Pretty in Blue

Who knew that so many changes could happen to one person in their life time.  Sure, I lived an easy enough life for awhile.  I went to work, cleaned my apartment, and spent some time with my friends.  I lived a simple enough existence.  I had my hobbies, my passions, and my duties.  Some days all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and play video games, and some days I wanted to hole up and hide from the world.

I loved my friends and family, and I would have done anything for them.  Loyalty was always easy to me.  If I became close to someone, then I would stand by them forever.  Simple as that.  I wasn’t a difficult guy to figure out.  Slightly overweight, but still considered at least moderately handsome, single, early twenties.  Fresh out of college with a decent paying, entry level job.  I was an upstanding member of the community, and I paid my taxes every year like the rest of the country.

I wasn’t anything special, though.  It’s hard to be when there are so many people in the world.  That’s why when all of this happened to me, you can imagine the shock I felt.

‘Why did this happen to me?’

Everyone had heard of the show ‘My Little Pony:  Friendship is Magic,’ but not very many people took it very seriously.  And I was far from being one that did.  I had watched a couple episodes with some friends, but that had been about it.  It was cute, and it had a good message, but I had never really put more thought into it than that.  So when I woke up one Saturday morning, slightly hung over from the night before, in a strange forest with fluffy hooves, you can only guess my confusion.

“Okay, I gotta be dreaming.  There’s no way I have hooves right now.  Besides, they’re blue.  Whoever heard of blue hooves?”  So I stood, to the best of my ability, and looked around.  Sure enough, I was in some kind of forest.  Tall trees, birds singing overhead, critters running about all around, etcetera.  That was fine.  But why in the world did I have hooves?

Oh, I almost forgot to mention.  I also had a tail, and floppy ears, and big eyes, and...well, I guess the easiest way to say this is that I had somehow been turned into a pony.  And not just any pony, but from the look of my body and the color of my fur, one from that show.

Yeah, this had to be some kind of weird dream.  But no matter how long I stood there and stared at my rounded hooves, I just couldn’t seem to wake up.  “Well, no point standing around if I’m not gonna wake up.  Might as well...explore, or something.”

So with an annoyed sigh and more than a little trepidation, I started walking.  I wasn’t headed in any general direction.  Just...that way.  I couldn’t really tell which way to go, so I just went straight ahead.  It didn’t matter anyway.  I was bound to wake up soon.  But after stumbling on unsure hooves (who can just magically know how to suddenly walk on four limbs when you’re used to walking on two?), and getting more than a few scrapes from brambles and bushes, I started to wonder if I was ever going to wake up.  Sure, this could be some elaborate dream, but I had never heard of one like this before.

There was always something that would cause a jolt to wake you up.  Always.  So why wasn’t it happening now?  I didn’t even think dreams lasted this long.  I’ve been wandering for what feels like almost half an hour, I’m covered in gunk, bruised, and hot.  This was too real for comfort.  The phrase “this is stupid” must have come out of my mouth about a hundred times by this point.

I had just about given up hope when I finally saw a break in the foliage.  Well, if nothing else, at least I can get out of this rotten forest.  Maybe find someone to give me a drink of water or something.  Hopefully I’ll be able to explain to them that I’m a person trapped in this body before they call the National Guard or whoever.  Who would you call in a situation like this?  It’s not every day a miniature, talking, technicolor horse comes waltzing up to you, is it?

I was still putting together the story in my head (I had determined that this had to be the work of aliens), when I pushed through the last few trees and saw...a tiny little hamlet that looked oddly familiar.  There were tiny houses, a...castle-slash-tree house in the middle of the square...and lots of little businesses all over.  Eh, whatever.  So long as there were people here, it didn’t matter.  Maybe small town folk would be a bit more understanding of my current plight than someone in a city.

Weird, though.  No one was out and about yet.  It must still be pretty early, then.  Maybe there would be someone at the City Hall that I could talk too?  Might as well start on towards there, then.  That building is easy enough to recognize, anyway.

So I started trudging along, making my way down the cobblestone path with a bit more confidence.  Level footing, plus the little bit of practice I had had, made my trek a bit easier.  Why, I was almost a pro at walking at this point!  And you’d think that I had won some kind of award from the goofy smile on my face.  It was a small triumph, but a triumph all the same.  And I had almost made half way through town when I spotted something that was rather odd.

It was a house that looked like it was made from pastries.  The roof looked like gingerbread, there was a cupcake on top...and...a pink pony unlocking the door and peaking outside.  Oh great.  I suddenly know where I am.  And I can tell you this much, I’m not in Kansas anymore.  No, this is Ponyville.  The center of My Little Pony.  And that pink pony right there, that was suddenly bounding out the doors and headed in my general direction, was most assuredly one of the main cast.

Wait.  She’s not just heading in my general direction.  She’s headed straight for me!  I barely had time to brace myself before I was suddenly toppling end over end with her on top of me.  A series of grunts and strangled, surprised noises came from me before we finally stopped moving.  I looked up at her, clearly still dizzy, and frowned.

“Really.  You really just tackled me out of nowhere like that.”  Just a little tip, waking up in another world, as another species, will not put one in the most friendly of moods.

The pink pony merely giggled and jumped off me, then proceeded to bounce around me in a springy, hard to follow motion.  “You sure bet I did!  You’re a new pony, and new ponies don’t come around much anymore!  So of course I had to come over and say hi.  So...hi!”  She stopped right in front of me, as I struggled back to a standing position, with that last phrase.

I just nodded and sighed, “Yeah, hey.”

I gave her a once over before rolling my eyes and starting back down the path I was originally headed.  I remembered enough about her to know that she was the super hyper one.  And I was not in any mood to deal with that.  I needed answers, and I was probably not going to get them here.  If anyone in this place could give me answers, then it was the purple princess one.

But, of course, before I could make it three steps away, she was standing in front of me again.  And she was giving me the strangest look.  “You know, normally when I do that to a new pony we introduce ourselves and then start having fun.  Then we become best friends and I throw them a party!  You’re different.  You remind a little of my donkey friend, but that’s okay, because I know that we can still be friends.”  Then she giggled and stuck her hoof on my chest, effectively halting me in my tracks.  “I’m Pinkie Pie!  What’s your name?”

This wasn’t going anywhere.  And neither was I, unless I played along anyway.  So with yet another groan, I took a step back and plopped myself down on my haunches.  “I’m…”  Wait.  Wait a second.  Who am I?  Why can’t I remember?  “Uh…”

Crap.

“I...I don’t remember my name, if you can believe that.”  I know I sure couldn’t.  That was weird.  Could I remember anything else?  Let’s see…  I was having fun at a party last night...I flirted with this cute girl...and then nothing.

I must have had a strange look on my face, because Pinkie had tilted her head and was staring at me in a very weird way.  “Well, whatever your name is, it doesn’t matter!  Because I’m always happy to meet a new, friendly, pretty mare!”

I shrugged and looked down, still trying to put together the alcohol blurred pieces from the night before.  Then...wait.  I looked up and right at her with wide eyes.  “M-mare?”