Adolescence (Foalhood)

“Sometimes the most beautiful thing is precisely the one that comes unexpectedly and unearned, hence something given truly as a present.” – D. H. Lawrence

I... Ugh. I’m not sure about most other people when the sun starts to shine immediately in your eyes when you wake up. I’m not like most other people. In fact I’m different in many ways. In fact, having the sun shining in your eyes makes you go blind, in my case. Or in my opinion. I don’t see why other people like it. They are probably crazy. Maybe plain weird. Wonder what that makes me… Eh. Probably neither. It would be the best possible outcome if I was neither…

Wait, did I trail off on my thoughts again?

Dammit. I really need to stop doing that. It’s a trait that I’ve tried to ridden in the past, only to resurface eventually. I guess that’s what happens when… you’re alone for most of the time. You get bored doing nothing but sitting by yourself, everyone else talking amongst themselves. I don’t really care for anyone else, as they have shown no signs of caring for me. And that’s one of the things that has been working lately.

I trailed off again… See, I seem to trail off when I don’t even notice. I…

Ugh. I groaned when the ray of sunlight streamed into my vision, hitting my eyes. I immediately closed them as I looked away, not wanting to blind myself on purpose. Or on accident. I suppose… it doesn’t really matter. I wonder where the hell I am. I can’t remember… much of what happened before my sudden black-out. It may have been a black-out. Or I slept in some new place… where the ground felt like dirt and grass. I think it was best if I don’t think… about whatever happened.

Did I trail off there? No… don’t think so.

I just mumbled some nonsense in irritation. I don’t know what I expected when I did wake up. I went to rub my eyes with my hands… at least that’s what I thought. I… something feels off about my hands. And now that I feel the rest of my body… everything else feels off as well. Like I have new limbs and nerves, where some are replaced with others. Some felt hard and soft at the same time, when… whatever it was rubbed my eyes. Maybe it was better if I just rolled to the side and opened my eyes. Actually, that is entirely better.

Though I have my doubts over whatever is touching me. I opened my eyes and… I’m… I’m… No. No this can’t be. I can’t be… I’m not what I was before. This revelation shocked me, and I completely froze in place. What else are you supposed to do when you find out that you’re not the species that you were born as? Be in a state of denial, most likely. I assume that’s what most people think.

But as I said, I am not like most people. I… don’t think that I care that I’m not what I was before… It’s just the fact that I’m something else… is shocking enough. I… am now without a hand. Hands, for the matter I believe. It’s… what exactly am I seeing? Fur… in the color of a blue. Ugh. I swear if I wasn’t blinded by that god-damn sun, I swear…! Well… it doesn’t really matter. I’m just trying to comprehend what I’m seeing right now. A pair of blue… things. Whatever they are, they replaced my former hands. And as I moved my eyes down, I could see… blue legs. Back legs. Wait… the shape of my ‘new hands’ resemble…

This is all starting to register in my mind. But I don’t know if I can believe it. No. There just isn’t any way…? I can’t be a colored horse. A… purple or blue colored horse, for the matter. What- Has anyone ever seen a blue horse in their life? Or… a small horse? Pony, perhaps? Actually, I’m not sure what color my fur is. It’s on the borderline of Blue and Violet. Maybe it’s Indigo. When I looked over my body, it actually does look like a type of Indigo. Though, it’s more of a navy blue than any type of purple. I think I’ll stay with Dark Indigo. Is that even a color? Even if it isn’t, it doesn’t really matter at the moment.

Because it seems like I’m actually smaller than what I thought I was. Of course, I blinked quite stupidly at this new revelation, if you want to call it that, in a lot of surprise. I tapped these two… hooves, I think their called, together. This could be real… or it could be a dream. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a dream. Though I never knew my imagination would make me a blue horse in my dreams.

Guess I underestimated my own mind. It may be a nightmare. Although why becoming a horse in a dream is considered a nightmare… I don’t really think so. Perhaps it could be. Maybe at any moment I would wake up all of a sudden and laugh it off for its pure silliness at all this. I mean it’s quite hard to believe that your one species when you go to sleep, and wake up as another.

