Prologue
Phillip was a normal human, who lived all his life in the small city of Dordrecht in the Netherlands, which sat just below Rotterdam.
Even though it wasn’t big, there's still a lot of things happening on the small island Dordrecht was sitting on, like today. Because for today was the first of the three days that the free music festival “Big Rivers” started. Which Phillip always looked out for when it came around, even more then any of the actual holidays, even Christmas.
Phillip was happily moving along the path called the Statengang and was heading toward Tolbrugstraat, or more commonly known as the gum-wall path. For the people who walked through it in the past, stuck their used gum to the piece of wall within this street, so much so that the wall behind it was barely even visible -though mostly on eye level- making it into a somewhat ever growing folk art.
Even though the city’s politicians had the wall cleaned one time, the gums came back just as fast and the wall wasn’t cleaned ever since.
The music coming from one of the stages that were set through out the centre of the city had reached Phillip’s ears, a stage that was known for his blues music during Big Rivers.
Coming up to that particular stage, Phillip saw that the little square in front was packed with people, so packed that he had to go through the crowd to get to his destination.
Yet, he continued on, muttering a ‘sorry’ or a ‘pardon’ when he bumped into someone, sighing in relief when he finally got through to the other end.
Knowing it will be clear sailing from here on out -for now anyway- he started to hum a familiar song, only he had changed the lyrics of it somewhat, making it more fit for a particular show he was a fan of. A show that was actually meant for.. younger audiences, more specifically, the female variety.
He was more or less, a closet Brony, the name meant for the male, mostly adult, fans of the My Little Pony show. Only his brother and a few friends know of his love for the show and was attend to keep it that way, for now.
As he hummed the tune, his brain started to create the lyrics for it:
Once I felt that I did not belong
and that I was destined to be alone
But then I came across this cartoon show
that taught me of friendship and love
Never knew it, that it made me feel it
so I need to sing it, that ponies were it
I’m in love with MLP
I would wear it out for everyone to see
I will wait every night and day
for little ponies to come my way
the wait I really have to bare
for a new episode to air
I’m in love with MLP
I’m in love with MLP
I’m in love with MLP
Phillip was snapped from his internal singing when the faint sound of his mobile’s ring tone reached his ears and once he took it out of his pocket, he looked at who the caller was.
Seeing that it was his brother calling, he took the call, ‘Ha broertje!’ (Hey little brother!) he said in a cheerful tone, ‘Hoe is het?’ (How is it?)
‘Goed, goed,’ (Good, good) sounded at the other side of the call, ‘ik ben al bij de volgende podium, waar ben jij?’ (I am already at the next stage, where are you?)
He quickly looked around, noticing where he was immediately, ‘Ik sta nu bij de kauwgom muur, dus ik ben er zo.’ (I am now at the gum wall, so I’ll be right there.)
‘Oké Flip, zie je so.’ (Oké Flip, see you in a few.) his brother said and hung up.
Flip placed his phone back in his pocket and continued to walk, crossing Scheffersplein in order to get to the archway, passing the statue of Ary Scheffer -who was now wearing his signature Big Rivers hat- and another stage -which was quiet at the moment- to get to the plaza in front of café The Mood, where the next stage stood and most of his friends and family were at the moment.
But as Flip passed the archway, he felt a little strange all of a sudden. Feeling a slight tingle in his body that was growing more intense by the minute, so much so that it was messing with his centre of balance and made the world spin in front of his eyes.
Taking his head in his hands to try and ease the spinning, he slowly shuffled to the side, leaning against a glass wall, through which you could see the ruins of an old building they’ve dug up when the were renovating the building on top.
But Flip didn’t care for it at the moment, right now he was wondering why he felt so light headed at the moment, Wat is er met mij aan de hand?(What’s wrong with me?) he thought as the path he was just on became completely bare of any other people and had become eerily quiet. Which was weird, considering that there should be music coming from the stage that stood further ahead.
The tingling in Flip’s body grew more intense, until there was a colourless flash and he disappeared from view.
~
A few minutes passed before Flip came to, his mind trying to register what has happened, slowly noticing that he wasn’t lying on the gobble stone street that should be there, but on what looked like a dirt path, Urg, m’n hoofd, (Urg, my head,) he mentally groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, letting them adjust to light, only for Flip’s eyes to widened when he noticed something peculiar about his nose, mainly that it was wider and longer then usual.
He blinked a couple of times, thinking that it would restore everything to normal, which it didn’t.
Since blinking didn’t had the results that Flip wanted, he started to look at his surroundings, only for his eyes to widen even further as he saw something he recognized from the very show he was a fan of. What he saw was a white pecked fence in front of a large field of brightly coloured apple trees. And as he followed the fence, he saw a familiar gate that had a sign a hanging over it that said: Sweet Apple Acers.
Flip’s mouth fell open, ‘Wat krijgen we-‘ (What the-) is what he wanted to say, only for the sound of a sheep bleating to leave his mouth.
Shocked by the sudden sound, he placed his hand over his mouth. Only to notice that he had no more hands, but has cloven hooves instead.
Looking around frantically, he saw that he was a few feet away from a small pond.
He quickly -yet awkwardly- crawled toward the edge and looked over it to see his reflection, only for a white wool coated face with two horns that curved alongside his head to look back at him.
Flip opened his mouth to scream out loud, only for the sound of a sheep screeching to leave him yet again.
To be continued
Author's Note
Here are some fun facts:
Fact 1: The logo from the cover is actually from the local soccer team. If you got Fifa 16, you can find it under the Dutch teams.(only I changed it somewhat
)
Fact 2: Big Rivers is an actual thing here.
Fact 3: Long, long ago, there was a time when people had to pay toll for their livestock in order to get on the island of Dordrecht.
But two farmers, who had a sheep, came up with a plan for not having to pay. They'd dressed the sheep up in human clothes and carried the animal in a vertical level passed the toll house. They'd almost succeeded in doing so, if the sheep didn't let out a dismayed shriek.
The two farmers had to pay a fine and the toll and since then, were the people of Dordrecht known as "Schapekoppen" (translated: sheepheads) (this makes the fact that Flip became a sheep more logical doesn't it?
)
Let me know what you think and if there are any mistakes in the story, let me know via PM.
