Part 1: IntroView OnlineBalancePart 1: IntroA swirl of dry, warm spring wind brushed by my hair, making my long hair slap the back of my neck from the high speed. Riding my bike home from school was one of my favorite parts of the day; it allowed me to think and reflect on the day the entire way home. Thank God I lived pretty far away from home, or I wouldn't be able to come up with any good ideas. Yeah, I admit. I'm a writer. Call me dweeb, dork, or whatever dumb name you can come up with: I wrote and I liked writing. I had other interests, of course, like soccer, DJing, and drawing, but my all time favorite thing to do was write. Words were my slaves, I was their master. I could sculpt masterpieces, some exceeding a quarter million words. Not that anyone cared. They were fanfics, after all. To be more specific, My Little Pony fanfics. No, I'm not a seven year old girl. In fact, I'm almost the exact opposite. I watch the show, dream of it every day, draw the characters, read about them... Oh yeah, did I mention I was male? And sixteen? And in high school? Okay, so I'm not particularly proud of my odd habit. However, it was a pretty good time-burner when I was on my computer and had writers block. So, like everyone else who watches the show, I instantly became part of the fanbase. I've been a proud brony for four months. Friend count? Entirely made of 'bronies', the accepted term for male fans of My Little Pony. Ridiculously lanky. Long black hair. White skin. Horrid fashion sense. Writer. Brony. Citizen of Colorado. That's me. My name? Andres. A swirl of damp, warm spring wind brushed by my hair, making my long hair slap the back of my neck from the high speed. I honestly don't know what I would do without my long flights home... Those were the idea givers; the mind freers. I felt alive all the way home. My home? Small house in the dense city of Cloudsdale. My job? Can't really say that I have one, but I'm alive and wingin' life, so I'm fine. I almost seemed to live two lives as of now: One in my hometown of Cloudsdale, and another in Ponyville. Although I lived in Cloudsdale rather than Ponyville, I seemingly knew everypony in Ponyville and none in Cloudsdale. I had lots of friends, although very few of them close. I only had about five close friends... Call it what you will, I was just happy to have any. I was content. I looked back in sadness to see the small town of Ponyville become smaller and smaller as I flew away from it, headed to Cloudsdale to call it a day. Coat color? Brightest blue you've ever seen. Mane color? Too many different ones to count. Cutie mark? Who knows, but it looks pretty boss. Edge dweller. Liver of two lives. One torn pony. Wings. Speed. Loyalty. My name? Rainbow Dash.
Part 3: ConfusionView OnlineBalancePart 3: ConfusionI awoke with an oddly jolting start. My eyes peered open slowly to find myself looking into an incredibly bright light. Confused but still able to think clearly, I tried to get a good feel for my surroundings. I wiggled my arms and legs around to find that I was no longer on the rough gravel that I crashed on, but rather a solid but still fairly fluffy substance. Maybe a mattress? Was I in a hospital? Well, at least I could move again. I mentally searched my body for pain, quickly finding very little. 'How long was I out?' I thought to myself. Having no answer for my own question, I tried searching for answers on my own. Peeking my head up in the least bit gave me a good idea of where I actually was: I was... in... a... What. The. Hell. Rather than a hospital, my own house, or my driveway, I was in what appeared to by a bustling city that appeared to be made entirely of... What the...? Clouds? Was I dreaming? I quickly wrapped together the most logical conclusion possible with the mumbo jumbo coursing through my brain. I thought I was in a dream, but I was aware that I was dreaming. I was not dreaming. I was hallucinating. Right? I'm going crazy. That would explain why I'm in the middle of a street made of pure water vapor that I was not only laying on, but several others were on, too. I looked around the streets to find several other beings, which were all... Walking. On four legs? Where the hell was I, anyway? With my vision adjusted to the bright, cloudless sky around me, I looked closer at one of the four-legged creatures around me. Four legs, all nearly the same length. Brightly colored coat, hair, and tail. And right on their hips, was a tattoo... My heart skipped several beats. Could it be possible? I had to look closer before I made a conclusion. Huge eyes. Pointy ears. Long snout. Cartoony, undetailed wings. Hooves. I was looking at what I believed to be a pegasus... From. My. Little. F***ing. Pony. Holy s***! I was in Cloudsdale! I was literally in the show! I nearly had a heart attack from the situation drawing the line between freaky and awesome. I knew I wanted to get a good look at myself again. Was I still human? Or was I a pony? Quick logic pieced together