The Seventh Day: A Farewell to Arms
You Do (Not) Belong
The Seventh Day: A Farewell to Arms
Connor was aware. He didn’t know exactly when, or how, just that all of a sudden he found it possible to open his eyes and take in his surroundings -- or rather, his lack of them.
It was black. All there was to see was absolute and utter darkness in every direction. Connor was startled at first, unable to tell the difference between having his eyes open or closed, but he quickly realized he wasn’t actually blind, as he could see the wire frames of his glasses, as well as the rest of his clothed body when he looked down. That was weird... There weren’t any light sources, and yet he could still see himself. And that’s when he came to a second realization: he was floating.
His legs involuntarily seized, scrambling for purchase on a floor that wasn’t there while his arms flailed about randomly. Connor had never experienced true weightlessness before, and without any visible landmarks he could use to orient himself, it was already making him dizzy. He closed his eyes and tried breathing steadily while placing a steadying hand on his forehead. Slowly, he gathered his bearings, but while he was trying to figure out what was going on, something felt… off. It took him a few seconds of rubbing the smooth skin on his forehead to figure it out: his horn was gone.
At first, Connor felt something close to elation at this news, but the feeling quickly faded as he realized he should be cautious. It was hard to feel certain of anything so long as he didn’t know where the hell he was or what he was doing there. The very last thing he could remember was blacking out in the Ponyville hospital after having that one doctor pony sedate him again. After that, who knew?
“Hello?” he tried saying once his initial confusion wore off. His voice sounded odd against the empty silence, like what he always imagined one of those soundproof rooms to feel like. “Is anyone there?”
Unsurprisingly, there was no answer, leaving Connor feeling even more alone. What was this place? If he was dreaming, it would be his first time going into it fully lucid, and it was already unlike any dream he’d ever had before.
Was it possible? Could he really be…?
“Am I... dead?” asked Connor to nobody in particular. He really had no way of knowing, to be sure. And after the unbelievable amount of pain he’d just suffered through, it seemed like a frighteningly distinct possibility.
“I would certainly hope not,” came a sudden and unexpected reply from the void, causing Connor’s head to bolt around, looking for the source. The voice sounded instantly familiar to him, though Connor didn’t have long to think about where he’d heard it before, as the answer literally walked into existence in front of him.
As if passing through a curtain, a pony’s foreleg covered in midnight-blue fur and topped with a sparkling silver hoofcuff stepped out of the darkness. It was soon followed by another, and where they joined together, he could see a polished, solid black breastplate with a white crescent moon in the center. And above that, the shadows parted to reveal the face of none other than Princess Luna of Equestria.
Connor scratched at his head. “Luna?”
The alicorn nodded affirmatively. “The very same.”
On a whim, Connor thought about how odd it was that he was floating in space while this new arrival appeared to be walking and standing firmly on all fours. Immediately upon making this observation, gravity decided to kick in for him, too, and he fell gently to his feet upon whatever invisible plane had been provided in what was now obviously a dream.
“Okay, so, I’m not dead,” he reiterated as he curiously tested the new “ground” with his shoe.
“Indeed,” Luna replied with a touch of humor. “If that were true, it would certainly carry some rather disturbing implications… for the both of us.”
“Both of us? What are you…” Connor trailed off, examining the regal pony a little more closely. From her flowing starlight mane, to the way her cobalt eyes blinked as she looked directly at him, even the way her stance shifted ever so slightly, everything about her just seemed to be a little too, for lack of a better word, genuine. “You’re really here, aren’t you? You’re actually here.”
Luna nodded again, smiling softly. “Quite perceptive of you. I am indeed the same Luna you met in Canterlot.”
“How are you able to do that?”
“Being Equestria’s Princess of the Night carries with it certain... benefits,” she explained. “Not least amongst them being that I can sense the dreams of all of Equestria’s inhabitants, and interact with them at will.”
“...Right. That makes perfect sense.” And doesn’t sound at all voyeuristic, Connor thought dryly. But it really didn’t bother him that much; it was just nice to see a friendly face. “So what are you doing here in the first place?”
Luna’s small smile fell, her expression turning more serious. “We -- that is, myself and Celestia -- read Twilight’s letter. It was actually rather timely, as my sister was about to send one of her own. We sent out a reply as soon as we could, and when we did not hear back for quite some time, we grew… worried. It was fortunate that I could contact you in this way, at least.”
“Yeah, about that…” Connor rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “We got your letter, but I didn’t get a chance to read it.”
Sensing the human’s uneasiness made it clear to Luna that something was wrong. “What is the matter? What has happened?”
Connor found it difficult to explain. How was he supposed to answer her if he himself didn’t know what was going on? But as he struggled to put his recent experience into words, he found he didn’t have to; his subconscious did the talking for him.
All around the two of them, strange apparitions began appearing out of the blank landscape, conjured up by Connor’s own desire to communicate the incommunicable. Flashes of emotion and sensation, made tangible as rays of harsh color and clouds of light, swirled around in a panorama of details. Vague representations of such abstract concepts as physical pain and emotional distress mixed together with images pulled from his own memories. At any other time, all of this information would’ve seemed incomprehensible to the average observer. But, in this place, Luna was more than able to make sense of it all, causing her to gasp softly, her face turning grim.
“We are too late…” she whispered to herself in disbelief.
Connor heard her say this, and returned his attention to her, causing the images to fade away and returning the scene’s muted tranquility. “What is it? Too late for what?” he asked fearfully. “Do you know what’s happening to me?”
Luna turned her dour eyes up at him. “When we first received your letter, the details inside... made a lot of things very clear.” She was quiet for a while, hesitant to say more, before following it up with, “I am so sorry.”
Something about the way she said that made Connor’s metaphorical blood run cold. “What is happening to me? If you know something, please, tell me,” he asked again, slower.
The Princess turned her head to the side. “While we knew it was a possibility, given the circumstances, Celestia and I held onto the hope that something like this would not come to pass. Yet, it seems fate has other ideas.” Luna closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “When you wake up from this dream, things are going to be… quite different.”
“Different, how?”
Luna opened her eyes and looked directly at him with an expression of deepest sympathy. “Based on what you’ve shown me, I believe you are... changing.”
“Changing?” Connor repeated. He did not like the sound of that. Not one bit. “Changing into what?”
Luna’s eyes flickered upwards just a smidge, focusing on the top of his head and not seeming at all surprised of what she saw there. “I think you already know the answer.”
Following her gaze, Connor reached up his hand in trepidation. Whereas before, his horn was curiously absent, now, it had returned right back where he expected it to be. As his fingers slowly traced across the smooth spiral along its edge, the meaning of what Luna had said fully impacted him, and the final pieces fell neatly into place.
“No… This isn’t right,” he gasped, his breath coming short. “That can’t be right.”
Connor didn’t want to believe it. The very idea of it seemed too impossible to even comprehend. He could acknowledge the fact that he had traveled to an alien world in a parallel dimension. He’d come to accept the existence of magical talking ponies and all sorts of other strange, mythical beasts. He even thought he could handle the idea of him miraculously growing a horn for no apparent reason. But this… This was on a whole other level.
If Luna was correct -- and he had more reason to trust her than not -- then the horn was only the beginning. He was going all the way. He was turning into a pony.
Holy mother of fuck, he was going to be a pony.
Connor looked back to Luna, desperate to see any sign of doubt in the alicorn’s features, but it was painfully obvious that she was speaking what she believed to be the truth. And the more he tried to think of another possible explanation and failed, the more plausible hers seemed.
Connor’s legs went weak and he toppled forward onto his knees, completely blown away. He didn’t know what else to do. His brain was running circles around itself trying to make sense of this new information. He couldn’t even settle on a proper emotion to be feeling at that moment, though fear would probably be the closest approximation.
He was turning into a pony… Hell, maybe it was already done and he simply hadn’t realized it yet, meaning that when he woke up, it wouldn’t be as a human. He would be a human trapped in a body that wasn’t supposed to be his. Even the concept of such a dramatic change was impossible to wrap his mind around, and the fact that he couldn’t even begin to prepare for it was perhaps the scariest part of all. It was too much, too fast.
Everything was happening too fast… Connor could only stare downwards, past his hands held in front of him, and into the dream’s dark abyss.
“Why?” moaned Connor, balling his hands into trembling fists as tears of anguish threatened to well up in his eyes. “Why does this have to happen!? Why now!? Isn’t my life fucked up enough already!?” he shouted, venting his frustration by smacking the floor with both of his fists.
