***... You have failed...
Despite your woefully pathetic efforts to escape this kingdom...
You still yet to have your freedom...
You have underestimated me and took the bait...
Now for you, there shall be no escape.
Join her in mind and body...
For there is no rest for the tardy.
Hope shall not be your guiding light.
For you will be started alight!
Now, a shroud of darkness will be your haze.
And shadows shall cloud your gaze!
For you, there shall be no gain.
But only evil's bane!
"ZOOOOOMMPpPPPHHHHHH!
...
Now your time is finite.
For this shall be your final Twilight!***
"Gaaaaaugh.... What a weird dream... Could someone turn out the lights? Too bright.... And why is it so hot?" Tobias thought to himself as he shifted around on his bed, the sheets covering his body with fluffy comfort like clouds. Something felt off however, though he didn't know specifically what exactly was wrong though. His hands felt stiff and his appendages felt like they've been twisted in an odd. But despite these unusual stimuli, he couldn't be bothered to check what was wrong. He was much too comfy in his warm bed to care at all. He enjoyed how soft the sheets were, how they cracked as he adjusted his position. He also enjoyed the ambience to be had, with the chirping of crickets.
"-and a cool breeze blowing in the background... Wait, aren't the windows supposed to be closed?"
With his interested pipped, Tobias opened his eyes. After waiting a few seconds for his disorientation to pass, his vision restored itself to it's original clarity. There was just one problem though.
He wasn't in his room, and this snapped Tobias into high alert.
"... What!??"
Tobias eyes dilated in complete shock. The sights that were presented to him rendered him completely speechless, the type where you suddenly find yourself in an unfamiliar environment and proceed to have a panic attack. In other words, Tobias wished he just kepted his damn eyes shut.
The first two things to clue him in that something had gone horribly wrong during his slumber was one, he was in a meadow surrounded by nothing but pine trees. The other that was more immediate and alarming was the fact that there was a small, blue muzzle which was attached to his jaw. He lifted a hand to probe the mysterious body part, only to freeze when he saw the reason for the numbness in his hands, or rather to be more accurate, hooves. So he did what anyone would expect when one is presented with this situation, he panicked.
"Wha-, what's going on!? Why is my voice so strange? WHY do I have hooves!?"
Needless to say, he proceeded to do what any sane individual would do in this situation and panic. However, his blood was frozen in shock, with an icey, cold feeling pressing into his spine. He was completely paralyzed with utter shock, struggling to process what was in front of him, even with his brain on full alert, sorting through the various responses that was appropiate for situation. Slapping himself, Tobias slowly returned to a regular breathing pattern.
"Okay, just remain calm Tobias. Approach this like a math problem, the- then find a soluti-" He paused as he gazed upon an image in a puddle, one of a blue alicorn with an expression of shock and bewilderment.
A Searing Headache And-...
Green Tunnel
August 31 2012
11:24 AM
... You have failed...
Despite your woefully pathetic efforts to escape this kingdom...
You still yet to have your freedom...
You have underestimated me and took the bait...
Now for you, there shall be no escape.
Join her in mind and body...
For there is no rest for the tardy.
Hope shall not be your guiding light.
For you will be started alight!
Now, a shroud of darkness will be your haze.
And shadows shall cloud your gaze!
For you, there shall be no gain.
But only evil's bane!
"ZOOOOOMMPpPPPHHHHHH!
...
Now your time is finite.
For this shall be your final Twilight!
"Grrraaaaagh... I am sooooo going murder whoever turned off the AC... And that dream... Someone must have spiked something in my drink... And confound this damned headache, I just hope I don't get another one of those bloody dream again."
Tobias thought to himself, struggling to pull in a few more hours of worth of Zees. Fate however seemed to frown upon him, for no matter how he turned, the morning sun managed to shine it's light right on to his face. This treachery was only further compounded by the fact that he felt like that he was sleeping upon pile of sticks and rocks, with a few pinching right into his back.
"Ughhhhhh." Tobias could only moan, shifting his body backwards and waywards, anything to get himself comfortable.
After a few more minutes of trying to get back to sleep in vain, Tobias moodiness kicked into high gear, changing from being slightly annoyed, irritated, then finally to pissed. Tobias could only groan in exasperation as his muscles slowly started to pick up steam. His whole body feeling sore, even in places he didn't even knew could be sore. But the worst had to be the arms, legs and head, feeling as if someone took a pummel machine and set it on for half an hour to pound out whatever protein that made up his muscles, then decided to inject latex into his spine.
Grumbling to himself, Tobias struggled to maintain his balance as he opened his eyes, vision still blurry as he looked around, showing only obscure silhouettes and outlines..
