s not to say I don’t think what the army does is evil or something, I fully understand the responsibility, but it just wasn’t for me, I don’t think I could ever actually kill let alone face someone, unless I had no other choice, but whenever I think about it I just cannot see myself living with the knowledge that I have killed. And I’ve always been into creating things, so when I did some work experience at a workshop I knew that being an engineer was for me. What about you James I remember you saying what courses you took but I don’t think you ever said what you were going to do after finishing them.”
James seemed to think of a response for a while before replying “well I’ve never really thought it fully through, I have narrowed my choses to, being a teacher but I don’t know what I would be teaching or studying a subject but once again I don’t know what I would research.”
“wow defiantly living an interesting life there James.” I sarcastically said. Ryan then jabbed me in the side “I mean just think about it this way your options are still open; you can do anything you want really.”
“yea I guess.” James answered. Killing the conversation.
The walk continued in silence for a while, until we had to avoid a massive amount of mud that had collected. I was thinking about how much all of us had changed the last few years, it used to be Ryan and James who had everything figured out in high school and I was just kinda getting along, but now times had changed. And I didn’t know if it was for the better.
An hour later and I had started to notice something, the path we were following didn’t seem to have any footprints on it. “uh James are we still on the path there isn’t any footprints in the dirt.”
We all stopped to inspect the ground below us until James said. “yea we must be, we’ve been following the arrows on the posts and we haven’t strayed from the path so I don’t think so, well unless you count the time we went round that massive pool of mud but remember we used your compass to redirect us back to the path.”
I put my hand against the inside pocket of my coat felling said compass, I also felt my phone next to it, I then realised something
Oh crap phones can mess with a compass.
“uh James, just thought I should tell you something about my compass, it may or may not be offset, due to having it next to my phone.” I said.
“What here let me have a look, and Ryan pass me your keychain compass.” We both did.
They were pointing in separate directions “well now that we know that can’t we just use the compass on my keys to return ourselves to the route?”
James shook his head “in a town or open field’s yes, but in the woods with no noticeable land marks we don’t know how far we’ve deviated, or were we are on the map.”
I started to reach into my pocket while saying “well we will have to use our phones then, they all have GPS we can just use that to find where we are.” I looked at my phone before realising. “dam no signal how about you guys, any luck.”
“nope, nothing.” James said.
“Same here.” Ryan added
“well it can’t all be that bad, I mean it’s not like were in the middle of the rain forest or anything, all we got to do is pick a direction and walk. Even if we don’t find the route well eventually find some parts of civilisation. And we these woods are not too big, give it a few hours and we will either be on one of the routes or be somewhere where we can get help. And hell it’s not like it’s raining or anything.” Ryan said.
Whatever god or god-like being listening in on our conversation, decided to than create a massive thunderous clap to eco around us, making all three of us jump.
“Good job Ryan, anything else you want to add, I don’t know how about a pack of wolves or even a bear to round it off.” I said.
“there aren’t any bears in England, and the weather for today reported it would only be a small drizzle, so noting to worry about.
It wasn’t a drizzle; it was an absolute downpour. And it had been going for hours, we were getting cold, hungry and tired
“D,d,d,dam this is cold, we need to find somewhere dry and soon.” I said stuttering now that the water had seeped through my coat drenching all of the layers I was wearing.
“I think o can see an over crop over there, hopefully the rock formation is on the map then we can find were we are.” James said wile pointing towards a small over crop, that went into the earth creating a small cave.
We walked inside of it looking around at the strange structure. James instantly got the map out and stared pondering over it trying to find were we are.
“I got a bad feeling about this” Ryan said.
“well keep it to yourself, you’ve already jinxed us enough.” I replied.
Ryan rolled his eyes while taking a swig from his water bottle before placing it on the grass outside to let it collect water.
James grunted and scrunched up the now soaked map, stuffing it in his pocket, then saying “Brilliant were still lost and now it’s getting dark, looks like were stuck. My phone died ages ago, and I’m hungry.”
“hey come on its not so bad just think It as camping, just without a tent, or food, or a proper bed, ok it’s not really camping but people have survived trough worse. All we got to do is either wait for it to stop raining so we can continue walking, or we can wait for it to get fully dark then one of us can climb a tree and look for any lights from a nearby town or something.” I said trying to help keep morale up, sly jokes aside, the one thing we don’t need to be doing right now is fighting.