“I don’t want this! It’s not fair!” Tears started to stream down his cheeks as he shut his eyes. Sharp sniffles and stifled sobs mingled with the dull thumps of his fists hitting the ground, which gradually faded as he did so more weakly with every blow. This continued until he was simply spent, hunched forward and shaking throughout his entire body. “It’s not fair…”
The sound of hoofsteps coming towards him brought Connor’s attention forward, able to see just as the royal pony seated herself right in front of him. He watched one of her silver-topped hooves reach out as she leaned forward, and he could feel cold metal under his chin when she daintily placed her hoof underneath it. With a gentle urging, she raised his head until the two of them could make eye contact; his, still stinging with fresh tears, and hers, so wide, dark, and full of sadness.
“I understand how difficult this must be for you,” she said, mustering up as much of a calm, soothing undertone as she could.
Connor sniffed loudly and swallowed the lump in his throat, trying to regain enough of his composure to form a coherent sentence. “Isn’t… Isn’t there anything you can do?”
“I… do not know.” Luna looked pained. She knew that wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. “And if there was, there is naught I can do to help you at this time. I must return to the waking world and inform my sister of what has transpired.”
As the alicorn withdrew her hoof, Connor’s arms moved of their own accord, reaching forward and grasping her foreleg tightly. “No! Please don’t go!” he pleaded, his voice cracking. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do... I don’t want to be left alone.”
Her heart broke to see the human reduced to this, it truly did. But Luna knew she could not stay any longer, no matter how much she desired to. “I know it will be hard… but you need not fear what lies ahead.” She pulled her leg back with a little more force, and reluctantly, Connor let his grip on her fur weaken until he finally let it slip between his fingers.
“Just remember this, and take heart: You are never truly alone. Your friends are always with you.” With a whoosh of air, the alicorn’s magnificent azure wings unfolded, propelling her upwards with each graceful flap. “As long as you truly believe in the bonds of your friendship, they will help to lead you out of the darkness… as they once did for me.”
Connor watched as Luna’s body began to dissolve, fading into the background as the distance between them increased. And just as she was about to disappear completely, she opened her mouth to speak one last time. “Stay strong, Connor.”
Then she was gone.
Just like that, Connor was by himself again. And despite the Princess’ encouraging words, he felt more alone than ever before in this environment, which had gone from seeming empty and infinite to stifling and claustrophobic.
Connor silently sat back with his legs underneath him, still shaking slightly as his turbulent emotions mellowed out into a general feeling of numbing dread. He brought his hands up in front of his face, staring hard as he slowly flexed and unflexed his fingers.
This might be the last time I see these. The thought only made him further depressed, reminding him that his current state of being would only persist so long as he stayed dreaming. How twisted was that? Inside this dream he still looked like he always did -- minus the horn, of course. Outside… he had no idea what was waiting for him, what things were going to be like, or how he’d even live. He felt like a ghost, refusing to let go of something he felt he couldn’t go on without: his sense of self.
Connor wrapped his arms tightly around his torso, curling up and trying to make himself as small as possible. In a moment of despair, he couldn’t help but wonder if it would have been easier had he simply been killed by the awful event that landed him here. At least that would be easier to understand, rather than the revelation that his life was about to change in the most dramatic way possible, and there was nothing he could do about it.
It was only a matter of time now. Connor wished he didn’t have to wake up -- or if he did, that all of this would turn out to be some terrible nightmare, and when he did wake up he would be perfectly fine.
But most of all, right then… he wished someone would just hold him. Hold him and tell him everything was going to be okay.
He wished Twilight was there.
She’d been there for him when the horn first appeared. She was no doubt still with him in the hospital room, just as she’d promised. But now, as Connor closed his eyes and tried to cherish whatever time was left to him here, he wanted nothing more than to experience that feeling. That indescribable sensation he’d felt when the two were in contact with each other, and the warm comfort it evoked. If he could just have this one thing…
Connor concentrated his focus, trying to recapture that feeling; trying to remember what it was like. And either by fate, happenstance, or as a manifestation of his own need, when he reached deep inside himself… he found it.
It was surprisingly effortless, almost as if it had been waiting for him. Like it had always been there, and he only needed to go looking for it.
Like the embers of a fire being stoked, the otherworldly sensation slowly grew to a flickering blaze, suffusing him with warmth. Connor let himself get lost in it, banishing the fear and the doubt and replacing it with a small measure of tranquility. Days earlier, he had intuitively described it as if his spirit was resonating with the crisp melody of a beautiful bell chime, and now… whatever it was, he felt like he could actually hear it.
Droning on in a single note that filled the emptiness of the dreamscape before fading away, only to come again, slightly deeper, and faster than the one before it. It was evolving into a rhythm, like the signaling of a church bell marking off the time. And it was then that he knew...
Time’s up.
It wasn’t worth resisting any longer. Without any fanfare, Connor quietly let himself slip away from his dream, just as the tolling in his ears started to resemble an intermittent beeping sound...
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The first thing that was apparent to the slowly awakening Connor was the continuous beeping that had chased him out of his sleep: that familiar heart monitor from before, trucking along at a healthy pace. He was probably still somewhere in the hospital.
His thoughts were dazed and sluggish, his brain taking its sweet time to truly wake up as what was left of the sedative in his body was flushed from his veins. Things like assimilating the events comprising his short-term memory took the backseat in favor of just muddling through the in-between state of dreaming and reality.
Connor’s eyelids twitched erratically as he worked on opening them first. The moment a sliver of light passed through them, his nerves stung with the influx of new information. Everything was a little too white, a little too bright, a little too blurry, and oddly… large. It was unpleasant enough to make him want to keep his eyes closed for now, and he did so.
The next thing Connor felt was an acute thirst, feeling like his mouth was full of cotton, and he swallowed reflexively. However, as soon as he did, a tickling sensation at the back of his throat triggered his gag reflex, and he started to cough. He forced his head to the side, hacking and coughing to try and spit out what felt like half a dozen small, gravelly metal objects before he could choke on them. It was also this action that finally garnered the attention of the room’s only other occupant at the time.
At the sound of Connor’s distress, Twilight Sparkle gasped and immediately looked up from the magazine tucked between her forelegs. “Connor? Connor! You’re awake!” Without wasting a moment, she put her reading material aside with magic while getting up and off the long chair she was sitting on, and rushed over to the bed where her friend lay tucked securely underneath a light blue blanket.
With the flurry of activity, another mix of confusing audio and tactile signals impressed itself upon Connor’s mind, but he didn’t need to make sense of them right away to recognize Twilight’s voice. He attempted again to open his eyes halfway, blinking a few times before focusing on the splash of violet fur against the white, bleary surroundings.
“...Twilight…” he croaked in a raspy tone upon successfully spitting out the rest of the offending objects in his mouth. By now, motor control was given the green light, and Connor tried lifting his head, but found his neck muscles acting stiff and unresponsive.
“Easy, easy. Just take things slow for now,” Twilight cautioned him, urging Connor to relax before he overexerted himself. “They had you on some pretty heavy stuff, and… just… take your time.”
While she was certainly worried about the lingering effects of the drugs the medical staff were forced to pump into him, that was only a part of it. And a relatively minuscule part, at that. She was far more worried about how her friend was going to react when he finally realized what was going on. When he became aware of exactly what had happened to him while he was out.
As the seconds passed, the stinging in Connor’s eyes lessened somewhat, to the point where he could barely make out the details of Twilight’s face. Beyond that, though, the rest of his senses were still a little indistinct, including a peculiar numbness in his extremities.
“Everything’s… fuzzy…” Connor said groggily, causing an unexpected reaction in Twilight, who made a small, muffled choking sound and turned her head away. Even though it was blurry, he could still see the obvious distress in the unicorn’s somber expression, leading him to wonder what was making her upset. “Twilight...? What’s wrong?”
And that’s when Connor made the mistake of trying to reach out to her. Mustering his strength, he removed his arm from underneath the bed sheet covering him. When it moved out past the edge of the bed, the sheet fell away, rendering his arm plainly visible as it entered his field of vision.
Except it wasn’t his arm. In fact, it didn’t look like an arm at all. Not even close.
For one thing, it wasn’t colored the pale pink of his skin, but a darker red, almost like a maroon color. It was also almost perfectly cylindrical, uniformly thick, and down where he expected a hand to be… there was none. Connor’s brain idled in place as he stared, befuddled, at this thing sitting where he knew his arm should’ve been.
“Connor, it’s going to be okay,” Twilight implored fearfully, bracing herself for the inevitable. “Whatever you do, don’t panic. Connor? Can you hear me?”
Mentally, Connor commanded his fingers to move, but the instruction had nowhere to go; he had no fingers to flex. When he next tried to move his wrist around, he was moderately more successful, with the end of the red thing curling up in response. That was when he realized it looked incredibly similar to a pony's hoof. A hoof that was part of a foreleg. His foreleg.