"That's it, I am officially going to beat the living crap out of whoever drugged me. I never have been hammered in my life, but I swear to god I am going to make whoever did this pay ten fold." Tobias thought to himself, blinking out the sleep that was in his eyes.
Finally after a few moments have passed, his eyesight started to clear up.
When it did, Tobias's jaw dropped, his eyes opened wide with shock. If he wasn't wide awake before, he was now.
With the passing poetic quote that he had wanted to say for the day thrown completely out the window, Tobias struggled to process the images that his retina was sending him. If one were close enough, they could hear the coffee man inside his head spit out and hack on his coffee.
"What the.... They aren't paying me nearly enough dough and donuts for this job." The Head Conductor groaned, rubbing a palm to his forehead before slamming a red button, sounding out a general alarm to the rest of the body.
The first two things that became immediately apparent to Tobias was that one, instead of being in his dorm room, he was instead stuck in the middle of a meadow, which itself was in the middle of some kind of forest. Then two, there was a blue muzzle attached to his face, instead of his nose where it was supposed to be. Tobias then tried to reach a hand to touch it, only to find out the explanation for the numbness for his hand, stopping him dead cold. Instead of having a hand that ended with five flexible digits, he was greeted with a hoof in it's place.
"WHAT THE-" Tobias began to say, only to cut himself mid sentence in shock. Instead of hearing his usual baritone, he was instead greeted with a soprano of the feminine kind.
The said hoof from before now had now been placed inside his own muzzle, acting as a cork to prevent further speaking.
It took him a few moments before he could muster the courage to speak.
"Tha- that wasn't my voice...." He said, his voice barely a whisper. This isn't my nose..... This isn't my hand.... Dare I explore further of what may be of a different body? Is this even real? If not reality but a lucid dream, then this probably won't ev- SONNVA-" Tobias bit into his tongue, only to cringe with regret immediately afterwards when a sharp, stabbing pain returned a response.
"Owwww..... Definitely not in the dream world right now." Tobias muttered, rubbing the side of his now sore mouth with a hoof.
Tobias shook his head in disbelief at the situation he was in, laying down in the dirt, deep in both thought and review.
"Okay Tobias, don't panic. Panicking will get you nowhere.... That's right, deep breaths...."
Though Tobias was on a heightened alert, he found himself amused with the change in vocals; rather than frightened.
"Alright, let's establish on what we already know. I am definitely not in the dorm room, and whatever freakish thing that has happened to me is indeed real, confirmed by the return of pain stimuli from the tongue. Two, apparently I am now in a different body of the equine kind with a blue muzzle, which I have a deep sinking suspicion of knowing who it may belong to as well. Three, the soreness in my body is extended throughout. This means that whatever has happened to change my hands and face, probably leads to the conclusion that the rest of my body has suffered to the same fate."
Tobias tossed a glance to his left, and much to his delight; found a stream that was only a few meters from where he stood.
"So hence forth, we must come to a solution, the key thing being is NOT to panic. Fear is the mind killer, only serving as a hindrance to reach for a solution to whatever said problems may lie ahead. So when giving myself a full body examination, I must NOT panic..." Tobias sighed as he finished his inner monologue. True, he did have more than a few fantasies of being trapped into a scenario like this one, but they were just that; fantasies. Now here he was out in the middle of nowhere, with no idea how, what, who and why brought him here.
"Well... My feelings on the matter aren't completely demoralizing... But they aren't too bright either... Then there is the matter of these new vocals." Tobias paused for a moment to let the sound of his new vocals sink in, the jester in his brain tossing "The Ball of Whether I Think This Is A Good Thing, Bad Thing, or Just Simply In Between.".
"Well.... I'm not reacting to this voice as badly as I would have first thought, even though it does sound strongly of a feminine quality. Hell, given time I could even get used to this." He said to himself, rubbing his chin in deep thought. Then it occurred to him that there still was the rest of his body to look at, not to mention the surrounding environment.
"Oh right, first things first. Examine the surrounding environment and establish if there are any surrounding threats. If this is anything like the fanfiction I have read, this could be the Everfree Forest, with some random mantiore ready to eat me. Or worse, it could be that a random trio of three fillies waltz in and meet me in so called 'coincidence of fate', foolishly disregarding their guardians advice of NOT to go in here, regardless of the fact that they may not get their community marks." He jostled himself, looking around in silence at the endless, vast amount of trees around him, checking for if there was indeed a manticore ready to devour him whole, or the CMC burst out in ambush, ready to grab their talents; shouting "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS KNIGHTS IN ARMOR YAY!" However, after waiting for a solid ten seconds, neither of these things happened.
Tobias rolled his eyes, facehoofing. "Of course, nothing can be truly predictable as I have expected.... Wait, did I really just call them 'community marks?"
