Shockingly Shyby DerpyStarletChaptersFluttERRStinkin' Thinkin'FractureFluttERRI looked around, I was on my couch. I had fallen asleep on my couch. Dang it, just when I had thought I could make it 48 hours without sleeping. I had tried to stay up for the whole time, but I had fallen asleep at around seven O'clock watching television. Last night had been spent on the computer, my parents hadn't tried to stop me. As long as it wasn't a school day I could stay up the whole time for all they cared. On school days I had to be in bed by eleven, I had it good. I knew friends who still had to be in bed by eight every night, I felt bad for them. Apparently no one bothered to wake me, and my mom had left for the store. It was nine O'clock now and she should be back any second, my older sister should be in her room like she is every day that doesn't have school. She's only a year older, she's a senior in high-school, so she is taking it easy on the last year. I'm the youngest, but I'm only two years behind my oldest sibling, my brother. My brother is rarely home now, he has a dorm at a nearby college for the weekdays and stops by at random moments on the weekend. He could be by any second too. My sister, Melanie, won't be out here any time soon, she really only leaves for meals, if we want to talk to her or anything we have to go into her room to do it. That's the cool thing about sis, even if she likes her privacy in her room and will stay in it for hours on end, she still interacts with the family and doesn't mind if we join her in her room. So long as we don't go through the stuff she doesn't want us too and we don't try to intrude too much, if we do that then she's cool with all of us chilling in there. I might go in and hang with her, she was always pretty cool. She liked a lot of things I liked, when we found something we liked we shared it with the other and usually they liked it too. My Bro isn't as cool, he likes some things we do, but he has a lot of conflicting interests. He was always dependable though, if we needed help we could usually depend on him to help. I yawned, I had gotten my rest, even if it was only two hours, so I'm pretty rested for now. At least until it gets to tonight, then the rest of my exhaustion will sink in. depriving myself of sleep always makes it easier to go to sleep though. I stretched out my limbs, they all stretched out in a weird way. I moved my arms and legs, they felt different. I looked down to see what was wrong, what I saw almost gave me a heart attack. I saw a small yellow body of a pony, there were wings on the side. I scrambled to my newly acquired hooves, I was hyperventilating over my sudden change. I blew pink hair out of one of my eyes, it never reached my eye though. It bounced in front of my eyes, it didn't fall into my eye or impede my vision too much. I looked back down at my butter colored hooves. Wait... butter colored? Pink hair in my eyes? I slowly turned my eyes back to look at my flank, it was adorned by three butterflies. “Ahh!” I screamed, it was an ear piercing scream. It wasn't quite like I had expected it to sound, if i was Fluttershy that scream should have been quiet. I covered a hoof to my mouth, but it was too late, it had already been let out. “What the heck was tha–” I watched my sister walk into the room, she stopped as soon as she saw me. “Help me Mel! I don't know what to do!” this time my voice was quieter, regardless of the volume my voice still had urgency in it's tone. “I-I... I d-don't... what?” she was standing there with her mouth open. I think I broke her, great, the first person I meet and I send them into shock. “I don't know what happened! I woke up and now I'm Fluttershy!” I cried out to her, I hoped I could get past the mental block in her brain. I had no such luck, she just continued to stare at me. “Augh! Why aren't you doing anything?!” I cried out to her, she snapped back to reality. “I-I... Who... What am I supposed to do?!” she cried back. She was waving her hands frantically, she did make a good point though. “I don't know! But you probably have a better idea than I do!” I shouted back to her, we were both drained of any ideas. “I'm not the pony!” she shouted, this was a valid point too. “But you're older! Don't you have anything!?” I was getting desperate and I could see she was just as distressed as I was. This shouting match was getting us nowhere, all we were doing was making good points about why the other would know more about this situation than the other. But the fact of the matter is, none of us knew anything about this. “No! I don't know anything about this!” she was looking around frantically, she had resorted to pacing frantically. At least now i knew she was thinking, maybe i should too. “Oh, I think I do. Here let's see if it's on right now.” we both looked frantically over to the door to see my brother standing in the doorway. How long had he been standing there? We must have been to caught up shouting at each-other to notice his entry, If so, why did he wait to intervene if he knew something? “Dave! What are you doing here?!” I was still shouting in my quiet tone. “Well, this is still kinda my house too. I used to live here too Clemente.” he walked over next to me and flipped on the T.V. Screen. “Wait. You know it's me?!” I couldn't stop shouting, I was a little afraid if I didn't they wouldn't be able to hear me. What else does he know about this situation. Actually... Why did he know anything about this at all?! “Yeah, it's not hard to figure out. Now can you stop yelling at me? No matter how soft it is it still doesn't sound great to have you shouting directly in my ear,” he flipped through the channel guide. He switched onto a news station. “Sorry...” I said, he looked at me when I said it in my normal tone of voice. My new normal tone of voice that is, my old tone of voice was much louder. “I said stop yelling, that doesn't mean you have to whisper.” I looked at him sheepishly. “I'm not whispering, that's just my voice...” he looked at me and laughed. I looked at him and was about to tell him off before he shushed me. "Just watch the news,” we looked towards the T.V. There was nothing especially great about he news, it was just showing the weather. After a while however, the T.V. Got to the interesting things. Everyone stayed quiet while the message played. “Lauren Faust, creator of hit series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has been found to have been turned into the show's matriarch. An Alicorn Princess by the name of Celestia, she was taken into questioning earlier by the CIA and has been confirmed as the real Lauren Faust. Another Alicorn Princess from the show has been taken into similar questioning, she claims to be Tara Strong. She urges anyone with information to contact her, and she has called for the same respect to these people turned ponies that you would give anyone else. She held a press conference earlier with some important names, these names included the president himself. These are not the first confirmed sightings of any ponies however, there seems to have been an incident yesterday in a small city in Arizona. There is assumed to be more cases later if not right now, if you find yourself in this situation you are urged to contact so a correct count on the number of cases per day can be found.” We all watched in amazement as the message droned on, they continued to talk about a sighting of a unicorn in Arizona, “hello there world! Nice to see you! Now as I'm sure you noticed, I am a pony. But I highly doubt I'm the only one. Now if you find yourself in a similar situation, I would like to hear from you. I have a Facebook that you can reach me on, it is Starlet Mint. We may be able to fix this if we work together. I really must be going now though.” with that she turned to leave. there was a scene with the cops, one of them seemed to be pointing a gun at her. She saw the gun, she looked right at it, but she just teleported away. I watched as my brother pulled my laptop out, he handed it to me. I silently put in the password and he opened a new tab up to Facebook. “So... I'm not alone?” I finally asked after a while. “Yeah, but even if there weren't others we would still be here for you,” that's what was nice about my brother, he was always the bright side kind of guy. As I was thinking about what we should do I saw my brother fiddling around with the Facebook settings, he flipped the screen to me and took a picture of the new me, I was startled by the sudden movement. He snickered at the computer screen, I leaned over and saw that he had changed my Facebook account picture to the picture of Fluttershy he had just taken. He changed the nickname on my account to Fluttershy, I looked at him curiously. “You said you aren't a Brony. How do you know I'm Fluttershy?” I smiled at the thought he might be a Brony. “I recognized the pony as a main one, so I Googled it,” he waved it off. I frowned, so much for having him turn out to be a closet Brony. “So, do we send a message to this Starlet person?” he looked to me for confirmation. “No, I don't see a need for it right now, you should post a message explaining what happened though. He nodded and continued to type, I turned to my sister. She had been sitting there inspecting me the whole time. “um... do you want som–” I let out a tiny squeal as she rushed forward. she embraced me in a hug to rival all other hugs. “I have a little sister!” great, now I have to deal with this. I sighed as she continued to hug me, when she finally let me go she started to bounce in place. “This is great! You wanna go shopping? You need some new clothes to better fit you now that you're Fluttershy!” she asked excitedly. “Sorry Mel, same brain. So the answer is no, and how's that post going Dave?” I looked over to him. “It's up, but I think I know what we should do. This Celestia person is powerful, right? And smart? Maybe we should contact her,” he had pulled open her Facebook. “Yeah, Lauren created MLP. If anyone knows what we should do, it would be her,” he nodded and started to send a message. “Mel? Can you stop that?” she stopped picking at my wings, she smiled sheepishly and pulled back. “Sorry, but can you fly?” she looked at me expectantly. I thought for a second, maybe I could. That would be pretty cool, flying would be a plus to this new body. “I don't know. I haven't even tried walking, flying seems a little complicated for me right now,” I should try walking though, i will need that skill if I plan on going anywhere. I'm pretty sure I can't just stay on this couch forever. “You never know until you try!” she ushered me to my feet and i reluctantly got up. "Walking first, flying later" i told her, I should get this out of the way. Standing was easy, I pulled one of my feet up. I looked at my legs and thought on how my balance works. It wouldn't be logical to pull up two legs next to each-other at once like both my right or both my front. That would leave me unbalanced, so I need to balance. I could move one leg at a time, but I'm pretty sure in the show they use two hooves with each step. The only way that could be done is if I move the opposite corner hoof, so then I just move front left and back right, then front right and back left. Easy