In an instant, the shock of this revelation blasted the rest of his drowsiness away. He was aware -- painfully aware -- as the solid wave of sensory information that he’d been ignoring up until now came rushing into his nervous system all at once, almost overwhelming him.
First off, he could see far more than he should have been able to normally. Despite the unexplained absence of his glasses preventing him from seeing fine detail at a distance, almost all of the hospital room around him was plainly visible. It was like his sense of sight had been swapped out with an IMAX screen, blowing up his field of view to a far higher degree than he thought possible.
His sense of smell was also equally expanded to a disorienting extent. When he took his next breath through his nose, the details of the scent were far beyond what he expected. The alcoholic tang of the hospital’s antiseptic was almost too much on its own, but it was also mingled with the musky, slightly sweet scent of what must have been Twilight’s own fur, even though she was obviously standing several feet away.
The next thing he noticed was how loud the heart monitor sounded, and also how much richer the sound was. And when he specifically made note of its presence, something even weirder happened. He felt new, unfamiliar muscles shifting around the top of his head. And accompanying the alien movement, the sound seemed somewhat clearer, more nuanced, and carried the faint but unmistakable impression of creating a slight echo.
And he felt warm, like he was being smothered by a heavy blanket. Except there was only the one blanket covering him from the neck down, and that was barely more than a thin sheet. Not to mention how odd it felt as every subtle shift his body made caused it to slide across his skin… or fur, as the case might have been.
Somewhat more subtle was the general feeling that Connor’s brain was receiving sensations from familiar body parts, but in strange and unexpected places. Things like the angle of his shoulders having rotated around to the front of his body, or the way his hips connected to his lower limbs, or the fact that his ankles were located a foot away from where they were supposed to be connected to his feet. And he didn't even have feet any more.
Or hands. Where were his hands!?
Connor jerked his arm… leg... around to try and hold up the end in front of his face, only he misjudged the distance, and it stopped short as it collided with the end of his nose. Gingerly, he pressed down, confirming that the tactile sensation was indeed coming from his face, and when he managed to cross his eyes forward to see better, he noticed a big fuzzy obstacle, colored the same red as his limb, jutting straight out from his vision. His new muzzle.
All of this observation took place in a matter of seconds, which was just enough time for the initial shock of the situation to wear off and for cold reality to seep in. It had actually happened… Connor had officially crossed the species barrier. Physically, he was no longer a member of the family homo sapiens.
With this heady revelation out of the way, he was finally cognizant of the fact that he shouldn’t have been surprised by this. He knew it was going to happen, as Princess Luna had blatantly told him as much not even a few minutes ago in his own dream. It didn’t make it any easier to confront firsthand, but it was enough to keep him from flying off into panic mode in response to this dramatic shift in perception. For now, at least.
After all, the situation was still the farthest thing from ideal as one could possibly get, and one can never truly prepare oneself for waking up as the wrong species.
“Connor, can you hear what I’m saying?” Twilight repeated as she observed the former human struggling to cope with what must have been a fairly traumatic experience. “You’re worrying me. Please say something. Anything.”
Connor closed his eyes, shutting out the impossible images his new super-sized vision was sending to him. This made it slightly easier to concentrate on breathing meditatively, in and out in a steady rhythm, all in an attempt to do just one thing: not completely lose it. Apart from reminding himself how weird his chest felt with every deep breath -- technically, it was a barrel now, but he was by no means an expert on equine anatomy -- it was surprisingly easy to maintain his grip on sanity so far. Unfortunately, doing the equivalent of sticking his fingers in his ears and pretending nothing was wrong wasn’t going to help. The sooner he accepted this new reality, the better… no matter how much he didn’t want to.
“Mirror,” Connor mumbled softly, almost flinching as he felt his new ears flick in response to his own voice. Was that different as well? He could have sworn his voice sounded different, but it could have just been his imagination.
“Wh-what?” Twilight stuttered at this unexpected turn of events. She had honestly expected a more dramatic reaction than this. He was acting absolutely tame compared to when he woke up with a fledgling horn growing out of his head.
“A mirror, Twilight… please,” Connor restated, snapping Twilight out of her ruminations.
In response, the lavender unicorn nodded slowly to herself and backed away, her eyes searching around the room for anything she could use to fulfill his request. Seconds later, Connor could hear the warping sound of her magic activating, followed by the sound of her hoofsteps on the tile floor as she approached again.
“Are you sure?” she asked hesitantly. Connor responded by nodding. “Okay… you can open your eyes now.”
He did, and thanks to the surface of the small desk mirror Twilight had managed to find for him, Connor found himself face to face with an image that was at the same time both him, and not him.
The first things he noticed were his eyes. The irises were the same color brown as his original pair, just rounder… and much bigger. Connor figured that would explain his sight being in widescreen, seeing as they were more than three times the size they used to be, and positioned more on the sides of his head than the front. Perfectly normal for an equine, but absolutely jarring for someone who’d never experienced it before.
And beneath his eyes was a fuzzy red pony’s muzzle with a robust snout that sort of reminded Connor of Applejack’s brother, Big Mac, if it was a bit thinner towards the back and slightly darker colored. With a casual fascination, Connor opened his mouth, watching his reflection do the same. He moved his jaw from side to side in order to get a good look at his teeth. Not even those had been spared, it seemed, replaced by neat rows of uniformly flat, rectangular implements evolved for the purpose of handling a purely vegetarian diet. He also noticed how pristine and perfect they looked, and it was then that Connor realized what it was he’d been forced to spit out earlier: his dental fillings. His teeth had completely renewed themselves as a part of the transformation.
Moving on to other aspects of his reflection, his dark brown hair actually looked pretty much unchanged, surprisingly enough. Except for the fact that it was technically a mane now, so it was a little longer towards the back where it grew out of his upper neck and draped down near his shoulders. Poking up past his bangs, the unicorn horn he’d been sporting days earlier was still proudly on display, though it had obviously changed from being bone-white to matching the color his new furry exterior. And Connor noted with some annoyance that his hair still did that stupid curly thing around his… well, where his ears used to be.
Now his ears were large, thick, pointy triangles that had migrated to the top of his head. Even now, he could see them pitching around minutely like satellite dishes searching for a signal. And when he tried to consciously control the new muscles in his head to make them stop, they moved around even more, just to spite him.
That was it. That was all he could take. Connor felt like he couldn’t stand looking at it anymore, and he forced his eyes shut, breathing out heavily. It had been everything he was afraid of, and so much more than he had expected.
Seeing that Connor was finished, Twilight put the mirror back where she’d found it. She then turned again to face him, swallowing deeply as she continued to show a concerned expression. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked quietly, not knowing what else to say.
Still fighting to keep his wits about him, Connor opened his eyes and looked directly in Twilight’s own. “Do I look like I’m okay, Twilight?” he retorted, coming off a bit snappish.
The unicorn mare visibly flinched, lowering her ears as she cast her head down, causing Connor to instantly regret his choice of tone.
“Sorry,” he apologized right away, hoping Twilight wouldn’t hold it against him. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just… All of this happening… It’s got me scared, and… confused, and…” As the words began pouring out and Connor started to ramble, he brought his hooves up to cover his face, shivering. Desperately trying to keep it together. “And I feel like I want to scream my head off, but I know that’s not… not going to help. Not going to change anything.”
Connor spent the next couple of seconds internally debating whether or not he should start screaming. How else was he supposed to deal with suddenly being a quadrupedal, red-furred talking animal? This wasn’t something he could just shrug off and then be able to move on and say, “Oh, well. Guess I’ll just have to live like this.” There was a nigh unscalable mountain of consequences to this change that Connor hadn’t even begun to consider yet, and he felt that if he did start down that road… he might not be able to come back.
Sensing her friend’s mounting distress, Twilight quickly moved right beside the bed, placing a comforting hoof on Connor’s shoulder in an attempt to soothe him. “I know it’s scary, Connor, but I believe in you. You can get through this, and we’re here to help you.”
That last part caused a flicker of emotion to race through Connor’s increasingly jumbled thoughts, pausing them for just a moment. “We?” he asked as he slowly lowered his hooves, feeling cautiously hopeful.
Twilight nodded vigorously. “Everypony else is here too: Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike… They’re all in the hospital waiting room.” Seeing Connor’s body visibly relax at this news was all the evidence she needed to know she was on the right track. “I can go get them and bring them here right now. Would you like that?”
Princess Luna’s words echoed faintly in his memories, and all of a sudden he couldn’t agree more with them. The thought of his Ponyville friends being there with him was exactly the kind of balm he needed to soothe his nerves and ease him through this difficult period.
“Yes... please,” Connor answered simply.
