Just A Cartoon

Callum’s eyes flickered open, still hurting from the treatment they were given minutes ago. He rubbed a forearm against his aching forehead and rolled over onto his side where his snout started tickling against the grass. He giggled slightly and rolled back over onto his back to find a beautiful night sky.

…Wait. He thought to himself.

…Grass?

…Night sky?

…SNOUT!?

Callum immediately sat upright and inspected his body: He had white hair growing out of… well, everywhere, fingerless stumps which he assumed were hooves and feet too identical to his hooves. Between his legs was a long, black, messy tail. Callum shoved his ha- hooves in his mouth to stop himself from screaming.

“N-no” Callum whispered, “I-it can’t be.”

He dashed to a nearby puddle to see his reflection in the moonlight. He still had his black mohawk. He still had blue eyes, though they were a lot bigger than before. His mouth and nose were now sticking out to form a snout and he had a horn sticking out of his head.

For a few moments, Callum just stared at his reflection in disbelief, occasionally poking himself to see if he could feel anything.

Then he squealed.

He started jumping on the spot, laughing like a mad-man. Then he dropped to the ground and started rolling on the grass, still laughing like hell. After about ten minutes of rolling around, he got to his senses and stood on four, wobbly hooves.

“I… I don’t believe this.” He said, grinning down at his new form.

Something struck him. He craned his head back to look at his flank. Imprinted on his fur was an image of black guitar surrounded by fire. The guitar was slightly tilted.

His jaw dropped at the sight. I’m a guitarist he thought to himself. His grin grew even wider at the thought and let out another squeal. His ears flapped as he heard something in the distance. Callum’s smile dropped for a second as he processed the sound in his mind. It was almost like a… groan?

He swerved around the trees he only realized existed a few moments ago and trotted towards the strange sound. He approached the source with caution and gasped at what he saw.

Lying on the floor was a bright yellow stallion with a short black mane and tail. He had a blue lightning bolt for a cutie mark and a pair of wings closed by his sides. He was snoring lightly.

As weird as it may sound, Callum would often sit in class and wonder what his friends would look like if they were ponies. And this is pretty much what he pictured Jack to look like.

“Wait…” Callum said to nobody in particular, “Me and Jack were both caught in that flash…” Callum put two and two together and started looking around the area franticly. A few seconds later he found another pegasus splayed out under a tree, snoring a lot louder than Jack.

It was a burgundy red pegasus with ginger hair and a dumbbell for a cutie mark. He had thicker, more muscular hooves than Callum. His wings, unlike Jack’s, were spread outwards like the rest of his limbs. Callum identified the pony as Evan.

“Okay,” Callum murmured to himself, “How do I break it to someone that they were transformed into magical, colourful equine?”

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” A screaming green stallion came galloping through the trees.

“AH!” Evan and Jack both awoke with a short scare and looked down to find themselves not human. They decided to join the green pony.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

“Well, that’s one way to do it.”

“AAAAAA-” the screaming was cut off by a short thud. All three stallions had run into each other and landed back first on the floor.

Callum walked over to the group. “I‘m guessing you were surprised by this.” He looked over the new pony. He was a green unicorn with a short, blonde mane and matching tail. He had a mushroom cloud for a cutie mark that confirmed it was Rhys.

“What the Christ just happened?” Rhys managed, still rubbing his sore head.

“Evan mixed copper sulphate with Red Bull and transported us to the land of magical talking ponies.” Callum said nonchalantly.

“What?” Evan sat up, blinking furiously. He rubbed his eyes and gazed towards Callum. He was, as a matter of fact, a pony. “…N-n-n-no. No no no!” He screamed.

“Evan, try to calm down a second…” Callum suggested.

“This… this isn’t happening.” Evan told himself, “This is not happening.”

Even though Callum knew Evan hated him, he needed to calm him down before he did anything stupid. Callum’s attention, however, was drawn to the yellow pegasus shaking him by the shoulders.

