Five Score: Albedo of the Moon

I gave her my address and then went to wait outside the front of the building, just across the street from the guest parking area so I could direct her where to park. The sun had already started to set, oranges already given way to blues, so it wasn’t too bad outside. It was normally quiet in the part of the city where I lived, which was why I lived there.

So, after I noticed two men sitting in a minivan at the edge of the guest parking lot, I was having none of it. It was probably some kind of drug deal. I wasn’t going to have sketchy people or gang activity around when Kelly showed up in whatever state she was in.

I brought up my building’s security phone number and called them.

The number rang and after a bit they answered.

“City Shield. How can I help?”

“There’s some suspicious guys parked outside of my apartment building. Pretty sure it’s a drug deal or gang activity,” I said as I watched the vehicle.

There was a pause on the other end of line before he responded.

“...John?” he made sure. I had admittedly called them a few times before.

“That’s me.” There was silence on the other end for a moment, probably while he grabbed a pen and paper.

“Where’s the activity exactly?”

“In the guest park-” I stalled when I saw the headlights on the van turn on and heard their engine start. They started backing out of their spot. Did they hear me somehow?

“John? Still there?”

“They’re moving now… they were in the guest parking lot across the street. I think they realized what I am doing.”

“Can you describe the vehicle?”

I gave him all the info I could but I missed the license plate.

“Alright, John. Well, we’ll give your building some extra attention tonight. Don’t you worry. Call us if you see anything else.”

“Right, okay. Thank you,” I agreed and hung up. Whatever. The important thing was they were gone now.

Not a minute too soon either: I saw Kelly’s vehicle pull up.

She idled out in front of the building and I approached her passenger side. She lowered her window and I ducked low to make eye contact with her.

She looked about the same as the last time I saw her: pink hair and eyes, just with an obvious bump under her beanie now; a horn? She looked maybe a bit more composed now.

“Hey,” I greeted her. I felt a hint of a smile relieve my frown.

“Hello again,” she smiled back.

“So, that’s my home,” I pointed back over my building. “You can park over there,” I directed her over the other way.

She quietly nodded and went to park not too far where the weirdos had been earlier. I followed after on foot, not knowing if she needed help with anything.

I stood by when she shut off her car and got out. She stumbled a bit. I braced my arms to tentatively catch her but she held her driver’s side door and tried to steady her feet.

“Are you… okay?” I asked cautiously. She got her car door shut, steadying herself with the rest of the car. The way she stood on her tiptoes and her bulging shoes slid around, it was like her feet were broken. It took me a second to figure out that her shoes were way too short and narrow for her now: there was a bulge on the back of her legs, where her calves normally would be. Those were her ankles? The length of her feet had more than doubled.

“You’re… not into hooves, are you?” she asked warily, snapping me back to attention. Whoops. I was staring again.

“...hooves?” I asked.

“Yeah. Looks like you’re on your way too,” she said, gesturing to my own feet.

I looked down, and was disappointed to see I was doing the weird tip-toe walk she had been doing back at the coffee shop. I sort of noticed it but thought I had been nervous or something. I had been doing that the entire time out here though, hadn’t I?

I put my ankles back down, but didn’t like the strain on my calves: I felt more balanced on my toes now actually.

So it was finally beginning for me in earnest.

“...John?” she spoke up quietly.

I looked up from our feet and Kelly’s eyes met mine again. Her pink eyes softened.

“Can we go inside?” she asked politely.

I frowned, but apologetically so, and nodded.

Kelly smiled back before she grabbed her purse and locked her car

She held onto my shoulder and I helped steady her on her shoe-adorned hooves.

We quietly crossed the street to my building.

I scanned my door key and with her arm on me, we made it to the elevator. I punched the up button and we stepped inside. She grabbed the rail inside while I hit my floor button.

As the elevator door shut, she breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little.

“So,” I started. “Have you just been driving around?”

“Yes and no. I made a few phone calls. I’m going to go meet up with my friends up north. It seems to be be happening to them too. My boyfriend is going to be really surprised.”

“What??” I asked surprised. “So, it’s not just the two of us then.”

“I know! Isn’t that great?”

I felt somewhat disappointed. If Kelly knew other people this was happening to, then did I? Or was I just the outlier.

I thought I had caused this somehow, but maybe this all actually revolved around her. She seemed to be ahead of me, like it started with her first.

“So, are they going to come and get you? You needed a place to crash?” I asked. My sense of importance was slipping away.

“If that’s okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” I agreed without looking at her.

There was a pregnant pause before she spoke again.

