Love Songs and Tooth Picks

Twinkle, Gate, and I all looked out the window and gasped in unison.

"What? You guys act like you've never seen a limo before." Phil/Snow said casually.

We all immediately ducked out of sight, just in case C was looking our way. I didn't think she would be, but then again, she said she had eyes everywhere. None of us wanted to test if 'everywhere' included thirty feet away from her. I looked forward to the driver seat. "Get away from the limo, as far as you can as fast as you can!"

"What for?"

"We'll explain later, just get away from that limo now! And try to not draw it's attention..."

The red light turned green, we turned left, limo turned right.

We were to soon arrive at Phil's house, when something occurred to him. "Wait, so you three get to be unicorns? That is unfair as hell, I don't want to open things with my mouth!"

Twinkle actually laughed, for a change. "Well, I suppose there is an upside to this after all!"

I groaned. "I'd rather fly. Easier to get around, unicorns have to practice and become skilled with magic first. Pegasi just fly away, natural as walking."

Johnny grinned. "Snowflake can't fly for crap though."

Phil looked at him suspiciously. "Who is snowflake?"

"The pony you are turning into. He's a gigantic hulking muscle bound pegasus that constantly yells 'YEAAAH!' He's nicknamed roid rage, on account of the large muscles but tiny wings. Don't get the wrong idea, he can still fly, he's just not that great."

Twinkle looked over to him. "What about me? Who is it you think I'm turning into?"

"A sparsely mentioned background character that gets even less recognition than the the rest of us. She actually got a few speaking roles, but no one ever remembers them. Her name was Twinkleshine."

His head fell into his hands again. "Of course her name is Twinkleshine, First the stars, then the eyes, suddenly pink, now this? Twinkleshine? That's just not even fair."

Snow just grinned and laughed at her misfortune. I had never known him to laugh at anyone else, just like I had never known Gate to be a voice of reason. Was I the only one not losing my self in this?

What if they I am losing my self too?

What if I am slowly changing, and just not seeing it?

What if-

Wait.

"Lyra Heartstrings, Colgate, and Twinkleshine are all females." My hands clenched at the side of my head. Everyone else stopped conversation and stared at me. "I refuse to change genders... not until I can get rid of my v-card."

Paul swerved a little, other angry drivers honked at us. "You're a ?"

"Yeah"

Johnny just nudged me in the arm. "Should of taken me up on that time I offered to buy you a hooker to forget about that chick that dumped you. What was her name?"

"I don't even know anymore, but I need to find myself a lay, and fast. I don't know how long that particular change is going to take, but I don't want to wait for it!"

Paul laughed. "I could let you meet my neighbor. She's a bit of a ... freak. She'll see your tail and ears and just bend right over."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea, she sounds like she's loaded with STD's. I don't know if human diseases transmit over to a semi-equine body." Johnny was actually contemplating that thought, weirdo.

"Ahh, screw you and screw your logic Johnny. I can't let myself not know how it feels before I might never get the chance again. Don't say it's a bad idea, because you do it every other night!"

"Well, that's not entirely true. My pattern was broken by the past two nights. If it were true, I'd be getting some tonight, and I don't see that in the foreseeable future."

Paul started laughing his ass off again. "You two just solved your own problems!" He pulled over to a small building on the side of a lesser used road. I assumed it was his house. "You two can have the spare bedroom, Twinkle can have mine, I'll hit the couch. See ya in the morning!" He got out of the car and casually whistled a tune as he walked inside.

He and I were blushing furiously, Twinkle got a chuckle and got out of the car and followed Snow in. "Gate? Why do you have thinky face? Please tell me that's not thinky face. I hate when you get thinky face!" His expression remained unchanged. "Oh come on! I just avoided getting raped! I'm not about to bang my best friend!"

He just slid over to the door and opened it. "Let's just get inside."

---==Asleep==---

A cave

A family

A forest

A friend

A love

A loss

A loser

A winner

I find myself laying in a bed, staring into a darkened room. After a moment, I feel light headed and my chest hurts. I hear a voice to my left, but can't quite tell what it's saying.

"-mit, get Snow! He knows CPR!" is all I could make out.

After a few seconds,  I feel my airways opening and being forcibly filled with the breath of another person. This continues for what seems like an eternity, until there is a pause. Another eternity later, and it resumes. Four times this happens before I realise something. Shouldn't I be breathing? Breathing is something you are suppose to do, right?

My lungs rapidly expand, feeling as though my chest is going to split open outwards. My ability to see slowly came back to me as my brain received fresh oxygen. I shot upwards, sitting straight up.

One more, slightly less long eternity passes. "What just happened?" A voice flowed from my own mouth, but that wasn't my voice.

