A Torrential Change

My mind raced. Columbus? Wasn't that in Ohio, in the US? After another laughing fit, the man jeered.

“Well, isn't this surprising? Haha! I love your face being all puzzled. But now we'll get you ready for work.” My eyes widened and my ears laid back on reflex. “What? Did you honestly think that, just because you're in a zoo means you will have a good life?!” Once again this horrible laughing ”No! We will show the world that the only thing you lot are good for, is as slaves...” He pondered. “No... 'slave' sounds so... human, can't forget you're an animal. So work horse would be more accurate.”

I didn't notice that in the meanwhile another man and a woman had neared themselves to me. Swiftly the man grabbed me and hold me tight, while the woman untied the muzzle bandage. But only to replace it by a bridle with bit, that the woman now forced into my mouth. It tasted terribly , but that was not my most important worry.

The woman pulled the straps on the bridle so hard, that I screamed in pain. I could feel the obvious enjoyment that the woman had in hearing me cry. A few seconds later the pain ebbed away. The women, roughly slipped a leather strap into the bridle and pulled at it. A sharp pain emitted from my flank as a whip slashed through the air, hitting me of course. “Follow your orders and you won't be punished as much!” Her voice sounded like dark and threatening. So I followed her lead to wherever she tugged me to.

I will, however, spare you all with the grisly details of the work I had to do. Let's just say, I was literally beaten up. Blood strained my fur everywhere, some even dripped into my eyes. My sides hurt from various kicks they gave me, my flanks were covered in streams of the red-life-liquid. It was not a beautiful sight.

After they brought me back to the compound, they stood outside for a while and talked. “I don't think she'll survive another day like this.” The man expressed his... concerns? “What's the matter? Are you afraid to kill it?” The woman inquired with her extremely cliché dark and sinister voice. “No, Lin, but...actually...yes. I am afraid to take her life away.”

I heard a slap.

“Pull yourself together! You have to realize, this one here is nothing more than a stupid animal. We use animals to work for us, heck, we even eat 'em”

Eat...? First  they'll kill me and then eat me? Obviously the man had the same thoughts. “Eat?! Are you right in your mind?!”

He yelled.

“Calm down, Orin. It would be a waste of biological material if you simply throw that meat away.” Lin just stated coldly.

“You know she was a human being once!?”

“Not anymore”

“You're sick!”

He shouted.

“You're totally mad! That's it! I'm outta here!”

A barely audible clicking sound told me a gun had been pulled out.

“You're not going anywhere!”

The last thing what I heard of them both was Lin stowing Orin away in one of the cages next to my compound.

I lay down in the grass and softly began crying.

All this was too much for me. All the pain, all the humiliation. And now even the threat of losing my life. The life I just today started to begin living. Somehow, it has always been my dream to become a pony. Just the next day, after it finally happens I'm supposed to die? This wasn't fair, it simply wasn't. But what could, I, the small, little, lonely pony do against such a monster?

With these thoughts I slipped into another dreamless, comatose sleep.

I was woken very carefully by something, or someone shaking me softly. Surprised I opened my eyes. A foreign human face stared down on me. I growled, as much as a pony can do.

The boy, maybe just fifteen or sixteen, simply smiled and reached me a hand. Puzzled I set my hoof into it and he pulled me on all fours.

It was still dark outside, so I wanted to ask him why he woke me, but I still had the bridle on. As if he forgot something and just remembered again, he quickly removed the painful tack.

“Here you go”

He whispered with a voice sounding quite soft and soothing and those few words relaxed me. “Thanks. Who are you?”

I asked him with a pained sounding voice, a voice I had not yet the time to grow accustomed to.

Especially the fact that I was female now. This should take a while getting used to. Female... not anything else. Female. That meant, if I wasn't going to return back human... I could get... pregnant... No, don't think about that now.

“My name's Noah, I'm here to get you outta here. And your name?”

He set a hand on my withers to steady me.

“I'm Torrent Sky... No...Yes...No...Yes, yes I am.”

He petted my mane.

“I know what you're going through at the moment. Not personally though, but, you know what I mean, I know some other ponies. Now let's go.”

One moment later he carried me out of the compound. That was when I remembered something, better someone.

“Wait, Noah! There's still someone left here.”

Noah set me down on the ground again.

It felt a bit disgracing being carried around like a little baby.

"Over here."

I stopped at the cage next to "my"  compound.

"Can you get it open like you did with mine?"

He shook his head.

"I had stolen only your key. Nothing else."

He apologized.

"Well, then we have to do it the unconventional way."

Noah looked at me as if I were crazy.

"You're injured, Torrent."

I sucked in some air through my teeth.

"I know that, thank you!"

I turned around so that my behind faced the cage door.

"Torrent!"

A warning voice sounded like from far away.

Ignoring it I aimed and then bucked the door with all my might. Such a strong force teared the door out of its hinges. The retaliation slowly flowed through my hind hooves, then my hind legs and into my flanks, where it exploded into grievous pain. My face connected with the ground as my hind legs buckled.

Carefully standing up again I faced an extremely angered Noah.

"I said you were injured! In your state you are nowhere able to do such a thing. You can speak of luck that you are still standing."

I just shrugged as a respond and staggered into the cage.

On the ground lay a human fast asleep. I shook him.

