Shockingly Shy

We 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.