Forced Perspective

I sat there on the bed trying to organize my thoughts. I can’t face her after what I just did. I’ll give it some time.

When I do see her, first I need to talk about a shower. I haven’t had one in several days and I’m feeling gross... especially after...that. Then I need to talk to her about food. I had a few crackers yesterday, and some delicious pancakes before, but nothing close to three meals a day. After that, I guess the big subject would have to be addressed.

Now that I had a game plan at least, I felt a bit calmer. I spent the rest of the day poking through the books in her room and generally trying to keep my head firmly in the clouds.

Twilight called up later in the day telling me she had a concert with a bunch of her friends. She said it would seem suspicious if she didn’t go. I was totally fine with her putting more distance between us for now.

The next day I worked up my courage, moved the bed away from the door, got dressed and went downstairs. Twilight was in the kitchen arranging pastries on a plate. She looked like she was going a bit too quickly as one of the pancakes slid off the side of the plate. She caught it with her magic before it hit the ground and placed it back on the dish. The whole time she was muttering to herself too quietly for me to pick out the words.

“Good morning Twilight.”

She leapt around with wide eyes. Her horn glowed and something winked out of existence from the counter.

“I wasn't doing anything! I was just making breakfast!” The plate of pancakes swung around in front of her to prove her point. She moved it too quickly and several shot off. I caught one as it sailed toward me. She gasped and caught several in her magic. Hurriedly, she set the rescued pancakes on the plate. The plate floated over and landed in the center of the table as she walked over to retrieve some of the ones she had missed. I sat down and started to enjoy my breakfast while she cleaned up the mess.

I sat down and cut up the first few pancakes adding the necessary butter before reaching for the syrup. I’ve never seen syrup like this before…

“What flavor is this syrup?”

“Uh…” she says from the other room. “It’s… a new flavor I’m trying out. I haven't had it yet, why? Is it good?”

I poured some of the syrup over the pancakes and started eating.

“How was the concert,” I asked.

I was expecting the syrup to be sweet. It wasn’t exactly. It was kind of a musky salty flavor. It wasn't bad, just not what I was expecting from syrup.

An odd grin found it’s way to Twilight’s face as her eyes unfocused. “The concert was great,” she said, dreamily. “I really needed that.”

I looked down at my plate and realized it had been stacked with several more pancakes. My stomach gave a satisfied gurgle as I applied more toppings and cut them up. The syrup seemed to be growing on me, at first it had been bearable, but I found myself adding more and wiping my plate clean with each bite. I started devouring them. it's probably because I hadn't eaten well in a few days. I ate WAY more than I thought I could. I stayed my hand before it grabbed the last one. What kind of guest would I be if I didn’t leave my host at least one?

I looked up and realized that Twilight hadn’t joined me at the table. I looked around and saw she was standing across the kitchen staring at nothing. She wasn’t moving, wasn’t blinking, just staring as if mesmerized still.

I realized that the ones Twilight had picked up were missing. I looked around the kitchen but couldn’t spot them. I concentrated and remembered the stack of pancakes not shrinking as I filled my plate. Had Twilight given me floor-flapjacks? I should be mad, but at that moment I felt gratitude for her letting me savor those great treats. I picked up the remaining one and offered it to her.

She shook her head, coming out of whatever trance she was in. “No!...No thank you I mean. Those are for you,” she said quickly. “I...um...I was super hungry so I grabbed something while I was out.”

I shrugged and wolfed the last one down.

“How do you feel?” asked Twilight.

“Ugh, I feel like I have a dough baby in my stomach.”

Twilight’s face could have won a competition for ‘most emotions in a split second’. She gave a nervous chuckle and proposed we move into the library to have a talk.

I stood up and nearly fell down immediately. My legs didn’t seem to work right. These chairs probably aren't designed for bipeds. My legs probably fell asleep or something.

Hunched, with an overburdened gut and barely functioning legs, I waddled into the library. I fell, more than layed down, onto the couch. I curled my arms and legs up against my bloated gut and rested my head on the armrest.

Twilight pulled a cushion from one of the reading nooks and placed it in front of the couch.

“Ugh...Twilight, I know we need to talk about a bunch of stuff, but I’m not feeling great right now. I ate WAY too much. So lets make this quick and we can get to details later?”

