Harmonics: The Accidental Project

I open my eyes to be met with blinding white lights. I groan as I close my eyes and try to clear my head, all my senses are being flooded with all forms of stimulus. I can smell generic hospital smells, I’ve never really been in a hospital for anything other than checkups, but the smells for a hospital are still very clear. Had something happened? I try to remember what I had been doing and I recall the project. I must be waking up from the transformation.

I flare up as much of my magic as I can salvage, which happens to be a substantial amount, and cast an easing spell to soften my enhanced senses and ease the pain. My headache recedes as my senses softe, I reflect on the spell. There must have been something to give me a small amount of magic, because I remember not having any before I fell asleep. Maybe Earth can’t sustain magic and Equestria happens to leak some everytime they open a window, then the leak flows to the closest magical entity. That would make sense, then again, I still have my morning weariness and I’m too hungry to think. I need food… and water… badly.

I look around the room now that I’m more awake. I recall waking up a couple timesbefore, but I had been too tired and loopy to notice anything. I look over to the side to see that Erin’s not beside me, she must have already woken up.

The first time I woke up I had a much worse headache, but the whole memory of it is very fuzzy. I hardly remember anything but the pain from that memory. I wonder how long I was asleep? I try to move, but I’m strapped down to the table, Probably for safety reasons.

“Hey doc? am I done yet?” I call out to no one in particular. I hear a door opening and a doctor walks in, I see him jump in surprise when he sees me awake.

“Oh, you’re awake… actually, I just came in to see how you’re faring,” he says calmly.

“How, long was I under?” I ask absently.

“Well, the transformation itself took two weeks like planned, but you’re body took a month to set,” he says nervously, like I’m gonna leap at him in anger. I’m surprised, but I never expected this to be easy. I also am too hungry and thirsty to care.

“Okay, can you unstrap me? I’m really hungry, and thirsty” I yawn absently as I think on the transformation.

“Certainly, by the way, Erin Olsen woke up earlier,” I nod in acknowledgement and I stand up on the table as soon as I’m unstrapped. I look around and stretch my limbs. These limbs aren’t normal for me, but they aren’t unfamiliar. I move all the individual muscles I know I can control and nod to the man, I hop off the table and start walking around to get my post sleep weariness gone.

“Everything seems in order, where exactly do I go?” the man is gawking at me, “what?” I ask.

“It’s just that it took Erin much longer than that to get used to her body, and even then she wasn’t moving as smoothly as you are right now… how do you feel about the whole no clothes thing?” he asks curiously.

“I’m fine with it, Equest- I mean, Ponyworld ponies don’t wear clothes,” I brush off my near slip up and look around once more.

“Do you want a mirror?” he asks, he’s giving me a strange look that I ignore.

“Sure,” I say nonchalantly. He holds a small handheld mirror in front of me and I take it from his hands, I hold it in my fetlock and inspect myself. I have a grey coat and a mane similar to Starlet’s, dark brown with red tips. In fact, I look almost exactly like Starlet. The only noticeable difference is I have no horn, that and I’m sure my features are slightly different.

“You’re mane and tail were originally a plain dark brown, but it would seem someone in charge of development changed it to have red tips…” the man says in an apologetic voice.

“That’s alright, I like it.” I don’t think anyone changed it in development. I tried getting the red tips cut out of my hair once, but nothing short of shaving my head would get rid of them. My hair always just got them back not long after, I assume that’s what has happened here. Starlet explained that the red is an aspect of my passive magic, it’s a small kind of mutation in my genes.

“Is it lunch time? Can I get some food? would I go to the cafeteria, or wait... I have to eat separate from everyone else right?” I ask.

“Actually, you should be able to catch up to Erin, She woke up not that much before you. You’ll be staying in the scientists compound, and they all know of the change. Like I told Erin, You’ll get some stares, but they all know,” he says.

“Okay, so cafeteria is a yes? Do I need an escort or can I just trot on over there?” I ask.

“Well I don’t know if you’ll be able to run, or… gallop I guess… but you could if you can manage it…” he trails off in thought.

“Ok, thank you,” I take off at a slow trot which quickly turns into a full out gallop down the halls. I arrive at the cafeteria to see

Dr. Velchiek walking to Erin with food. I trot over to them and quickly hoist myself into the seat across from Erin. She looks at me curiously and I smile.

“Sorry, I slept in. I would have been here sooner, but I just woke up about ten minutes ago and I had to get my bearings. What have I missed?” I notice that the cafeteria has gone quiet, where as it used to contain steady chatter. I ignore the eerie silence that my arrival has likely caused and turn to Dr. Velchiek, “Would you mind getting me the same thing Doctor?” He just nods numbly and sets the current tray down. He turns to get more food after a few seconds and I turn to see everyone around us whispering to each other.

