Chapter 3: A Trip Into Town/How Quickly Things Do Change

After breakfast for our guests, (who turned out to be Milky Way and Flash Sentry, of all pon- PEOPLE.) Mom was quick in taking me into town. (Through Jasper into Smiths Falls, if you must know.)

Something felt wrong about this. I felt excited and yet... apprehensive. Eager, yet more than a little nervous. Like I was doing something that I wanted to do, but was missing something crucial.

It felt like I was at odds with myself, and it flat out bothered me.

'Oh well. Might as well make the best of it.' I figured.

As we proceeded into town, I saw... PONIES! Anthropomorphized Ponies everywhere! (and a Deer or Gryphon or two for good measure.) Some were running, reveling in their changes. Others looked confused, and rightly so! Others were just going about their daily work as if nothing had happened at all.

There were mostly what my memories said were Earth Ponies, but a Pegasus here and there as well. No Unicorns, though, which struck me as.... odd, somehow. Again, I wasn't sure why.

“So, hon?” mom said as we went along.

“Hmm?” I replied.

“Just curious: Have you decided on a new name?”

“Uh... Why do you ask?” I said, with a raised eyebrow.

“This is practically a new world, after all, and we have new bodies to show for it. We're not who we were before, (though we're still family, of course). If you were to take on a new identity at any time, now would be the best time.”

“Well...” I said, pensively.

“'Well?'” she prompted.

“The first name that came to mind was Winter Fields, but then how could anyone tell that I'm related to you at all... whatever your new name happens to be?”

“Ah.” she said. “I'm calling myself Cup Midelshyre Cake. Your father, similarly, chose Carrot Midelshyre Cake. Our surnames are our middle names. Or should I say, middEL names?”

At that we both laughed, long and hard.

“That settles it.” I confirmed. “From this day forth (or at least until this gets resolved) I will be known as Winter Midelshyre Fields.”

“That's my girl!” my mother exulted.

I winced at that. “Mooooom.” I complained, “I'm still getting used to that concept.”

“You'd better.” she responded. “I won't say that you're wrong to feel that way; that just isn't true. In fact, I'd be more concerned if you DIDN'T have feelings like that.”

“Thanks, mom.” I said, blushing slightly.

“However, that isn't going to stop me from enjoying this as much as I can, so you'd best get used to it.” she finished, laughing at the deadpan look I gave her after that.

At length, we reached Smiths Falls. All I can say is... BOY, had the place changed!

Anthro Ponies were everywhere, yes, but that wasn't the HALF of it! The colours seemed brighter, the storefronts had more... pizzazz, what with the added colours to those too. Even the Wal-Mart had an embellished outside! (as we would see shortly thereafter.) I could see PegasI painting down the storefront, vaguely hearing one shout to another on the other side how much easier it was to do their job with wings.

Oh, but it got better!

There seemed to be a festival of some sort going on. Stopping at a nearby parking lot, we jogged the rest of the way.

I have to say, it was much easier to do this kind of activity as a half-Pony! I had much more stamina than usual and was able to run at a fair clip. Or should I say, a fair clip-clop.

Okay, that wasn't my best material. Give me another chance?

Anyway, getting to the market strip, as we called it, it turned out that there was a banner proclaiming, “Happy Equestrian Fusion Day!” in bright, bold letters.

Running the show was none other than- wait, Pinkie Pie?!

As if I had actually called her, she zoomed over.

“What?! But- but you- how? When? Why?” I stuttered, unable to properly convey my confusion at the complete WTF I was faced with. Eventually I settled for a slack-armed posture with my head tilted, one eyebrow raised. Mouth hanging open slightly. You know the expression.

Suddenly, Pinkie brought up a cell phone and took a picture, causing me to blink a couple of times afterwards.

After some tapping at her phone, she showed me the completed image. “Lookee lookee, sis! Your first meme!” Sure enough, there was my flummoxed expression, the caption “What is this?” at the top and “I can't even” at the bottom. To my surprise, I started to chuckle, then giggle.

“You're right. That... that is... pretty funny!” I said in between bursts of mirth at my own expense.

The team that the extremely powerful personality of the pink party planning Pony, Pinkie Pie had completely overtaken my brother's personality

“Anyway,” my mother tactfully redirected our energies while holding back some chuckles herself, “we should get going if we want to get things done.” she finished, having me say goodbye to Pinkie (for the second time today) and go back to the car.

Shortly thereafter, we were at the local Wal-Mart. Naturally, there were Ponies of every shape, size and stripe (yes, some of them had stripes) there too.

My mother directed me to the ladies' section of the store. As we were going there, I was looking around and suddenly bumped into someone coming from a nearby aisle.

“Sorry, miss.” said a fairly low voice. If I were to judge, somewhere between YamI from Yu-Gi-Oh and Relius Clover from Blazblue.(1) “Are you quite alright?” he added.

“Yeah, i'm ok-” at that point I looked into his eyes at the same moment as he touched me. And WHOA! What a shock I received!

A jolt of electricity ran all along my body, which started heating up. I felt something intense, something.... different about this character. I knew that we were connected somehow, but I wasn't sure how. My muddled mentality was trying to tell me something, but for the life of me I couldn't tell what.

The flash ended and I was looking at a -mostly- monochromatic stallion, who had kind, golden yellow eyes and smelled of dark chocolate.

He smiled, kissed my hand and walked away. Smooth.

I collapsed to my knees, still dizzy from what had only been an instant but felt like a full moment.

My mother helped me up. “Are you okay, Winter?”

“I... think so?” I said, unsure.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I was just kicked in the gut.” I replied immediately.

My mother's eyes lit up. “Well! Things are moving rather quickly.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Mom pulled me into a hug. “My daughter's found her first crush!” she squeed.

'C-C-C-Crush?' I thought.

That's when those synapses started firing off again, making me realize two things: The two of us were meant for each other. And he knew it too.

'We WILL meet again.' I promised mentally, drawing a heart around his retreating shape... (2) before i realized what i just did and wiped th imaginary heart from the air.

Mom found this pretty funny too.

Author's Note

1. I'm actually attempting to get into the habit of using a voice like that day to day.
   
2. Yeah, I'm shipping my two main ponysonae.