I then continued with, “anyway James if this cave isn’t on the map that could possibly mean it hasn’t ever been recorded before, I mean just look at these strange markings here.” The strange markings were on one of the sides of the caves wall I had noticed.
“Markings where?” James asked, before basically pushing me out the way while getting out a small notepad to scribble down stuff.
I looked over to Ryan who was watching the rain on the ever decreasing light, so I just sat down on a mostly dry patch of ground pulling out a bene from my pocket and pulling it over my head and eyes to try and get some rest while waiting for the rain to pass.
I must have stumbled out of concise a few of times while sitting there. I fully awoke when James released a “ugh” sound, folding up my bene so I could see James slide down the rock wall next to me.
“it’s Fake, must be part of a new route with loads of history stuff, I mean look here” he pulled out his notepad with a few drawings and notes on it, “look here these drawings are in the style of the iron age, you know around the time of the stone age. however, it then has Greek mythological creatures on it. Finally, it uses a paint that didn’t arrive in England until the beginnings of the British empire. I mean seriously do your research.” James said before returning his notepad back in his pocket and slouching himself down.
“hey come one it’s not that bad, so what if it’s not some massive find, at least now we know that were near one route, all we have to do is look around and we will probably find some path dug out or something.” I said.
“Yea I guess” James replied.
I looked over to Ryan trying to see if he could help me cheer James up. He seemed to notice me and stood up brushing himself off, “hey It has gotten fully dark now I’m goanna fine a tree or something to climb up and have a look.” He said before starting to walk into the night. It also seemed to get jams attention.
“hey wait its pitch black outside, even if you do find something how will you find your way back.” He Said.
Ryan chuckled to himself, and said “easy I’m just goanna tie my light to a tree nearby so all I have to do Is look for the light.”
“fine but if you do find a way out and don’t come back for us, I will haunt the shit out of you.” I replied.
Ryan then walked out of the cave, tying a torch to a tree branch and walking to find some city lights. I returned to my sitting position to conserve warmth.
A while later I was sitting thinking to myself, when the loudest thunder clap I have ever lit up the entire forest sending a wave of static energy trough the ground making all the hair on my body stand on edge. Me and James both jumped up looking outside for the source of the noise.
We started shouting Ryan’s name with no response until James said “Look Kyle something is wrong Ryan wouldunt of gone that far and with that bang, something bad has happened, we need to find him.”
I looked over to him and nodded before saying “fine but don’t lose sight of me we don’t want to spend all night looking for each other.” We then both nodded before stepping back into the rain walking straight to the torch he had tied to a branch. A cold feeling rushed over me as we both noticed the batteries had died.
We continued walking along looking for Ryan with no success, I was following James, when I heard something to my left stopping I looked over, I shined the torch over hoping to see Ryan and that he fallen over some deadwood or something. I couldn’t properly see from where I was so I walked over to the source of the noise.
After walking around a small bush I found the source of the noise. It was a small woodland fox biting down on a very unlucky rabbit, it saw me and hastily ran away. Smiling to myself I slowly turned around saying “Just A fox James.” I then realised I had never told James to stop.
Franticly looking around and shouting both Ryan’s and James names I had now gotten myself lost. Panic had now started to overcome me, trying to remain calm I continued my search.
I was about to go into full blown panic mode when I saw the woods in front of myself light up in a light blue hue, I turned around expecting to see James or Ryan standing there, but instead I found something far beyond my realm of comprehension.
It was light blue around the edges with an off white core, floating a few feet above the ground the thing stood small blue arcs struck the area around it. It had a primary round structure, but the entire thing seemed unstable. It gave of a small humming sound as the very ground around seemed to resonate with it.
Even though I had no idea what it was I was captivated by it. The warmth it emitted felt like it was drying all the rain off me, I involuntary found myself walking towards it. The brightness of it felt like it was blinding me after my eyes being in the low light for so long. Yet I now found myself reaching towards it, I was now almost touching it, my hand just kept getting closer and closer to it.
Kyle stop now, Kyle stop you don’t know what this thing is it could kill you please just sto. AHAHAHAaA.
