This Is Not A Trick
Chapter 1
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“Oh, fuck off!” I shout in my co-worker’s face, turning and stomping off.
He and I have been at odds since I asked him a favour in regards to MLP at a time I was in an unstable emotional state after my grandfather’s death in 2013.
I’d thought he might have gotten over it by now and, at the very least, wanted to try and make a new friendship, start from scratch, or, at the very, very least, just be friendly as co-workers.
But, after a moment of seeing me slacking off while waiting for the next job to come in, a mere thirty seconds after the product had arrived, he told me, by saying the laziest, good-for-nothing employee in the factory, a guy who pretty much does 5-6% of his work everyday and is smart enough to get away with it, that he and I would be great friends, implying I was just as lazy and not caring about work, when I work my ass off on every job I’m given until they’re done almost every day I work.
The jerk!
I can hear my supervisor calling to me, trying to stop me, not doubt to tell me off for out bursting like that.
I whirl around to tell him I had every right to yell as I did— when the world lurches forward.
I scream as I feel agony all over my body, a burning, as if my whole body is on fire and turning to ash. The pain becomes so horrible that I black out.
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Consciousness returns to me and I groan. While I don’t feel like I’ve been burned alive, it still feels like I took a really beating. My body aches from my head to my hooves.
...
Wait a minute. Hooves?
My pain seems to fade away as I suddenly become all too aware of my body, it feeling nothing like it should. I cannot feel fingers or toes. My ears are now on top of my head and are flattened against it, which feels more unnerving.
My mouth feels different, as do my teeth. I wince as what feels like a spike is drilling into my head, yet from the inside out. I can feel a tail sitting above my butt hole.
Opening my eyes I look around, frowning. I’m in some kind of clearing amongst some trees. They look... cartoonish.
I roll my eyes. Okay. I’ve written and read enough MLP fics to tell what’s going on here. For whatever reason, I’ve become a unicorn in the world of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.
My frown deepens a little more as I notice a glint of light against something black and... chitin-like.
My gut drops. Changelings! Drones from the tail I just managed to glimpse. I gotta get outta here! I need to—
Wait. They’re running... away from a pony? Okay. That’s weird.
“Why on Earth would they run... away... from...?” I trail off, before squeaking, my right hoof flying to my throat. That... wasn’t my voice. What’s more, it wasn’t a male voice, either. It was...
I look down at my hooves and see blue fur. I gulp. “I’m... Trixie?”
Great. Just great. I somehow find myself in the world of MLP for real, turn into a unicorn and I happen to end up as Trixie?! I’ve nothing really against her, but Trixie? Hell, I think I’d have taken turning into Starlight Glimmer, at least then I’d have powerful magic at my use. But no, I get a pony who’s specialty is in magic tricks, a gimmick that is irrelevant in a world where magic is REAL!
“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about thinking up a name and background for myself at first,” I muttered, standing up, before wincing, my right foreleg moving to my stomach, which has a small bulge in it that I’m pretty sure Trixie didn’t have at any point in the show.
There was a strange feeling inside my abdomen, something I couldn’t place, having never felt it before. Along with that, I can feel immense pain from my new mare parts. It feels like something was being shoved in there not too long ago. What the heck...?
I look down and raise an eyebrow. The ground looks rocky and forced down. The best comparison I can really give is a crater, like the kind meteorites, of the space ships the Saiyans in Dragon Ball Z leave when they make impact.
Why the heck would Trixie be in a crater? Granted, it’s not a deep crater, pretty shallow.
I push myself up, standing on four wobbly legs.
Okay, first thing’s first. Gotta get used to walking on four legs.
It takes a few minutes, the majority of which I spend flopping down on my face and coughing up dirt, but I get the hang of it.
With walking settled, I look around the clearing more. It’s now that I notice something leaning against a scorched tree.
I move a little closer, squinting, before I leap back, falling over again. It’s a Changeling! I’ve got to run! I’ve got to—
I blink, frowning. The Changeling isn’t moving. It’s slumped up against the tree, its head lolling down. I move a little closer to inspect it, before I jump back in horror.
The Changeling is dead! By the looks of it, it was burned to death, its chitin is charged and blacker than it clearly should be. Well, at least I know why those other Changelings were fleeing. But what the heck could’ve down that?
I look around, before noticing another two Changelings further away, one looking broken against a rock in a way that clearly said it was dead. The other was against a tree like the first dead Changeling I notice, this one slumped on the ground. If not for the charge body, I’d think it had just fallen asleep.
I’m starting to feel a little anxious. If something could do that to these Changelings, Trixie wouldn’t stand a chance, meaning I won’t stand a chance.
Before panic can set in, however, I notice the crater I woke up in. Frowning, I mentally measure the distances and trajectory of the Changelings from the crater. They seem about right.
But, for that to work, it would mean Trixie would’ve caused, not only the crater, but it had released enough of a magical force to not only send those Changelings flying, but charred them in the process.
I grimace. If that’s the case, and, to be perfectly honest right now, I’m just trying to grab at anything to calm my nerves, it would mean Trixie had far more magic than I’d given her credit for.
Maybe the Changelings had surrounded her and, under the stress and fear it put her in, she’d had a flare, like Twilight did during her entrance exam as a filly.
I don’t have too much evidence to suggest it, but, with nothing else to go on, I’m sticking with that for now, if only so I feel less insecure about turning into a female pony who’s magic hadn’t seemed that powerful on its own.
Glancing around again, I see what looks like a caravan not too far off through the trees. It must be Trixie’s caravan. Well, at least I won’t be sleeping outside.
I start walking in the direction of Trixie’s caravan, before a drop of water me on the snot.
