Lost Marbles

by Beta Breakout

Rating: everyone
Tags: Human, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Pie Sisters, Comedy, Adventure, Discord
Length: 8791

So I've been doing a whole lotta nothing. As a guy in his mid-twenties who's afraid of needles, I'm pretty sure I wasn't up for getting a tattoo anytime soon; so why are there some on my sides?

I've lived most of my life under the rock they call the "internet", so I know a few things and don't know a lot of things. I can sure tell ya what the heck memes are, but I can't say that I know much about what's going on in the economy. Twenty-five years and I still have just about as much knowledge about government as I did in fifth grade.

In those 25 years, I never thought I'd be going through some of this strange... stuff... that's going on right now with my sister and I. First we end up with tattoos, and now we have tails? Who comes up with this stuff?

*Five Score Divided by Four side fic- Original by TwistedSpectrum

Published 2016-03-03 01:20:03 UTC
Last updated 2016-03-07 06:46:49 UTC

Chapter 1: Mark My Words

I yawned, getting out of bed. I didn't have the best night, but it was something. But that didn't matter, it was 10 in the morning; the time of greatness! At this point of the day, you could eat breakfast OR lunch! I ran to the kitchen to see if my sister had made anything, and as it turned out...

...She didn't. She wasn't even up yet.

Well, crap. I have to be PRODUCTIVE and make myself a breakfast? Sad day! I guess I can deal with making some- nope. No knock-off Captain Crunch. Maybe I could make some eggs? Sure. I started the stove and cracked the eggs into a pan. The sizzling of the cold against the warm made me joyous and I realized I am so ready for this to be done!

"Arik, what are you doing? You have no idea how to cook unless it's a cup of noodles."

And the beast awakens.

My sister and I have been living as each other's roommates for around three years in this apartment. Lucky for us, we've been interested in the same field for even longer. This doesn't mean we're the best of friends though: She'd often order me around and I'd just have to do it. Knowing her, she'd make it worse if I didn't do what she commanded.

"Hey, I can at least handle eggs, okay?" I turned back to see her with a skeptical look on her face. She knew that that wasn't true and so did I. "Fine, here you go. I'mma go do some homework then." But god knows I'm just gonna be searching the internet.

"Atta boy. The eggs'll be done in a few minutes. That should give you enough time to finish a whole two problems if you're lucky!" she laughed. "Or you could just go on Gmod like you always do." Well, I guess she knows me too well.

Oh yeah, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Arik and my sister's name is Madeline. We're twins, not identical, and... well, there really isn't that much to compare us with. She's assertive while I'm here as a wimp, which she always uses to her advantage. I've tried standing up to her, but she just doesn't care. I'm just glad that she's here so I'm not lonely. Also, she helps pay the bills; like, a lot.

My job right now is editing videos for random people who need help on YouTube, which pays about 10 bucks per person. And I get maybe one person a month. She, on the other hand, works at Olive Garden as a manager, waving her buttered bread stick baton getting people to work as she counts profits.

I plopped onto my chair and awaken my laptop and see I have a notification: My friend Ryan shot me a message seconds after I came online. I sent one back saying 'What's up dude?'.

'Nothing much. Just wanted to give a quick happy birthday before I go to class!' He put an emoji with a party hat and party horn.

'Hey, thanks! :D' I almost forgot today was my birthday! May 1st, the day of the baskets, for some reason. At least that's how I learned it. If I remember correctly, 3:20-something in the afternoon, my sister being around 2:10, and she takes too much pride in that. A simple "hey, I'm older than you" is fine, but she uses it as the reason to command me around. It's not my fault I'm younger than her.

Time went by and Maddy and I finished up breakfast, watching some YouTube and she headed out to her job. I just stayed home and did some homework for once. I have my main class tomorrow, so I might as well do something while I'm not wanting to be online.

I guess I should tell you what I'm about to master: computer-aided engineering. I've been working with CAD since I was in 5th grade due to being simply amazing while my sister is mastering architectural development, which is pretty much the same thing except with more buildings and less effort. I do the work of going to the place and scanning the area for markings on trees and Maddy just builds the house on the computer.

I spent a few hours playing with what friends I have on Steam at this time and went back to studying at around 3:00. I wanted to play more, but I knew I needed to get to work.

But I've really got a lot on my mind right now. I've had these weird dreams about an almost dystopian feeling world where there was this goat-lion-dragon thing attacking all these houses while my sister and I were hiding. All of a sudden, she bursts out and just yells at this creature about how she owns this property and she will defend it with her life. Then he just laughs and grabs her off the ground, chanting this thing as she yells at me to run and just evaporates into thin air. At that point, I ran for my life. I couldn't fight something that could kill someone off just like that. I wanted to save her, but I had no choice. I ran for around ten seconds before I stopped feeling the ground beneath me.

"Oh, look at the little pony, running as always. I mean, what could you do? Your sisters are gone and you've got nothing left of your farm" He just cackled as he floated me in the air. I did my best to hide from him, but with what? "Aww, how sad. It seems you're hopeless now."

