Ozymandias

I have always not liked dreaming. An odd thing not to like, I'm aware. It just felt odd to me, thinking that your own brain can create whole new world on its own. The mind creates whatever it feels like creating, regardless of your own, hell technically its own will. Terrible recurring nightmares in which you have no choice but to see all those you love and care about stripped away by myriads of nameless, almost Lovecraftian horrors; erotic sequences where buxom women of countless body types do countless pleasurable things to your imagined body; bizarre hodgepodges of mental leftovers from the conscious world thrown together into what could barely be stated as coherent images...

A dreamless sleep was always preferable to me. A time where the mind and body could forget everything of life, could decompress, de-stress, and relax; it is what sleep is for, in my mind. A time where nothing can go wrong, where life is at its simplest. I never understood why people always seemed so damned eager to share whatever weird dreams they had had the night before- it wasn't real, and it interrupted your resting, so why bother? When the topics of dreams arose in conversation, I always stayed silent. A sound, restful nights sleep was always good; add on top of this a night free of dreams and you have my perfect nights sleep. Plus, the tendency for dreams to be a prelude to something bad happening, at least in popular fiction, helped put me off of them.

Which makes the fact that I had a dreamless night before my... incident that landed me here that much stranger. It was a cold night, and I had had a long shift at work. Not a particularly stressful one, mind you, but a long one none the less. Not that working at a used bookstore could be all that stressful to begin with. A pretty standard night- walked home to my apartment, made myself dinner, browsed the internet, and went to bed. No crazy gypsy women cursing me, no run ins with questionably deific beings, none of the cliched happenings that may have foreshadowed my personal trip down the rabbit hole. But enough set up on my part- the story, while quite an unbelievable one, is definitely interesting.

* * *

My first impression that something was off was the fact that a leaf landed on my face. Definitely not a terrible, horrible, evil omen to be awoken to, but odd enough that it caused my eyes to shoot open (well, not shoot open perhaps, but I hope you take my meaning). The source of the chlorophyllic intruder was, appropriately enough, the large maple tree I seemed to be laying beneath.

"What?" I asked myself groggily. Hearing that one word come from my own lips, my eyes popped even more open, as the sound of my own voice was, well, not my own. It was far too high pitched, and could without a doubt be deemed feminine. My voice was by no means the perfect description of masculine, but it was very indeed male. This was very indeed not. My monosyllabic muttering was evidently not so disturbing to others, however, as a pair of birds sitting above me in the tree did not so much as ruffle a feather. They simply continued on, chattering their care free conversation above me.

It was at this point that I felt the discomfort in all of my limbs. While they were not in pain, they ached as if I had tried stretching them all just a bit too much and were still complaining about being in that aggravated state. Oddly enough, though, when I focused on feeling my limbs, they seemed to be in the right places, sprawled around me since I was on my back. Yet they seemed to protest that. Pulling them all in, a wave of panic and horror washed over me as I felt all four of my joints go the wrong way: my elbows bend like my knees should have, and my knees bend like my elbows should have. Panic taking hold of my actions for just a split second, I forced myself into a sitting position, which led to two new discoveries: one, that sitting like a normal human was very uncomfortable, and two that I seemed have the legs of a horse.

The legs, or more appropriately my legs, were oddly smooth. The color of a perfectly toasted marshmallow, or perhaps the goal skin tone of a tan, my legs seemed to be covered completely in a layer of short hair (or given what information I know now, fur), with the hair tapering off right before large hooves of nearly the same brown color, only a shade darker. I'm by no stretch an artist, but I would say that it was closest to a tan color.

Ohshitohfuckohshitohfuck... My mind raced, symultaneously trying to deny what I was seeing and come up with a logical explanation for what was happening. I thought it was a dream, and ironically I would have prefered a dream, but this was much too real. But that reinforced the impossibility of the situation. People don't simply turn into animals in real life; I thought myself to be a decent writer, but I was in no way capable of copying Kafka so closely, even switching his beetle with a more benign animal such as a horse. Placing a hand at my heart in hopes of calming my nerves, I looked down when I felt a far too weighty thud come from the contact to be caused by even a fist. My hands too, it seemed, had been replaced with hooves. Okay okay okay... I'm a horse, I thought to myself, placing my hand (hoof) on the ground to steady myself in my increasingly uncomfortable sitting position. My mind was still racing, along with my heart, the barrage of strangeness and panic assaulting me still, but I at least retook hold of my mental facilities to some degree. Now what? A good question. Feeling a mounting pain in my tailbone, I decided that my first order of business was to stand up in a way that didn't hurt like hell to my new body: on all fours. Bracing myself, I finagled my now equine body to a standing position.