"Oh good! you're able to talk!" Another voice, this one from my right. "Just lie down, take deep breaths." I feel a hand push me gently back down.

I was painfully aware of the two bright pairs lights shining down into my face, they were just bright circles blurring out the silhouettes of three figures looming over me. "Could someone turn those lights out?" Two of the figures turned towards one another and the lights faded. The one on my left speaks.

"Oh, thank god you're okay Heart! We were so worried!"

"Who is 'we'?" I ask wearily.

"It's us, Gate, Twinkle, and Snow"

"Colgate? Twinkleshine? Snowflake?" My vision was starting to clear up a little more, colors became a thing.

The blob with blue hair and leaned in and I think it hugged me. I heard sobbing from the blob, right around my shoulder area. I just kept staring at the pinkish blob until something of a pale, lightish cyan obscured my view. Something long, a hand perhaps, extended from the palest blob and wiped my mane out of my eyes.

Wait, mane?

I don't have a mane. I have hair. I'm a human, not some animal...

Shapes became a thing again, the blobs each became faces. Familiar faces. Things start making sense again.

"Why wasn't I breathing?"

Gate pulled back from the hug, she had a tear streaming down her left cheek. "After last night... we both just passed out. When I woke up, it was to the glowing of your horn as you weaved your lyre out of your mane. A sort of eight note melody suddenly played, and you seized up and stopped. Your flailing caused me to slam into the floor, enough noise to get them Twinkle to come running. She's the one who noticed you weren't breathing. I called for Snow and he came to help get you breathing again."

I looked over to the red-eyed, smiling savior of mine. "Thanks, yet again it seems like- wait. " I looked back to Gate. "Horn?"

"You're becoming a unicorn, remember? Twinkle and I have them too." Gate took a few steps around the room, but it didn't sound right. It didn't sound right at all. That wasn't the sound of feet on wood, that was the sound of hooves.

My first reaction was to look down towards where my feet should be, there was a blanket in the way. Three things were missing. I didn't see the familiar bulge of feet, nor did I see another familiar bulge that usually accompanies waking up. I sighed deeply at the realization.

At Least I got to try something close once...

Apparently, my disdain was visible. Snow threw an arm over my shoulder in a friendly manner. "Well, look at the bright side! You got to enjoy it while you had it! Based off of the noise you were making last night, you REALLY enjoyed it!" I blushed, he laughed at it. "Awww! Heart is blushing! Somepony take a picture!"

I looked him dead in his cold, unassuming eyes. "If you dare point a camera at this, I will rip your testicles out and beat you to death with them." He just kept smiling and walked out of the room, with a clop echoing his every step. I just shook my head. "I have hooves now don't I..." Twinkle nodded. "That noise is going to be agonizing. within hours."

Gate's eyes had a sudden shine in them. "You could try socks..."

Twinkle was shaking her head furiously, but I ignored it. "Sure, I don't see why not."

We all sat around the dining room table in Snow's house. Now that I had a moment to actually look around, I realized it was quite the nice place. Moderately decorated, in a contemporary manner.Simple lighting, simple color scheme, this looked more like the home of a hipster, not the drunken pipe smoking scottish bar tender I had known for so many years.

Twinkle approached, with four bowls of lettuce floating behind her. Her horn was glowing a dull pink, as were the bowls. "Consider this breakfast, seeing as how we can't chew much else at the moment." She must of spotted the stunned look on my face. "It's just magic, really not hard so long as you don't think about it. Thinking about it makes it illogically challenging to understand. If you just do it, it happens. Kind of like balancing on hooves, and moving your tail. It seems unfamiliar, just give it no extra thought and pretend it's normal."

I heard a very light ruffling of feathers off and to my right. Snow seemed bothered by the fact that here soon, he probably won't be able to prepare his own food without weeks of practice. "Do you really have to flaunt something that some of us don't have?  That's how racism get's started you know."

Twinkle sat down and tried her best to grab a fork. She did not succeed in her efforts. Grumbling, she just did it with levitation. Snow just grumbled something rather offensive under his breath.

Once she was done sating her appetite, Gate stood up. "Alllllrighty then! Today's agenda!" She pulled a pen and notepad from thin air. Unicorns... how the fuck do they work? "We are going to need to get to Twinkle's place and ours at least once before the end of the day. We all need to get our own things together. I for one, need my tooth brush, and I'm certain you both have some things you need on a daily basis."

I nodded in agreement. "Can't just leave my grandpa's violin lying around. I'll also need some clothes."

Twinkle tilted her head a bit. "Why would you need clothes? Ponies don't wear clothes, they have their fur."