Then I felt nothing as he chanted. I remember it word for word.

For Five Score Divided by Four,
Your memories removed, your body confused,
For your insolence you must pay,
Cast off to a land far far away,
To scatter the six, just the start of my tricks,
Your mind shall be weak, your outlooks bleak,
Forgetting everything and living like a fool,
You have all lost, now no one can stop my rule!

And that was all I had before I woke up at a start.

Ugh, I don't even know why he called me a pony, but that doesn't give a reason towards why this dream had me so scared. I mean, my sister died, my town was being overthrown by this monstrosity and I was killed by the same creature without even having a chance.

...

Well now that it's in that context, I believe I have every reason to be afraid. Alright, now that I'm back from that horrible memory, I should get back to work. I looked at the clock to see it was 3:40. Meh, I'll finish up in- "Wait, what? I just got started a few minutes ago!" I exclaimed. Now it's like half an hour later? What the crap? I didn't think the dream was that long. Whatever, I need to take a break.

I got to the bathroom and began nature's call. As I pulled down my pants, something seemed a bit off. It wasn't my stomach or head, but something just didn't feel right. I looked down a bit further... and a little to the right... Aaand the left.

I might need to sit down this time around. I found out what wasn't right.

Two tattoos on my thighs appeared. What. The. Crap.

Author's Note

HAHA GET IT CUZ HE'S ON A TOILET HAHAHAHA

Sorry, not sorry =3= And the terrible puns begin...

Ugh, I suck at exposition without it sounding like an evil villain throwing out what happened to the hero before he attempts to smash their face in. I'll do better as this story goes along. Just be patient little ones. Or big ones. You do you boo.

I'll try my best to do this alongside high school and maintaining friendships with too many people, haha. If this story hits a flat line, know I worked this into my schedule aswell as I could!

Chapter 2: A Little Hoarse

I looked at the tattoos and was slightly scared, then I realized I sleep in shorts. Someone could've just slapped it on without the slap while I was asleep. Also, my friends have gotten tattoos before and were red all over from the process while this one didn't have any redness. I took a washcloth and ran it under the sink, then rubbed it against the ink. Then I rubbed harder, this time with soap. Then I got the tea tree oil. None of them worked, but now it was red. I guess I got what I hoped for at first.

Now I've got a few hundred questions, but I think I'll leave it at three:

One, how the heck did this get here? Last time I checked, I didn't have three circles, which I presume are marbles, on my thighs. I don't even like needles! Infact, I hate needles! And I don't think I've been incapacitated since when I woke up! This wasn't here when I was changing from my pajamas, that's for sure!

Second, I've been in this apartment all day, so who could've done it? Definitely wasn't me or my sister. She does extreme pranks, but not this extreme!

Third, why me? I've got nothing that would make me look like I love marbles or something. I played them when I was little, but that's all! There's nothing more to it than that!

Well, I guess time will tell. Speaking of time, Maddy should be home soon. I should ask her about these; we might not be best friends, but we still tell each other things that we've kept close to our hearts. After all, we are family.

And as if on queue, there she is! She seems kinda frustrated though; but then again, she always looks that way. Maybe I should tell her later and just let her vent to me for now. I sat on the table to wait for her to cool down a bit. Maybe she got an angry customer? A batch of bread sticks gone awry?

"I've got a limestone pun tattooed on me."

... Well then. Looks like I don't need to wait. "Hey sis, I'm in the same boat as you. I've got marbles on my thighs." At this, she turned to meet my eyes, looked down, then back at me.

"Huh." was all she had to say about that. "Any idea of how to get them off? I'm stumped after trying some really sneaky crap in the bathroom there."

I shrugged. "I dunno, I tried using a wet washcloth and soap; even tea tree oil couldn't do anything to it." With that, she just sat down with a sigh.

"At least we can hide it. Not like I'll be taking off my pants in front of others any time soon." she chuckled. "As for you..."

"NOPE." I cut her off. She just laughed. There's only one person I have a crush on and she isn't interested in me because of how terribly I keep a schedule.

"Well, I don't know your life!" she kidded. "But do you know when they got there?"

"I mean, it had to be from this morning after I got dressed to around ten minutes ago. I saw mine by then."

"I saw mine around 2:30 when I had to change after a drink mishap. Don't ask." Ya know, I didn't really care. Then she asked me not to ask and now I'm curious. I guess I'll ask later; more pressing things going on.

"So, any ideas of what to do about these?"

She scoffed at the question. "Just keep them covered. They're just painless tattoos, right? We can schedule an appointment with some tattoo parlor to see if we can get these off later. Hungry?" She ended up bringing some food and knowing her, it's in top condition.

"Sure, why not."

-=8=-

So after the late lunch, we just talked a bit more about the tattoos and described what they looked like to save any possible mental scarring, just in case. Hers' is a half of a lime over some rocks. I have to say whatever this is, it seems to be slightly stone related. She ended up going to her room and taking a nap while I was the one to clean up, of course. I can't judge though; she is the one who pays the bills and brings the food. I've gotta do something to even it out.

