On Our Own
Chapter Four: Getting the Message Out
Little Horn ordered her salad sandwich and lemonade from the owner of the establishment and sat at one of the window seats closest to the ordering area. The clock at the cafe was about 12:30 PM, and those patrons who were coming in for their lunch orders began to arrive, as usual.
After paying for her meal and beverage, she found herself a seat and waited for her food to be prepared. She felt so much alive as she looked out the window at the beautiful day. The other patrons continued to gawk and marvel at the sight of a small unicorn pony eating at their cafe.
Little Horn looked at the patrons who were staring at her. She shook her head and waited patiently for her food and drink order. She didn’t know what the fuss was about. All she wanted to do was have some lunch!
“Here you go,” the lady at the counter placed the order on the bench, “Have a nice day!”
Little Horn smiled as she picked up the plate with the sandwich and the glass of lemonade with her magic. The blue aura surrounded the food and drink as she slowly made her way back to her seat.
“This looks so good! You make this for any pony who comes in here?” The little unicorn filly asked, licking her lips in anticipation of consuming this delicious meal.
“When they ask for it, yes,” the lady replied, “Why else would it be up there on the menu?”
Little Horn nodded, spotting the vegetarian menu options. Sure enough, the salad sandwich was on the menu. Perhaps she and her cousin would come in for a meal together in the future.
“Thanks for the meal, then!” She then paused, “I did not catch your name. If you are a friend of my cousin’s, I think I should know in case we decide to come in together for a meal.” The little unicorn picked up her sandwich with her magic, levitating it with her blue aura to her mouth. The first bite of her sandwich was delicious!
“Oh, wow! This sandwich is so good! This is my first real good meal in a long time!.” The little filly’s ears drooped, feeling a bit sad as she tried to explain her absence until now to the lunch counter lady.
“I guess you want to know how I ended up living with my cousin, huh?” Little Horn asked the Lunch counter lady.
Little Horn continued her story, if the owner of the cafe wanted to hear it.
“About a week ago, I was kinda in the hospital and my cousin had to come get me to live with her. My parents are both unicorns, as is my grandfather. I really miss them.” The little filly sighs.
Then Little Horn perked up at the thought of her present situation with her cousin.
“However, my cousin Harmony, er, Holly’s been taking care of me, making sure I eat right and training me with magic lessons.” Little Horn offered the lunch counter lady, as she continued to eat her sandwich and drink her lemonade.
“That’s an interesting tale,” the lady murmured, before smiling cheerfully, “You can call me Ms. Robinson. Everyone else here does. If you ever need anything from me, whether it be a nice warm drink or an open ear, I’m always here in the cafe.”
Little Horn smiled at Ms. Robinson, “Thank you, Ms. Robinson. Maybe Holly and I can come eat here sometime! Although she goes by the name Harmony now.” She shrugs, “Pony names are a bit different than human names.”
“I see,” Ms. Robinson mused, “Well, be sure to give her my regard when you get home”.
Little Horn nodded as she finished her sandwich and drink. “Okay, Ms. Robinson. I’ll let Harmony know. She’s getting ready for work and let me go out to explore and have lunch.”
“Do you give free refills? I would like another lemonade, please?” The filly brought her empty drink container up to get it refilled with her magic.
Little Horn beamed with confidence as she placed her cup on the counter to be refilled. She was getting better with her magic. Probably would need to look into some more complicated spells, if Harmony was willing to teach her.
“I can do magic as a unicorn, Ms. Robinson! There are other ponies who can fly or do not have wings or horns at all. I think you already know that, yes?”
“While that’s very interesting,” Ms. Robinson smiled sadly, “It wouldn’t be very fair to the other patrons here if you were the only one getting freebies. All drinks cost exactly the same, with no refills available, unfortunately”.
Little Horn frowned and took her empty cup back from the counter, “It’s okay, Ms. Robinson. I really don’t need that extra drink. Thanks for the sandwich and lemonade!” The tan filly placed her napkins and empty beverage cup into a nearby trash can with her magic, and waved her hoof at Ms. Robinson in a friendly manner.
“I’ll tell my cousin you said hello, Ms. Robinson! Bye now!” With that, the little unicorn filly trotted towards the door leading out of the cafe. As she slowly opened the door with her magic, she looked around for anything familiar, like her cousin, or a landmark. She noticed her apartment was conveniently located near the cafe, as her cousin mentioned.
Little Horn headed back to her home after lunch, and stopped by the door of the apartment. Levitating her key to the lock with her magic, she was able to unlock the door and step inside.
“Harmony, I’m back from the cafe! Ms. Robinson made me the best sandwich ever!” The little filly said with excitement, then frowned as she realized her cousin was not present at the cafe with her.
“I should have picked you up something, if you want me to.” Little Horn waited in the living room for her cousin to talk to.