The pain was unfathomable my entire being was pulled into the light, my eyes slammed shut against the now burring light. I started to scream as my entire skin felt like it was burning off, so much that my voice box raised my voice a few octaves. My fingers went numb, as so did my toes, cramping my entre leg and forcing it upwards, I tried stretching it back down but they wouldn’t go back. My ankle twitched straight and a pulling sensation in my foot just added to the massive amount of pain I was going through. Then there was a pulling sensation against the base of my spine it continued until I thought my spine had now increased in length.
Then the pain focused on my back a stabbing sensation went along both my shoulder blades but instead of stabbing inwards it pulled outwards until a strange feeling came over me, I almost fought through the pain and opened my eyes until it came. The worst pain I had ever experienced in my life.
My entire skull crushed itself along with my jaw each pushing in different directions, forcing my mouth shut, then my entire hearing went as my ears pulled themselves up my scull, then my eyes started burning again even though they were still closed.
As what I saw as the ultimate mercy, my brain gave in. pulling me unto sweet sweet unconsciousness.
Shadows were around me blowing in a strong in-existent wind, in front of me was a mirror, but I didn't have a reflection, instead there was a shadow, I watched in horror as it shrunk down and changed shape into something unknown. I reached to touch the mirror but when it did it smashed. And I awoke.
Gasping for air my body jerked awake, I opened my eyes only to be greeted with a blinding light, I hastily shut them again I reached my hand out to rub against them to find my hand was numb, I tried feeling my other hand but that too was numb. “what the hell happ.” I stopped what I was saying when I noticed something.
That’s not my voice.
It wasn't the voice that had come out my mouth was more suited to a girl than me. Now in full blown panic I opened my eyes reeling against the light I tried to focus on something, anything. Looking down at my hand all I saw was a red blur.
Oh shit I'm bleeding, crap where is the blood coming from I need to. Wait I don’t feel like I'm bleeding.
Now trying harder than ever my eyes focused in on my hand. But there was a problem. My hand wasn't covered in blood, this was worse, it was dark red fur. And it wasn’t a hand either, this was more akin to a horses’ hoof than anything.
Shaking my head to try and remove the fog over my mind only brought my hair all over my vision making it all blue and green. I quickly brushed it out of the way before looking at what used to be my hand.
“wait my hair isn’t that long” I said, my ears twitching away, with my still feminine voice. I then realised ears aren't supposed to twitch, shutting my eyes, my breath started to quicken, everything was wrong, very wrong.
Come on now. Inhale count to ten, exhale, repeat.
I repeated the steps until I had managed to settle myself.
Right now let’s assess the situation, I mean everything. Then we can get all the panic all over in one, and then work on fixing this.
I nodded to myself feeling a massive amount of hair on my head move with it. I grit my teeth, that were also feeling off. Turning my head gave me the sensation of that my neck had also changed, I then knew I was facing the rest of my body.
I then slowly opened my eyes wincing at the brightness. Everything was red. My entire body had changed my body had barrelled out into a more circular shape, my legs were further upwards and my ankle had moved upward next to my kneecap, my toes had gone and in their place, just like my hands, they were too hooves. I now had a tail made out of a mixture of dark blue and green, just like my hair. And then for the final nail in this coffin, I had wings. On my back there was two wings just jutting out there, with feathers the same colour as my fur.
My heart stared to race, this wasn’t my body at all, but how this was un fathomable.
Then I heard a twig snap behind me. “h-hello is somepony hurt out here.” A gentle voice came from the same area as the sapping twig, but I paid it no attention until it stuck me.
What the fuck is happening, wait what was that, somepony, ya know what fuck this I'm out.
I collapsed again due to my brain trying to make reason behind the massive amount of information it was trying to understand. I only cached a glimpse of what made the noise.
It was yellow.
What Did I Do To Deserve This?
I was lying on a bed, the scent of lavender was hitting my nose, the bed was softer than I had ever imaged. I stared to awaken, my head thudded like someone was hitting it like a jackhammer. I went to rub my eyes, only to realise I had no fingers, panic started flooding my mind until the memories of earlier finally came to me.