With that, Twilight lowered her foreleg and cantered swiftly over to the glass sliding door leading out to the hallway, but before she left, she turned her head one last time. “I’ll be right back, okay? Right back,” she assured him, then she made her exit, and for the first time since he awoke as a pony, Connor was left purely to his own devices.
Okay... I can handle this. Everything’s going to be okay, he tried to tell himself in an effort to keep calm. Just need to focus on something. Try not to think about how fubar everything is right now. Occupy your thoughts. Just until Twilight gets back.
First things first, he tried shifting around to prop himself up at more of an angle, inching up with his shoulders until the back of his neck could rest against the headboard of the bed. The way his body functioned in this regard was going to really take some getting used to, but once he accounted for the odd positioning of his foreleg joints and the fact that his neck was twice as long as before, he managed to do it with minimal discomfort.
Now in a better position, Connor could fully observe the intensive care unit he found himself in. Without his glasses it was hard to tell, but for the most part it was basically a windowless version of the room he’d stayed in last time, only everything was painted white, giving it a much more sterile feel. It was also more cluttered, with an array of cabinets along the walls, along with drawers, trays of surgical implements, and an assortment of expensive-looking medical devices.
All that observation was over fairly quickly, leaving Connor with few other options to occupy himself than a more thorough examination of his new form. He had to be careful to keep his personal feelings at bay for this; no emotional connotations, just straight details. Maybe that would help him come to grips with his current situation, and prevent any future surprises.
And maybe if he convinced himself of this, it might actually make it true.
Connor held both his hooves out in the air in front of him, noticing for the first time the tightness of the heart monitor cuff secured tightly around his upper right forearm. No, foreleg. Gotta remember that. Bending the new equivalent of his elbows, he brought his hooves around until they faced each other. He was again reminded of how disconcerting it was not having any opposable digits at the ends, leaving him with two inert stumps of hardened material at the base of a long furry tube that left his nerves clueless as to how to fill the void in his senses.
They weren’t like normal horses’ hooves, that was for sure. The only differences between them and the rest of his legs were their texture and consistency, as well as a lighter coloration, sort of like a fingernail. Testing his hooves’ pliability, he brought the two together with a hollow clopping sound. With it, Connor was surprised to find that he could indeed feel sensation through them, though with less sensitivity than normal. And it was interesting to see that when he increased the pressure, the bases of his hooves sort of… spread out to compensate. They weren’t completely solid, after all.
It occurred to him then that he still had no idea what the rest of him looked like, as the bed sheet still covered his entire lower half. After a few clumsy attempts to hook his forelegs underneath it -- not being able to grasp objects with any degree of dexterity was already starting to frustrate him immensely -- he was finally able to lift it up and assess the damage. In particular, he was morbidly curious as to the fate of his nether regions.
Yup... Pony down there, too, Connor observed, a nauseated shiver running along the length of his spine. Without getting into too much detail, his anatomy was now one hundred percent equine… along with everything that implied. And it was all right out there in the open, too. Connor prayed it really wasn’t as noticeable as he imagined it was. His only solace was the fact that there was a generous amount of fur around the area, and this, coupled with the… ugh… sheathe, meant that he was probably perfectly presentable by pony standards. He hoped.
...Moving on from that, his legs looked equine, no surprises there. With his knees shunted up by his abdomen, and his ankles located much higher up on his legs, it almost made Connor sick to imagine how devastatingly painful it would be to experience the necessary shifts his skeleton had to achieve. It made him grateful for the pony doctor’s decision to put him under. If he’d been forced to stay awake for the entire ordeal, he wasn’t sure he could’ve come out sane on the other end.
He tried moving his legs around -- stretching them out, pressing them together, feeling the muscles expand and contract -- when he became aware of an uncomfortable pressure located at the base of his spine. And that was when he was reminded of something he’d overlooked about him being a pony: his tail. He was sitting on his tail.
Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ, I have a fucking tail.
And just like that, the fragile veneer he’d built up to keep the panic at bay started to crumble at the edges. Tails weren’t human. This wasn’t right. None of it was, and as his consciousness and his baser instincts fought for control over how he should proceed at this point, the instincts were starting to win out. His breaths started coming faster, and the beeping of the heart monitor began ticking upwards in frequency as his adrenaline surged.
That damned beeping was too loud for comfort, and felt like it was getting louder all the time; something his new ears were keen to remind him of as they swept around yet again. It was all starting to become more than he could handle, and Connor let the sheet fall as he desperately wrapped his forelegs around his head, trying to hold down his ears in an attempt to shut it all out.
Stay calm… Just stay calm… he repeated to himself in a mantra, in the hope that he could keep it together, but it obviously wasn’t helping, as evidenced by the unsettling sensation of the room starting to spin.
Connor was afraid he was actually about to go off the deep end this time, and that nothing he or anyone else could do would prevent it from happening…
...until something did.
“Okay, we’re here.” Twilight’s voice penetrated the haze that was building around his thoughts like a lighthouse in stormy weather. It sounded like she was just outside the emergency room door, and Connor put his emotions on hold as he hung onto her every word. “But I should warn you, Connor’s in a really fragile state right now, so watch what you say, alright?”
Noises of general agreement followed her request, and with each new voice giving him something to focus on besides his own body, Connor could both feel and hear his heart rate crawling back down. The erratic beeping had slowed just enough to not be cause for alarm by the time the door slid open to admit Twilight and the others as each of the mares entered in turn.
Rainbow Dash was the first one inside, gliding in cautiously on her flapping wings. “Whoa…” the pegasus said disbelievingly upon catching sight of Connor sitting in the bed. She actually had to stop and rub her eyes with her hooves just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.
“Ah’ll say,” mentioned Applejack, who was next in line, tilting back her hat. “Y’all weren’t kiddin’, Twi.”
Following the orange earth pony was Rarity, who held a hoof to her muzzle as she gasped softly. “Oh, dear…”
Next came Fluttershy, her head hanging demurely with her mane covering her face when she saw him. And right on her tail was Pinkie Pie, being her characteristically peppy self by bouncing up and down as she entered.
“Oooh, neato! Now the rest of you matches the horn!” she piped up while wearing a cheerful smile.
“Pinkie, what did I just say not ten seconds ago?” chastised Twilight with a stern expression, who entered behind her pink-furred friend while carrying Spike on her back.
“Oh, sorry, Twilight! I’ll be quiet now.” Pinkie stopped bouncing where she stood, and a few seconds later, so did her mane and tail. Twilight could only shake her head in dismay before sending Connor an apologetic glance.
“...Is it really you?” Fluttershy spoke up quietly, addressing the former human.
Connor breathed in deeply before answering to the assembled ponies. “Yeah, it’s me… in the fur.” That last word stuck on his tongue like a bad aftertaste.
“Y’all doin’ okay, sugarcube?” Applejack asked curiously. “What’s it feel like?”
Connor turned to look at her. “It’s… really strange. Actually, you all would probably know what it feels like better than I do. Heh…” he chuckled weakly at his own little joke, but his heart wasn’t in it. This wasn’t the time for humor.
“Soooo, are you also a pony, like, ya know…” Rainbow started saying, using her forelegs to motion up and down the lower half of her body.
The insinuation was clear, and the reaction to her crassness from her fellow Elements of Harmony was swift and uniform. “Rainbow!”
To her credit, the blue pegasus instantly recognized how that sounded to everyone present, her cheeks turning bright red with an ashamed blush. “I didn’t mean it like that!” she was quick to say. “Th-the blanket’s there, a-and we can’t see, and I was just… I wasn’t talking about...” She folded her forelegs together, turning her face and snorting out of embarrassment. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Fighting to hide his own blush (which was easy, seeing as his fur was already red), Connor coughed loudly to try and diffuse the awkwardness. “Yeah, it’s… um… yeah.” The silence that followed was agonizingly slow to pass, with nobody able to come up with what to say next. Until eventually, Spike elected to continue the conversation.
“So, does it, like, hurt, or anything?” he asked, leaning forward on Twilight’s neck. “Back at the library, it… didn’t sound too good.”
“It wasn’t,” Connor answered, cringing as he harkened back to that awful ordeal. “But I’m fine now. Well, not exactly, but… you know what I mean.”
“At least it’s something,” Fluttershy pointed out. “For a while, the doctors wouldn’t tell us what was happening. We were all really worried about you. I guess… we still are. I know I am.”
“Thanks, Fluttershy.” Connor wanted to smile, to communicate to the girls that he would be fine, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do that yet. Regardless, their presence was starting to have an undeniably positive impact on his psyche, as if each friendly, empathetic face was fueling a flame keeping the demons in his own mind at bay. “Thank you, all of you. It definitely means a lot, having you guys here.”
“There’s nowhere else we’d rather be, darling,” Rarity told him, sidling up closer to the bed, but not close enough that he didn’t still need to squint to see her.