As I rinsed the containers and put them in the recycling, I realized that something else was different. I couldn't quite tell, but it felt obvious for some reason. At the same time, I couldn't care less about it. I just finished cleaning up and decided to take a nap of my own; after all, I didn't get the best night's sleep, did I? I plopped onto my bed and just laid there for a bit, pondering what this tattoo could mean. Maybe it was just some strange nuclear reaction gone wrong and hit us? I dunno; I just wanna sleep.

"Marble, you need to stay here and stay safe with Lime. Cloudy and I will take a look around. Keep this pager near by and you'll hear what you need to, is that clear?"

"Mm hm..." I put the device in my satchel.

"Good. I love you all..." He hugged me close, knowing this might be the last time I see him. I saw tears form in his eyes as he pulled away. Then he left with Mamma. I knew tears were falling from my eyes, but I knew I would have to be strong. First thing I needed to do was find Limestone. Maud was down in Ponyville when Discord attacked and we haven't gotten word about any casualties from nearby family, but I had a bad feeling in my stomach that she was gone.

I had to find Lime. She'd been mining for double her normal shift and should be heading back now. I went to the cave where we harvest most of our gems from and picked up a mining helmet. I hadn't been down this cavern in about a month, so I knew things would be different. I headed down the main path trying to find any sign of Lime, but there wasn't any. That just meant that I needed to go deeper. I headed down our rope elevator and looked for a light. It took around ten minutes of searching to find a light along with a radio buzzing, saying different names and a sound I thought I'd never hear in a thousand years.

I found my way down the mine shaft to find Lime next to her radio she keeps with her, but she was different. She's been crying. I listened to the radio, hearing the names of different ponies. One could only assume what happened to each of them. It took all of my might not to cry with her, but I knew there was a more important matter in our hooves.

"...Lime?" She didn't even stir. "Please, Lime. We... we need to-"

"Leave me here. I'll die with my farm." The d-word has been dropped. Tears started welling in my eyes.

"...No. I'm not leaving you here." My voice began to falter. "You know I can't..." Still no movement. I listened in on the radio again.

'-Clover... Lucky Star... Lyrica Lilac... Masquerade Ball... Maud Pie...' And this is where I break down. The tears started flowing down my face and I couldn't hold it in anymore. I'm sorry Pop, I tried to be strong. I sat next to Lime and just let it out. She had just stopped her tears as I came, but she was still clearly saddened.

She stood up and shut off the radio, then got in front of me. She lifted my chin and swept me hair out of my face to face her. "Marble, stop crying." She paused and let me calm down a little bit. "Do you know what that means?" I nodded and she sighed. "We need to get back up there and take care of ourselves. We need to be ready before he gets here. Got it?" I hesitated, but nodded yes. She wiped some tears off my face. "Good. Let's go."

-=8=-

We left the cave in a hurry to get home, but something was... off... The sky had turned to a strange tiled black and crimson, but it was still day. The clouds were purple and raining small lemons. And to top it off, the ground was striped bright pink and navy blue.

"He's here." was all that came from Lime's mouth. "He hasn't left us yet. He's somewhere nearby..." Chills went down my spine. "We're going to stop him, no matter the cost. He won't be getting far."

I was afraid to say it, but Pop's orders. "No." Lime looked back in frustration. "W... We need to stay safe. Pop said to make sure that we're safe. We need to go home."

"What we need to do isn't as important going to do." she scoffed. "Are you going to let that monster kill other ponies, or are you going to come with me to save others?" She could clearly see I was afraid, but didn't care. It was die trying to save others, or die playing the most intense game of hide-and-seek ever played. I don't know which to choose.

A tear popped out my eye. "I... I don't know." Follow what I felt is right, or follow for what I know is instant death? Pop or Limestone? I just... I just couldn't decide.

Lime turned away from me, anger filling her eyes.

"You're a wimp. You deserve a wimp's death: dying alone."

She walked off.

I stepped forward, my eyes welling up with tears once again. "Lime-"

"Go home Marble. You're dismissed from this conversation." She kept walking.

"Lime, please." I kept following her. "You... You know what'll happen." I felt anger seeping into my words. She was going on a suicide mission to no avail. Why? Why was she going to die to such a horrible being of nature? She knew what was going to happen if she continued on her path. Why was she doing this to herself? Am I, her sister, supposed to stand for this? I can't lose another sister. I couldn't hold it in. I exploded.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS LIME? YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT'LL HAPPEN."

She turned back to me, tears in her eyes. "THAT'S WHY I'M DOING IT." She sighed and hung her head down. "At least I'll go down fighting for my lost sisters."

I backed down. But I had one last question. "Then why aren't you trying to protect your last one?"

It became silent between the two of us. Lime calmed down and began pondering that last thought. I could see her anger being filled with sadness.

"I'm..." she stuttered. "I'm sorry Marble. I..." She tried to speak, but she couldn't. She sat down. I walked to her side and sat next to her. We sat in silence, her head lying on my neck.

"It's just so hard. I've... I've known you all for so long." She sighed, taking her head off me. "I can't lose another sister."