peasy, I made a couple of laps around my living room before we heard a door open. “Come help with groceries!” we all got up from our spots and went to help. Our mom was putting things inside a cabinet in the kitchen, so she didn't see us as we walked by. I walked outside and grabbed a bag, I pulled it out, it was a bag of vegetables, the smell of the fresh vegetables was making me hungry. My brother and sister were already inside putting their groceries away, when I turned around I saw my mother standing in the door way. She had a look of shock which quickly turned to a look of rage, “You! Put that down you thief! You things were bad enough when you weren't trying to steal our things!” she was advancing towards me, I cowered a little. I opened my mouth to respond, but when i moved my jaws nothing came out. She was glaring at me menacingly, I could see her clenched fists as she came up to me. When she neared I closed my eyes in fear, my mom was never mean to us, but I knew that she was scary when she was mad. When she came up to me there was a pause, then i felt the impact of her fist as it slammed against my right eye, I squealed as I dropped the bag. I felt the pain enter my eye, I closed my eye to help ease the pain. it didn't help much, the pain was still intense. I had never gotten in a fight before, I wasn't used to being struck; especially by my mother. I heard a door opening, I was too busy cowering in fear from my mothers raised fist. I closed my eyes in wait for another strike, fortunately it never came. “What are you doing?!” it was Dave's voice, I opened one eye to see him yelling at her. My mother turned to see him yelling at her, she was still mad. “I'm putting this thief in their place!” She turned to me again, I was already on my feet and running for my life. As soon as she had turned to face my brother I hightailed it out of there, I wasn't risking what the outcome might be. I ran as fast as I could, I heard yelling behind me, “Get out of here you filth!” I ran until I could run no more. Stinkin' Thinkin'I was deep inside the town before I stopped running, I had nowhere to go. I was just wandering the streets, I was drawing attention, but I didn't care. I looked to see where I was, if I was near anywhere near where one of my friends worked. Hopefully a friend that is tolerating of this sort of thing, I don't want a repeat of earlier. I cringed as I thought of my encounter with my mom, her words echoed in my head, they stung every time the bounced off my skull. I noticed that I was near a pony tolerant friend, she was one of my best friends and she accepted me being a Brony well. She even liked the ponies, the only reason she wasn't a Brony was that she wasn't a fan, she just liked them. It had confused me how she could like them without being a fan, but when she explains it, it just makes sense. I walked over to the nearby comic book store, she wasn't a fan of comic books, but she did enjoy some of them sometimes. I knew that she worked most days, here's to hoping she's in today. I walked in and my heart leaped to see a friendly face, I usually came by here if I had nothing better to do, every-time I came by and she was here she was reading something behind the counter. Sure enough today was no exception, I saw her with her nose deep in a book, when she heard the tinkle of the bells on the door she looked over. She almost fell out of her chair in shock, I could see she had been informed of the situation with the ponies as she quickly composed herself. “Can I help you miss?” she was obviously still shocked, but she was doing a good job of containing it. “You can start by not calling me miss. Could I hang with you for a while Rosalynn? I don't really have another person to hang with,” she looked a little shocked at my request. “Umm... sure? But how did you know my name?” she looked down to make sure she didn't somehow gain a name-tag. “It's me, Clemente. Surprise!” I feigned enthusiasm as I walked over to a chair by the counter, I pulled myself onto it with a little struggle. I rested my head onto the counter and she was looking at me. “Clemente!? Why are you a pony? Why are you a female? Why are you here?” I lifted my head and looked her in the eyes. “I don't know,” I lowered my head back to the table, I was too drained to say anymore. “Are you okay?” she leaned forward to brush my mane away from my right eye. “I'm fine,” I wasn't fine, but I didn't need my dignity taken from me. I could handle a punch, I wouldn't let myself be babied by her. Besides, I had so much taken away from me already, I had my masculinity, my body, my spirit, and finally my family taken from me. Forgive me if I'm less than happy with the world, I just wanted to close my eyes and wish this whole mess away. What was I even going to do? I can't solve this problem on my own, I don't even know where to start. I don't even know if this problem can be solved, and if it can I don't know who knows how to solve it. There is just so much I don't know, with so much left in the dark I can't even imagine what I am going to do in this situation. Well if I can't find what to do let's start at the opposite, what don't I do. Okay, so things I won't do. Finding things not to do is actually just as challenging, I don't know what to avoid. I'll obviously avoid bad things, but what is a bad thing? Murderers? Psycho's? I haven't seen and don't expect to see any, so I've got that covered. But other than the obvious, what is a bad thing? Probably something that has faced me with intentional malice. Only one instance comes to mind, and it wasn't that long ago. I'm an outcast to my own family, they can't see me as family until I get back to normal. So that's it then, I can't see my family anymore. At least not until I'm back to normal, then I can go back and be a part of the family. Now to what I do in that time, I can't go home so I need somewhere to stay. Could I stay here in the shop? I looked around and finally rested my eyes on Rosalynn, she saw me looking at her and looked up from her book. No, I can't stay here, the only reason I'm here now is because it was close by and I had a friend here. She won't be here all the time, her shift will end and I'll have to leave if I'm not a customer. Maybe I could go home with her? We could hang around at her place, but I don't know if that's appropriate. A boy staying with a girl at her house, I'm sure that her parents wouldn't approve. But I'm a girl now right? Maybe they don't have to know I'm a boy... No, that's just deceitful. Besides, I don't know if I can handle what she would put me through at her house. Do I know anyone else I could stay with? I thought long and hard as I rattled off names in my head, the only person that came to mind was Dave. He was really the only other person whose house I could stay at, but I crossed off family already. But wasn't he the one who had helped us in the beginning? When I woke up? He was the one who told me they would be there for me no matter what. If I could trust anyone it's him, after all, isn't he the dependable one? No, I can't go back, the rest of them still won't accept me, I'll just be chased away as soon as I step foot inside. Besides, I have no way to reach him. I left all my stuff at the house. Wait... all of my stuff. My phone, my money, my wallet, my identification. It's all back there, now I don't even have a way of showing who I am, who I used to be. I am officially Fluttershy, a facial recognition is the only way of identification I have. How am I going to do anything without money anyways? I can't buy food, I don't have a way to pay for it. Great, so let's tally up what I have riding against me. I am homeless, family-less, broke, lost, faceless, and helpless. My heart sank lower than ever before, I was truly at my lowest. With the way things were going, it could only get better. It could truly only get better, what more could happen? I could die, but even that might be an improvement. I could lose a loved one, but I had no one close to me anymore. I was forsaken by my own family, and I wasn't even me anymore. I could fall victim to endless torture, that was really the only thing that could bring me lower. Losing my free-will, that's all that could happen. Was that truly all I had left? My free will? If I've got all the things running against me listed, I might as well get the good things out. I have wings, but I can't fly. I could try and fix that later though, flying shouldn't be too hard. I am famous, fame could get me a lot of things I needed, namely food and shelter. I am... what else do I have going for me? Hopefulness? No, I am still pretty doubtful. Kindness? I am the element of kindness after all, but I don't remember being all that kind yet. I have to have more than two things going for me, what does Fluttershy have? She has her animals, but I don't have any animals. She has her friends, I looked up towards Rosalynn. I have my friends too I suppose, I know I have one I can count on so far. What about Fluttershy's friends? Do I have them too? The elements are bound together in an unbreakable bond of friendship, but is that friendship bond physical? Or maybe it's meta-physical, bound to their spirit. If that's so then I guess I don't have them, Fluttershy does, but Fluttershy isn't here. It's only me in her body, so I guess I don't really have her friends. Besides, you can't be friends with people you haven't met, can you? There is always the case of online friends, you can get to be good friends with someone online, but are you really friends? Some people can act very differently online, and maybe you don't want to be friends with them offline, but online they are pretty good friends. It's like the online one and the offline one are two different people, maybe they are. You have met the online one, so you can be friends with them. But if you haven't met the offline one you don't really know them, that means you can't really be friends with them right? This is getting confusing, of course you can't be friends with people you don't know. Blindly putting your faith into something is only a good idea if you can trust what you are putting your faith into. To trust something you have to get a glimpse of what it is to know you can put your trust in it. I can't be friends with the others, and they can't be friends with me, not until we truly know each-other. I can't put my faith into things close to me either, last time I did that I got socked across the face. It seems you can't trust anything, if you trust in something too much it hurts even more when your trust is betrayed. I really don't have much riding for me, but haven't people gotten by with worse? After all, I'm not stranded somewhere I don't know. I wasn't fatally injured or terminally sick, my situation could be completely hopeless, but it's not. I'm not usually such a downer like this, must be female hormones or something, it's not very fun being depressed like this. I really have to get over this and get on my feet, I need to get moving. This predicament is not going to fix itself after all, I need a plan first. Didn't we have something in mind? Oh yeah, we sent a message to princess Fausticorn. She needs a better name, that just sounds horrible. “Hey, Rosalynn? Can I use your