Chapters Saturday Night, 10:23 P.M.
I was on my computer, searching the Web for information about William Shakespeare for an English project when I got a notification on Skype. Minimizing the screen, I checked to see who was bothering me before I rolled my eyes at who it was. It was my friend, Seth, easily identifiable by his profile picture of a sexualized Rainbow Dash from Equestria Girls.
Yeah, Seth was a brony, a big one at that. Not only did he watch the show My Little Pony, but he also collected merchandise, read fanfictions, and was subscribed to various channels dedicated to his favorite show. He gets a lot of flack at our school for his interest, but he was my friend, so I didn't mind. Besides, I was a brony too, just not as big of one. All I really did was watch the show and read the occasional fanfiction.
Figuring that he either wanted my homework or to talk about the show and distract me from my work, I initially rejected the call to work on my essay. A few minutes later Seth called me again, and again I ignored it. By the third time, however, I caved in and answered him.
"Hey, are you trying to ignore me?" Seth asked jokingly. As I expected, he was wearing a tee shirt featuring the Mane Six on it, just one of his many shirts that displays his love for his interest.
"Maybe I am," I answered back, a bit of smugness in my tone. "If I was, it would be so that I could do my work. You know that Shakespeare essay is due Monday."
Seth chuckled a little bit. "Yeah, I should get back to doing that," He said. "Did you enjoy the present I gave you last week?"
I nodded, pulling out a figurine from my desk drawer. It was a Funko figure of Lyra Heartstrings, my favorite pony. It looked more like her counterpart from the show than the official Hasbro figures, and despite my lesser broniness, I kept the figure in near pristine condition to keep it from being discolored or damaged.
"You keep it in your desk?" Seth asked, sounding a little offended. "Are you that embarrassed of me?"
"What, no!" I answered loudly, shaking my head. "I mean, I'm not embarrassed of you, it's just that you're the only person who knows that I like MLP. And I'm not really interested in telling anyone."
Yeah, only Seth knew my love for My Little Pony, him and the NSA. Since it's not really something most people in my community would view as "suitable for my age" I kept my love for it hidden from everyone, even my mother and girlfriend Rachel. Especially Rachel.
Speaking of Rachel, she was just about the best girlfriend any adolescent male or female could date. She was funny, smart, and pretty attractive with her green emerald eyes and flowing black hair. I was honestly surprised that she wanted to date me out of everyone in school. Maybe all of the jocks were taken? Who knows. Either way, we've been dating for three months now, and I've enjoyed every minute we were together.
"Yeah, kinda forgot you were a chicken." Seth said, chuckling slightly. After an awkward silence that seemed like an eternity, Seth spoke up again. "So, how's Rachel doing?" He asked.
"Still doing fine," I answered. "I planned on taking her to Pastel's this Tuesday." I tended to trust Seth with personal information, since he was my friend. Besides, I was the only person who talked to him, so I was certain the information wouldn't be spread.
"Isn't that the fancy Italian restaurant a half hour from your home?" Seth asked. After I nodded, he continued what I assumed was his miniature rant. "That place is expensive. You spend thirty bucks on seating alone, and that's just for the cheap section! Why not just take her to a cheaper place like Dairy Queen?"
I shook my head in slightly disbelief. "I'm not taking my girlfriend to a cheap place on a first date," I replied. "Besides, my mom gave me two hundred bucks for the date. She's a business consultant, remember? That's why she's never here anymore."
"Right. Are you still mad at her for that?" Seth asked. After hearing my reply of nothing, he found the answer. "Yeah...anyway, I'll let you get back to your work, night!" He closed the Skype call after his farewell and I went out a sigh of relief. I originally planned to get some more work done, but it was almost eleven at night, around time I went to bed, proven evident by a yawn I emanated. Before I could turn off my computer, however, something strange happened. Something that set my destiny in motion.
Another Skype call invite appeared, but it was no one I could recognize. They had no name, and their profile picture was of Princess Celestia. Curious, I opened the call, but the caller hung up as soon as I accepted their invite. After that, I decided to go to bed before any more Paranormal Activity-esque things could happen, so I shut off my computer and went to sleep.
Next morning, I was where even close to waking up until ten in the morning. The bright Sunday morning light pierced the windows and aimed straight at my eyes. I lazily raised my left arm over my face to protect myself from the beams of sun before realizing the first sign of change.
My arm was nowhere near what I was used to seeing. It was shorter and more muscular, almost like a leg, but that wasn't the strangest part. My entire hand was gone, replaced by a solid chunk of mass that looked like a nub. Both it and my arm were covered in a mint green fur. I checked my other arm, letting out a sigh of relief upon seeing it normal. But something struck my brain like a thousand needles, and I fell to the floor in pain as an oddly familiar voice spoke out.