Without anything else to do that seemed like a better idea, I slowly made it up to four hooves. Or two hooves and two rear legs. I guess there are all the same. Not exactly sure. I’ll stick with hooves for now. Though I’m running into a few problems right now. Like the fact that I’ve never walked on four legs (hooves in this instance) before. My… stick with hooves. My hooves wobbled a bit when I was trying to get up. I have to relearn walking, don’t I? I sighed. Better than doing Homework. Actually… anything and everything is better than fucking homework. It’s so stupid and contradictory… Not the place, right now.

And again with the sun. The sun was glinting like a shiny sovereign of aureolin-gold. And it was annoying. Why isn’t there any clouds, like usual. When I do a take about the surrounding scenery… I seem to be in some garden. Maybe a part of a forest, though I doubt it. I can see some sort of city in the background, can’t exactly make it out clearly. Blurry vision. Damn sun.

I went off again. How long for? Maybe a minute or so. Wouldn’t be the first time… eh. There are walls of hedges that surround this area. There is quite a lot of flora around, roses and dandelions and the like, blooming. It was a peaceful-like sight. Actually… this environment looks cartoonish in some way. Can’t put my hand- hoof on it. It looks visually stunning, I guess. Wouldn’t really know. It… all just looks colorful. I guess others would agree with me, or call me weird. But with much harsher words… sadly.

How I got here still baffles me. Though I think I’m taking this better that I should. Is that a bad thing? Well… I’m apparently a small horse or pony (don’t know) with different colors… straight out of a cartoon, maybe. Possibly. Though how that is even possible… Eh. Doesn’t seem likely.

With each step that I make, my legs seem to wobble, as I feel like I’m about to fall over. This is hard. Ever knew learning how to walk again, this time with four legs, could be so tiring… jeez. I didn’t think I was going to fall over after a few minutes of walking around in circles. I was on a roll… until I tripped on a small rock and fell over on my side. And… damn did it hurt! “Ah shit!” I couldn’t help but yelp out in pain. I hate this.

The pain quickly wore out after a few seconds, which was quite quickly for normal standards. Maybe it’s the different body that I’m in. Must be the fact that I’m in a different type of horse species that heals quicker than what I used to be does. Possibly. I haven’t received any other reason to speculate over how… Science was never my thing. And neither was sports, for that matter. I even liked sports from when I first started to play. Then… everything happened at once, and I quickly grew a distaste for sports. Not all, but most. Mainly the ones others play around the streets that I used to… yeah.

Actually just looking at the color of my coat still doesn’t really help. And doesn’t a horse’s… mane I think. Yeah, mane have a different color from their coat. Along with their tail? I walked over to a small pond, where I could see a better reflection of me. The irritating sun is still shining. I never thought I would dislike the sun’s light, considering it’s either rainy or overcast form where I used to... live in. I took a glance at the clear water below me…

…I have wings. Double-take. I… have wings.

Granted, they are small in size but, I still have wings…

Huh. How did I not notice them when I was looking around my body? I guess because you could barely make them out considering they blend in well with my coat. Which looks more like a navy blue in my reflection than a purple. My face of a blue furred creature that was staring at me through the water… looks almost identical. With a few differences here and there. Those yellow pupils is one of them, probably being a real eye catcher? Doubtful. My mane though… it’s nothing like my hair from before. The style is different. There’s a color pattern which is now present, along with the colors being different…

Err, how do I explain this…? The pattern is…striped. Mainly consisting of the color yellow with streaks of different shades of red. Reminds me of an old flag from one of the Middle-aged Empires, from around the local area. At least that’s what I can remember. The style of my new hairdo… is even more difficult to explain. It’s like my mane was brushed forward and around my neck. A blue coat and a yellow mane… I don’t really like the look. Maybe if the coat was more purple than blue, and replace the yellow with white… It’d look better in my personal preference.

Woah, I’m taking this better than I should. I took several steps back and sat on a hill beside the pond, going into deep thoughts while looking at the water. Maybe I’m going insane, and that all of this is really a dream or some giant hallucination. But the fact that I felt pain kinda dismisses that fact, almost entirely. But I need to take into account that the pain faded rather quickly. The entire ordeal seems very funny to me, even if the reality isn’t real.