The feeling of standing on my four feet for the first time was... interesting. It was much more easy than sitting or laying on my back like I had been doing, and I could feel relief rushing to my legs. It also felt natural, like it was what I was supposed to be doing, but I feel that really goes without saying. But of course, after 20 some years of bipedal living, it was odd standing quadruped. I struggle to put into words what it felt like, but since I was in the body of a whole new species I feel being caught without the proper description is not the greatest sin. Hoping it would take some of the situations oddity out, not to mention help cover my ass should I pass out from panic, I leaned against the maple tree I was underneath.

Now that I had a second to look around, it was a marvelous day wherever the hell I was. Flowers were out in numbers, birds like the ones above me were calling and flying from tree to tree, and I even saw a few insects zip by, off on some simple yet urgent errand. I must have been in a park, as I saw a few horses (or as I was later informed, ponies) walking down well tended gravel paths, and even one laying on a bench a few hundred feet off. I thank my stars that none of them happened to look at me, under the tree up on a hill, or else they may have wondered why I was staring at everything so intently I could have burned a hole in something had I not moved my piercing eyes elsewhere every few seconds.

A slight breeze blew what I automatically thought was another leaf into my eye, but seeing it remain impeding my vision determined that it was my hair (mane, since I might as well begin using this worlds vernacular). Crossing my eyes to try and see it, I managed to grasp that it was a deep, almost grass green before I had to return my vision to normal. Blowing it back to the side, it did not occur to me for several seconds to think that it was odd I had such long hair. Huh... guess I have a mane. A green mane. Thinking how odd everything around me was, a green mane was the least of my concerns. It did, however, make me curious to see what this new body looked like. I was still hoping this was going to be a temporary thing at this point, so I decided to get a look at what I looked like while I could. Turning my head side to side, I spotted a stream running through what I assumed was a park. Swallowing to steel my nerves, I began walking towards the stream.

Much like standing was an odd experience, walking in a four legged stance took some getting used to. It definitely didn't help that I had to walk down the small hill that the tree was on top of, but I managed to get to its bottom without incident. Cutting across the path, I tried to covertly look at a horse who happened to be walking down the path. Most likely my attempt at being sly failed miserably, but thankfully his back was turned. The horse (stallion, if I may revert to common vernacular again) looked to be decently taller than myself, and had short, cropped blonde brown hair. What intrigued me however was what appeared to be a tattoo of what looked to be a birdhouse on both of his hips. Just another addition to the growing pile of questions I had about what was going on, but I couldn't help but ask myself why the hell someone would choose to get that particular image displayed so prominently in such a visible spot. As a matter of fact, how is that even possible? How can you tattoo something that has that much hair on it? Tabling that curiosity along with all the others, I continued on to the stream, stopping at the edge of the water, and looked at my reflection.

And almost fell face first into the water.

What shocked me was not the fact that a horses face was looking back at me, as I had expected that, nor was it the fact that I had very large, human-like baby blue eyes. What caused me to almost faceplant into the water was the undeniable fact that I was female.

The gentle curve of my mouth (snout?); the long, shining mane of carefully maintained hair hanging from my head; long, prominent eyelashes; the overall feminine look of my face. I was no veterinarian, but I could see that I was a mare.

"Okay... shit." I tried taking it in, but honestly at this point my mind was not taking in any more ludicrous information, especially that on top of my species apparently changing, so had my gender. Looking back on it now, the feminine voice I had uttered immediately after waking up should have been a decent clue to my sex change, but hindsight is 20/20, isn't it? "Uh... shit." It wasn't eloquent, but really it was all I had to express myself in the moment. It must have been a few minutes that I just stared into the stream, just trying to come to grips with the fact that I was very much female. I must have looked like a psychopath, just staring into a river like that, because what finally broke me out of my stupor was someone yelling at me.

"Hey lady, you okay?" Jolting my head up, my heart skipped a beat as I scanned my surroundings for the source of the sound. A different stallion, this one a rusty orange, was stood on the path, a confused look on his face. Struggling for words, my brain reconnected to my tongue after a few seconds.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine!" I shouted back, my high pitched voice still coming as a shock to me. Being called a lady definitely didn't help my racing heart, either. Apparently that satisfied the stallion however, as he walked off down the path without any further complaints, shrugging what would be his shoulders. As I was returning my gaze to the stream, I did a double take towards the stallion. I had thought I was hallucinating them in my panicked state but... Yep, those are most definitely wings on him. Shaking my head, I decided a low profile was what I needed at the moment, so I walked up to a long bench next to the gravel path, and laid down to collect my thoughts.