Sitting up I was finally able to take a glimpse of the room I was in, now that my eyes had decided to work. The room was unfamiliar to me, there was small hints to the owner of the bed, it was probably owned by a female due to the bed covers being a mild pink, and a lot of brushes being held on a shelf that was below a mirror. Looking to my left there was a small bedside cabinet with a burning candle, probably the reason behind the lavender smell.
I then turned my focus to the main elephant in the room, me, looking over myself, yup I was still a horse, yup still had the red fur and still blue and green hair.
“Ah fuck, what the hell did I do to deserve this” I said to myself not knowing I was alone
“oh, um sorry I didn’t know you were awake yet.” A soft voice said making me jump.
Looking towards the voice I saw another horse, or rather Pegasus if my Greek mythology was correct. It had yellow fur, with purple hair and tail. I stared panicking I had no idea how I got here and no idea where the hell I was. I tried to get out of the bed, but unfortunately I couldn’t seem to get my legs working how I wanted, resulting in me banging the back of my head on the wall.
The yellow horse winced from the noise of the bang and quickly walked over to my side of the bed “there there, calm down. You’re perfectly safe here, just lay down and relax, you’ve banged your head pretty bad. She said
I didn’t know why but when she talked I seemed to relax slightly, she just talked in such a softening tone. “w,w, were am I. I don’t know what happened.”
“I um don’t what happened to you, but all I heard was a big bang. I thought somepony had been hurt and when I found you, you were passed out with a big bang on your head.” She said while moving what I assumed was a bandage on my head
Laying back down while I asked. “how did I get here, and were exactly is here?”
“well your currently in my house, were just on the outskirts of ponyville, around three hours by train from canterlot.”
“ponyville, canterlot. What type of names are those?” I asked not fully understanding my situation.
“Oh my, you must have really hit your head. Can you tell me your name or were you came from?” She asked
“yea my name is.” I tried finishing that sentence only to have a weird whinny noise come out.
“what the hell I can’t say…” I then realised, my words her words. They weren't in English, I didn't know what it was, but my brain seemed to think it was, I mouthed some words only to feel my mouth move in different ways to how it normally should.
“Oh my, this is worse than I expected. I think you might have amnesia, no worry though I have a friend who knows a memory spell she should be able to help. We can go see her tomorrow.” She said.
“spell, how would she do that?” I asked, more curious than anything.
“Well there are unicorns and alicorns that can cast spells. Do you remember the three pony races?” she said looking panicked.
Well she’s a Pegasus, why not add unicorns into the mix. Wait why did she say pony, do all of these horses lose their wings and horns when they grow up.
“look I’m sorry but what do you mean by pony. Or there being three different races of them?” I Said.
She started sweating probably panicking that someone has fully gone and lost their memory. It made me feel sad seeing someone so nice like this.
She took a deep breath before saying. “well how can I say this. I’m a pony, you’re a pony. Everypony in Equestria is a pony. There are three main races of pony. Pegasus like you and me. Unicorns and earth pony’s. don’t worry I’m certain twilight can fix this, and then it can be a funny memory for you and your friends to laugh about. Now you just lay down and I will get you some nice warm soup.” She then stood up from sitting next to the bed and started walking away.
“urm thanks uh.” I said before realising she hadn't even told me her name.
“it’s Fluttershy. And I will be back in a minuet.” She said before walking out of the room and downstairs,
I laid back thinking about what she said. Where the hell was I. what the hell am I. and what about my friends, were are they, are they still stuck in the woods or even worse, are they here.
I continued pondering for a while trying to think of a way out of this. I could play the amnesia card for a while until I had a better understanding of my situation. But I knew It wouldn’t last long, as soon as a doctor saw me he would know that I hadn’t lost my memory. Knowing this I put myself at a ‘royally’ fucked up level class of situation.
While I was thinking Fluttershy walked back up the stars. I noticed both her wings were extended to help balance a bowl of soup on her back.
“here we are, just what the doctor ordered, a nice warm bowl of tomato soup. I know it always helps me when I’m feeling down.” She said while resting the bowl down next to me.
I just looked at the bowl, and back to my hooves. There was no way of me picking up the spoon. “Uh you might think this is crazy, but how do I pick up the spoon?” I asked.
“urm I don’t know how to explain it, here I will just hold the spoon for you.” she said. Looking somewhat confused at the fact.