I got up with her. "Me neither." We hugged it out. We might not get along all the time, but we have our moments of sisterly love.

'Marble? I hope you're listening' Our hug ceased as we heard a fuzzy voice from my satchel. 'We're in Ponyville now. It seems like a ghost town now. There's pretty much no color anywhere except the ground'

I pulled the pager out of my bag and listened. "Is that..?" Lime started.

"Mm hm." We listened closer.

'Most of the houses are in the air, just floating there. It's so strange'

"Be careful Pop..." I whispered. "We need you."

'Hey, Cloudy, look at this. Canterlot has it's shield down. I hate to say it, but I believe it's a ghost town too'

"Crap." Lime said under her breath. "That means we have pretty much no chance."

"Lime, let's head home. We can start making ideas once we're there. If we're gonna die, let's at least make a good fight." She smirked at that command.

"Who gave you the right to control me?" she teased. "Okay, let's- GAH!"

We both backed away as the pager went into a high pitch. The pitch was replaced with static, slowly fading away.

"POP!" she yelled. She dove for the device. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Lime... it's one way." She stared into it.

The static stayed at a low tone as a voice came onto it.

'Oh, I'm sorry little pony' Lime threw it onto the ground and backed away. 'It seems you've lost your parents'

The head started coming through the pager's display, as well as the rest of his body. "Would you like me to help you find them?"

Discord is here.

"RUN!" she yelled as we both ran home. We turned the corner and he was back, leaning on the door.

"Well that was quite rude. Don't introduce me or anything, I don't mind." he said with a great smile.

"Discord," Lime started. "what do you you want?" She wasn't even scared; just angry. I, on the other hand, turned white as a ghost.

"Oh, a puppy..." A puppy appeared out of thin air. "A glass of water, maybe..." He drank from the bottom of a cup. "A thousand bits..." He got covered in coins. "Oh yes..." He appeared behind us. "And a couple ponies' souls."

We turned back to face him, but he was already on top of the house. "But I'll make this fun for you two, but only if you'd like your death to happen in a few more minutes instead of now." He casually sat on the gutter of our house. "I'll give you a minute to get what you'd like to combat me with in your house. Once that minute is up, your impending doom approaches." He literally extended his hand towards us. "Do we have a deal?"

Lime slammed her hand into Discord's claw with no hesitation. "Deal."

"Alrighty then. Let's get started, shall we?" The things he summoned earlier disappeared before we were teleported to the living room. "Oh, and I can't let this be too easy for you, now can I?" We felt the floorboards creak and tilt under us. The house was flipped up-side down and we were forced onto our ceiling. "Ah, that's much better, now isn't it?" he cackled. "You've got sixty seconds. GO!"

Thanks a lot Discord. We ran through the house getting throwable items into our satchels and our biggest things we could use for melee. "We need to get upstairs!" We ran to our staircase, remembering it's not there due to the house being flipped. Lime got a rope out of her bag and staked it into the ground, then slid down it to get to the upstairs rooms.

"Twenty seconds left, little ones!" Discord laughed.

"Check Pop's room for anything!" I yelled as I went down the rope. I ran to my room to get some rocks I hadn't finished sculpting for memory if we somehow won this.

"Ten seconds! Nine, eight..." he counted down.

Lime ran out of Pop's room with his side-rifle he'd used during his childhood. "Got the ammo and everything." she said with a smirk. I was so scared. I just got a few knives and she's got a rifle! We aren't going down without a fight!

"Three, two, one..." He paused as the house shifted back into it's original position. Discord appeared behind us. "Times up..." He pushed us out a window at the same time as a slide was summoned. But a little too far to the left. We fell to the ground, our satchels flying off of us, including Lime's gun as they vanished.

"HEY" she yelled as she got up. "That isn't fair!"

"Well you shouldn't bring a gun to an immortal fight, now should you?" he teased. "Anyways, you won't need it where you're going." He looked down, pointing. "Tartarus" We ran at that word, hiding as well as we could.

"Lime, what do we do?" I was shaking all over. She just stayed in silence as he cackled.

"You do know that I know that you know where I could be right now. But I think I'll just do this instead." He levitated our shed and threw it at the extra room we built not too long ago. Lime couldn't stand to see our home being demolished. She ran out and yelled at him. I couldn't hear what she said, but I knew she meant it. Discord just snatched her off the ground and whispered to her. He then started chanting something as she began fading away.

"MARBLE RUN!"

And so I did. My legs were wobbly, but I could still run. I ran as fast as I could in no definite direction only to be stopped by a magical force.

"Oh, look at the little pony, running as always. I mean, what could you do? Your sisters are gone and you've got nothing left of your farm." He just cackled as he floated me in the air. I did my best to hide from him, but with what? "Aww, how sad. It seems you're hopeless now."

Then I felt nothing as he chanted. I remember it word for word...

I woke up at a start, once again, one time too many. I shook the dream out of my head as I looked for a clock.

Six-o-freaking-clock. Holy crap I need to get up. I rushed out of bed running to the living room to check if Maddy was out here. Sure enough, she was and she was looking at me like I'd taken one of her fries. "You doin' okay Marble?"

