I looked around the table, eyeing the little figures we had scatted in battle formation on it. I was considering my move when Brad bellowed from across the table. "Take your move already!"

I frowned at him a moment before reaching for my pegasus miniature and nudging it ahead. "Alright. I'll charge the ooze and attack with my lance."

Paul, our Game Master, nodded. "Roll for it."

I picked up a die from the pile in front of me and let it fly. Just as it began to settle, everything changed.

I was thrown forward with a wet squelching noise. I felt strange new limbs pumping at my side. The moment I thought about them, they stopped moving right and I flopped to the ground in front of an oozing jello creature that was approaching all too quickly. Glancing to the left revealed a huge horse. With a loud grunt, the horse smashed a hoof down on the creature and it splattered everywhere. Some of it landed on my face and began to hiss painfully.

I scrambled away from it, trying desperately to wipe it away, but I didn't have hands. I socked myself with new hooves and sat on equally new haunches. "What the hell is going on?" My voice was wrong, female, but authoritative.

"I'm dead sexy." spoke the larger horse as she stepped away from the defeated jelly.

"Brad? That's your character... right?" I shook my head. "Did you guys slip something into my soda? This is freaking me out!"

A new voice joined the conversation as a pony knight clip-clopped over towards us. "We're in the game I think. Uh, this is Joe. Brad, Ian? You picked a bad time to make female characters I think."

Brad snorted as she shook her armored rump. "Says you! I'm perfect now."

I climbed up to my hooves and looked back at my wings, trying to get control of them in slow stretches. "So... what? We're our characters now? That's bullshit! Where's Paul?"

"Right here." The voice seemed to echo all around them.

Brad looked up towards the ceiling of the dungeon they were in. "No way! Are you still the Game Master?"

"I think so."

Joe shook his head. "Can you turn us into humans again?"

"And then our brave heroes turned into their human selves!" Nothing happened. "Well, guess that's out. Wait, I have an idea. Maybe I can't undo what happened, whatever that is, but maybe you guys don't want to adventure in Everglow and die for real, right?"

I raised a hoof. "I'm down for not dying. I may have a lance, uh, attached, but I'm not that eager to put it to work."

Paul's voice spoke with the deep authority of any good GM, "And so our heroes, reeling from their sudden entrance, looked around desperately for a way out. Fortunately for them, there was a secret door to the west."

Joe snorted. "Which way is west?" They began to look around, poking and prodding the walls until they found a loose brick. Joe pressed it in and a section of the wall swung inwards.

"As the heroes opened the door, they beheld a great and mysterious artifact! This would take them to a much safer place, where ponies could live in peace."

Brad perked her ears. "That sounds kinda boring."

I rolled my eyes at Brad and strode past her, marveling at the alien place of muscles in my new body. "Stay here then. I'm not finishing out this dungeon with my real body on the line!" Joe seemed to agreed with me, moving to trot alongside me. Our bodies seemed to have a mind of their own, and they moved as we wanted to as long as we didn't focus on it too hard.

Brad stomped an oversized hoof. "Come on! I can't take it alone. You're taking the heals and DPS!"

Ignoring Brad, I began to poke and prod at the control panel until I found a large lever and gave it a pull, or tried. Hooves were not made for grasping. I leaned in and mouthed it and pulled with my entire head. The knob tasted of dust and dirt and I spit it out as soon as it was moved. In reward for my actions, the portal crackled to life in a rainbow pattern of swirls in an oval shaped. "So, Paul? This is safe?"

"Safe as I can make it. You're lucky, at least you have a body."

"A girl body." I looked under myself, but I was dressed in armor, so there was little to see just yet. "This is what I get for rolling randomly for that."

Brad stomped up suddenly. "Fine, be a bunch of babies. See you suckers on the other side." She jumped into the portal, and vanished in a rainbow.

Joe scratched behind his head with a hoof. "Well that looked safe." He pointed at the portal with his horn. "Ladies first."

I sighed and approached the portal cautiously. I reached out a hoof and gently brushed the surface of the portal. That was enough. I was sucked in violently and thrown out against a building. Stars swam in my vision and I started to get up when a new body crashed on top of me. I squealed girlishly in pain and squirmed under the bulk. Joe at least had the manners to get off of me quickly.

"And so our heroes arrived just outside the town of Ponyville, where surely nothing could go wrong."

I picked myself up off the ground, shaking myself out and settling my new wings into place. Ugh, those felt weird. "Why did you say it like that? You're not going to throw odd crap at us, are you? This is serious, Paul. We're really here."

"Sorry, sudden urge. You're not the only one getting used to something new. I think it's my job to keep things interesting."

Brad got a queer expression, eyes going half-lid. "Can you make it sexy interesting?"

"Dude, this is Ponyville! They're all innocent little ponies."

Brad shrugged. "They're alive, right? They got urges like anyone else."

Joe reached out and poked me in the side. "You alright? Sorry for squishing you like that. Let me see if my magic works."

