Book Horse
I unlock the door to my apartment and walk inside setting the groceries on the table. Opening the first bag I put the cereal on the top of the fridge and the jam in the cupboard with the bread. Looking back at the table I notice a new hardcover with an interesting title "Book Horse." I finish putting my groceries away with the incentive of this book as the reward. Hoping for once in my life that this day won't be soul crushingly mundane. I pick up the book curling up on my couch and open to page one. Admiring the quality of the binding.
This is the story of bookhorse who foolishly read a mystical tome they found on their sub par dining table. Little did they know that the dust they had brushed off was spell residue slowly changing them into a better form. Their face changes bone creaking as their sockets make room for their enlarged eyes or their mouth on the front of a purple muzzle which has a cute curve to it. How they don't notice is a mystery to me.
I sneeze suddenly before rubbing my nose noting that it seems like its further away from my face and that my legs seem to have fallen asleep. I kick off my shoes and keep reading.
Their ears slide upwards enlarging and shifting into cuddly points with purple fur as their hair grows and turns a dark shade of azure with two strips of different colour right next to each other one purple and the other pink. Their fingers tingle as the middle finger begins growing and before long covers the others turning their hand into a purple hoof. They would have difficulty turning the pages if they hadn't been using their magic since they got it, purple horn glowing strong and steady. Their arms shorten and crack as more joints than seem humanly possible appear. But then, they aren't human are they? They ignore this and keep reading the magic book. Their whole upper body has been covered by this gloriously soft purple fur smelling of old paper. They shift slightly in their seat as a purple tail shoots out of their backside, similar in colour to the mane on their head. Then their hips shift with a large cracking as they shape into a quadrupedal form. Their ass all but disappearing leaving their genitals exposed which now mentioned shift with a startling suddenness becoming an equine vagina with a purple ponut above. The colour of their body slowly turns to purple as their soft fur grows in. They squirm in their seat at these unfamiliar sensations resolving to finish the book. This is good because the transformation is almost complete and life for them would be very uncomfortable with human hind legs. Which now shorten and lengthen in accordance to the shape of a pony with the matter of joints out of the way the fur continues downward creeping towards the foot which shifts into a hoof this very same process happening on the other leg. Soon it ends and they are left as a very large pony. This will not last long as a dreadful yet pleasant heat begins to overtake them shrinking them and adding the converted mass to their mana pool leaving them slightly smaller than the average adult pony.
I close the confusing book and fall on my face trying to get off my couch. "Ouch." I groan in a suddenly feminine voice. I blink, my eyes widening at the odd tone I was speaking in. I blink again and glance down at my hoof. I mean hand. Right? Wrong. I glance down at a purple hoof noting that I seem to be much smaller than I was before.
"Oh gosh what's going on? What the fuzz? Why can't I swear?!" I yell in fright. The door shakes from someone knocking on it. "Hello? I heard yelling are you alright?" The new tenant. Horribly nosy and quite boring.
" Everything is fine!" I call out thankful I never met him personally.
He says "Okay." And walks away. I sigh in relief and reach out with my magic and lock the door. Happy for once that all those lock were a necessity.
"What do I do?" I groan in worry hugging my tail like a teddy.
"I'll tell you what you need to do." Suddenly a mismatched creature appears hovering in front of me. It picks its teeth with the tuft of its tail before continuing.
"You come with me and live a harmonious life in Equestria. Because let's face it if you stay here your life will be worse than it was before and that's not even if the government gets you. All the magic in the world would not save you. So come on."
"Why me? Why did you choose me? I'm so dreadfully mundane and normal. Heck not 'why me' but why do this at all?" I ask the first questions on my mind while keeping my mind off the fact I was female now.
"This was not meant to happen. I'm sorry but I can't change you back. If this was me then maybe I could but I got nothing. We'll talk about it later come on." He answers looking annoyed. I shrug and fall due to being stupidly quadrupedal. I stand back up and nod.
"How about I create a dead version of you? Have it choke on a sandwich or something. The less questions asked about why you're gone the better."
I nod. "Good idea! I'll get right on that. Need a picture?"
He nods. Having had a photograph taken recently I retrieve it for him. He snickers but does his voodoo. Soon I have corpse me sitting at the table with a half eaten sandwich in front of it. I hug it and tell the creature to -"Get us out of here. Please." He snaps his finger and everything turns licorice flavoured for a brief instant. Then we arrive somewhere else. I faint promptly after vomiting. A distant sounding shriek reverberates through the area.
"Well what changed her?" A voice.
"It might be that book she won't let go of. Or magical cosmic radiation. Who knows? Certainly not chaos magic, we know that. I'm afraid this might be permanent." A different voice.
"I'm awake you know. So where exactly am I?" I mutter quietly. Hoping for a understandable answer.
"You're in the Ponyville Library miss?" A blurry purple target waves something around fishing for my name.