Having hooves instead of hands, is going to be annoying. I don’t know how I would be able to work out the ability to pick up things without falling over… I’ll find out over time. Getting back on a track, the possibility of facing a total species change… It’s like something out of a fiction novel. Oddly, I never had a knack for such lucid dreaming like this, which has much real-aspects towards this being all real. It… I don’t know.

So, like anyone else would know with at least half a brain and intelligence, the only way to see if this is really a dream or not is to cause self-injury on oneself, jolting them out of the dream more powerfully than on accident, where you brace yourself without sensing it. For many reasons that are obvious to me, this method is probably used by so many others as well. I believe the correct term for these kind of people are referred to most commonly as… ‘Idiots’. Heh, heh. You can also have fun in dream, no reason not to. More funny things. Yay…

I held down my left hoof on the soft grass, where I raised my right hoof as high as I possibly could reach. I then slammed my right hoof down, bringing as much force as I could possibly muster with this new kind of body.

…before the pain set in. "Fuck! Shit that hurt!" I yelled out, retracting my right hoof as my left started throbbing, me wincing as I help my hurt left hoof in pain towards my… chest area. Well I guess that rules out the ‘dream theory’. This must be real. Or some screwed up imagination/hallucination that I’ve somehow managed to come up with. Why I would start to see things now makes no sense to me. “I really am an idiot.” Falling over and hurting my rib-area most definitely proved that I was already not in a dream, where I felt pain for a short amount of time. Yeah, I really am an idiot. Couldn’t help but chuckling to myself.

I didn’t have much of any overreaction to this. Normally, other people would have gone into some panic attack as their lungs rapidly took in as much air as they could possibly hold, as they went into a state of shock and fear. And as stated before, I ain’t like other (most) people. The fact that it was rather pointless to panic right now after thinking all that doesn’t really help anyone in any situation, not doing me any good. I didn’t even feel any sort of panic building inside of me. My body doesn’t seem to give a fuck. I guess I really don’t care what happens to me nowadays. I didn’t really do anything that involved the meaning ‘fun’. So really… frankly, I just don’t care. I mean, all of this, the flora, the pond, the scenery. It’s all real. Too much evidence point towards it being real. I can’t really notice anything that was a figment of my imagination…

…other than that murmuring, distorted noise that suddenly came behind me. Nah, it’s probably the wind… or something else. It’s nothing. “Heh. Now I’m hearing things. I must be going crazy.” I joked my thoughts aloud… for some reason. Heh, only now is when I can now hear things that shouldn’t be real. The mysterious noise started making sounds again, before the sounds of the breeze returned into my powers of hearing. Actually… that noise sounds distinctively like an old Middle-age language. But I never learnt it but a few words. And forgot them overtime, so it doesn’t really matter. “I’m hearing things.”

Maybe I can understand all of this better if I look deeper into life and nature.

And I swear I saw something fly right past me, a light colored shockwave that emitted from… somewhere. Couldn’t exactly make out the color as it was quite faded and went by rather quickly where I just caught a glimpse of the sight. Eh, it was probably nothing. Only my stomach gurgled for a moment before everything returned to a state of calmness. With the sight of the sun… setting in the far distance. Err, setting? Shouldn’t it be rising right now? Maybe I was knocked out in the morning, and woke up during the dusk. Eh. Whatever else, at least its sight to behold, with all the colors around, make it look beautiful, perhaps. Perhaps…

“It’s a sight to behold, isn’t it?” Some feminine voice asked from behind me. I guess I should be alarmed, but she didn’t attack me when my guard was down. Was she the source of those odd noises? Nah, doubtful. I didn’t even turn my head, just kept looking at the sun slowly moving down.

“I guess. It depends really.” I reply. I guess I can converse with this other being, where I heard no hostility in her voice, so she must be friendly in some sort of way. Yeah, the sight depends of quite a few things. Haven’t really seen anything like it… since ever.

“Oh? How does it depend?” She now asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice, as I heard her… hoof clopping slowly making her way from behind me. I… don’t know if I should reveal that I’m not originally a horse/pony hybrid furred-creature thing.

