Take Up Your Sword

   A brief screech woke her from a mindless psychosis. Her rose eyes snapped open to stare into the whiteness that was above her. That was all that was above her.

   Suddenly, like her nerves just switched on, she felt a numbing cold - a bitter bastard of a blast, reaching past her skin to bite into her bones. She opened her mouth as though to cry out before a terrifying revelation crossed her mind.

   Her mouth wasn't quite the same.

   She reached a hoof up to it before realizing that her hoof wasn't quite the same either. She felt a shudder that gave way to violent convulsions as the cold wrapped around her. Raising a terribly shaking hoof to her, she finally realized what was so different about herself.

   It was simple, really. She wasn't herself.

   Instead of a hoof, she saw in blurred vision a long, pale, monkey-like hand. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of her mane, almost three metres longer now, whipping about in the wind and freezing snow. The truth dawned on her, and she at last let out that scream she'd been trying to manage. It was almost instantly taken from her by the howl of the wind. She reached her new hands around her furless, fleshy body and collapsed, before another wave of adrenaline threw her back into motion.

   She'd fallen upon another one, another fleshy body. Primal fear grew slowly in her chest. It began to hurt to breathe. She looked down at the snow-covered face. It had two small, closed eyes, an odd nose, and two semi-open, terribly cracked lips. A pink mane, flowing out from all over its head, was buried under the whiteness around them.

   She gasped, the cold air piercing her lungs (not that she noticed). All she wanted to do was yell her friend's name, but her frozen throat restricted her. She merely outstretched unfamiliar arms and wrapped unfamiliar fingers around unfamiliar flesh, picking her up and holding her tightly.

   Another shadow caught Dash's attention. She whipped her head around, seeing another figure lying prostrate in the snow. A shock of violet was blazoned through the blizzard. Twilight.

   She reached out with an unsteady hand, grasping for her friend, before hearing a different noise altogether, the voice of a st- a male. She turned her weakening head again to see a shadow, same two arms and two legs, covered in fur and metal, coming towards them, shouting something under the wind.

   She couldn't even move anymore, and instead of biting cold, felt a clean warmth run through her. Hypothermia, she thought with an odd unconcern. With an ungraceful whap, she fell to the ground, her consciousness fading.

   The howl of wind entered her ears once more, to her shock and relief. The warmth running through her was no longer that of her friend's body or of her own enticing death, but of the terribly strong liquid running down her throat. She screwed her eyes shut tighter and coughed, sending the liquid over her chin and onto her furless chest.

   "Straighten up, ara, there you go," a firm voice said just over the other sounds. "Steady." She recognized it as the shouting thing that was just a second ago walking towards her and her -

  She coughed again. "F-fri- friends -" she stuttered, pushing the nozzle that was still hovering over her lips away. "Where did -" she coughed again, feeling her eyes burn with tears. "Where are m-my friends?"

   There was silence for a second. "Oh, the other two? Don't worry. They're warming up. I'm getting them as warm as I can for my resources." His accent was thick, but barely recognizable. Sounded like somepony from the North. The far north.

   Nothing trivial like what he was, or where they were, or why he was helping them, was particularly important to her at the moment. She pulled away from the warm hand around her back and tried to sit up, uncomfortable as she was in her body.

   She paused when she saw him flinch. Looking around for some kind of answer, she saw that the material she was under had fallen off, and, aside from the fact that she was freezing cold again, she saw that he was trying his best to cover his eyes with a bright steel gauntlet on his wrist.

   She licked her lips, the offset of her new face beginning to annoy her. "Are you... okay?"

   "Uh, yes. Of course. Just, uh, c-cover yourself, please?" he asked, his eyes still covered.

   "Why?"

   He looked surprised. Well, his mouth did. "B-because you're... not covered."

   She sighed. "I need to s-see my f-friends. I know my m-medical training." It just occurred to her that she might not know medical training for their new bodies, but she could try.

   "I'll just take you to my town first, and, uh, try to escape this monster of a blizzard. But I have some questions for you when we arrive, mind."

   Dash had stopped listening. She was looking up at the thickly-set creature standing in front of the cart, its mouth tied with fabrics and metal rods. Her eyes widened, and, wrapping the furry material around her again, stumbled on all fours through the boxes and clutter lying about the bottom of the cart to reach it.

   She reached out to touch the back of its spine slowly, before pulling back. It was what she thought it was. She felt herself begin to tear up, and pressed a hand against her mouth. Oh, Celestia. I miss home already. What else is diff- She was cut off as the awareness of her warmth got to her. She slowly looked down at what she was wrapped in - what she wrapped herself in - and cried out in horror, ripping it off her and throwing it away. With another cry, maybe more angry, she turned away and curled up in a corner of the cart.

