Fall of the Rightful King-Clean

Chapter Three

Erin had the light on and was sitting up in bed. Her face was dry, but she held tissues in her hands and was staring down. She glanced up when I came in, then looked forward again.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” I answered and knelt by her side. “So, your sister’s taking this pretty well.”

Erin snorted. “She’s kinda crazy. But… maybe that’s not such a bad thing right now.”

“She’s really touchy-feely,” I said. “Like, all over me wanting me to touch her ears.”

Erin gave me a sideways smile and held up a finger. “You are allowed to touch her ears, but don’t let her nuzzle you! You’re still mine,” she said, reaching her arms around me.

“So… you think she might be…”

“No,” Erin said. “She’s just… she’s kind of weird and I think she loves ponies so much she wants to be touched. I can't believe she just wants to walk around naked, but I guess it's different for her, and it's not like you can see anything."

“How are you doing?” I asked. I couldn’t see any new changes to her, but half her body was under the covers. Erin didn’t say anything at first.

“Do you love me?” she asked. I was a bit surprised by the question, but answered almost immediately.

“Of course. I love you more than anything else.” I tucked her hair behind her ear with my other hand. She turned her face into my palm and kissed it before continuing.

“No matter what? Even if… if I’m not…”

I squeezed her hand. “Erin, I’m never leaving you. No matter what happens.”

She smiled and sniffed, then looked up at the ceiling. “I can’t feel my toes.”

I looked down the blanket to where her feet were. All I could see were lumps that didn’t tell me much. “Did you look?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not yet.” I reached for the blanket. Before I could get there, she pushed my hand down and shook her head. “No,” she said. “I need to do this. Ok. Oh… Nick…” She pulled the blanket and sheet off in a rush.

Above her knees, her legs were the same, minus the fact that they shouldn’t be pink. Everything below her knees was covered in short pink fur. She still had her heels, but her foot after that was completely different. It arched down, the pink skin and fur giving way to harder tissue. It didn’t look like what horses have – the color matched her skin, and with the fur, it blended so well that you could hardly see where her skin ended. There was no denying, though, that Erin had hooves.

She pulled her legs up slowly, running her hands down her legs. She slowed when she got to the fur, and stopped briefly where her hooves began. She ran her fingers down over the unfamiliar hard edges, and jumped slightly.

“It’s soft in the middle,” she said.

I put my hand over hers as I looked into her eyes. She leaned in and hugged me.

“Think you can stand up?” I asked.

“On these?” she asked. “Hey, Britt!” she added. A few seconds later, the door slowly opened and Brittney trotted in.

“Oh my gosh you have hooves!” she squeaked. “They’ya so cute!” she added, stepping close and putting her own hoof up. “Look, we match!”

“How do you walk on those?” Erin asked. She sat up on the edge and scooted closer to Brittney. Brittney looked at her own hoof with a puzzled expression on her face.

“I just kind of… walk. It’s kind of like if you walked on yah toes, but yah toes wah big and flat and smooshed togethah.” Her stomach grumbled. “Can we have pancakes fah bekfast?” she asked.

I shared a glance with Erin. We didn’t say anything, but we knew what the other wanted to say.

Your sister’s weird.

Shh. Be nice.

Erin looked back over to Brittney. “Let me see how you walk, sis.” Brittney slowly walked back and forth a few times in front of us. Erin kept her eyes focused on her sister’s hooves the whole time. I was startled by how similar this looked to the show. No way in heck was this a coincidence. I didn’t have the slightest idea what it could be, but a coincidence wasn’t on the list.

Erin put her weight on my shoulder. “Ok, I think I can do this.” We started to stand up, but then she stopped and sighed.

"What's wrong? Does it hurt?" I asked.

"No, it's..." she tossed a hand in frustration, then reached around behind her and pulled her tail out from her pants. It was long, fluffy, and pale blue.

"Oh..." I said. She took a deep breath. For her part, Brittney actually made a noise like "squee!"

"Ok, ok," Erin said. "It's new but not so bad. I can do this. Can you bring me some scissors? I'm gonna cut a hole for my... tail."

"Yeah," I said. I went downstairs, grabbed scissors, and came upstairs.

"Help me stand up," she said, holding her sweats up with a hand. Her sweat pants didn't fit as well and looked too loose. That meant she'd lost weight last night. I stood up with her and took her weight as she overbalanced one way, and then the other. Her left arm waved around as she tried to get her balance.

“This is so not like high heels…” she said.

