Chapter I: A Strange Beginning
I used to live in the busy modern metropolis of Pittsburgh, I’m twenty-five years old and my name is Charles Turner. I am a former technical engineer, I’m somewhat tall, about 5 foot 11 inches, of average body size and weight, with dark black hair cut in a fade, with dark brown eyes, and is of African American descent. All of my life I have felt alone and separated from the world. It seemed to me that somehow I belong in another world. In fact one night I had a dream that I was a young unicorn colt that lived in a world full of brightly colored ponies who are ruled by a princess that goes by the name of Princess Celestica. When I realized this, I tried to stay away from other humans as much as possible, even from my own friends and family. When both of my parents were killed in a car accident a few years earlier, I got depressed about what had happened to them. Two years before I was laid-off at the engineering company where I worked and since then I has been looking for jobs do in the newspaper. The past few months were tough for me; first I lost my 1986 Mazda RX-7 that my father gave me when I was sixteen, and then I had to sell the laptop that I loved to pay the rent, and now I barely can make ends meet. So on Monday morning, just like any other Monday, I’m flipping through the pages of the newspaper looking for a job, but then I saw one that caught my eye. The description goes; “Young adult wanted prefer to be male, needs no skills, must participate in a controlled science experiment, job pays $10,000, please respond by Thursday, meet at the Carnegie Science Center at 9:30 am”. Then I said to myself in an excited tone,
“Wow, this job sounds amazing and the pay is also great. I can use that money to pay for my bills for the next eight months!”
So the next day I took a taxi to the Science Center to meet with the employer about the job. I arrived at the building at 9:15 am, and then I walked through the two-double doors in to the lobby. I was looking around the area looking for the employer that could be the employer that would be recruiting me. Since I could not find anyone that fits the description, so I just searched for the closest bench and sat on it waiting for the employer to show up. Thirty-seven minutes later I saw a tall slim man dressed in an all-white lab coat walk toward me and as soon he was close enough, I stood up extending my hand toward him in the form of a handshake, and then the scientist did the same thing, shaking my hand saying,
“Greetings sir, I’m Doctor Darwin, and you must be here for the job in the paper.”
“Pleased to meet you Dr. Darwin and yes I’m here for the job, the names Charles Turner.” I said trying to give Dr. Darwin a good first impression.
Then Dr. Darwin said in very calm voice, “Likewise Mr. Turner, if you will please follow me to the testing room, we can proceed with the experiment.” After that Dr. Darwin started walking in a certain direction and I also walking following Dr. Darwin to the room.
As we were walking I asked Dr. Darwin, “So yeah, when am I going to get paid?”
Darwin responded saying,” You will get paid soon enough after you return from the experiment. “Wait, return from where, where is this taking me?” I said sounding worried while I ran my fingers through my hair. Dr. Darwin did not reply to my question. From that point I started getting a little worried about the science experiment I agreed to do. After a few moments of walking we both ended up in large room filled with lots of machines, computers, and in the mist of all of that in the middle of the room was a portal shaped device that was sealed off and surrounded by soundproof glass windows.
Then Dr. Darwin turned to me and said, “Ok, just walk through that door and put the headphones on and after that I will instruct you on what you will do next.” Then I did what Dr. Darwin told me to do. Then Dr. Darwin said, “Now that you have put the headphones on, I will turn on the Modulation Device and when you are ready just run through it.”
I then thought to myself thinking, “Man, I hope that this Doc knows what he’s doing.” I was very nervous about what I was about to do, I started was having second thoughts, but I really needed the money .After I was done thinking, I swallowed all of his fears, took a deep breath, and then I took off running toward the portal with my eyes closed. Before I knew it I was already through, and when I opened his eyes saw that I was in a large dim tunnel where I could barely see my own hand in front of me. I turned around trying to see if could go back the way I came but what I saw was just a pitch black wall that I couldn’t go through.
“Well, I guess I can’t go back home now.” he said out loud with a big sigh.
Then I turned back around looking straight ahead and saw a bright light. So without any delay, I just walked forward the light and as I drew closer to the end the light grew brighter and brighter and he final hit the end, the light instantly went out and I got scared for a moment, and as seconds passed my mind went blank and I just passed out.............
It was a nice cool afternoon, where the breezy winds would flow through all areas affecting everypony in all of Ponyville. Even the distant train could feel the breeze flowing through the windows, cooling all of the passengers, filling them with a great breezy sensation. All most Everypony on the train were either socializing with others about their anticipation of arriving to Ponyville or taking a quiet nap in peace.
“Man, what happened to me? And where am I?” I tried lifting my head, but it felt so heavy and I was still tired from the nap that I had just taken.
“Well, good afternoon sir how was your nap?” said the strange voice next to me.