"Hello, my little pony" The voice, regal and feminine, said to me. I looked around to try and find who it was, but no one was there. "I hope you'll like your new... self," The voice said playfully. Right then, I realized what this mysterious force meant as pain struck me again, this time hitting my nerves.
I felt my hand and feet start to lose feeling as they changed to match my left arm as mint green fur covered my limbs. My body shrank as bones changed shape and fur crawled its way onto my body. The minimal clothing I had on, a simple pair of pants and underwear, soon loosely draped my smaller body before being catching on a new pair of hocks.
A splitting headache hit almost immediately after, forcing me to clutch my head with my new hooves. My skull changed shape as my face was covered in the same fur. My nose and mouth had combined to format an equine muzzle as my ears moved to the top of my had, also changing shape. My hair had lengthened, changing from the standard dirty blonde color to something that resembled toothpaste.
I soon felt some strange force trying to pull something out of my ass, like some sort of sick rabbit out of the hat trick. A plume of hair shot out from above my rear, trapped in my pants. I wanted to take them out and let the accessory free, but my mind soon focused of a new attack on it, this time stronger.
I closed my eyes, now larger and, unbeknownst to me, amber in color, trying to escape what I hoped was some vivid nightmare. The pain grew stronger as a mint green horn protruded from my head and poked through my hair. After that, the pain subsided, the only sounds being haggard breathing from me and a slight chuckle from the voice. "I'll be sure to check on you later," The voice said. "Enjoy, my little pony." The voice soon disappeared from my mind, leaving me to myself.
As I struggled to get up, I started to realize what happened, or rather, what happened to me. But I needed to make sure. Using my bed, I pushed myself onto my new hind legs and started to walk to the bathroom. However, as I took my first steps, I fell onto my hooves thanks to the clothing tangled on my body. I shook my head to refocus, deciding to just head there on all fours.
After tripping a few times due to the pajamas, I eventually reached the bathroom. I pulled myself up to the mirror above the sink to make sure what happened to me wasn't a fantasy.
Unfortunately for me, what happened was as real as anything else. Staring at me in the mirror wasn't the normal dirty blonde, blue eyed young adult that I was used to seeing, but something completely different. Something foreign. Something not of this world.
Amber eyes, a mane that looked like toothpaste, a mint green horn poking out of it, and fur of the same color on an equine head was what I saw, what I was.
I had become Lyra Heartstrings, my favorite pony,
Crap.
Sunday morning, 10:16 A.M.
"Okay, so I'm Lyra now, no big deal," I told myself, trying to calm my ever-growing anxiety. "So what if I'm a candy colored horse, everyone wakes up like one at some point, right?" Taking a deep breath, I lowered myself back to the bathroom floor before noticing my pajamas still hanging around my legs. "I should probably take them off," I said to myself. I attempted to buck off the cloyhing, but stopped after almost breaking the shower door. I took a look at the glass door, letting out a sigh of relief once I found no signs of damage.
While I looked, I remembered that I had a unicorn horn, which let me use magic. I decided to levitate the clothes off my body. Unfortunately, the show never really went into specifics on using magic, so I had to improvise. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, concentrating on my pajamas. The pants and underwear started to get wrapped in an aura of golden yellow. Next, I imagined them off my body, hoping that they would slide off. Instead of falling to the floor, however, they disappeared. I opened my eyes and looked around for my clothes, but found nothing. "Good thing I don't need them," I chuckled uneasily as I left to bathroom, but not before making a mental note to practice magic.
I trotted downstairs to the living room, thankful that my mother wasn't returning for a few days. She was always on her business trips anymore, and this was no exception. That pretty much gave me freedom and allowed me to show my broniness to just about every appliance in the house and no more. Flicking on the television, which proved to be a hassle due to my lack of fingers, I threw on the news and flopped on the couch. Strangely, I could sit just like a normal person despite my new anatomy. Maybe it's because of how Lyra sits, but I don't know. With all that had been going on in the world, I hoped that there would be something to delay my mother's return. Unfortunately, nothing. With that disappointment set, I decided to do some studying and threw on some My Little Pony.
Around an hour later, I was alerted to a familiar sound: my stomach grumbling. It slipped my mind that I hadn't had anything to eat since I woke up and realized my change. I trotted into the kitchen and opened the fridge with my magic. Fumbling with the remote and practicing gave me a bit more confidence in my magic abilities, so I didn't make anything disappear yet. Upon opening the fridge, I immediately spotted a plate of roast chicken on the top shelf. Before I could grab it, I remembered the simple fact that horses don't eat meat. That included chicken. Closing the door, I laid against it and groaned.
My stomach growled louder, clearly wanting some food. I sighed, trying to think. "Come on Lyra, err, Tyler, think!" I yelled at myself. I looked around the kitchen, soon spotting some daisies in a vase. "Cliché, but anything works right now," I said to myself as I levitate the daisies to me.