I remembered Joe's character was a cleric of the Sun Queen. "That'd be pretty cool, thanks."

Joe poked again and again, looking like he was concentrating really hard. I rolled a hoof. "The spell has verbal components."

"Oh yeah." Joe smiled and tried again. "In the name of the Sun Queen, may your wounds be healed!" He poked me and a sudden warmth ran through me. I could feel the burn from the jello and the mild crushing I got fading away, replaced with a sense of wholeness.

I smiled back at Joe. "Wow, that worked great. I guess you'll be set for a job here if nothing else."

Joe blinked. "Huh?"

Brad nudged Joe with a large hoof. "You'll put their doctors out of work."

Joe shook his head. "Nah, I'm OK not doing that. So where to?"

I turned in a slow circle, looking around the town, then I got an idea. "Do we have money?"

Brad looked herself over. "I don't have hands to check..."

Joe's horn glowed as struggled with his magic.

Not wanting to wait, I reached with my mouth and pulled open the strap on my saddlebag, then peeked inside. "Looks like everything I had on my sheet is here, money included. Assuming Equestria trades the same as Everglow, we're solid." I suddenly found myself lifting from the ground. "What the?!"

Joe squeaked and I fell to the ground roughly. "Sorry man. I'm trying to get the hang of this."

Brad snorted softly before she started walking off. "I'm going to go bother Vinyl Scratch. I bet she knows how to get down and dirty."

I scrambled back to standing and ran after Brad, tripping up and sliding across the ground. These hooves were not as easy as they looked. "Don't split the party, fuck."

Joe lifted me up with his horn, showing some greater control over it. "What if something goes wrong? We're the only ones that even theoretically can fight in this town."

Brad looked over her shoulder. "What do you mean? Anything that bothered Ponyville would have to deal with Mary Sue Book Horse and her friends. Whatever. I'm not wasting my time looking lost like you guys." She flicked her tail at Joe and I. "Later."

Joe watched her lumber off and glanced back at me with a sigh. "Well I'm sticking with you."

I smiled then stretched out my wings. "You have your horn working. I feel like I should really get these wings to cooperate. What kind of pegasus fighter can I be without flying?"

Joe snorted softly. "You're lucky. That sounds easy to figure out. Unicorn cleric? I barely know where to start. At least the horn's mostly point and click."

I spread my wings out. "Do you remember much about your god?"

"Goddess, and yeah."

I nodded as I began to flap in place. "Well try thinking about her. You know, pray? She's kind of important to you now." Gravity seemed to release its hold on me and I lifted into the air lazily under the power of my new wings. I looked them over, admiring their long yellow feathers with the reddish tinges towards the ends. I was just getting used to hovering when something crashed into me, and I plummeted down with it, landing beside Joe.

The weight was lifted off of me and I saw a light purple pegasus wrapped in Joe's magic. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and bam, that happened. Name's Stormwalker! Welcome to Ponyville."

Joe set her down gently and nodded. "I'm Joe, that's Ian over there."

Stormwalker looked confused even as she helped me up. "Ian? That's a funny name for a pegasus. What's with all the armor, and that lance." She poked the lance that was still strapped to my side. "Are you two doing a show?"

I cleared my throat as tension built up through me. "Uh, not so much. We're new in town. The lance is for monsters."

"Oh." Stormwalker tilted her head one way, then the other. "Why not just fly away from them?"

Joe puffed out his chest. "She'd never leave me behind. We're friends."

Stormwalker smiled at that. "That's good. I can respect that. Well, I should get back to work! Those clouds aren't handling themselves." She shook herself out and then took off into the sky effortlessly.

I looked to Joe. "We should get a place to stay. Does Ponyville have an inn?"

Joe shook his head. "I... didn't watch the show much..."

I peered at him suspiciously. "What do you mean? I mean you're playing Ponyfinder! How could you not watch the show?"

Joe shrugged. "I just liked hanging out and rolling dice. Is that bad?"

I shook my head quickly. "No! No. Just surprised. God, you must be so confused right now."

"That's what I said before!" Joe flopped onto his haunches. "Hey, Paul! Can you tell us where there's a nice safe place to take stock of things?"

"Looking around for shelter, you find your eyes drawn to a small purple-roofed house that seemed to draw you towards it with promises of sanctuary and a warm meal."

Joe looked around slowly. "What? I don-- Oh There it is." He pointed to the purple-roofed house and soon we were walking for it. "Think Brad's gotten into trouble?"

I shrugged along the way. "He's either in jail or Vinyl's showing him, uh, her? Whatever... Showing them exactly how their body works."

Author's Note

The heroes arrive in a new world and new bodies. Perhaps once they get a room they can take a moment to soak in just how much they've changed.

What awaits them? How will they adapt? Will they find a way home, or forge a new life amongst the ponies?

Could be worse, one of them could have been playing something like a clockwork pony or a phoenix wolf.

Paul claims he can see typos, but I doubt that.