in my mind and told me that if I was a pony, I was a pegasus, given that I hadn't fallen through the cloud I was on yet. Good God... I could be a pegasus! With a quick action on my part, I flung my shoulders to the side to get me on my... Hooves? Now laying belly down with my arms stretched in front of me, I could clearly see them: Two sets of flawlessly light blue forelegs, each with hooves on the end. Out of joy, I laughed. My eyes slowly opened as I found myself awake once again. The second my eyes were fully alert and adjusted to the bright light being given off by the cloudless sky around me, a searing shot of pain tore my left side. Struggling not to holler out in pain, I felt a trickle of wetness flow down my body. What the hay? Since when does crash-landing on a cloud give you injuries? I'd done it plenty of times... I didn't understand what was going on. Propping my head up to get a better look around, I nearly had a miniature heart attack from my surroundings. Instead of the usual fluffy skyline of my hometown, I was on a concrete street in the middle of a neighborhood. There were chariots lining a sidewalk, which lined several stone and wood houses. Certainly never a place I had ever seen before... I took a closer look. The chariots... They weren't made for ponies. I didn't even know what they were made out of... They were smooth, shiny, and sleek all at the same time. And covered? Where in Equestria was I? Knowing that it wasn't home, I tried getting up and asking somepony where I was. Getting up from the gravel was incredibly weird for some reason. First I tried using my wings to push me upwards, but I quickly realized two things by doing that: One, I couldn't feel my wings at all, and two, I realized that I was wearing clothing. Gee, that was comforting: Knowing that my wings were completely numbed, I was moved who-knows-how-far, and I was given a complete dressover in my unconsciousness. Screwing the wing idea, I just decided to use my forehooves to push me up backwards. Doing such alerted me of several other things, all of which set my heart to a setting I never knew existed: Butterflies operating a jackhammer. One: I realized that I was laying down straight, which was a position that should have normally been incredibly uncomfortable. Two: My forelegs were all-of-a-sudden really long. Or just really skinny. Maybe both. Was I starving? Three: I had no hooves. Directly in place, instead of the solid enamel, was a malleable but dexterous display of five... Miniature tan hooves? I panicked. They looked like limbs and had enamel on the ends, so what else could they be? Claws? There were more digits than claws had, so I had no idea what they were... I tried moving them. Almost the exact second I pictured how weird they would look, it had already happened: It almost appeared as if I had summoned five tiny tan snakes at my hooftips, causing them to wiggle back and forth in an almost gross manner. This bizarre sight forced me to realize the situation I was in: I wasn't home, let alone in my body. Out of fear, I laughed.
Part 4: ShockView OnlineBalancePart 4: ShockI didn't care if all of this was a hallucination: I loved it. I ignored the several beats that my heart skipped over, the small amount of pain, and the fact that I wasn't home. This wasn't going to last long, and I wanted to live it out. Pushing out the pain I was feeling and pushed myself to my, er, hooves, noticing how awkwardly short my arms were. Forelegs, maybe? I don't know what they’re called. Feeling myself roll over to my belly in an effort to get on my hooves, I nearly lost it over what happened next. Letting my neck relax and pushing myself up to full height on all fours, two things came instantly to mind. One: My had just neck bent backwards to the point where if I were still human, it would probably break it. That felt not only really weird, but for some reason, oddly satisfying at the same time... A feeling I'd like to call nearly impossible. I liked this already. Two: My head bobbing up and down ever so slightly caused my new hair style to bounce down for a split second before returning to the top of my head, lighting a wild spark of curiosity in my head. I wanted to know what I looked like. Badly. Turning my head sharply to my right, I came face to fur with my new self. Or whatever you would call it. I had bright a cyan coat. Already knew that. I had a vertically striped rainbow-colored tail. Sweeeet. I had only seen one pony on the show with those colors, which meant I must have been pretty unique. I had small, light, feathery wings. Could have guessed it, but the thought of being able to suddenly fly sent an unholy shot of adrenaline through my system anyway. Drifting my line of sight further down, I found a perfect picture of a prismatic lighting bolt coming out of a raincloud seamlessly tattooed on my rear. I froze in place. I didn't know why I didn't see it earlier. Prismatic mane. Wings. Cloudsdale. Blue. All of it pieced