She then somehow picked up the spoon and brought it towards my mouth. When I finally tasted the soup I realised how hungry I was. The answer was a lot. The minimum I could guess from when I properly ate would be around two to three days ago.
I didn’t know if was due to the hunger, or the bang on my head. But the soup tasted heavenly. The texture, taste and smell was just perfect. With every mouthful I found myself getting wary, the stress of the situation finally getting to my overtaxed mind. When the bowl was almost finished I was almost asleep.
“there we go, now you get some good sleep and I promise everything will be fine in the morning.” She said as I finally drifted off.
I was sitting at home watching something on TV. I knew I had something to do but I decided to ignore it for now.
Something moved behind me. I didn’t look fast enough, only to see a blue blur.
Looking back round I was now in a forest in the middle of the night. I tried to move only to stumble over. Rubbing my head with my hoof. I looked around, I was in a clearing with tress circling around It.
Shuffling myself I came across the mirror again, this time my reflection was still pony shaped, but completely black, even though the light of the moon should have been sufficient to see it, but alas the reflection was pure black.
The reflection started moving on its own, it was dissolving into the ground around it. The mirror started to disappear but the darkness stayed, growing in size and circling around me. My breath started to quicken as a sense of dread washed over me.
I started trying to crawl backwards only to stumble around helplessly, my legs just wouldn’t cooperate properly. still trying to put myself in a bipedal positon, I fell backwards, somehow giving myself a massive pain in my back.
When I looked up again I was in a room. It was the same as earlier but darker. Calming myself realising it was only I nightmare, but the pain in my back was still there. Focusing in on the pain I realised there was something on my back. A twitching sensation from two opposite sides of my back were the result of me trying to move them.
“I need to look in a mirror, this is just getting uncanny.” I said to myself. Looking down I examined the floor next to the bed.
Kicking the covers of me reminded me of the massive amount of red fur I had, but there was no time to dwell on that I had to get a good look at myself. I decided to try and roll off the bed, landing myself on the floor standing upwards. Unfortunately, no one decided it would be a good idea to tell me that horse’s rear legs bend backwards, buckling myself and falling over.
Trying to get back up was a difficult task, as I instinctively pushed upwards with my front legs, and bended my rear legs, sending myself bipedal, unfortunately my centre of balance is a lot further forwards so I just closed my eyes, bracing myself for when I eventually hit the ground.
When I hit the ground instead of feeling the hard floor against my face there was just a pressure at the end of my front hooves. Opening my eyes, I noticed I was now standing upwards like any normal horse or pony would. Shaky but standing.
Walking was a process I never thought I would have had to learn all over again. Slowly I put one of my front legs forward and then moved it’s the opposite back leg, I wouldn’t like to admit but every small movement took almost all of my concentration. I slowly started building up a pattern in my head.
left front right back, right front left back, left front left bac. Wait oh fu.
THUD.
I got myself up and started again.
When I finally got into the hallway there was only one other door and a stairway leading downstairs. The entire house had a ‘cosy’ feel to it. Looking through the first door I noticed it was a bathroom, walking inside I looked for a light switch to find a cord hanging from the roof.
I was thinking of a way to move the cord but I wasn’t having any luck, I didn’t have fingers to grab the cord, and I wouldn’t be good enough yet to be able to balance on two legs wile I griped it with my front hooves.
“this just keeps getting better and better.” I whispered to myself closing my mouth with an audible click.
my mouth. I thought to myself. Looking back at the cord, it was just the right distance to reach up and pull down with my mouth.
Click.
The room filled with light making me flinch. Looking around I found what probably is a full body mirror for a pony. And I saw myself.
You can never understand the feeling you get when not even your own reflection is familiar. Standing on the opposite side of the glass was a red pony with blue and green hair. Pegasus was a more fitting name noticing the wings on either side of my back. Remembering back to the half faded memory of waking up outside and seeing them.
Even my eyes were different instead of seeing the blue eyes I was always used to these were green. I remembered hearing the phrase “the eyes are the window to the soul.” Then what did that make me.
The pony in the mirror started to cry, I watched as my view started to get blurry until I forced myself to look away.
Even as I forced my eyes shut I could still see the image from the mirror. That was what I had become, not even a scrap of my humanity had survived.
