Cure for Pain

I set my alarm for around six in the morning; we were planning on leaving pretty early, and I had some things I wanted to pack. As I rolled under the covers in that awkward stage between awake and asleep, I realized that I was missing a day of work, and would have to call in sick. It would be an overused excuse, and my boss probably wouldn’t believe me, but “I’m going to a different dimension inhabited solely by personified ponies” probably wouldn’t sound any better. When I finally got out of the living room, I was surprised to see Twilight asleep at the computer desk. I presume she was writing to the princess and fell asleep in the process, but I didn’t want to wake her. Luckily, Coleton had taught her about Youtube, so she had a playlist of music (I guess she saw my CDs next to the bed and wondered what they were) playing through headphones and I was able to sneak past her and start packing. By seven, I had a backpack full of clothes, CDs, a portable CD player, an unnecessarily large amount of batteries, a drumming practice pad and some drumsticks. I didn’t see much use in the drumming peripherals, as I would become a pony without fingers almost as soon as we got to Ponyville, but it would remind me of home.

Turns out, neither Pinkie nor Coleton got up until around eleven, and we were only ready to go at around twelve or so. Normally, I would have been thinking about the time we would be spending away from Earth, and what we would need to do to make up for the time we would lose. Luckily, the government sent out informational packets on these devices, and the packet said that time “paused” in the dimension you left while you were gone, so I wasn’t sweating it. Coleton packed a lot: he had a suitcase, a large backpack, and a guitar case. I thought he was going to die with all of that, but I held my tongue.

“Alright,” Twilight said when we were all gathered in the living room, ready to depart. “Are you ready?” We all nodded, with Coleton and me so giddy and anxious we couldn’t stand it. From her backpack, Twilight pulled out a small disc with a small button on it, which turned out to be the return pad. She placed the disc on the ground and pressed the button, letting the disc expand to a large circular pad with a diameter of about six feet. We stepped on, as Twilight commanded, and Twilight pressed another button on a remote control.

“WOAH!” we yelled as the world around us blurred, looking like a painting left out in the rain. Eventually, the colors of our surroundings refocused, but it was a different world entirely. Around us were hundreds of ponies of all different sizes, types, shapes, and colors. As Coleton and I looked around, we noticed we were in the town hall, on the same stage where Twilight forced all of the Pinkies to watch paint dry. It was a weird feeling to be looked at by the citizens of Ponyville, a place we never even knew existed just half a decade ago. However, the feeling soon turned to happiness as the town hall erupted with applause.

Twilight stepped up to a microphone, and started speaking about her experience in Earth along with Pinkie. We sat down in a couple of seats in the front row, and listened attentively.

“My trip to the different dimensions led me to Earth, a planet inhabited by humans.” Coleton and I zoned out, as most of her report consisted of information on the history of the Earth and of the United States she assembled at the library. When she finally talked about Seattle, we looked up and started listening. She was surprisingly informative for only being there for two days, and she was able to cover a lot about our culture, including the bar. She left out Pinkie’s experience with alcohol, and I saw Pinkie breathe a sigh of relief. “And in conclusion,” she said, “I would like to thank my friends Coleton and Walker for being so hospitable to Pinkie and I and letting us stay at their home. It means a lot.”

At this, she bowed and walked towards the curtain behind her, followed by roaring applause. She motioned for us to join us as she walked backstage. Coleton and I walked onto the stage, bowed, and followed her.

When we got backstage, we were surprised to see Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack sitting on the couches behind the curtains. It was an amazing sight: all six of them together in one room was something I thought I would only see on TV.

Before we could walk forward, Twilight introduced us. She points to me. “Guys, this is Walker,” she points to Coleton. “and this is Coleton.” We both took turns introducing ourselves, then sat down on the couches as well. “So, Twilight.” a voice said from far away. We turned to see none other than Princess Celestia herself. “Princess,” I walked up with a hand ready to shake, but I realized too late my mistake. “What an honor it is.”

The princess simply laughed. “And the same to you, Walker.” I walked over to sit down with Coleton, and she thanked us for helping Twilight and Pinkie while they were on Earth. She then instructed the mane six to take us into the Everfree Forest. “See Zecora and tell her to change the form of these two.” She left promptly, and as everyone exited the building after her, Coleton and I followed suit.

It was late evening when we arrived at Zecora’s house. The cursed blue “Poisoned Joke” plant was prominent in every part of the forest, and we made sure to steer clear of it. The sky was a dark purple tinted with the pink of the setting sun, which was beautiful from the darkness of the forest. When we arrived at Zecora’s house, she let us in and led us to a room with two tubs of water. Zecora finally spoke in her signature poetic fashion “You must get in the tub, my child, for the reward will be worth the while.”

Coleton and I, both embarrassed, stripped down and got in the tub, where Zecora used curtains to surround the tubs, concealing us from everypony’s view. She called out to Coleton. “What are your wishes and desires, dear friend? A pegasus flying high in the sky, or a pony walking below on land?”

I knew what Coleton would say before he said it. “A pegasus, please.” Of course. His favorite pony was Rainbow Dash, so he probably was doing it because of her.

I heard her chanting through the curtains, and it was amazing how close to the show she was.

My dear Coleton, friend of a friend

You are no longer a human walking on land

From now on you shall fly so high

For you are a pegasus traveling through sky!

She then turned to me, asking what I would like to be. “I would like to be a unicorn, Zecora.” A decade ago, when I wasn’t a brony, I would never have expected those words to ever come out of my mouth. Zecora started chanting again, but it was worded differently for me.

My friend Walker, a human of wants

Before any others begin their taunts

I shall change your way, shape, and form

For you now possess a single horn!

Being transformed tickled; I felt all of my cells regroup at different locations, and I felt a single weight develop above my eyes. When Zecora said to leave the tubs, we stepped out.

Coleton looked pretty good. His colors stayed true to his human form, with a tannish body and a brown mane. “You look great!” I yelled to him. “You too!” he yelled. Zecora gave me a mirror. I did look good, with a peach body and a blonde mane, I stayed pretty true to my human form as well. “Dude….” I heard him say. “What?” I responded.

“Look at your thigh.” He said, somewhat skeptically. I looked at my thigh to find a surprise: my cutie mark. Apparently, according to Zecora, we earned them as a human and they just weren’t visible. It was a single drum with two drumsticks beside it. I loved it.

I looked over to Coleton to find his cutie mark to be (big surprise) a guitar. It was shaped like a Gibson Les Paul. It looked like a tattoo; then again, so did mine. After thanking Zecora for her services, we left with the mane six, coming to grips with the fact that we were now ponies. Coleton was so happy, he tried to fly right then and there with disastrous results. We had to pick him up out of a ditch. By we, I mean everyone else but Rainbow Dash who couldn’t stop laughing for the life of her.

We finally got back to the library at around eleven. The other five had said their goodbyes, and now it was only Coleton, Twilight, and I. “I assume you’re familiar with Spike?” said Twilight with a smile as she pointed to a sleeping purple and green dragon by her bed. “Yeah. But he’s asleep, so don’t bother to wake him up.” Coleton said with a smile. Twilight pulled up a futon-like couch for Coleton and I to sleep on, and apologized that it was so small. Coleton offered to sleep sitting up and let me do the same, but it was obvious he wanted to sleep actually laying down. I eventually just decided to sleep on the ground; I had grown a liking to it over the past couple of days.