“You know, it’s… really kind of a shame you all look so blurry,” Connor felt like pointing out. “What happened to my glasses?”
“I have them,” Twilight said, having taken them and stowed them away earlier on. “Although... I doubt they’d be of much use, seeing as they won’t quite fit you anymore.”
This made Connor reach up and touch the bridge of his snout, finding it hard to argue with the facts. Yet another inconvenience thanks to his new form. “And the clothes that Rarity made for me?”
Twilight uneasily rubbed the back of her neck with her hoof. “Those… weren’t so lucky. After it became apparent what was, well, happening to you, the nurses had to cut you out of them before you hurt yourself through all the changes.”
“Oh.” Connor cast an apologetic glance at Rarity. “Sorry about that.”
In response, the ivory mare just shook her head. “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. While it is indeed a shame, they are just clothes, after all.”
“Uh, no offense or nuthin’, but aren’t there more important questions we should be askin’?” Applejack spoke up, raising a hoof to get attention.
“AJ’s right,” Rainbow agreed, flying over to the bed and examining Connor the pony with more scrutiny. “It’d be nice to know how the hay this happened. Some kinda spell? Poison Joke? Mutant Poison Joke?”
“More important than that, how do we fix it?” asked Spike, before tugging lightly on Twilight’s ear. “Any ideas, Twi?”
Twilight closed her eyes. “I wish. I’m coming up completely blank here.” The unicorn’s shoulders slumped as she made this painful admission. “Rainbow makes a good point. We can’t hope to reverse whatever this is until we know more about the cause.”
At a loss for both answers and solutions, the ponies in the room looked dourly at each other, not sure where to even begin.
However, if anyone present had been expecting the answer to just present itself out of the blue, they still would have been surprised by the form it chose to take.
“I think I might be able to shed some light on the situation,” came a new voice that caused all six mares and one dragon in attendance to gasp in recognition of the gentle, regal tone. “No pun intended, of course.”
Seven heads turned on the spot to the door where, just stepping into view, was the tall, radiant form of none other than Princess Celestia herself. Standing by her flank at nearly half the alicorn’s height was Bedside Manner, who had accompanied the Princess and led her to the correct room, though she looked a tad nervous about having to be so close in proximity to such a revered figure.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed out of shock, and she instinctively lowered herself into a formal bow, which was instantly mirrored by each of her friends. This caused Celestia to chuckle lightly, a small smile lighting up her features, as well as the room.
“Now, you know that’s not necessary, my little ponies,” she told them kindly. As the six ponies sheepishly resumed standing, Celestia turned her attention to the maroon-colored unicorn sitting in the bed, and her expression turned sad and serious as she ducked slightly to enter the room herself.
“...Hi, Princess,” Connor said to her, weakly waving his hoof. He was just as surprised to see her as everypony else, but with the shock of his transformation still weighing heavily on his mind, it was hard to express with any degree of difference.
Celestia closed her eyes, taking a moment of private reflection, as if confirming to herself a reality she’d hoped not to have to face. Then, she turned her head towards Nurse Betty and nodded politely. “Thank you for your assistance.”
“Oh, you’re quite welcome, Your Majesty,” Betty said quickly in her folksy accent, before peering inside the ICU and casually scanning the room and its nine occupants. “Oh, my. It’s getting rather crowded in here, isn’t it? Dearie, wouldn't you prefer a little more privacy?”
“No,” Connor spoke up a little too forcefully at the suggestion, and he consciously lowered his voice. “No. I mean, I want them to stay.”
“Alrighty then, if you insist,” the nurse agreed, entering the room herself and making her way to the side of the bed. “I’m just going to examine you real quick, okay? Make sure you’re healthy and all that. While I’m at it, would you like me to get you anything?”
“Um… Actually, a glass of water would be appreciated,” Connor requested, reminded of how his mouth was still bone dry, especially after all the talking he’d been doing. “With a straw, please.”
“You betcha.” Betty nodded, and began by walking over to a nearby sink to fulfill his request before beginning her basic examination procedures. While this was going on, a fairly perplexed Twilight Sparkle looked up at her mentor, eager for an explanation.
“Princess, what are you doing here?” she asked. “How did you know where to find us?”
“Well, my faithful student, I just so happened to have some help from my sister,” Celestia told her. “She made contact with Connor through his dreams, and when she told me everything she could, I left for Ponyville as fast as my wings could take me. This is something that I feel would be better handled in person.”
Fluttershy was the next one to speak. “About what you said earlier… Do you know what’s happening to Connor?”
“Correct,” Celestia said to the yellow pegasus. “Given everything we know so far, I believe I am almost certain of the cause.”
“That means you can fix it, right? Change him back?” Spike questioned the regal pony while Connor gratefully took a drink of water from the cup held by the nurse, simultaneously quenching his thirst and feeling a tiny flicker of hope at her announcement.
Unfortunately, the flicker died down when the Princess responded by lowering her head slowly. Even before she spoke, he knew the answer wouldn’t be so positive.
“That… may prove to be more difficult than not.”
It wasn’t an outright “No,” but it was close enough for everypony to realize that perhaps the situation was even more dire than it seemed. This cast a pall over the assembled ponies, further dampening their spirits. Not even Pinkie Pie could think of a way to lighten the mood in the long bout of silence that followed.
“So, what do we do now?” Connor asked after a while, looking to Celestia for guidance. He didn’t want to think about what it would mean if he was stuck like this… permanently.
“For now, I can tell all of you what I know,” the Princess answered, before taking a look around the room like she was sizing up the area. “However, perhaps this would be a discussion better suited to a more accommodating environment. As the nurse pointed out, this room is rather cramped, and there is much we have to talk about.”
“You sure ‘bout that, Princess?” Applejack tilted her head while raising an eyebrow. “Considerin’ everythin’ that’s happened, maaaaybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea for Connor to be movin’ around so much.”
“A valid point. Perhaps we should ask the professional,” Celestia suggested, motioning her head towards Bedside Manner. With that, all eyes turned to the sky-blue earth pony, just as she finished her examination.
“Oh, my, um…” she stuttered at the sudden attention. She took the stethoscope currently held in her hooves and wrapped it around her neck, before coughing loudly to clear her throat. “Well, let me just say first that I would never dream of going against your wishes, Your Majesty.”
The alicorn raised a gilded hoof to give the nurse pause. “That’s quite alright. I would rather defer to your better judgment.”
“Oh, okay. Good, good.” Betty took the time to smooth down her auburn mane before continuing. “Well, accounting for the fact that he wasn’t a pony when he was brought in, your friend is actually perfectly healthy. As far as ponies go, that is.” She placed a protective hoof on the bed and addressed Connor directly. “I would prefer it if you stayed longer, just in case. But, seeing as it’s been several hours since the… event, it doesn’t seem like there are going to be any further... developments. If you really want to go with them, well, I won’t stop you.”
Hours? Connor picked up on the word. How long have I been out? And how long have my friends been waiting for me to wake up?
Interrupting his thoughts, Celestia spoke to get Connor’s attention. “Is that acceptable, Connor? And do you think you are well enough to travel?”
“...Yeah. As long as it’s okay with you,” he said to Nurse Betty, who nodded in understanding.
"I'll let the doctor know about your decision," she explained, and took the opportunity to switch off Connor’s heart monitor and remove the cuff.
Reveling in the absence of that obnoxious beeping, he absently rubbed the section of fur the cuff had surrounded, when he realized something. “This might be a problem… I don’t know the first thing about moving around on four legs, but I doubt it’s anything like walking on two.”
“Oh, that’s easy! Just watch me!” Pinkie suddenly piped up, animatedly moving her legs up and down as she trotted to the other end of the room and back. “See? Piece of cake!” The party pony’s eyes then glazed over, her tongue hanging slightly from her mouth. “Mmm, cake.”
Whether or not it was intentional, Pinkie’s random, childish antics were enough to elicit an unbidden snort of amusement from Connor nonetheless. “We’ll see.”
The human-turned-pony took a few seconds to mentally prepare himself while everyone gave him plenty of open space, then slowly, carefully, started maneuvering to the side of the bed. He tried to keep the bed sheet covering his lower half as much as possible, not wanting to risk “exposing” himself in front of his friends -- much less the ruler of the entire country. It struck him that he was now completely naked… and would be walking around in public… naked, with only a coat of thick red fur to protect his modesty. But if other stallions in Ponyville could do it with impunity, then he supposed it was alright if he could too.
Shifting an inch at a time, Connor soon wound up with his right hind leg nearly draping past the edge. Trying hard to keep from simply dumping himself onto the floor like a sack of potatoes, he brought his knee around, extending the limb until his hoof hung just half a foot off the ground. Then, he tried doing the same with his other leg, but he miscalculated, putting a majority of his weight too far out and causing his flank to slip off the side. Connor’s eyes went wide as he felt himself pitch forward, and he held his forelegs out to brace for impact.