together on the spot to tell me something that nearly made my heart stop. I knew who's body I was in. I was Rainbow Dash. Still in fear but barely able to cope with the fact that I now had an incredibly weird body part attached to the place where my hooves should have been, I tried thinking of what I could possibly do next. Still with my back pressed to the gravelly ground, I was suddenly reminded of the pain my side was in. Was I actually bleeding...? I supposed that there was only one way to really find out. I rolled over on my side and used my new 'hoof upgrade' to lift up my light, green shirt to find a shocking sight. Instead of the usual cyan coat of mine, my entire body was now covered in a hairless, tan skin. Not only that, but the pain in my side had revealed its sight to me: Completely scuffed up and ripped to shreds, my entire side of skin was torn up and bleeding by the gravel below me. Feeling a sudden wrenching feeling in my gut, I knew that I would throw up if I didn't get help soon. Reaching my head up for a final time to call for help, I noticed something walking down the concrete path that lined the straight asphalt road. It was walking on two legs instead of four, with the two it was walking on covered in an odd kind of cloth that I had never seen before. It had longer and stronger back legs than front legs, and it appeared to have a flat, rectangular, vertically oriented chest instead of a cylindrical, horizontal one. It had oddly prominent muscles and veins that pulsated and stretched with every movement, and in some parts, it looked as though there was nothing between its oddly skimpy skeletal frame and skin. Its hair was jet black and long, unlike a pony's colorful mane that went all the way down our necks. I had seen one of these before. They were called Humans, weren't they? Suddenly caring about my own appearance rather than the one that I was looking at, I got on my middle leg joints and my 'hooves'. Pushing myself up using my forelegs, I found myself in a simple standing position where I was looking at myself from above. I was just like him: Fully clothed, tan, and, well, bizarre. Although I had started to realize what and where I was, I still had one question left: Who was I?
Part 5: ConflictView OnlineBalancePart 5: ConflictOn 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.
Part 2: BlackView OnlineBalancePart 2: BlackThat fateful ride home on my bike that day was unlike any other. I was nearing home; almost in my driveway when it happened. My hands suddenly tightened. It was unreal: Almost as if another set of hands was grabbing onto mine, making their grip on my handlebars tighter. They felt much stronger than hands, though... It was almost as if I was having an out of body experience in the middle of the day. In perfect health. It suddenly spread. Suddenly, my arms stiffened, forcing me to lean back in order to keep my balance. I panicked: I couldn't steer. I yelped out loud in search of help. It spread to my torso. Instinctively, because I was right next to my driveway, I tried leaning towards it in a desperate attempt to head home. It spread to my legs. Instead of steering, I came crashing down to my side, now completely motionless from the unknown grip. Skidding several feet along the gravel driveway to my house, I was surprised but horrified by the fact that I couldn't feel the supposedly intense pain of gravel being driven into my side. In mental pain, I watched my bike fall to the ground and grind against the ground, in ruin the entire way. It was okay though... Someone was bound to find me now. I tried to yell for help. Nothing came out. Everything went black. I was almost home. I could see the features of the cloudy streets come nearer as I soared towards Cloudsdale, not particularly enjoying coming home but enjoying the flight there. Well, until the simple flight of mine took a fateful twist. I was just on the outskirts of the floating city when it happened. I felt an odd stiffness in my wingtips. It didn't really grow on me, it just appeared. I wanted to crack it out and keep flying, but being in the air at the time limited me to waiting until I landed. Oh, well... I could live with it for another few seconds. Suddenly, without warning, the odd feeling swept past my wingtips and completely infiltrated my entire wingspan. I couldn't fly... I tried flapping. No avail. I was going to have to land on my hooves, then maybe get medical attention. No biggie. I could still glide. I tried bending my forelegs to brace for impact, but I suddenly found that the odd stiffness had spread to my legs and hooves as well. In panic, I tried calling out for help as I found the street nearing closer by the second. All that came out was a pathetic chirp. I couldn't even talk... I was useless. What had happened? Giving up, I barely felt the pain of me hitting the street with full force, sending me tumbling about before skidding to a stop, now completely motionless. Everything went black.