Getting up, I opened the refrigerator door again, this time grabbing something. In this case, a loaf of bread for a pony food. Taking two slices out of the bag, I laid them on the table and placed the flowers on one of them. With the other slice, I placed it on top of the flowers to finish making a simple daisy sandwich. Yeah, it didn't look appetizing, but ponies like it. Besides, I don't really have anything else to eat.
Levitating it with my magic, I took a bite of the sandwich. Despite the appearance, the flavor was actually enjoyable. Though I imagine it was due to my anatomy. In a few moments, the food was gone, leaving my stomach content.
Once I got back up to head to my room, I turned on my computer with my horn to find a way to return back to normal after all my horsing around. Once it booted up, I had a Skype call from Seth again. Because of the obvious, I didn't want to talk to anyone even if they were my best friend. I didn't really want to run the risk of getting transported to the U.S. government and get an autopsy. Me being the person I am, I moved my mouse over to try to click the reject call button. However, I lost concentration and slid to the accept button and left clicked. I didn't have time to move as the face cam popped up, showing my pony face to my friend.
"Hey, you up?" Seth asked before he noticed that I was a pony. He sat there in silence before speaking up. "Lyra, is that you?" He finally asked.
"Seth, it's Tyler, I got transformed into Lyra," I answered before covering my mouth. "Please don't send me to get experimented on."
"Lips are sealed," Seth replied, making a similar motion. "Besides, it's pretty cool that you got transformed into a pony. How did you do that?" I glared at him, which seemed to answer his question. "Forget I asked that, but let me ask this: How are you gonna go to school as a pony?" He asked.
I completely forgot about school, which started tomorrow. I couldn't really walk there since not everyone will accept a talking pony going to school. But I couldn't hide either, since the school would get suspicious if I took a permanent break. There had to be something I could do. I looked around for an answer before spotting my grey hoodie on a coat hook. "Got it, I'm gonna act human by doing my normal things!" I declared. Seth looked at me in confusion. "I'm gonna wear clothes and do human things like walk and stuff."
The private school we went to had no dress code, which meant I could wear anything as long as it wasn't inappropriate. That was the easy part. The hard part was trying to be normal, which meant re-learning how to walk on two legs and figuring out how to do things without hands. But, I was going to need help.
"Seth, I need your help," I said. "I need you to come over and help me be human. At least until I could find a way to return me to normal. We don't have time to lose. Only nineteen hours until school, and eight of those are for sleep. So, we only have eleven hours left to practice. I need you to get over here now!"
Seth nodded and ended the call. Once he did, I sighed and laid my head on the desk. "I'm doomed." I said to myself.
Oh how accurate I was.
Monday, 6:55 A.M.
"Are you sure that you should go to school?" I asked Seth, who was currently in my room writing his Shakespeare paper that had to be done by today. I was currently having problems of my own, namely how to keep my tail from popping out of my jeans and how to ensure my shoes stay on my hooves. And right now, I would really like to switch spots with him.
"Of course, we practiced having you act like a human, remember? And we disguised you too." Seth said, not moving his face from the computer. He was still wearing his pajamas, but I assumed he'd change into a black shirt and blue jeans, which were laid out neatly in front of his bed.
"I only got to practiced for an hour because someone wanted to watch Equestria Girls for the fifteenth time," I complained, starting to sound like Twilight. "Which wouldn't have been so bad if we found a website that could have turned me back into a human, but nope! All the sites we found were total frauds!" I put on my hoodie, thankfully the easiest part of my disguise, and looked at the monstrosity in the mirror. A face with tan painted fur, a baseball cap, a hoodie, jeans, and shoes were on my pony body, and it didn't feel right. They felt wrong, almost like unnecessary weight.
"Yeah. Anyway, we should probably get to school soon," Seth replied, printing out the paper. "And today, I'm gonna help you find a site to help you, no matter how far we gotta dive into the Internet."
"I'm still not sure I should go," I said nervously, kicking my hoof. "I mean, I'm pretty much the real version of E.T., except I'm a pony and I doubt police will point radios at me."
"Come on, just one day dude!" Seth said, obviously trying to cheer me up. "Besides, don't you wanna see Rachel again? I'm sure that she'll still love you based on what I learned from movies. So, can you do it? Please."
I rolled my eyes, knowing that movie events like that don't actually happen in real life. But, he did have a point. I should at least check on Rachel and tell her to cancel the date, or at least move it. So, I went along with it. Besides, it's just one day, right?
After a twenty minute walk that seemed to last longer due to me constantly falling on my hooves, we eventually made it to the school a few minutes before we have to go to our first period. No one seemed to notice me, or at least they didn't notice anything wrong with me. To them, I probably looked like an androgynous girl wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap. Hopefully, this illusion will keep them fooled.