computer?” she looked up from her book and nodded. She leaned over to her bag and pulled out a sleek black laptop, I swear her family is rich. She had a Razer Blade Pro, one of the best gaming computers out there. She even had a Razer Ouroboros mouse to go with it, not to mention her Tiamat headset. She didn't waste the gaming potential though, she used these for intense gaming. We played prop hunt and trouble in terrorist town a lot together, we usually gathered a bunch of friends and got on Skype while playing, and we found that being able to talk to each-other made it much more fun. She was one of the best players in all the games we played, the closest second was a good friend of mine named Zack. He used to live here, but he moved to Oklahoma a year or so back. We still stayed connected over Skype and me, him, and Rosalynn would game together occasionally. She logged into the computer, “what you looking to search?” she asked. “Facebook, I need to check something,” she nodded and opened it up. “Oh, look. It's your post,” she turned the computer towards me. “Yeah, great, can I log in,” I watched as there were multiple clicks and some typing before it was turned to me. “Thank you,” I typed my password in carefully, she had already put in my email for me. I watched as the website loaded in record speed, this was a great laptop. I think I might just faint from its speed and beauty, I want to marry this laptop. Okay, enough of being weird, it's time to focus. I had two messages, one was from Faust and the other was from my brother. I looked at my options for a while before deciding Faust was first and foremost. “Hello Clemente, I am afraid that I do not know how to fix this.” my heart sank a little but I read on, “however, I have been informed that the answer may lie in gathering the element users together. You may have heard of the unicorn known as Starlet Mint, she was the one to formulate this plan and is on her way up here to help. We need to gather the element users in New York, seeing as you are Fluttershy I have to insist you get to New York post haste. If you see any other element users, inform them if they do not already know. I am trying to locate them myself, but I am having a bit of difficulty finding any of them. I will await your arrival, try to contact Starlet when you arrive, she seems to have a better idea of this situation then I do and it would be good if she could inform you on anything she might have learned.” I finished reading it up. Something didn't sit well with me, I didn't like the idea that this starlet person knew more about this than anyone. It just seemed a bit odd that some random person would know more about this then the creator of the show. That and the fact that it seemed a bit too easy to have someone just wake up and have a plan, one that involves getting all the ponies of power together at once. Even if it did seem like a good idea to get the element users together, it was all too convenient. Regardless of how convenient it seemed I still need to get to New York, suspicious or not this Starlet person knows something. I'm getting answers at any cost. “Okay, I'll be sure to bring tell the others. I'll see you in New York!” I sent the message out and looked at the notifications. I still had one message, it was from my brother. The least I could do was acknowledge it. “Clemente? Where are you? Are you okay? I'm looking for you now, if you see this please answer.” I sighed, I was conflicted. On one hand, it would be nice to see him. On the other hand, I said I wouldn't go back to family until this was fixed. Family or not, he's one of my good friends too. Plus it wouldn't me going to my family, it would be him coming for me. I just can't let him drag me back, he deserves an explanation though. “I'm at the comic book shop that Rosalynn works at,” I sent the message out, he should be here soon then. Maybe he can go back and grab my stuff, then I can head off to New York. I closed down the tab and shut the laptop, now all I had to do was wait. I didn't have to wait long, he was apparently already very close. Not even five minutes later he appeared in the parking lot, it was pretty empty so it wasn't hard to see him. He rushed into the shop, good thing it was empty because I could tell he would have made a scene had it not been. “Clemente! There you are! Are you okay? It's alright to come back now. Mel is explaining things to mom right now. I'm sure she's sorry for yelling at you,” I looked away from him. “I'm not going back...” he looked at me in shock. “Why? Its okay, I'm sure she understands. I ran after you after Mel started to explain things to her. She tried to stop things from getting out of han–” he stopped suddenly, he rushed over to me and pulled my mane away so it wasn't covering my right eye anymore. He let out a gasp, “What happened? Who did this to you?!” he was looking around as if my attacker was here. “It's nothing, its fine. I'm sure mom didn't mean too, she was just scared...” he looked at me shocked. “Mom? She...” I nodded before he could finish the sentence. “Come on back, I'm sure she is sorry for what she did. Come on back and we can–” I hushed him with my hoof. “I'm not going back, I've caused enough trouble. Besides, I'm not needed there, I'm needed in New York,” I lowered my hoof to see his confusion. “New York? You’re going to New York?” I saw he was still distraught about me not wanting to go home, but he was okay with a subject change. “Yeah, there are answers and a possible way to fix this, but it involves me. I'm needed for the plan to possibly work, so I need to go to New York,” I pulled myself out of his grip. “Okay, well let's head back to my place. We can talk about this there, seeing as you don't want to go home.” he got up and walked towards the door. “Bye Rosalynn, thanks for letting me hang here,” I waved as I headed towards the door myself. “No Prob. Besides, not like I had much else to do,” she gestured towards the empty store and we laughed. I smiled, it felt good to finally laugh. Like a laugh released frustration and negative feelings. Maybe Pinkie Pie was onto something with the whole laughter thing, laughter really is the best medicine. FractureWe both got into the car; the seat cushion was really soft. My brother turned on the car and headed onto the road. He headed towards Oregon, that's where he lived. He isn't that far from our house because it usually takes him twenty to thirty minutes to get to our house, but I have never actually been to his dorm. “Wow, I'm gonna actually get to see your dorm!” I let the excitement be very evident in my voice. He looked over and scratched the back of his head nervously. “Oh, did I not tell you guys? I got an apartment not too long ago...” he trailed off towards the end, but I still heard it. “You mean I'm the first to visit your unknown apartment” I let out an almost inaudible squeal, I was that excited. “Well aren't you the spritely one now, at least you’re not a downer now,” he let out a small laugh. “I wasn't that bad...” I looked out the window at the cars passing by. We drove on for w while in silence; we were passing over the bridge when Dave decided to speak up. “So how do you plan on getting to New York?” that was a valid question. “I'll figure something out...” I should start thinking now if I want to even have a chance of figuring something out. “I could always drive you,” he had a point, that might be easier. No, he had obligations, he needed to be here. “No, you need to take care of Mom and Mel, I'm counting on you,” he nodded and I went back to brainstorming. “I couldn't take a plane, I don't even have my ID,” Dave took then to pull my wallet and phone out of the middle compartment. I stared at them and then realized what they were, “you grabbed those? Thank you Dave! This makes things a tad bit easier,” he put them back in the compartment. “But I still don't have enough for a plane, and I'm not sure if they'll accept my ID if it doesn't look like me,” so plane is still out of the picture. “You could try and get there with another pony,” that would be great if any-pony was around here. “I doubt any-pony would go out of their way to the exact opposite corner of the country, if there happened to be a pony around here then maybe. But there isn't as far as I know, plus it would take forever to find them and I have to get there as fast as I can,” I looked outside the window again. We passed by a Jack in the box, then a police station. There was a woman walking her dog and a man leaning against a gate. This scene caught my attention as I stuck my head out the window and in those next few seconds several things happened. I'll slow down what I saw; the man was leaning there talking to a girl. The girl was blonde, but that's not what interested me. What interested me was that this girl seemed scared of him, but the man was making no move on her. He just leaned against the wall and talked, she ran. He didn't attempt to chase her as she ran across the street, I thought this was curious. Why was she afraid of him if he was doing nothing? But that still wasn't what got my full attention. What got my attention was when she ran across the street, right in front of a car. My mind froze and slowly thawed out leaving this scene in slow motion as I watched in horror. I watched as her head turned to the side just as the car hit her, she was swept of her feet and landed back down on the street a few seconds later. There was a squeal of tires as the car sped off down the highway, Dave may or may not have made a comment about his speed. I'm not sure because any sound had fell into a drone as I watched the man turn around as she lay there in agony. They all just left her; they left her for dead on the road. As soon as I regained my senses I was rushing back to the street I had seen the accident take place, as soon as I could see the street I looked around for the blonde haired girl I saw get hit. I never saw her. My heart skipped a beat at the figure I saw in the road, it was not a blonde haired girl. Something inside me snapped, I don't know what it was, but I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. I looked down at the blonde pony before me, the same pony that had just been a person and had gotten hit by a car. I looked at the first pony I met, I looked at the first hit and run victim I met, I looked at the first friendly face I met, I looked at the first element of harmony I met, I looked at Applejack as she lay on the street. The tears flowed out as I let out an ear-piercing scream, I couldn't handle it. The tears flowed freely down my face as I rushed to aid the poor pony, but even I didn’t know what I could do. I got too her and looked down, she just lay there. I could hardly see her through my tears, she looked blurry. As I stood there crying I thought I saw movement, I gasped and wiped the tears from my eyes enough to see that she was moving. Her chest heaved up and down ever so slightly, she was breathing. There was a chance I could save her, but I need help. I looked down the street as I heard feet running towards us, I looked up to see a man running over. “Can you please help us? She was hit by a car, but she’s still alive!” the man reached us and I looked up to him. He nodded to