“Many things. For instance, I’ve never seen a sight like this before.” It was true, as it’s usually filled with clouds, pollution, rain, misery, pain, isolation… and occasionally thunder, including sunshine or snow. So muck fucking snow... “And that the world usually isn’t this… colorful.” I then continued after a second of pausing after I waved a hoof around the garden area. Also now that I notice it, the trees are really round, and that the branches often curve off to the side. And that there’s actually trees…

“Well, how come you’ve never seen a sight like this? And that your world usually isn’t colorful?” Shit, I think she is catching me here. Well, she never said how specific I had to be. Ah, vagueness…

“Because I come from a town…” I start somewhat confidently, who knows why, before trailing off… I’d actually not reveal where I used to live… and how I used to live. Ugh. The memories. They weren’t such happy times. I could give a hint of how I used to live… no. It’s better if I don’t. “Because I come from a town…” I repeat with uncertainty, unsure of how to explain. It’s… hard. “It just isn’t colorful as this.” I can say that it is true. It was all full with greys and browns and nothing colorful.

“Really?” She paused for a moment, as I now looked back down at the grass, prodding it. I wonder who this woman was. And why she was even talking to me, of all people. Maybe she likes to take a look at the scenery. “Where do you come from?” Oh shit. Well… I could still loophole this… as bad as I feel. It’s not technically lying…

“…a town.” I weakly answer, my voice cracking. She my catch on that I’m not secretly a pony. And then… who knows what would happen. She would probably think that I’m crazy, and that I’ll get thrown away in some mental institution.

She walks up beside me while I refuse to look at her, still prodding the ground. “Would you mind telling me where this town is?” Her voice is softly, authorizing… and motherly in a way, sounding like a leader of sorts…

“Yes, I would.” I answer, wondering why she cares about what town I’m referring to. Some random stranger doesn’t need to know. Why would they? As if they could understand…

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a colt from Yacultsk before in Equestria.” Yacultsk? What kind of name is that? Why did she mispronounce Yakutsk…? And how does she know I’m from there…?

“Don’t you mean Yakutsk?” I respond back first, before asking another question. “And how did you know I was from there?” And here is where I decided to take a glance at this voice who was talking to me… “Holy shit, you’re big!” I exclaim. For good reason. She towers over me! Her coat is some sort of white, while her mane and tail… are some rainbow variation while it flows with the wind… how does it do that? And she has wings… and a horn… Okay. She is a Horse/Pony Unicorn/Pegasi hybrid. This day keeps getting better and better.

…and maybe I shouldn’t have said that.

She raises an eyebrow for a moment before stifling a giggle… I’m sensing some sort of magical great power that is emitting from her. Wonder what the purpose of that is… “Yes I am quite bigger than you, young one.” Now I raise an eyebrow. Young one? I’m not that young… She has a soft smile on her face… or is it muzzle? I was never a master of the horse/pony hybrid anatomy. “And I believe you are mistaken. The town is familiarly known as Yacultsk.” She then continues, getting a disbelieving look from me.

“I’m sorry,” I start off, before continuing slowly. “But the town’s name is Yakutsk.” Maybe these species has misunderstood my culture and our language, getting the names wrong. And it sounds like a horse-pun. “And I’m not that young for my age.” I point out, because ‘young one’ can mean several things. In this context that I’ve chosen, she thinks that I’m a child still. Or foals, I think their called for horses… Wait. “Hang on,” I cut her off before she was going to speak again. “Did you say colt?” Colt means child in Horse terms, doesn’t it? So… “Are you calling me a foal?”

She gives me a confused look. “Not exactly.” …before returning to a smile. “I am calling you a colt.” I blink. Then I blink again. I glance over my entire body. No, no, no. Am I a child in these horse/pony’s world? Or is she insulting me…?

“Is fifteen considered a colt’s age?” I ask, unsure about how the ages of horses/ponies work around here. Isn’t a horse’s life span a quarter of that a human’s. Maybe it works differently around here.

“Not exactly.” She answered after a pause… wonder why. “But being ten years old is.” Ten years… what? I’m not ten years. I stare at her for a few moments before looking back at my body. I seem very small in size when compared to her. But how small is a foal when compared to an adult’s size. I slowly started to panic before rubbing my head.