“I was also wondering if maybe you wanted to come with us?”

I wasn’t some charity case! I was important in this too!

I ground my teeth instead of yelling.

“You don’t know me,” I decided to say instead. It was supposed to be a biting reminder that I was just a stranger, but it sounded more like angst.

“I would like to,” she assured. I wondered if she was just being nice to me because she needed a place to crash or if it was because now she was sure we were in the same boat.

A smile on her face perked up before she spoke again. “Did you know you made the news?”

“What?” I asked. That brought my attention back to her.

Kelly was already swiping on her phone to quell my curiosity. She turned it around and presented her screen to me.

Fortunately, my picture wasn’t in a paper and it wasn’t exactly front news, but I saw the title of the little online article.

Missing Girl Safe at Home After Dream from Princess Pony

In a heartwarming turn of events, a missing girl has been reunited with her family after she reappeared at her home yesterday morning. The four-year-old had been reported missing yesterday afternoon, prompting a frantic search by local authorities and volunteers. According to her parents, she claimed that she had received guidance in a dream from "Princess Luna," a character from the children's show "My Little Pony," which helped her find her way back…

I smiled.

“...Destiny,” I said.

“That’s the girl you helped from the dreamwalk, right?“

“It is.”

The elevator dinged, signaling we made it to my floor. I quietly stepped towards her and she took my offered arm again to steady herself. Just to the right and after one corner, we were home. The way Celly swayed on her shoes and gripped me, it almost felt like I was bringing a drunk girl home.

“You probably get this a lot, but you’re pretty tall. What are you, 6’3?” she asked idly.

I stumbled a little bit and Celly has to take an extra step to steady herself. I’ve never had anyone guess so low. A lot of people usually assumed I was straight up seven foot.

“...6’6” actually,” I corrected.

“Really?? You don’t seem that tall.”

“You’re on your tip toes.”

“So are you,” she pointed out.

Well, whatever. We were at my door. I unlocked it and hesitated before I flicked the lights on; she would probably prefer that. We stepped inside so I could close the door and immediately lock it back.

“Oh! Nice place,” she complimented it. I assumed that was just something you were supposed to say when you entered someone’s home for the first time. Well, since we’re following scripts.

“Make yourself at home,” I said and gestured.

Celly took the opportunity to lean against the wall and remove her shoes, or at least, she attempted to. She failed. They seemed stuck.

She stepped over to my kitchen counter to lean against that and try again. Undoing the laces more to put more slack in them, she finally pulled it free with a sigh of relief. Her sock went with her shoe.

We both stared in silence at the state of her exposed ‘foot’: it seemed impossible. It seemed fake still. It was like someone had swapped her foot out for a white horse hoof. From the hoof to the leg of her jeans was nothing but a short white coat.

After a moment, she had to move on. Her bare hoof made a ‘clip’ on my kitchen floor as she set it down to get the other shoe off.

With more of the same effort, she freed her other hoof and held the counter as she stood ‘bare-hoof’ in my kitchen area. We both looked at her ‘feet’, not sure how either of us should react to this. They were gone; hooves now. Still catching her breath, she lifted one slightly and I think she tried to ‘wiggle’ it because her ‘foot’ bent down and up right above the hoof.

They were absolutely horse hooves. Attached to her. A hooved human was standing in my kitchen. It was incredible and surreal. If they were my own I think I would have touched them. Instead we both kept a respectable distance but couldn’t look away just yet.

After a bit, Celly seemed still unsure but done trying to process this for now. She put her hoof back down. I watched her carefully let go of the counter and then after an unsteady moment relax.

“Huh,” she said as she lifted a leg and put it back down. Despite standing on hooves, she seemed more stable now. “Well. I hope you don’t mind,” she finally said.

“No, no, you’re fine!” I assured.

With my approval Celly carefully turned and clip-clopped out of my kitchen to look around the living room.

“Oooo~. I like your painting,” she gestured to the wall over my bookshelf.

“Hm? Oh. Thank you. I like it too,” I agreed dumbly. “It’s Princess Luna and the night sky.” Also dumb, that was obvious enough. I guess I didn’t know how to respond.

“So,” she started. She seemed to be tasting the words before she said them. She gestured to the painting. “This is what you’re turning into?”

I eyed our Midnight’s Majesty. It was admittedly still an unhinged idea… but this woman had hooves so it was within our current realm of possibilities now.

“Maybe,” I agreed coyly.

“Doesn’t all of this,” she gestured to all of herself, “scare you?”