Walking to my locker, a pain in the ass due to my body, I wasn't paying attention as I bumped into someone. Luckily, my hat didn't fall off. Unfortunately, the person I bumped into was my girlfriend Rachel.
As I expected, she looked absolutely beautiful. Her hair was as silky smooth as always, and her eyes were still as shiny. Her simple white shirt and blue skirt looked magnificent on her. Luckily, she didn't notice anything strange about me.
"Hello there Tyler. Did you do something with your hair?" Rachel said, pointing to some of my showing mane. "It looks foreign."
"Yeah! I mean, um, y-yeah!" I said, trying to make my voice sound masculine. In actuality, I was probably making my voice crack, which would be more believable than what I did. "It's, um, a new style. Toothpaste?"
Rachel giggled at my lame attempt at a joke while we walked to my locker. "So, are we still good for that date tomorrow?" She asked. "I've always wanted to dine at Pastel's, especially with a cute boyfriend. And now, it's gonna happen."
"Actually... something came up, and I was wondering if we could move it to Friday," I said. I didn't specify why I wanted to move it to then. Simply put, I wanted more time to try and either return to normal or train to act more human.
Rachel nodded. "Sure, if that works out better for you," She said smiling. "Well, see you on Friday!" She waved goodbye and left,aallowing me to have a miniature internal party. Running on a lucky streak, I grabbed my stuff and headed to my first period class, English.
Most of my classmates were already in class, but I wasn't late. Being careful not to accidentally sit on my tail, I sat down and tried to pull out my paper, a near impossible task due to my hooves. But, I wasn't going to risk using my magic in public. I soon got my paper out, just in time as the teacher entered. She collected them and started her lesson on Hamlet, which I chose to ignore in favor of trying to figure out who transformed me and why.
I assumed the voice, or rather its owner, transformed me, considering what happened yesterday morning. It was also female, probably, and must've had knowledge of My Little Pony since I was now Lyra. I tried coming up with a scientific explanation for my changes, but stopped after realizing that I highly doubt science could explain a human male turning into a female cartoon horse.
With one explanation ruled out, I turned the next most possible reason: magic. Specifically, Equestrian magic. Over the next few classes, I continued to pay less attention to the lessons and instead focused on finding out what used the magic to transformed me. Figuring the magic was at least on an alicorn level, I had a couple options: Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Twilight, and Discord, maybe even more. So, no specific culprit, but it was a start. I wanted to continue to think, but I started blacking out occasionally.
After spending four classes trying to solve the case and getting flashes of black, lunch period finally arrived. Due to my new tastes, I had to order a salad and sat next to Seth at our usual spot. Instead of our standard topics like the brony fandom and the horrible life a high school student has to suffer through, we discussed about who could have changed me.
"So, let me recap what happened to you," Seth started. "You got a strange Skype call from someone with a Celestia pic, you woke up to the sound of Celestia's voice, and you turned into Lyra. Am I missing anything?"
"No, you got down everything strange that happened to me," I said, taking a bite of my salad. "And I think I know who changed me. All the evidence points too..."
"Discord!" Seth interrupted. "It has to be him, that sneaky freak."
"Discord? Why would it be him?" I asked, confused.
"Duh, who else could pull such a prank?" Seth said. "I mean, really, who would?"
Sighing, I decided to let him think he's right. But, in actuality,the evidence pointed to the least likely culprit: Miss Sunbutt herself, Princess Celestia.
"So, say Discord did change me. How could I reverse this?" I asked Seth. "It's not like we have the Elements of Harmony or anything. And the sites we found were just frauds." I started to panic, fearing I would be stuck like this. "What do we do Seth?" But no response came. I went to look at Seth, but he wasn't there. In fact, I wasn't in the cafeteria anymore, but in a black nothingness all by myself. At least, until a figure stepped out in front of me. An equine figure, with wings and a horn, as well as a flowing multicolored mane.
Princess Celestia.
"Hello, my little pony, how has your day been?" The alicorn asked. "I'm honestly surprised at what you humans have."
"You really think this is funny, bitch?" I asked angrily.
Celestia giggled. "Guess my work isn't quite done yet. I'll have to update that tongue of yours. Ponies don't curse after all."
"I know," I started. "But I'm still human, in terms of my mind. Anyway, what do you want? And why did you change me?" I asked, hoping to get some answers, even though I expected to get none.
"I wanted to show you a new life, one better than this one," Celestia explained, smirking. "But before I procede, I need you to get used to the body. Simple as that."
"But why Lyra?" I asked. "Since you're from Equestria, she has to be in your world."
Celestia sighed. "You'll find out in due time. For you, you should be up from your slumber in three... two..." As she said one, I arrived back in the cafeteria with only one or two of my questions answered, and more questions gained.