me as he knelt to look at her, he looked her over. He looked a little out of breath; he looked like he had run a lot longer than just down the street. He looked up to me after inspecting her, he looked back down after a second and then back up to me again. “Are you sure she got hit by a car? She looks fine.” He put a hand to her body and gently felt around for anything he might not have been able to catch from sight alone. “Not a scratch on her, not a single bruise or anything. Her breathing isn’t ragged and her pulse seems fine, she doesn’t even have a temperature. There doesn’t seem to be any broken bones, and she doesn’t flinch in pain at any touch. She appears to be sleeping; I don’t know why she’s in the middle of the road though.” I looked at her in amazement, that couldn’t be true. I saw the car hit her; I watched the car speed away. I saw her run from that mysterious man, wait… that man! Where was he, he had just walked away! He had seen the whole thing; she had been running from him when it happened. “I saw her get hit; the car just drove off in a hurry! She was running from a man! And the man just left her!” the words fell out of my mouth in a jumble; the man looked at me curiously. “Well, in any case, we need to get her off the road,” the man lifted her up and started to carry her down the road. “You coming?” I rushed to catch up with him. “Where are we taking her?” I looked up at the unconscious pony. “My place, it should be a comfortable quiet place for her to rest until she wakes up, then she can tell us what happened,” we didn't go far down the road when he turned to a house. There was an orange cat on the porch that ran away as we approached the porch. The man expertly opened the door with his hands occupied, the door swung open and I heard a woman's voice from the kitchen. “Hi Honey!” I watched as a woman emerged from the kitchen and moved over to him and saw the pony in his arms. “Oh, is the poor thing okay?” she ran over to look at Applejack. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Applejack was breathing, “Oh, she's breathing. Where was she?” she moved down the hall and we followed. “She was lying unconscious in the streets, something happened. I'm not quite sure what it was, but she says she was hit by a car,” the woman opened a door and the man placed Applejack on the bed that was inside. The woman seemed to finally notice me, she looked at the man when he said that, but when she looked she saw me. She looked at me in surprise; I just gave a nervous smile. “Oh, I didn't see you dearie! Who might you be? Wait, I think I remember something. You’re a pegasus, could you be... Rainbow Dash? No, you're shy. Something shy... flicker, flapper, flitter, flutter, Flutter! Fluttershy! That's it right?” she looked at me expectantly, this woman sure was cheery. “Um... yeah,” I moved my head away a little. “Do you want something to drink? We can hang in the living room while we wait for your friend to wake up. Her name is... let's see... apples, apples, apples. Something with apples. Ahh, it slips my mind... he always talked about you pegasi more,” she was walking out of the room and we were following right behind her. “You can go sit on the couch, anything you want to drink? Tea? Milk? Water? Juice?” she stopped her trail into the kitchen so she could hear the answer. “Uh... some juice please, whatever you have,” I continued to follow the man into the living room. He sat at one of the couches and I sat at another. We both waited in silence as the woman in the kitchen got our drinks. She came back holding two mugs and a glass; the glass had a straw in it. “Apple juice,” she said handing me the cup, I graciously accepted it. She moved back to the couch the man was sitting on and handed him a mug, he kissed her and she sat down next to him. She took a sip of her drink before beginning, “So, tell us about yourself miss pegasus!” her tone of voice reminded me of pinkie level cheeriness. It seemed like nothing could deter her cheery mood, it made me a little more comfortable sitting there in a strange home. Even if I didn't know these people I knew I could trust them, I know that their kind and generous, they seem so happy. “Oh, my names Clemente. I kinda just woke up like this today, still kinda getting used to it,” I laughed nervously at my situation and she just smiled. “Clemente? So not a girl? Okay, well... hm... What about your friend?” I turned my head away a little; the answer wasn't exactly the best I could give. “Well, she isn't exactly my friend. I just saw her get hit by the car running from that weird guy and I came to help,” she looked over to the man on the couch next to her. “Not me, I hadn't heard about this till now,” he raised his hands up in response to her look. “What’s this about a weird guy?” he turned to me. “Well I didn't see much, but I remember what I did see. That girl was running from a man, but the man wasn't following her. He just stood there and talked, she ran away but didn't check the street... she was hit by the car and the car drove off, when I flew back to the street I found she had become Applejack,” as I finished they both thought it over. “You’re saying she wasn't a pony when the man was there? And after the accident she became a pony? What happened to this guy, did you see where he went?” he was looking thoughtful; he looked to me for answers. I shook my head, “No, but after the girl got hit he just turned and started to walk away. I didn't see where he went after that, but it seemed like he didn't even care. He saw the accident happen, but he didn't even attempt to help. He had just been talking to her before, but she seemed frightened of him.” it was a very curious scene, but I don't know what happened. The only person that could tell us would be that girl, so we can only wait to find out. “Well, we'll just ask that girl when she gets up. Maybe she can fill in the holes in our story, maybe. Well, what about you? What were you doing before you went to help her?” I thought back and froze up. “I had been driving with my brother to his new apartment; can I use your computer? Actually, can you log onto my Facebook and send him a message? I kinda just jumped out the window and flew to her aid without thinking, I'm sure he's worried,” the man nodded and got up from his seat and left the room, I followed behind him. When he pulled open the tab I read off my credentials and he put them in, when he pulled open the tab I directed him to my brother. “Hey Dave, sorry I kinda jumped out on you there. I'm safe, I just have to wait here a while. I'm on–” I looked to the man, he just typed it in “NE 128th Ave. Can he come by?” the man just nodded and put it in, “Come on by, I'll explain everything when you get here. and send, did you get that all?” the man nodded and sent off the message. “Say, I still don't know your name,” he logged out from the account and stood up. “Yeah, I guess not. My name is Marty, and this is my girlfriend Jody,” we walked back into the living room and she waved excitedly. “That's me! So, tell us more about yourself,” she sat into the man, Marty if I recall correctly. “There's not much to say, I'm a junior in high-school, I'm the youngest of three, and I am now a mare pegasus with pink hair,” I moved my mane up as if to emphasize my point. “What happened to your eye?” I stopped at this; I dropped my mane and averted my eyes. My mane covered my right eye a good amount, so it hadn't been noticed before. But as soon as I moved my mane up and pulled attention to my eye it was impossible not to notice. “It's nothing...” I couldn't even bring myself to believe that. “It doesn't look like nothing. It looks like a black eye, what happened?” he obviously was concerned about my well-being. It would have warmed my heart to see his care if my heart wasn't already dropping from thinking back on the moment. “It's nothing. Nothing happened... please... just drop the subject...” he looked ready to answer when Jody looked at him. He shut his mouth and thought for a second, he looked back at me and thought of something else to say. “Well, you can tell us anything if you need to,” he changed the topic, “So this brother of yours, what about him?” I looked at him a little confused. “Um... what?” I was sincerely confused. “What about your brother? What's he like?” when he said it like that it sounded obvious. “Oh, right, well... he's dependable; he's a freshman in college. He's also the oldest of the three of us. Me, my sister, and him are the only kids our parents ever had. We get along fine, he comes over every once in a while,” there wasn't much I could say. My brother had always been a sort of enigma; I didn't really even know what he studied in college. I don't think anyone knows; it's not like he's keeping secrets, but he just somehow has all these gaps in information. It's like no one has ever bothered to ask, actually that's probably it. He doesn't usually keep secrets and if we don't know something, he'll tell us; most of the time that is. “Well, I'm afraid were nothing special either. I work for a company making roadways, I have two kids and she has two of her own. They're all boys, and they're all in high-school. All except one, he's graduated. Her kids live around here, my kids live down In Arizona.” he finished up his description and sat back. We sat there for several minutes with nothing to say, finally Jody broke the tension. “So what's it like being a pony?” it was a question I didn't really have an answer for, it really wasn't something that could be described easily. “It's different. I can't really describe it; it's like its natural, but also like its abnormal. Like it's naturally abnormal,” that was the best I could describe it. It had gotten natural for me to walk and move in this body, but my brain still reacted like this wasn't normal. “Can you use your wings?” I thought on that, I had used them when flying back to applejack. Had used them, but I hadn't thought about using them. I hadn't used them before or after that, it was like my brain kicked into instinct when doing it. “Probably with a bit of practice. I used them once before, but I wasn't thinking about it.” all I would have to do is remember how I flapped them, I did remember the motions and everything. But just because I remember how to do it doesn't mean I can, application and theoretical thinking are very different and have different outcomes. I was brought out of my thoughts when I was brought to the attention of my bladder. “Can I use your guys’ bathroom?” I really had to go, I haven't gone since yesterday. “Yeah, go straight down that hall and then directly to the right,” he pointed out the door and I followed his directions. I hadn't gone to the restroom in this body yet, and not only am I a pony, but I'm a female too. This is going to be very awkward and interesting. I got through that situation without too much difficulty, but it was truly the awkwardest moment in my life. Thus far at least. As I was walking down the hallway I heard a voice from the door inside said hallway. “What in Tarnation happened? Where the hay am I?” I pushed open the door to see that Applejack was now awake. “Hey there sleepy head, you have a nice nap?” I laughed as I saw her eyes grow wide; I think we both had some explaining to do.