Another facehoof.
"Ugh... Either I really am loco in the coco today, or I have gone luney without my pills... Which I suppose is to be expected when one is thrusted into a situation such as this one."
He then surveyed the surrounding area.
"Right, so here I am resting in a meadow, surrounded by a dense forest with no obvious direction to civilization, that's assuming if there is any within a day's walk. To my left, there is small river leading up to some form of cave, possibly offering shelter an-" Tobias jumped in surprise as a crash of thunder alerted him to the forming of storm clouds on the horizon.
"Shit, make that 'will' offer protection." Tobias grumbled to himself, rubbing his forehead with the right side of his hoof. He did NOT want to get wet today. His day was already miserable enough as it is, thank you very much. Returning his gaze back to the river, he met it with a steely gaze of grim proportions.
"At least there is a lake here to offer me a glimpse of whatever the hell I have turned into.... Let's see if I can walk or not."
Taking a few steps, Tobias began to trot towards the river. Much to his surprise, he found absolutely no difficulty in moving in his new body.
Well that's..... Unnatural... I was actually expecting to fumble for every four steps.... Well i'm not complaining.
By this time, Tobias had reached the edge of the river.
"Okay Tobias... Now remember, don't freak out when you see your own reflection... Or piss yourself in fear."
Tobias muttered nervously, trying in vain to subdue the butterflies in his stomach.
"Besides, with any luck, nothing will go- actually scratch that thought, the last thing I want to do is to jinx it and send everything to hell in a handbasket."
Taking a deep breath, Tobias held it in for a few moments before he resumed normal breathing.
"Alright, here goes nothing..." Shutting his eyes, Tobias shifted his head to the left and held it there, waiting....
...
...
...
...
"-and ten. Okay, let's see what-..." Tobias's eyes dilated as he fully registered the image in front of him. He could only stutter as he felt his chest beginning to tighten.
Focus Tobias! Don't let a little reflection scare ya, you faced worse than this in the past.
Taking a deep breath, Tobias returned his gaze to his reflection.
Staring back at Tobias was a blue, indigo alicorn, having the same shocked expression that he had, wings flared. Checking to see what the sudden, odd sensation that was nagging at his back, Tobias found the same two wings fully extended. Looking back at the reflection, Tobias himself could only mouth one word.
"Luna?"
Tobias's mind ran off a million different thoughts at once as he continued to stare back, gawking as he stared at Luna's reflection in the water. Moments later, Tobias facehoofed, only to recoil and rub his forehead as he found that indeed it wasn't wise to slam one's hooves as full velocity at one's own head. But it had accomplished Tobias's objective in jostling him out of his daze.
"Owwww...... Ugh, at least I NOW know that hooves hurt like hell.... Damnit.... Okay."
Slowly, he peered back to his gaze on the lake once again, only to still find Luna staring back at him. Something finally clicked as his brain rebooted.
"Well.... So, i'm apparently stuck in the body of The Mare in the Moon herself.... That explains why the voice is so familiar. At least it isn't all doom and gloom, I mean I look kinda awesome and sexy."
It took him a moment before it dawned upon him as to what the implications meant, then a fierce blush formed on his cheeks.
"Uh- let's move on!" He said quickly.
Most of Tobias's body was covered by a blue pelt, which glistened brightly in the sunlight. Rubbing a hoof along his left foreleg, he was surprised that he could feel through the 'frog' of the foot, the fur having a soft like silky texture to it, similar to a blanket. Plastered on either side of his flank was a cutie mark, which was a small cresent moon. Looking at his brighter blue tail, he flexed it experimentally. To his surprise, he was able to fully control it, as if he had it for years. Shifting his gaze back and forth between the pond and his wings, he gave them an experimental flap and found it was a similar story there, albiet he wasn't confident he would be able to immediately fly with them. After fooling around with both of these newfound appendages, his wings folded.
Finally, he looked upon the face of his reflection.
Instead of dullish set of brown eyes, bright green ones beamed back at him in there place. Where his human face was usually flat, there was a small muzzle. Licking the surface of his teeth, he found that oddly enough, ponies seemed to posses teeth suitable for chewing on both meat and plant matter alike.
Then he touched upon the base of the horn that jutted out from his forehead. Once again to his surprise, he found that there were nerves clusters covering the whole thing, the tip feeling especially sensitive.
"But what does this remind me of?" Tobias mumbled to himself, tapping his chin with a hoof absent mindedly. "Wait a minute. If i'm Luna, then that means..."
Finally it dawned upon him and Tobias's jaw dropped, dread slowly twisting it's knife into his stomach.
"Oh no... Please God no..."
Slowly, Tobias turned his gaze downward, only to squeak with horror as he found that it was missing.