Luckily for him, his friends weren’t just standing idly by, which became apparent as he felt another pair of legs hook around his shoulders from behind.
“Don’t worry, I gotcha,” he heard Rainbow Dash say from above, and he looked up to see the blue pegasus’ face bearing a reassuring smirk.
“Thanks,” Connor breathed out in a sigh of relief as Rainbow pumped her wings and gently lowered him down to touch the ground with his back hooves. Then, she brought him slowly forward until his outstretched forelegs could also make contact with the tile floor, leaving him on all fours.
“You good?” Rainbow asked, and when Connor nodded to her, she released her grip and flew back, allowing him to put his full weight on his legs.
“Okay, this is officially weirding me out.” It was certainly a novel sensation to be standing on four limbs that were all the same size, along with the confusing impression that felt as though he was balancing on the tips of what used to be his fingers and toes. He could also feel the tension in his muscles lessening as his spine conformed to its more natural shape, and with his knees and elbows locked, it actually felt comfortable to be standing that way.
Another thing he noticed was the fact that, when he lifted his neck up straight, he was now eye level with the other ponies. He was more than a foot shorter than he used to be, and now, instead of feeling like a giant, everything seemed to be much more in proportion.
“Huh. Well, Ah’ll be a diamond dog’s uncle,” Applejack said thoughtfully as she observed him, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “No cutie mark.”
“Cutie mark? What?” Connor turned his head from side to side, trying to get a good angle to look at his flank. Turns out the cowpony was right. Whereas all the other ponies in the room had a unique design on their behinds, all Connor had was a blank patch of fur on either side. He also managed to snag his first good look at his tail, which was similarly colored to his mane and hung flatly down about a third of the way to the floor.
“Interesting…” Celestia commented as well. “Though I suppose it is to be expected. One only receives their cutie mark upon discovering their special talent, and you’ve only been a pony for so long.”
“So I really was just wasting my time at college,” Connor opined dryly in a moment of wit that swiftly passed when he realized he had a new challenge to overcome: turning around.
Testing his mobility, he bent his left foreleg at the elbow. But like a table that was missing one of its legs, he immediately sensed the imbalance, and put his hoof back on the floor to stabilize himself. If he was going to move, he figured he should probably be quick about it, and took a deep breath in preparation. Then, in the span of half a second, he lifted up again, extending his leg as far left as he could before setting it back down.
“So far, so good…” he muttered, feeling a little more confident. His confidence, however, would end up being his downfall -- literally.
In his next movement, he mistakenly picked his other foreleg up off the ground, and with the first one already out of alignment, his other two legs folded like wet newspaper, and gravity sent him hurdling straight down to the floor.
There was a collective gasp from the other ponies, and more than a few exclamations of worry over whether or not he was hurt. But it was a soft landing, and aside from a bruised ego, Connor wasn’t hurt too badly by the fall.
“Goodness! Are you injured, dear?” Betty asked frantically, stepping up to his side in case he needed help.
Connor winced, but out of embarrassment, not pain. “Tch… Just my pride,” he muttered as he tried to get himself up off of his side. Cast back into the unfamiliar territory of figuring out how his unwieldy limbs moved in relation to one another, he kicked out weakly, scrambling to get his hooves back underneath him. If he looked ridiculous to the outside observer -- and he was one hundred percent sure that he did -- nopony made a mention of it as they each wondered if they should try and assist him.
Eventually, through a fair amount of work, Connor finally managed to right himself, though only his forelegs were securely underneath him, while his hind legs stuck out horizontally. And he was still facing the wrong direction.
At this point, he didn’t care how stupid it looked; he put his front hooves in front of himself and used them as leverage to pivot around ninety degrees, dragging his belly along the tile until he was facing his friends.
“There, I did it,” he proclaimed spitefully. It might have been cheating, but it got the job done, didn’t it?
“Are you sure you don’t want any help?” offered Fluttershy.
Connor looked up at the yellow pegasus’ cautious expression before letting out a weary sigh. “I appreciate it, but no, thanks. I can do this… I can do this.”
It took him another couple of seconds to figure out how to lift himself the right way in order to enter the same “lying down” position he’d seen other ponies use: the one with their body perfectly straight and with all four hooves touching the ground. But once he was able to do it, it was a relatively simple matter of straightening all four legs in tandem to get him standing upright again.
Goddammit, I’m never going to get the hang of this. Yet another reason he hoped this was a temporary state of affairs, he thought, when another issue came to his attention as he looked up and down the stretch of floor separating him and the others. “Um… what order am I supposed to move these things in?” he asked sheepishly, his ears folding back on themselves.
Twilight took the liberty of spelling it out for him: “Left foreleg, right hind leg, right foreleg, left hind leg, repeat.”
“Okay, so… One… Two… Three… Four…” he listed off, tentatively lifting each of his legs to test in the order Twilight instructed and labeling them respectively. Once he had the order down in his head, it was time to try walking for real.
With his hooves planted firmly on the ground, he started with his left foreleg. “One…” he said to himself, placing it forward. “Two…” The first hind leg followed. “Thr-Three…” The third motion nearly caused him to stumble again, but he managed to follow through. “Four…”
“That’s it. You’re getting it!” Twilight encouraged him along, though she was still mindful of the fact that with every step his legs were trembling like a newborn colt’s. And in a manner of speaking, he was one, just adult-sized.
At last, Connor breathed a sigh of relief as one more run through the cycle brought him within mere inches of the group, and a small round of cheers went up at the little victory.
“Yer doin’ great, there, sugarcube,” Applejack told him, though it was obvious she was embellishing a bit. She cantered to his side and lightly clapped him on the back with her hoof. “Give it some time, and you’ll be walkin’ around like nopony’s business!”
Just then, Princess Celestia cleared her throat to get everypony’s attention. “Yes, well… While I do not wish to make light of your accomplishment, unfortunately, time is not a luxury we can afford to waste,” she told them all, the patient expression adorning her muzzle changing to a more serious look. “You will have to get more practice at a later time. For now, I can simply use magic to take us to our destination immediately.”
Connor nodded to the alicorn. “That’s probably a good idea. Oh, but can you wait just a second?” He turned his neck to look at Nurse Betty standing behind him and off to the side. It just seemed wrong to leave like this without saying anything to the mare. “Betty, thank you for everything. You’re a wonderful nurse, and... I appreciate you helping me throughout… well, all of this.”
“Oh, dearie…” Bedside Manner turned a blush at the praise and bashfully averted her eyes. “I was just doing my job, there, don’tcha know. But you’re very welcome. Best of luck out there, and if anything else happens, you come right back and we’ll take care of you, alright?” And she finished by giving Connor one of the brightest and most genuine smiles he’d ever seen: a broad, sweet-as-sugar smile that could’ve given even Pinkie a run for her bits.
True to the blue mare’s gifted intuition, her combination of kind words and heartfelt sincerity succeeded in lifting Connor’s spirits by no small amount. Enough so that he could even bring himself to smile in return; the first one he’d managed in all the time since the start of this whole predicament.
Connor faced forwards again and nodded to the Princess. “Okay. Ready.”
Celestia signaled her acknowledgement, and she closed her eyes, her long horn beginning to glow a pale yellow. Suddenly, a small golden circle of light appeared at her hooves, quickly expanding outwards until the shining disk encompassed the floor beneath all eight ponies. Then, there was a bright flash and a whip-cracking noise as the alicorn loosed her magic, and the circle collapsed in on itself, vanishing them all in an instant.
After they had gone, Betty’s smile slowly faltered, replaced by a forlorn expression as she looked to the ground. For such a nice young colt to be put through so much hardship… the thought could dampen the spirit of even the most cheerful pony.
“Poor dear…”
------------------------
The spell was finished in a span of time so short that, if he’d blinked, Connor would have missed it. One moment, he and his friends were in the white, utilitarian environment of the hospital ICU, the next, they found themselves in the foyer of a very familiar library. The salmon-colored walls, floor, and ceiling, as well as the unforgettable shape of the wooden pony bust sitting on the table, made it clear that Celestia had brought them all to Golden Oak Library.
Connor, slightly dazed by the light show and by the sudden change in scenery (made all the more impacting by his wealth of visual information) unintentionally relaxed his stance as a result. Had Applejack not been standing right at his side and not noticed in time to catch him, he would have pitched right over.
“Whoa, there,” she called out, moving just in time to catch him in the shoulder with her foreleg. She used her body to help prop him up, but it didn’t take long for him to recover. “You alright?”