"C'mon, Orin! Wakey, wakey!" The man opened his eyes and immediately widened them as he caught sight of me.

"You? Pony?"

He stuttered.

With extreme care I softly grabbed his arm with my teeth and pulled him up.

"Wwee down't hawe muwch time."

I mumbled with his arm still in my mouth.

After I let go of him and he spotted Noah, Orin wanted to ask something, but I hushed him with my hoof.

"Talk later, now we better run. We have caused enough ruckus to wake up a marmot."

I stumbled outside the cage and headed towards Noah, who would be leading us. He stared at me and decided,

"No way, you could walk all the way on your own. I will carry you, Torrent, no matter what you think of it."

Reluctantly I nodded and walk-tumbled to him, where he took me into his warm and admittedly comfortable arm. From there I indeed had the point of view back, I was used to.

Being over 6'3 tall and now reduced to little more than the half of that size, was not something I regretted somehow. But from that viewpoint I could eye Orin quite well.

A few minutes after we had successfully left the zoo unseen and now wandered along the streets of Columbus, my very sensitive eyes picked up a glistening in his.

Tears. Orin was crying.

Another point to talk about after we reached... wherever we went to.

Noah, on the contrary, seemed to radiate happiness and often nuzzled my face.

A soft wind blew through my mane and let it and my tail flow just like a current. Although it both were strained with blood, I had to confess, it looked beautiful. In the wind the colors of both molded and combine so it looked like a real flame that burned on a calm ocean. This image really fitted to my cutie mark, a water drop that burned. And even though I just went through a marathon of pain, I was content. It could have been Torrent's mind that calmed me, but it also could have been a realization, that I was safe now.

About five minutes later Noah entered a house. Its interior looked pretty classic to me. A sofa, television, a big dining table in the kitchen. On the side of the living room a staircase led upwards, probably to the bedrooms.

Noah softly laid me on the sofa and called to the staircase.

"Sun! Come down here. We got an injured pony."

Steps could be heard from the stairs and a flash of bright color swished past me, yelling.

"Pony?! Where?!"

Noah chuckled and pointed to me.

"Sun Streak, this is Torrent Sky."

Now it was my turn to laugh.

"Sun Streak? That name totally fits you!"

"Of course it does. Now you said you were injured?"

Then she eyed me in complete and noticed my status.

"By Celestia! What have they done to you? Such a beautiful body almost destroyed by those brutes!"

I felt blood flushing into my cheeks giving them a slight red hue, even through my fur. Sun Streak moved closer to me and inspected my flank.

"Gosh... grisly! Luckily for you I got some magical medication kits. It makes it heal much faster and does not leave any scars behind."

While Sun was treating my wounds, I turned my view to Orin, who was cared for by Noah.

He looked miserably and had started crying again when Sun came down the stairs. Right now Noah seemed to give him an inspirational speech, because only minutes after he ended Orin stood, walked over to me and knelt in front of the sofa.

"T...Torrent?" He timidly asked.

I nodded.

"I... I have to tell you something."

He took my hoof with both shaking hands, that reminded me, by the way, I had no anymore, and looked straight down beneath my eyes. He was afraid to face me directly, for sure.

"Torrent... I'm... I'm so, so sorry. The way I hit you over there... I deserve a severe punishment and I'd understand if you'd punish me."

With wide, shocked eyes I stared at him.

"Punish you? What for? For helping that... woman... and then turning against her?"

"Yes. I didn't deserve to have been rescued by you. I am a pony hater..."

He was interrupted by a hoof connecting with his cheek.

“Stop it, Orin! I didn't rescue you, so that you can whine about not being worthy to be rescued! That is pathetic!” I yelled. “Saying that you're sorry was a fine and nice gesture. But you can shove your self-pity up your plot...er ass!”

Deeply shocked by that outburst of mine Orin retreated a bit.

“You know, she's right.”

Sun commented.

“Before I... you know, became a pony and all, I dwelled in self-pity as well. I'm so much happier now, see?”

She bounced a bit up and down and reminded me of Pinkie Pie.

She giggled.

“Being a pony is not that bad as the media makes it seem, so...”

That reminded me of something.

“Hey, Sun, you do know the Princesses have called the ponies to New York City?”

“Just the 'important' ones.”

She made quite the impressive imitation of the quotation marks with hooves. I stretched a forehoof into the air.

“Then let's go to New York, because we are obviously important!”

Not had I noticed Noah sit beside me, but now I felt him petting me and drawing a hand through my supposedly soft and silky fur and mane.

“I have a better idea. How about we take some rest first. Especially for you Torrent, this was a really hard day. We'll see about tomorrow.”

Then Noah added

“You gotta take a shower tomorrow morning, Torry.”

I began giggling uncontrollably.

“Of course, N.”

Noah showed Orin the bedroom upstairs while Sun Streak and I made ourselves comfortable on the sofa.

Some time later Noah came back downstairs and sat beside me again to pet me one more time.

“Could... could you... maybe... sleep here... with us?”

I asked timidly. My host smiled gently.

“Sure, if you want to.”

Noah lied down next to me and I gave him the bigger part of the blanket. As all the adrenaline started disappearing, the pain and most of all the fatigue made itself shown again. It took only minutes for me to completely fall asleep.