“No, that’s alright,” Harmony’s disembodied voice replied from the living room, “I’ll go get something later”.
Little Horn attempted to find the source of her cousin’s voice. “Okay! Ms. Robinson said hello and she said some things about knowing about your...*ahem* becoming a pony. That’s kinda weird, right?” She asked with a quizzical look on her face.
“Not really,” Harmony sighed, “She was the first person to know something was up when it started happening. She’s surprisingly observant for an old lady, and a compassionate ear for when you have problems you want to talk about. Whenever I felt confused or upset about the whole ordeal, I just turned to her for advice, and she gave me a sort of crutch to lean on when I needed it”.
Little Horn smiled as she finally found where her cousin was at, and gave her a hug, “Found you!” She snuggled up against Harmony warmly.
Little Horn then thought about her situation. Was it any different from Harmony’s transformation, except for the hospitalization and that doctor who was getting way too personal about witnessing an actual transformation from human to pony..
“I wonder when I started to change, why my parents wanted to keep my transformation from going public? I mean, I am grateful to know I have an awesome cousin who can teach me magic.”
“Well, just up and turning into a cartoon character is a bit... surreal, don’t you think?” Harmony raised an eyebrow, “I mean, think about it! People live their whole lives thinking that My Little Pony is just a TV show, and yet here we are: living, breathing specimens of supposedly fictional creatures. That’s going to be a pretty darn big tablet to swallow, don’t you agree?”
Little Horn nodded, “I guess so, Harmony. I mean, we can do magic by levitating stuff with our horns, and use pony-isms like everypony and anypony. Is there a reason why this doesn’t feel like Ponyville?”
“Maybe because it isn’t?” Harmony offered dryly.
Little Horn tilted her head, acting confused, “What is this place then? Where are the other ponies? So far, the only pony I met, besides our family, is you.” She shook her head in disbelief. “What the Hay is going on here?” The little filly queried.
The little filly then thought about her friends from school, “Perhaps my Ponyville school friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Miss Cheerilee are out there, somewhere! Maybe we can try to find them?”
Harmony glanced at her uncertainly, “Are you sure about that? We don’t have much of a clue as to where they could possibly be, and we’d have a lot of ground to cover. It’d be easier to find a needle in a haystack!”
Little Horn thought about ways to reach out to the other ponies, “What about the Internet?” She suggested..”Or not?” She sighed, looking to her cousin for assistance.
“I guess so,” Harmony murmured, “It couldn’t hurt to at least ask around”.
Harmony briskly trotted across the room to her desk, where her computer was located, and switched it on. The computer whirred to life with a low hum from the cooling fan.
Little Horn trotted into the computer room, “How are we going to tell everypony about us, Harmony? You think we’ll get some responses?” The filly also wondered if this would be a good activity to get her Cutie Mark in making an Internet video about ponies.
“The only problem is, I have a feeling that whatever responses we get will all be morons trying to make fun of us,” Harmony frowned, “False leads and misinformation that will be a waste of our time”.
Little Horn nodded as her cousin prepared the computer, “So, we get on Youtube or make a blog about us helping ponies find us? Would it be dangerous for a filly like me to be on the Internet unsupervised?”
“You have no idea,” Harmony deadpanned, “Just let me handle the Internet side of things for now. So... I suppose the first place we should start advertising is amongst the My Little Pony fan base, who we can at least guarantee won’t turn us down and make a mockery of us off the bat. Maybe like... Equestria Daily, perhaps?”
Little Horn nods, “Okay, Harmony! It’s your computer. Let me know if you need me to make an appearance. Maybe I can do a shout out to the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Little Horn could not wait to see the reactions from the fan base, and see if there was a new pony friend among them.
“Right then,” Both the keyboard and the mouse lit up in a bright blue glow under the influence of Harmony’s magic, “Let’s get to business.”
Little Horn watched from her seat near her cousin as she controlled the computer with her magic. “Okay, we are going to Equestria Daily, right?” She couldn’t wait to see what kind of responses awaited from cyberspace.
“... That’s the idea,” The elder cousin glanced aside as she opened up the Internet browser.
Little Horn continued to watch in anticipation as Harmony opened the Internet browser.
“What do you want to say to the other ponies? Will there be any who are my age?” The young filly didn’t mind meeting older ponies, unless Harmony screened them first. The younger ponies, Little Horn could relate to. Especially those who did not have their Cutie Marks.
“If they’re even out there at all,” Harmony murmured, “Let alone on the Internet. I’m afraid I don’t know any more than you do.”.
Little Horn looked disappointed as she waited to see what type of message Harmony would be sending over the Internet. If anypony who had Internet access could be reached, maybe they could make their way to them.
“Uhm, Harmony, what if we find some ponies and they want to meet us? What will we do?” The little filly asked politely.
