By all means, I should be much more terrified by the situation we've all ended up in, but for some reason I feel fairly calm and collected. I'd credit the peace to the two furry forelegs hugging me from above and holding me close, making me feel safe, if not for the fact that they belong to my brainwashed friend who, being human, shouldn't ever be in possession of two furry forelegs, let alone forelegs at all. I think back to my exchange with Jackie, and how her voice had centered me again every time I started to panic. I don't remember her being so calming. Of course, I don't think I've experienced any kindness from her since I've met her- until today, that is.

I twist my neck to look up at the pegasus carrying me, faltering briefly when it bends with disturbing dexterity. Fluffy locks of hair tumble about her face, reminding me of an alpaca whose bangs have grown over their eyes. Her expression is hard to read behind the tumbleweed mane, as well as (from my perspective) upside-down, but what I can make out reads something between 'boredom' and 'smugness'. I have to force myself to remember that the stubby winged horse holding me six feet above the ground is my stringent friend, Henry- apart from my own memories, there's no way to tell. I'm not sure how long I can hold on to my brief memory of when we woke up in the valley, the short moment during which their original personalities had shone through, before I start questioning my sanity.

We'd left the valley through the wooded area I'd seen earlier, at the base of the hills. The cinnabar light filtering through Henry's wings seems right at home among the recently fallen leaves scattered about the forest floor. The colors of this forest feel... wrong, to me. They're too rich, and too perfect, almost as if the trees had been painted upwards from the ground, the leaves stippled in between the branches, and the clouds, or at least those which I can see through the dense foliage, brushed and twirled across the sky. It just doesn't seem real, and in my head I toy with an earlier thought I had, that this all might be a dream. I wish that were the case, I really do, if it meant I could have my friends back- but there's just enough realness present to quash that theory. I can still feel the wind subtly brush across my fur, and I can smell something like dead leaves and (what I assume to be) horse. All too vivid to be a dream.

Part of me wants to say something to Henry, anything to break the silence. But I'm afraid of the pain I'll incur when the voice which responds isn't his. I have to wonder, without his voice, body, or mind, if this is even Henry anymore. Is it just his personality which has changed, leaving his consciousness intact and his old memories locked away somewhere? Is someone's personality integral to their selfhood? Was it possible that the small equine gliding above me actually wasn't my friend, at least not anymore, less Henry and more Soft Breeze... no, wait, that wasn't her name.

I twist my neck again to look up towards Henry. "Um, what did you say your name was again?"

She makes a face like I'd just claimed that Earth was flat, then turns her gaze downward to make eye contact with me, her lackadaisical expression replaced by one of genuine confusion. "You forgot my name? Did you hit your head on something in your sleep, Whistle?"

I mentally facepalm. Of course, you idiot, you forgot that they all seem to know who you are. Or at least, they think they know who you are. Maybe I'm the one who doesn't know who I am? I shake off that thought, I won't be able to fix any of this if I start confusing myself like that. "Right, sorry, haha..." I manage to stammer out. Hold on, why am I not just being honest with her?

"I mean-... well actually, um, I don't really remember anything. Like I said I don't... I don't think we're supposed to be here, or be tiny horses, for that matter..." I don't know why I'm sugarcoating it. We're supposed to be humans, not Candy Land side characters.

Henry stifles a groan, and I get the feeling she's trying to prevent herself from making me feel stupid, though I don't really think that's avoidable at this point. "Listen, um, whatever you said your name was. I really don't think I'm the best one to talk to about this, especially not now. Let's just hold off on it till we get back to town, okay? I promise we'll talk about it then." She doesn't say it with much confidence, clearly worried she's going to say something wrong or that'll make me freak out again. As much as I want to lash out at this nightmare, I feel like she's right, and I do trust her, strangely enough.

"...Okay, yeah, I'll wait. I'm sorry I brought it up." I try to force a smile but I doubt I managed anything convincing.

"Don't apologize, you didn't do anything wrong." She smirks back, but when she returns her gaze to the path ahead it quickly fades into dejection. "And... it's Mellow Breeze, by the way. Please... please don't forget it this time."