FluttERRI looked around, I was on my couch. I had fallen asleep on my couch. Dang it, just when I had thought I could make it 48 hours without sleeping. I had tried to stay up for the whole time, but I had fallen asleep at around seven O'clock watching television. Last night had been spent on the computer, my parents hadn't tried to stop me. As long as it wasn't a school day I could stay up the whole time for all they cared. On school days I had to be in bed by eleven, I had it good. I knew friends who still had to be in bed by eight every night, I felt bad for them. Apparently no one bothered to wake me, and my mom had left for the store. It was nine O'clock now and she should be back any second, my older sister should be in her room like she is every day that doesn't have school. She's only a year older, she's a senior in high-school, so she is taking it easy on the last year. I'm the youngest, but I'm only two years behind my oldest sibling, my brother. My brother is rarely home now, he has a dorm at a nearby college for the weekdays and stops by at random moments on the weekend. He could be by any second too. My sister, Melanie, won't be out here any time soon, she really only leaves for meals, if we want to talk to her or anything we have to go into her room to do it. That's the cool thing about sis, even if she likes her privacy in her room and will stay in it for hours on end, she still interacts with the family and doesn't mind if we join her in her room. So long as we don't go through the stuff she doesn't want us too and we don't try to intrude too much, if we do that then she's cool with all of us chilling in there. I might go in and hang with her, she was always pretty cool. She liked a lot of things I liked, when we found something we liked we shared it with the other and usually they liked it too. My Bro isn't as cool, he likes some things we do, but he has a lot of conflicting interests. He was always dependable though, if we needed help we could usually depend on him to help. I yawned, I had gotten my rest, even if it was only two hours, so I'm pretty rested for now. At least until it gets to tonight, then the rest of my exhaustion will sink in. depriving myself of sleep always makes it easier to go to sleep though. I stretched out my limbs, they all stretched out in a weird way. I moved my arms and legs, they felt different. I looked down to see what was wrong, what I saw almost gave me a heart attack. I saw a small yellow body of a pony, there were wings on the side. I scrambled to my newly acquired hooves, I was hyperventilating over my sudden change. I blew pink hair out of one of my eyes, it never reached my eye though. It bounced in front of my eyes, it didn't fall into my eye or impede my vision too much. I looked back down at my butter colored hooves. Wait... butter colored? Pink hair in my eyes? I slowly turned my eyes back to look at my flank, it was adorned by three butterflies. “Ahh!” I screamed, it was an ear piercing scream. It wasn't quite like I had expected it to sound, if i was Fluttershy that scream should have been quiet. I covered a hoof to my mouth, but it was too late, it had already been let out. “What the heck was tha–” I watched my sister walk into the room, she stopped as soon as she saw me. “Help me Mel! I don't know what to do!” this time my voice was quieter, regardless of the volume my voice still had urgency in it's tone. “I-I... I d-don't... what?” she was standing there with her mouth open. I think I broke her, great, the first person I meet and I send them into shock. “I don't know what happened! I woke up and now I'm Fluttershy!” I cried out to her, I hoped I could get past the mental block in her brain. I had no such luck, she just continued to stare at me. “Augh! Why aren't you doing anything?!” I cried out to her, she snapped back to reality. “I-I... Who... What am I supposed to do?!” she cried back. She was waving her hands frantically, she did make a good point though. “I don't know! But you probably have a better idea than I do!” I shouted back to her, we were both drained of any ideas. “I'm not the pony!” she shouted, this was a valid point too. “But you're older! Don't you have anything!?” I was getting desperate and I could see she was just as distressed as I was. This shouting match was getting us nowhere, all we were doing was making good points about why the other would know more about this situation than the other. But the fact of the matter is, none of us knew anything about this. “No! I don't know anything about this!” she was looking around frantically, she had resorted to pacing frantically. At least now i knew she was thinking, maybe i should too. “Oh, I think I do. Here let's see if it's on right now.” we both looked frantically over to the door to see my brother standing in the doorway. How long had he been standing there? We must have been to caught up shouting at each-other to notice his entry, If so, why did he wait to intervene if he knew something? “Dave! What are you doing here?!” I was still shouting in my quiet tone. “Well, this is still kinda my house too. I used to live here too Clemente.” he walked over next to me and flipped on the T.V. Screen. “Wait. You know it's me?!” I couldn't stop shouting, I was a little afraid if I didn't they wouldn't be able to hear me. What else does he know about this situation. Actually... Why did he know anything about this at all?! “Yeah, it's not hard to figure out. Now can you stop yelling at me? No matter how soft it is it still doesn't sound great to have you shouting directly in my ear,” he flipped through the channel guide. He switched onto a news station. “Sorry...” I said, he looked at me when I said it in my normal tone of voice. My new normal tone of voice that is, my old tone of voice was much louder. “I said stop yelling, that doesn't mean you have to whisper.” I looked at him sheepishly. “I'm not whispering, that's just my voice...” he looked at me and laughed. I looked at him and was about to tell him off before he shushed me. "Just watch the news,” we looked towards the T.V. There was nothing especially great about he news, it was just showing the weather. After a while however, the T.V. Got to the interesting things. Everyone stayed quiet while the message played. “Lauren Faust, creator of hit series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has been found to have been turned into the show's matriarch. An Alicorn Princess by the name of Celestia, she was taken into questioning earlier by the CIA and has been confirmed as the real Lauren Faust. Another Alicorn Princess from the show has been taken into similar questioning, she claims to be Tara Strong. She urges anyone with information to contact her, and she has called for the same respect to these people turned ponies that you would give anyone else. She held a press conference earlier with some important names, these names included the president himself. These are not the first confirmed sightings of any ponies however, there seems to have been an incident yesterday in a small city in Arizona. There is assumed to be more cases later if not right now, if you find yourself in this situation you are urged to contact so a correct count on the number of cases per day can be found.” We all watched in amazement as the message droned on, they continued to talk about a sighting of a unicorn in Arizona, “hello there world! Nice to see you! Now as I'm sure you noticed, I am a pony. But I highly doubt I'm the only one. Now if you find yourself in a similar situation, I would like to hear from you. I have a Facebook that you can reach me on, it is Starlet Mint. We may be able to fix this if we work together. I really must be going now though.” with that she turned to leave. there was a scene with the cops, one of them seemed to be pointing a gun at her. She saw the gun, she looked right at it, but she just teleported away. I watched as my brother pulled my laptop out, he handed it to me. I silently put in the password and he opened a new tab up to Facebook. “So... I'm not alone?” I finally asked after a while. “Yeah, but even if there weren't others we would still be here for you,” that's what was nice about my brother, he was always the bright side kind of guy. As I was thinking about what we should do I saw my brother fiddling around with the Facebook settings, he flipped the screen to me and took a picture of the new me, I was startled by the sudden movement. He snickered at the computer screen, I leaned over and saw that he had changed my Facebook account picture to the picture of Fluttershy he had just taken. He changed the nickname on my account to Fluttershy, I looked at him curiously. “You said you aren't a Brony. How do you know I'm Fluttershy?” I smiled at the thought he might be a Brony. “I recognized the pony as a main one, so I Googled it,” he waved it off. I frowned, so much for having him turn out to be a closet Brony. “So, do we send a message to this Starlet person?” he looked to me for confirmation. “No, I don't see a need for it right now, you should post a message explaining what happened though. He nodded and continued to type, I turned to my sister. She had been sitting there inspecting me the whole time. “um... do you want som–” I let out a tiny squeal as she rushed forward. she embraced me in a hug to rival all other hugs. “I have a little sister!” great, now I have to deal with this. I sighed as she continued to hug me, when she finally let me go she started to bounce in place. “This is great! You wanna go shopping? You need some new clothes to better fit you now that you're Fluttershy!” she asked excitedly. “Sorry Mel, same brain. So the answer is no, and how's that post going Dave?” I looked over to him. “It's up, but I think I know what we should do. This Celestia person is powerful, right? And smart? Maybe we should contact her,” he had pulled open her Facebook. “Yeah, Lauren created MLP. If anyone knows what we should do, it would be her,” he nodded and started to send a message. “Mel? Can you stop that?” she stopped picking at my wings, she smiled sheepishly and pulled back. “Sorry, but can you fly?” she looked at me expectantly. I thought for a second, maybe I could. That would be pretty cool, flying would be a plus to this new body. “I don't know. I haven't even tried walking, flying seems a little complicated for me right now,” I should try walking though, i will need that skill if I plan on going anywhere. I'm pretty sure I can't just stay on this couch forever. “You never know until you try!” she ushered me to my feet and i reluctantly got up. "Walking first, flying later" i told her, I should get this out of the way. Standing was easy, I pulled one of my feet up. I looked at my legs and thought on how my balance works. It wouldn't be logical to pull up two legs next to each-other at once like both my right or both my front. That would leave me unbalanced, so I need to balance. I could move one leg at a time, but I'm pretty sure in the show they use two hooves with each step. The only way that could be done is if I move the opposite corner hoof, so then I just move front left and back right, then front right and back left. Easy peasy, I made a couple of laps