“Thanks, I’ll be fine,” said Connor, unnerved by how he was so unused to standing like this that a simple lapse in concentration was all it took to send him tumbling.
“Why did you take us to my library, Princess?” Twilight expressed curiously, after she too came to recognize where they were. She also couldn’t help but feel humbled by her mentor’s awesome command of the magical arts. Teleporting eight ponies and one baby dragon over such a distance was no small feat, and it’s something the Princess managed without any effort at all.
“For a few reasons, Twilight: it’s private, there’s plenty of space for everypony…” Celestia’s coral-pink eyes tracked over to Connor. “...and it’s a familiar place. Familiarity breeds comfort, wouldn’t you agree?”
Connor took a long look around at the place he’d been spending a great deal of time in over the past couple of days, finding it hard to argue with the alicorn. He was definitely left with the impression that this was a safe place, much like the feeling he got when Celestia invited him to her cozy little study on his first night in Equestria.
By chance, his eyes fell upon a round window to the outside, and he squinted at it for a second before realizing that it was a window, and on the other side was nothing but pitch darkness. “I know the nurse said I was out for a while, but it’s already nighttime?” He turned his head to face the other ponies. “What time is it?”
Rarity pursed her lips in thought. “It was just after midnight, last time I checked.”
“Jeez, it’s that late already?” asked a surprised Spike, whose eyes suddenly widened with realization. “Oh, ponyfeathers! I totally forgot about Peewee! Be right back!”
With that, he jumped off of Twilight’s back and hustled up the stairs to the second floor to check on his phoenix. In his haste, he didn’t even notice the discarded scroll lying forgotten on the floor as he ran past it.
“We can wait for Spike to return before we begin,” Celestia continued, mindful of the fact that, despite their limited timetable, it would be rude not to include her student’s assistant. “In the meantime, I suggest you all make yourselves comfortable.”
As each of the mares around him did as the Princess suggested and either lay down or sat on their flanks in front of her, Connor watched them, trying to go about doing the same.
Okay… hooves and ankle things parallel to the floor, he observed, looking at Fluttershy and Twilight, who were sitting between him and Celestia. So, if I just--
Testing out his theory, Connor pulled his back legs inward, and the moment he did so, his weight took care of the rest. With a dull thump, his rear smacked the wood floor, sending a wince-worthy bolt of pain up his tailbone. Still, he’d done it, and a quick glance around at the other ponies told him that they hadn’t noticed; or if they did, they weren’t about to say anything.
Sure hope Spike gets back soon, he thought to himself, looking up at the ceiling and starting to feel a little antsy. After all this crap, I’m past ready for some answers.
But in the back of his mind, he wasn’t so sure. Regardless of what happened in the next couple of minutes, it was doubtless going to make his life even more complicated than it was already.
And there was virtually no guarantee he was going to like what he heard.
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Ahem...
Fucking called it!!!
So he has become a pony at last? Will it make me stop reading? No, I want more!
*Digs you a deep trench, the roof of which is covered by reinforced steel, and a CBRN-safe door to the outside, the outer case being made of lead.*
In case you couldn't tell, I support this desicion.
the word you're looking for is fubar
otherwise known as Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition
I'm not ragequitting.
Hm...wonder if Discord did it. I mean...I remember early on when Connor sort of went into a trance when he was looking at his statue...
I am sad to hear others can't appreciate this well done story simply because they don't ages with the direction. I for one love this story and the way you went about everything. The trope of ponyfication may be well used in the genre but its the story that makes the ponification not the ponification that makes the story. I look forward to seeing yer reasoning and more of the budding romance between Twi and Connor. Please don't take to long to the next chapter and may Luna bless yer dreams with creativity and joy.
It's not the ponification that really bothers me. It's more the possible implication of Connor hooking up with Twilight in the future. Granted, the pacing of that possible road is much smoother than many other Twi/OC ships, but still. Will keep on reading though.
It's your story. As long as you keep it as well writen as you have been, I've got no problems.
Why would Connor turn into a pony? Just saying it's magic is not enough, since magic is a classification, not an explanation. All life here on Earth does not need magic to function, so why would the magic of Equestria take such drastic measures on a human body?
Actually, he'd HAVE an ankle - it'd just be much further up the leg. And he'd feel like his hind legs were walking on tiptoes.
Thank you for updating. I was getting antsy not knowing what was going to happen. Looking forward to some more.
WOOOOOOO UPPPDDDDAAAATTTTEEEEEEEEEEE!
Great
NEW CHAPTER!!! YEEEHAAAA!!!
What else is there to say?
I for one heavily dislike when the Human becomes an Equine. That said, good god, are you a wizard? This is seriously turning into one of my favorite stories on the sight. And as for the transformation, you went about the right way. He had literally no clue what do do or how to move about. I think that's what bothers me with other fics is that immediacy the protagonist is comfortable with wings, or a horn, or walking on all fours. Well done on a thoroughly detailed segment. I look forward to the next chapter with great anticipation. Good luck.
Well then...
*Ahem*
... I... I am seriously trying to not start gushing over this latest installment you've just posted, good sir. Because you've gone and done the one thing that I don't think I've ever seen in a story so far:
You did ponyfication bucking right.
And I'll follow you to hell and back because of this. I expect great things from you, good sir.
Very, very great things
Yeah, I'm out along with the others in your Author's Note. Ta~.
I very seldom leave comments, much to my shame. And I'm tempted not to do it here, either, because GallantNavy has covered most of what I'd say already.
So I'll only add a
for the pun in the chapter title.
It is a well used plot device, but you tell it well. Either way good story is good lol.
1. You don't seem to know what execution means, since your AN switched it with the approach. You decided to ponify the MC, that's how you chose to approach the next segment of your story. You then asked for advice and criticism of that approach but not your execution of it before telling us to go fuck ourselves if we didn't agree with it... clearly you meant execution not approach in the first paragraph.
2. I was hanging in there right up until the hateful, defensive, CONTRADICTORY, "Fuck you reader!!" Author's Note. Fuck me the reader? Well then fuck YOU the hateful ass author, if I wanted that kind of shit I'd go back to high school.
Okay, the execution is not half bad. If the reason is on this quality level, excellent.
However, as I have a deep set contempt for bad cliches like unoriginal ponification, which you said yourself this is a story with one, you won't see me again for this fic. Goodbye and have a nice life.
As a parting request, though, I just ask you not to have Connor mount Twilight for foals anytime soon. That'll be the real foot on the grave.
Okay. I looked at the comments and apparently the author is a dick. Okay.
3651897 While I do agree that the tone of the AN was very much dickish, I think the author meant it for the jerks that posted nasty comments on tue previous chapter only.
Well done. I think that is the most realistic description of ponification and all the feelings and emotions I have read on this site. Kudos!
Can't wait for more!
3651897
Sorry if my author's note came off as disrespectful, I didn't intend it that way. It wasn't a "Fuck you, reader" attitude, it was a "If you think this one cliche detail makes this a horrible story, then fuck you." You say you were with it until the note, so you are not among this audience.
To be clear: If you (not you specifically, in general) are negative and don't have a legitimate reason for it, that's different than just voicing a criticism. Or maybe I just suck at being passive-aggressive.
3651937
What this guy said, basically.
Well, it was just a countdown from when he got the horn so....
3651725
It happened the same to the protagonist of "When a Pony Calls" and "The Alchemist's Heart"; it turned that Equestria´s magic field changes any living thing from another world, specifically from a non magical world, into its closet equivalent, taking the surrondings creatures (ponies) as templates.
Poor Connor, he could have become a minotaur or a cool griphon may have fallen in another location.
It's nice to see he can still crack jokes at a time like this. It'll help his sanity.
As for the ponification, THAT was probably the BEST ponification I've ever read.
Reasons:
1: this isn't just some, oh sure, Ill be ok- just gimme a minute thing, this is a complete and total mental disaster. He's barely holding back the complete distress and horror at the loss of his humanity.
2: He Isn't going to walk after thirty seconds of practice. (Neither is the practice going to be timeskipped)
The struggle to even do something as simple as standing is a conscious and draining chore.
3: His friends aren't trying to tell him to think that being a pony will be better. (Except maybe Pinkie if she can't keep her mouth shut) They all want to fix this.
4:
......
It's so beautiful....
I was and still am to a point, a transformation fan. well... Forget all that fetish stuff, that's yucky.
I'm more a fan of all the powerful emotions that are invoked as a character struggles to adapt and survive with his/her whole world completely gone. The struggle in a body that was not originally yours can be fun and entertaining, like one fanfic I love- Pilot Light. Don't bother trying to find it on fimfic, it's a pokemon fanfic on fanfiction.net. But anyway, the simple fact that this won't be easy. You CAN'T magic the pain and the trouble away. The adversity of simple everyday life strikes you again and again as you struggle to regain control, but are struck while you're down. But the character preserves, and eventually becomes a shining star- a diamond forged from the heat of their own struggles.... Yeah. I got ranty there... But as you can see I love me a well written TF fic....