I slowly walked myself back to the bedroom still silently crying to myself, only letting out the occasional whimper until I climbed back into the bed and curled myself into a ball
My mind was going wild, having a full blown identity crisis.my mind trying to rationalise the situation coming up with different ideas. Have I always been a pony and somehow I’ve just had an entire lifetime of memory’s implanted into my head, or maybe I’m still on earth and I have just gone crazy. These types of thoughts continued flowing through my mind until I finally cried myself into a dreamless sleep.
When morning came I felt the sun hit my body from an open window, I had a small panic when I realised I still wasn’t human but it went as fast as it came. I don’t think it was because I had finally gotten over the matter but that I was just tired of it.
I laid there for hours trying to gather the courage to leave the bed, I just couldn’t find the will to. I finally got up because being under the covers was starting to get annoyingly hot. I walked back out the room immediately looking away from the bathroom remembering what would greet me in there, instead I looked towards the stairs.
Trying to get down stairs was a challenge that only reminded me how useless I was. It was different then walking down with two feet, instead of your body staying upright you tilt forwards, you also have to keep your feet in sequence otherwise a painful outcome will meet you at the bottom.
It took a long time but eventually I found myself at the bottom of the stairs. Looking around I saw that I was in a living room. There were bird houses, blankets, cages for small animals and tones of animal stuff lying around everywhere. Looking at the sofa I could see a blanket with a few pillows, it was obvious she was sleeping on it while I slept in her bed, this made me feel even more helpless.
A noise came from another room, it sounded like someone was moving pans around, so I walked in there to see if I could get any more information on this crazy world I was in.
When I walked in. Fluttershy I believe her name was. Was currently facing away from me, humming a tune while preparing assortments of animal food.
“morning” I said making her jump.
“ah, oh my, I didn’t expect you to be up so early”
Early? I thought to myself. I was never up early and I knew I woke up ages ago, I had only just got up.
“oh really what time is it then? It doesn’t feel that early.”
“oh well I think it’s about half seven. I just didn’t think you would be up at this time as you didn’t get that much sleep.”
“uh how did you know, I don’t think I look that bad, I didn’t wake you or keep you up did I.” I didn’t know why but even the thought of making her sad seemed to feel like an ultimate sin.
“well no, it’s just one of my friends told me that he saw you get up in the night and start to cry. He said he would have tried to help you but I kinda asked all my friends to give you some space.”
This made me worry, I didn’t see anyone else. And from the looks of it this house is only built for one person.
“I don’t remember seeing anyone.”
“you probably wouldn’t of he’s a bat. He came in with an injured fang a few days ago and said he would keep an eye on you so I could get some sleep knowing you were in safe hooves.”
“A bat. How does that work?” I said absolutely confused. How could someone talk to animals. Train them yes, but talking to them?
Is this the type of thing that can just happen here, in horse land?
“well bats are nocturnal, meaning he sleeps in the day and is awake at night. I would introduce you to him but as I said, nocturnal.”
“oh ok, is there anything I can do to help around, if it is really as early as you say we should probably wait a while before seeing your friend, just in case there still asleep.”
She looked around before putting her head in a bag and pulling out a carrot, holing it in her mouth by the stem. “if you wouldn’t mind could you go and give this to angel in the other room, I don’t want to leave all of this food in the open.” Of course it was more mumbled than anything but after being around my brother long enough slurred words were my speciality.
“yea Shure.” I said before looking at the carrot as she placed it on a counter. Was I supposed to just use my mouth or what.
Shrugging to myself I picked the stem back up in my mouth and proceeded to walk back into the living room. When my tongue brushed against the carrot, I didn’t know if the carrots they grew here were some sort of super rare breed or anything, but the taste I got from the outside was amazing. I put it on my mental list to try as many foods as I could in this world to see if they all were as good as this.
When I got into the living room I looked around for what I guessed was a bunny. I eventually saw a small bunny sitting in a couch looking somewhat impatient until he saw me, and the carrot I had in my mouth. He threw his paws in the air that looked like a finally type expression before hopping over to be and grabbing the carrot out of my mouth before returning back to the chair.
I was awe struck by the fact the bunny had just acted like a normal person, the situation I was in was weird enough. So this was just icing on the cake but it still took a small while for my mind to recover from this.
getting over yet another semi panic attack I returned to the main kitchen type room to find Fluttershy placing some toast on a table. “sorry it’s not much, I was going to go to the market but I didn’t want to leave you alone.”