"Haha, not at all. I had a nightmare about..." I paused that thought. "Wait, what'd you say?"

"I asked if you were okay. Your hair looks weird, by the way."

"What?" I asked as I pulled a bit on my hair. It definitely wasn't a wig, that's for sure. My hair had grown to my shoulders and had started turning a weird grey with a few stripes. "Holy crap, what the heck." I looked back at her and saw something pretty interesting too. "Hey, your's is doing the same thing!" Her hair had gotten a bit more purple, but with her originally waist length hair, it had gotten a bit shorter too; so why is mine growing?

"Yes, I know. I saw after my nap. You think I'm dumb like you?" she retorted. I was about to speak, but she interrupted me. "Alright, so nightmare huh? I had one too. Tell me about yours." Okay, back on track.

"Okay, so it might sound crazy, but I was a cartoony, grey horse named Marble..." Then I realized... "... which you just called me! You snooping on my dreams or something?"

Her face went into what I call 'cool-person shock' where she tries not to look surprised, but is. "Umm, yeah... I did, huh?"

This was interesting.

"I had a similar dream about being a purple one-"

"-WHO WAS IN MY DREAM."

"Hey, you too dude. I had a sister named Marble in it who was grey. Coincidence?"

We both yelled "I think NOT!" We got a good laugh in there.

"Alright," she said. "So tell me more about your dream."

Author's Note

Yay, long chapter about Marble's background! ^3^

Holy crap this was good. At least I feel like it was. More coming soon!

Chapter 3: Physical Education

I told her everything from beginning to end as best I could. From Marble's dad saying goodbye for the last time to her death. Most of this was the same in her dream, but with subtle differences due to alternate thinking processes. It ended the same way though; with Discord winning. Also, for some reason, we both realized that we shouldn't have been so scared about it. I mean, we were watching as those characters, but we don't even know them. Although, we do seem to be looking more like them.

By the end of our talk, my hair had grown about four inches. That talk was, like, a half hour! Now I'm getting concerned about this change. Could it be that these tattoos could be in control of this?

"So do you think our hair changing has anything to do with our random tattoos?" I asked.

"Well, I think from what you said, your tattoo was of three marbles, right?" I nodded. "Well, Marble in the dream had the same ones in her thigh area. She also had long grey hair, so it's a likely guess." She just acted like it was a normal thing for us to have random tattoos and our hair changing color and lengths.

"How are you so calm about this whole thing?"

She thought for a second. "Well, it doesn't affect me in a way that could hurt me, so I'm pretty much fine with it. I can still manage Olive Garden with purple hair. One person even has a pastel rainbow hairstyle!" She had a good point. It hasn't hurt us yet, so why be scared about it?

"Huh, fair point." But then again, I don't know how to feel with long hair. It's just... Weird. I can't say it's hurt me yet, but it's certainly difficult to deal with. Also, emphasis on yet. I let that thought slide and decided to try to make progress on trying to figure out what's going on. "Hey, try to look up anything you can about Marble since you know what she looks like better than me. I'll try to find stuff about Limestone." I figure this might be something we can find out more about through the internet.

"Who gave you the right to control me?" she teased. "Alright, I'll take a look." She got on her phone while I got on my laptop. Something about what she said seemed a little weird though, I just couldn't put my finger on it.

I ran a search along the lines of 'purple horse named Limestone' in images and found her immediately, leading me to a wikia site for My Little Pony. I smacked my lips. "Huh." It also came up with Marble. Turns out they're sisters, also related to one of the main characters. Well, I didn't see a bright pink pony in my dream, so I don't think I have to worry about her for now.

I slipped back to the living room with my new information and saw Maddy still looking.

"So," I started. "are you fond of a show about multi-colored magical horses called My Little Pony?"

She stopped to stare at me as if I said two plus two was seven. "No, why would I..." She let that sink in for a second. "... Ah. That would make sense why we were horses, huh?"

"Mm hm. So apparently you share a bunch of the same traits as this character. Wanna take a look?"

Maddy stood up and started walking. "Sure. Let's try to find Marble too."

"Done; they're on the same page due to them being sisters, I guess."

"Well that makes things easier." We walked in my room and started looking through the page. "'Aggressive and obsessive over a rock? I don't know if I even had a pet rock when I was younger."

"I don't know, but you are obsessive over that broken, untuneable guitar. You wouldn't even let me touch it."

"Shut up, I wouldn't let you touch it because it's mine." She scrolled down a bit and pointed. "Apparently you're shy and only say 'mm hm' while others have to talk for you, like when we go to any family gatherings."

I have to say, that is true; I tend to have others talk for me when we're around a lot of people. I shut the laptop. "Okay, fine. Well, now that we know where they're from, I guess we still have no lead on what's happening to us. How fun."

"Well, we do know one person that likes the show and would probably be willing to prank us with... Whatever is happening." True. Our friend David had always been a fan of the show and if he wasn't the one who did this to us, we could probably get a better lead.