around my living room before we heard a door open. “Come help with groceries!” we all got up from our spots and went to help. Our mom was putting things inside a cabinet in the kitchen, so she didn't see us as we walked by. I walked outside and grabbed a bag, I pulled it out, it was a bag of vegetables, the smell of the fresh vegetables was making me hungry. My brother and sister were already inside putting their groceries away, when I turned around I saw my mother standing in the door way. She had a look of shock which quickly turned to a look of rage, “You! Put that down you thief! You things were bad enough when you weren't trying to steal our things!” she was advancing towards me, I cowered a little. I opened my mouth to respond, but when i moved my jaws nothing came out. She was glaring at me menacingly, I could see her clenched fists as she came up to me. When she neared I closed my eyes in fear, my mom was never mean to us, but I knew that she was scary when she was mad. When she came up to me there was a pause, then i felt the impact of her fist as it slammed against my right eye, I squealed as I dropped the bag. I felt the pain enter my eye, I closed my eye to help ease the pain. it didn't help much, the pain was still intense. I had never gotten in a fight before, I wasn't used to being struck; especially by my mother. I heard a door opening, I was too busy cowering in fear from my mothers raised fist. I closed my eyes in wait for another strike, fortunately it never came. “What are you doing?!” it was Dave's voice, I opened one eye to see him yelling at her. My mother turned to see him yelling at her, she was still mad. “I'm putting this thief in their place!” She turned to me again, I was already on my feet and running for my life. As soon as she had turned to face my brother I hightailed it out of there, I wasn't risking what the outcome might be. I ran as fast as I could, I heard yelling behind me, “Get out of here you filth!” I ran until I could run no more.
Stinkin' Thinkin'I was deep inside the town before I stopped running, I had nowhere to go. I was just wandering the streets, I was drawing attention, but I didn't care. I looked to see where I was, if I was near anywhere near where one of my friends worked. Hopefully a friend that is tolerating of this sort of thing, I don't want a repeat of earlier. I cringed as I thought of my encounter with my mom, her words echoed in my head, they stung every time the bounced off my skull. I noticed that I was near a pony tolerant friend, she was one of my best friends and she accepted me being a Brony well. She even liked the ponies, the only reason she wasn't a Brony was that she wasn't a fan, she just liked them. It had confused me how she could like them without being a fan, but when she explains it, it just makes sense. I walked over to the nearby comic book store, she wasn't a fan of comic books, but she did enjoy some of them sometimes. I knew that she worked most days, here's to hoping she's in today. I walked in and my heart leaped to see a friendly face, I usually came by here if I had nothing better to do, every-time I came by and she was here she was reading something behind the counter. Sure enough today was no exception, I saw her with her nose deep in a book, when she heard the tinkle of the bells on the door she looked over. She almost fell out of her chair in shock, I could see she had been informed of the situation with the ponies as she quickly composed herself. “Can I help you miss?” she was obviously still shocked, but she was doing a good job of containing it. “You can start by not calling me miss. Could I hang with you for a while Rosalynn? I don't really have another person to hang with,” she looked a little shocked at my request. “Umm... sure? But how did you know my name?” she looked down to make sure she didn't somehow gain a name-tag. “It's me, Clemente. Surprise!” I feigned enthusiasm as I walked over to a chair by the counter, I pulled myself onto it with a little struggle. I rested my head onto the counter and she was looking at me. “Clemente!? Why are you a pony? Why are you a female? Why are you here?” I lifted my head and looked her in the eyes. “I don't know,” I lowered my head back to the table, I was too drained to say anymore. “Are you okay?” she leaned forward to brush my mane away from my right eye. “I'm fine,” I wasn't fine, but I didn't need my dignity taken from me. I could handle a punch, I wouldn't let myself be babied by her. Besides, I had so much taken away from me already, I had my masculinity, my body, my spirit, and finally my family taken from me. Forgive me if I'm less than happy with the world, I just wanted to close my eyes and wish this whole mess away. What was I even going to do? I can't solve this problem on my own, I don't even know where to start. I don't even know if this problem can be solved, and if it can I don't know who knows how to solve it. There is just so much I don't know, with so much left in the dark I can't even imagine what I am going to do in this situation. Well if I can't find what to do let's start at the opposite, what don't I do. Okay, so things I won't do. Finding things not to do is actually just as challenging, I don't know what to avoid. I'll obviously avoid bad things, but what is a bad thing? Murderers? Psycho's? I haven't seen and don't expect to see any, so I've got that covered. But other than the obvious, what is a bad thing? Probably something that has faced me with intentional malice. Only one instance comes to mind, and it wasn't that long ago. I'm an outcast to my own family, they can't see me as family until I get back to normal. So that's it then, I can't see my family anymore. At least not until I'm back to normal, then I can go back and be a part of the family. Now to what I do in that time, I can't go home so I need somewhere to stay. Could I stay here in the shop? I looked around and finally rested my eyes on Rosalynn, she saw me looking at her and looked up from her book. No, I can't stay here, the only reason I'm here now is because it was close by and I had a friend here. She won't be here all the time, her shift will end and I'll have to leave if I'm not a customer. Maybe I could go home with her? We could hang around at her place, but I don't know if that's appropriate. A boy staying with a girl at her house, I'm sure that her parents wouldn't approve. But I'm a girl now right? Maybe they don't have to know I'm a boy... No, that's just deceitful. Besides, I don't know if I can handle what she would put me through at her house. Do I know anyone else I could stay with? I thought long and hard as I rattled off names in my head, the only person that came to mind was Dave. He was really the only other person whose house I could stay at, but I crossed off family already. But wasn't he the one who had helped us in the beginning? When I woke up? He was the one who told me they would be there for me no matter what. If I could trust anyone it's him, after all, isn't he the dependable one? No, I can't go back, the rest of them still won't accept me, I'll just be chased away as soon as I step foot inside. Besides, I have no way to reach him. I left all my stuff at the house. Wait... all of my stuff. My phone, my money, my wallet, my identification. It's all back there, now I don't even have a way of showing who I am, who I used to be. I am officially Fluttershy, a facial recognition is the only way of identification I have. How am I going to do anything without money anyways? I can't buy food, I don't have a way to pay for it. Great, so let's tally up what I have riding against me. I am homeless, family-less, broke, lost, faceless, and helpless. My heart sank lower than ever before, I was truly at my lowest. With the way things were going, it could only get better. It could truly only get better, what more could happen? I could die, but even that might be an improvement. I could lose a loved one, but I had no one close to me anymore. I was forsaken by my own family, and I wasn't even me anymore. I could fall victim to endless torture, that was really the only thing that could bring me lower. Losing my free-will, that's all that could happen. Was that truly all I had left? My free will? If I've got all the things running against me listed, I might as well get the good things out. I have wings, but I can't fly. I could try and fix that later though, flying shouldn't be too hard. I am famous, fame could get me a lot of things I needed, namely food and shelter. I am... what else do I have going for me? Hopefulness? No, I am still pretty doubtful. Kindness? I am the element of kindness after all, but I don't remember being all that kind yet. I have to have more than two things going for me, what does Fluttershy have? She has her animals, but I don't have any animals. She has her friends, I looked up towards Rosalynn. I have my friends too I suppose, I know I have one I can count on so far. What about Fluttershy's friends? Do I have them too? The elements are bound together in an unbreakable bond of friendship, but is that friendship bond physical? Or maybe it's meta-physical, bound to their spirit. If that's so then I guess I don't have them, Fluttershy does, but Fluttershy isn't here. It's only me in her body, so I guess I don't really have her friends. Besides, you can't be friends with people you haven't met, can you? There is always the case of online friends, you can get to be good friends with someone online, but are you really friends? Some people can act very differently online, and maybe you don't want to be friends with them offline, but online they are pretty good friends. It's like the online one and the offline one are two different people, maybe they are. You have met the online one, so you can be friends with them. But if you haven't met the offline one you don't really know them, that means you can't really be friends with them right? This is getting confusing, of course you can't be friends with people you don't know. Blindly putting your faith into something is only a good idea if you can trust what you are putting your faith into. To trust something you have to get a glimpse of what it is to know you can put your trust in it. I can't be friends with the others, and they can't be friends with me, not until we truly know each-other. I can't put my faith into things close to me either, last time I did that I got socked across the face. It seems you can't trust anything, if you trust in something too much it hurts even more when your trust is betrayed. I really don't have much riding for me, but haven't people gotten by with worse? After all, I'm not stranded somewhere I don't know. I wasn't fatally injured or terminally sick, my situation could be completely hopeless, but it's not. I'm not usually such a downer like this, must be female hormones or something, it's not very fun being depressed like this. I really have to get over this and get on my feet, I need to get moving. This predicament is not going to fix itself after all, I need a plan first. Didn't we have something in mind? Oh yeah, we sent a message to princess Fausticorn. She needs a better name, that just sounds horrible. “Hey, Rosalynn? Can I use your computer?” she looked up from her