“I suppose we put our heads together and think of what to do next,” Harmony shrugged sheepishly, “Simply winging it is probably a bad idea, but at the same time, I can’t really think of an appropriate plan of action. Maybe someone else will have a game-plan, and we can just follow along with them.”
Little Horn nuzzled her cousin in support of finding anyone who may have experienced the transformation into ponies.
“I’m with you, cousin! Just tell me what I can do to help, and I’ll do it.” She looks around, shyly, “unless you think you can do this on your own?” She continues to give her cousin support by nuzzling her. “We’ll do this together, as a family!”
“Family... right,” Harmony nodded, concentrating her attention to the computer screen as she flicked through the maze of browsers and tabs popping up on the screen.
Little Horn watched as Harmony navigated the Internet, trying to find the right site to visit. “So, we just post something about us needing to find humans who have become ponies, and hope some pony answers back?”
“In layman’s terms, yes. That’s the idea,” Harmony nodded,
Little Horn waited to see what her cousin would be typing up on the blog. “So, is this going to be a blog or a video message?”
“We’ll probably have to do a video message,” Harmony replied, “Simple text isn’t going to get the message across without some hard evidence to back it up.”
Little Horn nods, “Just tell me when it’s my turn and I’ll try my best to let the other ponies know what they need to do.” She wondered about what type of message they would send. “So, what message should we send out?”
“Just a simple one should do,” Harmony shrugged, “As long as the viewer has visual evidence that we’re not pulling their legs about this, you could probably say whatever you like.”
She paused before adding, “Within reason, of course.”
Little Horn nodded, and waited for her cue from her cousin to chat on the video message. “You start the message, and you can introduce me to the other ponies!” She couldn’t wait to see if there were other ponies her age out there. “Maybe they want to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” She thought about getting a Cutie Mark in Crusader Recruiting.
“Now I know how bad Apple Bloom and my friends felt about not having their Cutie Marks.” The little filly looked like she was about to tear up. “Do you miss Equestria, Harmony?”
“I... I don’t really remember anything about it, to be honest,” Harmony shook her head, “I suppose it should hold some sort of sentimental value to me, but...” Her voice trailed off into silence.
Little Horn’s memories of the world of Equestria were a bit fuzzy as well. She remembered being invited to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders by Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Being teased by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon made her upset enough to be a part of a parent-teacher conference between Cheerilee and her parents. Other than that, and the strange zebra from her dreams, that was about it.
“I remember there was this zebra who spoke in rhymes. She was really nice and helped me when I was sick.” The filly recalled.
“There was a spa in one of my dreams, run by twin sisters, one blue, and one pink.” She added.
“Huh,” the older cousin murmured amusedly as she adjusted the position of her glasses, concentrating on the computer screen.
Little Horn waited for the video message site to come up so they could record this message.
“Are we focusing on all the ponies or just the ones who have undergone the changes we experienced?” The young filly asked, tilting her head as she watched her cousin operate the computer with magic.
“I think anyone with half a brain, some eyes and some ears will do for now, to be honest,” Harmony remarked.
Little Horn smiled at her cousin’s wry sense of humor.
“How are we doing on the video message? I’m going to use the little filly’s room, and I’ll be back to help you.”
The little tan unicorn filly trotted out of the room, only to poke her head back in, “You want something to eat? What time is it, anyway?”
“Eight past two,” Harmony glanced at the clock in the corner of the screen, “I s’pose I should have my lunch now before it’s too late.”
Little Horn nods, heading to the bathroom. After taking care of business, she washed her front hooves in the sink, then trotted back to the kitchen to help Harmony with her lunch.
Harmony opted to go with a simple meal of various spreads on toast, producing the toaster from the cupboard, placing it on the bench and plugging it into a free electrical socket.
Ten minutes later, and Harmony was back at her computer desk with a plate stacked high with toast; some lathered with jam, others with peanut butter, and still others with just plain old margarine.
After all, simplicity is best from time to time.
Little Horn saw the stack of food her cousin brought in. “Wow, you sure were hungry! I already ate, so you enjoy your lunch. Maybe we can fix something for supper while we wait for responses from our video message?”
“Settle down, cousin,” Harmony smirked with a mouthful of toast, “Supper’s not for another four hours, yet, and we have plenty of time to wait for responses”.
She paused to swallow her mouthful before continuing, “Besides, we aren’t going to get any responses anyway if the video is non-existent! When I’m finished with this, we’ll get started!”
Little Horn’s ears drooped when she was admonished by her cousin for being too hyper, , then perked up when Harmony was about to begin uploading the video message.
“I’m ready to record my message when you are ready!” The filly said in excitement.
“Right,” Harmony shifted her chair to the side and switched on the video camera, built into the top of the monitor, “In three... two... one...begin”.