I looked at the bump under her beanie and her big pink eyes before eyeing her hooves again. Maybe it was my contrarian nature, but I felt myself less scared than when I reached back out.

“I’m scared but I want to see. It’s a bit like a trainwreck, I guess.”

“Even the whole princess-princess thing? Luna’s a female horse, right?”

“A mare, yes,” I corrected then shrugged. “I’m turning into a real copy of the greatest character ever, who is a winged unicorn. Also, apparently magic is real because I don’t know how else this happened. So, I don’t care what genitals this comes with. In fact, I’d be upset if it wasn’t perfect.”

Celly seemed surprised by my response and maybe a little… squeamish? I suppose a normal person would be freaking out but I was hardly a normal person. At least she seemed to be coping better now.

“You’re a big fan of My Little Pony, huh?”

“You could say that.”

She couldn’t see the terabytes of ‘pony’ I had on my computer, and I thought considering the nature of a portion of it, she wouldn’t want to see it. I would need to contain my ‘power level’, at least a little bit.

I walked over to my bookshelf and pulled the the season 1 DVD collection of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to show her.

“Do you want to see why?” I offered. She didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it. I made the box dance in my hands a little to make it seem more exciting.

“...would it help our situation?”

“It might actually,” I readily agreed. “I took a nap earlier and I dreamed about the finale with Princess Luna and…” my voice died when my eyes met her pink ones.

“What?” she questioned me.

I couldn’t tell her. Not yet. I didn’t want to tell her.

“We should start from the beginning for your sake,” I assured her. “Context is important.”

She seemed puzzled by me changing the subject but let me drop it. She eyed the box again.

“...how many episodes are there?”

“Uh… more than a hundred.”

I saw the fear in her eyes: a brony lured her to his apartment and now she was trapped and had to watch My Little Pony with him.

“We don’t need to watch all of them. Although you should, eventually. We just need to start from the beginning.”

Celly sighed. I saw her resistance waning.

She would succumb to pony. It’s not like she had a choice in the matter, considering our current situation. I phrased my persuasion better out loud. “Consider it educational: the more you know, the more context you have for what’s happening, the better.”

Without any final agreement I went to go put the first disc in. Behind me, I heard Celly clip-clop over towards the couch. I tried to hide my smile at the sound after I finished and turned around to grab my game controller for a remote and sat down next to her.

The DVD started.

My Little Pony, My Little Pony~

I couldn’t help but watch her face as the main menu came on. There was a mix of apprehension… and curiosity on her face.

She was ready. I pressed Play and let the pilot start.

Princess Celestia: Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land…

We watched as Nightmare Moon was defeated by Twilight Sparkle and her friends with the Elements of Harmony in a swirl of rainbow light. I had seen this over a dozen times. It was so nostalgic for me. I struggled to look away from the actual scene in order to gauge Celly’s reaction to the scene instead. She was transfixed; most people who gave the show a chance really liked the way this wrapped up.

Princess Celestia was talking to Twilight Sparkle about what she had done.

Princess Celestia: ...but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well. Princess Luna!

Little Season 1 Princess Luna, standing in the remains of her smoking armor, gasped hearing her name being spoken by her.

Princess Celestia approached her with a gentle look on her face and spoke again.

Princess Celestia: It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister.

Celly spoke up next to me.

“Wait, that’s Luna? She looks smaller,” she pointed out. I put out a hand to tell her to hold on, the episode was almost over.

Princess Celestia: Will you accept my friendship?

The music swelled at the intimacy between two immortal beings, separated by so much time. Everypony was leaning forward.

Princess Luna: I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!
Princess Celestia: I've missed you, too.

The princesses embraced in an emotional scene, Pinkie Pie began crying extra hard before gasping in realization.

Pinkie Pie: Hey, you know what this calls for? A party!

We cut back to Ponyville, everypony coming out: happy ponies cheering the triumphant return of both of their princesses and the defeat of Nightmare Moon. After a few moments of celebration, the music faded down as we focus back on Twilight Sparkle. It was adorable how glum she was. She admitted she didn’t want to leave her friends and go back to Canterlot to study magic.

Princess Celestia: Spike, take a note, please. I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle shall take on a new mission for Equestria. She must continue to study the magic of friendship. She must report to me her findings from her new home in Ponyville.

I couldn’t help but smile at the setup for the premise of the show. The joy filling Twilight’s eyes, the swelling of music, the group hug.

I looked at Celly was who smiling as well. She seemed happy but also like she was waiting for something to end. The episode? Celly caught on to my questioning and tried to pull her hand away from- oh!

