Becoming Heartstrings

Day 4

So here we are, behind a walmart. I’m laughing at my father's misfortune, and he’s somewhere between angry at me for laughing and panicking because he can’t figure out what the hell just happened.

“Would you STOP LAUGHING and help me?!” He snapped. I’m pretty sure he would’ve turned towards me,  but he was too busy rolling around in the front of the jeep.

Ok Zeik, that’s enough. Give him a hand.

Oh but this is too perfect. I suppose you're right Lyra, but that doesn’t mean I’m finished laughing.

I rolled myself back onto my hooves and opened the side door. Carefully, I jumped out of the Jeep, successfully landing on my hooves. Score one for Zeik.  After that, I had Lyra open the front door with her magic, and drag my squirming father out and dropped him out of the Jeep.

“Ouch, hey! Did you have to drop me on my head?!”

“Yes. Yes I did.”  I was still kinda stifling a laugh, but if I kept laughing at his misfortune for too long, Karma would come back with a vengeance and slap me straight in the face.

“What?! When I figure out how to walk, I’m gonna come over there knock that smirk off your minty green face!” He yells, attempting to stand.

“Oh dear! A crippled pegasus is going to beat me senseless!” I said, letting him fume for a few more minutes before I walked over to give him a hand. I got a swift punch in the face as soon as I got within range.

Don’t even say anything, you deserved that.

….Yeah you're right, I did. Was still totally worth it.

The next few hours consisted of me attempting to teach my father how to walk. I may or may not have actually let him fall on his face more than once. What can I say, I’m vindictive when I want to be. Its what he gets for laughing at me when I had that problem.

“Ok, so do you know who this is? I am? You're the pony fan after all.” He asked me, still with an angry look on his face.

“I actually have never even seen that pony before. Lyra however has informed me that his name is Spectrum. And, well.... There’s a chance he might actually be gay.”

If you thought he was mad before, you havent seen anything yet. I think his eyeballs were making an attempt to bust out of his head while he screamed  bloody murder at the top of his now pony lungs. I told you my father didn’t exactly like gays.

“Well, at least you’ve got wings! I think I’d kill to have wings. Its always been kind of a dream of mine to fly under my own power.”

Hey, wait a minute, what's wrong with unicorns?

Nothing. But if I had a choice I totally would’ve been a pegasus. I have an OC and everything!

I don’t think my father was convinced that he had actually gotten the sweet end of the pony deal. I would have swapped bodies with him if I could have. Actually, scratch that. I don’t know anything about this “Spectrum” other than the fact that Lyra think’s he’s gay. At least I kinda know Lyra’s personality.

“Well as hilarious of a hand as karma just played you, this presents a pretty big problem. You can’t drive anymore.” I said to him, pointing at his now hooves for hands.  “I could always give it a shot with my magic, but then Lyra would have to help. She gets a little TOO excited around certain human made inventions, and I don’t think we’d survive.”

Why don’t you let me have any fun?

“I don’t trust you OR Lyra to drive my Jeep. Lets just lock it up and go find another method of transport.”

“You think it’s a good idea to leave it back here?” I asked.

“No, I don’t. But we don’t exactly have a choice. Just grab our bags and lets go. Maybe we can find a bus station or something.”

“Sounds like a good of plan as any. I just hope people are as friendly around here as they were inside that wendy’s.” I said, while Lyra levitated my bag and my father’s bag out of jeep. She locked the door afterwards with her magic as well, after some prodding from me.

“Ok, so where the hell is the bus station?” I ask, as we walked out from behind the wal-mart, towards the streets.

“Good question. Did you bring your phone? Maybe we can find some directions on google maps or something.”

I facehooved. “I KNEW I FORGOT SOMETHING. Damnit.” I’m forgetful sometimes. Something I’ve been dealing with for a while. Oh well.

“Nevermind, I can use mine. Its alright.” He said, and pulled out his phone. Or rather, he TRIED to pull out his phone. It was rather funny watching him flailing around attempting to get it out his bags. When he finally managed to actually get it out, he was reminded of his lack of hands pretty quickly.

He let out an annoyed grunt. “How am I supposed to use this thing without fingers?!”

“I told you hands are amazing!” I said. Lyra again. She’s apparently able to override whatever I do sometimes. “Sorry, that wasn’t me. Anyway, let me see it. I should be able to get Lyra to use it with some magic, as long as she’s careful with it.”

She dragged the phone off the ground and dragged it in front of me. “I’m sorry, do you have a pen or something?” I asked.

