It all started one fine day in October. I woke up on what I hoped would be a perfectly normal day, but you and I both know that was not to be. Looking around me with eyes still heavy with sleep, I soon realized this was not an ordinary day, far from it, in fact. Gone were the plush pillows and soft snugly blankets. Instead I slept on silky sand. The fine grains stuck to my wet fur, a feeling I would rather forget. Just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine. I pushed myself into a sitting position, and came across a horrifying revelation - I was no longer a mweor, but a horse, and no horse like any I had ever seen until this day. Unless normal horses have purple fur and horns, I was for certain not a normal horse.
My long fluffy tail, a trait I took great pride in, spending far more time on it than any other part of my body during my daily wash, was gone, replaced with matted hair of the same shade, complete with a matching mane. My yellow horns were gone as well. In their place sat a spiraled unicorn's horn. Standing up, I was much further away from the ground than I was used to and comfortable with, and the sensation made me feel quite sick.
"Oh, Purple, what have you got yourself into this time?" I groaned, looking towards the waves that crashed down on the golden sands to my left. I sighed a very heavy sigh. I gazed around my surroundings. The beach appeared to be empty, but I could spot a small seaside town to my right. I took a deep breath, inhaling delicious scents of donuts and fish and chips, and lick my lips. I can hear music blaring from speakers and happy children crying out in joy. I trotted towards the town, my hooves slipping and sliding on the sound. I make a grumpy noise of complaint as I slowly made my way across the beach and up the sand-covered steps.
Shaking sand from my hooves, I look across the town. A small wave of dismay washes over me as I realize with a sinking feeling that this town is inhabited by ponies like the one I have become, rather than the humans and Mweors I had hoped for. But I kept my head high. If Edge, my beloved best friend who I shared my home with, back in my world (for right now I was certain this strange place couldn't even be on the same planet as my island home so very far away), and Kahlem, my dear owner who treated me like a princess and meant the world to me, couldn't be here to accompany me on my explorations of this new place, I would need new companions to come with me.
I cantered up to a deep blue pony, almost the colour of the sea, with a lighter mane flecked with white. She had what appeared to be a tattoo of a dolphin leaping from the water on her flank. She was deep in conversation with a winged pony, this one a dark shade of purple, her mane lilac and streaked with navy blue.
“And then, I chased them away. They were terrified; ya should’ve seen ‘em! Tails between their legs, whimperin’, trippin’ over each other to get away from me! It was awesome!” the blue pony exclaimed.
“That’s... great,” the Pegasus said slowly. It was plain that she really didn’t believe her friend, who continued rambling on about her ‘great adventure’, despite the fact that no one was paying her the slightest bit of attention to her.
“And there ya have it! The story of how I saved the little filly from the timber wolves!” she concluded, sticking her chest out in pride.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but could one of you folks please tell me where I am? I seem to have lost my way,” I said, as politely as I possibly could, stepping in between the two friends.
“How can ya get lost round here? It ain’t exactly big,” the blue pony said, her forehead creasing.
“Shush, Aqua, isn’t it obvious she’s new around here?” the Pegasus hisses, and turns to me with a sweet smile, “Sorry about Aquamarine. She’s a little... odd. Welcome to Seashell Cove, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Equestria! I’m Moon Dance. Aqua and I live here,” I looked around me, taking in the small houses, colourful shop display windows and well-kept gardens. It was really quite a pretty little place, and judging by the strong smells of food mingling in the air, it certainly wasn’t short of places to eat.
“I can see why. Why do they call it Seashell Cove?” I asked.
“Because it’s a cove... and it’s shaped like a seashell. Duh!” Aquamarine said in a tone that made me feel truly stupid.
“Ah, I see. Makes perfect sense,” I said with a nod of approval. Some of the town names in my home have truly ridiculous names, and it was nice to see whoever named this place wasn’t a complete nutcase.
“I’ll be happy to show you, round if you would like,” Moon Dance offered.
