Becoming Heartstrings

Tuesday morning

                    I like to call myself a pretty centered guy. I'm not exactly the most grounded person in the universe, but I know I could be a lot worse off. That being said, I have a tendency to talk to myself and sink into depression  from time to time. That however could be fixed by watching some of my favorite TV shows, like the show My little pony. I also have the terrible habit of staying up till the way early in the morning before I sleep. You'd understand then, why I was a little surprised to find myself waking up bright and early at  around 6:00 AM, especially since I had just gone to bed about 3 hours ago. What made it even stranger was, I wasn't tired in the slightest.

The first thing I noticed (besides waking up at that abnormally early time) was all three of my cats had taken an interest in me. They must be out of food again. I thought to myself as I threw the sheets of my bed off me. Or at least, that was the plan since that's what I do normally every day when I wake up. What happened instead was, the sheets moved slightly before falling back on top of me again.

"Since when did these get so heavy?" I immediately noticed something was wrong with my voice, and I don't mean just a cold wrong. It was almost feminine, and somehow it sounded familiar, but not familiar enough for me to place exactly where I'd heard it before. But that wasn't the only thing that felt off. My body as a whole was definitely much smaller than it should have been.

My curiosity got the better of me and I rolled myself out of my now abnormally large bed. Actually, I guess the bed wasn't as large as I was small, but you get the idea.  The problem with rolling out of bed is, when I went to place my feet under me so I wouldn't fall on my face, I failed completely and instead bashed my face into the floor.

Let it be known that Zeik is not the most graceful man on the planet.

It was then I saw it. By it, I mean my freakishly long hair in my face. See, if you didn't know, and you probably don't, I wear my hair extremely short. By short, I mean about half an inch. Why is my hair suddenly so long and green? Is this some sort of ridiculous prank? I raised my hand to pull what had to have been a wig of some sorts, and stopped dead when it reached eye level. My hand wasn't a hand, but a mint green hoof. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

And then it hit me. In the previous days, I'd been watching the news. Apparently people all over the planet had been turning into ponies as a part of something something. I'll be honest, I didn't really pay much attention to it and dismissed it as some sort of prank. But, with the mint green hoof now trembling in front of my face, I was very quickly showed that it was no joke.

Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god.

Do you know how hard it is to keep yourself calm and collected when you've been ripped out of your own body and forced into somebody else's? Well according to the news a few of you do, but if you didn't I'll inform you. It's neigh impossible. I panicked, fell onto the floor again, and began mumbling incoherent  gibberish while holding my head with my hands  hooves while shaking like crazy.

I must have spooked my cats at this point as they all went running out of the room. Not that I blame them mind you. I think I would have gone running away from a crazy psycho ponies if it started doing that. Not that I noticed at the time, I was too busy having a mental break down. I'm not sure how long I spent on the floor trying to keep my brain from imploding, but it was long enough for my father to get curious what all the noise was about, especially since I had screamed multiple times about who knows what.

"What in the hell is that?"

That got my attention enough to snap me out of my panicked daze and I looked up at my now wide eyed father. Oh shit. This can only end badly. I hope he's seen the news. "....Hi dad."

"Who the hell are you?" Apparently not. "Where is Zeik at?"

"Have you been paying attention to the News recently? The whole, person turns into a pony thing? Yeah, turns out that WASN'T a joke." I said to him, trying to find humor in waking up as a 2 foot nothing mint green pony. Actually, now that I think about it, I didn't know who I had actually turned into. At least not yet.

"Zeik? Is that really you?" He asked. Apparently, he still didn't believe me.

I sighed. Apparently he needed proof. "You were born on Halloween. You crashed your boat into a rock, and almost sunk it. You went down to Florida for a vacation in one RV and came back with a different one, and you needed me to drive you home from the bar yesterday cause you got too drunk." If that doesn't do it, then nothing will.

"Alright! You didn't have to bring up the boat thing." He said, holding his hands up.  "So, your one of those ponies now? You seem to be taking it surprisingly well."

Considering I was still laid out on the floor and had just gotten done panicking before he had shown up, I'd just consider that good timing on his part. "Yeah I'm ready for anything life throws at me." That was the biggest lie on the planet. "So dad, do you mind lifting me up to that mirror? I haven't refigured out how to actually walk yet, let alone how I'd get up that high to begin with." I asked.

He obliged a very carefully walked over and picked me up off the ground. His hand's felt nice on my new found coat. "You know what they say, you never know what you've got till it's gone." I never realized how much I needed my hands for EVERYTHING.

 My father held me up in front of my mirror sideways so I could inspect myself. "You know, you're a hell of a lot lighter now." Oh that's nice, take a stab at my weight. Well, old weight. I'm not sure anymore.

With access to a mirror, I finally decided to give myself a good once over. I instantly recognized who I was, but I guess I was more surprised then anything. I don't think I've got anything in common with her. "Lyra... I'm Lyra Heartstrings." I said, while taking a glance at my flank. Green and white hair, yellow eyes, a horn and a Lyra for a cutie mark.

"Do you know how to use that thing?" He asked with honest curiosity, referring to my horn.

"Dad, I can't even walk and you want me to use my horn already? I think we should take this one step at a time." I said with a deadpanned face. "Put me down, and I'll see if I can work it out."

He carefully put me back down on the ground and backed away. "Tell you what. Come back later when I've figured this out. I'm not going anywhere, I promise." I asked him as I laid on the ground again. He laughed at my expense and walked out of the room. You'd think he would have panicked a little more right? Nope, trust me. I've done some pretty odd things to him before. Some of them pranks, some of them accidents.

"Alright Brain. New Brain. Old brain? I'm not sure. Anyway, you and me are going to work this out." Talking to yourself again? You really ARE insane.

Am not.

Are too.

Now you're fighting with yourself? Somebody call the men in the strait jackets!

Ignoring the voices in my head, tried to work out exactly how my new body worked. Where my arms once were, now apparently worked like my front legs. My back legs work somewhat like my human legs, only the knee was a little funny. Very shakily, I attempted to lift myself off the floor. I fell over a few times due to lack of balance, but going from two legs to four will do that too you.

After a few more attempts at trial and error, I did eventually manage the incredible art of standing. "Awe yeah, I can stand. Making progress." I said proudly. Next step: Walking.

This was an entirely different ball game. Compared to learning how to get up on all fours, walking was like taking 5 year old and telling him to pass a exam in advanced algebra. Bucking hard, that's how.  "Ok, so how do they do it in the show?" I imagined one of them walking and tried to mimic that, only to fall flat on my face. Ok, that didn't work.

I pulled myself up again and simple just tried my left side at once, and then my right side.  This worked, to an extent, but I had almost zero balance while attempting it, and again fell over. With a sigh, I thought. "This is a lot harder than those ponies make it look. But at least I know Humans are real!"

.....Where did THAT come from?