The genuine misery I can hear in her voice tears at my heart, and I can't even bear to say anything in response, instead opting to look back down at the orange and golden leaves soaring past and behind us. She doesn't say anything else, only hugging me closer to her chest. We glide our way through the remainder of the forest in silence.

I'm starting to nod off when I notice that the forest ahead is becoming less dense. Beyond the trees, I can make out a shapeless splotch of pink and gold, too far away to make out any more intricate details. Hoofsteps crunch the leaves behind us as Jackie and Kyle catch up to Henry and I.

"We're here, finally," the posh voice of the unicorn mare groans, "it felt twice as long walking back as it did walking there in the first place. My hooves feel like they're about to break off."

Above me, Henry chuckles under her breath. "You say that after every walk we go on, regardless of where we go. I'm starting to think your version of discomfort is everyone else's normal."

"Don't be so hard on her, Mellow..." I swivel my neck around in Jackie's direction. His somber expression and quiet voice show genuine concern for Kyle. "Different ponies have different levels of stamina. None are any less normal than the others."

Kyle scoffs derisively and flips her mane to the side. "She should hope you're right, seeing as she has the vitality of a salted slug."

Henry only groans, but Jackie turns towards the unicorn with shock in his eyes. "Glitterdust?! Is that any way to talk about a friend?"

"But she-!"

"It doesn't matter what she said, that doesn't mean you should follow her lead! What if you'd seriously hurt her feelings?"

"Oh, please, as if Mellow Breeze would ever be emotionally vulnerable."

Henry feigns a sob, "It's true! You wound me, Glitter! My innocent little heart has shattered!" I can't help but to laugh, though I stifle it as best I can. I can practically feel Kyle rolling her eyes behind me.

"Regardless," Jackie continues, "Mellow cares about you and you care about her, you shouldn't jeopardize something as important as friendship over a mean comment."

I twist my head around to my left side just fast enough to catch Kyle's blush before it fades. She turns her head away from us again and pouts feebly. "I... I suppose, yes..."

My brain still hasn't adapted to the huge differences between my friends as they are now and their original selves. Jackie, infamous on my college campus for being the only person we knew mean enough to kick a puppy, was now practically sporting puppy-dog eyes himself. Even aside from being transformed from a human woman into a diminutive blue stallion, his new personality couldn't be any further from his old one. The sparkling, sophisticated unicorn mare behind me, who apparently can't walk for 30 minutes without getting tired, was supposed to be the same guy that had gotten kicked out of his frat house for burning a coffee table on the roof during a weekly party. And Henry, the valedictorian-to-be and oftentimes insufferable prick, was now a pegasus mare who, judging by her complacent half-lidded gaze, looked like she had her head stuck in the clouds just as often as she flew through them.

"Empathy, you're right. Mellow, I'm sorry."

"It's cool, Glitter, don't worry about it. I'm sorry too."

It occurs to me, all of a sudden, why I'm not panicking over their sudden change in character like I should be, and not just because of Jackie's newly acquired powers of pacification. It's because my fear of losing them is being over-ridden by my anger and my jealousy. I deserved to tell them off, to get my revenge for how they had treated me and everyone else in the past. Though I hadn't spoken up or done anything during all that time, lying to myself that I wasn't like them, better than them even, I secretly understood in the pit of my heart that I was only biding my time before I struck back. And now that they're miraculously enjoyable to be around, I can't retaliate, or I'll suddenly be the bad one instead of them. Worse still, all three of them are blissfully unaware of what they'd done. The thought alone is enough to make me unconsciously grind my teeth together. My brain decides, then, that for the rest of the day I am going to be irritated, defensive, and unwilling to take shit from anybody.

"Here we are," Henry says, "home sweet home."

I turn back around, and what I see immediately blows my previous decision apart.