“You’ve got it, though!” Brittney said. “Now just lift yah... your hoof and put it down in fahnt.” Erin’s first step nearly made her fall over, but the next few were a lot better. She pointed at the bathroom and I helped her in. When she came out, the sweats were fitting better. She looked at us and turned around. She'd cut a hole in the sweats and slipped her tail through.

"It's so pletty!" Brittney said, running a hoof through the hair. "I love that shade of blue. It's like Trixie's fuh!"

I reached out, but stopped myself before I touched it.

"Can I touch your tail?" I asked.

"Are you sure you want to?" she said quietly. "I... get it if it grosses you out."

I ran my fingers along her tail. The actual skin and muscle part of her tail wasn't very long, only a foot or so, but the hair was a lot longer. It felt almost like touching her hair, as in her head hair, but it had a softer texture. Erin's breathing sped up.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"No," she cried. "I have a tail!"

I took her arm and gently pulled her close. Brittney slipped by us into the bathroom. Erin and I hugged as she slowly calmed down.

"So what's it like having a horse for a girlfriend?" she asked.

"We'll figure this out," I said. "We'll find a way to fix both of you." We both looked at Brittney who had grabbed a brush with her mouth and was happily brushing her own tail. "Well, fix you," I said to Erin.

She nodded, then started walking towards the stairs.

“Let me try the stairs on my own,” she said. I didn’t argue. I mean, sure, this would all get cleared up in just a few days, problem over. But some part of me knew that it might not. That part knew this might be…

She needed the practice, is what I was saying.

We got to the bottom, Brittney encouraging Erin the whole way. I helped support her weight once we got to the bottom, and she sat down on the couch. She crossed one leg over her lap, took her hoof in one hand, and started studying it.

“I’ll get breakfast started,” I said. “Pancakes sound good for everyone?”

“Yep!” Brittney answered as she hopped up next to her sister. Erin mumbled something in agreement. I mixed the batter, poured it into two pans, then came back and sat next to them. They were already talking about their new bodies. Brittney still sounded like someone from Boston, but it wasn't as strong.

“So we’ah gonna have to trim ah hooves and pobbably get horseshoes,” Brittney was saying, “but I don’t wanna get the kind that they nail in.”

“So what do we do?” Erin asked. She slipped her hand into mine without looking.

“We can get hoas boots! They’re like these hahd plastic things that go around our hooves and tighten so they can get taken off. Lemme show you.” She reached for Erin’s laptop with one hoof. Erin pulled it away before anything broke.

“Oh, solly!” Brittney said. “I kinda forgot. I wonda if you’re gonna be an earth pony like me oh a pegasus oh a unicorn?”

Erin felt the top of her forehead. “I don’t think I’m growing a horn…”

Brittney looked at me. “You’ll probably be a Pegasus, cuz you’re fast.”

I didn't want to think about that. “Hey, Britt,” I interrupted, remembering my conversation with Erin last night. “Do you… know anything about what happened to you two?”

Brittney sat up, her ears standing straight. “Like what?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.

“Like, how this might have happened,” I started, “or maybe if… you did this.”

She shook her head vigorously. “Nuh-uh. I know that I’m Pli- Princess Eclipse and I’m so excited!”

“Who’s Princess Eclipse?” Erin asked before I could stop her. I winced at the question. Brittney’s grin, if possible, got even bigger.

“She’s my OC! She’s an earth pony who learned how to do magic and she defeated Discord on her own, so Celestia and Luna turned her into an alicorn, and Shining Armor loves her moah than Cadence and so…” she sniffed the air. “Breakfast is on fiah!”

I’d already kind of zoned out. Erin jabbed me in the ribs and I realized what Brittney had said. I jumped off the couch and ran into the kitchen. Smoke was coming out of both pans.

“Dang it,” I said, pulling them off the heat. “I think that was the last of it, too.” I muttered. One quick check through the cupboards confirmed my suspicions.

“Um, so that was the last of the pancake batter,” I said as I walked back into the living room. “I’ll have to go pick us up some breakfast. Burritos work?”

Erin shrugged. Brittney frowned. “But what am I gonna eat?”

“Good question,” I said. “Does anything sound good?”

She thought about it for a second before her eyes lit up. “I wanna try oats! Ponies love them and they’re super yummy for them. Ooh, maybe…”

“Ok, oats.” I said as I put on my jacket. I paused and looked at Erin. “Do you want to come?” I asked.