In order of importance, here was what I was able to gather: I was certainly not in Kansas anymore, and most definitely not even on Earth; I was a talking female horse (pony); these ponies seemed to be the inhabitants of this new world; and this certainly did not feel like a dream. Which only left that this was real. Somehow. I don't know, still trying to sort that one out. Sitting there for what felt like 15 minutes or so, I watched as several more ponies walked past me. Some seemed to have what looked like a unicorn horn, and some with what looked like oversized bird wings. I feel almost confident I saw a few of these later ones fly overhead at one point, but that may have just been some very large birds. The majority of those that walked past, however, were 'normal' ones, with no horn or wings. All of them, however, were colored like they had chosen a crayon from the box and colored themselves in. Almost all of them, all of the adults now that I think on it, seemed to have the tattoo like markings, with only the small, child-like ones, lacking them. Including myself, actually. During my thought collection, I further analyzed my new form. It appeared that for whatever reason, I had a pencil on both sides of my hips, which were very feminine.

Okay, lets focus on some positive. You survived whatever brought you here, which is a great start. Nobody knows that you aren't actually a horse, so your covers not blown. These things also seem decently friendly, not to mention civilized, I assumed that the horses were responsible for the park, as I had yet to see anything else that could be, so that must mean that they are the dominant species. Which means civilization. That's a start.

While sitting and collecting my thoughts was helpful, and let me calm myself down somewhat, it was not the most constructive use of my time. I had to make a game plan of what I was going to do, and how I was going to get myself out of wherever I was. Fortunately, my suspicions that these horses were civilized were confirmed quickly. It seemed that there was some sort of town nearby, as I could see the tops of buildings and a smokestack here and there. Deciding that would be my best option for gathering information, I headed off that way. The several other ponies that I passed on my way into the town gave me brief nods, which I returned hoping not to draw attention to myself. While I was walking I looked around the park, taking in more of the beautiful scenery around me. It was a beautiful day out, with barely a cloud in the sky and the sun shining down, making me a tad warm in my newly acquired fur coat, but not uncomfortably so. Not a terrible alien world to be stuck in, I have to give it that. A pony playing fetch with what looked like a border collie ran in front of me at one point, and I noticed that the orange mare had a large hat on. Hmm. So that's one less thing to worry about,I thought to myself, sighing in relief. Mainly because I had noticed something a bit... concerning while I was walking.

I am not what most would consider a pervert. I had a decent sex life back home, nothing to brag about. I am most certainly not a sex addict, nor do I think that I have a terribly dirty mind. But as I happened to be behind another mare for part of my walk before she took a separate path, I noticed that, well... to put it terribly bluntly, that I could see everyone elses privates. Not that I looked purposefully! It was just that as these ponies walked their tail tended to sway, allowing me a view that showed a little too much than was family friendly. It was off kilter with the almost cartoon like vibe I was getting off of much I was seeing, especially considering I didn't have my twigs and berries with me. In all honesty, I do have to admit, I had to control the urge to check my own undercarriage, simply out of curiosity. But I could feel my... changed sex as I walked, adding yet another feeling I had to get used to. Thankfully, I did not get many glimpses of a stallions genitals. My new bodies sexuality was not something I was eager to explore, or even consider, right off the bat. The orange mares hat was a good indication that there were clothes available here, even if no one else seemed to be wearing them. I guess being naked is the status quo for these things.

Eventually, more and more of the town came into view for me. It looked to me to be a decently sized town, with many of the buildings looking like two storied, wood and stone affairs with what almost looked like straw for roofing. Approaching the town from across a river, the main building seemed to be a very large, almost conical looking building in a large circular plaza, with reddish tiles covering the roof, and a flag waving high above. Pausing on a stone bridge, I took a moment to look around and try to figure out what the hell I was going to do. The town itself was much busier than the park I had just exited, with much of the streets filled with ponies going this way and that. I saw several what looked like stores mingled in with residential looking buildings, some sporting signs and large windows to show off what was inside.

Crossing into town and going up to one of these stores, I looked up at the wooden sign hanging above the door: Bountiful Bonnets. In the window were several mannequin heads sporting several styles of hats: some seemed very dressy and frilly, while others seemed more practical things. All of them had hanging tags attached, displaying what I assumed was their price, as they showed a number preceded by a capital B. Okay, monetary system. That's a good sign. Sidestepping as a white mare stepped out of the store, a large, almost ridiculously fancy hat upon her head, I continued into town.