She nodded.

“Okay, there are a few things I want to talk about before we get to the big subject. Thing one, I need a shower. I haven't had a chance to clean myself since I arrived.”

“Not a problem. I was actually going to mention something along those lines. No offence but you were becoming...noticeable…” Her nose scrunched up as she said this.

“Second thing, I don’t know how long you were watching me back in my world. But I normally eat three meals a day, and while I’ve been hungry, it haven’t been as hungry as I should be.”

“Most ponies snack as they go. Every now and then I’ll get hungry but usually just a bite here and there is enough.”

“Strange, I wonder why. Anyway the next thing is, I need to wash my cloths. I’ve been wearing these clothes for several days and they’re probably as ‘noticeable’ as I am. Plus I had a nightmare last night and got your sheets all sweaty.” I finished, quickly averting my eyes.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Ponies don’t normally wear clothes, just for special occasions...or if you work on a farm. For some reason the Apples all seem to wear something.” She looked down for a minute, deep in thought. “But if you need them cleaned I’ll take care of it.”

“Um...It’s actually something I would prefer to handle if you could just show me where you keep the stuff.”

“I use magic.”

“Oh, I guess I don’t really have much choice then.”

With a bright flash I found myself naked on the couch. I narrowed my eyes at Twilight but she didn’t seem to notice. She stood up and trotted upstairs. As she ascended I took a good look at her undercarriage. Well there goes that thought; she’s all girl, not that I’m surprised. I’ll ask when she comes down what she was planning on doing the other night.

I laid there on the couch waiting for Twilight to reappear. After a few minutes I started to worry. It shouldn’t take her this long to grab the sheets and come back down to wash them. What’s keeping her? Did she find out it wasn’t sweat? Is she trying to figure out what it is?

Eventually Twilight reappeared carrying the sheets and pillowcases in her magic. She crossed the main room, opened a door and disappeared through, presumably to wherever she did the cleaning.

I shifted uncomfortably. I definitely ate too much. My stomach seriously ached and I was feeling miserable. I laid there groaning for a good long time. I didn’t really fall asleep. I was in that weird state where your eyes are closed and you are having the beginnings of dreams but you’re also vaguely aware of what’s going on around you.

I felt my body start to tingle as I rested. Oddly no matter how I shifted I couldn’t get the tingling to stop. First one leg would start to fall asleep, so I would roll onto my other side. My chest shifted in the process - terribly distracting - but soon feeling returned in my leg. A few minutes later my other leg started to tingle. I reached down to massage some life back into my blood-deprived leg, but my pants were bunching oddly making the sensation pretty strange.

I rolled onto my back to try to alleviate the whole problem. Again my new foreign body settled and it took me a few seconds of readjusting to get comfortable. After some time the feeling returned in my legs. I took a minute to bend them up into the air and just flex them to work out the strange tingling sensation, but they didn’t seem to want to regain their normal feeling.

They felt odd, strange, almost like they weren’t bending right. They bent in the wrong places and I couldn't feel my toes at all. I opened my eyes.

I noticed a pair of light blue pony legs extending down from my waist. A high pitched sound exploded around me. My legs flailed in the air randomly as I freaked out. I reached my arms down to feel them and found that they were not only incredibly soft, but also incredibly strong. The sound stopped and I realized I was out of breath. Was it me making that sound? A door burst open stealing my attention. Twilight sprang into the room and looked around wildly until her eyes alighted on me and widened.

We froze; her looking at my legs, and me looking at her.

I lowered my legs to rest on the arm of the couch and sat up quickly. I ran my hands over the strange limbs, trying to figure out what had happened. Soft fur now coated me from the waist down. It was a light blue color just a few shades darker than Rainbow’s coat. It felt soft and as I stroked my legs I felt around for my leg joints. I shifted my legs and discovered that my knee had slid pretty far up my leg. My ankle had also shifted much further toward my hips. I couldn’t really feel my toes but the joints seemed to have merged into almost a second ankle. My legs now ended in hooves.

I felt a prod at my right leg and noticed that Twilight had moved close to me while I was distracted. I watched as she grabbed me in her forelegs. She pushed and twisted my new leg, observing how it bent and compensated for her movements.