I jerk, scrunching my nose at the sudden sensation, before a loud clap of thunder and flash of lightning make me jump and cry out in shock, before rain starts pouring down around me.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I growl, glaring up at the sky, which I only now see is filled with dark rain clouds. “You couldn’t have waited til I’d gotten to Trixie’s caravan first?” I blink, before face-palm— er, face-hoofing. “Great. I can’t talk about Trixie without sounding like I’m talking in the third person, just like her.”
I growl. Okay. I can worry about little things like that when I’m not being soaked by sky water.
I try running... but that just results in my face-planting into the mud.
Grumbling, I pick myself up and walk at a normal pace toward the caravan. By the time I get there I’m soaked to the bone.
I walk up to the door to the caravan, noting that it’s parked at the edge of a road, a small town not too far in the distance it’s facing, clearly where Trixie was headed before I woke up as her.
I walk up the steps to her door and, using a hoof, push it open, hurrying inside as fast as I can without toppling over and shutting the door behind me.
I’m soaking wet, water dripping from my mane, tail and coat and pooling on the floor. With no idea how to use magic, thus not knowing how to cast a spell that could dry me off or warm me up, I move towards a nearby cupboard and start fishing around for a towel or something.
The caravan is light by an oil lamp Trixie must had lit before heading into the trees, illuminating the small space. The floor is pretty bare, the only things on it being a few flyers for Trixie’s shows and other events I’d guess she attended at some point. The walls are a midnight-blue with a few stars dotted here and there at random.
The oil lamp is on a desk in the far corner, on which I can see a few pieces of parchment, some with writing on them, some blank.
“Finally,” I grumble, grabbing a towel and using it to dry myself off. “Honestly, you’d think I could at least remember where Trixie put her things if I’m now in her body.”
After a few minutes of toweling off I put the towel on a small spring hanging from the ceiling, though I had to jump to reach it. No doubt Trixie would just levitate it up there.
“Now, where would Trixie keep her food and water?” I asked, smacking my lips as I look around.
At once I grimace and gag at the flavour in my mouth. I hadn’t noticed it before, what with dealing with everything else I’d learned upon waking as Trixie, but, mixed with the taste of dirt from my many falls when I was getting used to walking on four legs, my mouth is filled with some strange salty flavour.
I gag a few more times, my eyes scanning for something, anything to wash this taste out. I spot a bottle of cider and grimace again. I don’t like cider, much as I hate to admit it. Every since becoming a Brony, I’ve wanted to like cider, since it was Applejack’s family’s specialty in drinks, but I just couldn't like the taste, no matter how hard I tried, and I’d tried multiple different ciders in the hopes one would taste good to my tongue, yet had not found one to date, Bundaberg apple cider being the latest failure.
However, right now, if I have to choose between the taste of cider and whatever’s in my mouth, I’ll happily go with cider.
I almost jump when I realize the cider bottle is hovering in front of me, surrounded by a light lavender aura. I glance up at my horn and see it’s glowing.
Deciding to not look a gift horse in the mouth... Good God, that pun was totally unintended, I grab the bottle in my hooves, the lid popping off in my magic and I quickly start guzzling it down.
I almost gag again as I taste the cider, but keep going. This is far better than what I’d been tasting before.
When the bottle is almost halfway empty, I stop, pulling back and taking a deep breath. I move my tongue around in my mouth and, thankfully, find no trace of that salty taste from before. Never thought I’d say it, but thank you cider.
Able to finally just relax, I sit down in the middle of the room, thinking.
“Okay. You’ve woken up as a female unicorn, who somehow had a flare that chased off Changelings that were attacking her, while killing three in the... process...”
I gulped. I’d... I’d killed?
No! No, I didn’t. That was Trixie before I’d woken up as her.
Though, that brought up an interesting question. How had I woken up as her? What kind of magic could’ve brought my mind into Trixie’s...?
I face-hoof. URG! Changelings! Stupid mind magic. They must’ve been casting some on Trixie when she flared. The flare must’ve been so powerful that it ripped through to my reality and, due to the mind magic being used on her at the time, grabbed my mind at random and pulled me into her.
I groan, flopping onto my belly. “How am I going to explain to my family that I turned into Trixie?”
Wait. Come to think of it... what were my family like?
I quickly start scanning my brain for any memories of my family. I can make out shapes and voices, but names and faces and other details elude me as soon as I start focusing on them.
I groan. "Oh, well, isn’t this just wonderful? I can’t even remember my human family now! Thanks a lot, Changelings". Now, I suddenly don’t feel so bad for the ones Trixie fried to a crisp.
I sigh, my eyes downcast as I look at my hooves. Well, at least I don’t have to feel upset about my family. I can barely remember them.
I move to get up, when I wince, a new pain reaching me that I hadn’t noticed before.
It’s coming from my new female parts. They’re hurting like mad. Come to think of it, my jaw aches a little too. I lift a hoof up to my head and accidentally brush my horn, shivering. And why does my horn feel so sensitive? Then again, I could chalk that last one up to the flare Trixie had earlier.
I think about my mouth and new female parts’ pain... before the thought of that taste I had from earlier comes to my mind.
My eyes widen and my head darts to the wall, as if I can see where I’d seen the Changelings fleeing outside and my chest tightens. No. Oh, please, God say it isn’t what’s going through my head right now.
I look down at the bulge I saw in my stomach earlier. As I watch, to my horror, it slowly sinks in until there is no evidence it was there in the first place.
I shiver, curling up, wrapping my tail around me, and sob.
"I’m... I’m pregnant... with a Changeling’s child."