Keeping to myself, I tried to take in as much of my surroundings as possible, but I simply couldn't take in everything. I passed by what resembled a cafe, with several tables and chairs outside of it, where several ponies were in various stages of eating. The streets of this town were not filled enough to inhibit my speed, but I maintained a slow walk (trot. I have to get better at using this worlds speech patterns) throughout town. In addition, I saw what looked to be a large tree in the middle of town, with a large sign of an open book before it. Restraining myself from going into what I assumed was a bookstore, I continued on my way. I paused for a moment to gaze at a building that was made to look like a real life gingerbread house, and saw several ponies exit the place with boxes of assorted sweets. It most definitely stood out, especially compared to the residential buildings. The houses of the town were pretty homogenous things: almost all of them were white with brightly colored doors and window sills, with the straw roofing. The other ponies in the streets, however, were much more varied.

It was like looking into a tropical fish tank: vibrant yellows, blues, reds, even some purples and pure blacks. Each and every pony also sported similarly vibrant hair, with some having stripes of different colors, and at least one being a full rainbow! Many of them simply went on with their business, but some talked animatedly to one another as they walked, and on multiple occasions greetings were shouted out. Yet another odd thing about this world was that it seemed to be dominated by females: for every male I saw, there was easily ten or more females. A relief, in at least I was not forced to catch many glimpses of their undercarriage. Not that seeing so many uncovered... female parts was helping any, but this new body seemed to not react like it may have if I were a stallion. Before I could really ponder if having such a disbalance in the gender ratio was a good or a bad thing for this world, I walked into view of the market place.

What looked like to be two or three blocks was taken up by a veritable bazaar of differently colored tents, stalls, and in some cases blankets laid on the ground. This section of town was much more congested, with ponies leaving barely enough room to walk by each other. Again deciding to scout out this world first hand, I wandered into the crowd.

The number of stalls spoke of the variety available: some stalls sold fabric and clothing, another displayed mirrors of varying quality, yet another seemed to consist of nothing but large pictures of sofas (and also several containers of feather quills, for some reason). In the noise of the market, I overheard several conversations between buyer and seller.

"... not yet. I get a shipment in next week..."

"... yes, I'm sure that it costs 20 Bits. No, I'm not trying..."

"... demand a refund! The last sofa I bought from you fell apart..."

"... 12 Bits. Thank you, come again!"

From these snatches of conversation, I ascertained that these Bits, which seemed to be small gold coins, were the money of this world. Most of the ponies on my side of the stall seemed to be keeping them in pouches strapped to their sides, but a few held small coin pouches directly in their mouths. Well, I guess I'll have to get some money. And something to keep it in. At that I began glancing at the ground once in a while, hoping to profit off of someone's misfortune of losing a coin or two. As I continued to get deeper into the market, I came across the heart of the place: the food section.

About a full block was dedicated to stalls that showed off various food stuffs: apples, cheeses, fresh baked bread, assorted vegetables. Breathing in the scents, I felt my stomach rumble in hunger. I jumped a little at the sound, getting a slight blush on my cheeks. I guess its been two or three hours. I hope nobody heard-

"You there young lady! I can hear a hungry customer, and you dear are one!" Eyes going a tad wide, I looked to who had spoken. A stallion, wearing what looked like a straw hat, was waving me closer to the stall he sat at, which displayed several baskets of watermelon, whole and sliced. Not knowing what else to do, I approached the stall, "No need to be shy my dear, I can promise neither myself nor my product will bite!"

At that I uttered a weak laugh, more to appease the stallion than because I thought it was particularly funny. Feigning interest in the watermelon, I looked them over. They did seem to be fresh, and I could smell the faint aroma coming off of them, but really didn't plan on buying anything. How could I, anyway?

"Yes sir, the freshest melon this side of Canterlot. I can personally promise you they're as fresh as physically possible, and twice as refreshing. Two bits a slice, ten for a whole one." The stallion leaned in a bit, clearly awaiting how much I was going to buy.

"Uh, well, I don't actually have anything on me right now." I replied. Almost instantaneously the stallions face flattened out to a slightly annoyed look.

"Oh. Well, on your-"

"Now now there, that's not very nice, is it?" The shopkeepers eyes went wide at this new voice. Looking to my side, a mare in what looked like a police uniform had walked up, a smug looking grin on her face, "Nice deed like giving this young lady a free sample might just help certain someponies from, oh I don't know..." The police mare lowered her sunglasses, and shot a knowing look at the stallion. The shopkeeper, now visibly shaking, nodded his head so fast his hat fell off.