Little Horn looked into the video camera and blinked. Viewers who would see this video live would see a tan Unicorn filly with a brown mane and tail, with blue eyes.
“Hello, EveryPony! My name is Little Horn! My cousin Harmony and I are recording this video for you!” She continued. “Please listen to my cousin. She has something important to say to you!” Then she added, “Oh, fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders! If you don’t have your Cutie Mark yet, there’s a club you can join dedicated to helping ponies find their special talents!” Little Horn smiled at the camera, then looked over at her cousin.
Little Horn turned towards her cousin, motioning her to record her message. “Harmony, you’re up!” She pointed a hoof towards the camera.
“Huh? I do? Oh, right,” Harmony shuffled her seat back in front of the camera, clearing her throat, “*Ahem*, well, I suppose there’s not much to say, other than ‘Hi, I’m currently turning into a unicorn at the moment’.
“It all started around... six or seven days ago now, was it? I’m not keeping track... and I have no idea how it started myself, but over a four-day process, I started growing fur, weird ears and a horn, and before I knew it, I’m suddenly sporting the current appearance you see me in now. I’ll admit that I didn’t actually know this person beside me before all of this began...”
Little Horn waved her hoof at the camera to indicate she was the person Harmony was mentioning to the viewers as her cousin continued her message. “I’m her younger cousin!” She exclaimed.
“Apparently...” Harmony glanced aside briefly, before adjusting her glasses and continuing, “But... now we’re stuck together due to coincidental circumstances, and if there’s anyone out there on the Internet who knows about anything regarding... how this could be happening, please inform us as soon as possible! I’m linking my email to the information box below as we speak, so if you know anyone who is in a similar situation to us, or at least has an inkling of the situation surrounding it all, please let us know. That is all”.
The red light of the camera died as Harmony shut off the recorder with a sigh, “Now, we just sit back and relax.”
Little Horn leaned back in the chair next to her cousin, “I really don’t mind us being family, Harmony. I’ve learned to use my magic, just like you!”
“There’s a bit more to Magic beyond basic levitation,” Harmony murmured, “And to be honest, I don’t know much about any of it myself”.
Little Horn nodded and gave her cousin a hug, “You think this is why we were put together in the first place? To learn how to be a family and about magic?” The little filly asked, looking up at her cousin with her big blue eyes. “How do you feel about having a younger family member to take care of?”
“I dunno,” Harmony shrugged, “I was the younger sibling, so I don’t really have much experience in looking after other people.”
Little Horn nodded, “There are a lot of things I still don’t understand myself. Like, why did I end up as an adorable unicorn filly and be placed in the care of a relative I knew nothing about until my mother decided to appoint you as my guardian?”
The filly sighed as she looked up at her cousin. “I think you are doing a great job so far in keeping me safe.”
“That’s because it’s been easy so far,” Harmony chuckled, “It’s only been... what, two days and a bit since you arrived?”
Little Horn nodded as she thought about how many days she had stayed with her cousin.
“That sounds about right. Thank you for taking me in, Harmony. I’m still getting used to my magic. And, the fact we are both unicorns and female...I don’t really know. All I know is, we are together...we are family, and we are a team.” Little Horn smiled at her cousin warmly.
A grin worked its way across Harmony’s features as she ruffled a hoof through her cousin’s mane, “We don’t have much of a choice, do we? We’re going to have to make this work one way or another.”
Little Horn enjoyed getting her mane ruffled by her older cousin. It felt good to have someone to care deeply about.
“Of course we will, Harmony!. Perhaps this is what it supposed to be? A fresh start, a new family?” The little filly sighed as she thought about her old life compared to her new one with Harmony.
“I hardly remember any of my old human family, and now that I have a loving pony family, I just feel so warm inside; what does that mean, Harmony?” The inquisitive filly asked her elder cousin.
Harmony paused, “I suppose... well, I don’t know. Maybe turning into a pony includes psychological changes like that? I mean, it makes sense that our psyche would undergo some sort of reformation as our physical bodies change. To be honest, I never really thought much of you when I first met you, other than pity for your predicament. And now... I suppose you’re starting to grow on me.”
Little Horn thought about what her cousin said, “That makes sense, Harmony, but I don’t understand why I ended up as a little unicorn filly. A filly is a younger female equine, right?”
“That’s what it meant last time I checked,” Harmony smirked, “I don’t really know why your age has regressed like that, but I’m sure there’s a legitimate reason.”
Little Horn shrugs, “I really don’t want to know. Perhaps we’ll find out together. In the meantime, we can hang out and just enjoy each other’s company.”
With that, Little Horn gave her cousin a warm hug, snuggling her head into her cousin’s white coat. “I love you, Harmony.”
“... Likewise, L-H,” Harmony returned the gesture, “Likewise.”