Balance

On all fours before I could tell what was going on, I started stumbling around the soft street like an idiot, trying to comprehend the situation.

'How is this even possible? Did I die in the bike accident? Am I in heaven?' I mindlessly thought to myself in the middle of the confusion. The last question caught hold of me like a fishhook, refusing to let go until it was answered. I couldn't do it.

In a state of near defeat, I collapsed on the fluffy street, almost forgetting where I was in the first place: The set of a kids show. What should I do now? What could I even do now? I wanted to find out why I was here, but I also wanted to try and enjoy this moment while it lasted. I was torn between order and freedom.

I decided to make sure that this wasn't just an elaborate illusion or hallucination first, and got up on all fours again in search of interaction. I needed to have a conversation. As I stood up and started walking out of the road and towards one of the buildings, I tried to take in as much of it as possible. I was in the middle of a perpendicular intersection, where both of the streets were lined with white buildings. Reminded me of downtown Denver... All of the buildings were nearly the same height, and as I looked closer, they had windows made out of what appeared to be polished ice. Seemed like everything here was just made out of water... Odd. Ignoring that thought for now, I looked closer still. One of the sides of the four-way intersection went on for no further than a few meters, then completely dropped off and revealed the blue sky beyond the city limits. That sight sparked some curiosity in me, making me wonder just how far up I was and forgetting my original plan to find a conversation.

Taking advantage of my creative impulse, I neared the edge. On all fours again, I realized how odd it was to have all four of my limbs suddenly be the same length. Walking this way felt strangely normal for the circumstances...

I had neared the edge at last. In an attempt to satisfy my curiosity, I peered slowly over the edge in awe. We were really high up. I suddenly found myself mumbling to myself.

"Woooaaah..."

I heard my new voice for the first time just then. I knew for a fact that if I was in Dash's body that I had the same vocal chords as her now, so the fact that I sounded exactly like her didn't alarm me as much as I had originally anticipated. But even that didn't keep me from being in awe of the landscape below me.

The city was just above the normal altitude for clouds, so I could easily see vast masses of white fluff as far as my eye could see in front of me. I stood there for several minutes, occasionally getting a glimpse of the landscape below the layer of thick clouds. The ground far below was lush and grass-covered, making it look vaguely like where I was from. Streams ran down the rippled landscape, occasionally collecting in bright blue pockets at the bottoms of several valleys. Every once in a while, I'd get a glimpse of something special, like a snow-covered mountain, a forest, or even a town. There were several from what I saw, hinting that the show didn't do a terribly good job at mentioning all of the towns in Equestria.

My half-stoned experience with pure beauty was interrupted by a male voice to my right. Sounded Australian... I chuckled a little in my head at the thought. Australian pegasi. Phht.

"Beau'iful, ain' it?"

I didn't bother looking over to see what he looked like before responding. I was still too caught up in the beauty below me. "Yeah. I love the way the clouds swirl around and open up every once in a while."

"Yea, me too." His voice sounded incredibly relaxed. I liked this guy already. My type. "So, I don' see you here often... What's unusual with you?"

His question stunned me momentarily as I realized that I suddenly had a new reputation to uphold. As a result, I ended up making a hasty response. "Um, I guess I'm just a bit tired. You know, uh, from flying and stuff."

He paused for a bit. "Okay then. Doesn't seem like you could even get tired at all from what I'd seen..."

Judging by the awkwardness in his response, I knew that I had probably said that wrong. I winced in embarrassment. Damn, I'm a bad liar. After thinking about it for a bit, I decided it would be best if I either shut up entirely or try to release my true identity to him softly.

"How long have I known you?" I suddenly found myself asking him.

"Oh, I dunno. Prob'ly for about a month or two. Why? Maybe somethin' really is bothering you?"

I sighed. "Yeah, something is. I just don't feel myself today for some reason." It was honestly hard keeping my cool while saying that.

"Not yahself today, eh? Rough week? Work getting to yah?" He paused for a bit without either one of us talking. "Wait. Do yah even have a job?"

I froze. I didn't even know if I had a job here or not. "Eh, I don't even know anymore."

Come to think of it, I didn't even know what the pony standing next to me even looked like. Instinctively, I looked over to my right. Standing next to me was a tall, buff, black pegasus stallion, with a short grey mane and tail. I looked a bit further back to find that his cutie mark was a grey shield. He looked familiar to me for some reason...

Without thinking, I shot him a question. "You're a royal guard, aren't you?" I guess it must have been the shield.

He responded after a short pause. "Yeah. I was a guard for Luna for a long time. About ten years. I thought I already told you..."

I had no idea how to respond to this kind of thing. "Yeah, I guess you did. Sorry."

"Don't sweat it."

"Thanks."

We remained silent for the next several minutes, simply watching the clouds go by.

I knew where I had to go for answers on who I was. Quickly thinking and looking up, I saw the house once again. The odd house in front of me looked as though it was the destination of whoever's body I was in, and I suddenly felt as if I had to go in there... Or else suspicions would arise. That would be the last thing I would want at this point. I didn't know who I was, so I really couldn't answer any questions about me.

I knew that I now had limbs that were made for walking on two legs, so I tried standing. I had done it several times before as a pony, so this couldn't be much harder, right?

I pushed myself off and up with my foreleg, shooting me up into a standing position. The first thing I noticed from the motion was the fact that my back legs weren't very stable, and I spent the next few seconds stumbling around like a buffoon. The second thing I noticed was that my right side was still scuffed up horribly, and a subtle trickle of blood running down my skin reminded me of that. It hurt.

Not ready for the pain or the balancing, I collapsed in a pathetic heap on the ground once again. I was on the verge of crying. I couldn't walk, I had been thrown down into a strangely familiar world where I had no idea who I was, and to top it off, I was in pain. A lot of it.

Containing my tears as confidently as possibly, I looked back down at my side. I cringed at what I saw. My light green shirt had soaked up a good deal of blood, forming a deep red splotch on the cloth, completely ruining it. Remembering what I was trying to do in the first place, I tried to flush and press on. That thought gave me an idea, though. I couldn't walk, but I could crawl...

Ten grueling minutes later, I finally found myself just outside of what appeared to be the front door of, er, my house. If it was possible, I had even more pain in my side than before. Fearful but hopeful at the same time, I reached up towards the door and knocked. I could suddenly hear the sound of my skin and bone hitting the wooden door, followed by the uneasy sound of my knock echoing throughout the room behind the door.

"Whatever answers the door, I hope it can help me," I thought to myself.