Chapter One: A Package for a Student.
The summer holidays had come to Clifton Campus in Nottingham, and had left the whole place rather quiet. Most of the students had either gone on holiday, or gone to stay with family until the start of the next term. The same couldn't be said for Mahdia Davey. She was studying History and Politics, and was loathed to go back to Derby and spend the summer holidays with her parents. It did mean she was more or less home alone at the student dorms, but at least she had free access to the library for study...
She groaned, slumped on a sofa with the recommended reading for the Heritage Matters course in hand. It was tough to chew through, and she wondered why she'd even picked this module at all. Curiosity, most likely, and she was a glutton for punishment. All she really knew about her family was that they could be traced back to Pakistan, but that was it.
Whatever. She tossed the print-outs onto a glass coffee table with an exasperated sigh. That was enough of that for today, she'd do a little bit of study later. She wanted to go out to pick up some things for the kitchen, but she couldn't even do that. One of her roommates, Claire, had gone to spend time with family over the holidays, and she'd asked Mahdia look after a parcel being delivered to her from overseas. Apparently, it was due to show up today in the mid-afternoon. She'd have some lunch before afternoon prayer, then she'd be sitting around, bored rigid until that darn parcel arrived.
It wasn't that bad, actually. She still had her laptop in her room, and there was plenty of milk and teabags left for tea. It could've been worse. She sat on that same sofa in the main dorm room, in a modestly lengthed skirt and a blouse, in the middle of browsing the internet when she heard a very angry sounding grumbling outside her front door. A man, shouting at another, before a heavy thud as that man slammed something on the floor, banging on the front door and storming off down the corridor.
She didn't dare investigate until she was convinced the pair were gone, but once they definitely were, she opened the front door. There, at the welcome mat was the mangled packaging of Claire's delivery.
"Oh, great..." Mahdia groaned, picking it up and bringing it inside. The packaging was practically falling off what was revealed to be a wooden box. Thankfully, the box itself was a lot more robust than the packaging, but it was barely locked, and it was surprising the contents hadn't been lost or stolen... They hadn't been stolen, right?
Mahdia had to be honest with herself: She wanted to see the contents of the box, just to satisfy her curiosity. She had to, even if she wasn't, just to make sure the contents of Claire's box were all there, and weren't damaged by the shoddy deliverymen. She opened the wooden box. Inside, cushioned by red velvet, were two golden horseshoes, propped up slightly by a pillow lining within the box.
Between those golden horseshoes was a small note. "You know what these are for. I hope to see you soon. D.C."
It raised several questions for Mahdia. Who was D.C? What were the horseshoes for? What was Claire supposed to do with them? She sighed, perhaps she was overthinking all of this? Mahdia knew that Claire was a massive fan of My Little Pony, and made no secret of that love if anyone peered into her room in the student dorms. Mahdia's memories of the show from when she was a kid weren't great, but whatever. Claire liked ponies. Maybe this was just some trophy for horse-riding or something? She was quite proud of her volunteer work at horse stables.
The horseshoes themselves were strangely elegant for horseshoes, which was why she'd thought them trophies. They were a full circle, with raised edges, rather than a traditional horseshoe, but they had the indentation of a traditional horseshoe shape inside them. They looked almost as if someone had tried to make literal shoes for a horse, if they weren't trophies. Mahdia was still curious, and went to pick one up to take a closer look at the strange things. As soon as her hand made contact with one of the shoes, there was a flash of light. Mahdia yelped in surprise, dazed by the brief brightness and dropping the box. It lasted only a second, but it took a few more for Mahdia to regain sight. The box clattered onto the coffee table, and the horseshoes were gone.
Mahdia blinked. What in the blazes just happened? It definitely did happen. She held the box, now empty, in her hands, the crumpled remains of the packaging lay on the coffee table. Whatever happened, Mahdia felt rather weird, despite her vision having recovered.
She tried not to think about it. The packaging was quite messy, so she'd bin it, put away the box, and try to figure out what she was going to say to Claire about her delivery. Stepping forward, Mahdia immediately lost her balance, wobbling on her legs and nearly falling over, having to prop herself up on the coffee table. Something was wrong. She straightened up, shaking her leg and standing up. Her walking was off; it reminded her of a toy from her youth, where a line of rope was threaded through holes drilled into a tin can, and she would walk on a pair of these contraptions like stilts. At the same time, she jumped as she felt something brush against her upper leg, something soft.
She allowed herself to fall back on the sofa. She felt whatever was brushing against her leg be crushed between her leg and the sofa, but it hurt. Not a lot, but it was like someone was pulling her hair, except it was the bottom of her spine. Then, she saw her legs, and she nearly screamed aloud in fright. Her legs were not her legs. They were the length of her legs, but they were covered in soft, thick layer of light green fur, but that was just the start. The very shape of her legs had changed, the bones and joints rearranged, and were decidedly equine in their anatomy.
A small tuft of pink hair peeked out from under her skirt, where her human knees used to be; she pulled at this hair, feeling the tug reach to the small of her back. She had a tail. A long tail, it seemed, green, pink, and red. A real tail, which flicked about erratically as Mahdia's nerves woke up to the new appendage, making her jump each time until it feel still for her.
Finally, her feet, like her legs, were not her feet. They had been transformed into hooves, like a horse or a pony, and there, on what was now her hooves, were the golden horseshoes.