“You’re holding my hand,” she pointed out.

I quickly pulled my hand away from hers.

“Sorry,” I offered. “I didn’t realize.”

“It was cute,” she assured me.

I accepted her downplay of my subconscious grab at intimacy. I really didn’t think of her like that! There was something about her. She was too… I don’t know. I worried if I assured her of that too much though that would just make it weirder. So, back to the topic... at hand.

“So, what did you think?” I asked.

“It was cute. I can see why people like it,” she agreed before pivoting. “So, why does Luna look younger here? Is there a timeskip?”

“...sort of? The fan theory brought down by a show writer is that this is her powered-down form, she was just defeated so she has no magic in her. They change her to her regular look the next time we see her.”

“So does she get the flowy mane like Celestia?”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“And does she get… darker?” Celly asked with a careful smile. I saw her eyes pivot towards my hair before quickly coming back to rest on my face.

“Of course,” I agreed but the wheels in my head started turning faster and faster and time seemed to slow as a result.

“What does that mean?” I asked aloud more at her actions than her words.

Celly gave me a mischievous smile as grabbed her beanie to slide it off of her head. For the first time, she revealed her tall, white horse ears on the side of her head. I could see the slight pink of both ears beneath the velvety-short white hairs on them, both of the ears were turned towards me. I checked the bump on her forehead as an afterthought, just to be sure it was there and indeed a pseudo horn was forming.

I had to close my jaw before I started collecting flies.

“It means: welcome to the horse ear club, little sister,” she teased.

I felt my face flush red. I stood up immediately and headed for the bathroom to hide the blush even though she already saw. At least she wasn’t laughing.

Now that I was standing, I realized something had been bunching up in my pants since I sat down. It was like someone had stuffed something down back there.

I clicked on the light and checked the bathroom mirror.

I couldn’t believe I didn’t realize earlier. I guessed since Celly’s mane wasn’t quite right I didn’t question why mine was a lighter blue. Now nestled in the much longer blue mane on my head I saw my ears had been changing. They didn’t quite look like horse ears yet, but with how impossibly long and elf-like they were and the soft light blue coat growing on them, it was undeniable what was happening.

And the color! Why was it-

I leaned in closer thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me. I could see the blue slowly growing over my ears, like a blue moss rapidly growing out of control.

I felt my blue ears and felt the muscle under them flex. The ears turned almost forty-five degrees but the muscle control wasn’t quite there yet. They were also definitely moving up the side of my head towards their final destination too. I didn’t know how that worked, possibly that my skull was changing in real time. I couldn’t even feel the changes, just witness them and hallucinate that I could feel them.

It was all too gradual- and I was ignoring the elephant in the room.

I knew what color Princess Luna’s coat was. This wasn’t it. Or rather, this wasn’t her regular form.

I was becoming her powered down form.

This… was still amazing but a lot less awesome. I could only speculate, frozen in front of my bathroom mirror. My first guess was maybe I would become her full form after this first transformation ran its course.

My fear was that maybe there wasn’t enough “magic” in this world to reach her full form. I didn’t like the idea of being small. I hadn’t been small since I was like twelve.

After watching my ears for a few more minutes and pondering what this all meant, on top of still not knowing how this transformation began in the first place, I decided to quickly check myself for the changes that had occurred to Celly.

I checked my feet and was only mild disappointed to just find my middle toes were just wider: not yet.

Toes always looked weird anyways. This wasn’t that interesting.

I pulled down my pants though and saw what that bundle of hair stuck against my ass was: such hair!

I had fantasized about this day for years. I ran my hand through it, it was like there was a mane coming from above my ass. Which was a little underwhelming of a way to put it, because I still had a tail! The best tail too! Out of curiosity, I tried pulling it and felt the tug down my spine.

I instantly regretted that.

“God that feels weird,” I mumbled. I also had a lot more length to the flesh of my tail than I realized.

I moved it manually with my hands. I didn’t have control over it. Maybe not yet.

“Soon,” I promised myself.

Satisfied, I pulled my pants back on but let my tail hang out. I wasn’t going to hide my glorious blue tail. I walked back out to rejoin Celly on the couch.

As she looked up from her phone I saw her ears naturally turn to face me. She spotted my tail.

“Letting it all hang out, huh? Are you good?” she asked.

“I’m not hiding my tail,” I explained.

She nodded assuringly. “Notice any other changes?” she asked gently. I wasn’t sure what she was getting at.

“No? Should I have?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Maybe later then,” she brushed it off. Considering what I was keeping to myself, I let her have it. She looked back to the TV. “Should we watch the next episode?”