Before me sits a sprawling, colorful village that looks as if it jumped straight out of a Little Golden Book. The path beneath us transitions from dirt to what looks like concrete as we enter the town. It expands outward to become something like a main street, with smaller paths of varying sizes and shapes jutting out in seemingly random places like tributaries flowing into a river. The streets are surrounded on all sides by dozens upon dozens of thatched-roof, tudor-style houses. No two houses seems to share the same design: some of them are one story, some two or three; some are connected by arching wooden or stone bridges which seem to leap over the paths below them; some of them even look like two houses slapped together, with upper stories sticking out and looming overhead in ways that almost seem impossible. The rooftops, every one of them identical and golden yellow in hue, collapse slightly inward in the middle, giving them the appearance of a fluffy comforter draped over a pillow fort. Rosy pink shutters bookend the windows, and the otherwise plain walls are covered with decorative hearts and swirls. Shrubs and cypresses were jammed between the houses wherever there was available space. Looming over the wall of homes and greenery was a large wooden windmill, slowly but steadily spun by the light breeze. Judging by visual aesthetics alone, the village exuded amiability, if you ignored the faint ramshackle aftertaste.

Most surprising, I find, is that I'm less overwhelmed by the saccharine charm of the small town than I am by the people living in it. It'd be more accurate to say that there aren't people living in it at all. The entire town is populated by small, colorful ponies.

When my three hypnotized friends implied that this is where they lived, I suppose I should have figured that it would be filled with denizens who looked similar to them- or, I guess, us. I mean, the town is called *Ponyville*, after all. But I suppose that in my confusion over what had happened to us, my brain hadn't yet fully processed that we really were no longer human. Consequently, the revelation that the town is full of hundreds of sentient pastel horses hits me like a bag of bricks.

As we travel further into the village, the crowd starts to grow, and I desperately try to process everything I'm seeing. Stands and tents are set up all along the side of the road, and ponies of all shapes, sizes, and colors walk from booth to booth. I spot one of them dumping a bag of gold coins onto a table, pushing a few of the coins towards the pony on the other side as they do so. The shopkeeper then bends her neck down and comes back up with a bouquet of wildflowers wrapped in paper. The buyer takes the flowers with a smile, then promptly takes a large bite out of it and keeps walking down the street.

A few pegasi dip and soar in the sky above town, occasionally touching down and adjusting their wings a bit before merging with the rest of the crowd. From what I can see of Henry's expression, she looks a tad bit disappointed that she's stuck carrying me near the ground rather than flying through the clouds with her kin. I can't say I blame her- I'd prefer the air to the streets any day. Of course, I'd also love to know how to walk.

A couple of older ponies sit on small piles of hay underneath the shade of a balcony, engaged in a friendly conversation. Fillies and colts gallop across the main street, playing what looks to me like tag. A few of them are playing with a rolling hoop, but curiously enough the hoop seems to be rolling entirely of its own accord. I squint, and notice something... odd, about their toy.

It's glowing, almost as if it were made out of a glow-in-the-dark material, which of course couldn't be the case, seeing as the sun is still high in the sky. The glow also seems to illuminating the hoop, rather than radiating from it. It almost seems as if it's surrounded by a small, localized field of light.

Something else catches my eye, and I breath catches in my throat as I start to put the pieces together. The filly in the group furthest from the hoop is a unicorn, and the horn poking out from her crow's nest mane is surrounded in a similar glow of the exact same color. Her head is lowered slightly and, though she doesn't appear to be concentrating very hard, she's clearly preoccupied by something.

The dots connect, and my breathing quickens ever so slightly as my eyes dart around the square again, wondering how I could've missed something so substantial. Another unicorn, a green stallion, walks up to a stand and, as I watch, completely dumbfounded, a tied pouch floats out from the pack slung over his back, bathed in a magenta glow. Another unicorn approaches the door of a home and, just as she's about to reach it, a mint green aura engulfs the door and it swings inward. All around me, objects and furniture are being manipulated by lightfields in every color of the rainbow, and I clench my eyes shut as I force myself not to panic. After waking up in a fantasy world with a unicorn and a pegasus, telekinesis shouldn't really be that shocking, right? It's just another straw on the horse's back, though I wonder briefly how much straw I can hold before my own back breaks, along with my already shaken mind. I rub my sinuses with my fetlocks. When did I learn so much equine terminology?