My father now Spectrum, just shook his head no. “No, sorry. I didn’t pack much of anything. This was only supposed to be a four hour trip. So much for that, huh?”

Between the conversation we had been having, and my attempts to get Lyra to use his phone, we had made our way out to the street. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t do crowds that well, even in the smallest portion, but when we got out front, I felt eye’s on us from every direction. Not like I blame them for staring mind you, it was just uncomfortable.

“Don’t look now, but I think the entire area knows we’re here.” I said to Spectrum dad. I wanted to shy away, but Lyra just LOVES crowds, especially when the crowds are full of humans. So, I waved to the ones who didn’t have a big angry look on their faces.

“Just smile and wave, dad.” I said while giving him a look. He was still pretty upset from earlier.

“I think we should keep moving.  Did you find the bus station yet?” Spectrum dad asked me.

I whacked the phone a few times while Lyra moved around in front of me with her magic.  “Lyra keeps opening up random links. I can’t really control what she does with it, she’s got a mind of her own.”

Look at this...

Lyra had managed to open up a youtube link to a video. “Apparently people all over the place are having the same problem. This is more widespread than I thought, look at this video. There’s somebody who got turned into a pony named Derpy.” I said and shoved the phone in his face.

“This really IS a bigger problem than I thought.” He said. “If all these ponies have the same idea, then we need to get to New York. Mostly because the longer I spend in the body of this pony, the more violated my brain gets.”

I couldn't help but laugh at that one, though I think he did it on purpose. “Yeah. Lyra’s cool and all but I REALLY miss my hands. And Feet. And the rest of my body now that I mention it. That magic is a cool plus though.”

Will you PLEASE check for a bus station now? We’ve been out here for 30 minutes just standing. The one guy in the back keeps staring at is and he’s making me uncomfortable.

Fine Fine.

Lyra finally did what I asked her to do (for once) and found us a nearby bus station. “Apparently there is a bus station not too far from here. We should head there and see if we can find a bus to New york.”

And we set off. I think the entire trip should have only lasted about twenty minutes, but we kept repeatedly getting stopped by random people on the street. Some of them just wanted a hug, some of them asked as many questions as Lyra. Some of them just spit at us just because we had been ponies. Seriously, I’ll never understand the amount of hate people can give for no real reason.

I heard some footsteps behind us, and spun my head around. The same man from earlier had still been back there. I just ignored him at first, but every time we made a turn, he was there as well. He never got too close, but never got to far away.

I leaned over to my dad and whispered in his ear. “Dad we’re being followed. Don’t look, but we should really try and lose him.”

“Are you sure he’s following us?” He asked, still not looking back.

“Its the same guy from in front of the wal-mart. He’s been following us for more than a few intersections.”

“Alright, lets try and dodge him in an alley or something.” Spectrum dad whispered back.

Heading down a darkish alley in an attempt to drop a follower. If was paying any attention at all, I would’ve seen it coming a mile away, but he followed us down the alley. I gave my father a bump with my hoof and we picked up the pace a little. The man behind us followed suit, and continued to follow us down the alley.

“We need split up. Up ahead the ally splits and goes into  two different directions. You go left, and I’ll go right. Deal?” He said giving me a serious face.

“I guess. Just be careful Spec.” I said, whispering back.

“I will.  And don’t call me Spec. Pony or not, I am still your father.” He responded, and we split paths.

I wanted to say no, but Mr. Creepy behind us was definitely still chasing us. Reluctantly I agreed. It’s not like I had a choice. When we got to the end of the alley, we both took off in a sprint in different directions.

My path lead back to the street and relative safety. My first thought was to find my father. I circled around the other end of the block, hoping to find him at the other end of the alley.

“Spectrum?” I yelled out.

No response.

“Dad?” I yelled again. Suddenly,I heard some yelling. This was followed by the unmistakable cry of my father, calling for help. I panicked, and ran towards the sound of the voice through the alleys. No matter where I traveled, I couldn’t find him. He just vanished. My father had literally just dropped off the face of the earth.

I must have spent about a thirty minutes looking for him, but I had no luck. After running around for that long, attempting to find my missing  father, I gave up and did something I haven’t done in over fifteen years.

I cried like a two year old.

You’ve gotta understand, the last two days have been the most stressful days in existence for me. My father had been supportive of me the entire time. Now my father was gone. Vanished into thin air. Captured by an old angry man (I assume) and here I was alone in an alley by myself.

I felt like I had just been crushed by a building.