Chapter 1: Shades of Blue
“Rawrgh” I yawned openly.
Last night’s sleep wasn’t my best. I had the weirdest dream too. I was standing in front of a big orange and yellow light, other colors flashing vibrantly around it. I had laughed a bit; the scene must have been amusing. Funny, how things seem hilarious one moment and horribly dry the next. From memory there wasn’t much else to say. The lights drew me in, and in no time I was caught in the churning of the orange and yellow portal. My body turned and twisted; pushes and pulls ached throughout my chest and limbs. It wasn’t necessarily painful, but the sensation was…odd, to say the least.
However interesting my dream had been, it kept me from getting some great shuteye. Just like every morning, I went to stretch my arms and fingers first, considering they were generally useful appendages. My right arm felt heavy, and lifting it after just waking up was becoming a problem. It wasn’t until I turned my head that I realized what the real problem was.
Lying atop my arm was a round blue head. Now the first thing I noticed was the abnormal shape of the head. The figure was entirely different than that of a person, and what was more, the face was bright blue! I debated in my head for a moment what shade of blue it was, but soon decided that was not entirely important. The more imperative point was that I actually recognized this unusual face.
Burdening my tired arm was none other than my favorite speedster pegasus, Rainbow Dash. Her image, as bright as she was, struck my eyes hard. Her multicolored mane dazzled my vision, nearly blinding me in my newly awaken state. Blinking furiously, ideas began to pop up in my mind. The first and foremost was that I must have been dreaming. Still trying to lift my arm carefully from underneath her sleeping head, and failing miserably I might add, I concluded that this was most certainly real.
Having deduced my situation to be true, I found the next big question to be ‘Where am I?’ I tried to scan the room around me, albeit a little offset by being unable to remove my hand, I found that I was no longer in my room. Instead of my own blue, poster strewn walls, I was surrounded by white fluffy clouds. It didn’t take much brain power to figure out where I was. That tidbit of information was beneficial to me, considering my brain didn’t quite have that much power at the time.
The scene encapsulated me. As surprised as I was, I could still take a moment to let everything sink in. I laid my head back onto the bed; a bed which I now realized was also made of clouds, and looked up at the ceiling. Interestingly, there wasn’t a real ceiling. Topping off the pearly room was instead a thin layer of stratus clouds. They were light enough to see the rising sun from behind them, but dark enough not to let too much of it in.
Being the kind of person who enjoyed these kinds of views, I could’ve easily laid there for years watching the sun rise. Sadly, my situation made that impossible. I felt a shifting of the cloud bed on my right. Rainbow Dash was stirring in her sleep, kicking slightly and rubbing her head against my arm. I wondered if the aspiring Wonderbolt was having a nightmare. Almost instinctively, I used my free hand to pet her head, trying to calm her down without waking her. The tactic would’ve worked easily, had I not caught a glimpse of my arm as I stroked her mane.
It was far more streamline and smooth than my usual muscularly built arms. This fact was disturbing in itself, but it quickly got worse. It was orange. Again, placing frivolous wonderments before business, my mind decided to debate the shade of orange that it was. After a few strenuous moments of trying to focus, I decided it was a burnt sienna. With the color settled, my brain refocused on my strange new arm. Not only was it orange and slender, but I didn’t even have a hand! The ever present body part simply disappeared without a trace. In its place was a blue stump like structure.
My god, I had hooves.
Just like everything else this freaky morning threw at me, hooves could only make me laugh. The bewildering fact that this was not a dream made me instantly crack up. Insanity reigned as the uproarious laughter rang out around the entire skyward house. I had hooves! Hooves! What could’ve been funnier?
This delirious state didn’t last long. As my body woke up, dragging my mind along with it, rational thoughts began to flood my thoughts. I was a pony. I was no longer a human, or anything else for that matter; I was a pony. How could this have happened? Why was I here, in an imaginary world full of cartoon characters? Why was I in Rainbow Dash’s bed to be more specific? How do I get out, how do I turn back? I couldn’t answer any of these questions myself. Panic struck hard and fast. Uncontrollably I screamed.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
The once peaceful pegasus that had since been occupying my arm roused her head in response to my noise.