She looked at her sister, who was now telling her about the many kinds of things she “knew” ponies could eat, then shook her head.

“I’ll stay here with her,” she said. Just before I got out the door, I heard her say, "It's pretty cool how it fixed your legs."

I hadn't thought about that until now, but yeah. Brittney had broken her legs a few weeks ago and had been in casts when she started to change. Now her legs were fine. The magic had put her back together.

Did that mean it could heal me, too?

Holy cow, I hoped so. Just that thought lifted a massive weight off my shoulders. Turning into a pony would be a small price to pay for getting to live. That felt like too heavy a topic to think about right now. My brain needed a break. Let's focus on breakfast. Breakfast burritos were an easy buy, but raw oats? Is that like a supermarket thing or a farm supply thing?

Supermarket thing, as it turns out. I got the last bag of rolled oats and went to the checkout. The clerk raised his eyebrows when he saw the bag.

"So, did I miss some kind of news report? Because everyone's been buying oats today. We already had to restock it."

"Um, weird," I said, and paid. So Brittney and Erin weren't the only ones. Probably. Or maybe there was some new oat-related health craze.

The drive gave me time to think. I didn't want this, but no matter how loud I turned up the radio, I couldn’t stop thinking about last night. I'd been hit by the magic lightning just as much as Britt had. But I was still human. Why was Erin changing? She didn't even get hit! And what about my teammates? I called Ross and got no answer. Neither did anyone else on my team. Well, maybe they were tired or left their phone home. Every single one of them at the same time. Crap.

I thought about going to check on them, but I had Erin and Brittney waiting on me. I could check later. One thing for sure, I had to know what had happened and how to stop it.

I got home. Brittney was right at my feet when I opened the door, jumping to see what I had in the bags. I stepped around her as I shut the door behind me.

“What’d you get?” she asked. “Was it oats? EEEEE I’m so excited to try them as a pony! And daffodils and apples and cidah…”

Erin pulled her sister away. “Come on, Brit, you’re not a dog!” She took a burrito from my hands.

I pulled out a bowl, cut open the bag of oats, and poured some in. I set the bowl on the table and Brittney hopped up on a chair, leaned over and sniffed it.

“Do you want milk or sugar or something?” Erin asked.

Brittney stuck out her tongue and pulled some oats into her mouth. She chewed for a bit, her eyes going from side to side, before they opened wide and she grinned.

“These ah so good! Thank you, Nick!” With that, she dove into the bowl face first and started munching.

Erin shook her head and hugged me. I put my hand on her neck and rubbed it gently.

“Let’s go sit down,” I said. We walked into the living room. The TV was on, but it was a commercial.

“I’m worried about Brittney,” she said softly. “Do you think she’s going crazy?”

I was a bit surprised at that question. “No. Why? Is it because she’s so happy about this?”

“And she won’t calm down about it either! She’s always so happy and bouncing. Heck, the whole time you were gone she couldn’t stop talking about herself. She just kept brushing herself.”

“So she was brushing herself and talking?” I asked.

“Yeah!” she said.

“How’d you understand her?”

“I didn’t.”

I took her cool hands in mine. I didn’t say anything, just let her talk.

“I mean, I get that she likes ponies. And that’s fine, but it’s like… this should be kind of traumatic! I’m usually better at handling stuff than she is, but just looking at her act like that…”

She went quiet for several seconds. I waited.

“Maybe it’s just her way of handling this. Maybe she is scared and she’s just sticking with the ‘I like ponies’ thing to deal with it.” I said.

She waited a long time before talking again. “I’m just scared. It’s happening to me too! I've got hooves and a tail! What if... what if, when it finishes, I’m not me anymore? What if it gets done and I’m all jumpy and silly and always happy like her? Or what if… what if I’m still me but we never fix it?” Her voice started to shake, and I felt teardrops fall on my shoulder. “What if I’m stuck like that forever?” She squeezed my hand and brought it to her lips. “Don’t leave me,” she said. “Will you promise? Even if… even if I’m…”

Her voice cracked and she stopped talking. I lifted her face until we were looking at each other, and then kissed her. When we separated, we hugged.

“I won’t leave you,” I said. “No matter what. I love you no matter what you look like.”

We held each other. The news chose this time to come on, showing a reporter outside a building I recognized as being downtown.

"Last night's storm has baffled meteorologists, forming quicker and moving faster than any storm on record. Some are blaming global warming, but Manuel Garcia says there's a different answer. Magic."