"Alright, let's go find him. Maybe he can get us some more information on our characters from a fan's position. How should we pull off..." I gestured to our heads. "... this?"

"Simple" she said. "Just put on a hoodie. It's still kinda chilly out here."

"Well that'll work for walking past others, but we're going to a person who knows ponies a little too well, to say the least. If he wasn't the one who did this, he might think we did this to ourselves. If he sees my hair's grown, he'll want to get a closer look. By then, he'd probably know that this is show based and think we know it inside-out."

"We've gotta take risks if we wanna get anywhere with this." I hated it, but it's true. We need to find out how this happened 'cause I don't think hair lengths fluctuating and getting new iris colors is normal.

Wait a sec. What. Wait. What?

"Hey, sis?" I asked. "Before we go, let's take a look in the mirror. You might wanna see something." With that, her eyes went a little wider. She looked herself over, just to check, then ran to the bathroom with me following. I wanna check if anything else's changed for me.

We got to the bathroom and checked the mirror for any other changes. My eyes were still their normal dark brown, but Maddy's were a bright yellow-green--opposed to her normally blue eyes. My hair had grown past my chest area while hers had grown shorter to her chest area instead.

She smacked her lips. "I don't think I put contacts on in the last five minutes. And is this shade of green even humanly possible?" I took another look at her eyes and finally concluded: her eyes have changed to green in the last five minutes.

"Well apparently it's possible if it happened to you." I said matter-of-factly. "I mean, it did just happen, didn't it?"

She got frustrated as she picked at her eye for the tenth time. "You've always gotta be the rocket scientist, huh Marble?"

I was gonna comment on how she just called me Marble, but this time it might be just teasing. I'll let it slide for now. I looked in the mirror again and saw something, once again, was definitely off. Now I had different eyes. "Holy crap, it just happened to me too."

She looked at my irides to see them at a light purple hue and just got even more upset. "Why." was all that came out of her mouth. She headed out into the hall to get a hoodie. "We've gotta go. Like, now." She was obviously angry now and there wasn't anything I could do to help her other than to get myself a jacket and get to the car.

"M'kay." I pulled up my hoodie and keys and headed out the door while Maddy was heading down the steps already. I shut the door and got to the car. "So where exactly does David live?"

"We'll know soon enough. I just texted him." I was a little scared at what she said to him with this anger, but I didn't really care for the time being. Her phone buzzed as she said "Got it. I'll get the directions."

"Cool beans." Soon enough, we'll find out what's up with these changes.

We stood outside the driveway to David's house, which just happened to be a few miles away. His house was pretty small and had some damage done to it. He probably got it because of how cheap it was. We headed to the door and knocked. It was around 7:00, so he'd probably have food, which sounded amazing right now.

The door opened to a slightly chubby man in his mid twenties with a stubble and a beer. "Hey dudes, happy birthday! Come on in!" He let us into his abode as he went to the fridge to get us some drinks. As we looked around, we could see this place hadn't been cleaned out in a few weeks: it was smelly, there was dust all over and his floor had a few stains. It didn't help that his walls were a kind of puke green. The only clean thing in this house was his GameCube. It's been a while since I'd seen one of those. David came back to the living room and handed us some beers. "So, what's going on guys?"

"Not too much." I said before my sister could start interrogating him. "We've just been hanging out at home watching some videos and-"

"Whoa, those are some cool contacts bro!" He looked in amazement at my eyes and moved to Maddy's. "You too sister!" Her face hadn't moved a muscle at that sentence.

"Oh yeah, thanks. We just got them today." she said. "I think I know the guy that did it too."

He chuckled. "Well duh, you got them from him." He took a big gulp from his bottle. "So, what's up you hoodlums?" He gestured at our hoods. Heh, nice puns as always, David.

"Oh nothing. Just a bad hair day, you know?" she said as sarcastically as she could.

"Ah, yeah. I totes get that." he said, still completely oblivious. "Dudes, you can take 'em off here. I don't care if you came from a robbery; I trust you guys."

"Trust us enough to guess that we'd be fine with a prank?" She was getting a little too close to revealing our secret.

"Haha, totally Mad Dog!"

"First off, don't call me that. Second, I'm not okay with it." She threw back her hood and grabbed mine off. Friggin' dang it Lime. We were- wait. Dang it brain. Calling her Lime? Really?

"Whoa." he commented. "Your hair is crazy mad dudes."

"Does it seem familiar pal?" I put my hood back on as she ripped it back down. Okay then, I'll keep it down.

"Umm..." he thought. He took another sip from his beer. "Well, I dunno man. I didn't do it. But it does look familiar..." He pondered for a bit before snapping his fingers. "I still have no clue bros!"

Maddy groaned as I told him the story of what's been happening. "I'll tell you now, I swear we aren't high." He laughed at that a bit harder than he probably should have. "So earlier today, we found tattoos on our thighs: mine being three marbles while her's is a lime above rocks. After finding those, our hair started changing. Then our eyes changed colors. We came to you because we know that you have basic knowledge over these characters we found." I showed him an image of Marble and Limestone.

"You're turning into ponies?" he laughed. "Where do I sign up?"