I saw her horn light up and a quill lifted and dipped itself in ink. It scribbled furiously across a page as she prodded and played with my new leg. I concentrated on trying to make the other leg obey me. The muscles all seemed to be in the same place but they didn’t seem to work the same way. Some muscles I barely flexed and it sent my leg twitching wildly into the couch, other muscles I tensed and my leg barely moved.

Wait, hold on. Lets take a step back. Nevermind that I have strange legs. Why do I have strange legs? I haven’t had any sex. What I did upstairs couldn't’ possibly count, right? Masturbating isn’t sex! Right? Well I guess this world somehow counts it...Unless I got pony genetics another way…

Either what I did counted, and I’ll be able to find out by just doing it more or stopping. If it wasn’t...that, it’ll keep happening and I won’t need to have sex with ponies. I smiled.

I looked over and noticed Twilight also had a huge smile on her face. She noticed I was looking at her and she met my gaze. As soon as she did, her smile disappeared as her face was overtaken by… guilt? Was she feeling bad from me?

“What’s wrong Twilight?”

“Uh…” Her eyes darted around the room, finally settling back on my legs. “Your legs!”

I gave her a deadpanned look.

“I mean, I wasn’t expecting your transformation to go...like this.” She waved a hoof at my legs. “I was expecting more of a gradual shifting of everything at the same time. I wasn’t expecting literally half of you to turn into a pony and leave the other half human.”

I didn’t want to ask Twilight about why I had suddenly started transforming in case it was...that. But she didn’t seem to have any questions along those lines. I was glad she didn’t bring it up.

“The good news now is that you almost look like a minotaur. So even if someone sees you, it won’t be the end of the world. Can you walk?”

I shrugged and sat up, making myself uncomfortable with how my chest shifted again. Having my chest turn pony would be alright just to be rid of these things.

It was tricky sitting on the couch with my joints rearranged but eventually I slid off of the couch and leaned against the table. It took me a few minutes to get my legs under myself well enough to put any weight on them.

I stood up to my full height, now considerably shorter than before. I started to overbalance backwards, I tried to position a foot...hoof, i guess... behind me to catch myself, but my leg shot out from under me, banged into the couch, and sent me crashing backwards. I landed on the couch. Once again my breasts reminded me of their presence. How do girls put up with these? Oh right, bras.

Everything went purple and the couch receded. The room shifted lower and backwards then rose to gently rest against my feet...hooves. I looked over and saw Twilight’s horn glowing a more intense shade of purple than everything else.

I took a few experimental steps. My legs still flew out from under me as I tried to amble across the room. Wow, just a few short days ago I was the star athlete on my team. Now I’m failing to walk around without help.

An embarrassing amount of time later I was able to wobble unsteadily without Twilight’s ‘training wheels’. I tottered over to the couch and flopped onto it.

“I’m exhausted.”

“I’m not surprised. Your body just went through a lot of work to make that change. Plus you just used a bunch of muscles in a brand new way and you didn't get a lot of sleep last night.”

I staggered unsteadily upstairs to the bedroom. Or I tried to. More accurately I stumbled on the first step, fell onto my hands and…-ankles?- and crawled the rest of the way upstairs. I crash-landed on the bed which was already made with new sheets.

****

I woke up feeling ravenously hungry. I opened my eyes and saw the room had descended into darkness. Wow I slept a while I guess. I could really go for more of those pancakes…

I rolled back over and struggled to fall asleep.

****

The next time I opened my eyes the night had passed. I stood up and clumsily made my way downstairs. I snagged the book I was reading and went for the couch but there was a note on the table.

Derek

The shower is just past the kitchen, feel free to use it whenever you

wake up. Also, if you are going to pass as a minotaur, Dash’s idea of a new

name would be a good idea.

I felt terrible about how much noise I was making as my clumsy hooves repeatedly touched down on the wooden floor. I'll wake Twilight up with all this noise I'm making. I reprimanded myself, but my outlook brightened a second later. Maybe she will make more of those pancakes then...

I finally reached the bathroom. I sighed as I shut the door; maybe that would keep my loud foot...hoof-falls from reaching her. The bathroom was pretty straightforward. There was a sink with a narrow cabinet above it on the left, the toilet...type thing…on the far wall, and the shower was to my right. The shower itself wasn't too complicated and soon I was standing under a stream of semi-warm water.