book and nodded. She leaned over to her bag and pulled out a sleek black laptop, I swear her family is rich. She had a Razer Blade Pro, one of the best gaming computers out there. She even had a Razer Ouroboros mouse to go with it, not to mention her Tiamat headset. She didn't waste the gaming potential though, she used these for intense gaming. We played prop hunt and trouble in terrorist town a lot together, we usually gathered a bunch of friends and got on Skype while playing, and we found that being able to talk to each-other made it much more fun. She was one of the best players in all the games we played, the closest second was a good friend of mine named Zack. He used to live here, but he moved to Oklahoma a year or so back. We still stayed connected over Skype and me, him, and Rosalynn would game together occasionally. She logged into the computer, “what you looking to search?” she asked. “Facebook, I need to check something,” she nodded and opened it up. “Oh, look. It's your post,” she turned the computer towards me. “Yeah, great, can I log in,” I watched as there were multiple clicks and some typing before it was turned to me. “Thank you,” I typed my password in carefully, she had already put in my email for me. I watched as the website loaded in record speed, this was a great laptop. I think I might just faint from its speed and beauty, I want to marry this laptop. Okay, enough of being weird, it's time to focus. I had two messages, one was from Faust and the other was from my brother. I looked at my options for a while before deciding Faust was first and foremost. “Hello Clemente, I am afraid that I do not know how to fix this.” my heart sank a little but I read on, “however, I have been informed that the answer may lie in gathering the element users together. You may have heard of the unicorn known as Starlet Mint, she was the one to formulate this plan and is on her way up here to help. We need to gather the element users in New York, seeing as you are Fluttershy I have to insist you get to New York post haste. If you see any other element users, inform them if they do not already know. I am trying to locate them myself, but I am having a bit of difficulty finding any of them. I will await your arrival, try to contact Starlet when you arrive, she seems to have a better idea of this situation then I do and it would be good if she could inform you on anything she might have learned.” I finished reading it up. Something didn't sit well with me, I didn't like the idea that this starlet person knew more about this than anyone. It just seemed a bit odd that some random person would know more about this then the creator of the show. That and the fact that it seemed a bit too easy to have someone just wake up and have a plan, one that involves getting all the ponies of power together at once. Even if it did seem like a good idea to get the element users together, it was all too convenient. Regardless of how convenient it seemed I still need to get to New York, suspicious or not this Starlet person knows something. I'm getting answers at any cost. “Okay, I'll be sure to bring tell the others. I'll see you in New York!” I sent the message out and looked at the notifications. I still had one message, it was from my brother. The least I could do was acknowledge it. “Clemente? Where are you? Are you okay? I'm looking for you now, if you see this please answer.” I sighed, I was conflicted. On one hand, it would be nice to see him. On the other hand, I said I wouldn't go back to family until this was fixed. Family or not, he's one of my good friends too. Plus it wouldn't me going to my family, it would be him coming for me. I just can't let him drag me back, he deserves an explanation though. “I'm at the comic book shop that Rosalynn works at,” I sent the message out, he should be here soon then. Maybe he can go back and grab my stuff, then I can head off to New York. I closed down the tab and shut the laptop, now all I had to do was wait. I didn't have to wait long, he was apparently already very close. Not even five minutes later he appeared in the parking lot, it was pretty empty so it wasn't hard to see him. He rushed into the shop, good thing it was empty because I could tell he would have made a scene had it not been. “Clemente! There you are! Are you okay? It's alright to come back now. Mel is explaining things to mom right now. I'm sure she's sorry for yelling at you,” I looked away from him. “I'm not going back...” he looked at me in shock. “Why? Its okay, I'm sure she understands. I ran after you after Mel started to explain things to her. She tried to stop things from getting out of han–” he stopped suddenly, he rushed over to me and pulled my mane away so it wasn't covering my right eye anymore. He let out a gasp, “What happened? Who did this to you?!” he was looking around as if my attacker was here. “It's nothing, its fine. I'm sure mom didn't mean too, she was just scared...” he looked at me shocked. “Mom? She...” I nodded before he could finish the sentence. “Come on back, I'm sure she is sorry for what she did. Come on back and we can–” I hushed him with my hoof. “I'm not going back, I've caused enough trouble. Besides, I'm not needed there, I'm needed in New York,” I lowered my hoof to see his confusion. “New York? You’re going to New York?” I saw he was still distraught about me not wanting to go home, but he was okay with a subject change. “Yeah, there are answers and a possible way to fix this, but it involves me. I'm needed for the plan to possibly work, so I need to go to New York,” I pulled myself out of his grip. “Okay, well let's head back to my place. We can talk about this there, seeing as you don't want to go home.” he got up and walked towards the door. “Bye Rosalynn, thanks for letting me hang here,” I waved as I headed towards the door myself. “No Prob. Besides, not like I had much else to do,” she gestured towards the empty store and we laughed. I smiled, it felt good to finally laugh. Like a laugh released frustration and negative feelings. Maybe Pinkie Pie was onto something with the whole laughter thing, laughter really is the best medicine.
FractureWe both got into the car; the seat cushion was really soft. My brother turned on the car and headed onto the road. He headed towards Oregon, that's where he lived. He isn't that far from our house because it usually takes him twenty to thirty minutes to get to our house, but I have never actually been to his dorm. “Wow, I'm gonna actually get to see your dorm!” I let the excitement be very evident in my voice. He looked over and scratched the back of his head nervously. “Oh, did I not tell you guys? I got an apartment not too long ago...” he trailed off towards the end, but I still heard it. “You mean I'm the first to visit your unknown apartment” I let out an almost inaudible squeal, I was that excited. “Well aren't you the spritely one now, at least you’re not a downer now,” he let out a small laugh. “I wasn't that bad...” I looked out the window at the cars passing by. We drove on for w while in silence; we were passing over the bridge when Dave decided to speak up. “So how do you plan on getting to New York?” that was a valid question. “I'll figure something out...” I should start thinking now if I want to even have a chance of figuring something out. “I could always drive you,” he had a point, that might be easier. No, he had obligations, he needed to be here. “No, you need to take care of Mom and Mel, I'm counting on you,” he nodded and I went back to brainstorming. “I couldn't take a plane, I don't even have my ID,” Dave took then to pull my wallet and phone out of the middle compartment. I stared at them and then realized what they were, “you grabbed those? Thank you Dave! This makes things a tad bit easier,” he put them back in the compartment. “But I still don't have enough for a plane, and I'm not sure if they'll accept my ID if it doesn't look like me,” so plane is still out of the picture. “You could try and get there with another pony,” that would be great if any-pony was around here. “I doubt any-pony would go out of their way to the exact opposite corner of the country, if there happened to be a pony around here then maybe. But there isn't as far as I know, plus it would take forever to find them and I have to get there as fast as I can,” I looked outside the window again. We passed by a Jack in the box, then a police station. There was a woman walking her dog and a man leaning against a gate. This scene caught my attention as I stuck my head out the window and in those next few seconds several things happened. I'll slow down what I saw; the man was leaning there talking to a girl. The girl was blonde, but that's not what interested me. What interested me was that this girl seemed scared of him, but the man was making no move on her. He just leaned against the wall and talked, she ran. He didn't attempt to chase her as she ran across the street, I thought this was curious. Why was she afraid of him if he was doing nothing? But that still wasn't what got my full attention. What got my attention was when she ran across the street, right in front of a car. My mind froze and slowly thawed out leaving this scene in slow motion as I watched in horror. I watched as her head turned to the side just as the car hit her, she was swept of her feet and landed back down on the street a few seconds later. There was a squeal of tires as the car sped off down the highway, Dave may or may not have made a comment about his speed. I'm not sure because any sound had fell into a drone as I watched the man turn around as she lay there in agony. They all just left her; they left her for dead on the road. As soon as I regained my senses I was rushing back to the street I had seen the accident take place, as soon as I could see the street I looked around for the blonde haired girl I saw get hit. I never saw her. My heart skipped a beat at the figure I saw in the road, it was not a blonde haired girl. Something inside me snapped, I don't know what it was, but I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. I looked down at the blonde pony before me, the same pony that had just been a person and had gotten hit by a car. I looked at the first pony I met, I looked at the first hit and run victim I met, I looked at the first friendly face I met, I looked at the first element of harmony I met, I looked at Applejack as she lay on the street. The tears flowed out as I let out an ear-piercing scream, I couldn't handle it. The tears flowed freely down my face as I rushed to aid the poor pony, but even I didn’t know what I could do. I got too her and looked down, she just lay there. I could hardly see her through my tears, she looked blurry. As I stood there crying I thought I saw movement, I gasped and wiped the tears from my eyes enough to see that she was moving. Her chest heaved up and down ever so slightly, she was breathing. There was a chance I could save her, but I need help. I looked down the street as I heard feet running towards us, I looked up to see a man running over. “Can you please help us? She was hit by a car, but she’s still alive!” the man reached us and I looked up to him. He nodded to me as he knelt to look at her, he