"That isn't what we're here for David. Mostly because we didn't sign up for this. We're here to find out more about them."

He got up, heading to his TV. "Well, you came to the right place dudes!" He got a disc out and put it in his DVD player. "Welcome to my world!" The main title to the DVD popped up and I didn't know how to feel. "Man, I haven't watched this since, like, three weeks ago!" he chuckled.

Maddy just flopped onto the couch, groaning once again. "We just wanna know who they are, not watch a cartoon."

"Well these dudes will explain it better than I can, okay?" He started an episode called Hearthbreakers. Then we just watched.

-=8=-

"So, that's them! How'd you like the pony world dudes?" We'd finished watching this really awkwardly different episode than what I expected from what I saw in my dream. Marble had been launched into a shipping between another character that apparently might be part of her family while Lime was just a jerk the whole time. I do have to say though, he did seem like a nice guy.

"Well," Maddy started. "It was certainly a thing."

"Wasn't too bad, I must say. It wasn't as girly as I thought it'd be."

"TRUE, RIGHT?" David agreed. "It's crazy when you first see it, right bros?"

"Meh, I'm not really a fan of it. It was kinda cheesy and predictable. You knew that their families would get along at the end." she debated. "It is a kids' show, after all-" she paused and got up.

David laughed. "Ya see, we all have our opinions," He looked at me. " but some of ours are right! Up top!" Maddy slapped his hand down in annoyance. "Wow, what a downer bro."

"Shut up David. Where's your bathroom?" He pointed down the hall as she left us.

"So dude, how's life other than the weird hair and eye things? We haven't talked in, like, a whole day bro." he exaggerated.

"Well, to be frank, it's quite crappy. I'm behind in my main classes and I was lucky to have Thursdays off; but with this stuff going on, I can't really catch up easily." It really was a pretty bad week. I missed a couple days and now I'm horribly behind.

He thought. "I dunno what to tell you, but pizza's on the way. Maybe that'll cheer you up bro." He wasn't the greatest at taking care of himself, but he sure did know how to bring happiness back into other's lives if they aren't butts like Maddy; they just get annoyed by him.

"Hey, thanks for having us over, by the way. I really appreciate it."

"No problemo mi amigo. Glad I could help you dudes out." he smiled. "So how'd you like Marble, Marble wannabe?" he teased.

"She was an interesting character. There wasn't much said about her, but I think I can work things out from that episode." I said. At this, I realized my hair had grown almost to my belly button area and had become completely grey, with the exception of the stripes of other greys. "Any other episodes with her in it?"

"Sorry bro, but that was season five, the last of them. The show ended after a horrible ending of one of the main protagonists betraying everyone and winning. Just like that, it was over dude. I couldn't believe they were even allowed to air that episode." He was obviously upset by the show ending. I think it ended a few years ago when he was a fan since, I believe, second season.

"Oh yeah, I think I saw the end at one point. It was Discord, right?" I remember it replaying my dream in third person on the screen, still quite terrifying.

"Yeah, man. Do you know much about him?"

I silently shuddered. "A little too much. He's a dragon-lion-gryphon thing that can pretty much use the powers of Gmod at any time; not to mention he can teleport and can be a real crap-load to anyone."

David just stared in confusion. "Umm, are you sure you haven't watched the show other than that part dude?"

"Yup, that's all I know." I replied.

By then, Maddy left the bathroom to meet us again. She seemed to be focused pretty hard on the end of my hair for whatever reason. I checked to see if there was some lint or something, but I just saw hair. She let her eyes look back to David who was still dumbfounded after hearing my knowledge of Discord. Once again, her eyes laid themselves on me as she spoke.

"So," she started. "I heard pizza's coming. When's it getting here?"

"Uh- umm..." David stuttered, as he left the Discord stuff. "Like, a few minutes. I got a pepperoni."

"Cool" She looked at the time. "It's 8:00 and we're finally having dinner, huh?"

"Don't judge, Lime; It's pizza!" I rolled my eyes. How could she, of all people be judgmental of food?

David was about to speak up when we heard a doorbell, completely overlapping that thought. "I'll be back dudes." He moseyed over to the door as Maddy sat a little closer to me to whisper with an anxious look.

"Bro, did you get yours yet?" she asked, giving absolutely no context as to what she was talking about.

"Get what? The pizza just got here so if that's what you're referring to-"

"Just be ready. It's pretty crazy to see it. For me, it was a mix of confusion, frustration and more confusion." Still no context, dang it! I started getting nervous, guessing it had to be something with the changes.

David walked in with the pizza in-hand. "Deenair, es sairved." he said, trying to pull off a French accent and ultimately failing.

As I got up, I felt Maddy poke my lower back, a little close to my butt. "Yo, what're you doing back there?"

She looked up at me, confused as she rose from the couch. "Hm? I didn't do anything." she said, sounding pretty serious. Huh, I must be feeling stuff I guess. Then, I felt it again; but she had gotten in front of me to get to the food. I felt back where I felt it and I couldn't think as time froze around me for a second. Wait, that's a paradox. Wait, I need to figure this out.