I woke up quickly to the surprise of the voice and turned my head to the right. But when I first saw the face of the stranger that was talking to me, I almost jumped out of the chair that I was seating in, in shock to how the stranger looked. “Hey…was it you that was talking to me earlier?”
”Yeah of course it was me silly; there’s no one other pony seating next to you.” The stranger said in an amused tone.
I couldn’t believe my eyes; in front of me was a lime green coated mare with a yellow colored mane was talking. In my mind I thought that this was one of my dreams, but I was quick to realize it wasn’t, so I quickly accepted the fact that in this place ponies could talk. “Ok, well, can you tell where this train is heading to, how long till we get there and what’s your name?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, my name is Lemon Lime and this train is taking us to Ponyville and we’ll be arriving there in about fifteen minutes!” she replied. After I heard her answer, I started to think for a moment, “Ok now I’m in a world full of brightly colored ponies just like in my dreams, but this time it’s for real. Does that mean I’m also a pony?
Hey Lemon Lime, um….. Am I…… also… a ….pony? I asked.
“Well yeah, of course you’re a pony, in fact you’re a colt.” She replied, with a confused look upon her face, probably thinking that I was crazy.
“Huh, well thanks Lemon.” I started exploring myself, I first lifted my ‘arms’ to see if what she said was true, and it was; my hands were gone, they were replaced with two brown hooves, and the same with my feet. After I saw my limbs I then wanted feel my face, so I started doing that and when my hooves finally reached the top of my forehead, I felt a large horn. Then I looked between my legs to see what happened to my manhood, and I saw that it was replaced with stallionhood gentiles. I broke down into hysteria of what had become of my body. I had been transformed into a pony.
It has been about 12 minutes since I had first seen my new body, a Unicorn Stallion. After a few moments I thought to myself saying, “Wait a second, this all maybe this is happening for a reason. This could also be a good thing, because all my life I thought that I did not belong in a world full of humans, that I was someone else in a different body, and this maybe the place I belong to, as a pony.” As I finished thinking to myself we just arriving to Ponyville. When the train stopped moving, everypony got their belongings and walked off the train; but for me, it was a little bit difficult, for this was my first time walking as a pony. First I tried walking like I did as a human using both of my hind legs, but I kept falling back into the chair. The other ponies that were getting off around me were laughing at how silly I looked, but I ignored them. After a few seconds sitting again thinking on how I was I supposed to walk, I started observing the other ponies on how they walked. I saw that they put one hoof in front of the other, like in a 1-2-3-4 beat. So I got up, put both hind legs on the ground, then both fore legs, and I followed the pattern that the others were using. As I started getting used to walking I saw that there was a large bag in the over storage area from where I was sitting, and on the bag said, “Charles Turner”, so I grabbed the bag and continued walking off the train.
When I got off, all of the new ponies were greeted by the Major of Ponyville. She had a light brown coat with a grey-colored mane who wore glasses, and she also had a scroll-like mark on her bottom.
She then came trotting off to me and said, “Welcome Sir to Ponyville, Home of the Famous Zap Apples, all new ponies are given a new house to live, and are expected to find a job by the end of their first month here, and judging by your Cutie Mark, you would probably do well in construction of some sort. If you need to find where you will be staying at, just go to the kiosk that say New Residents Information and ask them where is home at.”
I didn’t know what she was talking about this Cutie Mark so I decided to ask her, “Wait Mayor, what’s a Cutie Mark?”
The Mayor replied in an joyed tone, “Ok, cutie marks are obtained when ponies discover a unique characteristic that sets themselves apart from others and are displayed on you flank. I hope that answers you question, and I if you need me I’ll be over her. “Then she walked off to greet the other new ponies.
“I wonder what my Cutie Mark is, but the Mayor said it had to something with construction. Well I’ll worry about that later, right now I should get settled in with my new home.” I said thinking to myself.
I then was looking around the town square, trying to see if I could find the kiosk that the Mayor was talking about. Moments later to the far left were a dozen ponies waiting in line; I saw the sign to the kiosk, and it read, New Residents Information, just like the Mayor said it would. I got in line behind the last pony. The speed that the line was moving was at rapidity, I’d only waited about 10 minutes before I had reached the front of the line. When I got there, I asked the white coated pony about where is my house at.
She asked me, “Welcome to Ponyville, what I need for you to do is to give me your name.”
“Well, um……..yeah, I don’t know my pony name, but I do have another name but I don’t thi…….” I said before I was interrupted by the desk clerk.
“That’s a name, which is all I need, just tell me….. Oh, I see your name, on your backpack. Charles Turner, ah-ha, there you go. You’ll be staying at 2285 Cupcake Ave. That is next to Twilight Sparkle’s House.” She said.
“Thanks for the directions.” I said in a grateful tone thanking her for her assistance.