looked her over. He looked a little out of breath; he looked like he had run a lot longer than just down the street. He looked up to me after inspecting her, he looked back down after a second and then back up to me again. “Are you sure she got hit by a car? She looks fine.” He put a hand to her body and gently felt around for anything he might not have been able to catch from sight alone. “Not a scratch on her, not a single bruise or anything. Her breathing isn’t ragged and her pulse seems fine, she doesn’t even have a temperature. There doesn’t seem to be any broken bones, and she doesn’t flinch in pain at any touch. She appears to be sleeping; I don’t know why she’s in the middle of the road though.” I looked at her in amazement, that couldn’t be true. I saw the car hit her; I watched the car speed away. I saw her run from that mysterious man, wait… that man! Where was he, he had just walked away! He had seen the whole thing; she had been running from him when it happened. “I saw her get hit; the car just drove off in a hurry! She was running from a man! And the man just left her!” the words fell out of my mouth in a jumble; the man looked at me curiously. “Well, in any case, we need to get her off the road,” the man lifted her up and started to carry her down the road. “You coming?” I rushed to catch up with him. “Where are we taking her?” I looked up at the unconscious pony. “My place, it should be a comfortable quiet place for her to rest until she wakes up, then she can tell us what happened,” we didn't go far down the road when he turned to a house. There was an orange cat on the porch that ran away as we approached the porch. The man expertly opened the door with his hands occupied, the door swung open and I heard a woman's voice from the kitchen. “Hi Honey!” I watched as a woman emerged from the kitchen and moved over to him and saw the pony in his arms. “Oh, is the poor thing okay?” she ran over to look at Applejack. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Applejack was breathing, “Oh, she's breathing. Where was she?” she moved down the hall and we followed. “She was lying unconscious in the streets, something happened. I'm not quite sure what it was, but she says she was hit by a car,” the woman opened a door and the man placed Applejack on the bed that was inside. The woman seemed to finally notice me, she looked at the man when he said that, but when she looked she saw me. She looked at me in surprise; I just gave a nervous smile. “Oh, I didn't see you dearie! Who might you be? Wait, I think I remember something. You’re a pegasus, could you be... Rainbow Dash? No, you're shy. Something shy... flicker, flapper, flitter, flutter, Flutter! Fluttershy! That's it right?” she looked at me expectantly, this woman sure was cheery. “Um... yeah,” I moved my head away a little. “Do you want something to drink? We can hang in the living room while we wait for your friend to wake up. Her name is... let's see... apples, apples, apples. Something with apples. Ahh, it slips my mind... he always talked about you pegasi more,” she was walking out of the room and we were following right behind her. “You can go sit on the couch, anything you want to drink? Tea? Milk? Water? Juice?” she stopped her trail into the kitchen so she could hear the answer. “Uh... some juice please, whatever you have,” I continued to follow the man into the living room. He sat at one of the couches and I sat at another. We both waited in silence as the woman in the kitchen got our drinks. She came back holding two mugs and a glass; the glass had a straw in it. “Apple juice,” she said handing me the cup, I graciously accepted it. She moved back to the couch the man was sitting on and handed him a mug, he kissed her and she sat down next to him. She took a sip of her drink before beginning, “So, tell us about yourself miss pegasus!” her tone of voice reminded me of pinkie level cheeriness. It seemed like nothing could deter her cheery mood, it made me a little more comfortable sitting there in a strange home. Even if I didn't know these people I knew I could trust them, I know that their kind and generous, they seem so happy. “Oh, my names Clemente. I kinda just woke up like this today, still kinda getting used to it,” I laughed nervously at my situation and she just smiled. “Clemente? So not a girl? Okay, well... hm... What about your friend?” I turned my head away a little; the answer wasn't exactly the best I could give. “Well, she isn't exactly my friend. I just saw her get hit by the car running from that weird guy and I came to help,” she looked over to the man on the couch next to her. “Not me, I hadn't heard about this till now,” he raised his hands up in response to her look. “What’s this about a weird guy?” he turned to me. “Well I didn't see much, but I remember what I did see. That girl was running from a man, but the man wasn't following her. He just stood there and talked, she ran away but didn't check the street... she was hit by the car and the car drove off, when I flew back to the street I found she had become Applejack,” as I finished they both thought it over. “You’re saying she wasn't a pony when the man was there? And after the accident she became a pony? What happened to this guy, did you see where he went?” he was looking thoughtful; he looked to me for answers. I shook my head, “No, but after the girl got hit he just turned and started to walk away. I didn't see where he went after that, but it seemed like he didn't even care. He saw the accident happen, but he didn't even attempt to help. He had just been talking to her before, but she seemed frightened of him.” it was a very curious scene, but I don't know what happened. The only person that could tell us would be that girl, so we can only wait to find out. “Well, we'll just ask that girl when she gets up. Maybe she can fill in the holes in our story, maybe. Well, what about you? What were you doing before you went to help her?” I thought back and froze up. “I had been driving with my brother to his new apartment; can I use your computer? Actually, can you log onto my Facebook and send him a message? I kinda just jumped out the window and flew to her aid without thinking, I'm sure he's worried,” the man nodded and got up from his seat and left the room, I followed behind him. When he pulled open the tab I read off my credentials and he put them in, when he pulled open the tab I directed him to my brother. “Hey Dave, sorry I kinda jumped out on you there. I'm safe, I just have to wait here a while. I'm on–” I looked to the man, he just typed it in “NE 128th Ave. Can he come by?” the man just nodded and put it in, “Come on by, I'll explain everything when you get here. and send, did you get that all?” the man nodded and sent off the message. “Say, I still don't know your name,” he logged out from the account and stood up. “Yeah, I guess not. My name is Marty, and this is my girlfriend Jody,” we walked back into the living room and she waved excitedly. “That's me! So, tell us more about yourself,” she sat into the man, Marty if I recall correctly. “There's not much to say, I'm a junior in high-school, I'm the youngest of three, and I am now a mare pegasus with pink hair,” I moved my mane up as if to emphasize my point. “What happened to your eye?” I stopped at this; I dropped my mane and averted my eyes. My mane covered my right eye a good amount, so it hadn't been noticed before. But as soon as I moved my mane up and pulled attention to my eye it was impossible not to notice. “It's nothing...” I couldn't even bring myself to believe that. “It doesn't look like nothing. It looks like a black eye, what happened?” he obviously was concerned about my well-being. It would have warmed my heart to see his care if my heart wasn't already dropping from thinking back on the moment. “It's nothing. Nothing happened... please... just drop the subject...” he looked ready to answer when Jody looked at him. He shut his mouth and thought for a second, he looked back at me and thought of something else to say. “Well, you can tell us anything if you need to,” he changed the topic, “So this brother of yours, what about him?” I looked at him a little confused. “Um... what?” I was sincerely confused. “What about your brother? What's he like?” when he said it like that it sounded obvious. “Oh, right, well... he's dependable; he's a freshman in college. He's also the oldest of the three of us. Me, my sister, and him are the only kids our parents ever had. We get along fine, he comes over every once in a while,” there wasn't much I could say. My brother had always been a sort of enigma; I didn't really even know what he studied in college. I don't think anyone knows; it's not like he's keeping secrets, but he just somehow has all these gaps in information. It's like no one has ever bothered to ask, actually that's probably it. He doesn't usually keep secrets and if we don't know something, he'll tell us; most of the time that is. “Well, I'm afraid were nothing special either. I work for a company making roadways, I have two kids and she has two of her own. They're all boys, and they're all in high-school. All except one, he's graduated. Her kids live around here, my kids live down In Arizona.” he finished up his description and sat back. We sat there for several minutes with nothing to say, finally Jody broke the tension. “So what's it like being a pony?” it was a question I didn't really have an answer for, it really wasn't something that could be described easily. “It's different. I can't really describe it; it's like its natural, but also like its abnormal. Like it's naturally abnormal,” that was the best I could describe it. It had gotten natural for me to walk and move in this body, but my brain still reacted like this wasn't normal. “Can you use your wings?” I thought on that, I had used them when flying back to applejack. Had used them, but I hadn't thought about using them. I hadn't used them before or after that, it was like my brain kicked into instinct when doing it. “Probably with a bit of practice. I used them once before, but I wasn't thinking about it.” all I would have to do is remember how I flapped them, I did remember the motions and everything. But just because I remember how to do it doesn't mean I can, application and theoretical thinking are very different and have different outcomes. I was brought out of my thoughts when I was brought to the attention of my bladder. “Can I use your guys’ bathroom?” I really had to go, I haven't gone since yesterday. “Yeah, go straight down that hall and then directly to the right,” he pointed out the door and I followed his directions. I hadn't gone to the restroom in this body yet, and not only am I a pony, but I'm a female too. This is going to be very awkward and interesting. I got through that situation without too much difficulty, but it was truly the awkwardest moment in my life. Thus far at least. As I was walking down the hallway I heard a voice from the door inside said hallway. “What in Tarnation happened? Where the hay am I?” I pushed open the door to see that Applejack was now awake. “Hey there sleepy head, you have a nice nap?” I laughed as I saw her eyes grow wide; I think we both had some explaining to do.