I thought about it for a second: Ticketmaster.

“Well… that’s only a little related but it does technically have Celestia in it… yeah, I guess. We’ll just do the highlights. I need to give you a crash course on Celestia. We’ll do A Bird In The Hoof after that.”

“Whatever you say,” she agreed. “Anything that could help.”

“Before we start, are you hungry? Thirsty?” I offered. I did have a guest here after all. “I could make something, but I also have cake.”

I saw from her big, white horse-y ears that I had piqued her interest. I couldn’t help but grin.

Maybe she and Celestia had more in common than we realized.

I was having a good time showing her episodes. I could have cooked us something but I ended up throwing a frozen cheese pizza in instead. I didn’t want to waste time cooking; I wanted to get to Luna Eclipsed and I would've been damned if I showed her episodes out of order.

To my surprise, while we were watching A Bird In The Hoof I got a message. Not just from someone wanting to wish me a belated Happy Birthday either.

ChlorophyllRag: This might be a stupid question but was this real? I think this happened to me too I thought my friend was pranking me but then something happened

I sat up.

“Oh shit. We got another,” I informed Celly.

FreedomOfTheMoon: Yes. What happened? Did things change? I believe we are in the same boat then. Can you show me your cutie mark?

ChlorophyllRag: ya one sec

I had my hooves crossed we were going to get a Twilight Sparkle or maybe a Star Swirl The Bearded. Celly had different ideas.

“Check their profile history to see if they’re real,” Celly suggested over my shoulder. Honestly, a good idea.

I did so and saw they had years of posts but nothing that made me think they played pranks or liked to cause drama. No obvious pony content either.

“They look real…” I said hopeful. We got another message from ChlorophyllRag. This one was indeed a picture.

Someone’s upper thigh with a cutie mark of… a cupcake with a strawberry on top?

FreedomOfTheMoon: I don’t recognize the pony. Do you know who you’re turning into?

ChlorophyllRag: You mean the hair? Ya i look totally gay it’s gold and pink now

That’s a ‘no’ then. Celly was curious so I showed her the picture too when I got another message from them.

ChlorophyllRag: Your not in Detroit are you?

“Oh wow. A local one.” Maybe Detroit was relevant! Maybe it was this part of the world this was happening to.

FreedomOfTheMoon: I could be in Detroit. Do you want to meet up there somewhere?

Celly paused the episode, which I was thankful for, I didn’t want her to miss this one.

ChlorophyllRag: It’s getting pretty late and I don’t have a car. Do you know where O’Shea Park is?

I didn’t but a quick Google search told me it was on the west side.

Of course it was.

Unfortunately, this was important and their cutie mark looked genuine.

After some more conversation, we agreed to meet there in two hours.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Celly offered.

“It’s on the west side.”

“What does that mean? Is it dangerous?”

“Yes. There’s more crime over there. There’s… gangs,” I explained vaguely. Poverty bred crime.

“Should I come then? To protect you?” I didn’t know what she could do, especially in her state: her horn was getting longer by the hour. I didn’t think that beanie could go back on over it.

No, she was under my roof. I didn’t want her to be put in any danger.

“They have a cutie mark. I think it would be safer if I met them and bring them back only if they seem safe. I didn’t mention you.”

She seemed like she wanted to argue but didn’t.

So, I unpaused the episode. I really wanted to get through season one and the beginning of season two. If this lady was going to become Princess Celestia, I’d be second-hand embarrassed if she met another pony and doesn’t know anything about herself.

“That was really cute,” Celly summarized her feeling over the ending credits of The Best Night Ever. It was a good episode. It seemed like such a humble finale in retrospect. “Where were you? Why didn’t you go to the gala?”

“It would have been my first official reappearance since exile. I wasn’t going to let it be the gala. Not for those Canterlot snobs.”

“When do you show up then?” Celly asked.

“In Luna Eclipse, I, huh… ” I stopped myself, stumbling over my words for a moment. What was I… right! “...Luna shows up in season 2 episode 4. We need to watch all the season 2 episodes up to that though.” I liked the Discord two-parter, even if it felt… unsettling. The week between part 1 and part 2 was a wild time with lots of speculation of how exactly they were going to resolve it. On reflection, there was a lot of unnecessarily dark speculation about our toy commercial targeting little girls. They never split up two-parter episodes again like that. Probably too many distraught children.

I realized I had been spacing out because Celly had got up on her own to retrieve the season two DVD collection from my bookshelf. I smiled at her eagerness until I realized she wasn’t just looking for the DVD.