“Callum, look at us!” Jack said with glee, “We’re in Equestria! This is fucking awesome!”

“Acid is a hell of a drug; you all look like ponies to me.” Rhys lifted his hooves to his red eyes only to stop and stare at them. “Even I look like a pony to me.”

Callum trotted over to Rhys and put a hoof on his shoulder. “Mate, you’re not high. You’re not dreaming. We are actually ponies.”

Rhys seemed to stare off in the distance for a while but finally returned the message with a face of shock. “W-what? B-but how-”

“Remember the big, bright light in science?” Jack questioned. Rhys nodded his head. “That’s how.”

“…We’re stuck here.” Rhys sounded disheartened, “How can we get back? This is a completely different world. We can't survive here. There is no way back. We’re screwed. Done…”

Callum looked down at his friend and spoke up. “Mate, think about this. You’re in a place where magic exists!” Callum exclaimed, “Where most of the population can perform magic and fly! Where there are

dragons, man! Not to mention two people here know how this place works. Seriously, man, if you say this place is worse than earth after a week, something’s wrong.”

Rhys was still very interested in the ground for some reason.

Callum sighed. Well, there’s only one thing that can work now. “You can perform magic.”

Rhys immediately perked up. “Say again?”

“Mate, you’re a unicorn. You can do magic ’n’ shit!” Callum exclaimed.

Rhys moved his hoof up to his head and poked the tip of his horn. A grin suddenly grew on his face. “Sweet.”

“OW!”

The two unicorns turned towards the source of the cry. Jack was lying on the floor, holding his stomach in both hooves while Evan was sitting on the grass with a hoof extended.

“Don’t try to comfort me.” Evan spat, “we’re stuck in a hell hole with no possible way to get back.”

“Evan” Jack said, “Just try t-”

“SHUT UP!” Evan tried to stand up on his back two hooves, but fell flat on his face. He spat out the dirt in his mouth and stood up angrily, this time on four hooves. “There is nothing you can say that will change my mind about all of this! Jack, you’re in a place filled with sparkly rainbow gayness!”

“Hey!” Jack replied, “Have you even watched that show?”

Evan stared back, mouth ajar. “Y-you… you watch that shit!?”

“Yeah! I do! Wanna fight about it?” Jack challenged.

“People!” All eyes turned towards Callum. “We’re not gonna survive this arguing about a TV show!”

Rhys turned towards Evan and Jack “We need a fire. Evan, use your big-ass hooves to collect wood from trees.”

Evan hesitated a bit, but replied after a minute. “…Fine.”

Evan walked up to a tree and started hitting it with his fore-hooves.

“Try bucking ‘em.” Callum added.

“How would that help?!”

“Bucking. Using both your back hooves”

“…oh… Right.” Evan turned 180 degrees and lifted his hind-legs. He then smacked them against the tree as hard as he could. Instead of cracking the bark of the tree, the tree began to topple and fall backwards, leaving only the trunk attached to the ground.

“Holy crap!” Rhys said, rather impressed by the strength of the pegasus.

Evan smirked at his work, then broke small parts of wood off of the tree and piled them in a small area uninhabited by trees.

“We need someone to light it.” Callum said matter-of-factly.

“I can do it!” Rhys indicated to his horn.

“I don’t know man…” Callum doubted, “This is magic we’re talking about.”

“Trust me; I know what I’m doing.” Rhys lied.

Rhys walked over to the pile of wood and lowered his horn to it. He closed his eyes and his horn started to glow orange. A bright orange orb started to form at the tip of his horn.

Then it blew up.

The explosion sent the four stallions flying different directions, all of which lead into a tree. Rhys hit a tree back first, and then slid to ground. Jack got a face full of dirt after hitting a tree with his stomach… Evan was laying on his stomach, nuzzling a tree with his entire face. Callum was launched across the ground on his back, getting his horn lodged in a tree.

A few seconds later, the small pile of wood ignited into flames.