"I don't trust Gate being near me while I'm naked. Also, hooves are loud. I don't like loud, thick socks will help."

Snow and Gate shared a "YYYEAAAHHH!" and a fist bump. Twinkle just looked at me and sighed.

"Socks? Really? You DO realise you are playing right into a common clopper fetish, right?"

"Wait, what? Seriously? How is that even a thing?"

Gate seemed all too eager to explain. "Clothes make ponies somehow more attractive."

"What? How? That makes no logical sense at all! That completely defies reason!" I got up and started pacing the room.

Colgate got a sly grin. His horn started to glow palely, as did my swishing tail. Within seconds, I was on my face. "Hah! I did magic!"

"You are going to pay for that..." I grumbled through my teeth.

"What are you gonna do Heart? Play me a song? We all know you can't replicate that intentionally." He walked over too me and offered a hand to help me up.

Instead, I yanked him down next to me. "No, Just gonna give you a taste of your own medicine." I said as I stood. I started to walk back to the table, but I felt a yank on my tail and I fell forward again.

"Stop that!" I pushed his hand away with a thought.

"You know you enjoy the physical contact I give you."

Snow was laughing his flank off as always, so I just pulled his chair out from under him. His face hit the table head on, and he stopped laughing. He glared at me, red eyes seemed like they pierced clear into my soul. I shivered under his suddenly haunting gaze. "S-sorry about that... " I managed to stammer.

He just stood up, without breaking eye contact. His hand raised to his head. He scratched the back of it. "Hah, you got me. Not bad. I gotta take a piss." He just walked down the hallway to the bathroom. His palpable anger faded to a more content state in a matter of seconds.

Gate was getting back up. "Damn, no wonder they call him Roid Rage."

The drive to Twinkle's place of residence was rather uneventful. None of us spoke other than Twinkle's giving directions. Nothing interesting to say about it. Nothing interesting at all. There was not even a strange tune popping into my head like normally when I got bored. In fact, I got so bored that I got my Lyre out.

Gate looked at me funny, funnier than usual. (His usual being a face that says 'Why does your breath smell so bad? When was the last time you brushed? You know, the dentist face.) "I didn't see you bring that with us when we left."

"Dunno, magic I guess. I just sort of wanted to play it." His funny face went blank.

I raise my lyre slightly to the side of my torso, and let my magic hold it there. My hands tapped a rhythm on my knee, and a few strings sounded themselves off.

A song began to form in everyone's ears.

Clouds formed over head. They were rapidly getting dark, until a crack of thunder shattered a nearby tree. Snow had to slam the breaks on to avoid colliding with a storm of wooden shrapnel. He turned around, eyes wide. "Play  it again. Now." His tone was commanding, yet pleading. I complied, and he sighed loudly. "The moment you played that, everything just felt contradictory. Like everything that felt right just did a one eighty and shot itself in the dick."

"Dude, really? Must be your innate connection to the weather as a pegasi then. I'm kind of surprised that Heart could even do that." Gate was getting thinky face again. "Hey Heart! See if you  can remember the song of the sun!"

"Are you high? Seriously, what the hell are you smoking? Even if it was my playing that started and stopped that storm, which it couldn't of been, playing the song of the sun couldn't possibly do a thing. This world spins on it's own accord. If I even some how COULD fuck with that, imagine the hell it would cause for every human everywhere, to suddenly have night fade into day at noon. Can you imagine the havock?"

"Song of time then?"

"No."

"Epona's song?"

We all paused for a moment. "I wonder what that would even do?"

Snow looked at me in the rearview mirror. "Probably just really get our attention. Maybe it'll get the attention of an actual horse? Maybe your songs themselves aren't the magical thing, but instead you just pump your intents up with magic and  let it surf across the sound waves to take effect."

"That would make sense, but it doesn't explain the storm. I didn't intend for that."

"Let's just play it off as sheer coincidence then. Come on, my house is only a few blocks from here. Someone is definitely going to investigate a random, solitary bolt of lightning. We don't need anyone posting pictures of weird pony people on the internet." Gate, ever the voice of reason, said.

Snow coughed loudly. "That... is a good point."

"Snoooow, what did you doo?" I groaned accusingly.

"I might have been vlogging about this whole thing. Since before it started. I might have upwards of two thousand daily viewers." He grinned sheepishly, while the rest of us just facepalmed. "Hey! We aren't the only ones you know! There are literally hundreds of others I know of who are dealing with the exact same kind of stuff! I honestly don't see how it isn't on the news yet."

"Wait, turn on the radio to that one station that only has talk shows." I said.

When he did, we all gained a bit more practice in looking incredibly surprised.