A new name? What kinds of names did Minotaurs even have here? In my world there was only the one in legend, and he was ‘The Minotaur’; it wasn't like we had to differentiate between several. Well let’s see, obviously I’d have to pick a female name. Definitely not one of the super popular female names like Emily or Ashley. Somehow if I picked something slightly less common it would make me feel better. Plus the naming mechanics here seem to be based on words more than names anyway. Maybe something that works as both would be best.

Plant names like Rose, Azalea, Daisy, would work, but those all sound too girly. I don’t know how they keep time here so I’ll avoid month names like April or June.

Hmmm…

I finished my shower and toweled off. The fur was something new. The back of the door had a long narrow mirror on it. It was fogged from the shower, but the towel dealt with that. I stood back and looked at myself.

All in all I was much shorter than I was before. Back when I was a guy and full human I was about six foot four inches. Now I was probably closer to five foot. I was still uncomfortable with my new, expanded chest being exposed like this, but the bottom half wasn’t too bad. First, all of my bits were on the inside now so it was much less apparent, and the fur did a decent job of concealing everything between my legs. The blue was actually a nice color; at least it wasn’t pink or yellow.

I rubbed my legs with the towel trying to dry my wet...fur. But soon the towel and my legs seemed equally damp. I guess I won’t be sitting on that couch for a bit.

I opened the bathroom door and headed into the kitchen. Twilight was already sitting at the kitchen table.

“Morning Twilight,” I said sheepishly. “I didn’t wake you did I?”

“Maybe we should work on stairs…”

“Sorry. I still haven’t gotten the hang of these new joints, walking with hooves is strange, and it isn't like you have handrails. I almost feel like I’m trying to walk on the ends of my toes. It throws my balance way off.”

“You’ll figure it out, Derek. Ungulates normally learn to walk pretty quickly.”

“Whats?”

“Ungulates. Humans have plantigrade legs, it means you walk with your feet flat on the ground. Digitigrade legs would mean you walk with your toes flat on the ground, like dogs and cats. Unguligrade legs mean you walk on the ends of your legs, like ponies.” She demonstrated by tapping her front hooves on the table.

“...Right... By the way, I’ve picked out a name. I thought it might work if I need to pass as a minotaur. I’m not sure what their naming mechanics are but...would Dawn work?”

“Ooo.” She seemed to brighten up. “I like it. Dawn, Dawn.” She seemed to be trying it on to see if it fit. “That sounds really good. Dawn what?”

“What do you mean Dawn what?”

“Well most ponies and minotaurs have a two part name. Though not all of them. I was expecting something like Dawn Breeze, Dawn Shimmer, Dawn Dream...that kind of thing”

“Okay… Well I’m trying to blend in as much as possible. I guess I’d want to go with the standard naming pattern...though that kind of seems like throwing a water balloon at a bonfire… I like Dawn Breeze, but can we just use it when someone is around?”

“We could…but it seems the best way to respond naturally would be to practice first…”

“I have to say, the whole new name thing makes me really uncomfortable; can we just not and hope nobody sees me?”

“I guess...” She seemed really disappointed for some reason.

“You don’t happen to have any more of those pancakes do you? Those were delicious.”

“Um...no, I don’t. I might be able to get something for you though.” She looked around, almost panicky. “Let me run into the market.” Before I could say anything she disappeared in a flash.

That’s odd. I mentioned food and she was out of here like a shot. Was it something I said?

I grabbed my book and sat on the couch. After a few minutes of adjusting and readjusting I realized why ponies don’t tend to sit on couches. Strange that they even have them really. I found curling my legs under wasn’t comfortable either so I laid down, stretched out on the couch and jumped back into my book.

**Twilight**

It worked. It worked! Not only had Derek...Dawn... That brought a smile to my face... not realized anything odd about the pancakes, she had loved them. It must be the spell getting what it needed and imposing some kind of craving. That’ll make this a snap!

All I have to do now is get more. Getting plenty of ingredients had been easy at the concert. It seemed like every stallion there had been happy to help. It was tricky explaining why I insisted on using a condom even when I wasn’t in heat, but it all worked out in the end.

Where am I going to get more, though?