“Have you read all these?” she asked. Her eyes seemed to have glazed right over the DVDs and video games and went to the books.

“Um, yeah? Mostly,” I agreed. I got up and retrieved the last season 1 disc to put it back into the case. “Some of them are just references and collections though.” I explained. “Like, I haven’t read all the Robert Frost poems.

She nodded as she continued reading through the spines.

“You weren’t exactly easy on some of these,” she said. I looked up in time to see she went to pull out my beat up copy of The Catcher In The Rye that was missing most of its spine. I heard the front rip slightly as she barely stopped the book from falling apart.

“Careful!” I said as I rushed over to grab it from her. She let me take it back. “The damaged ones are second-hand.” I explained as I carefully slid it back into its spot on the shelf. “They’re just as cheap as digital but you get to actually hold them- assuming you don’t damage them further.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t-” Celly put up her hands as she stepped back.

There was a crunch, the sound of her goodwill getting stepped on.

We both looked down. Celly raised a hoof to reveal a disc cracked in half.

‘Oh no,’ I saw her mouth.

I saw the open game case next to it and realized what she had just stepped on: Destiny 3!

The air had escaped my body in shock, I had to suck it back in before I could speak.

“Oh god dammit! Really??”

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t see it on the floor.”

“Yeah, no shit,” I said as I stepped away from her to fume. I took a deep breath and held it.

It’s not her fault. She should’ve seen it but it’s not her fault. It was just on the floor from when I threw it. I should have picked it up. I was more just mad at the situation.

“Is it rare? Even if it is, I’ll buy you a new one,” Celly offered apologetically. That caused my hands to curl into fists.

“I don’t want a new one!” I screamed and saw I startled her. “It’s broken! A new one doesn’t unbreak it!”

I didn’t think she got it. Maybe I was overly sentimental. It’s not that that game was anything to me yet, but I loved the first two games and was looking forward to playing that one. That one was going to be my copy. Now that copy was broken. Now there’s one less copy in the world.

“I’m really sorry,” she apologized again. I saw her bend over to try and reclaim the pieces. It seemed really difficult and I stared at the sight: her legs were getting really long and her thighs… were compacting?

She collapsed a few feet from the gound. Not enough for a massive thud, but she collapsed like a drunkard. While she was on the ground I saw she was more interested in finally getting the pieces instead of getting up.

Well that wasn't fair. Now I felt bad. I wanted to be angry longer.

With the disc pieces rattling around in the case now, she was struggling to get to her hooves again. She didn’t grab the bookshelf to help herself up, much to my relief.

I sighed and approached her.

“...hey, here,” I offered my hands and myself to help.

“...thanks,” she mumbled as as she accepted and got back to her hooves and got her mane back under control.

I had to check her white hooves again because it seemed like she was standing on her tip-toes again somehow; she was almost at eye level with me.

“...you’re getting taller,” I explained my staring.

She looked over herself and at me. She seemed… upset?

“...how big is Celestia?” she asked unsure about something.

“I don’t know. Maybe six foot? Human height.” I guessed.

“If I’m not mistaken, I’m a lot taller than that already.”

That she was. I nodded.

Celly quietly rested the Destiny 3 game case on on its side on top of the other game cases.

We needed answers.

Unfortunately, the only thing I could think to do was show her more pony. I put my season one case back onto the shelf and pulled out the season two DVD.

I thought about my dreamwalking and about the strange nightmare I had with Discord and the finale.

We couldn’t put off introducing Discord any longer.

“It’s time for you to meet Discord,” I warned her.

It really was terrifying just how overpowered and indifferent Discord was.

Celly seemed transfixed when Discord began talking to her cartoon counterpart. The effect they put over DeLancie’s voice gave him an otherworldly quality.

I'd still argue that The Mane Six had just caught him on a good day and put him away before he thought to do something worse on a whim. We saw from Discord’s terrifying glass window that he was capable of so much worse: the way he seemed to pull puppet strings of ponies dangling over fire. He was just about as dark of a villain as you could get away with for a children’s cartoon; most of his terror was just implied.

“This isn’t the finale, is it?” Celly asked me during the credits. Maybe she thought I had skipped ahead. “Does he come back?”

“He does. Celestia eventually lets him out so that the main characters could reform him,” I explained.

I felt… the air in the room change. It was like the song over the credits had become quieter. I realized Celly was deep in thought.

“And you said he betrays them. She let him out and he betrays them?”

“I guess so. Yeah,” I agreed.