   Again, her helper turned away. "Miss, you need to keep something on." She whimpered in response. "I promise if - if necessary, when we get back to Rorikstead, I'll help in any way I can, but for now you just need to preserve your heat and - and your dignity."

   Dash grasped herself, feeling the odd warmth her hands gave the rest of her cold, furless skin, and curled up tighter as the horrible thing was thrown over her again. For the next two hours, all she could do was try to keep herself from tears.

   The whiteness had begun to die down as they traveled. The snow began to melt, the icy chill in the air began to lessen, and it grew darker and darker. When she heard a distinctly feminine whimper, Dash forgot about her own psychology and rushed to the opposite corner of the cart as well as she could. She felt a pang of relief as she saw Fluttershy's eyes flicker, and a pang of anxiousness as she saw the various... furs covering her. As quickly as she could, Dash tore them all off of her and tossed them behind the boxes.

   Fluttershy's eyes finally opened, and before Dash was able to say anything, she'd reached a hand up to rub her eye. A second or two later, she opened her mouth to scream.

   "Shy! Shy, it's okay!" Dash covered her mouth quickly. She looked up and the confusion in her eyes doubled. She put her hand back by her side and screwed her eyes shut.

   Dash nodded at her: You okay? and she nodded back, before Dash pulled her hand away and leaned forwards to hug her friend tightly. "I'm glad you're awake. I really need to talk to somepony." She sighed quietly. "We... aren't ponies anymore."

   "Mm-hm," Fluttershy muttered, moving an arm around ungracefully before she found a degree to support herself and sat up unsurely. She leaned over, grabbing her knees, before leaning back and grabbing her chest. "Wh..."

   "I don't know either. That's not the biggest problem, though. I don't know where we are, I don't know why we are wherever we are, and Twilight's with us, but still unconcious." She leaned back to sitting position, her legs moving awkwardly in front of her. "Why don't these things fold like normal back legs?"

   "Is everything okay back there?" her helper asked from the driver's seat, without turning.

   "Oh, and this guy technically saved our lives. I kinda owe him a lot," she added, lowering her voice.

   He finally turned his head, and did a double-take before, once again, trying to shield his eyes.

   "Oh, just give it up. Fine, we're not wearing clothes. Why is that such a bad thing?"

   "Just - please - put something over yourselves -" he replied, scooping up a few skins and throwing them over to the two.

   Dash covered her eyes, sighing heavily and bracing herself for what she thought would be the shrillest scream in history. When she opened them again, Fluttershy hadn't moved. The cart was too silent. "... We should be getting to town shortly," the driver said, breaking the silence.

   Dash looked at the nearly-comatose-looking Fluttershy. "Hey, are you..."

   "N-no, it's - it's okay," she replied. "They obviously j-just hunt here." She shook her head, looking over at Twilight. "I don't like this, Dash..." she began, bringing her head closer to her knees. "I don't like any of this. It - it d-doesn't seem real," she finished with a quiet sob. "I don't want to be whatever this is, I don't want to be in a world where animals are h-h-hunted," she stuttered, "and I n-need to get back to feed the animals, b-because I didn't think I was going anywhere so nopony knew and - and -" she trailed off, burying her head in her hands and sniffling.

   "Aw, Shy, come on, please. We just have to have some courage to get through this. We can do it, I promise. I miss things too," she added. "I think I miss my wings most. Just them being absent while I'm stuck in this stupid, barely-functional body is... difficult. But I've had a while to think." She paused, looking away and touching her hands together. "It's a good thing it's beautiful out here, or I would be miserable.

   Fluttershy took a second to glance up at the huge red moon behind Dash, bright and strong against the dark blue night.. She sniffled again, staring for a moment at her hand. "We need to find out how to get h-"

   "Misses? I'm pulling around to the back of my home so we don't have to... pull you all through the centre of town."

   Dash looked up. "Th-thanks, uh... I never got your name."

   "You never asked," he replied rather cheerfully, an odd foil to her conversation with Fluttershy. "I'm Jorne*. Nice meeting you... sort of."

   "I'm Rainbow Dash, and she's Flluttershy."

   "Which?"

   "The one with the pink mane."

   "M- wh -" he stuttered. "Those are some rather... odd names. You aren't from here, obviously."

   Dash smiled, and shook her head. Suddenly, she fell backwards as the cart hit a slight bump in the road. She sat up and just laughed. She laughed at the cold sting of the air and at her alien body and and at the oddest of odd situations they were in.

   And it helped.