“You woke up ten minutes ago?” Erin asks in astonishment.

“Give or take a couple minutes,” I look around the room to watch everyone staring at me with stares of varying degrees, I just turn back to Erin.

“How did you get here so fast, I swear it took me about that long just to get out of bed,” She says.

“I galloped, we do have enhanced reflexes,” I can’t shake off everyones stares. I’ve never been diagnosed, but I’m almost positive that I have Paranoia. My only thought keeping me from flipping out is that it would be hard for anyone with bad intent to get away with anything with all these eyes on me.

“Can you please not stare so much, it’s making me anxious,” I turn to everyone and they turn away. “Thank you,” I say before turning to Erin once more.

“No, I meant… Never mind,” Erin turns hungrily towards her tray. Doctor Velchiek returns later with my tray and I quickly eat all my food. I fumble a little with my hooves, but I mostly have the motions down. Last time I had magic that made things so much easier, but now, even if I did have my magic I would have to keep it a secret.

“Aaaaagh!! Ice cream headache, ow, ow, ow!” I hear Erin scream after taking a big bite out of her ice cream. I hold back a chuckle as she sets her ice cream aside.

“You’re not going to finish it?” I say, she shakes her head and I pull the bowl over to myself. I expertly wrap the spoon inside of my fetlock and eat the ice cream in the same fashion I had before. She doesn’t notice it as she finishes off her sandwich and eyes her tumbler of water. I just wrap my fetlock around mine tightly and take a sip, but she’s too focused on her own technique to notice. Dr. Velchiek looks between the two of us and then looks to me curiously.

“Well, I’m very impressed. You’ve both come a long way in a short time! Soon, we’ll have you doing all sorts of things like a Ponyworld native!” Dr. Velchiek laughs and then looks at my hooves curiously. “I must say, Skylar, you’ve made exceptional progress. Any tips?” he asks.

“Practice,” I say simply.

“Very well, do any of you want more food?” I shake my head.

"Actually... what I really want is a bath. I feel pretty gross right now, after having been in a bed for weeks. And then I want to try brushing my hair and mane. None of the ponies I saw on Ponyworld looked anywhere near this disheveled, so obviously they groom themselves. I'd better figure out how to do that, don't you think?” that’ll be a task for me too, I had magic last time I didn’t have to worry about it much.

"That's an excellent idea! Doctor Rowe, would you be kind enough to take these two to their new quarters? I have to go talk to the Harmonics team to see if we can verify when the next likely window will be." Dr. Velchiek says

“Absolutely, will you two please come with me?” We both hop off of our chairs and follow after him. Erin turns around suddenly and tells everyone goodbye in a cheery tone, almost everyone cheers back and I can see various smiles. I let a smile overtake my features as we walk along.

~~~~~~~

Erin and I proceed to go through twenty days or so of training, training for various things. I could do most of the things, but I honed and relearned some things I haven’t done in a while. It has been a while since I was last a pony, and I had a ponies instincts then. I learned to write with both my mouth and hooves in the time for training. I had never really written with either in my time as a pony, when i had written it was with my magic.

Dr. Velchiek even got a team to mint some gold coins the same size and shape of bits, but I’m pretty sure that bits aren’t actually pure gold. I don’t really plan on using them since thats a form of counterfeit and a very poor one. Maybe we can exchange them for actual bits at some point.

It is the twenty first day of being a pony and we’re waiting for the doorway between worlds to open. We’ve been waiting for hours and Erins fidgeting has gotten to me. I’ve never been one for standing still for long periods of time, Erins nervousness has gotten me worked up. We both are wearing saddlebags with identical contents, just some necessities. I even managed to sneak my tablet into my pocket dimension with a little bit of magic, I don’t know if I’ll even need to use it. We’ve been waiting here for so long because we don’t know when the doorway will open, we just know it’s soon.

We’d gone through a purifying process at Erin’s request, I hadn’t thought about foreign diseases. Good thing she had, Erins a smart girl. She adapted to her hooves fairly quickly, not necessarily how an Equestrian might use them, but she knows enough to not look like a foal. that in and of itself is no easy feat.

“This is it! The window is about to open!” Dr. Velchieks voice booms over the intercom and I jump slightly when the emitters start to hum. The emitters hum as they warm up, rapidly, the hum rises in volume. The gate flashes and I shut my eyes, when I open them I can feel a warm air. I look through the portal to Equestria and feel a certain homeliness in it, it’s something familiar. Even if this is earth, I don’t recognize anything here, it’s not my home. but this is Equestria, and I have memories of many things here. They’re not my memories, they’re just remnants; but they still bring me calm, no matter their origin.

I turn to my side and see Erin look at me, I give a flourish of my hoof and Erin walks through. I step after her, it feels good as my hooves touch the soft grass. It feels like home.