“...so it’s her fault and I’m turning into her?” she asked contemplatively. I had never thought about it like that.

“I mean, I guess? But they’re ponies, of course they’re going to try to make friends.”

Celly nodded quietly but didn’t seem to change her opinion.

After the strange uneasiness of Return of Harmony, I was, for once, relieved for the zainess of Lesson Zero and Twilight Sparkle acting silly and making meme faces at the camera. Plus, we got to see more of Celestia’s personality shine through with her just letting the ponies apologize when they did nothing wrong: good ol’ Trollestia. Of course her friends defended Twilight and it all worked out nicely with the ponies wanting to help Twilight make friendship reports from now on so she wouldn’t ‘get in trouble’ with needing one every week.

Finally, finally, after the past few episodes and a bathroom break, we got to Luna’s first real episode: Luna Eclipse.

I always thought it was really cute how she made her big reappearance to her subjects in Ponyville. It made perfect sense after you thought about it: they welcomed her last time she was there. Luna probably didn’t understand Nightmare Night, it may have meant something else in her time but she understood it was a nighttime holiday vaguely connected to her so she was intrigued.

Unfortunately, she was bigger and, yes, darker now, so she was more intimidating than the last time she stopped by. She looked more like Nightmare Moon again.

We had finished off the pizza a while back and were now sharing a bowl of popcorn between the two of us.

Twilight Sparkle: Dear Princess Celestia,
When you first sent me to Ponyville, I didn't know anything about friendship. I met somepony tonight who was having the same problem—your sister, Princess Luna! She taught me that one of the best things you can do with friendship is to give it to others, and help them find it themselves! And I'm happy to report that all of Ponyville has learned that even if somepony seems a little intimidating, even scary, when you offer them your friendship, you'll discover a whole new pony underneath. And even if my Star Swirl the Bearded costume didn't go over, this still turned out to be the best Nightmare Night ever!

“Cute episode,” Celly commented.

I nodded in agreement. It was one of my favorite. I supposed that would have been obvious though. “Did you notice the ponies pulling Luna’s chariot were batponies? With bat wings?”

“Oooh. They were, weren’t they? What does that mean?”

“Show staff says they are their own race. Very rare though… the fandom named the ones we see Nocturn and Echo,” I offered. I hesitated and decided not to share what happened to them in my dream. I needed to recheck the finale’s exact canon dialogue. Pretty sure he didn’t actually say their souls were ripped from their bodies on the show. We would get to it. Although maybe not tonight: it was getting late.

I checked the time on my phone. I really needed to get going soon.

“What are all the pony races?” Fair, I just brought up bat ponies existing.

“Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, …alicorns,” I point to the two of us before continuing. “Bat ponies, …and crystal ponies. Those are like a shiny earth pony.” Admittedly an oversimplification.

Celly thought about that for a second before asking her next question: “So, alicorns are like a super unicorn?”

“No. We’re distinct. We’re all three of the base races: wings, horns and earth pony strength.”

“So there’s no other unicorn race?” I cocked my head in confusion. “You got bat ponies for the pegasi and crystal ponies for the earth ponies.”

“Uh…” I reconsidered my previous statements. There were other races, but I didn’t know where the line was drawn. They probably had to have cutie marks, I figured? So not breezies. Not Saddle Arabians.

Well, then what was in the comics? ‘A unicorn alt…’ “I suppose there are the shadow ponies, the umbrum. They have horns?” They had wings too but wasn’t Sombra one or something? I didn’t pay much attention to the comics. I would get around to reading them someday. “They’re mostly in the comics though and there’s just hints of them. Those aren’t really fleshed out in canon.”

“Oh,” Celly responded quietly. “So do you think this is going to follow canon?”

“Honestly, it reads like fanfiction,” I grumbled. “So, probably not. Whatever is doing this is just doing whatever it wants.”

“Are there ever humans in the show that become ponies?”

“No. There’s not… but there are ponies who become humans in the spin-off,” I admitted reluctantly. I checked my phone again. Yeah, I needed to head out.

I stood up.

“Wait, there’s a spin-off where ponies become humans? Why haven’t we watched that?”

“It’s not ponies,” I said with a half-hearted shrug. I didn’t want to watch Equestria Girls. “Listen. I’m heading out to check on that Chlorophyll guy. If you want to watch Equestria Girls or read the comics, help yourself,” I said, gesturing vaguely to the shelves. “Also, uh, help yourself to the food in the fridge…”

I saw Celly eye the fridge and maybe the cake on the countertop before looking back to me as I was heading to the door. She stood up.