Great job on this fic. Here, you can have my polymorphic shield generator I keep around. Ya know, in case of laser shooting peacock samurais. You'll need it methinks.
I rather like this story, but this bit made me choke and spit....
No. Just so many nos, all piled up on top of each other until they are obscured by clouds and you can't see them all.
I think you might have been thinking of the ankle there, the knee (or it's quadruped equivalent - fronts & rears are not the same....) is still at the bottom of the femur, and still bends in the same direction as ours.
http://www.jimloy.com/biology/horse.htm
I want to apologize for how I reacted in an earlier comment. It was a bad day for me and I never really got around to apologizing for that. I shouldn't have taken it out on you, or a story that I liked, and still like. That was wrong of me.
For that, I apologize.
3651628
Ooh! Let me take the rear!
3652236 Hmm, I know a mare who has a better idea.
i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/010/603/854.jpg
Well done, and honestly if people weren't ready for this "turn of events" then...well they must be very good at not thinking too far ahead because I felt you've foreshadowed and hinted at this so well/much that I would have been surprised if you didn't have it.
Anyways...I have to say that you did your ponyfication extremely well. Not only the emotional repercussions of it, which was handled very well, but the physical trauma and pain that the person changing would go through. Actually it's rather beautiful to see, in my opinion. To go from a human body structure and then have it changed in a couple of hours would be beyond painful. You mentioned this in Connor's thoughts when comparing how his knees would have changed, but of course that's really just the tip of the ice berg. And yet despite this most stories don't take this into account. It's very refreshing to read a story where the author doesn't take their character and give them a pony form with no pain. (And I'm not referring to stories where the creatures shape shift like Changelings, it's likely that their magic is designed so that the creature casting the spell wouldn't feel the pain)
This plot point might be one that's been done many times before...but honestly it's the "how is it different or unique" that makes this story stand out. Honestly, when I write creatures transforming I think I'd like to emulate what you have here a bit.
...I think I'll stop spouting words now.
this is a great story and as far as him turning into pony in the story's I have read its done like bam he is a pony now deal with it at least this writer made the change slow and very painful (that makes the change more real for me) lest just see if he can keep his pride tucked
(not that I care one way or the other not my tail to tell) I happily awake my next fix good writer
While I don't really care that ponyfication occurred (even though it was obvious that it would) I just hope that you don't have Connor immediately get used to it and be all happy-like. All in all, it was executed excellently.
Make him special somehow
I'm always impressed at how quickly every chapter of this reads. That felt far shorter than 12k words.
Can't say I mind the ponification, and it was pretty obviously coming the moment he grew a horn. Anyone who waited until now to get pissed off wasn't really paying attention.
It was obvious what you were leading up to when you added the horn. It was just a matter of when it would happen and how long it would take.
Otherwise, seems that you've been doing fairly well. Just keep in mind that literally everything about his body is new. That means taste as well, so be sure to add that in when you get to his first meal as a pony. Most authors skip the not-so-pleasant parts (going to the bathroom) and just mention that it was an embarrassing learning experience if at all. Most people don't want to read about what it's like to have a new bowel system, and I'd count myself among them.
Also, not sure what tags this story should have anymore. While I don't argue with the Human tag, it seems like your going for an over-arcing story that has a few central themes. Is it adventure or slice-of-life? Is it romance? Just the central themes need to be tags, not the side-themes (obviously he is sad because of his loss of his world and human form, but it doesn't merit a sad tag for just that).
I look forward to further installments.
Poor dude, he has a lot to work throu now, i do hope that he later will be turned back to a human tough
I really liked how you handled Connor turning into a pony. I don't see why people have a problem with that in the first place.
>>>“...Mirror,” Connor mumbled softly, almost flinching as he felt his new ears twitch in response to his own voice. >>>
Twilight took several steps back, "My god..."
"MIRROR!!" Connor shouted angrily and Twilight shakily passed a small shaving mirror.
Connor began to sob softly.
"You must understand," Twilight explained in a German-like accent for some reason. "The genes were completely spliced!"
Connor's sobs turned to insane laughter and he smashed the mirror on the side of the bed.
"Y-you see vat I have to verk vith here..." Twilight nervously said, gesturing towards a table with primitive 1990's transgenics equipment, not the awesome-sauce stuff we have now for making mutants and new unstoppable viruses and stuff!
Connor stumbled up, still guffawing madly and raced out into the night, to plan his revenge against Batmare.
th04.deviantart.net/fs71/200H/f/2012/142/e/a/my_little_joker__laughter_is_magic_by_philly_cheesesteak-d50s4ow.jpg
Wow... I actually imagined him with a red coat before the transformation.... I feel psychic now....
STOP THINKING ABOUT TACOS AUTHOR! It's making me hungry...
Also:
It's spelled FUBAR
and stands for
Fucked
Up
Beyond
All
Recognition/Repair
Lol, he hasn't realized yet that his chances of going home are pretty much dead now.
3652495
Tragedy.
That's really the problem I have with ponyfication. The reason it's almost always done badly, is that done realistically, it is an absolutely horrific thing to happen to someone that no one deserves. And I very much doubt there will be a happy ending. At most he'll be eventually fully assimilated by Harmony, and not care anymore. Which would in my opinion be worse than if he decided to off himself.
Keep it up, this is quality writing. Im kind of sad its ending so soon, I would love to experience more of his trials and tribulations in the world.
3652617 Is it really though? Do you know what "tragedy" actually implies? Tragedy comes from the Greek theater, where the genre gave the main character a "Tragic Flaw" that led to his downfall. Also, these characters were the equivalents of Kings and Queens. I doubt this story falls into that category. When I think of tragedy, I think of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, or Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. I definitely wouldn't associate this story to tragedy.
3652495 I could do with a new bowel system, actually...
... stupid IBS...
Hmmm.... Artillery, eh?
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/03/25/article-0-18EB0329000005DC-557_634x388.jpg
How's that for some artillery?
...
...
...
Wait, I'm on your side....
I personally don't mind the pontification, which as many have already said, was kind of predictable. The adjusting to the new body parts were pretty well done overall.
there are only three things that really get me a little bent out of shape about this, and they're the same issue I have with most of the stories that feature the main character in the hospital.
1) if he changed to the point of having new teeth, why does he still need glasses? Did mother nature just up and say "hey, we're changing everything about you, including your diet, your teeth, your organs, etc etc, but fuck you, we're keeping your poor vision just 'cause!"
2) This one is a slightly bigger issue... he changed in a matter of hours and they just let him leave!? Every cell, every organ, etc in his body just changed. He was an alien before, no less. They should be keeping him there for a week or more, possibly in isolation, monitoring him, giving him fluids, running every possible test, etc. He should need physical therapy to learn to use his new body, someone to teach him what and how to eat, someone to teach him how to hold objects, etc etc. Heck, in the show even rainbow dash had to stay at the hospital for a few days and all she did was break a wing. He changed entirely! It just seems ridiculous, and honestly, unneeded. You could have said he was sedated for days instead of hours and it wouldn't have detracted from the story. You could have kept him there and only had Celestia and Twilight in the room if it was too crowded. But having him suddenly leave mere hours after such a transformation just isn't realistic, even in the cartoony world of MLP.
3) As another note, you had one nurse there. Where was the doctor? I've never heard of a hospital where the doctor wasn't required to sign out a patient once they've been admitted. Also where was the doctor when he first woke up? Having Twilight there was fine, but as soon as he woke up she should have run out to get the doctor so he could make sure Conner was okay. It just breaks the immersion of the story when simple things like this are forgotten. :twilight oops:
That bring said, these issues aren't by any means fatal to my enjoyment of the story, but if you ever go back to edit this chapter, you might wan to consider some of these.
3652518 the reason people don't like it is because the story started out really well and we were hoping at it would become something brilliantly original, but because of his ponification the story has become extremely predictable (to a degree). Not hating on the story here just explaining one reason people might not like it. 3651966 that last sentence is for you to author. Good luck, Godspeed, and keep trucking.
So judging by the author's note this is a permanent change, right? I'll be honest and say I've never liked ponification, but I'm willing to go ahead for at least a few chapters and see how it goes. I kind of knew this was going to happen, but was hoping it would be temporary .
I don't have as much problem with Connors body being altered as most others, (though I do personally think it was a bad move) but his mind being altered to be more pony-like is just too reminiscent of "The Conversion Bureau". It's not really the body that makes me me, it's the information my brain contains, and how that information has shaped who I am as a person.