“I… think you may have misunderstood.” I look back at ten reflection in the pond. “I’m not ten years old…” Then again, my face, even as a- I’m going to stick to pony because it’s quicker. Even as a pony, I still look younger than before. My face slowly turned to disbelief… I can’t be five years younger than I should… no, no, no…

She still has her warm smile, and doesn’t seemed fazed by my words… that’s kinda creepy. And for some reason feels reassuring at the same time… “I… do not sense that you are lying.” She comments, her horn glowing… while nothing happens to me. Wait, she can sense lies? Holy crap… magic I guess. Not sure what to expect whenever magic is added into reality. She puts on a different expression, narrowing her eyes slightly. “Yet, you don’t have the body of a Yearling.” What’s a yearling? Does that mean teenager? Must be, because I don’t see any other explanation.

“Um…” I stutter, not sure how to explain myself. And why I would explain myself to some random pony… who’s taller than me… looks stronger than me… can use magic… knows how to fly… “I c-can ex-explain…?” Real smooth. I weakly question myself where my voice cracks, making a weak smile in the process, as I quickly look back and forth for an exit. Hope she doesn’t notice that I’m looking to get the hell out of here.

“Can you?” Okay that smile is creepy. And maybe deceiving. No definitely deceiving. “Go on, do tell.” Apparently I somehow manage to get myself stuck in corner. The possible exits that I could run out without her possible noticing is an open gateway behind her and an opening in the hedges behind me on the other side of the pond. And I have no idea how to fly using my wings.

“Um- I- er- erm- err…” Stop stammering, man! Look- Find some distraction that could work on her. “Hey! What’s that over there?” I act by widening my eyes and pointing my left hood in the direction of her right… to where I see a bunch of pegasi flying past… No idea. Thankfully it worked as she looked surprised and glanced over at the sky, while, as fast as I could possibly run on four legs, I ran around her on her other side, towards the exit to this pond-area, where there’s a bunch of statues in the background. Eh, it was probably nothing. I tried to ignore everything around me as I attempted to bolt away from her…

…before tripping on a fucking goddam rock! Ah! I was skidding on the ground head first for a meter or two before stopping with dirt in on my coat and mane. I groaned as I rubbed my head. I thought I could walk, guess I shouldn’t have been confident in running. Wait, I need to get out of here! I didn’t take a glance back at the bigger unicorn/pegasus woman person as I shook my head to get all the dirt out, before bolting once more. I didn’t hear her make a sound from behind me.

I ran around a corner, staying to the left wall of the high green hedges, as I ran wildly into a place that I’ve never been before. I can see some sort of ancient-looking city in the distance. Looks very old. And elegant. And colorful. Shaking off this thought because it didn’t matter, I turned another corner… I realized that this was like the backyard of a giant castle. With a very weird-looking pattern, that somehow is sturdy. And colorful. And maybe crawling with guards. Yep, avoiding that place as much as possible. And why do I hear a faint flapping noise? Probably pegasi flying from far away.

I turned another corner to see rows of statues that seem to be surrounding a maze area. Most in the shape of ponies. They were holding a flag, or a staff of some kind, and… something else that I couldn’t make out. They were placed on the grass land where a yellow-ish path surrounded it, all looking fancy. And there’s a maze entrance. And I took all this in while running and occasionally falling over occasionally.

I quickly ran behind a blueish-green tree, panting and wiping sweat of my face. I’m tired from running. I hope I lost her. Wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t. But I can’t hear any noise coming from behind me, other than the wind breezing and faint talking, nothing nearby. I decided to take a peek around the straight tree… and she wasn’t in my sight. Thank god. But there was these two white unicorns in this weird-looking armor, holding spears…

I quickly moved back, hoping I wasn’t noticed by them. From my brief glance, I saw that they were on a patrol of sorts, and weren’t interested in me? I take it the giant mare didn’t say to anypony about me presence. Sighs… Well, at least I can take the time to think for now… wherever I am.

Well… I ran away because she looked… kinda important in some way. Her armor that she was wearing, the way her mane was flowing. How does magic do that? Well, magic. At least I've lost her for now, and that I can take time... to run again eventually. Considering the possibilities of where I am, in this... new dimension, I'm in a land inhabiated full of ponies. Or horses. That have these bright colors and awful-looking armor. Primitive, if you will. Yet while the guards, at least I think their guards, have these spears, which are very, very old... they can still harm me. And ponies don't wear clothes...

At least I lost her...

"Tired, are you?" Oh, crap...