“Hey, wait, be careful,” she warned.

“I will be,” I promised. This would be the weirdest robbery; whoever messaged me definitely had a cutie mark like us and was going through the same transformation. We could help them a lot more than any of my stolen debit cards could.

“Lu-John?” Celly called to me. I looked over at the half-transformed Celestia standing in my living room. Even at her height, with that long pink hair and those large, worried pink eyes she looked… vulnerable. She was hesitating, trying to say something.

I felt awful for leaving her like this but she couldn’t come. I wouldn’t let her. She was safer here. I wouldn’t let her leave me again.

“Do you need something while I’m out?” I guessed.

That wasn’t it though, was it? There was something strange growing between us.

“John, give me your phone number; in case something happens.”

I agreed to that and gave her my number while she punched it in. It was technically night time and I was going to the bad part of town. I supposed something could happen that doesn’t involve the strawberry cupcake guy.

“Alright, um…” I went to open the door and hesitated. I turned back to her. She was still standing there, watching me go. “Don’t let anyone in, okay? And don’t leave.”

“I won’t,” she promised.

And with that, I left and locked my door back behind me. By the time I got downstairs and to my car I saw I got a text message from a new number. I knew who it was from:

“Be safe.”

I went to save the contact and almost put her name down as “Celestia” as a joke but I backspaced and put “Kelly” instead.

I pulled out of my spot and started the GPS. O’Shea Park. It was a short night drive. I liked the roads like this. I had just enough time to dodge the potholes, but more importantly, there was just less people.

And hopefully, there would be more ponies soon. I smiled at the thought and silently turned my music back up as I drove.

…once lived in me a great fire
But it's been cooled by overwhelmed desire
There's a crater but it's just bone deep
And it deepens every time I sleep...

O’Shea Park was a dump with plenty of trash scattered about the parking lot. I could see from the street the graffiti on the locked and abandoned public restrooms. That said, it was lit up, which was how I could even tell. So that was something.

There was no one else in the parking lot, considering there was no parking this late. He said he didn’t have a car though. I thought I was going to have to wait until I spotted him.

There was only one person here, over by that bathroom. They were just far away enough they were just an outline of baggy clothes, a hat and sunglasses at night. Which, considering the transformation that was happening, made sense.

I questioned for a moment what I was doing. Helping a stranger? Because they were becoming a pony? I watched them walk, there was an odd gait to their walk, which again, may have tracked.

It was a little late for my self-preservation instincts to be kicking in.

I turned my car off and reached across my seats to the glovebox. I pulled out my knife in its holster and pocketed it before stepping out of my car.

The man wasn’t all that tall or intimidating looking, which worked in my favor.

“Evening,” I greeted in a large voice as I approached, trying to take command of the interaction.

“FreedomOfTheMoon?” a voice asked, deeper than I had expected.

“It is I,” I confirmed. “I take it you are ChlorophyllRag?”

We got close enough I could see how face now. He looked… older than I expected.

He smiled and shook his head. “Nope!”

I had a split second to be confused as I saw his hand raised and see he had a gun.

“Oh god dammit,” I cursed aloud, which seemed to make him smile. “Listen, dude, I don’t have anything of value on me. You want my phone? It’s a few years old but it’s good.”

I didn’t get time to hear his response before a van coming down the street turned into the parking lot and spotlighted the both of us with its obnoxiously bright high beams. I glared at it and raised my hand to block the light. The man with the gun’s lack of reaction told me he was with them.

What did I just walk into.

“John Sappington?” the person standing next to me asked. I turned back to him slowly, my neck rigid with fear. I think my heart was going to explode from the sudden adrenaline spike from those words.

This suddenly seemed much worse than I could have possibly imagined.

“...who?” I tried, too little too late. They didn’t seem to buy it.

“You’re coming with us,” Not-ChlrophyllRag stated. It wasn’t an offer or a command, just stated as a fact.

“No I’m fucking not,” I backed up. I saw him reluctantly raise his gun back to point at me.

“I will shoot you,” he warned. “I’m not going to kill you but I am willing to shoot you and it’s going to hurt a lot. Okay? So let’s do this the easy way.”

I froze as I tried to process this. He was being surprisingly frank with me. I wondered if I could risk running.

But where would I go if I got away? They knew my name. What else did they know?

Two men from the car approached us. They were in plain but nice, nondescript clothes. This was not cop behavior. This was too… practiced for street gang behavior.

“You’re coming with us,” the one from the driver’s side repeated.

“...and what if I don’t?”

“Then the world is in danger.”