Once again I noticed how hungry I was feeling, then the smell of the toast hit me and the hunger increased tenfold.
I then went to reach for the toast before stopping myself, how was I supposed to do anything without hands anymore. I pulled my hoof back, looking I contemplated myself yet again everything about myself had changed, my body, my gender and what of my mind, how could I return to my normal boring life after knowing this was possible.
I looked up to see Fluttershy standing with her back to me, prepping all kinds of animal food. I moved my head towards the plate on the table. Shrugging to myself I used my nose, or muzzle I guess and moved a slice to the edge of the plate until a corner came over the lip of the plate, I then grabbed the edge with my mouth.
I stood back with the toast in my mouth and sat myself on the floor. Holding the toast in-between my fore hooves and slowly ate through the toast, realising that just like the soup last night the taste and texture was better than anything I had ever had before.
I was snapped out of my sensory overload by a cough.
“would you like anymore; I can make plenty more if your still hungry.” Fluttershy said now standing in front of me.
Looking back down I noticed that I had eaten through the entire slice. “Uh no I should be fine with this. Look I am really thankful for everything but I can take care of myself from here. Just try to forget about me. I said knowing I needed to figure out how to get home and the longer I was around the chance of my ruse falling through would increase.
“oh please don’t, I know things might be a little confusing right now but I’m certain that twilight would be able to get your memories back, or at least might find some records of you and somepony who knows you, but I'm Sure she fixes your memories, she did it once before with me and some of our friends.”
I knew it was an unwise chose but something about it but I felt safe around her, would it really hurt to at least see this friend or hers. “All right I will at stay for now, but I don’t want to impose.”
A small smile appeared on her face “good I know thigs might look bad now but I promise things will get better.” She paused for a moment thinking. “it’s a bit early but I don’t think twilight will mind, we can go into town now.”
She stood up pulling her hair back with her hooves and walking back into the living room, I followed her through.
When I finally stepped outside I was taken back by the view, it was astonishing, the lush green, the vibrant sky. Everything was just better, even the air had a crisp feel to it. I knew from this singular view that I wasn’t on earth anymore, so where was I?
Walking along the path I found many sights that blew my entire perception of reality. Even the clouds were lower than they should be and all around the sky I could see small pony shaped objects flying around, looking back around I saw two wings on either side of my back. I didn’t even feel them there, I tried to move them but it was effortless.
When we finally got into town I saw plenty of ponies walking around the small town, some carrying bags of supplies and talking to each other.
It was strange to see things that I would consider normal thins for humans to do but done by ponies instead. Which in turn raised further questions, how would a prey spices evolve to become dominant, or how there could be ponies with wings that can fly with wings that small.
Stuck in my internal debates, I didn’t notice that we had both stopped outside of a tree that looked to have doors and windows. Fluttershy walked up to the door and very gently knocked on the door.
It took a while before the door was covered in a lavender glow and opened, to show a lavender looking unicorn. “Yes Fluttershy is there anything I can do to help, but can we make it quick I’m kinda in a major magic problem right now.” She said.
“well if it wouldn’t be too much of a bother twilight, I found a pony in the woods and she kinda has a memory problem, and I was wondering if you could do that memory spell for her, like when you did it on us.”
Twilight stepped out of the tree when she was fully out I noticed that she also had wings on her back. She did a quick glance over me before saying “sorry I can’t do the spell on a pony that I don’t properly know, and anyway that spell only reminded you of who you were. I’m sorry there isn’t any spells that can fully return a pony’s memory, I can at least keep an eye out for anypony looking for a pony that matches a description, hopefully there a unicorn and could at least try and remind you.”
Fluttershy sighed “sorry I really thought you could help us. Now were back to where we started.”
“look I’m really sorry I would give this more attention but I’m already helping somepony with something big right now, here at least me help you with your pains, I can see that whatever got you in this situation must have been painful.” She said before walking up to me, I had only a moment to looked surprised before her horn stated glowing and touched me on the shoulder.
I felt a jolt of energy flow through me, before vanishing as fast as it appeared leaving me feeling completely revived. I looked back to twilight, she was rubbing her horn, with a pained expression on her face.