“Huh?” she groaned, obviously tired as well.
My eyes widened, pupils dilating. Rainbow Dash was waking up. What was I going to do? Just another question that rattled my clustered mind. Thankfully, she raised her head to search for the source of the noise, alleviating my arm. Well, I suppose it was more of my foreleg now.
She turned her head towards me, eyes half closed. Her head tilted, letting her colorful mane fall in front of her face. A quick burst of wind from her mouth blew it from her eyes, revealing two dark purple diamonds. I had always admired Rainbow’s eyes, not in the creepy way, but in the way that they amazed me. Purple eyes, cyan coat and rainbow mane. She was, for a pony, the embodiment of spectacularity.
She blinked, regaining her vision and looked me square in the face. With a lower than normal morning voice she asked me “Who are you and why are you in my bed?”
Unable to answer her question, my panic mode set in once more. I scrambled for words, but nothing came out. Rainbow was getting antsy.
“Tell me your name before I buck you in the face so hard, you’ll be the next 1000 year prisoner on the moon.”
At this outrageous threat, I scattered everything. Flailing my limbs wildly around in fear, I fell from the soft, white bed and onto the equally soft and white floor. Although, onto might not be the best preposition, through would be a better one. Unable to stand atop the clouds, I fell straight down. Rainbow Dash tried to follow me, but in her own tired state she merely entangled herself in her sheets.
I continued to fall though. Nothing was stopping me from plummeting to the harsh ground below. This was probably the only chance I’d ever get to be in Ponyville, the land of dreams and hope. Unfortunately, my trip would be cut short by a long fall. I wasn’t scared, oddly enough. It was sorrow instead that filled my mind. In such a rushed state, I never even got to tell my favorite pony how great she was. I never even got to say ‘Hi’.
The cold wind rushed through my hair. No, not my hair, my mane. It was blue and red. Just with all of the other colors, my only train of thought was ‘Which shade of red is it?’ Funny to think that I could be so close to an untimely death, and my only thoughts were about colors. Death was so dry, but colors, colors were everything.
I took in a deep breath, not a difficult task with so much vibrant air whizzing past me every second. As the breath entered my lungs, I felt an odd sensation on my back. Unlike the one from earlier where Rainbow had been on my arm, this one felt far more controllable. I stretched these interesting new muscles as best as I could. Across my sides I felt a light brushing, as if was being hugged by an eagle. Still trying my best at moving the flimsy new appendages, I looked to see just what they were.
Tilting my head against the rushing air current was difficult, but not impossible. Completing half of a turn, I could plainly see that the odd sensations came from two gigantic wings. They were greater in size than my body itself when spread open; and still quite large even as they flapped downwards. It took a mere second to understand what I had to do. If I could learn to fly with these overbearing feather dusters, then I could most likely survive this predicament of dying.
I worked frantically to turn onto my front, having been falling with my back to the wind the entire time. To my chagrin, the pressure was too great for me, especially in this new body. Even with wings, there was nothing I could do to stop the fall. My struggle was all for naught, except maybe a good waste of energy.
Resigning myself to the inevitable fate, I looked once more into the morning sky. Celestia must’ve been keen on my future, for I could almost see the dawn star wink at me as it rose into the clear sky. With a heavy sigh of content, I thanked whatever powers were at work for my wondrous, albeit short, trip to Ponyville.
Pwuuumff!
My body hit the ground with a jolt, cratering my new form into the meadow below. The pain was unbearable, searing into each vein and capillary. My bones ached, and may as well have been broken. My wings were the source of the majority of my pain. The strain placed on them as the main interceptors of the fall sent vicious messages to my nerves. I blinked once, taking in the glowing scene once more. My eyes shut involuntarily due to the amount of pain.
I heard two voices call out to my broken form from either side.
To my left was “You will be alright.”
And to my right “It has just begun.”