"David, where's your bathroom again?" He pointed and I virtually sprinted.

I shut and locked the door and pretty much ripped my pants down. My hair ended at my waist, so why was it down at my feet? I turned to see as hair extruded from my tailbone, which ultimately meant one thing:

I have a tail

Now hair dyeing? That's humanly possible. Eye color changing? Contacts are available. But getting a freaking tail? You could slap one on someone's belt loop or something, but I don't think it's too easy to get it on someone's tailbone. I tugged lightly on it to check if it was fake, which it definitely wasn't after feeling the strangeness of being pulled from my lower back. Well crap. I can't really do much about this now can I? This was an attachment to my freaking spine, meaning it's a bone. That's difficult.

I tried finding the muscle to move it to do a final check on if it was real. Sure enough, it was half way between clenching my butt cheeks and turning when I found out, yes, it does move on its own. "Huh." I said to myself as I stuffed it back into my pants. It was really... strange, to say the least. It just felt awkward as I walked around. I flushed the toilet and washed my hands to make it seem like I was using the bathroom for its intended purpose and left it to go get some food.

I sat next to Maddy after getting a slice of pizza. "I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready at all." I whispered to her. She just chuckled as she spoke up.

"So David?"

"Yeah?" he said between bites. "Ask away dude."

"If we ended up as these ponies in the cartoon, how would you react?" She had a good point; we wouldn't want him to be a crazy guy who'll just be hugging us for all eternity. If we need human help, we could use him if that's the case.

"Aww, man! That'd be pretty radical. I'd probably need a few minutes to freak out, but I'd be fine afterwards. You could trust me dudes."

Sounds reasonable. We could probably use him as a resource for if we end up going all the way into being these mares.

Something about that thought made me think for a minute. Specifically the word mares. Will I just end up as a male version of Marble or will I look like her with my... stuff... or will I end up being completely her? I cringed thinking about that and pushed it to the back of my mind; no need to worry about that. We're not actually gonna end up as ponies, right?

Right?

-=*=-

"Alright, see you later dudes! Happy birthday!" We ended up leaving after eating about ten minutes later and headed home. Something once again didn't feel right, only this time, it was in my feet. I looked down to see my heels are off the ground; along with Maddy's. I have no clue why, but that's the least of my worries right now; I have a tail that I need to drive with. Speaking of which, we somehow didn't get spotted with our tails at his house. It could've been that he was drunk and oblivious or that we just hid them really well.

We got back to the apartment around 8:00 and started getting ready for school the next day; I don't think "growing tails" and "hair growth" would qualify as a sick day. By then, I'd cut a hole in my pants to let my tail out due to it being really annoying to keep under denim. Maddy was the first one to start talking again.

"So," she started. "how do you like your tail?"

"Meh, that question implies that I like it."

She scoffed. "Shut up; you know what I mean you butt."

I shrugged. "I guess I'm okay with it. I just want it out of my pants becau-"

"What?" she asked. "Just a sec, I can't hear you." I thought I said it in my normal tone. After all, she's right next to me. She should've heard me just fine. "Okay, go. I dunno what that was."

"I just want it out of my pants due to it being really uncomfortable." I looked back at her, seeing something that probably shouldn't be on a human; other than a tail, which she just cut a hole for. I decided against making her possibly panic "Yo, you got something... in your hair."

"Huh?" She checked some of her hair, which was now completely grey also. "What?"

"On top of your head."

She started checking for lint in her hair, when her hand tapped something that definitely wasn't hair. Her hand, face--everything, just froze as she felt fur on her head. She slowly touched the thing on her head and realized there were two of them. She gripped them and came to realize what they were. "Are these serious?"

"Mm hm."

She went to the bathroom to examine them as I checked my Skype and e-mail, seeing a few 'Happy birthday!'s here and there. Looked like someone else needed their video edited that I'd get to after school tomorrow. I packed up my laptop and charger as Maddy tripped into the room.

"You alright?" I asked, slightly teasing her.

"I-umm..." she stammered. "I think so? I mean, I lost my ears and got new ones. I don't think that's normal--plus, I can't touch my heels to the ground, making me clumsy, as you just heard."

"Wait, what?" I got up, seeing my feet automatically going into tip-toe position. I tried to force them down, but it was really difficult for some weird reason. "Uh... Why?"

"I dunno dude. I don't think we could easily miss school--even by getting purple pony ears."

I frowned. "We could probably see what happens in the morning and check if it's okay to miss lecture. After all, these changes are happening pretty quickly."

She thought for a second. "Sure. If we have hooves in the morning, we're not going. Sound good?"

"Mm hm. Fine by me."

She finished getting her backpack ready. "Alright, good night bro!"

"I'll try!"

I got everything ready for tomorrow and got my pajamas on, which I once again cut a hole for my tail in. I went to bed as I felt my hearing go numb. I knew what that meant. "Well crap."

Author's Note

I hope this was good. So much dialogue, not enough imagery ;-;

I ended up doing this over the course of maybe ten days. This is what determination to get something done is.