"Y-y-yes ma'am," In a fury of movement the shopkeeper was handing two slices of watermelon my way, "H-here you go miss! Have a wonderful day!" Glancing at the police officer, who nodded with the same smug grin on her face, I awkwardly accepted the fruit, taking the slices in between my teeth.

"Ah, ank ooh?" I said, raising an eyebrow at the officer. Chuckling, she returned her gaze to the stallion.

"How charitable of you. Looks like you'll get to stay in business after all. Pity." Turning away, still chuckling, the mare went away from the stall. Well that was weird as fuck. Not wanting to make the odd situation worse for the man, who was already sweating, I turned and left the stall. Concentrating on not dropping the watermelon, which at this point was dripping juice onto my legs, I got a far enough away from the stall to be able to stop and try and figure out how the hell I was going to eat this. I smelt something fishy about the whole police thing, and my mind was torn as to whether I had just witnessed something bad, but free food was free food, so I saw no reason not to eat it. Carefully raising a hoof to catch the food, I took a big bite off of the slices, its juice running out of my mouth a bit. Jiggling the remaining part on my hoof, I managed to get both of them down to the rind after a little bit of struggling. Taking the trash into my mouth, I looked around for a trash can. Spotting one at the edge of the market, I made my way over to it, squeezing my way through the crowd, and deposited my trash.

No longer burdened by the fruit I looked around the market, and noticed two things: one, that none of the carts seemed to be offering any meat products at all; and two that they were all seemingly closing down. Curtains were being drawn down, tents were collapsing in, and many of the vendors were removing their wares from their places. Looking up at the sky, it shocked me to see that the sun seemed to be setting. How the hell did that happen? Did I wake up at like four? It must have been about three hours at this point that I had woken up, but I was beginning to feel tired. Being transported to an alien world apparently took a lot out of you. Not seeing what there was to do about it, I decided to look for some place to spend the fast approaching night, and made my way back into town.

* * *

Long story short, I couldn't figure out a plausible way to get a roof over my head that night. I could always hope that someone would take pity on me and let me stay with them after hearing my story, but I decided a low profile was the way to go at this point. I couldn't pay for a room anywhere, so I decided a night outside was my only option. Continuing my walk about of the town, I learned that this place was called Ponyville, appropriately enough, in the country (or world, I wasn't quite sure which) of Equestria. A clear majority of the inhabitants of this Ponyville were what were called Earth Ponies, with Pegasi and Unicorns making up about a fifth the population each; and about 90% of the town seemed to be females, like my new body. Thinking of my switched gender, I debated whether or not it would be safe for me to roam around after sunset. Trusting the fact that males were the minority to keep me safe, I saw no reason to alter my plans. At this point it was night, maybe around eight.

Hoping no one would question me for doing so, I decided to return to where I had awoken in the part. If no one woke me up in the afternoon, no one should wake me up in the middle of the night, I thought to myself as I made my way back out of town and into the park. Finding my tree again, I settled down for the night. Before I even attempted to fall asleep, however, I ran through everything that had happened to me, from my reflection to everything that I had learned about this new world. Gradually, as I thought more and more of what had happened to me, the realization that I was alone, trapped on an alien world, possibly the sole member of my race (at least mentally), dawned upon me. I thought that I may never see my family again, that I would live the remainder of my life in this Equestria, trapped in a strange world in an even stranger body. My emotions running high, I finally let the mental strain I had been stuffing away break out through, and let tears of both sadness and frustration run down my furred cheeks. Eventually, after how long I don't know, I tired myself out enough to fall asleep. A peaceful, dreamless sleep.

* * *

Echoes of hooves reverberated off the stone walls of the tunnel. A pony, a unicorn with blonde hair broken with one stripe of orange, walked briskly down the long tunnel. Ignoring the several rough wooden doors carved into both of its sides, she walked straight on, stopping only to knock at a large wooden door at the end of the hallway.

"Come in." A muffled voice answered from the other side of the door. Entering the room, the unicorn stopped a few feet away from a large wooden desk, which had piles of paper stacked on top of it. Some of these looked to be maps of some sorts, with red markings obscuring decent portions of the information. On one of the walls hung a sword, a dull stain on its blade, its leather handle cracked from use. Behind it sat a stallion with dark blue hair, and a large scar across one side of his face, "What is it?"

"We have a new comrade. Came in around four this afternoon just outside of Ponyville." The unicorn said, a wide smile plastering her face, one that was quickly mirrored by the stallion. Spreading his forelegs out, the stallion laughed.

"Excellent. Welcome to Hell, whoever you are."