"Book Horse. At least that's what I am allowed to call myself now." I hug the book tightly to my stomach. It may be a cursed item that can change me an possibly others but I cannot bear the thought of giving it up to anypony. It almost physically hurts to have such thoughts. "I used to have a different name. I know that much. I just cant say it anymore." I grin at the pony who is slowly coming into focus. Oddly familiar too. Hmmm. I squint at the frowning pony.
"So you have bad eyesight too? Hmmm. You are smaller than me by a large margin. Almost bordering on being filly like in size though your physiology tells me you are an adult. Quite eerie seeing me at a smaller scale. May I take a look at your mana?" She looks at me quietly, examining from almost all sides. "Oh! I have a spare set of glasses if you want to try them on."
"The blurriness is headache inducing miss?" This time I'm the one fishing around for a name for my apparent doppelgänger who laughs and offers a hoof. "The glasses would be very nice right about now. Gosh you have bad eyesight. Kinda like I did."
"My name is Twilight Sparkle. And it is nice to meet you Book, But would you mind if I had a look at your mana?" She is relentlessly pursuing my permission for this. Something flashes bright purple and a dusty set of glasses are lowered onto my muzzle. They work perfectly and everything comes into focus. I blink at the quizzical pony frown a foot away.
"Err. Yeah I suppose it's fine. Why would you wait until I was awake to check anyhoof?" I smile nervously at Twilight Sparkle, hoping she drops the frown. It seems like she would have a pleasant smile.
"Oh! Right. It embarrasses some ponies when they have low mana pools. It's a bit like goosing a stallion to see what they have. Well, that's how I always got told of it. Soo, I have your full permission?" She blushes sheepishly at this and rubs the back of her head with a fore hoof. I nod at her and she smiles. "Thank you. It will be interesting what your mana level will be at. Though I suspect it will be lower than average." She gasps and covers her mouth. "I'm so sorry! I did not mean to imply that you had low mana."
"Miss Twilight. It is quite fine. Carry on with any test you see fit to do." I laugh at the frantic pony. She blinks and focuses on something right past my head.
"Is your book floating?" She points a hoof behind me and I whirl around afraid I had lost hold of my book. Sure enough it was floating right in front of my eyes. As I stare bewildered at it it gives an inviting wiggle and I snatch it out of the air and hold it tightly to my chest. Then a tingly feeling comes over me and Twilight gasps. "That much? I only have a bit more than that! Wow..."
I turn around to see Twilight looking at me in a very odd way. "Err miss Sparkle? Is everything all right?" She licks her lips and I hug the book nervously. "Miss?" This is getting scary the way she's staring at me. She blinks and forces herself to focus.
"You have a large mana pool. If you were a natural unicorn this would be high. And from the way you reacted to the spell you have high spell sensitivity as well. I'm almost jealous. But it means that things have gotten a bit more complicated for integration." She frowns momentarily before smiling. "I always did want a little sister to teach magic too. Now I sort of have one. Sort of. You don't have family here." She sighs. she looks at me from under droopy ears. "I'm sorry. This must be terrible. And I probably am making it worse."
I wave a hoof and push up my glasses with telekinesis. "I was actually really alone back there. I wasn't depressed or anything, I was just really alone there. My job was ok though. And my family was not good to be around. All in all I didn't lose much. Soooooo. Yeah. Hopeful to learn new things and start my grand adventure all over again." I grin at the purple pony and wiggle my book at her in an amusing fashion. "I do seem to know how to do this. So maybe integration will be easier?"
She stares at my book and I reel it in quickly. In case she tries to go after the book even then I clutch it in my forelegs. "So you really need that book?" I nod quietly and hug it tightly. It is mine and I do not want let any pony else touch it. That does seem odd doesn't it? Being so possessive over a book that I read once. One that changed my life forever.
"I can not call myself or even say my old name. But I don't think the book would mind if I chose a new name." Saying this gives me a small sense of certainty and I nod at Twilight. "Perhaps I will stop needing it so much eventually. But until then we are a package deal." With that out of the way a pleasant warmth fills me and I relax into the couch I've been placed on. This is the best book I have ever read and I don't regret reading it. Not. One. Bit. I yawn at Twilight. "I do believe I am quite sleepy. Maybe we can talk some more later? You seem like a pleasant individual."
"Ohh. Yes. You may sleep. And keep the glasses. I don't need them anymore. Do you want a blanket?" She quietly asks me before she summons one anyways and tucks me in. "Rest well little book." She blinks suddenly and her horn glows. "Fascinating. the book appears to be emitting a magic field that makes others want to care for you. It appears to want to see you succeed just as much as the rest of us." Her horn glows again and a shimmering field envelopes her. She then frowns at the book and trots out. The lights stay on for a bit and I feel the book pressing into me and its comforting shape grows warm on my fur. I slowly fall asleep under the lights in quiet happiness.