“well I think we can say that whatever happened to you, left you with a massive amount of magical energy around you, try not to do much flying or be around to many unicorns for a few days until it dissipates back out of you.”
“Ok thank you for your help, good luck with whatever you’re doing.” I said.
Twilight nodded. “sorry, but I will defiantly keep an eye out for anything, and I defiantly would love you to come round for some tea sometime. And you two Fluttershy, you spend too much time with your animals, not like that’s a bad thing, but I would like to spend time with you when the entire fate of equestria isn’t at stake.”
“ok Twilight I can come round on Tuesday or something.” Fluttershy said blushing with embarrassment.
“look I would talk more but like I said I’m kinda busy, so I gotta go sorry.” She said before quickly jumping back into the tree.
I looked back over to Fluttershy. “So what’s with the whole living a tree thing.”
“well um, it’s the town library, and she’s the pony that runs it. She came here a year ago to study friendship before she became a princess.
“Princess? How could she become a princess, don’t you like inherit that form birth or something.”
“well I don’t know everything behind it but, one day she helped fix a spell and then Princess celestia did something to make her a alicorn.”
“Hu that’s strange, well if there is anything you ever need me to do, just hit me up ok.”
A panicked expression covered her face. “please don’t I know I said Twilight could fix this and I am really being sorry, and if you were just to leave now, you would just be stuck in a part of equestria with no pony to help you and no idea about yourself, what if you got hurt. Just please stay one more night and tomorrow I can help you get to know more pones, that you wouldn’t be lonely.”
Once again I wanted to agree with her. “Ok one more day, I just don’t want to impose too much.”
“Oh it wouldn’t, now how about we go and explore the town a bit more, that might cheer you up a bit.”
“okay I guess that wouldn’t be too bad.”
We spent a few hours walking around and though the town, introducing myself to tons of people, and seeing things that really made me question everything I knew about physics. I was constantly having semi panic attacks. I’m certain my blood pressure was at a high enough state that even a small cut would cause me to bleed out in seconds.
Constantly through the day I had to lie through my teeth to keep the ruse up. I was extremely thankful for being such a pathological liar back home.
When we finally got back to her house, or now that I could actually see it from the outside. Cottage would be a better definition. We continued talking through the day, for giving off an extremely shy and timid aura. Some of the things she said really painted her as a hero of this place, apparently her and a few of her friends have saved the day more than once.
Also I noticed that she kept care of dozens of animals even some that lived in her house were natural born predators and prey, like I saw owls and mice sitting right next to each other. There must be some kind of underhand deal or something going on.
When dinner finally came around I said that I didn’t really want anything too big so we decided on only a small meal. “well Fluttershy you defiantly should look into a carrier in cooking or something, that was the best meal I think I’ve ever had.” I didn’t realise my slip until it was too late.
“you ever had? Have some of your memories come back.” She said perking up a bit.
“heh well um, uh, well of course it’s the best meal I’ve ever had I can’t remember having any before so this is the best.”
“Oh.” She replied.
I faked a yawn before saying “well its getting kinda late I think I’m going to call it a night If you don’t mind.”
“oh not at all, have a good night’s sleep, I will see you in the morning.”
I walked up the stairs and into the small bedroom in the house. Walking straight towards the window I took a look out to the night landscape. Not even the star consolations were the same, but at least there was a familiar looking moon illuminating the landscape.
I raised one of my legs to look at it my heart dropped and a small tear formed over my eye, sickness started to spread through my stomach. I wanted to go home, I wanted to be in my own bed and most of all I wanted to be myself again.
Sighing to myself I dropped my dead to rest against the window looking back up
Man I wonder if James and Ryan are in the same situation, I could do with cheering myself up at their expense.
In two other points of ponyville there were two ponies having their own problems and both dealing with them in their own ways, one had gone on a late night run to clear their head, while the other was crying in a bed with their tail tucked in and slowly stroking it as a small safety blanket as they drift into a dreamless sleep.
Author's Note
Let me know if there are any grammatical errors. I haven't spent as much time prof reading this as i would like to. I got arc eye a few days ago and looking at a screen can be painful
Also I need to stop posting these at 4 am. Oh well Sleep is for the week, and insomnia is for the brave.