“That would be wonderful!”
“Then let’s go! There’s lots to see!”
“And that is the end of Moon Dance an’ Aquamarine’s fantastically awesome tour of the amazin’ly amazin’ Seashell Cove!” Aquamarine concluded dramatically as we came to a halt next to the steps leading down towards the beach.
“If you ever need a hoof finding your way around, don’t hesitate to ask us,” Moon Dance added. I, suddenly completely captivated by the blue waves as they crashed down on the beach’s sandy surface, said nothing. Aqua waved her hoof in front of my face.
“Hello, earth to Purple!” she called walking in a slow circled around me.
“Sorry,” I shook my head, my thoughts returning to the present moment. “I’m sure I won’t need any help. That tour taught me everything I should need,”
“We don’ call it fantastically awesome an’ amazin’ly amazin’ for nothing, ya know!” Aqua said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Well, if I ever find myself needing a ‘fantastically awesome and ‘amazingly amazing’ tour again, I’ll be sure to come to the two of you right away,” I said with a smile.
“It’s getting dark,” Moon Dance looked worriedly towards the sky, “We should be heading home. Do you have somewhere to stay for the night, Purple?”
“Don’t you worry about me – I’m perfectly fine with sleeping with no roof but the sky over my head,” I reassured the mare.
“Well, if you say so,” Moon didn’t look convinced, but she said no more on the matter.
“Moon! Get your butt in gear, the birds’ll be singin’ before we get home!” a rather irritated Aquamarine cried. The pony had already started her return journey, unaware that her purple Pegasus pal was not trotting after her.
“We’ll see you tomorrow, Purple!” Moon Dance called as she galloped over to her friend.
“I shall be looking forward to it,” I watched my two new acquaintances until the disappeared around a corner. Once I could no longer see them, I carefully made my way down the steps and onto the silky soft sand. I curled up next to the wall, hoping it would shelter me from the wind that was starting to blow as the sun sank below the horizon. I closed my eyes to block out the sand, carried by the breeze, and let sleeop carry me away from the charming seaside town and back to my warm bed in dear Kah’s bedroom, a place far away from talking ponies.
“She’s a little... Odd, isn’t she?” Moon Dance asked.
“A little? She’s very odd,” Aquamarine snorted, putting an unnecessary amount of emphasis on the ‘very’.
“It’s as if she isn’t really a pony. I’ve never met any pony like her,” the Pegasus continued.
“Oh yeah, Moon, she was totally a dragon in disguise or some crazy thing like that,” the other mare scorned, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Of course she was a pony!”
“Do you know many other unicorns that have horns in different colours to their bodies?” Moon Dance asked.
“Golden Glow, when Waterlily gets hold of paint,” Aqua laughed almost hysterically at her own joke. Moon smiled at the image of the proud golden pony and the expression of horror on his smug face when he realized that his little sister had covered his horn in a thick coat of pink paint. It had taken the poor stallion weeks to properly clean his horn. The scars of the incident still remained, for no pony could look him in the eye without laughing. “All jokin’ aside, you got a point there. No pony’s horn should be like that. It ain’t natural,”
“ Maybe I’m overthinking this a little. I just thought it was a little strange, that’s all,” Moon murmured.
“Probably. Now, I don’ know ‘bout you, but I’m tired as hay, so I’m gonna catch some Zs. G’night!” the earth pony said, punctuating her sentence with a long, loud yawn. She turned over in her bed to face the blue painted wall, the paint peeling away in places, and within minutes she was snoring. Moon Dance sighed irritably and pulled her duvet over her head, trying to block out the sound coming from her friend’s bed. I’m sure it’ll all make sense in the morning, a voice in her head told her, and she chose to believe it. Despite Aqua’s snores, the exhausted Pegasus still managed to find peace in the dark hot space underneath her duvet.
Author's Note
Not as long as I'd like to to be. Meh.