"Brace yourselves, everypony." I'm snapped out of my burgeoning panic attack by the sound of Henry's voice. "I think the pink one is coming our way."

I trace her gaze with my own and spot a bouncing pink cloud in the distance. As it hops in our direction, it zips from booth to booth, waving and grinning widely at the ponies nearby, all of whom smile and wave back, as if greeting a cherished friend. As the cloud gets closer I can confirm my assumption that it is, in fact, a pony- entirely pink from head to hoof, though her mane and tail are of a significantly darker shade. She has a look on her face like she had just won the lottery, reunited with a long-lost sibling, and met Santa Claus, all at the same time. I almost shrink back into myself as she approaches, as if I'm getting too close to a storm.

Jackie trots in front of us from behind, with a big, cheery smile on his face, and says, "Hi, Pink-"

"NEW PONIES!!"

Jackie flinches, and Henry suddenly freezes in midair. Jackie turns around, and I twist my head around as well, only to see Kyle also glancing behind herself. There's no one else behind us that the pink pony could be referring to.

"Wh-"

"Ohmygosh Ohmygosh OhmyGOSH nobody told me there would be anybody new arriving today!! I'm so exCITED because today was already a great day but it was a little bit boring and normal not saying I have a problem with that but I wanted to do something FUN and I wanted to throw a party but there wasn't anything to throw a party aBOUT and I was GONNA throw a 'Pinkie Throws A Party Party' but Twilight told me I shouldn't because it would be 'paradoxable' and confusing and I was like 'parties aren't confusing, parties always make sense!' but-"

"Woah, OK, Pinkie Pie, slow down a sec..." I feel Henry's hold on me loosen as she lowers me down to the ground, onto my hooves. My knees buckle a bit when I remember I still don't know how to walk. I opt to just stand as still as possible instead. "You know I can't think that fast."

"Right, sorry! I'm just really super happy excited!!" Pinkie's bounce had lowered closer to the ground, and she's bouncing so fast it practically looks like she's vibrating. I know it isn't possible, but I ignore it, out of genuine fear that I'll lose it if I try to wrap my head around any more scientific impossibilities.

Jackie's brow is pinched upward in confusion. "Pinkie, um... the new ponies... where are they?"

"They're where you are, silly! Because they are you! Also wow I can't believe you already know my name, I must have even more friends than I thought I did! YAY!" Her grin somehow stretches even wider before it's replaced with a small frown and a raised brow. "Or I suppose you could have done your research, but nopony does research other than Twilight!" The grin returns. "She's an egghead!"

Kyle joins us on our left, looking equally confused as the rest of us, Jackie and Henry because this pony they supposedly know seems to have forgotten them, and me because I've never met anyone so incredibly energetic and... perplexing, in my life. At least, I don't think I have.

"Pinkie Pie," Kyle starts, "we aren't new ponies, we already know you. I'm Glitterdust, remember? I moved here from Canterlot three years ago to start a jewelry shop?"

Pinkie Pie frowns. "Nope, doesn't ring a bell! I don't ever forget a friend! And I'm positive I've never met any of you before in my life! EVER!"

The wide grin that follows this statement couldn't be in any further contrast to the borderline horror-stricken faces of my three friends. As for me, I almost have to hide a smirk, because I know for a fact that they're all reconsidering how they reacted to my 'episode' earlier. I could prove, now, both to them and myself, that we did come from Earth, we are humans, and we most definitely have not lived in this fantasy horse world our entire lives.

"...oh, except for Grasswhistle. Hi, Grasswhistle!"

...god damnit.

Author's Note

Hey y'all, thanks for reading! As my first story I want to make sure I fully understand what I'm doing with this before I continue. It might be a short while before I finish another chapter, but there will be another one. Thanks for sticking around!